Changes

{{HPB-CW-comment|[In the two Essays of Éliphas Lévi which follow, the Comments of Master K.H. are printed in bold type, parallel with the text itself. They are numbered to correspond with similar numbers inserted in square brackets within the body of the essays. Words and sentences which are underlined have been underscored by K. H. himself. The footnotes signed Ed. Theosophist, as well as the long Editorial Note, are by H.P.B. herself.—Compiler.]}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|[In the two Essays of Éliphas Lévi which follow, the Comments of Master K.H. are printed in bold type, parallel with the text itself. They are numbered to correspond with similar numbers inserted in square brackets within the body of the essays. Words and sentences which are underlined have been underscored by K. H. himself. The footnotes signed Ed. Theosophist, as well as the long Editorial Note, are by H.P.B. herself.—Compiler.]}}

{{Page aside|292}}

<center>{{Page aside|292}}'''I'''</center>

<center>'''I'''</center>

<center>'''DEATH BY (THE LATE) ÉLIPHAS LÉVI'''</center>

<center>DEATH

BY (THE LATE) ÉLIPHAS LÉVI</center>

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| valign=top    | Death is the necessary dissolution of imperfect combinations.&nbsp;[1]

{{Style P-No indent|

| valign=bottom | [1] Of the 1, 2, 3d, 4, 5th.

Death is the necessary dissolution of imperfect combinations. [1] It is the re-absorption of the rough outline of individual }}

| [1] Of the 1, 2, 3d, 4, 5th.

| valign=top    | It is the re-absorption of the rough outline of individual&nbsp;[2]

| valign=bottom | [2] The personality of the personal Ego.

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| valign=top    | life into the great work of universal life; only the perfect&nbsp;[3]

{{Style P-No indent|[2] life into the great work of universal life; only the perfect}}

| valign=bottom | [3] The 6th and 7th {{tip|Prles|Principles}}.

| [2] The personality of the personal Ego.

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| valign=top    | is immortal.It is a bath in oblivion.&nbsp;[4]

{{Style P-No indent|[3] is immortal.It is a bath in oblivion.}}

| valign=bottom | [4] Until the hour of remembrance.

| [3] The 6th and 7th Prles.

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| valign=top    | It is the fountain of youth where on one side plunges old age, and whence on the other issues infancy.<ref>Rebirth of the Ego after death. The Eastern, and especially Buddhistic doctrine of the evolution of the new, out of the old Ego.—Ed. Theosophist.</ref>Death is the transfiguration of the living; corpses are but the dead leaves of the Tree of Life which will still have all its leaves in the spring.&nbsp;[5]

{{Style P-No indent|[4] It is the fountain of youth where on one side plunges old age, and whence on the other issues infancy.<ref>Rebirth of the Ego after death. The Eastern, and especially Buddhistic doctrine of the evolution of the new, out of the old Ego.—Ed. Theosophist.</ref>Death is the transfiguration of the living; corpses are but the dead leaves of the Tree of Life which will still have all its leaves in the spring.}}

| valign=bottom | [5] In the language of the Kabalist “Spring” means the beginning of that state when the Ego reaches its omniscience.

| [4] Until the hour of remembrance.

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| valign=top    | The resurrection&nbsp;[6]

{{Style P-No indent|[5] The resurrection}}

| valign=bottom | [6] The Chaldean “resurrection in life eternal” borrowed by the {{tip|Xtians|Christians}} means resurrection in Nirvâna.

| [5] In the language of the Kabalist “Spring” means the beginning of that state when the Ego reaches its omniscience.

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| valign=top    | of men resembles eternally these leaves.Perishable forms are conditioned by immortal types.All who have lived upon earth, live there still in new exemplars of their types, but the souls which have surpassed their type receive elsewhere a new form based upon a {{Page aside|293}}more perfect type, as they mount ever on the ladder of worlds;<ref>From one loka to the other; from a positive world of causes and activity, to a negative world of effects and passivity.—Ed. Theosophist.</ref> the bad exemplars are broken, and their matter returned into the general mass.<ref>

{{Style P-No indent|[6] of men resembles eternally these leaves.Perishable forms are conditioned by immortal types.All who have lived upon earth, live there still in new exemplars of their types, but the souls which have surpassed their type receive elsewhere a new form based upon a}}

{|  

| [6] The Chaldean “resurrection in life eternal” borrowed by the Xtians means resurrection in Nirvâna.

| valign=top    | Into Cosmic matter, when they necessarily lose their self-consciousness or individuality,&nbsp;[7] or are annihilated, as the Eastern Kabalists say.—Ed. Theosophist.

| valign=bottom | [7] Their Monad 6th and 7th Principles.

