The Star in the West

THE NEW WINE 199 instead of blundering in attempts to do so for our selves , without knowledge, or even the necessary in struction as to the subtle adjustment of the different parts . And it is on account of the want of this “ I ” that all science resting on the inquiry “ What do I know ? ” without the “ I” being analytically disclosed , must , and does , rest upon knowledge purely accidental or hypothetical . It is quite as possible for hypothetical arguments to be rightly and wrongly applied , as it is for mechan ical tools . A pick - axe is a most useful implement in levelling a road , and equally a most useless one in mending a watch ; so also with hypothetical argu ments , a subtle and illuminated mystic will discard such mean scaffolding , or at least attain such a per fection in the art of constructing his temple of the Holy Ghost as in time to be able to do without such mental timber . Such scaffold poles are those which support and buttress up the frail edifice of science on the mud of ignorance , in which it and its superstruc ture will eventually be engulfed ; for its whole founda tion reposes upon the unequilibrated illusions of the mind , which so long as their influences remain un balanced , stand as impediments in the way of the inward development of the human race .' And as the gigantic edifice of the Christian Church was the child of the neuropathic mystagogues of the dark ages of religion , so now the colossal fabric of Scientific 1 Science here as a method is not attacked . For as such , scientific investigations have always triumphed over mystical aspirations , which to say the least , have been chaotic in the extreme . Crowley is never tired of urging a scientific study of the conditions of illumination as the one hope of mastering the subject .