Liber Aleph

THE BOOK OF WISDOM OR FOLLY 197 Zx De Comedia, quæ ΠΑΝ dicitur (Of the Comedy, which is called Pan) UBTLER than the Serpent of Hermes, o my Son, is this Way of Restraint of Art, and thou shalt meet therein with the God Pan, and have him to thy Playmate. So shalt thou devise Comedy and Tragedy, as it were Settings for the Jewel of thy Will, to enhance the Beauty thereof, and to refine thy Pleasures. This is that which is written in The Book of the Law: “. . . Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety herein! But exceed! exceed!” Thus thou mayst even toy with thy tamed Devil of Sin, and use the Pain thereof to sharpen the taste of thy Meat, being Adult, and thy Tongue keen to the Olive, and cloyed by the Sweet, while a Child is opposite to his in his Preference; or as a skilled Match of Love aboundeth in Pinchings, Slappings, Bitings and the like, to intensify the Bout and to prolong it. But this is Risk and Peril unless thou be wholly Master, one in thy Will; for there is Poison in these dead Snakes, to destroy thee if thou lend them of thy Life by so little as one Doubt of thyself, as a Seed of Division. s