Some philosophy of the hermetics -( 1898) PDF book by David Patterson Hatch





Excerpt from the author's introduction





She is coy like a coquette and stern like a judge. She excites curiosity in the student, and dread in the debauchee. She holds the man of science to her breast but is dumb to the lover of pleasure. She scorns the victim of priestcraft and repudiates the supernatural. The Sage takes his cue from his mother; like Nature, he conceals and reveals.He who would see other than the smiling, scowling face of Hermes must search the dark places by the light of his own candle; Hermes locks the gate between the outer and inner Temple; and he, only, enters the latter, who has the password and the key. In reading this book please notice how the essays vary in style; some of them falling into a weird rhapsody, others laconic and plain The Mystic will understand the reason for the difference, while another will peruse only the words.The barbaric splendor of Nature reveals truth and law as surely as does her terrible logic. She speaks in poetry and in prose. Facts are rarely ever naked, but often not only draped but masked. The occult eye sees straight to the heart of a fact, while the normal lens dwells on the habiliments. Enough has been said save this Man inevitably cometh unto his own.PREFACE 5HERMETICS 7PHILOSOPHY 9FAITH 13CONCENTRATION 18PRACTICE 22MEMORY 26IMAGINATION 31THE BOOK OF REVELATION 37PRIDE AND PHILOSOPHY;... 41WHO ARE THE CRANKS? 47ONE DAY 53SECRET GRIEF 56COLD DESPAIR, 61BEAUTY ART POWER 65SPIRITS AND DEVILS 70DEATH WHAT OF IT? 73NATURE'S JEST 79YOUR FRIEND 83THE ONE THING 86THE DEVIL 90THE PAIRS 94ADONAI 98MAGIC 103Author: David Patterson HatchPublication Date: 1898