THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

KATHERINE TINGLEY, EDITOR

VOL. XXXV, NO. 2 AUGUST 1928

"BY combining science with religion, the existence of God and immortality of man's

spirit may be demonstrated like a problem of Euclid."- H. P. BLAVATSKY

THEOSOPHY AND MODERN SCIENCE

G. v. PUR1JCKER, M. A., D. LITT.

(Stenographic report of the twelfth of a series of Lectures on the above subject. These were delivered at the request of Katherine Tingley the Theosophical Leader and Teach­ er, in the Temple of Peace, International Theosophical Headquarters, Point Loma, California, at the regular Sunday afternoon services. Others will be printed in THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH in due course. The following was delivered on September 11, 1927, and broadcast, by remote control, through station KFSD San Diego-680-440.9) ��RIQ� ENDS: During the But now, this afternoon, we are ,,,,,,,� course of our series of going to take up the purely Theo­ W� � lectures, entitled 'Theo- sophical line of thought, turning to ' ��l sophy and Modern Sci­ higher and nobler themes than those ence,' we promised on a number of with which we have been dealing. occasions more specifically to bring We have chosen, of course, those out certain Theosophical teachings, Theosophical doctrines which are explanations of the scientific facts, explanatory of what we have been rather, which we have been dealing speaking about to you on the Sun­ with up to the present; and on each days preceding today. occasion, on each Sunday, when we We promised first to explain to attempted to bring out these Theo­ you what the Theosophist believes sophical explanations, we found so as regards the origin of the Primates, many side-issues of thought neces­ that is, the apes and the monkeys, sary to consider, and each one im­ from which creatures, as you know, portant in its way, that we were in the orthodox scientist derives the consequence impelled to deal with human stock in rectilinear descent, these side-issues before the others. or ascent, that is to say, in a THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH straight line and in an alleged end­ indeed on last Sunday, we likewise on evolution. We have in other pointed out certain extremely in­ lectures given the reasons why the teresting scientific doctrines ori­ Theosophist rejects these alleged ginating with the German professor, ancestors of man, reasons based on Dr. August Weismann, and we the grounds of accepted biological called your attention to the fact science itself. that when the doctrines of Weis­ Second, we promised an explana­ mann are properly understood, that tion of the origin of the mammals is, when there is a clear picture of lower than man; and, likewise, to the method of that thinker held in tell you whence came the other great the mind, we have some approxima­ stocks - the Reptiles, the Birds, tion to, some adumbration of, what the Amphibians, and the Fishes, the Theosophical philosophy teaches and all the great welter of inverte­ in so far as the origination of evo­ brate forms lower than the fishes. lutionary stocks is concerned, as We have pointed out that ac­ well as of the origin of variation, of cording to the Theosophical teach­ specificvariation, which our modern ings, all these stocks of animate biologists say is the real method or entities, all these living below man, mechanical procedure, if we can use sprang originally from the human that term, of the working of evo­ stock, and we gave certain reasons lution. why we felt compelled to accept We have pointed out in a former these explanations as necessary, be­ lecture that the human body is an cause, as a matter of fact, outside exceedingly fascinating subject of of the logical force of the Theoso­ study, in any consideration of the phical teachings themselves, we manner in which evolution works. showed that they were based on the Evolution, indeed, deals with it, biological grounds of proof as given but in a secondary or effectual man­ by the scientists themselves, yes, ner, not in a primary or causal given by them as arguments for manner. I mean by this, that the the evolutionary theory in the form human body merely reflects the first promulgated by Charles Dar­ various changes in progressive de­ win and faithfully followed by his velopment which actually proceed admirers. on interior or causal planes. We pointed out, as preparatory We have already pointed out to our study of today, just what that evolution, as we use the word, was meant by the modern doctrine means the unfolding, the unwrap­ of Mendelism, a very interesting ping, of that which previously had body of discoveries, which were been infolded and inwrapped as first investigated and demonstrated potencies in the structure of the by the Austrian, Gregor Mendel. cells of which the body is composed. On Sunday before last, or was it The human body on an average

106 THEOSOPHY AND MODERN SCIENCE is estimated to contain sometwenty­ into two, if cut into halves, become six thousand billion cells! --- an un­ two complete worms in the follow­ figurable number; and each one of ing fashion : the forward end of these cells is a living entity, a phy­ the hinder half will grow a new siological organ, with inherent capa­ head ; and the hinder end of the cities, inherent tendencies, each such forward half will grow a new tail. capacity or tendency possessing its But this cannot happen in our own inherent urge or drive towards period of evolution with the entities self-expression. According to our standing higher in the scale of life; teachings, this inherent urge or and on last Sunday we hinted at drive originates in the invisible en­ the reason for this, as given in our tity from which it proceeds; be­ Theosophical teachings, and as more cause, unless there were some co­ or less adumbrated or foreshadowed hering power, some force of co­ or intuited in the doctrines of Pro­ herence working in the structure of fessor August Weismann; I mean the individual, no such thing as that the cellular structure, the in­ even a simple cell could exist; it herent tendencies or potencies of could not even come into physical the cells belonging to the bodies of being or manifestation. It is held the higher creatures. have the pos­ together and controlled by the in­ sibility of following only that par­ visible entity behind it, as I have ticular line of unfoldment or of just said. growth, which the dominant entity A cell, as you know, is a living of which these cells form the body, entity, composed mainly of proto­ allows it to have. plasmic substance; and it contains It is a case where the individual two general parts; a central part swabhava, as we Theosophists call called the nucleus, and a surround­ it, or individual capacities or latent ing plasm or protoplasm, which is tendencies of the cell, are submerged commonly called the cytoplasm, by the overlordship or dominance, which latter is the larger part of so to say, of the inner invisible en­ the substance of the cell itself. tity which works through those You have also heard that m cells; the consequence being that some of the lower creatures there these, the cell's, own individual exists a faculty of self-repair which potencies, can express themselves, the scientist calls the reproduction if at all, only when the power of of lost parts, that is to say, that the dominating entity is withdrawn; such a creature in our days, low in perhaps not even then if the sub­ the scale of animate beings, if it mergence of the cell or native cellu­ lose a limb, a tail for instance, will lar potencies has been too great; reproduce for itself a new limb or in this last case they die. tail. A certain kind of worm, well Now in the lower creatures I known to Zoologists, will, if divided have spoken of as possessing the

107 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

power of self-repair, the faculty of del's term, that is to say, they are dominance or the dominant, as completely submerged and have be­ Mendel called it, is still weak in its come latent, sleeping. control over the entire cellular struc­ We Theosophists divide the life­ ture of the body through which it atoms, as we call them, into two works, and each cell composing that classes - those which are active, or body, if left to itself-- or perhaps if alert and working, which we call you could take such a cell out of kinetic; and the others we call the body of one of these lower latent or dormant or sleeping life­ creatures and give it appropriate atoms. Each of such atoms is a food and environment -would 'soul ' or rather the vehicle of a

have an exceedingly good chance soul · - not necessarily a human of starting upon a line of evolution soul, but a soul of its own type and of its own, following its own in­ kind, so to say, of its own genus and herent tendency or potency or urge, family and order. and thus bringing forth some new Let us now turn for a few mo­ stock. ments to a consideration of a few But as this case rarely now or interesting facts in chemistry. In perhaps never arises, the cells are former studies we have pointed out impelled to follow the reproductive that the physical atom of chemistry tendency of the limb only to which is now known to be a miniature they belong. But so far as the solar system, consisting of a 'pro­ scientists know, so far as we know, ton,' as it is sometimes called, no injured limb, or no amputated which is the nucleus or the atomic limb, of one of the entities of the sun, and of smaller bodies circling higher stocks, can reproduce itself or whirling with vertiginous rapidi­ in that manner and follow its own ty around that central nucleus, and line of growth; nor, on the other these latter bodies are called 'elec­ hand, can the body from which trons.' We have further pointed such limb was amputated, repro­ out that atoms, like everything else, duce a new limb to replace the old; have their life-cycle, and at its end the reason being, as I have just follows a course of slow disintegra­ said, that the dominant entity over­ tion or decay. We know that this shadowing that corpus, that phy­ is the case with the so-called radio­ sical body, has in these higher active bodies, such as uranium and stocks become so strong in its con­ thorium; and we know that with trol over the cells composing the this disintegration of the structure physical vehicle, that the individual of the atom, the nature of the atom or inherent tendencies or potencies changes this process of decay ac­ of each of the cells of which that tually being a transmutation of ele­ body is composed, have become mentary chemical substance. completely 'recessive,' to use Men- Each of these protons or nuclei,

108 THEOSOPHY AND MODERN SCIENCE

is, so say the chemical scientists, of the more or less conscious in­ a body, a corpuscle of positive elec­ visible entity or soul, which is the tricity, and each of the electrons factor seeking to express itself is a corpuscle or minute body of through its vehicle or vehicles, as negative electricity. the case may be. I ts doing this is All matter - both the living what we call evolution. It is in and the so-called inanimate is ul­ the very small that we should seek timately builded up from at.oms, for the unriddling of this riddle of each one of which, as both Theo­ evolution, for the solving of the sophy and modern science teach, is problem of what it is that causes a miniature solar system, each one growth, and particularly expansive possessing vast and incomputable or forward or progressive growth. capacities for change, which is evo­ Pause a moment and try to lution towards growth or retrogres­ realize that in the infinitesimal lie sion, as the case may be, but in the roots of the world we see any case evolution, that is, the around us. The cell is formed of bringing out or evolving or un­ protoplasm; this protoplasm con­ wrapping or unrolling of that which sists mainly of four chemical ele­ is lying in it seeking expression. ments, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, In many cases this evolving, and hydrogen, occasionally with this bringing out, of the inner ten­ some trace of other chemical ele­ dency, potency, or capacity, is in­ ments. Each one of these cells, hibited by various circumstances; as you know, is composed of what and in such case, the atom or the the chemists call molecules, which cell, as the case may be - for the are the smallest theoretic parts into cell copies the general scheme of which protoplasm is divisible; and the atoms of which it is composed­ each such molecule in its turn con­ falls under what we Theosophists sists of a number of atoms of the call the Law of Retardation, and four main chemical elements above must abide its time until its own named, combined and working to­ cycle for growth comes. But if its gether, each such atom, as said be­ cycle be one under the action of the fore, possessing an incomputable Law of Acceleration, as we call it, capacity for change and growth, be­ it begins to grow in progressive de­ ing in very fact a dynamo of forces. velopment, always bringing out that What man dare say that he can which is within itself, that which is place a limit upon the capacities lying latent within it, as potency or hid in the atom, of which we are tendency. only now beginning to know a little Evolution therefore actually is of its real constitution? self-expression. It does not pro­ Of the twenty-six thousand bil­ ceed in a haphazard manner, but lion cells which compose the body of according to the inner urge or drive man, each one is an infinitesimal

109 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH focus of cosmic forces, a channel rates of various kinds of waves, through which they pour forth into and of what not, such as electric manifestation on our physical plane. waves, and heat-waves, and light­ Each one, again, possesses its own waves, and ultra-violet rays, and of individuality, which is called swa­ X-rays; and of multitudes of other bhfwa, and in necessary consequence rays as well, we Theosophists say. follows its own path of growth or These hard working researchers arc its own line of activity. now beginning to get some true Yet, as I have said, in the cases knowledge - thanks be to the im­ of the entities of the higher stocks mortal gods! - of wh at these rays of the anmate kingdom, it follows really are. They are now more and again of necessity the gripping and more, as time passes, inclining controlling drive of the dominating towards our ancient Theosophical entity , the soul, which aggregates teachings, that these 'rays' are not and holds these atoms together, mere movements in or of a hypo­ thus providing the vehicle through thetical ether. which that dominating entity can What is a 'movement'? A work or express itself. Yet each movement per se is nothing because one of these little cells, composed as it is an abstraction. There can be it in its turn is of still smaller bodies, no movement without a thing that the atoms, each one, I say, is a moves. It is the moving thing biologic infant at school making that provides what we call move­ ready now to take its place in fu­ ment. Movement is not a thing ture ages as the prepared vehicle in itself. Similarly there can be no enshrining the spiritual drive of vibrations without something which some still higher and nobler entity, vibrates. although itself goes ever upwards, Each one of these so-called higher and higher forever. Endless waves, teaches Theosophy, is the is time; endless is growth. activity of some minute entity, some It is in the very small that we infinitesimal body, never mind at must seek for the unriddling of the the moment whether it be a low riddle of the origination of species cody or a high; the point is that and stocks. Pause a moment again the rr,oving or vibration is pro­ and allow your attention to dwell duced by the action of some entity. upon the picture of the working of These minute bodies vibrale or re­ some of these forces, infinitesimalas volve, as the case may be, at a they seem to us, yet so powerful rate which we can estimate, but that our physical universe is builded which is beyond human imagina­ out of them. tion to conceive of or fully to You know that our modern figurate or follow with the brain­ scientists talk venr much of vibra­ mind. tions, and they give the vibrational For instance, as given by our

llO THEOSOPHY AND MODERN SCIENCE great physicists, the vibrations of which is the proton or a part of the electric waves,- which, by the way, proton of the atom. Its penetrat­ are the lowest, the grossest, and ing power is but small, yet in it most materia l of the five kinds of resides most of the radio-activity vibrating forces which I have here and most of the chemical and phy­ listed on paper in my hand,-range sical properties which the atoms of up to three thousand billions a these two chemical elements ex­ second. Heat-waves vibrate in a hibit. range from three thousand billions The second class of rays which to eight hundred thousand billions our chemists have discovered, are a second. Light-waves vibrate from called the (1-rays, which are el ec­ four hundred thousand billions to trons or atomic planets expelled eight hundred thousand billion from the atom. Their penetrating times a second. Ultra-violet rays power is stronger than is that of vibrate from eight hundred thou­ the a-rays. sand billion times a second to five Then come the third class of million billion times a second. X­ rays called the y-rays, which are, rays vibrate from four hundred or which give off, the X-rays. Now, million billions a second up to six we may, if we please to follow the billion billion times in one second. chemists' terminology, call these In order to facilitate an under­ three classes of radiating force, standing of these unfigurable nu­ 'rays' ; but, as I have just said, merical quantities, I subjoin them they are - or most of them are - in columnar form : actually particles expelled from the atom, and it is their passage through VIBRATIONS PER SECOND intervening matter which produces Electric Waves up to 3,000 billions Heat-Waves 3,000 billions to 800,000 the phenomenon of light, which has billions caused them to be called rays. Light-Waves . . 400,000 billions to 800,000 Are uranium and thorium and billions Ultra-Violet Rays 800,000 billions to radium the only radioactive sub­ 5,000,000 billions stances in the universe? We say no. X-Rays ...... 400,000,000 billions to The teaching of Theosophy is that 6,000,000,000 billions all matter is radioactive. The X-rays, as you probably Our scientists up to the present know, are chemical light-phenom­ time have found only a few chemical ena which our chemists and physi­ substances whose radioactivity they cists have discovered as produced can trace and measure with some de­ by the so-called y-rays of uranium gree of approximation of accuracy­ and thorium. There are three so­ such as uranium and thorium; but called 'rays ' given off by the atoms please remember that, as I have of these elements. in their disinte­ just said, the teaching of Theo­ gration. First, there is the a-ray, sophy is, and has been for many

111 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH years -- long before radio-activity is themicrocosmor littleworld, copy­ was ever discovered -- that all mat­ ing in all respects the Macrocosm ter is radio-active; but the radio­ or Great World, of which it is an activity of some matters is so subtil inseparable part. and fine that the instruments and It is along the lines of these the coarse methods of research of forces and energies pouring forth our investigators have not yet been from the heart of the universe ulti­ able to detect it. mately, that proceed the psychic, It is in this radio-activity, ema­ the astral-vital, yea, in the higher nating from the bosom of the atom, beings also the intellectual and spiri­ that come all the forces and matter3 tual powers and qualities which likewise which build our physical man, as well as all other entities universe, through the passage from great or small, do manifest. the invisible to the visible and vice With this introduction we may versa - another mystery, wonder­ perhaps see a little more clearly fu l, imagination-provoking, and of what was meant when, on a former the deepest interest to any thought­ Sunday, we said that man was a ful student of the physical structure microcosm of the Macrocosm, a of the world in which we live. It is little world of the Great World; these forces, passing from the invisi­ the small, as I have said, being in ble into the visible, which infill the all respects and in every way a cosmos with its energies, and which, mirror of the great. in consequence, give our body its Man being a child of the uni­ life and vitality, which vitalize the verse, being a part of that uni­ cells of which the body is composed, verse itself, he has in him every­ constructed as they are of these thing, every force, every potency, radioactive atoms. every power, every capacity, that Let us never forget that the the Macrocosm or Great Universe universe is one vast organism; there has, of which he is an inseparable are no impassable barriers between part ; he, as an entity, in his turn body and body, between mind and is a Macrocosm to the cells which mind, between entity and entity, compose his body, for they are a all of them being children or off­ part of him, and, therefore, have spring, that is coherent parts, of everything in them which he has that vast organism of the cosmos; in him, albeit it may be latent or and in consequence having and con­ dormant or sleeping, and not yet taining and manifesting in the small kinetic. all the potencies and powers and Each of the cells of which his energies and forces that exist in body is builded has everything in that organic universe. The off­ it that he has. Such potencies may spring is a repli\a, a copy in the be latent, they may be sleeping or minute, of the great; the offspring dormant, as I have said, but they

