He serves humanity and identifies himself with the whole world; he is ready to make vicarious sacrifice for it at any moment—­by living not by dying for it.  Why should he not die for it?  Because he is part of the great whole, and one of the most valuable parts of it.  Because he lives under laws of order which he does not desire to break.  His life is not his own, but that of the forces which work behind him.  He is the flower of humanity, the bloom which contains the divine seed.  He is, in his own person, a treasure of the universal nature, which is guarded and made safe in order that the fruition shall be perfected.  It is only at definite periods of the world’s history that he is allowed to go among the herd of men as their redeemer.  But for those who have the power to separate themselves from this herd he is always at hand.  And for those who are strong enough to conquer the vices of the personal human nature, as set forth in these four rules, he is consciously at hand, easily recognised, ready to answer.

[Footnote A:  Of course every occultist knows by reading Eliphas Levi and other authors that the “astral” plane is a plane of unequalized forces, and that a state of confusion necessarily prevails.  But this does not apply to the “divine astral” plane, which is a plane where wisdom, and therefore order, prevails.]

But this conquering of self implies a destruction of qualities which most men regard as not only indestructible but desirable.  The “power to wound” includes much that men value, not only in themselves, but in others.  The instinct of self-defense and of self-preservation is part of it; the idea that one has any right or rights, either as a citizen, or man, or individual, the pleasant consciousness of self-respect and of virtue.  These are hard sayings to many; yet they are true.  For these words that I am writing now, and those which I have written on this subject, are not in any sense my own.  They are drawn from the traditions of the lodge of the great Brotherhood, which was once the secret splendor of Egypt.  The rules written in its ante-chamber were the same as those now written in the ante-chamber of existing schools.  Through all time the wise men have lived apart from the mass.  And even when some temporary purpose or object induces one of them to come into the midst of human life, his seclusion and safety is preserved as completely as ever.  It is part of his inheritance, part of his position, he has an actual title to it, and can no more put it aside than the Duke of Westminster can say he does not choose to be the Duke of Westminster.  In the various great cities of the world an adept lives for a while from time to time, or perhaps only passes through; but all are occasionally aided by the actual power and presence of one of these men.  Here in London, as in Paris and St. Petersburgh, there are men high in development.  But they are only known as mystics by those who have the power to recognise;