Preparation for the Instructions of the Second and Third Main Levels

§. 18.

Since our intention here is merely to speak of the quality of inner truth, we will also describe the means by which it can be so wonderfully qualified.

§. 19.

The aids of this kind are either within our power, naturally positive, or accidental. We take the term accidental here in the improper sense, merely in the understanding that aids of this kind are of the property that they do not depend so immediately on our culture, industry, and effort.

§. 20.

The naturally positive aids within our power are culture or the proper exercise of this inner mental power, personal effort, and applied industry, in proportion to a fortunate mental disposition and receptivity with which we are naturally gifted. It is therefore easy to estimate that the acquired knowledge of this kind must be very limited according to these requirements.

§. 21.

The accidental aids, and therefore accidental knowledge—the explanation of which we have primarily as our subject in this treatise—is divided first into two main classes, namely:
1^st into the accidental in concreto in concrete form,
2^nd into the accidental in abstracto in abstract form.

§. 22.

The accidental of both types is of the nature that we encounter truths partly indirectly and obliquely, which we never thought of, much less set out to find ex professo expressly/professionally; or when we discover a new truth through the operation of two or more still obscure truths, which we had just as little thought of; or when one truth opens up in us through another, without us having worked directly toward this evident revelation.

§. 23.

From the lowliest craftsman to the mechanical artist, alchemist, and poet,

there exists no active mind that has not enjoyed such fortunate accidents in its life, to a greater or lesser degree of importance.

We can reduce almost every important discovery in mechanical and physical sciences to this. How much we owe in general to the preconceived a priori from before/by deduction and how much to mere chance, anyone who has worked in this field or even just thought about it maturely will be able to easily estimate.

§. 24.

What has been demonstrated so far will have instructed you sufficiently to make the following important matter, which is actually our true final purpose, easily and clearly understandable to you.

§. 25.

The accidental of the 2nd type, the accidental in abstracto in abstract form, is divided again into two main parts, namely:
1^st into Inspiration, and
2^nd into Divination.

Inspiration acts on the spirit; divination acts on the soul.

§. 26.

There are very few people—and taken on average, perhaps five in a century—on whom the power of inspiration acts uninterruptedly, but far fewer—and on average, perhaps one in a century—on whom the power of divination acts uninterruptedly.

§. 27.

The mighty power of inspiration can be neither requested nor anxiously pursued, much less ex officio by virtue of office/officially cited here, and therefore does not in the least depend on us. It rushes past us in light garb, freely and laughing, like a lightning bolt, and grants now and then to one or another—who finds themselves properly disposed—an electric ray, which must be used and applied in the moment—without reasoning or splitting hairs over it, and so to speak, blindly and bona fide in good faith.

§. 28.

Which people know how to value and use this majestic visit,