Poetical Occultism.
Dear Editor: The following Poetical Occultism may be of interest.
FROM THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE “BANQUET” OF DANTE.
“As the Philosopher (Aristotle) has said at the beginning of “Metaphysics,” all men naturally desire to know. The reason of this may be, that everything by an impulse of its own nature, tends towards perfection; therefore, since knowledge is the ultimate perfecting of our soul, in the which consists our ultimate felicity, we are all by nature filled with this desire. None the less are many deprived of this most noble perfection, by divers causes, which, acting upon man from within and from without, remove him from the estate of knowledge * * * Manifest is it, therefore, to him who considereth well, that there are but few who can attain to that estate desired of all, and that almost innumerable are they who are forever famishing for this food. Oh! blessed are those few that are seated at the table where the bread of the angels is eaten, and miserable are they who feed in common with the sheep! But because every man is by nature a friend to every other man, and because every friend is grieved by the necessities of him he loves; so they who are fed at so lofty a table, are not without compassion toward them whom they see wandering in the pastures of the brutes, and feeding upon acorns. And because compassion is the mother of benevolence, therefore always liberally do they who know, share of their great riches with the truly poor, and are like a living fountain, whose waters slack the thirst of nature before named, (for knowledge). And I, therefore, who do not sit at the blessed table, but have fled from the pasture of the herd, and at the feet of those who are seated there, gather up what they let fall, and who know the miserable life of those whom I have left behind me, moved to mercy by the sweetness of that which I have gained little by little, and not forgetting myself, have reserved something for these wretched ones, which I have already, and for some time, held before their eyes, making them thereby all the more desirous of it.”
Yours,
K. H.
Rome, Italy, Nov., 1886.
Universal Unity.
[READ AT A MEETING OF THE FIRST THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF CINCINNATI, O.]
’Tis said they who the starry heavens watch
Spending their time in silent contemplation