“Pardon me...” suddenly interrupted Theos, “I am a stranger, and in a great measure ignorant of this city’s customs, . . but I confess I am amazed to hear a Priest uphold so specious an argument!  What! ... must divine Religion be dragged down from its pure throne to pander to the selfish passions of the multitude? ... because men are vile, must a vile god be invented to suit their savage caprices? ... because men are so cruel, must the unseen Creator of things be delineated as even more barbarous than they, in order to give them some pietistical excuse for wickedness?—­I ask these questions not out of wanton curiosity, but for the sake of instruction!”

The haughty Zel turned upon him in severe astonishment.

“Sir,” he said—­“Stranger undoubtedly thou art,—­and so bold a manner of speech most truly savors of the utterly uneducated western barbarian!  All wise and prudent governments have learned that a god fit for the adoration of men must be depicted as much like men as possible,—­any absolutely superhuman attributes are unnecessary to the character of a useful deity, inasmuch as no man ever will, or ever can, understand the worth of superhuman qualities.  Humanity is only capable of worshipping Self—­thus, it is necessary, that when people are persuaded to pay honor to an elected Divinity, they should be well and comfortably assured in their own minds that they are but offering homage to an Image of Self placed before them in a deified or heroic form.  This satisfies the natural idolatrous cravings of Egotism, and this is all that priests or teachers desire.  Now in the worship of Nagaya, we have the natures of Man and Woman conjoined, . . the Snake is the emblem of male wisdom united with female subtilty—­and the two essences, mingled in one, make as near an approach to what we may imagine the positive Divine capacity as can be devised on earth by earthly intelligences.  If, on the other hand, such an absurd doctrine as that formulated in the fanatic madman Khosrul’s ‘Prophecy’ could be imagined as actually admitted, and proclaimed to the nations, it would have very few followers, and the sincerity of those few might well be open to doubt.  For the Deity it speaks of is supposed to be an immortal God disguised as Man,—­ a God who voluntarily rejects and sets aside His own glory to serve and save His perishable creatures,—­thus the root of that religion would consist in Self-abnegation, and Self-abnegation is, as experience proves, utterly impossible to the human being.”

“Why is it impossible?” asked Theos with a quiver of passionate earnestness in his voice,—­“Are there none in all the world who would sacrifice their own interests to further another’s welfare and happiness?”

The Priest smiled,—­a delicately derisive smile.