B338 <=> B340 [BTG XXIV Beelzebub’s fifth flight, p. 339]

“And it was precisely these two teachings which began to pass from generation to generation, and to confuse their ‘being-sane-mentation’ which had already been confused enough without them.

“Although, in the course of their transmission from generation to generation the details of both these teachings underwent change, nevertheless the fundamental ideas contained in them remained unchanged and have even reached down to contemporary times.

“One of these two teachings which then had many adherents in Babylon was just the ‘dualistic’ and the other, the ‘atheistic’; so that in one of them it was proved that in beings there is the soul, and in the other, quite the opposite, namely, that they have nothing of the kind.

“In the dualist or idealist teaching, it was said that within the coarse body of the being-man, there is a fine and invisible body, which is just the soul.

“This ‘fine body’ of man is immortal, that is to say, it is never destroyed.

“This fine body or soul, it was said further, must make a corresponding payment for every action of the ‘physical body’ whether voluntary or involuntary, and every man, already at birth, consists of these two bodies, namely, the physical body and the soul.

“Further it was said that as soon as a man is born, two invisible spirits immediately perch upon his shoulders.

“On his right shoulder sits a ‘spirit-of-good,’ called an ‘angel’ and on his left, a second spirit, a ‘spirit-of-evil’ called a ‘devil.’

“From the very first day these spirits – the spirit-of-good and the spirit-of-evil – record in their ‘note-books’ all the manifestations of the man, the spirit sitting on his right shoulder recording all those called his ‘good manifestations’ or ‘good deeds’ and the spirit sitting on his left shoulder, the ‘evil.’