walk alone; to make him independent of his own efforts in respect to safety, would be destroying one element necessary to his development—­the sense of responsibility.  What courage or conduct would be called for in a man sent to fight when armed with irresistible weapons and clothed in impenetrable armour?  Hence the neophyte should endeavour, as far as possible, to fulfill every true canon of sanitary law as laid down by modern scientists.  Pure air, pure water, pure food, gentle exercise, regular hours, pleasant occupations and surroundings, are all, if not indispensable, at least serviceable to his progress.  It is to secure these, at least as much as silence and solitude, that the Gods, Sages, Occultists of all ages have retired as much as possible to the quiet of the country, the cool cave, the depths of the forest, the expanse of the desert, or the heights of the mountains.  Is it not suggestive that the Gods have always loved the “high places”; and that in the present day the highest section of the Occult Brotherhood on earth inhabits the highest mountain plateaux of the earth?*

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* The stern prohibition to the Jews to serve “their gods upon the high
mountains and upon the hills” is traced back to the unwillingness of
their ancient elders to allow people in most cases unfit for adeptship
to choose a life of celibacy and asceticism, or in other words, to
pursue adeptship.   This prohibition had an esoteric meaning before it
became the prohibition, incomprehensible in its dead-letter sense:   for
it is not India alone whose sons accorded divine honours to the Wise
Ones, but all nations regarded their adepts and initiates as divine.—­
G.M.
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Nor must the beginner disdain the assistance of medicine and good medical regimen.  He is still an ordinary mortal, and he requires the aid of an ordinary mortal.

“Suppose, however, all the conditions required, or which will be understood as required (for the details and varieties of treatment requisite, are too numerous to be detailed here), are fulfilled, what is the next step?” the reader will ask.  Well if there have been no backslidings or remissness in the procedure indicated, the following physical results will follow:—­

First the neophyte will take more pleasure in things spiritual and pure.  Gradually gross and material occupations will become not only uncraved for or forbidden, but simply and literally repulsive to him.  He will take more pleasure in the simple sensations of Nature—­the sort of feeling one can remember to have experienced as a child.  He will feel more light-hearted, confident, happy.  Let him take care the sensation of renewed youth does not mislead, or he will yet risk a fall into his old baser life and even lower depths.  “Action and Re-action are equal.”