Lectionary Readings for Friday, March 6th, 2020

Book of Fragapatti Chapter 9, Chapter 10

Chapter 9

1. The hosts of the second resurrection were now conducted to the mansions previously
created in Haraiti by Fragapatti; and they were provided with teachers and occupations,
according to their development.

2. Fragapatti said: The marshals in chief will now send the builders of the fire-ships
before me; I will speak to them. Now when the builders had come, and duly saluted
before the throne, Fragapatti said:

3. Go build me an avalanza capable of carrying three thousand million angels, with as
many rooms, capable of descent and ascent, and east and west and north and south
motion, and prepare it with a magnet, that it may face to the north, whilst traveling.

4. The builders saluted, and then withdrew, and went and built the vessel. And it was two
hundred thousand paces east and west, and the same north and south; its height was one
thousand lengths, and the vesture around it was a thousand paces thick; and it was
provided with etherean curtains, two hundred thousand; and with four hundred thousand
banners, of all possible colors and shades and tints. Besides these were fifty thousand
small flags and streamers. The floor was woven in copy of a spider’s net, extending from
the centre outward, and with circular bars at crosses; and the frame-work within was
constructed with one million uprights, the entire height of the vessel; and yet across these
were twenty millions of bars; within the whole, were the rooms and halls, and places for
musicians.

5. When it was completed, the builders notified Fragapatti. He said: Athrava, come thou
and sit on the throne. I promised to go and see Hoab and his colony, in Zeredho, when he
should send me word regarding certain matters. Behold, messengers have notified me,
and Hoab desireth to know how he can establish his colony, that he may never more fear
to be annoyed by other Gods and angels.

6. Let fifty thousand musicians enter the ship with me, besides a sufficient number of
captains and officers to manage the ship. The marshals at once made the proper
selections, and took them to the ship, when they all entered, Fragapatti with them, and
they departed.

7. So, Fragapatti returned to Zeredho, the second highest lower heaven, of which the
ambitious Hoab, with his colony, desired to be sole occupant forever.

8. Hoab was waiting to receive him, having aroused up a sufficient number of his
indolent subjects to maintain the semblance of a heavenly Council. But what a
surprise! He had expected only a small vessel, with a few attendants. And now, when
he beheld the magnificence of the avalanza, and the majesty of the band of musicians,
so far transcending anything he had ever seen, he feared, and was awe-stricken.

9. Fragapatti approached slowly, but with Avom lights, and when the ship was near at
hand, the hosts aboard cast out hundreds of thousands of perfumed ovaries, which
exploded with beautiful colors, filling the atmosphere around about with the most
delightful perfume. Finally the avalanza came to anchor, and Fragapatti, without any
ceremony, alighted, taking a thousand attendants with him, and came directly up to Hoab,
who was abashed somewhat on account of his shabby appearance.

10. Fragapatti said: Friend and brother, peace and joy be unto thee and thy house! To
which Hoab replied: All hail, great Chief! Happiness attend thee and thy hosts! And were
it not that I had previously discovered thou wert a philosopher like myself, I would
apologize for the vast difference betwixt the respective appearances of our hosts. But ye
are welcome all the same!

11. Fragapatti said: A mere incident of conditions, most noble God. Thou art aware, when
children go on a holiday excursion, they attire themselves in their best; so it is better that I
find an apology than that thou shouldst.

12. Hoab said: Nay, Chief, there is a philosophy in this matter which hath worried me of
late: A thousand years ago my colony was ambitious to retire itself in grandeur, and to
build fine ships and go on excursions, also. Five hundred years later, they ceased building
ships and going on excursions, saying: What is the use? Latterly, they are all utilitarians,
doing just as little as possible. In fact, many of my subjects deny themselves comforts, on
the plea that they can do without them.

13. Fragapatti said: Thou rememberest, when I was here before I said to thee that without
contentment no people had attained to peace; and thou didst acquiesce. Why, then,
shouldst thou not rejoice that thy people have thus subdued ambition and curiosity? Hast
thy mind, in so short a time, lost its contentment? Thou knowest I came hither to impart
to thee and thy people the great secret, that ye may so fortify yourselves that ye shall
never fear for Gods or angels molesting you.

