Page:From Passion to Peace - Allen - 1910.djvu/39

Rh cause of temptation; and the knowledge of the mental cause of temptation leads to the transmutation of thought, and the transmutation of thought leads to deliverance from the bondage of error.

The preliminary fighting is a necessary-stage in spiritual development, as the crying and kicking of a helpless babe is necessary to its growth; but as the crying and kicking is not needed beyond the infant stage, so the fierce struggling with, and falling under, temptation ends when the knowledge of mental transmutation is acquired.

The truly wise man, he who is enlightened concerning the source and cause of temptation, does not fight against outward allurements, he abandons all desire for them; they thus cease to be allurements, and the power of temptation is destroyed at its source. But this abandonment of unholy desire is not a final process, it is the beginning of a regenerative and transforming power which, patiently employed, leads