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 !^iiC
 
 THE 
 UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER
 
 " M. de Saint-Martin was in the last analysis a man of 
 extraordinary merit, and of a noble and independent char- 
 acter. When his ideas were comprehensible they were 
 exalted and altogether of a superior kind." — Chateau- 
 briand. 
 
 . " The most instructed, thg_wisest. and the rngsXelegant of 
 %^ modem theosophists, Saint-Martin." — Count Joseph de 
 Maistre. 
 
 " It is just to recognise that never had mysticism possessed 
 in France a representative more complete, an interpreter 
 m ore profoun d and eloquent, or one who exercised more 
 influence than Saint-Martin." — Victor Cousin. 
 
 "A French writer who has sublime gleams." — Madame 
 DE StaEl. 
 
 " The feet of Saint-Martin are on earth, but his head is in 
 heaven." — Joubert. 
 
 " M. de Saint-Martin calls, for study, or at least for 
 superficial knowledge, even on the part of those who, pro- 
 fane like ourselves, do not presume to penetrate into what 
 is obscure, occult, and reserved, as they say, for the initiates, 
 in his doctrine." — Sainte-Beuve. 
 
 " Saint-Martin has not as yet taken the place which is due 
 to him in modern literature." — M. Matter. 
 
 "Saint-Martin should have his rank, a rank certainly 
 among the most honourable in the history of the mystics." — 
 M. Caro.
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 LOUIS CLAUDE DE 
 SAINT-MARTIN 
 
 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 AND THE SUBSTANCE OF HIS TRANSCENDENTAL 
 DOCTRINE 
 
 BY 
 
 ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE 
 
 Author of " Devil- Worship in France" 
 AND Translator of ^liphas L^vi 
 
 " Expliquer les choses par I'homme, et non pas 
 I'homme par les choses." — Des Erreurs et de la 
 Verite. 
 
 " L'homme est le mot de tous les ^nigmes. " — 
 De V Esprit des Choses. 
 
 PHILIP WELLBY 
 
 6 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN 
 
 LONDON 
 
 1901
 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAOB 
 
 PEEFACE ix 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 THE LIFE OF SAINT-MARTIN 
 
 I. In the World Without . . . . • 17 
 
 II. In the Occult World ...... 34 
 
 III. In the Inward Man 51 
 
 IV. Later History of Martinism . . . . -63 
 
 BOOK II 
 
 SOURCES OF MARTINISTIC DOCTRINE 
 
 I. Eeception and Tradition . . . . '77 
 
 II. Swedenborg and Bobhme . . . . -87 
 
 III. Saint-Martin and the Occult Sciences . . 99 
 
 BOOK III 
 
 THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN 
 
 I. Introductory . . . . . . • 113 
 
 II. The Inward Way 123 
 
 III. Good and Evil . . . . . .126 
 
 IV. The Two Principles 129 
 
 7(M f58B
 
 VI 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 V. Op Liberty in Man , 
 VI. Man in his First Estate . 
 
 1. Spiritual Generation 
 
 2. Union with the Good Principle 
 
 3. Man, the Organ of Divine Order 
 
 4. Tlie First Envelope of Man 
 
 5. The Book of Man . 
 
 VII. Primeval Mission of Man . 
 VIII. The Fall of Man 
 IX. General Consequences of the Fall 
 X. Man and Nature « , 
 
 XI. The Privation of Man 
 XII. Immortality and Death 
 XIII. The State after Death 
 
 PAOE 
 
 139 
 144 
 
 144 
 147 
 150 
 153 
 153 
 
 159 
 166 
 
 175 
 
 183 
 
 200 
 207 
 
 BOOK IV 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE REPAIRER 
 
 I. The Active and Intelligent Cause 
 II. The Word and its Manifestation 
 
 III. The Eternal Love .... 
 
 IV. The Great Name .... 
 V. The Mission of the Eepairer 
 
 221 
 
 227 
 236 
 
 239 
 
 247 
 
 BOOK V 
 
 THE WAY OF REINTEGRATION 
 
 I. Regeneration . 
 II. The New Man 
 III. Steps in the Way 
 
 1. The Door of the Way 
 
 2. The First Work of Man 
 
 3. Man the Thought of God 
 
 251 
 
 258 
 
 278 
 
 278 
 280 
 282
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Vll 
 
 4. The Communication of Spiritual Life 
 
 5. The Divine Contemplation 
 
 6. The Universal Ameliorator 
 
 7. Angelic Ministry of Man 
 
 8. The Secret of the New Man . 
 
 9. The Two Species of Mystery . 
 
 10. The Concealed Being .... 
 
 11. The Three Epochs in the Treatment of the 
 
 Human Soul ..... 
 
 12. The Medicine of Man .... 
 
 13. Prayer ....... 
 
 PAQB 
 289 
 294 
 296 
 298 
 300 
 
 306 
 
 307 
 308 
 312 
 
 BOOK VI 
 
 MINOR DOCTRINES OF SAINT-MARTIN 
 
 I. The Doctrine of External Religion 
 
 1. The Exoteric Church 
 
 2. Christianity and Catholicism . 
 
 3. The Mysterium Fidei 
 
 II. Political Philosophy of Saint-Martin 
 III. Some Aphorisms and Maxims of Saint-Martin 
 
 327 
 
 327 
 337 
 343 
 
 348 
 358 
 
 BOOK VII 
 
 THE MYSTICAL PHILOSOPHY OF NUMBERS 
 
 I. Saint-Martin on Mathematical Science , .379 
 
 II. The Philosophy of Numbers . . . . .393 
 III. The Mystical Table of the Correspondences 
 
 between the Ten Numbers 398 
 
 1. The Monad 398 
 
 2. The Duad , 400 
 
 3. The Triad ....... 401 
 
 4. The Tetrad ....... 403 
 
 5. The Pentad ....... 405 
 
 6. The Hexad ....... 407
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 PAQB 
 
 7. The Heptad 408 
 
 8. The Ogdoad ....... 410 
 
 9. The Ennead . . . . . . .412 
 
 10. The Decad . . . . . . .413 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 I. Prayers op Saint-Martin 417 
 
 II. Metrical Exercises op Saint-Martin . . -433 
 
 III. Bibliography ........ 439 
 
 IV. Martinism and the Masonic Eitb op Swbdenborq 459 
 
 INDEX 463
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Amidst the fever of the French Revolution we find 
 certain men, whether actively or not participating 
 in the turmoil of the time, whose intellectual eyes 
 were fixed far off amidst the luminous peace of another 
 and truer order. Here it is the Marquis de Condorcet, 
 while the chaotic forces of the Reign of Terror are 
 surging madly round his quiet study. Again, it is 
 the author of Obermami, forlorn philosophic exile 
 amidst "the scented pines of Switzerland." And, 
 once more, it is Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, as 
 isolated amongst the peaks of his spiritual aspirations 
 as ever was £ltienne Pivert de Sdnancour amidst the 
 Alpine snows. Of these three, all after their manner 
 illustrious, Saint-Martin only had a message of per- 
 manent importance to the human race. Condorcet 
 was a materialist, and, in the restricted sense, an 
 infidel, who looked to the State for salvation ; his 
 considerable gifts were useful perhaps in their day, 
 and he has passed with it, not untenderly remem- 
 bered, but still to be classed among those whose 
 prophecies have been made void and those whose 
 tongues have failed. The ice of intellectual despair 
 had enervated the soul of Senancour before he went 
 to dwell under the shadow of Jaman, and he, who 
 rightly called himself un solitaire inconnu, had no 
 anodyne for himself or his age. Too sad and too
 
 X PREFACE 
 
 lonely, perhaps in a measure too exalted, to connect 
 with the admitted interests of the reading and think- 
 ing world, he remains, as he was, unknown rather 
 than forgotten, and it would therefore serve no pur- 
 pose to exhibit the singular parallel which subsists, 
 somewhat deep down, between the pessimist of Leman, 
 who, after some undetermined manner, looked for a 
 refuge in Eternity, and the gentle, melancholy, hopeful 
 mystic who looked for a refuge from himself in a 
 union between God and man, and an answer to all 
 enigmas in the spiritual advent of the Word of God 
 in the soul. On the surface, however, the Unknown 
 Solitary recalls readily enough the Unknown Philo- 
 sopher, and precisely the same spirit which took 
 Senancour to the mountains caused Saint-Martin 
 to lead the hidden life at Paris, at Lyons, at Stras- 
 bourg, neither solitary nor unknown, but a prominent 
 figure in high circles of society. 
 
 In France itself le philosophe inconnu is not in- 
 adequately remembered, though that remembrance 
 is of the man rather than the mystic, and might be 
 regarded by his admirers, who are still numerous, 
 as standing in the place of knowledge. His chief 
 works circulated far and wide at their period, and 
 some of them were often reprinted. Within com- 
 paratively recent years he has been the subject of 
 four notable biographies,^ of which one at least has 
 high literary claims, and a fifth has been promised 
 
 ^ Saint-Martin, le Philosophe Inconnu, sa Vie et ses £crits, son Mattre 
 Martinez et leurs Groupes. D'apres des Documents ine'dits. Par M. 
 Matter, Coiiseiller honoraire de I'Universite de France, &.c. Paris, 1862, 
 and second edition, 1864. 
 
 Du Mysticisme au Dixhuitidme SiecU. Par E. M. Caro. Paris, 1852. 
 
 Le Philosophe Inconnu, Reflexions sur les Ide'es de Louis Claude de Saint
 
 PREFACE xi 
 
 us from the pen of Gerard Encausse, better known 
 under the occult pseudonym of Papus, and the actual 
 president of the Martinist Order of France, in which 
 capacity he has access to many precious unpublished 
 documents. 
 
 In England Saint-Martin is chiefly known to 
 Mystics by two rare translations, the work of the 
 late Mr, Edward B. Penny, who so long and ably 
 represented the higher aspects of the tradition of 
 William Law. But the "Ministry of Man the 
 Spirit" and the " Theosophic Correspondence," impor- 
 tant and valuable as they are, which were thus made 
 accessible for a season, are not in themselves suffi- 
 cient. We have in the one case a development of 
 the teaching of Saint-Martin under the influence 
 of Jacob Boehme's theosophy, which presupposes an 
 acquaintance with most of the earlier works, while 
 on the other we have a single side only of the 
 writer's personality — rich, indeed, in the things of 
 the spirit, yet requiring elucidation almost at every 
 page from the side of his outward life and from 
 his formal philosophic treatises. It is, therefore, an 
 unattempted as well as a pleasant task to ofler in 
 English vesture the story and the message of this 
 saintly and illuminated thinker, which many trans- 
 cendental interests have at the present moment 
 combined to make possible ; and more even than 
 possible, for they would appear to indicate a special 
 and felicitous opportunity. One of these interests, 
 and the one only which calls for any mention in this 
 
 JIartin, le Theosophe; suivies de fragments d'une Correspondance inedite 
 entre Samt- Martin et Kirchberger. Par L. Moreau. Paris, 1850. 
 
 La Philosophic Mystique en France d la Fin du Dixhuitieme Siicle. 
 Saint-Martin et son Maitre Martinez Pasqualis. Par Adolphe Franck. 
 Paris, 1 866.
 
 xii PREFACE 
 
 place, is in connection with that school of Martinism 
 which was referred to in the preceding paragraph. 
 Connected, as its name indicates, with Saint- Martin 
 himself, this unobtrusive body of esoteric students 
 has of late years spread far beyond the confine,? ,,Q,f 
 its native country, hayipg branches. ..established in 
 England, but findipg,it§,:<^y;id.e^t diffusion in America. 
 To the members of this Order the claim of the work 
 which I have undertaken will scarcely need adver- 
 tisement ; but for all students of mystic thought 
 the personality and the philosophy of the French 
 Mystic possess real interest, as they will also on 
 acquaintance for many persons who, without being 
 consciously mystics, know something of the joys and 
 sorrows of the life within. 
 
 As regards the work itself and the manner in 
 which it has been accomplished, I must not shrink 
 from saying that it has been done zealously and 
 sincerely within its own lines. It should be observed 
 that the writings of Saint-Martin would be con- 
 siderable in a collected form, and would, in fact, 
 if completely translated, fill something like twelve 
 large volumes. For an enterprise of this kind, with 
 all regard to Mystic interests, there is no public at 
 this day, nor is a difi"use author, who also frequently 
 fails in clearness, best presented at full length. It 
 has been possible, therefore, to give only the sub- 
 stance of his doctrine, and in performing this task I 
 have had two ends chiefly in view — in the first place, 
 to provide a clear introduction to the theosophical 
 system of Saint-Martin for the guidance of those 
 who would prosecute the study of the originals ; 
 and, in the second place, to furnish that much more 
 numerous class who have no opportunities for such
 
 PREFACE xiii 
 
 a study with a synopsis which will serve for the 
 whole. Whatsoever has seemed to me of value is 
 represented here to the best of my ability ; where 
 it stands in my own words, it does not deviate from 
 the spirit of the originals, and these portions have 
 been supplemented throughout by direct translation. 
 It may well be that in some points my faculty of 
 appreciation has erred, and here I must ask the 
 lenience of those who know Saint-Martin in their 
 judgment upon a difficult undertaking. 
 
 It may be well, in conclusion, to advise those 
 readers who will make their first acquaintance with 
 Saint-Martin in these pages, that he was a Christian 
 Mystic, whose original inspiration was drawn from 
 the mysticism of the Latin Church, which, however, 
 repudiated his views by placing one at least of the 
 works which contained them on the Index of for- 
 bidden books. That he was not consciously separated 
 from the Church is said to have been sufficiently 
 witnessed by the keenness with which he felt this 
 condemnation. At the same time he retracted noth- 
 ing, and discerning as he did the evil days upon 
 which official religion had fallen, he remained osten- 
 sibly within its circle, though perhaps no longer of it, 
 but was in all respects the most enlightened, most 
 liberal, and most catholic of the later Christian 
 transcendentalists.
 
 BOOK I 
 
 THE LIFE OF SAINT-MAETIN
 
 THE 
 
 UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 m THE WORLD WITHOUT 
 
 The name of Saint-Martin never appeared in liis life- 
 time on the title-page of any one of the numerous 
 works with which that name is now connected. He 
 wrote, in most instances, under the pseudonym of 
 " The Unknown Philosopher," once as a " Lover of 
 Secret Things," when the publication pretended to be 
 posthumous, and once quite anonymously, if the at- 
 tribution in the instance referred to must be regarded 
 as correct.^ Furthermore, at the beginning of his 
 literary career, he took other steps for the conceal- 
 ment of his identity ; by example, two books which 
 were issued in reality at Lyons bear the imprint of 
 Edinburgh, and one of them has a publisher's ad- 
 vertisement describing the MS. as obtained from 
 an unknown person, and pretending to distinguish 
 a dual authorship therein. The grounds for this 
 
 1 In the case of Le Livre Rouge, coucerning which the reader may 
 consult the bibliography in the third section of the Appendix. I should 
 add that Ecce Homo, Le Nouvel Homme, and some political pamphlets, 
 do not bear the pseudonym on their titles, but as it transpires in the 
 text that they are the work of the Unknown Philosopher, they belong 
 to the pseudonymous series. 
 
 '7 B
 
 1 8 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 secrecy, and the excuse for these evasions, so op- 
 posed to the modern spirit and too frequently con- 
 nected in the past with the devices of quackery, 
 must be sought, firstly, in the writer's affiliation with 
 occult societies, which enjoined, and could perhaps 
 enforce, reserve in their disciples ; secondly, in the 
 danfjers of the time, for Saint-Martin lived at the 
 period, and was a figure on the scene, of the French 
 Revolution ; thirdly, in social and family considera- 
 tions, which would, perhaps, weigh more strongly 
 than all with a member of the " privileged " and also 
 proscribed classes at that period. It was, therefore, 
 in the absence of any such extrinsic advantages as 
 the name and position of their author that the books 
 of Saint- Martin acquired such extensive appreciation, 
 criticism, and opposition ; that his first treatise, "Of 
 'Errors and of Truth," had forged sequels and false 
 'keys supplied to it, after the best manner of the 
 school of Voltaire ; or that his books, passing into 
 Germany, were not only translated by admirers who 
 knew nothing of the Unknown Philosopher, but were 
 made the subject of elaborate commentaries, not 
 without interest, and perhaps some value, even at the 
 present day. It should be added that in his private 
 life Saint-Martin did nothing to evade his literary 
 connections, though he sometimes counselled caution 
 to the admirers who approached him, and certainly 
 for many years before he died there was no doubt as 
 to the identity of the philosopher. The publication 
 of his posthumous works in the year 1809, though 
 it first avowed the authorship, did little more than 
 register an open secret. 
 
 The precautions of Saint-Martin were unneces- 
 sary : in no recorded instance did he experience any
 
 IN THE WORLD AVITHOUT 19 
 
 inconvenience for philosophical opinions, though he 
 suffered confiscation of property because of his social 
 rank. 
 
 Louis Claude de Saint-Martin was born at Am- 
 boise, in the province of Touraine, on January 18, 
 1743. He was the son of pious and noble parents, 
 and though he lost his mother a few days after his 
 birth, her place was filled by the second marriage of 
 his father so completely and so tenderly that, as he 
 tells us himself, filial respect and afi"ection became for 
 him a sacred sentiment/ He was brought up strictly 
 in the faith of the Catholic Church, devotion to God 
 and the love of men being impressed ineffaceably on 
 his mind, over which his second mother seems to 
 have exercised an especial influence. " I owe her," he 
 says, "my entire felicity, since it was from her that 
 I derived the first elements of that sweet, solicitous, 
 and pious education by which I was led alike to the 
 love of God and of men. I recall having experienced 
 in her society a great interior detachment, alike in- 
 structive and healthful. My thought was set free in 
 her presence, and it would have been thus always, 
 had we been subject to no interference ; but there 
 were, unhappily, other witnesses from whom we were 
 forced to hide ourselves, as though our intent were 
 evil. 
 
 He was of fragile physique and extreme con- 
 stitutional delicacy, which is, perhaps, all that we 
 need infer from the one other statement concerning 
 his early childhood that we owe to his own record : 
 " I changed skins seven times in my suckling, and it 
 
 * Portrait Historique et Philosophique de M. de Saint-Martin, fait par 
 lui-meme. (Euvres Posthumes, vol. i. p. lo. 
 2 Ibid., p. 15.
 
 20 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 is possibly to these accidents that I owe the de- 
 ficiency of my astral part." ^ This weakness, what- 
 ever its origin, remained with him as a defect of his 
 manhood : he was little capaljle of fatigue, unfitted 
 for any exposure, and could not risk travelling, even 
 by easy stages, during an inclement season. He 
 was not the less a man of physical as well as great 
 intellectual activity, by no means disposed to spare 
 himself, or to shrink from the duties of his station. 
 
 He was sent at an early age to the College of 
 Pontlevoi ; but of this period we possess only one 
 memorial — it is that in reality of his first introduc- 
 tion to the mystic life. It was there, as he tells us, 
 that a work on Self-Knowledge by Abadie fell into 
 his hands. He read it with delight, and seems to 
 have understood it, even at that early age, which, 
 he adds, should not seem surprising, as it was senti- 
 mental rather than profound. It was in either case 
 to this forgotten, and in some respects inconsider- 
 able, treatise that he ascribes his life-long detachment 
 from the world." 
 
 Destined by his father for the law, Saint-Martin 
 proceeded from Pontlevoi to a school of jurisprudence, 
 probably at Orleans, where he imbibed from the 
 writings of Burlamaqui his taste for the natural 
 foundations of human justice and human reason,^ 
 but found little to engage him in administrative 
 rules and technicalities. Though he completed his 
 course, receiving his bonnet as King's Advocate at 
 the High Court of Tours, and had everything to 
 expect from the influential offices of the Due de 
 
 1 Portrait Historique et Philosophique de 31. de Saint-Martin, fait par 
 lui-meme. (Euvres Posthumes, vol. i. p. 4. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 58. 3 Ibid., p. 58.
 
 IN THE WORLD WITHOUT 21 
 
 Choiseul, a friend of his family, lie was conscious 
 not only of distaste, but of incompetence, and he 
 besought the permission of his parents to retire from 
 a profession which, at the best, must have absorbed 
 his whole time without commanding any of his 
 higher interests. It was not improbably the equal 
 influence of the same patron over promotion in the 
 military service which induced the elder Saint- 
 Martin to consent that the profession of law should 
 be exchanged for that of arms, and in 1766 the Due 
 de Choiseul procured for his prot^g^ a lieutenant's 
 commission in the regiment of Foix, then garrisoned 
 at Bordeaux. To the inclinations of Saint-Martin 
 it is certain that the new calling conceded nothing, 
 but in the time of peace which followed the Treaty 
 of Versailles it left him abundant leisure, which he 
 devoted to his engrossing studies, namely, religion 
 and philosophy. He was not yet twenty-four years 
 of age, and he had already exhausted everything 
 that the fashionable speculation of the period could 
 offer to his understanding ; he had been dazzled by 
 the brilliance of Voltaire, he had been fascinated 
 by the natural magician of Geneva, but he had been 
 misled by neither.^ Through what mental processes 
 he had passed since he fell under the influence 
 of Abadie does not transpire, but as the " Art of 
 Self-Knowledge " had led him to renounce the world, 
 and as Burlamaqui had attached him to the principles 
 
 1 His admiration for Rousseau remained with him through all his 
 life. Had the author of the "Confessions" fallen into enlightened 
 hands he believed that his fruit would have been truly great. More 
 than once he compared Rousseau with himself, to the advantage of the 
 former, and was struck with the similarity of their tastes and the 
 resemblance between the judgments formed of them. He observed 
 also some likeness in their temporal vicissitudes, due allowance being 
 made for the difference of their positions.
 
 2 2 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 of sovereign justice, so to another master he owed 
 his entrance into what he terms the " superior 
 truths." On this occasion, however, his authority 
 was not a book, but the oracles of a living teacher. 
 
 When Saint-Martin joined his regiment we have 
 seen that it was stationed at Bordeaux. Thither in 
 the late spring of the year 1767 came Don Martines 
 de Pasqually de la Tour, otherwise Martinez de Pas- 
 quales, an initiate of the Rose Cross, a transfigured 
 disciple of Swedenb ^^ gg, and the propagator and 
 GruuJ Sovcreio-n of a rite of Masonic Illuminism 
 which probably was of his own foundation, namely, 
 the Order of the Elect Cohens. The researches of 
 Dr. Gerard Encausse,^ already mentioned in the 
 preface to this work, have cleared up many points in 
 the life of this extraordinary personage : they have 
 done something to show that he was a Spaniard 
 rather than a Portuguese, as previously believed ; 
 they have established that he was not a member 
 of the Jewish faith, nor also, so far as can be told, 
 even of Jewish extraction, but that he was a Christian 
 who, at least officially speaking, conformed to the 
 observances of the Catholic Church ; they have given 
 us the date of his marriage, the date of his son's 
 birth, and as much as we are likely to know con- 
 cerning; the circumstances of his death at Port-au- 
 Prince, island of St. Domingo, in 1 774. The essential 
 mysteries of his life, his early history, the sources of 
 his occult knowledge, the meaning which we are to 
 attach to the statement that he was a Rosicrucian — 
 these points, on which documentary evidence seems 
 
 ^ U Rluminisme en France. Martines de Pasqually ; sa vie, ses pratiques 
 magiques, son osiivre, ses disciples, d)C. Par Papus {i.e. Gerard Encausse). 
 Paris, 1895. The term Cohen signifies priest.
 
 IN THE WORLD WITHOUT 23 
 
 wanting, they have not cleared up. We learn upon 
 earlier authority^ that so far back as the year 1754, 
 while Saint-Martin was still in his childhood, spelling 
 over the first words of Self-Knowledge in the primer 
 of Abadie, his future instructor was establishing a 
 centre of Illuminism at Paris. There can be no doubt 
 that this organised centre was identical with the Order 
 which thirteen years later he brought to Bordeaux, 
 invested with all the majesty of a sovereign tribunal, 
 and affiliated with many Masonic lodges of Eastern 
 France. 
 
 The purpose of Pasqually was not political, nor 
 is there any trace of a financial motive in his pro- 
 ceedings, though there is evidence of financial em- 
 barrassments." The order of the Elect Cohens was 
 devoted to the practical study of an occult science 
 and the application of the principles of an occult 
 philosophy, of which Pasqually was the depositary, 
 and of which also he does not seem to have divulged 
 the final secrets. It is claimed, however, and appears 
 on the face of the documents, that the initiations he 
 imparted off"ered practical results to his disciples, and 
 in this case they were genuine so far as they went. 
 It remains further to be said that they exercised a 
 conspicuous influence over many persons who re- 
 ceived them, and among these over the young 
 subaltern in the regiment of Foix, for Saint-Martin 
 was admitted into the Order between August 3 and 
 October 2, 1768. According to the plan of this 
 notice, his occult experiences are reserved for par- 
 
 ^ Saint-Martin le Philosoplie Inconnu, sa vie et ses ecrits. Par M. 
 Matter. 2nd edition, Paris, 1864, p. 9. 
 
 2 Papus, Marlines de Pasqually. See especially the letter of 
 Willermoz, cited in extenso, p. 42, et seq. Also pp. 49, 53, 55, 59.
 
 24 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 ticular consideration in another section ; we are here 
 concerned only with the manifest results of an initia- 
 tion which proved a turning-point in the life of its 
 most illustrious recipient. 
 
 As already seen, he believed himself to be on the 
 path of the superior truths. More accurately, this 
 was the view which found expression in his private 
 memoranda over twenty years after.^ In 1768 he 
 would have spoken possibly with greater enthusiasm 
 concerning the secret knowledge in which he became 
 a participant. That knowledge affected him in two 
 ways at the moment : it drew him to the person of 
 his initiator, who mentions in one of his letters that 
 " the Master de Saint-Martin labours incessantly in 
 our cause " ; ^ and it inspired him evidently with 
 that sense of mission which ruled all his subsequent 
 life. Of this inspiration the first specific result was 
 the abandonment of the military profession, which 
 occurred in 177 1. As yet, however, he had planned 
 no active propaganda. We find him at Paris, at 
 Lyons, and again at Bordeaux ; at Bordeaux chiefly, 
 which the presence of the Grand Sovereign con- 
 stituted the headquarters of the Order. In all these 
 places Saint-Martin is in frequent communication 
 with other initiated brethren — with the Comte 
 d'Hauterive, the Abbe Fourni^, and the Marquise de 
 la Croix ; possibly also with Cazotte. 
 
 A great blow was, however, destined to fall upon 
 the Elect Cohens. In the early part of the year 
 1772 the private affairs of Martines de Pasqually 
 called him to St. Domingo, from which place he 
 
 1 
 
 Portrait Historique et PhilosopMque, CEuvres Posthumes, vol. i. 
 p. 58. 
 
 2 Papus, Martines de Pasqually, p. 56
 
 IN THE WORLD WITHOUT 25 
 
 never returned, if we except his manifestations in tlie 
 spirit to one of bis favoured disciples/ The path of 
 initiation thus became closed to Saint-Martin in 
 common with the other members of the Order. On 
 this point we have the evidence of Saint-Martin's 
 own conviction, that higher mysteries were known 
 to their master, but that they were withheld in view 
 of the weakness of his disciples.^ Apart from his 
 death, the departure of the adept into another hemi- 
 sphere, with his work uncompleted, must itself have 
 left the mystic Orients and lodges very much to their 
 own resources ; in those days communication from 
 such a distance was exceedingly slow, and the acting 
 chief, Willermoz, received only three letters for his 
 guidance. Before the decease of Pasqually, Saint- 
 Martin had begun already to follow his own line,^ 
 which was destined to take him far away from the 
 operations and ambitions of Elected Cohens. In the 
 earlier stages of its development his mission, how- 
 ever, seems to have been the public propagation, 
 within certain limits and with definite reservations, 
 of the secret knowledge entrusted to him, or rather 
 of original considerations derived from those doc- 
 trines, and calculated to lead reflecting minds on the 
 way to their discovery. In this, as in other respects, 
 Saint-Martin ojffers a sharp contrast to his teacher, 
 whose methods were those of the hierophant guard- 
 ing his secrets jealously from the world at large. 
 
 The mode of propagation adopted was of two 
 kinds : by books published pseudonymously and by 
 
 1 The Abbe Fournie, of whom an account will be found in the next 
 section. 
 
 2 Correspondance Inedite de L. C. de Saint-Martin, dit le Philosophe 
 InconnUf et Kirchberger, Baron de Liebistorf, Lettre xcii. See also English 
 translation by Penny, "Theosophic Correspondence," p. 318.
 
 2 6 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 the personal influence of a man of birth, education, 
 and genius, mixing in the higher circles of society. 
 In the year 1774, being that of the death of Pasqually, 
 we find the disciple engaged seriously in both direc- 
 tions ; he is writing at Lyons his first and in some 
 respects most important treatise, " Of Errors and of 
 Truth," designed to recall man to the real principles 
 of knowledge ; and as to his social relations, there is 
 a passage in his personalia concerning his circle of 
 acquaintance at Paris which will speak for itself.^ It 
 was part spiritual, part worldly ; above all, it was the 
 circle of his friends Lucien and Lucrece de Lusignan, 
 also initiates of his Order. His enumeration includes 
 the Modenas, the Laurans, the Turpins, Montul^s, 
 Suffrens, Choiseuls, and Ruffes ; the Puymandans, the 
 Nieuls, the Dulans, and Bulabres ; the Abbe de Dam- 
 pierre, the younger Clermont, MM. la Riviere, de 
 Worms, and de Marjolai ; M. Duvivier d'Argenton, 
 the Abb^ Daubez, and M. de Thiange ; the genealogist 
 Chdrin, the Sieur Rissi, and Madame la Mardchale 
 de Noailles ; with others almost innumerable, with 
 all of whom he seems to have been on terms more or 
 less intimate and not accidentally acquainted. In a 
 word, as his biographer, Matter, remarks, " At the age 
 of thirty years M. de Saint-Martin found himself very 
 favourably placed in the world. An expressive counte- 
 jfciance and polished manners, marked by great distinc- 
 tion and considerable reserve, presented him to the best 
 .Mvantage. His demeanour announcing not only the 
 ^esire to please but something to bestow, he soon be- 
 came known widely and was in request everywhere." ^ 
 
 1 It is suppressed in the Portrait Historique by the editor of the 
 " Posthumous Works," but is given by Matter, Saint-Martin le Philo- 
 sophe Inconnu, p. 74. ^ Ibid., p. 67.
 
 IN THE WORLD WITHOUT 27 
 
 But while he certainly took pleasure in society and 
 was gratified at his success, it was still in view of his 
 philosophical mission ; and the character which he 
 always maintained was that of a mystic of exalted 
 spirituality and fervent religion. 
 
 There is no need to say that it was a time of 
 disillusion and unbelief, of expectancy which had at 
 least a touch of awe, for the Revolution was already 
 at hand, and so also it was a time of wonder-seeking, 
 of portents, and prophets, and marvels ; it was the 
 day of Cagliostro and of Mesmer, of mystic Masonry 
 and wild Transcendentalism. It was the worst of all 
 times for the message of true mysticism to be heard 
 with much effect, but there were yet many persons, 
 anxious, willing, and sincere up to a certain point, 
 if not wholly capable, who turned readily enough 
 towards Louis Claude de Saint-Martin. It is true 
 that in his absence they might most of them have been 
 content with Cagliostro, but, all things considered, 
 / 1 think that he was as much heard and put to heart 
 as a mystic could expect then or would anticipate 
 under reason now. And assuredly he drew to himself 
 many choice or at least elegant minds. Among these, 
 in the first flush of his reputation, there were the 
 Marquise de Clermont-Tonnerre and the Marquise de 
 la Croix, as a little later there were the Marquise de 
 Chabanais and the Duchesse de Bourbon. No doubt, 
 as years went on, and as the circumstances of the 
 period became aggravated towards the catastrophe of 
 the House of Capet and the Days of Terror, Saint- 
 Martin came to see that his missionary work could 
 be accomplished better by his books than by his 
 personal influence in a social order which was being 
 rent rather than dissolved. He therefore wrote more
 
 28 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 and was less in visible evidence ; M. de Saint-Martin 
 gave place to some extent, though not to his exclusion 
 or effacement, to the Unknown Philosopher. In 1778 
 he published his " Natural Table of the Correspond- 
 ences between God, Man, and the Universe," which 
 is homogeneous with his first work, and is in a sense 
 its sequel or extension. It was written at Paris 
 and Luxembourg, partly under the eyes of Madame 
 de la Croix and partly under those of Madame de 
 Lusignan. 
 
 After the appearance of this work there is a 
 lacuna which it is difficult to fill in the life of Saint- 
 Martin. The period was perhaps divided between 
 Paris, Lyons, and a mysterious journey to Russia. 
 In 1787 his mystic interests drove him to London, 
 where his friendship with Madame la Marquise 
 de Coislin, wife of the French ambassador, assured 
 his introduction into the highest circles. He 
 made here a memorable and fruitful acquaintance 
 with William Law, who is in some respects the 
 Saint-Martin of England. Among the distinguished 
 names which he mentions in connection with this 
 visit are the astronomer Herschel, Lord Beauchamp, 
 who was in sympathy with his transcendental ob- 
 jects ; and, above all, the Russian Prince Galitzin, 
 who declared some time after that he had never been 
 really a man until he knew M. de Saint-Martin. 
 
 From England in the same year, and everywhere 
 with the same object, he travelled into Italy, where 
 again the most distinguished names, cardinals, 
 princes, bishops figure in his memorial notes. But 
 there were no mystics, and there was no mystic 
 interest. Cagliostro only was in the hands of the 
 Inquisition, and his process was near at hand.
 
 IN THE WORLD WITHOUT 29 
 
 About 1 788 we find Saint-Martin at Montbeliard, 
 the residence of the Duchesse de Wurtemberg, whose 
 sympathies in his mystic pursuits had been previously 
 enlisted ; and then for the space of three years he 
 resided at Strasbourg, still, as it would seem, exclu- 
 sively in the circles of aristocracy, and this period 
 seems to have been the happiest of his life. It was 
 here, under the auspices of the transcendentalist 
 Rodolph Salzmann and of Madame de Boecklin, his 
 most valued female friend, that he first made ac- 
 quaintance with the writings of Jacob Boehme ; here 
 he became intimate with the Chevalier de Silferhielm, 
 a nephew of Swedenborg ; here also his literary 
 activity was at its greatest ; here, finally, the limits 
 of his intellectual horizon were enlarged in an extra- 
 ordinary degree. The explanation of the last point 
 must not be referred to any single cause. We have 
 it on his own authority^ that he owed to Jacob 
 Boehme his most important progress in those higher 
 truths to which he had been introduced by Martines 
 de Pasqually, and the influence of the "Teutonic 
 Theosopher " upon all his later life and all his 
 thoughts may be found on every leaf of his corre- 
 spondence, perhaps on too many pages of his latest 
 works. Yet there are many facts in his intellectual 
 development which cannot be traced to that influ- 
 ence, nor perhaps altogether to the source suggested 
 by Matter, the totality of the ideas and of the move- 
 ment in the midst of which he was living during his 
 sojourn in the old city on the banks of the Rhine." 
 
 It was at Paris that he completed " The Man of 
 Aspiration," which he had begun in London, the 
 
 1 Portrait Historique et Philosophiqiie, CEuvres Posthumes, i. 69. 
 
 2 Saint-Martin, p. 171.
 
 30 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 most exalted and inspired of his compositions ; and 
 this also was the period of the " New Man," which 
 represents the extreme development of his philo- 
 sophical system prior to his acquaintance with 
 Boehme. The first of these works was undertaken 
 at the suggestion of Thieman, an ardent mystic, 
 with whom, in England and Italy, he had formed 
 the closest ties of friendship ; to the second he was 
 urged by Silferhielm. It was also at Strasbourg 
 and Paris that he wrote Ecce Homo, a simplified 
 presentation of the " New Man," designed especi- 
 ally for the spiritual necessities of the Duchesse de 
 Bourbon. 
 
 In the summer of 1791 he was called from Stras- 
 bourg to Amboise, his native place, by the illness of 
 his father, and from that time till the death of the 
 latter in February 1793, he was either there or at 
 Paris, where he witnessed the terrors of the loth of 
 August 1792. "The streets near the house I was 
 in were a field of battle ; the house itself" — probably 
 the palace of the Duchesse de Bourbon — " was a 
 hospital where the wounded were brought, and, 
 moreover, was every moment threatened with in- 
 vasion and pillage. In the midst of all this I had 
 to go, at the risk of my life, to take care of my sister, 
 half a league from my dwelling." So he writes in 
 the most memorable, the most beautiful, the most 
 fascinating of all theosophic correspondences, which 
 was begun on the 22 nd of May 1792, and continued 
 for five years, between himself and the Swiss Baron 
 Kirchberger de Liebistorf.^ 
 
 The death of Saint-Martin's father was almost 
 
 1 Correspondance, Lettre viii. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," pp. 31, 32.
 
 IN THE WORLD WITHOUT 31 
 
 coincident with the execution of Louis XVL, and 
 was followed speedily by that of Philippe figalitd, 
 the brother of his friend the Duchesse ; and it is one 
 of the minor marvels of those terrific days that his 
 frequent sojourns at her palace, or at her chateau at 
 Petit-Bours, did not somehow cost him his head. 
 His correspondence fell under suspicion, and he was 
 once called to account for its mysterious phraseology. 
 He helped to ensure his safety by various gifts in 
 money towards the equipment of the soldiers of the 
 republic. In 1794, the decree which exiled the 
 nobility from Paris compelled him to retire to Am- 
 boise, where he was permitted to remain without 
 molestation, and was indeed deputed to catalogue 
 the books and manuscripts which had been seized 
 in the suppressed monastic houses of his district. A 
 little later on he was called to the ficole Normale, 
 which was intended to train teachers for public in- 
 struction ; and he is even said to have formed one 
 of the guard at the Temple when the Dauphin, Louis 
 XVIL, was confined there. On his return to Am- 
 boise, he was chosen a member of the electoral 
 assembly of that department. It was possibly these 
 unsought duties w^hich directed his mind once more 
 to the political aspects of his transcendental system, 
 and produced as a result his famous " Letter to a 
 Friend on the French Revolution," which resumes and 
 extends a memorable section of his first work, " Of 
 Errors and of Truth." The Letter appeared in 1796, 
 and was followed the next year by an " Elucidation 
 of Human Association," designed to amplify and 
 complete the former thesis. In the stress of the 
 time these pamphlets, which, it must be confessed, 
 involved much that was impossible of application,
 
 32 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 impressed only the choicer and mystic minds of his 
 own circle. Perhaps even less can be said for a 
 publication of 1798, entitled "The Crocodile," a 
 satirical prose poem of trying dimensions, of which 
 only one adventitious section possesses any interest 
 to the admirers of Saint-Martin at this, if at any, 
 day. That section is an essay on the " Influence of 
 Signs upon Ideas," and there are two evidences that 
 Saint-Martin himself weighed the entire performance 
 at its proper worth ; in the first place, it did not 
 appear under his usual pseudonym of the " Unknown 
 Philosopher," and, in the second place, he detached 
 the essay which is of value from the bizarre context 
 which is not, and issued it separately as a pamphlet 
 in the year following, 1 799. 
 
 Saint-Martin was now approaching the close of 
 his almost blameless life, and so far as outward circum- 
 stances are concerned it was tinged with melancholy. 
 I have said that the condemnation of his first work by 
 the Spanish Inquisition as subversive of true religion 
 and the peace of nations afi"ected him, though it is 
 treated lightly by M. Matter. This took place in 1 798. 
 Prior to that date his patrimony had been confis- 
 cated, and from means which his modest necessities 
 made him regard as ample he was reduced almost to 
 penury. Add to this that a passing misunderstand- 
 ing between himself and his cherished friend and 
 correspondent, Baron Kirchberger, had scarcely been 
 set right when the Swiss nobleman died very sud- 
 denly, leaving a void which there was no one at 
 hand to fill in the heart of Saint-Martin. His 
 nomination for the short-lived attempt of the Normal 
 School had overruled the proscription which had 
 forbidden Paris to the mystic, and he was now fre-
 
 IN THE WORLD WITHOUT 33 
 
 quently at the capital. He was conscious, consider- 
 ably in advance, of the likelihood of his end, and it 
 seemed to inspire fresh diligence. Thus in 1 800 he 
 published two volumes of detached essays, with, how- 
 ever, something of a central purpose, under the title 
 of " The Spirit of Things." They were followed in 
 1802 by his first and only formal attempt to con- 
 ciliate the system he had derived from the school of 
 Martines de Pasqually with the illuminations of Jacob 
 Boehme. This was the " Ministry of Man the Spirit," 
 the most elaborate, and at the same time least diffuse, 
 of all his works. Indeed, in several respects it was 
 the crown of his literary life. Coincidently with 
 each of these works there appeared translations of 
 Boehme's " Aurora " and " Three Principles." 
 
 In October 1 803 the signs of his approaching end 
 were unmistakably significant. " I feel that I am 
 going," he said to his friend M. Gence : " Providence 
 calls me ; I am ready. The germs which I have en- 
 deavoured to sow will fructify." He repaired to the 
 country-seat of Count Lenoir la Roche at Aunay, 
 and on the 13th of the same month a stroke of 
 apoplexy put a painless end to his career.
 
 II 
 
 IN THE OCCULT WORLD 
 
 I PROPOSE now to consider in a more particular 
 manner the nature of the initiation conferred upon 
 Saint-Martin in his youth, which involves the im- 
 portant question concerning the sources of his know- 
 ledge. The existence of various secret orders which 
 claim to perpetuate and impart, under certain condi- 
 tions, the understanding of the secret sciences is a 
 fact that is perfectly well known, whatever verdict 
 may be passed on the value of the claim itself or on 
 the rank of the sciences concerned. The literature 
 of Occultism in the West has traces of such orders 
 prior to the fifteenth century ; they point to the 
 existence of associations, more or less formally incor- 
 porated, for the study of alchemy and the operations 
 which are usually understood by the term Magic. 
 Outside the literature there is the history of the 
 Black Sabbath, which points very plainly to another 
 class of association. The first manifestation in public 
 on the part of an occult body did not occur, however, 
 till the beginning of the seventeenth century, and 
 this was the well-known case of the Rosicrucians, 
 long regarded as a hoax, because the evidence 
 concerning it had been subjected to no adequate 
 examination.^ The disappearance of this body was 
 
 1 The attempt which I made to collect and appreciate this evidence 
 in "The Keal History of the Rosicrucians" (1887), though it requires 
 revision in the light of later knowledge, still constitutes the only avail- 
 able summary of the subject in English.
 
 IN THE OCCULT WORLD 35 
 
 coincident with the obscure transition from operative 
 into speculative Masonry, and from that epoch the 
 history of every fraternity which has pretended to dis- 
 pense initiation into occult knowledge is a part of the 
 history of that great institution, which at the same 
 time neither possesses nor claims such knowledge on 
 its own behalf, and as an institution, at least, has no 
 concern or interest therein. In France, above all, 
 towards the close of the eighteenth century, occult 
 Orders possessing Masonic connections sprang up on 
 every side/ Too frequently they were the conse- 
 quence of private ambition, inventions of unscrupulous 
 adventurers, or fantastic creations of enthusiasts. In 
 only a very few cases can we trace a serious purpose 
 or discern a genuine claim. To which class must 
 we refer the Order propagated by Martines de Pas- 
 qually ? The answer must depend, firstly, on the 
 nature of its pretensions, and, secondly, upon the 
 evidence for their foundation in fact. Of the genesis 
 of the Elect Cohens we know little. It was doubt- 
 less the institution of its propagator, but it is not 
 explicable by his alleged connection with Swedenborg. 
 So far as we know, its rituals were productions of the 
 period ; they bear no traces of antiquity.^ Its cate- 
 chisms are equally modern.^ The possibility, however, 
 remains that Martines de Pasqually acted under thcr 
 direction of an anterior Order, namely, the Rosicru-f 
 ciahs, with whom he claimed affiliation. When he first 
 
 1 See the concluding chapter of " Devil-Worship in France." 
 
 2 It is just, however, to say that in one part of his correspondence 
 with Willermoz, Martines de Pasqually states that a portion of the 
 magical ritual had been translated, apparently by himself, out of Latin 
 into French. See Papus, Martines de Pasqually, p. io8. 
 
 3 That of the Apprentice Elect Cohen afhrms that the Order derives 
 from the Creator, and has subsisted from the days of Adam. Ibid., pp. 
 225-226.
 
 J 
 
 6 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 appeared in Paris it was in his capacity as a member 
 of that mysterious brotherhood. Was this an honest 
 claim ? We can only decide this question indirectly, 
 for it is unnecessary to observe that documents are not 
 forthcoming to establish it, and might be open to sus- 
 picion if they were. We must judge by the character 
 of the man, and by what he did. In other words, we 
 must refer once more to the foundation for the pre- 
 tensions of his Order. If it really imparted occult 
 knowledge, he, no doubt, derived it from initiation 
 on his own part, whether Rosicrucian or not matters 
 little. What, therefore, did the Elect Cohens pretend 
 to confer upon their disciples ? There was a secret 
 doctrine and a secret practice, by which it may be 
 supposed that the truth of that doctrine was demon- 
 strated. As, however, the theoretical part is scarcely 
 to be found in the catechisms, so the occult opera- 
 tions would probably be wanting in the formal rites 
 designed for use in the lodges. We must look further 
 for our instruction in both cases. The doctrine and 
 the practice, so far as they went, will be found in 
 confidential communications addressed by the master 
 to the more favoured of his disciples, and fortunately 
 still extant.^ We find on the one hand a collection 
 lof evoking processes, which offer very little to dis- 
 ♦tinguish them from the typical grimoire of magic. 
 There are a number of minor variations, but there is 
 no generic difference. There is the observation of 
 astronomical correspondences which characterises the 
 " Key of Solomon " ; there is the fast which precedes 
 operation, and is enjoined in all rituals from the 
 " Lemegeton " to the latest recension of the " Red 
 
 * They will be found with elaborate analyses in the work of 
 Papus.
 
 IN THE OCCULT WORLD z^ 
 
 Dragon," In so far as there are liturgical portions 
 which are borrowed from the Catholic Church, they 
 are substantially identical with those found in any 
 rite of evocation possessing a Christian complexion, as 
 distinguished from Kabalistic rites. Above all, evoca- 
 tion takes place within a magic circle, accompanied 
 by lights and by perfumes, while the special v^st- ^ 
 ments used by the Elect Cohen are those prescribed ^ 
 by the spurious Agrippa, and the Pentameron of PeteJ^ -y- 
 de Abano, a work of similar pretensions and no 
 greater authenticity/ There is no occasion to enlarge 
 upon the specific diflferences, but I may mention the 
 observance of the equinoxes as the only periods for 
 the practice, a peculiar arrangement of the lights, and 
 the entire abrogation of the bloody sacrifice. To 
 put it shortly, the process of Martines de Pasqually is 
 that of the grimoires simplified, and I might add that 
 it is civilised and adapted for the use of the higher 
 ranks of society in France of the eighteenth century. 
 The efficacy of theurgic formulse is a perilous 
 question to investigate, even when there is some 
 presumption that the listeners will be chiefly trans- 
 cendentalists, but it is sufficient for the present pur- 
 pose to point out that all theurgic procedure assumes 
 this efficacy, and modifies the formulae in accordance 
 with the occasion, the object, and other determin- 
 ing considerations. While it is possible therefore 
 to class Martines de Pasqually among impostors or 
 maniacs on the common ground of criticism, it is not 
 possible for a critic who is also a mystic to disregard 
 entirely the theurgic claim, though it may not repre- 
 sent a high grade of initiation. Occult orders pos- 
 
 ^ The claims of these works are examined in " The Book of Black 
 Magic," c. iii. sees. 3 and 4.
 
 38 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 sessing considerable anti({uity exist at the present 
 lay expressly for these practices, which have appa- 
 rently a certain measure of success. The methods 
 'differ naturally from those of the grimoires, in which 
 everything not actually spurious is garbled, so that 
 the outlines alone remain. It is, therefore, within 
 possibility that Martines de Pasqually obtained his 
 formulae not by purgation of worthless printed books, 
 but from some such source as I have indicated, and 
 as may be inferred from his own claim, in which 
 case they may approach, or indeed coincide with, 
 some that are still in use. I must not add that I 
 regard the process as by itself of positive value, for it 
 might as easily induce hallucination as genuine vision. 
 In either case, the parallel between the theurgic 
 rites followed by the Elect Cohens and the grimoires 
 ends with the ceremonial procedure ; the purpose 
 differed, because it was not in the ordinary sense 
 concerned with evocation of spirits. It did not 
 deal with the shades of the dead, like necromancy ; 
 nor with elementals or elementaries ; nor with the 
 planetary orders ; nor even with the angelical hier- 
 archy ; much less with the so-called angels of magical 
 literature, whose habitations in most cases must be 
 sought with the Klippoth, and in the false sea of 
 Kabalism. The theurgic object seems to have been 
 of a far more exalted order, and was nothing less 
 than an attempt to communicate with the Active 9,iid 
 flntelligent Cause ^ charged with the conduct of the 
 visible universe, as we shall learn later on from Saint- 
 Martin, and apparently in a special manner with the 
 great work of initiation.^ By this fact the school 
 
 * See Book iv. sec. i. 
 
 ^ Papus, Martines de Pasqually, p. 113.
 
 IN THE OCCULT WORLD 39 
 
 of Martines de Pasqually is placed wholly outside 
 the narrow limits and sordid motives of ceremonial 
 magic. 
 
 Having established this distinction, let us pro- 
 ceed to inquire whether any disciples of the Order 
 believed themselves to have attained its object. The 
 records of a secret society are not usually obtainable, 
 but in this case time has preserved or made known 
 to us some important pieces of evidence in connection 
 with three persons who were initiated by Martines 
 de Pasqually. The first is Jean Baptiste Willermoz, 
 who in 1752 was Venerable of the Lodge Parfaite- 
 Amitie at Lyons, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge 
 of Lyons, 1760, and subsequently President of the 
 Lodge of Elect Cohens in that city. There is abun- 
 dant documentary proof that this disciple followed 
 the instructions of Pasqually in the practical part, 
 times out of number, with no indication of success, 
 and that he became in consequence extremely dis- 
 satisfied with his initiator. But the documents also 
 show that he persevered, that he attained the ends, 
 " obtaining phenomena of the highest importance, 
 which culminated in 1785 — that is to say, eleven 
 years after the death of his initiator." ^ 
 
 The second case is that of the Abbe Fourni^, 
 for which, however, we are indebted to a narrative 
 published by himself, but now so rare that it is 
 almost unknown in France." It is an exposition of 
 the doctrine of Pasqually from the standpoint of 
 an ecclesiastic of the period, and the doctrine has 
 no doubt suffered from unconscious substitution. I 
 
 1 Papus, Martines de Pasqually, p. 113. 
 
 - Ce que nous avons ete, ce que nous sommes et ce que nous viendrons. 
 London, 1801.
 
 40 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 should infer tliat Fourni^ was a man of humble 
 origin, and he confesses that he was uninstructed in 
 human sciences. At an early age he conceived an 
 intense desire for a demonstration of the reality of 
 another life and the truth of the central doctrines of 
 Christianity. After eighteen months of profound 
 agitation, he met, apparently on the banks of the 
 Rhine, an unknown personage who promised a solu- 
 tion of his doubts, and pointing to the throng of 
 a crowded thoroughfare, observed : " They know 
 not whither they are going, but thou shalt know." 
 After this oracular manner the Abbe Fournie made 
 acquaintance with Martines de Pasqually, whom he 
 took at first for a sorcerer or the devil, but consoled 
 himself with the reflection that in the latter case 
 there must at least be a God. He therefore fre- 
 quented the society of the mysterious stranger, and 
 was admitted among the number of his followers. 
 
 " His diurnal exhortations were to aspire without 
 ceasing towards God, to grow from virtue to virtue, 
 and to labour for the universal good. They resembled 
 precisely those which Christ delivered to His dis- 
 ciples, without forcing any one to accept them under 
 pain of damnation, without imposing other com- 
 mandments than those of God, without imputing 
 other sins than those which are expressly opposed to 
 the Divine law, and frequently leaving us in suspense 
 as to whether he himself was true or false, good or 
 bad, angel of light or fiend. This uncertainty kindled 
 so strongly within me, that night and day I cried out 
 on God to help me, if He really existed. But the 
 more I appealed the more I sank into the abyss, and 
 fmy only interior answer was the desolating feeling 
 — there is no God, there is no life to come, there is
 
 IN THE OCCULT WORLD 41 
 
 only death and nothingness." In this afflicted con- 
 dition the Ahh6 did not cease from praying. Sleep 
 left him, but he persevered, continually studying the 
 Scriptures, and never seeking to understand them by 
 his own lisfhts. Other lio-hts came to him after a 
 long time, but only in flashes, and he had moments 
 of vision, apparently of things to come, subsequently 
 fulfilled, which he referred to the occult powers of 
 Martines de Pasqually. In this manner he passed 
 five years, full of agitation and darkness, consumed, 
 as he says, by the desire of God and the contradic- 
 tion of that desire. 
 
 " At length, on a certain day, towards ten o'clock 
 in the evening, I, being prostrated in my chamber, 
 calling on God to assist me, heard suddenly the voice 
 of M. de Pasqually, my director, who had died in 
 the body more than two years previously. I heard 
 him speaking distinctly outside my chamber, the 
 door being closed, and the windows in like manner, 
 the shutters also being secured. I turned in the 
 direction of the voice, being that of the long garden 
 belonging to the house, and thereupon I beheld M. 
 de Pasqually with my eyes, who began speaking, 
 and with him were my father and my mother, both 
 also dead in the body. God knows the terrible night 
 which I passed ! " 
 
 It is evident from this exclamation that the 
 demonstration so long desired by the Abbe over- 
 whelmed and frightened him in the initial experience. 
 He relates further a very curious sensation as of a 
 hand passing through his body and smiting his soul, 
 leaving an impression of pain which could not be 
 described in words, and seemed to belong rather to 
 eternity than time. After the lapse of twenty-five
 
 42 THE UNKNOWN PlilLOSOPPIER 
 
 years he retained the most vivid recollection of his 
 suffering. At the same time he tells us that he held 
 with his director and his parents a conversation that 
 might have passed between men and women under 
 ordinary circumstances. On the same occasion he 
 also saw one of his sisters who had passed away 
 twenty years before. Lastly, he adds these weird 
 words : " There was another being who was not of 
 the nature of men." The integrity of the simple 
 Ahh6 will be past all question for any one who makes 
 acquaintance with his narrative. Was he therefore 
 hallucinated, or was he the recipient of visitations 
 from another world as a consequence of the constancy 
 and singleness of his intention ? The manifestations 
 in either case were not wonders of a single night. 
 The next time they were of another order, and possess 
 a more direct connection with the grand object of 
 the Elect Cohens. "A few days after I beheld very 
 plainly in front of me, close at hand, our Divine 
 Master Jesus Christ, crucified on the tree of the cross. 
 Again, after another interval, this same Divine Master 
 appeared to me, but this time as He came forth from 
 the tomb wherein His body had been laid. Lastly, 
 after a third interval, our Divine Master Jesus Christ 
 appeared to me, all glorious and triumphant over the 
 world and over Satan with his pomps, passing in front 
 of me with the Blessed Virgin Mary, His mother, and 
 followed by a number of persons." I should add that 
 the vision of Martines de Pasqually and of the Abbd's 
 parents did not occur once only, nor during one week, 
 one month, or one year. " I have beheld them 
 during entire years, and constantly ; I have goije to 
 and fro in their company ; they have been with me 
 in the house and out of it ; in the night and the day ;
 
 IN THE OCCULT WORLD 43 
 
 alone and in the society of others ; together with 
 another being not of human kind, speaking one with 
 another after the manner of men." 
 
 To the divine apparitions the Abbe Fournie 
 ascribes the inspiration which enabled him to write 
 his treatise, he being confessedly illiterate, with 
 extraordinary celerity. The verbal communications 
 he received in his visions he does not, however, 
 report, the reason given being the cynicism and 
 incredulity of the age. There is ground all the same 
 for supposing that they were actually recorded, and 
 formed a second part of his work, which was never 
 published. The first part was written about 1780, 
 the Abbe being then somewhat over forty years of 
 age. It remained in manuscript for the space of five- 
 and-twenty years, when it was at length committed 
 to the press. The author himself was living so late 
 as the year 18 19, being then at a very advanced 
 age. It will be seen that his experiences owed 
 nothing to the ceremonial processes of his occult 
 director, but they determine the point of view from 
 which that director was regarded by one of the most 
 spiritual of his disciples, and, hallucinations or not, 
 they indicate the extraordinary influence exercised 
 by Martines de Pasqually, not only while alive in 
 the flesh, but when, as one would say, he was only a 
 sacred memory among those who had followed him. 
 
 The third case, which will conclude our inquiry 
 concerning those Elect Cohens who made progress 
 towards the objects of the Order, is that of Saint- 
 Martin himself, the source of information being 
 mainly his long correspondence with Baron Kirch- 
 berger. The date of his admission into the society 
 is not quite clear, but it was probably in the autumn
 
 44 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 of 1 768. He no doubt attached himself to the per- 
 son of the " director " while they were both at Bor- 
 deaux, and, as already seen, he sometimes acted as a 
 kind of informal secretary for Martines, who wrote 
 French imperfectly, and needed help in his corre- 
 spondence. But the disciple was not^at that time his 
 own master ; he had periods of enforced absence on 
 military duty, and the date of Pasqually's departure 
 put an end to their intimacy, probably before the 
 forging of its strongest links. On this point we have 
 Saint-Martin's own testimony : " We were only be- 
 sinnina; to walk too-ether when death took him from 
 us." ^ At the same time we have sufficient, though 
 not the most ample, material for ascertaining, firstly, 
 the opinion held by Saint-Martin through all his 
 after life concerning the initiator of his youth ; 
 secondly, the share which he took in the occult 
 experiences of the school to which he was intro- 
 duced ; thirdly, the lesson which he brought away 
 from it. To do justice to all these points we should 
 observe at the outset the disposition of mind which he 
 carried into the Bordeaux college of magic. It must 
 be admitted at once that he did not take either doubt 
 or scepticism. Neither in his formal writings nor in 
 his memorial notes, nor yet in his available letters, 
 do I find any indication that the facts, real or alleged, 
 of occult phenomena came to him with the force of 
 a surprise, but he appreciated them from the begin- 
 ning at their real worth. " I experienced at all times 
 so strong an inclination to the intimate secret way 
 > that this external one never seduced me further, 
 { even in my youth. Amidst much that was to others 
 
 
 ^ Correspondance, Lettre xcii. ; Penny, "Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 318.
 
 IN THE OCCULT WORLD 45 
 
 most attractive, amidst means, formulte, preparatives 
 of every sort, by wliicli we were trained, I exclaimed 
 more than once to our master : ' Can all this be 
 needed to find God?'"' The student of Abadie, 
 reared strictly in the faith of the Catholic Church, 
 and untinged by philosophy d la mode, though not 
 unacquainted therewith, was already an interior 
 mystic when he entered the occult Order of Martines 
 de Pasq ually. At the same time he never referred 
 to that early master except with conspicuous re- 
 verence. " 1 will not conceal from you that I walked 
 formerly in this secondary and external way, and 
 thereby the door of the career was opened to me. 
 My leader therein was a man of very active virtues," " 
 that is to say, he was powerful in occult operations, 
 as Saint-Martin explains elsewhere. Again : "I do 
 not doubt that there have been, and still are, some 
 privileged men who have had, and still have, per- 
 ceptions of the great work " : ^ in other words, the 
 ■work_of ^reintegration as opposed to the secondary 
 work of the external way, the mystic inward path as 
 opposed to that of occult phenomena. "I do not 
 doubt that my first teacher and several of his dis- 
 ciples enjoyed some of these favours." * But perhaps 
 the most important reference made by Saint-Martin 
 to his master occurs towards the close of his cor- 
 respondence with Baron Kirchberger : "I am even 
 inclined to think that M. Pasqualis, whom you 
 name (and who, since it must be said, was our 
 master), had the active key to all that our dear 
 
 1 Correspondance, Lettre iv. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspondence," 
 pp. 15-16. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 Ibid., Lettre xiii. ; ibid., p. 54. 
 * Ibid. 
 
 >
 
 46 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Boelime exposes in his theories, but that he did not 
 think we were able to bear such his^h truths. ... I 
 am persuaded that we should have arrived at them 
 at last, if we had kept him longer." ^ To understand 
 the full force of this statement, it must be observed 
 that Saint-Martin at the time when he made it re- 
 garded Jacob Boehme as " the greatest human light 
 which had been manifested on earth since One who 
 was the light itself" ; "' and seeing that an acquaint- 
 ance with the writings of Boehme is obviously not 
 intended, and could not be reasonably supposed in 
 Pasqually, it follows that Saint-Martin regarded the 
 Spanish adept as one who had independently attained 
 the same exalted height of illumination as that 
 reached in his opinion by the German theosophist. 
 In other words, he paid to his memory the greatest 
 tribute within his power. It will not be surprising, 
 therefore, that he states also his belief that " there 
 were precious things in our first school," and then 
 adds that " an excellent match may be made by 
 marrying our first school to friend Boehme. At this 
 I am working, and I confess to you candidly that I 
 find the two spouses so well suited to each other that 
 I know nothing more perfect in its way."^ The last 
 work of Saint-Martin, on the " Ministry of the Spirit 
 Man," is, in fact, a celebration of the nuptials, in 
 which union there is something superadded to the 
 first gift of Saint-Martin, but there is nothing lost of 
 the gift. 
 
 The personal experiences of Saint-Martin in the 
 order of occult phenomena were decisive to his own 
 
 1 Correspondance, Lettre xcii. ; Penny, " Tlieosopliic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 318. 
 
 " Ibid., Lettre ii. ; ibid., p. 7. 
 
 3 Ibid., Lettre xcii. ; ibid., pp. 318-319.
 
 IN THE OCCULT WORLD 47 
 
 mind ; but as there was something wanting to his 
 motive, namely, a living interest, so there was some- 
 thing deficient in the result. " I never had muclli 
 taste or talent for the operations." He mentions two 
 persons, also initiates, whose success was greater than 
 his own ; but in the one case, that of M. de Hauterive, 
 Saint- Martin never found anything which could in- 
 duce him to alter his mind ; while in the other, that 
 of Madame de la Croix, he received only " negative 
 proofs." ^ Again, but this in regard to the later period 
 of his life : "I am very far from having any virtu- 
 ality of this kind, for my work takes the inward 
 direction altogether." ^ Saint-Martin, however, had 
 seen enough to enable him to formulate an express 
 theory concerning the mode of such super-physical 
 communications. He recognised no such experience 
 as the soul or astral travelling, of which so much was 
 heard in the earlier phenomena of somnambulism and 
 modern spiritualism; no "putting off" of the cor- 
 poreal envelope. " The soul leaves the body only 
 at death, but during life the faculties may extend 
 beyond it, and communicate with their exterior cor- 
 respondents without ceasing to be united to their 
 centre, even as our bodily eyes and all our organs 
 correspond with surrounding objects without ceasing 
 to be connected with their animal principle, the focus 
 of all our physical operations.^ It was also his con- 
 viction that no physical manifestations connect with 
 the centre, as he terms it, because " this deep centre 
 produces no physical form." '^ The natural inference 
 
 * Gorrespondance, Lettre viii. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 35. 
 
 - Ibid., Lettre xl. ; ibid., p. 133. 
 3 Ibid., Lettre x. ; ibid., pp. 44-45. 
 
 * Ibid., Lettre xxiv. ; ibid., p. 91.
 
 48 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 which seems to follow from this statement is that the 
 supreme object of the Elect Cohens was impossible 
 by the external way which was admittedly followed 
 by the Order, but balanced against this we find a no 
 less express assurance concerning the " physical com- 
 munication" of the Active Intelligent Cause, about 
 which he remarks: "I believe this possible, like all 
 other communications. As for my own testimony, 
 it would not have much w^eight, since this kind 
 of proof should be personal to obtain the complete 
 effect. Nevertheless, as I believe I speak to a man 
 of moderation, I will not withhold from you that in 
 the school through which I passed, more than twenty- 
 five years ago, communications of all kinds were 
 numerous and frequent, in which I had my share, 
 like many others ; and that, in this share, every sign 
 indicative of the Repairer was present. Now, you 
 know that the Repairer and Active Cause are one." 
 He adds, however, a qualification : "As I was intro- 
 duced by an initiation, and the danger of all initia- 
 tions is lest we should be delivered over to the 
 violent spirits of the world, I cannot answer that the 
 forms which showed themselves to me may not have 
 been assumed forms, for the door is open to all initia- 
 \ tions, and this is what makes these ways so faulty 
 and suspicious. The whole earth is full of these 
 prodigies ; but, I repeat, unless things come from the 
 Centre itself I do not give them my confidence. I 
 can assure you I have received by the inward way 
 truths and joys a thousand times higher than those I 
 have received from without." ^ The source of the 
 illusion in question is the astral region ; the Centre 
 
 1 Correspondance, Lettre xix. ; Penny, " Tlieosophic Correspon- 
 dence," pp. 76-77.
 
 IN THE OCCULT WORLD 49 
 
 is the inward Word ; and by the development of this 
 Word within us, if I understand Saint-Martin rightly, 
 the powers which surround the centre may be made 
 to produce their forms according to the designs of 
 the Word, and this is the source of the higher class of 
 manifestations. But even then it is not the true 
 form which is exhibited, but a reflex of that which 
 every spirit produces according to the essence of its 
 thought. I must not say that this is either clear in 
 itself or susceptible of ready elucidation ; but the 
 point to be marked is this, that Saint-Martin, ever 
 C fascinated by the experiences which he had re- 
 nounced, regards them always with an indulgent 
 eye. ) They were much less tainted, he affirms, than 
 those which abounded at the period in other theurgic 
 schools, " or, if they were tainted, there was a fire of 
 life and desire in us all which preserved us, and even 
 took us graciously on our way." ^ 
 
 It remains to point out that, since, after the lapse 
 of a quarter of a century, and after entering another 
 ;^h, Saint-Martin admitted that in his occult expe- 
 riences there was every sign indicative of the presence 
 of the Repairer, the powers at the disposition of 
 Pasqually were of no ordinary kind. And this said, 
 it may be well to point out that the Spanish theurgist 
 was not an adventurer in any sense of the word : he 
 sought neither fame nor money ; and the exalted reli- 
 gious motive with which he appears to have been 
 actuated produced fruit quite outside the sphere of 
 occult operation, as, for example, in the case of 
 Cazotte." 
 
 ' Correspo7idance, Lettre xxiv. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 92. 
 
 2 Matter, Saint-Martin, pp. 56, 57. 
 
 D
 
 50 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 At the same time, when every allowance has been 
 made for the insufficient nature of the records, there 
 is nothing in the cases which have been here passed 
 under review to show that the experiences consequent 
 on the operations were other than subjective. They 
 possess their importance if regarded from that mode- 
 rate standpoint, which also justifies abundantly their 
 renunciation by Saint-Martin in favour of another 
 way, also confessedly subjective, but, because it is 
 devoid of results in the sensible order, free from 
 those dangers and follies commonly included by the 
 term " hallucination." With this reservation upon 
 the efficacy of the theurgic processes taught to his 
 disciples by Pasqually, there seems ground for dis- 
 tinguishing in his pretensions a genuine purpose and 
 a claim advanced seriously, while his connection 
 with one or other of the fraternities which from time 
 to time have adopted the name Rosicrucian is not 
 unlikely in itself, and becomes almost plausible if we 
 remember that the occult operations of these bodies, 
 so far as we can glean anything concerning them, 
 are open to the same strictures regarding objective 
 effects as those of the Elect Cohens. . \ .. \
 
 Ill 
 
 IN THE INWARD MAN 
 
 I SHALL have occasion later on to indicate certain 
 points in which the doctrine of Saint-Martindiffers 
 fro]m_^Jbhat .^f.joj}]iei\.-^ even of the school to 
 
 which he approximates. But i^n himself, his voca - 
 tion, his interests, he differed conspicuously from most 
 leaders of the „ Hidden. Life. In the first place, he 
 led that life, as we have seen, in the hig^h places_of 3^ 
 sjociety ; he did this truly in view of his mission, but 
 he confesses that he loved the world, that he loved 
 society, though he detested the spirit which imbued 
 it.^ The professed mystics of the Latin Church were 
 monks and even hermits. Ruysbroeck is a typical 
 instance of the life of complete isolation. The 
 preaching mystic, like Tauler, was a voice heard 
 among men ; but it was a voice only, though crowds 
 were drawn by its magic. Of the immediate pre- 
 cursors of Saint-Martin the world was impossible to 
 Boehme, as much by the nature of his gift as by the 
 meanness of his sphere, and Martines de Pasqually 
 was a mere name, an oracle, a formula of magic, 
 giving no account of its origin, and passing quickly 
 to that bourne whence no accounts can come, except 
 also as oracles. The Unknown Philosopher, on the 
 other hand, was always in evidence, a man of manv | 
 friends, of stronej attachments. But, further, the 
 
 •%> 
 
 1 Portrait Historique, (Euvres Posthuvies, i. 100. 
 51
 
 52 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 range of mystic interests is usually narrow in the 
 temporal order, because its concerns are in the 
 infinite. Saint-Martin is almost the only mysti c 
 who^was also in his way a politician, with a scheme 
 for the reconstruction of society ; an amateur in 
 mu.sic ; an apprentice in poetry ; a connoisseur in 
 belles lettres ; a critic of his contemporaries ; an 
 observer of the times ; a physician of souls truly, 
 but in that capacity with his finger always on the 
 pulse of the world. Yet he was not less a true 
 mystic, and as such his disengaged hand was also on 
 ^ his own pulse. As regards the latter, he did what 
 most mystics do not, he registered its variations, 
 and thus it is that he has left us, obviously designed 
 for publication, the precious indices of his memorial 
 notes. To present them as they are found — and these 
 are a selection only at the beginning of his posthu- 
 mous works — w^ould itself make a small volume, and 
 I must limit myself to those only which seem essen- 
 tial keys to the inward life of the mystic. 
 
 Let us observe, first of all, what he has to tell us 
 of the nature of his mission, the fulfilment of which 
 was the governing passion of his life. " My task in 
 this world has been to lead the mind of man by a 
 natural path to the supernatural things which of 
 right belong to him, but of which he has lost all 
 conception, in part by his degradation, in part by 
 the frequently false instruction of his teachers. 
 This task is new but full of difiiculty, and it is so 
 slow that its best fruits must be borne after my 
 death. At the same time it is so vast and so certain, 
 that I must be deeply grateful to Providence for 
 having charged me therewith ; it is a task which no 
 one has exercised heretofore, because those who have
 
 IN THE INWARD MAN 53 
 
 instructed and still instruct us daily exact in doing 
 so either a blind submission or retail only miraculous 
 stories." ^ It does not follow that Saint-Martin 
 always attained his ideal, but the fact that his inten- 
 tion finds expression in such terms should distinguish 
 at least one mystic from the makers of dark counsel 
 and the purveyors of superstition with whom the 
 mind even of this age identifies them. 
 
 The foundation upon which he built was laid at 
 the aoje of eig-hteen, when, in the midst of the 
 philosophical confessions offered him in books, he 
 exclaimed : " There is a God, I have a soul, and no 
 more is wanted for wisdom ! " ^ He regarded all the 
 circumstances of his life as the steps of a ladder 
 which God had set beside him to assist his ascent 
 towards Him. " He did not will that I should have 
 any consolations, any joys, any lights, any sub- 
 stantial happiness from any hand but His own, and 
 His sole object was that I should abide exclusively 
 with Him." ^ The consciousness of this electioii was 
 written, he records, in his destiny from the earliest 
 years ; and that there was no presumption in the 
 assurance or the positive terms of the expression is 
 best shown by its abiding presence and development 
 in all the epochs of his life. It is shown further, as 
 in all true mystics, by the no less abiding sense of 
 his own unworthiness, and by the humility which 
 that sense begot. "All that I desire is to defend 
 myself from vicious inclinations, from false pleasures, 
 illusory attachments, unreal sufferings, and ever to 
 be prostrate in humility." ^ Again : " The greater 
 
 ' Portrait Historique, (Euvres Postlmmes, vol, i. p. 137. 
 2 Ibid., p. 5. 3 Ibid., p. 7. 
 
 4 Ibid., pp. 37-38.
 
 54 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 the work vvhicli awaits me, and to which I am called, 
 the more it preserves me from pride, for I am the 
 more conscious that it is impossible for me to accom- 
 plish it of myself." ^ To this consciousness may be 
 added the realisation that he possessed no gifts, to 
 distinguish him from the rest of men. " I know 
 jthat they and I are alike the sons of God alone ; I 
 am so persuaded of the nobility of this origin that I 
 have striven my best to preserve some shreds of my 
 baptismal certificate." ^ 
 
 Among the faults which he laments he includes 
 sensuality as his characteristic rather than sensibility, 
 and adds his opinion that all men of good faith will 
 make the same confession. Women, on the other 
 hand, are inclined more by nature to sensibility than 
 to sensuality.^ We should wrong Saint-Martin, how- 
 ever, if we understood the term in its coarser signi- 
 ficance, or at least if we conceived him the victim of 
 the passions which it implies. I do not mean that 
 he never had to reproach himself with such errors ; 
 there is some evidence to the contrary in the earlier 
 part of his life, but he crushed these inclinations with 
 success ; and no one subsequently could boast of 
 purer affections, a higher ideal of love, or a greater 
 horror of impurity. "It is for me a great suff"ering 
 to listen to light talk concerning that sublime love 
 which is the true and only term of our work. Men 
 do not realise that this beautiful word should never 
 be pronounced by us except in the same way that it 
 is uttered by God — by living achievements, by living 
 benefits, by living marvels." ^ I have stated already 
 that Saint-Martin neye^ married, and this is to be 
 
 ^ Portrait Historique, CEJuvres Posthumes, vol. i, p. 72- 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 8. 3 ii^ia., pp. 6-7. 4 Ibid., p. 12.
 
 IN THE INWARD MAN 55 
 
 accounted for by other reasons than the modest nature 
 of his fortune. The first of these which he records 
 is philosophical rather than spiritual. " I felt that 
 the man who is free has only one problem to resolve, 
 but that he who is married has a twofold problem 
 presented." ^ There was, however, a deeper ground, 
 and he confessed to Kirchberger that since God had 
 given Himself to man, he considered that man was not 
 entitled to transfer himself to another except at the 
 command of God.^ Here the philosopher again passes! 
 into the mystic^ and as such awaits the direction fori 
 which he looked always in matters of real moment,] " 
 and without which, as in this case, he never acted, j 
 Neither reason seems, however, to have satisfied him 
 quite, and his frequent recurrence to this theme seems 
 to indicate that in reality he was looking anxiously 
 for direction. " I feel in the depth of my being a 
 voice which tells me that I come from a country 
 wherein there are no women, and hence it is, no doubt, 
 that all marital designs planned in my regard have 
 been failures."^ He hastens to add that this not- 
 withstanding he honoured and loved women ; indeed 
 his lonely life was brightened by many memorable 
 female friendships. At the same time it must be 
 admitted that he had physical and metaphysical 
 views on the subject of woman which are not alto- 
 gether worthy of so liberal a philosopher and a friend 
 so amiable, though they are not unconsonant with 
 certain acrid notes in other departments of mystic 
 thought. We must pass over these as we can and 
 
 1 Portrait Historique, (ExLvres Posthumes, vol. i. p. 29. 
 
 2 Corresjjondame, Lettre Ixii. ; Penny, "Theosophic Correspondence," 
 p. 188. 
 
 3 Portrait Historique, (Euvres Posthumes, i. 66.
 
 56 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 remember that the eye of the human mind can never 
 be fixed exclusively upon one object, equally remote 
 and exalted, and yet retain its vision unimpaired for 
 those, or some of those, which are at hand. Thus, 
 in things frequent, in matters of daily life, in the 
 interests of the ordinary man, the mystic standpoint 
 is always bizarre for the vulgar, and the solutions 
 offered by the mystic to recurring problems, when 
 not obviously impracticable, are almost always unac- 
 ceptable. The celibacy of Saint-Martin was perhaps 
 the natural state for Saint-Martin, though for persons 
 in the world it is a misfortune when it is not an out- 
 rage ; with him it was a matter of election, and he 
 gives the clue to it when he says : "I have never 
 loved anything outside God more than I have loved 
 God without experiencing suffering and misfortune. 
 I have never returned to the love of God above all 
 things without the consciousness of rebirth and hap- 
 piness never failing to come back to me." ^ And the 
 reason he also gives us : " If I had failed to find God, 
 my spirit would have been unable to fix itself upon 
 anything on earth." " Two results followed naturally, 
 the sense of isolation, by which the mystic, whether 
 , in or out of the world, has always the lot of the 
 '^ recluse, and the sense of the necessity of Divine union. 
 )" When I have had the joy of perseverance for a time 
 in the path of wisdom, I have become quickly in 
 respect of other men as a nation set apart and speak- 
 ing a strange language ; the attempt to approach 
 |them or make myself understood among them is 
 ^equally labour in vain. It is for this reason that 
 |those who are devoted to truth so easily become 
 
 ^ Portrait Historique, (Euvres Posthumes, i. 32. 
 2 Ibid., p. 37.
 
 IN THE INWARD MAN 57 
 
 anchorites." ^ And as regards the second point we 
 have his short summary of all prayer and aspiration, 
 expressing, as he tells us, that which from all time 
 was the real desire of his soul : " My God, be Thou 
 with me so entirely that none save Thyself can be 
 with me ! " ' 
 
 That he did experience a degree of this union is 
 shown by a passage in his correspondence, occasioned 
 by Kirchberger's glowing description of the spiritual 
 nuptials of the German mystic Gicht el : " If I were 
 near you," he says, " I could give you a story of a 
 marriage in which the same way was followed with 
 me, though under different forms, ending in the same 
 result. I have also numerous proofs of the Divine 
 protection over me, especially during our Revolution, 
 of wdiich I was not without indications beforehand. 
 But in all this everything has been done for me as if 
 for a child, whereas our friend Gichtel could attack 
 the enemy in front, in which I should not acquit 
 myself as he did. In a word, for me it is peace, and 
 this is with me wheresoever I am. On the famous 
 loth of August, when I was shut up in Paris, tra- 
 versing the streets all the day, amidst the great 
 tumult, I had such signal proofs of what I tell you 
 that I was humbled even to the dust, and this the 
 more because I had absolutely no part in what was 
 doing, and I am not so constituted as to possess what 
 is called physical courage." ^ 
 
 Another passage, in a later letter, describes in 
 mystical language some of the inward experiences of 
 Saint-Martin, and is worth citing, because it proves 
 
 ' Portrait Historique CEuvres Posthumes, vol. i. p. 27. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 21. 
 
 3 Correspondance, Lettre Ix. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspondence," 
 pp. 184-185.
 
 58 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 that lie did not deceive himself as to the extent of 
 his spiritual progress : " The person I speak of has 
 known the Crown sensibly for these eighteen years, 
 and not only does he not as yet possess it, but it is 
 exclusively within these last years that he even com- 
 prehends it in its true substantial relations, although 
 he understood it numerically from the first acquaint- 
 ance. Know further, that for nearly twenty-five 
 years he has been acquainted with the voice of anger 
 and the voice of love, but that it is within the last few 
 months alone that he has been able to distinguish 
 between them, either by sound, impression, or direc- 
 tion. He is yet far from the full light on this head, 
 and hopes daily for its increase." ^ 
 
 In the midst of much personal discontent, which 
 made the way of penitence not only the safest road, 
 but also the sweetest and the most fruitful,^ he seems 
 always to have been sure of his election. " In the 
 order of spiritual things my most lively fear was not 
 that I should fail to be drawn from among the tares 
 by divine mercy, but of leaving so many others 
 among them."^ And again: "My suspensions, my 
 privations, my tribulations alarm me not, though 
 they afilict me. I am conscious in the midst of all 
 this darksome anguish that a secret thread is attached 
 to me for my preservation. I am as a man fallen 
 into the sea, but with a rope bound about his wrist 
 and connecting him with the vessel. He may be the 
 sport of the waves ; they will break over him, but 
 they cannot engulph him ; he is held up, and he has 
 a firm hope of being drawn speedily on board." * 
 
 1 Correspo7idance, Lettre Ixxiv. ; "Theosophic Correspondence," p. 247. 
 
 2 Portrait Historique, (Euvres Posthumes, i. 9. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 48. 4 ibid^ p, ^g^
 
 IN THE INWARD MAN 59 
 
 At times bis sense of consolation assumed a 
 stronger note : "I have said that God was my 
 passion ; I might have said more truly that I was 
 His from the care which He has lavished upon me, 
 by the tenacity of His goodness, in spite of all my 
 ingratitude. Had He treated me only as I deserved, 
 He would not have cast a glance upon me." ^ The 
 sense of complete unworthiness is, however, seldom 
 entirely sincere ; there is at least a sub-conscious 
 understanding that its presence is to be counted for 
 worth, and Saint-Martin knew well enough that 
 there was pure metal in his interior constitution. 
 We find accordingly one daring aspiration in his 
 notes : " My God, I trust, in spite of all my faults, 
 that Thou still wilt find something within me for 
 Thy consolation." " It has at first sight a verbal 
 touch of impiety, but that which was within Saint- 
 Martin was, according to Saint-Martin, the Divine. 
 
 With these aspirations and these convictions it 
 does not need to be said that he longed eagerly and 
 longed early for the end of his exile. He tells us that 
 he ado red death as much as he hated war,^ and though 
 without enemies, and denying that he had any real 
 misfortunes in this life, that he felt himself able to 
 pray for release from the burden of the world, not 
 to-morrow, if God willed, but immediately. The 
 sentiment was in harmony with his philosophy and 
 the outcome of his experience. " I have never found 
 peace except in proportion as I ascended towards the 
 world of realities, so that I could compare it with 
 ours, and thus convince myself that this earthly, tem- 
 poral, social, political world is only as a figure of 
 
 * Portrait Historique, (Euvres Posthumes, vol. i. p. io8. 
 2 Ibid., p. 108. 3 Ibid., p. III.
 
 6o THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 speech." ^ And hence the chief ambition which he 
 possessed while in it was, he says, to be no longer 
 in it, " so much did I feel myself a man misplaced 
 and a stranger here below." " At the close of his sixth 
 decade he felt, so to speak, the opening of a new 
 world. " My spiritual hopes grow as they advance. 
 And I also advance, thanks to God, towards the 
 great joys which were proclaimed to me from long 
 ago." ^ When he felt that his end was approaching, 
 he said : '* My corporal and spiritual life has been 
 too well cared for by Providence for me to have 
 anything but gratitude to render, and I ask only 
 God's aid to be in readiness." ^ At the close of the 
 memorial notes, referring again to the end, he 
 summed up his course as follows : "I will not say 
 that I have passed through the world, for, in truth, 
 I have passed only beside it, as in fortune so in 
 honours, as in worldly pleasures so even in those 
 pure and living joys which some are permitted to 
 taste who, not being drawn into the career which I 
 have followed, have been free to yield to the delicious 
 sentiments of the heart. But I will also say that I 
 have passed by the tribulations of the ambitious, the 
 agonies of the covetous, the dreadful blows sustained 
 so often by those souls who have yielded to their 
 tenderness, and to all the motions of their desires. 
 Having been spared, therefore, the misfortunes and 
 distresses of the world, so far from lamenting the 
 privation of its advantages, I will thank God un- 
 ceasingly that He has granted me far more than all 
 the pleasures of all the ages collective could have 
 ever afforded me."^ 
 
 * Portrait Historique, (Euvres Posthumes, vol. i. pp. 105-106. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 1 15. ^ Ibid., p. 129. * Ibid., p. 136. ^ Ibid., pp. 137-138.
 
 IN THE INWARD MAN 6i 
 
 I think that we may confess with Saint-Martin 
 that one of the gifts of his spirit was " to desire 
 ardently the manifestation of the Kingdom." 
 
