Chapter IV: The Virtue of the Physician (2)

This will make it clear that the quality of the physician himself is of as much importance as the system which he practises, and Paracelsus distinguishes five classes of physicians: the three lower classes seeking for their resources in the material plane; the two higher classes employing remedies belonging to the supersensual plane; but he also says that, owing to the unity of nature, either one of these classes of physicians may accomplish cures in either one of the five fields, and that no physician ought to change around from one system to another; but each ought to stick to that “sect” to which he naturally belongs.

These five classes of physicians he describes as follows:

1. _Naturales_; such as employ physical remedies, acting as opposites; which means, using physical and chemical means, heat against cold, etc., etc. (Allopaths).

2. _Specifici._—Those who employ certain remedies which experience has shown to act as _specifica_ (Empirics, Homœopaths).

3. _Characterales._—Such as employ the powers of the mind; acting upon the will and imagination of the patient (Mental healers, Mind cure, Mesmerism, &c.).

4. _Spirituales._—Those who are in possession of spiritual powers, using the magic power of their own will and thought (Magic, Psychometry, Hypnotism, Spiritism, Sorcery).

5. _Fideles._—Those through whom “miraculous” works are performed in the power of the true faith (Adepts).

To which of these five “sects” or faculties a physician belongs, he ought to be thoroughly versed and experienced in that department, having not merely a superficial but a thorough knowledge of it.

“In whatever faculty one desires to acquire a degree and obtain success, he should, besides regarding the soul and the diseased body of the patient, exert himself to obtain a thorough knowledge of that department, and be taught more by his own intuition and reason than by what the patient can tell him; he ought to be able to recognise the cause and origin of the disease which he treats, and his knowledge ought to be unwavering and not subject to doubts.” (“Paramir.,” I., Prolog.)

There are, therefore, in each of these classes three grades to be distinguished, namely: (1) those who possess the full requirements of their art; (2) those who have attained only mediocrity; (3) dunces, pretenders and frauds; to which belong the vast array of licensed and unlicensed quacks, such as thrive upon the ignorance and credulity of the people and by means of their poisons and drugs “kill annually more persons than war, famine and the plague combined.” But neither of these five classes of physicians should regard their own system as the only true one, and reject the others or consider them useless; for in each is contained the full and perfect power to cure all diseases that come from either of the five causes, and each will be successful if such is the will of the Law.

I.—NATURALES.

To this class belongs the vast army of what is to-day usually termed “regular practitioners,” meaning those who move in the old ruts of official medical science, from the more or less progressive physician down to the vendor of drugs. The remedies which they employ belong to the three kingdoms of physical nature, and according to the elements which they represent, may be divided as follows:

1. _Earth._—This includes all mineral, vegetable, and animal substances that may be required for medical purposes, drugs, herbs, and their preparations, chemical agents, &c.

2. _Water._—To this belongs the water cure, hot and cold baths, and whatever may be connected with it.

3. _Air._—The therapeutic results which can be accomplished by means of inhaling certain gases and vapours are at present comparatively little known, except in so far as changes of climate are resorted to for such purposes. The employment of such things as pure air, sunlight, etc., is far too simple to find full appreciation of its value by a generation whose mode of thinking is too complicated to enable them to perceive simple truths, and is therefore considered to belong rather to “hygiene” than to “therapeutics.”

4. _Fire._—To the agents belonging to this class may be counted any kind of energy, heat and cold, sunlight and the actions of its variously coloured rays,[45] physical electricity, mineral magnetism, etc., all of which have thus far received very little attention from modern medicine; while the ancients employed such remedies for the cure of many diseases.[46]

5. _Ether._—The one element and its action is thus far hardly theoretically admitted by modern science and practically almost unknown. Only very recently a great step of progress in this direction has been made by the discovery of the therapeutic action of the solar ether, and by the employment of an apparatus for the employment of its radiations.[47]

But the sphere of activity for the natural physician is not limited to the extent of the merely physical plane. If he goes a step higher he may employ not only the products of life, but the activity of life itself, in a higher form.[48] The sources from which he receives the physical remedies are the physical products of nature; the sources from which he draws living powers are living organisms. To this department belongs the employment of “animal magnetism;” the transfer of life (_Mumia_); the transplantation of diseases[49] and similar things thoroughly described by Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa and others, but which for our present official medical science do not exist.

Even those who employ only gross material principles also employ, without being conscious of it, the higher principles contained therein; for every physical substance, to whatever kingdom in nature it may belong, is an expression of not only one of the four elements, but of all four, and contains all the higher principles. Thus, for instance, it has been shown that the action of certain drugs corresponds to that of the colours which they exhibit in the solar-spectrum;[50] each state of matter also corresponds to a certain state of electric tension; each particle of food proves the presence of the life principle in it by being nutritious; each poisonous drug acting upon the mind, shows thereby that the mind principle therein is in a high state of activity. There is no “dead matter” in the universe; each thing is a representation of a state of consciousness in nature, even if its state of consciousness differs from ours, and is therefore beyond the reach of our recognition; everything is a manifestation of “Mind,” even if does not exhibit any intelligent functions, or what we are capable of recognising as such.

