You do not have to look very deeply into this "Wisdom-drama" to find
out whose wisdom it is. Confess your own ignorance and your own
impotence, abandon yourself utterly, and then we, the sacred Caste,
the Keepers of the Holy Secrets, will secure you pardon and
respite--in exchange for fresh meat. Here are verses from a psalm of
the ancient Babylonians, which "heathen" chant is identical in spirit
and purpose with the utterances of Job:

The Sin that I have wrought, I know not;
The unclean that I have eaten, I know not;
The offense into which I have walked, I know not....
The lord, in the wrath of his heart, hath regarded me;
The god, in the anger of his heart, hath surrounded me;
A goddess, known or unknown, hath wrought me sorrow....
I sought for help, but no one took my hand;
I wept, but no one harkened to me....
The feet of my goddess I kiss, I touch them;
To the god, known or unknown, I utter my prayer;
O god, known or unknown, turn thy countenance, accept my sacrifice;
O goddess, known or unknown, look mercifully on me, accept my sacrifice!

#Salve Regina!#

And now let the reader leap three thousand years of human history, of
toil and triumph of the intellect of man; and instead of a Hebrew
manuscript or a Babylonian brick there confronts him a little
publication, printed on a modern rotary press in the capital of the
United States of America, bearing the date of October, 1914, and the
title "Salve Regina". In it we find "a beautiful prayer", composed by