ter, but also, I am disposed
to believe, by a certain mode of study--I am developing the Gnostic
theory, not stating one of my own--namely, that of a highly symbolic
literature. The objection of the Gnostic to a plain statement of facts
would probably be somewhat as follows: "What you say is very good and
true as far as it goes, but it is 'Pistis,' not Gnosis; Faith, not
Knowledge. You desire to be a changed man. Pistis will change you to
a certain extent. I have nothing to say against it, but it will not
change you in the radical way that Gnosis does." If you went on to
argue that your statement was reasonable and received admirable support
from logic and philosophy, he would probably reply: "Philosophy of the
kind you mention is excellent, and forms a basis for Gnosis which is
not contrary to reason, though it is above it. Gnosis is a rebirth by
which you become a god, and then you will have no need to find out
things by talking and discursive reasoning, for everything will be
within yourself and you will know all things in a vital way, by an act
of simple intuition in the end. 'The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the
Spirit.' If you tie yourself down to logic, you will not know the real
things, the 'Things that are,' by getting inside them. Your knowledge
will be external, superficial. Gnosis, you may be surprised to learn,
is not just 'knowing,' it is light _and_ 'life,' living and being as
well. This must not be taken as an attacking reason; if you join our
school you will have a stiff course of Plato. You ought to know the
'Things that are' from the ordinary point of view, from outside, before
you approach them with the idea of getting inside them, and so raising
them up within yourself as far-shining lives. Afterwards you will
study in a new manner that will seem madness to the common-sensed; and
a Divine Madness indeed it is, for it will lead you to the secret of
the Cross."

Hence the disciple was confronted in due time with a document that
would not yield its secrets to dialectic, a kind of ritual in words
that initiated his intuition into self-knowledge. Intense devotion was
needed, imagination, and will-power. The Gnosis came gradually,
perhaps after the manuscript had been laid aside; it was the effort
towards a sympathetic understanding that mattered, that was rewarde