PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 267 



philosophy ; it looks like knowledge, but it is the out- 

 come of ignorance, gilded and varnished to deceive the 

 vulgar. It is like a parasite growing upon the tree of 

 knowledge, drawing the sap out of the true tree and 

 converting it into poison. The intellectual working of 

 the brain alone is not sufficient to give birth to a physi- 

 cian ; the true physician is not he who has merely heard 

 of the truth, but he who feels the truth, who sees it 

 before him as clearly as the light of the sun, who hears 

 it as he would hear the noise of the cataract of the 

 Rhine or the whistling of the storm upon the ocean, 

 who smells it and tastes it, it being sweet to him as 

 honey or bitter as gall. Nature produces diseases and 

 effects their cures, and where, then, could be found a 

 better teacher than Nature herself ? That alone which 

 we see and feel and perceive constitutes true knowledge, 

 not that of which we are merely informed in books and 

 which is not confirmed by experience." 



" The knowledge of Nature as it is — not as we 

 imagine it to be— constitutes true philosophy. He 

 who merely sees the external appearance of things 

 is not a philosopher ; the true philosopher sees the 

 reality, not merely the outward appearance. He who 

 knows the sun and the moon has a sun and a moon in 

 him, and he can tell how they look, even if his eyes 

 are shut. Thus the true physician sees in himself the 

 whole constitution of the Microcosm of man, with all its 

 parts. He sees the constitution of his patient as if the 

 latter were a clear crystal, in which not even a single 

 hair could escape detection. He sees him as he would 

 the stones and pebbles at the bottom of a clear well. 

 This is the philosophy upon which the true art of 

 medicine is based. Not that your physical eyes are 

 able to show you these things, but it is Nature herself 

 who teaches it to you. Nature is the universal mother 

 of all, and if you are in harmony with her — if the mirror 

 of your mind has not been made blind by the cobwebs 