 Besides the little history of inward life which has 
 been here gathered up, the memorial notes contain 
 many indications of moment as to the doctrines of 
 the mystic, and many spiritual maxims of great 
 beauty and great acuteness for which a place will 
 be found later on. They also present Saint-Martin 
 in the aspect of a literary man, and we can learn 
 from them that he loved his books, mainly in his 
 capacity as philosopher, for the truths which were 
 contained in them, as apostle for the mission which 
 they represented, but also and certainly, though a 
 little covertly, as author for the children of his talent, 
 dwelling over the circumstances which occasioned 
 them, the places in which they were written, sorrowing 
 occasionally at their imperfections, like a discerning 
 father, and frequently explaining to himself why 
 they were unacceptable to his age, or why rather, 
 since as a fact they were neither unknown nor 
 rejected, they failed to secure that full measure of 
 recognition which his sense of mission required. In 
 this connection we should remember that his writings 
 were the work of a man who neither looked for light 
 in books nor commended that course to others.. 
 " The works which I have composed have no other 
 end than to persuade my readers to abandon all 
 books, not excepting my own." ^ This, however, 
 was in the last degrees only of interior progress./ 
 "Books," as he says elsewhere, "are the windows ^ 
 of truth, but they are not the door ; they point out) 
 
 1 Portrait Historique, CEavres Posthumes, vol. i. p. 7.
 
 62 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 X 
 
 tilings to men, but tliey do not impart them," ^ His 
 wn writings he regarded less as an instruction than 
 as a warninsj and an exhortation." " It is in man 
 himself that we should write, think, and speak, not 
 merely on paper." ^ At the same time he declares 
 also in his enthusiasm that all the paper of the world 
 would be insuflicient for what he alone had to say.^ 
 Whatsoever he wrote was actuated by tender love 
 for man ; '' while he recognised its obscurity and 
 imperfection, he was convinced also that it rested on 
 a solid and impregnable foundation, which made form 
 of minor importance, though a just criticism would 
 admit that of all spiritual writers his form is the 
 least repellent. " Those having soul," he concludes, 
 " will lend to my work w4iat is wanted, but the soul- 
 less will deny it even that which it has." ^ 
 
 1 Portrait Historique, CEuvres Posthumes, vol. i. p. 62. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 33. 3 ibirl_^ pp 34-35. 
 * Ibid., p. 13. ^ Ibid., p. 42. 
 
 6 Ibid., p. 129.
 
 IV 
 
 LATER HISTORY OF MARTINISM 
 
 Saint-Martin has been represented frequently as 
 the founder of a corporate school which, under the 
 name of Martin ism, is supposed to have existed for 
 the propagation of his peculiar doctrines. There is 
 some warrant for supposing that, without rites or 
 lodges, he may have attached to himself certain 
 chosen disciples, and that thus a school arose, which 
 has been erroneously represented as a rite of Masonry, 
 affiliated with the German Illuminati of Weishaupt. 
 The question is involved in obscurity, and to eluci- 
 date it is as yet scarcely possible ; some manifest mis- 
 takes which have arisen may, however, be indicated 
 briefly. Unpublished sources of information exist, 
 I believe, in France, and in these may be contained 
 the solution of the difficulties, but they are not 
 likely to be available till those who now hold them 
 have passed them through the literary channel.^ I 
 write therefore subject to every correction which can 
 be made by more extended knowledge. 
 
 ^ I am much indebted, however, to Dr. Papus for some items of 
 information which he has kindly furnished me, but too late to be 
 incorporated in the text of this study. The most important has 
 reference to certain communications, a list of which is possessed by 
 my correspondent. They were received by the Chevaliers Bienfaisants 
 de la Cite Sainte, working apparently in common. " But," says Dr. 
 Papus, "the Being who brought these communications, who also was 
 called by them the Unknown Philosopher (afterwards the pseudonym 
 of Saint-Martin), appeared one day and burned part of his instructions." 
 Two volumes remain in MS., and are said to have been used largely 
 by Saint-Martin in the composition of his first work. 
 
 63
 
 64 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 The latest historian in England of the Secret 
 Societies, Mr. C. W. Heckethorn/ states that Saint- 
 Martin to some extent reformed the rite of Pas- 
 qually, dividing it into ten degrees, classed in two 
 temples : " The first temple comprised the degrees 
 of Apprentice, Fellow-Craft, Master, Ancient Master, 
 Elect, Grand Architect and Master of the Secret. 
 The degrees of the second temple were Prince 
 of Jerusalem, Knight of Palestine, and Knight of 
 Kadosh. The Order, as modified by him, extended 
 into the principal cities of France, Germany, and 
 Russia, where the celebrated Prince Repnin (1734- 
 1801) was its chief protector." Mr. Heckethorn also 
 adds that the Order is now extinct. We have here 
 the Unknown Philosopher presented as the secret 
 chief of a vast organisation extended over the great 
 part of Europe. Mr. Heckethorn, however, has 
 entirely disregarded the recent and most reliable 
 sources of information, and his work, laborious 
 though it may be, is very far from representing 
 the existing state of knowledge on the subject of 
 secret societies. For the statement concerning Saint- 
 Martin no authority is cited, but I infer that it has 
 been derived from French sources through Mr. John 
 Yarker, who, so far back as the year 1872, gives 
 substantially the same information,^ and at the pre- 
 sent day would possibly be open to correct it. 
 
 There is good ground for the opinion that subse- 
 quent to the death of Pasqually Saint-Martin had a 
 certain connection with the rite which he instituted,^ 
 
 1 "Secret Societies of all Ages and Nations," vol. i. pp. 217-218. 
 
 2 " Notes on the Scientific and Religious Mysteries of Antiquity." 
 
 ^ Dr. Papus has since informed rue, on the authority of his documents, 
 that Saint-Martin substituted individual initiation for initiation in 
 Lodge, and that in this manner he propagated Martinism in Russia
 
 LATER HISTORY OF MiRTINISM 65 
 
 for we know by his posthumous vrorks that he read 
 papers on mystic subjects to his fellow-initiates at 
 Lyons. There is no reason, however, for supposing 
 that he had any directing connection, and much 
 less the authority implied in a power to reform the 
 rite. M. Gence tells us^ that, after the death of 
 its founder, the school of Martines was transferred 
 to Lyons, and the documents published by the 
 French occultist Papus substantiate this statement-, 
 because they establish clearly that the acting head 
 of the Order, J. B. Willermoz, was actually located 
 at Lyons at the period of Pasqually's departure for 
 St. Domingo, and there continued. The Order was 
 introduced into Lyons in 1767. In 1774 the death 
 of the Grand Sovereign left his deputy at the head 
 of affairs, in which position I judge that he con- 
 tinued at least till the year 1790. It is not there- 
 fore correct that the Elect Cohens ceased to exist 
 in 1778, as stated by M. Gence, nor, as we shall see 
 later on, is the Order entirely extinct at the present 
 day, despite the assertion of Mr, Heckethorn. Nor did 
 it reappear in the society of the Grand Profes and that 
 of the Philalethes, though Papus may be correct in 
 affirming that the latter organisation, together with 
 the Illuminati of Avignon and the Academy of True 
 Masons of Montpellier, " derive directly from Mar- 
 tinism." ^ The statement, however, can be true in 
 the case of the Illuminati of Avignon only by sup- 
 
 during the reign of Catherine the Great. For the character and 
 method of this initiation consult his own statement, pp. 253, 254, of 
 the present work. It should be noted also that the Kussian visit 
 referred to is wholly unknown to all Saint-Martin's biographers. 
 
 ^ Cited in the preface to Penny's translation of the " Theosophie 
 Correspondence." 
 
 " Martines de Pasqually, p. 1 5 1 . 
 
 E
 
 66 TFIE UlsNK'OWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 posing that this D(fet.y divided from the Elect Cohens 
 at a very early period, for jt. was ^established 1»y the 
 Benedictine alchemist Pernety in 1766. Now, the 
 first apparition of Pasqually is said to have been 
 at Paris in the year 1754.^ He was then about 
 forty years of age, but at the beginning only of 
 his Masonic career. As to the Pite of PhilalSthes, 
 it was invented by Savalette de Langes, keeper of 
 the royal treasury, in 1775, in which year ^mt- 
 MaHlh first 'publiffid his' \\'^^^^ et de la 
 
 Verity. The Rite had twelve degrees, of which the 
 ninth was that of " Unknown Philosopher." We 
 have independent evidence for determining that this 
 name was not borrowed from the pseudonym then 
 first adopted by Saint-Martin, as it was applied to a 
 transcendental visitant familiar to the followers of 
 Pasqually. According to M. Gence," the Order of 
 the Philalethes professed ostensibly the doctrines 
 of Martines and Swedenborg, but pursued in reality 
 " the secret of the philosophical work," and there is 
 independent evidence in abundance for their alche- 
 mical enthusiasm. On the same authority, it is said 
 that Saint-Martin was invited in 1784 to the associa- 
 tion of the Philalethes, " but he refused to participate 
 in the proceedings of its members, who seemed to 
 him to speak and act only as Freemasons, and not as 
 true initiates, that is, as united to their principle." ^ 
 
 ^ The authorities are Matter, who may perhaps have followed Caro, 
 but was usually careful in ascertaining his dates, and Papus (p. 1 50), 
 who ought to be well informed. But it is right to add that, according 
 to C. A. Thory, Acta Latomorum^ vol. i. p. 93, the ProiDaganda of 
 Pasqually did not begin at Paris till 1768. The later date of course 
 embarrasses still further the alleged derivation of the Rite of Avignon. 
 
 2 Penny, " Theosophic Correspondence," p. v. 
 
 ^ In the Acta Latomorum, vol. ii. p. 376, Saint- Martin was invited, 
 it is said, to the Convention of Paris, 1785, but refused to attend. 
 Mesmer at the same time acted in the same manner. Ibid., i. 160.
 
 LATEE HISTORY OF MARTINISM 67 
 
 It is otherwise perfectly clear from tlie life and 
 writings of Saint-Martin that he had no Masonic 
 interests/ He loved no mysteries save those of 
 God, Man, and the Universe ; and having taken the 
 inward way, he is the last person to connect with 
 schisms and reformations in rites. M. Gence, how- 
 ever, says that he joined meetings cheerfully where 
 the members "occupied themselves sincerely in the 
 exercises of solid virtue." I take this to mean that 
 he kept up some kind of communication with his 
 original centre at Lyons, against which must be 
 placed the much more significant testimony of all 
 his letters, which refer invariably to his theurgic 
 experiences as matters of the far past. In either 
 case, he was in regular correspondence with the 
 existing chief of the Elect Cohens — that is to say, 
 with Willermoz ; and Papus states, on the authority 
 of that correspondence, that the theurgic operations 
 of Willermoz frequently drew Saint-Martin to Lyons. 
 But the affairs of the Order, as I have said, were 
 altogether in the hands of its chief, who, in con- 
 junction with Sellonf, the president of the Grand 
 Lodge of Masters, representing the French Rite, and 
 with Jacques Willermoz, his brother, president of the 
 Chapter of Knights of the Black Eagle, representing 
 the Templar Rite, is said to have formed a secret 
 council having the Masonic centres at Lyons in the 
 hollow of its hand.^ It was owing to the activity of 
 Willermoz that the celebrated Masonic conventions 
 — that of Lyons (1778) and that of Wilhelmsbad 
 (1782) — were organised, at the latter the business 
 
 1 Thory, however, affirms (ibid., i. 223) that he left a MS. entitled 
 L' £cossisme' Eeforme, in 2 vols., but does not indicate its whereabouts or 
 mention any authority for the statement. 
 
 ^ Papus, Marlines dePasqually,]). 153.
 
 68 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 being regarded as of such importance that he re- 
 mained for two years as a deputy. 
 
 As a result of this conference a cjreat chansre 
 seems to have taken place in German Masonry, 
 which passed under the iniiuence of the Elect 
 Cohens. Unfortunately the evidence concerning it 
 is in a state of inextricable confusion, and though I 
 have sifted it with great care, I do not pretend to 
 have placed the result in any sense beyond criticism. 
 Mr. Heckethorn, having mentioned the importance of 
 the Congress, which, under the presidency of the 
 Duke of Brunswick, was attended by Masons from 
 Europe, America, and Asia, informs us that "the 
 result of the Convention of Wilhelmsbad was the 
 retention of the three symbolical degrees, with the 
 addition of a new degree, that of the ' Knights of 
 Beneficence,' which was based on the principles 
 enunciated in Saint-Martin's books, Des Erreurs et 
 de la Verite and the Tableau Naturel." ^ He adds : 
 " Another result was a league between Masonry and 
 the Illuminati, brought about by the exertions of 
 Weishaupt." The grafting of a mystical degree 
 upon the degrees of Craft Masonry, and the amal- 
 gamation or junction of both with a society which 
 was revolutionary and infidel, is a heterogeneous and 
 unlikely proceeding, which, if it ever took place, came 
 very speedily to an end, for the Illuminati were 
 forcibly suppressed in 1786. We may picture the 
 feelings of Saint-Martin at his identification with the 
 principles of Nicolai. 
 
 Yet he had a closer connection with the mystic 
 grades of Masonry, if we are to accept the evidence 
 of another witness who has recently seceded from 
 
 ^ " Secret Societies of all Ages and Nations," vol. ii. p. 62.
 
 LATER HISTORY OF MARTINISM 69 
 
 modern Martinism — that is to say, from tlie Order 
 which Mr. Heckethorn affirms to be now extinct. 
 This witness is Jules Doinel,^ who, since his con- 
 version to Catholicism, has given us a full account 
 of the Knights of Beneficence, more correctly the 
 Chevaliers Bienfaisants de la Cite Sainte. The laws 
 regulating this chivalry were, he tells us, definitely 
 framed by a national convention in 1778 — that is to 
 say, by the Convention of Lyons, not that of Wil- 
 helmsbad, and that one of its members was Saint- 
 Martin himself. Cazotte was also a member. When 
 we come, however, to the description of the society, 
 we see that it is not a degree superposed upon Craft 
 Masonry, but an elaborate system subdivided into 
 three classes of knighthood, and its ritual, so far 
 from being based on the works or exhibiting the 
 influence of Saint-Martin, is merely a version of the 
 Templar legend. 
 
 , The third witness to be cited is Mr. John Yarker,^' 
 who knows nothing of the Convention of Lyons, and 
 something different from those who have preceded 
 him about that of Wilhelmsbad. What was really 
 established thereat was the " Reformed Rite," con- 
 sisting of "two degrees above Craft Masonry, namely : 
 4, Scotch Master ; 5, Charitable Knight of the Holy 
 City." It passed into Poland under the name of 
 the " Reformed Helvetic Rite." For this witness it 
 has apparently no connection with Martinism ; it 
 was a modification of the Rite of Strict Observance, 
 founded in 1754 by Baron Hund, and itself a fusion 
 of the Rite of the Chapter of Clermont with Templar 
 principles and notions. This genealogy accounts well 
 
 1 Lucifer Demasque, par Jean Kostka (i.e., Jules Doinel), p. 2y4etseq. 
 
 2 " Notes on the Scientific and Keligious Mysteries of Antiquity."
 
 JO THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 enough for the character of the occult chivalry whose 
 mysteries have been unveiled by Jules Doinel. Un- 
 fortunately it accounts for nothing else, for the Con- 
 vention of Wilhelmsbad, after thirty sittings, rejected 
 the Templar theory of Masonry, and was therefore 
 not at all likely to institute a Templar rite. 
 
 If we now have recourse to Paj)us.^ we shall find, 
 at first sight, that he seems only to increase the con- 
 fusion, and that on this important point the archives 
 of the Martinists have failed him. He says : *' After 
 the Revolution Willermoz continued single-handed 
 the work of his initiator by amalgamating the Rite 
 of the Elect Cohens with the Illuminism of Baron 
 Hund for the formation of the Eclectic Rite," certain 
 grades of which were, he adds, purely Martinistic. 
 As to the last point, the authority he cites is Mounier,^ 
 who wrote in refutation of Robison,^ but there is 
 nothing decisive in the quotation. It is certain that 
 Baron Hund was not an Illumine in the sense that he 
 belonged to the Order founded by Weishaupt, whom he 
 preceded in Masonic activity by many years, nor was 
 his system in the German sense Illuminism. By a 
 curious contradiction, it was both Catholic, Jacobite, 
 and Templar. Now, Papus tells us elsewhere that 
 " it follows from the letters of Pasqually that the 
 Martinists, far from supporting the brethren of the 
 Templar Rite in their political projects, on the con- 
 trary were always at war with them." * Finally, the 
 
 1 Marlines de Pasqually, p. 210. 
 
 2 De rinfiuence attribute aux Philosophes, aux Franc-Masons et aux 
 Ilhimines swr la Revolution de France. Paris, 1801. 
 
 3 " Proofs of a Conspiracy against all tlie Religions and Governments 
 of Europe," &c. Though extremely unreliable, this work is not without 
 importance for the history of Martinism. 
 
 * Marlines de Pasqually, p. 153.
 
 LATER HISTORY OF MARTINISM 71 
 
 fusion of the Elect Cohens with the Strict Observance 
 could not have produced Eclectic Masonry after the 
 Revolution as its result. The Eclectic Rite appears 
 to have been founded at Frankfurt in 1783 by Baron 
 Knippe, also a member of the Illuminati, to check the 
 spread of the philosophic rites. 
 
 Out of this chaos it is possible, however, to develop 
 a certain order, if we compare it with other statements 
 made by Papus, for which he has the authority of 
 the survivino^ archives of the Martinist Rite. " After 
 the convention of Wilhelmsbad, at which Martinism 
 had played so important a part, an alliance was con- 
 cluded between the Martinists and the deputies of the 
 Strict Observance."^ At this period we must remem- 
 ber that Pasqually had been long dead, that Willermoz 
 was a member of a Templar Rite in France, and that 
 he did not therefore perpetuate the feud of his master. 
 We must remember also that the condemnation of 
 the Templar element in Freemasonry by the Conven- 
 tion resulted in the suspension of the Strict Observance 
 by the Duke of Brunswick. We understand therefore 
 why it may possibly have cast itself on the protection 
 of the Templar Willermoz and on the Order of the 
 Elect Cohens. The Chevaliers Bienfaisants I take to 
 have been in existence prior to the Convention, in 
 which case Jules Doinel is correct up to that point ; 
 he is also right in representing them as either a phase 
 of Martinism or affiliated therewith. After the return 
 of Willermoz to France negotiations continued be- 
 tween the two parties, but were interrupted by the 
 Revolution. They were apparently renewed still 
 later, and may have resulted in a fusion with the 
 Eclecticism of Baron Knippe, who had long previously 
 
 ^ Marlines de Pasqually, p. 1 1 .
 
 72 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 seceded from the Uluminati of Weisliaupt. With the 
 doings of the latter personage I scarcely think there 
 could have been any connection, though a great 
 activity is assigned him among French mystical 
 fraternities, including; all under notice, in the savag-e 
 and indiscriminate onslaught of Robison.^ Willermoz 
 himself was the very opposite of a revolutionary, and 
 escaped the scafifold to which he had been condemned 
 during the Reign of Terror by the providential expia- 
 tion of Robespierre on the day prior to that which was 
 fixed for his own execution. In any case, the later 
 connections of Martinism are not altogether of a kind 
 which would have commended itself to the original 
 founder, and we assuredly do not find throughout 
 one trace of the participation of Saint- Martin. 
 
 The death of Willermoz occurred about 1815. 
 The archives of the Order passed into the hands of 
 his nephew, whom he named G. M. Profds. His 
 widow, in turn, confided them to M. Cavernier, who 
 restored them a few years ago to the existing Lodge 
 of Martinism at Lyons, which, though in itself of 
 recent origin, has an uninterrupted historical con- 
 nection with the Elect Cohens through the Italian 
 and German groups.^ "In 1887," says Papus, "a 
 strong eff"ort was made for the serious diffusion of 
 the Order, and four years subsequently the results 
 obtained permitted the creation of a Supreme Council 
 comprising twenty-one members and having under 
 its obedience a number of lodg-es both in France and 
 Europe." ^ As stated in the preface to this work, it 
 is at the present day widely diffused in America. 
 
 1 " Proofs of a Conspiracy," c. iv. 'passim. 
 ^ Papus, Marlines de Pasqually, pp. 13-14. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 2 1 2. To this account I may now add tlie following affiliation 
 of modern Martinism, with which Dr. Papus has supplied me. ( i ) Saint-
 
 LATER HISTORY OF MARTINISM n 
 
 While anticipating that further evidence may 
 clear up many difficulties in tfie history of Martinism, 
 it seems fairly certain that by the term itself we are 
 to understand a body of mystic doctrine, and not a 
 Masonic Rite devised by Saint-Martin to replace the 
 Elect Cohens. The distinction between Martinezists 
 and Martinists made by M. Matter has now at least no 
 existence as regards corporate societies, though it is 
 useful to mark off the philosophical disciples of the 
 two systems. The sole Masonic activity discoverable 
 in Saint-Martin after the departure of Pasqually is 
 confined to a few mystical papers which he seems to 
 have read before the brethren of the Lodge at Lyons. 
 There is evidence, however, that his books were 
 much in vogue among the lodges of transcendental 
 Masonry, and may have been utilised by his admirers, 
 with or without his own concurrence, in the manu- 
 facture of later grades and their rituals. It is in this 
 sense that we may understand and accept the state- 
 ment of Robison that the book Des Erreurs et de la 
 Verite was " a sort of holy scripture, or at least a 
 Talmud among the Freemasons of France." ^ 
 
 Martin. (2) M. de Cliaptal (a name previously imknown in the history 
 of the Order). (3) Henri Delaage (a pupil of i^liiDhas Levi, and author 
 of La Science du Vrai, and other works still in memory among the 
 literati of French occultism). 
 
 1 " Proofs of a Conspiracy," 3rd edition, 1798, pp. 44-45.
 
 BOOK II 
 
 SOURCES OF MARTINISTIC DOCTRINE
 
 RECEPTION AND TRADITION 
 
 The eventual retirement of Saint-Martin from an 
 active connection with the Elect Cohens did not 
 signify his alienation from its fundamental principles, 
 just as the fusion of the Order with a form of 
 Templar Masonry which offered nothing to Mysticism 
 produced no rupture in his amicable relations with 
 Willermoz, who had brought about this event. From 
 the date of the departure of Martines de Pasqually 
 to that of the Convention of Wilhelmsbad, the esoteric 
 doctrines of the theurgic school, mainly, but by no 
 means entirely, apart from its theurgic practices, 
 remained the ruling principles of Saint-Martin's 
 philosophy. There is no trace whatsoever of such 
 an estrangement between himself and his first master 
 as his biographer Matter imagines.^ There is evidence 
 to show that Saint-Martin distrusted from the be- 
 ginning the path of theurgic operation as the direct 
 road to the Divine in the universe. We have it on 
 his own authority that he confided his doubts to his 
 teacher: "Master, can all these things be needed to 
 find God ? " " And there is something in the response 
 of his teacher, " We must even be content with what 
 we have," to indicate that he also regarded them as 
 substitutes, in which case he was in no real dis- 
 
 * Saint- Martin, pp. 66, 72, 73, 270, &c. 
 
 '^ Correspondance, Lettre iv. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspondence,'' 
 p. 16.
 
 78 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 agreement with his disciple, who, a quarter of a 
 century later, confessed his belief that the Divine 
 Wisdom made use of intermediary agents to com- 
 municate His Word to the interior man.^ What he 
 doubted, therefore, was the substitution of the out- 
 ward communion for the inward illumination. At 
 the same time it is certain that Saint-Martin was 
 engaged for more than two years after the death of 
 Pasqually in practical experiences with his friend 
 the Comte d'Hauterive, which were partly magnetic 
 and partly theurgic in character. 
 
 The alleged estrangement between initiator and 
 initiate is based by M. Matter in reality on the fact 
 that after the year 1772 communication did not con- 
 tinue between them, which is perfectly true ; but we 
 know what M. Matter had no means of ascertaining 
 at the time, that this was owing to the departure and 
 death of Pasqually, to which considerably later dates 
 were assigned by all authorities prior to the publica- 
 tion of the Martinistic archives by Papus. Finally, 
 as there was separation but not estrangement, so there 
 was no such return to the principles of the master, 
 as M. Matter discovers in the later correspondence 
 of Saint-Martin." M. Matter, it should be added, 
 did his best, and with admirable results, on the ma- 
 terials that were available at his time. He is the 
 fullest, the most faithful, and, on the whole, most 
 sympathetic of Saint-Martin's biographers, writing 
 from the standpoint of the literary critic, and not 
 at all of the mystic. As a literary performance the 
 memoir of Franck is superior, but it owes nearly all 
 its material to the careful collector who preceded it ; 
 
 1 Correspondance, Lettre iv. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspondence," 
 p. 14. 
 
 ^ Saint-Martin, pp. 270-272.
 
 EECEPTION AND TRADITION 79 
 
 whereas M. Matter himself owes nothing, or next to 
 nothing, to the incidental thesis of Moreau, or to the 
 dull if patient digest of M. Caro. 
 
 There are three epochs in the philosophical career 
 of Saint-Martin which are very clearly defined in his 
 books. In the j&rst, his mystical mind worked almost 
 exclusively on the notions which he derived from 
 the school of Martines de Pasqually. To this we 
 owe his first publication, " Of Errors and of Truth," 
 and its sequel, the " Natural Table of the Corre- 
 spondences between God, Man, and the Universe." 
 Having regard to his peculiar views and to the period 
 at which they were put forth, I do not see that he 
 could well have made a better beginning than he 
 made in his earliest book. It has many bizarre 
 elements, many strange and unaccountable views on 
 politics, sociology, and helles lettres, which were cal- 
 culated to challenge opinion ; and opinion accepted 
 the challenge, bringing thus into notice a system 
 which, had it been merely mystical, a guide to the 
 devout life, a theosophy without a theocracy, less of 
 a gage thrown down at the door of every fashionable 
 doctrine, would have missed its mark because it 
 would have passed unheeded. In his second work 
 Saint-Martin has less call to impress and startle. It 
 is accordingly more collected, less comprehensive, 
 but more complete in its sphere ; it is also far more 
 intelligible, and far better in its literary expression. 
 The second epoch embraces a period which has been 
 referred by some, at least partially, to the influence 
 of Swedenborg. It began with the " Man of Aspira- 
 tion " and ended with the "New Man." It is a 
 period of inspiration and poetic fervour, of ardent 
 desire after the lost perfection of humanity in its
 
 So THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 primeval union with the Divine. In a word, the 
 philosopher has passed more definitely into the 
 mystic. There is also an increased literary facility, 
 which, though it never approaches the perfect gift 
 of style, exercises a certain fascination and produces 
 a certain entrainement. 
 
 The third period includes all the later life of 
 Saint-Martin, and is represented by " The Spirit of 
 Things" and the "Ministry of Man the Spirit." In 
 the first of these works the author seems to pass in 
 review over much of the ground traversed at the 
 beginning of his literary career, but the essays which 
 comprise it are too detached and occasional in char- 
 acter to produce a homogeneous result. We have, 
 rather, selections from the note-book of a mystic on a 
 variety of subjects, all interesting, all treated unex- 
 pectedly, but nothing new that can be regarded as of 
 the first importance. This period is that of the influ- 
 ence of Jacob Boehme, which does not, however, 
 appear specifically except in the "Ministry," the last 
 and most mature work of the author, a further con- 
 sideration of which must be deferred to the next 
 section. 
 
 Through all these works the mind of Saint-Martin 
 predominates ; he is at all times an originator rather 
 than a follower ; an initiator, not a disciple merely. 
 The influence of his first school also persists through- 
 out, but it is more than modified : it is transfigured. 
 For example, the central doctrine of Reintegration is 
 undoubtedly that of Pasqually, as the MS. treatise 
 by the latter makes evident ; but it has become 
 something " rich and strange " by the illumination 
 of Saint-Martin's gift. The Martinistic philosophy 
 of numbers is also a special inheritance from the
 
 RECEPTION AND TRADITION 8i 
 
 theurgic school, and will help us in its place to de- 
 termine within certain limits the source of Pasqually's 
 own initiation, and the importance, such as it is, which 
 may be granted to his system from a purely occult 
 standpoint. 
 
 That the system expounded by Saint-Martin in 
 his two initial works was in its fundamental elements 
 a reception by tradition will be quite evident to the 
 occultist from the fact that it entailed reticence on 
 several points of importance. In the treatise on 
 "Errors and Truth" there are, however, two kinds 
 of reticence which it is necessary to distinguish. It 
 was the design of Saint-Martin to lead back the mind 
 of his age to Christianity, as understood by himself; 
 but he judged, not altogether incorrectly, that the 
 mind of the age was in no mood to tolerate an 
 explicit defence of Christianity. He " wrote for the 
 rationalists and materialists who had possession of 
 the literary world in France, who made ridicule of 
 the Gospel, and, indeed, were unqualified to hear its 
 acceptable sounds ; at least, he wrote for the really 
 thoughtful among them, whose pride of reason had 
 not yet utterly shut up the understanding of the 
 heart." ^ He therefore placed a certain veil over his 
 doctrine, referring, for example, to Christ only under 
 the name of the Active and Intelligent Cause. I am 
 not sure that the device did not serve its purpose, 
 though it looks now a little childish and scarcely 
 calculated to deceive any one, however blinded by 
 the "pride of reason." In any case, this species of 
 reticence is not of any interest to readers at the 
 present day, and it was removed by Saint-Martin him- 
 self, as might be expected, when he thought that the 
 
 1 Penny, Preface to " Theosophic Correspondence," p. xxxi. 
 
 F
 
 82 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 time had come. There is another veil, however, 
 which he did not lift even for Baron Kirchberger, 
 and this concerns the precise nature of his knowledge 
 derived from initiation. In the preface to his earliest 
 work he at once reveals the fact that he is the 
 depositary of a secret and exclusive doctrine, and 
 that there is a strung line beyond which he is bound 
 not to pass in regard to it. 
 
 " For such an enterprise as that which I have 
 undertaken more than common resources are neces- 
 sary. Without specifying those which I employ, it 
 will be enough to say that they connect with the 
 essential nature of man, that they have always been 
 known to some among mankind from the prime 
 beginning of things, and that they will never be 
 withdrawn wholly from the earth while thinking 
 beings exist thereon. Thence have I derived my 
 evidence, and thence my conviction upon truths the 
 search after which engrosses the entire universe. 
 After this avowal, if I am accused of disseminating 
 an unknown doctrine, at least I must not be sus- 
 pected of being its inventor, for if it connect with 
 the nature of man, not only am I not its inventor, 
 but it would have been impossible for me to estab- 
 lish any other on a solid basis. The principles here 
 expounded are the true key of all the allegories and 
 all the mysterious fables of every people, the primi- 
 tive source of every kind of institution, and actually 
 the pattern of those laws which direct and govern 
 the universe, constituting all beings. In other words, 
 they serve as a foundation to all that exists and to 
 all that operates, whether in man and by the hand 
 of man, whether outside man and independently of 
 his will. Hence, in the absence of these principles
 
 RECEPTION AND TRADITION 83 
 
 there can be no real science, and it is by reason of 
 having forgotten these principles that the earth has 
 been given over to errors. But although the light 
 is intended for all eyes, it is certain that all eyes are 
 not so constituted as to be able to behold it in its 
 splendour. It is for this reason that the small 
 number of men who are depositaries of the truths 
 which I proclaim are pledged to prudence and dis- 
 cretion by the most formal engagements." ^ 
 
 The claim of initiation and the indication of the 
 bonds which it imposes could not be more clearly ex- 
 pressed. I confess myself unable to comprehend how 
 it is that, in the face of this statement, some previ- 
 ous biographers of Saint-Martin have challenged or 
 depreciated the influence of the theurgic school on 
 their subject, or that his first works are expositions 
 of the system taught in that school. 
 
 In accordance with the above indications, Saint- 
 Martin warns his readers with equal explicitness that 
 he has recourse to the veil, and sometimes speaks in 
 reality of things far different from those which he 
 seems to be discussing." This statement will cover, 
 no doubt, and was intended to cover, both his quali- 
 ties of reticence, but it has obviously a special appli- 
 cation to that which was imposed on him by the 
 pledges to which he refers. There will be no call to 
 extend this section by the laborious collection of 
 cases in which he puts in practice this law of con- 
 cealment, but I may mention some salient instances 
 to show that what was covered was actually occult 
 doctrine, as distinguished from Christian doctrine 
 in a drapery of evasion. The mysticism of numbers 
 
 1 Des Erreiirs et de la Verite, Part I. pp. 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, editioa of 1782. 
 '^ Ibid., pp. 8-9.
 
 84 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 will be admittedly a case iu point, and let us take 
 therefore his teaching concerning tetradic progres- 
 sion. It is not readily intelligible as it stands, 
 namely, that the diflPerence between the kinds of 
 corporeal beings is always in tetradic geometric pro- 
 portion. The progression is apparently from man to 
 animals, from animals to vegetables, from vegetables 
 to minerals, which are the final term of the progres- 
 sion of created things, as man is the second, thus 
 inverting; the alleg-ed order of material evolution, 
 though the instruction should perhaps be understood 
 only of the archetypal world. This progression 
 applies also to the beings who transcend matter, 
 but Saint -Martin states that here his obligation 
 prevents him from speaking clearly.^ 
 
 For other instances we may pass from numbers 
 and their hidden properties to the nature of man 
 himself. Here the reserve of the adept is exercised 
 concerning the bond which subsists between the 
 interior act of the will and the sensible manifesta- 
 tion which follows it in the outward act. This, says 
 Saint-Martin, constitutes the true royalty of man, 
 and cannot be enlarged upon without indiscretion 
 and danger.^ He promises to refer to it again, but 
 never without reserve. So also when it is affirmed 
 that the life of man's intellectual productions is not 
 from man himself, it is added that this is a mystery 
 which can never be entombed sufficiently.^ Even 
 the familiar doctrine concerning actives and passives, 
 superior and inferior, is considered too exalted to be 
 fully exposed to the eyes of the multitude,"* while the 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Ve'rite, Part I. pp. 60-62. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 152. 3 Ibid., p. 98. 
 
 ■^ Ibid., p. 132.
 
 EECEPTION AND TRADITION 85 
 
 Martinistic doctrine as to the origin of religion is 
 sealed to the casual reader in the vase of a clumsy 
 parable.^ The same considerations render Saint- 
 Martin inexplicit on the subject of suffering in the 
 animal kingdom. Why are animals so often de- 
 prived of that sensible felicity which would make 
 them happy after their own manner? "I could 
 explain this difficulty were it permitted me to en- 
 large upon the bond which subsists between things, 
 and to show how far evil has extended through 
 the errors of man ; but this is a point which I can 
 never do more than indicate ; for the moment it will 
 be enough to say that earth is no longer virgin, 
 which exposes both itself and its fruits to all the 
 evils entailed by the loss of virginity." " 
 
 To quote a last instance, it is affirmed that those 
 who have understanding may infer from the adultery 
 of the flesh some clear indices as to the adultery of 
 the spirit committed by man before he became sub- 
 ject to the law of the elements ; but the obligations 
 of Saint -Martin interdict him from any explana- 
 tions on this point, and, moreover, for his own weal, 
 he prefers to blush at the crime of man rather than to 
 discourse of it.^ 
 
 I must be excused from debating whether this 
 law of concealment has ever guarded anything which 
 was worth despoiling, and if so, whether it can be 
 justified morally, and is therefore really binding on 
 the conscience of those who subscribe to it. These 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. p. 2ig et seq. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 73. He justifies subsequently the sufferings of the animal 
 world on the ground that the animals are the instruments of Wisdom, 
 and further, that the fall of man has involved both things above and 
 things below in its consequences. Tableau Naturel, i. 126-131. 
 
 3 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part II, p. 50.
 
 86 TPIE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 are matters which will be approached differently by 
 those who accept or reject the claims of the secret 
 sciences, and by those, I may add, who, like M. Jules 
 Doinel, experience a change in the substance of their 
 honour collaterally with that of their convictions in 
 matters of religion. I have only sought to demon- 
 strate that Saint-Martin received by tradition some 
 things which he believed to be of value, and that he 
 spoke of them as he best could. ^ I must not add 
 that I should regard anything which he has withheld 
 in his wisdom as fit to be compared with all that he 
 has made known in his goodness, and chiefly by 
 gifts of illumination, which are particular to no asso- 
 ciation, and do not need the technical training of an 
 occultist to understand or profit by them. But I 
 will add that many occult secrets — whether in the 
 last analysis they did not exceed revelation, or the 
 gravity of responsibility sat lighter as years went on, 
 or time and the death of Pasqually had cancelled the 
 considerations of concealment, or yet more probably 
 because the missing half of revelations generally slips 
 out by an accident — which Saint-Martin once reserved 
 somehow escaped him afterwards. In the present 
 examination of his philosophy it has been purged of 
 all arbitrary oracles. I must confess that some of it 
 continues oracular, but that is through the obscurity 
 of the mystic and not the reservations of the adept. 
 
 1 For other instances of reticence see Des Urreurs et de la Verite 
 Part II. 119, 131, 149, 172, 173, 175, 186, 196, 214, 229,230. Also 
 Tableau Naturel, i. 167, whicli seems to refer in mysterious terms to 
 the existence of special emissaries of darkness operating on earth and 
 in the flesh. I have omitted further reference to the alleged transcen- 
 dental origin of part of Saint- Martin's first work as beyond the scope 
 of literary criticism.
 
 II 
 
 SWEDENBORG AND BOEHME 
 
 At the present day the name of Swedenborg scarcely 
 possesses a place in the history of occult philo- 
 sophy. In the annals of occult experience it is re- 
 membered assuredly, but it connects with a quality 
 of experience which has come to be regarded as 
 nearly devoid of consequence. It was otherwise in 
 France towards the close of the eighteenth century. 
 The Swedish illumind died in the very year that 
 Pasqually departed to St. Domingo, but prior to 
 both events his transcendental doctrines had become 
 the subject and occasion of more than one Masonic 
 Rite, and are said to have exercised an influence 
 on that of Pasqually. The Illuminati of Avignon, 
 founded, as we have seen, in 1766, and described 
 doubtfully as an offshoot of Martinism, connected 
 alchemy with the extra-mundane revelations of Swe- 
 denborg. This rite was transplanted to Paris, with 
 certain modifications, and appeared as the Illuminated 
 Theosophists. It had branches all over the country, 
 and enjoyed a brief success in London. The Rite of 
 the Philalethes, a modification of that of the United 
 Friends, had the same inspiration. Finally, in 1783, 
 the Rite of Swedenborg was founded by the Marquis 
 de Thorne, and survives to this day. The English 
 Grand Master is Mr. John Yarker. 
 
 Swedenborg died in London, where he produced 
 
 87
 
 88 TRE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 an immense impression for a moment, and out of his 
 teachings there arose, both here and in his own country, 
 an institution which has assumed the title of the 
 Church of the New Jerusalem, but it has few followers. 
 Swedenborg may be said in a sense to have prepared 
 the way for Spiritualism. No man of visions and illu- 
 minations has done more than he to commonise the 
 world of spirits. He is the one great prophet of the 
 extra-natural world to the mediocrity of intelligence 
 yearning for tidings therefrom ; he brought it pre- 
 cisely the kind of tidings which it could understand 
 and welcome. Other prophets and other methods of 
 communication have now superseded him, and his 
 ministry is therefore of the past. 
 
 There can be no doubt, of course, that for a time 
 he was an interesting figure to the occultist, for a few 
 on account of his visions, for more in spite of them. 
 He had affinities with Kabalistic tradition by his 
 law of correspondences and his doctrine of the grand 
 man. Astrologers deciphered his horoscope; alchemists, 
 to their own satisfaction, proved that he was a Her- 
 metic philosopher.^ This has also passed away, and 
 the sect which represents him in England is without 
 light, leading, or literature. It is better for a prophet 
 to be forgotten entirely than to leave so pitiful a 
 testimony behind him, and Swedenborg deserved 
 assuredly a better fortune in his following. In his 
 way he was the most gracious, most approachable, 
 and the clearest of natural seers. He was also a man 
 of culture, and his personal good taste is reflected in 
 the tone of his illumination — an element which is 
 
 1 On this point see especially an interesting piece of pleading by 
 the late E. A. Hitchcock, published anonymously in America under 
 the title of " Swedenborg a Hermetic Philosopher."
 
 SWEDENBORG AND BOEHME 89 
 
 conspicuously wanting in some revelations, supple- 
 mentary to his own, which we hear of, let us say, in 
 America. 
 
 It would be a priori exceedingly improbable that 
 the mystic whose inward predilections made him 
 avoid theurgic manifestations should be attracted by 
 the profuse and bourgeois visions of Swedenborg. 
 On this ground only we might be justified in dis- 
 missing the view which makes such an attraction 
 predominate for several years in the life of Saint- 
 Martin, and find a definite expression in some of his 
 most important books. An examination of these will 
 show that there was no such influence. The " New 
 Man " was written, as we have seen, at the suggestion 
 of the nephew of Swedenborg, but this did not mean 
 that Saint-Martin became indoctrinated with the 
 shallow illuminism of Swedenborg, nor that he was in 
 any sense a recorder for Silverhielm. Saint-Martin 
 was personally much attached to Silverhielm, and the 
 book represents the development of his own philo- 
 sophy in the conversations which took place between 
 ^hem. The sole resemblance between the doctrines 
 of the New Jerusalem and the poetic aspirations 
 of the " New Man " is that the work of regeneration 
 is there represented by Saint-Martin as an inward 
 parallel of the outward life of Christ in the Gospel 
 history ; and although it is a fascinating, it is at the 
 same time a fragile artifice, which compares a little 
 indiff'erently with the masculine strength and bold- 
 ness in the allegories of Pope Gregory the Great, 
 arbitrary and strained as are these for the most 
 part. 
 
 Fortunately, however, we possess Saint-Martin's 
 own opinion, expressed in the " Man of Aspiration,"
 
 90 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 after certain strictures on the threefold sense of 
 Scripture according to Swedenborgian tenets. 
 
 " There are a thousand proofs in his works that 
 he was often and highly favoured, a thousand proofs 
 that he was often and deeply deceived, a thousand 
 proofs that he beheld only the middle of the work, 
 and knew neither its commencement nor its end. 
 For the vulgar man these proofs are, however, less 
 than nothing, for he does not suspect their existence. 
 He is ever ready to believe everything when he finds 
 that one thing is true ; he is ever ready to deny 
 everything upon the warrant of a single error. But 
 what, furthermore, are the credentials of Swedenborg ? 
 He offers no proof beyond his own visions and 
 Holy Scripture. Now, what credit will these wit- 
 nesses find with the man who has not been prepared 
 beforehand by healthy reason ? Prove facts by their 
 confirmations. Prove the principle by logic and 
 reasoning. Never say to any one, Believe in us. 
 Say rather, Believe in thyself ; believe in the grandeur 
 of thy nature, which entitles thee to expect every- 
 thing and to verify everything, provided thou dost 
 ask all from Him who giveth all. illustrious and 
 estimable man ! thy writings may confer, notwith- 
 standing, a great good, by imparting to humanity a 
 galvanic shock in its lethargy ! If they cannot pro- 
 vide man with a complete plan of the spiritual region, 
 they help him to discern that it exists, and this is 
 no slight service to render him in the abyss where 
 the systems have plunged him." ^ 
 
 In his correspondence Saint-Martin refused to 
 express any other opinion of Swedenborg and his 
 writings than that which he had recorded above, but 
 
 1 UHomme de D^sir, No. 184.
 
 SWEDENBORG AND BOEHME 91 
 
 in his memorial notes we find a single paragraph 
 containing his final judgment : " While re-reading 
 some extracts from Swedenborg I have been im- 
 pressed that he had more of what is termed the 
 science of souls than the science of spirits ; and, in 
 this connection, though unworthy to be compared 
 with Boehme as regards true knowledge, it is possible 
 that he may be suited to a greater number of people ; 
 for Boehme is intended only for men who have been 
 regenerated wholly, or at least for those who have 
 a great desire to be so." ^ In other words, Boehme's 
 light came from the centre of that circle of which 
 the centre, according to Hermes Trismegistus, St. 
 Bonaventure, and Pascal, is everywhere and the 
 circumference nowhere ; but the illumination of Swe- 
 denborg came from the circumference of the same 
 circle, namely, the astral region, which is that of 
 illusion, and has therefore no place in reality. 
 
 To dismiss the influence of Swedenborg after 
 appreciating it at its true extent is not a matter 
 of difliculty, but I have now to approach a question 
 of another order, and to show that the undoubted 
 and real influence exercised on Saint-Martin by the 
 writings of Jacob Boehme has also been greatly 
 exaggerated, and by no one more than the man 
 who has confessed to it himself. Saint-Martin, in 
 the last analysis, was at all times sui generis; he 
 did not belong to another who was able to belong 
 to himself '" I do not mean to dispute that on the 
 inward life of the French mystic the German theo- 
 sophist did not exercise a great power and difi'use 
 a strong light. I do not mean that the correspond- 
 
 * Portrait Historique, CEuvres Posthumes, vol. i. 
 
 ^ The motto of Paracelsus, " Alterius non sit qxd suus esse potest.^'
 
 92 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 ence of Saint-Martin is not full of testimony to this 
 effect. It is vivid with it ; his admiration and exalta- 
 tion of Boehme appear on every page. He is " not 
 worthy to untie the shoe-strings of that wonderful 
 man." ^ He regards him as " the greatest light that 
 has appeared on the earth since One who is the 
 Light itself."" Boehme is "the abyss of knowledge 
 and profound truths." ^ He has a " solidity that can- 
 not be shaken ; " ** an " elevation and a nourishment 
 so full and so unfailing that I confess I should think 
 it lost time to seek elsewhere, so I have given up 
 all other readings."^ He, in fact, is the "divine 
 writer;"*' Saint-Martin is but a stammerer compared 
 with him.^ He is supreme over all his brethren ; 
 " I find in all grandeurs of the highest order, but he 
 only seems to me to be really born in the thing. 
 The others look sometimes as if they were greater 
 than their affair, but with him the affair always 
 looks greater than he."^ This admiration, as he 
 tells us, did nothing but increase ; " I feel that a 
 prodigy like this, carefully weighed and meditated, 
 is all that is wanted to put oneself into the mould 
 naturally." To sum all, in the " grounds and de- 
 velopments " which Boehme opens up may be found 
 "the keys of every universe and the principle of 
 every key." 
 
 Now, I mean that this immeasurable enthusiasm 
 does exaggerate the influence which it represents, 
 because it creates an indiscriminate impression con- 
 
 ^ Correspondance, Lettre ii. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p, 7. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid, 
 
 * Ibid., Lettre viii. ; ibid., p. 33. * Ibid. 
 
 * Ibid., Lettre xiii. ; ibid., p. 57. 
 '' Ibid., Lettre xx. ; ibid., p. 80. 
 8 Ibid., Lettre Iv. ; ibid., p. 163.
 
 SWEDENBORG AND BOEHME 93 
 
 cerning it. On collecting sucli encomiums our legiti- 
 mate inference might be that Saint-Martin, his life 
 and his doctrines, had been merged soul and body 
 in Boehme ; that henceforth we should find the French 
 mystic merely giving Boehme to his country by trans- 
 lation, as in fact he did, and expounding Boehme's 
 doctrine in substitution of his own. The inference 
 is strengthened when we find Saint-Martin stating 
 that he would have written some of his books diff^e- 
 rently had he been acquainted at the time w4th those 
 of his " beloved author."^ But so far from this being 
 the case, we find that the two works which he did 
 produce — outside his political pamphlets and the 
 nondescript "Crocodile" — present no fundamental 
 differences. Apart from the revelations of his cor- 
 respondence on this subject, and apart from several 
 references in the " Ministry of Man the Spirit," I do 
 not know that it would have occurred to any one 
 to connect Saint-Martin with Boehme in any very 
 close manner. M. Gence says that the object of 
 the "Ministry" is to show how man, conceived as 
 exercising a spiritual mission, " may improve and 
 regenerate himself and others, by restoring the Logos 
 to man and nature. It is from this Word that 
 Saint-Martin, full of the doctrine and sentiments 
 of Jacob Boehme, draws the life with which he here 
 inspires his reasoning and style."" Again, "the 
 amelioration consists in the radical development of 
 our inmost essence."^ But this was the doctrine 
 taught by the French mystic from the beginning; 
 
 1 Correspondance, Lettre ii. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspondence," 
 p. 7. 
 
 2 Penny, Preface to " Tlieosophic Correspondence." 
 
 3 Ibid.
 
 94 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 what differs is tlie terminology alone. We have the 
 recurrence of the term Logos more frequently, though 
 that is not new in Saint- Martin. In fact, M. Gence 
 himself ends by confessing that " all his writings 
 rest more or less on this ground." 
 
 The true key to Saint-Martin's admiration for 
 Boehme is that he believed him to have penetrated 
 more deeply into the same ground, and that therefore 
 he himself had nothing to unlearn when he added 
 the mysterium magnum to the grand ceuvre of 
 Pasqually ; for he had been prepared by the one for 
 the other, as he expressly says, during " twenty-five 
 years of wonders, both in acts and intellectually." ^ 
 I have quoted elsewhere the passage in which he 
 announces his intention to marry the doctrines of 
 Boehme with those of his early school, in which, like 
 a shrewd observer, he laid a finger on some points 
 which were either unknown by the German mystic or 
 of which Boehme would not speak, even as he observed 
 in the latter one point about which he felt con- 
 strained to watch him." We have indications more 
 than once in the correspondence of his satisfaction 
 over the union which he projected ; it was not the 
 satisfaction of an explorer keeping close upon the 
 track of another in a strange country, but of one in 
 an unknown region, approaching the end of his 
 journey, meeting unexpectedly with another who 
 has travelled the road. In the very book which is 
 most supposed to exhibit the influence of Boehme 
 we find Saint-Martin building on his own foundation, 
 referring his reader point by point to his earlier 
 
 1 Correspondance, Lettre Ixxiv.; Penny, "Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 237. 
 
 2 Ibid., Lettre xiii.; ibid., p. 57.
 
 SWEDENBORG AND BOEHME 95 
 
 books, that he might be excused from returning to 
 the " first elements." ^ 
 
 I conclude, therefore, that the mystic philosophy 
 of Saint-Martin is Saint-Martin's own philosophy, but 
 that he derived part of his materials from a school of 
 Mysticism to which he was attached in early life, 
 which will always have a claim on those who love 
 Saint-Martin, because it was loved by him discern- 
 ingly even to the end. He did not reject, as became 
 him, anything that seemed to him true and good in 
 Swedenborg, and he accepted with a whole heart of 
 joy and gratitude the great good and the great truth 
 which came to him in Jacob Boehme. 
 
 As an appendix to this section, I now add a little 
 summary of the " Teutonic Theosophy " in the words 
 of Saint-Martin, because, in the first place, it seems 
 to me that it will help us to understand the corre- 
 spondences between the two writers, and, in the 
 second place, because it also seems to me to express 
 in a manner that is perfectly admirable the pith and 
 essence of the thirty treatises of Boehme by a few 
 master-strokes. 
 
 " This German author, who has been dead for 
 nearly two centuries, has left in his numerous writ- 
 ings some astonishing and extraordinary develop- 
 ments concerning our primitive nature ; the source of 
 evil ; the essence and laws of the universe ; the origin 
 of weight ; the seven powers of nature ; the origin of 
 water (confirmed by chemistry) ; the prevarication of 
 the fallen angels ; that also of man ; and the method 
 of rehabilitation employed by Eternal Love to rein- 
 tegrate the human species in its rights. The reader 
 will find therein that the present physical and 
 
 1 Le Ministere de V Homme-Esprit, pp. 21-28.
 
 96 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 elementary nature is only a residue and alteration 
 of an anterior nature, called eternal by the author, 
 and that in its entire circle it constituted formerly 
 the empire and throne of one of the angelic princes, 
 named Lucifer ; that this prince, seeking only to 
 reign by the power of fire and wrath, setting aside 
 that of love and the Divine Light, which should have 
 been his sole enlightenment, stirred up conflagration 
 through its whole extent ; that the Divine Wisdom 
 opposed to this incendiarism a temperating and 
 refrigerating power which circumscribed without 
 extinguishing it, and hence comes the mixture of 
 good and evil which we find in nature as it is ; that 
 man, formed of the principle of fire, the principle of 
 light, and the quintessential principle of physical 
 or elementary nature, was placed in this world to 
 repress the guilty and dethroned king ; that the 
 quintessential principle of elementary nature should 
 have been kept absorbed by man in the pure element 
 which then composed his corporeal form, but that he 
 allowed himself to be attracted by this temporal 
 principle more than by the two others, and was 
 dominated and put to sleep thereby ; that overcome 
 thus by the material region of this world, his pure 
 part has been absorbed in the grosser form which 
 now envelops him, so that he has become the subject 
 and victim of his enemy ; that the Divine Love which 
 contemplates itself eternally in the mirror of the 
 Divine Wisdom, termed the Virgin Sophia, perceived 
 in this mirror, which comprises all forms, the model 
 and spiritual form of man ; that it clothed itself with 
 this spiritual form, and afterwards with the elemen- 
 tary form, in order to present to man the image of 
 what he had become and the model of that which he
 
 SWEDENBOEG AND BOEHME 97 
 
 should be ; that the actual end of man on earth is to 
 recover physically and morally his likeness to his 
 primitive model ; that his greatest obstacle is the 
 astral and elementary power which engenders and 
 constitutes the world, and for which man was never 
 made ; that the actual generation of man is a speak- 
 ing witness of this truth in the pain of child-bearing ; 
 that the aqueous and igneous tinctures which should 
 be joined in man and identified with wisdom or 
 Sophia, but are now divided, seek each other with 
 great yearning, looking in one another for the 
 Sophia, but finding the astral only, which oppresses 
 and opposes them ; that we are as free to restore by 
 our efforts the original divine image to our spiritual 
 being as to allow it to assume images which are 
 inferior and disordered, and that whatsoever likeness 
 we impart to it will be the mode of our being — in 
 other words, our glory or our shame, in the state 
 which is to come." ^ 
 
 I do not know that any mystic at the present day 
 would care to accept the system thus delineated in 
 its literal sense, but those who are able to discern, 
 so to speak, its essence and spirit, stripped of the 
 bizarre form and reclothed in a possible language, 
 will have, as a Frenchman would say, cl loeu pres 
 the mystical doctrine of Saint-Martin long years 
 before he made acquaintance with Boehme. I do 
 not offer the system of Saint-Martin as an adequate 
 measure of the providence of God in respect of the 
 destinies of man : I know of no adequate measure, 
 mystic or non-mystic ; but I could not be a trans- 
 cendentalist without holding that man has come 
 forth from God, that he has erred somehow in the 
 
 ^ Le Ministdre de V Homme-Esprit, pp. 29-31. 
 
 G
 
 98 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 way, and that he has to return. Saint-Martin has 
 something to teach us as to the way of that return ; 
 and if even in the last analysis we could accept 
 nothing that he tells us, he is still an object of 
 imperishable interest because he is actively occupied, 
 as we also should be with him, in the one pursuit 
 which, to quote his own words, " engrosses the en- 
 tire universe." But I think also that in that last 
 analysis there is light in Saint-Martin, and that 
 where he is not directly helpful he is invariably 
 consoling. To again quote his own words, but this 
 time in another sense, for he was speaking of the 
 French Revolution, we hope with him, and he can 
 and does help us also to believe each one of us with 
 him, " that one day the star of truth and justice will 
 rise on my country and on my life."
 
 Ill 
 
 SAINT-MARTIN AND THE OCCULT SCIENCES 
 
 Saint-Martin had probably very little first-hand 
 acquaintance with the occult sciences, though as 
 regards theurgic practice he had once walked in 
 " this secondary external way." Of their literatures 
 he knew next to nothing ; but then, as he frankly 
 confesses, " I seldom frequent the libraries." ^ With 
 the mystical writers of his own nation, and even 
 his own time, he was very imperfectly acquainted. 
 When approaching the age of fifty years he confessed 
 that he had not read the works of Madame Guyon ; 
 and when he came to know something of them in a 
 very slight and derived manner, he was dissatisfied, 
 as might perhaps be expected ; they made him feel 
 " how feeble and vague feminine inspiration is com- 
 pared with the masculine, as, for example, with that 
 of Jacob Boehme. I find in the former a groping 
 in the dark, morals, mysticism, instead of light ; 
 some happy interpretations, but many which are 
 constrained ; in short, more sentiment and aff'ection 
 than demonstration and proof; a measure which 
 may be more profitable for the salvation of the 
 author, but is less serviceable for the true instruc- 
 tion of the reader."^ 
 
 With German mystics he had no familiarity 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la V&it^, Part I. p. 9. 
 
 2 Correspondance, Lettre viii. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 33.
 
 loo THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 whatever, always excepting Boelime. I do not think 
 that he had ever heard of Gichtel till Kirchberger 
 presented him, and then he knew only so much as 
 Kirchberger informed him — namely, the strange and 
 somewhat weird history of Gichtel's mystic marriage 
 with the divine Sophia. He accepted that story 
 with his whole heart, and found, as we have seen, a 
 parallel in his own experience, though one can scarcely 
 help feeling that sober mysticism, well as it may ap- 
 preciate the sincerity of Gichtel, will admit a certain 
 doubt as to the nature and quality of the alliance 
 which took place in the " third principle." 
 
 Arnold's " History of the Church and of Heretics" 
 gave Saint-Martin a slight introduction to Joachim 
 Greulich, but Engelbrecht was known to him by 
 name only, Ruysbroeck perhaps as much, Tauler not 
 at all. Returning to French writers, he sought ear- 
 nestly for the works of Antoinette de Bourignon, but 
 never met with them except in the National Library, 
 where at one time he went daily to read them.^ He 
 also derived profound consolation from the Life of 
 Blessed Margaret of the Holy Sacrament,'^ and at 
 one time found much light in the writings of Jane 
 Lead. On account of his devotion to Boehme, he 
 was, on the whole, better acquainted with the Eng- 
 lish school of William Law than with any on the 
 Continent ; but the books which really influenced him 
 and entered into the life of his heart would make 
 only a small collection. 
 
 Returning to the occult sciences, as distinguished 
 from the science of the soul, it must be repeated that 
 
 ^ Gon-espondance, Lettre c. ; Penny, " Tlieosophic Correspondence," 
 
 P- 347- 
 
 2 Ibid., Lettre liii. ; ibid., p. 1 56 et seq.
 
 THE OCCULT SCIENCES loi 
 
 he shows no substantial connection with any, thougli 
 he sometimes used their terminology in a fantastic 
 or transliteral sense. In his earlier books we fine! 
 references to the three principles of the alchemists — 
 salt, sulphur, and mercury,^ and he took these ex- 
 perimental philosophers sufficiently seriously to deny 
 the fiery quality which they attributed to mineral 
 mercury.^ On the other hand, he agreed with them, 
 though he does not seem aware of the agreement, as 
 he had not read the alchemists, in reducing the four 
 official elements of ancient physics to three. ^ His 
 conception of the Great Work was, however, entirely 
 different from that which has been usually referred 
 to the Hermetic philosophy ; it approached more 
 nearly the transcendental interpretations of alchemy 
 which have become current within recent years, but 
 it was not in itself an alchemical interpretation, and 
 owes nothing in reality to the occult science from 
 which its name was derived.'' There is a passage in 
 Saint-Martin's correspondence which seems to indi- 
 cate that the door by which the Great Work is 
 approached is such an extension of the faculties as 
 is supposed to occur sometimes in mesmerism. We 
 know that he made prolonged experiments in that 
 art, and in phenomena connected with it, at Lyons, 
 in conjunction with another initiate, M. de Haute- 
 rive, who had peculiar gifts in this order. This was 
 during the three years ending in 1776. Sixteen 
 
 * Des Erreurs et de la V^rite', Part I. pp. 131, 139, 142, 143. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 63. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 124. He agrees with them also when he observes that 
 there is no substance which will not yield by extraction the prin- 
 ciples which serve for the production of all bodies in the three king- 
 doms. Tableau Naturel, i. 156. 
 
 * In one place he defines it as the conversion of the will. Tableau 
 Naturel, i. 156.
 
 I02 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 years later, referring to the gifts of his associate, he 
 observed : " It is not, however, the less true that if 
 this experience of M. de Hauterive belongs to the 
 secondary order, it is only figurative of the Great 
 Work which occupies us ; and if it is of the higher 
 order, it is the Great Work itself." ^ That is a little 
 oracular, but yet significant, and we must remember 
 that Saint-Martin was writing to a non-initiate, to 
 whom he consistently refused precise information as 
 to sensible experiences. The mesmeric basis of the 
 magnum opus was first broached definitely in a work 
 published in the year 1850" by a writer who had no 
 opportunity of being acquainted with the letters of 
 the French mystic, then, and till long after, unpub- 
 lished and in private hands. 
 
 So far as I am aware, the possibility of trans- 
 muting metals into gold is scarcely mentioned, and 
 certainly not discussed, by Saint-Martin.^ He says 
 expressly that " the Great Work is very difierent 
 from the philosophical stone," "* and he denies no less 
 expressly "the possibility affirmed by the alchemists 
 of a continued revivification which might place them 
 
 1 Correspondance, Lettre x. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspondence," 
 p. 45. 
 
 ^ " A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery and Alchemy." 
 
 ^ He discusses in a general manner the claims of the Hermetic Art. 
 He denies that its secrets are veiled by classical mythology, as his con- 
 temporary Pernety maintained. He condemns it on the broad ground 
 of its material concerns and on the particular ground that such con- 
 cerns do not justify its enigmatic language and its assumption of 
 mystery. He was also wholly opposed to the contra-natural way of 
 operation taught by some alchemists. He heaps ridicule on the sup- 
 posed dangers attaching to the publication of its pretended secrets, 
 while as to that class of its professors who claim to achieve the Great 
 Work without any material substance, though their road is more dis- 
 tinguished, it is not more honourable or lawful. Tableau Naturel, i. 
 209-2 1 9. 
 
 ■* Des Erreurs et de la Verite, vol. ii. p. 25.
 
 THE OCCULT SCIENCES 103 
 
 and all beings beyond the danger of dissolution;" that 
 is to say, lie denied tbe doctrine concerning the uni- 
 versal medicine on the ground that " the existence 
 of bodies has only a limited duration, and that their 
 destruction cannot be retarded without the infusion 
 of a new principle in place of that which is preparing 
 to depart." ^ Such an infusion he considered to be 
 outside the natural order of things. It is, of course, 
 the foundation of the old conception concerning the 
 elixir of life. 
 
 But if, physically speaking, Saint-Martin rejected 
 the doctrine of the universal medicine, in accordance 
 with the practice already mentioned, he borrows the 
 name, making use of it frequently enough in the 
 spiritual order. " As the love of the Eternal Wisdom 
 for its production is infinite, so that love could not 
 fail to provide man in his condition of privation with 
 a universal medicine to assist his recovery from that 
 condition." ^ It is in conformity with the law which 
 governs physical medicaments, that is to say, it is 
 more active than the evil which it combats, and also, 
 like those, it occasions more pain at the moment than 
 does the evil itself. It is the peculiar suffering which 
 awaits every man who puts his hand to the Great 
 Work. It is the participation of the human in the 
 divine sorrow of the universal charity, and the gates 
 of this participation are the spiritual sufferings and 
 oppositions which we encounter daily on earth, 
 whether from the chief enemy, our individual astral 
 laws, or from the rest of mankind.^ It is perhaps 
 to be regretted that the issues of occult science and 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la V^rit^, Part I. p. iii. 
 
 2 L' Esprit des Choses, vol. ii. p. 319. 
 ^ Ibid., pp. 320-321.
 
 I04 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 the mysteries of the inmost life are confused thus by 
 a fantastic transposition of terms. Hermetic philo- 
 sophy recognises, of course, an analogy between 
 physical and spiritual processes, but this does not 
 justify — rather it forbids more clearly — the expres- 
 sion of the one process in the symbolism of the other. 
 It must be understood, however, and this in a 
 distinct manner, that Saint-Martin was an occult 
 philosopher, though he was neither alchemist nor 
 kabalist,^ He was this after a fashion of his own, 
 for his uncommon mind regarded everything from 
 a peculiar standpoint ; he understood nothing con- 
 ventionally, and is almost invariably unexpected, 
 frequently bizarre, in his views. He regarded occul- 
 tism as a theurgist who had proved the efficacy of 
 theurgic formulae but had abandoned operation because 
 it is " in near neighbourhood to the spirit of this 
 world, and especially to the astral region in which 
 that spirit dwells ; " " he distinguished with Jacob 
 Boehme between magus and magia,^ and with him 
 the divine magic was an operation far different from 
 anything of an external kind.^ He admitted, how- 
 
 ^ And subject also to the reservations instituted by his judgment 
 on all sciences, which are based on conventional secrets and formulae, or 
 depend exclusively on inanimate materials, amulets, pentacles, and 
 talismans. Among these he includes expressly Geomancy, Chiromancy, 
 Magic, and Astrology. He mentions also a fifth class, " which is that of 
 abomination itself," but he describes it in obscure terms, so that it is 
 difficult to determine the reference. I think he means the Black Magic 
 of debased Kabalism ; but the point is not of importance. See Tableati 
 Naturel, ii. iii, 113. 
 
 2 Gorrespondance, Lettre viii. ; Penny : " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 37. 
 
 ^ Ibid., Lettre xxiv. ; ibid., p. 93. 
 
 * So also he appears to distinguish by implication two orders of 
 astrology — one, which may be called transcendental, which is really 
 the discernment of divine truth in the heavens which are the work of 
 the Divine and declare His glory ; the other that judicial art which,
 
 THE OCCULT SCIENCES 105 
 
 ever, that there were many points of departure for 
 different travellers. " I think the matter itself has 
 acted variously on the elect, giving to some inward 
 communications only but nothing outward ; to others 
 the outward simply and not the inward ; to yet 
 others both. I believe that the traditions or initia- 
 tions called second-sight may have misled some men 
 and proved useful to others, because, with upright 
 beginnings and a well-intentioned heart, God some- 
 times leads us to the light, even over precipices."-^ 
 He adds at the same time that no tradition or initia- 
 tion of man can lead surely to pure communications, 
 which are the gift of God alone. Those who are 
 called to the work from on high will have also the 
 criterion of judgment. " They are a universal cupel 
 which purifies everything and itself suffers no cor- 
 rosion." ^ The theurgic path may therefore lead into 
 truth, but it is beset by difficulties, and it needs the 
 conduct of " pure, enlightened, and potent masters." ^ 
 Since the death of Martines de Pasqually, Saint- 
 Martin seems to have been acquainted with no one 
 possessing such qualities. 
 
 The dangers off"ered by the astral region to 
 theurgic experiment have been treated at large by 
 occult writers within recent years. Saint-Martin, I 
 think, was the first to expose them clearly, and to 
 account for them mystically, by the help of a doctrine 
 which we shall have to consider at some length in its 
 proper place. I refer to the Fall of Man, esoterically 
 
 like the rest of conventional occultism, "by subordinating the Prin- 
 ciple to secondary causes, leaves man in ignorance of the true cause." 
 Tableau Naturel, i. 148 ; ii. ill. 
 
 ' Correspondance, hettre xxxii.; ibid., p. iii. 
 
 ^ Ibid., Lettre xl. ; ibid., pp. 132-133. 
 
 3 Ibid.
 
 io6 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 understood, by which event he became sul)ject to the 
 elementary region, and consequently to the astral or 
 sidereal rule, which is the pivot of that region, 
 to which rule he was originally superior. The 
 science of this region has two chief branches, one 
 passive and one active. " The passive branch is that 
 which engenders somnambulism and an infinitude of 
 false communications of every order ; but as this 
 branch has a twofold or composite sap, like the tree, 
 it is evident that its fruits are blended of true and 
 false, clear and obscure, apparent and real, ordered 
 and unordered. The active branch is that which 
 concerns the entire domain of theurgy ; it includes 
 also simple magnetic power in activity, the results of 
 which belong to the passive branch. So long as it 
 has no point of union with that fixed source which 
 should ordain and govern all, it is permeated, like 
 the passive branch, with a double sap, and is thus 
 uncertain in its action, good or evil, according to the 
 sap which predominates. Acting, moreover, only on 
 the composite properties of the passive branch, it is 
 chance acting on chance, darkness on darkness."^ 
 All this, however, is only the elementary science of 
 the astral. There is one of a superior kind, but more 
 dangerous and fatal, for it operates extensively on 
 what is evil in the region below it.^ I infer that 
 Black Magic is intended, but Saint-Martin refuses to 
 speak of it in a definite manner. He says merely that 
 it was the criminal occupation of several peoples ; that 
 it is even represented in astrology, because all things 
 are interlinked, and that man will always find " false 
 actions ready to respond to his false thoughts, so as 
 to achieve an ascendency over him after appearing to 
 
 1 De I'Esjmt des Choses, vol. i, p. 192. ^ Ibid., p. 193.
 
 THE OCCULT SCIENCES 107 
 
 favour and serve him." The bulk of humanity is 
 divided practically into two sections, " one of which 
 is continually in astral passivity, or in a servile and 
 baleful somnambulism, while the other is in astral 
 activity more unfortunate still, for after it has attained 
 its term it relapses into the most severe and terrible 
 of slaveries." ^ Above these there is a salvage of 
 humanity which has transcended the astral region 
 and is directed by the pure spirit. " These are men 
 who have entered truly into the lineal way ; they 
 have separated the metals within them, and are 
 united to the tested gold.^ 
 
 It is, in like manner, from the sidereal source 
 that all enchantments derive.^ For Saint-Martin, as 
 for iSliphas Levi, it is in itself apparently a negative 
 region, open equally to the activity of good and evil. 
 By its physical properties it influences bodies, and it 
 exercises bewitchment over our mind " by the potent 
 and virtual pictures which it off'ers to us, which also, 
 however alluring, distract us far from our true destina- 
 tion. They do not actually plunge us into the abyss, 
 but holding the middle place between the abyss and 
 the divine region, they expose us no less to error 
 than to truth, to accepting the fruits of the abyss 
 for fruits purely astral, and astral fruits for divine. 
 Finally, they tend to make us hesitate continually 
 between all kinds of complications.* 
 
 With modern occultism Saint-Martin recognises 
 not only the individualisation of the astral in man, 
 but the danger and the frequency of its predomi- 
 nance. Less or more it preserves its empire during 
 the whole of our elementary life, with a fortitude so 
 
 ^ De V Esprit des Choses, vol. i. p. 194. ^ Ibid. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 199. * Ibid., p. 200.
 
 io8 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 imposing that it threatens to efface within us the re- 
 collection of that reign of freedom for which we were 
 made. " The astral dominates our terrestrial part, 
 for it sustains this ; the astral itself is dominated by 
 the spirit of the universe which stimulates it ; the 
 source of iniquity insinuates itself through all these 
 regions so that it may reach us ; at least it increases 
 our yoke to delay as much as possible the day of 
 our emancipation. In such dreadful bondage is the 
 poor soul held far from its native country, and ex- 
 posed even to forget that it has one. Yet if our 
 temporal destiny is interlinked with the astral, it 
 disappears before the divine, for this is the eternal 
 unity which man has the power to rejoin. Hence 
 our present sidereal subjection does not exclude our 
 ascent." ^ 
 
 Not only man in his normal material state, but 
 also all Nature is said suggestively by Saint-Martin 
 to be in somnambulism. " A dense cloud seems to 
 envelop the totality of things, spreading either the 
 darkness of death or a life so blind, so narrow, that 
 all things exhibit a kind of distraction, an unquiet 
 stupor which resembles dementia. In fine, we are 
 forced to regard Nature as plunged in somnambu- 
 listic sleep. When man allows himself to be sub- 
 jugated exclusively to its regimen, he shares this 
 condition, to which must be attributed all that state 
 of incertitude and all those gropings in the dark 
 which are observable in human doctrines and in 
 the minds of all those who come forward to instruct 
 us before awaking from their state of somnambulism, 
 that is to say, before being instructed themselves by 
 those simple and natural lights which our source has 
 
 1 De V Esprit des Glioses, vol. i. p. 197.
 
 THE OCCULT SCIENCES 109 
 
 preserved for us, in spite of our lapse, to assist us in 
 assuring our progress." ^ 
 
 Between the permanent somnambulism of Nature 
 and that induced magnetically there is this difference, 
 according to Saint-Martin. On awaking from the 
 artificial trance, the subject remembers nothing ; but 
 in the other and greater awakening, he will remember 
 all. The distinction was made, however, at an early 
 epoch of magnetic experiences, and would not obtain 
 now, when it is well known that memory in the 
 patient depends sometimes on the suggestion of the 
 operator.^ 
 
 Saint-Martin also distinguishes both these forms 
 of somnambulism from that which he understands by 
 magism. The latter is the veil of things ; it mani- 
 fests their beauty without surrendering their prin- 
 ciple, and it is of two kinds. There is a universal 
 magism of Nature which covers with its glamour the 
 infected region in which we now abide ; there is also 
 the divine magism of real Nature which unveils the 
 reflections of the eternal magnificence. As to mag- 
 netic somnambulism, it lays bare the root of the soul 
 before the time and in the absence of suitable prepa- 
 rations.^ It is not the warder who opens the gate of 
 the city, but the thief who unfastens the window or 
 enters by a breach in the wall.^ 
 
 1 De VEs-prit des Choses, vol. i. p. 125. ^ Ibid., p. 126. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 128-129. 
 
 * There will be no difficulty in reconciling the standpoint of this 
 section with the statement of Papus in his latest brochure, namely, that 
 Saint-Martin, at the beginning of his literary career, made experiments 
 in alchemy, and set up a laboratory at Lyons for this purpose. Like 
 most seekers, he tried many ways before finding what was for him the 
 true path.
 
 BOOK III 
 
 THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 The message of Saint-Martin may be fitly termed 
 the Counsel of the Exile. It is concerned with man 
 only, with the glorious intention of his creation, 
 with his fall, his subsequent bondage, the means of 
 his liberation, and his return to the purpose of his 
 being. It is in most respects a concrete, practical 
 message, and there is not much evidence in Saint- 
 Martin of any concern or any specific illumination as 
 to merely abstract problems. He speculates, indeed, 
 upon many matters which have at first sight the air 
 of abstractions, but, later or sooner, they all refer 
 to that which is for him the great, the exclusive 
 subject — namely, man and his destiny. This con- 
 sideration will help us to account for the meagre 
 references which can alone be gathered from his 
 works upon a subject that is seemingly of such trans- 
 cendent importance in a mystic and theosophic 
 system as the Divine Nature considered in itself — 
 that Nature with which the true mystic must ever 
 seek to conform, that First Principle with which 
 fallen and deviated humanity must strive to recover 
 correspondence. It is not the only consideration 
 that is needed, for there are others belonging in a 
 more formal manner to the domain of philosophy, 
 but it expresses the force of these ; and it is herein 
 that Saint-Martin differs somewhat conspicuously
 
 114 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 from other transcendental teachers, whether those of 
 the Latin Church, or those, for example, who connect 
 with the higher school of Kabalism. The Divine 
 Nature and the modes of its manifestation are the 
 chief theme of mystic literature, and all its depart- 
 ments seem tacitly in agreement that it is only by 
 an intense dwelling upon the attributes of God that 
 the soul of man is sanctified and drawn back towards 
 its source. The return is, in either case, the one 
 end, and what Saint-Martin tells us concerning it 
 harmonises in two chief points with the teachings of 
 other mystics : — It can be immediate, and there is 
 one only instrument. It is not a union which must 
 be looked for after this mortal has put on immor- 
 tality : it can be accomplished here and now.^ It 
 has nothing to do with the exercise of the faculties 
 commonly called transcendental ; the possession of a 
 so-called sixth sense does not bring man nearer to 
 God. By his occult experiences Saint-Martin must 
 have been well aware that we possess transcendental 
 faculties, and that it is possible, when these have 
 been developed, to communicate with fields of exist- 
 ence which are beyond the knowledge of our normal 
 state ; but at an early age he abandoned all such 
 methods in favour of the inward way, and there 
 is little trace in his writings that he regarded the 
 operations called magical, theurgic, and so forth, 
 as instrumental to the attainment of Divine Vision. 
 Conceivably they were perhaps instrumental, for all 
 may help, and nothing that is not absolutely evil 
 can be rejected absolutely, more especially at the 
 beginning of the supernatural life ; but, on the 
 
 1 Correspondance, Lettre ex. ; Penny, "Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 377.
 
 INTRODUCTORY 115 
 
 whole, they were redundant rather than necessary, 
 to be avoided rather than pursued. 
 
 " Ordinary men, when they hear of living and 
 spiritual works, conceive no other idea than that 
 of beholding spirits, termed ghost-seeing by the be- 
 nighted world. For those who believe in the pos- 
 sibility of spirit-return, this idea occasions frequently 
 nothing but terror ; for those who are in doubt as to 
 the possibility, it inspires curiosity alone ; for those 
 who deny it altogether, it inspires contempt and 
 disdain — firstly, for the opinions themselves, and 
 secondly, for those who advance them. I feel it 
 necessary, therefore, to state that man can make 
 enormous advances in the career of living spiritual 
 works, and can even attain an exalted rank among 
 the labourers of the Lord, without beholding spirits. 
 He who seeks in the spiritual career chiefly com- 
 munication with spirits, does not. if he attain it, 
 fulfil the main object of the work, and may still be 
 far from ranking among the workers for the Lord. 
 The^ possibility of communicating with spirits in- 
 volves that of communicatinoj with the bad as well 
 as the good. Hence the communication in itself is 
 not enough ; discernment is required to determine 
 whence they come and whether their purpose is 
 lawful. We must also, and before all, ascertain 
 whether we ourselves, supposing that they are of 
 the highest and purest class, are in a condition to 
 accomplish the mission with which they may charge 
 us for the true service of their Master. The privi- 
 lege and satisfaction of beholding spirits can never 
 be more than accessory to the true end of man in 
 the career of divine works and in enrolment amons: 
 the labourers of the Lord. He who aspires to this
 
 ii6 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 sublime ministry would be unworthy thereof if 
 actuated by the feeble motive or puerile curiosity of 
 beholding spirits, more especially if to obtain these 
 secondary evidences he trusts to the uncertain offices 
 of other men, those, above all, who possess but partial 
 powers, or possibly powers that are corrupted." ^ 
 
 The true transcendental instrument is the will, 
 and the true way is its conformity. " Let me affirm 
 that divine union is a work which can be accomplished 
 only by the strong and constant resolution of those 
 who desire it ; that there is no other means to this 
 end but the persevering use of a pure will, aided by 
 the works and practice of every virtue, fertilised by 
 prayer, that divine grace may come to help our weak- 
 ness and lead us to the term of our regeneration." ^ 
 We shall see in another section by what manner of 
 mediation this union of the will with God may be 
 and alone is attained. Apart from such mediation 
 there is, according to Saint-Martin, no knowledge of 
 God possible, either for men or angels,^ At the same 
 time, and by an extension, or as a result, of this 
 mediation, Nature is for humanity a means of disco- 
 vering the eternal marvels of the Father.'^ Natural 
 theology is, however, only a stepping-stone to higher 
 knowledge, and I do not know that Saint-Martin has 
 left us any instruction of real or original moment 
 concerning it. There is nothing in his later writings 
 that takes us appreciably farther than the little 
 summary which occurs in Des Erreurs et de la 
 Verite. " Since we discern so much regularity in 
 
 1 Le Ministere de V Homme-Esprit, pp. 43-44. 
 
 '^ Gorrespondance, Lettre ex. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspondence," 
 
 P- 377- 
 
 ^ Le Ministere de rHomme-Esjmt, p. 51. 
 * Ibid.
 
 INTRODUCTORY 117 
 
 the progress and in all the operations of Nature, 
 since we are also aware that the corporeal beings 
 which constitute it are not capable of intelligence, 
 it follows that in the temporal order there is for 
 them a powerful and enlightened hand which directs, 
 an active hand set over them by a principle true as 
 itself, hence indestructible and self-existent, and that 
 the law which emanates from both is the rule and 
 the measure of all the laws which operate in cor- 
 poreal nature." ^ 
 
 If this will not carry us farther than the first 
 conclusions of the teleologist, the reason must pro- 
 bably be sought less in the limitations of Saint- 
 Martin's mind than in its peculiar attitude. He did 
 not really regard Nature as the chief mirror of 
 Divinity.^ It was man, and not his environment, 
 which proved the Supreme Agent. ^ " Man has been 
 set amidst the darkness of created things only to 
 demonstrate by his individual light the existence of 
 their Supreme Agent, to convince all who misconstrue 
 it." Nature herself seems to be presented rather as 
 the term or point at which the voice of God expires, 
 and she offers serious obstacles to the reverberation 
 of that voice.* " All things should speak, since the 
 spirit and the voice of God should fill all, and yet is 
 all mute about us." For this reason, while esteeming 
 the intention of natural theology, Saint-Martin dis- 
 countenances the methods of those writers who 
 endeavour to prove that there is a God by considera- 
 
 1 Part I. p. 137. 
 
 2 " It is in vain tliat we seek in matter for real and permanent 
 images of that principle of life from which we are separated un- 
 happily." — Tahleau Naturel, i. 152. 
 
 3 Les Voies de la Sagesse, QSuvres Posthumes, vol. ii. p. 68. 
 * Esprit des Glioses, vol. i. p. 73.
 
 ii8 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 tions borrowed from the external order. The attempt 
 was characteristic of his period, and enlisted some of 
 its strongest minds, but, as he well observes, in spite 
 of all such testimonies, atheism had never so much 
 vogue, and never so diffused an empire.^ For him, 
 however, the failure of natural theology was a source 
 of consolation and not of dismay. It was by no 
 means a discomfiture for his faith, but rather an aid 
 thereto ; in a sense, it was even its victory. "It is 
 a sign of the glory of our humanity, as it is an 
 instance of the signal wisdom of Providence, that all 
 such proofs adduced from the external order are 
 thus deceptive in their last analysis. . . . The entire 
 universe, notwithstanding all the splendours which 
 it displays before our eyes, can never of itself mani- 
 fest the truly divine treasures.""' The teleology 
 which is based upon Nature apart from man, the so- 
 called arguments from design, the fantasia of the 
 watchcraft of Paley, make only a weak appeal ; but 
 the evidences which are drawn from man himself 
 speak the language of our own nature, and are for 
 Saint-Martin not only welcome, but also irresistible. 
 " I except neither the geometrical demonstrations 
 put forward by Leibnitz, nor the fundamental axiom 
 of Newton's mathematics, nor the considerations of 
 Nieuwentzt on that axiom, nor the superb observa- 
 tions of other distinguished authors, whether upon 
 the combination of chances to infinity which still 
 eff'ects nothing, or upon motion, which, tending to 
 spread in all directions, is urged in a definite direc- 
 tion by a superior force." ^ Nor would Saint-Martin 
 have excepted the last stand made by teleology in 
 
 ^ Le Ministere de VHomme-Esprit, p. 2. 
 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid., p. 4.
 
 INTRODUCTORY 119 
 
 those more recent days, when for a moment the 
 hypothesis of material evolution seemed about to 
 seize the strongholds of official religion, namely, the 
 necessity of a force impressed from without for the 
 production of a change in the nature of the primal 
 homogeneous ether. Proceeding with his argument, 
 he observes : " From this world we borrow supposi- 
 tions so as to arrive at a fixed being in whom all is 
 true ; we borrow abstract and figurative truths to 
 establish a real and absolutely positive being ; we 
 attempt through unintelligible substances to ascend 
 unto a being who is intelligence itself — substances 
 void of love to demonstrate Him who is love alone — 
 substances bound and limited to make known Him 
 who is free. Finally, substances which die to explain 
 Him who is life." ^ These considerations lead Saint- 
 Martin for a moment into the fascinating rea^ions of 
 paradox. " If man be a sure and direct means of 
 demonstrating the Divine essence ; if the proofs 
 which we derive from the external order are defective 
 and incomplete ; if the suppositions and abstract 
 truths which we infer from this world belong to the 
 metaphysical order and have no existence in Nature, 
 it results evidently that we understand nothing in 
 this world wherein we are save by the lights of that 
 world wherein we are not ; that it is far more easy 
 for us to attain the lights and certitudes which shine 
 in the world wherein we are not than to natura- 
 lise ourselves in the obscurity and the darkness of 
 the world wherein we are. Finally, since it must 
 be said, we are far nearer to that which we term 
 the other world than to this. It is not indeed diffi- 
 
 ^ Le Ministere de I'Hovime-E sprit, p. 7.
 
 120 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 cult to admit that it is by an abuse of words that we 
 term the world wherein we are not the other world, 
 and that it is this which is for us in reality another 
 world. If we are to distinguish two given things as 
 the one and the other, that which is first, and there- 
 fore without points of comparison prior to itself, is 
 truly the one, and that which is second, subsequent, 
 possessing points of comparison preceding it, is the 
 other. Now, this is the case with the two worlds 
 which are in question, and I leave it to the reader to 
 compare the lights and certitudes which we find in 
 the transcendental order, or in that which we call the 
 other world, with the obscurities, approximations, 
 and uncertainties of that in which we dwell, and 
 thence to decide whether the world wherein we are 
 not possesses no rights of priority over that wherein 
 we are, as much by the perfection and knowledge 
 which it offers us as by the right of age which it 
 seems to possess over this world wherein we are now 
 imprisoned. In this case it is truly this world wherein 
 we are which is the other, while that which we call 
 the other is the one, or the first, an archetypal and 
 not another world." ^ 
 
 The essential nature of Divinity, if not actually 
 unknowable by man, is at least described by Saint- 
 Martin as an impenetrable sanctuary, in which there is 
 neither succession of action nor diversity of function, 
 and all that can be conceived of it by the mind of 
 man is a unity so indivisible that it would be im- 
 possible without danger and without crime to con- 
 template its faculties separately, since they act in 
 concert always, and represent in all their operations 
 
 ^ Le Ministere de I'Homme-Esjjrit, pp. 7-9.
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 121 
 
 that sacred unity which constitutes their eternal 
 essence/ 
 
 " As all things in God are united by a universal 
 communication, there is nothing separable in His 
 nature. Each faculty is the universality of His facul- 
 ties, and the universality of His faculties is found in 
 each." The Martinistic unity of the Divine Nature 
 contains, however, the implicit notion of the triad, 
 and hence the fundamental doctrine of this mystic 
 system is identical with that of Christianity.^ 
 
 Having established these few points, I may say 
 at once that we have exhausted all that Saint- 
 Martin has expressed in the course of many volumes 
 as to the essential nature of the Deity in the eternity 
 which preceded manifestation.^ There is, therefore, 
 properly speaking, no theology in his system, or 
 rather there is only the great theology of the one 
 Mediator by whom we know God, of the Divine 
 Providence manifested to man in Him, and of the 
 
 ^ Traite des Benedictions, (Euvres Posthumes, ii. 203. Cf. Tableau 
 Naturel, i. 162. " In God nothing is superior and nothing inferior ; 
 all is one in the indivisible, all similar, all equal in unity." 
 
