Book 4 (Part II)

45 The Teacher should then seek gently and firmly to key up the pupil, little by little, until obedience follows command without reference to what that command may be; as Loyola wrote: "perinde ac cadaver." No one has understood the Magical Will better than Loyola; in his system the individual was forgotten. The will of the General was in- stantly echoed by every member of the Order; hence the Society of Jesus became the most formidable of the religious organizations of the world. That of the Old Man of the Mountains was perhaps the next best. The defect in Loyola's system is that the General was not God, and that owing to various other considerations he was not even necessarily the best man in the Order. To become General of the Order he must have willed to become General of the Order; and because of this he could be nothing more. To return to the question of the development of the Will. It is always something to pluck up the weeds, but the flower itself needs tending. Having crushed all volitions in ourselves, and if necessary in others, which we find opposing our real Will, that Will itself will grow naturally with greater freedom. But it is not only necessary to purify the temple itself and consecrate it; invocations must be made. Hence it is neces- sary to be constantly doing things of a positive, not merely of a negative- nature, to affirm that Will.