The Law is for All

90 The Law is for All Now if A and b are identical, the proposition conveys no knowl­ edge at all. If a is not identical with b, arb implies “a is identical with bc”; this assumes that not less than three distinct ideas exist. In every case, we must proceed either to the identity which means ultimately “Nothing,” or to divergent diversities which only seem to mean something so long as we refrain from pushing the analy­ sis of any term to its logical elements. For example, “Sugar is sugar” is obviously not knowledge. But no more is this: “Sugar is a sweet white crystalline carbohydrate.” For each of these four terms describes a sensory impression on ourselves; and we define our impressions only in terms of such things as sugar. Thus “sweet” means “the quality ascribed by our taste to honey, sugar, etc.”; “white” is “what champaks, zinc oxide, sugar, etc., report to our eyesight”; and so on. The proposition is ultimately an iden­ tity, for all our attempts to evade the issue by creating complica­ tions. “Knowledge” is therefore not a “thing-in-itself”; it is rightly denied a place upon the Tree of Life; it pertains to the Abyss. Besides the above considerations, it may be observed that Knowledge, so far as it exists at all, even as a statement of rela­ tion, is no more than a momentary phenomenon of conscious­ ness. It is annihilated in the instant of its creation. For no sooner do we assent to arb than arb is absorbed in our conception of A. After the nine days’ wonder of “The Earth revolves round the Sun,” we modify our former idea of Earth. “Earth” is intuitively classed with other solar satellites. The proposition vanishes auto­ matically as it is assimilated. Knowledge, while it exists as such, is consequently sub judice,x at the best. What then may we understand by this verse, with its capital K for “Knowledge”? What is it, and how shall it “go aright”? The key is in the word “go.” It cannot “be,” as we have seen above; it is the fundamental error of the “Black Brothers” in their policy of resisting all Change, to try to maintain it as fixed and absolute. But (as the Tree of Life indicates) Knowledge is the means by which the conscious mind, Microprosopus, reaches to Understanding and to Wisdom, its mother and father, which 1 [Lat., “before the judge,” or under judicial review.]