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</ref>

Our souls are as it were a music, of which our bodies are the instruments. The music exists without the instruments, but it cannot make itself heard without a material intermediary;&nbsp;[8]

 

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more perfect type, as they mount ever on the ladder of worlds;<ref>From one loka to the other; from a positive world of causes and activity, to a negative world of effects and passivity.—Ed. Theosophist.</ref> the bad exemplars are broken, and their matter returned into the general mass.<ref>

| valign=top    | the immaterial can neither be conceived nor grasped.Man in his present existence only retains certain predispositions from his past existences.&nbsp;[9]

| valign=bottom | [9] Karma.

 

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| valign=top    | Evocations of the dead are but condensations of memory, the imaginary coloration of the shades. To evoke those who are no longer there, is but to cause their types to re-issue from the imagination of nature.<ref>To ardently desire to see a dead person is to evoke the image of that person, to call it forth from the astral light or ether wherein rest photographed the images of the Past. That is what is being partially done in the seance rooms. The Spiritualists are unconscious NECROMANCERS. — Ed. Theosophist.</ref> {{Page aside|294}}To be in direct communication with the imagination of nature, one must be either asleep, intoxicated, in an ecstasy, cataleptic, or mad.&nbsp;[10]

 

{{Style P-No indent|Our souls are as it were a music, of which our bodies are the instruments. The music exists without the instruments, but it cannot make itself heard without a material intermediary;}}

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| valign=bottom | [11] We never bury our dead. They are burnt or left above the earth.

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{{Style P-No indent|[8] the immaterial can neither be conceived nor grasped.Man in his present existence only retains certain predispositions from his past existences.}}

| [8] Hence Spirit cannot communicate.

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{{Style P-No indent|[9]

Evocations of the dead are but condensations of memory, the imaginary coloration of the shades. To evoke those who are no longer there, is but to cause their types to re-issue from the imagination of nature.<ref>To ardently desire to see a dead person is to evoke the image of that person, to call it forth from the astral light or ether wherein rest photographed the images of the Past. That is what is being partially done in the seance rooms. The Spiritualists are unconscious NECROMANCERS. — Ed. Theosophist.</ref>}}

{{Page aside|294}}

{{Style P-No indent|To be in direct communication with the imagination of nature, one must be either asleep, intoxicated, in an ecstasy, cataleptic, or mad.}}

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| valign=top    | the spectres of the nightmare, of hallucination, and fear, are but the wandering photographs of preserved corpses.&nbsp;[12]

{{Style P-No indent|[10]The eternal memory preserves only the imperishable; all that passes in Time belongs of right to oblivion.The preservation of corpses is a violation of the laws of nature; it is an outrage on the modesty of death, which hides the works of destruction, as we should hide those of reproduction. Preserving corpses is to create phantoms in the imagination of the earth;<ref>To intensify these images in the astral or sidereal light. —Ed. Theosophist.</ref>}}

| valign=bottom | [12] Their reflections in the astral light.

| [10] And to be in direct communication with the intelligence of Nature one must become an Adept.

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| valign=top    | It is these preserved or imperfectly destroyed corpses, which spread, amid the living, plague, cholera, contagious diseases, sadness, scepticism and disgust of life.<ref>People begin intuitionally to realize the great truth, and societies for burning bodies and crematories are now started in many places in Europe.—Ed. Theosophist.</ref> Death is exhaled by death. The cemetaries poison the atmosphere of towns, and the miasma of corpses blight the children even in the bosoms of their mothers. Near Jerusalem in the Valley of Gehenna a perpetual fire was maintained for the combustion of filth and the carcasses of animals, and it is to this eternal fire that Jesus {{Page aside|295}}alluded when he says that the wicked shall be cast into Gehenna; signifying that dead souls will be treated as corpses.

{{Style P-No indent|[11] the spectres of the nightmare, of hallucination, and fear, are but the wandering photographs of preserved corpses.}}

| [11] We never bury our dead. They are burnt or left above the earth.

