At a depth of about eighty feet the excavators unearthed some petrifications of remote life forms. One of a prodigious size, has, among the learned ones, occasioned excited interest. Savants from all over the Planet are hastening to examine the fossils, especially the larger one, and to no doubt talk learnedly of those relics of bygone ages. When, very recently, George and I visited the spot we learned that the large petrifaction is the well preserved skeleton of an amphibian quite sixty feet in length. How came it there? One can only conjecture as to that. Certainly there was a time when the temperature of this latitude was much higher than at present, and the waters of the entire chain of lakes teemed with forms of life now extinct. It is quite as certain that the enormous spring floods so increased the volume of the lakes that their waters then poured over the ledge, which was loftier than it now is. It is not so certain as to how the amphibian came to find lodgment at the base of the ledge. Perhaps, in fleeing from a foe it rushed over the ledge, or having through some mischance lost its life, its body may have been swept over it, thus adding its skeleton to an already large accumulation of similar structures. George and I observed a number of learned men and women eagerly examining and discussing the probabilities and possibilities relating to the great fossil, which is but slightly mutilated and is to be removed to some museum.
As we looked and listened we were somewhat amused by the remarks of some of the assemblage who evidently were quite sincere in their statements.
One studious looking man mildly declared that the Holy writings clearly intimated that in the beginning Andûmana̤ created from within Himself all things. Another man warmly disputed this declaration on the basis that Andûmana̤ being perfect, could not out of his own Personality have created creatures so monstrous, so hideous as was this and many others. No, clearly it was through a misunderstanding of the Holy writings that such an illogical conclusion could be arrived at. Then a person of great dignity of mien gave his opinion, which, evidently, he considered final, that in the beginning, after Andûmana̤ created Astranola̤ and His messengers, He created Ento. Having prepared homes suited to their needs He created all living creatures. Some He found unsuited to His pleasure; such He destroyed, as is evidenced in these fossilized structures, which, for the most part, find no correspondence in creatures now existing. Having perfected His designs, He, out of Himself, created His children who perpetually should dwell on Ento. Then, with conviction, he exclaimed: Andûmana̤, through His Messengers, who dwell in the best realms of Astranola̤, revealed to His children the origin of all things, all of which is contained in the Holy writings, and I call His Messengers to witness that I, Kēlofa̤ Irdomyn, am not so impious as to question His divine words.
No one seemed inclined to dispute with this expounder of mysteries and with a self-satisfied air he resumed his critical examination of the ancient fossil.
To be told that in nearly all directions the Entoans are further advanced than are the peoples of Earth, and in a breath to bring you face to face with their extremely circumscribed and absurd religious ideas and beliefs, out of which have grown equally circumscribed and absurd notions relating to certain scientific matters, naturally, may occasion you to hesitate as to your acceptance of other statements we have made and others yet to follow. Realizing this, we consider it advisable to offer an explanation of a seeming paradox.
Through the process of unfoldment, spiritualized humans grow into clearer, higher conceptions of personality. Through ages of ignorance and savagery intuitively they grope their ways toward truth, which, like a beacon light, beckons them onward and upward, and slowly, but surely, their consciousness grows and unfolds as lotus blooms grow and unfold from ooze and darkness into sunlight. Thus, through ages the Entoans evolved into a recognition of self as personality, but not as spirit, for Andûmana̤, being to them a Material Personality, naturally, they could not conceive of aught more sublimated than their Creator. Still their unrecognized spiritual forces inevitably urged them forward, and in their history a period arrived when to a degree, society became organized, and about certain centres congregated those most learned in such sciences and arts as had resulted from ages of evolution. As yet the masses were almost wholly uneducated, consequently their ideas relating to social obligations and other niceties of civilization were extremely crude. Wars between different nations were continually waged, and of necessity, the weaker succumbed to the stronger. Selfish, ambitious, cruel and successful leaders grew arrogant, and the people were impoverished and enslaved and such civilization as existed seemed threatened with extinction.
It is a fact that under adverse conditions, humanity degenerates more rapidly than under favoring conditions it is capable of progression. Were this truth generally recognized, it might act as a deterrent against the reckless, criminally foolish conduct of nations who rush into wars as though they were a pleasurable pastime, rather than a damning process for the breeding of generations of preordained murderers, suicides, thieves and prostitutes—the inevitable results of inherited tendencies.
The Entoans, being no exception to a universal rule, were in a deplorable condition, when a memorable epoch arrived which ushered into mortal existence a man fitted for his arduous mission. A man wise and humane beyond any one of his time. A man of high courage, firm will, a fine sense of justice and a wonderful ability for controlling other men. About him he gathered not only an immense army of soldiery, but all who cared for their own safety and the welfare of the people, hastened to join him in his efforts to bring about a better state of affairs. In an incredibly brief time he subdued the vicious oppressors of the people. Forced warring elements into peaceful subjection. Established in the fullest sense, a centralized government, based upon equitable principles. Autocratic, certainly it was, but with the peculiar feature that rulers and people should he amenable to the same laws. When through peace and prosperity the peoples of the Planet were brought into harmonious relations with each other and with their newly found freedom from oppression and dissension, Zoifan Ouidas, their deliverer and Supreme Ruler announced that through a shining messenger, Andûmana̤ had communicated to him certain instructions relating to His now obedient children. A congress of Ento's learned and pious ones having been convened, Zoifan Ouidas made known the revelation he had received which constituted a basis for what was to be accepted as the Holy writings. To this revelation was added such beliefs and legends as appeared reasonable and desirable, and from these writings a creed was formulated and a ritual established.
To this day the creed remains unchanged, but from time to time the ritual has been added to or modified to suit the views or aims of an all-powerful priesthood.
Since the establishment of their national religion, centuries have been added to centuries. Steadily the generations of Entoans have been evolving, and were it not that an unyielding ecclesiasticism has held them in spiritual bondage, this closing of their fiftieth century of peace and equal rights for all would find them not only with knowledge of all the arts, but of all the sciences known to the people of our planet, and their faces on which pathos, sorrow and despair are written in every line would be beaming with the priceless consciousness of a continuity of existence which ere now should have been a possession of the plane of their unfoldment.