 2 Des Erreurs et de la VeriU, Part I. p. 126 ; Traite' des Benedictions, 
 (Euvres Posthumes, ii. 155. 
 
 ^ The school from which he derived his first theosophical knowledge 
 had no doubt a fuller instruction on the subject than appears in the 
 books of its disciple, and that instruction was veiled in numerical 
 mysticism, as appears by the following passage from the Tableau 
 Naturel : — " I shall not attempt to render more sensible the nature of 
 this Being, or to penetrate into the sanctuary of the Divine faculties. 
 To reach that sancutary it would be needful to know some of those 
 numbers which constitute the Divine faculties. But how should it be 
 possible for man to subject Divinity to his calculations, and to fix its 
 prime number 1 To know a prime number it is necessary to have at 
 least one of its aliquots. In attempting to represent the immensity of 
 the Divine Power, suppose that we filled a book, even the whole universe, 
 with numerical signs, we should not then have attained the first ali- 
 quot, since we could always add fresh numbers, i.e., find ever new 
 virtues in this Being." — Part I. p, 17.
 
 122 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 eternal union which we can effect through Him with 
 God. At the same time, we shall find, in developing 
 this system, that the accepted Christian doctrine has 
 undergone a strange and wonderful transfiguration ; 
 it has lost in rigidity of outline, but it has gained in 
 depth ; there is a fuller ofiice and a sweeter ministry ; 
 it has removed nothing and displaced nothing ; but 
 there is added I know not what — since in a way it 
 exceeds expression — of light and satisfaction.
 
 II 
 
 THE INWARD WAY 
 
 That life of interior illumination which is the 
 subject of continual reference in the formal writings 
 of Saint-Martin, which his private memoranda and 
 his correspondence show that he cultivated assidu- 
 ously, making such an advance therein that he is 
 entitled to be included, not merely among mystical 
 philosophers, but among the disciples of the mystic 
 life, must be distinguished, like the rest of his 
 doctrine, and like all his practice, from that hidden 
 path of contemplation, usually termed quietism, in 
 which most of the mystics walked. It is not less 
 mystical, nor does it less lead direct to the centre, 
 but it is to some extent an individual and peculiar 
 way, more healthful, and, if the term must be used, 
 in a manner more sane — I should rather say, more 
 reasoned — than we find in St. John of the Cross or 
 in Ruysbroeck. It depends chiefly on the analysis of 
 the constitution of man. The concentration of the 
 mind in spiritual contemplation is most certainly 
 an active work, and in one sense it may well be the 
 most strenuous and difficult of intellectual labours ; 
 but as it develops it approximates more and more 
 towards a passive condition. Thus, St. John of the 
 Cross explains that the soul is set free from infernal 
 temptation in this hiding-place of absorption because 
 the gift of contemplation is infused passively and
 
 124 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 secretly, and the illuminations which come to it 
 are awaited rather than sought. And Ruysbroeck 
 describes the soul in contemplation as a glass re- 
 ceiving the rays of the eternal splendour of God ; 
 it is without modes or phases, and independent of 
 any operation of the reason. This was not the way 
 of Saint-Martin, though no mystic recognised more 
 than he the limitation of the rational faculty. He 
 sought to establish the correspondence of the soul 
 with the Divine by the active path of works, and to 
 strive after the recovery of its law, the one path for 
 the attainment of true science. 
 
 "At the first glance which man directs upon 
 himself, he will perceive without difficulty that there 
 must be a science or an evident law for his own 
 nature, since there is one for all beings, though it is 
 not universally in all, and since even in the midst of 
 our weakness, our ignorance, and humiliation, we are 
 employed only in the search after truth and light. 
 Albeit, therefore, the efforts which man makes daily 
 to attain the end of his researches are so rarely suc- 
 cessful, it must not be considered on this account 
 that the end is imaginary, but only that man is de- 
 ceived as to the road which leads thereto, and is 
 hence in the greatest of privations, since he does not 
 even know the way in which he should walk. The 
 overwhelming misfortune of man is not that he is 
 ignorant of the existence of truth, but that he mis- 
 construes its nature. What errors and what sujQfer- 
 ings would have been spared us if, far from seeking 
 truth in the phenomena of material nature, we had 
 resolved to descend into ourselves, and had sought 
 to explain material things by man, and not man by 
 material things ; if, fortified by courage and patience,
 
 THE INWARD WAY 125 
 
 we had preserved in the calm of our imagination the 
 discovery of this light which we desire all of us with 
 so much ardour." ^ 
 
 I have placed this point at the head of the Mar- 
 tinistic doctrine of human nature because it is the 
 keynote of the whole ; it explains Saint-Martin's 
 abandonment of the beaten track of natural theology ; 
 it is the justification of his idealism, the reason why 
 he regards the external world as illusive in the last 
 analysis, though not in the crude sense that it is 
 without objective existence and physical reality." 
 
 * Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. pp. 15, 19. 
 2 Tableau Naturel, Part I. pp. 82-83.
 
 Ill 
 
 GOOD AKD EVIL 
 
 The attainment of light and truth being the object 
 not only of the inward way, but of all human re- 
 search, the first condition of attainment is a proper 
 appreciation of the obstacles which hinder us. Man 
 and Nature are alike in disorder, or, as Saint-Martin 
 terms it, in extralignment. AVe are in darkness since 
 we seek for the light, in delusion since we yearn for 
 reality ; but the fact that we desire both shows that 
 we were made for both, and that in our present en- 
 vironment we are remote from the purpose of our 
 being/ I must not say that this reasoning is en- 
 tirely superior to criticism, but that in a general 
 sense desire indicates capacity, and capacity supposes 
 the possibility of achieving the end of desire, seems 
 to be a strong and sound position. It is, of course, 
 a postulate of optimism, and its foundation is in the 
 veracity of God, who does not deceive His creatures 
 by implanting in them the highest aspirations with- 
 out also providing the means of their fulfilment. 
 But before all things man must gauge accurately his 
 present position ; he must understand the precise 
 nature of the disorder that is about and within him ; 
 he must learn if possible how it came about, in order 
 that he may escape therefrom. If light, if truth, if 
 order are good and desirable above all things ; if 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la V^riU, Part I. pp. 38-40. 
 126
 
 GOOD AND EVIL 127 
 
 darkness, falsehood, confusion are evils, we must at 
 the outset obtain a certain criterion of judgment as 
 to good and evil, and this was the first task to which 
 Saint-Martin applied himself. It is the incessant 
 confusion of these, the confusion of light and shadow, 
 of harmony and disorder, which man perceives in the 
 universe and in himself, that obscures so often the 
 rays of the true light. ^ 
 
 "This universal contrast disquiets him, causing an 
 entanglement in his ideas which it is difiicult to un- 
 ravel. The most signal service which can be rendered 
 him is therefore to convince him that he can become 
 acquainted with the source and origin of the disorder 
 which astonishes him ; it is, above all, to dissuade 
 him from concluding, on account of it, anything 
 opposed to that truth which he confesses, which he 
 cannot dispense with, and cannot cease to love." ^ 
 
 Before considering the promised explanation of 
 the disorder, let us see how Saint-Martin defines 
 good and evil. " Good is for every being the ful- 
 filment of His proper law, and evil is that which is 
 opposed thereto. " ^ The definition is inclusive, and 
 therefore philosophical ; it makes the attainment by 
 man of the aspirations which he is compelled to 
 cherish the express end of his nature, and thus 
 raises them into the absolute and real order. There 
 is no doubt that he was formed to enjoy the light and 
 to possess the truth, since he is not otherwise in his 
 law, and he has at once an unfailing criterion for dis- 
 tinguishing the evil from the good, since evil is all 
 which hinders him from the attainment of light and 
 truth. 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. p. i6. 
 ' Ibid., p. 17. ^ Ibid., p. 20.
 
 128 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 " Since all beings have but a single law, for all 
 derive from a first law, which is one in like manner, 
 good, as the fulfilment of this law must be one also, 
 single and exclusively true, though it embraces the 
 infinity of existence. On the contrary, evil can have 
 no correspondence with this law of being, because it 
 is at war with the same ; it cannot, therefore, be 
 comprised in unity, since it tends to degrade it by 
 seeking to form a rival unity. In a word, it is false, 
 since it cannot exist alone ; " that is to say, it is a 
 derangement, and a derangement supposes an order 
 which preceded it ; *' and since, despite itself, the true 
 law of beings co-exists with it, which law it can 
 never destroy, though it can disturb it and retard its 
 fulfilment."^ 
 
 In accordance with the practical nature of his 
 doctrine, Saint-Martin does not long delay over the 
 question in its metaphysical aspect, but hastens to 
 account for the existence of evil^ in the universe 
 and man according to the doctrine of the duality 
 of principles. 
 
 * Bes Erreurs et de la V^rit^, Part I. pp. 20-21. 
 
 ^ " The proportion of evil to good here below is numerically as 
 
 9 to I ; in intensity as o to i ; and in duration as 7 to i." — Tableau 
 Naturel, Part I. p. 36.
 
 IV 
 
 THE TWO PKINCIPLES 
 
 When M. Jules Doinel, whom I have had occasion to 
 mention previously, seceded from modern Martinism 
 in the year 1894, he came forth to disseminate I 
 know not what charges against its founder.^ The 
 fundamental accusation was, however, that the Mar- 
 tinistic doctrine was Manichsean, and that its good 
 principle was Lucifer. The calumny has been re- 
 peated in England by a few writers, who had no 
 qualification to judge the question, as they were 
 unacquainted with the works of Saint-Martin. He 
 was no Manichsean, and his doctrine concerning the 
 evil principle, as to its origin and the part assigned 
 to it in the material universe, does not even depart 
 in any serious sense from the view accepted by 
 orthodox Christian teaching. If, in regard to the 
 ultimate destiny of that principle, he shows signs of 
 such a departure by an approximation towards Origen, 
 it must be said, firstly, that this is accessory and not 
 essential to his system ; ^ secondly, that he did not 
 insist on it ; ^ and, thirdly, that, orthodoxy notwith- 
 
 1 See Lucifer De'masque, published under the pseudonym of Jean 
 Kostka, a contribution to the history of Satanism in France. The 
 work in itself is worthless, but it is useful to the student of Martinism, 
 because it publishes an abstract of the modern ritual of the order. 
 
 "^ It enters, as will be seen later on, into the hypothesis of the primal 
 mission of man. 
 
 3 That is to say, not dogmatically ; there is no doubt that he held 
 
 the view of universal resipiscence at the beginning of his literary life, 
 
 129 J
 
 I30 THE UNKNOAVN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 standing, in so far as Saint-Martin held or tolerated 
 what he termed the resipiscence of the evil principle, 
 he connects with rational eschatology. Indeed, one 
 defect of his system is that of Jacob Boehme's, though 
 not in the same degree, that it does not provide a 
 sufficient ground for hope in the world to come. 
 
 The revolutions and contrarieties experienced by 
 all natural beings, says Saint-Martin, have compelled 
 man to recognise the existence of two opposed 
 principles,^ and this inference from the facts of the 
 external order has been strengthened still further by 
 his inward experience. When he has succeeded in 
 surmounting the opposition that is set up within 
 himself, he finds himself at peace with Nature. But 
 should he grow weary in the warfare, still more if 
 he should neglect it altogether, or, to use his mystic 
 symbolism, if he should permit a fire foreign to his 
 essence to obtain an entrance within him, he suffers 
 and languishes until he is entirely delivered there- 
 from.^ In a word, he finds happiness and peace 
 with the good which is consanguineous with himself, 
 while the evil is invariably accompanied by weariness 
 and torment.^ 
 
 " There is nothing better founded than this obser- 
 vation, and nothing more exact than the consequence 
 which he has drawn from it." ^ But in attempting 
 to explain the nature of the two principles he has 
 adopted too narrow foundations, and even in the 
 act of admitting them has failed to distinguish their 
 difference. " Sometimes he has attributed to them 
 
 and it appears plainly in the papers whicli he read before the Lodge of j 
 his fellow-initiates at Lyons. In his later life he ceased to speak of it, I 
 but his sympathy with the general view appears to have remained. 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la V^riU, Part L p. 17. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 20. 2 Ibid., p. 21. * Ibid., p. 17.
 
 THE TWO PRINCIPLES 131 
 
 an equality of power and antiquity, whicli has pre- 
 sented them in the light of rivals. Sometimes he 
 has, indeed, represented evil as in every sense inferior 
 to good, but has fallen into contradiction over its 
 nature and origin. 
 
 " He has had occasionally the temerity to place 
 good and evil in one and the same principle, think- 
 ing to honour this principle by ascribing to it an 
 exclusive power as the author of all things. In the 
 end, weary of drifting longer over a sea of incertitude 
 where no solid conception could be reached, some 
 have undertaken to deny both principles ; in a word, 
 having failed to account for evil and good, they have 
 said that there was neither good nor evil." ^ 
 
 The explanation and the distinction are both 
 sought by Saint-Martin by a recurrence to man's 
 own experience under the dominion of each. 
 
 " I have said that in approximating to the good 
 principle, man is overwhelmed with delights and is 
 consequently superior to all evils. He has no longer 
 the perception or conception of any other being, and 
 hence nothing which derives from the evil principle 
 can intermix with his joy, which proves that man is 
 then in his true element, and that his law is fulfilling 
 itself. But if he seek another support than this law, 
 his joy is at first disquieted and timid ; he cannot 
 partake of it without self-reproach ; divided between 
 the evil which allures him and the good which he 
 has deserted, he experiences sensibly the effect of 
 two laws, and is taught by the suff'ering coming from 
 their opposition that he has swerved from his true 
 law. It is true that this unstable enjoyment soon 
 strengthens, and may even possess him entirely, but 
 
 ' Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I, pp. 17-18.
 
 132 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 far from approaching harmony, it produces in the 
 faculties of man a disorder which is the more deplor- 
 able, because the action of evil being sterile and 
 limited, the felicity of him who gives way to it 
 sends him quickly to the abyss and to inevitable 
 despair. Here then is the infinite difference which 
 is found between the two principles ; all its power 
 and all its value is derived by the good from itself, 
 while evil is nothingness wheresoever good reigns. 
 The presence of the one destroys every vestige of the 
 other, which even in its most conspicuous triumphs 
 is opposed invariably by the proximity of the good. 
 Evil by itself is without force or capacity, while the 
 powers of good are universal ; they are in like manner 
 independent and extend over evil itself. It is thus 
 evident that no equality of power or antiquity can be 
 ascribed to these two principles ; we must recognise 
 in that which is good an immeasurable superiority, 
 unity and indivisibility, with which it has pre-existed 
 of necessity before all. To establish in this way the 
 inferiority of the evil principle is to prove that it did 
 not, nor will ever, possess the least alliance with good, 
 to which it is opposed diametrically in its very 
 essence. However powerful it may be, the good can 
 never co-operate in the birth or consequences of evil, 
 nor can any germ or faculty thereof have been 
 present in the good principle prior to the origin of 
 the evil." ^ 
 
 But if the genesis of evil occurred independently 
 of the good, how are we to account for its existence ? 
 Could we look to Saint-Martin for an entirely original 
 explanation of this world-old problem of philosophy, 
 it would be so much the less likely that we should 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. pp. 21-24.
 
 THE TWO PRINCIPLES 133 
 
 find it useful or adequate. No solution has ever 
 done more than remove the mystery one step or so 
 back into the darkness. The answer of the mystic 
 is not new ; it is that which has always been given 
 by Christianity, namely, that it came through a free 
 act of the will of an intelligent agent. We have 
 known long that this is no real answer, and that 
 in the ultimate it has to be admitted, if evil be 
 posterior to good, that it must have originated within 
 the sphere of the higher order. We have most of us 
 been contented to conclude that there are some 
 questions which man has the capacity to ask, but 
 that he cannot answer. The solution of Saint- 
 Martin is not worse than are most, and it is better 
 than are some ; it is better than the somewhat 
 nebulous metaphysics which present evil as the mere 
 negation of good, whereas it is its active and virulent 
 opponent.^ 
 
 There is no need to follow Saint-Martin at the 
 moment in his doctrine of the free intelligence as 
 it is developed more fully in the case of human 
 liberty ; he does not reach the root of the matter, 
 for he makes no attempt to explain how, in the midst 
 of universal goodness and eternal order, there could 
 arise intelligence possessing the capacity for error, 
 in other words, the capacity for evil ; or, conversely, 
 how the liberty of choice between good and evil could 
 be offered to any being without presupposing evil. 
 
 The origin of evil is, notwithstanding, for Saint- 
 
 1 I must add, however, that Saint-Martin does himself occasionally 
 offer considerations suggesting the negative view, but it is either by a 
 confusion of terms, or by an attempt to regard evil as apart from the 
 intelligence which embodies it according to his system. The fact that 
 he regards an intelligence as the author and embodiment of evil gives 
 it, of course, a positive aspect.
 
 134 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Martin exclusively in the degeneration of the will ; ^ 
 we must accept it provisionally for the same reason 
 that Martines de Pasqually required the satisfaction 
 of his disciple in the intercourse with intermediate 
 agents when he had asked for God : " We must 
 even be content with what we can get." It is from 
 human sin that the analogy is, of course, borrowed. 
 
 " When man by aspiration towards the good 
 contracts the habit of attachment thereto, he loses 
 the very notion of sin. Had he but will and courage 
 never to descend from this height for which he is 
 born, evil would be nothingness for him ; he ex- 
 periences its influences only as he lapses from the 
 good principle." ^ The punishment entailed thereby 
 supposes that his action is free ; a being devoid of 
 liberty cannot diverge of itself from the law imposed 
 on it ; it is therefore impossible that it should be 
 guilty or liable to suffer in consequence — an argument 
 which presupposes morality in universal law, but that 
 has been already granted to a system based on the 
 pre-eminence of the good principle. 
 
 " Since power and all other virtues are the essence 
 of this principle, our sufferings are proof palpable of 
 our errors, and hence of our freedom. If, therefore, 
 the evil principle be opposed evidently to the fulfil- 
 ment of the law of the unity of beings, whether in 
 the sensible or the intellectual, it follows that it is of 
 itself in a disordered situation ; " ^ and if its sufferings 
 be inseparable from disorder, they also are a punish- 
 ment, because justice being universal must act thereon, 
 even as it acts on man. " But if it be thus under 
 punishment, it must have diverged freely from the 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verity, Part I. pp. 14-27. 
 * Ibid., p. 25. ^ Ibid., pp. 25-26.
 
 THE TWO PRINCIPLES 135 
 
 law which would have ensured its felicity, and must 
 have become evil by its own will. Had the author of 
 evil made proper use of his liberty, never would he 
 have broken from the good principle ; and could he 
 at this day direct his will to his advantage — namely, 
 in the direction of return — he would cease from his 
 wickedness and evil would exist no more. But we see 
 that it is daily rivetted by its works to its criminal 
 will, not a single act of which has any other object 
 than the perpetuation of confusion and disorder." ^ 
 
 But if the source of evil must be sought in a 
 depravation of the will inherent in that which is now 
 the evil principle, this is equivalent to saying that it 
 was good in its first estate." AVas it then on an 
 equality with the good principle which preceded it ? 
 Saint - Martin answers in the negative. " It was 
 good, but not equal ; it was inferior, but not evil ; 
 it was derived, and therefore subordinate."^ At this 
 point it becomes somewhat difficult to follow the 
 line of reasoning, though I do not know that the 
 mystic is herein more confused than the theologian, 
 or, I might add, the soul itself when it attempts 
 to penetrate this dark night of mystery which lies 
 behind all human experience, but with which human 
 experience notwithstanding has a living connection. 
 We must remember that the absolute independence 
 and self-existence of the good principle is founded by 
 Saint-Martin on the nothingness of evil when com- 
 pared with it.^ I have already indicated that this 
 view of evil is not satisfactory, and furthermore it is 
 not quite in harmony with the origin of evil in the 
 liberty of intelligent action ; but if we attach to the 
 
 ^ Des Erreicrs et de la Verite, Part I. pp. 26-36, ^ Ibid., p, 35. 
 
 3 Ibid. '» Ibid., p. 22.
 
 136 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 self-existent principle the connected notions of omni- 
 potence and infinity, we shall clear up the difficulty, 
 and the mystic will be at one with the theologian. 
 In a word, God is postulated, with whom nothing 
 co-existed from the beginning, and from whom all 
 proceeds. But He being goodness itself, that which 
 He has created must be 2;ood also but inferior.^ 
 Equality with its source is impossible, " because its 
 law was not derived from itself." But possessed of 
 free will, "it had the power to follow or not that 
 which it had received by its origin ; it was therefore 
 exposed to deviation from its law and to becoming 
 evil ; while the superior principle, deriving its law 
 from itself, must of necessity remain in the goodness 
 which constitutes it, and can never deviate towards 
 another end." '^ 
 
 Such being the state of the two principles, the 
 question will arise as to why the author of evil 
 makes no attempt at reconciliation with the good, 
 which Saint-Martin answers as follows : — " When we 
 descend into ourselves, we perceive clearly that one 
 of the first laws of universal justice is an exact 
 proportion between the nature of the penalty and 
 the offence, and this is accomplished by the sub- 
 jugation of the offender to acts parallel with those 
 which he has produced criminally, and hence opposed 
 to that law which he has abandoned." ^ This is put 
 somewhat obscurely, but seems to mean that the 
 punishment of injustice is that which would itself 
 be unjust except when exercised upon injustice. It 
 means also, and more pertinently, that the punish- 
 ment of crime is in the crime itself. " This is why 
 
 ' Des Erreurs et de la Verity, Part I. p. 35. 
 2 Ibid., p. 36. 3 Ibid., p. ^7.
 
 THE TWO PRINCIPLES 137 
 
 the author of evil, corrupted by the guilty use which 
 he has made of his liberty, perseveres in the wicked- 
 ness of his will, and does not cease from opposing 
 the acts and will of the good principle, in which 
 vain efforts he undergoes a continuity of the same 
 suffering." ^ But he has cut off correspondence with 
 goodness, and there is on this account no way of his 
 return. " If the good principle be essential unity, if it 
 be purity and perfection itself, it can suffer in itself 
 no division, no contradiction, no defilement ; and it 
 is clear that the author of evil must be separated and 
 rejected by the one act of opposing his will to the 
 will of the good principle, so that henceforth an evil 
 power and an evil will alone remain to him, without 
 any participation in goodness, or any communication 
 therewith. The willing enemy of the good principle, 
 and of the one eternal, invariable law, what law 
 could he possess within him outside of this rule ? 
 He can no longer know or produce anything that is 
 good, nor can anything follow from his will but acts 
 without rule or order, and an absolute opposition to 
 goodness and to truth. Being thus plunged in his 
 proper darkness, he is not susceptible of any light or 
 of a return to the good principle ; for in order to 
 direct his aspirations towards this true light, he must 
 first have knowledge thereof ; it must be possible 
 first of all that he should conceive a good thought ; 
 and how could these enter into him if his will and 
 faculties be wholly corrupted and infirm ? " " 
 
 Saint-Martin adds that the law of justice is ful- 
 filled equally upon humanity, though not by the 
 same means ; and we shall learn in another place 
 upon what grounds the depravation of the will in 
 man has not been visited by the same penalty. 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. p. 37. ^ Ibid., pp. 37-38.
 
 138 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 It must be confessed that he appears at the 
 moment like those heroes of romance who, according 
 to all the laws of probability, could not have escaped 
 alive, but are yet brought through all dangers to a 
 happy estate and a long life afterwards. 
 
 The two principles have been so far considered 
 only on the intellectual side of their opposition ; the 
 interference of evil with the harmony of the material 
 universe is a part of human history, and its con- 
 sideration must be subsequent to that of the origin 
 and first estate of man. 
 
 Let us now sum up the entire position of Saint- 
 Martin in a few words of his own : "If there are 
 only three classes of existence — God, intellectual 
 beings, and physical nature ; if the origin of evil 
 cannot be sought in the first, which is the source of 
 good exclusively, nor in the last, which is neither 
 free nor thinking, and if, notwithstanding, the exist- 
 ence of evil be incontestable, we are compelled to at- 
 tribute it either to man, or to some other being hold- 
 ing, like him, an intermediate rank." ^ But while the 
 fact and its beginning are thus accounted for, "we 
 may strive in vain to know the nature of evil in 
 itself. For evil to comprehend itself it must be 
 true, and then it would cease to be evil, since the 
 true and the good are identical. To comprehend is 
 to perceive the correspondences of an object with 
 that order and harmony the rule of which is within 
 us. But if evil has no correspondence with this 
 order, but is wholly opposed to it, how can we per- 
 ceive any analogy between them, and, consequently, 
 how can we understand them ? " ^ 
 
 ^ Tableau Naturel des Eapports qui Existent entre Bieu, VHomme et 
 VUnivers, Part I. p. 35. 2 ibid., pp. 35-36.
 
 V 
 
 OF LIBERTY IN MAN 
 
 Man, according to Saint-Martin, is an exotic plant 
 of the material universe. In his true nature he does 
 not belong to the earth, and the depreciation of his 
 type is the cost of his naturalisation. He is not 
 precisely an exile, for he came here under a high 
 commission, which, as we shall see, he failed to fulfil, 
 but he is the inhabitant of a far country ; the earth 
 is the place of his encampment, but it is not his 
 home ; it is at his peril that he rests therein as in 
 a true abiding-place. The aspiration after his true 
 home, the home-sickness of Stilling,^ is the most 
 saving sentiment that he can cherish ; yet this senti- 
 ment is in most cases exceedingly vague, and, ob- 
 scured by the multiplicity of desires, is too generally 
 lost, even as the recollection of his origin and the 
 consciousness of his first mission. This is equivalent 
 to saying that he has passed under the dominion of 
 evil ; he has acquired, and daily persists in acquir- 
 ing, more fully a fatal science which plunges him 
 deeper in the darkness, whereas he was born for 
 goodness and light.^ Such domination and its at- 
 tendant suftering can be explained, as we have seen, 
 by Saint-Martin only on the principle of man's 
 liberty ; he does sufi"er, hence he has committed 
 
 * Corresxiondance, Lettre xcvi. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 331. 
 
 2 Des Erreurs et de la Verity, Part I. p. 27. 
 
 139
 
 I40 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 wrong, and wrong-doing is possible only to the pos- 
 sessors of free intelligence. 
 
 The false views which prevail on the subject of 
 human liberty are referred by Saint-Martin to want 
 of correct observation on the correspondence between 
 liberty and will.^ Will is the sole agent by which 
 liberty can be conserved or destroyed. No faculty 
 independent of the will is conceivable in man, for 
 herein is his fundamental essence. He defines liberty 
 as consisting not in the power to perform opposite and 
 mutually exclusive actions at the same moment, but 
 in the power to do so alternately." Man is " the sole 
 being in the natural order who is not compelled to 
 pursue the same road invariably."^ But before a 
 contradiction in action can prove liberty, it must be 
 shown that it is done freely and not from external 
 impulsion. What, therefore, do we understand not 
 merely by the idea of liberty in the abstract, but by 
 a free being ? " One who can maintain himself of 
 his own accord in the law prescribed for him, pre- 
 serving his power and independence by the voluntary 
 resistance of those obstacles and objects which tend 
 to prevent him from acting in conformity with that 
 law; whence follows, of necessity, the tendency to 
 succumb to those obstacles," "* the failure of the 
 desire to oppose them being all that is required 
 herein. 
 
 Saint-Martin also lays down that the principle of 
 the will is in the will itself, which is not to be ex- 
 plained by reference to external causes. It is a being 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la V&ite, Part I. p 27. 
 
 2 Observe that the Divine Liberty is said to be like the Divine 
 Essence ; its existence and its raison d'etre are identical. Tableau 
 Naturel, i. 167. 
 
 3 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. p. 29. ■* Ibid., p. 30.
 
 OF LIBERTY IN MAN 141 
 
 operating by itself without assistance from another, 
 having the privilege of determining itself alone accord- 
 ing to its own motive ; otherwise, it would not deserve 
 the name of will. The philosophy which ignores this 
 truth has not the first notion of volition, for if this 
 were dependent on causes operating from without, 
 we should not be its masters, and, in a word, we should 
 not have liberty. We are made to act by ourselves, 
 and the action of external causes is precisely what 
 hinders and oppresses us.^ 
 
 After what manner the will determines of itself, 
 independently of foreign motives and objects, is, 
 however, an impenetrable mystery for man, and is 
 indeed a dangerous subject of inquiry, because it 
 exhausts his faculties to no purpose. " The wise man 
 inquires into the cause of those things which possess 
 a cause, but is too prudent and too illuminated to 
 seek for what does not exist. Now, the cause of the 
 will which is native to humanity is of this kind, for 
 it is itself a cause." "" 
 
 This is language which makes for confusion, be- 
 cause it seems to arrogate to human intelligence an 
 almost divine attribute. It is not, however, intended 
 that the will of man is uncaused in the sense that it 
 is self-existent and therefore eternal. The man who 
 says " I will " does so in virtue of a power within 
 him which is imparted from the source of all power, 
 and not through an impulsion from without. The 
 inquiry however pursued, and its result however ex- 
 pressed, are certain to terminate in contradiction, for 
 on the one hand we can conceive of nothing which is 
 independent of God as He is understood by Christian 
 theology and by Saint-Martin, while, on the other, 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et cle la Ve'rite, Part I. pp. 31-32. ^ Ibid,, p. 23-
 
 142 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 the will of man can signify an apparent independence 
 by contradicting and opposing Him. We must not, 
 therefore, deceive ourselves by imagining that, in 
 virtue of some mystic illumination, Saint-Martin can 
 provide us with a doctrine of human liberty which 
 is beyond criticism, or demonstrate even that we 
 possess it in the sense which he argues ; it must be 
 enough that his view is the best which could be 
 expected from a mystic at his period, and that 
 others which have since arisen are not more free 
 from difficulty. 
 
 Saint-Martin makes haste to add that it is not for 
 the blind, trivial, and undesiring man that he exposes 
 his teaching ; he appeals from those who judge things 
 as they are to those who discern what they were, 
 transcending the conclusion of the senses and of the 
 dead, unintelligent law.^ " The innate will," he con- 
 tinues, " is the only remaining faculty of the active 
 principle in man. This he enjoyed in his glory, and 
 he enjoys it still in his fall. By it he went astray ; 
 by it alone can he hope to be re-established in his 
 primeval rights ; " it is this only which preserves him 
 from the abyss. He cannot prevent good and evil 
 from communicating with him, but he can choose, 
 and he can also choose the good ; so also he is respon- 
 sible for the use which he makes of his will, and he 
 is punished when he chooses badly." ^ 
 
 Finally, the comprehension of the higher truths 
 depends on our confidence in the grandeur and power 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la V^riU, Part I. pp. 32-33. 
 
 "^ " Will is the agent by wliich alone man and every free being can 
 efface in them and round them the traces of error and crime. The 
 revivification of the will is therefore the chief work of all fallen 
 creatures." — Tableau Naturel, Part I. p. 118. 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la V^rite', Part I. pp. 65-66.
 
 OF LIBERTY IN MAN 143 
 
 of this faculty.^ ''After the first temporal cause 
 nothing in time is more powerful than the will of 
 man, which, in its impure and criminal state, still 
 has capacities similar to that of the principle which 
 originally became evil." "^ 
 
 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. p. i66. 
 2 Ibid., Part 11. p. 55.
 
 VI 
 
 MAN IN HIS FIRST ESTATE 
 I. — Spieitual Generation 
 
 If the existence of sin among men be the conse- 
 quence of a rebellion or misdirection of the will, it 
 follows that their existing state of disorder is neither 
 their true nor their first estate. When man came 
 forth originally from the bosom of the Divine Good- 
 ness, he was pure like the rest of its productions ; he 
 was devoid of any motive towards evil ; his will 
 must have turned instinctively towards good alone. 
 It follows also from the principles laid down by 
 Saint-Martin that evil must have been nothingness 
 for him. I do not know whether the mystic had 
 developed by his own speculations, or had derived 
 from his occult tradition, any adequate or intelligible 
 doctrine of this primeval condition ; we are aware only 
 that he did not speak his whole mind ; and I must 
 add that he has given us in consequence nothing 
 that is really consistent or intelligible. Having re- 
 gard to the inscrutable nature of the subject, it is 
 impossible that his unreserved explanation should 
 have been adequate, at least for all the issues. Let 
 us take one point only, and inquire what is the opera- 
 tion of free will in a perfect being who has no con- 
 ception of evil ? It cannot be the choice between a 
 lesser and a greater good, because it would cleave by 
 its nature invariably to whatsoever was most excel- 
 lent, and that nature would therefore make it im-
 
 MAN IN HIS FIRST ESTATE 145 
 
 possible to choose otherwise, while in the absolute 
 order of the good principle it is difficult to conceive 
 how there can be a lesser good. The operation of 
 free will in the choice between good and evil must 
 suppose the knowledge of evil, and more than this, a 
 privation of the felicity in goodness to make evil a 
 possible temptation. We shall see that the system 
 of Saint-Martin is silent on this point. At the same 
 time he has much that is suggestive to tell us con- 
 cerning the first estate, and something also concern- 
 ing the original mission of man, from which we may 
 infer that he was not subjected to an arbitrary ordeal, 
 but was exposed to temptation for an end which 
 justifies the designs of the Eternal Providence. It is 
 well, therefore, that at this point he should speak at 
 sufficient length in his own person, and first as to 
 whether primeval man is to be understood indivi- 
 dually or collectively. It is certain that he is to be 
 regarded spiritually at the beginning of his emana- 
 tion, though in the second stage of his history he 
 entered into connection with the physical world. It 
 must be observed first of all that the hierarchy of 
 Saint-Martin is no doubt identical with that of 
 Christian angelology, though he refers very seldom 
 to the angelic orders under their familiar names ; 
 they are the Intermediate Agents of Pasqually, the 
 subjects of continual mention in the earlier writings 
 of the disciple, and at a later period must be also 
 those " primitive spiritual chiefs " whose generation is 
 said to have been instantaneous — that is, collective, 
 "because it took place in a region wherein there was 
 no time, and was a kind of generation which could 
 not have been operated temporally." ^ On the other 
 
 ^ Be I'Esprit des Glioses, t. i. p. 265. 
 
 K
 
 146 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 hand, the generation of the spiritual circle of the 
 first man could only occur successively, because time 
 had then been created, and it was necessary that it 
 should be effected in time.^ Man did not, therefore, 
 descend into generation, as some occult doctrines 
 suppose, but his generation descended with him from 
 purity into defilement. 
 
 The spiritual generation of the circle of man 
 takes place in the material region not only in succes- 
 sion, but with division and danger, because he has 
 devoted all his posterity to the peril and disasters 
 of this infected region, as the first spiritual chief 
 entrained all his own in his fall. The difference is, 
 therefore, that the entrainment of the circle of man 
 takes place successively because his generation is 
 successive. This in itself is sufficient to silence those 
 who cry out at their share in the punishment for a 
 fault which they have in nowise committed — " firstly, 
 because the solidarity of a family destroys the ground 
 for the reproach ; and, secondly, because we are in 
 any case better off than the posterity of the first 
 spiritual chief. The entrainment of man's posterity 
 is inevitable, but its consequences can be escaped ; in 
 the other it is equally inevitable, and there is no 
 escape from its consequences." " 
 
 As to the mode of generation, souls reproduce one 
 another ; they are not created by God at the moment 
 of corporisation, which I take to be the view of Chris- 
 tian theology. There is therefore no pre-existence in 
 the sense of Glanvil the Platonist, nor, it may be 
 added, is there any reincarnation. In that estate 
 which is now about to be described, primeval man 
 
 ^ De I'Esprit des Choses, t. i. p. 265. 
 ^ Ibid., pp. 265-266.
 
 MAN IN HIS FIRST ESTATE 147 
 
 was therefore one and alone ; but he had apparently 
 a dual aspect, for man and woman are said to be one 
 spirit divided into two bodies. 
 
 The Martinistic doctrine of the first estate is based 
 on the aspirations of humanity towards a perfect 
 order in the midst of his privation and misery. 
 
 II. — Union with the Good Principle^ 
 
 No person possessed of good faith or an unbiassed 
 and unobscured reason will deny that the corporal 
 life of man is an almost incessant suffering and 
 privation. In pursuance of the conceptions which 
 we have formed of justice, it is not without ground 
 that we regard this life as a period of chastisement 
 and expiation, but we cannot do so without conclud- 
 ing immediately that there must have been an 
 anterior state for man, to be preferred before his 
 actual state, and that in proportion as the latter is 
 restricted, painful, and abounding in things distaste- 
 ful, so was the former illimitable and replete with 
 delights. Each one of man's sufferings is the index 
 of a felicity which fails him, each of his privations 
 proves that he was made for enjoyment, each of his 
 enslavements proclaims his ancient authority ; in a 
 word, the realisation that to-day he has nothing is 
 a secret proof that once he possessed all. By the 
 sad consciousness of our present frightful situation 
 we can therefore form some conception of that bright 
 estate in which man existed formerly. He is not 
 now the real master of his thoughts, he is tortured 
 in awaiting those which he desires and expelling 
 those which he fears. From this we realise that he 
 
 ^ Adapted from Des Erreurs et de la Ve'rite, Part I. pp. 38-40, 44-46.
 
 148 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 was made to dispose of thoughts and to produce them 
 at his pleasure. He obtains now a certain slender 
 peace and tran(|uillity only after infinite efforts and 
 many painful sacrifices, from which we conclude that 
 he was designed to participate everlastingly in a calm 
 and fortunate estate, and that the house of peace was 
 his only true abode. Having the capacity to behold 
 all and to know all, he trembles notwithstanding in 
 the darkness, and shudders at his ignorance and 
 blindness ; does this not show that the light is his 
 proper element ? Lastly, his body has been made 
 subject to destruction, of which alone of all beings in 
 nature he possesses a conception, and this is the most 
 terrible step in his physical career, the act of all most 
 humbling and held the most in horror. But does not 
 this severe and frightful law lead us to conceive that 
 man's body was once under a more glorious obedi- 
 ence, and that he was intended to enjoy all the 
 privileges of immortality ? 
 
 Now, whence could this sublime estate derive, 
 if not from the intimate knowledge and continual 
 presence of the good principle, that sole source of all 
 power and all felicity ? AVhy does man languish 
 here in ignorance, weakness, and wretchedness, if not 
 because he is separated from this same principle, 
 which is the sole light and the one support of all 
 beings? As the principle of evil must still endure 
 the punishments inherent in his rebellious will, so 
 also the present sufferings of man are but the natural 
 consequences of a first error ; so also this error could 
 issue only from the liberty of man conceiving a 
 thought opposed to the supreme law and adhering 
 thereto by his will. But albeit the crime of man 
 and that of the evil principle are equally the fruit of
 
 MAN IN HIS FIRST ESTATE 149 
 
 their perverted will, the nature of these crimes is 
 very different. They cannot be subjected to the 
 same penalties or possess the same consequences. 
 Justice takes into account the difference of the places 
 wherein these crimes occurred. Man and the evil 
 principle have therefore their sin ever before their 
 eyes, but both have not the same succours or the 
 same consolations. Man, despite his condemnation, 
 can appease justice ; he can reconcile himself with 
 truth ; he can taste at times its sweetness as if he 
 were in some sort still undivided therefrom. It is 
 true, however, to say that the crime of both is not 
 punished otherwise than by privation, and that there 
 is a difference only in the measure of the chastise- 
 ment. It is still more certain that this privation is 
 the most terrible of all penalties, and the only one 
 which can really subdue man. It is a grave error to 
 pretend that we can be led to wisdom by a frightful 
 portrayal of physical sufferings in a life to come ; 
 such a picture is of no effect when it is not experi- 
 enced, and the blind masters who have recourse to it, 
 unable to make us realise, save in idea, the torments 
 which they fancy, possess of necessity but little 
 influence. Had they taken the same pains to depict 
 the remorse which man must feel for his wickedness, 
 they might have reached him more easily, because 
 this suffering is possible here below. But how much 
 more happy would they have made us, and how much 
 more worthy a conception would they have imparted 
 concerning our principle, if only they had been so 
 sublime as to proclaim before man that the good 
 principle, being love itself, punishes man only by 
 love, but also, being love, when it deprives us thereof 
 it no longer leaves us anything ! So would they
 
 I50 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 have enlightened, so sustained men, bringing home 
 to them that nothing need dismay them save to 
 cease having the love of this principle, without which 
 they are in the abyss, and certes the conception of 
 the abyss which man may experience at every instant 
 would be for him more efficacious and salutary than 
 that of eternal tortures, to which, despite these 
 ministers of blood, man always sees an end and 
 never a beginning. 
 
 The succours accorded to man for his rehabili- 
 tation, however precious they may be, are contingent 
 all the same upon very rigorous conditions. And " 
 surely, the more glorious the rights which he has 
 lost, the more should he endure to recover them. In 
 fine, being subjected by his sin to the law of time, 
 he cannot avoid experiencing its painful effects, be- 
 cause having opposed to himself all the obstacles 
 which time comprises, the law wills that he should 
 gain nothing but in the measure that he passes 
 through and overcomes them. 
 
 III. — Man the Okgan of Divine Order ^ 
 
 The diurnal occupation of man, his endeavours 
 to introduce order and regularity everywhere, his 
 faculty for adding to regularity and order the charm 
 of taste and the creations of a magical imagination, 
 proclaim that, in his most perfect primitive con- 
 dition, it was still his task to increase the perfection 
 of all about him, and to embellish more and more 
 the abode which he inhabited. A uniform law, 
 which admits of no varieties save in its mode of execu- 
 
 ^ Adapted from U Esprit des Glioses, sec. £tat Primitif de V Homme. 
 See vol. i. pp. 45-50.
 
 MAN IN HIS FIRST ESTATE 151 
 
 tion, is inherent in being, and accompanies it even in 
 tlie alienations to which it may become abandoned. 
 Furthermore, by distinguishing in the earthly task 
 of man those more gross and material cares which 
 seem a sentence passed upon the whole race, from 
 the taste for ordering and perfecting which also 
 occupies the species, and seems rather a privilege 
 than a punishment, we may be sure that the end of 
 man's primal existence was the embellishment of his 
 abode, and that the means were derived from that 
 higher source whence he himself descended. He 
 follows the same course at the present day when he 
 has plans to conceive and works to produce. He 
 concentrates and withdraws into himself, seeming to 
 await from some source distinct from himself that 
 light which he seeks, that ray of instruction which 
 he needs. His works are more or less regular ac- 
 cording to the patience of his search and the fidelity 
 with which he follows the light. So, also, the more 
 obedient man was to that order which joined him to 
 his principle, the more successfully he fulfilled the 
 task of culture imposed on him ; and, reciprocally, 
 the more he laboured with zeal and success therein, 
 the more did he increase for himself the advantages 
 of the superior order whence he derived his essence, 
 because all was interlinked for man in this supreme 
 work, as it would be still at this day did not the 
 grosser material cares contract his capacities, and did 
 not the inferior powers, civil or religious, which 
 rule the social man, altogether destroy or absorb 
 them. Through man as an organ that luminous and 
 divine order would then have passed, with infinite 
 diversities, forming through them and by them the 
 most delicious harmonies, as he still may observe at
 
 152 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 this day when he enters into himself and directs his 
 inner sight towards the source of his being. He 
 experiences then the descent of this superior order, 
 and he is made naturally thereby the friend and 
 brother of all men, having neither the desire to be 
 their master nor the need to be their subject or 
 disciple. 
 
 If, therefore, the faculties of man are simply 
 more contracted than they were when he was in his 
 true measure, we can form a correct notion of his 
 original privileges — the production of harmony, the 
 multiplication of marvels, the ascent in all regions 
 from altar to principle, the cultivation of all the 
 treasures of nature, their harvest, the increase of 
 their perfection by their passage through his own 
 channel, for the extension of the kingdom of truth. 
 We may read the proof of this primal law in all the 
 inventions, all the arts to which man applies himself 
 successfully, although after a material manner. Does 
 he not purify by his operations the substances of 
 this inferior w^orld ? Does he not produce by his 
 skill the notes of harmony with his fingers ? Does 
 he not heal by the counsel transmitted through his 
 speech ? Does not the strength of his arm overthrow 
 armies ? Does not he multiply by painting the image 
 of all things in nature ? And if in this mournful 
 state, when he can accomplish nothing save in the 
 inferior order, his works are still so wondrous, what 
 therefore would they be if he were reintegrated in 
 realities ?
 
 MAN IN HIS FIRST ESTATE 15. 
 
 IV. — The First Envelope of Man 
 
 By his origin man enjoyed all the privileges of an 
 intelligent being, although he possessed an envelope, 
 for in the temporal region no existence can dispense 
 with one. The first envelope of man was an impene- 
 trable armour, because it was unified and simple, 
 while owing to the superiority of its nature it was 
 not subject to decomposition, the law of mixed 
 bodies having no power over it. Since his fall man 
 finds himself clothed with a corruptible envelope, 
 because, being composite, it is subject to the diff'erent 
 actions of the sensible, which operate successively, 
 and consequently destroy one another. But by this 
 subjugation to the sensible, man has in nowise lost 
 his quality and rank as an intelligent being, so that 
 he is at once great and little, mortal and immortal, 
 ever free in the intellectual, but bound in the physical 
 by laws outside his will ; in a word, being a com- 
 bination of two natures diametrically opposed, he 
 demonstrates their effects alternately in a manner so 
 distinct that it is impossible to be deceived thereon, 
 
 v.— The Book of Man^ 
 
 The inexpressible advantages enjoyed by man in 
 his first estate were attached to the possession and 
 comprehension of a book without price which was 
 included among the gifts of his birthright. While 
 this book consists only of ten leaves, it comprises all 
 illuminations and all sciences, past, present, and to 
 come ; and, moreover, the power of man was at that 
 
 ^ DesErreurs et de la Verity, Part I. pp. 221-230, condensed.
 
 154 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 time so much extended that he had the faculty of 
 reading the ten leaves at once and of embracing 
 them by a single glance. After his prevarication 
 this book was indeed left him, but he was deprived 
 of his ability to read it with that former facility ; 
 henceforth he could only master its leaves succes- 
 sively. He will never be re-established entirely 
 in his rights until he has acquired them all, for 
 though each of these ten leaves contains a particular 
 branch of knowledge proper to itself, they are yet so 
 connected one with another that it is impossible to 
 be acquainted perfectly with one of them till famili- 
 arity has been acquired with all ; and though I have 
 said that man can now read them only in succession, 
 he will never be established in his path until he has 
 acquired them collectively, — the fourth above all, 
 which is the focus of all the others. Upon this truth 
 men have seldom fixed their attention, but it is one 
 notwithstanding which it is infinitely necessary to 
 learn, for all are born with the book in their hand ; 
 and if its study and comprehension are precisely the 
 task for their fulfilment, we may judge how important 
 it is that they should not despise it. Their neglect 
 on this point has been carried, however, to an 
 extreme ; scarcely one among them has remarked the 
 essential union between the ten leaves by which they 
 are made absolutely inseparable. Some have broken 
 off in the middle, some at the third leaf, others again 
 at the first, thus producing atheists, materialists, and 
 deists. A few indeed have perceived the bond be- 
 tween the ten, but have failed to recognise the 
 important distinction which must be established 
 between each, regarding them as equal and of the 
 same nature. What has ensued? Limited by the
 
 MAN IN HIS FIRST ESTATE 155 
 
 point of the book which they have not had the 
 courage to pass, and yet resting on the fact that they 
 spoke only by its authority, they have pretended to 
 its complete possession, whence believing themselves 
 infallible in their doctrine, they have exerted all 
 their efforts to promote it. But the isolated truths, 
 receiving no nourishment, have perished speedily in 
 the hands of those who have divided them, and with 
 these imprudent men there has rested only a vain 
 phantom of science which they could not present as 
 a solid body or substantial being without having 
 recourse to imposture. It is hence precisely that 
 those errors which we contest have issued — namely, 
 as to the nature and laws of corporeal beings, the 
 several faculties of man, and the principles and origin 
 of his religion and worship. 
 
 We must complete, however, the conception of 
 this incomparable book by specifying the different 
 sciences and properties referable to each leaf. The 
 first treats of the universal principle or centre, from 
 which all centres emanate continually. The second 
 treats of the intermediate cause of the universe ; 
 of the dual intellectual law operating in time ; of the 
 twofold nature of man ; and, generally, of that which 
 is constituted by two actions. The third treats of 
 the basis of bodies ; of all resultants and all pro- 
 ducts, whatsoever the kind ; and here also is found 
 the number of those immaterial beings which are not 
 endowed with thought. The fourth treats of what- 
 soever is active ; of the principle of all tongues, 
 temporal and extra- temporal ; of the religion and 
 worship of man ; and here also is found the number 
 of immaterial thinking entities. The fifth treats of 
 idolatry and putrefaction. The sixth treats of the
 
 156 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 laws governing the formation of the temporal world 
 and the natural division of the circle by the radius. 
 The seventh treats of the cause of winds and tides ; 
 of the geographical scale of man ; of his true science ; 
 and of the source of his productions, both intellectual 
 and sensible. The eighth treats of the temporal 
 number of Him who is the sole support, the single 
 force, and the one hope of man, that is to say, of that 
 real and physical being who has two names and four 
 numbers, because he is both active and intelligent, 
 while his action extends over four worlds. It treats 
 also of justice and all legislative powers, including 
 the rights of sovereigns and the authority of generals 
 and judges. The ninth treats of the formation of 
 corporal man in the womb of woman, and the de- 
 composition of the universal and particular triangle. 
 Lastly, the tenth is the part and the complement of 
 the preceding nine ; it is the most essential of all ; 
 failing this the others cannot be known, because by 
 arranging all the ten circumferentially, according 
 to their numeric order, it is found to have most 
 affinity with the first, whence all emanate ; while, 
 if we would judge further of its importance, let it 
 be known that in virtue of this is the Author of 
 things invincible, because it is a barrier which de- 
 fends Him on all sides, and there is no being that 
 can pass it. 
 
 As in this enumeration are contained not only 
 all the knowledge to which man can aspire, but all 
 the laws imposed on him, it is clear that he will 
 never possess any science, nor fulfil any of his true 
 duties, until he draws from this source. We know 
 also what hand should lead him thereto, and that if 
 of himself he can make no progress towards this
 
 MAN IN HIS FIRST ESTATE 157 
 
 fruitful source, he is still sure of attaining it by- 
 forgetting his own will and giving place to that 
 of the Active Cause, which should alone operate 
 for him. 
 
 Although this book possesses only ten leaves, as 
 it still includes all things, nothing can exist without 
 belonging by its nature to one of them, and there is 
 no being which does not itself indicate its class and 
 to which of the leaves it belongs. Thereby does each 
 offer us the means of instruction about everything 
 that concerns it; but in order to direct ourselves in 
 these studies, we must know how to distinguish the 
 true and simple laws which constitute the nature of 
 beings from those which men imagine and substitute 
 daily in place of them. 
 
 Let us turn now to that portion of the book which 
 I have said was the most misused, that fourth leaf, 
 the most in correspondence with man, for therein are 
 inscribed his duties and the true laws of his thinking 
 part, as also the precepts of his religion and worship. 
 By following exactly, with constancy and a pure in- 
 tention, all the points clearly enunciated therein, he 
 might obtain the help of the very hand which punished 
 him, and so transcend this corrupted region wherein 
 he is relegated by his condemnation, recovering the 
 vestiges of that ancient authority in virtue of which 
 he determined formerly the latitudes and longitudes 
 for the maintenance of universal order. But as such 
 powerful resources were attached to this fourth leaf, 
 error in regard to it assumed proportional import- 
 ance ; indeed, had not man neglected its advantages, 
 all would still be blissful and at peace on earth. The 
 first of these errors has been the transposition of the 
 fourth and substitution of the fifth page, or that
 
 158 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 which treats of idolatry ; the second is the concep- 
 tion of gross notions attaching to the properties of 
 this leaf, and the attempt to apply those properties 
 to all ; the third is the belief, on only a slight pre- 
 sumption, that man is in possession of the sacred 
 advantages belonging to this fourth leaf.
 
 VII 
 
 PRIMEVAL MISSION OF MAN 
 
 We have seen in an earlier section that the intel- 
 lectual liberty of man, so far as it consists in the 
 ability to choose between good and evil, is one of 
 those fundamental problems about which Saint- 
 Martin fails to enlighten us. On the one hand, he 
 conceals doctrine, and, on the other, what he does 
 tell us is inadequate. It was indicated, however, 
 that in the account of man's primal mission we should 
 find an unusual warrant for the ordeal to which man 
 was made subject. It is not an account which can 
 be derived from any one place in the writings of the 
 mystic, and it is the subject of many obscure refer- 
 ences. We may take as the keynote the statement 
 that " the function of man differs from that of other 
 physical beings, for it is the reparation of the dis- 
 orders in the universe." ^ Though dogmatic in form, 
 this affirmation, like most which are made by Saint- 
 Martin, is a conclusion based upon facts which he 
 discovered in humanity as it now is. " Man possesses 
 innumerable vestiges of the faculties resident in that 
 Agent which produced him ; he is the sign or visible 
 expression of the Divinity." ^ Again : " Man has 
 been placed in the midst of the darkness of creation 
 only to demonstrate by his native light the existence 
 of a Supreme Agent, and for the conviction in this 
 
 1 Tableau Nature!, Part I. p. 55. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 57-58. 
 
 '59
 
 i6o THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 respect of all those who disbelieve it." ^ For this 
 purpose he came forth strong and well equipped from 
 his source; he was vested with "immense powers" 
 to effect this manifestation, for he could not proclaim 
 the grandeur of that Being whom he represented in 
 the universe unless he were great himself, nor would 
 those whom he was intended to subdue confess the 
 might of the sovereiojn unless the deleiiate could 
 convince them in his own person that it was real 
 and invincible." Here we are not dealing with a 
 picture of the perfect man sent to confound the 
 wicked of his own order ; the doubters, the rebels, 
 the enemies are of another class ; in a word, they 
 are the generations of the evil principle, and even in 
 his fallen state he is ever surrounded by this cloud 
 of witnesses, and can still testify to them the splen- 
 dour and power of his master. 
 
 " The saintly race of man, engendered from the 
 fount of wonder and the fount of desire and intelli- 
 gence, was established in the region of the temporal 
 immensity like a brilliant star for the diffusion of a 
 heavenly light." ' He was placed " between Divinity 
 and the old prevaricator, and could produce at will 
 in the realm of the spirit the majesty of storm and 
 lightning, or the serenity of the mildest zone ; he 
 could load the guilty with chains and plunge them 
 in darkness, or erect in peaceful regions the banners 
 of love and consolation." He was not, therefore, 
 assigned a mission only of wrath and judgment. 
 He was " chosen by Supreme Wisdom to be the sign 
 of his justice and his power," to " confine evil within 
 
 1 Les Voies de la Sagesse, (Euvres Posthumcs, i. 68. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 69. 
 
 ^ Le Ministere de r Homme- Esprit, p. 162.
 
 PRIMEVAL MISSION OF MAN i6i 
 
 its limits," but also to "give peace to tlie universe." 
 We must understand here the archetypal world, 
 pure, calm, and beautiful in itself, the domain of 
 perfect human sovereignty ; in a word, the unfallen 
 world, threatened with invasion l)y the powers of 
 darkness which encompassed it. Or perhaps we 
 should understand rather, for it is not clear in Saint- 
 Martin, that world as it is pictured by Boehme, the 
 kingdom of the unfallen Lucifer, devastated by his 
 crime. 
 
 But the mission of man was more even than 
 ensuring peace to what was already at peace in the 
 universe ; it was the production of harmony in dis- 
 order. And here we touch upon an instruction which 
 was derived by Saint-Martin from his first school of 
 initiation, and we shall not be surprised that it was 
 developed most completely by the mystic in a lecture 
 for a lodge of initiates, 
 
 "The first enemies of the Creator were not called 
 after the same manner as men ; they were not re- 
 quired to lead into the right way those who had 
 departed therefrom, for prior to their own crime 
 there was no creature which had turned aside from its 
 proper law, and all were consequently in union with 
 the divine universal law. Their vocation was to 
 honour unceasingly that Principle from which they 
 had emanated, to confess the inefiable majesty of its 
 powers, and to partake of the beatitude derived from 
 the inexhaustible influences of life. Now, if the 
 eternal laws can never fail to be accomplished, these 
 same beings, despite the darkness and corruption in 
 which they lie, will doubtless one day acknowledge 
 the authority of the hand which has chastised them. 
 Then will this simple act of resipiscence prove the 
 
 L
 
 i62 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 immutability of their law — a law inherent in the 
 divine essence itself, which cannot tolerate the 
 success of criminal assaults in any being whatsoever. 
 As to that which may follow this act of resipiscence, 
 the Divine Wisdom alone knows, and it is unlawful 
 for man to judge of it." ^ 
 
 It follows, notwithstanding, from this derived 
 teachino; of Saint-Martin that man's original mission 
 was to recall those to life who, by an improper use 
 of its liberty, had forfeited its essence. Now, the 
 evil principle and the generations thereof were the 
 only lost virtues of the universe at that epoch. Man 
 therefore had two purposes in his existence, whereas 
 the children of the first emanation had one only, for 
 the divine worship was also his duty, and it is by 
 reason of this twofold vocation that he is always 
 regarded by Saint-Martin as superior to the angels, 
 and hence more fitted to represent the universal 
 agent. " By the universality of the powers imparted 
 to him, he approached nearer to the likeness of his 
 author." " 
 
 In another instruction delivered under similar 
 circumstances, the mission of man in regard to the 
 evil principle is even more clearly expressed. " He 
 had only one crime to avenge, and the punishments 
 to which he should have had recourse were rather 
 upbraidings and instructions than scourges and tor- 
 ments ; he would have sought rather to soften the 
 perverse being than to chastise it, would have been 
 rather his good angel than his destroyer. We have 
 a proof of this at the present day in the office of our 
 good intelligence towards ourselves, which is to lead 
 
 1 Les Voies de la Sagesse, (Euvres Posthumes, i. 71-72. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 73.
 
 PRIMEVAL MISSION OF MAN 163 
 
 rather than to punish ; to give us light, not to plunge 
 us in darkness ; to inspire us with consolations, not 
 afflictions. Such should have been our duty towards 
 him whom we were charged to restore to order and 
 to the obedience of the Creator. But as when we 
 ignore that saving guide set over us to communicate 
 all good things to us, he sets hostile laws in motion, 
 changes gentleness into wrath and wrath into veri- 
 table torments ; so the perverse being, having tempted 
 and seduced the son of the second emanation sent to 
 effect his reconciliation, has obliged the divine justice 
 to turn the law against him, to delay the term of his 
 spiritual regeneration, and to change the favourable 
 ways offered him into ways of severity entailing acute 
 sufferings." ^ 
 
 The spiritual sign of the alliance^ is interpreted 
 by Saint-Martin along lines which lead him to the 
 same conclusion as to man's purpose in the universe, 
 but it must be taken in connection with doctrines 
 developed elsewhere in his writings. Saint-Martin 
 distinguishes three universal creative powers^ — the 
 Divine Thought, to which correspond the eternal 
 spiritual natures ; the Divine Will, to which corre- 
 spond the temporal spiritual natures ; and the Divine 
 Activity, to which corporeal existences correspond. 
 But in proportion as things which are produced are 
 more remote from the productive principle, the more 
 numerous are the intermediate agents. Thus the 
 agents of the material universe are to be distinguished 
 from the universal agents, and both in Martinistic 
 doctrine are seven in number. " There are thus two 
 
 ^ Traite'des Benedictions, CEuvres Posthumes, ii. 194-195. 
 
 ^ Rapports Spirituelset Temporels de I' Arc-en-ciel. Ibid., pp. 247-221. 
 
 ^ Traite des Benedictions. Ibid., p. 158.
 
 1 64 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 classes of spiritual beings operating unceasingly in 
 the circle of temporal immensity. The one are the 
 special custodians of the different regions of the cor- 
 poreal universe," ^ which they preserve from confusion 
 on the part of the evil principle by his continual 
 restriction. The others preserve the children of the 
 second emanation, in like manner, from the assaults 
 of the perverse being, assist them during their term 
 of probation, and communicate those graces which the 
 divine mercy can conciliate with the divine justice.' 
 The physical agents are described in symbolical 
 language as the seven pillars of the universe, the 
 keys of the seven arches on which the temple of 
 Solomon is based ; they are also the seven angels 
 whose trumpets sound in the Apocalypse. " The 
 combination of their actions produces the incessant 
 variety of elemental influences and changes experi- 
 enced by physical beings, less or more favourable 
 to these according to the preponderance of one or 
 other of the agents, and subject to all the derange- 
 ment which may be occasioned by the interference of 
 the evil principle warring continually with the re- 
 stricting powers. In fine, these agents are the | 
 realisers of the creative word which produces and 
 preserves matter." ^ According to Saint-Martin, man 
 in his first estate directed the action of these seven 
 agents, which action is symbolised by the seven 
 colours displayed in the sign of the alliance.^ That 
 is to say, he effected through them the restriction of 
 the evil principle, and was thus the universal media- 
 
 1 Traite des Benedictions, CEuvres Posthumes, ii. p. 172. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 175. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 173-174. 
 * Rajyports Spiritiiels et Tempords de VArc-en-ciel. Ibid., p. 250.
 
 PRIMEVAL MISSION OF MAN 165 
 
 tor of the supreme power/ disposing of his subordinate 
 agents as he now disposes materially of elementary- 
 creatures, emanated and emancipated to manifest 
 the glory and justice of the Creator, retaining direct 
 correspondence with the Divine and Eternal Son, 
 occupying the middle place between that divinity 
 and the temporal spirits submitted to his power. 
 
 ^ Rapports Spirituels, d:c., p. 263.
 
 VIII 
 
 THE FALL OF MAN 
 
 The Martinistic doctrine of the Fall of Man is, put 
 shortly, that the evil principle which he was created 
 to constrain and to reconcile succeeded in seducing 
 him. As in regard to the origin of evil, so here we 
 must not expect to find a complete or wholly intelli- 
 gible teaching, and, in this as in the other case, the 
 failure of Saint-Martin is, broadly speaking, the failure 
 of Christian theology. By the latter there is attri- 
 buted to unfallen man a nature and a knowledge 
 which make it absurd to suppose that he could sin, 
 as it also says that he did upon a trivial pretext. 
 And Saint-Martin has given us a picture of man in 
 his first estate which sets him higher than the angels, 
 ruling the agents of material creation, enjoying the 
 full powers of the divine messenger in the universe, 
 manifesting to that universe the majesty of his 
 Master, and guarded and guided apparently by the 
 supreme chiefs of the first emanation. With all these 
 endowments we shall find that the fall of man is 
 attributed by the mystic to weakness and the facility 
 of seduction. His doctrine on the subject does not 
 differ materially at any period of his literary life. I 
 cannot trace that it underwent any conspicuous change 
 which can be attributed to Jacob Boehme. He was 
 merely more explicit at the end than he was at the 
 beginning, but he was never clear. In his first pub- 
 lished work the reticence of the adept caused him to
 
 THE FALL OF MAN 167 
 
 take refuge in a figurative picture which represents 
 primeval man as deviating from his assigned post at 
 an inaccessible centre/ but it offers nothing to the 
 faculty of interpretation. In the "Natural Table" 
 he drops allegory and attempts a concise statement : 
 " The crime of man was the abuse of the knowledge 
 he possessed as to the union of the principle of the 
 universe with the universe. The privation of this 
 knowledge was his punishment ; he knew no longer 
 the intellectual light." ^ Now, we know that the 
 union of the universe with God is, according to Saint- 
 Martin, by means of intermediate agents, and that a 
 subordinate class of these agents was at the disposition 
 of primeval man.'^ He therefore abused the power 
 which had been delegated to him in this respect, 
 whence it would seem to follow that his sin was not 
 one of weakness but of strength ; that he did not 
 yield to seduction, but committed outrage. With this 
 view we may connect an enigmatical statement in the 
 
 ^ De& Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. pp. 41-44. 
 
 ' Tableau Nahird, Part I. pp. 94-96. 
 
 2 Compare Tableau Naturel, Part I. pp. 60-62 : — "Before temporal 
 things could possess the existence which makes them sensible, there 
 were necessary primitive and intermediate elements between them and 
 the creative faculties whence they descend, because temporal things 
 and the faculties from which they descend differ too much in their nature 
 to co-exist without intermediary. These elements, unknown to the 
 senses, but of which intelligence attests the necessity and the existence, 
 are determined and fixed in their essence and number, like all laws and 
 means used by Wisdom for the accomplishment of its designs. They 
 may be regarded as the first signs of the supreme faculties, to which 
 they hold immediately. Everything in corporeal nature is a com- 
 bination or division of the primitive signs, in which all sensible things 
 are written. Man in his material works is also bound to these primitive 
 signs. He would be otherwise the creature of another nature and 
 another order of things. All his works are varied combinations of the 
 fundamental elements which are the primitive indices of the creative 
 faculties of Divinity. He and his productions are in a secondary sense 
 the expression of the universal creative action."
 
 1 68 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 earlier work, that the crime of the first man was 
 adultery, though before he committed it there were 
 no women. He adds : " Since then the vortex which 
 drew him to this original sin has subsisted ever since, 
 and furthermore men are now exposed to the adultery 
 of the flesh, which was made possible by his first 
 adultery." ^ He recurred to this aspect of the fall of 
 man after an interval of sixteen years, but the section 
 of the " Spirit of Things " " devoted ostensibly to this 
 subject tells us nothing concerning the nature of the 
 crime so characterised, though it deals at some length 
 with the dual nature which, we have already seen, 
 was inherent in the first man, and with the spiritual 
 generation involved therein. 
 
 " Had man remained in his glory, his reproduction 
 would have been the most important of his acts, and 
 the one which would have increased most the lustre 
 of his sublime destiny, because he abode in the unity 
 of all his essences, and, being joined with his source, 
 his generations would have participated in the ad- 
 vantages of this union, which they would have per- 
 petuated in their turn." ^ Further, " This primitive 
 spiritual and hermaphroditic state which is inherent 
 in our true nature is the distinctive mark of the 
 Divinity, which possesses in itself all that is necessary 
 to its eternal and universal generation, whilst it can 
 experience no alteration and no foreign admixture."'^ 
 
 It will be seen that this presentation of the 
 original sin has no apparent connection with the 
 definition which describes it as the abuse of man's 
 knowledge concerning the union of the principle of 
 the universe with the universe. At the same time 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part II. p. 49. -^ Vol. i. pp. 61-65. 
 3 Ibid., p. 61. * Ibid., p. 65.
 
 THE FALL OF MAN 169 
 
 it does not represent a changed standpoint, for we 
 meet with both views about the same period, and it 
 can only be concluded that the whole mind of Saint- 
 Martin was not expressed on the subject. If we 
 recur to the " Natural Table," we shall find the 
 doctrine of the Fall depicted under yet another 
 aspect. 
 
 " Liberty was necessary in order for the primal 
 man to manifest the Supreme Principle — liberty to 
 behold the real, fixed, and positive rights which are 
 therein. A title was needed for his entrance into 
 his Temple, to enjoy the spectacle in all its grandeur. 
 But, as a free being, it was possible also for man to 
 cease coming into the Temple with the humility of a 
 Levite, to put the victim in place of the sacrifice, the 
 priest in place of God. The entrance of the Temple 
 was then closed to him. He introduced and looked 
 for another light than that which filled its immensity ; 
 he sought that light outside the Being who is its 
 sanctuary and source ; he sought real, fixed, positive 
 faculties in two beings at once. This error plunged 
 man in an abyss of confusion and darkness, without, 
 however, any exercise of its powers on the part of 
 the Eternal Principle of Life to add to this disaster. 
 Being felicity by essence and the one source of beati- 
 tude to all beings, God would act in opposition to 
 his own law did he separate any from a condition 
 adapted to ensure their happiness ; and being also 
 by his nature good and peace alone, he could not 
 of himself afflict them with evils, disorders, or pri- 
 vations without producing that which the perfect 
 being can in nowise know ; which demonstrates that 
 he is not and cannot be the author of our sufi'erings. 
 None of the power which resides in this beneficent
 
 I70 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 hand has been employed except to comfort us, and 
 if the virtues of this Supreme Agent were unfail- 
 ing from the beginning, they were for us and not 
 against us." ^ 
 
 However we may interpret this temple to which 
 man had to earn his title before he could be inducted 
 therein, we here lose sight of that mission by which 
 he was deputed to restore order in a place of con- 
 fusion, and to reconcile the leader and institutor of 
 that disorder. There is substituted in place of it the 
 more usual and arbitrary conception that he had to 
 do something for himself, that his task was concerned 
 with his own interest rather than with the funda- 
 mental issue of the universe. In a word, he was a 
 being in probation, not the ambassador of God. If I 
 may put it somewhat crassly, he seems even to have 
 gone over to the allegiance of the evil principle, to 
 have committed that crime of Satanism which, in a 
 sense, is imputed to him by orthodoxy. " So soon 
 as man sought fixed and positive faculties in another 
 being than the Divine, he lost sight of them alto- 
 gether, and he now knows only the simulacra of 
 those virtues." ^ 
 
 The view last presented comports far better with 
 the original weakness of man than with his transcen- 
 dent strength and glory. Thus, in 1782, Saint-Martin 
 said that man was strong, glorious, unsurpassed, 
 but exhibited by an alternative hypothesis that he 
 was weak and easily led away. In 1 800 he expressly 
 admits and develops the latter point, without, how- 
 ever, being conscious that his instructions exclude 
 one another. His thesis in the " Spirit of Things " is 
 that the first source of our degradation was not pride. 
 
 1 Part i. pp. 77-79. " Ibid., p. 80.
 
 THE FALL OF MAN 171 
 
 " It was rather the feebleness and facility with which 
 man allowed himself to be seduced by the attraction 
 of this physical world, wherein he had been placed as 
 moderator and had been designed for its government ; 
 it was rather for gazing on its wonders with an eager- 
 ness which surpassed his essential and obligatory 
 affection, whereas they should have been only of 
 secondary importance in comparison with the divine 
 wonders which he was entitled to contemplate still 
 more intimately, for in his capacity as the first mirror 
 he came immediately after God.^ Pride could have 
 no place in man till his weakness had opened the door 
 to that insolent error ; it could be only the conse- 
 quence of a prior corrupting cause distinct from him- 
 self. The truth on this point is shown naturally by 
 children. They have no pride in their earlier years, 
 but they are weak and easily led away by the sensible 
 objects which encompass them. When their mind 
 has advanced sufficiently to receive impressions of a 
 higher order, they exhibit the signs of their ruling 
 passion, and even of an imperious and uncurbed will, 
 but not the usurping pride which would seize on 
 superior and unknown powers. But the company 
 and example of a person possessing this vice to which 
 they are strangers will soon communicate it to their 
 hearts. Following this simple analogy, we shall find 
 in proximity to the primitive man, and anterior to 
 him, a source of pride which opened the path to this 
 sin, in the absence of which he would either have 
 never known it, or it would not have been the be- 
 ginning of his fall. Hence the traditions which tell 
 
 1 On this point, and generally concerning the divine, spiritual, and 
 natural mirrors, see De V Esprit des Choses, i. 50-53. The conception is 
 a little fantastic, at least verbally, and does not require development.
 
 172 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 of a rebellious angel prior to humanity are borne out 
 by a simple revelation in the natural order, while the 
 key of their rebellion is found, like all keys, in the 
 same simple path of observation. If the existence 
 of these haughty and insubordinate beings can be 
 demonstrated by the facts of our childhood, reason 
 tells us that, to have an adequate occasion for such 
 pride, they must have abode in a region still more 
 alluring than that of the first man ; they must have 
 inhabited a decorated, garnished, and splendid region, 
 whilst man had to repair his own, or rather that 
 which was defiled by the fallen angels when their 
 mirror became tarnished. The more splendid this 
 angelic region, the closer were the angels in contact 
 with the unveiled principles of beauty, and there was 
 also the more room for the temptation to possess 
 them. But before their haughty cupidity could be 
 imputed to them for crime, the power to have sup- 
 pressed it must be assumed, and there was adequate 
 cause for this suppression, because at the back of the 
 wonders which they beheld there was an impenetrable 
 centre. They were thus themselves the source of this 
 ambition, and their fall was greater than that of man, 
 because the former began by a crime and the latter 
 by a seducing deception ; for the knowledge of man 
 was not at first so extensive as the angelic know- 
 ledge, though if it had come to maturity it would 
 have exceeded theirs because it would have comprised 
 the two. These natural considerations explain to us 
 why the traditions of the whole earth represent primi- 
 tive man passing through a period of trial in a garden 
 of delight, which was, however, but the beginning of 
 a perfection and embellishment which should have 
 extended over all the earth ; they offer us also the
 
 THE FALL OF MAN 173 
 
 key to the two original prevarications without having 
 recourse only to revelations for proof on these points, 
 as they are demonstrated sufficiently by what passes 
 daily before our eyes." ^ 
 
 It would be unjust to an influence, the existence 
 of which I have admitted, to say that there is here 
 no trace of Jacob Boehme ; it would be unjust to 
 Saint-Martin to say that what traces there are do 
 not confuse his system. I not only see what he has 
 borrowed, but I can understand why he borrowed it. 
 We have found the germ already in the "Natural 
 Table," but side by side with a doctrine which as- 
 signed such powers and splendour of vocation to 
 primeval man that it left him no room for weakness, 
 and hence no occasion for fall. Under the light 
 derived from Boehme he developed this germ, and 
 the one instruction, so to speak, checks the other 
 without being intended to supplant it. It does not 
 need to be said that there is no real elucidation, and 
 if the dilemma is not sharpened, it is because the 
 doctrine developed in the " Spirit of Things " stulti- 
 fies itself, much after the fashion of orthodox Latin 
 theology. If man in his first estate had the privi- 
 lege of contemplating the divine wonders, as it is 
 said, from a nearer point of view than the wonders 
 of the physical world, there is no hypothesis upon 
 which we can suppose that the tarnished kingdom of 
 the dethroned Lucifer could have seemed the more 
 attractive ; nor can we suppose that a being thus 
 in correspondence with Divinity partly unveiled could 
 in such light, and under such favours, have been 
 either weak or easily seduced. The same may be 
 said as to the original estate of the fallen angels, 
 
 ^ De V Esprit des Glioses, pp. 56-61.
 
 174 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 which was much too close, by the hypothesis, to 
 the centre and the heart of God for them to cease 
 from being drawn by that centre. 
 
 If we have recourse, in the midst of this con- 
 fusion, to those papers already cited, which were 
 written for and read apparently to a body of ini- 
 tiates, we shall find that Saint -Martin expressly 
 passes over the problem of the Fall on the ground 
 that his audiences had already more ample instruc- 
 tions than he could provide independently. So far 
 as those instructions are identical with the doctrine 
 of man's primeval mission, they offer a dazzling con- 
 ception, worthy, as I have said at the beginning, of 
 the designs of Providence, if we can admit these 
 materials ; but they leave man's lapse insoluble. 
 The alternative instructions, which he did not derive 
 from initiation, which are referable for their de- 
 velopment, but not their conception, to the German 
 mystic, are not only inadequate and arbitrary, but 
 are inconsistent with themselves, and would almost 
 justify us in regarding Saint- Martin's admiration 
 for Boehme as the mistake of his advancing years.
 
 IX 
 
 GENERAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL 
 
 In the doctrine of the first estate and in that of 
 man's lapse therefrom, we find in Saint-Martin, 
 amidst considerable agreement, a certain extra-lign- 
 ment, to make use of his own terminology. He was 
 in possession of a system which, though it has its 
 Gnostic correspondences, may be said to have been 
 unknown in mysticism, and he sought to marry it, as 
 he tells us,^ with that of Jacob Boehme, whose vast 
 glass of vision reflected the depth and height of the 
 entire universe, but was, I think, full of scoriae aud 
 blemishes. The nuptials were celebrated after a some- 
 what forced fashion, and the union was not a happy 
 one. Saint-Martin, moreover, had done most of his 
 best work. In the " Spirit of Things " we find him 
 on a lower level of illumination, approaching at times 
 even a commonplace philosophy, and though the 
 " Ministry of Man the Spirit " did much to redeem 
 the defects of that work, and well deserves the 
 encomium already passed thereon, it cannot be com- 
 pared with the " Natural Table," either for its philo- 
 sophical profundity or as a literary performance, nor 
 with the " Man of Desire " for the gifts of inspiration 
 and insight. We have now finished for the moment 
 with the metaphysical part of Martinism ; in con- 
 sidering the consequences of the traditionary fall of 
 
 1 Gorrespondance, Lettre xcii. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspondence," 
 P- 319-
 
 176 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 man, there is no longer extra-lignment in Saint- 
 Martin ; he is at one with all mysticism ; he is on 
 the solid ground of actual human experience ; he is 
 not endeavouring to dovetail hypotheses or to effect 
 marriages without the consent of the parties, who end 
 by defrauding one another. We are face to face, of 
 course, with a doctrine which is the antithesis of 
 materialistic evolution, though it does not exclude 
 evolution ; but it is, in any case, the catholic doctrine 
 of the mystics, common both to East and West. 
 
 Man, by the fact of his fall, has " entered into a 
 region of illusions and nothingness, which, by the 
 multiplicity of its laws and actions, presents in 
 appearance another unity than that of the Simple 
 Being, and other truths than His." ^ This statement 
 is the common ground of transcendentalism. It 
 receives, however, the peculiar aspect of Martiuism 
 when man is represented as passing under the 
 dominion of the physical agents whom he once 
 directed. " Uniting himself as a consequence of the 
 corruption of his will to the mixed substances of the 
 apparent and relative region, he is subjected to the 
 action of the different principles which constitute 
 them, and that of the different agents set over to 
 sustain them and to preside over the defence of their 
 law. These mixed substances produce only temporal 
 phenomena in their assemblage, hence time is the 
 chief instrument of the sufferings of man, and that 
 obstacle which keeps him remote from his Prin- 
 ciple." " In symbolical language, " the chains of the 
 first fallen man were composed of the extract of all 
 parts of the great world." ^ That is to say, " Man 
 
 ^ Tableau Nahirel, Part I. p. 80. ^ Ibid., p. loi. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 114.
 
 CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL 177 
 
 received being to exercise his power in tlie univer- 
 sality of temporal things, and he has willed to 
 exercise it only on a part. He should act for the 
 intellectual against the sensible, and he has chosen to 
 act for the sensible against the intellectual. Finally, 
 he should reign over the universe, but instead of 
 guarding the integrity of his empire, he has himself 
 degraded it, and the universe has collapsed upon the 
 powerful being who should administer and sustain it. 
 As a consequence of this fall, all the sensible virtues 
 of the universe, which should act in subordination to 
 man within the temporal circumference, have acted 
 in confusion upon him, and have compressed him 
 with all their force. On the contrary, all the intel- 
 lectual virtues with which he should work in concert, 
 which should present him a unity of operation, are 
 now divided for him and now separated from him. 
 What was simple and one has for him become 
 multiple ; what was multiple has become conglo- 
 merated, and has crushed him with its weight. The 
 sensible has taken the place of the intellectual, and 
 the intellectual of the sensible." ^ 
 
 The chief organ of our sufferings is the material 
 body, which constitutes a gross barrier to our faculties, 
 and thus keeps us in privation. " I must not conceal 
 that this crass envelope is the actual penalty to which 
 the crime of man has made him subject in the tem- 
 poral region. Thereby begin and thereby are per- 
 petuated the trials without which he cannot recover 
 his former correspondence with the light." " It is 
 not, therefore, as we shall see more fully later on, an 
 arbitrary penalty, but rather the narrow way of our 
 
 ^ Tableau Naturel, Part I, pp. 112-113. 
 2 Bes Erreurs et de la Verity, Part I. p. 48. 
 
 M
 
 178 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 salvation. The sufferings connected with it begin, 
 however, at the very moment of our corporeal birth. 
 " It thus exhibits all the signs of the most shameful 
 reprobation ; it originates, like some vile insect, 
 amidst corruption and mire ; it is born amidst the 
 sufferings and cries of its mother, as though it came 
 forth to her disgrace ; its breath is first drawn amidst 
 tears and in acute discomfort ; its earliest steps in life 
 show that it has come to suffer, and that it is truly 
 the son of crime and woe. On the contrary, had 
 man remained guiltless, his birth would have been 
 the first experience of felicity and peace ; he would 
 have greeted the light with transport and with hymns 
 to the principle of his beatitude. Undisturbed as 
 to the legitimacy of his origin, at peace as to the 
 stability of his lot, he would have partaken of all 
 delights, because he would have known sensibly their 
 advantages. But now, from the earliest years of his 
 elementary course, the disquietude of his situation 
 increases. He suffers at first in the body ; he is 
 destined to suffer in the mind. He has been the 
 butt of the elements before he had any power to 
 defend himself, and he is now hunted in his thought 
 before he can exert himself in the will, whence he is an 
 easy prey to error, w^hich wins entrance by a thousand 
 avenues, and corrupts his tree to its roots. At this 
 period assuredly man begins a career so painful and 
 so perilous that he would succumb infallibly if help 
 did not accompany his course. But the hand from 
 which he came spares nothing for his preservation ; 
 as difficulties multiply with his age, opposing the 
 exercise of his faculties, so his corporeal envelope 
 requires consistence ; in a word, his new armour har- 
 dens, so that it can resist the assaults of his enemies,
 
 CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL 179 
 
 until the intellectual temple being at length built 
 up, the scaffolding is required no longer, and its 
 removal discovers the edifice complete and impreg- 
 nable." ^ 
 
 I do not know that this picture has less force at 
 this day than it would have possessed at the period 
 of Ruysbroeck, who might well have been its author, 
 who has, in fact, written many pages which make it 
 read like a transcript from the Flemish mystic ; but 
 I do not quote it as specially illuminating ; like all 
 half-truths, it is perhaps more disconcerting than 
 helpful, but it shows the connection of Martinism 
 with ascetic Christianity ; and it is otherwise sug- 
 gestive to find in a book which was indexed by the 
 Spanish Inquisition a passage, and one out of many, 
 which might have been signed by the author of the 
 '* Imitation." I will connect with it one other which 
 will show the later reflections of Saint-Martin on this 
 subject. 
 
