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Brother, to combat the theory and argue upon it ad infinitum. Nor did I ever become
guilty of the heresy I am accused of -- in reference to spirit and matter. The conception of
matter and spirit as entirely distinct, and both eternal could certainly never have entered
my head, however little I may know of them, for it is one of the elementary and
fundamental doctrines of Occultism that the two are one, and are distinct but in their
respective manifestations, and only in the limited perceptions of the world of senses. Far
from "lacking philosophical breadth" then, our doctrines show, but one principle in
nature, -- spirit-matter or matter-spirit, the third the ultimate Absolute or the quintessence
of the two, -- if I may be allowed to use an erroneous term in the present application --
losing itself beyond the view and spiritual perceptions of even the "Gods" or Planetary
Spirits. This third principle say the Vedantic Philosophers -- is the only reality,
everything else being Maya, as none of the Protean manifestations of spirit-matter or
Purusha and Prakriti have ever been regarded in any other light than that of temporary
delusions of the senses. Even in the hardly outlined philosophy of Isis this idea is clearly
carried out. In the book of Kiu-te, Spirit is called the ultimate sublimation of matter, and
matter the crystallization of spirit. And no better illustration could be afforded than in the
very simple phenomenon of ice, water, vapour and the final dispersion of the latter, the
phenomenon being reversed in its consecutive manifestations and called the Spirit failing
into generation or matter. This trinity resolving itself into unity, -- a doctrine as old as the
world of thought -- was seized upon by some early Christians, who had it in the schools
of Alexandria, and made up into the Father, or generative spirit; the Son or matter, --
man; and into the Holy Ghost, the immaterial essence, or the apex of the equilateral
triangle, an idea found to this day in the pyramids of Egypt. Thus once more it is proved
that you misunderstand my meaning entirely, whenever for the sake of brevity I use a
phraseology habitual with the Western people. But in my turn I have to remark that your
idea that matter is but the temporary allotropic form of spirit differing from it as charcoal
does from diamond is as unphilosophical as it is unscientific from both the Eastern and
the Western points of view, charcoal being but a form of residue of matter, while matter
per se is indestructible, and as I maintain coeval with spirit -- that spirit which we know
and can conceive of. Bereaved of Prakriti, Purusha (Spirit) is unable to manifest itself,
hence ceases to exist -- becomes nihil. Without spirit or Force, even that which Science
styles as "not living" matter, the so-called mineral ingredients which feed plants, could
never have been called into form. There is a moment in the existence of every molecule
and atom of matter when, for one cause or another, the last spark of spirit or motion or
life (call it by whatever name) is withdrawn, and in the same instant with the swiftness
which surpasses that of the lightning glance of thought the atom or molecule or an
aggregation of molecules is annihilated to return to its pristine purity of intra-cosmic
matter. It is drawn to the mother fount with the velocity of a globule of quicksilver to the
central mass. Matter, force, and motion are the trinity of physical objective nature, as the
trinitarian unity of spirit-matter is that of the spiritual or subjective nature. Motion is
eternal because spirit is eternal. But no modes of motion can ever be conceived unless
they be in connection with matter.
And now to your extraordinary hypothesis that Evil with its attendant train of sin and
suffering is not the result of matter, but may be perchance the wise scheme of the moral
Governor of the Universe. Conceivable as the idea may seem to you trained in the
pernicious fallacy of the Christian, -- "the ways of the Lord are inscrutable" -- it is utterly
inconceivable for me. Must I repeat again that the best Adepts have searched the
Universe during milleniums and found nowhere the slightest trace of such a
Machiavellian schemer -- but throughout, the same immutable, inexorable law. You must
excuse me therefore if I positively decline to lose my time over such childish
speculations. It is not "the ways of the Lord" but rather those of some extremely
intelligent men in everything but some particular hobby, that are to me incomprehensible.
As you say this need "make no difference between us" -- personally. But it does make a
world of difference if you propose to learn and offer me to teach. For the life of me I
cannot make out how I could ever impart to you that which I know since the very A.B.C.
of what I know, the rock upon which the secrets of the occult universe, whether on this or
that side of the veil, are encrusted, is contradicted by you invariably and a priori. My
very dear Brother, either we know something or we do not know anything. In the first
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