432 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
and it reaps a harvest of experience, while the pampered lap
dog drones its time away in fearful monotony.
The case of a human being is somewhat similar. It may
be hard to fight poverty and hunger, but from the standpoint
of the soul it is infinitely preferable to a life of idle luxury.
Where wealth is nothing more than a handmaid ofwell
thought out philanthropy, which helps man in such a way as
toreally uplift him, it may be a very great blessing and a
mea ns of growt h for its p oss ess or, but when us ed for selfis h
purposes and oppression, it cannot be regarded as other than
an unmitigated curse.
The soul is here to acquire experience through its
instruments. These are the tools furnished to each at birth,
and they are good, bad or indifferent according to what we
have learned through past experience in the building of
them. Such as they are we must work with them, if at all.
If we have become aroused from the usual lethargy and
are anxious to progress, the question naturally arises, What
must I do?
Without well-kept tools the mechanic can do no
effective work; similarly, the instruments of the Ego must be
cleansed and sharpened; then we may commence work to
some purpose. As one works with those wonderful tools
they themselves improve with proper use and become more
and more efficient to aid in the work. The object of this
work isUnion with the Higher Self.
There are three steps by which this work conquers the
lower nature, but they are not completely taken one after the
other. In a certain sense they go together, so that at the
present stage the first receives the most attention, the second
less, and the third least of all. In time, when t he first step has
been wholly taken, naturally more attention can be paid to