temporary insanity. The ruling passion in each case is that of 
helping humanity. Both show quixotic disregard of their personal 
prosperity, and even comfort, yet both display love of luxury and 
splendour. Both hâve the pride of Satan. 
7. When Aleister Crowley became Frater OT MH and had to 
write his thesis for the grade of Adeptus Exemptus, he had already 
collected his ideas when Levi s “Clef des Grands Mystères” fell 
ipto his hands. It was remarkable that he, having admired Levi 
for many years, and even begun to suspect the identity, had not 
troubled (although an extravagant buyer of books) to get this 
particular work. He found, to his astonishment, tha^t almost 
everything that he had himself intended to say was there written. 
The resuit of this was that he abandoned writing his original work, 
and instead translated the masterpiece in question. 
8. The style of the two men is strikingly similar in numerous 
subtle and deep-seated ways. The general point of view is almost 
identical. The quality of the irony is the same. Both take a 
perverse pleasure in playing practical jokes on the reader. In 
one point, above ail, the identity is absolute — there is no third 
name in literature which can be put in the same class. The point 
is this: In a single sentence is combined sublimity and enthusiasm 
with sneering bitterness, scepticism, grossness and scorn. It is 
evidently the suprême enjoyment to strike a chord composed of 
as many conflicting éléments as possible. The pleasure seems to 
be derived from gratifying the sense of power, the power to 
compel every possible element of thought to contribute to the 
spasm. 
If the theory of reincarnation were generally accepted, the 
above considérations would make out a strong case. Frater 
Perdurabo was quite convinced in one part of his mind of this 
identity, long before he got any actual memories as such.1 
II 
• « • * 1 * , . . 
Unless one has a groundwork of this sort to start with, one must 
get back to one’s life as best one can by the methods above indicated. 
1. Long since writing the above, the publication of the biography of 
Eliphas Levi by M. Paul Chacornat has confirmed the hypothesis in 
innumerable striking ways. 
53