14. Hoab said: Hear me, O Chief: If my people lose all ambition for rites and ceremonies,
and dancings, and excursions; and keep constantly striving to deny themselves of
everything save what necessity calleth for; and if that necessity becometh smaller
and smaller, where will be the end? Will not all inspiration die out? For, to tell the
truth, since my people have given up rites and ceremonies, and prayers and singings,
they have also given up rejoicings of soul, and are becoming like a dead people.

15. Fragapatti said: Then thou wouldst seem to prove that to hold on only to the useful in
life would ultimately end in suicide to the state, to the family, to the individual, and even
to the soul?

16. Hoab said: Many of my people are too lazy to clothe themselves; and because of
shame, they seek secluded places, as they say, to live as they please. Do not such people
commit suicide against the state? Hath a man a right to withdraw himself from his
fellows, saying: It suiteth me better? We have been told that in the first age of mortals,
they had no ambition to live together, being void of all talents, and that the Gods inspired
them to language and to society, giving them rites and ceremonies as an inducement to
make them harmonious and attractive to one another.

17. Fragapatti said: How shall I account for the difference betwixt thy arguments now
and the other time I was with thee? Thou desiredst me to believe that thou and thy
people were the highest, best, happiest of all people in the heavens. Why this change?

18. Hoab said: Thou didst promise me thou wouldst teach us some way of protection
against being molested by other Gods and spirits from other kingdoms. Since then I have
reasoned on the subject, and I perceive that if such a state of security could be given to
my people, they would wander off into isolation, and even forget language and judgment.
How, then, was it, thou toldest me thou hadst been in heavens where such a state of
seeming impossibility existeth.

19. Fragapatti said: Let not arguments sway thee, O Hoab. But rather, examine proofs for
thyself. I mistrusted that my statement to thee was too extravagant to be believed without
evidence. Behold, then, what I have done: I brought a vessel large enough for all thy
people, desiring that ye go with me to my kingdom, new founded in Haraiti; and if thou
shouldst find any further desire, at the end of a few years, I will take thee and thy people
to still another kingdom, in a far-off world. After that, and thou desirest it, I will provide
the same conveyance back to Zeredho, with power to rule over it to thy heart’s content.

20. Hoab said: Fairest of Gods! I feared, indeed, thou hadst come with the same old story;
to worship the All Light, the Unknowable Nothingness; with foolish ceremonies and
rites, and prayers, and songs of praise; which, however good for the ignorant and
superstitious, are worthless to a God as enlightened as I am. This thou perceivest with
thine own judgment. Gladly will I go with thee, and I will persuade as many of my
people as possible to go also. Thou art the first God that ever came to our heaven, that
wanted not to circumscribe our liberties, which neither I nor my people can tolerate.

21. These things were then communicated to the people of Zeredho; and after a few days
they gathered together, and went into the avalanza, every soul of them. Fragapatti
signaled the commander not to go directly to Haraiti, but by way of Utza, one of the hells
in the Aoasu mountains, inhabited by thousands of millions of spirits in darkness, many
of whom knew not who they were, nor had they names, being infants, idiots, and chaotic
and foul smelling.

Chapter 10

1. When they came to Utza, Hoab cried out: What do my eyes behold! As I live, here are
people who once belonged to Zeredho, mine own heaven! By what strange law left they
my kingdom to come and dwell in these torments?

2. Fragapatti caused the avalanza to halt, that information be obtained. So he called the
druj, and there came thousands of them, ragged and drunken. Hoab knew many of them,
and he said: Know ye who I am? And they answered: Yea, Hoab, God of Zeredho. Again
spake Hoab, saying: For what reason left ye my glorious kingdom to come and dwell in
this hell of iniquity?

3. They answered, saying: Alas, that we left, indeed! But since it is so, it is so. Hear us,
then, O Hoab, this is the reason: Even as mortals oft leave Purity in order to revel in sin.
More reason we know not.

4. Then spake Fragapatti, saying: Jehovih saith: I have given man many talents. Because
the roadways are not open for their growth, he plungeth into darkness. Think not that ye
can draw a line, and say: O man, thou shalt not do this, or thou shalt do thus: for ye are
powerless to hold him, whom I created to go forward. And if he find not a way to go
forward, he will turn and go backward.

