6o
Just
as if you tell a child not to do
a thing —no matter what —it will
immediately
want to do
it,
though
otherwise
the idea
might
never have
entered
its head,
so
it
is
with
the saint.
"We have all of us these
tendencies latent in us;
of most
of them
we might
remain
uncon-
scious
all our lives —unless they were
awakened
by our
Magick.
They
he in ambush.
And every one must
be av^akened,
and every
one must be destroyed.
Every one who
signs
the oath of
a
Proba-
tioner
is
stirring
up
a
hornets'
nest.
A man has only to affirm
his conscious
aspiration
;
and the enemy
is
upon
him.
It
seems
hardly
possible
that
any
one
can
ever
pass through
that
terrible
year of probation —and yet the aspirant
is
not bound
to anything
difficult;
it
almost
seems
as
if
he were
not
bound to anything
at all —
and
yet
experience
teaches
us that
the effect
is
like plucking
a
man
from
his fireside
into
mid-Atlantic
in
a
gale.
The truth
is,
it
may be,
that the very simplicity
of the task makes
it
difficult.
The
Probationer
must
cling
to
his
aspiration—affirm
it
again
and
again in desperation.
He has,
perhaps,
almost
lost
sight
of
it
;
it
has become
meaningless
to him;
he repeats
it
mechanically as he
is
tossed from
w^ave to wave.
But
if
he can stick to
it
he will come
through.
And, once he
is
through,
things will again
assum.e
their proper
aspect;