CHAPTER IV.

The Conclusion.

IT has been our endeavour, as clearly as the
limits prescribed by evidence and our under-
standing would enable us, to discuss the ground
and practical pretensions in general of the Her-
metic Mystery. To explain all would require an
extensive range and a closer opportunity of
experience than has hitherto been granted us.
Nor with these auxiliaries, perhaps, should we
become more intelligible, since caution very
usually increases with observation, and the truth
has been so intricately, arbitrarily, and in many
folds enveloped, and the cloud of witnesses is such
that it might puzzle Apollo himself to explicate
the whole Enigma intelligibly to the world. To
induce research, therefore, we pretend only to have
signalized the Light, that any one fortunately per-
ceiving, might be led along by its attracting
presence to the discovery of Truth. Evidence has
constantly preceded, neither have we ventured
many assertions of our own ; but the reputable
witness of individuals of various ages and nations,
whose names are renowned in philosophy, have
been gathered together in aid of this Inquiry, and
in support of the dignity of the Hermetic Science ;
which they have not only judged to be true, but
many add their personal experience in confirmation,
attesting the reality of the Philosopher's Stone.

The confection of this miraculous substance,
moreover, they have helped us to trace in theory
from its foundation in the free Ether, through an
artificial process of elaboration, into manifest
effect. And the principle of Transmutation, they
have shown to be relating not to Species but to

542 Conclusion.

their Universal Subject, whose concentrated virtue
the Stone likewise itself is.

And Man was the proper laboratory of the whole
Art ; not only the most perfect chemical apparatus,
devised by Nature for the distillation of her Spirit,
but having besides the whole fermentative virtue,
motive, and principle of vital melioration and every
requisite complete within himself, for the rectifica-
tion and furtherance of her prescribed Law ; mind
and manual efficacy, as it is narrated, by the
Divine Will, to effect all things, though concealed
in this life by the external attraction and obstruct-
ive energies of sense.

This hidden capacity it has been shown to be
the purpose of the Hermetic artifice to explore ;
and that adepts well-skilled, as they profess, in the
vital analysis of bodies, by such means discovered
the life of man therein circulating to be a pure fire
incorporated in a certain incombustible ethereal
vapour ; also, that the Universal Efficient was
in this fire, and the diverse kingdoms of nature, as
it were, bound together in the threefold enchant-
ment of his natural Identity ; one of which only,
the animal life, being developed to consciousness,
the other two, viz. the vegetable and mineral, are
known only to those who have entered experi-
mentally within to prove the hypostatic action and
passion of the working essences in life.

Partly, also, on the authority of the Ancients,
coupled with certain other arguments, not alto-
gether speculative, we have been thence led to
regard the Mysteries celebrated at Eleusis and the
rest, in a more important light than heretofore ;
not as mere external ceremonials, pictured scenes
of sufferings and beatitudes, but as real inductions
of the Understanding Spirit to its Source.

And with the development of these Mysteries
we have been enabled to connect Alchemy ; and
with these both, in their preliminary practice, the
modern art, called Mesmerism, strikingly accords ;

Conclusion. 543

which we have proposed suggestively, therefore, as
a first key opening to the vestibule of this Experi-
ment, where sits the Sphinx with her eternal
enigma, still to perplex intruders, and open to
philosophers only the inner halls of Light.

Bearing these things in mind, by the assistance
of the Greek Ontologists, we have ventured, in-
timately pursuing their course, to follow mysteri-
ous Nature through many intricate windings and
circumstantial difficulties, into her Initial Source ;
and there observed her, after operating voluntarily
about her own annihilation, to survive and estab-
lish a stable monarchy upon her redeemed Light.

Particulars, also, of the metaphysical experience
we have attempted to delineate, and to show the
catholicity and causal reference of the Hermetic
Work throughout.

From impediments likewise described, and rare
intellectual conditions, it has been shown why the
Divine Experiment has been so seldom attempted
and more rarely brought to a legitimate conclusion
on this earth. And why philosophers, in all ages,
considering the unfitness of the multitude, and
fearful consequences that might ensue from in-
dividual abuse, have concealed their knowledge,
communicating almost by word of mouth only
the practical device.

