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852
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
great, and the situation untenable, as when the king, instead of trusting the executive, is still trying to rouse the minister from his terror-stricken and paralyzed condition, the executive can only succeed in rendering the ego immune from pain, but is powerless to avert the catastrophe. What is called death then takes place.
It is thus obvious that the discriminative intellect only acts as a wily, sweet-tongued parasite, when employed solely to pander to desire.
The Government of the empire,' however, is truly carried on by the subjective power, since intellect is only a bungler in the department of life. The true import of the two trees, that of Life and that of Knowledge of good and evil, now becomes fully intelligible, and the warning of the Father in heaven, the true Ego, can now be seen to be a philosophical truth of the utmost importance to man in his materialised form. The fruit of the first-mentioned tree is heavenly, and the giver of Life ; but of the second only produces confusion, doubt and worry, and, finally, leads to death, which, however, is death of the body alone, although the ego looks upon it as bis own, on account of having completely identified himself with it.
Now, when a man is attacked by a wild beast, say, a wolf, he is frightened by its approach and his reason tells him to fly away from it. The moment this conclusion is arrived at, will is rendered negative, leaving the man exposed to danger and death. But sometimes when danger appears suddenly, and there is little time for reason to look round and determine upon the best
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