{"collection":"Theosophy","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/archive_org_v.331935/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/archive_org_v.331935","id":"archive_org_v.331935","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.331935","summary":"library \n\nANDOVER NEWTON \n\ntheological school \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\nThe Theosophical Quarterly \n\n\n\n\nSubscription price, $2.00 per \n\n\nannum; single copies, 50 cents \n\n\nAddress all communications \n\n\nPublished by The Theo^phicalSociety \n\nat 64 Washington Mews, New York, N. July; October; January; April \n\nto P. O.","tags":["Theosophy"],"text":"library \n\nANDOVER NEWTON \n\ntheological school \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\nThe Theosophical Quarterly \n\n\n\n\nSubscription price, $2.00 per \n\n\nannum; single copies, 50 cents \n\n\nAddress all communications \n\n\nPublished by The Theo^phicalSociety \n\nat 64 Washington Mews, New York, N. \n\nJuly; October; January; April \n\nto P. O. Box 64 , Station O, New York \n\n\n\u2022 Ip ennies may be obtained from and subscriptions may l c j to \n\n\nCONTENTS OF VOL. XXXIII, \n\nJuly, 1935 \n\nPAGB \n\n. S \n\nnotes and COMMENTS. . 16 \n\nfragments. . 17 \n\n0N TH n Mystery Tr! bl\u00bb\u00bb\u00bbtsiV \u201d \n\nA LAND OF MYS * \u25bc FTTERS of Greeting . 39 \n\nT.S. ACTIVITIES: Convention Report, . 8l \n\nreviews..... 87 \n\nQUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. \n\n. TO \u201e at the Post Office at New York, N. Y.. under the \nEotered os second-class matter September S. M \nAct of March 3 . i 8 79- k v TVip 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\nThe Theosophical Quarterly \n\n\nSubscription price, $2.00 per annum; single copies, 50 cents. \n\nPublished by The Theosophical Society \nat 64 Washington Mews, New York, N. Y. \n\n0 \n\nJuly; October; January; April \n\nAddress all communications to P. O. Box 64 , Station O, New York \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\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 II. P. Blavatsky , \nW. Q. Judge and others , in 1875 . \n\nWe have no connection whatsoever with 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\nJULY, 1935 \n\n\u2022 ^u- Theosophicol 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\nAn Ancient Theory of Evolution \n\nT HE conception of evolution is of dateless antiquity. It is implicit in all \nthe great religions, for every real exponent of spiritual truth has based \nhis teaching upon the immediate experience of his own evolution from an \nelemental into a real manhood. Moreover, this transmutation of human con\u00ac \nsciousness, the birth of the Immortal from the chrysalis of the mortal, was not \ninterpreted as an isolated supernatural event. According to the mystical tra\u00ac \nditions which descended from India, Chaldasa and Egypt, the Universe, both as \na whole and in every part, is in continuous process of transmutation, as if the \nhidden life of Nature were endowed with an alchemical potency which every\u00ac \nwhere and always separates the subtile from the gross. \n\nIt would be possible to multiply quotations in illustration of the theme,\u2014 \nfrom the Indian Purdnas and the liturgies of Egypt, from the fragments of the \nearliest known systems of Greek thought, from the Book of Genesis itself. One \nof the noblest expressions of this ancient theory of evolution is found in a poem of \nJaldl Ud-din Rumi, the Sufi mystic of the thirteenth century: \n\n\nI died from mineral and plant became; \n\nDied from the plant, and took a sentient frame; \nDied from the beast, and donned a human dress; \nWhen by my dying did I e\u2019er grow less? \n\nAnother time from manhood I must die \nTo soar with angel pinions through the sky, \n\nMidst Angels also I must lose my place, \n\nSince everything shall perish save His Face. \n\nLet me be naught! I he harp-strings tell me plain \nThat unto Him do we return again. \n\n\nDarwinism \n\nThe modem evolutionist would scarcely recognize Jaldl Ud-din Rumi as a \nprecursor. In the first place, it is most unlikely that he would have the faintest \n\n5 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n6 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nnotion as to the meaning which the Sufi intended to convey. The modem \nhypothesis of evolution is not concerned with the doctrine that the kingdoms of \nNature signify states of consciousness through which the Spirit, or Monad, must \npass on its way to perfect knowledge of Itself. What was the problem which \ninspired the remarkable line of scientists who first formulated this theory, \nBuff on, Lamarck, Lyell, Wallace, Huxley, above all, Charles Darwin? It was \nnot the mystery of consciousness, but the nature and origin of biological species. \n\nThe range of their interests may seem narrow, but their actual achievements \nwere of the greatest importance. By the study of geological strata and of the \nphysical basis of heredity, they and their successors have provided objective \ntangible proof that living forms have undergone countless transformations during \nthe aeons which have elapsed since the earliest fossils were integrated in rock. \nFew will deny Darwin\u2019s deduction that the succession of organisms represents as \na whole a progress from inferior to superior types, this progress being determined \nin the last analysis by \u201cnatural selection\u201d, by the \u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d in the \n\u201cstruggle for existence\u201d. As has been pointed out, Darwin\u2019s years of meditation \nterminated in an intuition of a profound and all-embracing spiritual truth, even \nthough he may have failed to surmise its universal implications. Men may prefer \nto forget the fact, but it is true, above as below, that advancement and growth \nare the fruit of incessant struggle and effort, of an eternal warfare against blind\u00ac \nness and inertia. Life, all life, is a battle-field. \n\nEmergent Evolution and Orthogenesis \n\nThe weakness of Darwin\u2019s hypothesis was that he failed to admit any purpose \nor direction within the evolutionary process. He assumed too readily that every\u00ac \nthing could be explained by physical causes, by the operation of mechanical \nlaws. It is self-evident, he argued, that no two creatures of any species are \nexactly alike; that there are always variations, however minute, and Nature \nrelentlessly selects those which are best adapted for survival. Darwin and, until \nquite recently, his followers, imagined that variations are produced in the most \nhaphazard and accidental fashion, generally as a result of the permutations and \ncombinations of the qualities or \u201ccharacters\u201d which are transmitted to every \norganism by its parents. \n\nThis naive view can no longer be maintained. The influence of heredity in \ndetermining many variations is unquestioned, as Mendel showed; but heredity \ndoes not explain the discontinuous variations, known as mutations or saltations, \nwhich are manifested by the sudden appearance of new characters in an organism, \nthat is, of qualities which are unlike any of those possessed by its ancestors. It \nis as if certain potentialities, hitherto hidden beneath the surface of life, abruptly \nemerged into visibility, and the attested fact that such mutations occur with \nsome frequency has provided a basis for the so-called theory of \u201cemergent evo\u00ac \nlution\u201d. Many biologists now believe that discontinuous variations have been \nmore effective as a cause of the origin of species than the slight continuous vari\u00ac \nations which Darwin regarded as sufficient. Experiments in the breeding of \nfruit-flies suggest the possibility that some mutations, at least, can be induced \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n7 \n\n\nby subjecting these creatures to the action of rays of various kinds and intensities, \nthe fact is significant, though some of the methods which biologists habitually \na opt m their investigation of animal processes, are coarse and brutal, when \nhey are not vicious and sinister. Even fruit-flies presumably have \u201cnatural \nng ts , and Nature may yet take some revenge upon man for tampering with \nthem, merely to satisfy his curiosity. \n\nHowever, it has been established that the course of animate Nature is marked \ny t e appearance, from time to time, of forms which inaugurate new types \ndistinct not only in degree but also in kind from all that have preceded them. \n\nat is even more remarkable, species seem to have a definite period of growth, \nlike individuals. There is a tendency, as most biologists now admit, for vari\u00ac \nations of any given character to follow, through successive generations, a deter\u00ac \nmined line. Natural selection sets limits to the extension of this line, but it \ncannot of itself initiate anything. The primal impulse seems to be given by the \nemergence of a new quality which continues to expand during thousands or \nmi ions of years until it terminates\u2014as it were\u2014in a completely exfoliated \ncharacter, the \u201cform\u201d of which is seen to have been present from the beginning, \nas the form of a plant is potentially present from the moment of the construction \nof the seed. It is only by such a supposition that the rich beauty of living Nature \ncan be justified to the reason. If there were nothing but chance variation and \nnatural selection, the only values in the world would be utilitarian, in the nar\u00ac \nrowest sense. We know that this is not so, for the earth contains nightingales as \nwell as sparrows, and gazelles as well as pigs. To this tendency of organisms to \nevolve in a given direction towards a definite goal, biologists have given the name \northogenesis , which means \u201cto be bom straight\u201d, a vivid phrase, for it suggests \nthat to be really bom, one must be bom under the dominion of a permanent guid\u00ac \ning principle. \n\nThe Exfoliation of Principles \n\nIt is a commentary upon the bankruptcy of the so-called scientific imagination, \nthat the logical and inevitable consequence of orthogenesis is not perceived, \nbiologist persists in the attempt to interpret in materialistic and mechar^mc \nterms, vital phenomena which cannot be adequately conceived apart from the \nidea of purpose. \n\nIndeed, the student of Theosophy finds in the facts underlying the theories of \nemergent evolution and orthogenesis, a confirmation of certain propositions set \nforth in The Secret Doctrine. In many ways, these recall the ancient conception, \ncelebrated in the Sufi verses, of the pilgrimage of the Monad through the natural \nkingdoms. It is suggested that an ascending series of forms in the material \nworld represents the gradual exfoliation of archetypes, of astral, psychic, spiritual \nand divine principles. The Stoics aptly named these principles logoi spermatikoi , \nthe \u201cideas which generate\u201d, or, as defined by Marcus Aurelius, \u201cthe germs of \nfuture existences, endowed with the power to produce change, a succession of \nappearances and the realization of their essence.\u201d The ultimate cause of a \nmutation or discontinuous variation, according to such a hypothesis, would be \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n8 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthe descent of a previously discamate \u201cidea\u201d or \u201centity\u201d from the invisible into \nthe visible world; and orthogenesis would be the forward movement whereby \nthe \u201centity\u201d becomes gradually embodied. In the terminology of The Secret \nDoctrine , this creative \u201centity\u201d is, in its inmost essence, a \u201cDivine Flame\u201d, a ray \nof Creative Consciousness, a mode of the One Life which forms and transforms \nall the manifestations of Nature. In another sense, it may be represented as the \nMonad passing through some particular phase of its progress towards Self- \nconsciousness. It is said that the human organism is built up by the convergent \nactivities of myriads of such \u201centities\u201d, and that the transition from the animal \nto the man is produced by the \u201cfall into matter\u201d of the \u201centity\u201d or principle \nwhich we vaguely name the Soul or Ego. In one aspect, every embodiment of \nthe Spirit is something new, individual, unique; in another aspect, it appears \nto be a recapitulation or repetition of that which has already existed, as the \nchild is a copy of its parents. Thus we read that the men, that is, the real human \nprinciples, of this earth are emanations or children of beings who attained and \nperfected their humanity in other world-cycles upon other globes. \n\nThe Occult Doctrine teaches that while the Monad is cycling on downward into mat\u00ac \nter, [the] Elohim, or Pitris\u2014the lower Dhyan Chohans\u2014are evolving, pari passu with it, \non a higher and more spiritual plane, descending also relatively into matter on their own \nplane of consciousness, when, after having reached a certain point, they will meet the \nincarnating senseless Monad, encased in the lowest matter, and blending the two poten\u00ac \ncies, Spirit and Matter, the union will produce that terrestrial symbol of the \u201cHeavenly \nMan\u201d in space\u2014 perfect man. . . . Spirit and Matter, though one and the same thing \nin their origin, when once they are on the plane of differentiation, begin each of them \ntheir evolutionary progress in contrary directions\u2014Spirit falling gradually into Matter, \nand the latter ascending to its original condition, that of a pure spiritual Substance. \n\n. . . Therefore, when the hour strikes ... for the formation of the Perfect Man\u2014 \nrudimentary man of the first two and a half Races being only the first } gradually evolving \ninto the most perfect of mammals \u2014the Celestial Ancestors (Entities from preceding \nWorlds, called in India the Shishta) step in on this our plane, and incarnate in the physical \nor animal man, as the Pitris had stepped in before them for the formation of the latter. \n\n. . . Fire alone is one, on the plane of the One Reality: on that of manifested, hence \nillusive, Being, its particles are fiery Lives. . . . Every visible thing in this Universe \nwas built by such lives, from conscious and divine primordial man down to the uncon\u00ac \nscious agents that construct matter ( The Secret Doctrine , ed. 1893, I, 267-269). \n\n\nThe Disembodiment of a Principle \n\nOne is justified in holding fast to the conclusion that everything in Nature, \nwithout any exception, exists by virtue of and for the sake of a principle. This \nprinciple, in the language of the Platonists, is an Idea in the Divine Mind, and is, \ntherefore, rooted in the Eternal, as indestructible as the Essence of Nature. But \nits successive embodiments are necessarily always changing, subject to the uni\u00ac \nversal cyclic law which prescribes that every act of creation, every evolution or \nexfoliation, must be followed by an act of assimilation, by an involution or in- \ndrawal,\u2014as every \u201cday\u201d, of whatever duration, must fade into a \u201cnight\u201d. \n\nObservation and experience, however, oblige one to admit that the course of \nevolution does not always run smoothly. There are creatures in human shape, \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n9 \n\n\nfor instance, whose existence may be best interpreted, not as a progressive \nembodiment but as a progressive disembodiment of a principle. The \u201cCelestial \nAncestors\u201d, by and for whom the human kingdom exists, may be forced to with\u00ac \ndraw from \u201cphysical or animal man\u201d who persistently perverts the gift of a more \nsubtile consciousness. But the rejection of its indwelling principle by any crea\u00ac \nture can only result in its disintegration, dissolution and final death. The \nessential being of the principle is not affected, but it is no longer represented, \neven partially, by any form on this plane. \n\nIn an age like the present, when civilization trembles in the balance, one would \nexpect to find many tragic instances of the disembodiment of the human princi\u00ac \nple. Such a tendency to disintegration is, of course, aided and abetted by all the \ndark powers, incarnate and disincamate. However, the worst danger to civili\u00ac \nzation would seem to come from good and kind people whose amiable intentions \nco-exist with a moral materialism no less devastating because it may be uncon\u00ac \nscious. \n\nFor example, not long ago, the Dean of a prominent American women\u2019s col\u00ac \nlege was quoted as saying that the technique of training character has become \nincoherent and confused, \u201cbecause old principles and standards seem to have \nfailed\u201d. One may give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she was \nusing words loosely. The point is that no real principle or standard can ever \nconceivably \u201cfail\u201d, for it is as immutable as any of the real laws of Nature. What \ncan easily happen, is that we fail to recognize it as a principle, and therefore, of \ncourse, fail to put it into practice. \n\nModernistic educators habitually confuse principles with customs or with \nforms of etiquette. Customs and etiquette change constantly, for better or for \nworse. The clothes and table-manners of one generation are seldom those of the \nnext. But these things only possess significance in the measure that they serve \nas vehicles for the expression of those qualities of heart and mind which dis\u00ac \ntinguish the human part of our nature from the animal. Courtesy, for instance, \nis not a specific mode of manners which has no place in the busy modern world; \nit is an attribute inseparable from the human being which each of us is enjoiggd \nby spiritual and natural law to become. Loyalty, honour, fidelity to a ple^Jrcl \nword, are no less real and necessary in a machine age than in an age of chivalry. \nThey constitute the true man, the soul which is seeking embodiment, and if \northogenesis is to continue in the human species, these human attributes must \ncontinue to exfoliate until they become dominant and irresistible factors in the \ndetermination of conduct. \n\n\nAbundant Life \n\nIn the Horace Mann School, New York, the theme around which the work of \ncertain junior high school grades is organized is \u201cThe Progress of Man Through \nthe Ages\u201d. The aim, as the Principal has expressed it, \u201cis to orientate the stu\u00ac \ndents in the present-day world and to give them some conception of \u2018how we got \nthis way\u2019.\u201d Horace Mann School is closely identified with Teachers College, \nColumbia University, and, in at least one of its departments, is used as a \u201cdemon- \n\n\nIO \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nstration school\u201d for the edification of students of the College. It is probable, \ntherefore, that the opinions of Professors in the College determine the meaning \ngiven to the term, \u201cprogress\u201d, in the School. We quote the following from an \naddress at the Conference on Educational Activities of the Jewish Centre, by a \nmember of the faculty of Teachers College, Dr. F. Ernest Johnson: \n\nOur religious and ethical groups and societies can contribute an invaluable aid to \nsocial change by steadfastly maintaining the ideal of an abundant life for every member \nof the human family and by relentlessly exposing the conditions in contemporary society \nwhich make its realization impossible. \n\nHe added that progress, presumably in the direction of \u201cabundant life\u201d, has \nbecome so rapid, that a doctor of philosophy from any leading university \u201ccan \nbecome a hopeless dodo in fifteen or twenty years .... not only educationally \nbut morally\u201d. One might ask what is the use of becoming a doctor of philosophy \nat all, when the risk of extinction is so high. However, what immediately con\u00ac \ncerns us is to discover what is this \u201cabundant life\u201d, which, according to so many \noptimistic intellectuals, is \u201cjust around the comer\u201d. \n\n\u201cI am come\u201d, said the Master Christ, \u201cthat they might have life, and that they \nmight have it more abundantly.\u201d It is impossible to doubt that he was referring \nto spiritual life which he had the power to bestow upon those who asked with \ntheir whole hearts for the gift. In other words, a Master can aid his disciples to \nincrease and strengthen their higher natures, to embody the principle which can \nalone make them veritable human beings. \n\nIt is painfully apparent that this is not the sense in which the intelligentsia \ninterpret the term. For them it means an abundance of the things of this world, \na multiplication of gratifications for the physical, personal man, a redistribution \nof material goods, so that everybody, good or bad or indifferent, may be assured \na satisfactory minimum of comfort and amusement. The confusion or naivety \nof their minds is such that they cannot even imagine the existence of any dis\u00ac \nturbing factor in the society which had realized such an \u201cideal\u201d. In brief, they \nshare the delusion common to materialists of all degrees, that the sins and evils, \nto which mankind is heir\u2014greed, envy, malice, cruelty, treachery, bad faith, \nand so on\u2014would disappear, if everyone could be given abundantly the material \ngoods which he desires. One wonders by what logic they can justify their \nimputation of heartless selfishness to the \u201cpropertied interests\u201d, for according \nto their theory, a man\u2019s wealth should be the measure of his virtue. \n\nIt is as certain as anything can be that Nature would never allow such a \n\u201cdream-society\u201d to become an actuality, for, in the very process of becoming, it \nwould be rent to pieces by the inordinate stimulation of those evils which the \ndreamers pretend they can so easily cure. As the Indian scripture says, desire \ngrows by feeding on itself; and it is sheer delusion to believe that the physical \npersonality can ever satisfy its appetites or try to satisfy them without friction \nand conflict with other personalities. Even a little meditation upon the laws of \nevolution, upon orthogenesis, should convince us that an abundant material life, \ndivorced from any spiritual preoccupation, is rendered impossible by Nature, \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\nii \n\n\nbecause it would be a denial of the rights of the incarnating soul, to which the \ndemands of material life must be subjected. A soulless life in a human body \nimplies the disembodiment of the principle which alone can keep any form of \nlife in the body. \n\nAs all the sages have taught from the beginning of history, there is only one \npermanent cure for personal misery which, incidentally, is not limited to poverty. \nThe ultimate goal of every human life is to become self-conscious upon the plane \nof the real man, the soul. When purely personal suffering is no longer needed to \nkeep men from falling utterly asleep, from losing all sense of their spiritual \ndestiny, its original raison d'etre disappears; but men will then be so interested \nin more important matters that they may really care little whether it disappears \nor not. Those who teach the contrary\u2014that unhappiness of every kind can be \nhealed by material readjustments\u2014are evil shepherds of the people, nor is the \nperversity of their mission diminished because they may be convinced of their \nown goodness and of the badness of those who disagree with them. \n\nVery few understand that suffering, in some form or other, is inseparable from \nmanifested existence. We are free, however, to choose why we suffer, whether \nit be for ourselves or for others. The Masters have testified that the growth of \nunselfish love liberates the heart from gross personal pain but also initiates it \ninto a higher form of pain, the anguish of compassion, the noble sorrow which is \nthe accompaniment of the soul\u2019s ever-renewed need to give itself utterly to the \nobject of its love. \n\n\nAn Experiment in Cynicism \n\nProfessors are often tempted to take themselves and their studies much too \nseriously. This is notoriously true of the reformers, but it also explains the \npsychic symptoms of certain savants who are renowned for their sobriety and \nself-restraint. A recent book, Adult Interests } by another representative of \nTeachers College, Dr. Edward L. Thorndike, illustrates the hallucinations from \nwhich anyone might suffer, if he spent his life collecting outlandish data to prove \ngrotesque hypotheses. \n\nDr. Thorndike was apparently convinced, before he began his work, that^t \nleast one old saying is almost universally true: that every man has his price^Te \norganized a campaign of research and succeeded without any apparent difficulty \nin establishing to his own satisfaction that he was right. His method was to ask \nvarious people what reward would induce them to perform some debasing or silly \naction. It was an experiment in cynicism and undoubtedly proved the cynicism \nof the professor. One ventures to suspect that it also proved his gullibility; for \nit is almost impossible to believe that the men and women who took the tests \nwere as serious as they might have been. \n\nA few examples may be mentioned. The women, on the average, claimed \nthat they would abandon all hope of life after death for $10, whereas the men \ndemanded $1,000. Half of the young Americans of both sexes said that they \nwould spit on a portrait of George Washington for Sio. The average man con\u00ac \ntracted to choke a stray cat for $2,500. The average woman agreed to practise \n\n\n12 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ncannibalism for Si,375,000. The average older woman would be willing to spend \neight days in jail, if the compensation were a ride on a camel. \n\nOne may make a liberal allowance for the alleged sense of humour of the \n\u201caverage older woman\u201d and her associates. Nevertheless, the impression which \nremains is not unlike that left by a nightmare. It is not encouraging to find that \nafter millions of years of evolution, a number of students in the largest Univer\u00ac \nsity in the world find it amusing to compete in the display of vices and imbecili\u00ac \nties which they have for sale. It proves what so few are ready to believe, namely, \nthat the animal personality of man, without any guidance from above, easily \nassumes the form of an idiot or a monster, possessing enough perverted \u201creason\u201d \nto make itself lower than any of the brutes which in its various moods it resem\u00ac \nbles. It is this personality, let us remember, that is to be given an \u201cabundant \nlife\u201d, according to the plans of Dr. Thorndike\u2019s colleague. \n\nHowever, the most distressing feature of the whole affair is its manifestation \nof unadulterated cynicism. Dr. Thorndike contemplates a pig-sty, and regards \nit as an almost perfect symbol of human nature. There is no evidence that he \nadmits even the possible existence of any fundamental quality of consciousness \nwhich is not essentially base and mean. In other words, refusing to take \nseriously the reality, potential or actual, of the soul, he insults the dignity of real \nmanhood. Let us hope that there are some teachers of youth in the colleges, \nwho have the courage and insight to affirm that there have been and are human \nbeings who cannot be bought at any price; that all human nature is not \u201clower \nnature\u201d. \n\n\nPsychiatric Fatalism \n\nDr. Thorndike and Dr. Johnson may be said to enunciate two versions of the \nsame idea. The former suggests that men can be bribed to become bad; the \nlatter, that they can be bribed to become good. It is doubtful whether many \nmen of science would agree with either point of view. As far as one can judge, \nthe general scientific attitude towards the personality is fatalistic. At least, \nmany psychiatrists seem to be convinced that men are what they are because \nthey could not possibly have become anything else, given their heredities and \nenvironments. Under such circumstances, they would doubtless argue, not even \nbribery could make anyone better or worse than he is. Few of them even raise \nthe question of the effectiveness of aspiration and moral effort as transforming \nagencies. \n\nWe quote from the New York Times of April 30, 1935, the report of an address \nby Dr. Walter Freeman, neuropsychiatrist, of St. Elizabeth Hospital, Wash\u00ac \nington, D. C., before the American College of Physicians: \n\nHuman personality, Dr. Freeman told the physicians, has its roots in heredity and is \ndetermined by the genes carried by the chromosomes in each cell and transmitted \nthrough the germ plasm from generation to generation. Specifying four fundamental \npersonality reaction types as cycloid, paranoid, schizoid, and epileptoid, he continued: \n\n\u201cTwo important functions, as far as the personality is concerned, may safely be granted \nto the endocrine system. These are emotional stability and energy drive. . . . Never\u00ac \ntheless, as far as determining whether an individual shall be a proud, sensitive, suspicious. \n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n13 \n\n\nparanoid individual; or a timid, shut-in, dreamy, schizoid person; a boisterous, jolly, \nhail-fellow-well-met cycloid; or a moody, pedantic, egocentric epileptoid individual, the \nendocrine glands would seem to have little to say in the matter.\u201d \n\nFrom his studies of pituitary glands in 1400 cases, Dr. Freeman said it might be in\u00ac \nferred that the pituitary \u2018\u2018supplies the energy drive that enables the personality to un\u00ac \nfold\u201d, but he added: \u201cThere is little evidence that it determines the personality, since the \ngreat groups of schizoid and paranoid personalities are almost perfectly balanced.\u201d \n\nThus, according to Dr. Freeman, the personality which anyone may have is \nreceived, like his body, from his parents. Its growth may be quickened or \nretarded by the action of hormones or \u201cchemical messengers\u201d, but otherwise it \ncannot be modified from the moment of birth. Whether one be paranoid or \nschizoid or half-paranoid and half-schizoid, such one must remain. Dr. Freeman \nis not as cynical in tone as Dr. Thorndike; but the assemblage of qualities which \nhe divides among the various \u201creaction types\u201d would be depressing\u2014if true. \nOne cannot discover, on the basis of his classification, how or why any human \nbeing could be capable of a decent or heroic action. \n\nIt may be admitted that a fatalistic or pessimistic view is relatively true as \nregards the \u201caverage man\u201d in his average moments. The \u201caverage man\u201d tends \nto identify himself with one or another \u201ccongeries of elementals\u201d, first of all, \nwith the image of his body in his mind, then, with his habits, associations, dreams, \nhopes and fears, and so on. In a certain sense, it might be said that his actions \nand reactions are determined by the particular type of lower nature with which \nhe was bom; that his idiosyncracies are almost as calculable, in their fixed \nrepetition, as the revolutions of a machine. \n\nBut, as Theosophy teaches, the soul, the essence of man, is not the personality \nwhich the \u201caverage man\u201d persistently thinks of as his \u201cself\u201d. The soul tran\u00ac \nscends all such distinctions as cycloid and epileptoid, inasmuch as it is not a by\u00ac \nproduct of molecular combinations, but is an informing principle, an entity of \na higher order in process of embodiment, analogous, as it seems, to the vital \nprinciples whose apparent \u201cemergence\u201d in the organic world is a primary factor \nin the formation of new species. The soul in complete self-conscious incarnation, \nin the life of a Master, for instance, is intensely individual, as the biographies of \nthe Buddha and the Christ testify, but also its powers and attributes are uni\u00ac \nversal, innumerable, and ever-expanding. Even in the world there have \nthose whose soul-consciousness was developed to the point where it is possible \nto be both outwardly alert and introspective, to maintain without confusion a \nbalance between the powers of thought and the powers of action. \n\nPaul Valery has suggested that the true man of genius is perpetually enlarging \nthe orbit of his interests; that, in his perfect form, he is the \u201cuniversal man\u201d. \nHe quotes a phrase of Leonardo da Vinci:\u2014The great man presides over all his \nstates of consciousness with \u201cobstinate rigour \u201d\u2014ostinato rigore. \n\nPhysical and Reflective Consciousness \n\nMost of the educators and scientists of to-day have one point in common. \nThey recognize only one aspect of evolution, the physical or physiological, \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n14 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nwhich begins, as they imagine, with some hypothetical protoplasmic globule \nand ascends, through a long chain of organisms, to the human species. At \nsome stage of this journey, consciousness is said to appear, how or why nobody \ncan imagine. According to the school represented by Dr. Freeman, in the \nhigher animals, including man, consciousness is linked, in some mysterious sense, \nwith the genes, the ultimate organic units within the nucleus of the cell which \nhave been postulated to account for the way in which physical properties are \nsegregated and are transmitted from parents to offspring. Thus, Dr. Freeman \nspeaks of the personality as \u201cdetermined by the genes\u201d. \n\nTheosophy naturally accepts the fact that there is a physical heredity for every \nbody bom upon earth, just as it accepts the general hypothesis that there is an \nevolution of physical substance and form from the mineral to the human king\u00ac \ndom. But physical heredity is not sufficient to explain the phenomena of muta\u00ac \ntion and orthogenesis. Much less can it explain the transformations of conscious\u00ac \nness. The nature and origin of consciousness as a thing in itself is an absolute \nmystery which no prudent philosopher ever pretends to solve. It is the theo- \nsophical teaching that wherever there is matter there is consciousness, for these \ntwo are inseparable, being two aspects of one fundamental Reality. But there \nare innumerable states or phases, both of matter and of consciousness. With two \nof these states of consciousness we are all familiar. There is the objective phys\u00ac \nical consciousness, which pertains to the functions of our bodies and which we \nshare with all the creatures of the lower kingdoms; and there is the subjective \nreflective consciousness which pertains to our mental and emotional natures. \nAnyone can discover for himself how much of his consciousness is of this reflective \nkind, by measuring the time which he spends each day, dreaming, imagining, \nremembering, anticipating. All these operations are reflective, for they are not \nconcerned with actual physical things but with the images of those things \nreflected in the mind, or, more rarely, with the images of ideals mirrored from \nhigher planes. It may be suggested that these psychic functions are not alto\u00ac \ngether peculiar to man, for they are at least foreshadowed in the lives of the \nhigher animals; but it is only in man, so far as one can judge, that they become \ndominant factors in the determination of behaviour. \n\nThe human personality, the psychic man, may be described as a bundle of \nmind-images. The psychic man depends upon a physical body as its vehicle of \nexpression on the physical plane. His desires and fears prompt the physical man \nto act, and the inherited constitution of the physical man, in turn, reacts upon \nthe psychic man, stimulating certain proclivities and inhibiting others. But the \npsychic man, Theosophy affirms, is not himself a product of physical heredity. \nThe \u201cseeds\u201d or skandhas , from which he grows, enter the particular physical \nbody which provides the conditions of material existence best adapted to the \nKarma, to the sequence of cause and effect, set in motion by actions in previous \nlives, of which those skandhas are the fruit. Skandhas \u201care being made from \nday to day under the law that every thought combines instantly with one of the \nelemental forces of nature, becoming to that extent an entity which will endure in \naccordance with the strength of the thought as it leaves the brain, and all of these \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\ni5 \n\n\nare inseparably connected with the being who evolved them\u201d (The. Ocean of \nTheosophy , p. 102). \n\nThe Higher and Lower Minds in Man \n\nAs the quotation from The Secret Doctrine suggests, there is a two-fold creation \nof man. \u201cThe first Adam was made a living soul (psuche)\\ the last Adam was \nmade a quickening spirit (pneuma).' } The individuality, the spiritual soul or \n\u201chigher mind\u201d, cannot be embodied, until a personal nature, a \u201clower mind\u201d, \nhas evolved to the point where it can reflect the image of the \u201chigher mind\u201d and \ncan begin to serve as its vehicle, just as the physical nature must reach a certain \ndegree of development before it can become the vehicle of a personality. Thus \nthe incarnation of the \u201cPitris\u201d is said to precede that of the \u201cCelestial Ancestors\u201d. \nThese two incarnations, taken together, may be said to be the cause and basis of \nthe great mutation which was the beginning of the real history of man on this \nplanet. Everyone who conceives of himself as human, should be actively labour\u00ac \ning to complete that mutation, by purifying his personal nature and also by \ninsisting that his true Self is not the personal nature but is the spiritual soul, \na ray of divine consciousness transmitted to him by the Master, the Father in \nHeaven. \n\nThe creative process has continued with varying fortunes for aeons. Universal \ntradition testifies that some individuals have become \u201cperfected men\u201d; but as \nregards the multitude, the \u201cphysical or animal man\u201d has undergone a deforma\u00ac \ntion which makes impossible the reflection of an image from above without greater \nor lesser distortion. The psychic man has stolen divine powers which belong by \nright to the soul, and has used them to build the illusion that he, and not the soul, \nis the self. There is tragic truth in the Pythagorean maxim that the soul in the \nbody is like a man in a tomb. Nevertheless, as Madame Blavatsky remarked: \n\u201cThat body, so desecrated by materialism and man himself, is the temple of the \nHoly Grail, the Adytum of the grandest, nay, of all the mysteries of nature in \nour solar universe.\u201d It is within the power of every man to accomplish the \ntransformation of the soul\u2019s vesture from a tomb into a temple. Our present \npersonalities are now sowing the seeds which must grow into the experiences of \nfuture existences. We can so live now that when this reconstitution of elements \noccurs, a soul can incarnate with them, using them as the substance with wlyA \nit can clothe itself. The least that we can do is to begin, wherever we ar^^o \nthink and to act in accordance with the principles of real human behaviour, \nestablished by the experience of ages. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFRAGMENTS \n\n\n1 THOUGHT I had a vision in the night: \n\nHe stood in the first faint grey of dawning; the sun rose in the west that \nday, so pure a light shone from Him. \n\nBehind Him angels trailed, like drifting clouds,\u2014you saw them through the \nbranches of the trees where His light caught them. \n\nHis blood-marked brow was crowned with roses, not with thorns. His voice \ncame: \u201cI gathered them in your garden for their fragrance\u201d, were His words; \n\u2018\u2018Saint Catherine made the chaplet.\u201d \n\nIn His hand there was a stalk of stately lilies, not the mocking reed. \u201cThese \ntoo, I gathered\u201d, He said, \u201cand shall for ever hold.\u201d \n\nThis last I heard upon my knees. \n\nThe passion and the anguish in His eyes seemed somewhat softened, as if \nthere were a momentary sense of rest, a momentary easement of a burden, with \na half-stifled sigh. \n\nFaint and sick with shame and adoration, I lay upon my face,\u2014I who had \neven found a toil that which brought such a benediction. What guerdon for \nmy grudging sacrifice! \n\n\nI thought I had a vision in the night, but when the morning came and sun\u00ac \nshine lay about, an opalescent glimmer still remained where He had stood; \nthere was a special movement in the leaves, and now and then the light touched \nfor an instant on an angel\u2019s wing,\u2014or seemed to do so, who can say? \n\nAll day, all day this lasted. \n\nI found the cut stalk where the lilies grew,\u2014the bush with its missing roses. \n\nWho knows where earth begins and heaven ends; who can fix the boundary \nof that inner world and this, determine what is seen and what unseen ? \n\nWhy grant a boundary between ourselves and heaven? What boundary can \nthere be, save sin? \n\nLiving in heavenly-mindedness, we shall make earth one with heaven, remove \nthe veil, nor know which pavement, whether clay or gold, we tread. \n\n\nThou who didst deign to bless those roses by their wearing; Thou who didst \nbless those lilies by their holding, and in their blessing didst bless us: keep our \neyes open to behold the Real; give us the faith that parts the clouds about us, \nand through the opening sees the Everlasting Glory. \n\nCav\u00a3. \n\n\n16 \n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n\n1 HE lesson of the Convention? There were many lessons, as I see it\u201d, \n\n\nthe Philosopher replied; \u201cfirst and foremost, that we must strive \n\n\nceaselessly, each one of us, to improve our standard of values. By \nthis I mean we must strive, in our lives as well as in our natures, to sift the true \nfrom the false, the eternal from the transitory, the things of everlasting value \nfrom those that, in the light of eternity, are worthless. More than that, we \nmust not rest content with past analysis or effort; we must continually \u2018improve \nour product\u2019, as the manufacturer is fond of saying; we must discriminate \nbetween finer and finer shades of value; we must bring before the bar of our \nown conscience the manner of our thought about things, about persons, events, \nhabits. Even if we avoid wrong-doing, are we countenancing it in others, and \nthus encouraging it in the world around us, either from our failure to see things \nas they are, or from moral cowardice,\u2014from fear of incurring displeasure? To \nbe tolerant may be a virtue; but it often becomes a vice. Kipling once warned \nthe Rhodes scholars, at Oxford, against \u2018the middle-aged failings of toleration, \nimpartiality, or broad-mindedness\u2019. \n\n\u201cPeople do not always realize that if we countenance wrong-doing in others, \nwe become a party to it: we cannot hold ourselves innocent. This is part of \nthe meaning of Brotherhood. All the saints have felt the sins of others as their \nown sins; the Masters bear the sins of the world: it is this, of course, that makes \nvicarious atonement possible. \n\n\u201cTake, for example, the question of divorce: what is the attitude of members \nof the T.S. on that subject? Are we indifferent to the immorality of the present \nworldly code ? \n\n\u201cMarriage is either a sacrament or a sacrilege and worse. If a sacrament, it \nis as close a union as ought to exist between the soul and God, between the per\u00ac \nsonality and the soul. \u2018What therefore God hath joined together, let not man \nput asunder\u2019. So, when two people marry, they stand as in the presence of God \nand take one another \u2018for better for worse\u2019. Any kind of marriage ceremon)^ \na most solemn promise, an engagement of honour. A few years later, perh^^, \nthey tire. Then, according to the modern code, they are justified in breaking \ntheir oath, in obtaining a divorce, in sacrificing their children, in marrying again; \nand they can repeat this performance several times, if that be their desire. As \nall of us know, it has become a national scandal,\u2014one of the gravest dangers \nthat threaten our civilization. Surely, in such circumstances, we ought to take \na most positive stand for the old and changeless ideal of marriage. Divorce at \ntimes is undoubtedly necessary. If a husband becomes a drunkard, and amuses \nhimself by throwing his wife and children downstairs, I should say that the poor \nwoman\u2019s first duty would be to her children, and that she ought to obtain a \ndivorce as quickly as possible. But this does not mean that she can be justified \n\n\ni7 \n\n\n\n18 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nmorally in marrying again. Divorce is a legal procedure; marriage is that, and \nsomething more, much more.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018I should like to make sure that I have understood you\u201d, interjected the \nStudent, perhaps not entirely for his own benefit. \u2018\u2018You said that marriage is \neither a sacrament or a sacrilege. You would agree, however, that few to-day \nare in the least capable of appreciating this in its true and deep significance ? \n\n\u201cI entirely agree\u201d, the Philosopher answered; \u2018\u2018but what they do know, and \nare quite able to understand if they choose , is that a promise is a promise, an \noath, an oath, and that changing your mind does not change the facts. And men \nmust be held to the standard they can recognize, if ever they are to see further. \nClosing their eyes to what they know, does not exonerate them: quite the reverse. \nConsequently, once a man has committed himself by marrying, he is committed, \nand has to see it through or be dishonoured. Divorce does not end marriage; \nit only furnishes a possible modus vivendi where grave wrong has been done by \neither party, for the protection of the innocent party; but the marriage is not \ndissolved: only death can do that.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018When you say that a man must \u2018see it through\u2019, do you mean that if his \nwife goes off with another man, and then turns up later, asking to be taken \nback, it is the husband\u2019s duty to do so?\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018That is not at all my meaning. Apart from other considerations\u2014and there \nare plenty of them\u2014he owes a duty to the institution of marriage as such, and \nhe would degrade that if he were to encourage by his weakness, or false sense \nof \u2018charity\u2019, similar misconduct by others.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018How would you define a spiritual union?\u201d asked one of our visitors. \u2018\u2018Would \nyou mean a marriage that is celebrated in church ? Would you give the churches \na monopoly of establishing or constituting such a union?\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018I would not\u201d, was the reply. \u2018\u2018A spiritual union would mean to me exactly \nwhat the words imply \u2014a great deal; but such unions are very rare, perhaps one \nin a million marriages. In the old days, however, when marriages were prac\u00ac \ntically indissoluble, they often became more and more real, more and more \nspiritual, as the years passed. Many a marriage has been made perfect in \ndeath,\u2014not before. \n\n\u201cBut in further reply to the second part of your question, if we were to grant \nour churches the monopoly of which you spoke, we should logically exclude the \nmillions of Buddhists, Mohammedans, Hindus and so forth, from the possi\u00ac \nbility of real marriage: which would be absurd. No student of Theosophy \nwould do that. Nor would any student of Theosophy claim that only \u2018spiritual \nunion\u2019 in the highest sense can constitute a real marriage: that, as I have already \nsuggested, would be asking too much of human nature in its present pre-natal \ncondition. What he would say is that every real marriage must at least begin \nwith an invocation of the Higher Self, of \u2018God\u2019, as witness to the vows being \ntaken. The result of this invocation should be to lift the two above the plane \nof duality, to the apex of the triangle, as it were, at which point there is unity: \na trinity has been established,\u2014and every real thing in this world consists of a \ntrinity. The marriage service, in a church, provides that invocation. I repeat, \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n19 \n\n\nhowever, that this does not imply a monopoly, for Quakers can marry in that \nreal sense just as effectively as an Anglican Archbishop or the Pope could marry \nthem. The point is that God, the Holy Spirit, the Higher Self, must be invoked \nas witness and, in a sense, as participant. In that case, the vows are real; the \nmarriage has been made real, and a legal divorce will in no way affect that fact. \nFurther, while only a few will take things on this high (and real) plane, all must \nadmit, as I said before, that a promise is a promise, and that an oath is taken \nto be kept, not broken.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018But don\u2019t you realize that not one in a hundred couples, married in church, \nso much as think of God, or even of their vows, from the beginning to the end \nof the ceremony? How many of them have the slightest realization of the \nsolemnity of what they are doing?\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018So much the worse fonthem. You would not suggest, would you, that their \npreoccupation or lack of attention during the ceremony is an excuse for mis\u00ac \nconduct later on ? They at least pretend to mean what they say. Why should \na marriage vow be less binding than a \u2018debt of honour\u2019 incurred at a game of \ncards? What is thought of a man who pleads that he had drunk too much and \nthat he ought not to be expected to pay? Don\u2019t you know that he is cut by all \nhis friends for ever after? Yet he has not taken an oath; he has not invoked \nGod as his witness: he has sat down to play cards on the implicit (not explicit) \nunderstanding that he will pay if he loses. Many a man has sold the roof over \nhis head and more, to keep his unwritten word in those circumstances. He was \na fool to have begun the game, you say. Of course he was; and most people \nare fools to get married as they do. But that does not affect the principle,\u2014or \nthe resulting obligation. \n\n\u2018\u2018The man who breaks his word, who violates his promise, nearly always \npleads in self-justification that he did not know what he was doing when he \ngave it; that he had not foreseen the consequences. Monks who repudiate their \nvows, who run away and marry, almost invariably do this. But who can ever \nforesee consequences? If a business contract could be repudiated on any such \nground as that, there would be an end to all business. \n\n\u2018\u2018Fundamentally the evil arises from the elimination of God (I use that term \nto cover all formulations) from human life, and from the growing convi<\u00bbn, \nin which so many of the clergy share, that man has a right to happiness it^his \nworld. The Declaration of Independence asserted his right to the pursuit of \nhappiness, which was superfluous and foolish, considering that he had pursued \nnothing else, with most rare exceptions, from the time of Adam downwards. \nBut the modem world has gone far beyond that: happiness itself has come to \nbe regarded as inherently one of man\u2019s prerogatives\u2014on his own terms into the \nbargain. As he has obviously proved incapable of finding it through his own \nefforts, it must be the duty, as he sees it, of his government to provide it for him. \nIn any case, it is his right,\u2014from which it follows that if he lacks anything he \nthinks he needs, or if he has a father or mother or wife who does not suit him, \nhis sense of injury is so great, his grievance rankles so deeply, that no vow or \nobligation of duty, no law, either human or divine, can properly be permitted \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n20 \n\n\nTHE0S0PHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nto stand in his way. The married woman, for instance, with whom he hap\u00ac \npened to fall in love yesterday, must be his, because his happiness depends upon \nit: and the purpose of life is his happiness. For what else does the universe \nexist! \n\n\u201cIt is there that Theosophy begins the conflict. The universe does not exist \nthat he may be happy: far from it. The purpose of his life is to provide him \nwith opportunities to become, by right self-conquest and right aspiration, a \nbetter, wiser, more enlightened creature as the result of his earthly experience. \nFurther than that, Theosophy would agree with Gregory the Great, that \u2018joys \nare reaped in eternity only in proportion to the tribulations suffered in this \nworld\u2019. The man who makes happiness his objective, will never find it, either \nl'n time or in eternity. If, for instance, he loves a woman solely because he is \nhappy with her, it is proof positive that he does not love her, and that he only \nloves himself.\u201d \n\n\u201cReally\u201d, said another of our visitors, \u201cthat is beyond me!\u201d \n\n\u201cRead St. Paul\u2019s famous chapter on charity, remembering that the Greek \nword translated as charity, really means love. \u2018Love suffereth long, and is \nkind. . . . Love seeketh not her own. . . . Love beareth all things, believeth \nall things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.\u2019 There you have the real test \nof love, as of friendship. Anything less is counterfeit. But there is a further \ntruth, which cannot be repeated too often, partly because the world refuses to \nrecognize it, and partly because, unless it be understood, the doctrine of Masters, \nthe lesson of the Cross, become meaningless: that truth is,\u2014the more we love, \nthe more we suffer. And yet, to learn to love completely, with all your heart \nand mind and soul and strength, without a shadow of self-seeking, is the supreme \npurpose of our existence, just as it is the greatest of all rewards, the final recom\u00ac \npense of every sacrifice, the very life and substance of heaven. A paradox, of \ncourse, as all ultimate truths are; but there is no denying the basic fact. You \nneed only ask yourself whether a mother who is indifferent to her children suf\u00ac \nfers as much on their account as a mother who is unselfishly and completely \ndevoted to hers.\u201d \n\n\u201cThe logical inference from all of which is\u201d, commented the Student, \u201cthat, \nmarried or single, you suffer in any case: you suffer if you love; you suffer if you \ndislike\u2014the closer the relationship, the greater the suffering; and as marriage \nis the closest relationship of any, marriage has been divinely ordained to accen\u00ac \ntuate the ordinary man\u2019s suffering, thus increasing the pace of spiritual progress, \nsince, without suffering, man would stagnate and the soul would die. My \ninference would be that man\u2019s frantic efforts to escape from unpleasant rela\u00ac \ntionships (as by divorce), merely because they are unpleasant, are repudiations, \nreally, of opportunities devised by his soul, in other words, by the Lords of \nCompassion.\u201d \n\n\u201cExactly\u201d, was the Philosopher\u2019s response. \n\n\u201cBut practically\u201d, someone asked, \u201cin what way can members of the Society \ntake a positive stand \u2018for the old and changeless ideal of marriage\u2019, as you sug\u00ac \ngested they should?\u201d \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n21 \n\n\n\u201cYou might just as well ask in what way can members take a positive stand \nfor honour and honesty in business. Obviously we must \u2018begin at home\u2019: no \nmarriages of divorced people in the ranks of the T.S., if you please! Divorce, \nas I have said, sometimes is necessary or unavoidable (any woman who chooses \nto allege \u2018mental cruelty\u2019 against her husband can get a divorce in some States, \n\u2014and \u2018mental cruelty\u2019 may mean no more than inability always to get her own \nway); but new marriages of divorced persons are not necessary, and are funda\u00ac \nmentally and everlastingly wrong. To that extent we can afford to be dogmatic \nand detailed. Beyond that, it is impossible to lay down rules and regulations \ncovering all circumstances and conditions. Look in any good Concordance of \nthe New Testament, under Marriage and Divorce, and see what the Master \nChrist and Paul his apostle said on these subjects. Priests draw up detailed \nrules and regulations about passing people on the other side of the street, about \nnot eating with them, and so forth; Sages have never done anything of the kind. \nSages enunciate principles, and leave it to you to apply them. A man of \nbusiness who is a member of the Society, and whose own methods are above \nreproach (which is the essential), will have to decide for himself how to deal \nwisely and rightly with threatened or actual deviations, as he encounters them, \neither in his associates or in the circumference of his business environment. \nHe must be courageous and unyielding, but, as the old-time Chinaman said, to \nbe right without good taste, is to be wrong. In other words, deviations from \nright standards are often due to lack of thought, and we must not assume the \nworst, or give ourselves an air of moral superiority, in our determination to \nstand for what is best. When we are dealing with general conditions and with \nprinciples, we should take every proper opportunity to affirm our conviction \nthat the least departure from what is right and honourable must result evilly, \nin the most practical sense, and that this applies, not only in business, but \nespecially in the married relation, which involves so much more than contracts \nor agreements,\u2014a consummation, preceded by an oath, with, let us hope, God \ninvoked as witness.\u201d \n\n\u201cAre such trifles as painted faces and ensanguined finger-nails and purple or \ncarroty lips, beneath your notice, or would you be willing to comment?\u201d asked \nthe same visitor, meaning to be jocular. \n\n\u201cOnce more\u201d, the Philosopher replied, \u201cmembers of the Society cannotcon- \ntrol the universe, or women\u2019s fashions, or the perverted taste of men (though I \nhave yet to meet the man who said he admired such horrors); but we can beg \nour own membership to set a right example, and to do their utmost to discourage \nevery sort of indecency in dress (or in the lack of it), and every other practice \nwhich tends to cheapen womanhood. It is one of the mysteries of feminine \npsychology that while, for instance, if a man of the better class goes to a race \nmeeting, he would never dream of imitating the dress and style of race-course \ntouts or jockeys, a woman of the better class, and of unquestionable virtue, \nwill often use such an opportunity to note every detail of the dress and \u2018make\u00ac \nup\u2019 of women who display their lack of virtue, and will attempt next day to turn \nherself into a duplicate, in appearance, of one or another of them. Feeble- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n22 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nmindedness may be the charitable explanation. The fact remains that while \nvast numbers of women, whose outer behaviour is impeccable, paint their faces \nand deform their lips and finger-nails as you have indicated\u2014and do so imita- \ntively, unthinkingly, and without evil motive\u2014the practice in itself springs \noriginally from motives well summarized in the advertisement of some rouge \nor lip-salve which a friend noticed recently in a Subway train in New York. \nIt read: \u2018Be as gay as gay Paree! Have that come hither look!\u2019 If any man \nwants his wife or daughter or sister to have that \u2018come hither\u2019 look, the sooner \nhe is painlessly put out of existence the better for the world and for him. \n\n\u201cThe practice is revolting, is vulgar, is fundamentally immoral. In its less \noffensive form, it is an appeal for admiration of which any self-respecting woman \nought to be incapable,\u2014either that, or a perversion (revealing her bad taste) \nof a woman\u2019s natural desire to \u2018appear at her best\u2019. It cannot be done imper\u00ac \nceptibly. Any man who is not as green as grass can see it yards away. Some \nwomen who have colour naturally, are suspected of \u2018make-up\u2019 unjustly, but \nonly by people whose observation is superficial: natural colour comes and goes; \nthe other does not. \n\n\u201cWhat ought we to do about it?\u201d \n\nThe Philosopher laughed. \u201cAlways this request for rules, regulations, for \nspecific directions to cover all cases! I have a young relative who married a \ngirl with those horribly coloured finger-nails\u2014or so I am told, for I have never \nset eyes on her or her nails. But they live on the other side of the globe, and \nwhile my opinion of him, for permitting it in his wife, has gone down to zero, \nit would never occur to me to protest or to interfere. On the other hand, if they \nwere to visit New York, where I live, I should come right out with it at our first \ninterview: \u2018Please, as a favour, remove that in my neighbourhood, because, \nfirst, the sight of it makes me ill, and, second, because I will not be seen in \npublic with anything so compromising\u2019. But I am old enough to be the girl\u2019s \nfather or grandfather, and, if I knew of their visit in advance, should try to give \nwarning through a mutual friend. Circumstances alter cases. The degree of \nrelationship, of acquaintanceship, of responsibility, all must be considered. But \na man who is forced into contact with a monstrosity of that kind, or with any \nwoman who is \u2018made up\u2019, at least can get away from it as rapidly as possible\u2014 \nand ought to do so. Not only that: he should want to do so. Two of those \ncarroty lips, flapping within a foot or two of one\u2019s face, make a normally-consti\u00ac \ntuted man feel sick. \n\n\u201cI do not see how any man who loved and revered his mother, and who has \nbeen blessed with the friendship of one or more women who represented the best \nof their sex, can fail to carry in his heart an image of the ideal or to feel humil\u00ac \niated when he sees those who, supposed to be virtuous, adopt the tricks of those \nwho are not,\u2014not only humiliated but outraged, for they are a prostitution of \nwhat he holds sacred. \n\n\u201cThat is why, in the matter of marriage and divorce, and in directions far less \nvital though in no sense unimportant (such as semi-nudity and \u2018make-up\u2019), it \nmust necessarily be one of the functions of The Theosophical Society, through \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n23 \n\n\nits membership, to carry aloft the best standards of the past, the highest ideals \nwhich the world so far has perceived, and, regardless of ever-changing fashions, \nto insist that when anything is inherently wrong, it must not be tolerated.\u201d \n\n\u201cMay I change the subject?\u201d one of our visitors now asked. \u2018\u2018I heard some\u00ac \none remark the other day that Madame Blavatsky\u2019s writings are a potpourri of \nquotations from other people\u2019s books, and no more. Is there any truth in that?\u201d \n\n\u201cTell your friend to read what Madame Blavatsky wrote: he has not done so\u201d, \nthe Historian answered. \u201cGenius does not borrow; genius devours, it creates. \nVolumes have been written to prove that St. Paul borrowed from the Stoics, \nfrom the Mysteries, from the cult of Mithra. Critics of Madame Blavatsky\u2019s \nSecret Doctrine have accused her of borrowing from Buddhism, from Hinduism, \nfrom the hundred authors she quotes. But St. Paul\u2019s religion was his own, \nbecause he had experienced it, not once only, but every day that he lived; and \nMadame Blavatsky knew before she had looked at the books she quoted, and \nbefore she understood any more of Buddhism or Hinduism than of the Binomial \nTheorem. Neither of them borrowed, and for the same reason,\u2014total lack of \nneed. They radiated light from within, and borrowing of any kind, except the \nborrowing of terms, would have paralysed their genius.\u201d \n\n\u201cHave you any comment on world affairs?\u201d the Recorder now asked. \n\nThe Historian again volunteered. \u201cRight and wrong, and considerations of \nhonour, seem finally to have been thrown into the discard,\u2014quite openly too\u201d, \nhe said. \u201cItaly, in the matter of Ethiopia, publicly proclaims herself a brigand: \nshe wants, and therefore will take. England, mildly protesting, calls down on \nher head the abuse of the Italian (official) press. Whereupon the Prince of Wales \nadvocates the fraternization of British and German War veterans,\u2014his action \nbeing justified, in a letter I received from London, on the ground that England \ncould not fight Germany and Italy together! To this I replied that if any such \nmotive had actuated him, it would prove that he, too, had abandoned principle, \nin favour of a short-sighted expediency, as guide in international affairs, because \nclearly Germany had not been made less of a brigand by Italy\u2019s adoption of the \nsame r 61 e; and that we ought to know by this time what happens when you try \nto off-set the scowls of one brigand by currying favour with anothe^#Next \ncame the Anglo-German Naval agreement, in direct violation of the \\^sailles \nTreaty, in open repudiation of England\u2019s legal and moral obligations to the \nother contracting parties, including France. Anyone who really loves England \nmust have been grief-stricken. I tried to find comfort in Rudyard Kipling\u2019s \narticle in the June Nineteenth Century, \u2018An Undefended Island\u2019, which shows \nthere are still some who understand. The New York Times, always friendly to \nEngland, expressed pained surprise. The defence of the British Government \nhas not improved matters: expediency required the agreement,\u2014not honour, \nnot righteousness, not fair-play, not any motive worthy of respect, but expe\u00ac \ndiency: the fancy that she was protecting herself from worse. England! From \nevery point of view, sheer folly: another \u2018scrap of paper\u2019 added to the collection, \n\u2014as if anyone, not in an asylum, could be excused for accepting Germany\u2019s \nword, or written agreement, as insurance of safety. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n24 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n\u201cI doubt if English newspapers will report the effect produced in this country, \nnot merely the shock to the few who love England, but the triumph of the many \nwho dislike or are jealous of her, and who are now claiming that what they have \nalways said is true,\u2014that she is utterly selfish and disloyal. That this country \nis as bad or worse, makes no difference, for the average American could not and \nwould not believe it, but, instead, will derive from the whole incident a further \nsense of moral superiority. It is terrible to see either a man or nation under \nthe control of lower nature, sinning against their own soul (and England has a \nsoul); so I deplore that Naval agreement as I would the behaviour of a blood- \nbrother at his worst. France, alas, does not improve the general situation or \nher own record by announcing {if our papers report truly) that she will not oppose \nItaly by supporting Ethiopia\u2019s plea to the League of Nations,\u2014as she had in\u00ac \ntended to do, jointly with England, until England \u2018sold her out\u2019 in that agree\u00ac \nment with Germany. Right is right, and to act on a basis of resentment, no \nmatter how well justified that resentment may be, or for supposed reasons of \npolicy (the old game of playing off one power against another), is the opposite \nof acting on principle,\u2014and there will be no peace in the world, or even its \nresemblance, until the leading nations at least try to be guided by their best \nvision of what is right and just and honourable.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Now I want to change the subject\u201d, said one of our editors, smiling. \u2018\u2018I \nwant to ask a question which I am quite unable to answer: Why have there been \nso few mystics in The Theosophical Society, from its beginning in 1875 to the \npresent day? Strange that it should be so, but it is the fact. I have often \nthought about it, and the \u2018Fragments\u2019 of this issue, so obviously written for \nmystics, revived the problem.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018What do you mean by a \u2018mystic\u2019?\u201d someone asked. \n\n\u2018\u2018I have never yet read a satisfactory definition of the term\u201d, was the answer. \n\u2018\u2018Negatively, it is the opposite of psychism, of clairvoyance, clairaudience, and \nof other astral experiences. Dante was a great mystic; so was St. John of the \nCross; so was St. Teresa of Jesus. Emerson was a mystic, expressing himself in \nintellectual terms. Every poet worthy of the name, is mystical at times: he \nsees transcendent beauties, sees into the spiritual heart of things; and he does \nnot see vaguely, but with a lucidity impossible to express except in symbol, in \nparadox, or in some ultimate simplicity. \n\n\u201cMysticism is of the heart, not of the senses. Mysticism perceives clearly, \nbut is never cut-and-dried. The wider and more penetrating its vision, the \ndeeper, the more sacred, the more awe-inspiring the mystery which it finds as \nthe fruit of its search. For the true mystic, everything in unspoiled nature is a \ndoorway to God. Francis Thompson was a mystic, though in no sense a saint. \nHe knew, in his better moments,\u2014 \n\n\n\u201cO world Invisible, we view thee, \n\nO world intangible, we touch thee, \n\nO world unknowable, we know thee, \nInapprehensible, we clutch thee. \n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n25 \n\n\n\u201cBut I come back to the simplicities. Consider Krishna\u2019s statement in the \nBhagavad Gita: \u2018I accept and enjoy the offerings of the humble soul who in his \nworship with a pure [not self-seeking] heart off ere th a leaf, a flower, or fruit, or \nwater unto me.\u2019 How many so-called Theosophists really believe and act on \nthat, I wonder! They know that chela means child; to what extent have they \nthe hearts of children in their relations with their Master? Some of them call \nthemselves Christians, and believe, theoretically, in the continued humanity of \nChrist. Does this mean that they try to please his humanity, as a child should \ntry to please his father,\u2014doing things \u2018very well\u2019 so as to please him, devising; \nways of pleasing his friends or his other children, so as to please him? Are they \ngrateful for the gifts he showers on them\u2014gifts not only spiritual, but most, \npractical too\u2014or do they accept these as if they had fallen from the sky, with a \ngeneral sense that they are in luck, but that it would be conceited to suppose \na Master would bother about them? Well, humility is a great virtue, when it \nexists , and nothing should be said to discourage it; but this suggestion may be \nin order: if you persistently thank a Master for gifts and blessings he has not \nbestowed on you, perhaps you will please him just as much as if he had. The \nheart of a child is a synonym for humility, and the heart of a child does not say, \n\u2018My father is too big and important a person to bother about me, or to be ; \npleased with my small offerings of love and gratitude\u2019. Naturally I am not \nspeaking of the sort of child, the horrible sort of child, who tries to please in- \norder to be rewarded\u2014a penny for mailing a letter, ecstatic praise for volun\u00ac \ntarily picking a pin from the floor; I am speaking of the loving and devoted \nchild, whose chief joy it is to give the father a little human happiness in this, \nparched desert of a world,\u2014a world which treats him as if he were a wraith, or \na well-meaning fool of long ago, or as identical with God and therefore so far off \nas to be negligible, or as a Master to be served at a respectful distance when time \npermits, or as a school-teacher with a stem eye and a cane under the desk, or as. \nthe Only Son who once made a painful sacrifice in order to wipe out our sins, \nbut who now sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, so all is well and we \nneed not worry. \n\n\u201cNot many days ago it was said: \u2018Children, live for me\u2019. The utmnate. \nsimplicity perhaps; as old as religion itself. If a man sets out to do it, though \nhe start with no ray of light anywhere, he will find the heavens opening to \nshow him the way. \u2018 Children , live for me\u2019. Krishna said: \u2018In thy thoughts do \nall thou dost or me\u2019. The same thing, if you choose; yet, not quite. The \n\u2018Fragments\u2019 supply a commentary based on experience, the fruit of love. Love \nis the key, love is the path, love is the goal. And if I am met with the old familiar \nwail\u2014How can I love when I don\u2019t love!\u2014my answer is the equally old and fa\u00ac \nmiliar statement epitomized by Emerson when he said, \u2018Do the deed and thou \nshalt have the power\u2019, with that recorded by Pascal,\u2014to desire to love, is to \nlove. \n\n\u201cHow blind men are! That which desires, that which seeks, is that which is. \ndesired and sought. \u2018I long for the light of Thy Face, 0 Lord\u2019. And the answer; \n\u2018Thy longing is that light, my child\u2019.\u201d \n\n\n26 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nThere was a pause; then the Recorder said: \u201cWe have covered widely dif\u00ac \nferent topics. Will someone please unify them?\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Perhaps that was best done for us, in anticipation, some five hundred years \nago, by James I of Scotland\u201d, volunteered the Historian. \u201cYou may remember \nhis Kingis Quair. The poem of his which I have in mind as showing the under\u00ac \nlying unity of our talk, is the \u2018Ballad of Good Counsel\u2019. \n\n\u201cSince through virtue encreases dignity, \n\nAnd virtue flower and root is of noblay, \n\nOf any weal or what estate thou be, \n\nIts steps pursue and dread thee none effray: \n\nExile all vice and follow truth alway: \n\nLove most thy God, who first thy love began, \n\nAnd for each inch He will thee quit a span. \n\n\u201cBe not too proud in thy prosperity, \n\nFor as it comes so will it pass away; \n\nThy time to count is short thou may well see, \n\nFor of green grass soon comes the withered hay. \n\nLabour in truth while light is of the day. \n\nTrust most in God, for He best guide thee can, \n\nAnd for each inch He will thee quit a span. \n\n\u201cSince word is thrall, and thought is only free, \n\nThou curb thy tongue, which power has and may; \n\nThou shut thine eyes from worldly vanity; \n\nRestrain thy will, and harken what I say; \n\nGrope ere thou slide, and creep forth on the way; \n\nThy promise keep unto thy God and man, \n\nAnd for each inch He will thee quit a span.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cThat is splendid\u201d, said the Recorder. \u201cThank you.\u201d \n\n\nT. \n\n\nThe foundations of national glory are set in the homes of the people , and they will \nonly remain unshaken while the family life of our race and nation is strong, simple, \nand pure. \u2014 King George V. \n\n\n4 s the Spanish proverb says, \u201cHe who would bring home the wealth of the Indies \nmust carry the wealth of the Indies with him.\u2019\u2019 So it is in travelling; a man must \ncarry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.\u2014 Samuel Johnson. \n\n\n\n\n\nA LAND OF MYSTERY \n\n\nThese are the last two of a series of four articles under the same title , written by \nMadame Blavatsky , and printed in \u201cThe Theosophist\" (then published in Bojnbay) \nin the March , April , June and August issues of 1880. The first two were reprinted \nin the April , t\u2019ssne 0/ the i{ Theosophical Quarterly \u201d, pages 334-346 .\u2014 The \nEditors. \n\n\nIII. \n\nT HE ruins of Central America are no less imposing. Massively built, \nwith walls of a great thickness, they are usually marked by broad \nstairways, leading to the principal entrance. When composed of sev\u00ac \neral stories, each successive story is usually smaller than that below it, giving \nthe structure the appearance of a pyramid of several stages. The front walls, \neither made of stone or stuccoed, are covered with elaborately carved, sym\u00ac \nbolical figures; and the interior divided into corridors and dark chambers, with \narched ceilings, the roofs supported by overlapping courses of stones, \u201cconsti\u00ac \ntuting a pointed arch, corresponding in type with the earliest monuments of \nthe old world\u201d. Within several chambers at Palenque, tablets, covered with \nsculptures and hieroglyphics of fine design and artistic execution, were dis\u00ac \ncovered by Stephens. In Honduras, at Copdn, a whole city\u2014temples, houses \nand grand monoliths intricately carved\u2014was unearthed in an old forest 0 \nCatherwoxi and Stephens. The sculpture and general style of Copan are unique, \nand no su h style or even anything approaching it has been found anywhere \nelse, excepy at Quirigua, and in the islands of Lake Nicaragua. No one can \ndecipher the weird hieroglyphical inscriptions on the altars and monoliths. With \nthe exception of a few works of uncut stone, \u201cto Copdn, we may safely assign an \nantiquity higher than to any of the other monuments of Central America with \nwhich we are acquainted\u201d, says the New American Cyclopcedia. At the period \nof the Spanish conquest, Copdn was already a forgotten ruin, concerning which \nexisted only the vaguest traditions. \n\nNo less extraordinary are the remains of the different epochs in Peru. The \nruins of the temple of the Sun at Cuzco are yet imposing, notwithstanding that \n\n\n27 \n\n\n\n\n28 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthe depredating hand of the Vandal Spaniard passed heavily over it. If we may \nbelieve the narratives of the conquerors themselves, they found it, on their \narrival, a kind of fairy-tale castle. With its enormous circular stone wall \ncompletely encompassing the principal temple, chapels and buildings, it is \nsituated in the very heart of the city, and even its remains justly provoke the \nadmiration of the traveller. \u201cAqueducts opened within the sacred inclosure; \nand within it were gardens, and walks among shrubs and flowers of gold and \nsilver , made in imitation of the productions of nature. It was attended by \n4,000 priests.\u201d \u201cThe ground\u201d, says La Vega, \u201cfor 200 paces around the temple, \nwas considered holy, and no one was allowed to pass within this boundary but \nwith naked feet.\u201d Besides this great temple, there were 300 other inferior \ntemples at Cuzco. Next to the latter in beauty, was the celebrated temple of \nPachacamac. Still another great temple of the Sun is mentioned by Humboldt; \nand, \u201cat the base of the hill of Cannar was formerly a famous shrine of the Sun, \nconsisting of the universal symbol of that luminary, formed by nature upon the \nface of a great rock\u201d. Roman tells us \u201cthat the temples of Peru were built upon \nhigh grounds or the top of the hills, and were surrounded by three and four \ncircular embankments of earth, one within the other\u201d. Other remains seen by \nmyself\u2014especially mounds\u2014are surrounded by two, three, and four circles of \nstones. Near the town of Cayambe, on the very spot on which Ulloa saw and \ndescribed an ancient Peruvian temple \u201cperfectly circular in form, and open at \nthe top\u201d, there are several such cromlechs. Quoting from an article in the \nMadras Times of 1876, Mr. J. H. Rivett-Camac gives, in his Archaeological \nNotes, the following information upon some curious mounds in the neighbour\u00ac \nhood of Bangalore:\u2014 1 \u201cNear the village there are at least one hundred crom\u00ac \nlechs plainly to be seen. These cromlechs are surrounded by circles of stones, \nsome of them with concentric circles three and four deep. One very remarkable \nin appearance has four circles of large stones around it, and is called by the na\u00ac \ntives, \u2018Pandavara Gudi\u2019, or the temples of the Pandas. . . . This is supposed to \nbe the first instance, where the natives popularly imagine a structure of this kind \nto have been the temple of a by-gone, if not of a mythical, race. Many of these \nstructures have a triple circle, some a double, and a few single circles of stone \nround them\u201d. In the 35th degree of latitude, the Arizona Indians in North \nAmerica have their rude altars to this day, surrounded by precisely such circles, \nand their sacred spring, discovered by Major Alfred R. Calhoun, F.G.S., of the \nUnited States Army Survey Commission, is surrounded with the same sym\u00ac \nbolical wall of stones, as is found in Stonehenge and elsewhere. \n\nBy far the most interesting and full account we have read for a long time \nupon the Peruvian antiquities is that from the pen of Mr. Heath of Kansas, \nalready mentioned. Condensing the general picture of these remains into the \nlimited space of a few pages in a periodical , 2 he yet manages to present a mas\u00ac \nterly and vivid picture of the wealth of these remains. More than one specu- \n\n\n1 On Ancient Sculpturing on Rjcks in Kumaon, India, similar to those found on monoliths and rocks in Europe. \nBy J. H. Rivett-Camac, Bengal Civil Service, C.I.E., F.S.A., M.R.A.S., F.G.S., etc. \n\n* See Kansas City Review of Science and Industry, November, 1878. \n\n\n\nA LAND OF MYSTERY \n\n\n29 \n\n\nlator has grown rich in a few days through his desecrations of the \u201chuacas . \nThe remains of countless generations of unknown races, who had slept there \nundisturbed\u2014who knows for how many ages\u2014are now left by the sacrilegious \ntreasure-hunter to crumble into dust under the tropical sun. Mr. Heath s con\u00ac \nclusions, more startling, perchance, than his discoveries, are worthy of being \nrecorded. We will repeat in brief his descriptions:\u2014 \n\n\u201cIn the Jeguatepegue valley in Peru in 7 0 24/ S. latitude, four miles north \nof the port of Pacasmayo, is the Jeguatepegue River. Near it, beside the \nsouthern shore, is an elevated platform \u2018one-fourth of a mile square and forty \nfeet high, all of adobes\u2019 or sun-burnt bricks. A wall of fifty feet in width con\u00ac \nnects it with another, 150 feet high, 200 feet across the top, and 500 at the base, \nnearly square. This latter was built in sections of rooms, ten feet square at the \nbase, six feet at the top, and about eight feet high. All of this same class of \nmounds\u2014temples to worship the sun, or fortresses, as they may be\u2014have on \nthe northerly side an incline for an entrance. Treasure-seekers have cut into \nthis one about half-way, and it is said 150,000 dollars\u2019 worth of gold and silver \nornaments were found.\u201d Here, many thousands of men were buried, and \nbeside the skeletons were found in abundance ornaments of gold, silver, copper, \ncoral beads, etc. \u201cOn the north side of the river, are the extensive ruins of a \nwalled city, two miles wide by six long. . . . Follow the river to the mountains. \nAll along you pass ruin after ruin and huaca after huaca\u201d (burial places). At \nTolon there is another ruined city. Five miles further, up the river, \u201cthere is \nan isolated boulder of granite, four and six feet in its diameters, covered with \nhieroglyphics; fourteen miles further, a point of mountain at the junction of \ntwo ravines is covered to a height of more than fifty feet with the same class of \nhieroglyphics\u2014birds, fishes, snakes, cats, monkeys, men, sun, moon, and many \nodd and now unintelligible forms. The rock, on which these are cut, is a sili- \ncated sandstone, and many of the lines are an eighth of an inch deep. In one \nlarge stone there are three holes, twenty to thirty inches deep, six inches in \ndiameter at the orifice and two at the apex. ... At Anchi, on the Rimac river, \nupon the face of a perpendicular wall 200 feet above the river-bed, there are \ntwo hieroglyphics, representing an imperfect B and a perfect D. In a ere\\^j \nbelow them, near the river, were found buried 25,000 dollars\u2019 worth of goldiaW \nsilver; when the Incas learned of the murder of their chief, what did they do \nwith the gold they were bringing for his ransom? Rumour says they buried it. \n\n. May not these markings at Yonan tell something, since they are on the \nroad and near to the Incal city?\u201d \n\nThe above was published in November, 1878. When in October, 1877, in \nmy work Isis Unveiled (Vol. I, p. 595), I gave a legend, which, for circumstances \ntoo long to explain, I hold to be perfectly trustworthy, relating to these same \nburied treasures for the Inca\u2019s ransom, a journal more satirical than polite \nclassed it with the tales of Baron Munchausen. The secret was revealed to me \nby a Peruvian. At Arica, going from Lima, there stands an enormous rock, \nwhich tradition points to as the tomb of the Incas. As the last rays of the set\u00ac \nting sun strike the face of the rock, one can see curious hieroglyphics inscribed \n\n\n30 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nupon it. These characters form one of the land-marks that show how to get at \nthe immense treasures buried in subterranean corridors. The details are given \nin Isis , and I will not repeat them. Strong corroborative evidence is now found \nin more than one recent scientific work; and the statement may be less pooh- \npoohed now than it was then. Some miles beyond Yonan, on a ridge of a moun\u00ac \ntain 700 feet above the river, are the walls of another city. Six and twelve \nmiles further are extensive walls and terraces; seventy-eight miles from the \ncoast, \u201cyou zigzag up the mountain side 7,000 feet, then descend 2,000\u201d to \narrive at Coxamolca, the city where, unto this day, stands the house in which \nAtahualpa, the unfortunate Inca, was held prisoner by the treacherous Pizarro. \nIt is the house which the Inca \u201cpromised to fill with gold as high as he could \nreach, in exchange for his liberty\u201d in 1532; he did fill it with 17,500,000 dollars\u2019 \nworth of gold, and so kept his promise. But Pizarro, the ancient swineherd of \nSpain and the worthy acolyte of the priest Hernando de Lugues, murdered him, \nnotwithstanding his pledge of honour. Three miles from this town, \u201cthere is a \nwall of unknown make. Cemented, the cement is harder than stone itself. \n... At Chep\u00a3n, there is a mountain with a wall twenty feet high, the summit \nbeing almost entirely artificial. Fifty miles south of Pacaomayo, between the \nseaport of Huanchaco and Truxillo, are the ruins of Chan-Chan, the capital \ncity of the Chimoa kingdom. . . . The road from the port to the city crosses \nthese ruins, entering by a causeway about four feet from the ground, and lead\u00ac \ning from one great mass of ruins to another; beneath this is a tunnel\u201d. Be they \nforts, castles, palaces or burial mounds called \u201chuacas\u201d, all bear the name \n\u201chuaca\u201d. Hours of wandering on horseback among these ruins give only a con\u00ac \nfused idea of them, nor can any explorers there point out what were palaces \nand what were not. . . . The highest enclosures must have cost an immense \namount of labour. \n\nTo give an idea of the wealth found in the country by the Spaniards, we copy \nthe following, taken from the records of the municipality in the city of Truxillo \nby Mr. Heath. It is a copy of the accounts that are found in the book of Fifths \nof the Treasury in the years 1577 and 1578, of the treasures found in the \u201cHuaca \nof Toledo\u201d by one man alone. \n\nFirst. \u2014In Truxillo, Peru, on the 22nd of July, 1577, Don Gracia Gutierrez \nde Toledo presented himself at the royal treasury, to give into the royal chest \na fifth. He brought a bar of gold 19 carats ley weighing 2,400 Spanish dollars, \nof which the fifth being 708 dollars, together with i l A per cent to the chief \nassayer, were deposited in the royal box. \n\nSecondly. \u2014On the 12th of December, he presented himself with five bars of \ngold, 15 and 19 carats ley, weighing 8,918 dollars. \n\nThirdly. \u2014On the 7th of January, 1578, he came with his fifth of large bars \nand plates of gold, one hundred and fifteen in number, 15 to 20 carats ley, weigh\u00ac \ning 153,280 dollars. \n\nFourthly. \u2014On the 8th of March, he brought sixteen bars of gold, 14 to 21 \ncarats ley, weighing 21,118 dollars. \n\nFifthly .\u2014On the fifth of April, he brought different ornaments of gold, being \n\n\n\n\n\nA LAND OF MYSTERY 31 \n\nlittle belts of gold and patterns of corn-heads and other things, of 14 carats ley, \nweighing 6,272 dollars. \n\nSixthly. \u2014On the 20th of April, he brought three small bars of gold, 20 carats \nley, weighing 4,170 dollars. \n\nSeventhly. \u2014On the 12th of July, he came with forty-seven bars, 14 to 21 \ncarats ley, weighing 77,312 dollars. \n\nEighthly. \u2014On the same day he came back with another portion of gold and \nornaments of corn-heads and pieces of effigies of animals, weighing 4,704 dollars. \n\n\u201cThe sum of these eight \u2018bringings\u2019 amounted to 278,174 gold dollars or \nSpanish ounces. Multiplied by sixteen, this gives 4,450,784 silver dollars. De\u00ac \nducting the royal fifth\u2014985,953.75 dollars\u2014left 3,464,830.25 dollars as Toledo s \nportion! Even after this great haul, effigies of different animals of gold were \nfound from time to time. Mantles, also adorned with square pieces of gold, as \nwell as robes made with feathers of divers colours, were dug up. There is a \ntradition that in the huaca of Toledo there were two treasures, known as the \ngreat and little fish. The smaller only has been found. Between Huacho and \nSupe, the latter being 120 miles north of Callao, near a point called Atahuangri, \nthere are two enormous mounds, resembling the Campana and San Miguel, of \nthe Huatica Valley, soon to be described. About five miles from Patavilca \n(south, and near Supe) is a place called \u2018Paramonga\u2019 or the fortress. 1 he ruins \nof a fortress of great extent are here visible, the walls are of tempered clay, about \nsix feet thick. The principal building stood on an eminence, but the walls \nwere continued to the foot of it, like regular circumvallations; the ascent winding \nround the hill like a labyrinth, having many angles which probably served as \noutworks to defend the place. In this neighbourhood, much treasure has been \nexcavated, all of which must have been concealed by the pre-historic Indian, as \nwe have no evidence of the Incas ever having occupied this part of Peru after \nthey had subdued it.\u201d \n\nNot far from Ancon, on a circuit of six to eight miles, \u201con every side you see \nskulls, legs, arms and whole skeletons lying about in the sand. ... At Parmayo, \nfourteen miles further down north\u201d, and on the sea-shore, is another great \nburying-ground. Thousands of skeletons lie about, thrown out by the treasure- \nseekers. It has more than half a mile of cutting through it. . . . It extends^) \nthe face of the hill from the sea-shore to the height of about 800 feet. MM \nWhence come these hundreds and thousands of peoples, who are burieaat \nAncon? Time and time again the archaeologist finds himself face to face with \nsuch questions, to which he can only shrug his shoulders and say with the \nnatives\u2014Qui6n Sr/e?