PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 269 



power for evil in the universe — neither a god nor a 

 devil could become revealed or personified in a man. 

 Evil exists for the purpose of being conquered by good. 

 Only in this way can knowledge be obtained. 



There is no seed having the power to create itself the 

 sunlight which it requires to enable it to grow, and in 

 the same sense there is no man having himself the 

 power to create a god by his own will and pleasure ; but 

 like acts upon like. The natural (physical or astral) 

 principles in man are acted upon by the corresponding 

 powers in Nature ; the growth of plants is due to the 

 power of the sun being active in them, and the spiritual 

 unfoldment of the soul of man is also due to the power 

 (the grace) of the God of the universe descending upon 

 him. 



The knowledge of a man in regard to a truth, however 

 learned and intellectual he may be, can be nothing else 

 but a dream to one who does not recognise his own real 

 existence in God. If we believe or accept the doctrine 

 of another man who perceives the truth, it does not 

 follow that we possess that truth as our own ; it simply 

 means that we consider his opinion worthy of our belief. 

 A knowledge of the opinions of others may guide us in 

 our researches as long as we cannot find the truth in 

 ourselves, but such a knowledge is as liable to mislead us 

 as to lead us right ; the only key to arrive at the recog- 

 nition and understanding of the truth is the perception 

 and understanding itself. Opinions change, and creeds 

 and beliefs change accordingly, but the knowledge which 

 we find in our own experience stands as firm as a rock. 



There is no such thing as a theoretical theosophy, 

 because divine wisdom is not a matter of theory, 

 but the divine knowledge of self. To know a thing 



* God is the supreme will of the universe, or, as Boehme calls it, the 

 will of divine wisdom. It is therefore a divine will, and it could not 

 be divine if it were not free and subject to nothing. This does not 

 imply that God is something external to Nature, but that He is supe- 

 rior to it. 



