The Equinox (Volume I, Number V)

THE EQUINOX THE PORCH. Vol. I., No. 8. 3d, [. M. WATKINS. THE MIRROR OF SIMPLE SOULS. Of all this admirable series this is the best. Such prose I have rarely found in all my reading. I am beggared of wit to review it; but I implore all who seek the pure Light mirrored in flawless imagery to obtain it. ALEISTEK CROWLEY. THE APOCALYPSE UNSEALED. Being an Exatm‘c Intznþretatian of THE INITIATION or IOANNEs. By JAMES Μ. PRVSE. New York: John M. Pryse, 9-15 Murray Street, 1910. London: J. Μ. Watkins. 85. δεῖ. net. It is possible to write upon this book in a freer manner, without ofi'ence, than upon any other book in the Canon of Scripture, for there is no other book which has caused so much disquiet to theologians, in all ages, as has the “ Revelation of St John the Divine,” and it is but in comparatively recent times that it has been generally accepted as Canonical, and this even by those who admit that they do not understand it; and to such as these the “Apocalypse Unsealed " will be a veritable " Revelation ” indeedi Mr James M. Pryse accepts it unreservedly as the work of the Apostle John, but we ought to mention that there is a long string of authorities against this view. Dionysius, who was surnamed the Great, of Alexandria, was a pupil of Origen, and he of Clement of Alexandria, all catechists of the Arcane Discipline which taught a Christianised version of the older Gnosis, which Clement and others had brought into the Church from the older secret, or occult, societies of which they were, or had been members. This Dionysius makes a certain John the Presbyter, as of note in Asia Minor in the ist century, and distinct from the Apostle, to be the author of the book. Presbyter Cajus, or Gaius, of Rome, and the Alogi, attributed it to Cerinthus, a Gnosticofthe independent sect of these, and Eusebius quotes both Dionysius and these Alogi; Nicephorus Callistus uses the same as saying that some who had preceded them had manipulated the book in such way, in every chapter, that the original could not be recognised. This may be an exaggeration, but amongst the eminent critics who have denied the authenticity of the book may be mentioned these, and what else can we expect when none to the present time could understand it? Against it are De Wett, Bleek, Ewald, Credner, Schott, Lücke, Neander, Michaelis, who treat the style as utterly foreign to that of John the Apostle The first-named observes that “Revelation" is characterised by strong Hebraisms, ruggedness, and exhibits the absence of pure Greek words, whilst in the Gospel of John is to be found a calm, deep feeling, but in the Apocalypse we have great creative power of [mey,—the two minds are at variance with each other. St Jerome had an 164