If we have been freer in our expositions, the
spirit was not the more reckless, but because the
thresholds of ignorance are already overpast, and
experiment is in need rather of a motive to dignify
it than of practical machinery. What if the dark-
ness should contend with and prevail awhile, yet
there in the centre the light will kindle and increase,
and gain strength to radiate upwards through the
whole circumference, despite every effort of
ignorant selfishness and folly to prevent. So reason
instructs that we should have faith in humanity as
in the ultimate realization and prevalence of good.
But that class are all now incredulous who were

544 Conclusion.

formerly dreaded in their belief ; and under that
safe guardianship we leave them, happily supine
in the conviction that our conduct will neither
be attractive or intelligible, much less practically
useful to the profane multitude of mankind. For
although this Art of Alchemy is eminently experi-
mental and practical in its consequences, yet it is
wholly unsuited to minds commonly so styled
practical, who are impatient of every proposition
that is not immediately applicable to the affairs of
life. For these the Hermetic Art is no more suited
than they for it ; it needs a philosopher, one of the
antique mould, a true lover of Wisdom, who, for
her sake, will devote everything else, studious,
simple, ardent, and withal suscipient of appearing
truth.

They who in a kindred spirit have pursued this
Inquiry, may have divined many things which will
be hidden from the indifferent and thoughtless
reader ; for we have spoken of principles with
reference to practice, and in an order indirectly
indicative of the genealogical method of ascent ;
even that artistic fabrication of the Fire which
Prometheus received from Vulcan, and Minerva
disseminated providentially for the sake of her
luminous radix, lest it should be smothered in our
irrational alliance, and perish ungratefully without
return.

In the course of this vital experiment the ancients
discovered the whole of the philosophy they teach,
the quintessence of Universal Nature and her
fruitful springs : b}^ this pyrotechnical induction,
powers were revealed to conscience, the whole
generative original and those temptations which
the Reason alone, purified and singled out by Art
for the encounter, is able entirely to withstand.

And that ray of motive Light, pure, vital, and
efficient, we have shown to be the true Form of
Gold, the alone universal principle of increase and
perfection, the same which in the circulatory

Conclusion. 545

system, becoming dominant, is made concrete in
life ; and is the transmutative ferment — even the
Philosophic Stone.

And this is the grand Hermetic secret, that
there is a Universal Subject in nature, and that
Subject is susceptible of nourishment in Man ; and
this is the greatest mystery, of all mysteries the
most wonderful, that man should be able not only
to find the Divine Nature, but to effect It.

The philosophers sought after Wisdom for her
own sake ; for her beauty and bright divinity they
wooed her, and gained with her an ample dowry,
gold, silver, and the glittering treasures of her
creative light in abundance. And some have dwelt
gratefully on these intermediate benefits, recording
them, but were, above all, careful to celebrate the
primary attraction which led them in for the
discovery of life. And we have omitted many
things, which, to the many, might be more
attractive, even than gold or silver, or a more
remote prospect of immortality ; for every desire
is, in the magic region, made prolific, embodying
itself, by the ethereal conception, as a principle to
enact its voluntary accord. But to allure by
particular promises, however rich or real, which
might restrict to individual interests a virtue which
is infinite, forms no part of our design ; man is
sufficiently bounded already in all — how many
ways is he not fettered, by the poverty of his
imagination and the littleness of his love ?

Having then run cursorily through the circuit of
the HermeticTradition, without attempting, how-
ever, to include the whole length, which would
embrace a far wider field of philosophical inquiry
than is commonly imagined, it may be proper, in
conclusion, to consider the several bearings of the
same with respect to other sciences, and their
comparative value to mankind at large.

Between the Physical and Moral sciences, com-
monly so called, though there are links found

546 Conclusion.

indicative of a radical relationship, yet each are
throughout their departments divergent, and the
class of mind usually occupied by either is distinct.
The former, based externally, having the senses for
chief evidence, makes practical utility its end and
only value ; whilst the latter, having its evidence
and object alike within the mind, attaches less
consequence to worldly benefits, misprising the
lights of sense also as inferior and comparatively
insecure. And thus Philosophy stands divulsed at
this day, the Spiritual unable to prove itself
absolutely, or the Material to disprove the other
practically ; they accordingly maintain on either
side a negative, though relatively assured, ground.
But the Hermetic Science, supposing this indeed
to be well founded, would include both in the ample
compass of its experiment, as passing from either
extreme of Mind and Matter, to prove them, it
arrives at the Catholic Effect of Life. And here the
external and internal worlds are said to blend
together in confluent harmony, establishing each
other, and leaving reason nothing more to doubt
or the senses to desire, but a fulfilment under the
Law.

If then, in contrariety to every popular prejudice,

/and on the evidence only of defunct philosophers^

/ we can yet imagine this Art of Alchemy to be real,

/ and an experimental foundation of science, not-

V withstanding all the learned cavils and clamours of

. \ disappointed chemists that have been raised

^r ' against it ; — if it be true that there is a Subtle

< Nature pervading the universe, which is the All in

Vevery thing and susceptible of artificial alteration

j through all ; and if man by his especial prerogative

jof Reason and rectitude of purpose is able, by a

development of these, to advance and bear the life

within him through dissolution into a new birth,

superior to nature and beyond the reach of ele-

\mentary discord to destroy ; and if all this has

been accomplished, passed through in the conscious

i-

Conclusion. 547

experience, and proved demonstratively in facts,
visible deeds, and effects ; then, these things
supposed, and experience being the admitted test
of philosophy, will it not follow that theirs was
the right and true philosophy, which at the vertex
of a double ignorance has been forgotten and
despised ?

