For thus in the long history of the soul it serves all our vices.



THE GREAT WHITE ROAD

Now, as I have hinted, under the teaching of Jorsen, who saved me from
degradation and self-murder, yes, and helped me with money until once
again I could earn a livelihood, I have acquired certain knowledge and
wisdom of a sort that are not common. That is, Jorsen taught me
the elements of these things; he set my feet upon the path which
thenceforward, having the sight, I have been able to follow for myself.
How I followed it does not matter, nor could I teach others if I would.

I am no member of any mystic brotherhood, and, as I have explained, no
Mahatma, although I have called myself thus for present purposes because
the name is a convenient cloak. I repeat that I am ignorant if there
are such people as Mahatmas, though if so I think Jorsen must be one
of them. Still he never told me this. What he has told is that every
individual spirit must work out its own destiny quite independently
of others. Indeed, being rather fond of fine phrases, he has sometimes
spoken to me of, or rather, insisted upon what he called "the lonesome
splendour of the human soul," which it is our business to perfect
through various lives till I can scarcely appreciate and am certainly
unable to describe.

To tell the truth, the thought of this "lonesome splendour" to which
it seems some of us may attain, alarms me. I have had enough of being
lonesome, and I do not ask for any particular splendour. My only