[1:1] The idea that the sun, moon and stars were _set_ in the firmament was entertained by most nations of antiquity, but, as strange as it may appear, Pythagoras, the Grecian philosopher, who flourished from 540 to 510 B. C.--as well as other Grecian philosophers--taught that the sun was placed in the centre of the universe, _with the planets roving round it in a circle_, thus making day and night. (See Knight's Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 59, and note.) The Buddhists anciently taught that the universe is composed of limitless systems or worlds, called _sakwalas_. They are scattered throughout space, and each sakwala has a sun and moon. (See Hardy: Buddhist Legends, pp. 80 and 87.) [2:1] Origen, a Christian Father who flourished about A. D. 230, says: "What man of sense will agree with the statement that the first, second, and third days, in which the _evening_ is named and the _morning_, were without sun, moon and stars?" (Quoted in Mysteries of Adoni, p. 176.) [2:2] "The geologist reckons not by _days_ or by _years_; the whole six thousand years, which were until lately looked on as the sum of the world's age, are to him but as a unit of measurement in the long succession of past ages." (Sir John Lubbock.) "It is now certain that the vast epochs of time demanded by scientific observation are incompatible both with the six thousand years of the Mosaic chronology, and the six days of the Mosaic creation." (Dean Stanley.) [2:3] "Let us make man in our own likeness," was said by Ormuzd, the Persian God of Gods, to his WORD. (See Bunsen's Angel Messiah, p. 104.) [2:4] The number SEVEN was sacred among almost every nation of antiquity. (See ch. ii.) [2:5] According to Grecian Mythology, the God Prometheus created men, in the image of the gods, _out of clay_ (see Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 26; and Goldzhier: Hebrew Myths, p. 373), and the God Hephaistos was commanded by Zeus to mold of _clay_ the figure of a maiden, into which Athênê, the dawn-goddess, _breathed the breath of life_. This is Pandora--the gift of all the gods--who is presented to Epimetheus. (See Cox: Aryan Myths, vol. ii., p. 208.) [2:6] "What man is found such an idiot as to suppose that God planted trees in Paradise, in Eden, like a husbandman." (Origen: quoted in Mysteries of Adoni, p. 176.) "There is no way of preserving the literal sense of the first chapter of Genesis, without impiety, and attributing things to God unworthy of him." (St. Augustine.) [2:7] "The records about the '_Tree of Life_' are the sublimest proofs of the unity and continuity of tradition, and of its Eastern origin. _The earliest records of the most ancient Oriental tradition refer to a 'Tree of Life,' which was guarded by spirits._ The juice of the fruit of this sacred tree, like the tree itself, was called _Sôma_ in Sanscrit, and _Haôma_ in Zend; it was revered as the life preserving essence." (Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, p. 414)