Philosophie des hautes sciences

Philosophers, but having never been treated thoroughly in relation to the human Art of divining.

Having accustomed myself to working on these four columns, it is by never moving away from them that I operate with as much ease as with some accuracy. One feels then that although I am the Author of Cartonomancie cartomancy, or divination using cards, or at least the one who has rescued it partly from oblivion and entirely from the ignorance that held it in a charter, that Cartomancy does not fulfill the intention of a Man who wants to be skillful in all prognostics, without having any knowledge of his Questioner; and one can say as much for all the secondary branches of Divination.

One must not understand here, without being informed of his conduct, his morals, his age, his position, his office, because pure and simple Cartomancy, at a half degree above ignorance, clearly sees all these things; but we will clarify that as we advance.

I offer you, as you see, the Science and the Art, which I recommended to you in 1783, page 58 of the third Notebook of this Work. It is therefore up to you to put these virtues into practice, unless you wish to be only a Cartomancer; and in that case, possessing this Art thoroughly, believe that you will still legitimately pass for a Man as rare as he is Learned. But here I want to make you my equal, and my master, if possible, so that I may rank myself with pleasure, in my old age, under your discipline.

In a few words, if you want to make progress in any branches of the High Sciences, be deaf to everything you have read or heard, however true it may appear to you, and even if it effectively is; penetrate well what I say and mean to say in the ten Notebooks that make this Work complete, and I protest to you that you will freely enter into the center of the Temple of which I spoke to you on page 175 of the third Notebook.