 " Observe what occurs in those accidents which 
 take place daily before our eyes. A man who falls 
 into the water, the slough, or the ditch, comes out 
 drenched, defiled, disfigured by the substances with 
 which he has come in contact, and he is sometimes 
 past recognition. It is worse still if he be cast into 
 the crater of a volcano or on sharp rocks, for he is 
 then burnt, or bruised and broken. Kecall now the 
 ancient beauty of man, the superior essences of his 
 original form as compared with his actual form. 
 Think of the corrosive elements which now consti- 
 tute Nature, so far removed from the harmonial and 
 vivific essences amidst which he first originated, and 
 in which he might have fixed his abode. Remember 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. pp. 47-48.
 
 i8o THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 also those proud and rebellious agents who preceded 
 man, and we shall then have those pointed rocks, 
 that water, that slime, those ditches, that volcanic 
 gulf — in fine, all those heterogeneous and hurtful ac- 
 tions with which the human soul has been connected 
 in its fall, which have so disfigured and polluted its 
 primitive and corporeal form that all its members 
 are broken, so to speak, and it offers no means of 
 recognition. For if we confess that man's primitive 
 object was the embellishment and perfecting of the 
 earth, and the manifestation of the splendour of his 
 principle therein, then that of the perverse power, 
 since it passed into corruption, was, on the contrary, 
 the degradation of all earthly forms, and especially 
 of man, who was sent to restore order, to check the 
 efforts of the evil principle, a task which, in the moral 
 order and that of the spirit, is, we feel, still ours. 
 We are conscious, furthermore, that this human form 
 which is now so soiled, so alloyed with contemptible 
 elements, is in no way analogous with ourselves, and 
 that after its use has ceased it cannot be concealed 
 too soon. Hence man is the sole animal who inters 
 his dead, a custom which also indicates the pre-emi- 
 nence of the primitive human form and the respect 
 which was due to it." ^ 
 
 The indication here given that man, in spite of 
 his fall, has not forfeited his mission, was developed 
 many years earlier by Saint-Martin when addressing 
 his fellow-initiates. "Notwithstanding his terrible 
 degradation,- the nature of man has not changed ; his 
 essence, his rights are the same, and hence his actual 
 destination must be, as it first was, to prove before 
 all that environs him the existence, unity, and divinity 
 
 1 Be V Esprit des Ghoses, i. pp. 71-73.
 
 CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL i8i 
 
 of one Supreme Agent ; in a word, to represent here 
 below all His acts and virtues. The first law given 
 to man must be accomplished inevitably, and no 
 snares to which we are liable will ever destroy it. 
 We may evade it for a time ; we may depart from it 
 by our vicious habits and our false, corrupted desires, 
 but in the midst of all our errors still that law follows 
 us, and we can never escape it.^ The double law of 
 our origin still possesses jurisdiction ; in our punish- 
 ment, as in our prime, we have still to honour the 
 Supreme Being and to perform his temporal work, 
 the restoration of unity. Herein is the true object 
 of wisdom, the real, solid, satisfying, fruitful end, 
 towards which the soul of man must strive unceas- 
 ingly, as to the sole nourishing sustenance and the 
 sole fruit wherein he need fear no bitterness.^ There 
 is nothing more important than the duties imposed 
 by this twofold law. The first of the objects with 
 which it is concerned explains itself. To honour the 
 Supreme Being is to regard Him as the one and 
 universal chief, to believe in no power but His and 
 that which derives from Him, to tremble at our own 
 nothingness compared with that infinite immensity, 
 which in the essence and in the fruits of its essence 
 suffers neither defects nor darkness, but creates and 
 maintains order and life everywhere. This object, 
 being love in the last analysis, is the attitude of pure 
 spirit ; it is that which has preceded all things and 
 whereby all shall finish, but in our existing condition 
 we have only its evanescent lights, which yet are 
 priceless, for they exhibit the delights of that prin- 
 ciple from which we derive and the inexhaustible 
 
 1 Les Votes de la Sagesse, (Euvres Posthumes, i. pp. 70-71. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 73-74.
 
 1 82 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 blessings which it showers on us ; it binds us thereto 
 by the indissoluble ties of our essence, and helps us 
 to pass without shipwreck through the floods which 
 inundate our terrestrial abode. Hence we must never 
 lose sight of it, and though our homage cannot be 
 compared with that which was rendered in our origin, 
 it is so indispensable that it cannot be withheld 
 without denying the Divine Nature and our own, or 
 without plunging us in the abyss of evil and sorrow.^ 
 " The second object, or the manifestation of the 
 Supreme Being before the eyes of our kindred and 
 those of the enemies of truth, is a confirmation and 
 extension of the first. By Himself must we manifest 
 Him, by His grandeur make Him known, recognising 
 His power in all, seeking in all things His true law, 
 and extending His honour by that which we our- 
 selves bear Him. This second object has therefore 
 two branches, to make us in His own image and to 
 lead His enemies to render Him due homage." Herein 
 His own power supplements our weakness, or rather 
 it is His own love which we represent when united 
 therewith, that living charity which makes us merciful 
 to each other in our miseries ; in a word, that true 
 earth which Wisdom, when it finds it prepared, sows 
 broadcast with all its gifts, and it becomes thus that 
 vast field where germinate those virtues of the Divine 
 Principle which we are all of us here to manifest." ^ 
 
 1 Les Votes de la Sagesse, (Euvres Posthumes, vol. i. pp. 76-78. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 79-80. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 83-84.
 
 X 
 
 MAN AND NATURE 
 
 The vocation of the mystic is pre-eminently to an- 
 nounce that there is an inward secret way by which 
 the soul of man can return to its Divine Source. It 
 is only in a secondary sense that his vocation is con- 
 cerned at all with the external world. It follows 
 from that fundamental axiom of all mystic science 
 which tells us that truth and reality are to be sought 
 within, that the things which are without are in some 
 sense illusory. The sense in which they are illusory 
 is the outward sense, beneath which we infer from 
 the veracity of God that there is a concealed prin- 
 ciple ; they are therefore not false testimony, but 
 parable, and Saint-Martin observes finely : " There is 
 not a people, and I may say there is not a man in 
 possession of his true self, for whom the temporal 
 universe is not a great allegory or fable which must 
 give place to a grand morality." ^ But the idealism 
 of the mystic must be distinguished from the false 
 idealism of the Berkeley school and its connections, 
 which derives its considerations from the phenomena 
 of the material world and breaks down at every step. 
 For example, it is no " argument against the existence 
 of matter" that colour is not a quality which is in- 
 herent in objects. The communication of the physical 
 world through the senses to the mind is performed 
 
 ^ Tableau Naturel, Part II. p. 207. 
 183
 
 1 84 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 by a variety of artifices. To say that there is no 
 truth in the artifices is merely crass, because it is 
 understood that they are vehicles ; they are commen- 
 surate to the extent of the communication which man 
 is at present capable of receiving ; to say that there 
 is no principle communicating is to talk distrac- 
 tion ; to say that the communicating principle, the 
 vehicles, and the mind which receives the messages 
 are bound up inseparably one with another, so that 
 the mind can receive no testimony except through the 
 senses, and can have no being when the senses cease 
 to transmit, is to be what is called a materialist — that 
 is to say, one who denies that the inner man is to be 
 distinguished from the man without, or is other than 
 the product of his environment. To say that the 
 communicating principle and the recipient principle 
 are realities having veiled intercourse, is to establish 
 a true doctrine as to the correspondence between man 
 and the universe. To say that there is another mode 
 of communication, and that with a higher principle, 
 possible to the man within, is to establish the mystic 
 correspondence between man and God. It is in 
 virtue of this correspondence that Saint-Martin terms 
 humanity the exotic plant of the universe, and it is 
 in this general sense that we must understand him 
 when he says that " sensible things, though void and 
 apparent only for the mind of man, have reality analo- 
 gous to his sensible and material being. Wisdom is 
 so fruitful that it establishes proportions in virtues 
 and realities relatively to each class of its produc- 
 tions. This is why there is a conformity, and even 
 an insurmountable law attached to the course of sen- 
 sible things, without which their action would be of 
 no efi'ect. Thus, it is true altogether for bodies that
 
 MAN AND NATURE 185 
 
 bodies exist and intercommunicate, and that there is 
 an indispensable commerce between all substances of 
 material nature. But it is true only for bodies, since 
 all material actions, operating nothing analogous to 
 the veritable nature of man, are in some sort, or may 
 be, foreign to him, when he wills to make use of his 
 forces and to draw near to his natural element. 
 Matter is true for matter, and never for spirit." ^ And 
 this leads up to his more explicit doctrine of the 
 natural world. "When God has recourse to such 
 visible signs as the universe to communicate his 
 thought, it is to employ them in favour of beings 
 separated from him. Had all beings remained in 
 his unity, they would not have needed this means to 
 draw towards him. The universe is therefore a sign 
 of God's love for corrupted creatures separated volun- 
 tarily from the First Cause and submitted to the laws 
 of justice in the womb of the visible universe. God 
 operates unceasingly to remove the separation so con- 
 trary to their felicity." " 
 
 The doctrine of Saint- Martin as to the connec- 
 tions between man and Nature is far too many-sided 
 to be represented by a mere definition. We know that, 
 according to his teaching, the physical universe was 
 the splendid habitation of the evil principle in its first 
 estate ; and that when it was destroyed by the rebellion 
 of the chief of the first emanation, it became part of 
 man's mission to restore it. Whether he attempted 
 this mission does not appear, but material things be- 
 came or remained sufficiently beautiful and wonderful 
 to prove, in connection with the evil principle, a source 
 
 1 Tableau Naturel, Part I. pp. 82-83. -^^^ elsewhere it is classed 
 as one of those substances which present in the sensible order all the 
 signs of reality while they have none at all for man's thinking part 
 (ii. 173). 2 Ibid., p. 40.
 
 1 86 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 of seduction to himself. By his fall he either failed 
 to remove the curse in which it was involved or it was 
 made subject to it for a second time. In any case, 
 as it looked to him at first, so it now looks to him for 
 its release and repose. There is no doubt that in a 
 certain sense the sin of man is the pain of Nature, 
 and we have high authority for the belief that even 
 the whole creation is groaning for the manifestation 
 of the sons of God. It is also mystically true that 
 the transfiguration of man's environment must pro- 
 ceed side by side with the transfiguration of man, and 
 even at this day the curse is lifted from the world 
 for every soul who ceases from evil.^ But it is almost 
 impossible to pass, as Saint-Martin does, from these 
 general considerations to their particular development 
 without entering a fantastic region. The first step 
 towards our assuagement of Nature must be, he says, 
 to cease from tormenting it; the first step towards heal- 
 ing it is to cease from infecting it further, as we now do, 
 not only by our corrupt corporeal exhalations, but still 
 more by the disease of our thoughts. " The earth 
 whereon we walk offers us all its pores like so many 
 mouths crying for consoling balm to cure the wounds 
 which devour it, and, instead of giving it rest and 
 life, we would appease its thirst with the blood of 
 men spilt in fanatical and warlike furies, even as the 
 atmosphere which surrounds us is filled with our dead 
 and death-bearing speech."" These are poetic exaggera- 
 tions which have no place in philosophy, mystical or 
 otherwise, but they may be tolerated poetically for 
 their suggestion. At times, moreover, through the 
 
 ^ " The wisdom and bounty of the Divine Being are manifested by 
 the birth of man into terrestrial life. He is thus placed in a position 
 to soothe by his labour and striving a part of the evils which the first 
 crime has caused on the earth." — Tableau Naturel, Part I. p. loo. 
 
 ^ Le Ministere de VHomme-Esprit, pp. 131-132.
 
 MAN AND NATURE 187 
 
 glamour, symbolism, and high colouring of such fan- 
 tastic pictures, we find something which is at least 
 conformable to more sane and serious doctrine. 
 
 " The universe is on its bed of sufiering, and it is 
 for us, men, to console it ! The universe is on its 
 bed of suffering because, since the Fall, a foreign 
 substance has entered into its veins, and torments 
 unceasingly the principle of its life ; it is for us to 
 bring it words of consolation which may encourage it 
 to bear up under its evils ; it is for us to proclaim 
 the promise of its deliverance and of the alliance 
 which the Eternal Wisdom shall yet make with it. 
 It is a duty and a justice on our part, for the head of 
 our family is the first cause of its sorrow, and we 
 must confess that it is we who have widowed it. Is 
 it not expecting ever the restoration of its spouse ? 
 Ah ! sacred sun, we indeed are the first cause of thy 
 disquiet and solicitude. Thine eager eye turns suc- 
 cessively upon all the zones of Nature ; thou dost 
 rise in joy each day, expecting that men will restore 
 thee that cherished bride, that eternal Sophia, of 
 whom thou art deprived ; thou fulfillest thy daily 
 course, imploring the whole earth, with ardent words 
 painting thy consuming desires. Thou retirest to thy 
 rest in the evening, afilicted and weeping, for thou 
 hast sought in vain ; thou hast asked in vain of man, 
 who still leaves thee to sojourn in barren places and 
 in houses of prostitution. 
 
 '* Man, the woe is still greater ! Say no more 
 that the universe is on its bed of suffering ; say, 
 rather, it is on its dying bed, and it is thine to fulfil 
 the final duties ; it is thine to reconcile it with that 
 pure source from whence it came, purging it from all 
 false substances with which it is now impregnated
 
 1 88 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 continually, and cleansing it from having passed all 
 the days of its life in vanity. Not thus would its 
 time have been misspent hadst thou remained on the 
 throne of thy first splendour, whence thou shouldst 
 have anointed it daily with an oil of joy which would 
 have preserved it from infirmity and sorrow, per- 
 forming for it what now it performs for thee in the 
 daily produce of the light and fruits of those elements 
 to which thou art subject. Draw nigh to it, there- 
 fore ; seek forgiveness for its death ; it is thou who 
 hast caused it. 
 
 " Man, the woe is still greater ! Say no more 
 that the universe is on its bed of death ; say, rather, 
 that it is in its sepulchre, that putrefaction has 
 claimed it, and thou art answerable. Except for 
 thee it would not have been brought to the tomb, it 
 would not have seen corruption. Thou art the tomb 
 thereof. In place of being the cradle of its perpetual 
 youth and beauty, thou hast buried it within thee as 
 in a grave, and hast clothed it with thine own putre- 
 faction. Inject quickly, by all its channels, the in- 
 corruptible elixir ; it is for thee to resuscitate it." ^ 
 
 Fantastic as this picture must seem, if we accept 
 the system of Saint-Martin it has a side of truth,'^ 
 and assuredly never poet or mystic has been haunted 
 before or since by such images in his ecstasy. So 
 also amidst all the voices of Nature, this thinker of 
 things unexpected, and yet too deep to be wholly 
 false, was oppressed by its dumbness, and speaks of 
 
 ' Le Mmistere de rifomvie-Esprit, -p-p. 55-57. 
 
 - The philosophical idea which underlies it had been expressed many 
 years previously. " Intellectual man, voluntarily reduced to an inferior 
 and limited class, must generate all his being and extend all its virtues 
 to the extremities of his particular environment, if he would return to 
 that universal and sacred environment from which he is banished."
 
 MAN AND NATURE 189 
 
 that privation as the chief source of its suffering. It 
 is in that state, he says, which men of the spirit have 
 termed vanity, because, being void and speechless, it 
 could mean nothing for them. " God alone is full, 
 God alone signifies everything, and that which does 
 not participate in the plenitude of his divine being 
 can show only the opposite of his universal properties. 
 They know, these men, that we cannot pray without 
 preparation — that is, until our atmosphere is filled 
 with speech, or, in its full sense, till speech be restored 
 to the universe. Deprived of this, it cannot take 
 part in prayer ; it is even an obstacle thereto, since 
 we can pray only in the midst of our brethren,"^ 
 Before we can pray freely we must lead back Nature 
 into joy by participating in her sufferings and co- 
 ordinating our actions with these. " Man finds 
 commonly a solemnity and majesty in solitary places, 
 clad with forests or watered by some vast river, and 
 these imposing pictures extend their empire upon 
 him when he contemplates them in the silence and 
 darkness of the night. But amidst such surround- 
 ings he may receive other impressions, showing the 
 true cause of that which we have designated by the 
 name of vanity. In effect, all Nature is like a dumb 
 being who depicts by motions, as best it can, the 
 principal wants which consume it, but, void of 
 speech, ever leaves its expression far below its desires, 
 and blends even with its gaiety some serious and 
 melancholy characteristics which are a check on our 
 own joy. Thus, amidst so many sublime objects we 
 feel that Nature is dejected at her enforced silence, 
 and a languor which is deeper than melancholy 
 succeeds our enthusiasm when this painful thought 
 
 1 Le Minister e de VHomme-Esprit, pp. 73-74.
 
 igo THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 possesses us. We comprehend intuitively that all 
 should speak, and the same intuition instructs us 
 that all should be fluid and diaphanous, that opacity 
 and stagnation are the radical causes of the silence 
 and weariness of Nature. For us it has, however, its 
 consolation, for us that silence is eloquent ; it is the 
 silence of sorrow, not of insensibility. The more we 
 observe Nature, the better we shall recognise that if 
 it have its times of sadness, it has also its times of 
 joy, and we only can discover and appreciate them. 
 It is conscious of a secret life circulating through 
 all its veins, and through us as an organ it waits the 
 accents of that speech which sustains it, and off'ers to 
 the enemy an insurmountable barrier. It seeks in 
 us the living fire which radiates from that speech, 
 and brings it through our mediation a saving balm 
 for all its wounds. It is even true that in a sense it 
 is only the terrestrial man who finds Nature silent 
 and weariful ; for the man of desire everything sings 
 in her, everything prophesies her deliverance in 
 sublime canticles. We must be therefore advised 
 that all must sing within man to co-operate in that 
 emancipation, so that all men on earth may be able 
 to say with us that everything sings in Nature." ^ 
 
 Inconsistency is the common error of enthusiasm, 
 but it will not disconcert the reader seriously when 
 he finds that the mystical silence of Nature is repre- 
 sented as the discovery first of the spiritual and 
 afterwards the mistake of the earthly mind. It is 
 not less true that Nature in the last analysis is dumb 
 for the soul of man, though, in a sense, it has music 
 for the soul ; it is also true that she is full of noise 
 and voices for the man of earth, and yet in the last 
 
 ^ Le Ministere de V Homme-Esprit, pp. 7S~77-
 
 MA.N AND NATURE 191 
 
 analysis she never speaks really to the earthly man. 
 The confusion of Saint-Martin is therefore in the 
 form only, and as this failing is frequent, he lends 
 himself seldom only to a literal presentation. I ob- 
 serve that in one line of the " Ministry " he has said 
 all that needs saying from the mystic standpoint 
 when he described Nature as " the portrait of an 
 absent person," ^ and he has put us in possession of 
 the key to all her phases when he says that she is 
 in somnambulism," and this explains why her aspect 
 is invariably what is termed magical, for the state of 
 somnambulism is the state of mediumship, and Saint- 
 Martin and Boehme both describe Nature in her visible 
 manifestation as the medium for her invisible and 
 fundamental properties. It is in this state of trance 
 that she is at once eloquent and silent ; she speaks 
 if man can interpret ; she is silent unless he prophe- 
 sies ; her voices are oracles, as becomes her somnam- 
 bulism, and for the explanation of the words of the 
 pythoness the presence of her priest is needed. 
 
 Having said something of the mystical aspect of 
 Nature as it was presented to the mind of Saint- 
 Martin, it is necessary to add that he regarded her 
 also scientifically, and that he had a system of natural 
 philosophy which depended from his metaphysical 
 system, but is at the same time so far extrinsic 
 thereto that I shall not derogate from the present 
 value of his metaphysics when I say that his physics 
 were absurd even for his period. I do not mean 
 that he has no clear sight and no just observations 
 on these matters, but he was not a man of any con- 
 siderable scientific attainments, and his views upon 
 
 1 Le Ministere de V Homme-Esprit, p. 82. 
 
 2 De I' Esprit dts Chases, i. 125, ti ieq.
 
 192 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 elementary substances,^ upon composite bodies," upon 
 the cause of thunder and lightning,^ of the flux and 
 reflux of the sea,' upon generation,'' destruction," and 
 so forth, are of the period of Robert Fludd rather 
 than of Laplace, Newton, and Bufi'on. Upon specu- 
 lative points he was sometimes shrewder than his 
 period, as, for example, about the divisibility of matter 
 to infinity,^ and sometimes it must be added that he 
 was narrower, as, for example, about the plurality of 
 worlds/ Speaking generally, his natural philosophy 
 was based on a priori considerations of a kind more 
 or less arbitrary, and it would serve no useful pur- 
 pose to notice it in any detail, much less to present 
 it critically, for it does not now deserve any serious 
 consideration. When he attacks the materialism of 
 his age, he is, of course, on surer ground, for he is 
 then dealing with fundamental principles, and what 
 he says, when it does not convince, is at least con- 
 sistent with his transcendentalism ; and I am not sure 
 that some of the points which he scores against those 
 who " explain matter by matter, man by the senses, 
 and the Author of all things by elementary Nature," ^ 
 are not as pointed now as when they were first sharp- 
 ened on the eve of the French Revolution. But we 
 are concerned here with the natural world only so far 
 as the essential doctrines of his metaphysical system 
 afiect it. We know that according to those doctrines 
 the evil principle has an active and continuous com- 
 
 1 Des .Erreurs et de la Verity, Part I. pp. 62, 127, and elsewhere. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 82, loi, 135, and elsewhere. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 140, et seq. * Ibid., p. 136. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 88 et seq. ^ Ibid., p. 92 et seq. 
 
 T Ibid., pp. 79-80. 
 
 8 Le Ministere de I' Homme- Esprit, i. 212-225 5 CEuvres Posthumes, 
 ii. 116 et seq. 
 
 8 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. pp. 70-71.
 
 MAN AND NATURE 193 
 
 munication with the universe, because he is respon- 
 sible for its disorder, and I infer also that it is the 
 place of his punishment or expiation. Outside the 
 class of temporal things evil cannot co-exist with the 
 Good Principle, and as it is impotent in relation there- 
 with, it cannot affect the essence of the material uni- 
 verse, but all things comprised " within the darksome 
 sphere where it is confined " are exposed to its action, 
 and it can and does " war with the agents of the 
 First Cause, creates obstacles to their action, and 
 introduces its rebellious operation into the minor 
 derangements of particular beings to augment the 
 disorder further." ^ The opposition of the two prin- 
 ciples is, however, " purely intellectual," and has its 
 source in their conflicting wills, though its effect is 
 felt in the sensible and corporeal." Following there- 
 from, Saint-Martin traces a law of dual action in all 
 created beings, " one side of which is fixed and im- 
 perishable w^hile the other is transitory, and hence 
 unreal for intelligence, though not for the bodily 
 eyes." '^ To recognise the action of this double law in 
 temporal things will, it is said, " assist us to distin- 
 guish it in ourselves, because he who is most discerning 
 in the judgment of bodies will soon arrive at discern- 
 ment in judging man." ^ The nature of the sequence 
 remains, however, in obscurity, but the double action 
 is described as attached to beings of the corporeal 
 order for their reproduction and nourishment.'^ 
 
 This obscurity, however, involves nothing of im- 
 portance, and need not delay us. There is indeed 
 only one more point in the physical system of Saint- 
 
 1 Tableau Nakirel, Part I. p. 27. 2 ibid^^ p_ y^^ 
 
 •^ Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. pp. 74-75. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 76. 6 ibid.^ p. 7^_ 
 
 N
 
 194 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Martin wliicli deserves to be noticed for its intrinsic 
 value. It is his distinction of the principle of matter 
 from matter itself, which recalls the old postulates 
 of the scholastic philosophy. This principle " cannot 
 be subjected to the measurement of bodily eyes." ^ 
 Were it matter, it must possess extension, and so 
 forth. " But it is acknowledged universally that a 
 principle is indivisible, incommensurable, absolutely 
 different from matter as presented to our senses. It 
 is, in a word, a simple being, while matter, which is 
 divisible and measurable, is not simple." ^ To the 
 confusion existing on the subject of the principle of 
 matter Saint -Martin refers the false conclusions, 
 already noticed, as to the infinite divisibility of 
 matter, " which, as regards its essence, cannot be 
 divided at all." ^ The form of matter is variable 
 unceasingly ; that of the principle remains always 
 the same,* a statement which includes apparently the 
 distinction between material and substantial form. 
 " Matter itself may perish, but its principle remains 
 unalterable and indestructible. It existed before 
 bodies, and can remain after them. The principle 
 of bodies may therefore be conceived apart from 
 every form of matter, no particle of which can at the 
 same time be conceived or exist unsustained or 
 unanimated by its principle." ^ 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la V&ite, Part I. p. 78. ^ Ibid., p. 79. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 81. 4 Ibid., p. 83. 5 Ibid., p. 85.
 
 XI 
 
 THE PRIVATION OF MAN 
 
 From tlie consideration of the general consequences 
 of the Fall, sketched in the eighth section, we have 
 learned already that the present state of man is one 
 of extreme privation. The Martinistic significance 
 of the term is exceedingly comprehensive ; it involves 
 much more than the loss of his original felicity, his 
 powers, his knowledge, his exalted place in the divine 
 economy ; it involves more than the limitations, the 
 narrowness, of our physical being, more than the 
 humiliation of lapse, the misery of degradation, the 
 woe of the darkness ; it involves the idea of a defence- 
 less, or at least a feeble state, the proximity of 
 enemies, the danger and dread of their assaults. 
 " Our thinking part is no sooner united to its form 
 than it is assailed and tormented." ^ In that union 
 there is comprised above all, as we have seen, the 
 idea of imprisonment. At the same time, our 
 durance constitutes our opportunity ; we are not 
 within dead walls so much as within a living for- 
 tress.' Still more, the body is not merely our ram- 
 part, it is the channel of our knowledge, and hence 
 also the way of our salvation. This is a point of 
 great importance in the system of Saint-Martin, 
 because it leads to his central doctrine concerning 
 
 ^ La Source de nos Connaissances et cle nos Idees, (Euvres Posthumes, 
 
 i- 357- 
 
 '^ Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. p. 48. 
 
 195
 
 196 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 the Active and Intelligent Cause — in other words, 
 the doctrine of the Repairer, which will be the study 
 of the next book. For a moment only it seems to 
 identify one of the most spiritual of the mystics with 
 a view which has in a special manner been connected 
 with the history of Materialism, for, in common with 
 Locke and his school, Saint-Martin virtually denied 
 the existence of innate ideas. At this day Mate- 
 rialism and Spiritualism have far other issues for 
 contention than were dreamed of in the " Essay on 
 the Human Understanding," and the source of our 
 knowledge and ideas is a question of academic rather 
 than real interest. But there are issues raised by 
 the standpoint of Saint-Martin which are not aca- 
 demic for the mystic, and the field of its observa- 
 tion begins on the skyline of Locke's horizon. The 
 ideas of man, he says, are derived to him from without 
 by the way of his material envelope, and the physical 
 senses are their first organs.^ He confesses that in 
 this sense our very thoughts are not our own ; they 
 are suggested to us, but do not arise within us. 
 The suggestion occasions, however, an interior act, 
 and the sentiment of thought is within and inde- 
 pendent of the senses."^ But to understand the 
 peculiar manner in which Saint-Martin refers the 
 origin of our ideas to sensations, we must glance at 
 his doctrine of the two natures in man ; we shall see 
 that he recognises the existence of an intellectual 
 sensibility, a twofold channel of communication, and 
 that the origin of our intellectual ideas is in reality 
 not material. " There is a sensible faculty relative 
 to the intellectual nature, and a sensible faculty 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la Verity, Part I. p. 49. 
 ^ Ibid., p. 151.
 
 THE PRIVATION OF MAN 197 
 
 relative to the corporeal nature ; " ^ in other words, 
 man has two beings. " He was not at the beginning 
 made subject to this assemblage ; he enjoyed the 
 prerogatives of a simple being, possessing all in him- 
 self, by reason of the precious gifts which he derived 
 from his principle. When the overwhelming sentence 
 was pronounced against him, of all these gifts there 
 remained only that shadow of liberty which resides 
 in his will, but this will is usually without force or 
 empire. By his union with a sensible being he was 
 reduced to an assemblage of two inferior causes, like 
 those which rule all bodies." ^ The similitude does 
 not, however, indicate equality, " for the object of 
 the two natures in man is more noble, and their pro- 
 perties are far different, but in regard to the act and 
 exercise of their faculties both are absolutely subject 
 to the same law, and the two inferior causes which 
 now compose man have no more inherent strength 
 than the inferior corporeal causes. Man, it is true, 
 as an intellectual being, has an advantage over the 
 animals because he is conscious of needs that are 
 unknown to them, but, like them, he is unable of 
 himself to minister to his needs, for as they cannot 
 give life to their own natures, so he cannot enliven 
 his intellectual faculties, and thus cannot dispense 
 with that Active and Intelligent Cause without 
 which nothing temporal can operate efficaciously. 
 His works of themselves have no value apart from 
 the support which can alone sustain them, and his 
 two natures are in perpetual yet ineffective struggle. 
 They may be compared to the two lines of any angle 
 which move in contrary directions, approach and 
 
 ^ Bes Erreurs et de la Ve'rite, Part I. p. 65. 
 2 Ibid., pp. 177-178.
 
 198 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 even coincide with one another, but can never pro- 
 duce an enclosed figure without the junction of a 
 third line to fix their instability, determine their 
 position, and distinguish them definitely from each 
 other." ^ But man is continually seeking to form an 
 enclosed figure, so to speak, with the two lines, and 
 has thus fallen into many deplorable follies, especially 
 the Materialistic system of sensations, which brings 
 him to the level of the beasts, suggests that all 
 things are indifferent in nature, and that he is hence 
 irresponsible. In virtue of his dual nature he does 
 possess ideas which do not derive from the senses, 
 as, for example, those of law, order, and harmony. 
 These, at the same time, are not of his own creation ; 
 thought comes to him, it does not originate within 
 him ; he has its germ or principle, but it must be 
 fertilised from without ; once fertilised, the germ 
 develops. From this Saint-Martin concludes that 
 " independently of the universal creative faculties of 
 sensible nature, there exist outside man intellectual 
 and thinking faculties analogous to himself and pro- 
 ducing thoughts within him." "' As a fact, there are 
 two such sources, one of which is the evil principle ; 
 the other is "a thinking universal force, having a 
 liberty which diff'ers essentially from those of other 
 beings, because it is itself its own law. From this 
 being all existences emanate continually, and it is 
 what men call God." ^ From this first fount of truth 
 our intellectual part receives incessantly both its 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la Verity, Part I. pp. 17S-179. 
 
 2 Tableau Naturel, Part I. p. 13. 
 
 ^ Tableau Naturel, p. 1 5. This statement should be compared with 
 p. 140, to which it gives the key. "When beings turn criminal, they 
 are really separated from the Divine Chief by privation of the exercise 
 of their faculties ; and though the virtue of the Creator is communi-
 
 THE PRIVATION OF MAN 199 
 
 thoughts^ and the light which enlightens it, for "in 
 the intellectual order it is the superior which nourishes 
 the inferior, while in the physical order it is the 
 inferior which sustains the superior." " While we 
 are passive in so far as we are open to impressions 
 received in the physical order, and to the two kinds 
 of intellectual communication distinguished above, 
 we have the power of examination, adoption, and 
 rejection. In a word, we can judge and discern 
 between good and evil, in which sense the soul is 
 superior to thought because it can pronounce thereon, 
 and is thus in possession of that liberty which is 
 " the faculty within us by which we are enabled to 
 fulfil the law imposed on us or to act in opposition 
 to that law." ' 
 
 cated to them, if, on account of their corruption, nothing can be returned 
 to Him, they remain in the darkness and death destined for all creatures 
 of falsehood and error." 
 
 1 Subject, however, to a certain sensible modification, which is not 
 clearly described, but is connected by Saint-Martin with the origin of 
 primitive natural signs. — Tableau Naturel, i. 224. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 23. ^ Ibid., p. 14.
 
 XII 
 
 IMMORTALITY AND DEATH 
 
 A SYSTEM like that of Saint-Martin must not be 
 expected to concern itself with the immortality of 
 the soul in the sense of offering a demonstration, 
 philosophically speaking, of an immortal part in man. 
 The system supposes immortality as it supposes God ; 
 it represents man as occupying originally a spiritual 
 state and invested with spiritual splendour. There 
 is no real question as to whether he will live after 
 death ; the one question is how he may live now in 
 order after death, and in a measure before it, to 
 ensure his return to the true life and glory of 
 the spirit. Incidentally, however, we shall find the 
 abstract question is touched upon once or twice, 
 when it is worth noting that the appeal is not to 
 psychological experiences, the inferences from theurgic 
 phenomena, the proof palpable of immortality so- 
 called. Saint-Martin is content to rest it on con- 
 siderations borrowed from his philosophy and reflec- 
 tions on the nature and aspirations of man. Man 
 derives from an indestructible source ; he has not the 
 same originating principle as matter ; he has been 
 generated by unity, " which possesses in itself and 
 also communicates to its productions a total and inde- 
 pendent existence. It can extend or contract their 
 faculties, but cannot cause their death, because its 
 works are real, and that which is can never cease to 
 be. Matter, on the other hand, is the product of a
 
 IMMORTALITY AND DEATH 201 
 
 secondary principle, subordinate to the first, and its 
 continuation depends upon their mutual action." ^ 
 Here is the dogmatic statement which, for Saint- 
 Martin at least, is final, because it is based on his 
 fundamental principles. The argument from human 
 ambition, from human aspiration, from human desire 
 of immortality, from the hunger and thirst after 
 fame, which has been presented so often, but is 
 withal so uncertain in its grasp, did not impress him 
 as it commonly stands and falls in metaphysical dis- 
 cussions, but he takes us through it into the higher 
 field of its application. 
 
 If we are made in the image of God, it follows 
 that in God there must be a sacred heart and spirit, 
 but they are so united that they form one only, like 
 all the faculties and powers of this sovereign being. 
 Our rights also extend to the establishment of an 
 indissoluble alliance between spirit and heart, by 
 their union in the principle which has made them. 
 It is, in fact, on this indispensable condition that we 
 can hope only to fashion ourselves anew into the 
 likeness of God, as it is in working to this end that 
 we become confirmed in the mournful conviction of 
 our degradation, and yet in the sublime certitude of 
 our superiority to the external order. Furthermore, 
 in this labour we obtain the inexpressible advantage 
 not only of removing by degrees our privation, but 
 of approaching and enjoying substantially what men 
 who are eager for glory denominate immortality ; for 
 the vague desire of the Children of the Flood to live 
 in the remembrance of others is the feeblest and 
 ftilsest of all those which are employed vulgarly in 
 favour of the dignity of the human soul. Albeit 
 
 ^ I)es Erreurs et de la Ve'rite, Part I. p. 86.
 
 202 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 that man is spirit, that in all his acts, regulated or 
 disordered, he has ever a spiritual motive of some 
 kind, and that in his productions he works by the 
 spirit and for the spirit, he is, notwithstanding, filled 
 with this desire of immortality only by a motive of 
 self-love, by the feeling of superiority over others, 
 and by anxiety for admiration, the idea of which 
 always moves and impresses him, and in the absence 
 of which his eagerness and its fruits frequently run 
 a risk of diminishing. We may therefore be assured 
 that such a motive rests rather on an itching after 
 immortality than on a veritable conviction, and the 
 proof is that those who follow it are those commonly 
 who have only temporal works to offer towards its 
 realisation. Possessed of a true conviction of immor- 
 tality, they would seek rather to labour in and for the 
 true God, and would prove by their own self-oblivion 
 the authenticity of this conviction. At the same 
 time their hopes to abide in immortality would not 
 be deceived, because they would then be sowing in a 
 field where they would be sure of reaping. Working 
 in time only, sowing only in the minds of men, part 
 of whom will make haste to forget their works, while 
 the rest may have never known them, is the most 
 unlikely and clumsy way of securing, as they deem, 
 immortality. Were we willing to reflect a little, we 
 should find proofs of our immortality on every hand. 
 We have only to consider, for example, the habitual 
 famine in which man leaves his spirit, and yet it is 
 not extinguished. It is self-stifled, bewrayed, de- 
 livered to errors ; it turns to evil, it turns to mad- 
 ness, it does wrong in place of right, and still it does 
 not perish. Did we treat our bodies with the same 
 bad skill and neglect, if we left them to fast so
 
 IMMORTALITY AND DEATH 203 
 
 hardly, they would do neither good nor evil ; they 
 would do nothing ; they would die. 
 
 " Another way of discerning at least the index of 
 our immortality is to realise how, in every respect, 
 man here below walks daily on the edge of his grave, 
 and it can be only by some instinct of his immortality 
 that he seeks to rise superior to this danger, living 
 as if it did not exist. Such carelessness is in itself 
 a sign that he is actually filled with this conviction. 
 Speaking spiritually, his risk is still greater, for he is 
 ever on the verge of being engulfed by the deathless 
 source of falsehood. May it not indeed be affirmed 
 that very many of humanity are walking in their 
 grave itself, too blind to attempt to get out, or to 
 ask if they will ever escape it ? When any one of 
 them has the happiness to perceive what they are 
 all doing, he has then a most irresistible spiritual 
 proof of immortality, because he has proof spiritual 
 of his dire mortality, and, figuratively speaking, of 
 his death, the torment and horror of which he could 
 never feel had he not at the same time an energetic 
 conviction of his immortality. This kind of proof is, 
 however, a question of experience, and is one of the 
 first fruits of the labour of regeneration ; for if we 
 feel not our spiritual death, how should we dream of 
 invoking life ? " ^ 
 
 The issue is exceedingly clear and reasonable 
 within its own lines. Regeneration is a supernatural 
 experience which is possible only to the immortal 
 spirit ; to those who have passed through it the 
 question of immortality is idle ; to those who have 
 not passed through it there is no real evidence pos- 
 sible. This is why Saint-Martin did not appeal to 
 
 ^ Le Ministere de VHomme-Esprit, pp. 16-20.
 
 204 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 proof palpable and " spirits before our eyes," and this 
 is why the strongest " test-cases " of spirit return 
 have so little result in the spiritual order for those 
 who are satisfied as to their character, which will 
 help us also to understand that those of whom it was 
 said that they would not believe though one should 
 rise from the dead were not represented as willingly 
 and perversely obstinate so much as deficient. 
 
 The state of the soul after death is another ques- 
 tion, the answer to which is rather thinly sketched 
 in the writings of Saint-Martin, though he has much 
 here and there to observe upon the transition of man 
 itself. The key to his reticence is, I think, not far 
 to seek. His books, like his life, were devoted to the 
 way of reintegration. Man could recover his lost 
 estate and glory ; he could restore the broken circle 
 of his life ; he could go back upon the dreary history 
 of the sin which first taught him the bitter knowledge 
 of good and evil ; he could so live that he should 
 lose the consciousness of evil,^ and yet be stronger 
 for having passed through it. The one thing needful 
 to know was the right way to set about it ; the one 
 thing needful to do was to start about it at once. 
 There was no time for side issues, even if they were 
 not idle. But, so to speak, he relents now and then ; 
 he speaks of death ; he tells us that, for himself, he 
 adores it ; ^ he asks poetically, perhaps I should say 
 hyperbolically, whether it still exists, whether bodily 
 disease can be accounted anything by the sage ; it is 
 only an act of time ; " what correspondence can it 
 have with the man of eternity ? " ^ We should have 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. p. 21. 
 
 ^ Portrait Historique, CEuvres Posthumes, i. m. 
 
 ^ Pensees sur la Mort, ibid., p. 144.
 
 IMMORTALITY AND DEATH 205 
 
 no notion concerning it were it not for the sentiment 
 of immortality with which it contrasts. And then 
 the old ascetic feeling, upon the verge of which the 
 mystic is always standing, comes over him for a 
 moment, and he says that " the wise man should 
 have the moral knowledge of his individual death. 
 He should follow it in all its details ; he should see 
 himself dying, since his personal eternity beholds all 
 which passes for him in time." But it is not for the 
 reason of the ascetic, namely, to conquer the fear of 
 death ; it is that he may " fulfil worthily the im- 
 portant task of his life, without which he dies in the 
 dark and without knowing it, like the beasts or the 
 Children of the Flood. The sole evil which we can 
 experience on the part of death is to die before being 
 born ; for those who are born before dying, death is 
 henceforth only an advantage." ^ 
 
 The gift of Saint-Martin impressed on all subjects 
 which he handled the seal of his peculiar originality. 
 Thus, he tells us in this connection that " death and 
 misfortunes place man under the hand of God's 
 justice, and it is for this reason that manes and the 
 unfortunate are to be respected." ^ Was it some 
 sub-conscious sentiment of this kind which made old 
 ceremonial magic direct that the demons, when they 
 responded to evocation, should be received with the 
 honour due to kings ? That the victims of the 
 greater divine vengeance are the more sacred, and it 
 was piety and not devil-worship to recognise it ? 
 Sometimes, however, the same gift, because it was 
 so peculiar, and because it M^as a seeing sense which 
 beheld correspondences so far removed from the usual 
 
 1 Pensees sur la Mod, CEuvres Posthiirnes, vol. i. p. 144. 
 - CEuvres Posthuvies, i. 311.
 
 2o6 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 field of analogy, led Saint-Martin to statements which, 
 even from the mystic standpoint, have a hazardous 
 aspect. Thus he tells us that the moment and mode 
 of our death can and ought to be known to us. *'Were 
 man constantly occupied in life by imbuing his spirit 
 with light and truth, he would know the time and 
 manner of his death, because spirit is the universal 
 torch of matter, and the man who is deprived of this 
 knowledge is a corrupted being." ^ To know how to 
 die we must learn how to live ; if we have acquired 
 that knowledge, the mode and disposition of our death 
 will be assured already, and in this sense it is known 
 to us beforehand ; its accidents are unimportant," and 
 though the history of premonitions may warrant the 
 possibility, it is not of great service spiritually. Let 
 us rather agree with Saint-Martin in the closing words 
 of the paper which develops this statement. " The 
 wise man who is convinced that this world is only a 
 translation of the unseen world must rejoice and not 
 grieve when the time comes to make acquaintance 
 with the original, because it is a general truth that 
 originals are preferable to translations."^ 
 
 ^ De V Esprit des Glioses, ii. 45. 
 
 2 " Death is merely the quitting of an appearance, that is to say, 
 of the body, or rather it is relinquishing a nothingness. There is an 
 illusion the less between man and truth. Ordinary men believe that 
 they are afraid of death, but it is life of which they are in dread." — 
 Tableau Naturel, pt. i. p. 84. 
 
 •' Ibid., p 50.
 
 XIII 
 
 THE vSTATE AFTER DEATH 
 
 The doctrine of Saint-Martin as to the state succeed- 
 ing death differs so little from that of occult science 
 that Eliphas Levi may be said almost to have trans- 
 lated it. " Like those globules of air and of fire which 
 escape from corporeal substances in dissolution, and 
 rise with more or less quickness according to the 
 degree of their purity and the extent of their action, 
 we cannot doubt that at their death men who have 
 not permitted their proper essence to amalgamate 
 with their earthly habitation will approach rapidly 
 their natal region, there to shine, like stars, with 
 dazzling splendour ; that those who have alloyed 
 themselves partly with the illusions of this tene- 
 brous abode will traverse with less speed the region 
 which separates them from life ; and that those who 
 have identified themselves with the impurities which 
 surround us will remain buried in darkness and 
 obscurity until the least of their corrupted substances 
 be dissolved, and bear away with them an impurity 
 which cannot cease till they themselves have 
 finished," ^ The last clause is perhaps intentionally 
 obscure, but it will be seen that this is a theory of 
 progress and a doctrine of eternal hope. The con- 
 dition of the evil liver is dwelt upon more particu- 
 larly in another passage. " Impure men may be 
 separated from their physical bodies without being 
 
 ^ Tableau Naturel, Part I. p. m. 
 207
 
 2o8 TPIE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 detached also from their sensible souls" — i.e., the 
 astral part of occultists. " If their bodies, though 
 real for other bodies, be apparent only for intellectual 
 beings, they must be after deliverance from this 
 present body what they were whilst imprisoned 
 therein. The death of that body does not change 
 their intellectual situation. The poisons which may 
 have diseased them infect them still ; they may 
 still experience impressions relative to those objects 
 opposed to their being with which they have been 
 identified in life ; they may nourish themselves with 
 tastes and aff"ections which appeared to them innocent 
 in life, but, unable to offer them a solid and true end, 
 leave their being inactive and in nothingness. All 
 these foreign substances become the torment of the 
 guilty." ' 
 
 To these statements Saint-Martin adds his clearest 
 and most important dictum on the subject of escha- 
 tology. "To give additional weight to these truths, 
 I will say that at death the criminal remain under 
 their own justice, that the wise are under the justice 
 of God, and the reconciliated are under His mercy. 
 But that which forbids us to pronounce upon the 
 measure in accordance with which these difi'erent acts 
 operate, or upon their dififerent numbers of time, is 
 that justice does not work alone, that there are other 
 virtues in combination therewith which cease not 
 to direct its action towards the greatest good of 
 creatures, which is their return to the light." ^ 
 
 On one occasion alone does he refer in express 
 terms ^ to the possibility of probation on the other 
 
 1 Tableau Nahirel, Part I. pp. 97-98. ^ Ibid., p. 112. 
 
 3 The indirect indications are numerous as to the grounds of hope 
 beyond the grave. It inheres, for example, in the following passage
 
 THE STATE AFTER DEATH 209 
 
 side of life, and the consolation, if such it may be 
 deemed, is for the lesser measures of humanity. 
 " Men who live only on the surface have only little 
 afflictions and trivial enjoyments ; they are consoled 
 as soon as afflicted, and afflicted as quickly as con- 
 soled. They are only images of men. Hence it is 
 necessary that their life shall recommence when they 
 shall have quitted this visible and apparent region, 
 because they have failed to live during the period 
 when they were passing through it, and it is this 
 prolongation of time which will be their torment, 
 because the combination of their substances will not 
 be in so sweet and harmonious a measure as in this 
 world, where everything is in the proportions of 
 mercy and salvation." ^ Allowing for differences of 
 terminology, there is perhaps, fundamentally speak- 
 ing, little difference between the conception of this 
 painful probation and the purgatorial state of Chris- 
 tian theology, through which " some Christians shall 
 be saved, yet so as by fire." " And this being so, it 
 
 concerning sacrifice partly accepted. " This last sacrifice " — that is, 
 death — " is the true holocaust which man owes to Divine Justice as an 
 atonement for the prevarication of Adam. Therein death finds its 
 nothingness, and the glory of the just is shown in all the pomp of a 
 victor. This holocaust must be pi^epared by all the acts of man's cor- 
 poreal life ; without this the victim is soiled and disfigured, and the 
 priest, finding it irregular, will either not off'er it on the altar, or ivill 
 ■pour on it onhj a small portion of that holy oil made use of in the sacri- 
 fices of the old law to foreshow the future unction which would be 
 poured one day by the great High Priest on all victims who have re- 
 mained in the purity of the law." — Traite des Benedictions, CEuvres 
 Posthumes, ii. 191. 
 
 ^ Portrait Historique, CEuvres Posthumes, i. 57. 
 
 - There is, however, this distinction, that the state of purgatory, as 
 it is vulgarly imderstood, is not a state of probation through which 
 the imperfect soul passes to find an opportunity of improvement ; it is 
 a state of mechanical punishment, founded on the crass notion that 
 there is good per se in suffering. The use of suffering is in its lessons, but 
 purgatory is provided only for souls who are no longer in need of lessons, 
 

 
 2IO THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 becomes necessary to record liow the vulgar presenta- 
 tion of eschatological doctrine impressed Saint-Martin. 
 Speaking of the punishment of privation to which 
 man and the evil principle have alike become subject, 
 and dwellin^r on the mao;nitude of that misfortune, 
 he observes : " The pretension to lead us towards 
 wisdom by an affrighting picture of corporeal pains 
 in the life to come is a great error ; such pictures are 
 of no effect in the absence of actual experience, and 
 our blind masters, unable to communicate a notion of 
 the torments they imagine, exercise but little influ- 
 ence. They would have enlightened and sustained 
 men by impressing on them that we have only 
 one thing to dread, and that is the loss of the love of 
 our principle, for without this we are in the void, 
 and assuredly that nothingness, if depicted in all its 
 horror, would be a more saving and efficacious con- 
 ception than those eternal tortures to which, despite 
 the doctrine of these ministers of blood, man always 
 sees an end and never a beginning." ^ To be per- 
 
 because by the hypothesis they have acquired already the universal 
 science of salvation. Another distinction is involved in Saint-Martin's 
 idea, that the second chance is harder, for which I confess that I do not 
 see the foundation. It seems more merciful to think that in the great 
 school of the universe those who fail in examination will be sent down 
 to a lower form. The mystic, however, develops this distinction in 
 another place. " Having rallied within him the intellectual forces 
 proper to him, man has still to multiply those forces, reuniting them 
 to others which are outside him. Should the opportunity afforded for 
 the accomplishment of this labour elapse in vain, a second, more con- 
 siderable and painful, is needed, for his task is now doubled. If he 
 still fail to fulfil it, a third, even more rigorous, is dispensed to him, 
 and so of the rest, without the possibility of fixing any term to his 
 evils than that which he may fix himself by sacrificing all the virtues 
 which are in him. If he keep each a part of the holocaust, those who 
 receive it will retain a part of the recompense, until he submits to 
 paying without reserve a tribute which he can render efficacious and 
 complete only by the devotion of his entire being." — Tableau Naturel, 
 Part I. pp. 122-123. 
 
 ^ Des Errcurs et de la Verite, Part I. jjp. 45-46.
 
 THE STATE AFTER DEATH 
 
 21 I 
 
 fectly just towards the poor blind masters, who 
 perhaps did their best in the darkness, if they were 
 really apart from the light, it seems right to point 
 out that no Church more eloquently than that of 
 Rome li^s ever indicated to man that God's love was 
 everything and its loss all loss. These matters are 
 now indifferent ; their consideration, I mean, involves 
 now no heat of feeling, and it is easy to be impartial 
 at this day — much easier, no doubt, than in that of 
 Saint-Martin, whom we may exonerate at once from 
 any illiberal intention. 
 
 For the rest, he leaves, as the keenest and best 
 among us are reduced to do in the end, our eternal 
 issues in the hands of the Eternal ; upon the worst of 
 man's notions concerning them man has already 
 done his best, but we are not in reality any nearer 
 to the haven because we have scuttled some bad old 
 crafts on the deep sea. Here, also, I think that we 
 can understand why Saint-Martin would have been 
 silent supposing that he had been empowered to 
 speak. Whether man has a chance of reforming in 
 the future is a dangerous question ; we must hope 
 and believe it for others, but must never admit it 
 for ourselves ; it is a check on diligence when it is 
 not a source of more overt temptation. We must 
 rather say with Saint-Martin, that " to determine 
 our tribute and labour we have only the moment of 
 our corporeal life, and that this shapes our des- 
 tinies ; " ^ within the space of our waking and sleep- 
 
 ^ Tableau Naturel, Part I. p. 124. And yet it is all subject to tlie 
 larger hope. " If the essential and primitive nature of man have elected 
 him to be the image and expression of the virtues of the Great Prin- 
 ciple, and if beings are indestructible by their nature, though their 
 accidents may be liable to alter and even to perish, man cannot eradicate 
 the law and the convention which constitute him, while the means of 
 operating their fulfilment must always remain to him." — Ibid., i. 138.
 
 2 12 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 ing lies concealed the whole scheme of eternity. In 
 his own words, which read like a writing of yester- 
 day, so modern is their accent, this moment " is the 
 matrix of the future man, and in the same way that 
 corporeal beings bear and conserve on this earth the 
 form, sex, and other signs which they have drawn 
 from the womb of their mother, so will man carry 
 into another sphere the plan, structure, and manner 
 of being which he has fixed for himself here below." ^ 
 The illustrations of Saint-Martin are sometimes a 
 little inapplicable, but there is one in this connec- 
 tion on "the title of our admission into the future 
 regions" which I cannot resist quoting, because it 
 seems to me quite perfect in its fantasy. "We can- 
 not obtain a seat in our theatres unless we have 
 taken the precaution to secure a ticket which admits 
 us. This ticket is issued only under the seal of the 
 manager ; furthermore, unless we book our seats in 
 advance, we risk being crushed in the crowd which 
 is gathered at the doors waiting for tickets to be 
 issued ; there is even the chance that we may not 
 get a seat at all. This emblem, altogether tem- 
 poral and terrestrial, instructs us that we are here 
 below for the purpose of purchasing a title of ad- 
 mission to the divine festivals ; that if we neglect 
 the precaution to secure this title, we shall assuredly 
 not enter into that gathering of delight and re- 
 joicing ; that we must not put off till the last 
 moment this needful piece of prudence, having re- 
 gard to the inconvenience to which such delay may 
 expose us ; that this precaution is the more easy to 
 take because dep6ts for the sale of tickets are to be 
 found everywhere ; that we are, hence, inexcusable 
 
 1 Tableau Naturel, i. 124.
 
 THE STATE AFTER DEATH 213 
 
 if we do not provide ourselves accordingly ; that 
 these titles to admission are not transferable, like 
 those of our theatres, because our name is written on 
 them ; that there can be no double-dealing, because 
 the names are called out by the manager ; and that 
 we must be, therefore, well on our guard against 
 deceivers who offer forged tickets of admission, 
 which carry no title, whatever vogue the vendors 
 may seek to procure for them." ^ 
 
 I should add that Saint-Martin gave an answer 
 after his own manner to the recurring question con- 
 cerning recognition and reunion in a future state. 
 He concludes that we shall recognise each other not 
 according to our material and actual figures, which 
 indeed are laid aside, but according to the figures 
 of the non-material order, following the analogies 
 formed in our present bodies ; that we have, there- 
 fore, a great joy and a great hope, " because it is 
 within our actual power to determine our future 
 bonds and recognitions by sowing here below in our 
 souls and in the souls of those around us the germs 
 of all the real blessings and pure pleasures which 
 will then attract us." "' 
 
 The eschatology of the evil principle remains 
 for consideration in this place. We have seen that 
 the leader of the first emanation fell irretrievably so 
 far as any personal efi'orts of his own are concerned, 
 and that there is one, therefore, who is indefinitely 
 more unfortunate than ourselves. To reproduce a 
 previous image of Saint-Martin, though it must be 
 confessed that it is a little confused, " not only is he 
 ever walking in his own grave ; not only is he 
 
 ' De VEsprit des Choses, ii. pp. 61-62. 
 
 - Cf. the " arch-natural body " of occultism.
 
 214 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 ignorant that he is doing so, because a ray of light 
 would be required to perceive it ; but in approach- 
 ing this abyss we become conscious that he is in a 
 continual dissolution and corruption,^ that he dwells 
 perpetually in the evidence and effective sentiment 
 of his own death ; that he can never conceive the 
 slightest hopes of being delivered therefrom, and 
 that thus his greatest torture is the knowledge of 
 his immortality." " Man, on the other hand, can 
 work out his own salvation ; he has not lost the 
 knowledge of good ; he is in extra-lignment, but not 
 denaturalised ; he is still a " mystic citizen of the 
 eternal kingdom," in exile, but not an outlaw. I 
 must not say that it appears clearly in Saint-Martin 
 how this distinction came about. It is advanced 
 that man was punished by a father, but the father- 
 hood of God is not confined to humanity ; he has 
 sheep which are not of this fold. It is said also that 
 man's crime and that of the evil principle are 
 equally the fruit of their evil will, but that at the 
 same time there is a great difference between the 
 nature of the two trespasses. An affirmation, how- 
 ever, is not an explanation, nor is there any definite 
 assistance from the further statement that the scenes 
 differed. It remains, however, that " man and the 
 evil principle have their sin ever before their eyes, 
 but each has not the same succours or the same 
 consolations." ^ 
 
 Setting this aside, and recurring to the original 
 mission of man prior to his captivity, we have seen 
 
 1 In which the " superior virtues " would appear to assist, so as to 
 put an end to the evil and misery. Tableau Naturel, i. 139. 
 
 2 Le Ministdre de I' Homme- Esprit, pp. 20-21. 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la V&it^, Part I. p. 44.
 
 THE STATE AFTER DEATH 215 
 
 that its final end was the restoration of harmony to 
 the universe, and that in this mission the reintegra- 
 tion of the prince of evil was included as essential to 
 the scheme. We have seen that there was a mission 
 of chastisement prior to that of reunion ; we have 
 seen how the divine scheme was frustrated for the 
 moment by the junction of primeval man with the 
 leader of the first emanation to his own woe and the 
 aggravated doom of the tempter ; we have seen, 
 finally, that the eternal laws cannot fail of their 
 fulfilment ; that hence the mission of humanity is 
 not voided, nor has the resipiscence of the evil prin- 
 ciple become hopeless. The nature of the chastise- 
 ment which man is still required to inflict is indicated 
 by the nature of the respite which the evil principle 
 alone tastes in his torment. The sin of man is the 
 ease of the fallen spirit, but it is an ease purchased 
 by further and fiercer sufiering ;^ so also the union of 
 man with his true principle is the loss and pain of 
 evil, but it is a stripping and scourging which hastens 
 the day when the ground of reconciliation may be laid. 
 The material creation is the scene of the punishment 
 of prevaricators, whether human or extra-human, and 
 this punishment has brought into operation a law 
 which acts not only on the spiritual agents charged 
 with the direction of material things but also on the 
 divine emanations ; its action is opposed to the sim- 
 plicity and unity of their nature, and is " a necessary 
 consequence of the horrible scandal which the prevari- 
 cation of perverse spirits has occasioned throughout 
 the hierarchy of spiritual beings, because the fallen 
 natures are themselves spiritual, and thus could not 
 depart from their law without the entire spiritual 
 
 ' Le Ministere de VHomvie-Esprit, p. 1 1 .
 
 2i6 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 circle being set in action to make them feel the 
 effects of the divine justice they had braved, and to 
 reintegrate them in their law by the laborious and 
 painful ways which that justice cannot dispense with 
 employing,"^ The dissolution of matter which will 
 take place at the end of time will " restore to all 
 these beings the free exercise of the laws of their 
 first nature,"' and it will give back to the enslaved 
 prevaricators the light of which they are deprived by 
 the powers of material darkness ; it will " abridge 
 that servitude by restoring their first principles of 
 divine virtue to the just, who now pay tribute to 
 eternal justice in the shadow of their reconciliation, 
 and preparing for the like reconciliation those im- 
 pious beings whose visitation will, however, be still 
 more severe after the destruction of matter."^ In 
 a word, it will re-establish universal harmony by 
 "returning all things to unity. "^ 
 
 This dissolution is termed by Saint-Martin the 
 reintegration of matter. The reintegration of hu- 
 manity will leave the evil principle, and we may infer 
 also those among men who have persisted in sin, still 
 in the state of rebellion, and it will fulfil the mission of 
 chastisement originally assigned to our race. " When 
 this universal envelope of darkness shall be dissolved, 
 when the fire of the spirit shall have consumed all 
 the stains of men, when it shall have purified their 
 essence, then shall all temporal creatures form about 
 the perverse being a luminous barrier, across which 
 his spiritual eyes may pierce, but he himself can never 
 break through it until he has disgorged to the last 
 morsel the iniquity which he has swallowed during all 
 
 ^ Traite des Benedictions, GEuvres Posthumes, ii. i68. 
 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid., p. 169. * Ibid., p. 170.
 
 THE STATE AFTER DEATH 217 
 
 the ages."^ Thus the divine event is left in mystery 
 indeed, but not in darkness. "A period of time is 
 needed for the solar fires to purify those atmospheric 
 regions where clouds form in stormy weather, and a 
 period is also needed for the purification of the per- 
 verse natures, but it is not given to man to fix the 
 measure thereof."^ 
 
 ^ Traite des Benedictions, CEuvres Posthumes, vol, i. p. 200. 
 2 Rapports Spirituels et Temporels de VArc-en-Ciel, (Euvres Posthumes, 
 ii. p. 250.
 
 BOOK IV 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE REPAIRER
 
 THE ACTIVE AND INTELLIGENT CAUSE 
 
 Though man, as we have seen, did not forfeit by his 
 fall the sublime mission which he was constituted to 
 fulfil, he obscured and retarded it ; he became subject 
 in consequence to a double task and double respon- 
 sibility ; he was outside the conditions of accomplish- 
 ment, and he had to recover the conditions. The 
 history of humanity is that of an imperfect attempt 
 to obtain reinstatement in its true law, pending which 
 the ends of his nativity are in abeyance. Meanwhile, 
 the place which he vacated at his lapse could not 
 remain vacant, and another agent was sent to assume 
 his seat and exercise his power in the direction of the 
 dual law of Nature,^ or, otherwise, those two inferior 
 principles which are distinguished in the physics of 
 Saint-Martin from the two intellectual principles of 
 good and evil. Without this direction, which con- 
 stitutes the third power of the temporal triad, ^ the 
 operations of Nature cannot be understood. For the 
 providence of this cause man in his blindness has sub- 
 stituted the law of chance. Its operation is, how- 
 ever, so important that without its concurrence 
 corporeal beings could have no visible action. The 
 knowledge thereof leads to that of the sole and the 
 first cause,^ which is separated absolutely from the 
 sensible as it is also from time. 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. p. 42. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 75. ^ Ibid., p. 188.
 
 22 2 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 The provisional definition of this cause as the 
 intelligence behind Nature would, I think, fulfil fairly 
 the intention of Saint-Martin. The existence of such 
 intelligence outside humanity ^ is affirmed by him on 
 the ground that man in his present state has nothing 
 of his own, and must await from without even the 
 smallest of his thoughts. Herein lies all the dif- 
 ference between this spiritual philosophy and the 
 materialism of its period which denied the existence 
 of innate ideas. Saint-Martin conceives man in his 
 actual condition as receptive of thoughts and ideas 
 after the same way that he is receptive of physical 
 sensations. His thoughts come to him from without, 
 and Locke was right in saying that he could give 
 forth only as he received ; but the source of intellec- 
 tual illumination was not in material Nature, but in 
 an Intelligence which ruled Nature ; in other words, 
 an Active and Intelligent Cause, having the source 
 of its intelligence and action in itself alone," and 
 communicating action to matter and the light which 
 enlightens the mind of every man coming into this 
 world. It is therefore the true primum mobile of 
 matter and of the human understanding. And as it 
 communicated action originally,^ so it sustains it now 
 in both classes, and thus it is that in the physical 
 order we have growth, reproduction, and all the 
 effects manifested by the material world, while in 
 that of intelligence we have the growth of the world 
 within, the successive reproduction of thought, the con- 
 tinual correspondence between the receptive faculty 
 of understanding and the fructifying intellect, so that 
 in this Active Intelligent Cause man may be said to 
 live, move, and have his rational being. 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verity, Part I. p. 114. 
 - Ibid., p. 117. ^ Ibid., p. 118.
 
 ACTIVE AND INTELLIGENT CAUSE 223 
 
 Among the thoughts which are communicated to 
 man there are, however, some which are analogous 
 and some repugnant to his nature. These cannot be 
 attributed reasonably to a single principle, and hence 
 the mere experience of daily thought proves, as we 
 have seen, the existence of two principles external to 
 man, and hence also to matter, which is infinitely 
 below man. The evil which we find in Nature, the 
 evil which suggests itself in the silent processes of 
 mind, are the interference of the second principle 
 imprisoned in the temporal production of the good. 
 
 The Active and Intelligent Cause, though it fulfils 
 the purpose of the Good Principle, must not, as might 
 appear almost inevitable, be identified therewith in 
 the sense that it is the Eternal Goodness itself acting 
 on Nature and man. There is no doubt, as we shall 
 see, that it is divine, but Saint-Martin distinguishes 
 it expressly from the First Cause ; ^ it forms, with 
 the two inferior agents creating the dual action, an 
 inferior triad operating on the sensible and temporal. 
 Between this and the Sacred Triad the mystic estab- 
 lishes an absolute distinction. "The triad of things 
 sensible has been begotten, exists, and is maintained 
 only by the Superior Triad, but as their faculties 
 and their actions are evidently distinct, it is not pos- 
 sible to conceive how this triad is indivisible and 
 above time when judged by that which is in time, 
 and as the latter is the one alone which we are per- 
 mitted to know here below, I say scarcely anything 
 concerning the other." ^ Again: "There exists a 
 Cause which is above the three temporal causes 
 whereof I have spoken, since it directs them and 
 communicates to them their action ; but it makes 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la V&M, Part I. p. 193. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 126-127.
 
 2 24 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 itself known only in communicating the temporal 
 causes to our eyes. It is withdrawn into a sanctuary 
 impenetrable by all things under the dominion of the 
 temporal, and its abode, like its actions, being wholly 
 outside the sensible, we cannot reckon it with the 
 three causes employed in the corporisation of matter 
 and all other temporal action." 
 
 To this Active and Intelligent Cause, as to the 
 great chief and guide, the order of the universe is 
 committed. From him did all corporeal beings derive 
 their form originally. " It has itself directed the 
 production of the substance which serves for the 
 foundation of bodies, as it directs the corporisation 
 of that substance. Simple in its nature and action, 
 like all simple beings, its faculties are exhibited every- 
 where under the same character, and though there is 
 a distinction between the production of the forms of 
 matter and the corporisation of the forms derived from 
 them, the laws which direct both do not differ." ^ 
 
 While the Active and Intelligent Cause has taken 
 the place of man ' at the command of the First Prin- 
 ciple, and has been invested with the rank which man 
 lost by his Fall, he is neither the rival nor avenger of 
 man. He is rather " the ship's light which enlightens 
 all our way," and it is his mission to establish order 
 in the universe, and especially in man.^ 
 
 It may save some confusion to tabulate at this 
 point the metaphysical conceptions of Saint-Martin 
 concerning the noumenal world. 
 
 A. The Divine Triad, mentioned once only, never 
 
 defined or described ; the principle of good- 
 ness in its eternal, withdrawn condition. 
 
 B. The Active and Intelligent Cause, First Prin- 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la V^rite, Part I. p. 121. 
 Ibid., Part 11. p. 60. 3 Ibid., p. 62.
 
 ACTIVE AND INTELLIGENT CAUSE 225 
 
 ciple of all goodness in the world of mani- 
 festation, the substitute for humanity in the 
 physical universe since man abdicated his 
 rights at the Fall. 
 
 C. Opposed Inferior Evil Principle. 
 
 D. Two Inferior Agents : — 
 
 1. Primary Principle, innate in genus, 
 
 2. Secondary Principle, operating reaction, 
 
 and hence reproduction. 
 In its junction with the two Inferior Agents, the 
 Active and Intelligent Cause sustains the normal 
 course of Nature, but his most important work is 
 in connection with the destiny of man. He has an 
 absolute discretion over Nature,^ but his operation 
 on humanity can be opposed by the will of humanity, 
 to whose welfare his government is indispensable, 
 and the will of man should therefore be ever in 
 abeyance to give full place to the law of this Active 
 and Intelligent Cause. 
 
 " We must, therefore, before all things, recognise 
 the existence of this Cause, and that his assistance 
 is indispensable if we would be re-established in our 
 rights. It is he truly who has been appointed to 
 repair not only the evils which have been permitted, 
 but also those which have been performed by man ; 
 it is he whose open eye is ever upon us, as on all 
 creatures of the universe. In approaching him we 
 draw near to the true and only light, the source 
 of all possible knowledge, and in particular of the 
 science of ourselves. For he is the key of Nature, 
 the love and delight of the simple, the torch of the 
 sages, and even the secret support of the blind." '' 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Vdrite, Part II. p. 142. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 228-229. 
 
 P
 
 2 26 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 To forestall the anxiety of his brethren, "who 
 might believe that this Active and Intelligent Cause 
 is a chimerical and imaginary being," Saint-Martin 
 undertakes to inform them " that there are men who 
 have known him physically, and that all might 
 know him in this manner did they place more con- 
 fidence in him, and take more pains to purify and 
 fortify their will," ^ He adds, however, that he does 
 not use the term physical in the common acceptation, 
 which attributes reality and existence only to those 
 objects which are palpable to the material senses. 
 The actuality of such knowledge rests, as we know, 
 upon the validity of certain theurgic phenomena, 
 but the necessity for a manifestation on the part of 
 the Active Cause is grounded elsewhere on purely 
 abstract considerations, such as man's need of certi- 
 tude, of defence against deception and self-deception, 
 of a true guide in religion, and so forth. Concerning 
 the general possibility he adds : — " I will not quote 
 my private and personal experience, whatever confi- 
 dence I may derive therefrom. There was a time 
 when I should have given no adhesion to truths 
 which I can vouch for at this day. I should, there- 
 fore, be unjust and inconsequent if I sought to influ- 
 ence the faith of my readers. I would have no one 
 believe me on my mere afiirmation, because I, as 
 man, have no title to the confidence of my brethren ; 
 but it would be the summit of my felicity if each 
 one of them would himself nourish a sufficient con- 
 ception of his truly sublime importance, and of the 
 grandeur of the Cause which watches over him, to 
 hope that by his labour and diligence it may be 
 possible for him to become assured of this truth." 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part I. pp. 168-169.
 
 II 
 
 THE WORD AND ITS MANIFESTATION 
 
 Saint-Martin states in his correspondence that the 
 Active and Intelligent Cause is one with the Repairer/ 
 an inference which no reader of the previous section 
 will fail to make independently, nor, indeed, will he 
 require to be told that the Repairer is a title applied 
 to Christ.^ Both designations were familiar to the 
 school of Pasqually, and they are therefore not the 
 invention of Saint-Martin, but he made them peculiarly 
 his own, and in all that he tells us concerning the 
 Divine Manifestation to which they are referred we find 
 the suggestions and illuminations of his mystical gift. 
 The Active and Intelligent Cause is a name used 
 almost exclusively in the first period of his philosophy, 
 and it was intended to act as a veil. The reason is 
 given at the close oiDes Erreurs et de la Verite : *' If I 
 stripped off the veil which I have assumed, if I uttered 
 the name of this beneficent Cause, on which I would 
 
 ^ Gorrespondmice, Lettre xix. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 77. 
 
 2 It is Christ also who is described as the Universal Chief of all the 
 spiritual Institutors of the pure and sacred cultus. — Tableau Naturel, 
 ii. 160. "The benefits of which this agent is the organ and depositary- 
 are neither limited to the places where he appeared nor to the men 
 whom he chose, nor even to all those who then existed on the earth. 
 In communicating his gifts to his elect, he gave them only the germ of 
 the work ; it was for him afterwards to develop it, and to effect it at 
 large in all regions which had been involved in the consequences of 
 the crime, that is to say, in all classes of beings, since all had been 
 assailed thereby." — Ibid., 176.
 
 2 28 THE UNKNOAVN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 direct the gaze of the entire universe, that utterance 
 would move the majority of my readers to deny the 
 virtues which I have attributed thereto, and to dis- 
 dain my entire doctrine. To indicate it more clearly 
 would therefore destroy my object. I shall leave it 
 to the penetration of my readers, convinced that in 
 spite of the envelopes with which I have covered the 
 truth, the intelligent will understand it, the truthful 
 appreciate it, and even the corrupted will divine it." ^ 
 The device may seem childish ; there was no penetra- 
 tion required, more especially when Saint-Martin adds 
 that all men are Christs." The aspect under which 
 the Repairer is presented as the Active and Intelligent 
 Cause is, however, of much importance for the proper 
 comprehension of the Martinistic system. That Cause 
 is incontestably the Word as it was understood by 
 St. John, and by all the early Christian fathers — 
 without whom " was not anything made that has 
 been made." 
 
 I must confess that as it is presented to us by 
 Saint-Martin this conception of the Active and In- 
 telligent Cause has the aspect of heresy ; it suggests 
 the demiurgos of the Gnostics, the opifex and aeon 
 shaping the plastic matter of the cosmos. Heretical 
 or not, in the last analysis is not perhaps a matter of 
 vital moment, and it is scarcely because of the gravity 
 of such a charge that I desire to exonerate Saint- 
 Martin, but because it is well to know up to what 
 point precisely he connects with accepted doctrine and 
 how and when he diverges. I do not think that the 
 aspect of heresy here in question is more than the 
 offspring of confusion, and that the idea which under- 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part II. pp. 229-230. 
 
 2 His actual words are, " Tout les homines sont des C-H-R."
 
 MANIFESTATION OF THE WORD 229 
 
 lies it is really the manifestation of the Second Person 
 in the Divine Triad under temporal conditions and 
 limitations. If my readers prefer to regard this Cause 
 as a divine emanation or production, as in any case it 
 must belong to the eternal order and must possess a 
 divine priority over the principle which went into 
 corruption, it will create no grievous difference ; but 
 I think that the first view adjusts better with the 
 general teaching of the mystic. It is one of those 
 questions belonging to the timeless world concerning 
 which Saint-Martin is never clear, because the gift 
 of his illumination was not concerned with it. 
 
 There is, however, no question as to the identity 
 of the Active and Intelligent Cause with the Word 
 as it was understood by Saint-Martin, and the manner 
 in which it was understood may be established by the 
 definition which he supplies ; it is " the eternal unity 
 of the divine essences." ^ And the Word, further- 
 more, is the Son, who is " the depositary of all the 
 powers of the Father " ; " the bond which established 
 creation ; the consummation which will dissolve it,^ 
 effecting the reintegration of matter in its permanent 
 principle ; the energiser of all temporal spirits.* The 
 divine faculty which was manifested in this Word has 
 not become separated by this manifestation from 
 those other faculties with which it was joined in the 
 sacred unity constituting their eternal essence before 
 all the ages and independently of them all. " The 
 separation is for us alone who, confined by the limits 
 of our darksome dwelling, can conceive of absolute 
 beings only successively and apart from one another, 
 but all faculties and all actions which thus seem suc- 
 
 ^ Trait e des Benedictions, CEuvres Posthumes, ii. 157. 
 2 Ibid., p. 156. 3 Ibid., p. 165. * Ibid., p. 172.
 
 230 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 cessive and distinct are one, undivided and ever 
 present to the eyes of that one Being who leads and 
 directs them." ^ 
 
 In its metaphysical or abstract aspect, the Mar- 
 tinistic doctrine of the Word does not need further 
 elucidation, and the materials are indeed exhausted. 
 I pass on, therefore, to the more important matter of 
 its connection with man. The key to this connection 
 will be found in a single statement which occurs in a 
 posthumous work, and is the more likely to be over- 
 looked because in itself it seems oracular and arbi- 
 trary. It is to this effect, that there was no operation 
 of the Divine Word in visible Nature until after the 
 second prevarication. We must infer from this that 
 the Word by which Nature was effectuated resided in 
 man himself, that it was lost at the Fall, by which 
 the intervention of the Divine Word became necessary 
 for the sustentation of the universe, which, in spite of 
 this sustenance, is still in loss and sorrow, deprived 
 through man of the Word which resided in man, and 
 that the recovery of the lost Word is man's first 
 duty towards himself and towards Nature. The way 
 of this recovery is in the union of man with the re- 
 storing and repairing Word which has replaced him. 
 The correspondences created by this union are treated 
 at great length by Saint-Martin. The indispensable 
 condition is that we should recognise in the first 
 place that there is an Eternal Word, *' depositary of 
 the eternal measure, eternal light, and eternal life, 
 which balances continually, and particularly for man 
 here below, the disorder, anguish, and infection wherein 
 he is plunged. Except he cling constantly to the 
 height on which this universal support abides, he 
 
 1 Train des B^nMidions, CEuvres Posthumes, vol. ii. p. 204.
 
 MANIFESTATION OF THE WORD 231 
 
 must relapse into the abyss of evils and sufferings at 
 the opposite extreme." ^ No middle way is possible. 
 
 When it is said that the universe is sustained 
 by the power of the Word, the statement is not 
 mystical in the sense of being indeterminate or 
 vague ; it is positively and physically true, and 
 that in all classes. "It is true that if the Word 
 did not sustain the universe in its existence and 
 direct it in all its movements, it would stop 
 instantaneously in its course and go back into the 
 unmanifest. It is true that if the Word did not 
 sustain all animals and plants, they would return 
 at once into their respective germs, and the germ 
 into the temporal spirit of the universe. It is true 
 that if the Word did not sustain the action and 
 display of all phenomena, the phenomenal would 
 come immediately to its end. It is equally true 
 in the spiritual order that except the Word sustain 
 the thought and soul of man, thought would relapse 
 into darkness, and the soul into that abyss which 
 we navigate only by the immeasurable and merciful 
 power of the same Word." ^ We must, therefore, 
 and before all things, aspire without ceasing and 
 support ourselves invariably on the Word. To do 
 otherwise is to deny our very existence, to doom 
 ourselves wilfully to madness, and to be knowingly 
 our own chief enemies. 
 
 Referring once more to the distinctive character 
 of the punishment entailed on man by the Fall, 
 namely, his bondage in a universe which is without 
 speech, although ever sustained thereby, Saint- 
 Martin observes that our suffering is of a twofold 
 
 1 Le Ministere de VHomme-Esprit, p. 319. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 320-321.
 
 232 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 kind — the consciousness of a shameful disproportion 
 between ourselves and the dumb creatures surround- 
 ing us, and the consciousness of the affliction which 
 must be caused to the Word itself by the silence of the 
 universe, since that Word seeks manifestation at all 
 points and untrammelled correspondence with all. 
 " The first of these two species of sufi"ering is ex- 
 hibited not only by the existing state of things, but 
 in a special way by the communication of men with 
 one another. Between human conversation and 
 true speech there is an immeasurable distance, yet 
 if men, when they mix with each other, did not 
 enliven their atmosphere by discourse, or by the 
 ineffective spectres of the Word, the coldness and 
 w^eariness of death would overwhelm them in the 
 sepulchre which is their abode. The second species 
 of suffering demonstrates that there must be a living 
 source which ever seeks to animate the circle of 
 things with the Universal Word, as men seek to 
 animate their silent abodes by their individual 
 speech, which they have only in virtue of the Uni- 
 versal Word, though put to such puerile uses and so 
 small in its service until it has undergone regenera- 
 tion." ' 
 
 If, however, we are punished by the privation of 
 real speech, it is merely because we have sinned 
 against the Word, and we must go back, so to speak, 
 upon our particular phantom of speech to attain once 
 more that grand, fixed, splendid Word, the necessity 
 for abiding with which is ever present in all of us, 
 as that abiding is also the exchange of suffering for 
 gladness. The active possession and enjoyment of 
 this universal instrument is not possible till we have 
 
 ^ Le Ministere de V Homme-Esprit, pp. 323-324.
 
 MANIFESTATION OF THE WORD 233 
 
 ceased to regard our particular instrument otherwise 
 than as the inverse of the real Word, which can 
 therefore be known only in the silence of all that is 
 of this world. " So long as we converse, either with 
 ourselves or others, only concerning the things of 
 the world, we are acting against the Word, not for 
 it, because we are stooping to the world and natural- 
 ising ourselves with that which is void of true speech, 
 and therein is the quality of our punishment." ^ 
 
 But seeing that the true Word is in suffering be- 
 cause the universe is in privation, its internal opera- 
 tion in man must be also by the way of pain, which 
 for the same reason is the only profitable, germinal, 
 fruitful way, and must be sought, not avoided.'"' The 
 saving and living Word can be born in us only by 
 suffering. " The heart of man is elected to be the 
 depository of the anguish of God, to be His chosen 
 friend, the confidant of all His secrets and all His 
 wonders." ^ The passion of God is in His striving to 
 raise Himself, so to speak, from the death which He 
 suffers in man, and in the hindrances which man 
 opposes thereto. We have, therefore, not only to 
 inaugurate the Sabbath of Nature and the Sabbath 
 of the human soul, but also the Sabbath of the 
 Word."* That Word is in labour and anguish because 
 of the false and perverted use to which man has put 
 the divine faculty of speech. We have fallen under 
 the rule of the " dead word," ^ and to advance towards 
 reality and life we must part somehow with this 
 enormous concourse of rank, empty, earthly, and 
 false verbiage corrupting the atmosphere of the mind. 
 The Divine Word can, however, open continually 
 
 1 Le Ministdre de I'Homme-Esjmt, p. 325. - Ibid., p. 329. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 330. * Ibid., p. 332. ^ Ibid., p. 344.
 
 234 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 within us the door to divinity, to holiness, light, and 
 truth. ^ Both in mind and act it is possible for us to 
 have recourse to this guide, and by union with Him 
 our whole nature will be reborn from death to life.^ 
 As our criminal thoughts are the result of our con- 
 tact with the spirit of deception and iniquity, our 
 material thouo;hts of contact with earth and its dark- 
 ness, our sidereal or astral thoughts of contact with 
 the astral spirit called the spirit of the great world, 
 so our spiritual thoughts result from contact with 
 the Spirit, and by our alliance with God we can pos- 
 sess divine thoughts. One or other of these alliances 
 we must contract, but we must choose between them, 
 and each, according to our choice, will bear inevitaby 
 within us the fruits which correspond to its nature. 
 If we allow ourselves to be penetrated through and 
 through by the Divine Word, it will fructify its seed 
 in all the regions of our nature, and the mere memory 
 of its favours will enable us to rout the enemy, even 
 as the sick were healed by the shadow of the apostles. 
 Nowhere does this Word manifest itself without leaving 
 ineffaceable traces, which we have only to follow with 
 confidence, and it demands only from men that they 
 should maintain themselves in a state of eJSicacious 
 prayer for universal amelioration, that they should 
 be ready to respond to its impulsion when it calls 
 them to the work of restoration.^ " For this Word is 
 the measure pre-eminently, and it tends only to 
 establish men in their original measures in order that 
 the divine measures may be revived in all regions 
 which have lost them. This is the true extension of 
 the kingdom of God." ^ 
 
 ' Le MinisUre de V Homme- Esprit, p. 421. ^ Ibid., p. 419. 
 
 ^ Ibid., pp. 342-343. * Ibid.
 
 MANIFESTATION OF THE WORD 235 
 
 It may be added as a conclusion to this section, 
 that the Evil Principle has also its own word ; but it 
 is one of lying, and the more he speaks it the more 
 he infects himself; he is ever pouring out his own 
 empoisoned blood, and quenching his thirst therewith. 
 It is a word which would be devoid of all works if 
 men did not daily furnish him the substance of their 
 own works, their acts, and their thoughts, as material 
 for his operations. It is by the operation of this evil 
 word that the enemy himself creates his own extra- 
 lignment, and, exile as he is, the course also of the 
 extra-lignment in the whole universe.^ 
 
 In the few pages which follow we shall see after 
 what manner the Divine Word was really understood 
 by Saint-Martin — that behind it, as behind the Logos 
 of St. John, there was only the charity of God. 
 
 ^ Le Ministere de VHomme-Esijrit, p. 421.
 
 Ill 
 
 THE ETERNAL LOVE^ 
 
 The divine heart, which may be compared to the 
 mother of a family, and is truly the mother of all 
 mankind, even as power is the father, is the organ 
 and the eternal generator of whatsoever is in God or 
 in our principle. The assistance which it conde- 
 scends to brino; to the human soul is solemnised not 
 only by the essential correspondences between the 
 divine source and ourselves, but also by the mytho- 
 logical narratives of a divine gift made to earth, by 
 the hopes of some other traditions which are known 
 as yet only in promises, and by the fate of certain 
 peoples who believe that they possess it in reality. 
 The Christians, in presenting it under the name of 
 the Word, have divined the second only of its titles, 
 and that consequently which is the more difficult to 
 comprehend. The first of the names which belong to 
 it is Love, in virtue of the ineffable mother of man — 
 Love, which perhaps would be comprehended easily 
 on the part of the human family did it unite in a 
 single focus the love of all individuals composing it, 
 since the perspective of all these united loves has 
 alone engaged the Supreme Love to give itself en- 
 tirely. By this we feel the necessity of loving one 
 another if we would possess the understanding and 
 key of that Love. The name of the Word is but 
 
 ^ Adapted from Des Trois Epoqxhes du Traitement cle I'Ame Humaine, 
 
 CEuvres Posthumes, p. 1 76 et seq. 
 
 236
 
 THE ETERNAL LOVE 237 
 
 the expression of the divine movements which this 
 Love has operated eternally in the universality of the 
 divine sphere, of those which it now operates consecu- 
 tively in time, and of those which it has operated 
 and still effects in man, even as our individual 
 Word is only the expression of the diverse activities 
 which take place in our soul, operating only by ex- 
 plosions or words, for there is no Word which is 
 not an explosion. The Supreme Love is therefore 
 the continuous affection which makes the life of our 
 soul,^ wherein innumerable desires originate in un- 
 broken succession, with words analogous to those 
 desires. It is like that azure expanse of heaven, the 
 abode of an incalculable multitude of shining stars, 
 seeming to spring first as a luminous vegetation from 
 a fruitful and translucent earth. We must confess 
 then that this love which has hastened to the help of 
 man is the true mother, of which natural maternity 
 is the emblem ; that the name of Word, oflfering a 
 more imposing and mysterious conception, depicts it 
 less in its essence than in its various modes of opera- 
 tion, and offers only to our soul the act by which it 
 approaches us. The name of Love, which is that 
 also which should be born by our proper essence, 
 since all is Love, unveils to us our correspondence 
 with our source. When considering it under the 
 title of Word, we must tremble with respect and 
 admiration before it, as at once the producer and sus- 
 tainer of all beings by the power of its speech, 
 whether divine, spiritual or temporal ; but in con- 
 
 1 " The Divine Chief in the centre of his pure emanations, radiat- 
 ing into their centre the sweetness of His virtues and of His very being, 
 unites them to Himself by all the rights of love and of beatitude."— 
 Tableau Naturel, i. i6o.
 
 238 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 sidering it under the name of Love, we quiver only 
 with joy and tenderness, conscious that it shrinks 
 not from penetrating all our substance by its bene- 
 ficent and inexhaustible desire to modify itself en- 
 tirely in correspondence with our tainted and broken 
 measures, and that by this unfailing self-devotion we 
 are raised and glorified till we can even regard our- 
 selves as assimilated and identified with life itself. 
 Thus the verhum caro factum est of the Christians 
 would seem to them much less incomprehensible did 
 they begin by exalting themselves to the height of this 
 sublime devotion of the love which has gone before 
 man from the moment of his fall, which, by its in- 
 fiamed desires, has modelled itself into the essences 
 and form of the human soul, which by this act 
 transcending all our thoughts, so occupies the whole 
 capacity of our being that its actual and visible cor- 
 porisation can scarcely astound us more than ordinary 
 corporisations, if we have experienced the least de- 
 velopments upon the generation of beings and the 
 incorporation of man himself in this terrestrial and 
 material envelope. For since the first man came into 
 the world without woman, he has by his fall divided 
 his love, and it was more natural that the second 
 Adam should enter it without man, for he came only 
 to restore unto man that Love which he had allowed 
 to go astray. It is thus that when the mind of man 
 forms in its thought some fantastic objects which 
 mislead and obscure him, a more lively and whole- 
 some light penetrates unexpectedly, and, as it were, 
 without himself, even among his phantoms, to strip 
 off their attractions, and give back justice and clear- 
 ness to his discernment.
 