\u201d\u2014who knows? \n\nDr. Hutchinsoy writes, under date of Oct. 30, 1872, in the South Pacific \nTimes: \u2014\u201cI am come to the conclusion that Chancay is a great city of the dead, \nor has been an immense ossuary of Peru; for go where you will, on a mountain \ntop or level plain, or by the sea-side, you meet at every turn skulls and bones \nof all descriptions.\u201d \n\nIn the Huatica Valley, which is an extensive ruin, there are seventeen mounds, \ncalled \u201chuacas\u201d, although, remarks the writer, \u201cthey present more the form of \n\n\n32 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nfortresses, or castles than burying-ground.\u201d A triple wall surrounded the city. \nThese walls are often three yards in thickness and from fifteen to twenty feet \nhigh. To the east of these is the enormous mound called Huaca of Pando. \n\n. . . and the great ruins of fortresses, which natives entitle Huaca of the Bell. \nLa compana , the Huacas of Pando, consisting of a series of large and small \nmounds, and extending over a stretch of ground incalculable without being \nmeasured, form a colossal accumulation. The mound \u201cBell\u201d is no feet high. \nTowards Callao, there is a square plateau (278 yards long and 96 across) having \non the top eight gradations of declivity, each from one to two yards lower than \nits neighbour, and making a total in length and breadth of about 278 yards, \naccording to the calculation of J. B. Steere, of Michigan, Professor of Natural \nHistory. \n\nThe square plateau first mentioned at the base consists of two divisions . . . \neach measuring a perfect square 47 to 48 yards; the two joining, form the square \nof 96 yards. Besides this, is another square of 47 to 48 yards. On the top re\u00ac \nturning again, we find the same symmetry of measurement in the multiples of \ntwelve, nearly all the ruins in this valley being the same, which is a fact for the \ncurious. Was it by accident or design? . . . The mound is a truncated pyra\u00ac \nmidal form, and is calculated to contain a mass of 14,641,820 cubic feet of \nmaterial. . . . The \u201cFortress\u201d is a huge structure, 80 feet high and 150 yards \nin measurement. Great square rooms show their outlines on the top but are \nfilled with earth. Who brought this earth here, and with what object was the \nfilling-up accomplished? The work of obliterating all space in these rooms \nwith loose earth must have been almost as great as the construction of the build\u00ac \ning itself. . . .Two miles south, we find another similar structure, more spacious \nand with a greater number of apartments. ... It is nearly 170 yards in length, \nand 168 in breadth, and 93 feet high. The whole of these ruins . . . were enclosed \nby high walls of adobes\u2014large mud bricks, some from 1 to 2 yards in thickness, \nlength and breadth. The \u201chuaca\u201d of the \u201cBell\u201d contains about 20,220,840 \ncubic feet of material, while that of \u201cSan Miguel\u201d has 25,650,800. These two \nbuildings with their terraces, parapets and bastions, with a large number of \nrooms and squares\u2014are now filled up with earth! \n\nNear \u201cMira Flores\u201d, is Ocheran\u2014the largest mound in the Huatica valley. \nIt has 95 feet of elevation and a width of 55 yards on the summit, and a total \nlength of 428 yards, or 1,284 feet, another multiple of twelve. It is enclosed by a \ndouble wall, 816 yards in length by 700 across, thus enclosing 117 acres. Be\u00ac \ntween Ocharan and the ocean are from 15 to 20 masses of ruins like those already \ndescribed. \n\nThe Inca temple of the Sun, like the temple of Cholula on the plains of Mexico, \nis a sort of vast terraced pyramid of earth. It is from 200 to 300 feet high, and \nforms a semilunar shape that is beyond half a mile in extent. Its top measures \nabout 10 acres square. Many of the walls are washed over with red paint, \nwhich is as fresh and bright as when centuries ago it was first put on. . . . In \nthe Canete valley, opposite the Chincha Guano Islands, are extensive ruins, \ndescribed by Squier. From the hill called \u201cHill of Gold\u201d, copper and silver \n\n\nA LAND OF MYSTERY \n\n\n33 \n\n\npins were taken like those used by ladies to pin their shawls; also tweezers for \npulling out the hair of the eyebrows, eyelids and whiskers, as well as silver \ncups. \n\n\u201cThe coast of Peru\u201d, says Mr. Heath, \u201cextends from Tumbey to the river Loa, \na distance of 1,233 miles. Scattered over this whole extent, there are thousands \nof ruins besides those just mentioned . . . while nearly every hill and spire of \nthe mountains have upon them or about them some relic of the past; and in \nevery ravine, from the coast to the central plateau, there are ruins of walls, \ncities, fortresses, burial-vaults, and miles and miles of terraces and water\u00ac \ncourses. Across the plateau and down the eastern slope of the Andes to the home \nof the wild Indian, and into the unknown impenetrable forest, still you find them. \nIn the mountains, however, where showers of rain and snow with terrific thunder \nand lightning are nearly constant during a number of months each year, the \nruins are different. Of granite, porphyritic lime, and silicated sandstone, these \nmassive, colossal, cyclopean structures have resisted the disintegration of time, \ngeological transformations, earthquakes, and the sacrilegious, destructive hand \nof the warrior and treasure-seeker. The masonry composing these walls, tem\u00ac \nples, houses, towers, fortresses, or sepulchres, is uncemented, held in place by \nthe incline of the walls from the perpendicular, and adaptation of each stone to \nthe place destined for it, the stones having from six to many sides, each dressed, \nand smoothed to fit another or others with such exactness that the blade of a \nsmall penknife cannot be inserted in any of the seams thus formed, whether in the \ncentral parts entirely hidden, or on the internal or external surfaces. These stones, \nselected with no reference to uniformity in shape or size, vary from one-half \ncubic foot to 1,500 cubic feet solid contents, and if, in the many , many millions \nof stones you could find one that would fit in the place of another, it would be \npurely accidental. In Triumph Street\u2019, in the city of Cuzco, in a part of the \nwall of the ancient house of the Virgins of the Sun, is a very large stone, known \nas \u2018the stone of the twelve comers\u2019, since it is joined with those that surround \nit, by twelve faces, each having a different angle. Besides these twelve faces \nit has its internal one, and no one knows how many it has on its back that is \nhidden in the masonry. In the wall in the centre of the Cuzco fortress there are \nstones 13 feet high, 15 feet long, and 8 feet thick, and all have been quarried \nmiles away. Near this city there is an oblong smooth boulder, 18 feet ij^its \nlonger axis, and 12 feet in its lesser. On one side are large niches cut out, in \nwhich a man can stand, and, by swaying his body, cause the stone to rock. \nThese niches apparently were made solely for this purpose. One of the most \nwonderful and extensive of these works in stone is that called Ollantay-Tambo, \na ruin situated 30 miles north of Cuzco, in a narrow ravine on the bank of the \nRiver Urubamba. It consists of a fortress constructed on the top of a sloping, \ncraggy eminence. Extending from it to the plain below, is a stony stairway. \nAt the top of the stairway are six large slabs, 12 feet high, 5 feet wide, and 3 \nfeet thick, side by side, having between them and on top, narrow strips of stone \nabout 6 inches wide, frames as it were to the slabs, and all being of dressed stone. \nAt the bottom of the hill, part of which was made by hand, and at the foot of \n\n\n34 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthe stairs, a stone wall io feet wide and 12 feet high extends some distance into \nthe plain. In it are many niches, all facing the south.\u201d \n\nThe ruins in the Islands in Lake Titicaca, where Incal history begins, have \noften been described. \n\nAt Tiahuanaco, a few miles south of the lake, there are stones in the form of \ncolumns, partly dressed, placed in line at certain distances from each other, \nand having an elevation above the ground of from 18 to 20 feet. In this same \nline there is a monolithic doorway, now broken, 10 feet high by 13 wide. The \nspace cut out for the door is 7 feet 4 inches high by 3 feet 2 inches wide. \nThe whole face of the stone above the door is engraved. Another, similar but \nsmaller, lies on the ground beside it. These stones are of hard porphyry, and \ndiffer geologically from the surrounding rock; hence we infer they must have \nbeen brought from elsewhere. \n\nAt \u2018\u2018Chavin de Huanta\u201d, a town in the province of Huari, there are some \nruins worthy of note. The entrance to them is by an alley-way, 6 feet wide and \n9 feet high, roofed over with sandstone partly dressed, of more than 12 feet in \nlength. On each side there are rooms 12 feet wide, roofed over by large pieces of \nsandstone, i l /i feet thick and from 6 to 9 feet wide. The walls of the rooms are \n6 feet thick, and have some loopholes in them, probably for ventilation. In the \nfloor of this passage there is a very narrow entrance to a subterranean passage \nthat passes beneath the river to the other side. From this many huacas, stone \ndrinking-vessels, instruments of copper and silver, and a skeleton of an Indian, \nsitting, were taken. The greater part of these ruins were situated over aque\u00ac \nducts. The bridge to these castles is made of three stones of dressed granite, \n24 feet long, 2 feet wide by i l /i thick. Some of the granite stones are covered \nwith hieroglyphics. \n\nAt Corralones, 24 miles from Arequipa, there are hieroglyphics engraved on \nmasses of granite, which appear as if painted with chalk. There are figures of \nmen, llamas, circles, parallelograms, letters as an R and an 0 , and even remains \nof a system of astronomy. \n\nAt Huaytar, in the province of Castro Virreina, there is an edifice with the \nsame engravings. \n\nAt Nazca, in the province of lea, there are some wonderful ruins of aqueducts, \nfour to five feet high and 3 feet wide, very straight, double-walled, of unfinished \nstone, flagged on top. \n\nAt Quelap, not far from Chochapayas, there have lately been examined some \nextensive works: a wall of dressed stone, 560 feet wide, 3,660 long, and 150 feet \nhigh; the lower part is solid. Another wall above this has 600 feet length, 500 \nwidth, and the same elevation of 150 feet. There are niches over both walls, \nthree feet long, one-and-a-half wide and thick, containing the remains of those \nancient inhabitants, some naked, others enveloped in shawls of cotton of dis\u00ac \ntinct colours and well embroidered. . . . \n\nFollowing the entrances of the second and highest wall, there are other sepul\u00ac \nchres like small ovens, six feet high and twenty-four in circumference; in their \nbase are flags, upon which some cadavers reposed. On the north side there is, \n\n\nA LAND OF MYSTERY \n\n\n35 \n\n\non the perpendicular rocky side of the mountain, a brick wall, having small \nwindows, 600 feet from the bottom. No reason for this , nor means of approach, \ncan now be found. The skilful construction of utensils of gold and silver that \nwere found here, the ingenuity and solidity of this gigantic work of dressed \nstone, make it also probably of pre-Incal date. . . . Estimating five hundred \nravines in the 1,200 miles of Peru, and ten miles of terraces of fifty tiers to each \nravine, which would only be five miles of fifty tiers to each side, we have \n250,000 miles of stone wall, averaging three to four feet high\u2014enough to encircle \nthis globe ten times. Surprising as these estimates may seem, I am fully con\u00ac \nvinced that an actual measurement would more than double them, for these \nravines vary from 30 to 100 miles in length. While at San Mateo, a town in the \nvalley of the River Rimac, where the mountains rise to a height of 1,500 or 2,000 \nfeet above the river bed, I counted two hundred tiers, none of which were less * \nthan four and many more than six miles long. \n\n\u201cWho then\u201d, very pertinently enquires Mr. Heath, \u201cwere these people, cut\u00ac \nting through sixty miles of granite; transplanting blocks of hard porphyry, of \nBaalbec dimensions, miles from the place where quarried, across valleys thou\u00ac \nsands of feet deep, over mountains, along plains, leaving no trace of how or \nwhere they carried them; people (said to be) ignorant of the use of word [?], \nwith the feeble llama their only beast of burden; who after having brought \nthese stones fitted them into stones with Mosaic precision; terracing thousands \nof miles of mountain side; building hills of adobes and earth, and huge cities; \nleaving works in clay, stone, copper, silver, gold, and embroidery, many of which \ncannot be duplicated at the present age; people apparently vying with Dives \nin riches, Hercules in strength and energy, and the ant and bee in industry?\u201d \n\nCallao was submerged in 1746, and entirely destroyed. Lima was ruined in \n1678; in 1746 only 20 houses out of 3,000 were left standing, while the ancient \ncities in the Huatica and Lurin valleys still remain in a comparatively good \nstate of preservation. San Miguel de Puiro, founded by Pizarro in 1531, was \nentirely destroyed in 1855, while the old ruins near by suffered little. Arequipa \nwas thrown down in August, 1868, but the ruins near show no change. In en\u00ac \ngineering, at least, the present may learn from the past. We hope to show it \nmay in most things else. \n\nw \n\nTo refer all these cyclopean constructions, then, to the days of the Incas is, \nas we have shown before, more inconsistent yet, and seems even a greater fallacy \nthan that too common one of attributing every rock-temple of India to Buddhist \nexcavators. As many authorities show\u2014Dr. Heath among the rest\u2014Incal \nhistory only dates back to the eleventh century, a.d., and the period, from \nthat time to the Conquest, is utterly insufficient to account for such grandiose \nand innumerable works; nor do the Spanish historians know much of them. \nNor again, must we forget that the temples of heathendom were odious to the \nnarrow bigotry of the Roman Catholic fanatics of those days; and that, when\u00ac \never the chance offered, they either converted them into Christian churches or \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n36 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nrazed them to the ground. Another strong objection to the idea lies in the fact \nthat the Incas were destitute of a written language, and that these antique \nrelics of bygone ages are covered with hieroglyphics. \u201cIt is granted that the \nTemple of the Sun, at Cuzco, was of Incal make, but that is the latest of the \nfive styles of architecture visible in the Andes, each probably representing an \nage of human progress.\u201d \n\nThe hieroglyphics of Peru and Central America have been, are, and will most \nprobably remain for ever as dead a letter to our cryptographers as they were to \nthe Incas. The latter, like the barbarous ancient Chinese and Mexicans, kept \ntheir records by means of a quipus (or knot in Peruvian)\u2014a cord, several feet \nlong, composed of different coloured threads, from which a multicoloured fringe \nwas suspended; each colour denoting a sensible object, and knots serving as \nciphers. \u201cThe mysterious science of the quipus\u201d, says Prescott, \u201csupplied the \nPeruvians with the means of communicating their ideas to one another, and of \ntransmitting them to future generations. ...\u201d Each locality, however, had \nits own method of interpreting these elaborate records; hence a quipus was only \nintelligible in the place where it was kept. \u201cMany quipus have been taken from \nthe graves, in excellent state of preservation in colour and texture\u201d, writes Dr. \nHeath; \u201cbut the lips, that alone could pronounce the verbal key, have for ever \nceased their function, and the relic-seeker has failed to note the exact spot where \neach was found, so that the records, which could tell so much we want to know, \nwill remain sealed till all is revealed at the last day\u201d ... if anything at all is \nrevealed then. But what is certainly as good as a revelation now , while our \nbrains are in function, and our mind is acutely alive to some pre-eminently \nsuggestive facts, are the incessant discoveries of archaeology, geology, ethnology, \nand other sciences. It is the almost irrepressible conviction that man having \nexisted upon earth millions of years\u2014for all we know\u2014the theory of cycles is \nthe only plausible theory to solve the great problems of humanity, the rise and \nfall of numberless nations and races, and the ethnological differences among the \nlatter. This difference\u2014which, though as marked as the one between a hand\u00ac \nsome and intellectual European and a digger Indian of Australia, yet makes the \nignorant shudder and raise a great outcry at the thought of destroying the \nimaginary \u201cgreat gulf between man and brute creation\u201d\u2014might thus be well \naccounted for. The digger Indian, then, in company with many other savage, \nthough to him superior, nations, which evidently are dying out to afford room \nto men and races of a superior kind, would have to be regarded in the same light \nas so many dying-out specimens of animals\u2014and no more. Who can tell but \nthat the forefathers of this flat-headed savage\u2014forefathers who may have lived \nand prospered amidst the highest civilization before the glacial period\u2014were in \nthe arts and sciences far beyond those of the present civilization\u2014though it \nmay be in quite another direction? That man has lived in America, at least \n50,000 years ago, is now proved scientifically and remains a fact beyond doubt \nor cavil. In a lecture delivered at Manchester, in June last, by Mr. H. A. \nAllbutt, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society, the lecturer \nstated the following:\u2014 \u201cNear New Orleans, in one part of the modem delta, in \n\n\nA LAND OF MYSTERY \n\n\n37 \n\n\nexcavating for gas works, a series of beds, almost wholly made up of vegetable \nmatter, were dug through. In the excavation, at a depth of 16 feet from the \nupper surface, and beneath four buried forests, one on the top of the other, the \nlabourers discovered some charcoal and the skeleton of a man, the cranium of \nwhich was reported to be that of the type of the aboriginal Red Indian race. \nTo this skeleton Dr. Dowler ascribed an antiquity of some 50,000 years\u201d. The \nirrepressible cycle in the course of time brought down the descendants of the \ncontemporaries of the late inhabitant of this skeleton, and intellectually as well \nas physically they have degenerated, as the present elephant has degenerated \nfrom his proud and monstrous forefather, the antediluvian Sivatherium whose \nfossil remains are still found in the Himalayas; or, as the lizard has from the \nplesiosaurus. Why should man be the only specimen upon earth which has \nnever changed in form since the first day of his appearance upon this planet? \nThe fancied superiority of every generation of mankind over the preceding one \nis not yet so well established as to make it impossible for us to learn some day \nthat, as in everything else, the theory is a two-sided question\u2014incessant progress \non the one side and an as irresistible decadence on the other [side] of the cycle. \n\u2018\u2018Even as regards knowledge and power, the advance, which some claim as a \ncharacteristic feature of humanity, is effected by exceptional individuals who \narise in certain races under favourable circumstances only, and is quite com\u00ac \npatible with long intervals of immobility, and even of decline \", 1 says a modem \nman of science. This point is corroborated by what we see in the modem de\u00ac \ngenerate descendants of the great and powerful races of ancient America\u2014the \nPeruvians and the Mexicans. \u201cHow changed! How fallen from their greatness \nmust have been the Incas, when a little band of one hundred and sixty men could \npenetrate, uninjured, to their mountain homes, murder their worshipped kings \nand thousands of their warriors, and carry away their riches, and that, too, in a \ncountry where a few men with stones could resist successfully an army! Who \ncould recognize in the present Inichua and Aymara Indians their noble ances\u00ac \ntry?\u201d . . . Thus writes Dr. Heath, and his conviction that America was once \nunited with Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, seems as firm as our own. There \nmust exist geological and physical cycles as well as intellectual and spiritual; \nglobes and planets, as well as races and nations, are bom to grow, proej^fe, de\u00ac \ncline and\u2014die. Great nations split, scatter into small tribes, lose allrcmem- \nbrance of their integrity, gradually fall into their primitive state and\u2014disappear, \none after the other, from the face of the earth. So do great continents. Ceylon \nmust have formed, once upon a time, part of the Indian continent. So, to all \nappearances, was Spain once joined to Africa, the narrow channel between \nGibraltar and the latter continent having once upon a time been dry land. \nGibraltar is full of large apes of the same kind as those which are found in great \nnumbers on the opposite side on the African coast, whereas nowhere in Spain \nis either a monkey or ape to be found at any place whatever. And the caves of \nGibraltar are also full of gigantic human bones, supporting the theory that they \nbelong to an antediluvian race of men. The same Dr. Heath mentions the \n\n\n1 Journal of Science for February, Article\u2014\"The Alleged Distinction between Mon and Brute\u201d. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3\u00bb \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ntown of Eten in 7 S. latitude of America, in which the inhabitants of an un\u00ac \nknown tribe of men speak a monosyllabic language that imported Chinese la\u00ac \nbourers understood from the first day of their arrival. They have their own \nlaws, customs and dress, neither holding nor permitting communication with \nthe outside world. No one can tell whence they came or when; whether it was \nbefore or after the Spanish Conquest. They are a living mystery to all who \nchance to visit them. . . . \n\nWith such facts before us to puzzle exact science herself, and show our entire \nignorance of the past, verily we recognize no right of any man on earth\u2014 \nwhether in geography or ethnology, in exact or abstract sciences\u2014to tell his \nneighbour, \u201cso far shalt thou go, and no further\u201d! \n\nBut. recognizing our debt of gratitude to Dr. Heath of Kansas, whose able \nand interesting paper has furnished us with such a number of facts and sug\u00ac \ngested such possibilities, we can do no better than quote his concluding reflec\u00ac \ntions. \u201cThirteen thousand years ago\u201d, he writes, \u201cVega, in Lyra , was the north \npolar star; since then how many changes has she seen in our planet! How many \nnations and races spring into life, rise to their zenith of splendour, and then \ndecay; and when we shall have been gone thirteen thousand years, and once \nmore she resumes her post at the north, completing a \u2018Platonic or Great year\u2019, \nthink you that those who shall fill our places on the earth at that time will be \nmore conversant with our history than we are of those that have passed? Verily \nmight we exclaim, in terms almost psalmistic, \u2018Great God, Creator and Director \nof the Universe, what is man that Thou art mindful of him!\u2019\u201d \n\nAmen! ought to be the response of such as yet believe in a God who is \u201cthe \nCreator and Director of the Universe\u201d. \n\n\nOver the Mountains of Time hover the Eagles of Time,\u2014the Vultures also. \n\nThe Eagles soar, gazing at the Sun: the Vultures look down, seeking carrion. \nTime, the mighty Illusion, raised those Mountains; and, while Time exists, over \nthem hover the Eagles of Time,\u2014the Vultures also. \n\nEternity holds them; verily , Eternity holds them all .\u2014 The Book of Birds. \n\n\nOn the Housetops of Time twitter the Sparrows of Time; they quarrel, they do not \nsing: they make litter and confusion. \n\nThe peace-loving drive them away; the earth-bound leave them alone, unheeding. \n\nTime, the mighty Illusion, built those Housetops for man, while yet unborn, to \ndwell in; and, while Time exists, on them twitter the Sparrows of Time who quarrel \nand do not sing. \n\nEternity holds them; verily, Eternity holds them all .\u2014 The Book of Birds. \n\n\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 \nat 64, Washington Mews, New York, at 10.30 a. m., on Saturday, April 27th, \n1:935, by Mr. Hargrove, Chairman of the Executive Committee, who served \nas Temporary Chairman of the Convention. A Committee on Credentials \nwas appointed, consisting of Mr. H. B. Mitchell, Miss Perkins, and Mr. Kobb6, \nto confer and report at once. \n\nAddress of the Temporary Chairman \n\nMr. Hargrove : It is my privilege to welcome all of you, visiting members \nparticularly, to this Convention of The Theosophical Society. It would be im\u00ac \npossible to do that without deep feeling; feeling, first and foremost, of gratitude; \nthen of pleasure; because I think you will agree with me that the longer we work \ntogether, the closer becomes the bond between us\u2014a bond that is stronger than \ndeath, stronger than any earthly bond can be. From one point of view, we \nwelcome you to the firing line where desolation and death surround us, ceaseless \ndanger,\u2014and here in New York that is true in a very objective sense as well as \nin the deeper occult sense. We welcome you to Avitchi! But while it is true \nthat this is the firing line, the front line (not front-line trenches, because a^yet \nthere are no trenches; they may come later), you must have read of tho^^ho, \nduring the Great War, left the front line and returned to what had been home, \nand then, after an interval, went back to the firing line; and you know that \nmany of them went back with a sense of relief, went back rejoicing, to what \nthey had experienced as reality. \n\nThere is, however, another way of looking at it. Equally, I may welcome \nyou to this oasis in the desert of the world, to this harbour in the midst of raging \nseas. And we may thank heaven that together, on this day at least, we can \nrejoice in the midst of that oasis; grateful from the depths of our souls for the \ngift that has been given us from on high. \n\nWe shall now hear the report of the Committee on Credentials. \n\n\n39 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n40 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\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, \nwas elected Permanent Chairman of the Convention, with Miss Perkins and \nMiss Chickering as Secretary and Assistant Secretary respectively. \n\nAddress of the Chairman \n\nThe Chairman: To speak first of what is uppermost in our thought, I would \nexpress our gratitude for the welcome which meets us as we come here, and \nwhich Mr. Hargrove has put into words. It floods the heart with gladness, \nmaking us realize that here we have come home. I think we all must feel this \nof the Convention,\u2014that it is a return to the united spirit of being from which \nwe individually draw our strength and inspiration. During the year we live as \nfragments of that common, overshadowing life, painfully aware of our inability \nto express more than some single facet of its many sided symmetry; but here it is \nwhole, and, in unison with it, our fragmentary selves are supplemented, and \nsomething of its wholeness passes into us. As we went forth from it a year ago, \nso now we return to it, completing an annual cycle. What has that cycle brought \nus? What has it brought the Theosophical Movement? What deeper insight \nhave we gained? How much greater is our power to serve? How much more \nsignificant, do we find the life about us? A cycle has been completed; if there \nhas been nothing gained, then the year has been wasted. What has been the \ngain? \n\nThat question and its answer, the question which is repeated and must be \nfaced as each cycle, great or little, comes to its end, is the theme of all I shall \nput before you to-day. \n\nThere are many reasons why this theme is of special concern to us. Our \nphilosophy has taught us the determinative position of the great law of cycles \nin all growth, and has shown us that only as we adjust our activities to their \nchanging phases can we carry our Movement forward from one cycle to another. \nFrom the harvest of the closing cycle must be garnered the seed for the cycle \nthat is opening. In-breathing must follow out-breathing. Particularly to-day \nis our theme pertinent, for with this Convention our Society marks its sixtieth \nbirthday. In none of its previous incarnations was the Movement able to sur\u00ac \nvive the turn of the century. With us, a whole new quarter of a century has \npassed since then, and ten years more. We ask ourselves what those years have \nbrought us. They were sixty years of labour and of sacrifice, as we know when \nwe look at these pictures on our walls of H.P.B. and Judge, and of our prede\u00ac \ncessors who lived and died for the Movement; but also, as we know when we \nlook to what we have ourselves received,\u2014sixty years in which there have been \npoured out upon us the gifts of the spirit and the teaching of the Path, in which \nwe have been shown wisdom and beauty and holiness and truth, and have been \nguided ceaselessly toward the source from which they flow. \n\nIf time permitted, I should wish to go back over those sixty years, both in the \nhistory of the Society and in that of the world, and ask you to consider the \ncharacter of the vital changes that have taken place. As it is, I shall do no \n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n4i \n\n\nmore than note some of the crucial dates in our annals, that we may see in \ntruer perspective the advantages we have enjoyed. \n\nIn 1875 the Society was founded. In 1891, only sixteen years later, H.P.B. \ndied; and almost immediately the attacks began to which the Society was made \nvulnerable by Mrs. Besant\u2019s vanity and ambition,\u2014proving again the age-old \ntruth that where vanity is, there loyalty cannot be. As they came to a head, they \nswept Mrs. Besant and her following from the Movement, to revolve around \nit thereafter as a baleful, psychic moon. This was registered in the Boston \nConvention of 1895, in which the Society in America became free from Adyar. \nBut within a year Judge died. He was scarcely forty-five years old, and it was \nonly twenty-one years since the Society was formed. In that brief time he had \nmade himself what he was, and had laid the firm foundation upon which all we \nhave has been built. He did his utmost to live, knowing that he was needed, as \nthere had not been time in which to make ready his intended successor; but he \nwas killed at his post; and so, in 1897-8 there came Mrs. Tingley\u2019s debacle, in \nwhich the Society was all but destroyed. It was the end of the cycle, the crucial \nperiod precisely foretold by H.P.B. in her last words to the Society,\u2014the \nMessage she addressed to the Convention of the American Section held in 1891, \nthree weeks before her death. The Message was reprinted in the Quarterly \nfor July, 1934, where all may read her prayer that if the Movement were to fail, \nshe might not be here to see it. We know that though it was brought to the very \nbrink, it did not fail, but was carried over the crisis and the end of the century, \ninto a cyclic phase it had never entered before. This was ushered in, as we know, \nthrough a period of indrawal and of silence, preparatory to the new advance \nwhich was begun with the founding of the Quarterly in 1903, and the resump\u00ac \ntion of the meetings here in New York. This period of silence, marking the \ntransition from one cyclic phase to another, the in-breathing that must come \nbetween out-breathings, has very special significance for us now. \n\nTurning from the Society to the world, we see a remarkable period of tran\u00ac \nsition, and in one sense of attainment. All the marvels of our \u201cmachine age\u201d, \nof modem industrial science, have arisen in the sixty years of our Movement. \nIn 1875, electricity, save for its use in the telegraph, meant little but a ajAl\u2019s \ntoy. There were no electric dynamos nor motors, no electric light, norears, \nnor telephone. There were no automobiles, nor submarines, nor aircraft. \nAfrica was \u201cthe dark continent\u201d, untraversed, the sources of the Nile unknown. \nOur own West was undeveloped, still held by Indians and grazed by buffaloes, \n\u2014Custer\u2019s massacre was still to come. The North and South poles had not been \nreached; large tracts of the earth were blank on the map. \n\nThis is of interest to us for many reasons; for, first, the development of elec\u00ac \ntricity and the discovery of the sub-atomic forces with which modem science is \nnow dealing, took place, and were initiated, along lines indicated by Madame \nBlavatsky. Edison was an early member of The Theosophical Society; and so \nwas Crookes, whose \u201cradiant matter\u201d was the first of the phenomena that led \nstep by step to our present knowledge of radiation and radio-activity. We still \ndo not know what electricity is,\u2014as the question was meant when science \n\n\n\n\n\n\n42 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthought it could be explained as a product of physical substance. To-day the \nsituation is reversed. It is no longer sought to explain electricity in terms of \nmatter, but rather to explain matter in terms of electricity. In it we touch some\u00ac \nthing that underlies matter, exactly as H.P.B. insisted. Here science has \nreached a boundary of the physical realm. Of this we shall have more to say, \nbut we must also note that it parallels the compassing of the earth, the reaching \nof the poles, the filling up the blank spaces of the map, the vast increase of \npopulation, the ease and speed of transportation and of communication. Jules \nVerne\u2019s Round the World in Eighty Days , the fiction of a generation ago, stands \nin contrast to the eight days of present fact. The paper, yesterday, told of a \ntest performed by the American Telephone and Telegraph Co., in which two men, \nin two rooms some fifty feet apart in the same building in New York, talked to \none another over a circuit that spanned the whole globe. The voice of one went \neast, the other west. It took less than a quarter of a second to travel round \nthe world, though in doing so their voices went into to-morrow and back again \ninto to-day. And when those two men had finished their private conversation, \nthey talked to the engineers at the relay stations in Europe and Asia, who could \n\u201clisten in\u201d, so that a dozen men conversed together from all over the earth, as \nthough they were sitting in the same office. \n\nThe paper called this the \u201cannihilation of the barriers of time and space\u201d; \nbut in annihilating one set of barriers it has brought us face to face with another, \n\u2014the limits of our earth. The same paradox exists here that Mr. Hargrove \npointed out existed in our own lives; for this sweeping away of barriers has \ndone something that at first seems singular. It has made the earth too small. \nIt has not made the earth greater, but smaller, so that we have compassed it \nabout and filled it full. The old mystery that called to us is gone. The old \nspaciousness is gone. There is no more room in which to grow. \n\nMany of us will remember a lecture, given by Mr. Johnston at Conven\u00ac \ntion time years ago, in which he pointed out that with the reaching of the limits \nof our physical globe, man\u2019s life and interests must transcend the physical, or \nelse turn back upon and stultify themselves. As Mr. Johnston made that clear \nto us then, the whole course of events has made it still more obvious now. I \nthink it to be, as we shall see, the outstanding lesson of both the greater and the \nlesser cycle which we complete to-day,\u2014the answer to the question we asked \nourselves, as to what new insight they had brought us. \n\nIt is not only we who have completed a cycle; it is equally the whole thought \nof the scientific world, for physical science has pressed its explorations, as was \nnever before possible, into both the very great and the very small, and has found, \nin a way quite unexpected by it, but in precise accord with the theosophic doc\u00ac \ntrine of correspondences, that they link hands. The explorations, moving in \nopposite directions, have come together, and together tell us of the limitations \nof the physical domain. In the direction of the very large, what has heretofore \nbeen regarded as unlimited\u2014what we have spoken of as the infinitude of space \n\u2014is to-day considered limited. The theory of relativity returns to the old Greek \nidea of the sphericity of space. Instead of the ray of light going on for ever, in \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n43 \n\n\na straight line that \u201cgoes to infinity\u201d, it is now held to bend back upon itself in \na huge circle, so that, after billions of light years, it would return to the point \nfrom which it started. There is thus a limit to the region from which messages, \nor impressions, can reach our physical senses; and our space, like the surface of \nthe globe on which we live, is conceived as spherical. There is no \u201cend\u201d to the \nsurface of the earth, no edge over which the waters of the oceans pour; but, \nthough \u201cendless\u201d, it is none the less bounded. Indeed at every point of the \nsurface we are in contact with its limits. There is that which is above the sur\u00ac \nface, and that which is below it. And this same fact is true, in modem theory, \nof all things physical, and of space itself. All things of space and time are \nbounded by that which is spaceless and timeless, which presses upon each point \nand moment; and all physical things are in contact with what lies above and \nbelow the physical. \n\nAs research into the very large seems to reveal the limits of the physical \ndomain, so also does research into the very small. The atoms, which the chem\u00ac \nistry of a generation ago presented to us as indivisible and immutable, have \nbeen both divided and changed; and thereby the old alchemist\u2014so long held \nup to scorn for clinging to the principle (which alone can give any of us hope) \nthat there must be somewhere, some way, a means of transmuting the base \ninto the fine\u2014has come into better repute. It is not the atoms that are the \nultimate building blocks of physical substance. The atoms have been shat\u00ac \ntered, and within them are seen electrons, positrons, neutrons\u2014like the planets \nof a solar system, or a galaxy of stars\u2014not \u201cradiant matter\u201d, but rather a radia\u00ac \ntion of what has not yet become matter,\u2014something that is at the very bor\u00ac \nderland of physical substance, and only partly within the region of space and \ntime. There, also, science has reached the limits of the physical universe. It \nhas compassed the whole physical realm, and thereby completed a cyclic round. \n\nIt is not one of the great \u201cRounds\u201d of which The Secret Doctrine tells us, but \nit is something that corresponds to it. Within each great cycle there must be \nmany little cycles, which image, each in its own way and scale, all that the \ngreat cycle contains. Just as The Secret Doctrine points out that each of the \ngreat cyclic Rounds developed a new characteristic of matter (a new aspeqj^fc \nthe external, physical universe), and a new power of insight (or perceptive \nfaculty or sense) in man, corresponding to the new quality in matter (the quality \nand the perception of it being but different poles of one thing), so in this lesser \nround, which science and the thought of the world have made, there should be \na similar gain both in the enrichment of our environment and in our ability \nto see within it. What is the gain? Having compassed the whole physical \nrealm, with what harvest does consciousness come back? What added power \nhas it developed for itself? What new quality has it found in matter? \n\nIt is a very strange harvest, at least at first sight, and one of deep significance \nto us. The whole physical universe has been compassed, and from that com\u00ac \npassing we have discovered that it is empty. We come back with empty hands, \nwith a harvest of emptiness. \n\nWe used to speak of the solid physical world, of solid matter. It is no longer \n\n\n44 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nsolid. To the eyes of science, as Eddington says, the \u201csolid\u201d matter of this \ntable top, is like \u201ca swarm of gnats\u201d, of little specks in helter-skelter, rapid \nmotion. It is like a galaxy of solar systems\u2014a spark, a spark, another spark, \nand in between, nothing. \n\nWe used to speak of the forces of the physical world. Science no longer \nspeaks of physical forces. In the physical world there are only the effects of \nforces. The forces themselves act from beneath or above the physical plane. \nWe find them at the borderland of space and time. \n\nWe used to speak of the laws of chance, as though \u201cchance\u201d had meaning in \nand of itself and constituted some sort of agency that could cause events and \ncould have \u201claws\u201d governing its action. Most of the representatives of physical \nscience still speak in that way, but mathematical science is no longer doing so. \nThe popular ideas of chance have become, for the mathematician, merely naive \nmisconceptions of the significance of statistics and average values. The fact, if \nit be a fact, that of the population of Manhattan one-third are foreign bom, \nhas no bearing upon the nativity of any individual resident, though it would be \npopularly said that the \u201cchance\u201d is two to one that he was bom in this coun\u00ac \ntry. Not even chance inheres in the physical world. It is a concept that has \nmeaning only in relation to our own ignorance, and as applying to averages, \nnot to individuals. What is the \u201cchance\u201d, as I walk a country road, that the \nnext house I come to will be on the right rather than the left? Of course, as \nroads can be traversed in either direction, it seems fairly obvious that, \u201con the \naverage\u201d, there are as many houses on the left side of roads as there are on the \nright, and that therefore the \u201cchance\u201d is even. But as a matter of fact the next \nhouse is where it is, and it is only because I do not know where it is that I intro\u00ac \nduce the concept of chance. I do not know what factors will be dominant, nor \nwhat causes will be operative, when a race is to be run; therefore I ask what \nare the chances that a certain horse will win. All that we call chance is but a \nstatement of the limitations of our knowledge, and exists only in relation to \nour knowledge. \n\nThe whole trend of modem physics is to stress this principle of the emptiness \nof the physical world. What we habitually call the properties of matter, the \ncolour, the taste, the smell, the hardness or softness to the touch, are all things \nthat are not really in the physical world itself, but are rather in its interaction \nwith man\u2019s consciousness. At most the physical world is but a shadow-world \nof effects, as Plato represented it; a world of pointer-readings, as Eddington \ndescribes it. \n\nYet clearly it is a world capable of speaking to mankind, a world which, \nbecause empty in itself, can be filled from without itself, and can thus be made \na symbol, a vehicle, for something which lies beyond the physical,\u2014a messenger \nthat can bear messages from the Transcendent Consciousness to the conscious\u00ac \nness immanent in the soul of man. \n\nWe can liken it to the type from which a book is printed. Has the type, as \nmetal, significance in itself? You weigh it and measure it and test it with acids, \nand you find no meaning in it. Its meaning is in the use that has been made of \n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n45 \n\n\nit by some other consciousness to speak to yours. It tells you of something not \nitself: of colour and form, and fragrance and savour; of beauty and truth and \nholiness, of the properties of the transcendent consciousness in which the im\u00ac \nmanent consciousness can share; or, it may be, of things the very opposite of \nthese, of things hideous and evil. \n\nThus we come back from the cyclic round that has compassed the physical \nrealm with, as we said, a harvest of emptiness; and we are beginning to see what \nthat emptiness may mean to us. Emptiness seems, at first, a strange gain for \nso much labour; but that it was to constitute our next forward step was precisely \npredicted by H.P.B. in The Secret Doctrine. \n\nOn page 251 of Volume I, of the 1888 edition, Madame Blavatsky discusses \n\u201cthe sound but incomplete intuition\u201d which led to the unhappy phrase \u201cthe \nfourth dimension of space\u201d, as a means of accounting for many psychic and \nphysical phenomena, such as the tying of knots in an endless string, and the \nentering and leaving of a closed room, without passing through door or walls,\u2014 \na power attributed in the Bible to the resurrection body of the Christ. It is \npointed out that such a phrase can only mean the \u201cfourth dimension of matter \nin space\u201d, and that even so it is an unhappy and misleading phrase, for it is not \nreally a question of dimensionality at all, but rather of a new property of mat\u00ac \nter,\u2014or, more accurately, a property of matter which we should now come to \nrecognize and use. H.P.B. reminds us that each characteristic of matter clearly \nbears a direct relation to the corresponding sense or perceptive faculty of man, \nand that each of the great evolutionary rounds in the cyclic progress of life \ndeveloped simultaneously, and as two aspects of one thing, a \u201cproperty\u201d of \nmatter and a perceptive \u201csense\u201d of man. The next property and the next \nsense which are to be developed, she tells us, may be described as \u201cPer\u00ac \nmeability\u201d and \u201cNormal Clairvoyance\u201d, which is the perception of the spiritual \nsignificance within the material form. As consciousness and matter are but \nthe two poles of the one reality, so this characteristic of physical being, and the \nfacility of consciousness which perceives it, are gained together, and both are \ncorrelated with the \u201cemptiness\u201d of the physical to which science is now pointing. \n\nPermeability and emptiness are obviously much the same. There is clearly \nfree passage through what is empty. A moment\u2019s reflection makes equally clean \nthe relation between emptiness and significance. As Eddington has put it, tlrc \nmodern theories of physics make it much easier than before to take a spiritual \nview of life and the universe. In the earlier theories, matter was regarded as so \nsolid that men fancied there was small room within it for anything but itself, \nand consciousness and spirit seemed to have no place with it. If you want \nanything to hold anything else you must first make it hollow, and this is what \nmodem thought has done for the whole physical realm. It has made it so hollow \nthat it can hold almost anything; so empty and without significance in itself \nthat it can convey spiritual significance. We can look through it to what it \nreveals. \n\nConsider how we read a book. In learning to read we began by looking at \nthe letters, and laboriously spelling out the words. But it is only the proof- \n\n\n46 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nreader who continues to read in that way, taking conscious note of the letters \none by one. To have learned to read is to have learned not to look at the letters, \nbut to look through them to the significance of their arrangement, being con\u00ac \nscious only of the ideas that are thus conveyed. The letters themselves have \nbecome permeable to our thought; we see through them to the author\u2019s mean\u00ac \ning, unconsciously passing from the physical to the psychic plane in quite \nnormal clairvoyance. \n\nIt is the same when you listen to what is said to you. Waves of air beat upon \nyour ears. Do you pay heed to them? The scientist could measure them: so \nmany alternations per second between condensation and rarefaction of such \nand such intensities, which to your ears is sound. But that is not the way in \nwhich you listen to a friend\u2019s talk. You listen to his thought, which is not a \nphysical thing, but which the physical sound opens to your consciousness. \n\nSo it should be with all physical things. We must learn to look through them \nto what lies beyond them. Thus the emptiness we discover in the physical \nworld may, and must, be made a new doorway into the spiritual world. \n\nThe analogy of speech, which we have here used, is as old as man\u2019s thought \nupon creation. \u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, \nand the Word was God. ... All things were made by him, and without him \nwas not any thing made that was made.\u201d In it we can trace the twin develop\u00ac \nment of spirit and matter, noumena and phenomena, of significance and of the \nform or symbol which embodies and conveys it. As spirit is for ever moulding \nand quickening matter to make of it a fitting vehicle for its incarnation, so \nthought moulds and quickens speech and manifests itself and incarnates in \nspeech. But the moulding takes place while the thought is still hidden. It is \nonly in the completion of the process that its significance is fully revealed. \nThe verb is at the end, as in Latin construction. The thought builds up the \nsentence, word by word, but its active, incarnating principle is only reached as \nits final culmination. This is true in all of life. The end is present in the be\u00ac \nginning, is foreshadowed and active and formative throughout, but is incarnated \nand revealed only as the vehicle is complete. Thus the next step which lies \nahead of us in the spiritual evolution of mankind must already be foreshadowed \nin what is taking place in physical evolution. In this sense the scientific per\u00ac \nception precedes the spiritual attainment,\u2014as we begin to hear a sentence \nbefore its significance appears, though it is this significance that forms the \nsentence from its beginning. So science is to-day perceiving the emptiness of \nthe physical world before the \u201cnormal clairvoyance\u201d, which is to use it, has \nbeen gained by mankind at large. \n\nIt will be well to pause for a moment to consider how grave are the risks that \nare inherent in this method of creative evolution. There is always the possi\u00ac \nbility that the form, created in the physical world to be the vehicle of a spiritual \nlife and truth, may be filled by an incarnation from below and not from above. \nThe world of form and manifestation, the physical universe, stands, as we well \nknow, between two infinitudes, between the spirit that is above and the depth \nthat is beneath. Every good gift that the world has received, every truth which \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n47 \n\n\nH.P.B. and Judge laboured and sacrificed themselves to teach us, has been \nperverted and made an instrument for evil in the world at large. The unity, \nwhich in itself every truth is, has been split apart into two opposites, and each of \nthese opposites has been misrepresented and misused to the promotion of evil \ninstead of good. Thus our teaching of Brotherhood was made a vehicle for \nenvy and the desire of the base to pull down to their own level everything su\u00ac \nperior to themselves. In its name were perpetrated the hideous malice and \nmurders of the Russian revolution, as of the French revolution before it, and in \nits name Bolshevism and Socialism to-day preach the gospel of class hatred. \n\nIn like manner physiological and medical science have been perverted to Black \nMagic, to nameless cruelties upon lower forms of life, and to the grossest ma\u00ac \nterialism in their treatment of human life. As we think of these things, we marvel \nat the courage of the Great Lodge, who have permitted truth to be given forth \nwhen they must have known the way in which it would be turned against them and \nagainst all for which they work. If we ask why it should be permitted, we can \nfind but one answer. It must be that if a single soul use the truth rightly, for \nself-conquest and the attainment of illumination, as the Buddha, the Christ, \nthe great seers and saints and sages of mankind have used it and attained,\u2014 \nthat this one victory might wipe out and more than atone for all the defeats, \nso great is the value of a single victorious soul. \n\nSurely the possibility of such a victory exists to-day as in the past. It is the \npossibility for which The Theosophical Society was founded, and to preserve \nwhich our predecessors gave their lives. Let us not forget our responsibility to \nthose who have gone before us; for we make the past even as we make the future. \nPast and future are one, and the work of Judge, of H.P.B., of the Great Lodge \nof Masters in this century and the last, is now in our hands, to be proved by us \na failure or success. Day by day we help to make or mar it, and we shall do \nthis by the way in which we use all the circumstances and movements of our \ntime, including our use of this growing perception of the emptiness of physical \nbeing, which modem science is bringing to the confirmation of theosophic teach\u00ac \ning. To use it rightly will be to take the next step indicated in The Secret Doc\u00ac \ntrine: to make all material and physical things permeable to us: to develop the \npower to perceive the spirit within the form,\u2014the power of \u201cnormal clair\u00ac \nvoyance\u201d. \n\nLet us consider what this should mean in our individual lives. First of aJ^ \nthat we should cease to think of circumstances as barriers,\u2014cease to hypnot|# \nourselves into inactivity before imaginary walls of outer conditions. The walls \nare taken away; they existed only in our thought, for outer things are empty \nthings. They are but a vesture, a cloak for reality. They are an open corridor, \nthrough which you may pass freely. Your circumstances are your way. You \nlook through them, as through an open door, to the divine will for you. You \naccept and pass through them as you would travel a path that led where you \nwould go. For that is what your circumstances are for: to lead you where you \nwould go. Or, changing the simile, they are the empty vessel that your life is \nto fill with significance,\u2014or the plastic stuff that you are to mould into the \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n48 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nlikeness of your own vision of the True, the Beautiful and the Good. Learn to \nlook within the outer to the inner, to see the spirit within the form, and you see \nat once that, whatever the outer form may be, it is always a way whereby to \ncome to the inner spirit. \n\nThat is what we must strive to do. It must involve an indrawal, a pressing \nin from outer things to what will seem at first emptiness, a \u201ccloud of unknow\u00ac \ning\u201d, until we develop the new sense that enables us to perceive the spirit that \nfills it. Then we shall see that it was just such an \u201cindrawal\u201d as has brought us \ntogether at this Convention, a laying down of outer concerns that we may re\u00ac \nturn to the source and centre, an in-breathing instead of an out-breathing, \ninspiration instead of expression. This will involve the putting aside of much \nthat has heretofore occupied us, the surrender of much we may have thought \nof value. \n\nWe must not only learn to make our circumstances permeable\u2014realizing that \nthey \u201creally do not matter, since in any we can accomplish our destiny\u201d; we have \nto make ourselves permeable as well. The separate personal self with which \nyou are now so occupied, is taking up room to which it is not entitled. You are \ntreating it as a solid reality, whereas in fact it is as hollow as is the physical \nuniverse, and, like it, a shadow world of symbols whose only meaning is given \nthem from beyond themselves, whose only value is in what it can transmit. \nYou have to make it in your thought what it is in reality. You must perceive \nand make yourself empty, that you may be filled from above, instead of, as now, \nwith your own vain imaginings. You must get yourself out of the way, and \nhereafter live with the single thought of making yourself permeable to a life \ngreater than your own,\u2014a clear channel through which divine inspiration and \nlife can flow to meet the needs of the world. \n\nLooking forward, as it is our duty to do to-day, to what lies before us, I can \nsee nothing that seems of greater moment than that we should realize the mean\u00ac \ning and necessity of the indrawal to which the cycle is pressing us. We have to \ndispense with the crutches of outer aid on which we have leaned, and learn to \nlook within instead of without. We have to enter into emptiness and silence, \nuntil we learn to hear the Voice of the silence and to open ourselves to the new \nlife that flows from above. We are drawing near to the moment of opportunity \nand of crisis, when the old personal life must be laid aside and the life of ch\u00a3laship \nbe begun. \n\nOur theme is too large, and has too many facets, for it to be possible to do \nmore than suggest a few of the many ways in which it is of practical concern to \nus. It is illustrated on every side,\u2014in the economic conditions of the world no \nless than in its scientific thought. What lies behind our \u201cdepression\u201d if not this \nsame lesson? Our civilization has plundered the physical world, drawing deeply \nfrom its sources of energy and of wealth, only to discover that in their very \nabundance they fail us. We have driven wells and drawn forth millions upon \nmillions of barrels of oil that in the lesser streams of some decades ago meant \nriches and power, but in their present volume are all but valueless. For the \nvalue of oil is not in itself but only in its relation to something other than itself, \n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n49 \n\n\nto some need of man or nature. And this is true of all things physical, for only \nthe divine has value in and of itself,\u2014only the True, the Good and the Beau\u00ac \ntiful. All else, in and of itself, is empty. So by his very materialism and his \ngreed, by his over-running and plundering of physical being, man has come to \nthe experience of its inability to satisfy him,\u2014to the proof that he cannot live \nby bread alone, that in the midst of physical plenty his whole nature, even his \nphysical nature, can starve,\u2014that, holding the whole world, his hands are \nempty. He is experiencing this, but he does not understand it; and the empty \nsilence which presses upon him drives him mad with fear. The world to-day is \nmad, not because it has entered the silence, but because it fears to. Yet there \nlies its next step, and if it will not take it, our civilization must fail and die, as \nhave those that preceded it. We find it all set forth in Light on the Path , as it \nis set forth also that it is left for the individual to do what the world as a whole \nwill not do,\u2014to accomplish in himself the needed transformation. \n\nSo we come to our opportunity: to the indrawal to which the cycle leads us, \nto the silence through which we must pass to a new inspiration and a new order \nof life. It is not the first time that the Society has passed through such a period. \nMany of us remember the years from 1898 to 1903, and that the Movement \ncame forth from those years, purer and stronger and with clearer light for the \nMasters\u2019 work. So, if we do our part, it should be with us in the years ahead. \n\u201cWhen the half-gods go, the gods arrive.\u201d When the old life is put away, the \nnew comes to birth; and perhaps, if we could see the truth, we should see that \nnot since the inception of the Christian era has our western world confronted \ngreater possibilities for good or ill than we face here to-day. \n\nThe report of the Secretary T. S. was then called for. \n\nReport of the Secretary T. S. \n\nI have the honour to submit the following Report: \n\nIn the progress of our work, as it becomes more interior in aim and accomplish\u00ac \nment, there is less of significance to be recorded in annual reports. Service of \nthe Movement cannot be measured by, \u201chow many?\u201d, \u201cwhere?\u201d, \u201chow often?\u201d, \n\u201chow much?\u201d. It is rather in the Convention addresses and the Letters of \nGreeting that we shall find the year\u2019s record. A \n\nBranch Activities \n\nThe reports from our Branches show a common spirit and purpose which \nbring to mind the maxim of St. Paul: \u201cWhatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to \nthe Lord, and not unto men\u201d. Special consideration was given by most of the \nBranches to the questions and answers about a Lodge Messenger that appeared \nin the Quarterly. Branches have used in their own gatherings the Reports \nof addresses made at New York Branch meetings; they hold special Convention \nDay meetings, with the purpose of both giving and receiving. The Arvika \nBranch drew material largely from Quarterly articles and New York Reports, \ntranslating these for its weekly meetings. It was reinforced by conferences \nwith visiting members, one of whom^ave a first-hand account of the 1934 \n\n\n50 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nConvention. TheAussig Branch also was greatly helped by a personal report on \nthe message of Convention and its particular application to the Branch problems. \nThe Branch Secretary writes: \u201cThrough the articles and reports we have studied, \ncame many suggestions for practical endeavour to which we honestly tried to \nrespond. At the meetings nearest to the anniversary days of our leaders, Madame \nBlavatsky and Mr. Judge, we sought to become aware of what we owe to these \ngreat souls, as to Mr. Griscom, Mr. Johnston and others also.\u201d In Oslo, the \nmembers are working to fit themselves to do effective service, when the tide in \ntheir country no longer sets so strongly toward psychic allurements. The an\u00ac \nniversaries of nine T. S. leaders were commemorated with the thought of them \n\u201cas still living and working for the Cause they loved so much\u201d. The Lodge \nMessenger is a subject which they believe all members will have close at heart \nduring the Convention. The Branches in the north of England have maintained \ntheir occasional joint-meetings, which give stimulus and a feeling of solidarity. \nMr. Mackey, the Secretary of the Branch in South Shields, reports that they \nwere particularly interested in the \u201cScreen\u2019s\u201d discussion of the false standards \nthat are prevalent in modem Christianity; and that the New York Reports \nhave assisted very much in clarifying their vision and understanding. The \nGateshead Branch goes steadily on with its studies, assisted by members of \nneighbouring Branches. The Secretary of the Newcastle Branch, Mrs. Cassidy, \nwrites that they have been strengthened in determination to carry on the Work \nin gratitude for the life and message of H.P.B. Since three of their number are \nto have the happiness of attending the Convention, they all expect to share in \nthe inspiration of it. The Whitley Bay Branch has been emphasizing, in its \nstudies, the value of discussion, in which all participate actively. Mrs. Ross, the \nSecretary, says: \u201cWe are progressing, and things that were obscure are now \nclear\u201d. The Norfolk Branch is compelled by its scattered membership to hold \nmeetings by correspondence. Clearly, its members do meet, in a very real sense, \nfor Mrs. Graves, the Secretary, writes: \u201cEach year shows definite progress in \nthe comments on our studies that are written for circulation;\u2014also there is a \nunited spirit which is greatly helped by the Reports of the New York Branch \nmeetings,\u2014they serve as a real bond between our isolated group of students \nand our fellow members at the Headquarters\u201d. \n\nThe Cincinnati Branch has continued its study of The Voice of the Silence , \nwith emphasis upon the difference between psychic and spiritual interpreta\u00ac \ntion,\u2014and has found aid in solving individual and collective problems. Miss \nHohnstedt, the new Branch Secretary, writes: \u201cMiss Agnes McCormack, our \nbeloved and faithful Secretary, died recently. During the thirty or more years \nof her membership, she never missed a meeting except when ill or absent from \nthe city. We know that she always lived up to the standard of her theosophic \nideals, and have no doubt that she will continue to do so\u201d. The Middletown \nBranch, undismayed by the illness of its oldest members, has maintained its \nmeetings and its studies. The President, Mr. Roberts, writes: \u201cWhat we most \ndesire is to develop brotherhood in our Branch; we are trying to make that a \npart of our lives, and also to arouse, in others, consciousness of the Soul\u201d. Hope \n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n5i \n\n\nBranch of Providence has successfully carried on its accustomed activities. Its \nmembers have been specially impressed with the need to gain wisdom in order \nto be dependable workers. Miss Wallace, the Secretary of the Virya Branch, \nDenver, writes: \u201cThis year the interest has been less intellectual, centering \nmore on conduct. The Quarterly provides much material, and the letters \nfrom other Branches, published in the Convention number, were inspiring and \noften deeply moving expressions of a close relation to the theosophic body.\u201d \nThe Branch in Los Angeles began its session with discussion of the near-coming \nof a Lodge Messenger and a forerunner. \u201cIn the end\u201d, Mr. Box reports, \u201cwe all \nfelt and understood the need for their coming, nor have we ceased to think \nabout them. In our reading and discussion of the New York Branch Reports, \nwe found that they were not only intellectually illuminating, but that they drew \nus inwardly nearer to the heart of the Movement\u201d. Of the Toronto Branch, Mr. \nHarris writes: \u201cOur meetings have been interesting and useful; quite often we \nhave visitors. At the earnest request of members, we have been studying \nLight on the Path\u201d. Members of the Venezuela Branch have worked unremit\u00ac \ntingly, to embody, both personally and as a Branch, the impetus which so many \nof their members derived from the last Convention. \n\nBook Department \n\nThe sale of our books has, of course, been decreased in volume by the wide\u00ac \nspread financial collapse, but there is a satisfactory, steady demand for them. \nOur publications are not intended to cover the whole range of theosophic teach\u00ac \ning; their purpose is, rather, to make clear certain basic interpretations of The\u00ac \nosophy,\u2014and to show that the principles and standards of Theosophy offer the \nonly adequate solution of the problems now confronting a bewildered and \nleaderless world. \n\nTheosophical Quarterly \n\nAs one looks at the thirty-two volumes of this magazine, which fulfil the pur\u00ac \npose of its founder and editor, Mr. Clement A. Griscom, that most faithful \nfollower of W. Q. Judge, one is reminded of the old-time explorers, whose first \nact on landing in new territory, was to plant there the banner of their Kig# \nOutwardly that banner was a perishable affair, and so are the pages of trus \nperiodical,\u2014but they have served to plant in the world, teaching which, once \nso clearly put forth, surely could not vanish with the crumbling of the paper on \nwhich it was recorded. The magazine has articles that may carry some of us into \nrarified atmosphere where our best endeavour results in little or no perception, \nbut there is stimulation and promise for the future in the vistas thus opened. \nMany readers rejoice in the magazine\u2019s militant spirit. One of them writes: \u201cIn \nthese days when so many things seem to be toppling about our heads, when \nvalues seem so distorted,\u2014to find such expressions of truth so clearly and \nfearlessly stated, gives one a feeling of sorely needed security, and I never fail \nto get help and courage from them\u201d. The appearance of the magazine in \nrepresentative libraries, the world over, is assured by interested friends. \n\n\n52 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nSecretary's Office \n\nIn some quarters there is a mistaken impression that the Secretary is too \nbusy\u201d to receive letters. On the contrary, correspondence is welcomed. The \nAssistant Secretary stands ready to assist in it as she does in many other ways. \nBranches and members have asked that their heartfelt gratitude be expressed \nto the Editors of the Quarterly and its contributors; also to those who speak \nat the New York meetings and to those who prepare the Reports. All are \nindebted to a member who has assumed the routine work of the Book Depart\u00ac \nment; and the distribution of the Quarterly is another happy activity. Two \nof our youngest members address the envelopes for it, and also do the lettering \nfor our membership diplomas. Copies of the magazine printed on \u201call-rag\u201d \npaper are being preserved in public libraries, and for these we are indebted to the \nmember who originated this provision for permanency. Another member has \nagain generously reimbursed the Society for the sum deflected from its Treasury \nwhen the Executive Committee directed European Branches to contribute to \nsome Allied War Relief organization the amount of their annual dues. One \ndoes not know where to begin acknowledgment of what the Society owes to our \nolder members,\u2014to those so closely associated with Mr. Judge during his life\u00ac \ntime. It is they who unfailingly note and interpret the significance of what \noccurs in the ordinary progress of the work at Headquarters and in the Branches; \nthey support every whole-hearted effort to serve; they provide against mis\u00ac \nunderstanding before it develops, and are alert to see how all of us can be put \nat our best. Thus we of the rank and file, apprenticed to these trained work\u00ac \nmen, can be used as links in the chain of the Hierarchy. What greater privilege \ncould there be! No expression can be adequate, but I am sure that the entire \nmembership of the Society would like me to say that we are increasingly grate\u00ac \nful, and more than ever determined to justify their labours on our behalf. \n\nRespectfully submitted, \n\nIsabel E. Perkins, \n\nSecretary , The Theosophical Society. \n\nThis report having been accepted with the unanimous thanks of the Conven\u00ac \ntion to the Secretary and to the Secretary\u2019s helpers, the Chairman announced \nthe following three committees which he had earlier been authorized by the \nConvention to appoint: \n\nCommittee on Resolutions: Mr. Hargrove, Dr. Torrey, Mr. Gonzdlez-Jimenez. \n\nCommittee on Letters of Greeting: Mr. Kobbd, Mr. Carias, Mr. Saxe. \n\nCommittee on Nominations: Mr. Miller, Dr. Hohnstedt, Mr. E. Howard \nLincoln. \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 , At this time the Chair\u00ac \nman of the Executive Committee ought to report to you the various difficulties \nwhich the Committee has overcome in the course of the year in the manage- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n53 \n\n\nment of the Society\u2019s affairs. Fortunately there have been no difficulties: you \nhave not created any. The life of the Society has been serene and successful. \nTherefore, I have been deprived of all subject matter when it comes to events \nwithin the Society itself. \n\nHowever, the Executive Committee has of course experienced outwardly \nvery much what you have experienced during the past year, and I shall now \nattempt to report some of our reactions to those outer events, because the \nSociety does not exist simply unto itself. Its function is that of leaven, attempt\u00ac \ning to leaven a very large lump, and it is a matter of vital moment to the leaven \nto know and to understand as clearly as possible what is going on in that very \nlarge lump. \n\nFirst of all, let me attempt to deal with the surface of things. There is an \ninternational situation; then each member, depending upon where he lives, \nobserves a local situation. As to the international situation, it must be evident \nto all of us that the world confronts the possibility, if not the probability, of \nanother great war, probably worse than the last. The fact of the matter is, as \nwe see it, that there is one country which is literally threatening war. That is \nGermany. There is another country in the world (namely Russia) which might \nat any time combine with Germany if it suited the policy of both to do so. Both \ncountries would deny that possibility at the present time, but both of them \nbeing untrustworthy and bad, it is possible that they might unite,\u2014because, \nafter all, like attracts like. The immediate danger of war undoubtedly comes \nfrom Germany. \n\nFrom England I have received a newspaper cutting containing information \nwhich has not been published in the American press. (While there is no official \ncensorship in this country, nothing is given publicity which might arouse \u201cfeel\u00ac \ning\u201d and tend to upset the pacifist campaign that is being carried on vociferously \nthroughout the United States,\u2014this silence being the negative aspect of much \nGerman propaganda.) My cutting is from the London \u201cTimes\u201d, and contains \na despatch from Reuter\u2019s correspondent in Munich. It refers to Ludendorff. \nWe know that Ludendorff is a party all to himself. He is not Nazi. He is not \nanything but Ludendorff. At the same time, the Hitler party borrowed from \nLudendorff a good deal of their ammunition, particularly their anti-Jewj^ \nammunition. Ludendorff also represents a great deal of the spirit of war-time \nGermany. In this interview, which is unquestionably authentic, Ludendorff \nsaid, \u201clam not merely an opponent of Christianity, but literally an anti-Christian \nand heathen and am proud of it.\u201d \u201cChristian teaching is there for only one pur\u00ac \npose, to keep the Jewish people in domination.\u201d That is to say, the Christian \nchurches\u2014the Roman Catholic, the Greek Oriental, the Protestant churches \nof all denominations\u2014exist for the sole purpose of keeping Jews in domination! \nI call this to your attention for the reason that it is a clear demonstration of \nlunacy. The trouble with Germany is that there is so very large an element of \nsheer lunacy in her mental content,\u2014a total inability to recognize any facts \nwhich do not fit into her egotistical picture of herself and her destiny. That is \none of the reasons why they are so dangerous. Unfortunately, another charac- \n\n\n54 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nteristic of the German people is that they are very easily overstimulated, to a \npoint at which they go clean off their heads. That happened during the Great \nWar. It is manifest to-day. They are defying the whole world. From one \npoint of view, you cannot blame them, because so much of the world seems \nto consist of the feeble-minded\u2014not insane as Germany is insane; not drunk \nwith their own emotions, drunk with self-esteem\u2014but idiotic because of their \ntimidity and hesitancy and lack of clear resolve to face the facts and deal with \nthem. \n\nThe fact, then, is that Germany is threatening war. Speaking for myself only, \nI am more and more inclined to believe that there is no solution except in war. \nI may of course be quite mistaken; but considering Germany\u2019s attitude, con\u00ac \nsidering the present condition of the German people, as led by Hitler, seeing no \nlikelihood whatsoever that the feeling or attitude of that people can be changed, \nexcept as the result of a crushing defeat, keeping in mind the deplorable error \nof the Armistice and of the failure of the Allies then to complete their victory,\u2014 \nwhat other solution is there except war ? England does not want war, and France \ndoes not want war. This country not only does not want war but is announcing \nto the four quarters of space that there is nothing that will induce her to go to \nwar with anybody, at any time, or in any circumstances,\u2014which, incidentally, \nis childish, because all that anybody has to do is to step on this country\u2019s toes, \nand all the emotion that is flowing into peace talk would flow, over night, in the \nopposite direction. America is one of the most \u201ctouchy\u201d and quarrelsome of \nnations. \n\nWar, then, is the likelihood, as I see it. It might conceivably come this year. \nIt might come in 1936. There is no knowing when. But we ought to prepare \nourselves for it. We ought to face the probability. (I think it is a probability, \nand is more than a possibility.) We ought to do what we can as individuals \nand as a Society to remind the people of this country\u2014and those who are Eng\u00ac \nlish to remind people in England\u2014that there are worse things than war, \nand one of those things is a dishonourable, a disgraceful peace. \n\nWe live in a materialistic age. Why is it that nearly half the ministers in \nthis country are urging peace at any price? The explanation is that such men \nare rank materialists, merely calling themselves Christians. The terrors of life \nfor them are death and poverty. Comfort is their God. They would not admit \nit; but what are they working for? I will not say for themselves. That would \nnot be fair. But granting that they are unselfishly working for others, what is \ntheir objective when they work for others? Their objective is to provide others \nwith more comforts in their homes; to \u201cequalize\u201d wealth; to compel more \nhours for recreation; above all, to reduce the death rate,\u2014to postpone death as \nlong as possible so that we may live in this\u2014\u201cvale of tears\u201d it used to be called, \nbut they are going to change all that and make it a vale of delight. \n\nUnder the head of recreation, this city alone is going to spend three million \ndollars during the current year in providing dancing lessons and similar \u201ccul\u00ac \ntural\u201d entertainment for the unemployed. All of which is proof (among how \nmany other proofs!) that the trouble with the churches to-day is that they have \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n55 \n\n\nbecome contaminated by the spirit of the world. They have become thoroughly \nmaterialistic in their outlook on life. It is for us as members of The Theosophical \nSociety to do everything we possibly can, first of all to keep ourselves uncon\u00ac \ntaminated,\u2014clinging in spite of everything to the truth as it has been revealed \nto us; holding fast to spiritual values; forming among ourselves a group, no \nmatter how small, of those who stand for the same principles for which Christ \nstands. Whether we call ourselves Christians or not, to-day it is the best of \nThe Theosophical Society rather than the churches which represent him in this \nworld, and he knows it. Therefore, for God\u2019s sake let us be true to our trust, \ntrue to our mission\u2014because we have a mission, and that is to stand for what \nhe stands for and to protest with everything in us against the blasphemies per\u00ac \npetrated in his name. It is a chance to make some return for what we have \nreceived. He and the Lodge are one. \n\nAnother way in which we should be able to contribute to the understanding \nof the world around us, is by suggesting the explanation of what is going on, the \nsignificance of what we see day by day, as reported in the newspapers and as we \nobserve it in our environment. As students of Theosophy, what clues have we \nto the meaning of it ? In the first place, understanding is based upon recognition \nof the age-long conflict between good and evil,\u2014as we should say, between the \nWhite Lodge and the Black Lodge: conflict everywhere between good and evil, \nas it must always be until good finally triumphs. While, however, we know that \ngood is certain to triumph in the end, we realize also that the duration of that \nconflict depends upon us, depends upon human response. For in our own \nnatures as well (and our own natures are the key to everything) there is this \nconflict between the higher and the lower, between good and evil, and woe \nbetide us if we are neutral or attempt to be neutral. The White Lodge cannot \nand will not interfere with the free will of mankind, either individually or col\u00ac \nlectively. Mankind, to make progress, must make right choices, and there must \nbe freedom of choice. So long as man temporizes and will not choose, all he does \nis to prolong the agony and to make the fight fiercer when at last he is kicked into \nit\u2014kicked into it not by Masters, but by life itself. But the time and the \ncounting of days is not in the hands of the gods; it is in our hands, and in the \nhands of our neighbours. \n\nThen, the world desperately needs a right basis for the interpretation of his\u00ac \ntory, such as Theosophy alone can supply. As Professor Mitchell pointed \nthe present and the past are one, and to understand the meaning of events to-day, \nyou have to go back to yesterday and to a thousand years ago\u2014as far back as \nyou can go\u2014and try to get some clue to the meaning of things. There are in\u00ac \nnumerable interpretations of history. Take a book such as that by Professor \nFlint, The Philosophy of History. He reviews the various schools of interpre\u00ac \ntation\u2014the many German schools and French schools among others. Perhaps \nonly one of them approximates in certain directions the interpretation which \nTheosophy gives,\u2014that of Renouvier, the Frenchman, who wrote between \ni860 and 1890. He called attention to the characteristic errors of men like \nKant and Darwin and Lubbock, who theorized to the effect that primitive man \n\n\n\n56 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nwas similar to the savage races of to-day. Renouvier pointed out that there \nwas no evidence whatever to that effect, but, on the contrary, much to prove \nthe reverse. Renouvier pointed out that instead of there being evidence that \nman had ascended from savagery to virtue, he had, on the contrary, descended \nfrom innocence to vice, starting not with savagery but with innocence (in line \nwith the teaching of Madame Blavatsky). Discussing the various explanations \nof the history of the human race\u2014the economic interpretation of history, the \ntheory that all progress is the result of economic growth, the theory that it is \ndue to mechanical necessity, to climatic changes and so forth, Renouvier ex\u00ac \nhaustively analyses these theories, gives overwhelming proof that none of them \ncan be true in the light of facts, and concludes by declaring (with much evidence \nin support of his thesis) that the underlying cause\u2014not the only cause, for he \ngives full recognition to material and other factors\u2014but the underlying cause, \nis ethical: that if you want to understand history, you must see it in the light \nof moral purpose,\u2014which, of course, is what Theosophy would say. But The\u00ac \nosophy would go further than that, because, while it would see moral purpose \nback of it all, it would also see the guidance of the Lodge in encouraging every \nmovement in human life that made for the moral, spiritual benefit of the human \nrace. \n\nFurther, Theosophy would see that the life of a nation corresponds to the life \nof an individual,\u2014a most important principle. Nations are far behind indi\u00ac \nviduals in terms of growth and of development. At the same time, do not let \nus labour under illusions in regard to individuals, because there are not nearly \nas many human beings in the world as some people suppose. The vast majority \nare elementals in human form. A great many years ago, when H.P.B. was in \nLondon during the last years of her life, she was in the habit of taking drives \nin Hyde Park \u201cfor the good of her health\u201d. At last she gave it up. She said \nshe could not endure it,\u2014she saw too many soulless people. Only a few days \nago, a very old student of Theosophy drove in and out of this city and lamented \naloud. The streets were packed with people, and with automobiles of every \nkind, and the automobiles were packed with people. And this very old member \nof the Society said, Yes, packed with what?