The cavern is overshadowed by an olive tree—­again the Tree of Life to which we have referred above—­on the branches of which the doves rest, and bring back the leaves to the ark of the body and the prisoner within it.

But space does not permit us to pursue further this interesting subject, which requires an entire treatise by itself, or even a series of volumes.  Enough, however, has been said to show that the method of interpretation employed by Simon is not without interest and profit, and that the tolerant spirit of to-day which animates the best minds and hearts in Christendom will find no reason to mete out to Simon wholesale condemnation on this score.

There are also many other points of interest that could be elaborated upon, in the fragments of the system we are reviewing, but as my task is in the form of an essay, and not an exhaustive work, I must be content to pass them by for the present, and to hurry on to a few words on that strange and misunderstood subject, commonly known as Magic.

What Magic, the “Great Art” of the ancients, was in reality is now as difficult to discover as is the true Religion that underlies all the great religions of the world.  It was an art, a practice, the Great and Supreme Art of the most Sacred Science of God, the Universe and Man.  It was and it is all this in its highest sense, and its method was what is now called “creation.”  As the Aeons imitated the Boundless Power and emanated or created in their turn, so could man imitate the Aeons and emanate or create in his turn.  But “creation” is not generation, it is a work of the “mind,” in the highest sense of the word.  By purification and aspiration, by prayer and fasting, man had to make his mind harmonious with the Great Mind of the Universe, and so by imitation create pure vehicles whereby his consciousness could be carried in every direction of the Universe.  Such spiritual operations required the greatest purity and piety, real purity and true piety, without disguise or subterfuge, for man had to face himself and his God, before whom no disguise was possible.  The most secret motives, the most hidden desires, were revealed by the stern self-discipline to which the Adepts of the Science subjected themselves.

But as in all things here below, so with the Art of Magic, it was two-fold.  Above I have only spoken of the bright side of it, the path along which the World-Saviours have trodden, for no one can gain entrance to the path of self-sacrifice and compassion unless his heart burns with love for all that lives, and unless he treads the way of wisdom only in order that he may become that Path itself for the salvation of the race.  But there is the other side; knowledge is knowledge irrespective of the use to which it may be put.  The sword of knowledge is two-edged, as remarked above, and may be put to good or evil use, according to the selfishness or unselfishness of the possessor.

But corruptio optimi pessima, and as the employment of wisdom for the benefit of mankind—­as, for instance, curing the sick, physically and morally—­is the highest, so the use of any abnormal power for the advantage of self is the vilest sin that man can commit.