Pernety - A Treatise On The Great Art.pdf - cyjack.com

The Great Art page 36This spirit, which is usually called instinct, when animals are spoken of, determined and almostabsolutely specified in each animal, is not so in Man, because the spirit of Man is the epitome andquintessence of all the spirits of animals. So man has not a particular character which is peculiar tohim, as each animal has: every dog is faithful, every lamb is gentle, every lion is bold, every cat istreacherous; but man is all at the same time, faithful, indiscreet, treacherous, intemperate, gentle,furious, bold, timid, courageous; circumstances, or reason, decide always what he is at each instant oflife, and one never sees in any animal those varieties which one finds in Man, because he alonepossesses the germ of all. Each man would develop it, and would convert it from potentiality toactuality as the animals, when the occasion would present itself, if this spirit was not subordinated toanother substance superior to itself. The Soul, purely spiritual, holds the reins. It guides the spirit, andconducts it in all its deliberate actions. Sometimes it does not give it time to communicate its orders,and to exercise its empire. It acts of itself; it puts in play the resources of the body, and Man then actssimply as an animal. These actions one calls first impulse, 29 and those which one makes withoutreflection, such as coming, going, eating, when one is worried by some serious affair which occupieshim entirely.The animal obeys always, infallibly, his natural inclination, because it tends only to the preservationof its transient, mortal existence, in which lies all its happiness and welfare. But Man does not alwaysfollow this inclination; because, while he is disposed to preserve that which is mortal in himself, hefeels also another desire which disposes him to work for the felicity of his immortal part, to which heis certain that he owes the preference.Thus God has created Man in His image, and has formed him as the abrégé of all His works, and themost perfect of material beings. One calls him rightly: Microcosm. He is the center where all ends: hecontains the quintessence of the entire Universe. He participates in the virtues and properties of allindividuals. He has the fixedness of the metals and minerals, the vegetability of the plants, thesensitive faculties of the animals, and besides, an intelligent and immortal Soul. The Creator hasplaced in him, as in the box of Pandora, all the gifts and virtues of things superior and inferior. Hefinished His work of creation by the formation of Man, because it was necessary to create all theUniverse in stupendous proportions before reducing it in hominal limits. And as the Supreme Being,Himself without beginning, was yet the beginning of all, He wished to place the seal of His work onan individual, who, not being, able to be without beginning, was at least without end as Himself.Therefore let not man dishonor the Model of which he is the image. He should think that he has notbeen created to live solely according to his animality, but according to his humanity, properlyspeaking. Let him drink, let him eat; but let him pray, let him subdue his passions, let him work foreternal life; in this he will differ from the animals, and will be really a man.The body of Man is subject to change and entire dissolution, as other composites. The action of heatproduces this change in the manner of being of all sublunary individuals, because their mass being acomposition of parts more material, less pure, less connected, and more heterogeneous than those ofthe stars or planets, is more susceptible to the effects of rarefaction.This alteration is in its progression a real corruption, which is made successively, and which, bydegrees, leads to a new generation, or new manner of being; for the harmony of the Universe consistsin a different and gradual interior formation of the matter which constitutes it.This change of form takes place only in the bodies of this inferior world. The cause is not, as somehave thought, the contradiction or opposition of the qualities of matter, but its own essence, dark and29 For the study of these involuntary acts, immediate result of Reflex Action, see the remarkable works of Dr. Papus: Traitéde Physiologie Synthétique, Traité Méthodique de Science Occulte, etc.