Adams, Walter M.: The house of the hidden places: a clue to the creed of early Egypt from Egyptian sources (London, 1895)

196 The Initiation of the Postulant. [Ch.

however pure and lofty ; not even the scientific
definition of absolute truth, could suffice to
open the secret things of God, any more than
the most exact acquaintance with the features
and the proportions of the Pyramid would
disclose their interior signification without the
teaching of the hidden Wisdom. And hence,
at the commencement of the Ritual, in the
heading of the first chapter, before a word of
doctrine has been revealed, we are told how it
proceeds from Thoth, " The Mind and Will of
God," as the inscription of Hermopolis entitles
him.

Now there are three modes in which such
knowledge may be communicated to those pre-
pared to receive it; namely, by simple instruc-
tion, by distant vision, or by personal partici-
pation. Each of these modes is, it is evident,
an advance upon that which precedes, a
preparation for that which follows it. No
man can become a participator in the Divine
Nature who has never been illuminated by its