{"collection":"Theosophy","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/archive_org_v.32141934/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/archive_org_v.32141934","id":"archive_org_v.32141934","license":"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","rights_basis":"archive_org_open:open_license:http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","source":"archive_org","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/v.32141934","summary":"","tags":["Theosophy"],"text":"XXXII, No. 1 \n\n\nPUBLISHED BY \n\nTHE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Theosophical Quarterly \n\n\nSubscnption pnce, $a.oo per annum; single copies. 50 cents \n\nTheo*,phical Soctetr \n64 Washington Mewt, New York, N. Y. \n\nJuly; October; January; April \n\nAddress all communications to P. O. Box 64, Station O. New York \n\n\nM. Watkins, ai Cco,cxx),ooo light-years there is no more \nmatter, not even infinitesimal cosmic dust. . . . \n\n\u201cOn the grand scale\u201d, said Dr. Hubble, \u201cwe may picture the stellar system [the sys\u00ac \ntem our sun belongs to] drifting through the universe as a swarm of bees drifting through \nthe air. From our position somewhere within the system, we look out through the swarm \nof stars, past the borders, into the universe beyond. It is empty for the most part\u2014vast \nstretches of empty space. But here and there, at immense intervals, we find other \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n8 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nstellar systems^ comparable with our own. They are so distant that in general we do not \nsee the individual stars. They appear as faint patches of light and hence are called \nnebula?, that is, clouds. The nebula? are great beacons scattered through the depths of \nspace. We see a few that appear large and bright. These are the nearer nebulae. Then \nwe find them smaller and fainter in constantly increasing numbers and we know we \nare reaching out into space further and even further.\u201d . . . The spectra of nebulae, he \nsaid, e.xhibited a peculiar feature in that the absorption lines were not in their usual \nposition but were displaced toward the red end of the spectrum, and that the fainter \nthe nebula, or the further away, the greater was the shift in the direction of the red. \n\n. . . Red shifts are due either to actual motion or to some hitherto unrecognized prin\u00ac \nciple of physics. On this interpretation, the nebul.T are running away from us and the \nfurther away they are the faster they are travelling. . . . The faster they are travelling \nthe further they have gone. \n\nThe present distribution of nebulie can be represented on the assumption that they \nwere once jammed together in our particular region of space, and at a particular instant \nabout 2,ooo,ooo,cxx) years ago they started rushing away in all directions at various \nvelocities. \n\nSir Arthur Eddington recently expressed the hope that \u201cthe next generation \nwill find something worth preser\\ing, something not wholly illusory\u201d, in the \npresent body of scientific thought. The fact is that when scientists speculate \nas recklessly as Dr. Hubble, they are false to the principles of their method. \nThe whole hypothesis of the \u201cexpanding universe\u201d is built upon the tiniest and \nmost unsubstantial foundation. It has a legitimate place in pure mathematics, \nw'hich is concerned, not WMth the actual, but wdth the \u201cideal\u201d or \u201cpossible\u201d. But \nas an explanation of the w^orld in w\u2019hich w\u2019e live, it is presumptuous and fabulous. \n\nOne does not doubt that astronomers describe correctly what they see; but \nthey see so little and affirm so much. All their assumptions, indeed, depend \nupon two postulates, that the velocity of light is universaUy uniform, and that \nno greater velocity than that of 186,000 miles a second is possible. This is the \ndemonstrated speed of light within the earth\u2019s atmosphere; but as an occultist \nhas written, \u201ccould they measure light above our atmosphere\u201d, they would \ndiscover that the speed of light actually varies according to the medium upon \nwhich it travels. There is a most important factor omitted from the astronomers\u2019 \ncalculations,\u2014the variable nature of space, terrestrial, interplanetary and inter\u00ac \nstellar. For example, they make no allow^ance for the possible impeding effect \nof meteoric masses and atmospheric tremors upon the direction and rapidity \nof the light-rays. One cannot avoid the conclusion that a very large part of \ncontemporary astronomical speculation is valueless except as an entertaining \nmathematical exercise. \n\nA Fragment of Occult Astrono.my \n\nProbably the modem astronomer is con\\dnced that he carefully distinguishes \nbetween the things which he knows and the things which he postulates. It is, \nhowever, inconceivable that the stars will convey any real message to him, unless \nhe turn towards them with a humble and reverent heart. This is not a platitude. \nThe cosmos is a mystery and must be felt as such, to be known even in the slight \nmeasure in which knowledge is possible for man. It is instructive to compare \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n9 \n\n\nthe conventional astronomical attitude towards the heavens with the humility \nand restraint of the Adepts whose \\dews are transmitted by Madame Blavatsky. \nReasoning by analogy, they express their conviction that forms of life and sub\u00ac \nstance, in some way corresponding to our own, exist, not only in the stars but in \nthe interstellar spaces which scientists characterize as \u201cempty\u201d. However, \nthey claim no knowledge which they have not proved by experience, and they do \nnot hesitate to affirm that there are definite limitations to the extension of human \nknowledge in the cosmic field, limitations which are imposed by the nature and \npurpose of the Cycle in which man is now evolving. \n\nWe are taught that the highest Dhyan Chohans, or Planetary Spirits (beyond the \ncognizance of the law of analogy) are in ignorance of what lies beyond the visible Plan\u00ac \netary Systems, since their essence cannot assimilate itself to that of worlds beyond our \nSolar System. When they reach a higher stage of evolution, these other universes will \nbe open to them; meanwhile they have complete knowledge of all the worlds within the \nlimits of our Solar System. . . . For\u2014while accepting the old Hermetic axiom, \u201cas above, \nso below\u201d\u2014as we may well believe that Nature on Earth displays the most careful econ\u00ac \nomy, utilizing every vile and waste thing in her marvellous transformations, and withal \nnever repeating herself, so we may justly conclude that there is no other Globe in all her \ninfinite sj^stemS so closely resembling this Earth, that the ordinary powers of man\u2019s \nthought would be able to imagine and reproduce its semblance and containment. . . . \nBut even more. The ordinary man has no experience of any state of consciousness other \nthan that to which the physical senses link him. Men dream; they sleep the profound \nsleep which is too deep for its dreams to impress the physical brain; and in these states \nthere must still be consciousness. How, then, while these mysteries remain unexplored, \ncan zve hope to speculate with profit on the nature of Globes which, in the economy of \nNature, must needs belong to states of consciousness other and quite different from any \nwhich man experiences here. . . . [The Adepts] know that almost all the Planetary \nWorlds are inhabited, but\u2014even in spirit\u2014they can have access only to those of our \nSystem; and they are also aware how difficult it is, even jor themy to put themselves into \nfull rapport even with the planes of consciousness within our System, differing as they \ndo from the states of consciousness possible on this Globe. . . . Such knowledge and \nintercourse are possible to them because they have learned how to penetrate to planes \nof consciousness which are closed to the perceptions of ordinary men; but wyjthey to \ncommunicate their knowledge, the world would be no wiser, because ine^PIck that \nexperience of other forms of perception which alone could enable them to grasp what \nthey might be told {The Secret Doctriney ed. 1893, H, 740741). \n\nFrom these statements we may draw certain inferences. If the law of analogy \nbe universally operative, there is literal as well as figurative truth in the Pauline \nsaying that \u201cone star differeth from another star in glory\u201d. Although in its \nprofoundest essence the All is One, this Unity is manifested as infinite number. \nNature abhors uniformity at least as much as she abhors a vacuum. This is \ntrue on earth, although politicians and economists deny it. Why is it not \nequally true in the heavens? If scientists admitted even the possibility of indi\u00ac \nvidual variation among the stars and nebulae, with all that this implies, they \nmight be more cautious in their invention of \u201ccosmologies\u201d. In any case, it is \nrational to suggest that if there be an infinite diversity of states of consciousness \nin the Universe, the forms of matter and the modes of motion will vary corre\u00ac \nspondingly. Inevitably, however, we can comprehend only that which we are \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ncapable of experiencing. It has been said that we do not see the real Sun. If \nthis be true, the real stars are, if possible, even more invisible to our earthly \nvision. What, then, do we see? Mere points of light transformed by our atmos\u00ac \nphere and s>Tnbolizing existences beyond our ken? Vibrations in the earth\u2019s \n\u201cether\u201d, responding to the myriads of ever-mysterious luminous influences that \nreach us from the great deep of Space? We do not know. There is so much \nwhich we can never know while we are mortal and human; but at least we can \nhave the grace to confess our want of knowledge. In truth, no more than Job \ndo we understand the ineffable power \u201cwhich maketh Arcturus, Orion, and the \nPleiades, and the chambers of the south\u201d. If we pretend that we know more, \nit is evidence that we do not know as much. \n\nSynthetic Supermen \n\nAs Theosophy has always taught, the body and outward estate of man change \ntheir form and mode according to the operation of Karma. The term, Karma, is \nso fertile in meaning, so rich in connotations, that any attempt to define it \nis apt to be misleading. However, we may conceive it, in one sense, as a mani\u00ac \nfestation of Kundalini Shakti, \u201cthe power which brings about that \u2018continuous \nadjustment of internal relations to external relations*, which is the essence of life \naccording to Herbert Spencer, and \u2018that continuous adjustment of external \nrelations to internal relations*, which is the basis of transmigration of souls, \nPunarjanman (Re-birth), in the doctrines of the ancient Hindu philosophers\u201d \n{The Secret Doctrine, I, 312). \n\nW^\u2019e cannot conceive of any living creature, in which both processes of adjust\u00ac \nment are not active. They are complementary, like inhalation and exhalation, \nlike the expansion and contraction of the heart. Our minds and characters are \naffected, more than some of us like to admit, by our physical environment, in \nparticular by the chemical changes always taking place within our bodies. No \none questions the fact that drugs and internal secretions can paralyze or unduly \nstimulate certain brain-centres, and that any cerebral disorder reacts upon our \npersonal consciousness, disturbing such balance of forces as may exist on the \npsychic plane. It is equally self-evident that thought and emotion affect and \nmodify the body. The strong man strives to overcome his physical and psychic \ndisabilities. He refuses to surrender to the tyranny of his body or to the temp\u00ac \ntations of his environment. Indeed, it is in accordance with Karma that our \nbodily processes, in general, can only trouble our consciousness, in the degree \nthat, in this life or another, we deliberately endowed them with that power by \nself-indulgence of one kind or another. It is both natural and just, for instance, \nthat dyspepsia should make us gloomy, if the dyspepsia itself be the effect of \nyears or lives of over-eating. \n\nTheosophy is, however, in complete disaccord with those scientists who assert \nthat it is possible to create a new and better species of mankind by chemical or \nsurgical means. Genius is made manifest by individual effort, by the spirit of \nman working with the materials provided by Karma or Nature. Every new and \nbetter state of consciousness is an inward creation of imagination and will; \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n11 \n\nit cannot be induced artificially by any set of outward conditions. Nevertheless, \nall races have cherished the delusion that there is some easy way, some short\u00ac \ncut\u201d, to wisdom and power. It has been everywhere the pretension of left-hand \nmagic, that one could accomplish by physical practices that which is in reality \nonly attainable by the full exercise of the spiritual will. Hatha yoga and the \ntantric rituals of India are examples. \n\nIt is a disquieting sign of the times, that an obsession of this order is becoming \nepidemic in certain scientific circles. One never knows what external forms \na scientific obsession may assume, for men of science have a dangerous habit \nof testing their ideas upon animals and graduate students. It is by no means \nimpossible that someday they will produce, not a race of geniuses but a race of \nmonsters. An experimenter who kills dogs and then tries to resurrect them, \nwould scarcely hesitate to \u201ccreate\u201d a Dracula, if this were possible. \n\nThe New York Times (March 31, 1934) reports the following \u201cprophecy\u201d by \nProfessor Bogert of Columbia University. It was delivered before the closing \nsession of a meeting of the American Chemical Society at St. Petersburg, Florida. \n\nThe coming of the superman and the super-race may not have to wait for the tortuous \nand uncertain processes of evolution, taking hundreds of thousands of years, hut may \nbe brought about within a few generations through organic chemistry. A prophecy to \nthis effect was made by Professor Marston I. Bogert. Organic chemistry, he said, was \ngradually learning the relationship between certain chemicals and their influence on \nman\u2019s behaviour and personality. It was also learning more and more about the chem\u00ac \nical constitution of living matter, and [how] to synthesize products, in which it improved \nvastly upon nature. 1 he time would come therefore, he said, when the chemist would \nbe able to make substances that would greatly increase the thinking powers of the brain, \nas well as the strength, health, and beauty of the body, without having to wait for the \nhit-or-miss methods of evolution, which, from the human point of view, might lead in \nthe wrong direction. When that time came, he said, synthetic chemicals would not be \nused merely for the healing of ills and the correction of nature s errors, but for the posi\u00ac \ntive direction of the forces of life by the intelligence of man. With the intelligence \nnature endowed him with, he would devise ways to develop greater intelligence by find\u00ac \ning artificial means for utilizing potentialities in his brain-power now lying dormant \nbecause nature had not provided the means for making it work at full capacity. . . . \nThere was every reason to hope that chemists would eventually be able to produce sub\u00ac \nstances that would bring out the latent powers of the known and of the now unknown \nareas in the brain. Instead of drugs producing stupor, or bringing to the surface q^i- \nties of cruelty and violence, we would have drugs which would enhance .ilertnefljVid \nintelligence, stimulate spiritual qualities, enable the body to utilize all its latent powers \nwithout any after-effects and make it possible for man to attain a greater and keener \nesthetic enjoyment of his own life, with great good-will toward the rest of his fellows, \n\u201csynthetic supermen\u201d like himself. Significant steps promising definite results in this \ndirection have been made in the last two years in chemical research laboratories in Eng\u00ac \nland, Germany, Switzerland, and in the United States, including Columbia University. \nThis research had revealed. Professor Bogert reported, that seven substances in nature, \nall producing different effects, some essential to life while others were very destructive, \nwere all derivatives of one and the same substance, a chemical known as phenanthrine. \n\nWe are expected to infer that the future happiness and grandeur of the human \nrace depend upon the exploitation of the chemical possibilities of phenanthrine. \n\n\n12 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nIf we were not more or less hardened to this sort of \u201cscientific\u201d dreaming, its \nnonsensical quality would be so apparent that all comment would be unnecessary. \nDoes anyone seriously suppose that phenanthrine will build for us a new Par\u00ac \nthenon, or make all men like Giotto and Dante and Shakespeare? \n\nIt requires the divine gift of irony to do justice to the chimaeras of the \u201cscientific \nimagination\u201d. That is why we venture to quote a stanza from a satirical poem \npublished in the New York Sun, April 9, 1934. The verses were inspired by the \nfollowing news item: \u201cMother love is due to manganese in her diet, and its \nabsence causes it to disappear, says Dr. Elmer V. McCollum of Johns Hopkins \nUniversity.\u201d \n\nWhen a little baby\u2019s crooning \nMakes mamma a little sick \nAnd she loves to flog the kiddies \nWith a barrel stave or stick; \n\nWhen an infant\u2019s cry of \u201cMother!\u201d \n\nWith her nature disagrees, \n\nDon\u2019t be startled, for it\u2019s nothing \nBut a need of manganese. \n\nHumanist Religion \n\nIt is not astonishing that religious instincts and sentiments are paralyzed \nand maimed when they are brought into contact with the prevailing scientific \nspirit and are not strong enough to resist its invasion of the mind. Even ma\u00ac \nterialists are sometimes concerned when they consider the moral chaos which \nthey have helped to create. They are forced to admit that religion has been a \ngreat historical social force; and some of them are seriously working to found \na new religion which will be the worship of man and of human powers. \n\nWe quote from the New York Times, April 9, 1934. \n\nDr. John Dewey addressed the First Humanist Society of New York yesterday on \n\u201cEmotion and Religion\u201d. \u201cWith the decay of the older religions\u201d, he said, \u201cman needs \nto-day the stimulating force of intense emotion and will find it only in three things: the \n\u2018cosmic emotion\u2019 of Einstein, the passion for the spread of intelligence, and the passion \nfor social justice.\u201d Asserting that religions always had exploited the emotions for specific \nends, he continued: \u201cEmotional crises such as birth and death, spring sowing and fall \nharvest, the initiation of adolescents, because of the striking character of these events, \nhave by primitive people been associated with the supernatural. Pains have been taken \nto make the ceremonials of religion impressive, so as to call out personal emotion. \\ \nlarge part of the hold which Christianity and Judaism have on their adherents is due \nto the emotional atmosphere which accompanied their early life. Even when these \npersons become intellectually skeptical, their emotions frequently keep them within the \nfold. But heaven and hell seem very remote to-day. They are fading out because our \nemotions find sufficient play in the world around us. As we fix our emotions on the \nhuman, the supernatural fades away.\u201d \n\nThe Modernist Sin Against Nature \n\nDr. Hubble, Professor Bogert and Professor Dewey illustrate, in their re\u00ac \nspective fields, the most deep-seated of modem intellectual perversions. Unless \nthis disease of thought be checked, it will ravage and destroy what we call \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n13 \n\n\nmodern civilization. It is not enough merely to describe it as materialism; for \nancient materialism, whatever its defects, was not inspired by the \u201cdelusions of \ngrandeur\u201d which animate so many of our activities to-day. The typical ma\u00ac \nterialists of the Graeco-Roman world, Epicurus and Lucretius and their followers, \nconfessed the perfection of Nature. Some of them, like Lucretius, sought a \ngenuine religious consolation in the prostration of their souls before the spectacle \nof her divine beauty and order. If they erred, it was because they despised man \ntoo completely, discerning no future for him save annihilation, conceiving him \nas a creature of a day, to whose aspirations Nature was utterly indifferent. \n\nThis is not the modernist sin. With inexplicable inconsistency, the con\u00ac \ntemporary materialist, who believes neither in immortality nor in free-will, \nnevertheless assumes that man has both the right and the power to attain \nhappiness and authority upon earth. He sins against Nature because he professes \nto believe that the universe, apart from the human personality, is devoid of pur\u00ac \npose or direction or meaning. In the terminology of our ancestors, he blasphemes \nagainst God. \n\n\u201cYou must know and remember one thing\u201d, an Indian Master has written; \n\u201cwe but follow and servilely copy Nature in her works\u201d. These words point to \nthe abyss which separates Theosophy from all modernistic speculation. The \nTheosophist identifies the hidden life of Nature with the divine life \u2014Deus sive \nNaiura. He makes no distinction between Nature, in its real essence, and the \n\u201cHeavenly Sophia\u201d, the Wisdom which is the manifestation of the Being of \nGod. The course and order of events, the te^npo and sequence of evolution on \nall planes, have, therefore, a sacred causation and significance. In any case, one \nneed not be an occultist to realize the dream-like quality of the fancy that the \nlaws of existence can be amended or repealed by any human legislation. Whether \nwe approve or not, they are fundamental and irrevocable. \n\nMaterialists themselves emphasize the absoluteness of the \u201claws of mechanics\u201d, \nto which motion in the inorganic world so generally conforms; but they fail \nutterly to perceive that there are principles no less rigorous which set limits to \nthe activities of the human personality. The true philosopher seeks to adapt his \npurposes to the divine purpose, in so far as this is revealed to him by the phe\u00ac \nnomena of Nature, by the circumstances and duties of his life, by the constitution \nof the sphere of existence into which he is born. It is the grossest illusion t 3 \nsuppose that we can escape from that sphere before we have learned the lessons \nwhich it has to teach us. The result of every attempt to \u201cimprove\u201d Nature \nand to correct her \u201cerrors\u201d is to fall into still greater confusion and misery. \nGerard d\u2019Houville, referring to the genius of Moli^re, has pointed out that his \nplots are almost invariably concerned with a common theme, the folly and dis\u00ac \ncomfiture of those who \u201chave been unwilling to recognize natural laws, and have \nfancied that they could twist these principles to their profit\u201d {Revue des Deux \nMondes, April 15, 1934)- \n\nA humanist religion, as conceived by the modernists, is a sin against Nature. \nIts plans for social justice, even when inspired in part by admirable motives, \ndisregard the manifest differences between human beings, and inevitably imply \n\n\n14 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ninjustice to individuals. Its \u201cpassion for the spread of intelligence\u201d takes no \naccount of the elementary truth that intelligence is the most terrible of curses, \nwhen its growth is artificially and inordinately quickened. When there is no \ninterference with normal growth, the evolution of the intellect proceeds pari \npassu with the evolution of the moral sense. The story of the forbidden fruit \nin Genesis is a very profound allegory. As to the \u201ccosmic emotion of Einstein\u201d, \none hesitates to comment, for one does not know what Einstein\u2019s emotions may \nbe. However, it is legitimate to assume that for the devotee of humanism it is \nnot the cosmos which moves him to ardour, but the current scientific repre\u00ac \nsentation of the cosmos\u2014which is a very different thing. \n\nProtestantism and Materialism \n\n\u201cHumanist religion\u201d is not limited to a \u201clittle group of serious thinkers\u201d. It is \nactually the creed of millions of nominal Christians attached to one or another of \nthe Protestant denominations. Many churches are nothing but lecture-halls \nwhere current economic and political problems are discussed. For example, we \nread in the New York Times (May 14, 1934), that a New York Methodist minister \ndelivered a violent attack from the pulpit upon the public utilities corporations. \nOn the same Sunday, in the old Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, a pastor \nfrom Los Angeles extolled the \u201cwonders of science\u201d, suggesting with easy opti\u00ac \nmism that \u201cGod is whispering in the radio, the airplane and the submarine\u201d, \nand arguing\u2014by what logical process we cannot imagine\u2014that these discoveries \nmake it easier to believe in immortality. Another preacher, a Methodist, \nappealed to the \u201cmothers of the world\u201d to become \u201canti-war conscious\u201d. Still \nanother, a Presbyterian, denounced the munitions manufacturers. \u201cIf their \nprofits were cancelled\u201d, he said, \u201cwe should have crossed in one step half the \ndistance to a warless world.\u201d Incidentally, according to this view of history, \nthere would have been no Caesar, no Attila, no Genghis Khan, if it had not been \nfor the munitions manufacturers. \n\nThese pronouncements are thoroughly typical. Both the clergy and the laity \nhave surrendered to the spirit of modernism. As their activities prove, few of \nthem have any living faith in God or Nature. Protestantism, with some striking \nexceptions, has become one of the subversive influences in the modem state,\u2014 \nan ally, a despised ally, of the communists and socialists, and an agency for the \ndissemination of unnatural doctrines\u2014pacifism, internationalism, class warfare \nand the \u201credistribution of wealth\u201d, birth-control, etc., etc. Doubtless, the \nideal of \u201cministers of the Gospel\u201d, as they define it to themselves, is the \nservice of mankind; but they conceive philanthropy and humanitarianism \nalmost wholly in material terms. They seem to be incapable of imagining a state \nof \u201csocial justice\u201d which is not brought into being by legislation and the advance\u00ac \nment of physical science. This is the worst form of materialism, and in addition \nit is treason to the Master whom they pretend to serve. They are guilty of hy\u00ac \npocrisy, Pharisaism and priestcraft. There is no entity more contemptible than \nthe priest who employs the symbols and rites of religion to conceal his spiritual \nemptiness and his denial of the divinity in Nature and in man. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFRAGMENTS \n\n\nH e called, and I answered: Master, here am 1 . \n\nAnd he said: Where hast thou been? \n\nAnd I answered: All night long I have been seeking the amaranths \ngrowing beside the waters of Paradise. \n\nThey are the flowers of death, he said; no need to seek them. When the hour \ncomes they will lie upon thy breast. There are better things to do. \n\nSo I sought for better things to do, and I found them not, though I sought \ndiligently. \n\nAgain he called, and I answered: Master, here am I. \n\nAnd he said: Where hast thou been? \n\nAnd I answered: Seeking for an object for my search,\u2014through all the sunlit \nday I have sought and found nothing. There were thistles by the wayside and \ntall weeds\u2014I would have none of them; the gentle grass was there, and grain \nwaving in the fields across the hedges. \n\nThe sun was hot, the Master said, the world was blackened by it. Leave the \nhighway for the shade: seek, resting there. \n\nAnd while I rested I slept, and in my dreams I saw the angels passing up and \ndown the mystic ladder that goes from earth to heaven, and I heard their voices \nsinging. \n\nIt seemed a long time that I slept, and when I wakened it was to hear the \nMaster calling; and I answered: Master, here am I. \n\nAnd he said: Where hast thou been? \n\nAnd I answered: Watching the angels that passed from earth to heaven and \nback, and listening to their singing. \n\nHe smiled at that. And thou? he said. \n\nI watched, I said. \n\nThere are better things to do, he answered; do thou as the angels. \n\nCav^. \n\n\n\n\n15 \n\n\n\nTHE DIVINITY OF THE KING \nIN ANCIENT EGYPT \n\n\nE veryone knows what Herodotus wrote of the Egyptians\u2014that they \nwere the most truly religious people living in the world, and when to this \nwe add for ourselves, as a well recognized historical fact, that in no \ncivilization of the remote past was authority so centralized and so absolute as in \nEgypt, there is one unavoidable conclusion: in the estimation of the ancient \nEgyptians, power was not something in which chance played a conspicuous part; \nit was a divine gift. Again add to this the fact that the King was looked upon \nliterally as of divine origin, and we see why this power was not even, perhaps, \na gift, but rather was it a literal and unqualified inheritance from the gods. We \nalso see why the focus of this power, its storehouse as it were, was the Throne, \nwhich meant, of course, the Pharaoh who sat upon the Throne, for in him was \nconcentrated the \u201cSacred Force\u201d which came down from above; he was its \nsole direct recipient; through him it streamed in unveiled splendour out over \nthe land and the people under him, sustaining and nourishing both. \n\nTh^ ancestry of the Pharaoh stretched far back into the darkest night of \ntime. According to Manetho, Egypt, long anterior to recorded history, had \nbeen ruled first by three dynasties of gods, then by four dynasties of demi-gods, \nand thus we find an upper triad and a lower quaternary as the ground-plan of \nall Egypt\u2019s later historical greatness. Ra, the first King of Egypt\u2014the \u201csolitary \nDemiurge\u201d as he has been called\u2014whose rule preceded that of Osiris by many \nthousands of years, is said to have had a reign which lasted for ninety centuries, \nas we reckon time. Ra struck the key-note; he laid the spiritual foundation; \nOsiris and Horus completed the structure; they filled in the mould around which \nall the later glory was built. The gods thus exercised a direct and holy influence \nupon mankind, until man became civilized. This slow work of cultivation fell \nprimarily to the lot of the three divine dynasties, each successively contributing \nits share; then to the semi-divine group, after which, the future welfare of the \nkingdom being well established, \u201cthe gods returned to heaven\u201d. \n\nAccording to tradition, the immediate successors of the gods and the demi\u00ac \ngods were not, however, completely mortal (involution like evolution moves \nwith fine gradations), but were somewhat shadowy, formless beings, designated \nby Manetho as \u201cmanes\u201d, lesser gods\u2014the outermost link between spirit and \nmatter. They were like the living rungs of a ladder\u2014a ladder down which the \ncelestial Force was transmitted to the King, and up which the human \u201cOccupiers \nof the Throne\u201d could ascend for spiritual renewal; they formed a bridge between \nthe human and the divine, between heaven and earth. So the first human King \nfollowed directly after the last of the \u201cmanes\u201d who, when in the act of with\u00ac \ndrawing, passed on the crown to his heir, but the change from divine to human \n\ni6 \n\n\n\nTHE DIVINITY OF THE KING IN ANCIENT EGYPT \n\n\n17 \n\n\n\u201cdid not cause any interruption in the royal lineage\u201d. Therefore we see how \ndirect was the inheritance, for the Shemsu-Hor (\u201cServants of Homs\u201d) as those \nfirst Kings of the human dynasties called themselves, carried on the god-imparted \ntradition of royalty; and from the time of Menes, the first King of the official \nlists, the Egyptians declared that they had an unbroken line of Pharaohs straight \nthrough to the end, even down to the Ptolemies and the Caesars. Divine Right \nwas an established fact: spiritual first, then physical\u2014an invariable law of life \nin any outpouring toward manifestation. In the earliest days, long before \nEgypt had reached the zenith of her magnificent civilization (the civilization of \nwhich we have historical records), this basic principle of the divine origin of \nauthority had become a sacred tradition, and all the later, internal conflicts \nwhich, at last, after thousands of years, resulted in Egypt\u2019s downfall and outer \ndissolution, were waged for just that reason, to maintain just that principle, \nto keep unsullied\u2014despite all counter and subversive tendencies that gift \nwhich had descended straight from the gods themselves, from Ra himself. So \nconvinced were the Egyptians that only \u201cThe Chosen One\u201d could sit upon the \nthrone of Ra that, if the heir apparent died and a younger brother became Pha\u00ac \nraoh, it was believed to be the^divine will and not a chance mishap which had \nregulated the succession. Thus, for instance, Amenhotep I had not been the \ndirect heir of Ahmes I; it was the death of an elder brother, a result of \u201cthe \nintervention of the gods\u201d, which made him so. Rameses II was not, originally, \nthe heir of his father Seti I, yet, in his own incomparably magnificent and \nsweeping way, he always maintained that he himself was \u201cKing in the Egg \u2019 \nand that ended the matter! Incidentally, this is a phrase which has been vari\u00ac \nously interpreted, and it is one about which several interesting speculations \nmight be made. \n\nIt has often been said thait the history of Egypt is the history of her religion; \nthat the life of the Egyptian people was inseparable from their religious insti\u00ac \ntutions; that as the King lived in the gods and the gods in him, so was he a \nreservoir of creative energy and force, for in the eyes of the Egyptians, their \nKing was Ra incarnate. In the Turin Papyrus especially (though it is also stated \nelsewhere), we get a clear-cut assurance that all the political institutions of \nEgypt had been established at the time of the divine dynasties, and had de\u00ac \nscended straight from them. Therefore, the power of the Pharaoh (a divine \npower), worked in and through these institutions, imparting life and inex\u00ac \nhaustible vitality to them. There is a curious fact which invariably strikes and \noften puzzles the student of Egypt\u2014though it does not puzzle the student of \nTheosophy\u2014the fact that, as far back as we can go, the Egyptian civilization \nis found to be not only a fully formed but a mature organism; not something in \nthe making, but something already accomplished. The very same religious \nbeliefs, the very same religious rites, without fundamental change, are not \nmerely dimly discernible but are distinctly and openly traceable from what we \ncall primitive times to the end of the Graeco-Roman Period. And underlying \nthem all, the firm foundation upon which they all rest, is to be found the divine \ninstitution of Kingship, the unshakable belief in the divinity of the King himself. \n\n\ni8 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nThus, as a member of the heavenly family\u2014an integral part of it\u2014the Pharaoh \nof Egypt was distinguished from all other beings who lived on earth; he was \nin a class entirely by himself; he represented and synthesized all life within his \nkingdom; and in the early days this was so literally true that the individual was \nan individual only when considered within the kingly*power and influence; \noutside of these he had no existence at all,\u2014a belief easily understood when we \nthink of the relation between a Master and his ch^las. \n\nOccupying this unique position, the Pharaoh naturally assumed all the offices \nof greatest responsibility in the State. He was High Priest throughout the Two \nLands, although he himself was worshipped as a god in all the temples; it was \nhe who made the offerings, for even though he could not, of course, always be \npresent in person, those who officiated were acting literally for him, enabled so \nto act only because sustained by his occult power; cut them off from that source \nof life, and they perished forthwith. The invariable formula which we find in \nthe records is, \u201cA royal offering of such and such things\u201d, and so forth. He was \nGrand Vizier, even though another might be delegated to represent him; he \nwas Chief of all the Armies, and Supreme Judge between the guilty and the \ninnocent; in fact, there was nothing in which the royal hand was not both felt and \nseen and accepted. His authority was absolute. \n\nOf all the different channels through which this divine power was transmitted, \nand also preserved (transmitted to the priesthood, preserved in the divine person \nof the King himself), perhaps one of the most interesting is to be found in the \nroyal titles, their origins and significance, together with the royal names which \naccompanied them. To many of us it comes with something of a surprise when \nwe learn that the Pharaohs of Egypt had five different and distinct royal titles \n(we cannot help wondering if there were not in reality seven, two of which were \nand still are unknown), with five or more different names attached, and that \neach name as well as the title to which it belonged, implied and actually em\u00ac \nbodied a special power or set of powers. This made of every King who sat upon \nthe Golden Throne of Egypt a very complicated individual indeed, a being con\u00ac \nnected by invisible lines of force with every portion of the universe both seen \nand unseen. We who are laymen, read of Thothmes or of Rameses, for instance, \nand, providing we know which Thothmes or which Rameses is in question \n(whether the first, second or third), we are quite sure that we shall recognize \nthe same Pharaoh again when we read about him, because we think that a name \ndoes not change. What is our discomfiture, however, when we find that names \ndo change, or rather that he who was so familiar to us under the guise of Thothmes \non one occasion, appears to be a complete stranger when we meet him as Setep- \nen-Ra, or as Ka-Nekht-Kha-em-Uast, or as something else on another occasion. \nRameses II had thirty-three names under the head of only one of his five royal \ntitles, and by any one of these thirty-three names of that single sign of \nroyalty, must we learn to identify him when threading our way carefully through \nthe ancient records. What is more important\u2014through the instrumentality \nof any one of these, the Pharaoh could set in motion a current of force by the \nproper intonation of that name. This was a power in his hands, but it might \n\n\nTHE DIVINITY OF THE KING IN ANCIENT EGYPT \n\n\n19 \n\n\nalso be a power in the hands of an enemy, should that enemy chance upon the \nsecret intonation; and this fact may partly account for the many names assumed \nby most of the Pharaohs, especially the later ones, for it was in later times, when \nthe priesthood of Amen was in the ascendency, and black magic was a growing \nevil which had to be reckoned with, that many extra precautions and protections \nbecame necessary. It is well known what deep importance the people of ancient \ntimes attached to a name; indeed, we might almost say that, with them, a \nhuman being had no separate life as distinct from other human beings, until \nthe day when he received his name. For not only did his name tell what he was, \nbut, in the case of royalty, it often had a life of its own. Of Narmer, one of the \nproto-dynastic Kings, we learn that, on the battlefield, his name sprang suddenly \ninto action, brandishing a heavy mace which was held firmly in both hands, and \nto such good purpose that the enemy was completely overpowered. Menes, \notherwise known as Aha (the Warrior), was always preceded into battle by his \nname\u2014not figuratively, but actually\u2014with the consequence that the enemy fled \nin dismay. (The student of Theosophy would no doubt recognize in this the \nmysterious power which produces \u201cperceptible, phenomenal results by its own \ninherent energy\u201d\u2014Kriyasalcli). Little wonder, therefore, that the choice of \nroyal names and titles entailed a long chain of consequences! \n\nIt is now many years since Egyptologists first recognized certain facts re\u00ac \ngarding the royal titles. They recognized, for instance, that the protocol of the \nPharaoh of Egypt (at least from the twelfth dynasty onwards), not only con\u00ac \ntained the five names and special titles we have spoken of, but also that these \ntitles with their names were invariably arranged in a fixed order. It was also \nlong ago recognized that of these five, four were divisible into Horns and Ra \nnames, two for Horns, two for Ra, while the remaining name and title was \nespecially appropriated by the Crown. The solar or Ra names, always at the \nend of this formal and unchanging list, were, of course, written within the \ncartouche, symbol of the universe over which the Pharaoh reigned; the Horns \nnames, one of which was invariably written first, each had another distinctive \nsign. Thus, in full, the normal, royal title (or succession of titles), without the \nindividual names, read as follows: i. The Horns or Ka title, which was said to \nbelong to the Pharaoh only \u201cbeyond life\u201d, or after his \u201cdeath\u201d. 2. Lord of the \nTwo Crowns. 3. The Golden Horus. 4. King of Upper and Lower Egypt\u2014 \nthis was the Coronation Name, and was enclosed in the first cartouche. 5. Son \nof Ra\u2014the name received at birth, and to be found within the second cartouche. \nIt would be impossible to do more than touch on the many far-reaching potencies \nwhich these titles, with their accompanying names, indicated\u2014^for each stood \nYor some spiritual quality\u2014but it will at once be seen that the chronology of the \nKing\u2019s life was, to all appearances at least, in the inverse order of his titles. Read\u00ac \ning backwards, therefore: as Son of Ra, the last title of the protocol, he was \nbom to inherit the throne of his ancestors, and, u])on ascending the throne, \nhe assumed the next to the last title\u2014King of Upper and Lower Egypt. The \nGolden Horus title is partly solar in that the god Horus himself, represented \nby the royal Falcon, was the direct spiritual descendent of Ra, and thus the \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n20 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nPharaoh also was of the golden substance of Ra, and the golden essence of Ra \nran in his veins. To the Egyptians, this was not a metaphysical statement, but \na statement of spiritual fact. As Lord of the Two Crowns\u2014the red and the white \ncrowns blended into one\u2014he was Lord of the two worlds, the inner and the \nouter, and the Crown was presided over by two protective goddesses. The King \nwas himself the Double Crown incarnate; his was a universal overlordship. \n\nUp to this point, the titles and names are more or less obvious, if one may use \nsuch a word for anything whatever which is connected with ancient Egypt; \nit is with the Ka-name (the first Horns title and the first on the list), that we \ncome upon a mystery the true significance of which has baffled Egyptologists \nfrom the beginning, and about which hardly two will agree on all points. It \nremains, therefore, by far the most interesting to students of Theosophy, because, \nbehind the apparent explanation, there lies a whole region of possibilities. \n\nAs we have already noted, the farther back we can get into the so-called primi\u00ac \ntive times of ancient Egypt, the more certain are we to come upon her religious \nbeliefs in their original purity, unobscured by later theologizing. Also we have \nto remember that the Egyptians were not the \u201cliteral\u201d people which, as a rule, \nEgyptologists have considered them; they did not put down, in black and white, \nall that they thought and believed. Back of what they wrote, one always has \nto search for what they really meant, what they were tr}dng to imply. There \nwas a veil deliberately drawn over that which was put in \u201cwriting\u201d, whether \nthis was graven on stone or in the script of the papyri; all that portion which \nwas esoteric was hidden under allegory\u2014but the truth was there for those who \ncould read. Hence it is that, of the true religion of the ancient Egyptians, we \nrecognize or understand only so much as we ourselves know and understand of \nthe universal Mystery Teaching. \n\nThe Ka-name was always \\\\Titten within a device which, for many years, \nremained a subject of open dispute among Egyptologists. From its form and \ngeneral arrangement of line, it was at first thought to represent a royal standard, \na banner with a deep fringe along the lower edge, and the royal name was there\u00ac \nfore called interchangeably and rather loosely, either the \u201cKa-name\u201d or the \n\u201cbanner-name\u201d of the King. In the far-off days of earliest Egypt, when the \nrecords were so few that it has often been difficult for us to distinguish between \none King and another, a certain fact was, nevertheless, recognizable: that the \nPharaoh invariably had two distinct names, his birth name and his Ka-name \n(later, as we have seen, he had more\u2014at least more names were revealed), but \nthat he alone, of all his entourage \u2014his nobles, his officials, his household in gen\u00ac \neral\u2014had the latter, and that these two names expressed the Pharaoh\u2019s dual \nnature: his body and his \u201csoul\u201d; they also represented the two worlds (inner \nand outer), ifi which he lived. Originally, therefore, it was only the King who \nhad a Ka; not even the royal family\u2014the King\u2019s brothers and sisters\u2014had Kas \nof their own, none at least which had developed to the extent where a special \nname would be appropriate. This meant, of course, that he who sat upon the \nThrone was placed there because he had attained to a spiritual consciousness, \nor to a separate spiritual life, not yet attained by others\u2014it was this inner \n\n\nTHE DIVINITY OF THE KING IN ANCIENT EGYPT \n\n\n21 \n\n\nstatus which, in reality, constituted his sovereignty. In later times, when \nEgypt had begun to suffer from the creeping shadow of democratic ideas, every\u00ac \none was thought to have a Ka\u2014even objects had Kas. Nevertheless, a distinc\u00ac \ntion in the case of royalty was always kept, for the King\u2019s was \u201cthe living Ka ; \nhe alone shared in the body and soul of his celestial ancestors: his body, repre\u00ac \nsented by his birth name, was the substance of Ra; his \u201csoul\u201d, represented by \nhis Ka-name, was \u201ca Homs, detached from the supreme Homs\u201d. \n\nThis is not the place to enter, in any detail, upon the vexed question of the \nKa, or of what the Ka really was in the secret Teaching of ancient Egypt. That \nis a subject in itself, and a very wide and involved subject at that. There is \nprobably no other single point in the whole of Egyptology which has caused \nmore animated discussion. The Ka has been described as almost everything \nfrom \u201ca vampire which sucks the blood of its relatives\u201d, to \u201cthe activities of \nsense and perception\u201d\u2014both ideas, as a matter of fact, being capable of an \noccult interpretation. But granting that the Ka of the King was some spiritual \npart of him (and the upraised arms of aspiration\u2014the hieroglyphic sign for the \nword \u201cKa\u201d\u2014surely calls for a distinctly mystical rendering), granting that it \nrepresented some personified spiritual status reached by no one else to the \nsame exalted degree, what were the Ka\u2019s functions in so far as we may discover \nthem from the exoteric records? Why was the Ka given a name of its own.'\" \nWhat was the strange device which remained, from the beginning to the end, \nthe one invariably used as a frame, a setting, one might say, for the Ka-name \nwhenever that name was written? And above all, why did the Ka-title belong \nto the Pharaoh only \u201cbeyond life\u201d, only after his \u201cdeath\u201d ? Was this figurative, \nor was it literal as most Egyptologists would have us believe? \n\nThe device upon, or within which the Ka-name was always written was an \nupright oblong in form, and was surmounted by the royal Falcon, symbol of \nHorus, he who soars aloft in the heavens\u2014the \u201csky-goer\u201d. It was in a vacant \nspace in the upper part of the oblong (a space which very likely represented the \nheavens themselves), that the Ka-name was written, and below, a number of \nperpendicular lines were invariably present, but what those lines were intended \nto represent was a riddle which, for many years, remained unsolved\u2014the notion \nthat the oblong itself was a banner, and that the lines below were intended to \nindicate (as already noted), a long fringe, not being entirely convincing. \nEgyptian name for this device was \u201cSerekh\u201d, and the meaning of that word*^ \n\u201cThat which makes known\u201d. But what was it that was made known? No one \ncould answer with any degree of certainty. At last, after many years of investi\u00ac \ngation, and as a result of comparing later and more detailed drawings of this \ndevice, with those that were earlier and less decipherable, it was discovered that \nthe perpendicular lines which had been thought to represent fringe, in reality \nrepresented the upright lines of a closed doorway, flanked by recessed panelling \n\u2014exactly the type of door found in the wall, opposite the entrance of early \nEgyptian tombs. To Maspero and to Petrie belongs the credit for this decipher\u00ac \nment, though neither ever got beyond a very general interpretation. But what \nwas the meaning of that small and narrow doorway? What were the ancient \n\n\n\n\n22 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nEgyptians trying to make us understand of its true significance in the Mystery \nTeaching? It could hardly have been so conspicuously and so invariably pres\u00ac \nent, had it been intended merely to symbolize the ancient doctrine of reincar\u00ac \nnation\u2014the passing in and out of life through the doorway of the tomb; though \nin its more exoteric form it may have indicated that as well. Such an explanation, \nhowever, would be too obvious, and the Egyptians of old were never obvious. Its \ncontinued presence seems to make evident the fact that it signified something \nwhich was regarded as of the utmost importance, but it is by analogy only that \nwe are likely to discover why that symbol persisted, from the earliest to the latest \ntimes, as a necessary part of \u201ctomb equipment\u201d. \n\nIn the most representative Egyptian tombs, there was always an inner and \nan outer chamber, with that small doorway between them, and a study of the \nritual of the dead (in which so many lost secrets are interred), throws much \nlight on its significance; for it shows us that this doorway was made expressly \nfor the Ka of the \u201cdeceased\u201d when passing from the outer \u201cchamber of offerings\u201d \nto the \u201cinner chamber\u201d. We know that the chamber of \u201cburial\u201d was far below, \nunderground, and that it was up the straight, ascending shaft, connecting it with \nthe chamber of \u201cofferings\u201d, that the Ka of the \u201cdeceased\u201d could mount, partake \nof the \u201cofferings\u201d, and then enter the inner sanctuary through that little, closed \ndoorway. So the door was a door of access \u2014of access to the chamber within; \nbut it was only the Ka of the \u201cdeceased\u201d who possessed its secret, for on the \nlintel above it (just as in the device which was called the \u201cSerekh\u201d) the individual \nKa-name was inscribed, indicating proprietorship. The funerary ritual further \nassures us that it was only after feeding upon the \u201csacrifices\u201d made in the outer \n\u201cchamber of offerings\u201d, that the Ka could retreat through that doorway to the \ninner sanctuary, renewed in spiritual vigour, this \u201cfeeding\u201d being continued \nas long as the Ka had need of that particular kind of sustenance. It does not \ntake much effort of the imagination, therefore, to see in this the age-old lesson: \nthat it is only by the continued sacrifices of the outer man, that the enduring, \ninner personality, the divine part of him, comes finally to birth. And it is, \nperhaps, from The Voice of the Silence particularly that we may get our real \nclue to the probable meaning of the doorway itself. For there we read of retiring \n\u201cinto the inmost chamber, the chamber of the heart, and the abode of the world\u2019s \nmother\u201d, of \u201cthe fiery power\u201d, as the result of the action of which the soul be\u00ac \ncomes a \u201cwalker of the sky\u201d\u2014in the language of ancient Egypt, the soul became \nHorus, \u201cthe sky goer\u201d. Is not that doorway intended to symbolize the \u201cdoor\u00ac \nway of the heart\u201d, the entrance to the Way of Life, only discovered upon the \n\u201cdeath\u201d and \u201centombment\u201d of the lower nature? Is it not the beginning of the \n\u201csmall, old path that leadeth far away\u201d to which Theosophy for ever points so \neloquently? And was it not through it alone that the ancient Egyptians, like \nourselves of to-day, hoped to enter into life immortal? But it was the Pharaoh \nwho showed them the way, because there was no one else in outer, active life, \nwho could equal him in the greatness of his mystic powers; it was he who had \nattained, for he could not otherwise have been acknowledged from above as \n\u201cThe Occupier of the Throne\u201d. And that is why his Ka-name is always to be \n\n\nTHE DIVINITY OF THE KING IN ANCIENT EGYPT \n\n\n23 \n\n\nfound on the lintel over the doorway\u2014the first title of the Pharaoh, but the \ntitle which became his only \u201cbeyond life\u201d. \n\nThere cannot be the slightest doubt in the mind of any student of Theosophy \nthat the Pharaohs of Egypt (particularly those of the earliest dynasties) were \ngreat Adept Kings, in close touch with the Lodge. As we have seen, they were \nthe direct inheritors of the gods who preceded them, and they were the model \nupon which the infant races were to mould themselves\u2014those infant races which \neventually were to clothe themselves with the same garment of immortality \nin which the Pharaoh himself was already clothed. It was he who had become \n\u201cunited with his Ka\u201c; it was he who had become a \u201cwalker of the sky\u201d. In the \nPyramid Texts there are innumerable passages indicating the possession of these \ngreat yogi powers by the Pharaoh, passages which can be linked with other similar \npassages in The Voice of the Silence, and elsewhere. Thus the Pharaoh is likened \nto a great bird with outstretched wings, sailing across the heavens: \u201cHe ascends \nto the sky as a falcon. ... He flies, he flies! ... He is not of the earth, he is of \nthe sky!\u201d; or, \u201cHe goes to the sky, he goes to the sky! On the wind! On the \nwind!\u201d And the unforgettable line of adoring wonder at the splendour and the \nmajesty of the Pharaoh when he takes his rightful place in the company of the \nImmortals: \u201cOh lofty one among the Imperishable Stars, thou perishest not \neternally!\u201d \n\nIn Theosophy we find an incalculable amount of treasure which has come \ndown to us direct from ancient Egypt. Would it be too unreasonable, therefore, \nif we were to think of these great Pharaohs (especially those whose incarnation \nin the early days, made it possible for them to work in the still undimmed light \nwhich lingered on after the august Rulers of the divine dynasties had \u201creturned \nto heaven\u201d) as our own direct link with the Lodge to-day? We have been told, \nnot once but many times, that the present crying need in the world is for \u201cGod- \ninstructed men to rule the nations\u201d, and it would seem natural that we should \nturn with longing and with hope to those illustrious Kings of old who reigned so \nwisely; for back of them stretched the unending line of gods, the Lodge itself, \nfrom whence those Pharaohs sprang, and from whence their wisdom emanated. \nWe know that the eternal Warfare between the White Lodge and the Blacl^ a|es \non; we are told that it is, even now, gathering for its flood, and that \u201cthe BatiBrof \nthe Marne has not yet been fought in the spiritual world\u201d. Would it be so diffi\u00ac \ncult to imagine that already a glimmer of Egypt\u2019s ancient glory had begun to \nspread around and over us\u2014had we but the eyes to see? That the mighty Pha\u00ac \nraohs of bygone days, drawn up in dazzling battle-formation, may actually, at \nthis very moment, be preparing for the combat\u2014helping to make it possible \nfor the gods to return to us? For we know that long ages ago it was promised \nthey would return\u2014that they would return when the last great battle had been \nfought and won: when Horus had at length met and vanquished his immemorial \nenemy. Set. \n\n\nHetep-en-Neter. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\nII. \n\nO NCE the decision to enter the Army had been made, there followed a \nmonth of the most hectic preparation. The First Officers\u2019 Training \nCamps were to start, again at Plattsburgh, in the middle of May, and \nthere was none too much time for all that had to be done. Physical examinations \nhad first to be taken and passed, and once they were safely over, it was obviously \nthe part of wisdom to see personally those who had it in their power to ensure \nthat one\u2019s application for admission to the Camp would be acted upon favour\u00ac \nably. When all this had been settled, there were family duties and obligations \nto be arranged for and shifted to the shoulders of others. One\u2019s partners had to be \ntalked to, and the affairs of various clients turned over to them, and plans for \nthe future conduct and re-arrangement of the business had to be discussed. \nPersonal affairs had to be set in order, not only for a long absence from the \ncountry, but also in such a way that they would function smoothly during that \nabsence, and with a minimum of attention. Indeed, it was clear that all such \nmatters must be so covered as to provide for the possibility of not returning at all. \nThere was the all-absorbing and highly important problem of the purchase of \nclothing and outfit, or as much as would be needed for the following three \nmonths, at least;\u2014the rest could wait. There were talks ^vith friends in the \nMovement, most important of all, and which took precedence over everything \nelse. In fact, there was so much to do, and so many people to see, and so little \ntime to do it all in, that it seemed a sheer impossibility that everything could be \naccomplished in time. It was, by some miracle; but I finally boarded the sleeper \nfor Plattsburgh A\\dth the feeling that the strenuous life of a training camp now \nhad no terrors for me, and that life there would be in the nature of a rest-cure \ncompared to what I had just passed through. \n\nCompared with the pre\\dous summer, it was a different Plattsburgh which met \nour eyes when we left the train the next morning from a siding near the Govern\u00ac \nment Reservation,\u2014and with a different atmosphere. Long wooden barracks \nhad sprung up, along the side of the Parade Ground and in the woods and \nvacant spaces adjoining, each designed to accommodate two hundred and fifty \nofficer candidates, or a war-strength Infantry Company. The place seemed \nalive with Regular Army officers and non-commissioned officers, who herded us \nabout rapidly, and rushed us through all the ordinarily endless standing in line \nand waiting, for allotment to companies and for the issue of Government property, \nwhich seemed an inevitable concomitant of Army life. There was a mass-meeting \nheld that night, at which the purpose of the Camp and the objects to be attained, \nand what would be expected of the candidates, was explained to them in brief, \nconcise, military language by the Commanding Officer of the Camp and by other \nSenior Officers. At the end, there was a roar of applause, and much hand- \n\n\n^4 \n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n25 \n\n\nclapping. In horror, the Senior Major sprang to his feet, and, in biting and \nsarcastic terms, directed attention to the fact that in the Army it was not cus\u00ac \ntomary to evince either approbation or disapprobation, and ended with the \nwords, \u201cHereafter, it will not be done!\u201d. Somewhat crestfallen, the candidates \ndispersed, feeling, however, that after all they had been started off on the right \nfoot (or rather, the left foot, according to Infantry Drill Regulations), and that, \nanyway, this was the real thing. \n\nIn a little over twenty-four hours the training was under way, although made \ndifficult by various inconveniences. For, the truth was, things were not ready. \nThere was a shortage of certain kinds of equipment, sanitary arrangements were \npractically non-existent, the food fell below the standard of the Army ration in \nquantity and quality, and the blankets which had been issued were some which \nhad been discarded by the Red Cross as being too small and too light. This last \nwas remedied by a telegram to New York, and by sleeping with clothes and over\u00ac \ncoats on until heavy blankets arrived, for the nights on Lake Champlain in \nMay are still quite cold. All these things would have been of minor importance, \nsave for the fact that the men were not hardened, coming as they did straight \nfrom sedentary lives in cities; and the unaccustomed, hard physical exercise \nwas making rapid adjustment to conditions difficult enough in itself. In com\u00ac \nparing notes with other men after the War, we all agreed that the conditions \nunder which we lived for the first two weeks at Plattsburgh that spring, in view \nof our physical unpreparedness for them, were equal to an}d:hing which we \nexperienced in the way of discomfort during our later war experience. But in \na comparatively short time mistakes were rectified, conditions were improved, \nand our attention was free to be directed to the training itself. \n\nThis training was of a much more severe and intensive character than any\u00ac \nthing which any of us had experienced before. I had chosen the Infantry, \nbecause I had always walked a great deal, and because for some years I had \nbeen working with men, at a Rescue Mission operated by the Church of which \nI was a member, of the type which we were likely to get from the draft, and I \nfelt that I knew something about the way in which to handle them. Also, becau^ \nI felt a certain diffidence in regard to my ability to cope with the various mail|^ \nmatical formulae and calculations necessary in the Field Artillery. The \nstarted with Reveille, after which we were marched to Mess. At eight o\u2019clock \nthe work began, and, with intervals of ten minutes between each hour, continued \nuntil noon. We were marched again to Mess in the middle of the day, and were \nat work again from two to four in the afternoon. Ordinarily, an hour\u2019s drill \nalternated with an hour\u2019s lecture, usually outdoors, on some military topic, but \nwhen the Company was marched out on the Peru Road to the open rolling \ncountry for tactical problems, the whole morning was devoted to it. Retreat, \nat five o\u2019clock, was followed by Evening Mess, and from seven to nine o\u2019clock \nin the evening we were in School, the first hour there being devoted to study, \nand the second hour to a lecture with an examination and a quiz. \n\nIt was a singularly ill-chosen and inappropriate hour to devote to that pur\u00ac \npose, for all concerned were far from being mentally at their best, as they were \n\n\n26 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nby that time pretty thoroughly exhausted from the day\u2019s work. I remember \nvividly one particular evening when I found it practically impossible to stay \nawake. By keeping myself busied with books and papers during the first hour, \nI had succeeded in staving off slumber, but when the lecture started and there \nwas nothing to do but sit still, the soothing tones of the Regular Army Officer\u2019s \nvoice proved to be more than nature could cope \\vith, and the proceedings became \nenveloped in a gradually thickening mist, as far as I was concerned. Suddenly, \nto my horror, I heard myself called on by the Instructor, to explain how I would \nhave carried out the problem in question from that point, had I been in com\u00ac \nmand, and what mistakes, if any, had been made in the order which had been \nactually given. I arose promptly to my feet, in a military and alert manner, \nbut within was a complete void. I had heard nothing of the problem. An \nagonized and hurried mental groping did nothing to stimulate memory. The \none word \u201cpursuit\u201d came, out of the general blackness. So I replied that it \nseemed to me that the mistake had been in not exploiting the advantage gained; \nthat pursuit, prompt and immediate, had been indicated at that point. I warmed \nup to it as I went along, and said that apparently the Commanding Officer had \nforgotten the military rule,\u2014when in doubt, do something, even if it is wrong; \nnever do nothing. I thought that the order for pursuit should have been given \nat once, not forgetting to include the appropriate flank protection dictated by \nthe nature of the terrain and the dispositions of the enemy. I remembered that \nfrom that morning\u2019s work. Realizing that I was beginning to run down, I re\u00ac \nsumed my seat with the feeling that my chance of a commission had now gone \nfor good, expecting to hear low but derisive laughter. There was a silence, which \nI took to be merely the calm before the storm. Then, to my utter amazement \nand relief, I heard the Instructor say, in his most impressive manner, that he \ncould not emphasize enough the point which had just been made; and he then \nproceeded to expatiate upon the subject of pursuit in general, and the clearly \nindicated necessity for it in this particular instance, and to insist that rapid and \nimmediate appreciation of the right action to be taken at a juncture, an example \nof which had just been given, must be cultivated by all ranks. I felt that I was an \nauthority on minor tactics, from then on. It was simple\u2014I could do it in my \nsleep. \n\nClose to the Canadian border, as we were at Plattsburgh, there was a large \nRoman Catholic element in the population. Just outside the town, there was a \ncemetery, and in it a singularly beautiful, life-size Calvary; it was in an isolated \nposition, so that it stood out in a way which at once arrested attention, and the \nfigure of the Christ on the Cross was that of a man, militant and courageous, \nrising above all suffering, radiating victory, an example of obedience unto death, \nthe ideal of the Soldier. One dark and misty morning my Company started out \nto march to the open country to work out tactical problems in the field. As usual, \nwe marched at attention until we were clear of the town, and then, at the \ncommand, we marched at ease, as was customary when any distance had to be \ncovered, in order to minimize fatigue. The leading platoon started to sing, \n\u201cThere\u2019s a Long, Long Trail\u201d, and the whole column took it up. The Company \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n27 \n\n\nswung around the turn of the road, and marched on the cemetery. The mists \nhung low, completely obliterating the graves and the headstones, gathering about \nthe foot of the Calvary in masses, and causing it to stand out in bold relief \nagainst a still darkened skyline, while the first rays of the sun, struggling through \nthe clouds, fell directly upon the figure of the Christ, illuminating it, and in turn \nreceiving back some of its radiance and its glory. There was a sheen of light, and \nas the head of the column saw it, the song which they were singing stopped, and \ngradually died away all down the line. There was a moment or two of silence, \nand then, at the head of the column, without a word of command, rifles were \nshifted to the right shoulder, the marching was at attention again, and the leading \nplatoon started to sing, \u201cThe Son of God goes forth to War\u201d. There was a \nripple, as the whole column came to attention, and took up the hymn all down \nthe line, \u201cWho follows in his train?\u201d The singing was full of feeling now,\u2014not \nthe emotion of the revival meeting, but from the hearts of men who were facing \nfacts, who had measured what the future might hold; men, of officer calibre, who \nwere to lead other men in battle. \n\n\u201cWho best can drink his cup of woe, \n\nTriumphant over pain?\u201d \n\nMany of them were to enter upon that long, long trail, but they were not afraid, \nthen, of what they would find at the end of it. They had caught, for the moment \nat least, from that figure of Christ in his radiance, something of the spirit of \nVictory; they marched, uplifted, in the very presence of their Captain. \n\nImpossible to doubt, after this, that a far different spirit and attitude were \nanimating the hearts and minds of the men, than in the Camp of the previous \nyear. They were alive, awake, and eager. They did not talk much about how \nthey felt in deeper ways. Men together in such circumstances, never do. They \ntook it out in the way in which they did their work. The morale of the Camp was \nhigh, and as the majority of the men were considerably above the average in \nability and general experience, they often first surprised, then amazed, the \nRegular Army Instructors by their aptitude, and the rapidity with which they \nassimilated what they were taught. To the Instructors, it was a brand-new \nexperience to command men of this type in such numbers, and, stimulated by \nthe experience, they in turn responded, and the instruction proceeded at \nrapid pace. The officer candidates varied in age from the early twenties tflRc \nmiddle thirties. vSome of them were already officers in the Reserve Corps, but, \nwhile these men lived in a separate Barracks and were used to some extent to \nhelp in the instruction, their commissions were not safe, and had to be earned all \nover again; indeed, I can remember one man who started as a Captain of \nInfantry in the Reserve, and ended as a Second Lieutenant in the Quartermaster \nCorps, that lowest form of military life! Other candidates, while not in the \nReserve, had been Officers in the National Guard, and had been on the Mexican \nBorder the previous summer. They annoyed us a great deal, for, from the heights \nof their experience, they were constantly holding forth as to how things had been \ndone, in this way or that, on the Border; some of them made the mistake of \ntelling all this to the Regular Army Instructors, who responded in the manner \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n28 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nto be expected, with the result that the entire National Guard caste soon relapsed \nto its proper level in the scheme of things, where indi\\'idual ability and adapta\u00ac \nbility, as evinced at the moment, alone counted. A number of the candidates \nwere very young men, who were certain to be called later in the draft in any event, \nand who, as long as they had to go anyway, wanted to go as officers. Then \nthere was a leaven of somewhat older men, who had convictions about the War, \nand were in for that reason; some of them, indeed, had already seen service \noverseas as War correspondents, ambulance drivers, or actually in the Allied \nArmies, and, now that the United States was in, had returned home to get com\u00ac \nmissions in our Army and to go at it again. A mixed lot, but a highly interesting \none. The shirkers had no chance; some of those left us early in the game. Some \nwere discharged, too, for physical or other inability to stand up to it. Some few \nmen never did get along, spent a miserable three months, and were simply not \ncommissioned at all at the end. But they were very few, relatively, and the \nlevel of general attainment and efficiency was so high, and the spirit of mutual \nco-operation and of willingness to help the other fellow to put his best foot for\u00ac \nward was so general, that the atmosphere was stimulating and exhilarating in \nthe extreme. \n\nI have said that men, especially younger men, do not talk easily about their \ndeeper feelings and convictions in such circumstances, and it is true. But the \ndeeper those convictions and feelings, the more surely would they express them\u00ac \nselves in outer actions and in chance words, so that those men gradually began \nto stand out among the others. Then, little by little, in the nature of things, \nthey naturally gravitated together, and formed a centre or a nucleus. In spite \nof the high morale, or, rather, probably because of it, there was a steady stream \nof grousing when things went wrong, of grumbling, of complaint at antediluvian \nmethods; this was entirely healthy, a mere working-off of steam, and is always \npresent in the Army, and means in general exactly nothing at all. But, in the \ncircumstances in which we found ourselves, it did mean that individual needs or \nweaknesses often became apparent in this way, and it was possible to meet and \ncorrect them, by degrees, with tact and understanding; to try to turn tendencies \nin individuals, which might have become destructive later on under the pressure \nof war conditions, into constructive forces, for the good of the Service. This \ncould not be done by abstract lecturing, but only by the effort to be all things \nto all men; by talking with them in their own terms, by trying to raise the general \ninner level. I was personally greatly aided in this sort of effort by something \nwhich happened after we had been in Camp for several weeks. Five of us, all \nolder men, were summoned to report one evening at the Quarters of our Com\u00ac \nmanding Officer. He informed us, after telling us to say nothing to anyone about \nit, that we would all be commissioned at the end of the Camp in the higher grades \n(the highest of which was the grade of Major). The reason, he said, why we \nwere being told this at that time, was because he himself felt in need of the assis\u00ac \ntance and co-operation which he knew we could give, not only in the adminis\u00ac \ntration of the Company, but also in arriving at a proper and fair estimate as to \nthe capabilities and characters of some of the younger men, which we would be \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n29 \n\n\nbetter able to appraise in certain ways than he himself possibly could. Then \nand there we were asked to give our views in regard to at least twenty men, \nand in most cases not only were thos^ \\dews practically unanimous, but they \nfrequently coincided with the judgment which our Commanding Officer had \nalready formed. This fact encouraged him greatly, and stimulated us; we \nrealized at once that we were all going to see eye to eye, and that there were \ngreat possibilities in the situation for co-operation in the most real sense; and \nthat the Commanding Officer, working in his way with us, would insure turning \ninto efficient officers some of those younger men with whom we had already been \nworking as individuals. From that time on, a certain amount of unobtrusive \ndisciplinary authority was vested in us five men. We had the power to award, \nor to withhold for cause, passes to leave Camp on Saturdays for the night. We \nalternated in the command of platoons, which gave us the opportunity of study\u00ac \ning the men more intimately, and of checking each other\u2019s judgment. There is \nno place where rumour is more rife; where things become known, or partly \nknown, more rapidly than in the Army, in spite of all precautions. We became \nvested, through rumour, with far more power and authority than we possessed, \nbut this was in fact not at all a bad thing, for it enabled us, in talking with indi\u00ac \nviduals, to speak with some measure of actual authority, and increased our oppor\u00ac \ntunities to help others. \n\nStimulating and exhilarating as the life was, it was hard work. Not so much \nphysically, for after a month of it, we were in better bodily condition than we \nhad been in for years. It was the pace that was so fast. No pressure of circum\u00ac \nstances in civilian life had ever forced us to such continuously intensive living as \nthis. Yet it was never too hard, for it always seemed possible, by an effort of will, \nconsciously to break through the level upon which one was functioning to a \nhigher level, upon which one got a sort of second wind after a hectic day or so, \nand from which one never again wished to recede. We made mistakes, plenty of \nthem. We were terribly ignorant of the elementary details of what Julius \nCaesar called the art of war and the drawing up of heavy armed troops, of detai^ \nwhich had been second nature to our Instructors for years. There was^^ \nopportunity to exercise individual initiative in these respects; we had simply to \nlearn, and memorize facts and Regulations; in this way were things done and \nno other; that method was right, any other method was wrong. Now, at the \nage of thirty-five, it is exceedingly difficult to memorize long pages of instructions \nrapidly; but, as a matter of fact, this was absolutely necessary, especially in the \nInfantry training, and we recognized it. The Artillery candidates were greatly \nhandicapped in their instruction by the fact that they had no guns at all, and only \na few horses, and, as a result, most of the knowledge which they acquired was \ntheoretical and came from books and lectures. But, as Infantry, we were com\u00ac \npletely equipped, with modem rifles and the heavy pack. We had an immense \nParade Ground for close order company drill, and with a Company of two hun\u00ac \ndred and fifty men, it was possible to treat the Platoons as Battalions, and to \ngain considerable knowledge of how to drill the Battalion itself. We had the \nhills and the rolling country near the Camp for extended order drill, where we \n\n\n30 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ndeployed and worked out tactical problems with blank ammunition. We had \nour trenches and barbed-wire entanglements, interspersed with bags of straw \nto represent Germans, which we took by assault with the bayonet. We had the \nrifle and pistol ranges, where quite a high degree of efficiency in shooting was \ndeveloped. We had practice in military map-reading, and in making military \nmaps ourselves, being sent out individually for this purpose to map a certain \narea. As the training progressed, many of us were given the entire Company, \nin turn, for, say, half an hour at a time, under varying circumstances and con\u00ac \nditions, that we might have the opportunity of exercising the functions of \ncommand. All the facilities to make it possible really to learn our jobs were ours. \nTo make proper use of these facilities, we had to learn the fundamental, rudi\u00ac \nmentary facts upon which that use was based,\u2014and we learned them; though \nwith groanings that, unfortunately, were sometimes uttered. For we recognized \nthe fact that we could attain something then and there which was going to be \nessential later overseas; we believed even then that the stalemate of trench \nwarfare on the Western Front could not last, and that before a decision could \nbe reached there ultimately, open warfare, the war of movement, the kind of \nthing that our own Regular Army knew something about, and that we had a \nchance to learn about ourselves on the hills around Plattsburgh, was going to \ncome into its own. \n\nTime passed swiftly, one day of intense activity succeeded another with light\u00ac \nning rapidity, and before we knew it, the end of the Camp was in sight. As a \nmatter of fact, the pace had been so fast, that the entire command began to go \nstale after the last month of instruction had started, and orders were issued to \nease off on the training in various ways for a few days, to allow all concerned to \nget their breath again. This temporary let-up produced the desired result, and \nwas a very wise move, as it enabled everyone to make a strong finish, and to \nleave in the very best possible condition, from every point of view, to take up \nthe real work for which all this had been merely a preparation. Various events \nof that last month were more amusing in retrospect than they were at the time. \nI remember an over-night hike, eight miles down the macadam road beside the \nLake, to a large field bordered by a small stream, where the New York Regiment \nspent the night under shelter tents, marching back to Plattsburgh the following \nmorning. We started off at two o\u2019clock on an exceedingly hot afternoon. The \nsun, beating down all day on the road, had softened it and brought the tar to \nthe top, so that the surface was just sticky enough to hold the sole of the shoe \nback when a step forward was taken, and make it rub against the foot. As a \nresult, more than half of the command had blisters on their feet when they arrived \nat the camping ground, and every available minute, between then and the start \nthe next day, was spent sitting with their feet in the stream trying to cool them \noff. The worst of it was that those same feet had to be used for the eight mile \nmarch back, with the result that there were more blisters, and the old ones were \nraw. The theory back of this entertainment had been, that it would be helpful \nfor us to have the experience of cooking for ourselves in the open. The proper \nrations were issued, and we had the necessary equipment, but the trouble was \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n31 \n\n\nthat the great majority knew nothing whatever about cooking, and subsisted \nfor two meals mainly on raw bacon, uncooked potatoes, and water. A thoroughly \npoor time was had by all. Once a week, for several successive Saturdays, we \nwere inoculated for practically every known disease, in turn. Some men suffered \nno ill effects whatever; but the majority would run a slight temperature by the \nevening, and feel generally wretched for about twelve hours, after which the \neffects gradually wore off, and they would be entirely fit again when work \nstarted early Monday morning. But this diversion, which the Government so \nkindly provided for us at no expense, militated against our enjoyment of the \nweek-ends; for by that time Plattsburgh, socially, was a very different place \nfrom the early days in May. The Hotel down the Lake had opened, families \nand friends had made their appearance, and it was possible, not only to get a \nsquare meal amid pleasant surroundings and under enjoyable conditions, but \nalso to hear, from older men who were really informed, about the progress of the \npreparation which was being made in Washington for our military effort. \n\nAs the end of the Camp approached, it was essential to weigh and to analyze \nthe experience of the past weeks, in the effort, not only to profit by errors of \nomission and commission, but also to see what one had to go forward with, \nwhat one had really learned in the truest and deepest sense. It had been difficult \nfor me, for instance, to report unfavourably about men who had really tried \nhard and sincerely; to feel myself forced to say that, in spite of all their efforts, \nand of satisfactory performance of duty they were entirely unfitted, because of \nsome inherent weakness in character, to lead other men. But it was a question \nof the lives of others, which would be entrusted to them later on if they were \ncommissioned, and of the honour of the Army. Clearly it was a test, as far as \nI was concerned, of real impersonality, of real detachment. Clearly those two \nqualities lay at the very heart of the soldier spirit; one would be called upon to \nmake use of them constantly in the future; one would be required later on, again \nand again, to estimate other men accurately and quickly, and to act at once \nupon that appraisal; there would be no time then for a leisurely consideration. \nIt was obvious, too, that men who were unfit to lead had to be protected from \nthemselves; it would be grossly unfair to them, through one\u2019s own failure to \nface the facts from false sentiment or a mistaken idea of giving them their chanj|^ \nto cause them to be placed in positions in which they would inevitably baPK \ndown later, with possibly attendant disgrace. If men did not know the military \nvalue of self-control, if they could not control themselves, clearly they were not \ngoing to be able to control those under their command. Yet there was comfort \nin the thought that, in spite of present failure, they were going to have another \nchance, and that the disappointment of to-day might well prove to be their \nmaking in the long run; for most of them were young men, who would be called \nlater in the draft. It would be possible for them, then, to learn self-control, \nself-command, in terms of the military life, in terms which they could under\u00ac \nstand, which they would have to understand. It would be possible, once having \nlearned these things in those terms, to get, perhaps, in another life, the idea of \ndiscipleship, to work them out in terms of discipleship. With this realization \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n32 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ncame the reminder that, not only for them, but also for those of us who were in \nthe Movement, difficulties and hardships and disappointments were always \nopportimities, and always would be. Certainly in the military life, in so far as it \nhad opened up, this was true, and it was clear that, in all probability, the future \nwas going to be full of opportunities! \n\nIt was the intention, at this First Officers\u2019 Training Camp, to draw from each \nInfantry Training Company of two hundred and fifty officer candidates, the \ncommissioned personnel, up to the grade of Field Officer, for a regiment of In\u00ac \nfantry in the 77th Division, which was to be organized at Camp Upton on Long \nIsland, and was to be filled with the draft from New York. The Colonel, the \nLieutenant Colonel, and the three Majors were to be Regular Army officers; \nwe were to fill the other grades. Accordingly, at the very end of the Camp and \nafter we had been commissioned, several of us were asked to meet together and, \nacting upon this information and upon our knowledge of each other, to draw up \na provisional roster of the commissioned personnel of our regiment, which would, \nof course, be subject to revision by higher authority. Armed with the latest \nTables of Organization of an infantry regiment, we spent an entire afternoon \nat this, and after we had given ourselves and each other what we considered \nwere good jobs, grouping ourselves as far as possible as Company Commanders \nin the same battalions, we distributed the others, who were not present, through\u00ac \nout the various units, with a due regard to preserving a desirable balance of \nability and efficiency in each. We were greatly pleased with ourselves when we \nhad finished, feeling that we were now all set to get on with the War, and fondly \nhoping, so little did we still know of the way in which things are really done in \nthe Army in war time, that this effort of ours was to be the last word on the sub\u00ac \nject, and that, after the two weeks\u2019 leave to which we were now entitled, we \nshould meet again at Camp Upton and all carry on together. The final event \nof the Camp was a Dress Parade, when we were reviewed by various notables, \nand received considerable applause from a Parade Ground lined with spectators. \nAfter which, and not without a feeling of regret that this phase was over, in spite \nof my eagerness for what the future had in store, I took the train for New York, \na Captain of Infantry in the new National Army. \n\nCenturion \n\n\n(To be continued) \n\n\n11 is not so much the size of the dog in the fight, as the size of the fight in the dog .\u2014 \nE. J. Young. \n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\nT he Recorder asked for comments on the Convention. Generalities, such \nas \u201csplendid\u201d, \u201ca great success\u201d, were the only result. Then the Phi\u00ac \nlosopher explained: \u201cI object\u201d, he said, \u201cto talking for publication when \nadequate comment would oblige one to go beneath the surface. The surface of \nthe Convention was most satisfactory; what lay beneath the surface was even \nbetter,\u2014but what that was, sceptics would not understand, and it is a mistake \nto speak of spiritual realities to those whose experience does not include \nthem.\u201d \n\n\u201cI should like to explain this\u201d, said one of the editors of the Quarterly: \n\u201cThe report of the Convention in the next (July) issue must necessarily be incom\u00ac \nplete, because, o\\\\ing to extraordinary political conditions in some European \ncountries, it would be unwise to mention the presence of certain delegates, or \neven to print the letters of greeting received from Branches or groups of students \nin those countries. In fairness I should add that the members involved are willing \nto take the risk; but it is our duty to protect them so far as possible, and to \nthink, not only of present conditions, but of what might happen in the event of \nwar. There are one or two South American republics where men of European \nbirth are \u2018marked\u2019 by their compatriots as \u2018traitors\u2019, when such men do not adopt \nthe particular form of patriotism, favoured by the majority.\u201d \n\n\u201cI wish very much\u201d, the Historian now volunteered, \u201cthat one or two current \nevents had precipitated, so to speak, shortly before instead of after the Con\u00ac \nvention. First, on May 8th, at Philadelphia of all places (I am quoting from \nThe New York Times of May gth): ^ \n\nWithout a dissenting vote the national convention of the Young Women\u2019s Christian \nAssociation gave its support to Birth Control legislation. . .. This was the first time that \nthe Y. W. C. A. had accorded official recognition to the Birth Control movement. . . . \nConsiderable surprise was expressed when the delegates, numbering nearly 1800, voice^ \nno opposition. \n\n\u201cI wish we might have had the opportunity to comment, at our Convention, \non the performance of those 1800 women,\u2014on their repudiation of religious \nprinciples and of natural law. Of all the brutalizing, soul-destro}dng influences \nin modem life. Birth Control is among the worst. The frequency of divorce, \nwhich has become a national scandal, is one of its direct results. The action \nof the Y. W. C. A. proves that their use of the word \u2018Christian\u2019 is a mockery; \nthat they have aligned themselves with the forces of moral libertinism; that \nthey must be counted hereafter as enemies of everything for which we stand. \nThat there are decent women among them I do not question for a moment. It \nis the old story of mob psychology; of the fear, which many women share, of \nseeming \u2018old-fashioned\u2019. Some hard-boiled woman doctor shouts at them about \ntheir \u2018rights\u2019, jibes at them for their ignorance of \u2018science\u2019, almost suffocates them \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n34 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nwith filthy detail, browbeats them into a distrust of their own instincts, until \nwhatever refinement and delicacy they may naturally possess are submerged by \na sense of helplessness and fatality. Even so, they cannot escape the most \nterrible responsibility for the degradation of married life, not to speak of un\u00ac \nmarried life, of which their cowardice is the direct cause. If they still believe in a \nDay of Judgment\u2014and the trouble is that few of them do\u2014they would do well \nto think of such things,\u2014now. Their organization in any case, which, like the \nGirls\u2019 Friendly Society, has been going down hill for years\u2014religion pushed out \nas materialistic modernism has been poured in\u2014may as well realize that its \nlatest pronouncement \\vill force everyone who has the welfare of young girls at \nheart, to steer them as far as possible from its baneful influence. \n\n\u201cAnother current event which would have served to illustrate one of the topics \ntouched on at the Convention, is the recent persecution of Andrew W. Mellon, \nwho was Secretary of the Treasury in three Republican Administrations. I have \nnever come into contact with him, directly or indirectly, so I do not speak as a \nfriend, or even as an admirer\u2014for personally I think he showed wretched judg\u00ac \nment under President Hoover during the \u2018boom\u2019 which collapsed in 1929. The \nfact remains that the procedure of the present government against him ought to \nhave brought this country to its feet in a roar of indignant protest. His only \nactual offence was his wealth, taken in conjunction with his political affiliation. \nThe radicals in Washington hate him, and did their utmost to injure him, solely \nfor that reason; and because Theosophy stands for justice to rich and poor \nequally; because members of The Theosophical Society are or ought to be pas\u00ac \nsionate lovers of justice \u2018without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour\u2019, \nit would have been very much in order if our committee on resolutions had ex\u00ac \npressed themselves freely and frankly against the iniquitous misuse of govern\u00ac \nmental power of which the persecution of Mr. Mellon is an instance. As, how\u00ac \never, this was not possible\u2014for the matter did not come to a head until after \nour Convention\u2014I want to \u2018read into the record\u2019 for publication in the \u2018Screen\u2019, \na protest by Samuel Harden Church, President of the Carnegie Institute, which \nhe telegraphed to The New York Times on May 8th from Pittsburgh, as follows: \n\nThe action of the grand jury in exonerating Andrew W. Mellon from the attempt of the \ngovernment to make him a criminal without the privilege of having a hearing and making \nan argument in defending the honesty of his income tax return will gratify every impartial \nmind in this country. \n\nIn seeking to justify his assault upon Mr. Mellon\u2019s character, Attorney General Cum\u00ac \nmings made the announcement that it is his policy to present to each citizen the govern\u00ac \nment\u2019s tax claim, and if the full amount of that claim is not paid without any further \ndiscussion of the matter a criminal indictment will be demanded. \n\nThe cool, calculating villainy of this statement has shocked America, and in attempting \nto enforce such a ruthless policy the government has jeopardized the liberty of every \ncitizen. The action of the government in Mr. Mellon\u2019s case is a shame and an outrage, \nand the responsibility for this unpardonable act of tyranny must rest directly upon \nPresident Roosevelt. \n\n\u201cA third event worth noting would have been two front-page, large-type head\u00ac \nlines in The New York Times of May 31st. One of these announced: 'Roosevelt \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n35 \n\n\nhails New Unity in Nation, . . . **All Brothers now in a New Understanding'', \nhe tells Auditors'; the other announced: 'Textile Strike is Imminent; Steel \nWalkout Threatened.' Worthy of Mrs. Eddy! But I wondered if many people \nsaw the point.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018My contribution is not modern, but ancient\u201d, the Engineer commented. \n\u2018\u2018I am reading Tibet, Past and Present, by Sir Charles Bell. Yesterday I came \nacross a passage in which the author states that toward the end of the eighth \ncentury, Mu-ni Tsem-po, King of Tibet, decided there must be a New Deal. \nSome men were poor, others rich; this was wrong. He ordained, therefore, \nthat all men should share equally in the wealth of the country. So an equal \ndivision was made. Much to the King\u2019s annoyance, the equality soon dis\u00ac \nappeared. Twice again all were made to share and share alike; but the in\u00ac \nequalities became worse than before, because some were idle and some in\u00ac \ndustrious, some had brains, others none, while many of those who had been both \npoor and indolent became more indolent during their interval of ease, and thus \nbecame poorer than ever. \n\n\u2018\u2018The upshot? After the King\u2019s third attempt, his mother poisoned him.\u2019' \n\n\u2018\u2018Really?\u201d exclaimed the Student: \u2018\u2018almost too good to be true,\u2014particularly \nthe coup de grdce!\" \n\n\u2018\u2018Read it for yourself; it is all in Bell\u2019s book.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Mothers are not what they used to be\u201d, the Historian pronoimced, with what \nhe intended to sound like a groan. \n\n\u2018\u2018Just as well for some of us perhaps!\u201d the Recorder injected. \n\n\u2018\u2018If a violent change of subject be allowable\u201d, the Student now said, \u2018\u2018may I \nsuggest that it would be a kindness to members of the Society in Germany if \nsome light might be thrown on their duty in the very difficult political conditions \nconfronting them.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Why more difficult than the position of some of us here?\u201d the Engineer asked. \n\u2018\u2018My company sports the Blue Eagle, or whatever the animal is (it looks like a \ncrow), which is supposed to signify that we are co-operating under the terms of \nthe National Recovery Act (NRA); and we are co-operating, for the simpk \nreason that we cannot possibly do otherwise: but this does not mean thatjM \napprove of all or any of its provisions. As a matter of fact we do not approv^\u2014 \nvery few business people do; but this is no new experience, seeing that more than \nhalf the laws in force, both State and Federal, are vote-catching devices, and are \ninherently wrong and asinine. No matter what country, or under what form of \ngovernment you live, you have to decide, in the last analysis, whether it is your \nduty to remain there or not; and at that stage it is well to remember that \u2018the \nduty of another is full of danger\u2019.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018lam glad you brought that out\u201d, commented the Ancient, \u2018\u2018for the tendency \nof German members will be to demand uniformity of opinion and conduct among \nthemselves. None of us can escape entirely from the influence of heredity and \nenvironment, and a German member, without realizing it, will instinctively \nresent any departure from the rhythm of his own goose-step. He will want to \nsay: One, Two, Three\u2014March! expecting his fellow-members to fall into line \n\n\n36 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nwith him. I say this in all kindliness. My desire is to help; not to criticize: \nbut the only way to help is to point out those tendencies which are obvious to \neveryone except to those who are in danger of being dominated by them. \n\n\u201cThe German people as a whole have been brought up and educated on the \nbasis of the \u2018categorical imperative\u2019; they expect a dogmatic answer to all ques\u00ac \ntions\u2014a stereotyped answer, narrow, precise, but of universal applicability. \nThis is something that Theosophy never will or can supply,\u2014any more than \nChrist, or Gautama Buddha supplied it. Theosophy reveals the underlying \nprinciples of right thought and conduct, but leaves it to the individual to apply \nthose principles to his own problems. There could be no spiritual growth if all \nour problems were solved for us in terms of an infinitely detailed Code which we \nsimply had to obey. The Pharisees had such a code, and we know what hap\u00ac \npened to them. \n\n\u201cThe English approach to things is the exact opposite of the German. It is \nepitomized in those lines by Kipling: \u2018There are five-and-forty ways of writing \ntribal lays, and every single one of them is right.\u2019 The idea is vitally important \nand essentially true; its danger is that it may lead to everlasting compromise, \nand, at its worst, to the feeling that \u2018nothing really matters\u2019\u2014a fatal weakness. \n\n\u201cBut we are now considering the problem, or the need, of German members, \nand not only of those who live in Germany. I should say that their greatest \nneed is to refrain, with all their hearts, from sitting in judgment on each other, \nand then, if they would atone for the sins of their nation and race; if they would \nfill the part of the ten righteous men who might have saved Sodom and Go\u00ac \nmorrah,\u2014let them cultivate humility, that true humility, supremely exemplified \nby H.P.B. and Judge, the only force that can neutralize the self-assertion and \narrogance, and at the same time the timidity (a seeming paradox), which are so \nlargely responsible for the fact that Germany has sold itself to the devil\u2014for \npower.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cNow you\u2019ve hit it\u2019\u2019, said the Student; \u201cI mean, have hit upon what seems to \nbe the radical difference between the position of German members and our own. \nWe know that our Government is capable of every kind of folly, and even of \nwrong; but we know also that its intentions are not evil, and that it is not \nhatching some hideous plot suddenly to pounce on Canada or Mexico, for \nrevenge, lust of power, or from jealousy. The German members, on the other \nhand, cannot fail to realize that their Government, with ninety-five per cent \nof the population, have no scruples, no conscience, and would seize the territory \nof any of their neighbours to-morrow, if it were thought reasonably safe to do so. \nCan it be right to remain the citizen of a country which so obviously has become \nan instrument of the Black Lodge?\u201d \n\n\u201cThat is exactly what German members have to decide for themselves, and \nwhat we cannot decide for them. If we were foolish enough to advise them \n(which is just what a novice would be likely to do), we should not only deprive \nthem of the merit of right (that is, of conscientious) decision, but should neces\u00ac \nsarily take the consequences or Karma of our advice upon ourselves and\u2014far \nmore important\u2014upon the Society. Further, as I have suggested already, one \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n37 \n\n\nman\u2019s duty, in similar but not quite the same circumstances, may be and often \nis entirely different from the duty of another. \u2018Judge not, that ye be not judged\u2019. \nWe shall not judge them; it remains to be seen if they have a sufficient under\u00ac \nstanding of Theosophy to act on the same principle as between themselves. \nWhen will people learn that it is the motive that makes an act black or white, \nrather than the act itself! For example: one man arms in defence of his wife and \nchildren; another man arms in order to attack them; Pacifists see no difference, \nor pretend to see no difference, between the action of the two men; Theosophy, \nwhich is synonymous with enlightened common-sense, sees all the difference in \nthe world. In the same way, two men might leave Germany, one with a bad and \nthe other with a good motive. It is impossible to judge their behaviour on the \nbasis of their outer conduct only, and heaven alone knows what mixture of \nmotives may be actuating them.\u201d \n\n\u201cBut if we cannot judge on the basis of outer action, and if it be so difficult \nto see into motives, what ground can you have for saying that Germany has \n\u2018sold herself to the devil\u2014for power\u2019?\u201d One of our visitors asked this question. \n\n\u2018\u2018Ground enough,\u2014acres and miles of ground\u201d, laughed the Engineer; \u2018\u2018that \nof the statements poured forth during the past year or more, by Germany\u2019s \n\u2018leaders and official heads\u2019,\u2014statements greeted with rapturous applause by an \nimmense majority of the German people. When a man hangs out a sign announc\u00ac \ning that he is a burglar, you may think him cracked, but you would be unwise \nto leave your watch on his doorstep; and the truth is that Germany glories in \nbeing a law unto herself, with a right to everything she can wrest from those who \nprove themselves weaker than she is. \u2018Might makes right\u2019, is her declared \ncreed,\u2014the changeless creed of \u2018that old serpent, called the Dragon, and Satan, \nwhich deceiveth the whole world.\u2019 \u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018I wonder whether readers of the Quarterly tire of our constant references to \nhumility\u201d, the Historian now said; \u2018\u2018I wonder if they regard our \u2018predications\u2019 \non the subject as pious counsels of perfection, without practical importance, and \nas having no bearing in any case on occultism, or on a man\u2019s ability to be of use \nto the Movement and to the Lodge. On the chance that some feel that way about \nit, I should like to make this challenging assertion: that of the ten million \n\u2018known dead\u2019 of the Great War, half that number lost their lives through vaMy \n(lack of humility),\u2014and not necessarily their own: far from it. Obstinacy, \nbe it remembered, is a form of vanity; and if a man makes a plan, and sticks to it \njust because it is his plan\u2014sticks to it regardless of changed conditions, or of the \nwarnings of friends\u2014with the result that many thousands of lives are lost, it is \nclear to my mind that the loss of life was caused by his vanity, and that if he \nhad been humble of heart, and therefore open-minded, those who were killed, \nmight be alive to-day. \n\n\u2018\u2018No one can study the literature of the Great War\u2014or of any other war for \nthat matter\u2014without being struck, time after time, by instances of scandalous \nwaste of life due to this factor. Take, for example, the Boer War of 1899-1902: \nSir Redvers Buller, appointed to command the British forces on the outbreak of \nhostilities, left England for South Africa on October nth, the British War Office \n\n\n38 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthinking it probable that the Boers would be wiped out and that the war would \nbe over, before he arrived; that Sir George White, with his sixteen thousand \nmen in Natal, might easily settle the whole thing. Yet the War Office had an \nIntelligence Branch, headed by Sir John Ardagh, which had prepared two \nvolumes on the military and other resources of the Boer Republics, and which \nhad advised the War Office that 200,000 men would be required. When these \ntwo volumes were sent to Buller before his departure, he returned them within \nan hour, with the message that he \u2018knew all about South Africa\u2019. The result was, \nof course, that he led his armies into one mess after another, at Colenso, Spion \nKop and elsewhere, and that Lord Roberts, with Kitchener as chief of staff, \nhad to be sent out as commander-in-chief before the end of the year. It would \nhave been impossible to teach Buller anything. He was not what is ordinarily \ncalled a vain man, but thought he knew it all, or, rather, that he knew as much \nas was necessary, and certainly ten times as much as any civilian,\u2014and there \nwere innumerable civilians in South Africa, of British birth, who knew Boer \nstrategy and tactics, and the personnel of the Boer command, as well as the Boers \nthemselves. \n\n\u201cI should explain, perhaps, that I get my statement about Buffer\u2019s rejection of \nthose two volumes of laboriously garnered Intelligence, from Winston Spencer \nChurchill\u2019s My Early Life; but I happen, independently of Churchill, to know \na good deal about that war, and about the leading men on both sides. On the \nBoer side. General Botha, a very forceful and able man, a great statesman and \npatriot as well as a great general\u2014undoubtedly the greatest man South Africa \nhas produced\u2014was astonishingly humble; not only unpretentious and free from \negotism, but with a mind perpetually open, and as willing to learn from his \nenemies as from his friends, from his subordinates as from his seniors. Cronje \non the other hand, also a Boer\u2014you may remember his final surrender at \nPaardeburg\u2014was at least as obstinate and self-satisfied as Buffer. Lack of \nhumility in both cases; and, of the two, Cronje had less excuse because he did \nnot belong to a military caste, except in so far as he was an old man who had \nfought against Kaffirs all his life, as well as against the British in the earlier war \nof 1880-81.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018That feeling of caste superiority\u201d, the Philosopher commented, \u2018\u2018undoubtedly \naccentuates a man\u2019s native tendencies. It is very rare to meet with a doctor \nof medicine who can be more than good-naturedly tolerant if a layman expresses \nan opinion about medical matters; and I have no doubt that lack of humility \namong doctors (I do not exclude surgeons!) is responsible for a large percentage \nof our death-rate. In other words I agree with you\u2014and we of course are only \nechoing what every master of the spiritual life has declared\u2014that without \nhumility as foundation, every virtue becomes a poison: generosity, courage, \nkindliness, even self-sacrifice, inevitably feeding vanity and personal egotism, \nunless humility be sufficiently developed. On the most practical of grounds, \nwe need to cultivate it by every means in our power.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Yes\u201d, said the Ancient, \u2018\u2018and let us refrain from attributing every bright \n(or less silly) idea that we have, to our Master, as his inspiration, from the \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n39 \n\n\nnotion that doing so demonstrates our modesty! You laugh; but it is done\u2014and \nwithout conscious guile. Oh, it dies hard, that ancient serpent! Sometimes I \nthink it never dies, but merely changes its skin. Yet, as was said at the Con\u00ac \nvention, Masters are the embodiment of humility, and those who know them \nsay that when some glimpse of this has been revealed, through the compassion \nof their own Master; the sense of it has left them prostrate, as though their own \nsouls were in the dust, before that infinite, that heart-breaking humility of the \ninfinitely great.\u201d \n\nThis reference to Masters naturally suggested the subject of chdlaship, and \none of our younger members, a visitor on this occasion, was quick to seize his \nopportunity. \u2018\u2018What is the meaning of the statement\u201d, he asked, \u2018\u2018constantly \nmet with in the literature of occultism, that the path of the chela is a hair-line, \nwith dangers on either side of him?\u201d \n\nThe Recorder turned appealingly to the Ancient, whose interest seemed in \nany case to be aroused. \u2018\u2018I was thinking of that the other day\u201d, he responded, \n\u2018\u2018though in terms of analogy rather than directly; but it is only in terms of \nanalogy that the question can be answered, if the answer is to be of any value \nto those who have not as yet been confronted with the difficulties peculiar to \nch^laship. It is a mistake to try to jump our fences before we get to them. How\u00ac \never, the principle underlying the statement on which the question is based, is \none which all of us need to understand, for it is the same as the Doctrine of the \nMean, of Confucius and of Aristotle, and as the doctrine of the Middle Path, \nas expounded by Buddha. \n\n\u2018\u2018A hair-line, with dangers on either side: for instance, if we allow ourselves \nto be swamped by detail, we shall lose sight of major issues; if we insist upon \nwinning a battle our way or not at all, the probability is we shall be beaten: \nwe shall have erred in the direction of over-rigidity. On the other hand, if we \nconfine ourselves to essentials, and are indifferent to detail, or adopt the attitude \nthat one way of getting there is just as good as another, we may be able to \n\u2018muddle through\u2019, but the outcome will lack finish and is likely to prove costly. \nWe shall have erred in the direction of over-flexibility. Who will find the happy \nMean? \n\n\u2018\u2018Take another instance: if we allow ourselves to be upset when \nwrong, we shall lose our judgment and be governed by our nerves; if, on'Tfie \nother hand, when things go wrong, we adopt an attitude of \u2018philosophic calm\u2019, \nthe probability is that we shall lack the energy to set the matter right. Who \nwill find the Middle Path! \n\n\u2018\u2018In the same way, conscientiousness is a great virtue; lack of it, a fatal defect; \nbut do not all of us know that conscientiousness can be carried to such an \nextreme that it cripples a man\u2019s usefulness? And here we have a clue to the right \nsolution of our problem, for it would be a serious mistake to suppose that the \nsolution lies in a compromise between two extremes or two opposite tendencies. \nThis is a world of duality, but only in terms of what is manifest. The triangle, \nthe trinity, is always present, though ordinarily we see only the two ends of its \nbase. Looking above (or within) for the apex, we shall in time perceive the \n\n\n40 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nReality, of which the two extremes of the manifested world are distorted re\u00ac \nflections. And what causes the distortion is the personal self through which the \nReal manifests. In other words, in the case of over-conscientiousness, it is the \nlarge element of self, in some form or other, which causes the trouble,\u2014perhaps \nthe desire to make it impossible for others to criticize us (futile hope!), or the \nwish to be able to assure ourselves that we have gone the limit and beyond it,\u2014 \nthat we have done more than others would be willing to do. Either rajas or \ntamas may govern, according to the temperament. The person who resents \ninterference with his plan, or delay in its execution, and who fights to put it \nthrough at all costs, is governed by rajas; the person who, in similar circum\u00ac \nstances, feebly smiles, and says on general principles and for the sake of \u2018peace\u2019 \nthat to-morrow will do, is governed by tamas. It is only the complete elimination \nof the personal motive\u2014whether fear, or anger, or laziness, or resentment, or \nvain-glory, or what not\u2014that will enable us to find the Middle Path, the happy \nMean. \n\n\u201cIncidentally, the followers of Confucius, with rare exceptions, never under\u00ac \nstood this; they were the first to defend compromise as an ideal. The same is true \nof the followers of Buddha, except among those who were mystics. It is The\u00ac \nosophy alone that explains and solves the problem. Can we ever be sufficiently \ngrateful for the light that Theosophy throws on all such difficulties! Constantly \nI think of this: surrounded as we are by death and sorrow and physical suffering; \nliving as we are in a world from which the last appearance of stability has fled, \nhow should we feel, what should we do, if it were not for our knowledge of The\u00ac \nosophy, and for the sacrifice of those who brought that knowledge to us! No \nother light reveals so clearly, deep in the heart of life, that ocean of compassion \nin which alone is rest,\u2014within life, but also brooding over it, and which all of \nNature feels and worships and yearns toward,\u2014except man, whose mind sees \nitself as the only good. There is not a flower or a tree, a rock or a bird or an \nanimal that does not know more of God than the mind of man, and, as a rule, \nthe more mind, the less man knows. Until mind has been dominated, as a tool \nmust be dominated, it is, as The Voice of the Silence says, \u2018the slayer of the real\u2019 \nand the source of every woe. Perception is the power we need; and the mind, \nas such, is incapable of that; the mind, at best, is a differentiating and comparing \nmachine. A Master stands, a blaze of glory, pouring out his benediction on \nman and Nature; and Nature thrills in unison, while man looks at Nature and \nthinks what he can get out of it, in money or in food. \n\n\u201cYet we need not be like that. We have within us a glimmer of the radiance \nof our own Master\u2019s being, and where the least of him is, he is entirely. Our \ndesire to find him and to love him, is the striving of his own life within us. If we \nyield ourselves to that; if we place our hearts beside him, as he dwells there, \nwaiting,\u2014presently we shall see with his eyes, and hear with his ears,\u2014shall \nsee him and hear him, no longer hidden within us, but revealed in all the splen\u00ac \ndour of his transfigured manhood, in all the beauty of his peace and tenderness \nand power: the Warrior of God.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\nT. \n\n\n\nREPORT OF THE ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE \nTHEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY \n\n\nMorning Session \n\nThe Annual Convention of The Theosophical Society was called to order at \n64, Washington Mews, New York, at 10.30 a. m., on Saturday, April 28th, i934\u00bb \nby Mr. Hargrove, Chairman of the Executive Committee, who served as Tempo\u00ac \nrary Chairman of the Convention. A Committee on Credentials was appointed, \nconsisting of Mr. H. B. Mitchell, Miss Perkins, and Mr. Kobb^, to confer and \nreport at once. \n\nAddress of the Temporary Chairman \n\nMr. Hargrove : It is my very great privilege and pleasure, on behalf of the \nExecutive Committee, and really on behalf of the soul of the Society, to welcome \nyou all here this morning. I think it must be your experience, as it is my own, \nthat the longer our membership, the greater is our joy in reuniting here annually. \nWe must of necessity grow more and more into the Movement, unless, through \nour own fault, we grow out of it; and because we grow further into the IMove-^ \nment, our roots grow deeper and deeper into the source from which it sprang. \n\nIt is certainly not my expectation that anything unusual will be said or done \nor seen at this particular Convention. It is hardly credible that we still belong \nto the generation that looks for wonders and that seeks a sign; but of one thi^ \nI am positive,\u2014that the greatest of all possible gifts will be offered to each \nof us in our hearts, and that it is for us, individually and collectively, to accept \nof that gift, to use it, and to resolve. \n\nSo it is not only an immense pleasure and privilege to be here this morning; \nit is also a marvellous opportunity, an opportunity which I am sure every one \nof us will grasp, an opportunity that we shall look back upon with thanksgiving. \n\nIt is time for us to entertain the report of the Committee on Credentials. \n\nThis Report having been submitted and accepted, and the Committee dis\u00ac \ncharged with thanks, Mr. H. B. Mitchell, President of the New York Branch, was \nelected Permanent Chairman of the Convention, with Miss Perkins and Miss \nChickering as Secretary and Assistant Secretary respectively. \n\n\n41 \n\n\n\n\n\n42 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nAddress of the Chairman \n\nThe Chairman: Anyone who speaks here this morning must wish to echo \nfirst the words which we have just heard from Mr. Hargrove. I do not think \nthat one can come to these Conventions without finding, uppermost in his heart, \nthe feeling of joy and gratitude that it is his privilege to come. As he reaches \nthe door, and sees the faces of old friends, that feeling deepens. It grows stronger \nstill as he meets new friends, distant members, co-workers in the Movement, \nwhom he may long have known through correspondence, but perhaps never \nbefore has seen. Thus from the day itself, from both old friends and new, happi\u00ac \nness and gratitude come to us. \n\nBut as we enter the room, or stand in the doorway and see these pictures on \nthe walls, of Madame Blavatsky and Judge and our companions of the past, \nas we look at the shield which bears our seal and motto and think of all they stand \nfor, of the Great of Soul from which they come to us, of the lives laid down that \nknowledge of Truth might live and grow, something deeper than gladness rises \nin us, and our hearts are uplifted in a salute to the Corps. The light of the soul\u2019s \nloyalty shines forth, and in it the things of self pass from sight. It does not \ndiminish gladness, but it no longer lets our consciousness be held in thoughts \nof it. The Corps and the Cause claim all we are, and we face our work and \nopportunity with the sense of the grave responsibility they entail. \n\nI need not say that in The Theosophical Society each man speaks for himself, \nand that what he says commits no one else. But because of that fact we are \nfree here, as nowhere else, to voice the truth as each of us may see it. Neither \nthe Society nor any of its members is committed to a belief in Masters because \nI believe in them, and therefore none can take it amiss when I state the belief, \nquite simply, that as we come into this room to-day, we come into the presence \n\u2666of the Masters to whom the T. S. owes its existence,\u2014into a post, an outpost, \nof an ancient Battle-Corps whose battle is our own. Here are our leaders; here \nthe spirit that can quicken in us the power to follow them. Whatever may be \nour personal feelings, whatever we may do outwardly, our first act inwardly, \nas we open this Convention, is our salute to the Corps, and our recognition that \nwe stand here to carry on its age-old work. \n\nWhat is that work? In Light on the Path we are told of the link that is formed \nby those who refuse to be terrified by the greater nature or to be drawn back by \nthe lesser, \u201ca link between man and his divine part, . . . between the stir of the \nmarket place and the stillness of the snow-capped Himalayas\u201d, between the \nLodge of Masters and the world. It is a link between Infinite Compassion and \ninfinite need, and our work is to maintain that link. It is for that our Movement \nexists. For it, our predecessors lived and laboured and died, and the work and \ntrust which was theirs are now ours. We are their heirs, the inheritors of their \nvictories\u2014and of their warfare. We cannot take the one and leave the other, \nnor betray the standards they upheld with heroic, patient courage. They gave \ntheir all. It is our all they ask of us\u2014of each one of us, our all of love, of devotion, \nof brooding thought and active work. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n43 \n\n\nVery little things can determine great issues. We all know the stories of the \nlion and the mouse, of the dropped stitch that unravels the whole fabric, of the \nbattle lost for the lack of a horseshoe nail. A ship\u2019s captain lets his finger drop \ndown a line as it moves across the page of his log, thus taking the time of passing \none light as the time of passing another, and, through this error, piles his ship \nupon the rocks. A frightened, half-grown boy sticks to his post, despite his fears, \ntapping with a finger on a rubber key; and the message goes forth that save^ both \nship and passengers. It was but a finger\u2019s movement in each case\u2014a moment\u2019s \ncarelessness, a few minutes of self-dominating fidelity. So we are small, and \nperhaps can do but little things; yet in the end, great issues may turn upon them. \nThere is a saying in the Tao-Teh-King to the effect that the sage accomplishes \ngreat things while they are still small, for, \u201cAll difficult things have their origins \nin those that are easy; and great things in what are small. Therefore the wise \nman can accomplish great things without ever attempting them\u2019\u2019. So, too, it \nis recorded of the Christian Master that he prefers to work through the simplest \nand humblest instruments, in order that the divine power, operating through \nthem, may stand out the more clearly. It does not need great personal attain\u00ac \nments, to enable us to serve in the work of the Lodge. Great pretensions belie \nthemselves. All that is asked is the little that we have: that we be faithful: \nthat we give ourselves in complete loyalty, doing our honest best. \n\nTo the extent that we do this, to that extent shall we enter into the Theo- \nsophical Movement and become a part of the link which it constitutes, the link \nbetween the temporal and the Eternal. It is of that that I want to speak to-day; \nfor part of doing our best must be in the giving of our best thought to our oppor\u00ac \ntunities and problems; so that we not only strive to be true to the light we have, \nbut constantly seek clearer light in all that concerns our work. It is of special \nmoment to us to understand the process that operates in our own Movement, \nwhereby the Unmanifest is made manifest, and the unchanging Eternal is re\u00ac \nvealed in the changes and sequences of time. Through fixity of heart and \npurpose, through steadfastness and loyalty of will, we have to maintain an \nenduring current of spiritual force in the midst of the shifting tides of the world, \nand this work of the Movement can succeed only as it conforms to the princii^ \nwhich everywhere guide the incarnation of Spirit, and determine the pattej^n \nwhich the Eternal reflects itself in the temporal. It behoves us, therefore, to \nconsider these principles. \n\nThey are indicated for us in the Proem of The Secret Doctrine. There is first \nthe hidden Unity, the Unmanifest, the Root and Cause of all. It is useless to \nspeculate upon this; all that we can do is to point toward it, to use symbols as \nsign-posts. So, for us, it may be symbolized, or pointed to, by the unity of the \ngreat Lodge of Masters,\u2014the unity of spirit that we feel within or above all that \ncomes from them, the overshadowing Movement from which our Movement \nsprings. But once we pass in thought from this hidden Unity to its emanations, \nfrom the Unmanifest to the manifest, we find duality supervenes. There is the \ncontrast between form and essence. Spirit (or consciousness) and matter, subject \nand object. As Mr. Johnston used to remind us, there is no cutting a stick so \n\n\n44 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nshort that it will not have two ends. Wherever there is matter there is conscious\u00ac \nness, and wherever there is consciousness there is some vehicle to clothe and to \nexpress it. These opposites, The Secret Doctrine teaches, are of the very essence \nof manifestation, of \u201ceA;-istence\u201d, of that which comes out of Unmanifested Being. \nNot only does this duality mark all external being; it marks, equally, all ex\u00ac \nternal processes. All things move in cycles. The law of periodicity, of flux and \nreflux, ebb and flow, is absolute and universal in the manifested world. Day and \nnight, life and death, sleeping and waking, the beating of the heart, the in\u00ac \nbreathing and the outbreathing, the voice that speaks and is still,\u2014only through \nsuch alternations, through beginnings and endings, birth and death and rebirth \nagain, does anything endure in the world of space and time. \n\nThese fundamental propositions of The Secret Doctrine are illustrated wherever \nwe look. Few of us could have come here this morning without feeling that \nbehind the manifest lay an infinitely greater Unmanifest, without sensing a \nUnity behind all diversity. You may not be able to define what you felt; but \nyou none the less felt it. The heart can lay its hold upon unity where the mind \ncannot function, and there is something here which we can love, though we \ncannot describe it. It is the true Theosophy, the spirit of the Lodge, the atmos\u00ac \nphere of \u201cour Father\u2019s house\u201d. It is in the air, in the walls, in the ceiling and \nfloor; and its presence illustrates also the second principle of which The Secret \nDoctrine speaks, the indissoluble association of spirit and matter. The whole \nplace, the tables, the chairs, the pictures on the walls, the very bricks of the \nfireplace, are stored with all that has lived and been lived in this room. There is \nnothing dead, nothing unconscious here. The force and life and consciousness \nwhich animate the Theosophical Movement, live here, pulsing, as though they \nwere a living substance, in the air about us, carrying our past over for us \ninto the present. \n\nHow does it do this? Outwardly there have been many changes; but inwardly \nit has remained the same. Voices which we once heard outwardly, we now hear \nonly in the silence. New comrades smile a greeting to us; new photographs have \nbeen hung upon the walls; and yet within and above the change there is that \nwhich is unchanged, which endures the same, and upon which, as beads upon \na string, all changes find their place. Inwardly there is that fixed, undeviating \ncurrent of spiritual life and love and will, which is the Theosophical Movement, \nits very changelessness producing change in all it contacts or through which it \nacts. Can we not see that this must be so ? That the immutability and constancy \nof spirit, its eternal unity, can manifest itself only through change in form and \ncircumstance\u2014as continuous, unchanging motion can manifest itself only through \ncontinuous change in place? In the things of the spirit, the Eternal is immanent \nin the temporal, even as it is transcendent. Let us remember what Krishna \ntold Arjuna: \u201cI established this whole universe with a single portion of myself, \nand remain separate.\u201d There is the transcendent, overshadowing spirit of The\u00ac \nosophy, the single, undivided will and spirit of the great Lodge, always acting, \nalways here, always the same. But it must show itself in a thousand different \nforms and ways, in beginnings and endings, in silence and in speech; and we \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n45 \n\n\nmust learn to look through these changing forms to that which is fixed and perma\u00ac \nnent within them; to see the immortal within the mortal; and then to face and \nunderstand and accept the mortal\u2014to accept change. \n\nLet us pause, for a moment, to consider in a broader view this law of cyclic \nchange that characterizes all manifestation. The theosophic view of evolution \nis not that ordinarily taken by science. Science looks only to the sequence of \nforms. We look to the spirit that moulds and animates the form, that uses it as \nits vehicle and vesture. We see the whole material world evolving from the \nimmaterial world,\u2014as speech evolves from thought, and thought from contem\u00ac \nplation. To us, life flows from within; science too often presents it as though \nit were but a reaction to what lay without. Yet it is illuminating to view, as \nscience views, the background against which life is lived, the external circum\u00ac \nstances in which science would have us believe life arose and evolved. Our earth \nis but one of our sun\u2019s planets, and our sun but one of many myriads of suns, \nradiating their heat and light and magnetism, and unknown subtile essences and \ninfluences, into space. Through the whole cosmos everything is in motion, puls\u00ac \ning, revolving, flaming. Nothing is still. The planets revolve around the suns; \nturn on their own axes, presenting first one face to the sun and then the other; \ndrawing nearer and then retreating again; causing day and night, winter and \nsummer; opening themselves to the radiance that is the source of their life, and \nthen shielding themselves from it, in cyclic alternation of indrawing and outgiving. \n\nNowhere in the environment or conditions of life is there any escape from such \ncyclic alternations. We think of the evolution of animal life from aquatic forms, \non the shores where tides rise and fall. It is not always water there, nor always \nair. The clams are left uncovered as the tides recede, to be covered again as they \nadvance. Or consider any department or aspect of our own physical life: our \nbreathing, the diastole and systole of the heart, the taking of food and the elimi\u00ac \nnation of waste. We eat, but we cannot be always eating. There must be time \ngiven for the assimilation of our food, for the transformation of its constituents \nand the sublimation of its energies. So with our mental life: we must take in \nand give out. We listen, but we cannot be always listening. We speak, but \ncannot be always talking. We have to digest what we hear. We have to thinl^^ \nthat we may speak intelligently; and to contemplate, that we may think in\u00ac \ntelligently. In every manifestation of life there is the same cyclic rhythm, the \nsame alternation of opposites, birth and death and birth again, beginnings and \nendings which are neither beginnings nor endings, but the way whereby the one \nunchanging current of spiritual being manifests itself in time. \n\nIt is not always easy to see and accept change as the vesture of the Unchanging, \nbut could we do so it would free us from the greater part of our burden of grief \nand fear. \u201cBefore the eyes can see they must be incapable of tears\u201d; so this \nteaching of the law of cycles is, as we have seen, placed at the very foundation \nof our philosophy. We shall gain in every way if we can really comprehend it. \nFor the truth of the matter is this: that it is precisely when some gift we have had \nis withdrawn, so that it seems we have it no more, that it is made our own. We \nhave to learn to find, in denial, the gift of the thing denied. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n46 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nDoes it sound too wild a paradox, a mere juggling with words? Think again \nof the illustrations we have used. On the face of the planet, one hemisphere, we \nsay, is in the light, the other in darkness; the first is receiving from the sun and \ndrawing what it receives into itself; the second is giving forth what it has re\u00ac \nceived\u2014sometimes we say losing what it has received. But light and heat are \nexpanding, radiating things; they are a going forth of their source, not an ab\u00ac \nsorption. Therefore on the side of the planet where it is day, it is not the true \nnature of light which is experienced, but rather its complement. There the \nplanet is receiving, whereas the sun is giving. It is only as the planet turns, and \nthis bright side ceases to be bright but becomes dark in the turning of the cycle, \nthat the gift which it has received and stored away begins to assert its true \ninfluence and to live out its own nature, radiating into the cold and darkness \nthat surround it. It is not in the day, but in the night, that the earth acts as \ndoes its parent the sun, that the gift which it receives from the sun is consum\u00ac \nmated. So it is with the breath drawn into the lungs. The inbreathing is but \nhalf the process, impotent and useless if it stood alone; the purification and \noxygenation of the blood need the outbreathing for their completion. Wherever \nwe look we see that the denial is as necessary as the giving, for the completion \nof the gift. \n\nIf we understand this, we face manifested life very differently from the way \nin which the world is alone able to face it. To believe in the law of cycles as a \nuniversal law, is of necessity to believe in reincarnation and to recognize that \ndeath cannot be the end. But it is not the fact of a coming rebirth that is of \ngreatest moment to us. What I would emphasize is that what we call life and \ndeath are but two phases of one continuing being, the two opposite poles of the \nduality which marks all manifestation, the cyclic heart-beat through which the \nEternal lives in the temporal. Each the reverse of the other, each the denial \nof the other, each the complement of the other, each confirming the other, they \ntogether form one whole. Truly time and space are nothing but devices to make \nmanifestation possible; means whereby, alternately, the opposite aspects of being \nmay be held back in order that the other may be experienced in consciousness, \nand so both become known and given their full part in the whole. \n\nThink of a tale of adventure, or a drama! There must be suspense, uncertainty, \nrisk. Always the known must stand in contrast to the unknown; achievement must \nbe won by struggle,\u2014Easter be reached through Good Friday. Neither is under\u00ac \nstandable without the other; but also, to be understood, each must be separated \nfrom the other, otherwise, in our consciousness, each would neutralize the other. \nHeat and cold together make us neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm,\u2014a dead, \na neutral thing, to be spewed from the mouth of reality. After we have read the \nstory and closed the book, it all can live in its totality before us,\u2014in its lights \nand shadows, its suspense and certainties, its joy and pain. But it could never \nhave entered consciousness in that way. It is only by means of some such device \nas that of time, which, through successive denials, permits us to experience the \ninnate opposites of being, not simultaneously but successively, that we can know \nbeing to the full,\u2014that all its richness can become manifest. \n\n\n\n\n# \n\n\n# \n\n\nt \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n47 \n\n\nTime, therefore, through the law of cycles, with the denials and limitations it \nenforces, is one of the basic instruments of manifestation. Space fulfils a like \nfunction\u2014the function of separation. \u201cThe kingdom of heaven is like to a grain \nof mustard seed . . . which indeed is the least of all seeds\u201d, so that it scarcely \ntakes up space at all. All its potentialities, the astral mould, the latent energies, \nare packed away, invisible. But plant it, and they begin to unfold, to manifest; \nand manifestation involves separation of qualities, and separation takes up room, \noccupies more and more of space. There is the development of roots and of \nsprouting branches. Unmanifest, they are one, indistinguishable within the seed; \nbut manifest, they must be separated in space; the one pressing to the light and \nair, the other to the dark moisture of the soil. Separation, whether of time or of \nspace, is basic to manifestation. The roots and the branches can no more be \ntogether in space than the bud and the blossom, the fruit and the seed, can be \ntogether in time. Where each is, the others must be denied, but in that denial \nfind their completion. \n\nTo-day the world is intolerant of denials. The outstanding feature of the past \nhundred, or hundred and fifty years, is the breaking down of barriers of every \nkind. Science, the popular science of the newspapers, brays that it has broken \ndown the barriers of time and space; Democracy, that it has levelled those of \ncaste and birth, and, it might add, of character and ability. We are asked to \n\u201cthink internationally\u201d. The Chinese wear derby hats. American society has \naped the dances and music of the African jungle. Everywhere there is \u201cconfusion \nof castes\u201d. Nowhere can privacy be commanded; in the middle of the ocean one \ncan still be called to the telephone. When it took weeks to cross the ocean, the \nvoyage was itself a quarantine against the importation of foreign forms of life \nthat might destroy the balance nature has established in each separate continent. \nIn these days of airplanes there is no such protection, and the risks that this \nentails are only beginning to be perceived. \n\nIn business and finance there has been the same levelling and obliteration of \ndifferences. This has more to do with the world-wide economic depression than is \ngenerally realized. Trade breaks down when everybody is doing the same things \nand has the same things. When England wanted ivory from Africa, and \nwanted brass wire from England, the exchange could be made with profit to liWi. \nIn Africa brass wire was of exceptional value, in England it was not; but when \nthe standards have become the same, when England manufactures artificial \nivory, and Africa real brass wire, trade naturally ends. \n\nA generation or two ago the financial markets of London, Paris, Berlin, New \nYork, and Chicago were separate and different; affected by one another, truly, \nbut more affected each by its own independent influences. If money were scarce \nin one, it might be plentiful in others; and therefore mutual help could be given \nand received. Moreover, if a man in St. Louis had money to invest, the proba\u00ac \nbility was that he would invest it in a local enterprise. To-day that is not so. \nThe news of the New York Stock Market\u2019s opening and closing is broadcast over \nthe radio and printed in the local papers all over the country. The little farmer \ninvests his savings in the stocks of the \u201cBig Board\u201d. The result is that instead of \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n48 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nprosperity depending upon a widely diversified and great number of independent \nrisks, each relatively small, all the eggs have been put into a few very large \nbaskets. An insurance company may safely insure a thousand different lives or \nhouses; but none can safely put its entire capital against a single risk; yet that \nis very much what the financial world has done. Many risks have been merged \ninto very few; and these such as none can evaluate or foretell, for they depend \nupon the psychic mood of a whole people, upon mob psychology. All the world\u2019s \nmarkets receive the same news, by telephone or telegraph, at the same time. \nThey are all subjected to the same influences, and these influences are psychic \ninfluences. The unpredictable psychic factor has been enormously increased by \npopular \u201ceducation\u201d; and the inventions of modern science have, as it were, \nwiped out the fire-lanes and break-waters, so that there is nothing to check the \nforest fires or tidal waves of greed or fear. \n\nThat which is so obvious in the external world around us, is equally operative \nin the moral and mental life of our generation. Everywhere old restrictions have \nbeen swept away. Obligations, duties, self-mastery and self-restraint, have \nbecome old fashioned terms in contrast to \u201crights\u201d and \u201cself-expression\u201d. All \nof this is the very opposite of that for which our Movement stands. We seek \nunity in diversity, not in the destruction of diversity. We see each man\u2019s frag\u00ac \nment of the truth as necessary to the whole; and what we ask of him, above all \nelse, is that he should be true to his own truth. We see barriers and limitations \nas essential to completeness, repression as essential to force; and we perceive \nthat they can never be dispensed with. The flat levels of unrestraint and uni\u00ac \nformity are dead and barren\u2014no part of our ideal. \u201cIn my Father\u2019s house are \nmany mansions\u201d: a house without walls would be no house; surely it could not \ncontain \u201cmany mansions\u201d. The whole intellectual basis of our Society\u2019s ac\u00ac \ntivities is found in the fact that Truth manifests in many forms, not in one alone. \nTheosophy is to be found in Hinduism, in Buddhism, in Christianity, in all the \ngreat religions of the world, in a thousand different forms and fragments, each \ncontributing its own special light and colour to an understanding of the whole. \n\nOne of my former colleagues at Columbia spent many years of his life collecting \nsnails from a single island in the South Pacific. The formation of the island \nmight be suggested by placing one\u2019s hand on the table with the fingers spread,\u2014 \nthe fingers representing high rock ridges, the spaces between being fertile valleys. \nIn the valleys the snails thrived, but they could not cross the ridges. Therefore \nin each separate valley the snails had developed independently, and this de\u00ac \nvelopment had not been confused or obscured by cross breeding, so that, my \ncolleague told me, every potentiality of the organism had been brought out to \nthe full in one valley or another. \n\nThat is what we need to-day in the world and in our own natures,\u2014we need \nthe very limitations which we are most tempted to resent. Pain has lessons to \nteach us as well as joy; hardship as well as ease. If we take pleasure, instead \nof duty, as our guide, we must lose hold of the spiritual principles which our life \nis meant to manifest and to develop. We may grow, but it will be a cancerous \ngrowth, without conformity to the inner mould of the spirit, draining the vitality \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n49 \n\n\nfrom our proper development. We who have been taught in the Theosophical \nMovement should understand this, and see that life is impoverished and not \nenriched by licence and uniformity; and we should set ourselves to establish \nand re-create in our own natimes, and of our own wills, those necessary denials \nand limitations by which alone spirit can manifest itself in matter. \n\nAs I said before, but would emphasize again and yet again, wherever we look, \nwe see that it is through denial that the gift is made complete and its nature \nmanifest. These flowers on the table, that are beautiful to us in their varied \ncolours, show forth, as that colour, the element of light that they do not them\u00ac \nselves absorb,\u2014which they sacrifice, and deny themselves. It is the soldier, \nwho gives his life, who makes life safe for his countrymen. It is the nun who \nsupports the sanctities of the family. It was in the hour of his own desolation, \nin that cry from the cross, \u201cMy God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?\u201d \nthat Christ poured out upon the world the life and spirit which he felt he no longer \nreceived, but which, in that act, united him with the Father in divine and \ninfinite self-giving. Everywhere \u201cthe gods are nourished by sacrifice\u2019\u2019, the spirit \ngained and revealed in loss. \n\nIt has never been claimed that Theosophy is a soothing syrup for the coward \nand the weakling. This teaching of denial and sacrifice and death is the creed \nof the warrior, the creed which ought to be pre-eminently ours. If we can make \nit ours, ours even in the dark shadows of our fears, it will give us the faith and \ncourage to face life undismayed, to accept all the changes which we have to accept, \neither as craven or as hero. Change comes. Death comes. Rebirth comes. \nOur friends pass from us. One by one our comrades in the Movement pass from \nthe outer world into the inner. We no longer have them by our side; but in \nthat very loss and denial is the opportunity to come closer to them than ever \nbefore, as we pick up the work and responsibility that was theirs, but must now \nbe ours. Wherever they may be, they are working in their phase of the cycle \nas we are working in ours; and in that common work we are together. \n\nThis is Kali Yuga, the iron age of darkness, in which the current of life sinks \ndeeper and deeper into matter. The great Lodge of Masters, in their compassion, \nhave poured forth the teachings of the ancient Wisdom, that it might follow that \ncurrent of life down into deeper, deader levels of consciousness than it ever \nreached before. Thus we have become its recipients, its trustees, a part oMTe \nlink between the Lodge and the world, part of the channel through whicnT:he \nneeds of the world must be met. We must learn to give as we have received, \nnot something that is mere intellectual theory, but something that is vital because \nlived. As one must \u201clive the life\u201d to know the doctrine, so, even more, must \none live the life in order to pass on the doctrine as a living thing. For this we \nneed courage; and we can draw that courage from the doctrine itself. No less \ndo we need faith; and that, too, is there for us. Could there be better ground \nfor faith than the way in which we have been led through these fifty-nine years \nof our Society\u2019s activities? \n\nSo we stand here to-day, to open this Convention, conscious of the Corps, of \nwhich, in our own small way, we may be a part; conscious of the creed that is \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n50 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthat Corps\u2019 own, and so must be ours as well; not ours to impose upon others, \nbut ours to impose upon ourselves,\u2014resolved to live by it, feeling in our hearts \nthe power to live by it, holding fast to the knowledge that, though in the midst \nof change, in the temporal sequence of death and birth and rebirth again, yet \nwe are the inheritors of that which is unchanging, immortal and eternal, which it \nis ours to make our own, and which, through our Movement, must be made to \nlive in the world as the hope and faith and guide of humanity hereafter. \n\nThe Chairman then called for the report of the Secretary T. S. \n\nReport of the Secretary T. S. \n\nI have the honour to submit the following Report: \n\nBranch Activities \n\nSince Branches have established the custom of assembling on Contention Day, \nto unite in mind and heart with this gathering of delegates and members, we \ncannot think of absent members as distant, but rather of our united desire\u2014to \ndraw lessons from the past year instead of emphasizing its accomplishments, \nand then, as the result of aspiration during the Convention, to find the key-note \nfor the coming year\u2019s work. \n\nIn Arvika, Sweden, the Branch consists of long-time members, with a \u201cliving \ninterest in the work\u2019\u2019, who are looking expectantly for recruits to perpetuate \ntheir endeavour. The Secretary, Mrs. Fjaestad, makes grateful acknowledgment \nof help from Headquarters, and is commissioned to send Branch greetings to the \nConvention. ... [A passage from the Secretary\u2019s Report, although read at the \nConvention, is omitted here, as it referred to the activities of Branches, Study \nClasses and members in certain foreign countries where strained political con\u00ac \nditions make publicity inadvisable.] The Oslo Branch meets frequently, with \ngood attendance and sustained interest. Whatever the topic of the evening, it is \nalways preceded by an appropriate reading from Cavd\u2019s Fragments. The Chair\u00ac \nman, Mr. Henning Dahl, writes that, following the custom in another Branch, \nthey intend to \u201cremember departed friends and teachers on the dates of their \ndeath\u2014thinking of them as living and working for the Cause they loved so \nmuch\u2019\u2019. He adds: \u201cOur inmost \\vish is to become a living Branch on the true \nVine, ... so to live as to prepare the way for one who will live the life in its \nperfection.