For the experience of intellect would, under the
supposition, be esteemed pre-eminently above that
of sense, inasmuch as the one revelation is natur-
ally superior and acknowledged, even in this life,
before the other ; and that kind of evidence would
be necessarily preferred by all which is universally
inclusive and leading out from the Causal Foun-
tain into natural effect. But by no reason that
comes from sense will such an evidence be obtained,
nor shall we ever learn, without Identic co-opera-
tion, how Nature works, or by what occult virtue
the grain of wheat is even instigated, so that it
grows and bears its abundant increase upon earth.
All our knowledge without the experience is
empirical, the result only of observation of remote
effects. And therefore Alchemy has been declared
to be the only true glass of the mind, which shows
how to enter, and to touch, and to discover the
Truth in her own simplicity and uni vocal demon-
stration. Neither does it therefore bring so many
arguments, as might be, to prove itself, since the
evidence is self-sufficient, and without itself can-
not, however truly imaginable, be known. Such a
demonstration would stand above all common-
sense conclusions, above imagination, above opin-
ion, and all logical proof, which is barren without
self-knowledge, and isolated and erring upon the
plain of Truth.

Yet this logical faculty is the only guide we now
can boast of, which, if stable in its own criterion,
yet being dependent on externals for matter and
practical pursuit, fluctuates, and hence many evils
arise and those diversities of opinion which distract

548 Conclusion.

mankind. The world, so imperfectly ruled, has
instituted a sort of free-will standard of its own ;
men will believe as they like, see or not see, assume
as suits their convenience, or reject their own
criterion at pleasure, even the testimony of their
own highly esteemed sober senses, when these do
not tally with their pre-conceived prejudices,
interests, or hopes. But it is evident, irrespective of
all particular objections that true science does not
consist in the exhibition of phenomena, neither
can anything short of the Causal Discovery fulfil
the Idea of Truth. The doubt would not rest
therefore about the superiority of Causal science,
if it were possible, but whether it be truly possible or
not. If the philosophy of the Ancients is without a
true foundation, if there is not any other essence of
things besides that which is apparent and has a
sensible subsistence, then the Physical will indis-
putably be the first and only science ; but if other-
wise there is proved to be a certain immutable
Being of all, pre-existent to sensibles, which can be
proven in intellect and confirmed in sensible
phenomena, as the Alchemists and Greek meta-
physicians assert, then this will be prior, surer, and
the best philosophy.

To those in whom the spirit of observation has
been wholly drawn to externals, it may have
seemed a ridiculous thing to speak of life and
intellect independently, as apart from their mani-
fest operations ; still more so to enter on specific
idioms and modes of spiritual subsistence, seeing
wre have no tangible proof calculated by any means
to satisfy the searchers of exact science ; that as
life is nowhere seen apart from organization, or
moral consciousness from either, they are pheno-
nema little likely to be discovered apart or practi-
cally understood — Against such an opinion we
have no present demonstration to offer ; our own
assertion would add nothing to the authorities
already cited ; inquiry is the only antidote of

Conclusion. 549

rational scepticism. For this we have laboured to
supply means ; and the natural subsistence of
Universals in the human mind may afford a ground
of probability whence to proceed into their proof.
That we are deprived of the power of apprehending
the ancient doctrine of internal Wisdom is not proof
that it is untrue ; there is a strongly enchanted
fortress about it, whose forces yield not either to
impertinent curiosit}^ or the peremptory demands
of sense. Nor can all the negative evidence of
sensual certainty in array disprove, or for an
instant nullify, assertions which belong to another
Experience and another probability of Art and
Nature.

But, will it be objected, that which has never
been in our thought, things so far above us, are
nothing to us ? Truly, if beyond our possible
attainment, they would be indifferent ; but bene-
fits are not the less real because unexpected, or
promises to be cast away because the means of
fulfilment are not immediately discernable. The
evils of this life are manifold, and a prospect of
escape, or melioration even, will not be obnoxious
to those who are fortunately able to perceive it.
Neither let it be supposed, that because the Wis-
dom of the ancients transcends, that it by any
means contradicts human reason, but quite other-
wise ; that was, in truth, the basis of their philo-
sophy, which is with us the boundary and summit
of our knowledge. That Faith alone, indeed of all
else, remains to us in common — in that we are, we
have a witness which believes and infers, a realitv
beyond present experience ; and hence it is in vain
that metaphysicians, inductively arguing, have
sometimes endeavoured to reduce the Idea of
Cause to mere antecedence or juxta-position in
time. The instinct of human nature is constantly
opposed to them, and believes, heedless of all
doubt and difficult discussion. For Power is latent
everywhere, and we feel it in the shadow, and

550 Conclusion.

recognise its presence spontaneously in every
action of life. Striking upon this Faith therefore,
in default of its true object, and taking to witness
some of the closer records of transcendental
experience, we have hoped to awaken the imagina-
tive centres to such an accord as might stir
Reason from her long lethargy to seek for genuine
reminiscence in her root of Light.

