to remain and support her fatherless children)--as to keep down and
vanquish, for a short time, the physical throes of a body to which it
has become temporarily superior.

The whole rationale then, of the first condition of continued existence
in this world, is (a) the development of a Will so powerful as to
overcome the hereditary (in a Darwinian sense) tendencies of the atoms
composing the "gross" and palpable animal frame, to hurry on at a
particular period in a certain course of Kosmic change; and (b) to so
weaken the concrete action of that animal frame as to make it more
amenable to the power of the Will. To defeat an army, you must
demoralize and throw it into disorder.

To do this then, is the real object of all the rites, ceremonies, fasts,
"prayers," meditations, initiations and procedures of self-discipline
enjoined by various esoteric Eastern sects, from that course of pure and
elevated aspiration which leads to the higher phases of Adeptism Real,
down to the fearful and disgusting ordeals which the adherent of the
"Left-hand-Road" has to pass through, all the time maintaining his
equilibrium. The procedures have their merits and their demerits, their
separate uses and abuses, their essential and non-essential parts, their
various veils, mummeries, and labyrinths. But in all, the result aimed
at is reached, if by different processes. The Will is strengthened,
encouraged and directed, and the elements opposing its action are
demoralized. Now, to any one who has thought out and connected the
various evolution theories, as taken, not from any occult source, but
from the ordinary scientific manual accessible to all--from the
hypothesis of the latest variation in the habits of species--say, the
acquisition of carnivorous habits by the New Zealand parrot, for
instance--to the farthest glimpses backwards into Space and Eternity