The Star in the West

198 THE STAR IN THE WEST T All differences as these indeed Are chess play , conjuring . “ Proceed ! " Nay ! I'll go back . The exposition Above , has points . But simple fission Has reproduced a different bliss , At last a heterogenesis !? Many roads lead to Philosophy and branch forth from it, as Crowley above shows , and in a short essay like this we intend but to travel through the labyrinthine mysteries of all by the silken clue of one , handed us by Aleister Crowley . And as there are many by - ways , corridors , and blind alleys in this great labyrinth of Parnassus , so in this clue , which has been given us , we shall find many twisted threads , yet all of one fibre , which will lead us , the weary wanderers in the mys teries , to that certain and blissful kingdom which shall be our beginning . Kant has said , the business of all philosophy is to answer the question “ What can I know ? ” Huxley , perhaps the astutest philosopher since the days of the magus of Königsberg , observes that it is impos sible to answer the question “ What can I know ? " unless in the first place there is a clear understanding of what is meant by knowledge , and in order to an swer this question , “ we must have recourse to that investigation of mental phenomena , the results of which are embodied in the science of psychology ." But the true crux of all philosophic arguments lies , as we hope shortly to show , in a still deeper problem than this , namely : “ What is the 'I' which causes us to know ? ” For surely it is but common - sense to first inquire of the engineer how the engine is worked , " 2 | Pentecost , vol . ii, p . 170 . 2 Huxley's Essay on Hume , p . 59 .