112 THEOSOPHY AND MODERN SCIENCE are .there, and when the environ­ speaking of man's physical body at ment be fit and appropriate, when the present time. We do not mean the barriers have been worn down that these animate creatures below through evolution, or rather cleared him formerly existed in his soul or away by the working of the inner in his spiritual nature; but we do drive, then these potencies, these mean that they were sleeping ele­ capacities, manifest this inner urge mental entities in his nature and or drive for self-expression; and derived from him as their parent. behold! something new is produced They took the manifold and many - a new variety, a new species: various forms and shapes they had it may be destined indeed to de­ and have, because these most fitly velop a new stock. man ifest the particular kind of It all depends upon two factors energy expressing itself in each and in the biologic equation : an inner every case. urge expressing the inherent po­ Now, friends, please listen care­ tency or capacity with a free path fully: we are now going briefly to and uninhibited by barriers; and, glance over some long-forgotten second, an environment fit and ap­ pages of Natural History, explained propriate as a field for their ex­ by some of the more secret teach­ pression. ings of Theosophy. As this is not a Hence, when we have said that medical lecture-hall we cannot enter man is the repertory, the magazine, into minute details but I beg your the storehouse, of all the animate most earnest thoughtfulness and entities on earth, what I have just consideration of what will be said, said is what we mean by the usage Theosophy being, as we have point­ of these terms. He has everything ed out so often, the synthesis or in him that he can ever in future union of Religion, Science, and be; and these potencies await the Philosophy, and our present subject time and the place for their com­ of study is along the lines of scien­ ing forth into manifestation. The tific thought. Nothing that the process is 'evolution ' or self-ex - mind of man can conceive of as press1on. native or interesting to man can When we said further that man be, as Epictetus the Roman so gave birth to all the animate crea­ nobly said, alien to the Theoso­ tures below him, what we have just phical thinker. now said is the key to what we It is the teaching of Theosophy then meant; for, in the beginning, that evolution - or unfolding, un­ the roots or seeds of all the animate wrapping, self-expression, progres­ creatures below him existed in him sive growth -- proceeds in cycles as latent or dormant or sleeping both large and small: each great things. cycle or great Tidal Wave of Life, Please remember that we are which sweeps over our earth, lasts

113 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH on this planet Terra for scores of These individuals had neither or­ millions of years; and each such gans nor bones, and they were sex­ Globe-Round as we call such a Tidal less, and reproduced themselves Wave of Life, during the course of by fission or division into two. its manifestation or activity, gives Have you ever considered the new birth to numerous great stocks gelatinous structure of the jelly­ of beings, ranging from those ele­ fish, a medusa for instance? It mental entities beneath the mineral may be to you perhaps a hint of up to man and including the quasi­ something still more ethereal, still divine entities beyond him. more luminous, and translucent, Each of these great stocks from than it. Life builds houses for it­ the man downwards - there are self of many forms and kinds, nor seven in all - produces beings of its are bones and organs necessary for own kind, of its own capacities, the templing of the vital entity. each having its own inherent drive When millions of years had or urge or tendencies; in other passed, the Second Great or Root­ words each such great stock, a Race came into being. This Second Root-Race or a Stock-Race, as we Root- or Stock-Race was less ethe­ call it, having its own individuality, real than its predecessor, the First much as a man has, or as a tree Race, for the races following each has, or as a flower has, or as a beast other in time grew constantly more has, or as have all the inferior material, more solid, more opaque, stocks below man. down to the Fourth great Root­ The first of these great Races Race. which appeared on our earth during The Second Root-Race repro­ the present Globe-Round or great duced itself by a method which is Tidal Wave of Evolution, was in still represented on earth among its beginning a race of astral enti­ some of the lower creatures, that is ties, ethereal, invisible they would by budding or gemmation. Even be to us in our present state of as the individuals of the First gross materiality. Race had separated off from them­ As time passed, and as the selves a large portion of their body cycling race circled downwards far­ - which was that race's method of ther into matter, seeking self-ex­ reproduction, as· said - this large pression in the material world, this portion growing to the size of its First Race grew more solid, but it parent, and duplicating it in all remained ethereal even to its end. ways, so the Second Race repro­ It had no human shape such as we duced itself by what Zoology and now understand it. Each of the Botany call 'budding ': - a swell­ individuals composing it was an ing appeared on the superficial or ovoid or egg-like body of light, outer surface of the body of one of luminous, pellucid, translucent. these entities; this swelling grew in

114 THEOSOPHY AND MODERN SCIENCE size, and as it grew became con­ course, lasting for many millions stricted near the point of junc­ of years, then the Third Stock­ tion with the parent-body, until at Race came into existence, still more length the bond of union became a physical than were the First and mere filament, which finally broke, the Second which had preceded it, thus freeing the bud, which then and constantly thickening, the gela­ grew into another entity in all ways tinous substance of the Second Race like its parent. having become flesh, but flesh still This Second Race, as I have more delicate, thin, and fine even pointed out, was more material in than our own of the present Fifth physical structure than was the Race. First, but it still was more or less Let me add also that, like the translucent, although growing more First Race, the Second had neither opaque because more dense with bones nor flesh (therefore no skele­ the passage of every one hundred ton), nor organs (therefore no phy­ thousand years of its long life­ siological functions of any kind). cycle, which comprised many mil­ Its circulations such as they were, lions of years. and they did exist, were carried on Towards the end of this Second by what may be called osmosis com­ great Stock-Race, which at about bined with magnetic attractions and that period became still more vis­ repulsions-for lack of better words cidly gelatinous and filamentoid in to express the process - working structure (although it was still more in this fashion in the body-sub­ or less ovoid in form), this race stance. even then began to show some With the incoming of the great vague approximation in shape to Third Stock-Race or Root-Race, the present human form. Its flla­ the filamentoid structure of which mentoid structure likewise covered I have just spoken, thickened or and guarded deeply seated nuclei condensed itself, and became, as I within it, which were condensations have just said, the different parts of of the general cell-substance. These what is now the human body; for nuclei, by the way, were destined instance, this filamentoid structure to develop in the next race into as it condensed, separated itself the various organs of the body; into the muscular system, the reti­ while the filamentoid structure was, culum or net-work of the nervous in its turn, destined to develop into system, and also into that of the the various physiological reticula or blood-vessels; the inner filamen­ net-works of the next Race, such toid parts becoming cartilaginous, as the muscular system, the ner­ which, as the Third Race traveled vous system, the system of the along its cyclic period, finally be­ blood-vessels, and. so forth. came bones; while the nuclei, which When this race had run its I have spoken of as existing in the

115 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH body-substance of this Second Race, the term 'Sweat-Born,' meaning not and which in that Race then were that this Race reproduced itself by merely adumbrated or foreshadowed sweat literally, but by an exuda­ organs, became in this Third Race tion of vital substance or cells which the true organs of the body of the issued from the body in somewhat Third Race, such as the heart, the the same fashion that sweat issues lungs, the brain, the liver, the from the sudoriferous glands, or the spleen, and so forth. oily substance of the skin and hair The method of reproduction of issues from the sebaceous glands. this great Third Race was in its As time passed and the con­ beginning androgynous or herma­ densation of the bodies of the indi­ phroditic. The First Race, as I viduals of this great Third Root­ have said, was sexless; the Second Race became greater and more pro­ was asexual; and the Third was nounced, this exudation of vital androgynous or double-sexed. All cells slowly passed from the out­ antiquity believed that man's re­ ward or superficial parts of the mote ancestors in far past times, body into the inner parts, becoming were double-sexed, and pointed in localized in certain organs, which proof of this to certain physiolo­ the process of evolution had been gical remnants, now non-functional slowly forming for that purpose. in one sex but fully functional in This same method of reproduc­ the opposite sex, and vice versa. tion in its general line is Nature's The androgynous human creatures way even today in our own Fifth of this Third Root-Race reproduced Race, only it now takes place, as I themselves by the laying of eggs. have already said, within the pro­ Do you realize, as I pointed out tecting wall of solid flesh and hard on last Sunday, that even today bone, which wall Nature has builded the human ovum is an egg, albeit about the reproductive functions of microscopic? Mankind first repro­ our race for its greater safety. But duced itself by fission in the First essentially the procedure is exactly Race; then by budding in the the same as it was in the beginning Second Race; then, in the beginning of the great Third Root-Race. of the Third Race, of which point As time passed, during the life­ of its evolution I am now speaking, cycle of this great Third Root­ reproduction was ensured by an Race, reproduction by egg-laying exudation of vital cells, issuing by the parent died out or passed from the superficial or outward away, as a method of propagation. parts of the body, and which, col­ In view of the coarsening or thick­ lecting together, formed huge ovoid ening or condensation of the fibrous aggregates or eggs. or filamentoid substance which then This method .. of reproduction is composed the human body, Nature alluded to in our archaic books by built a protecting wall around this

116 THEOSOPHY AND MODERN SCIENCE function, as I have said; and where­ possess are latent in the animals as formerly these drops of vital below him, but in them they are fluid were exuded from nearly all still non-functioning. In man only, parts of the body, as was the case at the present time, has the godlike at the end of the great Second gift, nay, I mean the godlike func­ Root-Race, more and more as time tion, of self-conscious thought been passed they localized themselves in awakened. That awakening will a functional part of the organism come to the animals below man; which was the root of the later but, as I have said in a previous reproductive organs: these vital lecture, because the door into the drops collected together and became human kingdom is now closed and the egg in which the human infant has been closed for many ages, this incubated for a few years, and awakening by them to human con­ finally issued from it, and began sciousness can come no longer in life safely, walking and moving this period of planetary evolution; even from the opening of the shell, and the animals will attain to it much as a chick does today among only in the next planetary man­ us, which is a still living example vantara or evolutionary great cycle, of the old method. hundreds and hundreds of millions Such was the method of repro­ of years hence. duction in the great Third Root­ Nevertheless in a few of the Race at about the mid-point of its higher animals, that is to say in evolutionary course. Then towards the anthropoid apes, the divine the end of this Race there occurred powers of self-conscious thought are the most marvelous and epoch­ beginning to function in very minor making event in the history of hu­ degree, the reason being that, as I manity; and this was the infilling have already explained, the an­ of the unselfconscious humanity thropoid apes are an exception in with mind and its godlike powers. the evolutionary development of The First Race, though physi­ the stocks below man, for they have cally conscious, was yet mindless a strain of human blood in them, in a sense, that is to say not self­ which like everything else is in­ conscious as we understand it. Its evitably destined to work out its consciousness was somewhat of the own inherent capacities. Their nature of a man in a deep daze or minds are dormant, but it is hoped, a profound day-dream. The indi­ among a certain school of great viduals of that race had, as yet, Theosophical thinkers, that the mo­ no mental or intellectual or spiri­ nads now indwelling in the bodies tual self-consciousness. of the anthropoid apes will have Nor have indeed the beasts to­ developed a true human psycho­ day. All spiritual, intellectual, or logical apparatus of self-expression, psychological faculties that men m other words self-consciousness,

117 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH before the present planetary man­ ture of things find an answer, be­ vantara or great planetary evolu­ cause that longing is an intuition tionary cycle is completed. of reality. As I have said, towards the end These godlike beings projected, of the Third Race there occurred by hypostasis (to use the technical the A wakening of Mind; and this term), sparks, as it were, of their happened very largely by the in­ own full self-consciousness into the carnation in these now ready hu­ childlike humanity of that time, man vehicles, of godlike beings who thus awakening also the latent na­ had run their race and had at­ tive mental powers then dormant tained quasi-divinity in far past or sleeping in the recipient hu­ preceding planetary periods of cyclic manity. evolution. Then, at the end of the Third Whence came mind? Have you Race, there followed the great ever thought of it - of its won­ Stock-Race which we call the drous mystery, of its power, of its Fourth, which was the most ma­ illimitable possibilities, of its in­ terial of all in its physical de­ herent connexion with self-con­ velopment ·that Race in which sciousness? Does any sane man be­ matter reached its climax of evo­ lieve that self-conscious mind comes lution, its highest point of unfold­ from what the old school of ma­ ing. All the powers of matter were terialists called dead, unvitalized, then functioning in every direction, unimpulsed, unurged matter alone? but spirit was correspondingly in Thanks be to the immortal gods, obscuration. that insane conception has largely This Fourth Race lived its mil­ passed away, as was inevitable be­ lions of years and produced some of cause it was intrinsically as il­ the most brilliant civilizations of a logical as it was irrational. purely material character that this Very few of the thinking men of globe has seen; and finallyit passed today have no conception of some away in its turn, giving birth to us, kind or other of the nature of self­ the great Fifth Root-Race, to us, conscious mind. The conception who are still men of flesh and bones may be perhaps vague and inchoate; and organs, still retaining the old but it does represent some striving method of reproduction, which towards a rational and satisfying nevertheless is destined to pass explanation of this most wondrous away in its turn, giving place to a part' of the constitution of man. newer and a higher method. Their longing to reach some ex­ Yes, sex is but a passing phase, planation of what is to them the and the next great Race will see problem: Whence came mind and its end. As the First Race was consciousness, Whence came self­ sexless, and the Second was asexual, consciousness? must in the very na- and the Third androgynous, and

118 THEOSOPHY AND MODERN SCIENCE the Fourth fully sexual, \ve, who Law of Acceleration, form a sub­ have barely reached the middle of ject which is too recondite for satis­ our own cycle, we, I say, who took factory explanation at the end of a over the last method of reproduction lecture. But briefly I may say this : from the Fourth Race, will in time the Law of Retardation operates on follow another method of reproduc­ a stock or on any individual ani­ tion far nobler and far higher, more mate entity, when a more evolved akin to the nobler instincts of our stock appears on the scene. It is hearts and minds. somewhat like the submerging of Before we conclude this after­ minor men in the individuality of a noon I beg your consideration of a greater man - an interesting psy­ few remarks which it seems very chological phenomenon which all of necessary to make here as being the us must have noticed in the affairs explanation that I promised to give of ordinary life. to you in former lectures, of the ori­ The Law of Acceleration, on the gin of the mammals and of the Ver­ other hand, operates in the cases tebrates below the mammals and of where an evolving stock finds the the Invertebrates below the Verte- field free and without barriers or brates. You will remember that hindrances to the full expansion of on many occasions I stated that all its innate potencies, faculties, these sprang from man - from man powers. who is the most primitive, the old- To return: The mammalians, est, of all the great stocks of ani- however, came later than man, >vho mate beings on earth. I beg your of course likewise is a mammal; close attention. and indeed therefore are the mam- Let me therefore say that as re­ mal beasts mammals, because they gards the animate entities below sprang from the human stock dur­ man: according to Theosophy, the ing the Second great Root-Race progenitors of the lowest animate and from the earliest part of the beings sprang from man in the pre­ Third Root-Race of which I have ceding Great Tidal Wave of Life spoken; and therefore necessarily or Globe-Round - that is to say, must partake of the nature of their all the Invertebrates, likewise the originating strain. Fishes, the Amphibians, the Rep­ They were originally buds or tiles, and the Birds; and these offspring from the then mindless creatures have descended to our and imperfect human stock; but, own times, though evolving far less as the human spiritual entity was fast than the human stock has done not yet then dominant in the hu­ because they are under the opera­ man bodies of that time, and could tion of what we call in Theosophy not fully hold in abeyance the vital the Law of Retardation. potencies of the cells which com­ This law, as well as its twin, the posed those buds which sprang from

119 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH the bodies of early man, therefore not what they were doing. They each one of such bud-bodies or ag­ were as irresponsible as little chil­ gregates of buds immediately be­ dren, and had no moral realization gan to grow following its own evolu­ of what we now regard, and justly tionary tendencies or inherent urges, regard, as shameful to the last each producing only that which it degree. could produce, that which was in­ At a later date, towards the end herent in itself; evolving, unroll­ of the great Fourth Stock-Race, ing, unwrapping, its own inherent during the Miocene Period of geolo­ character or nature. This was the gy, when the Fourth Race had al­ origin of the mammalia. ready far passed its climax of evolu­ As a cell has an almost incom­ tion and was represented by many putable number of dormant capaci­ degenerate remnants - barbarians, ties or inherent tendencies or seeds savages, like the Andaman Island­ of growth call them what you ers, and the Negritos and the Bush­ will - this will explain the origina­ men and the Veddahs of Ceylon tion of the various stocks of beings today, descendants, degenerate chil­ below man, remembering, however, dren, of once great and noble an­ that they all sprang from him in the cestors - some of these degenerate early days of the mindless races. Atlanteans or Fourth Race men, The apes and the monkeys I say, repeated 'the sin of the sprang from man likewise, but in mindless ' with the simian stock another manner. The monkeys then existing; and this second and were born from the mindless lrn­ still more shameful union originated man race, which, having no self­ the anthropoid apes. Hence it is conscious mind, having but instinct small wonder that they resemble and a vague and diffused physical man, their half-parent, in so many consciousness, of which we have al­ particulars, even though that hu­ ready spoken, allied themselves with man half-parent was at the time animal beings who also originally but a degenerate savage. had sprung from the human stock, Friends, the time for closing this though not manifesting the evolu­ afternoon has come. I could wish tionary tendencies for growth into that all of you had heard the pre­ humanity. The results of this ceding studies which we have given shameful union were the simian in this Temple, and which we have stocks, the monkeys, and this oc­ done our best to set forth in clear curred during the Mesozoic or and simple language. They will Secondary Age of geology, probably be printed in our monthly magazine, during the Jurassic period. THE THEOSOPHICAL pATH, in serial Please understand that this oc­ form. curred by and under the action of As regards any lectures which races of early man which realized we may give on this topic in the

120 BEAUTY'S GESTURE future, that is something which growing - of our great scientific Katherine Tingley, our Leader and researchers, for whom, by the way, Teacher, will have to decide. The we have immense respect for the decision rests not with me. But good work that they do in unveil­ before we part this afternoon, I ing Nature's secrets. beg you to bear one thing in mind. We look upon the scientists as It is this: our best fr iends, just so long as Let me say that the Theoso­ they cling to the facts of Nature; phist exacts no belief from any man ; but we reserve our right as think­ he lays his wonderful Philosophy­ ing men and women to accept or Religion-Science before you; he to reject any scientific hypothesis asks you to test it for yourselves; whatsoever, if we honestly feel that he is willing to render to you all it be not a true explanation of the the help that he himself can give, facts of Kature and of Being. We in order that you may more easily respect those theories, but respect understand its profounder and more does not necessarily mean an ex­ difficult parts; he urges you to tending of sympathy to what we study our books, to compare feel and in many instances know to them with the changeable theories be a false statement of facts based -- necessarily changeable because on a lack of full knowledge.

