368 The Diary of a Drug Fiend
We no longer looked back with remorse on our folly.
We could see the events of the past year in perspective,
and we saw that we had been led through that ghoulish
ghastliness. We had followed the devil through the
dance of death, but there could be no doubt in our
minds that the power of evil was permitted for a purpose.
We obtained the ineffable assurance of the existence of
a spiritual energy that worked its wondrous will in
ways too strange for the heart of man to understand until
the time should be ripe.
The pestilence of the past had immunised us against
its poison. The devil had defeated himself. We had
attained a higher stage of evolution. And this under-
standing of the past filled us with absolute faith in
the future.
The chaos of crumbled civilisations whose monuments
were on the rock before us, had left that rock un-
marred. Our experience had fortified us. We had
reached one more pinnacle on the serrated ridge that
rises from the first screes of self-consciousness to a
summit so sublime that we did not even dare to dream
how far it soared above us. Our business was to climb
from crag to crag, with caution and courage, day after
day, life after life. Not ours to speculate about the
goal of our Going. Enough for us to Go. We knew
our way, having found our will, and for the means,
had we not love?
‘“‘ Love is the law, love under will.”
The words were neither on our lips nor in our hearts.
They were implicit in every idea, and in every impression.
We went from the court up the steps, through the
open glass doors, into the vaulted room with its fantastic
frescoes that was the strangers’ room of the Abbey of
Thelema ; and we laughed softly, as we thought that
we should never more be strangers.
GLASGOW: W. COLLINS SONS AND CO. LTD.