One man saith: I am normal; neither spirits nor mortals rule over me! Yet he hath only boasted as a foolish man, who would say the same thing.
Another saith: Behold my wisdom! The highest spirits discourse through me. Yet he knoweth not whether it be true or not. Neither does any of them know the fountain of wisdom. For if an evil spirit saith it through them, the spirit himself is made up of borrowed knowledge and falsehood.
I talked to a great philosopher one day, and he said: There are no Gods, nor Lords, nor angels, nor any Great Person like Jehovah. Everything is spirit. He showed me a book he had, and I asked: Who made the book? He said: I made it; nay, I made not the cloth, nor the binding; I mean, I made the philosophy that is in the book; nay, I made not the philosophy, but found it; nay, it was not lost; I mean I led myself to find the philosophy; nay, a man cannot lead himself; I mean that I searched and found what was new to me.
So that but little of that book was his, after all. I saw three spirits standing beside this man, and they were laughing at him. If I had asked the spirits, they might have said: nay, the thoughts are ours. And had I looked further I might have seen other spirits still back of them, claiming the same things. Yet, even such spirits are not the highest. Wherefore I say unto you: All things come from an all Highest fountain of knowledge, name ye it what ye will. He who saith: Wisdom spoke through me: He is the nearest the truth of all. For all knowledge that comes to man, is wisdom’s word to that man. Whether it come by a spirit or by another man, or by the commonest corporeal thing, it is nevertheless from the All Highest, which is Wisdom (God).
For which reason bow ye not down in worship to any man, nor to any spirit, but only to the Highest, Wisdom; for it is the Figure-Head and Pinnacle of the All Highest conceived of.
And in contradistinction, the all lowest; the foot of the ladder; call ye darkness and evil, and wickedness, and in sin and death.
Attribute not to men nor angels, nor spirits this or that, for they themselves are not first causes nor responsible but in part; but attribute all good, high, best and wise things unto the essence of the Divine Wisdom within yourself; and all evil, dark, low things to an evil person or spirits who have opened their own soul to that which is lowest, evil and dark. By these I should make plain unto ye what I mean; and it is an easy matter for ye to look into your souls and comprehend as to which of these two ye most incline.
The soul of man may be likened unto a vine, which can be trained either upward to divine Wisdom or downward to evil and darkness.
And if ye desire to know if a vine be trained upward or downward, look ye for the fruit, and not to the fragrance. Some men pray much, but as to good works they are like a vine without fruit, but with plenty of fragrance.
One man waiteth till he is rich, before he seeks the divine within himself; another man waiteth for the spirits to inspire him, and give wonders, before he teacheth the unlearned or help the poor; another waitheth for the multitude to join in first; and yet another waiteth for something else.
Beware of such men; or put them in scales where nothing is weighed. In all things give ye precedence to the spirit of Wisdom within thyself; as the Creator is over all his works, so should the spirit of Divine Wisdom be over man’s works, and over his corporeal body also.
Herein lies the foundation of the knowledge of all “WISE MEN”. For the materialist, the heathen and the idolater, who labor for self, what are they but servants unto the flesh.
Some labor for the development and understanding of true spiritual power, which is purity, and love, and goodness, and justice; such are on the right road to become a “GREAT SOUL”.
Remember the heathens, they say: First provide the physical body, and then the spiritual. But I say unto you, the Creator of all things created them both, and he who saith: First provide for the material or physical body, never looketh to his spirit or soul afterward.
The Hindu philosophers, especially the Lamas, say, that man's mind, when it is most intent upon any work, through its passion and effects, is joined with the mind of the stars and intelligences, and, being so joined is the cause that some wonderful virtue etc., and dictates by characters, figures, words, speeches, gestures, and the like, help the appetite of the soul, and acquire certain wonderful virtues, from the soul of the operator, in that hour when such a like appetite doth invade it; so from the opportunity and celestial influence, moving the mind in this or that manner: for our mind, when it is carried upon the great excess of any passion or virtue, oftentimes takes to itself a strong, better, and more convenient hour or opportunity; which Thomas Aquinas, in his third book against the Gentiles, allows. So, many wonderful virtues both cause and follow certain admirable operations by great affections, in those things which the soul doth dictate in that hour to them. But know, that such kind of things confer nothing, or very little, but to the author of them, and to him who is inclined to them, as if he were the author of them; and this is the manner by which their efficacy is found out. And it is a general rule in them, that every mind, that is more excellent in its desire and affection, makes such like things more fit for itself, as also efficacious to that which it desires. Every one, therefore, that is willing to work in Magic, must know the virtue, measure, order, and degree of his own soul in the power of the universe.