The Great Art

The Great Art page 36
This spirit, which is usually called instinct, when animals are spoken of, determined and almost
absolutely specified in each animal, is not so in Man, because the spirit of Man is the epitome and
quintessence of all the spirits of animals. So man has not a particular character which is peculiar to
him, as each animal has: every dog is faithful, every lamb is gentle, every lion is bold, every cat is
treacherous; 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 of
life, and one never sees in any animal those varieties which one finds in Man, because he alone
possesses the germ of all. Each man would develop it, and would convert it from potentiality to
actuality as the animals, when the occasion would present itself, if this spirit was not subordinated to
another substance superior to itself. The Soul, purely spiritual, holds the reins. It guides the spirit, and
conducts 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 acts
simply as an animal. These actions one calls first impulse, 29 and those which one makes without
reflection, such as coming, going, eating, when one is worried by some serious affair which occupies
him entirely.
The animal obeys always, infallibly, his natural inclination, because it tends only to the preservation
of its transient, mortal existence, in which lies all its happiness and welfare. But Man does not always
follow this inclination; because, while he is disposed to preserve that which is mortal in himself, he
feels also another desire which disposes him to work for the felicity of his immortal part, to which he
is 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 the
most perfect of material beings. One calls him rightly: Microcosm. He is the center where all ends: he
contains the quintessence of the entire Universe. He participates in the virtues and properties of all
individuals. He has the fixedness of the metals and minerals, the vegetability of the plants, the
sensitive faculties of the animals, and besides, an intelligent and immortal Soul. The Creator has
placed in him, as in the box of Pandora, all the gifts and virtues of things superior and inferior. He
finished His work of creation by the formation of Man, because it was necessary to create all the
Universe 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 on
an 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 not
been created to live solely according to his animality, but according to his humanity, properly
speaking. Let him drink, let him eat; but let him pray, let him subdue his passions, let him work for
eternal 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 heat
produces this change in the manner of being of all sublunary individuals, because their mass being a
composition of parts more material, less pure, less connected, and more heterogeneous than those of
the 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, by
degrees, leads to a new generation, or new manner of being; for the harmony of the Universe consists
in 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 some
have thought, the contradiction or opposition of the qualities of matter, but its own essence, dark and
29 For the study of these involuntary acts, immediate result of Reflex Action, see the remarkable works of Dr. Papus: Traité
de Physiologie Synthétique, Traité Méthodique de Science Occulte, etc.
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