ese rhythmic swings of feeling, and will enable him to
know himself better and to avoid being carried away by these inflows and
outflows. The Will is superior to the conscious manifestation of this
Principle, although the Principle itself can never be destroyed. We may
escape its effects, but the Principle operates, nevertheless. The
pendulum ever swings, although we may escape being carried along with
it.

There are other features of the operation of this Principle of Rhythm of
which we wish to speak at this point. There comes into its operations
that which is known as the Law of Compensation. One of the definitions
or meanings of the word "Compensate" is, "to counterbalance" which is
the sense in which the Hermetists use the term. It is this Law of
Compensation to which the Kybalion refers when it says: "The measure of
the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm
compensates."

The Law of Compensation is that the swing in one direction determines
the swing in the opposite direction, or to the opposite pole-the one
balances, or counterbalances, the other. On the Physical Plane we see
many examples of this Law. The pendulum of the clock swings a certain
distance to the right, and then an equal distance to the left. The
seasons balance each other in the same way. The tides follow the same
Law. And the same Law is manifested in all the phenomena of Rhythm. The
pendulum, with a short swing in one direction, has but a short swing in
the other; while the long swing to the right invariably means the long
swing to the left. An object hurled upward to a certain height has an
equal distance to traverse on its return. The force with which a
projectile is sent upward a mile is reproduced when the projectile
returns to the earth on its return journey. This Law is constant on the
Physical Plane, as reference to the standard authorities will show you.

But the Hermetists carry it still further. They teach that a man's
mental states are subject to the same Law. The man who enjoys keenly, is
subject to keen suffering; while he who feels but little pain is capable
of feeling but little joy. The pig suffers but little mentally, and
enjoys but little--he is compensated. And on the other hand, there are
other animals who enjoy keenly, but whose nervous organism and
temperament cause them to suffer exquisite degrees of pain and so it is
with Man. There are temperaments which permit of but low degrees of
enjoyme