BEAUTY'S GESTURE

M. G. GOWSELL

S from earth's ooze and circumstance A The lily bloom has birth, So our dire travails each enhance The sum of Beauty's worth.

That pain may wear away the veil And let the Light flow through, Is why the hidden Fates assail False hopes we hold too true.

That this is so I have no doubt, For Beauty tells me so: A Truth you seldom hear men shout, Though sorrowed hearts may know.

International Theosophical Headquarters, Point Lorna, California

121 AFTER DEATH -WHAT?

T. HENRY, M. A.

N "So the question stands as before - with The Outlook for May two irreconcilable answers." 23, 1928, appeared the following: Commenting on the above, we E would say that much confusion of � "In England an endless con­ troversy was stimulated when Sir Arthur thought is betrayed. Terms are Keith declared that medical men could find undefined and loosely used. To no ground for believing that the brain is a deny that the brain is a compound dual organ, a compound of substance and spirit. Sir Arthur is President of the British of substance and spirit implies that Association for the Advancement of Science, someone must have said that it is and his statement brought a prompt retort such a compound. Just what was from Sir Oliver Lodge, scientist and spiri­ tualist. meant by the statement? The "Said Sir Oliver: 'I think the brain is an word 'substance ' is here evidently instrument used by the mind. They ap­ used in the sense of 'material'; and parently think the brain is the mind. I do the implication is that the other not look at it that way. The brain manifests the mind, but that is not the same thing as alleged component of the brain - -­ being the mind. A violin manifests Beetho­ 'spirit' - must be something un­ ven, but it is not quite the same thing as substantial. being Beethoven. If you smash the instru­ Further, it seems to be implied ment, of course, the mind cannot manifest itself. That is all right, and what scientists that the brain differs from other know about the brain and the way it acts organs and other material bodies on muscle and nerve is all good. in being thus compound in its na­ " 'It is all a part of the machinery, and ture : that is, the brain is not mere­ they know a terrible lot about the working of machinery. But there is something more to ly matter or substance; it is also be said than that. Anybody can point out spirit. Medical men, then, have how a typewriter works, and you cannot get been unable to find any evidence it to go unless it is properly connected and that such is the case. in good order. But that does not explain the sense or meaning of what comes out of it.' We are not surprised. If there

"Sir John Sutton, surgeon, then came to is anything else in the brain, which the side of Sir Arthur Keith. is not in other organs, how could "'True, absolutely true,' he said. 'Death medical science discover it? If they is the end of all. My experience is that all should proceed by the method of of those who have studied the subject scien­ physical examination, it seems that tifically and deeply have come to the same conclusion. Once, reviewing a book of the only thing they could discover Flammarion's, I wrote: would be matter, substance. But " 'In' the dim future do not seek to peep, if they are studying the mind and Trying to fathom things obscure and deep. analysing the nature of conscious­ Youth often laughs at death, but old men weep. ness, as revealed in their own per­ Wise men know death to be an endless sleep.' son and as manifested in the actions

" 'Endless sleep _::__ I cannot put it better of other people; then it is not easy than that.' to see how a special case can be

122 AFTER DEA TH - WHAT? made out for the brain rather than consciousness to the waking state; for other organs or structures. but nevertheless it exists, and we do We must of course agree with obtain vague impressions of it Lodge that the brain is an instru­ through the channel of the dream­ ment of the mind; but we are com­ state, which is a sort of intermediate pelled to think that it is not the passage-way. By this analogy, only instrument. The mind acts then, death should be a state in through other organs, and through which the mind is still more libe­ the body in general. rated, and the consciousness thus But is this a fact to be estab­ enabled to function on a still high­ lished by anatomy and physiology? er plane. Is the mind to be found by the Moreover sleep is terminable; gram, or to be separated out by waking and sleep alternate and fractional distillation, or left as a beget each other. It is so with all filtrate or residue in a crucible? states, whether human or cosmic : Will the medical brain-analysts be alternation is the rule. Nothing is able to get substance in one beaker, perpetual. An 'endless sleep ' is a and the other constituent, 'spirit,' conception altogether contrary to in another beaker? It sounds rather experience and to what we infer like analysing the steel and brass of from experience as to universal law. an auto in search of gasoline, or trying to find flame in a candle-end. But the argument that most ap­ The comparison of death \Vith peals to ordinary people is that, sleep is not very apt for the writer's except on the hypothesis of im­ purpose; on the contrary, it is mortality, one's whole philosophy far more appropriate to ours. Sleep of life becomes absurd and un­ is a state wherein some of our func­ tenable. Given the existence of a tions indeed cease from activity; reflective, thinking, self-conscious but others keep alive - very much mind, and we have to predicate its alive. The body is comfortable to essential immortality, or otherwsie the last degree, and we are aware of we reach altogether unacceptable it and enjoy that comfort. Some conclusions. The universe becomes say that sleep is the happiest ex­ purposeless, life meaningless, all en­ perience we know. Moreover, the deavor futile. stoppage of the sense-impressions This alleged scientific viewpoint and of certain activities of the is just a particular way of looking mind which predominate when we at things, of formulating things. are awake, sets free the mind to The ones who hold it do not ac­ another order of consciousness. tually frame their conduct in ac­ It is true that the majority of cordance with it; they live most of people have not yet learned how to their time in another world, the tran sf er the memory of that sleep- same world as their fellows. They

123 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH act and talk and think like other which their 'scientific ' philosophy people, and practise (Heaven be provides no sanction - and which praised !) those homely virtues for cannot be discerned on the filter.

OPPORTUNITIES

GERTRUDE W. VAN PELT, M. D.

"This Opportunity will never come again."- KATHERINE TI1'GLEY

� HE ABOVE quotation overcome this illusion; to raise the is a sentence which is lives which compose it; to acquire true not only for the. an understanding of it; to see grand occasions of life, through it into the Reality from but for its every moment. It is the which it has sprung; to work its teaching of Theosophy that the way through the confusion and find universe exists but for the experi­ the Light. ence of the essential souls. Every moment the soul is in Matter, and all we see and hear, contact with its great deceiver, is often described in the old philo­ which may also be said to be its sophies as illusion. The meaning is great teacher and its pupil; so that the phenomena of earth are every moment furnishes an oppor­ impermanent. They come and go. tunity. Whether we have so dealt There was a time when the earth with this great illusion as to bring was not. Gradually, it emerges upon ourselves sorrow or joy, hu­ from subjective into objective eixst­ miliation or adulation, ignorance or erice, and in the aeons to come it great knowledge, success or failure, will as silently and mysteriously friends or foes, the opportunity is be withdrawn. This process is there to use these conditions as poetically described as the out­ means to pierce it; to make a rift breathing and inbreathing of Brah­ in the clouds; to approach a little ma. Not only in this sense is ob­ nearer to the Reality. jective life an illusion, but while it Counter-currents of strength stir lasts it is not what it seems to be to activity every faculty in human to the senses of man. It is indeed nature, which is as it must be, for an illusion thrown upon the screen each faculty (the mind included) of time for the experience of the as it is evolved, becomes another soul. Therefore every moment of instrument of vision. Yet it is not, that time is an opportunity. as one might fancy, through great The soul's instrument or vehicle learning, mental acumen or power, lives, moves, arid has its being in that the Great Illusion is con­ matter, and the task before it is to quered. Rather, we are told, it is

124 OPPORTUNITIES

'the pure in heart who see God.' claim of true religions that know­ All the religions in their sacred ledge is to be attained primarily beginnings have taught that the through moral conquests, is held real obstacles lie within the lower, in contempt. But Theosophy has personal nature of man himself ; in brought back to our western civi­ his passional nature, full of selfish lization the evidence of reason and desires and strong in its false sense logic lying deep in religions, and of separateness. It is these that has justified their essential teach­ have to be regulated and worked ings. No one need now grope in through, until finally at the end of blind faith, but with a restatement the long journey, each man finds of the ancient records regarding the Him.self, the object of his pilgrimage. facts of life before his mind's eye, Evidently this is not an easy he may tread his path with a task. Legends and symbols have firm step. been given from the beginning of Those who have allowed them­ time to indicate the seriousness of selves to be enervated by the lethal the undertaking. The story of atmosphere of doubt as to the wis­ Prometheus is one such, which dom of altruism and the value of with many others have filled the the age-old moral teachings, which air of every age with beauty, inspi­ have been held of late to be im­ ration, and ideals. practicable, can now clear the air In this venture, time seems as for themselves. They can assure nothing, for the ancient records themselves that the moral law show us to be now only a few million stands over and above any physi­ years or so beyond the half-way cal law, reinforcing it. actually, mark of the human journey on even when it may seem from care­ earth, with uncountable eternities less observation to clash with it. behind and before us. There must It is impossible to imagine any be layer upon layer of fog to be situation in all the long journey penetrated. When one fog is dis­ through eternities, which does not persed, as it were, another of dif­ offer its own opportunity. Every ferent density, of different color, combination of circumstances, or appears before the soul. Every the apparent absence of them, stirs victory brings its joy, and when to action certain qualities in man's the face is set toward the East, undeveloped and mortal nature, so every failure arouses healthful de­ that every moment becomes an oc­ termination, so that the whole pil­ casion to learn, to conquer, to en­ grimage is a delight. Only when dure, to clarify the nature. the face is turned the other way The wheel of fortune may have about, do disappointment, misery, brought to the surface vanity or and discouragem�nt follow every act. discouragement; anger ; complai­ In this materialistic age, the sance; obstinacy; any or all of the

125 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH adverse qualities which lurk in the ing, who knows how far? Why undeveloped side of human na­ then should space be empty? Theo­ ture; or one of the legion-host of sophy declares that it is not; that, temptations which beset the man on the contrary, every point in this who has not overcome them. boundless universe is teeming with All these are the true obstacles life. I ts nature being utterly be­ to progress and to insight. They yond human experience, it must be all belong to the myriad forms of beyond human imagination. For­ selfishness, which is the real hin­ tunately no doubt for man's sanity, drance to vision and which, when it his consciousness is keyed to but is absolute, means absolute blind­ comparatively little at a time, until, ness · for such a one never sees in the vast eternities to follow, he beyond his own small prison. grows strong enough to grasp earth's No one then need complain of entirety. lacking opportunities in life, could The moment we open our minds he only understand the value of to the potentialities of this im­ those he has, and which, if used, mensity, we get a hint of the in­ would quickly begin to clear the finite possibilities of combinations air and bring happier and brighter in its elements. Even the seven circumstances. Unfortunately the notes of our scale defy limits. Then road to progress has been in Lhis here, on this revolving sphere, are age painted to man's fancy, in the we likely ever to find a second time outside circumstances rather than just the same grouping of phenom­ within the nature of man himself. ena? Are we even ourselves ever But it is the Outside which is twice the same? shaped by the Within, instead of And when we expand our minds the reverse. beyond the little ball we live on, Nature never repeats herself and see it turning forever into new exactly. The next opportunity has areas, following its guiding star, its own coloring or elements, never our sun, over regions never passed quite like any that have passed. before, as our sun, in turn circles And is this strange? What can we its guiding star -- a greater, remote, know of the multitudinous influ­ unknown, and yet known-to-be cen­ ences which crowd space? Is it ter where shall we stop? We --­ likely to be the empty thing that part of an inexhaustible unity which the Illusion presents to our senses? never began and never will end. The microscope uncovers a world Is it reasonable to suppose that of which otherwise we would not any one can escape the influences have dreamed. Color stretches per­ of this compact space in which all haps indefinitely on both sides of are bathed, and against whose deni­ our spectrum, and sound continues zens we momently brush, as we, above and below our range of hear- they, and all, move on to destiny?

126 THE "INFERNAL SPARK"

A musician once, on arnvmg him to neglect; for, said he, "had I late for a gathering of friends, ex­ failed to record it, it would never cused his tardiness with the ex­ have come again." planation that while making his Certain it is that we live in a preparations a composition pre­ world of wonders -- wonders that sented itself to his inner ear. Such we take for granted, and oppor­ an opportunity it did not occur to tunities that we let slip.

THE "INFERNAL SP ARK"

H. TRAVERS, M. A.

"WE have heard a good deal about the divine spark, in which animals do not share, in man ; what about the infernal spark, in which also they do not share? " - Dr. A. SHADWELL, quoted in The Observer

gives man a link between the ele­ mental nature and the spiritual na­ ture; the animal, lacking this par­ ticular link, manifests the elemen­ tal mind-nature only. question with which the remark The remark just quoted illus­ ends. trates well the fact that the Mind What makes the essential differ­ in man has been called both his ence between man and the animals Savior and his Tempter - Lucifer, is man's possession of Mind. We the Light-Bringer, also made a spell it with a capital initial, be­ synonym for the 'Devil.' Was it cause we use it here in a particular not Prometheus in the ancient myth sense. Animals have mind, but not who brought to man this critical Mind in the sense in which man has gift? Was it not the 'Serpent ' in it. The difference is too well known the Garden who aroused man to a to need definition ; it is not a sense of his own independent power? differenceof degree only but of kind : The story of the evolution of between the most intelligent ani­ worlds and their denizens, of the mal and the least intelligent man drama of man, and of the origin of (provided he is not an idiot) there his human Soul - all this is a very is an unbridged gap. The human long story, and cannot be told here. Mind has not evolved from the The practical point is that man has animal mind. this prerogative and cannot explain The possession of this Mind it away or abrogate it; so he must

127 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH face the fact and find out how to us if we allow ourselves to be use the faculty. susceptible to it. Truly the spark can earn the Man is able to act contrary to epithet of infernal, if allowed to his uwn will and contrary to his become the servant of the passions. own sense of what is right. He is Who ever heard tell of a wicked impelled so to act. How convenient animal? (It would seem, though, to pretend that the responsibility that pet animals can borrow from is not his, that he is tempted man a ray of intelligence, and some 'the Woman tempted me,' or Lhe depraved habits; but this is tem­ 'Devil ' tempted me ! How con­ porary and accidental.) It is the venient to shift the blame of our wedlock of evil passion with intelli­ perversity on to an infernal spark ! gence that makes wickedness. It is Study yourself and your friends, the element of self-consciousness and you \V ill find plenty of in­ that makes the difference. Self­ stances of this subterfuge. You consciousness is the characteristic wish to satisfy an unjust desire; quality, or rather the very essence, your conscience objects; and you of the human Mind. It is a crea­ gradually work yourself into the tive power; it can transform, it belief that you have been con­ can originate. strained against your will. One might imagine two boys in a school, There is no ' Devil and infernal one 'good,' and the other 'bad'; regions' from which man derives the bad one doing the evil and temptation to evil. Or is this Devil, getting the punishment, and the this Hell, an invention, correspond­ 'good ' one getting the benefit but ing to the invention of a personal going scot-free. Or a 'good ' man God? It would seem that man, in with a bad wife, letting her do the his absorption with his lower na­ things he would like to do if he ture, forgets that he has a higher dared; and she sharp enough to nature, and attributes the influ­ see what he really wants. ence which comes from his higher Is it not apparent that our nature to another being, which he sense of evil implies a knowledge calls God; and that, similarly, he of what is right? Or how else could has invented a Devil to take the we judge a thing to be evil? The responsibility for his mistakes. very word 'infernal ' means 'low­ ' Thus it might be said that there er ; and the lower is subordinate is no devil outside of man himself. to the higher. The 'infernal spark ' But it must be borne in mind that derives its vitality by stealing ; and, a source of evil is constituted by the if not fed, it cannot continue. It vast aggregate of evil thoughts therefore seeks to allure and to generated by depraved human vampirize. Understanding its game, minds; and that this can influence therefore, we are armed to defeat it.