" Though from our birth the faculty divine
Is chained and tortured, cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd,
And bred in darkness, lest the light should shine
Too brightly on the uninstructed mind,
The beams pour in, and truth and skill may couch the blind/'

Were it not that the ancients acknowledge and
uniformly insist on the use of means for removing
the barriers by which the Divine Light is here held
in thraldom, we might more consistently despair
of their Wisdom ; but it was avowedly a thing
acquired, the reward only of peculiar and arduous
discipline ; not such as mere school logic or the
mathematics now afford, but as different and far
above as was the promise and ultimate aim. No
modern institutions, either secular or religious,
furnish anything analogous, no effectual means of
moral elevation, no rites of purifying or awakening
efficacy to the mind. We plant and increase
knowledge, and give precepts and devise examples,
and draw forth the observing faculties to their
superficial contentment ; but all our circumstan-
tial labours do not rectify the mind, or turn the
inbred inclination out of life. Circumstances indeed
do modify, and, according as they are well or ill
devised, improve or deteriorate the habitual
character of mankind ; but they do not recreate ;
no power that is not vital can touch the evil that is
inbred, or even discover it truly without intro-
spective proof. That which generation binds disso-
lution only can unloose — the evil must be met by
its proper antidote, overcoming darkness by Light
in the hypostatical alliance ; every accessory

Conclusion. 551

means of melioration will be preparative to this
which restores the human mind to integrhVy and
universal science.

Man has never been observed to advance him-
self individually through adventitious acquire-
ments ; but, on the contrary, the increase of lux-
ury, to which thought is now applied, enervates
the moral character, fosters selfishness b}^ com-
petition, fraud, and emulous hate. Institutions,
framed by the same defective pattern, multiply
the evil, as every advance we make in externals
leads us further off from the First Source. And
until Wisdom shall have effected that individual
reformation, which above all things we now need,
it is vain to look in externals for a perfection and
felicity which have not been imaged there. We
may alter, and improve, and educate, and prepare
the way with advantage ; but the notion will be
variable, and every plan defective without the
Exemplary Light.

But some one still considers the discovery im-
possible, or, if possible, yet that this Wisdom is too
difficult perhaps in the pursuit ? To the former
objection, supposing it to be inveterate, we oppose
nothing, having nowhere undertaken to convince,
but only to promote investigation. Incredulity
is the strongest barrier of possibilities over the
world, no doubt wisely provided to prevent a too
rapid movement of mind into practice, before it is
well prepared and disposed to the pursuit of truth.
With respect to the difficulties of the pursuit, we
have nowhere denied them, or that they are
insuperable to the common herd of mankind.
Without an earnest desire of discovery, the live-
liest faith will be frustrated, and labour will be vain
unless reason give direction to the persuasion of
faith. But how hardly can these either subsist
without the other ? since faith is the very attracting
loadstone which hope pursues, and desire and
reason, and the whole willing armament of Mind,

552 Conclusion.

to which, in her allied forces, nothing is impossible ;
or what apparition of difficulties would deter con-
viction steeled to the purpose of her Motive Light ?

Or does any one, persisting to calumniate this
Philosophy, say it threatens to sacrifice important
temporal interests for the sake of visionary and
remote gains ? Such objections however will not be
rational, but spring out of the baser affections of
humanity and short-sighted sense. The eye is not
satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hear-
ing, nor does any transitory good suffice to human
desire ; above all, there is no selfish object worthy
the pursuit of Intellect ; nor is any worldly recom-
pense found corresponding to its need. But the
proper object of the rational faculty is in its Source,
which lies profoundly buried in this life of sense.
And this it is the province of the Hermetic Artifice
to resuscitate and bring through self-knowledge
into the experience of life. For this same Root of
Reason is Wisdom, and that saving Salt which
philosophers were wont anciently to excavate and
by so many circulating media to exalt. The diadem
of Wisdom is with this Stone, which, as a halo or
crown of light, the regenerate soul puts on as a new
body, wherein it can rule over the elementary
world and pass through it, overcoming evil and
falsehood, and ignorance and death.

