PREFACE 
xxv 
spiritual and magical disciplines which he mastered, all as 
described in extant diaries. 
His contempt for the undisciplined mob, lolling around on 
street 
corners and curbs, is enough to dissipate any 
possibility of describing him as a Victorian hippy. On the 
contrary , the moderns , whether hippies or not , need him 
tremendously and what he has to offer could possibly redeem 
them. 
The end of his letter 45 is adequate reminder of what he 
stood 
for: 
"to advance-that 
means Work. Patient, 
exhausting, thankless, often bewildering Work. Dear sister, if 
you would but Work! Work blindly, foolishly, misguidedly, it 
doesn't matter in the end: Work in itself has absolute virtue." 
Of course 
the work 
that he refers to is spiritual 
work-meditation, 
Yoga, Magick, in all phases and varieties. 
Work, not intellectualization. In the footnote to that same 
letter, he gives a quick rundown of some of his attitudes and 
early experiences where work is concerned so that his 
correspondent might not run away with the idea that he was 
preaching what he had not practiced. 
His occult biography The Temple of Solomon the King. 
serialized throughout all the ten numbers of The Equinox. 
gives ample evidence of his persistence and fidelity where the 
Great Work was concerned. 
Above all, notice the remarks at the beginning of letter 45. 
The ideas expressed there are in reality at the heart of his 
system of training and development. The chiding he 
administers to his correspondent is not nearly as severe as he 
had been known to give himself. 
Throughout these letters are innumerable references to 
The Equinox. To the younger student of today, The Equinox 
may convey but little until he attempts to purchase one or 
more of them. He will find it all but impossible. Even if he 
succeeds in tracking some of them down, he will discover 
that the tag attached to them bears an exorbitant price. (I 
have heard· only recently of a set of the eleven volumes being 
sold for $500.) For this reason , Llewellyn Publications is