Behind the veil of all the hieratic and mystical allegories of ancient doctrines,behind the darkness and strange ordeals of all initiations, under the seal of allsacred writings, in the ruins of Nineveh or Thebes, on the crumbling stones of oldtemples and on the blackened visage of the Assyrian or Egyptian sphinx, in themonstrous or marvellous paintings which interpret to the faithful of India theinspired pages of the Vedas, in the cryptic emblems of our old books on alchemy,in the ceremonies practised at reception by all secret societies, there are foundindications of a doctrine which is everywhere the same and everywhere carefully concealed. Occult philosophy seems to have been the nurse or god-mother of all intellectual forces, the key of all divine obscurities and the absolute queen of society in those ages - when it was reserved exclusively for the education of priests and of kings