IV. Let us know all things ; for the essence of

things is fire; and he who knows the most is the
purest, having been purified of his pride and vanity
by the absorption of the essence of things.

This is the mundane circle — the four elements —
the four points of the compass. He who has passed
around this circle has returned to the point from

BELIEF A ND KNO W LEDGE. \ 3 7

whence he started, viz., nature — indifference. He
is a child again, without pride or egotism, hence is
receptive to the Divine influences, which lead him in
a supernatural manner upward to the abode of the
Gods. Those who return to this point are capable
of going higher.

We all revolve in the mundane circle in quest of
knowledge. Some gain a little, others a great deal.
To some it imparts trust or confidence in man (or
God) ; others grow misanthropical, and become
soured on the road, and trust no one. Acid is cold ;
it kills the warmth of the blood, and gradually, but
surely, extinguishes the fires of life. Distrust is
acid.

We become fixed in our opinions on the circle, and
branch off, either upon the upward or the downward
road. Some, however, revolve in the circle of knowl-
edge all their lives, and still have no opinions of any-
thing outside of the mundane circle.

It is said that only fools have confidence in man-
kind ; but this is a mistake. The best and greatest
men the world has ever known have been child-like
in their trustful nature. The rogue and the knave
are never trustful.

We have existed previous to this life ; and we come
here from above or below, bringing the aroma of the
world we came from with us.

There are three grades of mind, corresponding to
the three general conditions of Spirit-life. This world
and this life are a battle-field between the celestial

138 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

and the terrine worlds, an intermediate state where
souls are given a chance to ascend higher if they
choose. There are many grades of being, both as-
cending and descending; and man mentally and
physically corresponds thereto.

The spirit of the world you will inhabit after death
is within you, and, as sure as fate, will gravitate to
its home when freed by death. The spirit of the
terrine world begets all manner of vices and diseases,
"whose culmination, unless healed, is total loss of all
power and consciousness. All love and humane
affections come from the celestial. All things die in
love, and all things are born of love. The extremity
of grief is the beginning of joy. The last throb of
pain is the first throb of pleasure. Ecstasy is close
upon the confines of despair. The extreme woes of
hell vomit out souls purified by fire. Extreme knowl-
edge strips a man naked of his egotistical garments,
and shrouds him at the gate as if for burial.

This is the death of knowledge : the state of the
mind is changed ; it has reversed its polarity. His
intuitions begin to work in his despair of life, and he
receives that which is to the soul what knowledge is
to the mind, or food to the body. Intuition begins
where worldly knowledge ceases. Its methods are
inductive, instead of deductive. To the intuitive,
knowledge comes by impact, rather than by contact.
All revelation comes through intuition.

The foregoing is the secret of all conversions.
The despair of the sinner, when at its culmination,

BELIEF AND KNOWLEDGE. 1 39

dies. Its death is the birth of ecstasy, which many
mistake for the regeneration. But it is perfectly
natural that pleasure should follow pain: hence there
is nothing supernatural in conversions.

The deeper and more heartfelt the despair, the
greater the pleasure that follows it, and the more real
and lasting is the conversion. But God's Spirit
comes through intuitions — spontaneously, by labor
and constant and unwearied attention — by purifica-
tion of the mind, and a preparation of the body for
its reception. It is natural to believe in the super-
natural, but unnatural not to believe in it.

140 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.