 IV 
 
 THE GREAT NAME 
 
 Regarded in the light of the two last sections, the 
 proper business and study of man is not mankind, in 
 accordance with the poetical aphorism, but the search 
 for the lost Word. Now, it is well known that the 
 symbolism of occult philosophy concerns itself a 
 good deal with the recovery of a lost Word, and with 
 the mysteries concealed in the great and unutterable 
 Name. Outside occult circles this appears very 
 naturally to be trifling, but at the same time the 
 quest of the Word and the Name has connections in 
 universal traditions which, quite apart from occult 
 philosophy, are curious, and within the mystic circle, 
 being confessedly of the things of symbolism, may, 
 also not unnaturally, possess something more of 
 purpose and meaning than can reasonably occur to 
 the outside world. Here there is no occasion to 
 enter upon a defence of occult philosophy, much less 
 upon an explanation of its symbology. It is enough 
 to indicate, firstly, the existence of a very old and 
 far-diffused tradition on this subject ; and, secondly, 
 its particular, and indeed necessary, connection with 
 occultism. As regards the latter point, the connec- 
 tions are, for the most part, Kabalistic. Now, I 
 have already pointed out that the body of traditional 
 doctrine conferred upon Saint-Martin by his initia- 
 tion has little apparent connection with this school
 
 240 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 of mystic thought. His initiation, it must be re- 
 membered, was at least in its forms Masonic, and we 
 Ivnow, of course, that the Master-Mason is in search 
 of the lost Word, and that he receives a shadow or 
 substitution thereof which may be taken to represent 
 it more imperfectly than the common speech of 
 humanity represents, according to Saint-Martin, the 
 true and life-giving logos of Martinistic philosophy. 
 
 The Mystic Masonry of Martines de Pasqually was 
 intended to replace the " spurious Masonry " ^ which, 
 among other evidences of its emptiness, was not only 
 unable to impart the lost Word, but could not 
 indicate the direction in which it should be sought. 
 Now, spurious or genuine, Masonry, outside the rites 
 of the Elect Cohens, is exceedingly composite in its 
 connections, and that it was open to Kabalistic, 
 among other occult influences, must not be denied 
 by the historians, though the nature and extent of 
 that influence can be and has been exaggerated. In 
 so far, therefore, as the system of Pasqually is 
 Masonic, it has an indirect and fragile thread of 
 affinity with Kabalism, and I may say that so far as 
 Saint-Martin may be accepted as the interpreter of 
 his first master, it is chiefly over the question of the 
 lost Word." It is not, of course, over the philo- 
 
 1 See the Cate'chisme d' Ajyjyrentif Elu Coen, in Papus, Martines de 
 Pasqually, where the signs and words of "apocryphal Masonry" are 
 communicated to the candidate, pp. 227-228. 
 
 - Other points of contact will be found : (a) In the possible affinity 
 between the primeval man of Saint-Martin and the Kabalistic Adam 
 Kadmon ; (6) In the Martinistic doctrine of man's superiority over the 
 angels ; (c) In the opinions expressed by Saint-Martin as to the place of 
 Hebrew among the languages of the world. He regards it as their type, 
 itself deriving from a primitive tongue which is no longer spoken 
 generally in this lower world. It has also a spirit which far exceeds 
 its literal sense. — Tableau Naturel, i. 268-270 ; ii. 75-76.
 
 THE GREAT NAME 241 
 
 sophy of the Word itself, and therefore does not 
 transpire in so far as that philosophy has been de- 
 veloped by the preceding sections. As it there 
 stands, it is neither of Plato nor his successors, it is 
 not of St. John or of the Gnostics, whom a certain 
 uncritical mysticism has attempted to connect with 
 the author of the Fourth Gospel ; it is not of Jacob 
 Bohme, and though something was indisputably 
 derived from Pasqually, it is, in fine, the Logos 
 philosophy strangely, and withal richly, albeit fan- 
 tastically, transmuted in the alembic of Saint-Martin's 
 mind. But the lost Word brings us naturally to 
 the Great Name, and to what Martinism has to tell 
 us on the subject of this symbolism, and here one is 
 brought to admit that there is distinctly a trace of 
 Kabalism, though the alembic has again gone to 
 work, and this time on a mere grain of material, and 
 has not only transmuted but multiplied. I shall not 
 need to tell my readers that the Name or Tetra- 
 grammaton of the Kabalists is represented by the 
 four Hebrew letters which we interpret as Jehovah, 
 and they will know also that Christianised Kabalism 
 finds proof of the divinity of the Saviour in the 
 name of Jehoshuah, or Jesus, which is the Tetra- 
 grammaton with the mysterious shin in the midst 
 of it. These are the materials which Saint-Martin 
 derived from Kabalism,^ and, as he did not 
 "frequent the libraries," I take leave to doubt 
 
 1 " When the Christ came, he made the pronunciation of this word 
 still more central and interior, since the Great ISame expressed by those 
 four letters was the quaternary explosion, or the crucial signs of all 
 life ; whereas Jesus Christ, by exalting the Hebrew 11}, or the letter S, 
 united the holy ternary itself to the great quaternary name of which 
 three is the principle." — Correspondunce, Lettre Ixxiv. ; Penny, " Theo- 
 sophic Correspondence," p. 242.
 
 242 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 whether he had heard of the Zohar, except in the 
 distant and unmeaning way that we have heard, all 
 of us, of books which are too far removed from our 
 needs for their acquaintance to be a remote pro- 
 bability. But the Great Name is, notwithstanding, 
 a subject of much importance in the system of Saint- 
 Martin. It is a conception which grew with the 
 growth of his mind ; it is the subject of a single 
 allusion in his first book, where it appears paraboli- 
 cally as a lance, composed of four metals, intrusted 
 to man in his first estate.^ That is to say, he then 
 possessed the Word which is the Great Name. But 
 it is the subject of frequent mention in his corre- 
 spondence, and of essays in his later books. " The 
 extract of this name constitutes the essence of man, 
 and thus it is that we are made in the image and 
 likeness of God ; '" this, he says expressly, is "a 
 fundamental quaternion principle," which he derived 
 from his first school.^ He takes care at the same 
 time to distinguish himself carefully and sharply 
 from "common theurgists and mechanical cabalists,"^ 
 who believe in the arbitrary virtue of names. The 
 Great Name, he says weirdly, should never be made 
 use of by man ; we must " wait always for it to 
 engender, form, and pronounce itself in us," which is 
 the only way to prevent our taking it in vain.^ But 
 the Name which is above every name, the Great 
 Name of Christendom, he declares to be above the 
 Tetragrammaton, making - this pregnant addition : 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verity, Part I. p. 41. 
 
 2 Gorrespondance, Lettre xiii. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 55. 
 
 3 Ibid., Lettre xxvii. ; ibid., p. icx). 
 * Ibid., Lettre xxvii. ; ibid., p. loi. 
 '•> Ibid., Lettre xxx, ; ibid., p. 107.
 
 THE GREAT NAME 243 
 
 " I am also persuaded that there is one we wait for 
 which is above that." The Name mentioned in the 
 Acts of the Apostles ^ is only the way of deliverance. 
 We still want that of rejoicing ; it is the one pro- 
 mised in the Apocalypse ; it is that Name which no 
 man knoweth save he who receiveth it." ^ There 
 is I know not what of strange consolation to the 
 Christian mystic in this announcement ; it bears a 
 promise of fulfilment, a promise of completer revela- 
 tion, and of an answer of assent and encouragement 
 to the poet's question — 
 
 " Wilt thou not make, Eternal Source and Goal, 
 In thy long years life's broken circle whole ? " 
 
 It suggests that period when the five foolish 
 virgins " will at length have obtained oil for their 
 lamps." " 
 
 It will be seen that we have already transcended 
 the accepted region of Kabalism. Saint-Martin takes 
 care that there shall be no mistake on this head. 
 "There are false doctors who pretend to be ac- 
 quainted with the true name of God, with the pro- 
 perties which are comprised in it, and with the way 
 in which it should be pronounced.^ Pay no heed to 
 
 1 The reference is to Acts iii. 6, " In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, 
 rise up and walk," and Acts iv. lo, ii, 12, concerning the one "name 
 given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved." 
 
 - Correspoiidmice, Lettre Ixxxii. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 279. 
 
 ^ Eliphas L6vi, La Science des Esprits. 
 
 * "I feel myself so drawn towards the inward cultivation of the 
 Word, that if a man were presently to offer me the true pronunciation 
 of the two great names on which both the Testaments are founded, I 
 believe I should refuse the offer, so persuaded I am that it can never 
 be made really my own, except so far as it may take root within me 
 naturally, and shoot, as it were, out of its own stalk or its own root, 
 which is also my soul's root." — Correspondaivce, Lettre Ixxiv. ; Penny,
 
 244 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 their instructions. That Name is inseparable from 
 the active properties which it possesses ; these pro- 
 perties are in perpetual fructification ; it is, therefore, 
 ever now like them, and the Name itself, like every 
 other, can only reveal itself, and that only in such a 
 way that the knowledge in the last analysis remains 
 in the source of knowledge, and cannot fall into the 
 misusing hands of men." ^ In other words, as to his 
 ultimate source, God is for ever incommunicable. 
 At the same time we can be assured that apart from 
 this Name we are in death and sterility, for we are 
 separated from the sole properties that are fruitful 
 and therefore living. So also we can feel that the 
 Name of God is in its fundamental character " the 
 eternal, universal, temporal, spiritual, heavenly, and 
 earthly alliances ; " ^ that all these alliances are de- 
 veloped within us when it descends upon us, and that 
 they discover to us at each epoch the treasures and the 
 wonders of eternal immensity. On our own part we 
 must seek to become the active totality of all these 
 alliances, and thus " the spoken name of that God 
 who comprises them." ^ 
 
 Our worship of the Great Name must have three 
 chief characters ; it must be, firstly, the offering of 
 incense, the incense of tears and thanks ; secondly, 
 attention to its teachings, developed by our own 
 concentration, with such an attenuation of ourselves 
 that the Name of the Lord may be able to commu- 
 nicate with no hindrances its living and penetrating 
 
 " Theosophic Correspondence," p. 244. At the same time he did con- 
 sider that "great virtue is attached to this true pronunciation of the 
 Great Name, and that of Jesus Christ, which is as its flower." 
 
 1 De VEsprit des Choses, ii. 65-66. - Ibid. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 67.
 
 THE GREAT NAME 245 
 
 wisdom ; thirdly, regulation of our actions in such a 
 way that the Name may itself operate in our works 
 what its light has effected in our intelligence, " In 
 this way we shall, little by little, become the Name 
 of the Lord, and, reintegrated in the eternal alliance, 
 that Name will restore its form in us, will be the 
 universal in works and in lights as it is the uni- 
 versal in essence." ^ For the liberty of man can 
 oppose the universality of God as regards the circle 
 of humanity by substituting our thoughts and works 
 for those of the divine order. " The character of the 
 Name of God is that of a physician, so gentle, so 
 beneficent, that he comes within us and comforts us 
 without ever being bidden, and what, therefore, will 
 he not do if we invoke him? That Name seeks 
 ever to diffuse itself in the world, but is repelled by 
 so many obstacles that it is forced to return upon 
 itself and withdraw into silence. The man of truth 
 experiences the same opposition when he seeks to 
 difi'use the individual lights which he has received, 
 and is forced upon numberless occasions to interdict 
 speech to himself." ^ 
 
 There is, therefore, nothing conventional or arbi- 
 trary about Saint-Martin's symbolism of the Great 
 Name. For him all names are indexes of the pro- 
 perties of things ; and as all things must manifest 
 their own properties, so he says that they pronounce 
 their own names, or otherwise reveal themselves. 
 " Thus God utters his own name unceasingly, so that 
 his properties may be shown forth before all faculties 
 and organs of his productions. " ^ The pure and 
 divine beings who minister to his glory and his 
 
 1 De I'Esprit des Choses, ii, 68. 
 2 Ibid., p. 69. 3 Ibid., p. 63.
 
 246 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 light, all beings of Nature, from the fundamental 
 pillars of the universe to the creatures of a day, do 
 likewise ; and this also is the object and the duty of 
 man, who, being in the likeness of his principle, was 
 born to make a constant use of his Word.^ 
 
 ^ It is also said that man in his fallen state has lost the knowledge 
 of his own true name. — Tableau Naturel, i. 124.
 
 V 
 
 THE MISSION OF THE REPAIRER 
 
 The human personality of Christ is not often referred 
 to by Saint-Martin, who was absorbed, as we have 
 had full opportunity for remarking, in the contem- 
 plation of His divine nature. But when he distin- 
 guishes between the mission of the Eepairer and that 
 of the first man, he seems for a moment to approach 
 the human nature, and we see that the divine history 
 was not for him only " a symbol and a sign," and 
 that had he ever treated the subject of the union 
 between the two natures in Christ, he would not have 
 offered us a doctrine which differs seriously from that 
 of the Catholic Church. 
 
 The object of the Repairer's mission^ was to re- 
 unite us to the living act of the Divine Principle, 
 because that union would have been also the object 
 of the first man if he had remained in the lineal way. 
 The emanation of the first man was drawn from 
 the eternal model unceasingly present to the divine 
 thought. The generation of his race could not be 
 otherwise than defiled when man himself became de- 
 filed by his crime ; and had Christ been born accord- 
 ing to the generation of man, he could not have 
 escaped pollution. In other words, had the Great 
 Name, or Jesus, not become Jesus Christ, had it 
 remained in the degree of sublimity and glory where 
 it was when the divinity became Christ, in that same 
 
 1 Adapted from De V Esprit des Choses, ii. 301-304.
 
 248 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 eternal image whence the first man was derived, the 
 restoration could not have been effected, because the 
 remedy would have been too remote from the disease. 
 Christ, at the moment when he was engendered from 
 the eternal image of man by the Great Name, found 
 himself filled with omnipotence and with the eternal 
 living essence ; in other words, with that great and 
 divine Name which is at once the principle and sus- 
 tentation of all things. This sublime term could not 
 have been reached by the first man except by immense 
 labours, and would have indeed been his reward, 
 towards which he would have tended unceasingly, 
 acquiring at each stage of his progress a degree of 
 that glory whereof the Great Name is at once the 
 organ and the source. Christ, in possession of these 
 treasures, held them in abeyance when he clothed him- 
 self with matter, content to develop them gradually, 
 and he continues now to manifest them, and will yet 
 do so, in the same progressive manner till he brings us 
 to perfect union with the principle at the end of time. 
 The reason of the divine homification, both spiri- 
 tual and corporeal, heavenly and earthly, depends 
 on that mandate issued by God to man, that he 
 should subdue the earth. In spite of our fall, this 
 decree was so respected that God became man in 
 order to fulfil it in our name, as if to leave us the 
 glory while he experienced all the weariness and 
 bitterness. Moreover, man was dead spiritually with- 
 out accomplishing his mission, and hence it was 
 necessary that the Repairer should die corporeally 
 without fulfilling the common course of human life, 
 and this at an epoch which corresponded symbolically 
 at all its points with the divers progressive degrees of 
 the disease and the healing of man.
 
 BOOK V 
 
 THE WAY OF REINTEGRATION
 
 REGENERATION 
 
 As there is no system of mystical philosophy which 
 does not insist upon a reversion of the natural man, 
 and as mystical experience is the history of this 
 change and its consequences, as, finally, it is referred 
 to and known universally under the name of Ke- 
 generation, Conversion, or the New Birth, so it is 
 inevitable that we should find in Martinism that the 
 way of reintegration is through the gate of a second 
 birth. On the other hand, we should scarcely look 
 for any new note in the account of this process, on 
 which the great masters of spiritual science, long 
 before the days of Saint-Martin, had set the seal of 
 the completeness of their sanctity. We know ap- 
 proximately what errors of enthusiasm would be 
 avoided by the French mystic, who, though also a 
 man of enthusiasm, regulated zeal by light. The 
 sensationalism, somewhat sordid in analysis, which 
 makes the conversion of exploded English Pro- 
 testantism mere froth of spiritual experience, would 
 be, of course, absent ; the startling illustration and 
 the sudden change had no place in his system ; he 
 was not a disciple either of report or suddenness. 
 " I have desired," he says, " to do good, but I have 
 not sought to make a noise ; for I was convinced that 
 noise did not work good, as that good did not make 
 noise. "^ And as to the slowness with which the 
 
 1 Portrait Histwique, CEuvres Posthumes, i. 96. 
 251
 
 252 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 supernatural life in man passes from conception to 
 birth, and through what stages from birth to growth, 
 we might learn from many places of his writings, but 
 one instance must suffice. " Come down, as we have, 
 into this dark realm of affliction and misery, we can 
 only recover progressively the different faculties of 
 which we are deprived ; and the law laid down by the 
 principle of all laws being that things which are 
 most spiritual are also most elevated, we must per- 
 force begin at the lowest, because we are at the 
 inferior extremity of progress." ^ 
 
 The theory of regeneration is expressed by Saint- 
 Martin in an aphorism when he speaks of " the 
 profound feeling that we must un- earth ourselves 
 completely if we would attain to say of God, Hahi- 
 tavit in nobis. Amen." " The birth of the spiritual 
 man supposes in some sense the death of the natural 
 man ; but Saint-Martin, who, when he is most purely 
 mystic, is always most sane and reasonable, exhibits 
 here his freedom from another error of enthusiasm, 
 though it is this time a mystic and not a Protestant 
 error. The price of the new birth is not the wanton 
 torture of our nature proposed by unbridled asceticism. 
 There is indeed a self which must be dispossessed, not 
 because it is our own, but because it is a spurious 
 propriete which has been fastened on us by the spirit 
 of the world. " There is the true death we have to 
 undergo, the true self-hood which we have to part 
 with ; but when the Divine Self-hood condescends to 
 replace it, and be its substitute within us, we are 
 permitted to cherish it with the greatest care." ^ 
 
 ^ Loix Tem2)orelles de la Justice Divine, Q^uvres Posthumes, ii. 94-95. 
 ^ Gorrespo7idance, Lettre xxxviii. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 130. 
 
 ^ Ibid., Lettre viii. ; ibid., pp. 36-37.
 
 REGENERATION 253 
 
 There is another point which it will be well 
 to mention here, because it applies in a particular 
 manner to that class of persons who are likely to 
 be the chief readers of this study, in whose interest 
 it has been, indeed, undertaken. It concerns the real 
 value of initiation as a help to the new life. Now, 
 all initiations are theurgic, or at least I know of none 
 which belong to another order, and Saint-Martin did 
 not deny that there were stages and states in which 
 the "physical communications" might be profitable.^ 
 There are aids from all quarters, and things inferior 
 help to things superior. It may even be said that the 
 inferior are sometimes necessary steps. But with every 
 allowance for the concealed possibilities which may 
 reside in the Magia Divina, and for some initiations 
 as the gate thereof, in the last analysis the help from 
 initiation fails, or at least it ceases at a certain point. 
 Now, the point at which it ceases is short of the 
 communication of spiritual life. This position is 
 made very clear by Saint - Martin in connection 
 with the present subject. " The knowledge which 
 might formerly be transmitted in writing depended 
 on instructions which sometimes rested on certain 
 mysterious practices and ceremonies, the value of 
 which was more a matter of opinion or habit than of 
 reality, and sometimes rested on occult practices and 
 spiritual operations, the details of which it would 
 have been dangerous to transmit to the vulgar, or 
 to ignorant and ill-intentioned men. The subject 
 which engages us, not resting on such bases, is not 
 exposed to similar dangers. The only initiation 
 which I preach and seek with all the ardour of 
 
 ^ Correspondance, Lettre xxxii. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. III.
 
 254 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 my soul is that by which we may enter into the 
 heart of God and make God's heart enter into us, 
 there to form an indissoluble marriage, which will 
 make us the friend, brother, and spouse of our 
 Divine Redeemer. There is no other mystery to 
 arrive at this holy initiation than to go more and 
 more down into the depths of our being, and not 
 let go till we can bring forth the living vivifying 
 root, because then all the fruit which we ought to 
 bear, according to our kind, will be produced within 
 us and without us naturally." ^ This, he says else- 
 where, is " the work we ought all to work at, and if 
 it be laborious, it is also full of the consolations of 
 help extended when we undertake it courageously 
 and resolutely." ^ But these conclusions have an 
 application outside the field of initiation, and if we 
 accept them, we must agree with Saint-Martin when 
 he observes that " our understanding forbids us to 
 regard as a means of regeneration anything which 
 belongs to the realm of external facts, wherein our 
 inmost essence counts for nothing, since such facts 
 are no more linked with ourselves than the works of 
 a painter with an uninstructed person who glances at 
 them. Furthermore, it forbids us to consider as a 
 means of regeneration all secondary agents and all 
 the private ways so often trodden by erring men ; 
 as regards our inward birth, all such things are like 
 the outward application of medicaments for a disease 
 which has poisoned the blood." ^ 
 
 The agent of our regeneration is the Divine 
 Word or the Great Name, concerning which we 
 
 ^ Correspondance, Lettre ex. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," pp. 374-375- 
 
 2 Ibid., Lettre ii. ; ibid., p. 5. 
 
 3 Le Nouvel Homme, p. 23.
 
 REGENERATION 255 
 
 have learned enough from the doctrine of the Re- 
 pairer to know that these terms are not used in any 
 conventional or mechanical manner. They signify 
 that our regenerator is Christ. By immersing our- 
 selves continually in his living waters, by approach- 
 ing the furnace of his fire, by directing our own 
 word ever towards that central and interior Word, 
 will our tongue be unbound, for only that interior 
 Word can engender true speech within us.^ " It is 
 precisely on this account that the world fails to 
 advance ; its word is frittered on the external, never 
 carried to the interior, where it can be joined with 
 the living Word. Forcibly and painfully we must 
 be ploughed, so to speak, by the Word of the Lord, 
 to uproot all the thorns and briars which cover our 
 field. That Word must leave deep traces in our 
 humility, which is its cherished earth ; therein must 
 its seed be sown, that it may produce in due season 
 an abundant harvest. We must feel in this earth of 
 humility how much we deserve the severity of God, 
 since we were destined to be the channel by which 
 he would make himself Kinsman to the nations, 
 and we have set obstacles and bounds to his divine 
 manifestation. Having bewailed this impiety, we 
 must open our soul to hope that he will still take 
 us to himself, and that we yet may walk with him 
 in the regions of peace." ^ As regeneration begins 
 by this agency of the Word, so it is made perfect 
 by our full alliance therewith. It must possess us 
 sensibly and actively ; it must speak its language 
 within us ; it must vivify us with its benedictions, 
 its power, its light ; it must enable us, unworthy as 
 we are, to speak its holy works, and to exercise the 
 
 1 De I'Esprit des Glioses, ii, 70. 2 ibij^ pp_ 70-71.
 
 256 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 saintly ministries and all the divine properties which 
 are inseparable from the Name of God. 
 
 " The first stage of our regeneration is our recall 
 from the land of oblivion or kingdom of death and 
 darkness, for this is indispensable for our entrance 
 into the path of life." ^ The last stage is not of this 
 world ; our renewal here is but the preparation for 
 our perfect regeneration, which can only take place 
 after the separation of our corporeal principles. 
 " After our death we are suspended, so to speak, 
 from the Great Triad, or universal triangle, which 
 extends from the First Being to Nature, and each 
 of whose three actions draws to itself one of our 
 constituent principles — divine, spiritual, and ele- 
 mentary — to reintegrate them if we are pure, and so 
 set free our soul and enable it to reascend to its 
 source. But if we are not pure, the enemy, who 
 does not oppose the separation of the corporeal parts 
 which belong only to form, will combat the reinte- 
 gration of the principles over which the soul has 
 permitted his usurpation, and will retain the whole 
 under his dominion, to the great detriment of the 
 unfortunate soul who has become his victim." ^ The 
 protection against this future tyranny is the con- 
 ception now within that soul of "an eternal virgin 
 in whom the Son of Man may be incorporated, with 
 his virtues and his powers ; " but this conception is 
 impossible until we have " reanimated within us our 
 primitive body or pure element." ^ The virgin here 
 mentioned is the Sophia occasionally referred to in 
 Saint-Martin's correspondence, where he remarks : 
 " I have no doubt that she may be born in our 
 
 1 Le Ministere de PHomme-Esprit, p. 223. 
 2 Ibid., p. 287. 3 Ibid., p. 288.
 
 REGENERATION 257 
 
 centre. I have no doubt that the Divine Word 
 can also be born there by her means, as he was thus 
 born in Mary," ^ who " had her share of Sophia, like 
 all saints and all the elect." " I must confess that I 
 can understand from Saint-Martin neither the nature 
 nor the operation of this virgin ; it is clear, however, 
 that she is not that Holy Spirit of whom Mary w^as 
 the spouse, for a masculine aspect is involved by 
 this symbolism, and, moreover, Saint-Martin says, 
 using the uncouth metaphors of Bohme : '' There is 
 a vegetable land which is material, that of our fields; 
 there is a spirituous one, which is the pure element ; 
 there is a spiritual one, which is Sophia ; there is 
 a vegetable land divine, which is the Holy Spirit 
 and the Ternarium Sanctum." ^ The subject is not 
 elucidated by these seeming distinctions, but per- 
 haps Sophia is that portion or gift of the Spirit 
 which is individualised in each man by grace. 
 
 Lastly, while the process of regeneration is a 
 process of growth, and therefore slow, like growth, 
 while it is not completed till the new man receives 
 his crown, there yet are quickening influences, 
 and even during the early stages one phase may 
 follow upon another with a certain swiftness. 
 Hence Saint-Martin says that "when a man comes 
 to be regenerated in his thought, he will soon 
 be so in his speech, which is the flesh and blood 
 of his thought, but when he is regenerated in his 
 speech he will be so soon in the operation which 
 is the flesh and blood of speech."^ 
 
 1 Gorresiiondance, Lettre xxx. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 107. 
 
 ^ Ibid., Lettre ixxiii. ; ibid., p. 103. 
 ' Ibid., Lettre xxxiv. ; ibid., p. 117. 
 ■* Le Noiivel Homme, p. 21. 
 
 R
 
 II 
 
 THE NEW MAN 
 
 "The entire Bible," says Saint-Martin, "has man 
 alone for its object, and man also is its best and 
 fullest translation." ^ Like man, it begins in Para- 
 dise and it ends in eternity, and since in eternity 
 there is no end, the canon of Scripture will never 
 close while man remains to amplify it ; his soul 
 is its text, his life is its commentary, its history is 
 his history.^' We shall not, therefore, be surprised 
 to find that the great story of Israel is that of 
 universal election, and that every individual who 
 responds to the call of grace applies in his own 
 person the whole providence exercised by God 
 towards the chosen people. Man's own nature 
 is thus the Promised Land, which should be filled 
 with the altars of the Lord, with the monuments 
 of his glory, his love, and his power, but since the 
 Fall it has been possessed by wicked and idolatrous 
 nations who should have had no part therein — that 
 is to say, with the dark, false, illusory substances 
 which act in our corporeal form. We must pro- 
 ceed to the conquest of these nations and put 
 them to the sword " without distinction of age 
 
 ^ Le Nouvel Homme, ]). 98. 
 
 - " If the Holy Scriptures be the spiritual history of man, their 
 living law must pass through us and work within us, accomplishing all 
 the processes peculiar to the spirit of their agents, or of those who are 
 proclaimed by them as having been the ministers of truth and the 
 materials of its universal edifice."— jDe I' Esprit des Choses, ii. 160. 
 
 258
 
 THE NEW MAN 259 
 
 or sex." ^ These few words give the key to Saint- 
 Martin's biblical exegesis as regards the Old Testa- 
 ment. After what manner the Ark of the Covenant 
 must be borne into the Land of Promise,^ the Mount 
 of Sinai exalted therein and its marvels manifested,^ 
 the law proclaimed by the higher part of our nature 
 for the rule of the chosen people within us, all these 
 are illustrations and developments which the dis- 
 cernment of the reader may be left to work out for 
 itself. The application of New Testament history 
 to the regeneration of man is more important ; it 
 is more intimately characteristic of Saint-Martin, 
 and demands further treatment.* For him the life 
 of Christ is the life of the new nature conceived 
 and born within us for the operation of our re- 
 demption. But this conception, this birth, this 
 operation are the stages of pain and passion by 
 which the New Man passes into glory, and he 
 must be crucified before he can be crowned.^ From 
 the large volume which is devoted to this mystical 
 commentary on the gospel narrative, it is possible 
 only to offer a few selections ; but I do not know 
 that its entire presentation would make it more 
 complete, for it is at once discursive and frag- 
 mentary. Nor can such interpretations be re- 
 garded as of solid value ; they belong to the 
 fantastic order. At the least, they are an arbitrary 
 
 1 Le Nouvel Homme, p. 99. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 84 et seq. ^ Ibid., p. 136 et seq. 
 
 * "The Old Testament beui for its object the restoration of the 
 human soul, that is to say, the work of man. The object of the New 
 Testament is the work of God." All its earlier part belongs, however, 
 to the spirit and purpose of the old covenant ; the new covenant was 
 only inaugurated at Pentecost, and it is still in course of development. 
 — De I' Esprit des Glioses, ii. 300-301. 
 
 ^ Le Nouvel Homme, p. 29 et seq.
 
 26o THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 framework which is not essential to the scheme, 
 though they help to set out the scheme and 
 give it a certain consistence ; at the most, they 
 are indications and suggestions which show us 
 that on the other side of every spiritual history 
 there is the infinite with all its riches. The tem- 
 poral history of the Repairer may well correspond 
 with the inward legend of the soul, though it may 
 be merely a confusion of thought to say that 
 the Christian gospel is actually the soul's history. 
 All great books are allegories, or material upon 
 which the genius of allegory may be exercised, 
 though apart in most cases from any such intention 
 in their writers. On the other hand, the intended 
 significance of some formal allegories is beneath the 
 dignity of the outward sense, as in the alleged sig- 
 nificance of the Round Table present to the mind of 
 Tennyson when he conceived the " Idylls of the King." 
 The general standpoint of Saint-Martin is that 
 there is an unknown world within man, and that 
 it is vaster and fuller and greater than the visible 
 universe. To the man of sense who can conceive of 
 nothing in humanity outside the capacity of his skin, 
 this, of course, is the conception of delirium ; but the 
 spiritual philosopher will know that on his inner side 
 man is in communication with the infinite, and that 
 the inner world extends in proportion as we recover 
 consciousness therein. The mystical legend of the 
 fall of man and his descent into matter is the 
 history of the constriction of consciousness at the 
 external. Saint-Martin, however, regards the un- 
 known world of humanity, as it appears to his 
 philosophy, wrecked and desolated by the Fall, and 
 he compares it as such to the Promised Land, overrun
 
 THE NEW MAN 261 
 
 by idolatrous nations. Those nations must be ex- 
 terminated by the Israel of God, that the Sun of 
 Eighteousness may rise over it with healing in its 
 wings, and the Orient from on high visit it. Had 
 the mystic adhered to this allegorical method, treat- 
 ing the Covenant of the Law as the ethical repara- 
 tion of the soul, giving place in due season to the 
 Covenant of Grace and manifesting the Christ in the 
 spiritual Israel, he would have produced a consistent 
 and perhaps truly significant allegory ; but, unfor- 
 tunately, with the confusion so frequent in mystical 
 writers, and Saint-Martin's besetting defect, the New 
 Testament is spiritualised after another manner, and 
 yet without abandoning the previous method, with 
 results that are at times almost ludicrous. In the 
 sketch which here follows, I have done my best to 
 harmonise the conflicting elements and to produce 
 something like order in the symbolism. 
 
 The aspirant towards the new life must be con- 
 tent to regard himself for the moment as typified by 
 Mary, in whom the Divinity becomes flesh. Mary, 
 that is to say, is the soul when it aspires towards the 
 life of the eternal world. That aspiration is either 
 the first consequence of election, of the call of grace, 
 or it is the free act which opens the door to the 
 election which, at one or other period, enlightens 
 every human being born into this world, though it 
 is not accepted by all. The election itself is repre- 
 sented by the annunciation of the angel,^ foretelling 
 that the Holy Spirit shall brood over us and the 
 glory of the Most High shall cover us, and that for 
 this reason the New Man, anointed and sanctified, who 
 shall be born of us, may in some mystical sense be 
 
 ' Le Nouvel Homme, p. 31.
 
 262 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 termed the Son of God. In order that this annun- 
 ciation may be made, we must be restored in veri- 
 table innocence, — that is to say, we must put off 
 the concupiscence of the flesh and give place to the 
 desire of the spirit, after which we shall discern 
 within us that sacred conception which will qualify 
 us to utter the canticle of Mary, while our kindred, 
 the cloud of regenerated witnesses, salute us with 
 rejoicing, as Mary was saluted by Elizabeth.^ When 
 once this conception has taken place, we must spare 
 no pains to bring it to a happy termination, — that is 
 to say, we must avoid the dangers of relapse towards 
 the life of sense, which are very great at the begin- 
 ning of the life of the spirit. We must watch with 
 vigilance over all movements that occur within us ; 
 we must neglect none, lest we do harm to our 
 spiritual child ; but we must also defend ourselves 
 against false motions, which belong only to fantasy, 
 that other danger of the spiritual life ; for these will 
 give weapons to our enemy, who will not fail to use 
 them, that he may set his seal and character upon 
 some part of the body of our offspring." 
 
 When the higher powers have operated within 
 us by the Spirit the conception of our spiritual Son, 
 and have deemed in their wisdom that the moment 
 of his nativity has arrived,^ that birth takes place 
 within us, as in the stable at Bethlehem ; the shep- 
 herds hear the midnight song of the angels ; the 
 Magi behold the star in the east, and come to adore 
 him, off'ering their gold and frankincense, while 
 Herod, the prince of this world, dwelling in the 
 heart of the unregenerated man, trembles because 
 
 ^ Le Nouvel Homvie, p. 32. 
 2 Ibid., p. 33. 3 iliitl,^ p, 51.
 
 THE NEW MAN 263 
 
 his throne is menaced by the birth of him who shall 
 be called the King of the Jews/ In vain he mas- 
 sacres the children of Rachel to pacify his terrors ; 
 this Son can never be destroyed, because he is born 
 not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of 
 man, but of God ; and God, who has formed him, 
 will watch over all his days, will lead him to an 
 asylum in Egypt,^ — that is to say, into the hidden 
 life, till the time of wrath shall have passed and 
 that of glory be at hand. 
 
 The New Man is born in the midst of humilia- 
 tion, and his whole history is that of God suffering 
 within us. We may also regard his advent as the 
 manifestation of the archetypal, primeval man reap- 
 pearing on the scene of the desolation caused by his 
 departure, to restore that scene and to recover his 
 lost titles. He is warmed by the breath of the cattle 
 who are housed in the stable, referring to our animal 
 nature, but it is his spirit which should have en- 
 kindled them.^ He is the son of sorrow, the second- 
 born of Rachel, costing the life of his mother, and we 
 must nourish him daily with the divine elements 
 which gave him birth ; we must pour over him the 
 blood of the covenant, that he may be preserved from 
 the destroying angel ; it must be infused into all his 
 veins, that he may be the death of all the Egyp- 
 tians,^ and may one day despoil them of their gold 
 and silver vessels, wherewith they make unto them- 
 selves feasts of iniquity. It is the blood of suffer- 
 ing, which is the sign of life, for life increases with 
 suffering, and thereby the true sacerdotal element 
 shall penetrate the fibres of his being.^ 
 
 1 Le Nouvel Homme, p. 52. - Ibid., p. 53. 
 
 s Ibid. * Ibid., p. 54. s Ibid., p. 55.
 
 264 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 As the Divine Child grows in years the wisdom 
 of his Father manifests ; he confounds the doctors in 
 the temple of the human heart ; those doctors are 
 the doubts which matter and the darkness of false 
 teachers have created ; ^ they are the incessant sug- 
 gestions which have come from the spirit of false- 
 hood all the days of our life till this son beheld the 
 day. His first progress in knowledge dispels incer- 
 titudes and anxieties ; before our eyes, our heart, our 
 mind, the most differentiated of our faculties, he sets 
 the unity, and we see that all our extra-lignment 
 occurred because this unity was not yet born within 
 us. Now the doctors who seduced us discern the 
 empire of his word, the analogy between the light 
 which he offers and our own natural illumination. 
 The innumerable nations within us — for at this point 
 the allegory of Mary disappears and we return to 
 the original line of symbolism — are converted by his 
 instruction and become themselves the advocates of 
 truth ; we are each of us as a great assembly of the 
 faithful, ceasing not day or night to raise up altars 
 to the Supreme Author and Ruler of all things. 
 
 "Be not astonished," says Saint-Martin, address- 
 ing the man of desire, "to behold this cherished 
 Son exhibit most high faculties, since he has partaken 
 of the Word from his birth, and, seeing that he is 
 truly thyself, his sole mission is to change into that 
 self all that has ceased to be thee. He is conse- 
 crated to the Lord by his birthright, as the Eternal 
 Word is consecrated to the Ancient of Days before 
 the foundation of the ages, since it is the Word that 
 has founded the ag-es." ^ 
 
 Developing his allegory, Saint-Martin represents 
 
 ^ Le Nouvel Homme, p, 90. * Ibid., pp. 91-92.
 
 THE NEW MAN 265 
 
 the New Man entering upon his mission, when the 
 period of the hidden life of growth is over, even as 
 Christ entered upon his public ministry, and sub- 
 mitting, like Christ, on its threshold, to the law of 
 corporeal baptism, which, he says, must be received 
 from the hand of the Guide, in order that the New 
 Man may receive subsequently a divine baptism 
 from the hand of his Creator.^ At this point the 
 allegory becomes not only obscure, but almost un- 
 intelligible. The Guide is the guardian angel of 
 Catholic doctrine, who stands in the same relation to 
 the New Man as the Baptist stood to the Kepairer. 
 The baptism received from his hands is, however, a 
 humiliation,^ because man in his true estate is not 
 only superior to the angels, but is also their judge, as 
 will be seen in a later section. " Such is the out- 
 come of the immense transposition which took place 
 at the moment of sin, and it is a grace of infinite 
 magnitude, extended by the divine compassion to 
 permit that the hand of the spiritual creature should 
 burst our chains and enable us to receive the higher 
 and creative life from which we are so remote." 
 
 When this corporeal baptism, which, however, 
 appears unconnected with the corporeal rite of the 
 Christian Church, or the Church might be regarded 
 as the Guide, has been fulfilled upon us,^ the New 
 Man emerges from the waters in which he was 
 immersed, and as he sets foot upon the earth — 
 that is perhaps to say, as the mission of the re- 
 generated man becomes manifest to the outward 
 world, or correspondingly is realised in the inward, 
 a voice cries from heaven : " This is my beloved 
 
 1 Le Nouvel Homme, p. 171. 
 2 Ibid., p. 172. ^ Ibid., p. 173.
 
 266 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 son, in whom I am well pleased." Heretofore 
 the New Man was indeed the Son of God, because 
 he was conceived and born of the Spirit, but his 
 name and his divine parentage had not been an- 
 nounced, and until that barrier fell before the waters 
 of the Spirit, he could not receive from his Father 
 the authentic avowal proclaiming his sonship and 
 his inalienable title to his inheritance. Hence 
 it is then only that the Divinity begins truly to 
 enter within us, that the three Divine Principles 
 descend and accomplish a close union with the 
 three principles which constitute ourselves person- 
 ally, converting them into a single principle and 
 manifesting them invariably in the same powerful 
 and harmonious unity. This entrance of God 
 within us is the chief desire and essential object 
 of the Divinity,^ and we can have only a feeble 
 idea of the efforts which He makes to accomplish 
 it. " If there be anything deplorable in our ex- 
 istence, it is to know that we ourselves bar the 
 approach of Divinity ; it is to be physically aware 
 that the Divinity is ever moving round us, striving 
 to enter our hearts and thus raise us from the 
 dead, to enliven us by the fire of the Spirit. The 
 least ray of the Divine Word suffices to operate 
 this prodigy within us, substituting virtues and 
 characterised faculties in place of the tenebrous state 
 which is peculiar to the region we inhabit. Yet 
 it is the ray of this Word which we drive zealously 
 away as though it were death." 
 
 The New Man does not follow these errors ; 
 he was conceived in Nazareth ; he has dwelt 
 among the Nazarenes ; at his coming of age he 
 
 1 Le Nouvel Homme, p. 174. ^ Ibid., p. 175,
 
 THE NEW MAN 267 
 
 has approached the Jordan, which is the frontier 
 of the Promised Land ; there he has submitted 
 humbly to the hand of his Guide, and this baptism, 
 the understanding of which is imparted by the 
 visible baptism of the Kestorer,^ produces a two- 
 fold effect upon the New Man — he hears the 
 Divine Words proclaiming his sonship, and he 
 discovers concealed treasures in the depths of his 
 being. " The Divine Voice enters within him as 
 into its proper form, permeating all his faculties, 
 exhibiting not only the wealth wherewith he is 
 endowed by his divine nature, but also the use 
 which he should make of it for His glory from Whom 
 he has received it."^ To consider this wealth, and 
 to resolve within him the ends to which it must 
 be applied, the New Man passes into the desert 
 of the Spirit, into the desert of God. He returns, 
 as it were, apart from the Spirit and the Divinity into 
 his own individual being, conscious of that trespass 
 in his far past which makes him, in his own eyes, 
 unworthy of both, and bent upon gathering all his 
 forces, collecting all his lights, so that when he 
 has restored them to unity "he may offer himself 
 in juster measure to Him who is measure itself." ^ 
 During this period he traverses the most remote 
 tracts of his being, resting not day or night till 
 he has expelled all impurities, all malefactors, all 
 venomous animals. Therein also he is tempted 
 after the same manner that the first man was 
 tempted in the spiritual domain intrusted to him, 
 and he defends himself, like the Kepairer, by oppos- 
 
 1 The term " corporeal " is, therefore, used by Saint-Martin in some 
 obscure transcendental sense. 
 
 2 Le Nouvel Homme, p. 176. ^ Ibid,, p. 178.
 
 268 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 ing to his enemy the Word which cometh out of 
 the mouth of God. His exile continues for forty 
 days and forty nights "to accomplish the rectifica- 
 tion of the tetrad which characterises the human 
 soul, and has been disfigured by sin." ^ This recti- 
 fication consists in its total separation from all that 
 is devoid of correspondence with man's primitive 
 elements, after which the time of exile ends, the 
 desert is abandoned, and the true period of ministry 
 begins."' 
 
 It is the moment now of the Sermon on the 
 Mount, when the New Man sheds upon the world 
 unknown within himself and us the light of a living 
 instruction, which is also inward, and not an ex- 
 ternal, superficial, and dead doctrine, like that of 
 the doctors and the Pharisees.^ This mountain, 
 according to Saint -Martin, is an interior temple 
 more ancient than the temporal structures of the 
 two covenants ; " it is that temple wherein the 
 preacher of the Word is not only seated on the 
 seat of Moses, and on the seat of the second law, 
 but on that also of the truly first law, of that law 
 which is old enough to be itself placed upon the 
 Seat of Unity." ^ 
 
 We may pass lightly, with Saint-Martin, over 
 the analogies of the earlier public life, which, in the 
 miracle of Cana, first exhibit that the New Man has 
 revivified within him " our six elementary actions 
 which compose the visible circumference of material 
 things, and has thereby attained to their central 
 septenary principle, which imparts to them motion 
 and life," and note after what manner he understands 
 
 1 Le Noicvel Homme, p. 179. '^ Ibid., p. 196. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 221. * Ibid,, p. 203.
 
 THE NEW MAN 269 
 
 the Ministry of the New Man.^ "The moment has 
 arrived when the New Man, after the example of 
 the disciples of the Restorer, sets out to preach in 
 the towns and villages of the Israel which is Man ; 
 it is the moment when, in the Name of the Spirit, 
 he may repeat the election of twelve apostles by 
 developing within him the gifts which glorified the 
 ambassadors of the Restorer. He will offer in his 
 own person a likeness of that election, by reason of 
 the secret power and continuous, though unseen, 
 operation of an ancient law, which established 
 primevally twelve channels for the communication 
 of light, order, and measure among the nations ; to 
 which law all the dispensers of Divine things have 
 remained faithful, which has been observed in all 
 times, even by the simple professors of the elemen- 
 tary sciences, who have set apart twelve signs in- 
 variably in the region of the material firmament. 
 He will not carry the fruits of this election to the 
 Gentiles, nor into the cities of the Samaritans, be- 
 cause these nations are the figurative representatives 
 of the peoples reserved for judgment ; he will go 
 rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, 
 towards those regions round about him which have 
 been disturbed and led astray by the consequences 
 of crime, but have not yet shut their hearts to re- 
 pentance. He will testify for their encouragement 
 that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. By his 
 tears, his prayers, his labours, he will restore 
 health to the sick who are among them, life to the 
 dead, liberty to those who have been bound by the 
 demon ; he will spare no pains to fill his whole 
 earth with the abundance of his works. When he 
 
 ^ Le Nouvel Homme, p. ig6.
 
 270 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 enters into a certain town or village of the earth of 
 man, he will seek out one who is worthy to give 
 him lodging, and will abide with him till the time 
 comes for him to depart. Upon entering a house he 
 will salute it, saying. May peace abide herein ; and 
 if the house be worthy thereof, peace will come upon 
 it, but otherwise it will return to the owner. For 
 peace is not to be confused with the nations who are 
 unmeet to receive it. But when the New Man finds 
 within himself some house or city which will not bid 
 him welcome or give ear to his words, going out 
 therefrom, he shall shake the dust off his shoes, and 
 that house or city shall become more guilty than 
 Sodom and Gomorrah, which heard only an external 
 doctrine addressed to their corruptible senses, con- 
 tempt for which brought down the wrath of the 
 Lord upon their material bodies and abodes, whereas 
 the disciples of the New Man will be the bearer of 
 the doctrine of the New Man, which will knock at 
 the inmost foundation of their being, and will invoke 
 on them, if disdained, the most appalling scourges 
 and punishments. The Spirit who thus commissions 
 the New Man into his own land will forewarn him 
 that he goeth as a stranger amidst wolves, and will 
 commend him to be wise as the serpent yet simple 
 as the dove ; he will foretell all the opposition which 
 he will experience from the impious and unbelieving 
 nations who dwell in the country of the New Man. 
 But the Spirit of the Lord shall be with him, and 
 he shall conceive within him those answers which 
 shall secure the victory of him who hath sent him. 
 For the New Man cometh not in the Name of the 
 Spirit save to give battle to his enemies." ^ 
 
 ' Le Nouvel Homme, pp. 228-230.
 
 THE NEW MAN 271 
 
 After this manner the New Man within us ac- 
 complishes gradually the conquest of his primeval 
 dominion, puts an end to the usurpation of the false 
 self, and assumes into his own nature all that has 
 remained innocent in our fallen humanity. In the 
 fulfilment of his mission he becomes more and more 
 conscious of the Divine Life acting upon himself, 
 establishing itself with him, sustaining him by its 
 sacred influences, and communicating to him the 
 well-spring of its joy.^ In a word, he becomes so 
 penetrated by the Divine Light that there is, as it 
 were, a bright sun shining within our world, which 
 no man of desire will fail to discern when he turns 
 his eyes inward. And herein is the transfiguration 
 of the New Man typified by the mystery of Tabor, 
 in the light of which we discern our correspondence 
 with the source from which we derive,^ and thereby 
 the New Man within us is able to proclaim to his 
 disciples, the virtues and faculties of our being by 
 which he is surrounded, that " He who hath seen me 
 hath seen the Father." ^ 
 
 And thus Saint-Martin brings his fantastic alle- 
 gory to the period of the triumphal entry into Jeru- 
 salem. As the ass used by the Repairer in his 
 progress signified the old covenant and the colt 
 signified the new,* so for us the first covenant is 
 the image of the old Adam, while the second is the 
 New Man, " that divine soul in its purity on which 
 alone the Repairer rests when he makes his entrance 
 into the Jerusalem of Man." ^ It is from the temple 
 within this city that the New Man casts out the 
 money-changers and merchants who have converted 
 
 ^ Le Nouvel Homme, p. 297. ^ Ibid., p. 299. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 302. * Ibid., p. 336. ^ Ibid., p. 337.
 
 272 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 the house of prayer into a den of thieves ;" ^ and it is 
 therein also that the priests and the doctors of the 
 law begin to conspire against him,^ because it is 
 necessary that, after the example of the Repairer, 
 the New Man should pass into Gethsemane^ to 
 accept the chalice of expiation, that he should appear 
 before the high priest of the law of time ^ to confess 
 that he is the anointed of the Lord for our personal 
 regeneration, as Christ is the anointed of the Lord 
 for universal regeneration, and that, in a word, he 
 should reproduce in his own person the divine 
 majesty of the passion. 
 
 At this point the allegory becomes once more ex- 
 ceedingly forced, and it is not a little difficult to 
 understand amidst its confused cloud of imagery what 
 is really signified by the immolation of the New 
 Man within us. There is a touch of pathos and sug- 
 gestion when it is said that Barabbas was preferred 
 before Christ because Christ came not to save him- 
 self but to save the guilty, not to deliver himself but 
 to set free the slave ; ^ and we also must immolate 
 the sinless man within us that we may unbind our 
 individual Barabbas.^ We must enter into the work 
 and sacrifice of the Repairer, and apply them to our 
 particular work and sacrifice, for we must die in our 
 spirit before we die in our body, but after the death 
 of the body we live in the spirit by death only, and 
 not by life." In a general sense the symbolism is no 
 doubt concerned with the spiritual man's crucifixion 
 to the world and the world's crucifixion to him. 
 
 However this may be, when the New Man has 
 
 1 Le Nouvel Homme, p. 338. ^ Ibid., p. 354. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 388. * Ibid., p. 390. 
 
 s Ibid., p. 393. " Ibid., p. 394. ? ibid., p. 402.
 
 THE NEW MAN 273 
 
 accomplished his sacrifice within us, it is followed by 
 the same signs which were manifested at the death 
 of the Repairer. " The material sun is darkened, 
 because that sun operates within us only the death of 
 life, whereas the spirit born within us must operate 
 the destruction of death." -^ We may take this sun to 
 signify the gross intellectual light before it has been 
 clarified by the Divine Light. So also the veil of 
 the temple is rent in twain ; that is to say, the 
 iniquity which separates our soul from the true 
 Shekinah is riven and dispelled. The earth trembles 
 because the blood of our sacrifice penetrates the 
 foundations of our spiritual being. The tombs open, 
 and the bodies of the saints appear in the holy city ; 
 that is to say, our spiritual substances are re-born, or 
 awake from the sleep of death. In a word, every- 
 thing; within us confesses that this New Man was 
 truly the Son of God."' And he meanwhile passes 
 into the depths of our nature, as Christ descended 
 into Hades, to pass judgment on the prevaricators 
 and unbelievers, to accomplish a complete separation 
 between himself and those substances within us 
 which have not been cleansed from their sins, to 
 preach to all spirits that are imprisoned within us,^ 
 that they may concur in his sacrifice, and thus ob- 
 tain regeneration. Then he returns alive ; he shows 
 himself to his own that are within us ; he com- 
 missions them to bear his w^ord through all the 
 regions of our nature,* while he himself ascends to 
 his Father, that he may obtain us the gift of the 
 Spirit." He departs, but he is destined to return, 
 communicating heaven to our soul, accomplishing 
 
 1 Le Nouvel Homme, p. 405. ^ Ibid., p. 407. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 409. * Ibid., p. 419. ^ Ibid., p. 420. 
 
 S
 
 274 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 our complete restoration, transferring our particular 
 Jerusalem into the truly celestial city, and it is 
 within vision of his second advent, or glorious mani- 
 festation within us, that the mystic vision terminates. 
 
 " It is insufficient for the New Man to have passed 
 through all the temporal epochs of regeneration and 
 all the individual progressions attached to the re- 
 storation of human posterity ; he must attain, also, 
 the individual complement of that restoration, if not 
 permanently, by reason of the imperfection of our 
 sphere, then at least partially, and as by a foretaste 
 of that abiding reintegration which he will one day 
 enjoy, when, after having represented his principle 
 here below in a confined manner, he shall represent 
 it in the heavens above in one as vast as durable. 
 Hence, beyond the particular judgment which we 
 have seen him pronounce in Hades, he must utter 
 prophetically that Last Judgment, separating those 
 who, having escaped within him by penitence the 
 sentence of the first death, will be spared also the 
 second, from those who are the victims of both. 
 When this terrible judgment shall have been executed 
 within thee, human soul ! there shall be then, and 
 for thee, a new heaven and a new earth, for the 
 former things have passed away. Then shalt thou 
 behold the New Jerusalem descending from heaven 
 within thee, like a bride made ready for the bride- 
 groom, and a great voice shall cry from the throne, 
 ' Behold the tabernacle of God with men ! ' And 
 he shall abide with thee, and God himself dwelling 
 in the midst of thee, the same shall be thy God. He 
 shall wipe away all tears from thine eyes, and death 
 henceforth shall be no more. 
 
 "If thou wouldst learn the proportions of this
 
 THE NEW MAN 275 
 
 heavenly city, transport thyself to that great and 
 high mountain which is within thee, and thou shalt 
 behold it illumined by the splendour of God, as if by 
 a precious stone, a stone of jasper, transparent as 
 crystal. Thou shalt behold it built four-square, and 
 the measure of the wall is one hundred and forty- 
 four cubits of the measure of man, to signify that it 
 is on the individual dimensions, at once threefold, 
 sevenfold, and fourfold, of thy sacred essence, that 
 this eternal town of peace and consolations must be 
 raised, because thou alone art in correspondence so 
 close with the Eternal Source of all measures and 
 numbers, that He has elected to make thee His re- 
 presentative amidst all the regions of the visible and 
 invisible universe. Thou shalt discern that thou art 
 thyself the tabernacle of God, with all those who 
 dwell in thee, and this is why He would abide within 
 thee, that thou mayst be His people, and, so abiding, 
 that He may be thy God. So shalt thou behold no 
 other temple in this holy city, even this heavenly 
 Jerusalem, because the Lord God Almighty and the 
 Lamb are the temple thereof; nor hath this city 
 any need of lighting by sun or moon, because it is 
 the glory of God which enlighteneth it, and the 
 Lamb is the lamp thereof The nations shall walk 
 in the grace of His light, and there the kings of 
 the earth shall bestow their glory and their honour. 
 
 " Remark, human soul, how men who are still 
 in the earthly material kingdom shut up the gates 
 of their fortified cities after expelling enemies and 
 malefactors. In the spiritual kingdom men do 
 likewise, for without this they will be in danger 
 of falling victims to their neglect. But in that 
 divine kingdom which the New Man establishes
 
 2 76 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 within thee they will close no longer the gates of 
 the holy city, because there shall be no more any 
 night therein, nor aught which is unclean, nor one 
 of those who commit abomination or lying, but 
 those only who are written in the book of life. 
 
 Thou shalt behold in the holy city a river of 
 living water, clear as crystal, which fioweth from 
 the throne of God and of the Lamb, for thou 
 knowest at length that man himself is a stream 
 derived from this river, and issuing therefore eter- 
 nally, even as that which gave birth to it. Thou 
 shalt find also in the middle of this city, on either 
 bank of the river, the tree of life, bearing twelve 
 fruits and producing its fruit each month, and the 
 leaves of this tree are for the healing of the nations. 
 For this tree of life is that light of the spirit which 
 cometh to be enkindled in the thought of the New 
 Man, and shall not be quenched for evermore. The 
 fruit which it bears is the spirit of this New 
 Man, who must fill henceforth the universal ages 
 with all his wisdom. Those leaves which are for 
 the healing of the nations are the works of the 
 New Man, diff"using round thee unceasing harmony 
 and happiness, as thou shouldst have diff'used them 
 formerly in virtue of those three sacred gifts which 
 constitute thee at once the image and the son of 
 the God of beings. 
 
 " Work without ceasing that this holy city may 
 be built within thee, as it should have ever subsisted 
 there, had it not been destroyed by crime ; and re- 
 member all the days of thy life that the invisible 
 sanctuary wherein our God deigns to be honoured, 
 that the worship, the lights, the incense, of which 
 external nature and material temples give us salu-
 
 THE NEW MAN 277 
 
 tary and instructive images, that, in a word, all 
 the marvels of the heavenly Jerusalem may be 
 found still to this day in the heart of the New- 
 Man, since therein they have existed from the 
 beginnino:." ^ 
 
 It was impossible to pass over this allegory, to 
 which a position of importance has been assigned 
 always by the admirers of Saint-Martin, but I 
 must confess that I have presented it with reluc- 
 tance, firstly, for its obvious defects, and, secondly, 
 because of the slender spiritual ministry exercised 
 by devices of this sort. There are better things 
 than this in Saint-Martin, as there is evidence that 
 he also thought, and in the little Steps of the next 
 section, which will be permitted to speak for them- 
 selves, we shall find some of them ingarnered, though 
 here also there is a trace now and then of his fantasy 
 as distinct from his illumination. 
 
 ^ Le Nouvel Homme, pp. 425-432.
 
 Ill 
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 
 
 I. The Door of the Way ^ 
 
 In the earthly journey to which we are all con- 
 demned, and in the various spiritual paths which 
 man may traverse during the passage, we have all 
 of us an individual door by which truth seeks to 
 enter us, and by which alone it can enter. This 
 door is separate and distinct from that general 
 door of our origin by which radical life comes 
 down to us and constitutes us spirits in our nature, 
 because the latter is common to us all as well as to 
 the perverse principle. The purpose of our individual 
 door is to revivify us by the fountain of life and 
 the eternal light of love, but there is no such door 
 as this for the perverse nature. It is designed 
 specially that we may recover communication with 
 the sources of love and of light ; without it we 
 may pass our days in the vain pursuit of vain 
 sciences, as vainly perhaps in the following of true 
 sciences. So long as the fountain of life does not 
 find this door open within us, so long it tarries 
 without till we open it. By this door alone can 
 we obtain our sustenance ; if we fail to open it, we 
 remain altogether destitute ; if we open it, it brings 
 us nourishment in abundance. Hence, if we were 
 wise, we should never go about any work till we 
 
 ^ Le Ministere de I'Honwne Esprit, pp. 169-171. 
 
 278
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 279 
 
 had fulfilled our daily duty in this respect, and 
 also the kind of task which it sets us. Hut 
 seeing that this door has been ordained by God 
 as that of our entrance into the ministry, when 
 we are numbered among those who are called to 
 the work, the tempests and tumults will in vain 
 torment us to retard our work, while the fountain 
 of life will not fail sooner or later to find this 
 door in those who are fit to be employed, and in 
 them will God's glory triumph, to their great 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Though God opens this door in those who are 
 called to the work, others who are not so called must 
 not fall back on a pretended impossibility of them- 
 selves undoing it, because there is in all men a door 
 for desire and justice which we must and can open. 
 As to the other door which belongs only to the work, 
 it is right that God alone should open it, but this is 
 not the door of our advancement should the one re- 
 main closed through our indolence, for in His name 
 we may cast out demons, and yet He may have never 
 known us. 
 
 The reason why things that are acquired by ex- 
 ternal ways become truly useful to us only after 
 much difficulty is that they are in strife with those 
 which enter and issue by our true door. It is like 
 the sap of a plant which has been grafted struggling 
 with the sap of the tree on which the graft has been 
 set, a strife which continues till the sap of the tree 
 has taken its natural direction and has drawn the 
 new sap after it.
 
 28o THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 H. The First Work of Man^ 
 
 The first work of man is to labour for his reconcilia- 
 tion, without which it is impossible for him to obtain 
 anything, or to say that he has done anything.^ He 
 has only to reflect on our nature in its actual situa- 
 tion ; there is nothing so clear as that we are de- 
 nuded of all our powers and plunged in such a state 
 of privation that nothing can be worse than our con- 
 dition. If repelled by this state, it is probable that 
 man is not condemned to it of his own choice, and 
 that he cannot of himself break bonds that he has 
 not forged. Hence it is useless to reckon on his own 
 powers to soften the misery of his environment, and 
 if his greatest misery be the want of an initiative of 
 his own, it will follow that he can recover his acti- 
 vity only by the restoration of his liberty ; in other 
 words, his bonds must be broken for him. But to 
 know that the rights of man can be recovered by re- 
 conciliation is not in itself sufficient ; he must also 
 seek the means of attaining reconciliation. The first 
 and most wholesome is the conviction of our priva- 
 tion, to be grounded so firmly in humility that our 
 position shall earn the goodwill of those who keep 
 us in bondage.^ Such sincere humility produces 
 
 1 CEuvres Posthumes, i. 372-375. 
 
 2 "The object of man on earth is to employ all rights and powers 
 of his being in rarefying as far as possible the intervening media be- 
 tween himself and the true sun, so that, the opposition being practically 
 none, there may be a free passage, and the rays of light may reach him 
 without refraction." — Tableau Naturel, ii. 164. 
 
 ^ " The dispositions which are essential to our advancement consist 
 in a profound self-annihilation before the Being of beings, retaining 
 no will but his, and surrendering ourselves to Him with boundless 
 resignation and confidence ; I will add, in suppressing every human
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 281 
 
 persistent desire ; desire produces the serviceable 
 and indispensable solicitude and effort which we are 
 conscious cannot be dispensed with, at the same time 
 that they cannot be learned from any one. This 
 disposition conciliates unerringly the chief with the 
 inferiors, and sets us in the way of favour. If we 
 are easy of access to favours, the same will increase 
 speedily, they will indeed become identified with us, 
 and so naturally that we shall be even their in- 
 strument. It is then that man enters into the en- 
 joyment of his rights, and may hope to obtain the 
 crowning favour, which is to preside over favours. 
 These truths are indicated palpably by the cultus, in 
 which the beginning of everything is fast and prayer ; 
 sacrifice is preceded by confession, and so forth. 
 
 Yet to know that humility and the abhorrence 
 of self lead to reconciliation is again insufiicient, or 
 it is at least no less necessary to become familiar 
 with the ways which lead to these sentiments. In 
 a sense, all men have known them ; in a sense, all 
 have taught them ; but there are few only who 
 practise them. It is, therefore, permanently true 
 that these ways are open to all, and to be aware 
 of this we need only to remember that if the 
 prison of man be the enemy of man, it is by 
 holding this enemy in subjection that man can re- 
 conquer his privileges ; by the punishment of the 
 corporeal part is the spirit made humble, and the 
 spirit when humble recognises all that it lacks. 
 Then does that Being who watches over it take 
 pity thereon, and attaches Himself thereto, for then 
 
 motive within us, and reducing ourselves (if the comparison may be 
 permitted) to the condition of a cannon waiting for the match to be 
 applied." — Correspondance, Lettre iv.
 
 282 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 He becomes mindful that man, all weak and wretched 
 as he is, notwithstanding is of His own nature ; He 
 accommodates Himself to that weakness, and lends 
 a helping hand to raise it towards Himself. So 
 spake Moses to the Jews, that God would remem- 
 ber His covenant when they had sought pardon for 
 their impieties. 
 
 HI. Man the Thought of God ^ 
 
 Man is a species of sacred text, and his entire 
 life should be its development and commentary, 
 which is equivalent to saying that the soul of man 
 is actually a thought of (Jod.^ From this sublime 
 truth one no less sublime follows, that we are not 
 in harmony with our law if we think by ourselves ; 
 we should think only by God, for otherwise we 
 can no longer say that we are His thought, but 
 act rather as if our thought and principle were in 
 ourselves, and by disfiguring our own nature destroy 
 that from which alone we derive — an impiety and 
 blindness which account for the development of all 
 prevarications. 
 
 It follows also from this truth that the final cause 
 of our existence cannot be concentrated in ourselves, 
 but nmst be referred to the source which engen- 
 ders us in the form of thought, detaching us from 
 itself to effect externally that which its undivided 
 unity does not permit it to operate, but of which it 
 should be notwithstanding the term and the end, 
 as we are all here below the end and term of those 
 
 ^ Le Nouvel Homme, pp. ii, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24-26. 
 2 Human nature is also the universal figurative picture of divinity. 
 -Tableau Naturel, i. 166.
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 283 
 
 thoughts to which we give birth, which are so 
 many organs and instruments employed by us to 
 co-operate in accomplishing the plans which have 
 our ego for their invariable object. This ego, or 
 thought of God, is therefore the channel through 
 which the entire Divinity must pass, even as we 
 introduce ourselves daily and entirely into our own 
 thoughts to direct them to that end of which they 
 are the expression, so that whatsoever is void of 
 us may be filled therewith/ Such is the secret and 
 universal intent of man, and such also is that of 
 the Divinity of which man is the image. 
 
 This operation fulfils itself by laws of spiritual 
 multiplication on the part of the Divinity in man 
 when He opens to him His integral life, and then 
 does the Divinity develop within us all the spiritual 
 and divine products relative to His plans, as, in that 
 which relates to our own, we transfer constantly our 
 powers in our thoughts, previously developed, so 
 that they may attain their perfect fulfilment. There 
 is, however, this difi"erence, that the Divine plans, 
 joining us with unity itself, open up inexhaustible 
 resources, and as they are essentially alive, they 
 effect within us a succession of living acts, which 
 are like unto multiplications of lights, multiplications 
 of virtues, multiplications of joys growing continu- 
 ally. It is more than a golden rain descending upon 
 us ; it is more than a rain of fire ; it is a rain of 
 spirits of every rank and faculty, for God never 
 thinks without producing his image, while only 
 
 ^ " All the physical means employed by man, and all the material 
 works which he produces, have for their object to assimilate beings 
 outside himself and to make them one with him. This universal law 
 of reunion is that also of physical nature." — Tableau Naturel, Part I. 
 pp. 37-39-
 
 2 84 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 spirit can be the image of God. It is thus, I say, 
 that we receive within us multiplications of sanctifi- 
 cation, multiplications of ordination, multiplications 
 of consecration, and can dispense them in turn, after 
 an active manner, to objects and persons around us. 
 One of the signs of our advancement in this order 
 is the sensible experience that the things of this 
 world are illusory, and the ability to compare them 
 physically with things which are. A single sensa- 
 tion of life will then instruct us more than all docu- 
 ments, and subvert, as if by magic power, all the 
 scaffolding of false philosophy ; for this comparison 
 instructs us in the whole difference which subsists 
 between a thought of God and that confused and 
 tenebrous assemblage of mixed, wandering, and voice- 
 less substances which compose the material region 
 wherein the laws of our body confine us. This 
 operation is an indispensable condition of entrance 
 into the rank of catechumens and for setting foot 
 upon the first round of the sacerdotal ladder. 
 
 The man who has submitted his own faculties to 
 the direction of the source of all thoughts has no 
 longer uncertainties in his spiritual conduct, though 
 he is not ensured from them in temporal matters. 
 He who has attained the regeneration of his thought 
 will soon find it in his speech, which is like the flesh 
 and blood of his thought. But when there is re- 
 generation in speech it will soon be present in the 
 operation which is the flesh and blood of speech. 
 Not only does the spirit penetrate him, circulating 
 in all his veins, and clothing itself with him to im- 
 part movement to all his members, but whatsoever 
 is within him transforms into spiritual and angelic 
 substances, to bear him upon their wings whither his
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 285 
 
 duty calls him. It is thus that the sovereign judge 
 will come one day amidst his saints, and encom- 
 passed by myriads of angels, to re-establish the reign 
 of truth in all regions which are susceptible thereof. 
 
 It is then that man finds himself in spirit and in 
 truth the priest of the Lord ; then has he received 
 the life-giving ordination, and can transmit it to all 
 those who consecrate themselves to the service of 
 God. That is to say, he can bind and loose, purify, 
 absolve, expel the enemy into the darkness, rekindle 
 light in souls ; for the word " ordination " signifies an 
 ordering ; it is the restoration of everything to its 
 rank and place. Such is the faculty of the Eternal 
 Word, which by number, by weight, and by measure 
 produces all things unceasingly. Such, finally, is 
 the zeal of the Word for this sublime work, that it 
 would be transformed into man himself, so that it 
 may order and consecrate us, if men be wanting to 
 impose their hands on us ; for it seems that truth, 
 in order to be of use to us here below, must have 
 corporeal humanity for its organ. It is not thus a 
 simple mystical result or a simple metaphysical 
 operation which takes places within us when the 
 Divine Word regenerates us ; it is a living work, for 
 this Word is life and activity, and our whole 
 spiritual and corporeal being experiences the sensa- 
 tion physically. 
 
 But if man be a thought of God, and if the 
 regeneration of his thought is followed by that of 
 his speech, which is equivalent to saying that he 
 becomes the speech of God, it will follow that man 
 was originally both speech and thought of God, and 
 must be such once more when he is happily re- 
 established in his original nature. To this end
 
 286 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 should all our efforts be directed ; without this we 
 persuade ourselves vainly that we are advancing on 
 the path of return towards our principle. Let us 
 never cease to contemplate this divine and indi- 
 spensable end ; let us never rest, never spare an effort, 
 till we feel ourselves reborn in that living faculty 
 which is our essence, or until, by its potent virtue, 
 we have expelled from us all the buyers and sellers 
 who have established their traffic in the temple. 
 
 If we feel that we can only be regenerated in so 
 far as we become a speech of God, this is proof that 
 God is himself a living and effective speech ; our 
 similitude with him will then be manifested to us 
 in the most natural, most instructive, most winning 
 manner, since at any moment we may convince our- 
 selves of this similitude by showing that we can 
 instantaneously connect with God as God connects 
 with us. Now, that which manifests entirely the 
 glory of this Supreme Being and our own spiritual 
 nature is the fact that whatever the dignity and 
 power of the speech which is in us, we cannot hope 
 for its re-birth and development, except in so far as 
 the Divine Word comes to quicken our own, and 
 restore the activity which has been arrested by the 
 bonds of our prevarication. It is, finally, to feel 
 irresistibly that speech is an absolute necessity for 
 the establishment of speech, by which we learn that 
 all our work must take place in the man within, 
 as in the invisible storehouse of our divine life, and 
 that such work can only be accomplished truly by 
 the Divine Word or the Divinity itself. 
 
 The re-birth of our internal speech is not confined 
 merely to a partial effect concentrated in the one 
 point of our interior being ; it is propagated in all
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 287 
 
 the regions which constitute us, and revives life at 
 every step ; it imparts, so to speak, the names which 
 are proper and active for all substances — spiritual, 
 celestial, elementary — collected within us, to re- 
 establish them in the vivacity of their motions, in 
 the effective exercise of their original functions, as 
 Adam formerly imposed names on all animals and 
 introduced his living power into all creation. Now, 
 these two testimonies, that of our experience and 
 that of tradition, instruct us that such also is the 
 progress of eternal Divinity in its holy operations, 
 restorations, and rectifications, whence the life of His 
 Divine Word spreads successively in all beings that 
 it would regenerate and that do not oppose its 
 action. But if by our own experience and the 
 tradition of the operations of Adam we know the 
 restoring path of the Divine Word, it is proof that 
 such also was the creative course of that same Word ; 
 since things are not regenerated by another path 
 than that of their creation. Thus St. Peter rightly 
 told us that there is no other name under heaven 
 given unto man whereby we may be saved, for St. 
 John also has affirmed that in the beginning was the 
 Word and the Word was God, and without Him was 
 made nothing that was made. Hence we cannot 
 find the saving God, the sanctifying God, the forti- 
 fying and quickening God, except in the creative 
 God, as we cannot find the creative God save in 
 Him who is of Himself, whose life is eternity, of 
 whom eternity is the life, albeit these diverse powers 
 may act in divers times and may exhibit different 
 properties. 
 
 If speech be necessary for the establishment of 
 speech, and if hence we cannot be re-born in our
 
 288 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 speech otherwise than hy the Word, we cannot be 
 re-born in our other faculties save by faculties 
 analogous, in our thought except by thought, in our 
 movement except by movement, in our life save only 
 by life, in our spirit otherwise than by spirit, in our 
 virtues by anything but virtue, as in our lights by 
 light. We should be thus in a continual mobility 
 and activity, since the least rays of that which is 
 within us should be reacted on perpetually by similar 
 sparks, given forth unceasingly by the eternal furnace 
 of life. 
 
 Such is the state of those who, after having van- 
 quished the dragon, have ascended through death 
 into the region of repose and bliss ; such also here 
 below is their state who have broken the chains of 
 their bondage, have opened all their faculties to Him 
 who asks nothing but to penetrate and fill them ; 
 such, in fine, is the state of those on whom the Spirit 
 has laid hands, for by this imposition He collects into 
 unity within them all the spiritual subdivisions which 
 they have allowed to take place ; it is even by this 
 means, and in virtue of the indivisible unity of 
 which this Spirit is the depositary, that He places 
 them in a position to lay hands in their turn on their 
 like, and to efi'ect the same concentration within 
 them. Such is the object of the priesthood, these 
 are its powers, this is its fruit for the worthy who 
 are included in the Divine election. It is a fruit 
 which appears to be without limit, when the prin- 
 ciple, having been set in motion, is transmitted in 
 the same measure and without alteration, because it 
 acts invariably by the same law and on the same 
 species of disorder, which is nothing but a subdivision. 
 So also it is the same spirit which, in things physical
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 289 
 
 as in tilings moral, by the imposition of hands, causes 
 the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, 
 makes whole the sick man, raises the dead to life, and 
 sets the bondman free. 
 
 IV. The Communication of Spiritual Life^ 
 
 We find in the physical order that the remedy comes 
 after the disease, which is itself preceded by health ; 
 it is thus the disease which causes the cure to be dis- 
 covered, and this rule obtains in the spiritual order, 
 where also a state of health preceded that of infirmity, 
 and the medicine, as in things physical, must be analo- 
 gous to the complaint. The first stage in the cure 
 which man has to operate on himself is to remove 
 all the vicious and foreign tumours which have accu- 
 mulated within him since the Fall, whether those 
 which have become engrained in the human species 
 by the many errors of the posterity of the first man, 
 tendencies derived through our parents from departed 
 generations, or those which our own neglect and 
 daily prevarications have permitted to accumulate. 
 Till all these have been purged off we cannot enter 
 the way of our restoration, wherein we must traverse 
 that grim and darksome region into which the Fall 
 has precipitated us in search of the natural elixir 
 with which we can alone restore the senses of a sor- 
 rowing universe. There is here no further question 
 as to the spiritual nature of our being, of our essen- 
 tial correspondence with our principle, of our degra- 
 dation through wilful wandering, of the burning love 
 which has caused our generative source, and still 
 prompts it daily, to call us in the midst of our im- 
 
 1 Adapted from Le MinisUre de V Homme-Esprit, pp. 59-69. 
 
 T
 
 290 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 purities, nor of the cloud of witnesses to these funda- 
 mental and self-evident truths. The question is 
 whether we are purged of all the secondary impurities, 
 or have at least a great desire to be delivered from 
 them, whatever the cost, that we may restore that 
 life which has become extinct by the primitive crime, 
 and without which we can be neither the servant of 
 God nor the consoler of the universe. We must 
 indeed realise that the sole science for our study is to 
 become without sin. If man were in this state, it 
 might well be that he would manifest naturally all 
 sciences and all lights. The work of man calls for 
 man made new ; others will attempt vainly to share 
 in the construction of the building ; the stones which 
 they bring will be wanting in polish as well as in the 
 required dimensions, and they will be sent back to 
 the workshop until they are fit for use. 
 
 The test of our purgation is whether we are above 
 every fear save that of not being in perfect anasto- 
 mosis with the divine action and impulsion ; whether, 
 far from regarding our personal trials as misfortunes, 
 we confess that we deserve all, and that if we are 
 spared it is by grace and by indulgence of our weak- 
 ness, so that in place of lamenting because we are 
 denuded of joys and consolations, we give thanks that 
 there are any left us. Assuming these conditions, and 
 passing on to the beginning of the regeneration which 
 replaces man in his primitive rights, titles, and virtues, 
 let us recall how in our material bodies we are con- 
 scious frequently of pains in limbs which have been 
 amputated. Now we have lost all the members of 
 our true body, and the first proof that we are begin- 
 ning to exist as spiritual beings is to be aware of 
 lively suffering in those lost members. Life must be
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 291 
 
 re-born in all those organs which we have allowed to 
 perish, and this can take place only by the generative 
 power of life substituting those renewed organs for 
 the weak and foreign members which constitute us 
 at this day. All the foreign bodies which oppose our 
 vegetation and fruitfulness must be torn up ; what- 
 soever has entered within us by the way of seduction 
 must pass out by the way of suffering. Now that 
 which has entered into us is the spirit of this world, 
 with all its essences and all its properties, which have 
 been transformed into corrosive salts, into poisonous 
 tumours, and have become so coagulated that tney 
 cannot be separated from us save by the most search- 
 ing remedies. This is why regeneration must take 
 place amidst the acute suffering of our whole nature, 
 till all the false bases of our errors having vanished, 
 they may be replaced by the spirit and the essences 
 of another universe. 
 
 As it is in our inmost parts that these foreign 
 substances are implanted, it is also in our most 
 secret being that the same sufferings must be felt ; 
 there must be developed the real sense of humility 
 and contrition, because we are found united to 
 essences so unrelated to ourselves. There we must 
 learn to walk in the universe as along a road 
 bordered by groves and having at every step the 
 dead asking us for life. There by our sighs and our 
 sufferings we must attract the substance of sacrifice 
 on which the fire of the Lord cannot fail to descend, 
 consuming the victim but giving life to the operator, 
 and filling him with potent supports or permanent 
 virtualities to pursue the universality of his work. 
 By this union of the secret and living substance of 
 the sacrifice with ourselves does our regeneration
 
 292 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 begin, for the purifying pains are its prelude, de- 
 signed to remove what is hurtful, but not supplying 
 what is wanting. In this union the balm of life is 
 applied to the soothing of our pains and the healing 
 of our wounds, and it renews us in all our faculties, 
 in all our powers, in all the active principles of our 
 being, oppressed heretofore by the weight of the uni- 
 verse, and so dessicated by the fire which burns 
 them within that they turn with longing to the one 
 refreshment which can restore their free activity. 
 
 This refreshment so adjusts itself that it is small 
 with the small, weak at the beginning, because man 
 is so weak and so little, even as a child with us who 
 are less than children, and, speaking generally, grow- 
 ing with our growth. Or it acts like a tender 
 mother towards her \\ounded child, fixing all her 
 thoughts on his cure, and expending herself in all 
 his sujQfering members. But it does even more than 
 this, for it puts on the very form of the child, and 
 substitutes itself for all that is bruised and broken 
 therein ; there is nothing too painful, there is nothing 
 too minute ; whatsoever may do good is for it a 
 necessity. The means which it adopts, thus gradu- 
 ated and measured, are restoring tongues directed by 
 the true Word, or such at least, with all the deno- 
 minations and expressions contained within them, are 
 the means which it prefers to employ. 
 
 There is no reason for astonishment that it is 
 necessary for this living and active force to enter 
 within us so that it may dispose us towards its own 
 work. Whosoever is acquainted with the true con- 
 dition of things is conscious that he must become 
 both alive and powerful before that work can be 
 accomplished, since evil itself is a power and not a
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 293 
 
 mere fiction. It is not by discoursing that we can 
 destroy its reign in nature or in the soul of man ; 
 the learned discourse to no purpose ; that does not 
 put evil to flight ; on the contrary, it spreads wider 
 under the shadow of their apparent palliatives. 
 
 It is this substance of life which sustains Nature 
 against the foes that harry it, which sustains the 
 political life of peoples, which sustains man indi- 
 vidually even amidst his ignorance, extravagance, 
 and abomination. It is that substance which, en- 
 tombed everywhere, everywhere cries for liberation. 
 Its first and its chief seat is the soul of man, wherein 
 it seeks especially to develop and manifest. And 
 did man concur therewith by his persistent action, 
 did he feel that, in virtue of his original nature, he 
 is a divine oratory wherein the truth desires to 
 offer pure incense to the Eternal Source of all things, 
 he would soon behold the substance of life diff'use its 
 roots within him, and spread innumerable branches 
 laden with flowers and fruits over himself and all 
 around him. Soon also the spirits, overjoyed by 
 the delights we should have thus procured them, 
 would go so far in their charity as to forget the 
 injuries which we have heaped upon man heretofore 
 by our errors ; ^ for each act of this substance is a 
 flowering season, which begins at the root of our 
 being, at our animic germ ; thence it passes to the 
 life of our mind or intelligence ; lastly, to the 
 bodily life ; and each of these things being joined 
 to its corresponding region, so every blossoming 
 which takes place within us must be communicated 
 to its particular atmosphere. But as this threefold 
 
 1 This reference is elucidated by the observations on the " Angelic 
 Ministry of Man " in No. 7 of the present section.
 
 294 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 operation of the substance imparts to us a new life 
 everywhere, the great work is effected by a three- 
 fold transformation, which gives us a new soul, a 
 new mind, and a new body. But this also is a 
 transmutation accompanied by suffering, because it 
 is a strife of the healthy with the diseased, of the 
 physical act of the true will against our own 
 diseased will. Hence our wills effect nothing until 
 the divine will is infused into them. By these 
 different operations does life substitute a pure es- 
 sence for the corrupted essence of our triple nature ; 
 our desire becomes one with the divine, with the 
 divine hunger for the manifestation and reign of 
 truth in the universe ; our intelligence is united 
 with the Divine Eye, which sees both before and 
 behind ; the false and corrupt in our body is re- 
 placed by diaphanous substances, and becomes a 
 medium for the divine marvels. 
 
 V. The Divine Contemplation ^ 
 
 Among the various privileges of the human soul, 
 that which we should first seek to develop, because 
 it is not merely the most eminent of all, but the one 
 which gives value to the rest, is to draw God from 
 the magical contemplation of His wonders, which 
 are eternally before Him, which spring forth eter- 
 nally from Him, which are in truth Himself, whence 
 therefore He cannot separate, since He cannot be 
 divided from Himself. This is, in a sense, to divert 
 Him from the imperious and alluring attraction 
 which entrains Him ever towards Himself, being, 
 in fact, that law whereby the things which are turn 
 
 1 Le Ministere de I'Homme-I^sjn-it, pp. 44-46.
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 295 
 
 ever from those which are not, and cleave to 
 their like as by the necessary effect of a natural 
 analogy. It is to awake Him, and, if it be permis- 
 sible to express it in such terms, to reclaim Him 
 from that ecstasy in which He experiences perpe- 
 tually the quick and reciprocal impression of the 
 sweetness of His own essences, and the delicious 
 consciousness of the active and generative source 
 of His own existence. It is, finally, to invite His 
 divine regards towards this darksome and deviated 
 nature that their life-giving power may restore its 
 ancient splendour. But where is the thought which 
 can reach Him unless it have kinship with Himself? 
 which can operate this species of awakening unless 
 it be alive as He is ? which can draw from His sweet 
 and restoring fountains unless it has been restored 
 to sweetness and purity like His own ? which can 
 unite with what is unless it has become like to what 
 is by separation from all that is not ? In a word, 
 who can be admitted to the house of the Father and 
 to the Father's intimacy till he has proved himself 
 the true child of the Father ? If ever thou shouldst 
 succeed in awaking this supreme God and withdraw- 
 ing Him from His own contemplation, can the state 
 in which He shall find thee be to thee a matter of 
 indifference ? Be thy nature re-born, therefore, as a 
 new nature I Be each of the faculties which con- 
 stitute thee revivified in its deepest roots ! Let 
 the simple, living oil flow forth in an infinity of 
 purifying elements, and be there nothing within 
 thee unstimulated and unwarmed by one of these 
 regenerating and self-existing elements !
 
 296 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 VI. The Universal Ameliorator ^ 
 
 Of all the titles which serve to characterise man 
 when he is restored to his primitive elements, that 
 which most satisfies the laudable desires of the soul 
 and most fully corresponds to its conception, is the 
 title of Universal Ameliorator. For the human soul 
 experiences a pressing and importunate need for the 
 reign of order in all classes and all regions, so that 
 all may concur and participate in the sovereign 
 harmony which alone manifests the majestic glory 
 of the Eternal Unity. Brotherly love can in truth 
 exercise no more sublime office than the forgiveness 
 of our enemies and the service of those who hate us. 
 But those who do not hate us, those also who are un- 
 known and will always remain unknown to us, must 
 our love be condemned to inaction in their regard ? 
 Should it even be limited to those vague prayers 
 which are meant commonly when we are directed to 
 pray for all ? In a word, the entire human species, 
 past, present, and to come, may not this be the object 
 of our real benevolence ? May not the heart of that 
 God who is dear so eminently to all the faculties 
 of our being, that God who, for infinite reasons, 
 is entitled to be called our friend par excellence^ 
 may not His heart be afflicted because the marvels 
 which He has distributed to man and the universe 
 are shrouded by darksome clouds, and should we 
 relax for one moment our efi"orts to procure it 
 repose ? Assuredly there can be nothing so im- 
 portant for us as to return into our mother country 
 without having contracted the manners and customs 
 
 1 Le Ministere de I'Homme-Esprit, pp. 38-41.
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 297 
 
 of this land of iniquity ; but though it is much to 
 escape from its defilements, is it not still more to 
 neutralise its corroding poison, or even to transmute 
 it into life-giving balm ? We are told to do good 
 to our enemies, and it cannot be denied that, in 
 several respects, Nature is to be included in their 
 number. As to those who are called the enemies 
 of God, it is for God and not for us to measure 
 the justice which is due to them. God himself 
 is too mild and too lovable to have enemies ; those 
 who would so appear are only foes to themselves, 
 and remain under their own justice. 
 
 There are several tasks to be fulfilled in the 
 spiritual career. Most men who enter it seek virtue 
 and knowledge therein only for their own ameliora- 
 tion and their own perfection, and happy are those 
 who are filled with such a desire. But if they re- 
 joice the Father of the family by striving to be 
 numbered among His children, they would rejoice 
 Him still more by endeavouring to be included 
 among His workers ; the others serve themselves, 
 but these give Him true services. 
 
 Since God has designed man to be the Amelio- 
 rator of Nature, He has also given the order to 
 accomplish the amelioration. But He has not 
 issued that order without providing the means ; 
 He has not provided the means without conferring 
 an ordination ; He has not conferred the ordina- 
 tion without imparting a consecration ; He has not 
 imparted consecration without a pledge of glorifi- 
 cation ; and He has not promised glorification to 
 man save that man is the organ and distributor 
 of the divine admiration, taking the place of that 
 enemy whose throne is cast down, and developing 
 the mysteries of the eternal wisdom.
 
 298 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Vn. Angelic Ministry of Man ' 
 
 Since that period when the first man was drawn 
 from the abyss into which he had fallen, it is our 
 task to discover by every possible means the eternal 
 marvels of the Father manifested in visible Nature, 
 and it is the more possible because the Son, Who 
 contains them all and opens all, has restored them 
 to us by incorporating our first parents in the 
 natural form which we bear, and that He brought 
 with Him the key of all when He was made like 
 unto us. Be assured that there is a deep know- 
 ledge which we might impart even to the angels did 
 we return into our rights ; and this should by no 
 means astonish us, because, according to St. Paul, 
 we shall judge the angels. Now, the power of judg- 
 ment supposes that of instruction. Administrators, 
 physicians, redressers of wrong, warriors, judges, 
 also governors and guardians, all these may the 
 angels be, but without us they can have no pro- 
 found knowledge of the divine marvels of Nature. 
 They are hindered not only because they know 
 the Father only in the splendour of the Son, and 
 that, unlike the first man, they do not comprise 
 in their envelope any essences derived from the 
 root of Nature, but also because we close to them 
 that central eye which is within us, that divine 
 organ through the medium of which they would 
 have contemplated the treasures of the Father in 
 the profundities of Nature, and it is in this manner 
 that the men of God might and ought to instruct 
 the angels, unfolding before them the depths con- 
 
 1 Adapted from Le Ministere de VHomme-E sprit, pp. 51-54.
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 299 
 
 cealed in the corporisation of Nature, and in all 
 the wonders which she includes. 
 
 The high privilege of penetrating the pro- 
 fundities of Nature, and becoming, so to speak, 
 its possessors, has been partly restored to us since 
 our degradation ; it may even be regarded as an 
 inherent heritage of man, constituting his true 
 wealth and his original possession. Man since 
 his fall has been grafted anew upon the vital root 
 which should produce within him all the living 
 vegetation of his principle ; did he therefore raise 
 himself to the living source of wonder, he could him- 
 self communicate the real evidences thereof. This, 
 indeed, is the one way by which the divine plans can 
 be accomplished, since man is born to be the chief 
 minister of Divinity. At this day even our material 
 body is far superior to the earth; our animal soul is 
 far superior to the soul of the world, through its junc- 
 tion with our animic spirit, which is our true soul ; 
 and our animic spirit is far superior to the angels. 
 
 But man would deceive himself if he dreamed 
 of advancing in his work as the minister of Divinity 
 until he has revived that sacred sap within him 
 which has become thickened and congealed by the 
 universal alteration of things. That which has 
 been coag-ulated must be dissolved and revealed 
 to the eyes of our spirit, so that the depths of 
 our nature may be visible, wherein we shall find 
 the foundation on which the work reposes. Except 
 that basis be re-shaped and levelled, our edifice can 
 never be erected. Only in the interior light of 
 our being can the Divinity and its marvellous 
 powers be experienced by us in its living efficacy.
 
 loo THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Vni. The Secret of the New Man ^ 
 
 The faithful friend who accompanies us in our 
 misery here below " is, so to speak, imprisoned 
 with us in the elementary region, and though he 
 enjoys his spiritual life, he can only participate in 
 the divine light and the divine joys of the divine 
 life through the heart of man himself, since man 
 was chosen to be the universal intermediary be- 
 tween Q-ood and evil.^ We look to this faithful 
 friend for all the assistance, all the protection, all 
 the counsels which are needful in our darkness, in 
 a word, for strength to undergo the sentence of 
 our ordeal, which he is in no way empowered to 
 change ; but he in return expects to experience 
 through us, that is to say, by the divine fire with 
 which we should be kindled, the warmth and influx 
 of that Eternal Son from which he keeps himself 
 separated out of pure and living charity for un- 
 fortunate humanity. It is for this reason that 
 Jesus Christ has said: "Despise not one of these 
 my little ones, for I say unto you that their angels 
 in heaven behold continually the face of my Father 
 which is in heaven." They behold the face of God 
 only because the children whom they accompany 
 have a pure heart, which is the organ of these 
 angels, who are not in heaven with the Father ; but, 
 reciprocally, the heart of man is pure only when 
 
 1 Le Nouvel Homme, pp. 6-lo. 
 
 - This is the guide mentioned in the previous section by whom the 
 New Man is baptized on the threshold of his mission. 
 
 ^ The free agents who are the ministers of Divine Wisdom, though 
 they did not participate in the crime of man, share in the painful con- 
 sequences which this crime has entailed. — Tableau Naturel, i. 133.
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 301 
 
 faithful to the voice of his angel, in other words, 
 when man has become as a child and so acts that his 
 angel may behold the face of God. So, also, there 
 is a deep meaning in those other words of Christ : 
 " Unless ye become as little children ye shall in no 
 wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." The angel 
 is wisdom, the heart of man is love ; the angel is the 
 recipient of the divine light, the heart of man is 
 its organ and modifier. Neither can dispense with 
 the other, one cannot be united to the other except 
 in the name of the Lord, who is at once love and 
 wisdom, and binds them thereby in his unity. 
 There is no marriage which can be compared with 
 this marriage, and there is no adultery like that 
 which makes it void, whence it is said : *' What 
 God hath joined together let no man put asunder." 
 
 In this great truth we may discern also the sense 
 of the injunction, " Love thy neighbour as thyself," 
 as also of that other passage which tells us that " he 
 who humbleth himself shall be exalted." In this 
 triple alliance all is living, all spirit, all God and 
 the Word. man ! if thou canst perceive the least 
 ray of this exalted light, lose not a moment in ful- 
 filling every law which it may impose on thee ; 
 make thyself living, active, pure, even as the two 
 correspondences between which thou art placed ! 
 So shall thy regeneration be hastened, so shalt thou 
 prepare thyself a place of refuge in the time which 
 is to come. Thou art the lamp, the spirit is the 
 air, the heat and fire of the divine light are con- 
 tained in the oil ; the air breathes upon thee that 
 it may awaken thine activity, whereby thou wilt 
 transmit to it in return the gentle and living- 
 warmth, the holy brightness, of that oil which
 
 302 THE UNKNOAVN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 must pass of necessity through thee before attaining 
 to it. 
 
 In this operation man becomes a veritable light 
 amidst the darkness, because he exhibits the living 
 principle which willeth indeed to procure it for him, 
 and cause it to flow through his heart ; thus, man 
 may rejoice indeed, but he may not glorify himself; 
 the angel, too, is overwhelmed with consolations and 
 gladness ; by means of the divine delights which we 
 procure him, he cleaves and unites more and more 
 unto us, not only by his living and native charity, 
 but by the need of increasing his own felicity. The 
 Divinity, on its part, does but seek continually to 
 penetrate further into the heart of man, for the 
 extension of his glory, life, and power, and to fill 
 with these the angel who so ardently desires them. 
 
 Is there anything more exalted in its sublimity 
 than the vocation which designs us to be the in- 
 struments of communication between the Divinity 
 and the spirit? Can we delay a moment over so 
 sacred a work, and thus retard the accomplishment 
 of that active triad which, in spiritual and distinct 
 characters, represents the Eternal Triad ? By each 
 moment thus lost we render ourselves guilty to- 
 wards God, whose designs we hinder ; towards the 
 spirit, whom we deprive of nourishment ; and to- 
 wards ourselves, whom we wrong not only by the 
 non-fulfilment of our law, but actually destroy by 
 depriving of the double subsistence, divine and spiri- 
 tual, afi"orded in this sacred function. When the 
 Divine Life enters within us, it attracts the spirit ; 
 when the spirit enters, it attracts the Divine Life. 
 Then is God made spirit, and the spirit is made 
 divine. Our spirit then receives the nourishment
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 303 
 
 prepared by the wisdom which ordains all its 
 operations for the supreme good of existences. 
 Without it, the advent of Divinity alone would 
 consume us, while the spirit by itself would not 
 suffice for our nourishment, because, albeit we are 
 less than God, we are more than the spirit.^ 
 
 IX. The Two Species of Mystery ^ 
 
 Mystery is of two kinds. The one comprises 
 the natural mysteries of the formation of physical 
 things, the laws, mode, and purpose of their exis- 
 tence ; the other encloses the mysteries of our 
 fundamental being and its correspondences with its 
 principle. The final end of a mystery in general 
 cannot be to remain inaccessible either to intelligence 
 or to that sweet sentiment of wonder for which our 
 soul is made, which is therefore an indispensable 
 nourishment for our immaterial being. The end of 
 the mystery of Nature is to elevate us, by the dis- 
 
 1 There are some Kabalistic teachings which present a certain 
 analogy with this unreasonable doctrine concerning man and the angels, 
 which, it should be observed, is quite distinct from recent attempts to 
 identify man with the fallen portion of the angelic hieiarchy. There 
 is, moreover, no trace of it in the Masonic catechisms of Pasqually, or 
 in the curious treatise of Fournie, which is supposed to represent the 
 original instruction of Martinism. In another section of Le Nouvel 
 Homme there are said to be two doors in the heart of man, the one 
 below, through which the enemy of mankind may receive the elemen- 
 tary light, from which he is also shut out, and the other above, by 
 which the spirit who is imprisoned with us can alone have access to 
 the Divine Light. By the opening of the lower door we torture the 
 imprisoned angel, for according to L'Homme de Desir (No. 146, p. 217), 
 the serpent thereby intrudes his poisoned head. The attempt to open 
 both doors is so fatal that Saint-Martin refuses to dwell upon it. It is 
 our duty at all costs to keep the enemy in darkness and to open tlie 
 door of the spirit. 
 
 - Le Ministere de V Ho nune- Esprit, pp. 47-50.
 
 304 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 covery of the laws of physical things, to the know- 
 ledge of the higher laws by which they are governed. 
 The knowledge of the mysteries of Nature and of all 
 that constitutes it cannot be interdicted at this day, 
 in spite of our fall, for if it were, the final end of its 
 mystery would be wanting. The final end of the 
 mystery of divine and spiritual things, linked as it 
 is with the mystery of our own being, is to move 
 and excite within us the sentiments of wonder, 
 tenderness, love, and gratitude. It should there- 
 fore penetrate our fundamental being, in the absence 
 of which the dual mystery that binds us to things 
 divine and binds things divine to us, would fail 
 absolutely of its effect. 
 
 There is at the same time a great difference be- 
 tween the two kinds of mystery. That of Nature 
 can enter into our cognisance, but Nature of herself 
 only affects us feebly, or even fails to touch us in 
 our essential and fundamental being. If we all of us 
 find pleasure in her contemplation, and in penetrat- 
 ing her mysteries, it is that we then ascend higher 
 than herself and attain by her means to regions 
 which are truly analogous with us, w^hilst, viewed 
 from thence, she appears as but a beacon which 
 points us to the height but cannot of itself communi- 
 cate its sweetness. On the other hand, divine and 
 spiritual things do infinitely more affect our fasci- 
 nated and wondering faculties, even when they do 
 not minister to all the needs of our intelligence ; 
 they seem to impart a larger measure of wonder on 
 account of their reluctance ; could we subject them 
 completely to our knowledge, our admiration would 
 be diminished and our enjoyment would be propor- 
 tionately lessened ; for if it be true that our felicity
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 305 
 
 is in wonder, it is also true that wonder is more 
 sentiment than knowledge, whence it is that God 
 and spirit are so sweet and yet are known so little. 
 
 For the opposite reason it may be affirmed that 
 Nature is more cold for us, being rather adapted to 
 our knowledge than our sentiment. Thus the plans 
 of wisdom are so disposed that those things on which 
 our true pleasure is founded do not yield themselves 
 enough to our comprehension for our wonder to be 
 exhausted, while those not primarily intended for 
 the nourishment of this faculty, having less analogy 
 with us, do accord us a species of compensation in 
 the pleasures of the intelligence. 
 
 From the way in which men have administered 
 the two domains, they have dried up both the springs 
 which should have yielded us sweet waters, each 
 after its own kind. Human philosophy, treating the 
 natural sciences, has confined itself merely to the 
 surface, and has not put us in a position to taste 
 those very pleasures of the understanding which 
 Nature is ever ready to procure us ; while the insti- 
 tutors of divine things, by making them dark and 
 unapproachable, have prevented us from feeling them, 
 and have consequently deprived us of the wonder 
 which these would have excited unfailingly, had 
 they been only permitted to approach us. The com- 
 plement of the perfection of mystery is to unite in a 
 just and harmonious combination that which can at 
 once satisfy our intelligence and nourish our admira- 
 tion ; it is that which we should have always en- 
 joyed had we kept at our primitive post. For the 
 door by which God issues from Himself is that door 
 through which He enters the human soul. The door 
 by which the human soul issues from itself is that by
 
 3o6 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 which it enters the understanding. The door by 
 which the understanding issues from itself is that by 
 which it enters the spirit of the universe. The door 
 by which the spirit issues from itself is that by which 
 it enters the elements and matter. Hence men of 
 science who pass not through all these ways never 
 enter into Nature. Matter has no door by which to 
 issue from itself and enter into an inferior region. 
 This is why the enemy has access to no regulated 
 region, either spiritual or material. In place of 
 watching vigilantly at his post, man has opened all 
 these doors to his enemies, and, not contented with 
 this, he has also shut them on himself, so that he is 
 without and the robbers are within. Can any situa- 
 tion be more deplorable ? 
 
 X. The Concealed Being ^ 
 
 There is assuredly a profound reason for that law 
 by which the origin of all things is concealed and 
 unknown, even by those who derive from that origin. 
 Beneath this impenetrable veil the roots of all pro- 
 creations inosculate with the universal force. It is 
 not until this secret inosculation has taken place, and 
 the root has received its living preparation in mys- 
 tery, that substantialisation begins, with the assump- 
 tion of external form, colour, and property. Even 
 in time this inosculation is insensible, and disappears 
 into immensity, into the eternal and permanent, as 
 if to instruct us that time is only the region of the 
 visible action of existences, while that of their unseen 
 activity is the infinite. The eternal wisdom and 
 eternal love are solicitous both for their glory and 
 
 ^ Le Minister e de V Homme-Esprit, pp. 1 50-1 51.
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 307 
 
 our intelligence ; they shrink, as it would seem, from 
 suggesting that anything has commenced, that there 
 is anything save the Eternal, since truly no being, 
 and especially no man, has any notion of a beginning 
 on his own account, unless indeed for his body, and 
 even in this case the notion is excited as much by the 
 tyranny of the body over the spirit as by the daily 
 lessons of reproduction. As a fact, only disorder and 
 evil can have a beginning ; and since man connects 
 with unity, as with the centre, however much he 
 may grow old corporally, he does not less regard 
 himself as in his prime. Thus, the concealed origin 
 of things is a speaking witness of their eternal and 
 unseen source ; we feel, as already said, that death 
 and evil have indeed begun, but that life, perfection, 
 bliss can be only because they have ever been. 
 
 XL The Three Epochs in the Treatment of 
 THE Human Soul^ 
 
 When a man by abandoning himself to injustice 
 has permitted the appetite for virtue to grow weak in 
 his soul, but afterwards by saving remorse endeavours 
 to revive that precious desire within him, it is im- 
 perative that he should set to work without delay. 
 The first result which he experiences is a painful 
 situation, which is in effect one of combat between 
 the laudable intention that impels him and the dis- 
 order with which he is filled. This is, so to speak, 
 the first dressing of his wound, and, as in one of the 
 physical kind, it is necessary that the remedy should 
 assist the blood by prolonged suppurations to purge 
 itself from all vicious humours. When this purifica- 
 
 * CEuvres Posthumes, i. 173-174.
 
 3o8 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 tion has been accomplished, when this powerful and 
 well ordered desire has swollen, as it were, all the 
 faculties of the man, the second stage of his cure 
 begins, and its symptoms may be compared with 
 those slight quiverings or irritations which surgery 
 regards as of happy augury in corporeal treatment. 
 The difference between the two stages is, that in the 
 first death still prevailed over life, while in the second 
 life asserts itself over death, and, being in a condition 
 to subdue it, has already a foretaste of victory. The 
 third degree, as in the physical so in the moral, is 
 that of the overflow of life itself, which places the 
 patient once more in the enjoyment of all his facul- 
 ties, and sets no bound to his development but that 
 which he may himself create by further prevarica- 
 tions, or Nature may raise on her part by the law 
 of death imposed on all bodies. 
 
 XII. The Medicine of Man^ 
 
 The truth has no greater end than to form an alli- 
 ance with man, but it desires the man alone, free from 
 combination with anything which is not fixed and 
 eternal as itself. It wills that the whole man should 
 cleanse and regenerate himself continually in the 
 pool of fire and in the thirst for unity ; it wills that 
 he should daily pour forth his sins on the earth, that 
 is, his material part ; it wills that his body should be 
 prepared at all times for death and for sufferings, his 
 soul prepared for the operation of all the virtues, his 
 mind prepared to avail itself of all lights, and to 
 make all show forth the glory of that source whence 
 they come to him ; it wills that he should look upon 
 
 ^ Le Nouvel Homme, pp. 1-5.
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 309 
 
 himself, in his entire being, as an army ever in the 
 field, and ready to march at the first order issued ; it 
 wills that he should possess a resolution and con- 
 stancy which nothing can enfeeble, and, forewarned 
 that in the progress of his career he has suffering alone 
 to anticipate, since evil will present itself at every 
 step, it wills that this prospect should in no way 
 impede his advance, nor divert his eyes from the 
 term which awaits him at the end of his course. If 
 it find him in these dispositions, here are the promises 
 which it makes and the favours it designs to bestow 
 on him. No sooner does the interior man open to 
 the truth than it is seized with a transport of joy, 
 which is not only like that of a tender mother for 
 a son unseen for years, but like that of the most 
 sublime genius in presence of a most sublime pro- 
 duction, which, though at first it seems strange to 
 the mind, and, as it were, effaced from the memory, 
 soon adds the most lively aff"ection to the first admi- 
 ration when genius recognises that the production is 
 its individual work. No sooner does truth then per- 
 ceive desire and will in the heart of man than it 
 precipitates itself therein with all the ardour of its 
 divine life and love. Very often it demands merely 
 that the man should renounce that which is empty, 
 and for this negative sacrifice it overwhelms him with 
 realities ; in the first place, setting signs of warning 
 and preservation upon him, that he may no longer 
 exclaim with Cain, " Whosoever findeth me will slay 
 me." Next, it impresses on him the marks of terror, 
 so that his presence becomes redoubtable and he puts 
 his enemy to flight. Thirdly, it invests him with 
 the tokens of glory, so that he may blazon forth the 
 majesty of his master, and receive everywhere the
 
 3IO THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 honourable rewards which are due to a faithful 
 servant. 
 
 Thus does truth treat those who put trust in 
 the nature of their being, who suffer not its smallest 
 spark to become extinguished, who regard them- 
 selves as a fundamental idea or text, of which our 
 entire life should be only the development and com- 
 mentary, all our moments concurring to elucidate 
 and explain it, not to obscure, efface, and cause it 
 to be forgotten, as happens almost universally with 
 our unfortunate posterity. 
 
 To co-operate in our cure, the truth possesses a 
 real medicine which we experience physically within 
 us whensoever it thinks fit to administer it. This 
 medicine is composed of two ingredients conformed 
 to our disease, which is a complication of good and 
 evil, inherited from him who could not forego the 
 desire of familiarity with this fatal science. The 
 medicine is bitter, but it is the bitterness which 
 cures, because this quality, which is justice, joins 
 with what is vitiated in our nature to induce recti- 
 fication, while, on the other hand, what is regular 
 and quick within us joins with what is sweet in 
 the medicine, and health is restored to us. So long 
 as this medicinal operation does not take place 
 within us, in vain do we believe ourselves whole, 
 in vain prosperous ; we are not even in a condition 
 to make use of pure and saving elements, for our 
 faculties are not open to receive them. It is not, 
 therefore, sufficient for our re-establishment to re- 
 frain from unwholesome and corrupt sustenance ; 
 we must also make use of this spiritual medicine 
 which the doctors of the soul administer to excite 
 that painful sensation which may be termed the
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 311 
 
 fever of penitence, inducing, however, the sweet 
 sensation of life and of regeneration. Those who 
 are in the way of regeneration receive and expe- 
 rience this medicament whensoever the enemy in- 
 fects them, vitiating something in their nature. 
 Others neither receive nor experience it, for they 
 are in an inveterate condition of derangement and 
 infirmity, which forbids any medicine to operate 
 within them. 
 
 This medicine is, at the same time, so necessary 
 to our restoration, that those who have not received 
 it cannot partake with profit of the bread of life, nor 
 can they become refined gold. It must search and 
 work our soul unceasingly, even as time tries all the 
 bodies of nature to renew them in the purity, sim- 
 plicity, and lively action of their constituent prin- 
 ciples. Thereby a living spring, nourished and 
 sustained by very life, opens within us ; thereby, 
 also, we possess ourselves of joys which do not pass 
 away, which establish beforehand within us the 
 eternal kingdom of the true. 
 
 It will be easy to discern that this medicine must 
 not be confounded with earthly tribulations, with the 
 wrongs we may suffer from our fellow-creatures ; 
 such trials are either for the punishment of the soul 
 or for its proving, but they impart only temporal 
 wisdom ; now we cannot receive the divine life ex- 
 cept by preparations of its own order, and the medi- 
 cine referred to is exclusively such a preparation. 
 Blessed is he who shall persevere to the end in 
 desiring it and in profiting thereby whensoever he 
 shall have the happiness to experience it !
 
 312 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Xni. Prayer^ 
 
 The beginning of all truths is in Nature, but their 
 consummation is in Prayer, because Prayer com- 
 prises all.'^ It includes also all religions, because it 
 immerses our soul in that sacred charm, that divine 
 masfism, which is the secret life of all beinas. It is 
 this magism, indeed, which explains the diversity of 
 the religions of men and justifies even their exag- 
 gerations, since wherever we find God we meet with 
 this magism, which is in fact the operation of the 
 faculty of wonder. By its aid we can pass through 
 all dangers without perceiving them, and endure 
 fatigues without feeling them ; it difi'uses peace, 
 almost pleasure, over evils, and over death itself, by 
 imparting to our imperishable being, in such cruel 
 moments, the wizard powers which support it to its 
 end, as by some indefinable fascination ; by veiling, 
 so to speak, the perilous paths which we are com- 
 pelled to traverse ; by showing, finally, in a palpable 
 manner, that all our actions, all our progress in the 
 career of life, even our death itself, should be vested 
 with this character, should be the flower-season of 
 admiration, or the summit of that edifice of genera- 
 tion which we should build during the whole course 
 of our existence. 
 
 But when does Prayer attain in reality this sub- 
 lime term ? When we succeed in making prayers 
 which themselves pray in us and for us, not 
 those which we are forced to stay up on all sides, 
 
 1 Adapted from CEuvres Posthumes, ii. 403-443. 
 
 2 " Prayer is for our intellectual being what breathing is for our 
 body." — Tableau Naturel, i. 178.
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 313 
 
 seeking them in formulae, or in childish and scrupu- 
 lous observances ; when we feel only God present 
 in his works, and that his works are spirit and life ; 
 when we realise, therefore, that we can look for Him 
 to dwell in us only in proportion as we ourselves 
 become life and spirit, — that is to say, in the measure 
 that each of our faculties becomes one with the works 
 of God. 
 
 Men are far, alas ! from attaining the height of 
 this ineffable region of Prayer. They do not raise 
 themselves even to the height of the religion of in- 
 telligence ; they are so surrendered to the sensible, 
 not to say the material, that without the religion of 
 facts or prodigies it is almost impossible to win 
 access to their souls, and to awaken the principle of 
 life within them. It is even necessary, for their own 
 good, to begin by regarding them as enemies before 
 seeking to treat them as brothers. Where are those 
 who have not merely ceased seeking for signs, which 
 was the reproach of the Jews, but do not content 
 themselves, like the Gentiles, with the wisdom of 
 the mind, and plunge rather in this immense abyss 
 of Prayer to prove effectually that whatsoever does 
 not connect with this active and living religion is 
 but a phantom at best ? Where are those who rea- 
 lise how far the appetite for the marvellous absorbs 
 and hides for us the marvels which we might meet 
 with in Prayer ? Where are those who have made a 
 firm resolve to abide in the temple of the Lord till 
 they feel that the temple of the Lord comes to abide 
 in them ? 
 
 The eternal and divine wisdom maintains all the 
 productions of the everlasting immensity in their 
 forms, their laws, and their living activity ; in the
 
 314 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 physical order the air operates the same effect upon 
 all beings in Nature, for in its absence all forms 
 would dissolve ; in connection with man, Prayer has 
 a like distinction and a like office ; it must weigh on 
 all the faculties which make up our existence, and 
 maintain them in their activity, as the universal 
 power weighs unceasingly on all beings and causes 
 them to manifest their innate life. This eternal 
 wisdom is the air which God breathes ; it is one in 
 its measures, and hence the form of God is eternal ; 
 it has nothing to strive with, or any labours to en- 
 dure, like that temporal wisdom which we need in 
 our passage through the region of composites. Here 
 is the model for our Prayer, which obtains nothing 
 till it has acquired that character of active unity, 
 which carries it beyond time and makes it the 
 natural channel of the marvels of eternity. For this 
 it is which, pressing thus on all our spiritual chan- 
 nels, purifies them of all their corruption and places 
 them in a condition to receive the treasures which 
 they should transmit to us. When w^e say in the 
 Pater, " Hallowed be thy name," we do but invoke 
 the fulfilment of this law. The soul is the name of 
 God, and if we obtain the sanctification of that name 
 within us, from that very moment the channels of 
 the marvels of eternity open for us, and they may 
 be diffused not on us alone, but over all the im- 
 mensity which surrounds us. For it is by uniting 
 ourselves with all the elect of God, all patriarchs 
 and apostles of God, that we can say " Our Father" 
 in the most sublime sense of the words, because 
 thereby we become their brethren, participating in 
 all their works. Once they obtain free approach to 
 us, these marvels are no longer held back, for we are
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 315 
 
 then initiates of the divine movement, of that move- 
 ment which is never interrupted because it is the son 
 of desire, and desire is the root of eternity. Now, 
 this divine movement within us takes place only in 
 the absolute repose of our being, and by the stilling 
 of all storms amidst which we abide in the temporal 
 region. Oh, how grand, terrible, and superb would 
 be the man who had not reproduced sin ! There are 
 no powers, no lights, no virtues which would not be 
 found in him. But what sorrow for man to feel that 
 he cannot look for Prayer at his ease and in full 
 liberty except in proportion as the whole universe 
 shall dissolve ; to feel that all which surrounds him, 
 approaches him, constitutes him at this day is an 
 obstacle to Prayer ! 
 
 Let a man, therefore, search himself before offer- 
 ing the Prayer of the Centurion. For woe unto such 
 an one if this word be said before he is ripe for its 
 understanding. It will be uttered only to his dis- 
 may and his loss. Who is he that shall endure the 
 Word of the Lord when it reverberates in his ear ? 
 But the man who is possessed by Prayer encounters 
 this Word everywhere and at all times, for as there 
 is no time, so is there no space for the spirit. Are 
 not these two measures proportional ? Earth, stay 
 thy course ; heaven, suspend thy voice ; and thou, 
 prince of darkness, away, plunge into thine abyss ! 
 A man is about to pray, to pray till he enters that 
 region where man is tormented for ever by the pur- 
 suit and importunity of prayer and speech. 
 
 Nothing but prayers of thanksgiving should, 
 however, be addressed to God ; nothing should be 
 asked of Him, for He gives all things, yet that only 
 which is ever perfect and ever excellent. He showers
 
 3i6 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 delights and favours when even we feel by our defile- 
 ments that we merit only punishments and should 
 expect only tortures. Miserable men know this, yet 
 they unceasingly destroy God, that is to say, they 
 prevent Him from penetrating within them that He 
 may thereby manifest Himself outside them. For if 
 it be our felicity to know God, the felicity of God is 
 to be known, and whatsoever is opposed thereto is 
 for Him a death. Weep, and yet again weep, over 
 the sins of men and over our own ; seek to under- 
 stand how much God loves us ; promise Him to work 
 that we may proclaim it, never resting till we have 
 had speech with Him. Let us even go so far in our 
 penitence, and in the consciousness of our ingrati- 
 tude, as to devote ourselves without regret, and even 
 with pleasure, to sufferings, to dangers, to terrors of 
 every kind ; that is to say, let us submit ourselves 
 with delight to the chastisements which we have all 
 so justly merited. The chief prayer that we should 
 offer, the chief work that we should perform, is to 
 ask of God the single passion for His search. His 
 finding, for union with Him, permitting ourselves no 
 movement which does not derive from this passion. 
 By this path are we brought to become the true 
 image and likeness of God, because we do nothing 
 any more, have no thought any more, produce no 
 blossom within us, which is not preceded by, which 
 issues not directly from, the holy, interior, and divine 
 speech, even as there is nothing in all the universe 
 of spirits and of worlds which does not continually 
 proceed from the eternal and universal generative 
 and creative speech of all things. 
 
 But it is insufficient to demand of God that He 
 should descend in us ; we have accomplished nothing
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 317 
 
 unless He remains there ; and herein is the greatest 
 misfortune of which men are the victims, for daily 
 does God descend within them, but daily do they 
 allow Him to depart, or rather they themselves 
 expel Him, and seem unaware of it, so to speak. 
 
 Prayer is a vegetation, for it is but the laborious, 
 progressive, and continual development of all the 
 powers and properties of man, which have been 
 withheld and entombed by sin. Thou canst never, 
 therefore, know the prayer of penitence until thou 
 hast compassed the vast field of the necessity of the 
 first man — that of immortal, spiritual, thinking and 
 speaking Nature — and that of the horrible priva- 
 tion which so evidently demonstrates a punishment, 
 thence a fault, and thence also a justice anterior 
 to thyself. Thou canst never partake of regenera- 
 tion until thou hast experienced this living puri- 
 fication or penitence, which produces the Baptism of 
 Water by thy tears ; thou canst never exercise the 
 works and gifts of the Spirit till regeneration has 
 restored thy powers. This indicates the vastness of 
 the domain of Prayer, and the grandeur of the work 
 which it imposes upon thee. Every degree of this 
 enumeration awaits thine activity, in order to offer 
 thee its fruit, and thus remind thee unceasingly that 
 thou art a living extract of a living source, and that 
 all should be born of thee in its image, so that it may 
 be accounted unto thee and abide with thee. God is 
 a King who enters ever into His kingdom and never 
 departs therefrom. For the human soul He is even 
 as a tender and devoted spouse, watchful, with un- 
 tiring solicitude, to spare His cherished bride not 
 only evils and dangers, but even the smallest fatigue. 
 
 Prayer is the principal religion of man, because
 
 3i8 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 this it is which rebinds our heart to our spirit, and 
 it is only because these are disunited that we are 
 guilty of so many errors and abide in the midst of 
 so much darkness and so many illusions. In the 
 unification of mind and heart God is naturally joined 
 with us, since He has said that where two or three 
 are gathered together in His name there is He in the 
 midst of them. Then can we say with the Restorer, 
 *' My God, I know that thou dost hear me alway." 
 Whatsoever does not issue constantly from this 
 source belongs to the order of dead and separated 
 works ; and even the works of the Spirit, which 
 operate by this source within us, who are the organ 
 thereof, are not to be compared with such union. 
 The safeguard against pride in this kind of works is 
 to keep our eyes fixed continually on the source, for 
 we shall then feel that we are labouring for its glory 
 alone, while, on the other hand, when we draw from 
 the works of the Spirit in external ways and inten- 
 tions, we feel that we are toiling for our own glorifi- 
 cation. 
 
 When Prayer has thus rebound our mind and our 
 heart to God, and has opened the divine treasury 
 within us, we feel ourselves warmed and vivified by 
 all the divine forces ; the foundations of the covenant 
 are laid within us ; all patriarchs, prophets, and 
 apostles of the Lord do there perform their several 
 functions, because the Holy Spirit itself operates 
 within them ; and all such functions operate within 
 ns in a delicious bond and harmony, depicting the 
 holy fraternity of all those elect of God, with their 
 ardent and mutual zeal to advance God's work within 
 us, because they are themselves directed and influ- 
 enced by the harmony of unity.
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 319 
 
 I have said that our Prayer should be a continual 
 act of thanksgiving, reciting the preserving graces of 
 which we are the recipients. As to evils, we should 
 mention those only from which we do not ourselves 
 suffer ; as to tribulations, those which we are spared ; 
 as to privations, those which we do not experience. 
 We might extend Ps. xliii. to infinity, for it is no 
 longer the mercies accorded to our fathers and cele- 
 brated by the Jewish hymn, but those which are 
 shown daily to ourselves. Did we follow this course, 
 we should soon experience joy, peace, and consolation, 
 while the Supreme Hand would shield us even from 
 those more serious ills which seem inevitable to our 
 nature, but are at the same time almost invariably 
 the consequences of our faults and our follies. But 
 to attain this height of sublimity to which we may 
 be raised by Prayer, we must buy it at the price 
 of the pangs of childbirth ; the memory of the suf- 
 fering which it has cost us will thus remain with 
 us, and thus also will our treasure be the price of 
 love. 
 
 I have said that we should ask only for God and 
 Prayer to pray themselves within us. But since it 
 has been promised us that whatsoever we ask the 
 Father in the name of One shall be given us, we 
 must, with industrious faith, demand Himself in His 
 name, that our prayer may not be refused. The 
 Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit prays within 
 us unceasingly with ineffable groanings. Our sole 
 task is, therefore, not to hinder God from thus 
 praying within us. For if He pray everywhere 
 within us, and with all the faculties of His being, 
 we shall then be that veritable emptiness which we 
 ought to be in respect of Him, doing nothing but
 
 320 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 hearkening continually to the various and divine 
 prayers which He makes in us and for us, and shall 
 be only their object, their living sign and testimony 
 for the instruction of the external regions. Herein 
 is the true abandonment, that state in which our 
 being is led continually and secretly from death to 
 life, from darkness to light, if we may dare say so, 
 from nothingness to being — an exodus which fills 
 us with wonder, not only by its sweetness, but still 
 more because the work rests in the Divine Hand 
 which effects it, and is fortunately incomprehensible 
 for us, as are all generations in all classes to the 
 creatures who are their agents and organs. Such is 
 the bliss of this ignorance, that were the Knowledge 
 and the Key of this divine generation ofi'ered us, we 
 should err if we accepted it. As to the eternal 
 and divine generation itself, let us never dream of 
 attaining its real and effective knowledge, whatever 
 sublime glimpses may be caught concerning it in 
 the abysses of wisdom. A universal magism sur- 
 rounds all generations, all feel it, none understand 
 it. I will not shrink from maintaining that even 
 God is everlastingly ravished in His own genera- 
 tion, but did He comprehend it a beginning must 
 be assigned to it, since His thought would pre- 
 cede it. Lastly, could any being have knowledge of 
 its own generation, there would be no more magic, 
 and, without magic we might indeed have know- 
 ledge and truth, but we should no longer possess 
 pleasure. 
 
 When we have the happiness to attain this 
 sublime abandonment, the God whom we have 
 obtained in the one Name, according to the promise, 
 who Himself doth pray within us, can no longer
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 321 
 
 leave us, since He has infused into us His own 
 immortality, and we are henceforth simply the 
 centre of His operations. Possessed of Him, we 
 have no longer any defilement to fear, because He 
 is that purity which nothing can soil. AVe have no 
 longer to dread the assaults of the enemy — demoniacal, 
 astral, or terrestrial — because He is force and strength, 
 before which all powers are broken. We have no 
 longer any cares to distress us concerning our pro- 
 gress, our conversation, our needs, for in all these 
 things He is present, having the fulness of all means 
 which suffice for them, and thus may be realised 
 the truth of those words spoken to the Apostles, 
 warning them to be in no wise solicitous about the 
 needs of life, like the Gentiles. 
 
 When God, in answer to our Prayer, has estab- 
 lished Himself within us, another prodigy will come 
 speedily to pass for the increase of our happiness. 
 In Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and other prophets, God 
 swears by His name, by His right hand, by His 
 soul, to break the staff of bread, to destroy the 
 guilty cities, to remember no longer the wicked 
 nations ; but how much the more will He be ready 
 to swear after the same manner that He will never 
 more desert us, since He cannot do so without 
 separating from Himself! How much the more 
 will He be desirous of swearing all these things in 
 His name and by His love than the contrary in His 
 name and by His wrath ? 
 
 What then should be our hope and security, 
 since God, who forbids us to take His name in vain, 
 would never take His own word in vain, and hence 
 none of His promises can fail in their effect, nor all 
 His blessings and mercies to follow and accompany 
 
 X
 
 322 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 us everywhere. Happy therefore is the man whom 
 Divinity deigns to choose for His temple. Labour 
 and suffering he must look for, and must be subject 
 in all things to the master's orders, but the com- 
 pensations which await him are far above the services 
 to be rendered, and it will even come to pass that he 
 shall no longer need to ask of God to enter within 
 him and invoke Himself in His own name, for this 
 Deity of love and desire will come without supplica- 
 tion, when the only prayers possible will be acts of 
 thanksgiving and jubilation. There will be no need 
 of the injunction to pray without ceasing, for the 
 unceasing dwells within him and cannot do so with- 
 out praying, without His eternal desire leaping out 
 universally, that is, without pouring over us the 
 waves of spiritual worlds and the incalculable num- 
 bers of divine universes. 
 
 But the Prayer which He offers within us is a 
 Prayer of pain, because it is an operation of rebirth. 
 When He seeks to enter within as the Reconstructor, 
 He must encounter suffering, and He performs penance 
 within us. Shall we not ask Him, when our cure has 
 been effected, the grace of sharing His affliction in 
 respect of the defilement and darkness of other men ? 
 But we must do more than share the pangs which 
 bewrayed and blinded humanity occasion Him. The 
 judgment of the human race must also enter within 
 us ; we must experience it in all its extent, in all its 
 horror. At the same time, this operation is so im- 
 portant that we must beware of desiring it before our 
 substance is sufficiently strong and pure to support 
 it, a precaution which is equally indispensable before 
 we ask the Great Being to pray Himself within us ; 
 for sympathy is possible only between analogous
 
 STEPS IN THE WAY 323 
 
 natures. When, however, we watch diligently over 
 ourselves, we may be sure that He will delay not in 
 electing Himself to Prayer within us, and this is the 
 first sign of regeneration, which takes place in pro- 
 portion as the progressive course of all elections and 
 the purposes of all alliances is accomplished within 
 us, since it is thus alone that the Eternal Word of 
 the Father descends in us with free operation and 
 makes itself comprehended by our spirit with all the 
 sweetness which it engenders. Then shall we experi- 
 ence true faith, the faculty of regarding God as the 
 owner of the house we assign to Him by the compact 
 mutually agreed upon — of permitting Him full liberty 
 to use all therein as He pleases — of reserving nothing 
 for ourselves, since it is God Himself who must 
 permeate all that composes us. We must realise, 
 above all, that we can do nothing unless we are con- 
 tinually engendered of God. But to reach this 
 exalted state we must pass through one which pre- 
 cedes it, the determined employment of all the powers 
 of our will. So also we should pray ever to re- 
 establish our analogies with that which is beyond 
 time ; we should link ourselves inseparably with that 
 profound Name which seeks to be linked inseparably 
 with all ; we should make constant efforts that this 
 fundamental Name may not be apart from us even 
 for a moment ; without it no works of ours can be 
 lawful or free from our own reproach. 
 
 But there is one marvel which must not be spoken 
 aloud ; it is that man prays always, even when he 
 knows it not ; the prayers which he utters consciously 
 are but the extension of those which he offers unaware, 
 the flowing out of the eternal stream engendered 
 within him. Their sole object is to vivify all his
 
 324 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 members, all his ways, and in him all places, that 
 life may be everywhere. Nevertheless, if this secret 
 and unknown prayer ])e not united to active and 
 voluntary prayers it will in no wise serve him, and 
 its proper peace, or that, namely, which it engenders, 
 returns upon itself.
 
 BOOK VI 
 MINOR DOCTRINES OF SAINT-MARTIN
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF EXTERNAL RELIGION 
 
 I. The Exoteric Church 
 
 The ministrations of a priest were declined, it is 
 reported, by Saint-Martin on his dying bed, though 
 the authority, it should be added, is only a newspaper 
 of the period, which does not seem to have satisfied 
 his biographer, M. Caro.^ There were grave doctrinal 
 diiferences between the mystic and the Church of his 
 childhood, but equally in religion and in politics he 
 always exhibited respect for the established order ; 
 and on one occasion observes expressly that his object 
 being the general welfare of mankind, he would re- 
 frain above all from creating discord by the direct 
 attack of received dogmas or existing institutions.^ 
 The man of desire was essentially a man of peace. 
 Kespect, however, is not concurrence, and there can 
 be no doubt that there were personal convictions of 
 Saint-Martin which, far more strongly than any 
 arbitrary dogma, made his reconciliation with the 
 Latin Church impossible. When the Spanish Inquisi- 
 tion, after a delay of many years, condemned his first 
 book, he is said to have been exceedingly cast down ; ^ 
 
 1 Du Mysticisme au XVIII Steele, p. 71. 
 
 ' Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part i. p. 9. 
 
 3 The statement is on the authority of Mrs. Cooper- Oakley, writing 
 
 on the subject of the Unknown Philosopher in Lucifer, January 1897. 
 
 I am not acquainted with the source of her information. Matter says 
 
 that "although it was the heaviest blow which could be inflicted on a 
 
 religious soul, he bore it with all the moderation of a strong reason, and 
 
 all the calmness of a conscience assured of itself." But even this is an 
 
 327
 
 o 
 
 28 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 but it was not l)ecause he accepted that condemnation 
 as proof of his error ; he was grieved that the Church, 
 like the world, was unable to receive his truth and 
 made common cause against it with philosophers and 
 infidels. For his own part he had nothing to recant, 
 while the policy which he had dictated to himself 
 left him also nothing to reply. If Martines de Pas- 
 qually, his master, pursued a different course, it must, 
 I think, have been either because he was less discern- 
 ing, less consistent, or less sincere ; in any case, 
 initiation is incompatible with the ecclesiastical dis- 
 cipline of the Church. 
 
 When Saint-Martin fell under the influence of 
 the Lutheran mystic Bohme, there are, I think, 
 indications that his sympathies were still further 
 alienated, but he remained mild and reasonable to the 
 end. His most extreme statement does not occur in 
 any work which he had designed for publication, but 
 in a letter to Baron Kirchberger, where, speaking of 
 the power of the Word passing through impure 
 organs, and admitting that the fact was undeniable, 
 " even if we had no other example than the prophet 
 Balaam," he adds : " I do not reckon the pretended 
 transmission of the Church of Rome, which, in my 
 opinion, transmits nothing as a Church, although some 
 of its members may sometimes transmit, whether by 
 their own virtue, by the faith of the hearers, or by a 
 particular will of goodness." ^ 
 
 To deny that the Church transmits in the sense 
 intended by Saint-Martin is to assail its title to 
 existence, and it is worth while to investigate at 
 
 interlinear reading, for in his Portrait Historique, Saint-Martin simply 
 records the fact of the condemnation without one word of commentary. 
 1 Correspondance, Lettre Ixxiv. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p, 240.
 
 DOCTRINE OF EXTERNAL RELIGION 329 
 
 some length the considerations which actuated this 
 statement, because the feelings of a Christian mystic 
 towards the most mystical of all the Churches, more 
 especially when nurtured therein, are always a point 
 of interest to other mystics who are disposed to seek 
 their guidance from the Light of the West. 
 
 I find no reason to suppose that the outward 
 respect of Saint-Martin was simply a matter of 
 policy and prudence. It was not like that which 
 was paraded long afterwards by Eliphas Levi, part 
 verbiage, part mockery, and appealing to la haute 
 convenance for its justification. It was honourable 
 and sincere, nor was it founded upon one considera- 
 tion only, though Saint-Martin seems to have been 
 most impressed by the doctrinal reserve of the great 
 religious institutions. He speaks of the wise motives, 
 outside all vulgar appreciation, which have caused 
 the ministers of religion to announce doctrines with 
 prudence and with a reserve which is beyond all 
 praise. Penetrated undoubtedly with a sense of the 
 .-ublimity of their functions as depositaries of the 
 keys of knowledge, they have preferred that the 
 people should venerate that key without themselves 
 possessing it, rather than expose its secrets to pro- 
 fanation.^ There is no need to say that this title 
 to respect is one that the Church would reject, 
 because it involves the symbolism of dogmas, as it 
 would reject also the connected statement that 
 " darkness and silence are the asylums chosen by 
 truth," ^ because again the Church does not interpret 
 its mission as embroidering a veil for the truth, but 
 as the teacher of truth literally. Still we are enabled 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la V^rite, Part ii. p. 199. 
 
 2 Ibid.
 
 330 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 to see how Saint-Martin regarded the ecclesiastical 
 office at the beginning of his own ministry,^ namely, 
 as an initiate speaking of initiation. As he abandoned 
 all formal initiation at a later period, so he ceased to 
 regard the Church in the light of a depository of 
 secret knowledge, but his respect remained. 
 
 To understand his position, we must seek first of 
 all for his definitions. The Church, according to 
 Saint-Martin, is the spirit of Jesus Christ; where 
 that spirit is found, there is the Church of Christ ; 
 where it is wanting, there are only skulls and stones." 
 In harmony with this he defines religion as the 
 science of the heart ; ^ that is to say, the higher sense 
 of the Logos is Love, and religion is the method by 
 which our human love is united to the divine. It 
 is not, therefore, reducible by analysis like other 
 sciences. It is the fruit of humility and good faith ; 
 faith is confidence ; confidence is love, hope, " all 
 sentiments that are more living, more satisfying than 
 those which can be occasioned by evidence.""* The 
 cultus is the means by which the religious necessity 
 of man, or the desire of truth and love, receives its 
 satisfaction,^ and it is also the law in accordance with 
 which the Supreme Being receives the honour due 
 from humanity.*' It has passed into the hands of 
 the ignorant, and its utility has sufi"ered in conse- 
 quence, but the lower senses are fixed by its pomp, 
 and their extra-lignment is thus checked by its in- 
 
 1 Observe also the following statement : " I maintain not only the 
 necessity of a cultns, but I shall manifest even more clearly the neces- 
 sity of a single cultus, since one chief or one Cause should alone direct 
 it."— Des Erreurs et de la Vcritc, Part ii. p. 195. The reference here is 
 to the Active and Intelligent Cause. 
 
 2 CEuvres Posthumes, ii. 212. ^ Ibid., p. 292. 
 * Ibid., p. 293. ■' Ibid., p. 306. ® Ibid., p. 271.
 
 DOCTRINE OF EXTERNAL RELIGION r.i 
 
 fluence, which is also profitable to pure and strong 
 souls. ^ " Woe therefore to those," says Saint-Martin, 
 " who are the causes or instruments of its abolition !" " 
 The majority of religious institutions he regards as 
 extra advantages offered by the Divine Mercy to 
 man, and auricular confession is named expressly in 
 this connection. " Prior to this practice man con- 
 fessed his sins in his heart ; now he confesses them 
 also with his lips ; the more he multiplies the organs 
 of his humility and the avowal of his errors, the 
 more he advances towards reconciliation." ^ It is 
 difficult to agree that a system which includes insti- 
 tutions of such efficacy, and apparently of divine 
 origin, can at the same time transmit nothing. It 
 becomes more apparent, in fact, as we proceed, that 
 the failure in transmission is not in the Church but 
 in the ministers. The Church assists us towards 
 regeneration by operating divers effects at divers 
 seasons. The celebration of the corporeal advent of 
 our Saviour at Christmas has His rebirth in us for its 
 object, in order that we may be reborn in Him ; 
 " and those who join with the Church at this holy 
 period by the prayers and practices of religion will 
 not fail to experience this birth." '^ The administra- 
 
 ^ CEuvres Posthumes, ii. pp. 93-94. 
 
 2 According to another definition, "a cultus is simply the law by 
 which a being, seeking to possess what it needs, draws near to other 
 beings attracted by its analogy with these, while it flees those which 
 are opposed to it. Thus, the law of a cviltus is based on a first and 
 evident truth, namely, on the law resulting exclusively from the state 
 of beings, and from their respective correspondence." — Tableau Naturel^ 
 i. 176. I should add that Saint-Martin finds no difficulty in admitting 
 some wholesome office and ministration in all varieties of the cultus, 
 because they are all one as to their end, which is to provide for the 
 necessities of man in the different stages of his development. — Ibid., 
 i. 182. 
 
 3 CEuvres Posthumes, ii. 270-271. ^ Ibid., p. 287.
 
 332 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 tion of its favours is full of divine charity and sweet- 
 ness. " The mortal organs which it uses, sinners 
 like ourselves, are exalted notwithstanding by their 
 character to the rank of privileged agents, whose sole 
 occupation is to intercede with the Divine Mercy, to 
 soften it by prayers, to ofiFer their tears to obtain not 
 only the pardon of our iniquities, but the abolition 
 and destruction of that root of sin sown in us by the 
 Fall and vegetating so cruelly all the days of our life. 
 I confess that I have been filled with respect and 
 penetrated with great tenderness on beholding con- 
 fessors who have fulfilled their ministry among the 
 penitents, prostrate themselves at the foot of the 
 altar, and supplicate the God of souls in favour of 
 the infirm beings whom they have just healed and 
 absolved, taking also the place of the sinner, and by 
 their aspirations assisting the restoration of life to 
 their wounds. Such a religion may have seen abuses 
 arise within it, even on the part of its ministers, 
 but it is incontestably the true religion, and no 
 such faults in the ministry will cause a reason- 
 able mind to waver. For if it be given them here 
 below to be the representatives and co-operators of 
 the superior agents, and thus at times to be more 
 than men for the good of other unfortunate prevari- 
 cators, why should we insist that it is impossible for 
 them to be also men like the vulgar, and sometimes 
 even less than men by abandonment to the depravities 
 of the most iniquitous ? There is nothing fixed on 
 earth, and we can pass so easily from one to the other 
 extreme, that we should not be astonished at any 
 variation of which our nature offers us an example." i 
 I do not know, and there is indeed no means of 
 
 * CEuvres Postlmimes, ii. 326-327.
 
 DOCTRINE OF EXTERNAL RELIGION 333 
 
 knowing, at what period of his life Saint-Martin 
 wrote this panegyric, but I conceive that it was prior 
 to the " Ministry of Man the Spirit," possibly to his 
 correspondence with Kirchberger, and even to his 
 acquaintance with Bohme. I do not pretend to judge 
 between the earlier and later standpoints, though I 
 think that the mysticism of the Church Catholic is 
 preferable to the most exotic plant of Lutheranism ; 
 moreover, the panegyric is a piece of special plead- 
 ing which is not altogether convincing, though it has 
 high and strong claims. But it is quite clear that 
 the early views of Saint-Martin, if this was his early, 
 and not, as it may also be after all, his later judg- 
 ment, should be balanced against extreme statements 
 in the opposite sense, more especially as there is no 
 sign in his writings from first to last of any leaning 
 towards a substituted Church ; he believed that it 
 wanted life, that it had lost transmissible virtue ; 
 but he disbelieved utterly, as I read him, that it was 
 a human institution or that it could be abrogated 
 by any act of humanity. The duty of those who 
 had attained life, who possessed virtue, was not to 
 replace, but to restore. This feeling comes out quite 
 unexpectedly in a passage on the Catholic Catechism. 
 " Some poorly enlightened parents fear to harm 
 their children by beginning their education with the 
 Catechism, but they look at the matter from the 
 point which they have reached themselves, and not 
 from that of the children. The Catechism explains 
 nothing, yet it contains all. The obscurities and 
 even the incoherences which it may be possible to 
 find therein do not puzzle the child, for he is not of 
 an age to notice them, while the good things which 
 are met with sow the seeds of goodness within him,
 
 334 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 the seeds of love, sensibility, order — all faculties to 
 which the soul is destined primitively. The work 
 of the understanding is subsequent, and when it is of 
 an age to remark obscurities, above all, when it is 
 in a state to rectify them, all these things become 
 apparent."^ 
 
 There was no period, however, when Saint-Martin 
 looked at the Church from a standpoint which she 
 would have tolerated herself. For example, he says 
 that she is universal, but it is because all places 
 are proper for the celebration of her mysteries, be- 
 cause all men may become priests by the Spirit, 
 because everything may serve for sacrifices, and 
 because natural law and conventional signs are the 
 same for all men.^ Of these reasons, the first is 
 fantastic, the second begs one of the questions at 
 issue, namely, the transmission of ordination by the 
 Spirit outside the ecclesiastical vehicle, and the last 
 two are unintelligible. 
 
 If we pass now to Saint-Martin's impeachment of 
 the ministry, we shall see more clearly that it is not 
 the institution but its corruption which he condemns, 
 and that here again he desires rectification and not 
 removal. I think, had we lived at his period, we 
 should have agreed with his caustic aphorism, that 
 " the priests have begotten the philosophers, as the 
 philosophers have begotten death and nothingness." ^ 
 The unintelligence of the hierarchy has revolted 
 reason, and reason, in the excess of rebellion, has 
 forfeited herself. The sarcasm is now ineffective 
 because the order of things has changed ; we know 
 now the limits and inefficiencies of reason, and we 
 
 1 CEuvres Posthumes, ii. 281. ^ Ibid., p. 294. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 306.
 
 DOCTRINE OF EXTERNAL RELIGION 335 
 
 have ceased to expect either from the hierarchy or 
 humanity an undeviating right conduct of the under- 
 standing ; we shall agree therefore with Saint-Martin 
 when he invites us to respect the functions of priests, 
 and seek to appropriate the virtues which they re- 
 present, but not to look to them for vast instruction 
 or to rest on their knowledge. " Let us remember 
 rather that all religion is written in man, and that 
 otherwise it would not be indestructible." ^ We 
 shall agree with him also when he says, that " the 
 ignorance of the priests has infinitely weakened faith 
 in their holy ceremonies, and in all the helps which 
 we may expect from the Messiah. Yet let us abase 
 our pride a little ; let us bring to these ceremonies 
 all the dispositions of which we are capable and not 
 intermeddle by judging the power of the ministers. 
 The Word is immutable, and, however scanty the 
 light of the priest, the holy thing will ever be profit- 
 able to those who unite with it in fear and yet with 
 confidence, respect, and humility." ^ 
 
 In the " Ministry of Man the Spirit " there is an 
 inclination to make much of the sacerdotal failings, 
 which previously we have been solicited to deplore 
 and yet to regard with charity. Priests have been 
 placed in the position of teachers, and they have im- 
 poverished the pupil without enriching themselves ; 
 they have reduced the office of the Word to figura- 
 tive institutions, discourses, and external pomp ; they 
 have seized the key of knowledge, but the domain 
 to which it gives entrance they have not themselves 
 entered, while they have forbidden it to others ; 
 they have paralysed the divine work, neutralised the 
 cure of the soul, forbidden the exercise of reason 
 
 1 CEuvres Posthumes, ii. 270. ^ Ibid., p. 310.
 
 336 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 without recognising that there is a reason which op- 
 poses truth and one which espouses its cause. ^ Yet it 
 is not a bitter denunciation ; it is rather a question- 
 ing complaint, an invitation to confession on the 
 part of one who has forgiven already, with an in- 
 dication of the path of priestly duty. There are 
 profound and saving truths, and the ministers of holy 
 things are above all persons those who should in- 
 struct us in their wonders, because they are the 
 envoys of the Lord sent to proclaim His ordinances.^ 
 
 I think, therefore, on the whole, we are warranted 
 in concluding that Saint-Martin looked for the re- 
 generation of the Church as for that of man. But 
 he looked also for a new dispensation ; the ministry 
 of nature preceded the ministry of the law ; the law 
 preceded the ministry of grace, which has been made 
 of no effect by the fall of the priesthood from grace ; 
 there is now a ministry of living action to follow, 
 about which Saint-Martin made the same error of 
 proximity as other prophets have made before and 
 since. 
 
 But the Church visible is the Church external, 
 and that which is external, though it may serve as 
 an organ, belongs to the order of accidents, and in 
 the last analysis it did not concern Saint-Martin. 
 He looked to the interior, invisible, spiritual Church 
 in the heart of regenerated man, that Church which 
 is unfortunately for the majority of humanity latent 
 rather than unseen. " When man prays with con- 
 stancy, with faith, and seeking to purify himself in 
 the great thirst of penitence, it may befall him to 
 hear inwardly what was said by the Pepairer to 
 
 ^ Le MinisUre de VHomme-E sprit, p. 406 et seq. 
 2 Ibid., p. 411 et seq.
 
 DOCTRINE OF EXTERNAL RELIGION z?>7 
 
 Cephas, ' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will 
 build my church, and the gates of hell shall not pre- 
 vail against it.' This operation of the Spirit in man 
 instructs us in the dignity of the human soul, since 
 God does not fear to make it the corner-stone of His 
 temple ; and it shows us, in like manner, the nature 
 of the true Church, as also that there can be no 
 Church where this invisible operation of the Spirit is 
 not to be found." ^ This operation constitutes the 
 true Church, because it is the Eternal Word which 
 sets its seal on the chosen corner-stone, even as the 
 Repairer set that of His own Word on the soul of 
 St. Peter. From this Word come those seven virtues 
 or gifts, which are the seven pillars of the edifice, 
 based on the living rock, "the Eternal Church of our 
 God." ' 
 
 II. Christianity and Catholicism^ 
 
 True Christianity is not only anterior to Catholi- 
 cism, but to the word Christianity itself, which does 
 not once occur in the Gospel, though the spirit which 
 it contains is clearly exposed therein, consisting, 
 according to St. John, in " the power to become the 
 sons of God ; " while the spirit of the children of 
 God or of the apostles of Christ is, according to 
 St. Mark, " the Lord working with them, and con- 
 firming the word with signs following." From this 
 point of view, before we can be truly in Christianity 
 we must be united to the spirit of the Saviour and 
 must have consummated our perfect alliance with 
 Him. Hence the true genius of Christianity is less 
 a religion than the term and resting-place of all reli- 
 
 ^ Le Nouvel Homme, pp. 41-42. ^ Ibid., p. loi. 
 
 ' Le Ministcre de I'Homme-Espi-it, pp. 369-374. 
 
 Y
 
 338 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 gions, and of all those toilsome ways whereby the 
 faith of men, and the need to be cleansed from their 
 defilements have ever obliged men to travel. So 
 also it is a memorable fact that in the whole of the 
 four Gospels, based as they are on the true spirit of 
 Christianity, the word " religion " does not once occur, 
 while in the apostolic writings which complete the 
 New Testament it is found only four times : once in 
 the Acts, where the reference is to the religion of the 
 Jews ; once in the Epistle to the Colossians, where the 
 cultus of angels is condemned; and twice in St. James, 
 who remarks that religion is vain in the man who 
 cannot curb his tongue, while " religion pure and un- 
 defiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the 
 fatherless and widows in their distresses, and to keep 
 one's self unspotted from the world." In the last ex- 
 amples, Christianity more closely approaches its place 
 of repose in divine sublimity than it assumes the 
 vestures which we are accustomed to call religion.^ 
 
 Here then is a tabulation of the differences be- 
 tween Christianity and Catholicism. 
 
 Christianity is the very spirit of Jesus Christ in 
 its fulness, after this Divine Repairer had ascended 
 every step of that mission which He began with the 
 fall of man, when He promised that the seed of the 
 woman should crush the serpent's head. Christianity 
 is the complement of the priesthood of Melchisedec ; 
 it is the soul of the Gospel ; it is that which perme- 
 ates this Gospel with those living waters required by 
 the nations for the quenching of their thirst. 
 
 Catholicism, to which belongs properly the title 
 
 ^ The criticism is inept, for the definition of St. James concerns 
 only natural religion, which is not even the first step towards spiritual 
 religion, but the condition which is necessary to make that step possible.
 
 DOCTRINE OF EXTERNAL RELIGION 339 
 
 of religion, is the path of ordeal and labour to attain 
 Christianity.^ Christianity is the region of emanci- 
 pation and liberty ; Catholicism is but the seminary 
 of Christianity ; it is the region of the rules and 
 discipline of the neophyte. 
 
 Like the spirit of God, Christianity fills the whole 
 earth. Catholicity occupies but a part, though its 
 name represents it as universal.^ 
 
 By Christianity our faith is taken into the lumi- 
 nous region of eternal divine speech. Catholicism 
 confines this faith within the limits of the written 
 word or of traditions.^ 
 
 Christianity enlarges and extends the use of our 
 intellectual faculties ; Catholicism binds and circum- 
 scribes their exercise/ 
 
 Christianity engages us to find God in the depths 
 of our own being, without the help of forms and 
 formulae. Catholicism leaves us at variance with 
 ourselves to find God concealed under the apparatus 
 of ceremonies.^ 
 
 ^ The distinction in itself is sound, but the tone is grudging and the 
 form that of disparagement. The Church, by her own hypothesis, is 
 not Divine Grace, but its channel. 
 
 2 I infer that the term universal, as applied to herself by the Church, 
 does not concern a geographical fact, but a mission and a capacity. 
 
 ^ When the soul is in communication with the Divine Word, it is 
 clear that faith has passed and knowledge has begun. The Church 
 claims to be the channel of the Divine Voice ; the written word is an 
 accident ; she claims to be in conformity with her traditions, which, 
 from her standpoint, simply indicates the consistency which is a char- 
 acteristic of Divine Mission ; her traditions are not her words, but her 
 testimonies. 
 
 * There was never a more fantastic distinction. The proper exercise 
 of the intellectual faculties is in the assimilation of truth ; Catholicism 
 would circumscribe its believers to the work of assimilating what it 
 regards as truth, and Christianity can have no better intention. The 
 Church may be mistaken, but even Christianity has been challenged. 
 
 ^ Perhaps no Church has more consistently taught that God is 
 within us.
 
 340 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Christianity has no mysteries/ and the name is 
 repugnant to it, since it is evidence essentially and 
 universal clearness. Catholicism abounds in mys- 
 teries and rests on a hidden foundation. The sphinx 
 might be placed at the threshold of temples made 
 with hands ; it cannot dwell on the threshold of the 
 heart of man, which is the true portal of Christianity. 
 
 Christianity is the fruit of the tree ; Catholicity is 
 only i^s fertiliser." 
 
 Christianity makes neither monasteries nor ancho- 
 rites, for, like the sun, isolation is impossible to it, 
 and it seeks, also like the sun, to diffuse its splendour 
 everywhere. It is Catholicism which has peopled 
 the wilderness with solitaries and the town with 
 religious communities, those to devote themselves 
 more profitably to their individual salvation, these 
 to present a corrupted world with some images of 
 virtue and piety to stir it in its sleep. ^ 
 
 Christianity knows no sect, for it embraces unity, 
 and unity, being one, cannot be divided from itself. 
 Catholicism has witnessed within its heart the birth 
 of innumerable schisms and sects which have esta- 
 blished the reign of division rather than that of 
 unity ; and even Catholicism itself, while believing 
 itself in the highest degree of purity, finds scarcely 
 two members of uniform views. ^ 
 
 1 There is, for example, no " mystery of the kingdom of God " 
 (Mark iv. ii) ; no "wisdom of God in a mystery" (i Cor. 11. 7); no 
 " mystery of God " to which stewards were appointed (ibid. Iv. i) ; no 
 mystery of the resurrection which Is to come (ibid. xv. 51) ; no 
 " mystery of Christ" (Ephes. ill. 4) ; no "great mystery " in the union 
 between Christ and His Church (ibid. v. 32) ; no " great mystery of 
 godliness" (i Tim. 111. 16). 
 
 2 The Church is not greater than her Head. 
 
 ^ It is therefore not the object of Christianity to raise up examples 
 of virtue and piety. 
 
 * Even in the Catholic Church there are things doubtful as well as 
 things essential. Moreover, Christianity has seen apostasies as well as 
 the Church schisms. •
 
 DOCTRINE OF EXTERNAL RELIGION 341 
 
 Christianity preached no crusades ; the unseen 
 cross which it bears in its heart is for the consolation 
 and the felicity of all creatures. It is a false imita- 
 tion of Christianity, to say no more, which invented 
 crusades ; it was Catholicism which adopted them sub- 
 sequently ; afterwards fanaticism commanded them, 
 Jacobinism composed them, anarchy directed them, 
 and they were executed by brigandage. 
 
 Christianity has waged war with sin alone ; Catho- 
 licism has declared it against men. 
 
 Christianity procceeds only by certain and con- 
 tinuous experiences ; Catholicism by authority and 
 institutions. Christianity is the law of faith ; Catho- 
 licism is the faith of law. 
 
 Christianity is the complete installation of the 
 soul of man in the rank of minister and labourer of 
 the Lord ; Catholicism limits man to the care of his 
 personal spiritual health.^ 
 
 Christianity unites man inseparably to God as 
 two beings inseparable by their nature ; Catholicism, 
 while employing occasionally the same language, at 
 the same time nourishes man so largely with forms 
 that it makes him lose sight of his real end, and 
 leaves him or leads him to contract many habits 
 which are not profitable to his true advancement.^ 
 
 Christianity rests immediately on the unwritten 
 word ; Catholicism in general on the written word, 
 or on the gospel, and on the mass especially.^ 
 
 1 A curious commentary on the annals of the propagation of the 
 faith, on the lives of Xavier and Damien. 
 
 2 It maybe seriously doubted whether forms and ceremonies have ever 
 restrained any soul in its progress when that soul was tit for advancement, 
 but Saint-Martin knew well enough, and has expressed well eonugh, the 
 real ministry of forms to the unadvanced in spiritual culture. 
 
 ^ The system of the Church is sacramental ; the Eucharist is the 
 crown of the sacramental svstem.
 
 342 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Christianity is an active and perpetual immola- 
 tion, botli spiritual and divine, either of the soul of 
 Jesus Christ or of our own. Catholicism reposing, 
 as already said, mainly on the mass, offers therein 
 only an ostensible immolation of the body and blood 
 of the Repairer. 
 
 Christianity can only be composed of that holy 
 race which is primitive man, or the true sacerdotal 
 race. Catholicism, once more, reposing particularly 
 on the mass, since the pasch of Christ, has been only 
 the initiatory degrees of this priesthood ; ^ for when 
 Christ celebrated the Eucharist with His disciples, and 
 said unto them, "Do this in remembrance of me," 
 they had already received the power to cast out 
 demons, to heal the sick and to raise the dead ; but 
 they had not yet received the most important comple- 
 ment of the priesthood, since the consecration of the 
 priest consists in the transmission of the Holy Spirit, 
 and the Holy Spirit had not yet been imparted be- 
 cause the Repairer had not yet been glorified. 
 
 From the moment that the soul of man is ad- 
 mitted to it, Christianity becomes for it a continual 
 multiplication of lights ; Catholicism, which has 
 made the Holy Supper the most sublime and the 
 final degree of its cultus, has allowed veils to fall 
 over this ceremony, and has finished by inserting 
 these words in the Canon of the Mass, Mysterium 
 Fidei, which are not in the Gospel and contradict 
 the universal lucidity of Christianity." 
 
 Christianity belongs to eternity ; Catholicism to 
 time. 
 
 1 In other words, the Church is the school of saints. 
 
 2 The contradiction is, in any case, canonical, for St. Paul com- 
 mands the deacons to hold " the mystery of faith in a pure conscience " 
 (i Tim. iii. 9). 
 
 /
 
 DOCTRINE OF EXTERNAL RELIGION 343 
 
 Christianity is the final end ; Catholicism, despite 
 the imposing majesty of its solemnities, and despite 
 the saintly magnificence of its admirable prayers, is 
 only the means. ^ 
 
 Finally, there may possibly be many Catholics 
 who as yet cannot judge what Christianity is, but it 
 is impossible that a true Christian should not be in 
 a position to judge not only what Catholicism is but 
 also that which it should be." 
 
 III. The Mysterium Fidei 
 
 The position of a mystic who denies mystery to 
 Christianity and the sacramental system to the 
 Church, who is yet a fervent Christian and con- 
 vinced that even the visible household of the faith 
 will be transfigured by some wonderful regeneration 
 when the time of glory comes, is one which would 
 appear inaccessible. The rejection of the Mysterium 
 Fidei by Saint-Martin involves both points, for the 
 sacrament involves mystery. One is led irresistibly 
 to suspect that we are dealing here simply with some 
 confusion of thought, and such assuredly is some- 
 where at the root of the difficulty. We have seen 
 that the Mysterium Fidei is confessed by St. Paul, 
 and having regard to the unity of Scripture from the 
 standpoint of the Church, the introduction of these 
 words into the Canon of the Mass is not an inter- 
 
 1 The definition of such a mission cannot be the statement of an 
 objection, and it is unfortunate that it should assume its form. 
 
 2 The distinctions of Saint-Martin are of no effect, because, as re- 
 gards Christianity, they move in a world which has not been realised, 
 and, as regards Catholicism, they ignore its higher sense. The discussion 
 is of no importance at the present day, because we are all aware that 
 no institution has ever realised its own ideals. But even in idly 
 criticising it is graceful to be fair.
 
 344 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 polation but u transfer, and that Saint-Martin is 
 specifically wrong when he denies mystery to Chris- 
 tianity, for it is affirmed with every warrant of 
 Scripture in the most express manner.^ I think, 
 however, that he w^as carried beyond his intention 
 in the attempt to form a chain of antithesis, and 
 that what he meant to indicate was an over-devotion 
 to symbolism and outward sign on the part of the 
 Catholic Church, thus obscuring the real mission 
 of Christianity as a revelation and not a veil of 
 mysteries. It does not follow that this rectification 
 would constitute a right view, but it is not open to 
 the sharp reproof of a score of accessible facts, and it 
 just possible that in the soul of the average Catho- 
 lic there is occasionally 
 
 "Too much presuming 
 To turn the frankincense's fuming 
 And vapours of the candle starlike 
 Into the cloud her wings she buoys on. ' 
 
 But the recognition of a natural exaggeration should 
 not be converted into an impeachment of the mys- 
 tery of faith, and that least of all by Saint-Martin, 
 for whom the world, as we have seen, was a parable 
 or allegory,^ and therefore even the system of Nature 
 
 1 It is equally affirmed by Saint-Martin : " Among all the most 
 illustrious learned and religious institutions which have ever flourished, 
 there is not one which has not covered science with the veil of mys- 
 teries. Judaism and Christianity are alike examples. The traditions 
 of Israel inform us of the judgment on King Ezechias for exhibiting 
 its treasures to the Babylonian ambassadors ; and we see by ancient 
 Christian rites, by the letter of Innocent I. to Bishop Decentius, and 
 by the writings of Basil of Ctesarea, that Christianity possesses things of 
 great force and great weight ivhich neither are, nor can ever be, written." — 
 Tableau Naturel, ii. 192. 
 
 * Tableau Naturel, ii. 207.
 
 DOCTRINE OF EXTERNAL RELIGION 345 
 
 was a universal sacramentalism.^ To reject sacramen- 
 talism in the order of spiritual things is a divorce of 
 Nature and Grace which no mystic could counte- 
 nance. It is not necessary to pursue the subject 
 further as it is not seriously challenged ; but admit- 
 ting that Saint-Martin has either failed to explain 
 himself or is in error concerning it, it will be well to 
 observe briefly his position concerning the central 
 sacrament of the Christian Church — I refer, of course, 
 to the Eucharist. He has already told us that she 
 errs in regarding the importance attributed to the 
 sacrifice of the Mass, which he describes as an osten- 
 sible immolation, replacing to some extent, and that 
 unwarrantably, the active and perpetual spiritual 
 and divine immolation of the soul of Jesus Christ 
 and of our own. The charge of replacement seems 
 entirely fantastic ; we know that the Christian who 
 sins is thereby supposed to crucify the Son of God 
 afresh, and that in the eyes of the Church the un- 
 bloody sacrifice operates somehow as an atonement, 
 in which case the Mass enters so far into the spirit 
 of Scripture. But as none of these things are 
 acceptable in a literal sense, and as every Church 
 has mistaken signum for signatum, we may accept 
 the statement of Saint-Martin as an obscure regis- 
 tration of this fact, and endeavour to regard the 
 Eucharist as apart from the Mass, that we may 
 elucidate his position. 
 
 1 This is clearly implied by another teaching of the Tableau Naturel, 
 namely, that the manifestations of the image of the First Principle is 
 in accordauce with a law which is bound up in the temporal and suc- 
 cessive order, i. 162. It follows also from the statement that man, in 
 his fallen condition, can only receive the communication of the Divine 
 potencies under an innumerable multitude of facts, signs, and emblems, 
 i. 164. It follows, finally, from the Martinistic doctrine of the necessity 
 of visible signs, i. 174.
 
 346 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Though the sacrifice of the Repairer has enabled 
 men to fulfil as far as possible here below the sublime 
 task of their regeneration by entering into union with 
 Him, and serving Him in spirit and truth, He desired, 
 when He departed from them, to bequeath a sign of 
 alliance which might recall daily His manifestation 
 and devotion. He desired also that it should be a 
 development of that divine seed which He came to 
 sow in our infected and barren region ; and as we are 
 composite beings He selected diverse substances of 
 operation, so that our constituents might find their 
 nourishment, support, and preservation, each accord- 
 ing to its class and its needs. He desired further 
 that this institution might derive all its value from 
 the Spirit which produces all and sanctifies all." ^ 
 
 But we must be spirit to approach spirit, and 
 hence the sign of the second covenant can be only 
 profaned by communication to the man of earth. ^ 
 The institution is intended to assist us in working 
 efficaciously at a living labour, namely, the recovery 
 of the pure element or primitive body which can 
 only be restored to us as we return towards the 
 image of God.^ It retraces for us our spiritual 
 death and our spiritual resurrection, and also it en- 
 forces the lesson that we must die and rise again 
 with the Repairer. It can effect within us a uni- 
 versal and perpetual production, emanation, creation 
 and regeneration ; it can transform us into the king- 
 dom of God and make us one with Him.'* If this be 
 not the communication of the living Christ there is 
 no meaning in words, and hence Saint-Martin does 
 teach the Real Presence in the Eucharist. But as 
 
 ' Le Ministere de I'Homme-Esprit, p. 279. 
 ■' Ibid., p. 280. 3 ii)id., p. 284. * Ibid., p. 283.
 
 DOCTRINE OF EXTERNAL RELIGION 347 
 
 the effect of that communication is the restoration, 
 or should be, of our arch-natural body, I do not 
 know that it is either gross or anthropomorphic to 
 suppose that the elements of that body may be com- 
 municated from the arch-natural body of Christ, in 
 which case that body is also effectively and virtually 
 present in the Eucharist. As a fact, Saint-Martin 
 does confess that a true flesh and a true blood cor- 
 roborate all our faculties of intelligence and activity 
 towards the accomplishment of the great work in the 
 communication of the Eucharist/ 
 
 There is, therefore, a sacramental system as there 
 is also a mystery, and the difference between Saint- 
 Martin and the Church is that the one spiritualised 
 what the other had materialised in his opinion. The 
 opinion itself is, of course, not altogether true, but it 
 has its side of truth, though from the standpoint of 
 mystic Christianity the system which has perpetuated 
 the sign must be forgiven much. 
 
 1 Le Ministere de VHomme-E sprit, p. 282. In a sense he had always 
 held this view. Cf. Tableau Naturel, ii. 186-188, where he maintains 
 that it is not inadmissable to suppose that the Universal Repairer 
 chose a material substance as a base of spiritual and divine virtues, 
 which substance, therefore, received from him " a virtuality foreign to 
 its nature." He even argues the special suitability of the materials 
 selected, namely, bread and wine, while he condemns the figurative 
 interpretation of their " sacrifice."
 
 II 
 
 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF SAINT-MARTIN 
 
 The political philosophy of Saint-Martin has three 
 characteristics : i. Originality, that is to say, it is 
 without precedent, and this to such an extent that 
 it has established none. 2. Impossibility of applica- 
 tion, because it presupposes the return of at least 
 a portion of humanity to the primeval state. 3. A 
 certain quality of insincerity, though assuredly of 
 the unconscious order, because it appears to support 
 existing institutions, especially monarchical, but makes 
 void all their claims. 
 
 At the period of Saint-Martin two theories, both 
 equally artificial, were current concerning the origin 
 of human association and political institutions, the 
 one maintaining that authority was seized by the 
 strong and skilful ; ' the other that society was estab- 
 lished upon the common consent and by the unani- 
 mous will of the individuals composing it.^ Saint- 
 Martin rejects both views, the one on account of its 
 barbarism, the other because it is impossible, while 
 also fundamentally unjust and unreasonable ; objec- 
 tions which, it will be needless to observe, possess no 
 jurisdiction if the social order emerged from a savage 
 condition. He lays down that all just association is 
 a commerce of moral actions, and that, speaking 
 broadly, the errors of political philosophy as to the 
 
 1 Des Erreiirs et de la Verity, Part ii. p. 4. ^ Ibid., p. 5. 
 
 348
 
 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 349 
 
 basis of political bodies have the same source as 
 those of the ordinary observers of nature.^ They have 
 considered only the envelope of man. They have 
 sought in man isolated the principles of government, 
 and have not found them, even as the other ob- 
 servers have failed to find in matter the true source 
 of the effects which it produces."^ The man who has 
 best preserved himself from admixture with the 
 elements, who has therefore least disfigured the idea 
 of his principle, and has thus strayed the least from 
 his first estate, possesses an advantage over those 
 who have not made similar efforts, have not found the 
 same success, or are deficient in the required gifts ; 
 he is therefore their superior and they should be 
 ruled by him.^ 
 
 " If there be anywhere a man in whom the obscu- 
 ration of the real faculties reaches the point of depra- 
 vation, that other who has preserved himself from 
 both is thereby his master, and not in fact only, nor 
 even from necessity alone, but also by duty. He 
 must take possession of him and deprive him of the 
 liberty of action, to satisfy the laws of his principle 
 and for the safety and warning of society ; he must, 
 in fine, exercise upon him all the rights of slavery 
 and servitude, which in such a case are no less just 
 and real than they are unwarrantable and void in 
 any other." ^ 
 
 The case is entirely Utopian, but if the perfect man 
 did indeed appear among us, he might well be the 
 saviour of society, and in his rule we might expect 
 the administration of the Prince of Peace. 
 
 " Such," continues Saint-Martin, " is the veritable 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verity, Part ii. p. 14. - Ibid., p. 16. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 18. 4 Ibid., p. 19.
 
 350 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 origin of the temporal empire of man over his kind, 
 as the consanguinity of corporeal nature was the be- 
 ginning of primeval society. But such an empire, 
 far from compelling and repressing, would be the 
 firmest support of natural society, its defence against 
 crimes in its members and against the assaults of all 
 other enemies. As the man who was clothed with 
 this power would find his happiness only in preserv- 
 ing the virtues which obtained it, he would seek like- 
 wise for his own interest the welfare of his subjects. 
 Let no one believe that such an occupation would be 
 useless, for he could not be that which we represent 
 without in himself possessing an unfailing guide of 
 conduct and the ability to attain his ends. The 
 light which enlightened man in his first estate being 
 also an inexhaustible source of faculties and vir- 
 tues, the closer he now approaches thereto the wider 
 will be his empire over those who withdraw there- 
 from, and the better will he know what is needed to 
 maintain order among them." 
 
 The authority of such a ruler would extend even 
 to religion and the cure of diseases,^ while he would 
 be also the supreme judge in matters of art and taste. 
 Sacred institutions in particular should have "the 
 same end, the same guide, and the same law" as 
 those of the political order. " They should be, there- 
 fore, in the same hand ; so long as they are divided 
 they lose sight of their true spirit, which consists in 
 a perfect understanding and in union." ^ 
 
 Saint-Martin could be no otherwise than con- 
 scious that his picture seemed entirely chimerical, 
 but he believed that it was in conformity with the 
 universal conception of kinghood in its last analysis. 
 
 ' Des Erreurs et de la V&ite, Part ii. p. 20. ^ Ibid., p. 24.
 
 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 351 
 
 "Reflecting on the respect that we bear them, must 
 we not conclude that they are regarded as the image 
 and representatives of a superior hand, and as such 
 the custodians of more virtue, more force, more light, 
 more wisdom than belong to other men ? Is it not 
 with a species of regret that we find them subject 
 to human weakness ? And would it not be entirely- 
 desirable that they should be known only by great 
 and sublime acts, even as that hand which we ac- 
 knowledge has placed them on their thrones ? " ^ 
 From these considerations he infers that the origin 
 of kingship is superior alike to the powers and to 
 the will of man. The interesting point is not that 
 such a view has a claim on serious contradiction, 
 but that it was held sincerely by a philosophical 
 Frenchman on the eve of the French Revolution and 
 through all its searching fire, while in his capacity 
 as a citizen he accepted the changed order, its trials 
 and its duties, with submission and even with zeal, 
 and did not only recognise therein the chastening 
 visitation of God, but was in frank and liberal sym- 
 pathy with the blind needs and blinder aspirations 
 of that volcanic epoch. 
 
 It is in connection with this subject, thus un- 
 usually regarded, that we meet with one of those 
 statements, seemingly unconcerted in Saint-Martin, 
 which have the air that he was guarding a greater 
 secret than the metaphysical doctrine of a theurgic 
 school. He affirms that lawful sovereigns and 
 governments of the kind which he has delineated 
 are not imaginary, that they have always existed, 
 still are, and will continue through all, because they 
 are part of the universal order and connect with the 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Ve'rite, Part ii. pp. 20-2 1 .
 
 352 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Great Work.^ If we bring into contact with this a 
 passage in a letter of his fellow-adept Willermoz, 
 which shows that after a patient labour of something 
 like fifteen years he had proved that there was an 
 exalted and even Divine Agent charged with the 
 work of initiation ; ^ and if we will then compare 
 both with certain wonderful testimonies which are 
 given by Eckartshausen/ we shall not exactly grasp, 
 but may, I think, have a clue to what is conveyed by 
 this pregnant utterance, and that the conception 
 which it shapes points towards an unseen but physi- 
 cal government of the Church and the world. The 
 issues may be dark and the way strange, but there is 
 a providence, and though the hand is unseen it is a 
 hand that may be grasped ; it is that which once 
 prepared the way for a Liberator, and did not there 
 end, but is now awaiting, or rather actively ensur- 
 ing, a certain fulness of time to place another free- 
 dom within reach of humanity. 
 
 " It is with confidence," says Saint-Martin, con- 
 cluding his thesis on government, " that I establish 
 on the rehabilitation of man in his principle the 
 origin of his authority over his kind, that of his 
 power, and of all the titles of political sovereignty." * 
 Now, it would seem that in the absence of such a 
 rehabilitation things must go as they are while they 
 can and may change when they must, but that in no 
 case is there any true title to existing government, 
 for that is vested in conditions which, if not im- 
 possible, are at least unfulfilled. The sympathies of 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part ii. p. 25. 
 - Papus, Marlines de Pasqually, p. 113. 
 ^ "The Cloud on the Sanctuary," passim. 
 * Dcs Erieurs et de la Verite', Part ii. p. 28.
 
 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 353 
 
 Saint-Martin are monarchical because tlie pageant of 
 earthly kinghood is for him a type of the true 
 royalty, but it is only pomp and pageant, and there 
 is a flavour, as I have said, of insincerity in his 
 message of peace to existing governments and in his 
 condemnation of rebellion. 
 
 " Let me seek, however, to disarm the suspicion of 
 governments, who might possibly mistrust my senti- 
 ments, and fear that in unveiling their defects I shall 
 destroy the homage which is due to them. I have 
 expressed already my veneration for sovereigns, as 
 to their persons as well as their ofiice, but I desire to 
 convince all my readers that I proclaim only peace 
 and order, that I lay submission towards their chiefs 
 as an indispensable duty on all subjects, and that I 
 condemn without reserve all insubordination and all 
 revolt as diametrically opposed to the principles which 
 I have attempted to establish."^ So far this is reason- 
 able enough ; some usurpations and some rebellions 
 may well be worse than a monarchy with forged 
 titles, but the assurance of a philosopher attempting 
 to tranquillise princes after explaining the abysmal 
 difference which separates their conventional autho- 
 rity from substantial and true royalty, might be any- 
 thing but palatable if it were worth while to take it 
 in earnest, and I think that the principles of Saint- 
 Martin, had any one been ready to adopt them, were 
 scarcely less subversive than a frank revolutionary 
 propaganda. More than this, he carries the duty of 
 submission to the established order into superlative 
 absurdity when he adds : "I condemn rebellion ab- 
 solutely, even in the case where the injustice of chief 
 and government are at a pinnacle, where neither one 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part ii. p. 30. 
 
 Z
 
 354 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 nor the other preserve the smallest traces of the 
 powers which constitute them, because, iniquitous 
 and revolting as such an administration would be, I 
 have proved that political laws and leaders have not 
 been set up by their subjects, and cannot therefore 
 be overthrown by them." ^ Could the honesty of 
 Saint-Martin be questioned, it might be thought that 
 he was assailing here the institutions he appears to 
 defend, but in reality he is only establishing the 
 supreme paradox of his standpoint. It is scarcely 
 possible to accept the testimony of Robison upon any 
 doubtful matter independently of less impeachable 
 witnesses, but is it not possible that Saint-Martin 
 produced in some minds the opposite of the im- 
 pressions that he intended ? And admitting that, 
 as Robison says, the treatise " On Errors and on 
 Truth " was a text-book for Masonic illuminati of the 
 Avignon and Philalethes type, may there not be a 
 grain of foundation for his other statement that the 
 lodges of these rites became active embers of politi- 
 cal disaffection ? ^ 
 
 The theocratic principle of Saint-Martin inspired 
 more than one of his tracts and pamphlets ; it is the 
 motive of his essay on *' Human Association," which 
 was so much admired by his biographer Matter.^ 
 It is the subject of some interesting observations in 
 the posthumous works ; ^ it underlies many theories 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part ii. p. 31. 
 
 '^ " Proofs of a Conspiracy." 
 
 3 " After the ' Letter on the French Revohition,' which its author, 
 who valued everything that he wrote, himself placed so high, 1 know 
 of nothing which represents him so fully, or is more entirely his own." 
 — Preface to L. Schaver's edition of the treatise on "Numbers," pp. 
 xi-xii. 
 
 * Sur le Gouvernement Livin oil le TJieocratisme, vol. i. pp. 396-398.
 
 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 355 
 
 which do not connect with it on the surface ; and it 
 follows logically enough from his central doctrines. 
 That he looked for its ultimate triumph is evident in 
 every line that he penned on the French Revolution, 
 and above all in his expectation of a " Sabbatic reign 
 on earth as a termination to time, like that which 
 terminated the formation of the universe." ^ It is 
 difficult for a mystic to abstain from prophecy, 
 especially on the subject of the millennium and the 
 septenary repose of the earth. Saint-Martin antici- 
 pated a "complete solution" of the "grand prob- 
 lem" in about two centuries from the date of the 
 French Revolution." Meanwhile, it was possible and 
 peremptory that all should approximate to the in- 
 dividual new reign which is open and promised to 
 all who are men of good-will. The condition of 
 its realisation is that all our "thoughts, lights, 
 desires, movements, words, prayers, our very breath, 
 our spiritual works, our life even as our death, should 
 become divine within us, and this without restriction 
 and without exception, without distraction and with- 
 out admixture." ^ " Happy," exclaimed Saint-Martin, 
 is he who "beholds the approach of the universal 
 new reisrn behind the formless cloud of the human 
 
 o 
 
 passions which darken the revolution!" That revolu- 
 tion was, in his most firm conviction, a preparation 
 of the Sabbatic way, and not the last reason was 
 that it threw so many men, as it were, into the arms 
 of God's will because all other protections, all other 
 resources, had been taken from them.^ " Do not 
 believe," he says in a letter to Kirchberger, " that 
 
 ^ Du Nouveau Regne, (Euvres Posthumes, i. 399. 
 ^ Ibid., p. 402. ' Ibid., j^p. 402-403. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 405.
 
 356 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 our French Pte volution is an indifferent thing upon 
 the earth. I look upon it as the revolution of human 
 nature ; it is a miniature of the Last Judgment, with 
 all its features. France has been visited the first, 
 and that with great severity, because she has been 
 very guilty. Those countries which are no better 
 than she will not be spared when their time comes." * 
 Conscious of the predilection of God, he had no 
 anxiety for himself during the terrible scorching of his 
 country ; he was dealt with, he says, as though he 
 were without reproach, while innumerable persons 
 who would have profited far better by the favour 
 were not only deprived thereof, but treated as if they 
 had abused it.^ There were so many indeed who 
 seemed to be abandoned by I'rovidence that for a 
 moment even his faith quailed, but he remembered 
 that there was an edifice in construction, and that 
 the blood of expiatory victims was required to 
 cement it.^ The scourge was cleansing those who 
 were capable of being made clean.* 
 
 When a saviour of society appeared for a moment 
 in the person of the great Consul, Saint-Martin 
 recognised a temporal instrument in the hands of 
 Providence for the fulfilment of its plans towards 
 France,^ and he was confirmed more than ever in his 
 convictions. " It cannot be denied," he wrote early 
 in 1 80 1, " that great destinies attach to this remark- 
 able man." ^ 
 
 In connection with his theocratic sentiments 
 there are many views of Saint-Martin on the sub- 
 
 1 Gorrespondcmce, Lettre Ixxii. ; Penny, " Theosopliic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 226. 
 
 2 Portrait Historique, CEurres Posthumes, i. 61. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 88. * Ibid., p. 112. 
 5 Ibid., p. 117. ^ Ibid., p. 120.
 
 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 357 
 
 ject of human power, on the civil and criminal 
 codes, on the right of torture, and especially on the 
 malfoundation of the rights and privileges of sove- 
 reigns, which oJ0fer curious material for reflection as 
 to the influence which they may have had at his 
 period in the centres of illuminism and political 
 plotting ; but as there is an insufficient warrant only 
 to follow a doubtful line of inquiry suggested by a 
 prejudiced writer^ who understood nothing so little as 
 mysticism, the student who desires to follow this line 
 of inquiry may be referred to the originals.^ 
 
 ^ Robison, " Proofs of a Conspiracy." 
 
 2 Des Erreurs et de la Verity, Part ii. sec. 5, passim.
 
 Ill 
 
 SOME APHORISMS AND MAXIMS OF SAINT-MARTIN 
 
 I. 
 
 God is all; the tongue of God is the spirit; the 
 tongue of the spirit is science ; the tongue of science 
 should be the learned man. But the ordinary man 
 of learning is like a signboard, and full too often of 
 errors in orthography, like the signboards of small 
 shops.^ 
 
 2. 
 
 Nature and the Scriptures should be compared. 
 The priests misread the Scriptures : the philosophers 
 misconstrue Nature. Hence they are always at war, 
 and never compare their differences. '' 
 
 When we speak of the Divine Sensibility, men 
 tell us that God's feelings are not as ours. But, this 
 granted, it is for us to strive that we may feel like 
 Him, without which we can in no wise become fami- 
 liar with His operations, and still less be numbered 
 among His servants. In truth, this Divine Sensi- 
 bility is so absolutely the one thing needful, that, 
 apart therefrom, we are corpses, less even than 
 stones, because stones abide in their law, and are 
 that which they should be, whereas the soul of man 
 was never designed to be a dead thing.^ 
 
 1 QJuvres Posthumes, i. 199-200. - Ibid., p. 197. ^ Ibid., p. 202. 
 
 3S8
 
 SOME APHORISMS AND MAXIMS 359 
 
 4- 
 There is nothing more easy than to come to the 
 gate of truth ; there is nothing more difficult than 
 to enter it. This applies to most of the wise of this 
 world. ^ 
 
 5. 
 Great progress in truth is difficult in the midst 
 of the world and under the favour of fortune ; dupli- 
 city and double-seeming are needed in dealing with 
 the one and anxiety for preserving the other. Our 
 rest is not therefore in God." 
 
 6. 
 
 It is in vain that we pretend to arrive at the 
 fulness of truth by reasoning. By this way we 
 reach only rational truth ; still it is infinitely pre- 
 cious, and full of resources against the assaults of 
 false philosophy. The natural lights of every man 
 of aspiration have indeed no other font, and it is 
 therefore of almost universal use ; but it cannot 
 impart that sentiment and tact of active and radical 
 truth from which our nature should derive its life 
 and being. This kind of truth is given of itself 
 alone. Let us make ourselves simple and childlike, 
 and our faithful guide will cause us to feel its sweet- 
 ness. If we profit by these first graces, we shall 
 taste very soon those of the pure spirit, afterwards 
 those of the Holy Spirit, then those of the Supreme 
 Sanctity, and, lastly, in the interior man we shall 
 behold the all.' 
 
 ^ (Euvres Posthumes, vol. i. p. 200. - Ibid., p. 216. 
 
 ^ Ibid., pp. 261-262.
 
 36o THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 7. 
 The sole advantage which can be found in the 
 merits and joys of this world is that they cannot 
 prevent us from dying. ^ 
 
 8. 
 
 It is easy to understand why wisdom is a folly 
 in the eyes of the world ; it is because it shows by 
 our own experience that the world is a folly by its 
 side ; for where is there a seeker after truth, however 
 ardent, who has not delayed by the way, and has 
 afterwards regarded himself as a fool when he has 
 resumed the path of wisdom ? " 
 
 9- 
 If this world will seem to us, after our death, as 
 nothing but magical illusion, why do we regard it 
 otherwise at present? The nature of things does 
 not change.^ 
 
 10. 
 
 Were I far from one loved and cherished, and did 
 she send me her picture to sweeten the bitterness of 
 absence, I should have certainly a kind of consola- 
 tion, but I should not have a true joy. So has truth 
 acted in regard to us. After our separation from her, 
 she has bequeathed us her portrait, and this is the 
 physical world, which she has placed before us to 
 alleviate the misery of our privation. But what is 
 the contemplation of the copy compared with that of 
 the original ? * 
 
 ' (IJuvres Posthumes, vol. i. p. 207. ^ Ibid. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 2og. ■* Ibid., pp. 224-225.
 
 SOME APHORISMS AND MAXIMS 361 
 
 II. 
 
 " All is vanity," says Solomon ; but let courage, 
 charity, and virtue be excluded from this teaching ; 
 rather, let us raise ourselves towards these sublime 
 things, until we are able to say that all is truth, that 
 all is love, that all is felicity.^ 
 
 12. 
 The learned describe nature ; the wise explain it.^ 
 
 13. 
 
 Never persuade yourself that you possess wisdom 
 in virtue of mere memory or mere mental culture. 
 Wisdom is like a mother's love, which makes itself 
 felt only after the labours and pains of childbirth.'^ 
 
 14. 
 
 Whatsoever is not wisdom only debauches man. 
 W^ith her he is fitted for all things, for the senti- 
 ments of nature, for lawful pleasures, for every virtue ; 
 in her absence the heart is petrified.^ 
 
 15- 
 
 It should be regarded as a grace of God when we 
 are stripped successively of all human supports and 
 succours, on which we are always too ready to depend. 
 Thereby He compels us to repose only on Him, 
 and herein is the final and most profound secret of 
 wisdom. How can we be dejected at learning it ? '' 
 
 ' (Euvres Posthumes, vol. i. p. 210. ' Ibid. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 213-214. •* Ibid., p. 226. * Ibid., p. 248.
 
 362 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 1 6. 
 
 Had we the courage to make voluntarily the 
 sincere and continual sacrifice of our entire being, 
 the ordeals, oppositions, and evils which we undergo 
 during life would not be sent us ; hence we should 
 always be superior to our sacrilices, like the Repairer, 
 instead of being almost invariably inferior to them.^ 
 
 17- 
 
 As our material existence is not life, so our 
 material destruction is not death.'"' 
 
 1 8. 
 
 Death is the target at which all men strike ; but 
 the angle of incidence being equal to the angle of 
 reflection, they find themselves after death in their 
 former degree, whether above or below. ^ 
 
 19. 
 
 Fear walks with those who dwell upon death, 
 but those who think of life have love for their com- 
 panion.* 
 
 20. 
 
 Death should be regarded only as a relay in our 
 journey ; we reach it with exhausted horses, and we 
 pause to get fresh ones able to carry us farther. 
 But we must also pay what is due for the stage 
 already travelled, and until the account is settled, 
 we are not allowed to go forward.^ 
 
 1 CEuvres Posthumes, vol. i. pp. 212-213. ^ Ibid., p. 212. 
 
 3 Ibid,, pp. 219-220. * Ibid., p. 224. ^ Ibid., p. 286.
 
 SOME APHORISMS AND MAXIMS 363 
 
 21. 
 
 The head of old was subject to the ruling of the 
 heart, and served only to enlarge it. To-day the 
 sceptre which belongs of right to the heart of man 
 has been transferred to the head, which reigns in 
 place of the heart. Love is more than knowledge, 
 which is only the lamp of love, and the lamp is less 
 than that which it enlightens.^ 
 
 22. 
 
 The man who believes in God can never fall into 
 despair ; the man who loves God must sigh inces- 
 santly.^ 
 
 23- 
 
 Love is the helm of our vessel ; the sciences are 
 only the weathercock on the capstan. A vessel can 
 sail without a weathercock, but not without a helm.^ 
 
 24. 
 
 Science separates man from his fellows by creating 
 distinctions with which prudence often forbids him 
 to dispense. Love, on the contrary, impels men to 
 communicate, and would establish everywhere the 
 reign of that unity which is the principle from which 
 it derives. The Repairer spoke nothing of the sciences, 
 for he came not to divide men ; he spoke only of love 
 and the virtues, for he wished them to walk in 
 unison. But science does not divide merely, it tends 
 also to pride ; love, on the other hand, does more than 
 join together, it keeps man in humility. Hence St. 
 Paul said that knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies.* 
 
 1 (Exivres Posthumes, vol. i. pp. 220-221. ^ Ibid., p. 230. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 243-244. * Ibid., pp. 246-247.
 
 364 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 25. 
 
 Science is for things of time, love for divine 
 things. It is possible to dispense with science, but 
 not with love, and by love will all be fulfilled, for 
 thereby all began, and thereby does all exist. I 
 would that all the teachings of the doctors of wisdom 
 began and ended with these words : Love God, and 
 you shall be learned as all the sages. ^ 
 
 26. 
 
 For our personal advancement in virtue and truth 
 one quality is sufficient, namely, love ; to advance 
 our fellows there must be two, love and intelligence ; 
 to accomplish the work of man there must be three, 
 love, intelligence, and activity. But love is ever the 
 base and the fount in chief. ^ 
 
 27. 
 
 Hope is faith beginning ; faith is hope fulfilled ; 
 love is the living and visible operation of hope and 
 faith. =^ 
 
 28. 
 
 For most men life is made up of two days ; in 
 the first they believe everything, and in the second 
 nothing. For some others life also has two days, 
 but what distinguishes them from ordinary men is 
 that in the first they believe only in illusions, and 
 these are nothing ; while in the second they believe 
 in everything, for they believe in truth, which is all."* 
 
 ^ CEuvres Posthumes, vol. i. p. 258. * Ibid., p. 317. 
 
 ^ Ibid,, pp. 231-232. ■* Ibid., pp. 314-315.
 
 SOME APHORISMS AND MAXIMS 365 
 
 29. 
 
 The Gospel sufficiently impresses on us that the 
 reward of many is with them in this world, whence 
 they have little to expect in the other. This sen- 
 tence, which, although severe, seems neither cruel nor 
 unjust, has several degrees which it is well nut to 
 confound. There are men who will have received 
 their entire recompense here below, others the half 
 only, and yet others a fourth part. Thus the mea- 
 sure of compensations obtained in the present life will 
 regulate the giving or refusing of those in the other. 
 After this the expectations of the rich and happy on 
 earth may be inferred easily. 
 
 30. 
 
 When deliverance has been accomplished, time is 
 still required for self-correction and self-purification. 
 In ceasing to be damned one is not therefore saved, 
 and this is why there are two judgments in the 
 Apocalypse.^ 
 
 31- 
 
 Believe not that the joys of the soul are a chimera, 
 and that the goods we acquire in this life are lost 
 utterly. The soul in no way changes its nature by 
 leaving this mortal body. If given over to evil, it 
 receives the punishment thereof by sinking further 
 therein. But if it have loved goodness, and have at 
 times experienced the secret delights of virtue, it will 
 partake of them with increasing rapture. It has 
 known here below the ravishments caused by the 
 contemplation of things which transcend it. It seems 
 
 ^ CEuvres Posthumes, vol. i. pp. 298-299.
 
 o 
 
 66 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 as if uothing on earth can afford it like felicity ; it 
 seems even as if earthly pleasures had no existence. 
 It may rely upon the same transports in the superior 
 region ; yet more, it may count upon joys beyond 
 measure and uninterrupted delights when this gross 
 material part shall no longer soil its purity. If it be 
 thus, let us by no means neglect life ; the greater our 
 care for the soul here, the better shall be our estate 
 hereafter.^ 
 
 32. 
 
 The law of spirit and of fire is to go up ; the law 
 of matter and of bodies is to go down. Hence, from 
 the first moment of their existence, corporeal beings 
 and beings corporised materially tend to their end 
 and reintegration, each in their class. '^ 
 
 33- 
 
 The locality of the soul has been a subject of 
 frequent dispute ; by some it has been placed in the 
 head, by others in the heart, by yet others in the 
 solar plexus. Were the soul an organic and material 
 particle, there would be reason in assigning a place 
 for it, as it would be possible that it should occupy 
 one. But if it be a metaphysical entity, how can it 
 be localised physically ? Its faculties alone would 
 seem to possess a determined seat — the head for the 
 functions of thought, meditation, judgment, and the 
 heart for affections and sentiments of every kind. 
 As for the soul itself, since its nature transcends both 
 time and space, its correspondences and abode in 
 space escape calculation.^ 
 
 1 CEuvres Posthumes, vol. i. pp. 324-325. 
 2 Ibid., p. 312. ^ Ibid., p. 309.
 
 SOME APHORISMS AND MAXIMS 367 
 
 34. 
 
 God is a fixed paradise, man should be a paradise 
 in motion.^ 
 
 35. 
 Peace is found more often in patience than in 
 judgment; hence it is better that we should be ac- 
 cused unjustly than that we should accuse others, 
 even with justice." 
 
 36. 
 
 The Holy One quitted that which was above that 
 He might come and restore us to life ; we are reluctant 
 to leave that which is below that we may recover the 
 life which He has brought to us.^ 
 
 Z7' 
 
 Work for the spirit before asking the food of the 
 spirit ; he who will not work, let him not live/ 
 
 The greatest sin which we can commit against 
 God is to doubt His love and mercy, for it is question- 
 ing the universality of His power, which is the per- 
 sistent sin of the prince of darkness.^ 
 
 39. 
 
 The most sweet of our joys is to feel that God 
 can wed with wisdom in us, or rather that without 
 Him wisdom can never enter us, nor He without 
 wisdom.*^ 
 
 ^ (Euvres Posthumes, vol. i. p. 208. ^ Ibid,, p. 209. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 208. * Ibid. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 211. ' ^ Ibid., p. 214.
 
 368 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 40. 
 
 All men who are instructed in fundamental truths 
 speak the same language, for they are inhabitants of 
 the same country.^ 
 
 41. 
 
 Men neglect habitually to study principles ; and 
 hence, when they have need to consider the develop- 
 ment and functions of principles, they are astonished 
 that they fail to understand them. But they believe 
 themselves to have provided for everything by creating 
 the word " mystery." " 
 
 42. 
 
 Man's head is raised towards heaven, and for this 
 reason he finds nowhere to repose it on earth. ^ 
 
 43- 
 All the goods of fortune are given us only to de- 
 fray our journey through this earthly vale. But 
 those who do not possess pass through it all the 
 same, and this is infinitely consoling for the poor."* 
 
 44. 
 
 The keynote of Nature is reluctance. Her un- 
 varied occupation seems to be the withdrawal of her 
 productions. She withdraws them even w^ith vio- 
 lence to teach us that violence gave birth to them.^ 
 
 45- 
 Who is the innocent man ? He who has acquired 
 all things and has lost nothinc;.^' 
 
 1 CEuvres Posthumes, vol. i. p. 212. - Ibid., jop. 215-216. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 211. * Ibid., p. 223. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 224. ^ Ibid.
 
 SOME APHORISMS AND MAXIMS 369 
 
 46. 
 
 Preserve through all things the desire of the con- 
 cupiscence of God ; strive for its attainment, to over- 
 come the illusion which surrounds us, and to realise 
 our misery. Strive above all things to keep through 
 all things the idea of the efficacious presence of a 
 faithful friend who accompanies, guides, nourishes, 
 and sustains us at every step. This will make us 
 at once reserved and confident ; it will give us both 
 wisdom and strength. What would be wanting unto 
 us if we were imbued invariably with these two 
 virtues ? ^ 
 
 47- 
 
 We see that the earth, the stars, and all the 
 wonders of Nature operate with exactitude and 
 following a divine order ; yet are we greater than 
 these. man ! respect thyself, but fear to be un- 
 wise ! " 
 
 48. 
 
 The more we advance in virtue the less we per- 
 ceive the defects of others, as a man on the summit 
 of a mountain, with a vast prospect about him, be- 
 holds not the deformities of those who may dwell 
 on the plain below. His very elevation should give 
 him a lively and tender interest in those who, 
 although beneath him, are, he knows, of his own 
 nature. What then must be the love of God for 
 men?^ 
 
 49- 
 
 All the impressions which are made on us by 
 Nature are designed to exercise our soul during its 
 
 1 CEuvres Posthumes, i. 227, ^ Ibid., p. 229. ^ Ibid., p. 230. 
 
 2 A
 
 370 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 term of penitence, to prompt us towards the eternal 
 truths shown beneath a veil, and to lead us to re- 
 cover what we have lost/ 
 
 50. 
 
 The ordeals and oppositions which we undergo 
 become our crosses when we remain beneath them, 
 but they become ladders of ascent when we rise above 
 them, and the wisdom which makes us their subject 
 has no other end than our elevation and healing, and 
 not that cruel and vengeful intent which is com- 
 monly attributed to it by the vulgar." 
 
 51. 
 It is insufficient to say unto God, " Thy will be 
 done ;" we must seek always to know that will ; for if 
 we know it not, who are we that we should accom- 
 plish it?' 
 
 52. 
 
 The true method of expiati i^^^^ faults is to re- 
 pair them, and as regards thofiv^^^ ^ ^ irreparable, 
 not to be discouraged on acco* of 
 
 We are all in a widowed state, and our task is to 
 re-marry.^ 
 
 54- 
 
 Purification is accomplished only by union with 
 the true law of our being ; all who are outside that 
 law can expiate nothing ; they only contaminate 
 themselves more deeply/ 
 
 1 CEuvres Posthumes, i. 231. "^ Ibid., p. 243. ^ Ibid., p. 252. 
 
 ♦ Ibid., p. 16. ^ Ibid., p. 17. " Ibid.
 
 SOME APHORISMS AND MAXIMS 371 
 
 55. 
 That which is true is made by men subservient 
 to the worship of the semblance, whereas the sem- 
 blance was given them to be subservient to the wor- 
 ship of the true.^ 
 
 56. 
 
 There are for man three desirable things : ( i ) 
 Never to forget that there is another light than the 
 elementary, of which this is but the veil and the 
 mask. (2) To realise that nothing either can or 
 should prevent him from accomplishing his work. 
 (3) To learn that what he knows best is that he knows 
 nothing.^ 
 
 57. 
 
 The spirit is to our soul what our eyes are to our 
 body ; without it we should be nothing, even as 
 apart from the life of the body the eyes are useless.^ 
 
 58- 
 
 Order thyself aright ; that will instruct thee in 
 wisdom and morality better than all the books which 
 treat of them, for wisdom and morality are active 
 forces/ 
 
 59. 
 
 As a proof that we are regenerated we must re- 
 generate everything around us.^ 
 
 60. 
 
 The wise of this world talk incessantly, and that 
 upon all things false. The sages do not talk, but, 
 
 1 CEuvres Posthumes, i. i8. ^ Ibid., p. 21. ^ Ibid., p. 26. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 36. ' Ibid., p. 102.
 
 372 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 like wisdom itself, they accomplish unceasingly the 
 living and the true.^ 
 
 6i. 
 
 The Church should be the Priest, but the Priest 
 seeks to be the Church." 
 
 62. 
 
 Men of this world consider that it is impossible 
 to be a saint without also being a fool. They do not 
 know that, on the contrary, the one way to avoid 
 being a fool is to be a saint.^ 
 
 63- 
 Mind and not soul is required for human sciences ; 
 but for real and divine sciences mind is not needed, 
 for they are the offspring of the soul. Hence no 
 two things can be more opposite than truth and the 
 world/ 
 
 64. 
 
 A picture without a frame is offensive in the eyes 
 of the world, so accustomed is it to see frames with- 
 out pictures.^ 
 
 65. 
 Unity is seldom found in associations ; it must be 
 sought in an individual junction with God. Only 
 when that has been accomplished do we find brethren 
 in one another.*^ 
 
 66. 
 
 "Words are given to us in trust, as sheep to a 
 shepherd. If we leave them to go astray, to become 
 famished, or to be devoured by wolves, we shall be 
 called to a stricter account than he is. 
 
 1 (Euvres Posthumes, i. 103. ^ Ibid., p. 105. ^ Ibid., p. 114. 
 
 * Ibid. 5 Ibid., p. 135. '^ Ibid., pp. 138-139.
 
 SOME APHORISMS AND MAXIMS Z7Z 
 
 67. 
 
 In order to demonstrate that the principle of any 
 action is lawful, its consequences must be considered ; 
 where the actor is unhappy he is infallibly guilty, 
 because he cannot be unhappy unless he is free.^ 
 
 68. 
 
 Whatsoever is sensible is relative, and there is 
 nothing fixed therein.' 
 
 69. 
 
 Man is one of the arbiters of God, and hence he 
 is ancient as God, though there is not a plurality of 
 Gods on this account.^ 
 
 70. 
 
 The kingdom of God is a continuous and complete 
 activity. God is not the God of the dead, but of the 
 living.* 
 
 71. 
 
 If man avoids regarding himself as the king of 
 the universe, it is because he lacks courage to recover 
 his titles thereto, because its duties seem too labori- 
 ous, and because he fears less to renounce his state 
 and his rights than to undertake the restoration of 
 their value. ^ 
 
 72. 
 
 We are nearer to that which is not than to that 
 which is.^ 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la V^it^, Part i. p. 72. 
 
 2 Ibid., Part ii. p. 7. 
 
 3 CEuvres Posthumes, i. 17. * Ibid., p. 182. 
 5 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part ii. p. 117. 
 
 ^ CEuvres Posthumes, i. 17.
 
 374 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 The prayer of the Spaniard, " My God, defend 
 me from myself," connects with a salutary feeling 
 when we can awaken it within us, namely, that we 
 ourselves are the only beings of whom we need be 
 afraid on earth, whilst God is the one nature who 
 has reason to fear only that which is not Himvself. 
 We might extend it as follows, " My God, aid me in 
 thy goodness, that I may be spared from destroying 
 thee."^ 
 
 74- 
 If man, despite his state of reprobation, can still 
 discern within himself a principle which is superior 
 to his sensible and corporeal part, why should not 
 such a principle be acknowledged in the sensible uni- 
 verse, equally distinct and superior, though deputed 
 specially to govern it ? " 
 
 75. 
 I leave the unenlightened and shallow man to 
 murmur at that justice which visits the trespasses of 
 the parent upon his posterity. I will not even point 
 to that physical law whereby an impure source com- 
 municates its impurities to its productions, because 
 the analogy would be false and invidious if applied 
 to what is not physical. But if justice can afflict the 
 children through the fathers, it can also purify the 
 fathers by the children ; and though it exceeds the 
 understanding of the ignorant, this should warrant 
 us in suspending our judgment till we are admitted 
 to the councils of wisdom.^ 
 
 ^ CEuvres Posthumes, i. 80. 
 2 Des Erreurs et de la V&it^, Part i. p. 153. ^ Ibid., p. 158.
 
 SOME APHORISMS AND MAXIMS 375 
 
 The thought of man is expressed in the material 
 world, that of God in the universe.^ 
 
 n- 
 
 Sensible objects can give us nothing, but can de- 
 prive us of all. Our task while they encompass us 
 is less to acquire than to lose nothing. 
 
 ^^. 
 
 The prayers and the truths which are taught us 
 here below are too narrow for our needs ; they are 
 the prayers and the truths of time, and we feel that 
 we were made for others.^ 
 
 79. 
 The universe is even as a great temple ; the stars 
 are its lights, the earth is its altar, all corporeal 
 beings are its holocausts, and man, the priest of the 
 Eternal, offers the sacrifices.^ 
 
 80. 
 
 The universe is also as a great fire lighted since 
 the beginning of things for the purification of all 
 corrupted beings.^ 
 
 1 Tableau Naturel, Part i. p. 39. 
 '^ Le Ministere de I'llomme-Esprit, p. 39. 
 ^ Tableau Naturel, Part ii. p. 127. 
 * Ibid., p. 160.
 
 BOOK VII 
 
 THE MYSTICAL PHILOSOPHY OF NUMBERS
 
 SAINT-MARTIN ON MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE 
 
 The knowledge derived by Saint-Martin from the 
 initiation which took place in his youth was con- 
 nected with a scheme of numerical mysticism, to 
 which he has recourse very frequently to establish 
 the doctrinal points of his early works ; it also occu- 
 pies an important place in his correspondence, and 
 was the subject of a posthumous treatise. At the 
 same time we do not possess this scheme in its en- 
 tirety, for the conditions under which he received it 
 made a full presentation impossible, nor do we pos- 
 sess it apparently in quite the same form that he re- 
 ceived it himself. It was held by him in very high 
 estimation at all periods of his life, and it was deve- 
 loped by many considerations of his own, considera- 
 tions which indeed bear all the peculiar signs of his 
 philosophical gift. It would be perhaps too much to 
 say that his entire doctrine is based upon the occult 
 properties of numbers ; its arcane portions are more 
 correctly veiled thereby, but as the details are highly 
 technical, they have been so far kept separate in this 
 study, with the intention to deal with them some- 
 what comprehensively at a later point. 
 
 The mystical developments to which numbers 
 have been subjected by the various schools of occul- 
 tism, Pythagorean, Kabalistic, and so forth, offer in 
 the whole only a slender analogy with the system of 
 Saint-Martin, which, moreover, is connected with 
 
 379
 
 38o THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 peculiar views concerning mathematical science in 
 general. As there is abundant material scattered 
 through his various works to form on this one sub- 
 ject a volume of substantial dimensions, the minor 
 issues must be passed over of necessity and the chief 
 considerations must be compressed into a small shape. 
 I propose, in the first place, to present in outline the 
 views expressed by Saint-Martin as to the funda- 
 mental principles of mathematics ; in the second 
 place, to collect and condense the scattered state- 
 ments as to the philosophy of numbers in particular ; 
 and, finally, in a third section to tabulate the mystic 
 properties ascribed to the ten numerals. 
 
 That Saint-Martin had a tolerable acquaintance 
 with higher mathematics may, I think, be inferred 
 from the familiar style which characterises his refe- 
 rences. When, this accepted, it becomes necessary 
 to add that he was a hostile critic of the exact science 
 'par excellence, it would seem that in proposing to 
 follow him we are about to abandon altogether the 
 common ground of reason. The criticism is con- 
 cerned, however, more with the application of the 
 science than with its principles ; it is fantastic in 
 the highest degree, but it is well to state at the 
 outset that it does not challenge, for example, the 
 simple calculation that two and two make four. It 
 seems nonsensical enough, in all conscience, but it 
 is refined, not crass in its absurdity. There will be, 
 therefore, no need, as there is indeed no space, to 
 criticise the criticism ; its fantasia will be established 
 by its presentation ; but I may remind the occult 
 reader how Robert Fludd, the Kentish mystic, more 
 than a century earlier, proved the degeneracy of
 
 ON MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE 381 
 
 music because it could no longer influence stones and 
 rocks as it did in the days of Orpheus.^ That is a 
 consideration which is entirely parallel to the mathe- 
 matical strictures of Saint-Martin, who was indeed 
 the Fludd of his period, plus a spiritual illumination 
 which we cannot trace in the English Eosicrucian, 
 and for which Saint-Martin is entitled to a permanent 
 place in philosophy when purged of his scientific 
 absurdities ; whereas Fludd leaves nothing, after pass- 
 ing through a similar process, except indeed the his- 
 torical interest belonging to the chief apologist of the 
 Rosicrucians.^ 
 
 For Saint-Martin mathematical science is only an 
 illusory copy of the true science,^ as algebra is, in a 
 certain sense, the degradation of numbers/ The basis 
 of mathematics is relation, and relation is also its 
 result/ Once the postulates of relations are fixed, the 
 results derived from them are exact and appropriate 
 to the object proposed. In a word, mathematics can- 
 not err, because they never depart from their groove ; 
 they turn, so to speak, on a pivot, and all their pro- 
 gress takes them back to that point from which they 
 first started. Mathematical principles not being mate- 
 rial, but being still the true law of sensible things, 
 so long as mathematicians confine themselves to these 
 
 ^ Apologia Gompendiaria Fraternitatem de Rosea Grace . . . ablueiis 
 et dbstergens. 
 
 2 I believe that he was a man of considerable personal sanctity, and 
 this reference applies only to his philosophical works. If I remember 
 rightly, Ennemoser ("History of Magic") takes much the same view. 
 On the other hand, the late Mr. Hargrave Jennings would have disagreed 
 probably, but then I do not know that he would have understood. 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la Verite', Part i. p. 8i. 
 
 * Gorrespondance Ine'dite, Lettre xc. ; Penny, " Theosophic Corre- 
 spondence," p. 305. 
 
 * Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part i. p, 8i.
 
 o"- 
 
 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 principles, they cannot err ; ])ut when they come to 
 the application of the idea derived from them, they 
 are enslaved by the principles.^ There is nothing 
 demonstrated by mathematics except by reference to 
 some axiom, because axioms alone are true ; the 
 ground of their truth is in their independence of the 
 sensible, or of matter ; in a word, they are purely 
 intellectual. Did geometricians never lose sight of 
 their axioms they would never go astray in their 
 reasoning, for their axioms are attached to the very 
 essence of intellectual principles, and thus rest on 
 the most complete certitude.^ 
 
 From the confused and confounding criticism 
 which follows this general statement, I have extri- 
 cated two points which may be accepted as the 
 axioms of Saint-Martin, but there will be no need 
 to say that, whatever their occult value, unlike 
 those of mathematics, they are not self-evidently 
 true, (a) Motion is possible without extension.^ (6) 
 Everything in Nature has its number."* Now, there 
 was a time when such paradoxes as the first of 
 these axioms used to be discussed seriously, and^ 
 having regard to some extraordinary subtleties put 
 forward by the Spanish theologian Balmes, among 
 other philosophers, we have no right to regard 
 Saint-Martin as distracted because he sustained this 
 thesis. The proposition is, of course, unthinkable, 
 and has no claim on us, because the day of subtlety 
 has ended, but at the period which just succeeded 
 Descartes it had not quite finished, and there was, of 
 course, an earlier period when such questions were 
 discussed with enthusiasm, when Saint-Martin would 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verity, Part ii. pp. 84-85. * Ibid. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. loi, 102, 130. * Ibid., p. 91.
 
 ON MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE 383 
 
 have delighted the schoolmen, would have founded a 
 new method, like Raymond Lully, and would have 
 been burnt, or perhaps beatified if he had not ex- 
 ceeded the limits of ecclesiastical latitude. As to 
 the second axiom, it has no connections in philo- 
 sophy, unless it be the signatures of Paracelsus ; it 
 is, in fact, the exclusive property of Saint-Martin's 
 school of initiation, and will raise no idea in the 
 modern mind except the statement in the Apocalypse 
 that the number of the beast is " the number of a 
 man." 
 
 It is, therefore, on all accounts necessary to see 
 how the two axioms are sustained by their enumerator, 
 and this especially that they are the grounds for his 
 impeachment of mathematics. 
 
 " Like all other properties of bodies, extension is a 
 product of the generative principle of matter, according 
 to the laws and the order imposed on this inferior 
 principle by the higher principle which directs it. 
 In this sense extension is a secondary production, and 
 cannot have the same advantages as the beings in- 
 cluded in the class of prime products." ^ To elucidate 
 this further, we must understand that " there are only 
 two kinds of beings, sensible and intellectual." ^ Ac- 
 cording to Saint-Martin, the latter are the true source 
 of motion ; " they belong to another order than the 
 immaterial corporeal principles which they rule ; they 
 must therefore have an action and effects distinct 
 like themselves from the sensible, that is, in which 
 the sensible counts for nothing;. Hence also we must 
 suppose their activity both before and after the exist- 
 ence of sensible things. It is, therefore, incontestable 
 that movement may be conceived without extension, 
 
 ' Des Erreihrs et de la Verite, Part ii. p. 87. - Ibid., p. 103.
 
 384 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 since the principle of movement, whether sensible or 
 intellectual, is actually outside extension." ^ 
 
 Now, the failure of geometricians is that they have 
 not recognised this truth. After establishing their 
 axioms in the real world outside the sensible, they 
 have provided for the measurement of extension 
 " some meter derived from extension, or some arbi- 
 trary numbers which require a sensible measure before 
 they can be realised by our bodily eyes.^ They have 
 fallen into the same mistake as that made by the 
 observers of Nature ; they have separated extension 
 from its true principle, or rather it is in extension that 
 they have sought for this principle, confusing distinct 
 things, which, however, are connected inseparably 
 for the constitution of matter." ^ Put shortly, " the 
 measures taken from extension for the measurement 
 of extension are subject to the same drawbacks as the 
 object which it is proposed to measure," ^ and thus 
 the extension of bodies is not determined with more 
 certainty than their other properties. " Extension 
 exists only by motion, which is not, however, to say 
 that motion is from and in that which is extended. 
 It is true that in the sensible order movement cannot 
 be conceived outside of extension, but though the 
 principles which produce motion in the sensible order 
 are immaterial, their action is not necessary and 
 eternal, because they are secondary beings receiving 
 the communication of action for a time only from the 
 Active and Intelligent Cause." ^ 
 
 The full measure of extension must be sought 
 outside it, in the principle by which it has been en- 
 gendered, like all other properties of matter. "It is 
 
 1 Bes Erreurs et de la V&ite\ Part i. p. 104. ' Ibid., p. 86. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 87. * Ibid., p. 88. * Ibid., pp. 101-102.
 
 ON MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE 385 
 
 true that geometricians attach numbers to their ex- 
 tended and sensible measure, but these numbers are 
 relative and conventional ; with such a scale extension 
 of another kind cannot be measured. To this must 
 be referred the difficulty experienced in the measure- 
 ment of curves ; the measure utilised was made for 
 the straight line, and offers insurmountable difficulties 
 when applied to the circular, or to any curve derived 
 from it." ^ The conception of the circle as an as- 
 semblage of infinitely small straight lines is, in the 
 opinion of Saint-Martin, not a true conception, for it 
 contradicts that which Nature gives us concerning a 
 circumference — a line, namely, in which all the points 
 are equidistant from a common centre. " If the 
 circumference be an assemblage of straight lines, 
 however infinitely small, all its points cannot be equi- 
 distant from the centre, since such straight lines will 
 themselves be composed of points, among which the 
 extreme and intermediary cannot be at the same 
 distance from the centre, which is therefore no longer 
 common, while the circumference ceases to be a cir- 
 cumference." ^ 
 
 The distinction between the straight line and the 
 circle is established fantastically as follows : — " The 
 object of the straight line is to perpetuate to infinity 
 the production of the point from which it emanates, 
 but the circular line limits at all points the produc- 
 tion of the straight line, since it tends continually 
 to destroy it, and may be regarded, so to speak, as 
 its enemy. As there is nothing common between 
 these lines, so there is no common measurement 
 of them possible." ^ Following up this distinction, 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Vifrite, Part i. p. 88. 
 ^ Ibid., pp. 89-90. ' Ibid., pp. 91-92. 
 
 2 B
 
 386 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 we must be prepared to regard the circle not as the 
 perfect figure, but as inferior and limited : a para- 
 dox which leads us to the second axiom of Saint- 
 Martin, that everything in Nature has its numl^er, by 
 which each can be distinguished ; for its properties 
 are results conformed to the laws contained in that 
 number. The right and curved lines being different 
 in their natures, have each their particular number. 
 The straight line bears the number 4, and the circu- 
 lar that of 9, their lesser or greater extent making 
 no difference, because " a large and a small line are 
 each equally the result of their law and their num- 
 ber acting diversely, that is, with more or less 
 power and duration in each, since these numbers 
 remain always intact, though their faculties are 
 extended or contracted in the variations of which 
 extension is susceptible." ^ From these considera- 
 tions Saint-Martin concludes that there are no frac- 
 tions in Nature, and that they are a mutilation of 
 numbers. "The principles of corporeal beings are 
 simple and therefore indivisible, while the numbers 
 which represent and render them sensible enjoy the 
 same property." ^ 
 
 Saint-Martin applies the number 9 to the circle 
 for the following reasons. The circle is equivalent 
 to zero ; its centre may be regarded as unity because 
 a circumference can have only one centre ; unity 
 joined to zero makes 10, or the centre with the 
 circumference. The circle, however, can be regarded 
 as a corporeal being, the circumference being the 
 body and the centre the immaterial principle. But 
 this principle can always be separated intellectually 
 from the bodily and extended form, which is equiva- 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part i. p. 93. ^ Ibid., p. 94.
 
 ON MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE 387 
 
 lent to separating the centre from the circumference, 
 or I from 10. The subtraction of i from 10 leaves 
 9; the removal of the unit leaves zero as the circular 
 line, and hence 9 is equivalent to the circle. This 
 correspondence between zero, which is nothing by 
 itself, and the number 9 may be held to justify the 
 view that matter is illusory.^ 
 
 The number of extension is, according to Saint- 
 Martin, the same as that of the circular line," whence, 
 in his occult phraseology, it has also the same weight 
 and the same measure. The circle and extension 
 are, in fact, one and the same thing, and hence it is 
 that the circular line alone is corporeal and sensible. 
 " Material nature and extension cannot be formed by 
 means of right lines, or, in other words, there are no 
 right lines in nature." ^ The reason assigned for 
 this bizarre statement is, that although the principle 
 of physical things is from fire, their corporisation 
 is from water, and hence bodies are fluid in their 
 primary state. But fluid is an assemblage of spheri- 
 cal particles, and bodies themselves may be regarded 
 as an assemblage of such particles.'* 
 
 The number 4 is applied to the right line, re- 
 garded as a principle and distinct from extension, 
 in accordance with the followincr reasoning. "There 
 are three principles in all bodies ; the circle is a 
 body ; the radii of a circle are right lines in the 
 material sense, and by their apparent rectitude and 
 capability of being prolonged to infinity they are 
 the real image of the generative principle. The 
 spaces between the radii are triangles, and thus the 
 action of the generative principle is manifested by 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs etde la Verity, Part i. pp. 1 20-1 21. 
 2 Ibid., p. 106. ' Ibid., p. 107. * Ibid., pp. 107-108.
 
 388 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 triadic production. Join the number, or unity, of 
 the centre to the triad of its production, and we have 
 an index of the quaternary. So also the conception 
 of an intimate bond between the centre or genera- 
 tive principle and the secondary principle, which is 
 proved to be 3 by the three sides of the triangle 
 and the three dimensions, gives us the most perfect 
 idea of our immaterial quaternary. Furthermore, 
 as this quaternary manifestation takes place only by 
 the emanation of the radius from the centre ; as this 
 radius always prolonged in a straight line is the 
 organ and action of the central principle ; as the 
 curved line, on the contrary, produces nothing, but 
 limits the action and production of the radius, we 
 apply fearlessly the number 4 to the straight line 
 and radius which represents it. As a fact, it is to the 
 number 4 and to the square that geometry refers 
 everything it measures, considering all triangles as a 
 division of the square. Now this square is composed 
 of four lines regarded as right lines, similar to the 
 radius, and quaternary, consequently, like that."^ 
 From these considerations Saint-Martin concludes 
 that the number which produces beings is that also 
 which measures them, and that the true measure of 
 beings is found in their principle, not in their en- 
 velope and extension. Hence also he acknowledges 
 only one square and one square root." 
 
 But 4 is not only the number of the straight 
 line, but also that of motion or movement.^ " There 
 is, therefore, great analogy between the principle of 
 movement and the straight line." It is not, how- 
 ever, only the analogy of their identical number, but 
 
 * Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part i. pp. 126-128. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 132. ^ Ibid., pp. 105-106.
 
 ON MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE 389 
 
 also because " the source of the action of sensible 
 things resides in movement, and the straight line is 
 the emblem of infinity, and the continuity of the 
 production of the point from which it emanates." ^ 
 The identity of number gives also the identity of 
 law and property, " and hence the straight line 
 directs corporeal and extended things, but never 
 combines with them, never becomes sensible ; for a 
 principle cannot be confounded with its produc- 
 tion." ^ Collectingf the observations on the right 
 line, and referring thence to the question of the 
 circle, Saint-Martin adds : " But if there are no 
 right lines in Nature, the circle cannot be an assem- 
 blage of right lines." ^ 
 
 If we seek now to discover the purpose of this 
 extraordinary criticism, and to learn how we can 
 attain to the true measurement of things by their 
 principles, I must confess that we glean scant light 
 from the mystic. It is perfectly useless to say that 
 the just valuation of the properties of beings is by 
 means of their principles, unless we can reach their 
 principles. Saint-Martin admits that it may be 
 " difficult to read therein," but that no certitude 
 can be found outside that which " rules and measures 
 all." ^ Where is the key by which we can unlock 
 the doors of the phenomenal world and communicate 
 with the realities behind it ? I do not need to say 
 that Saint-Martin does not surrender it ; reason may 
 lead us to the recognition of the noumenal world, but 
 it cannot impart it. The last words of the mystic 
 are either an admission of his impotence and a stul- 
 tification of his inquiry or a veiled appeal to the 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la V^rit^, Part i. p. i lo. - Ibid. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. III. * Ibid., p. 97.
 
 390 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 fields commanded by a faculty higher than the 
 rational. " Though it is possible by recourse to this 
 principle to judge surely the measure of extension, 
 it would be profanation to employ it in material 
 combinations, for it can lead to the discovery of more 
 important truths than those which are connected with 
 matter, while the senses suffice for the direction of 
 man in things sensible." ^ Hence, even on the show- 
 ing of Saint-Martin, the geometricians are not so 
 wrong after all ! 
 
 Before taking leave of this surprising criticism, 
 the curious may like to be possessed of an argu- 
 ment against the quadrature of the circle which De 
 Morgan would have surely included in his " Budget 
 of Paradoxes," had he been acquainted with the 
 French mystic. " Since the Fall, man has sought 
 to conciliate the right line with the circle ; in other 
 words, he has endeavoured to discover what is called 
 the quadrature of the circle. Before his Fall he did 
 not seek the accomplishment of an evident impossi- 
 bility, the reduction of 9 to 4 or the extension of 4 
 to 9. The true means of arriving at the knowledge 
 of things is to begin by not confounding them, but 
 by pursuing the examination of each according to its 
 proper number and laws." ^ 
 
 There are many inquiries, all leading to more or 
 less amazing conclusions, but all excessively curi- 
 ous, undertaken by Saint-Martin in connection with 
 mathematical science, but into which it is impossible 
 here to follow him. He regarded mathematics as 
 representing the universal law of energy and resist- 
 
 1 Des Erreurs et de la Verity, Part i. p. 97. 
 2 Ibid., pp. 111-112.
 
 ON MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE 391 
 
 ance, because it is occupied in discovering and ex- 
 pressing the relations of dimensions, quantities, and 
 weights, relations which, each in its class, are the 
 expression of resistance and energy acting on all 
 that exists/ In this connection he has some curious 
 remarks on the binomial theorem, and especially on 
 what was then the recent discovery of Descartes, 
 namely, in equations the curve to which they belong, 
 and in curves the equation which expresses their 
 nature.^ He regarded corporeal existences, general 
 and particular, as a universal and continual quadra- 
 ture, because the energy or power of co-ordinates 
 cannot yield at any point or leave any opening to 
 the resistance of the curve, and hence this curve or 
 resistance is always combined with and modelled 
 upon the energy in question, and never occupies any 
 spaces but that which it yields to it.^ Remarking 
 on the old maxim that metaphysics are the mathe- 
 matics of God, mathematics the metaphysics of 
 Nature, and transcendental or higher geometry the 
 metaphysics of mathematics, he concludes that the 
 right line is the principle and end of all geometry ; 
 and that although the general theory of curves, of 
 the figures which they terminate and their pro- 
 perties, constitutes what is called higher geometry, 
 the truly transcendental geometry is that of right 
 lines ; for it has generated the geometry of curves, 
 and is more central, more concealed from our know- 
 ledge, because it acts within the circle or behind the 
 envelope of things, whilst the geometry of curves acts 
 only at their surface, and is thus their circumference 
 and perimeter.* The application of mathematics to 
 
 1 De V Esprit des Choses, ii. 203 et seq. 2 j^id., p. 305. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 310. ** Ibid., p. 313 et seq.
 
 392 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 the pliysical sciences, and the attempt to extend 
 them into the domains of medicine, the calculus of 
 probabilities, and the investigation of the law of 
 chances,^ leads Saint-Martin to the hypothesis of a 
 universal mathematics and arithmetic, accompanying 
 all laws and operations of beings ; " but he adds that, 
 in order to attain it, we must be able to number 
 the integral values of things instead of computing 
 only their dimensions and external properties. The 
 mathematician does not in reality possess the funda- 
 mental principles of mathematics and the calculus.^ 
 He observes external laws written on the surface of 
 bodies, on the ostensible effects of motion, on the 
 outward progress of numeration ; he has collected 
 all these facts, which, though true, are only resultants, 
 and has erected them into principles. They are 
 principles, but only of a secondary kind, as com- 
 pared with the fundamental and active laws of things. 
 In attempting to penetrate the sanctuary of Nature 
 equipped only with secondary principles, man has 
 fulfilled his object imperfectly, because his means 
 have been inferior and insufficient. He has the 
 keys of the surface, and he can open the treasures of 
 the surface, but he has not the active and central 
 keys, and the treasures of the centre are interdicted 
 to him.^ 
 
 1 De V Esprit des Glioses, ii, p. 315. * Ibid., p. 316. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 317. ■* Ibid., p. 318.
 
 II 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF NUMBERS 
 
 The mathematical paradoxes propounded by Saint- 
 Martin may be regarded almost incontestably as 
 subtleties developed by himself from the occult doc- 
 trine of numbers received by him at his initiation. 
 The doctrine itself was probably simple enough in its 
 system and had no thought of impeaching mathe- 
 matics. We have every reason to suppose that it 
 was confined to attaching certain mystical ideas to 
 certain numbers, and in this respect it is certainly of 
 very high interest to the occult student, because its 
 numerical mysticism is quite opposed to that of any 
 other known school, especially in its treatment of the 
 quinary as an evil number, after all that we have 
 heard in occultism as to the magnificent revelations 
 of the pentogram. It seems also to establish in a 
 fairly conclusive manner that the Martinistic school, 
 in spite of a contrary statement by Eliphas Levi, had 
 no knowledge of the Tarot system. At the same time 
 I have been unable to avoid concluding, and am 
 therefore bound to state, that Saint-Martin's doctrine 
 of numbers is only a few fragments chipped, so to 
 speak, from an edifice of occult knowledge. It is 
 necessary also to add that he did not, in spite of his 
 devotion, exaggerate the importance of the science 
 which he thus acquired. He states that from his first 
 entrance into his first school, he never thought that 
 numbers gave more than the ticket of the package,
 
 394 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 and not commonly the substance of tlie matter itself.^ 
 I understand this to signify that they are a method 
 of classification which might in itself be conventional, 
 or that they are agreed symbols which must not be 
 understood literally ; so that when we hear of the 
 number of matter, the number of man, and so forth, 
 we must understand an occult essential character or 
 "virtue," more or less arbitrarily labelled or ticketed 
 for readiness of reference. This is, I think, shown 
 very clearly by other words of his own. " Numbers 
 are the sensible expression, whether visible or intel- 
 lectual, of the different properties of beings, which 
 all proceed from the one only source. Though we 
 may derive by tradition and theoretical teaching a 
 part of this science, regeneration alone shows us the 
 true ground, and therein, each in his own degree, we 
 obtain the true key without masters." Furthermore, 
 numbers express truths, but do not give them ; men 
 did not choose numbers, but discerned them in the 
 natural properties of things." ^ 
 
 Having said this by way of introduction, with the 
 design of indicating the most tolerable mode of 
 regarding an exceedingly obscure subject not over- 
 luminously treated, I propose now to present, collected 
 from a variety of treatises, but substantially in the 
 words of Saint-Martin, his general doctrine concern- 
 ing the philosophy of numbers. 
 
 Numbers are the abridged translation or concise 
 language of those truths and those laws of which the 
 text and conceptions are in God, man, and Nature.* 
 
 ^ Correspondance, Lettre Ixxiv. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 239. 
 
 ^ Ibid., Letter xc. p. 305. ^ Ibid., Letter xcii. p. 317. 
 
 * " Numbers are the invisible enveloper of beings, as bodies are their 
 sensible envelopes." — Tableau Naturel, ii. 131.
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF NUMBERS 395 
 
 AVe must beware of separating numbers from the 
 idea represented by eacb, for they then lose all their 
 virtue, and are like the syntax of a language the words 
 of which are unknown.^ The character of every num- 
 ber in the decade may be discovered by the parti- 
 cular operation to which it is united and the object 
 on which it reposes. It follows from this that the 
 virtue of beings is not in numbers, but that number 
 is in the virtue of those beings which derive from it. 
 Immense advantages may be derived by the intelli- 
 gence of man from the proper use of numbers. The 
 development of the properties of beings is active, and 
 these properties have innumerable increasing and de- 
 creasing correspondences between them ; hence the 
 combination of numbers, taken in the regularity of the 
 sense discovered in them by reasonable observation, 
 will direct us in uncertain speculations, and will rectify 
 what is false therein, seeing that this true and spiritual 
 calculus or algebra of realities, like the conventional 
 calculus or algebra of appearances, when its values 
 are once known, will conduct us to precise and positive 
 results." But in the former, numbers receive their 
 value from the nature of things, and not from the will 
 of man ; they lead us to truths of the first rank 
 essentially connected with our being. Without the 
 key of numbers, the correspondence between the three 
 regions of true philosophy, divine, spiritual, and 
 natural, cannot be fixed or appreciated correctly.^ 
 
 Among the marvels ofi'ered to those who walk with 
 circumspection in the career of numbers, we are not 
 only taught to admire the magnificence of God, but to 
 distinguish that which we are permitted to know from 
 that which is permanently concealed from our pene- 
 
 ' Les Nombres, p. i8. - Ibid., p. 20. ^ Ibid., p. 21.
 
 396 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 tration and outside our lights.^ The mode of our 
 emanation and generation in the divine unity is an 
 interdicted knowledge, because the work of an emana- 
 tion is reserved for the Supreme Principle, and the 
 knowledge of the mode of that generation is also 
 reserved for Him. By its possession we should be 
 independent of Him, we could perform His work, and, 
 in a word, would be God like Him. Owing to this 
 veil, our Sovereign Principle is the eternal object of 
 our homage and has real claim on our veneration. 
 But while the law of numbers interdicts this know- 
 ledge," it does offer us the proof that our generation 
 is divine, and it does demonstrate that we come forth 
 directly from God.^ In the true calculus there are 
 essential roots and roots which are not essential, and 
 it is the same with some of the powers ; whilst in 
 arithmetical calculus all the roots are contingent and 
 all the powers variable. In the true calculus, the 
 name of essential power belongs especially to man, 
 but not that of essential root ; and it is in the con- 
 sideration of these two titles that we find at once the 
 proof that we have come forth from God and the 
 impossibility of knowing after what mode we have 
 come forth."* 
 
 At the same time Saint-Martin observes in another 
 place that among the things which man lost at his 
 Fall was the knowledge of the roots of numbers. 
 This knowledge is now impossible to him, as he is 
 unacquainted with the first of all roots. Hence the 
 world does not know what conception to form of 
 numbers. To attain such conception we must reflect 
 on what should be the principle of things ; it exists 
 
 ' Les Nombres, p. 25. - Ibid., p. 28. ^ Ibid., p. 27. 
 
 * Des Erreurs et de la Ve'rite, Part i. p. 61.
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF NUMBERS 397 
 
 in its weight, its number, and its measure. Number 
 is that which brings forth action, measure that which 
 rules it, and weight that which operates it.^ These 
 are in the bosom of the Wisdom which accompanies 
 all beings ; in their production it imparts to them an 
 emanation of its own essence, and at the same time 
 of its wisdom, that the production may be in its own 
 likeness. Thus all beings have within them a ray of 
 its weight, its number, and its measure.' 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part i. p. 1 49. 
 2 CEuvres Posthumes, i. pp. 244-245.
 
 Ill 
 
 THE MYSTICAL TABLE OF THE CORRESPONDENCES 
 BETWEEN THE TEN NUMBERS 
 
 I. The Monad. 
 
 The Number One exists and is conceived indepen- 
 dently of other numbers. Having vivified them 
 through the course of the decade, it leaves them 
 behind itself and returns to unity.^ All numbers 
 derive from unity as its emanations or products, 
 while the principle of unity is in itself and is 
 derived from itself.^ In unity all is true, and all 
 which is coeternal therewith is perfect, while all is 
 false which is separated from it.^ Unity multiplied 
 by itself never gives more than unity,^ for it cannot 
 issue from itself Could unity thus produce and 
 elevate itself to its own power, it would destroy 
 itself, as the action which operates in each particular 
 root is terminated by that operation. For unity to 
 produce an essential and central truth there would 
 have to be a difference between germ and product, 
 root and power. Now, according to the law of germs 
 and roots, when they have produced their power 
 they become useless. Hence God could not repro- 
 duce Himself without perishing. From principle 
 He would become means, and would then annihilate 
 Himself in His term. But as principle, means, and 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la V^it^, Part i. p. 85. 
 
 Les Nomhres, p. 35. ^ Ibid., p. 42. * Ibid., pp. 71-72. 
 
 398
 
 TABLE OF THE TEN NUMBERS 399 
 
 term are not distinct in Him, as He is at once all 
 of these, without succession in their action or differ- 
 ence in their qualities, this unity can never produce 
 itself, and hence has never been produced.^ 
 
 Among visiljle things, the sun is the sign of the 
 unity of divine action, but it is a temporal and 
 composite unity, which has none of the rights be- 
 longing to its prototype.2 In like manner, the 
 continual succession of physical generations forms 
 a temporal unity, which is a disfigured symbol of 
 the simple, eternal, divine unity. Such images are 
 not to be neglected, for they reflect their model 
 from afar. Extremes touch without resemblino; one 
 another ; thus, pure beings live a simple life ; those 
 who are in expiation have a composite life, or life 
 mingled with death ; sovereignly criminal beings, 
 and those who resemble them, live, and will live, in 
 simple death, or in the unity of evil.^ 
 
 When we contemplate an important truth, such 
 as the universal power of the Creator, His majesty, 
 His love, His profound lights or His other attributes, 
 we aspire with our whole being towards the supreme 
 model of all things ; all our faculties are suspended 
 that we may be filled with Him, with Whom we 
 become actually one. Here is the active image of 
 unity, and the Number One is the expression of 
 this unity or indivisible union, which, existing 
 intimately between all the attributes of the divine 
 unity, should exist equally between it and all its 
 creatures and productions. But after having exalted 
 our faculties of contemplation towards this universal 
 source, if we bring back our eyes to ourselves and 
 
 * Les Nombres, p. y^. 
 2 CEuvres Posthumes, ii. p. 258. ^ ^gg ^^otnhres, p. 74.
 
 400 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 become filled with our own contemplation, so that we 
 regard ourselves as the font of those lights or of that 
 inward satisfaction which we have derived from the 
 superior source, we thereby establish two centres 
 of contemplation, two separate and rival principles, 
 two disjoined bases — in a word, two unities, of which 
 one is real and the other apparent.^ 
 
 H. The Duad. 
 
 The Number Two has the principle in itself, but 
 does not derive it from itself.- It is impossible to 
 produce two from one, and if something issue from 
 it by violence, it can only be illegitimate and a 
 diminution of itself. But this diminution is from 
 the centre, for otherwise it would be apparent only. 
 The diminution made at the centre is made at the 
 middle ; to divide anything by the middle is to cut 
 it into two parts. This is the true origin of the 
 illegitimate binary. But the diminution in question 
 does not make unity less complete, for it is suscep- 
 tible of no alteration ; the loss falls on the being who 
 seeks to attack it. Hence evil is foreign to unity, 
 but the centre, without departing from its rank, is 
 moved to rectify it because there is something of 
 itself in the diminished being. By this we may 
 understand not only the origin of evil, but also 
 that it is not a hypothetical power, since we all 
 virtualise it at almost every moment of our ex- 
 istence.^ 
 
 The duad is therefore the perverse power serving 
 as the receptacle of all the scourges of divine justice, 
 
 1 Les Nombres, p. i8. ' Ibid., p. 35. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 18-19.
 
 TABLE OF THE TEN NUMBERS 401 
 
 and bound up with material and sensible things for 
 the molestation of its chief and his adherents, who 
 have abandoned voluntarily the divine centre of 
 their spiritual correspondence, and are condemned to 
 exile therefrom despite themselves, and to undergo 
 all the horror of living separation from the source of 
 life. The innate virtues of corporeal forms have 
 been accorded to contain this perverse power, and 
 when man permits the virtues resident in his body 
 to be weakened by his lax and criminal will, the 
 perverse power assumes the empire and operates 
 the destruction of that body.^ 
 
 The duad is also, according to Saint-Martin, the 
 real number of water. ^ 
 
 III. The Triad. 
 
 The Number Three does not derive the principle 
 from itself, nor indeed does it possess the principle.^ 
 The observations on this number are scattered and 
 obscure, including vague references to a temporal 
 law of the triad on which the dual temporal law is 
 absolutely dependent.* In the divine order, 3 is 
 the Holy Ternary, as 4 is the act of its explosion 
 and 7 the universal product and infinite immens- 
 ity of the wonders of this explosion.^ 3 belongs 
 to us only by 12 united or added, as 4 is known 
 to us only by its own explosion or multiplication, 
 which gives us 16, and as 7, which is the addition 
 of this 16, describes our temporal (3) and spiritual 
 
 1 (Euvres Posthumes, u. 127-128. 2 Ibid., p. 131. 
 
 2 Les Nombres, p. 35. 
 
 * Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part i. p. 10. 
 
 ^ Correspondance, Lettre Ixxvi. ; Penny, " Theosopliic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 257. 
 
 2 C
 
 402 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 (4) supremacy, or the immensity of our destiny as 
 man.^ The Number Three operates the direction of 
 forms in the celestial and terrestrial ; that is, in all 
 bodies the number of spiritual principles being 
 triadic, every name and every sign which falls on 
 this number belongs to forms or must operate some 
 effect on forms. ^ In the super-celestial it was the 
 thought of the Divinity which conceived the design 
 of producing this world, and conceived it triadically^ 
 because such was the law of forms innate in the 
 divine thought. Now the thoughts of God are 
 beings. The concerted and unanimous action in the 
 Divine Ternary is represented by the three officiating 
 priests when they move together in the Mass.^ 
 
 Three is also the number of the essences or 
 elements of which bodies are universally composed. 
 By this number the law directing the production of 
 elements is manifested, and these are reduced by 
 Saint-Martin to three, on the ground that there are 
 only three dimensions, three possible divisions of 
 any extended thing, three figures in geometry, three 
 innate faculties in any being whatsoever, three 
 temporal worlds, three grades in true Freemasonry, 
 and as this law of the triad shows itself universally 
 with so much exactitude, it is reasonable to suppose 
 that it obtains in the number of the elements which 
 are the foundation of bodies.* If the Number Three 
 be imposed on all created things, it is because it 
 presided at their origin.^ Had there been four 
 instead of three elements, they would have been 
 
 1 Correspondance, Lettre Ixxvi. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspon- 
 dence," p. 258. 
 
 2 Les Nombres, p. 67. ^ Ibid. 
 
 * De$ Erreurs et de la Verite^ Part i. pp. 122, 124, 125. 
 
 * (Euvres Posthumes, ii. 160.
 
 TABLE OF THE TEN NUMBERS 403 
 
 indestructible and the world eternal ; being three, 
 they are devoid of permanent existence, because 
 they are without unity, as will be clear to those 
 who know the true laws of numbers/ The reason, 
 whatever it may be, seems to conflict with another 
 statement that there can be three in one in the 
 Divine Triad but not one in three, because that 
 which is one in three must be subject to death. ^ 
 Three is not only the number of the essence and 
 directing law of the elements, but also that of their 
 incorporation.^ It is, finally, the mercurial- terrestrial 
 number of the solid part of bodies, in symbolical 
 correspondence with the animal senary soul of which 
 it is the first product, and with all the intermediary 
 principles in all classes.* 
 
 IV. The Tetrad. 
 
 The Number Four is that without which nothing 
 can be known, as it is the universal number of perfec- 
 tion.^ The Supreme Cause, though connecting with 
 the source of all numbers, proclaims itself specially by 
 the number of the square, which is at the same time 
 the number of man.*' By reason of the divine virtue 
 in this number he has a direct action on all septenary 
 beings, and it recalls the eminent rank which he 
 occupied in his origin.^ The square is one, like 
 the root of which it is the product, and the image. 
 It measures all the circumference, as man in the 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part i. p. 125. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 126. 3 Ibid., p. 122. 
 
 * (Euvres Posthumes, ii. 1 32. 
 
 ^ Des Erreurs et de la Verite, Part i. p. 133. 
 
 ^ Ibid., Part ii. p. 229. 
 
 ' (Euvres Posthumes, ii. 173.
 
 404 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 heart of his primeval empire embraced all the regions 
 of the universe. This square is formed of four lines, 
 and the post of man was distinguished by four lines 
 of communication extending to the four cardinal 
 points of the horizon. This square comes from the 
 centre, and the throne of man was in the centre of 
 the land of his domination, whence he governed the 
 seven instruments of his glory. The square is thus 
 the true sign of that place of delights known in all 
 regions under the name of the Terrestrial Paradise. 
 
 Four is the number of every centre, and it is 
 therefore that of fire, which occupies the centre of all 
 bodies. So, also, it is that of the temporal spirit 
 granted to man for his reconciliation, but this is the 
 innermost of the three circles which man has to 
 traverse before he completes the days of his recon- 
 ciliation, which is represented by these three. ^ 
 
 The quaternary, represented by the four thousand 
 years at the completion of which Christ was born 
 into the world, is the image of the divine action 
 opposed to the perverse power to contain it within 
 its limits of spiritual privation. Man, to whom it 
 is destined by the Divine Goodness, cannot profit by 
 it except in so far as he has used successfully that 
 first corporeal power given him as a preservation 
 against the first evil action of the quinary chief. 
 If he have allowed this simple inferior power to 
 become degraded, the enemy has much more facility 
 in attacking: him with advantao^e in the active tern- 
 poral power ; and so far from this power turning to 
 the profit of man, to whom it should communicate 
 love, desire, faith, with all true spiritual aff'ections 
 proper for its reconciliation, the evil intellect makes 
 
 ^ CEuvres Posthumes, ii. 1 33.
 
 TABLE OF THE TEN NUMBERS 405 
 
 use of this same organ to sugtrest all the false and 
 ill-regulated passions and affections which can sepa- 
 rate it from its object.^ Hence, also, the avenging 
 spirit of the crimes of human posterity for the 
 maintenance of divine justice is announced by the 
 Number Four. 
 
 V. The Pentad. 
 
 In the numerical mysticism of Saint-Martin the 
 quinary is the number of the evil principle. It 
 therefore differs, as we have seen, from those systems 
 of occult numeration which regard this number as in an 
 especial way the sign of the microcosm or of man, and 
 seems positive proof that we are dealing here with a 
 school of initiation which derives little from Kabal- 
 istic sources. It is also a case in point as to the 
 fragmentary character of the Martinistic doctrine 
 of numbers, for we are really without any details as 
 to the properties of the quinary. It is said that 
 2 becomes 3 by its minus, 3 becomes 4 by its 
 centre, 4 is falsified by its double centre, which 
 makes 5, and 5 is imprisoned by the measure 6, 7, 8, 
 9, 10, which forms the corrective and rectifier of the 
 evil quinary.^ The number also connects with what 
 Saint-Martin has to tell us concerning the twofold 
 application of all numerals. True numbers produce 
 invariably life, order, and harmony ; thus, they 
 always act for, and never against, even when they 
 serve as the scourges of justice. When they undergo 
 mutation in free beings, their character is so changed 
 that it is another number which takes their place, 
 whilst their radical title is always the same in their 
 
 ^ (Euvres Posthumes, ii. 128-129. 
 ■^ Les Nombres, p. 20.
 
 4o6 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 essence. False numbers, on the contrary, produce 
 nothing ; they may ape but cannot imitate the true ; 
 they manifest in dismemberment, never in genera- 
 tion, because they have become false by division 
 and have lost the capacity for engendering. A 
 proof is found in the example of the five foolish 
 virgins ; they found themselves without oil because 
 their conduct separated them from their five com- 
 panions, and so also they remained without their 
 bridegroom. As to the wise virgins, they engender 
 only by the bridegroom, and when they shall possess 
 him they will no longer be 5 but 10, since each will 
 possess the spouse, or they will be 6 if the spouse 
 be represented by i only. Thus, these five virgins 
 are so little in their true number that, unable by 
 themselves to renew their oil, they are forced to 
 take refuge in prudence and to check charity, which 
 can only be found in the vivifying numbers, the 
 whole force of which flows from the centre of love. 
 We must distinguish, however, between the false 
 numbers when employed to operate restoration and 
 when operating their own iniquities. In the latter 
 case they are given over to themselves and separated 
 wholly from the true line ; in the former case, true 
 being assumes their form and character so as to 
 descend into their infected region. But in assum- 
 ing their form this Being rectifies it, referring it 
 to the true numbers, and by thus opposing the 
 true to the false he visits death upon death. ^ 
 
 1 Les Nomh-es, pp. 28-29.
 
 TABLE OF THE TEN NUMBERS 407 
 
 VI. The Hexad. 
 
 This number is the mode of every operation ; it is 
 not an individual agent, but it possesses a necessary 
 affinity with all that operates, and no agent brings 
 any action to its term without passing through this 
 number. The senary is the co-eternal correspondence 
 of the divine circumference with God. For this reason, 
 God, who engenders all, embraces and beholds all. 
 The circumference is composed of six equilateral 
 triangles ; it is the product of two triangles which 
 actuate one another ; it is the expression of six acts 
 of divine thought manifested in the days of creation 
 and destined to effect its reintegration. Thus this 
 number is the mode of creation, though it is neither 
 its principle nor agent. It is in the theosophical 
 addition of the Number Three that we find proof of 
 senary influence in corporisation. Scripture traces 
 the senary from the origin of things and takes it 
 beyond their term. Having shown the work of the 
 six days, it presents in the Apocalypse, before the 
 throne of the Eternal, four animals having six wings, 
 and twenty -four ancients, prostrating themselves 
 before Him. By this we see that the senary is the 
 universal mode of things, because it has the same 
 character in the universal order, and hence our trine 
 faculties must follow it to obtain the completion of 
 their action : Thought, i ; Will, 2 ; Action, 3 = 6. 
 The 24 ancients of the Apocalypse equal 6, namely, 
 I, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10. These numbers added give ^2i> 
 including zero, the image and evidence of corporeal 
 appearances. But they give 24 without zero. Hence 
 these six numbers alone have acted, are real, and will
 
 4o8 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 act eternally ; that is to say, there are eternally two 
 powers, that of God and that of the Spirit. 
 
 The senary suffered in the several prevarications 
 which caused the Regenerator to descend here ; it was 
 necessary that He should repair its virtuality. For 
 this reason He changed into wine the water contained 
 in six ewers at the marriage of Cana. 
 
 It is not less true that the senary, being only the 
 mode of operation of all agents, cannot be regarded 
 precisely as a real and active number, but rather as 
 a co-eternal law impressed on all numbers. It is also 
 that over which man had dominion formerly, and will 
 again rule after his restoration.^ Finally, the number 
 2 acts in the senary of forms which are of themselves 
 only a passive addition of the two kinds. The root 
 of these is two, and it is the agent of their modes 
 and sensations by the multiplication of its own ele- 
 ments. 
 
 VII. The Heptad. 
 
 The spiritual septenary number signifies the Divine 
 Power itself.^ This is the number of the universal 
 forms of the Spirit ; its fruit is found in its multipli- 
 cation. The square of 7, or 49, is 7 in development, 
 while in its root it is 7 in concentration. Develop- 
 ment is also necessary before it can proceed to 8, 
 which is the temporal mirror of the invisible, incal- 
 culable denary. While it passes from 7 to 8 by means 
 of the great unity with which it unites, it also passes 
 from 49 to 50 by means of the same unity, and it 
 draws the quaternary or human soul into this reunion 
 by making it traverse and abolish the novenary of 
 appearances, which is our limit and the cause of our 
 
 ^ Les Nomhres, pp. 60-62. ^ CEuvres Posthnmes, ii. 129.
 
 TABLE OF THE TEN NUMBERS 409 
 
 privation. This shows that 5 is equal to 8 and 8 
 equal to 5 in the great wonder which the Divine 
 Repairer has wrought for our regeneration.^ 
 
 Seven is known only by the temporal 4x4=16 
 = 7. But at the same time it is clearly the number 
 of the Spirit, because it comes from the Divine and 
 gives 28, on account of its double power opposed to 
 the lunary power. It should be observed that the 
 number 28 indicates that the Word had no place till 
 the second prevarication. But these are merely 
 images, because 7 coming from 76 is not root, nor is 
 it the essential power of 4, for it enters into its root 
 only by way of addition." 
 
 Independently of the numerical root 16, which 
 expresses the septenary power of the soul, we find 
 it in its powers over the ternary of the elements and 
 the ternary of the principles of the central axis. 
 The soul is the centre of these two triangles. If, 
 instead of this centre, we count the power of the 
 soul over the celestial, we shall find in a more active 
 manner the soul's septenary power over the physical 
 and spiritual both.^ 
 
 But 7x7 = 49 X7 = 343. Man was established 
 at his post, or, more correctly, emancipated only 
 when his power attained its cube. It is in the 
 elements of this cube that we see clearly the destina- 
 tion of primitive man, since he was placed between 
 the superior triangle, from which he derived every- 
 thing, and the inferior triangle, which he ruled. 
 To know the true properties of a being, the cube 
 
 ^ Correspondance, Lettre xc. ; Penny, " Theosophic Correspondence," 
 pp. 306-307. Saint-Martin states that this point came directly to his- 
 intelligence, and that it was not received from man. 
 
 ^ Les Nombres, p. 70. ^ Ibid., p. 78.
 
 410 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 of its power must be considered, for there only is 
 the scheme of its faculties developed.^ 
 
 The Number Seven also indicates that the tem- 
 poral epoch, or manifestation of universal justice, 
 must be visited on all prevaricators. But the Number 
 Four is that of the agent who exercises this justice. 
 As this agent is the Spirit and spirit cannot appear 
 in time without a corporeal envelope, it is made 
 known sensibly by the septenary, which is the body 
 of the quaternary, as the senary is the body of the 
 septenary, and as the material ternary is the body 
 of the senary which has operated it, or as, finally, 
 the quaternary is the body of unity, which cannot 
 manifest here in its simple nature, but must sub- 
 divide for us the powers which it has placed in 
 creation. 
 
 Vni. The Ogdoad. 
 
 It is only after the complement of the square 
 of the Spirit that the operation of the octonary can 
 be consummated, while its work can only be known 
 clearly in the spirit of the number 50, because 
 then the number of iniquity and the number of 
 matter are dissipated by the living and regenerating 
 influence of the unity which replaces them. As 
 to the absolute Unity, or the Father, no one has 
 seen or shall see Him in this world, save in the 
 octonary, which is the sole way whereby we can 
 attain to Him. 
 
 The number 50 disappeared on the approach of 
 the Holy Octonary, because they two could not 
 subsist together. Iniquity and appearance could 
 not remain before unity and its power. This is 
 
 1 Les Nomhres, p. 86.
 
 TABLE OF THE TEN NUMBERS 411 
 
 that Divine Church outside of which no man can 
 be saved and against which the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail ; this is the key which opens and no one 
 shuts, shuts and no one opens. ^ 
 
 Christ is triadic in his elements of operation as 
 in his essential elements his number is 8, and his 
 mystical extraction teaches us that in his temporal 
 work he was at once divine, corporeal, and sensible, 
 though when considered in the eternal order he is 
 divine in his three elements. He was the way, the 
 truth, and the life. It was necessary that he should 
 comprise within him the divine, a sensible soul, 
 and the corporeal, to operate here below on the 
 sensible order and all creation, because even as 
 our thinking soul cannot be joined to our grosser 
 individual envelope without the mediation of an 
 individual sensible bond, so the Divine Repairer 
 could not be joined to his corporeal though pure 
 form without the medium of a sensible soul. This 
 soul invests him with the number 4, his divine being 
 bears the number i, his body the number 3. In 
 us the divine soul bears the number 4, the body 
 that of 9, while the number of our sensible soul, 
 Saint-Martin says, was unknown to him, but he had 
 reason to think that it was not the same as that 
 of the Saviour, because in all other elements which 
 he possessed like to our own, he bore invariably 
 superior numbers. In this sensible soul the whole 
 key of man consists ; thereby he is joined to the 
 sensitive or corporeal animal, but as he is not placed 
 willingly, like Christ, in this prison, he cannot be 
 expected to know the key which secures it. Saint- 
 Martin thought, however, that the number was 6.^ 
 
 ' Les Nomhres, pp. 54-56. * Ibid., pp. 40-41.
 
 412 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 IX. The Ennead. 
 
 Nine is the number of every spiritual limit, as 
 the material circumference is in the limit of the 
 elementary principles which act therein. Hence it 
 represents the general and particular course of all 
 the expiations inflicted by divine justice on the 
 posterity of man. Man fell by proceeding from 
 4 to 9, and can only be restored to himself by 
 returning from 9 to 4. This law is terrible, but 
 it is nothing in comparison with the law of the 
 number 56, which is frightful for those who face 
 it, since they cannot arrive at 64 until they have 
 experienced all its severity. The passage from 4 to 
 9 is the passage from spirit to matter, which in 
 dissolution according to numbers gives 9. As to 
 the law of 56, it depends upon the knowledge of the 
 properties and conditions of the number 8, which 
 were part of the light given by initiation to Saint- 
 Martin and not further explained. The criminal 
 remains in the number 56, while the just and 
 purified will attain to 64 or unity. ^ 
 
 To whatever powers the number 9 is raised, it 
 always remains 9, because, like 3 and 6, it has only 
 a tertiary power, while 4, 7, 8, 10 are secondary 
 powers, unity alone being the first power. Hence 
 unity, in all possible multiplications, gives only one, 
 because, as already seen, it cannot issue from or 
 duplicate itself. It manifests outside itself by its 
 secondary and tertiary powers, co-eternally bound 
 
 1 Gorrespondance, Lettre xiii. ; Penny, " TheosopMc Correspondence," 
 pp. 55-56. Saint-Martin states that lie received this teaching from the 
 school of Pasqually.
 
 TABLE OF THE TEN NUMBERS 413 
 
 therewith. Could we know the active way by which 
 it effects the manifestation of its powers we should 
 be its equal. We are assured, however, that it 
 operates its expansions only in its decade. The ex- 
 pansions themselves operate only outside the decade. 
 There are spiritual expansions and expansions of form 
 which work by dififerent laws and produce different 
 results. The secondary powers connect immediately 
 with the centre, but the tertiary only mediately, and 
 hence they produce forms alone, having no creative 
 law, for this belongs to unity, and no administrative 
 law, for this is confided to the secondary powers.^ 
 
 X. The Decad. 
 
 By the reunion of the spiritual septenary to the 
 temporal ternary, we have the famous denary ever 
 present to our thoughts. As the image of Divinity 
 itself, it accomplishes the reconciliation of all beings 
 by causing them to return into unity. The temporal 
 denary is composed of two numbers, 7 and 3, but its 
 type connects with unity itself and is not subject to 
 any division." So long as numbers are united to the 
 decade, none of them present the image of corruption 
 or deformity ; these characters manifest only in their 
 separation. Amongst the numbers thus specialised 
 some are absolutely bad, such as 2 and 5, which alone 
 divide the denary. Others are in active operation, 
 suffering, or curative operation, as 7, 4, and 8. Yet 
 others are given only to appearance, such as 3, 6, 9. 
 Nothing of this is seen in the complete decade, for in 
 that supreme order there is no deformity, illusion, or 
 suffering.^ 
 
 ^ Les Nomhres, pp. 70-71. 
 ^ (Euvres Posthvmes, ii. pp. 187-188. ^ j^gg j^o?nbres, p. 68.
 
 APPENDICES
 
 I 
 
 PRAYERS OF SAINT-MARTIN 
 
 I. 
 
 Eternal source of all which is, Thou who sendest spirits 
 of error and of darkness to the untruthful, which cut them 
 off from Thy love, do Thou send unto him who seeks Thee 
 a spirit of truth, uniting him for ever with Thee. May 
 the fire of this spirit consume in me all traces of the old 
 man, and, having consumed them, may it produce from 
 those ashes a new man, on whom Thy sacred hand 
 shall not disdain to pour a holy chrism ! Be this the 
 end of penitence and its long toils, and may Thy life, 
 which is one everywhere, transform my whole being in 
 the unity of Thine image, my heart in the unity of Thy 
 love, my activity in the unity of the works of justice, 
 and my thought in the unity of all lights. Thou dost 
 impose great sacrifices on man, only to compel him to 
 seek in Thee all his riches and all his delights, and 
 Thou dost force him to seek all these treasures in Thee 
 only because Thou knowest that they alone can make him 
 happy, for Thou alone dost possess them, who hast en- 
 gendered and created them. Truly, O God of my life, I 
 can find nowhere save in Thee the root and realisation of 
 my being. Thou also hast said that in the heart of man 
 alone canst Thou find Thy repose. Cease not, therefore, for 
 one instant thine operations upon me, that not only may I 
 live, but that Thy name may be known among the nations. 
 Thy prophets have declared that the dead cannot praise 
 Thee ; let death then never come near me, for I burn to 
 offer Thee immortal praise ; I burn with desire that the 
 
 1 (Euvres Posthumes, vol. ii. pp. 444-482. 
 
 417 2 D
 
 41 8 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Eternal Son of Truth may never have to reproach the 
 heart of man with the smallest clouding of Thy splendour, 
 or the least diminution of its fulness. God of my life, the 
 utterance of whose Name accomplishes all things, restore 
 to my nature that which Thou didst first impart to it, and 
 I will manifest that Name among the nations, and they 
 shall learn that Thou alone art their God, Thou alone their 
 essential life, as Thou only art the movement and motive 
 principle of all beings. Do Thou sow the seed of Thy 
 desires in the soul of man, in that field where none can 
 contest with Thee, since it is Thou who hast brought it 
 into existence. Sow Thy desires therein, that the soul, by 
 the force of Thy love, may be snatched from the depths 
 which hold it and would swallow it up for ever. Abolish 
 for me the realm of images ; scatter the fantastic barriers 
 which place an immense interval and spread thick dark- 
 ness between Thy living light and me, entombing me in 
 their folds. Show unto me the sacred character and the 
 divine seal of which Thou art the custodian; pierce the 
 centre of my soul with the fire which burns in Thee, 
 that my soul may burn with Thee till it knows Thine 
 ineffable life and the inexhaustible delights of Thine 
 eternal existence. Too feeble to endure the weight of 
 Thy Name, I leave in Thy hands the task of erecting its 
 complete edifice, and of laying Thyself its first foundations 
 in the depths of that soul which Thou has given me for a 
 torch, showing light to the nations, that they may no more 
 dwell in darkness. Thanks be unto Thee, God of peace 
 and love ! thanks be unto Thee, because Thou hast been 
 mindful of me, and hast not willed that my soul should 
 want, lest Thine enemies should say that the Father forgets 
 His children or is unable to deliver them. 
 
 2. 
 