To the faculty of Reason, therefore, nothing is
more attractive than this philosophy, which immor-
talizes it ; yet, will it be argued, there are other
faculties of the human mind equally real, if not as
important, and which ought not to be despised ?
Neither, we reply, is any faculty of the soul repu-
diated in that supernal alliance ; but all are present
together in obedience to their rightful rule and
habitude ; or if any one is refractory during the
passage, it is the occasion of suffering to the better
natures, which are all engaged voluntarily in the
restitution of their King. But if they all must be
sacrificed for the sake of him who is their source,

Conclusion. 553

would not this be expedient, rather than that he
should continue in an illegitimate thraldom under
all ? Such is not the ultimate necessity of the case
however ; for the brethren all are renewed together
with him, and every dignified sentiment is set in
accord, to testify and maintain the triumphant
Monarchy of Light.

And what more alluring to a cultivated Imagina-
tion than this pursuit, which abounds in ideality
and the beautiful symbolism of universal truth,
which discovers the occult springs of Classic
inspiration, tradition, mythology, fable, and every
graceful remain ?

And will not Veneration, too, be intimately
invited by the prospect of its own antique wor-
shipful Idea — there where, in the presence of
Divinity, true awe is felt, and man discovers and
knows the perfect goodness, which profanely with-
out the temple's veil he cannot, or unless the under-
standing is absolutely conjoined ?

And are not Hope and Benevolence interested in
this research, and Justice longing for an equi-
librium, and Self-respect and Fidelity, and every
honourable motive herein allied ? And to know the
First Truth of things really and experimentally,
and to revolve the Causal Light in permanence
of intellection, is not this the highest privilege that
man may propose to himself ? And when we are
told that all things are added to that felicity, that
the springs of Universal Nature, with her growth
and fruits, are at our delegate disposal, if we can
believe, what else is worthy our whole desire ?
And what kind of science, supposing it real, would
be so conclusive as this, which exhibits all things
in their constructive Causes, such as no other
science does, or other conviction can do, but that
only which, Identically penetrating, enters into
the Whole of Existence ?

Let no one therefore conceive that this philo-
sophy is unattractive, which has occupied the best

554 Conclusion.

faculties of the best minds, and at the summit of
their capacity. Nor are the rewards so remote,
either as indolence and adverse inclination may
cause them to appear. But if inferior interests
should yet complain, as in danger of their present
dominion, and pride or avarice, or ambition or
ignorance, accustomed to rule in this life, should
disdain the subaltern station which the Divine
Law assigns to them, let not one enlist or be drawn
by promises, however alluring, lest they be de-
ceived and swallowed up in the gulph of their own
overwhelming delusion. As who would wish it
should be otherwise, unless it were to generate evil
by the viperous progeny of self-love ?

Should it be considered, on the other hand, that
the research of Causes is altogether impious, and
above the destined capacity of man, and vain,
since, as Job says, no one by searching can find out
the Almighty to perfection — we would observe, with
respect to this last assertion, that it is easily
explicable ; for though it is eminently true that
man, searching in his own will alone, is incom-
petent to the Divine Discovery, yet, by condition-
ating, in obedience to the Divine Will, he comes
into the integral alliance and power.

With respect to the charge of impiety, should
this persist, the evil is inherent in the preposterous
idea ; nor can we be at the pains just now to
vindicate the most sacred science from such an
aspersion ; but recommend those who really think
in this way, with the rest already warned off, to
desist from inquiry, nor give heed to the subject as
long as the fatal suggestion lurks ; lest it should
become manifested forth in some practical form
of pusillanimity, or faithless attempt to interrogate
the profundity it fears. There is nothing impure, or
of itself impious, in this Art of Wisdom, long
distinguished as holy. But to him that esteems a
thing unclean, as St. Paul says, it is unclean, for the
thought will defile it. Honi soit qui mal y pense.

Conclusion. 555

Let not this good then be evil spoken of. All things
are indeed pure ; but it is evil for that man who
eateth the bread of life with offence.

The Art of Alchemy is of all Arts distinguished
as holy, since it has been piously occupied, and
aided the most devout minds, in times past, to the
attainment of their common end. Not that we
would insinuate that human salvation is dependent
on a mere art — far otherwise ; the Divine Will
operates its fulfilment alone ; but the Art is said
to be a remedy of imperfect souls, and offers the
means of assimilation : whether a knowledge of
these means is absolutely necessary, we dare not
take on ourselves to determine — the power of God
is infinite ; but Adepts declare that He has always
revealed them to his elected child "en.

If doubt yet further should arise about this
Wisdom ; seeing she did not reveal herself in com-
mon arts and the discoveries of human invention ;
it may be plainly observed that su3h particulars
are foreign to the Divine purpose, they are foolish-
ness to her ; she teaches an Art which supersedes
all these and comprehends every liberal science in
sublime freedom of intellection and every subor-
dinate discovery in her revealed accord. Yet who
will now believe ?

