"Is there less of the godlike power," said he, "in the skill that put together leaf and blossom for the delight of that poor infant, who has no other joy nor comfort?"
Assarac pondered.
"There must be gods," he replied, "as there are stars, differing in magnitude and glory. Dagon hath dominion on the waters, Anu and Abitur in the mountain, Merodach raging in battle is yet subject to Ashur, and even that monarch of the mighty circle yields to his irresistible superior, and bows before the sentence of Nisroch, with the eagle's head."
"And your Nisroch," continued the Israelite; "hath he not also a master at whose word he spreads his wings and flies to the uttermost parts of the desert? Whence comes he? Who gave him his eagles head and his feathered shoulders? If he is substantial, he must be perishable; and when he has passed away, who will make another god for the land of Shinar, and what shall he be called?"
"You speak with reason," replied the priest of Baal, "and you speak to one who has watched many a long night from the summit of the tower above us, and pored on those starwritten scrolls till his brain reeled, to learn that mystery which rules the heavens, and apply it to the government of men below. You speak wisely indeed. Who shall make a god for the land of Shinar? He it is who shall bring the whole Eastern world beneath his feet."
"I speak not of gods made by men's hands," answered Sadoc. "The time must surely come ere long when there will be one worship of the true God through all the earth, as there is one sun that shines over the whole heaven. Clouds may obscure it for a season, but no less doth it exist in its warmth and splendour, giving vitality to creation and light to day."
"When there is but one worship, there will be but one dominion," argued Assarac. "The altar and the temple will then become the judgment-seat and throne, while the high-priest will be the true monarch and ruler over all. Listen, my brother; for indeed here in the house of your captivity you have found a friend. I am a priest of Baal, as you behold; but in truth I am no hot-brained votary who mistakes his own intoxicated frenzy for the inspiration of a god. My subordinates may gird their loins to leap and run and gesticulate, shedding their own blood the while in crimson streams. Such extravagances are foreign to my nature, and below the dignity of my worship. I am a priest of Baal, but I am also an Assyrian descended from a line of warriors, and to me the greatness of my country is the paramount object and interest of life. What else have such as I, who are severed, without being alienated, from their kind? To extend an empire founded by our father Nimrod from the Bactrian mountains to the Southern sea, to behold the standards of Merodach waving on the confines of Armenia and over the gates of Memphis, while conscious that I, Assarac the priest, had set in motion the armies of victory and guided the march of triumph, were worth all the fire-worshipper's dreams of luminous immortality, all the starry thrones of the gods who are supposed to be looking down in judgment on us even now."
"And when your wishes have been fulfilled," said Sadoc quietly—"wishes only to be accomplished through much bloodshed, cruelty, and sin—you will not be one whit happier than now."
The other laughed in scorn.
"Is fame nothing?" he asked. "Is power nothing? Is it nothing to cast down the mighty from their golden thrones, and to raise the lowly, as I have raised you to-night, from fetters of iron and a bed on the cold earth? Teach me the lore of your worship, as I will impart to you my own secrets of priestcraft, and hereafter—ay, sooner than you may think—I will set you in judgment over a score of nations, in a purpled robe, with a sceptre in your hand."