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Page 1 of 41929 · PDF PAGE 45
…ose one day!" "I'm afraid I, too, like danger and excitement!" cried Lisa. "I'm afraid you do! However, since Brother Cyril asks it, the Way of the Tao shall be trodden so far as this is possible: What would Brother Cyril do?" "I should take the Magic Sword, make the appropriate symbols, and invoke the Names Divine appurtenant thereto: the Thing, shrivelled and blasted, would go back to those that sent it, screaming in agony, cursing at the gods, ready to turn even on its employers, that they might wail with it in torment." "One of the best num…
1929 · PDF PAGE 76
for inaugurating the Millenium. I did remind Brother Cyril, by the way, of this last point, and he did need it; but it did him no good, for here we are at the threshold of a Great Experiment on yet another false track!" "He is only taunting me to put me on my mettle," laughed Cyril. "Now I'm going to bring all this to a point," went on the old mystic. "The Greeks, as you know, practised a kind of eugenics. (Of course, all tribal marriage laws are primarily eugenic in intention). But like the mediaeval magicians we were speaking of, with their H…
1929 · PDF PAGE 44
Chapter5 OF THE THING IN THE GARDEN; AND OF THE WAY OF THE TAO "OH, little Brother!" said the old mystic sadly. "How long will it take you to work through this wretched business?" "I have omnipotence at my command, and eternity at my disposal," smiled the boy, using Eliphaz Levi's well-known formula. "I ought to explain," said Simple Simon, turning to Lisa. "This boy is a desperate magician confined within the circle of this forest. His plan is Action; he is all for Magick; give him a Wand and a host of Demons to control, and he is happy. For m…
1929 · PDF PAGE 106
task set him by Douglas; his pomposity always stood in his way; a man fighting for life is exceptionally a fool if he insists on stopping every moment to admire himself. Douglas had chosen him for one of the curious back- handed reasons which so often appeal to people of perverse intelligence: it was because he was harmless that he was selected to work harm. A democracy often chooses its generals on the same principle; a capable man might overthrow the republic. It apparently prefers to be overthrown by a capable enemy. But Douglas had backed h…
1929 · PDF PAGE 42
…s to keep our fires alight. "Now, at last, I and a few others are asking whether the whole universe be not illusion, in exactly the same way as a true surface is an illusion. "Perhaps the universe is a four-dimensional object, or collection of objects, quite sane, and simple, and intelligible, manifesting itself in diversity, regular or irregular, just as the cone did to the water." "Of course I can't grasp all this; I will ask Cyril to tell me again and again till I do. But what is this fourth-dimensional universe? Can't you give me something …
1929 · PDF PAGE 39
…yet so unlike, have analogies in the world of what we call real things. For example there are two kinds of sugar, exactly alike in every way but one. You know how a prism bends a ray of light? Well if you take a hollow prism, and fill it with a solution of one of these kinds of sugar, the ray bends to the right; use the other kind, and it bends to the left. Chemistry is full of these examples. "Then we have our hands and feet; however we move about, we can never make them fill exactly the same place. A right hand is always a right hand, however…
1929 · PDF PAGE 41
…ow perceives a totally different set of phenomena; there are no circles, but ellipses. Dip again, first at this angle, then at that. One way we get curious curves called parabolas, the other way equally curious curves called hyperbolas. "By this time the water would be nearly out of its mind, if it insisted on trying to refer all these absolutely different phenomena to a single cause! "It might work out a geometry — our own plane geometry, in fact — and it would perhaps get some extraordinary poetic conception of a Creator who manifested in his…
1929 · PDF PAGE 115
… charge of the defence of the circle." [165] Sister Clara uttered a sharp exclamation. It had not occurred to her to think of it in that way. "I should be obliged," continued Brother Onofrio, "if you could see your way to impose a rule of silence for seven days from sunset to-night. Excepting, of course, in the invocations. I will warn the boys; do you take up the matter with Iliel and the girls." " It shall be done." Brother Onofrio went off to the private room where he did his own particular magick. He saw that a serious inroad had been made;…
1929 · PDF PAGE 48
"There are two ways of preventing a rise of temperature from the sun's heat. One is to oppose a shield of non-conducting and opaque material: that is Cyril's way, and at the best it is imperfect; some heat always gets through. The other is to remove every particle of matter from the space which you wish to be cold; then there is nothing there to become hot; and that is the Way of the Tao." Lisa put an arm round Cyril's neck, and rested her head on his shoulder. "I shouldn't know how [69] to begin!" she said: "and — I know it would mean giving u…
1929 · PDF PAGE 90
…et, which the officer of the police cordon received in the manner of the infant Samuel when overwhelmed by the gift of prophecy. He made way for them with proud deference. They had not to walk far before the magician found what he was seeking. Beneath the ruins of the rear compartment were the remains of the late Akbar Pasha. "I wonder how that happened," he said. "However, here is a guess at your epitaph: 'a little learning is a dangerous thing.' I think, Lisa, that we should sup at the Cheval Blanc before we start our walk to Barbizon. It is …
