THE EQUINOX
The Universe of Magic is in the mind of a man: the
setting is but Illusion even to the thinker.
Humanity is progressing; formerly men dwelt habitually
in the exterior world; nothing less than giants and Paynim
and men—at—arms and distressed ladies, vampires and succubi,
could amuse them.
Their magicians brought demons from
the smoke of blood, and made gold from baser metals.
In this they succeeded; the intelligent perceived that the
gold and the lead were but shadows of thought.
It became
probable that the elements were but isomers of one element ;
matter was seen to be but a modification of mind, or (at least)
that the two things matter and mind must be joined before
either could be perceived.
All knowledge comes through the
senses, on the one hand ; on the other, it is only through the
senses that knowledge comes,
We then continue our conquest of matter; and we are
getting pretty expert.
It took much longer to perfect the
telescope than the motor-car.
And though, of course, there
are limitations, we know enough to be able to predict them.
We know in what progression the Power to Speed co—
efficient of a steamboat rises—and so on.
But in our conquest of Nature, which we are making
principally by the use of the rational intelligence of the mind,
we have become aware of that world itself, so much so that
educated men spend nine-tenths of their waking lives in that
world, only descending to feed and dress and so on at the
imperative summons of their physical constitution.
Now to us who thus live the world of mind seems almost
as savage and unexplored as the world of Nature seemed to
the Greeks.
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