The Talmud says that the souls of those who have not believed in immortality will not become immortal. It is faith only which gives personal immortality;<ref>Faith and will power. Immortality is conditional, as we have ever stated. It is the reward of the pure and good. The wicked man, the material sensualist, only survives. He who appreciates but physical pleasures will not and cannot live in the hereafter as a self-conscious Entity.—Ed. Theosophist.</ref>&nbsp;[13]

| valign=bottom | [13] In the Deva-Chan the Ego sees and feels but that which he longed for. He who cares not for a continuation of sentient personal life after physical death will not have it. He will be reborn remaining unconscious of the transition.

It is these preserved or imperfectly destroyed corpses, which spread, amid the living, plague, cholera, contagious diseases, sadness, scepticism and disgust of life.<ref>People begin intuitionally to realize the great truth, and societies for burning bodies and crematories are now started in many places in Europe.—Ed. Theosophist.</ref> Death is exhaled by death. The cemetaries poison the atmosphere of towns, and the miasma of corpses blight the children even in the bosoms of their mothers.

Near Jerusalem in the Valley of Gehenna a perpetual fire was maintained for the combustion of filth and the carcasses of animals, and it is to this eternal fire that Jesus}}

| [12] Their reflections in the astral light.

{{Page aside|295}}

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| valign=top    | science and reason can only affirm the general immortality.

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The Talmud says that the souls of those who have not believed in immortality will not become immortal. It is faith only which gives personal immortality;<ref>Faith and will power. Immortality is conditional, as we have ever stated. It is the reward of the pure and good. The wicked man, the material sensualist, only survives. He who appreciates but physical pleasures will not and cannot live in the hereafter as a self-conscious Entity.—Ed. Theosophist.</ref>}}

The mortal sin is the suicide of the soul. This suicide would occur if the man devoted himself to evil with the full strength of his mind, with a perfect knowledge of good and evil, and an entire liberty of action which seems impossible in practice, but which is possible in theory, because the essence of an independent personality is an unconditioned liberty. The divinity imposes nothing upon man, not even existence. Man has a right to withdraw himself even from the divine goodness, and the dogma of eternal Hell is only the assertion of eternal free will.

The mortal sin is the suicide of the soul. This suicide would occur if the man devoted himself to evil with the full strength of his mind, with a perfect knowledge of good and evil, and an entire liberty of action which seems impossible in practice, but which is possible in theory, because the essence of an independent personality is an unconditioned liberty. The divinity imposes nothing upon man, not even existence. Man has a right to withdraw himself even from the divine goodness, and the dogma of eternal Hell is only the assertion of eternal free will.

God precipitates no one into Hell. It is men who can go there freely, definitely and by their own choice.Those who are in Hell, that is to}}

God precipitates no one into Hell. It is men who can go there freely, definitely and by their own choice.Those who are in Hell, that is to {{Page aside|296}}say, amid the gloom of evil<ref>That is to say, they are reborn in a “lower world” which is neither “hell” nor any theological purgatory, but a world of nearly absolute matter and one preceding the last one in the “circle of necessity” from which “there is no redemption for there reigns absolute spiritual darkness” (Book of Khiu-ti).—Ed. Theosophist.</ref> and the sufferings of the necessary punishment, without having absolutely so willed it, are called to emerge from it. This Hell is for them only a purgatory. The damned completely, absolutely and without respite, is Satan who is not a rational existence, but a necessary hypothesis.

| [13] In the Deva-Chan the Ego sees and feels but that which he longed for. He who cares not for a continuation of sentient personal life after physical death will not have it. He will be reborn remaining unconscious of the transition.

 

|}

'''N.I.''' <ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[See corresponding marks in the second Essay, on “Satan,” which follows.]}}</ref><u>Satan is the last word of the creation. He is the end infinitely emancipated. He willed to be like God of which he is the opposite. God is the hypothesis necessary to '''II'''.† reason, Satan the hypothesis necessary to unreason asserting itself as free will.</u>&nbsp;[14]

| valign=bottom | [14] That which I have marked with red pencil are all <u>seeming contradictions</u> but they are not.

 

| valign=bottom | [15] As a rule the Hermetists, when using the word “immortality,” limit its duration from the beginning to the end of the minor cycle. The deficiencies of their respective languages cannot be visited upon them. One could not well say a semi-immortality. The ancients called it “panaeonic eternity” from the words, πάν —all or nature, and αίών, a period of time which had no definite limit, except for the initiates. See Dictionaries —an aeon is the period of time during which a person lives, the period during which the universe endures, and also—<u>eternity</u>. It was a “mystery word” and was purposely <u>veiled</u>.

