Testimonia

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voice as quick as lightning and Primordial Man became another god.  When the Primordial Devil had ensnared Primordial Man in the battle, Mani further teaches, the five parts of the Light were mingled with the five parts of the Darkness." Let us see if we can get at the meaning of this great cosmological poem as far as we have gone.  The thing to be accounted for is the mixture of good and evil.  The complete separation of the eternally existent Kingdoms of Light and Darkness has been posited.  How now are we to account for the mixture of light and darkness, of good and evil, in the present order of things?  Mani would account for it by supposing that a conflict had occurred between an insufficiently equipped representative of the King of Light and the fully equipped ruler of the Kingdom of Darkness.  His view of the vastly superior power of the King of Light would not allow him to suppose that the King of Light fully equipped had personally contended with the King of Darkness, and suffered the loss and contamination of his elements.  Yet he only clumsily obviates this difficulty; for Primordial Man is produced and equipped by the King of Light for the very purpose of combating the King of Darkness, and Mani saves the King of Light from personal contamination only by impugning his judgment. We have now reached the point where, as a result of the conflict, good and evil are blended.  We must beware of supposing that Mani meant to ascribe any kind of materiality to the members of the Kingdom of Light.  The Kingdom of Light, on the contrary, he regarded as purely spiritual; the Kingdom of Darkness as material.  We have now the conditions for the creation of the present order of things, including man.  How does Mani picture the process and the results of this mixing of the elements? "The smoke (or vapor) was mingled with the gentle breeze (zephyr), and the present atmosphere resulted.  So that whatever of agreeableness and power to quicken the soul and animal life is found in it [resultant air], is from the zephyr, and whatever of destructiveness and noisomeness is found in it, proceeds from the smoke.  The burning was mingled with the fire; therefore whatever of conflagration, destruction and ruin is found, is from the 14 burning, but whatever of brightness and illumination is in it [the resultant fire], springs from the fire.  The light mingled itself with the darkness; therefore in dense bodies as gold, silver and the like, whatever of brightness, beauty, purity and other useful qualities occurs, is from the light, and whatever of tarnish, impurity, density and hardness occurs, springs from the darkness.  The hot wind was mingled with the wind; whatever now is useful and agreeable in this [resultant wind] springs from the wind, and whatever of uneasiness, hurt- fulness and deleterious property is found in it [resultant wind] is from the hot wind.  Finally, the mist was mingled with the water, so that what is found in this [resultant water] of clearness, sweetness, and soul-satisfying property, is from the water; whatever, on the con- trary, of overwhelming, suffocating, and destroying power, of heaviness, and corruption, is found in it, springs from the mist." 20 The Manichæan System.

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