\u2014with wolves and foxes, and mul\u00ac \ntitudes of pigs, and with rats and with iguanas; above all with insects,\u2014insects \neverywhere. Do not, therefore, let us labour under too many illusions, either \nin regard to mankind as it now exists, or in regard to nations. In the beginning, \nthere is what we will call a potential soul, and the first purpose of the soul is to \nhelp in the development of a lower personality; to change, as it were, a congeries \nof elementals into a personality\u2014that is to say, a person, who stands for some\u00ac \nthing. I am speaking of a lower personality, but you have to begin with that \nbefore you can even think of the development of what we will call the enduring \npersonality. That comes much later. \n\nNow translate this into terms of national life. Going back over the history \nof the world, you will see that the effort of Masters in one instance after another \nhas been to help develop a national personality. For instance, France, prior to \nthe time of Jeanne d\u2019Arc, was not yet a nation. Sections, waging war this way \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n57 \n\n\nand that: they had not been unified. France had not as yet become a person\u00ac \nality, either good or bad. Even to-day, it takes a war really to unify her, though \nFrance now is France. Anyone can see in the history of England that it took \ncenturies for that nation to become a personality,\u2014the living \u201cmask\u201d of a soul \n(persona meaning a mask). The Lodge cannot do much with a mere congeries \nof elementals, typifying nothing, standing for nothing except for confusion. \n\nThis country is not yet a personality. It is still very young. It came much \nnearer to being a personality fifty years ago than it is to-day. Fifty years ago, \nthe United States of America stood for something. Some years later, it stood \nat least for wealth. Now even that has disappeared. What does it stand for \nto-day in the eyes of the rest of the world ? Just a mess! And we who live in \nthe midst of the mess know that it is a mess, with Father Something shouting \nover the radio and Senator Somebody shouting in the Senate\u2014everybody \nshouting, but everybody shouting for something different. Just a mess! We \nhope and pray that something will emerge out of the mess, but I do not see \nwhat is going to cause that unless it be steady doses of war. During the Great \nWar this country was united, just for a few months. After there is enough of \nthat, repeated over and over again, it may develop a personality. \n\nIf we will use that clue to an interpretation of history, we shall understand \nbetter the development of a republic here or a monarchy there, or an empire \nsomewhere else. What is desirable is a form of government that will best meet \nthe needs, and best express and focus the personality, of any given nation,\u2014 \nor that will best help to turn a congeries of elementals into a nation. It would \nbe a calamity if England ceased to be a monarchy. A republican form of gov\u00ac \nernment is utterly foreign to the genius of France; her Revolution was a sin and \na blunder. Russia exchanged a benevolent despotism for a diabolical tyranny, \nand may need to be ground into powder before anything good can again come \nout of her,\u2014in which case she will do her own grinding, because to-day there is \nno nation, except Germany, sufficiently barbarous to do that sort of grinding \nproperly, and for Germany to do it would make trouble for the rest of the world. \nTo think of Russia as a republic, or as a democracy, or as a limited monarchy, \nwould be laughable,\u2014though that is exactly what Russian \u201cliberals\u201d and their \nEnglish and French friends were doing in 1915-16. So far as this country is con\u00ac \ncerned, it makes no difference whether we call our present rulers despots (thop \nare thousands of them), or the free representatives of the great electorate m \nthe pursuit of its happiness. The facts remain the same, and the Lodge sees \nfacts, not labels. \n\nAllow me to repeat: if we would understand the present and get some glimpse \nof the future, we must understand the past, and must there see the gradual \ndevelopment of national personalities. When a nation has developed a per\u00ac \nsonality, there comes the struggle between good and evil\u2014just as in the case \nof an individual\u2014the intelligence of a nation struggling against its blind pas\u00ac \nsions; the greed of a nation, trying to push out its soul and its moral purpose; at \none time, the upper classes (the king and the aristocracy) representing the best; \nat another time, alas not, but failing in their duty, thinking only of themselves, \n\n\n58 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nso that the lower classes are more than justified in struggling against the evil \nthey see embodied in those above them who ought to represent the best. Hence \nit is that the Lodge stands at different times and in different circumstances for \ndifferent forms of government, but in all times and in all periods, strives first \nfor the formation and then for the perfecting of nations as personalities. \n\nHistory is, indeed, not only a fascinating but a most instructive and helpful \nstudy, that is, if we use the key Theosophy offers us, if we interpret national \nlife in terms of the seven principles of man, if we have so learned to understand \nourselves that we know something at least both of good and of evil; for in that \ncase we shall be able to use our knowledge in the reading of life as it flows through \ntime into the present. We must remember, however, that the Lodge prepares \nfor hundreds of years ahead. The moves it is making to-day are for the future. \nI am not a chess player, but I have always understood that a first-class chess \nplayer makes moves in the same way. He plans far ahead. That which he \ndoes now is intended to bear fruit a dozen moves ahead or more. The same \nthing is true, of course, of an expert in business. He does not live from hand to \nmouth, or from day to day. He plans five or ten years ahead. That is one of \nthe differences between a big and a little man. It was said of Kitchener that \nhe was working for a hundred years ahead. In the same way, \u201cmoves\u201d made \nby the Lodge a thousand years ago or more, which may seem historically to \nhave been conclusive at the time, in many cases have not come to fruition even \nnow. This applies to the migration of races as to all else. \n\nTheosophy, then, gives us this manifold opportunity: a chance to understand \nourselves and thus to see beneath the surface of events and persons; a chance \nto understand history, and thus to interpret more intelligently both the present \nand the signs pointing to the future. We are also given the extraordinary \nprivilege of defending, in the light of Theosophy, the character and reputation \nof a Master such as the Master Christ, in face of the terrible misrepresentations \nof his own supposed representatives. What do we not owe to Theosophy? \n\nThe trouble with most of us is that while we say and really mean that we are \ngrateful, we do not in fact even begin to be grateful. Here is this most precious \njewel with which we have been entrusted, this splendour of wisdom, of light \nfrom above. Once in a while it dawns on us, perhaps at these Conventions, how \ngreat our privilege is, how unworthily we have used it; and in a sense we repent \nand resolve anew to strive harder than ever, not only to live the life but to read \nlife intelligently. Every Convention gives us this opportunity for a new start, \nfor a new appreciation, for a new delight in the gift we have received,\u2014poured \nout upon us with inconceivable generosity. When I ask myself what a successful \nConvention would be, my reply is: one from which all present returned to their \nhomes with joy in their hearts, because of the treasure they are carrying with \nthem; but also with a deep resolve never again to waste their time playing with \nthe surface of life, clinging with one hand to so-called sociabilities, squandering \ntheir remaining years on trivialities, on feelings that are as evanescent as gnats \nand which are contemptible if looked at truly. \n\nYes, a new life,\u2014not only a new vision of heaven but, as Professor Mitchell \n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n59 \n\n\nsuggested, a new life in this sense: a clearer recognition than we have ever had \nbefore of the utter emptiness of what most people call life, of what nearly every\u00ac \nbody calls pleasure; the utter emptiness of that and of the things which we call \nobstacles. Without any exception, whether those obstacles be inner or outer, \nthey are of all empty things the emptiest. It is in our power to walk right \nthrough them. That was the lesson of the story in Pilgrim's Progress \u2014of those \nroaring lions that filled Pilgrim with terror\u2014for as soon as he screwed up his \ncourage to approach them, he found they were chained. All of our roaring lions \nare chained, if we have the courage to walk right up to them,\u2014even if they look \nlike death itself. So what more can one say except, Thank God for Theosophy! \n\nThe Convention then adjourned until 2.30 p. m. \n\nAfternoon Session \n\nIn continuation of the reports of officers, Mr. H. B. Mitchell, as Treasurer \nT. S., outlined the current financial condition in comparison with that of 1934. \nand requested recognition of the help he received, not only from Mr. Kobb 6 as \nAssistant Treasurer, but also from others including the Secretary of the Society. \n\nAfter this report had been accepted with thanks, the report of the Committee \non Nominations was called for. \n\nReport of the Committee on Nominations \n\nMr. Miller presented the following nominations: for re-election to the \nExecutive Committee, Mr. J. F. B. Mitchell and Mr. Auchincloss; also to suc\u00ac \nceed themselves, Miss Perkins as Secretary T. S.; Miss Chickering, Assistant \nSecretary; Mr. H. B. Mitchell, Treasurer, and Mr. Kobb 6 , Assistant Treasurer. \nIt was voted that the Secretary be instructed to cast one ballot for the election \nof officers as nominated, and that the Committee be discharged with thanks. \nThe report of the Committee on Resolutions was then called for. \n\nReport of the Committee on Resolutions \n\nMr. Hargrove: Life has been so strenuous during recent weeks that your \nCommittee has had no opportunity to formulate speeches in advance. The \nutmost that I can attempt is to refer to one or two notes, jottings of ideas, \nleave it to you to form your own resolutions, if you will. So I begin almos \nhaphazard, by speaking of an exceedingly kind remark, made to me after \nmorning\u2019s session, by one of our visiting members. I had referred to conditions \nin New York, implying that they were not ideal, and this visiting member ex\u00ac \npressed gratitude for the sacrifice that we make in continuing to live and labour \nin such conditions,\u2014sacrifice, presumably, for the benefit of others. To be \nfrank, it was such a novel idea to me that I was more or less speechless for the \nmoment, but then of course said the natural thing: that there was nothing of \nthe kind involved. I mention this because it may suggest ideas to others. What \nare the facts? The fact is that instead of sacrifice being involved, I do not know \none of us who would change places with anyone on the face of the earth. I do \nnot mean that we would not change our inner selves; but so far as environment \n\n\n\n6o \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nis concerned, so far as circumstances are concerned, there is no sacrifice involved \nwhatever. Of course, human nature is human nature, and I do not suppose \nthere is one of us who does not think occasionally of some spot in Switzerland, \nin France, or somewhere else where we have been\u2014thoughts full of beauty and \npeace\u2014with longing to be there again. But surely a student of Theosophy \nought to realize that such longings are dreams and no more. Wherever you go, \nyou take your own nature with you; besides, peace is impossible except in the \nplace where duty keeps you. I refer to this because it may be that some of \nyou who live far from New York and who come to these Conventions and who, \nlet us hope, enjoy yourselves while here, and receive spiritual benefit,\u2014go back \nand wish with all your hearts that you lived here. Whatever our sphere of life, \nwherever we are situated, granting that our duty keeps us there, it is certain \nthat that is the place which Karma (which means the Lodge) has selected as \ngiving us the best opportunity for growth. Do not let us dream dreams of what we \nmight become if only we were somewhere else. You may sometimes think \nof your circumstances as hard and difficult, and so on. If we, in New York, \nwere to find ourselves thinking of our circumstances in this moral cesspool as \nhard and difficult, I pray that we should have sense enough to recognize instantly \nthe old foul fiend of self-pity, and that we should peremptorily kick it out. \nWhat applies to us applies to you. There may be an intimation of a resolution \ntied to that idea. \n\nNext, to pass to my second note, I should like to read something that bears \ndirectly upon what was said this morning in regard to pacifism, war and so \nforth. It does not matter who wrote it. Everything, in the last analysis, has \nto stand on its own feet, on its own merits. \n\nWar is a terrible thing, a monstrous thing: there is only one thing worse, and that is \npeace as the world understands it. A great soldier said once: \u201cWar is Heir\u2019. He knew \nof what he spoke, and meant it. It is the hell of flame and destruction, of torment and \nwrath, terrible to contemplate. But out of it rise heroes and heroisms; in its fires great \ncauses are born, greater heights are scaled, and the record of human achievement in \nnobility and sacrifice is raised above itself. There is a deeper hell, which the great mystic \npoet has shown us,\u2014the still and frozen hell of selfishness and malice, where men gnaw \nthe other men frozen with them in the same deadly lake, kept for ever cold by the moving \nwings of the arch fiend. Only as the fire of struggle and suffering releases it, can the \nimprisoned soul rise above this horror, which is the expression and epitome of its present \nself, and shake itself free for its destiny of spiritual growth. \n\nTo timid and cowardly souls these truths are unpleasant,\u2014who is there does not shrink \nfrom them at some spot? but truths they remain in spite of any and all unwillingness; \nand since God\u2019s relentless mercy pushes us on, we can go to our fate condemned and \ndishonoured, or meet it gloriously like men and win our crown. That much of choice \nwe have. The modern world seems to be making it for the doom of its civilization, and \nso will sink beneath the waves of its own blood,\u2014the fate of all who make the Great \nRefusal. \n\n\nPrince of Peace our Lord has been called, echoing the lyric strains of Isaiah; \nbut the Master affirmed of himself: \u201cI came not to bring peace but a sword\u201d. And while \nin his parting discourse with his disciples, he said: \u201cPeace I leave with you\u201d, he called it \nhis peace, and declared it was not what the world so named. In their after-lives, what \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n61 \n\n\nwas that peace for them, but persecution and conflict and torture and death, and a \nceaseless warfare in his name? No, only to the victor can there be peace; never, in all \nthe seven worlds, to him who refuses the fight. \n\nNeedless to say, I did not write that, but I want to read it into the record, \nbecause it reminds us of the spirit of Theosophy and of The Theosophical \nSociety. \n\nNext, perhaps, should come some reference to the Lodge Messenger. Many \nof you will remember the discussion in recent issues of the Quarterly in regard \nto the next Lodge Messenger or forerunner, and you will remember also that, \nin the \u201cScreen of Time\u201d, several letters were published bearing upon that \nsubject. Incidentally, I received a letter the other day, thanking me as sup\u00ac \nposed author of the communication printed in the April \u201cScreen of Time\u201d. \nCare was taken to say in the \u201cScreen\u201d that the writer of that communication, \nalthough a man whose membership goes back to Judge\u2019s day, occupies no \nofficial position in the T. S. In spite of this, my correspondent attributed it \nto me. I did not write it. \n\n\u201cSoftness\u201d: in one of the earlier letters, which I did not write either, the \nastonishing suggestion was made (at least it proved to be astonishing to some) \nthat the Society contained too much material that was soft\u2014that the member\u00ac \nship was inclined to be soft. There were those who felt almost as if they had \nbeen insulted. Others felt discouraged. In both cases it proved that in any \ncase they were soft! Others reacted in a different way. They said: \u201cSoft? Oh \ndear me! This will never do!\u201d Then, assuming, for instance, that someone in \nthis category was inclined to be a trifle obstinate, he resolved that \u201chereafter \nI am going to set my teeth\u2014no softness about me!\u201d The result was, he became \nabout five times as obstinate as he had ever been before. So it went. There\u00ac \nfore, the question is, what is the opposite of softness? Let me suggest that \nvirility is the opposite of softness. Let us examine the meaning of that term, \nbecause there are all sorts of people in the world who would think of themselves \nas virile. I am reasonably confident that Hitler, as he looks at himself in the \nglass, would say, Now there is virility! So you can go through a list of the prom\u00ac \ninent men in the world to-day,\u2014of all nations. Yet, if you ask yourself, ar ^ \nthey representative of virility, I am afraid that your answer will have to be \nthe negative. \n\nLet us begin at the other end, following the theosophical method, and looking \nto Masters for our examples. Gautama Buddha was of the warrior caste. He \nwas not a Brahmin. He was a Kshatriya. As you read the Buddhist Scriptures, \nyou will find, as you find in the case of Christ, a marvellous blending, a harmony \nof different qualities. For instance, poetry and common sense, the one balancing \nthe other and making at that point a perfect whole. Strength and gentleness, \ncompassion and justice, energy and delicacy, dignity and humility,\u2014as part \nof the true warrior\u2019s holiness. In the case of each of the widely known Avatars \nor Masters, if you will study what has been left to us of the records of their \ndoings and sayings, you will find that marvellous blending, making up a content \nthat is the very embodiment of virility. \n\n\n62 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nNow let me try again. Let us examine another word: bigness seems to me to \nbe of the very essence of virility\u2014bigness of heart, bigness of mind, bigness of \nsympathy. Let me suggest that it is a touchstone that we should constantly \napply to ourselves and to our own reactions. Take, for instance, our relations \nwith other people, with our friends: are we little, are we mean or resentful, are \nwe self-centered in our reactions to what they do, to what they think, to their \nmoods and so on? Are we easily offended? Do we find insults, \u201cmisunder\u00ac \nstandings\u201d, in what other people say and do? In any case, let us pray for big\u00ac \nness. We cannot possibly make a mistake if we do that. \n\nIs our response to life generous? Generosity does not mean that you give \naway all you possess to the first man who asks for it. Not at all. In what sense \nwas the Master Christ supremely generous? Consider his attitude toward the \nsinful woman: was not that of the very essence of chivalry, of generosity, of \ngreatness of heart and soul? Yet he did not condone her sin; he did not plead \n\u201cmitigating circumstances\u201d,\u2014which is what weak and misguided \u201ccharity\u201d \nwould have done. He was noble, another opposite of softness. \n\nLet us try another approach, because if we are to understand anything theo- \nsophically, we must approach it from as many angles as we can. I want to \nremind you of the time in Italy, in i860 or thereabouts, when the Lodge was \nhelping Italy to become a personality. (This is connected with what we were \ntalking about this morning.) Italy was chaotic. There were the Papal States, \nthe Austrian Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, the Two Sicilies, the Kingdom of \nSardinia,\u2014and no personality. It is this that is of significance. H.P.B. in \n1867, we are told, was present at the battle of Mentana. In i860, Garibaldi \nlanded in Sicily, at Messala, with his so-called Thousand Heroes. How had he \ncollected those volunteers? What appeal had he made to them? He had said: \n\u201cI call for those who want hunger and thirst and danger and death. I call for \nthose who love their country with their hearts and not merely with their lips\u201d. \nAnd those who responded to that appeal, fought and died by his side. After \nSicily came the march on Rome, and the battle of Mentana, and I remind you \nagain that H.P.B. was there. H.P.B. wrote to Sinnett that it was only Gari\u00ac \nbaldi\u2019s sons who knew the inside of the situation and what she had done. The \nMasters were trying to help Italy to become unified, to become a personality. \nHere, I am going to digress, because the analytical mind at this point will \nwonder: Does that mean that the Lodge was backing Cavour, or Mazzini, or \nwas it backing Garibaldi ? And the answer to that is\u2014the Lodge was backing \nthem all! was working that Italy might evolve a personality. And out of this \nconfusion and conflict, there was evolved a personality. They were all of them \nright, and all of them wrong\u2014though H.P.B. happened to be fighting on the \nside of Garibaldi. It was the French, unfortunately, under Napoleon III, who, \naiding the Papal States, defeated the army of Garibaldi at Mentana. \n\nGaribaldi\u2019s appeal, then, was for men. Let us apply it, so far as we are able, \nto our service in the Theosophical Movement. Let us apply it as a test to our \nown attitude toward life. The old soldier who is really one-pointed in his de\u00ac \ntermination to fight and to win, does not stop even to think about conditions, \n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n63 \n\n\ndoes not care whether he is fed or not. If food comes, so much the better. It \nis all in the day\u2019s work. He does not say: I want danger, I want death. He \ntakes that as all in the day\u2019s work too, as it comes. His mind is one-pointed. \nYet there is that other approach. Unless there be something in a man\u2019s heart \nand soul that responds to an appeal such as Garibaldi\u2019s, he is not of the warrior \ncaste. We need to test ourselves in these ways. To what extent has love of \ncomfort swamped us? We live in an age of (I suppose it would be called) luxury, \nand it is very easy, living in the midst of this civilization, to become a victim \nof the desire for comfort. Of course, if we surrender to that, what it means is \nthat we become soft, so soft that from the standpoint of the Lodge, we are use\u00ac \nless,\u2014perhaps a danger. \n\nVirility: I repeat, if every one of us had watched our reactions to what I will \ncall the accusation contained in that letter printed in the \u201cScreen of Time\u2019\u2019, we \nought to have learned a great deal. We were given an opportunity to check \nour own natures, and if our reaction was what seemed to us to be positive, \ninstead of depressed and sentimental, then we ought to examine the nature of \nthat positive reaction\u2014because if it merely made us personally aggressive, then \nobviously the reaction was wrong. We have not, in that case, even begun to \nunderstand what real virility is, and it is part of our duty, as students of The\u00ac \nosophy, to find out what it is. To do this, we must think and meditate about \nit, taking examples such as I suggested: the Masters, above all, who, in the \nvery nature of things, are the embodiment of it; and, instead of taking the \nworld\u2019s understanding of their natures\u2014and you know how the world has mis\u00ac \nunderstood them\u2014we must use the light of Theosophy to see beneath the \nsurface. Instead of seeing in Christ the \u201cPale Galilean\u201d of Swinburne, the \nshadow-figure of so many pulpits, let us see that great Warrior and King such \nas he was\u2014such as he is \u2014and then let us set to work toward becoming some \nreflection (no matter how inadequate) of his magnificent manhood. \n\nThe next Lodge Messenger: we must learn of course to see beneath the sur\u00ac \nface if we are going to recognize any kind of Lodge Messenger. Suppose we \nhad been in New York in 1874, and had met Madame Blavatsky as she then was, \nand Colonel Olcott as he then was, and Mr. Judge\u2014a very young lawyer, just \nbeginning, the reverse of prosperous: what would our reaction have been? \nShould we have gone through the usual motions of asking for their credentials^ \nShould we have gone, for instance, to the Russian consul, or inquired from peff \nson to person, listening to everyone and everything except our own soul\u2014and \nit is one\u2019s own soul alone that can recognize a soul. Therefore we have to learn, \nfirst of all, to listen to our own souls\u2014not to our emotional reactions, but to our \nsouls\u2014if we are to be able to recognize a Lodge Messenger, or a forerunner, or \nany other reality, when we meet it. \n\nNo one has said when either forerunner or Lodge Messenger will arrive. Peo\u00ac \nple like to receive notice that they may expect such arrivals on a definite date. \nSo far as I am aware, the Lodge does not do things that way, and we have to \naccept things on their terms rather than our own. It is more than probable \nthat The Theosophical Society in all its manifestations will have to be cut down \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n64 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nto the root in order to survive until the Lodge Messenger appears. I said this \nmorning that we are not at this moment in trenches. I said that the time might \ncome when we should have to dig ourselves in, when, in other words, the very \nexistence of the Society will be hidden from the surface of the earth, cut down \nto the root. What do you do with a vine ? What do you do with many another \ntree or shrub? You prune, prune\u2014and you must prune if you are to preserve \nthe root alive. And what will be accomplished in this case is to preserve the \nroot alive, that there may be new branches, and that, in due season, those \nbranches may bear fruit. Go to the Parable in the New Testament, and you \nwill see much of the hidden meaning. In other words, to make it specific, the \nday probably will come when there will be no more public meetings, no more \nQuarterly as we now know it, no more Conventions. There will be something \ncorresponding to (only corresponding to) that period after the death and res\u00ac \nurrection of Christ, when the disciples gathered in an upper room and waited \nfor the coming of the Holy Ghost, praying, waiting for that which was promised \nand which came. These things are spoken of to-day that they may be under\u00ac \nstood later. Do not make the mistake of supposing that the Movement has \nbeen snuffed out, or that it has ended in failure, if you find that it is being cut \ndown to the root. Indrawal means the transference of energy from the outer \nto the inner; it means the perpetuation of what otherwise would die. Would \nyou wish a simulacrum , a decaying shell, to survive? There are enough shells of \nthat kind, masquerading as theosophical societies, already in existence. It is \nwe who must \u201ckeep the link unbroken\u201d; we who, by living in the root, by keep\u00ac \ning our hearts\u2019 energies in the root, will preserve its life that it may be ready to \nput forth branches and to bear fruit when the Master-gardener appears. \n\nDr. Torrey (supplementing, by request, the report of the Chairman of the \nCommittee on Resolutions): It is probable that most of us read \u201cThe Screen of \nTime\u201d in the April Quarterly and will recall a quotation from General Wey- \ngand with the comments upon it. Briefly, the General is disturbed by the \ngrowth of scepticism among the educated people of France. He admits that it \nmay be salutary to have a few doubters in a nation, but that when everybody \nbegins to doubt, the situation is not so good. \n\nMy thoughts had been running along this line for some time, and the Quar\u00ac \nterly, as so often happens, brought them to a focus. \n\nIt is obvious that the universities are the centres of this prevalent scepticism, \nand that from them there spreads out a wave which affects all classes of society. \nBut when one looks more closely at the matter, it is not so simple First of all, \nit is not quite true that the colleges are in the grip of paralysing scepticism. \nThere are two schools of thought on college campuses, just as there have been \nfor many years\u2014that of the sciences and that of the humanities. To the first, \nGeneral Weygand\u2019s words hardly apply\u2014at least not in the sense he is using \nthem. Because downright scientific agnosticism is not scepticism. With it \nthere goes a sublime faith that scientific research is still worth while because of \nits very definite pragmatic results. As to the ultimate nature of reality, or the \n\n\n\n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n65 \n\n\nphilosophical groundwork upon which science rests, the average scientist is \nslightly contemptuous, or even actively hostile to such speculations. As one of \nthem expressed it not long ago: \u201cI don\u2019t see how we can ever know or why we \nshould ever care.\u201d \n\nOne might frame the working policy of science something like this: back in \nthe last century some of our fore-runners got fully \u201cfed-up\u201d with the vapour- \nings and idle speculations of the metaphysicians and other thought-spinners. \nTherefore they took their stand on what the five senses would reveal, not ques\u00ac \ntioning any further, but attempting to analyse, to classify, to discover the laws \nof nature and to apply them to practical ends. The method worked; the method \ngave us progressive control over nature, and the method is still working. Our \ncolleagues in the humanities accuse us of materialism and of fastening a ma\u00ac \nterialistic outlook on the world, but we prefer our success to their tenuities \nwhich, so far as we can see, are barren of all results. They have ended in utter \nscepticism. We still believe that nature plays a square game\u2014that we can put \nan honest question to her and she will give an honest answer. We find a suf\u00ac \nficiency of beauty and excitement in playing this game, and we are willing to toil \nand sacrifice and suffer for it. \n\nNow nobody can deny that science can put up a good case for itself. And I \nventure to suggest that its remarkable success is due to the fact that it has \nused to perfection the very instrument which was evolved to deal with the sen\u00ac \nsuous world in space and time. Many of us are familiar with Bergson\u2019s analysis \nof this subject. Mind is the instrument of desire; life would bend the material \nworld to its desire for action. The intellect surveys a given situation and \nmarshals the cogent facts before the bar of inner judgment. Then the will \nsweeps forward to its conquest. \n\nSo the scientist has faith\u2014that supreme faith which is based upon repeated \nexperience that nature will not \u201clet him down\u201d. Obscurantists may say that \nscientific laws are only statistical averages\u2014the scientist is undismayed. He \nsets up his experiential common-sense. So far water has always boiled at 100 \ndegrees Centigrade and normal atmospheric pressure; so far unsupported \nbodies have always fallen toward the centre of the earth, and we are not worry\u00ac \ning about the one chance in a trillion or so that they may do otherwise. I like^ \nthis sturdy common-sense, and I think that Masters like it too, else one of them \nwould not have written that \u201cscience has the right method\u201d, and that they \nthemselves follow its discoveries with interest. Neither would they have sent \ntheir \u201cSecret Doctrine\u201d into the world, clothed in scientific dress. To be sure, \nthere is a fringe of scepticism in science, but only when the scientist tries to turn \nmetaphysician\u2014when he attempts to explain causation, time and space, or \nvital phenomena. \n\nLet us turn now to the other side of the picture. What has become of the \ndevotees of the humanities during these years that science has been sweeping \nall before it ? They attempted to meet science with the weapon of intellectual \narguments, and they were routed and beaten on all fronts. And why? Just \nbecause they tried to use sheer intellect in a realm in which sheer intellect \n\n\n66 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ncannot and should not be the final arbiter. In proportion as the unaided intel\u00ac \nlect abandons the field of sensuous study whose goal is action , and enters upon \nspeculative criticism of faith, morals, ethics, etc. as an end in itself, the result \nwill be, as it ever has been, increasing doubt and final complete scepticism. \nWhy again ? Because the only way these matters can be proved to be right or \nwrong is through action. Science has the right method, and if this be true of \nwork upon the physical plane, it should be equally true of researches upon \nthe psycho-spiritual plane which lies above the physical. But do we find the \ndisciples of the humanities using the scientific method in this subtiler and richer \nfield? Not they! That would involve the great battle of man to which Krishna \ninvites Arjuna upon the battlefield of Kurukshetra, and they would have to \nmake themselves the instruments of the experiment. A man will change any\u00ac \nthing rather than himself. The physical scientist can leave himself pretty much \nout of the picture and nature will answer his questions whether he be a good \nman or a thoroughly bad one. \n\nThe student of the humanities is faced with a far subtiler problem than is the \nscientist. He knows it, and he is contemptuous of the crassness of his colleague. \nYet I dare to assert that his influence for materialism is far more powerful than \nthat of the scientist. The scientist is dogmatically agnostic. Metaphysics is \nnot my affair, problems of conduct are not my affair, he says. I deal only with \nthe metrical world. In practice he is generally a conservative who accepts the \nconventions of society and lives by the accepted codes of Caesar\u2019s world. His \ncolleague, however, subjects the conventions to intellectual analysis; he dis\u00ac \nsects the principles of morality and ethics and impales himself upon a forest of \nhomed dilemmas. He writes a \u201cPreface to Morals\u201d, and ends by finding no \nmoral sanctions whatever. He begins to take delight in destruction\u2014in the play \nof his rapier intellect. Faced by a mind which is a match for his own, and \nwhich calls his basic premises in question, he turns ugly and accuses his op\u00ac \nponent of mediaeval credulity, pre-judgment, lack of the critical scholarly \nfaculty, conditioning in infancy, or a high hydrogen-ion concentration of the \nblood (oh yes, they can use the scientific jargon of their colleagues when it is to \ntheir interest). \n\nNow the practical outcome of this attitude toward life is that intellectual \nactivity comes to be regarded wholly as a mental-emotional diversion. Poetry \nis to be studied for the emotional satisfaction which it yields. It is small wonder \nthat a man who really does things\u2014creates a new synthetic dye, invents a new \nand marvellous machine, conquers the stratosphere or the ocean abysses\u2014looks \nwith contempt upon this group of refined sensualists and aesthetes. He too, \nmay believe that death closes the account, but he intends to fight a good fight \nwhile he lives. \n\nIn their different ways the two disciplines\u2014that of science and that of the \nhumanities\u2014have both cut themselves off from reality. Science saw at the \ntime of Huxley, and I think rightly, that speculation leads to sterility. The \nhumanities have only at long last proved the truth of that contention. Both \ndisciplines have reached again the conclusions of ancient degenerative phi- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n67 \n\n\nlosophy: naught remains but to eat and drink and be merry, for to-morrow we \ndie. Science has made possible the existence of a horde of mediocrities who \ndepend upon it for their parasitic existences, and the humanities are filled with \nsentimental and fatuous weaklings who would provide softer straw for the \nscientific sty. \n\nOut of the welter a few strong souls may emerge as incipient black magicians \n\u2014such will be those scientists who continue to sacrifice sternly for their ideal \nof power over nature. They have faith and vision, and they are not going to \nperish right away. Some of their spokesmen sense that fact dimly already. \nPower is in their hands. One has only to look at the present scuttling to cover \nwhich is going on among the humanists in the universities, at the crack of the \neconomic-scientific whip. One has small sympathy for their present plight. \nThey were the guardians of the subtiler values of our racial heritage. They \nelected to make it a bridge to build upon and not to pass over. They entered \nnot in themselves, and those that were going in they prevented. From the \nextreme dogmatism of the past, they have swung to extreme scepticism. In \nlarge measure it is they\u2014the priests and putative guardians of the racial heri\u00ac \ntage of goodness, truth and beauty\u2014who were responsible for the scientific \nrevolt: that, too, can be laid at their door. \n\nThus far I have said nothing about the part which The Theosophical Society \nmay play in this matter. How often have we been told that in a profound sense \nthe fate of the world is in our hands. We remember that a few men could have \nsaved Sodom and Gomorrah, and we recall Paul\u2019s words that \u201cthere are a few \nnames even in Sardis\u201d. Is it expected that the members of the Society by their \nmuch talking and writing will bring about a change of heart in the masses, or \neven in any considerable portion of the educated? Try it and see! Lay your \nsoul\u2019s inmost convictions and your most irrefutable facts before supposedly \nintelligent men, and see what happens. Do we expect to do what Masters \nthemselves have not been able to do? \n\nBut perhaps there is a deeper significance in the thought. We are a part of \nour nation; we are likewise members of groups within that nation\u2014of the uni\u00ac \nversity group, the scientific group, the military group, or what not. Each \ngroup is an entity made up of foolish, sinful and trivial elements as well as wise,^^ \ngood and important elements. In the sifting process to which all forms musj^^ \nsooner or later be subjected, only that which is worthy of immortality can \npossibly survive\u2014only that which can be assimilated by the spiritual purpose, \ncan become immortal\u2014all the rest must be broken up. \n\nIf then, we love our nation, our science, our heritage of beauty from the past \nin whatever form it may have been transmitted to us, and if we have main\u00ac \ntained our connection with the spiritual purpose which is its living heart, then \nit seems to me that it cannot be utterly destroyed. It lives in us, and as its \nunworthy vehicle breaks up in the world, we may carry the finer essence, the \nsubtiler gains, into the inner world, just as the finer essence of our personal \nlives is harvested by the soul after each incarnation. Through us, in another \ntime, the outer vehicle may renew itself. But if we fail, if we go to pieces with \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n68 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nthe dissipating skandhas of passion and base desire, then, indeed, there can be \nno resurrection. The sacrifices of our predecessors may have saved the earlier \nphases of any system to which we may be attached, but each part of a system \nmust itself come under the laws of the whole. Even as the world is sustained in \nall its parts by perpetual creation, so the world must be saved in all its parts \nby perpetual aspiration and sacrifice. If we would save the glorious discoveries \nof our sciences, and the richness of our poetry and music and painting, must \nwe not relate them to their divine prototypes, and offer them up enthusiastically \nupon the altar? \n\nFinally, why are we offered this mighty privilege? Somewhere under the \nsinful smallness of our personalities there is sincerity of purpose, ancient karmic \nconnections,\u2014and the majestic gods have set us once more at the post of trust \nand danger. \n\nThe Chairman, after the report of the Committee on Resolutions had been \naccepted with thanks, called for the report of the Committee on Letters of \nGreeting. \n\nReport of the Committee on Letters of Greeting \n\nMr. Kobb\u00a3 read the numerous greetings to the Convention that had been \nreceived from Branches and from members-at-large. The reading of these was \npunctuated with much applause. Extracts from these letters are printed at \nthe end of this Report of Convention Proceedings. \n\nThe Chairman expressed gratification at the way in which not only the letters \njust read, but letters from distant members throughout the year, showed unity \nof thought and inspiration, so evidently derived from a common source,\u2014proof \nof the reality of the guidance with which the Society is blessed. \n\nThe Chairman then called upon the delegates and visiting members to ad\u00ac \ndress the Convention, beginning with Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln from Newcastle- \non-Tyne, England, members of very long standing, but who were attending a \nConvention in New York for the first time. \n\nMr. Lincoln, after expressing his delight in being present at a Convention \nfollowing his membership of thirty-three years, conveyed special greetings from \nMr. Crawford and other members in England. He then continued:\u2014As I look \nback to the autumn of 1921\u2014the time when the \u201cBritish National Branch\u201d \nceased to exist and the individual Lodges and Branches began to function\u2014 \na number of things, all to the good, have since taken place. Each Branch, for \ninstance, has had to stand on its own feet and strike its own keynote. This \nmakes for strength and stability and self-reliance; it provides opportunity for \nvision and understanding. As the years have gone by, a certain contraction has \noccurred\u2014in some cases by death, in others by change of residence, in others \nagain by lack of interest or misconception of the Society\u2019s work. Whatever \nthe causes, the few in each place are now carrying on the work in an earnest, \ndetermined manner; they are eager to be at one with Headquarters in spirit \nand purpose; they strive to sense the message and keynote that is put forward \n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n69 \n\n\nfrom time to time and to embody it in their lives. As I have gone amongst the \nBranches, I have gathered that in this work and teaching is felt to be the sal\u00ac \nvation of mankind. \u201cMan know thyself\u201d, practically applied, is what we need \nto-day. In the north of England, where the Branches are more or less close \ntogether, a united or collective meeting is occasionally held, and a paper or an \naddress is given. This provides opportunity for expression by each Branch, so \nthat all may benefit from the exchange of experience. In England we are down \nto the root, and we should be much stronger in consequence. Propaganda is \nneither opportune nor practicable. Most of us have to work for a living, and \nthat takes up a considerable part of our time and energy. Yet, in such occupa\u00ac \ntions, there is plenty of scope to learn and to serve. All this points to individual \npreparation and growth as being the essential factor at the moment. \n\nThen there is the other side of the question regarding the step in 1921. We \nhave received in full measure the spiritual outpourings from Headquarters in \nvarious ways. No labour has been spared (as for instance in the preparing and \nissuing of the New York Branch meeting Reports) to keep us in touch with the \n* true aim and spirit of the Movement. These Reports have set a keynote and \n\nconsecutive chain of thought for us to study and to apply to ourselves as much \nas possible. We have had the opportunity to weigh and test them from the \npoint of view of the soul\u2014that inner monitor which never fails\u2014and so make \nthe fullest response of which we were capable. The same applies to the Quar\u00ac \nterly, which undoubtedly is of great help to members and a power for good in \nthe world. We have also benefited by being more in touch with the Heart or \nCentre, and, by being united to it, have been able to co-operate more fully in \nthe Society\u2019s work. Everything that can be thought of for our good has been \ndone; everything that could help us to be more efficient instruments in the \nMasters\u2019 service. It was gratifying to learn through a Quarterly of not so \nlong ago, that never had there been greater unity of purpose, oneness of heart, \nin the Society, than at the present time. So we in England have much to be \nthankful for, and, though few in number, would strive to do by real work \nand real effort what greater numbers with lesser aims could never accomplish. \n\nWe were not sure until shortly before we sailed that Mrs. Lincoln would be \nable to accompany me on this great occasion, and of course it is a great joy ^ \nme, as I know it is a joy for her, that she too could attend this gathering and \nmeet those we have known for so many years. Both of us, and I think many \nothers present to-day, have received in no little measure a lead and a light and \na vision. Let us determine, then, that we shall more fully embody in our lives \nthose things which we feel to be true. No doubt we have tried in the past to \nembody them, but speaking for myself, I feel that this visit means to me that I \nshall try as I have never tried before. I hope to carry back with me something \nthat will impel me to live the life and to become, in some small degree, more \nlike unto the Masters we are privileged to serve. \n\nThe Chairman, calling attention to the fact that a delegation of eight mem\u00ac \nbers this year, and of ten members last year, had come all the way from Caracas, \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n7 o THE 0 S 0 PHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nVenezuela, to attend the Convention, requested Mr. Gonzdlez-Jim6nez to speak \nfor the Venezuela Branch. \n\nMr. Gonz/lez: Our chief work has been to follow the topics discussed at the \nNew York Branch. The fundamental note has been Christian: a study of Chris\u00ac \ntianity in the light of the universal teaching of the Lodge of Masters, so far as \nwe have been able to assimilate that teaching as expressed in Theosophy. We \nhave come to understand that the heart cannot throb in love for Christ without \nat the same time burning the incense of its loving devotion for Buddha, Quetzal- \ncoatl and the other Masters of the House of Wisdom. It was significant that \nduring the year our Branch, that feels itself on the ray of Christ, should have \ngiven a special evening to homage and gratitude to Buddha. \n\nThe themes on which special stress has been laid have been humility, dis\u00ac \ncipline and purification. Many members are following special exercises and \nspecific rules with great hopes of pressing forward to the narrow gate of Dis- \ncipleship. \n\nWorld affairs have been considered with poise and definiteness, and the wish \nthat the gods may descend is the prayer of many. The world cannot get back \nto high ideals unless centres of consecration\u2014beacons in the night of Kali Yuga \n\u2014be formed. \n\nAn understanding of fraternity, not as an equality without distinction, but as \na common effort towards a unique centre, is to-day a possession of the Branch. \nAmong its members more of an intimate fraternity is being lived, shunning \ndebasing familiarity. \n\nThe Branch as a whole sends to the members of the T. S. assembled in Con\u00ac \nvention its most fervent wishes that the Lodge of Masters may look upon this \nmeeting as an opportunity for the world to know of its existence, and to turn to \nit for the light and courage so needed to-day for men to discern the Way, and \ndiscerning, claim their place as sons of God. \n\nThe Chairman announced that a cablegram had been received from members \nin Caracas who had been unable to attend the Convention, but who wished it \nknown that they were with us in spirit and in thought. He then called upon \nMr. Cams, President of the Venezuela Branch, to address the Convention. \n\nMr. CarIas: As Mr. Johnston said in the Introduction of The Crest Jewel of \nWisdom , I believe that \u201cthere is Divine Wisdom, Godlike Compassion, that there \nare divine teachers, perfect in courage and love ready to impart that wisdom to \nall who can receive and possess it\u201d. I believe also that to reach such a great \nbenediction, the fire of purification is necessary, conquering the personality by \nsacrifice, thus gaining the gifts of the spiritual world. . . . Let us remember the \noutstanding words of the April \u201cFragments\u201d; let us engrave this idea as a \nmantram in our hearts: Courage to the last. \n\nThe Convention then listened with much sympathy and interest to reports of \nmembers from Czecho-Slovakia. \n\nMiss Margaret D. Hohnstedt and Dr. Hohnstedt, welcomed by the \n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n7 i \n\n\nChairman, spoke for the Cincinnati Branch, which, next year, will celebrate its \nfiftieth year of continuous work for Theosophy. \n\nMiss Husby, called upon as the delegate from Pacific Branch in Los Angeles, \nspoke of the activities of the Branch as conducted by Mr. Box, and expressed \nthe highest appreciation of the Theosophical Quarterly, which, she said, \nalways has a message for the individual reader as well as making a universal \nappeal. \u00bb \n\nMrs. Regan, representing Hope Branch, Providence, after mention of its \nactivities, concluded by saying:\u2014I doubt if there is a member in the Society \nto-day who does not love it, who would not sacrifice for it, who is not loyal and \ndevoted, as he sees loyalty and devotion. We need to learn, however, what \ntrue loyalty is; we must acquire understanding and vision. It seemed to me this \nmorning, as the keynote was struck, that we had been called to arms. What, \nas members of this Society, was our involuntary reaction to that? Was all \nthe fight in us aroused ? Did we want to stand side by side with those on this \nplane whom we call the \u201cAncients\u201d? We perhaps cannot speak or write, but \nwe can all be something, can all live according to our understanding of theo\u00ac \nsophical principles, can learn to withdraw from the world with The Theosophical \nSociety, and help nourish the root. That is my desire: to stand firm for this \nSociety which we all love, and with Saint Paul say: Let us lay aside every weight \nand press toward the mark. \n\nMr. Roy, having reported further for the Branch in Providence, the Chair\u00ac \nman requested Mr. Miller to speak for the New York Branch. \n\nMr. Miller: We were reminded this morning of the cycles\u2014the smaller \ncycle of a year, and the major cycle of sixty years\u2014-which we celebrate to-day. \nThose of us who have been members of the Society for a number of years and \nhave attended Convention after Convention, who have been inspired by what \nwe have heard, lifted above the usual level of our consciousness,\u2014have realized, \nby the time the cycle of the next Convention returned, that we have fallen from \nthe high resolve which we had made. But cycles proceed spirally, and if we \nremember that we meet the same difficulties on different levels, it will be helpful, \nI think, to prevent discouragement. \n\nAnyone who is privileged to be here to-day must realize that there is a migl^# \nforce behind this Society. The question is, how are we going to use it? Are \nwe going to allow it to run to waste ? The answer to that must depend upon the \ndegree of our \u201cemptiness\u201d, as Professor Mitchell explained. We must empty \nourselves of self, and then we can be victors in the fight and not lose courage,\u2014 \nbecause we shall not be thinking of ourselves. \n\nDr. Clark: In the older literature, the literature of fact which you find in \nEdmund Burke, or the literature of fiction which you find in Walter Scott, you \nmeet with a repetition of such words as \u201cprinciples\u201d, \u201cloyalty\u201d, \u201chonour\u201d, \n\u201cfidelity\u201d, and so on. If you look for such words to-day in literature, or on the \nlips of people, you will hardly ever hear them. The older generations knew \nthat the laws of righteousness had been delivered to them from above, and that \n\n\n72 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nit was their opportunity, cost what it might, to act according to those laws and \nto live by loyalty, to live for principle, to maintain fidelity. \n\nIs it not to-day the opportunity of everyone in our Society to seek to embody \nthose divine laws which have been passed on to us, to resolve that these precious \nthings which are so seldom heard from the lips of people to-day: loyalty, fidelity, \nlife according to principle, shall not perish, but shall find illustration again in \nour own lives\u2014we who have been so mercifully brought into this Movement, \nthis Society, by the compassion of the Masters, and permitted to be present at \nthis Convention to-day? \n\nMr. Auchincloss: At the meetings of the New York Branch this winter \nwe have been talking about Theosophy in simple terms\u2014about Reincarnation, \nKarma, Cycles\u2014restating old truths, trying to get back to the heart of things, \nand so to reach the heart of others. It seems to me that, as a result, certain \nthings have happened. \n\nThis effort at simplicity has helped us, I think, to define our terms more \nclearly. There is always a danger that we, who have been talking and thinking \nabout these things for years, may talk a language that will not always be com\u00ac \nprehensible to one who is approaching Theosophy for the first time. This effort \nto keep things simple has helped us to focus the force of our feeling and of our \nconviction, and thus to bring home that conviction itself more directly. It has \nhelped us also to speak more definitely and more one-pointedly to the \u201ccon\u00ac \ndition\u201d, as the old books say, of those with whom we come in contact in daily \nlife. Suppose that, entirely outside the Movement, there is someone whom we \nare desperately anxious to help. If we are to be all things to all men; if through \nus there is to come to that particular man something of the force and the power \nand the vision that is Theosophy, we must speak to him in his own terms, in \nterms which he will at once understand; and our desire to be able to speak in \nthis way impels us to turn again, with the heart of a child, in all simplicity, to \nour Master, with the prayer that he will help us to find, in our hearts and on \nour lips, the words which we should say. \n\nFinally, I think that what this effort at simplicity has done, is\u2014to increase \nour faith. It has made us re-examine ourselves as to what it is that we believe, \nand, as a result, we find ourselves more firmly rooted and grounded than ever \nbefore, more at one than ever before with the old truths of Theosophy, so \nfamiliar and yet always new; and with this increased faith there has come, I \nthink, a renewed consecration. \n\nFor what does it matter that life, to-day, imposes continuous strain, never- \nending perplexities and anxieties? These things are all opportunities in that \ninner world in which we would truly live. What does matter is, that we should \nuse these things, and not let them use us; that we should go forward with the \nfighting spirit, the spirit of the soldier, the basis of which is faith. Forward, \nwith the heart of the fighting man, and, at the same time, with the faith of a \nchild; with faith in our Great Companions, that we may do our part in the \ncarrying out of their purposes. \n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n73 \n\n\nMr. LaDow: I have been thinking this afternoon that perhaps to nowhere \nin the world to-day, except to our Convention, could one come and find a reason \nfor hope\u2014because if one looks at the facts, at the state of our western civiliza\u00ac \ntion, one is obliged to admit that all the signs point to a continuation of dis\u00ac \nintegration and decomposition. Everything suggests that outwardly things are \ngoing to get worse before they get better. Yet, as I say, there is no reason for \nanyone here to receive those words in a spirit of pessimism. A previous speaker \nreferred to the Convention as an assemblage of gods and men, and the term is \nstriking and true. This Convention can mean little to anyone who is unable \nto sense behind what is said here (within the form) a tremendous spiritual, \ncreative, positive energy. To-day, then, it is perhaps easier for us to identify \nourselves in imagination at least, with that inner creative spirit which is the \nlife of the Convention; and in so far as we identify ourselves with that, and \ncease to identify ourselves with the decomposing substance of the world, we \nmust have reason for hope. In fact, we are hope itself, because hope is a phase \nof creation, an aspect of creative force. \n\nThere is an old saying of one of the ancient poets, Lucretius, that nothing is \nbom into this world save by the death of some other thing. I believe that we \ncan live with that saying, that we can discover how true it is, at every moment \nof the day. One application of it that can be made is in this very contrast be\u00ac \ntween a dying civilization\u2014or an apparently dying civilization\u2014and that \ncreative power which we feel within the Movement and which we particularly \nfeel to-day; and to realize that that force, that creative power, can only be bom \ninto the world through the death of the powers of evil who now hold the citadel. \n\nMr. Saxe, after describing the procedure at meetings of the New York \nBranch, asked: Should we not make more use of the Questions and Answers \nDepartment in the Quarterly? It seems to me that there is an opportunity \nthere which is not used enough. Does it not often happen that we find some\u00ac \nthing in our studies which we do not really understand, and so pass it over? \n\nI think we do not realize how much more we could get if we formulated our \nproblem as a question and sent it to the Quarterly. \n\nThe Chairman then called on members from Venezuela, not yet heard from, \nto address the Convention. jd \n\nMr. Alvarez-Perez: Our first wish is to give thanks for two blessings: our \nmembership in The Theosophical Society, and our presence in this wonderful \n.assembly. \n\nWe think that the day of the great ordeal for humanity as a whole is very \nnear,\u2014ordeals for the individual being almost constant. We pray that when \nthe moment comes, a majority will make the right choice. For ourselves, may \nwe always be granted courage and understanding,\u2014though, if our hearts be \nkindled with love of our Master, we shall need no more, since all else will be \n.added. \n\nMr. Rivero: \u201cSainte-H 61 \u00a3ne, petite ile\u201d. ... It is said that while yet a \n\n\n\n\n74 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nchild, Napoleon Bonaparte, the imperial exile, wrote this single premonitory \nphrase on a page of his school notebook. It is also said that the Island of Saint \nHelena, seen from a certain point and at a certain distance, seems to trace the \nvery features of the Napoleonic profile against the horizon. \n\nThat reminds me of William Quan Judge, \u201cthe greatest of the Exiles\u201d, in \nwhom General Ludlow used to see the visible peak of \u201ca submerged Continent\u201d \n\u2014possibly the Lodge itself covered by The Ocean of Theosophy. Like the Ark, \nThe Theosophical Society in America rested upon that height. \n\nI also remember, with a feeling of deep gratitude\u2014the most pleasing of all \nofferings to the gods\u2014that other lofty peak, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky; and I \nbelieve that each theosophical aspirant to the spiritual life, with love and nos\u00ac \ntalgia, with the innocence of a child and the faith of a warrior, seeing her rise \nlike a living rock of salvation out of the shipwreck of western materialism, must \nhave written in his own heart, in letters of light, evoking the White Yogini: \n\u201cSainte-H 61 \u00a3ne, petite lie\u201d. . . . \n\nDr. Cotton spoke of the past year as one of sacrifice by the Masters for us, \nand then suggested this train of self-questioning: To what extent have we tried \nto live for them? To what extent do we love and understand them better than \na year ago? Have we perceived at what cost to them this wonderful oppor\u00ac \ntunity was given us ? Because, upon the answers to those questions will depend \nwhether we are helpers or a burden to them. \n\nMr. A. JiMfsNEZ spoke of this, his first Convention, as a fire-baptism. \n\nSenora Sanchez: The time of Convention is one of exfoliation of the soul \nto a new state of consciousness. Our inner lungs are enlarged by the air of the \nLodge which fills them and penetrates to the smallest cells. We want to enter \ndefinitely on the path of discipleship, which means, to fulfil our individual task \nin The Theosophical Society, that task which the Masters are anxiously expect\u00ac \ning of us,\u2014because a Convention of the Society has a special message to each \nindividual soul. All is possible to the valiant heart. \n\nSenorita Cotton suggested that the right response to the Convention would \nbe a vow of consecration to the service of the Lodge of Masters, and that, \nkindled by the Fragments of Cav\u00a3, our personalities, our pusillanimity, and even \nour sins, should be cast into oblivion by the ever-present thought of our own \nMaster, which would inevitably lift us to him. \n\nThe Convention next listened with great interest and pleasure to Mr. Brush \nand Mr. Fisher; as also to Mr. Miller, Jr., Mr. Mitchell, Jr., Mr. H. \nMitchell, Mr. Russ, Jr. \n\nThe Chairman then asked Mr. Hargrove to speak again. \n\nMr. Hargrove: I am anxious that there shall be no misunderstanding on \nthe subject of indrawal. I spoke of the time, almost certainly coming, when \nthere would be further pruning to do, when outer activities in more senses than \none would have to be cut down to the root. That is not a negative process. It \nis a positive process. What it really means is discipleship. In other words, if \n\n\nCONVENTION REPORT \n\n\n75 \n\n\nwe would form part of the root and continue to form part of the root, we must \nof necessity become disciples, or rather, I should say, recognize the kind of \ndisciples we already are\u2014because discipleship is a very comprehensive term. \n\nIf a man is so immersed in business that he gives his whole heart and soul to it, \nall his attention, all his interest, then he is a disciple of, I do not know what to \ncall it\u2014a friend of mine calls it the Golden Calf, which I suppose is as good a \nterm as any. All of us are disciples of something, of some idea. We may be a \ndisciple of an elemental such as the Golden Calf, or we may be a disciple of \n\u201clearning\u201d and no more\u2014which is a perfectly respectable form of discipleship, \nalthough some of us are prepared to make a guess as to where it would lead us. \n\nAt any rate, we have to determine the nature of our discipleship. \n\nMembers of The Theosophical Society are almost alone in the world in know\u00ac \ning that real discipleship, that is to say, a desire to become a disciple of the \nL^ge\u2014is an immediate possibility. The Theosophical Society is the outer\u00ac \nmost door leading toward that possibility; but discipleship is not a matter of \ntaking degrees or of signing documents. Discipleship is an attitude of the heart, \na spirit, a persistent purpose, a life. If you will turn to the later pages in Volume \nI of Letters That Have Helped Me , you will find much said there in regard to the \nway in which any individual can constitute himself a disciple. If you will turn to \nsome of the later Fragments in Volume I, you will find a great deal said on the \nsame subject. Therefore, no one is left in the dark as to how to begin. And of \none thing you may be certain, that when you are ready, your Master will meet \nyou more than half way. It was he who started you on that path; it is his life \nin you that has carried you forward; it is he who awaits with eagerness the \nmoment when he can wisely reveal himself to you. \n\nFor ever and everywhere, Masters are looking for disciples, for those who \nwill help them in their work. There is no thought of exclusion, far from it; \nbut we must make ourselves ready, and we must begin where we are,\u2014not at \nthe top. A proper understanding of the hierarchical principle in nature will \nmake it easier to realize that there are steps in the right direction; that it would \nbe a mistake to suppose we have reached the stage when nothing short of a \nMahatma is really fit to teach us about the inner life. We have opportunities \nto learn from all kinds of sources. We are surrounded by books of instructi^ \nThere are plenty of members of The Theosophical Society who probably know \nmore than we do from their years of membership or study; know something \nabout the conditions that lead to self-knowledge, to self-understanding, to ulti\u00ac \nmate union with the Higher Self. \n\nBut the fact remains that wherever we begin, whatever stage we have at\u00ac \ntained, that door is wide open for all who would enter,\u2014for all who would enter \nif they are willing to pay the price. And that price has been intimated already. \nThey must leave self behind. They must fight self daily and during every hour \nof every day. They must fight depression, and self-assertion; timidity, and \narrogance. They must try to live in the Eternal,\u2014to live for the things that do \nnot change with time, to live to please their Master, not to please themselves. \nEvery one of us contains that supreme possibility. It is latent, but it is there \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n76 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\npotentially. We can ask for all that life contains. Everything in nature is open \nto us, and, once more, we know (we have been told it so often at all periods in \nthe history of The Theosophical Society) that the Masters are ready and wait\u00ac \ning and longing. The question is whether we are ready and waiting and longing. \nBecause until we long with everything in us, body and mind and soul, we cannot \nhope to reach them. They will not accept a half-hearted or a grudging or a \nbargaining spirit. With them, as with life itself, it is all or nothing. Therefore \nit is a question of bringing oneself to the point where one can look them in the \neyes and say: It is all\u2014without reserve\u2014unqualifiedly\u2014now and for ever. \nThat is their spirit; that is the spirit to which they respond, the spirit that calls \nforth from them the infinity of their helpfulness, of their wisdom and love and \npower. And while no member of the Society is under the slightest obligation to \ndo more than listen, we know there are those for whom such ideals are living \nhopes, vital incentives, of the deepest import and concern. It is only right, \ntherefore, before this Convention closes, to speak once more of the glad tidings \nwhich Theosophy brings: that the waters of life are still offered freely, without \nmoney and without price, to all those who love not their lives unto the death, \nand who see in Masters the beginning and the end of their hearts\u2019 desire. \n\nThe thanks of the Convention having been voted to its officers, to the editors \nand contributors of the Quarterly, and to the New York Branch for its hos\u00ac \npitality, the Convention adjourned. \n\nIsabel E. Perkins, \n\nSecretary of Convention. \n\nJulia Chickering, \n\nAssistant Secretary of Convention. \n\n\nLETTERS OF GREETING \n\n\nArvika, Sweden. \n\nTo The Theosophical Society in Convention Assembled, we send our brotherly and sincere \ngreetings! \n\nAt this great yearly feast, our hearts meet in prayer that the Masters\u2019 work may be accom\u00ac \nplished in us all. \n\n\u201cSo long as God\u2019s will is our law, we are but a sort of noble slaves. When His will is our \nwill we are free children\u201d. \n\nOn behalf of the Members of the Arvika Branch, \n\nAnna Fjaestad, \n\nPresident. \n\nAylsham, England. \n\nTo the Secretary, Theosophical Society: .... Understanding of the meaning of Theosophy \nwas never more needed in the world than it is to-day. We live in dark and troubled times, \nand there seems no light ahead. Without Theosophy we could not carry on; with it, we learn \nto take long views, and to have patience. I hope that by increasing faith and fidelity, our \nsmall Branch may be of some little use, amid the chaos and difficulty of the present days. We \nsend our friendly greetings and best wishes for the Convention. \n\nAlice Graves, \nSecretary, Norfolk Branch. \n\n\n\n\n\nLETTERS OF GREETING 77 \n\nMrs. Bagnell of the Norfolk Branch wrote: Convention draws very near and I wish to send \nyou, and all members of the T.S. who will assemble for it, my most earnest and sincere good \nwishes. Looking back over the years it seems almost amazing that year after year it is pos\u00ac \nsible to hold the Convention, and so not only give to all T.S. members fresh life and inspira\u00ac \ntion for the coming year, but to keep alive in the world a high ideal, a steadfast faith that can \nbe found nowhere else. We know that this would not be possible if it were not for the Masters \nwho stand behind us, upbuilding the T.S. which is their creation, and lending us constantly \ntheir strength and light. . . . \n\nIn this distracted world, that at times seems to be disintegrating under our eyes, there is \ngreat need for a steady force that is dedicated to the highest service, that strives to embody \nthe idea of the True, the Beautiful, the Good, and it is because I firmly believe that the T.S. \nis such a force, that to me it seems the most important thing in the world to-day. . . . \n\nMiss Bagnell also wrote: I wanted to send this line to take you my heartfelt wishes for \nConvention. At this time of chaos in international affairs, when compromise with the enemy \nseems the order of the day (instead of a vigorous policy of resistance) one looks to the leader\u00ac \nship given at Convention for the true line of policy, in regard to the guidance of nations and \nthe government of the world. Yet, so much deeper than the outer turmoil, are the strong, \nresistless currents of force flowing from their source in the Lodge; and it is our hope to co\u00ac \noperate to the utmost with the power so generously poured out, to cleanse and purify our \nthinking (in every branch of study, devotion, philosophy, science) and then to enkindle our \nwill with renewed ardour. . . . \n\n\nDenver, Colorado. \n\nThe Virya Branch sends most cordial greetings to the Convention, and very earnest wishes \nfor a true realization of its vital place among all members, and a deep appreciation of the \ngenerous provision made for the training and instruction of our members through all channels. \n\nAnne Evans, President. \n\nMary Kent Wallace, Secretary. \n\n\nOslo, Norway. \n\nTo the Secretary, Theosophical Society: .... In one of the New York Branch Reports, Mr. \nHargrove spoke of all the great Avatars as surely co-operating; and certainly we must think \nof them as all working together for what is contained in the words, \u201cThy kingdom come, Thy \nwill be done\u201d. Now that a forerunner, and later a Messenger from the Lodge, may be ap\u00ac \nproaching, I wonder if the hour is also drawing near when \u201cthe elect from the four winds, \nfrom one end of Heaven to the other, shall be gathered together\u201d, and mankind learn what \nlies behind this co-operation of all the great Avatars. \u201cWhat is to be, already is. Surelv^ \nthis co-operation which is and always has been a fact in the spiritual world, will become \na fact in the outer world; and if ages may still pass before mankind as a whole will realize the \nfact of \u201call souls being one in the Oversoul\u201d, yet there may be cycles in which those who have \nfought and struggled faithfully with hope against hope, never losing their faith in spite of \nall odds, those who have died as well as those who are now living, may rejoice in living a life \nwhen \u201cthe earth shall be a heaven in comparison with what it is now\u201d\u2014or perhaps ever has \nbeen. \n\nAll our members wish to send their most heartfelt greetings, with thanks for all loving care, \nand praying that we may all know what is really the Masters\u2019 blessing. \n\nHenning Dahl, \nChairman, Oslo Branch. \n\n\nSouth Shields, England. \n\nTo the Members of The Theosophical Society assembled in Convention: The Members of the \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n78 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nSouth Shields Branch have requested me to convey to you their very sincere fraternal greet\u00ac \nings. We feel we must at this period offer a tribute of gratitude, and do homage to, the Found\u00ac \ners of the Society, and those who have gone before and are still working with the Cause behind \nthe Veil. They have given us an ideal to strive for by living a life in harmony with the divine \nlife at the core of Nature; an ideal at once grand and glorious. It is a privilege and honour to \nhave the opportunity presented to us of working with the Lodge force for the benefit of human\u00ac \nity: it makes our lives purposeful, and also responsible, which is as it should be. We are with \nyou in aim and purpose and hope that the divine energy that is poured out at the meeting by \nthe invisible helpers who are assisting us individually and collectively, will be carried round \nthe world like a torch, and fire the hearts of many who are in darkness and longing for the Light. \nThe ethics taught by Theosophy is the only true solution of the world\u2019s problems to-day, and \nif we remain loyal and steadfast to the trust the Masters have placed in us, Theosophy, in time, \nwill come from within to the surface, like a fragrant breeze in the early morning, heralding the \nsun and the opening day. \n\nThomas Mackey, \n\nPresident. \n\n\nToronto, Canada. \n\nThe Toronto Branch T.S. desires to send fraternal Greetings to the members of The Theo- \nsophical Society in Convention assembled and to all others throughout the world. \n\nWhile it is true that much lawlessness and turbulence is visible in the world to-day, daily \nexperience leads to the belief that many are seeking a better understanding of life. \n\nThe failure of present modes of thought and ways of living to bring the peace and security \nwhich are always desired, is leading many to inquire for a better solution of the problem. \n\nPerhaps some of us have thought how fortunate were those whose privilege it was to be \nworking for the Movement in the early days when H.P.B. and others were present in person. \nThis had its advantages certainly, but may we not believe it to be an even greater privilege \nto be able to help when the earlier attractions are gone, when the Movement is passing through \na stage when there is so great a need for labourers to tend the growing fields so that the harvest \nbe assured? \n\nFaith in the Theosophical Movement and in its power to help the souls of men is a need \nto-day. All of us can help by allowing that power to work in our own souls, and perhaps that \nis the most effective way. \n\nAlbert J. Harris, \nSecretary. \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. As members of the Society we have each \nin accordance with the law, gravitated towards, and finally been drawn into the movement, just \nas a mountain stream starts as rain drops, and gravitates towards a river. To-day we are very \nglad to be with you in thought and purpose, as part of a movement which may be likened to \nthe mountain stream, because as the years pass by we realize more fully the great wisdom of \nthe founders, and the necessity of forming such a nucleus from which the spirit of Universal \nBrotherhood may flow. It becomes abundantly clear that this movement, founded upon \nfundamental truths gathered through the ages with infinite patience and care, presents the \nsolution of man\u2019s search for a formula which will provide ultimate peace, and enable him to \nrejoice and go upon his way. Our Society has been formed as a channel through which these \ntruths may flow, and each individual member as part of this forward movement can do much \nto help in its growth. Further we can move as a whole, with courage and conviction bom of \nthe knowledge that the ideal to which we strive is something greater than its component \nparts, as it possesses not only movement, but the power of infinite growth. The gathering of \n\n\n\n\nLETTERS OF GREETING \n\n\n79 \n\n\nthe members in Convention to-day is a symbol of the nucleus, and upon its power of move\u00ac \nment and growth depends the welfare and spiritual progress of generations to come. \n\nFredk. A. Ross, \n\nPresident. \n\n\nOneal, Arkansas. \n\nTo the Officers and Members of The Theosophical Society , in Convention Assembled: Most \nsincere greetings. \n\nI wish to join with you in a salute to the Corps,\u2014those beings of grandeur in whose light \nand love we seek refuge from the turmoil of the world, and to whose Cause we seek to con\u00ac \nsecrate our lives. \n\nIt is a very great privilege and joy to be here\u2014even in thought and in spirit\u2014among \ncomrades whose presence we cherish, and whose devotion we trust. Perhaps some of us are \nlooking forward to the arrival of a new Messenger? Might it not be better for us, could we \nappreciate those we already have? Were it not for the self-sacrifice, and loyal devotion to the \nCause of some\u2014now in this room\u2014methinks there would be no T.S. Convention here to-day! \nLord, grant that we may be grateful; that we may respond; that we may be true to our trust; \nthat we may rise to the vast opportunity we face, and to the responsibilities we face. \n\nMy deepest thanks are due to the Quarterly, \u2014and to those who make its continued exist\u00ac \nence possible. Also, for the Reports of N. Y. Branch meetings;\u2014these are valuable, and I \ngreatly appreciate them. \n\nWm. E. Mullinax. \n\n\nRio de Janeiro, Brazil. \n\nTo the Convention of the T.S. 1935: Dear Comrades, Please accept from us our kindest \ngreetings and most sincere wishes for the present Convention. \n\nWe deeply feel our inability to be present at the Convention personally, not to be able to \npass at least a day in your midst and in an atmosphere of heaven, and perhaps thereby become \nbetter, stronger and humbler servants of the Great Cause. \n\nAll we can do is to try to unite our hearts to yours during the hours of the Convention; to \npray to the Holy Ones that our hearts may become humble and strong to endure to the very \nend, that our aspirations may be cleansed and quickened that the force distilled therefrom \nmay serve the Masters to accomplish Their work for Humanity, and that our insight may \nbecome true and clear and undimmed to pierce the clouds of darkness and blindness which \nnow, more than ever, are threatening to engulf the world; and, above all, that we may all be \nenabled to feel the love of the Masters, and to give ourselves heart and soul to that love in a \ngreat and overwhelming passion where self shall become annihilated for ever. \n\nLeo Schoch. \n\nElisabeth Schoch. \n\n\nTrieste, Italy. \n\nTo The Theosophical Society in Convention Assembled: Dear Comrades, \n\nTo\u2019you, who have the rare privilege to meet again in Their name, we send our good wishes \nand fraternal greetings. We are in spirit with you, and in spite of the great material distance, \nwe feel closely linked together in these Easter-Days of the Soul. \n\nWe wish to thank those who made it possible for us to receive the \u201cQuarterlys\" and the \n\u201cReports\u201d, which are our spiritual bread during the year. \n\nAlberto Plinio. \nLotty Plinio. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSo \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nDelegates and members showed intense interest in the reading of Letters of Greeting, which \nincluded, in addition to the foregoing, letters from Mr. Arthur W. Barrett (Massachusetts); \nMrs. G. A. L. Dionne (Connecticut); Mr. S. A. Drummond (Oklahoma); Mr. Birger Elwing \n(Texas); Mr. Herman Hohnstedt and Miss Hohnstedt, as President and Secretary of the \nCincinnati Branch; Mr. Harry Knoff (Norway); Mr. W. G. Roberts, President of the Middle- \ntown Branch; Mr. A. Valeddn (Venezuela); Mr. P. W. Ward, President of the Gateshead \nBranch (England); telegram from Miss Evans and Miss Wallace, as President and Secretary \nof the Branch in Denver; telegram from Captain and Mrs. Hamlen (Augusta, Maine); tele\u00ac \ngram from Mrs. Robert L. Redfield (Connecticut); telegram from Mrs. L. Vaile (North Caro\u00ac \nlina); cablegram from Mrs. Graves, Mrs. Bagnell, Miss Bagnell (England), and cablegram \nfrom Mrs. Raymond (Japan). Several other letters from abroad were read, which, like all \nother letters, were received with applause, but are not acknowledged or quoted in the open \npages of the Quarterly for the reason that unusual political conditions in some parts of \nEurope would make this inconsiderate and inexpedient (see the Quarterly, July, 1934; page \n33 ). \n\n\nThe Universe is , in fact, full of magnificent promise for us } if we will but lift our \neyes and see. It is that lifting 0} the eyes which is the first need and the first diffi\u00ac \nculty; we are so apt readily to be content with what we see within touch of our \nhands. It is the essential characteristic of the man of genius that he is compara\u00ac \ntively indifferent to that fruit which is just within touch , and hungers for that which \nis afar on the hills. In fact he does not need the sense of contact to arouse longing. \nHe knows that this distant fruit, which he perceives without the aid of the physical \nsenses, is a subtler and a stronger food than any which appeals to them. \n\n\u2014Through the Gates of Gold. \n\n\n\n\nConvictions and Controversies , by Ralph Adams Cram; Marshall Jones Com\u00ac \npany, Boston, 1935; price, $2.50. \n\nIn this age, when one has the impression, most of the time, of wandering \nthrough a lunatic asylum where the inmates are all standing on their heads, it \nis a profound pleasure to find a book like this. Mr. Cram, the well-known archi\u00ac \ntect, has published a collection of his articles and lectures. He says in his preface \nthat, although these writings were produced separately, they are related essen\u00ac \ntially by unity of thought. There is in them a certain amount of repetition of \nideas, but, far from being tedious, it serves to impress them more forcibly upon \nthe reader, like a recurring motif in a musical composition. \n\nThese ideas, the basic subject of the book, are: the decline and approaching \nend of our civilization, the cycles of civilization, and the standards and principles \nby which a real culture is built and judged. \n\nWhether he has worked them out independently or not, his conclusions accord \nwith those set forth by Sir Flinders Petrie. There would seem to be \u201ctides in the \naffairs of men\u201d, great waves of culture which rise to their apex and decline in \nperiods of approximately five hundred years. Mr. Cram, who treats here only of \nthe Western World, makes these cycles begin with the Third Dynasty in Egypt \nabout the year 3,000 b.c. It was then, according to him. that one of the world\u2019s \ngreatest architects, Imhotep, suddenly appeared. Either he came up from the \nmass level of Neolithic life, or the elements of civilization were brought over to \nEgypt by survivors of the lost Atlantis. Mr. Cram admits the Atlantean tra\u00ac \ndition, but seems to think that it survived in very few places, and that, betweej^ \nit and the beginnings of a new period of civilization, a \u201cpralaya\u201d or dark age or \nimmense duration had intervened. These five hundred year cycles are easily \ntraced from 3,000 b.c. to our own day, when we would seem to have ended such \na period and to be plunging into the darkness that follows and precedes a culture. \nThis theory of cycles is pre-eminently theosophical. \n\nMr. Cram attacks violently the nineteenth century doctrine of \u201cprogressive \nevolution\u201d, the optimistic and sentimental notion that every day in every way \nwe inevitably get better and better. He points out what should be obvious to \nevery student of history\u2014but, alas, is not\u2014that the ideals and artistic pro\u00ac \nductions of the year 3,000 b.c. are just as good as those of the year 1400 a.d. and \ninfinitely better than those of the year 1935. If humanity, as a whole, advances, \n\n\n\n\n81 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n82 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nit is by almost invisible stages. Indeed, he does not think that the mass of men \nhas advanced in the slightest, but that it is still in the Neolithic state, and he \nspeaks of it as the Neolithic Mass. This mass, he states, is not human at all. \nThis suggests the statements of The Secret Doctrine that the animal man does \nnot become a real human Man until he becomes a Master. According to Mr. \nCram, from the Neolithic Mass arise great beings of genius who do behave like \nhumans, and by them the achievements of the race are judged. In our time, this \nNeolithic Mass is in control. Its representatives sit in our parliaments and rule \nthe nations. \n\nNow that we have reached the extreme point of our cycle, when all standards \nof taste in morals, conduct and the arts are disappearing, when the political \nsituation is desperate and the economic crisis most acute, what shall we do? \nWhat can we do?< There is a passage often quoted from Through the Gates of Gold \nconcerning the civilizations which rise to their crest and decline because man \nrefuses to go on to a higher cycle. Will our civilization refuse to go on ? Will it \ntoo fall back into dissolution ? However, it is in the dark ages that the new cul\u00ac \nture is bom. When the empty forms of the old age are broken up on the compost \nheap, the seeds of new life are there germinating. While the Roman Empire \ndecayed, the splendour of the Middle Ages was slowly growing. Those who \npossess the treasures of the heritage of spiritual wisdom can hold them in their \nhearts and lives as in an ark, and can hand them on, perhaps in secret, to those \nwho are worthy to bear them forward into the new day. \n\nMr. Cram, as an architect, dwells primarily upon the saving grace of Beauty, \nand in his essay, Ordeal by Beauty , he suggests that one way of judging and \nappraising our productions in all fields is by subjecting them to the question: \nAre they beautiful? He says: \n\nBring up to the bar of the Courts of Beauty any one of the things that offend us \nto-day, no matter what this may be, and abide by the verdict rendered. For the sake of \nimpersonality let it be a modern city, anything from Somerville to Chicago, and what \nhas beauty to say in the premises? Before its austere regard\u2014for beauty is no tolerant \nsybarite\u2014the bold pleading of business efficiency, of plausible economic law, of material \nprogress, of a mechanistic philosophy of evolution\u2014of modernism in a word, falls thin \nand unconvincing. ... Is it unreasonable to urge that by the use of beauty as a standard \nof values and as a revelation of ideals, we may perhaps the more easily accomplish the \nrejection and abandonment of much that we now, in our heart of hearts, know to be \nunworthy, and that through the wise application of the same agency we might succeed in \nestablishing a more workable method of controlling the vagrant will of man? \n\nMr. Cram is too much of an artist to consider beauty as separate from the good \nand the true. He makes this clear: \n\nThe possession of beauty and the function of art are intimately and absolutely an \nintegral part of life itself, and are neither attainable nor usable\u2014nor even desirable\u2014 \nunless they are so related. . . . What was the greatest synthesis of beauty made opera\u00ac \ntive through art, that man has ever achieved? The answer is very simple, it was a \nGothic cathedral of the thirteenth century during a Pontifical High Mass, and some\u00ac \nwhere about the middle of the fourteenth century in England, or the fifteenth century \nin France or Spain. Every art raised to its highest point was here brought into play in \n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n83 \n\n\none place and associated in absolute union with the greatest beauty of thought, emotion \nand action that have ever been the possession of fallen man. Painting, sculpture, and a \nscore of exquisite minor arts, as those of glass, needlework and enamel, with the crafts \nof the goldsmith, the woodcarver and the bell-founder, were here co-ordinated through \nthe supreme power of the master-art of architecture in a unity that was almost divine \nin its perfection. To this unity entered other arts that they might breathe into it the \nbreath of life: music first of all, and poetry and the drama through the sublime liturgies \nand ceremonial that had grown up through a thousand years of striving and aspiration \nand the revelation that is their boon and reward. And all were for the exposition and \nrealization of the supreme beauty of spiritual things: the durable love of God for His \nchildren through the Sacrifice of Calvary, eternally renewed upon the altar, and the \nveritable presence of His Spirit through the miracle of the Mass. \n\nSt.C. LaD. \n\n\nFelicities of Thomas Traherne , chosen and edited with Introduction by Sir \nArthur Quiller-Couch; P. J. & A. E. Dobell, London, 1934; price, 35. \n\nMost of us have long been familiar with Centuries of Meditations , that book of \ndeep devotion and great beauty which has, by some, been favourably compared \nwith the Imitation. Now, in Felicities , we have a kind of anthology of Thomas \nTraherne\u2019s writings\u2014fragments of his prose, side by side with some of his \nshorter poems; a small book, not so much to read straight through, perhaps, \nas to dip into when one is quite alone. Thomas Traherne is said to have been a \nvery retiring and modest man, and his life was both brief and obscure, but like \nmany lovers of solitude (who are also so often lovers of nature), he had a certain \ngift of inner vision; he recognized with a kind of shy passion peculiarly his, \nthat behind all things lay a marvellous and mysterious unity. His were \u201cthe \nrapturous aspirings of a joyful and happy soul, conscious of its kinship with God \nHimself, and sure of its divinity and of its glorious destiny\u201d. Traherne was a \npoet in the truest sense of the word, not because he wrote charming verses in his \nyouth (for, as a matter of fact, his prose far outstrips his poetry in true value), \nbut because, whatever he saw or felt was illumined by the light of the spiritual \nworld. As a child particularly, the most ordinary objects upon which his eyes fell \nhad a kind of mystical significance\u2014they were always seen as part of the Whole. \nWriting of his earliest impressions he says: \u201cThe corn was Orient and Immortal \nWheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stoo^ \nfrom everlasting to everlasting. The Dust and Stones of the Street were as pnu# \ncious gold: the Gates were at first the End of the World. The Green Trees \nwhen I saw them first through one of the Gates Transported and Ravished me, \ntheir sweetness and unusual Beauty made my Heart to leap, and almost mad \nwith ecstasie, they were such strange and Wonderful Things. . . . Eternity was \nManifest in the light of the Day, and something infinite Behind everything \nappeared : which talked with my Expectation and moved my Desire. . . . The \nSkies were mine, and so were the Sun and Moon and Stars, and all the W r orld \nwas mine\u201d. There is a lilting beauty in Traherne\u2019s utterances which is charac\u00ac \nteristic of almost all he says. Thus in the Centuries we read: \u201cYour enjoyment \nof the world is never right till every morning you awake in Heaven; see yourself \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n84 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nin your Father\u2019s Palace; and look upon the skies, the earth and the air, as Celes\u00ac \ntial Joys: having such a revered esteem of all, as if you were among the Angels. \nHow like this in thought are the two lines in an early descriptive poem of his. \n\n\u201cAnd evry Stone, and Evry Star a Tongue, \n\nAnd evry Gale of Wind a Curious Song.\u201d \n\nHis was a living and a burning faith in the goodness of God the Father; he moved \nin eternity and so in celestial realms. In the introduction to this small book, \nSir Arthur Quiller-Couch says: \u201cTraherne died young: but the gods at his \nChristening must have loved him, to have endowed him with his angelic way of \nsaying things.\u201d We are much indebted to the editor of this delightful little book \nfor its carefully chosen selections, and the general arrangement of them. \n\nT.D. \n\n\nModern Trends in World-Religions , the Haskell Lectures in Comparative \nReligion, edited by A. Eustace Haydon; the University of Chicago Press, 1934; \nprice, $2.50. \n\nProfessor Haydon explains that \u201cwhen the Haskell Foundation was established \nforty years ago the hope of the founder was that a sympathetic interpretation of \nreligions would yield a spirit of good-will and mutual understanding between \npeoples of the East and West\u201d. Good-will and understanding are rare and \nprecious qualities in this sublunar world, for they are attributes of a highly \nevolved state of human consciousness which few individuals have attained. It is \nextremely doubtful whether wisdom has increased in the mass during the past \nhalf-century. Certainly there has been an almost universal subsidence of \nreligious intolerance; but these lectures reveal only too clearly the nature of the \ntolerance which now prevails. It is based, not upon good-will and understanding, \nbut upon scepticism and indifference. The lecturers are simply not interested in \nany speculations concerning the eternal truths or the divine revelations which \nmay be embodied in any religious tradition. Six of these traditions are examined \nin this volume\u2014Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hin\u00ac \nduism\u2014each by a \u201cspecialist\u201d; and the general conclusion seems to be that they \nare old-fashioned \u201cpatterns of thought and custom\u201d which must be transformed \nbeyond all recognition if they are to survive. An exception must be made for \nProfessor Pratt\u2019s admirable rdsumd of Buddhist thought, and there are occa\u00ac \nsional flashes of intuition even among those who speak on behalf of Christianity. \nHowever, the net impression remains, that these specialists have the same mea\u00ac \nsure of good-will and understanding towards the object of their study which they \nmight experience in the presence of a stuffed dodo in a museum. \n\nTheir active concerns are elsewhere, and within the sphere of these interests \nthey can become as dogmatic and as intolerant as their ancestors. All of them \nspeak of modem science with awe, and some of them seem to be obsessed by the \nMarxian myth of \u201csocial-economic progress\u201d. This is especially true of the \nProtestant apologists who seek to remould Christianity nearer to their hearts\u2019 \n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n85 \n\n\ndesire. The mission of Christianity, in their opinion, is to change the order of \nsociety, to re-distribute wealth in such a way that everyone will be able without \nstrain to satisfy all his material wants. They are so immersed in this problem \nthat they have not enough mental energy left to understand how and why \ntraditional religious teaching primarily offers comfort and sustenance not to the \nbody but to the soul. \n\nThe presence of ten just men in Sodom would have saved the Cities of the \nPlain from fire and brimstone. Surely it is credible that each of the world- \nreligions still contains a living nucleus of faith in the supremacy of spiritual \nvalues. The word \u201creligion\u201d includes a multitude of connotations. The religion \nof the sage or the mystic is not the same in form as the religion of the peasant or \nthe savage. Nevertheless, religious consciousness of every kind, the lowest as \nwell as the highest, is marked by some recognition, clear or dim, of the fact that \nthe material world to which our bodies belong is less real than the invisible world \nwhich is the source of all creative powers, including those of our own souls. Every \nreligious genius has toiled without intermission to combat the shallow materialism \nto which so many of the clergy are to-day reverting. \u201cThe darkness of ignorance\u201d, \nsaid Patanjali, \u201cis: holding that which is unenduring, impure, full of pain, not \nthe Soul, to be eternal, pure, full of jov, the Soul.