For the comprehension of these things, the position adopted by modern natural science is altogether insufficient, and such a philosophical knowledge is required as shall constitute the first pillar in the temple of medicine. There is a vast field still unexplored by modern medical science, and if things which were known to the ancients are not known at present, it is not because such sciences have never existed, but because they have ceased to be understood owing to the materialising tendency of this age.

II.—SPECIFICI.

To this class belong all physicians who under certain circumstances employ certain remedies, of which they know from experience that under similar circumstances similar remedies have proved successful. This system may therefore be called “_Empiricism_,” and it constitutes the greatest part of modern therapeutics; for what little is known to-day of the physiological and therapeutic actions of medicine on the whole the result of observation, and not of a knowledge of the fundamental laws of nature which cause medicines to act as they do.

Heat is a specific remedy for cold, and moisture for dryness; but even the very opposite remedies often have the same specific effect. Thus, for instance, the pain caused by an inflammation, and the inflammation itself, may be cured by cold as well as by hot applications to the inflamed part; for in one case the walls of the blood vessels contract, diminishing the quantity of the blood rushing to them, while in the other case these vessels dilate, rendering the rush of blood painless and easy. The specific action of chemicals is due to their chemical affinities (harmonies). Thus the invigorating action resulting from the inhalation of fresh air is caused by the affinity which Oxygen has for the Carbon in the blood, and by the life principle of the air upon the life principle in the body. Thus the tubercle-bacilli in the lungs may be destroyed by the specific action of certain gases, which, inhaled, form certain chemical compounds with certain elements contained in these micro-organisms, and thereby cause their destruction.[51] Everything in the universe takes place for a certain reason and has a certain specific action depending on certain conditions. If we know the laws and conditions, experience becomes a science; but where our science is blind, experience can be our guide.

Like knows like. The physical senses only recognise physical things; but all visible things are an expression of soul, and what can we know about the _Soul of Things_, if we do not know that soul which is our own? There can be no motion, where there is no emotion to produce it, either directly or indirectly. All motions are manifestations of energy; energy is a manifestation of consciousness; consciousness is a state of the mind; mind is a vehicle for the manifestation of spirit; spirit is the “Breath” by which the world was _created_.

If the colours of the _Tattwas_ and their nature were studied, a new field for medical science would open. It would become possible to explain why a raving maniac kept in a room of blue light will become quieted, and a melancholy person improve in a room filled with red or yellow rags; why a steer will become excited at the sight of red, and a mob infuriated by the sight of blood. Where the laws in consequence of which certain effects occur are unknown, we can only register the facts. If we recognise a truth by experience we can make use of it, leaving it to sceptical science to arrive at its recognition by hobbling along on its crutches of external observation and inference.

These inferences are often drawn from wrong premises; effects mistaken for causes; drugs administered where the sources of the diseases exist in moral and mental conditions upon which drugs have no effect, etc., etc. The application of specific remedies therefore requires not merely a knowledge that this or that remedy has effected such and such cures, but also a knowledge of the circumstances in which it will produce such effects again. The real _Arcanum_ is the understanding of the relation existing between cause and effect. To those shortsighted practitioners who behold in every disease nothing but the manifestation of a purely physical or chemical cause, and to whom “mind,” “soul” and “spirit” are terms without meaning or merely physiological functions of unconscious matter, the _Arcana_ of such cures will ever remain unknowable mysteries; for they can be known only to those who understand the organization of the inner nature of man. The phenomena caused by life are incomprehensible as long as life is regarded as a product of forms without life; but he who is able to see in every living thing a manifestation of the _One Life_ pervading all nature, a function of universal will, has already entered the precincts of that higher science, which cannot be explained by words, if it is not known to the heart.

III.—CHARACTERALES.

A physician of this class is the one whose very presence inspires the patient with confidence in recovery. Consciously or unconsciously such a physician acts upon the two great motive powers in the constitution of the patient, namely his will and his imagination. He who can restore tranquillity of the soul by creating confidence, creates the condition required for the cure of the disturbance of the elements producing discord.

All the processes taking place in the physical body originate in the unconscious or conscious action of the will and the imagination, to which must be added the power of memory; for the existence of former impressions either consciously or unconsciously produces certain states in the imagination, which again determine the direction of will. The average physician often employs these powers unknowingly; a physician of the higher class can employ them intelligently. A sudden strong emotion may in a moment cure a paralytic affection of long standing, a sudden danger arouse the unconscious will. Perhaps in the majority of cases it is not that which the patient takes but that which he imagines that it will cure him, which effects the cure, and without this power of the imagination very few medicines would produce any beneficial results.

