"Think not that I tell you that which you know not: for except you know it, it cannot be given to you.

"To him that hath it is given, and he hath the more abundantly.

"None is a prophet save he who knoweth: the instructor of the people is a man of many lives.

"Inborn knowledge and the perception of things, these are the sources of revelation: the Soul of the man instructeth him, having already learned by experience.

"Intuition is inborn experience; that which the soul knoweth of old and of former years.

"And Illumination is the Light of Wisdom, whereby a man perceiveth heavenly secrets.

"Which Light is the Spirit of G.o.d within the man, showing unto him the things of G.o.d.

"Do not think that I tell you anything you know not; all cometh from within: the Spirit that informeth is the Spirit of G.o.d in the prophet.

"Inspiration may indeed be mediumship, but it is conscious; and the knowledge of the prophet instructeth him.

"Even though he speak in an ecstasy, he uttereth nothing that he knoweth not."

Then followed this apostrophe to the Prophet:--

"Thou who art a prophet hast had many lives: yea, thou hast taught many nations, and hast stood before kings.

And G.o.d hath instructed thee in the years that are past, and in the former times of the earth.

By prayer, by fasting, by meditation, by painful seeking, hast thou attained that thou knowest.

There is no knowledge but by labour: there is no intuition but by experience.

I have seen thee on the hills of the East: I have followed thy steps in the wilderness: I have seen thee adore at sunrise: I have marked thy night watches in the caves of the mountains.

Thou hast attained with patience, O prophet! G.o.d hath revealed the truth to thee from within."

Thus, for the first time known to history, was given a definition of the nature and method of inspiration and prophecy, at once luminous, reasonable, and inexpugnable, to the full and final solution of this stupendous problem; and comporting with and explaining, as it did, all our own experiences, we felt that we could bear unreserved testimony to its truth. But, vast as was the addition thus made to the New Gospel of Interpretation, it did not exhaust the treasures revealed and communicated on that wondrous night; for it was followed immediately by a prophecy of the meaning of the new dispensation on which the world is entering, and of which our work is the introduction. At once Biblical in diction and character, it reached in loftiness the highest level of Biblical prophecy and inspiration, demonstrating the same world celestial and divine as the source of both. For which reason, and the crushing blow administered by it to the superst.i.tions which have made of Christianity a by-word and a reproach by their gross materialisations of mysteries purely spiritual, it is reproduced in full here. The heading is of our own devising:--

A Prophecy of the Kingdom of the Soul, mystically called the Day of the Woman.

"And now I show you a mystery and a new thing, which is part of the mystery of the fourth day of creation.

The word which shall come to save the world, shall be uttered by a woman.

A woman shall conceive, and shall bring forth the tidings of salvation.

For the reign of Adam is at its last hour; and G.o.d shall crown all things by the creation of Eve.

Hitherto the man hath been alone, and hath had dominion over the earth.

But when the woman shall be created, G.o.d shall give unto her the kingdom; and she shall be first in rule and highest in dignity.

Yea, the last shall be first, and the elder shall serve the younger.

So that women shall no more lament for their womanhood; but men shall rather say, "O that we had been born women!"

For the strong shall be put down from their seat, and the meek shall be exalted to their place.

The days of the Covenant of Manifestation are pa.s.sing away: the Gospel of Interpretation cometh.

There shall nothing new be told; but that which is ancient shall be interpreted.

So that man the manifesto shall resign his office: and woman the interpreter shall give light to the world.

Hers is the fourth office: she revealeth that which the Lord hath manifested.

Hers is the light of the heavens, and the brightest of the planets of the holy seven.

She is the fourth dimension; the eyes which enlighten; the power which draweth inward to G.o.d.

And her kingdom cometh; the day of the exaltation of woman.

And her reign shall be greater than the reign of the man: for Adam shall be put down from his place; and she shall have dominion for ever.

And she who is alone shall bring forth more children to G.o.d, then she who hath an husband.

There shall no more be a reproach against women: but against men shall be the reproach.

For the woman is the crown of man, and the final manifestation of humanity.

She is the nearest to the throne of G.o.d, when she shall be revealed.

But the creation of woman is not yet complete: but it shall be complete in the time which is at hand.

All things are thine, O Mother of G.o.d: all things are thine, O Thou who risest from the sea; and Thou shalt have dominion over all the worlds[48].

FOOTNOTES:

[29] A.K. knew nothing of Spinoza at this time, and was unaware that he was an optician. Subsequent experience made it clear that the spectacles in question were intended to represent her own remarkable faculty of intuitional and interpretative perception. (See Life A.K. Vol. I. pp.

150-1.) S.H.H.

[30] Page 525

[31] The 22nd September, 1877.

[32] The book referred to was a treatise ent.i.tled "Fruit and Bread,"

which had been sent to her anonymously the previous day. E.M.

[33] The "Hymn to Hermes" was received by A.K. in 1878, "under illumination occurring in sleep." She remembered it so perfectly that on waking she wrote it without hesitation or error. Representing knowledges long lost, by no amount of mere scholarship could it have been reproduced. It is given at length in the P.W. pp. 357-358, and in "The Life of A.K." Vol. I. p. 287. S.H.H.