full control of the mind and the physical body, to resolutely curb the grosser desires and to give free rein to the higher aspirations are the first infant steps in the self-development that leads to illumination.  Then we begin to discover that this very desire for greater spiritual power is generating a force that carries us forward and upward.  We soon begin to observe actual progress.  The brain becomes clearer, the intellect keener.  Our sphere of influence grows wider, our friendships become warmer.  Aspiration lifts us into a new and radiant life, and the wondrous powers of the soul begin to become a conscious possession.  And to this soul growth there is no limit.  The aspirant will go on and on in this life and others with an ever-extending horizon of consciousness until he has the mental grasp of a Plato, the vivid imagination of a Dante, the intuitive perception of a Shakespeare.  It is not by the outward acquirement of facts that such men become wise and great.  It is by developing the soul from within until it illuminates the brain with that flood of light called genius.

And when, through the strife and storm, we finally reach the tranquility of the inner peace we shall comprehend the great fact that life really is joy when lived in the possession of spiritual power and in perfect harmony with the laws of the universe.  With even these first steps in occult achievement the aspirant enters upon a higher and more satisfactory life than he has ever known.  Literally he becomes a new man.  Gradually the old desires and impulses fade away and new and nobler aspirations take their place.  He has learned obedience to law only to find that obedience was the road to conquest.  He has risen above the gross and sensuous by the power of conscious evolution; and, looking back upon what he has been with neither regret nor apology, he comprehends that significant thought of Tennyson:  On stepping stones of their dead selves men rise to higher things.

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