To this department belong so-called “hypnotism” and “suggestion,” two old things described under new names. Paracelsus says of this action of the spiritual will:

“It is as if one orders another to run and he runs. This takes place by means of the word and through the power of the word; the word being the character.” (“Paramir.,” Prolog. III.)

So-called “_hypnotism_” is the overcoming of a weak will by a stronger one. The superior will of the physician overcomes the will of the patient and forces it to act in a certain direction. It is an art which is practised continually and constantly by one half of mankind on the other half, from the will power of a general commanding his army down to the unconscious influence unknowingly exercised by one mind over another, without the subject being aware of its source. Evil thoughts originating in one person create corresponding impulses in others, and if the unconscious action of will and the relations which it causes among sympathetic minds were truly known, human freewill and responsibility would perhaps appear in a different light.

Similar to that is what has been called “suggestion,” which Paracelsus calls the virtue of the imagination. It is the imagination of one mind overpowering the mind of another and creating therein a corresponding imagination, which is perfectly real to the patient, because it is in reality his own creation produced unconsciously by himself.

“The visible man has his laboratory (the physical body), and the invisible man is working therein. The sun has his rays, which cannot be grasped with the hands, which are nevertheless strong enough to set houses on fire (if gathered by a lens).

Imagination in man is like a sun, it acts within his world wherever it may shine. Man is that which he thinks. If he thinks fire, he is all on fire; if he thinks war, he is warring; by the power of thought alone the imagination becomes a sun.” (“De virtute imaginativa,” V.)

The imagination becomes strong through the will and the will becomes powerful through imagination. Either of these two is the life of the other, and if they become one and identical, they constitute a living spirit to which nothing inferior offers resistance. In the ignorant and doubtful, in those who do not know their own mind and doubt the result of success, consequently in the majority of experiments carried on for the purpose of gratifying a scientific curiosity or for some other selfish purpose, the will and imagination are not one, but act in two different directions. If we look with one eye to heaven and with the other to the earth, or with one to the restoration of the patient’s health and with the other to the profits knowledge or renown we may receive from it ourselves, there is no unity of motive or purpose, and consequently a lack of the principal condition for success. A physician desirous of employing such means should therefore be of such a nobility of character as to be above all selfish considerations, and only intent upon doing his duty according to the commands of divine love.

Only that which comes from the heart goes to the heart; the power that comes from the brain alone has no magic effects unless it becomes united with that which comes from the heart. It resembles the cold and ineffective moonlight, but it becomes a strong power by its union with the sunshine that radiates from the centre of the heart.

“Thus the imagination becomes a spirit, and its vehicle is the body, and in this body are generated the seeds which bear good and evil fruits.” (“De virtute imaginativa,” III.)

IV.—SPIRITUALES.

Up to this class we have had to deal with forces which are, even if not fully recognized, at least admitted by modern science; but now we are going to speak of the action of a spiritual power, which, being in the conscious possession of only a few persons, is almost entirely unknown. This is the power which the self-conscious spirit exercises over the unintelligent forces in nature, and which comes under the head of “Magic,” a term whose meaning is understood only by few.

“Magic”—from _mag_, priest—means the great power of wisdom, an attribute of the self-conscious spirit, holy or devilish according to the purpose to which it is applied. It is therefore a power which does not belong to the terrestrial intellectual man; but to the spiritual man, and it may even be exercised by the latter without the external man being aware of the source of this power acting in him. For this reason we often see that some remedy proves very efficacious in the hands of one physician and entirely useless in the hands of another equally learned and intellectual. Paracelsus says:

“Such physicians are called _spirituales_, because they command the spirits of herbs and roots, and force them to release the sick whom they have imprisoned. Thus if a judge puts a prisoner in the stocks, the judge is his physician. Having the keys, he may open the locks when he chooses. To this class of physicians belonged Hippocrates and others.” (“Paramir.,” Prolog. III.)

Such an assertion appears to be incredible only as long as nothing is known about the constitution of matter; but if we call occult science to our aid and realise that all things in the world constitute certain states of one universal consciousness, and that the foundation of all existence is Spirit, it not only becomes comprehensible, but even self-evident, that the self-conscious spirit of a person can move and control the products of nature’s imagination according to its own action in them, and we may truly say that in such cases it is the spirit of the physician acting by means of the spirit of the remedies which he employs, and herein is the solution of the secret of the wonderful cures of leprosy, etc., effected by Theophrastus Paracelsus, which have been historically proved, but which are unintelligible if examined from the point of view of material science.

An investigation into this subject would take us within the realm of white and black magic, witchcraft and sorcery, which have received attention already on a previous occasion,[52] and whose further elucidation would be premature and altogether impossible within the limited space of this work.