\u2019\u2019 The Branch at Gateshead, England, is making steady progress, \ntaking one rung of the ladder at a time. The Krishna Lodge of South Shields, \nMr. Mackey writes, is trying to \u201cdevelop strength, stability, faith, courage and \nvision\u2019\u2019. The Newcastle Branch has held regular meetings, with a varied pro\u00ac \ngramme for its local members, and has circulated the New York Reports among \nits numerous corresponding members. The Secretary, Mrs. Cassidy, says that \nthey find Mr. Johnston\u2019s \u201cReligion of the Will\u2019\u2019 throws much light on the prob\u00ac \nlems of the present day, although contributed to the Quarterly in 1908-1909. \nThe members in Whitley Bay are deeply interested in their study of The Secret \nDoctrine. \u201cWe have\u201d, Mrs. Ross reports, \u201ca very faithful and sincere circle, \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n51 \n\n\nwho attend regularly, appreciate the help given, and endeavour to understand \nand carry into effect the teachings of Theosophy.\u201d The Norfolk Branch does \nnot assemble, as it is a \u201ccorresponding Branch\u201d, whose members, unable to \nmeet personally, have therefore had the more practice in an effort to meet at \nthe point of reality. Mrs. Graves, the Secretary, writes that real progress has \nbeen made. \n\nThe Venezuela Branch of Caracas has been active in various lines of which its \ndelegates will doubtless speak. We shall hear also from the delegates of Hope \nBranch, Providence, which has been \u201cdeveloping increased gratitude for the \ntheosophical philosophy, deeper sense of personal responsibility, greater har\u00ac \nmony\u201d. In Toronto, the membership consists largely of men. Mr. Harris writes: \n\u201cWe have felt the result of the general upset of things, but I believe our meetings \ntogether have been of real help.\u201d The Cincinnati Branch turned, this year, to \nthe devotional side of Theosophy, and every one has greatly benefited by the \nstudy of the Voice of the Silence. Miss McCormack, the Secretary, says: \u201cMem\u00ac \nbers often come to the meetings tired or depressed and go away with faith \nstrengthened, experiences made more endurable, courage renewed.\u201d Middletown \nis a neighbouring Branch; its members meet at the home of their devoted Presi\u00ac \ndent, Mr. Roberts; since pioneer days, he and Mrs. Roberts have been connected \nwith the T. S. and have courageously maintained this centre, under conditions \noften adverse. The Secretary of the Virya Branch of Denver, Miss Mary K. \nWallace, writes of their meetings: \u201cThe discussions have been spirited, and \ndirectly related to the interests of the members. . . . Some especially enjoyed \nan attempt made to estimate prominent world figures by theosophic standards. \nAlso there has been definite effort to bring the work of those who so faithfully \nlaboured for Theosophy\u2014Madame Blavatsky, Mr. Judge, Mr. Johnston, Mr. \nGriscom\u2014to the attention of members who knew none of them personally, and \nto make those members conscious of the enduring qualities of their effort and \nsacrifice.\u201d Speaking for the Pacific Branch of Los Angeles, Mr. Box repels: \n\u201cOur main objective and effort have been to stand firmly in the midst qMnc \npsychic, emotional mess of things, so to speak, by which we are all surrouTOed. \n... We have learned that, in time, we reap what we have sown; and that a \nBranch is made up of the same life, energy, traits and force of character, as those \nof which its members are made; so that whatever comes from a higher source \nthan they, reaches it through them. Thus, for instance, if in the past its public \nappeal had been largely emotional, instead of toward building and maintaining \nitself on a more enduring spiritual foundation,\u2014there would be danger of its \nbeing carried away on the now swiftly flowing, psychic-emotional tide to which \nit had thus helped to give rise.\u201d \n\nThe Theosophical Quarterly \n\nOur magazine admirably serves as the Society\u2019s travelling representative, \ncarrying from the heart of the Movement its repeated call to action, and counsels \ndrawn from ripe experience, which are even more explicit and revealing than \ncould be given in personal conference. As we rejoice in the appearance of \n\n\n% \n\n\n52 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nyounger contributors, we also watch the narrowing circle of older ones, mar\u00ac \nvelling at the work done by the very few, who labour unceasingly to keep the \nQuarterly\u2019s presentation of theosophic standards and principles true to the \ninner pattern. Fortunately, it has been possible to maintain the library circu\u00ac \nlation of the magazine, which represents wide scattering of seed,\u2014destined \nultimately, we trust, to revolutionize the world by the establishment of spiritual \nstandards. The subscription plan inaugurated, on principle, by the 1932 Con\u00ac \nvention, has already demonstrated its practical advantages. \n\nBook Department \n\nDemand for the reprinting of some of otu* books is reminder of the place they \nfill; there is constant sale for them, though diminished in volume by financial \nconditions. One means of disseminating applied Theosophy is represented by \nDr. Torrey\u2019s pamphlet. Science and its Function in Education, which we had the \npleasure of bringing out (at fifty cents per copy); others, dealing with funda\u00ac \nmental problems of interest to the general public, may follow. \n\nSecretary's Office \n\nThe work has again been done by volunteers, those of former years, and \nseveral new ones who have recently made special preparation for the service of \nthe Society. Thanks to the diligence of three members, there is now in the office \na card-index of the thirty-one Quarterly volumes\u2014and one of the indexers \noffers to supply the Secretary with information members may desire, as to \nissues where wanted articles appeared, or designated topics were discussed. \nThe \u201ctravelling library\u2019\u2019, which contains the standard books on Theosophy and \nseveral series of articles from the Quarterly, not yet published in book form, \nawaits more general use. \n\nEvery Branch has asked that the thanks of its members for much appreciated \nhelp, should be expressed to the Editors of the Quarterly \u2014for many it is as a \nlighthouse in the midst of an angry and treacherous sea. They also ask oppor\u00ac \ntunity to speak of their gratitude for the Reports of the New York Branch meet\u00ac \nings, which are made possible by two members\u2014one who takes the notes, and \nanother who, from these, produces a spirited miniature of each meeting. We \nare again indebted to an American member who gives the general T. S. fund a \nsum in excess of the amount that would be due from European members, had \nthese not been requested to pay their dues by making donation to some form of \nAllied Relief work. Others might be mentioned who have given generously of \ntime, money or skill, but the closer one comes to the work, the more one appreci\u00ac \nates that connection with it in any capacity is a privilege for which one wishes \nto give rather than to receive thanks. Nature shows that co-ordinated, pur\u00ac \nposeful growth requires the activity of a strong, controlling centre; and without \nsuch a centre the Theosophical Movement could not stand as it does to-day, \nopposing to general chaos the order and vision of another world. From this \ncentre emanate the understanding, insight and poise that hold work and workers \ntrue to their orbits. Fortunate, indeed, is one who, situated like your Secretary \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n53 \n\n\nat the cross-roads where currents meet, needs and so receives for the Society\u2019s \nbenefit, direction, counsel, training, to which otherwise one would have no claim: \nit is acknowledged in deep gratitude. With the years, the bonds of a common \nendeavour and service are more precious, and so I want to thank the Society from \nmy heart for the opportunity given me. \n\nRespectfully submitted, \n\nIsabel E. Perkins, \n\nSecretary T. 5 . \n\nThis report was accepted with the unanimous thanks of the Convention to \nthe Secretary and to the Secretary\u2019s helpers, after which the report of the \nTreasurer was called for. \n\nMr. H. B. Mitchell, as Treasurer T. S., after thanking the Assistant Treasurer, \nMr. Kobbd, for having done \u201call the work of the office\u2019\u2019, reported a net balance, \nas of April 28th, 1934, of $4.42. This, he said, would have satisfied Mr. Judge, \nwho did not believe in allowing T. S. funds to accumulate and thus remain idle, \nespecially when there was plenty of money coming in. Members might rest \nassured, he added, that at no time would the Society be allowed to run into debt. \nThe printing and mailing of the Quarterly, which cost $3400. in 1932, had cost \n$3100. in 1933. \n\nAfter this report had been accepted with thanks, the Chairman announced the \nfollowing three committees which he had earlier been authorized by the Con\u00ac \nvention to appoint: \n\nCommittee on Nominations: Mr. Auchincloss (Chairman), Mr. LaDow, Dr. \nHohnstedt. \n\nCommittee on Resolutions: Mr. Hargrove (Chairman), Dr. Torrey, Mr. Gon- \nzdlez Jimenez. \n\nCommittee on Letters of Greeting: Mr. J. F. B. Mitchell (Chairman), Dr. Clark, \nMrs. Regan. \n\nThe report of the Executive Committee was then called for. \n\nReport of the Executive Committee \n\nMr. Hargrove : Mr. Chairman and Fellow Members: as you know, our outer \nactivities do not increase; as you also know, this is not accidental, nor is it due \nto lack of energy or of membership or of money. It is because we are conforming \nto the spiritual cycles; it is because we have a better imderstanding of The\u00ac \nosophy, let us hope, than to try to push against spiritual law. Do you realize, \nI wonder, that this assembly, for H.P.B., for Judge, would be a marvellous \ndream come true? Do you realize that they worked and prayed and died for this \nvery thing,\u2014a devoted nucleus, determined to live for the principles and ideals \nwhich H.P.B. and Judge brought with them from the Lodge; determined at all \ncosts to be true? \n\nH.P.B. and Judge knew the Law of Cycles: who else brought it to our knowl\u00ac \nedge? They knew that if the Work inaugurated by them were to survive the \nturn of the tide at the end of the nineteenth century; if it were to forge its way. \n\n\n\n54 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nas it has done, into the very heart of the twentieth, then the Society would have \nto lose in quantity as it gained in quality. This is why, at that earlier period, \nthey worked for quantity: they foresaw the great sifting process which must \ninevitably take place if a nucleus were to survive. \n\nThe great sifting process: all of us, I think, are familiar with the old-fashioned \nvictrola and its revolving plate; and all of us must realize that life is movement, \nmovement life, and that the life of the Theosophical Movement perpetually \nrevolves as it moves forward. Now if you place on a revolving plate a large \nand light object such as a toy balloon, it will inevitably be thrown off, the more \nquickly, the more rapid the revolution of the plate; while if the object be as a \ngrain of sand, it wull at least have a much better chance to remain on. That is \none illustration of the sifting process that has taken place on so large a scale in \nthe past. All members who felt themselves to be big, but who in fact were \nlight, were thrown off. It is only those who, by some miracle, have realized their \nown insignificance\u2014at least relatively\u2014who have remained on. \n\nH.P.B. and Judge, great as they were\u2014and because they were so great\u2014were \nalmost incredibly humble, convinced of their own unworthiness and unfitness to \naccomplish the work that had been entrusted to them. All of us who knew Judge \nknow that; and of course it is manifest in the life of H.P.B. By contrast, if we \nlook back over the past, we see one member after another disappear into space, \nshot off by the ever more and more rapidly revolving life of the Movement. It \nis important that this should be understood, for a variety of reasons. \n\nIt is inherent in the theosophical philosophy itself, that there should be Kama \nLokic spooks, describing themselves as theosophical societies, in existence at the \npresent time,\u2014as well as The Theosophical Society founded by H.P.B. and Judge \nand others, representatives of which I am addressing at this moment. Such off\u00ac \nscourings must exist. They are the result of the great sifting process which had \nto take place if we were to survive. \n\nAfter all, granting that those who inaugurated the Movement and who carried \nit on, put the whole of themselves into it\u2014as they undoubtedly did\u2014then they \nnot only transmitted that which came down from above, but they contributed \nhuman nature, human nature as it is. That means that they put into the Move\u00ac \nment, just as you and I are putting into the Movement to-day, things not only \ngood, but also (to put it mildly) indifferent; and those things, in time, must be \nsifted out also, if, at last, the pure nucleus is to remain. \n\nWhat happened? Practically all of us have read the Occult World (to go back, \nfor the moment, to the very early days of H.P.B. in India), and while some of us \nowe a real debt to the author of the Occult World \u2014because, after all, he was \nlargely instrumental, though indirectly, in reminding us once more of Theosophy \nand of the Lodge\u2014yet, great as is our debt, we must realize the author\u2019s limi\u00ac \ntations. That book, as you know, contains letters from the Master K. H. that \nare of endless value; but the book itself is also made up of observations about \nphenomena, and so on and so forth, which very clearly demonstrate that Sinnett\u2019s \ncentre of interest was in external things. He had no more idea of the inner life \nthan a flatiron. It was on phenomena that he was intent, and anything that he \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n55 \n\n\ncould drag out of H.P.B. in the way of a sensation\u2014an out and out materialist, \nif ever there was one. Almost from the first he showed that he was doomed; \nyet he served his purpose while he lasted, and doubtless will receive his reward, \n\u2014in spite of his final treachery to H.P.B. He was thrown off that revolving \nplate, before she died; and she knew it. \n\nThen there came the trouble over Judge. Those who have been thrown off\u2014 \nnot by any act of the surviving membership, but always through their own sense \nof importance, through their own ambition, through their too materialistic and \npersonal approach to divine truth\u2014have all shared certain characteristics. Any\u00ac \none who knew Annie Besant ought to have realized that she thought Divine \nProvidence lucky when it ran into her. The same attitude has characterized every\u00ac \none without exception who has failed to cling to the Movement. It always will. \nJohn Jay Chapman, a brilliant man with a very independent mind, wrote a book \nat the outbreak of the War in which he analysed the psychological condition of \nthe German people at that time, describing it as a state of mania, with what we \nshould call the lower nature in control. It is easy to see that the German symp\u00ac \ntoms, as he records them, have been exhibited also by those who have been thrown \nout of the Society as a result of swollen personality. First, he says, there was a \ncurious ability to use reason, and then suddenly to lapse into unreason, without \nrecognizing the lapse from reason into unreason; then there was the attitude of \ndogmatic certitude; thirdly, there was megalomania, a sense of intense self\u00ac \nexaltation. I should like to add on my own account that in Germany, as in the \ncase of the derelicts of the Movement, the persecution mania was a marked symp\u00ac \ntom. Germany was perfectly sincere at that time in her belief that she was \nbeing persecuted by the entire world. Annie Besant (although it is almost \nincredible) convinced herself that she was being persecuted, although the truth \nwas that she was savagely persecuting Judge. Mrs. Tingley imagined she was \nhounded by enemies,\u2014a real mania. But all four peculiarities were invariably \npresent, if you go through the list of those who led others astray. \n\nFor the reason that the Adyar society is the most notorious of these Kama \nLokic spooks at the present time, it is necessary to study it, because, after some \nof us older people have gone to a better world, you may be confronted with all \nkinds of arguments for a so-called reunion; and reunion in any form oi^o^any \nbasis would be fatal to the cause of the Lodge. Beware, if you as in^ in this. Wherever the White Lodge forces \nits way, the Black Lodge is free to follow. To achieve great things in this world, \ngreat risks must be taken. The Theosophical Movement, coming down from \nabove with tremendous momentum, plunged into the ocean of human life, and \nflung up on every side the mud and scum of human nature, particularly, perhaps, \nin those who were drawn to the Movement itself. This evil had to be thrown off \nif a nucleus were to survive; and thrown off it was, in repeated shocks and up\u00ac \nheavals\u2014disintegrating elements of ambition, selfishness, superstition, materi\u00ac \nalism, centring at Adyar, Point Loma and elsewhere. Mrs. Tingley\u2019s personal \nambition and self-seeking became as notorious as the superstition of her followers; \nthe same is true of the so-called United Lodge, though in different ways. As \nmany of you are aware, Robert Crosbie was its inspiring genius. Some of us knew \nhim well, years ago, in Boston. He was one of Judge\u2019s minor sorrows,\u2014because \nCrosbie was psychic, always having \u201cvisions\u2019\u2019, always imagining that he was \ngetting \u201cmessages\u2019\u2019, and so forth. Judge, of course, thoroughly understood him, \nand often grieved over him to us. Later, at a time when there was no excuse for \nit, as everyone had been warned, Crosbie followed Mrs. Tingley to Point Loma. \nWhen he finally discovered (much good his psychism did him!) that she was not \nwhat he had imagined her to be, he left Point Loma, and then, when he had \nobtained the financial backing he needed, set up as a \u201cguru\u2019\u2019 on his own account, \nestablishing the United Lodge as recruiting instrument. \n\nYet all of this sifting process, although it brought Theosophy into terrible \ndisrepute with the unthinking public, was necessary and essentially wholesome, \ninasmuch as it purged the Movement of most undesirable elements; and it will \n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n57 \n\n\nwork out for ultimate good, so long as we recognize the facts, and never, in the \nfuture, allow ourselves to be deceived by efforts to draw us into so-called \u201cco\u00ac \noperation\u201d. \n\nAll of these outside organizations have carried on public propaganda as if the \nLaw of Cycles did not exist, that is to say, in spite of the turn of the tide, in spite \nof the indrawal of the spiritual forces which were poured out, through H.P.B. \nand Judge, during the last quarter of the century. If further evidence were \nneeded, this alone would show how deliberately misguided they have been. It \ncannot be stated too often that the true Movement must indraw, away from the \nworld, back toward the Lodge, as the spirit leadeth. It is our function, so far as \npossible, to draw the world after us,\u2014the best that is in the world, in any case. \n\nNow for another subject: there has been speculation on the part of some of \nyou, I know, about the next Lodge Messenger, and about the possibility of a \nforerunner, as the Comte de Saint Germain seems to have acted as forerunner \nat the end of the eighteenth century. But do you realize that whoever comes, \nand whenever he comes, will come invisibly before he comes visibly? and that \nit is part of our function to-day to move in spirit toward him, until the point of \njunction is attained? One purpose of our assembling here to-day is that that \ninner contact may be hastened. Clearly that would be the wish of the Masters \nfor us, as I am convinced it is their wish that those here to-day, in person or in \naspiration, may feel their blessing, may feel their nearness, and may receive \nfrom all that is said and from all that is left unsaid, an overwhelming sense of the \nreality of the spiritual world. \n\nWhat is our objective\u2014I will not say as a Society, because it might be mis\u00ac \nunderstood (the purposes of the Society are published and are known); but \nwhat is our objective as individual members? What are we working for? Ulti\u00ac \nmately, for the restoration of the dynasty of Adept Kings. I do not think we \nshould ever lose sight of that objective; we must not forget the ultimate because \nof our immersion in the immediate or proximate. Let us think back in history, \nthen, just for a moment: nearly all of us have read of the efforts that were made \nto restore the Stuarts to the throne of England. Their place had been u||^cd \nby the Hanoverians. We know of the sacrifices that were made; that and \nwomen devoted their entire lives\u2014their money, everything that they valued\u2014 \nto the cause of the Stuarts. Yet they were working for something external in \ncomparison with that for which we work. Realizing this, we can perhaps shame \nourselves into greater and more one-pointed effort. Does everything that we do \nand say and read, centre around the ultimate restoration we entreat? \n\nThen, as an intermediate step, we are working to carry the Movement forward \nuntil the next Lodge Messenger comes. Why will he come? He will come for \nthe same ultimate purpose: to prepare the way of the Lord, he, a Great Pre\u00ac \nparer, but we in our turn, lesser preparers\u2014every one of us; for every member \nof The Theosophical Society is, in a sense, following in the footsteps of John the \nBaptist, and should be performing a function similar to his. \n\nOf course it is our right, if we choose to reject our opportunity, to say that \nwe will have none of it, and yet remain members in good standing. I am, how- \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n58 \n\never, speaking to those who are glad of the chance to make their lives of real \nvalue. We can do this, in part, by perceiving that just as the gulf between the \nworld and The Theosophical Society is an ever-widening gulf, so should be the \ngulf between ourselves and the world. The world, as such, is concentrated lower \nnature; and when we are obliged to make contact with the world, we ought to \ndo it deliberately and with our eyes open, in complete control of what we are \ndoing and of how we do it. If we are to feel here this morning, and again this \nafternoon\u2014as I hope all of us will\u2014the breath of the spirit in our hearts, we shall \nhave felt, as we entered this room, that we were leaving the world behind us. \n\nSome of you will remember that marvellous passage in one of the Buddhist \nbooks, in which the Buddha describes a meditation of \u201cthe Great King of Glory\u201d, \nwho, after purifying himself, approached the door of the \u201cinner chamber\u201d, and \nthere stood, commanding, with \u201cintense emotion\u201d, all evil thoughts, all desires \nof the personality, all its fears and all its worries, to remain without the threshold. \n\u201cStay here\u201d, \u201cThus far only\u201d, he ordered. Only then did he enter the inner \nchamber, the place of divine vision, there to behold \u201cthe heavenly Treasure of \nthe Wheel\u201d. At the sight of it he made obeisance, exclaiming: \u201cRoll onward, \nO my Lord, the Wheel! 0 my Lord, go forth and overcome!\u201d It was another \nform, a Buddhist form, of \u201cThy will be done\u201d; but the story reminds us also \nthat if we would come into contact with reality, we must first separate ourselves \nfrom unreality; and we cannot do this until we begin to pierce through the rind \nof things toward the light that streams from within, until we have caught some \nglimpse of the glory of the Real, until something of its transcendent beauty has \nlifted our hearts and filled our souls with consuming desire. But now we can at \nleast resolve to be held down no longer by the hideousness of worldly life; that \nwe will ho longer try to persuade ourselves that that hideousness is what we \nwant. Because we know better; foolish as we are, blind as we are, we know \nbetter: you know better. Yes,\u2014the truth of the matter is that with all your \nsouls you love and long for the noblest, purest, most unselfish you can see. And \nit is because the Masters know that, that they stand here to-day and grant us \ntheir blessing. \n\nThe Convention then adjourned until 2.30 p. m. \n\nAfternoon Session \n\nThe Chairman called for the report of the Committee on Nominations. \n\nReport of the Committee on Nominations \n\nMr. Auchincloss presented the following nominations: for the Executive \nCommittee, to succeed themselves, Mr. Harris and Mr. Miller; for Treasurer, \nMr. H. B. Mitchell; Assistant Treasurer, Mr. Kobb6; Secretary, Miss Perkins; \nAssistant Secretary, Miss Chickering. It was voted that the Secretary be \ninstructed to cast one ballot for the election of officers as nominated, and that the \nCommittee be discharged with thanks. \n\nReport of the Committee on Letters of Greeting \n\nMr. J. F. B. Mitchell read the numerous greetings to the Convention that \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n59 \n\n\nhad been received from Branches and from members-at-large. The reading of \nthese was punctuated with frequent applause. Extracts from these letters are \nprinted at the end of this Report. Two members from Europe, who were \nheartily greeted, read their own reports. \n\nThe Chairman, after the report of the Committee on Letters of Greeting \nhad been accepted with the thanks of the Convention, read a letter which had \nbeen received from one of the members-at-large, in which it was stated that \nMr. Mitchell\u2019s article in the Quarterly, \u201cCollegiate Education and Standards \nof Value\u201d, had been read aloud to the two upper forms, including over a hundred \nboys, by the Principal of one of America\u2019s largest and best-known private schools. \n\nThe report of the Committee on Resolutions was then called for. \n\nReport of the Committee on Resolutions \n\nMr. Hargrove: Before I submit the report of your Committee, perhaps I \nmay be allowed to add to something that I said this morning. Speaking of the \ninevitable sifting-out process, and of the Adyar and similar societies, I failed to \ndraw your attention to what seems to me to be an extremely significant fact. \nTake the best-known workers in The Theosophical Society,\u2014Charles Johnston, \nfor instance: Mr. Johnston was a poor man. He never, however, derived any \nfinancial benefit from his membership in the Society. A writer by profession, \nnot only was he never paid for his articles in the Quarterly, but profits derived \nfrom the sale of his theosophical books, he turned back to the Quarterly Book \nDepartment as a gift. Some of you know that, in later years, he was one of the \nassistant editors of the Encyclopcedia Briiannica; that is to say, he earned his \nliving from \u201csecular\u201d sources, and gave his spare time to work for the Society. \nDr. Keightley, of course, was always a contributor, and never at any time drew \nthe slightest financial benefit from his membership. Mr. Griscom was a most \nimportant contributor, of money and all else. You will remember that Saint \nPaul is said to have been a tent maker, supporting himself. That is the right \nprinciple. \n\nIt is wrong and thoroughly unwholesome, that anyone should make a living \nout of Theosophy. Yet, if you turn to the other societies, you will find thatAIrs. \nBesant, for instance, was entirely dependent upon what she made out|^ her \nlectures and her books. There would always be a temptation, in that case, not \nonly to work for a large membership, but to use the subject to advertize the lec\u00ac \nturer and author. The larger the membership, the greater the demand for books; \nthe greater the notoriety, the larger the sales. Mrs. Besant earned so much that \nshe was able to support most of those who, under her, controlled the policy of her \nsociety. In the other societies also, the prominent workers are supported, \ndirectly or indirectly, in similar ways. They do not earn their living by secular \nwork. I repeat that this is bad in principle. Work of that kind ought to be \nentirely voluntary. Even when the financial reward provides no more than a \nbare living (and Mrs. Tingley made a fortune out of it), the practice is demoral\u00ac \nizing to the recipient, and proves that the organization which permits it is blind \nto spiritual factors and has been swallowed up by the world. \n\n\n6o \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nI want also to add something in regard to humility. I spoke of the fact that \nthe people who are thrown off the revolving wheel of the Movement are those \nwho feel themselves to be big, while those who feel like grains of sand have the \nbest chance to adhere. This may have seemed to imply that all of us who are \nstill members of the Society, are models of humility! Alas, no. I came to the \nconclusion, long ago, that it is only the Mahatma who can be completely humble; \nthat all that the rest of us can do is to recognize our lack of humility. This is \nwhere the difference comes in. It is the people who think they are humble, who \ntake themselves with portentous solemnity, and who cannot either laugh at \nthemselves or hate themselves, who are lost. In either direction an element of \nsafety lies. It is bad enough to be vain, but it is infinitely worse not to realize \nthe silliness of it,\u2014I will not say the \u201cwickedness\u201d, because that is too big a term \nwhen it comes to ordinary vanity; but to see the silliness, and, if possible, the \nridiculousness of it, should in time effect a cure. Nothing is more salutary than \na sense of humour directed against ourselves. The type of humour that laughs \nat other people\u2019s adversities is despicable, but if humour be turned against self, \nit will do much to keep the exuberance of self in restraint. In brief, we may \nassume, because we are here to-day, not that we are humble, but that, first of all, \nwe wish we were, and that when the opposite is discovered\u2014as it ought easily \nto be\u2014we try to treat it with contempt, or with the ridicule it deserves. \n\nNow as to the Report of the Committee on Resolutions, I suggest the first \nthing we should keep in mind is that we live in a mechanical age, and that we \nought to resolve not to allow ourselves to become its victims. The mechanizing \ntendency manifests in every conceivable way. It is a reversion to primitive forms \nof life. The ways of ants are mechanistic. Socialism, Hitlerism, Communism, \nNRA-ism, all make for the anthill type of life, and we, as members of The The- \nosophical Society, should make up our minds that whatever else happens, we will \nnot \u201cgo insect\u201d. All present efforts to bring political and social life to a state of \nouter perfection by outer means, are mechanical both in method and aim. Edu\u00ac \ncation, business, and every other form of human activity would, at best, in such \nways become stereotyped and stultifying. This does not mean that we should \nraise the flag of rebellion against the NRA, or anything of the kind. We cannot, \nat this stage of evolution, expect to control the surface of things; let the world \nhave the surface, seeing that that is what it wants; and let us keep the inner \npower, as we can do if we grow in understanding; for right understanding, \naccompanied by right sacrifice, will give us the ability to choose and to aspire \nrightly, and our right choice and aspiration of to-day will draw the future\u2014even \nthe surface of the future\u2014into the mould which Masters alone are wise enough \nto provide. \n\nWe must resolve to keep a level head in the midst of all that may be said and \nurged and threatened by modernistic zealots. We must strive for understanding. \nMore harm is done in the world by well-meaning people who are stupid, than by \npeople who are notoriously bad. We must strive for finer and finer kinds of \nunderstanding. We must recognize the tendencies of our racial and family he\u00ac \nredity, and because all of us have been bom in western as distinguished from \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n6i \n\n\noriental bodies, we should expect a tendency to see things materialistically,\u2014 \neven to interpret Theosophy materialistically. We have, I am sure, been out\u00ac \ngrowing that. As a Society we have made great progress within the last twenty- \nfive years, away from materialistic expositions of Theosophy, to an understanding \nthat is becoming more and more spiritual. There was a time, for instance, when \nthe doctrine of Karma was interpreted mechanically by most members. I well \nremember W. B. Yeats, who at that time was interested in Theosophy, walking \nup and down the aisle at the Blavatsky Lodge in London, and rightly ridiculing \nMrs. Besant\u2019s cut and dried interpretation. According to her, he said, if you were \nan efficient and virtuous boot-black in this life, you would reincarnate, as Karmic \nreward, in the guise of an efficient and virtuous grocer! \n\nIn those early days it was said by some members that Karma made prayer \nillogical. It did not seem to occur to them that even on a materialistic and \nmechanical basis, prayer is as natural an activity, and therefore as much an \ninstrument of Karma, as the wind or the rain or any other agency. But we can \ngo further than that. A few days ago I read a review of a book by Selma Lagerlof, \nthe well-known Swedish writer, in which she tells a story of her childhood. Her \nfather was very ill, and she, a small girl, made up her mind to enter into a com\u00ac \npact with God. She undertook to read the Bible all the way through, if God \nwould save her father\u2019s life. Her father\u2019s life was saved. It reminded me of a \nstory of the youth of General Ludlow, whom you all know of as a highly valued \nmember of this Society. When he was a little boy, his mother used to knit \nmittens for him to wear in cold weather, and he was always losing them. One \nwinter day, he went out to skate with his brother, older by only a year or two. \nBefore they started, his mother reminded him of all the trouble she had taken in \nknitting his mittens, and appealed to him not to lose them again. When the time \ncame for the boys to return home, the little fellow suddenly remembered his \nmother\u2019s appeal,\u2014and he was devoted to her. The mittens had gone! He and \nhis brother hunted for them everywhere. The ground was covered with snow. \nThe mittens were red, and would have been easy to see. There was no trace of \nthem. The child was distressed beyond words: how could he face his mother \nafter what she had said! So he went down on his knees, in the middle of the road, \nand prayed\u2014his brother with him\u2014that they might find those mitte^^a \nheart-broken prayer. When they got up from their knees and looked at^md, \nthere, a few feet away from them, right on the snow, were the mittens. No won\u00ac \nder that that child, when he became a grown man, used to say, \u201cIt is no use \ntalking to me about prayer\u2014I know that it works.\u201d \n\nNow let me ask you: if you had known what was going on in the heart of that \nchild\u2014if you had seen his suffering\u2014would you not have been sorry for him? \nOf course you would. Would you not have helped him if you could? And are \nMasters with their \u201clegions\u201d less compassionate than we are? No, the truth of \nthe matter is that it is the privilege and joy of an entire choir of angels to answer \nthe prayers of children and of the simple of soul. The \u201cmiracles\u201d thus wrought \nare as much a part of greater Nature\u2019s beauty as the resurrection of life in the \nspring. It is part of the divine scheme of things, part of Karma itself that these \n\n\n62 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthings are. So, more and more, we must get away from the mechanical, materi\u00ac \nalistic interpretation of Theosophy; we must gain the realization that there are \nmargins of beauty around everything, worlds of mystery too sacred for the mind \nto penetrate, and that if we would really get at the truth, we must seek and \npursue the spirit,\u2014not the letter. \n\nThen too, if we would carry out the suggestions made this morning, we must \nrealize that it is .our function to maintain in the world the traditions we have \ninherited\u2014our birthright as members of this Society \u2014right traditions: for \ninstance, the right tradition of manners,\u2014although I am afraid that very few \nof us, if any, can think of ourselves as exemplars. Even so, we do not need to \nhave attained in order to recognize an ideal, and if we honestly value these things, \nand strive to act and live accordingly, we shall be keeping alive the tradition. \nWe owe it to the Movement to try to preserve everything that we see as best in \ncivilization. The rudeness and roughness which now seem to be the vogue, are \nevidence of moral degeneracy, and it is for us, because of our membership, and \nno matter how we may fail in performance, to strive ceaselessly to express all \nthat we can of kindliness, of consideration, of courtesy, recognizing the inesti\u00ac \nmable value of these in terms of the spiritual life. \n\nWe must maintain the old ideals. There is, for instance, the subject of mar\u00ac \nriage\u2014and you know what the world thinks about it to-day, or, no matter what \nit thinks about it, what it does. It is for us to uphold the highest, purest ideals of \nmarriage, and we should be untrue to Theosophy, untrue to Masters, if we were \nto fail in this\u2014if we were to fail in setting ourselves immovably against cheapness \nof divorce, as against all other laxities in matters of sex. \n\nWe must uphold theosophical principles in every direction. Consider the \nhierarchical principle\u2014one of the basic truths of Theosophy\u2014in connection with \nfamily life: we must respect it and act upon it. You know as well as I do, that \nin far too many families to-day it is regarded as more or less the function of \nchildren to bring up their parents. When children become a public nuisance, \nparents say, apologetically: \u201cWhat can we do? We should lose them if we \npushed them too hard\u201d. In some cases, when one knows the children, one is \ntempted to reply: ''Lose them! No such luck for you, my friends\u201d. One does \nnot say it, because it would not be understood. Nevertheless the attitude of such \nparents is cowardly; they shirk their responsibility and prove they are not fit \nto be parents. Children who regard their parents solely as a source of revenue; \nwho are devoid of filial respect; who have no sense of the life-long duty they owe \ntheir parents, are a danger to the community no matter to what class of society \nthey belong, and no matter what their age. There is no solution except to \nadhere to right principle from the beginning\u2014to correct children when they need \nit, to praise them when they deserve it\u2014with love, but without fear. If, as a \nresult, they choose to go, let them go. You cannot in any case deprive them of \ntheir power of choice, and if they choose evil, you will not improve matters by \ndoing likewise. Parents who are true to their ideals, who are true to truth and to \nTheosophy, cannot fail in the end, for it is only by such sacrifice that the wilful \nand selfish and depraved can ultimately be saved. The world tries to com- \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n63 \n\n\npromise, but compromise accomplishes nothing,\u2014and it is not for us to be drawn \ninto the current of the world\u2019s worst failures. \n\nSpeaking this morning of indrawal, I said that the gulf between the world and \nThe Theospphical Society is steadily increasing, and must of necessity increase. \nHave you thought of what happened after the death of the Master Christ? His \napostles retired into an upper room, away from the world, and there prayed and \nmeditated,\u2014the women with them. In the Acts of the Apostles it is said that \nthere were a hundred and twenty of them in all; not a large body of people, but \ndynamic, because they were united in faith and purpose,\u2014lifting up their hearts, \nwaiting, expecting, believing. They were obeying the law of the spirit at the \npoint between two cycles; and as we, in obedience to the same law, indraw more \nand more,\u2014the life of the Society will tend to correspond more closely with that \nmeeting of the hundred and twenty in the upper room, apart from the world. \nThere will be practically no propaganda; the activity will be inner rather than \nouter,\u2014with the duty mutually to keep alive the fire of real desire, of true \naspiration, as we wait, watch and prepare for the coming of the Messenger. \nTherefore, let us forget numbers, let us separate ourselves from the obsession of \nquantity. A hundred and twenty people to start a world-wide religion: more \nthan enough! And in our case, a dozen would be enough. But what a great and \nmarvellous function it is that this Society will have to perform,\u2014having the \nvision, so to live, so to aspire, so to will, as to draw down from heaven the \nsupreme gift that the world unknowingly awaits. \n\nLet us make ready for that; let us learn how to give the whole of ourselves \nto one spiritual desire, and thus become able to wield the power that will have \nbeen placed in our hands. Once we achieve that, the Society will no .longer be as \na voice crying in the wilderness, but, instead, a lightning rod, a conductor, draw\u00ac \ning into every yearning heart the celestial fire which alone can redeem the world, \nwhich alone can lift humanity from the hell it has created, to the new heaven and \nnew earth we were promised from the beginning. \n\nDr. Torrey (supplementing, by request, the report of the Chairman of the \nCommittee on Resolutions): There is a subject which cannot have been far \nfrom our thoughts to-day as we have dwelt upon the unsettled condition o^e \nworld, and that is the subject of imminent war in Europe. The world faQ^pfce \npossibility with confusion and bewilderment, but the same should not be true of \nour membership, because, ever since 1918, we have been told repeatedly that \n\u201cthe war is not yet over\u2019\u2019; that we should \u201ctake long views of the war\u2019\u2019, and \nthat we should remember that \u201cGermany was not beaten though she could \nhave been\u2019\u2019. \n\nThe press is full of rumours and predictions. Simonds, siting in the April \nAtlantic under the title: \u201cAustria the Powder Barrel of Europe\u2019\u2019, assures us of \nHitler\u2019s deliberately announced intention to assert the German hegemony over \nthe block of Central European States which, in times past, have been under \nGerman sovereignty. The recent move against the Dolfuss Government is the \nfirst step, to be followed later by aggression against Czechoslovakia, Hungary and \n\n\n64 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nM \n\n\nBulgaria. This is no fantastic dream. On the contrary it would re-establish a \nterritorial association which, in the form of the Holy Roman Empire, existed for \nthe thousand years between Charlemagne and Napoleon. Hitler has made him\u00ac \nself a symbol of the desire for unity which, at bottom, is common to^75,000,000 \nGermans dwelling in the very heart of Europe. \n\nNow history shows us that a programme of aggrandizement at the expense of \nneighbour states has invariably landed Europe in armed conflict. Simonds sees \nbut three solutions for the problem: \n\n1. A concerted action of the European Powers to guarantee Austrian inde\u00ac \npendence. \n\n2. A war for balance of power eventually. \n\n3. A war of prevention instigated by France within the year. \n\nThere is small likelihood that the first possibility can be realized. Wordy \nconferences accomplish nothing, and the move would have to be backed by a \nplain display of force. The European Powers are vacillating, jealous of one \nanother, and beset with internal troubles. To try to \u201cmuddle through\u201d and to \ndelay the issue is to create a situation fraught with ever-increasing danger. \nFinally there is the possibility of a war of prevention on the part of France who \nwas never in a better position for it than to-day. She has the military machinery, \nthe statesmen, the willing allies. Let her delay, and her military equipment \nbecomes progressively outmoded and lessened in efficiency as compared with \nthat of her powerful enemy. \u201cWar within the year\u201d! Sinister and terrible words \nof a hard-headed joiumalist. Yet the world, outside the narrow circle of doctri\u00ac \nnaire pacifists, recognizes the irresistible logic of the position. \n\nSome of us were very young when the last outbreak occurred; some of us \nwere not so young in years, but we were young in Theosophy. The voice of our \nleaders was hardly more than one voice among other voices. And those other \nvoices\u2014the Chief Executive of the Nation, clergy, liberal educators\u2014confused \nand bewildered us just as they bewilder young men and women to-day. The\u00ac \nosophy alone can clear up the confusion. I do not mean, of course, that outside \nour membership there is no understanding of the situation. I mean, rather, \nthat the Theosophic truth at the heart of Christianity, Buddhism, or even of \ntrue science, is alone capable of dispelling the clouds of misconception gathered \nabout the educated modem mind. \n\nFor what is the root of the confusion? Here is Germany exhibiting certain \nmost admirable features: tenacity of purpose, one-pointedness, co-operative \npatriotism, certain kinds of moral cleansing, austere living and a searching and \nsacrificial attempt to bring her peculiar genius to flower. Is not this the very \npath along which our own thinkers would gladly move our Nation? Is not a high \naestheticism and a passion for perfection behind this movement? The German is \nfaced with a European garden-spot which is an offence to his aesthetic ideal. \nWaste and confusion prevail in place of the scientific order and discipline which \nhe loves; ugly foreign weeds threaten to stifle the native Teutonic plants. \n\nBarring slight differences, this is likewise the ideal of the liberal naturalistic \nschool of thought in all nations. Science and controlled economics; the culti- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n65 \n\n\nvat ion of sense-pleasures as making for the ultimate good\u2014in a word, materi\u00ac \nalism triumphant in congress and in college. Shall American scholars rail at \nGermans for adv^ancing farther along the road toward our common ideal? It \nill fits the pot to call the kettle black. \n\nIn that homely proverb we strike our first note of reality. Black! Their light \nis darkness\u2014the darkness which rests upon the agnostic, prideful race of uni\u00ac \nversity-trained men who are given to a passionate belief in Maya, and who seek \nthrough psychism for life and more abundant life. \n\nGermany has long been the source and focus of this evil doctrine. Its doc\u00ac \ntorate degree granted to the scientific researcher is the model upon which the \nAmerican graduate school is founded. Attentive travellers in the country as far \nback as Bismarck\u2019s day, bear witness to a ferocious egoism, a strange and sinister \nand mighty power which shakes the Teutonic soul to its centre, and makes of the \nGerman warrior something of terror which has not been in the modem world \nbefore. What is the lesson for us who are gathered here? \n\nKipling has written a short story called \u201cThe Mother Hive\u2019\u2019. A wax moth \nslips into the hive and proceeds to cajole the working sisters with soft words, \nwhile she spreads her principles (eggs) through the comb, and promises the \ncoming of a New Era and a Great Change when bees will subsist on the \u201chival \nhoney\u2019\u2019 and will work only six minutes each day. Comb will be built with cir\u00ac \ncular cells to save wax; guards will be withdrawn from the door, and an era of \nsong and dance among \u201cthe merry, merry blossoms\u2019\u2019 will prevail. The working \nsisters are encouraged to lay eggs like queens, and to spread the new principles. \nSoon the change is in full swing. A swarm of monstrous and malformed bees \nhatches from the workers\u2019 eggs, and the hive becomes foul with wax-moth larvae \nand their noisome tunnels. But two wise bees, Melissa and Saccharina, have \ncome to understanding, and they build a royal queen cell after the ancient \npattern. The old queen lays an egg there and dies exhausted. In secret the \nprincess is raised on the royal food. \n\nUpon a fateful day the beekeeper and his son come to inspect the hives. Then \noccurs the Great Burning and the Sulphur Smoke. But calling the swarnmg- \ncry, and accompanied by a slender cupful of clean bees, the new Queen e^lbes \nto the old oak, where, clinging fast, the bees witness the Destmction h'f Fire \nforetold of old time. In the gloom, a wax moth flits away to the wood crying: \n\u201cA slight miscalculation in the plans, my dears, but see what a marvellous change \nwe brought about.\u2019\u2019 \n\nThere stands our ideal: a handful of clean bees rallied about an ancient, royal \nheritage, waiting through the night of the Great Burning and Cleansing\u2014waiting \nto carry on once more according to the Immemorial Law of the Hive. \n\nMr. Gonzalez Jimenez (who spoke both as a member of the Committee on \nResolutions and on behalf of the Venezuela Branch): It would take a long time \nto recount the acti\\dties of the Venezuela Branch during the year. I shall limit \nmyself to summarizing them, but I know that I shall fail to communicate to my \nwords the fire that lived there. This has been a year full of intensity in the life \n\n\n66 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nof our Branch, a year of precise definitions, of clear conceptions, of a definite \ngoal. \n\nIt is of special significance to us because the Venezuela Branch, in its present \nform, was founded on a 24th of June, the summer solstice, twenty-five years ago, \nalthough Theosophy in Venezuela dates back as far as 1881, since the first coming \nof Mr. Judge, whose love for the Cause left the lamp lighted in the world of the \nReal. And we understand that the fire burning there to-day was kindled by what \nthat great Preparer did. \n\nIf by the light of the three objects of the T. S. we were to seek for an interpre\u00ac \ntation of our work, we could epitomize it thus: first, the members of the Vene\u00ac \nzuela Branch love each other more, and have realized that this nucleus of love, \nwithout distinction of personalities, has to be spread wide and enclose within \nits folds the whole of humanity; second, besides the studies in the Branch meet\u00ac \nings proper, and in the gatherings of students, each member has selected a line \nof investigation, either scientific, religious or philosophical, in which to specialize, \nso as to contribute this particular aspect to the general fund of knowledge which \nit is the purpose of the second object to establish; third, an effort has been made \nto understand how the whole programme of life culminates in the transmutation \nof the so-called personality into the self-conscious spiritual individuality, whose \narchetype is to be found in the Master on whose ray we are: the task of the \nspirit in matter, the dispelling of the Maya created for the attainment of self- \nconsciousness, to come back to the awakened unity through the dream of \ndiversity. \n\nAt this point we may say that some members of the Branch have attended to \nthe final invitation made by the Society at the Convention at Boston in 1895: \n\u201cAnd lastly, it invites to its membership those who, seeking a higher life here\u00ac \nafter, would learn to know the path to tread in this.\u201d The work has been, there\u00ac \nfore, one of discrimination between the Real and the unreal; the gaining of \nknowledge through a universal, comparative study, and the readiness to serve. \n\nAs an emblem of what we members are destined to become, the Venezuela \nBranch wishes that symbol you are looking at on the wall [a beautifully carved \nshield with antique sword, presented by the Venezuela Branch] to remain in \nthe hall of this Branch that entertains our Conventions, as a mirror and a \npattern: the sword of Will illuminated by the radiant sun of Buddhi lighting up \nthe endeavour of our Movement: to kill the dragon of the personality which it \ntramples to earth and, at the centre, the crown of glory promised to the victor, \nthe crown of the Master King. That sword belonged to the cavalry of Charles \nIII, the wise, the gallant king who drove out of Spain in a single night\u2014luminous \nnight!\u2014the Black Society; and the wood of the shield is from a tree that grew \nin the yard of our Branch and was itself watered by Juan Jos^ Benzo. Please \naccept it as the symbol of the Victory awaiting us. \n\nLet me end by expressing to our dear Ancients, on behalf of all my fellow- \nworkers of the Venezuela Branch, our thankfulness for having built the bridge \nacross the abyss that separates earth from heaven. Our thanks, too, to that \ncollective consciousness that affectionately we call the Quarterly. \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES 67 \n\nWe could summarize the work of this year with the triad of William Q. Judge: \nUnity, Study, Work. \n\nComrades! the voice of the Lodge loudly resounds: Let us cross the Bridge. \nLa Patrie d'en haul nous appelle. * \n\nThe Chairman, after the report of the Committee on Resolutions had been \naccepted with thanks, invited the delegates and visiting members to address the \nConvention. Referring to the fact that the Venezuela Branch was represented \nby ten of its members, who had come all the way from Caracas, he called first \nupon Mr. Rafael Carias, President of the Branch, who spoke in Spanish, and \nwhose remarks were then translated into English by Mr. Bermudez, another of \nthe Branch delegates. \n\nMr. Car/as: Mr. Chairman: Our Venezuela Branch has wished to re-affinn \nunanimously its deep love and loyalty to the Ideal as promulgated by the \nFounders of The Theosophical Society, and attends this Convention, not repre\u00ac \nsented by delegates, but by the Branch itself, for here are all its officers. Besides, \neach of our companions who remain in Venezuela is also represented individually \nby one of us, and this I think to be a unique thing in the life of the Society. We \ntake it as rather miraculous that as many as ten members have been able to \nmake this trip, when, for most of them, it seemed something quite impossible to \neffect. We all know that every good and perfect gift comes from above, and the \nfact of our being here at this Convention we interpret as a great gift, and an \nopportunity that will demand the proof of our love for Masters, and the will and \ndecision to give ourselves to Them with the surrender of our whole hearts. \n\nThe Chairman then called upon two members from Europe to address the \nConvention, both of whom brought greetings, one from a Branch, the other on \nbehalf of fellow-members. Next, the other Venezuelan representatives were \ninvited to speak, doing so either in English, French or Spanish. \n\nMiss Cotton: The Venezuela Branch believes that the greatest honour she \ncan ever attain will be to have a place in the work of the Lodge, and she is re\u00ac \nsolved to accept joyfully, no matter at what cost, the responsibility of Ix'loiAig \nto the Masters\u2019 Cause. \n\nMadame Sanchez: Here we are; it is the cry of our hearts,\u2014with these \nhearts free of themselves, so that the Masters may work through us and make \nin us Their dwelling. \n\nHere we are to do Their will. \n\nMiss Reyes: First, our gratitude to those, visible and invisible, who helped \nus to come here. ... A Convention of The Theosophical Society is something \nour minds may never conceive, but our hearts must feel. The blessing of this \nhour is something that never can be longed for too much, and there is not a price \nin self-conquest too high to pay for it. \n\nThis year, the work of the Venezuela Branch has been one of discernment. \nIt has been the cry of the Prodigal Son: \u201cI will arise and go to my Father\u201d. We \n\n\n68 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nmust remember our di\\\u2019ine origin; we are from heaven and we must return there. \nThis has been the work of the Venezuela Branch this year, an intense one, the \neffort to get a true vision of our duty as members of The Theosophical Society, \nthrough unity of purpose and meditation, tr>\u2019ing above all things to gain devoted \nlove for the Master on whose Ray we are. I believe that the best prayer of all \nhere present, is to ask the help of the blessed Masters, so that we can go out \nfrom this Convention with the determination in our hearts, as the last \u201cFrag\u00ac \nments\u201d say: \u201cTo shake off the dust of earth, and to consolidate the dust of \nheaven.\u201d Thus we shall be able, as far as we can, to carry out their highest \npurposes. \n\nOur gratitude for all the help given to usHhrough the New York Branch, that \nhas been a light in our dark days. \n\nMr. Garcia : In the first place I wish to give thanks to the Masters for having \ngranted us the blessing of attending this Convention, and to you for the honour \nyou confer in inviting us to speak. I have only a few words to say. \n\nThere is a feeling among my fellow-members that this will be a decisive Con\u00ac \nvention, in the sense that it \\vill be a very definite opportunity to make a new \nbeginning. As I think of the fact that the only branch of the T. S. existing in \nthe whole of Latin America is the Venezuela Branch, as I think of its continued \nexistence for more than forty years, I believe that our Branch has a mission to \nfulfil: to preserve the spirit of the Movement there. \n\nMr. Rivero: Mr. Chairman, It is of thankftd significance to me to have the \nhonour and the privilege of being again with you. \n\nA few days ago I went to Caracas by the quickest way. Fast as it was, the \njourney seemed to me very slow, because, full of anxiety, I went to see my mother, \nwho was dying, and received her last blessing. \n\nThere, in my country, as here before leaving, I found, as always, the affection \nof my family and the sympathy of my friends,\u2014especially that of my fellow- \nmembers of the Venezuela Branch. Now, with them and j^ou all in Convention \nassembled, I have the fortune to be still in the bosom of another mother: The \nTheosophical Society. \n\nNotwithstanding that silence is the most eloquent expression in this inspiring \nmoment, let me voice, \\vith humility and reverence, the feelings of my heart in one \nsingle w^ord: gratitude. \n\nMr. Alvarez Perez: As my English is very limited and all my fellow- \nmembers have already expressed what I w^ould have said, it is little I have to say. \n\nI was recently told that some years ago the Lodge was asking for recruits; \nafter that it asked for soldiers. In our Branch more than one member is trying \nto become a soldier of the Lodge. \n\nMr. Urbaneja: It is a privilege to be among you after the many years since \nI have lived in New York. At present I feel myself filled with a new spirit, that \nof the true soldier; for if the Lodge is to have them, we must model ourselves to \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n69 \n\n\nits requirements. Let us remember the expression of the ancient Greek mother, \nwho said to her sons when going into battle: Return with the shield or upon it. \n\nMr. Bermudez: Out of an infinite compassion we have been called to par\u00ac \nticipate in this feast of feasts. You remember the verse: \n\nWhat does it take to make a rose, \n\nMother-mine? \n\nThe God who died to make it knows \nIt takes the world\u2019s eternal wars, \n\nIt takes the moon and all the stars. \n\nIt takes the might of Heaven and Hell, \n\nAnd the Everlasting Love as well, \n\nLittle child. \n\nLike him, the little child, we, the members of the Venezuela Branch ask our\u00ac \nselves what did it take to bring us to this Convention, and we feel that no less \na miracle of Love and Patience has been accomplished. The Everlasting Love! \nWrapped in His flaming arms, we have been snatched from the world, as it were, \nand carried here to get the vision of our destiny, of our glory. How to show our \ngratitude for this tremendous pri\\dlege? There is only one way. To give back \nour love to Them who filled us with love, by surrendering our hearts. \n\nReports from other delegates were then called for. \n\nDr. Hohnstedt, for the members of the Cincinnati Branch, expressed appreci\u00ac \nation and thanks for the Quarterly; gave a brief account of the work of the \nBranch during the past year, and concluded with the hope that more of their \nmembers might be able to attend the Convention in 1935, as all of them would \nwish to do. \n\nMrs. Regan, for the Providence Branch, said that the questions contained in \nthe notification of Convention by the Secretary T. S., had proved extremely \nhelpful, especially the question in regard to the ideal of the Branch. This had \nbeen discussed, the result being a unanimous desire that the Branch should \nbecome a centre through which the Lodge might work, with the inferenc e, \neach member must strive to become that which would make this possiblJ^ \n\nMrs. Rose, also speaking for the Providence Branch, brought greetin^^nd \ngratitude for the Convention. \n\nMr. Gardiner H. Miller: So many of you are familiar with the proceedings \nof the New York Branch meetings, that I do not think I need do more than recall \nto your minds some of the things discussed during the season. I should like to do \nthat, because to me the keynote of Convention is linked very closely with what \nhas been the theme of our discussion in the New York Branch this winter. We \nbegan with a reference to a book. La Reponse du Seigneur, in which much is said \nof the power of contemplation in the attainment of an ideal. Professor Mitchell, \nthis morning, spoke of denial as often a gift of the thing denied, which reminded \nme of something said in that book about prayer\u2014that prayer is not to receive, \nbut to become; and in the process of becoming (it was stated in that book, and it \n\n\n70 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhas been the keynote of our season\u2019s discussions, as it has been the keynote to\u00ac \nday) we must surrender self. Personality must be surrendered before indi\u00ac \nviduality can be attained. \n\nAs to indrawal: that seems to me to consist in dropping the personality over\u00ac \nboard,\u2014forgetting about it. You will recall the Albrecht Diirer picture of the \nKnight surrounded by hideous monsters of sin and death, but utterly oblivious \nof them. The horrors in the world to-day are so marked that, to accomplish even \nthe slightest degree of indrawal, we must get clear of the personality, as it affects \nour inner aspiration and inner efforts. That does not mean that we are not to \nresist the world, for we must fight with all the power, all the will and energy that \nwe have, to resist it; but we must not worry or fret about it. We must practise \nDetachment. That will make possible our indrawal into the spiritual world. \n\nMr. J. F. B. Mitchell: Mr. Chairman and Fellow Members, in looking for\u00ac \nward to the Convention and asking myself what it was that the Lodge would like \nto have come forth from it, it seemed to me that what is asked of us is vision, \nand loyalty to that vision,\u2014because if you lack loyalty to the vision, the vision \nitself is soon lost. That is what is asked of us, and that, as I see it, is the need \nof the world. It follows that when we fight for these things in ourselves, fight \nto hold our vision, to be loyal to it in action, in thought, in feeling, we are fighting \nthe battle of the world. There is no difference. That battle can be fought out \nby each one of us in his own mind and heart. Victory there, giving life to the \nideal by living it, will help to bring into the world that which the world so sorely \nneeds. The need of the world is vision of an ideal to love and to follow. \n\nThe desire and effort of the Lodge for man to-day must be to draw forth the \nlatent heroism in the souls of men, that the soul may unfold its potentialities, of \nnobility, of heroism, of splendour. The soul cannot be aroused if it sees no ideal \nworthy of its devotion. We have been given the knowledge that the highest \nideal of our own hearts is true, that there is that which is wholly lovable, and that \nwe may know and love it. There are three things in life that are worth while: \nTo know that there is that which is wholly lovable and to love it with utter self- \nforgetfulness; to know that we, and the world, are loved and cared for with \ninfinite compassion by those above us; to know that we can gain the power to \nhelp. Theosophy has brought us the knowledge that those things are true, and \nthat it is possible to give ourselves in utter, complete self-giving to the ideal of \nour hearts. It seems easy to do that at a moment like this, but there are many \ntimes when, though we know that that is what we long with all our hearts to do, \nwe cannot do it. \n\nAt this point there is a step that we can always take. I suggest the analogy \nof a ship in a storm, leaking, stranded on a rock with waves breaking over it, \nsure to break up; and the captain, with hundreds of lives entrusted to his care, \ndesperately trying to get a line to the shore. He could not throw a line heavy \nenough to bear the weight of a man, but he could throw a light line, and when \nthat had been caught and held, it could be used to draw heavier ones, over which \nthe passengers could be carried to safety. What we need, to keep ourselves from \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n71 \n\n\nbeing overwhelmed and drowned by psychic waves, is to get a line to the firm \nshore of the spiritual world, over which we can pass to safety. We may not be \nable to throw the line of our love, and nothing weaker can be counted upon to \nbear us, but we can always throw the light line of our attention. We can always \nturn our attention to the things of the spirit and hold it there. And when the \nline of attention has been thrown, caught and fixed there, then desire and interest \ncan be drawn along that line; and after desire and interest will go the love that \nwe long to give. When that love has been given, it will carry our souls to their \nsalvation, and it will do far more. It will enable us to bring salvation to the \nworld, because with that love it will be possible to live the ideal as it ought to be \nlived, to make it live in the world so that men can see it, can know that it is \ntrue, can know that there is the good, the true, the noble, the wholly lovable. \nThen, by contrast, they might see what the world so needs to see to-day: the \nexistence of active, malignant evil. I had almost said that the world needs to \nbelieve in evil as much as it needs to believe in good. So much of its trouble \nto-day is due to the fact that it has lost its belief in the danger and malignancy \nof evil. So it plays with it, shuts its eyes to its existence, and, instead of fighting \nit to the death, talks of pacifism and disarmament. In spite of the lessons of the \nWar, the world refuses to recognize that there are men and nations, dominated by \nevil of the worst type, which seek to kill\u2014and which, unless fought and con\u00ac \nquered, will kill\u2014all that is good in life, all that is beautiful, all that is compas\u00ac \nsionate and tender, all that is manly and noble. So, instead of having a clear-cut \nfight between those on one side who see good and love it, and who know and hate \nwickedness, and, on the other side, those who deliberately choose to throw in \ntheir lot with that wickedness, we have everything mixed and colourless. We \nhave the tragedy of those who wish to do good but are caught by their own stu\u00ac \npidity, caught by the use which the powers of evil make of their vague, unin\u00ac \ntelligent desires, turning them to Pacifism, Socialism, and the whole brood that \nwe have to-day. \n\nYear after year, I am impressed by the power that right thinking by members \nof the Theosophical Movement has, to affect the thought of the world. The The- \nosophical Movement has been compared to a spear-point of light, conquering the \ndarkness of the world in order that (ns Mr. Hargrove said this morning) the \nAdept Kings may come back from exile and rule once more on earth. Before \nthat can happen, the world must ardently desire it, and before it can dcs^pt, \nit must see it as the ideal; and false ideals and other obstacles must be crared \nout of the way. When Madame Blavatsky started her work, two of the greatest \nobstacles were the dogmatism of science and the dogmatism of religion. Both of \nthese have been greatly weakened. Before the world could desire Adept Kings, \nthe notion that the ideal was democracy had to be removed. You will remember \nhow, for years, in meeting after meeting of The Theosophical Society, that false \nideal was attacked. It has not been weakened to the same extent as dogmatism, \nbut its throne is rocking. \n\nThe ideals that the world needs for its salvation have been brought into it by \nour leaders. They are here. In the simile of an earlier Convention, our leaders \n\n\n\n\n\n72 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhave scaled the wall of the beleaguered city in which the heart of the world is \nheld captive. They have planted our banner on that wall and call to us to come \nup to them. It is for us to go forward, to win the day, or die of shame. \n\nDr. Clark: I should like to continue what has been spoken of by so many: \nthe contrast between the world and the Theosophical Movement. In one of the \nbooks of the spring, Dr. Breasted\u2019s Daum of Conscience, he tries to meet one of \nthe situations now present in the world\u2014the loss of all respect for morals and \nethics, especially on the part of the young, which he explains as due to the fact \nthat, in the past, the standards and obligations of morals have been taught as \ndescending to man from heaven, and as man has lost all belief in heaven he has \nlost respect for what was supposed to descend from there. Dr. Breasted brings \nforward, to replace that standard, the discarding of which is responsible for so \nmuch evil in the world to-day, another standard of ethics and morals which he \nsays was put together by men in Egypt, many hundreds of years before the \nalleged heaven-sent standards were given to man. Let us accept his statement, \nthough if we were to investigate the source of that Egyptian standard, we might \nbe led to believe that it too was sent from heaven. He thinks that in the present \nstate of the world men will respect anything they themselves create. His con\u00ac \ntention may be right,\u2014that some may be won to this earth-made standard and \ngood accomplished. Nevertheless, the course of history, throughout all the cycles \nof civilization, shows that nations develop and grow only when men act in \nobedience to that which they believe is given them from heaven; and, on the \nother hand, that nations disintegrate and civilizations dissolve, when they are \ngoverned by ideals that have their origin in man and his wisdom. \n\nIt is our good fortune to be members of The Theosophical Society. We know \nthat it was brought to us from the Lodge, by Madame Blavatsky, Mr. Judge \nand others. Therefore, as has been said so many times, it is the great hope of \nthe world in this period of disintegration. It is our good fortune, a thing for \nwhich we can never be sufficiently grateful, that, in defending and maintaining \nits standards, we contribute to the salvation and hope of the entire world. \n\nMr. LaDow: This morning. Professor Mitchell referred to real life as a \ndrama, suggesting that when life is truly lived, it assumes a dramatic form. \nI believe that we can derive both help and consolation from this, because in a \ndrama, in a great tragedy for example, each small incident is transfigured by \nthe denouonent, by the course of the drama as a whole. Not only the petty and \ntrivial, but even evil and vice may be thus transformed. If we can only think \nof the details and nuisances of our personal lives as being potentially parts of \na great drama, if we will to make them so, we shall be able more easily to discover \nthe lessons which they are intended to teach us. \n\nDr. Torrey said that \u201cmuddling through\u201d is a common practice in Europe. I \nventure to add that it is a common practice in America also. It is certain that \nwe shall never \u201cmuddle through\u201d to any theosophical goal. The notion that we \nshall inevitably reach that goal, whatever we may do or not do, is an expression \nof the mechanical view of life, against which Mr. Hargrove warned us. Karl \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n73 \n\n\nMarx must be held primarily responsible for the wide dissemination of the theory \nthat the human race could not help evolving in a fixed direction. The socialist \nstate that he prophesied was, therefore, certain to come. Fortunately few of us \nregard Marx as a prophet; but we should be careful not to be influenced by \nmechanistic theories of any kind. We must cultivate the spirit of self-reliance, \nin its true sense. \n\nWe must prove our readiness to give ourselves wholly to the work of the \nMovement. We must be eager to offer the whole of ourselves, in exchange for \nthe privilege of sharing the work of the Masters. \n\nMr. Auchincloss : Many of us, I imagine, as is always the case at Convention, \nare experiencing the feeling of being lifted up into a rarified atmosphere; of \nfunctioning upon a higher level than we usually do,\u2014on a level where feeling \nis quickened, where our inner perceptions are more acute, where time ceases to \nexist. The inner significance of many things unfolds rapidly before us. Past, \npresent and future are blended, as a consecutive whole. It seems easy, in the \ncurrent of Lodge Force which moves us forward here, to function upon this \nhigher level habitually, and we see no reason why we cannot. But when we \nleave this atmosphere, we relapse too often to our old level. We say to ourselves, \n\u2014\u201cAh, no; I cannot do it. I am too dead, too frozen inside. Those long years \nwhen vanity, self-love, self-will, self-reference controlled me, have congealed \nthings in me. I have a long way to go before I can hold, in daily life and living, \nthe level of Convention. I must conquer these things, I must thaw out, firsts \n\nWhen we say this kind of thing to ourselves, we are wrong. We are not work\u00ac \ning with the current of Lodge Force. We are opposing it. Did you ever see the \nice come out of a river, when the thaw comes? First the snow begins to go. \nThen the sun becomes warmer, and there are signs of spring. But still the ice \nholds unbroken. There is more and more warmth and life in the air. A great \nchange in nature is apparent. But still the ice holds unbroken, holds for an \nunbelievably long time, until one thinks that it is never going to disappear. \nUntil, suddenly, one day, there is a great crack, and then another, and another. \nAll at once, the ice begins to move, to disintegrate, to go out. ^ \n\nThe sun, the warmth of the atmosphere, have done their part. But, alWe. \nthey could not have done it. For it was the current in the river, working under\u00ac \nneath to undermine that icy covering, that finally proved irresistible, and swept \nit all away. So it is with us. It is contact with our teachers in the Movement, \nwith our fellows, that gives us life and warmth, softens us, makes us want to \nhave that dreadful iciness within us go. But it is the current of Lodge Force \nitself, working through them, working within us, that thaws us out, breaks up \nand carries away those icy moulds of ours,\u2014if we do not oppose it by thinking \nthat we must first overcome the old faults and weaknesses and sins, before we \ncan go forward with that great current. The current will take care of all those \nthings, if we will only go with it. We shall be lifted up and swept along, the old \nmoulds will go, and we shall recapture the atmosphere of Convention, and hold \nit, and live in it continuously more and more. \n\n\n% \n\n\n74 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nMr. Saxe: At a New York Branch meeting, quite a long while ago, one of \nthe older members was speaking about the point of view and the objective of the \npresent-day members, as compared with those of the old days. It was pointed \nout that whereas now-a-days we speak of the possibility of discipleship and have \nthat as our objective, in the earlier days, everybody expected to be a chela, \nand still earlier, everybody expected to become an adept. It was said that \nthat is perhaps the best view; people rarely accomplish the ideal at which \nthey aim, so it is well to aim very high. If a man makes up his mind \nto make a million dollars, he may make five hundred thousand; or if he \ndecides to make five millions, he may make one! Convention is the time \nwhen we should think of renewing our ideals and raising them as high as we \npossibly can. \n\nSome of us now living in New York used to be members-at-large, and came here \nfor more than one Convention; and we know, by experience, how it seems to \nsuch visitors. They have the feeling that if they could be here, right at head\u00ac \nquarters, in contact with the older members, they would accomplish wonders. \nPerhaps they do not think they would become adepts exactly, but they have an \nidea that there is no knowing what they might become. The worst of it is they \nare probably right. Most of us had that idea. We did not say: I will be an \nadept; but we were very hopeful. Then we finally came, and had all these \nwonderful lessons and opportunities. If we could have a strictly confidential \ntalk, we could give you a very satisfactory explanation of why we are not so \naltitudinous, but when we have to speak before those who have been looking \nafter us all these years, we have to tell the truth. The reason we are not further \nalong is that we have not had enough self-sacrifice, enough devotion, enough love. \nIf we had enough of these, all the rest would be accomplished. \n\nWe speak about sacrifice from many different angles. It has been pointed out \nthat we should not think of ourselves as making sacrifices,\u2014in one sense we \ncannot sacrifice. But from the point of view of the personality we do have to \nsacrifice, and the measure of our progress is largely the measure of the sacrifice \nthat we are willing to make. One aspect which, while quite familiar to us, we \nare apt to forget, is that each time we sacrifice the lower, each time we conquer \nourselves at some point\u2014especially if we do it thoroughly and whole-heartedly\u2014 \neven though the lower self may object very strenuously, we thereby obtain a \nlittle more vision, a little more light, and a little more joy. When the dark time \ncomes and we find it difficult to do anything but rest on our oars, it may be help\u00ac \nful to remember this. \n\nMr. Kobbe: I wonder if we all realize the privilege it is for us to be here \nto-day. I do not mean just those of us who are here in person, but all fellow \nstudents of Theosophy who are here in spirit. Much was said this morning \nabout what is going on in the world around us, about the psychic current that is \ncoursing through the world and seeping into practically every comer of it. With\u00ac \nout Theosophy, I wonder where we should be. Many a supposedly clear-thinking \nperson, many a person who is trying to live honestly and intelligently, is being \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n75 \n\n\ncarried, willy nilly, with that current. Yet it is our privilege to be able to stand \non the bank, as it were, and watch the current flow past us. \n\nIn the world, standards are being lowered, quality is being disregarded. There \nis no principle, apparently, in anything that is being done. Yet we are here, \nwhere there is principle, where standards are maintained, where there is a \ndecided regard for quality. Do we realize the tremendous privilege this is? \nLet us*consider what we may do about this privilege. In detail, of course, each \none will do something quite different from what is done by everyone else; but \nin general, what can we all unite in doing? Each time I have thought of that, \nthe word gratitude has come into my mind and heart. We can take each daily \nduty, no matter what it may be, no matter how it may differ from that of \nanother, and put back of it and around it, gratitude; try to make it a \u201cquality \nproduct\u201d. Thus we can contribute the best that we know; we can try to make \na thing of quality out of whatever we have to do, and give that to the Lodge. \n\nMr. Brush: Mr. Chairman, We have often been reminded here that insight \ngives added responsibility. Those of us who have been privileged to attend the \nmeetings of the New York Branch this winter, and to some extent those who \nreceive and read the reports of these meetings, have a special responsibility. \nThe subject, we know, has centred round the contemplation of the ideal, and its \nmanifestation in the outer world through positive, conscious action. We have \nbeen given a glimpse into those hidden powers of consciousness that govern our \nlives. Our responsibility, it seems to me, consists in this: how far are we going \nto be able to transform this priceless information into living knowledge, into \ninsight that we can use in the service of the Movement? We all know it can \nonly be done by action, purposeful action, on all planes of our being,\u2014hour \nby hour, day by day, and moment by moment. Are we going to allow our\u00ac \nselves, younger fellow-members, to waste even the smallest part of this infinitely \nprecious gift, our heritage from those who have gone before, in idle dreaming or \nin merely spasmodic outbursts of effort? If we do, we do so, as we know, at our \nown peril and the peril of the Movement that we are all of us trying to serve. \nEven a little insight into the issues that wait upon the least of our honest efforts \nin the service of the Movement, in spite of our defects and disabilities, ^dpuld \nfan our enthusiasm into a living flame, a white heat\u2014and what is more, mt\\) it \nthere. \n\nMr. Russ: Of course with my deafness I could not hear anything that was \nsaid, but that does not make any difference. I believe you just the same. After \nyou have been coming to these Conventions as often as I have, you might get \nthat way yourself. There are many of us here who have been coming very often. \nIs that not a fine thing, that I can say \u201cvery often\u201d,\u2014because it has reference to \nthe vitality and the age of the Society. It reminds us of what Madame Blavatsky \nsaid: that The Theosophical Society is doomed to exist\u2014which does not mean \nthat it will go on whether we do anything or not. Why are we here to-day, \nand who brought us here? We know that we joined the Society because we saw \nsomething that attracted us. In one way or another, peculiar to each person. \n\n\n76 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nwe became conscious of the light of the Lodge and the existence of Masters; \nand that light attracted us. We accepted it; we opened our minds and our \nhearts to it that that light might shine in. \n\nJust as soon as we have done that, we cease to drift aimlessly hither and \nthither, and we revolve more or less around this inner light and this centre. \nWe may actually try to draw near to it; yet while we may keep in mind that \ninner light, nevertheless our attention and interest is still in the world, towards \nthe world. We know that better than anything else. We are held by it, and so \nin a sense we walk backwards. We stumble and fall, then get up and do it \nagain. Then we come to Convention, and as soon as we get here amongst \neach other, we realize that we are away from the world; that we may leave the \nworld alone a little while and let it get along without us. Hardly realizing it, \nwe look over our shoulders and see a little more of that light, or hear something \nof that sound which makes no noise. Is it not natural that we should go away \nfrom here, wishing to carry some of that feeling with us? And we do. But we \nhave an apprehension that we shall go back to those old conditions of dryness \nand discouragement, which we cannot understand, and which we think are dis\u00ac \nharmony within us, when that is not necessarily the case\u2014it may be more like \nantithesis and contrast. \n\nWhen you cannot get out of a bad situation, the next best thing you can do \nis to try to understand it and visualize it. If you will do that correctly, you can \nput yourself in such a condition that, no matter what the circumstances may be, \nthey cannot harm you or reach you. Through efforts toward detachment, you \nwill begin to get some sense of that poised silence within you, and that will help \nyou to realize that the light of the Lodge may be shining on you, and you may \nactually see a little of it or feel it. Then you can think again of the Convention \nand of how grateful we are to the Masters for having brought us here. \n\nThe Convention also had the pleasure of hearing from Mr. Ganson, Mr. \nFisher, Mr. Kobb6 Jr., Mr. Russ Jr., Mr. Miller Jr., Mr. Mitchell Jr., and Mrs. \nField. \n\nThe thanks of the Convention having been voted to its officers, to the editors \nof the Quarterly, and to the New York Branch for its hospitality, the Con\u00ac \nvention adjourned. \n\nIsabel E. Perkins, \n\nSecretary of Convention. \n\nJulia Chickering, \n\nAssistant Secretary of Convention. \n\n\nLETTERS OF GREETING \n\n\nAylsha.m, Exgla.nd. \n\nMrs. Graves wrote: In the Norfolk Branch there are encouraging signs of increased ear\u00ac \nnestness of purpose and understanding. In these respects, the past year has been encouraging. \n... We make a definite effort to become conscious of our unity, not only as a separate Branch \ncomposed of individual members, but as a whole with all other Branches scattered throughout \n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n77 \n\n\nthe world, and especially with the New York Branch, to which we owe so much for help, \nguidance, and encouragement. \n\nMrs. Bagnell wrote that in spite of individual failure to live up to the great ideal of service \nset before us, she believes that \u201cwe must see that our love for the Movement, our desire to serve \nthe Masters really well, have grown\u201d, and that therefore there is ground for hope \u201cthat the sum \ntotal of the strength, fidelity and devotion in the T. S. has increased.\u201d \n\nMiss Bagnell also wrote, praying that at Convention we may \u201ctake fire\u201d once again, and \n\u201crespond with united determination in all the yeiir that follows.\u201d \n\n\n^ Denver, Colorado. \n\nWe, the Virya Branch, send our most cordial greetings to the Convention, with the earnest \nhope that the purpose of the Convention may be wholly understood and its leadership faithfully \nsupported by those who are unable to be present as well as those who have that privilege. \n\nAnne Evans, President. \n\nMary Kent Wallace, Secretary. \n\n\nGateshead, England. \n\nTo the Members of The Theosophical Society in Convention Assembled, Gateshead members \nsend their sincere greetings and best wishes for a successful session; our thoughts will be with \nyou. We fully appreciate the good you are doing, and the good work you have done in the \npast. The world needs you, and every member must give of their best. You shall have ours. \n\nP. W. Ward, \n\nSecretary, W. Q. Judge Lodge. \n\n\nLos Angeles, California. \n\nGreetings and best wishes to the members assembled in Convention, and to all those who, \nlike ourselves, are unable to attend. \n\nWe would as intimately add that it has seemed, more than once, and increasingly as time \nwent by, that the T.S. Conventions, held as they are in the spring of the year, must have in \nand behind them the potential life and promise of springtime in its deeper aspect\u2014the Lodge, \nor the Masters and their Ch^las, as embodying the higher side of Nature, being the immediate \nsource of that deeper, inner, fuller life and promise. \n\nIn the springtime of the outer year we see to it that whatever should come up, shall do so, \nby bringing every power we possess to make it do so; be it food, or for clothing, or to make home \nand outlook more beiiutiful, whatever we need for bodily support and protection and to cnrioj^ \nthe personal life. We feel it is much the same at Convention time and afterwards, the spd^V \nand summer of the Lodge for whatever it may then give to us. We may not know beforehlTO^ \njust what its gifts will be this time, but we can be sure they will be a renewal of inner life, \nand of the things of that life, whatever may be our own and the world\u2019s pressing inner needs. \nIf, for our part, we need a new, more virile loyalty, or the wider opened eyes that will enable \nus to look through, to behind, what is going on around and within ourselves\u2014thus to see there \nmore clearly what is Black and what is White, either potentially or actually\u2014and to have the \nwill or courage both to declare and to stand ever more firmly for right principles and right \naction, as political, social, and economic \u201csaviours\u201d and advisers beckon and cry \u201cLo here, \nlo there!\u201d so to speak; or if, as it should, it be more of love as the Masters and their Chfilas \nfeel and show it, that is needed,\u2014then we will get it, whether we can attend in person or not, \nonce we have determined it shall be, as we do for outer things, in the springtime of the outer \nyear. \n\nThe parallel, however, is not quite perfect; despite our every effort, outer Nature will yield \nonly sparingly, and sometimes all but fails us\u2014while the Lodge never does. \n\nFor the Pacific Branch, \n\nW. H. Box, President. \n\n\n\n\n\n78 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nNewcastle-on-Tyne, England. \n\nTo the Members of The Theosophical Society in Convention Assembled: On behalf of the \nmembers of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Branch I have much pleasure in conveying to you our \nheartiest greetings and good wishes. We shall be observing Convention Day, as usual, and hope \nto have a continuance of that inspiration and understanding so helpful in the past. \n\nAs we would be thankful to receive, so we should be glad to give, and on this occasion what \nshall our contribution be? It shall be that spirit whereby we determine to give our all, ourselves, \nto the Cause we are privileged to serve. We would do this in gratitude to the Masters for their \nunceasing care and guidance, and in loving memory of those Messengers and Workers, faithful \nunto death, more intimately known to us. We would also do this in preparation for the next \nLodge Messenger or Forerunner, so that having a vehicle, or body of people, to work through, \nthe new effort may be so much more effective and beneficial. It is for us, therefore, to have our \nlamps filled, like the wise virgins, and be prepared for the opportunities of service that are \never present. To the extent that our light is embodied, in the degree that we have become the \ntruth we would give out, will it be of weight and value in this darkened world. \n\nSo we feel that your home-coming to-day will be one of joy and thanksgiving, and we trust \nthat out of it may arise that incentive to greater effort whereby the fulfilling of the Law shall \nbe more fully made manifest. \n\nTo this end we think of you and your deliberations, and pray that the resolute response to \nsuch a call may be the means of bringing forth those \u201cGod-instructed men\u201d the world so sadly \nneeds. \n\nE. Howard Lincoln, \nPresident. \n\n\nSouth Shields, England. \n\nTo the Members of The Theosophical Society Assembled in Convention: The members of the \nSouth Shields Branch send to all of you their very sincere heartfelt greetings. We always look \nforward to the Convention as a day of joy, reunion and festival: a time of aspiration, and for \nexpressing our gratitude to the Founders of the Society. These are days of compromise, when \nevil is, as it were, sugar-coated to entrap unwary members of the human family into a false \nstate of security. Therefore we turn to The Theosophical Society and its spirit of truth and \nrighteousness for guidance through the maelstrom of material life, with its unbridled passions \nand desires for lower self-expression so popular to-day. We are with you in spirit and purpose, \nand we hope the keynote for the year following will be one of appeal to humanity to turn from \nthe worship of the unreal to a desire to know and live in the Real. \n\nThomas Mackey, \n\nPresident, South Shields Branch. \n\n\nToronto, Canada. \n\nTo the Secretary, Theosophical Society: Toronto Branch sends most fraternal Greetings to the \nMembers of The Theosophical Society in Convention Assembled. \n\nAs we realize more fully the importance of the work of the T.S. for the welfare of the world, \nwe also begin to realize the responsibility that rests on its members whose Karma has led them \ninto the circle of its influence. Surely there was never a time when that influence was more \nneeded than it is now. \n\nIt is with a thrill of hope and encouragement that we read the Quarterly. Surely such \nteachings as those given in the \u201cScreen\u201d of the last April number are just what this old world \nneeds to bring it back to sanity. \n\nIt has been the experience of most of us to find a much greater readiness on the part of \n\u201coutsiders\u201d to listen to and consider some of the truths brought to public notice by the T.S. \nThere is an interest in and, in many cases, acceptance of the belief in reincarnation, that is very \ndifferent from the strenuous opposition one can remember in the early days of the Movement. \n\nThe leaven is at work and our efforts will bear fruit in time. \n\n\nAlbert J. Harris. \n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n79 \n\n\nWhitley Bay, England. \n\nTo the Members of The Theosophical Society in Convention Assembled, the members of the \nWhitley Bay Branch send sincere fraternal greetings. \n\nThe return of the Cycle of Convention day, filled with happy memories of past Conventions, \nalso forms a new vantage point for further effort and achievement. Theosophy teaches the \ngreat value of striving towards an ideal; it not only shows the way, but postulates that man, \nbeing a spiritual entity, can therefore attain to spiritual consciousness. It shows the tre\u00ac \nmendous dignity of man and his potentialities, and thus with the knowledge of his heritage it \nenables him to find the way. The art of true living is to know what we are here for, and where \nwe are going. The theosophical philosophy has placed the key of ^;his knowledge in our \nhands; it depends upon each one of us whether we use the key. \n\nWe therefore trust that during the hours of Convention the key will be used to unlock the \naspiration of all members, so that we may all draw nearer to our great ideal of Universal \nBrotherhood. \n\nFredk. a. Ross. \n\nPresident, Whitley Bay Branch. \n\n\nOneal, Arkansas. \n\nTo the Officers and Members of The Theosophical Society, in Convention assembled: \n\nI will not take up much of your time, but I do want to send my sincere greeting, and to say \nhow glad I am to have the opportunity to be with you in thought, in heart, and in spirit to-day; \nand to offer my humble devotion to Those who make this Convention possible. \n\nWe hear much, these days, of \u201cdepression\u201d, of difficulties\u2014which reminds me of what a great \nfriend (not known, personally) once wrote: \u201cWe pray for opportunity, and when it is granted \nus, we label it difficulty\u201d. How true that is to-day! \n\nMust we not be tried? How else may we prove our devotion, our sincerity? And so, we have \nthe great privilege of living in this dark and rapidly changing age,\u2014the glorious un-sought \nbattle lies before us. May we so fight that battle as to make it possible for Great Ones once \nmore to live among men. \n\nI wish to thank those, personally, who have made it possible for me to receive the \u201cReports \nof the N.Y. Branch meetings\u201d,\u2014they are splendid. The Quarterly is beyond any praise of \nmine,\u2014it is a link between me and Home. \n\nWm. E. Mullina-X. \n\n\nOslo, Norway. \n\nWar has been the topic at some of our Branch meetings this winter, and the Quarterly \nand T.S. literature has\u2014as always\u2014proved rich in answering the many questions. Although \nthe following is but a trifling incident, I should like to relate an experience I had while serving \nin one of the northern regiments last year. I do not doubt that I should be in a position to \nprove my point still better were it a question of greater issues. \n\nOne summer night\u2014while the sun was shining\u2014the bugles sounded the \u201cAlarm\u201d, ^d we \nwere hustled off in lorries and by steamers to a large island on the coast, where a ioA fire \nhad been raging for weeks, and now was threatening the existence of the entire poPnation. \nThe boys had quite a rough time for a while, the smoke was suffocating and the heat bad, and \nthey ran a constant risk of being injured. For days and nights they fought the onrushing \nfire, with hardly any time for food and rest. Amongst the recruits there were quite a few who \n\u2014for political reasons\u2014from the very beginning had shown reluctance and unwillingness at the \ndrillground. No sooner had we started our almost hopeless task against the elements, than the \nspirit of the troops changed noticeably, and it became quite clear to us, how the feeling of \nmutual danger and the knowledge of suffering some slight hardships for the help and protection \nof fellowmen and their homes, brought to the surface the very best in every man, especially \nin the case of the most unwilling of recruits. Their conduct was admirable. Thus they were \ngiven an opportunity to show the stuff they were made of, and they all rose to the occasion and \nwon the esteem of their officers\u2014to whom they remained loyal afterwards. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n8o \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nEuropean politicians are no longer harping upon \u201cdisarmament\u201d, as the only means of saving \nthe world from the horrors of war; the trend has now changed from this to \u201cequality of arms\u201d \nand to \u201carmed security\u201d. Pacifism has lost many a stronghold; too often have the governments \nof late been compelled to resort to armed force. Yet few understand the opportunities that \nthe sufferings of warfare\u2014and other calamities\u2014bring to individuals and nations. To under\u00ac \nstand the eternal problem of life, it is necessary to believe in a life hereafter, which will give a \nclue to the understanding and valuation of tragedy\u2014and in the end: the Divine Will. I should \nlike to quote one of England\u2019s greatest authors: \n\n\u201cTragedy at its best is a vision of the heart of life. The heart of life can only be laid bare in \nthe agony and exultation of dreadful acts. The vision of agony, or spiritual contest, pushed \nbeyond the limits of the d>nng personality, is exalting and cleansing. It is only by such vision \nthat a multitude can be brought to the passionate knowledge of things eternal and exulting.\u201d \n\nTheosophy gives such vision: To see and grasp our opportunity when it is offered unto us. \n\nConvention time approaching, I wish to send you and all fellow Members united, my very \nheartiest greetings. \n\nH. Knoff. \n\n\nDelegates and members showed the greatest interest in the reading of Letters of Greeting; \nwhich included, in addition to the foregoing, letters from Mr. Henning Dahl, President of the \nOslo Branch (Norway); Mr. S. A. Drummond (Oklahoma); Mr. Birger Elwing (Texas); \nMiss Eleanor Evans (London); Miss Anna Fjaested, President of the Arvika Branch (Sweden); \nMr. Herman Hohnstedt, President of the Cincinnati Branch; Mrs. Lancaster (Los Angeles); \nMr. T. W. Lincoln (Yorkshire, England); Mr. and Mrs. Plinio (Trieste, Italy); Mr. A. Jimenez \nRon (Venezuela); Miss Tuttle (Berkeley, California); Mr. Acisclo Valeddn (Venezuela); \ntelegram from Miss Evans and Miss Wallace, as President and Secretary of the Branch in \nDenver; telegram from Captain and Mrs. Hamlen (Augusta Maine): cablegram from Mrs. \nGraves, Mrs. Bagnell, Miss Bagnell, and cablegram from Mrs. Raymond (Tokio, Japan). \nSeveral other letters from abroad were read, which, like all other letters, were received with \napplause, but are not acknowledged or quoted in the open pages of the Quarterly for reasons \nstated elsewhere in this issue. \n\n\n\n\nH.P.B.\u2019S MESSAGE TO THE CONVENTION, \n\nAMERICAN SECTION T. S., 1891.' \n\nTo THE Boston Convention, T.S., 1891; \n\nFor the third time since my return to Europe in 1885, I am able to send to \nmy brethren in Theosophy and fellow citizens of the United States a delegate \nfrom England to attend the annual Theosophical Convention and speak by word \nof mouth my greeting and warm congratulations. Suffering in body as I am \ncontinually, the only consolation that remains to me is to hear of the progress \nof the Holy Cause to which my health and strength have been given; but to \nwhich, now that these are going, I can offer only my passionate devotion and \nnever-weakening good wishes for its success and welfare. The news therefore \nthat comes from America, mail after mail, telling of new Branches and of well- \nconsidered and patiently worked-out plans for the advancement of Theosophy \ncheers and gladdens me with its evidences of growth, more than words can tell. \nFellow Theosophists, I am proud of your noble work in the New World; Sisters \nand Brothers of America, I thank and I bless you for your unremitting labours \nfor the common cause so dear to us all. \n\nLet me remind you all once more that such work is now more than ever needed. \nThe period which we have now reached in the cycle that will close between \n1897-98 is, and will continue to be, one of great conflict and continued sUjS. \nIf the T.S. can hold through it, good; if not, while Theosophy will re'min \nunscathed, the Society will perish\u2014perchance most ingloriously\u2014and the World \nwill suffer. I fervently hope that I may not see such a disaster in my present \nbody. The critical nature of the stage on which we have entered is as well known \nto the forces that fight against us as to those that fight on our side. No oppor\u00ac \ntunity will be lost of sowing dissension, of taking advantage of mistaken and \nfalse moves, of instilling doubt, of augmenting difficulties, of breathing suspicions, \nso that by any and every means the unity of the Society may be broken and the \nranks of our Fellows thinned and thrown into disarray. Never has it been \nmore necessary for the members of the T.S. to lay to heart the old parable of the \nbundle of sticks than it is at the present time; divided, they will inevitably be \nbroken, one by one; united, there is no force on earth able to destroy our Brother- \n\n*In 1890, H.P.B. was tcx) ill to write a message. \n\n\n81 \n\n\n\n82 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhood. Now I have marked with pain a tendency among you, as among the \nTheosophists in Europe and India, to quarrel over trifles, and to allow your \nvery devotion to the cause of Theosophy to lead you into disunion. Believe \nme, that apart from such natural tendency, owing to the inherent imperfections \nof Human Nature, advantage is often taken by our ever-watchful enemies of \nyour noblest qualities to betray and to mislead you. Sceptics will laugh at this \nstatement, and even some of you may put small faith in the actual existence of \nthe terrible forces of these mental, hence subjective and invisible, yet withal \nliving and potent influences around all of us. But there they are, and I know of \nmore than one among you who have felt them, and have actually been forced to \nacknowledge these extraneous mental pressures. On those of you who are un\u00ac \nselfishly and sincerely devoted to the Cause, they will produce little, if any, \nimpression. On some others, those who place their personal pride higher than \ntheir duty to the T.S., higher even than their pledge to their divine Self, the \nefifect is generally disastrous. Self-watchfulness is never more necessary than \nwhen a personal wish to lead, and wounded vanity, dress themselves in the pea\u00ac \ncock\u2019s feathers of devotion and altruistic work; but at the present crisis of the \nSociety a lack of self-control and watchfulness may become fatal in every case. \nBut these diabolical attempts of our powerful enemies\u2014the irreconcilable foes \nof the truths now being given out and practically asserted\u2014may be frustrated. \nIf every Fellow in the Society were content to be an impersonal force for good, \ncareless of praise or blame so long as he subserved the purposes of the Brother\u00ac \nhood, the progress made would astonish the World and place the Ark of the \nT.S. out of danger. Take for your motto in conduct during the coming year, \n\u201cPeace with all who love Truth in sincerity,\u2019\u2019 and the Convention of 1892 will \nbear eloquent witness to the strength that is bom of unity. . . . \n\nHere in England I am glad to be able to report to you that steady and rapid \nprogress is being made. . . . Here, as with you, attempts are being successfully \nmade to bring to bear the influence of Hindu on English thought, and many of \nour Hindu brethren are now writing for Lucifer short and clear papers on Indian \nphilosophies. As it is one of the tasks of the T.S. to draw together the East and \nthe West, so that each may supply the qualities lacking in the other and develop \nmore fraternal feelings among nations so various, this literary intercourse will, \nI hope, prove of the utmost service in Aryanising Western thought. \n\nThe mention of Lucifer reminds me that the now assured position of that \nmagazine is very largely due to the help rendered at a critical moment by the \nAmerican Fellows. As my one absolutely unfettered medium of communication \nwith Theosophists all over the World, its continuance was of grave importance \nto the whole Society. In its pages, month by month, I give such public teaching \nas is possible on Theosophical doctrines, and so carry on the most important of \nour Theosophical work. . . . \n\nAnd now I have said all. I am not sufficiently strong to write a more lengthy \nmessage. . . . After all, every wish and thought I can utter are summed up in \nthis one sentence, the never-dormant wish of my heart, \u201cBe Theosophists, work \nfor Theosophy!\u2019\u2019 Theosophy first, and Theosophy last; for its practical reali- \n\n\nREPRINT \n\n\n83 \n\n\nzation alone can save the Western world from that selfish and unbrotherly feeling \nthat now divides race from race, one nation from the other; and from that \nhatred of class and social considerations that are the curse and disgrace of \nso-called Christian peoples. Theosophy alone can save it from sinking entirely \ninto that mere luxurious materialism in which it will decay and putrefy as \ncivilizations have done. In your hands, brothers, is placed in trust the welfare of \nthe coming century; and great as is the trust, so great is also the responsibility. \nMy own span of life may not be long, and if any of you have learned aught from \nmy teachings, or have gained by my help a glimpse of the True Light, I ask you, \nin return, to strengthen the Cause by the triumph of which that True Light, \nmade still brighter and more glorious through your individual and collective \nefforts, will lighten the World, and thus to let me see, before I part with this \nworn-out body, the stability of the Society secured. \n\nMay the blessings of the past and present great Teachers rest upon you. From \nmyself accept collectively the assurance of my true, never-wavering fraternal \nfeelings, and the sincere, heartfelt thanks for the work done by all the workers. \n\nFrom their servant to the last, \n\nH. P. Blavatsky. \n\n\nTHE LAST MESSAGE, 1891. \n\n15:4:1891. \n\nTo the Fifth Convention of the American Section of The Theosophical Society \nBrother Theosophists; \n\nI have purposely omitted any mention of my oldest friend and fellow-worker, \nW. Q. Judge, in my general address to you, because I think that his unflagging \nand self-sacrificing efforts for the building up of Theosophy in America deserve \nspecial mention. \n\nHad it not been for W. Q. Judge, Theosophy would not be where it is to-day \nin the United States. It is he who has mainly built up the movement among \nyou, and he who has proved in a thousand ways his entire loyalty to the best \ninterests of Theosophy and the Society. \n\nMutual admiration should play no part in a Theosophical Convention, but \nhonour should be given where honour is due, and I gladly take this oppor^jjty \nof stating in public, my deep appreciation of the work of your General Sec^fry, \nand of publicly tendering him my most sincere thanks and deeply-felt gratitude, \nin the name of Theosophy, for the noble work he is doing and has done. \n\nYours fraternally, \n\nH. P. Blavatsky. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\noor \n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n\nThe Invisible Influence, by Alexander Cannon, M.D., Ph.D., F.R.G.S.; E. P. \nDutton and Co., New York; price, Si.50. \n\nIf you write a book, get a friend to contribute an Introduction which says: \n\u201cNo book has stirred up as much controversy in Europe in many years\u201d; for \nthen, as in this case, the publisher can quote the statement on the \u201cjacket\u201d in \nlarge type, and your ship is launched. \n\n\u201cWhat fools these mortals be!\u201d We doubt, however, if Europe can have \nbecome quite so foolish as the writer of the Introduction implies. Dr. Cannon \nis a student and practitioner of hypnotism; Jesus Christ, he says, was one of the \ngreatest of hypnotists, and was great, by inference, for that reason; hypnotism \nis the \u201cInvisible Influence\u201d of the book\u2019s title. Experiments in hypnotism, for \nthose not familiar with the subject, can be surprising; but we had not imagined \nthat this mid-Victorian \u201cthrill\u201d would have meant much to people to-day. \nPerhaps we had forgotten the law of cycles; perhaps we are due for another \ndose of raps and table-turning; perhaps the present generation will \u201cdiscover\u201d \nmagic! It would be entertaining if someone were to rush at us with a copy of \nIsis Unveiled as the very latest fad ,\u2014rien de plus chic. Yet, the girls who gave \nup astrology for skirt-dancing must have died, years ago; or are they perennials? \nSeriously, can we envy the fate of those whose function it is to turn a world of \nflibbertigibbets into a world of sages and heroes? Who would be a Mahatma! \n\nHowever, to return to our review: the writer of the Introduction chooses to \nregard Dr. Cannon\u2019s story, not as fiction, but as a record of fact. Dr. Cannon \ngives colour to this by stating in his Preface that \u201cthe mysteries of the East and \nthe Far East have been fully explored in a long tour which was made, as it were, \nin search of the Holy Grail, more ancient than any known to history\u201d, and then, \nin the body of his book, by speaking of a journey of forty-two days \u201cin sedan\u00ac \nlike chairs\u201d, to Tibet, \u201cwhere the great mystery Lama Convent lay\u201d, which he \nand his travelling companion visited, led there by \u201ca mysterious austere per\u00ac \nsonage in scarlet robes, black cap and only one arm,\u201d described as the Knight \nCommander, who brought \u201cthe great tidings\u201d that Dr. Cannon was soon to be \nhonoured \u201cwith that highest of titles, Knight Commander of Asia, which is \nequal to an Earl in this country\u201d, these great tidings being confirmed later, when \nDr. Cannon, as he explains, now \u201cheld the scrolls, the Arms of Office, the coat of \narms, and weapons of war which went with this noble office\u201d\u2014all in Tibet. \n\n84 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n85 \n\n\nStill in Tibet, accompanied by the aforesaid one-armed Knight Commandery \nDr. Cannon and his travelling companion, ceaselessly discussing hypnotism in \nEnglish with their Tibetan friend, visited a near-by farm. \u201cThe conversation \nnow became very interesting; the farmer\u2019s wife asked if there was any importance \nas regards destiny in the date of birth of an individual, especially since Pythagoras \nlaid such stress on dates and numbers^ Not bad for a Tibetan farmer\u2019s wife! \nThe Tibetan Knight Commander, who claimed to know all things, and who \nquoted the Christian scriptures and French authorities on hypnotism with equal \nease, had already been hypnotized by Dr. Cannon, obeying the latter\u2019s orders \nimplicitly; but when it came to the farmer\u2019s wife our mental comment was that \nwe had never read such bosh in our life or lives,\u2014this verdict standing until \nwe had read a few more pages, which landed us in the \u201cGreat Lama Convent\u2019\u2019, \ninto the presence of the Great Lama himself. What followed was so childish, \nso utterly lacking in imagination as in verisimilitude, that we could explain it \nonly on the theory that Dr. Cannon had accidentally hypnotized himself, and \nhad written his book in a state of semi-dream, quite unable to distinguish be\u00ac \ntween fact and fiction, and with his sense of humour, if he has any, completely \nparalysed. But can anyone, even the feeble-minded, mistake such balderdash \nfor fact? It is pitiable,\u2014and, although this is incidental, the English of the book \nis that of a school-boy of fourteen or less. X.Y.Z. \n\n\nSome Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy, by George Santayana; Charles \nScribner\u2019s Sons, New York; price. Si.75. \n\nFive essays are included in this volume: \u201cLocke and the Frontiers of Com\u00ac \nmon Sense\u2019\u2019; \u201cFifty Years of British Idealism\u2019\u2019; \u201cRevolutions in Science\u2019\u2019; \u201cA \nLong Way Round to Nirvana\u2019\u2019, this being the development of one of Freud\u2019s \nideas; and \u201cThe Prestige of the Infinite\u2019\u2019, a review of Julien Benda\u2019s Essai d'un \nDiscours coherent sur les Rapports de Dieu et du Monde. With the exception of \n\u201cThe Prestige of the Infinite\u2019\u2019, the book is singularly devoid of instruction or \ninterest. One sometimes v^nshes that Santayana had devoted his undoubted \nliterary talents to lighter, more superficial topics. Like many men of lettgJ \nhe wHtes more easily than he thinks. He is often most fluent, when his idare \nare most elusive. \n\nSantayana calls himself a materialist. Perhaps he adopted this label in his \nyouth and hesitates to change it. However, it now serves only to befuddle the \nreader. Indeed, the general line of Santayana\u2019s thought is based upon propo\u00ac \nsitions which are so incoherent as to be unintelligible. He says, for example, \nthat \u201call modem philosophy, in so far as it is a description of experience and not \nof nature, . . . seems to belong to the sphere of literature, and to be without \nscientific value\u201d (p. 47). We defy anyone to make sense out of this. How can \none describe experience without describing nature? What can be the scientific \nvalue of a description of nature, which is not also a description of experience? \nIf experience be not a part of nature, what is it? If materialists and idealists \nhave any point of agreement, it is this,\u2014that human consciousness and the \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n86 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nworld or \u201cnature\u201d which surrounds it, are fundamentally one. We only know \nnature, in so far as it is made manifest to our consciousness, nor can our personal \nconsciousness, even in its most subjective moods, be adequately conceived as a \nthingdess \u201cnatural\u201d than a physical body. \n\nFortunately, Santayana\u2019s \u201cmaterialism\u201d has no place in the chapter on \u201cThe \nPrestige of the Infinite\u201d. As he himself remarks, he has not always shared \n\u201cthe supreme respect for infinite Being which animates so many saints\u201d. Now, \nafter many years, he is aware of a sort of conversion. Infinite Being suggests \nto him quietude and wisdom, and also \u201cthe involution of all forms\u201d, the reso\u00ac \nlution of all discords, the \u201crealm of truth\u201d in which all events and transformations \nare gathered together sub specie ceternitatis. He is moved to genuine eloquence \nby this theme. \n\nWe need not look for the principle of spiritual life in the distance: we have it at home \nfrom the beginning. Even the idea of infinite Being, though unnamed, is probably \nfamiliar. Perhaps in the biography of the human race, or of each budding mind, the \ninfinite or indeterminate may have been the primary datum. On that homogeneous \nsensuous background, blank at first but secretly plastic, a spot here and a movement there \nmay gradually have become discernible, until the whole picture of nature and history \nhas shaped itself as we see it. A certain sense of that primitive datum, the infinite or \nindeterminate, may always remain as it were the outstretched canvas on which every \npicture is painted. And when the pictures vanish, as in deep sleep, the ancient simplicity \nand quietness may be actually recovered, in a conscious union with Brahma. So sensuous, \nso intimate, so unsophisticated the \u201creturn to God\u201d may be for the spirit, without ex\u00ac \ncluding the other avenues, intellectual and ascetic, by which this return may be effected \nin waking life, though then not so much in act as in intent only and allegiance. . . . \n\nNature, in forming the human soul, unintentionally [.^] unlocked for the mind the \ndoors to truth and essence, partly by obliging the soul to attend to things which are out\u00ac \nside, and partly by endowing the soul with far greater potentialities of sensation and \ninvention than daily life is likely to call forth. Our minds are therefore naturally dis\u00ac \nsatisfied with their lot, and speculatively directed upon an outspread universe in which \nour persons count for almost nothing. . . . Spirit belongs intrinsically to another sphere, \nand cannot help wondering at the world, and suffering in it. The man in whom spirit is \nawake will continue to live and act, but with a difference. In so far as he has become \npure spirit he will have transcended the fear of death or defeat: for now his instinctive fear, \nwhich will subsist, will be neutralized by an equally sincere consent to die and to fail. \nHe will live henceforth in a truer and more serene sympathy with nature than is possible \nto rival natural beings. . . . Their will is in hopeless rebellion against the divine decrees \nwhich they must obey notwithstanding. The spiritual man, on the contrary, in so far \nas he has already passed intellectually into the eternal world, no longer endures unwillingly \nthe continual death involved in living.... He renounces everything religiously in the very \nact of attaining it (pp. 115-121). \n\nThese words have a noble quality. It is well to recall to the human spirit \nits kinship with the Infinite God. Nevertheless, Santayana does not point to \nany practical method of realizing this union with Brahma. The intellect alone \nis powerless to accomplish such a transmutation of consciousness. As Gautama \nBuddha taught, Nirvana is not an object of thought but a state of being. More\u00ac \nover, he was too wise to attempt to describe or to define a profound mystical \nexperience in ordinary mental terms. Of all intellectual enterprises, the most \nfutile is the effort to form a conception of the Absolute. It is stated that medi- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n87 \n\n\ntation is the inexpressible yearning of man to \u201cgo out towards the Infinite\u201d. \nThe knowledge thus acquired may, indeed, seem infinite to us; but the more \nvast is this knowledge, the more conscious is the knower of the unfathomable \nMystery which encompasses him. \u201cOne thing I know\u201d, said Socrates, \u201cthat \nI know nothing.\u201d The humility of the sage is proportionate to his wisdom. \n\nS.V.L. \n\n\nThe Dawn 0] Conscience, by James Henry Breasted; Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons, \nNew York, 1933; price, $3.00. \n\nThis new book of Professor Breasted\u2019s is what we should have every reason \nto expect it to be\u2014thoughtful, full of information, clear-cut. It takes us from \nthe earliest times in Egypt of which we have even fragmentary records, up to the \nfall of Akhenaton, and then, rather rapidly, through the succeeding centuries \nwhen Egypt, in her decadence, had lost the inner, creative power which had \nmanifested itself in the purest religious aspiration. About the time of the \nMiddle Kingdom (roughly 2000 b . c .), a steadily increasing sense of social anxiety, \nopenly expressed, began to show itself; and it is in general to this period and to \nthis new approach toward life, that Professor Breasted refers when he speaks \nof the dawn of conscience. It was during this period that the purely ethical \nliterature of ancient Egypt was most in vogue\u2014literature regarding the conduct \nof human affairs : \u201cThe Maxims of Ptahhotep\u201d, \u201cThe Instructions of Ke\u2019gemni\u201d, \n\u201cThe Testament of Amenemhat\u201d, etc., a later example being \u201cThe Wisdom of \nAmenemope\u201d; and Professor Breasted, in a number of very interesting pages, \ntraces the evidence for a connection between these moral writings of Egypt, \nand some of the Hebrew literature. He shows that, in reality, these are the \nsource of many parts of the Old Testament, hitherto called \u201crevelation\u201d, so \nthat we are led to recognize (if we have not already long since done so), how \nmuch we owe to Egypt. \n\nAlmost from the start, however, the student of Theosophy will find a great \ndeal in this book with which he will be in radical disagreement; such, for in\u00ac \nstance, as the belief that religious ideas and ideals were evolved by man^pself, \nout of his own self-created nature-worship. Yet this is the thesis upd^vhich \nProfessor Breasted builds his entire argument. It is the usual invertecfroage of \nmost archaeologists and students of early religions, as already pointed out on \nmany occasions by the Quarterly. All the basic \u201cfacts\u201d of the argument are \nupside-down. It would be difficult if not impossible to convince the student of \nTheosophy that the Sun-god Ra owed his very existence to the fact that the \nearly Egyptians recognized the beneficent and powerful effects of the material \nsun upon the life of mankind; nor could we agree that Osiris came into being \nmerely because the verdure which he is supposed impersonally to have typified, \nitself sprang into life as a result of the yearly inundation of the Nile. The student \nof Theosophy would maintain that Ra and Osiris were divine Kings who, in the \nmost literal sense, had ruled on earth in the days when the early races believed \nin and sought guidance from above, and before man became poisoned by the idea \n\n\n\n88 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthat he was his own best and only law-maker. Nor would the student of The\u00ac \nosophy agree with Professor Breasted in considering the Pyramid Age as the \nage of materialism\u201d, merely, so far as we can judge, because of the magnificent \nengineering feats manifested in the stupendous erections of Khufu, Khafra, \nMenkaura and others before them. The pyramids speak for themselves, and \nfor the divinely exalted ideals of their period, and there is nothing whatever in \nthe exoteric musings of Ptahhotep, Ke\u2019gemni and the rest, praiseworthy as \nthey are within their own limits, which can in any way compare with the virility, \nthe fire, the esoteric splendour of the Pyramid Texts. The more Egypt advanced \nin outer glory, the more the glory of her ancient, esoteric truths was obscured. \nIn the early days, when the Lodge still had its servants in the King-Initiates, a \nportion of the hidden Wisdom could, by means of symbolic language, be com\u00ac \nmitted to writing\u2014as much of it as is ever given out in this way\u2014so that future \ngenerations (those who had the clue), might still read and learn from these Texts. \nBut with the Feudal Age, when Egypt became darkened by the creeping shadow \nof democratic ideas, when the nobles, and later the people themselves, began \nto clamour for \u2018\u2018equal rights\u201d, with all that that implies of attendant dangers \nand growing inner blindness, then and only then, did the teaching of \u201csocial con\u00ac \nscience\u201d become necessary, because the old spiritual values were rapidly fading. \nAre these long lists of moral precepts necessarily an indication of interior growth \nas Professor Breasted would have us believe? Social standards and rules of \nconduct which belong to a specific age, change and pass, and as man becomes \nmore externalized, he may well understand moral rather than spiritual direction: \nhe has to be instructed in a language comprehensible to him. All the religious \nteaching of the past\u2014religious in the widest interpretation of the word\u2014has \nhad to be given in accordance with the capacity of its hearers, and in every \nreligion there has always been, and no doubt always will be, an exoteric presen\u00ac \ntation of the esoteric truth which lies behind it. The lofty state of spiritual con\u00ac \nsciousness which made the building of the pyramids possible (first the spiritual \nconstruction, then the concrete erections), surely indicates a higher civilization, \nin an interior sense, than that of the later period with its carefully annotated \ncodes. \n\nOne final protest! Remembering the many traditions of lost civilizations and \nsubmerged continents, we feel that Professor Breasted makes an unjustifiable \nstatement when he writes: \u201cThere was no civilized ancestry from whom the \nprehistoric Nile-dweller might receive an inheritance of culture,\u201d and again, \n\u201cThe significance of the appearance of civilization along the Nile does not lie in \nthe splendour of its buildings alone, but in the fact that as a continuous and \nuninterrupted social evolution steadily moving on for a thousand years, it was \nrising the first time on our globe.\" The italics are Professor Breasted\u2019s own\u2014 \nbut why is he so certain of the truth of this claim? Civilizations move in cycles, \nas another distinguished Egyptologist, Flinders Petrie, has so clearly demon\u00ac \nstrated, and what satisfactory evidence have we contrary to the idea that these \ncycles may stretch back into a past so remote that tradition alone is evidence \nthat they existed? History as such, is a very recent institution indeed, Herod- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n89 \n\n\notus notwithstanding, and the mere fact that the hieroglyphic writing which \nwe find in the earliest monuments of the Thinite Period is already a completely \nformed, complicated system, should give us much food for thought. Where did \nthat highly civilized writing come from? Students of Theosophy, whose rever\u00ac \nence for Egypt\u2019s ancient splendour is profound, would surely feel that a greater \nhonour was being done her by giving her her rightful place in a vast evolutionary \npageant of long anterior civilizations (the very records of which are now almost, \nthough not entirely, lost), than is the case when offering her the isolated if \nillustrious precedence suggested by Professor Breasted. T.D. \n\n\nNotebook of Nothing, Fragments of the Lyrical Diary of a Sienese Shepherdess \n(by Dina Ferri), with an introduction by Piero Misciattelli; translated from the \nItalian by Helen Josephine Robins and Harriet Reid; Bruce Humphries, Inc., \nBoston, price, $2.00. \n\nA book, a life, to be accounted for satisfactorily only through the \u201ctwin \ndoctrines\u2019\u2019 of Karma and Reincarnation. A young Italian peasant girl, her \nparents too poor to complete her elementary school education, tended sheep on \nher native hills near Siena. With her she carried a little notebook, jotting down \nher thoughts and experiences as the days and years passed\u2014simple enough \nincidents: the music of birds and streams, of sunlight and starlight and changing \nseasons; the pathos of the humble peasant life about her. But the child was a \npoet, and her jottings, some in verse form, some in eloquent prose, are all poetry. \nShe saw with the eye of the poet, and beauty of expression followed with the \nsimple spontaneity of a bird song. Nature, the approach to the Real for so many \nof us, awakened in her a joyous response at every turn: \u201cI heard in an undertone \na great chorus of voices singing to the sky and the sun, and I longed to seize but \none of these voices and shut it into my soul.\u2019\u2019 But more than that, for her, \n\u201cnature murmurs the poetry of labour\u2019\u2019,\u2014she is one with all that suffers, all that \nyearns in the humble life about her, responding with unfailing pity, and ajgays \nwith an echo of the great harmony, an intuitive sense of the joy beneath tb^lin: \n\u201cWho can be happy who has not wept?\u2019\u2019 \u201cNever through the whole year; grow \npomegranates and pansy flowers.\u2019\u2019 Or of the deserted baby, dead in a damp \ngarret: \u201cThere is still a smile on your little white face, and your tiny hand is \nclosed on the gift the Angel brought you. It is pardon for the men who forgot \nyou.\u2019\u2019 \n\nDue to an accident, her notebooks were discovered, and because of their great \npromise, a scholarship fund was obtained, providing an education for her\u2014 un\u00ac \nfortunately, as many of us would think, and as she herself sensed later on, for \nwhile it strengthened her desire to \u201cread the great secret that draws us on\u2019\u2019, \nit also made the mystery of life, and its pain, the more incomprehensible. \u201cStill \nI pursue my way, because a strange destiny has so decreed, and still the horizon \ngrows wider and wider. But I no longer see there the mountain tops as once in \nthe country where I was bom, because the same fate that draws me on has \nwrapped them in mist which never clears.\u2019\u2019 She died at the age of twenty, in a \n\n\n\ngo \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhospital in Siena, courageously accepting her own great suffering, but tormented \nby the thought of her inability ever to help her parents in their poverty. Baffled \nas she was by the mystery of life, several fragments, written near the end, suggest \nthat she held in her hand the key, ready to turn when next the opportunity offers. \nReferring to times when the heart is heavy with weariness or grief, she writes: \n\u201cThe music of the heart is silenced, the mysterious inward voice dies in a sigh of \nweakness; we rebel against natural law, and in trying to lift ourselves in a void \nwithout support we fall to lower depths. It is only the great souls who always \nhear the voice of the heart, because that is the voice of love, and there is no true \ngreatness without love.\u201d J.C. \n\n\nThe Life oj Cardinal Mercier, by John A. Gade; Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons, New \nYork and London, 1934; price, S2.75. \n\nIt is not often that a book can be recommended so unreservedly, as in this case. \nIt is quite the best life of Cardinal Mercier so far written, and is likely to retain its \npre-eminence for many years. The author is a Protestant, and while writing \nwith great admiration for his subject, avoids the mistake which most Roman \nCatholic biographers make when portraying the life and character of a co\u00ac \nreligionist whose saintliness may lead to his canonization,\u2014that is, Mr. Gade \ndoes not gush, is not fulsome, and writes throughout in the best of taste. It is \na book of which America should be proud, though it won\u2019t be, because con\u00ac \ntemporary America takes its literary opinions from newspaper reviewers, nearly \nall of whom hate anything which is not as vulgar as they are. \n\nCardinal Mercier and King Albert of Belgium were, in our opinion, the only \ngreat men produced, or revealed, by the World War. This is because they were \nnot in the least concerned about their own glory; they were incapable of \u201cplay\u00ac \ning politics\u201d; they stood immovably for what they believed to be right, regard\u00ac \nless of consequences. Of the two men, the Cardinal seems to us to be much the \ngreater. It is obvious that his task was by far the more difficult. Mercier had \nto fight the Germans while in their hands; he also had to fight those of his \nbrother Cardinals who were Pro-German, and there were plenty of them. But \nthe two men were devoted friends, and while the King would have agreed whole\u00ac \nheartedly with our comparison, Mercier would have deplored it. \n\nMercier was an extraordinarily learned man, thoroughly familiar with modem \nscience, philosophy and psychology, as well as with the teaching of Thomas \nAquinas and the \u201csacred theology\u201d of the Middle Ages. He was also an intense \npatriot, and, above all, a priest, as a priest ought to be,\u2014not only deeply re\u00ac \nligious, but self-disciplined until control had become almost perfect, with ever- \nflowing sympathy and ever-burning zeal, devoting himself ceaselessly to the \nservice of his Lord. The things he said were not echoes from books, but were \nhammered from his own experience, his own suffering, his courage. Thus: \n\u201cHowever troubled a situation may be, or however near it may seem to disaster \nand despair, we must always keep our heads up and retain a stout heart. Dis\u00ac \ncouragement never created energy, and only energy can prepare triumph.\u201d \n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n91 \n\n\nAgain: \u201cSuffering accepted and vanquished will give you a security which may \nbecome the most exquisite fruit of your life\u201d. \n\nHe was the embodiment of alert intelligence,\u2014which, being said, compels \nmention of the fact that one of his later enthusiasms was peculiarly and, we \nshould say, painfully Roman. Yet perhaps the moral of this is that so long as the \nfundamentals are sound, doctrinal oddities do not greatly matter,\u2014until a \nstage has been reached when a disciple, to know his Master truly, must rid \nhimself, not only of his superstitions, but of \u201call dependence upon external \nthings\u201d; and Mercier, great as he was, certainly had not acquired Uparati \n(Cessation), essential as a qualification for ch^laship, as Shankara Acharya \ndeclared many centuries ago. \n\nThe chapters dealing with Mercier\u2019s activities during the War, are admirably \nwritten and of fascinating interest. The author (who was in Belgium in 1916-17, \nas a member of the Relief Commission) is restrained, but the facts speak for them\u00ac \nselves, and one of the reasons why we hope his book will be widely read is that \npeople in America and England try to forget, if they ever knew, what Germany \ndid at that time. Read about it directly, with their eyes open, they will not \n(why be made uncomfortable!), but in this form, related quietly as an outer \nevent in Mercier\u2019s life, they will have less chance to shut their ears and close \ntheir minds,\u2014will have less chance, therefore, to rest assured, with fatuous \ncredulity, that if it were not for France, Germany would behave like a lamb \namong lambs. \n\nReaders of the Quarterly will be helping a good Cause if they will a.sk for \nthis book at their Public Library, and will then recommend it to all their friends. \n\nT. \n\n\nThe Transformation of Nature in Art, by Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy\u2666 \nHarvard University Press, Cambridge; price, $3. \n\nThis is a collection of essays, the first of which, \u201cThe Theory of Art in Asia\u201d, \nis the most interesting. Dr. Coomaraswamy begins by saying, \u201cIn thaMowing \npages there is presented a statement of Oriental aesthetic theory basIKnainly \non Indian and partly on Chinese sources; at the same time, by means of notes \nand occasional remarks, a basis is offered for a general theory of art co-ordinating \nEastern and Western points of view. Whenever European art is referred to by \nway of contrast or elucidation, it should be remembered that \u2018European art\u2019 \nis of two very different kinds, one Christian and scholastic, the other post- \nRenaissance and personal. It will be evident enough from our essay on Eckhart, \nand might have been made equally clear from a study of St. Thomas and his \nsources, that there was a time when Europe and Asia could and did actually \nunderstand each other very well. Asia has remained herself; but subsequent to \nthe extroversion of the European consciousness and its preoccupation with \nsurfaces, it has become more and more difficult for European minds to think \nin terms of unity.\u201d \n\nHe proceeds to describe the \u201cYoga\u201d of the artist, wherein, meditating de- \n\n\n\n92 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nvotedly upon an idea, he draws to himself its true form from the higher worlds, \nin other terms, from \u201cthe immanent space in the heart\u201d. Contemplating this \nform, he must become one with it and realize it in himself. Dante said: \u201cWho \npaints a figure, if he cannot be it, cannot draw it.\u201d \n\nCoomaraswamy quotes the famous six canons of Hsieh Ho, first published in \nthe fifth century and still authoritative. The first canon he renders thus: \n\u201cOperation or revolution (ytin 13817) or concord or reverberation (yun 13843) \nof the spirit (chi 1064) in life movement.\u201d This is translated more agreeably \nby Okakura as, \u201cthe life movement of the spirit through the rhythm of things.\u201d \nThis canon remains an infallible criterion of the value of all works of art. The \nlife movement of the spirit forms the world according to Law and Principle, \nand the work of art imitates these laws and not the illusory appearances of \nmanifestation. Coomaraswamy says: \u201cNaturalism is antipathetic to religious \nart of all kinds, to art of any kind. The Indian ikon is not constructed to function \nbiologically, the Christian ikon cannot be thought [of] as moved by any other \nthing than its form, and each should, strictly speaking, be regarded as a kind of \ndiagram, expressing certain ideas, and not as the likeness of anything on earth.\u201d \n\nThe ideas and symbols set forth in art are more potent and intelligible as they \nare more fixed and representative of the concepts of the race. We understand \na time-honoured symbol at once. It is a familiar language. Westerners are not \npuzzled when they see the Holy Ghost descending as a dove. Easterners are not \nsurprised when they see the Buddha descending to incarnation in the form of a \nlittle elephant. \n\nOriental life is modelled on types of conduct sanctioned by tradition. For India, \nRama and Sita represent ideals still potent, the svadharma of each caste is a modf of \nbehaviour, good form being a la mode; and until recently every Chinese accepted as a \nmatter of course the concept of manners established by Confucius. The Japanese word \nfor rudeness means \u201cacting in an unexpected way\u201d. . . . This external conformity, \nwhereby a man is lost in the crowd as true architecture seems to be a part of its native \nlandscape, constitutes for the Oriental himself a privacy within which the individual \ncharacter can flower unhampered. ... It has been well said that civilization is style. \nAn immanent culture in this sense endows every individual with an outward grace, a \ntypological perfection, such as only the rarest beings can achieve by their own effort, \na kind of perfection which does not belong to genius; whereas a democracy, which requires \nof every man to save his own \u201cface\u201d and soul, actually condemns each to an exhibition \nof his own irregularity and imperfection, and this implicit acceptance of formal imper\u00ac \nfection only too easily passes over into an exhibitionism which makes a virtue of vanity \nand is complacently described as self-expression. \n\nWesterners, in the mass, have arrived at the democratic stage where they \nconfidently pronounce judgment on every work of art whether they know any \nthing about it or not. \u201cI don\u2019t know any thing about art but I know what I \nlike,\u201d is the common expression of this pretentiousness. The theory of Indian \nart requires infinitely more both of the artist and of the spectator than the \ntheory of modem European art. Coomaraswamy says it is, \u201ca way of destruc\u00ac \ntion of the mental and affective barriers behind which the natural manifestation \nis concealed.\u201d It requires \u201cself-identification with the ultimate theme\u201d. He \n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n93 \n\n\nquotes an excellent Indian definition: \u201cArt is Expression informed by Ideal \nBeauty.\u201d \n\nThe second essay is on Meister Eckhart\u2019s View of Art, showing that the theories \nof mediaeval scholasticism agreed fundamentally with those of the Hindu phi\u00ac \nlosophers. Any one familiar with the works of Giotto and the frescoes of Ajanta, \nwith Gothic and T\u2019ang sculpture, will be perfectly aware of this. The other \nessays on the aesthetic of the Sukranitisara, on Paroksha, on Abhasa, and on the \norigin and use of images in India are less valuable to the general reader. Al\u00ac \nthough published at Harvard, the book would seem to be written for Hindus or \nSanskrit scholars. The pages are heavy with Sanskrit words which fatigue \nand distract the reader. Indeed, to dig out the ideas requires more persistence \nthan most would find worth while. It is a pity that the phraseology of the book \nshould be so difficult when its substance is of such immense value and interest. \n\nSt.C.LaD. \n\n\nHigh Gods in North America, by W. Schmidt (Professor of Ethnology and \nLinguistics in the University of Vienna); Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1934. price, \nS2.75. \n\nThe material for these lectures, delivered at Oxford as a result of the Upton \nFoundation, was culled by Professor Schmidt from his monumental work, \nUrsprung der Gottesidee. He devotes the preliminary chapters to establishing \nthe validity of his method of research, and of his conclusion that the Selish, the \nAlgonkins and certain California tribes are the oldest of North American cultures, \nand then brings to us a wealth of interesting information and deductions. \n\nThe belief, still prevalent in missionary circles, that the loftier of the Indian \nconcepts were inspired by Christian teaching, is summarily disposed of, as there \nis proof positive of an antiquity long antedating the arrival of the White Men. \nProfessor Schmidt then proceeds to show that, contradicting all evolutionistic \nprinciples, the native religions have not developed upward from height to height \nthrough long ages of time; that, on the contrary, they are seen to diminish in \nvigour, purity and amplitude from the high levels of the original inspiration \npossessed by the oldest tribal groups. Among these he finds the idea of ^^eator \nin its most philosophic form, coupled with the belief in Him as a tru^Mpreme \nGod, who is not a far-off abstraction, but an All-Father who takes a kee^nterest \nin the lives of His people and exercises over them a manifold infiuence; and to \nwhom they address themselves in a continuous worship of prayer, sacrifice \nand ceremonies. In the most ancient of all, there is recognized but one God, \nwith no other figure to shadow His supremacy; deified First Ancestors appear \nonly at a much later date. \n\n(An unprejudiced study of these First Ancestors and Culture Heroes might \nyield valuable results; according to myths quoted by Professor Schmidt, such \nRestorers have appeared at periods of decadence in the religious life, and have \ninspired it once more with the fulness of energy which had been imparted \noriginally by the Supreme One.) \n\n\n\n94 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nMany tribal traditions are well worth citing; there is the Selish account of the \nSoul\u2019s journey, station by station, up the steep path of life to the land of its \ndesire; there is a tantalizingly short section telling of a celibate society composed \nof stoic philosophers, the bravest among all the braves, who were the first to \nenter and the last to leave a battle; there is the poetry of the Walum Olum \nLegend. The following excerpts from the Delaware Thanksgiving Rite will \nserve to show the nobility of its conception, though the enactment and the \nsymbolism must be left to the imagination. \n\nAs is usual in such ceremonies, there is a Leader, or Speaker. After he has \ngiven thanks to the Great Spirit \u201cto whom all men must pray each morning\u201d, \nhe speaks of the task imposed on everyone, of reaching the Creator at the end of \nhis life; and he continues: \u201cWe must all put our thought to this meeting, so \nthat the Great Spirit will look upon us and grant what we ask. You come here to \npray, you have this way to reach Him all through life. Do not think of evil, \nstrive always to think of the good He has given us. . . . We know our fathers \nwho have left this earth are in the land of Spirits; there the old and the crippled \nand the blind look as fair as the rest, for it is nothing but the flesh that is \ninjured. No sun shines there, but a light much brighter than the sun, the \nCreator makes it bright by His power.\u201d He closes the rite with this exhortation: \n\n\u201cMy kindred, there is something I want to say, for you to bear well in mind. \nIt is told traditionally that where one meditates on God in his heart, there is \nformed the thought. This is exceedingly hard, but it is necessary that we thus \nprepare the soul-spirit, that we may be able to take it, each one, home again \nto where it belongs, to our Father, when it is finished here.\u201d \n\nTo have gathered and classified such material, and to put the seal of authori\u00ac \ntative scholarship on its value, is a real contribution to Theosophy. It es\u00ac \ntablishes a foothold in the respected world of science for another of Madame \nBlavatsky\u2019s tenets which ran counter to all the accepted formulas of her day: \nthat religion, far from following with lagging steps the course of material evo\u00ac \nlution, is a pure, primal revelation, to be gradually dragged down by ignorance \nand self-will to the common levels of human interpretation. E.A. \n\n\nWith so many of the Protestant clergy denouncing war as wholly evil regardless \nof the motive with which it be waged\u2014whether in defence of the weak, or as \nbrigandage\u2014it is opportune to remind our readers of the pamphlet by Charles \nJohnston, Christianity and War, published by The Quarterly Book Department in \n1915. There could be no better defence of the Christian Master, or clearer proof \nof that Master\u2019s belligerency, than Mr. Johnston\u2019s pamphlet provides. \n\nAs an antidote to the Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick\u2019s \u201cI renounce war, and \nnever again will I sanction or support another\u201d,\u2014we believe that many students \nof Theosophy would be glad to send Christianity and War to clergymen whom \nthey know to be in need of it. Its price is ten cents, which includes postage. \n\nT. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOVEsncws \n\n\n\n\n\n\nm \n\n\nac> \n\n\nQuestion No. 387 .\u2014Some of us who live far from New York would give so much to live close \nto the centre, close to Headquarters. We feel as if we were exiled. What can we do to get home? \n\nAnswer. \u2014One may assume that the querent lives in a foreign land, or perhaps in some other \npart of this continent. He evidently feels that if he could only live in New York, near Head\u00ac \nquarters, life would be so much more interesting and instructive. Of course, the place of our \nbirth, or of our Karmic adoption, in nearly all cases is the place in which we are intended to \ngrow up and to work. It is our natural environment, and anyone who leaves it runs a grave \nrisk, unless his motive be unselfish,\u2014unless his motive be solely to serve in some other part of \nthe world, as he believes he would not be able to serve in the place of his birth. \n\nYears ago in London, when the Headquarters was in Avenue Road, where H.P.B. then lived, \nsomeone asked H.P.B. if he could not go to India, saying it would be \u201cso easy if one were in the \nHimalayas\u201d. H.P.B. said in effect: Easy? You would not survive it for twenty-four hours! \nYour Himalayas are right here in London, where you belong. In her reply is contained the real \nanswer of Theosophy to this question. The inner light, as Judge so constantly reminded us, is \nthe only light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; and for the finding of that \ninner light, it does not matter whether we are in New York or at the other end of the earth. \nIt might prove easier, it might prove infinitely more.difficult, to get in touch with that inner \nlight here rather than elsewhere. But the answer must depend ultimately upon the motive \ninstigating the change of place. If the individual were simply seeking more light, thinking \nthat he might get further instruction, or that life here would be more pleasant or less dis\u00ac \nagreeable, then he would be making the greatest possible mistake. Life is just as unpleasant \nin one place as in another; there is nothing to choose! It is only youth (and the most un\u00ac \npardonable form of youth) which still dreams the dream that if it were somewhere other than \nit is, the sky would always be bright and rain w'ould never fall and everyone would for e^fl|>e \nagreeable. There is no such place, there are no such people, anywhere on earth. As wJ(Kw \na little older, we discover facts of this kind, and are none the worse for them\u2014are really much \nmore cheerful than youth knows how to be. We must realize that right within our reach, in \nour present surroundings, no matter what they are, are the means, the weapons, that Karma, \nthe Good Law, has placed in our hands with which to effect our deliverance. The ultimate ques \ntion is not in the least where we think we shall be happiest, but where we can be of most use \nAnd heaven defend us from the illusion which might lead us to suppose that we could be of more \nuse in China or India (or New York) than right where Karma has placed us. There is plenty to \ndo there, and more than we can possibly accomplish. Our surroundings, whatever they may \nbe, are the door, which, if we will open it, will lead us straight into the world of the Real. There \nis no other door. There cannot be any other door, except our circumstances here and now, in \nour own homes, in our business, in our environment as a whole. While it is not always easy to \nsee things in that light, we shall not really begin to live until we do. \n\nOf course, common sense must govern. If you were living near a volcano with a record of \nperiodical eruption, it is difficult to imagine the duty that might hold you there against the pull \nof self-preservation; and self-preservation is sometimes as valid a duty as any other. E.T.H. \n\n\n95 \n\n\n96 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nQlestion No. 388 .