Equinox I (04).pdf
Equinox I (04).pdf Equinox I (04).pdf
264 THE EQUINOX of high activity, an intuition of the fact that the sensation shall be perceived again in the future unveiling that is to throw open all the past. Prophetically she notes it down upon the indestructible leaves of her diary, assured that it is to come out in the future revelation. Yet we who, from the tendency of our thought, reject all claims to any knowledge of the future, can only acknowledge perceptions as of the present or the past, and accordingly refer the dual realisation to some period gone by. We perceive the correspondence of two sensations, but, by an instantaneous process, give the second one a wrong position in the succession of experiences. The soul is regarded as the historian when she is in reality the sibyl; but the misconception takes place in such a microscopic portion of time that detection is impossible. In the hasheesh expansion of seconds into minutes, or even according to a much mightier ratio, there is an opportunity thoroughly to scrutinise the hitherto evanescent phenomena, and the truth comes out. How many more such prophecies as these may have been rejected through the gross habit of the body we may never know until spirit vindicates her claim in a court where she must have audience. In this world we are but half spirit; we are thus able to hold only the perceptions and emotions of half an orb. Once fully rounded into symmetry ourselves, we shall have strength to bear the pressure of influences from a whole sphere of truth and loveliness. It is this present half-developed state of ours which makes the infinitude of the hasheesh awakening so unendurable, even when its sublimity is the sublimity of delight. We have no
THE HASHEESH EATER longer anything to do with horizons, and the boundary which was at once our barrier and our fortress is removed, until we almost perish from the inflow of perceptions. It would be no hard task to prove, to a strong probability, at least, that the initiation to the Pythagorean mysteries, and the progressive instruction that succeeded it, to a considerable extent consisted in the employment, judiciously, if we may use the word, of hasheesh, as giving a critical and analytic power to the mind, which enabled the neophyte to roll up the murk and mist from beclouded truths till they stood distinctly seen in the splendour of their own harmonious beauty as an intuition. One thing related of Pythagoras and his friends has seemed very striking to me. There is a legend that, as he was passing over a river, its waters called up to him in the presence of his followers, “Hail! Pythagoras.” Frequently, while in the power of the hasheesh dilirium, have I heard inanimate things sonorous with such voices. On every side they have saluted me, from rocks, and trees, and waters, and sky, in my happiness filling me with intense exultation as I heard them welcoming their master; in my agony heaping nameless curses on my head as I went away into an eternal exile from all sympathy. Of this tradition of Iamblichus I feel an appreciation which almost convinces me that the voice of the river was indeed heard, though only by the quickened mind of some hasheesh-glorified esoteric. Again, it may be that the doctrine of the metempsychosis was first communicated to Pythagoras by Theban priests; but the astonishing illustration which hasheesh would contribute to 265
- Page 239 and 240: ACT I GRANDFATHER sunk in melanchol
- Page 241 and 242: MR. TODD OSSORY. Thank you, my dear
- Page 243 and 244: MR. TODD sentiments. I have heard v
- Page 245 and 246: MR. TODD GRANDFATHER. Oh, my sciati
- Page 247 and 248: MR. TODD CARR. —Anything I don't
- Page 249 and 250: MR. TODD not Shaw! Vaughan, or Gore
- Page 251 and 252: MR. TODD DELHOMME. Of you—of thee
- Page 253 and 254: MR. TODD Nothing right nowadays! Oh
- Page 255 and 256: MR. TODD OSSORY. that's it! they wo
- Page 257 and 258: MR. TODD one never knows whether yo
- Page 259 and 260: MR. TODD EUPHEMIA. How splendid! Yo
- Page 261 and 262: MR. TODD I hate you! I hate you! Wh
- Page 263 and 264: THE GNOME Stumbling over the fallen
- Page 265 and 266: REVIEWS DARE TO BE WISE. By JOHN MC
- Page 267: THE HERB DANGEROUS PART IV A FEW EX
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264<br />
THE EQUINOX<br />
of high activity, an intuition of the fact that the sensation shall<br />
be perceived again in the future unveiling that is to throw<br />
open all the past. Prophetically she notes it down upon the<br />
indestructible leaves of her diary, assured that it is to come out<br />
in the future revelation. Yet we who, from the tendency of<br />
our thought, reject all claims to any knowledge of the future,<br />
can only acknowledge perceptions as of the present or the<br />
past, and accordingly refer the dual realisation to some period<br />
gone by. We perceive the correspondence of two sensations,<br />
but, by an instantaneous process, give the second one a wrong<br />
position in the succession of experiences. The soul is<br />
regarded as the historian when she is in reality the sibyl; but<br />
the misconception takes place in such a microscopic portion of<br />
time that detection is impossible. In the hasheesh expansion<br />
of seconds into minutes, or even according to a much mightier<br />
ratio, there is an opportunity thoroughly to scrutinise the<br />
hitherto evanescent phenomena, and the truth comes out.<br />
How many more such prophecies as these may have been<br />
rejected through the gross habit of the body we may never<br />
know until spirit vindicates her claim in a court where she<br />
must have audience.<br />
In this world we are but half spirit; we are thus able to hold<br />
only the perceptions and emotions of half an orb. Once fully<br />
rounded into symmetry ourselves, we shall have strength to<br />
bear the pressure of influences from a whole sphere of truth<br />
and loveliness.<br />
It is this present half-developed state of ours which makes<br />
the infinitude of the hasheesh awakening so unendurable, even<br />
when its sublimity is the sublimity of delight. We have no