It is by the searching and proving of His own
Identitv, not otherwise, that man can arrive at the
assurance of this Wisdom, which is above science,
art, and every other kind of faith ; which includes
all knowledges, arts, and every particular which
the inquiring Spirit seeks within itself. This is
that Well of Heraclitus in which the Truth yet lies
profoundly hidden ; whence also those philosophic
tears. This is that Nothing which Socrates knew,
on account of which the oracle pronounced him
to be the wisest of mankind ; which Democritus,
beholding, laughed at other things : it was this
which warned Friar Bacon from the error of his
ways, and convicted Agrippa of the vanity and

556 Conclusion.

confusion of his youth, when at length in his man-
hood he came to know that to know Nothing was
the most happy life. For he who in such wise knows
Nothing — no one apostate particular — has the All,
and, being composed of the whole, he is able to
discern, to make, and to effect the whole ; but
falling off from this, in becoming dividual, he
ceases to be the Universe : returning again, how-
ever, into the Universal and abandoning the self-
hood, he raises himself on high, and governs the
world.

And when we consider the highly elevated philo-
sophy of the Platonic successors ; the profound yet
simple metaphysics of the Hebrew Kabalah, as it
has been partially transmitted, with a persuasion
of reality unequalled in modern language ; the
soul-stirring syllables of the Hermetic and Chaldaic
Fragments ; the refined enthusiasm of the Middle
Age Adeptists ; and all these and many more sepa-
rately agreeing in the same divine tradition ; and
added to these all, the Christian doctrine of fulfil-
ment in the Gospel ; we cannot but feel regret,
mingling with the satisfaction these things might
otherwise afford, that so early and great a promise
of the human mind should have been blighted, not
only, but forgotten almost in the world. Or can
we recall such lights without reflection, and incu-
riously believe that knowledge was once granted
to man by revelation, but has since, we cannot tell
why, passed away for ever ? Are we the children
of a second fall, or what spell holds us that we no
longer aspire even to understand the language of
our Fathers, or desire to pass into the life of those
elder times, when Man, not yet always the poor
servant and interpreter of Nature, moved under
his God, her Lord and Master ? Are we not all
born of one generation, in the same surrounding
world ; that identical sun now enlightening us as
formerly shone upon the bards and hallowed sages
of Asia Minor ? Yet, whilst they so many cen-

Conclusion. 557

turies ago bear testimony to a knowledge of their
Creator and his intimate works, we continue still in
uncertainty, blind and baffled everywhere about
the beguilements of sense. No longer careful for
ourselves, life is wasted on externals, which,
always ungrateful, 3deld new burdens and per-
plexities in proportion as they increase. Theoretic
science is everywhere condemned ; but there is
no such thing at this day ; since, with all her
extolled artifice, array of disciplines and powers,
the Wisdom of Antiquity has disappeared from
amongst men.

And to what are we arrived without her ? Even
at the proudest pinnacle of external science, the
whole physical nature explored, and facts of all
generations accumulated together before our eyes,
what should we be wiser without the Causal know-
ledge of these things ? What single advantage
have we gained by misprising the ancients ? Those
low, literal, spiritless interpretations of poetic fable
and philosophy — what satisfaction have they
afforded ? Or of what use will they ever be, but
to memorialize our ignorance to future generation ?
It is true, they have flattered our self-complacency
for a while into a belief that former Wisdom was
foolishness, and that men never lived in reality
who were more knowing, religious, and virtuous
than ourselves. But then the evil far outlives the
temporary gratulation of those conceits — conceits
which have stripped the Ideal Standard of all
excellency, and shorn the imagination of its
brightest hopes of beauty, goodness, and immortal
truth. All has been swept away with a remorseless
hand ; all veneration and faith in ideality, whilst
sense has been the acknowledged beacon light,
and worldly utility the highest good.

Is it not full time to return, when things are
arrived at the precipice of self-oblivion, when ex-
perimental philosophy labours for selfish aggrand-
isement, and self is least of all served in the attempt ;