\u2014How may those in whom the higher intuitions are not developed best avoid \nthe dangers of psychism when meditating? \n\nAxs\\ver. The first step would obviously be for each one to discover the particular kind of \npsychism to which he, individually, was most inclined, and to attack that. Psychism \nappears under many guises, some of which might be classed as positive, others as negative. \nAmong the former are over-activity of the mind or the emotions; among the latter, drifting \nor day-dreaming. In each case these states must be replaced by some higher state as nearly as \npossible approaching the conditions which we know to be necessary to true meditation. If \nour interior stillness is broken by the noise of our minds or the sudden welling up of emotion, \nwe must make every effort to get above these lower, personal planes, for \u201call noise is psychic\u201d, \nw ether mental or otherwise. If we discover that we have drifted into \u201cday-dreaming\u201d, all \nour attention should again be brought under control and re-directed, for if meditation is any- \nt ing at all, it is one-pointed and all-absorbing. But our primary need is to be very definite in \nour realization of that which we must avoid, as well as of that which we wish to attain. Then, \n\n^ unshakable faith that our Master is eagerly reinforcing every effort of ours, we \n\ns ou nd that our id^l itself is deepening and expanding, and that each day we are one \ns ep nearer to him who is the yery goal and object of our meditation. T.A. \n\nAN-sw ER.-^Ieditation, rightly used, is the \"open-sesame\" to the life of the Soul, to the world \n01 K^lity There are many stages of meditation as one leaves behind the psychic world in \nwnich we live, and approaches nearer to, or penetrates farther into, the world of Reality The \npresetuLnTvT T therefore, are not confined to the lower stages only, but are \n\nofTv^d.n v J 1, J ^ K \\ maintained. Perhaps as simple a way as any \n\nbXep nf the att\u201dT a right sense of direction, and by atteLn and action: \n\nactior^Hhat d T the immediate objective during meditations, and by right \n\nwith attendant between meditations. If one pursues his meditations intelligently, \n\nf there will be a logical progression of objectives Take \n\none \n\nsuspicious if self enters the picture tnstancrhetho^ Id ? >\"\u00abst immediately be \n\nHe should contemplate the ideal of loyalty and make it his endeavn /imsel/ as loyal. \n\nideal. Whenarightsenseofdirection^isnothelddun'r^^^^^^^^ \n\nthe trouble is not confined to such periods only, but is due also t^theId \n\nin action between times \u2019 ' failure to carry through \n\ng.m.w.k. \n\nAnswer.\u2014 If meditation be not strengthening to the will there is somaii,- \nmethod, and it would be wise to seek the advice of an old,l !^ a \u201c\u2019\"^\u2018hmg wrong with the \ncertain students are not suitable for others. Positive action bv the^'\"n\u2019d \u00ae\u201c\u2018\u2018\u00aehle for \n\npractice of completely concentrating the mind on each thine thaf d \u2018he \n\nJ.F.B.M. \n\ntioner seeks. Carefully to reldt^'-FragmenC' \n\nardently desiring; then to take it daily, at each meditation. gJng thougMMl\u201d\"\u00ae \nuntil ones being is pervaded by its living beauty; then t^ rest awhdf ^ ^^ \nas at a glonous sunset.-ready to carry what one has found into the work\"\u201d\"'^'\u2019\u2019^*\u201d\" '\u2018\u2022 \n\nagain at the next time of quiet. Doing this daily, one would find \n\nifted one above the danger of psychism, and, having thus contacted^hl w\\ had \n\nlearning how to avoid the lower. ntacted the higher, one would be \n\nR.P. \n\n\n^ 4 * \n\n\no, \n\n\nSc \n\n\n[VOL. XXXII, No. 2 OCTOBER, 1934 \n\n\n- -s..- ... [, -i'-.V \n\n\n\nSTANDARD BOOKS \n\n\nBlavatsky, H. P. \n\n\nIsis Unveiled, Vols. I and II.doth, $10.00 \n\n,, ^ Complete in one book.cloth. 7.So \n\nKey to Theosophy.2.25 \n\nSecret Doctrine, The, Vols. I and II and Index .doth,\u2019 leioo \n\nn. _ CouPLBT* in one book, without eubject-index Tohune, 7.60 \n\nTHEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY..toth. 2.25 \n\nThANSACTIONS OF TAB BLAVATSKY LoDGB . cloth 2.60 \n\nVoice of the Silence. , \u201e\u201e \n\nCave. Fragments, Volume I. i;b\u201e \n\nVolume II .boards. 1.50 \n\nI- d I u T boaidA 1.50 \n\nGerard, John. Letters to Friends .toanls, 1.75 \n\nHillard, Katherine. Abridgment of the Secret Doctrine, .doth, 3.00 \nJohnston, Charles, Bhagavad Gita .Tnmslated, annotated; doth, i. 2 b \n\nCrest Jewel of Wisdom. The.1*25 \n\nGreat Upanishads, The, Volume I.cloth 1.60 \n\nParables of the Kingdom, The .pape^ jio \n\nPatanjali S Yoga Sutras .\u2018nnnslated, annotated; cloth, 1.2a \n\nSong of Life, The. \u201e \n\nJudge, William Q. Bhagavad Gita .Edited; doth, i. 25 i leather,' i!bo \n\nCulture o? Concentration .paper, .25 \n\nEchoes from the Orient .pape, ^ \n\nLetters That Have Helped Me, Volume I and II, each, .doth, 1.00 \n\nOcean of Theosophy .doth 1.00 \n\nPatanjali\u2019s Yoga Aphorisms .doth, 1.00 \n\nKeightley, Archibald. Theosophy as an Influence in Life paper\u2019 .20 \n\nLaDow, Stanley V. Plotinus .paper) .50 \n\nMitchell, Henry Bedinger. Meditation, Special edition. .201 paper\u2019 .50 \n\n\nTheosoph^ical Society and Theosophy, The. \n\nB. Collegiate Education and Standards \n\n\npaper, \n\n\nOF \n\n\nBuddhism .'. Idoth,\u2019 \n\ncloth. \n\n\nMitchell, J. F. \n\nValue- \n\nSinnett, A. P. Esoteric \n\nOccult World. The.. . \n\nTorrey, Ray E. Science and its Function in Education _naoer \n\nWalker, E. D. Reincarnation. \n\nIdyll of the White Lotus.\u2019.V. V.\u2019* \u2019 *. V.\u2018V.V IT \n\nLight on the Path. .leather* \n\nThrough the Gates of Gold...doth, i \n\nTHE QUARTERLY BOOK DEPARTMENT, \n\nP$ O# Box 64, Station O, New York \n\n\nDbvotional; ^agavad Gita; Crest Jewel of Wisdom; Fragments; The Great Uoani- \nBhads; Letters That Have Helped Me; Letter* to Friend*; Light on the Path- The ft[r- \nablesof the Kingdom; The Song of Life; ThroughtheGatesof Gold; Voice of theSUcnce. \n\nPhilosophical: Abridgment of the Secret Doctrine: liii Unveiled; Key to Theoiophv* \nPlotinui; Reincamation; The Secret Doctrine; Talk* on Religion; Theosophical GIosmtv\u2019 \nTransactions; Patanjali\u2019s Yoga Sutras. \n\nIntroductory: Culture of Concentration; EchoM from the Orient; Baoteric Buddhism- \nIdyll of Ihe White Lotus; Meditation; The Occult World; The Ocean of Theoionhv- \nThe Theosophical Society and Theosophy. ^neosopny. \n\n\nNo. 126 \n\n\n: f' \n\n\n\n\n1:1 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVOL. XXXII, No. 2 OCTOBER, 1934 \n\n\nFounded by 9. P. Blavatsfty at n\u00abw Vorlt in 1875 \n\n\nPUBLISHED BY \n\nTHE THEOSOPHICAL SOdEH \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Theosophical Quarterly \n\n\nSubscription price, $a.oo per ann u m ; single copies, 50 cents \n\nPublished by The Theosophical Society \nat 64 Washington Mews, New York, N. Y. \n\nJuly; October; January; April \n\nAddress all communications to P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York \n\n\nIn Europe, single copies may be obtained from and subscriptions may be sent to John \nM. Watkins, 21 Cedi Court, Charing Cross Road, London, W. C 3, England; or to \nMr. E. H. Lincoln, 9 Beaconsfield Road, Low Fell, Gatcshead-on-Tyne, England, from \nwhom all back numbers may be obtained. Annual subscription price, I2.00, postpaid. \n\n\nCONTENTS OF VOL. XXXII, NO. 2 \nOctober, 1934 \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS. \n\nFRAGMENTS. \n\nDEVOTION AND UNDERSTANDING \n\nCHARACTER AND FATE. \n\nGROWING THINGS. \n\nFORM AND FUNCTION. \n\nWITHOUT CENSOR, III. \n\nLIFE\u2019S GREATEST CHEMICAL. \n\nA THEOSOPHICAL CALL. \n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME. \n\nREVIEWS. \n\nQUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. . 7 .... \n\n\nPAGE \n\n\u2022 99 \n. 109 \n. no \n. II4 \n. I 2 I \n\n. 126 \n\n\u2022 132 \n143 \n\nISO \nIS4 \n, 168 \n183 \n\n\nas second-claM matter September s, \nAct of March 3,1879. \n\n\n1923. at the Poet Office at New York, N. Y., \n\n\nCopyright, 1934, by The Theosophical Society \n\n\nunder the \n\n\n\nTHE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY \n\n\nThe principal aim and object of this Society is to form the nucleus of a \nUniversal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, \ncaste or colour. The subsidiary objects are: The study of ancient and modern \nreligions, philosophies and sciences, and the demonstration of the importance \nof such study; and the investigation of the unexplained laws of nature and \nthe psychical powers latent in man. \n\n\n\nThe Theosophical Quarterly is the official organ of the original \nTheosophical Society founded in New York by H, P. Blavatsky, \n\nW. Q. Judge and othersy in 1875 . \n\nWe have no connection whatsoever with any other organization \ncalling itself TheosophicaU formerly headed by Mrs. Besanty nor 0 \n\nwith similar bodiesy the purposes and methods of which are wholly \nforeign to our own. \n\n\nEditors, The Theosophical Quarterly. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOCTOBER, \n\nThe Theosophical Society, as such, is not responsible for any opinion or declaration \nin this magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an official document. \n\n\n\n\nThe Boundaries of the Earth \n\nT HIRTY-two years ago Willson\u2019s Ancient and Modern Physics was pub\u00ac \nlished under the auspices of The Theosophical Society. Basing his \nhypothesis upon certain Hindu texts, Willson proposed an astronomi\u00ac \ncal theory in harmony with the theosophical teaching concerning the \u201cchains \nof globes\u201d and the gradations or planes of cosmic substance. He suggested \nthat the \u201ctrue form\u201d of the earth is, in a certain sense, co-extensive with the \n\u201ctrue form\u201d of the Cosmos. The prakritic or physical earth, the habitation of \nour bodies, is a tiny nucleus in a cell of solar ether which is in turn contained \nwithin a globe of prana or vital radiation, the whole being encompassed by an \norb or organism, of a subtilty beyond our comprehension, the embodiment of the \nthought of the Logoi, the Divine Architects of the Universe. Thus the ultimate \nboundary of the earth is not the limit of the so-called physical atmosphere but \nthe limit of space itself. We do not live on the real earth, but in it, and if we \nso will, we can expand our life until it participates in the life of the Cosmos. \n\nThe material and physical universe consists of four planes of matter, or fo^\u00aereat \noctaves of vibration, each differentiated from the other, as in our physics prakrwr is dif\u00ac \nferentiated from ether. The material universe, the ancient physics teach, was originally \npure thought, Manasa, the product of the spiritual planes above. This manasic world \nwas differentiated, a real world. That is to say, it was given elementary substances by \nthe union of its atoms in different sized molecules. Some of its elements combined and \nformed Prana. The Prana gathered and formed other worlds, pranic worlds. Then in \nthe pranic worlds etheric worlds were formed; and finally in the etheric worlds, prakritic \nglobes like the earth were formed. The earth is the centre of a prakritic globe revolving \nin ether around the sun. The sun is the centre of a solar globe of ether, revolving in \nPrana around Alcyone [the brightest star in the Pleiades]. Alcyone is the centre of a \nstellar globe of Prana revolving around the central and hidden sun of the great manasic \nglobe. These four conditions of matter: prakriti, ether. Prana and Manasa are the earth, \nwater, fire, air of the Ancient Metaphysics, the four elements of matter, and are present \nin every atom of matter. ... In the great manasic globe this earth of ours is a minute \nvillage of Helios (sun) county, in the state of Alcyone. We are actually and literally \n\n99 \n\n\nO \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n100 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nliving in this manasic globe precisely as we live in this earth, and as in the village we are \nsubject to all the laws of the manasic world, we can study them here (pp. 33-345 49 -So)* \n\nThe Halo of a Planet \n\nModem astronomers would be well advised to adopt such a model of the \nCosmos as a working hypothesis, although, given their present disposition, \nnothing is more imlikely to happen. It is, therefore, interesting and significant \nthat from time to time they prove, according to their own methods, parts of \nWillson\u2019s theory to be true, without the least intention of doing so, without \nany knowledge that Willson or his theory ever existed. \n\nFor instance, Willson remarked that according to his Hindu sources the tme \ndiameter of the physical earth is about 50,000 miles. \u201cThat is to say, the tme \nsurface of the earth is the line of twenty-four-hour axial rotation; the line \nwhere gravitation and apergy exactly balance; where a moon would have to be \nplaced to revolve once in 86,400 seconds. Within that is prakriti; without is \nether\u2019\u2019 (pp. 8-9). \n\nWhen these words were written, science was only beginning to surmise the \nexistence of a \u201chigher\u2019\u2019 atmosphere. During recent years, however, it has \nbeen necessary to postulate a concentric series of electric \u201clayers\u2019\u2019 above the \naerial ocean in which we live. The behaviour of \u201cradio-waves\u2019\u2019 can only be \nexplained by the supposition that they are reflected and bent by contact with \nan electro-magnetic \u201caura\u2019\u2019 surrounding the earth like a shell. The difficulty \nis to determine where the earth ends and interplanetary space begins. \n\nIn Nature (July 14, 1934) an expert on \u201cwireless echoes\u2019\u2019. Professor Harry \nRowe Mimno of Harvard, presents evidence of two new electric shells above \nthe so-called F layers. The scientific editor of The New York Times (July 23, \n1934) comments as follows upon the general subject of \u201cthis haloed earth\u2019\u2019: \n\nAll told, we now have five [electric shells]\u2014the Kennelly-Heaviside layer, the Apple- \nton layer beyond that, the two new Mimno layers, and far out beyond the moon the \nlayer first discovered by Hals and verified by Carl Stoermer. Little did Marconi sus\u00ac \npect when he began his experiments in wireless telegraphy that he had invented a means \nfor exploring space and visualizing an earthly atmosphere of onion-like structure. \n\u201cIonosphere\u201d, the nearer layers of this atmospheric onion are now collectively called. \nAlthough it is known only by its electric manifestations, there can be no doubt that \nthis ionosphere is as truly part of our air as the lowermost troposphere in which we live \nand move, and the stratosphere. . . . Close to the surface a sapphire atmosphere flashes \nresplendently in the reflected light of the sun, and surrounding this are shells that shim\u00ac \nmer electrically as the ultra-violet rays of the sun strike them with varying intensity, or \nas electrons hurled from sun-spots play havoc with occasional atoms in the highly rati\u00ac \nfied air. Far beyond, arches the colossal halo of electrons which Stoermer has made his \nspecial study. . . . These glowing shells that the mind\u2019s eye can see, are real. \n\nDoubtless, they are as real as the rings of Saturn which they seem to resemble; \nbut there are many orders of reality in the Universe, as our astronomers have \nyet to learn. According to ancient physics, there are four great orders of real\u00ac \nity, four great planes of substance, in the manifested Cosmos. Also these \nplanes and orders are said to interblend at every point, to be inseparable in \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\nlOI \n\n\nessence; they cannot be segregated in water-tight compartments. If scientists \ncould study the ionosphere and its aura directly, and not merely by deduction \nfrom phenomena of another order, they might discover, at least in its outer \nconfines, a critical condition of matter between its physical and astral states, \na zone'where the prakritic sphere fades into the \u201cether\u201d which both surrounds \nand permeates it. The ionosphere, as described by science, is as obscure and \nas indefinite as only a formula of the highest mathematics can be. But there \nis reason to believe that the ionosphere, as a real entity, as a thing-in-itself, is \nmore concrete, more solid than the physical earth which in our naive material\u00ac \nism we accept as the standard of all concreteness and solidity in Nature. \u201cWhen \ndemonstrated, the four-dimensional conception of space may lead to the inven\u00ac \ntion of new instruments to explore the extremely dense matter which surrounds \nus as a ball of pitch might surround\u2014say, a fly, but which, in our extreme ig\u00ac \nnorance of all its properties save those we find it exercising on our earth, we \nyet call the clear, the serene, and the transparent atmosphere\u201d {Five Years of \nTheosophy, p. 159). \n\n\nThe Reversal of the Time-Sense \n\nIf all things interblend, if space, time and form be unreal in themselves, if \nonly the spaceless, timeless One be \u201cthe Real of the Real\u201d, it follows that all \nmundane science is necessarily limited and relative. All description is tenta\u00ac \ntive and incomplete, omitting far more than it can possibly record. It is a \ntruism that an object can only be seen in a given perspective from some par\u00ac \nticular point of view, and that there is an infinity of possible perspectives and \nof possible points of view. It is interesting to note that the Monad of Leibniz, \nthe principle of individual consciousness, has been defined as a point of view \nfrom which God contemplates Himself. Certainly the relativity of human \nknowledge is as obvious as the blue sky, nor was Einstein the first to discover it. \n\nHowever, it is possible to exaggerate and distort the meaning of relativity. \nA rain-drop is not an ocean, but it is just as watery as the ocean. Even the \nsmallest fragment of truth is true. We experience the real in some degree^i \nwhenever we experience anything: how could we possibly experience anything \nelse ? Delusion only appears when we deliberately falsify the image of our experi\u00ac \nence, pretending that it is other than it is, affirming that it includes all possible \naspects of reality, neglecting the testimony of other experiences which should \nenrich and supplement our own. \n\nFor example, there is no conceivable justification for discarding, in the name \nof relativity, the whole past experience of mankind, merely because it is our duty \nand privilege to deepen and broaden that experience. Yet that is precisely \nwhat the majority, or at least the vocal minority, of contemporary educators \nare preaching as an ideal. As Dean Gauss points out, modem man has reversed \nhis time-sense. \u201cHe has emptied the past and present of significance, and he \nmust more and more find the meaning of life in things and times outside of and \nfor ever beyond him.\u201d But to build a future without a past is as rational as to \nset out on a journey from nowhere in particular to go nowhere else. What the \n\n\n102 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nmodem world needs as much as anything else is a big dose of Confucianism, \nincluding ancestor-worship, for that would be better than the worship of each \nlatest fad as it comes along. \n\n\nEducational Follies \n\nAs an example of this reversal of the time-sense, we quote from a report of a \nmeeting of the National Association of Public School Business Officials {The \nNew York Times, June 14, 1934). \n\nThe social, political and economic welfare of this country is in peril because of the \ncrisis in the educational system, the speakers said. The youth of the land is not receiving \nadequate training, for lack of proper supplies, the right kind of text-books and because \nof poorly maintained buildings, they declared. . . . Science text-books morf than Un \nyears old are being used in New York City schools, because there is no money for the \nright kind of books. Dr. Campbell [superintendent of city schools] said. He pointed \nout that there have been revolutionary changes in scientific knowledge in the la\u20act decade, \nbut books that still teach outdated theories must be used. Dr. Campbell said the only \nray of sunshine in the New York City situation was that conditions in other parts of the \ncountry were much worse. \n\nThe italics are ours. One ventures to ask Dr. Campbell, on behalf of the \nfriendless taxpayer, what guarantee he can give that in ten years the text-books \nwhich he demands will not be equally outdated. There seems to be a law of \ncyclic return which determines the course of fads and fancies. If we keep our \nold hats long enough, we may be sure that they will become fashionable again. \nThe outdated theories of science are extraordinarily like our old hats. For \ninstance, in 1889 Lord Kelvin remarked that \u201cthe ether is the only substance \nwe are confident of in dynamics. One thing we are sure of, and that is the reality \nand substantiality of the ether.\u201d To-day the ether is an \u201cexploded superstition\u201d, \nbecause it does not fit into the most up-to-date picture-puzzles of wave-me\u00ac \nchanics. But who knows? From Paris comes the news that Professor Carvallo \npronounces the relativity theory to be false. He is supported in this heresy by \nDr. Ernest Esclangon, director of the Paris Observatory, and by Dr. Dayton C. \nMiller of Cleveland who has made tens of thousands of observations to support \nhis belief that an ether exists. The orthodox are unconvinced; but Dr. Camp\u00ac \nbell would be wise not to throw away his old text-books, even if some new ones \nbe bought for him. \n\nHowever, the best advice might be to throw them all away, both the old and \nthe new. After all, is it really necessary to keep the children of New York \nposted in regard to all these \u201cwinds of doctrine\u201d ? If they could understand even \na little\u2014which is most unlikely\u2014their assumption of mental superiority over \ntheir parents would be unbearable. Surely educators should do their utmost to \ncombat one of the most popular delusions of our time,\u2014that the most recent \ntheory by anybody about anything must be the most correct. Every boy and \ngirl should be told, at least once a day, that true science, the experimental \nknowledge of facts, must always be distinguished from the theories which men \nof science invent, with varying ingenuity, to explain facts. \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n103 \n\n\nThe real point is that there can be only one legitimate object of public school \neducation\u2014to prepare children to become good citizens. Unless the taxpayer\u2019s \nmoney is spent for this purpose, the state or the muncipality is guilty of robbery \nand waste. Moreover, this rule applies equally to libraries which are supported \nby public funds. We are informed that the public library of a large city on the \nPacific Coast has purchased five hundred copies of Anthony Adverse! \n\nThe Idea of Progress \n\nThe reversal of the time-sense is intimately associated with the idea of progress \nwhich has played so notable a r 61 e in the development of Western thought since \nthe Renaissance. It originated as a protest against mediaeval \u201cpessimism\u201d con\u00ac \ncerning the fall of man and his fatal tendency to degenerate continuously through \nthe repetition of the original sin of disobedience to God. Without doubt, this \nprotest was in itself an inevitable reaction against a too persistent emphasis \nupon the lower nature of the human being, as if this lower nature were the real \nman and the soul were devoid of divine possibilities. It is significant that the \ngreat mediaeval mystics themselves reacted in this spirit, insisting upon the inner \nbond of union which links the spiritual part of the soul to all divine things. \nUnfortunately, however, the idea of progress, almost from its inception, became \nidentified with the forces which were preparing an open revolt against everything \nfor which the mediaeval man had stood. The good, the bad and the indifferent \nwere all classified as equally obscurantist and superstitious. In particular, war \nto the death was declared against the fundamental principle of mediaeval thought \nat its best, the principle that earth-life is not an end in itself; that man is a \nspiritual being and his true destiny is to be discovered in the spiritual world; \nthat all his terrestrial experiences have meaning and value only in so far as they \ntrain and prepare him for life in Heaven. Especially during the past two centuries, \nprogress has become synonymous with the acquisition of knowledge for the \npurpose of creating a Utopia, a society of mortal men on earth so organized as to \nprovide for its citizens the maximum of personal wealth, satisfaction and ease. \n\nThe Modem Era has been marked by an extraordinary acquisition o^Mow- \nledge, by an expansion of physical science which has transformed the^mSface \nof the earth. However, the ideal social state is as remote as ever, remoter even, \nfor the feudal society of the Middle Ages seems Utopian by contrast with our \nmodern democracies and dictatorships. The reason for this is so obvious that the \nmost materialistic of modernists are beginning to surmise it. We have, indeed, \nmade some progress in the conquest of the brute forces of physical Nature, but \nthere has been no corresponding advance in our conquest of the brute forces of \nhuman nature. We have paid the penalty for conceiving and planning a mode of \nprogress which is contrary to the true principle of growth proper to man. What \nis that principle? In every age it has been defined. The acquisition of power \nand knowledge should proceed pari passu with the development of character and \nof the spiritual will. There is the obvious implication that we delude ourselves if \nwe pretend that we are bom into this world merely to enjoy ourselves as much as \npossible. It is wiser and safer to assume, like the mediaeval doctors, that bodily \n\n\n104 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nlife exists for the sole purpose of forwarding the growth and progress of the \nsoul. \n\nInevitably, as the idea of progress became materialized, its expressions as\u00ac \nsumed an ever-increasing vulgarity of form. During the past two centuries it \nhas been one of the most over-worked slogans of political orators. The doctrine \nof organic evolution has been interpreted to mean that progress of some kind or \nother is inevitable, whatever we may do or not do about it. According to Karl \nMarx\u2019s pseudo-science, the varied forms of social organization succeed one \nanother by means of a mechanical process as irreversible as that which caused \ncertain fishes to transform themselves into amphibians and reptiles. We are all \nof us too familiar with the socialistic dogma that the collectivist state must come, \nwhether we want it or not, and that when it arrives we shall automatically \nbecome finally and irrevocably happy. \n\nIn The Wall St. Journal (July i6, 1934), Thomas F. Woodlock indicates how \ndeeply the idea of imavoidable progress towards collectivism has pervaded the \nnebulous field of economics. Many people, otherwise quite intelligent, have \nvirtually abandoned the notion that the depression can end normally through the \nultimate balancing of supply and demand, so obsessed are they by the fatalistic \nsense that the only possible outcome must be some form of social regimentation. \nWoodlock instances the writings of two popular American economists, Walter \nLippmann and George Soule. \n\nThese two writers represent, perhaps, our best critical thought concerning politico- \neconomic conditions, and what they say must be reckoned with. Yet, having given \nto both the freest access to his mind . . . this writer is left with the feeling that neither \nMr. Lippmann\u2019s \u201cfree collectivism in a representative democracy\u201d nor Mr. Soule\u2019s \nclass-less, profitless society is ahead of us in any period of time which it is profitable to \nguess. And it further seems to him that the best ground for hope in the future is aban\u00ac \ndonment of the great superstition of the Nineteenth Century\u2014namely its faith in a \nlaw of \u201cprogress\u201d, automatic, inevitable and continuous, regardless of what men do to \nhinder and obstruct its workings. Skeptical as is Mr. Lippmann, one seems to detect \nmore than traces of this in his writing; Mr. Soule\u2019s book almost reeks with it. Here \nare its concluding words: \u201cThe new society will consist of men and women in a new \nbond of comradeship setting forth on still another voyage to the unknown.\u201d \n\n\u201cComradeship?\u201d In what new bond, must one ask? Of what material is it to be \nconstructed ? \n\nTrue Progress and Sacrifice \n\nIt is a basic tenet of Theosophy, reflected in all the great religions of the \nworld, that true progress is growth in spiritual self-consciousness, and that this \ngrowth is invariably the fruit of sacrifice. In the Mysteries it was taught that \nthe Universe itself was created by a divine sacrifice, by the self-immolation of \nthe gods. There can be no liberation of creative power which is not preceded by \na crucifixion. As we read in The Secret Doctrine, the immemorial symbol of the \nmanifested Cosmos is the Mundane Cross, denoting the transformation of ab\u00ac \nstract idea into concrete form by aspiration and effort and heroic self-tran\u00ac \nscendence. Thus the Orphic poets identified the world with the mutilated body \nof Dionysos; and the Hindus devised the \u201cfable\u201d of Vishvakarma, the Great \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n105 \n\n\nArchitect of the World, called in the Rig Veda, the \u201call-seeing God who sacrifices \nhimself to himself\u201d. Madame Blavatsky comments: \n\nThe Spiritual Egos of mortals are his own essence, o?i^ with him, therefore. Remember \nthat he is called Deva-vardhika, the \u201cBuilder of the Gods\u201d, and that it is he who ties \nthe Sun, Surya, his son-in-law, on his lathe\u2014in the exoteric allegory, but on the Svastika, \nin Esoteric tradition, for on Earth he is the Hierophant-Initiator\u2014and cuts away a \nportion of his brightness. Vishvakarma, remember again, is the son of Yoga-siddha, \ni.e., the holy power of Yoga, and the fabricator of the \u201cfiery weapon\u201d, the magic Ag- \nneyastra {Thf Secret Doctrine, ed. 1893, II, 590). \n\n\u201cAs above, so below.\u201d The passion and death of Christ and his resurrection \nhave a significance both cosmic and human. As the via crucis figures the veri\u00ac \ntable process of \u201cCosmogenesis\u201d, so it is the emblem of \u201cAnthropogenesis\u201d, the \nbirth and growth of the spiritual man. The old Egyptian ritual defined the cross \nas the \u201chard couch of him who is in spiritual travail, the act of giving birth to \nhimself.\u201d This is the central tradition of Christianity. It signifies the only \nmethod whereby progress, in the real sense, becomes possible for the human \nbeing, who is not an automaton but a creature possessing free-will. Because \nthe modem apostles of progress reject and scorn the Way of the Cross, they \nhave falsified and debased the noblest of human ideals beyond recognition. The \ngrowth of the spiritual man is the reward of long travail. All excellent things, as \nSpinoza said, are as difficult as they are rare. \n\nThe Antiquity of Man \n\nIt may help us to realize how difficult and how rare they are, if we reflect upon \nthe antiquity of the human race. We have been journeying so long and yet \nhave travelled so short a distance. The so-called historical period of the past \nsix or seven millenniums, dating back to the supposed dawn of civilization along \nthe Nile, the Euphrates and the Indus, is a brief moment in the long life of \nhumanity on this planet. According to the traditions recorded by M^fee \nBlavatsky, physical man as a genus of vertebrates has existed, with relH^ly \nunchanged form, for 18,000,000 years. How many civilizations have grown and \ndecayed during this epoch, decayed so completely that, apart from the traditions \nmentioned and certain myths common to many races, no vestige or memory \nof these past cycles persists? The Secret Doctrine mentions, in particular, two \ngreat continental cultures, the Lemurian and the Atlantean, the latter of which \nis said to have flourished during the Miocene, before it was submerged in a \nstupendous natural catastrophe about 850,000 years ago. \n\nScientists are as far as ever from admitting that civilizations, as massive and \nas diversified as our own, could have existed in those remote times. The hy\u00ac \npothesis of a civilized man during the Tertiary or even during the Pleistocene \nis in too violent contradiction to the fashionable representation of man as an \nanimal slowly detaching himself from the ancestral tree of the anthropoid apes. \nHowever, certain recent discoveries have obliged zoologists to date the origin \nof the human family much earlier even than the Miocene. We quote from the \nreport of a discussion at the Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological \n\n\nio6 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nSciences held in London (The New York Times, August 2, 1934)- The figures \nsuggested for the age of man approximate those in The Secret Doctrine. \n\nThe discovery that blood serum of Old World monkeys Is more closely related to \nman\u2019s than to that of New World monkeys was announced to-day by Dr. Solly Zucker- \nman, Oxford zoologist. This announcement has bearing on the riddle of evolution, for \nit confirms the belief that man is enormously older than had been supposed. ... It \ntends to push man\u2019s beginnings on earth far back\u2014perhaps to the Oligocene era (esti\u00ac \nmated at more than i6,ooo,cxx) years ago). . . . Scientists have known that the an\u00ac \nthropoid apes of the Old World, such as chimpanzees, have the same groups of blood- \ncells as man, and that in this respect apes differ from Old World and New World \nmonkeys. Now Dr. Zuckerman has found the additional fact that serum proteins in \nthe blood of Old World apes and monkeys are related to each other and to man\u2019s, but \nnot to those of New World monkeys. Such a sharp cleavage suggests that the whole \nOld World group split off in incredibly distant time from a common stock, which pre\u00ac \nsumably also gave birth to the New World monkeys. It also suggests, according to Dr. \nZuckerman, that independent human or human-like stock branched from the apes very \nearly in geological time. \n\nDuring the past two years fragments of human remains have been discovered \nby Lewis Leakey in East Africa, including part of a skull which he believes to \nbe that of homo sapiens, \u201cmodem man\u2019\u2019. It was found in a deposit between \n200,000 and 500,000 years old, and thus there is definite paleontological evidence \nthat human beings of our own type were contemporaries of the Piltdown and \nPeking races. It is no longer possible to point to the inferior anatomical charac\u00ac \nters of extinct species, like the Heidelberg and Neanderthal men, as evidence of \nthe ascent of man from the ape, if \u201cmodem man\u2019\u2019 was in existence when these \nlower races appeared in Europe. It is conformable to the known facts to postu\u00ac \nlate that the Early Stone Age men of Europe were degenerate offshoots of the \nmain stock, decadent survivors, perhaps, from the mins of Lemuria or Atlantis. \nIt is also evident that the latest data of paleontology in no way contradict the \ntheosophical hypothesis that the anthropoid apes themselves are likewise, in a \ncertain sense, degenerate men, representing \u201ca transformation of species most \ndirectly connected with that of the human family\u2014a bastard stock engrafted on \ntheir own stock before the final perfection of the latter\u2019\u2019 (Isis Unveiled, II, 278). \n\nEarly American Civilization \n\nWhen we consider the length of time required for the exfoliation of the qualities \nof mind and heart which constitute man as he is, we shall understand more \nclearly why the term progress should not be lightly used. The tempo of Nature \nis slow, and man tries to quicken it at his peril. This impression is confirmed even \nby the comparatively brief record of human vicissitudes which has been pre\u00ac \nserved from the past of the race and which we call history. No civilization \nknown to us has had an unintermpted career of progress. In every instance, \nthere has been a period of growth, culminating in a phase of relative glory and \npower, after which succeeded decadence and death, often hastened by barbarian \ninvasions or by natural calamities of various kinds. For example, the marvellous \nculture of Angkor-Wat in Cambodia quite literally seems to have disappeared \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n107 \n\n\ninstantaneously, as if the race of its builders had been decimated by some sudden \npestilence. A similar abrupt end came to the pre-Columbian civilizations in the \nNew World. They were ruthlessly annihilated by the Spaniard, and it remains \nto be seen whether the New World civilization which has succeeded them will \nultimately be deserving of a better fate. \n\nThe New York Herald Tribune (April 29, 1934) reports an address by Dr. \nHerbert J. Spinden, curator of ethnology at the Brooklyn Museum, in which he \nreferred to the debt which we owe to the Mayas and Toltecs of Guatemala and \nMexico. He suggested that their culture was in many ways superior to our own, \nand that the discovery of America was far from being an unmixed blessing, for \nthe untramelled exploitation of physical wealth and energy, which is so charac\u00ac \nteristic of the modem world, had its inception in the work of the Conquistadores. \n\nDr. Spinden said that the most civilized peoples of the New World were most easily \nconquered because of the heights to which their civilization had advanced. European \nnations, however, which seemed to find it highly profitable to renege in ethics and fair \ndealing with the American natives had to pay dearly for this in the end. \u201cIn my opinion,\u201d \nhe said, \u201cEurope lost her opportunity to develop a genuinely high-minded civilization \nout of the spiritual experiences of the Middle Ages because of the extraordinary tempta\u00ac \ntions to seize sudden wealth in America.\u201d . . . \n\nHe said that the red man succeeded in domesticating a great many food plants which \nwere not known in the Old World, and that this series now supplies four-sevenths of the \npresent agricultural wealth of the United States. He then described the successive \nphases of Mayan civilization and spoke of the age of Quetzalcoatl, a Toltec king, who \ndied in 1208, as the American equivalent of the age of Pericles in Greek history. \u201cIf I \nwere called upon to list the world\u2019s greatest humans,\u201d he said, \u201cI would certainly put \nQuetzalcoatl\u2019s name beside those of Confucius and Christ as a man who contributed \ngreatly to the formation of ethics and high ideals of honour. Quetzalcoatl was the ad\u00ac \nministrator of a domain ranging from New Mexico on the north to Colombia on the \nsouth. He was a priest, a philosopher, an astronomer much more skilful than any con\u00ac \ntemporary astronomer in Europe, and a cultivator of the arts.\u201d \n\nStudents of Theosophy will interpret this testimonial of a distinguished archae\u00ac \nologist in the light of the traditions concerning the existence of an ancient c^tre \nof the Mysteries in America. This old American civilization had its dar^tee, \nhowever, and its ruin cannot be construed as an accidental calamity. In setter \nattributed to the Master K. H., there is a direct reference to this sombre episode \nand to its meaning for our race. \n\nWhat do you know of America . . . before the invasion of that country by the Span\u00ac \niards? Less than two centuries prior to the arrival of Cortez there was as great a \u201crush\u201d \ntowards progress among the sub-races of Peru and Mexico as there is now in Europe and \nthe U. S. A. Their sub-race ended in nearly total annihilation through causes generated \nby itself; so will yours at the end of its cycle. \n\nNatural Catastrophes \n\nThe drought in the West seems to have done for some Americans what nothing \nelse could do. It has given them a dim presentiment that disasters and depres\u00ac \nsions and calamities may not be as accidental as materialists pretend them \n\n\nio8 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nto be; that the old nomenclature which described a natural catastrophe as an \nact of God may not be far from the truth. In other words, American farmers \nhave begun to experience qualms concerning some of the things which they have \nbeen forced to do by the Department of Agriculture. Mark Sullivan wntes in \nThe New York Herald Tribune (August i, 1934)- \n\nThere is an evident disposition on the part of some of the public seriously to connect \nthe drought as an act of nature with the Administration\u2019s previous policy of plowing \nunder cotton and killing off young pigs and sows about to bear young. The idea, crudely \nexpressed in many quarters, is that the drought is a revenge taken by nature for a deed \nthat showed ingratitude fo^ nature\u2019s beneficence. In some cases, it is described as an \nact of God. So far has this gone that Secretary of Agriculture Wallace and others are \ndisturbed and have taken pains to combat it. One might sympathize more with them if \ntheir defence did not take the characteristic form of accusing their political and business \nopponents, especially the packers, of propaganda, of circulating a superstitious slander \nagainst them. To picture either nature or God as engaged in a conscious act of ven\u00ac \ngeance, which visits itself upon the whole country, is pretty fantastic. That can be \ndismissed. Yet there is this to be said. The drought has the effect, on many perfectly \nlogical minds, of calling vivid attention to the economic error involved in the destruction \nof plenty. To these, the destruction of food when there was hunger in the world was a \nmistake which now, because of the drought, takes on the dignity of tragedy. \n\nWe do not doubt that the farmers\u2019 views are often crudely expressed. It is \nno simple matter to prove that there is a direct connection of cause and effect \nbetween the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the drought. Never\u00ac \ntheless, the farmers are no more superstitious than those, \u201cwith perfectly logical \nminds\u2019\u2019, who affirm that natural catastrophes are invariably accidental, mechan\u00ac \nistic, without sense or purpose. It is not as if Nature or God actually lost \npatience with mankind at intervals and released upon the earth a host of de\u00ac \nstructive forces. The real problem involves the relationship between human \nthoughts and acts, on the one hand, and on the other, the natural order of terres\u00ac \ntrial phenomena. It has been suggested, for instance, that man influences the \nweather, in the sense that his states of consciousness are centres of force which \ncontinuously discharge their content of energy into the atmosphere of the \nearth and of the etheric and other spheres by which it is encompassed. \u201cThere \nis the strongest connection between the magnetism of the earth, the changes of \nweather and man, who is the best barometer living\u2019\u2019. Why is it unreasonable to \nbelieve that the catastrophes which visit and may destroy a civilization are, in \nreality, induced by the states of consciousness constituting that civilization? \nWhen man defies the di\\nne and natural law, is it not logical to assume that his \nvery defiance engenders a condition of congestion and strain in the greater \nNature of which he is a part, as the infection of an organ sickens the whole body? \nA cataclysm would, then, be an act of purgation, an ejection of poison from the \nsystem of Nature, a readjustment of the terrestrial order; but it would also be \nthe Karma of man himself, the effect of a cause of his own making. It is in accord \nwith \u201cancient physics\u2019\u2019 and with a seemly humility, to regard the whole dire \nstate of the world to-day, including the drought, as the response of Nature to our \nvery manifest shortcomings, to the dry hardness of our hearts. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFRAGMENTS \n\n\nC LOSE our ears, 0 Lord, to the sounds of the world, that we may hear \nthe divine harmonies. \n\nClose our eyes to material things, whatever seems their beauty, that \nwe may behold the vision of thy surpassing loveliness. \n\nClose our minds to worldly concerns, that we may understand the marvellous \nsecrets of thy wisdom and thy law. \n\nClose our hearts to love of self and all the phantasmagoria of outer life, that \nwe may be flooded in the spirit of thy divine charity, and, baptized in its living \nwaters, be purified into our lost resemblance to thee. \n\nFor our life is of the essence of thy Life, and the earth that envelops and \nimprisons us is but the mud in which we have long wallowed. \n\nI perceive that the eyes which behold the heavenly beauty, alone can rightly \nvalue the beauty of the earthly; that only as we hear the heavenly music, can \nearthly music have true meaning and accord; that only to a mind steeped in \nheavenly contemplations, can the science of earth bring its real significance; \nand that only in the heart in love with the heavenly Loveliness, can there burn a \ngenuine and imderstanding love for its own kind. \n\nSince it is in thy Light and in thy Light alone, 0 Lord, that we see light, and \noutside that Light there is but the shadow cast by unlikeness. \n\n\nCav^. \n\n\n\n\nDEVOTION AND UNDERSTANDING' \n\n\nW HEN the time comes to resume our Branch meetings, one breaks the \nsilence of the summer with a certain reluctance. We should have \nlearned during the summer months something of what Emerson means \nby solitude, what Wordsworth means by the bliss of solitude, what the Oriental \nteachers mean by the necessity of silence, the period in which nature herself \nteaches the soul of the disciple. Many of us may have learned much from \nsolitude, finding solace and delight in the long silence of the summer. There is \none side of our nature which regrets the breaking of the silence, but another part \nof our nature admonishes us that the side of silence is but a part of ourselves; \nif we were to yield to it completely, to become more and more absorbed in silence \nand solitude, we should be yielding to an impulse of contraction in our natures; \nwe should be growing not greater, as we should, but smaller, and should presently \nshrink to a vanishing point. So there is a real necessity, as Emerson points out, \nfor society as well as for solitude. When we are alone we are not ourselves in the \nfullest sense. To put it in another way, there is far more in our natures than we \ncan reach when we are alone. And, since our purpose is to realize our real selves, \nit follows that we must accept and obey the conditions which will give us access \nto more of ourselves; and society in the true sense, such a gathering as a Branch \nmeeting, gives exactly that opportunity. There is much of us, not in ourselves \nbut in each other; we come together to take counsel, to contribute our common \nexperience, in obedience to the intuition that we are not really ourselves while we \nare separated. We are aware of a common consciousness running through us all \nas we join in consideration of theosophical problems,\u2014a consciousness in no one \nof us alone, not complete in any one of us, complete only when we bring all our \nconsciousness together and use it as a single light to search after the wisdom that \nwe seek. \n\nOn the other hand, association alone, mere gathering together, will not evoke \nthat wisdom. Most assemblies of people are no higher in consciousness than the \nseparate persons that compose them. On the contrary, they tend to be lower; \none of the saints has said that he never went into society that he did not return \nthe worse for it. In the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the assembly of \nthe forty had certain defined purposes and activities in common, yet it cannot \nbe said that the consciousness of the united band was higher, more spiritual, \nmore universal than that of the individuals; they were worse for their meeting, \nthe avarice and violence of each strengthening the like evils in the others. \n\nSo we come to a second truth: we reach a true self only when we are united; \nyet there is much of ourselves that we cannot find by this meeting only; much \nthat we shall find only by searching above ourselves, not in the consciousness, \n\n> Stenographic notes, revised by Charles Johnston, of his contribution at the opening session of the New York \nBranch of The Theosophical Society, in \n\n\nno \n\n\n\n\nDEVOTION AND UNDERSTANDING \n\n\nIII \n\n\nthe minds and hearts of each other, but in the spiritual life that is within and \nabove us. This is where the solitude has its purpose. Silence is the way of \napproach to this\u2019inner consciousness. If we seek with our whole hearts, and with \nwisdom, this life that is above and within us, we shall begin to find many treas\u00ac \nures. This is the door of the Kingdom in the Parable, whence the seeker brought \ntreasures old and new. Among these treasures we should find serenity by finding \na deeper self, we should find a resting place, firm ground from which we can \nsurvey life passing by as a rapid river, but not carrying us with the current; we \nshould be aware of life as to some degree apart from ourselves, we should not \nbe caught in the swirl of things, we should not be a leaf carried along among many \nleaves in the tempest; we should stand serene, poised, watching the flow of life. \nWe should find also the treasure of humility, because we shall realize that what \nwe generally think of as ourselves is very small and in many ways very mean, \nwith purposes that are unworthy,\u2014forces, wishes, desires that the better part \nof ourselves knows to be below our true level. \n\nWe should find aspiration; because, however deep we may sink into ourselves, \nhowever high we may rise, we are always conscious of a higher and deeper \nbeyond. It is like climbing a mountain; each ascent gained will give you added \nheight above the valley, and a clearer view of the peaks beyond; and, as we \nsink within ourselves, or rise above ourselves, our horizon constantly widens and \nbecomes more full of life. There is the drawing power of the greater life above \nus, constantly increasing in strength and beauty. \n\nWe should find charity, through that deeper part of us which is truly allied \nto all human beings, the real heart of humanity, for the most part latent; the \ntrue humane sense, the sense of humanity as a great struggling, sinning, suffering \nlife, of which each of us is an inseparable part; a great life which draws us by its \nunity of being, and by an immense compassion for the suffering which humanity \nperpetually inflicts on itself. Therefore, we should find charity in that sense, \nas a deeper understanding of the striving and darkness of all those with whom \nwe come in contact, a charity based on the common spirit that is in us all. a \n\nFinding humility, aspiration, charity, we have begun to find the spirit of the* \nMasters. Though we may not have recognized it, this is the source through \nwhich humility and charity and aspiration are flowing into our hearts, as the \nlower reaches of the river come from the well-springs high up in the mountains. \nAnd we, who are students of Theosophy, should clearly understand this. The \ngood gifts, the perfect gifts come to us from the Father of life, the life of the Logos \nwhich is active, manifested in the Masters. As, walking on the mountain side, \nwhen one comes across a rivulet, it may be one\u2019s impulse to drink of the water, \nand then follow it upward to find its source, so we may, in our inner selves, \nrefresh heart and spirit with what we can receive of the spirit of the Masters, \ntheir humility, charity, aspiration, and then follow up the stream to see whether \nwe can find the source; whether we can come into touch with the Masters from \nwhom wisdom, power, compassion so ceaselessly flow. If we in any measure \nsucceed, the first proof of it will be this: that new inspiration will immediately \nsend us back to our duties, not to dreaming or to solitude, but to our concrete \n\n\nII 2 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nsimple tasks. This, for a very plain reason: the true self in us does not consist \nin perceiving alone. The Self is not perception only; the Self is spiritual will \nquite as much as spiritual wisdom. Therefore, only in the right action of the \npurified will, do we find that part of ourselves which supplements the part of \nknowing, the part of wisdom. \n\nSo we apply ourselves to our duties. For there is always the obvious duty; \nif none be in sight, there is the obligation to find out what our duty is. Every \nhour, for each of us, there is something that ought to be done. If we are slow in \nfinding it, the good law will generally step in and find it for us. We shall set to \nwork, perhaps listlessly and with reluctance, if we be imperfectly inspired; but, \non the other hand, with zeal and joy if we be wise, understanding this: that it is \nprecisely the Masters\u2019 wisdom that, flowing down from above, has set us this \nduty, whatever it be; because our powers are symmetrical on level after level \nof our being, and, no matter how high a spiritual power may be, there is some \nquite simple power or energy in our ordinary life that corresponds to it. Counting \nthe stars is not essentially different from counting pennies. So all our starry \npowers have their quite simple correspondence in our daily life, and we can only \nbegin to arouse and evoke the higher spiritual powers by entire fidelity in using \nthe simple powers we already possess. Therefore, the Good Law presents to us \na range of simple duties which will, if we look wisely into them, give us the begin\u00ac \nning of the exercise of all our future celestial powers. We shall find that, in many \nways, in all ways, provision is made for our ultimate spiritual growth through the \nthings of now and here; and this will grow clearer, as we realize that we are part \nof that immense spirit of humanity, with the tremendous burdens which it has \nlaid on itself; with its darkness, its suffering, and its enjoyments which are \noften more unendurable than its sufferings. For, while failure in life has its \ntragedy, much of success in life is far more tragic,\u2014much of what is esteemed to \nbe success. Here is a potential archangel who engrosses himself in amassing real \nestate, of which ultimately he will be able to use only six feet. His whole heart \nand mind are full of it, and he is often ruthless in driving toward his goal; in \nreality his success is far more tragic than many a failure which may teach the \nman who fails splendid lessons of persistence and of courage. \n\nSo humanity bears this immense burden of its failures and successes. If we \nsee ourselves to be an inseparable part of that humanity, we shall see that this \nmost intimately concerns us; it is not something we can shut the door against, \nretiring within a cavern of solitude. The problem is inherent in our very nature! \nIt will come in. Therefore, the Good Law is likely to put us in a position where \nwe shall have an opportunity to try to understand our neighbour; really to under\u00ac \nstand, with the utmost charity and purity of heart, something immensely \ndifficult always. And, if we understand in that true sense, with purity of heart \nand charity, we shall presently find some small ability to help. Really to help \nanother human being is one of the hardest tasks one may undertake, a task in \nwhich one may so easily blunder and quite defeat one\u2019s end. Yet it is possible, \nif we make it our aim to seek, and to work out in our relations with others, not \nour personal aims or theirs, but the purpose of the Masters, the purpose of the \n\n\nDEVOTION AND UNDERSTANDING \n\n\n113 \n\nOversoul, helping each and all so far as we can. So far, we cannot accomplish \nmuch. We are still weak and blind and stumbling, yet to some degree we may \nhelp humanity to lift that heavy burden. \n\nThese are the purposes and the tendencies of the work we seek to do, in these \ntheosophical gatherings. The aim is, to form the nucleus of a imiversal brother\u00ac \nhood of humanity, and the nucleus is made up of those who are spiritually at one \nwith the purposes of the Masters, in understanding first, and in action also; \nthose who are at one with the spirit and purposes of the Masters, and who are \ncarrying them out, or striving to carry them out. So we meet here with this \nexplicit purpose: to try better to understand what the divine wisdom, as em\u00ac \nbodied in the Masters, purposes; what the goal is; what the aim is; what the \nbarriers are; to take counsel together, each bringing his experience, his insight \ninto life, his aspiration, so that these may be added together. We may build up \na united intelligence, devotion, willingness to work, and set that power to search \ninto this darkness of human life, to help to raise the burdens which are often \nborne unconsciously; for men do not realize the immense dead weight of their \nsuccess. \n\nWe must have a right heart in the work, and a right understanding. Some\u00ac \nthing was said in the late spring, at one of the Study Classes, to the effect that \nwe have, in a measure, a right heart in the matter. By years of effort, we have \ngathered together a good deal of genuine devotion, willingness to serve, to work. \nWe need to supplement that by deeper understanding. Mr. Judge said once \nthat while devotion will carry the disciple to the goal, the way will be long and \nthe journey slow. Devotion needs to be supplemented by intelligence, by \nwisdom, by genuine insight into life: life in general, and life in particular. \nNeither can be valid without the other. Therefore, it is perhaps peculiarly our \npurpose and our aim, in this coming session, to lay stress, not so much on the \ndevotion we already have, but rather on the intelligence that we need to increase, \nluminous insight into life, in general and in particular, into universal life, and \ninto every detail of our own lives, as the Upanishads say, down to the finger tips^ \nWe need that insight, that illumination, in all our tasks, all our duties, all oJ \nrelations to others. \n\nIn the coming months, we shall seek the purposes of the Masters, the work of \nthe Masters, the devotion and humility of the Masters; we shall seek, with \nardour, with persistence, with a special sense of our need, the light of the Masters. \n\n\nStudy without thought is vain; thought without study is perilous .\u2014 Confucius. \n\n\nIt is true that a little philosophy inclineth Man's mind to atheism; but depth in \nphilosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion .\u2014 Bacon. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHARACTER AND FATE \n\n\nLet him raise himself toward the Self, let him not debase himself; for self is the \nfriend of self, and self is the enemy of self. \n\nSelf is the friend of self for him in whom the self is conquered by the Self; but to \nhim who is far from the Self, his own self is hostile, like an enemy .\u2014 Bhagavad \nGIta. \n\nT here is a Greek proverb, ethos anthropoi daimon, usually translated: \n\u201cA man\u2019s character is his fate\u201d. It is attributed to Heraclitus of Ephesus, \na master of words, whose sayings resemble the fragments of a Scripture, \ninasmuch as they stimulate the student to look within and beyond their surface \nmeaning for their real significance. \n\n\u201cA man\u2019s character is his fate.\u201d The word translated as \u201cfate\u201d is daimon. \nIn Greek mythology, the daimons were semi-divine beings, intermediate in \ndignity and power between the Gods and mankind. One class of daimons was \nsupposed to preside over human destiny. Thus they were regarded as tutelary \nspirits, the guardian angels of humanity. We read of the daimon of Socrates, \nwhich spoke to him as the voice of conscience speaks to ordinary men. He \naccepted its injunctions as the commands of a \u2018\u2018Higher Self\u201d. The word, daimon, \ntherefore, frequently conveyed the sense of \u2018\u2018fate\u201d, of good or bad fortune. As \none obeyed or disobeyed one\u2019s daimon or \u2018\u2018genius\u201d, one was rewarded or punished, \nthe daimon, in this sense, being an agent of Karma. The surface meaning of \nHeraclitus\u2019 maxim seems to refer to this conception, suggesting that every man is \njudged by his own daimon, but that its decrees are not arbitrary. A man\u2019s des\u00ac \ntiny is determined by his character, that is, by his habitual thoughts, moods, \nvolitions and acts. Observation and experience testify to the dominion which \nhabit exercises over reason and good intentions. As we know, states of conscious\u00ac \nness tend to repeat themselves. They predispose us to certain courses of action, \nwhich the average man follows almost automatically. He moves blindly towards \nthe fate to which they lead him. \n\nHowever, Heraclitus was too wise to believe that men are necessarily the slaves \nand victims of predispositions and habits. There is a fundamental difference \nbetween impulsion and compulsion. Undoubtedly we are impelled to do all \nsorts of things which we ought not to do; but we are not compelled to yield \nto this stimulus. We are free to obey or to disobey the commands of the daimon. \nIndeed, a little further reflection upon the connotations of this Greek word points \nto a deeper meaning within our proverb. According to a very ancient belief \nrecorded by Hesiod, the souls of the heroes of the Golden Age were transformed \ninto daimons, ceasing to be half-animal, half-human, and becoming half-human, \nhalf-divine. This metamorphosis was achieved by an act of self-transcendence, \nfigured in the mystical death and resurrection of the Initiate in the Mysteries, \n\n114 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHARACTER AND FATE \n\n\nIIS \n\nand when it was accomplished, the hero and his \u201cgenius\u201d became one in con\u00ac \nsciousness, in will and desire. The hero\u2019s character was then no longer a bundle \nof psychic and physiological habits, a congeries of elementals. It was an em\u00ac \nbodiment of the daimon with whose nature he had identified himself. A man\u2019s \nreal being is, therefore, his daimon. It would seem that this is the deeper meaning \nwhich Heraclitus sought to convey, but which he may not have dared enunciate \ntoo openly, for it concerned certain secrets of the Mysteries. \n\nAccording to Theosophy, man continuously fashions his destiny, limiting it \nwithin the narrow confines of a semi-animal existence, or enlarging it until \nultimately it becomes indistinguishable from the destiny of his true genius, his \ndaimon, his Higher Self. Here and now, we are preparing the conditions of \nfuture births, as in past incarnations we prepared the conditions of this present \nlife. In other words, at every instant of the day, for better or for worse, we are \nusing creative powers. The forces of Nature which build and preserve the \nCosmos, act in and through us, whenever we exercise imagination, desire and will; \nnor can we act in any way without exercising these powers. The idlest motion \nof a hand is first sketched on some surface of the mind. Any thought with \nwhich the mind identifies itself, returns to consciousness again and again, each \ntime claiming a larger share of our attention. \n\nThe world judges events by the noise and commotion that they make; but \nthe real quality and potency of an act are measured by the motive of the actor \nand by the intensity of his will and imagination. \u201cDetermined will is a beginning \nof all magical operations\u201d, said Paracelsus; \u201cbecause men do not faithfully \nimagine and believe the result, the acts are uncertain, whereas they may be \nperfectly certain.\u201d Every operation of consciousness is magical, in the sense \nthat it is a vehicle of some form of creative energy. However, few men realize \nthe degree to which their inner sentiments actually lend force and significance \nto their outer undertakings. It is commonly supposed that two actions which \nare identical in outer appearance, must be the effects of identical causes. This \nsupposition is not sanctioned by occult science, as the following excerpt from a \nMaster\u2019s letter shows: \n\nIn conformity with exact science you would define but one cosmic energy, and seWo \ndifference between the energy expended by the traveller who pushes aside the bush that \nobstructs his path, and the scientific experimenter who expends an equal amount of energy \nin setting a pendulum in motion. We do; for we know that there is a world of difference \nbetween the two. The one uselessly dissipates and scatters force, the other concentrates \nand stores it. And here please understand that I do not refer to the relative utility of \nthe two, as one might imagine, but only to the fact that in the one case there is but \nbrute force flung out without any transmutation of that brute energy into the higher \npotential form of spiritual dynamics, and in the other there is just that. . . . The human \nbrain is an exhaustless generator of the most refined quality of cosmic force out of the low, \nbrute energy of Nature; and the complete adept has made himself a centre from which \nirradiate potentialities that beget correlations upon correlations through ^Eons of time \nto come {The Occult IVorldy pp. 128-129). \n\nWe are, indeed, the possessors of a magical treasure, though few realize it. \nWe spend our patrimony recklessly, not imagining that we have a patrimony. \n\n\nii6 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nIt is a paramount duty to become aware of the fact that the powers of con\u00ac \nsciousness are creative and that we are held responsible for their right use. The \nsense of responsibility is one of the attributes which theoretically distinguish \nman from the brutes. No individual life can be adequately conceived as an \nisolated phenomenon, as a thing sufficient unto itself, for it is inseparable, in \nessence, from the universal life of Nature. Its purpose is one with the divine \npurpose of cosmic manifestation. The creative energies which Nature places \nat man\u2019s disposal, constitute a sacred trust which he is intended to invest dis\u00ac \ninterestedly, sacrificing all personal claims to the proceeds. When the sense \nof responsibility is once awakened in the human heart, existence for the first \ntime begins to reveal some purpose and direction. The smallest duty, perceived \nas part of a universal plan, assumes dignity and meaning. \n\nThis ideal of human responsibility is implicit in the theosophical conception \nof consciousness. It is a theosophical axiom, that consciousness is universal. \nSubstance and force are inconceivable apart from consciousness, as consciousness \nitself is inconceivable apart from some form of substance, some mode of force. \nThe greatest philosophers have always recognized this fundamental datum, that \nconsciousness, force and substance constitute a triad within a unity, a \u201cThree- \nin-one\u201d, three attributes of an indivisible Being. They cannot be imagined in a \nstate of separation from one another, or from the One Being which they make \nmanifest. It is as impossible to form a concept of such a state as it is to visualize \nthe two faces of a coin existing independently of the coin itself. \n\nHowever, although consciousness, force and substance are always associated, \nit is a theosophical principle that manifestation of form proceeds as a result of \nwhat has been called the descent of spirit into matter. In other words, the in\u00ac \nvisible and the subtile precede the visible and the gross; the abstract is prior \nto the concrete; every form exists subjectively before it exists objectively. In \nordinary human terms, this signifies that every external action is an outgrowth \nor exfoliation of an inner state of consciousness. Always the image in the mind \ncomes first, and the act which expresses the image follows\u2014or, more exactly, \ntends to follow, for the effects of any state of consciousness may be neutralized \nor transmuted by the intervention of another state of consciousness which is \nmore potent and more sustained. \n\nThese basic ideas should transform our whole view of Nature and of man\u2019s \nplace in Nature. No one can remain unregenerate and unchanged, if he really \nbelieve that he is an undivided fragment of a living and creative Universe. He \ncan no longer pretend that his existence is a cosmic accident, an inconsequential \nevent. \n\nNevertheless, it is evident that very few really believe these things to be true. \nIt is hard to believe in the primacy of the spirit, partly because in this age of the \nworld the dominant tendency of thought is so materialistic that spiritual truths \nand values appear remote and unreal. We are children of the cycle and are \nbathed daily in its atmosphere. Every student of Theosophy is constantly open \nto suggestions, to ideas which are wholly antagonistic to the ideals of Theosophy. \nIt is of the utmost importance that we should understand what those ideals are. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nI Beligtof \n\nCHARACTER AND FATE\\ A , 117 \n\nin so far as this is possible. Perhaps this undertaking may bemaHe ea^er, if we \ncontrast them with their opposites, if we examine carefully certain major differ\u00ac \nences between the theosophical and the materialistic conceptions of conscious\u00ac \nness. \n\nWith few exceptions, biologists assume that all the processes of consciousness \ncan be explained as after-effects of physical and chemical change. They recog\u00ac \nnize only two \u201crealities\u201d, the organism and its environment, life and con\u00ac \nsciousness being phenomena or \u201cepiphenomena\u201d accompanying the interaction \nof the organism and the environment. This is equivalent to the assertion that we \nar^ all of us exactly what we are because we could not possibly have become \nanything else; that we are bom with certain proclivities which inevitably respond \nto certain stimuli. In brief, they profess the doctrine known in philosophy as \nthe mechanistic hypothesis, the theory that every motion in Nature is rigidly \npredetermined and calculable. Thus the mechanists adopt a machine as the \nmodel or symbol of the Universe and of every entity which the Universe con\u00ac \ntains. They recognize no real difference between man and a Diesel engine, ad\u00ac \nmitting only that man is somewhat more complex. In fairness to the world of \nscience, it should be noted that the mechanistic hypothesis is not universally \naccepted. For example, there is a disposition among physicists to recognize \nthat motion within the atom cannot possibly be explained in ordinary mechanical \nterms. \n\nHowever, mechanism is entrenched as strongly as ever in biology; and \nalthough it is quite impossible to classify contemporary psychologists in one \ncategory, it may be said of one group\u2014the so-called Behaviourists and their \nallies\u2014that they are even more mechanistic than the biologists. Indeed, the \nBehaviourists virtually refuse to acknowledge that consciousness exists, even as \nan \u201cepiphenomenon\u201d, even as a \u201cdisease\u201d to which matter is susceptible on \ncertain very rare occasions. They wholly neglect it as a causal factor in the de\u00ac \ntermination of organic action and reaction. They reveal, in clear outlines, the \nlogical conclusion to which mechanism leads, as becomes evident if we consider \nwhat is implied by their theory of \u201creflexes\u201d. The following is quoted from the \nMagazine Section of the New York Times, March ii, 1934. \n\nIn efforts to explain man, two schools of thought have been engaged in controversyTor \ngenerations. \u201cA creature set apart by a soul, by consciousness, by free will,\u201d assert the \nvitalists. \u201cBosh!\u201d retort the mechanists; \u201ca man is simply a physico-chemical system, \nlike the amoeba, only much more complex\u201d. ... If man is a machine, then it ought to be \npossible for the biologist, when he has learned enough and made himself a good enough \nengineer and inventor, to become a Frankenstein and create a machine which will be \nwithout soul or spirit, but which will behave as if it were human. The attempt has al\u00ac \nready been made by about a score of scientists. A few weeks ago a student at the Massa\u00ac \nchusetts Institute of Technology ... read a paper which bore the harmless and uninspiring \ntitle, \u201cAn Electro-Mechanical Analogue of the Conditioned Reflex\u201d. His contrivance \ncould learn and forget. It consisted of nothing more than a rheostat, some switches, an \nordinary incandescent lamp and wires connecting all these elements into a simple circuit. \nIt can be animated into a semblance of \u201cconsciousness\u201d, and it can relapse into unre\u00ac \nsponsiveness. ... The whole purpose [of such models] is to support the thesis that man is \nindeed an automaton\u2014a creature that has learned to respond in definite ways to external \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nii8 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nand internal forces, after which it acts with genuine spontaneity whenever these same \nforces in the proper sequence or combination play upon senses and nervous systems. . . . \n[The term \u201cconditioned reflex\u201d] brings us to the eminent Russian physiologist, Ivan P. \nPavlov, founder of this new school of psychologists to whom mind, consciousness and soul \nare anathema when invoked to explain why we behave like human beings. A goodly \npart of Pavlov\u2019s life has been spent in studying dogs or, rather, the circumstances in which \na dog\u2019s mouth will water when it is about to eat. As soon as a dog sees food the watering \nbegins. It is a reflex action\u2014something over which the animal has no control. . . . In\u00ac \nvoluntary reflexes are called unconditioned by Pavlov. There are other reflexes which are \nthe result of training. These are Pavlov\u2019s now famous \u201cconditioned reflexes . Consider \none of Pavlov\u2019s dogs and learn just what is meant by conditioned reflexes. Pavlov \nrings a bell . . . when he feeds the dog. Sound and food are associated. After a time the \ndog\u2019s mouth drips when he hears the bell and sees the food. Finally the ringing of the \nbell without the presenting of any food at all brings about the same effect. The dog has \nlearned by experience or \u201cassociation\u201d, as the old-fashioned psychologists would say. \nBut this ringing of the bell and withholding of food cannot be kept up indefinitely without \naffecting the dog\u2019s reflexes. Fooled often enough, his salivary glands will no longer water. \nHis conditioned reaction is now said to be \u201cinhibited\u201d.... Pavlov varies this experiment. \n... He reduces dogs to a state of hysteria by conditioning them in various conflicting \nways. Thus he trained one animal to associate a bright circular patch of light with food, \nand an ellipse with an electrical shock. Soon there were yelps of joy at the sight of a circle \nand a flow of saliva, but growls of fear when the ellipse was seen. Gradually Pavlov made \nthe ellipse resemble the circle more and more. The dog was reduced almost to a nervous \nwreck, unable to do more than howl and struggle. \n\nAll this is intended to prove that dogs behave like machines and that men \nbehave like dogs. As a matter of fact, it only demonstrates one certainty, that \nPavlov and his imitators are performing the work of fiends and devils. Their \nlaboratories are torture-chambers, and their experiments upon helpless animals \nare even less excusable than those of the vivisectionists who at least profess \nhumanitarian motives. \n\nA normal unbiased person would regard the \u201cconditioned reflex\u201d as evidence \nof intelligence. He would also wonder at the involved method whereby scientists \n\u201cdiscover\u201d things which must have been known since the beginning of history. \nYears ago there was a \u201cpoem\u201d which might have been dedicated to the \u201ccon\u00ac \nditioned reflex\u201d, if this term had been invented at that time. There were these \nlines; \n\n\u201cOh, how the boarders yell, \n\nWhen they hear the dinner bell.\u201d \n\nIt is characteristic of the Behaviourists that they are quite incapable of \nimagining a himgry boarder who does not yell when he hears the dinner bell. \nUnfortunately, modem educational theory has been greatly influenced by their \ndictum that every organic action is a mechanical response to a stimulus. Through \nthe schools and universities, with the active co-operation of the press, the doc\u00ac \ntrines of scientific materialism have entered into the consciousness of the masses. \nThey are only understood, in so far as they re-enforce the very common assump\u00ac \ntion that happiness and well-being are wholly dependent upon physical or \neconomic conditions. A well-known psychologist is said to have remarked that \nby cultivating the proper set of reflexes he could make any child a criminal. The \n\n\nCHARACTER AND FATE \n\n\n119 \n\nso-called man-in-the-street, reading such pronouncements, is encouraged to \nbelieve that he is not morally responsible for anything which he does. Moral \nresponsibility can have no place in a \u201cuniverse\u201d where every sequence of events \nis wholly explicable in mechanical terms; where, in the most literal sense im\u00ac \naginable, every man\u2019s fate is completely pre-determined from the moment of his \nbirth. \n\nTheosophy does not deny the obvious fact that, in general, the movements of \ninorganic bodies are calculable. We can predict the periodicities of stars and of \natoms, for both stars and atoms obey the same laws which the engineer consults \nwhenever he designs a machine. Nevertheless, it is most doubtful whether a \nmachine adequately symbolizes even that part of Nature which is usually called \ninanimate. As certain modem physicists are willing to admit, \u201csub-atomic\u201d \nbehaviour does not conform to any known mechanical laws. Some have dared \nto suggest that the Universe resembles a thought rather than a mechanism. \nMoreover, it would be hard to define what is really signified by these terms, \n\u201cmachine\u201d, \u201cmechanism\u201d, \u201ccalculable\u201d, and so on. Doubtless, many human \nactivities are as calculable as the revolutions of a motor. \u201cCharacter is fate\u201d \nfor the ordinary man; he does not escape from the web of his reflexes. However, \nthis does not mean that he cannot escape, but only that he refuses to make the \nnecessary effort. Man behaves like a machine, whenever he allows his habits \nto dominate him. Like all phases of Nature, mechanism is, in the ultimate sense, \na state of consciousness,\u2014a state of gross consciousness, if we may accept the \ntestimony of nuclear physics that mechanical motion is primarily a property of \ngross or molecular matter. \n\nIt is interesting to recall Schopenhauer\u2019s statement that if a cannon-ball \nwere self-conscious, it would possess the inward certainty that it was free to \ncontrol its movement through space, even though its trajectory can be exactly \ncharted in advance. Metaphysically it is justifiable to postulate that the princi\u00ac \nple of all motion is \u201cdesire\u201d; that the \u201cdesire\u201d of the atoms of the cannon-ball \nto return to the earth, responding to the earth\u2019s \u201cdesire\u201d that they should \nreturn, is so constant, so one-pointed, that it overcomes the initial \nof any explosion. \n\nAccording to Theosophy, the atom reflects the Universe; it is a microcosm \nof the macrocosm. It is, therefore, proper to conceive it as a symbol of Nature. \nHowever, following an ancient tradition. Theosophy most frequently symbolizes \nNature by some image which is less abstract, more tangible, more obviously \nakin to our human life. For instance, the growth of a flower is a universal \nsubject for mystical meditation, because it so clearly illustrates the laws which \npreside over all formative processes, from the creation of a Cosmos to the birth \nof the \u201cspiritual man\u201d. \u201cThe spirit of Fire (or Heat) which stirs up, fructifies, \nand develops into concrete form everything (from its ideal prototype), which is \nbom of WATER or primordial Earth, evolved Brahmi. . . . The lotus flower \n. . . is the most graphic allegory ever made: the Universe evolving from the \ncentral Sun, the point, the ever-concealed germ\u201d {The Secret Doctrine, ed. \n1888, I, 379). \n\n\n\n120 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nNo symbol of Nature can be true, unless it point to the fundamental principle \nthat evolution is the exfoliation of a purpose, a growth from within outwards, \nthe progressive manifestation of an \u201cideal prototype\u201d. In man, it is said, this \nembodiment of spiritual form cannot proceed without his active, intelligent \nco-operation. He must become aware of the presence of the shaktis, or creative \npowers, within the sphere of his being; and he must realize his responsibility \nfor their use. \n\nEven among the animals, there is a foreshadowing of the sense of conscious \nresponsibility. The ruffed grouse will risk her life, when her chicks are in danger, \ngiving them time to scurry to safety, while she faces the enemy and distracts \nhis attention from them. She sacrifices the lower to the higher, which means, \nin terms of ruffed grouse ethics, her own welfare to the welfare of her brood. \nIn man, as we know, this sacrifice can exalt the individual to the summit of \ndivinity. It is the secret of spiritual advancement which only occurs as the effect \nof continuous self-transcendence. \n\nAs water, rained on broken ground, flows away among the mountains, so he who be\u00ac \nholds the properties of life scattered abroad, runs hither and thither after them. \n\nAs pure water, poured into pure water, becomes one with it, thus, verily, is the Self \nof the silent sage, who has attained to wisdom (Katha Upanishad). \n\nNo materialistic hypothesis can explain why or how a man can dedicate \nhimself to a cause, or can gladly lay down his life for a friend. Machines have \nexcellent qualities, but deliberate self-sacrifice is not one of them. The nature of \nman becomes intelligible, in so far as the inner meaning of Heraclitus\u2019 maxim \nis understood. The human soul is, in essence, a daimon, akin to the race of the \nGods; and true human consciousness cannot exist until the outward life of man, \nhis character, is united, in will and purpose, with his daimon, his divine proto\u00ac \ntype, the principle of his veritable destiny or \u201cfate\u201d. \n\nStanley V. LaDow. \n\n\nWithin our mind there is a Buddha, and that Buddha within is the real Buddha. \nIf Buddha is not to he sought within our mind then where shall we find the real \nBuddha? Doubt not that Buddha is within your mind, apart from which nothing \ncan exist .\u2014 The Sutra of Wei Lang. \n\n\nThe greater men are, the humbler they are, because they conceive of a greatness \nbeyond attainment .\u2014 Gibson. \n\n\n\n\nGROWING THINGS \n\n\n^ \u201ci4/z/ la jolie chose qu'une feuille qui chante!'' \u2014Madame de S^vign^:. \n\nI T was so long since I had seen them, that I hungered for them. Then, one \nday, I found myself in the midst of them, and I listened to that swelling \nchorus. It was early summer, and I stood once more on my mountainside, \nhappy and at peace in that wide and tranquil solitude. Below me tree-tops \nstretched endlessly, a moving ocean of pale green\u2014feathery tree-tops glistening \nin the sunshine as far as I could see. Above me, on the steep hillside sweeping \nskywards, I looked through the sun-shot leaves of swaying, swinging branches\u2014 \nit was like lying in deeply beryl-tinted water, when you float far under the surface \nand watch its gold-flecked ripples passing over you. The sunlight danced on the \ndelicate woodland ferns at my feet, and on the tufted, thousand-coloured mosses; \nlittle gossamer-winged insects crept over and through them how busy they \nwere! A radiant, living green below me and beside me and above me\u2014and \nsunshine over all. Not far off, in the darker shade of the trees, a great rock \nrose from the thick brown carpet of fallen leaves\u2014leaves of long-dead autumns. \nThe broad, lichen-covered sides were full of deep crevices and pockets, into \nwhich the errant winds had blown fruitful, woodland earth, and there, tiny \ngrowing things\u2014little lives drawn from an infinite, unseen world\u2014had sprung \ngallantly up to meet the day, and to pass their all-too-brief existence through a \nhappy summertime. A sudden, soft whirring of small wings near at hand\u2014 \na sleek robin watched me shyly from a neighbouring thicket. What an intruder \nI felt! The breeze stirred the twig on which he had lighted, and he balanced \nhimself there merrily, but he kept a wary eye on me! From all directions came \nthe riotous singing of birds. It was June, the month of song. Then, still another \nvoice called\u2014a rocky, mountain stream foamed across a clearing, tones and \nover-tones\u2014fairy cadences, now high, now low, were mingled with that sound, \nand along the moist edge, a soft blue mist of forget-me-nots, and the flamu^ \nvibrant orange of hawk\u2019s weed. A stalwart, yellow bee, as golden as the \nshine, sped swiftly past\u2014he had no time for strangers. Butterflies too\u2014black \nand creamy-white and a vivid, iridescent purple\u2014countless butterflies with \ntheir palpitating, fastidious, dainty flight, so different from the headlong im\u00ac \npetuosity of a homing bee. I looked up through the overhanging, interlacing \nbranches of the trees, to the intense blue of the June sky. Far overhead a \nmountain eagle soared, supreme and lonely; high and ever higher, great powerful \nwings outspread and seemingly motionless\u2014so superbly free, so splendid, so \nmajestic is that flight! Piled-up masses of white clouds drifted slowly through \nthe infinite blue of space, casting dark shadows on the mountainsides, trailing \nthem across the wide valleys below\u2014dark shadows in strange contrast to the \ndazzling purity of their own whiteness, yet shadows in which there lurked a \nwonderful, luminous transparency, if you watched them long enough. I stood \n\n\nI2I \n\n\n\n122 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthere in silent wonder. I could not tell which was more eloquent: the fathomless, \npathless heavens which drew my heart out of me^ or the radiant, pulsing earth \nwhich so deeply stirred the heart within me. Yet what question could there be, \nfor were we not all one, the sun and the sun-filled skies; the birds and the trees, \nthe flowers and the rocks\u2014all of us together, great and small, each in his own \nplace, one m the One Life ? \n\nWe move in a world of unimaginable beauty, surrounded by mighty, living \nforces, and there is always the pain of knowing that we can capture no more than \na fragment of the great Heart of Life, only the tiniest fraction of it\u2014^and we \nwould possess it all. Yet, could we but lose ourselves in it, what need would \nthere be to capture it ? The All would then be ours. Birth and growth and death \n\u2014cycles of growth with fleeting moments of ecstacy sweep over us; this seems \nto be the way that most of us grow. For there are sudden partings of the veil \nwhen, through an unforgettable interlude, we know ourselves to be one with all \nother radiant, growing things\u2014^how swift to pass these moments are, however! \nA mist has gathered, self-created, and it is with difficulty that we can again \npenetrate it, for our inner eyes are blinded from disuse; our inner ears are \ndeaf to the millions of joyous voices calling to us from beyond the barriers we \nhave raised. Alas, too many of us are aliens in a world where we should be at \nhome. The lowliest flower that I see growing at my feet, looking up with pure\u00ac \neyed simplicity, opening its tiny cup to be filled by the golden warmth of the \nsun, may be growing also in another and still lovelier, inner world, perhaps in \nsome blessed, unseen garden where Masters walk in the fragrant cool of evening \n\u2014its real life being there. If I had the power to see through the exquisite \nbeauty of its outer semblance, to the still more beautiful, intangible, inner form \nand nature, should I not then be one step nearer to that hallowed spot or state \nof heart myself? So there is both pain and joy in growth. \n\nI have an old hunchbacked gardener, a native bom and bred. He knows and \nunderstands the language of all growing things; to him they are friends, for \nhis whole, long, solitary life has been spent among them. He knows what they \nlike and what they need, and no two are ever treated in the same way. \n\n\u201cWhy, they ain\u2019t none on \u2019em alike\u2019\u2019, he protests. \u201cDon\u2019t yer \u2019spose they \nknows what they wants\u2014^just the same as me and you?\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cYes indeed\u2019\u2019, I answer. \u201cWe think they don\u2019t understand. It\u2019s we who \ndon\u2019t understand.\u2019\u2019 \n\nHe looks quickly up at me with those strange eyes of his\u2014eyes which have \nthe far-seeing look of the woodsman who has passed his life in the company of \ngreat distances, far spaces. Feeling that he has a sympathetic listener he con\u00ac \ntinues : \n\n\u201cBut yer has to talk onto \u2019em. If yer talks onto \u2019em when yer plants \u2019em, they \nhears yer\u2014and then they grows.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201c 0 / course they hear\u2019\u2019, I agree heartily. \u201cWhat a pity it is that we sometimes \nforget to speak to them!\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cThat\u2019s \u2019cuz we ain\u2019t thinkin' onto \u2019em\u2019\u2019; and he adds, in a scornful tone, \n\u201cit\u2019s \u2019cuz we ain\u2019t only thinkin\u2019 \u2019cept onto ourselves.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGROWING THINGS \n\n\n123 \n\n\nHe goes on digging in the cool earth, tenderly lifting the root of a newly- \ntransplanted vine in his mud-covered, work-coarsened hands; setting it into \nthe carefully-prepared, water-soaked, fertilized soil\u2014the spot which is to be its \nhome, and where it is to grow and grow and grow, until it becomes great and \nstrong and beautiful. He surveys it intently. \n\n\u201cIs yer comfortable?\u201d I hear him asking, with deep and true solicitude. \n\u201cDoes yer feel good? There ain\u2019t narthin\u2019 pinchin\u2019 yer?\u201d \n\nAs I watch, I fancy that he waits a short moment, listening for the whispered \nanswer, and having received it, he presses in the earth (an art this), and the small \nroot is happy once more in its own kindly and familiar element. \n\n\u201cNow grow!\u201d he orders, with that peculiar tone of authority used only by \none who knows (and who knows that he knows), exactly what he is about. \n\nIt is a solemn moment. This is a mystic rite, and in his own lowly degree, he \nseems to me to be using exactly the same tone that God must have used when, \nin the earliest of all Dawns, the command went forth: \u201cLet there be Light!\u201d \n\nThen my old hunchback, still in humble and unconscious emulation, adds: \n\n\u201cAnd if yer don't grow, its yer own fault\u2014or I don\u2019t know narthin\u2019 \u2019bout \nplantin\u2019.\u201d \n\nI muse. Deeply do I consider that awful moment when God gave man the \nterrifying power of choice\u2014the gift of free-will; and I think of how, every \nday of these thousands of millions of years, since man became man, he must \nhave heard, somewhere within himself, whispering within his own heart, those \nvery same words: \n\n\u201cNow grow! And if you will not\u2014can you blame Me?\u201d \n\nMy old woodsman has inherited much of the Wisdom of the Ages, I see. \n\nOur Master, the Wise Gardener, sets each one of us in the fruitful earth\u2014the \ncarefully-chosen and prepared conditions of our life, conditions best fitted to \nour soul\u2019s need\u2014and he asks just this of us: that we shall grow. Then, with the \ninfinite compassion of a Master, he gives us time to grow. He does not hurry \nand push us, if pushed we cannot be; he knows that one small shoot grows \nrapidly, another slowly, just as we ourselves find when, with attentive love, we \nwatch the upward creeping of our own small vines\u2014the ones that we have \nplanted. Yesterday I noticed two slender shoots of a creeper which was oL^st \nyear\u2019s planting. Side by side they were, like twins. Not wishing the wijpT^o \ncatch and perhaps tear them, I trained them both up against the trelliTput \nthere for their support, hoping that each would then make firm its own pre\u00ac \ncarious hold. This morning when, very early, I went out to look at them, the one \nhad wound two delicate tendrils so tightly about a cross-piece of the trellis, \nthat I do not think anything but a knife could have got it free\u2014at least that \none step in the upward climb toward heaven was accomplished. The other shoot, \nthough, as far as I could see, with exactly the same advantages of support and \nopportunity, was just as I had left it the night before: still trained against the \nlattice, but without the least evidence that it had itself begun to grapple with \nits new environment; there was no tightened clasp of any of its lovely, limpid- \ngreen, soft tendrils; its hold upon the outer reality of its existence, through \n\n\n\n\n\n124 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nwhich it was to leam the laws of its own world, had not yet been made. No \ndoubt that would come in time. The mystery of growth! There is seemingly no \nend to a contemplation of this mystery if you watch a vine from day to day; if \nyou watch its amazing adaptability. It clambers over or around almost any \nobstacle, and it seems actually to leap across vacant spaces where no support is \nto be found. Or, if it cannot climb in one direction, it will turn (evidently in \nresponse to some subtile intuition, some inner guidance) and reach out in another \n\u2014one more favourable to the law of its own lovely nature: its aspiration, its \nupward climbing. There is only one thing it cannot be\u2014not if it is to continue \nto live: it cannot lose its adaptability, it may not become inflexible. It must for \never be moving forward and upward. If it hardens into rigidity, death has set in, \nand its ascent is ended. I have also closely watched individual leaves; I have \nwatched their slow growth from delicate, coral-pink, baby things, up through \na short childhood to full maturity. No two grow alike; no two with the same \nrapidity, nor, of course, do they grow to the same size. Does the quality of life- \nsap in them differ? Or is it a dawning individuality? Has the desire to grow, \nthe energy seized and used, the greater or lesser inner urge, begun to show itself? \nThen too, all growing things have voices peculiarly their own\u2014each after its \nkind. I fancy that everyone has had the experience, when walking through the \nfields or woods, of having his attention sharply arrested by some tiny plant or \nshrub. He may have been very much preoccupied by thoughts far removed from \ncountry sights or sounds, yet, suddenly, without warning, he finds himself in\u00ac \ntently examining a flower or a patch of moss, or some other lowly growing thing \nwhich, in a moment more, he would have left behind him, unnoticed. This has \nhappened in a way which he may find difficult to explain. He knows that he did \nnot actually see it\u2014his \u201ceyes\u201d were too firmly fixed upon his own surging \nthoughts. The fact is that he has heard it\u2014though this he did not know; it \nhas called a happy greeting to him as he passed, not of necessity by means of any \nperfume, but because of that marvellous interlocking of the \u201ckingdoms\u201d\u2014an \ninstant of unsuspected inner awareness on the part of the wayfarer and, for the \nfraction of a second, the secrets of all the kingdoms of nature are open to him if \nhe will but seize that precious moment. The voices of growing things are always \nwith us, and, if we listen, we can hear the high, sweet piping in the early spring, \nas the tiny buds burst from their long winter sleep, and feel the first spring \nwarmth. In England where the sun is kind\u2014filtered through moist air, and thus \nwell-tempered to little opening buds\u2014the hedgerows are a sylvan orchestra in \nApril and in May. The lark\u2019s note is no lovelier. On the smooth, rich brown of \nthe short, clipped branches, the folded buds hang thick, like drops of liquid \nemerald, and it is a deep and wonderful experience to hear them singing as they \ngrow. But we must pass much time alone with them, I think, or we shall not \nleam to hear them calling. \n\nThe Master Christ loved all growing things\u2014how many times he spoke of \nthem! He told us to consider the lilies of the field, and he urged us to look, to \nopen our dull eyes and drink deep of the marvel of their beauty. He said to his \ndisciples: \u201cI am the vine, ye are the branches.\u201d Perhaps not all of us can be \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGROWING THINGS \n\n\n125 \n\n\nbranches\u2014yet; but most of us can be leaves\u2014leaves which draw their life \nthrough the branches and so, direct from the Vine. And even a leaf can be \nlovely and can sing. \n\nThere is a subtile kind of understanding between the vast, rich world of \nvegetation (so eagerly reaching out to us), and the hidden, inner senses of man. \nPoets invariably recognize this fact, and many have recorded it. In \u201cA Ballad \nof Trees and the Master\u201d (no doubt often before quoted in the Quarterly), \nSidney Lanier showed how truly he believed in the mysterious power of growing \nthings\u2014that plants and trees and shrubs, quicker to feel man\u2019s need of sympathy \nthan man is to discover theirs, may be awake and aware, when drugged or evil \nhuman hearts are tragically closed. \n\n\u2018\u2018Into the woods my Master went, \n\nClean forspent, forspent. \n\nInto the woods my Master came, \n\nForspent with love and shame. \n\nBut the olives they were not blind to Him, \n\nThe little gray leaves were kind to Him: \n\nThe thom-tree had a mind to Him \nWhen into the woods He came. \n\nOut of the woods my Master went, \n\nAnd He was well content. \n\nOut of the woods my Master came, \n\nContent with death and shame. \n\nWhen Death and Shame would woo Him last. \n\nFrom under the trees they drew Him last: \n\n\u2019Twas on a tree they slew Him\u2014last \nWhen out of the woods He came.\u201d \n\nHow often we have been told that we can perceive no beauty of ou^lves \nalone; that it is only because our Master is helping us to see with hi^lyes,, \nthat we have even the first glimmer of true sight! Ceaselessly, with divine \nprodigality, life is pouring in golden torrents over us, but too often, we hardly \nstop to notice it, so filled are we with our own petty concerns. With this slow \nand grudging response, is it not a mystery of mysteries that we ever grow at all? \nYet, because of the tender pruning and staking and transplanting of the great \nLodge Gardeners, we do grow in the midst of this beautiful and ever-new garden \nof Nature, where so many of the deepest lessons of life may be read\u2014lessons \nwhich, if truly learned, may lead us at last, there where our hearts are set. Then, \nalmost imperceptibly maybe, our inner senses will develop; gradually, as we \ngrow, our inner eyes will begin to see the true loveliness of the hitherto invisible \nworld which, all the long, weary while, has been lying so close to us; little by \nlittle our inner ears will begin to hear \u2018\u2018the music of surrounding things\u201d. \n\nWayfarer. \n\n\n\n\nFORM AND FUNCTION \n\n\nI F we examine a text-book of elementary botany or zoology, we often discover \nthat the material is grouped under two main headings. On the one hand \nis set forth a range of observations on the external features of plants and \nanimals, on their gross structure, and on the details of tissues and cells which are \nrevealed by microscopic study. This is the field of morphology, the field of \nforms and structures. The pages may, perhaps, be lavishly illustrated, since \nthe eye catches at a glance the relations of the parts of a form-system whose \ndescription often involves many pages of difficult text, and whose imaginative \nreconstruction in the mind is a laborious process. \n\nOn the other hand is set forth a treatment of the organs, tissues and cells at \nwork. The heart in rhythmical pulsation, the stomach pouring out gastric juice \nduring digestion, the green leaf synthesizing carbon-dioxide and water into \nstarch through the utilization of the energy of sunlight\u2014all this material, dealing \nwith the active or functional side of the organism, constitutes the subject matter \nof physiology. The pages of the physiological text carry fewer pictures than do \nthose devoted to morphology, and such as may occur often represent some \norgan under its successive aspects as it performs its function. The appearance \nof the heart in systole and diastole, or the successive positions assumed by the \ndrooping mimosa leaf under stimulation\u2014such is one way in which the concept \nof function is made more evident to the student. \n\nWe see, therefore, that so far as the biologist deals with it, a function is really \nonly the sequential representation of the organ, and it is clear that the more \nextensive the series (viz. the less the measure of the time intervals between the \nsuccessive pictures), the more perfect will be the representation of the function. \nWe understand that the time intervals have no real existence, that a function is \nreally a continuous flow, and that the apparent intervals which separate one \npicture from another are only concessions to the imperfections of our photo\u00ac \ngraphic apparatus. This explains the popularity of the graph-curve wherein the \nfunction may be represented as a continuum. \n\nNow it is evident that the form of an organ is adapted to the work which it \nperforms; form and function are in tune with one another. The shape and \nhardness of the teeth attest their adaptation to the comminution of food, and, \nmore than that, the incisors, canines and molars show by their respective forms \nthat they play specific parts in the general function of mastication. All the \nsensory and motor organs, \u201cthe organs of perception and action\u201d, are likewise \nmodified in consonance with the function they perform in the specific environ\u00ac \nment in which the organism finds itself. The organ is adapted to the external \nenvironment as the hand is adapted to the glove\u2014the legs of the wading bird to \ndeep waters, the eagle\u2019s beak to its carnivorous habits, the expanded leaf to the \ninterception of sunlight in maximum quantity. But internal adjustments are \n\n126 \n\n\n\nFORM AND FUNCTION \n\n\n127 \n\n\nlikewise harmonized with admirable nicety. Organs, tissues and cells are bound \ninto co-operative wholes. Heart, lungs, brain and kidneys wait upon one an\u00ac \nother and labour for the whole of which they are parts. In the little as well as in \nthe great, in a parameciiun as in a planetary system, we discover order, design \nand harmonious interaction. \n\nTo the elucidation of the difficult problem of these harmonized relations of \nforms to functions, generations of botanists have devoted themselves: the \nLamarckians offer one explanation of their origin, the Darwinians another, but \nno matter how modified in details by the disciples of one or another school of \nthought, all the scientific theories of adaptation as constituting the final admi\u00ac \nrable outcome of an evolutionary process, fail to carry conviction or to give that \nsense of satisfaction which allows us to pack up our scientific equipment and \ndepart to new fields of investigation. Something seems to be wanting, and we \npersist in feeling that the evolutionary theories bear the same relation to the \nworld of organic life that a man\u2019s photograph bears to the living man. May it be \nthat science has conceived the problem too narrowly, and has sought to impose \nupon the organic world a fictional nature which is not its own, interpreting \nit in the terms of a mode of motion which applies only to mechanics? \n\nAt the very outset of its attempt to investigate the problem of adaptations, \nscience is caught in a dilemma. Its field is the field of measurements, but the \nwidespread adaptations in nature are not amenable to metrical study. The \nmovement of a muscle, for instance, is accompanied by a heightened destructive \nmetabolism in the contracting cells. The vaso-dilators bring about expansion \nin the blood-capillaries entering it, and a more vigorous flow of blood carries \naway the waste products. This is a scientific process. The moving muscles can \nbe interpreted metrically: so many contractions per minute, so many milligrams \nof excreted wastes, so many microns expansion of the capillaries. But metrical \ndescription has not completely analyzed the phenomenon; there remains a \nresidue, invisible indeed, but none the less real. Untrained thought, even, does \nnot hesitate to aver that the capillaries expand in order to eliminate the wastes \nmore rapidly. This is, of course, the teleological attitude and it is anathei^C \nscience. It attributes purpose to the nexus of activities which make u^roe \nmicrocosm of a muscle, and ascribes foresight to the biological functions. In a \nsense, popular opinion and popular tradition, though it discerns facts through \na mental fog, may often see them in better balance than the specialist who has \nimposed some carefully delimited system upon the universality of nature. In \nso far as the scientist\u2019s dislike for teleology arises from impatience with super\u00ac \nficial and turbid thinking, one can feel a certain sympathy with his attitude. \nThe temporary elimination of naive teleology from our minds may have a \nmeasure of heuristic value, but trouble arises when we confuse the means with \nthe end. For teleology will not be driven out; to the undisciplined mind it \nconstitutes no problem; to the disciplined, scientific mind it is a perpetual \nirritant. For who can detect purposiveness by physical instruments, and how \ncan foreseeing be measured ? So the scholar who would make of science the sole \ninstrument of knowledge, attempts to deny teleology and to interpret its seeming \n\n\n128 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\npresence as an appearance only, an epiphenomenon which will one day vanish \nin the light of more perfect scientific comprehension. He has done away with \nthe deus ex machina who once pushed the planets through space. Why should \nnot the \u201centelechies\u201d and \u201cvital forces\u201d and the concept of \u201cdiscamate func\u00ac \ntions\u201d follow the other gods into the limbo of discarded superstitions? The \nbird builds its nest, the eggs are laid, the fledgelings hatch; the roots of trees \nrespond to the stimulus of moisture and grow toward a water course; the bee \ngathers honey, stores it in the comb, and it is eaten by the colony during the \nwinter. This alone is science\u2014this description of visible phenomena in sequence, \nany one of whose terms may be expanded almost indefinitely as we trace it into \nsubsidiary detail. And all this material is expressible in metrical terms. Mech\u00ac \nanism is the only logical inference from the facts. The motion of material parts \nin time accounts alike for a running watch and a beating heart. \n\nDuring the last decade a considerable breach has been made in the mechanistic \ndefences by the philosophical holists who see in teleological relations the most \nfundamental distinction between mechanism and organism. Teleology, \u201cthe \nstone which the builders rejected, has become the head of the comer.\u201d The \nwatch is a machine whose purpose lay in the mind of the inventor. Its parts \nare associated in such a way that the potential energy of the mainspring is \nprogressively released and is conveyed to the hands through a series of inter\u00ac \nlocking wheels. The heart, on the contrary, is a complex whole whose tissues \nand cells are teleologically related to one another, while, at the same time, it \nstands in holistic relations with the other organs of the body. It carries its \npurpose within itself, and reveals its purpose by its function; it is self-existing, \nself-repairing, self-perpetuating. In a word, it is organic. The holist is willing \nalso to extend the concept of organism to admirable lengths. When a flock of \nbirds wheels as a unit under an inner urge, when a swarm of myxamoebae builds \nup a definite form under the guidance of a mysterious impulse, we have the \nessential hall-mark of the organism. Thus far the holists have advanced toward \nthe comprehension of an ancient theosophic doctrine. They have obviously \ncalled in question the categorical validity of the scientific dogma. Will they, we \nwonder, be willing to advance another step along the pathway they have entered? \n\nIn The Secret Doctrine there stands a certain sentence so arresting that it has \nlingered in the memory of at least one student: \u201cLife and Motion are convertible \nterms.\u201d One can imagine the satisfaction with which a biological mechanist \nmight chance upon it, apply the formula of deus inversus, utilize it as a weapon \nto confound his vitalist opponents, and claim the authority of H.P.B. in support \nof mechanism! But what does the sentence mean ? It appears to mean just what \nanother and similar statement means: \u201cSpirit and Matter are One.\u201d Yes, we \nadd mentally, but not on the same plane. \n\nLet us imagine an animal travelling from one place to another. It sees the \nbodies of the world just as we see them, spread out on a flat plane and under the \nlaws of perspective. As it advances, picture follows after picture, coming out \nof the future and vanishing into the past. The place it left has ceased to be; \nit remains only as the memory of a past event. The place toward which it \n\n\n\n\n\n\nFORM AND FUNCTION \n\n\n129 \n\n\nmoves has not yet become; it lies in the future, in the realm of anticipations. \nFor the animal does not reason about spatial illusions as we do. Seeing is be\u00ac \nlieving, and all it really sees is a temporal sequence of two-dimensional pictures. \nIn other words, the animal mind seems to convert the third dimension of bodies \ninto a time-sequence of two-dimensional pictures. It is difficult for us to grasp \nthe situation immediately, because our experience of motion is involved with \nour own mode of time which is a different time-mode from that of the animal. \nWe can, perhaps, enter more intimately into the world-view of an animal if we \nimagine oiuselves speeding rapidly across the country by train. Our critical \nfaculty for the time being is in abeyance, and we give ourselves over to the mere \nvisual contemplation of the landscape. Marvellous things are happening. A \nsign board runs toward us, rotates on its axis and runs away again; a forest \ntroops over the brow of a hill, all the trees moving forward together like soldiers \non parade; a water-tower whirls dizzily as we pass it. We pull ourselves to\u00ac \ngether\u2014this is altogether too much like Alice in Wonderland\u2014and our reason \nproceeds to demolish the charming illusion. \n\nBut suppose we had no reasoning power. Then, in very truth, the angles and \ncurves of the solid world would be translated into motion in time as we moved \nabout. Or, to put the experience into a more generalized form: Two-dimen\u00ac \nsional vision reveals the third dimension of static solids as motion in time upon \na two-space background. \n\nHow, then, shall we interpret the \u201creal\u201d motions which occur in our own \nthree-dimensional world and in our own time? If we reason according to analogy \nand according to simple relativity, we are forced to say that our time-sequence is \nthe imperfect apprehension of a space superior to our own, and that the \u201creal\u201d \nmotions which occur in our world\u2014the movements of machines, of winds and \nwaters, of the heavenly bodies\u2014are imperfect apprehensions of the irregularities \nof solids which lie in hyperspace. We may finally conclude that motion is always \nand everywhere associated with a bend or an angle which carries the boundary \nof a body into a space-form higher than that upon which the perceptions are \nfocussed. As the obser\\^er passes the angle, he perceives the phenomenon of \nmotion. From this consideration it is not difficult to infer that the perpetual \nvibration of matter which science assigns to molecular motion, is the result of \nthe movement of consciousness in circular paths about hyperspatial curvilinecu| \nbodies. If we think of the animal consciousness moving around a cube, we ma^ \nrealize also that the circuit transforms itself to its mind into a journey in time, \nmarked by four recurrent and similar phenomena of motion. Moreover, since \nnothing determines the return to the point of original departure, the temporal \njourney may prolong itself to eternity as it circles the cube again and again. \nBut this does not differ in kind from the recurrent cycle of the seasons, of organic \nlife, or of Manvantara-Pralaya. \n\nThe mechanical movements which we have been discussing and which trans\u00ac \nlate the curves of a next higher world into motions in time, all fall into that \nfield of the metrical which science has staked out for its own province. Science \nmeasures the boundaries of the angular solid in spatial units by means of rulers \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n130 \n\nand compasses; it measures the boundaries of the angular hypersolid in temporal \nimits by means of clocks. \u201cAnimal science\u201d measures angular solids by means \nof clocks and\u2014yes, how does it measure angular hypersolids? \n\nWe have seen that the interpretation of biological functions is a subject of \nviolent disagreement among scientists. The holist or vitalist insists upon the \nreality of teleological relations, whereas the mechanist assumes that the so-called \nteleological relations are really obscure mechanical relations of a highly complex \ntype. He insists, and we think rightly, that not a single objective criterion can \ndistinguish between vital activities and mechanical actions. \n\nBut objective criteria are not the sole criteria of reality. When a phenomenon \nmanifests the holistic and teleological character it falls into categories outside \nthe realm of mechanics. The living thing is organism and machine in one, and \nit is this dual character of its nature which constitutes its central problem to the \nmind. \n\nSome three paragraphs back we saw that the intelligent animal measures \nangular solids by means of clocks, and we asked: How does it measure angular \nhypersolids? The answer seems to be that the animal cannot measure angu\u00ac \nlar hypersolids at all, or, if it attempts to do so, it confuses them with solids, and \nmeasures the vehicles, so to speak, through which they pass into manifestation \nin three-space. The irregularities of hypersolids whose sequential manifesta\u00ac \ntions constitute the mechanical motions of our world, are vital phenomena to \nthe animal. This is another way of saying that the moving bodies of our world, \ninorganic as well as organic, are all alive to the animal, and that their movements \ncannot be subjected to any kind of metrical investigation of its devising since they \ninvolve the concept of a new time, a concept which the animal does not possess. \n\nThree sorts of relations seem to be accessible to consciousness on any plane. \nThese are spatial relations which are investigated by means of rulers; temporal \nrelations which are investigated by means of clocks; and teleological relations \nwhich cannot be investigated at all by metrical objective methods, but which are \nsensed by intuition and are amenable to logical reason. \n\nBut temporal relations are spatial relations. Time is but a translation of a \nhigher space dimension, where noumenal simultaneity holds sway, into phe\u00ac \nnomenal sequence in an inferior form of space. We may, therefore, venture \nthe bold conclusion that teleological relations are likewise spatial relations in \nsome sort of transcendental or Platonic world. It is conceivable that these \nrelations, whose presence constitutes our chief distinction between organism and \nmechanism, are relations of bodies juxtaposed to one another in a mode of space \nwhich bears the analogous relation to our own world, that the world just above \nour own bears to the world of the animal. \n\n\u201cLife and Motion are convertible terms.\u201d Motion is a phenomenon of the \nangle. The line, the plane, the solid, all these forms of space set bodies apart \nfrom one another and throw them into finite categories, concealing thereby \ntheir true natures as parts of a single whole. All of them mark the places where \nthe matter of a given plane bends into another plane, where it undergoes a \nchange of state or passes into motion. Life is a phenomenon of the borderline; \n\n\nFORM AND FUNCTION \n\n\n131 \n\n\u201cIt manifests only in the midst of duality, in the juncture and interaction of \npairs of opposites.\u201d \n\nSince, in its widest extension, the concept of holism embraces all things, we \nare justified no longer in setting apart as something unique, those modes of \norganism which we know as plants and animals, to the exclusion of the rest \nof the universe. The relations of teleology are universal throughout the entire \nscheme of nature. \n\nWe come to see, therefore, that the harmony between organ and fvmction is \nfounded upon an underlying identity. The physiological function is the suc\u00ac \ncessive presentments of the organ in time: this is the meaning which science \nattaches to the word \u201cfunction\u201d. But in theosophical metaphysics the function \nis the thing in a far truer sense than is the assemblage of finite and changing \nattributes to which science applies the same term. \u201cThe eye is the act of \nvision.\u201d In that world or plane superior to our own, function becomes form, \nphysiology becomes morphology. Abstract nouns such as \u201cthought\u201d, \u201cwill\u201d \nand \u201cfeeling\u201d, transform into verbs as they enter our world from above, and \nthey manifest here as embodied activities of \u201chead, heart and hand\u201d. But \n\u201cup there\u201d or \u201cin there\u201d they are living, holistic Beings, triple microcosms in a \ncomplej^nd transcendental macrocosmic Pattern which the Hindu calls Mahat. \nAnd it is quite possible that the spatial relations of their elements is responsible \nfor the teleological and organic impress which we sense in the manifested world. \nThese unimaginable relations of forms are the teleological relations of sympathy \nand harmony, and they constitute the key to those ecological adjustments and \nadaptations which constitute a standing challenge to scientific explanation. From \nthis it follows that the active life of a world below is the dynamic rest of a world \nabove, and that the final purpose of evolving, conscious life is not to do, but to \nbe. In the light of this thought certain well-known sentences take on a new \nmeaning: \n\n\u201cAs a lamp standing in a windless place flickers not, this is remembered as the \nsimilitude of the seeker of wisdom.\"' \n\n''Thou const not travel on the Path before thou hast become the Path itself.\" \n\n''When this Path is beheld . . . without moving .. .is the travelling in this road. In \nthis Path, to whatever place one would go, that place one's own self becomes.\" \n\nR.E.T. \n\n\nThe study of Nature is well-pleasing to God, and is akin to prayer. Learning the \nlaws of Nature we magnify the first Inventor, the Designer of the world; and we learn \nto love Him, for great love of God results from great knowledge .\u2014 Leonardo da Vinci. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\nIII. \n\n\nHE interval of two weeks between the end of the First Officers\u2019 Training \nCamp at Plattsburgh, and the date upon which I was ordered to report \nat Camp Upton, was spent in New York, and was devoted in large meas\u00ac \n\n\n\nure to purchasing and assembling all possible articles of equipment and clothing \n\n\nwhich might be needed; various other articles were added over the ensuing \nweeks and months, whenever we heard of something new that we thought was \nessential, so that, when the time to go overseas came, we all possessed con\u00ac \nsiderably more than a General Officer\u2019s allowance of personal possessions, and \nmuch of it had to be left behind. But, absorbing as all this was, it left plenty \n\n\nof time for more important things. There were frequent opportunities for talks \n\n\nwith friends in the Movement, both in the city and out of town, and these talks \nbrought vividly to mind the real purpose and meaning which lay behind this new \nlife, strengthened resolution, increased devotion, and made it possible, in some \nmeasure at least, to catch fire all over again, and to realize that what was hap\u00ac \npening was, that the Commission which had been received from the Commander- \nin-Chief of the Army was being confirmed by authority still higher. \n\nThe time was over all too soon. I had acquired a Ford car, long past the bloom \nof youth, but still highly serviceable and with an exceptionally good engine; \nthis car later on, at Camp Upton, was to prove invaluable, as it was the only \nmotor equipment which the Regiment possessed for several weeks, and carried \neverything, from the Colonel to potatoes and ice. In order to be entirely free \nfrom any care in connection with this acquisition, and to preserve personal \nmobility, I engaged a young man, who was a good mechanic, to take care of the \ncar and to drive it. He was of draft age, but for some reason had as yet received \nno papers or notification, and was entirely willing to put in his time at this job \nuntil his call came. I told him that I did not have the slightest idea as to where \nhe would sleep, or how he would be fed, but he expressed himself as entirely \nsatisfied with the arrangement, and willing to take a chance, even if he had to \nsleep in the Ford. I was delighted, for it gave me a means of getting about \nwherever and whenever I wanted, and also a body-servant of sorts, who could \ndo things for me and save my time, leaving me free to get the lay of the land and \nto find out what was going on. Accordingly, on the day appointed, we em\u00ac \nbarked in the Ford, which was running like a dream, as the engine had been well \ntuned-up, and with my equipment in the back, we made the run of something \nunder sixty-five miles down Long Island to Camp Upton, and I reported at the \nHeadquarters of the Commanding General for duty. \n\nDuring the first part of the trip, I had been under the constant necessity of \neither returning salutes, or of saluting my superiors in rank, as there were many \nenlisted men on the roads, and our way ran through Mineola where there was a \n\n\n132 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\nCamp. Saluting at that time was enough of a no: later \non, when sometimes one had to salute several hundred times a day, it ceased to \nbe so. That, however, is not strictly true, for we had been told, in our training, \nthe origin and purpose of the salute,\u2014that in the days of Chivalry when a \nKnight, riding along the road with the visor of his helmet down, met another \nKnight, he raised his arm and swept his visor up, so that the object of this chance \nencounter might see his face, and they might talk together in gentle and perfect \ncourtesy. Through the centuries, the purpose of the salute had been maintained, \nand it was to this day a mark of respect and courtesy, an acknowledgment of \nthe tie which bound military men together, an expression and a reminder of the \nspecial qualities which they should possess in common, and of the principles to \nwhich they had dedicated themselves. To the enlisted man, it did not mean all \nthis. To him it was an act of respect to his superior which he was bound to \nperform, and which he did not enjoy particularly at first, as there was no one who \nwas bound to render a salute to him, and he felt, at the start, that it was a one\u00ac \nsided arrangement as far as he was concerned. The insistence upon saluting, \nhowever, in an alert and military manner, on the part of the recruit from the \nvery first day of his enlistment, had back of it, it seemed to me, far more than \nwas apparent. The theory of insistence upon saluting, the military reason, was \nthat the constant performance of this act of courtesy itself made a man a good \nsoldier, made him want to perform it, aroused in him by degrees an esprit de \ncorps. All this was true. I have said that the military life, the military order, \nseemed, of all human institutions, to be nearest in its forms and essence to the \nspiritual hierarchy, to the life and order of the spiritual world. It is easy to see \nthat this is true in respect to gradations in rank, in regard to the similarity of the \nqualities necessary to excel in each; it is not quite so easy to see that it holds \nwhen it comes to matters of method. Yet, here was a case in point. The spirit\u00ac \nual order insists that if a man does not possess certain qualities, but desires to \nattain them, he should \u201cact as if\u201d he possessed them, and that then he will \ngradually attain them. The military order insists that if a man does not possess \nesprit de corps, and it is desirable that he should, he must \u201cact as if\u201d he pos\u00ac \nsessed it, through promptly saluting his superiors for one thing, and that then \nit will come. There are other similarities in method which will suggest tlMm- \nselves later. This realization of the significance of the salute, both from th^pKnt \nof view of its military history and value, and from that of its real purpose and \nmeaning and working in the world of inner consciousness, would itself have \nmade it a special act, no matter how often repeated. But it came to be some\u00ac \nthing much more. It became a moment of opportunity to salute voluntarily \nthose high in the spiritual world whose commission it was that one bore; a \nmoment of turning the heart in gratitude and reverence to them; a brief moment \nof contact with the source of motive and of inspiration. One liked to think that, \nperhaps, far down the Ray someone saw the act, and approved. Anyway, it \nhelped. I do not mean to say that the consciousness of all this was vivid and \ndistinct each time a salute was given or returned. Far from it. But no matter \nhow frequent or how hurried, the act of saluting instinctively became of supreme \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n134 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nimportance, because of what it really meant, because its constant, if automatic, \nperformance strengthened and deepened that meaning. \n\nCamp Upton was still in the early stages of construction when I arrived there, \nand it was at once clear that it would not be ready for several weeks to receive \nthe men from the draft. An area of perhaps something over a mile in length and \nof over half a mile in width had been secured, and a small city of wooden frame- \nbuildings, designed to house about fifty thousand men, was being erected. Every \nvestige of vegetation had been removed, the stumps of trees were being pulled \nup, and the air was full of sand and dust. Roads leading into the Camp had \nbeen cut through the woods, and the broad arterial roads within the Camp had \nbeen laid, but in neither case had they yet been hard-surfaced, and whenever it \nrained they speedily became seas of mud in which trucks and motors stuck and \nhad to be hauled out. A slight eminence in the middle of the Camp, hardly high \nenough to dignify with the name of hill, was the site of Division Headquarters, \nand when I arrived there, only a few barracks had been erected, and those were \nin the immediate vicinity of Headquarters. The place was overrun with civilian \nlabourers, and the paraphernalia of the contractors who were building the Camp \nwas everywhere, and everywhere there was an atmosphere of bustle and con\u00ac \nfusion. The lower or southerly half of the Camp was designed tb house the 77th \nDivision, each unit being self-contained, with open spaces between the barracks \nfor formations and drill. \n\nUpon reporting at Division Headquarters, I had my first experience of the \ncomplete and sudden changes which can take place in the Army in war time. I \nhave said that each infantry training company at Plattsburgh had been designed \nto furnish the commissioned personnel, up to the grade of field officer, for a \nregiment of infantry in the 77th Division; before leaving Plattsburgh we had \neven, at the instance of higher authority, drawn up a provisional roster of the \ncommissioned personnel of our regiment, and I had been confidently expecting \nto receive an assignment to duty more or less in accordance with that plan. \nBut a cog had slipped in the military machinery. At Plattsburgh there had \nbeen eight infantry training companies; in the 77th Division there were only \nfour infantry regiments; consequently, twice as many infantry officers reported \nfor duty at Camp Upton as were needed to fill the Division. The officers were \nassigned to duty with infantry regiments, either in the order of their arrival at \nthe Camp, or according to some other equally hit-or-miss method, one never \nknew exactly how. At all events half of the Plattsburgh contingent found them\u00ac \nselves left out, and I found myself among the number, and we were all assigned \nto the 15 2d Depot Brigade, the permanent Camp organization. There was \nnothing for it, at the moment, except to do as we were told. So we repaired to \none of the enlisted men\u2019s barracks already erected, which we were to occupy \ntemporarily, set up our cots, unpacked our things, found out when and where \nwe were to eat, and sat down to talk it over. \n\nWe were in despair, which did not lessen the next day, or during succeeding \ndays. We had confidently hoped and expected to lead men from our own city, \nmen whose ways and characteristics we understood. We had been told so. In \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n135 \n\n\nwhat sort of an outfit should we finally find ourselves now ? What was to become \nof us? Were we going to stay at Camp Upton for the duration of the War, \ndrilling recruits and replacements? The next few days did nothing to relieve \nour gloom. There was nothing to do. Part of each day was spent in listening \nto lectures by Regular Army officers, or in taking tactical walks in groups in the \nsurrounding country, working out field problems. The rest of the time we spent \nsitting about, watching the building of the Camp, and breathing dust. Finally, \nfrom being utterly bored, we became seriously alarmed, for orders began to come \nthrough from Division Headquarters, transferring various of our number to \nother Divisions and Camps as far removed as Texas. I began to wonder where \nI was going to end, and what, if anything, I could do about it. \n\nOne of my friends was a major of infantry, who had been one of the out\u00ac \nstanding men at Plattsburgh in point of ability and character. I noticed that \nhe did not seem to be particularly disturbed as to his own possible future fate; \nin fact, as he listened to us talk, he seemed, while sympathetic, faintly amused. \nI began to wonder why. Finally, one day, he called me over to his cot, and told \nme, under pledge of secrecy, that he had been able to arrange matters as far as he \nwas concerned, and that he expected before long to be assigned to the command \nof a battalion in the Division, and asked me, provided he could further arrange \nit, how I should like to have one of the companies in his battalion. I told him \nthat I should like nothing better, and we settled the matter, provisionally, then \nand there. But when I got away by myself, and thought it over, I realized that, \nwhile it was good, it was not good enough; I had just had an experience in regard \nto tentative private arrangements, and knew that higher authority could not \nbe counted upon; I felt that I must try to do something along lines of my own, \nas well. The Adjutant of the i52d Depot Brigade was a Regular Army Major, \nand I had noticed that he seemed to be overwhelmed with a great deal of paper \nwork, and that he was without adequate assistance. I went to him, and asked \nif I might be allowed to help him in any way possible in his office, saying that I \nhad much time on my hands, that I hated to be doing nothing, and that I felt \nthat under him I should have a fine opportunity to learn about Army paper work. \nThis subtle flattery may have had something to do with it; at any rate, my sug\u00ac \ngestion was approved, and I was attached as assistant. I had two thoughts in \nthe back of my head in regard to this. I knew that, once in his office, I shj||ld \nsee any order affecting me several hours before I otherwise should,\u2014 \neven before he did; and that I should then have time to rush around, see my \nfriend the Plattsburgh major, and try to change things myself at Division Head\u00ac \nquarters, if the order were unsatisfactory. It also occurred to me that the Major, \nbeing the only Regular Army officer then assigned to the Depot Brigade, was \nalso its commanding officer, and that possibly his long absences from his office, \nspent at Division Headquarters, might be accounted for by the fact that he was \nbeing consulted as to which officers should be transferred from the Depot Brigade \nto other Divisions when requisitions came through from the War Department, \nand that it would be well to keep in with him. It was several days before any\u00ac \nthing happened, other than a steady flow of orders transferring various men to \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n136 \n\nremote points. Then an order came through from Headquarters 77th Division, \nassigning me and seven other captains to the Ammunition Train of the Division. \nThe Adjutant was absent. In haste, I went and found my friend the Plattsburgh \nmajor, told him about this, and asked him what he thought of it, and what an \nAmmunition Train was anyway. At that time, it was a brand-new unit in our \nArmy, and no one knew anything about it. He told me, from what he knew of the \nAllied Armies, that in any case it was a front line unit with plenty of action; \nthat it clearly afforded an opportunity to get into the Division. He advised me to \nlet the order go through without protest, and said that, once I was in the Division, \nhe and I could take up again later the plan of my going into his battalion, and \nperhaps arrange a transfer then. This sounded like good advice. I went back \nto the Depot Brigade office, and awaited the arrival of the Adjutant, and when \nhe read me the order later on, I expressed my delight at finally getting into the \nDivision after all, and my great regret at leaving him. I never knew whether \nor not he had had any part in the issuing of that order. He gave no sign what\u00ac \never, and said nothing at all. But I was immensely relieved at this solution, \nwhich was so much better than it might have been. The thing clearly indicated \nnow was to do the best work of which I was capable in the Ammunition Train, \nand, as time and events progressed, to keep my eyes open for possible shifts and \nchanges. Certainly, this very brief experience had shown me that there were \nways in the Army, diplomatic and otherwise, by which one could do something to \navoid being side-tracked, and that unless one could give a little impetus to the \nmarch of events at the right time, without depending entirely upon favourable \nnotice from higher up, one was going to do a good deal of waiting with prob\u00ac \nlematical results. \n\nOur status did not change for several days, for, while we were now assigned to \na unit, we were still without a commanding officer, and could do nothing our\u00ac \nselves. Finally, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Regular Army appeared, hereinafter \nto be known as \u201cthe Colonel\u201d, who had been assigned to the command. He \nlooked us over for a day, moved us all to another barracks where we could be \ntogether with him, and then called a meeting, at which he assigned the other \ncaptains, one after another, to the command of the different companies. He did \nnot even look at me, and I began to think that I was out of luck again, when he \nfinally turned to me and said, \u201cYou will be Regimental Adjutant\u201d. He told \nme later on, when we knew each other better, that he had picked me for that job \nat first sight, and that was why he had left me to the end. After having com\u00ac \npleted these heavy duties, he remarked that there did not seem to be much to do \nat the Camp, and that he thought he would go back to the Army and Navy Club \nin New York for a couple of days, and in the meanwhile to carry on. This was an \neasy assignment. But gradually we had our majors, and other captains and \nlieutenants, assigned to us; one building for enlisted men was completed in the \nAmmunition Train area in the extreme southern end of the Camp, into which \nthe commissioned personnel all moved; and we set up housekeeping there while \nwe awaited the completion of our other buildings and officers\u2019 quarters. \n\nWe watched the arrival of the draft with much interest, and not without some \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n137 \n\n\ntrepidation, for we knew the type of some of the men whom we were about to \nget from the lower quarters of New York, and we were not at all sure as to what \ntheir reaction would be to involuntary induction into the military service. We \nwere ready for possible trouble, but none came. One reason no doubt was, that \nat first we only received a few men in each contingent, and we had time to as\u00ac \nsimilate them and to teach them something of the rudiments of the School of the \nSoldier before more men arrived. The early arrivals, in their turn, thus had a \nfeeling of slight superiority over our later acquisitions, and felt that they were to \nsome extent in the position of being able to tell the newer men all about it, and \nhow things were done. We were constantly hampered and held back by the \nfailure of the camp contractors to complete our barracks. I remember very well \nthat one of my duties as Adjutant, knowing as I did how many draft men we \nwere to receive two days later, was to interview the chief contractor, and to insist \nthat the work of his men should be speeded up to an extent which would ensure \nanother building being completed in time for us to house the recruits which we \nwere to take in. After that, I had personally to inspect the progress of the \nbuilding, to be sure that there would be no failure to produce the desired results. \nSometimes it looked as if it would be a close call, but somehow we always had \nthe space we needed in time. \n\nSome of the draft men, when they arrived, looked the picture of dejection, as \nif they expected to be led out before a firing-squad next morning. They had just \nbeen through emotional partings with their families; many of them, although \nsound, were in poor physical condition, with soft muscles, and were dreading the \nwork; they had heard stories of rough treatment to be expected in the Army, \nand were fearing the worst. They had come in their old clothes, and were a \nrather hard and sorry looking lot. But they were resigned, and not at all trucu\u00ac \nlent or aggressive. I saw personally each man as he came in, heard his qualifi\u00ac \ncations, sized him up briefly, and assigned him either to Regimental Head\u00ac \nquarters, to the Headquarters of the battalions, or to one of the companies. In \nthis way I was able fairly quickly to build up the nucleus of an efficient Regi\u00ac \nmental Headquarters, and to get it organized and functioning in an elementary \nway without much delay, and this in its turn helped to speed up the company \ncommanders in their own work of organization. I also had in mind securing for \nmyself a good orderly\u2014a striker, as he has always been called in the United \nStates Army\u2014as I knew that such an acquisition would save me a lot of work \nand detail in personal ways. So when a man appeared who stated that in civil \nlife he had been second man in a house on Fifth Avenue, I felt that this was just \nwhat I had been looking for. Although he knew nothing whatever about cooking, \nthe Tables of Organization of the Regimental Headquarters called for a cook. \nI therefore at once assigned him there in that capacity, and told him that his \nfirst military duty would be to learn something of the culinary art. He never \ndid, but he assisted the other cook, and he was much pleased with the assignment, \nas he turned out to be a man with a constant and voracious appetite, and was \ngrateful to me for placing him in pleasant surroundings where he could indulge \nit. He became a very efficient striker, and I now felt that personally I was much \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n138 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nbetter fixed than I had ever been in civil life, with a valet disguised under a \nmilitary name, and with a chauffeur in the person of the youth who was driving \nmy Ford\u2014who, by the way, was now fed and lodged at Government expense in \none of the barracks\u2014and that I was now free from any petty concerns about \npersonal comfort, and could devote myself whole-heartedly to work. \n\nA few days worked a great change in the appearance of the draft men, and a \nfew weeks caused a wonderful improvement in their morale. They shed their \ncivilian clothes almost over night, and while some of them looked lumpy for a \nwhile in uniform, owing to misfit sizes, we had taken in a number of tailors in \nthe draft, and they were at once put to work, with satisfactory results. Rifles, \nand the other equipment, were issued. The food, prepared by men who had been \ncooks in civil life, was good and plentiful,\u2014much better, in fact, than that to \nwhich many of the men had been accustomed at home. Drill was at once \nstarted, and the hard work and exercise, the fresh air, and all factors working \ntogether, produced before long a great change in the morale of the men. They \nfound that the life, instead of being hard, was easy. All that they had to do, \nwas to do what they were told; it was not necessary to think anything out for \nthemselves any more. A bugle got them up in the morning, and put them to bed \nat night; told them when they were to eat; informed them that the next \nformation would be in a few minutes. If they had a question, all they had to do \nwas to ask a non-commissioned officer, and he would give them the answer \n(although not, perhaps, at first, until he had had a chance to ask someone else!). \nThe men began to find themselves, to their surprise, extraordinarily happy. \nThey began, too, to reflect this in their personal appearance and in the alert way \nin which they commenced to carry themselves. They were freer than they had \never been in their lives before. They liked it. Soon they became delighted with \nthe life. By the time they had been home on leave for their first Sunday, and \nhad had an opportunity to swell around a bit and tell family and friends all 4out \nit, they were enthusiastic. In two months it would have been impossible to pry \nthem out of the Army. \n\nAll this is another instance of the parallel between the military life, the military \norder, and the spiritual hierarchy, the life and order of the spiritual world; an\u00ac \nother example of the similarity of the methods employed in each, and the simi\u00ac \nlarity, relatively speaking, of the results. The aspirant for chglaship is told, at \nthe start, that his first duty is obedience. It is not a question for him, then', of \nunderstanding obedience. He must obey to the letter at first, and not until he \ndoes so, and has done so for some time, will he understand anything of his own \nlower nature, of those things in him which, until they are transmuted and \nchanged, will keep him from understanding obedience. He starts in to obey the \nletter of his instructions, to do exactly as he is told, and he finds, to his utter \namazement and joy, that the first result is that he is happier than he has ever \nbeen in his life before. He is free, because he has surrendered his will to the \ndivine will. He sees the way out of old, and present, inner problems. Gratitude \nand devotion well up within his heart. He is more sensible than ever before of \ncontact with the spiritual world, of further reaches of wisdom and love and power \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n139 \n\n\nwhich it is open to him to contact as he is able. It is the reward which the \n\u201cupstairs people\u201d seem invariably to give to a wholehearted initial effort, in \norder to lend encouragement, to give stimulus to that necessarily long-continued, \nfurther inner effort in which periods of dryness, of iciness, will inevitably occur. \nPerhaps, too, it is their way of showing the gratitude which they must feel, the \njoy which it must be to them, that one more soul has turned at last to the Light. \nBut, be that as it may, the result produced in the aspirant for chMaship when \nhe first siurenders his will to the divine \\vill, is identical, relatively speaking, with \nthe result produced in the soldier when he starts to surrender his will in obedience \nto his military superiors, to military discipline. They both become free. With \nthe aspirant, there is increased consciousness of the breadth and power of the \nspiritual world. With the soldier, there is the beginning of an esprit de corps. \nWith them both there is the desire, not to rest content in the satisfaction of the \npresent, but to do something more about it; to make use of this new exuberance \nof feeling in further effort. \n\nSome of the men from the draft were conscientious objectors. In most cases \nthese men were dealt with by their company commanders, and proved open to \npersuasion. Some of the more obdurate we got rid of, in various ways, later on. \nUsually the conscientious objector was a passive individual, negative, who was \nhounded successfully by his non-commissioned officers into doing what he should \ndo, in the intervals between his interviews with his captain. Sometimes, how\u00ac \never, he united with his conscientious objections other still more disagreeable \nand aggressive qualities, and gave a great deal of trouble. One such case, which \nwas having very disruptive effects, was brought finally to my attention by the \nRegimental Sergeant-Major, who in a burst of confidence expressed the opinion \nthat the only thing which would do that particular man any good was a thorough \nbeating-up. In my most military manner I at once directed the Sergeant-Major\u2019s \nattention to the fact that anything of that kind was expressly prohibited by Army \nRegulations, even in war time; that if that was the only way in which we could \nmaintain discipline, we should never have any at all; and that, anyway, if st^K \nthing took place, and if it were ever discovered, severe punishment woul^)e \nawarded to all of the participants. I stopped, and looked fixedly at the Regi\u00ac \nmental Sergeant-Major, and allowed my face to relax slightly. I saw a gleam of \ncomprehension, and of hope, in his eye. He saluted, and left me. The treatment \ngiven must have been thorough; certainly it was efficacious, for that particular \nobjector became later one of our best non-commissioned officers. \n\nBut there were other more complex cases. We received in the draft a man who \nhad formerly been a Lieutenant in the Austrian Army, and I assigned him tempo\u00ac \nrarily to Headquarters, because of his experience, while his case was being \nconsidered. One afternoon I was drilling the Headquarters Company, and gave \na wrong command. The Austrian saw the mistake at once, and as he was a \npivot man, on whom the carrying out of the movement depended, he simply \nmarked time and waited. As soon as I saw this, I realized my mistake, and \nchanged the command. After the drill was over, I sent for him, and told him that \nI wanted to talk with him as man to man and to sit down, and I asked him how \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n140 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhe felt about serving in the Army of the United States against the Central Powers. \nHe replied with entire frankness, and I believed him, that he had been an Ameri\u00ac \ncan citizen sufficiently long for his sympathies to be entirely with us, and that \nhe had no feeling about fighting against Austria, but that he had nine uncles and \ncousins, some of them officers, in the Austrian Army, and that he did object to \nfighting against his own flesh and blood. He realized that we might possibly \nlater on have Austrian Divisions opposite us, and felt that, even in an Ammu\u00ac \nnition Train, he would be to all intents and purposes in a combat unit as far as \nhis relatives were concerned. He was a splendid fellow. 