scepticism and presumption are often twins.When a man of this character determines upon any action, personal fear never deters him; and for the moral fear, any sophistry suffices to self-will.
Almost without analysing himself the mental process by which his nerves hardened themselves and his limbs moved, he traversed the corridor, gained Mejnour's apartment, and opened the forbidden door.All was as he had been accustomed to see it, save that on a table in the centre of the room lay open a large volume.He approached, and gazed on the characters on the page; they were in a cipher, the study of which had made a part of his labours.
With but slight difficulty he imagined that he interpreted the meaning of the first sentences, and that they ran thus:--"To quaff the inner life, is to see the outer life: to live in defiance of time, is to live in the whole.He who discovers the elixir discovers what lies in space; for the spirit that vivifies the frame strengthens the senses.There is attraction in the elementary principle of light.In the lamps of Rosicrucius the fire is the pure elementary principle.Kindle the lamps while thou openst the vessel that contains the elixir, and the light attracts towards thee those beings whose life is that light.