to do likewise;
and which will arouse certain thoughts in your mind, and that of others,
which in turn will affect others, and so on, and on, and on, beyond the
ability of man to think further-and all from the passage of a tiny bit
of soot, all of which shows the relativity and association of things,
and the further fact that "there is no great; there is no small, in the
mind that causeth all."

Stop to think a moment. If a certain man had not met a certain maid,
away back in the dim period of the Stone Age--you who are now reading
these lines would not now be here. And if, perhaps, the same couple had
failed to meet, we who now write these lines would not now be here. And
the very act of writing, on our part, and the act of reading, on yours,
will affect not only the respective lives of yourself and ourselves, but
will also have a direct, or indirect, affect upon many other people now
living and who will live in the ages to come. Every thought we think,
every act we perform, has its direct and indirect results which fit into
the great chain of Cause and Effect.

We do not wish to enter into a consideration of Free Will, or
Determinism, in this work, for various reasons. Among the many reasons,
is the principal one that neither side of the controversy is entirely
right-in fact, both sides are partially right, according to the Hermetic
Teachings. The Principle of Polarity shows that both are but Half-Truths
the opposing poles of Truth. The Teachings are that a man may be both
Free and yet bound by Necessity, depending upon the meaning of the
terms, and the height of Truth from which the matter is examined. The
ancient writers express the matter thus: "The further the creation is
from the Centre, the more it is bound; the nearer the Centre it reaches,
the nearer Free is it."

The majority of people are more or less the slaves of heredity,
environment, etc., and manifest very little Freedom. They are swayed by
the opinions, customs and thoughts of the outside world, and also by
their emotions, feelings, moods, etc. They manifest no Mastery, worthy
of the name. They indignantly repudiate this assertion, saying, "Why, I
certainly am free to act and do as I please--I do just what I want to
do," but they fail to explain whence arise the "want to" and "as I
please." What makes them "want to" do one thing in preference to
another; what makes them "please" to do this, and not do that? Is there
no "because" to their "pleasing"