"He is
not an atheist who denies the existence of the gods, whom the multitude
worship, but he is such who fastens on these gods the opinions of the
multitude." In his turn, Aristotle declares that of the "Divine Essence
pervading the whole world of Nature, what are styled the gods are simply
the first principles."
Plotinus, the pupil of the "God-taught" Ammonius, tells us that the
secret gnosis or the knowledge of Theosophy, has three degrees-opinion,
science, and illumination. "The means or instrument of the first is
sense, or perception; of the second, dialectics; of the third,
intuition. To the last, reason is subordinate; it is absolute
knowledge, founded on the identification of the mind with the object
known." Theosophy is the exact science of psychology, so to say; it
stands in relation to natural, uncultivated mediumship, as the knowledge
of a Tyndall stands to that of a school-boy in physics. It develops in
man a direct beholding; that which Schelling denominates "a realization
of the identity of subject and object in the individual;" so that under
the influence and knowledge of hyponia man thinks divine thoughts, views
all things as they really are, and, finally, "becomes recipient of the
Soul of the World," to use one of the finest expressions of Emerson.
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