V.—FIDELES.

The word “fidelity”—from _fido_, to trust—means faith, confidence, conviction arising from the perception of truth; knowledge, such as results from experience, and the class of physicians here referred to, includes those who, remaining true to their own divine nature, are in possession of divine powers, such as have been attributed to Christ, the apostles and saints.

“They restore health by the power of faith; for he who believes in truth becomes healed by its own power.” (“Paramir.,” I., Prol. 3.)

So-called “faith” is in most cases illusive, and consists merely in an accepted or pretended belief in the correctness of certain opinions or theories. The true faith of the spiritual man is a living spiritual and divine power, resulting from the certitude of the spiritual perception of the eternal law of cause and effect. As we most certainly are convinced that day follows upon the night, and night after day, so the Adept-physician, knowing the spiritual, moral and physical causes of diseases, and appreciating the flow of their evolution and progress, knows the effects created by such causes, and controls the means for their cure. No one can destroy effects caused by the law of divine justice. If he hinders the manifestation of divine law in one way, it will manifest itself in another way, such is the action of divine law in nature; but he who lives in the truth and in whom divine truth becomes manifest, is thereby raised superior to nature, for he enters into that from which nature took its origin. This uplifting and all-saving power is the true faith in man which can cure all diseases.

“There is neither good nor bad luck; but every effect is due to a cause. Each one receives his reward according to the way he walks and acts. God has made all men out of only one substance, and given to all the same power to live, and all human beings are therefore equals in God. The sun and the rain, winter and summer, are the same for everybody; but not everybody looks at the sun with the same eyes. God loves all mankind alike; but not all men love God with the same kind of love. Each of God’s children has the same inheritance; but one squanders, while another preserves it. That which God has made equal is rendered unequal by the actions of men. Each man taking his cross upon himself finds therein his reward. Every misfortune is a fortune, because divine goodness gives to everyone that which he most needs for his future development; the suffering begins only when discontent, the result of the non-recognition of eternal law, steps in. The greater the obstacle to combat, the greater will be the victory.” (“Philosophia,” V.)

The art of medicine has not been instituted for the purpose of defying the laws of God; but for the purpose of aiding in the restoration of the harmony, whose disturbance caused disease, and this restoration takes place through obedience to the law. There is no more a “forgiveness of the sin of disease” than there is a forgiveness of moral sins. The cure takes place by means of a re-entering into harmony with the laws of nature, which after all are the laws of God manifested in the natural realm. Neither is the health restored or sins pardoned for the purpose that man with lessened fear of punishment may go and sin again; but after the effects of the discords are overcome, he obtains again the power to sin, so that he may have a fresh opportunity for overcoming temptation and thus attain mastery over himself during his life upon this earth. He who is master over himself is his own law and not subject to any disharmony, and it is this which Paracelsus expressed in his favourite motto:

“Non sit alterius qui suus esse potest,”

which may be translated, “He who is master over himself belongs to nothing else but himself”: for that Self which conquers “self” is God, the Will of Divine Wisdom, the Lord over All.

VI.

THE MEDICINE OF THE FUTURE.

There is no doubt that the average physician of the present age occupies on the whole a much higher position than was occupied by the average physician of the last centuries when the wisdom of the ancients had become a forgotten truth, and modern science was in its infancy. Although there were even during the middle ages physicians of deep insight, and in possession of a profound knowledge of the mysteries of Nature, such as the modern profession may acquire again by slow growth within the next centuries, the popular medicine of these times was a mixture of ignorance and quackery, the remnants of which are still to be found in our days. Of this class of the physicians of those times Paracelsus says:—

“There are a great many among them who have no other object but to satisfy their greed, so that one has to be ashamed to belong to a profession in which so much swindling takes place. They speculate on the ignorance of the people, and he who succeeds in amassing the greatest amount of money by robbing them is looked upon as the leading physician. Mutual love and charity is entirely out of fashion, and the practice of medicine is degraded to the standard of a common trade, in which the only object is to take as much money as one can obtain, and those who have the gift of the gab, and clamour the loudest, succeed best in cheating mankind; for as long as the world is filled with fools, the biggest fool will necessarily be the ruler, if he only succeeds in making himself conspicuous.” (“Defensio,” V.)

