The Star in the West

306 THE STAR IN THE WEST But by a fierce and loathly word The abomination must be told . The holy work must twist its spell From hemp of madness , grown in hell .! Others again do not possess the stability of mind , the natural health and strength so necessary in this severe mental struggle , and as Ribot says : “ It is all confined to an alienation , in the etymological sense , of certain states of consciousness which the ego does not consider as its own , but which it objectivates , and finally , by placing it outside itself , ends by attri buting an actual existence independent of its own ." 2 Others attain but a glimpse . Maimonides long ago noticed : Learn that Prophecy is an emanation from God which flows , through the intermediary of the active Intellect , upon the rational Faculty first , and then upon the imaginative Faculty ; it is the highest degree of a man , and the term of perfection to which the species may aspire ; and this state is the highest perfection of the imaginative Faculty . . . If the emanation flows into the imaginative Faculty only , and if the rational Faculty remains behind , either on account of original structure , or from disuse , then is consti tuted the class of men called men of the State , diviners . There come to men of this class , even when they are awake , wonderful visions . . . similar to prophetic visions . They delight much in them , believing they have acquired all sciences without study . But all those who really do attain , attain , and re main silent . The “ Hindu practice , ” says Mysticus in “ Time ,” i Gargoyles , vol . iii, p . 98 . · Les Maladies de la Personalité , p . 110 . 3 Guide for the Perplexed , chap . 36 , 37 .