unquestionable experience; one and the same in all, where difference is merged in objective union.

And Iamblicus moreover asserts, that Theurgic rites conspiring to this end were scientifically disposed and early defined by intellectual canons; neither is it lawful to consider these canons as mutable, since they are the natural faith of life, and alone of all creeds catholic and independent. But to transcend the sensible life in rational energy permanently apart is described as not less difficult than fortunate to attain; hence Plato appropriates the possession of Wisdom to old age, signifying by this Intellect diving intuitively without imaginative error; a Wisdom such as is not worldly, since it by no means belongs to the common life of man, nor is to be hoped for at all either in the early awakening of the life within, but by a transition gradually effected by Art away from the profound strains of a baser affection, it is carried up through the love of truth by faith into vivid contact with its Whole. And the extremity of all evil in this life consists, according to the ancients, in not perceiving the present evil and how much human nature stands in need of amelioration; and this is a part of that twofold ignorance which Plato execrates, which being ignorant that it is ignorant has no desire to emerge, but may be compared to a body all over indurated by diseases, which, being no longer tormented with pain, is neither anxious to be cured. But he who lives in the consciousness of something better will meditate improvement , and desire is the first requisite; indeed, without desire on our part, art will labor for us in vain, since Will is the greatest part of purgation. And through the means of this, says Synesius, both our deeds and discourses extend their hands to assist us in our assent; but this being taken away the soul is deprived of every purifying machine because destitute of assent, which is the greatest pledge of reconciliation. Hence disciplines willingly endured become of far greater utility, while they oppose vexation of evil and banish the love of stupid pleasure from the soul. But the phantastic Spirit may be purified, even in brutes, continues this author, so tht something better may be induced: how much will not the regression of the rational soul be therefore base, if she neglects to restore that which is foreign to her nature, and leaves lingering upon earth that which rightly belongs on high? Since it is possible, by labor and a transition into other lives, for the imaginative soul to be purified and to emerge from this dark abode. And this restoration indeed one or two may obtain as a gift of divinity and initiation. Then, indeed, the soul acquires fortitude with divine assistance, but it is no trifling contest to abrogate the confession and compact which she has made with sense. And in this case force will be employed, for the material inflictors will then be roused to vengeance, by the decrees of fate, against the rebels of her laws; and this is what the Sacred Discourse testifies by the labors of Hercules, and the dangers which he was required to endure, and which every one must experience who bravely contends for liberty, till the Understanding Spirit rises superior to the dominion of nature and is palced beyond the reach of her hands (14). Hence, and from the foregoing evidence, it may have become probable that modern art has hitherto unfolded but a small and inferior part only of the Spirits life; nor has experience yet opened into those temptations and trials which the consciousness must necessarily pass through, all the while regressive, before it reaches into the central illumination of truth. Nor does anything occur to us more beautifully suggestive than the whole the passage, from which we here gather, wherein Synesius describes not only the life that is operated upon and, in graceful terms, the artifice, but shows the conditions of desire and will, so indispensable for advancement, the labors and dangers likewise which attend those who aspire to the upper grades of Intellectual Science. And is it not true, as he remarks so far, we do lead for the most part a phantastic life? Nor least they who least suspect it, for it is the shining of truth that makes this visible, as a cloud before her face. Are we not filled too with conceits and roving imaginations and idols, which we are evermore mistaking for the real good? Do we not abound in sects and dissensions, heresies and doubts, so that scarcely two are to be found agreeing on all points? And the causes are obvious; without a standard and sure foundation to build on, we judge, as we are only able, with the rudimentary faculties and senses that are born in us, and of all nature, as through a glass darkly. If, therefore, with this same misunderstanding and infected Spirit, we enter in for the discovery and contemplation of ourselves, it will be useless; we shall not there discern the true hypostasis, but err amongst the turbulent and shadowy impressures of this of this lifes birth and