128 INDIVIDUALITY AND PERSONALITY

H. T. EDGE, M. A.

�� �.-� HY DOES a dying Rom­ cruel farce, is because our false ��/:� :? ; an emperor take so philosophy has accepted the per­ i..- .." ...� much anxious care to sonality as a valid object of worship, _::..--- 9 leave the affairs of his thus leading us to attempt the realm in good order so that there impossible. may be as little trouble as possible The personality has its proper for those who come after him? place. It represents one of the \Vhat is it to him what happens necessary phases of our evolution. after he is gone? He will not be With too little of it, man would be there to see : he is perhaps a man stagnant and unprogressive, living who thinks death ends all and who in a sort of communal society with has no belief in immortality. Why fixed habits. This is one extreme; does even a cruel selfishtreacherous the other extreme is over-accen­ ruler feel such anxiety about his tuation of the personality. sons and take so much trouble to The important practical point insure their good conduct and pros­ is to recognise that my personality perity after he has gone (utterly must make obeisance to something

and forever, as he professes to be­ greater, which is yet nzyself -- and, lieve) from the scene? In a word, mysteriously, not myself. This pro­ why do we, one and all, act as cess of recognition is called finding though life were continuous, taking the true Self. an interest in what will happen It has been . said that we climb long after we are gone, starting on stepping-stones of our dead new enterprises right up to the selves; and there is not one of us day of our death? but can say that he has left behind It is because our instincts and many personalities which he once intuitions are truer than our reason. mistook for himself, but which he These instincts and intuitions take now sees to have been fictitious but little account of the mere per­ like the delusions of a dream. sonality. The personality is an in­ Similarly we may infer that what significant thing : if your own per­ we now take for ourself is also a sonality seems important, notice delusion, destined sooner or later how trivial seems to you the per­ to vanish in a fuller light. sonality of another. The reason We all, recognising the inade­ why we meet such disappointments quacy of our unaided intellect, the in life, and often give way to the delusive guidance of our desires, feeling that life is an enigma and a wish for help and light from some

133 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH surer source. Whatever religion or It is made up of a great number of non-religion we may profess, we constituents, whose union depends must equally seek within ourself on the existence of the physical for that light; for our own faculties body; and which would fall apart are the only possible medium be­ when the physical body disinte­ tween our mind and any source of grated, thus destroying what we light beyond it - even should the know as the personality. In a light come through the words of word, there would be a psychal another or through the printed change equal at least to the enor­ words of a book. mous physical change. Mr. Smith We claim to believe in evolu­ without his physical body would be tion, growth, progress; and the a very different creature in every question comes whether we shall way from Mr. Smith with it. wait for some external power to To imagine that so great a effect our evolution or help ourself change as the loss of the physical by utilizing the powers with which body produces no equivalent change we find ourself equipped. in the nature of the being tenanting It is said that we must raise it, is not reasonable. The alleged the self by the Self; which means evidence for this is illusory. His that, dissatisfied with our present master's voice does not prove his condition, we aspire towards a fuller master's presence, nor even that life and thus 'hitch our wagon to a his master is alive. A simulacrum star.' All religious teachings are of a deceased personality is readily (in their origin and essence) in­ formed out of the materials af ­ junctions and methods for invok­ forded by the ritual of a seance. ing to our aid the higher potencies But we pay too much attention that reside within our own nature. to after-death. Why must we wait 'Personal immortality ': we may till then for liberation? Or can we find eminent men of science pro­ feel sure that one who has not ob­ claiming their belief in it, and giving tained liberation here and now their explanation of its nature, in the would attain it even then? What light of their scientific philosophy. are we here for? Deeply ingrained They say that, when the body de­ religious ideas have inoculated us cays, there is still an inner body with the notion that this life is left, made of 'ether,' through which nothing in itself, but is merely a the 'person ' can continue to main­ preparation for a future life. These tain existence. But such thinkers ideas are passing, however, and have not studied deeply the psy­ people are realizing more that reli­ chological questions involved. gion should be an affair which What is that which we call per­ teaches us to use aright this life. sonality, and for which we thus To attain immortality, from this claim a perpetuation after death? point of view, would mean to shift

134 A CYCLE OF SPLENDOR our consciousness from its personal not with the death of the body. center to a higher center - not to Immortality -yea; but not per­ lose our individuality, but to mas­ sonal immortality, unless one uses ter our personality and escape its the word personality in a far broad­ limitations. er sense. Theosophy distinguishes The process for doing this is to sharply between personality and hearken to the leadings from above, Individuality, as is explained in and thus to permit our thoughts The Key to Theosophy. and actions to be governed from that higher center. It is thus that "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall we build up the higher and immor­ go no more out ...and I will write upon tal part of ourself, so that we die him my new name."

A CYCLE OF SPLENDOR

H. T. P.

T was a season of sorrow, I My soul sought the ultimate goal ; Ah, is there ever a morrow When cycles discontinue to roll?

My soul, enraptured by duty, Controlled by the essence of love, Enthralled with the spirit of beauty, Caught a glimpse of the glory above.

Ah, surely, a cycle of splendor Brings in an endless tomorrow With a breath, oh, so touchingly tender As to banish the kncewledge of sorrow.

International Theosophical Headquarters, Point Loma, California

135 SOCIAL SAFETY FIRST

LYDIA Ross, M. D.

sense of relief experienced, lures one on to repeat the dose at the next time of need, mayhap when the depressing reaction of the drug sets in.

"The connexion between addiction to nar­ Then, as each dose draws upon cotics and health has not received sufficient the reserve-forces of body and will, general attention. the victim's resistance grows less " It is known that the effeels of dope on and the drug-lure grows stronger. its users are physically, mentally, and morally deteriorating at rates of speed which are And shortly the new habitue is slower in the case of some drugs than of spreading the devastating habit to others, though always appalling. others. "In the case of the two forms of addiction now most common and most rapidly in­ Dope plays a large part in our creasing - heroin and cocaine - this de­ alarming annals of juvenile crime. terioration of the victim is cruelly swift, Even today's 'flaming youth ' would certain and complete. The sturdiest bodies are wrecked in a few months; the strongest stage less spectacular scenes of ban­ wills and consciences are shattered almost as ditry, murder, etc., without the ar­ by a Borgia poison. tificial strength and reckless daring "But the peril to health is not confined to which dope arouses to action. For the addict. Every addict, by reason of low vitality, becomes a potential and usually an the drug overdraws the checking actual carrier of disease. account of mental and physical "Were society interested in this subject forces, while inhibiting the moral only from the selfish standpoint of the phy­ sical protection of its members from infec­ impulses. This abnormal output tions, it would be justified in doing its utmost of energy results in a depleted mind to put a quarantine on the illicit traffic in and body, bankrupt for ordinary narcotics.'' reactions and normal impulses. Here is much food for thought. Society is challenged, not only The addict, as well as the dope, is to cut off illicit drug supplies, but not only physically, but mentally to recognise and deal with the in­ and morally, a deteriorating influ­ fluences which make for the poten­ ence. For 'misery loves compan)i ' tial demand. Aside from degene­ so well that addicts too often spread rate vendors secretly creating a mar­ the contagion of their habits to ket for their demoralizing wares, associates. It may be done as a the general social conditions today gesture, in order supposedly to re­ leave the highly-organized modern lieve another's tedium or pain or nervous system disturbed, unstable, sorrow or anxiety. But the false and thus prone to seek artificial

136 SOCIAL SAFETY FIRST poise and power by these methods. license to explore the resources of Whereas rhythm is the normal earth and air and sea, and to run state of the· nerves, the prevailing the gamut of sensations. This ab­ keynote of life has become a jazz sorbing pursuit includes the search of restless, uncertain, unsatisfied for some one or some thing to save seeking. The desire for thrills of us from the effects of overdoing in speed, of change, of gain, seen in body and brain. And the rapid all ages and classes, narcotizes the pace narcotizes the voice of con­ satisfying sense of inner selfhood. science and of common sense which Self-analysis is out of the reckon­ warns that one must finally reap ing, and dependence upon exter­ whatever he sows. nals is the order of the day. Medical science seeks new germs Everywhere the science of things as scapegoats for the man-made is adding new forces and light to monopoly of insanity and disease. enrich life. But the dual forces of In pursuit of new serums, it re­ human nature, on the inner field of verts to the lower animals in order consciousness, remain unknown, un­ to get life-blood fo r the vitiated disciplined, and vaguely out of tune human stream. The public, in pur­ with the activities of mind and suit of ready-made health, instead body. Even the disorders of con­ of physiological living, is doped sciousness - mental and nervous with the theory of germs as causes diseases - steadily increase while and serums for cures. Only a sav­ improved hygiene lessens the filth­ ing minority recognise the ubiqui­ diseases in the environment. Man tous germs as nature's scavengers is finding out new truths about in disease, and that the unclean everything but himself. animalized potency of serums, most Religion and science alike fail likely disperses symptoms by sub­ to offer an adequate philosophy of tilly storing the essential wrong life. The late debates between throughout the body-cells, rather Fundamentalists and Modernists than expelling it in nature's ways. offer no conclusive arguments. At The general restlessness and un­ most, they give but fragments of certainty show in the educational a continued story of the incarnating world. Homes and schools have soul's purpose on earth. external aids to knowledge as never Meantime, from the real Self before. Yet the young are not within, comes the strong, silent trained to find in c�aracter-building , urge to add the soul's finer forces the wisdom to solve the unfolding to balance the overbearing mental problems of life itself. Progressive and material gains in evolution. schools give selective and practical But our materialistic age interprets courses that equip for business, etc. this inner urge into strenuous, rest­ But brain-mind ability and manual less pursuit of more freedom and skill make a one-sided human

137 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH character, without the conscious It was known of old that nature balance of soul-selfhood. 'made man upright '; but for ages Failure to recognise human evo­ humanity has been doped with the lution as a triple process on the confused teaching of half-truths, planes of body, mind, and soul, and has sought the support of leaves the alienists at a loss to de­ 'many inventions.' fine and classify cases of insanity. At last, the ancient truths are The young degenerates who aim to at hand for those who would awaken stage 'the perfect crime ' prove too to that self-knowledge which is the well that the mentality is but an key to all life. It was with fore­ instrument used by the higher or sight of today's problems that H. P. by the lower nature, and it is not Blavatsky brought to the West the the real Self. message of Theosophy, as "the The illicit traffic in drugs is one science of life and the art of living." of the inter-related evils of the day Dope is a many-sided question which challenge society to claim for the individual and society to the poise and power which belong answer with the living truth of to the human birthright of divinity. how to handle it.

JAN PIETERSZOOM SW EELINCK, THE OUT.CH BACH

GRACE KNOCHE

�n ° AN PIETERSZOOM Republic that he never lived to L� SWEELINCK (the see, and while the undaunted, de­ 1:0 �o�ci:ig name is spelled in six termined Dutch could see that or seven different ways, light was dawning and that it but this has the authority of the could not be long before they would master's own signature) was born be free to follow conscience in reli­ in 1562, a time of terrible pressure gion and civic affairs both, there in his native land, but also of was everything to try their hearts. courage and high hopes. The But liberty and liberalism were brave Netherlanders were fighting words to conjure with at just that for their freedom, and while inde­ time, and the very air was pregnant pendence from Spain was felt to with great things. It was an era of be inevitable, and many felt it intellectual reform, and thus, in­ near, the sky was still dark and evitably, a time of testing and overcast. William of Orange was transition, with new things in the working and fighting to found the making and old things passing away

138 JAN PIETERSZOOM SWEELINCK, THE DUTCH BACH though not without some struggle were Roemer Visscher and his fa­ in the passing. It was, in short, mous and brilliant daughters, Anna such a time as every century sees and Tesselschade, in whose salon during the latter years of its span, at Amsterdam the new school of though not always so marked in its thought found first its metier and contrasts, nor so early in develop­ form. It was due to the House of ing them. Visscher that beauty and melody, It was typical, however, for the art, music, poetry, and the study last stages were being passed on of antiquity rose to a position in the long road to a greater freedom, general esteem equal to that al­ not only in governmental things, ready held by the literary and the but in art, in music, in the drama, utilitarian, for Amsterdam was a and in literary expression and style. strong commercial center as well. For centuries burst into flower as And it was out of this Amster­ rose-trees do, and it was just at dam school, mainly, that the great the dawning of a glorious burgeon­ contemporaries of Sweelinck came. ing time that Sweelinck, 'the Dutch No commentary on the musician Bach,' appeared. Not to know his could leave these other names out, period is not to know him. for they were all part of the same The United Provinces at that mystic tapestry of time that just time had won a place level with then was being woven with golden the great nations of Europe, and threads. Amsterdam was already the literary There were Cornelissen Hooft center of Holland. Coornhert, clas­ the dramatist and historian - Mot­ sicist, dramatist, prosewriter and ley declared him the equal of any the firstgreat Dutch humanist, had historian in Europe; Joost van der traced a brave, luminous path. Vondel, "the greatest of all Dutch Filips van Marnix, later, Lord writers " (Gosse); Huygens, diplo­ of St. Aldegonde, a leading spirit in matist, poet, and an intimate fac­ the war for Dutch independence tor in the salon of the House of and the close friend of William of Visscher, and others of influence Orange, composed the Wilhelmus­ less wide. lied, the national hymn of Dutch Jacob Cats, head of the Middel­ liberty. Van Marnix was a man of burg school which rivaled that of fifty when he wrote that hymn, Amsterdam, was writing his essays Sweelinck was a child of six, but and poems; Grotius and Spinoza, it must have had its effect, with although their immediate influence other liberalizing forces, upon the was quite different for they wrote opening mind of the boy. little in Dutch, cannot be left out. Closer in point of time, however, Then comes Franz Hals, the were many and brilliant lights - it greatest figure in the history of was truly a Golden Age. There Dutch portrait-painting with the

139 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH single exception of Rembrandt, who, as great in other nations, were however, was some twenty years among his pupils, and it was be­ his junior and did not have to cut cause of their high standard and so pioneer a path. Hals is notable exacting demands that no nation in besides as a sharer in the struggle Europe has today so many beauti­ for liberalism, for we find him a ful organs dating from that (to us) member of the military guilds and remote period. also of the Chamber of Rhetoric. In Germany, as the list of his Dutch music, mainly concerned pupils shows, Sweelinck's influence with psalms, hymns, and simple was preponderant and they form lyrics, was waiting for the develop­ an unbroken line connecting him ing touch, and that it found in with Bach, whose mind and classic Sweelinck of Amsterdam. ideals so much resembled Swce­ Sweelinck was the greatest or­ linck's own. ganist, the greatest music-master of Sweelinck's compositions fill his time. Called the 'prince of mu­ some twelve imposing volumes and sicians ' in his lifetime, he was definitely place him at the musical mourned by the poet Vondel after apex of his period - or rather at his passing as 'the phoenix of all the meeting-point of two periods, a music.' As the 'Dutch Bach ' he high point always when opposing has always been known, for he was tides lift their crests in so great and the principal inventor (if the term forceful a meeting of the waters. may be allowed) of the organ fugue Like his predecessors he was a which Bach later carried to such constant writer of church-music, perfection and astounding heights. year after year composing new That in itself would have marked works for the Protestant rituals. him as a liberal of liberals for it The twelve volumes therefore are showed a drastic independence of made up of his organ-music, of the conventional contrapuntal forms psalms, of 'Rimes Franc;aises et in which compositions for voice Italiennes,' chansons, and anniver­ were cast, and which dominated the sary compositions of various kinds. whole field of composition. He set to music the Psalms of It was Sweelinck who put Am­ David in a masterly series, which sterdam, musically speaking, 'on filled four books. the map.' Crowds flocked to hear Succeeding his father as organist him play, and musicians, young and at the famous Old Church of Am­ old, came from all over Europe to sterdam, Sweelinck gave the best of study with him. Melchior Schild his life to the task of lifting church of Hanover, Heinrich Schedemann music to a place of musicianship of Hamburg, Jacob Schulz (called and beauty which it had not occu­ 'Praetorius '), Seiffert of Dantzic, pied before. His mastery of coun­ Scheidt of Halle, and others almost terpoint was such that no subse-

140 JAN PIETERSZOOM SWEELINCK, THE DUTCH BACH quent musician equaled him until vatory of Music, but as music­ Bach appeared more than a cen­ critic for over thirty years on the tury later, and it gave him a posi­ leading Amsterdam paper, Nieuws tion, musically, that he will hold ran den Dag. as long as music is 'architecture Godowsky, the great pianist, invisible,' demanding solid know­ who visited him in Loma.land, said ledge and construcfr1:e mastery and upon the occasion of a visit to skill. Lomaland made later, after Pro­ One wonders what he would fessor de Lange had passed away : have said of the modern phase of "His writings set the keynote of lunacy known as 'futurist music' music-criticism throughout Europe. or ' jazz.' Probably what his notable All the critics copied him, and any fellow countryman, Professor Dani­ artist coming to Holland knew that el de Lange, said when asked what his failure or success there would he thought of 'jazz music ': "Jazz depend upon the judgment of this music? I do not know it. I have distinguished writer and musician." understood that you have some­ Both men made an impress of thing that is called 'jazz,' but jazz high spiritual import upon Euro­

- music there is no such thing !'' pean music, though along• slightly The portrait of Sweelirick which different lines, for Professor de appears with this article is from a Lange was a 'cello virtuoso as well large medallion presented to the as organist, and his great work was Isis Conservatory of Music by Pro­ done as voice-teacher and conduc­ fessor de Lange when he came to tor. He was famous throughout Lomaland to take up his duties as Europe as a conductor of Bach's Director of this Conservatory. Passion-Music, and where Swee­ There is a striking resemblance be­ linck's organ-recitals drew students tween the strong face of the six­ and musicians to Amsterdam from teenth century musician and that all over the continent, in the six­ of the one who bridged the nine­ teenth century, the Amsterdam teenth and twentieth centuries in Easter-Festivals, under the con­ Holland and in America both, with ductorship of Professor de Lange, the same effort and ideals. Take drew them as widely in the nine­ away the cap and ruff (inevitable in teenth. portraits of that period) and the The names of both were house­ two men might be brothers. Their hold words wherever, in their re­ life-work was also very similar. spective periods, music itself was Like Sweelinck, Professor de known. Both were composers, both Lange was the son of an organist; were single in their devotion to the he also did his great work in Am­ classic and the pure, and both up­ sterdam, not only as Founder­ held and expressed in their music Director of the Amsterdam Conser- the highest Theosophical ideals.

143 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

Thinking of the great Dutch Lomaland music master, when master, so musicianly, so fine and he passed away in 1918, come to strong and determined, so coura­ mind : geously pioneering new and higher paths in music more than four cen­ '· What splendid word for you shall yet be said? ... turies ago, words written in tribute Not such as you may rest. Swift the years fiy; to Professor de Lange, our beloved You shall rP1urn, ere many seasons go."

