WHAT IS CERTAINTY? 
211 
must make corrections for this and for that; and he must 
have attached an (arbitrary) interpretation to the system; the 
whole question of Relativity pops up. And, even so, he will 
enter a caveat about every single ganglion in the gossamer of 
his calculations. 
Well then, all this intricate differentiation and integration 
and verification and Lord knows what leads at last to a 
statement which may be called "Certain without Error." 
But Hermes Trismegistus is not content with any such 
fugues as the Astronomer, however cunning and colossal his 
Ortan; his Third Degree demands much more than this. The 
Astronomer's 
estimate has puttied every tiniest crack, he 
concedes it, but then waves it brusquely away: all the time 
the door is standing wide open! 
The Astronomer's 
exquisitely tailored figure stands in 
abashed isolation, like a gawky young man at his first Ball; he 
feels that he doesn't belong. For this D.S.T., or Greenwich, or 
what not, however exact in itself , is so only in reference to 
some other set of measurements which themselves tum out 
to be arbitrary; it is not of any ultimate import; nobody can 
dispute it, but it simply doesn't matter to anybody, apart 
from the particular case. It is not "Of all Truth." 
What Hermes means by this it will be well to enquire. 
May we call it "a truth of Religion"? (Don't be shocked! 
The original word implies a binding-together-again, as in a 
"Body of Doctrine"; compare the word Ligature. It was only 
later, by corruption, that the word came to imply "piety"; 
re-ligens, attentive [to the gods] as opposed to neg-ligens, 
neglectful.) 
I think that Hermes was contemplating a Ruach closely 
knitted together and anchored by incessant Aspiration to the 
Supernal Triad; just such an one, in short, as appears in those 
remarks on the Magical Memory, a God-man ready to discard 
his well-worn Instrument for a new one, brought up to date 
with all the latest improvements (the movement of the 
Zeitgeist during his past incarnation, 
in particular) well 
wrought and ready for his use.