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initiation must first be "worthy and well-qualified, duly and truly
prepared."

This comprises and constitutes the "Lesser Mysteries," as in the School of
Pythagoras, viz.: the instruction of the neophyte in ethics or morals.

Nor is this instruction sufficient in any case. The candidate must himself
demonstrate that he has absorbed, apprehended, and utilized such
instruction by "_Living the Life_."

In other words, it must have become so ingrained in his character as to
govern absolutely all his acts and impulses to action, i.e., automatic,
habitual, and natural.

In the School of Natural Science this comprises and constitutes the
"Ethical Section of the General Formulary."

In the School of Pythagoras we are informed that students sometimes
remained for years in the "outer court," and sometimes they failed
entirely and hopelessly, and went back to the outer world. Whereupon a
white stone was erected to their memory as though they were dead. They
were indeed, for the time being, dead to the School.

This fully answers the ethical question as to the effect of this real
knowledge on the individual and on mankind.

The real Master sees to it that all that precaution can provide, or human
wisdom can suggest, is done to insure beneficent _use_ of the knowledge
gained.

It is here that "degrees" in initiation become a necessity. Every step, or
passage of the candidate from a lower to a higher degree, is marked and
determined finally and solely by his "proficiency in the preceding
degree."

The question of Morals, or the ethical effect, therefore, is
pre-determined, and as far as possible, solved first.

But even with all this wise precaution, the unprepared and the unqualified
have sometimes entered the outer courts; and when compelled at last to
reveal their character, have turned to rend their teachers, and have done
their utmost to destroy the School and demoralize mankind.

If these moral renegades could only realize the _meaning to themselves_ of
thus entering the "Left-hand Path" of devolution and of starting
voluntarily "down the deep descent," as portrayed in Dante's "Inferno," or
in Ahrinzeman, they would, indeed, hesitate long before "turning to the
left," for inevitable destruction lies that way.

Here lies the scientific explanation of the "Fall of Lucifer," portrayed
in some form in the pantheons and mythologies of every philosophy and
religion known to man.

The ordinary "sinner" may yet poss