1 liked him, and felt \nthat he was telling the plain truth, and that there was no ulterior motive behind \nwhat he said. I consulted the Colonel, who accepted my statement, and felt \nthat in the circumstances, and on general principles as well, as far as our men \nwere concerned, it would be better to have him transferred. This was arranged \ninformally with Division Headquarters, and the Austrian went to the Base \nHospital at Camp Upton as an orderly, a job which he must have thoroughly \nhated, but which in all probability kept him there for the duration of the War. \n\nAs time went on, and the regiment became filled to strength, we were struck \nwith the great number of men with German names which we had on our roster, \nand the same was true of the other units in the Division. It was not to be \nwondered at, in view of the large German element in the population of New York. \nBut it began to give Division Headquarters some uneasiness, which transmitted \nitself to us. How many of these men with German names had in them the ele\u00ac \nments of disloyalty ? How would this disloyalty express itself, once we had taken \nthem overseas? Was it expressing itself already, perhaps, in the dissemination of \ninformation to enemy agents in regard to the training of the Division? The \nthing to do was to find out. In addition to my other duties, I was Regimental \nIntelligence Officer, which simply meant that there was the beginning of an \nattempt on the part of the War Department, to extend the functioning of the \nIntelligence Section of the General Staff down to and including regimental units \nin the newly formed divisions. I conferred with the Colonel, and, with his ap\u00ac \nproval, and with the help of one other captain and of the Regimental Sergeant- \nMajor\u2014only we four were in the secret\u2014developed something which could \nhardly be dignified with the name of a counter-espionage organization, but which \nwas, nevertheless, based to some extent upon that principle. We picked out two \nof the best soldiers in each company, who were obviously thorough-going Ameri\u00ac \ncans, and who, as far as we could judge, had their heads tightly set on their \nshoulders, and could keep their mouths shut; in one company, in which the \nnumber of German names on the roster was larger than usual, we picked four \nmen. Word was transmitted to all of these men, through methods evolved by \nthe Regimental Sergeant-Major, to come separately after dark to the back of \nthe officers\u2019 quarters, and to ask for me, and to say nothing about it beforehand \nto anyone. I saw them each in turn, and explained to them the problem, and \nwhat was expected of them. Their duties were to keep their eyes and ears open \nfor any acts or utterances on the part of the other men in their company which \nverged on the disloyal, which seemed to show sympathy for the Central Powers. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n141 \n\n\nIn the event that they ran into anything of this sort, they were to restrain their \nnatural feelings of indignation and anger, and were to do and say nothing at the \ntime. Little by little, however, they were to become friendly with the man whom \nthey suspected, they were to lead him on and draw him out, so working things \nthat he would express himself with greater freedom with them until, perhaps, \nhe would commit himself without reserve. If, in order to verify an impression, \nit seemed desirable to see something of the home life and former environment of a \nman under suspicion, it would always be possible, on some pretext or another, to \narrange for a pass to New York for them, for the same Sunday as the soldier \nunder observation. They were to report to me from time to time, or whenever \nanything special came up, in the same manner. No one of these men knew that \nany other man had the same duties. None of the company commanders knew \nof this work which was going on within their own companies. Our agents them\u00ac \nselves took hold with enthusiasm, and were very keen to clean things up. Check\u00ac \ning and following up reports, and advising the men, took a good deal of time. \nNothing approaching the dissemination of military information was ever dis\u00ac \ncovered, perhaps because, at that stage in the game, there was not much to \ndisseminate. Most of the men with German names proved to be entirely loyal \nAmerican citizens. But there were some who, it was clear, were essentially dis\u00ac \nloyal at heart, and who did not hesitate so to express themselves when they \nthought this safe. We finally were in possession of a list of twenty or twenty- \nfive names, all of them possible trouble-makers later on, whom we resolved to get \nrid of at the earliest possible opportunity. \n\nMy heart and attention were still largely focussed upon the men of our organi\u00ac \nzation themselves, and I inclined especially to the work which involved direct \ncontact with them. In spite of the interest which the duties of even a minor \nstaff officer possessed, I had never recovered from the disappointment of not \nhaving an infantry company of my own, for the welfare and the performance of \nwhich I was solely responsible. Nothing more had been heard from my friend, \nthe Plattsburgh major, in regard to a transfer to his battalion, and I could see, \nfrom what I knew of his organization, that this was not going to be possible \nafter all, which added to my feeling of disappointment. My Colonel dissolved \nthis feeling of mine, to some extent, in a conversation one day, in which he asked \nme how I liked my job. It was impossible not to give him a look into my mind, \nand when he saw what was there, he said,\u2014\u201cI don\u2019t see why you hold on to that \nidea. You wanted a company of two hundred and fifty men to look out for, and \nI have given you, as an Adjutant, a whole regiment, to say nothing of the \nofficers.\u201d He went on to explain, however, that at the rate at which promotions \nwere then being made, he would be a full Colonel before many months, when he \nwould undoubtedly be given an infantry regiment, and that it was his intention \nthen to ask for the transfer and promotion, at the same time, of two other \ncaptains and myself, and to make us his three battalion commanders. \n\nThis conversation did a good deal towards dispelling my lingering feeling of \ndisappointment, and finally had the effect of stimulating me all over again. \nIf any such suggestion as the Colonel had made should work out, it would be all \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n142 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nright. Then, too, his point about the officers was a good one; as a battalion \ncommander I should have a number of them under me, and the experience which \nI was gaining in my present duties as Adjutant, in handling other officers by \ntact and diplomacy and through the cultivation of good personal relations, \ninstead of through invoking the higher authority which was vested in me as the \nColonel\u2019s right-hand man and issuing orders, was going to stand me in good \nstead later on. But it was not until I had examined things in terms of inner \ngrowth and development, in terms of progress in spiritual ways, that I really \nsaw the light. How many times in the past, in terms of the inner life, had I \nseen other people hold fast to some true experience, to some real motive, unwilling \nto let it go, grasping it firmly like an orange that has been squeezed dry, long \nafter all possible stimulus and meaning had, for the moment, been extracted from \nit. When a similar experience recurred, higher on the spiral, there would again \nalways be in it for them further purpose and significance; but, for the present, \nthey had impeded their inner advance, they had hindered their growth in all \nreal ways, by their unwillingness to let go of something which had served its \ntemporary purpose, because of their own preconceived ideas as to its importance \nand desirability. How many times had I done the same thing! Now, apparently, \nI was doing it all over again. Mobility, the ability to move forward, the power \nto advance, was essential in the inner life. Clearly, it was essential in the military \nlife as well; and not alone in terms of strategy and tactics, but in the daily living \nof the soldier. He must not hold fast to preconceived ideas as to what he wants, \nor wanted, to do. He must move forward, strengthening himself, rounding him\u00ac \nself out, at all possible points, so that he becomes ready for whatever form of \nresponsibility the future may hold. To keep moving, that was the thing: to \nlet go of anything which prevented this, once it had proved devoid of immediate \nvalue. When I had first joined the Theosophical Movement, I had been given \nwork to do, as I have already said, among \u201cdown and out\u201d men at a Rescue \nMission. Little by little, I had been given work with individuals upon a different \nstatus, with other and more difficult and complex problems than were to be found \namong those men. The point had been reached at which to continue to the same \nextent my activity at that Mission, would have impeded my progress, impaired \nmy effort, in what was opening up before me as an increased opportunity. \nClearly, there was a parallel between all this and the way in which I had been \nclinging to the thought of commanding an infantry company. To forget about \nthe infantry company; that was the thing. But not to forget, as I apparently had \nbeen doing, that there was for me a further point of supreme importance. My \ncommission, I felt, was not only in the Army of the United States, but was, in a \nsense, from those Elder Brothers who were directing the Movement itself. I was \ntrying, in a certain way, to act as if I were under their orders. If that was the \ncase, was it likely that things were going to happen entirely by accident, as far as \nI was concerned ? I thought that in all probability they were not going to do so, \nand faced forward again. \n\n\n{To be continued) \n\n\nCenturion. \n\n\nLIFE\u2019S GREATEST CHEMICAL \n\n\nT here is a line from a record of inner experience: \u201cSlow, slow are my \nsteps, oft times I halt by the way, and oft turn back: be not weary, 0 \nLord, of waiting for one who follows Thee not with equal step.\u201d It is \nthe cry of a man (Luis de Granada) who advanced far toward his goal\u2014and a \ncry which must awaken a response in the heart of anyone who, striving for an \nideal, finds himself continually faced by the disheartening discrepancy between \nhis vision and his attainment, continually impeded by his own inherent charac\u00ac \nteristics, the thing he has made of himself in the past. How did such a man as \nthis Spaniard meet the common but seemingly insurmountable difficulty, and \nachieve his end ? \n\nRecent newspapers and journals have made frequent reference to chlorophyll, \nthe green material of plants, and the years of work which certain noted chemists \nhave devoted to its study. Its close relation to the red colouring matter of the \nblood has been commented on, with the supposition that the latter was derived \nfrom this plant element, ages ago. Because of its power to act chemically on \ncertain other elements, converting them into food, reserve food, and structural \nmaterials, the suggestion is made that it is life\u2019s greatest organic chemical, \u201cfor \nit has made possible life, as we know it, on this earth\u201d. The correspondence \ninvolved between fundamental processes in plant chemistry and animal chemis\u00ac \ntry, suggests a chemistry of a higher kind, with various familiar instances of one \nelement converting another: the effect of one person\u2019s determined optimism \nupon a group of people enveloped in gloom; the effect of a single quiet will upon \na crowd in a panic\u2014all the evidences which we meet daily of a human chemistry \nabove that of mere animal existence. Presumably there is a \u201cchemistry\u201d of \neach of the higher planes, including that of the spirit. What is the element here, \ncorresponding to the chlorophyll of plants, which catalyzes associated elements \ninto a higher life-substance? As if in answer, there is the statement from the \nbook already mentioned: \n\nThe will is the unitive faculty. . . . Through the work of the will the soul iss \nitself, passes to the object of its love, and, leaving its own being, takes that of the \n. . . Since love draws the will after it, and she, being mistress of the other faculties, \ndraws them with her likewise, it follows that the beloved becomes lord over the lover, \nand the lover is transformed into the beloved {Pedro Maldn de Chaide). \n\nThese two Spaniards, and a number of others quoted in the several volumes \non Spanish mysticism by E. Allison Peers, lived in an age more intent than ours \non the things of spirit, and more clearly aware than are most men to-day of where \nto search for that which \u201chas made possible life on this earth\u201d. To many \nQuarterly readers they are long familiar, but in that case they may come now, \nit is hoped, as old and welcome friends. Great in love of the ideal, and great in \ntheir attainment of it, the experience of these men is of value to all who are \n\n\n\n143 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n144 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nstriving toward an ideal,\u2014and who is not striving toward some ideal, except \nthose who, like Lot\u2019s wife, have looked back and become fixed in a perpetual \nadolescence? \n\nTo the fact that love is the transforming agent, and the secret of real achieve\u00ac \nment, real life, they bear abundant testimony. \u201cBy love\u2019\u2019, writes one (Francisco \nde Osuna), \u201cwe are drawn out from ourselves and placed within that which we \nlove: love enters the most secret place of all, while knowledge remains without \namong the creatures.\u2019\u2019 \n\nSo great and so rare is the power of love, that I must needs be even as is the object \nof my love, and according to that at which I arrive by love. There is nought that joins \nor adheres in as lasting a fashion as love, which joins and unites us with the Beloved in \nsuch a way as to transform the lover into the object of his love. Love is nought but a \nmutual and unitive virtue. . . . Since the property of love is to absorb, convert and \ntransform the lover into the Beloved, or into the thing loved, if the will love chiefly \nthings of the earth, it becomes as earth; earthly it becomes and earthly is its love; and \nif it love mortal things, mortal and human is its will; if it love angels, it becomes angelic; \nif it love Thee, our Lord and God, it becomes divine\u2019\u2019 {Diego de Estella). \n\nThese last lines, with their reference to the varying forms which the ideal may \nand does take, call to mind the fact that not everyone, as yet, is striving for the \nangelic or the divine. That need not turn us aside, however, from the experience \nof those who are. Their ideal may not be the same as otu-s, their terminology, \nwith (in this instance) its mediaeval Christian flavour, may be foreign and un\u00ac \ncongenial to us. Yet whatever the ideal, in the preliminary stages the method \nof attainment is the same. It may jar on our love of comfort to have discipline \nemphasized, or to hear that the first requisite is complete resignation to the \nwill of God, and an \u201cemptying out of self\u2019\u2019,\u2014yet we have each experienced on \nour own lower plane, the counterpart of that. Who has ever made any real \nachievement, without first accepting completely the laws of the condition he \naimed to achieve, and throwing aside at least momentarily everything in himself \nwhich went counter to them? To translate into familiar terms, or into a form \napplicable to our own present stage, is a matter of no great difficulty. And if we \nseek points of likeness first, we shall almost certainly progress, step by step, to \nease in extracting the kernel from even the least inviting outer shell. Further\u00ac \nmore, the universal testimony is that as we attain to one ideal, we glimpse a \nhigher one beyond, little by little realizing that there is in fact but one Ideal, \nof which our present vision is a small facet, and that, Buddhist or Christian or \nMohammedan though the source may be, and whether the highest Good be seen \nas God, or the Master, or the Beloved,\u2014the Master Soul is indeed one. \n\nThree degrees of love are recognized by these Spanish mystics. The first is \nour love for our own selves; the second, love of the Ideal for ourselves; the third, \nlove of all things, for the Ideal alone. To the possible objection that we are not \ncapable of such an ascent, they reply: \n\nIf thou saidst thou couldst not fast, nor take the discipline, nor wear rough clothing, \nnor labour, nor journey, we could believe thee; but if thou sayest that thou canst not love, \nwe believe thee not {Francisco de Osuna). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLIFE\u2019S GREATEST CHEMICAL \n\n\n145 \n\n\nAnd Diego de Estella, \n\nAll can love Thee, Lord, learned and ignorant, rich and poor, small and great, young \nand old, men and women. To every estate and every age love is common. None is too \nweak, none too poor, and none too old to love. \n\nAnd then, with a touch of humour, he adds: \u201cMany are in Heaven who, for \nlack of ability, never fasted, gave alms or went for pilgrimages, but none is \nthere who has not loved God. . . . Love is ready for all: in every place, at every \ntime and in every season canst thou love.\u2019\u2019 \n\nOthers see that not only can we love, but it is the nature of our being, which \nall too often we constantly deny: \n\nGod is as it were the centre of love, and to Him the weight of this same love draws \nevery creature. So greatly is He to be loved that all creatures, both sensible and in\u00ac \nsensible, love Him in their several ways. . . . What is gravity in a stone, but love for the \ncentre? What is lightness in fire, but love for the heavens? That which all things desire \nis called Sovereign Good, and thus the natural desire which is in them may in some sort \nbe called love, although, as we said before, insensible Nature, because of its imperfections, \ncannot reach, as man and the angels can, that incommutable good, which is God {Juan \nde los Angeles). \n\n\nThis suggests the essential difference between the low ideals with which we so \noften dally, and an ideal which is real, an aspect of the Ideal, \u2014namely, the draw\u00ac \ning power which the latter exerts. So long as we look for our ideal in external \nthings, or in our self and the ambitions of its plane, we spend ourselves, exhaust \nour energies, give our life force with no replenishing return current from that \non which we spend. When, pushed onward by life itself, we progress sufficiently \nto seek our ideal by turning within (inward or upward), we soon begin to sense a \nresponse \u201cfrom the other side\u2019\u2019. At first it may be no more consciously felt than \nis the power of gravitation. But little by little we become aware of it as an actual \nresponse to our appeal, and finally it becomes infinitely more than that. \n\nPain and suffering are the means which life uses to bring us to the poinL^ \nthis awareness. This is, of course, the reason many of the mystics sought \nfering as they did, finding in it, wffien accepted and used, the surest way to \nobliterate the impediments in their own natures, and to heighten their awareness \nof that response, that invitation, that tremendous drawing power from the other \nside of the veil. Until we have some realization of this from our own actual \nexperience, we can have little more than a mental comprehension of such an \nattitude as that in The Dark Night of the Soul, when the soul, failing to find the \nBeloved, goes out \u201cinto the streets and the broad ways, asking all she meets if \nthey have seen Him whom her soul loveth. And the answ^er she receives is: \u2018Thou \nshalt find Him, not in speech but in anguish; not in words but in wounds.\u2019 \u201d \nOr, from another wTiter: \n\n\nAnd if, 0 my soul, thou dost say that among all the pains and sorrows of this life thou \ncanst not for sorrow rise to the love of thy God, consider that these trials are blows of \nthe steel that God gives to strike from the hard flint of thy heart sparks of fire and love, \nand that He afflicts thee that thou mayest love Him. For the most merciful Lord sees \nthat thy heart is not softened by favours, and He wearies thee therefore with trials, \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n146 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthat so thou mayest rise to Him through love, and, loving Him thus, acquire new honour \nand a new being, when thou art transformed through love into God (Dxego de Estella). \n\nThe same thought is found, though less directly expressed, in a letter from \nJuan de Avila to a girl who was suffering from an illness: \n\nRest not until you have found suffering sweet, for herein appears love. Have no pity \nupon yourself, for both in Heaven and on earth you have One Who loves you dearly, \nand that which comes to you has been closely scanned and sent from the very hand of \nHim Who most truly loves you. Let not your faith grow cold in need and danger, nor \nyour love amid trials. When a fire is strong the wind cannot quench it, but rather makes \nit stronger. So when a soul loves God as it were in play, its fire of love is quenched like \na tiny candle with the first breath of wind that reaches it. But true love grows amid \ntrials, for the more there comes to be borne, the greater the strength it gathers together \nto bear it; and if it be of God it conquers all trials\u2014no water is sufficient to quench the \nfire which has come from Heaven. God has called such a soul to love Him, and love is \nnot a thing for a mere pastime: one must hate oneself to love Christ, and deny oneself \nto confess Him, and be cruel to oneself to be gentle and meek with the Lord. If we love \nHim and desire to have fruition of Him, let us lose ourselves. If we would see Him, we \nmust go through fire and water for Him. If we would make room for Him in our hearts \nwe must cast out our very selves and all created things. . . . With burning acid gold is \nrefined, and when the dross is removed it comes from the crucible refulgent. \n\nThis last passage emphasizes a point which has, of course, been implicit in \nall that preceded it\u2014the fact that love as it is ordinarily (popularly) thought \nof is but a psychic reflection, a travesty often, of the love here referred to. These \nwriters explain that it is not a love springing from the senses and affections of \nwhich they speak, nor is it a matter of strong feeling or any kindred emotion; \nnor can the understanding have any part in it\u2014it is above them all. \u201cOnly the \nwill can greatly love\u201d, wrote Pedro de Alcdntara; and Juan de Avila shows \nfurther that the form of will which is operative is higher than the ordinary: \n\nThe profit of the soul consists rather in a man\u2019s denying his own will, and doing with \na good courage that which he feels to be pleasing to the Lord, than in tenderness of \nheart and sweetness of devotion. For in the former is revealed the true love which a \nman has toward God, wherein consists the perfection of Christianity, whereas in the \nlatter may be concealed love of self, which befouls all things. \n\nIt is a love centred in one thing alone. \u201cLive in this world as though there \nwere in it but God and thy soul\u201d, and either discard all else or use it only as a \nmeans of approach to the thing loved,\u2014remembering that \u201cthere is no creature, \nhowever small, that points not the way to God\u201d. The first attitude, that of \nturning away from outer things, finds quaint expression in a few lines, again from \nDiego de Estella: \n\nTell me then, O my soul,\u2014answer me, 0 miserable one,\u2014and declare to me the reason \nwhy thou goest so gladly among the creatures, with such hunger and thirst for them, \nand so greatly to thy ^lishonour.? Why goest thou begging from them a poor drop of \ntroubled water, so flat and brackish to the taste, which rather inflames than quenches \nthy thirst, forsaking the pure, delectable and eternal fountain of all blessings, in which \nalone thou couldst quench all thy thirst and satisfy all thy desire and thy will.? \n\nThe second attitude, that of seeking the divine within and behind the outer \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLIFE\u2019S GREATEST CHEMICAL \n\n\n147 \n\n\nform, is found in a dialogue in one of the books of Juan de los Angeles, where \nthe Disciple, having been told to meditate \u201con a newt or an ant or a violet or the \ntiny fish or reptiles of sea and land\u201d, complains that this is inconsistent with \nthe requirement that he turn away from creatures and seek the Creator. He is \ntold that the difficulty is real and rises opportunely\u2014 \n\nNot only are we impeded in thinking upon God if we occupy ourselves with creatures, \nbut I will even say that all the ills that are in the world have entered it because men have \nturned from enquiry concerning the Sovereign and Everlasting Good to that of outward \nand external things. . . . but through the creatures we should make search and enquiry \nconcerning the Creator. ... I use the creatures as instruments and means whereby we \nmay find God. Wfiat thing is there, how small soever and vile, that shows not forth the \ninfinite power of God, his wisdom and his goodness? Perplex not thyself either little or \nmuch concerning the bodily form of creatures. . . . but pass immediately to contemplate \nthe presence of the Lord, Who gives to the thing that thou seest its being; and if thou \ndost feel His presence, extend thy thought and consider the omnipotence in that which \nis shown thee therein; and then consider more intimately the love which therein and in \nall the creatures God has and manifests to us. \n\nThe same writer, elsewhere, makes clear the danger of self-deception, which \nobviously is a lurking enemy at this point as at most other points along the path: \n\nThou wilt find some that say mysteriously, as though none should understand them, \nthat music is a heavenly thing and uplifts the spirit; and that, when they hear it, they \nexperience (so it seems to them) feelings most spiritual. But the truth is that ail this is \nno more than sensuality, wherein they feel this manner of joy, devotion and pleasure. \nAnd this is clear and evident, because the same effects are caused in those that know not \nwhat is meant by \u201cspirit\u201d, nor have aught to do therewith. Quite other are the effects \nof music upon true contemplatives, who, when they hear the music of the organ or of \nother instruments, put from them the pleasure, outward and physical, which is caused \nby the sounds, and pass to the contemplation of interior matters, and to the spirituality \nwhich corresponds with the harmonic accords which strike the ear. \n\nThere is one instance of this right use of outer forms which brings us un\u00ac \nexpectedly near to a holy of holies. An old man \u201cwho had practised these things \nfor more than fifty years\u201d, said that many times he had listened \u201cto sermons \nthings of God\u201d without understanding a word of them: \u201cso hushed and so \nwas his innermost understanding that nothing which was of creatures could \ntake shape within it.\u201d He was told that he ought at such times to withdraw \ninto retirement. To this he replied that \u201cvoices were to him as the sound of \norgans, in which the soul took delight even though it understood them not: he \npraised the Lord as it were in a counterpoint upon them in a way that could be \nfelt, although he could not make another to understand it.\u201d \n\nThis latter passage suggests the records of inner states\u2014prayer, meditation, \nspiritual recollection, contemplation, and finally (though beyond ordinary com\u00ac \nprehension) ecstacy\u2014which certain of the mystics have left. The boundless \ngenerosity of their accounts is incredible\u2014describing and analysing for other, and \nall too often unsympathetic eyes, their innermost experience. They could \nscarcely have failed to see the risk of profanation by the unworthy. Yet they \ngave with open hands, for those who were capable of an understanding response \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n148 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nChristina Rosetti must have had them in mind when she wrote, \u201c0 ye who taste \nthat love is sweet, set waymarks for all searching feet.\u201d One thing their records \nmake apparent: that persons who have no acquaintance with prayer and medi\u00ac \ntation, who through some prejudice perhaps, are turned from it, are like a man \nliving in a dark cellar of his home, the deserted upper floors of which contain \ntreasures of unrealized beauty. Prayer is all too often misunderstood, because \nregarded as a mere repetition of words. This type of prayer, mental or vocal, \nthe mystics recognize as right at one stage and in its proper place\u2014a begging of \nthe Lord for alms, one terms it. But they refer, for the most part, to a vastly \ndifferent thing: \n\nPrayer is an uplifting of our hearts to God, whereby we become united and made one \nwith Him. To pray is for the soul to rise above itself, and above all created things, and \nto be joined with God, and engulfed in that ocean of infinite sweetness and love. Prayer \nis the issuing of the soul to receive God, when He comes in His abundant grace, and the \nsoul draws Him to itself as to His kingdom, giving Him a dwelling-place within itself \nas it were within a temple, and therein possessing, loving and having fruition of Him. \nPrayer is the standing of the soul in the presence of God, and of God in the presence of \nthe soul. ... a royal door whereby we may enter into the heart of God {Luis de Granada). \n\nLet a man imprison himself within his own self, in the centre of his soul, wherein is \nthe image of God, and there let him wait upon Him, as one listens to another speaking \nfrom some high tower, or as though he had Him within his heart, and as if in all creation \nthere were no other thing save God and his soul. Even himself should he forget, and \nthat which he is doing, for . . . \u2018\u2018that prayer is perfect in which he who is praying, remem\u00ac \nbers not that he is praying!\u201d {Pedro de Alcdntara). \n\nJuan Falconi gives three suggestions, simple in appearance, but profound in \napplication: \n\nThe best way to ask, and to pray, is to resign oneself into the will of God. By resig\u00ac \nnation of itself the soul walks all day long in prayer and in the presence of God.... Thou \nhast no need to keep repeating that thou surrenderest thyself to Him. ... Be still, for \nthou art loving Him. \n\nJuan de Avila adds: \u2018\u2018He who has never tasted of God knows neither what \nit is to hunger, nor yet to be filled\u201d; and from another, writing on recollection \nof the soul, comes that most inviting of definitions: \u201cIt is a garden enclosed on \nall sides, whose key is given to God alone, that He may enter whensoever He \nwill.\u201d \u2019 \n\nThat these higher states are not within the reach of everyone, need hardly \nbe said. One finds occasional reminder of the fact, as in the following admonition \nfrom Thomas of Villanueva: \n\nWherefore, if thou seest that thy soul and spirit are not apt for ascending the mount \nof contemplation, do thou exercise thyself in the valley below. There thou mayest remain, \nand walk in the active life, which is good likewise, though it is of little value without the \nother. Exercise then thyself in contemplation as best thou mayest, though it be but \nlittle, for without this thy achievement would be small, nor couldst thou exercise thyself \nin the active life. Contemplation will help thee, and give thee wings that thou mayest \nexercise thyself in the active life. . . . But labour thou in this if thou canst not achieve \nthat, for many would-be contemplatives neither attain to the contemplative life nor are \ncontent with the active life, and remain without either. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLIFE\u2019S GREATEST CHEMICAL \n\n\n149 \n\n\nSuch advice was, doubtless, widely needed in view of the large numbers during \nthe Middle Ages who turned, for varying reasons, to the monastic life. There is \nthe well known eastern saying that the Buddha entered Nirvana on the shoulders \nof a million men, and this naturally comes to mind in explanation, as it were, of \nthe achievement of such lofty souls as Saint Teresa or Saint John of the Cross. \nAn army of monks and nuns, centuries of aspiration, made it possible for the \ncomparatively few (though the marvel is that there were so many) to reach \nthe point where the soul,\u2014 \n\nis made one spirit in God, by God and with God. While not ceasing to be a soul, it is so \ncompletely infused in God, so entirely transformed in Him, so like to God in the one will \nwhich is between them, in the which willing the two things are one only,\u2014a will en\u00ac \namoured, converted, submerged, engulfed and transformed in the most finely refined \nlove, wherein the soul is absorbed and made one with the love which transformed it into \nitself {Bernardino de Laredo), \n\nThese mystics of the Christian Church\u2014^not merely the group in Spain here \nquoted, but those of all nations, down through the centuries\u2014were the pioneers \nof the Western world in following the trail which the Western Avatar had blazed, \nand penetrating the realms to which he leads. And the striking feature of their \nachievement is that they did it alone and unaided outwardly, with no knowledge \nof the human \u201cprinciples\u201d except the Biblical division into body, soul and spirit, \nno knowledge of the action of Buddhi and Manas, and with the rationale of the \ndevelopment of higher faculties largely a matter of experiment. Such outer \nguidance as they had from superiors and directors, was as often as not a hin\u00ac \ndrance, as they themselves in some cases discovered and later testified. In the \nfullest sense, they learned to stand alone, to advance unaided, and to find the \nlight in the depths of their own hearts. One of their number writes of a \u201chidden \ntheology\u201d which he does not presume to teach, and which no mortal has ever \ntaught: \u201cChrist has kept for Himself the office of teaching it secretly to the \nhearts in which it dwells.\u201d They are the exemplification of the promise made \nby the Master Christ that if ye live the life ye shall know the doctrine. Their \ndiscovery had become known to the East millenniums before, and there it had \nbeen developed and amplified, with a fulness and completeness of detail, qa \ncomprehension of the rationale, and a breadth and depth of understanding whicj \ncould result only from long centuries of living it and \u201cintending\u201d upon it. And \nthis Wisdom Religion it was, which in part was disclosed to the Western world \nin 1875, in the custody of The Theosophical Society. One can only speculate, \nof course, but there seems room for doubt whether that disclosure would have \nbeen\u2014could have been\u2014made, if the mystics had not prepared the way, if the \nWest, in their attainment, had not already worked out for itself, and made an \ninalienable part of its own consciousness, however deeply overlaid, this great \ntruth in spiritual chemistry, this divine alchemy\u2014the knowledge with certainty \nthat Wisdom, on the wings of Love, can lift mankind to a life beyond life. \n\nJ.C. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA THEOSOPHICAL CALL \n\n\nHERE is an age-old truth: on what the mind dwells, that it becomes. \n\n\n\nIn the light of this truth, it should be interesting to consider, briefly, \n\n\ncertain present-day conditions, and to give a theosophical answer to \nman in the plight in which he finds himself. Yet it is more than an answer that \nTheosophy gives; it is a call, a challenge to man to cease being a creature of \nlittle worth, a compromiser, a bargainer, and to become a creature of moral \nworth. Man must become moral before he can become divine. \n\nOne way of expressing the purpose of Theosophy is that it is to hold before \nman the Ideal of his potential divinity, that he may be brought to intend his \nmind on that Ideal, be drawn to it, aspire toward it, and eventually fulfil it, \nthough the ordinary course which man pursues is exactly the opposite of the one \nwhich will lead to the eventual embodiment of his divinity. Recurrently, man \nbecomes submerged in debts of his own making, both financial and moral. \nSeeking a way out, almost invariably he lowers his standards to meet his needs; \ndemonetizes his standards of value. Evidence that such a method is not the \nreal way out, lies in the fact that again man is submerged in debts of his own \nmaking, and, again, seeks the easy, or the apparently easy way out. \n\nOften it is possible to understand more intelligently what is taking place in \nthe present if an analogue is found in the past. Let us see, then, what happened \nonce before when man lowered his standards of value and began to live ignobly \ninstead of nobly; and let us notice, too, in this example from the past, what it \nwas that led man out of the chaos in which he had submerged himself. By \ntaking a long backward look it is possible to view present conditions with more \ndetachment, more dispassionately, and, therefore, with calmer, clearer vision. \n\nLet us turn to the well-known, but significant, example offered by ancient \nRome. \n\nThe State of Rome, which eventually conquered half the world and, in doing \nso, became the channel through which there has come down to us the splendour \nof more ancient civilizations, and the message of the Western Master, was \nfounded on the quality of virtus. Had not her citizens possessed, individually, \nthe quality of virtus, the glory of Rome probably never would have existed; \nthe past of Egypt and of Greece might have fallen into oblivion, and Christianity \nmight early have perished as a Jewish heresy. \n\nWhat was, in reality, the virtus of the Roman citizen ? Loosely, the word is \noften translated as virtue. To the Roman it meant far more than what we \nto-day connote by that word. Virtus is derived from vir, meaning man; and \nwhen the tus was added, the abstract noun thus formed, virtus, meant manhood, \nthe quality of being a man\u2014a quality sorely lacking in the world to-day. To \nthose Romans of an early day, virtus was the primal virtue. It meant first and \nforemost the physical courage that belongs to real manhood: the courage to \n\n\n\n\n\nA THEOSOPHICAL CALL \n\n\n4^e(ey, C' \n\nface hardship and danger. Later it grew to mean moral courage: the cou \nto do one\u2019s duty at any cost. It was on this quality of virtus, of the manhood \nor moral worth of her individual citizens, that the Roman State was founded \nand flourished. While the Roman citizen remained a creature of moral worth, \naware of his responsibility to the State and acting it out, Rome prospered as a \nmoral entity in the world. \n\nBut when those standards were lowered, as they were in later centuries, when \nthe individual citizen was no longer a creature of moral worth who fulfilled his \nmoral responsibility to the State, the State, as a moral entity, deteriorated in \nprecise ratio. Her grandeur diminished as the individual citizen allowed lust of \nwealth and personal power to replace his love of honour and duty. In few of her \ncitizens did her early ideal remain potent, with the result that in the first century \nB.c. we can find in Rome certain conditions which parallel those of to-day. One \nor two instances will be sufficient to indicate the parallelism. \n\nThe Mediterranean Sea was infested by pirates. Roman trade was at a stand\u00ac \nstill. Imports such as grain from Egypt, necessary to sustain life, were cut off \nand, in consequence, food prices rose exorbitantly at Rome. Roman merchants \nscarcely dared to send their exports forth in the regular course of trade, for their \nships were captured and the cargoes confiscated. Travellers as well as crews were \nseized and held for ransom, or were sold into slavery. So bold did those pirates \nbecome that they sailed right up to the shores and kidnapped Roman citizens. \n\nIs there any essential difference between racketeers who ply their trade at \nsea and those who levy their impost in great cities? Any difference between \nkidnappers who deport their victims in ships and those who carry them off in \nautomobiles? \n\nConsider, too, the Roman agricultural situation. Small independent farms, \nthe land tilled by those who owned them and by a few farm labourers, were \npassing out of existence. Men who had become suddenly rich, often through \ncorrupt practices, bought up the small farms and incorporated them into large \nestates. Many such parcels became the property of one proprietor, the land no \nlonger worked by a free and stalwart citizenry, but by retinues of virtual slaves. \n\nThe small farmers, thus dispossessed, and the former farm labourers, flocked to \nRome, where, their number augmented by ex-soldiers, they formed themselves \ninto a great 61 ass of unemployed, sustained by free com, and for whose amuse^ \nment gladiatorial games were staged, either by certain of the new rich, \npoliticians who thus sought to control them for their own political ends. In \nthe circumstances, it was not long before these ex-soldiers and these former \nstalwart citizens fell into the lax habits of professional loafers, and found it more \nconvenient to remain idlers than to stand squarely on their own two feet and earn \nan honest living. \n\nWhat essential difference is there between men who sell themselves for ex\u00ac \ncursions and picnics, and those whose support could be had for a gladiatorial \ngame? Between the English dole and the disguised American dole, and the \nsubsidy of free com ? \n\nWith such elements of disintegration present in the first century b.c. of Rome\u2019s \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n152 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nlife, only one consequence would be supposed: the collapse of the State as a \nmoral influence in the world. That such a catastrophe did not occur at the time \nis due, largely, to three men, Crassus, Pompey and Julius Caesar, who pooled \ntheir powers, so to speak, for the sake of the Roman State, who put aside, for \nthe time, their own separate interests for the good of the whole. Their motives \nmay not have been unmixed, their purposes may not have been entirely altru\u00ac \nistic. They may not have been saints, but they were men with the courage to \ncarry out their convictions. They appreciated that the virtus, the manhood, \nthe moral worth of her citizens had to be resuscitated, had to be revived, if the \nmoral worth of the State, itself, were to be resuscitated, revived. Consequently, \nthere was held before the people the ideal on which their State had been founded \nand had prospered, that once more they might intend their minds on it, and that \na sufficient number of them might be brought to acknowledge, and to act out, \ntheir moral responsibility to the State. \n\nEach of the Triumvirate had a distinct contribution to make. Crassus, the \nmoneyed man of the three, supplied the necessary funds. Pompey had rid the \nsea of pirates. Also, he had led the Roman forces to the East, had conquered \nand consolidated much territory, such as Syria and Palestine, which he made \nan integral part of the State. Pompey supplied the prestige. Caesar, who was \nthe youngest and, at the time, the least known of the three, supplied the brains. \nIt was he who led the Roman forces to the West, into Gaul and elsewhere, and \nwho conquered and brought that territory under Roman dominion. When he \nmet his untimely death, he was virtual dictator of Rome. All the fabric of an \nEmpire had been woven, so that Augustus Caesar, who succeeded, became ruler \nof the Great Roman Empire. \n\nTrue, the existence of the First Triumvirate, as it is called, was comparatively \nshort, as its members failed to continue in agreement. True, the Roman Empire \nhad its ups and downs, and, finally, fell. The point is, however, that because, \nfor a time, the quality of virtus was revived in a sufficient number of her citizens, \nthe State, in which were present the elements of decay, lasted for some five \ncenturies, and the field for the propagation of the Christian Master\u2019s teaching was \nprepared. \n\nNow to turn more specifically to Theosophy\u2019s call to man, to the challenge it \nholds before him in his present plight. Mr. Judge said, \u201cThoughts are things\u201d. \nIt is with his thoughts that man creates the atmosphere in which he lives, very \nmuch as he covers the walls of his room with pictures. For centuries he has \nhung pictures of a low order there: pictures of greed, selfishness, self-gratification \nand the like. He has intended his mind, in the main, on a low order of things. \nTheosophy, holding before man the Ideal of his eventual divinity, bids him \nreplace these pictures, one by one, with those of a high order, of noble standards. \nTheosophy offers no easy way, no short-cut out of man\u2019s difficulties. Theosophy \noffers the long way, the rugged way, but the sure way. It is the way the Masters \nwent. It is the way all warriors have trod, and will tread. It is the way of the \nsoul. \n\nImplicit in manhood is the quality of choice, and Theosophy bids man choose \n\n\nA THEOSOPHICAL CALL \n\n\n153 \n\n\naright. He must, as said, replace methodically the pictures of a low order which \nhe, himself, has hung; for a picture of greed, a picture depicting self-sacrifice, let \nus say; for selfishness, one of unselfishness, and so on imtil the replacement is \ncomplete. There will be times during the process that some picture of a low \norder will come vividly to mind, as if to say, \u201cWhy all this struggle? What is \nthe use of it all? You know that I point to the easy way. You have followed \nme many times in the past; follow me again.\u201d At such times man must fix his \nattention rigidly on some picture of a high order of things, a picture of moral \nworth at least; let us say on that of a knight whose entire record was one of \nloyalty to his king and to his ideal. \n\nTheosophy, then, bids man profit by his errors of the past, errors which, often, \nled him to compromise with difficulty by lowering his standards to meet im\u00ac \nmediate needs, instead of raising his standards to surmount the difficulty. There\u00ac \nfore, Theosophy calls to man, challenges him, to start from where he is and \nwith what he has made himself, a creature of little worth, and by his own sincere, \nconsistent, indomitable efforts to become a creature of moral worth. When this \nhas been done, in a measure at least, it bids him direct his attention more specifi\u00ac \ncally toward attaining divine worth. That may be years, perhaps incarnations, \nhence; but with his mind thus intended on his potential divinity, and with the \nhelp that is his from above. Theosophy will bid him gradually raise that which is \nof moral worth, imtil it comes into contact with the element of divine worth \nwithin him; until, in short, he comes into union with the divine order of things, \ninstead of remaining in disunion, as he has been and now is. \n\nWhile the individual citizen fulfilled his moral responsibility to the State, Rome \nremained a moral entity in the world and, as such, prospered. In order that the \ncall Theosophy makes to man, the challenge it holds before him, may be met, \nit is the responsibility of each member of the Society to serve the Ideal to the \nbest of his ability, and in his degree; to serve it courageously, with fortitude, \nwith self-sacrifice, with humility, with love, so that it may continue a living, \nbreathing Reality in a world that sorely needs it, even though the world, ap\u00ac \nparently, seems unaware of its need at the moment. \n\nG.M.W.K. \n\n- # \n\n\nFot as often as any new thing falleth to a man, be it of ptosperity or adversity, he \nshould think in himself thus' Of this will I win somewhat,\u2014for he that can do so \nshall soon be rich in virtue .\u2014 Catherine of Siena. \n\n\n# \n\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\nT he Recorder, having caught the Historian, the Philosopher and other \nfriends collectively, announced that a plan had been suggested to him, \nbut that this plan would require some preliminary explanation. \n\n\u201cLet me remind you\u201d, he said, \u201cof a rather widespread belief at the present \ntime that a sort of Messiah will come, and come soon, to lead the world out of its \nmiseries. For the most part, those who share this belief would be regarded as \ncranks,\u2014and often are cranks, in the sense that, imbued with an idea which \ncontains elements of truth, they are unable to discriminate between proximate \nand remote, big and little, cosmic and local. Further, all these enthusiasts\u2014 \nSecond Adventists, Irvingites, Spiritualists, Bible Prophecy and Great Pyramid \nInterpreters, among them\u2014all translate the idea in ways which accord with \ntheir dominant preconception. There are some, inevitably, who make the sub\u00ac \nject ridiculous. A former member of the T.S., who became one of Judge\u2019s \nbitterest accusers (Judge had not approved of him), and who, since that time, \nhas withered into a professional astrologer, tries to keep up with the procession \nby mixing the Book of Daniel, Great Pyramid measurements. Eclipses, the \nZodiac, and Planetary influences, as foundation for prophecies of great events. \nWriting and publishing prior to the event (a grave mistake!), he declared: Tn \nthe year 1932, following the Judgment of the Nations, the Prince of Peace will \nappear as the Rider upon the White Horse, having upon His Head a Crown and \nin His Hands the Bow of prophecy and the Arrows of truth\u2014all-conquering. \nHe will rule the nations and execute judgment from afar.\u2019 All I can say is that \nthe year 1932 did not feel like it! However, very few people, I imagine, keep \ntrack of modem prophets, while, to be fair, the \u2018prophet\u2019 I have quoted is in no \nway typical. There are men of the highest integrity who watch and pray for \nthe Coming of the Lord, and who do not make money out of it. In China, \nIndia, and throughout the East, there are rumours of a \u2018Coming\u2019, near at hand, \nwhich is to be an outstanding event in history. \n\n\u201cStudents of Theosophy have no reason to believe that a Messiah, an Avatar \n(an incarnation of the Oversoul), will come soon, although, of course, all things \nare possible. In the BhQ^civcul GttQ, Krishna tells Arjuna: \u2018I produce myself \namong creatures, 0 son of Bharata, whenever there is a decline of virtue and an \ninsurrection of vice and injustice in the world; and thus I incarnate from age \nto age for the preservation of the just, the destruction of the wicked, and the \nestablishment of righteousness.\u2019 \n\n\u201cEven so, why assume that the present is such a time? On the other hand, \nH.P.B. said, and history confirms it, that during the last quarter of every \ncentury the Lodge sends among men a Messenger (of far lesser degree than an \nAvatar), in an effort to revive some knowledge of the Ancient Wisdom; and \nwe know, further, from a study of history, that the Lodge occasionally sends a \n\n\n154 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n155 \n\n\n\u2018forerunner', in advance of the Messenger, to explore and prepare the way. We \nsee such a \u2018forerunner\u2019, in the eighteenth century, in the person of Saint-Germain, \n\u2014whose mission, by the way, was not completed. Is he, by any chance, as some \nallege, living to-day in one of the old palaces along the Grand Canal in Venice, \nwaiting to resiune his task? \n\n\u201cIn any event, while, in the past, the Lodge Messenger has begvm his work in \nthe world at the beginning of the last quarter of every century (the T.S. was \nfounded in 1875), continued existence, so far into the twentieth century, of \nthe nineteenth century effort\u2014the effort of H.P.B. and Judge\u2014has, we believe, \naffected the ordinary cyclic rhythm, bringing the next \u2018arrival\u2019 that much nearer \nas a possibility, though not as a certainty,\u2014bringing it nearer inwardly, though \nnot of necessity outwardly. You will remember what was said about this at \nour last Convention. \n\n\u201cStudents of Theosophy naturally are interested in this possibility; naturally \nwish to see and know those to whom the future of the Work will be entrusted. \nBut just what have we in mind as the effect of any such \u2018arrival\u2019? A most \ninteresting question! So much so, that the editors of the Quarterly were \nrequested to sound some of our members by asking for written replies under \nthese three heads: \u2018What do you think a Lodge forerunner or Messenger could \ndo, (i) for you; (2) for the T.S.; (3) for the world,\u2014and how?\u2019 Non-members \nshould be interested also, for there are many outside our ranks who have longed \nfor the appearance of some man, wiser, stronger, nobler than even the best of \nthe world\u2019s statesmen or religious leaders, who would be able to persuade or \nforce humanity into ways of righteousness and peace. And yet,\u2014and yet: \nwhat could the wisest, noblest, best, what could the most forceful and the most \ninspired among men, actually accomplish at this time,\u2014and how? \n\n\u201cFirst, should we be able to recognize him as a true leader, or, just because he \nwas superior and in that sense different, should we denounce him as an interloper \nand charlatan? Judging by the past, most people would want to hang him from \nthe nearest lamp-post. However, if you will allow me to read some of these \nwritten answers, perhaps you will be good enough, later, to comment ui^ \nthem.\u201d 4 ^ \n\nWhereupon the Recorder began reading as follows: \n\n\u201c \u2018(i) I believe that a forerunner or Messenger could make straight for me \nthe highway to liberation and enlightenment, provided that I did all that is \npossible to increase my desire and determination to realize these ends. It seems \nto me that he could multiply the possibilities of attaining ch^laship; that his \nembodied presence near at hand would place at one\u2019s disposal a new reserve of \nspiritual energy; that it would make more concrete the ideal of the Soul and \nwould be a stimulus to ever greater effort. But there would be an added responsi\u00ac \nbility for every individual. He could not make us ch^las by force or by decree. \nThose who failed to respond to his presence would sink back to a lower condition \nthan before. \n\n\u201c \u2018(2) The same principles would be applicable to his relationship with the \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n156 \n\nT.S. Its members would benefit according to the sincerity and intensity of their \nresponse. Certainly his appearance would ease the burden now wholly borne by \na very small group of veterans, and it would increase the effectiveness of the \nSociety as a nucleus of spiritual consciousness in the world. It would provide a \ncertain assurance that this nucleus will not disappear from manifestation when \nthe older members die. But the Messenger, if left altogether alone at the helm, \nmight be forced to seek helpers elsewhere, outside the T.S. What I mean to say \nis that he could not help or even preserve the T.S., if its membership remained \ncold and indifferent to his appeal. \n\n\u201c \u2018(3) One wonders what he could do for the world. It would seem that the \ngreat mass of mankind desires a Messenger from on high less than it desires any\u00ac \nthing else under the sun. How few even dream of his coming! People want \nsuccess or comfort or money in the bank, some satisfaction of egotism, some \nopportunity for self-indulgence. The materialistic conception of Nature is so \nprevalent that even those who have the best intentions are almost devoid of \nbelief in the reality of spiritual agencies. \n\n\u201c Tf it were the Messenger\u2019s mission to work actively in the world, it would \nseem that his first task would be to clear away some of the debris of the century; \nthat he would appear as Siva, the Destroyer who is also the Regenerator. There \nare so many false ideas, false hopes and desires, false modes of life, which have \ndrawn into themselves and imprisoned energies which cannot be available for \nthe building of a new civilization unless they be released through the destruction \nof their present vehicles. \n\n\u201c \u2018It is conceivable, however, that the Messenger would not attempt such a \nprodigious undertaking at this time. The process of annihilating illusions on a \nworld-wide scale might be left for the present to the general action of Nature \nand Karma. In so far as my ideas upon this subject are at all clear, I imagine \nthat the Messenger would seek above all to strengthen the elements of spiritual \nconsciousness wherever these are present in the world. By living the truth \nhimself, he could awaken a true life in others who were not too deeply buried \nbeneath an avalanche of delusions. \n\n\u201c \u2018Is not this the function of the T.S., to keep alive a nucleus of spiritual con\u00ac \nsciousness which a forerunner or Messenger from the Lodge could use? And is \nit not the privilege of each individual member to do his utmost through his own \nefforts to keep the fire burning in his particular comer? In the last analysis, \neverything depends upon the efforts of individuals.\u2019 \n\n\u201cThe next\u2019\u2019, the Recorder continued, \u201cstrikes a slightly different note: \n\n\u201c \u2018(i) Ever since the possible coming of a Lodge foremnner was spoken of \nsome five years ago, I have been asking myself what he could do that the \u201cAn\u00ac \ncients\u2019\u2019, the older members of The Theosophical Society, could not do if we made \nit possible. My own need, I feel, is to \u201cgain the strength to receive\u2019\u2019. All the \nspiritual help, guidance, knowledge and wisdom that I need for my advance, \nand far more, is available. The trouble is with my own effort, which falls so far \nbelow what it ought to be. In consequence, I do not take advantage of my \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n157 \n\n\nopportunity, and do not succeed in taking what is offered. The lack is in the \neffective demand, not in the supply. \n\n\u201c \u2018(2) I think that the same thing is true of the T.S. as a whole. Perhaps a \nLodge forerunner or Messenger would bring with him enough of the atmosphere \nand inspiration of the Lodge to give us the strength, desire, determination and \nlove needed to maintain our effort at its maximum, thereby making us grow, \nand thus making it possible for us to be given constantly more and more. Con\u00ac \ntact with the \u201cAncients\u201d brings something of this inspiration. Sometimes a \nreminder from home will arouse an irresistible longing in the heart of an exile. \nPerhaps a touch from a Lodge forerunner would arouse the passionate love of \nour home, and the things of our home, which we have, buried in our hearts, but \nwhich we have failed to arouse for ourselves,\u2014a love that would take us on wings \nto our goal. \n\n\u201c \u2018As I see it, however, the chief reason for desiring with all that is in us, the \ncoming of a forerunner, is that he may be recognized by those who have the power \nto do so, while they are still with us. Then, when they have to go on, he can \ndirect the Work and us, so that the Work can be continued in all its branches; \nand we can continue to serve, our efforts wisely directed and we saved from doing, \nby our stupidity and ignorance, more harm than good. His coming would con\u00ac \ntinue our connection with the Lodge, and the incalculable benefits that flow from \nit, to us and to the world. Another potent reason for ardently desiring his coming \nis that it would take something of the heavy strain from the older members of \nthe T.S. \n\n\u201c \u2018(3) It seems presumptuous to try to answer this question, but this is the \nway the need of the world appears to me: \n\n\u201c \u2018First. Before a man, or the world, can receive new truth, he must have \nceased to be entirely satisfied with the ideas that he has, and must desire some\u00ac \nthing better. In the last century, H.P.B. had to devote much effort to breaking \nrigid, dogmatic moulds of thought before new ideas could be grasped. To-day, \nthe moulds are breaking. Men do not know what to believe, and few views are \nfirmly held. There is questioning and discontent with current ideas on every side. \nReligious dogmas have been greatly weakened or destroyed; democracy is no \nlonger the fetish that it was; there is discontent with modem education; an^ \nscience is destroying the foundations of its own materialism. This process is \ngoing on, but it is certainly far from complete, and it would seem that more \npreparation is needed before the minds of men will be ready for a new message \nfrom the Lodge. * \n\n\u201c \u2018Second. The great need of the world is to regain belief in spiritual as \nopposed to material values. To bring this about, there must be belief in the \nSpirit, in man\u2019s spiritual nature, in Divine guidance and a Di\\ 4 ne purpose for \nman. The first step would seem to be to demonstrate that there is intelligent \nguidance in the universe, and I would make my attack there. I believe that \nscience has reached, or very soon will reach, the point where, by the skilful \nassembling and use of science\u2019s own material, a Lodge Messenger could prove, \nin a way that would carry conviction to the world, that there must be such guid- \n\n\n158 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nance. It is a short step from that to belief in Divine guidance of human affairs \nand a Divine purpose for man. These beliefs, properly directed as a Lodge \nMessenger could direct them, would transform the Western world. They would \nmake possible the restoration of faith and of true religion, and the realization \nthat the purpose of life is the evolution of the soul, the development of character. \nA most important step would be the reform of education, so that life and all \nsubjects taught would be approached from a spiritual and not, as at present, a \nmaterialistic standpoint. Untold harm is done by present methods. Once the \nspiritual nature of the universe had been admitted, a Lodge Messenger would \nknow how to attack the present methods of the colleges and bring about a change. \nIt would be harder to have primary education put where it belongs, under the \nguidance of religion, and not of the State. \n\n\u201c \u2018One thing sorely needed by mankind is a true ideal to love and to follow. \nThe war showed that men can still give themselves in splendid self-sacrifice to a \nCause that appeals to them as worthy of their best. They see no such Cause \nto-day. There is a good deal of vague groping after idealism, vague desires for \naltruism, but for the most part they are directed to materialistic aims. They \nlack truth and do not draw men\u2019s hearts. A Lodge Messenger would bring a \ntrue and moving ideal. But I do not think the world is yet ready. More prep\u00ac \naration is needed. During this time of preparation, the continuance of the \nWork in the world is vitally important: it may be essential. The coming of the \nforerunner before the \u201cAncients\u201d have to pass on, would ensure its continuance, \nand hence the continued preparation of the world for the coming of the Mes\u00ac \nsenger.\u2019 \u201d \n\n\u201cWhat remarkable human documents!\u201d the Philosopher interjected. \u201cThey \nare at least as valuable as revelations of different personalities\u2014of different \nprismatic effects\u2014as for their direct content. Please, some more!\u201d \n\nSo the Recorder continued to read: \n\n\u201c \u2018(i) What the Lodge forerunner or Messenger could do for me would be in \nproportion to my own desire for his help, my devotion to the Cause he represents, \nand the extent to which I had acquired understanding through inner effort and \nobedience to spiritual law. \n\n\u201c \u2018(2) H.P.B., in her Conclusion to The Key to Theosophy, has painted a \nglowing picture of the possibilities of the T.S. when the next Lodge Messenger \ncomes, and it seems to me that the conditions for such a result exist in the T.S. \nto-day in a devoted, united, though not liumerous body of people ready to wel\u00ac \ncome the \u201cnew torch-bearer of Truth\u201d. As in the case of an individual, the \nhelp that might be received by a group of people would be limited to their \ncapacity to receive and to understand. \n\n\u201c \u2018(3) It would seem that the world must endure greater suffering before it \nwill be ready to listen to or heed the message of the Messenger. Out of the \ngross materialism and resulting chaos so manifest in the world to-day, must \neventually come a realization of man\u2019s inability to rule or govern himself; then, \na reverence for and a willingness to submit himself to an authority which he \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n159 \n\n\nrecognizes as greater and higher than himself. If the world, through more \nsuffering, begins to learn this lesson, a Messenger or forerunner of the Lodge \ncould work wonders, using the little leaven furnished by a united, devoted group \nof T.S. members to leaven the whole lump, and thus prepare the ground for the \nultimate establishment of a dynasty of Adept kings.\u2019 \n\n\u201cI shall now omit passages\u201d, said the Recorder, \u2018\u2018which express ideas contained \nin answers I have already read to you. In the next set, I would especially call \nyour attention to the section numbered (3): \n\n\u2018\u2018 \u2018(i) We are told that with Masters all things are possible. A great crafts\u00ac \nman is known by his tools. He prefers good tools. He keeps them clean, sharp \nand in order. Nevertheless, he can do a better piece of work with a poor tool \nthan can an inferior craftsman. Sometimes he will seize as a tool an object \nnot made for that purpose, but at hand. Will it serve? Am I a poor tool or \nno tool at all? \n\n\u2018\u2018 \u2018(2) The same thing applies to The Theosophical Society. How far can it be \ntrusted? To what extent can it be used? \n\n\u2018\u2018 \u2018(3) As for the world, who can see the hidden aspirations beneath its boiling \nscum ? Only the Lodge of Masters. \n\n\u2018\u2018 \u2018We have been told that Masters work with the cycles: also, that cycles \ncan be transcended. The appearance, at this time, of a Lodge Messenger in The \nTheosophical Society would certainly indicate that for some people the hundred \n-year cycle had been transcended and that the Messenger would be able to work \nwith them upon a higher cycle. While this would be true of the T.S., it would \nnot necessarily be true of the world. Of course, the effects of all inner work are \nfelt eventually upon the outer planes, but are not recognized as such. The \npresence of such a Messenger would have an influence whether he worked with \nthe world or not. \n\n\u201d \u2018One can imagine a Lodge Messenger doing no visible outer work in the T.Sj \nH e would communicate only with the higher consciousness of those who wer# \nable to perceive him there. This communion would hasten the evolution of those \nsharing in it, and would produce a powerful centre of vibrations in the world. \nOne may consider this state as already existing, but the advent of a Messenger \nwould extend it. The increased vibration within the world would stimulate some \nto a clearer comprehension of principles, and to better action, and it would also \ncreate a greater explosive flight, from the centre, of the grosser elements. \n\nMy feeling is that the work of such a Messenger, being one of preparation, \nat the beginning at least, would be carried on in the inner selves of the members. \nThis feeling is based solely upon the assumption that the cycle of outer work in \nthe world has not been reached. . . .\u2019 \n\n\u2018\u2018From another set of answers I extract this very significant sentence, which \nfollows a reminder of the way in which Avatars and Lodge Messengers have been \ntreated in the past: \n\n\u201d . . Therefore, I am not concerned about all that a Lodge forerunner or \n\n\ni6o THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nMessenger could do for me. I am gravely concerned about what I could do for \nhim. To that end, I am endeavouring to perform the tasks allotted to me in \nsuch a manner that, when he comes, they may require a minimum of his time \nand attention.\u2019 \n\n\u201cAnother reply to the second question (what could be done for the T.S.) \nraises considerations perhaps not so clearly covered in answers already quoted; \nyou may judge for yourselves: \n\n\u201c \u2018(2) I should suppose that the force of the forerunner or Messenger would be \nused on inner planes, to strengthen and reinforce every organization and move\u00ac \nment of the present day which actually furthers the cause of righteousness and \nthe real betterment of mankind. The T.S. being, in certain respects, better \nfitted than other organizations to receive help of this kind, should be able to make \na right use of a greater share of it, and should be in position to serve as the chief \nouter instrument of the new leader. I should suppose that the method of outer \nwork this time would be very different from that of the last century\u2014-very much \nless external, for one thing. The great harm done to the cause of Theosophy in \nthe eyes of the world by the Adyar and similar organizations would doubtless \nbe taken into account and offset, and for that reason, the world might hear and \nsee little of the T.S. as such during the Lodge activities of the remainder of this \ncentury. Furthermore, using the spiral as an analogy, the whole activity this \ntime would be on a higher level than in the last century. There would almost \ncertainly be no outer display analogous to the psychic phenomena of the last \ntime; there might well be no publicity, no large membership, no widespread \ninterest in the subject of Theosophy. It is conceivable that, instead, the empha\u00ac \nsis would be laid wholly on the intensive development of the nucleus, the germ \ncell in which life is stored for the future growth of the organism. The fact that \nthe work survived the turn of the century in 1900 has doubtless affected many \npeople (unconsciously to themselves) all over the world, outside the present \nSociety. These would presumably be drawn into the ranks,\u2014not through \npublicity, but by the new spiritual force drawing together the already active \nspiritual undercurrents; and such persons would enter the Work, not wholly as \nnewcomers but in some degree prepared. In 1875, many were called but few \nwere chosen, just as in the time of the Master Christ. In the new outpouring, \nit might well be that the proportions would be different, due to the successful \nwork of the last fifty-nine years,\u2014this time, comparatively few being \u201ccalled\u201d, \nbut of that number, many proving fit to be \u201cchosen\u201d. Then the time and force \nof the forerunner or Messenger might be chiefly given, not to work that the world \nwould see and hear of, but to the training and development of active servants \nof the Lodge, increasingly conscious of their Lodge connection and increasingly \naware both of the work they are intended to perform in and for the world, and of \nhow best to do it.\u2019 \n\n\u201cOne purpose in formulating these questions and in publishing the replies, is \nquite obvious, as the next set of answers will show: it is to force us to dig into \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\ni 6 i \n\n\nourselves and to bring into our waking consciousness, a clear-cut image both \nof our desire and of our ideal. ... It may be, of course, that somebody also \nwanted to know, and that this was a simple way to get at it! Real people do not \nwaste their energies.\u201d \n\nJ]^he Recorder then read the following: \n\n\u2018\u2018 T have taken several days to think about the questions propounded; they \nare perhaps the most difficult ones I have ever met. At first I answered to my\u00ac \nself : nothing can be done on any of these counts; I have the teachings and it is \nup to me to incarnate them; the T.S. has its opportunity likewise, and as for \nthe world\u2014fancy it listening to a spiritual teacher backed by The Theosophical \nSociety! But such a reply is only the superficial froth of a weary mind. So I \nsought more deeply, knowing well that the questions were not idle ones. \n\n\u201d T thought of similar sendings in the past\u2014of John, and of Saint Germain; \nof veiled prophecies; of a nation brought to a desperate plight through its \nbetrayal by false prophets. . . . \n\n\u201d \u2018There grew up within me a feeling that the dire need of the moment is a \nrevelation'of a clear-cut issue for all of us\u2014a revelation which ^vill force men and \nwomen to take sides in accord with their varying degrees of knowledge. Perhaps \nthe reading of Berdyaev\u2019s End of Our Time contributed to this feeling. The \ntime is approaching he tells us, when men must choose between the mysticism \nof Christ and that of Antichrist. I recalled that \u2018\u2018the Battle of the Marne has \nnot yet been fought; it will be fought under the next Lodge Messenger.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018 \u2018Therefore it might seem that the Precursor will sound the same challenge \nthat John did: \u2018\u2018Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand\u201d. He might \nset forth the issue so clearly that neutrality would no longer be possible. Men \nwould be forced to enter one or the other of the armies which will be slowly drawn \nup on the new Kurukshetra [as in the Bhagavad Giia] to abide the Master\u2019s coming. \n\n\u2018\u2018 \u2018How would he provoke the line-up? How would he initiate the campaign? \nOne might suggest reverently that he would begin with a simple, unequivocal \ndeclaration of the ancient truths: I am come to prepare the way; to insist th^ \nyou choose of your own free wills whether you will henceforth serve God or Saufl^ \nAs you choose so you must abide. There would be no softening of the woms \nthrough fear of giving offence to any special group. The world would hear \nagain the stern declaration of the Law. It would be confronted with the vile gods \nit has been worshipping. \n\n\u2018\u2018 \u2018Through what channels would he get his words to the people? With the \npower of the Lodge behind him, an address in the streets of New York, if need be, \nwould start a wave that press and radio would carry through the country, \nparticularly if it were backed by demonstrations of his powers over nature. \nThe effect would be an immediate revelation of men\u2019s souls, and they would line \nup under one banner or the other. Leading the forces of darkness would be the \nintellectuals and liberals\u2014those disciples of scientific materialism and sensuality \nwho parallel the Pharisees of old. To their standard would flock the host of \nhateful subversives\u2014the bitter communists and their like. The Protestant \n\n\ni 62 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nLiberal Churches would be split wide open. The Roman fold would probably \nform a special wing, aloof and arrogant and utterly unable to admit that truth \ncould be found outside its particular mediation. \n\n\u201c \u2018On the other side would stand our Leader with a handful of disciples and \nwould-be disciples just as of old. Supporting him would be the fairly honest, \nvacillating, hard-working, church-going middle class who, possibly, in their \nbewilderment, would hail him as the long-expected Messiah. The prevalence of \nMessianic prophecy among the more orthodox churches to-day would conduce to \nthis. \n\n\u201c \u2018His teaching would be the ancient Theosophy adapted to the needs of the \npresent age. \n\n\u201c \u2018What part would The Theosophical Society play in this great sifting? What \ncould he do for The Theosophical Society? \n\n\u201c \u2018First of all I have sensed the desperate fear of our leaders that they may be \n\u201ccalled home\u201d before their great Trust is in safe hands; he could bring them the \njoy they have earned by all these years of devoted toil. \n\n\u201c \u2018The T.S. would come alive and swing into action. For if the world could be \nmoved by his presence, how much more his own organization. It might not \nhave to come into the open at all as a Society, since to do so might hinder his \nwork. The Black Lodge has perverted and befouled the name to such a degree \nthat he might have to condemn \u201coccultism\u201d unsparingly, and the world could \nhardly be expected to distinguish between \u201ctheosophists\u201d. \n\n\u201c \u2018As a secret body, understanding something of his origin and purpose, the \nT.S. might form a cordon about him, making straight his physical pathway just \nas H.P.B. hoped it might do: \u201c... There will be in existence an organized, living \nand healthy body when the time comes for the effort of the twentieth century\u2014 \nan organization awaiting his arrival which will remove the merely mechanical \nmaterial obstacles and difficulties from his path.\u201d \n\n\u201c \u2018Some of the members of the T.S. might know the joy of his direct super\u00ac \nvision\u2014^his piercing insight using each man\u2019s talents in the most effective way, \njust as we use our own bodily powers. This implies ch^laship or something close \nto it. Is it too much to hope that he might draw such members together for \nprivate instruction ? Have I not read that such as he can transmit understanding \nwith a touch? There is a difficult paradox here. Certain members feel that \nthey are stopped by a barrier: they need more insight and a strong emotional \nreaction to send them forward. Yet, as Cav^ has pointed out, if that door is \nopened, demons can likewise come through it. Might not all be lost for which \nMasters have toiled so long? The situation seems to stand thus: \n\n\u201c \u2018i. The method of intellectual and emotional appeal made through the \nQuarterly and at many Conventions has ceased to be effective. A need \nexists for a sharper spur. \n\n\u201c \u20182. If soldiers are not fully trained when the armies are mobilized, they have \nto go into battle with the training they have. \n\n\u201c \u20183. The human soul responds to the challenge to action. The flame of life \nbums more fiercely when it encounters opposition which demands action. \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n163 \n\n\n\u201c \u20184. The members have in their minds a considerable body of ethical and \nmoral knowledge. With direct cognizance and the dangers which attend it, that \nknowledge should come to the rescue. \n\n\u201c \u20185. Nothing venture, nothing gain. Either conquering we \u201cinherit the earth\u201d, \nor slain we \u201cgain heaven\u201d, whence we may come forth to fight again. \n\n\u201c \u20186. Certain of our members have been long with us and are not mere privates. \nOf something of the innemess of Masters\u2019 plan they must become directly aware \nif they are to serve effectively. . . .\u2019 \n\n\u201cYou will agree with me, I think, that the answers I am going to read now\u2014 \nthey will be the last\u2014get very close to the heart of things: \n\n\u201c \u2018(i) For me, first and foremost, he could bring relief to those I love, to those \nwho, ever since the turn of the cycle, through more years than are reckoned as a \ngeneration, have borne the burden of responsibility and the strain of ceaseless \nwatch and ward and combat for the Movement. He could take over command \nfrom them, as the leader of a relieving force takes over the defence of a be\u00ac \nleaguered city, securing its lines of communication, re-manning walls too sparsely \nheld, and organizing for a new advance. The simile is borrowed, but is truer \nthan any I could invent. With his coming, whatever the future might hold, our \nown captains would have fulfilled the task they undertook, and a very gallant \nventure would have been crowned with success. \n\n\u201c T know that the most lasting victories may be won through what the world \nwould call defeat. \u201cThe gods are nourished by sacrifice\u201d, and we are warring \nfor the gods. Perhaps Gordon, murdered in Khartoum while Wolseley\u2019s column \nwas still held back, may have been able to look beyond his own death, and the \nfall of all he had laboured to upbuild, to the triumph of Kitchener fourteen years \nlater. Perhaps he may have seen that, in the end, his death would do for the \nSoudan more than his relief could do; and realizing this he may have been \ncontent to die. But I do not think his servant, who loved him, could have been \nexpected to share in that content. He must have prayed daily for the relief that \ndid not come. \n\n\u201c \u2018Would it have been better for the world if Roland had been relievoKt \nRoncesvalles? had Jeanne d\u2019Arc been spared her martyrdom at Compi^gne and \nRouen? Are there low-rank angels, servants of the servants of the Mysteries, \nperhaps still young and \u201cof little brain\u201d, so that they love without knowing what \nor why they love, who ask if the whole world was worth its cost of Calvary? \nDo their elders sometimes ask the same? Or does there come a time when the \nmystery is mystery no more, when the riddle is read from the other end, and \nCalvary shines forth, so radiant in the splendour of the spirit\u2019s self-fulfilment, \nas to be worth its cost of the whole world,\u2014yes, so that it atones for the whole \nworld, and reconciles the beholder to it? \n\n\u201c \u2018Fortunately, such questions need not concern me. As Jeanne herself said, \nthe men-at-arms are to fight, and God will give the victory. The strategy of the \ncampaign, whether relief is to be sent or withheld, rests with the High Command. \nTheir duty is not mine. To fight means to strive for victory\u2014not delayed, not \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n164 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nwrapped in defeat, not purchased by the martyrdom of those above me\u2014but \nimmediate, manifest, and at the minimum of cost to those we serve. To fight \nis to pray; and the coming of the Lodge Messenger would be the answer to my \nprayer. \n\n\u201c \u2018Beyond that, I doubt whether there is much that he could do for me. What \ncould Lord Wolseley have done for General Gordon\u2019s servant? He could bring \nGordon other servants, able to serve him better: but could he make this servant \na better servant ? I am convinced that everything that can be done for me is \nbeing done, that I am given every aid I am willing to accept. Over and over \nagain this has been proved to us: there is no limit to what is offered; the only \nlimits are in our power to receive. Doubtless one coming newly from the Lodge \nwould bring new light to me, a new ray falling at a new angle; and with this \nthere would be new shame for what it would reveal,\u2014of ways and standards \nI had known but permitted myself to forget; of opportunities neglected until \nthey were lost; of needs I could have met had I not been too self-absorbed to \nsee them; of weakness and failure and faithlessness, the worst where most un\u00ac \nconscious. But even as things are, there is no day in which the Master lets me \nlack the light with which to shame my sins. What reason have I to think I should \nmake better use of more? The lack is not in the light, but in the response to it, \nin the will that is so much my own that none but I can move it. That is the \nterror of self-will; before it the gods themselves are impotent. \n\n\u201c \u2018(2) For the T.S.? It would have to be hardened and tempered before it \ncould do the work that the next Lodge Messenger will have to do. It has main\u00ac \ntained a clean mould, a skeleton organization, which is of inestimable value; \nbut the material that fills it is for the most part soft. If it could not be tempered,' \nit might have to be run off, and the mould refilled with harder metal, capable of \nbeing given a better cutting edge. There are not many members, as things are, \nwho could really be counted upon to accomplish results; and it has been sug\u00ac \ngested that where results are requisite, effective devils would be preferable to \nineffective saints. It cannot be a pleasant job to have to control and work with \ndevils; but no one expects the Lodge Messenger to have a pleasant time, and \nperhaps he would find this no more nerve-wracking than to be responsible for the \npractical consequences of mere good intentions left to act unguided in a crisis. \nThere is far too much unintelligent devotion and goodness in the T.S. for it to be \nsafe to leave it to itself, and unless there is someone to lead it aright, it is almost \ncertain to be captured by those who will lead it awrong. It might be likened to \nthe arsenal in the beleaguered city of our earlier illustration, which, if the city be \nnot relieved, must be destroyed lest it fall into the hands of the enemy. \n\n\u201c \u2018(3) For the world? \u201cBecause thou sayest, I am rich and increased with \ngoods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and \nmiserable, and poor, and blind and naked: ... As many as I love, I rebuke and \nchasten: . . . Behold, I stand at the door and knock.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201c \u2018No verses are more familiar, but the significance of their order is often over\u00ac \nlooked. There is nothing one can do for the self-satisfied man, and the Lodge \nMessenger would knock in vain unless the arrogance of the world, which makes it \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n165 \n\nboth jnwilling and unable to learn, be first deflated, and something of humility \ninstilled,\u2014something of the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. \nOne thinks of a passage in one of the letters reported to have been received by \nHume from the Master K.H.: \u201cI tell you plainly you are unfit to learn, for your \nmind is too full and there is not a comer vacant from whence a previous occupant \nwould not arise, to struggle with and drive away the newcomer\u201d {The Mahatma \nLetters, p. 143, revised edition). \n\n\u201d \u2018Perhaps the \u201cforerunner\u201d, he who prepares the way for the bearer of the \nLodge message, may not always come in human form. There may be times when \nthe way must be cleared first by great, wide-sweeping forces, like strong winds \nblowing through the psychic world. \u201cAnd behold, the Lord passed by, and a \ngreat and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before \nthe Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind.\u201d It may be that the \u201cdepression\u201d, \nfrom which the whole world has been suffering since 1929, is such a wind, blowing \nin advance of the coming of the Lodge Messenger, to overthrow and chasten the \nworld\u2019s conceit, to reveal its wretchedness and blindness, and ultimately to make \nit less \u201cunfit to learn\u201d. It is painfully obvious that the Lord is not in the wind, \nbut even so, it may be preparing the way of the Lord; and to adopt this sup\u00ac \nposition has at least the advantage of giving us as cheerful an outlook upon our \ntimes as it is possible to find. The exasperation with which we have formerly \nread the daily paper, gives place to an awed admiration. As a demonstration of \nhuman folly, we look upon a work of genius. \n\n\u201c \u2018Yet, even so, it has not yet sufficed for the overthrow of human arrogance. \nThe same sophomoric conceit that marked our boom times and produced the \ndepression, the same naive conviction that with us all things are new, and that \nwhatever has been need no more be true, the same substitution of psychic fancy \nfor physical and spiritual fact, are engraved even more deeply in every line of the \n\u201cnew deal\u201d that is to end depression. We have entered a world of psychic \nreflections that has not merely the confusions of an honest \u201clooking-glass world\u201d, \nwhere right and left are reversed, and the end becomes the beginning, and \nplainest print is made illegible. That is what one has when the mirror is Wn \nupright at one\u2019s own level. But here the reflection is from below\u2014^as fronTa \nmirror beneath one\u2019s feet\u2014from the mind of the demos, distraught by unas\u00ac \nsimilated (and unassimilable) schooling; and in consequence everything \nstands upon its head, every maxim is reversed, every falsehood preached as \ntruth. We have lived beyond our means, therefore we must increase our expendi\u00ac \ntures; our business is running at a loss, therefore we must raise wages; we are \nbankrupt, therefore we must borrow money to redecorate our homes. Billions of \ndollars must be spent to relieve the unemployed, therefore strikes should be \nfomented, and men forbidden to accept the wages they can get, so that billions \nmore may be paid to the idle strikers. There are nations whose aggression is \nrampant, therefore the rest of the world should disarm. It is dishonest to buy \nvotes with one\u2019s own money, therefore buy them with the tax-payers\u2019, etc., etc. \nThe first need of the world is that it should be jarred out of its psychic debauch, \nback to sober fact. If the world is to endure, it must be made safe not for, but \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n166 \n\nfrom democracy, from popular education and college professors, from the black \nmagic of science, and the priestcrafts that seek profit in perversions of truth. \n\n\u201c \u2018Frankly, I think it is a task which, if viewed only in the light of reason \nand \u201cpractical politics\u201d, might well seem impossible. There is so much that has \nto be undone, and one no more sees how it can be undone than how one can un\u00ac \nbake an apple dumpling. Like Hume\u2019s mind, the mind of the world is too full. \nToo much is known, both true and untrue. How is the mind of the world to be \nemptied to make room for what it needs to receive? Then, too, the world itself \nis too full,\u2014too full of people, or of elementals, \u201cbom too soon in human shape\u201d, \nwhom we mistake for people. It is too full of insects, and of blights of all kinds. \nIn our greed, we have eaten up its forests, destroyed its prairies, its herds and \nflocks, tapped and drained its resources, and are making deserts all about us. \nWe boast that we have \u201cconquered time and space\u201d, but our \u201cconquest\u201d means \nonly that we have overthrown what is essential to ourselves. Without the \nlimitations of time and space, life cannot be supported, and already we have \nmade the world too small for our needs. We no longer find mystery in it, no \nlonger the unknown, so that the spirit shrinks and starves and turns back to the \nempty husks it had left behind. Unless mankind can be led into the largeness \nof the spiritual world, it would seem to have reached the point from which it \nmust regress, and where our civilization, like others that have failed, must be \nswept away, shaken from off the back of the earth, and its habitations left for \ndisinfection under ocean waters or desert sands. \n\n\u201c \u2018Let us not forget, however, that it is not the way of the Lodge to plan \nits imdertakings on the basis of what seems \u201cpractical politics\u201d to us. From the \nbeginning of time it has essayed and accomplished what the world called impossi\u00ac \nble, seeing and seizing the one chance to which all others were blind.\u2019 \n\n\u201cThere will be neither time enough this afternoon, nor space in the Quarterly, \nfor much discussion of what I have read to you. Possibly, if the subject should \nprove of interest to our readers, and they say so, it might be \u2018continued in our \nnext\u2019.\u201d \n\n\u201cThis is not a comment\u201d, said the Student; \u201cbut I should like to know what \npeople mean when they pray so glibly, \u2018Thy Kingdom come\u2019.\u201d \n\n\u201cThis is a comment\u201d, said the Ancient: \u201cI am wondering to what extent any \nof us unconsciously \u2018seek after a sign\u2019. It is difficult to surmount our nature, \nand it is natural enough, from one point of view, to wish to \u2018know\u2019\u2014forgetting \nthat the mind can never know; that truth of any and every kind dwells eternally \nabove the mind, and that no one who seeks knowledge for his own satisfaction \ncan ever find it. \n\n\u201cNeed an Adept?\u201d he continued. \u201cWe are surrounded by Adepts! What do \nI mean? Exactly what I say; but I also mean that there is never a moment \nwhen our own Master does not invite us with, \u2018Draw near, and partake\u2019. Then \nsomeone says, \u2018But I am blind!' And my answer is, \u2018What of it?\u2019 Blind Bar- \ntimaeus, while blind, knew more of Christ and was closer to him, than all but a \nhandful of the thousands who had gazed at him with \u2018seeing\u2019 eyes. Bartimaeus \n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n167 \n\n\nhad seen him with the eyes of the spirit, with the eyes ctf faith; and this does \nnot mean, had made a mental image of his nose or clothes: it means that he had \ntouched him with his heart, and knew. \n\n\u201cBrown, in India, many years ago, met and talked with Master K.H.; so did \nOlcott. You know what they got out of it. In all cases, \u2018we find what we bring\u2019. \nAnd the world would find what it would bring: no less, no more. It does not \nfollow in the least, however, that the world would even hear of the next Lodge \nMessenger, who might work among the few, silently. It is possible, on the \nother hand, that he will be commissioned to attack and destroy popular idols,\u2014 \nthe world\u2019s superstitious faith in \u2018science\u2019, in democracy, in the virtue of peace \n(as the world understands it); and perhaps in that case, as more than one of \nyour replies suggested, he will come as a Destroyer, clearing the way for future \nMessengers, that they, when their time comes, may be free to Preserve what is \nbest from the past, and to Create what will be best for the future. We must \n\u2018take long views\u2019. \n\n\u201cThis much in conclusion: what is to be, already is. That is a law of the \nspiritual world. Only as we are conscious of what already is, though as yet \nunmanifest, shall we be conscious of it when manifest. Let us remember also \nthat personal contact is not always an aid to understanding, or to appreciation,\u2014 \nfar from it. I have a friend whom I have not seen for years, who is closer to me \nto-day than when our personalities met and sometimes clashed. \n\n\u201cFor the Work\u2019s sake we must ardently desire that the next Lodge Messenger, \nor a forerunner, comes quickly\u2014heaven pity him (no one seems to worry much \nabout him!); but not until we see and use our present opportunity in its fulness \nshould we be any better off personally though a dozen Adepts were our daily \nmess-mates. The Lodge is \u2018here\u2019, and only \u2018there\u2019 when we choose to make it so. \nIt is not by striving and straining that we touch reality; it is by laying our souls \nwith love at the feet of the Keeper of Dreams. From Him we draw strength to \nfight, though all the odds be against us,\u2014to fight, not for victory, but for Him,\u2014 \nknowing th^t our failure, if we fight to the last gasp of breath in us, and then \nfight, dying and dead,\u2014will give Him all He needs to turn His dream (not ours) \ninto the living beauty of a world redeemed.\u2019\u2019 T. \n\n\nBlind folk see the fairies, \n\nOh, better far than we. \n\nWho miss the shining of their wings \nBecause our eyes are filled with things \nWe do not wish to see .\u2014 Rose Fyleman. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEssays in Zen Buddhism, by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Professor of Buddhist \nPhilosophy at Otani Buddhist College, Kyoto, Japan; Luzac and Company, \nLondon; price. First Series, 1927, 175, 6d; Second Series, 1933, 20s, $5; Third \nSeries, 1934, 20s, $5. \n\nProfessor Suzuki is a scholar of a type seldom represented in the modem West. \nHe is accomplished in the difficult science of translating and collating Sanskrit, \nTibetan, Chinese and Japanese manuscripts and documents. But his com\u00ac \nmentaries reveal the rare gift of a clear and profound understanding; above all, \nhe leaves with the reader the impression that he is actively testing in his own \nexperience the Buddhist truths of which he writes. Certainly there is a minimum \nof personal reference in his books; but he is, in the truest sense, in love with his \nsubject. To the average Orientalist, the Bodhisattva Doctrine is an historical \ncuriosity which he approaches with the indifference and essential blindness of an \noutsider. Professor Suzuki, on the contrary, reveals the Mahayana as a way of \nlife, as pertinent now as it has ever been to the needs of the Far East. \n\nZen Buddhism originated as a Chinese adaptation of the Mahayana. Zen is \nDhyana, contemplation. The Western student, even if somewhat familiar with \nthe Indian forms of the Mahayana, is apt to find great difficulty in understanding \nthe Chinese approach to the same fundamental doctrines. This is undoubtedly \ndue, in part, to racial differences, but there is another cause of bewilderment \nwhich Professor Suzuki emphasizes. The Chinese often seem obscure to us, \njust because they are so extremely simple and direct. When the practical Chinese \n\u201cbegan inwardly to assimilate Buddhism as the doctrine of Enlightenment, the \nonly course that opened to their concrete minds was to produce Zen. When we \ncome to Zen after seeing all the wonderful miracles displayed by the Indian \nMahayana writers, and after the highly abstract speculations of the Madhyamika \nthinkers, what a change of scenery do we have here? . . . The people you as\u00ac \nsociate with are all ordinary mortals like yourselves, no abstract ideas, no \ndialectical subtleties confront you. Mountains tower high towards the sky, \nrivers all pour into the ocean. Plants sprout in spring and flowers bloom in \nred. When the moon shines serenely, poets grow mildly drunk and sing a song \nof eternal peace. How prosaic, how ordinary, we may say! but here was the \nChinese soul, and Buddhism came to sprout in it.\u201d \n\nAccording to tradition, the Zen School was established by the Indian mis- \n\n168 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n- REVIEWS 169 \n\nsionary, Bodhidharma. The greatest of the early Chinese Patriarchs was Rui\u00ac \nning who may be said to have sounded the key-note of all subsequent Zen \naspiration. He said: \n\nMy Master had no special instruction to give, he simply insisted upon the need of seeing \ninto our Nature through our own efforts, he had nothing to do with [theories concerning] \nmeditation or deliverance. For whatever could be named leads to dualism, and Buddhism \nis not dualistic. To take hold of this non-duality of truth is the aim of Zen. The Buddha- \nNature of which we are all in possession, and the seeing into which constitutes Zen, is \nindivisible into such oppositions as good and evil, eternal and temporal, material and \nspiritual. To see dualism in life is due to confusion of thought; the wise, the enlightened \nsee into the reality of things unhampered by erroneous ideas. \n\nZen insists upon the uncompromising denial of the rights of the personal \nman, and holds out no tangible reward to the aspirant save the assurance that, \nif he persist, he will be worthy some day of sharing in the supreme sacrifice \nof the Bodhisattvas. Its appeal has been essentially aristocratic from the \nbeginning, and it is characteristic of its spirit that it should have constituted \nthe religious basis of bushido, the chivalric code of ancient Japan. At the present \ntime, it is sharply distinguished from the popular Shin sect which promises a \nconcrete paradise to the faithful. \n\nThe methods of Zen instruction are quite unique. Frequently the teachers \nmake use of koans, verbal formulae or gestures which are traditionally supposed \nto induce in the disciple the state of saiori (Sanskrit, sambodhi), enlightenment \nor inner wakefulness. It is the duty of the teacher to know the \u201cpsychological \nmoment\u201d when the koan will bear fruit, and also which koan should be spoken \nor enacted. Originally at least, there was no stereotyped form of instruction. \nThe koan was improvised, as it were, in response to the eager questioning of the \ndisciple. If the Occidental reader fail to make any sense of the koans, this is \nlargely because he misrepresents their nature and purpose. They are not de\u00ac \nsigned to be logical statements addressed to the discursive intellect. Their \nsole function is to arouse the disciple\u2019s intuitive powers to positive action. For \nexample, if a Zen aspirant, after long meditation upon some passage of the \n^ Scriptures, has formulated some question which he cannot answer, he awaits \n\nthe occasion when he can propound his problem to his teacher. Only very rarely \ndoes the teacher respond, in ordinary mental terms, to this appeal, for it is \ntradition of Zen teaching that the intellect as such cannot solve any real m^^F \nphysical problem. The normal procedure is to answer one riddle by proposmg \nanother. Therefore, the teacher does not analyze the meaning of the Scriptures. \nWith seeming irrelevance, he will blow out a candle or ask the disciple to stir \nthe fire or, perhaps, rise in apparent anger and drive the disciple from the room. \nVery frequently the Zen masters who are, in one sense, \u201cNature-mystics\u201d, \nfasten their disciples\u2019 attention upon some familiar natural form or process,\u2014 \na bamboo-grove, the wild geese flying south in the autumn, a cypress growing in \nthe temple courtyard, a flowering plum-tree, a cloud drifting over a mountain- \npeak. We have seen these lovely images in Sung painting, though we may \nseldom have suspected the mystical meanings implicit in them. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n170 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nIt may not be easy to comprehend why or how these koans can awaken the \ndisciple to the consciousness of his \u201cBuddha-Nature\u201d. However, the following \nexamples should indicate the method, even if our minds, being otherwise oriented, \ncannot clearly realize what they really signify in the history of Zen. \n\nSakyamuni was once engaged at the Mount of the Holy Vulture in preaching to a \ncongregation of his disciples. He did not resort to a lengthy verbal discourse to explain \nhis point, but simply lifted a bouquet of flowers before the assemblage. . . . Nobody \nunderstood the meaning of this except the old venerable Mahakasyapa, who quietly smiled \nat the Master. . . . The latter perceiving this, opened his golden-tongued mouth and pro\u00ac \nclaimed solemnly; \u201cI have the most precious treasure, spiritual and transcendental, \nwhich this moment I hand over to you, 0 venerable Mahakasyapa.\u201d \n\nSays P\u2018ing-t\u2018ien the Elder: \u201cThe celestial radiance undimmed, the norm lasting for \never more; for him who entereth this gate, no reasoning, no learning.\u201d You should know, \ncommented Tsu-ching, that it is through*your seeing, hearing, and thinking that you \nenter upon the path, and it is also through the seeing, hearing and thinking that you are \nprevented from entering. . . . \n\nHui-neng said: \u201cThink not of good, think not of evil, but see what at the moment thy \nown original features are, which thou hadst even before coming into existence. . . .\u201d \n\n\u201cA lonely hut on the mountain-peak towering above a thousand others, one-half is \noccupied by an old monk and the other by a cloud; last night it was stormy and the cloud \nwas blown away; after all a cloud could not equal the old man\u2019s quiet way. . . .\u201d \n\n\u201cLike a mountain, one character, \u2018master\u2019, stands majestically; on it alone is the \nstandard established for all rights and wrongs in the world; all the waters ultimately \nflow towards the ocean and pour themselves into it; clouds, massy and overhanging, \nfinally get back to the mountains and find their home there. . . .\u201d \n\nLing-yiin had an insight into the truth by accidentally watching the peaches in bloom. \nThe following is his verse composed at the time: \n\n\u201cFor thirty years 1 have been in search of the swordsman; \n\nMany a time have I watched the leaves decay and the branches shoot! \n\nEver since I saw for once the peaches in bloom. \n\nNot a shadow of doubt do I cherish!\u201d S.V.L. \n\n\nCondamn^e d Mart, by Louise Thuliez; Librairie Ernest Flammarion, Paris, \n1933; price, 12 francs. \n\nHere is another book written by one of those fearless and self-sacrificing \nwomen who, in the early days of the Great War, risked their own lives in order \nto save the lives of Allied soldiers caught in occupied territory as a result of the \nrapid advance of the German invasion of Belgium and northern France, in 1914. \nAlmost inevitably it reads (as perhaps all such books must read) something like \na romance, for the heroic courage, the quick-witted facing of sudden and terrible \ndangers, the miraculous escapes, the complete selflessness which made that \nperilous and physically exhausting life of hourly danger not only possible but \nactually attractive, are almost too splendid to seem real in times like the present! \nAnyone who has read the recent War Memories of Princess Marie de Croy, \nwill remember that Mademoiselle Thuliez was associated with that ceaselessly- \nactive group of men and women who raked the countryside (under the very noses \nof the Germans) in search of stray British and French combatants, and Made\u00ac \nmoiselle Thuliez\u2019s account, in the first part of her book, of the life led by these men \n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n171 \n\nwhile hiding in the Foret de Mormal, a wide tract of beautiful woodland south\u00ac \nwest of Maubeuge, of how she managed to get food to them, of how she finally \nhelped to extricate them when their position became too precarious, of how they \nwere conducted to what was at least temporary safety\u2014all is of absorbing interest. \nLater, when this work of mercy expanded, and many other men came to the notice \nof the indefatigable group, the long, hazardous night marches toward the Dutch \nfrontier, the life and death chances which had, in an instant of time, to be decided \nupon and fearlessly accepted, the hourly risk of betrayal because of the unin\u00ac \ntentional indiscretions of the very men who were being led, at such frightful risk, \nto safety and freedom\u2014every word fills us with a kind of breathless admiration. \nAnd then the inevitable arrest came, and with it the mockery of the so-called \n\u201ctrial\u201d by the Germans\u2014Edith Caveil\u2019s fate has made this same trial well known \nto us, for^he was among the accused. Finally the author of this book was, \nwith others, condemned to death. \u201cUpon hearing the death sentence pro\u00ac \nnounced against oneself\u201d, she writes simply, \u201cthe first moment is one of pros\u00ac \ntration, then it is one of surprise, then of incredulity, and finally of resignation, \nfor wi'th every cross there is always given the corresponding strength to bear \nit.\u201d After a period of some weeks of imprisonment, chiefly at St. Gilles in \nBrussels, during which several of her companions were executed, her own death \nsentence was commuted to \u201cforced labour\u201d for the rest of her life, and then, \nafter further delays. Mademoiselle Thuliez was transported to the prison of \nSiegburg in Germany, and there she remained until the end of the War. Her \naccount of her prison life, her comments on the neglect by the Germans and their \nvicious treatment of those among the Allied prisoners who fell ill, is valuable \nevidence regarding German methods of conducting \u201ccivilized warfare\u201d, and the \noverwhelming bitterness which she felt when, on her return home after the Armis\u00ac \ntice, she found a devastated if \u201cvictorious\u201d France as compared with the \u201ccon\u00ac \nquered\u201d but perfectly intact Germany which she had just left, is a sentiment \nwith which all readers of the Quarterly will profoundly sympathize. A preface \nby General Weygand adds to the interest of the book and to our own sense of \nindebtedness to Mademoiselle Thuliez for this graphic and stirring account of her \nWartime experiences. T.D. a \n\n\nEscape from the Soviets, by Tatiana Tchemavin; Hamish Hamilton, London; \nprice, 75, 6d. \n\nThis reviewer bought two books about Soviet Russia because they were praised \nmost highly on the front page of The New York Times Book Review, and seemed to \npromise a truthful statement of conditions as they are, instead of the misleading \nhalf-truths which newspaper correspondents are obliged to supply so long as \nthey wish to retain the Soviet\u2019s permission to remain in Russia. The book by \nMme. Tchemavin is to be recommended for the benefit of those who have been \nmisled, and who fail to realize that Russia, under its present rulers, is the most \nperfect existing specimen of Hell on earth. Mme. Tchemavin describes more than \nthe escape of herself, her husband and child from the horrors of their existence; \n\n\n\n172 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nshe describes \u201cnormal\u201d life and prison \u201clife\u201d in Russia as well\u2014a complete \npicture. It is terrible reading, and because this reviewer has never had any illu\u00ac \nsions about the fiends in human form who, having murdered the Czar and his \nfamily, took their place as Russia\u2019s Autocrats,\u2014he did not think it necessary to \nmake himself ill by sharing the author\u2019s torments for long. In other words, he \nskimmed the book, but with sufficient thoroughness to wish that all the Parlour \nPinks, Brain Busters, and New Era-ites (New Termites) who afflict us here, \nmight be forced to read it,\u2014and then, if that were not enough, might be per\u00ac \nsuaded or bribed to go and live for ever in the land where their dreams have \nalready come true. \n\nThe other book, we cannot recommend. It is written by a correspondent of \nthe English Manchester Guardian who went to Moscow prepared to be \u201cliberal- \nminded\u201d about the Great Russian Experiment. He was disillusioned, and re\u00ac \nturned to England to tell the truth as he had seen it. Whether he stayed in \nRussia too long, and thus became coarsened by contagion, or whatever the expla\u00ac \nnation may be, the language and manner of his book are not only brutal, but vile \nto the point of being unreadable. His excuse presumably would be that he \ndescribes vile things\u2014under the head of sex especially. But we do not believe \nthat good can be accomplished by sinking to the level of a pig-sty. \n\nThe same unfortunate mistake is made by another English author, Ivor \nBrown, who attacks modem immoralities and idiocies with skill and immense \nvigour, but who uses language which ought to make it impossible for any decent \nwoman, of any age, to read him. Dante described Hell with imequalled realism, \nbut without a trace of coarseness. Those who would stand for decency or for \nrighteousness (if that really be their motive), defeat their own ends by adopting \nthe verbal depravities which are one of the hall-marks of those whom they \ncondemn. T. \n\n\nSaint Birgitta of Sweden, by Edith Peacey; Washboume and Bogan, London; \nprice, 125 , 6d. \n\n\u201cTo-night there will be bom a child to whose voice the whole world will one \nday listen in admiration.\u201d \n\nThese are the opening words of this book. They were heard by a priest as he \nprayed for the Lady Ingeborg, the wife of the Lagman Birger Persson. That \nnight of June, 1302 or 1303, we do not know which, Birgitta was bom. Her \nfather was a cousin of the reigning King Birger, and was the Lagman of Upland. \nSweden, at this time, was divided into five provinces each governed by a Lagman \nwho was responsible to the King alone. The Lagmen sat in the first places of \nthe Council, and administered justice in their provinces. The Lagman Birger \nPersson codified the laws of Sweden and ruled his province wisely and well. \nBirgitta and her brother and sister were carefully and lovingly brought up and \ntrained to fill the important duties of their high position. \n\nBirgitta seems to have been a normal, cheerful and singularly sensible child. \nShe was attracted to prayer and often remained in the chapel when the other \n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n173 \n\n\nchildren had left. We are told that at the age of ten, Birgitta had her first vision. \nShe awoke from sleep to see a beautiful lady holding a crown in her hand. \n\u201cCome\u201d, said the vision, \u201cand take this crown.\u201d Birgitta arose, and the lady \nplaced the crown upon her head. \n\nAt the age of twelve, she had another vision. This time, as she was saying \nher evening prayers, she saw a great light, and in the midst of the light Jesus \nupon the Cross. She heard a voice saying, \u201cThis is how I have been treated.\u201d \n\u201cOh my dear Lord, who has dared to treat you so?\u201d said Birgitta. \u201cThose who \ninsult me and forget my Love.\u201d \n\nAt the age of sixteen, Birgitta was married to Ulf Gudmarsson, Lagman of \nNaarke. Ulf was a very religious man. When they married, he and Birgitta \njoined the Third Order of St. Francis. They had eight children. Birgitta led \na very active life bringing them up and ruling over the province while her husband \nwas engaged in the civil struggles which took place in Sweden. In 1335, Birgitta \nwas called to coiut to act as Mistress of the Household for the young Queen \nBlanche de Namur. She remained there for five years, seeing with consternation \nthe decline of the morals and manners of the Court. This was one reason why \nshe and her husband decided to make a pilgrimage to St. James of Compostela. \nThey put on pilgrim clothes and started to walk from Sweden to Spain. It is \nthought that Birgitta may have heard Tauler preach when she passed through \nCologne. On the way back from Spain, at Arras, Ulf was taken very ill. As \nhe felt himself dying, he prayed for more time in which to prepare for death, \nvowing that he would abandon the world and enter a religious order. He \nrecovered, and, when he returned to Sweden, set about fulfilling his vow. Two \nyears later, he died in a Cistercian monastery. \n\nAfter Ulf\u2019s death, Birgitta put on the Tertiary Franciscan habit and retired to a \nhermitage in the precincts of the monastery of Alvastra where Ulf had died. \nAll of her children were provided for. Some of them were married. One son, \nBenedict, also died as a monk at Alvastra. She was free to give herself entirely \nto the religious life. In her retirement she practised so many austerities that her \nconfessor was obliged to forbid her to do so. At this time she had many spiritual \nexperiences and her mission began. It was to be a most disagreeable one. For \nthe rest of her life she was to receive orders to reprove Kings and Popes, t \nthe lax clergy and to admonish the erring. It must be a proof of the real \nof Birgitta that such a mission could have been entrusted to her. \n\nShe now received the Rule of an Order which she was to found, the Order of \nthe Most Holy Saviour. It was to be composed of two communities; one of \nenclosed nuns, one of monks. The whole Order was to be ruled by an Abbess. \nThe two communities were to use the same church, but the nuns were to sit \nin a gallery above the monks. \u201cThe spiritual foundation of the Order is to be \nhumility; but learning is not to be despised. The priests are to devote their \ntime to study, prayer, and preaching the gospel to the people. The nuns are to \ndivide their hours between meditation, prayer, and useful work.\u201d \n\nBirgitta obtained the approval of the Archbishop of Upsala and the Bishop \nof Aabo, and laid the foundation stone of the new monastery in 1346. Her work \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n174 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ndid not go forward without opposition. Birgitta had sharply rebuked the King. \nShe was insulted by the nobles and preached against by the clergy. She now \nreceived two revelations. One was a message to the Kings of France and England \ntelling them to make peace. The other was to the Pope at Avignon, bidding him \nreturn to Rome. She was also told to go to Rome herself and to await his return. \nIn the autumn of 1349, Birgitta and a few devoted followers arrived in Italy. \nThe Rome of this time was the one described in Bulwer Lytton\u2019s Rienzi, a city \ndeserted by the Pope and clergy, and fought over by the powerful barons. \nBirgitta was to witness the rise and fall of Rienzi. \n\nIn Rome, Birgitta, who had always been studious, took lessons in Theology \nand Latin. She went among the poor, trying to help them. She sat upon the \nsteps of the convent of the Poor Clares and begged her bread. Three of her \nchildren joined her, Birger, Katarina\u2019 who became a saint herself after her \nmother\u2019s death, and Karl. Karl was a very gay and dissolute young man. He \ndied after a scandalous adventure in Naples. For many years Birgitta con\u00ac \ntinued to send messages to Avignon, to reprove the clergy, to scold the Queen of \nNaples and to be thoroughly annoying. She had, at the same time, a great \ninfluence over many good and devoted people who were willing to listen to her. \nShe appears to have been a charming and pleasant person, with humour and \ngreat good sense. \n\nAt last, in 1367, Pope Urban the Fifth returned to Rome and part of Birgitta\u2019s \nwork seemed to have succeeded. She transmitted many revelations to the Pope \nand to the Emperor Charles the Fourth, who listened to her with respect but \ndid nothing more. The Cardinals, who wanted to return to France, did all they \ncould to disparage her. In 1371, the Papal Court returned to Avignon, and \nher mission seemed to have failed. However, she was not discouraged, but \ncontinued to admonish Urban and his successor. Niccold Soderini, the Floren\u00ac \ntine, probably spoke often of his Swedish friend to St. Catherine of Siena, who \nwas to carry on Birgitta\u2019s work to its desired conclusion. \n\nIn 1371, Birgitta and her household left for the Holy Land. These long \njourneys were probably more common in the Middle Ages than we think. \nShortly after they returned to Rome, in 1373, Birgitta died. Her remains were \ncarried back to Sweden. All through Europe crowds of people came to view her \ncoffin and to venerate her relics. Birgitta had performed many miracles during \nher life, and was generally considered a saint. Her body was at last laid to rest \nin the Abbey of Vadstena which she had founded. Seventeen years later Bir\u00ac \ngitta was officially canonized. At the Reformation, Vadstena was sacked and \nthe bones of the saint thrown out in the dust. The Brigittines were dispersed \nand exiled. \n\nEdith Peacey, who writes this book, is a nun of the Brigittine Order in England. \nHer book is, of course, written from the orthodox Roman Catholic standpoint. \nIt is in a cheerful narrative style which barely escapes sentimentality, and while \nit gives a picture of the life of the day and of the surroundings of the saint, it \nunfortunately does not quote her own words sufficiently. One would like to \nknow her own impressions and experiences more directly. Birgitta wrote her \n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n175 \n\n\nRevelations and a number of hymns. However, the book does give one the \npicture of a powerful, devoted and illumined soul. Few saints have had such \nexperience of different conditions of life as Saint Birgitta. She had eight children \nand ruled a province. She had been at court and had begged her bread in the \nstreets. The obedience of Saint Birgitta to her highest vision, her humility, \nher immense common sense and her charity, contain lessons for everyone, and \nshould interest students of Theosophy who are seeking for the Real wherever \nit may be found. St.C.LaD. \n\n\nMonarchy, by Sir Charles Petrie; Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1933; \nprice, 105 , td. \n\nFrench Royalist Doctrines since the Revolution, by Charlotte Touzalin Muret; \nColumbia University Press, 1933; price, S3.00. \n\nExperience testifies that the hierarchical principle is fundamental and universal \nin Nature. Every existence is a manifold dominated by a monad, a gradation \nof energies maintained in equilibrium by their common subjection to a superior \nforce. Thus the human being is a hierarchy of states of consciousness which \nought to be co-ordinated by the superior force of the soul. \n\nA nation is no exception to this universal rule. It is composed of groups and \nindividuals, corresponding to the organs and cells of a physical body, each \nwith its proper functions, its line and degree of evolution. A true national life \nis only possible in the measure that these elements are harmonized and unified \nby a central authority. The binding power of custom is insufficient. There \nmust be a government organizing the nation\u2019s resistance to foreign invasion, and \npreserving it from internal disruption. \n\nMany students of Theosophy believe that there is only one form of government \nperfectly adapted to real human needs, namely the rule of an Adept King. \nThere is a tradition that in the infancy of the race the dynasties which reigned \nover the nations were of divine or semi-divine origin; and that in some future \nwhich may not be very remote, the Royal Sages will return to govern mank^ \nas in the beginning. But before that can happen, men must have lost the|Blt \nvestige of faith in their fitness to govern themselves. An ideal government with\u00ac \nout ideal citizens is a Utopian dream\u2014and nothing more. Every government, \nof which there is historical record, has been a makeshift, an imperfect thing, for \na nation has the form of government which it desires and which it deserves. This \ndoes not mean, however, that some forms are not more rational and more con\u00ac \nformable to the order of Nature than others. Democracy, for instance, may \nbe described as a disease of the body politic, and it is no more desirable, from a \nsane standpoint, than an attack of measles, though, like measles, it may have \na necessary purgative function in the life of nations. Disease is sometimes a \nmeans of removing poison from a system, and must be held in respect as a \nnatural process; but it is also \u201cnatural\u201d to prefer health to disease, and it is a \nhopeful omen that an increasing number of people in Europe and America are \ndiligently trying to imagine some form of government, some central authority. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n176 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nbetter equipped than parliamentary democracy to restore national life to a \nsemblance of health. Unfortunately too many fancy that the only substitute \nfor democracy is some form of despotism or communism, the tyrannical rule of a \ndictator or of a faction. In truth, such a \u201ccure\u201d may be worse than the disease. \n\nThe great value of Sir Charles Petrie\u2019s work is that he points to an obvious \nsolution of the problem, obvious at least for those nations which have kept intact \na monarchist tradition. He recommends the restoration and re-enforcement of \nthe monarchical form of government which has actually been tested by human \nexperience for thousands of years, and which has been so closely identified with \nthe history of Christian Europe. As Sir Charles shows, if England and France \nhad not been monarchies during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, European \nci\\'ilization could never have revived from the catalepsy which followed the \ncollapse of the Roman Empire. The dynasties of England and France, with \nrare exceptions, united their interests with the interests of the nation as a whole. \nThe royal family was one with the state. The supreme service of the kings was \nto prevent one faction from gaining control of the nation and from exploiting its \nresources for selfish advantage. They protected the weak from the strong, \nrepresented the principle of justice, and preserved the continuity of the national \ntradition. Thus the early kings fought the barons, and the later kings fought \nreligious fanatics and lawyers and magnates. Sir Charles points to the existing \npolitical confusion in the French Republic as a direct consequence of the rejection \nof the French royal house, for France is tom by factions, and there is no real \ncentral authority to control them. He argues that in spite of fair appearances \nEngland has never recovered from the shock of the rebellion against the Stuarts \nwhich culminated in the rise of the Whig aristocracy. \n\nThe real Whig, and the Liberal, wishes the Crown to be a mere figurehead, like the \nDoge of Venice, and . . . this conception of its functions is unfortunately held by many \na Conservative to-day. . . . Those who wish to know the exact benefits which the \n\u201cGlorious\u201d Revolution conferred upon the British Isles would do well to forsake the \nglowing accounts to be found in the pages of Macaulay, Trevelyan, and Oldmixon, for \nthe study of the Newgate Calendar, the pictures of Hogarth, and the working of the \nPenal Laws in Ireland. \n\nSir Charles contrasts the famous British Constitution of modem times with \nthe balanced hierarchical order of the mediaeval feudal state. \n\nAt the apex of the pyramid stood the monarch, the symbol of the nation as a whole, \nand as the representative of which he was, after his coronation, the Lord\u2019s anointed. \nHe was not a despot, bound by no laws other than those of his own making; rather he \nwas an integral part of the system of which he was the head. His crown was the em\u00ac \nblem of his trusteeship for his people, and his rights and duties were as exactly defined \nas those of his subjects. This was, indeed, the distinguishing characteristic of Feudal\u00ac \nism: every man and woman had a definite place in society, which was responsible to \nthem as they were to it. \n\nIt is clear that Sir Charles Petrie is a Tory, in the oldest and purest sense of \nthe word. That is one reason why his book makes such refreshing and stimu\u00ac \nlating reading. It is a profound relief to find someone who is so singularly free \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n177 \n\n\nfrom modernistic delusions of every kind. Even his prejudices have their charm, \nthe charm of the unexpected. His conception of the United States suggests, \nhowever, that his chief sources of information are Hollywood and the novels of \nTheodore Dreiser and Sinclair Lewis. \n\nPolitics [in the United States] have become corrupt to an extent unparalleled even in \nrepublican history, and to-day the gangster, spiritual brother of the Chinese war-lord \nand spiritual descendant of the mediaeval condottiergy is the dominant factor. . . . The \nCivil War destroyed the balance between North and South, and stamped indelibly the \nPuritanism and materialism of the former upon the whole country. Now with the pas\u00ac \nsage of time, Puritanism as an ethical code has been abandoned, and only materialism \nremains. All the available evidence goes to show that the United States is an immature \nsociety already in dissolution, and there can be small doubt that bad as is its political \nand economical condition, its moral state is far worse. It is true that the same observa\u00ac \ntion applies to Europe, but Europe at least has a code, even if it is only too often ignored, \nwhile the United States has none. \n\nThese words are not without justification, but they do not contain the whole \ntruth. Also they suggest no way of escape, for even Sir Charles cannot imagine \nthe establishment of a monarchy in the United States. We venture to add that \nthose Americans who believe most firmly in the superiority of monarchy as a \nprinciple, could conceive of no worse fate for their country than the \u201ccoronation\u201d \nof one or another of their politicians. Facts must be accepted as they are, and \nit is a fact that ever since its birth as a nation the United States has been en\u00ac \ntangled in a democratic karma or destiny. One may still hope that some day \nit will evolve out of this condition. The diseases of nations, like those of indi\u00ac \nviduals, are not necessarily incurable. \n\nThis reflection leads us to the consideration of Madame Muret\u2019s excellent \nbook. She has prepared a manual of the ideas of the leading exponents of \nroyalist theory in post-revolutionary France, from Joseph de Maistre and \nChateaubriand to Charles Maurras and L^on Daudet. Her attitude is detached. \nthroughout, and the extent of her personal sympathy with royalist views isij \nunrevealed; but she presents those views clearly and logically. In our opinion, \nthe documents which she cites serve as an admirable commentary upon Sir \nCharles Petrie\u2019s general doctrine. This is especially true of the work of Joseph \nde Maistre who upheld monarchy as the form of government specifically designed \nfor man by God. It is, moreover, the form \u201cto which society will always tend to \nreturn\u201d, just because it represents the natural and the normal. But men have a \ntragic propensity to fall away from the natural and the normal. When this \noccurs in a society, other and lower forms of government, corresponding to the \nfallen state of the citizens, come into existence. They have a punitive and \ncorrective function. Maistre believed, for instance, that \u201cthe Revolution was \nsent as a punishment and lesson to the French people for their impiety.\u201d \n\nOne great advantage of the monarchist state is its continuity. Because it is \nthe expression of a living tradition, it does not live for the present alone. It \nrespects past experience and profits from it, and it does not heedlessly mortgage \nthe future. As some of us know only too well, the politicians of a democracy \n\n\n178 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nconstantly act as if their nation had no past and no future. It is the fashion for \neach party or faction, when it assumes power, to denounce all the deeds of its \npredecessors and to reject whatever wisdom these may have acquired. Therefore, \nwhereas the \u201cbad karma\u201d of a political error or crime in a monarchy may be \ntempered by the \u201cgood karma\u201d of past virtues, a democracy must frequently \nface full and immediate retribution for its mistakes. Under democratic rule, the \nkarma of the nation as a whole may be eclipsed, as it were, at any given moment, \nby the karma of the faction which is in control. V.L. \n\n\nNazi Means War, by Leland Stowe; Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill Book \nCompany, New York, 1934; price, $1.50. \n\nTo believe that \u201cnobody wants war to-day\u201d, one would have to be an ostrich \nwith abnormal powers of continuing to breathe with one\u2019s head in the sand. \nNevertheless, despite the spectacle of German violence past and present, Nazi \n\u201cputsches\u201d, and Austrian civil war, there are, especially in this country, thou\u00ac \nsands of such abnormities. They would do well to read this little book. \n\nMr. Stowe begins by contrasting Hitler\u2019s two \u201cvoices\u201d, the one which speaks \nfor foreign ears, saying, \u201cGermany wants nothing but peace\u201d, and that which \nspeaks continually for Germans. He quotes from the unexpurgated German \nedition of Hitler\u2019s book. Mein Kampf. \n\nThe question of recuperation of German power is not how we can manufacture arms. \nRather it is, how can we create the spirit which renders a people capable of bearing \narms? When this spirit dominates a people, will power finds a thousand ways, each of \nwhich leads to a weapon. . . . Not until the Germans have realized that they must \nengage in an active and final conflict with France will it be possible to bring the fruit\u00ac \nless struggle to a conclusion\u2014on condition, however, that Germany sees in the exter\u00ac \nmination of France a means of providing her people with the necessary room for expan\u00ac \nsion. . . . There are eighty million Germans in Europe to-day. This policy will be \nrecognized as the correct one when in less than one hundred years from now the con\u00ac \ntinent of Europe is inhabited by 2$o,ooo,ooo Germans. \n\nMr. Stowe proceeds to describe the methods by which the government is \nrapidly preparing this happy state. \n\nThere are more than 1,300,000 uniformed men in Germany to-day\u2014a round million \nafter the regular army and Prussian police have been deducted. If you estimate the \nadult population of the Third Reich at 50,000,000, and its masculine proportion at one- \nhalf that figure, the mathematical result is simple enough. At least one out of every \ntwenty-five German men wears a uniform, or to be conservative, say one man out of \nevery twenty-eight. \n\nThere are, apart from the regular army, the Reichswehr and the Prussian \npolice, the Brown Shirts, the Black Coats, the Steel Helmets and the Labour \nCorps. The organization of this last resembles that of Mr. Roosevelt\u2019s forestry \ncamps for the unemployed, except that the young unemployed Germans are \ngiven military training and are building new military roads all over the country. \nAlso, all German students are required to spend from two to six months in the \n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n179 \n\n\nLabour Corps. Under the guise of sporting organizations there are automobile \nclubs, the members of which are obliged to furnish their cars when called upon. \nThere are the Air Sports and Air Protection Leagues which provide planes and \ntrain pilots and flyers. All these bodies are organized in military fashion, and \ncan be merged with the regular army at once. The author discussed this with an \nofficial of the German foreign office. This personage said that they were \u201cno \nmore militaristic than American football teams\u201d. The Germans always count \nupon the stupidity of the Americans and English. They are probably right. \n\nThe German universities have been provided with professors of military \nsubjects, whose courses are, for the most part, required. Professor Banse\u2019s \nbook. The Science of Military Defence, was banned because of its effect upon the \nworld outside of Germany,- but the Professor himself continues to instruct his \nstudents in its principles. One quotation from this work is enough. \n\nBiology will stamp it (the next war) as an exterminating fight of entire nations. . . . \nMethods to be considered are infection of drinking water and other water with typhoid \nbacillus; also the introduction of typhoid fever through fleas and of plague through \nartificially infected rats. By landing in the back regions of enemy countries and dis\u00ac \ncharging carriers of disease, airplanes, especially, should achieve vfry favourable results. \n\nNot only is the German male population being trained in tactics, machine-gun \nfire and forced marches, but little boys in school belong to the \u201cHitler Jugend\u201d, \nand are marched up and down in uniform and drilled in throwing hand grenades. \nStowe describes the unveiling of a monument to the Archangel Michael (!) where \nseveral hundred children were assembled. Among other things their leader said \nto them: \u201cWe do not want to speak the warm words of peace here. Our words \nare dictated by the terrible appeal of war. Young crew, raise the hand of oath \nbefore the monument which is dedicated to the sublimity of bloodshedding.\" \n\nMr. Stowe goes on to discuss the question of Germany\u2019s power to equip its \narmies, the manufacture of munitions, the conception of the Totalitarian State, \nthe German psychology, and the prospects for war in the near future. He \nends his book with a chapter entitled \u201cIf War, What About America?\u201d If what \nhe says about America be true, we ought to be bowed with shame. \n\nCan we be indiflFerent to the self-destruction of the old world? ... It appears accyJ \nrate to state that the temper of the American people to-day registers overwhelmin|:^ \nagainst any governmental action which is likely to necessitate the dispatch of a second \nAmerican Expeditionary Force across the Atlantic. \n\nHe says that if we do not participate, but remain neutral, we should refuse to \nmake money by the sale of munitions and supplies; but he doubts whether, in \nour present condition of financial stringency, we would do this. There is never \na question in his pages of right or wrong, or of the justice of a cause for which one \nought to fight. Peace at any ignominious price is the ideal. After descrioing so \naccurately the bloodthirsty, aggressive temper of the Germans, Mr. Stowe \nsuggests that we should refrain from assisting their victims. The German spirit \nis the embodiment of the uncivilized and bestial, but is the spineless, selfish \npacifism attributed (and we fear rightly) to America, any more civilized and \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\ni8o \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhuman? Alas, they are both aspects of the same thing and lead to the same end. \nNot once does Mr. Stowe mention Germany\u2019s conduct in the Great War,\u2014the \nsame careful preparations, the same psychology, the use of poison gas, the \natrocities in Belgium and France. Why should Germany\u2019s preparations surprise \nus now? He sympathizes warmly with Germany over the \u201ccruelty\u201d of the \nVersailles Treaty, although its obvious defect was that it did not provide for \nGermany\u2019s complete dismemberment. \n\nHowever, disagree as one must with Mr. Stowe\u2019s principles\u2014or lack of them\u2014 \nhis facts are so important that his book should be widely circulated. \n\nSt.C.LaD. \n\n\nGod Mends, by Henry Myers; John M. Watkins, London; price, 25. (75 \ncents). \n\nIt is a pleasure to be able to congratulate John M. Watkins once more on the \nhigh standards he maintains as a publisher. At a time when book-publishing, \nlike newspaper-publishing, is sinking to the level of a commercial enterprise, he \nhas clung to what may properly be described as the aristocratic principle of \nnil nisi pro hono publico. \n\nThis little book, simply and clearly written, is based on the injunction: \u201cSeek \nye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be \nadded unto you.\u201d It was written primarily for those who are ill and suffering, \nbut should be helpful, not only to them, but to all who find it difficult, in this \nIron Age, to keep fast hold of spiritual realities. It is theosophical in tone and \noutlook, entirely unsectarian, unpretentious. We are in hearty accord with its \nrecommendation of the use of mantra, which some would call \u201cejaculations\u201d, \nothers, \u201caffirmations\u201d,\u2014so long as these express the truth, not lies. \n\nIn objection to its main thesis\u2014that love of the Divine Will would induce \nbodily health\u2014there are those who will ask: why did so many of the great \nsaints suffer physically? We suggest, in reply, that much of their suffering was \nvicarious; secondly, that when spiritual growth has far out-run the stage as yet \nreached by physical organisms, the strain on the outer body may well become \ndisruptive. We believe, on the other hand, that when the intermediate con\u00ac \ndition has been passed (and even the great saints had not passed it), and when \nadeptship has been attained, perfect balance between inner and outer forces, \nwith resulting bodily vigour, becomes the normal state, long out-lasting the \nordinary span of life. In any case, God Mends was not written either for great \nsaints or for adepts, but for the many; and we wish greatly that the many might \nbe persuaded to read it. T. \n\n\nThe Universe of Light, by Sir William Bragg; The Macmillan Company, New \nYork; price, $3.50. \n\nReaders of the Quarterly will remember that, particularly of late, a great \ndeal has been written in it concerning modem physical science\u2014references \nmay perhaps specially be made to \u201cNotes and Comments\u201d of,October, 1933, \n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\ni8i \n\n\nand January, 1934. Therefore, if they have not already seen this recent work \nof Sir William Bragg (internationally known for his brilliant experiments in \nradiation, for which he received the Nobel Prize), they will be sure to find it \nstimulating. One object of the book is to give a summary of the earlier re\u00ac \nsearches in the field of physics, so as to make the present-day developments, from \nwhich they have sprung, the more comprehensible to those who have not been \nable to follow the course of science step by step. The natural starting point \nis the three-hundred-year old rivalry between the two theories of light: the \ncorpuscular and the pulse, later known as the wave theory. These, of course, \nat once recall to us the names of Newton and of Huyghens, but also of others\u2014 \nYoung and Fresnel, whose researches did so much to solve preceding difficulties; \nof Crookes, so often referred to in The Secret Doctrine, and many more. The \nreconciliation of these two early and apparently opposed hypotheses is now being \nreached by accepting both. The foremost physicists of to-day believe that both \nmay be true, that in fact each seems actually needed to supplement the other, \nif observed phenomena are to be explained. Science is apparently beginning to \nrecognize what The Secret Doctrine so long ago pointed out: the law of duality in \nthe manifested universe, but a duality springing from a fundamental unity. \nLight has a duality of expression or habit, but, says Sir William Bragg, the \n\u201cgreatly differing phenomena are all manifestations of one principle, the magnifi\u00ac \ncent inclusiveness of which has grown clearer continuously as we have studied the \nnature of light. . . . The wave and the corpuscle are different aspects rather than \ndifferent entities. . . . Light in its various forms behaves sometimes like a wave \nand sometimes like a corpuscle.\u201d Light is a familiar phenomenon, showing us \nthe forms and colours of objects which closely surround us, telling us many of \nthe secrets of the almost unthinkably distant sun and stars, and \u201cif the meaning \nof the word is extended, as may be done with every right and reason, to cover \nthe wide range of radiations which are akin to it, and yet are not visible to the \neye, then light is also the great conveyer of energy from place to place in the world \nand in the universe;... it transmits energy which is the mainstay of life, and gives \nto living beings the power of observation: and it is akin to the matter of which all \nthings animate and inanimate are made. The universe is its sphere of actionj \nWe do it no more than justice when we speak of the Universe of Light.\u201d 1 \nHere is certainly a recognition of an underlying unity in the Cosmos which, \nas the author himself points out, science, a few years ago, could not have fore\u00ac \nseen,\u2014but which Madame Blavatsky long ago predicted it would eventually \nrecognize. It may, however, be said in comment upon the last quotation, that, \nto the student of Theosophy, it remains an enigma that science still persists in \nthinking of anything in nature as inanimate. Sir William Bragg, among many \nother branches of physics, has done most distinguished work in the optical \nproperties of minerals; for instance, making intelligible many otherwise obscure \nproblems for mineralogists and geologists\u2014research work for which the world \nowes him a great debt. But after so much close observation and careful investi\u00ac \ngation, how can it still be imagined that the mineral kingdom (as one example \nonly) is inanimate? The amazing rapidity with which minerals respond to the \n\n\n\n\ni 82 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\naction of light, is a matter of perpetual wonder. Take a piece of rock (granite, \nperhaps) which, to the naked eye, may appear to be rather a dull, colourless \nlump; but cut a thin section of that mud-stained, ragged and rough fragment of \nthe earth\u2019s crust, examine it under the microscope, first in ordinary light and then \nbetween crossed Nicols, or better still in convergent light\u2014and see what happens! \nThe whole character of that small fragment is instantaneously transformed; it \nflashes into a wholly new state or condition; in a moment of time you can see \nthat it is actually pulsating with life. The beautiful polarization colours are as \nindescribably lovely and ethereal as any that one ever sees in the sky at sunrise, \nand the interference figures, with marvellously delicate tints of the highest orders, \nshow how alive are the minerals which compose that rock. It may be argued \nthat it is only the action of the light itself which causes these celestial effects, \nbut throughout nature there is interaction, a giving and a receiving and a giving \nback again, and a dead thing (dead in the accepted meaning of the word\u2014that \nwhich is inanimate) is incapable of such transfiguration; it is incapable of a \nresponse to light or to anything else. The author himself admits that, when ex\u00ac \nposed to X-ray analysis, \u201cevery crystal writes its own signature,\u2019\u2019\u2014and what \nmore could we ask ? The fact is that science has yet to discover what Theosophy \nhas taught throughout the ages: that there is no place in nature for the word \n\u201cinanimate\u2019\u2019; that every atom is intensely alive in its own degree, and at its own \nevolutionary point. Manifested nature is \u201cembodied consciousness\u2019\u2019\u2014that is \nthe Mystery Teaching of the past as of all time. \n\nThis lack of appreciation of one of the fundamental tenets of Theosophy does \nnot, however, lessen our interest or our sympathy with what, in general, this \nbook has to tell us, for it carries what will seem to many of us a hopeful mes\u00ac \nsage-one which points toward some of the archaic truths of the Wisdom re\u00ac \nligion. \u201cThis widening of our view of the nature of things is surely one of the \nmost remarkable consequences of modem research,\u2019\u2019 we read. \u201cNo one could \nhave anticipated this fundamental universality. A lifting of the mist has shown \nus links and similarities in the prospect where we imagined separations and \ndifferences. ... If, as in our present case, there are contradictions which perplex \nus, they must be due to imperfections in our theories and illustrations: and we \nneed not strain overmuch to resolve them. The resolution will come in its \nown time, when research has added to our knowledge and lifted our minds to \nhigher points of view. Meanwhile we have come into possession of a wonderful \nprinciple which unites all forms of radiation and all kinds of matter.\u2019\u2019 \n\nSo ends the book, and we lay it down with regret that we have finished it. \nIt has not, perhaps, been altogether easy reading to the scientifically uninitiated, \nbut it has been delightful throughout. It is written with simple directness, and \nwith a wide and liberal point of view, and we feel that the spirit we find in it is \none result of what the world knows to be Sir William Bragg\u2019s publicly expressed \nconvictions: unlike so many of his scientific colleagues, he firmly believes in the \nimmortality of the soul, and the divine purpose of Creation. That is, no doubt, \nwhat the student of Theosophy instinctively feels to be at the root of all he has \nwritten in The Universe of Light. T.J3 \n\n\n\nQuestion No. 389 .\u2014What is the extent and scope of karmic influence? Does it apply to the \nUniverse or only to man? Do animals come under karmic law? \n\nAnswer. \u2014Karma has been defined as cause and effect. The literal meaning of the word \nis \u201caction\u201d. It is universal, in all worlds and on all planes. Mr. Judge, in the chapter on \n\u201cKarma\u201d in the Ocean of Theosophy^ says: \u201cCeaseless in its operation, it beiirs alike upon \nplanets, systems of planets, races, nations, families, and individuals. ... No spot or being \nin the universe is exempt from the operation of Karma, but all are under its sway, punished \nfor error by it yet beneficently led on, through discipline, rest, and reward, to the distant \nheights of perfection.\u201d \n\nMan being endowed with free-will, is not only subject to the consequences of his past acts \nand choices, in this as well as in previous lives, but is able by his present acts to expiate his past \nand form his future Karma. The acceptance of the doctrine merely as an intellectual concept \nis of no avail; it must be acted upon. If a man were once thoroughly convinced of its truth, \nhe would become a conscious co-operator with the \u201cGood Law\u201d in the thoughts and acts of \nhis every-day life. By so doing he would help to lift the heavy Karma of the world which \nbears so painfully upon those Great Ones who have unselfishly renounced the reward they \nhave earned, to remain in contact with the world for its eventual salvation. G.H.M. \n\nAnswer. \u2014We have been told that the law of Karma exists only in the world of duality; \ntherefore it cannot with accuracy be spoken of as universal, unless by that term we mean \nthe manifested universe. Masters, having risen far above these lower worlds, are no longer \nsubject to it, but no doubt even high ch^las still have Karma of a sort to work off. An Avatar, \nwe are told, returns voluntarily to life on this earth, not because of karmic necessity; it is \nthe divine compassion of a Master which draws him; whereas the average man, still \nthe \u201cmaya\u201d of duality, and therefore still \u201ccondemned to the circle of necessity\u201d, is ob^d \nto come back into incarnation again and again, owing to his personal or national Karma, or \nboth. \n\nAs animals belong to the planes of duality, they would, of course, be subject to karmic \nlaws, although these would apply more to the species or group, than to the individual. It is \naltogether likely, however, that the highly developed animal (such, for instance, as a dog, \nremarkable for his intense fidelity), might have begun to weave his own Karma, owing to \nthe fact that he had advanced, far ahead of his kind, toward a knowledge of good and evil. \n\nT.A. \n\nAnswer. \u2014Above, below and everywhere must be the extent of karmic influence, apply\u00ac \ning both to the Universe and to man, and this would naturally include all animals, according \nto their nature and type. In a beautiful old classic we read: \u201cHe who would escape from \nthe bondage of Karma must raise his individuality out of the shadow into the shine; . . . \nlift himself out of the region in which Karma operates. . . . The initiate has the right to \ndemand the secrets of Nature and to know the rules which govern human life. . . . There\u00ac \nfore you who desire to understand the laws of Karma, attempt first to free yourself from \n\n183 \n\n\n1 \n\n\n184 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthese laws; and this can only be done by fixing your attention on that which is unaffected by \nthose laws.\u201d p \n\nQuestion No. 390.