The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [1911] - Get a Free Blog

170 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS.
it implied belief in postulates that could not be proved
the same thing might be said of almost all of our
poor human knowledge, and even our systems of phys
ics and cosmology in the last analysis are based upon
hypotheses but that astrology was born and reared
in the temples of Chaldea and Egypt. 1 9 Even in the
Occident it never forgot its sacerdotal origin and
never more than half freed itself from religion, whose
it was. Here lies the connection between
offspring
astrology and the Oriental religions, and I wish to
draw the reader s special attention to this point.
The Greek works and treatises on astrology that
have come down to us reveal this essential feature
only very imperfectly. The Byzantines stripped this
pseudo-science, always regarded suspiciously by the
church, of everything that savored of paganism. Their
process of purification can, in some instances, be traced
20 from manuscript to manuscript. If they retained the
name of some god or hero of mythology, the only
way they dared to write it was by cryptography. They
have especially preserved purely didactic treatises, the
most perfect type of which is Ptolemy s Tetrabiblos
which has been constantly quoted and commented
upon ; and they have reproduced almost exclusively
expurgated texts, in which the principles of various
doctrines are drily summarized. During the classic
age works of a different character were commonly
read. Many "Chaldeans" interspersed their cosmo-
logical calculations and theories with moral consid
erations and mystical speculations. In the first part
of a work that he names "Vision,"* Critodemus, in
prophetic language, represents
*"0/>a<m.
the truths he reveals