 

| valign=top    | in good, one must identify oneself with God; to be immortal in evil, with Satan. These are the two poles of the world of souls; between these two poles vegetate and die without remembrance the useless portion of mankind.

 

Editor’s Note.—This may seem into the average reader, for it is one of the most abstruse of the tenets of Occult&nbsp;[16]

| valign=bottom | [16] Western.

{{Page aside|296}}

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| valign=top    | doctrine. Nature is dual; there is a physical and material side, as there is a spiritual and moral side to it; and, there both good and evil in it, the latter the necessary shadow to its light. To force oneself upon the current of immortality, or rather to secure for oneself an endless series of rebirths conscious individualities—says the Book of Khiu-ti, Volume XXXI,&nbsp;[17]  

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| valign=bottom | [17] Chap. III.

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{{Style P-No indent|say, amid the gloom of evil<ref>That is to say, they are reborn in a “lower world” which is neither “hell” nor any theological purgatory, but a world of nearly absolute matter and one preceding the last one in the “circle of necessity” from which “there is no redemption for there reigns absolute spiritual darkness” (Book of Khiu-ti).—Ed. Theosophist.</ref> and the sufferings of the necessary punishment, without having absolutely so willed it, are called to emerge from it. This Hell is for them only a purgatory. The damned completely, absolutely and without respite, is Satan who is not a rational existence, but a necessary hypothesis.

'''N.I.''' <ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[See corresponding marks in the second Essay, on “Satan,” which follows.]}}</ref><u>Satan is the last word of the creation. He is the end infinitely emancipated. He willed to be like God of which he is the opposite. God is the hypothesis necessary to '''II'''.† reason, Satan the hypothesis necessary to unreason asserting itself as free will. [14]</u> To be <u>immortal</u>}}

|[14] That which I have marked with red pencil are all <u>seeming contradictions</u> but they are not.

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| valign=top    | one must become a co-worker with nature, either for good or for bad, in her work of creation and reproduction, or in that of destruction.&nbsp;[18]

{{Style P-No indent|[15] in good, one must identify oneself with God; to be immortal in evil, with Satan. These are the two poles of the world of souls; between these two poles vegetate and die without remembrance the useless portion of mankind.}}

| valign=bottom | [18] This sentence refers to the two kinds of the initiates—the adepts and the sorcerers.

| [15] As a rule the Hermetists, when using the word “immortality,” limit its duration from the beginning to the end of the minor cycle. The deficiencies of their respective languages cannot be visited upon them. One could not well say a semi-immortality. The ancients called it “panaeonic eternity” from the words, πάν —all or nature, and αίών, a period of time which had no definite limit, except for the initiates. See Dictionaries —an aeon is the period of time during which a person lives, the period during which the universe endures, and also—<u>eternity</u>. It was a “mystery word” and was purposely <u>veiled</u>.

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| valign=top    | It is but the useless drones, which she gets rid of, violently ejecting and making them perish by the millions&nbsp;[19]

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| valign=bottom | [19] One of her usual exaggerations.

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Editor’s Note.—This may seem into the average reader, for it is one of the most abstruse of the tenets of Occult [16] doctrine. Nature is dual; there is a physical and material side, as there is a spiritual and moral side to it; and, there both good and evil in it, the latter the necessary shadow to its light. To force oneself upon the current of immortality, or rather to secure for oneself an endless series of rebirths conscious individualities—says the Book of Khiu-ti, Volume XXXI,}}

| [16] Western.

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| valign=top    | as self-conscious entities.&nbsp;[20]

{{Style P-No indent|[17] one must become a co-worker with nature, either for good or for bad, in her work of creation and reproduction, or in that of destruction.}}

| valign=bottom | [20] Two useless words.

| [17] Chap. III.

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| valign=top    | Thus, while the good and the pure strive to reach Nipang (Nirvana or that state of absolute existence and absolute consciousness—which, in the world of finite perceptions, is non-existence and non-consciousness)—the wicked will seek, on the contrary, a series of lives as conscious, definite existences or beings, preferring to be ever suffering under the law of retributive justice&nbsp;[21]

{{Style P-No indent|[18] It is but the useless drones, which she gets rid of, violently ejecting and making them perish by the millions}}

| valign=bottom | [21] Karma.

| [18] This sentence refers to the two kinds of the initiates—the adepts and the sorcerers.