5. The drujas said: Yea, master: Zeredho did not fill our souls; we were thirsty for
amusement and lightheartedness. We heard no voice but Utility. We sheared off all
ornament and diversion, and art, and, finally, even music. We fain would hear from
Zeredho, to know if they have not ceased to talk, and perhaps to live, because, forsooth,
Utility hath spoken!

6. And they laughed, and frolicked about like idiots and fools, mingling with harlots, and
thieves, and liars, and drunkards.

7. Fragapatti caused the ship to move on a while, and then halted, and called other drujas,
and questioned them in the same manner, and received answers of the same character.

8. Again they moved onward, and the same was repeated; finally, they came to a place
where all was darkness and noise and confusion, where they even heeded not the ship, nor
the calls made to them. Then spake Fragapatti to Hoab, saying: Hath it been proven to
thee that man cannot stand still? Hoab said: It is true. This matter cometh close home to
me. I perceive now that had I not come out of Zeredho, I had not witnessed these things,
nor had I seen Zeredho as I now see it.

9. Fragapatti said: Be not hasty against thine own philosophy, for I will show thee thine
own wisdom by and by. So they traveled seven days in hell, the lowest division of hada,
where there was neither government, nor order, nor truth, nor virtue, but torments and
wailings and cursings.

10. Fragapatti said: Thou hast seen that these many people know not their own darkness.

11. Hoab said: Is it not true, O Chief, that no man knoweth his own darkness? Who, then,
is safe? Who knoweth he is not on the downward road?

12. Fragapatti said: Thou hast said man is the All Highest. But doth it not come home to
us all, as to the ancients, that to do good with all our wisdom and strength, and have faith
therein, that we are on the road to the All Highest?

13. Certainly thou hast proven, said Hoab, that Zeredho is not the All Highest, for it
cannot retain its people. Even hell hath prevailed over her. And doth not hell prevail over
all self-righteousness, and over riches and kingdoms and empires? If, therefore, hell
prevaileth, is not hell the most powerful? And if the most powerful is not hell, therefore
the All Highest? The ancients were happy in ignorance, for in believing in an All Person,
a Creator, and that they should ultimately see Him, they had an object in view. But with
the growth of wisdom, we find we cannot realize such a Person, and so have no object in
view ahead of us. Thereupon, we recoil upon ourselves, and all is dead.

14. Fragapatti said: Hath man no lesson from the past? In the ancient times the Gods
persuaded mortals to make stone idols and worship them. And they were sufficient until
man attained more knowledge. Again came the Gods to mortals, inventing a large manGod in the sky, persuading them to worship him. He was a sufficient God till man learned to commune with angels; and the angels contradicted that philosophy. But hear me, O
Hoab, have we not a lesson in this, which is, that we must ever have an All Highest
Person so far ahead that we cannot attain Him? If this be true, when we have surpassed a
Person whose figure and condition we can comprehend, is it not incumbent upon us to
create within our own souls the thought of an All Person beyond our comprehensibility?

15. Hoab said: It seemeth so. But how canst thou teach thy soul to think of an All Person
beyond man’s comprehensibility?

16. Fragapatti said: For a basis to reason from, let us consider the etherean, the
atmospherean and the corporeal worlds to constitute His body; and the motion therein and
thereof, the manifestations of His Power and His Wisdom. Since, then, we ourselves have
these things in part, we find, also, we have another attribute embracing all the others,
which is combination concentrated into one person. Shall we not, then, give to Him, who
embraceth all things within Himself, combination concentrated into one person?
Otherwise, He is our inferior, which cannot be. Therefore, being ourselves persons, are
we not mere offshoots from the All Person? Otherwise, we could not have attained
personality. Doth not a child take its personality because its mother was a person? Can
man have an entity save he receive it from an entity? Could man be a person, save he
sprang from a Person?

17. Hoab said: Thou art a great light, O Chief! Verily, hast thou unfolded a universe
before me! Yea, there must be an All Person! O that I had seen this philosophy before!

18. Fragapatti said: Be not infatuated, O Hoab, with sudden appearances. For were I to
show thee, first, what it is to believe in an All Person, Whose magnificence surpasseth the
universe itself, and then that man can attain to be one with Him, even as a note in music
is one within a tune, I would so far enrapture thy soul that thou wouldst do naught but
listen. Let us, therefore, suspend our research awhile, that we may devise some
resurrection for this hell of suffering millions.