The science of medicine is not to blame for the existence of such a state of things; but it is one of the attributes of human animal nature, and we leave it to the intelligent observer to judge whether this nature has changed a great deal since the time of Paracelsus, or whether there is still an army of quacks, legalized or illegal, who have written the motto “_Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur_” upon their flag. Official science has undoubtedly progressed during this century, but merely intellectual acquisitions do not necessarily make a man wiser; the greatest scoundrels have been men of great intellectuality without spirituality. Wisdom consists in the self-recognition of truth, and there are many who are “ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth.”[53]

This spiritual knowledge does not belong to the faculties of men’s lower intellectual nature, but to his higher nature alone; and it is therefore of paramount importance that the development of that higher nature should receive more attention than it is receiving at present. A mere improvement in morals or ethics is quite insufficient for that purpose. Morality is the outcome of reasoning; Spirituality is the superior power due to the manifestation of self-consciousness on a higher plane of existence, the illumination of the mind and body of man by the power and light of the spirit filling the soul. When spirituality becomes substantiality in man, then only will his knowledge be of a substantial kind.

This spiritual substantiality, or, in other words, the realization of the highest ideal, is the work of the gradual evolution of mankind; which, as has been said by the ancient alchemists, “may require for its accomplishment thousands of ages; but which can also be accomplished in a moment of time.” It is not a product of man’s labour, but of the descent of the light of divine truth, the “grace of God” which will come to everyone whenever he is ready to receive it. It is therefore not dependent on anyone’s willing or running,[54] but on the action of the spirit of the true divine Self, which is ever striving to become manifest in man.

This interior development is not the consequence of the acquisition of any new theories in regard to the nature of the constitution of man; but takes place through the overcoming of the lower elements in his nature, by means of which his higher nature can become manifest. But in order to induce and enable him to employ his powers intelligently for the purpose of conquering his lower nature, he should learn to know theoretically his own constitution and the nature of the higher powers in him.

These are the elements of that higher science which the physician of the future will have to learn, first theoretically and afterwards in their practical application. Without a spiritual recognition of the fundamental principles of Nature, a seeking from a superficial point of view for a discovery of the mysteries of being is like an unfruitful wandering in a fog. It resembles a search from the periphery of a sphere of unknown extent for a centre whose locality is unknown; while if we have once a correct conception of the situation of that shining centre, its light will act as a guiding star in our wanderings through the fogs which pervade the realm of phenomena.

Science comes from man; wisdom belongs to God. Of sciences there are many; wisdom is only one. The sciences should be cultivated, but wisdom not be neglected, for without wisdom no true science can exist.

“Nothing (real) is of ourselves; we do not belong to ourselves, but we belong to God. Therefore we must try to find in ourselves that which is of God. It is his and not ours. He has made a body for us, and given us life and wisdom in addition to it, and from these come all things. We should learn to know the object of our existence, and the reason why man has a soul, and what is the will of God that he should do. A study of (terrestrial) man will never reveal the secret and object of his existence, and the reason why he is in the world; but if we once know his creator, we shall also know the qualities of his child; for he who knows the father knows also the son, because the son inherits the (nature of) the father. Each man has the same amount of truth given to him by God; but not everyone recognises that which he has received. He who sleeps knows nothing; he who lives an idle life does not know the power which is in him, and wastes his time. Man is so great and noble that he bears the image of God, and is an heir to the kingdom of God. God is supreme truth, and the devil is supreme falsehood. Falsehood cannot know truth. Therefore if man wants to come into possession of truth, he must know the wisdom which he has received from God. Cleverness belongs to the animal nature, and in regard to many scientific acquisitions animals are superior to man; but the understanding is an awakening which cannot be taught by man. That which one person learns from another is nothing unless there is an awakening. A teacher can put no knowledge into his pupil, he can only aid in the awakening of the knowledge which is already in him.” (“De Fundamento Sapientiæ,” I.)

Wisdom is the recognition of God. God is the truth, the knowledge of one’s own true self is divine wisdom. He who knows his true self knows the divine powers belonging to his God.

“God is Wisdom. He is not a sage or an artist, he is for himself (absolute), but all wisdom and art is born from him; if we know God, we also know his wisdom and art. In God all is one and no pieces. He is the unity, the one in everything. A science dealing only with a piece of the whole, and losing sight of the whole to which it belongs, is abortive and not in possession of truth. He who sees in God nothing but truth and justness sees rightly. All wisdom belongs to God; that which is not of God is a bastard. Therefore the kingdoms of this world fall to pieces, scientific systems change, man-made laws perish, but the recognition of eternal truth is eternal. He who is not a bastard of wisdom, but a true son of the father, is in possession of wisdom. This wisdom is that we live in regard to each other as the angels live, and if we live like the angels they will become our own self, so that nothing divides us from them but the physical form, and as all wisdom and art is with the angels, so it will be with us. The angels are the powers through which the will of God is executed. If the will of God is executed through us, we shall be his angels ourselves. The will of God cannot be performed through us unless we are ourselves after the will of God. A fool or a dunce or a greedy person is not after the will of God; how could that will be executed through him? It is of little use to believe that Solomon was wise, if we are not wise ourselves. We are not born for the purpose of living in ignorance, but that we should be like the father, and that the father may recognise himself in the son. We are to be lords over nature, and not nature be lord over us. This is spoken of the angelic man (_Buddhi_) in whom we shall live and through whom we shall see that all our doing and leaving undone, all our wisdom and art is of God.” (“De Fundamento Sapientiæ,” II.)

