Istar of Babylon: A Phantasy

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by Margaret Horton Potter




  Produced by David Clarke, Paul Clark and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

  [ Transcriber's Notes:

  Older spellings have been retained. Variations in the spelling of a few personal and place names, listed at the end of the text have also been retained.

  Some minor printer's errors have been corrected. They are listed at the end of the text.

  OE ligatures have been expanded.

  Italic text has been marked with _underscores_.

  Text originally printed in Greek has been marked with ~tildes~. ]

  Istar of Babylon

  A Phantasy

  BY MARGARET HORTON POTTER

  AUTHOR OF "_THE HOUSE OF DE MAILLY_"

  HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON 1902

  Copyright, 1902, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

  All rights reserved. Published September, 1902.

  TO MY HUSBAND AND DEAR COMRADE JOHN DONALD BLACK

  CONTENTS

  Book I

  THE JOURNEY

  CHAPTER PAGE

  I. THE SEA 3

  II. THE VOW 21

  III. INTO THE EAST 43

  IV. ASHTORETH 62

  V. TO THE GATE OF GOD 79

  Book II

  THE GREAT CITY

  I. THE A-IBUR-SABU 101

  II. THE SANCTUARY OF ISTAR 119

  III. A BABYLONISH HOUSEHOLD 137

  IV. BELSHAZZAR 156

  V. THE JEW 176

  VI. ISTAR OF ERECH 191

  VII. LORD RIBATA'S GARDEN 207

  VIII. BABA 228

  IX. BABYLON BY NIGHT 248

  X. THE ANGER OF BEL 268

  XI. FROM THE HOUSE OF HEAVEN 292

  XII. EGIBI & SONS 309

  XIII. THE RAB-MAG 327

  XIV. STRANGE GODS 350

  XV. SIPPAR 366

  XVI. BELTI-SHAR-UZZUR 385

  XVII. THE WOMAN'S WOE 405

  XVIII. THE FEAST OF TAMMUZ 420

  XIX. THE REGIMENT OF GUTI 441

  XX. PESTILENCE 455

  XXI. KURUSH THE KING 472

  XXII. AT THE GATE 483

  XXIII. THE SILVER SKY 490

  PREFACE

  "The higher ideas, my dear friend, can hardly be set forth exceptthrough the medium of examples; every man seems to know all things in akind of dream, and then again to know nothing when he wakes.... Butpeople seem to forget that some things have sensible images, which maybe easily shown when any one desires to exhibit any of them or explainthem to an inquirer, without any trouble or argument; while the greatestand noblest truths have no outward image of themselves visible to manwhich he who wishes to satisfy the longing soul of the inquirer canadapt to the eye of sense, and therefore we ought to practise ourselvesin the idea of them; for immaterial things, which are the highest andgreatest, are shown only in thought and idea, and in no other way, _andall that we are saying is said for the sake of them._"[1]

  "Then reflect ... that the soul is in the very likeness of the divine,and immortal and intelligible and uniform and unchangeable; and the bodyis in the very likeness of the human, and mortal and unintelligible andmultiform and dissoluble and changeable.

  "And were we not saying long ago that the soul, when using the body asan instrument of perception, ... is then dragged by the body into theregion of the changeable, and wanders and is confused; the world spinsround her, and she is like a drunkard when under their influence.

  "But when, returning unto herself, she reflects, then she passes intothe realm of purity and eternity and immortality and unchangeableness,which are her kindred; ... then she ceases from erring ways, and, beingin communion with the unchanging, is unchanging."[2]

 

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