The Law is for All

146 The Law is for All 1:59 Consider also him that willeth to excel in Speed or in Battle, how he denieth himself the Food he craveth, and all Pleasures natural to him, putting himself under the harsh Order of a Trainer. So by this Bondage he hath, at the last, his Will. Now then the one by natural, and the other by voluntary, Restriction have come each to a greater Liberty. This is also a general Law of Biology, for all Development is Structuraliza- tion; that is, a Limitation and Specialization of an originally indeterminate Protoplasm, which latter may therefore be called free, in the Definition of a Pedant. AX—DE ORDINE RERUM [38—On the Ordering of Things] In the Body every Cell is subordinated to the general physio­ logical Control, and we who will that Control do not ask whether each individual Unit of that Structure be consciously happy. But we do care that each shall fulfil its Function, and the Failure of even a few Cells, or their Revolt, may involve the Death of the whole Organism. Yet even here the Com­ plaint of a few, which we call Pain, is a Warning of general Danger. Many Cells fulfil their Destiny by swift Death, and this being their Function, they in no wise resent it. Should Hsemoglobin resist the Attack of Oxygen, the Body would perish, and the Haemoglobin would not thereby save itself. Now, o my Son, do then consider deeply of these Things in thine Ordering of the World under the Law of Thelema. For every Individual in the State must be perfect in his own Func­ tion, with Contentment, respecting his own Task as necessary and holy, not envious of another’s. For so only mayst thou build up a Free State, whose directing Will shall be singly directed to the Welfare of all. We of Thelema think it vitally aright to let a man take opium. He may destroy his physical vehicle thereby, but he may produce another Kubla Khan.1 It is his own responsibility. Also we know well that “If he be a King” it will not hurt him — in the end. We trust Nature to protect, and Wisdom to be justified of, their chil­ dren. It is superficial to object that a man should be prevented from ruining and killing himself, for his own sake or for that of 1 [A poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), conceived while intoxicated on opium. See Works Cited.]