61 
Power and Authority 
Cara Soror, 
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. 
Thanks very much for your last letter. I expected no less. 
As soon as anybody gets into a position of authority, even on 
a very small scale, their troubles begin on a very large one. 
Imagine, if you can what I have been through in the last 
quarter of a century or more. My subordinates are always 
asking me for advancement in the Order ; they think that if 
they were only members of the 266th degree everything in 
the garden would be lovely. They think that if they only 
possessed the secrets of the 148th degree they would be able 
to perform all those miracles which at present escape them. 
These poor fish! They do not understand tl:1e difference 
between Power and Authority . They do not understand that 
there are two kinds of degrees, altogether different. 
For instance, in the theory of the Church of Rome a 
bishop is a person on whom has been conferred the magical 
power to ordain priests. He may choose a totally unworthy 
person for such ordination , it makes no difference ; and the 
priest, however unworthy he may be, has only to go through 
the correct formulae which perform the miracle of the Mass, 
for that miracle to be performed. This is because in the 
Church we are dealing with a religious as opposed to a 
magical or scientific qualification. If the Royal Society 
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