The Star in the West

THE NEW WINE 279 How different is this agnosticism from the agnos ticism of Spencer ; which postulates as its first great principle , the unknowability of the Absolute , of whom we can conceive no proportion whatsoever , but whose relationship to us becomes closer and closer as we proceed along the way of the knowable — and perhaps actually becomes known when we ourselves become unknowable , i.e. , pure adepts . The second great principle is the Conservation of Matter and Energy , or in other words the law of Cause and Effect . A law we have gone to some length in demonstrating to be apodictically untenable , though highly probably à posteriori . Crowley , like Hume and Huxley , solely identifies it as a law based upon inference . This sequence of events is vividly demonstrated in “ The Mother's Tragedy . Cora thinks , “ God hath made smooth the road beneath the hearse of my forgetful age ." Not so however : They know not , learn not , cannot calculate How subtly Fate Weaves its fine mesh , perceiving how to wait ; Or how accumulate The trifles that shall make it master yet Of the strong soul that bade itself forget .' This law of Cause and Effect logically leads us to the third great principle of both Buddhism | The Mother's Tragedy , vol . i, pp . 156-7 . Qabalistic Dogma of Pistorius . Factum fatum quia fatum verbum est . A supreme reason governs all , and hence there is no fatality ; all which is must be ; all which happens ought to take place . An accomplished fact is irrevocable as destiny , but destiny is the reason of the Supreme Intelligence . - The Mysteries of Magic , p . 123 .