THE CUP
175
indeed become
man , but not until
the Word has be
come woman will the world
be
saved ."
It is this that
Crowley
sets
vividly
out before us
in
his following
ethical philosophy .
“
To behold sin in
its
naked Deformity
,
is
the most
certain
method
to
oblige
us
to
love Virtue
,”
such
is
to
be
read
in
the
prefatory
note
of
a
curious
little
volume
to
be
found
in
the
British
Museum
library
under
the
attractive
title
of
“
The
prostitution
of
Quality
or
Adultery
à-
la-
mode
."
It
was through
the
Garter
that
in
the
end
the
Star
was
seen
,
in
other
words
it
was through
the intimate knowledge
of
the
lewd
,
bad and vicious
,
that the tender weeping heart
was discovered
;
the rough matrix contained
a
gem
of
surpassing
beauty
,
the horny shell
a
pearl
of
perfect
loveliness
.
Charicles
had
to
tread
the
thorny
path
before
he
won his Archais
,
and
so
must
we
,
before
we can win knowledge
,
weep many bitter tears
.
The
incessant search after Truth carries
us
through desert
lands
of
misery
,
and oases
of
temptation
,
as
is
only
too vividly illustrated
in
Tannhäuser
.
Aphrodite
before she
could overcome the wiles
of
Jove had
to
seek aid from Priapus
;'
thus
so
have we
all
to
do
,
we
must eat
of
the
“
Tree
of
Knowledge
of
Good and Evil
”
before we can pluck
the fruit
of
the
“
Tree of Life
.”
The
mediaeval
spiritualism
of
“
Paracelsus
"
is
curiously modernized
,
if
we may use
so
crude
a
word
,
in
the mystical
poem
“
Aceldama
.”
The strife
in
the
former
from
the kingdom
to
the crown
,
in
the latter
seems
to
be
that
of
Vice
towards Virtue
,
and though
quite one
of
Crowley's
earlier poems
,
it
is,
however
,
1
The Tale
of
Archais
,
vol
.
i,
p
.
18
.