WHA T IS MAGICK? 
31 
of Nature by the empirical application of certain principles 
whose interplay involves different orders of idea, connected 
with each other in a way beyond our present comprehension. 
(Illustration: We are able to light cities by rule-of-thumb 
methods. We do not know what consciousness is, or 
how it is connected with muscular action; what 
electricity is or how it is connected with the machines 
that generate 
it; and our methods depend on 
calculations involving mathematical ideas which have no 
correspondence in the Universe as we know it. 3 ) 
12. Man is ignorant of the nature of his own being and 
powers. Even his idea of his limitations is based on 
experience of the past, and every step in his progress extends 
his empire. There is, therefore, no reason to assign theoretical 
limits4 to what he may be, or to what he may do. 
(Illustration: Two generations ago it was supposed 
theoretically impossible that man should ever know the 
chemical composition of the fixed stars. It is known 
that our senses are adapted to receive only an 
infinitesimal fraction of the possible rates of vibration. 
Modem instruments have enabled us to detect some of 
these suprasensibles by indirect methods, and even to 
use their peculiar qualities in the service of man, as in 
the case of the rays of Hertz and Roentgen. As Tyndall 
said, man might at any moment learn to perceive and 
utilize vibrations of all conceivable and inconceivable 
kinds. The question of Magick is a question of 
discovering and employing hitherto unknown forces in 
nature. We know that 
exist, and we cannot doubt 
the possibility of mental or physical instruments capable 
of bringing us in relation with them.) 
13. Every man is more or less aware that his individuality 
comprises several orders of existence, even when he maintains 
3. For instance, ''irrational,'' "unreal," and "infinite" expressions. 
4. i.e. excepf-possibly-in 
the case of logically absurd questions, such as the 
schoolmen discussed in connection with "God."