\u201d \n\nS.V. \n\n\nI Speak for the Silent (Prisoners of the Soviets ), by Professor V. V. Tchemavin; \nHale, Cushman and Flint, Boston, 1935; price, $2.50. \n\nIf any reader of the Quarterly has acquaintances who do not realize the \ndiabolic cruelty of Soviet rule\u2014who think that \u201cafter all there is something to \nbe said for Communism\u201d, that \u201cthings are no worse in Russia to-day than they \nwere under the Czar\u201d\u2014we recommend, as an act of charity, the purchase and \ngift or loan of this book. It is a record, by an honest man, of his own experience. \nWe have never hesitated to say that Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and the rest of the \nbrood, dead or alive, are devils, and that Sovietism itself is the nearest known \napproach to hell on earth. Every additional demonstration of these facts is wel\u00ac \ncome. The pity of it is that so few people are sufficiently intelligent to see, \nbeneath the surface of such horrors, the proof that all class hatred, such as th^A \nencouraged by the American Federation of Labor, all demagogy, all robbit^ \nof the few for the alleged benefit of the many,\u2014lead directly to the same abyss. \n\nH. \n\n\nThe Civilization of the East: China , by Rend Grousset, translated by Catherine \nAlison Phillips; Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1934; price, $7.50. \n\nReaders of the earlier book, In the Footsteps of the Buddha , know that M. \nGrousset, in addition to great knowledge of his subject, possesses to a con\u00ac \nsiderable extent the faculty of looking within it. He obviously realizes that \na great art lifts a veil and discloses the heart of the people who produced it. \nIn this discussion of Chinese art, there lies the secret of that enigmatic \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n86 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nreserve and aloofness with which the East (China particularly) so often baffles \nthe West. The nation is shown to be, from prehistoric times, impregnated \nwith the sense of mystery, conscious of a Presence \u201cdivined rather than \nvisible . . . something immanent which refuses to clothe itself in concrete \nform\u201d. This fundamental quality in Chinese thought, the author endeavours \nto make clearer by comparison with the art of other lands: \n\nIs it that of Greece? The Zeus of Mylasa, the Aphrodite of Cnidus or of Melos, are \nbut flesh made marble. Or Egypt, with its colossi of the Pharaonic ages imposing \nthe precision of their lines upon us commandingly in the brilliant sunlight.\u201d Or India, \nwith the Buddha of Sarnath, the three headed Siva of Elephanta, the Manjusri of Ajanta, \nor the tender imaginings of Borobudur? In all of these we have humanity deified and \nmagnified till it reaches the very bounds of the cosmos, but, in spite of all, remaining \nhuman. In China, on the contrary, we have an intentionally indeterminate quality \nmaking itself felt, . . . only in order to conceal itself the more surely. ... We have \nhere an ideal of art consisting in mystery expressed in a form that is not concrete, of \nmystery in its entirety, dreaded or loved for its own sake, ... an art which succeeds in \nsuggesting and propounding in an abstract form the whole problem of destiny. \n\nThe early art\u2014bronzes, jades or sculptures\u2014is shown to be \u201celoquent of the \ndread power of those visions of terror, whether beasts, monsters or gods, which \nhaunted the Chinese imagination . . . not so much real creatures as embodied \nmenace and power.\u201d As the ages passed there came a gradual evolution: \n\nInstead of the mask of terror in which the primitive bronzists thought they saw the \nriddle for an instant face to face, we now see how, after ages of Taoist ecstacies and \nMahayanist tenderness, the T\u2019ang poets and their counterparts in painting, the Sung \nartists, discerned the soul of the cosmos in the lines of a landscape bathed in mist and \nlost in infinite distances, which make it as poignant as a human countenance. . . . The \nmystery of terror has become a metaphysical mystery. Terror before the unknowable \nAll has become transmuted in the course of the centuries into a passionate striving for \ncommunion with it. The Chinese aesthetic ideal, having exhausted all the possibilities \nof realism during six or eight centuries . . . was reverting to the most ancient element \nin its history: that is, to a conception of nature as animated by an immanent force. \n\nThe discussion of T\u2019ang and Sung poetry\u2014prose translations coupled with \nphotographs of the T\u2019ang, Sung and Ming landscapes which each inspired\u2014is \none of the most delightful portions of the book. While the avowed aim of the \nvolume is to serve as an introduction to Asiatic art, it possesses an additional \nappeal for students of Theosophy, because of its suggestive glimpses of the inner \ndevelopment of a people (the real source of all artistic expression)\u2014culminating \nin that serene atmosphere which the Chinese sages attained, and of which the \npoets wrote: \u201cI looked upon the flowers, as motionless as ourselves. I listened \nto the birds hovering in space; and I understood the great truth.\u201d \u201cMy soul \nhas soared beyond what is visible, at once wanderer and captive, in a wondrous \nravishment.\u201d J.C. \n\n\nwv52\\ \n\n\nQUESTIONS \n\n\n[aiiS \n\n\nQuestion No. 395 .\u2014In an issue of the Quarterly of several months ago, we were told of a \n\u201cgreat man \u201d who lived between 1760 and 1844, and who, being slanderously attacked, was presented \nwith a memorial, as an outraged protest from twenty-eight men in a small town. Would not this \nloyal protest, given voluntarily {in contrast to what H.P.B. received), mark them in future lives as \nbelonging to him? \n\nAnswer. \u2014There are so many unknown factors regarding the relationship between the \ntwenty-eight men who protested against the slanderous attack upon a \u201cgreat man\u201d that it \nwould seem to be idle speculation to try to imagine what their connection in a future life might \nbe. As one of the hall-marks of a member of the Lodge is said to be gratitude for a service \nrendered, it may be taken for granted that these men would be rewarded in some way by the \n\u201cGood Law\u201d, but whether they \u201cbelonged\u201d to any particular member of the Lodge, is a matter \nwhich would involve a much closer and more intimate relationship than that which prompted \nan act of common decency by neighbours. G.H.M. \n\nAnswer. \u2014The meaning of the question is not clear, for such a phrase as that used\u2014\u201cmark \nthem in future lives as belonging to him\u201d\u2014has, or should have, a very profound significance, \nand it might or might not apply to the case in question. Defence of someone wronged would \nnot of necessity establish so close a Karmic bond as this phrase implies, for an ardent con\u00ac \ndemnation of slander or injustice is the obvious moral duty of any and every one of us, and \nsome kind of Karma would probably be involved. The \u201cloyal protest\u201d might be the uncon\u00ac \nscious repayment of a past debt, or it might be merely in obedience to our own individual \nstandard of right action, thus creating good Karma for the future. But \u201cto belong\u201d to anyone, \nin the true sense, suggests hierarchical affinities\u2014a very deep and far-reaching matter indeed.. \nFor instance, the ch\u00a3la of one Master might defend the ch\u00a3la of another Master if slanderously \nattacked, but this would not mean that, because he had been loyal on general principles, h? \nwould therefore be transferred from his own Ray and from the Master to whom he really did \n\u201cbelong\u201d, to the Ray of that other ch\u00a3la, and to the keeping of that chela\u2019s Master. T.A. \n\nAnswer. \u2014This question opens a big subject and one of considerable conjecture. We \nknow how we are drawn to individuals whom we admire, and whose knowledge and judgment \nwe respect. We know, too, how we seek them out and arrange to meet with them as often as \npossible; how we try to follow their advice, and how we instinctively rise to their defence \nwhenever they are unjustly criticized or attacked. What is true of our affiliations, desires and \nactions in a given incarnation, may be equally true over a longer period embracing many \nincarnations. Quite naturally, then, we may reincarnate in groups, drawn together because of \nmutual interest and purpose, and thus be privileged to gather around, and to serve under, the \nsame leader or leaders who already have won our confidence, and who have been an inspiration \nto us in life after life. It seems probable, then, that the twenty-eight men mentioned in the \nquestion may have rallied around the \u201cgreat man\u201d many times before, and will have the \nprivilege of doing so many times again. Carrying the conjecture farther, it seems reasonable \n\n87 \n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n88 \n\nthat their vigorous and positive act on his behalf that time, may merit the opp ^ M ^ K \ncloser affiliation with him thereafter. \n\nAnswer.\u2014 It might well give to each of them the opportunity, in a fujure tunity wou id \n\ncontact with him again, perhaps to serve him. But the extent of this mi ia P ^ racter \n\ndepend, in each case, upon the motive of the signer of the and \n\nand the extent to which it was unselfish. One may have signed because> the oth ' \n\nbecause he wanted to follow along. Another, because it was a pi y 0 iav , \n\nthings so, and the protest would make everything comfortable again. But the \u2122\u00ae \nsigned because he was ablaze with anger and indignation at injustice, becau \nnail a lie ; because he believed with all his heart and soul in this \u201cgreat man , and wanted to go \non record that he did, and to support him;\u2014that man might well belong in a future life. \n\n\nQuestion No. 396 \u2014How may one best begin to serve the purposes of the T.S., when the pressure \nof temporal needs is great? \n\nAnswer. \u2014In the lives of many people to-day, the pressure of temporal needs is great \nindeed, so that it seems and may well seem, as if there were not a moment in which to do any\u00ac \nthing for the T.S. Let us all thank heaven that that is no barrier to work for the T.S. Right \naction in the face of temporal needs clearly is a duty\u2014and a duty, every duty, is an expression \nof the divine will for us. If, when we want to look at the morning paper, it be our duty instead \nto write a letter, that duty is the will of the divine for us, at that moment,\u2014the will of our \nhighest Self; and obedience to that will, instead of following the inclination of the personal \nself, is a direct contribution to the T.S. and to the Theosophical Movement. If there be \nsacrifice involved, then the greater the sacrifice, the greater the service. We can make our \ncontribution doubly effective if we choose mentally to direct it, or aim it, at any particular \npurpose. The desire that it be a contribution, is an extra gift in itself. The great pattern was \nlaid down for us in the \u201cWay of the Cross\u201d, to use Christian terms for the moment; the per\u00ac \nsonal self must be crucified if the immortal Self is to emerge. There can be no resurrection in \nspiritual consciousness, until the personal self is on the way to becoming dead,\u2014until the \ndemon of self-assertion and self-will and self-love has been dealt with and conquered. The \nWay of the Cross: there is no escape from it, and the whole world is trying to escape from it. \nTo most so-called Christians, all that is left of the Cross to-day is a way, they imagine, to evade \nthe consequences of their sins. True Christianity teaches no such thing. Christ, like all great \nAvatars, came into the world to point the way to victory, to point out how we could become \nmen, instead of the distorted images that we are. Do not let temporal needs hold us back. \nLet us thank heaven for our temporal needs: they are stepping stones toward our own immor\u00ac \ntality. Z. \n\nAnswer. \u2014Materialism dies hard! \u201cIt is not what is done, but the spirit in which the least \nthing is done, that counts.\u201d We can serve the purposes of the T.S. by following the Noble \nEightfold Path of Gautama Buddha: 1. Right view's. 2. High aims (or Right aspirations). \n3. Right speech. 4. Upright conduct. 5. Right livelihood. 6. Right effort (also translated \nas Perseverance in well-doing). 7. Right mindfulness (or Right recollection). 8. Right con\u00ac \ntemplation. We can also serve the purposes of the T.S. by trying to do all that we have to \ndo\u2014the most ordinary duties of life\u2014with the desire to please the Master whom we believe \nto be our Master,\u2014by doing ordinary things as we imagine he would like them done, gladly \nquickly, well. Incidentally, most people would never think of the spiritual world or of spirit\u00ac \nual purposes if it were not for \u201cthe pressure of temporal needs\u201d. Instead of regarding such \npressure as an obstacle, w\u2019e should humbly admit that we evidently need it just to be kept \ngoing. x. \n\n\nSTANDARD BOOKS \n\nBlavatsky, H. P. Isis Unveiled, Vois. I and II. 7.50 \n\nComplete in one book .. ^ 25 \n\nSEC^ \u201d3 \n\nTheosophical Glossary.\u2022.* 7 ..\u2019 \n\nTransactions of the Blavatsky Lodge.\u2018 \u2019 \n\nVoice of the Silence... .:*~r\u2019 \n\nCave. Fragments, Volume I . \u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022; ;\u00a3\u00a3\u00a3 \n\nvoiZe iii! ^7 \n\n\u00a7Kd' \u00ab\"secret b\u00ab .\u00a3 \n\nJohnston, Charles. Bhagavad Gita .TranJotad. limp leather, \n\nCrest Jewel of Wisdom, The. .. \n\nGreat Upanishads, The, Volume I.\u201cV; \n\no. T s\u00bb\u00bbs\u00bbv.\u00bb g\u00aba- :::: .eem; \u00bb\u2022\u00bb> ^ \n\nCulture of Concentration . Mper> \n\nMb, Volume IiU XU*- \n\nOcean of Theosophy \n\n\ncloth, \n\ndoth, \n\n\nKeighSy?ArchS A3 AN \u2122 ^ .m \n\n\nLaDow/Stanley V. Plotinus \n\n\nMitchell, Henry Bedinger. Meditation \n\n\n2.25 \n\n2.50 \n1.00 \n\n1.50 \n1.50 \n1.50 \n1.75 \n3.00 \nlo25 \n1.75 \n1.25 \n1.50 \n\n.50 \n\n1.25 \n\n.76 \n\n1.50 \n\n.25 \n\n.25 \n\n1.00 \n\n1.00 \n\n1.00 \n\n.20 \n\n.50 \n\n.50 \n\n.20 \n\n\nSpecial edition, .20> paper, \nand~Theosophy, The .... \n\nMitcheli, J. F. B. Collegiate Education and Standard ^ \nSinnett^L P.' Esoteric Buddhism.. \u2022 \u2022.\u00a3\u00a3 \n\nTorreyTB2y^E. RL S ciencb and it's Function in Education \n\nWalker, E. D. Reincarnation. *.\u25a0//\u201d//.. doth. \n\nIdyll of the White Lotus .\u201c '. leather, \n\nLight on the Path.. _ ... doth, \n\nThrough the Gates of Gold. \n\nthe quarterly book department, \n\nP. O. Box 64, Station O, New York. \n\n\n.10 \n\n2.50 \n\n2.50 \n\n.50 \n\n1.75 \n\n1.35 \n\n.85 \n\n1.20 \n\n\n_^ \n\n(bvotional: Bliagarad Gita; L.'Lettere cm the Path; The Par- \n\nblea of the Kingdom, The bong * rwerSne- Iris Unveiled; Eqr to ThWMfphy; \n\n\u2022bilosophical; Abridging oHhe Religion; Theosophical Glowary; \n\n>lotinu\u00bb:Reincarnation; The^crei \n\n[\u2022ransactions; Patanjali 3 ga _ irom the Orient; Esoteric Buddhto; \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFounded by 15* P* Blaoatsky \n\n\nT ^\u2014^ HE Society does not pretend to be able to establish \n\"it once /universal brotherhood among men, but \nonly strives to create the nucleus of such a body. \nMany of its members believe that an acquaintance \nBflBMEH with Y the world's religions and philosophies will \n\u00a3=\u00a3==* reveal, the common and fundamental P ri \u201c\u00abple \nunderlying these, that \u201cspiritual identity of all Souls with the \nOversoul \u201cwhich is the basis of true brotherhood; and many \nrf them also believe that an appreciation of the finer forces \nof nature and man will still further emphasize the same idea. \n\nThe organization is wholly unsectarian, with no creed, \ndogma, 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 which they desire for their own. \n\nThe following proclamation was adopted at the CJonvea* \n\n\nLIBRARY \nANDOVER NEWTON \ntheological school \n\n\nPUBLISHED BY \n\n\nTHE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY \n\n\nApplications (or membership should he addressed to the \nSecretary T. S., P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\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\nAct of?F&?s\u00a3. 0nCU, \u201c S ' natter September s - I9J 3- 01 th\u00bb Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the \nCopyright, 1936, by The Theosophical Society \n\n\nSubscription price, $2.00 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 subscriptions may be sent to John \nM. Watkins, 21 Cedi 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, S2.00, postpaid. \n\n\nCONTENTS OF VOL. XXXIII, NO. 2 \nApril, 1936 \n\nPAGE \n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS. 91 \n\nFRAGMENTS. ioi \n\nTHEOSOPHY. 102 \n\nCORNWALL AND ITS MAGIC. no \n\nCONFUCIUS, 1 . 117 \n\nTHE OAK AND THE NUTHATCH. 126 \n\nHISTORICAL MYSTERIES. I29 \n\n\u201cNATIONS CAN LIVE AT HOME\u201d. 136 \n\nWITHOUT CENSOR, VI. I40 \n\nINDRAWAL, OUR GREAT OPPORTUNITY. IS0 \n\nFLOWERS. IS3 \n\nREMARKS BY THE WAY. IJ9 \n\nREVIEWS. l68 \n\nQUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. I?4 \n\nIN MEMORIAM. I?s \n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES: Notices . 176 \n\n\n\u2022 I \n\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\nThe Theosophical Quarterly is the official organ of the original \nTheosophical Society founded in New York by II. P. Blavatsky, \n\nIV 0 Judge and others, in 1875 . . . \n\nWe have no connection whatsoever with any other organization \ncalling itself Theosophical, formerly headed by Mrs. Besant, nor \nwith Similar bodies, the purposes and methods of which are wholly \n\nforeign to our own. \n\nEditors, The TnEOsopnicAL 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\nNOTES*\u2122 COMMENT? \n\n\nAPRIL, 1936 \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\nNatural and Artificial Death \n\nE VERYTHING flows, nothing abides.\u201d All forms are fugitive and \nevanescent, subject to perpetual change and final decay. This is vis\u00ac \nibly true in the physical world, and experience testifies that our habitual \nstates of consciousness are as fluid as water. As the Buddhists have taught, \ndeath is the necessary complement of birth. There is a twilight, it is said, even \nfor the gods. \n\nThe spectacle of this universal flux has suggested many sad thoughts to the \npoets especially to those who have been captivated by the loveliness of so many \nearthly forms. It has always been a favourite, almost a conventional theme of \nlyric verse Eheu fugaces! Very few men in any age have discerned the stable \nand changeless noumenal Reality beyond the veil of phenomena. The vast \nmajority including many who should know better, refuse to think of these mat\u00ac \nters at all except under dire compulsion. Even among the clergy, there are \nthose who\u2019shun the idea of death like the plague, and who, in this respect, there\u00ac \nfore are morally inferior to the ancient Stoic whose doctrine of self-control \nprepared him to die, perhaps without hope but nevertheless with dignity an<^ \n\nwithout shameful fear. # ^ \n\nHowever Time is a moving image of Eternity, as Plato said. According to \nthe Mvster\u2019y Tradition which the Master Christ and other Avatars and Sages \nwe illustrated before the world, \u201cGod did not make death\u201d. Dens non fecit \nIn, What may be called natural death is thus merely the transition from \nrLseofSto another, the end of an old eycl, which blends into the \n\u00b0 . P \u25a0 T of a new It is, therefore, as \u201cnatural\u201d as the indrawal of a tree s \n\nhfeto the roots during winter, or as the suspension of the body\u2019s outer activities \nsl It is not death at all, if by this term we signify some loss of real \nSeriousness some permanent atrophy of creative power. \n\nThe death which man dreads and which he identifies with the destruction of \n\n\n\n\n91 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n92 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nall he holds dear, may be described as artificial in the sense that man has made \nit himself. It has, so to speak, entered like a foreign body into the organism \nof Nature. It seems evident that this artificial death is the logical consequence \nof an artificial life. It is the end to be expected for the \u201cpersonality\u201d which man \nfashions out of a congeries of illusions and false notions concerning himself and \nthe Universe to which he belongs. Theosophy teaches that it is this \u201cperson\u00ac \nality\u201d which fades out after the death of the physical body, and that there must \nensue a series of such deaths followed by as many reincarnations, each involving \na lapse of memory, an eclipse of the sense of continuous identity, until \u201ccyclic \nevolution has re-established the broken harmony between the two natures\u2014 \nthe terrestrial and the divine\u201d. \n\nThe Two Aspects of Shiva \n\nIn the light of this teaching, one can perhaps begin to understand, in some \nslight degree, part of what the Buddha meant when he referred to Nirvana as \nthe place from which there is no return. The Bodhisattva transforms himself \nwithout cessation into an ever more perfect image of the \u201cBuddha-ideal\u201d, but \nhe is freed from the dominion of \u201cartificial death\u201d, from the particular type of \nreincarnation to which man must conform as long as he tries to live outside the \norder of Divine Nature. \n\nIn Hindu mythology, the great god Shiva, one of the principles of universal \nNature (the third person of the Hindu Trinity), has two aspects. He is the \nDestroyer, and also the Regenerator. As the former, he often seems to rep\u00ac \nresent for certain fanatics and perverted minds, what has been named the \n\u201cnight-side of Nature\u201d. He is, in this aspect, a personification of destruction \nconceived as an end in itself. He presides over every calamity, devouring what\u00ac \never he touches, whether it be good or evil. But as the Regenerator, he is the \npatron of Yogis and ascetics, of all who seek, through the elimination of evil from \ntheir natures, \u201cto re-establish the broken harmony\u201d in their lives. Like Y&ma in \nthe Katha Upanishad , he is the Lord of Death who can bestow the gift of con\u00ac \nscious immortality. \n\nThere is a saying of the old magicians, that \u201cman is the thaumaturge of the \nearth\u201d. He can evoke any force in Nature, and according to the quality and \nstrength of his imagination, desire and will, that force will operate in and through \nhim, for good or for ill. It is well to remind ourselves that, at every instant of \nthe day, we are calling upon Shiva for re-inforcement. To which aspect do we \nappeal, to the Destroyer or to the Regenerator? \n\nThe Creators and the Destroyers \n\nMadame Blavatsky points out what should be obvious, that life is main\u00ac \ntained by a balance between creative and destructive powers. \u201cNothing is \nbom into this world, save by the death of some other thing.\u201d Within every \norganism there is a continuous process of molecular displacement and cellular \nchange. The form of the body can only be built and preserved, if its substance \nbe unremittingly consumed by living fire. \n\n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n93 \n\n\nWe are taught that every physiological change, in addition to pathological phenomena, \ndiseases\u2014nay, life itself, or rather the objective phenomena of life, produced by certain \nconditions and changes in the tissues of the body, which allow and force life to act in \nthat body\u2014that all this is due to those unseen \u201cCreators\u201d and \u201cDestroyers\u201d, which are \ncalled, in such a loose and general way, microbes. It might be supposed that these Fiery \nLives and the microbes of Science are identical. This is not true. The Fiery Lives are the \nseventh and highest subdivision of matter, and correspond in the individual with the \nOne Life of the Universe, though only on that plane of matter. The microbes of Science \nare the first and lowest subdivision on the second plane\u2014that of material Prana, or Life. \nThe physical body of man undergoes a complete change of structure every seven years, \nand its destruction and preservation are due to the alternate functions of the Fiery Lives, \nas Destroyers and Builders. They are Builders by sacrificing themselves, in the form of \nvitality, to restrain the destructive influence of the microbes, and by supplying the \nmicrobes with what is necessary, they compel them under that restraint to build up the \nmaterial body and its cells. They are Destroyers also, when that restraint is removed, \nand the microbes, unsupplied with vital constructive energy, are left to run riot as \ndestructive agents {The Secret Doctrine , ed. 1893, I, 282-283). \n\n\u201cAs above, so below.\u201d The laws of evolution are fundamentally identical upon \nall planes. The creation or destruction of a human character illustrates these \nprinciples as clearly as the transformations of the human body. There is an anal\u00ac \nogy between the \u201cFiery Lives\u201d and the \u201cseventh and highest subdivision\u201d of every \nindividual consciousness, the plane of the purest ideals which, like the \u201cFiery \nLives\u201d, make manifest the \u201cOne Life of the Universe\u201d, the ideals which we \nmost truly love and which kindle into flame our will and aspiration. We know, \neven from our limited experience, that moral and mental disintegration is held in \ncheck whenever there is a sincere aspiration by any man to embody the highest \npurpose which he can conceive. As the Sages have taught, he who is afire with \ndisinterested love of an ideal, does not decay with his physical body. Fie is, in \nhis own individuality, immune to \u201cmicrobes\u201d, for he subjects to a creative \npurpose whatever enters the field of his consciousness. Is it not the secret of \nreal growth, that throughout all cyclic mutations it progressively illustrates an \nideal form, a noumenon, an inner principle, a Logos? \n\nMicrobes in the Body Politic \n\nFor the race and nation, as for the individual, creative action depends upojn \nthe recognition of such an inner principle and upon the continued act ol se^ \nsacrifice, \u201cin the form of vitality\u201d, which makes possible the impression of an \nideal form upon \u201cmatter\u201d. It is painfully apparent that the general average of \nso-called human beings has always been incapable of individual creative effort. \nBut the elemental state of this \u201cNeolithic Mass\u201d, as Mr. Cram calls it, has only \neffectively checked the growth of a civilization, when authority and control \nover it have been taken away from the few who have preserved some under\u00ac \nstanding of its inner principle. When the standards of the \u201cNeolithic Mass\u201d \nbecome dominant in a society, a condition occurs which seems to correspond \nto what happens when a physical body is delivered to the unchecked ministra\u00ac \ntions of the microbes that populate it. The body politic serves as the host \nfor myriads of undeveloped entities which, left to themselves, cannot build but \n\n\n94 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ncan only tear down what already exists. When the process of the re-distribu\u00ac \ntion of wealth\u201d is completed, even the simulacrum of civilization disappears. \nWhatever was real in the old civilization will have resumed its series of rein\u00ac \ncarnations elsewhere. \n\nWhen the inner principle of a civilization ceases to act effectively, because \nthere is no longer a vision or an aspiration or a spirit of self-sacrifice which \nresponds to it, the \u201cbody\u201d which is left can only live as long as it can feed upon \nitself. This is made clear in a passage from The Secret Doctrine , following what \nhas just been quoted. Incidentally, this passage suggests an interesting parallel \nbetween the effects of the \u201cre-distribution of wealth\u201d upon the life of a nation \nand the physical corruption which ensues when the cells of the body begin to \nrob one another of oxygen. \n\nThe restraining influence of the Fiery Lives on . . . the microbes is confirmed by \nthe fact mentioned in the theory of Pasteur . . . that the cells of the organs, when \nthey do not find sufficient oxygen for themselves, adapt themselves to that condition \nand form ferments , which, by absorbing oxygen from substances which come in contact \nwith them, produce their destruction. Thus the process is commenced by one cell rob\u00ac \nbing its neighbour of the source of its vitality, when the supply is insufficient; and the \ndestruction so commenced steadily progresses. \n\nInflammation of the Intellect \n\nIt is commonly stated to-day that we are living in the most vital age since \nthe beginning of history. The idea is, of course, suggested by the extraordinary \nachievements of applied science, which are still multiplied almost daily, as well \nas by the ever-accelerated tempo of social change to which we are obliged to \nadapt our fashion of living from hour to hour. A little reflection, however, \nshould bring the realization that rapid change is not necessarily a sign of rapid \ngrowth. Decay can proceed at least as quickly as growth. \n\nDestruction may wear the appearance of creation, as a fever may impart to \nits victim a semblance of renewed animation. Several observers of contemporary \nsocieties have felt obliged to conclude that the moral life of modem man is con\u00ac \nstantly agitated because it is actively disintegrating. It is as if his creative \nfaculties had become over-specialized by their excessive concentration upon \nproblems of physical invention. So much mental energy has been devoted to \nthe exploitation of the material world that when men are compelled by circum\u00ac \nstances to decide even a simple moral problem they find it increasingly difficult \nto think clearly or to make any decision. To excuse their failure, they fre\u00ac \nquently find it convenient to pretend that no permanent ethical standards exist. \n\nCertain modern educators issue statements from time to time, which suggest \nthat their chief objective is to undermine any faith in moral values which the \nyouth entrusted to their charge may possess. \u2018\u2018My idea of education\u201d, the \nPresident of the University of Chicago was recently quoted as saying, \u201cis to \nunsettle the minds of the young and to inflame their intellects.\u201d So one might \nargue that the aim of a physician is to make people sick. Dr. Hutchins\u2019s remark \nis unfortunately typical of the sort of reasoning which prevails among the more \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n95 \n\n\nvocal educators of to-day, if not among the majority. It indicates the degree \nto which destructive has displaced constructive thinking in all branches of \nhuman activity, with the exception of the exact sciences. Men do not try to \n\u201cinflame their intellects\u201d when they compute strains and stresses. The engineer \nis one of the very few stabilizing influences in the modern world, at least in so \nfar as he confines himself to the sphere of his science, where he recognizes eternal \nprinciples and obeys them. When he ventures to discuss ethics or sociology, \nhe is, of course, capable of uttering as many imbecilities as anyone else. \n\nA Defence of Nightmares \n\nThe ancient Hindu psychologists taught that there are three primary states \nof consciousness in Nature, the waking, the dreaming and the dreamless. All \nmen know the first two which correspond to the physical and psychic or subjec\u00ac \ntive phases of our ordinary life. Only a few, a very few, have knowledge of \ndreamless consciousness in a personal sense, although, according to this Eastern \ndoctrine, every soul enters this condition in deep sleep. Before dreamlessness \ncan be understood, the dream-world must be conquered. That is man\u2019s imme\u00ac \ndiate task as it has been for ages. \n\nTo dream means more than to pass into the state, best known during sleep, \nwhen the outer senses are numbed and the subjective world of our mind-images \nassumes a temporary objective form. To dream, in the broader sense of the \nterm, is to imagine, to reflect in a mental image, usually more or less distorted, \nsome actual existent thing in physical nature, or some spiritual reality which \nhas its being in the Nature above and beyond the sphere of dreams. Men \ndream continually, whether their eyes be open or shut. Everything depends \nupon the substance of their visions, upon the quality of the things mirrored. \n\nThere are nightmares, for instance, states of delirium, which have been tra\u00ac \nditionally supposed to be undesirable. It remained for an Episcopalian Bishop \nto assure us that nightmares are better than no dreams at all, that the important \nthing is to dream about something, no matter how terrible. We quote from \nthe New York Times , July 29, 1935 : \n\nThe Right Rev. Warren L. Rogers, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Ohio, in a serm^ \nat St. Bartholomew\u2019s Church, after asserting that America needed a more definite social \nfaith, praised Communist Russia, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy for setting definite \nsocial objectives. After referring to patriots who had the faith to make their dreams come \ntrue, Bishop Rogers said: \n\n\u201cSo men dream in our day. They are dreaming in Russia that way now. We may \nnot like their dream, but certainly it is giving a meaning, a purpose in life the Russian \npeasant never had before. It is the audacity of his faith. They are doing the same thing \nin Germany and Italy. We do not have the same type of imagination, or else the dreams \nof our patriots have ceased. But we will one day dream in America. We will have the \naudacity of faith, the daring faith to believe.\u201d \n\nOne wonders whether the Bishop has the least notion what Christianity is \nabout, or what is really occurring in Russia and Germany. If one were to seek \nillustrations of the destruction of the body politic by \u201cmicrobes\u201d, one would \n\n\n9 6 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\ninstinctively turn first of all to those unhappy lands. They are examples of \nliving death, of a moral decay which has taken place under the eyes of the world \nand has virtually run its full course during one generation. How has all this \ncome to pass? By the power of dreams; but of what dreams! Dreams of envy \nand malice, of revenge and wounded self-esteem, of blood-lust and sadist cruelty! \nThe Germans and Russians appealed to the Destroyer, and he has answered. \n\nThe Chemical Revolution \n\nIt is not fair to say that Americans do not also have dreams of social objec\u00ac \ntives\u201d, although they are less proficient in the art of generating nightmares \nthan the Germans and Russians. It is characteristic of the American\u2019s attach\u00ac \nment to concrete tangible goods, that he tends to look to applied science for the \nfinal solution of all social problems. It is seriously believed by many that tech\u00ac \nnological improvements, coupled with new discoveries, will ultimately make it \npossible for every member of society to live in security and comfort, with a \nminimum of labour and a maximum of leisure, his most burdensome task being \nto choose how he will amuse himself. \n\nThere is an article in Harper's Magazine , August, 1935, which lends a certain \nappearance of substantiality to the notion that before many years will have \nelapsed the food supply of the world will be greatly increased by chemical means. \nIt bears the formidable title: \u2018\u2018Chemistry Wrecks the Farm\u201d. The authors, \nMessrs. Wayne W. Parrish and Harold F. Clark, do not consider the possible \neffects of this chemical revolution upon human consciousness. They are con\u00ac \ncerned with what is actually happening to agriculture and with certain imme\u00ac \ndiate economic effects. \n\nAs they suggest, the productivity of the soil has been greatly increased during \nrecent years by intensive cultivation, and it is estimated by experts that Amer\u00ac \nican agriculture is \u2018\u2018only 11.3 per cent efficient to-day on the scale of the most \nefficient methods\u201d. Also there is a steady increase of synthetic foods produced \nin the laboratory and the factory. Finally, there is the most serious threat of \nall to the farmer, the transfer of farming itself to the laboratory and the factory. \n\nControlled agriculture . . . opens the way to fresh crops every few weeks all the \nyear round. Since soil is almost useless anyway, the plants are grown without it in \nmetal trays in ovenlike cabinets. The plants supply their own heat, and only a few \nhours of work daily are needed to supply water to the trays, in which have been placed \na few ounces of chemical food in powder form, there being a different chemical food for \neach kind of crop. These cabinets, each containing ten trays, providing a fresh crop \nevery day with a ten-day rotation, are finding increased popularity on farms in England, \nDenmark, and Germany, where they are used for growing fodder crops. . . . The crop \ngrows miraculously. A tray of seed-corn begins to sprout within a few hours and in ten \ndays is a foot high. The seed germinated is said to produce five times the volume of \nseed planted in the ground. . . . Experiments are being conducted in England in the \ngrowing of fresh vegetables, with the prediction that the time is not far off when the \nhouseholder can grow his own year-round supply of greenstuffs in his kitchen or base\u00ac \nment in a cabinet resembling an ice-box or electric refrigerator. \n\nThere are some people who find the whole process of growing plants without \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n97 \n\n\nsoil or sunlight repellent and fundamentally unsound in principle. It is at least \nplausible to assume that certain indispensable properties are imparted to vege\u00ac \ntation by direct sunlight, which can be imparted in no other way. It is not \nimprobable that time itself, however inconvenient it may be, is likewise a factor \nin developing the nutritive values of plants. We know very little about these \nthings, far less than we think we do. It is conceivable that a race of men living \nupon this metal-tray diet, would shortly become as abnormal, as sunless as the \npoor vegetables themselves. Incidentally, it might be argued, whenever man \nconverts a plant or animal into a monstrosity, he fails in his duty towards the \nlower kingdoms and sins against the order of Nature. \n\nNature is capable of many ironies. It is not unimaginable that the last act of \nthis civilization might be the apparent settlement, once for all, of the age-old \nproblem of providing sufficient physical food for everybody. It would then be \nnecessary for men to prove that they could continue to live without spiritual \nfood, for there is no sign that the chemical revolution will help them in this \nrespect. As a matter of fact, the worry and strain which follow through life \nthe man who must somehow earn his bread, may be his only preservation from \ninsanity. If he be delivered from these, he can lose his sole claim to human \ndignity. In any event, even our own declining civilization would be preferable \nto one where material abundance seemed to be assured for ever, but counter\u00ac \nbalanced by an equally assured condition of spiritual dearth. Imagine a gov\u00ac \nernment whose primary function would be to regiment \u201crecreation\u201d for every\u00ac \nbody! If the citizens of that Utopia did not find relief from boredom by tearing \none another to pieces, a natural calamity, like that which destroyed Atlantis, \nwould be reserved for them. \n\nThe Ideal of the Knight-Errant \n\nCertainly a real civilization may be said to be always the creation of a dream, \nbut this dream cannot be of a mere physical Utopia, communist or fascist or \nscientific. A civilization is not an easy thing to create, as becomes evident if \nwe reflect upon the labour and pain which alone made possible the re-birth of \nEurope during the centuries of night that separated the twilight of the Roma^ \nEmpire from the dawn of mediaeval culture. The labour and pain were assurqi^ \nby those who were willing to sacrifice themselves, \u201cin the form of vitality\u201d, for \nthe sake of a positive Christian ideal which they never lost from view in the \nmidst of the blackness. Legend, which may reveal facts that academic history \noverlooks, recorded this victory of light over darkness in the chansons de geste , \nthe great Arthurian cycle, and the tales of knight-errantry. \n\nIt is significant that the knight-errant or his counterpart appears in the epic \npoetry of all races as a light-bearer in some age of darkness. It is he who is ever \nready to respond to the call of beauty and truth in distress, and who fights \nalone and unaided against the dark powers personified by sorcerers and dragons \nand giants. But though he is most often seen as a solitary figure traversing a \nwilderness, he is yet not as lonely as he seems, for he belongs in fact to a brother\u00ac \nhood, to a fraternity of heroes. Some of the most moving scenes in the romances \n\n\n9 8 \n\n\nTHE0S0PH1CAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nof chivalry represent two of these men meeting, recognizing each other, ex\u00ac \nchanging a few grave courtesies, and then riding off again on their separate \nways. \n\nCenturies passed, and the dream of the knight-errant, the ideal of selfless \ndedication to the beautiful and true and good, began to seem unreal. The \ngenius of Cervantes has left an enduring record of this fading of a vision. Don \nQuixote, the Knight of the Sad Countenance, is one of the most tragic figures in \nliterature. He tried to re-live the chansons de geste , and failed amid universal \nridicule and contempt. Even his creator dared not represent him otherwise \nthan as a lunatic. But the mediaeval audience did not imagine that Percivale or \nRoland or Amadis de Gaule was insane. Herein lies one distinction between \nthe mediaeval and the modem points of view, a distinction which has become \nincreasingly manifest since Cervantes\u2019s time. The men of the twelfth century \nwere guilty of cruelty, violence, treachery, of any and every vice; but even the \nworst of them seem to have conceded some superiority to gentleness and honour \nand loyalty. Thus the ideal of the knight-errant was respected, though it was \nvery rarely pursued. The men of the Renaissance had other dreams. They \nwere bewitched by the possibilities of aggrandizement and sensuous gratifica\u00ac \ntion, which the re-discovery of forgotten arts and sciences, and the conquest of a \nnew continent, opened before them. Any chivalric code which blocked their \npurpose inevitably became a subject for satire. To-day the exigencies of chiv\u00ac \nalry rest so lightly upon us that they are not even a subject for satire. \n\nThe Lost Canon of Proportion \n\nOne finds many references to-day in books, periodicals, newspapers, even in \neconomic bulletins, to analogies between the political and social changes which \nwe are undergoing and the phenomena of decadence as revealed by the study of \nearlier historical cycles, notably in Greece and Rome. It would be well to bal\u00ac \nance the thoughts thus suggested by a course of reading which might help us \nto understand how the genius of civilization can be revived. We need only turn \nto a few of the greatest classics,\u2014Confucius, the Zend Avesta , the Bhagavad \nGita , the Buddhist Suttas, Homer and Hesiod, Plutarch, the Romances of \nchivalry, St. Augustine, Dante, the New Testament. \n\nWhat do these classics reveal? What is the \u201clost canon of proportion\u201d which \nwe vaguely sense in Gregorian music, in the temple at Paestum and the cathedral \nof Chartres, in the painting of Giotto, in the life of St. Francis of Assisi? We \nmust contemplate beauty and truth in a spirit like that of the knight-errant \nbefore we shall find the answer or be able to understand it, if it be given to us. \n\nA penetrating study of the spiritual deficiency of the modem mind is pre\u00ac \nsented in an article by M. J. Fiolle on \u201cMachinism and the Spirit of the Con\u00ac \ntemporary Sciences\u201d, Le Machinisme et VEsprit des Sciences Contemporaines , in \nthe Mercure de France , July i, 1935. M. Fiolle suggests that the excesses of \napplied science, the horrors of the machine age, are not an accidental by-product \nof pure science; that, on the contrary, the spirit of pure science and the spirit \nof applied science are identical because they originated in the same state of mind, \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n99 \n\n\nin the humanism and rationalism which began definitely to colour European \nthought during the fourteenth century and became dominant in the sixteenth, \nthrough the two-fold medium of the Renaissance and the Reformation. His \nmost interesting point is that humanism and rationalism did not begin as ex\u00ac \npressions of revolt against \u201cmedicevalism\u201d, although later they clearly assumed \nthe appearance of rebellion. They came into being rather as the result of men\u2019s \ndesperate efforts to find some substitute for a metaphysical vision which they \nhad lost. They were invented, as it were, to satisfy the human need for some \nkind of religion. As the intuition of the Divinity in Nature and man became \ndim, there began a frantic search for some object upon which devotion could \nbe lavished. The object which they found was human nature as a thing-in- \nitself; and it is to human nature that the leaders of Occidental thought have \nburned incense ever since, even when there has been the pretence that homage \nwas being offered to the Divinity. It might be noted that the same substitution \nof man for God has occurred many times in history, in China, in Egypt, in India, \nin Greece. It marks the moment when a civilization begins to decline, because \nit signifies an obscuration of the purpose for which that civilization exists. \u201cThe \nage of retrogression commences, and the work of the Fiery Lives exhausting \ntheir strength, the work of destruction and decrease also commences.\u201d \n\nWe quote some of M. Fiolle\u2019s reflections, suggesting that special attention \nshould be paid to his explanation of the principal cause of the failure of mediae\u00ac \nval man to preserve the spiritual treasure which he had accumulated. \n\nWe cannot explain the sixteenth century by the too easy assumption that there was a \n\u201cmonstrous development\u201d of the sciences, for this development came only three cen\u00ac \nturies later. No, the spirit only had changed, though hesitantly as yet and merely \nsketching a tendency. . . . For profound reasons, the soul of the Middle Ages was \nexhausted, and when man finds himself deprived of one of the necessary elements of his \nlife, he always discovers in himself or about himself a means of supplying what he lacks. \n\n. . . Let us see if it be possible to discern the reasons for the enfeeblement, if not the \ntotal disappearance of the spiritual forces which leave so unique an imprint upon the Mid\u00ac \ndle Ages. First, let us recognize that what is called \u201cspirituality\u201d does not always have \nan isolated existence or . . . precise contours. Spirituality impregnates, in various de^ \ngrees, the most realistic conceptions, our most positive science, and even the acts of tho# \nwho, if they paid any attention to it, would despise it the most. There is no human act \nabsolutely withdrawn from this dominion, just as absolute blackness apparently does not \nexist. . . . But there is a form of spirituality which is characterized by a certain inten\u00ac \nsity in the attitude of the soul, by a determined metaphysical point of view; and the \nsupreme expression of this attitude is realized in ecstasy, that is to say, in the \u201cdirect \nknowledge\u201d of that which escapes the reason. . . . This mysticism and this spirituality \n[of the Middle Ages] were bathed in the atmosphere of Catholicism. Certainly, it is \nwithout doubt true that human thought was never more free than during these centuries \nwhich we understand so little. . . . But the liberty of mediaeval man was exercised, \nwithout his even suspecting it, within the limits and under the action of religious dogma; \nalthough there was not even here any restriction, for there is no restraint where there is \nfree acceptance. . . . Spirituality and Catholicism were virtually one. Thus one ends \nby suspecting that if spirituality underwent a decline, the cause must be sought in an \ninternal, perhaps momentary disorganization of Catholicism during that epoch. . . . \nTo proceed directly to the point, I shall simply remark that at the end of the Middle Ages \n\n\nIOO \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthe Church sufered from an excess of temporal power. . . . The spirit of the Middle Ages \ndisappeared or was temporarily eclipsed, because this spirit, devoted to direct knowl\u00ac \nedge\u201d, was identified with the structure of Catholicism, and because Catholicism itself, \nthe victim of its too brilliant success in the temporal domain (which is not its proper \nrealm), lost in secret vigour what it gained in material authority. \n\nMaterialism thus entrenching itself at the summit of mediaeval society, grad\u00ac \nually conquered, virtually, the whole domain of the Western mind, with the re\u00ac \nsult that to-day we have \u201creligions\u201d of science, of social-mindedness, of fascism, \nof communism, of racism, of pacifism, of everything except the Real. As M. \nFiolle points out, there is but one way of escape. We must recover the art of \n\u201cdirect knowledge\u201d of spiritual things. We must regain the use of the intuitive \nsenses which we have allowed to become dormant. This does not mean the \ndisappearance of science any more than it means the suppression of the faculty \nof reason. It merely signifies that science must cease to be a \u201creligion\u201d, that \nit must return to a secondary position in the scale of values, where it will no \nlonger usurp the prerogatives of intuitive wisdom. \n\nThe Quest of Direct Knowledge \n\nThere are more advantages than we realize in being alive during this age of \nthe world. If we so will, the quickened tempo of decay can be converted into \nan equal tempo of creation. It is most significant also, as has been said, that \nmen of science themselves, after centuries of materialistic speculation, have \nreached the conviction that the material world is not a thing-in-itself but a \nvoid, which must be filled by consciousness before it can be said even to exist. \nSuch a conception of the voidness of the world has come to other men in other \nepochs, most often towards the end of a cycle before the commencement of \nanother period of exfoliation. One recalls the doctrine of sunyata or emptiness \nwhich inaugurated the most brilliant period in Buddhist philosophy, and the \nNeoplatonic identification of \u201cpure matter\u201d with absolute non-being. \n\n\u201cSpirituality in its religious as in its other forms, is a rare flower which can \nonly open in the atmosphere of concentration.\u201d That is what Theosophy, \nunder many aspects, has taught through the centimes. The modem world, \nwith all its plans and agitations, is as empty as the \u201celementals\u201d, the \u201cmicrobes\u201d, \nwhich are disrupting the dead forms from which the Spirit has departed. But \nthe eternal principles upon which all living forms of beauty and truth are based, \ncan be found now as always by those who*seek ardently enough, enveloping \nthemselves in \u201cthe atmosphere of concentration\u201d. They can never be found by \nsocial planning or by regimentation of any kind. The quest of \u201cdirect knowl\u00ac \nedge\u201d can only be accomplished by a group of free individuals united, like the \nknights-errant of the Dark Ages, by a common devotion to an ideal and to a \nMaster. Then once again it will be possible to fill the void with true dreams, \nwith images of the divine possibilities in man and Nature, for a new under\u00ac \nstanding of the \u201clost canon of proportion\u201d will have been acquired. Thus man \nmay advance one stage further towards the attainment of \u201cNormal Clairvoy\u00ac \nance\u201d which, according to The Secret Doctrine , is the next sense to be developed. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFRAGMENTS \n\n\nB LESSED are those who, in advancing years, see with dim eyes a light on \ntheir horizon, hear with dim ears a Voice that calls and calls; and seeing, \nhearing, rise and seek and follow, though their steps be slow and wavering, \n\u2014groping hands outstretched in the gathering darkness, while the chilled heart \nbeats fitfully. \n\nBlessed are they; for those of the eleventh hour received each man his penny. \n\nBlessed are they who, in the meridian of life, in the heat and dust of the \nmarket-place, catch a reflection of the light that never was on sea or land, or the \necho of a melody played on a Shepherd\u2019s pipe to lure some wandering sheep back \nhome again. And who then arise and follow, leaving their dreams of ambition \nand wealth, leaving the familiar, the attained, the long-desired, for more distant \ndreams, and vaguer,\u2014for sounds heard only within, and often lost. \n\nBlessed are they, whatever their toil, for great shall be their reward. \n\nBlessed, aye blessed are they, who, in the early dawn of life and consciousness, \nturn eager eyes and ears and hearts to the lights they see in the rippling lights of \nsunshine, to the Voice which is the undertone of all sweet sounds, piercing with \ninner joy each opening sense, thus closing them all to outer expression for ever! \n\nBlessed, aye blessed are they, whatever burden of sorrow they carry; for my \nburden, saith One, is easy,\u2014who should know, who makes it easy; since the \nsense of Him, in presence or absence, is the essence of all delight. \n\nCav\u00a3. \n\n\nioi \n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHY \n\nINSPIRATION AND INCARNATION* \n\n\nI T HAS been our custom, at the opening meeting of each season, to speak of \nthe Society itself, of what it is, and particularly of what it is not, and also \nto speak, in a very general sense, of Theosophy, and what we, who are \nmembers of the Society, mean by that term. \n\nFirst, of the Society: it is quite venerable now, even if we look only to its \npresent incarnation, going back to 1875. It has often been pointed out that the \nintervening years have revolutionized the intellectual atmosphere of Western \nculture, and that one result of this has been partially to obscure the significance \nof the principles on which our Society was founded. It is easy to-day, when \nthe world is largely indifferent to all matters of religion, to command religious \ntolerance. It was not so easy a half century ago, when matters of belief were \nmatters of moment\u2014to the world, even as they have always been of profound \nmoment to us\u2014and The Theosophical Society had to grow up in the middle \nground of very bitter controversy between the dogmatism of religion and the \nequal dogmatism of an adolescent and very bumptious science, each vociferous \nwith the most definite assertions as to what was, and what was not, eternal \ntruth. It is the more noteworthy, therefore, that the Society has, from its \nfoundation, sought to get behind all self-assertive partisanship, and to establish \nand maintain a free and open platform. It has no dogma, nor creed, nor per\u00ac \nsonal authority, nor set forms of belief which it desires to impose. No member \ncan commit it in matters of belief. Each of us speaks here for himself, pre\u00ac \nsenting his own individual view of life and truth. None of us can say with \nauthority, \u201cThis is Theosophy; this is what the Society believes.\u201d \n\nBut this does not mean that we have not, in these sixty years, arrived at \nsome very definite conclusions from our studies and experiments, or that we are \nourselves without proof of what we may advance, to others, as but a possible \nhypothesis. The exact opposite is the fact, and our restraint of statement is \nmore properly attributable to the awareness and experience we have gained of \nsomething which we find too big to be expressed to our satisfaction in any single \nset of terms or formulas. The word \u201cTheosophy\u201d signifies Divine Wisdom, \nor wisdom of divine things, and The Theosophical Society is a society formed to \nseek such wisdom, which must be something much more than a mere collection \nof words. The more that we gain of wisdom, the less willing we become to sub\u00ac \nstitute formulas for it, and we strive to use words only as pointers to a Truth \nwhich lies behind them, and which every man must learn to see for himself \nbefore it can be of value to him. A fourfold activity results, which has been \ndescribed as beginning in an intellectual attitude toward truth, and passing \n\n* From the stenographic notes of a recent address by Mr. H. B. Mitchell at a meeting of the New York Branch \nof The Theosophical Society. \n\n\n102 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHY \n\n\n103 \n\nthence into a practical method of looking for it, and an ethical spirit of obe\u00ac \ndience to it, until at last it becomes a religious life, in unison with it. \n\n\u201cTheosophy\u201d, Divine Wisdom: to-day neither \u201cwisdom\u201d nor \u201cdivinity\u201d are \nwords that the world commonly uses, or that it understands very well. \u201cWorldly \nwisdom\u201d, yes. It thinks it knows what that means; but \u201cDivine Wisdom\u201d, or \n\u201cWisdom\u201d in and of itself, how can the world know of that? What is meant \nby \u201cdivine\u201d? We may well hesitate to attempt a definition; but there are at \nleast certain ways in which we, as members of the Society, would not use it, and \none of them is the way in which I heard it used the other day in a restaurant: \n\u201cIs not this chicken salad too utterly divine!\u201d Yet even this devotee of salad \nwould doubtless have given intellectual assent to the proposition that it could \nnot be more than one aspect of divinity, that there was something more to \ndivinity than had been compacted in the dish before her; and as we reflect upon \nthe other uses to which we hear the word put, we see that the same comment \napplies to them. However we use it, we are but using part of it. Whatever else \ndivinity may be, whatever else we may mean by a body of divine wisdom \nwhich the Society seeks to serve, we must recognize that the word always points \nto something that transcends our ordinary life and experience and our ordinary \nformulas; and that though it may permeate them all, and be truly nearer than \nhands and feet, yet it can never be confined, never be wholly revealed in any \none of its manifestations. There is always more beyond what we reach. Tran\u00ac \nscendence and infinitude are thus characteristics which divinity cannot lack, \nand this is why our Society, which seeks the divine, cannot have dogmas or \ncreeds, nor be content with formulas. For the thing we seek, and the thing \nwe have found , in part at least, in these years of search, is something which we \nknow transcends the form in which we have found it. It transcends, and we \nknow it must ever transcend, our capacity to hold it, or to express it; and though \nit may live here to-night in what each speaker says, we know that it is infinitely \ngreater than what any man can ever say. \n\nSo much for the word \u201cdivine\u201d, the first half of our name. What of the second \nhalf, \u201cwisdom\u201d? Mr. Johnston used constantly to remind us that theou sophia \ndid not mean divine knowledge, but divine wisdom. The word for knowledge is \ngnosis , not sophia , and if we try to distinguish between the two, we shall find \nthat wisdom of necessity involves an implication of wise action. Wisdom can^ \nnever be mere theory. A man is not wise who has only acquired knowledge. To \nbe wise by virtue of being learned, he must have reached the point where he has \nso assimilated knowledge as to have made it part of himself, and to have distilled \nfrom it a spiritual essence that guides his acts. Therefore our name \u201cTheosophy\u201d, \ntheou sophia , implies two things: first, the power to reach up to something which \nis truly divine, and which, as such, transcends our ordinary being; and, second, \nthe power to bring that something down into wisdom, into manifestation and \naction, to concrete application in the affairs of everyday life. These twin powers \nare, respectively, the power to be inspired, and the power to incarnate our \ninspiration, and by coming to understand them we can come to an understanding \nof Theosophy. \n\n\n104 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nTo avoid any appearance of reasoning in a circle, let us make a new approach \nto our theme, which will not start from the Society, but rather lead us to it from \nthe broad starting ground of our common human nature. If we ask ourselves \nwhat is the most fundamental characteristic of human life, the answer might \nwell be that it is alive. Now the more we study life, the more obvious it \nbecomes that it is never wholly self-contained or limited to the vehicle which, \nfor the time being, manifests it. Whatever the present vehicle may be, the \nindwelling life is somehow capable of transcending it, of reaching out beyond \nit and drawing into itself, from without, influences that modify the vehicle, and \nlittle by little transform it. In short, we see that the most notable feature of our \nhuman life is that which it possesses in common with all of life\u2014that which dis\u00ac \ntinguishes life from death\u2014the ability to open itself to the influx of energies \nfrom above itself, which, in terms of the human heart and mind and will, is the \ncapacity or power to he inspired. That is not the aspect of human existence \nwhich is to-day most discussed and considered, but it is one which is well worthy \nof most careful consideration, for it leads us straight to the deepest potential\u00ac \nities of our personal lives and to that which alone makes them worth the living \n\u2014their ability to open themselves to inspiration. \n\nLet us pause long enough to clarify our use of the word \u201cinspiration\u201d, as we \nhad to pause over \u201cdivine\u201d and \u201cwisdom\u201d. It has a very long reach and rises to \ngreat heights, but to begin with, I shall not mean anything that is of necessity \ngreat or particularly remarkable. We shall not limit its use to a saint\u2019s inspiration, \nor a poet\u2019s or an artist\u2019s. It is something that acts also in and concerns you, \nwhoever you are and just as you are. You yourself are entirely capable of \nreaching up to perceptions that you had not had before, and to will that you had \nnot had before, and you daily do this, drawing into yourself understanding and \nwill and truth that were no part of you a short time ago. You do it as naturally \nas a plant draws from the heat and light of the sun. You, too, and on every \nplane on which you are alive, draw into yourself something from without your\u00ac \nself,\u2014something which you vitally need. You get new ideas, even as you get \nnew energy. \n\nMany years ago, in a meeting such as this, a friend asked us to consider whence \ncame the ideas that were struck out in our discussion. If there had been a \nCustoms inspector of mental luggage stationed at the door, who had opened and \ngone through our minds as a Customs inspector on the docks goes through one\u2019s \ntrunks, he would not have found in our consciousness the ideas that we later \nexpressed. How did we gain them? Whence did they come? The genesis of a \nnew idea may seem a trivial thing, because it is so commonplace; but the very \nfact that it is commonplace makes its significance the greater. As the everyday \nphenomenon of a ray of sunlight falling on a single point, tells us of the whole \nblazing face of the sun, and of how all the heat and light are drawn that support \nlife on earth, so in the birth of a new idea we may see, in little, the workings of \nthe most momentous power in human existence,\u2014the power to be inspired, \nwhereby the human mind and heart and soul are lit and filled from above. \n\nIt is, as we have seen, to this power of inspiration that the name of our Society \n\n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHY \n\n\n105 \n\npoints, and it is with the aspect of human nature that gives us this power, that \nThe Theosophical Society and Movement are concerned. Whatever else \ndivinity may be and man may be, there is clearly this connection between them, \n\u2014there is in us something to which divinity can speak, something within our \nhearts or souls or consciousness which divinity can illumine with a beam from \nits own nature. It is, alas, true that not all that reaches us comes from above. \nThere is inspiration\u2019s obverse, that we can be moved from below, and the \npatent fact that we are pressed upon and swayed by the psychic currents that \nreally neither rise nor fall, but sweep aimlessly through the levels on which we \nchoose to live. But none of this alters the outstanding fact that concerns us here \n\u2014the fact of inspiration. There is nothing in the world more worth while than \nto pay heed to this fact, that we may learn how to utilize it and develop the \npower that it reveals. What do you do when you need new truth? What do \nyou do when you need new strength or will or love? How many of you know \nwhat you actually do, let alone what is open to you to do? Truth comes to \npeople, will comes to people\u2014how? We have schools that teach all sorts of \nthings\u2014mostly at somebody else\u2019s expense\u2014music and dancing and such \neconomic theory as that \u201cSociety\u201d owes you a living, and that the way to get \nrich is to spend; but how many schools teach people how to find their own \ninspiration, and how to develop the innate capacity, which they share with all of \nbeing, to draw from above and beyond themselves the quickening, transforming \nlife they need? Here is one of the primary functions that our Movement was \ninaugurated to perform. As we have already pointed out, it can be correlated \nwith the first half of our name, theou, that which is of God. \n\nWhenever there is genuine inspiration, there is something that ought to be \ndone about it. When you have been troubled over a friend, and have thought \nabout him, and prayed about him, and done something for which there is no \nEnglish verb but which means loved about him\u2014so that you have somehow come \nto a better understanding of him through the sort of touch and union with its \nobject which love can give\u2014the whole process has its value for you through the \nlight it sheds on what you ought to do. Inspiration always has that significant \ncharacteristic; it leaves with you an unequivocal imperative. If there is new^ \ntruth that you have reached, it is, somehow or other, truth that must be obeyed \nor must be expressed. If there is beauty, it, too, is compelling. Somehow \nor other you must change that which is ugly into the likeness of this new vision. \nIn inspiration you reach up to something which is dynamic and potent, and it \ninsists on flowing down into you, and into the world around you, transforming \nwhatever it touches, and making right what is amiss. There is always this \ncompulsion to action, to manifestation, to the incarnation of inspiration (for \nthat is what it actually is), so that what has inspired you may live in you and in \nwhat you do. One cannot observe one\u2019s inspirations, even casually, without \nbeing forced to realize that the spiritual world is indeed the causal world, the \nworld of creative origins and causes, and that to come into contact with it is to \nbroach a mighty force which acts, through the contact, upon oneself and one\u2019s \nwhole environment. \n\n\nio6 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nIf, as before, we associate this second, active, incarnating and transforming \naspect of inspiration with the second half of our name \u2014sophia or wisdom we \nhave a picture, which, however inadequate, is nevertheless essentially true, of \nthe Theosophical Movement as concerned primarily with the central fact of \nhuman life: the capacity for inspiration, and the need to incarnate it. \n\nIf we go further, and examine in actual experience the effects to which this \ntwin process leads, we see how the reaching up and the drawing down constitute \nan alternating cycle of inbreathing and outbreathing, of looking for guidance \nand of obeying it, which includes and exemplifies successively not only the \nintellectual attitude and practical method and ethical spirit that have been \nso often described as characteristic 6f Theosophy, but also and most strikingly, \nits religious and transforming life. For that sort of constant practice and \ndiscipline, the ceaseless looking for inspiration and then the whole-hearted effort \nto obey and incarnate it, does transform the whole being. It cannot help but \ndo so. We are stubborn; we are slow; we are stupid; we are fixed and hardened \nin old habits; we are laden with matter which is resistant and does not respond \neasily. At times we are so incredibly light-minded that a mere passing breath of \ninterest can divert us from our most momentous concerns. But nevertheless, \nlittle by little, the reaching up above ourselves, and then striving to act on the \nvision there attained, does transform our being, and we know it. \n\nHere again, therefore, we are able to trace in our own experience, even if it be \nbut on a very small scale, the action of a transforming power whose importance \nand ultimate potentialities for the destiny of humanity surpass all imagining; and \nwe recognize it as the present, visible action of the Creative Spirit, of which all \nreligions tell. It is part of the whole cosmic process of evolution and incar\u00ac \nnation, which brought the manifested universe to being, and which, having \nmade us what we are, must continue to act to make us what we are meant to be. \nIt is the process of growth and of creative transformation, and here and now it \nacts, if men will but open themselves to it, to transform the natural man into \nthe spiritual man, bom from above, of which St. Paul speaks. For what deter\u00ac \nmines the character of a man\u2019s being, save the centre from which his life is lived, \nsave the character of that which fills and holds his heart and mind and will\u2014the \nideals which he pursues, the motives which animate him, and the character of \nhis acts? And if all these be of the spirit, descended from above, is not the man\u2019s \nlife drawn from the same centre? \n\nIf we give thought to following in detail the cycle of inspiration and incar\u00ac \nnation as outlined above, we find that it involves, no longer as theory but as \nrepresentative of immediate and practical factors with which we have to deal, \nall of the doctrines or postulates of what has come to be known as the theosophic \nphilosophy. As it is said that in each atom the whole universe contrives to \nintegrate itself, so in each genuinely creative act the whole of creation is reflected, \nand it is fascinating to watch a whole philosophy unroll with the movement of a \nsingle spiritual cycle. But that is a theme which we cannot pursue now, and I \ntouch upon it only to the extent of a single example,\u2014its bearing upon the theo\u00ac \nsophic doctrine of the seven principles of man. We encounter these principles, \n\n\nTHEOSOPHY \n\n\n107 \n\n\npractically, as the seven sheaths, or strata, through which consciousness has to \nrise to reach inspiration, and as the media, or vehicles, through which its incar\u00ac \nnation and application must be made. All aspects of our nature have to be \nattuned to the truth we would know, and wherever the nature is not attuned, the \ntruth we reach is, in that particular and to that extent, limited or distorted. \nThe sevenfold nature of man is thus something like a lock, with seven wards, \nupon the door to the shrine of truth. Each must be passed before the door opens. \nBut the simile is poor, in that, in reality, as each ward is passed, admittance is ' \ngained to some limited domain or aspect of truth. What must be specially \nstressed, however, is that the Divine Will\u2014the inspiration of Truth or Beauty \nor Holiness\u2014must be sought, not abstractly, but in order to incarnate and \nobey it. It is not sufficiently realized that the process of inspiration and incar\u00ac \nnation is a single process whose two halves cannot be separated from each other. \nThe cycle is a single cycle, through which the Divine Spirit acts like water \nflowing through a pipe. Block the pipe anywhere, and the flow stops everywhere. \n\n\u201cI come to do Thy will; to know Thy will that I may do it.\u201d No other attitude \ncan gain us access to the courts of Truth; and where inspiration fails we shall be \nwise to look to our willingness to obey. The readiness to put the whole of one\u2019s \nnature at the disposal of one\u2019s inspiration is essential to the reaching of truth\u2014 \nreal truth and the whole truth. \n\nHow misleading and absurd the phrase is! To speak of reaching \u201cthe whole \ntruth\u201d, as though, on the one hand, truth could be exhausted so that we had it \nall, or, on the other, as though truth could be anything but whole! In each \nfragment of truth there is the whole truth, as in each ray of light there is all light. \nThe thing you get is whole unless you make it fragmentary. It mirrors Divine \nTruth unless there is some part which your nature rejects, something false to \nwhich you cling and which you will not open to truth. 11 is you yourself who make \nyour truths limited and partial and false. Yet even if you did not so limit and \nfalsify it, so that for you it was whole, even so it would not mean that you had \nexhausted truth, that what you had gained was exclusive, or that there was not \nmore beyond. \n\nOur subject is so large, and of such obvious and vital moment, that it is dif\u00ac \nficult to confine its discussion to such limits as our time must set, resisting the \ntemptation to pursue any of its manifold ramifications. \u201cIn the beginning wa^ \nthe Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All^ \nthings were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was \nmade. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.\u201d The \n\npassage from the idea to its manifestation, from the potential to the actual, \nfrom the word to the deed, from inspiration to its incarnation, is the immemorial \nsymbol of the action of the Creative Spirit, and it is this because it is more than \na symbol; it is the thing itself. In it, there before us and within us, the Creative \nSpirit works. All of the great religions of humanity set forth ways in which \nman may co-operate with this action and open himself to it. Perhaps it matters \nlittle which way is followed. But it matters supremely that a way be employed, \n\u2014that you do daily and steadfastly seek to gain inspiration and to incarnate \n\n\n\n\n\n\nio8 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nit in all you do. Perhaps any way will work if it be honest, and faithfully followed, \nand made your own; but some way each man must find, and use, and make his \nown, or else he shuts himself away from his highest heritage. \n\nIt is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles that the speech of those upon whom \nthe Holy Ghost descended, the speech of the Spirit, was heard by each listener \nin his own language. As we look back through the records of mystical religion, \nwe find this verified. To the saints and seers and sages of mankind, we find \nDivinity speaking in their own native tongue, and in terms and symbols familiar \nto them from their childhood,\u2014and this whether it be to the Chinese lawgiver \nor the Rajput king, to the Hebrew prophet or the little French nun. The great \novershadowing Spirit speaks to each in the wonted terms of his daily use and \nthought; but is there not tragedy in the realization that there are those who \nhave no familiar images of spiritual things through which the Spirit can reveal \nitself and make known its will ? \n\nThink for a moment: you put out a letter box, and your friends, who have \ncome to seek you and who find your door closed, drop their notes into that box, \nbecause that is what it is there for, and that is where you look. Because it is \nwhere you look, it is where messages intended for you are put. If you abandon \nit, and move elsewhere and no longer use the box, messages are no longer put \nthere for you. It is the same in the inner world as in the outer. If you have an \naddress, your friends use it\u2014whatever it is. If you have no address, if there is \nnowhere that you look for messages, how are you to receive any? \n\nThis does not mean that any way of seeking inspiration is as good as any \nother; but it does mean that any way is better than no way. The great majority \nof men to-day have no way. They have no thought of inspiration, no belief in its \npossibility. The only speech to which they have habituated themselves, contains \nno words for the things of the Spirit, or that the Spirit could use. They have no \nletter box in which they ever look. \n\nIt is to such that the Theosophical Movement calls, and calls again, that \nDivine Wisdom exists and is obtainable, that inspiration is a fact, that the inner \nworld of the Spirit, the kingdom of the heavens, is literally at hand. But largely \nit calls in vain; and the world sinks deeper and deeper into a cycle of materialism \nand darkness\u2014Kali Yuga, as we call it\u2014and a little handful of people are almost \nall who, in our Western civilization, are consciously concerned with this, the \nparamount fact and most momentous potentiality of human life. \n\nYet for this, too, Theosophy offers us explanation and reassurance. All things \nare under the great Law; all things move in cycles; and though a wave recede, \nthe tide will rise. We must take long views if we are not to mistake the one for \nthe other, or forget that even if the tide be ebbing, the flood will again follow it. \nWe have spent our time this evening tracing the cycle of inspiration and its \napplication in action. It mirrors for us cycle upon cycle of alternate inbreathing \nand outbreathing\u2014of days and nights that mark the revolution of the earth or \nof the ages of Brahmd. We are in the indrawing phase of a great as well as of a \nlittle cycle, and we should try to follow the current in,\u2014not lament that it is not \nflowing out. \n\n\nTHEOSOPHY \n\n\n109 \n\n\nThe process of inspiration is itself a process of indrawal. Always, to open \nyour consciousness to Truth, you have to leave behind you your pre-occupation \nwith the host of lesser things that have held your attention in the outer world,\u2014 \nyour personal concerns, your little griefs and joys. You have to put away, \nequally, your prejudices and predilections, your ambitions and desires. You \nhave, above all, to put away your fears. Your fears are deep, and persist, and \nrise up again and again after you think you have faced and fought and killed and \nburied them. This Path of Divine Wisdom is the warrior\u2019s path of courage. Its \ntradition is the heritage of a warrior race. You have to put fear away before \nyou can follow it, or receive and obey the Divine Will for you in the place and \nthe moment where you stand. All things of self must be put away, even, at \ntimes, what you think of as your duties. It was alone that Moses climbed mount \nSinai to receive the Commandments. He left behind him the people for whom \nhe was responsible and for whom he sought guidance. There has to be a Law\u00ac \ngiver in one\u2019s nature which can leave all else behind it and ascend alone up the \nmountain and into the cloud, and come back with the law and enforce it. Inspira\u00ac \ntion from above is not drawn down by town meetings; the voice of the people \nwas never yet the still, small voice. It is the lonely seer, the sage, the prophet, \nwho goes apart into the desert, abandoning all else, who hears the Voice that is \nheard only in the Silence. And it is not our clamouring, personal natures, but \nthe lonely seer within us, that is alone capable of receiving the descent of Wisdom \nfrom above. It is the spark of the Divine, hidden deep within, that has somehow \nto be freed from all the rest, until it rises back toward its source, and is again \nillumined by the Father\u2019s Will. Then, and then only, it descends again into the \nmaelstrom which it must rule and order. \n\nThe Christian Master, speaking to his disciples, said that they had been called \nto be the salt of the earth. In each age there are, and must always be, those who \nhave, to one degree or another, been taught of Truth that they may hold it as a \ntrust for the need of the world, against the time when the world shall seek it, as \nnow it rejects it. It is to this end, it seems to me, that those in the Theosophical \nMovement have been taught, and that in fulfilment of the trust that has been \nimposed in them, they, of all men, are called upon to live by the truth they ha\\j| \nbeen shown, and to incarnate in their lives and actions the inspiration they haW \nreceived. As we have been taught of the cycles, so should we try to live in \naccordance with them, and, in this indrawing cycle, learn to turn back from the \nworld and its vagaries, its follies and confusion, to something that is eternal and \nsure, rising from the world of effects to the world of causes, from the self to the \ninfinitely greater than self, to seek and find there the Divine Wisdom whose name \nwe bear and whose servants we aspire to be. That trinity of search and finding \nand obeying, that twin process of inspiration and incarnation, is Theosophy. \n\n\nCORNWALL AND ITS MAGIC \n\n\nStrike for the King and live! his knights have heard \nThat God hath told the King a secret word. \n\nFall battleaxe, and flash brand! Let the King reign. \n\nStrike for the King and die! and if thou diest, \n\nThe King is King , and ever wills the highest. \n\nClang battleaxe , and clash brand! Let the King reign. \n\nThe King will follow Christ , and we the King \nIn whom high God hath breathed a secret thing. \n\nFall battleaxe , and flash brand! Let the King reign. \n\nTennyson: Idylls of the King. \n\nI T has never seemed to me necessary to go to a place physically, in order to be \nthere actually, in the truest sense. Quite the reverse. We think of the \nglory of a sunrise seen many years ago from the peak of some high mountain, \nand we can live it all again with an added sense of glory, perhaps, because now \nwe are no longer looking at it with our physical eyes, and to that extent we are \nfree from the hindrances of the flesh. All must have experienced this. We \nread of the \u201cfourth dimension\u201d, and many of us are saddened by the feeling that \nit is not for us; in some future incarnation, perhaps,\u2014alas! not yet. But are \nwe not experiencing at least a good imitation of \u201cfourth dimensional life\u201d a great \npart of the time, although we may not think of it in that light? Whenever \nimagination carries us backward from the trivialities of daily routine into the \nglowing atmosphere of ancient romance, or forward to some heavenly vision of \nthe future, may we not think of it as in some sense a transfer in time and space ? \nWe may be sitting in an armchair, alone at our own fireside, quietly reading, \nand the memory of some loved spot may suddenly invade our consciousness. In \na moment we have passed through the solid walls of our room; we have traversed \ngreat oceans and wide continents and are there \u2014there at the old trysting place, \ngazing once more at all we loved and still love so well; moving silently amid old \nscenes. And when that moment comes, then we may hold real converse with our \nfriends across the world\u2014old, old friends and dear comrades, perhaps of centuries \nago. \n\nOnce, on a summer afternoon (how vividly I remember it!) I wandered along \nthe crests of the wild, dark cliffs which bound the ancient, sea-girt Duchy of \nCornwall. It had been a fine warm day when I started, and I rejoiced in my \nsolitude\u2014I was alone with the sea and the sky. League on league of ocean, \nserenely infinite, stretched far away to a dreamy horizon; an infinite mid-summer \nsky brooded tenderly overhead. There is no place in the world, I think, where \n\n\nno \n\n\n\nCORNWALL AND ITS MAGIC \n\n\nhi \n\n\nyou find waters so deeply sapphire as those which encircle this archaic land of \nmagic and of mystery. The sunshine glanced brilliantly on the surface of the \nwater, and as the great waves came rolling in they dashed themselves at the base \nof the mighty, towering cliffs, throwing up splendid fountains of spray\u2014spray \nwhich the wind blows back like a fairy mist, and where rainbows linger and then \nvanish quickly, as dreams vanish. Entranced, I watched the sea gulls (there \nwere hundreds of them); I watched the beautiful curve of their long wings, the \nbeauty of their flight as they wheeled and turned, now near, now at a distance, \nweaving themselves into a lovely, rhythmic, aerial dance. They were a dazzling \nwhite in the clear sunshine, and sometimes, when they flew low, I could not \ndistinguish them from the pure whiteness of the foam, as the waves broke far \ndown on the jagged rocks which formed the coastline. \n\nAnyone who knows Cornwall, however, also knows that anything may happen \nthere at any moment (that is part of the magic), and before I realized it, a strong \nwind had sprung up, and, with it, heavy, sea-born clouds came racing in from the \nocean, as though driven by Merlin himself; the sun was blotted out in the space \nof a few moments, and I found myself enveloped in an impenetrable fog. It was \nso dense that I could not see a yard ahead of me\u2014I was indeed alone, and with \nthe sense of complete isolation which a dense fog always seems to bring. It is \nvery dangerous to walk along the top of those cliffs unless you can see every \nstep of the way, for the ground is full of deep crevasses down which the unwary \nmay easily tumble and never be heard of again; you may even walk right off \nthe edge and fall from the dizzy height into an unimaginable abyss, a seething \ncauldron. The prospect was not enticing! So, doing the only sensible thing left \nto do, I sat down on a friendly, close-at-hand rock (I believe Merlin had put it \nthere on purpose), quite realizing, none the less, that I might have to remain \nthere all night, held a prisoner in Merlin\u2019s enchantment. A feeling of awe crept \nover me. No sound reached me from the unseen skies above, but from far \nbelow in the boiling, churning depths, the waves roared and broke and pounded \nat the base of those lonely cliffs on which I was sitting. Would they withstand \nthe terrible impact of the giant strokes ? Down there, I knew, under that surgin|^fc \nwater, lay the ancient, long-lost country of Lyonnesse, once a happy, sunny lan Wr \npeopled by busy, ancient folk who had perished in a moment of time when those \nvery waves had swept so mercilessly over them\u2014they say you can still hear \nthe church bells ring on star-lit nights when the wind blows inland. Lyonnesse \nwas the country of Sir Tristram, one of the staunchest of King Arthur\u2019s knights, \nand I wondered where he was now. But I wondered most about King Arthur \nhimself, that perfect flower of knighthood\u2014was he perhaps still in the island- \nvalley of Avilion, \n\nWhere falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, \n\nNor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies \n\nDeep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns \n\nAnd bowery hollows crowned with summer sea, \n\n\u2014was he still there, remembering the glories of the past, lamenting the deadly \nwound which had not yet healed\u2014biding his time? \n\n\nz ! 