My Library

were a man of glass; and he attains this power by becoming a Rosicrucian only, nor can it be had through any other means whatever. The Temple teaches its acolytes how to rebuild this regal faculty of the human soul—the will; how to strengthen, purify, expand, and intensify it; and one of the first results observable after a man has become a true Rosicrucian, is that his vanity grows smaller by degrees, and beautifully less; for the first thing he fully realizes is that all he knows would probably make quite a large book, but that all he does not know would make a book considerably larger, and he therefore sets himself to learn. Where there’s a will there’s a way; and after getting rid of self-conceit, the man finds himself increasing in mental stature by imperceptible gradations, and finds himself a learned man by a process which he cannot fairly comprehend, and one which is neither appreciated or known outside of the Temple. As a consequence of travelling on this royal road to knowledge, the Rosicrucian soon learns to despise the weakness of wickedness, not by reason of any long-faced cant being poured into his ear, but because he finds out practically that manhood and virtue are safe investments, while badness or meanness won’t pay. It is the universal testimony of all who have become true Rosicrucians, that within its symbolic walls there is a deeply mysterious influence for good pervading its atmosphere, under which every