kinds, asking not whether it was for good or for evil: but every offense
of the mind and the body has its appropriate reward; and while their
knowledge grew apace, that better knowledge and discrimination which the
Father gives to every living soul, both in man and in beast, was taken
from them. Thus by increasing their riches they were made poorer; and,
like one who, forgetting the limits that are set to his faculties, gazes
steadfastly on the sun, by seeing much they become afflicted with
blindness. But they know not their poverty and blindness, and were not
satisfied; but were like shipwrecked men on a lonely and barren rock in
the midst of the sea, who are consumed with thirst, and drink of no
sweet spring, but of the bitter wave, and thirst, and drink again, until
madness possesses their brains, and death releases them from their
misery. Thus did they thirst, and drink again, and were crazed; being
inflamed with the desire to learn the secrets of nature, hesitating not
to dip their hands in blood, seeking in the living tissues of animals
for the hidden springs of life. For in their madness they hoped by
knowledge to gain absolute dominion over nature, thereby taking from the
Father of the world his prerogative.

"But their vain ambition lasted not, and the end of it was death. The
madness of their minds preyed on their bodies, and worms were bred in
their corrupted flesh: and these, after feeding on their tissues,
changed their forms; and becoming winged, flew out in the breath of
their nostrils, like clouds of winged ants that issue in the springtime
from their breeding-places; and, flying from body to body, filled the
race of men in all places with corruption and decay; and the Mother of
men was thus avenged of her children for their pride and folly, for they
perished miserably, devoured of worms.

"Of the human race only a small remnant survived, these being men of an