s uniting
again the two powers, the two authorities, in a single person.

Now, what does it mean to the Society? That is the question for us.
What is it to bring forth in our Movement? Ill or well? It is only
possible, at this beginning of the road, to point out the two things
that _may_ happen. For the Society and its President together will
have to settle which of the two shall come. It may be that They, who
from behind look on, may foresee what is coming; or it may be, as it
often is, that They also are not able completely to say what shall
come out of the clashing wills of men, differing views, possible
antagonisms. Two possibilities there clearly are before us, either of
which, I suggest, may come. For you and for me it is to decide which
shall come. And I can only tell you how it seems to me, and you must
judge and act as you think right. For at last our Society, like
humanity, has reached the point when the individual must do his duty,
and must no longer be a child guided entirely from without, but a man
with the God within co-operating with the God without. Hence it is not
a question for any to decide for us: we have to decide it for
ourselves. And as I say, I can only put to you what seem to me the two
possibilities. Let me take the bad possibility first. It may be that
I, in whose hands these two powers now are placed, shall prove too
weak to bear that burden, too blind to walk along that difficult path.
It may be that I shall err on the one side or on the other, either
making the Society too exoteric and empty, a material thing, or, on
the other hand, pressing too far the spiritual side, with all that
that means. It may be that the task is too great, and that the time
has not come. I recognise that as possible; for in all questions of
peoples, persons, and times, experiments may be made which it is known
will fail, in order that out of the failure fresh wisdom may be
gathered, and it may be that this shall be a failure. And if so it
matters not, for out of that failure some higher good will spring.
That is the conviction of those who know that the Self is ever in us,
and that the Self can never perish; so that it matters not what
catastrophe may come, provided faith in the Self remains secure with
His endless possibilities of recovery, and greater powers of
manifestation. And it may quite well be that, in hands as weak and
knowledge as limited as mine, failure will meet this great experiment
which the Master