denser planes of matter than even the physical.
It is a strange thing that the highest should pair with the lowest where
man is concerned, but it ever remains true that the higher we climb the
lower we may fall.

Man is much the same in nature at all times, and though the Art was
practised in its purity by the great World-Teachers and their immediate
followers, whether we call it by the name Magic or no, it ever fell
into abuse and degeneracy owing to the ingrained ignorance and
selfishness of man. Thus the Deity and Gods or Daemons of one nation
became the Devil and Demons of another; the names were changed, the
facts remained the same. For if we are to reject all such things as
superstition, hallucination, and what not, the good must go with the
bad. But facts, whether good or bad, are still facts, and man is still
man, no matter how he changes the fashion of his belief. The followers
of the World-Teachers cannot hold to the so-called "miracles" of their
respective Masters and reject all others as false in fact, no matter
from what source they may believe they emanate. In nature there can be
nothing supernatural, and as man stands mid-way between the divine and
infernal, if we accept the energizing of the one side of his nature, we
must also accept that of the other. Both are founded on nature and
science, both are under law and order.

The great Master of Christendom is reported to have told his disciples
that if they had but faith they should do greater works than even he had
done. Either this was false or else the followers have been false to
their Teacher. There is no escape from the dilemma. And such "works" are
to be wrought by divine Magic alone, or if the term be disliked, by
whatever name the great Science of the Soul and Divine things may be
called.

For the last two hundred years or so it has been the fashion to deride
all such matters, perhaps owing to a reaection against over-credulity on
the part of those who held to the letter of the law and forgot its
spirit; but to-day it is no longer possible to entirely set aside this
all-important part of man's nature, and it now calls for as strict a
scientific treatment as the facts of the physical universe have been
subjected to.

Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism and Psychical Research, are the
cloud no bigger than a man's hand that is forcing the facts of Magic
again on the attention of both the theological and scientific world.
Hypnotism and Psychical