reverential affection and gratitude are due--his last guru--to divulge
for the benefit of Science and Man, and specially for the good of those
who are courageous enough to personally make the experiment, the
following astounding particulars of the occult methods for prolonging
life to a period far beyond the common.--G.M.]

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* A. Chela is the pupil and disciple of an initiated Guru or
Master.--Ed.
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Probably one of the first considerations which move the worldly-minded
at present to solicit initiation into Theosophy is the belief, or hope,
that, immediately on joining, some extraordinary advantage over the rest
of mankind will be conferred upon the candidate. Some even think that
the ultimate result of their initiation will perhaps be exemption from
that dissolution which is called the common lot of mankind. The
traditions of the "Elixir of Life," said to be in the possession of
Kabalists and Alchemists, are still cherished by students of Medieval
Occultism--in Europe. The allegory of the Ab-e Hyat or Water of Life,
is still credited as a fact by the degraded remnants of the Asiatic
esoteric sects ignorant of the real GREAT SECRET. The "pungent and fiery
Essence," by which Zanoni renewed his existence, still fires the
imagination of modern visionaries as a possible scientific discovery of
the future.

Theosophically, though the fact is distinctly declared to be true, the
above-named conceptions of the mode of procedure leading to the
realization of the fact, are known to be false. The reader may or may