The varnish of conventionalities which “civilization” overlays us all with must come off to the last coat, and the inner self, naked and without the slightest veil to conceal its reality, is exposed.  The habits of society which hold men to a certain degree under moral restraint, and compel them to pay tribute to virtue by seeming to be good whether they are so or not—­these habits are apt to be all forgotten, these restraints to be all broken through under the strain of Chelaship.  He is now in an atmosphere of illusions—­Maya.  Vice puts on its most alluring face, and the tempting passions attract the inexperienced aspirant to the depths of psychic debasement.  This is not a case like that depicted by a great artist, where Satan is seen playing a game of chess with a man upon the stake of his soul, while the latter’s good angel stands beside him to counsel and assist.  For the strife is in this instance between the Chela’s will and his carnal nature, and Karma forbids that any angel or Guru should interfere until the result is known.  With the vividness of poetic fancy Bulwer Lytton has idealized it for us in his “Zanoni,” a work which will ever be prized by the occultist while in his “Strange Story” he has with equal power shown the black side of occult research and its deadly perils.  Chelaship was defined, the other day, by a Mahatma as a “psychic resolvent, which eats away all dross and leaves only the pure gold behind.”  If the candidate has the latent lust for money, or political chicanery, or materialistic scepticism, or vain display, or false speaking, or cruelty, or sensual gratification of any kind the germ is almost sure to sprout; and so, on the other hand, as regards the noble qualities of human nature.  The real man comes out.  Is it not the height of folly, then, for any one to leave the smooth path of commonplace life to scale the crags of Chelaship without some reasonable feeling of certainty that he has the right stuff in him?  Well says the Bible:  “Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall”—­a text that would-be Chelas should consider well before they rush headlong into the fray!  It would have been well for some of our Lay Chelas if they had thought twice before defying the tests.  We call to mind several sad failures within a twelve-month.  One went wrong in the head, recanted noble sentiments uttered but a few weeks previously, and became a member of a religion he had just scornfully and unanswerably proven false.  A second became a defaulter and absconded with his employer’s money—­the latter also a Theosophist.  A third gave himself up to gross debauchery, and confessed it, with ineffectual sobs and tears, to his chosen Guru.  A fourth got entangled with a person of the other sex and fell out with his dearest and truest friends.  A fifth showed signs of mental aberration and was brought into Court upon charges of discreditable conduct.  A sixth shot himself to escape the consequences of criminality, on the verge of detection!  And so we might go