in even if his appetite were not jaded, nor his
digestion ruined, for the wants, habits and inclinations differ. And so
it is through life. The Law of Compensation is ever in operation,
striving to balance and counter-balance, and always succeeding in time,
even though several lives may be required for the return swing of the
Pendulum of Rhythm.

CHAPTER XII

CAUSATION

"Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause;
everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a
name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of
causation, but nothing escapes the Law."--The Kybalion.

The great Sixth Hermetic Principle--the Principle of Cause and
Effect--embodies the truth that Law pervades the Universe; that nothing
happens by Chance; that Chance is merely a term indicating cause
existing but not recognized or perceived; that phenomena is continuous,
without break or exception.

The Principle of Cause and Effect underlies all scientific thought,
ancient and modern, and was enunciated by the Hermetic Teachers in the
earliest days. While many and varied disputes between the many schools
of thought have since arisen, these disputes have been principally upon
the details of the operations of the Principle, and still more often
upon the meaning of certain words. The underlying Principle of Cause and
Effect has been accepted as correct by practically all the thinkers of
the world worthy of the name. To think otherwise would be to take the
phenomena of the universe from the domain of Law and Order, and to
relegate it; to the control of the imaginary something which men have
called "Chance."

A little consideration will show anyone that there is in reality no such
thing as pure chance. Webster defines the word "Chance" as follows: "A
supposed agent or mode of activity other than a force, law or purpose;
the operation or activity of such agent; the supposed effect of such an
agent; a happening; fortuity; casualty, etc." But a little consideration
will show you that there can be no such agent as "Chance," in the sense
of something outside of Law-something outside of Cause and Effect. How
could there be a something acting in the phenomenal universe,
independent of the laws, order, and continuity of the latter? Such a
something would be entirely independent of the orderly trend of the
universe, and therefore superior to it. We can imagine nothing outside
of THE ALL being outside of the Law, and that o