Book 4 (Part II)

I/O studied the diseases of the colon until he could see nothing else, and then calmly proposed to cut out every one's colon, pointing out that a vulture (who has no colon) is a very long-lived bird. As a matter of fact the longevity of the vulture is due to its twisted neck, and many thought- ful persons propose to experiment on Professor Metchnikoff. But the worst of all phantasms are the moral ideas and the religious ideas. Sanity consists in the faculty of adjusting ideas in proper proportion. Any one who accepts a moral or reHgious truth without understanding it is only kept out of the asylum because he does not follow it out logically. If one really believed in Christianity,^ if one really thought that the majority of mankind w'as doomed to eternal punishment, one would go raving about the w^orld trying to " save " people. Sleep would not be possible until the horror of the mind left the body exhausted. Otherwise, one must be morally insane. Which of us can sleep if one we love is in danger of mere death? We cannot even see a dog drown without at least interrupting all our business to look on. Who then can live in London and reflect upon the fact that of its seven million souls, all but about a thousand Plymouth Brethren will be damned? Yet the thousand Plymouth Brethren (who are the loudest in proclaiming that they will be the only ones saved) seem to ^ " One would go mad if one took the Bible seriously; but to take it seriously one must be already mad." — Crowley.