22. The question for each one of us is then: first of all, to ascertain 
our present positions; secondly, to determine our proper directions; and, 
thirdly, to govern ourselves accordingly. 
     The question for me is also to describe a method of procedure which 
will be sufficiently elastic to be useful to every human being. I have tried 
to do this by combining the two paths of Magick and Yoga. If we perform 
the preliminary practices, each according to his capacity, the result will 
surely be the acquisition of a certain technique. And this will become 
much easier as we advance, especially if we bear it well in mind not to 
attempt to discriminate between the two methods as if they were 
opposing schools, but to use the one to help out the other in an 
emergency. 
     23. Of course, nobody understands better than I do that, although 
nobody can do your work for you, it is possible to make use—to a certain 
very limited extent—of other people's experience, and the Great Order 
which I have the honour to serve has appointed what I think you will 
agree is a very satisfactory and practical curriculum. 
     24. You are expected to spend three months at least on the study of 
some of the classics on the subject. The chief object of this is not to 
instruct you, but to familiarise you with the ground work, and in particular 
to prevent you getting the idea that there is any right or wrong in matters 
of opinion. You pass an examination intended to make sure that your 
mind is well grounded in this matter, and you become a Probationer. Your 
reading will have given you some indication as to the sort of thing you are 
likely to be good at, and you select such practices as seem to you to 
promise well. You go ahead with these, and keep a careful record of what 
you do, and what results occur. After eleven months you submit a record 
to your superior; it is his duty to put you right where you have gone 
wrong, and particularly to encourage you where you think you have 
failed. 
     25. I say this because one of the most frequent troubles is that people 
who are doing excellent work throw it up because they find that Nature is 
not what they thought it was going to be. But this is the best test of the 
reality of any experience. All those which conform with your idea, which 
flatter you, are likely to be illusions. So you become a Neophyte; and 
attack the Task of a Zelator. 
     There are further grades in this system, but the general principles are 
always the same—the principles of scientific study and research. 
     26. We end where we began. 'The wheel has come full circle.' 
     We are to use the experience of the past to determine the experience 
of the future, and as that experience increases in quantity it also 
improves in quality. And the Path is sure. And the End is sure. For the End 
is the Path. 
     Love is the law, love under will.