(20) Accordingly such food, in order to clear understanding, is to be rejected. Wherefore also the Egyptians, in the purifications practised among them, do not allow the priests to feed on flesh; but they use chickens, as lightest; and they do not touch fish, on account of certain fables, but especially on account of such food making the flesh flabby. But now terrestrial animals and birds breathe the same air as our vital spirits, being possessed of a vital principle cognate with the air. But it is said that fishes do not breathe this air, but that which was mixed with the water at the instant of its first creation, as well as with the rest of the elements, which is also a sign of the permanence of matter.

(92) Timaeus: And the fourth kind, which lives in the water, came from the most utterly thoughtless and stupid of men, whom those that remolded them deemed no longer worthy even of pure respiration, seeing that they were unclean of soul through utter wickedness; wherefore in place of air, for refined and pure respiring, they thrust them into water, there to respire its turbid depths. Thence have come into being the tribe of fishes and of shellfish and all creatures of the waters, which have for their portion the extremest of all abodes in requital for the extremity of their witlessness. Thus, both then and now, living creatures keep passing

(2) Every existing creature manifests some aspect of the intelligence or power of the Eternal One, who can never be known save through a study and appreciation of His numbered but inconceivable parts. When a creature is chosen, therefore, to symbolize to the concrete human mind some concealed abstract principle it is because its characteristics demonstrate this invisible principle in visible action. Fishes, insects, animals, reptiles, and birds appear in the religious symbolism of nearly all nations, because the forms and habits of these creatures and the media in which they exist closely relate them to the various generative and germinative powers of Nature, which were considered as prima-facie evidence of divine omnipresence.

(3) The early philosophers and scientists, realizing that all life has its origin in water, chose the fish as the symbol of the life germ. The fact that fishes are most prolific makes the simile still more apt. While the early priests may not have possessed the instruments necessary to analyze the spermatozoon, they concluded by deduction that it resembled a fish.

(173) Therefore also the creatures, as beasts, fowls or birds, fishes and worms in this world, are not created to an eternal being, but to a transitory one, as the figures in heaven also pass away.

(4) And Râ said: “Verily, those are fishes in the hands of Sebak. and he hath found the two arms of Horus for him, which had become fishes.”

(30) During the Age of Pisces, the Fish was the symbol of divinity and the Sun God fed the multitude with two small fishes. The frontispiece of Inman's Ancient Faiths shows the goddess Isis with a fish on her head; and the Indian Savior God, Christna, in one of his incarnations was cast from the mouth of a fish.

(102) And at His reproof it is afraid and dries up, and all its fish die and all that is in it; But ye sinners that are on the earth fear Him not.

(17) I know the name of the fishermen who are fishing; they are the worms, the ancestors of Rā, the creatures, the ancestors of Seb

(11) When they had this done, they inclosed a multitude of fishes: and their net brake. They beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. They came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.

This story, which is taken from the book of Kalila and Damnah, is as follows. There was in a secluded place a lake, which was fed by a running stream, and in this lake were three fishes, one very wise, the second half wise, and the third foolish. One day some fishermen passed by that lake, and having espied the fish, hastened home to fetch their nets. The fish also saw the fishermen and were sorely disquieted. The very wise fish, without a minute's delay, quitted the lake and took refuge in the running stream which communicated with it, and thus escaped the impending danger. The half wise fish delayed doing anything till the fishermen actually made their appearance with their nets. He then floated upon the surface of the water, pretending to be dead, and the fisherman took him up and threw him into the stream, and by this device he saved his life. But the foolish fish did nothing but swim wildly about, and was taken and killed by the fishermen.

(1) As, then, God is not circumscribed by place, neither is ever represented by the form of a living creature; so neither has He similar passions, nor has He wants like the creatures, so as to desire sacrifice, from hunger, by way of food. Those creatures which are affected by passion are all mortal. And it is useless to bring food to one who is not nourished.

(1) When the Father produced by intellect And austenty seven kinds of food, One of his [foods] was common to all, Of two he let the gods partake, Three he made for himself, One he bestowed upon the animals On this [food] everything depends, Both what breathes and what does not. How is it that these do not peiish When they are being eaten all the time He who knows this imperishableness— He eats food with his mouth (pratika), He goes to the gods, He lives on strength. Thus the verses.

(19) They gave him of a fish, and of a honeycomb; and he did eat before them. Then said he to them again,

(4) 'And where could its root be except in food (earth) ? And in the same manner, my son, as food (earth) too is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. water. And as water too is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. fire. And as fire too is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. the True. Yes, all these creatures, my son, have their root in the True, they dwell in the True, they rest in the True.

(39) Now then if the Beast's [or Animal's Nature] was merely out of a Lump of Earth, then they would eat Earth; but feeling fit is proceeded out of the Matrix of the Earth by the Fiat, therefore it desires also such Food as the Matrix affords out of its own Essence; and that is not Earth, but Flesh. Yet this Flesh now is a Mass whence the hBody comes, and the Spirit of the Constellation makes the i Tincture therein; which [Spirit] rules over all as in one Mother, and in every Life it makes the Understanding. For the Spirit of the Constellation rules in all Things, in the Earth, Stones, Metals, Elements and Creatures.

(3) Thou fishest with the net on the river, the water of which thou drinkest; thou walkest on thy feet, and thou dost not walk headlong. Thou appearest on the surface of the earth, and thou doest not come forth from under solid ground, the strength which is in thee will not be shaken through the action of the god of thy domain

(6) A man who was striving to overcome his weaknesses asked Nuri one day: 'How shall I ever be able to arrive at union with God?' Nuri replied: 'For this you must cross seven oceans of light and seven of fire, and travel a very long road. When you have crossed these twice seven oceans, a fish will draw you to him, such a fish that when he breathes he draws into his breast the first and the last. This marvellous fish has neither head nor tail; he holds himself in the middle of the ocean, quiet and detached; he sweeps away the two worlds, and he draws to himself all creatures without exception.'

(34) Both science, and the occult teachings, inform us that animal life had its origin in the slime of the primeval ocean beds, and took the form of the "single cell" creatures. The best known form of single-cell animal is the Moneron (plural, monera), which is composed of but a single cell, and is like a tiny drop of glue. It belongs to the lowest class of animal-life, known as the Protozoa. The Moneron lives in water, and is a very minute shapeless, colorless, slimy, sticky, drop of protoplasmic substance. It has no organs of any kind, and all of its parts are similar—it lacks the separate organs or parts with which to perform the offices of the living creature as found in the higher forms of life. And yet this organless creature performs the processes of like known, respectively, as nutrition, reproduction, sensation, and will-action. Every part of the Moneron is capable of absorbing food and oxygen—it is all stomach and all lungs. Moreover, it is all reproductive organism. It envelops its prey by enclosing the latter as a drop of glue encloses a tiny gnat; and it then absorbs the nourishment from its food through every portion of its surface coming in contact with the food. It moves by prolonging a portion of itself outward, like a tiny tail or finger—this constitutes the "false foot" by which it propels, pushes, or pulls itself forward or backward, or sidewise. When it gets ready, it pulls back the "false foot" into its general substance, and is the same as before. It has no distinction of sex, but reproduces itself by simply growing larger and then dividing itself into two—and the process is over, there being two Monera where only one Moneron was the moment before. And yet this simple creature receives impressions from outside, and responds thereto. It seeks its food, and escapes its enemies. It has all the mind it needs.

(12) Jesus then taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.