THE
ALCHEMY OF HAPPINESS.
CHAPTER I.
On knowledge of the soul, and how knowledge of the soul is the key to the knowledge of God.
O seeker after the divine mysteries! know thou that the door to the knowledge of God will be opened to a man first of all, when he knows his own soul, and understands the truth about his own spirit, according as it has been revealed, "he who knows himself knows his Lord also." And God proclaims in his holy book: "We will display our miracles in the different countries of the world, till it shall be demonstrated to them that the Koran is the truth,"[1] that is, let us show men in the visible world, and in their own souls, the wonderfulness of our works and the perfection of our power, that they may learn to know that the Lord God is Almighty and true, and that everything else besides is vanity.
O seeker of the mysteries! since there is nothing nearer to thee than thyself, and that still with thy soul alone, thou canst not discriminate anything, and art impotent to find out and know thyself, in what way canst thou become acquainted with anything else, and with that which is even separate from thyself? And how should'st thou be able to comprehend God, who in his nature cannot be compre-
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