Now, if the student has pondered the preceding argument well, he has probably grasped the analogy between the _long cycle_ of evolution and the short _cycles_ or steps used upon the path of preparation. It should be quite clear that no one can do this post-mortem work for him and transmit to him the resulting soul growth, any more than one can eat the physical food of another and transmit to him the sustenance and growth. You think it preposterous when a priesthood offers to shorten the sojourn of a soul in purgatory. How, then, can you believe that anyone else can—no matter what the consideration—obviate the necessity of a number of purgatorial existences for your benefit and transmit to you at once the usable soul power you would have acquired had you pursued the ordinary course of life to the day you are ready for Initiation? Yet this is what the offer to initiate a person not yet upon the threshold means. You must have the soul power requisite for Initiation or no one can initiate you. If you have it, you are upon the threshold by your own efforts, beholden to no one, and may demand Initiation as a right which none would dare dispute or withhold. If you have it not and could buy it, it would be cheap at twenty-five million dollars, and the man who offers it for twenty-five dollars is as ridiculous as his dupe. Please remember that if anyone offers to initiate you into an occult order, no matter if he calls it “Rosicrucian” or by any other name, his demand of an initiation fee at once stamps him as an impostor, explanations to the effect that the fee is used to purchase regalia, et cetera, are only added evidence of the fraudulent nature of the order for it is said, “Initiation is most emphatically not an outward ceremony, but an inward experience.” I may further add that the Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross in the Mystic Temple where I received the Light made it a condition that their _sacred science must never be put in the balance against a coin_. Freely had I received, and freely was I required to give. This injunction I have obeyed, both in spirit and to the letter, as all know who have had dealings with the Rosicrucian Fellowship. Chapter III THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION PART I To obtain a thorough understanding of the deep and far-reaching significance of the manner in which the Sacrament of Communion was instituted, it is necessary to consider the evolution of our planet and of composite man, also the chemistry of foods and their influence on humanity. For the sake of lucidity we will briefly recapitulate the Rosicrucian teachings on the various points involved. They have been given at length in the _Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception_ and our other works.