All this, however, will be incomprehensible and be condemned as nonsense by what Paracelsus justly calls the “scientific fool,” because the wisdom of which he speaks is not the intellect of the terrestrial, but the understanding of the celestial mind. It is that rare power of spiritual self-knowledge which cannot be taught in words, but which is the result of an interior unfolding of the faculties of the soul. The true physician is not made by schools of learning; he becomes one through the light of divine wisdom itself.

“Man has two understandings; the angelic and the animal power of reason. Angelic understanding is eternal; it is of God and remains in God. The animal intellect also originates from God and within ourselves; but it is not eternal; for the animal body dies and its reason dies with it. No animal faculty remains after death; but death is only a dying of that which is animal and not of that which is eternal.” (“De Fundamento Sapientiæ,” II.)

The term “wisdom” comes from _vid_, to see, and _dôm_, a judgment; it therefore refers to that which is seen and understood, but not to opinions or theories derived from inference, or based on the assertion of others. It is not the product of observation and speculation, memory or calculation, but is the result of interior growth, and all growth comes from nourishment. As the intellect is enlarged by intellectual acquirements, so divine wisdom in man grows by absorbing the nutriment which it receives from the light of Divine Wisdom.

“Everything is of the nature of that from which it is born. The animal in man is nourished by animal food, the angel in him by the food of the angels. The animal spirit belongs to the animal mind, and in the animal mind of man are contained all the potentialities which are separately possessed by the different classes of animals. You may develop in a man the character of a dog, a monkey, a snake, or of any other animal; for man in his animal nature is nothing more than an animal and the animals are his teachers and surpass him in many ways; the birds in singing, the fish in swimming, etc. He who knows many animal arts is for all that not more than an animal or a menagerie of different animals; his virtues, no less than his vices, belong to his animal nature. Whether he possesses the fidelity of a dog, the matrimonial affection of a dove, the mildness of a sheep, the cleverness of a fox, the skill of a beaver, the brutality of an ox, the voracity of a bear, the greed of a wolf, etc., all this belongs to his animal nature; but there is a higher nature of an angelic character in him, such as the animals do not possess, and this angelic being requires that nutriment which comes from above and corresponds to its nature. From the hidden animal spirit in nature grows the animal intellect; from the mysterious action of the angelic spirit grows the super-terrestrial man; for man has a father who is eternal and for him he shall live. This father has placed him in an animal body, not that he should only dwell and remain therein, but that he should by living in it overcome it.” (“De Fundam. Sap.,” III.)

The animal mind, filled with self-conceit and pride in its evanescent possessions, is entirely incapable of conceiving the nature of the angelic mind, or of forming an idea of the extent of its powers; neither can it grasp the true meaning of a language that deals with the things that belong to that higher nature and believes it to be but delusions and dreams.

“The vanity of the learned does not come from heaven, but they learn it from each other and upon this basis they build their church.” (“De Fund. Sap.” Fragm.)

“Faith without works is dead,” and as we are speaking of spiritual things, the “work” which the true faith requires is of a spiritual character, meaning spiritual action, growth and development. A faith without substantiality is merely a dream; a science without true knowledge is an illusion; a merely sentimental desire without any active exercise for the attainment of truth is useless. A person living in such dreams and fancies about ideals which he never attempts to realise, dreams only of treasures which he does not possess. He is like a person wasting his life in studying the map of a country in which he might travel, but never making a start. A merely ideal religion, which is never realized and does not substantially nourish the soul, is only imaginary and serves but to amuse; a science which is not practically employed remains an unfruitful theory, serving at best for the gratification of animal curiosity.

The work which _Faith_ requires is a continual _Self-Sacrifice_, which means a continual striving to overcome the animal and selfish nature, and this victory of the high over the low is not accomplished by that which is low, but can only take place through the power of divine _Love_, which means the recognition of the higher nature in man and its practical application in daily life. This is the kind of love of which the great mystic of the 17th century, John Scheffler, speaks when he says:

“Faith without love aye makes the greatest roar and din,
The cask sounds loudest when there is nought within.”

Without this practical application all virtues are only dreams and cannot grow into substantial powers, nor be employed as such.

Shakespeare says:

“It is a good divine that follows his own instructions.”—“Merchant of Venice.”

but such characters are at the present time very rare, for the world now lives only in dreams. “There are “divines” knowing nothing of any divinity; medical practitioners knowing nothing about medicine; “anthropologists” knowing nothing about the nature of man; lawyers knowing nothing of justice; “humanitarians” beggaring their employees; “christians” to whom Christ is unknown. In every sphere of life the external is mistaken for the internal, the illusion for the reality, while the reality remains unrealized and therefore unknown.