558 Conclusion.

when thought wastes its eternal substance in the
pursuit of time ; and the idea of Truth is mangled
in the reckless machinery of Error ? Has not Lord
Bacon himself, the leader of this exterminating
chase, whilst endeavouring to supersede the bare
exercise of logic, and clear the field of Learning
in his Inauguration, recommended the pursuit
of Causes above every other, and taught, by his
own energetic example, to inquire of the ancients,
and to experiment after their hidden Wisdom,
though he knew it not, but only burned about the
lights which they had bequeathed ? What more,
then, should we add to exhort, extol, or explicate,
having studied to revive these lights and relics of
the Sacred Art long buried in oblivion ? If their
witness is disbelieved, addition would be useless ;
if otherwise, we await the result. — It would be as
impossible in an exposition of this kind to con-
ciliate all tastes, as to draw divergent prejudices
into accord. There is one pleasure of a horse,
another of a dog : a goat differs from either in his
natural choice ; and in man every various inclina-
tion is to be found, and a multifarious under-
standing in the affairs of life ; so that those argu-
ments which to some would be convincing, by
others are not discerned, or needed by many more
who are endowed with an instinctive faith and
appreciation. Truths which are grateful to certain
persons are odious to others, according as they may
be constituted or habitually trained. In this
Inquiry, therefore, we have sought to attract those
chiefly to whom such a pursuit would be naturally
pleasing, and such as have been customarily
esteemed worthy of the reward.

With respect to the practical benefits, our hopes,
though not enlarged, are vigorous and of the most
grateful kind ; for those to whom it is addressed the
Light will attract, and to them will not be moder-
ately useful, if they advance by it to the true end.

That the subject is worthy of inquiry from the

Conclusion. 559

highest order of minds, we repeat our persuasion,
and at the same time entertain a belief that the
period is not far distant when this will be obtained,
and the truth, by these means, be so manifestly
presented before the eyes of all, that contrary
prejudices, and doubts, and false interests, will be
merged in the revelation of power and irresistible
fact.

The catholic torch, miraculously kindled, kindles
the Light of Universal Nature, and either exter-
nally or internally, morally or physically, or in all
these ways, according to the application, works
from thence through every part, diffusing energy,
life, and joy, in either of the three kingdoms, as we
have shown, by its voluntary assimilation, in-
creasing and promoting things to their utmost
boundary of strength. But, above all, it rejoices in
the Mind of Man, when, in conscious rectitude of
thought and action, he bears it in comprehensive
superiority elect over the rest — when, including all
in the catholic perceivance of this Reason, he sub-
mits his own omnipotence to the omniscience of its
Rule — when Nature opening up to him the vast
resources of her essence and the mystery of the
most wonderful creation, with every temptation
to self-idolatry laid open to view, oblivious of all
else in admiration and love of so much Wisdom
and integral perfection, he co-operates with the
First Cause.

Some may consider we have opened too much,
others too little of a mystery irrelevant to the
common understanding of mankind, and no doubt
our conduct is blameworthy in other respects ; yet
those for whom we have laboured will not prove
ungrateful if they attain to the end of our proposed
discovery. For the discovery of the Causal Nature
is doubtless of all parts of knowledge the worthiest
to be sought after, if it be possible to be found ; and,
as to the possibility, they are computed for ill
discoverers that think there is no land because they

yV

560 CONCLUSION.

discern nothing but sea. — Believe it, then, beyond
the turbulent sea of sense, there is a haven and
signal marks to direct where the Promised Land
is to be found. And Life is the nucleus of the whole
Hermetic Mystery, and the Key thereof is Light ;
the golden ore of which, likewise, we have lavishly
shown. If, however, the Key is wanting, how may
we presume to enter ; or, without it, explain the
intricate intelligence of those mirific wards which
were constructed by it, and for it to pass through,
and for it alone ? They, we repeat, who can under-
stand the language of the philosophers, will under-
stand their Art ; for this we have opened the way
only, which if any one will consent to travel in,
we assure him of success, but not otherwise ; for
neither was this research undertaken indiscrim-
inately, nor can it be prosecuted without a
congenial Sight. But he who desires to enter, let
him search for the Root of Reason rationally, and
hold by it, and conspire with It, if he would have
Truth at last. He who knows the first entrance,
and how to render the fixed tincture of life volatile,
and to return it, being free, is already admitted to
the temple of Divine Science, and joins in with the
whole conclave ; because, through all the interior
recesses, the method is allied. Let him search into
the enigmas, peruse the fables, and consider the
parables and maxims of the wise Adepts. They all
tend to one discovery, and declare the same, and
even in their inconsistencies will be instructive to
him who has the Key. And he who sets himself in
Hhis wise to the comprehension of the whole
philosophy, will be a competent judge of our
labours, how much assistance we have added
towards the recovery of lost Wisdom, and with
what sincerity we have opened the way permeating
into those antiquated abodes of Light.

THE END.

APPENDIX.

TABLE TALK AND MEMORABILIA

OF

MARY ANNE ATWOOD,
Begun August, 1860.