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| valign=top    | rather than give up their lives as portions of the integral, universal whole. Being well aware that they can never hope to reach the final rest in pure spirit, or {{Page aside|298}}nirvana, they cling to life in any form, [22]

{{Style P-No indent|[19] as self-conscious entities.}}

| valign=bottom | [22] Thro’ mediums who have existed everywhere in every age.

| [19] One of her usual exaggerations.

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| valign=top    | rather than give up that “desire for life,” or Tanha which causes a new aggregation of Skandhas or individuality to be reborn.&nbsp;*

{{Style P-No indent|[20] Thus, while the good and the pure strive to reach Nipang (Nirvana or that state of absolute existence and absolute consciousness—which, in the world of finite perceptions, is non-existence and non-consciousness)—the wicked will seek, on the contrary, a series of lives as conscious, definite existences or beings, preferring to be ever suffering under the law of retributive justice}}

| <nowiki>*</nowiki> Read note on pages attached.

| [20] Two useless words.

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| valign=top    | Nature is as good a mother to the cruel bird of prey as she is to the harmless dove. Mother nature will punish her child, but since he has become her co-worker for destruction she cannot eject him.&nbsp;[23]

{{Style P-No indent|[21] rather than give up their lives as portions of the integral, universal whole. Being well aware that they can never hope to reach the final rest in pure spirit, or}}

| valign=bottom | [23] Not during the aeon, if they but know how to force her. But it is a life of torture and eternal hatred. If you believe in us how can you disbelieve in them?

| [21] Karma.

{{Page aside|298}}

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| valign=top    | There are thoroughly wicked and depraved men, yet as highly intellectual and acutely spiritual for evil, as those who are spiritual for good.&nbsp;[24]

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| valign=bottom | [24] The Brothers o the shadow.

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nirvana, they cling to life in any form, [22] rather than give up that “desire for life,” or Tanha which causes a new aggregation of Skandhas or individuality to be reborn.* Nature is as good a mother to the cruel bird of prey as she is to the harmless dove. Mother nature will punish her child, but since he has become her co-worker for destruction she cannot eject him.}}

| [22] Thro’ mediums who have existed everywhere in every age.

<br>*Read note on pages attached.

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| valign=top    | The Egos of these may escape the law of final destruction or annihilation for ages to come.&nbsp;[25]

{{Style P-No indent|[23] There are thoroughly wicked and depraved men, yet as highly intellectual and acutely spiritual for evil, as those who are spiritual for good.}}

| valign=bottom | [25] The majority have to go out of this planet into the 8th as she calls it. But the highest will live till the very threshold of the final nirvana.

| [23] Not during the aeon, if they but know how to force her. But it is a life of torture and eternal hatred. If you believe in us how can you disbelieve in them?

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| valign=top    | That is what Éliphas Lévi means by becoming “immortal in evil,” through identification with Satan. “I would thou wert cold or hot,” says the vision of the Revelation to St. John (iii, 15-16). “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” The Revelation is an absolutely Kabalistic book. Heat and cold are the two “poles,” i.e., good and evil, spirit and matter. Nature spues the “lukewarm” or “the useless portion of mankind” out of her mouth, i.e., annihilates them. This conception that a considerable portion of mankind may after all not have immortal souls, will not be new even to European readers. Coleridge himself likened the case to that of an oak tree bearing, indeed, millions of acorns, {{Page aside|299}}but acorns of which under nominal [26]

{{Style P-No indent|[24] The Egos of these may escape the law of final destruction or annihilation for ages to come.}}

| valign=bottom | [26] Normal

| [24] The Brothers o the shadow.

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| conditions not one in a thousand ever developed into a tree, and suggested that as the majority of the acorns failed to develop into a new living tree, so possibly the majority of men fail to develop into a new living entity after this earthly death.

{{Style P-No indent|[25] That is what Éliphas Lévi means by becoming “immortal in evil,” through identification with Satan. “I would thou wert cold or hot,” says the vision of the Revelation to St. John (iii, 15-16). “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” The Revelation is an absolutely Kabalistic book. Heat and cold are the two “poles,” i.e., good and evil, spirit and matter. Nature spues the “lukewarm” or “the useless portion of mankind” out of her mouth, i.e., annihilates them. This conception that a considerable portion of mankind may after all not have immortal souls, will not be new even to European readers. Coleridge himself likened the case to that of an oak tree bearing, indeed, millions of acorns,}}

|

| [25] The majority have to go out of this planet into the 8th as she calls it. But the highest will live till the very threshold of the final nirvana.

|}

|}

<center>'''II'''</center>

<center>'''II'''</center>