\u2014 What is the best way to bring to non-Theosophists the principles which \ngu e the Society through the present universal unrest and distress and which are so frankly de- \n\n^ the Quarterly? If they refuse to read the Quarterly, are words any use \n\nat all? \n\nAnswer. It has often been said that the best, in fact the only way to bring theosophical \nprincip es to others is by living in accordance with them and so making them a part of our- \nse ves, making them ours to give. If we lived by them truly, the inherent drawing power of \nthese pnnciples would make others desire them. There is never any use in trying to give \na man what he does not want. Often, however, a truth is rejected through prejudice, not \nagainst the truth spoken but against the terms in which it is clothed. Those who have really \nive y principles gam a knowledge of their essence that gives power to translate them into \nthe terms and analogies most appropriate to the particular hearer. J.F.B.M. \n\nwfcaTsee t\u2018i^a?rv tr \u201c Tu P~P'\u00ab \u2018here are people themselves. \n\nlife iusl ^ Quarterly, also, presents varied aspects of the wisdom religion of \n\nhfe Just because a person refuses to read the magazine does not in itself mean there is no \ndLT*^ bringing forward theosophical principles and standards. Some people imme- \ndiately shy away from anything that bears the Mel of Theosophy. We need not wonder \nnor be discouraged by that, when we consider the number of pseL-Xheosophist !nd o \n\nZX M f'^hich parade befL the world One waJ o! \nbringing right pnnciples and standards to the attention of a person is to do so in terrZ nf \nAm expenence and in language intelligible to that experience. As is said in \n\nno o give of our light to another, but to illumine his own'\\ Of course there will be f \nwhen words will not be of \u201canv use nt ^11\u201d . ,, , oe times \n\nreform all who cross our path. We are most decidedly called udo \\ \n\nthe extent we do so and live that reformation, we shall, by example\u00b0 [nfluMce^ofte'^iTt \n\ndegree of emulation.-often after words have failed P'\u00ae-'nnuence others to some \n\nG.M.W.K. \n\n\nNOTICE \n\nThe regular meetings of the New York Branch of The The^c\u201e\u201eu- > o \u2022 \nthroughout the winter and spring at 64, Washington Mews th t ^ will be held \n\nEast Eighth Street), on alte^ate^aturdaV^Ss. Sing Th\" ^ \n\ntary T.S., P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York. Out-of-town k ^ to the Secre- \n\nvited to attend these meetings whenever they are in New YorlT al!d \u00b0 \n\ninterested in Theosophy are always welcome. \u2019 visitors who may be \n\n\nSTANDARD BOOKS \n\n\n\n\n\ncloth, 2.2S \n16.00 \n7 .SO \n2.25 \n\n\ni . k- \n\n\n\n\n/ I \n\n\nIf \n\n\n'ril \n\n\n\n\nn \n\n\nBlavatsky, H. P. Isw UNVEaBD. VoLs. I and II.cloth, tio.oo \n\n\u00ab. _ C0MPI.BTB in00. book...cloth 7 So \n\nKey TO Theosophy. . . . . . . . . . . . \n\nSecret Doctrine, The, Vols. I and ii and Index .doth \n\nTheosophical Gloswr?:?\u201c.\u201c \u2019\u201c'TI' \n\nTransactions of the Blavatsky Lodge....\u201d ..ctoth \n\nVoice of the Silence. 7;,; \n\nCave. Fragments, Volume I..J'\u00ae\u00ae \n\n\u00bb\u25a0>\u25a0\u201c\u00ab\u00ab {};. \n\nGerard, John. Lbtters*to Friends\u2019. !!!!!!!!.\u201c.'.\u2019!!!.i*tb \n\nHillard, Katherine. Abridgment of the Secret\u201d b^RiNE\u201d. .doth, 3.*oo \nJohnston, Charles. Bhagavad Gita .'iWated. Muotated: doth, i.m \n\nCrest Jewel of Wisdom, The.I\u2019m \n\nGreat Upanishads, The, Volume I. .'ctom i 'so \n\nParables of the Kingdom, The, .. \n\n.sx- \n\nJudSs. Wiiriam Q. Bhao.\u00bb\u00bb Oita .Bllw,'dia.'V.ii; i'.S \n\n^ulturb of Concentration.. \n\nEchoes from the Uribnt. \n\n\u201c*\u2022 voi\u00ab\u2122i-.idii.\u00bbih;:w \n\nPatanjali's Yoga Aphorisms .\u201d\u2018cbj\u2019 \n\nKeightley, Archibald. Theosophy as an Influence in \u201dLife paper! \u2018.so \nLaDow, Stanley V. Plotinus.\u201e \n\nMitchell, Henry Bedinger. Meditation, Special edition\u201d 201 oaoer\u2019 'so \nTheosophical Society and Theosophy The. \u201e . ' \n\nMittAell, fj. F. B. Collegiate Education and Standards op*****\u2019 \n\nSinnett, A. P. Esoteric Buddhism.!!!!!.'*\u00ae \n\nOccult World. The.!.\u201d. . . . . ... *'\u00ae\u00ae \n\n^*11.\u00ae^\u2019 and its Function in Education...\u2019.M per\u2019 ***\u00ae \n\nWalker, E. D. Reincarnation. ... \n\nIdyll of the White Lotus..T\"^* ' \n\nUght on the Path..V.V.V..\u2019 \n\nThrough the Gates of Gold...\u201d.\u2019.\u201d.'.\u201d. ! 2 oS 1 \n\nTHE QUARTERLY BOOK DEPARTMENT, \n\nP. O. Box 64, Station O, New York \n\n\nDevowohal; Bhagavad Gita: Great Jewd of Wiadom; Pragmenti; The Great Doani \nshadi; I^ttm T^t B^e Helped Me; Letters to Prienda; Light on the PaUi\u2019 The Par \nablea of the Kingdom: The Song of Life; Through the Gates of Gold; VoiMofthe sS^. \n\nPHaoaoraicAi,: AMdgmmt of the Secret Doctrine; laia Unvdled: Key to TheoeoDhr! \n^FTRODUCTORTiCulturc o\u00a3 Conccntintioii $ Bchocs from the Orient* Piw^trrtr hiMmn \n\n\na? !j 4'i- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOL. XXXII, No. 3 JANUARY, 1935 \n\n\nFounded by 5. P. Blauatsky at lltw York In IS75 \n\n\nHE SocUty doei not pretend to be able to establiik \nat once a uniyersai brotherhood amons^ ment bat \nonly strives to create the nucleus of such a body* \nMany of its members believe that an acquaintance \nwith the world's religfions and philosophies will \n\n\nreveah as the common and fundamental principle \nunderlyinc thesct that ^^spiritual identity of all Souls with the \nOversoul''which is the basis of true brotherhood; and many \nof them also believe that an appreciation of the finer forces \nof nature and man will still further emphasise the same idea* \nThe organization is wholly unaectariant with no creed\u00bb \n6ogm2Lp nor personal authority to enforce or impose; neither \nis it to be held responsible for the opinions of Its members# \nwho are expected to accord to the beliefs of others that \ntolerance wnich they desire for their own* \n\nThe followinsf proclamation was adopted at the Conven* \ntion of the Society* held at Boston* April* 18951 \n\n^'The Theosophlcal Society in America by its delegates and \nmembers in Convention assembled* does hereby proclaim \nfraternal gfood will and kindly feeling: toward all students of \nTheosophy and members of Theosophical Societies wherever \nand however situated* It further proclaims and avers its \nhearty sympathy and association with such persons and \norganisations in all theosophical matters except those of \ngovernment and administration* and invites their cor* \ntespondence and co-operation* \n\n^To all men and women of whatever caste* creed* race* or \nteIig:ious belief* who aim at the fostering: of peace* gentleness* \nand unselfish reg:ard one for another* and the acquisition of \nsuch knowledg:e of men and nature as shall tend to the elcva\u00ab \ntion and advancement of the human race* it sends most ixitndlf \ngreeting: and freely proffers its services* \n\n^It loins hands with all relig:ions and religious bodiawhose \nefforts arc directed to the purification of men's thoughts and \nthe betting of their ways* and it avows its harmony them* \nwith. To all scientific societies and individual searchers after \nwisdom upon whatever plane, and by whatever righteous \nme^ mmued* it is and will be grateful for such discovery \nunfoldment of Truth as shall serve to announce and eon- \nfinn a Kitntiftc b^tsis for ethics. \n\nlastly* it invites to its membership those who* seek* \nHereafter* would learn to know the paA to \n\n\nApplications for membersliip should be addressed to tiu \nSecretary T. S., P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York, \n\n\n1 PUBLISI \n\n1 THETHEOSOPl \n\n^ED BY 1 \n\nIICAL SOCIEH 1 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Theosophical Quarterly \n\n\nr \n\n\n\nSubscription price. $a.oo per annum; single copies, 50 cents \n\nPublished by The Theosophical Society \nat 64 Washington Mews, New York, N.Y. \n\nJuly; October; January; April \n\nAddress all communications to P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York \n\n\nIn Europe, single copies may be obtained from and subscriptioM may be sent to John \nM. Watkins. 21 Cedi Court, Charing Cross Road, London, W. C. 2, England, ot to \nMr E H Lincoln, 0 Beaconsfield Road, Low Fell, Gateshead-on-Tyne, England, from \n\n\n_nil TTm.V \n\n\nCONTENTS OF VOL. XXXII, NO. 3 \nJanuary, 1935 \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS. \n\nFRAGMENTS. \n\nLETTERS FROM W. Q. JUDGE. \n\nPERCHANCE HE SLEEPETH. \n\nONE PATH TO THE GOAL. \n\nWHY I JOINED THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY., \n\nWITHOUT CENSOR. IV. \n\nMANAGING THE PERSONALITY. \n\nLTLE-DE-FRANCE. \n\nLIVING PICTURES. \n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME. \n\nREVIEWS... \n\nQUESTIONS AND ANSWERS; Notice of Meetings \n\n\nPAGE \n\n. 187 \n. 197 \n\n. 198 \n. 206 \n. 209 \n\u2022 215 \n. 220 \n. 230 \n\n\u2022 233 \n. 241 \n\n\u2022 243 \n\n\u2022 257 \n. 269 \n\n\nEntered as second-class matter September 5 , 1923 . at the Post Office at New York. N. Y., under the \nAct of March 3. 1879. \n\n\nCopyright, 1935, by The Theosophical Society \n\n\nTHE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY \n\n\nThe principal aim and object of this Society is to form the nucleus of a \nUniversal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, \ncaste or colour. The subsidiary objects are: The study of ancient and modern \nreligions, philosophies and sciences, and the demonstration of the importance \nof such study; and the investigation of the unexplained laws of nature and \nthe psychical powers latent in man. \n\n\n\nThe Theosophical Quarterly is the official organ of the original \nTheosophical Society founded in New York by IL P. Blavatsky, \nW. Q. Judge and othersy in 1875 . \n\nWe have no connection whatsoever with any other organization \ncalling itself Theosophicaly formerly headed by Mrs. BesanU nor \nwith similar bodies, the purposes and methods of which are wholly \nforeign to our own. \n\nEditors, The Theosophical Quarterly, f \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY, 1935 \n\nThe Theosophical Society, as such, is not responsible for any opinion or declaration \nin this magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an official document. \n\nFacts and Fancies \n\nI N his latest book. Experiment in Autobiography, H. G. Wells whose novels \nentertained the generation before the Great War, \n\nfacts to fancies. He contrasts himself, in this respect, with George Bernard \nShaw, who was, in the same far-off era, a popular dramatist. \n\nT u' r' o Ck^iwl T rruess 1 have always appeared formidably facty and close-set, \n\n\u25a0 sh\u00bb .,o\u00abnd k,, .na=\u2022\u2022\u00ab?\u00bb< \n\nleau Then 1 know, fundamentally, the heartless impartiality of natural causation, but \nShaw make\" E.olution something brighter and softer by endowing it with an ultimately \nbenevolent Life-Force. \n\nWe have no desire to take sides in any argument as to the supenor ments \nof Shaw or Wells. It is equally difficult to imagine Shaw as a benevolent old \ngentleman or Wells as a disinterested spectator of truth^ Both of them, in their \ndifferent ways, are intellectual mountebanks, whose chief asset is unbounded \nitisfaction with their own performance. The passage quoted is interesting \nbecause it suggests the two ways in which men habitually react to the p^ure \nof facts upon their consciousness. Wells reacts, or rather poses, as \nrealist who describes things as they are, especially hard and disagreeabl^hing \nwhich\u2019shock our sensibilities. He does not disguise his contempt for poseurs of \nthe other species, the sentimentalists, whose vision of facts is clouded by eir \nown fancies, and who cultivate the delusion that dreams can come true. \n\nBrutal Realism \n\nThe brutal realist does not understand that he also is a victim of fantasy. \nH JLcies that the material world comprises the whole of the Real. He fanaes \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\ni88 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthat he is describing a fact when he is only sketching the appearance of its \nsurface. This crude materialism, which colours so much modem literature, \nis rooted in a misconception of the experimental method which is a legitimate \ninstmment of thought in physical science. Scientific calculations depend upon \nthe exact measurement of concrete, objective phenomena, upon accurate defi\u00ac \nnition of the conditions in which similar sequences of events recur. The appro\u00ac \npriate object of scientific experiment is the inorganic world, where causation \nappears to be rigidly determined and calculable. It is not the function of the \nscientist as such, to enquire into the metaphysical nature of this determinism, \nor to take account of the possibility that there is a spiritual impulsive force and \npurpose underlying the superficial mechanism of matter. He can predict eclipses \nand design engines by applying without question the principles of mechanics, \nas these have been shaped by centuries of mathematical theory and physical \nexperiment. The study of the atom suggests that the mechanistic hypothesis \ndoes not work in the field of the infinitesimal; but that does not affect its use\u00ac \nfulness in its own domain. It is obviously a device of the human mind for acting \nupon gross matter, a scientific fiction, symbolizing a very fragmentary view of \nNature, but serviceable in so far as it enables man to forecast and control the \naction of the brute forces that encompass him. \n\nScientific fictions become dangerous when they are seriously accepted as philo\u00ac \nsophical propositions and are adopted as explanations of things to which they do \nnot apply. When scientific mechanism is extended beyond its appropriate \nsphere, it dislocates the mind. The vogue of brutal realism may be largely \nattributed to the dissemination of the notion that only physical facts are real, \nand that when these have been weighed and measured they have been fully \ndescribed. This is equivalent to the denial of consciousness, that is, of the one \nfact in the Universe, the reality of which is beyond dispute. \n\nAn author who believes that his pencil is more real than his soul, stores in his \nmind a very lop-sided image of the world. Thus when Wells remarks that he \nknows \u201cthe heartless impartiality of natural causation\u201d, he deceives himself and \nothers. All he knows is that on the plane of physical sensation certain processes \ncan be defined in terms of rigorous mechanical causation. But there are plenty \nof facts within common human experience which cannot be interpreted in this \nway. The epic of organic evolution and, in particular, the dramas of human \nlife, point to a deeper mode of causation which is neither heartless nor purposeless. \nIn brief, brutal realism is not realism at all. It is the expression of an excessive \nattention to the external aspect of Nature, with a corresponding indifference to \nall that is implied by the self-evident existence of consciousness. \n\nMagnesium and Social-Mindedness \n\nIn justice it should be said that many scientists, like Eddington and Jeans, \nare acutely aware of the limited zone of truth to which their methods give \naccess. It would seem that popular authors, like Wells, have done more to \nfortify materialism in public opinion than all the men of science combined. \nHowever, from time to time one reads extraordinary statements by men of \n\n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n189 \n\nscience, notably by members of the medical profession. There is Professor E. V. \nMcCollum of Johns Hopkins, for instance, who is apparently convinced that \nthe human race can be morally reformed by a proper diet. A little while ago he \nreported that manganese stimulates mother-love. He now declares that \u201cyou \ncan\u2019t have a sweet disposition without magnesium\u2019\u2019. It is worth while to quote \nthe ironical conclusion of an editorial on this \u201cdiscovery\u2019\u2019 in the New York \nTimes (October 30, 1934), for it shows that the worst enemy of materialism is \ncommon-sense. \n\nAs all the psychologists know, there is no connection between mother-love and human \nkindness. Mother-love is a selfish, dominating and destructive force which must be \nseverely frowned upon. It would be terrible if the female parent of a young child mixed \nup the magnesium and manganese bottles in the medicine chest, and stimulated her \nmother-love instead of her benevolence and social-mindedness. \n\nSome Ideas Concerning Angels \n\nThe brutal realist\u2014whether he be a man of science or a man of letters\u2014 \nresorts to the most bizarre hypotheses to explain away the evidence of spiritual \npowers. He seeks the origin of ideal qualities, like honour and chastity, in the \ntaboos of savages. He classifies religion as a manifestation of inherited animal \ninstincts which have not yet been suppressed by human reason. He diagnoses \nSt. Paul\u2019s experience on the road to Damascus as an epileptic seizure. He \ndescribes the healing science of the Master Christ as a primitive form of psychi\u00ac \natry, assuming that the Master used the methods of a modem psychopathic \nward. \n\nA curious example of this materialistic self-satisfaction appeared on the \neditorial page of the New York Herald Tribune, November i, 1934- In semi- \nserious vein, the writer considers the source of the immemorial tradition that \nwhen celestial beings appear to man, they come clothed in garments of light. \nHis little essay was, doubtless, intended as a bit of fine writing, and nothing more; \nbut it suggests how remote and unreal the angels seem to modem man and ho^ \nlimited is his conception of light. \n\nThe Dark Ages were literally so in the homes of man, and later ages, too. It is hard \nfor us who live in cities long ago made incandescent by Edison to understand how beau\u00ac \ntiful light must have been to those who first imagined and portrayed the heavenly beings \nas creatures of unearthly splendour. In the comfortless, doleful Northern winter, through \nunnumbered centuries, abundant light seemed a worshipful thing. . . . The pagan and \nthe Christian supernatural host came robed in glory, with swords of lightning. For \nlight then was rare and costly. Perhaps if electric lamps had been invented before \nangels were imagined, the conception of their supreme beauty would have been quite \ndifferent. In nights that can be made brighter than noon by lifting a finger, mediaeval \nangels would not be conspicuous in any external way. St. Michael\u2019s famous blade would \nfall to an airport beam. \n\nOne might enquire, in the same semi-serious vein, why the Egyptians identified \ntheir greatest divinities with the Sun, and why the brightest angels were \u201cim\u00ac \nagined\u2019\u2019 in Italy, when neither Egypt nor Italy was afflicted with doleful Northern \nwinters. Why must we assiune that the Host of Heaven have no existence out- \n\n\n\nIpO \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nside the human imagination; that their aureoles of dazzling light signify nothing \nmore real than the need of man to formulate a mental image which quiets his \nfear of cold and darkness? Theosophy affirms that the part of Nature which we \ncontact through the physical senses is but an infinitesimal fraction of the Whole; \nthat there are forms, modes of being, dimensions of substance, states of conscious\u00ac \nness, so far beyond our ken that we cannot dimly represent what they may be \nlike. However, this does not imply that there can be no intercourse between man \nand the \u201cHierarchies\u201d of invisible Nature. To deny such intercourse, one wotild \nbe forced to reject the testimony of all races and of all ages. Inevitably men \nhave seen the apparitions of \u201cGods\u201d and \u201cAngels\u201d through the prism of im\u00ac \nagination, translating\u2014as it were\u2014their ineffable aspects into conceivable \nimages. Thus men have adorned Divine Messengers with emblems of physical \nlight. But why should not these emblems be symbolical of the truth? If the \nHeavenly Host be associated in tradition with the idea of light, may it not be \nbecause their essence corresponds to the light which we know on earth? Terres\u00ac \ntrial light itself is a Divine Messenger, for it is the supporter of organic life and \nthe matrix in which the first forms of physical sensation are bom. \n\nEven on earth there are ranges of radiation which are as darkness to our sight, \nwhich no Edison has made visible. We cannot perceive the ultra-violet colours \nwhich are within the vision of many insects. According to Theosophy, those \nranges of invisible light have an infinite extension, and the noumenon of light is \nlife. \u201cIn Him was life, and the life was the light of men.\u201d Thus the Kabalah \ntaught that the words of Genesis, \u201cLet there be Light\u201d, refer to the formation \nand evolution of the Sephiroth, the Creative Logoi, the Divine Architects of the \nUniverse. \n\n\nThe Substitution of Emotion for Thought \n\nIn some respects, brutal realism is less exasperating than sentimentality. It \nis also easier to combat, for it is more tangible, less \u201csubjective\u201d, and its ab\u00ac \nsurdities and bigotry are often painfully manifest. Moreover, although the \ntough-minded materialist may be purblind in the presence of spiritual tmth, \nhe is capable of describing accurately and honestly the \u201cmatter\u201d which he can \nsee. If he be a man of science, he cannot be dishonest or fanciful in his labo\u00ac \nratory reports, and remain in his caste. Modem science has a mgged code of \ntruthfulness which is enforced without compromise. \n\nThe sentimentalist, however, does not look squarely at facts of any order. \nBoth spirit and matter are beyond his horizon, and he becomes aware of them \nonly as mirages or reflections in the atmosphere of the dream-world where his \npersonal consciousness is concentrated. Because he habitually substitutes \nemotion for intellection, his logical faculty does not have a normal development. \nHis reasoning processes start from false observations, and one cannot be sure of \nthe conclusions in which they \\vill terminate, for they do not necessarily obey the \nlaws of the syllogism. Between the spiritual or physical reality which confronts \nthe sentimentalist, and his mind, is suspended a veil of psychic stuff, a web of \nfancies, which is what he actually contemplates when he pretends to look at facts. \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n191 \n\nDoubtless, all human personalities enwrap their consciousness in glamour of \none kind or another. The most brutal realist has private illusions which he \ncherishes. The sentimentalist is only distinguished from other men by his \ngreater reluctance to admit that he has illusions. When the nature of things \nforcibly contradicts his mental picture of them, he does not alter the picture \nbut denoimces Nature. \n\n\nEcclesiastical Sentimentality \n\nIf the sentimentalists would only keep their dreams to themselves, one could \nafford to let them slumber in peace, until life and Karma finally aroused them. \nHowever, few of them have the gift of silence. Some are in a position to do \nincalculable harm, for they hold governmental posts in many lands. Many are \nUtopians, potentially if not actually, with an avowed or secret desire to reform \nboth man and Nature. In general, the clergy seem to be especially subject to \nwaves of sentimentality, perhaps because they are forced by circumstances to \ntalk almost continuously about spiritual things which very few have directly \nexperienced. In any event, the mind of the average clergyman is full of what \nSpinoza calls \u201cinadequate ideas\u201d. Again and again he confuses spiritual princi\u00ac \nples with their psychic counterfeits, seeing good where there is evil and evil \nwhere there is good. Although he professes his faith in the primacy of the spirit, \nhe is capable of posing without dignity as a materialist, of arguing that human \nvice and misery are products of adverse material conditions and would dis\u00ac \nappear if the conditions were changed. \n\nThe recent meeting of the Protestant Episcopal House of Bishops at Atlantic \nCity provides melancholy evidence of this ecclesiastical sentimentality. With \ncertain notable exceptions, the Bishops showed a deplorable misconception of \ntheir Master\u2019s teaching and standards. They were as susceptible to changing \nmoods as a political convention. Immediately after they had endorsed birth \ncontrol, they prepared for publication a Pastoral Letter denouncing the decay \nof morals and the \u201cmenace of Reno\u201d, with particular emphasis upon the selfish\u00ac \nness of \u201cconscienceless and godless parents\u201d. This kind of logic is characteristic \nof the general order of thought in the document. It reflects not only mental and \npsychic confusion, but moral cowardice. Too many of the Protestant rler|Aire \ndesperately afraid of being thought old-fashioned, of not being considered nfliern \nand up-to-date; and this fear impels them to compromise and hypocrisy. \n\nWe quote a few sentences from the Pastoral Letter which illustrate a very \ncommon sentimental delusion. The House of Bishops, disapproving the processes \nof Nature in general, refuses to admit the spiritual and natural necessity of war. \n\nWar is murder on a colossal scale. The only armed force, whether on land or sea, \nwhich is justifiable is a constabulary designed to regulate and safeguard those interests \nthat have to do with the prosecution of an orderly social and economic life. The testi\u00ac \nmony of the great war shows the wicked folly of such a struggle and its aftermath has \nshattered the world\u2019s hope and issued in confusions and disorder. . . . The Christian \nChurch cannot and will not deny loyalty and fealty to its Lord by being partners in \nany scheme, national or international, that contemplates the wholesale destruction of \n\n\n192 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhuman life. It refuses to respond to that form of cheap patriotism that has as its slogan: \n\u201cIn times of peace prepare for war.\u201c It regards as wicked the waste of the nation*s \nwealth in the building of vast armaments and the maintenance of greatly augmented \nforces on land and sea. \n\nThe whole pacifist argument depends upon the validity of the generalization \nthat \u201cwar is murder on a colossal scale\u201d. Without doubt, some wars have been \nmurderous feuds, and nothing more; but the statement as a universal proposition \nis meaningless. One might as well say that a man who protects a woman or \nchild from assault is as guilty as the assailant, because he also uses violent \nmethods. The Great War proves the \u201cwicked folly\u201d of Germany which started \nit in open defiance of civilization. Do the Bishops seriously pretend that Bel\u00ac \ngium was wicked and insane, when she rejected the criminal proposals of the \nGerman Chancellor; or that England would have behaved like a Christian \nnation, if she had broken her pledge to defend Belgian neutrality? Are the \nFrench to-day wickedly wasting their wealth, because in times of so-called peace \nthey prepare for war, knowing that the Germans, who have so many times \ncrossed the Rhine, are making ready to cross it again? \n\nTo believe that such courses of action are evil, is to betray the principles of \nChrist, who gave his life for the helpless and oppressed. It is no wonder that in \nall the Occident, multitudes who still believe in fimdamental distinctions be\u00ac \ntween right and wrong, have turned in disgust from the Churches. The supreme \ntragedy of Christianity is that the ideal image of the Master has been distorted \nbeyond all recognition, until to the average man it suggests the polar opposites \nof its veritable qualities, weakness instead of strength, the spirit of compromise \ninstead of the spirit of honour. \n\n\nThe End of War \n\nThe pacifist is blind to the basic truth that no era of enduring peace can come, \nuntil the virtues of the warrior have become an integral and permanent part of \nhuman nature. It would be agreeable if these virtues could be acquired without \neffort and sacrifice, without the need of cultivating them through experience of \ndiscomfort and horror, pain and death. Unfortunately these are the conditions \nwhich are presented and enforced by Nature. We must learn to recognize the \nlight of the immortal spirit shining through the outer hideousness of the suffering \nand dying body. \n\n\u201cNothing is better for a warrior than a righteous battle\u201d, says Krishna in the \nBhagavad Gita. It is interesting and stimulating to find this theme resumed in \na recent work by Colonel Charles de Gaulle of the French Army, Vers VArmk de \nmetier. The author comments upon the mission of the soldier, which is not \nmerely to kill the enemy, as the pacifists insinuate, but to sacrifice himself com\u00ac \npletely and joyfully to a cause which he recognizes to be greater than himself. \nTherefore, the true soldier longs, in a certain sense, for war, because only in \nbattle can he fully give himself. \u201cBetween the fictitious activity of an army in \ntimes of peace and its latent power, there is a deceptive element, of which the \nsoldier cannot become aware without pain.\u201d It is not that he enjoys the spectacle \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n193 \n\n\nof the battlefield, with its confusion and carnage. He looks beyond all warfare \nto the ultimate peace, but he knows that this peace* is the dynamic consummation \nof life, and that only by the way of war can it be attained. Colonel de Gaulle has \nrestated, in his own terms, a fundamental principle of real Christianity, that \nfreedom from pain is the reward of those who use pain to rise above it. \n\nIf war is in essence destructive, the ideal of the warrior is, however, economy, the \nminimum of slaughter for the maximum of victory. It turns to account death and suf\u00ac \nfering and terror, the sooner to attain its goal and to bring them to an end. ... In \ntruth, the military spirit, the art of the soldier and his virtues constitute an integral \npart of the capital of humanity. . . . The self-sacrifice of the individual for the group, \nthe glorified suffering by which troops are formed, best fulfil our aesthetic and moral \nideals; the highest doctrines of philosophy and religion have chosen no other goal. \n\n\nThe World-Picture of Modern Physics \n\nTo return to our general theme, the brutal realist and the sentimentalist \nsuffer from a common delusion, that it is easy to discover and to reveal the truth. \nThe ultra-modem physicist is at least freed from this kind of self-deception. In \nhis efforts to interpret the bewildering paradoxes of \u201csub-atomic\u201d behaviour, \nhe has reduced the universe to \u201ca stormy sea with the sea taken away and only \nthe abstract quality of storminess left\u2014or the grin of the Cheshire cat if we can \nthink of a grin as imdulatory\u201d. Tangible things do not exist in the scheme of \nwave-mechanics, and the physicist has practically abandoned the search for them. \nHe refuses to speak of anything more definite than a \u201cprobability\u201d. \n\nHowever, from time to time, some leader of advanced scientific opinion ven\u00ac \ntures to speculate upon the nature of the world-picture which may ultimately \nemerge from the void in which the classical Newtonian universe has been dis\u00ac \nsolved. In his Presidential Address before the annual meeting of the British \nAssociation for the Advancement of Science, Sir James Jeans suggested that the \none certain fact in the world is the existence of our own minds. His thcsi|d \nrepresents a return, in spirit if not in letter, to the starting-point of modefl \nphilosophical speculation, the famous cogito ergo sum of Descartes. \n\nThere is nothing new under the sun. It is wise to keep this ancient apothegm \nin mind, whenever we read a newspaper. The press habitually describes every \nevent in the most sensational terms possible. Thus the newspaper accounts of \nJeans\u2019 speculations imply that his ideas have no precedents in the history of \nthe human mind. Moreover, Jeans himself lends colour to this delusion by \napparently imputing to his predecessors a general naivete which is quite in\u00ac \ncredible. Doubtless, a gross and crude materialism has been fashionable in \ncertain strata of society during the past two centuries; but one wonders how \nmany real men of science have believed that they were \u201cstudying an objective \nnature which had its own existence independently of the mind which perceived \nit\u201d. \n\nFor instance, there was Sir Isaac Newton. In the Principia, he carefully \nexplained that he did not use the word \u201cattraction\u201d in a physical sense; that \nhis conception of natural forces or \u201cagents\u201d was purely mathematical. In \n\n\n194 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhis Third Letter to Bentley, he said: \u201cThat gravity should be innate, inherent \nand essential to matter, . . . is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no \nman, who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking, can \never fall into it.\u201d A hundred years after Newton, Cuvier, the great zoologist, \nremarked in the R&volution du Globe that \u201cit is not certain whether natural \nforces are not after all spiritual powers {des agents spirituels).'' In 1870, when \nVictorian materialism was at its height, Thomas H. Huxley wrote in his Lay \nSermons: \u201cAfter all, what do we know of this terrible \u2018matter\u2019, except as a name \nfor the unknown and hypothetical cause of states of our own consciousness? \n. . . Nor is our knowledge of anything we know or feel more, or less, than \nknowledge of states of consciousness.\u201d Certainly, Jeans is not the first scien\u00ac \ntific thinker who has concluded that \u201cthe external world is essentially of the \nsame nature as mental ideas\u201d. \n\nThe following is quoted from the report of Jeans\u2019 address in Science y September \n7 . 1934 - \n\nThe old physics imagined it was studying an objective nature which had its own \nexistence independently of the mind which perceived it\u2014which, indeed, had existed \nfrom all eternity, whether it was perceived or not. It would have gone on imagining \nthis to this day, had the electron observed by the physicists behaved as on this supposi\u00ac \ntion it ought to have done. But it did not so behave, and this led to the birth of the \nnew physics, with its general thesis that the nature we study does not consist so much \nof something we perceive as of our perceptions; it is not the object of the subject-object \nrelation, but the relation itself. There is, in fact, no clear-cut division between the \nsubject and object; they form an indivisible whole which now becomes nature. This \nthesis finds its final expression in the wave-parable, which tells us that nature consists \nof waves and that these are of the general quality of waves of knowledge or of absence of \nknowledge, in our own minds. Let me digress to remind you that if ever we are to know \nthe true nature of waves, these waves must consist of something we already have in our \nown minds. Now knowledge and absence of knowledge satisfy this criterion as few \nother things could; waves in an ether, for instance, emphatically did not. It may seem \nstrange, and almost too good to be true, that nature should in the last resort consist of \nsomething we can really understand; but there is always the simple solution that the \nexternal world is essentially of the same nature as mental ideas. . . . \n\nHis [the Victorian scientist\u2019s] objective and material universe is proved to consist of \nlittle more than constructs of our own minds. To this extent, then, modern physics has \nmoved in the direction of philosophic idealism. Mind and matter, if not proved to be \nof similar nature, are at least found to be ingredients of a single system. . . . This brings \nus face to face with the fundamental difficulty which confronts every form of philo\u00ac \nsophical idealism. If the nature we study consists so largely of our own mental con\u00ac \nstructs, why do our minds all construct one and the same nature? ... I would suggest \nthat physics itself may provide a possible although very conjectural clue. . . . Atom\u00ac \nicity and division into individual existences are fundamental in the restricted space- \ntime picture, but disappear in the wider, and as far as we know more truthful picture \nwhich transcends space and time. In this, atomicity is replaced by what General Smuts \nwould describe as \u201cholism\u201d\u2014the photons [or units of radiation] are no longer distinct \nindividuals each going its own way, but members of a single organization or whole\u2014a \nbeam of light. . . . The biologists are beginning to tell us, although not very unani\u00ac \nmously, that the same may be true of the cells of our bodies. And is it not conceivable \nthat what is true of the objects perceived may be true also of the perceiving minds? \nWhen we view ourselves in space and time, we are quite obviously distinct individuals; \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\nIQS \n\nwhen we pass beyond space and time, we may perhaps form ingredients of a continuous \nstream of life. It is only a step from this to a solution of the problem which would have \ncommended itself to many philosophers from Plato to Berkeley, and is, I think, directly \nin line with the new world-picture of modern physics. \n\nConsciousness and the Intellect \n\nMany details in this brilliant philosophic design recall the world-picture of \nTheosophy. The student of Theosophy also believes that \u201cthe nature we study \nconsists largely of our mental constructs\u201d, and that mind and matter are \u201cin\u00ac \ngredients of a single system\u201d. However, the two pictures are far from being \nidentical. There is a depressing quality which pervades the \u201creal world\u201d of Jeans\u2019 \nsystem. It is, indeed, \u201ca stormy sea with only the abstract quality of storminess \nleft\u201d. It has as much warmth and vividness as a mathematical formula, and is \nadmirably adapted for the habitation of such entities as the square root of minus \none. Certainly this is not the \u201creal world\u201d of Theosophy. It is a fundamental \ntheosophical principle that the universe, if we could see it as it truly is, would \nreveal itself as infinitely more vivid, more concrete, more varied in beauty, more \nindividual in its forms of consciousness, than we can remotely conceive. As \none of the Upanishads tells us: \u201cWho could live, who could breathe, if the heart \nof being were not joy?\u201d It is our own world of illusion which, by comparison \nwith the real, is abstract, vague and empty. But the truth and beauty which we \nfind and love here, are re-discovered on all the planes of reality, for they are of the \nessence of universal being. \u201cThere is no existence for that which does not exist, \nnor is there any non-existence for that which exists.\u201d \n\nJeans reduces the universe to a basic substance which is either mind or of \nmind-like nature. But what does he mean by mind? The word itself has so \nmany connotations, that it is almost impossible for anyone to use it twice in \nexactly the same sense. Jeans appears to have some conception of a universal \nconsciousness of which human consciousness is a specialized manifestation or \nmicrocosm. But he clearly identifies this \u201cconsciousness\u201d with the intelleoJl \nIt is, indeed, open to question whether the ideal intellect which he attributearo^ \nGod could be associated with any state of consciousness. The mind of Nature \nor of God, as he half-seriously postulates it, is devoid of everything except the \nultra-abstruse figments of pure mathematical theory. It is the intellect of a \nsuper-mathematician. \n\nAs Jeans makes clear, it is irrational to conceive all things, including our \nminds, as permutations and combinations of an objective and material stuff \nextended in space. But we find it no less difficult to imagine any process whereby \na mathematical formula could be transformed into the concrete universe to which \nour souls and bodies belong. \n\nEven the limited introspection of which we are capable, demonstrates that \nthe intellect is not itself a creative power. It is an instrument of consciousness, \na vehicle evolved by Nature, as the physical body is evolved, for the purposes \nof soul. Wherever consciousness is immediately present, the twin powers of \nperception and will are active. In the oft-quoted phrase of Plotinus, con- \n\n\n196 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nsciousness is contemplation overflowing into action; as the mystics have so often \nrepeated, consciousness and love are one and the same. But the intellect per se \nis incapable of perception and will and love. It is in its own nature as passive \nas a robot; its function being to register and to preserve the images presented \nto it by the perceptive powers, and, under the impulsion of will, to formulate in \nlogical order plans which can be translated into effective action. \n\nThe Bridge Between Spirit and Matter \n\nTheosophy, following the most venerable of metaphysical traditions, proposes \na solution of the coexistence of subject and object in one universe, by postulating \nthat they are aspects of \u201can Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless and Immutable \nPrinciple on which all speculation is impossible\u201d. \n\nParabrahman, the One Reality, the Absolute, is the field of Absolute Consciousness, \ni. e., that Essence which is out of all relation to conditioned existence, and of which \nconscious existence is a conditioned symbol. But once that we pass in thought from \nthis (to us) Absolute Negation, duality supervenes in the contrast of Spirit (or Con\u00ac \nsciousness) and Matter, Subject and Object. Spirit (or Consciousness) and Matter are, \nhowever, to be regarded, not as independent realities, but as the two symbols or aspects \nof the Absolute, Parabrahman, which constitute the basis of conditioned Being whether \nsubjective or objective. 1 he Manifested Universe, therefore, is pervaded by duality, \nwhich is, as it were, the very essence of its E^-istence as Manifestation. But just as the \nopposite poles of Subject and Object, Spirit and Matter, are but aspects of the One \nUnity in which they are synthesized, so, in the Manifested Universe, there is \u201cthat\u201d \nwhich links Spirit to Matter, Subject to Object. This something, at present unknown \nto Western speculation, is called by Occultists, Fohat. It is the \u201cbridge\u201d by which the \nIdeas existing in the Divine Thought are impressed on Cosmic Substance as the Laws \nof Nature, ... the dynamic energy of Cosmic Ideation {The Secret Doctrine, ed. 1893, \nL 43 - 44 )- \n\nIt is suggested that man, in his turn, can build a \u201cbridge\u201d between soul and \nbody, between subject and object, between the perceiver and the perceived, a \n\u201cbridge\u201d which may be said to correspond to Fohat and to be formed of spiritual \nintuition and will. Not unnatiu*ally it is unknown to Western speculation, for \nit is manifest in the lives of the very few. Plowever, according to the occult \ntradition which Madame Blavatsky transmitted, no real understanding of the \nsimplest fact is possible until that \u201cbridge\u201d is completed by man. The mind, \nrelying on the physical senses alone, and distracted by self-will and emotion, \ncan speculate endlessly, but it cannot contact the living truths of greater Nature. \nIt is this \u201cmind\u201d which is \u201cthe slayer of the real\u201d. The intellect is the mirror of \nconsciousness, whether this be high or low, and only the spiritual man can possess \nan intellect which reflects things as they are. \n\n\nFRAGMENTS \n\n\nT hou hast started upon the Quest, 0 Soul: hast thou the lion\u2019s heart \nthat it requires? \n\nNay, quoth he, no lion\u2019s heart have I. I am weak and fearful, but \n\nI love. \n\nHast thou strength, then, for the rigours of the Way,\u2014^the heavy burdens \nthou must carry, the rough, steep climb, the bitter winds, the peril of a slip to \nfaltering feet? \n\nNay, I am all weakness, as I said; know not how to climb, have a poor back \nfor biurdens, and always stumble when I walk. \n\nThen hast thou light and vision to supplement this weakness, something to \nshow thee where the turnings are upon the road; where, through the mists, the \nchasms lie concealed; where, under newly-fallen snow, are rolling stones or \nsheets of slippery ice? Vision thou must have, or else sure knowledge of the \nWay. \n\nNay, neither have I: I tell thee I have but love, and what I love I seek. For\u00ac \nbid me not, for I can die of love, so weak I am. The body matters little, but \nwho coidd slay his heart? \n\nIf thus thy love be all, 0 Soul, and if thy heart were slain, where wouldst \nthou be upon the Way? Consider well. \n\nNay, cease thy questioning. 0 thou. Tormentor of my craven soul, leav^ \nme, that I may pass along. Or, if thy blighting presence must stay with m# \ncome thou; I parley here no more. I love, and follow where I love. \n\nThen was the troubling voice dissolved in music, and on the strains of music \ncame the words: Pass on, blest Soul; he who has love has all the rest, or finds \nthem waiting for him on the Way. Pass on, whatever may betide, to certain \nVictory. Cav 6 . \n\n\n^97 \n\n\n\nLETTERS FROM W. Q. JUDGE \n\n\n\nHE concluding words of Judge\u2019s letter of December 19th, 1895, ^rom \n\n\nAiken, S. C., were: \u201cNo more and we shall meet\u2019\u2019 (see the Theo- \n\n\n^ SOPHICAL Quarterly, July, 1933). I was at Macon, Ga., where, on \nDecember 22nd, the very active local Branch, in spite of Macon\u2019s compara\u00ac \ntively small population, provided an audience of over 600 people, in the Acad\u00ac \nemy of Music, to listen to my lecture on Theosophy. Newspaper reports were \nfriendly, and Judge, when he heard of it, was pleased, for in those days, numbers \nand publicity still counted. We were sowing widely, scattering seeds of the \nAncient Wisdom in every comer we could reach. Not many of us realized then, \nas Judge did, that out of the thousands who not only listened, but for a time \njoined the ranks of the Society, it would have been against the order of Nature \nfor more than a handful to bear fruit. \n\nAs soon as I could leave Macon, I joined Judge at Aiken, and had the delight \nof spending two weeks with him in the boarding-house where he and Mrs. Judge \nwere staying. Judge\u2019s voice was very weak; it hurt him to talk; but as the love \nof his life was the Theosophical Society and the Movement, he not only had \nto know the particulars of my lecturing tour, with impressions of the members \nI had met, but had to comment for my information, and \u201cfor the future\u2019\u2019, as he \nput it, when I begged him not to tire himself in this way. (It should be remem\u00ac \nbered that he died on March 21st, only three months later.) He used to come \nto my room and sit on the bed, cross-legged, yogi fashion\u2014the soles of his feet \nturned up\u2014and talk of things he wanted me to know, of things inner and outer, \nvital in the real and often hidden life of the Movement. Already showing signs \nof exhaustion, constantly struggling with his cough, it seemed none the less as if \nhe could not, would not die, so strong and steady, clear and one-pointed, was \nthe inner flame of his purpose; and always the same marvellous smile, springing \nfrom his eyes,\u2014quiet, like sunrise behind hills. Uncomplaining, single-hearted, \nhe fought on, hoping to live that he might complete the work he had begun. \nOften we talked of the book on Occultism, for which he had asked me to collect \nmaterial: it was needed, he said; there were so many perversions, misunder\u00ac \nstandings, of the real thing. \n\nHe had not a spark of vanity in him: and that, above all, was the trouble \nwith his enemies, as it is the trouble to-day with those who discuss him from a \npedestal of superiority, deciding where he was right and where he was wrong,\u2014 \nin an effort to show, by hook or crook, to a little circle of admirers, their own \nacumen, or \u201cspiritual\u201d attainment, or vast experience, that in any case they \nmay shine in their own eyes, and, if God be good, in the eyes of others also. \nHow small they are, against the memory of his greatness! \n\nHe was still able to take short walks, and occasionally we tried the streets of \nAiken for this purpose; but they were \u201cfull of niggers\u201d, as he said,\u2014which \n\n\nig8 \n\n\n\nLETTERS FROM W. Q. JUDGE \n\n\n199 \n\n\nwould not have mattered if it had not been for the amazing rudeness (at that \ntime, in any case) of the coloured population, and for occasional attempts to \njostle us off the pavement, which both of us foimd intolerable. So we deserted \nthe streets and took to the woods, agreeing that the North is often imfair to the \n\u201cSouthern attitude\u201d toward negroes. Northerners failing to recognize the dif\u00ac \nficulties which arise when white people, outnumbered, live side by side with a \nrace which, as a race, is inferior (the exceptions, both ways, merely emphasizing \nthe rule). \n\nNo man ever worked harder for the ideal of brotherhood than Judge; but he \nwas not one of those addle-headed dreamers who think that all men are bom \nequal, or that distinctions of race, creed, sex, caste and colour, properly accepted, \nare any obstacle to a genuinely theosophical relationship. \n\nJudge\u2019s personality was Irish, and, racially, on the plane of his personality, he \ndisliked the English; but his dislike of the English on that plane was nothing \nin comparison with his dislike, on another plane, of the Irish in himself: \u201cthat \nIrish boy\u201d, he called it privately, with disgust. He was, in other words, in\u00ac \ncapable of real prejudice,\u2014able to see things for what they were, recognizing \ninferiority here and superiority there, with entire detachment. Standing with \nhim once on a balcony of the old Star and Garter Hotel at Richmond in Eng\u00ac \nland, we saw Queen Victoria drive by in an open landau. He had not seen her \nbefore, and was deeply interested. \u201cA remarkable woman\u201d, he said; \u201ca very \nremarkable woman\u201d; then, after a pause: \u201cShe has extraordinary presence\"'. It \nwas no small tribute, coming from him. How he would have hated the tribe of \npresent-day, professional belittlers! \n\nJudge left Aiken on January 9th, and, after spending two weeks in Cincinnati \nwith Dr. Buck, and over a week in Fort Wayne, arrived in New York on Feb\u00ac \nruary 3rd. I had been obliged to leave Aiken in time to lecture in Washington \non the evening of January 7th, proceeding from there to Pittsburgh, then to \nWilkinsburg, to Philadelphia, and so to New York, where I arrived on January \n19th, most gladly accepting Mr. Griscom\u2019s kind invitation to his home. \n\nWhile in Washington I received this,\u2014Judge\u2019s mind still intent upon \u201cthings \nto be done\u201d, but with a twinkle in his eye as he bestowed on me yet another \nsobriquet. \n\n\n[Postmarked] Aiken, S. C., January 7th, 1896. \n\nDear Orator, \n\nI forgot to say that we wish to bring out a pamphlet, same series as Devachan, \non Reincarnation, to be made up from Path articles, etc. The last one, \u201cDoc\u00ac \ntrine of Rebirth\u201d, is a good one; and there is one by [Dr.] Anderson. You will \nhave to look these up also, when you get to New York, and let me know about \nit. \n\n\n\n\nAll well, as ever. \n\n\n200 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n[Postmarked] Cincinnati, 0 ., January i6th, 1896. \nImportant and Confidential, \n\nDear Ernest, \n\nThere is a small room on the top story of 144 [Madison Avenue] which has a \nYale lock. In it are the following: . . . \n\nNow then: I want to give up the room to the Trustees. Take large sheets of \n\nwrapping paper and twine (Look out for-\u2019s curiosity). Do up the old robe \n\nand ask Griscoms (Mrs.) to take charge of it for me. \n\nNobody knows what\u2019s in the room, no matter what they may suspect; so \ndon\u2019t tell them. \n\nWell good bye and \n\nAs ever, \n\n%. \n\n\n[Postmarked] Cincinnati, 0 ., January 19th, 1896. \n\nConfidential. \n\nDear Ernest, \n\nWithout waiting to hear from you: I have thought over the matter of the \nChickering Hall lectures [Claude Wright had been lecturing there, every Sunday \nmorning], and my opinion is\u2014you had better, if asked by W. [Wright] to take \npart or take up, refuse. \n\nIf he is going to give up, he should be allowed to do so. I do not think they \nare of enough consequence to call for the expenditures they require of all sorts \nto make them go right. \n\nAs ever. \n\nNothing definite about plans. My throat bad, and cause of aphonia dis\u00ac \ncovered therein\u2014three months old. \n\n\nTo understand the reference to Mrs. Besant in the next letter, it is necessary \nto keep in mind that K.H. .*. had written to Olcott in August, 1888, that he had \nnot written to or communicated with anyone, except through H.P.B., since 1885; \nthat Sinnett, suspecting H.P.B.\u2019s integrity, but still believing in the existence of \nK.H., had been determined to establish his own independent line of communi\u00ac \ncation with K.H., and, with that end in view, had mesmerized his wife and \nothers, putting them into \u201ctrances\u201d, and had thus seemed what he regarded as \nauthentic teaching and guidance from the K.H. of The Occult World,\u2014all the \nmore authentic, in Sinnett\u2019s estimation, because the instruction, thus obtained, \ninvariably confirmed Sinnett\u2019s preconceptions and prejudices, especially his \nrooted conviction that the planets Mars and Mercury belonged to the Earth \nchain of globes, and that he was supported in this by K.H. as against H.P.B. \nOn the appearance of The Secret Doctrine in 1888, Sinnett had bitterly resented \n\n\n\n\n\nLETTERS FROM W. Q. JUDGE \n\n\n201 \n\n\nH.P.B.\u2019s correction of his views on this subject; relations between them had \nbecome very strained, and for some time before H.P.B.\u2019s death, in May, 1891, \nAvenue Road and Sinnett\u2019s group had kept at arms\u2019 length. Very shortly after \nH.P.B.\u2019s death, however, Annie Besant privately approached Sinnett. She \ndid this because, \u201call intellect\u2019\u2019 and not in the least spiritual (as H.P.B. had \nwritten of her), she was avid of phenomena and had resented Judge\u2019s refusal to \nindulge her craving and his insistence that she must seek and find the \u201cinner \nlight\u2019\u2019 and thus become a \u201cself-moving wheel\u2019\u2019. For a brief period, Sinnett cap- \ntiu*ed her, as so many men had, and as so many were still to do. Thus it came \nabout, as an after-effect of Sinnett\u2019s influence, that in Lucifer of December, \n1895, Annie Besant reversed her earlier statements (see The Path of December, \n1893, P- 270), \u201ccorrected\u2019\u2019 H.P.B., and, incidentally, led me to explode against \nher in a letter to Judge, to which he replied as follows: \n\n\n[Postmarked] Cincinnati, 0 ., January 20th, 1896. \n\n\nDear Ernest, \n\nWill you please attend to the enclosed matter of German application. I en\u00ac \nclose my reply written in copying pencil, so that it can be press copied. \n\nClaude [Wright] has pretended to attend to these European matters, but I \nhave no confidence. I asked him to get (a) book to enter matters done as \nPresident of T.S.E., (6) copying book for these letters. Find out if he has them, \nand use them. The record should have quite a number of entries. But he has \nnever informed me about it. If he hasn\u2019t them, then you procure them \nplease. \n\nYours from Philadelphia received. It is amusing; they are amusing. \n\nBut may I ask if you thought it a reply to my request for copy [to write me] \nre squashing B. [Mrs. Besant]? I don\u2019t see Lucifer. You must write me the \nstuff and I\u2019ll alter to suit me [This was done. See The Path, March, 1896, p. \n362]. I wish to ignore her, but I can\u2019t ignore the point. It is vital in the ph\u201d \nophy. I would not name her other than \u201ceditor of Lucifer'*. \n\nI am feeling badly all the week with stomach and throat. Latter no better. \nWe shall leave here in a few days and go up to Fort Wayne. \n\n-of Philadelphia writes a mawkish note deploring the correction made in \n\nPath about American Section and bolters. Is he the duck you spoke of? \n\n\n\nAs ever. \n\n\n\n\nP. S. Think of the European laxity. It is now six months since Convention, \nand I have had no copy of adopted form of charter or diploma. If I had it, I \ncould reply better to Reuss. \n\n\n[Postmarked] Fort Wayne, Ind,, January 29th, 1896. \n\n\nDear Ernest, \n\nAm too sick to write. You are too previous about sending a delegate to Lon\u00ac \ndon in July. That is not occultism. Not the time to think of it now. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n202 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nReceived the stuff re Mars and Earth, and will use it when I get better. \n\nN. B. The yellow stone in the little filagree box is not to be handled. Tell the \nGs [Griscoms] if they have it. \n\nCoryn: My letter in reply from him is to the contrary. He is pleased. Says \nthat\u2019s the sort of one he likes. I tell you there is too much disposition to make \nfriction and to get even. \n\nWatch C.F.W. [Claude Wright] when around and tell me if he seems over\u00ac \nburdened with work. \n\nWeather here very nice and warm. I found out where the robe is o.k., so you \nneed not bother. Thanks for all the trouble you took. \n\nAs ever, \n\n\n[Postmarked] Fort Wayne, Ind., January 30th, 1896. \n\nDear Ernest, \n\nRe letter to-of India. Better point out also the affiliation clause in our \n\nConstitution and say that can be done. If they would take a bold stand, there \nmight be a good deal done there. Suggest it. He and his Branch would have \nas much right as a thousand to declare themselves an Indian T.S. \n\nJust received the Path article and the Bernhardt matter. Thanks. Am a \nlittle better and will read them soon. \n\nWe need a pamphlet (in the \u201cenvelope series\u2019\u2019) and I wrote Page [manager, \nunder Judge, of the Publishing department] on it\u2014about Reincarnation. It \nwill consist of reprints from Path, e.g.. Miss Wakefield\u2019s article and some of \nmine and Anderson. Please ask Page if he wrote Miss Wakefield. \n\nI don\u2019t know what headway you are making with all the various things, as \nyou don\u2019t say. Nor do you send any note or memo of anything for \u201cScreen\u2019\u2019. \nHas no point arisen at all ? \n\nAs ever. \n\n\n[Postmarked] Fort Wayne, Ind., January 31st, 1896. \n\nDear Ernest, \n\nWe leave here on Monday and shall arrive Tuesday at Grand Central. Please \nm&t me with a carriage to hold you also. I would rather that the people did \nnot come to the station. Will probably go to the Lincoln House and do not \ncare on Tuesday to have anyone but you and possibly Griscom call. I am \nworse\u2014in voice\u2014than at Aiken, and positively cannot speak. \n\nWill give you particulars in telegram before leaving, as to time of arrival. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLETTERS FROM W. Q. JUDGE \n\n\n203 \n\n\nIf Claude says he wants to come up, I do not care to have him as I shall have \nto write what I want with him. But don\u2019t tell him this. \n\nAs ever, \n\n\n\n\nIt was on February 3rd, at 6 p. m., that he arrived in New York, driving from \nthe station to the Lincoln Hotel, where he had decided to stay until a suitable \napartment could be found for him. He was far more ill than when I had left \nhim at Aiken some three weeks earlier: he was much weaker, his cough was \nmore frequent, his digestion gave him greater pain, he could barely whisper. \nBut he insisted upon my spending an hour or more with him daily, while he \nwent over details of the Work in its many ramifications. When he could, he \nwhispered his comments or directions; at other times he wrote notes on scraps \nof paper,\u2014such as: ''Forum. If possible relieve C.F.W. of the Forum, and \ntake entire charge of it, either at once or by degrees.\u201d \"Path. You must attend \nto it. Articles to come are yours and Buck\u2019s. I can\u2019t finish mine I fear. I have \nMiss Hillard\u2019s. You must write Screen of Time.\u201d He thought of everything; I \nmust have a desk at 144 Madison Avenue, then our Headquarters; so another note \nsays: \u201cYour desk is to be in Correspondence Class room, 3rd floor. Desk belongs \nto W.Q.J. Use it.\u201d He was indefatigable, unconquerable; and the explanation \nwas simple: his zeal, springing from so great a love for the Work that so long \nas he could think he must think first of that, always of that, and then, from the \nsame source, find strength to pass on to others, by some means or other, the \nthought he willed into action. I can imagine a dying mother, unable to move, \nstill tending her little one like that. \n\nNo matter how ill, he always got up and dressed as usual, refusing to stay in \nbed; but, with rare exceptions, he could not receive visitors. He sent for Mrs. \nGriscom, wanting to see her, and he saw Mr. Griscom, so loyally devoted to \nhim, several times. \n\nWhile Judge was at the Lincoln and I was spending part of every day \nhim, reporting on what had already been done to carry out his instructions, \nupon what remained to be done, and receiving further directions from him \nevery branch of the work being covered\u2014I did not realize that he was dying. \nI did not even think of it as a possibility: he was so intensely alive in heart and \nmind, so vibrant with energy. Nor did I realize the extent to which his long \nillness had frayed his nerves; if I had, I should not have allowed myself to be\u00ac \ncome rather discouraged at times by my inability always to please him. His \npatience and self-control were really marvellous, but I knew that my inexpe\u00ac \nrience and stupidities were occasionally a trial to him, and then doubtless I \nlooked as well as felt crestfallen. \n\nThis childish reaction was stopped completely by a letter which I received, \naddressed to me at 144 Madison Avenue, postmarked February 20th, the \n\n\n\n204 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nenvelope of which was in Judge\u2019s writing. The \u201cletter\u201d itself was in a modified \nscript which I well knew, and read as follows: \n\n\u201cErnest\u2014Never mind his nerves which have been exposed a long time. He is \nreally pleased with what has been done and especially with the way you did \nthe Screen. A\u201d \n\nI had the grace to be ashamed of myself for making such a message necessary, \nor, if not necessary, for having drawn on the compassion of one whose generosity \nis imending but whom I might have spared. \n\nIt was a relief to Judge when, finally, an apartment had been found for him \n(he hated hotels), and his fumitiu-e had been moved into it. It was on the \nthird floor of 325 West s6th Street. He, Mrs. Judge and I drove there on the \nafternoon of February 22nd. From that day he grew weaker and weaker. \nSome two weeks before his death his doctor warned him that unless he would \nconsent to give up all work, he would throw away his only chance to recover. \nJudge consented, but the first effect of such a change in his whole life\u2019s practice \nwas to make his condition worse: there was danger of an immediate collapse. \nHis cough was incessant; he could no longer lie down; he would doze with his \nhead on his arms on the back of a chair. Absolutely uncomplaining, he never \nlost his magnificent power of endurance and self-control. \n\nOn the morning of March 19th, I had gone to the T.S. Headquarters at 144 \nMadison Avenue as usual, although much worried by Judge\u2019s appearance (as \nalready stated, I occupied one of the rooms in his apartment). In the early \nafternoon I received a telegram: \u201cGo to Twenty-Ninth Street railroad office; \nget full particulars all Florida resorts, trains, tickets, sleepers; then come home. \n\u2014W. Q. Judge.\u201d When I returned, he whispered that if he could \u201conly get to \nsome place where he could sit in the midst of simshine and flowers\u201d, he might \nyet perhaps recover. Not long afterwards, while I was sitting by the sofa on \nwhich he half sat and half reclined, watching him as he dozed, the \u201cRajah\u201d \nsuddenly came to the fore, and with his unmistakable force said, among other \nthings: \u201cThere should be calmness. Hold fast. Go slow\u201d. \n\nOn Friday, the 20th, Mrs. Judge and his sister. Miss Emily Judge, persuaded \nhim to have a professional night nurse. She came, but he would not have her \nin his room! It made me laugh; it was so characteristic; it was one of the things \nin him that I loved. \n\nIn the afternoon he got some broken sleep. It was after this that he told me \nhe was \u201caway most of the time\u201d\u2014^had I seen him \u201ccome back just then?\u201d That \nnight, Miss Emily Judge was obliged to go home, and as Mrs. Judge badly \nneeded rest, it became my privilege to sit with him from about ten until about \nthree o\u2019clock on Saturday morning. During that time he dozed, though rousing \nhimself every half hour regularly for his medicine. He was fighting to the last \nditch: it was his duty. Unselfish to the end, he told me every time I gave him \nhis medicine, to go to bed at once; what was I up so late for?\u2014with that rare \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLETTERS FROM W. Q. JUDGE \n\n\n205 \n\n\nsmile of his. Numerous excuses were invented, at which he again smiled his \nold smile. At about three, Mrs. Judge took my. place, but at six she called me, \nsaying that Judge wished to see me at once. When I went to him he whispered \nasking me to go immediately to fetch a doctor, a specialist, who had been called \nin previously to consult with his regular physician. I realized now, if I had \nnot done so previously, that we were at the last ditch; so I tore through the \nstreets to the home of this famous specialist, and, when no one answered the \ndoor-bell, rang it furiously for half an hoiu: without ceasing, imtil at last he \nappeared,\u2014only to refuse to see Judge on the ground that to do so in the ab\u00ac \nsence of his regular physician would be contrary to professional etiquette. I \npleaded, breathlessly; but the fact that a man\u2019s life was at stake did not affect \nhim. \n\nHurrying back to the apartment, I found Judge in the same condition, sitting \nbolt upright on the sofa\u2014facing it. Telling him the result of my call, I sug\u00ac \ngested the name of another specialist; but now he refused to see any doctor. \nAt about 8:30 I left his room to ask the nurse if she thought anything could be \ndone, but at about ten minutes to nine Mrs. Judge rushed in, calling us to come \nat once. I found him still sitting upright, but with the clear mark of approach\u00ac \ning death on his face. In three minutes he quietly breathed his last. . \n\nThus seemed to die \u201cthe greatest of the Exiles\u2019\u2019,\u2014a warrior of the Lodge. As \nI wrote at the time: \u201cHe passed from comparative inactivity into the full use \nof his powers; from constant physical pain into a state where that pain was only \na memory. For him, death had no terrors, brought with it no separation. So \nwe who loved him have no cause to mourn, but instead should rejoice that he \nis set free at last.\u2019\u2019 \n\nThe truth is that Judge, \u201cdead\u201d, went out of his way to make it evident to \nsome of us that he was very much alive. We could not have doubted it, but \nhis generosity of love demanded expression, and found it. \n\nThe debt we owe him is beyond calculation. The existence of the Society \nto-day is due primarily to his labour and sacrifice, and to the light he passed o^ \nH.P.B. had hewn a track through primeval forest, and, to do so, had been oblige \nto use dynamite and axe. Judge turned her track into a paved road: he was me \ngreat consolidator. Both built their own memorials: H.P.B., her Secret Doctrine \nand Voice of the Silence; Judge, that living nucleus, one of the fruits of which is \nthe thirty-two years\u2019 existence and growth of the Theosophical Quarterly, \nand the continuance, so far into the twentieth century, of the Work of the \nLodge which Masters inaugurated in 1875. In Palestine, many centuries ago, \nthe Master Christ dominated cyclic law,\u2014in his case, a major cycle. Not since \nthen has even the hundred-year cycle been over-ridden, until that which Judge \nleft behind him, as the flowering of his effort, became the means of similar \nopportunity. \n\nGratitude is never easy to express, but the least I can say is that I personally \nowe him, directly or indirectly, all that I value in life. \n\n\nE.T.H. \n\n\nPERCHANCE HE SLEEPETH \n\n\n\u2018T I \"^HERE was no trace of arrogant pride in his voice or bearing. You \nI wondered if he had a true appreciation of the greatness that is his, \nand came to the conclusion that he had not. You were sure that he \nhad no conception of what he meant to the millions who had watched him, but \nalso to those countless other millions to whom he was but a great and glamorous \nname. And you were very sure that he did not know the wonder and the magic \nbound up in the words he was speaking.\u201d \n\nThe above is an item copied from a New York daily paper of late date. It is \nnot written of any adept or initiate, or of any great pioneer in art or science. \nIt is written, believe it if you can, of Babe Ruth. In the next column an ad\u00ac \nvertisement for cigarettes begins: \u201cIt would make a camel laugh\u201d. It is well \nthat camels have a sense of humour, for now they can use it. \n\nKali Yuga, into the further murk of which we seem to be so blithely marching, \nmust mean a state of consciousness in which everything is not merely standing \non its head\u2014that is to be looked for in a world of reflections\u2014but is also so \nludicrously out of drawing that it would make a whole menagerie laugh. But \nlaughter or no, of the many strange gods this strange world has worshipped in \nits time, the least inspiring of them all is the great god Speed under whose \nchariot wheels thousands are not only metaphorically but literally casting them\u00ac \nselves. Speed is spoken of in the New Testament once, when that doomed herd \n\u2018\u2018rushed violently down a steep place and there perished\u201d. It sounds as a \nmodem motor race looks. \n\nSome years ago Charles Johnston of beloved memory, in an address to The \nTheosophical Society, emphasized the limits of the physical plane and the \ncertainty that we must proceed on other planes if we are to proceed at all. \nNerve and muscle, he pointed out, can be trained and over-trained almost to \nwork miracles on their own terms. A horse will trot a mile in a surprisingly small \nnumber of seconds, and next year he may, with luck and youth, do it in a second \nless. An athlete will run a mile, breaking all former records; but what physicians \ncall a \u2018\u2018follow-up\u201d may find him under treatment for a dilated heart at forty; \na silly girl will swim half across the Channel and then be dragged frozen and semi\u00ac \nconscious into the boat that has pursued her with a reviving flask; while as to \nwhat the degenerate days call \u2018\u2018Marathons\u201d, debasing the beautiful Greek word \nto cover pitiful exhibitions of exertion carried beyond the danger point, the less \nsaid the better; perhaps the poor things are doing it for their daily bread, and one \nwould keep a charitable silence except toward the law that permits it. The point \nis that stress is placed increasingly on the physical; the plaudits of the crowd \nare for its triumphs, the ludicrous dithyrambics of the newspaper reporter are \npoured out in its honour, and those who \u201cplay the game\u201d are the inspirers of such \nreverent awe as prompted our opening paragraph. \n\n\n206 \n\n\n\nPERCHANCE HE SLEEPETH \n\n\n207 \n\n\nThere would seem to be a natural corollary to this, to be found perhaps in a \nholy law that life lived on the physical plane alone, breeds a distaste for life; \nfor these people do not love it. They love many of its by-products, but not life \nitself, and one wonders what another type of \u201cfollow-up\u201d would disclose; what \naftermath of weariness is bom finally of high living and low thinking; what \nshadows haunt these \u201cheroes\u201d who day by day must have life less abundantly? \nWhen the physical plane betrays physical people they are at once in bad case, \nfor where shall they turn? Complacency being the last outpost, they continue \nto pat themselves on the back, but they do so with uneasy eyes, and looking \nround for someone else to blame, they decide that God will do. So the \u201cman \nin the street\u201d shouts defiantly that he never asked to be bom, and could not be \nconvinced that he had clamoured for it, or that, so far from having a grievance, \nit was a granted boon and he was living from breath to breath under the clemency \nof a spiritual moratorium to which only the bookkeeping of Paradise could be \nequal. No\u2014this cock-sure, three dimensional world is not enjoying its own \nchaos. \n\nThe language of revolt can be very eloquent, and blaming God has always \nbeen an inviting pastime. It lends itself to an inexpensive philosophy, to facile ex\u00ac \nuberance of expression, and either to romantic resignation or to heroic defiance\u2014 \nr 61 es in which man fancies himself. It follows that an ever-easy way to the great \npublic heart is to mirror it in prose or rhyme stiffened with a little water-starch \nof philosophy. Some of us remember the day Fitzgerald\u2019s translation of Omar \nKhayyam\u2019s Rubaiyat came to its welcoming American public. Its beauty was \nits obvious passport, but oh! how youth responded to its insolence! Here was \nan arraignment of Providence in good round confident quatrains\u2014^if there is \nsuch a thing as a round quatrain. Here were those reflections we had coquetted \n\\vith now and then, echoed back to us in lovely seductive verse that everyone \ncould quote\u2014and everyone did. To quote is agreeable, but to be quoted to is \nhorrid, and we fled our friends down the byways. Then people went home and \ntranslated it all over again\u2014the poets must have smiled. Novelists headed their \nchapters with its most challenging lines, and it was set to music of course and \nsung ad nauseam by quartettes who yelled that they wished to remould \u201cit\u201d to \nthe heart\u2019s desire, while the baritone, who was only that and nothing ino\u00ae \nrobustly declaimed that with \u201cDoctor and Saint he did eagerly frequent\u201d.^t \nwas felt that the mills of the million grind exceeding small, and Providence was \ngetting its come-uppance at last. \n\n(For the purposes of its argument this article must ignore the interpretation of \nSufi mysticism, against which Fitzgerald\u2019s translation of the Rubaiyat, in a \nverbal sense, appears to lean backwards.) \n\nThere is another poem, not so well known or so often quoted, which the \npresent writer loves,\u2014and loves this opportunity to quote. Unlike the Rubaiyat, \nit does not leave its passionate questionings unanswered, but passes with quiet \ntriumph to their spiritual solution. Anna Hempstead Branch is the poet, and \n\u201cThe Descendant and the Id\u201d, the poem: \n\n\n\n\n208 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nThe scholar in his book you know \nTalks of ids and biophors, and so \nMakes much rebellious dreaming come and go. \n\nThis rebellious dreaming carries the poet back into the dark abysses of time to \nface \u201csome dim Forefather of my birth\u201d, and together they arraign the principle \nof heredity from the outlook of common victims. Then appear those \u201cmelan\u00ac \ncholy pilgrims\u201d, the poet\u2019s immediate ancestors, and the terrors of inheritance \ngrow ever more vivid; for between them all they have betrayed the past, cheated \nthe present, and mortgaged the future. (The poor things do not seem to be\u00ac \nqueath good Karma.) \n\nHeredity, that drives the weak and great, \n\nWith hostile lips I kiss thy robes of state. \n\nSuch homage wilt thou ask of me, 0 Fate I \n\nThe case would seem to be desperate from the fatalist standpoint, did not \npresently the inner self intervene; did not speak \u201cthat rapt Philosopher, who \nbore the little, restless, splendid Biophor\u201d, bidding the poet \u201clook you, with \ncurious eyes, upon the Id\u201d, for\u2014 \n\n\u2018\u2018Here is thy will, thy war, thy heavenly fire. \n\nThy dust, thy want, thy labour, and thy hire. \n\nThe dream, the anger, and the old desire. . . . \n\nWhat dream hast thou of what thyself might be?** \n\n**What Dream hast thou?** Then with a heart of trust \nI felt the sharp and exquisite swift thrust \nOf swords of angels, flashing through the dust. . . . \n\nSlowly I felt the ancient custom fall \nLike shattered rain from off a steady wall. \n\nAnd great \u201c/ will** is stronger than them all. \n\nFor if those hordes that terribly must ride \nDrive through my heart and leave their grief inside, \n\nGod also wanders there at eventide. \n\nMan from the dust and woman from the bone,\u2014 \n\nBut oh, we were not wrought of these alone! \n\nGod, with His Heavenly Spirit, breathed thereon. \n\nAnd so, by this path and by that, we come home once more to the Ancient \nWisdom, and it has a still small voice. It says to the level of the physical, \n\u201cthus far and no ftirther\u201d; it whispers in the Hall of Learning, \u201cpass on\u201d, and \nlinks its over-worked lures to a weary distaste. The soap-box orators of the \ncity square shout it down in vain, and in vain is it denied from city pulpits. \nThose few who listen can hear it always, as Job heard it when he cried from his \ncross of initiation\u2014I know that my Redeemer liveth and that without my flesh \nI shall see GodL.S. \n\n* See The Holy Scriptures, A New Translation (The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia). \n\n\n\nONE PATH TO THE GOAL \n\n\nI T is a well known fact that the records of mystical experience\u2014the experience \nof those who have lived the inner life to the point of finding the Inner Light \n\u2014show striking unanimity, whatever the period of history represented, and \nwhatever the race or creed. It is equally true, however, that the mystics of \ndifferent creeds, and frequently those of different nationalities, contribute, as \ngroups, each their unique note. The mediaeval Spanish mystics (the group best \nknown to the West, perhaps) made the discovery that love of the Ideal, when \ndeveloped to a certain high degree, can transmute and unify every element in \nthe nature, and can then tap the very sources of being, drawing on a new life-force, \nand lifting the lover to undreamed-of heights of consciousness. Closely related \nto them, and in certain ways influencing them, the mystics of the Mohammedan \nfaith (the early Sufis) laid an equal emphasis on love, and also found in it the \nmeans to attaining the Goal; but while they sounded that same note, all the over\u00ac \ntones and undertones (to use a musical analogy) were subtilely different. \n\nPersian or Arabian as were most of the early Sufis, they lived at the meeting \npoint of East and West, possessing national characteristics which made them \nsusceptible to the many influences which converged there. Orthodox Moham\u00ac \nmedanism, oriental mysticism, the Gnosticism professed by many sects in that \nlocality, and a large admixture of Neo-Platonism, all became blended with the \noriginal Sufi quietism\u2014furthering largely thereby what seems to have been the \nplan of the Lodge for opening the great storehouse of oriental thought to Spain \nand the West, through the conquering Moorish advance in North Africa and the \nIberian peninsula. Unlike the mystics of the western world, who were compelled \nto fit the revelations they received into the narrow moulds of the Roman \nChurch, the Sufis enjoyed considerable freedom, due chiefly to the general belief \nof their compatriots that all things, supernatural revelation included, are \ngoverned less by religious law than by the personal, moment-to-moment will o^ \nAllah. They became skilled in aligning their public teachings with orthod\u00ab^ \nviews, and while there were, it is true, cases in which unorthodoxy paid the \nextreme penalty, since it exceeded even the supposed possible will of Allah, for \nthe most part there was opportunity for remarkable breadth and profimdity of \nthought\u2014the more remarkable when it is remembered that Mohammedanism is \none of the most rigid religious systems that the world has known. \n\nThe outstanding characteristic of the Sufi teachings lay, perhaps, in their com\u00ac \nplete recognition of the fundamental unity of all things. It is both implicit and \nexpressed, in their thinking, their writing, their whole attitude toward life. It is \njust beneath the surface throughout such a work as the great Masnavi of Jaldlu\u2019d- \nDin Rumi, which has been termed the roots of the roots of the roots of the \nMohammedan faith. This extraordinary poem is a collection of tales from every- \n\n\n209 \n\n\n\n210 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nday life, with all the flavour of the Moslem East\u2014episodes of the streets and \nbazaars, the palace and the hovel; fables of beasts and birds; all the colourful \nexistence best known to the West through the Arabian Nights, but with a wholly \ndifferent purpose in the telling. The stories have always in mind the reality \nlying close beneath the outer aspect, the jewel within its homely setting. The \nsimple conduct of daily life, usually with little or no moralizing, but merely with \nthe skilful turn of a line, is made to yield its lesson and reveal a world within \nworlds, and the reader is expected to bear this in mind and lend himself to it: \n\nO brother, collect thy wits for an instant (and think): from moment to moment \n(incessantly) there is autumn and spring within thee. \n\nBehold the garden of the heart, green and moist and fresh, full of rosebuds \nand cypresses and jasmines; \n\nBoughs hidden by the multitude of leaves, vast plain and high palace hidden \nby the multitude of flowers. \n\nThese words, which are from Universal Reason, are the scent of those flowers \nand cypresses and hyacinths. \n\n\nIn following up that scent, entering the garden of the heart, and finding there \nthe heart\u2019s Beloved, lay the whole meaning and purpose of life for the Sufi. \n\nBorrowing from Neo-Platonism, the Sufis made their own the idea that the \nuniverse is the reflection of the Real. By a series of emanations the Divine Light, \nstreaming downward, fell upon the darkness of not-being, every atom of which \nreflects some attribute of Deity\u2014man reflecting all the attributes. Implicit in \nthis is the belief that God is in every atom,\u2014its essence. \u201cHe is a hidden \ntreasure, and the visible world is a means whereby we may discover Him.\u2019\u2019 He \nis not only Being, but Will, the motive power of all action, the spirit, the life of \nthe world. \u201c0 God, I never listen to the cry of animals or to the quivering of \ntrees or to the murmuring of water or to the warbling of birds or to the rustling \nwind or to the crashing thunder without feeling them to be an evidence of Thy \nunity and a proof that there is nothing like unto Thee.\u2019\u2019 From this, it is only a \nstep to the belief that every atom is seeking to find its way back to Unity. Every \ncreature is longing for Him; the heart is athirst for Him; God is the goal toward \nwhich all things are moving. \n\nThe heaven itself revolves in silence, consumed by its yearning to look upon Him. \nThe sun, as it goes on its orbit, is seeking to solve the mystery; the moon and the stars \nas they wax and wane, are craving for union with Him. When the flames of the fire rise \nheavenwards, it is from their longing to meet with Him. The wind, without foot or \npinion, mounts aloft in its search for Him. The water rushing by in every stream seeks \nto find its rest in Him. For His sake the mountain is cleft into range upon range, so \nthat in every spot it may keep its watch for Him. Even the sea, when thou seest it \nraging so furiously, is seething with yearning for the Friend. \n\n\nThe place of man in this scheme of things\u2014that is, of the real man within us, \nis essentially and potentially, that of divinity itself. The Persian, \u2019Attar, has \nexpressed it: \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nONE PATH TO THE GOAL \n\n\n2II \n\n\nMan, what thou art is hidden from thyself. \n\nKnowest thou not that morning, mid-day, and the eve \nAll are within thee? The ninth heaven art thou, \n\nAnd from the spheres into this roar of time \n\nDidst fall erewhile. Thou art the brush that painted \n\nThe hues of all this world\u2014the light of life. \n\nThat rayed its glory on the nothingness. \n\nBut realization of such a heritage is far distant. In his present state, man is \nbut a prisoner, the bird in its cage, the pearl in the oyster. There is that splendid \npoem by Avicenna (Ibn Sina), relating to the soul, quoted in an earlier Quar\u00ac \nterly : \n\nLo, it was hurled \n\nMidst the sign-posts and ruined abodes of this desolate world. \n\nIt weeps, when it thinks of its home and the peace it possessed. \n\nWith tears welling forth from its eyes without pausing or rest, \n\nAnd with plaintive mourning it broodeth like one bereft \nO\u2019er such trace of its home as the fourfold winds have left. \n\nMan, then, like every other atom in the universe, is seeking to find his way \nback to his source, but is ever held down, ever kept separate by the self, blinding \nand deluding him and leading him astray. One typically eastern expression of \nthis concept comes also from the Masnavi: \n\nO camel, on thy back is a bale of roses, from the perfume of \nwhich a hundred roseries grew within thee. \n\nThy inclination is toward thorn-bushes and sand: \n\nI wonder what roses thou wilt gather from worthless thorns. \n\nO thou who in this search hast roamed from one quarter to another, \nhow long wilt thou say, \u201cWhere, where is this rose garden?\u201d \n\nTo accomplish the \u201cpassing away\u201d from self, which was obviously necessary, \nthe Sufis pursued a course of discipline, extending over many years, with extremes \nof austerity such as alone seem to satisfy the eastern temperament. The aspirant \nin all too many cases, as in other oriental systems, attained only to some un\u00ac \nfortunate part-way stage on the long journey, and there became mired in psy\u00ac \nchism of various kinds and degrees. The East is miracle-loving, and at times its \navidity in that direction has been abundantly fed; but fortunately, among the \nearly Sufis there were many whose quest was truly spiritual, who regarded \n\u201cmiracles\u201d as a temptation, a hindrance to reaching the shrine of Truth,^^d \nwho saw, as one of their number expressed it, that the greatest miracle iWne \nsubstitution of a good quality for a bad one. By such men as these, the passing \naway from self was sought in its most complete sense. They strove for a degree \nof identification with the Real in which there could be no \u201cThou\u201d and \u201cI\u201d, the \nvery thought of \u201cI-ness\u201d being swallowed up. One of the characters in the \nMasnavi, addressing the Deity, says. \n\nThou didst contrive this \u201cI\u201d and \u201cwe\u201d in order that Thou mightst play the \ngame of worship with Thyself, \n\nThat all \u201cI\u2019s\u201d and \u201cthou\u2019s\u201d should become one soul and at last should be sub\u00ac \nmerged in the Beloved. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n212 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nAs these lines suggest, it is not death to self that is stressed, but Life in the Real \n(a distinction which orientalists might well recognize in their efforts to explain \nNirvana), and the one power which can achieve this end is love, that fire in the \nheart consuming all save the will of the Beloved. \n\nO heart, haste thither, for God will shine upon you, \n\nAnd seem to you a sweet garden instead of a terror. \n\nHe will infuse into your soul a new Soul, \n\nSo as to fill you, like a goblet, with wine. \n\nTake up your abode in His Soul! \n\n\u201c 'Twere better that the spirit which wears not true love as a garment had not \nbeen,\u201d writes Jaldl; \u201cits being is but shame.... All mankind are children except \nhim that is intoxicated with God.\u201d Here again, as in all other mystical records, \nit is abundantly shown that the love of which they speak is not the love ordinarily \nknown to humanity. The latter, even at its best, is only the A B C of real love. \n\u201cThe beloved who is not everlasting is better far away and out of sight.\u201d The \nhigher love is the rapture of the seer, just as it is in every mystical record; it is \nequally the coiu*age of the martyr, the faith of the saint. Expressed in action, \nit is self-renimciation, self-sacrifice, self-abnegation\u2014the giving up of wealth, \nhealth, honour, will, life itself, for the sake of entering into and becoming one \nwith the Beloved. \u2018\u2018Love is a God-sent grace which must be sought by ardent \nprayer and aspiration.\u201d The mystic\u2019s concept both of love and of peace (two \nstates of consciousness so grossly misunderstood in the world to-day) might \nadvantageously be blazoned where all men must see, on the chance of bringing \nhome to them the nobility and beauty of the reality they are unconsciously \ndrawn by, and its contrast with the poor counterfeits they consciously seek. \nHowever, with better judgment no doubt, and in conformity with the long-ago \nwarning about casting pearls, a celebrated Egyptian Sufi, Dhu\u2019l-Nun, declared \nthat Divine Love must not be spoken of, lest it come to the ears of the vulgar. \nHe added, \u2018\u2018True knowledge of God is not the knowledge that God is One, which \nis possessed by all believers; nor the knowledge of Him derived from truth and \ndemonstration, which belongs to philosophers, rhetoricians and theologians; but \nit is the knowledge of the attributes of Divine Unity, which belongs to the Saints \nof God, to those who behold God in their hearts in such wise that He reveals \nunto them that which He revealeth not to anyone else in the world.\u201d \n\nThe relation worked out by this intensely beauty-loving people (as many of \nthem were) between the Love of God which they sought, and love of the beau\u00ac \ntiful, is worthy of note. Among aspirants in the West, the more characteristic \nattitude is to turn away from the beautiful, to renounce it, perhaps to condemn \nit, at any rate to regard it as one of the \u2018\u2018weights\u201d to be laid aside in pressing \ntoward the mark. The Sufi, on the contrary, sought it, embraced it, dwelt upon \nit, realizing that everything in the universe is as \u2018\u2018a jug that is filled to the brim \nwith wisdom and beauty\u201d, and that that beauty must be used as fuel for the \nflame of love he was striving to kindle. Out of this attitude grew the large body \nof poetry making symbolical reference to human beauty, of which the following \nfrom the Rubaiyat of Hafiz is representative: \n\n\nONE PATH TO THE GOAL \n\n\n213 \n\n\n\u201cThy lips?^* I askM; quoth She, \u201cWater of \nLife is there!\u201d \n\n\u201cThy mouth?\u201d I ask\u2019d; \u201c \u2019Tis sugar sweet \nbeyond compare!\u201d \n\n\u201cThy speech?\u201d I ask\u2019d; \u201cHafiz,\u201d quoth \nShe, \u201chath said it is \n\nThe joy of those who use the mystic speech of \nprayer!\u201d \n\nThere was entire recognition of the danger of lingering in the outer form, of \nfailing to pass from the visible beauty to the Beauty within it. \n\nAlas! thou in the picture wert so much \nabsorb\u2019d \n\nThou didst forget the Painter Who the picture \nwrought. \n\nMusic affords a good illustration of their recognition of this point. Its effect \nwas recognized and studied, and among the dervish Orders, it was extensively \nand effectively used. But while referred to (by Dhu\u2019l-Nun) as a divine influence, \nstirring the heart to seek God, there is the warning added that those who listen \nto it spiritually attain to God, while those who listen to it sensually, fall into \nunbelief. \n\nJami summed up the attitude toward the aesthetic element when he wrote, \n\u201cBeauty and Love are as body and soul; Beauty is the mine and Love the \nprecious stone.\u201d It resolves itself again into that teaching of the fundamental \nunity of all things, wherein beauty and Beloved are one, just as lover and Love \nand Beloved are one. Beauty of outer form is a veiled expression of the Beloved \nwithin and behind it. \u201cIf gnosis were to take visible shape all who looked thereon \nwould die at the sight of its beauty and loveliness and goodness and grace, and \nevery brightness would become dark beside the splendour thereof.\u201d And the \ncommentator compares a passage from Plato\u2019s Phaedrus: \u201cFor sight is the \nkeenest of our bodily senses; though not by that is wisdom seen; her lovelin|^ \nwould have been transporting if there had been a visible image of her.\u201d WF \n\nA recent book by a Latin American tells of the author\u2019s search for an authentic \nimage of the Master Christ. Impelled by a longing to look \u201cinto the very eyes \nof the Lord\u201d, he wandered far and wide, always hoping to discover, in oratory \nor library or museum, some early sculptured or painted likeness that would satisfy \nhis longing. \u201cI carried on these rovings,\u201d he says, \u201cnot for the vanity of knowing \nthe historic truth, but for the need of possessing the mystic truth.\u201d It is a need\u2014 \nthe need for the Real\u2014which all mankind feels, even though he be conscious of it \nonly as the vague unrest and discontent which urge so many on to ever-new \nexcitement or sensation. And satisfaction lies in this discovery of the Sufis: \nHe (or That, or whatever we may prefer to call the Real) is the Beauty in all \nbeauty, the Soul of souls, the one infinite Being in which all are united, the \nsource of all love. \u201c \u2019Tis the sun\u2019s self that lets the sun be seen.\u201d Jaldl is quoted \nas saying that the soul\u2019s love of God is God\u2019s love of the soul... in loving the soul \n\n\n214 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nGod loves Himself, for He draws home to Himself that which in its essence is \ndivine. \u201cOur copper has been transmuted by this rare alchemy.\u201d \n\nThere were many among the Sufis who sought (and found) ecstasy. A few tell \nof a still higher level of consciousness,\u2014a mystical, unified consciousness, \u201cthe \nlittle comer where joy is\u201d; a state in which they can say truly, \u201cThe centre is \nwithin me and its wonder lies as a circle everywhere about me.\u201d This higher level \nthey term Riza, or the quintessence of love\u2014re-phrasing it as \u201cjoyous sub\u00ac \nmission\u201d. Certain critics, not having experienced it, claimed there was no such \nthing\u2014submission, perhaps, but what joy could one find in that! In refutation, \nand in explanation characteristically oriental, a story is told (one of the Christ \nlegends in which Mohammedan literature abounds): \n\nIt is said that Christ once saw a blind, forlorn leper who was praying: \u201cBlessed art \nthou, O Lord, who hast saved me from such maladies which have overtaken many of \nus!\u201c \u201cArt thou not in misery?\u201d asked Christ. \u201cTell me which is that malady which \nhas not overtaken thee?\u201d \u201cThank God\u201d, cried the leper, \u201cI am not like him who does \nnot know God!\u201d \u201cYou are right,\u201d said Christ. \u201cGive me your hand.\u201d And the breath \nof Christ instantly healed the leper, and he became one of his followers. \n\nRegarding still higher stages and the ultimate destiny of man, there was no \napparent uniformity of thought. The tenets of orthodox Mohammedanism \ndenied the very possibility of many of the states which the Sufi actually experi\u00ac \nenced. The interpretation of these states, and the exoteric teaching, accordingly \nvaried with the degree of orthodoxy required at any given period; varied also \nwith the foreign religious influences most active at a given time, and with the \ndegree of enlightenment of the individual teacher. One suspects that there \nwere almost as many varieties of Sufism as there were Sufis,\u2014certainly an \nextraordinary elasticity and fluidity and inclusiveness. Esoterically, of course, \nthere may have been more uniformity. That there were esoteric teachings, \nthere is no doubt, and The Secret Doctrine, it may be remembered, suggests that \npart of them at least, were of Chaldean origin. However, for the present purpose, \nthe main point is that the sect embodied and kept alive in the world the knowl\u00ac \nedge that Love has the power to raise mankind from animal to angel, and thence \nto \u201cwhat no mind e\u2019er conceived\u201d; also that Love, rightly understood, is an \ninfinite, creative force, emanating from the source of all Being, streaming down\u00ac \nward to non-being, gathering up all sentient things in its life-giving current, \npurging the dross from those who will to enter its consuming fire, and, impelling \nincessantly onward and upward, raising them to new life, new consciousness, \n\u2014^which, for man, can mean the ascent from mortality to Life Immortal, to \nDivinity itself. j q \n\n\nIf thou dost not desire to he dust under the dust, then must thou look away from the \ndust .\u2014 \u2019Attar. \n\n\n\nWHY I JOINED THE THEOSOPHICAL \n\nSOCIETY \n\n\nI HAVE heard of the Great Lodge of Masters as having sentinels, whose duty \nit is ceaselessly to survey mankind in the hope of discovering, now and then, \none with whom it seems the Lodge may take a chance. When an individual \nis thus singled out by these \u201ceyes\u201d of the Lodge, I can imagine him being watched \nfor a period of years or of incarnations, until some useful quality of his becomes \ndominant enough for the sentinel to report on it to his superior. If the sentinel\u2019s \nreport is acted upon favourably, the Lodge then takes a chance with that soul. \nUnless this or something like it is so, I do not know why I joined The The- \nosophical Society, which was founded by Madame Blavatsky, Mr. William Q. \nJudge and others, at the express command of the Masters as the present outer \nexpression of the age-old Lodge Movement. \n\nSomebody in the Lodge evidently has seen fit to take a chance on me. Of \ncourse, it must be figured that all this happens in accordance with the working \nof Karma. Under the operation of this law of justice one receives exactly his \ndue. Apparently, then, the Masters accept chances under the operation of \nKarma. Nevertheless, the chances thus accepted and taken are in no wise \nlessened. So much for the real reason, or cause, of my joining The Theosophical \nSociety. \n\nNow let us look at the surface working of this reason, or cause, during my \npresent incarnation. I shall mention only two facts concerning my babyhood \nand early childhood. I was such a puny infant, that the doctor in attendance \nat the time of my birth told my father I could not live more than a few hours. \nDespite this advice, my father sent numerous telegrams announcing the arrival \nof a fine boy. Whether due to these telegrams, or to Karma, or to my mother\u2019s \nunremitting care\u2014she practically maintained a twenty-four-hour vigil for several \nhundred days\u2014by the time I had reached the tender age of three I could have \ntaken a prize for robustness at almost any baby show. I know, for I have seen \na picture of myself at that age. \n\nThe second episode I wish to mention is of my early childhood. Wl^R \nlearned there was no Santa Claus, I told my mother she might as well thereand \nthen tell me there was no God, and that there never had been such a person as \nJesus of Nazareth. I had so linked Santa Claus and Christmas and Him that \nwhen I learned there was no chubby old chap who whisked about with presents \neach Christmas Eve, I figured that the other person connected with the day \nwas a make-believe creature also; hence, the Father too. The word illusion was \nnot part of my vocabulary at the time, so I just wondered how much of every\u00ac \nthing was make-believe and how much was not, and this \u201cwondering\u201d continued \nfor a number of years. \n\n\n215 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2i6 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nI pass now. to the last three years spent at boarding-school. Having been such \na puny infant, all energies, both parental and at school, seemed to unite to turn \nme out an especially physically fit boy and youth. Moreover I had an aptitude \nfor games such as football, baseball, hockey, and the like, so that during these \nyears I found myself representing the school in practically all branches of athletics. \nHow could it be that the puny infant had developed into a boy athlete? The \nmore I asked myself the question, the more I was drawn back to the Santa Claus \nepisode, and reminded of that other figure with whom Christmas is associated. \nI used to think: If He and the Father are make-believe, whence comes all this? \nIn my youthful mind I had decided that my aptitude for athletics was a matter \nneither of accident nor luck. I was certain there was more to it than just my \nown prowess. \n\nAt night, when the lights were out and we were all supposed to be asleep, I \nused to ponder these things. We had compulsory chapel service each morning, \nand service with a sermon on Sunday mornings. Whether visiting clergy or the \nschool clergyman preached the Sunday sermon, the trend of their remarks was \nalways the same: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. This \nand much more I pondered, as I lay awake at night. With churches throughout \nthe country, even in the small hamlets near the school, all founded on the \nteaching of Jesus of Nazareth, and all proclaiming that teaching, could it be \nthat He was nothing more than my childish conception of Santa Claus had been? \nCould it be that one day I should be told that the New Testament was fiction? \nIf so, why did the old people as well as the younger go to church? Surely they \ndid not go to learn about and to worship a myth. Even my immature mind could \nnot accept that theory. Had any one been sent to prepare the way for Santa \nClaus as John had prepared the way for Jesus? Had any one given up all to \nfollow Santa Claus as had the twelve, and Paul, for Jesus? Then would follow \nwhat to me was the vital question: Who was it, or what Power was it, that had \nmade a puny baby and frail child grow into a sturdy, athletic boy? \n\nIt seemed to me that I owed something, somehow, to the Trinity. So, at the \nsame time that I asked myself these questions, I used to try to reach up to God. \n\nI had an idea that if I could do so, I should be able to straighten out what I could \nnot as yet unravel. This effort to reach God I tried only at rare intervals, because \nit left me quite shaken. I seemed able to reach up but a certain distance (I \nexpressed it that way to myself) when I would be enveloped in utter darkness, \nsuch darkness as I believed could not exist anywhere. When I found I could \nnot penetrate it, I tried to reach around it, so to speak, and approach from the \nrear. It was this rear approach, especially, which used to leave me shaken, \nbecause I would try to make it by endeavouring to get back of God; that is, by \ntrying to vision things before God was and then lead from there to God. But \nthat left things just a blank. I preferred the darkness to the feeling of blankness, \nof absolute nothingness. So I stopped, deciding to leave the reconciliation of \nthe whole of my problem until later years. \n\nI was not a freakish lad. On these inner problems I kept my own counsel. \n\nI was a hale, hearty, vigorous, normal boy. Yet I had been told that by all \n\n\nWHY I JOINED THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY \n\n\n217 \n\n\nthe so-called regular rules of life I should have died a few hours after birth, \ninstead of which I foimd myself a physically fit person able to give and take all \nmanner of physical punishment. I was trying to account for this, feeling sure \nthat it was not my strength alone, but something I was being permitted to use. \n\nI had had one ideal, one mould, that of jolly old Santa Claus, knocked into a \ncocked hat, and I was trying in my boyish way to rescue the other ideal. I \nwanted God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, for if there \nwere such Power as that, I could account for what otherwise was a mystery to me. \nParticularly I wanted my ideal of Jesus of Nazareth, but having had this ideal \nshattered by the Santa-Claus episode, I was rebuilding it in my own way, and \nwith various details, that were at variance with the orthodox conception. \n\nWith the ending of school-days, my mode of life underwent a complete change. \nFor the first time I found myself living in a city, subject to the confinement of a \ncity both during and after business hours. Used to the country and to vigorous \nexercise, I naturally felt shut in and restrained. Also I missed routine, for though \nI had to be at the office during certain hours, apart from that, I did not have any \nset schedule as had been the case at school, for there I had followed fixed rules \nfrom the time I rose until I went to bed at night. One thing was a distinct relief, \nhowever, and that was not to have to be an athlete. But I had worked up a \ncertain bodily appetite for exercise and this, apparently, had to be satisfied. I \nbecame restless, and soon drifted into doing that which offered an antidote for \nmy restlessness. I had formed the habit of exercising the body far more than the \nmind, so as invitations to dances began to arrive, I accepted them with alacrity. \nThe more invitations I accepted and the more dances I attended, the more \nfrequent the invitations became. The next several years were a veritable round \nof dances. \n\nThus the boy athlete became a dancing-youth-about-town. True, this took \ncare of the physical exuberance which had to be worked off, but it seems a \npeculiar way of preparing to join The Theosophical Society. Nevertheless, it \nhas a great deal of bearing on the subject. I became so surfeited with all that \ngoes to make up a dancing-youth\u2019s existence that I awakened one morning de\u00ac \ntermined to stop it at once. This determination was not reached an hour aft^ \nawakening, nor even five minutes aftfer, but was a part of what I awakened to ^ \nthat particular morning. At the same time I found myself thinking of those \nnights at school when I had lain awake trying to reach up to God\u2019s pavilion. \nI had not given that matter much thought of late. Dancing days, or nights \nrather, are not conducive to that sort of thing. So then and there I made up \nmy mind that I wanted no more of the froth of life. Like the spindrift of the \nwave, it led nowhere. I had been too long away from considering my ideal of \nJesus of Nazareth, and on that particular morning I was thinking very much \nabout that great figure, and how disappointing it must be to Him to have to see \none expending strength on frivolity. This was more poignantly emphasized as \nI, who was expending it, had not considered it as wholly my own for some time \npast. So I determined to renew my search and to conserve strength for the \njourney. The first thing to do was simple\u2014just to decline invitations. This was \n\n\n\n\n2 i8 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ndone, and it was a surprisingly short time before they ceased to arrive at all. \nThe other part was not so easy, and for that fact I was and am truly grateful, \nbecause in some way or other it had already been impressed upon me that what \nis easy of accomplishment is rarely worth while. \n\nHere then was the one-time boy athlete with the athletic contour, both inner \nand outer, somewhat disarranged by the activities of the dancing youth, by \nlaxity of schedule and the absence of regularity. Thereupon the young man, at \nthe start of his journey, laid down a set of rules, and devised a daily schedule \nsuitable to the application of the rules. \n\nThese rules were simple. In forming them I had in mind a threefold purpose. \nFirst, to rid myself of all that the recent irregularities had brought to me. \nSecondly, to put back certain of that which my earlier athletic training had built \nup. Thirdly, to put that back in such a way as to have it available for a purpose \nother than athletics. Therefore the rules were calculated so as to turn out an \ninstrument fit for a long journey, and at the same time to give me authority \nover that instrument. Recalling the way in which athletic trainers had handled \nme, I placed myself in a similar position of authority over the instrument and \nhandled it to suit the end in view. \n\nBy this time I was convinced that I had certain qualities which belonged, at \nleast in part, to some other Person or Power. In some way, which was not yet \nclear, I had the firm conviction that these qualities w^ere associated with the \nTrinity, and that the \u201cAssociates\u201d had something to say about what should be \ndone with them, and particularly that representative of the \u201cAssociates\u201d who \nhad gone the way of the Cross for mankind. I no longer had any doubts as to \nthe reality of Jesus of Nazareth. It seemed to me that His life on earth opened \na way to an entente cordiale, but my conception of it differed in certain details \nfrom the orthodox conception as I had heard it set forth. I still could not account \naccurately for my conviction, although I had started my schedule according to \nmy simple rules, had girded myself for a long journey, was already on my way and \ndid not purpose to stop. \n\nUp4to the present, life had been serene, because all that I had done was to \ntoy with it. Now I was dealing with it, and straightway it began to deal with \nme. Life and I were no longer playing a game. We had entered the lists for a \nlife-and-death struggle, and outwardly for a long, long time it looked as though \nlife would win. Blow after blow fell; often in such rapid succession that there \nseemed hardly time to catch sufficient breath to go on with the struggle. Yet \nmy rules, my schedule, and especially my entente cordiale required that I gain the \nascendency over life; life as the world knows it. Without that ascendency in \nview my rules might as well have gone into the scrap basket, my schedule been \nabandoned, and my entente cordiale relinquished in favour of some mundane \nexistence. \n\nAs a boy I had learned that no contest is lost until the umpire sounds the \nwhistle which terminates it. As a dancing youth I had learned that mincing steps \nengender mincing ways. So the man-with-the-rules lengthened his stride as \neach blow fell, and kept on his way, for as self-imposed umpire his equipment \n\n\n\nWHY I JOINED THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY \n\n\n219 \n\n\ndid not include the whistle. Life kept on raining blows. I kept on; blundering, \nstumbling, falling. Had the stake not been so serious, the whole series of per\u00ac \nformances could have been catalogued either as disgraceful or as ridiculous. \nPerhaps they are so catalogued. At any rate down I went and up I got. Thanks \nto the entente cor diale I would not, or could not, stay down. Not that there was \nanything majestic in the way I fell nor in the way I arose. Simply that the \nstrength was at once mine and not mine. \n\nRight in the thick of it I unexpectedly met an old friend\u2014a friend out of \nthe past. Out of the past ? Why not ? I had heard her mentioned for the first \ntime but shortly before we met. Does one recognize a stranger at first glance? \nDo strangers meet and speak as friends at first meeting? Does a stranger calmly \nenter the lists of life-and-death-struggles with you? She, herself, if you ask \nher, will tell you there was instant recognition. We spoke of it then, and have \nreferred to it many times since our marriage, about two years later. \n\nAt the time we met, I did not know my contact with The Theosophical Society \nwould be established through her. She was not a member, but it was with her \nthat I attended my first meeting. Later, we joined the Society together. What I \ndid know from the moment we met, was that my course was being better charted. \nShe was able to make it clearer to me. In some way, too, she seemed to be con\u00ac \nnected with my entente cordiale. Not that life ceased dealing with me; not that \nthe blows stopped; but the harder they rained, the steadier was her vision and \nunderstanding. Something told me to keep very close to that friend. I did. \nSo, when I found she wanted to go to a meeting of the local Branch of The \nTheosophical Society, it was perfectly natural for me to accompany her. \n\nIf I live to be a thousand, I shall always remember passing through the little \ndoor and entering the small room in which the meeting was held. I had not the \nslightest notion of what I was going to hear, but as I looked around, everybody \nand everything seemed to betoken that it would be worth while. In a few \nminutes the meeting began, and one speaker after another unfolded aspects of a \nphilosophy that sank deep. Now and again I glanced at my friend. How was it \nwith her? I coidd see that she was satisfied. That made it doubly all right with \nme. Before that meeting was over I felt that I belonged to The Theosoph^l \nSociety. Not that I applied for membership then and received a certificat^P \nsimply considered myself as belonging, as the little finger, if it could think, \nmight regard itself as belonging to the hand. \n\nI acquired some of the theosophical literature, which I read, and attended \nmeetings of the local Branch as circumstances permitted me to do so. The \nmore of these meetings I attended, and the more of the literature I read, the \nmore it was impressed upon me, that through the wondering of the boy athlete, \nthe experience of the dancing youth, and the combat of the man with the rules, \nI had been prepared for what, thanks to my friend, I was to find in the the\u00ac \nosophical philosophy. \n\nThus the Lodge has its way of guiding us. \n\n\nU.U. \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\nIV. \n\n\nHE winter of 1917-1918 was exceptionally cold and severe, and while \n\n\n\nwe were comfortable enough in our quarters at Camp Upton, the building \n\n\nitself was so flimsy that, whenever there was a strong wind, all the heat \nin it was blown to the opposite end of the structure, so that it was somewhat like \nsleeping out of doors in those rooms which received the full force of the blast. \nOur mess, however, was at the far end of the quarters, so that we did not have to \ngo out for meals, which was a great convenience. Often, as I looked around the \ntable at the officers gathered there, I thought that, through the luck of the draw, \nthere was among them a far higher degree of ability than was necessary to run an \nAmmunition Train. We had lawyers, bankers, business men, many of them with \nexperience of affairs in a large way; they lacked only that military experience, \nwhich they were now acquiring daily, to become thoroughly efficient officers. \nAs a matter of fact, several of them, after they had arrived overseas, went from \nthe Ammunition Train into either the line or the staff. Our Colonel had sized \nthem up rapidly and accurately. Never before had he had so many officers of so \nhigh a type under his command. He saw at once that they were all going to work \nhard and work well, that they only needed guiding and advice, and he realized, \ntoo, that the better the result of their work and of their effort, the more it would \nredound to his own credit as commanding officer. \n\nThe Colonel, in addition to being an excellent judge of men, continuously kept \na much closer eye on things than I at first realized, and he was a strict disciplin\u00ac \narian. He was a charming companion when off duty, with a fund of stories and \nanecdotes, and a long experience in Army methods and details. He had not, \nhowever, kept up with the times in a military way, and, as an infantry officer, \nwas entirely unfamiliar with the modern methods of infantry warfare then \npractised on the Western Front. He had one rather ancient book by some Ger\u00ac \nman General, whose name I have forgotten, which he read constantly, to the \nexclusion of everything else of a military nature, except the current Divisional \nOrders. But he knew how to get work out of his officers and men, and they all \nliked him. When the Colonel\u2019s visits to New York began to be frequent, he sent \nfor me and said, \u201cCaptain, I don\u2019t want the Majors messing into things when I \nam in town, or assuming the functions of the second in command, or anything \nof that kind. You handle things while I am away, issue any routine Regimental \nOrders necessary, and write any letters that can be written by my authority. \nIf it is a case of immediate letters to officers who rank me, see what you can do \nyourself personally about handling it. If you have to, get me on the telephone, \nand I will come right down to Camp; and hold things until I get there.\u201d This \nplan worked very well, and although the Majors sometimes became inquisitive \nand insistent when the Colonel was absent, it was a fine exercise in tact and diplo- \n\n\n220 \n\n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n221 \n\n\nmacy to keep them in their proper place. As his Adjutant, the Colonel frequently \ntook me with him to the military talks for regimental commanders and field \nofficers, which were often given by officers of the Foreign Armies, straight from \nthe Western Front and detailed for that purpose, and all this was most inter\u00ac \nesting and helpful. The Colonel was an eminently fair man, and loyal to his \nofficers and men, and as quick to appreciate as he was to rebuke, and his many \ngood qualities, together with the high level of ability among the officers, and the \nhard work which was being done by all ranks, produced in the course of time \nsomething in the form of an organization in which we began to take pride. \n\nWe were greatly hampered, however, in our work of training the men, by the \nfact that we were almost entirely without the mat^iel to which we were entitled \nunder our Tables of Organization. An ammunition train has a large number of \nmotor trucks and animal-drawn caissons and wagons; we were never given any \nof these at Camp Upton, and it was not until we had received them after we \narrived overseas, that we were able to train the men in their use. We did receive \nthe six hundred odd horses and mules which we were supposed to have, and \nestablished schools of equitation, and taught the men how to care for the animals. \nAll of these horses and mules were branded with the regimental mark, and were \nshipped overseas in advance of our unit, but upon their arrival they were diverted \nto some other division, and we had to start all over again when we reached our \nfinal training area in the south of France, with an entirely new lot of horses and \nmules which came from Spain, and which were distinctly inferior to our original \nanimals in size and in strength. Apart, therefore, from the training with the \nanimals, there was no other technical training possible for our men while at \nCamp Upton. As most of them were armed with the rifle, we turned, therefore, \nto infantr^r drill, both close and extended order; to interior guard; and to \nceremonies, as the only other means of training, available or practicable; and by \nkeeping hard at it along those lines, we really evolved, in the course of time, \ninstead of an ammunition train, a fairly efficient infantry regiment. \n\nWe all had, of course, other military duties than those connected directly with \nthe training. Personally, as Adjutant, I was always more or less submerged with \na mass of paper work, which seemed to grow as time went on. It increased to \nsuch an extent throughout the Division that a Board of Officers was finall]^ a\u00a7r \npointed by the Division Commander to inquire into ways and means of rediiWg \nit. The first act of this Board was to call for written suggestions from all units \nas to possible methods of reduction, and for written estimates as to the amount \nof paper work which we were already doing; so the first and only effect was to \ngive us more paper work to do than ever, and nothing constructive in the way of \nreduction was of course ever accomplished. We had trouble with one of our \ncaptains, and, in order to get rid of him, we asked for a Board of Officers to be \nappointed by Division Headquarters to pass upon the question of his efficiency. \nI remember sitting beside the officer in question during the investigation, and \ngiving my views on the subject, which were far from complimentary to him. \nFrench classes were started, and, to the unbounded glee of my family and \nfriends when they finally heard of it, knowing as they did my entire lack of \n\n\n222 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nqualifications, I was appointed one of the instructors. Fortunately, there was a \ncomplete absence of any previous knowledge of French on the part of my class, \nbut, I regret to say, there was almost as complete an ignorance when I had \nfinished with them. \n\nWe held several General Courts Martial, upon all of which I sat. Our first \ncase was that of a soldier who had broken camp, and had absorbed an inordinate \nquantity of hard liquor in one of the nearby small towns. The cold air had \nminimized the effect until he was once again within barracks, when the heat from \nthe great stove in the centre of the sleeping quarters had set him completely off \nhis head, and, seizing a razor, he had tried fairly successfully to carve up his next- \ndoor neighbour because he did not like his looks. The Court, after mature de\u00ac \nliberation, decided that this could not be allowed to recur, that it was very \nsubversive of morale; and in order to make an example for its effect upon the \nother men, we found the accused guilty upon the several charges and specifi\u00ac \ncations, and awarded a sentence of ten years confinement at hard labour in the \nmilitary prison at Fort Leavenworth, which sentence was later approved by the \nDivision Commander. I said, after mature deliberation. It took us for ever to \ntry that first case. We were entirely unfamiliar with the Court Martial Manual, \nand were obliged to consult it constantly as the trial progressed, in order to find \nout what to do next. We did not like to do so in the presence of the prisoner, as \nit did not seem quite dignified; so each time the necessity arose we sent him out of \nthe room with his guard, and had him in again after we had fotmd out what we \nwanted. From time to time, the Colonel would open the door and look in upon \nour deliberations, and, seeing us still at it, would invoke the Deity in a harsh \nvoice, and slam the door again. He told us afterwards that we had taken several \nhours to do something which should have been accomplished in an hour. After \nthe War, President Wilson pardoned all military prisoners. Some of us who had \nsat on that Court wondered whether or not that particular prisoner would be \nable to remember the names of those who had sentenced him, and hoped that, \nif he did, he had not retained his former propensity for carving. \n\nThe 77th Division had been brought to full strength by the draft, and the air \nwas full of rumours to the effect that political influence of the strongest kind \nhad been brought to bear in Washington to send us over as the first di\\ision of \nthe National Army, because we represented the largest city in the United States. \nNowhere is rumour, often entirely unfoimded, more rife than in the Army; no\u00ac \nwhere does real news travel faster. We did not really know what to believe, but \nhoped for the best, and speeded things up by every means in our power so as to \nbe ready to go. Colour was added to the rumour by several Divisional inspections \nof each unit; as the Division Inspector was a great friend of our Colonel, we were \nalways tipped off in advance, and made a good showing each time. But Wash\u00ac \nington had a change of heart, and instead of orders to proceed to the Port of \nEmbarkation, we received orders requisitioning men from the 77th Division to \nfill up certain other Divisions at various points all over the United States. \nPolitics was obviously at work, and was about to destroy an incipient efficiency \nbuilt up with much labour. We hated to let men go upon whom we had spent so \n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n223 \n\n\nmuch time and work. However, having by that time been in the Army long \nenough to have become proficient in the art of \u201cpassing the buck\u201d, we passed out \nfirst all of our conscientious objectors, all of our suspects with German names, \nand then those specimens which were imdesirable for other minor reasons. It \nmay be objected that to send our most undesirable men to other Divisions, \nwithout a word of warning as to their real character, was imfair, and that it did \nnot free the Army of their presence. It was not possible, however, to get them \nout of the Army, for the War Department in its omniscience had issued a \nGeneral Order to the effect that no soldier could be dismissed from the Service \nfor any reason, unless he had committed an act which made him liable, under \nthe Articles of War, to trial by a General Court Martial. Any such overt act \nour undesirables had steadfastly refrained from committing, although we had \nbeen watching them all hopefully. Moreover, we had come to the conclusion \nthat to send away our suspects with German names was really a most con\u00ac \nstructive act, since it would break up any traitorous connections which they \nmight have already formed in their present siuroundings, and would force them \nto start their activities all over again under increased difficulties and under new \nconditions, and that they would be siu*e to be found out anyway in the long run. \nWe parted with our first requisitions, therefore, with a certain feeling of relief, \nbut the drain continued until our unit, and in fact the whole 77th Division, was \ndown to about half strength. About this same time, too, we were forced to \nsurrender a number of our best non-commissioned officers, who were ordered to \nOfficers\u2019 Training Camps and Schools, and given there the chance to earn com\u00ac \nmissions. All this had a serious effect upon the training of those men who \nremained; but it also had most harmful results as far as the general morale was \nconcerned, and in the early part of the year 1918 we were thoroughly discouraged \nand disgusted. We felt that the departure of the Division had been put off for \nmany months because of these withdrawals, and feared that the War would be \nover before we could arrive overseas. \n\nAfter the first pressure of work in connection with organization was over, \nand after things had settled into a regular routine, the Colonel had been niojt \nkind about allowing me to go to New York for week-ends. There was no \ning or instruction, nothing in fact but routine formations, between noon on \nSaturday and early Monday morning, so there was really very little to do at \nCamp in the interval, especially when the ground was covered with snow and ice. \nIn consequence a general exodus took place early on Saturday mornings, in which \nI joined whenever I could, going up to town in my Ford, and driving back late on \nthe Sunday nights. To facilitate my movements in this respect, the Colonel used \nsometimes to invent imaginary regimental business for me to attend to in the \ncity, especially on those Saturdays when he himself wanted a seat in the Ford for \nthe trip. This general exodus had the hearty approval of the War Department and \nof the Division Commander, the theory being that the morale of both officers and \nmen was maintained and improved by these frequent visits to their homes, and \nthat their periodic presence there inspired in their families and in their friends \nincreased enthusiasm for the War. Be that as it may, these visits were very wel- \n\n\n224 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ncome breaks in the monotony of the life, for they not only enabled me to attend \nto various family and business duties, but also to see my friends in the Movement, \nto keep in touch with the progress of the Work itself through hearing of the latest \ndevelopments, and, above all, to draw new inspiration and fresh strength from \nthese all too brief contacts with T.S. Headquarters. \n\nAs the winter wore on, and as spring drew near, there was greater activity in \nthe Division, and a definite atmosphere of preparation. It did not take long for \nthe same old rumours in regard to an imminent departure overseas to spread; \nbut this time they were true, and they were speedily confirmed by events, and \nby orders we began to receive. After all, we were to be the first National Army \nDivision to go. Recruits began to arrive, and the Division began to fill up again. \nThis time we received draft men from the coimtry districts as well as some from \nNew York; our particular unit took in men from the upper part of New York \nState, many of them boys from the farms, and well set up specimens physically. \nOfficers were required to reduce their personal equipment to about one-half of \nwhat they had expected would be allowed. The Division Inspector started his \nnefarious activities all over again, aided and abetted by two officers from the \nInspector General\u2019s Department in Washington, and any deficiencies in equip\u00ac \nment revealed by these inspections were supplied with a promptness and a \nspeed which left our Regimental Supply Officer breathless, as he had never \nbefore secured anything in the way of supplies without waging a pitched battle \nfirst, and not always then. Detailed directions as to the packing and marking of \nequipment not needed on the voyage were issued and carried out. Everything \nconceivable was stencilled to show that it belonged to the 302d Ammunition \nTrain. Officers\u2019 trunks reposed in rows around the quarters, after having been \npainted with the broad red stripe of the Artillery. (We were theoretically an \nArtillery unit, although all our officers were commissioned in the Infantry!) \nIdentification tags, to be worn on a thong, around the neck, were issued to all \nranks, and it was this light touch which, more than anything else, seemed to \nbring home the fact that we were really on the move at last. All leave for \nenlisted men was stopped, although fortunately no restrictions were placed upon \nofficers. The strictest secrecy in regard to the preparations was enjoined. An \nadvance party, consisting of the Division Commander, most of his Staff, and \none officer from each regiment in the Division, disappeared suddenly from \npublic view. Finally one morning we awoke to find that one brigade of infantry \nhad entrained overnight\u2014for Halifax, as we found out later\u2014and that the \nremainder of the Division was under the command of the remaining infantry \nBrigadier. \n\nIn order that the restrictions upon further leave for enlisted men should not \nwork too great a hardship, their families were still allowed to come to Camp to \nsee*them on Sundays. Of course, any secrecy in regard to what was going on \nwas impossible in the circumstances. The visitors ranged all over the place, saw \nall the preparations for departure, heard all the gossip and rumours, and went \nback to town and repeated everything, with embellishments. It was too ridic\u00ac \nulous. When the orders for embarkation arrived, visiting, as well as leave. \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n225 \n\n\nshould have been stopped at once, and a double line of sentries thrown out around \nthe entire Camp, to prevent all communication. These visitors completely \ndemoralized the men. The most heart-rending farewells would be exchanged, \nand then the whole thing would be gone through all over again on the following \nSunday, and again on the Sunday after that. As we were one of the last units \nto leave, the whole business seemed interminable. Weeping mothers, sisters, \nwives, sweethearts and children had to be herded en masse on Sunday afternoons \nout of the Ammunition Train area, to ensure their making the last train out, \nand that none of them would be left in Camp. It was pathetic; but we lost sight \nof the pathos in our concern for the effect which this was having upon the general \nmorale. By Sunday evening of each week our men were reduced to pulp, and it \nwas the following Tuesday at the earliest before they had recovered and were \nfunctioning normally. The Colonel continued to allow me to slip up to town \neach Sunday until the very last; and each time I said good-bye to my friends in \nthe Movement, and told them all over again that this was probably my last \nappearance. Each re-appearance was, therefore, in the nature of an anti-climax, \nand must have produced somewhat the same effect and feeling as the visitors at \nCamp inspired in us there. I remember, upon what turned out to be my final \nvisit, that the first person whom I saw when I arrived at the Sunday Morning \nService was Mr. Griscom. After greeting me, he smiled and said that my \npresence would be a great surprise to my friends, as they had been thinking of \nme all the week as being on the water, and had been having the Prayers for Those \nat Sea for my benefit. I asked him if he thought it would be wise for me to with\u00ac \ndraw unobtrusively, before anyone else saw me, but he did not seem to think so; \nso I stayed, with the distinct understanding, however, that the Prayers were to \nbe continued at the proper time. I knew, although I had obtained them under \nfalse pretences, as it were, that I was going to need them very much indeed \nbefore many more days had passed. \n\nUnit after unit of the Division left in turn, and finally we received our orders. \nI just had time to send two telegrams to New York, announcing our departure \nin terms carefully worked out and agreed upon beforehand. We entrained at \nCamp Upton early in the morning of April 26th, transferred to ferry boats at \nLong Island City, and reached the pier at Hoboken where our transport was \nawaiting us shortly before noon. There was a long wait on the pier, for some \nreason or other, before the troops were allowed on board, but, fortunately for \nus, the Red Cross was on hand with coffee and sandwiches, and tided us over the \ninterval to the evening meal on the ship. We remained at the pier all that night, \nand did not cast off imtil early the following afternoon, but there was an infinite \namount of detail to be attended to, and numerous orders which had to be under\u00ac \nstood and which others had to be made to understand, and the time was all too \nshort as it was. Strict orders had been issued to the effect that, during the trip \ndown the Bay and through the Narrows, no one in uniform was to be seen on \ndeck, the theory being that then no one could possibly have the slightest idea that \nthe ship was a transport loaded with troops. As a matter of fact, we proceeded \non our way to the accompaniment of shrieking whistles and lowered flags from \n\n\n\n\n\n226 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\neverything afloat along our course, while the Staten Island ferry stopped and \neveryone on board crowded over to one side to get a good look, producing a \nheavy list. But there was a strange feeling of unreality about those last glimpses \nof the city in which one had lived all one\u2019s life. That phase of living seemed \nover, as it were; heart and mind were intent upon the problems of the moment, \nand upon that new life and those new experiences to which one was bound. \n\nOnce well outside, oiu* transport, the Northern Pacific, was joined by the trans\u00ac \nport von Steuben, which had been awaiting us, and we proceeded in company, \nboth vessels being heavily camouflaged with the usual paint effects. We had no \nconvoy of destroyers until we neared the French coast. After the first two \nnights out, all ranks slept fully dressed, minus only head gear and pistol belt. \nBoat drills were organized at once, with frequent rehearsals, so that, after two \ndays, we were able to have every last man up from the lowermost regions of the \nship, and in position, beside his designated life-boat or raft, in something over two \nminutes after the alarm gongs had started to soimd. Those stand-tos were cold \nand dreary and silent affairs. They started one hour before sunrise, and one hour \nbefore sunset, and lasted until the sun was well up or until darkness had actually \nfallen. At those times, and in those half lights, the bulk of a ship loomed large \nagainst the horizon from the periscope of a submarine, and presented an excep\u00ac \ntional target. All officers were armed with the pistol, and orders covering the \npossibility of panic or stampede, or any attempt to rush the boats, in the event \nof a torpedoing, were most drastic. As a matter of fact, the stand-tos were all \nentirely uneventful; but we were fired upon twice in the middle of one night, \nas we approached the French coast, by a submarine which must have happened \nto rise to the surface just as we came along. Apparently it was a hurried pro\u00ac \nceeding on the part of the enemy, for one torpedo went past us, and one went \nastern, and no damage was done. No one but the watch and the two Command\u00ac \ning Officers\u2014Ship and Troops\u2014knew about it until later. We were going fast, \nand our speed probably saved us from further attentions. At night, both vessels \nran with no lights showing, and about half a mile apart. Orders in regard to a \npossible display of light were very strict; no smoking was, of course, allowed on \ndeck, and even wrist watches with luminous dials were forbidden. One night \nanother vessel, also running at full speed without lights and bound westward, \npassed between the von Steuben and the Northern Pacific, and within three \nhundred yards of the Northern Pacific, so near that the watch on each vessel \nwere able hastily to hail one another. We felt aggrieved when we heard of this; \nsurely, we thought, the ocean was large enough to avoid that unnecessary kind \nof thing, and why couldn\u2019t we be let alone? The nights were long and dreary \nand uncertain affairs; owing to the darkness on board and to the crowding, there \nwas not much to do after mess except to lie out in one\u2019s berth, until sleep came, \nfollowed by a sudden, rude awakening, when the stand-to gong rang in the \nmorning. I had the upper berth, and at the first sound of that gong I would \ndrop to the floor, not really awake at all, usually on top of the Captain who was \nmy room-mate, who would be emerging from the lower berth at the same mo\u00ac \nment. After we had disentangled ourselves, there would be frantic and hurried \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n227 \n\n\n\u2022searchings for head-gear, pistols, and overcoats, which we usually found mixed \ntogether on the floor, no matter how carefully we had laid them out the night \nbefore; for the Northern Pacific, while fast, was long and narrow, and proved to \nbe a terrific roller with the following wind which we had all the way. And so, on \ndeck for the stand-to, where the cold morning air blew the last vestiges of sleep \nout of us, and made us long for the party to be over, and for mess. \n\nThe days were busy enough, and started with an inspection by the Colonel \nand myself of the enlisted men\u2019s quarters; we always had with us the Company \nCommander whose area we were inspecting, so that criticism and suggestions \ncould be noted. The men slept in triple-decker bunks, and were very crowded, \nand as the air was bad, many of them were continuously sea-sick. In spite of \nthis, they were forced to come on deck for stand-tos and for their regular duties \n-and for watch, and thus gradually overcame their feelings. We were given \nvoluminous orders from General Headquarters, American Expeditionary Forces, \nwhich required the making up of all sorts of lists, the furnishing of a great amount \nof useless information, most of which had already been given by us, and the filling \nin of various forms. These had to be fiunished in quadruplicate, and their \npreparation devolved upon me as Adjutant. A deck-house was assigned to us as \na Regimental Headquarters, and in it a battery of typewriters was set up and this \npaper-work proceeded. Again and again, on rough days, I would see men gradu\u00ac \nally turn green; they would catch my eye, and at a nod, would disappear on \ndeck for a space, and then come lurching back again and go at their typewriters \nonce more. Never before had I had such a strenuous ocean voyage. The bright \n-spots were meals; the food was good, and we used to sit together at table after\u00ac \nwards as long as we possibly could. \n\nOn the morning of May 4th, our seventh day out, we had just completed our \nusual stand-to and had gone below, when suddenly the alarm gongs sounded \nagain. When we had once more taken our positions on deck, we could see, far \noff on the horizon, a wisp of smoke, but too distant for any indication as to \nwhether it was friend or enemy. Within an hour, however, three An^Ban \ndestroyers hove in sight, sent out from Brest to convoy us in. We were delated \nto see them, for we knew that we were now in the real danger zone for enemy \nsubmarines, and were glad of the protection which they afforded. The decks \nwere crowded that morning by all ranks, watching the manoeuvres of the de- \n\u2022stroyers. They were exactly like little terriers. One of them would suddenly \ndart off at an angle, to investigate a suspicious smooth spot on the water or some \nfloating object on the surface, and, finding all serene, would veer around in a \nsharp curve and come racing back straight for us. Another would dash around \nand around the Northern Pacific in circles, while the third would encircle the von \nSteuben at the same time. As the morning wore on, we ran into a thick fog, and \nat the first indication of bad visibility the Commanding Officer of the Northern \nPacific turned her in a circle and stood out to sea again. When we were clear of \nfog, we started for the coast once more, only to run into more fog and repeat the \nperformance. This happened three times. Finally, around noon, the sun burned \nthrough, and when the fog finally lifted we saw the von Steuben about three miles \n\n\n228 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\naway to port, and our convoy of three destroyers grouped together an equal \ndistance to starboard. We had been dashing about all this time in the mine\u00ac \nfields, going it blind, and it was really more due to good luck than good manage\u00ac \nment that we escaped trouble. We resumed our previous formation, and soon \nthe French coast came in sight, then Brest itself, still a long way off, and at the \nsame time a blimp and two planes appeared, and hovered over us until we were \nsafe in the inner harbour. \n\nWe tied up at a pier, and as we had received orders that no one was to be \nallowed on shore for the present, the Officer of the Day was directed to station \nsentries on the pier, and the Colonel and I paid an official call on the Commanding \nGeneral of the American Base Port, to report ourselves and to receive our orders. \nThe troops spent the entire next day on board alongside the pier; the Colonel \nand I, however, were able to think up some more official questions which we \nwanted to ask, and paid another call on the Commanding General, approaching \nand leaving his Headquarters, however, by circuitous routes which enabled us to \ntake in most of the town and to see the sights, and so timing our movements \nthat we arrived in front of the principal hotel exactly at lunch time. The follow\u00ac \ning morning. May 6th, we disembarked the troops, and forming them on the pier, \nmarched through Brest, the Colonel and his staff at the head of the Column, to \nPontanezan Barracks three or four miles, I think, on the other side of the town. \n\nThis Camp was being used as a receiving depot for incoming American troops, \nwhere they were held until medical examinations had been made, more in\u00ac \nspections had been held, and defects in equipment and other supplies had been \nremedied, after which the various units were cleared and shipped by rail as soon \nas possible to their appointed destinations. Pontanezan had been used as a \ncamp at one time by Napoleon, and the small house occupied by the Americans \nas a Headquarters had once been utilized by him for the same purpose. The \ntroops were under canvas, and did not enjoy their stay; they were looked over by \nso many different staff officers for so many different purposes, that they had no \npeace. It was quite cold still on the Brittany Coast early in May, especially at \nnight, and the food was neither good nor plentiful. One of our men was heard to \nremark, \u201cHuh! They call this a Rest Camp. The only thing that is getting a \nrest here is my insides.\u201d Personally, I had no rest at Pontanezan either, for we \nfound that most of the lists which we had made up, and most of the forms which \nwe had filled in with so much labour and trouble on the Northern Pacific, had \nbeen superseded by new lists and new forms. New orders had been issued by \nGeneral Headquarters calling for new information, and most of our work proved \nto have been useless and unnecessary, and had to be done all over again. \n\nThe Colonel and I occupied a large tent, together with the Chaplain and the \nSupply Officer; we each had an army cot in a comer. The second night after our \narrival, I was awakened in the middle of the night by a piercing yell. I sat up, \ndazed with sleep, trying to remember where I was and to imagine what had \nhappened. The sound seemed to have proceeded from the Chaplain\u2019s comer, \nas there was still a peculiar whimpering sound emanating from that point. The \nColonel and the Supply Officer were both awake; I could see two shadowy and \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n229 \n\n\nindistinct forms sitting up in their cots. There was a moment of dreadful silence. \nThen the Colonel said, in an awful voice,\u2014\u201cFor God\u2019s sake. Chaplain, what\u2019s \nthe matter?\u2019\u2019 I never knew whether the Colonel felt that mentioning first the \nDeity was the proper way to preface a series of remarks to a Father of the Roman \nCatholic Church, or whether the Colonel\u2019s own alarm made him instinctively \ninvoke Higher Authority.- At all events, there proceeded from the Chaplain\u2019s \ncomer a series of gulps and gasps as from one who has succeeded in coming up \nto the surface again for air, and then a weak and tremulous voice, which stated \nthat it thought it had had a nightmare. There was another moment of dreadful \nsilence; and then the Army made a short address to the Church, in which the name \nof the Deity was again mentioned several times, perhaps for both of the above \nreasons, with the element of relief added,\u2014it being explained to the Chaplain \nin clear and concise terms just how many different kinds of an idiot he was. I \nwas shaking with laughter, but made no sound, as it did not seem possible to add \nanything to what had already been said. The Chaplain was a chastened man the \nnext day; but no further allusion was made to the occurrence, and the Colonel \nseemed already to have forgotten it, his manner to the Chaplain being altogether \ncharming. \n\nA trip or two into Brest by the Colonel, accompanied by the Supply Officer and \nmyself, served to complete arrangements for entraining the command for Souge, \nnear Bordeaux, where there was a large artillery camp and range, and where we \nwere to undergo our final training. On the morning of May 9th, a few days short \nof a year from the date upon which I had gone to Plattsburgh to the First Officers\u2019 \nTraining Camp, the Regiment was in formation and ready to march into Brest \nto entrain. When, at the Colonel\u2019s order, I gave the command, \u201cBattalions, \nAttention! Column of companies. First company, right by squads. March!\u2019\u2019, \nwatched the troops begin to move, and then hurried to take my place at the head \nof the column with the Colonel, I felt that we were really entering the last phase \nof preparation, and hoped that it would not be long. \n\nCenturion, \n\n{To be continued) \n\n\nTrue it is that whoso cannot obey, cannot be free, still less bear rule: he that is \nthe inferior of nothing, can be the superior of nothing, the equal of nothing. \n\u2014Carlyle. \n\n\nLet us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us dare to do our \nduty as we understand it .