THE EDUCATION OF LLEW LLAW G YFFES

KENNETH MORRIS

BOY was born in Talhyl: s Caer of old A Whose birth sent wondrous quiverings up of flame Through the ringed planispheres that cry the Name; And Don's son, Gwydion, from his starry hold, To give him fosterage, into Gwynedd came; And mortal-guised dwell there; - nor late nor soon Told his bright fosterchild what wonder-strewn Domains were theirs beyond the path of the moon; Nor that the boy, ere earthborn, had held sway O'er sapphired solar cities from his throne Midmost the Sun, nor that the foslersire Ruled the sidereal regions from his caer Whose lowers soar spaceward from the Milky Way ; Nor gave the boy a name, nor wore his own.

Herding King Math's kine these two dwelt: their round Skep-shaped stone cabin on that holy ground Which is between Lake Llydaw and the gloom Of purple Wyddfa. There he, wise and gay, Daily would tell the child enchanted tales That quickened the green mountain growth to bloom, So wonderful they were : tales that were told In high Caer Wydion or Caer Sidi of old, Anent old journeyings 'twixt the Stars and Wales, And proud things done in those Arfonian vales By knighthoods only anointed eyes behold. . . . And oft the mountain storms grew calm and listened,

144 THE EDUCATION OF LLEW LLAW GYFFES

And the Star-Regents waived their royal glories, And leaned from their gemmed thrones to heed his stories, And their drooped topaz scepters earthward glistened Whilst through the dusk of eve and paling blue He, mingling magic in the mountain dew, Struck his high harp, and set the valley burning With wild, long chords that rose and died down slowly And drenched the hills and the gray evening wholly, And ran and rippled o'er the fern, and turning Vaunted and shouted midst the rocks, and thundered On the inaccessible crags ; and paused, and falling Swooned o'er the lake ; till the stars, hearing, wondered. And when he sang, magical voices calling Set the still air of evening quivering, throbbing; And the shy folk of the warrens, white tails bobbing, Loped through the dusk to hearken, listening, stopping; And the quiet mountain kine would cease their cropping, And lift shag heads, and stray towards him, dreaming In some dim vision that came stealing, streaming With those wild harpnotes from the strings his fingering Waked such strange fire in with its rippling passing. And in the blue night the dark waters, glassing The trembling stars, lay calm.- the night wind, lingering Above the bracken-fronds, fell pondering, pondering, Hushed by those fingers that went twinkling, wandering About the harp. and that deep clear voice winging - Soaring and falling - round the enchanted mountain Until dawn made the east a fiery fountain, And Gwydion with low laughter stayed his singing,

And slowly silence grew on the startled air. . . .

So sped the years. The little lad grew strong, So nourished day by day with story and song.­ Strong, and fairer than mortals are. His hair Caught the sun's fire, and shone with ruddy flame; Kingly his bearing, proud his eye: a mien That sure was mothered by some mighty queen, Fathered by god or hero ; - and yet it came Never into his mind to wonder at all Why he went nameless, or what name to call His fostersire. He had no need of a name, Nor thought of his descent. Day after day

145 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

He roamed the precipices pendent far Above the lake, where only the eagles are, And grew most comrade-hearted with the Star Of Day, his own star,-- saw the gleam of pinions Where through their blue empyreal dominions, Dim silver-winged, the sleepless Dragons sweep ; And night by night midst the high crags he lay And heard god-voices from the Milky Way, And constellations, singing; and mused deep Upon their dignities and state: could cry For each his incantation, name by name - Lordship by dragon lordship, flame by flame - Invoking in the sky Those who are kings, and those whose glittering spears Ring round and hold the incursive deep at bay, And those whose harps ring bardic, night and day To guide the motions of the journeying spheres. Also his fosterfather gave him store Of mountain wisdom, and the Druids' lore, And practised him in the Nine Games, and skill To outrun the unstumbling wild goat on the hill,-, And know the secrets that the sage bees croon In the dim coolness of their chambered hives, � And what untamed imagination drives The goblin wind cloud-herding round the moon,­ And what cold cogitations 'neath the lake The dumb fish ponder when the moonbeams wake Dim ghostly glimmerings through their noiseless deeps.­ And what high reverie the eagle keeps In his crag citadel,- what bright thought gleams In the June dewdrop on the reed,- what dreams Brood through the woodland when the bluebells bloom, Hanging their dark heads, thoughtful, in a gloom Of purple silence,- what mirth takes the hills When they laugh daffodils.

One evening, when the lake was half aflame With gold, and half a violet dusk, he came With swift steps to the cabin,- in his eyes Sadness and indignation: -"Soul," he cries, "I may not bide here worthless any more,

146 THE EDUCATION OF LLEW LLAW GYFFES

Suffering this great shame on Llyn Llydaw shore!"

-"Dear, fickle is boyhood ! In thy deed, what shame?"

-"To have no known lineage, and to bear no name."

-"Well, well! Who said thou art nameless?"

-"In the vale A faery lady told me all the tale, How that Arianrod Ren ferch Don hath sworn That none shall ever give me a name but she, And none else make my birth and lineage known."

The Herdsman laughed. -"Bide thou in peace till morn, And thou shalt go questing Arianrod Ren Through the vast world."

-"And thou, surely, with me?"

-"Hard is thy case, opposed to a Child of Don."

-"Hard were my case, if I went forth alone ; But thou art eloquent-"

-"Pitiless her breast, And calmly immutable till the stars wane."

--"Yet were she moved at Wizard Gwydion' s hest."

--"Sayest so indeed? But what art thou to him?"

-"He leadeth mortals to the portals dim Where the Nine Elfin Princes watch the flame, And the unnamed in the Cauldron come by a name."

-"All this the fairy told thee?"

-"Yea, in truth; And I know well that all she told was sooth."

- -"The Doniaid have their palaces afar. We shall be parted for a year and a day."

-"Or in Eryri wilds their cabins are. I think not he I seek is far away."

-"Thou art exorbitantly inflamed with youth So to contend with them who, star by star, The Whirling Mansions in Caer Sidi sway."

147 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

-"Most brother-hearted, one with me in delight, Night on night, light after light they stray Through the blue darkness down to the dark deep. So silver-mirrored in my spirit sleep All the Stars that flameand wander afar, l think we are of one kindred, l and they ."

-"What more know'st of this Gywdion?"

-"That his might Runneth, a subtle flame, through day and night. Here is his likeness in the heavens : A sheen Unstable, jewel-luminous, with rayed plumes Rainbowed and peacock-hued, and glimmering blooms Wrought of fire-dust- mists golden, opaline, Shot through with violet glow and beryl green And shadowed with deep glory of iris glooms.- Plays through the vastness round about his throne ; And from the midst his world-beholding eyes Gaze laughter-laden into the vast unknown : Through all the blue sun-wandered fields of the skies Gaze laughter-laden : for with his alder-wand Studded with druid gold, he hath his way, And maketh old-time haunted deserts gay, And on the sea-gull's wing, or hartstongue frond, Writeth what secrecies are known beyond The shadow of night, the sapphire beauty of day; And where uprise the thousand walls and towers Of stiff-necked cities he will pass, and lo! White-shining quietudes of waters glow, Or wildernesses gay with mountain-flowers - Silent lands, where no feet come and go. And he hath beauty and wisdom, and strange might To cast his spells on men and beasts and birds Sci that they work his will, and speak his words. And now he fills these hills with dream-delight, And wardeth, as I think, these quiet herds From all mischance and ills of faerie; For he hath put his spiendor of godhood by, And taken semblance of mortality, And dwells in Arfon."

Long the Herdsman laughed.

148 THE EDUCATION OF LLEW LLAW GYFFES

-"Thou art made bard and fool by a fairy's craft! Caer W ydion flameth far off in the sky. Seek thou some other of the Doniaid Powers!"

-"Aid will I have from none but him and thee."

-"The smith Gofannon dwelleth by the sea; On high Pen Gannion rise his smithy towers."

-" I have heard of him : how that the midnight flowers Into strange blooms of beryl, orange, blue Where his spark-torrents stream the darkness through. He will be over-busy with steel and flame To heed who goeth named or with no name."

-"Amaethon's pleasant caer is in the meads Where Hafren wandereth through the water-reeds. Seek thou Amaethon southward."

-"He hath care Of whatso fields feel the keen ox-drawn share Cut thorough. He must heed the young green corn, That no mist harm it at the birth of morn.- That no blight hurt it at the noon,- no dew But feed and comfort it when down the blue The silver spearheads of the planets shine. How should he turn to heed a need like mine?"

--"Gilfaethwy hath his caer in Ynys Mon-"

-"Gwydion I seek, of all the Children of Don."

--"Thou art importunate. Indeed, indeed, Will none else of the Immortals serve thy need?"

--" Indeed, indeed I told thee. None else knows Where the fire 'neath Ceridwen's Cauldron glows. Thither he guided many of old who came Seeking the Threefold Wisdom, and a name."

-"Well, go thou forth at dawn ; but I must bide With the king's herds here on the mountainside."

At dawn the boy went forth, and made his way, Day after day, gay-hearted, singing, lone, Through Arfon, Lleyn and Eifion, Meirion, Mon ; But not on all the mountains, summer-gay,

149 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

Nor where birds sang midst the green forest-foam, Nor in the clover meadows where bees roam -

By no bright shores nor quiet-watered vales -­ Might he hear news of Gwydion. In all Wales No word would any white-browed Druid say But, with head-shaking, "In the Milky Way He hath his flame-built caer,- west of the Bear West of the Harp of Arthur; seek him there!" Then he took thought: There is none knows, said he, This side the eternal sea; But in the far isles of the western foam The Wise and Mighty of old time have their home; There will I seek.

Nigh on the brink of night, When the pale sea ran pearl and primrose-bright, He came down to the Malltraeth. In the bay, At nine waves from the gleaming margin, lay A ship like that glass bark, Prydwen, that bore Taliesin Benbardd o'er the seas of yore When he went forth with Arthur. Ghostly fair, Rubied and frosted in the darkening air 'Gainst the sunk sun, it lay, and held his mind Musing ...and as he mused, a little wind Blew seaward from the sand-hills, and he heard Borne past, the sudden vague twitter of a bird, And saw a speck fly forth, and on the prow, 'Gainst the wan sea, preen wren-wings, unconcerned. And a voice spake, -"Loose thou thine arrow now! And set his heart pulsing, and turbulent fires Consuming thought in· him. His fostersire's Surely the voice, the tones were ; yet - He turned ; Came one dark-mantled toward the desolate shore - One of unknown, mysterious visage, o'er Whose young or ancient forehead fickly burned What seemed a crest of stars, and waned away Almost ere seen.

- But loose thy shaft," he cried, "At yonder wren!" The boy glanced o'er the tide

150 THE EDUCATION OF LLEW LLAW GYFFES

Confused and hesitant,- wholly loath to slay The Druids' bird.

-"Wherefore should I --"

Up rose Upon the word that winged atomy, And fled, and was lost singing o'er the sea ; And,

-"Wherefore?" said the other; "nay, who knows? Birds there be many, and birds; and secret things Wandering through the world on druid wings Oft o'er this waste of waters come and pass. And who should loose a shaft at yonder wren And neither miss nor harm her, surely his name -- So swift of mind were he, so subtle of aim - Should gather fame and be acclaimed of men. Yet give me news: why seek' st the ship of glass And the world's rim? What lures thee forth to roam Beyond the Brython and the white sea-foam?"

-"Beyond the sea, beyond the Brython, gleam Green Faery Islands where the Great Dead dream."

--"Wide is the flood, with many islands strewn, And wizard caers heaped up half way to the moon. Whom seek' st thou in the Green Isles of the Blest?"

-"Tidings of Gwydion son of Don I quest."

-"Aye," said the other; " 'neath the moon or sun I have heard rumors blown of such a one."

"Know you where those Gwerddonau Llion be?"

- "There is no wave I know not in all tht!se a."

--" Into those realms may any mortal pass?"

-"None, but with me in yonder ship of glass."

-"I would go forth with you."

-"Perchance ; yet none Goes, in my deed to God, save a king's son, Or craftsman with his craft, exceedingly skilled."

•, -"King's son or slave's son, none knows if I be ;

151 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

Craftsman I am, and well-skilled, certainly."

-" What craft is thine?"

-"A bard's. I know to build With consonance and assonance and rich rhymes Such song as men found meet in the olden times.''

-"Bards there be many, there beyond the sea. Wouldst need a better craft, cam'st thou with me."

-"I can build ships."

- "Canst mold frail glass to form So that its beauty should outride the storm?"

-"Or houses."

"Canst congeal the light of noon To builders' beams, and with the dews of June Dropped in the morn from meadowsweet or reed, Glue beam to beam?"

-"What craft would serve my need?"

--"Crafts there be many, that the Immortals use : Kingly and pleasant crafts, which whoso knows Should be made welcome whereso the flood flows And the Islands of the Blest burgeon afar Timeless and griefless.- "

-"Pray you give me news What craft were best?"

-"Or those God-Dragons are Who herd the stars westward."

-"Were it but known What mann� of craft would serve me best-"

-"Mine own Is noble as none else is. Making shoes-"

-"I can make shoes."

-"Such as the Tribe of Don And all the happy Immortals wear, who dwell West of these waters. Many a subtle spell Hath he to whom this subtle craft is known; For the�e are shoes that tread the unstable seas

152 THE EDUCATION OF LLEW LLAW GYFFES

Or the sheer precipice ; that leap as far As from the Pole Star to the farthest star In Arthur's Harp; - speed o'er the tops of trees Or wind-brushed meads, and bend nor twig nor blade." -"Unknown to me, indeed, how they are made. Yet, might the art be learned- " -"Indeed, indeed I am grown weary, wandering far and wide Alone, hither and yonder o'er the tide ; And for thy songcraft's sake, to while away My saddened hours, when I would fain be gay, I am disposed to teach thee, wouldst thou heed My precepts-" -"Yea would I!'' -"Heed then, and learn This first branch of the art!" A sudden turn,- · A reaching into the air,- an outstretched hand Shaken ; and at a little rhyme he sang The indrifted jetsam, quickening, quivering, sprang Into a coracle. Therein they passed Lightly the nine long waves ; and came at last Into the ship; and straight thereon the boat Crumbled to tulse again, lolling afloat ; But for the ship, - like unto one that slept And wakens startled, at their weight she leapt Forward, and spattering beryls at her breast

'Sped toward the dim blue beauty of the west. . .

And the tale tells how, when 'twas morn, Those two, of all their beauty shorn - An old. squat cobbler,- an uncouth

Large-limbed, red shock-maned, ill-clad youth -­ Landed by Queen Arianrod's hold, With leathern rolls inlaid with gold, And all such gear as cobblers use; And how the queen, desiring shoes, Came down to them there by the sea; Nor knew she Gwydion in the one, Nor in the other, her own son Whom none, fate was, might name but she,

153 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

Nor she, of her own knowledge and will. And whilst the cobbler plied his skill, The wren lit down, as yestereen, Where on the wavelets tossed a/I.oat Their little hide�clad wicker boat, And preened her wings; and how the queen Saw the lad make his arrow sing 'Twixt the thin legs of that winged thing Hurtless, and skim from wave to wave, And leave the druid bird to preen Her wings as erst; - and marveling Cr ied, "Liaw Gyffes a' i tery ef Dy Lew" - thy lion with sure aim Strikes,- and so gave her son his name.

International Theosophical Headquarters, Point Lorna, Calijo rnia

STALACTITES AND STALAGMITES: SOME OF . NATURE'S SECRETS

ROSE WINKLER, M. D.

"UNDER the blue of heaven in the free air we can always find that which is akin and most intimate to ourselves, and a friendliness in every green and growing thing, and the New Life, which is the God-essence, everywhere."- KATHERINE TINc;LEY

WAS a rare and glori­ every atom of the fair earth and ous day in April, and the sparkling deep-blue sea; re­ Tthe air was redolent vitalizing the air with · new life � with the aroma of the whose energizing vigor helped the blossoming sage-brush, the delight­ quickened desire to take in long fulE fragrance of the sweet helio­ refreshing draughts of rarefied ozone trope, the perfume of the honey­ and tempted one to taste and drink suckle, and numerous other sweet­ of its very essence. Nature's match­ scented blossoms. less beauty, profligate in the dis­ Cpon the verdant hills of beauti­ position of her charms, led me to ful Lomaland that roll away in 'inquire of the earth, the air, and terraces and canyons down to the the water, of the secrets they held grandly picturesque and rocky shore for me.' of the Pacific, the fine, imperceptible How Nature's unfathomable se­ shower of fiery . life-giving rays of crets hidden in the wealth, glory, the cycling sun o'erhead penetrated and invisible essences of earth,

154 STALACTITES AND STALAGMITES water, and sunlight, pleaded for life - whether in the air, the water, recognition and more intimate ac­ or in the earth. quaintance ! Thus, pondering upon On either side were mounted the harmonious interaction of Na­ the shining nitrogen, N; water­ ture's chemical elements, ensouled vapor, H20; carbon-dioxide, C02 ; by living entities, imprisoned in and smaller burning flames of inert their physical garments and func­ gases, such as argon, A; helium, tioning in the soil, in the water, in He; neon, Ne; krypton, Kr; Xe­ mineral, vegetable, and animal life, non, Xe; and traces of hydrogen, H; the sparkling fresh atmosphere held hydrogen peroxide, H201 ; and am­ the attention and stii:red the ima­ monium nitrate, NH4N0s - all liv­ gination, leading one presently to ing entities ensouling their scented, personify these well-known elements ethereal substances, and bearing of our globe in the hope of making upon their breasts their names in a few of Nature's secrets somewhat jeweled, abbreviated letters, known easier of solution. as symbols.

