Collected Works (Vol. III)

WHY JESUS WEPT 21 more than your Lrincedom ; you, clchiha,} by sticking manfully to your Work in the World, yet no more allowing it to touch your Purpose than waters may wet the lotus leaf (to take the oldest and best simile of your oldest and best poets), must I dedicate this strange drama; for, like you, [would aban- don all; like you, I see clearly what is of value ; or, tf not, at least what is worthless ; already something! Thus do I wish you and myself the three great boons Stla, Samadht, and Salam. DEDICATIO MAXIMA. To my unborn child, Who may learn by the study of this drama to choose the evil and avoid the good —i.e. as judged by Western, or ‘* Christian” standards. DEDICATIO EXTRAORDINARTA. Dear Mr, Chesterton, Alone among the puerile apologists of your detestable religion you hold a reasonably mystic head above the tides of criticism. You are the last champion of God; with you I choose to measure myself, Others I can despise; you are a force to be reckoned with, as Browning your wetellectual father was before you. Whether we are indeed friends or enemtes it is perhaps hard to say: it has sometimes seemed to me that human freedom and hap- piness are our common goal, but that you found your muddied oafs in Gods, ministers, passive resisters, and all the religious team— the ** Brixton Bahinchuts,” we might call them ; while I, at once a higher mystic and a colder sceptic, found my Alessiah in Charles Watts, and the Devil and all his angels. While wns and mwrp altke add to 358, tndeed, tt is no odds: did you once see this 1 A metathesis of Crowley’s own name; ‘‘spelt in full,” it adds up to 666; as does Aleister E. Crowley. See the signature to the ‘* Dedicatio Extraordinaria.”’ 2 Nechesh is the word for serpent used in Genesis iii. Messiach is the expected Re- deemer. ‘Their identity is the Vindication of the Serpent and the revelation of Jehovah as the arch-enemy of man. The above doctrine is the most secret of Qabalistic arcana. you were not far of from the Heart of the Qabalah. The occasion of thts letter 1s. the insertion ofa scene equivalent toan “appreciation of the Brixton Chapel” in my masterpiece “Why Jesus Wept.” You asked me for tt ;} Ipromtsed 7t;* and I hope you will like tt. Can [do more than make your Brixton my deus ex machind ? You see, when I wrote ‘* The Soul of Osiris,” Europe was my utmost tn travel. To-day, what country of the globe has not shuddered with the joy of my presence? The virgin snows of Chogo Ri, the gloomy jungles of Burma, filled with savage buffaloes and mur- derous Chins; the peace of Watkiki, the breeding hopeful putrefaction of America, the lonely volcanoes of Mexico, the everlasting Jurnace sands of Egypt—all these have known me. Travel thou thus far, thou also! Some- what shalt thou learn! But otherwise; gird on thine armour for thy Christ, O Champion of the dying faith in a man dead! Arm! arm, and out; for the young war- rior ofa new religion ts upon thee; and his number ts the number of a man. mdm nds WHY JESUS WEDT. IN vain I sit by Kandy Lake. The broad verandah slides to mist. No tropic rapture strikes awake The grim soul’s candour to insist The pen reluctant. Beauty’s task Is but to praise the peace of earth ; If Horror’s contrast that should ask, Off from this Paradise of mirth ! Let andy Lake, the white soul, mirror The generalised concept, limn clear England, a memory clean of error, A royal reason to be here. Therefore no reminiscence stirs My heart of when I lived in Kandy. Europe’s the focus now ! that blurs The picture of my Buddhist dandy, 1 } de vol. ii. p. 203, supra. 2“T promise Mr. Chesterton | A’ grand ap-pre-ci-a-tl-on | Of Brixton on Ascension Day.”— The Sword of Song.