\u2014 Lincoln. \n\n\n\n\nMANAGING THE PERSONALITY \n\n\n\nS members of The Theosophical Society, many of us have attended its \n\n\nmeetings for a number of years, and have heard numerous interesting and \n\n\n^ helpful addresses and discussions. If we have attended meetings of the \nNew York Branch, we have heard contemplation discussed\u2014contemplation of \nan ideal of life which transcends the life and interests of the personality\u2014and \nalso the transforming power of such contemplation. The idea may have seemed \nto us desirable. We may even have felt, in a general way, that we should like \nto make it our own. Then, after contenting ourselves for a time with what \namounted to little more than a pious hope that some day, or in some future life, \nwe might be able to attain it, we may suddenly have become aware that the \nbarrier which has been restraining us from making a serious attempt to take \nthe first steps on the Path toward such a goal, was oiu* personality, and the fact \nthat all our life we have allowed it to govern our thoughts and acts, and have \nhabitually centred our consciousness in it and its concerns. Perhaps, following \nthis realization, we decided to remain a slave no longer. \n\nAll of us are familiar with the analogy of the rider and the horse, used to \ndescribe the relation between the individuality (the enduring, reincarnating Ego) \nand the personality. In the Phaedrus there is that familiar passage which shows \nquite clearly that Plato understood the dual nature of man, as evidenced by his \nreference to the charioteer and the two steeds,\u2014one of them \u201cnoble and of \nnoble breed, upright and cleanly made; a lover of honour and modesty and \ntemperance, who needed no touch of the whip, but was guided by word and \nadmonition only\u201d; the other, \u201cignoble and of ignoble breed, a crooked and \nlumbering animal; the mate of insolence and pride, hardly yielding to whip and \nspur\u201d. This \u201ccrooked, lumbering animal\u201d, then, is the creature which we, the \ncharioteer, must tame and train. To the extent that we have made this truth \nour own, instead of entertaining it as a pious platitude, we shall have learned our \nfirst lesson in right self-identification. \n\nIn the first results of any such attempt, the experience of one is in a certain \nsense the experience of all, yet it is equally true that each man has his own \nproblem. Let us suppose that \u201cwe\u201d, in this case, are a business man with a \nfamily to support, and that we have hitherto regarded oiu* occupation merely as \na means to that end, albeit we have had, as it might be expressed, \u201cquite a kick \nout of it\u201d in the contest of wits, ingenuity and energy under the keenly com\u00ac \npetitive conditions of modem business. Facing our newly-made resolution, we \nnow remember having heard it said that we must begin right where we are, and \nin the circumstances in life in which we are placed. A little reflection now shows \nthe necessity of looking upon our business in a new light. No longer may \nambition, desire for reward, or desire for sensation be our dominating motive. \nInstead, our business must be used (as it was meant to be) as an opportunity \n\n\n230 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMANAGING THE PERSONALITY \n\n\n231 \n\n\nfor training. We begin by resolving to rise at a certain hour every morning, and \nto arrive at our office punctually,\u2014an excellent resolution, if followed by right \naction. Instead, the very first morning after our laudable resolve, we oversleep, \nowing to having indulged ourselves by remaining up late the night before to \nfinish a book which interested us. As a result, we hasten through our private \ndevotions and our toilet, are rather cross during breakfast with our family, gulp \ndown our food and rush off to the office. Arriving there late, we find that some \nimportant matters which required immediate attention have been undertaken \nin our absence by an associate. This man, whose methods we habitually find \nvery exasperating, has handled the matter to the best of his ability, but in a way \nwhich we know will not further oiu* company\u2019s interests. Instead of assuming \nthe responsibility for this ourselves, seeing it rightly as the result of our tardy \narrival at the office, we find fault with our associate, have words with him, and \nfinally lose our temper. \n\nSo far, the day\u2019s experience, in this form or some other, is probably a familiar \none to most of us. But let us suppose we are fortunate enough to have a friend, \na fellow T.S. member, to whom we can confide, over the lunch table, the trials of \nthe morning. Honest and frank confession often brings its own reward. At \nany rate, we get a glimpse of the situation through another man\u2019s eyes. In this \ncase, we are reminded in the course of the conversation that we should learn \nthrough our faults and failures, because they are about all that many of us have \nthrough which to learn. It is pointed out to us that our exhibition of self\u00ac \nassertiveness in the events of the morning was a result of our having identified \nourselves with the personality, beginning with the self-indulgence of the night \nbefore. Grateful for the object lesson, and much encouraged, we tackle our \nproblem with renewed interest. \n\nThe next day, we find our task made easier. We have become aware of some \nof the danger points; we have learned to look down upon our two steeds from the \ncharioteer\u2019s position above them; we are acquiring at least a bowing acquaint\u00ac \nance with recollection and detachment. Accordingly, we rise at the hour de\u00ac \ntermined upon\u2014^having refrained from late hours the night before. We do not \nhurry through our devotions; we eat oiu* breakfast calmly, and, incidentally,. \nwith far better table manners than on the previous morning; we arrive at thjd \noffice punctually, and the day starts well. But before long, we again bcconw \nimmersed in business, and for a time completely forget our resolution. After \na while, we recall a suggestion made by our T.S. friend, that we \u201crecollect \nourselves\u2019\u2019 at least once every hour. We glance at the office clock and see that \nit stands exactly at noon. With a thought of gratitude to the friend, we take a \nfresh hold on ourselves. All goes well until our \u201cunruly steed\u2019\u2019 begins to feel \nthe curb of the rein, and responds by sulking and displa)nng \u201cinsolence and \npride\u2019\u2019, as Plato warned\u2014^with the result that soon we catch ourselves indulging \nin sarcastic remarks. However, by pausing a few seconds before speaking, we \nare able to prevent further outbreaks of this nature during the remainder of the \nday. \n\nAssuming that such are the typical results of initial efforts, it seems clear that^ \n\n\n232 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nintermittent and unskilled though these may be, they nevertheless prove our \npower to control and manage the unruly steed of the personality; prove that we \ncan make oiu* own the ideal offered in T.S. discussions,\u2014though, for full success, \none must concentrate upon the task, as is said in \u201cThe Elixir of Life\u201d, without \na single moment\u2019s relaxation. The personality has been in control so long that it \nwill not surrender without a violent struggle. The rider must be more determined \nthan the steed, and we must be prepared to continue the struggle, and to keep \non trying, although aware that we shall doubtless fail many times. We have \nheard it said that the only real failure is to cease trying, and the least experience \nshows us that we must not fail; that the issue, once joined, is one of life or death. \n\nWhat will provide the motive power to carry us forward? A desire that \ntranscends every other desire of oiu* hearts for the realization of an ideal which \nwe have seen as desirable above everything else in the world. When we have \nseen that ideal most vividly, and our pulses quicken in eager longing for its \nattainment, we may be sure that it is our higher nature beckoning to us and \nshowing us the way. We have become able, for the time being, to identify \nourselves with the charioteer, and the personality has been transformed into \nthe \u201cnoble steed, who needed no touch of the whip, but was guided by word \nand admonition only\u201d. Once we have been lifted out of ourselves, above and \nbeyond the personality with all its self-seeking, desire for personal gratifica\u00ac \ntion and reward, we must push forward in obedience to the heavenly vision, \nas did St. Paul. When our vision of the ideal fades, or is lost sight of alto\u00ac \ngether, we may be sure that we have allowed the personality to gain the upper \nhand temporarily by having identified ourselves with it, and have become, for \nthe moment, the \u201ccrooked, lumbering animal, the mate of insolence and pride, \nhardly yielding to whip and spur\u201d. By this time, our experience should have \ntaught us that we cannot hope to do battle with the personality on its own \nplane; w^e must rise above it. We must keep our attention, our desire and our \nwill fixed in contemplation upon our ideal. As that inspiring book, La RSponse \ndu Seigneur, warns: \u201cMan, called to ever-increasing greatness, grows smaller \nand smaller unless he renounces himself.\u201d \n\nA Master has said: \u201cHe who does the best that he can, and all that he can, \ndoes enough for us.\u201d How many of us begin to meet that test? Yet, those \nare words of encouragement, because more will not be required of us than we \nare capable of, no matter how little and insignificant that may be; but we must \nwithhold nothing, and give our all. It is the effort and motive that count, and \nas we strive unceasingly and with ardour and enthusiasm to become our ideal, \nwe shall find that as we live up to the light we have seen, we shall gain in wis\u00ac \ndom and understanding, and thereby be enabled constantly to purify our motive. \nSteady, unremitting effort will enable us gradually to loosen the bonds of the \npersonality, strengthened though they have been by past years and incarna\u00ac \ntions of mastery over us. \n\n\nH.G. \n\n\nL\u2019ILE=DE-FRANCE \n\n\n\"N \n\n\nFrance^ mkre des arts, des armes, et des loix .\u2014 Joachim Du Bellay. \n\nI F you wish to transplant a tree, you must dig it up very carefully, taking care \nnot to injure the roots. If possible, it is best to take it up with a large \nquantity of the earth around it. Then, it must be replanted promptly in \nsimilar soil and in a similar climate, if it is to grow and floiuish. In the Bestiaries \nof the Middle Ages we are amused to see deer that are part lichens, or strange \ngoats that are plants. In modem scientific works we read about plants that \nendeavour to perambulate. Man, supposedly, has no roots. He can walk all \nover the continents and has made himself boats so that he can leave his native \nhabitat of dry land. He can, if he have such bizarre desires, go up into the \nstratosphere in a balloon, with an oxygen bag on his head. But man, really, is \na creature very much like the lichen deer. He is in two kingdoms at the same \ntime. His body can roam about at will, but his roots grow upward, like those of \nthe Ashvatta Tree, into worlds invisible to the physical eye. The higher up his \nroots go into the spiritual world, the more perfect a man he becomes. Nowadays, \nmen try to assert that they have no roots, no history, no ancestry, no heritage, \nno race. Plants are watered by rain from heaven, and the same sun and moon \nshine upon the deodars of the Himalayas and the cedars of the Rockies. Uni\u00ac \nversal powers nourish them. Man\u2019s roots are nourished by the universal powers, \nbut that does not mean that they have no specific existence or place. The \nimmediate roots of man are his family, his ancestry, his traditions, his country, \nhis race, and his Master. \n\nIn this Dark Age, full of the winds of Internationalism, Pacifism, Prole- \ntarianism and other topsy-turvy doctrines, we meditate too seldom upon this \naspect of human life. Instead, we think in terms of a kind of Protestantism: \none leap, and we can talk directly to God; one denial, and we are detached from \npast humanity. \n\nI have been thinking of these things because I have been reading a boo^dS \nEdmond Pilon, called UIle-de-France, The Isle of France. This province, as^u \nknow, is the coimtry surrounding Paris, and is the very heart of France and \nthe cradle of the French Monarchy which was the incarnation of that heart for \nso long. Edmond Pilon\u2019s work, which is one of a series called Les Beaux Pays, \nBeautiful Countries, does not pretend to be anything but a little journey through \nthis province. It is profusely illustrated with excellent photographs of the \nlandscape, of castles, churches and works of art. Perhaps, if one has never been \nthere and does not know \u201cthe feel\u201d of the landscape, or does not love its history, \none will not find the profound poetry, the deep significance, the spiritual splen\u00ac \ndour which I have found. Still, I feel sure that anyone who reads the book \nwith attention will realize, intellectually at least, something of its richness and \nmeaning. \n\n\n\n\n233 \n\n\n\n234 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nThis province is called an island because it is surrounded by rivers, the Seine, \nMarne, Oise and Aisne. \n\nThe Government of the IU-de~Franee^ as it survived in its political limits until the \nRevolution, was larger than the geographers describe it. Besides the Bne fran^aisey \nthe Goele with Danmartin, France (Saint-Denis-en-France, Roissy-en-France) and the \nValois to the limits of the Laonnois and of the BeauvaisiSf it included the Fextn frangaisy \nthe Mantois (with Mantes), the Pincerais (with Poissy), the Drouais (with Dreux), the \nYveline (Saint-Leger-en-Yveline, Rambouillet), the Hurepoix (Dourdan, Limours, Long- \njumeau), and the Gdtinaisy composed of woods, marshes, heaths, the Bihe (Chailly-en- \nBiere), Fontainebleau and its forest, the whole limited, circumscribed, as is fitting for an \nisland, by the blue line of rivers. ... All this, moreover, not without geological affini\u00ac \nties, a related system of waters, a variety of stock and crops complementing each other: \nin nearly every part there are cereals, but wheat is grown more particularly in Brie and \nin Hurepoix in the direction of Chartres. There are flocks also in Brie, apples in the \nVexin, honey in Gatinais, vegetables in the Parisis and at Arpajon, grapes atThomery, \ngrapes at Fontainebleau, at Montreuil, peaches, and, between the two fresh valleys of \nthe Bievre and the Yvette, strawberries and more strawberries, so many that on certain \nsummer days the air is heavy with a taste of fruit, with a warm, sweet sap, enough to \nintoxicate the bees. \n\nIf you will look at a map of France, you will see what a small section this is, \nand if you place the whole province on an American state, you will realize in \nwhat a little area so much diversity is contained. The great city of Paris is in \nthe Ile-de-Francey and all these quiet towns and hamlets, these chateaux and \nwoods and little rivers,\u2014all this deep country. But if many of these outlying \nspots are unknown to tourists, they, nevertheless, have an active life of their \nown and are beloved of the Muses. We have heard about the scientist who \nvisited a South Sea island to study the snails there. Ravines run down the slopes \ninto the sea, and in each ravine, separated by high ridges from their neighbours, \ndifferent species of snails have developed. The isolation of the old days produced \njust such diversity of type and intensity of life in the country districts. Now, \nwhen we all use the same mark of toothpaste from Los Angeles to Bangor, and \nlisten on the radio to the same jokes, in Quebec, Kansas, Seattle and New \nOrleans, is our life really enriched ? \n\nPilon says that by following the roads, those roads which were Roman roads, \nthe highways of Brunehault, le pav^ du Rot, the King\u2019s Highway, \u201ctwenty cen\u00ac \nturies of history rise with the stones from out the ages.\u2019\u2019 He speaks first of \nthose stones which survive from periods which are lost to us in the obscurity of \ntime, of the megalithic monuments, vestiges of the ancient faith of Gaul. There \nare several of these menhirs and dolmens, great rocks which seem to contain \nwithin themselves the secrets of the lost mysteries. They sleep under an en\u00ac \nchantment, like Merlin in the forest of Broceliande. What trumpet\u2019s blare will \nawaken them? What magic word cause them to speak, to utter musical sounds \nlike the Vocal Memnon? How well I remember the first picture in my history \nbook! It represented a Gallic warrior. \u201cThe Gauls wore breeches and long \nmoustaches. They said they feared nothing save that the sky should fall on their \nheads.\u2019\u2019 The Romans are represented in Paris by a number of remains, such \n\n\nL\u2019lLE-DE-FRANCE \n\n\n235 \n\n\nas the Arena, and the Baths now part of the Cluny museum. Julian the Apostate \nlived there. \u201cMy dear Lutetia\u201d, he called it. There is a street, la rue Jules \nCisar. Everyone feels that Caesar has just as much right to a street or more \nthan le President Wilson. Everyone knows about Caesar and has a connection \nwith him. As for the Middle Ages, there are still great walls and towers and \ncastles which we are going to see as we journey around the country. There are \nthe works o\u2018f the Renaissance, and all the beauties of the eighteenth century; \nthere are the churches and the ruins of abbeys, there are the gardens. \n\nAs for Paris itself, it is the subject of numberless tomes. How could one \ndescribe all its beauties and its wealth of historical associations? Upon Mont\u00ac \nmartre there still exists the crypt of the Martyrs, at the spot where the first \napostles of Lutdtia, Saint Denis and his companions, Eleuth^re and Rustique, \nwere decapitated. This crypt dates from the year 375. There is Notre-Dame \nde Paris, a little too neatly restored by Viollet-le-Duc, but perfect in its silhouette \nat all hours of the day and night, against the gamut of blues of the Parisian sky. \nThere is the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont with the shrine of the Patron \nSaint of Paris, St. Genevieve. Candles are always burning before the shrine, \nfor every one knows, even the unbelievers, that St. Genevieve takes an active \ninterest in her city. Upon the wall of the church is a tablet which says that Clovis \nand his family were buried in the ancient basilica which stood nearby. Clovis! \nA picture in the history book showed him calling upon Christ at the battle of \nTolbiac. There is the vast Louvre with its incalculable treasures and its memo\u00ac \nries. One sees traced upon the pavement of its court the site of the donjon of \nPhilip Augustus, where the feudatories swore allegiance to the King. One sees \nthe window from which Charles ix witnessed the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. \nThe Salon Carr6 was the bedroom of Henri iii. The Venus de Milo is in Anne of \nAustria\u2019s bathroom. The Pavilion de Marsan is part of the Tuileries. The \nPrincesse de Lamballe and Madame Elisabeth lived there before they were taken \nto prison. There is the Tomb of Napoleon. There are the houses of all the \nfamous men of France and of Europe. There are the streets where they walked, \nand not only they, but also the heroes and heroines of fiction. What can one not \nsee! The chair of Dagobert, the Hand of Justice of the Kings of France, the \nhelmet of Bayard, the hat of Napoleon, the slippers of Josephine. \n\nAnd the Place de la Concorde and\u2014but no. If we do not start at once^^\u00ae \nshall never get out of Paris. Perhaps we can start by going a very little \nto places which were once in the country but are now practically in the city. \nWe can go to Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis-en-France, for this is the province of \nFrance. The father of Hugues Capet was Count of Paris, Duke of France and \nAbbot of Saint-Denis. Pilon says: \u201cHere at Saint-Denis are the starting \npoint and the end: the cradle of the Capetian race and the sepulchre where it \nrests. ... It is not possible to comprehend the other monuments, nor to under\u00ac \nstand anything about the other abbeys, castles, all the other edifices, religious, \nmilitary or civil of the Ile-de-France, if one has not come here first, if one has \nnot touched the foundations and the bases.\u2019\u2019 \n\nThe crypt of Saint-Denis was probably the ancient chapel of the Virgin \n\n\n\n\n236 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nbuilt in 832, against the great apse of the Martyrium of the Carolingian church \nwhich contained the remains of Saint Denis. Dagobert foimded the monastery, \nbut it was Suger, the famous minister of Louis le Gros, who built the Gothic \nchurch. Suger has always been my favourite of all the ministers of France. A \nman of great religious devotion, he slept upon the floor of his cell, but he under\u00ac \nstood the splendours of the arts. The symbolism of the glass windows came from \nSuger, who was evidently an initiate in the Mysteries of the Master Builders. \nSaint Bernard, who was an acid soul as regards the arts, disapproved of Suger; \nbut as Emile Mile points out in his invaluable book on religious art of the \ntwelfth century in France, Bernard\u2019s dead body was wrapped in the magnificent \nByzantine silks he had despised. At Saint-Denis was kept the Oriflamme, the \nBattle Standard of France. Some say this banner was made of the cape of \nHugues Capet. The Oriflamme was borne against the Germans by Louis vi, \nit went to the Second Crusade, it floated at Bouvines. In 1914, its reproduction \nwas raised again in commemoration of Bouvines. Here were the funeral monu\u00ac \nments of the Kings of France, most of whom were buried in the church. During \nthe Revolution the tombs were opened, and the bones and dust of the rulers \nand princes were scattered. Napoleon began the restoration of the church, \nand Viollet-le-Duc continued it under Napoleon iii. In 1918 a munitions factory \nexploded and damaged some of the windows and the facade, but many of the \nmonuments are still intact. It is impossible to name all the kings and queens \nand princes and princesses who were buried at Saint-Denis. I name at random \nDagobert, Pepin, Blanche de Castille, Charles Martel, Philippe le Bel, Charles vi, \nand Isabeau de Bavi^re (who had nearly a whole page in the history book to \nshow her high, peaked headdress, the henin), the Constable Duguesclin (\u201cAll the \nwomen of France will spin for my ransom\u2019\u2019), Louis xii and Anne de Bretagne \n(\u201cDuchesse en sabots\u2019\u2019), Francis i, Henri ii and Catherine de Medici, and, in \nthe crypt, Louis xvi and Marie-Antoinette. \n\nI know of few more desolate spots. Saint-Denis is a very commercial and ugly \ntown. The church is like a museum. The tombs are empty. The forces of \nmaterialism, darkness, envy and hate are always tr3dng to cut men off from their \ninheritance, from the spiritual wisdom they have acquired by past experience, \nfrom the examples of their leaders. When possible, they hurl themselves upon \nthose leaders and put them to death. They vent their fury even upon the tombs \nof past rulers, endeavouring to wipe out every vestige of their existence and \ninfluence. And what do they put in their place? The corpse of a Lenin. Hun\u00ac \ndreds of years of history were preserved within these walls. The Kings were the \nincarnation of the destinies of the nation, and I think one can say truly that, \nwhatever their faults, they loved France above all. \n\nAfter Saint-Denis, of course, one thinks of Versailles. There are great men \nwho are builders by nature. They not only build up the state, the morale, \nthe laws, the finances, the army; they build roads and edifices. Suger was \nsuch a man, and so was Louis xiv. If Suger, as the Abbot of Cluny said, built \nfor God, Louis xiv built for France. He wanted France to be the greatest \nnation in Christendom, and he wanted the palace of her King to express her \n\n\nL\u2019lLE-DE-FRANCE \n\n\n237 \n\n\ngrandeur. No one, surely, can stand upon the great terrace overlooking the \ngardens without feeling that he succeeded. Magnificent as is the palace, with \nits splendours of marble, carving and gilt, the gardens of Versailles are what \none remembers first. There are those who find them too formal, too designed, \n\u201cnot natural enough\u201d. They fail to see that in them \u201cNature\u201d has been passed \nthrough the alembic of man\u2019s consciousness and has been re-created and syn\u00ac \nthesized. Its laws, its beauties hav^ been stated so clearly, so logically, that \nthey are too simple for the ordinary eye to perceive. Simplicity, which is the \nultimate elegance of manners and of the arts, is almost always mistaken for \ninsignificance by the uncultured. The classic is apt to seem formal and unnatural \nto the undisciplined. If Saint-Denis represents the deep religious faith of \nFrance which produced its churches, its ever-growing national life and its unity \nas a family under its king as under a father, the gardens of Versailles represent \nFrench thought, its logic, its clarity, its order. What design! What beauty! \nOne can look down the vast vista of the terraces, down the Tapis Vert, down \nthe Grand Canal to far-off distances. One can watch, entranced, a jet of water \nlike a crystal column rising to the tops of the dark trees that surround the \nfountain. There is the lovely Grand Trianon whose rose coloured marble \narcades seem mirrored in beds of roses and begonias. There is the exquisite \nLittle Trianon, the least deserted of all the palaces; for here one can almost \nhear light footsteps, and when one enters a room, someone seems to have just \nleft it by the other door. \n\nThere are other royal chateaux; Saint-Germain, with its magnificent terrace, \nits chapel of Saint-Louis, its memories of Henri iv, Louis xiii, of the sad, exiled \nStuarts. The Germans destroyed the forest in the Franco-Prussian war, but it \nhas grown up again. To Compi^gne, Anne of Austria withdrew during the \nFronde. Here Marie-Antoinette was received when she came to France, and \nafter her Marie-Louise. Here Napoleon iii gave to Eugdnie de Montijo the four- \nleaved clover, jewelled with dew drops. German shells fell on the Chateau during \nthe Great War. Jeanne d\u2019Arc went to pray in the old church of Saint-Jacques \nat Compi^gne before she was taken prisoner. The Kings of France were mighty \nhimters before the Lord. They himted at Rambouillet, where one goes every \nMay to pick lilies-of-the-valley. They chased the deer and boar at Fontainebleau. \nAt Fontainebleau, too, Napoleon spent those tragic hours when he was betrayed \nby his Marshals, and here he said farewell to the Old Guard before his exile to Elba. \n\nHoudan, Dourdan, Montlhdry, Montford I\u2019Amaury, Vez, La Roche-Guyon, \nPierrefonds, Maintenon, Anet, Chantilly, Vaux-le-Vicomte; their names evoke \nwhat memories! Every little, grey village, every farm is rich with associations. \nOne summer when I was staying at the Chateau de Rozi^res, we sometimes \nwalked three miles to the railroad to take the train to market at Senlis. We \npassed by one of those old farms, surrounded by walls like a little citadel. It \nhad a tiny chapel, and, on the outside wall of the chapel was the tombstone of \na crusader in full armour, with his sword, his hands joined in prayer. \n\nNothing sums up more completely or more movingly the centuries of human \nsuffering, effort and faith than the little churches of France. Take Saint-Loup- \n\n\n238 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nde-Naud in Brie. You drive along little country roads between wheat fields \nbordered with poppies and cornflowers and rosy corncockles. You see the grey \ntower rising above the cluster of trees. This church is one of the gems of twelfth \ncentiuy architectiore. The apse of the building is Romanesque and there remain \ntraces of frescoes. As Alphonse de Chateaubriant says in La R^ponse du Seigneur, \nspeaking of the little chapel in the woods, there is \u201ca vague odour of saltpeter, of \nold wax and of old bouquets\u201d. The little chimches of France are very poor now, \nbut their espousal of Holy Poverty gives them another charm and nobility. At \nSaint-Loup-de-Naud the porch of the chimch is in the style of Chartres. In the \ntympanum is represented Christ in Majesty, siurounded by the four beasts of \nthe evangelists. On either side of the portal are long, elegant personages, the \nKing of Judah, the Queen of Sheba, etc. On the central pillar is Saint-Loup him\u00ac \nself, in his bishop\u2019s robes, bearing his crozier. The hands have been slightly \ndamaged, but the head, so humane, so benign, is intact. Saint-Loup was a \nbishop in the seventh century, and episodes of his life are shown in the sculptures \nof the vaulting. A precious jewel falls from heaven into the chalice as he cele\u00ac \nbrates the Mass. The devil is shut up in a vase. The great bell of Sens is carved \nthere. Clotaire impiously carried it off to Paris; but Saint-Loup told it not to \nring, and it obeyed him and was silent until it was sent back. Clotaire is seen \nkneeling before the saint, imploring his pardon. Emile M 41 e says: \u201cThis mixture \nof puerility and of nobility did not shock anyone then. For the men of this time, \nnothing is great, nothing is small, for in every thing the presence of God is \nrevealed.\u201d \n\nOver the coimtryside floats the sound of bells. \u201cRecollection, meditation, \nindrawal of the soul, hope and pardon, that is what the bells say, from huge \nMarie, the Great Bell of Notre-Dame, to the humble little bells of the churches \nof Arbonne, of Chailly, or of Barbizon, where Millet took the subject of his \nAngelus. These bells, do not forget, have sounded the tocsin of alarum, they have \ncalled to work, to combat, to prayer; they have calmed the passionate beating \nof many hearts and poured rest into many consciences.\u201d \n\nWho can describe the varied landscape; its blue distances, its little rivers, \nits plains and heaths, purple with heather? Every inch of its soil is satiuated \nwith the love and thought of an immemorial past. Nothing is lost. It is a vast \nreservoir upon which to draw. It is a treasure of experience which enriches all \nits children. It is the cultime of the race, which every man shares and which \nextends his consciousness far beyond the limits of his personal life until it can \ninclude all of its history. I remember experiencing this myself when I was \nquite young. I was sitting in a forest, at the edge of a hill overlooking the \ncoimtry around Nanteuil-le-Haudouin. Here Jeanne d\u2019Arc fought a battle, and \nhere the Germans were turned back in the Great War. As I sat there, all the \nhistory of France seemed to flow into me from the earth. I saw no visions \nwith my eyes, but I experienced in my own consciousness ancient faiths and \ndesperate battles. I participated in the being of himdreds of years. I remember \nexclaiming. It is all, all mine! \n\nNow, I do not relate this because it was any proof of merit or an extraordinary \n\n\nL\u2019lLE-DE-FRANCE \n\n\n239 \n\n\nexperience. On the contrary, this is the birthright of every Frenchman and of \nmany who were not bom in France this time, but who must have been privileged \nto be bom there many times in the past. This is what racial culture means; \nnot something intellectual, not education, not even being able to read and write, \nbut being nourished by the spiritual deposit of faith and heroism, by the rich \nelements of the racial blood. If men deny this, they repudiate their ancestors. \nIf they try to cut themselves off from the past, of course they cannot escape \nfrom its consequences, but they can deprive themselves of its benefits, its \nwisdom, its strength. If they could see what they would become! Something \nso denuded, so alone, so puny that their existence would be a matter of seconds! \nSomething so hideous that a mosquito would be lovely compared with them! \nWesterners laugh at the veneration of ancestors as at a superstition, and, alas, \nmany of their deluded pupils in the East laugh with them. If they realized even \na little of what their ancestors have done for them, they would find burning \nincense before their portraits a very slight symbol of gratitude. \n\nFunck-Brentano, in his superb book on the Middle Ages, describes the building \nup of the French nation after the confusion of the Dark Ages. During the \nninth and tenth centuries, every city in France was destroyed. \u201cThree do \nnot meet two without killing them.\u201d The central authority lapsed. Invasion \nand civil war laid waste the country. Funck-Brentano says: \u201cIt was in this \nanarchy that was accomplished the work of social reconstmction, by the only \norganized force which remained intact, under the only shelter that nothing can \nthrow down, because it has its foundations in the human heart; the family.\u201d \nThis ought to be encouraging to us who live in an age of such confusion, when \nevery institution is falling to pieces,\u2014^the family, it would seem, included. If \nmen really studied history, they might profit from its lessons, and, perhaps, \navoid the dark age into which we seem to be entering. Thus, the family extended \nits protection to its dependents; it joined other families; it became a clan. It \nprotected other clans or fought them. Gradually, the clans gathered cell by cell \naround the centre, the royal family, the King, the father of his people. \u201cThe \nKing,\u201d says Hugues de Fleury, \u201cis the image of the father.\u201d With the sceptre, \nthe Kings of France carried, not the sword, but the Hand of Justice, because \nthey were the incarnations of Justice. \u201cThe King treats his subjects an(^tetes \nout justice to them, as a father to his children.\u201d The feudal system, tlBKier- \narchical system, is built upon duty and responsibility; the responsibility of the \nlord to his serf, the duty of the serf to his lord; the duty of the lord to his over- \nlord, the responsibility of the over-lord to his feudatories; the loyalty of the \nover-lords to the King, the impartial justice of the King to all his vassals. The \nKing, who sums up and incarnates the spirit of his people, is in turn responsible \nto his Lord, and his responsibility is his Divine Right. When societies are \nturned upside down as to-day, rights without responsibility or duty are what \npeople clamour for, as though such a thing could exist. \n\nNow, of course, the French nation is far from perfect, and in the course of its \nevolution has been full of strife and hate and evil. The barons have fought the \nKings and oppressed the people; the Kings have lacked wisdom. The dregs of \n\n\n240 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthe nation rose up in the Revolution and attempted to submerge everything. \nSome of the dregs are still floating around on the top. Yet, because of the real \nimity of France, because of the heroism, the devotion, the faith of the past, it is \nto-day a nation which cannot be destroyed, which, when it is attacked, rises \nlike one man to defend its soil and its inheritance and performs those acts of \nsublime valour which we saw in the Great War. \n\nThis gradual formation of the individual is the same for man and nation. \nIt is only accomplished by loyalty to principle and by imion of consciousness. \nThere can be no imiversality of consciousness by any other process. A thin, \nrootless internationalism is the exact inversion of this. Certainly, all humanity \nwill share in one spirit some day, but it will be because men have become indi\u00ac \nvidual cells in individual nations which, in turn, are united in a spiritual hier\u00ac \narchy. That day is a long way off and cannot be attained simply by flying around \nthe globe in forty-eight hours, or, even, by killing off everybody but the \u201cpro\u00ac \nletariat\u201d. Thus, we see that by performing properly and with love the rites \nand duties of everyday life, in our families, in our relations with our friends and \ncompanions, with our ancestors and with our nation, we arrive at a state of con\u00ac \nsciousness which includes our spiritual race and lineage. By looking at one little \nprovince with all its past and present, we are led beyond its image to the real abode \nof the soul. Perhaps we do not appreciate these things until we are taken away \nfrom them. Is this not the reason for the long exile of the soul, that it may yearn \nfor all it has lost and turn back to its soimce ? \n\nLa, est le bien que tout esprit desire, \n\nLa, le repos ou tout le monde aspire. \n\nLa, est Tamour, la, le plaisir encore. \n\nLa, 6 mon ame au plus hault ciel guidee! \n\nTu y pouras recongnoistre I\u2019ldee \nDe la beaute, qu*en ce monde j^adore. \n\n\u201cThere is the good which every heart desires; there is the rest to which the \nworld aspires, there is love, and there is pleasure also. \n\n\u201cThere, oh my soul to highest heaven guided! There thou canst recognize \nthe Idea of beauty, which in this world I adore.\u201d Sauvage. \n\n\nOnce I saw mountains angry, \n\nAnd ranged in battle-front. \n\nAgainst them stood a little man; \n\nAye, he was no bigger than my finger. \n\nI laughed, and spoke to one near me, \n\n''Will he prevail?\u201d \n\n\"Surely,\" replied this other; \n\n\"His grandfathers beat them many times.\" \n\nThen did I see much virtue in grandfathers ,\u2014 \n\nAt least for the little man \n\nWho stood against the mountains .\u2014 Stephen Crane. \n\n\n\nLIVING PICTURES \n\n\nR ecently I found in an old trunk a forgotten collection of photographs, \ntreasured in my boyhood. Opening the package, first came my likeness \n^ at the age of four, standing with a basket of flowers in one hand; on the \ntop of my head a fat curl; on my chubby face a look of happy expectancy, as I \nwatched \u201cfor the birdie to come out\u201d. I always rather scorned this picture on \naccount of the fat curl. Not so with the next picture, showing me as a boy of \ntwelve in cadet uniform, a soldier! The small rifle, boy\u2019s size, is grasped firmly in \nboth hands, bayonet fixed. Most important of all, there is a medal\u2014a solid \ngold one\u2014conspicuous on my breast. No veteran could be more proud of his \ndecorations than I was of mine, despite certain mean insinuations of jealous \nrivals to the effect that my father\u2019s close friendship with two of the three Judges \nat the Competitive Drill had had bearing on the award of this coveted prize. \n\nNext a photograph of our baseball nine, of the same period. Nothing formal; \njust a dozen small boys squinting in the bright sunlight, and displaying as many \nbats, gloves, masks and other paraphernalia as were available at the moment. \nTrue, I was only a substitute, but that did not show in the picture, which at \nany rate proved conclusively that I was a ball player; destined, no doubt, for \nlarger things later on. \n\nThe fourth, an impressive view of myself as a musician, with violin in one hand, \nbow in the other, the whole given dignity by a painted landscape, apparently the \ngardens of some chateau, for a background. I fancy I look more musical in this \npicture than I sounded, but the violin is a difficult instrument, and takes years to \nmaster, so what cotdd people expect. Everything has to have a beginning! \n\nBesides other portraits of myself and some of my boy friends, there was a \nconsiderable number of snap-shots; dogs and horses, boats and bicycles, and all \nthe centres of interest of boys of that day and age; and also views of favourite \nplaces and scenes at home, in the mountains and at the seashore. \n\nAs I gazed, musing, at these reminders of years long past, all but forgotten, i^ft \nseemed to me that they symbolized my own personal consciousness and th'J^ \ntypical dynamic images of my mind, at that time of my life. It was such mind \npictures, vivified by ambition and desires, which spurred me on to corresponding \nwishes, intentions and actions. For a boy they were probably the normal thing, \nresulting in an average kind of boy\u2019s life. \n\nContinuing the same line of thought, I remembered how, as time passed, \nmany of these pictures had faded, more or less gradually, from my consciousness, \nbeing replaced by or transformed into others, as I myself was transformed physi\u00ac \ncally from boy to youth, from youth to manhood. Changes of surroundings, \ndifferent occupations and associates had resulted in the abandonment or revision \nof many once-cherished images. But certain pictures, though modified in detail, \nlong continued as vivid and dynamic as ever. These were mainly of two classes, \n\n\n241 \n\n\n\n242 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthose animated by self-love, and those fed by self-indulgence. I must have a \ngood time; I must be admired. \n\nSo I passed on mentally to the time in my life when I heard of Theosophy, \nbecame interested, and ultimately joined the Society. New pictures were then \nintroduced into my inner gallery; pictures of service and a Cause, of Discipleship, \nof Chelaship. With these, many of my older pictures were discordant. I began \nto sort out and select, rejecting a number of the old ones automatically. But \nthere were certain of them, the largest and most vivid, which proved difficult to \ndispose of, even though they did seem to clash with the new ones. In some part \nof my nature I was attached to them; willing perhaps to have them modified or \nreduced, but not to abandon them utterly. I had put so much into them, for so \nmany years, that they seemed my very self; I identified myself with them. \n\nAs I meditated on these things. Light on the Path came to mind, and its drastic \nrequirements for those who would be disciples: \u201cKill out ambition (the first \ncimse); kill out desire of life\u2014desire of comfort\u2014desire for sensation, . . . and \nthen the heart will bleed, and the whole life of the man will seem to be utterly \ndissolved. This ordeal must be endured. ...\u201d Surely the destruction of all those \nonce cherished personal pictures would be one aspect of this necessary ordeal; \nwfith their complete disappearance or their final rejection, the familiar personal \nlife would seem to be utterly dissolved; one would indeed be sunk in an \u201cabyss \nof nothingness\u201d. But not until one \u201chas learned to dwell in this abyss, and has \nfound its peace, is it possible for the eyes to have become incapable of tears\u201d,\u2014 \nthe first of the Rules. \n\nHow prone we are to compromise and straddle, to postpone. We may at times \nremember the oft-repeated injunction to keep constantly before our mind\u2019s eye \nour highest ideal for ourselves, and that this positive attitude, instead of a \nnegative one, will itself help greatly to free us from subservience to the wrong \nideas and desires. It seems likely that few of us do all that we should in this \nrespect. In any case there are few who do not need to resort to a courageous \npurging process, to a more complete elimination of old pictures. Should we not \nreview, one by one, all the surviving ideas about ourselves which still minister, \nsubtly perhaps, to our self-satisfaction and self-love, or which keep alive old \ndesires that should be relegated to complete oblivion? \n\nOne trouble is our lack of conviction that the process must be thorough, the \ndecision final; that half-way measures will not suffice. We forget that \u201cthe \nsnake of self must be not only scotched but killed;\u2014^when it is only lulled to sleep \nit awakes again.\u201d How often we have found ourselves in difficulty because we \ndisregarded this truth! Do we not know that as long as we keep these mind \nimages alive, they only await suitable conditions to reflect themselves again \nin outer actions; to incite us to new folly? \n\nPossibly it would arouse our somnolent wills to remember that our own private \ncollection of \u201cpictures\u201d, which we so hate to part from, appears as immature and \nabsurd to our friends, on both outer and inner planes, as our childhood photo\u00ac \ngraphs seem to us when we contemplate them, from a somewhat wiser stand\u00ac \npoint, thirty or forty years later. A. Woodby. \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\nHE subject of the last \u201cScreen\u201d appears to have interested greatly \n\n\n\nthose of our readers who are members of the Society; many of them \n\n\nwrote to say so, others have written helpful comment,\u2014and the Re\u00ac \ncorder begs to express his appreciation of their courtesy and kindness. But \nwe have readers all over the world who are not familiar with theosophical litera\u00ac \nture, who know little or nothing of occult tradition, and for whom, therefore, \nthe subject of Lodge Messengers, except as a general proposition, necessarily \nis puzzling if not incomprehensible. With this in mind the Recorder was de\u00ac \ntermined, when his friends again met, to begin in any case with the discussion \nof more mundane topics; so he saved a clipping from a morning paper which he \nbelieved would serve as a mental stimulant, if not as an irritant, and which he \nsummarized, for their benefit, as follows: \n\n\u201cA news despatch from Washington announces that Mr. Hopkins, Relief \nAdministrator, wishes to set up a Federal Work Relief Corporation with an ap\u00ac \npropriation of from eight to nine billion dollars of taxpayers\u2019 money, to provide \nthe unemployed with homes, and with land and tools to enable them \u2018to raise \npart of their own produce\u2019. The despatch says in explanation: \u2018Convinced \nthat industry cannot yet take up the slack of unemployment, and that the \ngovernment must, therefore, make work, Mr. Hopkins in his programme calls \nfor a permanent civil works administration.\u2019 \n\n\u201c \u2018Industry cannot take up the slack of unemployment\u2019; this means that there \nare too many men and not enough jobs: America, in other words, is over-popu\u00ac \nlated. How did this happen? It is clearly part of our function, as students of \nTheosophy, to try to discover the cause of the world\u2019s present maladies, our \nnational maladies included. There can be no real cure until the cause is re\u00ac \nmoved. Palliatives have their place in every right system of medication, but a \npalliative is not a cure, and when a doctor, confronted with an ulcer, prescribes \na palliative the ultimate effect of which is likely to destroy his patient\u2019s heart, \n\u2018liver and lights\u2019, my own choice, if I were the patient, would be to die a natj&l \ndeath. However; I return to my question: how has it come about that Ammca \nis over-populated?\u201d And the Recorder turned to Historian No. I. \n\n\u201cMy answer is,\u2014through greed\u201d, was the response. \u201cAs a nation we are \nsuffering the consequences of greed piled on greed; we are reaping what we have \nsown. Karma, the universal law of cause and effect, is a fact, not a theory: \nto-day we are experiencing the Kama of our past. \n\n\u201cOther nations likewise are victims of their greed; we do not stand alone. \nBut this was an undeveloped and potentially very rich country, so that the temp\u00ac \ntation to get rich quick was unusually great, and Americans of every epoch \njumped at it. What say you?\u201d This was addressed to Historian No. II, who \n\n\n243 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n244 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nlooked as if he were mentally collecting the ingredients of a bomb-shell, and \nwhose answer to the question fully justified the inference. \n\n\u201cWe must remember, in the first place,\u201d he said, \u201cthat while many early \nsettlers came here in the hope of securing religious freedom, others, and prob\u00ac \nably a majority, left their homes in Europe for reasons entirely mercenary. \nNor is this surprising, since the facts of history, not ordinarily presented, show \nthat it is the result of centuries of encouragement. \n\n\u201cWhen America was discovered and pre-empted for Spain and Portugal by \nthe Papal Bulls of 1493, the English people, socially and economically, were in \na dreadful state of distress. Seeing the possibility of relieving conditions by a \nwestern migration. Sir Thomas More put forth his Utopia which, when carefully \nexamined, appears as the foremost economic treatise of the sixteenth century. \nHere in the \u2018Golden West\u2019 or the so-called \u2018New World\u2019, the impoverished masses \nof England might find unlimited opportimities to acquire easy wealth. Nor \ncould the execution of More, the leader of English imperialism, divert the \nthoughts of the English people from America, any more than the excommunica\u00ac \ntion of Luther and Henry VIII could put an end to the Protestant Reformation. \nDuring the next few decades, Utopia was not only published again and again \nin England, but in every coimtry of northern Europe. The massacre of Coligny\u2019s \ncolonists in Brazil and Florida in no way stemmed the tide. Following the \nreaction of Mary and Edward VI, Elizabeth was compelled to legitimize piracy \nas the only means of upbuilding the sea power of England. Soon the old sheep\u00ac \ngrowing gentry of England, reinforced by the Dutch, were threatening Philip\u2019s \ndomain of the sea. With a new \u2018easy wealth\u2019 pouring into England from the \nSpanish Main, at last Elizabeth was compelled, in 1578, to choose between \ngranting the demands of her seamen and open revolt by the imperialists. They \nhad promised her an empire of gold. The lure was irresistible. The charters \nto Gilbert and Raleigh followed. \n\n\u201cThe Armada, and the massacre of Raleigh\u2019s first colony, merely delayed the \nseizure of Virginia. Before the death of Elizabeth, Raleigh had further inflamed \nthe popular imagination with his Travels in Guiana, Thoughts of the western \nEl Dorado were in every English mind. It was useless for Roman influences \nto try to turn the tide of English imperialism to the East. Hakluyt\u2019s Discourse \non Western Planting, passing through numerous editions, but magnified the \nglories of Utopia. In vain Raleigh was imprisoned by James I upon the demand \nof Philip and the Medici. America had been thoroughly prospected by Cabot, \nGilbert, Drake, Raleigh, Hawkins, Grenville, Cavendish, Frobisher, Baffin and \nDavis. In 1605, aided by Bacon, Drayton, Jonson and Shakespeare, the \nEnglish imperialists were staging plays in London, depicting the El Dorado of \nthe West. Indians were being paraded through the streets to prove their friend\u00ac \nliness. At last the charter of 1606 was extracted from the reluctant King for \nthe two great joint stock companies that had promised the English masses \nfabulous profits. The first task assigned the founders of Jamestown was to \nfind the gold which the Spaniards and French had been monopolizing. The \nwhole English nation thought of gold, talked of gold, dreamed of gold. When \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n245 \n\n\nNewport, Smith, Delaware and Dale failed to find it in the South, Smith was \nsent to seek it in New England. In 1614 appeared his amazing picture of the \nwealth to be had there. During the next two decades the great Puritan \nmigration set in. Moral considerations had completely broken down. Even \nthe preachers from their pulpits invoked the sanction of the Old Testament for \nthe revel of rapine and murder which followed in the name of God. It was the \nstory of the promised land, all over again. God had commanded them, they were \ntold, to seize what the heathen had to yield. \n\n\u201cThe story of what followed has often been told. Following vain attempts to \nenslave the Red Race after the manner of the early Spaniards, the Anglo-Ameri\u00ac \ncans resorted to every known form of violence and debauchery. In vain the \nnative leaders pleaded for justice. This practice continued even after the present \nConstitution was adopted, in spite of the fact that the tribes had been given the \nlegal status of wards of the nation. Thus, while a hostile shot has never been \nfired against the tribes of Canada by the British Government, there have been \nfifty-five official wars waged against the tribes of the United States. In her \nCentury of Dishonor, Helen Hunt Jackson drew an appalling indictment against \nthe American people. Only three instances of wholesale governmental robbery \nand murder need be mentioned to support the consensus of opinion among his\u00ac \ntorians that the martyrdom of the Red Race by the American people is without \nparallel. When, early in the last century, gold was discovered in Georgia and the \nGulf States, the five so-called Civilized Tribes, including the Cherokees, Creeks, \nChoctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles, were occupying the Gulf States, under \nformal treaties of peace and amity with the United States. They had fought \nunder the American flag against Great Britain in 1812. They were peaceful \nagriculturists. Congress compelled them to enter into new treaties providing for \ntheir removal to the trans-Mississippi desert, where they were allotted the Indian \nTerritory, to be theirs for ever, administered by governments of their own \ncreation. During the process of removal by the Army, over half of the seventy \nthousand emigrants perished from starvation and hardship. Within fifty ye^j\u00ae \noil was discovered, and the Indian territory was soon abolished. To-day, Imif \nthe land is in possession of the whites, and the inordinate wealth acquired by a \nscore or more of Indian individuals is cited as evidence of the liberality shown \nthose of the five Civilized Tribes who managed, despite their transportation, to \nsurvive. \n\n\u201cWhen gold was discovered in California, in 1849, there were over two hundred \nand fifty thousand Indians on the Pacific Coast, occupying the immemorial \ndomains to which their right had been recognized by both the Spanish and \nMexican governments. Most of them had been Christianized by the Fran\u00ac \nciscans, and with few exceptions were agriculturists or stock raisers. None of \nthem had been on the war path for over half a century. Within two years, less \nthan seventeen thousand remained, the survivors being confined to small reser\u00ac \nvations in the desert. To-day, they are less civilized than they were in 1849. \n\n\u201cIn 1857, the Sioux agreed by formal treaty to abandon Minnesota, and to \naccept a definite domain along the Missouri in exchange for their ancient hold- \n\n\n246 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nings. Within twenty years, gold was discovered in the Black Hills. Thereupon, \nnumerous armies were employed to drive the Sioux from their lands and confine \nthem within their present reservations. \n\n\u201cAlthough the five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma, the eighteen tribes of Cali\u00ac \nfornia, and the Sioux, have each in turn resorted to the Supreme Court of the \nUnited States for redress, so far they have never been compensated for the land \ntaken from them, or even been paid what was promised them under the formal \ntreaties violated by the Government. \n\n\u201cIn these circumstances, it is not unnatural that the late Lord Bryce in his \nAmerican Commonwealth, like Lyman Abbott and Carl Schurz before him, should \nhave branded the Indian system of the United States as unconscionable, adding \nthat apparently the only solution of the Indian problem of which the American \npeople could conceive was the complete destruction of the race. \n\n\u201cThe smug explanation of what befell the Red Race in the past is that it was \ninevitable, that it was beyond the power of any Government to save hostile \nsavages who, unamenable to civilization, stood in the path of its advance. In a \nrecent work. The Red Man in the New World Drama (1931), Colonel Jennings C. \nWise has presented the politico-economic history of the Red Race for the first \ntime, and shown conclusively that there is no foundation for the view mentioned. \nThe truth is, according to the ethnologists, the American Indians were the most \npeaceful race by natiire known to history. In fact, there is no instance in which \na tribe resorted to the war path against the whites until every reasonable effort \nhad been made to render this unnecessary. The Indians were a \u2018Stone Age\u2019 \npeople, to be sure\u2014retrograde, not advancing\u2014but their history shows that they \nwere anxious and willing to adopt the ways of European civilization, and that \ntheir generosity alone made possible the colonization of both Virginia and New \nEngland. Over and over, they saved the white settlers from their own stupidity. \nThe only difference between the Indian system to-day and during the past cen\u00ac \ntury, as shown by the present Congressional investigation into Indian affairs, is \nthat a destructive governmental system, characterized by Lyman Abbott as a \n\u2018Russian bureaucracy\u2019, which consumes most of the tribal revenues, and which is \nsubservient to local interests, has succeeded to the old reign of murder and pillage. \nIt is an unwritten law in Congress that the conduct of Indian affairs shall be left \nto the dictation of western congressmen. No eastern congressman would dare \ninterfere, lest he be penalized in the matter of his own interests by the western \ngroup. \n\n\u201cTo-day, the Indian trust funds yield the beneficiaries less than three \nquarters of one per cent in revenue, and the expenditure of this income is com\u00ac \npletely under the control of the governmental bureaucracy. How it is expended is \nillustrated by the case of the Navajo. These people were peaceful agricul\u00ac \nturists, occupying the rich valley of the Rio Grande. Under the compulsion of \nthe whites and the threat of certain destruction, they accepted, in lieu of their \nancient holdings, a desert domain in New Mexico, where at least they might be \nfree for a while from violence. Under the treaty of removal, they required that \npart of this domain be sold, and the proceeds invested in an educational fund for \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n247 \n\n\ntheir benefit. Education was the last thing the local interests wanted the \nIndian to have. Therefore the schools built with this fund were placed at the \nedges of the Navajo domain, at an average distance of forty miles from the \ncentres of Indian population, and open to the whites at the expense of the Indians. \nAs time went on, despite the fact that the Government failed to extend to these \npeople the advantages of education, they developed the sheep-growing industry \nthrough which they managed to survive. Every effort is now being made by the \nlocal whites to gain control of their domain. The current Congressional investi\u00ac \ngation shows that only recently part of the Navajo educational fund was em\u00ac \nployed to carry out a vast highway and bridge construction project for the \nbenefit of the whites. The Governor of New Mexico testified before Congress \nthat a certain bridge, costing over two hundred thousand dollars, and connecting \na tourist hotel with the highway system, would not be used by a dozen Indians \nin a year. While such things as this were taking place, the National Red Cross was \ncompelled to come to the relief of these people as well as the other tribal groups \nwho were being ground out of existence by the governmental system. In con\u00ac \ntrast with all this, the British Government utilizes its military forces to protect \nthe natives of Canada and South Africa who, with such protection, are able to \nprosper, and require little aid from the Red Cross. Knowing the facts, the pres\u00ac \nent Indian Commissioner, Mr. John Collier, with truly humanitarian instincts, \nis making a desperate effort to compel Congress to amend its methods. The \nindications are, however, that he will meet with little success, and that nothing \nwill save the remaining Indians\u2014about two htmdred and fifty thousand, includ\u00ac \ning mixed breeds\u2014from complete destruction at the hands of the American \npeople, whose will is but reflected by the governmental system. West of the \nMississippi River the common idea, though not as freely admitted as in the past, \nstill is that \u2018a good Indian is a dead Indian\u2019. \n\n\u201cThe opportunities open to the Anglo-Americans during three centuries for \nthe pillage of the helpless Red Race were not the only influences which tended to \npromote a greed for \u2018easy\u2019 wealth. Just a century after the appearance of the \nPilgrims in New England, Law\u2019s great South Sea scheme of speculation was \nlaunched in England, Scotland and France. To be sure, the South American ^d \nLouisiana bubbles burst in 1720, but already the Scotch-Irish had begun to at \nacross the Atlantic. Hating the English, determined to be free, through^e \nseaboard settlements they passed to the frontier. Soon from the St. Lawrence to \nthe Gulf extended the urgent civilization which they founded along the ever- \nreceding frontier. Again in the pulpits preachers taught that the \u2018creatures \ncalled Indians\u2019 had no more rights than the buffalo. These white settlers had \ncome to America in quest of new homes and of those opportunities which the \nseemingly unlimited wealth of the West offered them. Efforts to restrain them \nby imperial laws, to tax them in the common interest, to deny them free access to \nEl Dorado, led to the Revolution. Once they had achieved independence, the \nold revel started all over again with the opening up of the Northwest Territory \nand Louisiana. Before long the industrial revolution, and the opening of the \nworld market to American commerce by the War of 1812, created a demand for \n\n\n248 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthe American staple,\u2014cotton. In this situation the cry for cotton was added \nto that for gold. Now, despite the earnest efforts which Washington, Jefferson \nand others had made to abolish the improfitable and injurious institution of \nslavery, the increasing demand for cheap labour entrenched slavery more firmly \nthan before, so that while it was being abolished voluntarily in other countries, \nAmerican commercial interests appealed to the Old Testament for its sanction* \nOnly a bitter fratricidal strife sufficed to end the traffic in human flesh. \n\n\u201cCoincident with all this came the discovery of gold in the West in seemingly \nunlimited quantities. At last El Dorado had been found! Again Europe was \ncrazed. A new, unprecedented and unrestrained migration set in. Uncounted \nthousands came without capital to find the \u2018easy wealth\u2019 America afforded. Those \nin the East, also without capital, who were displaced by this cheap labour, \npressed westward. For a time, railroad and city building absorbed them. Soon \nhowever, Populism, Bryanism, Socialism, Commimism and anarchy raised their \nheads. The ills of middle age were appearing, though there was still an economic \nfrontier to absorb many of the surplus hands. Then the Spanish-American War \nand a programme of imperialism intervened. This allayed momentarily the grow\u00ac \ning unrest which, however, had again become acute even before the World \nWar involved the whole of mankind in economic disaster. \n\n\u201cIn America, at first, an artificial prosperity induced by the demands of \nEurope ensued. Meantime several centm*ies of economic profligacy had had \ntheir effect. A nation cannot prosper inordinately, as the American people had \ndone, at the expense of two races inferior in the capacity of self-protection, with\u00ac \nout paying a penalty. The American people had grown morally weak imder the \ninfluence of centuries of \u2018easy\u2019 wealth. In comparison, the \u2018South Sea Bubble\u2019 \nwas as nothing to the gambling which culminated in 1929. It is useless to blame \ncrooked bankers and brokers for this. Like the tax-evaders and gangsters, they \nwere but the outward expression of the system which had been developed \nthrough many years. \n\n\u201cWhen, inevitably, the last bubble burst as the result of a worldwide economic \ndeflation induced by the calamity of the Great War, several factors added to the \ndistress of the United States. For the first time in its history there was no \neconomic frontier to absorb surplus hands. Not only this, but women, deter\u00ac \nmined to share in the fruits of an artificial prosperity, gradually had invaded the \nfield of employment. Consequently, when deflation came, there were not only \nfewer jobs, but a vastly increased number of persons demanding them. So the \nproblem of unemployment was magnified. Finally, the industrial section of the \ncountry, through the medium of the existing income tax, was called upon to meet \nin disproportionate measure the cost of relief, since that section contributes \nthe larger portion of Federal revenue. Therefore, capital found itself not only \noverburdened, but alarmed by threats of new levies, just at the time when con\u00ac \nfidence on its part was essential to insure the economic readjustment necessary \nto the general welfare. \n\n\u201cThe truth is, of course, that the bounding, reckless days of America\u2019s youth \nhad passed for ever, and those who promise to restore it are but deceiving the \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n249 \n\n\ncountry. The real problem is to readjust our system to the needs of maturity. \nThis being so, what we need is less legislative experimentation with economic \nmakeshifts, and more willingness to face the facts of our situation. There must be \na moral as well as a financial accounting. Without this we must flounder on to \nself-destruction.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Might it not be inferred from what you have said\u201d, asked one of our visitors, \n\u2018\u2018that Malthusianism supplies the best way out?\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Why yes, that might be inferred\u201d. Historian No. I replied dryly,\u2014\u2018\u2018just as it \nmight be inferred that our paternal government, in the circumstances, should \npainlessly poison some thirty per cent or so of our population, excluding, of \ncourse, all who belong to Labour Unions and have paid their dues. Personally I \nsee very little difference, as to ultimate Karmic effect, between the one method \nand the other,\u2014between wholesale poison and race suicide.\u201d \n\nOne of our number, who is of English birth, now turned to the Recorder and \nremarked rather grimly: \u2018\u2018Kindly explain, if you use in the \u2018Screen\u2019 what has been \nsaid about the treatment of the American Indians, that Historian No. II is one of \nthe most genuine of American antiques, and that I am innocent!\u201d \n\nWe were greatly amused, but the Recorder promised. \n\nSomeone then asked if the American Indian, as a fighter, had not proved him\u00ac \nself both treacherous and horribly cruel. \n\n\u2018\u2018It would be a mistake\u201d, was the reply, \u2018\u2018to speak of Indians in the lump. \nThe tribes differed greatly, both in origin and in their customs. Some were cruel, \nsome were not; but the worst of them were not more cruel than the Arabs of \nMorocco in recent wars against the French\u2014the Arabs always tortured their \nprisoners to death\u2014and at the time of the early Indian wars on this continent, \nit is only fair to remember that the so-called civilized races of Europe were \nbarbarous in their treatment of prisoners, as they were in their judicial punish\u00ac \nments. People were burned alive for expressing unpopular opinions. Always in \nthe name of God,\u2014three thousand persons were burned as \u2018heretics\u2019 by the In\u00ac \nquisition in Andalusia in 1481; some five hundred \u2018witches\u2019 were burned in \nGeneva, in three months, in 1515; nine hundred were burned in Lorraine betweexl \n1580 and 1595; Calvin burned Servetus in 1553\u2014always in the name of God. \nEven to-day mobs of white men can be diabolically cruel, although, thank \nheaven, judicial punishments, in the more civilized countries, have become more \nhumane. ... It should be remembered also that the American Indians, savage \nas they often were, acted under terrible provocation.\u201d \n\nThere was a pause. The Recorder then said that he had another question, \nsent to the editors by a member in Germany who had asked if it might be dis\u00ac \ncussed in the \u2018\u2018Screen\u201d: \u2018\u2018What is the difference between true and false humility?\u201d \n\nIt was the Engineer who volunteered, not to answer the question, but to \nobtain answers from others. \u2018\u2018Your conundrum,\u201d he said, \u2018\u2018was solved long \nago by Teresa of Avila, that most practical of saints, and, if you like, I will \nlook up what she wrote on the subject, while the Philosopher explains the \nTheosophical principle underlying her replies.\u201d Whereupon the Engineer \ndisappeared toward the library. \n\n\n250 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nThe Philosopher, thus designated, made this reply: \u201cThe Theosophical basis \nfor humility, as I understand it, is the realization that our personalities are \nonly the larvae, as it were, of the human beings into which we may develop. \nAs yet we are not even fledgelings, not even ugly ducklings. Masters alone \nhave reached the human kingdom. Realization of this truth would make it \nimpossible for the personality to think itself superior or adequate or wise. One \nlarva may be wormier than another, or a shade less squirmy; but there is not \nmuch to brag about in that, especially if we look up to the imago, the fourth or \nperfect state, to which someday we may possibly attain. Like all else in nature, \nwe are divine in essence; but there is a vast gulf between potential and actual \nattainment, and much of the trouble in the world to-day is due to larvae having \nthe \u2018big head\u2019,\u2014 mistaking themselves for the finished product. It is nothing \nnew, of course; history is full of it. The wiser among us recognize and accept \nour limitations, and are thankful for all the light and guidance we can get from \nthose who are really human\u2014from those who can see where we are blind, can \nhear where we are deaf, can understand where we are full of vain imaginings,\u2014 \nMasters of wisdom. Lords of compassion, who, having passed long since through \nthe larva stage, have reached \u2018the terrace of enlightenment\u2019. They are always \nwilling to guide those who honestly and without reserve desire their guidance, \nwhile if, like most half-wits, we prefer to pick and choose\u2014obeying in one direc\u00ac \ntion and not in another\u2014we can dig such guidance as we want from the sacred \nbooks with which Masters have provided us. \n\n\u201cChrist, like all Avatars, was \u2018the first-born of many brethren\u2019; but we are \nnot obliged to think ourselves his equals\u2014yet!\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cReally\u2019\u2019, exclaimed one of our visitors, \u201conly a lunatic could do that!\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cYou are mistaken\u2019\u2019, the Philosopher replied; \u201cthat is, unless you include \namong lunatics the multitude of those who think we know more to-day than the \ngreatest and wisest of the ancient world. Let me give you a case in point: I am \nreading a book on Mesmer, by a Miss Margaret Goldsmith. It is an interesting \nbook in many ways, and presents a much more attractive portrait of Mesmer as \na man than anything I have previously read about him. The author, however, \nis modem, is highly educated, and almost inevitably accepts the latest in \nwestern Psychology as the last word in human understanding. Consequently, \nshe rather pities Me.smer for his lack of opportunity and extends the same \nkindly indulgence to Jesus of Nazareth and his \u2018miracles\u2019, not blaming him at \nall for his errors and limitations, seeing that he was bom before modem psy\u00ac \nchology had explained things. She is, indeed, quite good natured about it, \nremarking that although, like other groping ancients, \u2018he believed that diseases \nwere cured by the intervention of a supernatural agency, his cures were a step \nin the direction of modem psychotherapy.\u2019 \u2019\u2019 \n\nThe Student exploded with laughter. \u201cThat is delightful\u2019\u2019, he said. \u201cSuch \nconceit, and so totally unaware of it! So thoroughly typical of the pseudo-* \nscientific approach! You did not say so, but doubtless she used those blessed \nwords \u2018suggestion\u2019 and \u2018auto-suggestion\u2019 as sufficient explanation of all the \nwonders he performed [\u201cShe did\u2019\u2019, interjected the Philosopher]; and it never \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n251 \n\n\noccurred to her that her words explain nothing, any more than it occurred to \nher that Christ may have understood many things, even about the cure of \ndisease, of which she knows nothing. Best of all, though, is the concession \nthat \u2018his cures were a step in the direction of modem psychotherapy\u2019: I shall \nnot forget that in a hurry; it is worthy of the Brain Trust\u201d. \n\n\u2018\u2018How can a larva, which does not know it is a larva\u2014that is to say, which \nrefuses to recognize entities more highly evolved than itself\u2014how can it fail \nto reduce the universe and everything in it to terms of its own larvaship? Wis\u00ac \ndom, unless based upon humility, is impossible. . . . But here comes the \nEngineer, prepared, I hope, to tell us what St. Teresa the elder had to say in \nanswer to our question: \u2018what is the difference between true and false hu\u00ac \nmility?\u2019 \u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018She said a good deal\u201d, the Engineer responded. \u2018\u2018It was evidently a live \nquestion among the novices and nuns of her convents, and her answers, as you \nwill see, were aimed at the weaknesses with which her long experience, both of \nherself and others, had made her familiar. It is possible, of course, that her \nlanguage would strike unlettered people as quaint, but students of Theosophy \nin any case, trained to read all religious experience in terms of the spirit rather \nthan of the letter, will not find this an obstacle. \n\n\u2018\u2018In her Autobiography, chapter xxx, she says: \n\n[That false humility is the work of Satan] is clear from the restlessness and discomfort \nwith which it begins, and the trouble it causes in the soul while it lasts; from the ob\u00ac \nscurity and distress, the aridity and indisposition for prayer and for every good work, \nwhich it produces. It seems to stifle the soul and trammel the body, so as to make them \ngood for nothing. \n\nNow, though the soul acknowledges itself to be miserable, and though it is painful to \nus to see ourselves as we are, and though we have most deep convictions of our own \nwickedness,\u2014deep as those spoken of just now, and really felt,\u2014yet true humility is not \nattended with trouble; it does not disturb the soul; it causes neither obscurity nor aridity; \non the contrary, it consoles. It is altogether different, bringing with it calm, sweetness, \nand light. It is no doubt painful; but, on the other hand, it is consoling, because we see \nhow great is the mercy of our Lord in allowing the soul to have that pain, and how well \nthe soul is occupied. On the one hand, the soul grieves over its offences against God; \non the other, His compassion makes it glad. It has light which makes it ashamed of it\u00ac \nself; and it gives thanks to His Majesty, who has borne with it so long. That othgr \nhumility, which is the work of Satan, furnishes no light for any good work. \n\n\u2018\u2018Then, on page 51 of her Interior Castle, I find: \n\nIt is very injurious never to raise our minds above the mire of our own faults .... \nwhile we are continually absorbed in contemplating the weakness of our earthly nature, \nthe springs of our actions will never flow free from the mire of timid, weak and cowardly \nthoughts, such as: \u2018I wonder whether people are noticing me or not! If I follow this \ncourse, will harm come to me? Dare I begin this work? Would it not be presumptuous? \nIs it right for anyone as faulty as myself to speak on sublime spiritual subjects? Will \nnot people think too well of me, if I make myself singular? Extremes are bad, even in \nvirtue; sinful as I am, I shall only fall the lower. . . .\u2019 Alas, my daughters, what loss \nthe devil must have caused to many a soul by such thoughts as these! It thinks such \nideas and many others of the same sort I could mention, arise from humility. This \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n252 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ncomes from not understanding our own nature; self-knowledge becomes so warped that, \nunless we take our thoughts off ourselves, I am not surprised that these and many worse \nfears should threaten us. Therefore I maintain, my daughters, that we should fix our \neyes on Christ our only good, and on His saints; there we shall learn true humility, and \nour minds will be ennobled, so that self-knowledge will not make us base and cowardly. \n\n\u201cFinally (so far as I am concerned) she says in chapter xxxix of her Way \nof Perfection: \n\nBeware, daughters, of a certain kind of humility suggested by the devil which is ac\u00ac \ncompanied by great anxiety about the gravity of our past sins. . . . Everything such a \nperson says seems to her on the verge of evil, and all her actions appear fruitless, however \ngood in themselves. She becomes discouraged, thinking that she can do nothing right, \nfor what is good in others she fancies is wrong in herself. ... At one time it may be \nhumility and a virtue to think ourselves thus sinful, and at another time it is a most \ndangerous temptation. I know this, for I have passed through this state myself. How\u00ac \never deep humility may be, it neither disquiets, wearies nor disturbs the soul, but is \npeaceful, sweet and serene. Although the sight of our wickedness grieves us and proves \nto us that we deserve to be in hell and that in justice all mankind should hate us, so that \nwe hardly dare to beg for mercy, yet if it is a right humility this pain is accompanied by \nsuavity, content, and joy, and we do not wish to be without it, indeed, it ought to be \nprizgd since it results in self-knowledge. It dilates, instead of troubling or depressing \nthe soul, making it more capable of serving God. The other sorrow which distresses the \nmind renders it uneasy, completely subverting it and causing great pain, so that there is \nno possibility of calming the thoughts. You may feel certain that this is a temptation \nand not humility, with which it has no connection. I believe that this is a plot of the \ndevil to make us think we are lowly, and at the same time to lead us to distrust God. \n\n\u201cOnce more\u201d, concluded the Engineer, \u201cthe test is: By their fruits ye shall \nknow them. If humility, so-called, tends to fix attention upon self, it is of the \ndevil; on the other hand, if we have a vivid sense of our personal unimportance, \nwith a great desire to serve our Master and to fit ourselves for his service, we \nshall, I think, be on the right track.\u201d \n\n\u201cYes\u201d, added the Ancient, \u201cand more than that; for if the desire to serve be \nreal, we shall set to work\u2014and it will be hard work at first, until love makes \nit easy\u2014to give that Lord of Life the utmost of our interest and attention. This, \nbefore long, will lead to a desire to use all our faculties and senses (by no means \nforgetting our senses) as he would wish, as his instruments, for his purposes, \ninstead of for our selfish gratification. People used to ask Judge, as they asked \nabout occultism, about the acquirement of \u2018powers\u2019; and always the \nanswer was the same: get rid of selfishness, make your heart pure, and a Master \ncould and would teach you occultism in three months; but no Master of the \nWhite Lodge (only of the Black) would help you to acquire any occult power, \nlittle or big, until that necessary preparation has been completed: and humility \nis its foundation.\u201d \n\nSaid the Student: \u201cI doubt if many people will understand the \u2018why\u2019 of what \nyou have just given as the statement of H.P.B. and Judge.\u201d \n\n\u201cYet the reason is obvious enough. If men use such powers as they already \npossess\u2014their mental powers, their sight, hearing and all else\u2014for selfish ends. \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n253 \n\n\nthey would certainly use greater powers in the same way, to the injury of others as \nwell as to their own undoing. Further, until selfishness has been left behind and \nthe personal nature has been dominated, any occult power acquired would be \npsychic, not spiritual (for spiritual power can be exercised only from the spirit\u00ac \nual plane) and no Master of the White Lodge would permit that. On the other \nhand, there are countless \u2018gurus\u2019 and \u2018yogis\u2019 in India and elsewhere, who possess \noccult powers of a psychic nature, and who are willing to impart their knowledge \nto others whose moral preparation is at best superficial, and is sometimes a \nminus quantity. This of course proves conclusively not only that the attain\u00ac \nments of such teachers are psychic, but that, instead of belonging to the White \nLodge, they have one if not both feet in the Lodge of \u2018the Brothers of the \nShadow\u2019. In the past, many students of Theosophy, particularly those who have \nvisited the Orient, have been misled\u2014always through lack of humility, always \nthrough thinking themselves \u2018ready\u2019; while others, alas, have not been misled, \nbut have wanted \u2018powers\u2019 right or wrong, convinced at first, perhaps, that they \nwould be quite well able to decide for themselves when and how it would be \nproper to use them. Invariably, in all these cases, the result has been disastrous. \nAnnie Besant went that way,\u2014although, poor thing, she never got what she \nwanted, the only \u2018power\u2019 she ever acquired being the ability to make herself re\u00ac \nceptive to the suggestions and mental projections of men like Leadbeater, delib\u00ac \nerately lending herself to this for love of power. She was monstrously vain.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018What\u201d, someone asked, \u2018\u2018do you suppose is the motive that leads the gurus \nand yogis of whom you were speaking, to impart their knowledge to others? \nIs it money? Are they paid for it?\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Comparatively few of them accept money, though many accept presents. \nYou must remember that nearly all of them believe sincerely in themselves, \nimagining they are great lights, and that their psychic experience is next to the \nlast word in spirituality. Vain-glory is the ordinary motive. One of the most \nchildishly vain men I have ever encountered was a widely renowned yogi who \nlived in Benares, next to a shrine erected to himself, with a photograph of him\u00ac \nself as its chief decoration. He beamed with delight as he exhibited it. Thou\u00ac \nsands of Hindus worshipped him as a god, chiefly, so far as I could discover, \nbecause he wore no clothes. But he, I believe, was entirely harmless, while \nsome of them are forcefully, aggressively bad.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Still another question\u201d, the Recorder now said. \u2018\u2018It was addressed to our \n\u2018Question and Answer\u2019 department, but I purloined it, as I thought it would \nsuit the Student. I will read it to you:\u2014\u2018The scathing denunciation of Prot\u00ac \nestantism in the closing paragraph of \u2018\u2018Notes and Comments\u201d for July includes \namong the unnatural doctrines\u201d which it condemns, internationalism. The \nofficial statement which follows the title page of every issue of the Quarterly \ndeclares that: \u2018\u2018The principal aim and object of this Society is to form the \nnucleus of a universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, \ncreed, sex, caste or colour\u201d. Why then the condemnation of the international \npoint of view, or is the word internationalism here used with some narrow cant \nor technical significance not obvious?\u2019 \n\n\n254 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n\u201cWhat is your comment?\u201d \n\nThe Student instantly responded. \u201cI am a Protestant\u201d, he said, \u201cand Prot\u00ac \nestantism was rightly denounced in \u2018Notes and Comments\u2019 for its infidelities. \nIn the past, the two institutions which have worked hardest for internationalism, \nusually by underground means, are the Church of Rome and Latin (Godless) \nFreemasonry. Protestantism denies its own principles when it imitates either \nof them. The Church of England is a national Church. Its equivalent here is \n\u2018The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America\u2019\u2014its official \ntitle. Rome wants to govern the whole world; so does Latin Freemasonry. \nProtestantism, properly understood, has no such ambition: it wants Christ to \ngovern the nations,\u2014a totally different aim. The Protestantism denounced in \n\u2018Notes and Comments\u2019 is the false Protestantism which, as was there said, \u2018has \nbecome one of the subversive influences in the modem state,\u2014an ally, a despised \nally, of the communists and socialists, and an agency for the dissemination of \nunnatmal doctrines\u2014pacifism, internationalism, class warfare and the \u201credistri\u00ac \nbution of wealth\u201d, birth-control, etc., etc.\u2019 \n\n\u201cBut that is not your questioner\u2019s main point. He quotes the principal aim \nand object of the T.S., and infers that it upholds internationalism as an ideal. \nIt does not. He has overlooked the significance of \u2018the nucleus\u2019. I am not \na biologist, but if he will consult any encyclopaedia he will learn that a nucleus \nis separated from the surrounding cell substance by a membrane; that it differs \nmarkedly from that substance, and that it is the nucleus, and only the nucleus, \nwhich gives the cell continued existence. It is the chief purpose of the T.S. to \ndiscover among mankind, \u2018without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or \ncolour\u2019, those few men and women who are bom \u2018nuclear\u2019 by nature, or who have \nthe capacity to become so. If you will wait just a moment, I will look up \n\u2018Cell\u2019 in the Recorder\u2019s encyclopaedia. . . . Here it is, and this, among other \nthings, is what it says about the nucleus: it is composed of two different elements, \none of which \u2018is handed on from generation to generation\u2019, and \u2018contains a large \namount of a phosphorus-containing substance called nuclein\u2019. \u2018Within the \nnucleus there are often bodies called nucleoli . . . whose nature and function \nare not well known.\u2019 We need Dr. Torrey to enlighten us. But there are \nanalogies: we might learn a great deal from analogies in this case. \n\n\u201cThe \u2018international point of view\u2019 has come to mean that all men are alike; \nand they are not. They are no more alike than horses are like rabbits. It has \ncome to mean that all men are equal; and they are not: no two men on the \nface of the earth are equal in any sense and never will be. Infinite variety is the \ncharacteristic of Nature; only man, in his depravity, is capable of turning out \na standardized product. \n\n\u201cA mother, with an \u2018international point of view\u2019, allows her children to play \nin the street with all the little toughs of the neighbourhood. Another mother, \nwith a national point of view (or what corresponds to it) selects companions for \nher children with the utmost care and discrimination,\u2014and then watches them. \nWhich has the higher ideals? Which, of the two, is the more \u2018brotherly\u2019? \n\n\u201cThe Y. M. C. A. would have us love all men equally\u2014Germans, Irish, \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n255 \n\n\nFrench, Russians, Americans, Chinamen, what not. That is not an ideal; \nit is a nightmare. Some men are bad, some good, some noble; the badness in \nbad men ought to be hated; the nobility in others ought to be loved and revered; \nthe goodness in some others, endured.\u201d \n\nThis delighted the Philosopher who, feeling that the Student had \u201cgot going\u201d, \nand afraid that the subject might be changed prematurely, asked him what he \nhad meant when speaking of men and women who are bom \u201cnuclear\u201d, or who \nhave the capacity to become so. \n\n\u201cAll sorts of things\u201d, the Student answered. \u201cIn the first place they must be \nable to laugh at themselves, for otherwise they will never be admitted into the \nkingdom of heaven, the denizens of which cannot tolerate bores. In the second \nplace, they must have open minds and open hearts: they must be open to the \ntruth regardless of its source, and they must be eager to share it with others. \nThey should be passionate but controlled; enthusiastic but not effervescent; \nwise but not pedantic; so highly educated that they begin to see the extent of \ntheir ignorance; ready to die without a moment\u2019s hesitation for everything \nworth while.\u201d \n\n\u201cStop!\u201d said the Engineer. \u201cWhat are you doing? Telling us what ought to \nbe the character of T.S. members if they are to become an integral part of the \nnucleus? If so, I resign!\u201d \n\n\u201cIf I thought you meant it\u201d, the Student retorted, \u201cmy reply would be,\u2014 \nthe sooner the better. I said: \u2018who have the capacity to become so\u2019. Do you \ndeny your capacity?\u201d \n\n\u201cI\u2019m in no mood to deny anything: go ahead.\u201d \n\n\u201cTo deny your capacity would be to claim a knowledge both of yourself and \nof God which, my friend, you do not possess. I am dogmatic; but I am on sure \nground, because a man who has any real knowledge either of himself or of God, \nknows that his capacity is infinite. A woman with her child, a man in battle, \na writer with his pen\u2014when love inspires them\u2014can keep going not only well \nbut better and better, though they started from absolute exhaustion. To con\u00ac \nfront the impossible and conquer it, is the first step toward manhood.\u201d \n\n\u201cThe first step!\u201d exclaimed one of our visitors. \n\n\u201cYes, the first step. We shall not be men, until that conquest has b^me \na habit. Masters became Masters in just that way. As personalities we ^yvile \nworms and all the rest of it; if we did not start from there, we coulcrnever \nattain to divinity. A member of the T.S. may start from anywhere; to become \npart of the nucleus, however, he must be prepared to butt his head against the \nfirst \u2018impossible\u2019 he encounters, with fell determination to come out on the \nother side.\u201d \n\n\u201cAll of which is distinctly cognate to a letter I received on the subject we dis\u00ac \ncussed in the last \u2018Screen\u2019,\u201d said the Recorder. \u201cThere are other letters, which I \nshall reserve for our next meeting, as they require more discussion than we could \ninclude in this issue. But the first and most significant paragraph of this letter, \nyou have, in a way, already answered. Here it is\u201d\u2014and he read as follows: \n\n\u201cI hope and request that more be said concerning the Lodge Messenger in \n\n\n256 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthe next \u2018Screen\u2019. I have heard indirectly that some people have interpreted \nwhat was said in October in the most pessimistic terms, virtually assuming or \nseeming to assume that the future for the T.S. and its members is so hopeless \nthat nothing can be done about it. . . \n\n\u201cYou will remember\u2019\u2019, the Student commented, \u201cthe opinion expressed in the \nlast of the letters printed in the October \u2018Screen\u2019,\u2014that \u2018the material that fills \nthe T.S. is for the most part soft\u2019. What you have just read to us, suggests that \nsome of the material is so soft, that if you needed to lean on it, you would be lean\u00ac \ning on a moan, an ectoplasmic moan, and nothing else. Discouraged! Dis, I \nbelieve, means \u2018not\u2019, and courage means \u2018courage.\u2019 If that were all we had, we \nshould be in a mess!\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cI have not seen any letters expressing pessimism or discouragement\u2019\u2019, said the \nRecorder, \u201calthough that proves nothing: people do not write that sort of thing \nas a rule,\u2014not to the Quarterly; and, as I have produced the worst, it is only \nfair to read you two brief and far more typical comments on our October dis\u00ac \ncussion, one received from Venezuela, the other from an old member who lives \nin Dorchester, Massachusetts. The first writes: \u2018To me personally, the October \n\u201cScreen\u2019\u2019 has been a direct, vibrant call to preparation for service and to self- \nexamination\u2019. The second writes: \u2018The opinions recorded are bound to revive \nthe drooping spirits of any of our members who in any way may be apprehensive \nas to the future of the T.S.\u2019 How is that for an old war-horse! It is battle that \nthey scent from afar and quiver to take part in; long ago they learned to leave \nresults to the Lord.\u2019\u2019 \n\nThe Philosopher was amused. \u201cIt seems to have stirred things up in any case\u2019\u2019, \nhe said, \u201cand anything is better than to think that if we just toddle along we \nshall get there.\u2019\u2019 \n\nThe Ancient, so far, had remained silent. Now he said with some finality: \n\u201cWhat the Student said about the \u2018nucleus\u2019 is comment enough. No man is \nconquered until he thinks he is conquered, and when he knows he is fighting on the \nside of the angels, to think he is conquered is treachery.\u2019\u2019 T. \n\n\nA diamond demands to he cut, a block of marble needs to be carved. Man tries to \ndo this to himself. . , . Alas! scarcely ever has he the courage to strike hard enough. \nGod, to help him in the work of his perfection, sends him suffering. This completes \nthe hallowing of souls, and is why the most saintly are the most tried .\u2014 Ignatius of \nLoyola. \n\n\nWatch yourself for self-pity. The man who feels sorry for himself has morally \nturned up his toes .\u2014 The Book of Unpopular Precepts. \n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n267 \n\n\n\nThe Essence of Plotinus, Extracts from the six Enneads and Porphyry\u2019s Life of \nPlotinus, based upon the translation by Stephen Mackenna; edited by Grace \nH. Turnbull; Oxford University Press, New York, 1934; price, $2.50. \n\nThis book responds to a genuine demand, for in recent years there has been \na notable revival of interest in mysticism and in Plotinus as the greatest of \nmystical philosophers during the Christian era in the West. The study of the \nNeoplatonic sage, however, has been much neglected, partly because of the \nscarcity of translations. The Greek text is difficult and imperfect, and the \naverage scholar has lacked intellectual sympathy \\vith the doctrines which the \nEnneads set forth. There can be no doubt that the world is the richer for Mac- \nkenna\u2019s life-long devotion to Plotinus. His translation may be said to rank \namong the classics of its order, although it might be argued that his style is some\u00ac \ntimes too florid, too \u201cIrish\u201d. There are \u201cpurple passages\u201d in the Enneads, \nbut the mystical enthusiasm which they record is not emotional. It is a sign \nof Plotinus\u2019 self-discipline and self-control, that his mind remained austere and \ncool and clear, even when it was overshadowed by the memory of spiritual \necstasy. Plotinus was not a \u201cpsychic\u201d. \n\nMiss Turnbull has made excellent use of Mackenna\u2019s work. Her selection of \nessential passages reveals an admirable editorial judgment, and her paraphrase \nof the original translation is amply justified by her purpose. Of this purpose \nshe writes in the Preface: \n\nSince this work is intended for the use of those who have not already made a speciaU \nstudy of Plotinus as well as for the students who in great concentration on the letter ofl \nhis philosophy may have lost something of the fine flavour of his spirit, I have tried to \nfree Plotinus the philosopher and mystic from the veil of metaphysical subtleties and \noutworn science which have too long obscured him from our view, and to show the \nshining soul of him alone. Hence I have barred those tractates of the Enneads which, \nbecause of over-technicality of treatment or of theme, do not hold the general reader; \nof those that still speak to the spirit I have preserved the passages of the most mystical \nand ethical appeal\u2014here a page, there a paragraph or phrase, hoping to delight your \nsouls, as I have delighted mine, rather than weary you with the jargon of the schools. \n\n\nThere is a Foreword by Dean Inge, an annotated Bibliography, and an \nAppendix, giving some of the Platonic and Aristotelian sources on which the \nEnneads were based, as well as a series of quotations testifying to the influence of \n\n\n\n\n257 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n258 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nPlotinus upon later mystics, poets and philosophers, from St. Augustine and \nDante to Emerson and Tennyson. \n\nMiss Turnbull\u2019s paraphrase of Mackenna\u2019s translation should be read in \nconjunction with Thomas Taylor\u2019s version. For some reason which is not clear. \nMiss Turnbull underestimates Taylor, even omitting reference to him in her \nBibliography. It is the part of wisdom not to underestimate Taylor. His \nterminology and language are frequently obscure or obsolete; but his com\u00ac \nmentaries on Neoplatonic literature suggest many things which modem scholars \noverlook. Taylor was convinced that Plotinus and his successors were not \nlonely adventmers in some transcendental realm of the spirit. Instead, he \nlinked their teachings with the truths which had been preserved and guarded by \nthe Greater and Lesser Mysteries, at Eleusis and elsewhere. Students of Theos\u00ac \nophy would agree with the thesis that the great Neoplatonic philosophers were \ncautiously divulging truths which had been cherished in the Sanctuary since the \ndawn of history. S.V.L. \n\n\nDogs of War! by F. Yeats-Brown; Peter Davies, London, 1934; price, 65. \n\nThe author of the Bengal Lancer and Golden Horn writes this book as an \nantidote to the silliness of English Pacifists, including Beverley Nichols and \nSir Norman Angell. We especially like the chapters relating his own experience \nof the use of armed force in the neighbourhood of the North-West frontier of \nIndia, proving conclusively that the prompt and courageous use of force is the \nonly way, in many circumstances, to prevent the wholesale massacre of innocent \npeople. \n\nWe wish that the author had called attention to the cause of the pacifist \nmovement, namely, a materialistic view of life: death, the supreme if not the \nonly evil; comfort, the supreme if not the only good. This view is held, not \nonly by avowed materialists, but by many so-called Christians, with ministers \nof all denominations and of all ranks (up to that of Archbishop) in the lead. \n\nCaptain Yeats-Brown is an interesting writer always, and the contradictions \nin his own view of life\u2014his jumble of Hatha Yoga, psychoanalysis, and a fine \nidealism\u2014do not make him less so. None the less we wish, for our own peace \nof mind, that he would not confuse Freud\u2019s subliminal self with \u201cthe world \nwithin man . . . known to the mystics of all great religions\u2019\u2019,\u2014for this is more \nthan we can endure politely. Freud, a Viennese Jewish doctor, having first \ndiscovered a cess-pool within himself, proceeded to discover similar cess-pools \nin his patients\u2014^not a difficult thing to do, considering who most of them were. \nFrom this he inferred and taught that all men and all women are vile in ways \nmore vile than the most depraved minds of the past had even imagined. In \nbrief, Freud is responsible for more evil-thinking, and for the suggestion of more \nevil, than any other writer of modem times, which is saying a good deal. Captain \nYeats-Brown, who knows something of the Vedanta, must surely realize that there \nare heights as well as depths in man, and that to confuse the soul, or the Atman, \nwith their perverted reflections in matter\u2014worse still, with their perverted \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u2022D'n\"\\ 7 \u2019TT 7 WQ \n\n\n267 \n\n\nREVIEWS 2 59 \n\nreflections in the imagination of Freud\u2014^is unphilosophical, misleading, and, we \nbelieve, quite the opposite of what he intends. T. \n\n\nThe Vision of Asia; an Interpretation of Chinese Art and Culture, by L. Cran- \nmer-Byng; John Murray, London, 1932; price, 155. \n\nCranmer-Byng is the distinguished editor of the \u201cWisdom of the East Series\u201d, \nsmall volumes of excellent translations of the scriptures and literary treasures \nof China, Japan, India, Persia and Egypt. He himself has contributed to the \nseries the Rose Garden of the Persian poet Sa\u2019di, the Book of Odes, and two an\u00ac \nthologies of Chinese poetry. \n\nThe Vision of Asia is \u201can interpretation of Chinese art and culture\u201d, but \nit is also much more. Cranmer-Byng speaks of the image-laden descriptions of \nthe Buddhist Paradise as instances of \u201cjungle-mindedness\u201d. His own style is an \nalmost impenetrable jungle of images and metaphors, of ideas over-running ideas. \nIt is with the utmost difficulty that one traces the basic structure of the book. \nThere are enough ideas for several volumes condensed into this one, pell-mell, \nwith numerous repetitions, until one\u2019s brain reels. One should certainly not \ncomplain, however, at a time when most authors have scarcely one idea to spin \nout through all their works. \n\nCranmer-Byng writes of the confusion and materialism of the Western World \nto-day, which have led to its economic collapse and to the menace of communism \nthat threatens to wipe out all of its spiritual heritage. With this he contrasts \nthe attainments of Chinese wisdom in the T\u2019ang and Sung dynasties, and in its \nfurther transformations in the great epochs of Japanese civilization. \n\nChina has tried everything. Young China has neglected its own history, or \nit would be less lured by the delusions of Western social theory. \n\nWang An-shih, the statesman who lived in the Northern Sung dynasty from A. D. 1021 \nto 1086, has been regarded by many scholars as the father of Socialism in China. . . . \nIn his own words, \u201cThe State should take the entire management of commerce, indus\u00ac \ntry, and agriculture into its own hands, with a view to succouring the working classes \nand preventing them from being ground into the dust by the rich.\u201d Certainlyj|Ais \nmethods he was surprisingly up-to-date from a modern collectivist point of view, wavy \ntaxation of the rich, total exemption of the poor, old-age pensions, unemployment dole. \nState loans to farmers, a comprehensive land tax which would make the mouth of an \nEnglish Chancellor water, restriction of copper export, tampering with the currency, and \nthe establishment of State Banks, which also carried on the functions of pawnshops \nand markets, are some of the enactments of Wang An-shih. Like all reformers in a \nhurry, he made the pace too hot to last, and Socialism in our time came to an end \nwith him, although spasmodic attempts at revival on the part of hordes of superfluous \nofficials kept the movement going for a few years after his death. \n\nFortunately for China, it still had ingrained in its consciousness the Way of \nHeaven of the Tao and the Mahayana, and the Way of Man of Confucius. \nStatesmen and officials were primarily trained in ethics in preparation for their \ntasks. Traditionally they were supposed to perform all their outer duties \n\n\n\n26 o \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nwith scrupulous attention and care, while preserving in their souls the con\u00ac \nsciousness of the unity of all being in one spiritual life. This \u201cLife-Movement of \nthe Spirit through the Rhythm of things\u201d, is the first canon of the arts as given \nby Hsien Ho, and its perception may be said to be the fundamental canon of \nChinese thought. All Nature is created and moved by this Life-Movement of \nthe Spirit, and man is but a part of Nature. The Chinese mystic and philosopher \nconstantly looked for the signs of this divine stirring in all created things, as the \nenduring reality and substratum of being. He endeavoured to perceive its laws \nand to conform to them, in his own conduct and consciousness. It is in the \nworks of art that remain, that we see the visible embodiment of his victory, of \nhis profound reverence, and of his tranquillity. These works of art contain for \nthe West the lesson of this mystical vision and transcendent faith. The sages \nwho attained to immortality during this life by transmutation, not by death, \nare described thus: \n\nWhen they trod upon the hoar-frost or the snow, they left no foot-prints; when the \nrays of the sun fell upon them, they threw no shadow. They climbed aloft on spiral \ngusts of wind; they passed over hills and streams, treading in the air and soaring higher \nthan the Kwan-lun Mountains, bursting open the Gate of Heaven, and entering the \nPalace of God. \n\nLi Po expresses this companionship of man \\vith his surroundings in his charm\u00ac \ning poem: \n\nFlocks of birds have flown high and away, \n\nA solitary drift of cloud, too, has gone, wandering on. \n\nAnd 1 sat alone with the Ching-ting Peak, towering beyond. \n\nWe never grow tired of each other, the mountain and I. \n\nWhat does the sage do when he has attained the experience of union? Why! \nsays someone, in Suzuki's book on Zen, he sits down on the grass and drinks tea! \nIn no eccentric conduct, in no overbearing zeal, but in the simplest acts of \nevery-day life, he embodies the force and rhythm of the universal life. He is \nThat. This is, of course, one of the central doctrines of Zen, the Chinese and \nJapanese aspect of the Mahayana. \n\nIt is this awareness of the reality of the spiritual world, this immovable \naffirmation of its supremacy, which has been the strength and immortality of \nthe East, and, let us not forget, the force of the West also, its inheritance from \nEgypt. The West to-day cannot see the lessons of its past any more than can \nYoung China or Young India see in their past the truths so essential to their \ncontinued existence. Perhaps, however, the Occidental may recognize some\u00ac \nthing of these truths in the unfamiliar forms of Eastern painting and poetry. \nIt is possible that he is actually less dazzled by the illusions of materialism than \nthe modernistic Oriental. \n\nCranmer-Byng is clearly aware of the great benefit which the West can derive \nfrom an acquaintance with Eastern thought and art, and his book is part of his \nattempt to make these more accessible. Si.C.LaD. \n\n\n267 \n\n\nreviews \n\n\n__iioUw nor can \n\n\nthey change the mam \n\n\ntides of history, \nimon which it \n\n\nREVIEWS 261 \n\nOrphism, by J. R. Watmough; Cambridge University Press, 1934; price, $1.25. \n\nOrphism is a very elastic term. The Greeks and Romans themselves used it \nin many senses. Strictly speaking, it refers to the Bacchic or Dionysiac Mys\u00ac \nteries, said to be based upon the secret teachings of the heroic bard, Orpheus. \nPartly because of the identification of the Bacchic sodalities with other groups of \nInitiates, Orphism became virtually synonymous with mysticism or occultism \nin general. As Watmough says: \u201cOn the religious side it has become associated \nwith the worship of Dionysus in Thrace and Demeter at Eleusis: on the philo\u00ac \nsophic, with Pythagorean mathematics and Platonic metaphysics. . . . Orphic, \nBacchic, Pythagorean and Egyptian almost meant the same\u201d (p. 15). \n\nOne\u2019s attitude towards the Orphic tradition is necessarily determined by one\u2019s \nview of the Mysteries of antiquity. Did the Initiates possess genuine knowledge \nof the hidden processes of Nature and understand the art of bringing to birth \nthe Spiritual Man; or were the Mysteries mere survivals of savage magic which \nthe civilized Greeks re-interpreted and refined, without suspecting that their \nInitiates were merely glorified \u201cmedicine men\u201d? According to Theosophy, the \nMysteries were primitive only in the sense that they were coeval with the human \nrace; they embodied the wisdom which man inherited from the \u201cGods\u201d who \ndescended on earth in the Golden Age; they were a link between the human \nand the divine. Therefore, the student of Theosophy seeks a spiritual meaning \nwithin the myths which were dramatized in the ritual of initiation. He does not \ndeny that a materialistic and gross interpretation may be read into every sacred \n\u201cfable\u201d, for the spiritual and the material correspond to each other, the material \nbeing the shadow or reflection of the spiritual. But why must one search first \nfor the darkest aspect of a parable ? For example, it is most reasonable to assume \nthat the duality of human nature and the way to human redemption are sym\u00ac \nbolized by the death and re-birth of Dionysus, although only a fragmentary \noutline of the great Bacchic myth has come down to us. \n\nThe \u201cOrphics\u201d introduced a complicated myth by which EroSy \u201cthe Spirit of Go(^ \nmoving over the waters\u201d, created the world; while the Dionysiac and Titanic elements* \naccounted for good and evil. The most commonly accepted story is this: first came \nTime, from which sprang Ether and Chaos. Out of Ether and Chaos, Time formed a \nsilver egg. Out of the egg sprang EroSy or in other versions, Phanes, god of light. The \ndevelopment of the world was a self-revelation of this power. Phanes was next swal\u00ac \nlowed by Zeus. The latter, by Persephone, had a son Dionysus. Dionysus was pursued \nby Titans and took the form of a bull, which the Titans rent to pieces. Athene saved \nthe bull\u2019s heart, which Zeus swallowed in order to beget a new Dionysus. The Titans, \nstained by the blood of the bull Dionysus, were struck down by the lightning flash of \nZeus; and out of their ashes sprang the race of men\u2014which thereby contained both the \nTitanic elements (the spirit of evil) and the Dionysiac (the spirit of good). This myth \n. . . appears, by inference, on the golden tablets of lower Italy, in such verses as, \u201cI \nam a child of earth and of starry heaven, but my race is of heaven alone\u201d (pp. 53-54). \n\nOrpheus was, as Diodorus says, of the race of Dionysus. One tradition \nactually identifies him with the Indian prince, Arjuna, {Five Years of Theosophy, \np. 266). It is significant that his human life repeats the tragedy which had been \nenacted by his \u201cFather in Heaven\u201d. Orpheus, like Dionysus, was a messenger of \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n262 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nLight, and was immolated by the Maenads, the earthly counterparts of the \nTitans and emblematic of the unredeemed passional nature of the animal man. \n\nWatmough has little respect for the Mysteries as such, or for the Orphic version \nof their divine origin. He is too much impressed by current anthropological \ntheory, even though he scarcely goes so far as to accept Salomon Reinach\u2019s \nnotion that Orpheus was a \u201cfox totem\u201d. Watmough\u2019s main thesis is that \nOrphism appeared as a movement of religious reform in the Sixth Century B. c.; \nthat above all it represented an effort to establish a standard of subjective \nmorality, a more humane social order, and a personal relationship between \nGod and man, in opposition to the political and purely formal modes of worship \nwhich were regarded as sufficient in the \u201cstate churches\u201d, the cults of the Olym\u00ac \npian Gods. There is evident truth in this theory, for even in its most exoteric \nforms Orphism held before the devotee the possibility and the ideal that he \nmight \u201cbecome like God\u201d. Watmough, how^ever, confuses the issue by drawing \nall sorts of fanciful analogies between Orphism and modem Protestantism. \nThe ob^dous analogy is between Orphism and the Christian mystical tradition \nwhich has certainly flourished as vigorously in the Catholic as in the Protestant \ndenominations. \n\nHowever, Watmough\u2019s little treatise has a real value and significance. Not \nonly does it bring together a number of ancient \u201csources\u201d which have hitherto \nbeen quite unavailable to the average reader; but Watmough himself, in his \nconcluding chapter, reveals a deep appreciation of certain aspects of Orphism \nand an understanding of its spirit which should be enlightening to every student \nof the subject. He suggests that if this spirit could be revived in the modem \nworld, we should be better and happier. \n\nViewed as an abstract idea, \u201cOrphism\u201d strikes three major notes on the scale of our \nappreciative sense\u2014the note of mysticism, the note of light, and the note of tranquillity. \nAll these are of immense value for the present day. . . . There is nothing romantic \nabout the real \u201cOrpheus\u201d. His tranquillity is, above all, restrained and sober. It is a \nstate of peace which flows naturally from the life of self-discipline and communion with \nthe source of infinite EroSy losing its coldness in brotherly affection, and its austerity in \ntenderness to brute creation. Bacon is nearer to the truth when he says that the tale \nof \u201cOrpheus\u201d \u201cmay seem to represent the image of philosophy\u201d (pp. 77 seq.). \n\nL.V. \n\n\nThe Gospel of the Hereafter, by the Rev. J. Paterson-Smyth; Fleming H. \nRevell Company, New York, new edition, 1930; price. Si.00. \n\nThis volume, first published in 1910, by an Irish-bom clergyman of the \nChurch of England who is now officiating in Canada, is a valuable book to put \ninto the hands of orthodox Christians,\u2014those who respect the Scriptures while \ntaking home to themselves very few of the tmths and promises there revealed. \nIt is a useful book for others, also, who, though they sincerely endeavour to live \nthe truth as they see it, are sometimes vague as to what that tmth may be, \nThe book is said to have grown out of the experience of the author, after the death \nof a son, and certainly gives the impression of being w'ritten from the heart. It \n\n\n\n267 \n\n\nreviews \n\n\nlow nor C3.T1 \n\n\nthey change the main \n\n\ntides of history, \nimnn which it \n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n263 \n\n\naims to amend the pagan attitude of much of Protestant Christendom which \nweeps, grief-stricken, over a dead body, and, after the interment, conscientiously \navoids mention of one who is \u201cnow no more\u201d. \n\nConfining himself to the little that is said in the Old and New Testaments\u2014 \nfor on this subject of the state after death, the author admits that the Bible is \nreserved\u2014^he nevertheless finds that little sufficient to make a persuasive \nargument for the continuity of consciousness. For clarity of argument, he \ndivides the time after death into two periods, one, the final period after the Last \nJudgment, with which Judgment, he says, Heaven and Hell proper, really begin. \nThe other period, up to the final Judgment, is the \u201cintermediate\u201d state\u2014inter\u00ac \nmediate, that is, between earth life and Eternity; and he calls that period the \n\u201cNear Hereafter\u201d. This period, the intermediate, is the real subject of the book. \nRestricting himself to the testimony of the Bible and of a very few early Fathers \n\u2014^Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian\u2014Dr. Paterson- \nSmyth presents this intermediate period as an opportunity for \u201cgrowth and \npurification\u201d, words which suggest the old teaching about Purgatory, not as that \nteaching is popularly misunderstood, but as it is set forth by such a mystic as \nDante, in the Divine Comedy. \n\nBecause of its sincerity and, perhaps, of its narrow restrictions, the book has \ncirculated widely, one hundred and twenty-five thousand copies in English alone, \napart from translations. The wealth of mystical literature. Western and Eastern, \ncould of course have been drawn upon to elucidate and support the argument, \nbut the use of mystical writers might have weakened the authority of the book \namong those for whom it is intended\u2014those who respect the Bible, the whole \nBible, and little else. Even without the corroborative testimony of the great \nmystics, the volume seems likely to find a welcome from many members of The \nTheosophical Society. Called upon, in an hour of grief, by those who cannot \nunderstand theosophical views of life, members of the Society are sometimes at a \nloss for literature suited to the need of their friends. This book, small in size \nand easy to read, would seem to meet many needs. C. \n\n\n4 \n\n\nMetamorphism, A Study of the Transformations of Rock-masses, by Alfred \nHarker; Methuen & Co., London, 1932; price, 175. 6d. \n\nAlthough this is a highly technical book, if we read between the lines it will \nprove of great value because of the many striking analogies with the processes \nof life as a whole. All students of Theosophy are interested in the architecture \nof the Cosmos, in the upbuilding of the Universe (we could hardly read The \nSecret Doctrine and remain indifferent); therefore we must also be interested \nin the sculptures of our earth, for that is what the magnificent rock-masses \nwhich constitute its crust really are\u2014sculptures of such infinite variety, such \nmarvellous workmanship, that no two are ever alike either in composition or in \nform. Perhaps, however, it is too often our habit to consider only what appears \nto us the sublime immutability of our great rock-masses, typifying, as they do, \nlife\u2019s transcendent Realities, and to forget that, while they symbolize the Change- \n\n\n\n264 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nless, they are not immutable, far from it; we know, in fact, that they are for ever \nchanging, for ever interchanging; that there is a constant ebb and flow at work, \na ceaseless liberation and re-absorption of their life-forces; we know that they \nare growing (though in so vast and leisurely a way as to be imperceptible), as the \nwhole of creation is also growing; that they are evolving as we too are evolving; \nthat they share with us the life of \u201cbecoming\u201d. We look at our great mountain \nranges spread before us, towering above us, and oim spirits are uplifted to the \npure snows which crown their summits; their power and superb isolation become \na part of our inner life. That is what they do for us; but do we often stop to \nthink what in return we might do for them to help them on their long journey \nupward\u2014in s>Tnpathy and true understanding? For such states as this are \nsurely reciprocal, and rocks or mountains feel our sympathy as we feel their \nstrength; and just as there is an interchange, throughout the universe, of \nmaterial atoms\u2014streaming from rock to plant, to animal or human being, \nand back again\u2014so there must be, or should be, the constant, intuitive exchange \nof these finer, invisible forces which we call harmony or states of shared con\u00ac \nsciousness, however varied in degree that consciousness may be. Back of the \nmaterial appearance lies an intangible realm in which these splendid cyclopean \ncreatures of Native\u2019s so-called lowest kingdom live, and that they do live, that \nthey are actually and literally alive in their own degree, that there is a philosophy \nof rocks as there is of other phases of life, the student of Theosophy is convinced. \n\nIn the esoteric Teaching, older than the ages, we learn that our terrestrial \nglobe, with its central consuming, transmuting fire, is an entity of a septenary \nnature, and that every portion of our earth is throbbing with life \u2014The Secret \nDoctrine teaching that the entire universe is a mirror of the Divine. Speaking in \nstrictly geological terms, there are two main factors in metamorphism: heat and \npressure, and in his book Dr. Harker concerns himself not so much with the \nclassification of rocks, as with the fundamental chemical and structural changes \nwhich take place within them when subjected to the influence of these agents, \nchanges, moreover, which are distinctly evolutionary in tendency. \u201cMeta\u00ac \nmorphism is here conceived, not as a status but as a process; viz. a progressive \nchange in response to changing conditions of temperature and stress.\u201d And \nagain: \u201cIt is fundamental to a true conception of advancing metamorphism \nthat a new mineral generated at appropriate temperature does not thereafter \nremain passive and lifeless. If not consumed in reactions producing higher min\u00ac \nerals, it retains at all higher temperatures the power of rejuvenation.\u201d The \nstudent of Theosophy will at once be reminded that in the spiritual life, the \n\u201cheat\u201d of a.spiration and the \u201cpressure\u201d of the spiritual will are the two great \nfactors necessary to progress, to interior growth, and that it is because of these \nthat spiritual transformations occur. He will realize also that, on lower planes, \nthe withdrawal of heat (friction) and pressure from a man\u2019s life, results in \nstagnation and death. We live because of these two forces, and one of the \ndifferences between a ch^la and a worldling is that the former applies them to \nhimself, from within\u2014a deliberate process\u2014while the worldling is acted upon \nby them, and usually resents the opportunity for growth thus given him. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nreviews \n\n\n267 \n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS 265 \n\nThe actual physical force of crystallization is dynamic; the energy and power \nmanifested is tremendous. In metamorphism, moreover, the crystal grows from \nwithin, not by accretion as in the case of a mineral separating from an igneous \nmagma: \u201cthe crystallization or recrystallization of minerals in metamorphism \nproceeds, not in a fluid medium, but in the heart of the solid rock\u201d (it is quite \nliterally interior), \u201cthe growing crystal must make a place for itself against a \nsolid resistance, and is to be conceived as forcibly thrusting its way outward from \nits starting point.\u201d It is the formation and birth of the new crystal individual, \nthe result of heat and stress, and the actual \u201cstructure\u201d or \u201ctexture\u201d of the \noriginal rock is fundamentally altered, for \u201cthe term \u2018metamorphism\u2019, i.e. change \nof form, is understood in geology as having reference to atomic and molecular \nconfiguration.\u201d \n\nPhysical science talks of inorganic matter, but how could all these transfor\u00ac \nmations take place unless there were life within the rocks? How could a rock \nchange as it does, from one state of matter to another, unless there were life \ncapable of response to the \u201cdirect invasion of the earth\u2019s internal store of heat\u201d? \n\u2014using Dr. Harker\u2019s own words. A stone could not even disintegrate or crumble, \nit could not \u201cdecompose\u201d (as, for instance, felspar does when changing into \nkaolinite) were it a \u201cdead\u201d thing. Esoteric science teaches that every atom in \nthe tmiverse has a consciousness of its own; that, as The Secret Doctrine tells us, \n\u201ceach particle\u2014whether you call it organic or inorganic\u2014 is a life\u201d. As the \ngreat rock-masses of our earth are composed of incalculable millions of rock\u00ac \nforming minerals, what unimaginable crores of millions upon millions of these \ninfinitesimal \u201clives\u201d must there be in every rugged headland or rough mountain \nside. Finally, the ancient Wisdom also teaches the progressive development of \neverything in the Cosmos, from a speck of dust to a planet, and it is perhaps \nbecause we find something of this same idea in Dr. Harker\u2019s theory of \u201cad\u00ac \nvancing metamorphism\u201d that his book will be of such interest to students of \nTheosophy. The fact that he also introduces the theory of \u201cretrograde meta\u00ac \nmorphism\u201d is notable, for creation is known to have its failures\u2014in the animal \nand vegetable kingdoms, as in the human. Therefore in reading what Dr. \nHarker has to tell us, we find ourselves constantly recalling the fact that \u201cevery\u00ac \nthing in the universe follows analogy\u201d. The book is richly illustrated with \nexceedingly interesting drawings (made by the author himself), of several hundred \nmicroscope slides. A caieful study of these illustrations will be an education in \nitself, for by their means we can trace many of the processes of change, of struc\u00ac \ntural rearrangement, which have taken place within the mineral. T.D. \n\n\nSaints of Chaos, by Peter Oliver; William Farquhar Payson, New York, 1934; \nprice, $2.50. \n\nLike many of his contemporaries, Peter Oliver is unfavourably impressed by \nthe state of the world. Wherever he looks he sees disorder, discord, wasted \nenergy, confusion of counsel. The pilots of modem civilization cannot agree \non any course or destination, and there are ominous symptoms of mutiny among \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n266 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthe crew. As Oliver points out, the modem world must somehow reform itself \nor it will disappear from existence. No superficial economic or political read\u00ac \njustment will save it, for the cause of the trouble is deep. There must be a moral \nand spiritual renaissance, a conversion which will reawaken in a sufficient \nnumber of human beings the virtues that are proper to human souls. The \nRussian Berdyaev, in The End of Our Time, suggested that humanity might \nhave to pass through the experience of a new Dark Age, in order to recover the \nuse of certain spiritual faculties which have been generally dormant since medi\u00ac \naeval times. Oliver abstains from prophecies, but he practically draws the same \nmoral from history as Berdyaev. He believes also that mediaeval civilization \nwas, in many ways, on a higher level than our own; that the material progress \nof the past four centuries has been purchased by the atrophy of the finer powers \nof consciousness, including the power of conscience itself, the elementary sense \nof right and wrong. \n\nWe are dwellers in the tents of confusion. We of Europe and the Americas, though \nwe consider ourselves, and with some reason, the leaders of the world, still we are divided \non almost all matters of importance. There is never, in any society, complete agreement \nbetween all people, but there has been at times in the past, agreement between the peo\u00ac \nple of good intent. Socrates, living in the last years of one such time of agreement, called \nthis that was its basis, the \u201ccommon consent of good men\u201d. . . . Some thousand years \nago St. Augustine wrote in The City of God, \u201cWe are our love\u201d. This is interpreted to \nmean that human society tends to realize any goal recognized by the Socratic common \nconsent of good men. To-day with our divergent and conflicting \u201cloves\u201d there is no \nanswer, satisfactory to more than one group, to the question of whither what we call \nour civilization is tending. Differences of opinion are perhaps desirable, but differences \nof conviction on fundamental matters can lead only to the break up of society. . . . \nBearing in mind what St. Augustine says, that we are our love, if we turn back to his\u00ac \ntory we observe two great phases. The first is a phase of Unity when men agree on \nwhat they know, when, in other words, men know the things they love; the second a \nphase of Diversity when men do not agree, when there is conflict between the abstract \nideals toward which men aspire. . . . The last great unity was that of mediaeval Chris\u00ac \ntendom, and this was the greatest of all. The pillars of the old Grecian unity were truth \nand beauty, this one stood higher and more firm on a new element that had been added \nto life and knowledge, unselfish love. The Middle Ages civilized Europe; religion, science, \nart and politics were met and joined together in the great Catholic and Apostolic Church. \n\n. . . Martin Luther was the high priest of the new diversity, the father of our modern \nworld. Less and less since Luther lived have we known the things we loved. . . . Reli\u00ac \ngion, which is concerned with love, in Martin Luther led the way. Science and art, \nhaving to do with truth and beauty, followed. As Luther broke the old religious unity, \nGalileo, with his homemade telescope began the new science, and Beethoven, the new \nart. \n\nThe \u201cSaints of Chaos\u201d are Luther, Galileo, Beethoven, James Watt, whose \nsteam engine inaugurated the machine age and the industrial revolution, and \nthe Seventeenth Century political economist, Thomas Hobbes, who foretold the \ntyranny of the modem democratic \u201cnation-state\u201d in the Leviathan. Oliver \nmight have chosen five other \u201csaints\u201d, but the list as it stands is apt enough. \nIt is our impression that in a sense he exaggerates the power of the ordinary \nman of genius. There are always great men, both good and bad, in the world. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n267 \n\n\nbut they are limited by cyclic law, nor can they change the main tides of history. \nThere must be sympathy between their genius and the mass upon which it \nacts. In theosophical terms, a great man affects the society in which he is bom \nto the extent that it is the karma of that society to be so affected. He is then, as \nit were, the vehicle through which some revolution, subconsciously desired by the \nmultitude, is accomplished. \n\nThis amendment of Oliver\u2019s thesis does not affect the historical truth which \nhe makes evident. Luther, Galileo and Beethoven were bom during a period of \ncritical transformation. The life was departing from the marvellously unified \norganism of mediaeval civilization. Reform was as necessary then as now. The \nfuture depended upon the quality of the change which was certain to come. The \ntragedy is that the work of the reformers did not bring about a restoration of \nvital unity, but was turned towards the building of a new world doomed from its \nbirth to division and internecine strife. There was a great opportunity, but \nthe fashioners of the modem cycle did not live up to it. \n\nOliver gives an enlightening definition of this failure. Among the many de\u00ac \nlusions of the modem mind, perhaps the most serious is this,\u2014that the Good, \nthe Tme and the Beautiful are not known as co-existent aspects of a Divine \nUnity, but are falsely imagined to be capable of separation from one another \nand from God. Since the Middle Ages, religion, science and art have tended, \nmore and more to go their divers ways without reference to the unity which \nshould include them all. For this mutilation of the Platonic trinity, Oliver \nblames, in partiailar, the three major characters of his book, Luther, Galileo \nand Beethoven. \n\nMartin Luther is the example of the great and good heart frustrated by the little mind; \nin Galileo the picture is reversed. His mind is great, his heart is little. Had he been \ngood enough, he could have loved the essential Truth and Beauty of the Church with \nwhich he struggled, and still, we believe, could his mind have found the outlet he needed \nin the subject he loved. But only the blameless and selfless work miracles. . . . The \nmusic of Beethoven from 1800 to the end, is his own life, told in his art. Except for \noccasional moments, it was not a happy life; it is not, except occasionally, happy music. \nThe art is infinitely great, the life is a poor thing. . . . The great accomplishment of \nthese changers was that by splitting the fabric of the unity that was mediaeval Christen\u00ac \ndom, they separated in the minds of men, the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. Luther, \nchanger of religion, of the Good, forgot the Beautiful and I rue. ... In Science, sinc^ \nthe Change, I'ruth has been severed from Goodness and Beauty. . . . Modern art hat \nfollowed a single star, in its case Beauty, oblivious of all else. And Beauty can help \nman no more than Truth and Goodness, unless the relation of all three be remembered. \nModern art has forgotten Truth, which is the objective quality of Art, has forgotten \nGoodness, the unifying quality, which gives sense, and which our mediaeval ancestors \ncalled Grace. ... It is our firm belief that since the end of the mediaeval unity the \nchief cause of our continued frustration in our search for happiness has been that we \nhave failed to realize that the Good, the True, and the Beautiful are one. \n\nThis we lay to the door of the three great Changers, Luther, Galileo, and Beethoven. \nThey saw the old institutionalized unity so intent on its institutional form, that men were \nlosing all sight of the material and spiritual aspects (and these may not be overlooked!) \nof Truth, and Goodness, and Beauty. They turned to these three ideals, to seek them \nout, and we have followed, but with such haste and blindness, and with such excitement \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n268 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nof discovery, that we have lost sight of the fact that it is in the recognition of the exist\u00ac \nence of the three together that we shall preserve our souls. \n\nOliver can diagnose better than he can cure. Only one who has discovered \nan infallible remedy for our present difficulties is entitled to condemn him for \nthe inadequacy of the \u201cNew Unity\u201d which he proposes. Nevertheless, we wish \nthat he had remained in his r 61 e of disinterested spectator, for the reforms \nsuggested in the concluding chapter are vague and obscure, when they are not \nshown by experience to be impractical. He says, for example: \n\nThe greatest of our problems, and the one for whose solution the whole world is clam\u00ac \nouring, is the question of how, without discarding or at least threatening what we have \ncome to consider as the established order of things, there may be a redistribution of the \nworld\u2019s wealth. In its commonest form this question concerns itself with the search for \na peaceful method of giving to labour a part of the too large share of produced wealth \nwhich now goes to capital. \n\nThere is no reason why this problem should worry Oliver or anybody else. \nIt is as old as the world and is being solved for us daily. Nature is engaged \ncontinuously in the redistribution of possessions and powers in all her kingdoms. \nIn so far as the administration of human justice conforms to natural law, the \ntransfer of wealth is effected without social disorder. Serious trouble becomes \npossible, when we try to accelerate or retard this normal process. As history has \nproved again and again, it is not a solution of life\u2019s difficulties, to take from the \nrich because they are rich and to give to the poor because they are poor. This is \nrobbery, nor can it be morally justified by any number of fine phrases. \n\nIt has been said that most revolutions are caused by abstract nouns which \nbecome charged with emotion in proportion as they are emptied of meaning. \nWe shall be wise to consider what ideas are signified by the abstract nouns, \n\u201ccapital\u201d and \u201clabour\u201d. Everyone can speak for himself, but one person at \nleast is willing to admit that when he speaks or hears these words they usually \nmean nothing at all. What is \u201clabour\u201d, for instance? The sum-total of all those \nwho work for a living? But Nature distinguishes not only between those who \nwork and those who do not work, but between those whose work is good and \nthose whose work is poor. The good workman whose craftsmanship consistently \nimproves is, doubtless, entitled to a larger share of his employer\u2019s profits. In\u00ac \ndeed, he gets that larger share now, unless the trades unions succeed in sup\u00ac \npressing him. No society can survive which is founded on the spurious principle \nthat the incapable and the lazy and the dishonest should be paid more than they \nare worth, merely because they represent \u201clabour\u201d as opposed to \u201ccapital\u201d. \nTruly the labourer is worthy of his hire. Modem economists are invited to \nmeditate upon that phrase which was held in such high respect by the guilds \nwhich built Chartres and Amiens. S.V.L. \n\n\n\n\n\nV \n\n\nQuestion No. 391.\u2014Pf/tew the Churches pray for the dead they specify those ''who die in the \nLord\"; those who are \"numbered with the saints\"; the \"faithful departed\". But most hearts are \nbreaking for their dead who do not die in the Lord, and who have no part with the saints. Can \nour prayers for them be efficacious, and what form should they best take beyond a cry for mercy? \n\nAnswer.\u2014 It would seem a mistake to try to separate the \u201cfaithful\u201d, even those who are \nfaiUiful to only a limited extent, into categories of sainthood, or otherwise. It would seem \nm^e helpful to think of the prayer in the Litany: \u201cLord, have mercy upon us miserable sin\u00ac \nners\u201d, because we are all sinners in varying degrees. If a heart is breaking for a departed loved \none, if one consecrates the suffering and weaves it into one\u2019s every-day living on behalf of the \nloved one, the sins of the loved one may be vicariously atoned for in a most real and complete \n\nG.H.M. \n\nway. \n\nAnswer. \u2014How can we tell whether or not our dead have \u201cdied in the Lord , whether or \nnot they have any \u201cpart with the saints\u201d? Many a man who has all his life scoffed at the \nChurches, who has appeared outwardly to follow only his own inclinations, may at the same \ntime have been a fighter, for principle, for the right as he saw it; may have influenced many \nto right action; may have been, in fact, close to the heart of real Religion. It may well be \nthat, at the end, he is conscious of a Presence which says, \u201cWell done!\u201d; it may well be that \nhe finds himself, after all, in the blessed company of all faithful people. \n\nWe have been told that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much. We hesitate, perhaps, \nto think of ourselves as righteous. We can, however, take that saying to mean that a right \nprayer may avail much, a prayer from the depths of the heart, in which we ask nothing for \nourselves, in which our sole concern is for our dead; a selfless prayer, which can contain noth\u00ac \ning which might perturb or disturb the excamate soul. Surely the fine spiritual force called \nforth and directed by pure prayer can be efficacious, can reach the spirit of our friend. \n\nWe have been told, too, that \u201cthe dead, meaning by this, souls in Devachan and in the pre\u00ac \nliminary states leading thereto, are under the guardianship of certain classes of Masters, who \nmost certainly do render help to the dead, just as their illustrious colleagues of another class ^ \nrender help to the living.\u201d Can we not evoke this help? \n\nA cry for mercy, yes, if we think that mercy is required. But a cry, from the depths of \nsoul, that our friend, now, may be helped to see where formerly he was blind; that there may \nbe dissolved and broken down in him everything of self that kept him from the light; that, \nwhen the purpose of his Lord has been accomplished in him, a voice may speak to him across \nthe darkness, that he may know that he is no longer alone. C.R.A. \n\nAnswer. \u2014Except for extreme cases, I do not agree with the latter part of the querent s \nstatement that \u201cmost hearts are breaking for their dead who do not die in the Lord' , and so on. \n\nIt would be difficult to convince many who have lost father, mother, husband, wife, or child, \nthat their dead are not of \u201cthe faithful departed\u201d. Perhaps it is well, for in the broader sense \nthey are correct. Theosophy teaches that man is a creature of seven principles: the upper \nimperishable Triad and the lower Quaternary. Following death, and after a longer or shorter \n\n269 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n270 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nperiod as the individual case may be, the imperishable principles are freed from the lower or \ntransitory principles. The former constitute the real man, the Ego, the Soul, which then goes \non to Devachan or heaven. It is this Soul which, through countless series of births, deaths \nand rebirths, gradually pushes its way toward immortality. The churches pray for all the \npotential \u201cimmortals\u201d who quite conceivably \u201cdie in the Lord\u201d, are \u201cnumbered among the \nsaints\u201d, and \u201cthe faithful departed\u201d, though the churches may not analyze their prayers in \njust this way. The Soul does not die with the flesh, and it is for the Soul\u2019s welfare and progress \nwe pray, or should pray. For peace and rest for the Soul, yes; but also for the strength, the \ncourage, the vision, with which to meet and overcome the obstacles, the difficulties, the temp\u00ac \ntations in its path of progress next time, and which are necessary to the Soul's advancement \ntoward immortality. Surely the divine mercy turns a willing ear to such prayers. \n\nG.M.W.K. \n\nAnswer. \u2014Madame Blavatsky tells us in The Key to Theosophy (p. 150) that, \u201cWe are \nwith those whom we have lost in material form, and far, far nearer to them now, than when \nthey were alive. And it is not only in the fancy of the Detachanee, as some may imagine, but \nin reality. For pure divine love is not merely the blossom of a human heart, but has its roots \nin eternity.\u201d And again (pp. 161-2), \u201cDeath comes to our spiritual selves ever as a deliverer \nand friend. ... At the solemn moment of death every man . . . sees the whole of his past \nlife marshalled before him, in its minutest details . . . the whole chain of causes which have \nbeen at work during his life. He sees and now understands himself as he is . . . and knows \nthe justice of all the suffering that has overtaken him.\u201d \n\nTheosophy brings a hope and solace here which are too rarely found within the teaching of \nthe churches, for it shows us how love, through the intermediation of the Masters, can reach \nand aid the dead. In a new birth, a new chance awaits the soul; and those who love that soul \ncan so treasure the image of its divine potentialities, can so war in their own natures against \nall which betrayed and injured it, that the truths the soul itself saw in the moment of death \nmay be engraved deeply in the astral light, to remain as the moulds for the new incarnation. \n\nB. \n\nQuestion No. 392. \u2014What is the difference between concentration, contemplation, and medi\u00ac \ntation? \n\nAnswer. \u2014In Christian terminology, meditation usually is considered as preceding, and as \nleading to, contemplation. In occultism the order is as listed in the question. From the \noccultist\u2019s viewpoint, briefly, in concentration, the consciousness is pointed to a given object; \nin contemplation it dwells uninterruptedly on it; in meditation it is merged wth the object \nand becomes at one with it. G.M.W.K. \n\nAnswer. \u2014These three powers are spiritual, and are steps in the process of becoming, for \nman becomes what he contemplates: as he thinks, so he is. The great majority of mankind \ndrag down and use these powers for purposes of the personality, or lower self, instead of for \nthose of the soul. In theosophical literature these terms are used in addressing those who \nhave an interest in, or are actually striving for, discipleship. Thus, in Mr. Judge\u2019s pamphlet. \nCulture of Concentration, the term \u201cconcentration\u201d is stated to mean that which \u201cin the Indian \nbooks is called Yoga, which is translated also as Union, meaning a union with the Supreme \nBeing\u201d. Likewise, \u201ccontemplation\u201d, in theosophical terms, is an act and a state of conscious\u00ac \nness far higher than that employed by people in the world, who use this mighty spiritual \npower for personal ends. \u201cConcentration\u201d is a power which must be gained in the acts of \ndaily life, as Professor Mitchell points out in his pamphlet. Meditation. It consists in an act \nof the will in directing and controlling the attention and the powers of the mind. On the \nhigher plane of consciousness, reached as a result of meditation, contemplation involves an \naction of the heart, which through love and a yearning for the object contemplated, over\u00ac \nflows into action. Concentration of the mind upon the object or subject to be meditated upon, \n\n\nQUESTIONS AND ANSWERS \n\n\n271 \n\n\nand contemplation of it, lead to meditation, in which the consciousness is merged with the \nideal we have contemplated. The \u201cspiritual bouquet\u201d, mentioned by religious writers upon \nmeditation, corresponds to the higher contemplation already referred to, involving the heart \n\n\nand overflowing into action through the keeping of a \u201cresolution\u201d arrived at as a result of \n\n\nmeditation. \n\n\nG.H.M. \n\n\nAnswer. \u2014The terms have been used differently in different schools of thought. Thus \nPatanjali uses \u201cconcentration\u201d as the all inclusive term, and there is an almost complete \nreversal between Theosophic and Christian usage in the positions assigned to meditation and \ncontemplation. In Theosophic parlance, concentration, contemplation, and meditation \n(proper), are three successive stages of meditation, in the more general sense, (i) Concentra\u00ac \ntion is the taking of the mind from other matters and placing it exclusively on the chosen \nsubject. (2) Contemplation, the second step, consists in keeping the mind fixed on the chosen \nsubject. (3) In meditation, the third step, the personal consciousness, no longer confined to \nthe mind, becomes (a) part of, or at one with, the chosen subject, and (b) follows on with it. \nThus it is that the life of discipleship can be a life of continual meditation, for complete medi\u00ac \ntation implies movement; it is never static or negative, as is often erroneously supposed, both \nin the Eastern Yoga and among Christian \u201cContemplatives\u201d. A useful analysis of meditation, \nsetting forth its successive stages, as well as some of the difficulties that may be encountered \nand the effects that may result, can be found in the pamphlet on the subject by H. B. Mitchell. \n\n\nQ. \n\n\nQuestion No. 393 .\u2014It is said that a Lodge Messenger can only appear if and when his dis\u00ac \nciples make it possible. The Bhagavad Gita says, ''Whenever there is a withering of the Law, O \n\n\nson of Bharata, and an uprising of lawlessness on all sides, then I manifest Myself.\" How recon\u00ac \n\n\ncile these statements? \n\nAnswer. \u2014Pages could be written on this subject. Briefly, the Lodge works for the even\u00ac \ntual salvation of mankind and, in so doing, its representatives of one or another degree come, \nor are sent, in accordance with the operation of Cyclic Law. The representative known as \nthe Lodge Messenger ordinarily appears during the last quarter of the one hundred year, or \ncentury, cycle. I have always thought of the passage quoted from the GUa as referring to the \nmanifestation of an Avatar, the coming or sending of whom would be governed by the opera\u00ac \ntion of a much larger cycle than that of one hundred year periods. Likewise, mankind is \naffected by Cyclic Law, under the operation of which certain preparations are made for the \nwork to be done by the prospective Lodge representative. Evidently one set of conditions \nunder which an Avatar manifests himself is \u201ca withering of the Law, . . . and an uprising of \nlawlessness on all sides.\u201d G.M.W.K. \n\nAnswer. \u2014These two statements do not seem to be in any need of reconciliation. \u201cAiJ \nuprising of lawlessness on all sides\u201d does not preclude the possibility, or even the probability \nthat the disciples of a Master should be in incarnation at the time of, or even in the midst of \n\u201clawlessness\u201d. On the contrary, it is not at all unlikely that they may be there because of it, \nsince that might be the very time when they could be of the most service in their Master\u2019s \nCause; \u201clawlessness\u201d might be the very evil which, united, they were called upon to combat. \nConsider the present conditions in the world: was ever lawlessness more widespread? Yet, \nhave we not been told (even did we not see it for ourselves), that the ranks of the Theosophical \nMovement are more solidly welded together than they have ever been before? Is not the \n\u201cnucleus\u201d here, for the preservation of which and for the growth of which both H.P.B. and \nJudge gave their lives\u2014has it ever been so potent for good? And could this be, unless the \nMaster were behind it all, and guiding it all? T.A. \n\nAnswer. \u2014When a statement is quoted, it is often wise to ask who said it, under what cir\u00ac \ncumstances, and exactly what was said. We have never heard that the coming of a Lodge \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n272 \n\nMessenger depends upon his disciples. It depends .. to bring to \n\nevery century, the Lodge sends a representative, a \u201cLodge Messenger to ^ ^ \nmen the truths of the Ancient Wisdom. It has. however, been said that som \nrunner\" comes in advance to prepare the way for the Messenger, and i h b^n \nthat in the :8th century. St. Germain was such a that man \n\n(See report of the 1929 Convention in the Theosophical ^ God- \n\npossesses the power of evocation, so that, if there were suffi ...tv, \n\nfnstructed men could be drawn from the Lodge to govern the nations on earth. ^ ^ ^ ^ \n\nAnswer.\u2014 The verse in the Gtla, following that quoted, reads: \u201cFor the \n\nhearted devotion and passionate longing for the firm establishing i ^ \n\npvoke an emissary from the Lodge. \u201cThe effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availet \nZdi \" The lawlLness so manifest on all sides to-day clearly shows how ^eat is the ne^; \nTdt r Jltalton^ that need on the part of a few can draw down \u201cthe blessing whmh^the \nworld unknowingly awaits\u201d. \n\nAnswer -The question is based upon a misunderstanding, for is it said that a \n\nLodi M^enger can appear only as his disciples make it possible. H.P.B. told us that such \n^messel^Tsent intfthe world in the closing quarter of each century when the normal \nmake possible a new outgiving from the Lodge for the hdp and guidance of man- \nkind She told us, too, of agents of the Lodge who constantly move about the world, unkno \nfor whl they are. save to such as have within themselves the power of recognition; and of \nother emissaries who come in answer to special needs, or at special cyclic tunes. The quK- \nloner lly well have heard it said that U the hearts of men yearned truly for the coming of a \nMaster that yearning might itself modify the cycles, and enable a Master to appear at a time \nwhen otherwise he could not. But. in addition, there would have to exist an abiUty to s^e- \nguard and use rightly the gift of spiritual force his coming would mvolve. of which even^the \nTV/T\u00abofofc arp hilt, the trustees. \n\n\nNOTICE \n\nThe regular meetings of the New York Branch of The Theosophical Society are held on \nalternate Saturday evenings, at 64 Washington Mews, which runs from the east side of Fifth \nAvenue midway between 8th Street and Washington Square. North. No. 64 is the first \nStudio kst of Fifth Avenue, on the north side of the Mews. The meetings begin at half-past \n\neight, and close at ten o clock. \n\nDuring the present Quarter, there will be meetings on, \n\nJanuary I2th and 26th \nFebruary 9th and 23rd \nMarch 9th and 23rd \n\nOut-of-town members of the Society are invited to attend these meetings whenever they \nare in New York. Visitors who may be interested in Theosophy are always welcome. \n\n\nSTANDARD BOOKS \n\n\nBlavatsky, H. P. Isis Unvbilbd, Vols. I and II.doth, sio-oo \n\nCOMPLETB in one book.cloth, 7 . 5 o \n\nKey to Theosophy .doth, 2.26 \n\nSecret Doctrine, The, Vols. I and II and Index .doth, le.oo \n\nComPLBTB in one book, withont cubject-indes volnme, 7 *60 \n\nTheosophical Glossary .doth, 2.26 \n\nTransactions of the Blavatsky Lodge .doth, 2.50 \n\nVoice of the Silence .fabric, 1.00 \n\nCave. Praghents, Volume I.boardi, t.so \n\nVolume II.boardt, 1.60 \n\nVolume III.boards, 1.60 \n\nGerard, John, Letters to Friends .boards, i .76 \n\nHillard, Katherine. Abridgment of the Secret Doctrine, .doth, s.oo \n\nJohnston, Charles. Bhagavad Gita .Translated, annotated; doth, lc .26 \n\nlimp leather, 1.76 \n\nCrest Jewel of Wisdom, The .doth, 1.26 \n\nGreat Upanishads, The, Volume I .cloth, i .50 \n\nParables of the Kingdom, The .paper, .60 \n\nPatANJALI\u2019s Yoga Sutras .Translated, annotated; doth, 1.26 \n\nSong of Life, The .paper, .76 \n\nJudge, William Q. Bhagavad Gita .Edited; doth, 1.26; leather, 1.60 \n\nCulture of Concentration .paper, .25 \n\nEchoes from the Orient .paper, .26 \n\nLetters That Have Helped Mb, Volume I and II, each, .doth, 1.00 \n\nOcean of Theosophy .doth, 1.00 \n\nPatanjali\u2019s Yoga Aphorisms .doth, 1.00 \n\nKeightley, Archibald. Theosophy as an Influence in Life paper, .20 \n\nLaDow, Stanley y. Plotinus ..-so \n\n^itiOD, . 20 | paper, .60 \n20 \n\n\n\u2022 paper. \n\n\nMitchell, Henry Bedinger. Meditation, SpedfiK. \n\nTheosophical Society and Theosophy, The^ \n\nMitchell, J. F. B. Collegiate Education and Standards of \n\nValue .paper, .10 \n\nSinnett, A. P. Esoteric Buddhism. cloth, 2.50 \n\nOccult World, The .doth. 2.60 \n\nTorrey, Ray E. Science and its Function in Education. .. .paper, .50 \n\nWalker, E. D. Reincarnation .cloth, 1.75 \n\nIdyll of the White Lotus .