The Equinox (Volume I, Number II)

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH XX “Tf thou extendest the Fiery Mind to the work of piety, thou wilt preserve the fluxible body.” “For three days and no longer need ye sacrifice.” —-ZOROASTER. We are at the end of our little digression upon mystic states, and may cheerfully return to the consideration of Scientific Iluminism. We have had, you may say, a poor half-pennyworth of Science to an intolerable deal of I]luminism. Well, that is what I wanted you to say. Were it not so, I would not have spent these two nights over this paper, when I want to be fresh every morning to go to the Prado and gloat over Velasquez ! Here, gentlemen, are a number of genuine mystic states; some home-grown, some imported. Please tell us what they are! (You are fond of telling us what things are.) It is useless to label the whole lot as insane: nor are they unimportant. In my view, most of the great men of the world have known them; themselves attributed their greatness to these experiences, and I really do not see why admittedly lesser men should contradict them. I hope to argue this point at greater length when I am better documented ; but at the very least, these states are of the most extraordinary interest. Even as insanities, they would demand the strictest investiga- tion from the light they throw upon the working of the brain. But as itis! All the sacred literature of the world is full of them ; all the art and poetry of all time is inspired by them ; and, by the Lord Harry! we know nothing about them. Nothing but what vague and troubled reflections the minds 87