EDITORIAL
Secret Chief 8°=3° to publish the knowledge and
rituals of the Order (a) in order to destroy the value
of that knowledge, so that the new knowledge to be
revealed by himself might have room to grow (6) in
order to stop the frauds of Mathers, which were a
disgrace to arcane science.
The secrecy of his rituals, and of the MSS. in
the custody of Dr. Wynn Westcott, was essential to
the carrying on of these frauds.
(8) I was unable to comply with these orders until I had
found a person competent to edit the enormous mass
of papers. I showed my hand to some extent, how-
ever, in various references to the Order in my books.
And now the task is accomplished.
(9) My defence against the accusation of having revealed
secrets entrusted to me is then threefold.
(a) Secrets cannot be revealed, or even com-
municated from one person to another.
(4) One is not bound by an oath taken to any
person who is a swindler trading upon the sanctity
of one’s oath to carry on his frauds. Especially
is this the case when the person responsible for
administering the oath assures you that it is “in
no way contrary to your civil, moral, and religious
obligations.”
(c) I was not, in any case, bound to Mathers, but
to the Secret Chiefs, by whose direct orders I caused
the rituals to be published.
I wish expressly to dissociate from my strictures on
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