2 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nMore than any other, perhaps, this is King Arthur\u2019s country. He*must often \nhave knelt before the high Celtic crosses which are scattered in the fields and at \nthe waysides. It is a land of eternal romance, and when you are there, it is not \ndifficult to believe that Cornwall was chosen (surely by the Lodge itself), for \nchivalry\u2019s new venture in the unending warfare for the salvation of mankin , \nbecause it is a land of mystics. We sometimes speak, perhaps with a shrug, of the \n\u201cvisionary Celt\u201d, but it is this very Celtic nature, capable of living in two worlds \nat once, which must have seemed so promising: was it for that reason that the \nmessage was sent there with the hope that it might be heard and understood? \nTraditionally, it was Cornwall that saw King Arthur\u2019s \u201ccoming\u201d\u2014it was here \nthat he was bom. Here it was that Excalibur, with the inner power which accom\u00ac \npanied it, was given him. And Cornwall it was which, sorrowing, watched the \nKing\u2019s \u201cpassing\u201d. All the rest (\u201cmany-towered Camelot\u201d, Caerleon, \u201cJoyous \nGuard\u201d and the others), played each its several part, but only during the years \nthat intervened. It may be thought by some that this world of the Order of the \nRound Table is a vanished world\u2014why try to return to it now? A vanished \nworld ? How near it seems to some of us! It is still a realm of intense reality, and \nalways will be, and you cannot pass a single day in Cornwall without meeting \nold friends: \n\nThere stood the knights! stately, and stem, and tall; \n\nTristan; and Percivale; Sir Galahad; \n\nAnd he, the sad Sir Lancelot of the lay: \n\nSee! where they move, a battle-shouldering kind! \n\nMassive in mould, but graceful: thorough men: \n\nBuilt in the mystic measure of the Cross:\u2014 \n\nTheir lifted arms the transome; and their bulk, \n\nThe tree, where Jesu, stately stood to die! \n\nThence came their mastery in the field of war:\u2014 \n\nAh! one might drive battalions, one alone. \n\nSee now, they pause;\u2014for in their midst, the King! \n\nArthur, the son of Uter and the night; \n\nHelmed with Pendragon; with the crested crown; \n\nAnd belted with the sheathed Excalibur, \n\nThat gnashed his iron teeth, and yearned for war! \n\nStern was that look: high natures seldom smile: \n\nAnd in those pulses beat a thousand Kings. \n\nThere can be little question, I think, that more than any other of the many \nand varied aspects of the Arthurian Romance, the Quest of the Holy Grail \nis the most haunting\u2014no doubt because, unrealized in general by an over-busy \nworld, that Quest continues to-day: under other forms, behind many disguises, \nperhaps\u2014but it is the same Quest. It was not alone the romantic spirit of the \nMiddle Ages which fostered it. So long as the heart of man thirsts for the Ideal, \nso long will the Quest endure; it is immortal, imperishable. \n\nIn making a closer study of the \u201cMorte d\u2019Arthur\u201d than has been perhaps our \nwont, however, many of us come upon an obstacle which, at first, greatly puzzles \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCORNWALL AND ITS MAGIC \n\n\n113 \n\n\nus, and past which we cannot seem to go. Why is it that, with the introduction \nof a theme so marvellous, so lofty as the Quest, the first foreboding note is heard, \npresaging something dark and fateful for the Order of the Round Table, as well \nas for King Arthur himself? Why is it that the knights of the Round Table\u2014 \nthose men who, when the Order was founded, bound themselves by vows so \nstrict, so exalted, \u201cthat when they rose knighted from kneeling, some were pale \nas at the passing of a ghost, some flushed, some dazed\u201d,\u2014how is it that they \ncould forget those vows, or allow their knightly code to fall into disuse? Arthur \nhad told them that they were fighting for \u201cour fair father Christ\u201d. With that \nunderstanding they had first taken their vows, and it was a result of forgetting \nthese that King Arthur and the work he had tried to do was frustrated\u2014it was \nnot Arthur himself who forgot. We remember the first appearance of the Grail, \nthough only one man actually saw it: how at Camelot \u201con a summer night it \ncame to pass\u201d, that all were assembled in the great banqueting hall, the King \nalone being absent on a mission of mercy. It is Sir Percivale who, according to \nTennyson, tells us of it: \n\nAnd all at once, as there we sat, we heard \nA cracking and a riving of the roofs, \n\nAnd rending, and a blast, and overhead \nThunder, and in the thunder was a cry. \n\nAnd in the blast there smote along the hall \nA beam of light seven times more clear than day: \n\n\nAnd down the long beam stole the Holy Grail \nAll over-cover\u2019d with a luminous cloud, \n\nAnd none might see who bare it, and it past. \n\nHut every knight beheld his fellow\u2019s face \nAs in a glory, and all the knights arose, \n\nAnd staring each at other like dumb men \nStood, till I found a voice and sware a vow. \n\nI sware a vow before them all, that I, \n\nBecause I had not seen the Grail, would ride \nA twelvemonth and a day in quest of it, \n\nUntil I found and saw it, as the nun \nMy sister saw it; and Galahad sware the vow, \n\nAnd good Sir Bors, our Lancelot\u2019s cousin, sware, \nAnd Lancelot sware, and many among the knights, \nAnd Gawain sware, and louder than the rest. \n\n\n\nWhen Arthur returned he was filled with consternation because, having learned \nto know his knights so well\u2014their weaknesses and follies, despite their knight\u00ac \nhood\u2014he realized that most of them had taken vows which they could not and \nwould not be able to keep, thereby making their failure the more serious. \u201cSir \nGawaine, Sir Gawaine\u201d, he mourned, \u201cYe have set me in great sorrow, for I \nhave great doubt that my true fellowship shall never meet more here again.\u201d \nYet the knights who had sworn to seek the Grail were determined to keep that \nvow (and, of course, the King was the first to uphold their purpose, since, after \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n114 \n\nall, they had pledged themselves), and they set out upon the Quest, but Sir \nGawaine, who had sworn \u201clouder than the rest\u201d, was the first to fall a victim to \nthe pleasures and vanities of the world. Individually, many did not survive \nthe Quest at all: it was the working of the immemorial Law which demands that \neach must win through to the Kingdom of God for himself, or perish on the way. \nMany went in search of the Grail and never returned: too early they had made \nthe attempt. Others started hopefully only to turn back or meet with failure \nat the last. Four only ever saw the Grail even from a distance, and for a moment \n\u2014Sir Lancelot, Sir Bors and Sir Percivale, but it was impossible for them to \nspeak of it to anyone; one alone actually found it: Sir Galahad whose purity \nhad made his vision clear, and with that holy vision he passed from this world of \ndarkness into the world of spiritual Reality. It was the searching purity of the \nGrail which was the undoing of all the others\u2014they were not ready, and could \nnot live in its blinding light. So, of all the knights who originally set out, but a \nfew came back, and when they did return, they found that everything was \naltered, the old order of things had changed, and eventually, with the sinister \nentrance upon the scene of the treacherous Sir Mordred, the end quickly followed: \nthe Battle of the West, the last great combat on the Cornish coast where King \nArthur, with the knights who had remained true about him, faced the hordes of \nSir Mordred, that traitor knight: \n\nSo all day long the noise of battle roll\u2019d \nAmong the mountains by the winter sea; \n\nUntil King Arthur\u2019s Table, man by man, \n\nHad fallen in Lyonnesse about their Lord, \n\nKing Arthur: then, because his wound was deep, \n\nThe bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him, \n\nSir Bedivere, the last of all his knights, \n\nAnd bore him to a chapel nigh the field, \n\nA broken chancel with a broken cross, \n\nThat stood on a dark strait of barren land. \n\nOn one side lay the ocean, and on one \nLay a great water, and the moon was full. \n\nThen spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere: \n\n\u201cThe sequel of to-day unsolders all \nThe goodliest fellowship of famous knights \nWhereof this world holds record. Such a sleep \nThey sleep\u2014the men I loved. I think that we \nShall never more, at any future time, \n\nDelight our souls with talk of knightly deeds, \n\nWalking about the gardens and the halls \nOf Camelot, as in the days that were. \n\nI perish by the people which I made,\u2014 \n\nTho\u2019 Merlin sware that I should come again \nTo rule once more\u2014but let what will be, be.\u201d \n\nThese words seem despondent enough! But Arthur confides to Sir Bedivere \nthat, as a result of the failure of so many of his knights, and because of this last \ncombat with Sir Mordred which seems to have ended everything, his \u201cmind is \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCORNWALL AND ITS MAGIC \n\n\n115 \n\nclouded with a doubt\u201d concerning the ultimate outcome of the venture that he \nstarted. He is bewildered. \n\nI found Him in the shining of the stars, \n\nI mark\u2019d Him in the flowering of His fields, \n\nBut in His ways with men I find Him not. \n\nThen he makes his last request: he asks for prayer; not for himself alone \u2014all \nmust be reached: \n\n\nFor so the whole round earth is every way \nBound by gold chains about the feet of God. \n\nThen as a last act Excalibur is returned to the enigmatic source from whence it \ncame, and the mysterious companions from another world appear, and carry the \nsorely wounded King away. Such is the \u201cpassing\u201d of Arthur. \n\nThere are many, I know, who feel that the end of the Arthurian Romance is \nbeyond words sombre, mournful, hopeless; that the sun which rose in such \nsplendour upon an ideal venture, sinks at last in profound gloom. I have to \nconfess that it has never seemed so to me. There can be no doubt that all which \nKing Arthur set out to do was not accomplished, but he dealt with men of very \nuneven character, men with passions which warred all too successfully against \nthe spiritual man within. For the most part they were not extraordinary men, \nbut at least they had that within them which enabled them to recognize an ideal, \nto be fired by it, and to make an attempt to respond wholeheartedly to it. These \nwould-be disciples (for we may surely consider them as such), were raised above \nthe former level of their lives, and even if they were incapable of understanding \nto the full the greatness of King Arthur\u2019s mission, at least they made an attempt \nto serve it and to serve him. The radiant, blinding light of the Grail, so search- \ningly pure, precipitated their downfall; few could live in it. Yet when the end \ncame (and this has always been a comforting thought), those who were left \nfought to the last man around their King; they died literally at his side\u2014 surely, \nsome good must have resulted from that! And something had been created\u2014^ \nsomething which has continued to grow throughout the centuries. For it has \noften been remarked that the Age of Chivalry is not dead\u2014the great War \nshowed us that; men can still die nobly for a Cause they love; knighthood still \nlives on this earth. \n\nThere is an old tradition in Cornwall, often called to mind by the common \nfisher folk\u2014a tradition which you may hear at any time for the asking: that \nKing Arthur did not die; that he is alive to-day\u2014somewhere unknown to men, \nand that in an hour of England\u2019s most desperate need he and his knights will \ncome again, and that this time it will be an overpowering victory. These simple \nfisher folk believe it, just as Merlin himself believed it\u2014why should not we? \nWhat we know of the Arthurian Romance was but one attempt: need we think \nof it as the only one ? \n\nThe fog had lifted, but still I sat dreaming on that friendly rock. Over there \n\n\nn6 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nin the west the sun was setting in a blaze of glory, and soon it would have dropped \nbeyond the rim of the world, and night would come, just as night had fallen on \nKing Arthur still fighting on his last battlefield, close to this very spot. The \nstrong, sweet air from the Cornish sea, the evening sights and sounds of the \nCornish coast\u2014everything reminded me of him. I was saddened by the remem\u00ac \nbrance of the glories of the past, even though I knew it was not possible that they \ncould really have perished; they had only been withdrawn for a space, and they \nwould come again. I got up from where I had been sitting all these hours and, \nclimbing a grassy slope not far off, I looked out over an illimitable ocean, bathed \nin the evening light, and I remembered some lines which I had always loved, and \nwhich now seemed to hold a special promise\u2014one I was eager to grasp: \n\nNay, come up hither. From this wave-washed mound \nUnto the furthest flood-brim look with me; \n\nThen reach out with thy thought till it be drown\u2019d. \n\nMiles and miles distant though the last line be, \n\nAnd though thy soul sail leagues and leagues beyond,\u2014 \n\nStill, leagues beyond those leagues, there is more sea. \n\nWayfarer. \n\n\nNot of the sunlight, \n\nNot of the moonlight, \nNot of the starlight! \n\n0 young Mariner, \nDown to the haven, \n\nCall your companions, \nLaunch your vessel \nAnd crowd your canvas, \nAnd, ere it vanishes \nOver the margin, \n\nAfter it, follow it, \nFollow the Gleam. \n\n\nTennyson. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONFUCIUS \n\n\nI. \n\nTo find the central clue to our moral being which unites us to the universal order , \nthat indeed is the highest human attainment. People are seldom capable of it for long. \n\nChung Yung. \n\nT HE Chinese Empire outlived Chaldaea and Egypt, Greece and Rome. \nChinese civilization has possessed, in eminent degree, what the biologists \ncall \u201csurvival value\u201d. The future may be dim and incoherent, but it is \nnone the less true that the essential continuity of Chinese history was virtually \nunbroken for at least four thousand years. There were dark intervals in that long \ncycle, but no prolonged \u201cdark ages\u201d. In spite of plague and flood and famine, in \nspite of barbarian conquests and dynastic revolutions and recurrent political \nchaos, the nucleus of the racial life remained intact, and loyalty to the racial \ntradition was never wholly suspended. \n\nHistorians have suggested various reasons for the extraordinary stability of \nChinese culture. Doubtless, as many argue, one very important factor was the \nisolation of China. Its neighbours were strong and warlike, but uncivilized. \nThey might enter China as conquerors, but China quickly and easily assimilated \nthem to the native population. Even when a powerful foreign influence like \nBuddhism penetrated the barriers of the Himalayas and the Gobi, its pervasion \nof Chinese thought was slow and gradual. When Buddhism finally established \nitself under the T\u2019ang Emperors, it had lost its Indian appearance; it had become \nas characteristically Chinese in form as Confucianism or Taoism. \n\nEuropean and American traders and missionaries accomplished what Genghis \nKhan could not do. They destroyed the Empire as an entity, opening the gates \nof China to a flood of influences alien to its most fundamental traditions. We \nperceive the results in the chaos of to-day. The danger is that the most deep^ \nseated of all Chinese traditions will be damaged beyond repair. Ever since the \nbeginning of their history, the Chinese have emphasized the sanctity of the family \nbond. If they have survived so many disasters, it is largely because the insti\u00ac \ntution of the family has endured, without fundamental change, from century to \ncentury. In a certain sense, all human responsibilities have been regarded as \nextensions or amplifications of family duties. As the Book of Filial Duty affirms, \n\u201cThe duty of children to their parents is the fountain whence all other duties \nspring and the starting-point of education\u201d. It was believed that no one could \nbecome a loyal subject of the Emperor, unless he had first learned the principles \nof loyalty in the home, in his daily intercourse with father and mother and \nbrothers and sisters. Whenever the Empire sank into decadence, the root of the \ntrouble was sought in some corruption of the tradition of filial piety. If that \ntradition could be revivified, the reform of the State was expected to follow as a \n\n\n\n118 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nmatter of course. The history of China confirms this judgment. Because the \npresent upheaval in the Far East threatens the whole conception of family unity, \none must admit the possibility that Chinese civilization is on the verge of death. \nTwenty-five hundred years ago, a similar danger threatened it. It was saved \nthen by the great moral and spiritual movement which was inaugurated by Con\u00ac \nfucius. Will another Confucius come before it is too late? Does modem China \ndeserve another Confucius? \n\nIn the Sixth Century b. c. the state of the Empire appeared desperate. The \nChou Dynasty, founded six hundred years before by the sage Wen Wang, had \nlost dignity and authority. The nominal Emperor was defied by the great nobles \nwho had practically transformed their feudal domains into independent states. \nThe strong annexed and plundered the property of the weak, using the methods of \nopen brigandage when craft and bribery failed. Moreover, the disloyalty of the \nnobles to their lord paramount had disrupted the feudal system in its entirety. \nNo man could trust the members of his own household. Each little state was \nthreatened from within by the conspiracies of ministers and soldiers, by ambitious \nvassals who awaited any opportunity or excuse to weaken the authority of the \nruler, or to usurp his title. Meanwhile, the people were left without shepherds \nto restrain or to guide them. A complete and final moral collapse was imminent. \n\nConfucius was bom in 551 b. c. and died seventy-three years later. With the \nexception of a brief interval when he became the principal adviser of the Duke of \nhis native state of Lu, he took no active part in the stormy political life of the \ntime. For ten years he was an exile, wandering from one petty court to another, \nseeking some prince or minister who had the qualifications of the \u201cSuperior Man\u201d. \nThere were moments of discouragement when he felt that he was wasting his \ntime; that the only thing which the wisest man could do under such conditions \nwas to do nothing. But the sufferings of China were his own, and he could not \ndismiss them from his consciousness. Gradually a group of disciples was formed, \nand these disciples were able to transmit to others his teaching and the memory \nof his example. The leaven began to work, with the sureness of all natural proc\u00ac \nesses. Family life recovered its vigour, and, as if in response to this re-stirring \nof life, great men reappeared, and restored to the Chinese an awareness of \nnational destiny. In 206 b. c. the Han Dynasty was established, and the great \nmediaeval age of China began. \n\nThus was justified the prophecy of a government official recorded in the \nAnalects. \n\nThe prefect of the frontier in the town of I, asked to be introduced to Confucius, \nsaying: I have never failed to obtain an audience of any sage who has visited these \nparts.\u2014He was thereupon introduced by the Master\u2019s followers, and on coming out he \nsaid: My sons, why grieve at your Master\u2019s fall from power? The Empire has long \nbeen lying in evil ways, but now God is going to make Confucius his herald to rouse the \nland. \n\nThere are obvious correspondences between the China which Confucius knew \nand the China of to-day. Anarchy, disintegration and decay are essentially the \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONFUCIUS \n\n\n119 \n\nsame everywhere and always. But for that very reason, we can discover in\u00ac \nstructive analogies between the moral desolation of the Sixth Century b. c. in \nChina, and the general conditions of our own century, not only in China, but \nwherever there is supposed to be civilization, and particularly in Europe and \nAmerica. \n\nConfucius was confronted with the same basic problem which bewilders the \nmodem reformer. There had been a rupture in the consciousness of his race, \na loosening of the bonds which united the past with the present. In the literature \nof the late Chou period, there are curious traces of all sorts of subversive move\u00ac \nments. Sophism was becoming fashionable. In other words, China was attacked \nby the disease of reckless thinking which has killed so many civilizations. Its \ntraditions were questioned, its moral standards were ridiculed, its history was \nmisrepresented. A vague Utopianism was in the air, disseminating the potent \nillusion that an ideal commonwealth can be created without reference to the \ninherited qualities of its citizens. China had a budding intelligentsia, which \nmight have flowered into a brain-trust, with results which we dare not imagine. \nConfucianism saved it by a successful appeal to conscience and to common- \nsense. It is really worth our while to enquire into the nature of that appeal, for \nif the modem world can be preserved from min, it must be by the practical \napplication of a conception of life based upon the same principles which Con\u00ac \nfucius taught and embodied. It should be remembered that Confucius referred \nto himself as a transmitter of immemorial truths. Students of Theosophy are \njustified in regarding him as an emissary of the Lodge of Masters which is the \ntrue source of the movement now represented in the world by The Theosoph- \nical Society. \n\nConfucius has been greatly misunderstood, not only by Western scholars and \nmissionaries, but by his own followers who have too often yielded to the con\u00ac \ngenital bias of Chinese scholars towards pedantry and literal-mindedness and \nself-satisfaction. He was not, as is so often supposed, a blind worshipper of past \nforms, an undiscriminating lover of ceremony, a restorer of ancestor-worship, for \nhis devotion to the wisdom of the ancients was based upon years of study and \nmeditation. He believed in the supreme value of experience. The Superior \nMan teaches what he has proved by his own immediate experience and has \ncorroborated by the recorded experiences of others, both contemporary and \nancient. We read in The Doctrine of the Mean (Chung Yung): \n\nHowever excellent a system of moral truths appealing to supernatural authority may \nbe, it is not verifiable by experience; what is not verifiable by experience cannot com\u00ac \nmand credence; and what cannot command credence the people will never obey. How\u00ac \never excellent a system of moral truths appealing merely to worldly authority may be, \nit does not command respect; what does not command respect cannot command credence; \nand what cannot command credence the people will never obey. Therefore every system \nof moral laws must be based upon the man\u2019s own consciousness. It must be verified by \nthe common experience of men. Examined into by comparing it with the teachings of \nacknowledged great and wise men of the past, there must be no divergence. Applying \nit to the operations and processes of Nature in the physical universe, there must be no \ncontradiction. Confronted with the spiritual powers of the universe, a man must be \n\n\n\n\n\n120 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nable to maintain it without any doubt. He must be prepared to wait a hundred genera\u00ac \ntions after him for the coming of a man of perfect divine nature to confirm it without \nany misgiving. The fact that he is able to confront the spiritual powers of the universe \nwithout any doubt, shows that he understands the will of God. The fact that he is \nprepared to wait a hundred generations after him for the man of perfect divine nature \nwithout any misgiving, shows that he understands the nature of man. \n\nThis reverence for experience explains Confucius\u2019 intense interest in history. \nThe life of a nation is subject to the same laws which govern the lives of indi\u00ac \nviduals, and in history the elements of our common human nature appear in \nmagnified and simplified form, clearly discernible. He was an indefatigable \nscholar, collecting and editing ancient chronicles and ballads which were finally \nshaped into the Book of History , the Book of Odes , and the Book of Rites; and \ncomposing a compendium of more recent events in the Spring and Autumn \nAnnals of the State of Lu. Thus he made available the experience of antiquity \nfor future generations. It is the fault of those future generations, if parts of \n\u201cThe Five Classics\u201d have become meaningless and can no longer be fruitfully \napplied. In the Book of Changes , for example, a forgotten science of divination \nand numerology is preserved; but the key to its interpretation has been lost, \nand modem scholars ridicule it because it is beyond their comprehension. 1 \n\nConfucius could justify his doctrines by an appeal to experience because the \nrespect for experience was integrated in the Chinese consciousness. It is this \nrespect which underlies and, in a measure, justifies what is called ancestor- \nworship. Ancestor-worship was an extension of the general tradition that the \nson owed devotion and obedience to his parents, that youth should humble itself \nbefore age. It signified loyalty to the truths which had been discovered and \ntransmitted by past generations. One sacrificed to the ancestral spirits, because \nthey represented the racial ideal which one sought to embody. \n\nTherefore, when Confucius emphasized filial piety as the foundation of civili\u00ac \nzation, he was in reality resuscitating beliefs and practices which were inseparable \nfrom the essence of his racial consciousness. Indeed, they are inseparable from \nthe essence of every racial consciousness. The standards of the Christian family \ndiffer only in form, not in substance, from the Confucian principles. \n\nHowever, although Confucius was primarily a transmitter and a restorer of \nancient truths, he was also a creative genius of the first order, one of the greatest \nof mankind. His message is individual and unique. He repeated what all the \nsages have said, but he cast his thought in a form which only he himself could \nhave imagined. In particular, he enriched human consciousness by contributing \nhis personal definition and interpretation of ideal human nature. This is found \nin his teaching concerning the Superior Man. \n\nThe Chi nese term which we translate as the Superior Man is chun tzu. As \n\n1 \"The Five Classics\" and \"The Four Books\" constitute what might be called the sacred canon of Confucianism. \n\"The Four Books\" are the Analects, a collection of the sayings and discourses of Confucius and his chief disciples; \nthe Great Learning, a brief ethical treatise, attributed to the disciple, Tsfing Ts\u2019an; The Doctrine of the Mean, the \nauthorship of which is ascribed to Confucius\u2019 grandson, although the internal evidence is that it contains the \nMaster\u2019s teaching in its purest form; and the Mencius, which records the acts and teachings of the greatest of Con\u00ac \nfucian missionaries, who lived in the Fourth Century b. c., and was a contemporary of the Taoist mystic, Chuang- \nTze. \n\n\n\nCONFUCIUS \n\n\nI 2 I \n\n\nLionel Giles points out: \u201c \u2018Princely man\u2019 is as nearly as possible the literal \ntranslation, and sometimes, ... it actually means \u2018prince\u2019.\u201d In certain con\u00ac \nnotations, it suggests the Greek ho kalos kagathos , \u201cthe noble and good \nman\u201d, which is, perhaps, best rendered by the English \u201cgentleman\u201d, in the \nhighest and purest meaning of that term. But the chun tzu is also a sage. Stu\u00ac \ndents of Theosophy will recognize in many of his attributes the qualities of a \nch\u00a3la, of a disciple of a Master of Wisdom. \n\nConfucius has left no distinct metaphysical system, no detailed cosmogony. \nLike the Buddha and like Socrates, he seems to have believed that the primary \nneed of men was to understand themselves; that the study of cosmic Nature \nmight become a dangerous distraction for the undisciplined mind. But there are \npassages which suggest that his general conception of Nature was similar to that \nof Lao-Tze and the Taoists. The following, from the Chung Yung , might be \ntaken from a Taoist scripture: \n\nAbsolute truth is indestructible. Being indestructible, it is eternal. Being eternal, \nit is self-existent. Being self-existent, it is infinite. Being infinite, it is vast and deep. \nBeing vast and deep, it is transcendental and intelligent. It is because it is vast and deep \nthat it contains all existence. It is because it is transcendental and intelligent that it \nembraces all existence. It is because it is infinite and eternal that it fills all existence. \nIn vastness and depth it is like the Earth. In transcendental intelligence it is like Heaven. \nInfinite and eternal, it is Infinitude itself. Such being the nature of absolute truth, it \nmanifests itself without being evident; it produces effects without action; it accomplishes \nits ends without being conscious [of limitations]. \n\nThe principle in the course and operation of Nature may be summed up in one word: \nit exists for its own sake without any double or ulterior motive. Hence the way in which \nit produces things is unfathomable. Nature is vast, deep, high, intelligent, infinite, and \neternal. The heaven, appearing before us, is only this bright, shining spot; but when taken \nin its immeasurable extent, the sun, moon, stars, and constellations are suspended in it, \nand all things are embraced under it. The earth, appearing before us, is but a handful \ncf soil; but taken in all its breadth and depth, it sustains mighty Himalayas without \nfeeling their weight. \n\nThe adoration of \u201cAbsolute Nature\u201d is as typically Chinese as the cult of \nfilial duty. It is, indeed, the mainspring of Far Eastern art and poetry, and \na recurring theme of its mystical literature. Above and within the physical \nand visible world, Chinese tradition recognized another world, the source from \nwhich all existences come forth and to which they return. In the profoundest \nsense, however, as the philosophers taught, there is only one world, only one \npath of being, the Tao, nor do existences come forth and return from the Real. \nThey only seem to do so; in truth, they cannot depart from that which is their \nessence, their raison d'etre. Thus, wherever there is being, the Tao can be \nfound, if we search deeply enough. \n\n\u201cThe principle in the course and operation of Nature\u201d is, in its supreme aspect, \nknown as \u201cHeaven\u201d or \u201cGod\u201d. It is the Divine Law and not a personal divinity. \nBut it is, in another sense, the very substance of all real personality in the uni\u00ac \nverse. Human nature, in its highest phase, may thus be called a personification \nof God. In the Analects } it is said that \u2018\u2018the Master would never talk about prodi- \n\n\n122 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ngies, feats of strength, crime, or supernatural beings.\u201d He could discover no \nplace in the cosmos for the supernatural. The course and operation of Nature \nmust at the last bring all creatures to their proper rest. It is necessary to add, \nhowever, that the term, Nature, as here used, has a significance far transcending \nthat which is given it by most Western thinkers, for whom it means little more \nthan the sum-total of physical processes. \u201cAbsolute Nature\u201d, like the natura \nnaturans of Spinoza, is the one creative force which is at work in all worlds and \non all planes. \n\nAlthough he seldom refers to it directly, we may presume, on the basis of \nthe passage quoted above, that such a metaphysical background was always \npresent in his thought. It makes intelligible two ideas which Confucius was \nalways stressing,\u2014that the Superior Man is the Natural Man, and that moral or \nspiritual progress is a natural process, obeying laws essentially identical with \nthose which preside over all cyclic changes and the growth of all living things. \n\nThe Superior Man is the Natural Man. Certainly this is a dangerous state\u00ac \nment, open to the gravest misinterpretations. The \u201cnatural man\u201d, as Occidental \nthought habitually conceives him, is not \u201csuperior\u201d, in any sense of the word. \nHe is an animal whose impulse to happiness is thwarted by a system of taboos \noriginally imposed by the conditions of primitive society, and morality or ethics \nis the survival of this system into an age in which taboos are no longer needed; \nor he is the \u201cnoble savage\u201d of Rousseau and Chateaubriand, a normally sweet- \ntempered creature, whose native goodness has been smothered by civilization and \nparticularly by the division of society into castes. In any event, the modernistic \nmoralist proposes to substitute a new morality for the old, pretending that this \nsubstitution will make it possible for all \u201cnatural men\u201d to enjoy themselves, \nfreed from all ancient inhibitions and all class distinctions. \n\nConfucius had no such illusions. He regarded the Superior Man as \u201cnatural\u201d \nbecause the form of the Superior Man has been pre-determined for human \nnature by \u201cthe ordinance of God\u201d. It is normal for humanity to grow into that \nhigher form, as it is normal for the life-principle in the acorn to expand into the \nform of an oak. \n\nThe ordinance of God is what we call the law of our being. To fulfil the law of our \nbeing is what we call the moral law. The moral law when reduced to a system is what \nwe call religion. . . . The life of the moral man is an exemplification of the universal \norder. The life of the vulgar person, on the other hand, is a contradiction of the uni\u00ac \nversal order. . . . When the passions, such as joy, anger, grief and pleasure, have not \nawakened, that is our true self, or moral being. When these passions awaken and each \nand all attain due measure and degree, that is the moral order. Our true self or moral \nbeing is the great root of existence, and moral order is the universal law in the world. \nWhen true moral being and moral order are realized, the universe then becomes a cosmos \nand all things attain their full growth and development (Chung Yung). \n\nThus ethics is as truly a branch of natural science as botany or astronomy \nWhen truly seen, the universe appears as a moral order. The laws of physics \nand the laws of the spiritual life correspond to one another, as Drummond \nperceived, since they are ordinances of the same Divinity, expressions of a \n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONFUCIUS \n\n\n123 \n\n\nNature which is indivisible. But if the Superior Man be the Natural Man, why \nare so few men natural? Why is the average human creature a \u201cvulgar person\u201d \nwhose life is \u201ca contradiction of the universal order\u201d? \n\nConfucius was much too wise to attempt to explain the incidence of evil and \nfolly, ignorance and illusion, in the natural order. He suggests, however, that one \nsource of these things is found in the human mind, in the misuse of imagination, \ndesire and will. \u201cThere is nothing more evident than that which cannot be seen \nby the eyes and nothing more palpable than that which cannot be perceived by \nthe senses: wherefore the moral man watches diligently over his secret thoughts\u201d \n(Chung Yung). Men are moved by the thoughts and delusions to which they \nheedlessly give themselves. They do not really take the time and trouble to \nmeditate before they act, to determine for themselves what it is that they really \ndesire. What is needed, therefore, is self-knowledge, which is acquired by medi\u00ac \ntation upon experience. One must search, within the heart, in social life, in \nhistory, in the physical universe; one must resolve to find, anywhere and every\u00ac \nwhere, evidences of the universal order, the moral law. \n\nThe ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first \nordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their own states, they first regulated \ntheir families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. \nWishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify \ntheir hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in \ntheir thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of \ntheir knowledge lay in the investigation of things {The Great Learning ). \n\n\nConfucius, like Plato, believed that knowledge and love are in essence one \nand the same; that, for the mature human being, love without knowledge and \nknowledge without love are equally unnatural. Man must, by the constraint of \nhis nature, love truth and nobility, when these are really perceived. Because so \nfew perceive things as they are, human life is troubled and futile, the affections \nare turned towards irrational and base objects, and the mind dissipates its energies \nin fantasy and ratiocination without purpose. \n\nThere are men, I daresay, who act rightly without knowing the reason why, but I am \nnot one of them. Having heard much, I sift out the good and practise it; having seen \nmuch, I retain it in my memory. This is the second order of wisdom {Analects). \n\nThese words are of particular interest because they imply that Confucius \nrecognized the superiority of intuitive understanding to the knowledge which is \nlaboriously built up by the human reason. As Giles suggests, \u201cthe saying has a \ndistinctly Taoist flavour\u201d. The major distinction between Confucius and Lao- \nTze is that the former founded his teaching upon common experience and reason, \nwhereas the latter insisted that truth can only be known finally by immediate \nintuition, by direct spiritual vision. According to a Taoist tradition, Confucius \nvisited the older sage and paid homage to him, saying afterwards to his disciples: \n\u201cThere is the dragon [a symbol of Adeptship]: I cannot tell how he mounts on \nthe wind through the clouds and rises to heaven. To-day I have seen Lao-Tze, \n\n\n124 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nand can only compare him to the dragon.\u201d Chuang-Tze, who respected Con\u00ac \nfucius in spite of his loathing for certain Confucianist sectarians, suggested that \nhe preferred the way of Lao-Tze, but was forced by destiny to teach a lower way \nto mankind. However that may be, the way of common experience and reason \nwhich Confucius taught is better adapted than the mystical lao for the vast \nmajority of men. When the unregenerate rely on spiritual intuition as their \nguide, they soon lose themselves in the labyrinth of the psychic world. It is too \neasy to mistake glamour for light. The sublime visions of a Lao-Tze are reserved \nfor those who have perfected themselves in the \u2018\u2018lower way\u201d of self-discipline \nwhich Confucius pointed out. \n\nTzH Kung asked: What would you say of the man who conferred benefits far and wide \non the people and was able to be the salvation of all? Would you pronounce him a man \nof moral virtue?\u2014Of moral virtue? said the Master. Nay, rather, of divine virtue. Even \nthe Emperors of the Golden Age were still striving to attain this height ( Analects ). \n\nThe Superior Man stands at the beginning of the path, not at its end,\u2014if \nwe must think of it as having an end. But as the sage so clearly saw, before \none can become divine, one must become human. The summit of the mountain \nis reached by those who begin its ascent, not by those who fancy that one can \ndispense with the intermediate stages of the climb and can somehow leap im\u00ac \nmediately to the ultimate goal. \n\nI know now why there is no real moral life. The wise mistake moral law for some\u00ac \nthing higher than it really is; and the foolish do not know enough what moral law really \nis. I know now why the moral law is not understood. The noble natures want to live \ntoo high, high above their moral ordinary self; and ignoble natures do not live high \nenough (Chung Yung). \n\nTherefore, the first stage of the path, as Confucius conceived it, is to become, \nnot divine, but truly human. He called upon his disciples to become aware of \nthe powers which they actually possessed, to rescue them from misuse, to re\u00ac \ndivert them to the purposes for which Nature intended them. \n\nYen Yuan inquired as to the meaning of true goodness. The Master said: The sub\u00ac \ndual of self and the reversion to the natural laws governing conduct\u2014this is true good\u00ac \nness. If a man can for the space of one day subdue his selfishness and revert to natural \nlaws, the whole world will call him good. True goodness springs from a man\u2019s own heart. \nHow can it depend on other men?\u2014Yen Yuan said: Kindly tell me the practical rule \nto be deduced from this.\u2014The Master replied: Do not use your eyes, your ears, your \npower of speaking or your faculty of movement without obeying the inner law of self- \ncontrol {Analects). \n\nThe word which Giles translates as \u2018\u2018the inner law of self-control\u201d is li. It is \nthe term rendered by Legge as \u201cpropriety\u201d, which, as Giles says, \u201csuggests \nnothing so much as the headmistress of a young ladies\u2019 seminary\u201d. Li often \ndenoted religious rites or, indeed, any form of ceremonial or etiquette. However, \nit also signified the inward conscious state, of which ritual, ceremony and \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONFUCIUS \n\n\n125 \n\n\npoliteness were the natural expressions; and this seems to be the sense in which \nit was generally used by Confucius. It is associated with the term, jen , often \ntranslated as \u201cvirtue\u201d, but suggesting less the outer form than the inner intent, \nthe kindliness or charity which becomes manifest through right action. \n\nWhen It and jen become active, the whole life of the human being becomes \ndynamic and creative in ways which the ordinary man cannot conceive. The \nleast act is then charged with significance, inasmuch as it is the vehicle of a \ndefined, conscious purpose. When man no longer acts against Nature but with \nher, he becomes the channel of forces infinitely greater than himself. He lives \ncreatively, even though he may be unaware of his powers. Confucius, like the \nTaoists, did not believe that man discovers new forms and values by straining \nto invent them. Few of his followers have understood that Confucius was a \ngreat moralist because they have failed to understand that he was fundamentally \nmystical in his attitude towards all problems. \u201cThere is nothing more evident \nthan that which cannot be seen by the eyes.\u201d As the disciple turns his attention \nto his \u201csecret thoughts\u201d and purifies these, \u201cthe principle in the course and opera\u00ac \ntion of Nature\u201d transforms him and speaks through him to mankind. \n\nThe man of moral virtue, wishing to stand firm himself, will lend firmness to others; \nwishing to be illumined, he will illumine others. . . . Some one addressing Confucius, \nsaid: Why, Sir, do you take no part in the government?\u2014The Master replied: What \ndoes the Book of History say concerning filial piety? Do your duty as a son and as a \nbrother, and these qualities will make themselves felt in the government. This, then, \nreally amounts to taking part in the government. Holding office need not be considered \nessential. ... A ruler questioned Confucius on a point of government, saying: Ought \nI not to cut off the lawless in order to establish law and order?\u2014Confucius replied: Sir, \nwhat need is there for the death penalty in your system of government? If you showed \na sincere desire to be good, your people would likewise be good. The virtue of the prince \nis like unto wind; that of the people like unto grass. For it is the nature of grass to bend \nwhen the wind blows upon it {Analects). \n\nGod in giving life to all created things is surely bountiful to them according to their \nqualities. Hence the tree that is full of life He fosters and sustains, while that which \nis ready to fall He cuts off and destroys {Chung Yung). \n\nConfucius illustrated this doctrine by his life. Fie was, indeed, like a tree full \nof life. It is not strange that a commentator compared him to the Principle \nwhich orders the phenomena of Nature, for Confucius had raised a new ordir \nout of the confusion of his age. Tzu-ssu said: \n\nConfucius possessed, as if by hereditary transmission, the virtues of the Emperors \nYao and Shun. . . . Above all, he kept in unison with the seasons of the sky; below, \nhe conformed to the water and the land. We may liken him unto the sky and earth, \n\n. . . in respect of the universality with which they overspread and enfold things. We \nmay liken him unto the four seasons in respect of their varied march; unto the sun and \nmoon, in respect of their alternate shining. All things are kept in train without injuring \none another; their ways go on together without interference: the smaller forces in river \nstreams, the greater forces in ample transformations. It is this that makes the earth \nanffsky so great. \n\nStanley V. LaDow. \n\n{To be continued) \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE OAK AND THE NUTHATCH \n\n\nI F you would learn how the great world wags to-day, come to my window, \nhigh above a busy thoroughfare, and armed with an opera-glass you will \nacquire a liberal education. The other day we were privileged to watch a \nlarge and popular church disporting itself in modem fashion. A fuss was going \non round the great open doors. Adults of both sexes were rushing up and down \nthrough hordes of milling children of every racial shade. There were two bands, \nmovingly juvenile, standing too close together to be playing different tunes \nsimultaneously, and too close to everyone else to be playing in the key. When \nRobert Louis Stevenson travelled steerage, bets were taken as to which was tea \nand which was coffee, a faint flavour of dish-towel in the tea, but lacking in the \ncoffee, deciding the question. Even so did \u201cAmerica\u201d on the right and \u201cYankee \nDoodle\u201d on the left promote active betting, but with no result, there being a \nflavour of dish-towel in both. Ambling through the crowd were several minor \nclergy (at least I hope they were minor) cassocked and bareheaded. Each bore \nacross his manly chest a placard with the proud device, \u201cI will not fight\u201d, and \nwith instant intelligence we said to each other \u201cPacifists\u201d! The infants carried \nbanners, obviously home-made and nailed to sticks of kindling wood (the \npageant regarded as pageant was decidedly scrubby). The banners remarked \non one side that \u201cwar was hell\u201d, and on the reverse, \u201cto hell with war\u201d. It was \nprovocative of thought to watch six-year-olds staggering under them. The \ncurates milled about, and the distracted ladies rushed up and down, and a \nlarge number of pink balloons were borne aloft. We squabbled over the \nsignificance of these, but finally agreed that, obeying the law of correspondences, \nthey were worn above the shoulders to typify the head. \n\nBut even fashionable churches cannot arrest the cycles. Suddenly\u2014just like \nthat!\u2014war broke out! A very small girl, no bigger than Belgium, was pushed \ninto the gutter by a rude and determined boy, who, wishing to be somewhere \nelse, walked straight through her. This was resented by her several brothers \nand the sidewalks were instantly mobilized. Belgium wept in the gutter minus a \nhair-ribbon, while attackers and defenders, making fists the size of mandarin \noranges, opened hostilities. To the credit of the curates and the ladies, be it \nsaid that a League of Nations was formed in the twinkling of an eye, and it was \ntrue to type, for they talked and they talked and they talked, and then, without \nquestion of right or wrong, made that most disgustful of all proposals to children \nwho need justice\u2014that they \u201ckiss and make up\u201d. It is agreeable to add that \nboth curates and ladies were noticeably knocked about before peace without \nhonour descended, when they all scuffled away out of step and out of tune, a \nLilliputian army \u201cterrible with banners\u201d, conscripted for the Black Lodge. \n\nThe peace that ensued for the onlookers was disturbed and dark with question\u00ac \nings. Have we in training a generation of little poltroons who, like the pusil- \n\n126 \n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE OAK AND THE NUTHATCH \n\n\n127 \n\n\nlanimous hero of a popular play of old, threaten in the face of dire wrong to \n\u201cslap the wrist\u201d? Why enrol infants for this type of pernicious nonsense? \nWhat dreams are carried in those pink balloons? What skandhas are being \nplanted and watered before our eyes? \n\nSkandhas! It is disconcerting when a vast subject strolls nonchalantly across \nthe threshold of a little paper, and demands to be included. Theosophy leads \nus to the edge of many mysteries, that of the skandhas not the least, and over \nthem we muse and wonder. But bewilderment is a poor foundation on which to \nbuild, and only in the sure hope of correction by my betters could I venture to \nmeet this challenge. \n\nMay it be said that we are factories, working day in and day out, lifetime after \nlifetime\u2014factories that we cannot shut down if we would, the freedom of our \nwill being limited to the quality of our production, these products being attri\u00ac \nbutes,\u2014skandhas? Or are we laboratories working under pressure to perfect \nchemical results, which results will be attributes,\u2014skandhas? Or gardens \nthrough which the seasons inexorably pass, where we sow and reap perforce, \nand where not only will the sesame be sesame and the corn be corn, but thistles \nwill be thistles and tares be tares; but wheat or weeds, the harvest is sure and will \nbe attributes\u2014skandhas? \n\nIf it be so, a consideration of the skandhas will throw light on many a house\u00ac \nhold saying and fairy tale, on many a myth and legend. We say of one, \u201che was \nbom with a silver spoon in his mouth\u201d; of another, \u201che has no luck\u201d, or \u201cthe \ngods must have a spite against him\u201d, but there are no silver spoons, no luck, no \nspite\u2014only skandhas. The ancients had largely outgrown this simplicity. \nTheir Fates and Nemeses, at least for the instructed among them, had meanings \nthat the \u201cman in the street\u201d must always miss, and there is a man in the street \nin the blood of all of us. Dreaming false, he persuades himself that the mission \nof the Fates is to confer or to withhold, to bless or to curse, but it is not so. \nWatching the fulfilment of the Law, doubtless they suffer or are glad when we \nshoulder again those burdens we must drop between the worlds\u2014burdens that \nare at once our endowment and our doom; perhaps they weariedly sigh like poor \nMary Queen of Scots, \u201ctheir end is their beginning\u201d, but they too are under the \nLaw of Necessity. Clotho may spin the thread, Lachesis mark its limit, and \nAtropos sever it, but they deal only with what we bring them, attributes\u2014 \nskandhas. Destiny, far from being blind, has three eyes. \n\nWhen the Daughters of Time turn from us and \u201cunder their solemn fillets we \nsee the scorn\u201d, we have but ourselves to blame. \u201cIt all lies before you, take \nwhat you will\u201d, easy tinsel or hard-won gold\u2014\u201cbread, kingdoms, stars, and sky \nthat holds them all\u201d. The choice was made for us with splendid precision long \nago, after forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, and that is where it \nmust always be made\u2014in that place, with that companionship, by that help. \n\nIt is said that \u201ceverything can be reduced to states of consciousness\u201d. Then \nare the skandhas of the very stuff and essence of consciousness? The Glossary \nt^te us that we are working with five skandhas now and that there are two \nmTO to come. The first and simplest is \u201crupa\u201d, form, vehicle. If that covers \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n128 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nall form in which human consciousness has embodied itself, it must mean houses \nand clothes and furniture and many other things besides the physical body, and \none can only suppose that an immense amount of experimentation is going on \nin every direction,\u2014most of it for the discard, we hope and pray. Our patterns \nin the noumenal world are of a divine perfection but, like small children with \npaint boxes, we copy badly. We fashion rupas of cheap material and of evil \ncolour, rupas that never fit and that wear shabby too soon, and we wail that it is \nnot fair; but we did the fashioning. Passing on to the next, if \u201cperception \nwere not blunt, weak, untrained; if \u201cconsciousness\u201d (that astounding complex) \nwere not for ever busy on wrong planes, arrogant, lazy, and fed with husks; if \n\u201caction\u201d were not misdirected, violent or half-hearted; if \u201cknowledge\u201d, in the \nsense of nous , were not skilfully evaded, then we could take heart, for we should \nbe approaching the gift of the sixth. But while man still vaunts such changelings \nas vanity for pride, and prejudice for faith, Divine mercy withholds the sixth. \nWe should only debase intuition if we had it, and, by its lunatic shadow, the \nmasquerading \u201chunch\u201d, continue to make havoc. \n\nWe hear a great deal to-day about \u201cstream of consciousness\u201d literature. A \ngreat master of literature is welcome to his methods, and there are streams of \nconsciousness into which it is a privilege to be pitched. Unfortunately the \npopular way seems to be to take the nastiest or the stupidest type of mind and \nw r rite page after page of its supposed drivel, without paragraph, humour or let-up. \nIt makes boresome reading, its appeal being only to the callow who have not \ndiscovered how nasty and stupid the human mind can be. Casual acquaintances \nwill furnish it free of charge, and you wouldn\u2019t read it out loud to your puppy. \n\nBut these people are not barking up the wrong tree, they are only barking on \nthe wrong note, for they have a \u201chunch\u201d about consciousness, a suspicion as to \nits importance. It is true that the \u201cstream of consciousness\u201d is our great open \nsecret, our key to all planes, and the Masters have said so in every form of words. \nTo change its direction is to be bom again, to clarify it is to work with the \nLogos. \u201cAs a man thinketh in his heart.\u201d Then how shall we think in the \nheart? \u201cWhatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are pure, lovely and of \ngood report\u2014think on these things.\u201d Many saints have left their records for \nour help. Most of these lacked the training of the Secret Wisdom and therefore \nfloat better than they swim, but they float in an ocean of love, and great is our \ndebt to them. \n\nLove and Wisdom need each other for this travel. When that union is \naccomplished the cosmic ocean will be full of brave swimmers instead of lone \nfigures here and there. We see them passing\u2014swift, unresting, rapt, \u201cwith \nintensest love moving perpetually toward things divine\u201d. They pause beside \nus where we splash and flounder, and call us fellow-swimmers. Perhaps we are, \nperhaps some day we shall master that superb over-stroke and keep pace with \nthem. Indeed, as we watch their lovely progress are we not \u201calmost persuaded\u201d ? \n\nL.S. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHISTORICAL MYSTERIES \n\n\nT HE story of Martin, the peasant seer, has often been told. French \nMemoirs of the early nineteenth century Contain numerous references \nto him, while the essential facts of his connection with Louis XVIII are \nmatters of official record. Perhaps the most dependable account of his expe\u00ac \nrience and \u201cmission\u201d is given by G. LeNotre in his Martin le Visionnaire \u2014 1816 - \n1834, in which all the official references and numerous depositions are set forth. \n\nThe story, as we now give it, is as well authenticated as any event in history. \n******* \n\nThis happened on January 15th, 1816. \n\n- Thomas Martin, a French peasant, was at work alone in his fields. \n\n\u201cMartin\u201d, said a voice, close by, \u201cyou must go to the King, to warn him \nthat he is in danger. Wicked men seek to overthrow the Government. He \nmust bring about order in his domain, and decree public prayers for the con\u00ac \nversion of the people . . . otherwise the direst misfortunes will befall France. \n\nThe farmer, startled by the unperceived approach, and loathe to have his \nwork interrupted, answered testily, \n\n\u201cSince you know so much about it, why not carry out your commission your\u00ac \nself! Why choose a poor man like me\u2014I am no talker.\u201d \n\n\u201cIt is not I who am to go, but you\u201d, replied the other, quietly but peremptor\u00ac \nily, \u201cdo as I command you\u201d. And Martin, stupefied, saw the man rise into the \nair, waver an instant, then slowly vanish \u201cas though he had dissolved\u201d. \n\nThe peasant\u2019s first impulse was to run, but as if compelled by a will higher \nthan his own, he took up his fork and continued his work. The fact that it was \ncompleted in about half the usual time, added no little to the uneasy preoccu\u00ac \npation with which he turned homeward. \n\nThree days later, January 18th, 1816, he went to his cellar, candle in hand, \nand was selecting some fine red apples, when beside him, without warning, \nagain stood the stranger. What might have been said on this occasion was \nnever recorded, for the farmer bounded up the stairs three steps at a time, the^^ \ncandle falling unheeded to the floor. Two days later still, when measurinjjj^B \noats for the horses, he found himself face to face with the unknown, standing^ \nframed in the stable doorway. Again he fled in consternation, bolting himself \ninto his house. He could not refrain from telling his wife and his brother-in- \nlaw of the disturbing experiences, but they merely scoffed\u2014as though anyone \ncould be hidden in their small home, with three active grown-ups, rising early \nand working late, and with several children about! \n\nThe next day, Sunday, all the family went to the village church. Martin, \nextending his hand toward the holy water, suddenly realized that his \u201cun- \nki\u00bbn\u201d was beside him, performing the same rite. As he walked up the aisle, \nthl^eemingly solid individual followed, but stopped at the entrance to the \n\n\n\n\n129 \n\n\n\ni 3 o THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\npew; remaining there, he entered most devoutly into all that was done, joined \nthe family as they met on the steps of the church afterward, and proceeded \nwith them along the road to the farm. His appearance was the same on each \noccasion\u2014of medium height, slender in build, with a thin, fine face and gentle \nthough compelling voice; he was always clothed in a long, tight-fitting great\u00ac \ncoat, buttoned from top to*toe, and wore a round, tall hat. As they reached \nthe farm, he suddenly faced Martin, said imperatively, \u201cCarry out your com\u00ac \nmission\u2014do as I tell you!\u201d, and vanished. At last there were witnesses! His \nfamily were with him; they must have seen and heard all. But no\u2014they had \nseen nothing, heard nothing. \n\nIn bewilderment, Martin turned to his Parish priest. The latter knew him \nto be steady, industrious, thrifty, a good father, not given to drink, never en\u00ac \ngaging in political agitation, never subject to religious unbalance or extremes. \nConcealing his astonishment, the Curd told him such things happen now and \nthen to the bravest and best; advised him to see his doctor and adopt a simple \nrdgime, and promised to say a Mass, with the intention that light be vouchsafed \nas to the reality of the apparitions. Martin attended the Mass. On his return \nhome, the stranger appeared for the fifth time, merely saying, \u201cMartin, carry \nout your commission. Time is passing.\u201d \n\nThe Curd straightway appealed to his superior, the Bishop of Versailles, a \nman of wide experience in public life, kindly, tolerant, but by no means cred\u00ac \nulous. The Bishop talked with the farmer, pronounced his trouble ridiculous,\u2014 \ndreams and nothing more; then bethought him that, as the instructions involved \nthe King, it was really outside his own jurisdiction anyway. Martin should go \nto the Prefect at Chartres and tell him the story. \u201cAnd\u201d, he added, \u201cif you see \nyour unknown, ask him his name and who told him to come to you\u2014then tell \nyour Curd, who will report it to me.\u201d While he had no faith in celestial visitants, \nthe Bishop was impressed by Martin\u2019s absolute sincerity and good faith, and, \nconcluding that he was the dupe of some enemy of the Government, wrote to \nthe Minister of Police. \n\nThe day after Martin\u2019s return to his little village of Gallardon, the visitor \nappeared again. \u201cI was with you, though invisible\u201d, he said, \u201cwhen you talked \nwith the Bishop. He told you to ask me my name and on whose behalf I come. \nMy name will remain unknown. He who sent me is above me.\u201d Martin, al\u00ac \nthough cold with fear, ventured to ask why such a commission was given to a \nmere peasant, and was told that it was in order to humble pride,\u2014though not \nhis pride. Three days later, again appearing, the stranger said: \n\n\u201cMartin, you will be led before the King, you will disclose to him secrets of \nthe time of his exile, the knowledge of which will be given you only at the mo\u00ac \nment when you are introduced into his presence.\u201d \n\nThis and subsequent conversations, some of them dealing with facts of which \nMartin knew nothing, or employing words unfamiliar to him and remembered \nimperfectly, were written down by the Cur6 and reported to the Bishop, who \nfinally recommended that the Minister of Police send someone to arrest the \nintruder and put an end to the matter. Martin and the Cure were both sum- \n\n\nHISTORICAL MYSTERIES \n\n\n131 \n\nmoned before the Prefect of the district, where the peasant maintained his \nstraightforward simplicity and composure throughout a rigorous examination. \nAt the end of it, he was sent off to Paris, in the custody of a police officer, to ap\u00ac \npear before the Minister of Police, with the recommendation that severity be \nexercised. \n\nIt was on a Friday morning, March 8th, that the countryman and his gen\u00ac \ndarme were interviewed at the H6tel du Quai Malaquais. Stepping into an \nimpressive antechamber, the first person Martin perceived was his \u201cunknown\u201d, \nwho told him to be steady, to have no uneasiness or fear, and to tell his story \njust as it had occurred. Then he vanished, the inner doors opened, and Martin \nwas led before the Minister. \n\nThe Minister of Police at that time was the Comte Elie Decazes. Having \nwon the confidence of the King to a marked degree, he had aroused jealousy \nin every party at court. Decazes received Martin haughtily, and having heard \nhis story, told him he could return to his home, easy in mind, for the enigmatic \npersonage had been arrested and was now in prison. \n\nMartin, whom no cross-examining disturbed, since each step brought him \nthat much nearer his goal and to final release from the apparitions, replied \nsimply, \u201cI don\u2019t believe that. I saw him here just now, and then he vanished\u201d. \nThe Minister called one of his secretaries, and commanded, \n\n\u201cSee if that man is really in prison.\u201d \n\n\u201cHe is\u201d, replied the subordinate. \n\n\u201cWell\u201d, said Martin, \u201csince you have him, let him be brought here. I shall \nrecognize him at once.\u201d \n\nDecazes abruptly ended the interview, sending the prisoner back to his hotel \n\u2014the H6tel de Calais, 138, rue Montmartre\u2014in charge of his gendarme, who \nwas ordered not to leave him day or night. That afternoon, another visitation. \n\n\u201cThey told you\u201d, said the stranger, \u201cthat I had been arrested. Inform him \nwho said so, that he has no power over me!\u201d \n\nAt seven the following morning, he came again, this time to say that a physi\u00ac \ncian would come, whose questions must be answered quite frankly and \nwithout uneasiness. On neither occasion could the police officer, Andr6, per\u00ac \nceive anything. About three o\u2019clock a visitor arrived, and Martin received him \nwith, \u201cYou must be the doctor whose visit was announced to me.\u201d \n\n\u201cHow do you know that?\u201d countered the other, laughing. \n\n\u201cI know it because the unknown personage whom I see, warned me of it.\u201d \n\nIt was Pinel, famous alienist and head physician at the Salp\u00a3tri\u00a3re, sent by \nDecazes. Again Martin told his story, relating it with his usual quiet sincerity. \nPinel reported afterward that there was no trace of delirium, but that Martin\u2019s \nmental state, attributing real existence to purely fantastic images, was not \nunusual. Inasmuch, however, as it could conceivably change to a condition \ndangerous to others, he advised for him the medical treatment for the mentally \nderanged. Later, reflecting on Martin\u2019s good sense in all but the matter of his \nvis^s, Pinel became disturbed, doubtful of his diagnosis, and offered to make \nanother examination in company with M. Royer-Collard, head physician at \n\n\n13 2 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nCharenton, the State institution for the insane\u2014finally recommending that \nMartin be sent there for several weeks\u2019 observation. \n\nAndrd and his prisoner were summoned in haste to the Ministry, where the \ngendarme was admitted and ordered to take Martin, waiting outside, to Charen\u00ac \nton forthwith. The two had become fast friends. Andr6 was accustomed to \nthe custody of criminals. But this peasant was so honest, so dependable, so \nlevel-headed on all but the one subject, that it was impossible not to sympathize \nwith his desire to rid himself of his obsessions and get back to his family and \nneglected fields. With the idea of breaking the distressing news gently, he \nremarked: \n\n\u201cYou think perhaps, my friend, that we are about to return home?\u201d \n\n\u201cNot a bit of it\u201d, replied Martin. \u201cI know very well where you are going to \ntake me. You are taking me to Charenton\u2014but no matter, no harm will come \nof it.\u201d His \u201cvision\u201d, he explained, had told him, and this time had lifted the \nincognito, saying: \n\n\u201cThe incredulity is so great that I must disclose my name\u2014I am the Arch\u00ac \nangel Raphael, high in the sight of God.\u201d (Various other instances will at \nonce occur to the reader where names of this kind have been used by messengers \nof the Lodge, according to the comprehension and need of the individual they \nare addressing.) Before disappearing this time, the visitant foretold that an \ninquiry would be made at Gallardon, by the authorities, as to the people with \nwhom Martin had associated. Martin wrote at once, on March 12th, to his \nbrother, telling him that this would be done. It was not until the 16th that the \nofficial order was given for the investigation to be made. \n\nLeft at Charenton with his few belongings, Martin went through more ex\u00ac \naminations, more questioning. His answers, as always, were clear, precise, \nsatisfactory. His physical condition, it was found, could scarcely have \nbeen better. Asked why he had been sent there, he related quietly the entire \naccount of his visions, all of which was written down in the record forming the \nbasis of the present recital. The case was pronounced a \u201cpartial and ecstatic \nmania\u201d, appearing intermittently, and in the intervals leaving the intellectual \nfaculties entirely sound. But Royer-Collard who made the diagnosis, was un\u00ac \neasy. Too many of the usual \u201csymptoms\u201d were lacking. Martin was given \nthe freedom of the grounds, though very closely watched, and was allowed to \nhelp with the gardening. Except during his examinations, he refrained from \ntalking of his apparitions. His simple faith made it possible for him to \naccept the entire situation without any particular wonderment. He was con\u00ac \nvinced that each step in his experience was the will of God, and his ac\u00ac \nceptance and conviction were so complete that they affected to a greater or less \ndegree everyone with whom he associated. Added to that, he never showed \nimpatience, sadness, fear, nor excessive gaiety. He entered whole-heartedly \nand equably into the life about him, all of which he found novel and pleasurable. \n\nThe day after his first examination, the \u201cangel\u201d appeared again, in uncon\u00ac \ncealed displeasure. \u201cSince they are behaving like this, I will no longer come\u201d, \nhe said. \u201cIt is not doctors of medicine but doctors of theology that should be \n\n\nHISTORICAL MYSTERIES \n\n\ni 33 \n\n\nconsulted! If they continue in their incredulity, misfortune will certainly fol\u00ac \nlow. As for you, hold fast to your trust in God. No harm will come to you.\u201d \n\nAbout eleven days later, however, he did appear again. Martin was just \nstarting a letter to his brother, and, as the vision ended, wrote: \u201cAs I was about \nto write you, the same apparition came to me, saying:\u2014\u2018I told you that I would \nno longer come; I assure you that I should be deeply sorry if my efforts were to \nfail; I assure you that the most terrible scourge is about to fall upon France.\u2019 \nThe archangel told me also that I could not wish better health than I have, \nthat the most learned doctors are sent to visit me, and that they are unable to \nfind a thing wrong with me, and that if I am kept here it is because they want \nto put me to the test.\u201d In concluding, the angel had said, \u201cMartin, I give you \npeace; be not troubled; have no disquietude\u201d, and Martin, who told the doctor \neverything, added that although he had always been very tranquil, he felt, from \nthat moment, a calm and peace which he had never experienced before. \n\nStill another and another visitation. Every afternoon, Martin walked in the \npark. Suddenly one day, the \u201cangel\u201d appeared, saying: \n\n\u201cThere is division of opinion and discussion regarding me. Some say that I \nam an imaginary being, or even an angel of darkness. To convince you that I \nam real, come to me and take me by the hand.\u201d Martin obeyed and \u201cfelt his \nown hand gripped as by two ordinary hands\u201d. Thereupon the angel threw open \nthe overcoat that had invariably enveloped him, and there shone a light of such \nblinding radiance that Martin could discern nothing of the body. The \u201cangel\u201d \nthen wrapped the coat about him again, and the light disappeared. Next he re\u00ac \nmoved his tall hat, saying, \n\n\u201cA fallen angel wears on his brow the mark of his reprobation: examine mine \nand see if you find anything of the sort.\u201d Martin raised his eyes to a forehead of \nspotless purity. Without another word, the visitor was gone. \n\nThis account was given, be it remembered, over the signature of Pinel, \nphysician-in-chief of the Salp&tri&re, and Royer-Collard, physician-in-chief at \nCharenton, who declared that Martin showed no sign of aberration, that he was \nnot an impostor, that the desire to be in the limelight had never entered his \n\u201crather ordinary and limited\u201d mind, and finally that it was physically impos\u00ac \nsible, in this disconcerting phenomenon, for any outside human agency to have \nintervened. \n\nThere is nothing in the record to indicate the cause of the next step. Decazes, \ncontrary to what might have been expected, had followed the case rather closely, \ndemanding reports. The Cur6 of Gallardon, by now convinced that the \nphenomena were miraculous, and that his parishioner was the chosen of heaven \nfor the salvation of France, was unceasing in his efforts, demanding first that \nsomething be done for Martin\u2019s family and neglected farm, and actually ob\u00ac \ntaining from the King, through Decazes, a gift of money for this purpose. Not \nsafljbd with anything short of Martin\u2019s release, however, the Cur6 finally \nwroteto Monseigneur de Talleyrand de P^rigord, Archbishop of Rheims and \nGrand Almoner to the King. The latter sent two eminent ecclesiastics to \nCharenton, who put Martin through still another examination. The story \n\n\n134 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhad by this time become widely known, and must almost certainly have come \nto the ears of the King through one channel or another. The King is represented \nas being impervious to such an idea as that of angelic messengers, but as being \npossibly suspicious that enemies of his favourite, Decazes, were responsible for \nthe whole affair, and curious to see how far they could and would go. \n\nWhatever the explanation, a messenger from the Minister of Police arrived \nsuddenly at Charenton on the second of April, with orders for Martin\u2019s removal, \nno reason and no subsequent destination being specified. He was taken at once \nbefore Decazes, who questioned him, asking, for one thing, what he intended \nto say to the King. \n\n\u201cI do not know at present\u201d, replied Martin simply, \u201cit will be told to me \nwhen I am in his presence.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Well, since you wish to go to him\u201d, said the Minister, \u2018\u2018I am going to take \nyou there.\u201d And he withdrew to don his court attire. Immediately, the \u201carch\u00ac \nangel\u201d appeared, though only for a moment. \n\n\u201cMartin\u201d, said he, \u201cyou are going to speak to the King. You will be alone \nwith him. Have no fear. The words you are to speak will come to you.\u201d \n\nThe coach bearing the Minister departed first, followed, after a brief interval, \nby another in which rode Martin and a subordinate of the Ministry, instructed \nto take his charge to the first valet-de-chambre of the King. In the unaccus\u00ac \ntomed grandeur of the Tuileries, Martin maintained his usual composure. Taken \nbefore the King, and by the latter\u2019s order left alone with him, he returned the \nkindly greeting of the monarch courteously but unceremoniously, and, when \ntold to be seated, took a chair at the opposite side of a little table at which the \nKing sat. Here, after repeating once more the oft-told story of his apparitions, \nhe disclosed several secret incidents which had occurred during the King\u2019s exile, \npart of them forgotten by the King himself after twenty years. He then \nrevealed certain plots, and without mentioning the names of the leaders, desig\u00ac \nnated them unmistakably. Then the King, greatly moved, raised his eyes and \nhis hands toward heaven and said, \u201cMartin, these matters must be known only \nto you and to me\u201d. And Martin promised the most absolute secrecy. \n\nThe peasant stated afterward that during the interview, which lasted about \na half hour, he spoke with extreme ease: it seemed almost as though another \nspoke through him, the words came to his tongue so readily; and the secrets \nwhich he revealed to the King were totally unknown to him, until he became \nconscious of them as he entered the royal presence. Once they were told, his \nease of speech suddenly left him. \u201cSire\u201d, he said, \u201cmy mission is accomplished. \nI have nothing more to say.\u201d He was then sent back to Charenton, where he \ngave the authorities his account of the royal audience, though without revealing \nits \u201csecrets\u201d. After this, Martin was set free, and returned home. \n\nThe \u201carchangel\u201d had promised that once the message was given to the King, \nhe would never appear again. The promise was kept,\u2014as Martin himself de\u00ac \nclared. Martin\u2019s later career, however, is puzzling. Practically none of those \nwho talked with him up to this point, doubted his absolute sincerity, veracity \nand good faith, no matter what explanation they may have given of his visions. \n\n\nHISTORICAL MYSTERIES \n\n\ni35 \n\n\nThe same cannot be said of him in after years when, famous throughout France, \nand exposed to the foolish adulation of countless wonder-mongers and senti\u00ac \nmentalists, he began to see other visions, to hear another \u201cvoice\u201d, and to utter \nprophecies. So long as Louis XVIII lived, Martin observed the silence he had \npledged. This did not prevent others, however, from imagining just what \n\u201cmust have been\u201d said; and rumour was rife. Enemies of Decazes were sure \nthat the famous interview must have been for the purpose of warning the King \nagainst his minister\u2019s machinations. Supporters of various pretenders to the \nthrone, saw in it an order to the King to abdicate in favour of their particular \nclaimant. Any calamity that occurred was regarded as the punishment meted \nout for failure to obey the command of heaven. By 1824, when Louis XVIII died, \nMartin\u2019s mode of life, his personality, his whole outlook, appear to have changed, \nas a result of the notoriety he had experienced, and, upon the death of the \nKing, he was persuaded that his promise of silence was no longer binding. He \nthen declared that during his conversation with Louis, the King had been re\u00ac \nminded of a day, early in the reign of Louis XVI, and before the latter had any \nchildren, when the two brothers were hunting together. Into the mind of \nLouis XVIII (at that time the Comte de Provence) had come the guilty thought \nthat if the King were struck by a stray bullet, the crown of France would be \nhis own. As for the primary message of the \u201cangel\u201d, it was asserted to be that \nLouis XVIII, finally on the throne after so many years of waiting, was never\u00ac \ntheless not rightfully there, for his nephew, the little Dauphin, supposed to \nhave died in prison in 1795, had in reality escaped from the Temple, was still \nalive, and that France would know happiness only when she had discovered \nand enthroned him. On another occasion, Martin claimed to have told the \nKing that he must not be crowned; and the King never was crowned. Inci\u00ac \ndentally there is some indication that Charles X too, was influenced in his \nabdication by statements of Martin regarding the legitimate claimant. \n\nThe complicating element in these assertions is, that belief in the escape and \ncontinued existence of the little Dauphin was widely held, and that Martin had \nbecome associated with a group of ardent enthusiasts on the subject. Numerous \npretenders had appeared (some twenty-five or thirty in all), desirous of claiming \nthe royal heritage. One of the best known of these, \u201cKarl-Wilhelm Naundorff\u201d, A \nMartin met and claimed to recognize as the true Dauphin whom he had seen in \na vision. And such was Martin\u2019s standing as a seer and prophet, that his declara\u00ac \ntion gave, in effect, a supernatural backing to Naundorff\u2019s claims which had \nsurprising weight. Rumour and fact became so entangled that it is difficult to \njudge whether Martin\u2019s sincerity and good faith had remained with him\u2014but \nit is equally difficult to pronounce against him. It was a time when political \nfeeling ran high, and political enmities were intense, and Martin, after receiving \nrepeated warnings (anonymous, though entirely of earth this time) to desist \nfrom his activities on behalf of his \u201cDauphin\u201d, died by the hand of an assassin, \nin 1834- \n\n\n\u201cNATIONS CAN LIVE AT HOME\u201d \n\n\n\u201c TN the July, 1933, issue of the Quarterly, in the \u2018Screen of Time\u2019, it was \nsuggested that England would be very much better off to-day if, after the \nArmistice of November, 1918, her demobilized armies had been helped to \noccupy the many acres of uncultivated land in England and Scotland. The idea \nwas that it is the first duty of every government to try to make a country self- \nsupporting in the event of war. England was nearly starved to death by German \nsubmarines, and ought not to allow such a condition to remain possible. In other \nwords, England (and of course every other country similarly) ought to do its ut\u00ac \nmost to raise within its own borders enough food to feed its entire population. \nIt would have been claimed until recently that, owing to the poverty of the soil, \netc., such large-scale production of food would have been impossible in a densely \npopulated country. I am now sending you a book 1 which meets that objection \nhead-on. Are the author\u2019s conclusions correct or are they fallacious? Have they \nbeen put to a practical test, or are they merely theoretical possibilities?\u201d \n\nSuch is the opening paragraph of a recent letter which introduced us to this \nbook upon which we have been asked to give an opinion. Now the present \nwriter is not an agronomist, so he handed the book to a friend who follows that \nparticular profession. Thus the following is an amalgam of three points of view: \nthat of our Recorder of the \u201cScreen\u201d, who is alive to the social danger of the \npresent hand-to-mouth economic policy of certain European nations; that of an \nagronomist and soil scientist who is competent to pass upon the practical \nagricultural aspect of the matter, and, finally, that of a student of plant science \nwho approaches the subject with some knowledge of the factors which ensure \nthe maximum growth and productivity of plants. \n\nMr. Willcox\u2019s thesis is stated by the title of the book: \u201cNations Can Live at \nHome\u201d. In a word, it is his contention that the new science of \u201cAgrobiology\u201d \n(the scientific management of field crops) is competent at this very moment to \nsupply each nation through its domestic agriculture, with all the food requisite \nto the healthy maintenance of its people. More than this, the author asserts \nthat the limits of increased food production have not even been sighted. \n\nEver since the eighteenth century the spectre of Malthus has stalked the world \nto render uneasy the repose of statesmen and economists, for Malthus taught \n\u201cthat population tends to multiply faster than its means of subsistence can be \nmade to do, and that when this occurs the lower or weaker classes must suffer \nfrom lack of food; that unless an increase of population be checked by prudential \nrestraint, poverty is inevitable; and that the multiplying of the population will \nbe checked by poverty, vice, or some other cause of suffering.\u201d \n\nThat this threat to the cupboards of nations is no idle one, is abundantly \n\n1 Nations Can Live at Home, by 0. W. Willcox, Ph.D.; W. W. Norton and Co., Inc., New York, 1935. \n\n136 \n\n\n\n\n\u201cNATIONS CAN LIVE AT HOME\u201d \n\n\ni37 \n\n\nattested by the dire spectacle of China, swarming with humanity and wasted \nby recurrent famines, or of Japan and Italy forced, as they seem to believe, into \ncareers of war and invasion to save their own nations from starvation. Indeed, \nit was the perusal of Malthus\u2019s writings that gave Darwin his first inkling of the \ngiant struggle for existence which became the cornerstone of his theory. \n\nUntil the turn of the century, population pressure upon food supply was, \nin a measure, minimized by the opening of new agricultural lands to emigrating \npeoples. To-day, however, the frontier is gone, and once more the dark shadow \nof a hungry world looms before the nations. Mussolini, for example, has stated \nItaly\u2019s apparent case in cold, realistic sentences: \u201cAccording as our population \nincreases there are three outlets: to condemn ourselves to voluntary sterility\u2014 \nand Italians are too intelligent for that; to wage war; or to place our surplus \npopulation elsewhere.\u2019\u2019 Recent events have made evident upon which of the \noutlets II Duce's choice has fallen. War, say the realists, is the ultimate term of \nthe Malthusian law. They see the futility of the dream of an all-sufficing \ninternational trade since this palliative to national want is at best inconstant \nand temporary, subject to the vicissitudes of tariff barriers, glutted markets, \nforeign competition, and, worst of all, to the menace of war. \n\nWith a brave array of statistics and graphs to support his statements, the \nauthor of the book before us challenges the Malthusian prophets of disaster, \nand asserts that agronomy (the art of field-crop production) has, within the last \nten years, been lifted from the realm of chance and blundering empiricism in \nwhich it has been floundering for twenty thousand years, and has been placed \nupon a basis so exact that \u201call agrobiologic phenomena may be dimensioned, \npermuted, controlled and brought to a finish with quantitative exactitude\u201d. \nThis is a statement so startling that it is small wonder one\u2019s first reaction to it is \nironical. Another \u201cSend-a-Dime Scheme\u201d, another \u201cTownsend Plan\u201d, we say \nwearily, and prepare to close the book. But as we read on, we begin to realize \nthat this man is no dreamer; he is a hard-headed scientist dealing with experi\u00ac \nmentally-attested facts. To be sure his prophecies are often based upon \nexperiments carried out in small acreages, but just as the compound formed in \nthe test-tube epitomizes the production of the same chemical in commercial \nquantities, so the small acreage crop epitomizes a parallel large-scale production, \nprovided the conditions can be duplicated on a commensurate scale. \n\nWhat, then, are some of the conditions of this new agrobiology which is to \nlay the ghost of the Rev. Mr. Malthus? \n\nIts first principle is the well-known constancy of genotypes. In other words, \nstrains of plants breed true just as strains of poultry or cattle or sheep breed \ntrue. And just as some strains or breeds of cattle produce more milk than others, \nso some strains of plants will enormously outdistance others in their production \nof grain or fruit or other food-product. We must then, say the agrobiologists, \nrigorously exclude from cultivation all the strains of vegetables which give low \nyields, and grow only selected and thoroughly tested \u201cperultra agrotypes\u201d. \nThe (fcoretic limit of production of various food-plants can be mathematically \ncalculsrced, and many of our best agrotypes have been brought close to the \n\n\n\n138 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nmaximum yield. The theoretical maximum return from wheat, for example, is \n171 bushels per acre, and already we have American wheat varieties yielding \n122 yi bushels per acre. Indian com has a theoretical maximum yield of 225 \nbushels per acre, and this has actually been reached in a certain strain. These \nstrains or varieties will continue year after year to give the same yield under \nthe same combination of environmental factors. \n\nSo the second principle of the new agrobiology is concerned with the environ\u00ac \nment under which the crop is to grow. This consists, in essence, of a perfertile \nsoil\u201d, that is, a soil which contains the plant food-salts in exactly the right \namounts and correct relative proportions for the optimum needs of the plant. \nSuch knowledge is in our hands, and the soil requirements of any plant can be \n\u201cblue-printed\u201d with exactitude. The soil, as a complex of inconstant and \nvariable factors over which the older empirical agriculture so taxed itself, is now \nregarded as little more than a theatre of action\u2014a kind of receptacle to hold the \nplants. Given a loose, non-poisonous soil, supplied artificially with the correct \nproportions of some half-dozen chemical elements in which it is likely to be \ndeficient, and any crop plant adapted to that particular climate will give its \nmaximum yield. The author sweeps aside, and we think a bit too brashly, the \ninconstant and incalculable factors of the environment\u2014those \u201cacts of God\u201d \nwhich have harassed the farmer from the beginning. In his own breezy way he \nwrites: \u201cDrought; too much rain; irregular rain; bugs in, on and above the soil; \nrust, blight and other plant diseases; microbiological complexes, soil complexes, \nplant physiological complexes, not omitting mental complexes; all these and \nmore beside take their toll of the ordinary farmer\u2019s crops ... (but) the arms that \nmay be used are known. The conduct of agricultural operations is something \nto be approached in the spirit of Grant who ordered one of his officers to \u2018stop \nthinking about what Lee is going to do, and think about what we are going to \ndo\u2019. The upshot of it all is that plant life, in any given closed system, can be \ndealt with as a constant, measurable quantity, and that growth factors can be \ndealt with as forces having definite and measurable magnitudes\u201d. \n\nTo this statement my agronomical friend and myself both give our assent. \nThe statistics of phenomenal wheat production in Italy, of rice in Japan, of com \nin America, of sugar-cane in Java\u2014all grown according to the strictest agrobio\u00ac \nlogical conditions\u2014are convincing. \n\nArmed, therefore, with this weapon, the author advances upon the Malthu- \nsians. Professor East has calculated that 3.2 acres of land are required to feed \none average individual for one year at our present American standard of living. \nAllowing for the lower standard of more densely populated countries, we may set \nthe ratio as one person to 2.5 acres. Since only about 40% of the land area of the \nglobe is cultivable, the theoretical limit of population is set at 5,200 million \npeople, which, under present conditions of population increase, will be reached \nin about 100 years. \n\nMr. Willcox brushes these figures aside and sets down a \u201cprimary number\u201d of \n51 persons per acre as a feasible ratio, which is equivalent to a population \ndensity of 3 2,640 per square mile. This number, he avers, can be much increased \n\n\n\u201cNATIONS CAN LIVE AT HOME\u2019 \n\n\ni39 \n\n\nby the introduction of various secondary factors into agriculture, such as multi\u00ac \nplied crops in a single season, indirect production of proteins, etc. At present \nthere is no European nation with a population density of more than 1500 per \nsquare mile. \n\nWe need not follow him along the lines of his further speculations, in whose \nhigher flights he sets forth certain theoretical population figures of astronomical \nmagnitude which would seem to fill the earth so full that people would have to \nsleep edgewise like the exiles in Professor Tchemavin\u2019s Soviet lumber camps. \nLet us hope that long before it happens the famous fourth dimension may open \nup to colonization. Neither are we greatly impressed by our author\u2019s attempt \nto hitch his agrobiological wagon to the will-o\u2019-the-wisp of pacifism. \n\nThe practical conclusion of the matter is more to our taste. We think that \n\u201cnations can live at home\u201d if they are prepared to enter upon a regimen of \nscientifically controlled agriculture, and can find or can develop a staff of \nagrobiological experts competent to handle the matter. Their farmers must be \nprepared to submit their lands to expert direction and to relinquish their time- \nhonoured concessions and empirical practices. No small problem this, under \n- any sort of administration, but an enlightened gentleman-farmer class, such as \nEngland possesses, might accomplish it. Under a democratic state-management, \nwe should expect the same muddle of incompetent direction, half-baked theory, \negregious waste, personal friction and bureaucratic interference, which char\u00ac \nacterizes the \u201cNew Deal\u201d under whose dubious blessings it is our privilege to \nlive. A dictator-state would also make for success. In fact, one regrets that \nMussolini did not keep to his vittoria del grano , which met with such astonishing \nsuccess in 1934 that Professor Thomasi of the Institute of Agricultural Chemistry \nat Rome, making a thoroughgoing application of agrobiological principles to \nsome new strains of wheat, produced 171 bushels to the acre, which is practically \nthe theoretical highest possible yield. Even the farmers of the provinces, under \nthe direction of agronomical experts, and using inferior wheat strains, rolled up \nyields as high as 121 bushels per acre\u201471% of the theoretical maximum. When \none compares this figure with the 14 bushels per acre, which is the average yield \nin the United States, one is less inclined to class Mr. Willcox with the Utopians. \n\nWe think therefore, that if the agrarian population of England is prepared to \nsubmit itself to the necessary regimen, it can provide every man, woman and child \nin the British Isles with an ample and attractive diet carrying the proportions of \nproteids, carbohydrates and fats which are essential to health, and, furthermore, \nwe are inclined to believe with Mr. Willcox, that the present population could \n\u201cmore than double without curtailing a standard of living much above the \naverage they are now enjoying.... Britain cannot be starved when Britons have \nput their agriculture in order and have squared their treatment of the land with \nthe realities of science\u201d. \n\n\nR.E.T. \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\nVI. \n\nO UR journey across France from Bordeaux to Baccarat, near Lun6ville, \ntook us through Perigueux, Limoges, Ch&teauroux, and Bourges; from \nthere we doubled and twisted backward and forward, often waiting for \nhours until some train, coming from the front with wounded, or on its way to the \nlines with troops or supplies, had passed us. We saw nothing, of course, of the \ncities and towns through which we passed, for, even when we stopped, we never \nleft the railway station. There was a reason for this: the French Chefs de Gare \nhad developed, we had been warned, an unfortunate habit of arbitrarily uncoup\u00ac \nling several cars from the end of troop trains whenever they happened to think \nthat they were too long and too heavy, without saying anything about it to any\u00ac \none. A troop train, so mutilated, would pull out minus cars, men and equipment, \nand often the loss would not be discovered for several hours, especially if it had \ntaken place at night. Accordingly, we put out a guard all along the train at each \nstop, day and night, and the Officer of the Day was on twenty-four hour duty, \nhis sleep being constantly interrupted by the necessity of making inspections \nwhen we were halted in pitchy darkness. Our forward sections had all been \nwarned of this amusing idiosyncrasy on the part of the railway management; \nnone the less, a captain in charge of one of the sections succeeded in losing four \ncars one night, with their contents, living and inanimate. The Colonel was \nfurious, and rightly, when he heard of this upon his arrival, and the unfortunate \ncaptain was shipped off in a motor-cycle side-car, with an orderly, with instruc\u00ac \ntions not to come back at all if he could not find his cars. As neither of them \ncould speak any French, I often wondered what kind of time they had; but I \nheard later on, after I had left the Ammunition Train, that they had finally \nreturned triumphant, bringing, so to speak, their sheaves with them. \n\nWe did not receive the same whole-hearted and friendly greetings from the \nFrench on this trip as we had during our progress from Brest to Bordeaux; in \nfact, our arrival at a town did not produce even a ripple of enthusiasm. Troop \nmovements were an old story in this part of France, and already many trains full \nof American soldiers had passed through from the training-areas and ports in the \nsouth, while, with the people on the coast, the sight of Americans had still been a \nnovelty and the passage of any troops fairly infrequent. We thoroughly enjoyed \nevery moment of that trip. The country through which we passed was beautiful, \nand we proceeded so slowly that we had plenty of time to let the beauty sink in. \nOur superior railway carriage, which we had requisitioned at Bordeaux, was very \ncomfortable, and we had nothing to do but rest, sleep, talk, read and admire \nthe scenery. We must have covered over five hundred miles on that trip, allowing \nfor all our twistings and doublings back and forth. We reached Chaumont \n(Haute Marne), where General Headquarters, American Expeditionary Forces, \n\n\n140 \n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n141 \n\nwas located, on the afternoon of the second day, but only stopped in the station \nthere for a few minutes, proceeding through that night, with many stops, and \nfinally arriving at Baccarat early on the morning of July 16th. \n\nAs we disen trained, we heard the sound of firing, and, looking overhead, we \nsaw a Boche plane going back fast toward the German lines. The archies were \nfiring, and all around the plane were black patches in the sky where shrapnel was \nbursting, none of it, however, taking effect. Our men crowded out into the road, \nand stood gazing up with open mouths, always a poor thing to do in the circum\u00ac \nstances, as those pieces of shrapnel have to come down to earth again. However, \nthis particular party was over, and we had only arrived in time to see the end \nof it. The Boche frequently sent observation planes over in the day time, for \npurposes of reconnaissance. We were told that when they were in this part of \nFrance in 1914, and before they were forced out, they had planted spies among \nthe civilians and had subsidized disloyal elements in the population, with a view \nto obtaining information later as to what was going on behind the French lines. \nOne way of obtaining this information was from the air. Whenever there was \nsomething to impart, some peasant would arrange cows in a fixed order in a \ncertain comer of a field, or washing would be laid out on bushes or on the grass \nin a pattern agreed upon beforehand to convey a definite meaning, and the \nGerman plane would read this panel from the air, and would report accordingly \nupon its return. But there were other ways, as well, in which information passed, \nand we received an illustration of this a few days later. A captain in one of the \ninfantry regiments of our Division, a man whom I had known quite well in my \ncompany at Plattsburgh, was very anxious to try out a daylight trench raid on \nthe Boche. He devised a plan, which was submitted to, and approved by, his \nregimental commander and his brigade commander. But the projected raid \nbecame too well known beforehand. It was talked about throughout the Di\u00ac \nvision, and on the day and at the hour appointed, a number of officers from other \nunits, who had no business even to know about it, were in the vicinity, under \ncover, waiting to observe the show. The raiding party found the front line \nGerman trenches empty, and proceeded to the second line trenches, where they \nwere suddenly surrounded by vastly superior numbers of the enemy; of that \nraiding party, if I remember correctly, only about half came back, the others all4 \nbeing captured or killed, and among those who were killed was the captain, my \nfriend. There was no doubt whatever that the Germans received information \nabout the raid beforehand, through one of their usual sources\u2014which was not to \nbe wondered at in view of the lack of secrecy\u2014and arranged the reception for our \nraiding party in advance. The affair created a furor at the time, but it was in \nprocess of being hushed up when I left the Division, and I never heard the final \noutcome. \n\nIt was so well known, in the Vosges, that information identifying Allied units \nandexplaining circulation and movements of Allied troops was constantly reach- \nin^^e Germans, that it was decided to take advantage of this, and, just before \nour St. Mihiel operation started early in September, to stage a fake attack in the \nVosges, with a view to holding German divisions in place and preventing their \n\n\n142 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nopposing us at St. Mihiel. I quote from the Report of the First Army, American \nExpeditionary Forces. \u201cThe heavy movement of American Divisions towards \nLorraine aroused speculation among the inhabitants as to the prospects for an \nAmerican offensive in that region. While such an attack was logical and to be \nexpected, it is probable also that the enemy gained some information regarding \nour concentration, which may have led him to think we were planning an attack \non the St. Mihiel front. To counteract this probability the Commander-in-Chief, \nAmerican Expeditionary Forces, took advantage of the presence of several \nAmerican divisions in the Vosges to deceive the enemy as to our intentions. An \narmy corps commander with his staff was ordered to Belfort with instructions to \nestablish an Army Headquarters at that place and to draft the plans and carry \nout the reconnaissances preparatory to an offensive operation toward Mulhouse. \nOffices were opened, staff reconnoitering parties were sent out and groups from \nAmerican divisions were ordered to that front. Finally, a carbon copy of the \norders directing these preliminary steps, was intentionally left in a hotel at \nBelfort by a staff officer from General Headquarters, and it quickly disappeared. \nThe success of this ruse was apparent, as the Germans concentrated several \ndivisions in reserve in that vicinity.