Magick Without Tears

THE A :. A:. 455 its markets are exhausted; so every effort is made to impose it not only on the native but the foreigner, and should guile fail, then force! But the process ineluctably goes on ; when the whole world buys the nasty stuff , and will accept no other , the exploiter is still faced by diminishing returns . No possibility of expansion ; sooner or later dividends dwindle , and the Business is Bust. To even the most stupid it becomes plain at this stage that war is wholly ruinous ; organization breaks down altogether ; one meaningless revolution follows another ; famine and pestilence complete the job. Last time - when Osiris replaced Isis- the wreck was limited in scope- note that it was the civilized, the organized part that broke down. (Jews and Arabs could remain aloof , and keep a small torch burning until Light returned with the Renaissance.) This time there is no civilization which can escape being involved in the totality of the catastrophe. Achievement of high aims, which tends ultimately to the well-being, the prosperity of the republic , depends on the proportion of masters to servants . The stability of a building depends on the proportion of superstructure to foundations. The rule holds good in every department of Nature. There is an optimum for every case. If there is one barber for ten thousand men, most of them will remain unshorn; if there are five thousand barbers , most of them will be out of a job . Apply this measure to society ; there must be an optimum relation between industry and agriculture, between town and country . When the proper balance is not struck , the community must depend on outside help, importing what it lacks, exporting its surplus. This is an unnatural state of affairs; it results in business, and therefore ultimately in war. That is, as soon as the stress set up by the conditions becomes insupportable. So long as "business" is confined to luxuries,· no great harm need result; but when interference with the flow of foreign trade threatens actual necessities, the