1929 · PDF PAGE 75
…ast and future mountebanks,' or Samuel Butler, first of that dynasty, has lied. "But other magicians sought to make this Homunculus in a way closer to nature. In all these cases they had held that environment could be modified at will by the application of telesmata or sympathetic figures. For example, a nine-pointed star would attract the influence which they called Luna — not meaning the actual moon, but an idea similar to the poets' ideas of her. By surrounding an object with such stars, with similarly-disposed herbs, perfumes, metals, talis…
1929 · PDF PAGE 213
… staf of General Cripps." "It sounds like Anarchism. From each according to his powers; to each according to his needs, you know. By the way, what's it about? Anything?" "The people think it's about the violation of solemn treaties, and the rights of the little nations, and so on; the governments think it's about commercial expansion; but I who made it know that it is the baptism of blood of the New Aeon. How could we promulgate the Law of Liberty in a world where Freedom has been strangled by industrialism? Men have become such slaves that the…
1929 · PDF PAGE 226
…ely sympathetic: he had liked the girl at first sight; but he could hold out no hopes of arranging for her to see him. "There's only one way for you to get to the front," said he. "Join the Red Cross. My sister's here forming a section. I'll give you a note to her, if you like." Lisa jumped at the suggestion. She saw, more vividly than if it were actual, the obvious result. Cyril would be desperately wounded, leading the last victorious charge of the dragoons against the walls of Berlin; she would interestingly nurse him back to life, probably …
1929 · PDF PAGE 50
…burnt in that great brain. One could conceive him capable of monstrous deeds, for he would let no man, no prejudice of men, stand in his way. He would certainly have fiddled while Rome was burning if it had been his hobby to play the violin. This man was the mainstay of the Society for Psychical Research. He was the only absolutely competent man in it, perhaps; at least, he stood well above all others. He had the capacity for measuring the limits of error in any investigation with great accuracy. Just as the skilful climber can make his way on …
1929 · PDF PAGE 80
…ort of a Thing to look for; yet you saw it under the same form as I did. You shall practice these things daily with Cyril if you like, always checking your results in a way which he will show you; and in a month you will be an expert. Then, if you feel you want to advertise, do. But you won't. Besides, the real trouble is that not one person in a thousand cares for [115] any form of science whatever; even such base applications of science as the steam-engine and all its family, from the telegraph to the automobile, were only thrust upon the unw…
1929 · PDF PAGE 236
…ere, but the infection of glory had spread like sunlight over a sky swept clear of storm. The supply [331] trains radiated confidence. Always the young man met new guns, new wagons, new horses. At every turn of the road were fresh regiments, gaily singing on their way to the front. Cyril was enchanted at the aspect of the troops. Their elasticity and high spirits were overwhelming. Once he came upon a regiment of Turcos being transferred to another sector — every man of them with a trophy of the great battle. His intense love for all savage men…
1929 · PDF PAGE 210
It was no idle boast of hers that she had destroyed Madame Blavatzsky. Together with another woman, she had wormed her way into the big-hearted Theosophist's confidence, and betrayed her foully at the proper moment. She [294] had tried the same game on another adept; but, when he found her out, and she knew it, he had merely continued his kindnesses. The alternative before her was repentance or brain fever; and she had chosen the latter. Her disbelief in magick had left her with its correlate, a belief in death. It was the one thing she feared,…
1929 · PDF PAGE 62
…he Order dispersed, one to one task, one to another. Presently Simon and Cyril, Cybele and Lisa were together alone. The old man led the way to a cell cunningly hidden in the wall. There they took seats. Lisa la Giuffria recognized that the critical moment of her life was come upon her. [90]
1929 · PDF PAGE 142
…dish vapour about her, as if she had wrapped herself in a mantle of anger; and the next dawn broke grey with storm, the wind tearing its way across the mountain spine of Italy, as if some horde of demon bandits were raiding the peasantry of the plains. The Butterfly-Net was sheltered from its rage by the crest of Posilippo; but it was bitter cold in the house, and Iliel bade her maidens pile the brazier with hazel and white sandalwood and birch. Across the ridge, the villa which Dr. Vesquit had taken for the winter was exposed to the senseless …
1929 · PDF PAGE 21
…ny was best: that was Atmosphere; it put me right back among the old familiar scenes; I thought I was somewhere on the South-Eastern Railway waiting for a train." Lisa flamed indignation. "She's the most wonderful dancer in the world." "Yes, she is that," said her lover, with affected heavy sadness. "Wonderful! My father used to say, too, that she used even to dance well when she was forty." The nostrils of la Giuffria dilated. She understood that it was a monster that had carried her away; and she made ready for a last battle. But Simon Iff an…