In the same work above cited, the author wonders why in the _Bible_ and tradition the Gibborim, the giants or the “mighty ones,” the Rephaim, the spectres or the “phantoms,” the Nephilim, or the “fallen ones” (_irruentes_), are shown as if identical, though they are “all _men_,” since the _Bible_ calls them the primitive and the mighty ones—_e.g._, Nimrod. The Secret Doctrine explains the secret. These names, which belong by right only to the four preceding Races and the earliest beginning of the Fifth, allude very clearly to the first two _Phantom_ (Astral) Races, to the “Fallen” Race—the Third, and to the Race of the Atlantean Giants—the Fourth, after which “men began to decrease in stature.” Bossuet sees the cause of subsequent universal idolatry in the “original sin.” “Ye shall be as Gods,” says the Serpent of _Genesis_ to Eve, thus laying the first germ of the worship of _false divinities_.(638) Hence, he thinks, came idolatry, or the cult and adoration of _images_, of anthropomorphized or human figures. But, if it is this that idolatry is made to rest upon, then the two Churches—the Greek, and the Latin especially—are as idolatrous and pagan as any other religion.(639) It was only in the Fourth Race that men, who had lost all right to be considered divine, resorted to body worship, in other words to phallicism. Till then, they had been truly Gods, as pure and as divine as their Progenitors, and the expression of the allegorical “Serpent,” as has been sufficiently shown in the preceding pages, does not refer at all to the physiological “Fall” of men, but to their acquiring the Knowledge of Good and Evil; and this knowledge came to them _prior_ to their fall. It must not be forgotten that it is only after his forced expulsion from Eden that “Adam knew Eve his wife.” We shall not, however, check the tenets of the Secret Doctrine by the dead‐letter of the Hebrew _Bible_, but rather point out the great similarities between the two in their Esoteric meaning. It was only after his defection from the Neo‐Platonists, that Clement of Alexandria began to translate _gigantes_ by _serpentes_, explaining that “serpents and giants signify _demons_.”(640) We may be told that, before we draw parallels between our tenets and those of the _Bible_, we have to show better evidence of the existence of the Giants of the Fourth Race than the reference to them found in _Genesis_. We answer, that the proofs we give are more satisfactory, at any rate are supported by more literary and scientific evidence, than those of Noah’s Deluge will ever be. Even the historical works of China are full of such reminiscences about the Fourth Race. In the French translation of the _Shoo‐King_,(641) we read: