at are styled the gods are simply
the first principles."

Plotinus, the pupil of the "God-taught" Ammonius, tells us that the
secret gnosis or the knowledge of Theosophy, has three degrees-opinion,
science, and illumination. "The means or instrument of the first is
sense, or perception; of the second, dialectics; of the third,
intuition. To the last, reason is subordinate; it is absolute
knowledge, founded on the identification of the mind with the object
known." Theosophy is the exact science of psychology, so to say; it
stands in relation to natural, uncultivated mediumship, as the knowledge
of a Tyndall stands to that of a school-boy in physics. It develops in
man a direct beholding; that which Schelling denominates "a realization
of the identity of subject and object in the individual;" so that under
the influence and knowledge of hyponia man thinks divine thoughts, views
all things as they really are, and, finally, "becomes recipient of the
Soul of the World," to use one of the finest expressions of Emerson.
"I, the imperfect, adore my own Perfect," he says in his superb "Essay
on the Oversoul." Besides this psychological, or soul state, Theosophy
cultivated every branch of sciences and arts. It was thoroughly
familiar with what is now commonly known as mesmerism. Practical theurgy
or "ceremonial magic," so often resorted to in their exorcisms by the
Roman Catholic clergy, was discarded by the Theosophists. It is but
Jamblichus alone who, transcending the other Eclectics, added to
Theosophy the doctrine of Theurgy. When ignorant of the true meaning of
the esoteric divine symbols of Nature, man is apt to miscalculate the
powers of his soul, and, instead of communing spiritually and mentally
with the higher celestial beings, the good spirits (the gods of the
theurgists of the Platonic school), he will unconsciously call forth the
evil, dark powers which lurk around humanity, the undying, grim
creations of human crimes and vices, and thus fall from theurgia (white
magic) into goetia (or black magic, sorcery). Yet, neither white nor
black magic are what popular superstition understands by the terms. The
possibility of "raising spirits," according to the key of Solomon, is
the height of superstition and ignorance. Purity of deed and thought
can alone raise us to an intercourse "with the gods" and attain for us
the goal we desire. Alchemy, believed by so many to have been a
spiritual philosophy as well a