"There is but One ELEME�T in nature, "The whole Kosmos is guided, controlled, and at the root of it is the Deity ; and the and animated by almost endless series of so-called seven elements, of which five have Hierarchies of sentient Beings, each having a already manifested and asserted their exist­ mission to perform." ence, are the garment, the veil, of that deity." - The Secret Doctrine, I, p. 274 - The Secret Doctrine, I, p. 460 Everywhere and all about us is In fancy, daring lightly to push abounding, indestructible life, and aside the ethereal curtains of the 'Hierarchies of sentient Beings ' en­ stratified air : behold, there was soul every particle of an element, the fair-browed, aerial intelligence, whether organic or inorganic. And the radiant goddess of the air, beyond, and farther away than any robed in diaphanous, interlacing eye could see, stretched the pul­ folds of exquisitely tinted rainbow sating, briny, deep-blue sea, and hues; ablaze with the life-essences on her swelling waves of sea-green that gleamed and sparkled like foam rose the luminous spirit of jewels through the enmeshed gases the deep, the goddess of the sea, and compounds constituting every richly robed in clinging drapes of molecule of her vitalized being. billowy blues and violet, silvery, Her wavy, glittering-gemmed hair sea-foam greens and indigo, every floated lightly away to the most re­ molecule glittering with the fire of mote frontier of the world, grace­ life. Her royal crown and massive fully held in by a diadem of air­ girdle were gorgeously studded with composing substances with the the essences of flaming gases, spark­ flashing oxygen, 0, as its central ling, crystalline compounds, and light-star that radiated its life­ flashing metals. Her surging, shin­ supporting, electric-blue rays to all mg robe of blue billows purled

155 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH along the extreme shores of her geological changes in the earth ; and golden, earthy bed and lingeringly it forms about seventy per cent of caressed and suckled with her es­ the entire weight of the human sences the islands, coral reefs, and body. It also acts as a solvent kelp-beds set like rare jewels on her upon various ingredients of the fair bosom. food, liquefying and rendering them Every molecule composing her capable of absorption. ftuidic body not only contained the As many of the elements are elements of the air, but was satu­ called gases on our material plane, rated with infinitesimal particles of they hold in subjection the charge the compounds of sodium, Na; of life or energy, which, in each, if potassium, K; calcium, Ca; mag­ suddenly liberated, would explode nesium, Mg; and other metals; the element. Science, aware of the also the Halogen group or the salt­ energy locked up in each atom, cal­ formers, namely, chlorine, Cl ; flu­ culates upon the power that could orine, F; bromine, Br ; and iodine, be harnessed if it were possessed I; and other compounds and salts, of the secret of its release. It is or metals including copper, Cu ; obviously true, that if the gases of zinc, Zn; manganese, Mn; silicon, the atmosphere or of the ocean Si; iron, Fe; aluminum, Al ; nickel, could be suddenly liberated, the Ni; and cobalt, Co; which latter earth would disappear and the ex­ are commonly found in plant- and plosion would reverberate through­ sea-food. Therefore, we can readily out the cosmos. The greatest im­ understand that sea-water is essen­ pediment to its discovery is selfish­ tially a mineral water. ness; and if the altruistic motive be lacking for the employ of such "Every drop of water generates its phy­ sical infinitesimal Infusoria." power for the benefit of humanity, - The Secret Doctrine, I, p. 146 it may never be discovered, until the age for such knowledge and its But water, H20, as it occurs in right use is at hand. H. P. Bla­ nature, always contains more or less vatsky says: matter derived from the rocks and soils with which it comes in contact, "The world so far will get but that with which it can be safely entrusted." - The including micro-organisms that de­ Secret Doctrine, I, p. 561 velop into different specimens of "It will be at its appointed place and animal life. Even rain-water, which time only when the great roaring flood of starvation, misery, and underpaid labor ebbs is the purest natural water, con­ back again . . . - and the pitiful cry for tains dust-particles and gases dis­ bread, that rings throughout the world un­ solved from the atmosphere. Water, heeded, has died away." which covers nearly three-fourths of - The Secret Doctrine, I, pp. 563-4 the earth's surface, is one of the The rock-ribbed, golden earth, most potent agencies in working enriched and made fertile with all

156 STALACTITES AND STALAGMITES the identical chemical substances caves underneath the layers of that permeated the air and the limestone and sandstone rock, on­ water, bedecks herself with forests ward to the famous Mammoth green and fields of golden grain, Cave, in Kentucky, and thence to orchards and gardens bountiful and the Luray Cave, in Virginia, the fair, furnishing the life-giving and latter said to exceed the former in blood-making nutriment for the life­ almost every particular. supporting and tissue-weaving fab­ Overawed by the beauty and rics comprising the bodies of all mystery of their formation, and animal and human life. Does not pausing to listen to the magical this interblending and interlocking harmonies of the majestic rippling of all the chemical substances in­ streams that rolled away deep down gested with our foods, prove that below the floor of the crystalline there is a very close alliance be­ caves, the spirit of the earth said tween man and Kature, and that to her lovely sisters: the overbrooding spiritual life, the "I have sought for the best ex­ 'God-essence,' pervades and unites planations taught in the text-books all and passes everywhere unaffected of Chemistry and that written by and unimpeded? the celebrated chemist Liebig and others," and then the spirit of the "But the Occult doctrine ...sa ys: Not only the chemical compounds are the same, earth proceeded to demonstrate to but the same infinitesimal invisible lives com­ her fair sisters, by means of chemi­ pose the atoms of the bodies of the mountain cal equations, the reactions that and the daisy, of man and the ant, of the take place in the formation of elephant, and of the tree which shelters him from the sun."- The Secret Doctrine, I, p. 261 stalactites and stalagmites in the fairyland caves underneath the Having glimpsed a few of the earth's crust. secrets of the air and the water, "First of all I should tell you," we will now turn to the mystery of said the spirit of the earth, "that the chemical formation of the stalac­ carbonate of lime has two important tites and the stalagmites. properties, the power to absorb and The majestic spirit of the earth evaporate water and carbon dioxide, beheld the approach of her fair which will be manifest in the chem­ sisters, and with her compassionate ical equations as the reactions re­ heart went forth to greet the fair­ veal the formation of this fairy­ browed goddess of the air, whose palace. Now limestone rock, form­ filmy, shining draperies fluttered ing the roof of this cave although caressingly about the brilliant, blue­ containing impurities, has for its robed goddess of the sea, and per­ basis carbonate of lime or calcium meated and girdled by the spirit of carbonate, whose formula is CaC03• life, they moved together in rhyth­ This form of lime is insoluble, but mic harmony to the subterrene Nature by the action of water, H20,

157 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH and carbon dioxide, C02 upon it, harden into the formation of pointed has made it soluble by changing it mounds on the floor of the cave, into the acid or bi-carbonate of cal­ called stalagmites. cium whose formula is Ca(HC03)2. "The reactions in the following The following equation explains it : equations show the soluble calcium

CaC03+H20+C02 = CaH2(C03)2. bicarbonate parting with water and As has already been said, the re­ carbon dioxide, leaving it in the action of water and carbon dioxide process to become the insoluble cal­ upon the insoluble calcium generate cium carbonate, CaC03." the soluble bicarbonate of calcium, CaH2(CO:i)2= H20 + C02 + CaCO:i whose formula is CaH2(C03)2. or CaH2(C03)2= H2C03+CaC03. "This soluble lime drips or per­ Thus the three sisters discussed colates through the cracks, fissures, on their departure the same process orifices, or apertures in the rocks, active in the formations of the widening them through long geo­ caves and grottoes on the floor of logical ages into caves." the ocean's bed, including 'columns,' "Where do the water and the 'statues,' 'curtains,' 'organs,' and carbon dioxide come from?" said other beautiful forms found in the the fair sisters. characteristic scenery of caves. The spirit of the earth replied : "And how can you explain the "The rains saturating the soil, and mystery of their different forms?" the carbon dioxide taken from the inquired the fair sisters of the decaying organic material, or from spirit of the earth. the air, together dissolve the lime­ "Probably by the time that we stone as demonstrated in the above shall meet again, this seed-thought equation. left with you may help you to " While the drops holding the solve that question, from the fact, lime in solution fall from the roof that the formative hand of �ature, of the cave, and, in the process of or the morphological elements pres­ falling evaporate more water and ent in every micro-organism, equi­ part with some of its carbon dioxide, valent to the plan inherent in the the gradual coalescing of the falling ensouling entity in every atom of lime-drops forms the pendulous chemical substance, or drop of masses or hanging columns of lime, water, is followed in molding, or or icicles of stone, called stalactites. unfolding and evolving their vari­ The drops holding lime in solu­ ous and special formations,'' re­ tion as they fall to the floor con­ plied the spirit of the earth, as tinue to evaporate more water and they parted to preside again over part with more carbon dioxide, and their own particular realms.

158 THEOSOPHY AND "CHARACTER"

UESTION : WHAT does The­ character or one of small capacity. Q osophy teach with regard Have you ever stopped to ask to what is called 'character' yourself why these differences exist; in human beings? Is 'character ' why, if 'God,' who is supposed to created by God when He creates be all-wise and all-good, created the soul of every child coming into them? Why should 'he' create the world; or, if this is not the one man with a weak and vacillat­ case, what is the origin of 'charac­ ing character, and another man who ter,' which, as I understand it, is stands forth from the midst of his the real human being? fellows, clothed not merely with genius, but with almost inexhausti­ ANSWER : Yes, ' character ' is ble streams of spiritual and intel­ the real human being. The teach­ lectual energy flowing from him ings of Theosophy on this point are and manifesting as character? Why very clear and precise, and it re­ should there be such differences as quires only some small amount of between a Buddha and a Jesus, study and reflexion in order to and some desperate criminal or some understand those teachings clearly. weak and flabby character, on the They are not difficult. one and on the other hand? Character is the essential hu­ These are things that exist, and man being, as this questioner im­ to say that 'God' created these plies in his query. Theosophy does characters is to say nothing at all, not teach the 'creation ' of children because it leaves our sense of jus­ at or before birth, and therefore of tice unsatisfied and our sense of course does not teach that a man's love and harmony outraged. If character is created before or at 'God ' be all-good, nothing can issue his birth. 'Character ' is the essen­ from the hands of such a suppositi­ tial human being expressing itself tious creator except something that in the environment of the world is all-good; otherwise we should which we are in. It is the resultant have to say that 'God' creates evil, of all the powers or energies or which is contrary to the hypothesis. talents of the essential human being If 'God ' is all-wise, then we should considered as a whole. We say be thrown back upon an unsolvable that such a man has a great charac­ mystery, which is equally unsatis­ ter; that such another man has a factory as an answer. character not so 'great ; and that It has been said before, along such another man has a weak these lines, that in view of the im-

165 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH perfection and the evil in the world, themselves on six planes below this 'God,' being all-good and all-wise, highest, and therefore each one of cannot be all-powerful to permit such principles has its own part to such things to exist ; or, on the play, its own field of action, and of other hand, being all-powerful, can­ necessity therefore differs in quali­ not be all-good and all-wise to per­ ty, if not in essence, from all the mit such things to exist. You see, other five derivatives from the first therefore, that this leads us into a and highest or Essential Self. perfect tangle of contradictions, It is evolution that brings forth which is one and perhaps the main character : that enables the powers reason why Theosophists reject it. of this Essential Self to express 'Character,' as I have said, is themselves more fully with each the essential man, and has evolved life that supervenes. Evolution is forth from the inexhaustible foun­ fundamentally progressive self-ex­ tains of the human spirit through pression, therefore. the natural process called by Theo­ This explanation is very neces­ sophists Reincarnation, which takes sary in order to avoid the popular place strictly according to another idea of evolution : that it is a mere Theosophical doctrine called Kar­ adding of experience to experience, man, which is an operation of Na­ or a brick to a brick, so to say, ture and may be briefly described unto the edifice called 'character.' as the doctrine of consequences, or This would form merely a heap, perhaps it may be more popularly and not a living entity. The Theo­ called the 'law of cause and effect.' sophist uses the word evolution in To say that character is 'built its etymological sense, strictly so; up ' by reincarnation is a popular that is to say, as being an unwrap­ way of putting it, and as such may ping or rolling out or unfolding of pass currency in a merely popular latent powers, faculties, capacities, sense. It is not, however, a quite existent in this Essential Self. accurate method of stating the Hence, the only difference be­ facts. 'Character ' is not so much tween a Buddha or a Jesus on the 'built up' by reincarnation, as one hand, and some poor, miserable, evolved forth by the changes which weak, prosaic mortal on the other repeated births on earth enable the hand, is that in the former case and entity to advantage itself of. in all others like it, the divine You see, a human being, accord­ powers and energies of the Essen­ ing to Theosophical teachings, is tial Self have been more or less not a unitary entity. His constitu­ evolved forth, and express them­ tion is composite, or compounded selves in such beautiful and noble of seven principles, derived it is characters; and in the second case true, all of them; from the highest of mere imperfect mortal human of them all, but yet expressmg beings, those divine faculties are

166 THEOSOPHICAL FORUM still more or less involved, infolded, word are expressions of the diviner and unexpressed. Essential Self within. Such charac­ Do you now understand what ters are evil, strong in evil, power­ 'character ' is? A noble character ful in evil, and the results produced is the expression of the inner God, arise from the fact that the entire and the nobler the character, the forces of these (fortunately rare) nobler and fuller is the expression human beings have been concen­ of the inner God. It is the teaching trated into one point alone, that of Theosophy that there is no limit of purely selfish and thoroughly to the possibilities of growth, of egoistic seU-seeking. evolution, and therefore no limit It is indeed fortunate for the to the possibilities of growth in human race that this type of men grandeur and splendor of character. is almost as rare as 'blue moons,' as How we all admire a noble man the French say ; yet they have or a noble woman ! And how we existed, and doubtless some few of all pity one whose will is so flaccid them must live on earth today. and whose mentality is so limited I could cite a string of names taken that the impression he makes on from history as examples of these the environment in which he lives two classes, the strong characters : and on his fellow human beings, is the godlike, and the demoniac. But practically negligible! it is not necessary, and I refrain. But here I feel bound, indeed Even the Christian New Testa­ impelled, to enter a caveat, a word ment recognises. this possibility of warning, lest my words be mis­ when it speaks of entities strong in understood to signify that all strong evil, doers of spiritual wickedness; characters are necessarily highly for that is actually what it is: it evolved in the sense that I have is a misuse of natural powers and outlined above. This is not so. of spiritual and intellectual energies There is another possibility which for positively baneful and evil ends. I have not yet alluded to, and while I fancy that the test, or at least it is very infrequent, exceedingly the best test, by which to judge one rare in human life, it nevertheless class of character from the other does exist as a possibility; and in­ is this: A man of godlike nature is deed the annals of history show selfless; his heart is filled with com­ us a number of such humans. passion, an impersonal love, for not I refer to characters which are his fellows alone, but for all that strong, which are powerful in will is; and his life is sweet and pure, and penetrating in mind, which his instincts are impersonal, and have made a deep and in some cases wherever he moves and whatever comparatively terrible mark on en­ he does, there is left behind a sweet vironment, and therefore on his­ aroma of impersonality. tory, but which in no sense of the Whereas, on the other hand,

167 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH those characters whose whole ener­ --- these, I say, are characters of gies are concentrated upon self and the second type of which I have directed to selfish purposes, callous­ spoken, and can truly be called ly disregarding the thoughts and demoniac in character. Their des­ feelings of others, whose nature in tiny is, by operation of Nature, some extreme cases is so warped as fearful as the destiny of the that they take positive pleasure in others, the godlike ones, is sublime

i he inflict.ion of suffering and pain in beauty and grandeur. -- G. DE P.