1 . The Magic of the self-will is that which the Egyptians
practised in the days of Moses ; this is to be found in the
release or setting free the third or lowest life. Of this power
we know nothing in this present life, the ordinary life of man ;
we may imagine into it, and theoretically see it, but that is
all ; nor do we know it in the common entranced life, i.e.,
the life of the sleep- wakers ; but this present life may be led
through the clairvoyant life into it (that is the wonderful part
of it) by the fermentation of itself.

2. As this life being fermented by this life, its similar, leads
into the common trance, or is entranced, so that consequent
life being fermented subsequently by its similar, leads into
that third life which moves in and with the creative Essence,
so that the mind becomes in that case related to the Universal
Vitalising Power, and so can act Its will.

Power thus gained is only legitimate, just and righteous
when the will subserves the commandment and law of God ;
taken into the self-will and used accordingly it becomes
diabolical ; hence the distinction between the " might in
word and deed " of Moses and the " enchantments " of the
Egyptians.

3. The Universal Spirit is in one form the Principle of all
growth, and it is their power of collecting a quantity of this,
bringing it to bear on any germ at once, that furnishes the
Eastern jugglers with their power of perfecting suddenly those
plants and trees which in the ordinary course of the action
of this Life-principle in Nature would have taken years.

4. Magicians, like the Egyptians of that da}^ drew only
from their own strength ; that was the way in which the
kingdom of Egypt fell ; probably the}T did not originally act
in self-will, but drew their power from the Divine Source, as
Asclepius says (see the Dialogue, so called, the 2nd Book of
Hermes, ch. 9) alluding to their falling off into debasement
and idolatry.

A

562 Appendix.

/? 5. Alchemy is an universal art of vital chemistry, which
by fermenting the human spirit, purines, and, finally dis-
solving it, opens the elementary germ into new life and
consciousness ; and the Philosopher's Stone is the efflux of
such a life, drawn to a focus and made manifest as a concrete

\ Essence of Light, which Essence is the true Form or Idea of
Gold. The process takes place in and through the human body
in the blood, changing the relation of its component parts or
principles, and reversing the circulatory order, so that, the
sensible medium becoming occult, the inner source of its
vitality is awakened, and the consciousness at the same time
being drawn centrally, comes to know and feel itself in its
own true Source, which is the Universal Centre and source
of all things.

6. And since every being has in himself the cause of his
own existence, if, by these alleged means the consciousness
can be brought into contact with its First Cause, he will, in
knowing It know the cause of all, since Existence is everywhere
one and universal, and in fact the one ultimate essential
mystery under God.

This Mystery is, as the Hermetists teach, to be discovered
by an artificial dissolution of the natural bond of life, resulting
in a regeneration of the dissolved separated elements, under
a reversed law ; the will holding and drawing from its proper
efficients operates, and mind becomes creative , and immor-
talised in it.

7. The law of Will in these higher states of being is to
have motion from its own centre. It has motion in itself,
this motivity when in act evolves an effervescence of the Will-
being or substance ; for Will has substance, nay, is the only
substance ; it is the Universal Loadstone of Existence.

This effervescent efflux is in itself chaotic, and requires to
be taken up by an external mind or intelligence, and this
mind, when thus related to it, and under its law, becomes
creative and immortalised.

8. As long as we in our life go on in a line we are not immortal,
but when our life is returned in faith (for it is faith which
re-unites) to its beginning, it forms the circle and is in
Eternity.

It must also be observed that there is a law of Light,
which must move through Love in the will, and so act on
the will-moved mind, and to which it must be subservient,
else it breaks and becomes demoniacal.

The wonderful part of the process is that the spirit
becoming freed from the body, carries on the perfection and
purification of her own vehicle — the soul.

Appendix. 563

There is a time when the power, the vital or willing-power,
is seated in the lumbar region and is sent back.

I think there is a time, when the mind comes into relation
with the macrocosmic Spirit, and discerns it, and is taught
by it. (c./., Vaughan's Writings on the Chymical Wedding,
p. 4.)

9. The perpendicular line is the Divine line in all things ; the
transverse line is the contrary ; the two united form a cross -f- .
In mesmerising and de-mesmerising we form a -f- . It is
curious that by this peculiar action the perpendicular line
should withdraw you from sense while the transverse restores
you to it.

10. The fire of life in us is capable of burning erect, it
becomes a magnet ! Wonderful !

If, in us, the Divine line were stronger than the transverse
one, we should be no longer in sense. The Divine or rather
celestial life would be established over it in us, and we should
be conscious in it, and placed in a transcendental relation.

And as the sky appears to us concave and, when
cloudless, blue in colour, so the Upper Ether, where the Ideas
are, appears to the exalted spirit, i.e., the spirit in the medial
life, as its azure sky.

N.B. — The brain is to this outward life what the spiritual
head is to the spirit. There is, as the Swedenborgians would
say, a correspondence between them.

11. The limbs in the microcosm play a most important