come to
that primal Being, whence the evolution of old was emanated.

For what is this "sword of detachment" but another aspect of the "fiery
sword" of Simon, which is turned about to guard the way to the Tree of
Life? This "sword" is our passions and desires, which now keep us from
the golden-leaved Tree of Life, whence we may find wings to carry us to
the "Father in Heaven." For once we have conquered Desire and turned it
into spiritual Will, it then becomes the "Sword of Knowledge"; and the
way to the Tree of Spiritual Life being gained, the purified Life
becomes the "Wings of the Great Bird" on which we mount, to be carried
to its Nest, where peace at last is found.

The simile of the Tree is used in many senses, not the least important
of which is that of the heavenly "vine" of the reincarnating Soul, every
"life" of which is a branch. This explains Simon's citation of the
Logion so familiar to us in the _Gospel according to Luke_:

Every tree not bearing good fruit is cut down and cast into the
fire.

This also explains one of the inner meanings of the wonderful passage in
the _Gospel according to John_:

I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in
me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that
beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bear more fruit.[131]

For only the spiritual fruit of every life is harvested in the
"Store-house" of the Divine Soul; the rest is shed off to be purified in
the "Fire" of earthly existence.

Into the correspondence between the world-process of Nature, and that
which takes place in the womb of mortal woman, it will not be necessary
to enter at length. No doubt Simon taught many other correspondences
between the processes of Cosmic Nature and Microcosmic Man, but what
were the details of this teaching we can in no way be certain. Simon
may have made mistakes in physiology, according to our present
knowledge, but with the evidence before us all we can do is to suspend
our judgment. For in the first place, we do not know that he has been
correctly reported by his patristic antagonists, and, in the second, we
are even yet too ignorant of the process of the nourishment of the
foetus to pronounce any _ex cathedra_ statement. In any case Simon's
explanation is more in agreement with Modern Science than the generality
of the phantasies on scientific subjects to which the uninstructed piety
of the early Fathers so