MATTER AND FORCE

UESTION" : I HAVE read in seriatim in the pages of THE THEO­ Q THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH SOPHICAL PATH. with a good deal of interest, Hmvever, the following may be certain lectures which have been of some assistance to him. It is given at your Headquarters, in quite true that such is the teach­ which lectures the speaker said a ing of Theosophy. And it is like­ good deal about matter and force wise the teaching of ultra-modern as being 'fundamentally one.' I do science : force or energy, on the not understand what he means one hand, and matter or substance, fully, although it seems to be more on the other hand, are fundamen­ or less concordant with modern tally one, for the following reasons;

scientificteachings. Will you please � and I will follow the scientific help me by explaining the Theo­ line of thought in making this ex­ sophical teaching as regards this planation rather than the religious point a little more clearly than the or philosophic, for I fancy that it lecturer was able to do? would be more clearly understood. ANSWER : I suppose that this What we human beings call questioner is alluding to the lec­ 'matter ' is a composite or aggre­ tures given in our Temple of Peace gate of vast hosts, so to say, of here at Point Loma, California, on minor particles called 'atoms' by the general subject 'Theosophy and the chemists and physicists; which Modern Science.' These lectures in their turn are composed or built were delivered during the course of of what these same chemists and the spring, summer, and autumn of physicists call electric charges, re­ last year, and as the lecturer is spectively known as protons (and the same as the writer of this an­ electrons) at the center of the swer he may perhaps say that an atom, and electrons in various or­ adequate understanding of his bits, if more than one, circling meaning may be gained by reading round those protons. The protons these lectures as they are printed are particles of positive electricity,

168 THEOSOPHICAL FORUM

and the electrons are negative elec­ being equilibrated energies, forces tric charges, or particles of negative neutralizing each other, so to say, electricity. Therefore, as electric and each holding other in more or energy is thus shown to be as less stable equilibrium, producing corpuscular as what is popularly what to the physical sense appears called matter, it is at once obvious to be matter. But it must not be that matter and force, or energy supposed that this equilibration or and substance, are merely names stabilizing or neutralizing is in any for two grades of the same thing. sense at all a stopping of the inces­ Electricity is a force or an sant and continuous movement of energy, but it is also corpuscular. energy or forces; because it should It has body and substance and be obvious to anybody that it re­ place, which are the qualities or quires, so to say, a constant ex­ attributes of what we call matter; penditure of energy in order to neu­ also, therefore, electricity is either tralize another equivalent energy. energy or matter according to the If this questioner has ever played manner in which we look at it. at the popular game of ' tug-of-war,' The Theosophist extends this he will realize that the two groups thought to what he calls spirit and of men or boys holding the re­ substance, spirit being the fountain spective two ends of the rope must or origin of energies, and substance keep a steady and constant strain­ being the underlying source or foun­ ing pull; and this shows clearly tain of what is called matter. If that if the forces are nearly balanced this matter is subtil or ethereal, it we have, as it were, an equilibrium is an energy. If the same thing be or an apparent stoppage of move­ looked on or considered as sub­ ment ; but this takes place at the stantial, then we may call it sub­ cost of a constant expenditure of stance or matter. energy. I wonder if this figure Yet should it come to the ques­ makes my meaning clearer? tion of a choice of terms as to Energy by itself, very naturally, which of the two, energy or matter, is never annihilated. It is con­ is the originant of the other - and stant movement, in constant strain, this question might readily arise in so to say. Could it be imagined as the mind of a careful thinker,­ stopping absolutely or ceasing its then a Theosophist decidedly pre­ inherent activity, it would no fers to say that spirit is root or longer be energy, but would be fountain of substance, or, what annihilated, which is impossible. comes to the same thing in our Thus, then, energy may be physical world, energy or force is looked upon as etherealized or sub­ the originant of what is commonly tilized matter ; or better, matter, as called matter. I have already said, may be looked We can look upon matter as upon as energy, or energies held in

169 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH more or less stable equilibrium by to press home the argument more the work of other energies. Two fully, immediately to understand energies of equal strain balance that consciousness must in very each other, and this balancing of truth be the noblest form of energy energies or forces is what we mean that the cosmos or universe con­ when we speak of matter. tains. It is, therefore, also sub­ How different these views are stantial but of a substance or matter from the ideas of less than a gene­ not of the physical material world. ration ago when nobody knew what And finally as a concluding re­ energy was really and nobody knew mark, and it is an important one, what matter was really; but be­ please bear in mind that when the lieved that something called energy Theosophist speaks in this general was supposed to arise out of matter fashion of energy and substance or in some incomprehensible manner ! forces and matter, he never limits 'Life ' in those days was a tabooed his meaning to the physical ma­ word. People then did not realize terial world which surrounds us; that life is but a form of energy-­ and which is but the garment or or, as the Theosophist would liefer outermost sheath of inner and in­ say, it would be much more ac­ visible worlds. He means, rather, curate to observe that energy, all the entirety of all the energies and energy of whatever kind, is but substances or forces and matters the manifestations of cosmic life. visible or invisible, and wherever Life, therefore, is at once energic they may be, which infill and moti­ and substantial, and we have but vate the operations of the Boundless to pursue the thought farther and All. - G. DE P.

NEWS FROM THE ARCHAEOLOGI CAL FIELD

OBSERVER

R. SVEN HEDIN'S ex- ert, where many archaeological dis­ �� 1� ploring expedition in coveries have been made and valu­ ;II= � � the Far East has at able work done in mapping exten­ ��I last been heard of, and sive regions never before charted. all is going well with it. Dr. Hedin The expedition suffered many hard­ recently left it temporarily and ships; great snowstorms and sand­ went to Berlin to purchase neces­ storms were encountered and the saries for the continuation of his members often went hungry for important researches. He says he weeks. is well satisfied·with the results of The Chinese authorities insisted his journey through the Gobi Des- that he should take a number of

170 NEWS FROM THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD

Chinese scientists with him, which It has been mentioned several added an unexpected financial bur­ times in these columns that one of den, but it does not appear so un­ the difficulties in unreservedly ac­ reasonable in view of the fact that cepting the theory of migrations the expedition was about to ex­ from China or India to the western plore Chinese territory. coast of America by the Pacific is The Roerich Central Asian Ar­ that no trace of the wheel has been chaeological and Cultural expedi­ found in ancient America, either tion has also been heard from after carved on the monuments or men­ a long and alarming silence. It tioned in documents. Yet the evi­ also suffered great trials, but seems dence of such an immigration from to have done valuable work. The Asia -- where the wheel was known results of both these expeditions are from great antiquity - is very looked forward to with lively an­ strong. Mr. Verrill has discovered ticipation. something which may prove a fac­ tor in the argument in favor of Asiatic connexion, but may prove something of greater importance. ACCORDIKG to Mr. Hyatt Ver­ At Tiahuanaco, the prehistoric rill of the Museum of the American city near Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, he Indian, Heye Foundation, who has found two stone circular slabs like been busy exploring in the interior wheels, each more than six feet of Bolivia and Peru, there are hun­ across, with centers pierced for dreds, even thousands, of ruined axles. They appear to be of the temples, forts, cities, and ceme­ same type of excellent workman­ teries in those regions that have ship as the cut stones of the ruins, never been studied or even seen and there is no reason to believe by white men. He believes the that they are early Spanish grind­ material lies waiting there which stones for grain. No tradition of will decide the problem of perished Spanish mills exists in the neighbor­ races in the far past "who reached hood of Tiahuanaco, and the climate astounding heights of culture and is so severe in this region - more civilization, and vanished and were than twelve thousand feet above forgotten." He says: the sea - that nothing capable of

''At any moment astonishing discoveries being ground can grow there. One are likely to be made which may completely of the wheels was partly buried un­ upset our ideas about prehistoric man in der fallen stones of the cyclopean America. Within the past three years two im­ mense prehistoric cities have been discovered masonry characteristic of the ruins. in Peru, close to the thriving port of Pisco Mr. Verrill suggests that the and the sea, and my own discovery of an un­ wheels were used to transport the dreamed-of civilization of extreme antiquity in Panama, was another proof of how little gigantic blocks of building stone we know of these early American races." from the distant quarries. The

171 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

mystery of the method of moving stone have been done by 'primitive' the thousands of enormous stones savages who had - according to has never been solved, but the dis­ theory - no sharp metal tools, but covery of these wheels may throw had to scratch with inefficient flint light on it. It does not help much, implements? however, in the problem of immi­ Mr. Verrill faced this problem gration from wheel-using Asia men­ in Panama where he found quanti­ tioned above, because the ancient ties of prehistoric carving on very carvings or writings which indi­ hard stone, and he said he was com­ cate Chinese or Indian origin are pelled to conclude that iron and per­ probably far later than Tiahuanaco, haps steel has been known far and if the people of the ancient pre­ earlier than science has been able Incan empire employed the wheel to discover specimens. as indicated by these circular stones, Iron may have been a rarity all knowledge of it was lost and not and the stone implements the ones revived again until the coming of used for all ordinary purposes. the Spaniards. Iron rusts away rapidly but the It is unfortunate that so much stone tools last without much de­ of the finest pieces of carving on generation for ages. the most ancient monuments at Tiahuanaco has been used by the Indians and others for general house A :VIOST ingenious method of ac­ buildings, and by government con­ curately obtaining the dates when tractors for railroad filling, but some of the extinct Indian peoples there is still a large proportion of of the Southwest flourished is be­ the ruins very incompletely ex­ ing carried on by Dr. A. E. Doug­ plored, and there may be great dis­ lass, Director of the Steward As­ coveries to be made underground. tronomical Observatory, University Mr. Verrill found that the enor­ of Arizona. mous stones had been originally No one who looks at the rings locked together by metal staples in trees can fail to notice that they and bolts. The grooves are still are not always regular and that visible. Some of the staples were some are thicker than others. The made of silver and have been very surprising fact has lately been dis­ thoroughly looted, but there may be covered that the yearly growth of some hidden under the debris. In trees exhibits a rhythm in har­ regard to what he calls "the beauti­ mony with the fluctuations of the fully cut grooves and holes which sunspot periods, which average a

held the staples " we are again con­ · little more than eleven years. A fronted with the old, unsolved prob­ Canadian observer has also shown lem - How cou�d certain prehis­ that similar periodic solar cycles toric carving in hard refractory are marked in the rings of trees

172 THE DREAMER'S VISION which grew before the glacial age, While the tree-ring record from perhaps three hundred thousand the days of Pueblo Bonito is not years ago. absolutely complete in Arizona, Dr. Not only is the sunspot cycle Douglass is working hard to make it shown by the tree rings, but so are so, and then to confirm it by com­ climatic changes, such as dry or parison with the record of the giant wet seasons in the regions affected, California Sequoias, which runs Dr. Douglass is working at the back without interruption for sever­ great 'Apartment House ' at Pueblo al thousand years. Bonito, New Mexico, which once During his researches, Dr. Doug­ held more than two thousand in­ lass found a striking coincidence habitants, and is estmated to have which conclusively confirms the been abandoned about 1000 A. D. sunspot period in the tree-rings. He is trying to establish the exact From 1660 till 1720 the tree-rings date of the building by an examina­ indicated no sunspot cycles, and tion of the rings shown in the an­ it is well known to astronomers cient tmbers still remaining intact that a strange dearth of sunspots in the ruins, which cover a period prevailed during that period of of three centuries. sixty years! He has invented an ingenious So far as has been ascertained drill which removes a core of the the rings on the wood of the wood for careful study. Each piece Pueblo confirm the estimated date is searched for the impression of of its abandonment, which had been individual years already known ascertained by the style of imple­ by wood from other sources. ments and utensils found there.

THE DREAMER'S VISION

AXEL JORGENSEN

"THERE is in man a power to see the invisible, to hear the inaudible, to know the unknowable, to enter into the non-sensuous and the spiritual ; but this power lies in many a man dormant. Glimmerings of light come to him, glimpses of the invisible are afforded to him; but for the most part he walks by sight. . . . He must be born from above. The power to see the invisible must be awakened. He must be lifted out of his lower self, out of a lower realm into a higher realm .. Then he sees what he did not before see; he understands what he did not before understand. He finds himself in a world of which before he knew nothing, although it was all about him."� LYMAN ABBOTT whose search after some mystic quest had taken him through many lands and finally brought him to another hemisphere. He was a lover of Nature, of

173 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH art and of music. As a very little leries with the works of Rembrandt, child, when anyone played, his Raffael, Rubens, and Michelangelo, favorite position was sitting on the held him spellbound by day ; while floor, at the feet of the performer, the tone-poems of the great mastcr­ with eyes closed, intensely listening. composers delighted his ears at As a boy, when he and his night. With sympathetic eyes he father took their evening walk to­ viewed the lake of Starnberg, where gether, these walks often led them the benefactor of the great Wagner to the top of the hill, crowned by had dreamed of Lohengrin, the the astronomical observatory. Rest­ mystic knight; and finished one ing upon one of the benches on this span of earth-life .... hill, he and his father would for Leaving the old continent with hours contemplate the grandeur of its ancient, medieval history and the universe and the magnificent its present civilization and mode of beauty of its constellations. life behind, the quest urged him The vastness of the heavenly on to another hemisphere, a land expanse, the mysterious silence of fresh woods and pastures new. which spoke so loud, impressed his * * * * soul with awe; but also with peace, For a time, dreams and visions with harmony, and with divine uni­ had to give way to stern realities; versal love. In his young heart he the process of fitting into new sur­ felt a feeling of benediction, a reali­ roundings and conditions, coupled zatiOn that, though infinitesimally with unsatisfiedlongings and wants, small, he also was a part of the brought him to the narrow ledge of great scheme of the Master-Builder. the precipice; below him yawned * * * * the abyss with its unfathomable Years passed, and the child be­ depth and darkness; far above came a youth; his studies finished, he beheld the mountain heights, the indefinable longing for some­ shrouded with hazy mist. The psy­ thing-unknown - became strong­ chological moment was at hand. er, and started him on journeys He knew of the critical mo­ far from the land of his nativity. ments, the nascent states, when the The beauty of Nature, the magic composition of matter is subject to of music and artistic color, the transformation into something to­ charm of the history of past ages, tally different from its original called him with irresistible force. state. It dawned upon him that the The achievements of man in art laws of material chemistry ran and science, the works of the master parallel with the laws of the high­ artists in music, painting, sculpture, est alchemy ; that the baser metals and architecture, beckoned him on of the human constitution could, and on, from lapd to land. The by the aid of a great universal for­ age-gray cathedrals, the art-gal- mula, in course of time be changed

174 THE DREAMER'S VISION

by man's own efforts into pure gold. study of this; thoughts would flash The moment for decision had into his mind; certain color-com­ arrived ; should he turn back to the binations would call forth the mem­ plains and the valley, whence he ory of strains and passages in the had come; live the life of the valley, musical compositions of the great give up his dreams, stifle his visions, tone-masters. and endeavor to be satisfied? A In his visions he saw the day thought flashed into his mind, a when the genius of man should vivid memory of Observatory Hill split the white light of day into in the land of his birth, thousands the seven primary colors, and by of miles away, where he first ex­ the assistance of inventive chemis­ perienced the feeling of universal try, transfer, combine, tone, and unity. Once more he felt himself shade these, and make them per­ surrounded by the mysterious im­ manent for the needs of humanity. pressive silence. At that moment, By the aid and employment of he felt the handclasp of an unseen musical tone-vibrations, he beheld friend. symmetrical designs and patterns He faced the steep, narrow, and of marvelous beauty and purity. stony trail which wound its way up * * * * the mountainside, and started on As an attentive listener to or­ his lonely journey. Thorns tore his chestral renditions, the symphonies body, time upon time he stumbled of the great masters reflected tone­ and fell; often the trail seemed com­ paintings of beautiful colors and pletely lost. He felt and heard the designs. The human emotions, love, ridicule and the contempt of some joy, sorrow, pain, anguish, p�ssion, of the people of the valley, saw the courage, faith, hope, and life and fingers of scorn pointed towards death, all were audible and visible him; but with unshakable faith and as tone-colors, changing continual­ determination he pushed onward. ly, with a rapidity which only the * * * * inner senses of the invisible self In his laboratory, where he could perceive and follow. was principally engaged in the Beethoven's Fifth Symphony,

· study and creation, composition, the 'symphony of Fate,' trans­ and blending of colors of various muted itself, through its passages tints, hues, tones, and shades, the of heartache, suffering, pain, des­ seven primary colors, correspond­ pondency, sternness of fate, cour­ ing to the musical scale, always age, and final triumph into a great stood out bold and clear. kaleidoscopic color-drama. Colors as well as music affected The 'Pilgrim's Chorus,' from him in various ways and manners, Tannhauser, the 'Processional of according to th� rate of vibration. the Knights of the Holy Grail,' Often he would lose himself in the Chopin's 'Funeral March,' the over-

175 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH ture to Mendelssohn's Midsurnrner lation, graduated in depth and in­ Night's Dream, the symphonies of tensity, of various colors and tints. Schubert and Tschaikowsky, be­ As the night drew on, and as the came audible and visible color­ population gradually entered into expressions of spiritual aspirations, the state of sleep, the haze became soul-evolution, birth, death, and less intense and perceptible. immortality, romance and realism; The dreamer went to his room, reflecting the great woes as well as and in the peaceful silence of the the sublime dignity of human life, night, meditated upon what he had carrying the soul to the mountain heard and seen. peaks, piercing the misty veil sur­ * * * * rounding the true and the eternal, for the beholding of beauty and It was springtime. Nature, the harmony, purity, truth, wisdom, greatest of all mothers, had broken and divine love. the seals of her winter tomb, and

"God spoke, and through the soundless stood in all the sublime purity and realms of space freshness of her resurrection. The keynote of created music rolled ; The night was still, the sky a And time felt harmony within its hold, The pulse-beat of eternity's embrace. mass of constellations. The city The Infinite in finite hearts we trace, was quiet, its population in the As ages strike the chords by Love controlled ; embrace of sleep, the twin-sister The earth is vibrant, and with rhythm untold, All sounds in Nature's orchestra find place. of death. 0 Sound! Thou art the e::ho of a word The dreamer left his room, That broke the primal stillness by command, crossed the murmuring, slowly-flow­ An echo, through whose strains our souls ing river, and chose a path running have heard A promise of the choral raptures grand, through the forest, towards the That, voicing love and praise, fore'Ver rise eastern heights. Coming out of In Music's natal home beyond the skies." the forest, he selected a place on the The concert came to a close, highest elevation where an unob­ the audience hurriedly filed out of structed view of the eastern sky the auditorium ; but the dreamer and earth was to be had. At the still remained in his seat. He felt foot of a lonely pine-tree he sat as if transferred to another plane down upon a rock, viewing the bf being. Suddenly he realized that landscape to the far line of the he was left alone; he arose and horizon, and the starry firmament walked slowly out. above. The mental atmosphere of the Silence - Supreme Silence, was city, consisting of the vibratory everywhere. thoughts of its inhabitants, hung As he looked upon the sky with over it like a multicolored haze. its myriads of luminous stars and Also here was recorded the aggre­ planets, the feeling of awe and gate, compound thought of its popu- reverence again swept upon him.

