of more worlds
than one. And because they are possessors of that first-hand
knowledge, they are able to speak with authority. Now, the authority
that should be recognised in all these matters is simply the authority
of knowledge.

Another of the difficulties we want to clear away in studying
phenomena is the idea that the happening of a certain thing by a law
that we do not understand in the realm of matter gives any sort of
authority on questions of spiritual knowledge, or gives a person a
right to speak with authority on things not concerned with the
particular laws under which that phenomena takes place. The mischief
of the old idea of miracle was that it was supposed to be a proof, not
of knowledge of another world or other forces, but of the title of the
miracle-worker to speak with authority on religious and moral
questions; while, as a matter of fact, the knowledge of what occurs on
the astral plane, the knowledge of what occurs on the mental plane, or
the power to utilise the forces of these planes in the production of
certain happenings here which are not usual, these things by no means
give a man any authority to speak on moral problems or to decide on
spiritual questions. That is a matter of the utmost importance, for
knowledge of the astral and mental worlds is the same in kind as
knowledge of the physical world; and it no more follows that a
clairvoyant or clairaudient, or a man who can use any of the powers of
subtler planes down here, has more authority on religious and moral
questions than a good mathematician, a good electrician, or a good
chemist. You are not likely, on the physical plane, to fall into the
blunder of thinking that because a man is a good chemist he has
authority on moral problems: you will at once see the absurdity. But
many of you do not see that the same is true when you deal with good
chemists or electricians belonging to the astral or mental planes.
They have no more authority _qua_ their knowledge of these planes than
the chemist. I often wish that in the Theosophical Society the old
fable of the Jewish Rabbis was better remembered and applied. Two
Rabbis were arguing, and one of them, to support his side of the
argument, made a wall fall down; whereupon the other Rabbi sensibly
remarked: "Since when have walls had a voice in our discussions?" That
spirit is of enormous importance, and does not in any sense touch the
fact that you find the great Founders of religions and the illu