\" \n\nThe Baccarat sector was what the French called bon secteur; troops just out of \nthe line and in need of a rest, or new units, like our own, engaged in their first \nexperience in holding trenches, were sent there by both sides, and there was a \nkind of gentleman\u2019s agreement with the enemy not to start anything serious. \nActivity was confined to an occasional trench raid, and to a mild daily artillery \ninterchange, in the course of which a few shells were thrown over by each side. \nAt night, however, Boche planes used to come over and make things disagreeable. \nThe 77th Division took over the sector from the 42nd Division, American \nNational Guard, which departed for the Marne area for its first active service. \nOur Division was thus reunited for the first time since April, when the movement \nof our units overseas had started from Camp Upton. Our infantry had learned a \ngreat deal from their experience on the British front, while we, who had been at \nCamp Souge, had improved as a result of our training there; so the Division \nStaff were well pleased with the appearance and feel of the command, and full of \nhigh hopes as to its ability. \n\nOwing to the inactivity on that part of the front, there was a fairly large \ncivilian population in Baccarat, and domestic life among the French went on \nmuch as usual, although none of the town\u2019s activities or factories were in opera\u00ac \ntion. But there was a vastly different appearance and atmosphere, both as \nregards the town and the people, compared with those towns which we had seen \nin the south. The War had set its mark on the place. Our men were in billets \nfor the first time, and we had close contact with the French people which living \nwith them brings. The houses, while undemolished by shell fire, were running \ndown and badly in need of repair. Food was scarce, and the population was \nunder-nourished, particularly the children, who were wild and farouche and \nsuspicious. A sure way to the hearts of the women was to make them presents \nof sugar and of white Army bread, and this our men speedily discovered. For \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\nM3 \n\n\nalmost four long years, troops had been billeted with those people in constant \nsuccession. Women and children had lived among rough men. They had had no \nprivacy at all. Small wonder that they were apathetic, that they did not receive \nus with open arms. To them, we were just another lot, to be replaced after a \nwhile by others, without end. I have often thought that the atmosphere of \nBaccarat was sadder, more drab and hopeless, than even that of those towns on \nthe more active stretches of the front which I saw later, where the small remain\u00ac \ning civilian population was in hourly danger of death. At Baccarat, they were \nfairly safe. But the great steam-roller of war had passed over them, and had left \nthem flat; they were dull and dead. It was pathetic beyond words. Yet, many \nof our men did succeed in arousing them; they won the children\u2019s hearts, and the \nliking of the women. Often I would come across two or three of our soldiers \nsitting against a wall in the sun, with several old women who were doing their \nmending and knitting. The soldiers could not converse, but it felt like home in a \nway to them, and, unconsciously to theftiselves, they were creating a friendly \natmosphere which bore fruit later, for I heard much more of children\u2019s laughter \nin the vicinity of our billets at the end of my two weeks\u2019 tour of duty there, than \nI had heard at first. \n\nThe Colonel and I were billeted in a little stucco two-story house on the edge \nof the town, the owner and sole occupant of which was an old lady in her seventies. \nWe had started a Headquarters mess in another house a little way down the \nstreet, where we went for meals, and where we subsisted simply on the Army \nration. At night, the Boche planes would come over, and, flying low, would \nmachine-gun the town, primarily for the purpose of breaking down the morale of \nthe newly arrived American troops, but also in the hope that they would catch \nunwary loiterers in the streets. When the first of these entertainments started, \nthe Colonel and I were at home, and we quickly took stock of our surroundings, \nwith a view to occupying the best strategic position available. We decided to \nstand in the front hallway of the flimsy structure, as there appeared to be more \nthicknesses of wall and ceiling between us and the outside world at that point \nthan at any other. In a moment or two the old lady joined us; apparently she \ntoo, from long experience, had picked this same spot as being the most protected. \nAs the din and uproar increased, she began to tremble, and seizing my arm, she \nkept saying, Ah! J'ai peur , j'ai peur! \u201cWhat does she say?\u201d, asked the Colonel, \nwho even at this late date had acquired no French at all. I repeated her words, \nand explained their meaning. \u201cQuite so\u201d, said the Colonel, \u201ctell her that I have \ngot peur myself\u201d. Instead, I translated this into some words of encouragement \nand cheer, and patted her on the shoulder, and she smiled, and quieted down \nagain until the disturbance was over. We spent some time together, the three of \nus, in the evenings in this way during my stay, and the poor old thing was always \nterrified. It must have been a great relief to her to have two officers billeted on \nher, who could keep her company. Her morale was broken; she had stood this \nsorfcflmhing for innumerable nights, sometimes alone, and it had just been too \nmuch. I grew quite fond of our old lady, but I succeeded in getting into her bad \ngraces before I left. I had with me a portable rubber bath tub, which folded up \n\n\n144 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ninto a small compass, and went easily into a comer of my bedding-roll. It was \none of the greatest assets which I have ever possessed, and during my whole \nstay in France I was able to enjoy baths when others could not have them. It was \nunfolded and set out every morning by my faithful striker, and filled with water \nfrom my canvas bucket. But it was a tricky contraption, for unless one watched \nout, the thing would meanly curl over on one of its many folds, and let the water \nout on the floor. The Colonel had the room directly under mine. I was splashing \naway one morning, and thinking that my striker had not given me as much water \nas usual, when suddenly I heard stentorian tones from the room below, and then \nthe Colonel\u2019s voice, inquiring in a loud bellow what I thought I was doing up \nthere anyway. In alarm, I looked hastily over my shoulder, only to see that, \nas soon as my back had been turned, my tricky old tub had lain down on me \ncompletely in one comer, and that there were the remains of a lake on the floor. \nThe lake itself had rapidly oozed through the flimsy flooring, and the Colonel \nhad been awakened from a sound sleep by water dripping on his face. When the \nold lady saw the unfortunate results as far as her property was concerned, she \nwas furious, and on the spot she demanded exorbitant and extortionate damages. \nI felt like explaining to her that I did not want to buy the house, but calmness \nand moderation prevailed; and I finally settled with her for an amount which \nshould have enabled her to have both rooms entirely done over, but which I did \nnot in the least object to giving her, hoping that she would make the repairs \nherself, which she probably did, and that she would use the money for some \nsmall comforts which would make her lot more bearable. \n\nThe Colonel, upon returning from Division Headquarters where he had \nreported the day of our arrival, informed me that the letters which he had \nwritten on my behalf from Camp Souge recommending me for staff work, had \nindeed borne fruit, and that I was to leave them, and to go to the Headquarters \nFirst American Army (Field Army) which had just been formed. He said that \nmy orders had not yet come through, buUthat there was no doubt whatever \nabout it, as it had been arranged over the telephone by 77th Division Head\u00ac \nquarters with General Headquarters at Chaumont, and that I had better begin \nwithout delay to turn over my duties to my successor as Adjutant, whom he \nproceeded immediately to appoint, and to make him familiar with all routine \nmatters.of administration. This I at once started to do, and then remembered \nthe fact that, over the preceding months, I had signed receipts for a considerable \namount of government property and equipment of various kinds. My name was \non the papers. What was I going to say if, after the War, I was summoned to \nWashington and asked what I had done with it all? I hastily decided that the \nnew Adjutant was far better able to afford these luxuries than I. So I had dupli\u00ac \ncate receipts made up for everything, on which the new Adjutant received from \nme these various articles, and I watched him sign on the dotted line with a feeling \nof some relief. About this time all officers in the Division received orders to \ndiscard locker trunks, which were to be sent to the rear until after the War, \nand to reduce to field equipment. The Colonel advised me, as I was leaving \nthem, not to give up anything until I had to, and to hold on to mine. This I did; \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n145 \n\n\nand I succeeded in doing so permanently, as I was always able later on to com\u00ac \nmand transportation, and to get myself moved about when necessity arose. The \nturning over of my duties to my successor only took a day or so, and then, as \nmy orders still failed to come through, I was without any duties, although still \nofficially assigned to my old unit. I proceeded, therefore, to enjoy myself, paying \nvisits to friends in the infantry in their front line P. Cs. (Posts of Command); \ncalling daily on the Chief of Staff to inquire about my orders, and stopping to \ntalk, and to hear the gossip, with friends at Division Headquarters; also motoring \nabout with the Colonel on his trips of inspection and supervision as a sort of \nguest. One afternoon we were on a road that we did not know, and had pro\u00ac \nceeded along it for some distance, when we were stopped by loud shouts, and \nwere told by some soldiers that if we went three hundred yards more in that \ndirection, we should be in No Man\u2019s Land. We might have continued calmly \nuntil we had arrived within the enemy lines and been quietly captured, which \nwould have been an ignominious ending for high hopes. \n\nFinally, on July 29th, my orders came through from Division Headquarters, \ndirecting me, in accordance with instructions, G. H. Q., American E. F., to pro\u00ac \nceed to La Fert6-sous-Jouarre, between Ch&teau-Thierry and Paris, reporting \nupon arrival to the Chief of Staff, 1st Army, for duty, and stating that the \ntravel directed was necessary in the military service. I finished my packing, \nwhich did not take long; had my order ornamented with all the official stamps \nwhich the Division Provost Marshal and the French authorities seemed to con\u00ac \nsider necessary before I could start on my travels, and found that I could get \na train to Paris late that afternoon. All roads led to Paris; no matter where the \nplace was to which one was going, it was always quicker to go there vi& Paris \nthan to try to go there direct. I spent most of that day going about saying \ngood-bye to my fellow officers, most of whom as a matter of fact I have not seen \nagain to this day, and to some of the enlisted men. I also bade an affectionate \nfarewell to my faithful striker, for I realized that it was not possible for anyone \nas low in rank as a captain to travel about with a personal servant; one must be \nat least a brigadier general to be able to do that! After luncheon I started to \ntake my leave of the Colonel, but he told me that his time was his own that da^^ \nand that he was going to see me off. He seemed genuinely sorry to have me \nI made a little speech, which I most whole-heartedly meant, in which I thanked \nhim for his kindnesses, for his patience with my mistakes and ignorance, and for \nall that I felt that I had learned from him personally and while under his com\u00ac \nmand. He seemed quite touched by this, and said in a gruff voice,\u2014\u201cNot at all, \nCaptain, I have a great many things to thank you for\u201d. Official sounds of com\u00ac \nmotion then warned me that the train was about to start, so I saluted him \nofficially for the last time. My salute was returned, and he shook me by the hand, \nand wished me good luck, and I climbed into the already-moving carriage. That \njAasc of my Army experience was over. \n\nit is outside the province of an article such as this to attempt to give in any \ndetail an account of general military operations, or to trace the progress and \nsequence of events on the Western Front. All that is a matter of record and of \n\n\n146 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhistory. These articles are merely an endeavour to recount the experiences of \none individual in what he happened to see of the Great War. But at this point \nit may be of interest to outline briefly something of the military situation as it \nstood in the closing days of July, 1918, and more specifically in regard to the \nAmerican troops that were engaged, and as it affected them, and to relate some\u00ac \nthing of the formation and earlier accomplishments of those larger field units of \nthe American Army with which I was to be identified from then until the Armis\u00ac \ntice, and afterwards. When I received my orders at Baccarat to report to Head\u00ac \nquarters of the First American Army in the field, 1 knew nothing whatever of \nwhat had been done in the American Expeditionary Forces in regard to the \norganization of those larger units and higher staffs, nor did I have the slightest \nidea as to what extent, or exactly where, American troops were actually in action. \nOwing to our isolation up to that time in geographical terms, I had been as far \nremoved from any knowledge of what was going on as if I had been at the North \nPole. Nor did I know then that the day upon which I had arrived at Baccarat, \nJuly 16th, had to all intents and purposes marked the turning point of the War \non the Western Front. On that day, all of France had been in suspense; on that \nday, the Germans had wavered. On July seventeenth, the enemy had been \nstopped, and the following day marked the actual beginning, in the light of \nretrospect, of his long retreat. I did not know anything of all that then, nor of \nwhat I am now about to set down. I learned it later, after I had arrived at my \ndestination, and had entered upon my new duties. All that I knew when I left \nBaccarat was, that I had one, single, impelling idea,\u2014to get to La F6rte-sous- \nJouarre just as fast as I could and find out what was going on. \n\nBriefly, then, the great Ch&teau-Thierry salient was so extended and deep, \nand so exposed to attack on the flanks that, from the German point of view, it \nwas impossible to push further ahead at its apex until the salient had been \nwidened; moreover, the Germans realized that, unless this could be done, the \nsalient itself was quite likely to prove untenable in the long run. Initial attempts \nduring the summer by the Germans to effect this widening, had failed. Then \nLudendorff decided upon the great offensive, which took place in July, and which \nwas widely heralded in Germany as the final operation which was to win the War. \nI have always understood that, while the main objective was Paris, this operation \nwas divided into several phases, and that there were several preliminary objec\u00ac \ntives which had to be gained first and simultaneously, before the success of the \nwhole plan could be assured; failure at any one point would jeopardize the \nentire offensive. Ludendorff decided to attack at each side of Rheims, the \nheaviest attack being by the German First and Third Armies in the Champagne, \neast of Rheims. There was to be another attack against the Montagne de \nRheims, which was planned to cross the Marne and then turn up to fipemay, \njoining the two phases of the German offensive in that area. At the same time, \ntwo other German armies were to attack on the Amiens-Montdidier front, break\u00ac \ning through at that point and driving straight for Paris from the northwest. \nSimultaneously, there was to be an attack against the British in Flanders. The \nsupposedly victorious German troops from the operations at Rheims, after \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n147 \n\n\neffecting a junction, were to sweep down the Marne on Paris from the northeast, \nand victory would be won. On the Allied side, the order of battle, from left to \nright, was General Mangin\u2019s Tenth Army; General Degoutte\u2019s Sixth Army; \nGeneral Berthelot\u2019s Fifth Army; and General Gouraud\u2019s Fourth Army. In the \nSixth French Army, under General Degoutte, was the First American Army \nCorps, commanded by Major General Hunter Liggett, and the Second, Third, \nFourth, Twenty-sixth and Twenty-eighth American Divisions, while the Forty- \nsecond American Division was with General Gouraud\u2019s Fourth French Army. \nThe American Army in France at that time consisted of four divisions in line \nand two in reserve on the Ch&teau-Thierry front; the Forty-second Division \nwith the Fourth French Army; four divisions in line with the French in quiet \nsectors in Alsace-Lorraine, one of which was my own Division, the Seventy- \nseventh; five divisions with the British; four in training areas, and four which \nhad just arrived. \n\nThe First American Army Corps, to which I was so soon to be sent from Head\u00ac \nquarters First Army and temporarily attached, had been formed, and its staff \norganized, during the winter of 1917-1918, in readiness for later events, with \nstation at Neufchateau, where it had taken over administrative command of \nvarious American divisions then in training in the Vosges. The French system of \ncorps command had been at once adopted, under which an army corps consisted \nof its staff, various technical troops, the corps artillery, and such divisions as \nhappened at the time to be in line on the corps front, or in reserve in the corps \narea. The corps organization, therefore, was a permanent one, while the divisions \nunder its command changed from time to time, as reliefs were effected. An \narmy-corps staff was divided into three sections: G-i, in control of adminis\u00ac \ntration and personnel; G-2, in control of military intelligence; and G-3, having \nto do with operations and training. An American field-army staff had exactly \nthe same organization, with the addition of another section, G-4, which func\u00ac \ntioned with the Service of Supplies. With both the army corps and the field \narmy, there was in addition an administrative staff consisting of an Adjutant \nGeneral, Chief Signal officer, Chief Air officer, Chief Medical officer and Chiefs \nEngineer officer, each with the personnel necessary to assist him. Owing to tl^ \nsize of our divisions, which were much larger than those of either the French or \nEnglish, consisting as they did of about 28,000 officers and men each, an Ameri\u00ac \ncan army corps in the Great War numbered approximately from 125,000 to \n150,000 men; this was about the size of a French field army, if I remember \ncorrectly, and was several times the size of an army corps during our Civil War. \nThe Staff of the First American Army Corps had thus been working together for \nsome while, and had perfected its organization and increased its efficiency so that \nit was ready to function when the time came for it to take over a field command. \nOn June 21st, the First American Army Corps had been ordered to La F6rte- \nsUfe-Jouarre with instructions to prepare to take over a command in that area. \nConstant conferences were held with General Degoutte, and on July 4th the \nFirst Corps took over a sector for the first time. Among the troops then assigned \nto come under the command of our First Corps was a French Division; it was \n\n\n148 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nthe first time that French troops had served under American command since the \nWar of the Revolution, and the first tactical operation of an American Army \nCorps since our Civil War. \n\nThe First American Army Corps had thus participated in the fighting on the \nCh&teau-Thierry front in the early days of July, and up to the time that the great \nGerman offensive broke in the middle of that month. The complete failure of \nthat offensive, and all that happened, is too well known to be enlarged upon here. \nGeneral Gouraud, with the Fourth French Army, had stopped the First and \nThird German Armies in the Champagne by the end of the second day, thus at \nthe same time rendering abortive the proposed German drive on Paris from the \nnorthwest. The German Seventh Army, however, had crossed the Marne, and \nhad penetrated in depth against General Berthelot and General Degoutte, and, \nwith the Champagne attack a failure, the enemy had then proceeded to throw \nadditional forces into the Marne battle. Allied reserves, however, were rushed \nto meet them, and General Foch had counter-attacked the following day on a \nwide front. The Forty-second American Division had been withdrawn from the \nFourth French Army, and had been added to the First American Army Corps at \nCh&teau-Thierry, the evacuation of which town by the enemy, our First Corps \nhad been instrumental in effecting. On the night of July 2 5th-26th, the Forty- \nsecond Division had taken over the entire front of the First American Army \nCorps, and, supported by divisional and corps artillery, the Division had attacked \non July 28th on a wide front and had crossed the Ourcq. \n\nThis, then, is a very sketchy presentation of the military situation on the \nMarne front as it existed July 29th, the day on which I took the train from \nBaccarat to Paris. I have dwelt at some length upon the early history and \nperformances of the First American Army Corps because I was to be associated \nwith that Staff under such interesting circumstances during the next month; \nbecause it was the first of our army corps to get into action; and because it was \ncommanded by Major General Hunter Liggett, who, of the general officers in \nthe American Expeditionary Forces, ranked in command in the field second to \nGeneral Pershing himself. It is a striking commentary upon the efficiency of \nthe Staff of the First American Army Corps, both then, and later on at St. Mihiel \nand in the Meuse-Argonne operation, that, after the Armistice, and when our \nThird Army which marched to the Rhine was formed, it was the Staff of the \nFirst Corps which was transferred, practically intact, to form the Staff of that \nArmy of Occupation. \n\nMy journey to Paris was uneventful. My train meandered slowly along, \nreaching Nancy in the late evening, and was practically empty to that point. \nWe waited for a long time in the station at Nancy, and, as it was a clear, moon\u00ac \nlit evening, I fully expected that we should find ourselves in time for the usual \nnightly bombing, during which the railroad yards were always a favourite target; \nit was too early, however, for the German hate to start. During the night, the \ntrain filled up. It pursued a circuitous route somewhere just back of the lines, \nand at each stop my carriage was invaded by French officers and men, off on \nleave from their units; before long every seat in my compartment was occupied \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n149 \n\n\nby French officers, with several others sleeping on the floor, while the corridor of \nthe train was so thickly covered with sleeping poilus that it was not possible to \nwalk along it. I had taken the precaution of settling myself early in the evening \nin the seat by the window facing forward; the windows would not open, but the \nwindow in the door did, and I had left it open in order to have plenty of fresh air. \nThe first French officer who entered, saw this open window, gave an exclamation \nof horror, and made a bee-line for it and closed it. By the time the compartment \nand corridor had filled up, the smell of unwashed humanity was something over\u00ac \npowering and terrific. I waited until unmistakable sounds in different keys told \nme that, beyond peradventure, all the French officers were asleep. I leaned \nquietly forward, and opened the window in the door again, and, wrapping myself \nanew in my overcoat, I waited to see what would happen. Before long I heard \nthe sound of grumbling, and an officer arose shivering, and, cursing fluently, made \nhis way over prostrate forms to the window and closed it. I observed the spot \nto which he returned, and when that comer of the carriage was once more con\u00ac \ntributing its share to the general harmony, I again opened the window. That \ntime, I got to sleep before it was closed, but the breathless and pungent atmos\u00ac \nphere was too much to stand and I awoke again, and again I opened the window. \n\nI spent that entire night opening that window at intervals, after repeated closings \non the part of the French Army. If I had not done so, I should have been as\u00ac \nphyxiated: I never understood why they did not discover that it was I who was \ngiving them so much trouble and take drastic action upon my person; but I \nfinally decided that it must have been a different French officer each time. \n\nUpon arriving in Paris the following morning, I made straight for the Hotel \nContinental, settled myself in a room, ordered two breakfasts and ate them both, \nand, unpacking my belongings, sent for the valet and had all my uniforms \npressed. After this, and a piping hot bath, I felt sufficiently improved to tele\u00ac \nphone one of my relatives, a major on the Staff of the American Chief of Air \nService who was stationed at that time in Paris, and arranged to have luncheon \nwith him at another hotel, where we exchanged family news and I found out what \nhe knew about the War. After luncheon I moved myself and my belongings to \nthe railway station, and took a train for La F6rte-sous-Jouarre, passing through \nMeaux en route, and arriving at my destination late in the afternoon. Upon \nalighting from the train, I found the railway station in ruins; it had been entirely \ndemolished by German air-plane bombs the night before. Leaving my lugg(HP \nunder the eye of an American sentry, I made my way through the town, which \neverywhere showed signs of aerial bombardment, and was directed to the Head\u00ac \nquarters First American Army, which was located in a large private dwelling. \n\nI found that the Chief of Staff was absent, and that he would not be back until \nthe following morning, so I looked up the Billeting Officer and secured a room, \nassembled my luggage from the station with some difficulty, and, after a supper \nof biscuit and sardines from my bedding-roll, settled down for the night. \n\nCenturion. \n\n\n(To be continued) \n\n\n\nINDRAWAL \n\nOUR GREAT OPPORTUNITY \n\n\nI T was stated at the last Convention that the time might come when we \nshould have to dig ourselves in, when the very existence of the Society will \nbe hidden from the surface of the earth, cut down to the root; that the day \nwill probably come when there will be no more public meetings, no more \nQuarterly as we now know it, no more Conventions. \n\nThis statement startled and, perhaps, dismayed some of our members, in spite \nof the care that was exercised to prevent misunderstandings and unwarranted \nfears over the implications of what was said. For example, we were told that we \nshould not make the mistake of supposing that cutting down to the root will \nmean that the Movement is being snuffed out, or has ended in failure; but, \non the contrary, that indrawal means transference of energy from the outer to \nthe inner,\u2014the perpetuation of what would otherwise die; that the process is not \na negative, but a positive one; that what it means, in short, is discipleship. \nThus it was made abundantly clear that if we wish to form part of the root\u2014 \nthe \u201cnucleus\u201d\u2014we cannot toy with the idea of discipleship; we must embrace it \nwhole-heartedly, with singleness of purpose and with fixity of attention and \nwill. \n\nAt the meetings of the New York Branch during the season of 1934-35, much \nwas said explicitly as well as implicitly on the subject of indrawal. In an address \nin which was discussed the rise and fall and cyclic progress of civilization, and its \ncorollary\u2014reincarnation, the cyclic progress of the soul of man,\u2014it was shown \nthat this cyclic movement, this alternation of opposites, is a law of nature and is \nfound everywhere; that \u201cthe succession of alternates through which our lives \nmust be lived, compels us to recognize that we must take the thing which comes \nto us and store it up within ourselves where it will be useful to us, just as we take \nair into our lungs\u201d. By this cyclic alternation of receiving a gift and then being \ndeprived of it, we are given an opportunity to utilize the gift, to embody it and \nmake it ours, to learn self-reliance, and thereby acquire the ability to carry on, \nwhen the original inspiration has been withdrawn. Cavd, in Fragments (Vol. 1), \nadvises those who would seek the Masters to learn the first step, which is \n\u201cIsolation\u201d\u2014to \u201cStand Alone\u201d,\u2014and the second step, the other side of the first, \nwhich is \u201cObedience\u201d. \u201cIsolation\u201d is only a step in the process of learning \nto think and act for oneself, so as to \u201cknow only that which you yourself have \ntried and tested\u201d. After we have in this way acquired a little knowledge, we \nshould not allow a feeling of self-satisfaction to develop, as though we ourselves \nhad accomplished anything, because the simple truth is that everything we have \nand are that is in any sense real, is a gift from our Master. And one of the gifts \nof the Masters is this period of indrawal, when in order to find our own Master \n\n\n\nINDRAWAL, OUR GREAT OPPORTUNITY \n\n\n151 \n\nwe must seek him with all our heart, and, as Fragments warns, must rise to his \nplane, for in actual fact the Masters cannot descend to ours. \n\nSo, then, the crux of the matter is: Are we prepared, do we really desire, to \nenter into that inner life of the spirit, or are we content to drift and to remain \nunwilling to make the effort,\u2014that fierce, indomitable effort of will referred to \nin Light on the Path \u2014to grasp this opportunity, this invitation, which the cycle \nof indrawal presents? Do we believe in, are we convinced of the truth of the \nstatement that the inner life is that which all must eventually lead, and the \npath of discipleship that along which all must eventually travel? Enough was \nsaid at Convention to convince us mentally that this is true, but have we \narrived at an inner conviction strong enough to impel us to action, using all the \nforce and energy of which we are capable? Or, shall we continue to dissipate \nthat force and energy upon outer things, which are but feeble and transitory \nshadows of the real world? \n\nAnother aspect of the meaning of indrawal, given at Convention, was supple\u00ac \nmented in an address before the New York Branch, when it was pointed out \nthat science, having compassed the whole physical universe, discovers that it is \nlimited, and is, in fact, empty. It was said that when our thought has com\u00ac \npassed the whole physical universe and reached its boundaries, it is like the out\u00ac \ngoing of the breath when it has been exhaled. Then we have to draw it in \nagain. In the same way, when we have reached the turning point of a cycle, \nwe should reverse our polarity; when we have gone out to the furthest limits, \nwe should prepare to go within. We can do this only by looking at life in terms \nof spiritual law, by realizing that the external universe is but a manifestation \nof spiritual law, and that the causal factors are in consciousness. It was suggested \nthat in the same way in which science has discovered this emptiness of the \nuniverse, we should have been able to discover the emptiness of all external \nthings, and that the personality\u2014the ordinary everyday level of consciousness \nof the ordinary person\u2014is a mere dream, a mirage of our past consciousness. It \nwas further pointed out that, once we have discovered this fact for ourselves, we \nshould not stop there, but should fill the void with real thoughts, real perception \nand real understanding. \n\nHow, then, can we turn this opportunity of indrawal into a positive process^ \nWe should regard it as a gift from the Masters,\u2014an opportunity to learn and to \ngrow in understanding. After a cycle of inspiration and help through the \nQuarterly, Branch meetings and the Annual Conventions of the Society, we \nshould have been able to store up within ourselves material which would serve to \ntransform our lives completely if we made use of but a small portion of what \nwe have received. Year after year at our Conventions, delegate after delegate \nhas expressed appreciation and gratitude for the help and inspiration received \nfrom the Quarterly. If all outer activities of the Society should cease, the \nthfty-two volumes of the Quarterly already published contain all and more \nthan any of us need to work with indefinitely, if we will but use the gifts that have \nbeen poured out upon us with unselfish love and unsparing devotion, and show \nour appreciation by a more determined effort to embody the ideals which they \n\n\n152 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhold before us. If, for example, we should take the following lines from Frag\u00ac \nments\u201d (Quarterly, July, 1935) as a subject for meditation and resolution, to \nbe carried out in our everyday life, thefe would be no occasion for uneasiness \nor dismay at the prospect of the Movement being cut down to the root: \n\n\u201cWho knows where earth begins and heaven ends; who can fix the boundary \nof that inner world and this, determine what is seen and what unseen? \n\n\u2018\u2018Why grant a boundary between ourselves and heaven? What boundary can \nthere be, save sin? \n\n\u2018\u2018Living in heavenly-mindedness, we shall make earth one with heaven, \nremove the veil, nor know which pavement, whether clay or gold, we tread.\u201d \n\nH.P.B., in Isis , writes of a beautiful Chinese legend which illustrates \u201cliving \nin heavenly-mindedness\u201d. A pious matron and her two servants lived entirely \n\u201cwith thoughts turned to the Land of Enlightenment\u201d. One of the maid\u00ac \nservants died and passed over to the \u201cRealm of Amita\u201d. The surviving maid \ntold her mistress the following day that her deceased companion had appeared \nto her in a dream and said: \u201cThanks to the persevering supplications of our \ndear mistress, I am become an inhabitant of Paradise, and my blessedness is past \nall expression\u201d. The matron replied that she would believe what the deceased \nmaid had said if she should appear to her. The next night the deceased appeared \nto her mistress. The lady asked if she might visit the \u201cLand of Enlightenment\u201d, \nand the reply was that she had only to follow her hand-maiden. This she did \nin her dream, and perceived a lake of immeasurable expanse, overspread with \ninnumerable red and white lotus flowers, of various sizes, some blooming, some \nfading. She asked what those flowers might signify. The maiden replied: \n\u201cThese are all human beings on the earth whose thoughts are turned to the \nLand of Enlightenment. The very first longing after the paradise of Amita \nproduces a flower in the Celestial Lake, and this becomes daily larger and more \nglorious as the self-improvement of the person whom it represents advances; in \nthe contrary case, it loses in glory and fades away.\u201d The matron desired to \nknow the name of an enlightened one who reposed on one of the flowers, clad in \nwaving and wondrously glistening raiment. Her whilom maid answered: \u201cThat \nis Yang-kie\u201d. Then asked she the name of another, and was answered: \u201cThat \nis Mahu\u201d. When the matron awoke, she sent to inquire for Yang-kie and Mahu. \nThe first had already departed; the other was still alive and well. \u201cAnd thus the \nlady learned that the soul of one who advances in holiness and never turns back, \nmay be already a dweller in the Land of Enlightenment, even though the body \nstill sojourn in this transitory world.\u201d \n\n\u201cLiving in heavenly-mindedness!\u201d Living toward, as it were, the \u201cLand of \nEnlightenment\u201d! Is not that what is meant by indrawal, and being cut down to \nthe root? Is it not a transference of energy from the outer to the inner? \n\nBy filling the emptiness of our personalities with real thoughts, real perception \nand real understanding, we shall be living in the real world, and come at last to \nfind that there is no boundary between us and heaven. If we act upon that \nrealization, our lives will be made vibrant with purpose, our personalities will \nbecome transformed. H.G, \n\n\nFLOWERS \n\n\nVedi I'eccelso omai , e la larghezza \ndell'eterno valor , poscia che tanti \nspeculi fatti s'ha, in che si spezza , \n\n\nuno manendo in sk, come davanti. \n\n\nSee now the height and breadth of the eternal worth , since it hath made itself so \nmany mirrors wherein it breaketh , remaining in itself one as before .\u2014 II Paradiso. \n\nHE morning sun has come out after the rain. Its light, broken into in\u00ac \n\n\n\nnumerable facets, glitters in the raindrops which hang upon the leaves \n\n\nand blades of grass. Myriads of little rainbows are flashing from these \njewels, so soon to be drawn back into the sky. Scarcely less transitory than \nthey, are the morning-glories open upon the twining vines over the trellis. \nThey too are like a rainbow, their trumpets full of that vibrating colour only a \ntranslucent medium can show. Some are white, some a delicate pink, some a \ndeep rose. There are others of a violent magenta, and others a dark ultramarine \nor purple. There are many large ones, of a marvellous blue to be found again \nonly in early stained glass. They evoke the splendid windows of Chartres, \nNotre Dame de la Belle Verrikre, where the Virgin and Child are surrounded by \nsuch a blue effulgence. They remind us that the One Light in manifesting itself, \nsplit into seven resplendent rays of colour. \u201cOh Splendour of God whereby \nI saw the lofty triumph of the truthful realm!\u201d \n\nIt is in all the \u201cWorks of God\u201d, in manifested nature, that we see mirrored \nthe facets of the one unbroken Light. Why do we see it? That we may love it \nand desire it. How do we see it? By that Sun\u2019s light which shines within our \nown hearts. Sometimes, indeed most times, we find it very difficult to see in \nthe unevolved matter, where the idea is working, the divine paradigm; but, in \nflowers, men of all races and climes have perceived something of the beauty^f \nperfection, and a deep corresponding significance. Jacob Boehme wrote ofiffe \nSignature of All Things, the stamp upon them of the creative rays. I suppose \nthat occult botany is based upon such correspondences, hidden to the undevel\u00ac \noped eye of the ordinary scientist. What marvellous secrets, what poems must \nbe read by the Adept in these divine hieroglyphics! \n\nIn every religion some flower has had a peculiar sanctity and meaning. One \nthinks at once of the great rosy lotus of India and China, of the blue lotus of \nEgypt, of the roses and lilies of Christendom. In The Secret Doctrine there is \na chapter devoted to the symbol of the lotus. In Hindu and Buddhist art it is \neverywhere represented. I remember a Sung figure of the Sleeping Avalokitesh- \nwara: the great Creative Being slumbers, sunk in pralaya. His head is resting \non one hand and his arm is supported by a kind of lion. The other hand still \nholds a rosary; its beads are world chains. From behind him spring lotus plants; \n\n\n153 \n\n\n\ni 5 4 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nto the left, one leaf and a seed pod, the fruit and seed of the past; to the right, \nleaves and a bud, the world to come. \n\nWhen we think of Egypt do we not remember at once the great columns of \nKamak, whose shafts are stems bound together, and the capitals, lotus flowers? \nIn Mexico there is the god Xochipilli. Upon his body are carved blossoms. He \nsits upon the ground, his hands upon his knees, and gazes with huge staring \neyes upon the heaven whence come the sun and rain. In his intense concentra\u00ac \ntion he is calling down these blessings upon earth. Then there is the goddess \nof flowers, Xochiquetzal. The lily of the West was brought down from heaven \nby the hand of the Archangel Gabriel. As for the rose, it is the form of para\u00ac \ndise itself. \n\nAll over the world, men have brought offerings of flowers to the gods, be\u00ac \ncause of their beauty, and because they saw in them, perhaps, a supreme ex\u00ac \nample of the florescence of a divine idea, something as pure and complete as \nthe heart of the perfected Saint. At all festivals there are flowers, at banquets, \nat weddings, at funerals. The Hindu priests are hung with wreaths of mari\u00ac \ngolds and crowned with jasmine. The Polynesians wear leis of scented flowers. \nAlcibiades, when he leaned against the doorpost, looking in at Socrates, in the \nSymposium, was crowned with violets. The English lover hung garlands upon \nthe threshold of his beloved on May Day morn. There is even a romantic spider \nwho woos his lady with a bouquet of green leaves clasped in his front legs. \n\nThere is the Language of Flowers. Alas that now-a-days so few should study \nthis delightful subject! \u201cSyrian Mallow\u2014consumed by love. Purple Hya\u00ac \ncinth\u2014sorrow. Jonquil\u2014I desire a return of affection. Monarda\u2014your whims \nare unbearable. Wild Tansy\u2014I declare war against you.\u201d Someday, when \nthe reaction sets in, this ought to be a part of the curriculum of all \u201cFemale \nAcademies\u201d, just as flower arrangement is essential to the education of the \nJapanese girl. We live in an age when the arts of life are neglected! \n\nIn a description of the visit of Sudhana to the Abode of the Bodhisattvas\u2014 \nthe \u201cTower which holds within itself an array of brilliantly shining objects\u201d\u2014 \nit is said: \u201cAsamkhyeyas (which means innumerable), Asamkhyeyas of bells \ntinkle in the breeze, asamkhyeyas of flowers are showered, asamkhyeyas of \nwreaths are swinging. ...\u201d These asamkhyeyas of flowers have fallen upon \nthe earth, over the fields and woods and mountains. Everywhere they grow, \npoppies of Iceland, giant Himalayan lilies, sheets of delicate evening primroses \nupon the desert, narcissus upon the Alpine pastures, fuchsias on the slopes of \nAndean volcanoes, myriads of humble flowers by the roadside. And who can \nsay which is the most beautiful? \u201cThe supremely pure splendour of the im\u00ac \npartible essence illumines all things at once.\u201d \n\nDid you ever see the Passion Flower? You know at once that it is a special \nand mystical creation. \n\nOh ye who view the marvellous without surprise \nAnd know that a chaste virgin can tame unicorns \nOr a white hart appear, the Cross between his horns, \n\nOr gushing crystal waters from a rock arise, \n\n\nFLOWERS \n\n\ni5S \n\n\nNor doubt that faith should bring to pass a miracle \nBeside the marble shrine where some great saint lies dead, \nNor that a moon of light surrounds a holy head, \n\nNow gaze with awe upon this lovely pentacle. \n\n\nThe Passion Flower here its mystic signs displays \nWithin the wide spread chalice of its open heart. \n\nThe Crown of Thorns shows in its purple-powdered rays, \n\nIts stamens five are the five Wounds His flesh did part, \n\nThe three sharp Nails are the three styles borne uppermost, \nThe column is the Cross, the calix holds the sacred Host. \n\n\nDid you ever watch the night-blooming cereus open in the southern moon\u00ac \nlight? When the darkness falls, its tight buds begin to stir as though they \nfelt the influence of the approaching moon. Slowly, slowly the rosette of white \npetals unfolds. One can see the petals move. When they have opened out, \na cascade of pale stamens loosens itself, and the air is filled with perfume. All \nnight long it hangs in amazing beauty, but with the day it closes up and dies. \nIt is so strangely lovely that it seems to come from another planet, to be a \nheavenly visitant. What does it signify? When was it created and by Whom? \nTo celebrate what love, sacrifice and triumph? To prefigure what paradise? \n\nThen, there are the flowers of art. They are as numberless and as living as \nthe flowers of the field and garden. There is the dandelion visited by a butter\u00ac \nfly, painted by the Emperor Hui Tsung. He lost the half of his empire, but in \nhis palace south of the Yellow River he painted such masterpieces as must \ncause the gods to forget his defeat. There are the oases of Persian miniatures. \nThere are the pink-tipped daisies and harebells of illuminated Books of Hours. \nThere are the \u201cflowery meads\u201d of wild strawberries, iris, pansies, daffodils and \npinks in millefleur tapestries. Who can forget Diirer\u2019s little bunch of violets, \nor the pale roses which fall through the air in Botticelli\u2019s Birth of Venus? \n\nOne of the beautiful pictures of the West is the Wilton Diptich. It is thought \nby the authorities to be English. It was painted about 1396 for King Richard \nthe Second. In one panel, the Virgin, surrounded by angels, holds up the Infant \nJesus to receive the homage of the king. In the other, Richard himself is l^el- \ning, accompanied by three saints. The Virgin is wrapped in a blue rob^md \nall the little angels are dressed in blue. They have long wings shaded to dark \nblue which make a fringe against the gold sky. They are frail creatures, and \ntheir pale yellow curls are crowned with roses. One of them bears the pennant \nof St. George, a red cross on a white field. The infant Jesus, clad in a gold cloth, \nleans forward from His mother\u2019s arms to bless the king. The ground is strewn \nwith flowers, large blue columbines and roses. The whole effect is of a celestial \nworld of blue and gold. Richard, who kneels in the foreground of the second \npanel, has a heavy cloak of ruddy gold. On his head he wears the crown. His \nJiands are raised in prayer. Behind him, against the gold sky, are the three \npatrons; first, St. John the Baptist, who clasps a lamb to his bosom with one \narm, and touches Richard\u2019s shoulder with the other, as if encouraging him. \n\n\n1 5 6 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nWith him are two magnificent kings, St. Edward and St. Edmund. One, a ma\u00ac \njestic old man with a white beard, is clothed in cream-coloured velvet with \nermine. He holds a ring. His sleeve, which shows as his mantle falls back, is \na pure, light blue. This note, which recalls the blues of the other panel, is like \na phrase of music. The second king is a younger man. He wears a cape of green \nlined with ermine and a rich robe of blue and gold brocade. He bears, as a \nsceptre, an arrow. \n\nThis picture, with its splendid harmonies of colour and rhythm, its style \nand poetry, is itself like a flower, the work of a long evolution, the incarnation \nof an idea. The reason why I think of it now is that one of its themes is the \nhumility and obedience of the king. He is presented by his great patrons to \nthe King of Heaven because he is simple, humble and desirous to obey. The \nangels of Heaven are crowned with flowers because they are obedient. . . . \nWhat has obedience to do with flowers? A very great deal. The plant grows \nbecause it obeys the law of its being. The sense of hearing of the plant is turned \nto listen to the voice of that law. In The Secret Doctrine we are told that plant \nconsciousness corresponds to that of the Second Round, and, we may infer, to \nBuddhi, the Spiritual Will. Spiritual Will runs through plants like the flowing \nsap, and they offer it no resistance. They heed it and it alone. They struggle \nindomitably with the obstacles of weather, of rock or soil. They grow around \nthe rock, they bend from the wind, they spring up in tiny crannies. And some \nof them, when they have succeeded, burst forth in a cry of triumph, a perfected \nwork, a divine signature, a flower. There are climates where this impulse of \nmanifestation is so strong that the plants threaten to overgrow everything, \nwhere giant lianas spring up over night, where one can see the vines fling out \ntheir tendrils, where one can hear the sound of this onrush of foliage. Writing \nof Ceylon, Carr6 describes a forest after rain, when violet and brown orchids \nand scarlet lilies burst out on the bushes. \u201cContinuous creation, universal urge, \ndan vital , divinity everywhere dispersed and everywhere present, eternal \nBecoming.\u201d \n\nThe heat, the growth, the luxuriance of summer are the symbols of the ardent \ndesire for material manifestation, when all the Powers, rushing forth, hasten \nto incarnate, and to express as perfectly as may be the limitless ideas of the \nOne Being. As these Powers are mirrored and divided at the circumference of \nthe circle\u2014for us, the physical world\u2014they turn to retrace their journey, to \nrenew themselves once more in the source of all fire, Fount and Origin, Fons \net Origo. Thus, when the impulse begins to recede, as the sun in our latitudes \nrolls away, and when the plant has carried out its plan as far as it can in one \nlife-span, the leaves fall, the flowers fade, the winter comes. Splendidly glitter\u00ac \ning, the Winter Constellations rise in the night sky, like the turned page in the \ngreat illuminated book wherein the sages read. The year has been made in a \nrevolving sphere that he who contemplates it may see that each season moves \ntowards the other, all resolved in one motion. \n\nWith what pomp and magnificence the triumph of accomplishment is cele\u00ac \nbrated in our woods and fields. The leaves are red and gold, the fields are full \n\n\nFLOWERS \n\n\ni57 \n\n\nof golden rod, of asters, of purple ironweed and rosy violet eupatory. They \nare like the great Gothic cathedrals when their roofs were painted with lapis \nlazuli spangled with gold stars, and their columns were banded with colours; \nwhen tapestries hung on their walls and the windows flashed in coruscations of \nsapphire, emerald and ruby, like the wings of Archangels. The smoke of au\u00ac \ntumn bonfires is like incense. In the fields, upon the altar, and in the heart, \nmen are called to celebrate the ritual of that Mass in which is figured Birth, \nPassion, Death and Resurrection. \n\nManifestation is not\" all creative joy. It is pain. It is crucifixion upon the \nmundane cross. For the flower, which obeys the creative command, the Divine \nWill, there is patience and peace. The sun may wither it or the rain beat it \ndown, or the armies of the insect world assail it. It accepts all as part of its \nevolution, without talking about its \u201crights\u201d. But man, who has free will, \nrefuses to think of himself as the vehicle of the Divine Life, as a creature des\u00ac \ntined to execute the purpose of the Creator. He refuses to think of himself \nas destined at all, even by his own sins. He is satisfied with himself, imperfect \nas he is, and wonders why any obstacles should lie in his path. He fancies he \nis outside the Laws of Nature. Therefore, he lives in a hell. The circles of the \nInferno are built by man. \n\nWhere is the way of escape? How very simple. Even by considering the \nlilies of the field he may see the way. Nor has he been left without supreme \nExamples. There are those Great Ones who have carried out the desire of \nthe Spiritual Will in themselves, who have incarnated the divine purpose, who \nhave resolved the duality of the poles and attained the immortality of conscious \nunion with that plan. Every Avatar has declared himself to be the Way. \n\n\u201cTherefore to the Essence which hath such privilege that whatsoever good \nbe found outside of it is naught else save a light of its own ray, more than to \nany other must the mind needs move in love. . . \n\nOne of the greatest works of Western art is the PietA of Avignon. Upon a \ndark and desolate plain, the Virgin, Mary Magdalen, and John, grieve over \nthe body of Christ taken from the Cross. The Virgin, in the centre, prays over \nthat body which lies upon her knees. St. John with one hand supports tha \nhead which even in death is surrounded by rays of light. The Magdalen, bef \ning the perfumed oil, kneels weeping by the feet. At the extreme left, the donor \nkneels, but he does not look at them, for they are in another world. He con\u00ac \ntemplates that vision in his heart. Contemplate here the sacrifice of the whole \nof the personal self. That which to man is the bitter end and sorrow, is to the \nspirit the return home and the Way of Resurrection. \n\nSoon the trees will be bare, and the dried seedpods, empty of their fruit, will \nrattle in the cold winds. The flower fades, the body dies. The true form of the \n\ni ower endures, the divine paradigm of man persists. Other plants and flowers \n111 spring up to express that form. The soul of man will reincarnate to carry \nforward into ever-increasing completeness the nature of that paradigm. When \nthe consciousness of man has raised itself to the understanding of the true \nsignificance of form, and has united itself with it, man will be an immortal. \n\n\n158 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nEckhart says: \u201cGod\u2019s purpose in the union of Contemplation is fruitfulness in \nworks.\u201d So, in works, the divine purpose is the union of Contemplation. \n\nIt is our destiny and path which the whole of summer\u2019s effulgence and the \nsplendour of the flowers are pointing out to us. Already the morning-glories \nare closing their trumpets under the heat of the sun, and the diamond garlands \nof the raindrops have evaporated. Soon, we too shall have vanished from the \nface of the earth, \u201cgone five-wards\u201d, as the Hindus say of the dispersion of the \nphysical body into the elements. There is \u201ca fourth kind of Pralaya; the Nitya, \nor Constant Dissolution . . . the change which takes place imperceptibly in \nevery thing in this universe from the globe down to the atom, without cessation. \nIt is growth and decay\u2014life and death.\u201d If this were all and nothing more, if \nour life were merely a brief flowering, so incomplete and imperfect, what would \nbe the significance of this changing universe? No. Life is the constant striving \nof the Divine Being to incarnate itself fully in every atom. The raindrop \nwhich flashes back to the sun its refulgent colours, partakes of the nature of the \nsun and must return those rays. How shall we receive and partake of the \nmysteries of the occult Transubstantiation? \n\nWe have to follow, in our small cycle, the course of the greater. From the \natom of the Spiritual Sun in our hearts the power of love must rise into our \nminds, there to image itself in self-conscious thought, and this, in turn, must be \nincarnated in the physical world in action. Then the fruit of action will return \nto us in contemplation, and we shall complete the cycle, not in the darkness of \ndeath, but awake. As we gradually incarnate the purposes of the Spiritual Will, \nthey become our own, and we share the immortal Life and Intellect. \n\nIn form, then, of a white rose displayed itself to me that sacred soldiery which in his \nblood Christ made his spouse; \n\nbut the other, which, as it flieth, seeth and doth sing his glory who enamoureth it, \nand the excellence which hath made it what it is, \n\nlike to a swarm of bees which doth one while plunge into the flowers and another \nwhile wend back to where its toil is turned to sweetness, \n\never descended into the great flower adorned with so many leaves, and reascended \nthence to where its love doth ceaseless make sojourn. \n\nSauvage. \n\n\nThere are vast worlds all placed away within the hollows of each atom , multifarious \nas the motes in a sunbeam .\u2014 Yoga Vasishtha. \n\n\n\nREMARKS BY THE WAY \n\n\nK ING George is dead. The whole world regrets it, and millions genuinely \ngrieve. When he came to the throne he was regarded with indifference. \nHis devoted and unselfish service, his integrity and sincerity, won him \nthe extraordinary affection and respect which his Jubilee, and now his death, \nmade so evident. A great loss. He had come to be regarded as a centre of \nstability in the chaos of recent years, and thus had fulfilled one of the primary \nfunctions of a King. Truly \u201chumble of heart\u201d, his reliance on Divine Providence, \ncombined with much common-sense, had given him the strength to carry a \nburden which the limitations of his authority must at times have made almost \nintolerable. He was not the man to wash his hands of moral responsibility, and \nyet he had been deprived of all power except that which his Ministers chose to \nconcede to him. It is my belief, none the less, that during the Great War his \nquiet determination to \u201csee the thing through\u201d had contributed greatly to the \nAllied cause. Brought up in the Royal Navy, it was part of his creed to fight his \nship until either it won or went to the bottom. For the example which he and \nQueen Mary set in their own home, as man and wife, as father and mother, it \nwould be impossible to be too grateful. They hated immorality and vulgarity. \nOne can only hope that the Queen will continue to exert the same influence, \nunimpeded. \n\nEveryone must wish that the new King will leave as fine a record behind him. \nTo use an old-time expression: may he grow in grace as in wisdom and dignity, \nand live to be blest by his people as his father was before him. \n\nKing George did not seek popularity; it came to him as a result of the respect \nhe earned. It is greatly to be hoped that his son will refrain from trying \u201cto sell \nhimself\u201d to the mob. Apart from other considerations, the mob, in the long \nrun, always turns and rends those who pander to it. \n\n\nRudyard Kipling\u2019s death is a sad loss also. He stood for certain principles \nwhich the world of to-day is ceasing to understand. He was a great creaJ^fc \nartist, and although it may be said that his genius sometimes became mudaied \nas it percolated through his brain, the fact remains that much of what he wrote \nwill be quoted as long as English literature exists. \n\nHe was a Freemason with an uncommon understanding of the tenets of the \nCraft,\u2014of tenets which echo the esotericism of by-gone ages. He worked for \nBrotherhood between East and West, by portraying the manhood, valour and \nchivalry, which he loved, and which he honoured whether met in the races of \nIndia or among his own people. \n\nEvery great artist is a seer, and Kipling was something of a prophet too. Years \n^pfore the Great War he saw it coming, and saw Germany as the cause of it. \n\n159 \n\n\n\u00ab \n\n\n\n\n\n\ni6o \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nIn every way possible he tried to prepare England and the Empire for the \nstruggle, though, like most prophets, he warned deaf ears. \n\nHe understood and loved France and its people as few Englishmen do. It \nbecame the longing of his life that England and France should stand together \nin forceful defence of the ideals which, in their souls, both nations cherish. For \nhe was a reader of souls, and was not deceived by appearances. He knew that \nthe talk and squirmings of politicians are of the surface, not of the depths. \n\nReally loving, of necessity he hated also,\u2014totally unlike in this, as in so many \nother ways, those similitudes of men who pride themselves upon merging good \nand evil into a meaningless conceit. \n\nLet us be thankful for his life, and for the record he left behind him. \n\n\nSpeaking of Kipling reminds me, for reasons that will be obvious, of a state\u00ac \nment I read recently in a book entitled An Infant in Anns: War Letters of a \nCompany Officer , 1914-1918 , by Graham H. Greenwell, M.C. The author writes \nobjectively throughout, to speak in modem parlance; that is, without moralizing, \nwithout comment,\u2014with this single exception. He is in the Italian Alps, facing \nthe Austrians, some time after the disaster of Caporetto, when the French and \nEnglish had hurried to the aid of Italy; and, as usual, he records his experience: \n\u201cWe are in colder regions now and the weather is absolutely poisonous. We got \nsoaked on the march yesterday, but it only made the men more cheerful. It is \nalways the same with them; it needs really rotten circumstances to get the best \nout of them.\u201d \n\nThere is the test both of men and nations, for, granting that the superior man, \nin the Confucian sense, can maintain himself at his best in prosperity and \nadversity alike, the good in the ordinary man would remain dormant for ever \nif it were not for hardships and suffering. It is only the worthless whom adversity \ncrushes. From first to last in Kipling\u2019s writings he made this law of life clear, \nmagnificently clear. \n\n\nThe death of Paul Bourget is another outstanding event, for his influence in \nFrench literature was immense and will certainly endure. He was not only a \ngreat novelist; he was profound in his insight into human nature, human motives. \nWomen have said that no one understood women as he did. Not always religious, \nhe became so, intensely and fervently, as the result of his study of life. Perhaps \none of his most helpful contributions to the data of ethics was the realization- \nexemplified so forcibly in his Dbnon du Midi \u2014that whenever a man persists in \nviolating his own conscience, he always ends by finding full justification for his \nconduct in some soothing misinterpretation of his religion. In other words, \nwhile the lives of the few are controlled by their religion, the many fit their \nreligion to the pattern of their lives. This, of course, is just as true of Theos- \nophists as of orthodox Christians, Buddhists or Hindus. \n\n\nAn ornithologist connected with one of our American universities tells me that \nthe feeding of wild birds on a large scale, in times of severe frost or drought, has \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREMARKS BY THE WAY \n\n\n161 \n\n\nnow been proved to be thoroughly destructive because the birds rapidly lose the \nability to find food for themselves, and that the ability, once lost, is not recovered, \nso that they die of starvation by the thousand. Instead of migrating when they \nought to do so, they wait to be fed. In one or more European countries, where \nornithology and the care of wild birds are supervised by the government, laws \nhave consequently been passed to prohibit what until recently was regarded not \nonly as a kindness, but as the only way to preserve wild life. \n\nAt the same time I hear from friends in the middle West that small-town, \nself-respecting families, the members of which refused help a few years ago unless \nthey were allowed to work for it, have now become so demoralized by govern\u00ac \nment aid that they refuse work when it is offered to them, shamelessly asking \nwhy they should work when it is the \u201cduty\u201d of the government to support \nthem. \n\nThe attempt of our politicians to supplant the laws of Nature, both biolog\u00ac \nical and spiritual, will prove ruinous in more ways than one. Such folly, and \nvanity, remind one of their opposites,\u2014the statement of Master K.H. as quoted \nin The Occult World: \u201cwe but follow and servilely copy Nature in her works\u201d, \n\u2014and thus perform \u201cmiracles\u201d, he might have added. \n\n\nI have been reading, not the book itself, but a review of the latest book by \nSir Norman Angell, Raw Materials , Population Pressure and War. Some of his \nwritings have done great harm, but it appears that his present effort should \ndispose of the theory advocated by the late Frank Simonds and many others, \nthat world-peace would result if Germany, Italy and Japan, the so-called \n\u201chave-not\u201d nations, were provided with colonies at the expense of nations \npossessing them. Angell refutes this theory on the strength of known facts. \nHe points out, for instance, that in the Italian colony of Eritrea, there are only 84 \nItalians engaged in agriculture, and that only 90 Italian families could be \npersuaded to settle in Libya in 1934. Why assume, then, that thousands would \nflock to Ethiopia? Japan has owned Korea for twenty-five years and Formosa \nfor nearly forty; yet very few Japanese have settled in either place. With some \nmillions \u201con the dole\u201d in Great Britain, most of whom, theoretically, might have \noverflowed with advantage to one or another of England\u2019s colonies or Crown \npossessions, \u201cin the year 1934, twenty thousand more Britons returned from the \noverseas territories than went thereto.\u201d The problem of raw materials is dealt \nwith in the same way, proving conclusively that Simonds\u2019s theory springs from \nthe plane of Napoleon\u2019s bete noire , ideology, not from the world of fact. \n\nIt should be clear in any case, as I see it, that you can never satisfy a man who \nis a brigand both by nature and education: he will always want everything in \nsight. There is a caste or tribe in India which regards it as a social and religious \nduty to steal, and the peoples of Germany, Italy and Japan alike, have been \nbrought up to believe that it is their god-given destiny to dominate and to possess \nwhatlMff land they think they need. In that case, it is not stealing or brigandage: \non therontrary, should anyone interfere, as England interfered with Germany in \nthe Great War, or as England is considered to be interfering with Italy\u2019s rape of \n\n\n\n162 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nEthiopia, the would-be robber feels as if Righteousness itself were being infa\u00ac \nmously, wantonly outraged, in his person. \n\nPart of the tragedy is that the world might have been at peace to-day if it \nhad not been for England\u2019s mistakes since the war, for it was England who \nmade the resurgence and re-armament of Germany possible, and who proved, \nto the delight of the wicked, but to the dismay of all who loved her and were not \nblind, that brigandage in its most brutal form can be forgiven and forgotten if \nthis be thought expedient, and if that low motive be garnished with sentimental \nand senseless sympathy for the man, or nation, you have helped to subdue. \nInevitably, the cost of this to England in the long run will be terrible\u2014grievous \nto contemplate\u2014and she will get no help from America, or so it seems; for our \nnational self-centredness has been increased and is still increasing as a result \nof domestic policies which encourage it in the individual. \u201cDo nothing for \nanybody and grab all you can\u201d, is almost certain to control our international \nrelations, now that this has become the moral standard of so many (the voting \nmany) of our citizens. \n\n\nYet another self-proclaimed Initiate! I had hoped that Annie Besant and \nLeadbeater, having reduced this sort of thing to the lowest stages of absurdity, \nwould have served as a reminder that the genuine Initiate is incapable of such \nclaims, whether made directly or by insinuation. Paul Brunton, in A Search in \nSecret India , showed that he did not know the difference between psychic and \nspiritual attainment. The most superficial student could see that, when visiting \nyogis of various kinds, he failed to discriminate between the real and the unreal. \nPsychic by nature, it was easy for his \u201cMaharishee\u201d in the south of India to \nimpose upon him a state of consciousness which was accepted as a great spiritual \nillumination; and this, judging by his later book, A Search in Secret Egypt , \nappears to have had unfortunate, if inevitable, results. For him, it is no longer, \n\u201cThus have I heard\u201d, but, \u201cBehold, I know!\u201d And he treats all his psychic \nimpressions as if they were revelations from on high. \u201cI have been able to \nreconstruct\u201d, he writes, \u201cboth from my own experience [psychic visions] within \nthe Pyramid, and from the evidences of wall carvings in the temples, the \nmysterious drama of the innermost secret rite of Osiris\u201d! When a man writes like \nthat, a student of Theosophy, unless quite new and green, is tempted to ejaculate, \n\u201cPoor ass!\u201d Then there are times when he becomes mysterious: \u201cI shall throw \nout a hint\u201d, he says (p. 207), \u201cin the form of a question, as to the principle \ninvolved in the secret meaning of hieroglyphs\u201d,\u2014which he follows with a \nquestion which a boy might ask after listening to his first lecture on Egyptology. \nFinally, he of course meets an Adept, who declares himself to be an Adept, and \nwho, following Mr. Brunton\u2019s own account of the interview, had him thoroughly \nhypnotized in about two minutes. The \u201cAdept\u2019s\u201d eyes were \u201clarge and lustrous\u201d. \n\u201cAs I talked to him, there crept over me an irresistible sensation of their duplex \npower, penetrative and hypnotic at the same time. They read my soul and they \nthen ruled it. They drew from my mind some of its secrets and they compelled me \nto remain passive before him\". \n\n\n\nREMARKS BY THE WAY \n\n\n163- \n\nHypnotists can do that with chickens. Adepts of the White Lodge do not do \nsuch things, either with chickens or men. They regard any interference with a \nman\u2019s free will, or with his freedom of thought, as a crime. \n\n\nTo become a member of the Roman Catholic Church for me would be impossi\u00ac \nble. This involves no criticism of any student of Theosophy who is able to \nreconcile his theosophical beliefs with membership in that Church. Many of its \ndogmas are open to a mystical interpretation which Theosophy supplies; but \nthere are other dogmas, such as that of Papal Infallibility (to mention only one), \nwhich defy both reason and experience. I must add that, speaking for myself \nas an individual, I find their misinterpretation of the doctrine of transubstanti- \nation, revolting. \n\nNone the less, it is the duty and opportunity of a student of Theosophy to \nrecognize and to be thankful for truth wherever he finds it, and, in my judgment, \nthere is more genuine spirituality flowing to-day from Roman Catholic sources \nthan from any other Church or religion. Much of their literature is marred, of \ncourse, by their \u201cMother of God\u201d obsession (another tragic misunderstanding); \nbut this can be ignored, and many of their books contain no reference to the \nsubject. The best of them contain pure Bhakti Yoga\u2014the Yoga, or Union, of \nLove\u2014but with an understanding of the discipline involved which modern \nIndia has lost. The discipline, as all of us know, was given to us in such books \nas Light on the Path and The Voice of the Silence , while Fragments , by interpreting \nand re-interpreting these, in the light of first-hand experience, should leave us \nwith no excuse for ignorance. Even so, a somewhat different or more detailed \nand elaborate exposition of the same truths, cannot fail to be helpful, and \nFrench Catholicism in particular supplies this with astonishing fecundity. \n\nI am thinking for the moment of a book called Recueillement (sometimes trans\u00ac \nlated as recollection, or as reflection; but perhaps better as indrawal), the author \nof which, A. D. Sertillanges, is a member of the Dominican Order. Our spirit, or \nunderstanding, he says, is intended to think and judge in the Spirit of God, \nmuch as a faithful dog reads the look in his master\u2019s face; and it soon becomes \nevident, as one.reads Sertillanges, that this is the source of his own Theos-sophia^ \n\nNo one understands better than he, the duality of human nature, or the com\u00ac \nplexity of the lower personal self. More than that, he knows that \u201cthings are \nbut the frontiers of man\u201d (surely a brilliant phrase), and knows, too, that \nHugo was wrong when saying that the soul is great but that man is small; for \nit is the whole of man that is great, or will be, at the hour of man\u2019s apotheosis. \n\nThe spiritual star-gazer, he declares, frees himself from the gross things of life \nand from ephemeral desires,\u2014which is something to the good; but the star\u00ac \ngazer forgets that what we regard as trifles have their relation with the All, and \nacquire, by that within them which is eternal, a tragic importance. \n\nHftiat meaning has our life, he asks, unless it be an effort to change our inner- \nmo^desires into realities; and whence these innermost desires unless stamped \nupon us by the impulsion of the primal Cause? \n\nDestiny is the excuse of the feeble and the work of the strong, he quotes; then \n\n\n\n164 THE 0 S 0 PH 1 CAL QUARTERLY \n\nadds: do not look for excuses, for with God we can always be strong and create \nour own destiny. \n\nThere is scarcely a page in the book that does not shine with some truth o \nTheosophy; but I am not extolling a book as exceptional; I am maintaining that \nthe Catholic approach to things to-day is more truly theosophical, in important \nrespects, than most students of Theosophy realize. No other church in America \nhas done as much to combat filthiness on the stage and in the movies ; while \nits fight against divorce, birth control, and similar degeneracies has been fearless \nand unremitting. \n\nTake as a further illustration, the question of education. Not long ago I \nbought a book by Father Vincent McNabb, the poet, for his essay on Francis \nThompson: delightful reading. Then, looking at other essays in the same \nvolume, I found one which quoted a statement given out by the Roman Catholic \nArchbishops and Bishops of England and Wales in 1929, covering the \u201cprinciples \nwhich underlie the Catholic attitude on Education\u201d,\u2014as follows: \n\n\u201c(1) It is no part of the normal function of the State to teach. \n\n\u201d(2) The State is entitled to see that citizens receive due education sufficient \nto enable them to discharge the duties of citizenship in its various degrees. \n\n\u201c(3) The State ought, therefore, to encourage every form of sound educational \nendeavour, and may take means to safeguard the efficiency of education. \n\n\u2018\u2018(4) To parents whose economic means are insufficient to pay for the education \nof their children, it is the duty of the State to furnish the necessary means, \nproviding them from the common funds arising out of the taxation of the whole \ncommunity. But in so doing the State must not interfere with parental responsi\u00ac \nbility, nor hamper the reasonable liberty of parents in their choice of a school for \ntheir children. Above all, where the people are not all of one creed, there must \nbe no differentiation on the ground of religion. \n\n\u201c(5) Where there is need of greater school accommodation the State may, in \ndefault of other agencies, intervene to supply it; but it may do so only \u2018in \ndefault of, and in substitution for, and to the extent of, the responsibility of the \nparents\u2019 of the children who need this accommodation. \n\n\u201c(6) The teacher is always acting in loco parentis , never in loco civitatis , though \nthe State, to safeguard its citizenship, may take reasonable care to see that \nteachers are efficient. \n\n\u2018\u2018(7) Thus a teacher never is and never can be a civil servant, and should never \nregard himself or allow himself to be so regarded. Whatever authority he may \npossess to teach and control children, and to claim their respect and obedience, \ncomes to him from God, through the parents, and not through the State, except \nin so far as the State is acting on behalf of the parents.\u201d \n\nThere could hardly be a clearer statement of theosophical principles on this \nsubject; nor a more direct contradiction of the theories upon which Socialism, \nBolshevism, Fascism, Hitlerism, alike are based. Further, as Father McNabb \nproceeds to point out:\u2014 \n\n\u2018\u2018In saying that \u2018it is no part of the normal function of the State to teach\u2019, \nthe [Roman Catholic] Bishops have enunciated a principle of wider scope than \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREMARKS BY THE WAY \n\n\n165 \n\nmere education. There is a group of political thinkers whose doctrine is that \nthe best State is the one which exercises the greatest number of functions. In \nother words, the State has the moral power to do all that it has the physical \npower to do. Of course, this is the old false principle: \u2018Might is Right\u2019.\u201d \n\nThis should make it clear that the protagonists of the New Deal in America \nare among those whose theories are thus flatly challenged. \n\nPart of the explanation is that the Church of Rome, with few exceptions, \nstands by the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas; the Protestant Churches have \nno philosophy; the Buddhists and Hindus have so many philosophies that they \n\u2018do not know what to do with them, while the philosophies of Fascism, Hitlerism, \nBolshevism, Socialism and the New Deal are thoroughly materialistic, and must \nprove themselves, in time, to be self-destructive. \n\n\nPostscript. \n\nThe Quarterly was almost ready to go to press when Germany, by sending \ntroops into the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland, once again treated her \nwritten promise as \u2018\u2018a scrap of paper\u201d. At the same time she offered another \nwritten promise\u2014a peace pact to last for twenty-five years. And there are \nleading statesmen in England and elsewhere, who urge France and Belgium, \nthus threatened, to regard Germany\u2019s promises as guaranteeing security! It \nwould be incredible if it were not for the record of the past fifteen years. Some \npeople learn nothing and never will. \n\nPrime Minister Baldwin, in the House of Commons, speaks of Germany as \nhaving touched \u2018\u2018all the most delicate, raw susceptibilities of the French\u201d. If a \nman were to point a loaded revolver within two inches of Mr. Baldwin\u2019s nose, \nand a so-called friend, instead of striking the revolver out of the man\u2019s hand, \nwere gently to protest against this affront to Mr. Baldwin\u2019s \u2018\u2018susceptibilities\u201d, \nraw or otherwise, I doubt if Mr. Baldwin would feel, either that his case had \nbeen adequately stated, or that his security had been guaranteed. \n\nMr. Eden is in terror lest the League of Nations should collapse. It is a \nthousand pities that it was ever brought into being. It was the psychic, prema\u00ac \nture anticipation of something for which the world may be ready in a millioiL \nyears. \u2022 Congress is a miniature League of Nations (States), and it is notoriou^ \nthat the representatives of the forty-eight States, instead of thinking of the \nwelfare of the whole, think, first, of their personal interests, secondly, of the \ninterests of their States, and only then, if at all, of the general welfare. And \nAmericans, morally, are not inferior, so far as I can see, to Europeans. In \nCongress, votes are \u2018\u2018traded\u201d quite openly: \u2018\u2018If you will support me here, I will \nsupport you there.\u201d Principles are almost unknown. Inevitably, at this stage \nof human evolution, the same is true of the League of Nations, although the \nprocedure is not always quite so crude. \n\n\u2018\u2018The law of the jungle is the alternative\u201d, it is said. But it is the law of the \njui^e, and no other, which controls to-day, and the League of Nations merely \nag^rvates that condition. \n\n\n\n\ni66 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nAll that Theosophy pleads for is a recognition of the facts, of the Truth. \nTheosophy hates pretence and wanton self-deception. It refuses to call a \nbrigand who prides himself on being a brigand, a normal man, and it refuses to \npretend that the normal man is a saint. It knows that the normal man, the \nvast majority of men, are self-seeking, and that this is true of nations, practi\u00ac \ncally without exception. But a nation like France seeks security and peace; a \nnation like Soviet Russia seeks domination for her detestable ideas, and, in that \nway, rather than by conquest, the enlargement of her sphere of influence. \nGermany and Italy are seeking the enlargement of their territories, the material \ndomination of peoples, the magnification of their own sense of importance. \nAmerica does not care how many brigands are threatening the world, so long' \nas they do not interfere with her; for she is seeking money, or, perhaps (for her \naims are nebulous) the \u201chigh standards of living\u201d which money is supposed to \nprovide\u2014and does not provide. \n\nIt would be better if the League of Nations, whose existence only beclouds \nthe issue, were to be disbanded. This would help statesmen to deal with facts, \nwhich they loathe, and might release them from the world of dreams. Mean\u00ac \nwhile France, which has also been wedded to the League nostrum, has appealed \nto it for help against Germany\u2019s latest violation of her engagements; otherwise \nFrance, which feels bound by her word, as Germany does not, could and should \nhave sent her armies straight into the Rhineland, to drive out the troops which \nGermany has sent there, and to retain possession of it, with the Rhine or beyond \nit as frontier, in spite of the shocked disapproval of those who pretend still to \npin their faith to \u201cscraps of paper\u201d. \n\nNo student of Theosophy can be of service to humanity until he has learned \nto distinguish between psychic fancy and spiritual perception, between \u201cideol\u00ac \nogy\u201d and illumined common-sense, between the real and the unreal, between \n\u201cpsychic and noetic action\u201d. The dreamer argues in this way:\u2014it is terrible \nthat tigers should kill to eat; tigers ought to live on bread-and-milk; they would \ndo so if they were treated properly, with kindliness; therefore dot the jungle \nwith bread-and-milk in pails, and tigers will become gentle and friendly, gam\u00ac \nbolling with the deer in the sunshine. When common-sense (and nous used to \nbe the schoolboy colloquialism for common-sense), when the man who, though \nhis heart may be in heaven, still has his feet on earth, points out that this sort \nof thing was used as a symbol of the millennium, but was never suggested as an \nideal for to-morrow,\u2014the ideologist, with an eye like an ichthyophthalmite (see \nthe dictionary!), is*either irritated or grieved by such lack of appreciation, and \nworks all the harder to convince the world that his utopianism is sound sense. \n\nThere is a type of wiseacre, however, who is perhaps more dangerous than \nthe addle-pated dreamer: I am thinking of the man who has \u201cbeen there\u201d, who \n\u201cknows\u201d. Many of them write books. They cite their own experience and \nobservation, and thus base their conclusions upon \u201cfacts\u201d, unable or unwilling \nto see that their facts are far too few to make sound conclusions possible. \nFiguratively, they declare a man to be good because he has blue eyes and a \nsquare jaw, and was polite to them when they asked their way. They know \n\n\nREMARKS BY THE WAY \n\n\n167 \n\n\nnothing of his past, nothing of his behaviour except through their superficial \ncontact with him. Thus, some young man, perhaps a medical student, will \nmake a tour through Germany on his bicycle. He admires the hardworking \npeasants, and is grateful for the friendly treatment he receives from everyone \nhe encounters. He writes a book about his experience, reporting his facts faith\u00ac \nfully; but his personal reactions are misleading,. and his conclusions are all \nwrong, because he knows nothing of Germany\u2019s past, no.thing of the German \nnature when acting collectively. He knows nothing of the racial mediumship, \nof the hysteria, the madness, which literally takes possession of a German \ncrowd under the influence of a \u201cspell-binder\u201d who flatters them, and who de\u00ac \nliberately plays upon their emotions with the aid of military bands and the wild \nshouting of patriotic songs. Their leaders use hypnotism in all its forms to pro\u00ac \nduce the desired effect,\u2014an insanity of personal and national egotism. A timid, \nkindly \u201cbaker or candlestick-maker\u201d, will leave such a meeting, swollen to the \nbursting-point, drunk with the conviction that because he is a German he is a \nHeld , a hero, a lion among men, and that the rest of the world exists but to be \nsubjected to his race of super-men. There are exceptions\u2014always there are \nsome exceptions\u2014but the vast majority of Germans look back upon their per\u00ac \nformance during the Great War, from the violation of Belgium\u2019s neutrality to \nthe sinking of the Irish cross-channel passenger 5 . 