THE SOLDIER AND THE HUNCHBACK
the Academic Scepticism is a wholesale firm, I hope !—and
practically, I challenge you to draw valid distinctions.
All these are states of the consciousness of man; and if
you seek to destroy one, all fall together.
VII
I must, at the risk of appearing to digress, insist upon
this distinction between philosophical and practical points of
view, or (in Qabalistic language) between Kether and
Malkuth.
In private conversation I find it hard—almost impossible—
to get people to understand what seems to me so very simple
a point. I shall try to make it exceptionally clear.
A boot is an illusion.
A hat is an illusion.
Therefore, a boot is a hat.
So argue my friends, not distributing the middle term.
But thus argue I.
All boots are illusions.
All hats are illusions.
Therefore (though it is not a syllogism), all boots and hats
are illusions.
Tadd:
To the man in Kether no illusions matter.
Therefore: To the man in Kether neither boots nor hats
matter.
In fact, the man in Kether is out of all relation to these
boots and hats.
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