The Way of Power | Page 8

reached in their development, whereas with common sense
and intelligent suggestion one can begin at any moment to improve the
powers of the third person of that strange trinity which is man--namely,
the body--and thereby begin to clear the channel through which force
flows to the other two. I do not deny that people of frail or crippled
physique have had strong psychic and intellectual perception, but it is
in spite of the physical disability, not because of it; and had their bodies
been in the same efficient working order as (say) the reflectors of an
astronomical instrument they would have had clearer and more
coherent results, less disturbed with the storms and vibrations which
interrupt connection. It is a fact proved by age-long experience that the
body embruted and degraded by intemperate living and misuse of the
sensual pleasures completely blocks the way to the evolution of
intellectual and psychic growth:
The Lord let the house of a brute to the soul of a man,
And the man said, "Am I your debtor?"
And the Lord--"Not yet; but make it as clean as you can,
And then I will let you a better."
In other words, to work without the co-operation of the body is to be
perpetually standing on tip-toe in an unnatural attitude which deflects
attention to itself. Also, happy people are much more likely to do the
best work in psychic science. Misery has a driving force which
sometimes wrings fine intellectual and artistic work out of men as an
escape-valve from its pressure, and because ill-health is misery a man
like Lombroso can point to certain brain and body cripples who have
had what he calls genius. But for the highest forms of art, serene and

sunny consciousness of peace and power is the atmosphere for the most
enduring work, and this applies a thousandfold to psychic wisdom,
where, historically, are seen immortal results attained by those who
have made the body a clear window through which the inward light can
shine.
Therefore health of the body, which includes that transmitter the brain,
is of immense importance for people who wish to attain high results in
the study of the psychic, commonly called the occult, and it is plain
wisdom to neglect no means of attainment, especially the fundamental
one of a body trained to co-operation instead of hindrance.
To those who have experienced this advantage it is really like watching
a dance of lunatics to see how people apparently otherwise competent
to pursue the business of life treat their bodies. Women who consider
the possession of physical beauty the chief business of life as means to
the only end they are capable of understanding destroy it as it were
wilfully, withering its brief blossom by every means in their power.
They eat foods fatal to the circulation and mechanism of the body,
coarsening their skins till all the raddling and rouging in the world only
accentuates the mischief, dulling the luster of their eyes and hair,
driving their bodies into the rebellion of excessive fat or leanness at
ages when they should still be beautiful as figures on a Greek frieze.
Men to whom pellucid clearness of brain is wealth or power, vital to all
their hopes and interests, cloud it with nicotine and alcohol, darken it
with gross and mistaken feeding. Since the brain is part of the body and
the nervous system is the first to cry out against such usage one may
safely say that men and women suffering from the results of such folly
are very ill qualified to run the world's business. When Carlyle wrote
that every sick man was a scoundrel he was with characteristic violence
overstating a case which does not need strengthening, and there is
something to be said for the point of view in Butler's brilliant
"Erewhon" where people suffering from physical disability are brought
before a jury to be judged and condemned accordingly. The Roman
who spoke of "a healthy mind in a healthy body" knew what he was
talking of. And with Carlyle I marvel at what men suffer, not at what
they lose.

In the study of the Occult a healthy body and clear brain are even more
necessary than in the affairs of daily life, because in that strange world
we are explorers. It is ours, yet unknown to us, forgotten, uncharted, in
some ways dangerous. Though the world is really our own we are as
little at home in it at first as the long-lost heir when he returns to his
kingdom and finds the scepter strange and alarming in hands used to
the spade. And it is largely because they have often lacked this physical
calm and poise that we are apt to call those men mad who have
penetrated behind