Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1916 · PDF PAGE 8

A Prophet In His Own Country

…e a philosopher, but he should also have in his composition not a little of the mystic. We do not use the word mystic in the specialized sense, in which it is too often employed today. The true mystic is one who sees all phenomena without bias, prejudice, self-interest, or obfuscation. In thinking of kingdoms, he thinks of spiritual kingdoms; and here again we must use the word spiritual in its oldest and widest sense. In such kingdoms faith is more than frontiers, language and literature more than markets. Ireland has been systematically depop…

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1916 · PDF PAGE 4

A Prophet In His Own Country

…ould say, he is beginning to educate himself. And this is one of the secrets of his immense power of brain. By education in the ordinary sense we mean that an old fool bullies a young fool into agreeing with him. In order to obtain a university degree it is necessary to stultify oneself by agreeing with the particular clique of fifth rate minds who, having been totally unable to carve out any way in the world, have become sodden in the backwater of a university; and taken up teaching as a profession, because they are incapable of learning. One …

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1916 · PDF PAGE 5

A Prophet In His Own Country

…ch everybody in Edinborough in his time had to accept, or fail in the examination, but which every other school in Europe regarded as nonsense. Such training can only serve to unbalance and destroy the mind. Mr. Stuart avoided this tragedy. Instead, he read everything, kept his eyes open, and never allowed the specious arguments of the logician to lure him into conclusions opposed to common sense. Almost every writer falls into some trap. Either he omits a premise, or takes a false one, or commits some logical error unperceived. But with such s…

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1916 · PDF PAGE 15

A Prophet In His Own Country

…n house well, it is certain that what reputation he may have made in public affairs is a deserved one. I have never met any man with the sense of order so admirably developed as Mr. Stuart. He can lay his hands on any scrap of paper at a moment’s notice. Every book in his shelves has its proper place. His house is fitted with every convenience and even luxury, yet entirely without ostentation or extravagance. Nor is the order in which things are kept a visible order. No one would suspect it. It is

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1916 · PDF PAGE 3

A Prophet In His Own Country

…s an expert. Temporary expedients will not serve. As a matter of fact, this is always more or less subconsciously recognized by the good sense of the people. The hopes which were excited by the election of Mr. Wilson to the presidency were based entirely on the fact that he was not a professional politician. In the same way, in England, to take a recent example, Edward VII was trusted and respected by the people principally because he had won the Derby. The instinct of democracy is always sound; its mistakes are due to that instinct being overl…

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1916 · PDF PAGE 10

A Prophet In His Own Country

… been placed upon the simplest words by those whose interest it is to deceive us, that when those words are used in their proper, simple sense, we hardly recognize them. For this reason we have deemed it necessary to

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1916 · PDF PAGE 16

A Prophet In His Own Country

…g by doing nothing.” The only way in which we can bring this idea at all near to western minds is by speaking of perfect balance, in the sense in which the fencer or the chess player might use the term. In a perfectly played game of chess the pieces are not arranged so that there is any obvious line of attack or defense. They are arranged so as to be ready to attack or defend in any position of the board. A definite attack upon the king’s side or the queen’s side, or upon a pawn or a piece, compromises the position. The player is bound, to a ce…

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1916 · PDF PAGE 11

A Prophet In His Own Country

…ilosophers. The Qabalists use it as almost synonymous with “body.” Every metaphysician that ever lived has used this word in a different sense, and has nearly always forgotten to define it. Now if, to bring back the matter to the question of Mr. Stuart and his letters to the universe, we find in one of them the word “gold,” we may be too ready to assume that

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