Mr. Crowley and The Creeds

— 4 — A casual carpenter wandered about a string of villages and suddenly a horde of rich men and sceptics and Sadducees and respectable persons rushed at him and nailed him up like vermin ; then people saw that he was a god. He had proved that he was not a common man, for he was murdered. And ever since his creed has proved that it is not a common hypothesis, for it is hated. Next week I hope to make a fuller study of Mr. Crowley’s interpretation of Buddhism, for I have not room for it in this column today. Suffice it for the moment to say that if this be indeed a true interpretation of the creed, as it is certainly a capable one, I need go no further than its pages for examples of how a change of abstract belief might break a civilisation to pieces. Under the influ- ence of this book earnest modern philosophers may, I think, begin to perceive the outlines of two vast and mystical philosophies, which if they were subtly and slowly worked out in two continents through many centuries, might pos- sibly, under special circumstances, make the East and West almost as different as they really are. THE CREED OF MR. CHESTERTON (BY ALEISTER CROWLEY) When a battle is all but lost and won, the victor is sometimes aware of a brilliancy and dash in the last forlorn hope which was lacking in those initial manœvers which decided the fortune of the day. Hence comes it that Our Reviewer’s apology for Christianity compares so favourably with the methods of ponderous blunder on which people like Paley and Gladstone have relied. But alas ! the very vivacity of the attack may leave the column without that support which might enable it, if checked, to retire in good order ; and it is with true pity for a gallant opponent — who would be wiser to surrender—that I find myself compelled to despatch half a squadron (no more !) to take him in flank. Our Author’s main argument for the Christian religion is that it is hated. To bring me as a witness to this colossal enthymeme, he has the sublime cou- rage to state that my “ Sword of Song ” begins with an effort to expound Buddhism, but that my hatred of Christianity overcame me as I went on, and