The Star in the West

284 THE STAR IN THE WEST of mundane tar , declaring we have discovered that light which moved on the face of the waters , before sun or moon or stars were created . We rank the great adepts with the madmen of God , whose miracles are mere imitations , whose powers are mere preten sions , and whose illumination is mere reflection ; but what is it then these great beings imitate , pretend to , or reflect ? Here lies the dark question which no denial can disprove , no assertion comprehend , and which work alone through the alembic of our hearts can reveal and accomplish . THE ADEPTS It is this something , this light which every Adept sets out to discover ; for, whether in the dark night of the neophyte , or the noonday brilliancy of the supreme magus , Reason deserts us , and we at length are forced to seek a diviner illumination beyond those dark realms of rational understanding . Crowley writes on thispoint, in " Eleusis ," as follows : Not while reason is , as at present , the best guide known to men , not until humanity has developed a mental power of an entirely different kind . For , to the philosopher , it soon becomes apparent that reason is a weapon inadequate to the task . Hume saw it, and became a sceptic in the widest sense of the term . Mansel saw it and counsels us to try Faith , as if it was not the very fact that Faith was futile that bade us appeal to reason. Huxley saw it, and, no remedy presenting itself but a vague faith in the pos sibilities of human evolution , called himself an agnostic : Kant saw it for a moment , but it soon hid itself behind his terminology ; Spencer saw it , and tried to gloss it over by smooth talk , and to bury it beneath the ponderous tomes of his unwieldy erudition . | Eleusis , vol . iii, p . 228 .