PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 279 



the leaves receive their nutriment from the air. The 

 temporal body is the house of the eternal, and we should 

 therefore take care of it, because he who destroys the 

 temporal body destroys the house of the eternal, and 

 although the eternal man is invisible, he exists never- 

 theless, and will become visible in time, just as a child 

 in its mother's womb is invisible before it is born, but 

 after its birth it may be seen by all but those who are 

 blind ; and as everything returns after a while to the 

 source from whence it came, so the body returns to 

 the earth and the spirit to heaven or hell. Some 

 children are born from heaven, and others are born 

 from hell, because each human being has his inherent 

 tendencies, and these tendencies belong to his spirit, 

 and indicate the state in which he existed before he 

 was born. Witches and sorcerers are not made at once ; 

 they are born with powers for evil.^ The body is only 

 an instrument ; if you seek for man in his dead body, 

 you are seeking for him in vain." 



"The Philosopher's Stone" 



But this physical body, which is believed to be of so 

 little importance by those who love to dream about the 

 mysteries of the spirit, is the most secret and valuable 

 thing. It is the true " stone which the builders rejected," 

 but which must become the corner-stone of the temple. 

 It is the " stone " which is considered worthless by those 

 who seek for a God above the clouds and reject Him 

 when He enters their house. This physical body is not 

 merely an instrument for divine power, but it is also 

 the soil from which that which is immortal in man 

 receives its strength. A seed requires the power of 



* They are bom with the tendencies which they acquired in forraei 

 liveH upon the earth, or upon some other planet. The personified devile 

 we meet in the world are the "materialised" forms oiF devilish powers 

 existing upon the astral plane. 