A superficial science can concern itself only with superficial causes and effects, however deeply it may enter into the details of such superficialities. The mysterious powers in nature, the intelligent forces in man, are at present almost entirely unknown, and _there is no other way of penetrating into the deeper secrets of nature except by the development of the higher nature of man_.

In ancient times the physician was considered sacred and belonged to the priesthood, not to a priesthood appointed only by man, but to a strong and real priesthood anointed by God. The physician of the future will be again a king and a priest; for only he who is not merely nominally but truly divine can be in possession of divine powers. In him the triangular pyramid consisting of science, religion and art will culminate in one point, called Self-knowledge or Divine Wisdom, where man himself becomes identified with that superior light and intelligence—his true self—of whose ray his personality is a vehicle, image and symbol.

There is a long and weary road to be travelled yet before mankind will arrive at this summit of perfection, and the goal is so far away that only few are able to see it, while to many it will be an apparently unrealisable ideal, and, like a mountain peak lost in the clouds, inconceivable; but the ideal exists and the clouds that hinder us from seeing it are our own errors and misconceptions; it remains with ourselves to clear them away.

We ourselves, by the power of so much of the perception of truth as we have already received and which has become our own, have it within our reach to overcome the darkness and open our minds to the influence of the light. But the light itself we cannot create or manufacture; it is not the product of our calculations, influences and theories. The truth is self-existent, eternal; it may be perceived, but it cannot be made.

The reason why so few can realise the meaning of the term “self-knowledge,” is that the knowledge obtained in our schools is exclusively of an artificial kind. We read that which other men have believed and known and we imagine we know it. We fill our minds with the thoughts of others and find little time to think for ourselves. We seek to arrive at a conviction of the existence of this or that object by means of arguments and inferences, while we refuse to open our eyes and to see ourselves the very thing about whose existence we argue. Thus from a theosophical point of view we should appear to a higher being like a nation of people with closed eyes arguing about the existence of the sun and unable or unwilling to look at it for ourselves.

There is only one way to arrive at real self-knowledge, and this is _Experience_. By external experience we attain knowledge of external circumstances; by experiencing internal powers we attain internal knowledge of them. _To know_ in reality means _to be_. By becoming material we learn the laws ruling in matter; by becoming spiritual we learn the laws of the spirit; our will is free to guide us in either direction. We cannot know truth in any other way than by becoming true, nor wisdom except by becoming wise. We can know any external or internal power, be it heat or light, love or justice, only by the effects which we experience from its action upon or within our own self.

Man’s life in his present condition resembles a dream, and the dreams of humanity as a whole, no less than those of the individual, repeat themselves over and over again. They come and go and come again, appearing perhaps in changed forms, like clouds floating upon the sky and assuming different shapes, but representing the old, ever-returning illusions. While above them, unseen and unknown, shines the sunlight of eternal, unchanging truth, whose presence may be felt like the warm rays of the sun penetrating the clouds, but which to be known requires to be seen. The temple of nature is open to everyone who is able to enter; its light is free to everyone who is able to see; everything is a manifestation of truth, but it requires the presence of truth in ourselves to enable us to perceive it. That which hinders us from entering the temple of nature, from seeing the light and perceiving the truth, are the shadows which we ourselves have created. The real object of the lights kindled by science is not to reveal the truth—which requires no artificial light to be seen, and whose own light is quite sufficient for that purpose—but to destroy the fogs which hinder us from seeing the truth. No one would think of examining the sun by the light of a candle; but the candle-light may guide us through the dark passages of the labyrinth of matter to the door which opens upon the surface, where after the daylight is seen, artificial help is no longer required. But as in seeking our way through a tunnel the best guide is the light that shines from afar through the entrance, so a perception of truth in the heart is the only reliable guiding star in the labyrinth of ever-changing illusions.

All the scientific lights in which this light of eternal truth is not reflected, however radiant they may be, are only so many will-o’-the-wisps misleading the wanderer. All scientific theories and hypotheses based upon a non-recognition of the inner constitution of man and denying his super-terrestrial origin are founded on a misconception of truth. Such opinions are continually subject to change, and no new theory of that kind exists at present which has not existed in some similar shape before. But the truth itself is independent of these opinions, it has always existed and there have always been some who were capable of recognising it, and others who, unwilling or unable to see it, based their knowledge upon misconceptions and superstitious beliefs founded upon other men’s assertions.

