Lament Of Hermes Lyrics

Do you know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of heaven?
Or to speak more exactly, in Egypt all the operations of the powers which rule and work in heaven are present in the Earth below
In fact, it should be said that the whole cosmos dwells in this our land as in a sanctuary
And yet, since it is fitting that wise men should have knowledge of all events before they come to pass
You must not be left in ignorance of what I will now tell you
There will comе a time when it will have been in vain that Egyptians havе honored the Godhead with heartfelt piety and service, and all our holy worship will be fruitless and ineffectual
For the gods will return from Earth to heaven
Egypt will be forsaken, and the land which was once the home of religion will be left desolate
Bereft of the presence of its deities

[Chorus]
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale

Which thine own children in time to come will not believe
Nothing will be left but graven words, and only the stones will tell of thy piety
And in that day men will be weary of life
And they will cease to think the universe worthy of reverent wonder and worship
They will no longer love this world around us
This incomparable work of God, this glorious structure which he has built, this sum of good made up of many diverse forms, this instrument whereby the will of God operates in that which he has made, ungrudgingly favoring man's welfare
This combination and accumulation of all the manifold things that call forth the veneration, praise, and love of the beholder
Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable than life
No one will raise his eyes to heaven
The pious will be deemed insane, the impious wise
The madman will be thought a brave man, and the wicked will be esteemed as good
As for the soul, and the belief that it is immortal by nature, or may hope to attain to immortality, as I have taught you
All this they will mock and even persuade themselves that it is false [Chorus]
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale

No word of reverence or piety, no utterance worthy of heaven will be heard or believed. And so the gods will depart from mankind, a grievous thing
And only evil angels will remain, who will mingle with men, and drive the poor wretches into all manner of reckless crime, into wars, and robberies, and frauds, and all things hostile to the nature of the soul
Then will the earth tremble, and the sea bear no ships
Heaven will not support the stars in their orbits
All voices of the gods will be forced into silence
The fruits of the earth will rot, the soil will turn barren, and the very air will sicken with sullen stagnation
All things will be disordered and awry
All good will disappear
But when all this has befallen, Asclepius
Then God, the creator of all things, will look on that which has come to pass, and will stop the disorder by the counterforce of his will
Which is the good. He will call back to the right path those who have gone astray
He will cleanse the world of evil, washing it away with floods, burning it out with the fiercest fire, and expelling it with war and pestilence
And thus he will bring back his world to its former aspect, so that the cosmos will once more be deemed worthy of worship and wondering reverence, and God, the maker and maintainer of the mighty fabric will be adored by the men of that day with continuous songs of praise and blessing Such is the new birth of the cosmos
It is a making again of all things good, a holy and awe-inspiring restoration of all nature
And it is wrought
Inside the process of time
By the eternal will of the creator

[Chorus/Outro]
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale

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