78 Ghazzali's Alchemy of Happiness. 



until the mystery about the nature of the soul or spirit has 

 been explained. 



And now, student of the divine mysteries, that you have 

 in general understood, as far as your mind can reach, the 

 being and attributes of God, by having your own soul as 

 an example, it is important that you should become ac- 

 quainted with the influence of the word, government and 

 sovereignty of God in the world. This is called knowledge 

 of operation. You ought to understand, also, as far as rea- 

 son can go, the government that he exercises over the 

 body, so that you may comprehend in what way creatures 

 obey the word and the will of God, in what way the angels 

 by his decree convey their ministrations from heaven to 

 earth, in what way the movements of the heavens and the 

 revolutions of the constellations are effected, and what is 

 the key to the method by which the orders of daemons are 

 effected. But unless you know in what way you exercise 

 authority over your body, what probability is there that 

 you can understand how God exercises control over all 

 things. 



"Know thyself, and thou shalt know thy Lord." Ob- 

 serve then that when you desire to write upon paper the 

 phrase, In the name of God, there arises first of all an in- 

 clination and a decision in the heart to write it. Next in 

 order, that inclination and decision by means of the animal 

 spirit is carried to the brain. When that decision has 

 reached the brain then the image of the phrase, In the name 

 of God is formed in the faculty of imagination in the brain. 

 Afterwards the image reaches a nerve resembling a white 

 thread, and descends by means of it to the ends of the 

 fingers. Finally by means of the senses the fingers 

 write the phrase In the name of God, in the form in 

 which by the will of the heart, it exists in the treasury of 

 the imagination. Again, also, when the will of God is 

 suspended to anything, a token of it rises and appears in 