176 THE DREAMER'S VISION

Face to face with infinite space, Suddenly a breeze swept the with inflexible law and order, he foliage of the trees; a bird was beheld the universe in motion. He heard chirping in its nest,- Na­ thought of the time, when by purity ture stirred in her slumber. of life man's inner senses should be * * * * so developed that he would be­ In the east, one faint silvery come enabled to hear the divine ray of light arose perpendicular harmony of the universe. above the horizon - the One, the "We have not heard the music of the spheres, Unity. This was quickly followed The song of star to star; but there are sounds by an angular ray on each side. That Nature uses in her common rounds, The fall of stream, the cry of winds that strain The Trinity was formed; the Three The oak, the roaring of the sea's surge, might became Five; the Five became Of thunder breaking off afar, or rain the Seven. That falls by minutes in the summer night; From silvery white, the color These are the voices of earth's secret soul, Uttering the mystery from which she came." changed rapidly through delicate - ARCHIBALD LAMPMAN pastel-shades of Gold, Salmon, Far out, on the line of the east­ blushing Pink, fiery Orange, and ern horizon, a star of unusual bright­ Red. A purplish haze, slowly gra­ ness, larger than any other visible, duating into Turquoise, fringed the was rising - Venus, in all her beau­ rays. A marvel of visible beauty, ty, the herald of the dawn. a marvel of heavenly symphony,­ The impressive silence was as yet inaudible to human ears. pierced by a cock's clarion call. With slow, majestic dignity, a Then again all became still. disk of Golden Light arose above The dreamer's thoughts went the horizon. to the ancient city of Thebes, out­ Eternity had given birth to a side of which the colossal statue of New Day. * * * * 'Memnon ' called upon the dawn. But the great silence, the impres­ A field lark fluttered from its sive peace, quickly checked any nest in the brush, circling upwards wandering thought. in the air; it warbled a song of A great event impended; the Joy and Praise to the ' Crea tor.' air was stilled, as if expectant of It was Easter Morning; the some mighty birth or sacred ritual. Morning of the Resurrection.

"THE psychological mistakes of the past are still upon us. If we are to drink from the fountain of happiness we must learn to know the false from the true."- Katherine Tingley

177 "MAN IS AS YET UNBORN"

HERBERT RITTER VON KRUMHAAR

(An Address delivered before the William Quan Judge Theosophical Club, Theosophical University, Point Loma, California, June 24, 1928)

HIS SAYING recalls to stead of a conception of unity mind the words of the where the outer self seems to melt German philosopher away, to be absorbed and exalted Nietzsche: in the Higher Universal Law. "Man and his realm have not If we compare such a concep­ yet been found "; or, we might per­ tion, as it has been expressed, in haps say : "Man has not yet found different words, by the sages of all himself." times, with the general attitude of We are also reminded of these the world today, then we may in­ sayings of the mystic poet N ovalis : deed feel that 'man is as yet un­ "As yet there is no art." " Man born.' has as yet no conception of philo­ Apparently some of the so­ sophy." called 'primitive ' peoples of the The work of Novalis, fragment­ earth, which were despised and ary as it is, reveals a very wonderful abused by the old materialistic understanding of Universal Life; civilization, have retained a far and the words just quoted testify, deeper sense of unity. l think, to the belief of Novalis A young German explorer who that no art or craftsmanship of any was traveling on the South-Sea kind can exist separately by them­ islands belonging to the Dutch selves. They are but patterns of Government, had become very varied aspect and design, that are much interested in the native mu­ woven upon the underlying prin­ sic, produced by the Gamelan or­ ciples of their originators. chestra, and one day he questioned In this way, regarding all litera­ a Malayan chief about the promi­ ture and art as an involuntary nent composers of his people. manifestation of their author's The native smiled a little in­ creed, we find that, with the ex­ dulgently at the European notion ception of some inspired works, of personal fame, and explained nearly everything is based on the that these melodies arose from the principles of separateness, and of people, as the echo, the expression, egoism. of their souls. If any one man was There is the evidence of an in­ more highly gifted to serve as their dividualism where everyone is, so mouthpiece, that was no claim to to speak, his own personal god, in- personal distinction for him. His

178 THE EDUCATION OF SWEDISH SCHOOL CHILDREN memory remained alive in his work, was filled by a tiny pattern of though his name or personality leaves and branches, with the back­ might be forgotten. ground cut out between each of Another time, the same traveler them. The whole effect was su­ heard by chance that one of his premely artistic, while each detail, native carriers was a skilful wood­ perfect in itself, seemed to fit in carver. He asked him about it, and to contribute to the harmony and the man only demanded to be of the composition. relieved of his ordinary work for a When the work was done, the fortnight, which would give him man asked nothing better than to time to do some carving for his return to his ordinary job. employer. In this impersonal workman­ The result was a bowl of the ship, where art had not been sepa­ most delicate workmanship, which rated from nature but seemed to had been carved from a coconut. grow almost unconsciously out of The shell had been pierced and it, I felt a resemblance to the art­ transformed into a thin pattern of work that is done at Lomaland. lace-work, comparable with Chinese Here we can see in every detail of carvings in ivory. It seemed im­ work that is done by the children, possible to create so fragile an ob­ or by the older students, what we ject out of such crude material. may call an unconscious manifesta­ There were, I believe, fivediffer­ tion of the spirit of unity. And it ent groups in delicate bas-relief, is from here, as we all hope, that depicting scenes from the lives of this spirit will spread, ever in­ the gods. The intervening space creasingly, throughout the world.

THE EDUCATION OF SW EDISH SCHOOL CHILDREN

[Reprinted from the Swedish American Line Radio Bulletin, No. 27, Tuesday, June 12, 1928]

· ij':,'&�� � HEN the Swedish public sociation, spends large sums annual­

.... �.. � schools are let out in the ly on these free school trips, which ':fl. summer, the children will extend from the south of Sweden ""-"'__." "::..---..--__ _ l clamber on board so- to the Lapland mountains. called 'school trains,' comprising In this mmmer children of moun­ sleepers, dining-cars and day coaches, taineers and woodsmen in the north to be taken from one province to receive a real and lasting picture of the other, thereby gaining an inti­ the fertile plains of the province of mate understanding of their coun­ Scania in the south, or the rock­ try. The government, with the co­ bound coasts to the east and west, operation of the Swedish Tourist As- while youngsters reared on the farms

179 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH are brought face to face with the too, are visited by groups of stu­ majestic virginal forests and the dents, chosen from schools in various towering mountains of the north. parts of the country. For three years Stockholm is, of course, the final in succession an exchange of Swedish Mecca of these youthful travelers. and German children has taken Filled with historical relics of bygone place during the summer vactions. days, bustling with life and activity, The groups are limited to some two the capital stirs the imagination of hundred pupils of either nationality, the country child, and on his visit and the stay abroad covers about during the summer vacation, he is four weeks. Great benefitshave been able to complete the image he has reaped by these intercourses which created for himself of the city, as have taught the children of two na­ taught in class. tions better to understand and appre­ Special school inns will soon be ciate each other. Similar exchanges erected along the roads in beautifullv will take place this summer. situated or historically interesting Radio has been added to the parts of the country. Such regions curriculum of the Swedish schools. are the Are district in Jamtland, For a number of years lessons in picturesque Dalecarlia, the romantic English have been broadcast, as well island of Gothland in the Baltic Sea, as lectures on various scientific topics, and Lapland, with its midnight sun, with excellent results. Ambitious glaciers and reindeer herds. plans are made by the government's The training in Swedish gym­ board of education to widen the scope of the school radio service to nastics is a vital factor in the educa­ tional program of Swedish children. include more subjects and to reach remote places which are so far out Last year three thousand boys and of the sphere of the main broad­ girls assembled on the extensive drill­ casting stations, on account of the grounds of three historic Swedish limited power of the receiving in­ regiments, at Ljungbyhed in the southern province of Scania, partici­ struments. pating in a voluntary mobilization The children's love for good music for physical culture. Five hundred will in the future be given an impetus teachers were in charge. The boys by the introduction of phonographs were assigned to the camp of an old in the Swedish schools, if present infantry regiment and the girls to plans materialize. Swedish orchestra that of a no less famous cavalry unit, leaders and other authorities on mu­ and by the free use of the army's sic are enthusiastically supporting equipment from tents and cook­ this idea. The art of great singers houses and rolling kitchen, the ex­ may thus be enjoyed and the pre­ penses were limited to about seventy­ sentations of symphonic works studied five cents a day for each child. Visi­ with benefit by pupils who might tors from all over the world were never have an opportunity of hear­ present at this rally. ing original renditions. But the children are also taught The educational possibilities of about foreign countries, and these, motion-pictures have als.o been taken

180 THE DRUID STONES into consideration by the school on the programs of the Swedish authorities. The catalog on peda­ schools. Foreign born teachers are gogic films in Sweden comprises to­ frequently hired or such pedagogs day not less than 1,800 numbers, employed as have an intimate and new pictures are continually be­ knowledge of the tongue they are to ing added to this list. In 1927 an teach and have lived abroad for approximate number of three million a number of years. During the study children witnessed pictures of this hours no Swedish is spoken, except kind. when explanations or discourses on Theaters and operas are other the grammar are made. means by which education in Sweden The Borgarskolan, a people's high is made interesting. During the past school in Stockholm, recorded for term special school performances of last year a great increase in the popular operas and comedies filled number of classes in foreign lan­ the playhouses in Stockholm with guages. Not less than 45 classes in youngsters. Among the plays pro­ English were attended, 19 in German, duced were works by Shakespeare, 28 in French, 7 in Spanish, 5 in Strindberg, and Bjornson. Old Swe­ Russian, and 7 in Italian. The dish plays from the eighteenth and number of pupils attending these early nineteenth century were also classes rose during the year to about revived. 2,200 which means an increase over The study of foreign tongues has the preceding year of nearly 700 always occupied an important place students.

THE DRUID STONES

R. MACHELL

(Continued from the July issue) HE SUBJECT of Cap­ him uncomfortable to think that he tain Barker was un­ had been so much at home in a pleasant to Arthur, and house where the tone was so differ­ he rose to go. Beatrice ent ; though in just what the dif­ looked serious ; a cloud seemed to ference lay he could not think, being have fallen on the day. He begged accustomed to take the world as it them to come over to Lowthorpe came without too many questions or soon for tea; he was not going away comparisons. He had asked only to before the Rowton meeting, and his be amused, and saw nothing parti­ mother would be so pleased. cular to object to in his acquaintances They promised, and he went off at Byham Cottage, though, to be across the fields in a mood that was sure, there were none of the men of his unusual with him; he was contrast­ own set there and no women at all, ing the atmosphere of Shareham with and the play was certainly high. that of Byham Cottage, and it made This Mrs. Maynell was really

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quite a stranger to him, while Bar­ read his fate. Roanoak had met with ker's antecedents were not much an accident and was 'scratched ' for clearer ; still he could not sec that all engagements. there was anything wrong about them That was all ; but it seemed as if all, for he had never seen or heard the bottom had fallen out of his little the slightest impropriety, in fact world, and he was dropping to un­ Mrs. Maynell was rather a fastidious known depths. Things had gone so person, he thought. smoothly and easily so far, that re­ But the contrast with Beatrice verses of this kind had not caused in her own home was startling as he him to 'turn a hair ' hitherto, but saw it today, and he decided that now he was utterly staggered. he would drop Barker as soon as he He pulled himself together quick­ drew clear of this affair in which he ly and questioned Jenkins, who said was so involved, for Barker had ar­ that he had been to Byham to see if ranged his bets on the races at by chance Captain Barker was there, Rowton. Arthur did not wish people because, he explained, he wanted to at home to know that he was plunging show him the colt he was riding. so heavily, that is, so heavily for a The Captain was superintending some mere boy dependent on a moderate changes in the stables for Mrs. allowance. He did not know that in Maynell, and was likely to be there, reality Barker had used his, Arthur's but instead he found Styles, who name and credit in order to cover seemed in a very good humor and his own speculations as well, and who was just leaving the cottage. that everyone interested in betting At another time this would have knew that he was backing 'Roanoak ' seemed odd to Arthur, but now it had heavily at the coming meeting. no interest for him except to remind Suddenly he remembered that he him that instead of being able to had not looked at the morning paper, count on his winnings at Rowton to which he had taken from the other redeem that bill, he had now to find mail for Lowthorpe at the station, the means to pay his losses, which and had put in his pocket. He sat would mean a good deal more than on a stile, lit a cigarette, and he could raise at short notice. opened the paper at the racing-news, He felt he must see Barker, and, to see with surprise that Roanoak as he was not far from Byham, he had dropped in the betting to the would drop in and ask Mrs. Maynell place of an outsider ; what could if the captain was likely to be over that mean? He was nervous today. this evening. He wanted to talk to He walked on, turned into the someone and did not want to go road, and saw Jenkins riding a young home just now, so he nodded to horse in a leisurely manner, as if he Jenkins and turned down the lane were waiting for someone. When he to the cottage. saw Arthur he came up quickly and Mrs. Maynell was delighted to produced a paper, a later edition see him and received him kindly, that he had just ·got, and held it out saying, in answer to his questions, without a word. Arthur took it, and that Captain Barker had promised to

182 THE DRUID STONES come over and see the stables either to hate the low-roomed luxuriously today or tomorrow, and she thought furnished cottage, with its atmosphere he might possibly come later. She of excitement and intrigue ; and yet had a telegram in her pocket that what intrigue could there be? It was would have justified an even clearer simply a prejudice, he thought, and statement, for Barker had 'wired ' he rejected it as unjust to his hostess that he would come to dinner. who was so sympathetic. He ad­ She gently drew Arthur out, and mitted that he had lunched there, induced him to tell her his troubles. and was walking home when he got At first he made light of it, but the news of the accident, and just when he saw how sympathetic she called to know if he were likely to was he told her just how he stood, see Barker today. and about that bill for two thousand She watched him closely, and saw his change of expression and his in­ pounds which Styles held. He said , he could not of course think of letting voluntary glance around the room ; his uncle become liable for such a she read him like an open page, and sum, and yet he did not know how to a look of pain crossed her face, fol­ raise the money himself without his lowed by one of cold decision, as if father's help ; the estate was not en­ she had accepted her fate. tailed in him, though he was heir She asked if he would come round to the baronetcy, and would inherit after dinner and see Barker, or should a share of his mother's property; he she tell the captain that Arthur could not raise two thousand pounds wanted to see him. on that unless his father backed him, Arthur chose the former, as he ;md that he would never do. knew that Barker was not much Mrs. Maynell was deeply touched liked at Lowthorpe; though there at his distress and was most anxious was nothing known against him ; he to know all about things, particu­ was a gentleman, and a good rider, larly about that bill ; she asked if but no one seemed to know his family Major Coulter was a particular friend or connexions or anything about him of Barker's, and Arthur had to con­ before he joined his regiment : a fess that on the contrary his uncle serious objection in such a conserva­ did not seem very well disposed tive society as theirs, and the man towards him at present, and then himself failed to carry his credentials it occurred to him as strange that in his fac;:: as some men do. Barker had been so confident of in­ So Arthur went home and dressed fluencing his uncle and that he had for dinner as usual, but was evidently succeeded so satisfactorily. not in his usual spirits. His father Mrs. Maynell looked serious, and meant to have a serious talk with was silent for a while. Then suddenly him, but having allowed his irrita­ she asked : "Have you just come tion to subside, he did not relish from Shareham? '' the prospect of an unpleasant inter­ Arthur received a shock that view, so decided to await a more fa­ again brought up the contrast be­ vorable moment, as he put it to him­ tween that house and this. He began self, by which he meant a moment

183 THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

when he was sufficiently angry to be free to waste his time in any way violent ; violence is the weak man's he chose ; yet his father was serious­ substitute for strength. ly disgusted by his frivolous life, at That he could be a friend and least he said so to himself, and to counselor to his son had never oc­ Arthur when he was sufficiently curred to him ; that he had any such worked up . to say anything at all duty never entered his mind ; he about it ; at other times he merely had sent him to a good school and snorted and stalked out of the room had given him private tutors when in an imposing manner, which was necessary ; it was their duty to form meant to convey the impression that his character, and a man must choose he was with difficulty restraining a his own friends. He had given him flood of eloquent admonition. a good allowance, and paid his debts As to his mother's influence, it at Oxford and since then on more was wholly indulgent and conducive than one occasion; what more could to self-indulgence in the family. So be expected of him? long as they were happy, all was The younger sons were given well in her eyes. But her idea of clearly to understand that they must happiness was so shortsighted that keep themselves when they grew up, she could not see any possible evil must choose professions and stick to results from using that which made them ; but the eldest son was natural­ life pleasant at the moment ; conse­ ly the heir to the estate, and he must quently all discipline that might tend be able to uphold his position in a to strengthen character by self-con­ proper manner : a somewhat vague trol, was abhorrent to her nature kind of career, and not quite a sure which sought the sunshine of life one either, for it was in the power of and basked in it. his father to cut him out of his in­ She had no faintest conception heritance and leave it to whomsoever of the complex nature of human be­ he willed. ings, nor of their inherent possibilities Arthur had failed to pass the for good and evil, and frankly looked examinations necessary to qualify for upon all such things as mere Sunday­ a commission in the army, and had talk, which was all right for sermons gone into the yeomanry, in order to but which had nothing to do with persuade himself he was doing some­ life. Her idea of the sunshine of life thing and also for the fun of the was just such as one might expect thing; besides, the uniform was from those elemental beings we meet really very handsome. This yeoman­ with in fairy-tales and folk-lore, who ry-business was a mere farce, and are friendly to humanity and free was regarded chiefly as an amusement from malice, but who are not hu­ and an opportunity for social gather­ man, and who cannot understand ings, dances, etc., given by the man's complex nature, his aspirations officers during the ridiculously short to higher worlds, his plunges into period of the annual training, when lower depths, his doubts, and fears, they went into camp. and hopes, his regrets and longings, Beyond this the young man was in fact his essential humanity.

184 Such women are often beautiful, their very ignorance of evil. They amiable, charming and attractive, cannot warn nor protect their chil­ but to some they appear to be indeed dren from dangers they know nothing but human forms inhabited by be­ of themselves. ings of the kind referred to rather So Arthur was dependent on what than by a human soul ; others might light came to him from his own higher say that in them the merely human­ nature for his moral guidance through animal soul was awake, and both the dangers with which his parents' the higher, the divine, and the lower unconscious neglect had strewn his or subhuman, souls were dormant. path. These women are dangerous from (To be continued)

185