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Philosophic mysticism has a higher object than merely tranquillizing the passions or peaceably sitting in trance. These are excellent attainments, but they are not enough. For they tend by themselves to lead to a cessation of active life. They cannot constitute a sufficient and complete goal for human beings. We are here to live. Is our life to end in dreams alone, not deeds? We find ourselves among other human beings; have we no duty to them? Can we rest content in self-absorption and, as a mystical friend once remarked, "Let the world go to the dogs!" He justified in his own mind his indifference to the world-wide butchery of war, which was raging at the time, but will this justify it in humanity's mind?

-- Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 2 : Phases of Mystical Development > # 138