5 . Leinster , in October, 1918, \nnot only as justifiable, but as noble beyond compare. Addressing a large party \nof American editors, visiting England, on the day this last-named German \nexploit became known, the quiet Arthur Balfour declared: \u201cBrutes they were \nand . . . brutes they remain\u201d\u2014a pronouncement greeted with a storm of \napplause\u2014applause conveniently forgotten by most of those who were present \n\u2014and filling those whom he condemned with a further sense of their own in\u00ac \ndubitable superiority. \n\nEngland, we are told, is not ready, is not sufficiently armed; but whose fault \nis that! And does a brave man, when a friend\u2019s life is threatened, try to excuse \ninaction on any such grounds? Or is the brave man, in this case, still shell\u00ac \nshocked and shattered? England, in the Great War, suffered terribly. But \nshe did not suffer as France and Belgium suffered, and they have not lost their \nnerve. \n\nThe worship of comfort, the craving for \u201cprosperity\u201d, the fear of pain, the \ndread of death, and the softening of the moral fibre which these low aims and \nfears entail,\u2014these are the evils which are sapping the manhood of the English- \nspeaking world, more so in America than in England, but in England, at this \nmoment, with tragic and appalling effect, obvious to civilized humanity. For, \nonce again, Germany would not have dared if she had had reason to expect \nuncalculating fearlessness. \n\nIs it too late to hope that England, even at this eleventh hour, will meet the \narmed bully with naked fists if necessary, but with that faith in the power of \nrighteousness, with that white heat of indignation, which are invincible even in \nhell, and which never fail to cow a bully into submission? \n\n\n\n\n\nThe Spirit of Man in Asian Art , by Laurence Binyon; Harvard University \nPress, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1935; price, $4.00. \n\nThis is one of those rare and beautiful books which one reads slowly because \none does not want to finish it but to savour it and to hoard one\u2019s enjoyment. \nDr. Binyon, \u201cSometime Keeper of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum\u201d, \nis well known to students of Oriental art. He speaks not only with the authority \nof scholarship, but with that of a profound understanding, sympathy and sensi\u00ac \nbility. One feels that one is listening to a master of the subject. Sometimes, \nindeed, we seem not to be reading this book at all, but to be looking with new \neyes upon the works of art themselves, and to be living in that atmosphere of \nspiritual perception, contemplation and intense feeling which produced them. \nNo other work which we have read on the subject conveys so completely and \nexquisitely this impression. Those who only know Western art will discover \nthat it throws light upon its peculiar qualities, and those who are not particularly \ninterested in any art will, nevertheless, find it full of illuminating ideas. It is \nprofusely illustrated with reproductions of some of the most beautiful examples \nof Asian art. \n\nDr. Binyon speaks first of the wonderful early bronzes of China and of the \npaintings of Ku K\u2019ai-chih. He then takes up the fresco art of India at Ajanta \nand Bagh, the sculpture of the Gupta period, the Greek influences of Gandhara, \nand their effects, through Buddhism, upon China and Japan. In the Sung \nperiod, when Buddhism and the native Chinese mysticism of the Tao came \ntogether in Zen, Chinese painting attained its most sublime heights. \n\n\nHollowness, emptiness\u2014these are words, these are ideas, from which our instincts \nrecoil; they are repugnant. But Lao-tzu makes friends with the idea of Space, he makes \nit companionable; he dwells on the uses of emptiness. \u201cClay is moulded into a vessel; \nthe utility of a vessel depends on its hollow interior. Doors and windows are cut out in \norder to make a house; the utility of the house depends on the empty spaces. Thus, \nwhile the existence of things may be good, it is the non-existent in them which makes \nthem serviceable.\u201d At once we find ourselves seeing things from a fresh angle. There \nis a picture called \u201cListening to Music\u201d, attributed, perhaps rightly, to a figure-painter \nwho flourished at the end of the eighth century. It is hard to think of any Western \npainting in which the empty spaces are made as significant as they are here: one would \nalmost say even more significant than the figures. The intervals seem brimmed with a \nlistening silence. You feel that the artist dwelt on them, so as to draw out their eloquence. \nIt is, so to speak, space spiritualized. \n\n168 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n169 \n\nWe must quote, also, from the chapter on Persian art, where the differences \nbetween Chinese and Persian mysticism are described with keen delicacy. \n\nOn a summer night, driving in an automobile, have you not sometimes been startled \nand thrilled by the apparition of wayside flowers and grasses suddenly isolated and \nluminous in the beams of the headlamps? A moment ago there was darkness, now with \neach stem and petal delicately distinct, they seem to have something unearthly in their \nbeauty. Can they really have been there in the dark with all that intricate profusion of \nform and colour? You feel as if they had suddenly been created for you yourself. . . . \nIn our own day this peculiar vein of feeling is present, 1 think, in the paintings of \\ incent \nVan Gogh; for him not only sunflower and iris but a straw-bottomed chair, a pair of old \nboots, could be illuminated with a light that never was, enriching not only the senses but \nthe inward eye. \n\nI showed you in my last lecture a Chinese picture of a Buddhist mystic, a woman, \nstraying on a forlorn shore in the dead of winter, seeking for the Absolute in essential \nsolitude. Very different externally, yet essentially akin, is the Persian poet among the \nspring flowers in their incredible beauty. 1 he one is for immersing herself in the world \nwherein no creature dwelleth\u201d (to use the phrase of Boehme), the world within oneself, \nthe other \u201csees the world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower . An intoxica\u00ac \ntion of the senses merges into an intoxication of the spirit. \n\nThe chapters on Japanese art show the same acute penetration of the pecu\u00ac \nliarly intense nature of the race. \n\nAt the outset I should like to dwell for a moment on this propensity to carry things to \nextremity, to sacrifice everything else to the chosen aim, which I think is characteristic \nof the race and which sometimes will appear to us almost fantastic, almost terrifying. . . . \nNow there is a story of a Japanese woman weeping on a battlefield over the bodies of her \ndead sons; to someone who sought to comfort her she replied: 1 do not weep because I \nhave lost them, I weep because 1 have no more sons to give.\u201d ... There is a sort of absolute \nquality in the Japanese loyalty to a cause or idea. Probably in the history of the world \nthere has never been a race so heroic, I mean so possessed by the spirit which is ready \nto dare all and endure all, regardless of consequence, in the cause which it has chosen. \nThough this spirit is manifested most strikingly in the world of action, it is present also \nin the world of ideas, and in art. \n\nHowever, we cannot quote all of the book. We can only urge that it be read \nand enjoyed for itself. \n\n\nSt.C. LaD.^H \n\n\nJoan oj Arc , by Milton Waldman; Little, Brown & Company, 1935; price, \n\n$3.00. \n\nThe author is rather a good story-teller, is most sympathetic toward Joan of \nArc, and has unbounded admiration for her as a woman of extraordinary ability \nand cleverness. He feels that she has never been shown in her true light. \n\u201cPosterity has awarded her everything and more, that her judges tried to take \nften her, except of course her life. . . . But even posterity has failed to restore \nher common ordinary humanity. She rides down the ages as a bronze \nimage on a horse, with a sword held high in one hand and a pennon in the other, \nlike nothing that ever lived; so each generation receives her and reverently \n\n\n\n170 \n\n\nTHE 0 S 0 PH 1 CAL QUARTERLY \n\n\npasses her on.\u201d Deploring the fact that she had to \u201crely on the conscientious \npens of her enemies\u2019 scribes to acquit her of the pious slanders of her friends and \nlet her be seen as she was\u201d, he takes the record of the trial as his source (supple\u00ac \nmented by a long bibliography) and, sifting out the true from the false, attempts \nto make her live again\u2014in \u2018\u2018her common ordinary humanity\u201d. Some aspects \nof her character are well portrayed, and there are welcome touches such as: \n\u201cA quite satisfactory number of men and women have stood trial for their lives \nwith courage; a good few have done so displaying a high order of intelligence; \nit is hard to think of anyone but Socrates and Joan of Arc who did so with gay \nhumour.\u201d The military portion of the story and also the trial are presented in a \nswift narrative that holds the attention well, but to the mystical aspect of his \nsubject he brings little or no understanding. His strictures on mediaeval ecstatics \nand visionaries (\u2018\u2018that ridiculous, pathetic, repulsive crew\u201d with whom Joan had \nnothing in common), show not only his perhaps justifiable distaste for the abuses \nof the mediaeval religious system, but equally his ignorance of the reality behind \nit. With all his desire to present Joan in her true greatness, then, his understand\u00ac \ning inevitably falls short. At times he seems convinced that she was divinely \ninspired, though how he accounts for certain phenomena is not always clear. \nTwo of his many comments on the Voices are indicative: \u2018\u2018Until inquiry and \nproof have brought such things as Joan\u2019s visions within the laws of physical \ncause and effect, we shall find it impossible to believe that she really spoke with, \nsaw, touched, and smelt saints out of Paradise as she claimed. We must assume \nthat her visions were subjective to her before they can become comprehensible \nto us, for so our minds are now made.\u201d . . . \u2018\u2018As to their appearance, she \nnever gave a straight answer, and for the simple reason that she was unable to. \nShe had identified her visitors by an inward prompting based upon deep \npsychological processes that can be traced to the legends she had been taught \nand the sculptured likenesses she had so long and intently gazed upon. Those \neffigies had given body so to speak, to the figments of her imagination.\u201d \n\nThe result is almost inevitable. From even a partially materialistic standpoint \nwhat explanation can there be of that tragic death, following the promise of \ndeliverance, except the one he apparently intends: \u2018\u2018the truth dawned upon her \nthat they [the Voices] had betrayed her\u201d? To many readers this can only mean \na failure on the author\u2019s part to grasp the real and supreme achievement of that \nvalorous life and heroic death. The book is marred by colloquialisms ill suited \nto a biography of mediaeval times, and by references to matters of sex of a kind \nthat are unpardonable. The reader is left chiefly with the feeling that the \nauthor\u2019s entire sincerity and very laudable intention outdistance his under\u00ac \nstanding and capacity to handle such a subject. \n\nJ.C. \n\n\nThe Philosophy of Spinoza , by Harry Austryn Wolfson, Nathan Littauer \nProfessor of Jewish Literature and Philosophy in Harvard University; Harvard \nUniversity Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1934; price, $7.50. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n171 \n\nSpinoza and Buddha: Visions of a Dead God t by S. M. Melamed; University \nof Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1933; price, $3. \n\nThe student of Spinoza\u2019s Ethics often suspects that what he is reading is an \nindex to the philosopher\u2019s thought rather than an exposition of it. The austere \ngeometrical form which Spinoza adopted, gives logical coherence and unity, but \nit is not conducive to fluency or expansiveness. Inevitably one speculates con\u00ac \ncerning the sentiments and ideas which he did not reveal, but which may be \nsurmised as the justification and substratum of his public work. Why was he \nso restrained, so reticent? The usual explanation is that he was silent about \nmany things, because it was imprudent in the Seventeenth Century to ex\u00ac \npound too openly any religious views which public opinion might regard as too \nheterodox. \n\nProfessor Wolfson suggests another reason which is more convincing. Spi\u00ac \nnoza was not an isolated phenomenon. He was a representative of a long phil\u00ac \nosophical tradition. He meditated upon problems which had stimulated men\u2019s \nminds for centuries, problems which were still cast in the form which Aristotle \nhad given them. Like Giordano Bruno and Descartes, Spinoza was attracted by \nthe \u201cnew learning\u201d, and by the revolution that was progressing in physical \nscience, but above all he was inspired by a passion for pure metaphysics, as \ndefined by mediaeval thought. He could not desist from the quest of those \ntruths which lie beyond the range of ordinary experiment and which show forth \nthe essence of God, the relation between God and the world, the nature of man \nand the path of divine wisdom. In his search he examined the conclusions of \nthose who had preceded him in this way. Gradually he built a system of his \nown, selecting and rejecting, criticizing and adapting. Sometimes he virtually \nincorporated fragments of old texts, as Shakespeare embodied in his dramas \nlong passages that had been composed by others. As has been said, Spinoza \nwas the last and greatest of the scholastic philosophers. He clarified the work \nof generations of theologians and metaphysicians. Certainly much that is \nobscure becomes clear, if we recognize that Spinoza thought of himself as a com\u00ac \nmentator on the wisdom of his predecessors. He was addressing a public familiar \nwith the technical language which he used, and did not believe it to be necessary \nto explain in detail what he was talking about. \n\nProfessor Wolfson has proved what has hitherto been only surmised,-^fae \nindebtedness of Spinoza to the Moorish and Jewish philosophers of the SpBreh \npeninsula, and through them to the Aristotelian and Neoplatonic schools which \nflourished in the Near East under Moslem protection during the European Dark \nAge that preceded the dawn of mediaeval civilization. Scholars have generally \nadmitted that Arabic philosophy was the immediate progenitor of the scholastic \nmetaphysics which became so characteristic a feature of mediaeval Christianity. \nHowever, though Avicenna and Averroes have been studied and translated, \ntheir Jewish successors have been neglected. Professor Wolfson\u2019s work in this \nforgotten field is, therefore, of the greatest value. He has made available in \ntranslation, with admirable commentaries, much of this Spanish-Jewish phil\u00ac \nosophical literature, which in large measure exists only in scattered manuscripts, \n\n\n\n\n\n\ni 7 2 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nbut which constitutes an integral part of the metaphysical and mystical tradi \ntion of the West. The quotations from these Hebrew sources are sufficient in \nthemselves to give distinction to his work on Spinoza, quite irrespective of his \nthesis. For all but a few, Maimonides, Crescas, Gersonides, Ibn Ezra, Ibn \nGabirol, have been only names. In these pages, they begin to live again. ^ \n\nWe do not fully agree with Dr. Wolfson\u2019s final evaluation of Spinoza\u2019s doc\u00ac \ntrines. He argues that Spinoza, by \u201cfour acts of daring\u201d, fundamentally altered \nthe traditional teaching. \n\nBy declaring that God has the attribute of extension as well as of thought, Spinoza \nhas thus removed the break in the principle of the homogeneity of nature. ... By \ndenying design and purpose in God, [he] removed the break in the principle of the uni\u00ac \nformity of the laws of nature. . . . [His] insistence upon the complete inseparability of \nsoul from body has . . . removed another break in the uniformity of nature. . . . [His] \ninsistence upon the elimination of freedom of the will from human actions has . . . \nremoved another break in the uniformity of the laws of nature. \n\nOther philosophers have insisted with equal force upon the homogeneity of \nNature; others have identified Nature with a substance whose \u201cessence involves \nexistence\u201d, that is, with God; others have denied freedom of the will, in the \nordinary sense, to God as well as to man. The real problem is to ascertain what \nSpinoza meant when he affirmed these things. We may approach an under\u00ac \nstanding of his intent, if we assume that he was not merely a philosopher who \nspeculated, but was primarily a mystic who experienced what he taught. The \nkey to his doctrine is found, we believe, in his conclusion that the inmost self, \nthe higher mind of man, is \u201ca part of the infinite intellect of God\u201d, and that the \nhuman mind participates, therefore, in the only possible kind of freedom, the \nfull freedom of expression which distinguishes immortal from mortal being. \nNothing external to itself can curb the higher mind\u2019s power to make manifest \nits essence, to become that which it is its nature to become. The tragedy of man \nis that he does not exercise this liberty, but allows himself to fall under the do\u00ac \nminion of necessity, where he is the slave of whatever emotion happens to be \ndominant at any given instant. According to such an interpretation, when \nmen turn to evil instead of to good, it is not because they choose evil but be\u00ac \ncause, deluded by emotion and self-will, and stupefied by ignorance and inertia, \nthey fail to identify themselves with that which is their good. \u201cThe more per\u00ac \nfection anything has, the more active and the less passive it is; and contrariwise, \nthe more active it is, the more perfect it becomes. . . . Blessedness is not the \nreward of virtue, but virtue itself: nor should we rejoice in it for that we restrain \nour desires, but, on the contrary, because we rejoice therein we can restrain our \ndesires.\u201d \n\nIn many ways, Spinoza\u2019s pantheism resembles the great systems of thought \nwhich were bom in ancient India and China,\u2014the Vedanta, the Sankhya, Bud\u00ac \ndhism, Taoism. This resemblance is, in fact, the theme of Spinoza and Buddha , \nby Dr. Melamed. The author, however, has very peculiar views, the most \npeculiar of all being that Spinoza, like Buddha, his Oriental prototype, was an \nenemy of the human race. The Brahma of the Indian mystics, and the Dens of \n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\ni73 \n\n\n\nSpinoza are \u201cdead gods\u201d, according to Dr. Melamed, and he contrasts them, \nto their supposed disadvantage, with the \u201cliving god\u201d, the Jehovah of the Old \nTestament. He does not understand how a God who is immanent in the world \ncan also be transcendent, in the sense that He is not the world, though His \nattributes are made manifest in and through the world. A God who is identified \nwith Nature or Eternal Substance is \u201cdead\u201d, according to Dr. Melamed\u2019s \ndefinition, because he cannot imagine what sort of consciousness He can have. \nNo more can any other human personality form an image of that divine con\u00ac \nsciousness; but what possible difference can this make? Such consciousness as \nwe have, must have come from somewhere, and what other source can there \nbe save the Nature or Essence of all things, the One Self, God. Unless one \nfrankly adopts a materialistic theory of consciousness, there is only one alter\u00ac \nnative to this proposition, and that is to assume that God is a being distinct \nfrom and even hostile to the general order of Nature, and that the men whom \nHe made in His image are essentially unnatural entities, as \u201cextra-cosmic\u201d \nas their creator. This appears to be Dr. Melamed\u2019s assumption. A quotation \nmay make his point of view more intelligible. \n\nBuddhism negates life, Judaism affirms it. The negation of life is a symptom of de\u00ac \n\n\ncadence, for healthy races cling tenaciously to it. . . . The tropical sun and the jungle \n\n\ndestroyed [man\u2019s] appetite for it, for they annihilated in him the courage to fight and \nthe will to live. . . . Out of this deterioration arose the lifeless and anonymous univer- \n\n\nsalism of the East. The man who emerged from the jungle denied life, while he who \n\n\ncame out of the desert affirmed it. . . . The ancient Jews became individualistic to the \nsame extent that the Eastern Aryans grew universalistic. ... In the Upanishads man \nis not visible, and we hear only his cosmic wails and lamentations. . . . The personal, \nliving God of the Bible is only a correlation to its living, passionate and powerful man. \n\n\nThe universal and dead God of the Upanishads is equal in reality to its dead univer- \nsalism. Out of the jungle crawled a dead God, and out of the desert roared a living God. \n\n\nThere are so many illusions packed in these sentences that any analysis must \nbe hopelessly inadequate. However, we venture to suggest that the principal \nillusion is one shared by the whole of unredeemed mankind. It is the illusion \nthat the human personality is an end in itself, a powerful and living being, a \nthing to be worshipped with self-satisfaction and pride. The \u201clife\u201d whi \nBuddhism negates is not the life of the physical body as such, nor is it t \nlife of divinity; it is \u201cpsychic\u201d life, the vital force that we attribute to tne \nhuman personality which has been defined as the image of the body in the mind. \nIf this be pessimism, so be it; but what sort of optimism can that be which de\u00ac \npends for the verification of its dreams upon the triumph of the \u201cold Adam\u201d in \nman, over all the obstacles which a beneficent Nature places in the way of the \nsoul\u2019s descent into hell. S.V.L. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQuestion No. 397 .\u2014Would not Theosophists regard the Gospel according to St. John as the \nnearest to the Divine Wisdom of them all? Edmond Holmes , in his \"Creed of Christ' 1 , does not \nseem to agree. Is this an instance of a wise man nodding? \n\nAnswer. \u2014Theosophy is the key to a true understanding of the great Scriptures of the \nworld. Where that knowledge is lacking, one may find great insight on many points, but \nalmost always accompanied by definite limitations in other directions. Mr. Holmes\u2019s books \nare very valuable, particularly his Creed of Buddha , but his limitations are marked. When \nhe finds that the statements of Christ recorded in the Gospel of St. John are not in accordance \nwith his own ideas, instead of trying to enlarge and deepen his view, he questions the authen\u00ac \nticity of the Gospel. In his case, as in all others, one should gain all one can from his insight \nand let the rest go. In fairness to him, however, we must remember that Biblical scholarship \nperiodically discredits the alleged authorship, and even the genuineness, of the fourth Gospel. \n\nPerhaps we should add that few students of Theosophy would undertake to say which of \ntwo statements made by a great Master was \u201cthe nearest to Divine Wisdom\u201d, to rank, for ex\u00ac \nample, Christ\u2019s statement in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of St. John, \nabove or below the Sermon on the Mount as recorded by St. Matthew. To do so would, among \nother things, be to imply that one understood either Gospel fully, something that no one short \nof an Adept could do. J.F.B.M. \n\nAnswer. \u2014One of the fundamentals of the theosophical philosophy is that Truth is limited \nand incomplete if defined or if expressed in one set of terms. The Gospels all contain revela\u00ac \ntions of the Divine Wisdom, which must be the case in view of their record of the words and \nacts of a great Avatar. The Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles reveal many aspects of the \nDivine Wisdom, as, for example, in the writings of St. Paul, who was an Initiate. St. John had \nknowledge of the Logos Doctrine, not, perhaps, possessed by the other disciples; in addition, \nhe was known as the beloved disciple, which relationship involved close contact with his \nMaster in the real sense, and his account of the Last Supper reveals a deep understanding of \nhis Master\u2019s heart. \n\nWhile the Gospel of St. John discloses facets of the Truth that the other Gospels do not, \nit is important to remember that Truth must be approached from all sides, and that one view \nof it is necessarily incomplete. G.H.M. \n\nAnswer. \u2014 I should think that, not only students of Theosophy, but all intuitive students \nof the Bible as well, would regard the Gospel of St. John as the nearest to the Divine Wisdom. \nThe first three Gospels are known as the Synoptic Gospels, because of their similitude in con\u00ac \ntents, words and, even, phrasing; and because, combined, they present a general and harmonized \nstory of Christ\u2019s life. This grouping of the first three, may tend to influence people, some \nscholars included, to attach less importance than it deserves to the fourth Gospel. The Synop\u00ac \ntic Gospels, in the main, record Christ\u2019s sayings, and the events of his life. The Gospel of St. \n\n\n174 \n\n\nQUESTIONS AND ANSWERS \n\n\ni 7 S \n\nJohn deals more with the purpose and plan of his incarnation, with the spirit of it. I should \nsay that students of Theosophy would regard the Synoptic Gospels, valuable as they are, as \nmore or less representative of the \u201ceye\u201d doctrine; and that of St. John as representative of \nthe \u201cheart\u201d doctrine. The last book in the Bible, known as The Revelation of St. John the \nDivine, should reinforce that opinion; so, too, should a study of his life at Patmos, for St. \nJohn\u2019s disciples make it evident that they knew he continued to receive the personal teaching of \nChrist, long after Christ\u2019s withdrawal from the world. One of these disciples, Polycarp, taught \nIrenaeus, who was Bishop of southern France from 175 to 202. Hamack, the theologian, \ncommenting on a letter in which Irenaeus refers to the time he was in Lower Asia with Polycarp, \nwrites: \u201cThese are priceless words, for they establish a chain of tradition (Jesus, John, Polycarp, \nIrenaeus) which is without paraHel in history.\u201d It is to be regretted that Christian peoples \nhave not informed themselves more fully about St. John\u2019s influence; about the way in which \nthe tradition of Patmos was carried from southern France to Iona of Scotland, and, thence, \ninto Northumbria, in England; for it is St. John, and not St. Peter, \u201cwho is the father of the \nFrench and the British Churches\u201d. G.M.W.K. \n\nAnswer. \u2014Nearest of all the Gospels to the Divine Wisdom? Possibly. Although the degree \nof Truth which can be derived from any one of the Gospels does not necessarily depend wholly \nupon the illumination of its author, but in large measure upon the understanding and intuition \nof the reader. Or does the question perhaps mean that St. John, as he revealed himself in \nthat Gospel, was the nearest of all those lesser figures in the New Testament to a complete \ngrasp of the Divine Wisdom? Surely, on Patmos, whether in the body or out of the body, he \nrose to great heights of insight and vision, when he listened to that voice which was as the sound \nof many waters, to those sayings which were faithful and true. But of all those lesser figures \nit is St. Paul, that great Initiate, who tells us the most of the wisdom and love and power of \nthe Father; of how to carry that essence of the Divine into the spiritual combat of daily life \nand living; of how the Spirit of the Warrior, which he exemplified, can be made ours. It is the \nDivine Wisdom which St. Paul gives us, in full measure, pressed down and running over. \n\nC.R.A. \n\n\nIN MEMORIAM. \n\nTHEODORA DODGE \n\nA valued and devoted member of The Theosophical Society, and \na brilliant and most helpful contributor to \nthe \u201cTheosophical Quarterly\u201d. \n\nDied, 1st February, 1936 \n\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 \nMews, New York, on Saturday, April 25th, 1936, 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 1st. \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 26th, at 4 p. m., tea will be served at 64, Washington Mews, to dele\u00ac \ngates, members, and their friends. \n\nIsabel E. Perkins, \n\nSecretary , The Theosophical Society , \n\nP. O. Box 64, Station 0 , New York, N. Y. \n\nFebruary 15th, 1936. \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 will be meetings on,\u2014 \n\nApril 4th and 18th, May 2nd. \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\n176 \n\n\n\nI n \n\n\n\n\n% \n\n\nBlavatsky, H. P. \n\n\n\nSTANDARD BOOKS \n\nIsis Unveiled, Vols. I and II .doth, $12.50 \n\nComplete in on# book...cloth, 7.50 \n\nKey to Theosophy .doth, 3 50 \n\nSecret Doctrine, The, Vols. I and II and Index. .... .doth, ij.so \n\nComplete in one book, without subject-index volume, 7 .50 \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. Fragments, Volume I.boards, iso \n\nVolume II ...boards, i.bo \n\nVolume III .boards, 1.50 \n\nGerard, John. Letters to Friends.. .-. ...boards, i.\u00bb6 \n\nHillard, Katherine. Abridgment of the Secret Doctrine, .doth, 3.00 \n\nJohnston, Charles. Bhagavad Gita .Translated, annotot^ii^do^, 1.25 \n\nCrest Jewel of Wisdom, The .doth, 1.25 \n\nGreat Upanishads, The, Volume I.doth, 1,B \u00ae \n\nParables of the Kingdom, The.p*p\u00ab. \u2022 bo \n\nPatanjali\u2019s Yoga Sutras .Translated, annotated; doth, 1.26 \n\nSong of Life, The.. \n\nJudge, William Q. Bhagavad Gita .Edited; doth, 1 . 25 ; leather, 1.50 \n\nCulture of Concentration . pftper \u2019 ' 2 f \n\nEchoes from the Orient . -paper. \n\nLetters That Have Helped Me, Volume I andII,each..doth, 1.00 \n\nOcean of Theosophy .doth, \n\nPatanjali\u2019s Yoga Aphorisms ...y. doth > '*\u00b0\u00ae \n\nKeightley, Archibald. Theosophy as an Influence in Life paper, .20 \n\nMkcheli, S Hen e ry B^dinger^MEmTATioN; Spedai edition, . 20 , Sper,\u2019 .50 \nTheosophical Society and Theosophy, The. .paper, .20 \n\nMitchell, J. F. B. Collegiate Education and Standards of \n\nSinned A.' P. ' Esoteric Buddhism: . \n\nOccult World, The ...\u2022 *. doth \u2019 \n\nl\u00b0:s E y D K \n\nKo r n| White Lotus.V.V\"V.V\"\"V.Vl-S \n\nLight on the Path... doth, 1>2J \n\nThrough the Gates of Gold. \n\nTHE QUARTERLY BOOK DEPARTMENT, \n\nP. a Box 64, Station O, New York. \n\n\n\nDbvoiional: ^Letters ttS\u2019path^ThePar- \n\niwwoHhe'SS&fTta of Life; Through the Gatesof Gold; Voice of the Silence. \n\na .... _ . , he secret Doctrine; Isis Unveiled; Key to Theosophy; \n\n& Doctrine; Talkson Rdigion; Theosophical Glossary; \n\nTransactions; Patanjali\u2019s Yoga Sutras. \n\nifH \n\nTm Theosophical Society and Theosophy. _ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\njjfcj r \n\n\n\n\n\n\nm *1* \n\n\nm)t <Ef)eo$opf)tcal Sowf? \n\nFounded by f>. P. Blavateky at Ilw Vork hi WB \n\n\nHE Society does not pretend to be able to estabUA \nat once a universal brotherhood among men, but \nonly strives to create the nucleus of such a body. \nMany of its members believe that an acquaintance \nwith the world's religions and philosophies will \n\" reveal, as the common and fundamental principle \nunderlying these, that \u201cspiritual identity of all Souls with the \nOversoul \u201d 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 emphasize the same idea. \n\nThe organization is wholly unsectarian, with no creed# \ndogma# nor personal authority to enforce or impose; neither \nis it to be held responsible for the opinions of its member*# \nwho are expected to accord to the beliefs of others that \ntolerance wnich they desire for their own. \n\nThe following proclamation was adopted at the Conven\u00ac \ntion of the Society# held at Boston# April# 1895: \n\n4 The Theosophical Society in America by its delegates and \nmembers in Convention assembled# does hereby proclaim \nfraternal good 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 \norganizations in all theosophical matters except those of \ngovernment and administration# and invites their cor* \ntespondence and co-operation. \n\n\u201cTo all men and women of whatever caste,creed#race#or \nreligious belief# who aim at the fostering of peace# gentleness# \nand unselfish regard one for another# and the acquisition of \nsuch knowledge of men and nature as shall tend to the eleva\u00ac \ntion and advancement of the human race# it sends most friendly \ngreeting and freely proffers its services. \n\n\u201cIt Joins hands with all religions and religious bodies vHimc \nefforts are directed to the purification of men's thoughts and \nthe bettering of their ways# and it avows its harmony there\u00ac \nwith. To all scientific societies and individual searchers after \nwisdom upon whatever plane# and by whatever righteottf \nmeans pursued# it is and will be grateful for such discovery \nand unfoldment of Truth as shall serve to announce and con\u00ac \nfirm a scientific basis for ethics. \n\n\u201cAnd lastly, it invites to its membership those who# seek\u00ac \ning a higher life hereafter# would learn to know the path to \ntread in this.\u201d \n\n\nApplications for membership should be addressed to the \nSecretary T. S., P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York. \n\n\nNo. 3 JULY, 1936 \n\n\nNo. 131 \n\n\nS g \n\n\nIHEOSOPHICAJ \n\nQuartered \n\n\nlibrary ft \n\nANDOVER NEWTON Hi \ntheological school || \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\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\nSubscription price, $2.00 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 .11 oommunica.ions 10 F. O. Box 64, Station O, New York \n\n\nIn Europe, single copies may be obtained from and subscriptions may be salt to John \nM SktaTcS Court, Charing Cross Road, London, W. C. 2, England; or to \nMrll H. Lincoln, 9 Beaconsfield Road, Low Fell, Gateshead-on-Tyne, England, from \n',11 hank numbers may be obtained. Annual subscription price, $2.00, postpaid. \n\n\nCONTENTS OF VOL. XXXIII, NO. 3 \nJuly, 1936 \n\nPAGE \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS. *79 \n\nFRAGMENTS. * 9 \u00b0 \n\nCONFUCIUS (concluded). * 9 * \n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES: Convention Report; Letters of Greeting . 201 \n\nREVIEWS. 255 \n\nQUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 263 \n\n\nEntered as second-class matter September 5. 1923. at the Post Office at New York, N. Y. t under the \nAct of March 3. 1879. \n\n\nCopyright, 1936, by The Theosophical Society \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\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 others, in 1875. . . \n\nWe have no connection whatsoever with any other organization \ncalling itself Theosophical, formerly headed by Mrs Besant, nor \nwith similar bodies, the purposes and methods of which are whollj/W \nforeign to our own. \n\nEditors, The Theosophical Quarterly. \n\n\nffS \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n% \n\n\n\nJULY, 1936 \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\nf*s \n\n\n% \n\n\nSelflessness and Power \n\nW E read in Light on the Path: \u201cIt is easy to say: \u2018I will not be ambitious\u2019; \n\nit is not so easy to say: \u2018When the Master reads my heart, he will find \nit clean utterly\u2019. The pure artist who works for the love of his work \nis sometimes more firmly planted on the right road than the occultist who fancies \nhe has removed his interest from self, but who has in reality only enlarged the \nlimits of experience and desire, and transferred his interest to the things which \nconcern his larger span of life.\u201d \n\nIt is the nature of the pure artist to \u201ccreate\u201d. His work is original and unique, \nfor it records an individual vision of reality, making manifest an aspect of \nbeauty or truth which no other person could possibly have revealed. The \nIliad and the Divine Comedy are as distinct as two species of flowers, and they \nare equally irreplaceable in the order of Nature. The very important fact to \nwhich Light on the Path points, is that the measure of the artist\u2019s power to \ncreate is the measure of his selflessness. The more selfless he is, the more indi\u00ac \nvidual he becomes; and the more individual he is, the more efficacious^ his \nresponse to the signs and symbols of divinity which are everywhere pre^nt in \nNature. Thus, on his own plane of action, he grows \u201cas the flower grows, un\u00ac \nconsciously\u201d, embodying and transmitting a ray of universal creative force. \n\nThis is equivalent to saying that he does not know in advance what he will \ncreate, for it is the spirit which creates through him. However, this does not \nmean that he must be passive, negative, mediumistic. Genius can only over\u00ac \nshadow or incarnate in the man who toils and meditates incessantly, and who \nis ever expectant, prepared to act the instant that genuine inspiration comes. \nThe pure artist does not dwell in Bohemia. He works daily to perfect his tech\u00ac \nnique, mastering the rules of his craft, and training his senses to serve his pur\u00ac \npose. He broadens and deepens his ideas of the beautiful and the true and the \nnoble, seeking the essence of natural forms, eager to learn from the experience \n\n179 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n180 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nof other men and other ages, accepting praise with detachment and criticism \nwith gratitude. When he produces a work of his own, he visualizes his aim as \nclearly as possible and carefully devises a scheme of execution, like a general \nplanning a campaign. But if this work be touched by genius, it will surpass \nhis original design. As Bergson has said, the ways of genius, of creative evolu\u00ac \ntion, are subtile, incalculable, imponderable. After all, what constitutes the \ndifference between the Cathedral of Chartres and the First Methodist Church? \n\n\u201cAscending Mutations\u201d \n\nDoubtless, the pure scientist, like the pure artist, might be taken as a model \nof selfless devotion. There have been men of science who dedicated their lives \nto the service of truth and who have \u201ccreated\u201d knowledge, as the painters and \nsculptors have \u201ccreated\u201d beauty. The scientific discipline demands an uncom\u00ac \npromising obedience to established principles. The engineer takes no liberties \nwith natural law; whether he approve of them or not, he accepts things as they \nare and acts accordingly. \n\nUnfortunately, the specialization of the sciences has tended to narrow the \nminds of their devotees. Each scientist is tempted to substitute some fragment \nof truth which he sees for the whole, to assume that he comprehends the uni\u00ac \nverse because he has calculated the velocity of a neutron or produced a syn\u00ac \nthetic hormone. Few men of science can write on any subject outside their \nspecialty without betraying a spirit of arrogance and bigotry. In general, \nscientists have lost the reverence for Nature which characterized their great \npredecessors and which atoned for so many deficiencies. To-day there is a \nwidespread notion that Nature is a badly constructed machine which should \nbe taken apart and re-fashioned after an improved model. Especially among \nthe biologists and psychologists and their popularizers, there is a sort of compe\u00ac \ntition to determine who can make over Nature the most completely. \n\nA notable example is offered by a French book, De quoi vivre , which might \nbe roughly translated \u201cThe wherewithal to live\u201d. The author, M. Jean Cou- \ntrot, suggests that science will ultimately modify the cyclic character of man\u2019s \npsychic life. When that happy day arrives, human existence will become an \n\u201cascending mutation\u201d uninterrupted by any of the back-slidings which make \nup so much of the subject-matter of history. The thesis invites some ironical \ncomments, when one realizes that modem civilization is at this moment sliding \ntowards the brink of a chasm, and that one of the active causes of its agony is \nthe very scientific progress which M. Coutrot extols. \n\nHe affirms that two distinct processes have been operative throughout hu\u00ac \nman history. There is a rhythmic or oscillatory movement, an expression of \nthe universal phenomenon of periodicity or undulation; and there is a con\u00ac \ntinuous progressive movement which has no obvious counterpart in the physical \nworld but which is illustrated in man, M. Coutrot thinks, by the way in which \nthe scientific knowledge of one generation is extended by the next. He calls \nthese two movements the additive and the non-additive , the former proceeding \nsteadily onwards and the latter perpetually vibrating like an electric current \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\ni8i \n\n\nbetween two poles. He contrasts the orderly growth of natural science, bring\u00ac \ning man a constant increase of power over matter, with the disorder and chaos \nof man\u2019s emotional life. Man may be the lord of the physical creation, but \nhe is only too obviously not the lord of himself. He alternates almost auto\u00ac \nmatically between pleasure and pain, between elation and depression, between \nself-confidence and diffidence. All the great religions have faced, and solved, \nthis supreme human problem. But M. Coutrot is not interested in the great \nreligions. He pretends that the final solution can be found by men of science \nwho will bring under control the domain of human sensibility, applying to that \nend the methods which have been so successful in the physical realm. \n\nThe Measurable and the Immeasurable \n\nIt is apparent that M. Coutrot suffers from the common materialistic delu\u00ac \nsion that all things in the universe can be weighed and measured. The fact is \nthat consciousness in all its states is immeasurable by any means known to \nthe man of science. The only entities that can be weighed and measured are \nphysical things which we know as objects of consciousness. The subjects of \nconsciousness, our thoughts and emotions and aspirations, even our physical \nsensations, are in themselves without form or substance or dimension, as these \nare conceived by the scientific mind which is exclusively trained in the study \nof objective existence. \n\nTherefore, the only cure which the scientific mind can imagine for the cycles \nto which human consciousness is subject, is to abolish them. But this is equiva\u00ac \nlent to abolishing the universe, for the manifestation of the universe is itself \nthe supreme expression of cyclic law, and nothing which it contains can be \nwithdrawn from the necessity that rules the whole. M. Coutrot virtually sug\u00ac \ngests that the energies of consciousness may be gradually concentrated in that \npart of the intellect which reasons scientifically; that there may come into \nexistence some day a truly collectivist commonwealth, where all men will labour \nin unison to increase the sum-total of the knowledge of the human species. \nOne should try to be grateful for almost anything, and it is at least pleasant \nto observe that M. Coutrot does not evoke a Utopia of playgrounds where \neveryone will amuse himself without effort or expense or tedium, where pain \nin any form will be as unthinkable as common-sense. There is nothing oLjfcs \nsort in M. Coutrot\u2019s picture, but one wonders what kind of consciotf^Kss \nwould be left in his super-scientific hive. The \u201chuman species\u201d might accumu\u00ac \nlate a deal of knowledge, but the \u201cworker-bees\u201d which gathered it would be \nfortunate if they retained enough consciousness to know their own names. It \nis always a futile exercise to postulate the existence of the \u201chuman species\u201d \napart from the individuals, real or potential, which constitute the only reality \nwhich it has. \n\nLa Revue Universelle , February 15, 1936, contains an essay, De nouvelles \nraisons de vivre , by M. Thierry Maulnier, which makes very clear many of the \nfundamental errors of De quoi vivre. Failing to discern between the measur- \n*ble and the immeasurable, M. Coutrot has inevitably been blind to the \n\n\n\n182 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\ndistinction between the higher and lower natures of the human being. We \nparaphrase the conclusion of M. Maulnier\u2019s article. \n\nThis is the danger of placing scientific knowledge at the summit of human activities. \n\n. . . The supreme form of human activity is not reason in so far as it is an instrument \nfor acquiring knowledge, but reason in so far as it is a builder of values, of values which \ndo not progress from one generation to another and which, differing in this respect from \nscientific knowledge, can only find in the individual their perfect and unsurpassable \nexpression. Without falling into the error of [selfish] individualism, we must admit that \nhuman society, the human species, has a purpose, an end, in each of the beings which \ncompose it. . . . We heard M. Coutrot declare a few days ago that there is no insolvable \nproblem. Nevertheless, there is a problem which cannot be solved by means of rational \nknowledge, and this is the problem of rational knowledge itself; for we cannot resolve \nthe relations of the subject and its object, that which is called in religious language the \nIncarnation of the Word. Whether we explain this Incarnation by divine aid, or whether \nwe leave it as a mystery, it remains certain that we cannot establish a continuous scien\u00ac \ntific series [of ideas] joining the things of the Self and the universe. 1 he man is a subject, \nsince he thinks; the species is an object. It is not in an object that we can discover for \nthe thinking man a complete fulfilment. \n\nCycles Within Cycles \n\nIn the Proem of The Secret Doctrine there is a reference to the superlative \nmystery to which M. Maulnier refers. It is significant that in the theosophical \nphilosophy the Incarnation of the Logos, the prototype of all minor Incarna\u00ac \ntions, proceeds according to cyclic law. \n\nThe \u201cManifested Universe\u201d, therefore, is pervaded by duality, which is, as it were, \nthe very essence of its EX-istence as \u201cmanifestation\u201d. But just as the opposite poles of \nsubject and object, spirit and matter, are but aspects of the One Unity in which they are \nsynthesized, so, in the manifested Universe, there is \u201cthat\u201d which links spirit to matter, \nsubject to object. This something, at present unknown to Western speculation, is \ncalled by the occultists Fohat. It is the \u201cbridge\u201d by which the \u201cIdeas\u201d existing in the \n\u201cDivine Thought\u201d are impressed on Cosmic Substance as the \u201claws of Nature\u201d. . . . \nThus from Spirit, or Cosmic Ideation, comes our consciousness; from Cosmic Substance \nthe several vehicles in which that consciousness is individualized and attains to self\u2014or \nreflective\u2014consciousness; while Fohat, in its various manifestations, is the mysterious \nlink between Mind and Matter, the animating principle electrifying every atom into \nlife. . . . Further, the Secret Doctrine affirms the Eternity of the Universe in toto as a \nboundless plane; periodically \u201cthe play-ground of numberless Universes incessantly \nmanifesting and disappearing\u201d. . . . \u201cThe appearance and disappearance of Worlds is \nlike a regular tidal ebb of flux and reflux\u201d. This second assertion of the Secret Doctrine \nis the absolute universality of that law of periodicity, of flux and reflux, ebb and flow, \nwhich physical science has observed and recorded in all departments of nature. \n\nAs Emerson said, quoting an ancient Indian scripture, the Universe exists \nfor purposes of Soul. But the Universe and the Law of Cycles are funda\u00ac \nmentally one. If the human consciousness in its present mode be the play\u00ac \nground of numberless moods appearing and disappearing, this is in accordance \nwith the nature of things, and we shall be wise to co-operate with the law rather \nthan to dream of changing it. However, this does not mean that we must \nremain eternally in the same little cycles where we now move back and forth, \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n183 \n\n\nreturning to the same follies time after time. There are cycles within cycles, \nspiritual tides within the psychic and physical, and we have the power to de\u00ac \ntermine to what \u201cround\u201d of being we shall belong. \n\nIn the occult philosophy which Madame Blavatsky interpreted, the \u201cprinci\u00ac \nple\u201d of Buddhi which is destined to become the perfected human individual, \nis an undivided ray of the Logos, the Over-Soul. Like the radiance of the \nSun, it \u201cfalls\u201d into matter, imprisoning itself in a form which is subject to \nbirth and growth, decay and death. Released by death, it is drawn back to\u00ac \nwards its source, only to return again and to initiate a new incarnation and \ntransformation. Thus it accumulates experience, \u201cpassing through every ele\u00ac \nmental form of the phenomenal world\u201d, and then \u201cacquiring individuality, \nfirst by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and self-devised efforts \n(checked by its Karma), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, \nfrom the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest \narchangel\u201d. \n\nM. Coutrot\u2019s ideal of a constant progression is thus realized, but this realiza\u00ac \ntion does not involve, as he seems to fancy, a cancellation of cyclic law, any \nmore than the ripening of a man\u2019s wisdom depends upon his release from all the \nvicissitudes of bodily existence. Night is as real and as necessary as day, winter \nis no less beautiful than summer; and by the same token, the Soul needs to \nexperience pain and sleep and death as well as pleasure and waking and life. \nIt is our own fault if we think of death and sleep as periods of unconsciousness, \nas interruptions of the continuity of our true being. \n\nThe popular scientific desire to change the order of Nature is, in a sense, a \nperversion of the right desire to pass from the superficial cycles, within which \nour personal life is confined, to the inner and higher cycles which determine \nreal growth in real consciousness. There is only one road to this goal. It has \nbeen described so many times in essentially identical terms that the world, \ndeceived by the simplicity of what is demanded, finds the words of wisdom \nbanal, and seeks to invent a more pretentious way of its own. What are these \nwords of wisdom? In essence, nothing more than this,\u2014to become that which \nin our souls we aspire to be and to cease to embody qualities which we kno^^b \nbe mean and low, to devote ourselves to the highest purpose which we can con\u00ac \nceive and to crush out of existence all those elements of our daily life which \nstrengthen the \u201cpersonal idea\u201d, the illusion that we are separate \u201cselves\u201d. No \nman can evolve from a lower to a higher condition unless he starves out the \nmental images and desires which chain him to the lower state. Such is the \nteaching of Krishna, of the Buddha, of the Christ, of all the Masters who have \ntried to induce men to become human. To return to M. Coutrot\u2019s phraseology, \nwhat other means can there be of harmonizing the additive and the non-additive \npowers of the human being? \n\nThe Art of Improving Upon Nature \n\nIt may be assumed, therefore, that man is born into the world for the pur\u00ac \npose of improving himself. When he attains a certain degree of self-improve- \n\n\n184 \n\n\nTHE0S0PH1CAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nment, as is said, he acquires the power of improving others as well as himself, \nand even of improving upon Nature, if by Nature we mean the actual mani\u00ac \nfested world. It is perhaps more appropriate to think of an Adept, a perfected \nhuman being, as creating new forms in manifested Nature because he has real\u00ac \nized union with the Essence of Nature, because he is, indeed, a self-conscious \nexpression of that Essence. Thus, in the old symbolism, the Creative Logos \nwas called the Heavenly Man. \n\nDo we realize that our thoughts have repercussions, for better or for worse, \nupon the planes of life both above and below us? We read in The Secret Doc\u00ac \ntrine of the dependence of the lower kingdoms upon man for their forms and \nvital powers. It is asserted that man is not descended from the lower animals; \nthat the lower animals are, on the contrary, offshoots of man, developments on \nan inferior plane of the \u201castral moulds\u201d which he has left behind during his \nlong evolution. \n\nWhen it is borne in mind that all forms which now people the Earth are so many \nvariations on basic types originally thrown off by the Man of the Third and Fourth \nRound, such an evolutionist argument as that insisting on the \u201cunity of structural plan\u201d \ncharacterizing all vertebrates, loses its edge. The basic types referred to were very few \nin number in comparison with the multitude of organisms to which they ultimately gave \nrise; but a general unity of type has, nevertheless, been preserved throughout the ages. \nThe economy of Nature does not sanction the co-existence of several utterly opposed \n\u201cground plans\u201d of organic evolution on one planet. Once, however, that the general \ndrift of the Occult explanation is formulated, inference as to detail may well be left to \nthe intuitive reader ( 5 . D., ed. 1893, II, 721-722). \n\nAccording to this classification, there is a fundamental distinction between \na \u201cbasic type\u201d and its variations. Wherever or whenever a basic type appears \nin Nature, one may assume that it is an effect of a real creative act, whereas \na variation is merely a modification, too often a deformation, of the type. \nWhen one considers the quality of the \u201cthought-forms\u201d which millions of al\u00ac \nleged human beings emit daily, the extraordinary stability of the basic types \nbecomes apparent. There are monstrosities in the lower kingdoms reflecting \nthe monstrosities of human nature; but the original impetus towards order and \nbeauty still prevails. \n\nDangerous Innovations in the Natural Order \n\nHowever, quite apart from man\u2019s psychic influence upon the natural order, \nhis physical activities have been the cause of many dangerous innovations ever \nsince the dawn of civilization. Agriculture, the domestication of animals, the \nbuilding of cities, the draining of marshes, the clearing of land, the advent of \nthe machine age, have changed the aspect of the earth and have added to the \nfauna and flora a host of abnormal entities. Domesticated creatures are seldom \ncapable of taking care of themselves. They survive under artificial conditions; \nwhen the conditions are removed, they perish or revert to the wild state. In \nparticular, they are susceptible to diseases easily spread by modem methods of \ncommunication. Certainly it is necessary and normal that man should tame \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n185 \n\nthe savage energies of the earth. However, history shows that man has not \nrealized the responsibility which he has assumed. It is a terrible fact that \npractically every centre of civilization, of which there is any record, has ended \nby becoming a desert or a plague-spot. There is no other way whereby Nature \ncan restore the balance which has been recurrently upset by man\u2019s reckless \nand insensate greed. \n\nModem science has discovered a few elementary facts concerning the \u201cbal\u00ac \nance of nature\u201d. There is a real recognition, for example, of the danger of \ndeforestation as a primary cause of droughts and floods. But there are modes \nof scientific experimentation which may ultimately induce perils greater than \nany which have been faced during this historical cycle. There is a tendency \nto-day to produce monstrosities, not as accidental by-products, but deliber\u00ac \nately, as objects of study and to gratify curiosity. \n\nOne recalls the horrors of vivisection, to which has been added the sinister \npractice of inoculating animals with bacteria and viruses. But there are other \nbiological \u201ctriumphs\u201d which are hailed by the newspapers and which suggest \nfrightful possibilities, although they are still of a very elementary type. For \ninstance, the New York Times , March 28, 1936, published a despatch from \nMoscow proclaiming the artificial production of \u201cnew forms of life\u201d in a Soviet \nlaboratory. \n\nProgress in the study of mutation of the species has progressed to the point where \nman can now, within limits, assume the role of creator and himself produce new varieties \nof life, it was stated to-day by Dr. Hermann J. Muller of the University of Texas who, \nfor the past three years, has been experimenting here as head of the \u201cDepartment of \nMutation and the Gene\u201d of the Academy of Sciences of the U. S. S. R. . . . In his \nlaboratories here Dr. Muller has been producing View varieties of the fruit fly by shoot\u00ac \ning at chromosomes [the alleged physical basis of heredity within the cell-nucleus] with \nX-rays, causing changes in cell structures which produce striking alterations in form, \ncolouration and physiological functioning. In this manner Dr. Muller is producing \nswiftly and on a large scale mutations which nature produces haltingly and at rare inter\u00ac \nvals. By selection of desired types among mutations thus artificially produced, Dr. \nMuller and his co-workers are able to create new and more and more complicated forms \nof life which reproduce their own kind. Thus varieties of the fruit fly have been pro\u00ac \nduced with curiously shaped eyes and wings and blond and brunette colouration whereas \nthe normal fruit fly is somewhere in between. \u201cHowever,\u201d said Dr. Muller, \u201cwe cannot \nat this stage, and perhaps not for a very long time, produce new types to order without \nresorting to a process of selection similar to nature\u2019s. What we have accomplished su \nfar is to develop a technique for increasing the number of genes, which are the bearer? \nof hereditary characteristics and form the basis of life. This increases the range of changes \navailable for selection. Most variations are detrimental, and we cannot control the type \nof variations produced.. However, we can search extensively for rare and desirable types. \n\n. . . Man should be able to improve vastly upon nature's results now that he knows \nmore about the ways of the gene.\u201d \n\nThis sounds harmless, though unpleasant. Nevertheless, the potentialities \nwhich it suggests are not reassuring. It is credible that as the knowledge of \nthe properties of radiation proceeds, it may be possible to produce all sorts of \nvariations not only in fruit flies but also in the higher animals and even in \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n186 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nhuman entities. Some of these variations might be useful to man, as cows and \napples are useful, but all would tend towards abnormality, and the boundary \nbetween the abnormal and the monstrous is hard to trace. Who is to decide \nwhat is a \u201cvast improvement\u201d upon Nature, and what is to be the canon of \njudgment? Are brunette or blond fruit flies higher in the spiritual hierarchy \nthan those which are \u201csomewhere in between\u201d? If the power to induce radical \nvariations were greatly increased and controlled by perverted and thoroughly \nvicious minds, the final result might be literally a planetary catastrophe. \n\nThe Wars of the Gods and Titans \n\nThese reflections may seem fanciful and grotesque; but the student of The\u00ac \nosophy is under obligation to seek the direction in which events are moving \nand to follow as far as he can see towards their destined end. All races have \npreserved some account of the wars of the Gods and Titans. There is good \nreason for believing that these combats between the Bright and Dark Powers \nare not at all mythical. They were no more actual in the remote past than \nthey are to-day. They become manifest, even to the dim vision of mortals, \nwhenever the creative power in Nature and Man conflicts with the forces which \nwork towards distortion and degeneration. \n\nIt has been said that the devils cannot create anything; they can only vam- \npirize and deform that which is already created. Thus, in the Indian legend, \nthe Asuras or demons \u201cpierced with evil\u201d the forms which had been projected \nby the Devas. It would seem that this is precisely what is done whenever we \nheedlessly or arrogantly disrupt the natural order within ourselves or in the \nworld around us. According to the traditions of Atlantis, the Magicians of the \nLost Continent became adepts in the production of monsters, both visible and \ninvisible. Before they were completely successful, their whole empire col\u00ac \nlapsed; but at the same time the great continent on which they had lived was \nsubmerged, and nearly a million years elapsed before mankind could recover \nsufficiently to undertake a new experiment in world-wide civilization. \n\nSocial Planning \n\nIn the New York Herald Tribune , April 15, 1936, there is a special article by \nWilliam R. Mathews, editor of the Arizona Daily Star. Mr. Mathews was a \nfriend of the late Dr. James Henry Breasted, the famous Egyptologist, and he \ndescribes various conversations on the general subject of social planning. Dr. \nBreasted expressed some opinions which ought to shock the susceptibilities of \ncertain people in Washington and elsewhere. We quote a few of his remarks. \n\nIPs all perfectly childish. All of these plans are due to fail. There is nothing new \nabout them. They have been tried countless times in history, and every time they have \nfailed. Diocletian, the Roman Emperor, tried them, and instead of bringing prosperity \nthey brought calamity. Diocletian fixed prices, fixed wages, laid down strict rules of \nconduct for business to regulate labour and competition. . . . The same excuses were \npresent then. Yet Diocletian, with all of his undisputed power and authority, could \nnot make the schemes work. . . . Unless it is stopped, the same thing will happen to \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\nx \u00bb7 \n\n\nus that happened to the Romans. As the state expands its powers, and imposes its \narbitrary authority, the best minds will become discouraged, for they will be forbidden \nto express their thoughts. There will be no reason for thinking. 1 he state will do the \nthinking for you. The rise of the Church during the time of the Roman Empire was due \nlargely to the fact that it offered the only outlet for people of high intelligence and crea\u00ac \ntive ability. It was the only way for such persons to appease their discouragement other \nthan by debauchery or by suicide. From the time of Diocletian life became so discour\u00ac \naging for persons of high intellectuality that many of them would open their veins and \npurposely allow themselves to bleed to death. The Church rose to its subsequent posi\u00ac \ntion of authority because the best brains went into it. A similar development will come \nin this country, if this same idea of repression (always present with the assertion of com\u00ac \nplete authority by the state) continues to arise. \n\n\nIt would seem that the alternatives which Dr. Breasted mentioned are more \nactual in the modem world than many might imagine. When a civilization \nshows signs of decadence\u2014and the substitution of the state for the family as \nthe irreducible social unit is such a sign\u2014the individual who is superior to the \nmass is forced to choose between religion and debauch and suicide. The de\u00ac \nbauch may be relatively mild and largely mental, and the suicide may be moral \nrather than physical; but the principle is the same. A decadent society is a \nmore terrible monstrosity than any distorted physical shape. It is doomed to \ndestruction unless it can be saved by a determined group of individuals who \ndedicate themselves to the service of some real ideal, some spiritual purpose. \nThose who do not re-form themselves will perish with the mob. \n\n\nWithdrawal to the Causal World \n\n\n\n\nHowever, if you have the will and the imagination, you may regard a deca\u00ac \ndent period as a time of special opportunity. If you face the facts, realization \ncomes that you must indraw , withdraw to the \u201ccausal world\u201d, for there is \nliterally no other place to go except hell itself. \n\nWhat is the causal world, to which reference has been made in various theo- \nsophical writings? It transcends our knowledge so greatly that any definition \nwould be futile and presumptuous. Yet we may think of it as the field of crea\u00ac \ntive powers, beyond and above psychic perturbations, the real home of the \nMasters. One turns towards it and even, in a sense, enters into it, whenever \none contemplates with love that which one recognizes as superior to <>n^|lf, \nwhenever one tries to embody what the Masters have embodied. It is it^iis \nway and in no other that new \u201cbasic types\u201d can be externalized in the world of \nmortals. There is no other mode of creation; all else is imitation or travesty \nof the real. \n\nWill anyone say that the energies which mould living forms are nothing but \nabstractions so far as he is concerned, that he can discover no point in experi\u00ac \nence where he has come into contact with them? Whenever we imagine any\u00ac \nthing, whenever we give ourselves to anything, good or bad or indifferent, we \nset in motion a current of force which is productive of certain concrete results \n| on one or more planes of being. Such is the Law of Karma in an aspect which \nshould be intelligible to the modem mind. The modem doctrine of energy \n\n\ni88 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nis based upon Newton\u2019s third law, that \u201cto every action there is always op\u00ac \nposed an equal reaction\u201d. \n\nCreation Versus Deformation \n\nIt should be remembered, at this point, that there is a fundamental distinc\u00ac \ntion between the right and wrong use of the moulding power which we all \npossess. It can be an instrument of creation or of deformation. It has been \nsuggested that one major defect of the modem mind is its tendency towards \nundue specialization, towards the construction of fragmentary conceptions of \ntruth and life. The chief function of science and government to-day is to \nminister to the vanity of the gross personality, to the appetites and passions of \nman\u2019s perverted animal nature. One need only consider some of the qualities \nwhich Light on the Path defines as incompatible with true human progress,\u2014the \ndesire of life, the desire of comfort, the sense of separateness, the desire for \nsensation. Modem man is invited, incited, even commanded by the leaders of \nopinion, to increase and multiply these agencies of the lower self. \n\nIs it any wonder that our civilization should be rapidly assuming a mon\u00ac \nstrous aspect? As Dr. Carrel so clearly recognizes, modem man is lop-sided. \nHe is in danger of losing all awareness of his real destiny, which is to become \nin act that which in essence he is,\u2014a complete being, exercising every power, \nboth spiritual and physical, which exists in Nature. Modem man prefers to \nuse the powers of consciousness to deform his being. For what is deformation ? \nIt is the inordinate development of some part of an organism at the expense of \nthe rest. No one can think of himself as an animal personality in an animal \nbody, without deflecting the course of his normal growth. The lower nature \nwhich he constructs can only grow by feeding upon the higher, as the Dragon \nof the Apocalypse lives by preying upon those \u201cwhich keep the command\u00ac \nments of God\u201d. \n\nTo withdraw to the causal world, to become a creative agent, implies a com\u00ac \nplete reversal of the habits of self-indulgence which are so generally condoned \nto-day, even in many of the Churches. The Church which rose from the ashes \nof ancient Rome was an imperfect institution; but it had two virtues which \nmade possible the resurrection of civilization. It preserved human faith in \nthe causal world and in the denizens of that world; and it held forth to suffer\u00ac \ning humanity the truth that the mortal could be re-bom there as an Immortal, \nif he fixed his mind and heart upon the model of his Divine Master, and if he \nrestrained the animal impulses of the personality which alone make man mortal. \nThus it became possible for mediaeval man to open himself to the creative \ninspiration which flows from the causal world; to act as a channel through \nwhich that inspiration could pass, to embody itself in new \u201cbasic types\u201d of \nlife and art and knowledge. \n\nCreation becomes a fact in experience when man surrenders himself to an \nideal of truth and beauty higher than any which he has as yet incarnated. In \nspite of ignorance and brutality and confusion, that is what happened with \nextraordinary frequency during the Middle Ages, as is evident, for example, to \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n189 \n\nanyone who has studied without bias the history of mediaeval art. It was pre\u00ac \neminently the age of \u201cthe pure artist who works for the love of his work\u201d; in \nthis respect, neither the Greek cycle nor the Renaissance can be compared to \nit. It is significant that the typical mediaeval artist was anonymous. Who \nknows to-day who was the Master of the Work at Chartres, who designed the \nstained glass of Bourges, who composed the folk-music of England and Brittany? \n\nThe Creation of the Perfect Man \n\nIt was scarcely by accident that an age of \u201cpure art\u201d should also have held \nin honour the kindred ideals of sanctity and chivalry. Like the artist, the \nsaint and the knight must cultivate selflessness, the spirit of consecration, the \nhabit of obedience to every demand of the True and the Beautiful and the \nGood. Whereas the artist moulds some medium external to himself, the saint \nand the warrior must primarily mould themselves. In each instance, the \nshaktis , the energies of imagination and desire and will, must be used to create \nand not to deform. Instead of remaining the prisoners of their bodies and \nemotions a^id fancies, which constitute mere fragments of the real man, the \nelect of mankind have claimed their heritage as citizens of the causal world, \nas co-workers with Nature, as builders of the true Self. They have meditated, \nin the sense given that word in the \u201cElixir of Life\u201d, inexpressibly yearning to \n\u201cgo out towards the infinite\u201d. Left to his own personal resources, man can \nonly deform what already exists; but in the measure that he unreservedly re\u00ac \nsponds to the inspiration which ceaselessly emanates from causal Nature, the \nhumblest of mankind can transform both himself and others. \n\nThe modern student of Theosophy cannot complain that he has no ideal to \ninspire him. Theosophy affirms that knowledge exists and is attainable. It \npresents the model of the Perfect Man, not as a dream-shadow but as it has \nbeen individually embodied by the Masters. Evidence of their attainment may \nbe found in the scriptures of all the world-religions; but Theosophy testifies \nthat he who seeks can find the Masters here and now; that they are not mere \nfigures of history but living men. ^ \n\nEveryone is free to copy that model of perfection, to make himself over into# \nits likeness. Doubtless, we cannot know what perfection, in the complere \nsense, really is, until we become perfect; but we can perceive enough to know \nthat we should love it; and if we strive, with the artist\u2019s enthusiasm and me\u00ac \nticulous care for detail, to embody what we do perceive, our vision will grow \nsteadily more luminous. Above all, if we give ourselves to this supreme ideal, \nto this veritable \u201cimitation of Christ\u201d, the genius from on high will enter us, \naccomplishing what we could never do for ourselves, touching our work with \nliving creative fire. \n\n\u201cIn whatever way men approach me\u201d, says the Avatar Krishna in the \nJjjmgavad Gita , \u201cin that way I love them.\u201d \n\n\nFRAGMENTS \n\n\n1 0 VE called to me across the garden of life: Come walk with me, he said. \nj It was May-time and the birds were singing. Joyfully I answered; but \nwhen I reached him, Love took my hand and said: For myself alone? \nThen I replied: There is much to love and many to love in this beautiful, \nteeming world. I shall love them all, but for your dear sake. \n\nLove loosed my hand: For myself alone, he said, and turned away. \n\nAgain Love called to me, this time across the frozen fields at evening. For it \nwas December, and everything was lost in the white stillness of the snow. Sum\u00ac \nmer had gone with its scentless flowers, autumn with its tasteless fruit. \n\nLove held out his hands as I went toward him: For myself alone? he said. \nYes, O Love Divine, I cried. Yes, for yourself alone. But 0 the frittered \nyears, the wasted powers! \n\nLove looked at me and smiled: See the pureness of the snow, he said; see \nthe glory of the near-by stars. \n\nThen he said: Remember. \n\nCav\u00a3. \n\n\n190 \n\n\n\nCONFUCIUS \n\n\n% \n\n\nII. \n\nYu , shall I tell you what true knowledge is? When you know , to know that you \nknow , and when you do not know , to know that you do not know\u2014that is true \nknowledge .\u2014 Confucius. \n\n\u201c T7 NOWLEDGE is not innate in me\u201d, said Confucius. \u201cI am but one \n\n1 %^ who loves antiquity and earnestly studies it.\u201d Like all true re- \nformers, he came to fulfil the law and the prophets. He sought and \nfound in the past the prototypes of all present activities. He had a heightened \nsense of the unity of time, and would have found unintelligible the modernistic \ntheory that men can build their future without reference to their past. How \ncan one reject the past without rejecting experience itself, the root of wisdom? \nWe read in the Chung Yung: \n\nEvery system of moral laws must be based upon a man\u2019s own consciousness. It must \nbe verified by the common experience. Examined by comparing it with the teachings \nof acknowledged great and wise men of the past, there must be no divergence. \n\nNo man can understand the moral law by introspection alone, for the field of \npersonal experience is too limited. But by the power of sympathetic imagi\u00ac \nnation he can indefinitely extend his knowledge. \u201cIf I am walking with two \nmen\u201d, Confucius remarks in the Analects , \u201ceach of them will serve as my \nteacher.\u201d The value of history becomes apparent. The screen of time reflects \nevery conceivable mode of human existence. Whatever may be one\u2019s present \nplan of action, one can discover in the past something analogous which has \nbeen executed in detail, and which has produced definite results, good or evil. \n\nThus the study of antiquity re-enforces our conscience, our innate intuition \nof the moral law. However, Confucius did not think of the present as merely \na repetition of the past. He saw the present emerging from the past, as the \nplant emerges from the seed. He sought in antiquity the hidden design which \nis to be realized in the future. This explains his veneration for the \u2018\u2018wise men \nof the past\u201d. Like the Manus and Rishis of prehistoric India, like the Patri\u00ac \narchs of the Old Testament, the primeval sages of China seem to have sounded \nthe keynote of a racial cycle. It is natural for each member of their race to \naspire towards the unfoldment of the qualities of consciousness which \nsages, the spiritual ancestors, first announced and embodied. The Chung Yung \ndescribes the creative potency which distinguishes the sage from the rank and \nfile of mortals. \n\nAll-embracing and vast is the nature of such a man. Profound it is and inexhaustible, \nlike a living spring of water, ever running out with life and vitality. All-embracing and \nvast, it is like Heaven. Profound and inexhaustible, it is like the abyss. \n\n\n% \n\n\n191 \n\n\n\n\n\n192 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nConfucius lived in the declining years of the Chou dynasty when there was \nalmost universal confusion, when the people were in danger of losing all sense \nof the racial tradition. His first task was to make evident the value of past \nexperience, of ethical continuity. Therefore, he laboured to strengthen the \ncult of the family which had somehow persisted in the midst of political anarchy \nand economic distress, and in spite of the superstitions which had grown up \naround it. The cultivation of filial piety, the respect of youth for age, the \noffering of gifts to the ancestral spirits, signified, as Confucius believed, a state \nof health in the body politic. Before a man could be expected to revere his \nfeudal lord or the Emperor, he must have learned the art of reverence in the \nfamily circle. As long as reverence persisted, China could not be destroyed. \n\nIt was typical of Confucius that he placed the burden of responsibility not \nupon the young and ignorant, but upon those who were mature in years and \nwho held positions of power and trust. \u201cIf the ruler is personally upright, his \nsubjects will do their duty unbidden; if he is not personally upright, they will \nnot obey, whatever his bidding.\u201d On one occasion, when Confucius was Min\u00ac \nister of Justice, a father brought certain charges against his own son. After \nimprisoning both father and son for a brief period, he let them go. The Min\u00ac \nister Chi Huan reminded the sage of his emphasis upon filial duty as the first \nof virtues and asked why he had not put the unfilial son to death \u201cas an ex\u00ac \nample to all the people\u201d. Confucius replied: \u201cThe father has never taught the \nson to be filial, and therefore the guilt really rests with him.\u201d \n\nConfucius recognized the social nature of man. It is a fundamental precept \nin Confucianism, that no man can live for himself alone and make manifest the \nattributes of mind and heart with which Nature has endowed him. Each man \nshould incarnate in himself the universal principles of justice and charity. \nThe Confucian expression of the Golden Rule, like the Buddhist, is negative in \nform, but in spirit it is as positive as the corresponding maxim of the Master \nChrist. \n\nTzii Kung asked, saying: \u201cIs there any one maxim which ought to be acted upon \nthroughout one\u2019s whole life?\u201d The Master replied: \u201cSurely the maxim of charity is \nsuch\u2014Do not unto others what you would not that they should do unto you\u201d {Analects). \n\nHowever, no more than the Buddha or the Christ did Confucius interpret \nthe Golden Rule sentimentally. The true actor in the dram? of life is not the \npersonal entity, but the real individual within, the soul. Only in so far as one \nrepresents the soul, should one do unto others as he would that they should do \nunto himself. Charity and justice have no reality apart from \u201cinner self- \nrealization\u201d. \n\nMake conscientiousness and sincerity your grand object. Have no friends not equal \nto yourself. If you have done wrong, be not ashamed to make amends. ... I do not \nsee how a man without sincerity can be good for anything. How can a cart or carriage \nbe made to go without yoke or cross-bar? . . . Wang-sun Chia asked, saying: What \nmeans the adage, \u201cBetter be civil to the kitchen-god than to the god of the inner sanc\u00ac \ntum\u201d? The Master replied: The adage is false. He who sins against Heaven can rely \non the intercession of none {Analects). \n\n\n\n\n\n9 OX \n\n\nCONFUCIUS 193 \n\nConfucius was as far removed as it is possible to be from what is to-day \ncalled \u201csocial-mindedness\u201d. He did not immolate the individual to the family, \nmuch less to the state. The family is, indeed, a natural entity, but it becomes \na meaningless abstraction when it is conceived apart from its individual mem\u00ac \nbers. Confucius recognized in it one of the instruments devised by Nature to \nassist the development of real individuality. In a real family, each member \nwould be altogether unique and irreplaceable, at the same time that he would \nrepresent the ideal of the family as a whole. The group and the individual \nare, in truth, indivisible, for neither can exist without the other. We cannot \nimagine Confucius approving any mode of collectivism which reduces the indi\u00ac \nvidual to the status of a cog in a machine, and subordinates every individual \nneed to the exigencies of an abstract \u201csociety\u201d. \n\nThe ideal of the Superior Man is the nucleus of the Confucian system. The \nSuperior Man is the real individual in process of becoming \u201cperfect and di\u00ac \nvine\u201d. He is the disciple of a Sage, sharing in the creative power of the Sage, \nnor can he dwell in a society without transforming it in some degree. Never \nrelaxing his effort, he \u201csubdues his selfishness and reverts to natural [ i . e. \nspiritual] laws\u201d. \n\nConfucius did not pretend that the way of the Superior Man could be trod\u00ac \nden to the end by more than a few determined souls. The human race, as at \npresent constituted, is incapable en masse of so complete and enduring a meta\u00ac \nmorphosis. Therefore, although the sage\u2019s teaching had a meaning for every\u00ac \none, even for the lowliest, its true import was reserved for his disciples, for \nthose who undertook to practise his injunctions in the details of daily living. \nHis method, in this respect, did not differ from that of all great teachers. He \ntried to establish a united group of disciples, an order of Superior Men. If \nsuch a group could be established, its example would influence the whole na\u00ac \ntion to which it belonged. It would be a radiant centre, a sort of spiritual sun \nshining upon the frozen wastes of the world. \n\nConfucius never tired of this theme. He longed for the day when the princes \nof China and their ministers would be Superior Men. \n\nIf the ruler cherish the principle of self-control, the people will be docile to his com\u00ac \nmands. \n\nThe Emperor Shun was one who did nothing, yet governed well. For what in effect, \ndid he do? Religiously self-observant, he sat gravely upon the throne, and that is all. \n\nA virtuous ruler is like the Pole-star which keeps its place while all the other stars \ndo homage to it. \n\nThe Master said: If a country had none but good rulers for a hundred years, crime \nmight be stamped out and the death-penalty abolished. How true this saying is! If a \nkingly sovereign were to appear, by the end of one generation natural goodness would \nprevail. If a man can reform his own heart, what should hinder him from taking part in \ngovernment? But if he cannot reform his own heart, what has he to do with reforming \nothers!^ \n\nHe ^o realizes the difficulty of being a good king\u2014has he not almost succeeded in \nmakingnis country prosper? {Analects.) \n\nThe Way of the Superior Man has been called the Middle Way. Students \n\n\n194 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nof Confucius make frequent reference to the Doctrine of the Mean. At ap\u00ac \nproximately the same time, the identical doctrine was being taught in Greece \nby Pythagoras and Aristotle, and in India the Buddha was expounding it as \nthe truth of the Middle Path. It is one of the most misunderstood ideas in the \nworld, for it is generally interpreted as inculcating that virtue is a state of com\u00ac \npromise between two extremes of conduct. The Confucianists themselves have \noften travestied their Master\u2019s teaching, although no words could be clearer \nthan his. \n\nThere was the Emperor Shun. His was perhaps what may be considered a truly great \nintellect. Shun had a natural curiosity of mind, and he loved to inquire into things. He \nlooked upon evil merely as something negative; and he recognized only what is good as \nhaving a positive existence. Taking the two extremes of negative and positive, he ap\u00ac \nplied the mean between the two extremes in his judgment, employment and dealings \nwith people. \n\nMen all say: \u201cWe are wise\u201d; but when driven forward and taken in a trap, there is* \nnot one who knows how to find an escape. Men all say: \u201cWe are wise\u201d; but even if they \nfind the true central clue and balance in their moral being (their true self) they are not \nable for one month to follow the line of conduct which is in accordance with it. \n\nHui was a man who all his life sought the central clue in his moral being, and when he \ngot hold of one thing which was good, he embraced it with all his might and never lost it \nagain. A man may be able to renounce the possession of kingdoms and empires, be able \nto spurn the honours and emoluments of office, be able to trample upon naked weapons; \nwith all that he will not be able to find the central clue in his moral being. \n\nThe man who has the true force of moral character is one who is easy and accommo\u00ac \ndating and yet without weakness or indiscrimination. How unflinchingly firm he is in \nhis strength! He is independent without any bias. When there is moral social order in \nthe country, if he enters public life he does not change from what he was in retirement. \nWhen there is no moral social order, he holds on his way without changing even unto \ndeath. How unflinchingly firm he is in his strength! (Chung Yung.) \n\nThe Golden Mean is, therefore, the \u201ccentral clue in our moral being\u201d, the \ntrue self, and when we act from that centre, we follow the Middle Way. Let \nanyone try for five minutes to base his conduct upon the central clue in his \nmoral being, and then say whether this be in any sense whatsoever a com\u00ac \npromise between good and evil. \n\nAs the reader of the Chung Yung can discover for himself, Confucius was \nfundamentally a mystic, and we shall only understand the Doctrine of the \nMean if we interpret it in mystical terms. In other words, only the mystic \ncan truly understand and follow the Middle Way. \n\nThose of us who can lay claim to no mystical experience of their own, can \nperhaps begin to understand the beauty and splendour of the Middle Way, \nby reflecting upon the \u201cpairs of opposites\u201d so frequently mentioned in theo- \nsophical literature. \u201cThe Manifested Universe is pervaded by duality, which \nis, as it were, the very essence of its Existence as Manifestation.