In the world of today there are signs of mental disorder and emotional upset everywhere. In the world of mystic and occult studies there are similar signs, although of a different kind. In the postbag of a writer whose subject borders the fringe of these subjects there is also ample evidence for the existence of such maladies. People should first free themselves to a sufficient extent and recover their sanity before they get immersed in ideas which will only aggravate this malady. When we come to the world of students of philosophy, insanity disappears--because it is a subject which regards the sage, the fully developed philosopher, as the sanest of men because he is the best balanced of men. We may perhaps find a percentage of dreamers among them, as the metaphysical flights and subtle analyses which it calls for may lift them a little too high above practical concerns; but philosophy is automatically self-adjusting and soon brings them down again to these concerns, whereas the other subjects, the mystic and the occult, leave them up there in hazy clouds where, if they are not careful, they may lose their bearings.
-- Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 3 : Its Requirements > # 273