^r.. cloth, i.SR \n\nLight on the Path. leather, .85 \n\nThrough the Gates of Gold . .. . . doth. 1.20 \n\n\nTHE QUARTERLY BOOK DEPARTMENT, \n\nP. O. Box 64 , Station O. New York \n\n\nDevotional: Bhagavad Gita; Crest Jewel of Wisdom; Fragments; The Great Upani\u00ac \nshads; Letters T^t Have Helped Me; Letters to Friends; Light on the Path; The Par\u00ac \nables of the ^ngdom; The Song of Life: Through the Gates of Gold; Voice of the Silence \n\nPhilosophical: Abridgment of the Secret Doctrine; Isis Unveiled; Key to Theosophy; \nPlotinui; Reincarnation; The Secret Doctrine: Talks on Rdigion; Theosophical Glossary: \nTransactions; Patanjali\u2019s Yoga Sutras. \n\nIntroductoet: Culture of Concentration; Echoes from the Orient; Esoteric Buddhism: \nIdyll of the White Lotus; Meditation; The Occult World; The Ocean of Theosophy; \nThe Theosophical Society and Theosoohy. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL, 193S \n\n\nFounded by B. P. Blavalsky at Rew York In 1875 \n\n\nJiE Sf^icty docs not pretend to be able to establMh \nat once a universal brotherhood among: men\u00ab but \nonly strives to create the nucleus of such a body# \nMany of it?: members believe that an acquaintance \n\n\nwith the world's religfions and philosophies will \nreveah as the common and fundamental principle \nunderlying: these, that '\"spiritual identity of all Souls with the \nOversoul\" which is the basis of true brotherhood i and \n\n\nvvcrsoui wmcn is me oasis ox true Drotnernood i and many \noj them also believe that an appreciation of the finer forces \nof ^turc and man will still further emphasise the same idea. \n\nThe org:anizatioa is wholly unsectarian, with no creed, \ndo^ma, nor personal authority to enforce or impose; neither \n\u00ae jf fo oc held responsible for the opinions of its memberst \nwho ate expected to accord to the belieb of other* that \ntolerance which they desire for their own. \n\nThe following p^Iamation was adopted at the Conves- \n** Boston, ApriC 18951 \n\nThe Theaiophical Society in Americabyhs delegates and \nmembers in Conyention assembled, does hereby proclaim \nmternal good will and hindiv feeling toward all students of \ni beosophy and members of Theosophical Societies wherever \nsituated It further proclaims and avers its \nhearty sympathy and association with such persons and \norganiiatioM in all theosophical matters exc^t those of \ngoverimient and administration, and invites their cor- \nres^ndence and co-operation. \n\n. To all men and women of whatever caste.err<>/4 \u00ab\u00ab>\u2022\u00ab n. \nteligious belief, who aim at the fostering of peace, g^tleness, \nMd unselfish regard one for another, and the acquisition 5 \n^\u201cowlcdgc of men and nature as shall tend to the elev\u00bb- \n\nfriendly \n\nf**fly proffers its services. ^ \n\n\u201e \u00ab Joms hands with aU religions and religious bodieswhoi* \neffom \u00bbe directed to the purification of men's thoughts and \nthe bettering of their ways, and it avows its L3y W \nwit^ To all scientific societies and indhridual seatcfiJr* \n\n\nAppfeaons for \u201e\u2122beri*lp AoaU be Mreexi to At \nTT. S., P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York. \n\n\n1 PUBLISt \n\n1 THETHEOSOn \n\nlED BY 1 \n\nIlCAL SOCIETY 1 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Theosophical Quarterly \n\n\n\n\n\n\nSubscription price, $2.00 per annum; single copies, 50 cents \n\n\nPublished by The Theosophical Sodety \nat 64 Washington Mews, New York, N. Y. \n\n\nJuly; October; January; April \nAddress all communications to P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York \n\n\nIn Europe, single copies may be obtained from and subscriptions may be sent to John \nM. Watkins, 21 Cecil Court, Charing Cross Road, London, W. C. 2, England; or to \nMr. E. H. Lincoln, 9 Beaconsfield Road, Low Fell, Gateshead-on-Tyne, England, from \nwhom all back numbers may be obtained. Annual subscription price, $2.00, postpaid \n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS OF VOL, XXXII, NO. 4 \nApril, 1935 \n\n\nPAGE \n\n\nI? \n\nm \n\n\n11 \n\n\n300 \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS.. \n\nFRAGMENTS..\u2019,. . \u20191^ \u2019 ...... .... \n\nRICHNESS OF LIFE: Karma and the Capacity for Toy \n\nA LAY SERMON.. . \n\nWITHOUT CENSOR, V..T . \u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022 . 296 \n\nTWO ANCIENT RECORDS.... . 1 . .. ..... \n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME....... ' ... \u2018 \n\nA LAND OF MYSTERY, H. P. Blavatsky(Repiuntj''\u25a0 \n\nQUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. \u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022-\u2022 \u2022 \n\nT.S. ACTIVITIES: Notices..;... ' ' \u201d'' .... ''\u2019 \n\nINDEX. \n\n\nAct of Septobc S. was. at the Peat Office at N, \n\nCopyright, 1935, by The Theosophical Sodety . \n\n\n; f \n\n\nA \n\n\ni \n\n\n... 318 \n\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022 334 \n\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022 347 \n\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022 356 \n\n\n358 \n\n\n3 S 9 \n\n\n\n\nunder the \n\n\n\nii. \n\n\n\n\nTHE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY \n\nThe principal aim and object of this Society is to form the nucleus of a \nUniversal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, \ncaste or colour. The subsidiary objects are: The study of ancient and modern \nreligions, philosophies and sciences, and the demonstration of the importance \nof such study; and the investigation of the unexplained laws of nature and \nthe psychical powers latent in man. \n\n\n\nThe Theosophical Quarterly is the official organ of the original \nTheosophical Society founded in New York by Tl. P, Blavatsky, \nW. Q. Judge and others, in 1875 , \n\nWe have no connection whatsoever urith any other organization \ncalling itself Theosophical, formerly headed by Mrs. Besant, nor \nwith similar bodies, the purposes and methods of which are wholly \nforeign to our own. \n\n\nEditors, The Theosophical Quarterly. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAPRIL, 1935 \n\nThe Theosophical Society, as such, is not responsible for any opinion or ^clarahon \niJthis magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an official document. \n\n\nA Neurologist\u2019s View op Genius \n\nA t the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Neurological Institute of New York \nDr Joseph\"Collins, one of its founders, predicted that neurologjs ^1 \nfind a way to make even men of genius happy. We quote from the \nNew York Herald-Tribune, December 21. 1934: \n\nD u n,...rntir'! are the only persons who have ever accomplished anything enduring \n\nimpairing 'f\u201d' \u201c'\"r XP\u201d\u2122\" >\" \n\nmieht have been wfyT\u2019l\u2019ul produced the Christian religion \n\nw' h\u201ctT,\u201c^ \u00ab( would lead .. a ...rid \n\nof \u201chappy ou had kept Swinburne sober, he wouldn\u2019t have produced the \n\nsame masterpieceSh h d, Collins said he thought they would \n\nL\u00b0ve suc'eeS as well without their stimulants if they had received the proper neuro- \nlogical treatment. \n\nDoubtless medical science can. in some instances, check or eradica^rtam \nosvchoses and neuroses, abnormalities of imagination and desire that are often \nassociated with functional diseases of the nervous system. Poe might have been \n\u201cSf alclhsm. the immediate cause of much of his \u201cagony\u201d. But who \ncan iy to what extent his literary accomplishments were dependent upon stim- \nt.nt J To answer that question, it would be necessary to know who and what \nL reailv was What was the source of his inspiration? What was the natme \nof the iSner visions which moved his imagination and impelled him to wi^e^ \nWith what planes or strata of the psychic realm did he hold intercourse? Was \nhe a true seer half-blinded by neurasthenia, or was he a neurasthenic because he \nt:: I^Lra\u2019ry an irresponsible dreamer, a victim of illusions? Probably, like \n\n27s \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2^5 theosophical quarterly \n\nmany other artists, he was part-seer and ^highCT aM a lower \n\nunlike that of unredeemed humanity in general. He had a g \nnature, and the higher was oppressed and frequently dominated y \n\n'Two Sources or Poetic Inspiration, ^' \n\nTnsoiration is said to come to most poets from the psychic plane, the so-called \n\"asJl light-, the magic mirror of the world which \n\nbelow, and can image all possibilities, both good ^\"<1 ^ fasdnated \n\nbears the mark of its point of origin. In his lower moods, the poet is ^ascmat \nby images flowing from the inferior levels of the astral light, by \nanticipftions of the earthly and the transitory. Too often he has th? fate g \nof investing these eidola of mortality, these \u201cimages of images , with glamor > \nwith a chaL that they do not reveal when seen truly. He then pretends that \nthe shadows of physical facts are more real, more vital, than the facts themselv^. \nifis not astonisWng that he should become a \u201cpsycho-neurotic\u201d that he shovfld \nsuffer, and seek relief by means of drugs or alcohol, for he has doomed hims \nto a series of disappointments. How could it be otherwise, when his notions as \nto what the world should give him are contradicted at every turn by the actuah- \n\nties of the world as it is? . \u2022 .u \n\nHowever, men of this order are not the true poets. True poetry is the revela\u00ac \ntion of a world of spiritual essence, more real than anything on earth, since the \nthings of earth are only its imperfect symbols. In the Isha Upantshad, the \nCreative Logos, the Formative Power, is named \u201cthe wise Poet, the beer . \nContemplating the Eternal Thought reflected in the \u201cwaters of space\u201d, the \n\u201cdivine astral light\u201d, the Great Poet is represented in Eastern scriptures as \nimagining the form of Nature and impressing this form upon gross matter. As \nTheosophy teaches, every spiritual ideal must pass through the astral or psychic \nplane and be reflected there as a form or image, before it can be embodied in the \nmanifested world. In their highest moments, the artists and poets of the race \nhave co-operated with the Great Poet in this work of embodying the real. They \nhave been inspired to create by visions of divine beauty and truth, mirrored in \nsome domain of the higher psychic world to which their consciousness has had \naccess. \n\n\nLike other terms which once had a sacred signification, the word genius has \nbeen distorted and vulgarized. Although Dr. Collins may be unaware of the \nfact, it is blasphemy against the divinity within man to affirm that \u201cpsycho\u00ac \nneurotics are the only people who have ever accomplished anything enduring \nin the world\u201d. According to the ancient definition, genius is the spirit or prin\u00ac \nciple that presides over the formation of the individual human soul. It is the \nHigher Self, a ray of the Logos containing within itself the potentiality of all \nthe powers which create and sustain the Universe. The veritable man of genius \ndiffers from the ordinary man in the degree to which he recognizes and identifies \nhimself with this divine life that is the substratum and essence of his individual \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n277 \n\n\nbeing. It is characteristic of the true work of genius that it is invariably indi\u00ac \nvidual and unique, and also that its message is universal, addressed to all men. \nIt is evident, therefore, that only the very greatest of mankind can be called \nmen of genius, in the fullest sense, for these alone have completely embodied \ntheir genius. \n\nIn Lucifer, V, 227-233, Madame Blavatsky draws a clear distinction between \nreal and artificial genius: \n\nGenius, as Coleridge defined it, is certainly\u2014to every outward appearance, at least\u2014 \n\u201cthe faculty of growth\u201d; yet to the inward intuition of man, it is a question whether it is \ngenius\u2014an abnormal aptitude of mind\u2014that develops and grows, or the physical brain, \nits vehicUy which becomes through some mysterious process fitter to receive and manifest \nfrom within outwardly the innate and divine nature of man\u2019s over-soul. Perchance, in \ntheir unsophisticated wisdom, the philosophers of old were nearer truth than are our \nmodern wiseacres, when they endowed man with a tutelary deity, a Spirit whom they \ncalled genius. The substance of this entity, to say nothing of its essence . . . manifests \nitself according to the organism of the person it informs. . . . [The flame of genius] is \nthe very nature of the Spiritual Entity itself, of our EgOy which keeps on weaving new \nlife-woofs into the web of Reincarnation on the loom of time, from the beginnings to the \nends of the great Life-Cycle. This it is that asserts itself more strongly than in the \naverage man, through its personality; so that what we call \u201cthe manifestations of genius\u201d \nin a person, are only the more or less successful efforts of that Ego to assert itself on the \noutward plane of its objective form\u2014the man of clay\u2014in the matter-of-fact, daily life \nof the latter. The Egos of a Newton, an uEschylus, or a Shakespeare, are of the same \nessence and substance as the Egos of a yokel, an ignoramus, a fool, or even an idiot; and \nthe self-assertion of their informing genii depends on the physiological and material con\u00ac \nstruction of the physical man. . . . That which makes one mortal a great man and of \nanother a vulgar, silly person is, as said, the quality and make-up of the physical shell \nor casing, and the adequacy or inadequacy of brain and body to transmit and give ex\u00ac \npression to the light of the real. Inner man; and this aptness or inaptness is, in its turn, \nthe result of Karma. . . . \n\nBetween the true and the artificial genius, one born from the light of the immortal \nEgo, the other from the evanescent will-o\u2019-the-wisp of the terrestrial or purely human \nintellect and the animal soul, there is a chasm, to be spanned only by him who aspires \never onward. . . . The words of the poet who asserts that the lamp of genius\u2014 \n\n\u201cIf not protected, pruned, and fed with care, \n\nSoon dies, or runs to waste with fitful glare\u2014\u201d ^ \n\n\u2014can apply only to artificial genius, the outcome of culture and of purely intellectual \nacuteness. It is not the direct light of the Manasaputra, the Sons of Wisdom, for true \ngenius lit at the flame of our higher nature, or the Ego, cannot die. That is why it is so \nvery rare. \n\nGenius and Happiness \n\nIt would be well if physicians as a class had more of the saving grace of hu\u00ac \nmility. After all, medical science, even in its most modernistic phases, has \nlimitations imposed by Nature. It is inconceivable, for instance, that anyone\u2014 \nlet alone a man of genius\u2014will ever be made happy by anything which a medical \npractitioner can do to him. Physical suffering may be alleviated or sup\u00ac \npressed, but only the crudest of materialists would pretend that freedom from \nbodily pain is equivalent to the state of consciousness which is called happiness. \nHave we never met or heard of people who radiated an inward joy in spite of \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n278 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nsickness and privation? The true soldier is happiest in the agony of battle. \nThe saints have acknowledged no bliss save that which is inseparable from the \nmost intense sorrow. As the Buddhist mystics have taught, the Buddha knows \nat one and the same time the ineffable delight of eternal being and the anguish \nof compassion for those of his children who still stray in the jungle of illusion. \nIt is his great sacrifice and his supreme glory, that he does not turn away from \nthis anguish and live only for the bliss to which he is entitled by right of con\u00ac \nquest. As is written in Light on the Path, the disciple enters \u201cinto a partnership \nof joy, which brings indeed terrible toil and profound sadness, but also a great \nand ever-increasing delight\u201d. \n\n\nInnate Ideas \n\nThere is the following passage in a letter attributed to the Master K. H. and \nreceived by A. P. Sinnett in i88i: \n\n[The highest Planetary Spirits] appear on Earth ... at the origin of every new human \nkind. . . . They remain with man no longer than the time required for the eternal truths \nthey teach to impress themselves so forcibly upon the plastic minds of the new races as to \nwarrant them from being lost or entirely forgotten in ages hereafter. . . . The mission \nof the Planetary Spirit is but to strike the Key Note of Truth. . . . The vibrations of the \nPrimitive Truth are what your philosophers name \u201cinnate ideas\u201d. \n\nIn the Tragedy of Prometheus Bound, iEschylus symbolizes the attempt of \nthe Divine Host to create a Self-conscious spiritual Humanity, by the myth of \nthe compassionate Immortal who sacrificed his heritage of bliss to bring the gift \nof creative fire to the darkened consciousness of mortal man. For this act the \nTitan was cursed, doomed to aeons of torture, like Lucifer and all the other \n\u201cLight-Bearers\u201d who have sought to impress the eternal truths upon the minds \nof men, or who have tried to re-awaken in the world some recollection of those \ntruths. As Madame Blavatsky points out, Prometheus is, in one sense, the \nspark of divinity, the germ of immortal life, in the human soul. He is the \u201cin\u00ac \nnate idea\u201d, the ideal form which man is intended by Divine Nature to become. \nBut though from time to time men of genius have risen above the mass and have \nembodied that paradigm, it is painfully apparent that the gift of fire has been \nthe cause of sins and woes innumerable. The Secret Doctrine suggests, indeed, \nthat by meditation upon the fate of Prometheus one may begin dimly to under\u00ac \nstand the meanings hidden beneath two of the \u201cmysteries\u201d which have been \nmore or less travestied by all the great exoteric religions of the world,\u2014the \nFall of the Angels and the Fall of Man. \n\nIt is a theosophical axiom that all things in manifestation are the result of an \ninteraction between the \u201cabove\u201d and the \u201cbelow\u201d, even the most evil and the \nmost hideous images invented by the human fancy being distortions, perver\u00ac \nsions, inverted and blurred images of the \u201cinnate ideas\u201d which constitute the \nessence of that part of our nature that belongs to the human Kingdom. If \negotism and sensuality could not prey, like vultures, upon the heart of Prome\u00ac \ntheus, they would instantaneously disappear; for the powers of evil, as has been \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS 279 \n\nsaid, cannot create anything; they can merely corrupt and invert that which \nalready exists. \n\nIndividualism and Collectivism \n\nIt is apparent that the most fundamental of our \u201cinnate ideas\u201d is the ideal of \nthe perfected man, the genius in full command of all his faculties. The per\u00ac \nfected man may be described as a complete individual embodiment of the \ndivine form or archetype which all human entities are invited to imitate and \nwhich all souls can become, if they persevere to the end. It is an excellent prac\u00ac \ntice for everyone to ask himself what he would desire above all else to be. Does \nhe seek to embody the qualities and attributes of his genius, or is he attached to \nearth-bound images which invert and deform the ideal outline of his divine \npossibilities? \n\nThere seem to be two major misconceptions concerning the nature of the per\u00ac \nfected man, and the human mind tends to move back and forth from one of \nthese delusions to the other. They arise from the difficulty of understanding \nthe idea affirmed by every great teacher, that the perfected man is both individ\u00ac \nual and universal, both personal and impersonal. Our little minds are seldom \ncapable of grasping and holding more than one phase of a truth at the same time, \nwith the usual result that each mental reflection of truth resembles an image in \na distorting mirror. The sense of an original, harmonious unity is lost, and one \naspect of the whole is emphasized out of all proportion to the rest. \n\nThe misconceptions in question are illustrated by the two extremes of doctrine \nassociated with the names of Nietzsche and Karl Marx. The Superman, the \npersonality which defles all laws, human and divine, has no more place in \nNature than the human ant-hill which is the Utopia of the socialist. Nothing \nis more barren than a dispute as to whether man should pattern himself upon \na beast of prey or an insect. \n\nGreat centuries, like the Nineteenth, have often been marked by a strong \nindividualistic spirit. It may seem incredible to the \u201cbright young people\u201d of \nto-day, but during the Victorian Age self-reliance, initiative, force of character \nwere generally held in high esteem. It should be added that the most represen\u00ac \ntative leaders of thought, who insisted with emphasis upon the inalw\u00bbble \n\u201crights\u201d of the individual, did not ignore the fact that the individual ^Rts in \na state of society with other individuals towards whom he has certain equally \ninalienable duties and responsibilities. Their argument, which cannot be \nanswered, was that no real society can exist, unless it be composed of real \nindividuals who collaborate with a minimum of centralized regimentation and \ncompulsion. John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer, Emerson and Carlyle, were \nnot anarchists. \n\nOne might suggest, however, that many of the best minds of the Nineteenth \nCentury were deluded by the idea that human progress is inevitable and con\u00ac \nstant. This optimism naturally led them to take a more hopeful view of \nso-called human nature than is justified by history or experience. Nietzsche \nwas not alone in his identification of individual rights with the claims and \n\n\n28o THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\npretensions of the animal man. Throughout Western Europe and America, \nthe truth that only the fittest can survive in the struggle for existence was \ninterpreted by multitudes in the most downright materialistic sense. It is not \ndifficult now to see the error of this perverted individualism, for many of the \nhorrors of the machine age are its handiwork. It was consistent with such a \ndoctrine to regard t e successful man of the world as the climax of evolution, \nand to conceive of Nature as merely a source of wealth, an object of exploita\u00ac \ntion by the ruthless and the greedy. \n\nThe pendulum of opinion is now swinging towards an opposite error, even \nmore pernicious, for there is some stimulation in the notion that every man \nmust learn to stand on his own feet and to fight his own battles. It is a typical \nirony of history, that the \u201ccollectivism\u201d which is now crippling individual \ninitiative, is a natural product of the democratic system which the moral \nmaterialists of the Eighteenth Century invented as a means of overthrowing \nthe aristocratic code inherited by the modern world from the Middle Ages. \n\nThe purposes of \u201ccollectivists\u201d, especially in economics and education, are \nmade very clear in a report on \u201cSocial Foundations of Education\u201d, published for \nthe American Historical Society under a grant by the Carnegie Foundation, and \nprepared by Professor George S. Counts of Teachers College, New York. Dr. \nCounts believes that it is the mission of educators to \u201cbring the mentality of \nthe American people in accord with their surroundings and to prepare them for \nlife under profoundly altered circumstances\u201d. \n\nThe age of individualism in economy\u2014the age that nurtured the young republic\u2014is \npatently drawing to a close. The age of corporate, social, or collective action in economy \nis opening. The modern corporation may be regarded as almost symbolic of the decline \nof the role of the individual in economy. \n\nDr. Counts* argument is that a new collectivist society is emerging out of the \nruins of the \u201cold deal\u201d, and that the American public schools must prepare the \ncoming generation for the battle which \u201cthe mass of the people\u201d must wage \nagainst the \u201crights\u201d of individual property-holders. In other words, he looks \nforward to an era where everything will belong to everybody in general and to \nnobody in particular. With the tact which is characteristic of American radicals \nof his species, he does not call this stage of blessedness communist or socialist, \nbut corporate, social or collective, for these words have not yet accumulated \nso many explosive connotations. It is needful to understand, however, that all \nthese terms have come to mean the same thing, the sacrifice of the individual \nto another entity which is variously styled \u201csociety\u201d, \u201cthe totalitarian state\u201d, \n\u201cthe average man\u201d, and so on. When a cynical Soviet chieftain talks about \n\u201cthe rule of the proletariat\u201d, and a sentimental clergyman pleads for \u201csocial \njustice\u2019* and \u201csocial-mindedness\u201d, they are propelling mankind towards a com\u00ac \nmon goal, though they may differ widely as to the appropriate means of attain\u00ac \ning it. \n\nSocial-Mindedness \n\nStrange as it may seem to the \u201csocial-minded\u201d, it is possible to desire sincerely \n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n281 \n\n\nthe ultimate salvation and union of the whole human race, and at the same time \nto be unalterably opposed to any form of rule by \u201cthe mass of the people\u201d. \nAnyone who is at all humane naturally sympathizes in some measure not only \nwith himself and with his family and friends, but with the whole mass of anony\u00ac \nmous humanity afflicted by the world-depression. Nevertheless, it is well to be \nhonest in these matters. We are not Buddhas and Mahatmas whose hearts \nnaturally overflow with equal compassion for all creatures. Charity must begin \nat home; and it is safe to assume that a man\u2019s love for his wife and children is not \nvery profound, if their illness does not affect him more immediately than the \nnewspaper report of a famine in China. The average capacity for real sympathy \nis very small, and if we scatter it abroad to the four quarters, it will be spread \nout very thin indeed. \n\nA little reflection suggests that a true, as opposed to a hypocritical or imag\u00ac \ninary social-mindedness only exists, when the members of a society consciously \nshare a common purpose and harmoniously co-operate towards its fulfilment. \nPartially and casually this occurs in some families and tribal groups, in some \nreligious communities, in some friendships, in the lives of some nations during a \nwar or under the ascendency of a great leader. But as Theosophy teaches, perfect \nunity of heart is impossible between two or more ordinary human personalities. \nThe ideal community is a community of real individuals, united in the love of the \nsame principles of truth, beauty, and virtue, each expressing those principles \naccording to a mode unique and peculiar to himself. Thus a group of disciples \ncan attain brotherhood through the unifying power of devotion to a Master. \nThe Theosophical Society exists for the purpose of forming the nucleus of a \nUniversal Brotherhood by the only means whereby this can be realized,\u2014by \nthe free co-operation of individuals who dedicate themselves, severally and col\u00ac \nlectively, to the principle that \u201cthere is no Religion higher than Truth\u201d. Stu\u00ac \ndents of Theosophy believe that in the Great Lodge, the assemblage of the real \nmen of genius of all the human races, there already exists a veritable Brotherhood, \na Communion of Saints, and it is because the highest ideal of fraternity is ac\u00ac \ntually embodied there, that men dream of it here below. \n\n\nThe Formation of Wholes \n\nThe spiritual unity of mankind is the highest conceivable expression of a li^ \nwhich can be observed in operation wherever one searches in Nature. Phy\u00ac \nsicists and even biologists are beginning to note the fact that in all the natural \nkingdoms there is a tendency of units or particles to come together and to co\u00ac \noperate\u2014as it were\u2014towards the formation of systems or groups or \u201cwholes\u201d. \nThus the atom is \u201ccreated\u201d through the combination and collaboration of \nvarious corpuscles or wavicles. In essence, however, the atom is something \nmore than the sum of its parts. It has its own measure of \u201cindividuality\u201d and \nis a distinct entity. By an analogous process atoms are grouped into molecules, \nmolecules into living cells, and so on, until organic evolution reaches a sort of \nculmination with the production of the marvellous and complex multicellular \nbodies of animals and plants. The general conception of evolution as a process \n\n\n282 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nof integration of groups, has been popularized by General Smuts\u2019 theory of \n\u201cholism\u201d. \n\nIt is reasonable to assume that a corresponding massing of \u201cconsciousnesses\u201d \nproceeds in Natime, pari passu with the evolution of the series of physical \n\u201cwholes\u201d. In the human body, for instance, there is a general consciousness \nembracing, but also separate from, the consciousness of the various organs. There \nis evidence that certain animals act differently when they are alone and when \nthey are in a group, as if there were two sets of instincts, one for the individual \ncreature and another for the flock or herd. In the bees and ants, it almost ap\u00ac \npears as if the community had acquired a definite independent nature of its own. \nWe speak of the \u201cconsciousness of the hive\u201d, and are sometimes tempted to think \nof the individual bees as mere cells or instruments of a superior organism. \n\nIf this \u201cholistic\u201d tendency be universal, it must be a dominating force in \nhuman history. All things come from the One, as Plotinus said, and aspire, in \ntheir inmost nature, to return to the One. Men tend to come together in groups, \nto incorporate themselves in social organisms. To a large extent, this process goes \nforward without personal choice, for an individual cannot as a rule help being born \nin the family or class or nation to which he belongs. But the nature of the larger \nunit into which he enters may be said to correspond to certain elements of his \nown personal nature. Thus a group of bad or weak men become a gang or a \nmob, whereas a group of strong and good men can grow into a disciplined army \nor a veritable brotherhood of disciples. \n\nThe Consciousness of a Congeries \n\nIt would seem that meditation upon the formation of wholes can guide us \ntowards the solution of the problem that has perplexed so many generations of \nphilosophers, the problem of the relation between the individual and society, \nbetween the particular and the universal. We should have learned long ago \nthat the intellect as such cannot possibly comprehend this enigma, for it is an \nabsolute mystery that either the Universe or the individual should exist. But \nby observation and experience, we may discover in some degree how individual \nconsciousness tends to grow or expand into full self-realization in so far as it \nbecomes genuinely representative of a larger social consciousness in which it is \nintegrated. \n\nHow precise and true is Plato\u2019s expression, how profound and philosophical his remark \non the (Human) Soul or Ego, when he defined it as \u201ca compound of the same and the \nother\u201d. ... It is \u201cthe same and the other\u201d, as the great Initiate-Philosopher said; for \nthe Ego\u2014the \u201cHigher Self\u201d when merged with and in the Divine Monad\u2014is Man, and \nyet the same as the other\\ the Angel in him incarnated is the same with the Universal \nMahat (The Secret Doctrine^ ed. 1893, II, 92-93). \n\nWe may test this truth on any plane of human activity, the highest that we \ncan conceive, or the lowest, for even the lowest of the worlds is a distorted image \nof the highest. The entities composing any congeries participate, in greater or \nlesser measure, in the consciousness of the congeries as a whole, but that collec\u00ac \ntive consciousness is also a thing in itself, something more than the sum-total of \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n283 \n\n\n\n\nthe \u201cconsciousnesses\u201d of its components. Both good and evil potentialities in \nan individual are accentuated, in the degree that the individual acts as the \nagent or vehicle of a group-consciousness. As Gustave Le Bon has shown, a \nmob is capable of crimes, of which relatively few of its constituents, if acting \nalone, would ever be guilty. On the other hand, disciplined troops, acting col\u00ac \nlectively, perform feats of sustained valour, of which few soldiers, acting as \nindividuals, would be capable. \n\nThe Last Phase of a Cycle \n\nThese considerations are not merely interesting as abstractions. They have \na direct bearing upon the most vital question of our time, whether our civiliza\u00ac \ntion can be saved from a ruin as complete as that of the Roman Empire. As \nSir Flinders Petrie has demonstrated, the civilizations of the past have been \nsubject to a cyclic or rhythmic law as definite and as rigorous as that which pre\u00ac \nsides over the rise and fall of the tides and the succession of the seasons. No \ngreat race or nation has been able to evade the dominion of this law, for there \nis no attested way of escape save one\u2014to become established in a state of con\u00ac \nsciousness which cannot be affected by the cyclic changes that prevail upon the \nplanes of ordinary experience. Tradition testifies that such a transmutation of \nthe mortal into the immortal has been accomplished by individuals, but never \nby a racial or national group. \n\nSir Flinders Petrie\u2019s deduction is, therefore, significant. According to the \navailable historical evidence, extending through eight great periods, the advent \nof democracy in a civilization normally denotes that the apex of a cycle has been \npassed, that a \u201cday\u201d in the life of humanity is turning towards its close. \n\nWhen democracy has attained full power, the majority without capital necessarily eat \nup the capital of the minority, and the civilization steadily decays, until the inferior \npopulation is swept away to make room for a fitter people. The consumption of all the \nresources of the Roman Empire, from the second century when democracy was dominant, \nuntil the Gothic kingdom arose on its ruin, is the best-known example in detail (The \nRevolutions of Civilkation, p. 124). \n\nDemocracy is not fundamentally a system of government but a state of mii^ \nIt prevails in a civilization when the standards of the undifferentiated mas^j^ \nthe people become dominant in all the major forms of human activity, not only \nthe political and the economic, but the scientific, the artistic, the moral and the \nreligious. For instance, it was pointed out fifty years ago by the English his\u00ac \ntorian, Lord Acton, that the average man does not really want liberty but \n\u201csecurity\u201d. He demands the assurance that he will be fed and sheltered and \namused, and is willing to accept almost any debasement to attain what he fan\u00ac \ncies to be this end. As a matter of fact, he can never be guaranteed even the \nminimum of security, and the demagogues who promise it are illusionists. But \nany dealer in quack remedies is certain to have some following, and in the final \nphases of a democratic society he meets almost no opposition except from \ndealers in other nostrums. Lord Acton foresaw that under such conditions the \n\n\n284 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nstate tends to assume the form of a dictatorship, the chief function of which is \nto placate the mob, to keep it as quiet as possible. \n\nIt can be shown, as in the instances of Athens and Rome, that the decline of \na civilization is marked by two phases. First, there is an era of unrestrained \nand worldly individualism, which is followed by a period when individual initia\u00ac \ntive is increasingly suppressed, as authority passes ever more completely into \nthe control of the representatives and exploiters of the masses. If anyone should \nchance to note certain resemblances between such a period and the era in which \nwe are living, he is free to draw his own conclusions; although the continued \nexistence of The Theosophical Society and its nucleus, distinguishes our cycle \nfrom those that preceded it, and makes the situation far from hopeless. \n\nVulgar Religion \n\nHowever, we shall be wise to look at the dangers, without quailing, but also \nwithout sentimental delusions. Not only spiritual but economic conditions are \ngoing to grow steadily worse, if there be a continued transfer of authority from \nthose who have some sense of honour and responsibility\u2014if only a little\u2014to \nthose who have none. Not the least of the dangers is the devastating wave of \nvulgarity which is sweeping into every comer of our lives, and which levels all \nbefore it. It has already inundated a large portion of the clergy. \n\nWe refer almost at random to a survey of social conditions made by Dr. \nHarry F. Ward of the Union Theological \u2022Seminary, and Winifred L. Chappell, \nsecretary of the Methodist Federation of Social Service. The authors are dis\u00ac \ntressed because the New Deal after all its promises has not abolished poverty \nand economic inequality, and conclude that the experiments of the \u201cbrain- \ntrust\u201d have \u201cbrought the bankers back into control of the government\u201d. This \nwill be news to the bankers, but if it were true, there is no reason why it should \nembitter anyone who confesses his faith in the words of Christ. The Master \nChrist stated as lucidly as possible that his Kingdom was not of this world. \nThat Kingdom can come in the midst of destitution and discomfort, nor should \nit matter in the least, as regards its advent in the individual soul, who is in con\u00ac \ntrol of the government. Even governments would improve if the Master were \npermitted to mle in the hearts of those who profess to be his followers. To \nimagine otherwise, to believe that material well-being must precede spiritual \nre-birth, is to reveal a crude worldliness typical of the \u201caverage man\u201d in an \nadvanced stage of moral decay. It is virtually equivalent to an assent to Lenin\u2019s \nassertion that \u201cReligion is the opiate of the people\u201d. \n\nMachinism and Civilization \n\nWithout doubt the peril of spiritual bankruptcy is intensified by the fact \nthat we are living in an age of machines. The machines which modem man has \ninvented have reacted disastrously upon his inner life. Modem man lives encom\u00ac \npassed by mechanical devices which toil and spin for him, attend to his needs, \namuse him, never relaxing their hold upon his attention. It is no wonder that \nwhole populations are coming more and more to resemble exhibits of machine- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n285 \n\nniade models. A few observers are beginning to realize the extent to which \nAmericans in particular have standardized and stereotyped themselves in recent \nyears. Millions of them dress alike, eat the same foods, read the same trash, \nlisten to the same broadcasts, and\u2014so far as one can judge\u2014are subject almost \nsimultaneously to the same moods of elation and fear. Contemporary America \nactually gives one a presentiment of what a collectivist society would be like. \n\nIt is significant that the Bolshevik leaders deliberately use the machine as a \nmeans of reducing all minds to a dead level. They have discovered the affinity \nbetween mechanism and communist states of mind. As was shown by the \nrecent exhibition of the Soviet educational system at the American Museum of \nNatural History in New York, the central theme of their schools is mechanistic. \nEven pre-school children are trained to work with small tools. The object, as \nDr. John Dewey suggests, is to produce \u201chuman beings inspired with social \npurposes\u201d. Anyone can imagine what John Dewey and his Russian friends \nmean by \u201csocial purposes\u201d. \n\nIn the Mercure de France (November 15, 1934). M. L 6 on de Poncins published \nsome replies, with his comments, to a questionnaire which was sent to a number \nof industrialists, economists, and scholars. They were asked whether they \nbelieved the impact of the machine upon civilization to be good or evil. It is of \ngreat interest that the majority of the respondents express without equivocation \ntheir conviction that the growth of modem industrialism is \u201ca disaster and a \ncalamity\u201d. As M. de Poncins\u2019 \u201cinquiry\u201d is international in scope, this majority \nvote has more significance than if it had been French only, for France has \nalways been the least industrialized of the great nations of the Occident. \n\nWe paraphrase some of M. de Poncins\u2019 comments: \n\nThe Russian communists are practically the only people left who are blind and fanati\u00ac \ncal partisans of the unlimited development of machinism. Even the Americans have \nlost their original enthusiasm. . . . The advantages of machinism are immediate and \nobvious: it is more agreeable to have instruments which make quick and easy a task \nwhich was once long and painful, and which thus create or which ought to create, great \nmaterial prosperity. The disadvantages are more remote and more subtle, but they are \nnone the less redoubtable; we begin to perceive them to-day. The machine contains \npotentialities of good and of evil. If one may judge by the experience of the past five \nhundred years, the potentialities of evil increase more rapidly than the potentialities of \ngood, in proportion to the development of machinism. . . . Modern man has used the \nmachine in accordance with his ideal and his dominant mentality; it is this mentality \nwhich is responsible for the evil results which we see to-day. . . . However, this modern \nmentality is of quite recent origin; its first symptoms began to be manifest during the \nRenaissance; under the influence of Jewish and Puritanical conceptions they were de\u00ac \nveloped by the Reformation and were definitely established by the French Revolution \nof 1789. The new conceptions introduced industrial mercantilism into the economic \ndomain, equalitarian democracy in politics, and materialistic rationalism in religion. . . . \n\n\u201cSo long as tendencies of a material order were not predominant in man\u201d, says the \nOrientalist, Rene Guenon, \u201che never dreamed of consecrating all his time and all his \nefforts to the invention and construction of machines. It goes without saying that the \nsuccesses obtained in this domain have subsequently amplified and generalized these \nsame (material) tendencies, but these tendencies are the point of departure.\u201d There is a \nfact which will doubtless astonish many of our contemporaries, so infatuated with the \n\n\n\n\n\n286 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ndea of progress: the principle of the machine was known in remote antiquity among \nvery diverse peoples. But then, you will ask, why did they not produce an industrial \ncivilization comparable to that of to-day.^ \u201cThe only answer which I can think of , \nwrites the American, Stuart Chase, \u201cis that they didn\u2019t do it, because they didn\u2019t want \nto*\u2019 (art. **Machinism et Civilisation: Rhultats une EnquHe Internationale*). \n\nAre we to conclude that what is called \u201cmodern progress\u2019\u2019 is really a colossal \nmistake, a violation of Nature? Some may be inclined to think so, and to ad\u00ac \nmire the sagacity of the wise men of antiquity who did not tell everybody all \nthat they knew. However, the machine age is here and we must live in it, \nmaking the best of it, using its opportunities for discipline and the cultivation \nof fortitude, charity, and all the other innate virtues of man which do not have \na mechanical origin. Also, we can dwell with insistence upon the idea that \nNature and man are not machines, but are living, purposeful, and in essence \ndivine. We can think thus, and can seek and find evidence that this idea is \ntrue. \n\nA Way of Liberation \n\nTheosophy suggests a way of liberation from the deluge of vulgarity and \nmechanism. It is not a return to a spurious \u201cindividualism\u201d which was \nworldly and materialistic, a glorification of greed and the \u201cheresy of separate\u00ac \nness\u201d ; nor is it a surrender in any sense to the \u201ccollectivism\u201d which, as in Russia, \nmeans a pooling of the lower natures of many human entities and the control of \nwhat is bad in a population, by what is worst. \n\nTheosophy proposes and makes possible the formation of Groups of Disciples, \nwho can gather around themselves a disciplined army or hierarchy of followers. \nThis is not in contradiction with the fundamental tenet that the first object \nof Nature is the production of real individuals. Individuality does not mean \nisolation. The real individual completes the self-consciousness he has already \nacquired through his recognition of the Divine World and its expression in the \nLodge of Masters, as the fruit of free and ardent co-operation with all that is \nhighest and best in other men, for the highest and best in others is one in essence \nwith the highest and best in himself. There is a true and harmonious relation \nbetween the spiritual man and the society of which he is an undivided part. \nBut in order that such a relation can exist, he must be an indispensable and \nunique factor in that group. A symphony becomes a cacophony unless every \nnote be sounded clearly and distinctly. Thus it is said that the higher one \nascends in the scale of being, the more individual one becomes. \n\nThe existence of Groups of Disciples would allow the Lodge, the Higher Self \nof Humanity, to intervene more directly in human affairs. The Masters who \nhave embodied the innate divine idea of the perfect man, could surely offer \nguidance and inspiration with more expectation of response, if there were in the \nworld definite assemblages of men animated by a common determination to \nextend the ancient virtues of honour and good faith, of \u201cnoble living and \nnoble dying\u201d. \n\n\nFRAGMENTS \n\n\nN O possible combination of circumstances can make you happy,\u2014not \nheaven itself. Happiness depends upon your reactions to circum\u00ac \nstances. The Masters cannot make the world happy by changing the \nconditions of the world. God placed man in Paradise, and this world is what \nman has made of it. If God made a second Paradise, man would do the same. \n\nThere are three things that make for happiness: understanding, acceptance, \nco-operation. \n\nCould you see as the Masters see, you would find happiness. The vision of \nthe reality of your life, would be a thing of such surpassing beauty, that, as you \nare now, you would die of it. So much for understanding. \n\nOr if, in perfect faith and love, you could accept the Master\u2019s will for you, \nand accept all things as his will, then you would find happiness,\u2014absolute peace, \nunshakable serenity. \n\nIf, finally, with imperfect understanding, inadequate acceptance maybe, you \ncould, nevertheless, rouse your w*!!! to co-operation with your circumstances, \ngoing out gladly to them as to welcome guests, entertaining them, even the \nmost painful of them, as messengers from on high, laden with priceless gifts and \ngolden instruction\u2014if you met them thus, I say, studying the veiled beauty of \nthose gifts, reading and following, as best you could, those instructions, then, \nthen you would be happy. \n\nAh, you say,\u2014I wonder. \n\nCould I but persuade you to put it to the test, to give it honest trial for one \nday! How many long years of suffering it might spare you, what piteous \nwaste of force and time and tears. For some day you will do it, when the to^ \nture of every other kind of living has become unbearable. \" \n\nBut 0 the bleeding Heart of your Master that must await that day! \n\nIt has been decreed, in the magnanimity of the Law, that we shall have our \npart in the great plan of our salvation. So the Masters wait upon our willing\u00ac \nness, wait for our consent to co-operate with them, wait, how often! upon our \nleisure. They respect our decisions with a majestic courtesy, leaving the hour \nto us so long as the day may last. Meanwhile, with an unalterable patience, \nthey hold in their hands the gifts they long to bestow. \n\nOn all sides we are surrounded by wonders, but above all other wonders is \n\n287 \n\n\n\n288 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthe wonder of their love. Ev^ry provision, is made for us, every path is opened, \nno possibility is denied. Where there is denial, we have made it; where a path \nis blocked, we have placed the obstacle there, often with careful toil. But all \nthe cunning of man has never devised a means by which that provision for us \ncould be lessened or tiumed aside. \n\nIt is we who create conditions, we who have built up the circumstances at \nwhich we now rebel, we who have crossed the lovely pattern the Lords of \nKarma had invented for our weaving. What we have to-day, we fashioned in \nlong-gone yesterdays; what the future will bring, is taking shape as the min\u00ac \nutes of to-day slip by. \n\nAh, you say,\u2014I wonder. \n\nAnd I, too, wonder. Further words are useless; better to leave you with that \nwonder in your heart and the perfume of its undying nostalgia. Lay it away \nwhere you will, in the most hidden recess of your consciousness, the scent will \ncling there; and at any slightest disturbance of its hiding place, wafts of its \npenetrating fragrance will float through your nerves to tingle them, into your \nbrain to fill it again with images and dreams. \n\nO ye men of My alba, tarry not too long! The day is passing, the day must \nhave an end. Soon comes the long night of forgetfulness, and the dawn of \nanother day will find your spirits where they fell asleep. What mighty prog\u00ac \nress may not others have accomplished, awake to inner things, in this same \nperiod of your oblivion? Trust the Compassion that broods over you. Hasten, \nbefore the darkening curtain falls upon the sunset embers of this day of oppor\u00ac \ntunity. Never can it be the same. O ye men of Myalba, tarry not too long! \n\nCav]^. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRICHNESS OF LIFE \n\n\nKarma and the Capacity for Joy \n\n\n\nNE evening many years ago, under the brilliant star-lit sky of the Philip\u00ac \n\n\npines, an old army officer, veteran of many campaigns, recounted for the \n\n\nbenefit of his youthful second lieutenant, some of the fruits of his long \nexperience in handling men. One of the things he said was that, while he had \nnever been cruel enough to do it, if he ever had wanted to make a punishment \nreally intolerable, he would have condemned the culprit to a term of hard and \nuseless labour. He would, for instance, have compelled him to dig a long, deep \nditch through a difficult, rocky place and, when it was finished, make him fill it \nup again until all was as before. The cruelty of the punishment would have \nlain in the culprit\u2019s realization that all his pain and effort were utterly \n\n\nuseless. \n\n\nIt is just this sense of futility that makes the pain and suffering in life seem \nintolerable to so many people. Seeing neither purpose nor justice in them, they \nthink of pain and suffering as not only hard but useless, and of life itself as only a \nseries of accidents, with some pieces of good luck, but many more cruel blows \nfrom blind chance. They thus inflict on themselves the punishment the army \nofficer thought too cruel for his most hardened offender. It is one thing to work \nor to suffer for a keenly desired end, and a totally different thing to believe one\u00ac \nself whipped into exactly the same labour or suffering for no end at all. Few \nthings do more to lighten pain and misfortune than the perception that they \nhave a purpose and lead to a goal that we ourselves greatly desire. \n\nIt is this gift, with many others, that Theosophy brings to those who study \nand who try to live by its teachings. Through their own observation, they come \nto see that life has purpose, that things do not happen by chance, and that \nnothing at all ever happens that cannot be used for good, for the growth of the \nsoul and the development of character. A great many things happen that, in \nfact, are not so used, but this is because man has free will and can, if he choose, \nrefuse the gifts that life seeks to give him. Some understanding of the beneficent \npurpose of life is essential to peace of heart, and without that peace there can be \nno happiness. Life is not in the least interested in providing easy, comfortable \nor \u201chappy\u201d outer circumstances for mankind. It is tremendously interested in \nincreasing man\u2019s capacity for a blessedness that is both wisdom and joy, that \nthese may be his, irrespective of outer circumstances. Such joy is a quality of \nthe soul, and man experiences it to the degree to which he has succeeded in \nclearing the channels from the soul to his personality. Every act done from \nprinciple, for the right, for the highest that he can see, against his personal self- \ninterest or inclination, every choice of \u201cthe better\u201d rather than \u201cthe dearer\u201d, \ntends by so much to clear those channels. Every act of self-indulgence, every \n\n\n289 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n390 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nchoice of the dearer rather than the better, clogs them. If they were completely \nblocked, joy would be impossible. \n\nWith all the world seeking happiness, it is remarkable that so little attention \nhas been paid to the fact that one class, and only one, has ever claimed to have \nattained it,\u2014the saints and mystics of all ages. Without exception, they have \ntestified to a happiness that words were quite inadequate to express. Outer \ncircumstances certainly had nothing to do with it, for they lived, for the most \npart, in the utmost poverty, many with wretched health, some never passing a \nday free from pain, others spent years in prison. By the conquest of their lower \nnatures, they gained some touch of the radiant joy of the soul\u2019s consciousness, a \njoy that no suffering, or hardship or persecution could take from them. The \npurpose of life is, in the course of millenniums, to bring all mankind to the full \nsplendour of that consciousness. \n\nThe first step is to bring man to choose of his own free will (for he must not be \ndragged, even into heaven) to tread the path that leads to that goal, and to turn \nfrom those that lead away from it. The function of Karma is to make each man \nrealize the consequences of wrong choices, so that next time he may choose more \nwisely. That is one reason why things have consequences. Karma literally \nmeans the law of action, the way in which things act, and all things are designed \nto act so as to carry out the purpose of life. Every act done, every thought or \nfeeling entertained, even though not carried out in action, has its inevitable \nsequel. A force is thereby set flowing in a certain direction, leading to joy or to \npain in accordance with its nature. The only way to avert the effect, is to set \nin motion a stronger current in the opposite direction. Selfishness, for example, \nhas certain invariable results which can only be obviated by greater self-sacrifice. \nEven in that case, the selfishness has its effect, though it may not be noticeable, \nfor the power of sacrifice that ought to have taken the man toward his goal, is in \npart expended in checking his wrong momentum. \n\nWhen Madame Blavatsky first brought the law of Karma to the attention of \nthe western world, even those who accepted it tended to think of it as a me\u00ac \nchanical and outer law, a kind of celestial book-keeping requiring the payment \nof debts in kind. If I stepped on someone\u2019s toe, the Karmic consequence would \nbe for someone to step on my toe, and so on. One incurred a debt to the law \nwhich had to be paid. There is truth in this. Debts to the law must be paid. \nEvery act is a cause and its consequences are sure and inescapable. But it has \nalso come to be realized that the Masters, who are the Lords of Compassion, are \nalso the Lords of Karma; that Karma is compassion; that the universe is not \nmechanical but Infinite Love, and that Karma itself is poetic justice. \n\nThis is a far truer view, but it also has its danger. The mind is very skilful in \nproducing excuses for self-indulgence, and its nature is to feel that somehow or \nother in its particular case, unpleasant consequences can be averted. If the mind \ncould be really made to believe that there is never any escape from the results \nof actions, it would be far more careful of what it permitted itself to suggest. \nIf, for instance, a man knew beyond the faintest doubt that every time he gives \nway to irritation, he must suffer for it, it would act as a most powerful deterrent \n\n\nRICHNESS OF LIFE \n\n\n291 \n\n\nto his bad temper. That he does so suffer is the fact. It is also poetic justice \nthat he should suffer; but the moment poetic justice is mentioned, the mind \nseizes on it: \u201cAh! Poetic justice, that lets me out. It would be anything but \npoetic justice if one of my excellent good intentions should be made to suffer, \nmerely because I lost my temper under such great provocation\u201d, and so on. Those \nwho find themselves so arguing, would do well to go back to the mechanical \nview of the inevitableness of consequences. It is not true compassion to let \nanyone \u201cget away\u201d with deliberate disobedience. \n\nThere is also a tendency to limit one\u2019s conception of Karmic effects to outer \ncircumstances. Karma does affect one\u2019s outer circumstances, but this is secon\u00ac \ndary. The primary effects are inner. Outer circumstances, in any case, are \nonly of importance to us for their influence on our inner states, our thoughts, \nfeelings, sensations, etc. What that influence is to be depends far less on the \nouter event itself than on the individual concerned, on his past Karma and his \npresent will. There are few more wide-spread or more pernicious errors than the \ncurrent belief that a man\u2019s inner state, his happiness or unhappiness, depends \nupon his outer circumstances. \u201cNo man can be religious if he is hungry\u201d, is a \ntypical statement of this point of view,\u2014one often adopted by modern clergy\u00ac \nmen, who appear quite ignorant of the use of fasting, in all ages and in all re\u00ac \nligions, as an aid to spirituality. Consciousness is not, as science sometimes \nassumes, a by-product of matter, nor is its character necessarily determined by \nmaterial conditions. A man may have very little immediate control over what \nhappens to him, but he may acquire almost infinite control over his own reactions \nto those events. It is the character of these reactions, the kind of thought, \nfeeling or sensation with which he responds, that matters to him, not the outer \noccurrence itself. He may react to a given situation with irritation or with sym\u00ac \npathy, with craven fear or heroic valour. The choice lies in his own hands, and \nin accordance with that choice will be the nature of his consciousness, and accord\u00ac \ning to the nature of his consciousness, will be his happiness or unhappiness. \nThis is part of what is meant by the statement in the Idyll of the Whit^^ius \nthat, \u201cEach man is his own absolute lawgiver, the dispenser of glory (^Boom \nto himself; the decreer of his life, his reward, his punishment.\u201d \n\nOur point is that every action, every choice made by the will, brings its owm \nimmediate reward or punishment in the kind of thought and feeling that it \nengenders within us, and which thus becomes our mental environment, colouring \nwith its colour, distorting with its distortion, everything that reaches us. Sup\u00ac \npose, for example, that a man is frankly criticized by a friend for some wrong \ncourse of conduct. He has his choice between feeling and expressing gratitude \nor vresentment. He chooses to give way to resentment. The Karmic punishment \nis not that his friend\u2014or some one else\u2014^will, in turn, express resentment to him, \nalthough that may very well happen. The Karmic punishment occurs at once \nand inevitably. It consists in the resentment itself, inside the man. He has \nadmitted it, created it, and, for a longer or shorter period, he must live in it, \nsurrounded by it, imprisoned in that type of feeling. He may not realize it as \npunishment, but it is. Its sourness and bitterness, its killing effect upon all \n\n\n2g2 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\njoy, is not any less sour or bitter or killing because some elemental inside him \npersuades him that he is right in feeling resentful. Naturally also, reactions of \nthat kind tend to repeat themselves with increasing intensity. \n\nIf, instead of resentment, the man chooses gratitude, he fills himself with \nthe light and joy of gratitude, and reaps at once his reward. Gratitude drives \nout lower types of thought and feeling. No one, for instance, can feel gratitude \nand self-pity simultaneously. Whatever his choice may be, the Karmic result \nis immediate and inevitable in its effect on his consciousness. \n\nThere are other results. Each choice a man makes opens him to other in\u00ac \nfluences at the same level. Like a radio receiver, man can tune himself to differ\u00ac \nent pitches, so that he receives and responds to, wave lengths of various rates \nof vibration, high or low. The ovmer of a radio can choose between a great \nvariety of possible programmes, low and vulgar, or perhaps high and inspiring. \nWhen his radio is set for a certain wave length, that\u2014good or bad\u2014is admitted, \nand all others excluded. In just the same way, each man is surrounded con\u00ac \ntinuously by psychic influences from the astral world around him, pressing upon \nhim, like the waves around a radio, or like water pressing against the bottom of \na boat. These influences are of very different rates of vibration, so to speak, \nor are on very different levels, from the filth of the gutter to the music of the \nstars, and all between. \n\nIf we tune ourselves to the level of resentment, all on that level and nothing \nhigher, can gain admittance to our thought and feeling. If we tune ourselves to \ngratitude, we open ourselves to the level of gratitude, a quality of the soul, and \nthat which is on the plane of the soul can flow in, closing the door to what is \nbelow it. Each choice of the will tends to tune us to its level, opening us to \ncorresponding influences both from the psychic sea in which we are immersed, \nand also to certain reactions from the outer world of events. \n\nIt is a matter of everyday experience that a given occurrence has one effect \non us when we are in one mood, and a totally different effect, or no effect at all, \nwhen we are in a different mood. The type of effect is a part of the Karma of the \nchoice that resulted in the particular mood we were in. Moods themselves are \nKarma, the result of past choices of the will, usually made unconsciously it is \ntrue, but made none the less. A man feels gloomy. Why ? The chances are a \nhundred to one that it is because he has been thinking about himself instead of \nhis work, or of others, or of something that would interest his real self instead \nof his personality. All that happens to him as a result of his gloom, and it may \nbe a great deal, is a part of the Karma of thinking about himself. We ought to \ntrain ourselves ceaselessly to ask: Why? Why did this happen? Because of \nthat; yes, but why was that and why that, until we have pushed it back to the \nmoral cause at the root of it all, and to what needs to be done in ourselves about \nit. There always is a moral cause and always something that ought to be done \nabout it. We have, let us assume, failed to carry our point, a sound one, at some \nmeeting. Why did we fail when we were right ? Because we had been interrupted \nsix times while we were preparing for the meeting, by subordinates with questions \nthat had to be answered. In consequence we were irritated, flustered and in- \n\n\nRICHNESS OF LIFE \n\n\n^93 \n\n\nsufficiently prepared. It was not our fault; anyone would have been. Perhaps, \nbut why were we preparing just before the meeting, why had not the questions \nbeen answered earlier? Perhaps the trouble was procrastination several days \nbefore. Perhaps it was lack of firmness in not refusing to answer unnecessary \nquestions at that time. Irritation is frequently due to indecision or lack of \nfirmness. Whatever the cause, it should be found and steps taken to correct it. \n\nThe effort to see the cause and to guard against its recurrence in the future \nwill often take most of the sting from a defeat. A man\u2019s mistakes may be turned \ninto most valuable assets by understanding their causes, so that he will not \nmake them again. It removes the sting because it leads us to attack our fault \nvigorously. To do this from a right motive is to align oneself with the soul, \nand thus to share in the courageous, unresentful consciousness of the soul. \nEvery right action ought to have its immediate reward in consciousness. Every \nstep on the road to heaven ought to be heaven. This is not to say that sacrifice \nis not very real and very hard. \u201cThe heart will bleed and the whole life of the \nman seem to be utterly dissolved.\u201d The spiritual life calls men, not weaklings, \nand calls them to heroic valour, not to beds of ease. The Masters turn back from \nthe threshold of unutterable bliss, sacrificing themselves for man; and those \nwho would serve them, must, in their place and degree, learn to follow in their \nfootsteps. Every soul must learn sacrifice, but sacrifice should bring its reward. \nThat, in our case, it does not always do so, is because we have not yet learned \nto be whole-hearted, to give ourselves completely in love and devotion to the \nMasters\u2019 cause, the cause of the soul. \u201cTo go half-way is misery but all the way \nis heaven\u201d, does not mean that we must attain to adeptship before we find \nheaven. It means that to find joy we must do whatever we do with all our \nhearts. When we look back, like Lot\u2019s wife, with regret to what we are leaving, \nthat which should have been our joy, turns to salt in our mouths. Those who, \nlike some of the saints, have learned to give themselves wholly, have found \nrapture even in martyrdom. \n\nEven though the immediate reward be missed, it remains true that every right \naction tends to clear the passages from the soul to the personal conscig|^ess, \nand so to increase the individual\u2019s capacity for joy, The mind i^Ben to \nthoughts, feelings, impulses, from above and from below. Accordi^^to the \nhabitual nature of these thoughts and feelings will be the character, the \u201ccolour\u201d \nof the mind, its sensitiveness and clarity, or its denseness and callousness. Just \nas a given shade of colour applied by an artist to the picture that he is painting, \nwill appear light or dark depending upon the background against which it is \nseen, so the effect in consciousness of any given outer event varies through an \nalmost infinitely wide range with the colour of the mind and heart experiencing \nit. Every impulse from above, entertained and made one\u2019s own, makes the \nnature that much finer, more sensitive, clearer, keener, more appreciative of \nbeauty, more capable of enjoyment. Every impulse from below, similarly enter\u00ac \ntained, has just the reverse effect, making it duller, denser, less capable of \nfeeling, and so requiring coarser and coarser stimulation in order to feel alive at \nall. It has been said that every mental deficiency, without exception, is due to \n\n\n294 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nsome moral disobedience in the past, perhaps in some other life. It should not be \nforgotten, however, that the past of every man includes many, many lives, and \nmuch good as well as much bad Karma has usually been accumulated. A man \nleading a degrading life may have brought over from some former incarnation \na keen appreciation of beauty which he has not yet had time to destroy com\u00ac \npletely. From one point of view, it is fortunate that we usually change so slowly, \nbut we do change. There is nothing that we cannot change. \n\nIf the effects of Karma on consciousness and thus on the powers of appreciation \nand enjoyment, were better understood, there might be less complaint of injustice \nin the world. There are those whose faith in an over-ruling Providence is shaken \nwhen they see one man, with callous selfishness, dishonestly accumulate a \nfortune, while another, working hard and honourably, remains in poverty. \nSurely, they think, if the doctrine of Karma were true, the dishonest man would \nlose his fortune to the other. Perhaps he will, in some other life, perhaps not. \nKarma is not interested in a man\u2019s bank account but in the development of his \nsoul. Wealth and poverty are merely the means by which lessons are taught, not \nends in themselves. Often the best way to show a man that he does not really \ndesire something he thinks he wants, is to give it to him. That is a method life \nfrequently uses. If leaving a man with an ill-gotten fortune will teach him his \nlesson more rapidly and effectively than taking it away, why take it away? \nWe tend to think of unpleasant or painful outer consequences as the Karmic \npunishment for wrong doing, and to feel, if no such consequences are visible, \nthat justice has somehow failed. The fact is that the inner effects are the penalty, \nand the outer results are Karmic compassion, sent to jar the man from his in\u00ac \nsensibility, that by pain and suffering he may be turned from hell toward heaven. \nBut for the pain that his wrong choices cause him, he might continue deadening \nhimself and sinking lower and lower indefinitely. As it is, the pain, usually a \ngentle warning at first, goes on increasing until, if unheeded, it becomes un\u00ac \nbearable, and the man is forced to turn or go mad. This process must often \ntake a number of incarnations for its completion. Sometimes, particularly with \nsuch sins as drunkenness and gluttony, one can see the entire cycle take place \nin a comparatively few years. \n\nAs we have said, the effects in consciousness of any given outer event vary \nalmost infinitely with the \u201ccolour\u201d of the mind experiencing it, and this colour \ndepends on the man\u2019s past, on his Karma. Karma is poetic justice. It does a \nman no good to see each day, from his beautifully landscaped country place, a \nwide view of entrancing loveliness, if by self-indulgence he has ruined his ability \nto appreciate beauty, or by lack of mental control, has so filled his mind with \nirritation or resentment that he has made himself blind to all else. (If anyone \ndoubt this, let him test it for himself and see, the next time he is filled with \nviolent resentment, how much appreciation of beauty can get through it.) We \ndo not mean that no one enjoys ill-gotten wealth. Many certainly give every \nappearance of doing so, for the coarsening process is a gradual one. Furthermore, \nvery few people are consistently bad. But in the end, the utterly selfish man\u2019s \nstate becomes that described in \u201cThe Parable of the Persian Beggar\u201d in the \n\n\nRICHNESS OF LIFE \n\n\n295 \n\n\nTheosophical Quarterly for October, 1932, the story in which a drunken \nbeggar is made Caliph for a day by Haroun-al-Raschid. Made Lord of the wide \nrealm of Persia, with all its opportunities for giving and receiving joy and glad\u00ac \nness, the one thing the beggar was capable of desiring was to drink himself into \ninsensibility. That was all his day as Caliph brought him. \n\nOn the other hand, each step nearer to the spiritual world, all growth in \nselflessness, greatly increases the capacity for joy in little, commonplace things. \nA simple walk in the country, the arching of meadow grasses, the colour of buds, \nthe grace of a bird\u2019s flight, a fairy garden of moss, grasses and gentian on a hum\u00ac \nmock in a stream, the mysterious charm of woods, the golden sunlight of late \nafternoon, may give the keenest delight to a recollected mind. When the mind is \nself-absorbed, the very same things may produce no effect whatever. Greater \nappreciation of natural beauty is, of course, only one of many forms of \nspiritual delight with which Karma rewards selflessness. One might, to take \nanother illustration, contrast the intense joy of whole-hearted admiration for \nsome nobility of character in one we love, with the sourness of envy which the \nsame quality can so easily arouse\u2014as the Pharisees, and many others since then, \nhave abundantly proved. The power to look up with unstinted admiration is \none of the great gifts of life. \u201cHero worship of the worthy is salvation.\u2019\u2019 What \nwe admire, that, in time, we become. \n\nBeauty can be truly appreciated only when it is used as a door to the spiritual \nworld, the home and source of all joy. Far more than the mere artist, it is those \nwho, as Fray Luis de Granada put it, \u201cmount by the staircase of the created world \nto the contemplation of the beauty and wisdom of its Creator\u2019\u2019, who are en\u00ac \nraptured by the loveliness of nature. Luis de Granada, himself a mystic, found \ndelight at every turn. The \u2018\u2018noble bearing\u2019\u2019 of a horse, the structure of a sea shell, \nan ant, a bee, the majesty of the stars at night, the charm of meadows, the \ngrandeur of mountains, the delicacy of a lily, great things and small, all gave him \nkeea joy, and all led him to adoration of the omnipotence and beauty of their \nCreator. \u201cOur thought\u201d, he wrote, \u201cmust break down the walls of Heaven, and \npass beyond\u2014contented with knowing not only that which it can see, but also \nthat which is invisible.\u201d J.F.B.M. \n\n\nThe Btiddha said: You yourself must make the effort. Buddhas do bi^point \nthe Way .\u2014 Dhammapada. \n\n\nThe fountain of contentment must spring up in the mind; and he who has so \nlittle knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but \nhis own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the griefs \nwhich he purposes to remove .\u2014 Samuel Johnson. \n\n\nHe who postpones the day for living as he knows he ought to do is like the fool \nwho sits by the river and waits till it flows by; but it glides and will glide on till \nall time .\u2014 Horace. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA LAY SERMON\u2019 \n\nThe Way of Life \n\n\nI N the eighth chapter of Romans and the sixth verse are these words:\u2014\u201cFor \nthe minding of the flesh is death, but the minding of the spirit is life and \npeace.\u201d \n\nThis verse from the Christian Bible plainly defines two lines of thought and \naction diametrically opposed to each other, and the result of following either. \n\nThe teachers of all religions have told us that we cannot serve two masters, \nand that we must choose either one or the other\u2014either God or mammon. So \nhere, St. Paul, the initiate, tells us that going in one direction is the way of \ndeath, and going in the other is the way of life and peace. It would naturally be \nthought that there would be no hesitation in the choice between these two \ncourses of action; but what do we find? We find people choosing the way of \ndeath rather than the way of life. There must be some reason for this. We \nshall therefore need to examine our verse more closely, that its meaning and \napplication may become clear. \n\nThe verse, as a whole, certainly stresses one important factor which is a key to \nits understanding, and that is the dual nature of man\u2014the higher representing \nthat which is pure and noble, and the lower the opposite of these. Man being \nendowed with mind is a responsible being and has to work out his own salvation. \nThe extent to which he does this depends entirely upon another part of his \nnature, and that is the principle of desire. It is apparent that we must first \ndesire a thing before we exercise the will to obtain it. We see that the two ways \nindicated in the verse have their root in desire, and this will remind us of the \nteaching, \u201cWhere the treasure is, there will the heart be also\u201d. So it would seem \nthat our desire will be according to our view of life. If we think that we are in \nthis world merely to gratify self in one form or another, our hearts will be set in \nthat direction. If, on the other hand, we think there is a much higher purpose to \nbe served, we shall act accordingly. It will be noticed that the verse is emphatic \nin both directions, that action either way produces the corresponding result. \nAs we go along in daily life we see the effect of the minding of the flesh in various \nways; consciousness is centred in one or more forms of gratification to the \npractical exclusion of all other interests and purposes. Such selfishness and \nenslavement of the will are certainly death to any consideration for others, and \nto all higher thoughts and feelings generally. The minding of the flesh is death \nphysically, mentally and spiritually. We see people losing their physical health \nand vitality long before the maturer years of life are reached; we see a depraved \nmental outlook which is the victim and slave of low desires; we see the lack of \nthe sense of moral obligation, and the wholly material view of life, which lives \n\n\u00bbAn address given at Unitarian Free Church, Sunderland, England. \n\n296 \n\n\n\n\nA LAY SERMON \n\n\n297 \n\n\nonly for the moment, and recognizes no Divine guidance or order in anything. \nSuch is the result of going in the direction of the flesh, and the consideration \nbrings with it a sense of grave responsibility, so far as we ourselves are concerned. \nIt is said that \u201cthe sin and shame of the world are our sin and shame, for we are a \npart of it\u201d. \n\nThere are people who would like to help the world but who say they can do \nlittle or nothing for lack of ability, position or time. But no poverty or cir\u00ac \ncumstance can prevent right thought and right action. Strong, positive thoughts \nfor good can contribute greatly to the world\u2019s uplifting; they can strengthen the \nmoral tone generally, and help some individual to withstand the wiles of the \ntempter, the sleepless adversary. Is it not an encouraging thought that we \nare placed just where we are needed most, and that each of us in our own way can \nplay our own useful and most necessary part? There is no need to ape the ways \nof others. It is much better to do our own duty well\u2014humble though it may be \n\u2014than to want some other duty which is not within our scope, and for which we \nare not fitted at this particular time. We have our own special task which others \ncannot perform. We contact and so can influence a certain number of people \nwho cross, or go along, our pathway, where others do not reach. On the other \nhand, those others contact still a different number whom we could never touch; \nand so the world is benefited and enriched by individual effort and sacrifice. \n\nLet us look for a moment for the reason why so many choose the way of death. \nFirst, perhaps, it is due to lack of self-control, lack of will-power to dominate \nthe lower desires as they appear, or, in other cases, lack of effort to try again when \nwe have failed to stand the test. For ages, the psychic trend of thought has \ndone much to strengthen and increase low desires, until what is really perverted \nfunction is even regarded as natural. We are often the victims of such glamour. \nSecond, it is lack of vision to some extent. We may have heard that we are the \nchildren of God, but we may not realize the spiritual unity of mankind,\u2014that \nmankind, in essence, is divine, and that it should be man\u2019s object to express that \ndivinity in daily life. Man has for so long regarcjed himself as a separate person\u00ac \nality, with no definite fundamental relationship to other personalities, tha t he \nlives from the point of view of self-interest, self-assertion, self-preservaoBf He \ndoes not see that he is his brother\u2019s keeper, in fact his very self. So he acts, as a \nrule, from the standpoint of diversity, instead of from that of unity. The dual \nnature of man is, therefore, the key to the understanding of this verse, the second \nhalf of which we may now consider. \n\nThere is no doubt that the minding of the spirit does give life and peace, to \nall who live thereby. Some experience this in quite a simple, humble way, \nwhile others have a deeper vision of its reality. But, whatever the understanding, \nall sincere effort brings a corresponding result. Our effort and application in the \nminding of the spirit, must be according to our vision. The minding of the spirit \nto many, might consist mainly of those \u201clittle, nameless, unremembered acts \nof kindness and of love\u201d without which the world would be a sorry place indeed. \nThe minding of the spirit might also mean a trusting in God or Providence re\u00ac \ngarding the affairs of life. There is a faith in things Divine, blind though it \n\n\n298 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nsometimes is, that has the conviction of experience, and that tides people over \nmany a crisis of sickness, hardship or want. \n\nThe minding of the spirit is the cultivation of the things of the spirit\u2014and \nthere are no things more valuable to cultivate. Faith is one of these things, \nwhether blind or enlightened, though, even with the latter, trust is necessary \nbefore certainty arrives. The disciple must have faith that the Master is there, \nbefore spiritual contact can be made. So we have been told that \u201cFaith is the \nsubstance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen\u201d. This faith or \ntrust in things Divine, gives contentment and peace in spite of all trials and \ndifficulties. There is too little nowadays of, \u201cAsk the Master to help you. He \nwill carry you through\u201d, and too much of personal, worldly struggle. As the \nminding of the spirit gives faith and peace, so it gives life, and in more ways \nthan one. It gives zeal and energy to do life\u2019s allotted tasks, for now we strive to \ndo with our might, with our whole heart and soul, what our hands find to do, \nand consequently we work much more accurately. And we find a satisfaction \nin our efforts, so that in this striving and attaining a greater measure of life is \ngained\u2014a dim reflection of that immortal life looming in the distance. \n\nAs we cultivate the things of the spirit, we find that this positive attitude is \nthe best way of eliminating the things of the world. The more concerned we are \nwith the higher things of life, the higher nature, the less shall we be feeding and \nstrengthening the lower aspect, the lower nature. It is not that we are to run \naway from the world, but that we should be in it and yet not of it. Such effort \nis always a battle, a warfare, until the final victory is gained; so it is said that \n\u201che who conquereth himself is greater than he who taketh a city\u201d. We have a \ngreat example in the Christian Master, who withstood all temptation, and \nvanquished his enemies by utterly refusing to depart in any way from spiritual \nprinciples. In speaking of these enemies it is well to remind ourselves that there \nare two great forces in the world\u2014the force for good and the force for evil\u2014and \nthus it will be rightly assumed that those enemies belonged to the evil Powers. \nThe force for good needs helpers and workers in the world, and it is encouraging \nto remember that as we cultivate the things of the spirit we contribute to the \nspiritual, the real, welfare of mankind. This is true service, the opposite of self- \nseeking in any form. We can become so lifted out of self that we cease to have \npersonal rights and wrongs, and work solely for this glorious Ideal. \n\nIf such a life is a life of warfare, as it undoubtedly is, how can it be \u201clife and \npeace\u201d, it may be asked? The life of the spirit is a fuller, wider, deeper experience \nthan the question supposes; it transcends the purely personal, and reaches up to \nthat which is permanent and everlasting. \u201cThe soul of man is immortal, and \nits future is the future of a thing whose growth and splendour have no limit.\u201d \nThe peace that is gained is the Master\u2019s peace\u2014that peace which the world can \nneither give nor take away. It is not \u201cpeace at any price\u201d, nor the cessation of \ninner or outer conflict. It is that oneness of heart and purpose whereby the \nMaster\u2019s will is done at all costs. As a house divided against itself cannot stand, \nneither can a man who is pulled this way and that by the winds of fancy and \ndesire. This peace is that state of mind and heart whereby the whole life is \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA LAY SERMON \n\n\n299 \n\n\nplaced in the hands of the Master and the Divine Law. The circumstances and \nconditions of life are accepted and made the best of, for the man knows that they \nare the wisest and most suitable at any given time. There is certain work to do \nand there are certain lessons to learn, and it is remarkable how our circumstances \nand conditions provide the necessary scope and opportunity. As has been said, \nthis peace is no cessation of inner or outer conflict; trials and difficulties arise \nfrom without, from contact with the world, and temptations assail one from \nwithin, through the mind and imagination, where the battle-ground really lies. \nBut in spite of all, there is this peace and strength, which enable a man to face \nconfidently, with poise and without fear, whatever may come to him. \n\nPerhaps we now see that \u201cthe minding of the flesh is death\u201d, and that \u201cthe \nminding of the spirit is life and peace\u201d. The former is a life of self-indulgence \nwith all its attendant e\\dls. It unfits man for his work and degrades him. \nSelfishness is truly a living death. The minding of the spirit is a life of service \nand wise helpfulness; a life of infinite expansion. As a man strives to be, to \nembody his knowledge, his life and thought become much more valuable to \nhis fellows, and his influence for good is greatly increased. Such a life is life, \nfor it reaches to the higher realms of being, and realizes, in ever increasing degree, \nthe beauty and grandeur of the universe, and man\u2019s purpose and place in it. Such \na Ijfe is peace, for it is life lived from the spirit; it depends not on worldly struggle \nor natural advantage, but on Divine Law. It accepts whatever is its lot with \ngenuine faith and detachment. It is, therefore, a life lived as an Immortal, true \nto its real nature, true to its God, one that alone makes possible the vision of the \nGates of Gold and the ability one day to pass through them. \n\nWe have doubtless made our choice as to these two courses of action; it but \nremains for us the more vigorously to pursue our pathway. \n\n\u201cRemember, moreover, that only to those who are deaf is life a cry;\u2014it is a \nsong; and if this be true of life in general, it is also true of life in particular, of \nyour life and of theirs. We are closest to the heart of things when we are happy! \n\u2014when in spite of trials and adversities a fountain of joy and gladness springs \nwithin us. The trials are ephemeral and will pass; the joy is immortal and divine, \nand endures for ever. And when I say \u2018accept\u2019, I mean no passive ccmcyiion, \nbut rather what St. Paul implied, when he said, 'Let us lay aside every zt'e^||Rnd \npress toward the mark\u2019 \u201d (Fragments, Vol. I, p. 31). \n\n\u201cThere is but one way that a man shall live, and it is this: to face the cir\u00ac \ncumstances of his life, whatever they may mean of sorrow, pain, or renunciation, \nand in the midst of them courageously and cheerfully to fulfil his duty and carve \nout his destiny. Upon the footsteps of such a man the angels wait, and all the \ndivine powers of the universe acknowledge his commands. When a man has \nbeen able to master his own heart, and at the behest of duty has put aside that \nwhich is dearest, that man has conquered the world\u201d (Fragments, Vol. II, p. 129). \n\n\u201cAs that star blazes out on the night sky, so should your life shine in the \nmaterial world about you; pointing the way, for those who can see it, to where \nthe Christ may be found\u201d (Fragments, Vol. II, p. 130). \n\nE. Howard Lincoln. \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\nV. \n\n\nHE distance from Brest to Bordeaux was something under four hundred \n\n\n\nmiles by rail, but the journey took us two days and two nights. The \n\n\nregiment travelled in several sections. The men were packed in the \nusual box-cars, each marked \u201c40 Hommes-8 Chevaux\u201d, and were very crowded, \nit not being possible for all the men in a car to lie down at the same time. We \ndistributed the officers among the various trains, the ranking officer on board \nbeing the commanding officer of each train. The Colonel and his staff travelled \non the last section. The travel ration had been issued to all ranks, drinking- \nwater bottles had been filled, and the men had provided themselves in one way \nor another with various unauthorized additions to the ration; but the only hot \nnourishment they had during the trip was the coffee which the French Red \nCross served whenever we stopped at one of the larger towns. Sanitary and \nwashing facilities on the trip were non-existent. The men were so cramped in \ntheir box-cars, our progress was so leisurely and there seemed to be so little \nhurry, that two or three times a day we would have the train stopped between \ntowns, send back a guard along the track to flag anything coming up in our \nrear, and turn the troops out for twenty minutes or so in the fields to stretch \ntheir legs. Each one of these stops was the subject of violent expostulations \nfrom our French engineer. He would leave his engine, come back along the \ntrack to the Colonel\u2019s carriage, and break into a torrent of excited and voluble \nFrench. The Colonel, who could not understand a word of what was said, would \ninquire what it was all about, and when told that the engineer was concerned \nlest we should be run into by another train from behind, this fear being the con\u00ac \nstant and predominant one at each stop, would tell us to quiet the man down \nagain, remarking that, if everything else on the line travelled as slowly as we did, \nthere was not the slightest danger of an accident, adding with some heat that \npersonally he would be inclined to get out and walk the rest of the way, were \nit not for the fact that he was not expected before the arrival of the train. \n\nThe Colonel and his staff were not much better off on the trip than the enlisted \nmen, except in the matter of food. There were six of us all told, and we occupied \nan old railway carriage that was meant to hold four with some crowding, and \nwhich had no upper berths. Four of us managed to sleep on the two seats, by so \narranging ourselves that our feet overlapped in the middle; this necessitated a \nskilful preservation of balance, as the seats were narrow, and no abrupt change \nof position was possible without kicking one\u2019s bunkmate. The remaining two \nslept on the floor between the seats, where as a matter of fact they were really \nmore comfortable. During the day the train stopped at almost every town \nand village for some minutes, and once we realized that this was a regular custom, \nwe took advantage of it, when we became unbearably hungry, to rush across in \n\n\n300 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n301 \n\n\nturns to the estaminet \u2014there was invariably one directly opposite the railway \nstation at each stop\u2014hastily bolting an omelet and some hot coffee, after having \nfirst thrown out a guard to prevent the men from leaving their cars, and after \nhaving placed another guard over the engineer to make sure that he did not \ngo on without us. \n\nThe real purpose, however, of the guard at the stations, was to prev^ent the \ntroops from mingling with the crowd at every stop, and from becoming scattered \nin their warm response to the friendly and enthusiastic greetings which we \nreceived from the French all along the line. We should never have collected \nthem, had they been allowed off, when we started again, and should have been \nsure to have left some of them behind at each place. We were travelling on a \nSaturday and a Sunday, and the Saturday was a Saint\u2019s Day, and consequently \na holiday. Our earlier sections had already gone through before us, and word \nhad been passed about in the towns that Americans were coming in force; \nindeed, it is easy to see that even one regiment, distributed among several \ntrains, would create an impression, however unwarranted, of several times their \nactual number. Consequently, the entire population of each town had appa\u00ac \nrently come en masse to the railway station, and had spent the day there to \nsee the Americans. Women and children predominated; almost all of them were \nin black; there were only a few old men. They received us in a most moving \nway. As we drew slowly into a station, we would hear the strains of the Mar\u00ac \nseillaise being sung, and would be struck by the preponderance of women\u2019s \nvoices and the high treble of children; the deeper note was missing. As we \nstopped, the singing would die away, and they would cheer us with real emotion, \nand with a brave waving of the tri-colour and of handkerchiefs. Once we were \nstationary, the crowd would break, surging around the box-cars, stretching out \ntheir hands to grasp the hands of our men; offering them, of their scanty store, \nfruit and flowers and even chocolate; trying, in spite of the difficulties of lan\u00ac \nguage, to tell us, to make us feel, how glad they were that we were there. Our \nmen would sit in the opening of the cars, and lift the children on their knees \nand hold them, while the older ones crowded around close, until surroun^g \neach \u201cdoor\u201d there was a solid mass of people, rapidly cementing the most fnapiy \nrelations, commenting favourably upon the youth and vigour and froshiwfe of \nour men. The very sight of us brought them a new strength and hope, and \nbrought as well many sad reminders. Tears were running down the faces of \nmany of the women, and I saw tears in the eyes of many of our men. It was a \nroyal progress that we made, something far above and beyond anything that \neither we or our country had deserved; and yet it was well that it was so, for it \nbrought to us all, as nothing else possibly could have done, what the War had \nmeant and still meant to these people who were welcoming us with their whole \nhearts. It brought, as well, a fresh resolve and a new consecration. \n\nDuring the first day, the journey was enlivened by one of the lieutenants, who \nbecame ill and delirious, and who was obviously running a high temperature. \nThe two Regimental Medical Officers were both on sections in advance of us; \nbut I sent a telegram ahead, and one of them dropped off at his next stop and \n\n\n302 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nawaited our arrival there; and by the time we reached Bordeaux at about \nI a. m. on the morning of April nth, our patient had almost recovered. Our \nSenior Major, who had gone overseas with the advance party from Division \nHeadquarters, and who had been spending the intervening time making the \nnecessary arrangements for our arrival at Camp Souge, met us in the railway \nstation at Bordeaux in the middle of the night, and we found there, as well as \non various sidings, our advance sections which had preceded us. After being \nshunted about the rest of the night, we finally disentrained at a little village \nwest of Bordeaux, formed the regiment in column, and marched three or four \nmiles to the Camp itself and took possession of our new quarters. \n\nCamp Souge was half way between Bordeaux and the sea, in that flat and \nsandy stretch of country called the Landes, and was an immense affair, a perma\u00ac \nnent instruction camp, and capable of accommodating two brigades of artillery. \nWe found already there the three artillery regiments comprising the 152d \nArtillery Brigade, of the 77th Division; our divisional infantry were on the \nBritish front, technically in support and reserv^e, but actually receiving their \nfinal instruction and training; later on, we were all to join up together again \nin a quiet sector in the Vosges, so that the Division could undergo, as a unit, \nits first experience in holding a part of the line. We had been sent so far south \nin order that our artillery, after actually receiving their guns (there had only \nbeen two or three field pieces available for training purposes for the entire \nArtillery Brigade, during all that long period at Camp Upton) might have inten\u00ac \nsive training in their use, and also the experience of actually firing them on the \nartillery range at Souge under simulated combat conditions. A short distance \ninside the main gateway of the Camp, which was constantly guarded, were the \nofficers\u2019 quarters for our entire Brigade, a collection of one-story huts in a grove \nof trees, each housing three or four officers in separate rooms; and nearby were \nthe Officers\u2019 Mess and the Camp Hospital. A long, sandy road led to the main \npart of the Camp, half a mile away, where were the men\u2019s barracks, each build\u00ac \ning holding a company or a battery, and each regiment having its own area. \nThere the men lived under the command of their non-commissioned officers. \nThe barracks were large, airy, and cool, which was important, as we had come \ninto distinctly warm weather so far south. Twenty-four hours saw us settled, \nafter the usual appearance of turmoil and confusion, which is so misleading in \nthe Army, for throughout it things are always rapidly being accomplished. \n\nThe first two or three weeks were busy ones for me. We got our instructions \ndirect from our own Artillery Brigade Commander, so we did not have to present \nourselves officially this time to the American General commanding the Base \nPost of Bordeaux. But, through our Brigade Headquarters, a steady stream of \norders, instructions and memoranda poured in, from General Headquarters, A. \nE. F.; from the French, under whose direct supervision we were; from the City \nof Bordeaux, in regard to certain civic laws and regulations. All of these had to \nbe adapted for regimental use, or otherwise complied with, and regimental \norders had to be issued explaining them and directing this compliance. New \nlocal rules and regulations covering the Camp and our own regimental area \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n303 \n\n\nhad to be issued. The great docks on the Garonne, which the American Engineers \nhad assisted in building, were covered with war materiel of all kinds, and the \nAmmunition Train received, with a minimum of delay, the ammunition trucks, \ncaissons, and various wagons and vehicles to which we were entitled, and with \nwhich, up to now, we had only been familiar on paper. The work of obtaining \nthese devolved largely upon the Colonel and the Supply Officer, but, once \nacquired, more regimental orders were issued in regard to their use and the \ntraining which they necessitated. There seemed no end, at first, to the paper\u00ac \nwork in which I was involved. It tapered off, however, after a while; and once \nthe training, which included the working out of tactical firing problems with our \nartillery, and the actual supplying of ammunition during the problem, got \nwell under way, it devolved mainly upon our battalion and company com\u00ac \nmanders, so that my principal share in it was to accompany the Colonel on \nhorseback, while he observed and criticized what was done. We attended a \nnumber of lectures, by French and American instructors, not only on the handling \nof the different kinds of shells, but also, in conjunction with the Artillery officers, \nupon strictly technical points in connection with their arm of the Service. \n\nWhile we really acquired thereby a very considerable general knowledge of \nthe functions of the artillery, it by no means made us competent to act as \nartillery officers; and we were consequently thrown into consternation to learn \nthat every Ammunition Train which had so far arrived in France had been \nofficered by men commissioned in the Artillery, and that there was every likeli\u00ac \nhood of our being transferred in a body to that arm and re-commissioned in the \nsame grades. The theory in the old Regular Army had been that, once a Captain, \nan officer was competent to function, as a Captain, in any branch of the Service. \nThis was true in so far as graduates of West Point were concerned. But it was \nfar from being true in this War in respect to men fresh from civil life, with no \nprevious military experience; men who had had only a few months training in \ntheir particular arm of the Service. We were filled with forebodings as to what \nwould happen if we were called upon, as artillery officers, ten days after being \nre-commissioned, to fire a battery in action, knowing no more about the technique \nof the artillery and its practical operation than we did. We were worrM^inot \nabout ourselves and about personal failure, but because of the inevitabi^nef- \nficiency which we should display, and the effect it would have upon the lives of \nother men. I began to realize that an Ammunition Train was neither one thing \nnor the other, neither infantry nor artillery; and I commenced, from that time \non, definitely to turn my mind and attention to the consideration of ways in \nwhich I might work myself out of my present assignment, into a larger sphere of \naction. Up to the time when I was finally transferred from the Ammunition \nTrain some weeks later, no such re-commissioning as had been suggested had \ntaken place; what happened after my departure, I never learned. \n\nOne of my duties had been to read and to censor the letters written home by \nthe men of the Headquarters Company. Some of these letters were pathetic \nand revealing, and it was often possible to do something, indirectly or otherwise, \nto meet the need which had been disclosed. But many of them contained nothing \n\n\n304 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nbut stuff and nonsense; the writers were obviously trying to \u201cput it over big \nwith the folks at home and prove that they were heroes. I remember one letter \nfrom a soldier to his best girl, in which he explained that, although the shells \nwere shrieking overhead, he was faithfully writing to her just the same, in spite \nof the great danger. The shells were shrieking overhead, but it was merely the \nartillery firing over the Camp and on to the range, in a practice problem. A \nfriend in New York sent me a clipping from the Evening Sun, containing extracts \nfrom letters from two sergeants in companies of the 302d Ammunition Train, \nwhich painted \u201ca vivid picture of a train rushing to the gun pits with a supply \nof ammunition. No matter how much shell fire is sweeping the roads, the wagons \ngo. The real praise belongs to the horses, who become terrified when the firing \nstarts, and in many cases they race to their destination only because of their \nfright.\u201d When all this balderdash was written, these two men were safely at \nCamp Souge, and had never been nearer the front than Brest. I had already \nbecome very tired of acting as censor, but this kind of thing was the last straw. \nI conceived a really brilliant idea as to how to rid myself of this chore, and \nsuggested to the Colonel that, after all, the Chaplain was the one to censor the \nHeadquarters\u2019 letters, because, through reading them, he would become more \nfamiliar with the spiritual needs of the men and so be better able to minister to \nthem. The Colonel heartily approved; so I told the Chaplain that the Colonel \nhad decided upon this in order to extend his sphere of usefulness, and the good \nman was delighted, and so was I. \n\nI have said that the powers that be, had, in their wisdom, seen fit to assign \nus a Roman Catholic priest as Chaplain, probably because we had so many \nProtestants and Jews in our organization. The usual method seemed to be to \ntry to pick out a Chaplain of a different denomination from the majority of his \nflock; I heard of one regiment, composed largely of Roman Catholics, who had \na Christian Scientist as their spiritual director. However, we were fortunate in \nthe man assigned to us, as he was a thoroughly good sort, did excellent work, \nand was liked and respected by the men. He had proved so useful to me over \ncensoring letters, that I began to cast about in my mind for other ways in which \nhe could be of service. A great many cases arose among the men which required \ndrastic disciplinary action, not possible for the company commanders to take. \nEach of these cases was tried by a Special Court Martial, which consisted of \nfive members, and was less cumbersome and quicker in action than a General \nCourt Martial. Even so, these Courts took a great deal of my time; and in \norder to expedite matters, I suggested to the Colonel that the Chaplain should \nbe appointed permanent counsel for the defence in all Special Courts. The \nColonel approved, and from then on the administration of justice ran on greased \nwheels. The Chaplain would talk beforehand with the accused, and, whenever \nhe found extenuating circumstances, was usually so delighted and surprised \nthat he brought the facts out at once at the trial. If, however, the Chaplain \nbegan to talk in general terms about the accused\u2019s previous good record, and \nwhat a good son he had been to his old mother at home, we knew that there was \nnothing more to be said for him, shut the Chaplain off with two or three sharp \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n305 \n\n\nquestions, and awarded a speedy sentence. As good a way as any; and justice \nwas usually done. \n\nAs the training of the Regiment progressed, and the initial flood of paper\u00ac \nwork subsided and became a routine flow, I found that I had more spare time on \nmy hands than I liked. It was too much like Camp Upton all over again, in a \nFrench setting, and was not at all my idea of getting on with the war. Not \nthat many days were not pleasant enough. Every morning either my horse, \nor a motorcycle side-car, would be waiting for me at the officers\u2019 quarters after \nbreakfast. After proceeding to Regimental Headquarters in the Camp itself, \nand after completing my duties there, I had time for a ride around the range, \nwhich covered several miles, if the artillery were not firing; if they were, one \ncould ride out to observe, and to hear the criticisms of the French officers. The \ndry grass on the range caught fire from bursting shells about once a day in the hot \nweather, and men had to be hastily packed into trucks and rushed to the spot \nto put it out. In the late afternoons we would practise with the pistol; several \nof us wangled a lot of pistol ammunition, and borrowed an Ordnance Sergeant from \none of the companies, who set up targets for us in an isolated corner of the \nrange, and called the shots. When gas masks were issued, we not only practised \nwearing them for short stretches in what we called the lethal chamber, which \nwas filled with either phosgene or chlorine gas, but also wore them, on and off, \nfor several hours at a time while we were performing our routine duties, in order \nto become entirely at home in them. I can remember wearing mine on horseback, \nand while driving a motorcycle over the Landes, and again while sitting at my \ntable at Regimental Headquarters, this last being a great bore. About this time \nfriction developed between the Colonel and one of the Majors, and as Adjutant \nit became necessary to call upon all of such diplomatic attributes as I possessed \nto keep the peace; it was a question of talking with each of them separately after \na ruction, of smoothing them down again, and of calling the attention of each \nto the other\u2019s good qualities; of saying the right thing at the right time in the \nright way at Mess; of making each of them appear in a favourable light when the \nother was present, and of creating a friendly atmosphere again. There were \nother instances, too, when tact was needed. One of our Captains persis^tly \nallowed his company mess-hall to become dirty and unsanitary. The Reg^Ktal \nMedical Officer spoke to me about it more than once, but, in spite of rrT^'sug\u00ac \ngestions to the Captain, there was no improvement. Finally, the Medical \nOfficer said to me that, in his judgment, conditions were sufficiently menacing to \nhealth to make it his duty to go to the Colonel without any further delay. This \nI was anxious to avoid, as in all other respects this particular Captain was a very \nefficient officer. So, after talking it over with the Medical Officer, I hit upon a \nplan. Short conferences were about to take place three times a week between \nthe Colonel and the senior officers of the Regiment, in which we were to discuss \namong ourselves, and to adapt, the instruction we had been receiving. I issued \nthe order for these conferences, and stated in it that they would be held in the \nparticular mess-hall which had been under criticism. I went to the first confer\u00ac \nence with great eagerness, anxious to see how my plan had worked; the mess- \n\n\n3o6 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhall was spotless, sweet, and clean, and smelt strongly of soap; one could have \neaten off the floor, and this pleasing condition continued from then on. \n\nAll this sort of thing was absorbing and interesting, and it was the keenest \npleasure, as well, to observe the highly satisfactory way in which the entire com\u00ac \nmand was responding to the thorough training which was being given; but \npersonally I did not feel that I was working at the high pressure which I had \nanticipated and wanted. It became increasingly possible for me, with my motor\u00ac \ncycle side-car, to go into Bordeaux, sometimes during the week with messages \nor dispatches for the Base Port Headquarters, upon which occasions I always \nstayed as long as I could there, but more often on Saturday afternoons, when, \nusually with several other officers, I would put up at an hotel for the night, \nreturning to Camp Souge on Sunday afternoon. Upon one of my first visits I \nwent to a coiffeur, to repair the ravages which lapse of time had made in my \npersonal appearance. It was a little shop, with a family atmosphere, presided \nover by Madame la patronne, who sat at her desk by the door. I was duly \nenveloped in a voluminous sort of winding sheet, and was undergoing a friction, \nand trying to prevent the coiffeur from emptying every highly-perfumed lotion \nin the shop upon my head, when my attention was diverted by a conversation \nwhich was being carried on beside me, and I freed the nearest ear from its \nwrapping of towels to listen. In the next chair was a French Colonel of Infantry, \napparently an intimate friend of the management, for Madame la patronne had \nleft her stool and was standing beside him in an attitude of absorbed attention. \nIt transpired from the conversation that the Colonel had had two sons killed in \nthe War, and the third had recently been captured by the Boche. Madame had \ncome over to inquire if there were any news of him. No, there was none. The \nColonel\u2019s voice sounded tired and broken as he described his anxiety and his \ngrief. It became firmer and more vehement as he animadverted upon the Boche \nin general, and upon several sale qualities which they possessed in particular, \nin which Madame most heartily concurred with increasingly rapid interjections. \nFinally, in a resounding voice, he exclaimed, \u201cBut, with the help of our friends, \nthe brave Americans, we shall beat them yet!\u2019\u2019, and, swathed as he was in \ntowels and sheets, and with lather on his face, he got down out of his chair and \nadvanced towards me with his hand outstretched. I rose to the occasion, and, \nremoving the towels from my head, descended to the floor, and grasping his hand, \nassured him that we were going to do our best, and that such very sad and \npainful experiences as I had just had the privilege of hearing him relate, only \nmade us all the more determined, and that we were happy to be here with the \nFrench, whose courage we so greatly admired. At all events, that was what I \nintended, and tried, to say; what actually was said, is another matter. Fortu\u00ac \nnately for me, we had quite an audience by this time, as we were surrounded by \nthe entire personnel of the shop, while a couple of friends had come in from the \nstreet as well; and they were all commenting favourably upon the proceedings \nat the same time, which had the effect of somewhat obscuring my remarks. It \nmust have been an extraordinary sight\u2014we two, swathed in towels and trim\u00ac \nmings, with our right hands clasped, each with his left hand on the other\u2019s \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n307 \n\n\nshoulder. I have laughed about it often since, but never without a tug at the \nheart at the same time. That splendid Colonel was so typical of the best of \nFrance,\u2014of all that she had been willing to offer, of all that she had endured, \nof all that she was ready and willing still to give, of her brave and indomitable \nspirit, of her gratitude to us for coming when she was so hard-pressed, we, who \nhad come so late! \n\nA Captain, a great friend of mine whom I had known for years in New York, \nand I, discovered simultaneously that our uniforms were commencing to show \nsigns of wear and hard usage. We decided that it would be the part of wisdom, \nin view of the fact that we were near a large city where such work was possible* \nfor each of us to have a spare uniform made for use later on. Accordingly, we \nrepaired together the following Saturday afternoon to Bordeaux, and found a \ntailor with quite an impressive establishment on one of the principal streets. \nUpon entering, however, the usual state of affairs presented itself; the proprietor \nand all his male assistants, being of military age, were at the front, and the busi\u00ac \nness was being conducted in his absence by his wife and her sister, assisted by \none old man who was both cutter and fitter. Nothing daunted by this, in fact \nall the more resolved in view of the circumstances to give them a helping order, \nwe examined cloths, which were of excellent quality. While measurements were \nbeing taken, the conversation became quite general. From where, from what \npart of the United States, were we? Were we always of the Army? No? Were \nwe, then, of the draft? No? Ah! then, engages volontaires! And of what ages \nwere we? Did we have families? Enthusiasm was rapidly mounting. Our call \nbegan to take on the aspect of an extremely friendly social visit. Two or three \nfriends who looked in were urged to enter, and it was explained to them that \nthese two Americans, far beyond draft age (we began to feel like octogenarians!), \nwith families and dependents, had volunteered to come and help France. Uni\u00ac \nforms were about to be ordered; that reminded them, for a moment or two, of \nthe business in hand, and measurements were resumed. But only intermittently; \nfor my friend had to tell them all about his four children, their names and their \nages, and to furnish a wealth of other detail in response to rapid questions. \nWe could not have escaped, unless we had been willing to relinquish the idea of \nnew uniforms, which we were not. It was impossible, in the face of this sp onr \ntaneous, warm-hearted interest, to be either hasty or abrupt. There we wjP \nand there we remained for some time, until at last our orders were complrad \nand arrangements had been made for fittings. Finally we effected our departure, \nsurrounded by beaming, kindly, smiling faces, and followed by good wishes called \nto us from the doorway. We were old friends from then on; and we were sorry \nthat our own lack of time and the very efficient tailoring that was done, made our \nlater visits fewer than we could have wished. \n\nSigns of mourning were everywhere in Bordeaux, in the streets, in the shops, \nabove all in the churches; four out of every five of the people that one met were \nin black. It was heartrending, until we remembered, and took consolation from \nthe fact, that all this was, perhaps, less significant than it would have been at \nhome. Always, over there, even \u201cin-laws\u201d and remote cousins have gone into \n\n\n\n\n\n\n3o8 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLV \n\n\nstreamers and things that look like widow\u2019s weeds, when a family connection has \ndied. Nevertheless, it told the story of the toll which almost four years of war \nhad taken; of all that France had endured. It was in the churches that one \nrealized this most vividly, for there one would find gathered the real mourners, \nthe brokenhearted who had come to be healed. I spent all the time I could in the \nCathedral at Bordeaux, and I loved the place, because it was real, particularly \nthe Lady Chapel behind the High Altar. For there, in the half-light, were \ngathered together those who had come to pray in secret, perhaps to weep in \nsecret: old women and young girls, come to lay for a time all that they were carry\u00ac \ning at the foot of the Cross, before they took it up again and went bravely on; \nsoldiers cn permission, leaving soon to go back to the lines, there to commend \nanew to Divine watchfulness and care those whom they were to leave behind, \nto gain for themselves new courage and fresh strength; children to light a candle, \nand to say a prayer for the soul of, perhaps, a father, before they went out again \nto responsibilities far beyond their years, which they knew would be crushing \nwithout this help. The angels seemed to be thick in that place, left there, \nstationed there, because of real prayers. The atmosphere was alive; it must \nhave made it easy for Him to be present. Those people knew that He was present. \nFaces, drawn and tired and stained with tears, were luminous and shining, as one \nafter another rose from their knees and walked quietly away. One realized, at \nsuch times, all that France had endured. But one realized, too, all that France \ncould still endure, all of the fighting force and driving power still latent in a \npeople who had such faith and such devotion, to whom the unseen world was so \nforceful and so living a reality. \n\nIt is commonly believed in the Army, and it is true, that association with \nhorses and mules has the peculiar effect of breaking down all reserves of language, \nand of inducing in hitherto blameless individuals a freedom in conversation, and \nan indulgence in continuous swearing, that becomes startling as that association \ncontinues. When men of all kinds live together under conditions such as obtain \nin the Army in war-time, it is inevitable that blasphemy should be almost uni\u00ac \nversal. The bars are down and the restraints of ordinary living conditions are \nabsent, and it was not our horses and mules alone which were responsible for \nthese expressions in our men, for many of them were fluent enough at the start \nof their military careers. Nor was such talk confined to the enlisted men; that \nsort of thing is catching, and officers were by no means blameless in this respect. \nWhile at Camp Souge I received a letter from a friend in the Movement, in which \nhe said: \u201cI was thinking the other day about the swearing, regretting it. I have \nbeen reading that the English troops in particular hardly open their mouths \nwithout blaspheming. But then I realized that by using the name of Jesus \nas they do, as an expletive, as emphasis,\u2014they unconsciously do Him honour, \nbecause it\u2019s the biggest and most \u2018meaningful\u2019 word they know. It is a recog\u00ac \nnition of His supremacy, of His greatness. One would wish for something better, \nand for real recognition. But in any case they cannot ignore Him.\u201d I wrote \nmy friend in reply, and told him that I must, without realizing it, have sensed \nsomething of what he had expressed in his letter; that always I had felt that \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n309 \n\n\nunrestrained blasphemy was an unconscious evocation of a tremendous force, \ncalled forth and turned loose as it were, a power for good or for evil depending \nupon the conditions and circumstances. I told him that, since I had been in the \nArmy, I had trained myself, whenever men blasphemed, whenever a sacred name \nwas so spoken, instinctively to bow my head and to repeat that name inwardly, \nas an act of devotion, of atonement, of extenuation, because I felt sure that in \nsome way this act of mine would not only counteract the potential evil in what \nhad been said, but would turn it into a constructive force, into something which \ncould be actually used in the inner world. Later in that summer my friend \nreplied,\u2014\u201cCertainly, whenever you do as you say about misuse of sacred names, \n\u2014that in itself would nullify the wrong done. It is one of the things that im\u00ac \npresses me most about \u2018the Providence of God\u2019: the way He uses evil, not only \nfor the increase of good, but as a way, through others, to convert evil.\u2019\u2019 This \nconfirmation was a great help. Had I needed other assurance of the power that is \nunleashed through blasphemy, I could have found it in its effect upon those men. \nAlways it was as if virtue had gone out of them, as if a void were left within, \nwhich had to be filled again. \n\nSometimes we would vary our week-ends by engaging a private motor, which \nit was not easy to do in France in war-time, as there were very few private cars \nwhich had not been requisitioned for military purposes, and there were restrictions \nupon the use of petrol; but we were able to manage it occasionally, and motored \nthrough the country around Bordeaux, either to some little village set in the vine- \ncovered hills, or to some resort on the coast. The coast resorts were later put \n\u201coff bounds\u2019\u2019, because of the suspected presence in them of German spies, who \nwere anxious to find out all about the American units training in the south of \nFrance. We spent one delightful afternoon, visiting an artillery regiment of \nanother Division which was billeted in the country south of Bordeaux, waiting \nuntil we had left to move into our Camp. The officers were quartered in a \nchateau, owned by a French Countess of Irish birth; she entertained us at tea \nunder the trees on the lawn, and talked charmingly to us, a mixture of French and \nEnglish, in the use of which last she was (juite rusty, and with a delightful brogue I \nBut while this kind of thing was all very pleasant, it was not getting on with the \nWar. We did it because we had the time, and because we needed some relief \nfrom the monotony of Camp; but we began to long for the everlasting lopiing to \nbe completed, and to get to the front. This feeling was accentuated H^he fact \nthat the great American Base Hospitals near Bordeaux began to receive men who \nhad been wounded in the fighting north of Paris; we would meet walking cases, \nofficers, in the streets of the city, and hear from them of the fine showing that the \nAmerican troops were already making, and of the progress of military events, \nof which we, of course, were entirely ignorant, remote as we were, and seeing \nonly an occasional newspaper which had been carefully censored. \n\nAll this time I had been doing a good deal of serious thinking about my own \nmilitary future. I had definitely reached the conclusion, as I have said, that the \nAmmunition Train was neither flesh, fowl, nor good red herring, and that to stay \nin it, once I had gained a certain amount of military background and experience, \n\n\n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n310 \n\nwould simply mean doing hard work at the beck and call of all the other combat \nunits in the Division, without having any opportunity of really knowing what \nwas going on. I had been assisted in reaching this conclusion by the fact that the \nColonel was beginning to show certain signs of deterioration. The close prox\u00ac \nimity of Bordeaux, and its accessibility, now that we had at last received the \nDodge limousine to which we were entitled, proved too much for him, and he \nspent a great deal too much of his time in the caf^s and hotels in the city. An \norder had come through from General Headquarters, American Expeditionary \nForces, requiring all regimental commanders to report the names of officers \nconsidered qualified for assignment as battalion commanders, and the Colonel \nhad sent my name forward with three others, recommending me for ^promotion. \nGood enough, as far as it went. While we were at Camp Souge, the Colonel had \nbeen advanced to a full Colonel, and one day, shortly after his promotion, he \ncalled me in and told me that he had been informed that the promotion of \ncolonels in France was proceeding quite rapidly, and that he had reason to \nbelieve that it would not be long before he received his star as a Brigadier \nGeneral; that then he would be given an Infantry Brigade; that when that \nhappened he would be in a position to move things about as he wanted, and that \nhe intended then to have me promoted to Major and to make me his Brigade \nAdjutant. Of course, I thanked him warmly for his kindness and expressed my \ndelight at the prospect. But I decided on the spot that, if I was going to hitch \nmy wagon to a star, it was not going to be his star. It would have been one thing \nto have commanded an Infantry Battalion under him as Colonel, as he had \nsuggested at Camp Upton, for he would have been restricted to some extent by \nhis Brigade Commander, and he would have relied largely upon the judgment \nof his picked Battalion Commanders, just as he had always relied upon certain \nofficers in the Ammunition Train. But to run an Infantry Brigade under his \ndirection was quite another proposition. I realized that he did not know enough \nabout modem Infantry warfare to hold down the job, and that I did not either, \n\u2014after spending ten months, during which I ought to have been acquiring \nexperience as an Infantry officer, in helping him to run an Ammunition Train. \nIf things went right with his Infantry Brigade, he would get the credit; if, \nhowever, they went wrong, as they certainly would, I should get the blame, and \nthen I should be sent back to the rear areas for re-classification, and given a job \ncounting crates on a wharf at some Base Port for the duration of the War! I got \nquite worked up over this agreeable picture! However, things seemed to be on \nthe move again, and the whole current of events was clearly setting away from \nthe Ammunition Train, which was wholly to the good. \n\nThings moved still further shortly afterwards. Another order came through \nfrom General Headquarters, requiring regimental commanders to submit the \nnames of all officers in their commands qualified for Staff positions. This seemed \nto present the opportunity for which I had been looking. I showed the order to \nthe Colonel, and asked him whether he thought I was qualified, and, if so, \nwhether he would recommend me. Somewhat to my surprise, he received the \nidea with real enthusiasm, and not only sent my name forward, via Headquarters \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n3 \u201d \n\n\n77th Division, but wrote as well a personal letter to the Chief of Staff of the \nDivision on my behalf. He also wrote personal letters about me to the Division \nJudge Advocate and to the Assistant to the Division Chief of Staff, enclosing \ncopies of the letter which he had sent to the Chief of Staff himself. He could \nnot have been more complete in his effort for me or more generous in what he \nsaid, and I began to be sorry for some of the rather harsh judgments which I had \nbeen forming, and to dwell again upon his amiable qualities, which were many. \nI was elated over all this, and felt that as a result something was really going to \nhappen. It did; but I was not to know it for three weeks, not until after we had \njoined up with the rest of the Division in the sector at Baccarat in the Vosges. \n\nOur time at Camp Souge was drawing to a close, and we began to arrange \nthings with a view to an early departure for the front. On the Fourth of July, \nour 152d Field Artillery Brigade paraded in Bordeaux, as infantry and without \ntheir guns, which would have been difficult to move into and out of the city, \nand in the circumstances they made a very good showing. I viewed the pro\u00ac \nceedings with the Colonel from the reviewing stand, and several French officers \nand their wives made very kind and gratifying remarks about our march past. \nImmediately thereafter we started inspections again, and repaired any slight \ndeficiencies in equipment, and were ready to move several days before our orders \ncame. Soon our artillery regiments entrained, one by one, and departed; as \nusual, we were the last to go. We sent off first our motor trucks, which proceeded \nby road in two convoys, in command of the two ranking captains. Our animals \nand materiel took up a great deal of space, so that when the balance of the \ncommand was finally entrained, five sections of about sixty cars each were \nneeded, each section, as before, having its commanding officer and a carefully \norganized staff to assist him. Again the Colonel and I travelled in the last \nsection. We were waiting to pull out of the station in Bordeaux, on the 13th of \nJuly, and were bemoaning the fact that again we had drawn a perfectly terrible \nold railway carriage, when we happened to see on a siding near by a fine modem \ncarriage; we at once investigated its interior, and found that it had staterooms \nand a shower-bath. We decided to travel in it, and sent for the Chef de Care. \nHe told us at some length that it would be perfectly impossible to chang^Ae \ncars; but he changed his mind, and the cars too, for a financial consideraBR, \nand we finally pulled out in the highest spirits. It had taken a long while to get \nto the front, but we were bound there at last. \n\n\n{To be continued) \n\n\nCenturion. \n\n\nTWO ANCIENT RECORDS \n\n\nfar back as we can grope our way in the history of earliest Egypt, we \n\n\n\ncome upon records (often, alas, mere fragments), which tell us of the \n\n\nappearances from time to time, in the world of men, of great Beings \nfrom higher spheres. Sometimes the account concerns a tradition only\u2014a \ntradition brought over from the far past; again it is a detailed description of an \nevent, written shortly after it had taken place, telling us in glowing, living \nwords just what had happened. Usually, though not always, the great \u201cShining \nOnes\u201d appeared in moments of impending national danger, or when some im\u00ac \nportant national decision was about to be made; usually also, it was to the \nreigning Pharaoh that they revealed themselves, though simple peasants, pious \nand devout, were occasionally vouchsafed a heavenly vision. In those won\u00ac \nderful days, the Lodge was very near to earth, and men\u2019s hearts were so at\u00ac \ntuned that the Masters could easily be evoked; and in the late d3masties, when \nwritten records were so numerous (we might almost say endless), we are con\u00ac \ntinually coming upon allusions to the appearance or command or intervention \nof one of \u201cthe gods\u201d\u2014one of the Masters as we should now express it.^ \n\nThus Hatshepsut, the great Queen of the XVIIIth Dynasty, tells us of con\u00ac \nversations with her \u201cgod\u201d when she enters the sanctuary of the beautiful, \ncolonnaded temple which she had built for him, close under the towering, rugged \ncliffs which, on the Lybian side, bound the vast plain of Thebes. She tells us \nof the great temple garden which she had laid out and beautified with sunny \nterraces of myrrh trees, brought for the purpose from the distant land of Punt\u2014 \n\u201cjust as he commanded me\u201d; and she adds, with a graphic touch: \u201cIt is large \nfor him, he walks abroad in it.\u201d \n\nOne of the most celebrated and detailed of these ancient records (though \nEgyptologists invariably seem to regard it as merely fiction) is on a votive stela \nerected by Thothmes IV, immortalizing an experience which had come to him \nwhen a young prince, long before he ascended the throne. It was an appear\u00ac \nance of the god Ra-Horakhti, close beside the sphinx\u2014the sphinx which had \nbeen consecrated to him from of old; the sphinx which already, even in the time \nof Thothmes IV, was half buried under the drifting desert sands. This vision \noccurred in the full light, the blinding noon sunshine of an Egyptian day, yet \nthe light of the god as he stood there was so powerful that it dissipated the rays \nof the sun, as the radiant splendour of dawn will scatter the dark shadows of \nnight. Tradition tells us that the Sun-god had already been seen (though at \nlong intervals), in this same place, which was a likely one for such visions, being \nholy ground, set apart, sacred to Ra-Horakhti himself. The huge red granite \ncommemorative stela still stands on the very spot where the vision was seen, \ndirectly in front of the sphinx, between the gigantic forepaws; and although the \n\n\u00bb The translations of the texts used here, are those of Maspero or of Breasted. \n\n\n312 \n\n\n\n\nTWO ANCIENT RECORDS \n\n\n313 \n\n\ninscription, recording the event, is now so badly damaged that at least a third \nof the narrative is lost, what has been preserved bears the unmistakable stamp \nof reality and truth. \n\nThothmes IV was the son of Amenhotep II, of the XVIIIth Dynasty, and he \nlived, roughly speaking, about 1430 b.c. He was not the heir-apparent at the \ntime of the vision, although later, owing to several deaths among his brothers, \nhe became King. As a boy he was headstrong, adventurous and brave; he was \nmuch beloved by the entire army because of this, and he gave promise of some \nof the remarkable physical strength for which his father, Amenhotep II, was so \ncelebrated. Devoted to the chase as to all other manly sports, he was often \nseen racing across the desert sands in headlong pursuit of game, outstripping \nall his attendants; he was not easily held in leash. The story on the stela runs \nas follows: \n\nWhen Thothmes was still quite a youth, \u201cBehold he did a thing that gave \nhim pleasure, upon the highlands of the Memphite nome, upon its southern and \nnorthern road, shooting at a target with copper bolts, hunting lions and wild \ngoats, coursing in his chariot, his horses being swifter than the wind; together \nwith two of his followers, while not a soul knew it.\u201d And toward midday, when \nthe heat became overpowering, he halted in his sport for the purpose \u201cof giving \nrest to his followers\u201d, and he himself, as was his wont on such occasions, re\u00ac \ntired into the cool shade \u201cat the shoulder of Horakhti\u2014he rested in the shadow \nof the great god\u201d, and there he fell asleep. Then \u201ca vision seized him at the \nhour when the sun was in the zenith\u201d, and Thothmes heard, close beside him, \nthe voice of Ra-Horakhti, \u201cspeaking with his own mouth, as a Father speaks \nto his son, saying: \u2018Behold thou me! See thou me! my son Thothmes. I am \nthy Father who will give thee my kingdom on earth at the head of the living.\u2019 \u201d \nAs the boy lay there, intently listening, he must have been startled by this \nprophecy, for at that time he had no royal expectations whatsoever. But the \nheavenly voice continued, giving definite counsel for the future, telling him \nwhat was expected of him when at last he sat upon the throne. The god\u2019s com\u00ac \nmand was, of course, couched in allegorical form, as was always the case\u2014he \nspoke of Egypt\u2019s need as he would speak of his own. \u201cThou shalt be to me a \nprotector, for it is as though I were ailing in all my limbs. The sand of the \ndesert upon which I am, has reached me; turn to me to have that done which I \ndesire, knowing that thou art my son, my protector.\u201d Egypt had slipped away \nfrom the ancient ideals upon which she had been founded; alreadj^pc was \nburied under an accumulation, centuries old, of ever-increasing m^rialism, \npiling up in mountainous drifts like the encroaching sands. She must be saved, \nunearthed, set free to serve the gods, the Lodge, as in days of yore, and the \nyoung Prince Thothmes was the one chosen by the gods to attempt this gigantic \ntask. A promise of heavenly assistance was quick to follow: \u201cBehold I am with \nthee, I am thy leader\u201d, Thothmes is assured. The narrative then concludes: \n\u201cWhen he [Horakhti] had finished speaking, the King\u2019s son awoke; he under\u00ac \nstood the words which the great one had spoken, and he kept them secret in \nhis heart.\u201d But he hurried home to make a vow in the temple that if ever he \n\n\n\n\n\n\n314 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nbecame Pharaoh he would remember and be true to his vision. He did become \nKing, but unfortunately he did not live long enough to accomplish all that had \nbeen hoped. There can be no doubt, however, that the effort to clear Egypt of \nthat which was engulfing her, was definitely and consciously carried on by some \nof the Pharaohs who followed, not so much perhaps by Amenhotep III, the son \nof Thothmes, but certainly by Akhenaton his grandson, whose religious revolu\u00ac \ntion was one of the greatest protests against the lowering of ideals that Egypt \nover saw. \n\nFor more than a century the fight went on, with varying success, few of the \nPharaohs who followed being of the calibre to make much headway against \nthe growing evil. In most cases each regarded his own glory as of more im\u00ac \nportance than the glory of Egypt; the old-time singleness of purpose had passed \naway. Of course, there are records of the appearance and intervention of the \ngods during this interval, but most of these records are rather academic, and \ndo not carry the hall-mark of actual experience. Then, with Rameses the Great \n(1292-1225 B.C.), we come upon the last whole-hearted and sustained effort to \nsave Egypt from her approaching fate, and had a few more men of his stamp \nsucceeded him on the throne, the course of Egypt\u2019s history would undoubtedly \nhave been much altered. \n\nRameses II came to the throne when still a very young man, and from the \nfirst, his warrior qualities, his power, his force, manifested themselves, and \nhis long reign had hardly begun when he, carried along on the tide of his fiery \nimpetuosity, hurled himself upon the Hittites who were swarming in the north- \nSyrian provinces, threatening to creep still farther south. The Battle of Kadesh \non the banks of the Orontes, is one of the great battles of the world, the first \nof the world\u2019s great battles of which we have any tactical details, and, thanks \nto the records, we can follow the disposition of both armies all through it. We \nowe our information to what is known as the \u201cPoem of Pentaur\u2019\u2019\u2014a poem \nin rhymed strophes, very long and full of minutest particulars. Whoever the \ntrue author of this poem was (for Pentaur was only the scribe who did the \ncopying), he must have been present during the entire campaign or have heard \nall about it from Pharaoh himself, for even after the lapse of thirty centuries, \nthis epic is still vibrant with life. Briefly, the events immortalized in it were as \nfollows: \n\nToward the end of April, 1288 b.c., Rameses started north with an army of \nveterans\u2014approximately 20,000 men. This was composed of four divisions: of \nAmon, Ra, Ptah and Sutekh. Pharaoh, at the head of his troops, led the way in \nhis glittering chariot of electrum, followed at a short distance by the division of \nAmon which was under his immediate command. The other divisions marched \nin the order given, with about four miles between them. This long line of troops \n(a large army for that day), pressed steadily to the north, sometimes along the \nPhoenician coast road, sometimes turning inland, and after a march of about a \nmonth, the Egyptians reached the east bank of the upper Orontes\u2014\u201cthe heights \nto the south of Kadesh\u201d\u2014looking all the while for the enemy, but failing to \nfind any trace of him. Here they encamped. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTWO ANCIENT RECORDS \n\n\n315 \n\n\nKadesh, of great strategic importance, and then a garrison town of the Hit- \ntites, was perched high above the valley of the Orontes, a fortress on a hilltop. \nThe banks of the river were both precipitous and lofty, and there was only \none narrow passage along which the Egyptian army, foot soldiers and chariots, \ncould pass, mostly in single file. It was therefore impossible to see the Hittite \nforces which were waiting silently and expectantly on the plain beyond Kadesh \n\u2014the Pharaoh was in total ignorance of their whereabouts. He commanded his \nofficers to discover the position of the enemy, which they evidently failed to do, \nreporting that, in terror at his approach, the Hittites had retreated to Aleppo. \nRameses was further misled by false information given him by two make-believe \ndeserters, sent out by order of the Hittite King for this express purpose, and, \nbelieving himself to be in complete control of the situation and with a mis\u00ac \nplaced sense of security, he rashly pushed on the next day, crossed the river \nby the ford at Shabtuna, passed through the Forest of Bay on the left bank, and \nfar outstripping the main body of his army, and supported only by his body\u00ac \nguard, took up an advanced position on the plain to the north-west of Kadesh, \nhoping thus to cut off all lines of communication between the town and the \nenemy\u2014the enemy which he thought to be a hundred miles away to the north. \nHe was followed at some distance by the division of Amon; the three other divi\u00ac \nsions (that of Ra in the van), came on at a slower pace with about four miles \ndistance between them. \n\nThe King\u2019s sense of security does not, however, last very long for, in his \nadvance camp, \u201chis majesty sitting in his tent upon his golden throne, sur\u00ac \nrounded by his staff\u2019\u2019, there arrives \u201ca scout belonging to the service of his \nmajesty, bringing with him two captured enemy scouts\u2019\u2019. These being cross- \nexamined by the young King himself (so eager is he to learn, at first hand, the \ntruth of the situation), they tell him that, as a matter of fact, the Hittites \u201cto\u00ac \ngether with many other countries\u2019\u2019, are only a few miles away. \u201cSee, they are \nstanding, drawn up for battle just behind Kadesh. . . . They are like the mul\u00ac \ntitudes of the sands; they cover the valleys and mountains like grasshoppers.\u2019\u2019 \n\nThis terrible news \u201cfills the King\u2019s tent with consternation\u2019\u2019, and Rameses \nin a towering rage, turns upon his officers: \u201cLook you, how ye have ^ed! \nYe have told Pharaoh that the enemy was in the land of Aleppo\u2014thatJ\u00aeiad \nfled before my majesty on learning of his approach! And this is what TTiear, \nat this hour, from these scouts\u2014that the enemy has come with men and horses \nas numerous as the sands, and that he is drawn up behind Kadesh the Per\u00ac \nfidious. And my officers knew naught of it!\u2019\u2019 Then the officers, cowed and \nterrified, begin to make excuses, putting the blame on others, but they are \nindignantly cut short; there is not a moment to waste, and the Vizier is ordered \nto send a messenger south, with the utmost speed, in order to hasten the arrival \nof the rest of his majesty\u2019s forces. On the temple reliefs (in Thebes) which \nillustrate the Battle of Kadesh, a lonely horseman is seen at break-neck gallop, \ngoing in search of the divisions which are still in the rear, and shouting as he \nhails them: \u201cForward! Forward! Pharaoh your master is attacked!\u2019\u2019 \n\nWhile Rameses, in the royal tent, is holding his council of war, the division \n\n\n3i6 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nof Amon comes up, and starts to encamp around the King, but the Hittites, no \ndoubt knowing all about what is going on, and realizing that their moment \nfor action has arrived, manoeuvre their chariotry around Kadesh to the east, \nso that they still remain entirely hidden from the Egyptians\u2014hidden behind \nthe hill on which Kadesh stands. Here, on the right bank of the Orontes, at \nthe ford a little to the south of the town, the Hittite chariots are massed for \nthe attack, and when the division of Ra is seen, on the left bank, emerging \nfrom the Forest of Bay, 2,500 Hittite chariots, with three men in each, suddenly \ncome thundering across the shallow ford of the river and, like a whirlwind, fall \nupon the right flank of the Egyptians \u201cand cut in two the division of Ra, march\u00ac \ning all unconscious and quite unable to reform its ranks\u201d. The fugitive Egyp\u00ac \ntians, driven like autumn leaves before an on-rushing storm (the Hittite chariots \nin hot pursuit), tumble headlong into the totally unprepared advance camp, \nthe result being frightful confusion, and a scattering to all sides of the force \nalready gathered there. Rameses in his tent, sees his defeated army fleeing \npast in wildest disorder and dismay; he makes a desperate attempt to stay the \nrout but is not heeded because his army has, for the moment, gone mad with \nfear. His officers (perhaps in an effort to stem the tide of retreat\u2014perhaps to \nsave themselves!), rush out of the royal presence, and the King sees the extended \nwings of the enemy close around him\u2014he is completely isolated, unattended, \nsolitary. All these changes have come about like the stroke of a hammer, and \nwe can only wonder that Rameses is not cut to pieces or, far worse, taken pris\u00ac \noner then and there. One thing, however, saves the situation: when the Hit\u00ac \ntites realize that they are actually in Pharaoh\u2019s camp, they think only of plunder, \nand give themselves up to it riotously. Thus the King has time to re-adjust \nhimself and to act. \n\nIt is at this point that Rameses, seeing the desperate if not utterly hopeless \nsituation that he is in, turns to his god and, in a loud voice which \u201cechoes as \nfar as distant Thebes\u201d, invokes him imperiously, with a touch of reproach in \nhis words: \u201cWho art thou then, my Father? A Father forgetful of his son? I \ncall upon Thee, O my Father! Behold me here in the midst of peoples so nu\u00ac \nmerous that no man knoweth who are the nations leagued against me, and I \nam all alone! None other is with me! My numerous soldiers have deserted me, \nnone of my chariot-fighters hath regarded me when I have called upon them; \nnot one of them hath heard my voice when I cried to them. But I know that \nmy Father is more to me than a million soldiers, than a hundred thousand \nchariots, than a myriad brothers or young sons; for numbers of men count for \nnaught, but my Father prevaileth against them.\u201d \n\nThe deafening noise of the conflict is going on all around him: the clash of \narms, the thunder of the horses\u2019 feet as they sweep past, the shouts of the vic\u00ac \ntors, the cries of the wounded and dying. But he is not listening to these. His \near is trained on sounds not of this world; he is listening intently for the answer \nto his call. He hears it\u2014just behind him, we are told\u2014and wheeling sharply \nhe sees his god, in the guise of Amon-Ra, standing there in a flood of light, and \nin full battle array: crested with tall plumes, the Sun-disc blazing on his fore- \n\n\nTWO ANCIENT RECORDS \n\n\n317 \n\n\nhead, one arm raised high above his head, the hand grasping the curved sword \nof the Egyptian warrior, the other hand stretched out to Rameses, while he \n\u201cutters a cry of joy\u201d at the sight of the young King, forsaken but undaunted: \n\u201cSee me here face to face with thee, Rameses Meriamon (my beloved!). I am \nwith thee! \u2019Tis I, thy Father! My hand is with thee, and I am worth more \nto thee than hundreds of thousands. I, the Mighty One, who love valiance\u2014I \nhave recognized a courageous heart, and My heart is satisfied.\u201d \n\nRameses, his momentary uncertainty gone, regains his customary intrepid \ninitiative, and with his own hand (since there is not a soul in attendance), he \nseizes \u201chis adornments of battle, and arrays himself in his coat of mail ... he \nbetakes himself to his horses\u201d, he goes in search of his own chariot, \u201cbeing \nalone by himself\u201d he puts his horses into it with his own royal hands, and with\u00ac \nout a moment\u2019s hesitation, clothed in the radiant power of his god, he charges \nsix times, furiously like a devouring flame, right into the thick of the fight, \nsmiting and slaying to right and left. He strikes such terror into the hearts \nof the enemy (who think that he is Mentu, the god of war), that they flee for \nlife before him: \u201cHis majesty hurled them headlong, one upon another, into \nthe waters of the Orontes\u201d, says the chronicle. Having now, by his contagious \nand irresistible audacity, restored some order to his stunned and demoralized \ntroops, and the division of Ptah having come up, a united charge is made. In \none of the reliefs we see the Hittites and their allies struggling in the water, or \nbeing dragged out of it by their comrades on the opposite shore; the enemy \nperished by thousands in wounded, killed or drowned. Then at length, the \nHittite King, realizing that night was coming on, and fearing the possible ar\u00ac \nrival of the missing fourth division\u2014that of Sutekh\u2014retires within the walls \nof Kadesh, leaving undisputed the field of battle to the Egyptians. \n\nWhile the \u201cPoem of Pentaur\u201d continues for some time after the events just \nrecorded (for the campaign was not yet completed), Amon does not again ap\u00ac \npear in the text. We are left to infer his protective, overshadowing presence \nthroughout the rest of the conflict, though he is not himself made visible to us. \nBut Rameses II lived to be a very old man, and his long and illustrious reign \nwas full of war and rumours of war\u2014it was one long fight, his \u201cgod\u201d being ever \npresent at his side. When at last the end of his life came and he died, it is not \ntoo much to say that the gods seem to have departed with him. 