3281. The old man that I saw [3275] is adored by them as their god-for this is how they take it that he who rules all things would look-whom they therefore want to emulate, and so be like the old man with a gray beard. And when they were told that he does not rule the universe, and that he could be led to them to confess this, they wanted to see him, and to hear him; and when he was shown to them, he told them it was he who had been above my head and directed everything that I was writing. He admitted before them that he is nothing, realizing that he was controlled by another most high one (he wants to say for the sake of his own spirits that he was ruled by one higher than himself); however, because this is their nature, it is allowed them. But in this way they are brought by a shorter route to the adoration of the Lord, Who rules the universe. And to show them that he was himself, he spoke to them according to