r child, or as the religious devotee for the Lord, the key
that unlocks the door to illumination of body, soul and spirit, is Love,
"the maker, the monarch and savior of all," but whether this love in its
fullness of perfection may be found in that perfect spiritual mating, which
we see exemplified in the tender, but ardent mating of the dove (the symbol
of Purity and Peace), or whether it means spiritual union with the Absolute
is not conclusive.

The mystery of Seraphita, Balzac's wonderful creation, is an evidence that
Balzac had glimpses of that perfect union, which gives rise to the
experience called cosmic consciousness.

It is well to remember that in every instance of cosmic consciousness, the
person experiencing this state, finds it practically impossible to fully
describe the state, or its exact significance.

Therefore, when these efforts have been made, we must expect to find the
description colored very materially by the habit of _thought_, of the
person having the experience.

Balzac was essentially religious, but he was also extremely suggestible,
and, until very recently, Theology and Religion were supposed to be
synonymous, or at least to walk hand in hand. Balzac's early training and
his environment, as well as the thought of the times in which he lived,
were calculated to inspire in him the fallacious belief that God would have
us renounce the love of our fellow beings, for love of Him.

Balzac makes "Louis Lambert" renounce his great passion for Pauline, and
seems to suggest that this renunciation led to the subsequent realization
of cosmic consciousness, which he unquestionably experienced.

Nor is it possible to say that it did not, since renunciation of the lower
must inevitably lead to the higher, and we give up the lesser only that we
may enjoy the greater.

In "Seraphita" Balzac expressed what may be termed spiritual love and that
spiritual union with the Beloved, which the Sufis believed to be the result
of a perfect and complete "mating," between the sexes, on the spiritual
plane, regardless of physical proximity or recognition, but which is also
elsewhere described as the soul's glimpse of its union with the Absolute or
God.

The former view is individual, while the latter is impersonal, and may, or
may not, involve absorption of individual consciousness.

In subsequent chapters we shall again refer to Balzac's Illumination as
expressed in his writings, and will now take up the ques