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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
giving up is not of anything worth clinging to, but only of those things and ideals which actually play havoc with the higher aspirations of the soul. As soon as vision is sufficiently clarified to perceive the true side of life of which the majority of men are ignorant to-day, the idea of giving up will be recognized to be a process full of exhilaration and joy, since each act of giving up will only go to make the soul more and more positive, and thus bring it a step nearer the goal of perfect knowledge, unending bliss, and absolute power. Renunciation is a necessity with nature from which none can hope to escape. If we do not renounce our weakening tendencies and attachments ourselves, Nature will, sooner or later, compel us to do so perforce, in which case our anguish will be all the greater. Against the forces of life, nature arrays her terrible dragon of death, whose very thought is enough to strike terror in the bravest heart. The clinging to the objects of the senses is, thus, the creature of delusion ; they have to be given up, sooner or later. If we do not renounce them cheerfully, death will sure enough put an end to our enjoyment thereof. It is for us to decide whether we give them up ourselves, or let death tear us away from them. In the one case, power and blessedness result for the soul, but, in the other, there are only the lamentations and gnashing of teeth born of impotent rage.
Such being the case, it becomes necessary for every rational being to prepare himself for the final struggle with the dreaded foe-Death. The law of re-incarnation proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that if we neglect
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