WORK 
471 
"gods" or "Masters" -whatever name you like. And that, I 
suppose, is what you may call the premise major of my 
syllogism. 
The minor, I confess, is not so apodeictic. No one, I 
suppose, is going to point proudly to the present state of 
human affairs, as evidence that we are all becoming wiser and 
nobler every minute, as people did seventy years ago. 
In fact, 
one 
may suspect 
that the majority of 
well-instructed men expect nothing but that History will 
repeat itself, and our civilization go the way of all the others 
whose ruins we dig up in every quarter of the earth. 
Well, if we have to wait for the calamity, and for evolution 
to begin all over again in a number of centuries-with 
luck!-one thing is at least quite certain: we can do nothing 
about it. Any form of activity must be as futile and as 
fatuous as any other; and the only sensible philosophy must 
be "Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die." 
Is there a conceivable alternative? 
Well, consider the cause of the impending collapse. It is 
quite simple: Knowledge is loose, without control of Will and 
of In t elligence. (How clearly the Qabalah states and 
demonstrates this doctrine!) 
Now, these qualities in us having failed to measure up to 
the situation of the world, one hope remains; to get into 
communication 
with those "gods" or "masters" 
whose 
existence was demonstrated in my Premise Major and learn 
from Them. 
But is this possible? 
Tradition and experience unite to assert that it is so; 
moreover, various forms of technique for accomplishing this 
are at our disposal. 
This is what is called The Great Work; and it is abundantly 
clear that no other aim is worth pursuit . 
So much for the argument; it will be agreed readily enough 
that to put it into practice we shall need an Alphabet, a