still higher ones--and in this way only. But we cannot escape Law or
rise above it entirely. Nothing but THE ALL can escape Law--and that
because THE ALL is LAW itself, from which all Laws emerge. The most
advanced Masters may acquire the powers usually attributed to the gods
of men; and there are countless ranks of being, in the great hierarchy
of life, whose being and power transcends even that of the highest
Masters among men to a degree unthinkable by mortals, but even the
highest Master, and the highest Being, must bow to the Law, and be as
Nothing in the eye of THE ALL. So that if even these highest Beings,
whose powers exceed even those attributed by men to their gods--if even
these are bound by and are subservient to Law, then imagine the
presumption of mortal man, of our race and grade, when he dares to
consider the Laws of Nature as "unreal!" visionary and illusory, because
he happens to be able to grasp the truth that the Laws are Mental in
nature, and simply Mental Creations of THE ALL. Those Laws which THE ALL
intends to be governing Laws are not to be defied or argued away. So
long as the Universe endures, will they endure--for the Universe exists
by virtue of these Laws which form its framework and which hold it
together.

The Hermetic Principle of Mentalism, while explaining the true nature of
the Universe upon the principle that all is Mental, does not change the
scientific conceptions of the Universe, Life, or Evolution. In fact,
science merely corroborates the Hermetic Teachings. The latter merely
teaches that the nature of the Universe is "Mental," while modern
science has taught that it is "Material"; or (of late) that it is
"Energy" at the last analysis. The Hermetic Teachings have no fault to
find with Herbert Spencer's basic principle which postulates the
existence of an "Infinite and Eternal Energy, from which all things
proceed." In fact, the Hermetics recognize in Spencer's philosophy the