'rhejj^^ere \nyet many long centuries in the history of Egypt, but she was slowl^^ying \nthrough all that time; the reign of Rameses the Great marked the last uncom\u00ac \npromising stand against the dark powers of evil. Many records have been \nleft to us of those later days; they are, however, mostly of a very inferior qual\u00ac \nity; almost all.lack the living touch which is so striking in the earlier annals. \nAfter Rameses II, the great \u201cShining Ones\u201d seem more and more to have re\u00ac \ntired from the scenes of men: of the succeeding Pharaohs there was not one \nspiritually strong enough to call them back, and the twilight of the gods crept \nslowly over the \u201cBeloved Land\u201d. \n\n\nHetep-en-Neter. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\nHE man who loses his nerve, or whose nerves are \u2018shot to pieces\u2019 as a \n\n\n\nresult of prolonged strain or crisis, is invariably a man whose belief in \n\n\na spiritual world is merely nominal. In any case, that is what my own \n\n\nobservation has taught me.\u201d \n\nIt was the Engineer who volunteered this remark in the course of a conver\u00ac \nsation in which several of us took part. \u2018\u2018I am speaking practically, from my \nexperience in business\u201d, he continued, \u2018\u2018and do not hesitate to say that almost any \nkind of a faith, so it be real, is better than none. A man, for instance, faces the \npossibility, even the probability, of financial ruin, with his wife and children \nunprovided for; perhaps, in addition, he is responsible for the savings of others, \nhis friends, whose ruin would follow his own. To pretend that this is not a terrible \nsituation, humanly speaking, would be to condemn oneself as heartless and \ninsensible; but what should be the reaction to it? Self-pity? Clearly not. As \na matter of fact, while the fight is fast and furious, a man has no time for self- \npity; but if, during intervals of pause or rest, he allows a stock of that poison \nto accumulate, it is almost inevitable that as soon as the crisis is over, or seems \nto be over, whether for good or ill, he will cave in physically and nervously, as the \nouter expression of his preceding inner and moral lack.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018But what ought to be his reaction?\u201d someone asked. \n\n\u2018\u2018The answer to that must depend upon the nature of his faith, of his con\u00ac \nvictions. The reaction of a student of Theosophy would not be the same as \nthat of an orthodox Christian, or Mohammedan, or Buddhist, or Christian \nScientist; but in any case a taint of self-pity would be fatal\u2014and it is astonishing \nhow rarely self-pity is recognized, not only as an enemy, but as a disgrace. \nSo long as we are mortal, we shall be subject to its attacks; but if we deal with it \nas we might deal with thoughts admittedly vile, and passionately, or with \nloathing, expel it,\u2014we shall have turned such \u2018insults of the devil\u2019 (I love that \nold-time phrase) into a moral victory, and therefore into moral strength.\u201d \n\nThe questioner was not satisfied. \u2018\u2018But if a student of Theosophy\u201d, he per\u00ac \nsisted, \u2018\u2018were situated as you have imagined, what ought to be his reaction?\u201d \n\nThe Engineer laughed. \u201cAgain, it \u2018all depends\u2019 \u201d, he said. \u201cIt depends upon \nthe individual approach, and especially upon the degree of spiritual insight \nwhich the individual possesses. It seems to me, however, that there are certain \nfundamentals which are common to all \u2018faiths\u2019. One of these is the conviction \n(and unless it be a conviction, it will be useless) that this life is a bridge, not to be \nbuilt on, but to be passed over,\u2014to quote one of the sayings attributed to Jesus \nby the Mohammedans; another is that the invisible world is more real, and \ninfinitely more lasting, than the visible; yet another is that so long as we con\u00ac \nscientiously strive to do our duty, as we see it, and in obedience to the divine \nlaw, nothing really harmful can happen either to us, or, as a result of our action, \n\n\n318 \n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n319 \n\nto those we love or would serve. But that is not all, for one of the most important \nof fundamentals is the conviction that there exists a transcendent and indwelling \nLight, which some would call God, others, the Atma or Higher Self, others, \nKrishna or Christ, according to the Master or Avatar they recognize,\u2014and that \nthis Light (\u2018the Masters and the inner light are not different\u2019, as Judge said),\u2014 \nthat this Light is for us the embodiment of wisdom, love, and power,\u2014truly a \n\u2018Father in Heaven\u2019. \n\n\u201cMany people say they believe in such things, and perhaps honestly think \nthey do; but, when the test comes, and their nerves get the better of them, what \nfurther proof is needed that they have built on sand, instead of on rock? Their \nfaith, so-called, is unreal; they have not given it enough thought, enough atten\u00ac \ntion, from day to day, to turn it into a conviction; they have not put it to the \ntest in advance of their need. If they had, they would have found, from day to \nday, cause for ceaseless thanksgiving, and then, through times of storm and \nstress, would have found at least as much cause for it,\u2014instead of an excuse for \nself-pity, or for inner, ill-concealed trepidation. ... I repeat: for practical \npurposes, for stability in times of crisis, for the stamina which lasts through a \nperiod of strain and comes through on the other side, serene and smiling,\u2014give \nme a man with any kind of real faith, and pity the man who has none.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cBut surely a man\u2019s physical condition has much to do with it!\u2019\u2019 one of our \nvisitors exclaimed. \n\n\u201cNot in the least\u2019\u2019, the Engineer answered, uncompromisingly. \u201cI am assum\u00ac \ning a nervous, high-strung temperament to begin with. A nerveless man may be \nable to go through a battle unmoved. I am not talking of such people; nor, as a \nmatter of fact, do I remember having met any. Unsound physical condition \nmay make a man feel \u2018jumpy\u2019 and irritable; lack of self-control may result in \nshowing this at times, which is gravely wrong (most of us, alas, must plead \nguilty); but that is not the point. The point is: to what centre does a man \nreact,\u2014to one of stillness or of turmoil? Does he automatically revert to some\u00ac \nthing above and greater than his worries, which (or who) sees the causes of his \nworries more truly than he can, helping him to extract the sting of self from \nthem; or, for lack of the conviction that the \u2018above and greater than\u2019 himself \nexists, and that it is his heart\u2019s home, does he remain on the level of his wcjrip, \nand merely try to divert his thoughts by reading a novel, by going t^Rrie \npictures\u2019, or by similar means? The truth is that in hours of difficulty or danger, \nmany a bed-ridden man or woman, with real faith, has been the moral support \nof all the able-bodied people within reach. Physical ill-health, instead of being \nan obstacle to the inner poise of which I speak, has often helped to establish it,\u2014 \nthe need for support from within, tending to turn the attention and desire toward \nthe world from which it flows. \u2018Demand creates supply\u2019, let us remember; but \nlet us also remember that the supply of anything worth while takes time\u2014that \nrocks are not created in a day\u2014and that a sudden howl to heaven from a man \nwho finds himself in a hole, cannot possibly give him that which only years of \nthought, of meditation, of prayer, of experience, can make immovable. To begin \nnow, is the moral of it.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\n\n\n\n320 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n\u201cWhat you have been saying,\u201d remarked the Historian, \u201cis strikingly in line \nwith some recent observations by General Weygand, one of the greatest soldiers \nthe Great War brought to the front,\u2014a man as remarkable for his personal disin\u00ac \nterestedness and humility, as for his force and military genius. Interviewed \na few weeks ago, on the eve of his retirement as Commander-in-Chief of the \nFrench armies, he was asked what he thought of the epoch through which we are \nliving. This was his reply: \n\nIt is rather disquieting. There are many people who are intelligent, many who have \ntalent. That is perhaps the worst of it, for they lead public opinion, and the intellectuals of \nto-day turn all their intelligence into \u2018research\u2019. Their whole life is an investigation, and \nthe result, in a single word, is douht. Now it is perhaps interesting to doubt; I believe, even, \nthat it is useful for a country to have some who do the doubting. But not too many. If \neveryone doubts, the country suffers from it, terribly. \n\n\u201cThe editor of the paper in which I found this interview quoted, comments \nthat many of these so-called intellectuals spread their plague of doubt over \neverything: is there any foundation in reason, they ask, for morality, for patri\u00ac \notism, for self-sacrifice, for honour, for government, for believing, even, that man \nreally exists, or for believing in the past, or the future? This attitude percolates \ndown to the man-in-the-street who, with a minimum of understanding, takes it \nfor justification of anarchy, both inner and outer. \n\n\u201cWeygand\u2019s statement of conditions is very temperate, but he evidently \nrealizes that the lack of inner conviction, lack of faith\u2014 doubt \u2014is one of the \nmajor contributing factors in the decay of the modem State, just as the same \nlack deprives the individual of inner coherence and poise,\u2014with the result of \nwhich you were speaking: loss of nerve or of nervous control, in times of real \ntrial and trouble.\u201d \n\n\u201cI am wondering\u201d, said the Student at this point, \u201cwhether a man who was \ncompletely masculine, would go to pieces at such times, even though devoid \nof faith. My reason is that self-pity seems to me to be foreign to the truly \nmasculine temperament, and I believe, as the Engineer seems to believe, that \nself-pity is the undermining factor in nervous collapse.\u201d \n\n\u201cFirst find your man who is completely masculine\u201d, laughed the Historian. \n\u201cThere have been such men; doubtless there still are (I am not speaking of mem\u00ac \nbers of the Lodge who combine all the qualities in balanced perfection); but \nyou will agree, I think, that most of us, in this Age of Kali, are very far from \nbeing one hundred per cent anything, and that we simply must have an antidote \nwithin us if we are to survive the attacks of our own inherent weaknesses. In \nother words, we must have some sort of faith, as the Engineer concluded.\u201d \n\n\u201cI have been thinking of self-pity in another connection also\u201d, the Engineer \nnow resumed; \u201cthat is, of the predominant part it plays in mourning for the \ndead. There are exceptions always. I have known of people who suffered \nagonies of remorse on the death of a relative or friend, blaming themselves \nbitterly, sometimes with reason, sometimes with none, for their sins of omission \nor commission where he had been concerned; and this was perhaps accompanied \nby unspeakable regret that it was now too late, or seemed to be, to atone, or to \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n321 \n\n\ntell him of their repentance. I can respect that, though personally I believe we \ncan tell him of our repentance just as easily after he is \u2018dead\u2019, as before. It \ncertainly does not follow that because we cannot hear him, he cannot hear us. \nOn the contrary, I am afraid that in many cases the so-called dead, for some time \nfollowing their departure from this world, remain closely in contact with it, and \nare deeply distressed by the grief of those they have left on earth, whom they \nstrive vainly to reassure and to console. What I cannot respect is the attitude of \nthose who declare their belief in a future life, and that it is a state of \u2018refreshment \nand rest\u2019; who declare, further, that they have nothing with which seriously to \nreproach themselves in their past behaviour to the dead, and who, none the less, \ngrieve as those only have a right to grieve who believe that death is the end of \nlife, the end of mutual love, the end of all things. I cannot respect their feeling \nbecause, quite obviously, it is one of self-pity, and although none of us, at such \ntimes, can hope to rise above it entirely, we might at least have the grace to be \nashamed of our weakness, instead of regarding it as a virtue or merit, as so many \npeople seem to do. We should brace ourselves against it; not give in to it; \nand we should force ourselves, as soon as possible, not only to think but to speak \nof our dead, lovingly, cheerfully, as we might speak of those who have preceded \nus on a journey, and whose welcome when we join them is, as it were, just round \nthe corner.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Self-pity doubtless accounts for a great deal\u201d, the Philosopher commented, \n'\u2018but I think there is an even more childish element involved in the behaviour \nof many people who are supposed to be mourning their dead; that is, self-impor\u00ac \ntance,\u2014the desire to feel important, and to be recognized as important by others. \nPart of what we mean when we describe a person as common (very different \nfrom being vulgar) is that he is undeveloped, elementary, childish; and we \nknow the lengths to which many small boys will go in their efforts to appear \nimportant in the eyes of their fellows. \u2018My father is dead\u2019, will be announced \nwith more sense of importance than if the same small boy had won a prize at \nschool. I remember, on one occasion, over-hearing such an announcement met \nwith the counter-blast, \u2018That ain\u2019t nothing; I lost me father an\u2019 mother an\u2019 \nfour brothers an\u2019 three sisters\u2019. \u2018Liar\u2019, shouted the other boy, \u2018I seen your \nfather this morning.\u2019 They tried to settle it with blows, but I did not w^iov \nthe decision. I do not think we allow sufficiently for the fact that thffarge \nmajority of people, including numbers who ought to know better, never out\u00ac \ngrow such childishness. We make the fatal mistake, all the time, of treating \nhuman appearances as human beings, when the truth is they are elementals, \nharmless perhaps, but entirely devoid of soul. The mental processes of the \naverage man (incidentally, of ninety per cent of our voting population) are so \nprimitive, so fantastically inconsequential and infantile, so utterly unrelated to \ntruth in any form; his motives are so unblushingly those of a six-year-old boy,\u2014 \nthat it should be easy to understand why a country like ours is in the condition of \na nursery full of children, peevish, quarrelsome, noisy, miserable, without Elders \nto look after them, and without sense enough even to wish that Elders would \nlook after them.\u201d \n\n\n322 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n\u201cBut we were talking about death\u201d, complained one of our visitors, \u201cand I \nwanted to ask a question.\u201d \n\n\u201cI did not change the subject!\u201d the Philosopher smiled; \u201cI enlarged upon \nit. What was your question?\u201d \n\n\u201cDo you believe in wearing mourning?\u201d \u201cCertainly I do\u201d, was the reply. \n\u201cIt is a very convenient way of saying, \u2018Not at home\u2019. Also it may be regarded \nas a symbol of respect for the dead. But the wearing of mourning is a matter of \nrace, religion, class, period. There can be no universal or absolute rule.\u201d \n\n\u201cThe subject of death bores me\u201d, the Sceptic suddenly interposed; \u201cand \nyou will bore your readers. Some of us are interested in Life; most of us are \ninterested in how to get something for nothing, living or dead.\u201d \n\nThe Philosopher took him up instantly. \u201cBut death is as much a prolongation \nof life, as night is a prolongation of day\u201d, he said. \u201cEither for that reason, or from \nan intense desire to postpone \u2018the end\u2019, the more interested you are in life, the \ngreater should be your interest in death. It is a fascinating subject, I assure \nyou.\u201d \n\n\u201cIs that why you want to talk about it? Rather sudden, isn\u2019t it?\u201d \n\n\u201cNo\u201d, said the Philosopher, \u201cnot sudden. I am manifesting Cyclic Law! \nPeriodically\u2014every ten years or so\u2014I read some books on Spiritualism, just to \nsee how it is getting along; if it is learning anything; and I have just finished \nthe latest output. There was a noticeable revival of Spiritualism in England \nand her Colonies, following the Great War, just as there was in America after \nthe Civil War. Innumerable sons, brothers, husbands, had been cut off in their \nprime, and those who loved them, longed for definite assurance of their survival. \nToo often, the consolation of the Churches was very vague, very uncertain,\u2014 \nwhile, in many cases, the War itself had shattered what had been a merely \nnominal faith; so grief, or distress, resulted in a rush to stances, the demand of \ncourse creating a supply. A somewhat later result was the publication of books, \ngiving evidence of survival, some of it really striking, but all of it, without excep\u00ac \ntion, tending to confirm the theosophical explanation of such phenomena, and, \nabove all, to justify H.P.B\u2019s. repeated warnings against participation in what \nis fundamentally unwholesome, dangerous and wrong. I went to a stance once, \nmore than thirty years ago, and could not be hired to go to another, though I \nsaw things then which I still believe to have been genuine, and which were cer\u00ac \ntainly very remarkable.\u201d \n\nThis was too much for the Sceptic, whose curiosity\u2014like that of all sceptics \n\u2014is highly developed. \n\n\u201cWhat did you see?\u201d he asked. \n\nBut the Philosopher was not easily diverted. \u201cI have decided to talk about \nDeath,\u201d he said, \u201cand what I saw were phenomena not primarily intended to \nthrow light on the problem of survival; primarily they were exhibitions of what, \nif I remember rightly, used to be called apport\u2014tho, transportation of physical \nobjects, from a distance, through matter, by invisible means.\u201d \n\nThis made things worse instead of better, and the Philosopher quickly realized \nthat the more important matters he wanted to discuss would receive no attention. \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n323 \n\n\nfrom the Sceptic in any case, until the apport business had been described\u2014and \nside-tracked. After saying something to this effect, jokingly, he continued: \n\n\u201cI was in one of the big cities of Australia, where I happened to meet the \nAmerican Vice-Consul, a man of some wealth, and brother of a man whose \nname was as well and as favourably known on the West Coast of our continent \nas the name of Brown is known in Rhode Island. My new acquaintance told me \nthat he had visited Australia, on business, some forty years earlier, intending to \nremain there only a few weeks, but he had been so terribly sea-sick during \nthe voyage, that nothing could have induced him to face such an ordeal again; \nso there he was, an old bachelor, in a comfortable home, with hobbies to keep \nhim occupied and happy. He was a naturalist, and besides a large aviary, had \nformed remarkable collections of botanical and geological specimens. But his \nchief hobby was Spiritualism, though he did not mention this until he had met \nme several times and had made sure I was \u2018open-minded\u2019. He then explained \nthat after long search and experiment, he had found a most satisfactory medium, \na man, whom he had every reason to believe was honest, and whom he had taken \ninto his exclusive employment. He had conducted stances with this medium \nfor several years before my arrival on the scene, with what he regarded as excel\u00ac \nlent results. In the first place, he had complete command of the situation, as \nthe stances were held invariably in his own home, with no one present except his \npersonal friends, and with ample opportunity to search the medium and to take \nevery other precaution against fraud. In the second place, he had become able, \nin the course of time, to use his medium as a collector of botanical and other \nspecimens. The explanation was this: one of the medium\u2019s \u2018controls\u2019 was said \nto be an Indian yogi, a \u2018wonder-worker\u2019 in his own right as it were. My friend \nwould request this control to bring him, at their next meeting, a botanical speci\u00ac \nmen from the Andes or Himalayas, or from some equally remote region. As the \n\u2018control\u2019 appeared to know very little English and no Latin, it was often exceed\u00ac \ningly difficult to make him understand the nature and appearance of the plant \ndesired. On many occasions, wrong specimens would at first be brought, but \nmy friend assured me that almost without exception, as the reward of persistence, \nthe right one would at last be produced,\u2014always a growing plant, with^ph \nclinging to the roots. He had been careful, he said, to ask for plants whTOlie \nhad ascertained previously were not to be found in any of the Australian botani\u00ac \ncal gardens, so that, in his opinion, the \u2018test\u2019 he had devised was conclusive proof \nof the genuineness of the phenomenon. I asked him if birds or fish or other \ncreatures had been brought in the same way, to which he replied in the affirma\u00ac \ntive, adding that as this had proved exhausting to the medium, he had very \nrarely requested it. Finally he invited me to attend one of his stances. I did so. \nThe few other people present were strangers to me,\u2014ordinary, respectable. There \nwas no suggestion of a religious purpose or atmosphere, though I am told that \nat some stances, these are cultivated. The medium seemed to me anaemic, \nnegative, timid,\u2014a man of about thirty. The room was darkened, although I \ncould still dimly see the forms of other \u2018sitters\u2019. The \u2018control\u2019 soon took pos\u00ac \nsession. He talked English badly, like an uneducated native of British India \n\n\n324 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n(I was familiar with their \u2018lingo\u2019). He appeared to be a typical, low-caste wonder\u00ac \nworker, hugely pleased with his importance, chuckling with delight at his own \nperformances. I was more interested in him than in what he did. It seemed \nincredible that this \u2018control\u2019 could be a sub-conscious \u2018layer\u2019 of the medium\u2019s \npersonality; I was much more inclined to believe that he actually was a Hindu, \nas he said: but was he a disincamated \u2018spook\u2019, or was he the \u2018astral\u2019 of an \nincarnated, embryonic black magician? The atmosphere was detestable. \n\n\u201cTo his outstanding performance, because heralded some minutes in advance, \nI gave my fullest attention: he announced that he would produce a live fish, \ntaken straight from the ocean,\u2014and all I can say is that I suddenly saw a fish, \nabout fourteen inches long, curved like a bow, enveloped in water, dropping \nonto the table from about three feet above it. The water was phosphorescent, \nmaking the fish clearly visible as it fell with a loud thud, the water splashing the \nsitters, myself included. The fish flopped and flapped around, while the \u2018control\u2019 \nshowed childish but impish glee at our momentary discomfiture. This ended \nthe stance. Our host examined the fish, which he named as from tropical seas, \nand then removed it, in the matter-of-fact way of a collector, and as if fish fell \naround like that with the naturalness of rain.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cCould not the fish have been brought in a waterproof bag, concealed by the \nmedium?\u2019\u2019 someone asked. \n\n\u201cI can guarantee nothing\u2019\u2019, the Philosopher answered. \u201cI did not examine the \nmedium. My host assured me that he invariably did so, as a matter of principle, \nas well as for his own satisfaction. Let me say, however, that it was a very lively \nfish\u2014heavy too\u2014and that, so far as I can see, it would certainly have struggled \nagainst confinement in a bag with water in it, and that this would have made a \ngood deal of noise during the three-quarters of an hour preceding its release. \nThere was no such noise.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cWhat is your explanation?\u2019\u2019 asked the Sceptic, sternly. \n\nThe Philosopher laughed. \u201cI leave that to you\u2019\u2019, he said. \u201cI can vouch for \nwhat I saw; no more. But the experience did not leave me with a desire to \ninvestigate further; it tended, on the contrary, to confirm, like all my reading on \nthe subject, the warnings and explanations of H.P.B. \n\n\u201cIn brief, if you want to learn something about the spiritual world, the world \nof reality, do not turn to Spiritualism; but if you want to learn about Kama \nLoka, the after-death state of earth-bound personalities, of the materially- \nminded, then, do not go to stances, but read some Spiritualistic books. For this \npurpose I can recommend Gone West, and A Subaltern in Spirit Land, by J. S. M. \nWard, \u2018B.A., F.R.Econ.S., F.R.S.S., late scholar and prizeman of Trinity Hall, \nCambridge\u2019. He is, it is said, a trade expert of high standing, and only inci\u00ac \ndentally an explorer of the \u2018Unseen World\u2019, which he can enter in full conscious\u00ac \nness, he claims, from time to time. However that may be, his Gone West presents \none of the most vivid and realistic pictures of hell, which I have ever read,\u2014by \nwhich I mean, of course, a description of that state of consciousness commonly \ncalled \u2018hell\u2019, but which students of Theosophy, adopting Eastern terminology, \nwould describe as Kama Loka on its lower levels.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n325 \n\n\nAsked one of our visitors: \u201cCan you recommend a book of a similar kind that \ncontains a description of heaven?\u201d \n\n\u201cNo such book exists\u201d, the Philosopher answered. \u201cHow can it? Only \nthe heavenly-minded can appreciate heaven, or can rise to that plane; and \nsouls in that state of consciousness, whether in the body or out of it, \ncannot communicate with those whose understanding is limited to material \nconditions. Adepts can function on all planes, but Adepts know better \nthan to deoict spiritual states except in symbols and in parables. Read the \nBible, read^he Bhagavad Gita, for proof of that. Communications through \nmediums and through psychics, invariably describe conditions which are just \nas material, even though \u2018astral\u2019, as conditions on earth; and it must be \nso in view of the fact that people do not suddenly change their natures, \nor the nature of their interests, merely because physically they die. A recent \nbook, On the Edge of the Etheric, by J. Arthur Findlay, which has already reached \nits thirtieth edition or so in England, and which conservative English newspapers, \nsuch as the London Morning Post, have reviewed with high praise, gives an \nadmirable exposition of the whole theory and practice of Spiritualism. The \nhonesty, capability, and the sincerity of the author\u2019s belief in Spiritualism, are \nbeyond question; further, all his explanations are \u2018scientific\u2019 (with much talk of \nwave-lengths and so forth), and therefore most appealing to the modem mind. \nBut can any student of Theosophy fail to see the significance of Mr. Findlay\u2019s \nexplanation of what he calls the Direct Voice,\u2014fail to see that all the materiality \nof this world is attributed, and rightly attributed, to the kind of future life, and \nthe only future life, which he has encountered? Listen to this: \u2018spirits\u2019, he says, \nwho wish to speak at a stance, \u2018come down to earth and lower their vibrations by \ngathering round their mouth-organs what is called ectoplasm taken from the \nmedium and the sitters'. Incidentally, can you wonder that H.P.B. advised us, \nthough in other words, to keep our ectoplasm to ourselves! Then he explains \nthat there must be co-operation between the \u2018spirits\u2019, as active agents, and the \nmedium and sitters who are passive. So far as those who work \u2018beyond the veil\u2019, \nare concerned,\u2014 \n\nA group of spirits expert in the handling of organic chemical substances work a^|e with \nus. Immediately we assemble, they get to work to do their part. The group co^Fs of a \ndirector of operations, one or more chemists [please see the point!], one who \u2122ves the \ntrumpet in the direction a spirit wishes to speak, one who gathers the substances from the \nmedium and the sitters by connecting them up with the chemist, who draws from them the \nnecessary material. This extends from the medium and the sitters to a central point, and \nthe substance drawn from them is gathered by the chemist into an etheric bowl into which \nhe also adds etheric substances of his own. Another of the group helps spirit newcomers to \nspeak, telling them what to do; others bring spirits into the circle, and Whitefeather [a \n\u2018control\u2019], to whom I have already referred, a Red Indian, considers himself the most impor\u00ac \ntant of all, as he is detailed off to give warning when a seance is to take place, so that all the \noperators may be present and at their posts. \n\n\u201cAfter describing the difficulties to be overcome scientifically before the Direct \nVoice can be produced, Mr. Findlay says that by a series of questions and \n\n\n326 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nanswers, over a period of time, he obtained from the \u2018spirits\u2019 the following \nfurther explanation: \n\nThe chemist to whom I have already referred, after mixing the substances he obtains from \nthe medium and sitters with his own ingredients, takes the finished preparation, and with \nit first materializes his hands, and then forms a rough mask in the likeness of a mouth and \nthroat. This, when finished, is placed in the most suitable part of the room, often in the \ncentre of the circle. The spirit wishing to speak then presses into this mask, slow in vibra\u00ac \ntion, and with it clothes or covers his mouth, throat, and tongue. These organs then take \non a thicker or heavier condition, the tongue requires more exertion to move, but with a \nlittle practice it all becomes possible. The spirit then, for the time being, has taken on the \nnecessary conditions to make himself once more such as we are, so far as his capacity to form \nwords is concerned. He is again to this extent an inhabitant of matter, slow in vibration, \nso that when he-speaks he produces the same effects on our atmosphere as we do when we \nspeak. He and we are in the same room, w ithin a few feet of each other, he standing speak\u00ac \ning to us, and we sitting, answering. He hears us and we hear him. \n\n\u201cCan you imagine anyone who has lost, let us say, his mother, wishing to drag \nher down into that ectoplasmic mess? The very idea is revolting.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cThe whole thing is nonsense\u2019\u2019, said the Sceptic. \n\n\u201cNo\u2019\u2019, the Philosopher replied; \u201cyou are wrong. I wish it were nonsense. \nThe worst of it is the truth it conveys,\u2014the picture of the only way in which \n\u2018dead\u2019 men can think and act, after a life on earth, not necessarily bad\u2014perhaps, \nin the ordinary sense, very good\u2014but none the less thoroughly material in \ninterest and purpose,\u2014empty of spiritual aspiration, devoid of Light.\u2019\u2019 \n\nAt this point the Student interjected a remark, and a very interesting illustra\u00ac \ntive story. \n\n\u201cWe do not begin to realize, I suspect, how exclusively material most of our \ninterests are; how very few people die who are not \u2018earth-bound\u2019 in one way \nor another, and how long it must take to shed, as it were, these layers of materi\u00ac \nality from our consciousness. \n\n\u201cI have been reading the reminiscences of Mrs. Will Gordon. The book is \ncalled Echoes and Realities. The author belongs to a distinguished Scotch \nfamily, is highly educated, widely known, and knows nearly everybody who is \nanybody. She has travelled extensively, and is a Fellow of the Royal Geograph\u00ac \nical Society. \u2018I have\u2019, she writes, \u2018what we Scots call the \u201csight\u2019\u2019, a sixth sense, \na faculty of sensing the course of events, a kind of instinctive insight into present \nrealities as well as future possibilities\u2019. This means that her mind is not closed \nto unusual occurrences. She relates the experience of an American friend, who \nfor some time before her marriage had been a pupil in Vienna of the famous \nLetchetitsky. On one occasion, when Rubinstein came to Vienna, this Ameri\u00ac \ncan girl was chosen from among Letchetitsky\u2019s pupils to play before the Maestro. \nIt was decided that she was to play his 'Valse Allemande\\ While studying it, \nshe found that it slightly resembled the popular Bavarian folk-song, \u2018 0 , Du \nlieher Augustin'. This amused her, and she worked the well-known tune interest\u00ac \ningly into the Valse. When the day came, she could not resist the sudden tempta\u00ac \ntion to play it to the composer in this way,\u2014to the intense indignation of Let- \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n327 \n\n\nchetitsky. Rubinstein, however, was amused, and smilingly reassured her, \nsaying, \u2018Ach, you make joke wid my music!\u2019 \n\n\u201cSeveral years after the death of Rubinstein, Mrs. Gordon\u2019s friend was enter\u00ac \ntaining at her country place near Washington, and played for her guests. She \nplayed, among other things, the 'Valse Allemande\\ and almost unconsciously \nagain worked into it the air of \u2018 0 , Du lieber Augustin'. While playing, she felt \nas if something touched her, but she ignored it. Then, as she continued, it \nseemed to her that a firm hand was laid on her shoulder. She stopped playing \nabruptly, and closed the piano, to the bewilderment of her guests. One of them, \nhowever, \u2018a Miss Herbie, a well-known spiritualist, who had been brought to the \nhouse by friends, and who was a perfect stranger to the hostess, came up to the \npiano. \u201cI can tell you\u2019\u2019, she said, \u201cwho touched you. It was Rubinstein, for I \nsaw him distinctly. He stood by your side, smiling, and he said: \u2018Ach, you make \njoke wid my music\u2019.\u2019\u2019 \u2019 \n\n\u201cEarth-bound; wedded to his music! not a \u2018bad\u2019 devotion in any sense, but \nevidently, in his case, instead of a step toward something higher, something \neternal,\u2014an end in itself. In other words, to revert to the saying which the \nMohammedans attribute to Jesus, quoted by the Engineer, Rubinstein built on \nhis \u2018bridge\u2019, instead of passing over it\u2014and thus, to use language more in line \nwith modem understanding, became \u2018all gummed up\u2019 in his art, tied and bound \nto its material expression. \n\n\u201cHow many so-called Theosophists are similarly bound, I wonder,\u2014by \ninterests, devotions, good in themselves, but which they treat, not as means to \ndivine and lasting ends, but, because good, as ends in themselves.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cDuties, sometimes real, more often imaginary\u2019\u2019, commented the Engineer, \nsententiously. \u201cWhy will not people realize that even the most important of \ntheir duties can be no more than \u2018an outward and visible sign of an inward and \nspiritual\u2019 reality, without the recognition of which \u2018they labour in vain\u2019 who \nperform it. It may seem far-fetched, but they remind me of some of the lesser \nand more psychic of Roman Catholic saints, whose \u2018visions\u2019 of heaven centre \nin the Eucharistic ceremonial conducted by St. John, St. Peter and others, \narrayed in the most gorgeous and elaborate of ecclesiastical vestments. Raafc \nmaterialism, in both cases.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cBefore we leave the topic of Spiritualism,\u2019\u2019 the Philosopher now said, \u201cI \nshould like, if I may, to mention another of the books I have read recently \nunder that head. It is called, Open the Door! and is said to have been \u2018tran\u00ac \nscribed\u2019 by Edith Ellis. It has an introduction by Claude Bragdon, who praises \nit to the skies. It is an American contribution to the same subject,\u2014of interest \nto us because proving once more that the leopard does not change his spots by \ndisincamating, but a contribution which, if read as a statement of fact, would \nhave to be condemned as iniquitous. The spook, calling himself Wilfred Bran\u00ac \ndon, whose wisdom is \u2018transcribed\u2019, is an ardent Pacifist (the book is advertized \nas \u2018perhaps the most drastic arraignment of modem warfare ever written\u2019). \nAvowedly in order to terrify and thus obtain recmits for the cause of \u2018the New \nDispensation of Brotherly Love, Fair Play, and World Peace\u2019, the \u2018author\u2019 \n\n\n# \n\n\n328 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nundertakes to reveal the horrible fate of the millions who died in the World \nWar. \n\nIt isn\u2019t over when the White Cross is set up to mark the grave of the young body whose \nsoul has been thrust out in a state of consciousness that makes his life a hell for years on this \nplane. That fact alone, if widely understood, would make war an impossibility. No parent \nwould doom his or her son to such a fate. The pain, dirt, and misery of his life in war \nwould seem little in comparison to what follows. If only death ended the suffering. The \ntragedy is that it is only the beginning of it. The mind brings over its strongest impression. \nOne can easily believe that war effaces almost every other impression on the consciousness. \nHate, fear, pictures of dead and wounded, memories of the unspeakably horrible sights and \nsounds, the despair and profound sense of the cruelty of men are what they bring with them. \n\n\u201cCan you conceive of a more abominable and blasphemous misrepresentation? \nThe vicious spook is branding in their graves the very men who died that we \nmight live. No moral factor involved, according to him: a good man or a bad \nman, a coward or a hero, of any nationality, granting that he dies in battle \ninstead of in an automobile accident or in the atmosphere of a surgical ward \n(where most people now seem to die),\u2014all, indiscriminately, spend years in hell. \nAnd he tries to enforce his claim to knowledge by assuring his readers that he \nhas studied and worked in that other world\u2014in his other world\u2014for a hundred \nand fifty-two years, \u2018finally, in 1920, taking my degree as Master in the White \nBrotherhood\u2019. Rama, Rama, and the holy N 4 gas, as a real one is said to have \nsworn! \n\n\u201cWell, I will set my poor vision against \u2018Wilfred Brandon\u2019s\u2019 nightmare, and \nwill assert that many a man left his body in battle, in an ecstasy of joy, in a \nblaze of splendour and of glory,\u2014the reflection of a real Master\u2019s radiant blessing. \n\n\u201cEven as propaganda, the book makes the lowest and vilest of appeals. If \nthere were nothing else to condemn the brood of Pacifists, this attempt to terror\u00ac \nize the superstitious, to harrow and horrify those who mourn their dead, and to \nimpute to a soldier the destiny hereafter of a common criminal, ought to be \nsufficient to show how unscrupulous and inhuman and despicable they are.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cWhy don\u2019t the Spiritualists themselves realize by this time\u2019\u2019, asked the \nHistorian, \u201cthat there are just as many liars in Kama Loka as there are on earth, \njust as many devils among their \u2018spirits\u2019 as among incarnated men, just as \nmany braggarts, sensualists, idiots,\u2014and that logically it must be so? Spirit\u00ac \nualists admit that some of their mediums are fraudulent, but as soon as they \nfind one who seems to be honest, any sort of communication coming through him \nis at once attributed to a \u2018spirit\u2019, with the inference that it must be true. They \nseem to throw common-sense to the winds.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cWell\u2019\u2019, said the Philosopher, \u201cenough of devils, of spooks and of Spiritualism. \nLet us turn from earth, and from astral perversions of earth, to the world of \nimmortal youth and beauty. You promised\u201d [this addressed to the Recorder] \n\u201cthat more would be said on the subject of the next Lodge Messenger and fore\u00ac \nrunner. You postponed it from the last issue of the Quarterly.\u201d \n\n\u201cYou are right\u201d, the Recorder answered. \u201cIt was in the October, 1934, issue \nthat several communications from students were printed, giving replies to these \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n329 \n\n\nquestions: \u2018What do you think a Lodge forerunner or Messenger could do, \n(i) for you; (2) for The Theosophical Society; (3) for the world,\u2014and how?\u2019 \nLetters received since then, show a good deal of misunderstanding, by the way, \nin regard to the standing and function of a \u2018forerunner\u2019. Because, in the eight\u00ac \neenth century, Saint-Germain appeared on the scene a number of years before \nthe official and outer Messenger, Mesmer (see H.P.B\u2019s. Glossary), and because \nSaint-Germain was a great Adept while Mesmer was nothing of the kind\u2014was \nmerely an agent chosen to do certain limited, specified work\u2014it has been inferred \nthat all forerunners, including the next, must be of Saint-Germain\u2019s calibre. The \nfact is that Saint-Germain not only appeared in advance of the others, but \nremained on the scene, or behind it, longer than any of them. He was the \nsupervisor, so to speak, of the entire effort of the eighteenth century, in all its \nramifications. The next forerunner might conceivably have no other function \nthan to open a few selected minds to the idea of the Lodge and of a Lodge \nrepresentative,\u2014possibly not working through the Society at all, but among \npeople whose position in life would give the Messenger, when he comes, immedi\u00ac \nate access to those who, in a worldly sense, control the destinies of nations. Such \na forerunner would not necessarily have to be conscious of his mission. On the \nother hand, it is equally possible that because The Theosophical Society and \nits nucleus have survived so far into th\u2019is century\u2014nothing like it, as we know, \never having happened before; and because the cycles have thus been con\u00ac \nsiderably \u2018telescoped\u2019, the functions of forerunner and Messenger will be merged \nin one individual, perhaps, in the Lodge hierarchy, as great or greater than \nSaint-Germain himself. A wide-open mind is what my two possibilities are \nintended to suggest. Verbum sat sapienti. \n\n\u201cAnother misunderstanding which this correspondence reveals is that because \nso many believe they would gladly die rather than fail the Movement, and are \nsincere in their belief, it follows that such devotion is a guarantee of its continu\u00ac \nance, and, presumably, of the continuance on earth of its spirit, soul, and pur\u00ac \npose. But any old thing can die; dying is as easy as falling off a log; as was \nsaid many years ago, \u2018the difficulty lies in dying at fitting junctures only\u2019. More \nthan that, to carry on the spirit and soul as well as the body of the Society, a \nsufficient number of its members must have right understanding, rig^per- \nception, right impersonality; must be able to judge things and people wi\u00aeDom- \nplete detachment from personal feeling, must be able to act without a^nadow \nof self-seeking. Finally, there must be those who are at least in conscious touch \nwith their own Master, whoever that may be, and, through him, with the Lodge. \nA belief in Masters, no matter how sincere, is not enough. We must be aware of \nmountain-tops within us if we would touch the heights where Masters dwell. \nVery few people are born with a flair for these things. Devotion is the best of all \nbeginnings; it will lift us to \u2018the terrace of enlightenment\u2019\u2014in time, that is to \nsay, in the course of several incarnations,\u2014a prospect which the great St. \nTheresa, after years of experience with nuns and novices, perhaps overlooked \nwhen she declared that not even devotion could produce common-sense, without \nwhich, in her opinion, piety might be good enough for heaven, but not for earth. \n\n\n330 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n\u201cOne or two of the communications received by the editors, commenting on \nthe letters of reply printed in the October issue, suggested, not discouragement, \nbut an effort to avoid it. Another contained the statement that if the substance \nof the writer\u2019s will and nerve was \u2018soft\u2019; if, as had been suggested, his sixth \nsense or inner perception was as yet dormant, he purposed to accept this warning \nas an incentive for greater effort, and not as a door shut in his face, or in the face \nof the Society. \n\n\u201cNaturally, reactions differed widely. Here is a letter from a man whose \nmembership goes back to Judge\u2019s day, and who is not an officer of the Society. \nIf anyone finds his reaction depressing, I give it up,\u2014while certainly he cannot \nbe counted among the \u2018soft\u2019. \n\n\u201cPossibly, if the subject should prove of interest to our readers, and they say so, it \nmight be \u2018continued in our next\u2019 \u2019\u2019 (October, 1934, Quarterly). \n\nIt is not simply a matter of interest; it is a matter of concern; the advancing age of a \nlarge number of members may well cause them to feel, \u201cWhat of the future\u2019\u2019.? \n\nThe question and answer treatment of the subject of a \u201cnew Lodge Messenger\u2019\u2019 in the \nOctober Quarterly shows that all believe more than they tell, hope for more than they \nwill ask, have a presentiment of things they may not wish to express, and that all\u2014all \nseem to fear to appear dogmatic, to venture an unqualified reply, to say something that \ncannot be proved. \n\nLet us do that. Because the attitude for the future is an unqualified assertion and \ndeclaration for impersonality; a definite visualization and choice of alternatives, based \non the history and experience of The Theosophical Society. \n\nIf we could ask the Lodge the questions which have been put, might they not say some\u00ac \nthing like this.?\u2014 \n\n\u201cYou are disturbed by your apprehensions. \n\n\u201cYou know that you are leaving your life behind you; that your \u2018leaders\u2019 must pass \non, and that the objective and material means for sustaining the T. S. may be in jeopardy. \n\n\u201cDo not fear\u2014do not worry. \n\n\u201cPlace your apprehensions before you and look them square in the face\u2014right there \nyou can see the real Theosophical Society as it was, as it is, as it will be. Think of the \nunknown numbers who have gone before; of the many you do not know and of those \nyou did know\u2014of the thousands and thousands who are to come. \n\n\u201cBe quiet, be patient. \n\n\u201cThink of the colossal eflForts made against almost insurmountable obstacles to found \nthe T. S. and keep it going. Do you imagine that the cost of that effort was incurred \nwithout foresight, without anticipation of much more than that which fills you with \nalarm? \n\n\u201cLearn to endure your cares and your worries by contrasting them with something \nwhich makes them look trivial. \n\n\u201cIf worldly, even narrow bigoted minds could, by patient research, persistent study \nand investigation, make some of the, what you call marvellous predictions, long before \nthe events, of the World War, the depression, or what not, can you not be generous enough \nto credit us with at least an equal, possibly clearer vision of events as you just now begin \nto see them, or even as they may transpire long after you have gone.? \n\n\u201cYou know what faith you have, and the quality of that faith. \n\n\u201cCan you believe that the literature, illuminating as never before the ancient mysteries \nand religions, would have been given out without there being some good prospect of its \ncontinuing to be attributed to the right source? \n\n\u201cDo not be intimidated by your apprehensions\u2014be silent. \n\n\u201cIf your minds must work, let them cogitate on the fact that we would never sit idly by. \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME 33 i \n\nand permit those things which we all cherish in our innermost hearts, to fade and vanish, \nwithout lifting a finger. \n\n\u201cThe confusion round about you is appalling? Because you can hear, you do hear \nand, being unremittingly distracted by the noise of the world, which incessantly rattles \non your brains, you seldom have a chance to listen\u2014to listen to some of those things which \ncan only be heard without hearing. \n\n\u201cIf you think of us, you can listen to us. You want help, sympathy, consolation, \nencouragement? You\u2014of all the people of the earth, dare you ask for anything for your\u00ac \nselves.^\u2014while we beg you for unswerving patience and steadiness: to help those who, \nexcept for you, might not be able to turn to us. ^ \n\n\u201cYou have learned a great deal about discipleship. \\ou have studied the lives of \ndisciples. Have you ever considered that the races of the earth are disciples, that the \nvicissitudes of the inexorable cycles are the trials and training of discipleship for men in \nthe mass, even though they know it not? That a cyclic period of great stress and dis\u00ac \nturbance is akin to a ceremony of initiation, when nil are called to choose as they have \nchosen, to do as they have done, to be what they are and decide with their own decision? \n\n\u201cBe not confused by the siftings, shatterings, fragmentations. \n\n\u201cSome do see, understand and know; those will become and re-become if you only \nrealized how you could sustain them by your unswerving faithful prayers. \n\n\u201cVVe could answer those prayers a hundred, a thousand times sooner than if you prayed \nfor yourselves. \n\n\u201cDo not be frightened. Do not be swayed by your anxiety. \n\n\u201cYou would be lifted and cheered by a sign of the \u2018Messenger to come ? What of the \nmessengers you have? Are they not correctly posed in their own proper places? Would \nyou expect us to supersede them, set them aside before the very last one has come to the \nlast hour; before the last sand of the cycle, which they sustain, has run out? \n\n\u201cOnce more\u2014to the last minute of the eleventh hour, do not fear eventualities, do not \nflinch. \n\n\u201cThat our messengers are still there, is that not a sign? \n\n\u201cThe name Theosophy has been covered with opprobrium? What things named for us \nor by us have not been? If you changed all your names, changed your clothes, vvashed \nyourselves from head to foot with carbolic acid and rose w\u2019ater, you would go right out \nand shake hands with opprobrium. \n\n\u201cYour everlasting faith and confidence\u2014let that be as strong as the fear and hatred of \nthose who transgress our purposes. \n\n\u201cDo not be disconcerted by the furious roar of personality which deafens you to the \nsilent poise of impersonality.** \n\nThe accumulated tensions of much misapplication and misappropriation are now \nexhausting themselves. Elemental forces and entities are flying around in heterogeneous \nconfusion, producing the objective effect of chaos\u2014the concerted authority of othw days \nhas lost its grip. \n\nThe man or generation which acquires a material embodiment of spirituaM Wee by \nindustry, thrift, etc., and in doing that, attributes it to himself only, has tried in vain to \ncheat the Lodge. \u201cHe only robs, but to render**. \n\nA new Messenger, what would be his approach, his advance? \n\nTo endeavour to arouse men with an appeal to their faith in the abstract, to their piety, \ntheir unrelated sense of obligation to some authority? The lights of the age of feudalism \nare not entirely extinguished yet, but the prevailing characteristics of that period have \nchanged with the exaggerated acquisition of \u201clearning and logic\u2019* by men on the levels. \n\nWould he not perhaps try, as a practical expedient, rather than to discredit intellect \nand learning, or ask for a blind faith or a servile acceptance, to capitalize learning and \nintelligence, and endeavour to persuade men to assign the powers and functions of the \nmind and personality to an impersonal reality, and to realize that their salvation must \nhinge, not on running away from themselves, but rather on consciously marshalling those \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n332 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nvery human selves under an avowed and accepted standard of some Master of the Lodge? \n\u2014which is the only possible way of escape from mean, small, self-centred individualism. \n\nThe concerted and desperate efforts being made on all sides to get things back to where \nthey were in the ante-bellum days, are not the obstinate wilfulness of a people bent on \ngoing bad, but a mistaken sense of values, a spiritual blindness, a too great faith in minds, \nmachines, test-tubes and file-cards. Do not the prospects for a new Messenger depend \non whether he can get a sufficient number of worth-while sincere men to perceive that \nthey have been worshipping false gods? We feel that the initial work and outpourings \nincident to the development of the T.S. are based on an anticipation of such an eventuality. \nNevertheless, an ebbing tide cannot rise until it has run out. \n\n\u201cAn admirable letter\u201d, the Recorder commented when he had ceased reading; \n\u201cbut no one ever wrote anything which was not open to misinterpretation, and \nI am wondering if some will say, \u2018Ha ha, what did we tell you! Look at this: \n\u201cYou are disturbed by your apprehensions. ... Do not fear\u2014do not worry.\u2019 * \nWe are all right! All that talk about \u201csoftness\u201d was pessimistic\u2019. \n\n\u201cHow I wish they were right, and there were not that fatal \u2018softness\u2019 among us! \nI have known people before now who quoted scripture to justify their laziness \nand to pass their responsibility to God. \u2018Take no thought for the morrow\u2019\u2014 \nwhich, by the way, translated literally, means \u2018Do not worry about the morrow\u2019\u2014 \nhas been used as an excuse for leaving it to the ravens to feed you. Our members \nare responsible for the future, since they are responsible for the material out of \nwhich the Masters can mould the future. What is that material ? It is the honest, \nstrenuous, and persistent effort now to use all our energies for ends in harmony \nwith the purposes of the Lodge,\u2014especially the effort to replace whatever is \u2018soft\u2019 \nin ourselves, with the grit and force and steel-like stuff that ought to be there. \n\n\u201cNone the less\u201d, the Recorder continued, \u201cof one thing I am certain: that all \nis well provided for, including \u2018heavenly death\u2019. Masters of Wisdom are not \ncaught napping. They plan for a hundred years ahead, and longer. Always \nthey have several plans in reserve. If possible avenues or instruments fail them, \nthey use others in their place. \u2018Man is the creator of his own destiny\u2019; so is a \nnation; so is a civilization. Masters are not omnipotent; they help; they will \nnot, they cannot control. Their ability to help depends upon the genuineness \nof our desire to be helped, and upon the motive which prompts our desire. In \nthe Golden Age, nations looked to Masters as children used to look to their \nparents; but as self-will, self-satisfaction, and the gratification of appetites, \ncame to take first place, that ideal relationship ceased, just as family life is ceasing \namong us. To-day, as we know, the Golden Age is regarded as a myth; nations \nand individuals alike have forgotten that Masters exist, and would not tolerate \nthem or their ways or their guidance, even if that guidance were offered. \n\n\u201cAll that the Lodge can do during these times of darkness, is to divert some \nof the forces let loose by mankind, into spiritually constructive channels, while \nperiodically forcing upon men\u2019s attention (as was done by H.P.B.) reminders \nthat the Ancient Wisdom exists, that true knowledge is obtainable, and that if \nthe blind lead the blind, it is not for lack of those who can see.\u201d \n\n\u201cBut what do you people hope to accomplish?\u201d one of our visitors asked. \n\u201cTo convert the world to Theosophy?\u201d \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n333 \n\n\n\u201cJust that and no less\u201d, the Philosopher undertook to answer. \u201cBut in some \nmillions of years,\u2014yes, in some millions of years. Meanwhile, little people will \ntake little views, timid people, timid views, superstitious people, superstitious \nviews; so it will not matter much what they believe, although I agree that any \nbelief is better than none, so long as it gives people something besides this world \nto think about. What we are striving for to-day is to find the few, the very Jew, \nwho are not little or timid or superstitious, who are not eaten up with self-love, \nbut who are humble of heart and firm of will, hungry for light, soldiers in spirit, \neager to serve the Warriors of God, once they recognize their existence, and who \nhave the intelligence to see that just as service in any army requires training, \nso, if we would fight in this greater warfare without bringing shame on our cause, \nand without injury to our fellows, we must work for skill in the use of every \nearthly weapon, determined to wield it for the glory of those whose service is the \njoy of life.\u201d \n\n\u201cEarthly weapons!\u201d exclaimed one of our visitors, whose interpretation had \nevidently been literal. \u201cWhat weapons?\u201d \n\n\u201cEvery weapon in sight\u201d, the Philosopher answered, smiling. \u201cPersonally \nI have never seen or heard of a faculty, talent, or ability which I am not deter\u00ac \nmined, someday, to possess. I want all the \u2018fruits of the spirit\u2019, as St. Paul lists \nthem; I want sympathy, tact, wisdom, eloquence, the utmost of literary and \nartistic skill of every kind; I want the spiritual counterpart and synthesis of all \nmy physical senses,\u2014and lots more. I do not mean for one moment to exclude \nthe weapons which our visitor had in mind; their use is extremely useful at times: \nto be a first class horseman, a crack shot, a skilled mechanician (very necessary \nin a mechanical age); to be physically strong and nervously inexhaustible, would \nbe of immense value when doing work in the world. No, I am not joking. None \nthe less, all of these things would be pitfalls, intelligence included, unless used \nfrom the right centre, with the right motive.\u201d \n\n\u201cAnd that is?\u201d \n\n\u201cEach must answer that for himself\u201d, the Philosopher replied. \u201cBut I do \nnot mind telling you what I wish to be my centre, my motive, now and always: \nboundless love of my Master, without trace of desire for reward or gain.^I am \nfar from it, but someday, with his help, I shall get there. People whd^^not \nknow a Master, will not understand this; those who do, will. Master^^ one \nof them wrote, are not desiccated pansies \u2018between the leaves of a volume of \nsolemn poetry\u2019. They are divinely human, with divinely human hearts, of \ninfinite generosity, incredibly grateful for such love as we are capable of giving \nthem; but, as I have said, they are the Warriors of God, they are Flames, and \nthey do not waste their energies. We must turn ourselves into something resem\u00ac \nbling realities before Immortals would be justified in spending themselves on us. \nYet, even to-day, if we have the courage, we can look up to them and claim our \nbirthright and declare ourselves their sons. Then, if we live as the sons of \nImmortals should live, they will treat us as their own, and we shall know them, \nand though darkness be around us, we shall never lose touch with their Light. \n\nT. \n\n\n\n\nA LAND OF MYSTERY \n\n\nThese are the first two of a series of four articles under the same title, written by \nMadame Blavatsky, and printed in ''The Theosophist\u201d {then published in Bombay) \nin the March, April, June and August issues of 1880. To appreciate them at more \nthan their face value\u2014though that in itself is great\u2014it should be understood that \nH.P.B. was preparing the way for the facts and figures which were not given out \nuntil the publication of \"The Secret Doctrine*' in 1888. She had to break, or in any \ncase soften, the \"moulds of mind\" of her readers, especially of those who had received \na scientific education, and whose preconceptions, therefore, were utterly foreign to \nthose glimpses of the Truth which the Lodge had decided to reveal to the world through \nher. Even in 1880, many natives of India had been educated, either in Europe, or in \nIndian colleges where the curriculum was European and materialistic. Agnosticism, \nand contempt for their ancient religions and philosophies, were the fashionable pose \nof the younger generation of Indians. So it was not only for the benefit of her Euro\u00ac \npean and American readers that H.P.B. wrote; she was perhaps especially anxious \nto wean these young Indians from their folly, and, by such articles as these, to prepare \ntheir minds for the consideration, later, of their own Pur anas, which, when inter\u00ac \npreted in the light of occult knowledge, show that civilizations, in some ways far \nmore advanced than ours, existed in all parts of the world for some millions of years \nbefore the beginning of our so-called historical period. Identifying herself with the \npeople of her day, appealing to their interests {amusingly in one respect, as she makes \na great point of \"buried treasure\"), she intimates clearly that more remained to be \nsaid, and that those whom she represented were in possession of the key to the mystery, \nthe very existence of which the world had failed to recognize .\u2014 The Editors. \n\n\nI \n\n\nW HETHER one surveys the imposing ruins of Memphis or Palmyra; \n\nstands at the foot of the great pyramid of Ghiz 6 ; wanders along the \nshores of the Nile; or ponders amid the desolate fastnesses of the \nlong-lost and mysterious Petra; however clouded and misty the origin of these \nprehistoric relics may appear, one nevertheless finds at least certain fragments \nof firm ground upon which to build conjecture. Thick as may be the curtain \n\n\n334 \n\n\n\n\n\nREPRINT \n\n\n335 \n\n\nbehind which the history of these antiquities is hidden, still there are rents here \nand there through which one may catch glimpses of light. We are acquainted \nwith the descendants of the builders, and, however superficially, we also know \nthe story of the nations whose vestiges are scattered around us. Not so with the \nantiquities of the New World of the two Americas. There, all along the coast of \nPeru, all over the Isthmus and North America, in the canyons of the Cordilleras* \nin the impassable gorges of the Andes, and, especially beyond the valley of \nMexico, lie, ruined and desolate, hundreds of once mighty cities, lost to the \nmemory of men, and having themselves lost even a name. Buried in dense \nforests, entombed in inaccessible valleys, sometimes sixty feet underground, from \nthe day of their discovery until now they have ever remained a riddle to science\u00bb \nbaffling all inquiry, and they have been muter than the Egyptian Sphinx herself. \nWe know nothing of America prior to the Conquest\u2014positively nothing. No \nchronicles, not even comparatively modern ones survive; there are no traditions, \neven among the aboriginal tribes, as to its past events. We are as ignorant of \nthe races that built these cyclopean structures, as of the strange worship that \ninspired the antediluvian sculptors who carved upon hundreds of miles of walls, \nof monuments, monoliths and altars, these weird hieroglyphics, these groups of \nanimals and men, pictures of an unknown life and lost arts\u2014scenes so fantastic \nand wild, at times, that they involuntarily suggest the idea of a feverish dream, \nwhose phantasmagoria at the wave of some mighty magician\u2019s hand suddenly \ncrystallized into granite, to bewilder the coming generations for ever and ever. \nSo late as the beginning of the present century, the very existence of such a \nwealth of antiquities was unknown. The petty, suspicious jealousy of the \nSpaniards had, from the first, created a sort of Chinese wall between their \nAmerican possessions and the too curious traveller: and the ignorance and fanati\u00ac \ncism of the conquerors, and their carelessness as to all but the satisfaction of \ntheir insatiable greediness, had precluded scientific research. Even the enthusi\u00ac \nastic accounts of Cortez and his army of brigands and priests, and of Pizarro and \nhis robbers and monks, as to the splendour of the temples, palaces, and cities of \nMexico and Peru, were long discredited. In his History of America, Dr. Robert\u00ac \nson goes so far as to inform his reader that the houses of the ancient Mexicpis \nwere \u201cmere huts, built with turf, or mud, or the branches of trees, like of \nthe rudest Indians\u201d;^ and, upon the testimony of some Spaniards, heaven \nrisked the assertion that \u201cin all the extent of that vast empire\u201d, there was not \n\u201ca single monument or vestige of any building more ancient than the Conquest\u201d 1 \nIt was reserved to the great Alexander Humboldt to vindicate the truth. In \n1803 a new flood of light was poured into the world of archaeology by this eminent \nand learned traveller. In this he luckily proved but the pioneer of future dis\u00ac \ncoverers. He then described but Mitla, or the Vale of the Dead, Xochicalco, \nand the great pyramidal Temple of Cholula. But, after him came Stephens, \nCatherwood, and Squier; and, in Peru, D\u2019Orbigny and Dr. Tschuddi. Since \nthen numerous travellers have visited and given us accurate details of many of \nthe antiquities. But, how many more yet remain not only unexplored, but even \n\n\n*See Stephens' Central America. \n\n\n\n336 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nunknown, no one can tell. As regards prehistoric buildings, both Peru and \nMexico are rivals of Egypt. Equalling the latter in the immensity of her Cyclo\u00ac \npean structures, Peru surpasses her in their number; while Cholula exceeds the \ngrand pyramid of Cheops in breadth, if not in height. Works of public utility, \nsuch as walls, fortifications, terraces, water-courses, aqueducts, bridges, temples, \nburial-grounds, whole cities, and exquisitely paved roads, hundreds of miles in \nlength, stretch in an unbroken line, almost covering the land as with a net. \nOn the coast, they are built of sun-dried bricks; in the mountains, of porphyritic \nlime, granite, and silicated sandstone. Of the long generations of peoples who \nbuilt them, history knows nothing, and even tradition is silent. As a matter of \ncourse, most of these lithic remains are covered with a dense vegetation. Whole \nforests have grown out of the broken hearts of the cities, and, with a few excep\u00ac \ntions, everything is in ruin. But one may judge of what once was by that which \nyet remains. \n\nWith a most flippant unconcern, the Spanish historians refer nearly every \nruin to Inca times. No greater mistake can be made. The hieroglyphics which \nsometimes cover from top to bottom whole walls and monoliths are, as they were \nfrom the first, a dead letter to modem science. But they were equally a dead \nletter to the Incas, though the history of the latter can be traced to the eleventh \ncentury. They had no clue to the meaning of these inscriptions, but attributed all \nsuch to their unknown predecessors; thus barring the presumption of their own \ndescent from the first civilizers of their country. Briefly, the Inca history runs \nthus:\u2014 \n\nInca is the Quichua title for chief or emperor, and the name of the ruling and \nmost aristocratic race or rather caste of the land which was governed by them for \nan unknown period, prior to, and until, the Spanish Conquest. Some place their \nfirst appearance in Pern from regions unknown in 1021; others, also on conjecture, \nat five centuries after the Biblical \u201cflood\u201d, according to the modest notions of \nChristian theology. Still, the latter theory is undoubtedly nearer truth than the \nformer. The Incas, judged by their exclusive privileges, power, and \u201cinfalli\u00ac \nbility,\u201d are the antipodal counterpart of the Brahminical caste of India. Like \nthe latter, the Incas claimed direct descent from the Deity, which, as in the case \nof the Sflryavansa dynasty of India, was the Sun. According to the sole but \ngeneral tradition, there was a time when the whole of the population of the now \nNew World was broken up into independent, warring, and barbarian tribes. \nAt last, the \u201cHighest\u201d deity\u2014the Sun\u2014took pity upon them, and, in order to \nrescue the people from ignorance, sent down upon earth, to teach them, his two \nchildren, Manco Capac, and his sister and wife. Mama Ocollo Huaco\u2014the \ncounterparts, again, of the Egyptian Osiris, and his sister and wife, Isis, as well \nas of the several Hindu gods and demi-gods and their wives. These two made \ntheir appearance on a beautiful island in Lake Titicaca\u2014of which we will speak \nfurther on\u2014and thence proceeded northward to Cuzco, later on the capital of \nthe Incas, where they at once began to disseminate civilization. Collecting \ntogether the various races from all parts of Pern, the divine couple then divided \ntheir labour. Manco Capac taught men agriculture, legislation, architecture, \n\n\nREPRINT \n\n\n337 \n\n\nand arts; while Mama Ocollo instructed the women in weaving, spinning, \nembroidery, and housekeeping. It is from this celestial pair that the Incas \nclaimed their descent; and yet, they were utterly ignorant of the people who \nbuilt the stupendous and now ruined cities which cover the whole area of their \nempire, and which then extended from the Equator to over 37 degrees of Latitude, \nand included not only the western slope of the Andes, but the whole mountain \nchain with its eastern declivities to the Amazon and Orinoco. As the direct \ndescendants of the Sun, they were exclusively the high priests of the state religion, \nand at the same time emperors and the highest statesmen in the land: in virtue \nof which, they, again like the Brahmins, arrogated to themselves a divine superi\u00ac \nority over ordinary mortals, thus founding, like the \u201ctwice-bom\u201d, an exclusive \nand aristocratic caste\u2014the Inca race. Considered as the son of the Sun, every \nreigning Inca was the high priest, the oracle, chief captain in war, and absolute \nsovereign; thus realizing the double office of Pope and King, and long anticipating \nthe dream of the Roman Pontiffs. To his command the blindest obedience was \nexacted; his person was sacred; and he was the object of divine honoims. The \nhighest officers of the land could not appear shod in his presence: this mark of \nrespect pointing again to an Oriental origin; while the custom of boring the ears \nof the youths of royal blood, and inserting in them golden rings \u201cwhich were \nincreased in size as they advanced in rank, until the distention of the cartilage \nbecame a positive deformity\u201d, suggests a strange resemblance between the \nsculptured portraits of many of them that we find in the more modem ruins, and \nthe images of Buddha and of some Hindu deities, not to mention our contem\u00ac \nporary dandies of Siam, Burmah, and Southern India. In that, once more as in \nIndia, in the palmy days of the Brahmin power, no one had the right either to \nreceive an education or study religion except the young men of the privileged \nInca caste. And, when the reigning Inca died, or as it was termed, \u201cwas called \nhome to the mansion of his father\u201d, a very large number of his attendants and \nhis wives were made to die with him, during the ceremony of his obsequies, just \nas we find in the old annals of Rajesthdn, and down to the but just abolished \ncustom of Sutti. Taking all this into consideration, the archaeologist cannot \nremain satisfied with the brief remark of certain historians that \u201cin this tradition \nwe trace only another version of the story of the civilization common t^U \nprimitive nations, and that imposture of a celestial relationship whereby desi^Bg \nrulers and cunning priests have sought to secure their ascendency among men\u201d. \nNo more is it an explanation to say that \u201cManco Capac is the almost exact \ncounterpart of the Chinese Fohi, the Hindu Buddha, the terrestrial Osiris of \nEgypt, the Quetzalcoatl of Mexico, and Votanof Central America\u201d; for all this \nis but too evident. What we want to learn is how came these nations, so antip\u00ac \nodal to each other as India, Egypt, and America, to offer such extraordinary \npoints of resemblance, not only in their general religious, political, and social \nviews, but sometimes in the minutest details. The much-needed task is to find \nout which one of them preceded the other; to explain how these people came to \nplant at the four comers of the earth nearly identical architecture and arts, unless \nthere was a time when, as asserted by Plato and believed in by more than one \n\n\n338 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nmodern archaeologist, no ships were needed for such a transit, as the two worlds \nformed but one continent. \n\nAccording to the most recent researches, there are five distinct styles of archi\u00ac \ntecture in the Andes alone, of which the temple of the Sun at Cuzco was the \nlatest. And this one, perhaps, is the only structure of importance which, accord\u00ac \ning to modern travellers, can be safely attributed to the Incas, whose imperial \nglories are believed to have been the last gleam of a civilization dating back for \nuntold ages. Dr. E. R. Heath, of Kansas (U.S.A.), thinks that \u201clong before \nManco Capac, the Andes had been the dwelling-place of races, whose beginnings \nmust have been coeval with the savages of Western Europe. The gigantic archi\u00ac \ntecture points to the Cyclopean family, the founders of the Temple of Babel, and \nthe Egyptian pyramids. The Grecian scroll found in many places is borrowed (?) \nfrom the Egyptians; the mode of burial and embalming their dead points to \nEgypt.\u201d Further on, this learned traveller finds that the skulls taken from the \nburial-grounds, according to craniologists, represent three distinct races: the \nChinchas, who occupied the western part of Peru from the Andes to the Pacific; \nthe Aymaras, dwellers on the elevated plains of Peru and Bolivia, on the southern \nshore of Lake Titicaca; and the Huancas, who \u201coccupied the plateau between \nthe chains of the Andes, north of Lake Titicaca to the gth degree of South Lati\u00ac \ntude.\u201d To confound the buildings of the epoch of the Incas in Peru, and of \nMontezuma and his Caciques, in Mexico, with the aboriginal monuments, is fatal \nto archaeology. While Cholula, Uxmal, Quiche, Pachacamac, and Chichen \nwere all perfectly preserved and occupied at the time of the invasion of the \nSpanish banditti, there are hundreds of ruined cities and works which were in the \nsame state of ruin even then; whose origin was unknown to the conquered Incas \nand Caciques as it is to us; and which are undoubtedly the remains of unknown \nand now extinct peoples. The strange shapes of the heads, and profiles of the \nhuman figures upon the monoliths of Copdn are a warrant for the correctness of \nthe hypothesis. The pronounced difference between the skulls of these races, \nand the Indo-European skulls, was at first attributed to mechanical means! \nused by the mothers for giving a peculiar conformation to the heads of their \nchildren during infancy, as is often done by other tribes and peoples. But, as the \nsame author tells us, the finding in \u201ca mummy of a foetus of seven or eight months \nhaving the same conformation of skull, has placed a doubt as to the certainty of \nthis fact\u201d. And besides hypothesis, we have a scientific and unimpeachable proof \nof a civilization that must have existed in Peru ages ago. Were we to give the \nnumber of thousands of years that have probably elapsed since then, without \nfirst showing good reasons for the assumption, the reader might feel like holding \nhis breath. So let us try. \n\nThe Peruvian guano (huano), that precious fertilizer, composed of the excre\u00ac \nment of seafowls, intermixed with their decaying bodies, eggs, remains of seal, and \nso on, which has accumulated upon the isles of the Pacific and the coast of South \nAmerica, and its formation, are now well known. It was Humboldt who first \ndiscovered and drew the world\u2019s attention to it in 1804. And, while describing \nthe deposits as covering the granite rocks of the Chincas and other islands to the \n\n\nREPRINT \n\n\n339 \n\n\ndepth of 50 or 60 feet, he states that the accumulation of the preceding joo years, \nsince the Conquest, had formed only a few lines in thickness. How many thousands \nof years, then, it required to form this deposit 60 feet deep, is a matter of simple \ncalculation. In this connection we may now quote something of a discovery \nspoken of in the \u201cPeruvian Antiquities\u201d \u201cBuried 62 feet under the ground, \non the Chinca islands, stone-idols and water-pots were found, while 35 and 33 \nfeet below the surface were wooden idols. Beneath the guano on the Guanapi \nislands, just south of Truxillo, and Macabi just north, mummies, birds, and birds' \n^ggs, gold and silver ornaments were taken. On the Macabi the labourers found \nsome large valuable golden vases, which they broke up and divided among \nthemselves, even though offered weight for weight in gold coin, and thus relics of \ngreat interest to the scientist have been forever lost. He who can determine the \ncenturies necessary to deposit thirty and sixty feet of guano on these islands, \nremembering that since the Conquest, three hundred years ago, no appreciable \nincrease in depth has been noted\u2014can give you an idea of the antiquity of these \nrelics.\u201d \n\nIf we confine ourselves to a strictly arithmetical calculation, then, allowing 12 \nlines to an inch, and 12 inches to a foot, and allowing one line to every century, we \nare forced to believe that the people who made these precious gold vases lived \n864,000 years ago! Leave an ample margin for errors, and give two lines to a \ncentury\u2014say an inch to every 100 years\u2014and we shall yet have 72,000 years ago \na civilization which\u2014if we judge by its public works, the durability of its con\u00ac \nstructions, and the grandeur of its buildings,\u2014equalled, and in some things cer\u00ac \ntainly surpassed, our own. \n\nHaving well defined ideas as to the periodicity of cycles, for the world as well \nas for nations, empires, and tribes, we are convinced that our present modem \ncivilization is but the latest dawn of that which already has been seen an innu\u00ac \nmerable number of times upon this planet. It may not be exact science, but it is \nboth inductive and deductive logic, based upon theories far less hypothetical \nand more palpable than many another theory, held as strictly scientific. To \nexpress it in the words of Professor T. E. Nipher, of St. Louis, \u201cwe are not the \nfriends of theory, but of truth\u201d, and until truth is found, we welcome every ngw \ntheory, however unpopular at first, for fear of rejecting in our ignorance thq^Be \nwhich may in time become the very corner-stone of the truth. \u201cThe crr^^of \nscientific men are well nigh countless, not because they are men of science, but \nbecause they are men\", says the same scientist; and further quotes the noble \nwords of Faraday\u2014\u201coccasionally, and even frequently, the exercise of the \njudgment ought to end in absolute reservation. It may be very distasteful and a \ngreat fatigue to suspend a conclusion, but as we are not infallible, so we ought \nto be cautious\u201d {Experimental Researches, 24th Series). \n\nIt is doubtful whether, with the exception of a few of the most prominent ruins, \nthere ever was attempted a detailed account of the so-called American antiqui\u00ac \nties. Yet, in order to bring out the more prominently a point of comparison, \nsuch a work would be absolutely necessary. If the history of religion and of \n\n\n* A paper published by Mr. E. R. Heath in the Kansas City Review of Science and Industry, November, 1878. \n\n\n\n340 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nmythology and\u2014far more important\u2014the origin, development and final group\u00ac \ning of the human species, are ever to be imravelled, we have to trust to archae\u00ac \nological research, rather than to the hypothetical deductions of philology. We \nmust begin by massing together the concrete imagery of the early thought, more \neloquent in its stationary form than the verbal expression of the same, the latter \nbeing but too liable, in its manifold interpretations, to be distorted in a thousand \nways. This would afford us an easier and more trustworthy clue. Archaeological \nSocieties ought to have a whole cyclopaedia of the world\u2019s remains, with a colla\u00ac \ntion of the most important of the speculations as to each locality. For, however \nfantastic and wild some of these hypotheses may seem at first glance, yet each has \na chance of proving useful at some time. It is often more beneficial to know \nwhat a thing is not than to know what it is, as Max Muller truly tells us. \n\nIt is not within the limits of an article in oiu* paper that any such object could \nbe achieved. Availing ourselves, though, of the reports of the Government sur\u00ac \nveyors, trustworthy travellers, men of science, and even oiu: own limited experi\u00ac \nence, we shall try in future issues to give to our Hindu readers, who possibly may \nnever have heard of these antiquities, a general idea of them. Our latest infor\u00ac \nmation is drawn from every reliable source; the survey of the Peruvian antiqui\u00ac \nties being mostly due to Dr. Heath\u2019s able paper, above mentioned. \n\nII. \n\nEvidently we, Theosophists, are not the only iconoclasts in this world of \nmutual deception and hypocrisy. We are not the only ones who believe in cycles \nand, opposing the Biblical chronology, lean towards those opinions which secretly \nare shared by so many, but publicly avowed by so few. We, Europeans, are just \nemerging from the very bottom of a new cycle, and progressing upwards, while \nthe Asiatics\u2014Hindus especially\u2014are the lingering remnants of the nations which \nfilled the world in the previous and now departed cycles. Whether the Aryans \nsprang from the archaic Americans, or the latter from the prehistorical Aryans, \nis a question which no living man can decide. But that there must have been an \nintimate connection at some time between the old Aryans, the prehistoric inhabi\u00ac \ntants of America\u2014whatever might have been their name\u2014and the ancient \nEgyptians, is a matter more easily proved than contradicted. And probably, if \nthere ever was such a connection, it must have taken place at a time when the \nAtlantic did not yet divide the two hemispheres as it does now. \n\nIn his Peruvian Antiquities (see The Theosophist for March) Dr. Heath, of \nKansas City \u2014rara avis among scientific men, a fearless searcher, who accepts \ntruth wherever he finds it, and is not afraid to speak it out in the very face of \ndogmatic opposition\u2014sums up his impressions of the Peruvian relics in the \nfollowing words:\u2014\u201cThree times the Andes sank hundreds of feet beneath the \nocean level, and again were slowly brought to their present height. A man\u2019s \nlife would be too short to count even the centuries consumed in this operation. \nThe coast of Peru has risen eighty feet since it felt the tread of Pizarro. Sup\u00ac \nposing the Andes to have risen uniformly and without interruption, 70,000 \nyears must have elapsed before they reached their present altitude.\u201d \n\n\nREPRINT \n\n\n341 \n\n\n\u201cWho knows, then, but that Jules Verne\u2019s fanciful idea^ regarding the lost \ncontinent, Atlanta, may be near the truth? Who can say that, where now is the \nAtlantic Ocean, there did not formerly exist a continent, with its dense popu\u00ac \nlation, advanced in the arts and sciences, who, as they found their land sinking \nbeneath the waters, retired part east and part west, populating thus the two \nhemispheres? This would explain the similarity of their archaeological structur^ \nand races, and their differences, modified by and adapted to the character of their \nrespective climates and countries. Thus would the llama and the camel differ, \nalthough of the same species; thus the algoraba and espino trees; thus the \nIroquois Indians of North America and the most ancient Arabs call the con\u00ac \nstellation of the \u2018Great Bear\u2019 by the same name; thus various nations, cut off \nfrom all intercourse or knowledge of each other, divide the zodiac into twelve \nconstellations, apply to them the same names, and the Northern Hindus apply \nthe name Andes to their Himalayan mountains, as did the South Americans to \ntheir principal chain.^ Must we fall in the old rut, and suppose no other means \nof populating the Western Hemisphere except \u2018by way of Behring\u2019s Strait\u2019? \nMust we still locate a geographical Eden in the East, and suppose a land, equally \nadapted to man and as old geologically, must wait the aimless wanderings of the \n\u2018lost tribes of Israel\u2019 to become populated?\u201d \n\nGo where we may to explore the antiquities of America\u2014whether of Northern, \nCentral, or Southern America\u2014we are first of all impressed with the magnitude \nof these relics of ages and races unknown, and then with the extraordinary \nsimilarity they present to the mounds and ancient structures of old India, of \nEgypt, and even of some parts of Europe. Whoever has seen one of these \nmounds, has seen all. Whoever has stood before the cyclopean structures of one \ncontinent, can have a pretty accurate idea of those of the other. Only be it said \n\u2014we know still less of the age of the antiquities of America than even of those \nin the Valley of the Nile, of which we know next to nothing. But their symbolism \n\u2014apart from their outward form\u2014is evidently the same as in Egypt, India, and \nelsewhere. As before the great pyramid of Cheops in Cairo, so before the great \nmound, loo feet high, on the plain of Cahokia\u2014near St. Louis (Missouri)\u2014 \nwhich measures 700 feet long by 800 feet broad at the base, and covers upwards \nof eight acres of ground, having 20,000,000 cubic feet of contents, and the mound \non the banks of Brush Creek, Ohio, so accurately described by Squier an 4 D|ps, \none knows not whether to admire more the geometrical precision, presci^^ by \nthe wonderful and mysterious builders in the form of their monuments, or the \nhidden symbolism they evidently sought to express. The Ohio mound represents \na serpent, upwards of i ,000 feet long. Gracefully coiled in capricious curves, it \nterminates in a triple coil at the tail. \u201cThe embankment constituting the effigy, is \nupwards of five feet in height, by thirty feet base at the centre of the body, slightly \n\n^This \"idea\" is plainly expressed and asserted as a fact by Plato in his Banquet; and was taken up by Lord \n\nBacon in his New Atlantis. , . , j , i \n\n*\"The name America\", said I. in his Unveiled (Vol. 2. p. SQO.^tbree years ago. \"may one day be found closely \nrelated to Meru, the sacred mount in the centre of the seven continents\". When first discovered, America was \nfound to bear among some native tribes the name of Atlanta. In the States of Central America we find the name \nAmerih, signifying, like Meru, a great mountain. The origin of the Kamas Indians of America is also unknown. \n\n\n\n342 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ndiminishing towards the tail.\u201d^ The neck is stretched out and its mouth wide \nopened, holding within its jaws an oval figure. \u201cFormed by an embankment four \nfeet in height, this oval is perfectly regular in outline, its transverse and con\u00ac \njugate diameters being i6o and 8 feet respectively\u201d, say the surveyors. The whole \nrepresents the universal cosmological idea of the serpent and the egg. This is \neasy to surmise. But how came this great symbol of the Hermetic wisdom of old \nEgypt to find itself represented in North America? How is it that the sacred \nbuildings found in Ohio and elsewhere, these squares, circles, octagons, and other \ngeometrical figures, in which one recognizes so easily the prevailing idea of the \nPythagorean sacred nimierals, seem copied from the Book of Numbers? Apart \nfrom the complete silence as to their origin, even among the Indian tribes, who \nhave otherwise preserved their own traditions in every case, the antiquity of \nthese ruins is proved by the existence of the largest and most ancient forests \ngrowing on the buried cities. The prudent archaeologists of America have \ngenerously assigned them 2,000 years. But by whom built, and whether their \nauthors migrated, or disappeared beneath victorious arms, or were swept out of \nexistence by some direful epidemic, or a universal famine, are questions, \u201cprob\u00ac \nably beyond the power of human investigation to answer\u201d, they say. The \nearliest inhabitants of Mexico, of whom history has any knowledge\u2014more \nhypothetical than proven\u2014are the Toltecs. These are supposed to have come \nfrom the North and believed to have entered Anahuac in the 7th century a.d. \nThey are also credited with having constructed in Central America, where they \nspread in the eleventh century, some of the great cities whose ruins still exist. \nIn this case it is they who must also have carved the hieroglyphics that cover \nsome of the relics. How is it, then, that the pictorial system of writing of Mexico, \nwhich was used by the conquered people and learned by the conquerors and their \nmissionaries, does not yet furnish the keys to the hieroglyphics of Palenque and \nCopdn, not to mention those of Peru? And these civilized Toltecs themselves, \nwho were they, and whence did they come? And who are the Aztecs that suc\u00ac \nceeded them? Even among the hieroglyphical systems of Mexico, there were \nsome which the foreign interpreters were precluded from the possibility of study\u00ac \ning. These were the so-called schemes of judicial astrology \u201cgiven but not \nexplained in Lord Kingsborough\u2019s published collection\u201d, and set down as purely \nfigurative and symbolical, \u201cintended only for the use of the priests and diviners \nand possessed of an esoteric significance.\u201d Many of the hieroglyphics on the \nmonoliths of Palenque and Copdn are of the same character. The \u201cpriests and \ndiviners\u201d were all killed off by the Catholic fanatics,\u2014the secret died with them. \n\nNearly all the mounds in North America are terraced and ascended by large \ngraded ways, sometimes square, often hexagonal, octagonal or truncated, but in \nall respects similar to the teocallis of Mexico, and to the topes of India. As the \nlatter are attributed throughout this country to the work of the five Pandus of \nthe Lunar Race, so the cyclopean monuments and monoliths on the shores of \nLake Titicaca, in the republic of Bolivia, are ascribed to giants, the five exiled \nbrothers \u201cfrom beyond the mounts\u201d. They worshipped the moon as their \n\n\n\u2022 Smithsonian contributions to Knowledge, Vol. I. \n\n\n\nREPRINT \n\n\n343 \n\n\nprogenitor and lived before the time of the \u201cSons and Virgins of the 5 \u00abn\u201c. Here, \nthe similarity of the Aryan with the South American tradition is again but too \nobvious, and the Solar and Lunar races\u2014SQrya Vansa and the Chandra Vansa\u2014 \nreappear in America. \n\nThis Lake Titicaca, which occupies the centre of one of the most remarkable \nterrestrial basins on the whole globe, is \u201ci6o miles long and from 50 to 80 broad, \nand discharges through the valley of El Desagvadero, to the south-east into \nanother lake, called Lake Aullagas, which is probably kept at a lower level by \nevaporation or filtration, since it has no known outlet. The surface of the lake \nis 12,846 feet above the sea, and it is the most elevated body of waters of similar \nsize in the world.\u201d As the level of its waters has very much decreased in the \nhistorical period, it is believed on good grounds that they once surrounded the \nelevated spot on which are found the remarkable ruins of Tiahuanaco. \n\nThe latter are without any doubt aboriginal monuments pertaining to an epoch \nwhich preceded the Inca period, as far back as the Dravidian and other aboriginal \npeoples preceded the Aryans in India. Although the traditions of the Incas \nmaintain that the great lawgiver and teacher of the Peruvians, Manco Capac\u2014 \nthe Manu of South America\u2014diffused his knowledge and influence from this \ncentre, yet the statement is unsupported by facts. If the original seat of the \nAymara, or \u201cInca race\u201d was there, as claimed by some, how is it that neither the \nIncas, nor the Aymaras, who dwell on the shores of the Lake to this day, nor \nyet the ancient Peruvians, had the slightest knowledge concerning their history? \nBeyond a vague tradition which tells us of \u201cgiants\u201d having built these immense \nstructures in one night, we do not find the faintest clue. And we have every \nreason to doubt whether the Incas are of the Aymara race at all. The Incas \nclaim their descent from Manco Capac, the son of the Sun, and the Aymaras \nclaim this legislator as their instructor and the founder of the era of their civili\u00ac \nzation. Yet, neither the Incas of the Spanish period could prove the one, nor \nthe Aymaras the other. The language of the latter is quite distinct from the \nInichua \u2014the tongue of the Incas; and they were the only race that refused to \ngive up their language when conquered by the descendants of the Sun, as Dr. \nHeath tells us. ^ \n\nThe ruins afford every evidence of the highest antiquity. Some are biMbn a \nPyramidal plan, as most of the American mounds are, and cover severa^cres; \nwhile the monolithic doorways, pillars, and stone-idols, so elaborately carved, \nare \u201csculptured in a style wholly diferent from any other remains of art yet \nfound in America\u201d. D\u2019Orbigny speaks of the ruins in the most enthusiastic \nmanner. \u201cThese monuments\u201d, he says, \u201cconsist of a mound raised nearly 100 \nfeet, surrounded with pillars\u2014of temples from 600 to 1,200 feet in length, opening \nprecisely towards the east, and adorned with colossal angular columns\u2014of porti\u00ac \ncoes of a single stone, covered with reliefs of skilful execution, displaying sym\u00ac \nbolical representations of the Sun, and the condor, his messenger\u2014of basaltic \nstatues loaded with bas-reliefs, in which the design of the carved head is half \nEgyptian\u2014and lastly, of the interior of a palace formed of enormous blocks of \nrock, completely hewn, whose dimensions are often 21 feet in length, 12 in \n\n\n344 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nbreadth, and 6 in thickness. In the temples and palaces, the portals are not \ninclined, as among those of the Incas, but perpendicular; and their vast dimen\u00ac \nsions, and the imposing masses of which they are composed, surpass in beauty \nand grandeur all that were afterwards built by the sovereigns of Cuzco.\u201d Like \nthe rest of his fellow-explorers, M. D\u2019Orbigny believes these ruins to have been \nthe work of a race far anterior to the Incas. \n\nTwo distinct styles of architecture are found in these relics of Lake Titicaca. \nThose of the Island of Coati, for instance, bear every feature in common with \nthe ruins of Tiahuanaco; so do the vast blocks of stone elaborately sculptured, \nsome of which, according to the report of the surveyors, in 1846, measure: \u201d3 \nfeet in length by 18 feet in width, and 6 feet in thickness\u201d; while on some of the \nislands of the Lake Titicaca there are monuments of great extent, \u2018\u2018but of true \nPeruvian type, believed to be the remains of temples destroyed by the Span\u00ac \niards\u2019 \u2019. The famous sanctuary, with the human figure in it, belongs to the former. \nIts doorway 10 feet high, 13 feet broad, with an opening 6 feet 4 inches, by 3 \nfeet 2 inches, is cut from a single stone. \u2018\u2018Its east front has a cornice, in the centre \nof which is a human figure of strange form, crowned with rays, interspersed with \nserpents with crested heads. On each side of this figure are three rows of square \ncompartments, filled with human and other figures, of apparently symbolic \ndesign. ...\u201d Were this temple in India, it would undoubtedly be attributed to \nShiva; but it is at the antipodes, where neither the foot of a Shaiva nor one of \nthe Naga tribe has ever penetrated to the knowledge of man, though the Mexican \nIndians have their Nagal, or chief sorcerer and serpent worshipper. The ruins \nstanding on an eminence, which, from the water-marks around it, seems to have \nbeen formerly an island in Lake Titicaca, and \u2018\u2018the level of the Lake now being \n135 feet lower, and its shores, 12 miles distant, this fact, in conjunction with \nothers, warrants the belief that these remains antedate any others known in \nAmerica.\u201d^ Hence, all these relics are unanimously ascribed to the same \u2018\u2018un\u00ac \nknown and mysterious people who preceded the Peruvians, as the Tulhuatecas \nor Toltecs did the Aztecs. It seems to have been the seat of the highest and most \nancient civilization of South America and of a people who have left the most \ngigantic monuments of their power and skill.\u201d . . . And these monuments are \nall either Dracontias \u2014Temples sacred to the Snake\u2014or temples dedicated to the \nSun. \n\nOf this same character are the ruined pyramids of Teotihuacan and the mono\u00ac \nliths of Palenque and Copdn. The former are some eight leagues from the city \nof Mexico on the plain of Otumla, and considered among the most ancient in the \nland. The two principal ones are dedicated to the Sun and Moon, respectively. \nThey are built of cut stone, square, with four stories and a level area at the top. \nThe larger, that of the Sun, is 221 feet high, 680 feet square at the base, and covers \nan area of 11 acres, nearly equal to that of the great pyramid of Cheops. And \nyet, the pyramid of Cholula, higher than that of Teotihuacan by ten feet accord\u00ac \ning to Humboldt, and having 1,400 feet square at the base, covers an area of 45 \nacres! \n\n\n*New American Cyclopaedia, Art. Teotihuacan. \n\n\n\nREPRINT \n\n\n345 \n\n\nIt is interesting to hear what the earliest writers\u2014the historians who saw them \nduring the first conquest\u2014say even of some of the most modem of these build\u00ac \nings, of the great temple of Mexico, among others. It consisted of an immense \nsquare area \u201csurrounded by a wall of stone and lime, eight feet thick, with \nbattlements, ornamented with many stone figures in the form of serpents'', says \none. Cortez shows that 500 houses might be easily placed within its enclosure. \nIt was paved with polished stones, so smooth, that \u201cthe horses of the Spaniards \ncould not move over them without slipping\u201d, writes Bemal Diaz. In connection \nwith this, we must remember that it was not the Spaniards who conquered the \nMexicans, but their horses. As there never was a horse seen before by this people \nin America, until the Europeans landed it on the coast, the natives, though exces\u00ac \nsively brave, \u201cwere so awestruck at the sight of horses and the roar of the artil\u00ac \nlery\u201d, that they took the Spaniards to be of divine origin and sent them human \nbeings as sacrifices. This superstitious panic is sufficient to account for the fact \nthat a handful of men could so easily conquer incalculable thousands of warriors. \n\nAccording to Gomara, the four walls of the enclosure of the temple corre\u00ac \nsponded with the cardinal points. In the centre of this gigantic area arose the \ngreat temple, an immense pyramidal stmcture of eight stages, faced with stone, \n300 feet square at the base and 120 feet in height, truncated, with a level summit, \nupon which were situated two towers, the shrines of the divinities to whom it \nwas consecrated\u2014Tezcatlipoca and Huitzlipochtili. It was here that the sacri\u00ac \nfices were performed, and the eternal fire maintained. Clavigero tells us that \nbesides this great pyramid, there were forty other similar structures consecrated \nto various divinities. The one called Tezcacalli was \u201cthe House of the Shining \nMirrors, sacred to Tezcatlipoca, the God of Light, the Soul of the World, the \nVivifier, the Spiritual Sun\u201d. The dwellings of priests, who, according to Zarate, \namounted to 8,000, were near by, as well as the seminaries and the schools. \nPonds and fountains, groves and gardens, in which flowers and sweet smelling \nherbs were cultivated for use in certain sacred rites and the decoration of altars, \nwere in abundance; and, so large was the inner yard, that \u201c8,000 or 10,000 per\u00ac \nsons had sufficient room to dance in it upon their solemn festivities\u201d\u2014says Solis. \nTorquemada estimates the number of such temples in the Mexican empire at \n40,000 but Clavigero, speaking of the majestic Teocalli (literally, houses of God) \nof Mexico, estimates the number higher. \n\nSo wonderful are the features of resemblance between the ancient shriOTS of the \nOld and the New World that Humboldt remains tmequal to express his surprise. \n\u201cWhat striking analogies exist between the moniunents of the old continents \nand those of the Toltecs who . . . built these colossal structures, truncated \npyramids, divided by layers, like the temple of Belus at Babylon! Where did \nthey take the model of these edifices?\u201d\u2014he exclaims. \n\nThe eminent naturalist might also have inquired where the Mexicans got all \ntheir Christian virtues from, being but poor pagans. The code of the Aztecs, \nsays Prescott, \u201cevinces a profound respect for the great principles of morality, \nand as clear a perception of these principles as is to be found in the most culti\u00ac \nvated nations\u201d. Some of these are very curious inasmuch as they show such a \n\n\n\n\n346 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nsimilarity to some of the Gospel ethics, \u201cHe who looks too curiously on a woman, \ncommits adultery with his eyes\u201d, says one of them. \u201cKeep peace with all; \nbear injuries with humility; God, who sees, will avenge you\u201d, declares another. \nRecognizing but one Supreme Power in Nature, they addressed it as the deity \n\u201cby whom we live, Omnipresent, that knoweth all thoughts and giveth all gifts, \nwithout whom man is as nothing; invisible, incorporeal, one of perfect perfection \nand purity, under whose wings we find repose and a sure defence.\u201d And, in \nnaming their children, says Lord Kingsborough, \u201cthey used a ceremony strongly \nresembling the Christian rite of baptism, the lips and bosom of the infant being \nsprinkled with water, and the Lord implored to wash away the sin that was given \nto it before the foundation of the world, so that the child might be born anew.'* \n\u201cTheir laws were perfect; justice, contentment and peace reigned in the kingdom \nof these benighted heathen,\u201d when the brigands and the Jesuits of Cortez landed \nat Tabasco. A century of murders, robbery, and forced conversion, was \nsufficient to transform this quiet, inoffensive and wise people into what they \nare now. They have fully benefited by dogmatic Christianity; and he who has \never been to Mexico, knows what that means. The country is full of blood\u00ac \nthirsty Christian fanatics, thieves, rogues, drunkards, debauchees, murderers, \nand the greatest liars the world has ever produced! Peace and glory to your ashes, \nO Cortez and Torquemada! In this case at least, you will never be permitted to \nboast of the enlightenment your Christianity has poured out on the poor, and \nonce virtuous heathen! \n\n\nThrough the Arches of Time fly the Swallows of Time,\u2014in threes, in fours, then \nin threes again, making the seven and the sacred ten. \n\nThus nations pass, and races; continents rise and fall; the Days dawn and fade, \nthe Nights return. \n\nTime, the mighty Illusion, raised these Arches; and, while Time exists, through \nthem fly the Swallows of Time, in threes, in fours, then in threes again. \n\nEternity holds them; verily. Eternity holds them all .\u2014 The Book of Birds. \n\n\n\n\nThe Lost Empires of the Itzaes and Mayas, by Theodore A. Willard; The \nArthur H. Clark Company, Glendale, California, 1933; price, S6.00. \n\nThe Conquest of the Maya, by J. Leslie Mitchell; Dutton, New York, 1935; \nprice, $3.75* \n\nThe Ancient Mayas: Adventures in the Jungles of Yucatan, by Robert B. \nStacy-Judd; Haskell-Travers, Inc., Los Angeles, California, 1934; price, S3.50. \n\nMr. Theodore Willard is well known to students of the civilization of the \nMayas. In his book. The City of the Sacred Well, he wrote of the excavations and \ndiscoveries made by Edward Thompson at Chichen Itza. His new book gives an \nexcellent r^sum6 of what is known of the history of Yucatan before the Spanish \nConquest, and of the Conquest itself. There are imaginative descriptions of \nMaya ceremonies and festivals which draw a picture of the life of that day, and \nthere is a \u201cpersonally conducted\u201d tour of the monuments of Chichen Itza, Uxmal, \nand other ruined cities of the peninsula. Mr. Willard writes with enthusiasm and \nsympathy for his subject, and he does not dogmatize. In his concluding chapter \non Facts, Theories and Conjectures, he discusses the various theories as to the \norigin of the Maya, Atlantean or Mongolian. He touches mildly upon the \nvexed question of whether the animals with long, curling snouts so frequently \nrepresented on the monuments are elephants, macaws or tapirs. He calls atten\u00ac \ntion to the Oriental turbans of the personages on the Copdn altar. He presents \nthe speculations as to the downfall and disappearance of the race, and concludes \nby saying, \u201cThe mystery lies not in the disappearance of its ancient peoples nor \nin the diminished population of the peninsula. Rather, the unfathomable^ Q|pb- \nlem concerns their origin. Someday, perhaps, some deeply-buried rccofl^ill \nyield the secret, and this story without a beginning may be completed.\u201d \n\nMr. J. Leslie Mitchell\u2019s book is written for more serious readers. It brings \ntogether a prodigious quantity of data from all the sources, from history, from \nthe scientists, ethnologists and archaeologists, and from the monuments them\u00ac \nselves. He has, however, little of the open-mindedness and modesty of Mr. \nWillard. He has made up his mind as to what happened, and, of course, fits facts \ninto his theory. \n\nModem scientists nearly all agree that man was not indigenous in the Americas. \nMost of them think he came over the Aleutian Islands from Asia. There are \nsome who will allow a migration from Europe by way of Greenland, and another \n\n\n347 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n348 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nmigration to the Pacific coast from Polynesia. Others, more rare and more \nliberal, concede the existence of an Atlantean continent, and the possibility of an \nAtlantean origin for some of the peoples. Mr. Mitchell has no use for Lemuria or \nAtlantis. Also, he has a violent aversion to the idea that civilizations sprang up \nsimultaneously in all parts of the world, or that the nature of man leads him to \nexpress himself in much the same way wherever he is. He says: \n\nModern evidences, as we have seen, demonstrate that the belief that cultures developed \nindependently at different points on the surface of the globe \u201cthrough the similarity of \nthe innate disposition of the human mind\u201d is a belief without objective foundation, a \ntheory not evolved from facts, but superimposed upon them. Civilization, culture, did \nnot arise independently at various points all over the earth: there was no slow upward \nclimb from primitive to savage, savage to barbarian, barbarian to civilized man, in the \nordering beloved of the older school of historians. Civilization rose from the midst of \nprimitive freedom, with comparative suddenness, revolutionizing human life and spreading \nabroad the planet much as the technique of the Solutrian blade, from one accidental point \nin the Old World. That accidental point was Ancient Egypt. . . . Chance and long \ncenturies of observation forced Agriculture upon the Ancient Egyptian. . . .Agriculture \ngave birth to theology, the arts, and a multitude of handicrafts within the limited period \nof a few hundred years in the Nile basin\u2014this at no remote period in human history, but \nprobably between the years 50CX) B.c. and 4000 b.c. \n\nMr. Mitchell is as dogmatic as the late Bishop Usher, who, you will remember, \nplaced the creation of the world at b.c. 4004. This sudden development, accord\u00ac \ning to our present author, was due to the fact that barley and millet grew wild \nin the Nile valley. It is his theory that men, observing the fertilizing effects of the \nNile floods, developed an irrigating system and deified the \u201cFirst Irrigator\u201d, \nand that this culture was carried gradually around the earth, even to the Ameri\u00ac \ncas. Mr. Mitchell does not think that this was accomplished all at once, but \nthat successive waves of immigrants followed each other, bringing with them their \ncultures. He traces some Egyptian symbology in early Mayan monuments, for \nhe believes that all religions came from the fertility cult of Osiris, and that this \ncult was developed by the Hindus into their highly complex systems. He finds \ndecided Hindu influences throughout the Maya and Mexican area. For him, the \nsnouts on the animal masks are the elephant trunk of the God Ganesha; the \nEarth Monster is the Indian Makara, and the God in the jaws of the monster is \nIndra in the coils of the serpent or Vishnu borne up by Sesha. He lays stress \nupon the many obvious similarities between the Maya sculptures and those of \nAngkor-Wat in Cambodia. Students of The Secret Doctrine will remember the \ntradition that Arjuna went to Patala, or the antipodes, and there married the \ndaughter of the King of the Nagas. However, we should be inclined to ask: \nis the God upon the Serpent Altar the Hindu Indra himself, or is he the Adept, \nthe Dragon of Wisdom, so called in all the great religions? \n\nAccording to The Secret Doctrine, the history of civilized man is immensely \nolder than the archaeologists are willing to admit. Man did not painfully dis\u00ac \ncover for himself the sciences of astronomy, mathematics, architecture and \nagriculture through long millenniums of experiment. Neither did he suddenly \ninvent them in the course of a few hundred years. At the beginning of his \n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n349 \n\n\nemergence into the human kingdom he was ruled over by divine Kings who \ntaught him these things. The \u201cStanzas of Dzyan\u201d say: \u201cThen the Builders, \nhaving donned their first Clothing, descend on radiant Earth and reign over \nMen\u2014who are themselves.\u201d Madame Blavatsky comments on this, and her \ncomments are so interesting that we cannot resist quoting them at some length. \n\nThe \u201cWatchers\u201d reign over men during the whole period of Satya Yuga and the smaller \nsubsequent Yugas, down to the beginning of the Third Root Race; after which it is the \nPatriarchs, Heroes, and the Manes, as in the Egyptian Dynasties enumerated by the \npriests to Solon, the incarnated Dhyanis of a lower order, up to King Menes and the \nhuman kings of other nations. All were carefully recorded. In the views of symbologists \nthis Mythopoeic Age is of course regarded only as a fairy tale. But since traditions and \neven chronicles of such Dynasties of Divine Kings, of Gods reigning over men, followed by \nDynasties of Heroes or Giants, exist in the annals of every nation, it is difficult to under\u00ac \nstand how all the peoples under the sun, some of whom are separated by vast oceans and \nbelong to different hemispheres, such as the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, as well as \nthe Chaldeans, could have worked out the same \u201cfairy tales\u201d in the same order of events. \nHowever, as the Secret Doctrine teaches history \u2014which, although esoteric and traditional, \nis, none the less, more reliable than profane history\u2014we are entitled to our beliefs as much \nas any one else, whether religionist or sceptic. And that Doctrine says that the Dhyani- \nBuddhas of the two higher Groups, namely, the Watchers or the Architects, furnished the \nmany and various races with divine kings and leaders. It is the latter who taught human\u00ac \nity their arts and sciences, and the former who revealed to the incarnated Monads that \nhad just shaken off their Vehicles of the lower Kingdoms, and who had, therefore, lost \nevery recollection of their divine origin, the great spiritual truths of the transcendental \nWorlds {The Secret Doctrine^ ed. 1893, I, 287). \n\nThe great weakness of modem archreologists is that they see only the exterior, \n\u2014layers of lava, old bones, or a few dated stones. They have, practically without \nexception, no understanding of the inner meaning of symbols throughout the \nworld. Most-of the investigators of the Maya are unable to interpret the signifi\u00ac \ncance of a work like the Popul Vuh. What does it mean when it says that when \nthe ancestors of the tribes, after long wanderings, came into the land, they \nfound giants there? The fact is that the origins of the civilizations of America \nare lost in darkness, as most of the archaeologists admit, but they will not accept \nthe combined mass of tradition of all the races. As Madame Blavatsky says: \n\u201cIt is the ignorance of our men of science, who will accept neither the tradition \nthat several Continents have already sunk, nor the periodical law which acts \nthroughout the Manvantaric Cycle\u2014it is this ignorance that is the chief \nof all the confusion.\u201d The Secret Doctrine declares that physical man deva^ed \non this earth 18,000,000 years ago. The remains of his antediluvian cultures are \nhidden under the oceans, for the most part. We are told of \u201cthe Lemurians in \ntheir sixth sub-race building their first rock-cities out of lava and stone. . . . \nThe oldest remains of Cyclopean buildings were all the handiwork of the last \nsub-races of the Lemurians: and an Occultist, therefore, shows no surprise on \nlearning that the stone relics which are found on the small piece of land called \nEaster Island ... are \u2018very much like the walls of the Temple of Pachacamac or \nthe Ruins of Tia-Huanaco in Peru\u2019, and also that they are in the Cyclopean \nstyle\u201d. The reviewer is well aware that the mins of Easter Island and Pern are \n\n\n350 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nnow declared by the scientists to have been constructed in the Christian era, \nbut their theories, when carefully examined and compared, seem as fantastic \nto us as ours do to them, and far less logical and satisfactory. \n\nWho were the Mound Builders? Where were the Seven Cities of Cibola? From \nwhence came the Ancestors of the Chimus? For example, it is significant to a \nstudent of The Secret Doctrine that the Maya calendar should start arbitrarily \non a certain day, 4 Ahau, 8 Cumhu, or September fourth, 3113 b.c., according \nto one system of reading the calendar. He will immediately recall that the pres\u00ac \nent cycle of Kali Yuga started with the death of Krishna about 5000 years ago. \n\nMr. Stacey-Judd is a firm believer in the existence of Atlantis, and he thinks \nthat Mayan culture was derived essentially from Atlantean sources. His book. \nThe Ancient Mayas, is primarily an account of his own travels in Yucatan. He \nis an architect and has an appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of Maya art. \nOne frequently wonders why Mr. Mitchell bothers to write about people he \ndislikes so much. Indeed, he rather wonders why himself. Mr. Stacy-Judd, on \nthe contrary, is full of admiration and sympathy which enable him to transmit \nhis enthusiasm to his readers. He succeeds in giving a living impression of the \nsplendours of the cities of Yucatan, where a much better writer, Mr. Mitchell, \nfails and is decidedly vulgar. Mr. Stacy-Judd\u2019s amiability evidently com\u00ac \nmunicated itself to those with whom he came in contact. His adventures in the \nvast caves of Loltun, from which he was rescued by a centenarian Maya hermit, \nwill particularly delight the reader. \n\nAll three of these books are well illustrated with excellent photographs and \nmaps. The subject is one which must always be fascinating to those who are \ninterested in the civilizations of the past. St.C. LaD. \n\n\nPrince Saionji, by Tosabuno Taketoshi, Member of the House of Peers; \nRitsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan; price, 5 yen. \n\nThis life of Prince Saionji, written by one of his political disciples, gives a \nvivid insight into the history of Japan in the nineteenth century. The first \npart of the book tells of those days when the terrifying boom of Perry\u2019s guns \nwas heard. The largest temple bell of the country was brought down to the \nshore. Its sound would make the enemy\u2019s blood curdle! We read a discussion \non training archers to confront the Western barbarians, and barely a few pages \nfurther on, we find Japan a power engaged in world politics. \n\nPrince Saionji is the last remaining Genro, that is. Elder Statesman, a special \nadviser to the Emperor, appointed by Imperial rescript after his retirement as \nPrime Minister. He is the head of a family founded in the tenth century by the \nmarriage of an Emperor\u2019s daughter with a Minister of State. As a child, Saionji \nwas precocious and independent of spirit. At six, already given the responsi\u00ac \nbilities of chamberlain, he began the traditional studies of the Chinese Classics \nand the arts of war. In 1868, when the war of the Restoration began, he was \nonly nineteen. The forces upon which the Emperor could count were very \nuncertain. Because of his genuine loyalty and buoyant enthusiasm, Saionji \n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n351 \n\n\nwas put at the head of a force of clansmen. \u201cDressed in green armour, with the \nhead-dress appropriate to his rank\u201d, preceded by a banner of red cloth with the \nsun and moon emblazoned upon it, in two short campaigns he defeated the \nopposing forces of the Shogunate in the district of Echigo. His successes, his \nfrankness and his intelligence won him the favour of the Court, then surrounded \nby intriguing officials and rough clansmen. After the country was pacified, he \nwas offered the post of Governor of the Provinces; but his mind was made up: \nat a time when all were scrambling for positions, he preferred to ask for release \nfrom military duty and for permission to go to France to study. Discarding his \nmediaeval armour and his two swords for a suit of foreign clothes, he left for \nParis, the Paris of the Commune. Fourteen years ago, he returned to Paris to \nsign the Versailles Treaty. \n\nHe found the clear Gallic spirit in harmony with his own. There is a bond \nbetween the Japanese and the French which grows out of a similar appreciation \nof the spiritual values of life. The French think, the Japanese feel; there lies \nthe difference. Saionji studied law, and also spent much time enjoying the \nBohemian life of the period in the literary circles where his charm made him \nmany friends. He collaborated with Gautier\u2019s daughter, Madame Mend^s, in \nthe production of a play at the Od^on. He stayed ten years, and was thirty- \nthree when he returned to Japan, armed with some knowledge of law and of \nlife. \n\nHe suffered many bitter disappointments when, eager to act and serve, he \nfound himself blocked again and again, on one side by politicians, on the other \nby traditions and by the will of an Emperor whom he desired to obey in spirit \nand in letter. A bold attempt at the editing of a liberal newspaper was sup\u00ac \npressed by Imperial order. After this, his political career began, first as senator, \nthen as Minister to Vienna and Berlin. Twice he was appointed Minister of \nEducation, and twice Prime Minister. His political career was uneventful. His \nimportance lies in his profound wisdom and integrity. The Emperor, and politi\u00ac \ncal friends and enemies alike, turned for advice to one so steeped in Chinese \nwisdom and French culture. For instance, we may read in the newspaper that \nthe Prime Minister of the Empire is taking the train to Okitsu, there to b^ld \nwhether or not he should resign, and who should be appointed Mini^Wof \nEducation. \n\nOne feels throughout the book the attraction of Prince Saionji\u2019s forceful \npersonality, free, frank, humorous, enthusiastic, poised and detached, yet \ncapable of very determined action. He does not spurn entertainments, and with \nhis literary friends frequents the tea houses. He enjoys music and poetry, and is \nhimself able to write verse. It is in some small unpretentious house that he \nprefers to live, and it is there that his friends come to find him when he is needed \nfor some important mission. In spite of his horror of ostentation, he knows how \nto give banquets where he tactfully brings together politicians and men of letters \nat a time when considerations of rank and station make such a thing highly \ndifficult. The Prince, now eighty-four, lives in his villa at Okitsu, by the sea, \nsurrounded by terraced orange groves. There one can imagine him finding in \n\n\n352 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nNatiire and in his Chinese Classics that poise on which his impartial judgment \nand clear thinking are founded. \n\nPrince Saionji served his country by contributing faith in liberty and tolerance, \nwhile preserving intact the traditional belief in the ancient wisdom and the \nobservance of complete loyalty to the Emperor. The attitude of his countrymen \ntoward him is an example which Occidentals, for the most part, will be too vain \neither to notice or to follow,\u2014and recognition of the hierarchical principle pre\u00ac \nsupposes at least the semblance of hmnility, while democracy damns humility, \nand Nazi-ism double-damns it. Similarly, respect for the experience of age is \nantagonistic to the \u201cAscendency of Youth\u201d and to the \u201cExperiment-at-other- \npeople\u2019s-expense\u201d systems, both of which are based upon contempt for what the \npast should teach us. So long as the Japanese, whatever their faults, show their \nsuperiority in these respects, they will have that much practical advantage over \nus,\u2014and will deserve it. N.R. \n\n\nThe Age of the Gods, A Study in the Origins of Culture in Prehistoric Europe and \nthe Ancient East, by Christopher Dawson; Sheed and Ward, New York, 1933; \nprice, S3.00. \n\nThis is not a new book, but a re-issue of one first published by John Murray, \nLondon, in 1928, in a much more expensive form. Until now, therefore, it has \nbeen less available to the general public than the book itself merits. It is the \nfirst of a series of several volumes (some still in the making) which may be \nsummed up as a History of Culture, and is an attempt to show that culture \nsprings from and rests upon man\u2019s spiritual attitude toward life. \u201cWhat is a \nculture?\u201d, we read. \u201cA culture is a common way of life\u2014a particular adjust\u00ac \nment of man to his natural surroundings and his economic needs. In its use \nand modification it resembles the development of a biological species,\u201d\u2014it is, \nin fact, an embryonic expression of group life. \u201cBut man is not merely plastic \nunder the influence of his material environment. He moulds it, as well as being \nmoulded by it. . . . It is true that three of the main influences which form \nand modify human culture are the same as in the case of the formation of an \nanimal species\u201d\u2014race, environment, function and occupation. \u201cBut in addi\u00ac \ntion to these there is a fourth element: thought, which is peculiar to the human \nspecies, and the existence of which frees man from the blind dependence on \nmaterial environment which characterizes the lower forms of life. It is this \nfactor which renders possible the acquisition of a growing capital of social tra\u00ac \ndition, so that the gains of one generation can be transmitted to the next, and \nthe discoveries or new ideas of an individual can become the common property \nof the whole society.\u201d We see in this statement a suggestion of the theosophical \nlaw of correspondences, for may it not be said that this is one of the laws of \nspiritual life on all planes, beginning in the Lodge itself? The property of one \nis the property of all and, as Light on the Path admonishes: \u201cAccumulate wealth \nfor that united spirit of life which is your only true self.\u201d \n\n\u201cWe cannot understand the present\u201d, comments Mr. Dawson, \u201cwithout a \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n353 \n\n\nknowledge of the past, or the past without the whole.\u201d To this the student of \nTheosophy would heartily agree\u2014since life is one\u2014for he knows that we can\u00ac \nnot separate a single historical event, no matter how insignificant it may appear, \nfrom the great body of history or even of tradition, without, to a greater or \nlesser degree, falsif5dng the whole. Contrary to the opinion of ethnologists and \nanthropologists, Mr. Dawson does not believe that mankind should be classified \nby races; he believes that the true classification is that of cultures and, as al\u00ac \nready stated, he believes that all cultures have their origin in religion. \u201cAt \npresent, perhaps, the dominant fashion is to look to the racial factor as the \ndeus ex machina of the hirnian drama. Yet race is itself but the product of the \nprocess of interaction that we have mentioned. . . . Every religion embodies \nan attitude to life and a conception of reality, and any change in these brings \nwith it a change in the whole character of the culture, as we see in the case of \nthe transformation of ancient civilization by Christianity, or the transformation \nof the society of Pagan Arabia by Islam. . . . Thus the great stages of world- \nculture are linked with changes in man\u2019s vision of Reality.\u201d \n\nThe book covers a very wide field, starting with the Glacial Age and the so- \ncalled beginnings of human life in Eiu*ope; through the later palaeolithic culture, \nthe dawn of the neolithic age, and on through the development of the Sumerian \ncivilization, with the rise of the Sacred City. There is the archaic culture of \nEgypt and the growth of the Great State, and by well-graded steps we are taken \nthrough Crete and the iEgean, the Nordic culture, the Age of Empire in the \nnear East, finally ending with Italy and the beginning of the Iron Age in \nEurope. \n\nIt is true that Mr. Dawson appears to recognize (within certain limits), the \nlaw of cycles; that evolution is not a smooth, undisturbed, undeviating up-grade \nmovement: \u201cThe history of the earth is not a simple, uniform development. It \nhas proceeded by a series of vast cyclic revolutions, true world ages, . . . the \nwhole process of terrestrial change is indeed governed by a kind of rhythmic \nmovement.\u201d And he adds: \u2018\u2018Behind the world that we know there lies a whole \nseries of other worlds, each with its own continents and seas, and its own types \nof animal and vegetable life.\u201d This last statement, which we find early im^e \nbook, leads the reader\u2014if a student of Theosophy\u2014to hope that theflMnll \nalso be definite recognition of a past so old that it is beyond all reckoning, with \nour inheritance of resulting cultural and civilizing influences which we ascribe \nto what may relatively be called the present; recognition, too, that the cyclic \nlife of man and of nature, its rise and fall which admittedly works forward from \na given point in the known evolutionary pageant, may also be thought of as \nhaving been in operation vast ages before that arbitrary point. For no civiliza\u00ac \ntion can be justly gauged or valued without taking previous civilizations on this \nglobe into account, and humanity is far older than this book would give us to \nbelieve. Therefore, deeply interesting as it is, the student of Theosophy will \nbe conscious of a lack throughout\u2014not an unusual experience in books of to-day \non this and kindred subjects: a lack of recognition that all cultures, all civiliza\u00ac \ntions of which we have historical or even legendary knowledge are but a return \n\n\n354 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n\u2014with certain modifications\u2014over the steep cyclic pathway of civilizations \nlong anterior to history as we know it; for we are to-day treading that path \nwhich, under similar yet at the same time differing circumstances, humanity \ntrod aeons and aeons ago. In short, we wish Mr. Dawson were familiar with the \nphilosophy of Theosophy, for it would greatly deepen and enhance the wide \nand brilliant sweep of his cultural knowledge and insight. T.D. \n\n\nThe History of Buddhist Thought, by Edward J. Thomas; Alfred A. Knopf, \nNew York, 1933; price, $5.00. \n\nAs Dr. Thomas writes in his Preface: \u201cA history of Buddhism in the sense \nof a connected account of the chief events of all the Buddhist communities \nthroughout the centuries, is an ideal not yet attainable.\u201d To a student of \nTheosophy it seems impossible that such a history could ever be written without \na clear recognition of the esoteric basis of many of the \u2018\u2018chief events\u201d. Dr. \nThomas assumes without argument that the developments of the original teach\u00ac \ning of the Buddha could not have been foreseen by the Master himself; that in \na certain sense they consisted of a series of deformations of the primitive nucleus \nof thought from which Buddhism received its first impulse. This is partly \ntrue, of course. The official Buddhist churches, like their Christian counterparts, \nare productions of fallible human nature. They are and always have been \ncounterfeits of the true Order of Disciples which the great Indian Master laboured \nto establish; and on occasion they have become monstrous perversions. But \nthe secret clue to the real power of Buddhism is to be sought, not in the exoteric \nchurch, but in the esoteric Order. \n\nAccording to an Eastern tradition, for instance, the Mahayana doctrine was \nreserved for the Disciples before it was incorporated in the public teaching. If \nthis be true, the Mahayana has a significance very different from that attributed \nto it by those who describe it as a belated addition to Buddhism, the work of a \nfew speculative metaphysicians. It is as truly part of the Buddha\u2019s message as \nany of the sermons preserved in the Pali texts. Moreover, the Mahayana scrip\u00ac \ntures stress a mystical fact which is confirmed by Theosophy but which the \nWestern mind, with its inherited materialistic tendencies, finds it particularly \nhard to grasp. According to the Mahayana, the Buddha is a living Master; he \ndid not enter final Nirvana when his physical body died. No amount of \u2018\u2018higher \ncriticism\u201d can ever solve the mysteries of Buddhism or of Christianity, unless \nthese two postulates are accepted at least tentatively:\u2014that at the head of every \nworld-religion there is a living Master, and that he continues to work in the \nworld through Disciples or groups of Disciples who may be wholly independent \nof any official church bearing his name. \n\nIn our opinion. Dr. Thomas has written a very fragmentary and one-sided \nhistory; but his book has real value, in so far as it illustrates a deepening under\u00ac \nstanding of certain fundamental Buddhist doctrines by Orientalists. The fol\u00ac \nlowing passage would have been regarded as \u2018\u2018heretical\u201d by Rhys Davids and his \ngeneration. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n3SS \n\n\nIt was unfortunate that Buddhism was once expounded by scholars who took a pleas\u00ac \nure in describing it as agnostic atheism, and who even spoke of \u201cthe antinomy of an \nentity or soul\u201d. . . . Buddhism agrees with the other world-religions in recognizing an \nultimate eternal reality, but it nowhere describes this reality in positive language. . . . \nThe doctrine of rebirth made the non-atman theory a very different thing from what \nto a Western mind is implied by a denial of the soul. . . . Ajita's doctrine of annihilation \nat death was denied throughout the whole history of Buddhism. The individual being \nhad existed before, and he would exist again. He was only a bundle of changing skand- \nhas, changing from moment to moment, and from life to life, and it was only Nirvana \nwhich could bring about their final dissolution. His personal identity remained the \nsame to such an extent that he could come to remember his former existences. . . . \nThe question of the dissolution of personality only becomes urgent when it is asked \nwhat takes place with the cessation of rebirth. Naturally no one can give an answer to \nthat except the one who has reached that state. . . . The disputes and assertions and \nmisunderstandings that have taken place on this very point have given it an unneces\u00ac \nsary prominence. There is less need now for many words, for the literature is becoming \naccessible which makes obsolete much that was written before the texts were understood \nor even known (pp. 257-260). S.L. \n\n\nQueen Alexandra, by Sir George Arthur; Chapman and Hall, London; price, \n2 >s. 6 d. \n\nStudents of Theosophy should be students of history, able to compare epochs \nin the lives of different nations as an aid to an understanding of themselves, of \nhuman nature in general, and of cyclic law. The Victorian era\u2014treated with \ncontempt by most modem writers because they resent its obvious superiority \nto the present\u2014^was one of the greatest in world history. \u201cThere were giants \nin those days\u201d, not only in England and in many other European countries, \nbut in America too. In Germany, for instance, while one detests Bismarck \nand Hitler about equally, it must be obvious to everyone that, of the two men, \nBismarck was incomparably the bigger. Similarly in England, the statesmen \nof to-day are pygmies in comparison with those of Queen Victoria\u2019s reign. As \nto America,\u2014^but that is too painful. \n\nThis book brings to mind names great in history from about i860 onwards. \nIt is interesting, and may serve to stimulate a desire to learn more about the \nmany events and persons mentioned. The attitude of the author J^ard \nQueen Alexandra (Princess of Wales for so many more years than QjpKi) is \nvery friendly, as it is to King Edward. He is not a muckraker, ano^nnoys \nonly because he cannot resist trying to show his superiority somehow\u2014 a, habit \nwhich made his biography of Kitchener primarily an exhibition of his own \nvanity. It is impossible for him, in this book, to mention Queen Victoria with\u00ac \nout sneering at her, or to refrain from intimating more than once that Queen \nAlexandra was totally uneducated (in comparison, of course, with himself),\u2014 \na defect which he patronizingly condones as if patting her on the head with a \n\u201cNever mind, little girl; you are very pretty, so I forgive you\u2019\u2019. Apart from \nthis element, the book is worth reading. T. \n\n\n\n\n\nQuestion No. 394 .\u2014We are told that self is the great enemy which we must ceaselessly struggle \nto conquer; is one then never to resent insults which are directed against the self? \n\nAnswer. \u2014It is a question, for one thing, of the motive back of the insult. Why did that \nperson insult us? Was it deliberate, in order to arrest our attention, to wake us up? Or was \nit merely the venting of irritation and ill-nature? Or did some real question of feeling and \nprinciple lie back of the remark? An insult may imply deliberate intent of some kind. That \nintent may show an habitual wrong attitude of mind towards us which has expressed itself, \nor it may reveal qualities of lower nature, in the person who has insulted us, over which he \nhas lost control. Possibly that person has recognized in us, unerringly, his own greatest fault \nor weakness, and, annoyed by it, has given way to his feeUng. If the insult includes others, \nas well as ourselves, we may properly feel resentment\u2014for those others\u2014and say so. If we \nfeel resentment for ourselves alone, it is safe to assume that the resentment comes from our \nown lower nature, and that there is an element of truth in the insult; we should do well to \nexamine it, and apply to ourselves the result of that examination. The nature of our response \nmust depend upon who it is that has insulted us, and upon the circumstances. Some people \nmay have no right, under any conditions, to speak to us in such a way. If they do so, it may \nbe our duty to put them in their place, positively, but not in anger. We should remember \nthat what has been said to us may represent a need, or a lack, in the person who has spoken, \nand we should keep aware of this, and act in accordance with it. C.R.A. \n\nAnswer. \u2014How are we ever to become able to conquer the great enemy\u2014self\u2014if we allow \nourselves to be swayed by what concerns it, whether in terms of praise, or of condemnation, \nor insult? We must free ourselves from the bonds of the personality. One of the first steps \nin that direction is the surrender of all idea of personal rights. Light on the Path points out \nthat impersonality must be understood; that \u201cno man is your enemy: no man is your friend. \nAll alike are your teachers.\u201d Real or fancied \u201cinsults\u201d to the personality, therefore, should \nbe regarded as lessons to be learned. Insults, or untrue statements about others, or about a \nCause which we hold in reverence, are quite a different matter; these should never be allowed \nto pass without, at least, a protest. G.H.M. \n\nAnswer. \u2014We should never \u201cresent\u201d anything directed against ourselves. Why, merely \nbecause someone else has said something, should we take into our own hearts and minds so \ncorrosive a thing as resentment, which, when harboured, is utterly destructive of all peace, hap\u00ac \npiness, and spiritual growth? \u201cSmall injuries shall go as they come, a great injury may dine \nor sup with me; but none at all shall lodge with me.\u201d If the \u201cinsults\u201d hamper our work, or \nreflect on others or on what we represent, it may be necessary to take whatever action is \nrequired to have them stopped, and, perhaps, to have reparation made. This, however, \nshould be done quite impersonally, certainly without any personal resentment. It is far more \neffective. The way to meet an insult is with dignity, and true dignity is always impersonal. \nA great deal of what people tell themselves is resentment of an insult, is in reality their own \n\n356 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQUESTIONS AND ANSWERS \n\n\n357 \n\n\nvanity lashing back at a hurt to itself. When one has done something that subjects him to \nmerited criticism, rebuke or rebuff, his lower nature is certain to create a smoke-screen of \nresentment, in order to divert his attention and keep him from realizing that he ought to be \nashamed of himself,\u2014a realization that vanity finds very painful. J.F.B.M. \n\nAnswer. \u2014What is an \u201cinsult\u201d? Is it not an \u201cinsult\u201d only if we ourselves allow it to appear \nso? For although a person may be guilty of what we know quite well to be an unbrotherly \naction toward us, or an almost insufferable remark offered us, the results are entirely in our \nown hands; everything depends upon our attitude and response. The force locked up in the \nintended offence in reality reacts upon the one who has been responsible for it, as a boomerang \nreturns upon its course. Therefore the perpetrator is also the victim (we shall have learned \nmuch if we realize this), and he is in need of our sympathy, not our \u201cresentment\u201d. When we \nourselves are guilty of unbrotherliness toward another, charity and not anger is what we \nmost hope for. The truly great of heart are not even conscious of \u201cinsults\u201d purposely directed \nagainst themselves (history is full of examples), although, until sincere and deep repentance is \nmanifest, they never forgive or forget an insult offered to their Master, to their Cause or to \ntheir friends. That is all that need concern us. T.A. \n\nAnswer. \u2014One way of viewing self is to see it as an insult. As a product of our self-will, \nwe defied divine law in creating it; its very existence is an affront to the Lords of Compassion. \nThe trouble is, that, having misapplied divine force in creating it, we have grown to icfentify \nourselves with it instead of with the real, permanent, or Higher Self. Once we get our identi\u00ac \nfication properly placed, so that we realize we are not this false self, and know it for what it is, \nwe shall have no problem about its being insulted; any more than we have, now, about a cat \nbeing insulted because someone calls attention to its feline nature, or about a rat because \nsomeone speaks of its rodent ways. In the case of self, when we have disentangled ourselves \nsufficiently from its snares and delusions, as we must eventually, and have associated ourselves \nwith the Higher Self, we shall realize that it is impossible to insult that which, in itself, is an \ninsult. Until then, we shall have to grin and bear supposed insults as best we can. \n\nG.M.W.K. \n\nAnswer. \u2014It all depends upon your point of view. If you are trying to force your way \nthrough a mob, or are slipping backward down a bank, you recognize that the friend who \npresses you from behind is doing you a service. If you wish to stand still, the push becomes \nan outrage. To \u201cinsult\u201d means, literally, to \u201cjump on\u201d. We do not mind others jumping on \nwhat we ourselves are trampling beneath our feet. But we are likely to object, or at least to \nmake inquiry, when the jump lands on our own toes. The question thus becomes one of right \nself-identification. It would be hard to find an act which did not mingle good and evil, which \ndid not reveal the struggle, of which our whole life is compact, between the mean an d^^ \nnoble, between the self and the greater than self: with which do we identify ourselvesMBe \ntwo are at war, and in our sane moments we know that we cannot remain neutral or conHmie \nfriends with both. We must choose one and be at enmity with the other. Then we must \ntry to keep remembering which is which, and not mix them up as soon as anyone else also \ntakes sides,\u2014which is what usually happens when we resent criticism or rebuke, as insult. \nThere is, however, another aspect of the question which we should not ignore. To resent \nanother\u2019s act, is to make oneself negative to him, subservient to him, surrendering to him the \ninitiative and the control we should keep of our own feelings and moods. In resenting, in \n\u201cfeeling against\u201d another {re against, and sentire to feel), we are not ourselves acting, but \nare merely re-acting, moving as he pulls the strings. If we remember this, the very pride, or \nvanity, which prompts us to feel resentment, will move us to put it away. Resentment is \nalways weak. We should find within ourselves, not in others, the motives for our acts. \n\nM. \n\n\n\n\nNOTICE OF CONVENTION \nThe Theosophical Society \n\n\nTo the Branches of The Theosophical Society: \n\n1. The Annual Convention of The Theosophical Society will be held at 64 Washington \nMew^ New York, on Saturday, April 27th, 1935. beginning at 10: 30 a. m. \n\n2. Branches unable to send delegates to the Convention are requested to send proxies. \nThese may be made out to the Secretary T. S., or to any officer or member of the Society \nwho is resident in New York or is to attend the Convention. These proxies should state the \nnumber of members in good standing in the Branch. \n\n3. Branch Secretaries are asked to send their annual reports to the Secretary T. S. These \nreports should cover the significant features of the year\u2019s work and should be accompanied \nby a complete list of officers and members, with the full name and address of each; also a \nstatement of the number of members gained or lost during the year; also a record of the place \nand time of Branch meetings. These reports should reach the Secretary T. S. by April ist. \n\n4. Members-at-large are invited to attend the Convention sessions; and all Branch mem\u00ac \nbers, whether delegates or not, will be welcome. \n\n5. Following the custom of former years, the sessions of the Convention will begin at 10: 30 \na. m. and 2: 30 p. m. \n\n6. On Sunday, April 28th, at 4: 30 p. m., tea will be served at 64 Washington Mews, to \ndelegates, members, and their friends. \n\nIsabel E. Perkins, \n\nSecretary, The Theosophical Society, \n\nP. 0 . Box 64, Station 0 , New York, N. Y. \n\nFebruary 15th, 1935. \n\n\nNOTICE OF MEETINGS \n\nThe regular meetings of the New York Branch of The Theosophical Society are held on \nalternate Saturday evenings, at 64 Washington Mews, which runs from the east side of Fifth \nAvenue, midway between Eighth Street and Washington Square, North. No. 64 is the first \nstudio east of Fifth Avenue, on the north side of the Mews. The meetings begin at half-past \neight, and close at ten o\u2019clock. There are meetings on,\u2014 \n\nApril 6th and 20th, May 4th. \n\nOut-of-town members of the Society are invited to attend these meetings whenever they \nare in New York. Visitors who may be interested in Theosophy are always welcome. \n\n358 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nINDEX TO VOLUME XXXII \n\n\nH P B . \n\n\nXT D \"R \u20190 A/Tocccirr iS4i 243> 3il \n\nOne Path to the Goal; J. C . 20( \n\nPerchance He Sleepeth; L. S . \n\nQuestions and Answers .95i 183, 269, 351 \n\n\n3 S 9 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBlavatsky, H. P. Isis Unvbilbd, Vc \n\nKbv to Theosophy \nSecret Doctrine, fra'VoLs'.'i'i \n\n^OSOPHICAL GlOSWR\u2122\u201c\u00b0\u201c \n\nTransactions of the BtAVAiisEY \nVoiCT OF THE Silence. \n\nCave. Fragments, Volume i. \n\nVolume II. \n\nGerard, John. Let^^^q Paffiiiis\u2019 \n\nHdlard, Katherine. Abridgment of ' \n\nJohnston, Charles. Bhagavad Gita. . \n\nJewel of Wisdom, The.. \n\nVolume t \n\nBabbles OF the Kingdom. Tni \nPatanjali s Yoga Sutras \n\nSong of Life, The ... . \n\nJud^, William Q. Bhagavajd* Gita \" \n\n. \n\nL.srs \n\nwS; |V' Fcnction ,\u00ab Eio. \n\nW of the White Lotus ,. . \n\nLight on the Path, \nihrough the Gates of Gold........ \n\nthe quarterly \n\n\nINDEX TO VOLUME XXXII \n\n. \n\n,-'ian]ty and War \nuondamnde k M \nConquest of the Maya 'The \nDawn of Consciei \nDogs of War!; F. \n\nEscape from the { \n\nEssays in Zen Buac \nEssence of Plotinus, \n\nFrench Royal \nMuret . \n\nGod Mends; _ \n\nGospel of the Hereafter TV,\u2019 Johnston. . . \n\nThuliez ... ;'' \n\n\u25a0nee' Th'Cr Mitchell.'. \n\n\u25a0 Henry Breasted \n\nTahana Tchernavin \nOaisetzTeitaro Suzuki'. \nlist Dnof * \u2022 ^ Crace H. Turnhul \n\n'\u25a0\u00ab Doctnnea s,\u201e, tha Ravolution; \n\nHenry Myers . . . \n\n\nrSrt ave Hdinrf mI Jr\u00ae**' Fragment \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFswtM *y IJ. P* Blavatsky at B\u00abw *\u00abtk to \u00bbW \n\n\n\n\nS the world's reUgions \u00bbnd philosophtw w^ \n\n^\u2018\u201c r\u00ae ^common and ftindamentalprto^^^^ \n\nimderlvine thcic\u00bb tlwit ^^ipiritoiJ identity of all Sotili with the \nwhich is the basis of true brotherho^t and \u00ae\u00bb\u00aeT \nS^th^ alsJ bSere that an appreciati^ of the finer W \n2 iatwe Sd man will still further emphasrae the same tdea. \n\nThe organization is wholly onaectarian, with \u00ae\u00ae \ndogaSa nor personal aothmity to enfwe or \nIs tt to be held responsible for the opinioiu of its \u00ae*\u00ae\u201c**^ \n5to w .x~\u00ab.a \u00bb \u00ab\u00ab\u00bb\u00ab\u2022,*\u00bb \u2022?\u00ab. I\u00bbIW\u00ab of oth.n \u00abl\u00bbt \n\ntolerance wwh they dcihe for thcit own. \n\nThe following proclamation /<*?P*fJ,** ConTen* \ntion of the Society, held at Boston, April, \u00bb895i \n\n\"The Theosophlcal Society in Americaby its iklegateeand \nmembers in Conrentlon assembled, does hereby proclaim \nfcaternal good will and kindly feeling toward all students of \nTheosophy and members of Theosophlcal Societies wherevw \nand however situated. It further prodaims and avers ite \nhearty sympathy and association with such persom aM \norganisations in all theosophlcal matters except those or \ngovernment and administration, and invites thei* cor* \ntespondence and co-operation. P \n\n\"To all men and women of whatever caste,ereeo,tace,o\u00bb \nreligious belief, who aim at the fostering of peace, gentlenei^ \nand unselfish regard bne for another, and the acquisition ot \nBuch knowledge of men and nature as shall tend to the \ntion and advancement of the human race, it sends most ftiendlf \ngreeting and freely proffers its services. . ^ \n\n\"It }\u00bbin|\u00ab hands with all religions and religious bodiavmoie \nefforts ate directed to the purification of men's thoughts and \nthe bettering of their ways, and it avows its harmony thctc> \n-with* To all scientific societies and individual searchers after \nwisdom upon whatever plane, and by whatever righteous \nmeans pursued, it is and will be grateful for such discovery \nand oubldment of Truth as shall serve to announce and con* \nfirm a ieUnUflc basis for effiics. ^ \n\n\"And lastly, it invites to its membership those wluv suv \nlog a higher life hereafter, would learn to knowthepaftto \ntread In this.\" \n\n\nI A{^dicati(\u00abs for membership should be addressed to the \n\nI Secretary T. S., P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York, \n\n\n\nJ.-","title":"The theosophical quarterly. Vol. 32","tradition":"Theosophy","translated_text":null,"word_count":202549}