cay of which the plant is but a symbol. If
the exercises be persevered in continuously, the image of the
transformation which underlies physical growth and decay can be evolved
from this feeling.

But if one wishes to attain the corresponding stage of inspiration, this
exercise must be practised quite differently. Here one's own activity of
soul must be called to mind,--that which had obtained the conception of
growth and decay from the image of the plant. The plant must now be
allowed to vanish altogether from the consciousness, and the attention be
concentrated entirely upon the student's own inner activity. It is only
such exercises as these that help us to rise to inspiration. At first the
occult student will find it difficult to fully grasp how to set about such
an exercise. This is because man is used to permitting his inner life to
be governed by outward impressions, and thus falls immediately into
uncertainty and wavering when now he must unfold in addition a soul life
which has freed itself from all connections with outward impressions.

Here the student must clearly understand that he should only undertake
these exercises if along with them he cultivates everything that may lead
to firmness and stability in his judgment, emotional life, and character;
these precautions are even more necessary than when seeking to acquire the
faculty of imagination. Should he take these precautions, he will be
doubly successful, for, in the first place, he will not risk losing the
balance of his personality through the exercises; and secondly, he will
acquire the capacity of being really able to carry out what is demanded in
these exercises. They will be deemed difficult only as long as one has not
yet attained a particular attitude of soul, and certain feelings and
sentiments. He who patiently and perseveringly cultivates within his soul
such qualities as are favourable to the growth of supersensible cognition,
will not be long in acquiring both the understanding and the faculty for
these practices.

Any one who can acquire the habit of frequently entering into the quiet of
his own soul, and who, instead of brooding over himself, transforms and
orders those experiences he has had in life, will gain much. For he will
perceive that his thoughts and feelings become richer, if through memory
he establishes a relationship between the different experiences of life.
He will become aware that he gains stores of new knowledge not only