re and to know the rules
which govern human life. He obtains this right
by having escaped from the limits of nature
and by having freed himself from the rules
which govern human life. He has become a
recognised portion of the divine element, and
is no longer affected by that which is temporary.
He then obtains a knowledge of the laws
which govern temporary conditions. Therefore
you who desire to understand the laws of
Karma, attempt first to free yourself from
these laws; and this can only be done by
fixing your attention on that which is unaffected
by those laws.

*THROUGH THE GATES OF GOLD*

*Through the

Gates of Gold*

*A FRAGMENT OF THOUGHT*

PROLOGUE

Every man has a philosophy of life of his
own, except the true philosopher. The most
ignorant boor has some conception of his object
in living, and definite ideas as to the easiest
and wisest way of attaining that object. The
man of the world is often, unconsciously to
himself, a philosopher of the first rank. He
deals with his life on principles of the clearest
character, and refuses to let his position be
shattered by chance disaster. The man of
thought and imagination has less certainty,
and finds himself continually unable to formulate
his ideas on that subject most profoundly
interesting to human nature,--human life
itself. The true philosopher is the one who
would lay no claim to the name whatever, who
has discovered that the mystery of life is
unapproachable by ordinary thought, just as
the true scientist confesses his complete
ignorance of the principles which lie behind
science.

Whether there is any mode of thought or
any effort of the mind which will enable a
man to grasp the great principles that evidently
exist as causes in human life, is a
question no ordinary thinker can determine.
Yet the dim consciousness that there is cause
behind the effects we see, that there is order
ruling the chaos and sublime harmony pervading
the discords, haunts the eager souls of the
earth, and makes them long for vision of the
unseen and knowledge of the unknowable.

Why long and look for that which is beyond
all hope until the inner eyes are opened? Why
not piece together the fragments that we have,
at hand, and see whether from them some
shape cannot be given to the vast puzzle?

CHAPTER I

THE SEARCH FOR PLEASURE

I

We are all acquainted with that stern thing
called misery, which pursues man, and strangely
enough,