Modern medical science, with all its modern aids and paraphernalia, has only succeeded in working itself up to a more detailed knowledge of some less important phenomena in the kingdom of matter; while a great number of far more important things that were known to the ancients have been forgotten. As to the power of the soul over the body, tremendous as it is, almost nothing is known; because the souls of those who live entirely in the kingdom of speculations evolved by their brain, are asleep and unconscious. An unconscious soul can no more exert any power than an unconscious body; its motions can at best be instinctive, because deprived of the light of intelligence. It is far more important to the progress of real science that the soul of man should awaken to a recognition of its own higher nature, than that the treasures of a science dealing with the illusions of life should be enriched by any new theories in which there is no recognition of the one foundation of truth. All that any sound theory or any reliable book can possibly do, is to displace a false theory which prevents man from seeing correctly; but the truth itself can be exhibited or revealed by no man and no theory, it can be seen only by the eye of the true understanding, when it reveals itself in its own light.

It has been said that it is not within the reach of science to enter the realm of noumena which underlie all phenomena and are their cause of manifestation; but without a recognition of the _noumenon_ from which all phenomena spring, a true science (from _scio_, to know) will be as impossible as a system of mathematics with an ignoring of the existence of the number _one_ from which all other numbers take their origin and without which no number exists. The soul in us is fundamentally identical with the One from which all phenomena originate. The soul which _is_ can know that which is, while that in us which merely _appears_ to be belongs to and deals with the realm of appearances.

The acquisition of this higher science therefore requires less an exertion of the speculative faculties of the brain than an awakening of the soul; is advanced less by an evolution of thoughts of various kinds than by the development of the inner man who is doing the thinking and causing the evolution of thoughts, for if that which is able to know in man does not know its own self, all the thoughts and ideas inhabiting the sphere of man’s mind will have no legitimate owner, but exist there merely as the reflections of the thoughts of other men, gathered around an illusion called the personal self.

The more the mind analyses a thing and enters into its minor details the easier does it lose sight of the whole; the more man’s attention is divided into many parts, the more will he step out of his own unity and become complicated himself. Only a great and strong spirit can remain dwelling within its own self-consciousness, and, like the sun, which shines into many things without becoming absorbed by them, looks into the minor details of phenomena without losing sight of the truth which includes the whole. The most simple truths are usually the ones which are the most difficult to be grasped by the learned, because the perception of a simple truth requires a simple mind. In the kaleidoscope of ever-varying phenomena the underlying truth cannot be seen upon the surface. As the intellect becomes more and more immersed in matter, the eye of the spirit becomes closed; truths which in times of old were self-evident have now been forgotten, and even the meaning of the terms signifying spiritual powers has become lost in proportion as mankind has ceased to exercise these powers. Owing to the conceit of our age of selfishness, which seeks to drag spiritual truths down to the scientific conception of a narrow-sighted animal rationalism, instead of rising up to their level, the character of modern popular science is shown in the amount of cleverness with which illusory self-interests are protected; “faith,” the all-saving power of spiritual knowledge, is believed to be superstition; “benevolence” folly, “love” means selfish desires, “hope” is now greed, “life” the creation of a mechanical process, “soul” a term without meaning, “spirit” a nonentity, “matter” a thing of which nothing is known, etc.

All this has been written to no purpose, if we have not succeeded in making it clear that real progress in the knowledge of human nature is only possible by means of a higher development of the inner nature of the physician himself. No one can attain any real knowledge of man’s higher state unless he attains to it himself by purity of motive and nobility of character. Only by recognising his body as a vehicle for the development and manifestation of a superior intelligence will he be able to realise the meaning of the words of Carlyle, who tells us that man in his innermost nature is a divine being, and that whoever puts his hand upon a human form touches heaven.

Wisdom must be the Master, science the servant. Science is the handmaid of wisdom; wisdom the queen. Science is a product of man’s imagination; wisdom the spiritual recognition of truth. Material science is a product of the essentially selfish desire to know; wisdom recognises no separation of interests, it is the self-recognition of universal and eternal truth in man. Science, guided by wisdom, can enter into the deepest mysteries of universal being by entering into the Unity of the All; but if science attempts to employ wisdom for the gratification of curiosity or other selfish ends, it is in opposition to wisdom and becomes folly. Therefore a favourite motto of the ancient Rosicrucians (of which Theophrastus Paracelsus was one), but which is understood by only a few, said: “_I know nothing, I desire nothing, I love nothing, I enjoy nothing in heaven or upon the earth but Jesus Christ and him crucified._” This did not mean that they resolved to remain ignorant, or to lose themselves in pious reveries and dreams of past events, for Paracelsus also said: “God does not desire us to be ignorant blockheads and stupid fools”—but it meant that they had given up the whole of the illusion of self with all its necessarily illusive knowledge, desires, attractions and joys, and entered into the consciousness of that divine intelligence which during this earth-life is as it were crucified in man, and by entering into the higher spiritual state they had become one with Him, who is Himself the Truth in themselves and the source of all knowledge in heaven and upon the earth.