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Ghazzatts Alchemy of Happiness. 



possession of it, he deputes two powerful ministers to that 

 effect, Jupiter and Mars. These in turn, control the light 

 footed ministers, the elements, and command dryness for 

 example to fasten its bridle to the neck of the person, and 

 cause dryness to attack his head and brain. He is thus 

 made to become weary of the world by means of the scourge 

 of melancholy and suspicion, and so with the bridle of the 

 will may be impelled towards the Deity. These circum- 

 stances can never be understood in this sense, either by 

 medicine, or by nature, or by the stars. One may, how- 

 ever, learn to understand them by knowledge and the pro- 

 phetic power combined. For they embrace the whole 

 kingdom of the universe with its deputies and servants, 

 and possess the knowledge of the end for which every- 

 thing was created : they know to whose command all things 

 are subjected, to what men are invited and what they 

 are forbidden to do. 



The Lord invites the servants whom he loves to the con- 

 templation of his glory, at one time by sending misfortuue 

 and affliction, and at another by melancholy and sickness : 

 and he says to them, " my servants, what you regard as mis- 

 fortune and affliction, is but the bridle of my love, by which 

 I draw those whom I love to a spirit of holy submission, 

 and to my Paradise." It is also found in a tradition that 

 " misfortune is first of all the lot of the prophets, then of 

 the saints and then of those who are like them in succes- 

 sive lower degrees. Look not then upon these things as 

 maladies, for they are my favored servants." 



seeker after the divine secrets, now that you have 

 learned that within the body of man, there is a sovereign 

 who possesses and controls it, it is time that you should 

 learn the meaning of the sentences, " Glory to God," " God 

 be praised," " There is no God but God," and " God is the 

 greatest." These sentences are very current on the tongues 

 of men, but they do not know the signification of them. 