 I will approach Thee, Thou God of my being; I will 
 approach Thee, all unclean as I am ; I will show myself 
 with confidence before Thee ; I will come unto Thee in the 
 name of Thine eternal existence, in the name of my life, in
 
 PRAYERS OF SAINT-MARTIN 419 
 
 the name of Thy holy alHance with man. This threefold 
 offering shall be for Thee an acceptable sacrifice, on which 
 Thy Spirit shall send down its divine fire, to consume and 
 transport it to Thy sacred abode, all charged and filled with 
 the desires of a needy soul sighing only after Thee. Lord, 
 Lord ! when shall I hear Thee utter in the abyss of my 
 soul that consoling and living word which calls on man by 
 his name, proclaiming his enrolment in the heavenly army, 
 and Thy will that he should be numbered among Thy 
 servants ? By the power of that holy word shall I find 
 myself speedily encompassed by the eternal memorials of 
 Thy power and love, with which I shall boldly advance 
 against Thine enemies, and they shall flee before the dread 
 lightnings flashing from Thy victorious word. Alas, O 
 Lord ! shall a man of misery and darkness cherish such 
 high aspirations, such proud hopes ? In place of smiting 
 the enemy, must he not seek only a shield from their 
 blows ? Furnished no longer with shining arms, is he not, 
 as a despicable object, reduced to tears of shame and 
 ignominy in the thickets of his retreat, unable to show 
 himself before the day ? In place of those triumphant 
 anthems which once followed him in his conquests, is he 
 not doomed only to be heard amid sighs and groans ? 
 Vouchsafe at least one boon, Lord, that whensoever 
 Thou searchest my heart and my reins, Thou shalt never 
 find them void of Thy praise and love. I feel, and would 
 feel unceasingly, that all time is not enough for Thy praise, 
 that to accomplish this holy work in a manner which is 
 worthy of Thee, my entire being must be possessed and set 
 in motion by Thine eternity. Grant, therefore, God of 
 all life and all love, that my soul may reinforce its weak- 
 ness with Thy strength ; permit it to enter into a holy 
 league with Thee, by which I shall be invincible in the 
 sight of my enemies, which shall bind me so to Thee by 
 the desires of my heart and of Thine, that Thou shalt ever 
 find me as zealous for Thy service and glory as Thou, 
 Lord, art eager for my deliverance and beatitude.
 
 420 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Spouse of my soul ! by whom it has conceived the 
 desire of wisdom, aid me Thyself to give birth to this 
 well-beloved son, whom I can never cherish sufficiently. 
 So soon as he beholds the light, immerse him in the pure 
 baptismal waters of Thy life-giving Spirit, and be he ever 
 numbered among the faithful members of the Church of 
 the Most High. Like a tender mother, do Thou take him 
 in Thine arms till his feeble limbs have strength for his 
 support, and shield him from all that is harmful. Spouse 
 of my soul ! unknown except by the humble, I do homage 
 to Thy power, and I would not confide to other hands 
 than Thine this son of love whom Thou hast given 
 me. Nourish him Thyself, watch over his early steps, 
 instruct him when he grows in the honour which he owes 
 to his Father, that his days may be long on the earth ; 
 inspire him with respect and love for the might and the 
 virtues of Him who hath given him being. Spouse of my 
 soul ! inspire me also, me first, to nourish this precious 
 child unceasingly with spiritual milk, which Thou hast 
 formed Thyself in my breast. May I ever behold in my 
 son the image of his Father, in his Father the likeness of 
 my son, and of all those whom Thou mayst engender 
 within me through the unbroken course of the eternities. 
 Spouse of my soul ! known only to the sanctified, be Thou 
 at once the mentor and model of this child of Thy Spirit, 
 that in all times and places his works and example may 
 proclaim his heavenly origin. Place Thou also at length 
 on his head the crown of glory, and he shall be an ever- 
 lasting monument before the peoples of the majesty of 
 Thy Name. Spouse of my soul ! such are the delights 
 which Thou prepares t for those who love Thee and seek 
 for union with Thee. Perish everlastingly him who would 
 tempt me to break our sacred alliance ! Perish ever- 
 lastingly him who would persuade me to prefer another 
 spouse ! Spouse of my soul ! take me Thyself for Thine 
 own child ; let me be one with him in Thine eyes, and
 
 PRAYERS OF SAINT-MARTIN 421 
 
 pour on us each all graces which we cannot both receive 
 from Thy love. I can live no more if the voices of myself 
 and my son be forbidden to unite for the eternal celebra- 
 tion of Thy praises in canticles, like inexhaustible rivers 
 ever engendered by the sense of Thy wonders and Thy 
 power ineffable. 
 
 How should I dare, Lord, for one instant to gaze on 
 myself without trembling at the horror of my misery ! I 
 dwell in the midst of my own iniquities, the fruit of all 
 manner of excesses, which have become even as a vest- 
 ment ; I have outraged all my laws, I have misused my 
 soul, I have abused my body ; I have turned, and do turn 
 daily, to an ill account all the graces which Thy love 
 showers continually on Thine ungrateful and faithless 
 creature. To Thee should I sacrifice all, giving nothing 
 unto time, which in Thy sight is like an idol, void of life 
 and understanding ; yet I devote all unto time and nothing 
 unto Thee. Thus do I cast myself beforehand into the 
 abyss of confusion, given over to idolatrous worship, where 
 Thy name is not known. I have acted like the senseless 
 and ignorant of this world, who expend all their efforts to 
 annul the dread decrees of justice and to render this place 
 of probation no longer one of toil and suffering in their 
 eyes. God of peace and God of truth, if the confession 
 of my faults be insufficient for their remission, remember 
 Him who took them on Himself, washing them in the 
 blood of His body, His soul, and His love. Like fire, which 
 consumes all material and impure substances, like this fire 
 which is His image. He returns to Thee, free from all 
 stains of earth. In Him and by Him alone can the work 
 of my purification and rebirth be fulfilled. In Him alone 
 can Thy sacred majesty endure to regard man, through 
 whom also Thou wiliest our cure and our salvation. Gaz- 
 ing vnth the eyes of His love, which cleanses all. Thou 
 dost see no longer any deformity in man, but only that 
 divine spark which is in Thine o%vn likeness, which Thy 
 sacred ardour draws perpetually to itself, as a property of
 
 42 2 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Thy divine source. O Lord, Thou canst contemplate only 
 that which is true and pure as Thyself ; evil is beyond the 
 reach of Thine exalted sight, and hence the evil man is 
 like one whom Thou rememberest no more, whom Thine 
 eyes cannot fix, since he has no longer any correspondence 
 with Thee. In this abyss of horror I have, notwithstand- 
 ing, dared to dwell ; there is no other place for man who 
 is not immersed in the abyss of Thy compassion. Yet no 
 sooner does he turn his heart and eyes from the depths of 
 iniquity than he finds himself in that ocean of mercy 
 which encompasses all Thy creatures. So will I bow 
 myself before Thee in my shame and the sense of my 
 misery ; the tire of my suffering shall dry up within me 
 the abyss of my sinfulness, and there shall remain for me 
 only the eternal kingdom of Thy mercy. 
 
 5. 
 Take back my will, O Lord, take back my will ; for if I 
 can suspend it one instant before Thee, the torrents of 
 Thy life and light, having nothing to resist them, shall 
 pour impetuously within me. Help me to break down the 
 woeful barriers which divide me from thee ; arm me 
 against myself ; triumph within me over all Thine enemies 
 and mine by subduing my will. Eternal Principle of all 
 joy and of all truth ! when shall I be so renewed as no 
 longer to be conscious of self, save in the permanent 
 affection of Thine exclusive and vivifying will ? When 
 shall every kind of privation appear to me a profit and 
 advantage, by preserving me from all bondage, and leaving 
 mie ample means to bind myself to the freedom of Thy 
 spirit and wisdom ? When shall evils appear to me as 
 favours extended by Thee, as so many opportunities of 
 victory, so many occasions of receiving from Thy hand 
 the crowns of glory which Thou dost distribute to all 
 those who fight in Thy name ? When shall all advan- 
 tages and joys of this life become to me as so many snares, 
 unceasingly set by the enemy that he may establish in our 
 hearts a god of lying and seduction in place of that God
 
 PRAYERS OF SAINT-MARTIN 423 
 
 of peace and truth who should reign there for ever ? 
 When, in fine, shall the holy zeal of Thy love and the 
 ardour of my union with Thee rule me to renounce with 
 delight my life, my happiness, with all affections foreign 
 to this sole end of Thy creature man, so loved by Thee 
 that Thou hast given Thyself all for him, that he might 
 be inflamed by Thine example ? I know, Lord, that 
 whosoever is not transported by this holy devotion is not 
 worthy of Thee, and has not yet made the first step in 
 Thy path. The knowledge of Thy will and the solicitude 
 of the faithful never to depart from it for a moment, 
 herein is the one, the true resting-place for the soul of 
 man; he cannot enter therein without being filled im- 
 mediately Avith rapture, as if all his being were renewed 
 and revivified in all its faculties by the springs of Thine 
 own life, nor can he withdraw therefrom without beholding 
 himself given over forthwith to all the horrors of uncer- 
 tainty, danger, and death. Hasten, God of consolation, 
 hasten, God of power, to communicate to my heart one of 
 those pure movements of Thy holy and invincible will ! 
 One only is needed to establish the reign of Thine eternity, 
 and for constant and universal resistance of all alien wills 
 which combine in my soul, mind, and body to give battle 
 thereto. Then shall I abandon myself to my God in the 
 sweet effusion of my faith, then shall I proclaim His 
 wonderful works. Men are not worthy of Thy wonders, 
 or to contemplate the sweetness of Thy wisdom, the 
 profundity of Thy counsels ; and I, vile insect that I am, 
 can I even dare to name them, who merit only visitations 
 of justice and wrath ? Lord, Lord ! may the star of Jacob 
 rest for a moment upon me ; may Thy holy light be 
 kindled in my thought, and Thy will most pure in my 
 heart ! 
 
 Hearken, my soul, hearken, and be consoled in thy dis- 
 tress ! There is a mighty God who undertakes to heal all 
 thy wounds. He alone has this supreme power, and He 
 exercises it only towards those who acknowledge that He
 
 424 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 possesses it and is its zealous administrator. Come not 
 before him in disguise like the wife of Jeroboam whom the 
 prophet overwhelmed with reproaches ; come rather with 
 the humility and confidence which should be inspired by 
 a sense of thy frightful evils, and of that Universal Power 
 which willeth not the death of a sinner, since it is He who 
 created souls. Let time fulfil its law upon thee in all the 
 things of time ; speed not thy work by disorders ; delay it 
 not by false desires and vain speculations, the heritage of 
 the fool. Concerned alone with thine interior cure, thy 
 spiritual deliverance, collect with care the scant forces 
 which each temporal period develops within thee; make 
 use of these secret motions of life to draw nearer daily 
 unto Him who already would possess thee in His breast, 
 and share with thee the sweet freedom of a being who 
 enjoys fully the use of all his faculties without ever en- 
 countering a hindrance. Whensoever these happy ecstasies 
 transport thee, raise thyself on thy bed of sorrow, and cry 
 unto this God of mercy and almightiness : Lord, wilt Thou 
 leave to languish in bondage and shame this former image 
 of Thyself, whom the ages may have buried under their 
 dust but have never been able to efface ? It dared to mis- 
 conceive Thee in those days when it dwelt in the splendour 
 of Thy glory. Thou hadst only to close the eye of Thine 
 eternity, and it was plunged from that instant into dark- 
 ness, as into the depths of the abyss. Since that deplorable 
 lapse it has become the daily scorn of all its enemies, who, 
 not contented to cover it with derision, have filled it with 
 their poisons, have loaded it with chains so that it could 
 no longer defend itself, but became an easier prey to 
 their envenomed darts. Lord, Lord ! is not this long and 
 humiliating ordeal sufficient for man to recognise Thy 
 justice and do homage to Thy power ? Has not this in- 
 fected mass of its enemy's contempt enervated long enough 
 the image of Thyself to open his eyes and convince him of 
 his illusions ? Dost Thou not fear that in the end these 
 corrosive substances may entirely efface its imprint and 
 place it beyond recognition ? The enemies of Thy light 
 and Thy wisdom would not fail to confound this long chain
 
 PEAYERS OF SAINT-MARTIN 425 
 
 of my degradations with Thine eternity itself ; they would 
 believe their reign of horror and disorder is the sole abode 
 of truth ; they would claim themselves victorious over 
 Thee and possessed of Thy kingdom. Permit not, there- 
 fore, longer, God of zeal and jealousy, the profanation of 
 Thine image ; the desire of Thy glory fills me more than any 
 desire of my own happiness apart from that glory of Thine. 
 Rise on Thy throne immortal, the throne of Thy wisdom, 
 ablaze with the marvels of Thy power ; enter for a moment 
 that holy vineyard which Thou hast planted from all 
 eternity ; pluck but one of those vivifying grapes which it 
 produces unceasingly ; let the sacred and regenerating 
 juice flow upon my lips ; it will moisten my parched tongue, 
 it will enter into my heart, it will bear to it both joy and 
 life, it will penetrate all my members and will make them 
 strong and healthy. Then shall I be quick, agile, vigorous 
 as on that first day when I came forth from Thy hands. 
 Then shall Thine enemies, frustrated in their hopes, blush 
 with shame and tremble with fear and rage to see their 
 opposition against Thee made vain and the accomplish- 
 ment of my sublime destiny despite their daring and 
 persistent efforts. Hearken then, my soul ! hearken, 
 and be consoled in thy distress ! A mighty God there is 
 who hath undertaken the healing of all thy wounds. 
 
 I present myself at the gates of the temple of my God, 
 and I will quit not this humble asylum of the indigent till 
 I have received my daily bread from the Father of my life. 
 Behold the mystery of this bread ! I have tasted thereof, 
 and I will proclaim its sweetness to unborn nations. The 
 Eternal God of Beings ; the sacred title taken by Him 
 who is made flesh that He might be manifested to the 
 visible and invisible nations ; the spirit of Him at whose 
 Name every knee shall bow, in heaven, on earth, and in 
 hell ; such are the three immortal elements which compose 
 this daily bread. It is multiplied unceasingly, like the
 
 426 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 immensity of beings who are nourished thereby, and, 
 whatsoever be their number, never can they diminish its 
 abundance. It has developed in me the eternal germs of 
 my life, and has enabled them to circulate in my veins the 
 sacred sap of my original and divine roots. The four ele- 
 ments which compose it have dispelled darkness and con- 
 fusion from the chaos of my heart ; they have restored to 
 it the living and holy light ; their creative force has trans- 
 formed me into a new being, and I have become the 
 custodian and administrator of their sacred characters and 
 life-giving signs. Therefore, as His angel and minister 
 have I shown myself in all regions, to make known the 
 glory of Him who hath chosen man ; I have reviewed all 
 the work of His hands and have distributed to each of 
 them those signs and characters which He has impressed 
 on me in order that they might be transmitted to them, 
 and to confirm the properties and powers which they have 
 received. But my ministry has not been confined to 
 operation on the regular works of Eternal Wisdom ; I have 
 approached whatsoever was deformed, and have set on 
 these fruits of disorder the signs of justice and vengeance 
 attached to the secret powers of my election ; those which 
 I could snatch from corruption I have offered as a holo- 
 caust to the supreme God, and I have composed my per- 
 fumes of the pure praises of my mind and heart, so that 
 all which lives may confess that the homage, the glory, 
 the honour are due unto this sole supreme God as the 
 source of power and justice. I have exclaimed in the 
 transports of my love : Blessed is man, because Thou hast 
 elected him as the seat of Thine authority and the minister 
 of Thy glory in the universe. Blessed is man, because 
 Thou hast permitted him to feel, even in the depths of his 
 essence, the penetrating activity of Thy divine life. Blessed 
 is man, because he may dare to offer Thee a sacrifice of 
 thanksgiving: founded in the ineffable sentiment of all the 
 wishes of Thy holy infinity. 
 
 Powers of the material world ! powers of the physical 
 universe ! not thus hath God treated you ! He has consti- 
 tuted you the simple agents of His laws and the forces
 
 PRAYERS OF SAINT-MARTIN 427 
 
 operating for the fulfilment of His designs. Hence is there 
 no other being in Nature which does not second Him in His 
 work and co-operate in the execution of His plans. But 
 He is not made known to you as the God of peace and the 
 God of love ; at the moment when He brought you into 
 being ye were disturbed by the consequences of rebellion, 
 since He ordained man to subdue and govern you. Still 
 less, ye perverted and corrupt powers, has He dispensed to 
 you those favours with which He has deigned to overwhelm 
 man. Ye have failed to preserve those which were granted 
 you by virtue of your origin ; ye dreamed of a brighter lot 
 and a more splendid privilege than to be the objects of His 
 tenderness, from which moment ye have deserved only to 
 be the victims of His justice. To man alone has He con- 
 fided the treasures of His wisdom ; on this being after His 
 own heart has He centred all His affection and all His 
 powers. 
 
 Sovereign Author of my spirit, my soul, and my heart ! 
 be Thou blessed for ever and in all places, because Thou hast 
 permitted man, Thine ungrateful and criminal creature, to 
 recover these sublime truths. Had the memory of Thine 
 ancient and sacred covenant bound not Thy love to restore 
 them, they would have been lost unto man for ever. Praise 
 and benediction to Him who hath formed man in His image 
 and after His own likeness, who, despite all the endeavours 
 and all the triumphs of hell, hath reclothed him in his 
 splendour, in the wisdom and the beatitudes of his origin. 
 Amen. 
 
 8. 
 
 Men of peace and men of aspirations ! let us contemplate 
 in unison, with a holy fear, the vastness of the mercies of 
 our God. Let us confess to Him together that all the 
 thoughts of men, all their purest desires, all their ordered 
 deeds, could not, when combined, approach the smallest act 
 of His love. How should we therefore express it ? for it is 
 confined to no individual deeds or times, but manifests at 
 once all its treasures, and that in a constant, universal, and
 
 428 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 unhindered way ! God of truth and God of love ! so actest 
 Thou daily with man. Amidst all mine infection and 
 vileness Thy hand untiring extracts what still remains of 
 those precious and sacred elements of which Thou didst 
 form me at first. Like the thrifty woman in the Gospel, 
 consuming her light to recover the dime which she lost, 
 Thy lamps are ever lighted, ever Thou stoopest to earth, 
 ever hopest to recover from the dust that pure gold which 
 has slipped from Thy hands. Men of peace ! how should 
 we contemplate otherwise than with holy fear the extent 
 of the mercies of our God ! We are a thousand times more 
 guilty towards Him than, in the sight of human justice, 
 are those malefactors who are dragged through cities and 
 public places, loaded with the insignia of infamy, and forced 
 to confess their crimes aloud at the doors of the temples 
 and in the presence of the powers which they have defied. 
 Like them, and a thousand times more deservedly than 
 they, should we be dragged ignominiously to the feet of all 
 the powers of Nature and the Spirit ; we should be paraded 
 like criminals through all the regions of the universe, both 
 visible and invisible, and should receive in their presence 
 the terrible and shameful chastisements which are invoked 
 by our appalling prevarications. But in place of finding 
 stern judges armed with vengeance, behold a venerable 
 Monarch whose eyes publish His clemency, whose lips utter 
 pardon only for all those who do not blindly hold themselves 
 guiltless. Far from willing that we should wear henceforth 
 the vestments of opprobrium. He commands His servants 
 to give back to us our primeval robe, to set a ring on our 
 finder and shoes on our feet. For all these favours it 
 is enough, like later prodigal sons, to confess that we 
 have not found in the house of strangers the happiness of 
 the house of our Father. Men of peace ! say, shall we con- 
 template except with holy fear the infinite love and mercy 
 of our God ? Say, shall we not make a holy resolution to 
 remain faithful for ever to His laws and to the beneficent 
 counsels of His wisdom ? O God ! incomprehensible in 
 indulgence and past understanding in love, I can love but 
 Thee alone ; I would love none but Thee, who hast forgiven
 
 PRAYERS OF SAINT-MARTIN 429 
 
 me so much. I desire no place of repose except in the 
 heart of my God, who embraces all by His power, my 
 support on every side, my succour and my consolation. 
 From this divine source all blessings pour on me at once. 
 He pours Himself into the heart of man continually and 
 for ever. So does He engender within us His own life ; so 
 does He establish within us the pure rays and extracts of 
 His own essence, whereon He loves to brood, and they 
 become in us the organs of His endless generations. From 
 this sacred treasury, through all the faculties of our nature, 
 He directs kindred emanations, which repeat in turn their 
 action through all that constitutes ourselves, and thus our 
 spiritual activity, our virtues, our lights are unceasingly 
 multiplied. Behold, it is exceeding profitable to erect Him 
 a temple in our hearts ! men of peace ! O men of aspira- 
 tion ! say, shall we contemplate without a holy fear the 
 vastness of the love and of the mercies and of the powers 
 of our God ? 
 
 How should it be possible, O Lord, to sing here below the 
 canticles of the Holy City ? Amidst such streams of tears, 
 can we raise the hymns of jubilation ? I lift up my voice 
 to begin them, but I utter sighs only and tones of pain. 
 I am overwhelmed by the length of my sufferings ; my sin 
 is ever before me, threatening instant death, with the chill 
 of its poisons freezing all my being. Even now it lays hold 
 of my members ; the moment comes when I shall lie like a 
 corpse which is left by hirelings to putrefaction. Yet Thou, 
 O Lord, who art the universal source of all that exists, 
 art also the font of hope. If this spark of flame be not 
 already quenched in my heart, I still cling unto Thee, I am 
 still bound to Thy divine life by that deathless hope which 
 springs for ever from Thy throne. From the depth of my 
 abyss I dare therefore to implore Thee, to pray that the 
 hand of Thy loving-kindness may heal me. How are the 
 cures of the Lord effected ? By humble submission to the 
 wise counsel of the Divine Physician. With gratitude
 
 430 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 and ardent desire must I drink the bitter draught which 
 His hand offers ; my will must be joined with that which 
 animates Him towards me; the length and sufferings of 
 the treatment must not prompt me to reject the good 
 which the Supreme Author of all goodness seeks to effect 
 in me. He is penetrated with the sense of my sufferings, 
 and I have only to be enkindled myself with the sense of 
 His loving interest ; then shall the chalice of salvation 
 profit me ; then shall my tongue be strengthened to sing 
 the canticles of the Holy City. Lord, with what hymn 
 shall I begin ? With one to His honour and glory who 
 has restored me to health and effected my deliverance. 
 From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same 
 will I chant this canticle over all the earth, not only to 
 celebrate the power and love of my Liberator, but to com- 
 municate to all desiring souls, to the enthe human family, 
 the certain and efficacious means of recovering health and 
 life for ever. I will teach them thereby how the spirit of 
 wisdom and truth may abide in their own hearts and direct 
 them in all their ways. Amen. 
 
 lO. 
 
 My soul ! hast thou strength to consider the enormity 
 of that debt which guilty man has contracted with 
 Divinity ? If thou hast found strength for crime, thou 
 hast good reason to contemplate it in all its horror. 
 Measure, therefore, in thy thought the vineyard of the 
 Lord ; remember that man should tend it ; conceive the 
 wealth of the harvest which it should produce under his 
 care; think how all creatures under heaven await their 
 sustenance from its culture by thee, that the vineyard of 
 the Lord awaits in like manner its adornment at thy 
 hands, that the Lord Himself awaits from thy fidelity and 
 watchfulness all the praise and glory which should accrue 
 from the fulfilment of His plans. But thou hast fallen; 
 the dominion of the enemy is upon thee ; thou hast made 
 barren the Lord's ground, brought the dwellers therein to
 
 PRAYERS OF SAINT-MARTIN 431 
 
 want, and filled God's heart with sadness. Thou hast dried 
 up the source of wisdom and of increase in this lower world, 
 and still thou dost hinder daily the productions of the 
 Lord. Consider the extent of thy debt, the impossibility 
 of its payment. The fruits of each year are owing from 
 the moment of thine infidelity, the wages of all the hours 
 which have passed since that fatal hour. Where is the 
 being who shall acquit thee in the sight of that eternal 
 justice whose dues cannot be cancelled, whose designs 
 must attain their fulfilment ? Herein, God supreme, 
 are exhibited the torrents of Thy mercy and the inex- 
 haustible abundance of Thine eternal treasures. Thy 
 heart is opened towards Thy hapless creature: not only 
 his debts are discharged, but a surplus remains with 
 which he may succour the needy. Thou hast ordained 
 Thy Word itself to cultivate the vineyard of man; that 
 sacred Word whose soul is love has come down into this 
 barren place ; the fire of His speech has consumed all the 
 parasitic and poisonous plants which choked it; He has 
 sown the seed of the tree of life in their place; He has 
 opened up health-giving springs, and it has been moistened 
 by living waters; He has restored strength to the beasts 
 of the earth, wings to the birds of heaven, light to the 
 starry torches, sound and speech to every spirit which 
 abides in the sphere of man. To the soul of man itself He 
 has restored that love of which He alone is the source, 
 which has inspired His holy and wonderful sacrifice. 
 Eternal God of all praise and grace, one only being. Thy 
 Son Divine, could thus repair our disorders and acquit us 
 in the sight of Thy justice. The creative being alone 
 could make restitution of that which we squandered, for it 
 needed a new creation. If, therefore, universal powers ! 
 ye strive to chant His praises who has reinstated you in 
 your rights and restored your activity, what thanks are 
 not due from me, since He has become the hostasre for 
 my debts Himself towards you, to all my brethren, and 
 has discharged all ? It was said of the penitent woman 
 that much was forgiven her because she had loved much. 
 But for man all has been remitted, not only prior to his
 
 432 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 love, but while he was steeped in the horrors of ingratitude. 
 O men ! O brethren ! let us give ourselves wholly to 
 Him who has begun by forgiving all to us. Each one of 
 God's movements is universal and is manifested in every 
 universe. Now, like unto this God supreme, be the move- 
 ment of love universal in all our nature, at once embracing 
 all the faculties which compose us. Amen.
 
 II 
 
 METRICAL EXERCISES OF SAINT-MARTIN 
 
 The literary remains of Saint-Martin include " Phanos : a 
 Poem on Poetry " ^ and a number of occasional verses, 
 some reference to which will be found in Appendix III. 
 He also published during his lifetime a metrical pamphlet 
 entitled " The Cemetery of Amboise," while in his pos- 
 thumous works there is a prose essay on " Prophetic, Epic, 
 and Lyrical Poetry." - As in the order of criticism the last 
 is curious rather than of high value, so his verse is gene- 
 rally to be admired for anything except its execution. He 
 regarded prophetic poetry as belonging to the first order, 
 because it drew from the first principle of inspiration and 
 emotion. The true theme of poetry is the divine law in 
 all the classes to which it extends, not human love, and 
 still less material nature. Therefore most epical and 
 nearly all lyrical poetry is a deflection and an imper- 
 tinence. As regards the laws of verse, he lays down an 
 axiom which is completely characteristic, for, like many 
 views of Saint-Martin, it had never entered into the mind 
 of man to conceive it previously. " Supreme music has no 
 measure, and poetry is of this kind," ^ which, it will be 
 observed, is much more than to say that poetry is to be 
 rather valued for its spirit than for its form. Both views 
 are in a sense impossible, or at least intolerable, at this day, 
 when we have agreed that the divine word must assume a 
 divine shape in order to be worthy of itself. Saint- Martin's 
 definition is much the better of the two, because it is un- 
 thinkable ; the other is a vulgar fallacy. Perfect poetry 
 is a perfect spirit wedded to a perfect form. When it is 
 
 1 CErivres Posthumes, vol. ii. pp. 287-313. 
 ^ Ibid., pp. 271-282. 2 Ibid., p. 277. 
 
 «3 2 E
 
 434 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 not so wedded it is not poetry. Just as the spirit of man 
 is not man witliout the form of man. There is no need, 
 however, to enlarge upon a point about which nobody now 
 disputes, and as on the understanding that Saint-Martin's 
 metrical exercises are not poetry, there is something 
 occasionally in their matter which commends itself to 
 his admirers, I have ventured to give one specimen of 
 his verses, also on the understanding that the translation 
 has no higher claim than a reasonably faithful rendering.^ 
 
 STANZAS ON THE OEIGIN AND DESTINY OF MAN 
 
 I 
 
 Tlie Voice of the Soul. 
 
 Supernal torch, thy light descends on me, 
 My life's enigma is explain'd by thee. 
 'Tis not because thy kindly warmth I hail 
 As fire derived from fonts that never fail ; 
 Torch which enlightens, in thy splendours bright 
 I see myself derived from thy pure light ; 
 Immortal townsman of a heavenly place, 
 From the Eternal Day my days I trace. 
 
 My shining birthright makes all glories fade, 
 No light shall cast the inner light in shade ; 
 Who seeks to shroud or dim that sacred beam, 
 I hold thereby would God Himself blaspheme ; 
 Attest it, Laws, which Truth's most holy plan 
 Graved deep within the incorporeal man 
 When first engender'd from that virtue's breast- 
 Words in Truth's temple heard, ye too attest ! 
 
 Ill 
 The Divine Voice. 
 
 Resplendent type of mine almighty power. 
 Of my pure essence the most perfect flower — 
 Majestic man, thy high election know ! 
 If forth on thee my secret unction flow, 
 
 ^ (Euvrcs Posthumes, vol. i. pp. 331-336.
 
 METKICAL EXERCISES 435 
 
 'Tis to confirm the mission of thy birth, 
 My justice making known through all the earth, 
 Bearing my light through falsehood's dark domain, 
 By thine own self declared my grandeur's reign. 
 
 IV 
 
 The Voice of the Soul. 
 
 Ye elements, in all your actions bound, 
 Still blindly follow your unending round — 
 Not yours the functions of the gods to share ; 
 IMan of that right divine alone is heir ; 
 Exclusive minister of Wisdom's laws, 
 Beams from the sun supreme he only draws. 
 Their splendours darting all the dark disperse, 
 And God in man shines o'er the universe. 
 
 Is man a god ? What strange deceit is here ! 
 
 Behold this prodigy divine appear 
 
 Vested in weakness, with disgrace his crown — 
 
 What foe has stripp'd him of his old renown ? 
 
 Not king but captive now, to sense a thrall. 
 
 And, exiled far from his imperial hall. 
 
 The sacred accents of the heavenly shore, 
 
 The harp's harmonious strains, he hears no more. 
 
 VI 
 
 The Divine Voice. 
 
 O'er all that lives his once establish'd right 
 
 Peace to its empire gave beneath my sight ; 
 
 Ye slaves who now your ancient lord subdue. 
 
 Peace when he seeks must be implored of you ! 
 
 Once from life's stream he drew, which heard my voice, 
 
 And, leaping down, did earth with fruits rejoice ; 
 
 What waters now will make that desert bear ? 
 
 Tears from his eyes alone, descending there ! 
 
 VII 
 
 To him alone this agony refer 
 
 Who did my justice and its stripes incur. 
 
 My law renounced, invoked to aid his reign 
 
 Foul falsehood's hosts, and 'gainst me arm'd in vain ;
 
 436 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 For hope on crime establish'd soon betray'd, 
 The priest of idols was their victim made, 
 Death the one fruit such service bears its slave, 
 And life the costly sacrifice he gave. 
 
 The Voice of the Soul. 
 
 Eternal God, did man's most hapless race 
 
 For aye Thine image and Thy work debase ? 
 
 Say, are Thy sons brought down so deep in shame 
 
 That they can rise not in Thy virtue's name ? 
 
 Is Thy most sacred character destroy'd ? 
 
 Thy highest title — that of Father — void ? 
 
 And must that name of child, whose powers transmit 
 
 Life without end to them, turn void with it ? 
 
 Oh, when Thy glory was my home of yore 
 I learn'd Thy love endured for evermore, 
 Unfathom'd and unbound Thy mercy's sea ! 
 Ah, Holy God, confirm Thy first decree ! 
 With favours fresh increase Thy former grace — 
 Lo, they shall teach me yet my steps to trace 
 Beneath Thy wings, and compass that design 
 For which my nature first was drawn from Thine. 
 
 The Divine Voice. 
 
 Volcanic forces, in their gulfs compress'd. 
 
 By rocks and torrents are denied all rest. 
 
 But the fierce flame leaps round them and subdues - 
 
 Do thou, timid man, like forces use ! 
 
 A constant power direct to rend the chain. 
 
 To burst the bar, and thus thy freedom gain ; 
 
 Inert are they, nor shall withstand thy strength, 
 
 Far from their fragments shalt thou soar at length ! 
 
 XI 
 
 When the swift lightning, ere the thunder's peal. 
 Doth all the vault of heaven by fire reveal.
 
 METRICAL EXERCISES 437 
 
 It manifests a master to the air ; 
 Such work is thine ; discern thy symbol there. 
 Lo, I have launch'd thee from the starry height, 
 'Tis thou who dartest downward trailing light, 
 And flash-like striking on the earthly ground, 
 Dost with the shock to thy first heaven reboimd. 
 
 XII 
 
 Man is the secret sense of all which seems ; 
 That other doctrines are but idle dreams, 
 Let Nature, far from all contention, own, 
 While his grand doom is by her day-star shown. 
 To vaster laws adjusted, he shall reign. 
 Earth for his throne, and his star-crown attain, 
 The universal world his empire wait, 
 A royal court restore his ancient state. 
 
 The Voice of the Sord. 
 
 That voice restores me ! Angels free from sin. 
 Agents of God, who dwells your hearts within. 
 My transports share I A jealous lord is He, 
 But for my wisdom and felicity — 
 To justify mine origin sublime — 
 To bare the treasures of my natal clime — 
 That I with you may draw from springs above 
 The draughts of science and the draughts of love. 
 
 XIV 
 
 if such love, despite the void between, 
 Impel you sometimes towards this earthly scene, 
 Will not its virtues and its powers upraise 
 Us earthly dwellers towards your heavenly ways ? 
 friends at least, whatever chance betide, 
 May nought your natures from mine own divide. 
 May my poor hymns to mix with yours be meet. 
 And in your council may I find a seat ! 
 
 Sacred and saintly Truth ! Thy voice I hear, 
 Thine is the victory, Thy world comes near ;
 
 438 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Its beama divine transmute the sense of sight 
 Till scene and eye difFuse the same rich liglit. 
 
 founts divine, with darkness all unmix'd, 
 For God therein His holy jjlace hath fix'd, 
 Time's twisted paths beneath my feet swim by, 
 
 1 lose them leaping towards eternity.
 
 Ill 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WRITINGS OF 
 SAINT-MARTIN 
 
 Based on the Collection of M. Matter, with additional 
 Information, and Summaries of each Work 
 
 Of Errors and of Truth; or, Men recalled to the 
 Universal Principle of Knowledge. In which work 
 the uncertainty and incessant mistakes of their Re- 
 searches are made plain to Inquirers, and the True 
 Road is indicated for the acquisition of physical 
 evidence on the origin of Good and Evil, on Man, 
 on Nature, material, immaterial, and sacred, on the 
 Basis of Political Governments, on the Authority of 
 Sovereigns, on Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence, on 
 Sciences, Languages, and Arts. In two Parts. Edin- 
 burgh, 1775. 8vo, pp. 230, 236. 
 
 The date on the title-page of this, the original edition, 
 rests on the authority of Matter, who also states that it 
 was reprinted without alteration of date or place, but with 
 the addition of a table of contents, which refers, however, 
 to the paging of the first or some previous edition. It is 
 also suggested by Matter that Edinburgh was Lyons, and 
 that the imaginary place of publication was a whim of the 
 philosopher, which was followed also in his second work 
 {Saint-Martin . . . sa Vie et ses (Euvres, 2me edition, p. 
 106). The edition of 1775 is also mentioned by T. B. 
 Gence, who was a personal friend of Saint-Martin. An 
 impression dated 1782 (Edinburgh) is apparently unknown 
 to previous bibliographers. There is no table of contents, 
 and no indication that it is a reprint.
 
 440 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 The treatise " Of Errors and of Truth " is divided into 
 two parts and subdivided into seven sections, each part 
 paged and titled separately, and hence it is sometimes 
 described as in two volumes. It is preceded by a preface, 
 which describes it as written with certain reservations 
 and under certain veils, because it deals with truths and 
 principles handed down from the beginning and in the 
 custody of a small number of elect persons. The spiritual 
 and natural philosophy of the author is developed in the 
 first part ; the second is, broadly speaking, concerned with 
 the political questions enumerated in the title. 
 
 The work has once been translated into German, with 
 a preface, by Matthew Claudius, Breslau, 1782. 
 
 Published at Salomonopolis, by Androphile, at the sign 
 of the Immoveable Pillar, there appeared in the Masonic 
 year 5795 a bulky volume entitled " Sequel to Errors and 
 Truth, or Development of the Book of Men recalled to 
 the Universal Principle of Knowledge, by an Unknown 
 Philosopher," which is not, however, the work of Saint- 
 Martin, but is declared by him to be stained with " the 
 very vice of the false system which he combated." It has 
 been sometimes referred to Holbach and even to Con- 
 dorcet, but the authorship remains unknown. It has also 
 been suggested that it was only a clever burlesque, but the 
 work itself will not bear this innocent interpretation. It 
 may be characterised more accurately as a malicious fraud 
 designed to discredit the Martinists, It reviews in suc- 
 cession a number of the questions treated in the genuine 
 work, as, for example, good and evil, liberty and necessity, 
 the fall of man, will as a fundamental faculty of human 
 nature, and so forth, developing in every case the anti- 
 thesis of Saint-Martin's teaching, and yet pretending to be 
 his production, and referring back to the original work. 
 Five years later, that is to say in 1789, and at Hersalaim, 
 appeared a " Key of Errors and of Truth, or Men re- 
 called to the Universal Principle of Reason," by a Known 
 Locksmith, which must not be confused with the fore- 
 going. The two works are occasionally bound together, 
 but their authorship appears to be distinct. The second
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 44 1 
 
 has been referred to the Chevalier de Suze (Barbier) on 
 grounds of which 1 am unaware. Matter says that it has 
 escaped notice rather than passed into oblivion. It has at 
 least the merit of being the work of an open enemy, and is 
 to that extent honourable ; nor is it altogether unworthy of 
 remark by the discriminating student of Saint-Martin at 
 the present day. It is in any case a testimony to the 
 extraordinary vogue obtained by the book which it was 
 intended to refute, and of which the authorship seems to 
 have been still generally unknown. The place of publica- 
 tion seems also to have deceived the critic, who states that 
 the materials of Des Erreurs et de la Verite were drawn 
 from a number of MSS. "communicated by the Royal 
 Society of Edinburgh," and even hints that much of its 
 inspiration may be traced to Warburton's " Divine Lega- 
 tion of Moses." The key is the work of a fatalist speak- 
 ing the philosophical language of French free-thought at 
 the period, and chiefly attacking the alchemical side of 
 Saint-Martin's speculations, together with his numerical 
 mysticism. The writer had evidently some first-hand 
 acquaintance with the Freemasonry of his period; and 
 among the many constructions placed upon the work 
 which he criticised, he mentions that it was regarded by 
 the fraternity as an allegorical presentation of their system. 
 By the theologians it was attributed to the devil, and by 
 some others to the theologians, that is to say, the Jesuits. 
 In the " Portrait Historique et Ploilosophique de M. de 
 Saint-Martin, fait par lui-meme" there is the following 
 note, numbered 165 : " It was at Lyons that I wrote the 
 work ' Of Errors and of Truth,' partly by way of occupa- 
 tion and because I was indignant with the Philosophers so 
 called, having read in Boulanger that the origin of religions 
 was to be sought in the fear inspired by the catastrophes of 
 nature. I composed this work about the year 1774; it 
 was written in four months by the kitchen-fire, for there 
 was no other at which I could warm myself. One day the 
 saucepan containing the soup overturned on my foot and 
 burned me somewhat seriously." This was the period of 
 the author's thaumaturgic experiences with the Comte
 
 442 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 d' Hauterive ; it was also one of some activity in connection 
 with the Order of the Elect Cohens at their Lyons Lodge 
 of Beneficence, at which he delivered some discourses 
 extant in his posthumous works. 
 
 II 
 
 The Red Book. 
 
 This work is described by Matter as so rare that it is 
 almost unattainable. As he does not mention it in his 
 life of Saint-Martin, and gives no account of its contents, 
 I infer that he had never seen a copy. He states that the 
 authorship is denied by every critic, but that it was 
 acknowledged by Saint-Martin ; not, however, so far as I 
 can trace, in any of his published writings. All attempts to 
 secure an example for the purposes of this bibliography have 
 ended in failure. Within recent years it has, I understand, 
 been met with at public auctions in London. Assuming 
 that it is correctly attributed, it is at least certain that 
 Saint- Martin was anxious to conceal his connection with 
 it, for he states that the epigraph of each of his works is 
 derived from the one which preceded it. Now Le Livre 
 Rouge is assigned by Matter to the period intervening 
 between Des Erreurs et de la Verite and the Tableau 
 Naturel, but the epigraph of the latter occurs in Des 
 Erreurs, &c., and not in the intermediate publication. 
 Havinsf regard to the marked characteristics of Saint- 
 Martin's genuine works there ought to be no difficulty 
 in determining the claim of the Red Book whenever a 
 copy is procurable. 
 
 Ill 
 A Natural Picture of the Correspondences which 
 
 EXIST BETWEEN GOD, MaN, AND THE UNIVERSE. 2 
 
 parts in one volume; pp. 276 and 244. Edinburgh, 
 1782. 8vo. 
 
 The epigraph reads : " To explain material things by 
 man, and not man by material things." It occurs in Des 
 Erreurs et de la Vdrite, as already stated, and will be found
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 443 
 
 on p. 19 of the first part. The pubUsher's advertisement 
 observes that it was received from the hands of a stranger, 
 and that the MS, had numerous annotations which 
 seemed foreign to the text, and were therefore printed 
 within brackets. Baron Kirchberger questioned Saint- 
 Martin as to the second point, and he rephed : "The 
 passages inter-parenthesis in ' Le Tableau ' are mine. 
 The editor thought he could not see in them a sufficient 
 coherence with the rest of the work, which induced him 
 to prepare the reader concerning them in the way he did, 
 and I allowed him to act as he liked." The passages thus 
 distinguished are the most bizarre portions of the book, 
 and seem to veil some of the strange knowledge which he 
 had derived from his initiation. 
 
 Saint-Martin tells us that the Tableau Naturel was 
 written at the suggestion of some friends, and partly at 
 the abode of Madame de Lusignan in the Luxembourg, 
 partly at that of Madame de la Croix, also a resident of 
 Paris. M. Gence expresses the general opinion of critics 
 when he observes that "it is more closely logical in its 
 course, more methodical and more continuous than the 
 first work." As the personal friend of Saint-Martin, and 
 himself a mystic, I am glad that he adds these words 
 concerning the enigmatical parts : " It is not by these 
 purely allegorical figures that his doctrine must be 
 judged." Without questioning their importance, when 
 properly understood, the reader can afford to dispense 
 with these in favour of the luminous instruction of the 
 text itself. He will find that this is more than a sequel to 
 the work which preceded it ; it is, in fact, the key to its 
 obscurities, and, I might add, also the atonement for its 
 defects. It is, in particular, a triumphant vindication of 
 Saint-Martin from the charge of pantheism which has 
 been preferred against him by the loose criticisms invari- 
 ably passed upon mystics. It does indeed regard man 
 as an emanation from God, "but not after the physical 
 analogy of something given off and therefore lost to its 
 source." Nor is man a limitation or specification of 
 divinity which must be drawn back ultimately into the
 
 444 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 being from which he originated. " The true analogy is 
 to be sought in man himself, who communicates his 
 thought, and thus his life, to his fellow-man, but experi- 
 ences no deficiency in consequence." The correspondences 
 described in the title are those which man in his present 
 state of privation receives naturally from the physical 
 universe by his senses and from the First Cause in- 
 tellectually. 
 
 A translation of the Tableau Naturel, with a com- 
 mentary by an anonymous writer, appeared in German 
 at Reval in 1783, and seems to have been reprinted at 
 Leipzig in 1785. Baron Kirchberger was at the pains 
 of procuring a copy, the receipt of which was acknow- 
 ledged by Saint-Martin, but it evoked no criticism. 
 
 IV 
 
 The Man of Aspiration, by the author of Des Errev/rs 
 et de la Verite. Lyons, 1790. 8vo. 
 
 The epigraph is taken from p. 90 of the first part of 
 the " Natural Table " : " If bright evanescent rays gleam at 
 times in our darkness, they make our situation more 
 frightful, or abase us further, by showing us what we have 
 lost." It was written partly at London and the rest at 
 Strasbourg at the instigation of Thiemann. Another 
 friend, Salzmann, superintended its passage through the 
 press, and it was sold by Sulpice Grabit. M. Matter says 
 that, according to Petillet, a famous bookseller at Lau- 
 sanne, this work was frequently reprinted. M. Gence 
 makes the same statement, adding that it was revised. 
 An edition in 2 vols. i2mo appeared at Metz in 18 12. 
 When enumerating his writings at the request of Baron 
 Kirchberger, Saint-Martin speaks (a) of an edition, pre- 
 sumably the original, which was " few in number, and there 
 are none left"; (6) of one recently issued, namely, by 
 Grabit of Lyons, at the bookseller's own cost. It was 
 translated into German by Wagner, Leipzig, 18 13, 2 vols. 
 M. Gence describes it as a book of "aspirations in the
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 445 
 
 style of the Psalmist, in which the human soul presses 
 towards its first estate, which the way of the spirit can 
 help it to recover through the Divine Goodness." M. 
 Matter qualifies it as the work of a profoundly religious 
 philosopher, with some inspired pages. It was much 
 admired by Lavater, who testified in public to its excel- 
 lence. Saint-Martin himself says : " I confess that there 
 are germs scattered in this work, the properties of which 
 I knew not when I sowed them, but they now open daily 
 before me, thanks to the providence of God and our 
 authors." There is evidence, I think, that it was the 
 author's favourite work, and perhaps the only one which 
 he was accustomed to carry with him in his numerous 
 migrations. It is also frequently referred to in his corre- 
 spondence. On one occasion he was asked for the key to 
 its meaning, and he replied with the following lines — 
 
 " Avant qu' Adam mangeS,t la pomme, 
 Sans effort nous pouvions ouvrir. 
 Depuis, I'ceuvre ne se consomme 
 Qu' en feu pur d'un ardent soupir ; 
 La clef de I'Homme de D^sir 
 Doit naitre du desir de Thomme." 
 
 EccE Homo. Paris, 1792. 8vo. Printed and apparently 
 published at the press of the Cercle Social, Rue du 
 Theatre Fran9ais. 
 
 Saint-Martin says : " I wrote the Ecee Homo at Paris, 
 in accordance with a lively inspiration which I received at 
 Strasbourg." Its object was to warn people against the 
 wonders and the prophecies of the time, especially those 
 of somnambulists. The Duchesse de Bourbon, though he 
 bore witness that none could surpass her in the virtues of 
 piety and the desire of all that is good, had an inclination 
 towards phenomena of this " lower order," and she was one 
 of his friends whom he had partly in view. He regarded 
 such interests and such experiences as examples of the
 
 446 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 degree of infirmity and abasement into which man had 
 fallen. 
 
 An anonymous translation of Ecce Homo was published 
 at Leipzig in 1819. 
 
 VI 
 
 The New Man. Entirely anonymous, but bearing on 
 its title this motto from Ecce Homo : " We can read our- 
 selves only in God, and comprehend ourselves only in His 
 light." It was published at Paris in the Year 4 of Liberty, 
 by the Directors of the Cercle Social press, 4 Rue du 
 Theatre Fran9ais. 8vo, pp. 432. Though issued subse- 
 quently to Ecce Homo, the period of its composition was 
 prior to that work. It was written, says Saint-Martin, at 
 Strasbourg at the suggestion of my dear Silverhielm, 
 formerly almoner of the King of Sweden and nephew of 
 Swedenborg," and elsewhere observes that its object is "to 
 describe what we should expect in regeneration." He adds : 
 " I should not have written it, or I should have written it 
 differently, if I had then had the acquaintance I have 
 since formed with the works of Jacob Bohme." He, how- 
 ever, excused himself from supplying Kirchberger with 
 the corrections he had in his mind. '' It would be beyond 
 my ability to do so. I have sat long enough at my desk ; 
 I must not again busy myself in work of this kind, and, 
 in future, I desire to write only from my substance. More- 
 over, the work in question is rather an exhortation, a 
 sermon, than a work of instruction, although something 
 of this may be derived from it here and there. I wrote it 
 at the request of one who wished something from me in 
 the way of exhortation. I did it in haste ; it has been printed 
 from the first draft, and I am glad to have it off my hands." 
 This passage is important, because it establishes the exact 
 relation in which Silverhielm stood to the " New Man," 
 into which, one would almost infer from M. Matter, he had 
 infused not only the system of his illustrious uncle, but 
 his own particular notions as to its plan and composition. 
 Saint-Martin, we now see, was the instructor, not the 
 disciple.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 447 
 
 VII 
 
 Letter to a Friend, or Philosophical axd Religious 
 Considerations on the French Revolution. Pub- 
 lished at Paris by Louvet, Palais-Egalite, 1796. 
 
 Though described as a pamphlet by Saint-Martin, this 
 work is a treatise of considerable dimensions. It is, on the 
 whole, the least ultra-mundane of his political writings, 
 though it regards the French Revolution as the beginning 
 of the Last Judgment, and, as it were, a summary of its 
 content. He suggested to Kirchberger its translation and 
 publication in Germany, if the latter thought it would be 
 calculated to check the " infernal doctrines " then spreading 
 in that country. The Baron, ever enthusiastic over any 
 production of his correspondent, declared that it was the 
 most profound work which had been written on its subject, 
 and that it solved the greatest difficulties in the theory of 
 social order, yet so wisely that it did not wound deeply. 
 But he dissuaded Saint-Martin from the idea of translation, 
 as he did not think it suitable to the peculiar necessities 
 of his country. Saint-Martin says that in France it was a 
 rejected corner-stone, adding : "I do not the less believe 
 that I have done a good work which the Master will 
 accept, and this is all that I desire." I think there is 
 evidence that he remained anxious for its translation, and 
 this ultimately took place, but it was not till long after his 
 death, namely, in 1 8 1 8, that the version of Varnhagen von 
 Ense appeared at Carlsruhe. 
 
 VIII 
 
 Light on Human Association, by the author of the work 
 entitled " Of Errors and of Truth." Paris, 1797. 8vo. 
 Published by Marais, Cour des Fontaines, Palais- 
 Royal. 
 
 A recurrence to some political problems discussed in 
 Des Erreurs et de la Verite. M. Matter says that except-
 
 448 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 ing the " Letter on the French Revolution " he knows 
 nothing which more completely reveals Saint-Martin him- 
 self or is more thoroughly his own. At the same time he 
 establishes its analogies with Rousseau. It is a further 
 protest against seeking the elements of human association 
 in the mere needs of our material being. The true end 
 must be a return to that point from which humanity has 
 descended, and, as in the " Letter," so here, he maintains 
 that the earliest human associations were theocratic, and 
 that such should be all governments. 
 
 IX 
 
 The Crocodile, or the War of Good and Evil which 
 TOOK place during THE Reign OF Louis XV. An 
 Epico-Magical Poem in 102 cantos, comprising long 
 voyages free from mortal accidents, a little love with- 
 out its madness, great battles devoid of bloodshed, 
 instruction apart from pedantry, and seeing that it 
 includes both prose and verse, it is therefore neither in 
 verse nor prose. The Posthumous Work of a Lover 
 of Secret Things. Paris, Imprimerie du Cercle Social, 
 year 7 of the French Republic (i.e., 17Q9). 8vo, 
 pp. 460. 
 
 The new pseudonym, and the pretence that publication 
 was posthumous, make it evident that Saint-Martin did not 
 wish a performance of this kind to be associated with the 
 serious and transcendent purposes of the "Unknown 
 Philosopher," It is a comedy without laughter and a 
 " facetious allegory " in which the fun seems exceedingly 
 laboured. It seems, however, to rank high in the opinion 
 of some modern Martinists, who regard it as a veiled 
 account of Saint-Martin's esoteric doctrine and an exposi- 
 tion of the mysteries of the Astral Light.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 449 
 
 X 
 
 An Observer's Reflections on the Question proposed 
 BY the Institute: What Institutions are most 
 FITTED to Ensure the Morals of a People ? 
 Paris, 1798. 
 
 From the standpoint of Saint-Martin, it is obvious that 
 there could be but one institution, and that is religion 
 theosophically and not officially understood, M. Matter, 
 whose criticism of this pamphlet and the circumstances 
 which occasioned it is replete with kindly insight, discusses 
 this point, and recognises also the qualifications of Saint- 
 Martin for the treatment of the subject at large. That 
 the mystic himself dismisses it in a few pages and de- 
 scribes it as a trifle to Kirchberger, is, he considers, 
 because Saint-Martin knew too well that the solution 
 would not be acceptable. He was not, however, usually 
 deterred by probabilities of this kind. It is needless to 
 add that the Institute did not crown his answer. There 
 was, in fact, no serious competition and no award. 
 
 XI 
 
 A Discourse in Reply to Citizen Garat, Professor 
 OF Mental Philosophy at the Normal Schools. 
 Printed in the Dehats de VJ^cole Normale, t. iii. 
 Paris, 1 801. 
 
 Originally read at the Conferences by Saint-Martin 
 himself. There was a reply by Garat and a rejoinder by 
 the mystic. This ended the debate, which from all accounts 
 created a considerable impression, as much from the 
 position of the disputants as from the subject at issue. 
 On the one side was a pupil who, from the curious constitu- 
 tion of the Normal Schools, was older, as it chanced, than 
 the professor, and, moreover, " a former military officer and 
 Chevalier of Saint-Louis, as well as a writer much admired 
 in more than one country of Europe, and a spoilt child of 
 
 2 F
 
 450 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 the former regime of society ; " on the other, a brilliant 
 orator, having also a ready pen, " a former Minister, and 
 future ambassador and President of the section of Moral 
 and Political Sciences at the Institute." 
 
 Saint-Martin desired the absolute recognition of the 
 existence of a moral sense in man, of a primeval speech 
 imparted to man at his creation, and the relegation of im- 
 thinking matter to its proper place. 
 
 XII 
 
 The Influence of Signs upon Thought. Paris, 1799. 
 A second edition appeared in 1801. 
 
 Originally inserted in the " Crocodile," this little work 
 is, in the opinion of M. Matter, a pearl of some price in 
 that dubious parable. For Saint-Martin, as for Emerson, 
 the whole world was an omen and a sign, and every sign a 
 sacrament, that is to say, "a representation or indication 
 of a thing concealed for us." As to the conventional signs 
 made use of among men, they are substitutes for others, 
 more real and more positive, of which we are now deprived. 
 Signs are indispensable for the development of ideas in 
 man, but these signs are the fruit of the ideas, and although 
 they may stimulate the latter do certainly not create them. 
 The thesis was proposed by the Institute and drawn up 
 by Garat, but Saint-Martin for the second time failed to 
 obtain a hearing. 
 
 XIII 
 
 The Spirit of Things, or Philosophical Survey of 
 THE Nature of Beings and the Object of their 
 Existence. 2 vols. Paris, 1800. Svo. Published 
 by Debray, in the Palais-Egalite, and by Fayolle, Rue 
 Honore, over against the Temple of Genius, pp. iv, 
 326 and V, 345. 
 
 The epigraph for once is in Latin : Mens hominis rerura 
 universalitatis speculu^n est. It is established by M. Gence 
 that this work is identical with the " Natural Revelations "
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 451 
 
 projected in 1797, as appears from a letter to Kircliberger 
 in that year. The German patrician advised him earnestly 
 to suppress ever^^thing that savoured of mystery. As this 
 work has been sufficiently considered in the text, I need 
 only quote the description which is given by Saint-Martin: — 
 " Partly of my own accord, and partly on the solicitation 
 of some friends, I have undertaken a work to be entitled 
 ' Natural Revelations,' in which I am ingarnering from 
 my notes, and from anything new that may come to me, 
 several points of view which appear likely to be useful to 
 the hearts and minds of my fellow-creatures. According 
 to some who have seen it, it presents even now some whole- 
 some waters at which the burning thirst may be quenched. 
 I shall go on with it, if God favour me; and when it is 
 done, if it is judged to be worth printing, and our pecuniary 
 means permit, I shall publish it." Later on he describes 
 it as outlines only, "because it embraces the whole circle 
 of things physical and scientific, spiritual and divine, and 
 it would be impossible to exhaust each subject in the space 
 devoted to it." When he adds that it is a preparatory 
 introduction to the works of Jacob Boehme, we may accept 
 this view of the volume without being forced to acknow- 
 ledge that it contains much of Boehme's influence. The 
 Revolution had reduced Saint-Martin to poverty, and for 
 the first time he endeavoured to interest his friends in the 
 circulation of one of his works. 
 
 XIV 
 
 The Cemetery of Amboise. Paris, 1801. 8vo. By the 
 Unknown Philosopher. A pamphlet of 16 pages, re- 
 published in the second volume of the Posthumous 
 Works. 
 
 The versification of this poem is so exceedingly careless 
 that it is placed almost outside the pale of any criticism 
 which pays its chief regard to form. And yet it is redeemed 
 by its aspirations. The cemetery of Amboise was the 
 resting-place of the ancestors of Saint-Martin, towards
 
 452 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 which a rcHgioiis fascination attracted him, and he re- 
 members how in their neighbourhood Burlamaqui sanctified 
 the morning of his life. He pauses at the grave of a young 
 villager named Alexis, and, musing as usual on the apotheosis 
 which men call death, the spirit of the dead youth rises to 
 speak to him, encouraging him in the path he has taken, 
 and foretelling the woes of France. It ends, like all visions 
 of Saint-Martin, with Wisdom seated on a throne, recalling 
 the time when Ezekiel restored life to the dead bones of 
 Israel ; man has his treasures given back to him, the captive 
 tribes of the true Jordan regain its banks, and Jerusalem 
 again beholds her children. 
 
 XV 
 
 The Ministry of Man the Spirit. By the Unknown 
 Philosopher. Paris, 1 802. 8vo. Printed by Migneret, 
 Rue du Sepulchre, 28. pp. xvi, 422. 
 
 The epigraph is taken from " The Spirit of Things," and 
 is one of those striking aphorisms which occur so frequently 
 in Saint-Martin : — " Man is the word of all enigmas." The 
 work, in three parts, treats of Nature, Man, and the Logos. 
 M. Matter calls it " the Swan's song of the theosophist of 
 Amboise;" and though his acute critical judgment is a 
 little deranged by an exaggeration of the influence of 
 Boehme, he gives us the best means of appraising that 
 influence when he says that the work contains nothing 
 which has not been previously sketched or indicated in 
 preceding writings. He adds, what is exceedingly true, 
 that it bears the seal of an unusual recollection and clear- 
 ness, and that its dream of the palingenesis of nature ac- 
 complished by the reintegration of man in his principle, if 
 it be indeed nothing more than a dream, is at least of a 
 sublime order. Mr. E. B. Penny, the theosophic translator 
 of Saint-Martin, has not done full justice to the sympathies 
 of M. Matter when he represents him as an academical 
 reviewer, with a touch of patronage towards his subject ; 
 and I think that, all things considered, next to being a
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 453 
 
 mj^stic like Saint-Martin, one could wish to be a critic like 
 his biographer. The " Ministry " had the misfortune to be 
 published almost simultaneously with Chateaubriand's 
 " Genius of Christianity " and was, of course, eclipsed by 
 that brilliant work. Saint-Martin, however, was, as usual, 
 a dispassionate critic of his last achievement. " Though 
 this work is clearer than the rest, it is too remote from 
 human ideas for me to count upon its success. I have 
 often felt in writing that it was much as if I took my violin 
 and played dance-music in the cemetery of Montmartre, 
 where, scrape as I might with my bow, the corpses would 
 neither foot it nor hear my strains." 
 
 XVI 
 
 Posthumous Works of M. de Saint-Martin. 2 vols. 
 Tours, 1807. 8vo. Printed and Published by Le- 
 tourmy. Rue Colbert, No. 2. pp. xxxii, 406 and 482. 
 
 A collection of priceless interest, it is not too much to 
 say that in its absence we should have been without the 
 means of understanding Saint-Martin. It contains his 
 "Historical Portrait" and an ample selection from his 
 "Thoughts," discourses pronounced by him at the Lyons 
 Lodge of Beneficence, a collection of private prayers, all 
 his extant poems, and a variety of small treatises on the 
 Source of our Knowledge and Ideas, the Location of the 
 Reasonable Soul, Divine Government, the Ways of Wisdom, 
 &c. As regards the memorial notes, M, Matter suggests 
 that the selection is not intelligent, and, in the absence of 
 the original, the statement cannot be challenged, but to 
 possess it in any shape demands our gratitude. 
 
 XVII 
 
 Of Numbers. By L. C. de Saint-Martin, called the Un- 
 known Philosopher. A Posthumous Work, together 
 with Light on Human Association. Including an 
 unpublished Portrait of the Author, and an Introduc-
 
 454 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 tion by M. Matter, Hon. Inspector-General of Public 
 Instruction. Collected and published by L. Schauer. 
 Paris, 1 86 1. Royal 8vo. pp. xvi, 107 and 47. 
 
 As this curious treatise has been the subject of a special 
 study, I need only say that M. Schauer was introduced to 
 the works of Saint-Martin by the MS. of this treatise, which 
 he purchased at a public auction. He admits ingenuously 
 that he acquired it on the supposition that it was a transla- 
 tion of the Biblical Book of Numbers. It led him to the 
 study of the mystic, and he was fortunate enough to obtain 
 copies of his works corrected by his own hand. He pro- 
 posed to republish them all, and began with this posthumous 
 treatise, which in the first instance was lithographed and 
 then printed in a somewhat awkward shape. 
 
 XVIII 
 
 Unpublished Correspondence of L. C. de Saint- 
 Martin, TERMED THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER, AND 
 KiRCHBERGER, Baron DE LiEBisTORF. From May 22, 
 1782, to November 7, 1797. Collected and published 
 by L. Schauer and Alph. Chuquet. Paris, 1862. 
 Royal 8vo. pp. 330. 
 
 The subject of such frequent reference in the text of 
 the present study, there can be no need to describe further 
 this precious volume. Nor is it necessary to do more than 
 mention the useful translation which has made it known 
 to English readers, of which the full title is as follows : — 
 " Mystical Philosophy and Spirit Manifestations." Selec- 
 tions from the recently published Correspondence between 
 L. C. de Saint-Martin and Kirchberger, Baron de Liebis- 
 torf. Translated and edited by E. B. Penny. Exeter, 
 1863. Crown 8vo. 
 
 XIX 
 
 The following tracts, enumerated without description 
 in the Bibliography of Matter, are now wholly unobtain- 
 able, and I have failed to meet with examples.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 455 
 
 A. — The New Age, or the Hope of the Friends of 
 Truth, 4 pp. 
 
 B. — The Religious Awakening, Stanzas and Canticles. 
 
 C. — The Union of God and Man ; Spiritual Advent of 
 the Word. A Discourse pronounced in a reli- 
 gious assembly, February 2, 1798. 
 
 XX 
 
 Translations of Jacob Boehme. 
 
 A. — Aurora Breaking, or the Root of Philosophy, 
 Astrology, and Theology. Translated from Gichtel's 
 Amsterdam edition of 1682, with a Notice of Jacob 
 Bohme, by the Unknown Philosopher. 2 vols. Paris, 
 1800. 8vo. 
 
 The first Avork of the German theosophist, never com- 
 pleted, and usually regarded as a sublime chaos, much 
 inferior in value, and much more difficult to grasp than his 
 later and fuller illuminations. With this verdict Saint- 
 Martin seems generally in agreement, but at the same time 
 considers that the " Aurora " contains all the germs which 
 were developed subsequently in the "Three Principles" 
 and other treatises. Though the first to be published, it 
 seems to have been the last translated by Saint-Martin, 
 and may thus indicate his intention to present all the 
 writings of his "beloved author" in their chronological 
 order. 
 
 B. — The Three Principles of the Divine Essence, or 
 the Eternal unoriginated Engendering of Man ; 
 for what he has been created and unto what end ; after 
 what manner all things began in time, how they pursue 
 their course, and to what they shall return at the end. 
 Translated (from the Amsterdam edition, as above) by 
 the Unknown Philosopher. 2 vols. Paris, 1 802. 8vo. 
 
 Referring to this treatise by Boehme, Saint- Martin 
 exclaims : " My astonishment becomes boundless when I 
 see that such wonders are in the world " {Correspondance,
 
 456 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Lcttre Ixxiv.). It was in the fifteenth chapter of tlie 
 " Three Principles," No. 7, taken in connection with No. 
 xii. that Saint-Martin discerned an indication of the 
 resipiscence of the evil principle. The absence of more 
 explicit teaching on this subject in his favourite author 
 was evidently a source of regret. The translation of this 
 work was begun by Saint-Martin in December 1795 
 {C(yrrespondance, Lettre Ixxxiv.), under great difficulty, 
 owing to his failing sight. He regarded it as one of 
 Boehme's most important works, and one which, if need be, 
 might stand for the whole. 
 
 C. — Forty Questions on the Origin, Essence, Being, 
 Nature, and Property of the Soul, together 
 WITH the Profound and Sublime Basis of the Six 
 Points and the Nine Texts. Translated from the 
 German by an Unknown Philosopher. Published 
 posthumously at Paris in i vol. 8vo, 1 807. 
 
 Some copies are furnished with a curious full-page 
 plate, showing the " Philosophical Globe, or Eye of Eternity." 
 The text was revised by M. Gilbert. Saint- Martin recom- 
 mends this treatise to Kirchberger for its information on 
 the intercourse between souls (Correspondance, Lettre 
 Ixxxiv.). On this subject Saint-Martin himself made a 
 very keen observation, namely, that we look for the souls 
 of the departed in " the sensible principles in which they 
 no longer are," while they seek us in " the spiritual and 
 divine principle in which we are not yet." Hence the 
 difficulty of communication between the two sides of the 
 gate of death. 
 
 D. — The Threefold Life of Man, according to the 
 Mystery of the Three Principles of Divine 
 Manifestation, written in accordance with a Divine 
 Instruction. Followed by the " Six Points " and the 
 "Nine Texts." Translated from the German into 
 French in 1773, by an Unknown Philosopher. Pub- 
 lished posthumously at Paris in 1 809.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 457 
 
 The text was revised by M. Gilbert. The date to which 
 the translation is attributed by the title is an egregious 
 mistake. Writing to Kirchberger on May 23, 1794, Saint- 
 Martin observes : " Thank God, I begin to be tolerably 
 familiar with our author's German ; and I go on, when I 
 have time, with my translation into French of the ' Three- 
 fold Life,' which I have undertaken as a provision for my 
 old age, for my eyesight is failing, and if I were to lose it, 
 I could find no one in this place able to read it to me in 
 German." The translation was completed in November of 
 the same year. 
 
 XXI 
 
 Unpublished Writings (Enumerated in the Biblio- 
 graphy OF M. Matter). 
 
 A. — Family Correspondence, comprising 63 letters, at that 
 time in the possession of M. Tournyer, together with 
 several works in MS. 
 
 B. — Several unpublished treatises on the Conferences 
 between Saint-Martin and the Comte d'Hauterive, at 
 Lyons ; on Astrology ; on Magnetism and Somnam- 
 bulism; on Signs and Ideas; on the Principle and 
 Origin of Forms ; on the Holy Scriptures, &c. 
 
 Note. — M. Alfred Erny, a writer on transcendental subjects, 
 and an occult student of many years' standing, informs me that 
 the son of M. Matter is said to possess numerous MSS. of the 
 Unknown Philosopher. These are perhaps the B. treatises re- 
 ferred to above. Matter was a descendant of Rodolph de Salz- 
 mann, and was acquainted with Chauvin, the friend of Fabre 
 d'Olivet and executor of Joseph Gilbert, to whom all Saint- 
 Martin's MSS. were bequeathed, according to my informant. 
 
 Projected Works 
 
 A. — The New Tobias, a poem sketched as follows in the 
 " Historical Portrait " : " Name of my country written 
 on the dust. An eagle effacing it with his wings, as 
 the unfortunate attempts to read it, unable to recover
 
 458 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 what it has lost until it has deciphered this name. 
 Search after him who inscribed it." The reader will 
 observe the analogy between this idea and that of 
 Matthew Arnold's mournful verses, beginning, " Before 
 man parted for this earthly strand." 
 
 B. — An Unnamed Tragedy, I include this on the authority 
 of Matter, who had access to the MS. of the " Historical 
 Portrait," a considerable portion of which was sup- 
 pressed in the " Posthumous Works." I find no refer- 
 ence to it in any published writing of Saint-Martin. 
 
 XXII 
 
 One Hundred Unpublished Letters in the possession of 
 the Supreme Council of the Martinist Order at Paris, form- 
 ing part of the Archives of the Chevaliers Bienfaisants de 
 Lyons. Forty-eight of these letters are addressed to J. B. 
 Willermoz. Mention is also made of other works in MS. 
 from the pen of Saint-Martin, which have passed into the 
 custody of the Council.
 
 IV 
 
 MARTINISM AND THE MASONIC RITE 
 OF SWEDENBORG 
 
 While this work was passing through the press, the 
 President of the Martinist Order in France has published 
 a contribution to its subject, based on documents in 
 possession of the Supreme Council,^ the existence of which 
 archives I have had occasion to mention previously. 
 Much of the information is not only new but valuable, 
 and yet it may be necessary to distinguish that which rests 
 indubitably on the authority of the documents from some 
 things which seem to depend less certainly from the con- 
 struction placed by the writer on his materials. Our 
 respect is due to Papus for many years of zealous and 
 strenuous work in the cause of transcendentalism, and it 
 is Avith some reluctance that I venture to differ from him, 
 even over documentary criticism or the appreciation of his- 
 torical aspects. It seems advisable, however, in the present 
 instance — (a) to read his presentation of Saint- Martin in 
 the light of what we have learned certainly concerning 
 the Unknown Philosopher by the testimony of the 
 mystic's published works, and (h) to bear in mind that 
 upon historical questions the criterion of evidence is not 
 invariably so rigorous in France as it is in England. 
 
 As regards the first of these points we know indubitably 
 and precisely the kind of value set by Saint-Martin on the 
 initiation which he received from Pasqually ; that he 
 abandoned the physical communication with the unseen 
 which was taught by his master, partly on the ground of 
 the dangers, but more conspicuously of the hallucinations 
 
 ^ Martinesisnie, Willermosisme, Martinisme et Franc- Maconnerie. Par 
 Papus. Paris, 1899. 
 
 459
 
 46o THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 to which it tended ; and that this course was mainly the 
 consequence of an early bias towards the interior life, to 
 which Saint-Martin devoted himself subsequently, and by 
 this means elaborated a doctrine of knowledge which was 
 largely personal to himself, yet in a measure derived from 
 Pasqually, and including later on certain theosophic addi- 
 tions from Jacob Boehme. We know that he consistently 
 and always deprecated recourse to the outward way — by 
 which he meant intercourse with spirits — on the part of 
 those who had received any call to the inward life ; that 
 he never swerved from this position thenceforward; that 
 it fills all his writings, and appears in a most especial 
 manner in the intimate interchange of sentiments which 
 took place between himself and Kirchberger, a friend evi- 
 dently most dear to him. We know, finally, by his own 
 express statement that he had abandoned all initiation 
 save that of union with God, and that though he had 
 conceived a certain respect for Swedenborg, he treated him 
 most lightly as compared with Jacob Boehme. 
 
 When, therefore, Dr. Papus indicates — more or less on 
 the authority of secret documents — that Saint-Martin was 
 engaged secretly in a propaganda which he discounte- 
 nanced openly ; that he was less or more connected with 
 the "physical communications" of which he gave with 
 so much apparent earnestness so very indifTerent an ac- 
 count; and that we are to look through Pasqually to 
 Swedenborg for the grounds of his philosophical systems ; 
 it is indispensable that we should take these new facts in 
 the light of what we know already, and that both must be 
 somehow brought into proper line and harmony. We are 
 promised at a fitting moment the publication of the docu- 
 ments concerned, and shall then, no doubt, be able to 
 assign them their true place without sacrificing the Un- 
 known Philosopher, whom we have learned to know and 
 love, to the somewhat evasive personality which has thus 
 emerged suddenly from concealment. In the absence of 
 these documents we shall do well to suspend our judgment 
 so far as Saint-Martin is himself concerned. It is possible, 
 however, to speak somewhat definitely as to the connec-
 
 MARTINISM AND SWEDENBORGIANISM 461 
 
 tion between Martinism and Swedenborg, and this leads 
 me to the second point which I proposed to develop. 
 Those who are familiar both with the writings of Sweden- 
 borg and Saint-Martin will not readily admit the derivation 
 of one from the other as deducible from any ordinary con- 
 sideration of the two systems, and it must be confessed 
 that a more ill-starred and disillusionising choice was 
 seldom made than this attempt to invoke the Swedish 
 seer to explain the fascinating mystery of Pasqually's 
 occult knowledge. The warrant of the explanation is a 
 fact already known to us, and authenticated, so far as I 
 can judge, by the archives of Martinism, namely, that 
 Martines de Pasqually was at one period a disciple of 
 Swedenborg. On what considerations Dr. Papus bases his 
 further views I am unable to say, but there is no reason 
 to suppose that they derive from official documents. He 
 affirms (a) that the illumination of Swedenborg was sup- 
 plementary to that of the Rosicrucians, and that the seer 
 himself was an adept of occult science ; (b) that his pro- 
 paganda was opposed to the Jesuits, and that as part 
 thereof he supplemented his written revelations by a re- 
 ligious practice involving a ritual — in other words, he 
 founded a corporate Church ; (c) that he instituted the 
 Masonic Rite which bears his name, and was indeed the 
 actual creator of High-Grade Masonry, 
 
 Let me point out first of all that there are fewer 
 opportunities in France for a first-hand acquaintance 
 with the work of Swedenborg than exist in this country, 
 where his writings are fully translated and readily acces- 
 sible. While, therefore, the views enumerated above must 
 be unacceptable in England, we can account naturally for 
 their appearance in Paris, and excuse it also on the ground 
 of insufficient opportunity for acquaintance with the facts 
 of the case. Every student of Swedenborg — and here there 
 are life-long students who are acquainted also with the 
 literature of occultism — is well aware that the Swedish 
 seer had no familiarity with the occult sciences, and gives 
 no indication of such in any of his works; that what is 
 now known as the New Jerusalem or Swedenborgian
 
 462 THE UNKNOWN PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Church was not started until after his death ; and that his 
 connection with Masonry is little more than a matter of 
 report. On the other hand, students of Masonry in Eng- 
 land are equally well aware that the origin of Continental 
 High-Grade Masonry was the Templar Chapter of Cler- 
 mont. The Grand Master of the Rite of Swedenborg in 
 England is Mr. John Yarker, and I have his assurance : (a) 
 That as to whether Swedenborg was initiated into Masonry 
 we are very much in the dark, (h) That he knows of no 
 proof supporting the asserted participation of Swedenborg 
 in the French High Grades. Now, I submit that, when 
 stripped of all its adornments, the bare fact of an early 
 connection between Pasqually and the Swedish seer pos- 
 sesses few consequences, and that having regard to the 
 peculiar system of the Spanish occultist we are fully 
 justified in concluding that he drew from other sources 
 than the doctrine of the New Jerusalem, in which case 
 it may, I think, be admitted that the influence of Sweden- 
 borg upon Saint-Martin has been neither understated nor 
 exaggerated in the section which I have devoted to this 
 subject. 
 
 Erratum. 
 P. 28, line 20, read " disciples of William Law."
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abadie, his work on Self-Knowledge, 
 20, 21, 23, 45 
 
 Academy of True Masons, 65 
 
 Active and Intelligent Cause — Its phy- 
 sical cominunication, 48 ; identical 
 with Christ; 81; operation on man 
 and time, 157, 197, 384 ; central doc- 
 trine of Saint- Martin, 195; philo- 
 sophy of, 221-6 
 
 Adultery, the crime of the First Man, 168 
 
 Alchemy, 34, 100 
 
 Astral in Man, 107 
 
 Baptism, 265 
 
 Black Magic, 34, 106 
 
 Blessed Margaret, 100 
 
 Boecklin, Madame de, 29 
 
 Boehme, Jacob, 30, 33, 46, 51, 80, 91 
 
 et seq., 99, 100, 130, 173, 174, 328, 
 
 333. 454 et seq. 
 Bourbon, Duchesse de, 27, 30 
 Bourignon, Antoinette de, 100 
 Burlamaqui, 20, 21 
 
 Cagliostro, 27, 28 
 
 Caro, M., his work on Saint-Martin, 
 
 X, 79 
 Catholicism. See Exoteric Church 
 Cazotte, 24 
 
 Church of the New Jerusalem, 88, 461 
 Clermont, Masonic Chapter of, 67, 462 
 Condorcet, Marquis de, ix 
 Conventions, Masonic, 67, 70, 71 
 "Crocodile, The," grotesque work of 
 
 Saint-Martin, 32, 448 
 
 Demidrgos, 228 
 Divine Nature, 120 
 
 Doinel, Jules, his Martinistic revela- 
 tions, 69, 70, 71, 86, 129 
 
 Ecce Homo, 30, 445, 446 
 
 Eckartshausen, 352 
 
 Eclectic Rite, Masonic, 70, 71 
 
 Elect Cohens, 22, 24, 25, 35, 36, 37, 38, 
 
 , 39, 43, 48, 50. 65. 67, 70, 71, 72, 73, 77 
 
 Eliphas, L^vi, 107, 207, 329, 392 
 
 "Elucidation of Human Association," 
 
 31, 447, 453 
 "Errors and of Truth, Of," 26, 31, 66, 
 
 68, 73, 79, 81, 227, 438 et seq. 
 Eucharist. Sec Mysterium Fidel 
 Exoteric Church, Saint-Martin not of it, 
 
 xiii ; its transmitting power denied, 
 
 328 ; respect for it inculcated, 329 ; 
 
 463 
 
 eflScacy of its institutions, 331 ; its 
 regeneration expected, 336 ; Catholi- 
 cism compared with Christianity, 
 337 et seq. 
 
 Fall of Man, Martinistic doctrine of, 
 166 ; its discrepancies, 167 et seq. ; a 
 consequence of liberty, 169 ; its 
 general consequences, 175 et seq. 
 
 Fouriiie, Abbe, 24, 39-43 
 
 Franck, Adolphe, his study of Saint- 
 Martin, xi, 78 
 
 French Revolution, Saint -Martin's 
 letter on, 446 
 
 Gence, M., 33, 65, 66, 67, 94, 443 
 
 Gichtel, 57, 100 
 
 Great Name, its Kabalistic connec- 
 tions, 239; how understood by Saint- 
 Martin, 241 ; its importance in his 
 system, 242 ; its fundamental char- 
 acter, 244 
 
 Great Work, 102 
 
 Guy on, Madame, 99 
 
 Hauterive, Comtede, 24, 47, lOI, 102 
 Heckethorn, C, "VV., on Martinism, 64, 
 
 65, 68, 69 
 Hermaphroditic state, 168 
 Hermetic Philosophy. See Alchemy 
 Hidden life, Leaders of, 51 
 Hund, Baron, 69, 70 
 
 Illdminati, German, 68, 71, 72 
 
 Illuminati of Avignon, 65, 87, 354 
 
 Immortality and Death, Martinistic 
 basis of immortality, 200 ; index of, 
 203 ; immortality and regeneration, 
 203, 204 
 
 " Influence of Signs on Ideas," 32, 450 
 
 Initiation, 253, 254 
 
 Inquisition, Spanish, 32, 327 
 
 Inward Way, how cultivated by Saint- 
 Martin, 123; different from quietism, 
 ibid.; a path of works, 144 
 
 Kabalism, 114, 239, 240, 241, 243, 300 
 Kirchberger, 30, 32, 43, 45, 55, 57, 328. 
 
 333, 3SS- 443, 444, 454 
 Knights of Beneficence, 63, 68, 69, 71 
 Knippe, Baron, 71 
 
 Law, William, xi, 28, 100 
 
 Lead, Jane, 100 
 
 Le Litre Rouge, 17, 442
 
 464 
 
 INDEX 
 
 "Letter on French lievolution,'"3i, 447 
 
 Liberty in Man, supposed by liis 
 punislnnent, 134, 139 ; will and free- 
 dom, 140; will the sole remaining 
 faculty of man's active j)rincii)le, 142 
 
 " Light on Human Association," 447 
 
 Lost Word, 239 
 
 Magus and Magism, 104; divine 
 Magism, 109, 253 
 
 Man, his first estate, 144 ; spiritual 
 generation of, ibid. ; union with the 
 good principle, 147 ; as the organ of 
 divine order, 150 ; his first envelope, 
 153 ; book of man, ihid. ; primeval 
 mission of, 159 ; fall of, 166 ; its 
 consequences, 175 ; man and nature, 
 183 ; privation of man, 195 ; the 
 new man, 258 ; first work of man, 
 280 ; man the thought of God, 
 282 ; Angelic ministry of man, 298 ; 
 medicine of man, 308 ; secret of the 
 new man, 300 
 
 " Man of Aspiration," 27, 79, 89, 175, 
 
 444 
 "Man the Spirit, Ministry of," 33, 46, 
 
 80, 175. 333. 335. 452 
 Martines de Pasqually, 22, 23, 25, 29, 
 
 35, 37. 38, 39, 41, 42, 44, 49. 5°, 5^, 
 64, 65, 70, jj, 78, 79, 80, 81, 86, 87, 
 104, 145, 227, 240, 328 
 
 Martinism, its later history, 63 et seq. 
 
 Masonry, 35, 63. 240 
 
 Mass, sacrifice of, 345 
 
 Mathematics. See Numbers 
 
 Matter of the World, 200 
 
 Matter, Mons., 26, 29, 32, 73, 77, 78, 79 
 
 Mesmer, 27 
 
 Mysterium Fidei — strange position of 
 Saint-Martin, 343 ; the Mass and the 
 Eucharist, 345 ; sign of the alliance, 
 346 ; the Keal Presence, ibid. 
 
 Natural Theology, 118 
 
 "Natural Table of Correspondences," 
 28, 68, 79, 167, 169, 175, 442 
 
 Nature, 117, 185, 190, 221, 230, 304 
 
 " New Man," 30, 79, 89, 446 
 
 Nicolai, 68 
 
 Numbers, reticence of Saint-Martin on, 
 83, 84 ; strictures on Mathematics, 
 379 et seq. ; philosophy of numbers, 
 393 et seq. ; mysticism of the decade, 
 398 et seq. 
 
 Occult Sciences, how regarded by 
 Saint-Martin, 99 et seq. 
 
 Papus, 63, 64, 65, 67, 70, 71 
 Pernety, Abbo, 66 
 Philalethes, Rite of, 65, 87, 354 
 Political philosophy of Saint-Martin, 
 
 its characteristics, 348 ; Utopian 
 
 nature, 349 ; kingly authority, 350 ; 
 
 message to existing governments, 
 
 353 ; theocracy, 355 
 
 Reception and Tradition, influence 
 of the school of Pasqually on Saint- 
 Martin, 79 ; secrets guarded by Saint- 
 Martin, 81 ; his reserve not uniform, 
 86 
 
 "Red Book," 17, 442 
 
 Reformed Rite, 69 
 
 Regeneration, 251 et seq. 
 
 Repairer, 48, 49, 196, 221 et seq. See 
 also 49, 78, 254, 256, 287, 323 
 
 Resipiscence, 130, 162, 210, 213 
 
 Robison, 72, 73, 354 
 
 Rose-Cross, 22, 34, 50 
 
 Rousseau, 21 
 
 Ruysbi-oeck, 51, icxs, 123, 124, 179 
 
 Sacred Triad, 223, 229. See also 
 
 256, 401 
 Saint John of the Cross, x, 123 
 Saint Martin, facts of his outward life, 
 
 17 et seq. ; hia initiation and occult 
 
 experiences, 34 et seq. ; his interior 
 
 life, 51 ef seq. 
 Salzmaun, 29, 457 
 Senancour, ix, x 
 Silferhielm, 29, 89 
 Somnambulism, 108, 109 
 Sojihia, 257 
 "Spirit of Things," 37, 80, 168, 170, 
 
 173. 175. 450, 451 
 Strict Observance, Rite of 31 
 Swedenborg, 22, 29, 35, 79, 87 et seq. 
 
 Tauler, 51, 100 
 
 Templar Rite, 67, 69, 70, 77 
 
 Tetragrammaton, 242 
 
 Two principles, not a Manichsean 
 doctrine, 129 ; their opposition, 130; 
 inferiority of evil, 132 ; genesis of, 
 132, 133 ; their reconciliation, 136 
 et seq. . 
 
 Weishaupt, 68, 72 
 
 AVillermoz, 25, 39, 65, 67, 70,^7^, 77 
 
 Yarker, Mr. John, 65, fly 
 
 Zohar, 242 ; 
 
 
 G/ 
 
 1 
 
 Printed by Ballantyne, HAHSok &' Co. 
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