\u201d When \nthat which is one and undivided in the spiritual world is reflected in the mirror \nof psychic and physical nature, it appears to be twofold, divided into a pair of \nopposites. One ancient symbol of this process is the triangle, the angles of the \nbase denoting the two poles of the opposites, and the apex signifying the unity, \n\n\n90* \n\n\nCONFUCIUS i 95 \n\nthe \u201ccentral clue\u201d, from which they have proceeded and into which they may \nbe withdrawn. Another symbol would seem to be the cross, the vertical line \nrepresenting the gradations of being between the absolute Oneness of the Un\u00ac \nmanifested, and the extremes of duality in manifested Nature; the horizontal \nline representing a given \u201cpair of opposites\u201d, the two poles or limits of any \nparticular state of consciousness. \n\nSome examples drawn from common experience may make this clearer. \nPleasure and pain constitute a \u201cpair of opposites\u201d, and the ordinary personal \nconsciousness moves back and forth between them. It is condemned to this \nperpetual oscillation, because it is separated by a film of illusion from the higher \nnature in which pleasure and pain are blended into a single state. Light on the \nPath describes this \u201cfact of pain and pleasure being but one sensation ; and the \nman who attains self-mastery is said to be \u201cequal in pleasure and pain . Not \nonly is he unmoved by joy and sorrow, but these are equally and permanently \nmingled in a superior sensation which includes them both. Such is the testi\u00ac \nmony of the mystics, but each of us can find some confirmation of it in his own \nexperience. When we are most intensely alive, when we move from the unreal \ntowards the Real in response to some compelling attraction of truth or beauty, \nwhen we truly love, we cannot say which is dominant in our sensation, bliss \nor anguish. These two no longer appear as polar opposites, but as aspects of \na sentiment which is one and indivisible. \n\nAgain, it has been said that courage is the mean between fear and reckless\u00ac \nness. The average person is a mixture of timidity and rashness, a coward in \nsome ways, a heedless fool in others. But a man does not become brave by \ncompromising somehow between the desire to run and the desire to attack at \nany cost, for such an adjustment would prevent him from moving in any direc\u00ac \ntion. Real courage is an attribute of the soul, and it becomes manifest when \nboth fear and recklessness are \u201cground up\u201d and merged in a higher synthesis . \n\nThe trained captain knows when to retreat and when to advance; in this sense, \nhe makes right use of the qualities which we know, in their debased forms, as \nfear and recklessness. Practising self-control, he does not flee to escape pain, \nnor does he make a useless frontal attack, merely for the fun of it. How can \nhe be moved by them, if these contrary qualities be blended, transmuted, \ndrawn up to the apex which holds them fast in indivisible unity? It is not^^ \nnecessary to be a hero to prove the reality of this indrawal of fear and \nexcessive boldness into courage. One need only recall what sensations he \nexperienced on some rare occasion when he acted with some semblance of \nbravery. \n\nThis rather lengthy digression may suggest what Confucius meant when he \nspoke of finding the central clue in one\u2019s moral being. To find that clue is to \nfind the soul, the real self of the human being, the higher nature which unifies \nai^kharmonizes what is twofold in our personal life. As the sage said again \nan^gain, the path to that higher nature is discovered by means of self-dis\u00ac \ncipline and self-control. Self-control is, indeed, in the Confucian philosophy, \na synonym for the Middle Way. \n\n\n196 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nThe higher type of man, having gathered knowledge from many sources, will regulate \nthe whole by the inner rule of self-control, and will thus avoid overstepping the limit. \nThat virtue is perfect which adheres to a constant mean. It has long been rare among \nmen ( Analects ). \n\nHow does one attain this fundamental quality of It, which is here translated \nas \u201cself-control\u201d? A passage from the Analects suggests the direction in which \nwe may look for an answer. \n\nTzu Kung asked for advice on the practice of moral virtue. The Master replied: If \nan artisan wants to do his work well, he must begin by sharpening his tools. Even so, \namong the great men of your country, you should serve the wise and good, and make \nfriends of men who have this moral virtue. . . . The Superior Man seeks all that he \nwants in himself; the inferior man seeks all that he wants from others. The Superior \nMan is firm but not quarrelsome; sociable but not clannish. He does not esteem a person \nmore highly because of what he says, neither does he undervalue what is said because of \nthe person who says it. \n\nMoral virtue simply consists in being able, anywhere and everywhere, to exercise five \nparticular qualities,\u2014namely, self-respect, magnanimity, sincerity, earnestness and \nbenevolence. Show self-respect, and others will respect you; be magnanimous, and you \nwill win all hearts; be sincere, and men will trust you; be earnest, and you will achieve \ngreat things; be benevolent, and you will be fit to impose your will upon others. \n\nThe Superior Man makes a sense of duty the groundwork of his character, blends with \nit in action a sense of harmonious proportion, manifests it in a spirit of unselfishness, \nand perfects it by the addition of sincerity and truth. Then indeed is he a noble character. \n\nCharity, fidelity to duty, sincerity, harmonious proportion may be called the \nfour pillars of the temple where the Superior Man dwells. It is a testimony to \nthe unity of truth and to the existence of the one brotherhood which joins to\u00ac \ngether all seekers of the truth, that the four Confucian attributes may be as\u00ac \nsembled under the Platonic or Pythagorean Trinity of the Good, the True and \nthe Beautiful. \n\nThe man of divine virtue, the God-like Man, who is higher than the Superior \nMan, \u201cconfers benefits far and wide on the people and can be the salvation of \nall\u201d. He illustrates charity in its perfect form, living or dying for the sake of \nothers, never for himself. He towers like a Master of Wisdom above the world \nof mortals. \n\nBut as Confucius believed, it was natural for all men to love those who are \nnear to them, to be careful of the welfare of others, to be sympathetic towards \nall who suffer. His whole moral philosophy was founded on this conception of \nman\u2019s nature, although it is devoid of any suggestion of sentimentality. He \ndid not deny that most human nature, in its actual warped condition, no longer \nbehaves naturally; nor did he pretend that the honourable man should be \nincapable of hatred. \u201cHe hates those who publish the faults of others, those \nwho vilify their superiors, those who are audacious but narrow-minded.\u201d \n\nHowever, he insisted that men should be charitable towards one another \nbecause all souls t are included in one \u201cuniversal order\u201d. Once again, we must \nrealize the basic mysticism of Confucius in order to understand what he meant \nby an altruistic life. He did not mean what the modern world calls philan- \n\n\n'T Q 4PTTVTTTRS \n\n\n20* \n\n\nCONFUCIUS 197 \n\nthropy, the sharing of material wealth, the gift of one\u2019s own or somebody \nelse\u2019s money to some impersonal distributing agency. Even the most helpful \noutward act was void of merit, in his opinion, unless it were inspired by jen, \n\u201cgoodness of heart,\u201d and shu , \u201cloving-kindness\u201d. No one can begin to be \ncharitable, in the true sense, until these qualities have become habitual states \nof consciousness. That is why a man who really improves himself cannot help \ndoing good to others. \n\nThe man of moral virtue, wishing to stand firm himself, will lend firmness to others; \nwishing himself to be illuminated, he will illuminate others. . . . Make conscientious\u00ac \nness and truth your guiding principles, and thus pass to the cultivation of duty to your \nneighbour. This is exalted virtue {Analects). \n\nThe moral life of man may be likened to travelling to a distant place: one must start \nfrom the nearest stage. It may also be likened to ascending a height: one must begin \nfrom the lowest step. . . . When a man carries out the principles of conscientiousness \nand reciprocity he is not far from the moral law. . . . Wherefore the moral law in deal\u00ac \ning with men appeals to the common human nature and changes the manner of their \nlives and nothing more {Chung Yung). \n\nOne grows in the moral life by fidelity to one\u2019s duty. In the Confucian \nethics, however, duty is not the hazy, indefinite term which too often it is \nwith us. Duty consists in the right performance of certain acts with the right \nmotives and with intelligence. It is most important to note that discrimina\u00ac \ntion as to motive is absolutely essential. Abstract goodness of intention is not \nenough. One must recognize that our duties towards other men are deter\u00ac \nmined, first by the fact that no individual is exactly like another, and secondly \nby the hierarchical order in which all living beings are grouped. In our rela\u00ac \ntions with others, we should always consider who and what they are as regards \ninner attainment, rank, social station, and so on. Also, at every moment, we \nshould know as clearly as possible where we stand, accepting our status as it is, \nnever pretending to be higher or lower in the hierarchy than we actually are. \n\nThe Confucian spirit is paralleled by the injunction of the Christian Cate\u00ac \nchism \u201cto do my duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to \ncall me\u201d. However, in the Far East the practice of duty has, at least in theory, \nbeen exalted to the status of an art. It includes the observance of the laws of \netiquette, of politeness, of good taste. It is characteristic of the Chinese coi^ \nception of virtue that the form is not separated from the substance; the gooa^ \nness of an act is questioned when the performance is boorish or brutal. \n\nThe moral man conforms to his life-circumstances; he does not desire anything outside \nhis position. Finding himself in a position of wealth and honour, he lives as becomes \none living in a position of wealth and honour. Finding himself in a position of poverty \nand humble circumstances, he lives as becomes one living in a position of poverty and \nhumble circumstances. Finding himself in uncivilized countries, he lives as becomes \none living in uncivilized countries. In one word, the moral man can find himself in no \nsituation in life in which he is not master of himself. ... In a high position he does not \ndomineer over subordinates. In a subordinate position he does not court the favour of \nsdPk\u2019iors. He puts in order his own personal conduct and seeks nothing from others; \nhence he has no complaint to make. He complains not against God nor rails against \n\n\n\nig8 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nmen. Thus it is that the moral man lives out the even tenor of his life, calmly waiting \nfor the appointment of God, whereas the vulgar person takes to dangerous courses, ex\u00ac \npecting the uncertain chances of luck. \n\nThe duties of universal obligation are five, and the moral qualities by which they are \ncarried out are three. The duties are those between ruler and subject; between father \nand son; between husband and wife; between elder brother and younger; and those in \nthe intercourse between friends. These are the five duties of universal regulation. In\u00ac \ntelligence, moral character and courage: these are the three universally recognized moral \nqualities of man. ... \n\nThe Emperor Wu and his brother were indeed eminently pious men. Now, true filial \npiety consists in successfully carrying out the unfinished work of our forefathers and \ntransmitting their achievements to posterity. . . . The principle in the order of prece\u00ac \ndence in the ceremonies of worship in the ancestral temple is, in the first place, to arrange \nthe members of the family according to descent. Ranks are next considered, in order to \ngive recognition to the principle of social distinction. Services are next considered as a \nrecognition of distinction in moral worth. In the general banquet, those below take pre\u00ac \ncedence of those above in pledging the company, in order to show that consideration is \nshown to the meanest. In conclusion, a separate feast is given to the elders, in order to \nrecognize the principle of seniority according to age. ... If one only understood the \nmeaning of the sacrifices to Heaven and Earth, and the significance of the services in \nancestral worship, it would be the easiest thing to govern a nation (Chung Yung). \n\nWhenever the Master saw a person in mourning, or in official robes, or one who was \nblind, he would at once rise from his seat, even though the other were his junior. . . . \nIn his native village Confucius was simple and unassuming. He gave the impression of \nbeing no great speaker. In the ancestral temple and at Court he spoke fluently but with \na certain reserve. At Court he spoke to the ministers of lower rank with frankness and \naffability. To those of higher rank he spoke quietly but with decision. In the pres\u00ac \nence of his Sovereign, he seemed full of awe, but at the same time grave and collected \n{Analects). \n\nThe Taoists often accused the Confucianists of hypocrisy. It is only too \nobvious that a scrupulous observance of the outer forms of right conduct may \nco-exist with cynicism and hardness of heart. Confucius himself would have \nadmitted the Taoist charge that few people, even of the better sort, mean all \nthat they say; that the son, for instance, may not feel as much reverence for the \nfather as his external acts would seem to indicate. But it is a basic Confucian \ntenet that no one can continually perform certain acts as if they corresponded \nto his desires, without awakening those desires in his heart. However, there \nmust be sincerity of motive, a persistent determination to discover and to live \nthe truth. No action of any kind can have any enduring validity unless it be \nvitalized by the honest effort to realize some aspect of eternal truth. \n\nIt is only he, in the world, who possesses absolute truth who can get to the bottom of \nthe law of his being. He who is able to get to the bottom of the law of his being will be \nable to get to the bottom of the law of being of other men. He will pass on to the knowl\u00ac \nedge of the laws of physical nature, and so will be able to influence the forces of creation \nof the Universe. He who can influence the forces of creation of the Universe is one with \nthe Powers of the Universe. . . . \n\nTruth means the realization of our being; and moral law means the law of our being. \nTruth is the beginning and end of existence. Without truth there is no existence. It is \nfor this reason that the moral man values truth. Truth is not only the realization of \nour being: it is that by which things outside us have an existence. The realization of \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT S ACTTVTTTES \n\n\n20.3 \n\n\nCONFUCIUS i 99 \n\nour being is moral sense. The realization of things outside us is intellect. 1 hese, moral \nsense and intellect, are the powers or faculties of our being. They combine the inner or \nsubjective and the outer or objective use of the power of the mind. Therefore with truth \neverything done is right. . . . All the institutions of human society and civilization- \nlaws, customs and usages\u2014have their origin in the divine moral law in man. 1 hey wait \nfor the right man before they can be put into practice. Hence it is said: Unless there be \nhighest moral power, the highest moral law cannot be realized. Wherefore the moral \nman, while honouring the greatness and power of moral nature, yet does not neglect \ninquiry and the pursuit of knowledge. While widening the extent of his knowledge, he \nyet seeks to attain the utmost accuracy in the minutest details. While seeking to under\u00ac \nstand the highest things, he yet lives a plain, ordinary life in accordance with the moral \norder (Chung Yung). \n\nA man without charity in his heart\u2014what has he to do with ceremonies? In all rites, \nsimplicity is better than extravagance; in mourning for the dead, heartfelt sorrow is \nbetter than punctiliousness. ... It has not been my lot to see a thoroughly virtuous \nman; could I see a man possessing honesty of soul, that would satisfy me. Is it possible \nthere should be honesty of soul in one who pretends to have what he has not; who, when \nempty, pretends to be overflowing; who, when in want, pretends to be in affluence? \n{Analects.) \n\nAs has been suggested, the Chinese have stressed the importance of good \nform and grace in action, not only because politeness is, as Giles says, \u201can in\u00ac \ndispensable lubricant in the lesser dealings of life\u201d, but because it is a mani\u00ac \nfestation of the \u201charmonious proportion\u201d which is a fundamental attribute of \nUniversal Nature. An act, to be complete, must be beautiful as well as good \nand true. The greatest of the Greeks understood this law, and the Master \nChrist illustrated it at every moment of his life. It was, indeed, the principle \nupon which the institutions of chivalry were established; but the modem so- \ncalled Christian world has almost forgotten it. How many Christians to-day \nbelieve that courtesy is a divine attribute and not merely a \u201clubricant\u201d? \n\nConfucius, like Socrates, recommended the contemplation of beauty in \nnature and art, as a means towards the cultivation of the love of Beauty as a \nthing-in-itself. He was himself a profound student of poetry and music. His \npoint of view in this matter may be illumined by meditation upon the table of \nshaktis or spiritual forces which is given in The Secret Doctrine (ed. 1888, I, \n292-293). The \u201chighest\u201d of the six forces is called mantrika-shakti , \u201cthe force \nof letters, speech or music. . . . The influence of melody is one of its ordinary^ \nmanifestations.\u201d Unless this shakti be actively present in consciousness, tta* \ncreative force of universal Nature, \u201cthe light of the Logos\u201d, Daiviprakr^T \ncannot become fully manifest in the individual life. \n\nTzii Hsia asked, saying: What is the meaning of the passage in the Odes: \n\n\u201cWhat dimples in her witching smile! \n\nWhat lovely eyes, clear white and black! \n\nSimplicity sets off her ornaments\u201d? \n\nThe Master replied: You must have a plain background before you can lay on the \ncolours. \n\n^tules of ceremony then require a background? \n\n%Ui' exclaimed the Master, would that my meaning were always thus well under\u00ac \nstood ! {Analects.) \n\n\n\n200 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nTo make the thoughts sincere is to allow no self-deception, as when we hate a bad \nodour, or love that which is beautiful. 1 his is called the enjoyment of the powers of the \nSelf. Therefore, the Superior Man must be watchful over himself when he is alone {The \nGreat Learning). \n\nThe life of the moral man is plain, and yet not unattractive; it is simple, and yet full \nof grace; it is easy, and yet methodical. He knows that accomplishment of great things \nconsists in doing little things well. He knows that great effects are produced by little \ncauses. He knows the evidence and reality of what cannot be perceived by the senses. \nThus he is enabled to enter into the world of ideas and morals. ... It is only the man \nwith the most perfect divine moral nature who is able to combine in himself quickness of \napprehension, intelligence, insight, and understanding: qualities necessary for the exer\u00ac \ncise of command; magnanimity, generosity, benignity and gentleness: qualities necessary \nfor the exercise of patience; originality, energy, strength of character and determination: \nqualities necessary for the exercise of endurance; dignity, noble seriousness, order and \nregularity: qualities necessary for the exercise of self-respect; grace, method, delicacy \nand lucidity: qualities necessary for the exercise of critical judgment. . . . Such a man \nbecomes an example and a statute for generations, and his words become laws. ... It \nis only he who possesses absolute truth in the world who can create {Chung Yung). \n\nThus the disciple will permit no word or act \u201cwhich is contrary to good \ntaste and decency\u201d. Misunderstanding this constant emphasis upon etiquette \nand ceremony, occidental scholars have too often represented Confucius as a \ncold and pedantic fundamentalist, the supreme historical exemplar of formal\u00ac \nism in life and morals. It is only fair to add that, with few exceptions, his \nChinese followers, with their reiterated emphasis upon the dead-letter of the \nConfucian texts, have been largely responsible for many Western misinterpre\u00ac \ntations. \n\nAs has been suggested, Confucius was above all a mystic. He did not look at \nexternal things as real in themselves; he looked through them and within them, \nalways seeking their essence. In the Confucian philosophy, the Unmanifested \nis ever present as the basis and cause of the manifested, and the sole raison \nd'etre of the manifested is to embody and show forth the Unmanifested in the \nperfect beauty of its eternal \u201charmonious proportion\u201d. \n\nThe power of spiritual forces in the Universe\u2014how active it is everywhere! Invisible \nto the eyes, and impalpable to the senses, it is inherent in all things, and nothing escapes \nits operation. It is a fact that there are these forces which make men in all countries \nfast and purify themselves, and with solemnity of dress institute services of sacrifice and \nreligious worship. Like the rush of mighty waters, the presence of unseen Powers is felt: \nsometimes above us, sometimes around us. Such is the evidence of things invisible that \nit is impossible to doubt the spiritual nature of man. . . . The workings of Almighty \nGod are soundless. There is nothing higher than that {Chung Yung). \n\nStanley V. LaDow. \n\n\nT S ACTIVITIES \n\n\n203 \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 \nat 64, Washington Mews, New York, at 10.30 o\u2019clock, on Saturday morning, \nApril 25th, 1936, by Mr. Hargrove, Chairman of the Executive Committee, \nwho served as Temporary Chairman of the Convention. A Committee on \nCredentials was appointed, consisting of Mr. H. B. Mitchell, Miss Perkins, \nand Miss Chickering, to confer and report at once. \n\nAddress of the Temporary Chairman \n\nMr. Hargrove: It is with peculiar gratitude and pleasure that I welcome \nyou to another Convention of The Theosophical Society. It is always a priv\u00ac \nilege to do so, but, as we are human, there are times when the gratitude for \nbeing able to perform this function, is felt more than usual. \n\nInvariably it is a matter of joy to see once more your many friendly, generous \nfaces, but of course that is not the only reason for thanksgiving on these occa\u00ac \nsions. It was said by one great Master, \u201cWhere two or three are gathered \ntogether in my name, there am I in the midst of them,\u201d and there is no \nquestion, in the minds of some of us in any case, that, whether visibly or invis\u00ac \nibly, we are overshadowed at our Conventions by those members of the Lodge, \nwho from the earliest days of the Society, have steered its course through \nthe rough seas of life; and this, to many of us, means a great deal. \n\nThe Theosophical Society has evolved to a point where, because of thdW- \nvotion of its members\u2014I will not say always the understanding of its members, \nbut their undoubted devotion\u2014they provide, when meeting in this way, an \natmosphere which neutralizes sufficiently even the atmosphere of New York, \nthus making it possible for those great beings to bless this assembly, not from \nsome remote distance in space, but in the closest and most intimate way. There\u00ac \nfore every additional Convention we are able to attend is for each and all of \nus an additional benediction. \n\nk The Report of the Committee on Credentials was next called for and pre- \n\n\n201 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n202 \n\n\nTHE 0 S 0 PHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nsented. When this had been accepted and the Committee discharged, the \npermanent organization of the Convention was effected by the election of \nMr. H. B. Mitchell, President of the New York Branch, as Permanent Chair\u00ac \nman of the Convention, and Miss Perkins and Miss Chickering as Secretary \nand Assistant Secretary. \n\n\nAddress of the Chairman \n\nThe Chairman: I can but echo Mr. Hargrove\u2019s expression of thanks. It \nis with deep gratitude that I serve again as your Chairman. \n\nWhat has been said of the sense one may have here of the close presence of \nthe inner world, may serve to explain another feeling in which I think most of \nus must share. In the opening of these Conventions, time and its cycles seem \nfor a moment to stand still: its divisions disappear\u2014the divisions that some\u00ac \ntimes seem to sever our own being, or else to imprison us, as though with bars \nthrough which we could look, but against which we press ourselves in vain. \nPast, present and future are in this moment as one, whole and complete; \nno more the mere fragments they too often seem; the wounds healed where \nthey were tom apart. All that has been, here for a moment still is. All that \nwe have felt as lost, here is again ours. Our great companions of the past are \nstill with us. Each heart calls its own roll, and to each name there comes an \nanswer, \u201cHere\u201d. H.P.B. and Judge, and those who stood with them, faithful \nin life and death; Mr. Griscom, Mr. Johnston, Dr. Keightley; others whom \ndeath took in this last year. Again, in our hearts, we feel them with us. hear \ntheir voice and see their smile. Here too, in some sense that words do not \nadequately reflect, the goal that has gleamed for us all our life, far away, has \ndrawn near. All we could never be, somehow is; and endless failure finds in it \nan end. For here, in this moment, when we meet in our Father\u2019s house about \nour Father\u2019s business, the inner and the outer worlds are one; and time and \nits cycles, which, like the beating of a heart, mark the ingoing and the outgoing \nof the spirit, have here, in that unity, their beginning, their middle and their \nend. Without moving is the travelling in this road; the end is wrapped in the \nbeginning, and the Kingdom of the Heavens seems literally at hand. \n\nBecause of this, I think we see more clearly and truly at these Conventions \nthan we usually succeed in seeing through the year. For in truth the inner \nworld is one with the outer, as it here seems; our goal is within our reach; the \nKingdom of the Heavens is at hand. But, in general, the moment of realiza\u00ac \ntion is but a moment in our consciousness. Then the cycles spread out from \ntheir nodes. The past is again past; its lessons to be reviewed and learned; \nits successes and its failures alike to be transformed into power. The future \nstretches on before us; our goal is again distant, to be reached only as step \nby step we travel the Way between. And the duty of the present is once more \nto fix the features of that Way upon mind and will,\u2014to gain as clear an under\u00ac \nstanding as we can of what is required in order to pursue it. \n\nIt is a higher duty, and one upon which far more depends, than can easily \nbe recognized by those who, ignorant of the origin of the Theosophical Move- \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n203 \n\n\nment and of the function it was founded to fulfil, attempt to judge it by ap\u00ac \npearances or numbers. To such it must seem absurd to assume, as we con\u00ac \nstantly do, that the destinies of a race and civilization can turn upon the vision \nand fidelity of a few score simple people, gathered together in an old mews \nwhich improvement has passed by. Yet it is more absurd to assume that the \nimportance of function is measurable by the mass or magnificence of the in\u00ac \nstrument. The safety of great ships may rest upon the fidelity of a lighthouse \nkeeper on a lonely rock; and there is a power that comes from position, as well \nas that which is due to mass and force. A royal signature is not less potent \nbecause not written in the letters of an advertising poster; and the fraction \nof a turn of a micrometer screw between the fingers, can bring into the field \nof a telescope new worlds, millions of light years from those that had been \nseen before. The Karma, the destiny, of a race, as of an individual, depends \nupon such things as these illustrations suggest,\u2014upon the direction of its life- \nforces, upon the lights which guide it, the laws that it makes sovereign and \nobeys, the worlds which it envisions, the ideals and desires it pictures and \nstrives to attain. It is with these things that the Theosophical Movement \nis concerned, and our duty to-day is to deepen our understanding of them. \nIt is of the utmost moment that we, who have been led to the Path, and shown \nits course as it climbs upward to the Gates of Gold, should keep clear in our \nminds the picture of its successive stages. We know, as the world does not, \nhow desperate is the need for clear pictures of the Truth, and how vital and \ndynamic such pictures can be,\u2014how magical are understanding and love. \n\nThe potency of pictures is too little considered. We cannot move a finger, \nthe will cannot act, except upon some picture previously given us or conceived \nby our imagination. All growth and development are the progressive filling \nof astral moulds, the actualization of such pictures as the imagination forms; \nfor our imagination is a facet of Kriyasakti, the great creative principle, and \nthe forms it impresses upon the Astral Light have the power to draw to them\u00ac \nselves substance and force, so that they materialize outwardly. Growth is \nalways from within out, the thought preceding the act, the concept preceding \nits realization; and this whether the concept be true or false. If it be false, it \ncreates monstrosities. But monstrosities cltc created, as witness the French \nand Russian revolutions, and the self-contradictory aberrations of politics \nnearer home. It has been rightly said that the French Revolution was due \nto the Encyclopedists far more than to the Jacobins; and that there is nothing \nthat can prevent an idea, held firmly and desired with self-giving ardour, from \nworking out the realization of its content for good or ill. That is the way life \nworks, and that is why true understanding and devotion are the magical powjs \nfor good that they are,\u2014why a nun\u2019s silent meditation in her cell may be n^re \npotent than any eloquence, broadcast over the whole world. If we, here to\u00ac \nday, can attain to true understanding of the Masters\u2019 will, can gain and hold \na clear picture of our goal, or of the next steps upon our way toward it, above \nall if, having gained such understanding, we can give to it our whole-hearted \nlove and obedience, we shall, by that inner work, be serving the Theosophical \n\n\n\n\n204 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nMovement, the great Lodge of Masters, and the world in which we live, more \neffectively than by any outer means we could devise. \n\nAn analogy may help us. If we press our finger tips on the glass of the win\u00ac \ndow pane, the mark we leave may not at first be noticeable. But as little by \nlittle dust accumulates upon it, or as the sun shines directly through it, the \nprint is brought out clearly, showing every detail, every swirl and curve, in a \npattern of light. It is the same with the imprint of our heart and mind upon \nthe astral plane, which is the window glass of the world. The impression is \nscarcely noticeable until, for dust, we give the substance of ourselves, the \nground-up stuff of our personality, thus remoulded on the image that has been \nformed within our souls. But then it stands forth clearly; and the effect is \nintensified a thousand times if, by virtue of our participation in the Theo- \nsophical Movement, we are in the direct path of the light radiating from the \nLodge upon the world. Then the image that we treasure may be projected \nlarge upon the world, as a lantern throws a picture on the screen,\u2014save that \nit is no longer merely a picture, merely a simulacrum of an ideal, but is itself \nreal and living, vital and potent with the life and power of the spirit that con\u00ac \nceived and nourished it. There is a profound truth behind the apocryphal \nstory of the child Jesus moulding clay sparrows that rose and flew. \n\nSuch is the inner work of understanding, of love and of self-giving, which \nis the special work of the indrawing cycles, and which, in all cycles, is the spe\u00ac \ncial work of our Conventions, inasmuch as their primary object is to gain \nand to disseminate right understanding of the duties entrusted to us and of \nthe Path we must follow. \n\nDespite all that has been said in the last few years, upon the necessity of \nindrawal and upon what it must be expected to involve, it is doubtful if this \nphase of the cycle has been understood throughout the Society. It is appar\u00ac \nently viewed very negatively, as though it were an interruption of the \u201creal\u201d, \neffective, understandable work of the Movement. It is envisaged in terms of \ndeprivation rather than of gain, in terms of loss of what we have had in the \npast,\u2014loss of leaders, loss of teaching and guidance, loss of meetings and com\u00ac \npanionship, loss of the Quarterly, withdrawal of inspiration, help and sup\u00ac \nport. In short, I think the prospect is regarded very much as one might look \nforward to a cold, empty, deserted house, through whose bare rooms we shall \nwander, lonely and desolate, where we used to be welcomed with love and \ncheer. \n\nIndrawal may, indeed, involve any or all of the deprivations thus antici\u00ac \npated; but to see it in those terms is to see it falsely. It is to see it from below, \nnot from above, and from the point of view of self-assumed failure (quite gratu\u00ac \nitously assumed) instead of success; from the point of view of what is surren\u00ac \ndered rather than of what is gained. When the Kingdom of Heaven was likened \nto a pearl of great price, which the merchant sold all that he had to obtain, \namong those who heard the parable there may have been some who saw in it \nnothing but the hell of parting with all that they had. The same occasion \nmay bring either heaven or hell, according as we meet it from the one side or \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n205 \n\n\nthe other. If the house is to be deserted by your family or friends, moving \nfrom the heat and hideous turmoil of the city to the cool quiet of the country, \nwhy do you assume that you are to be left behind? Please remember that you \nhave been invited to go with them, and you remain to wander through de\u00ac \nserted halls only if you so choose\u2014only if you yourself prefer the crowds and \nconfusion, the glare and noise, to the quiet of the hills and the wide horizons, \nacross which drift the shadows of the clouds. \n\nWhy is it that the indrawing cycle is so misconceived? I think there are \nthree contributory causes. There is, first, sheer laziness: the laziness that \nhas grown used to things as they are and does not wish to change, and the \nlaziness of mind that assumes as its own view, without bothering to examine \nor challenge it, the instinctive reactions of the lower nature, which never will\u00ac \ningly surrenders itself and which shrinks from all sacrifice, no matter what \nmay be gained of opportunity and achievement. Wherever we have permitted \nthis to mislead us, we know what must be done to correct and clear our sight. \n\nThe second cause of confusion is, I think, a misinterpretation of the his\u00ac \ntorical record, caused by our failure to remember that never before, in our \ncivilization, has the Theosophical Movement been carried over into the in- \ndrawing cycle. Always in the past, the centre established in the last quarter \nof the century has had to be withdrawn, or has disintegrated, before the open\u00ac \ning of the new, so that the Lodge has not heretofore had a centre in the world \nduring the inbreathing cycle such as it has had in the outbreathing. The re\u00ac \nsult of this has been that the currents of the inbreathing of spirit have largely \npassed over the world rather than through it, and the world itself has been \nmuch less affected by the inbreathing than by the outbreathing. This fact, \nperceived without being analyzed, can easily prompt the erroneous inference \nthat the one cycle is less dynamic than the other. It is only in our own day, \nin the success that has carried our Movement over the end of the century and \nthese thirty-six years into the new, that we can really observe the effect of the \ninbreathing when its currents draw through the world by virtue of a Lodge \ncentre having been maintained in it. \n\nThe third factor might be considered as the reverse aspect of the second; for \nas the failure of the Movement in the past prevented the indrawing currents \nfrom manifesting their full effects in the world, so now the success of the Move\u00ac \nment in entering new ground since the beginning of the century, has overlaid^^^ \nthe normal, major cycle of indrawal, with a secondary, minor cycle of outgi\\-\u00ae \ning, whose effects, experienced close at hand, have not been distinguished, \nby many of our members, from those of the main cycle upon which they have \nbeen superposed. An advancing wave has obscured a receding tide. \n\nTo understand either cycle it is necessary to remember that the object of \ngiving out is to draw in. It has been said that so far as ultimate and infinite \npurposes can be set forth in the terms of our finite speech, the object of mani- \n\n\u00bb ,tion, the reason for the emergence of the visible universe from Pralaya, \ne evolution of self-consciousness and the lifting of it from lower to higher \nlevels. The universe comes forth that it may go back enriched; and because \n\n\n\n\n\n\n206 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nBeing is one, this great cycle is mirrored in endless lesser cycles of outgoing \nand return. Thus the outgoing from the Lodge, the sending of its messenger \ninto the world with new teaching of the Way, has for its object the lifting of \nthe consciousness of the world, the guidance of human evolution, and, in partic\u00ac \nular, the drawing up to union with the Lodge (in spiritual consciousness and \nch\u00a3laship) of such individuals in the world as respond to the teaching and appeal. \nThe outgoing is not an end in itself, but has an aim beyond itself to which it \nis but a means,\u2014an aim that can be realized only through the indrawing. \n\nIt is like the spring-time plowing of the soil and sowing of seed, whose object \nis the harvesting of a crop. Or it has been likened to fishermen casting a net \ninto the sea, in order to draw it in with its catch. Heretofore the net has broken \nas it was drawn in, and so has come up empty, the aim and purpose of the \noutgoing having been defeated by the failure of the indrawing. But with us, \nso far, the net has held. \n\nAnother simile that has been used is the way water may be drawn up in a \ntube by the indrawing of the breath\u2014provided always that the lower end of \nthe tube be kept beneath the surface of the water. The coming of the Lodge \nMessenger in the outgoing cycle brings the tube down into the world, and if \nit can be maintained there in the inbreathing cycle, the water will follow the \nindrawing breath. But in the past, the centre in the world could not be main\u00ac \ntained ; the tube was not kept beneath the surface, and the currents of the in\u00ac \nbreathing swept over and not through the world. That is one reason why, \nas we saw, the indrawing cycle has had so negative an aspect in common \nthought. In the past it has been negative, in that outer effects have been small. \nBut with us, because the centre was maintained, the effects have been experi\u00ac \nenced directly in the manifest world about us, and whether we have heretofore \ndone so or not, we can to-day see those effects for what they are, and read in \nthem the evidence of the tremendous, dynamic potency of the inner forces \nwith which our Movement deals. \n\nBut first it will be well to broaden our thought of cyclic law by approaching \nit from a standpoint that is both less material and less abstract than that which \nis commonly taken. Theosophy teaches us that everything that is, is living. \nBehind all phenomena, of every kind, there are vital phenomena; and this must \nbe as true of cyclic phenomena as of all else. Behind and explaining them \nmust be individual life and consciousness. This has been recognized by medi\u00ac \ncal science in its study of diseases that have a recurring period, such as the \nchills and fever of malaria, the periodicity having been traced to the life cycle \nof the germ. It is instructive to think similarly of the outbreathing and in\u00ac \nbreathing of spiritual force in terms of the cycle of human lives. \n\nThere is first the coming of the Lodge Messenger, which, as H.P.B. told us, \ntakes place in the last quarter of each century. He comes, either alone or with \na small group, to bring the Lodge teaching anew to the world, and to give \nwhat he can of Lodge force and inspiration to such as will receive it. He does \nnot do this, any more than the husbandman sows seed, as an end in itself. He \ndoes it for the purpose of growing a crop; and therefore, so far as conditions \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n207 \n\n\npermit the Lodge Messenger to do openly the work for which he comes, we \nfind him in general drawing around him a group of students or disciples, whom \nhe seeks to kindle to the ideals of the Lodge and to awaken to the realities of \nthe inner life. In so far as he thus succeeds in inspiring his pupils, his giving \nout of the Lodge teaching has the result of inducing, as its response, a second\u00ac \nary, indrawing current, rising from the world toward the Lodge, which is con\u00ac \nstituted by the aspiration and effort of those whose aim is ch\u00a3laship. \nThroughout his life or mission, the Lodge Messenger does what he can to direct \nand strengthen this induced, indrawing current, and when the time comes that \nhe must die, or be withdrawn, the question as to whether the Movement can \ncontinue turns upon whether this secondary current has reached its goal in \nthe attainment of ch\u00a3laship by one or more of the Messenger\u2019s students. If \nch\u00a3laship has not been attained, if the inner life and perceptions of the dis\u00ac \nciples remain dependent upon the constant stimulus and correction of the Mes\u00ac \nsenger\u2019s presence, then his withdrawal of necessity leaves the outer centre \nwithout foundation or link with the Lodge, so that it must disintegrate, or, \nworse, be perverted to lower aims that may be the very opposite of the pur\u00ac \nposes of the Lodge. We have seen this happen again and again. It is illus\u00ac \ntrated, in greater or less degree, in the history of every exoteric religious \nmovement. Once the founder (or the primary group who worked with him) \nhad been withdrawn, the direct link with the Lodge was broken, and the inner \nvision of those who remained was unable to distinguish between spiritual truth \nand the psychic, upside-down reflection of reality. Or else their lack of puri\u00ac \nfication, their unconquered desires, their failure in understanding or in selfless\u00ac \nness, the smallness of their real love for the ideals they professed, all combined \nto erase the founder\u2019s teaching and to cause the substitution of something \nwholly foreign to it. Again and again this has been the fate of the Theosophical \nMovement. \n\nBut if the Messenger succeed in inspiring his students to the point where \nthey so work upon themselves as to gain a footing in the inner world and an \ninner life of their own, weaned from dependence upon the Messenger\u2019s presence, \nif, in other words, real ch\u00a3laship be developed from among his students, so thaW \none or more of them has established independent, individual connection wit^ \nthe Lodge, then by that fact a new link is formed between the world and the \nLodge, which remains despite the Messenger\u2019s withdrawal. That was the \nmeaning of H.P.B.\u2019s dying message: \u2018\u2018Keep the link unbroken\u201d. Through \nthe line of W. Q. Judge, it was kept unbroken, by the rebirth, in the world, of \nlove and ch\u00a3laship. \n\nLove, we have been told, is the power that moves the world. It cannot exist \nand give no sign. When it is reborn in the world, and rises to consciousness of \nitself and of the Lodge, it must straightway begin to work the works of love. \nWhat then immediately happens is described in Light on the Path: \n\nIn some confused and blurred manner the news that there is knowledge and a benef\u00ac \nicent power which teaches, is carried to as many men as will listen to it. No disciple \ncan cross the threshold without communicating this news, and placing it on record in \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n208 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nsome fashion or other. He stands horror-struck at the imperfect and unprepared man\u00ac \nner in which he has done this; and then comes the desire to do it well, and with the \ndesire thus to help others comes the power. \n\nThus the sequence of the cyclic phases, in terms of individual lives, becomes \nclear. If the Lodge Messenger, and those who may have come with him from \nthe Lodge, be successful in their outgiving, it kindles in their pupils an induced, \nindrawing current of aspiration, flowing from the world back toward the Lodge; \nand if, in its turn, this current be successful in reaching its goal, it results im\u00ac \nmediately in a new outgoing,\u2014a new outbreathing cycle, established by the new \nchelaship, being thus superposed upon the indrawing phase of the primary cycle. \n\nThis is what we can trace in our own Movement following the turn of the \nprimary cycle in 1898 to 1900; and again, something more than a decade later, \nin 1911, when, once more, buried love came to rebirth and consciousness, and \nrenewed again, just twenty-five years ago, an outgiving cycle of Lodge force \nand teaching. It is well that we should understand clearly this relation be\u00ac \ntween cyclic law and individual lives, that it may bring home to us the truth \nthat the continuance of the Theosophical Movement depends not upon some \nabstraction, but upon our own individual lives and effort,\u2014upon your success \nwith yourself, upon whether you care enough that a Lodge centre should be \nmaintained in the outer, Western world, and the teaching of H.P.B. and Judge, \nand the others to whom we owe so much, be preserved as living teaching of a \nliving truth. It must be in individual hearts that chelaship is kept: not in \nmasses nor abstractions, but in individuals. \n\nTo attain to chelaship is to attain to union with the Lodge. Therefore, so \nlong as Lodge ch\u00a3las are in the world, the Lodge has a centre in the world, a \nfulcrum for its lever, or, in the simile used before, the end of the tube is kept \nin the water, and the inbreathing, instead of passing over the surface, passes \nthrough the water, agitating it and lifting it up in the tube. What would this \nmean in the world about us? What theoretical differences should we expect \nto observe between this condition, as existing in our own time, and the con\u00ac \nditions in past centuries? \n\nIn the first place, where before there had been but one current, there would \nnow be two. The dead weight of materialism, which in the past would not \nhave been outwardly opposed in that phase of the cycle, would, through the \nsuccess of the Movement, now be met by a rising current setting in the op\u00ac \nposite direction. Like the meeting of two opposing tides, this would cause \nconflict and tumultuous waves and tide-rips, and confusion of cross currents,\u2014 \nsuch as we can observe in the East River at Hell Gate where the tides meet. \nUnopposed, the dead weight of things pressed man down deeper and deeper \ninto matter, into the dominance of material comforts and material aims and \nthe consequent slow poisoning of his spiritual nature, without its action being \nparticularly noticed, or men being roused to recognition of their danger. But \nwhen met by an opposite current, setting away from the world to the Lodge, \naway from softness and ease, and sloth and selfishness, toward service and \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n209 \n\n\nsacrifice and self-giving, then the true nature of each is revealed by contrast \nwith the other, and choice is forced. We should then expect to see sharp con\u00ac \nflict in the world, the head-on collision of opposing forces, and men being \nroughly awakened to the necessity of choosing their part and throwing them\u00ac \nselves into the one current or the other. \n\nSecond, we should expect to see, corresponding to the rising of the water \nin the tube, a recrudescence and resurrection of the buried spiritual element \nin man and the world, an uprising in individuals of the essential spirit that \nleads to chglaship, the spirit that sacrifices self to loyalty. \n\nNow let us ask ourselves what it is, in actual fact, that the world reveals \nin these last twenty-five years from 1911 to 1936, and how the facts compare \nwith the theory. Almost immediately the World War breaks forth, spreading \nmore widely over the world than any previous conflict that history records. \nThere is direct, head-on collision; and from it all sorts of tide-rips and cross \ncurrents. The overthrow of Russia; the tyranny of Bolshevism; the failure \nin final perseverance that permitted the Armistice\u2014the failure to win the war; \nthe reaction to sentimental pacifism, to empty abstractions and the psychic \ndelusions of self-determinism and democracy, and the rule of the lowest in\u00ac \nstead of the best; the insane assumption that talk could take the place of force. \nThere is inflation and depression; the collapse of the American system; the \nrevulsion from democracy and the establishment of dictatorships, the edicts \nof men or of mobs taking the place of law. And now, the cold-blooded murder \nof a whole people in order to loot its land. This is what the world actually \nshows us of these twenty-five years. \n\nBut, rising up above the world, in the misery and carnage of the World War, \nwe see supreme heroism and self-giving. We see men lifted far above the levels \non which they ordinarily lived. We see their deaths placing them on the path \nto ch&aship, to which, in their next life, they may be reborn. \n\nIs there difference between what theory indicates and what the facts reveal? \nAnd does indrawal still seem something negative and dull, the absence of driv\u00ac \ning force and action? \n\nWhen, thinking it interesting, I spoke of this parallel to one of my fellow^ \nmembers, he said with a smile: \u201cYou will not help the Movement or the Society \nif you make it appear that they are responsible for all the woes of the world \nin these last twenty-five years!\u201d I am not making the Society responsible \nfor the woes of the world, nor for its evil. I am presenting the success of the \nMovement as responsible for enabling the great Lodge of Masters to do more, \nthan at similar times in the past, to combat that evil by awakening men to \nsome vision of it and some revulsion against it. It is not a \u201cwoe\u201d that man \nshould be aroused to fight evils that grew strong while he yielded to them, \nand which have been steadily poisoning him. The evil is in the evil, not in \nAei resisting of it. \n\nOn this point let us call upon the witness of medical science, as last year \nwe listened to physical science. We shall not be interested in the sayings of \nthe little men, the doctors who want a fashionable practice and coddle you \n\n\n210 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nand send you to bed or to Florida, or who wish to remove everything they \nhope may be removable among your interior organs, so that they may gratify \ntheir curiosity and charge you for it. We shall ask the testimony of real scien\u00ac \ntists, of those who have given themselves to the study of man\u2019s whole nature, \nand who have been one-pointed and self-sacrificing in their search for truth, even \nthough they have used utterly illegitimate methods, involving the monstrous \ncruelties of vivisection and animal experimentation Such testimony we can \nfind in Dr. Carrel\u2019s book, Man , the Unknown. \n\nMan, to Dr. Carrel, is a unit; behind all his aspects, man himself is one, \nand thinks and acts and lives with the whole of himself. Only as he energizes \nand calls into play all his forces, all his organs, only as he actualizes his full \npotentialities, can any one of his activities reach its maximum efficiency, and he \nhimself escape degeneration. He rots in ease. His whole organism was made \nfor the overcoming of difficulties, the lifting of weights, the conquering of his \nenvironment and of himself. Man is not outside the universe but a part of it, \na part of the Divine Purpose, for existence is not a purposeless thing. The \ngreat sweep of evolution is designed to lift all being to a higher consciousness, \nto transform what is, into what is to be; and man is part of this. He has real \nwork to do, real weights to lift, and he is not healthy, as no being is healthy, \nwhen he is not performing the function for which he is designed. Mind, body \nand character all need hardship, struggle, uneven conditions, sleeplessness and \nhunger and thirst and cold, effort to the limit of his strength, the denial of his \nappetites and passions. And all of this he seeks to escape, and very largely \nsucceeds in escaping, through the control that modem physical science has \ngiven him over the conditions of his life,\u2014his heated and cooled houses, his \ndelicatessen shops, his ready-made clothes, his regular hours of sleep, the low \ngrade of intelligence demanded in his daily routine, the constant putting of \nmere 'quantity before quality. \n\nThe triumph of physical science, Dr. Carrel shows, has thus wrought the \ndegeneracy of man. Every advance in man\u2019s power to control his environment \nhas been prostituted to the indulgence of his appetites and to material ease. \nLooking back over past civilizations it is noteworthy that whenever natural \nconditions did not impose hunger and hardship upon man, he imposed them \nupon himself. Fasting has been prescribed in all the great religions, and rigorous \nself-discipline and the subordination of the body to the will, were in the very \nfoundation of the chivalric code. In tournament as in battle, the knight was \ncalled to jeopardize his life and to spend himself to the utmost limit of his \nstrength. As compression gives spring, so self-discipline yields creative power, \nand the marvellous flowering of Gothic art is the offspring of man\u2019s firmer hold \nupon himself. It is in to-day\u2019s utter rejection of the ideals of self-discipline and \nself-spending, in the modem revolt against all restraints upon appetite and \nself-indulgence, that such students of man as Dr. Carrel find the gravest danger \nto the race. The conclusion Dr. Carrel points out i$ inescapable: all the \nsciences of man unite in giving the same testimony to his needs as does religion. \nWhether we view man from the physiological or the psychological side\u2014above \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n21 I \n\n\nall if we strive to see him as a whole\u2014we are forced to recognize that the ease \nand safety, which he is for ever seeking, work to his undoing; and a civiliza\u00ac \ntion, such as that of to-day, based upon such unworthy desires, must in the \nend destroy him. It has grown up without thought or plan or recognition of \nwhat must be its effect upon man\u2019s nature and development and ultimate \nhappiness. In actual fact it is destructive of all three. \n\nThe crying need of our times, as Dr. Carrel sees it, is therefore twofold: \nFirst, that man should rouse himself to the facts of his own being, and again \nlay discipline upon himself, resolutely imposing upon himself harder conditions \nthat will demand and develop all his powers. Here Dr. Carrel, all uncon\u00ac \nsciously, echoes back to us Light on the Path , \u201cKill out desire of comfort . \n\nThe second great need is for those who can guide the world and civilization \nin the light of a knowledge of man\u2019s whole nature, the sum total of his poten\u00ac \ntialities. And here, though again he does not know it, Dr. Carrel joins in the \nprayer that is never absent from our hearts, that some how, some way, we may \nevoke \u201cGod-instructed men\u201d to guide us,\u2014that Adept Kings may come again \nto earth, the representatives of the great Lodge of Masters. \n\nSo much for the past. We look forward now to the future, trying to apply \nwhat we have learned. What lies ahead? \n\nIndrawal, surely; but indrawal should now mean to us something more \nand other than it appears to such as have approached it negatively. Whether \nthere can be continuance of outgiving must depend upon whether love and \nchelaship can be brought anew to self-consciousness and rebirth. But whether \nthere be outgoing or not\u2014continuance of the Quarterly, meetings, conven\u00ac \ntions, or not\u2014there must surely be ingoing, deeper and deeper into our own \n\n\nbeing. Whether or not we continue to talk and to write, we shall certainly \nhave to be; and we can benefit the Movement through talking only as we first \nbecome what we wish to talk about. We must be honest above all, and dis\u00ac \ntinguish between what we know and what we have heard. Theosophy was \nnot given us in the outbreathing cycle merely to preach to some one else. It \nwas given us to be applied, to be lived and proved in our own lives. That is \nthe work of the indrawing cycle\u2014to draw the teaching in. We have received \nthe teaching. We need no more. We need to live what we have. Gravely \nlet us recognize and accept the destiny to which we are called. \n\nPerhaps we are of different ages in the inner life, and perhaps different sim^ \nshould be used for these differing conditions. If our elders withdraw, leaving \nus here, perhaps it is like a mother who, having placed her child upon his feet, \nwithdraws her hands that he may stand alone, and come to her, walking by \nhimself. Or perhaps it may be as the Black Prince was left by his father to win \nhis battle and his spurs alone. But whatever simile we use, if it be a true simile, \nit will show us that, with the indrawing, we are not come to some pause or \nsuppression of our great adventure, but rather to the moment of proof for which \n*11 our past has been preparation, all our teaching designed,\u2014the point at \nStanch Theosophy and our own manhood alike come to their test. For from \nwhatever standpoint we approach it, indrawal means that we go in to greater \n\n\n212 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nintensity of force, of responsibility, of opportunity; that the infant must be\u00ac \ncome the child, the child the man, and the man be faced with the sharp cleavage \nbetween the world and the Lodge, between what he has been and the fulness \nof the stature of what it is open to him to become. \n\nFor sixty-one years we in the Society have been taught and guided. What \nis the result? Where are those whose lives have been transformed, as Theos\u00ac \nophy tells us its disciplines do transform those who follow them? Where \nare those who can speak of these things \u201cwith authority\u201d, as one who has \nproved them? It is the answer to those questions, not more teaching, that \nthe world needs. \n\nThe great Lodge does not call us to ease, to comfort, to soft lives, in which \neven science now sees men must degenerate and rot. It calls us, it was said \nhere last year, as Garibaldi called for men, offering them toil and privation, \nhunger and thirst, hardship, suffering and death, that a Cause may prevail. \nBut where, for Garibaldi\u2019s men, all this was to be where men could see it, we \nmust remember that in our work none of it should show at all. We are not \nto be tossed about by the turmoil and the conflict; we are to still them by tak\u00ac \ning the shock, unmoved, upon ourselves. What else is the meaning of the \n\u201cGuardian Wall\u201d, of which the ch\u00a3la aspires to be a part? \n\nMore and more our work must be inner work,\u2014such work as I spoke of at \nthe beginning: the work of meditation, of forming and holding clear-cut pic\u00ac \ntures of our ideal, and above all the work of giving ourselves wholly and com\u00ac \npletely to what we profess to love and serve. We have to give all. It is only \nat the limit of our being, only when, and where, we have done our own utmost, \nonly at the frontiers of ourselves, that we can come into contact with what is \nbeyond ourselves, and so can be aided by power higher than our own to grow \ninto something greater than we have been. Half measures must of their very \nnature fail. Not taking us to our own limits, they cannot possibly take us \nbeyond them; and it is beyond them that our goal is set. \n\nNo man is ever left without the light he needs, save as he blinds himself. \nBut until the need comes, though the light is there it means little to us. From \nour childhood we have read the words of counsel that we have now to follow. \nNowhere is there more compelling, moving counsel for the indrawing than \nthe prayer of the great Christian Master at the end of his mission, recorded \nin the 17th chapter of St. John: \u201cAnd now I am no more in the world, but \nthese are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine \nown name those whom thou hast given me.\u201d Let us read it again, taking it \nnow to ourselves, and praying for the grace of such final perseverance as may \nturn all lukewarmness or half measures into whole-hearted and complete self\u00ac \ngiving. Then, and then only, can come the fulfilment of the promise and the \nteaching, and life and death be alike transformed for us. It is there, at the \nextreme frontiers of their being, that the Master awaits his chSlas. \n\nAfter due authorization, the Chairman next appointed the following com\u00ac \nmittees : \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n213 \n\n\nCommittee on Resolutions: Mr. Hargrove, Dr. Torrey, Mr. Auchincloss. \n\nCommittee on Letters of Greeting: Mr. J. F. B. Mitchell, Mr. Kobb6, Mr. A. \nGonz&lez Jim6nez. \n\nCommittee on Nominations: Mr. Miller, Mr. LaDow, Dr. Hohnstedt. \n\nThe report of the Secretary T. S. was then called for. \n\nReport of the Secretary T. S. \n\nMiss Perkins: I have the honour to submit the following Report; and, in \nso doing, would remind you that our Branches are holding special meetings \nfor the purpose of taking active part in the proceedings here to-day, drawing \nnear in their hearts, to give and to receive. \n\nBranch Activities \n\nReporting for the Cincinnati Branch, Miss Hohnstedt writes: \u201c The Great \nUpanishads , by Charles Johnston, has proved a very inspiring study. Our \nmembers are taking an entirely different attitude toward the problems they \ndaily face; all feel the seriousness of our obligation to preserve at least a nucleus, \nfor the use of the coming Messenger.\u201d The members of Hope Branch, in Provi\u00ac \ndence, Mrs. Rose says,\u2014\u2018\u2018Express their gratitude for the strength that even \na little knowledge of Theosophy brings, and all are trying to \u2018do something \nabout it\u2019.\u201d Of the Middletown Branch, the Secretary, Mrs. Pierce tells us: \n\u201cThis year the homes of the majority of us were visited by death; the first to \ngo was our beloved member, Mrs. Roberts, who is sorely missed. But these \nlosses have drawn our little band into closer union, and the winter\u2019s meetings \nhave been of great help to us all.\u201d In his report for the Pacific Branch of Los \nAngeles, Mr. Box outlines a method of study which it may be helpful to quote: \n\u201cOur aims and effort have been, to grasp clearly, as applying to our present \nand future lives, the teaching that is still being so generously given us. At the \nopening meeting, our first thought was of that \u2018anything but soft\u2019 letter quoted \nin the April, 1935, \u2018Screen\u2019, with its wellnigh scathing but timely and well- \ndeserved admonitions. The 1935 Convention Report was considered for sev\u00ac \neral meetings, until not only the Chairman\u2019s address but every speech and \npaper, resounded for us with the call to \u2018empty\u2019 ourselves of \u2018softness\u2019, as being \nopposed to virility and to the virtuous heroism that is its higher opposite. S<v \nwe became more conscious , inwardly as well as outwardly, of events and things \nas they occur; and instead of merely looking on and mentally measuring them, \nwe have tried to discover what great Nature herself would have us be at this \ntime. The pruning that there is to do, \u2018down to the root\u2019, is evidently not so \nmuch of the Movement as of ourselves,\u2014so that we may spring up again, \nto blossom and bear the fruit of the soul itself, in the full sunlight of the Lodge. \nNext we turned to Mr. Charles Johnston\u2019s \u2018Christianity and War\u2019; and from \nthis to \u2018War Seen from Within\u2019, printed in the Quarterly for January, 1915, \nwh^J;he outnumbered French and English and Belgians were holding back \nthe m\\o\\e German army. This gave us a glimpse of the fighting we must do \nwithin ourselves, in our pruning.\u201d Speaking of the meetings of the Virya \n\n\n214 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nBranch, Denver, its Secretary, Miss Mary Kent Wallace, says: A broad \nrange of material is brought in for analysis according to theosophic principles. \nThe Branch has also used Mr. Griscom\u2019s \u2018Letters to Students and Elementary \nArticles\u2019, selected articles from the Quarterly, which has been much missed \nin the last months, and recent Reports of the New York Branch: all of which \nhave formed the background of discussion, and have reinforced the desire to \nmake the teachings effective in conduct and character.\u201d \n\nOf Branches in England, the one at Gateshead is, Mr. Ward says, most \nappreciative of the help given by neighbouring Branches\u201d. Reporting for the \nNewcastle Branch, its Secretary, Mrs. Cassidy, writes, \u201cOur studies have \nincluded reports of the New York Branch meetings (much appreciated); articles \nin the Quarterly on Jeanne d\u2019Arc and on the French Revolution, for a better \nunderstanding of France; also the 1935 Convention Report, which was illu\u00ac \nmined by the impressions of three members, who, having been present, were \nable to make their fellows feel as if they, too, had been there.\u201d The Norfolk \nBranch, consisting of members widely separated, has developed, for the con\u00ac \nduct of its \u201ccorrespondence-meetings\u201d, a comprehensive plan which enlists \nthe participation of each one. The Secretary, Mrs. Graves, reports: \u201cI think \nthe most noteworthy thing about our year\u2019s work has been an increasing reali\u00ac \nzation of the intimate connection that Theosophy has with the world to-day, \nthe importance of the theosophic life and its increasing influence in world \naffairs,\u2014as is shown by the intense desire of our members to discover how the \nteaching we receive can be used for good, in the troubled and dark days through \nwhich we are passing. We are immensely grateful for the help we receive \nfrom the Reports of the New York meetings\u2014the first one for this year is so \nencouraging, showing how much is within our power, how great the possi\u00ac \nbilities for us if we live the life with devotion, humility, and faith.\u201d \u201cThe \nmeetings of the South Shields Branch,\u201d Mr. Mackey writes, \u201creveal a unity \nof purpose in the search for Truth; and as a body, we seem to be slowly moving \nforward to a better understanding of the inner aspects of Theosophy.\u201d After \nreporting on the work of the Whitley Bay Branch, the Secretary, Mrs. Ross, \nadds: \u201cWe were all delighted to receive the season\u2019s first Report of the New \nYork Branch meetings. We look forward to these Reports eagerly; everyone \nappreciates them and bids me thank those who make it possible for us to have \nthem.\u201d \n\nThe Arvika Branch, strengthened by the return of Mr. Emanuel Jonsson, \nhas been very active. Mrs. Fjaestad writes: \u201cWe greatly enjoy ourT. S. work, \nand are very grateful that we ever came to know of Theosophy. We have \nbeen studying the New York Reports and translations of Quarterly articles; \ndiscussion always follows, and our President, who is a serious student, con\u00ac \nducts this ably.\u201d The Branch in Czecho-Slovakia has, naturally, given special \nstudy to the last Convention Report, as two of its officers participated in that \ngathering. \u201cThe temporary suspension of the Quarterly confronted us\u201d, \nthe Secretary writes, \u201cwith urgent need to become worthier to get inspiration. \nWe have surveyed the tests that came, in 1914 and 1923, of our ability to recog- \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n215 \n\n\nnize the application of theosophical principles; and now, facing another real \ntest, we are endeavouring to remain aware of the tremendous fact that the \nlittle decisions, made from moment to moment in our individual hearts, will \nhave far-reaching effect,\u2014for it was said in the \u2018Screen\u2019 of January, 1916, \nthat the thinking of the humblest member has unlimited power back of it \nwhen it is in harmony with the thought of Masters. We have learned to ap\u00ac \npreciate the Theosophical Quarterly from the depths of our hearts, and \nhave become more fully aware of our indebtedness to its editors and their \ncollaborators.\u201d In the Oslo Branch the subject of indrawal was considered \nas a necessary response to cyclic law, and the annual address of the Chairman, \nMr. Henning Dahl, placed special emphasis on the responsibility of each indi\u00ac \nvidual member to prepare himself to be a faithful representative of the heart \nof the Movement when its activities are withdrawn from outer avenues, and \nconcentrated inwardly. Reporting for the Toronto Branch, Mr. Albert J. \nHarris says that interest in their studies has been exceedingly well maintained, \nand that the sincerity of members is very manifest. The new Secretary of the \nVenezuela Branch, Miss Reyes, reports: \u2018\u2018The Branch selected for its study \narticles about war and discipleship, the addresses of the 1935 Convention, \nand the Reports of the New York Branch meetings. We tried through this \nstudy to help the world to see the true meaning of war, and, above all, to \nstrengthen our aspiration toward the Masters.\u201d \n\nThe European Branches still follow the request made by the Executive \nCommittee in 1929, and contribute to some Allied Relief Fund the amount \nformerly paid to the Society in dues. The gift is accompanied by the explana\u00ac \ntion that it is prompted by official action of the Society, and the acknowl\u00ac \nedgments received show that the Society\u2019s position and standards have thus \nbeen widely disseminated. Ever since 1929, the Society has received, from \none of its members, a special donation that amply covers the sum so diverted, \nand thus the Treasury has not suffered. \n\nBook Department \n\nThis Department, which is wholly self-supporting, is quietly carrying out \nthe purpose for which it was established by Mr. Clement A. Griscom, not long \nafter he had issued the first number of the Quarterly,\u2014 that purpose beiijr \nthe publication and sale of a few books which should represent the ideals odH \nstandards of the Movement, in order that, through them, seekers for Truth \nmight be led to discover the Society. Additional books will be issued when\u00ac \never required to serve this end. Meantime there is continued demand for \nthose we have. This is both surprising and gratifying, since our books are \nnever advertised nor offered for sale through the book-shops,\u2014knowledge of \nthem being disseminated by those who have found them of value. \n\nTheosophical Quarterly \n\n^As we know, circumstances made it impossible for the Editors to publish \nmore than two numbers of our magazine this year,\u2014and subscribers were \npromptly notified that all subscription dates had been set ahead six months. \n\n\n2 l6 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nHearty approval was expressed by our subscribers; many took occasion to \ntestify to their high estimate of the Quarterly and its profound influence \nupon their lives. Subsequent letters told of having turned, \u201cin the six months \nof silence\u201d, to the back numbers of the magazine, and how the writers had \ndiscovered there material of great practical value, sufficient for years of study \nand experimentation. It has been possible to arrange for continuance of the \nworld-wide distribution of the magazine to leading libraries; also the member \nwho originated the limited edition on so-called \u201cimperishable rag paper\u201d, has \ncontinued ever since to defray its cost, that it may be perpetuated in selected \nlibraries. \n\nSecretary's Office \n\nIn deference to repeated requests from members who constantly share the \nwork of this Office, I shall not mention their names, but would gratefully ac\u00ac \nknowledge assistance from a number who count it a privilege to put their time \nand skill at the disposition of the Society, in any capacity whatsoever. This \nwas preeminently the attitude of a member whose death, a few weeks ago, \nis deeply felt by those who had the good fortune to know her and to work with \nher. I refer to Miss Theodora Dodge. Her contributions to our magazine \nunder several pen-names, were highly distinctive, and her literary gifts were \nalways at the service of the Society in a variety of other ways,\u2014one being \nthe preparation, from Miss Chickering\u2019s shorthand notes, of the condensed \nReports of the New York Branch meetings. Her handling of this material \nfaithfully presented both the thought of the speakers and the pervading spirit \nof the meetings. \n\nAs to the small \u201ctravelling library\u201d: no fee is assessed for the loan of books, \nand if payment of carriage charges would be burdensome, that can be arranged. \nWhy wait, year after year, for the chance to read early numbers of the \nQuarterly, or some oft-quoted book? Why not make early use of this library? \nIt includes books that will help the inquirer to discover what Theosophy is; \nit also offers the Quarterly issues containing Mr. Griscom\u2019s \u201cElementary \nArticles\u201d, and his \u201cLetters to Students\u201d, in which problems that confront the \naspirant for discipleship are discussed with the forceful clarity and sympa\u00ac \nthetic understanding that characterized his approach to the right conduct of \nlife. For any public library frequented by readers interested in such literature, \nwe can supply the Quarterly and a few books on Theosophy, from a special \nfund. European and American members are invited to inform the Secretary \nwhenever they discover a library in which our magazine and books might \nbe useful. \n\nThere are no problems or dissensions within the Society to be reported. \nThis is surely due, in part, to the closer bonds between members, formed by \ntheir recognition of the battle in which the Movement is engaged and their \ndesire to participate. Another factor is the incessant watchfulness of our \nolder members who were so closely associated with Mr. Judge. Guided by \nexperience and theosophic principles, they discern any maladjustment or un- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n217 \n\n\ndue emphasis that may be creeping into T. S. activities, and promptly indicate \nhow the balance may be restored, and how the workers may again make their \nfull contribution to the Cause. With them \u201cthe Work\u201d, its honour, its needs, \nits claims, is an ever-present and controlling criterion. Thus, as I suggested \nlast year, we who have the great good fortune to be apprenticed to these trained \nworkmen, are privileged to serve the Movement as lesser links in the hierarchical \nchain. So, to the heartfelt gratitude expressed in the messages from our \nBranches and our isolated members, I beg to add my own, which also goes \nvery deep; and on behalf of us all, I ask those older members to believe that \nwe intend to turn our words into deeds. \n\nRespectfully submitted, \n\nIsabel E. Perkins, \n\nSecretary , The Theosophical Society. \n\nThis report having been accepted with the unanimous thanks of the Con\u00ac \nvention to the Secretary and to the Secretary\u2019s helpers, the report of the Exec\u00ac \nutive Committee was next called for. \n\nReport of the Executive Committee \n\nMr. Hargrove: Miss Perkins, in what she has just read to us, covered \nadmirably the outer activities of the Society during the past year. It is only \nfitting, in any case, considering the indrawal now taking place, that the report \nof the Executive Committee should become more and more concerned with \ninner things. \n\nIt may be interesting to note, however, in connection with what Professor \nMitchell was saying, that at the end of the eighteenth century, after the failure \nof the Movement\u2014which of course is a very different situation from that \nwhich exists to-day\u2014the Comte de Saint-Germain did everything possible to \nshut down all the Lodges and semi-occult fraternities which had been brought \ninto existence as the result of the work of Saint-Martin, Mesmer, Cagliostro, \nPasqually and others,\u2014not only to shut them down, but to destroy their rec\u00ac \nords. This is the occult tradition, the truth of which is confirmed, unwittingly, \nby the exhaustive historical labours of Auguste Viatte and others in France, \nand by the failure of innumerable pseudo-occultists to find records the dis\u00ac \ncovery of which would have enabled them to pose as the direct heirs of the \neighteenth-century Movement. Saint-Germain, foreseeing this danger, and de\u00ac \ntermined to prevent the evil which would have resulted, used all his authority \nand power to remove the last trace of activities for which he, originally, had been \nresponsible, but which had been turned into channels leading to the Black instead \nof to the White Lodge. That, however, is incidental,\u2014a parenthesis. Now for \nmy main subject. \n\nProfessor Mitchell made it very clear that indrawal is not a negative process. \nIf it is real indrawal, it is intensely positive. He made it clear also that the \nreal work, the creative work at any period, whether of indrawal or of expansion, \nis done on the plane of thought, imagination, aspiration, devotion. Thoughts \narelhinns, and what is and will be of primary importance is that every member \n\n\n\n\n2 l8 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ntry to follow what the Buddha called the Noble Eightfold Path, including \nright thought, right aspiration, right understanding. Devotion alone is not \nenough. If devotion does not result in understanding, it is not real devotion, \nand we ought to face that fact, because he who loses his opportunity now to \ngain understanding, perhaps imagining that in some future life he will be better \nqualified for that sort of labour, is deceiving himself. It is now or never. He \nmust work for it now, for otherwise he will earn no chance in the future to \ngain it. And understanding is of supreme importance. A man could be struck \ndumb to-morrow, and yet could be a great creative centre in the world if he \nknew how to think, how to meditate,\u2014not necessarily in some exalted sense, \nwith Kundalini and other mystic powers functioning, but straight, clear-cut \nthinking about the rights and wrongs and meaning of life, and the principles \nof Theosophy. Far greater, of course, would be his influence for good if love \nwere to inspire and clothe his understanding,\u2014love of his Master, uniting him \nto his Master\u2019s purpose and power. \n\nHowever, no matter how complete the indrawal, members will still have an \nouter mission. Each one must find his own vocation for himself, though, gen\u00ac \nerally speaking, every member should be able to do something toward meeting \nwhat is obviously the world\u2019s greatest need,\u2014religion; for it is the tragedy \nof the world to-day that it has no religion, no belief in a spiritual world \nmore real than earth, no belief in evolution as divinely supervised and guided, \nno vision of anything worth while, worth striving for, beyond material pros\u00ac \nperity and freedom from pain. We must saturate ourselves with the horror \nof this condition if we are to work with ardour for its removal. Desperate, \nin very truth, is the world\u2019s need,\u2014and therefore the need of the Masters, \nseeing that they must work through such as ourselves, through faulty human \nagencies (and so few even of these!), for the enlightenment of those many \nmillions whose souls cry piteously for help, while their personalities, lost, with\u00ac \nout knowing it, in the fog of \u201cprogress\u201d, look to economic panaceas and the \nfalse lights of science, to lead them to a Promised Land. Read books by the \ngeneration which has come to manhood since the Great War, and you will \nfind religion of any kind treated as unworthy of discussion\u2014lumped with \nantimacassars and wax flowers as food for cynicism, or as evidence of a more \nenlightened present. \n\nExperience should have proved by this time that Theosophy is for the very \nfew. At one time the Adyar Society claimed a membership of from twenty \nto thirty thousand, and we can see from them what happens when a mob is \nbrought into touch with divine Truth: they pervert it, drag it down to their \nown level, see \u201cspirituality\u201d in psychic experience, worship a mob-leader like \nMrs. Besant and a charlatan like \u201cBishop\u201d Leadbeater. No: Theosophy is \nfor the very few. But there is the whole world to be helped, and we, who were \nbom in the West, are responsible first for everything we can do on behalf of \nthose among whom we live and who speak our own language. \n\nNominally, Christianity is the religion of our world. Our ancestors, for many \nhundreds of years, were brought up in that faith. Its terminology has been \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n219 \n\n\nincorporated in all European languages. The most ignorant have at least \nheard of Christ. Yet actually, as we know, Christianity to-day is either re\u00ac \njected or seriously misunderstood; and because students of Theosophy have \nbeen given the clue to an understanding of all the great exoteric religions, and \nbecause Christianity clearly ought to be, and must in time become, in truth and \nin fact, the religion of the Western peoples,\u2014part, in any case, of the outer \nmission of our members will be to bring the light and fire of Theosophy into \nChristian worship. As Master K. H. wrote many years ago: \u201cYou can do \nimmense good by helping to give the Western nations a secure basis upon \nwhich to reconstruct their crumbling faith.\u201d \n\nThere are those, as all of us know, who will not accept religious truth of any \nkind, simply because, to do so, would threaten their own self-indulgence: their \nminds are closed. For a very different reason the minds of many of the clergy \nare closed, that is, by caste arrogance: they, as it were, are professionals, and \nthey consider it their function to teach laymen,\u2014not to allow the layman \nto imagine that he can teach them anything about religion. To be fair, the \nclergy are not exceptional in this, for in all professional ranks you find the \nsame attitude. It was noticeable among some Old Army men during the Great \nWar. \n\nOn the other hand there are multitudes whose minds are open, and who are \nnot satisfied with what they now have. A warning at this point: never attack, \nnever criticize, for that is the worst of all methods to bring men to the truth. \nWork with the grain of the wood, not against it. Apart from that, do not risk \nupsetting what little faith people may now have; to do that would be a crime. \nEven a mistaken or crude faith is better than none. We must take people \nwhere we find them. We must become \u201cfishers of men\u201d. \n\nFrom the beginning men have interpreted the teaching of great founders \nof religions to suit themselves,\u2014to suit their prejudices, preferences, and the \nevil or selfish or lazy or timid pattern of their lives. They have not sought \nthe truth; they have sought what they wanted\u2014the easy way, and justifica\u00ac \ntion for their weaknesses. Compare the Taoists of to-day with the teachings \nof Lao-tsze: what a gulf! And the gulf is almost as great between the teach\u00ac \nings of Christ and those of the various churches,\u2014all of them claiming to reptt^ \nsent his doctrine, and all of them, in one way or another, misrepresenting^ \nlamentably. \n\nIn what ways misrepresenting it? We need not, for the present, concern \nourselves with Roman Catholicism, if only because no direct action with them \nwould be possible: they are too deeply intrenched to be affected by Theos\u00ac \nophy except \u201catmospherically\u201d, unconsciously. Among Protestants, one way \nin which Christ\u2019s teachings are most seriously misrepresented lies in the ten\u00ac \ndency to think of him as \u201cascended into heaven\u201d with the inference that his \nfc>rk is done, that he suffers no more. The hymns commonly sung at Easter \nH& Ascensiontide\u2014many of which are supremely beautiful\u2014unfortunately \nemphasize this misunderstanding: \u201cAll his woes are over now, And the passion \nthat he bore; sin and pain can vex no more\u201d. \u201cChrist our King to heaven \n\n\n220 THE 0 S 0 PHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nascendeth, Past the blue sky\u2019s utmost bound\u201d. \u201cThou art gone up on high \nTo mansions in the skies\u201d. And so forth. In their anxiety to emphasize his \ndivinity, the orthodox have not only exiled him from earth but from his own \nhumanity, while he, for ever toiling in our midst, not only suffers, but, as he has \nsaid, suffers more to-day from the ingratitude of men than from all the agonies \nof his Passion,\u2014suffers, too, from the realization that, owing to the failure \nof men to respond, their agony, and his, instead of being \u201cover \u2019, are being \nprolonged needlessly, cruelly, indefinitely. \n\nI place this misunderstanding first, because it is perhaps the most dangerous \nof any. How can people be adequately grateful for a sacrifice, no matter how \ngreat, if made and finished nearly two thousand years ago! Human nature \nis not capable of that; but it perhaps would be capable of gratitude, and of a \ndeep desire to repay and serve, if the love and suffering and sacrifice were \nseen as of to-day and as continuous. \n\nOnce more, however, we cannot remove the misunderstanding by attack\u00ac \ning it; we should quietly take it for granted, in our contact with the open- \nminded, that he still lives and labours among us, and that it is our own fault, \nour own blindness, if we do not see and know him. \n\nAnother superstition that is subversive of Christ\u2019s influence, that tends to \ndefeat his purposes, is Humanitarianism: improve living conditions in this \nworld, it is suggested, and the next will take care of itself. If you think of \nman and work for his material well-being, God will be so pleased with you \nthat he will not care if you never think about him. And this again is a form of \nlaziness, because people find it easier to rush at somebody whom they think \nthey can improve, than to rush from themselves toward God. \n\nThe logical outcome of Humanitarianism is Sovietism, Bolshevism. The \nBolshevist claims to be working for the greatest good of the greatest number, \nand interprets \u201cgood\u201d as signifying worldly happiness. Waiving the fact that \nthe greatest sorrows, sufferings and joys of life are entirely personal, and are \nin no way affected by the economic system under which men live, let us \nconsider for a moment the theory of Sovietism in practice. Private owner\u00ac \nship, they argue, is the cause of all evil; ownership must be collective. In \n1932, Stalin and the rest of them decided that, having collectivized industry \nand commerce, the time had come to collectivize also the farming of Russia. \nThere were twenty-five million small holdings, the large estates having been \nseized by the peasants during the revolution. These, Stalin said, must be \nmerged in big State farms of twenty-five thousand acres each, the peasants \nto work on these farms, collectively, for the benefit of the entire population. \nBut the peasants did not like the idea of working as slaves under government \noverseers; so their first response was to kill nearly seventy per cent of their \nlive-stock,\u2014horses, cattle, sheep included. It will take thirty years, some \ncalculate, to bring back to normal the number of animals Russia should possess. \n\nThis destruction of live-stock was not instigated by conspirators; it spread \nlike an epidemic throughout the country. Humanitarian discipline, however, \nhad to be maintained; so, to chasten the peasant; to gouge him out of his little \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n221 \n\n\nfarm, and to force him into the collective system, the Soviet, which was the \nonly legitimate buyer of produce, paid him next to nothing for it, thus making \nit impossible for him to obtain clothing, matches, oil and the other necessities \nof life. But the peasant could not see the justice of this procedure, and asked \nhimself why he should labour if he were not to be paid for it,\u2014why grow wheat, \nfor instance, if, in exchange, he were not able to obtain something else that \nhe needed. So he decided to grow no more than would feed his family and \nhimself. Stalin and his associates discovered what had happened. They \nsent out an army of inquisitors who seized everything the peasant had grown \nfor his own use\u2014leaving him and his family to starve, that the true Bolshevists \nmight live. It has been admitted by Bolshevist authorities that from three to \nfive million peasants, including women and children, starved to death in 1932. \nHumanitarianism, carried to its logical end! Now, we are told, private hold\u00ac \nings, small farms, no longer exist. The surviving peasants have become State \nproperty. \n\nThe majority of Humanitarians\u2014that is to say, of those who, calling them\u00ac \nselves Christians, think, when at all, in terms of a materialistic, this-world, \nnever-mind-the-other-world philosophy\u2014would be indignant if classed as \nBolshevists. All the more need, therefore, to remind them, as opportunity \noffers, of where the logic of their behaviour leads. The truth of course is that \nthey are trying, like most people, to \u201cstraddle\u201d. \n\nAnother perversion of Christianity, promulgated to-day from many pulpits, \nis Pacifism. So much has been said about it, however, at previous Conven\u00ac \ntions, that to attempt to add anything would be superfluous. None the less, \njust as Humanitarianism rarely sees to what it leads, so is there grave danger \nwhenever the idea of so-called Christian fellowship becomes dominant. Preach\u00ac \ners do not always recognize the logical outcome of their injunctions. For \nexample, there is a clergyman in London whose addresses are broadcast, and \nwhose ideas on many subjects seem to be refreshingly theosophical in tendency; \nbut does he realize that, teaching half-truths, people will be justified in drawing \ndetestable inferences from what he says? Thus, in a recent article, published \nin a popular Sunday paper, he states: \u201cJesus declared also that the main pur\u00ac \npose of our existence\u2014the greatest and best offering that we could make to \nthe glory of God\u2014was honest and unselfish human fellowship, the fellowship \nthat knows no barriers of nation or class or sect, the fellowship in which each \nworks eagerly for the common good\u201d. Apart from the fact that this senti\u00ac \nment appears, at least, to waive what the Catechism, and religion in all its \nforms, declare to be fundamental and primary: \u201cthy duty towards God\u201d, \nnamely, \u201cto love him with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, \nand with all my strength; to worship him, to give him thanks\u201d, and so forth\u2014a \nrequirement which, as I have already suggested, the Humanitarian ignores \nwhen he does not deride it\u2014apart from this reversal of the religious sequence, \nthe^^ragraph I have quoted means, in practice\u2014especially in the mouth \nof a clergyman\u2014that it is \u201cunchristian\u201d to proclaim the truth about Soviet \nRussia, about Italy and Ethiopia, about Hitler\u2019s Germany,\u2014seeing that all \n\n\n\n222 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nis white, and there is no such thing as black. Hitler, for instance, says he wants \npeace, as everyone wants peace; so of course Hitler means what he says: there\u00ac \nfore we should welcome Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, as friends and brothers, in \none universal \u201chuman fellowship\u201d. It is mawkish,\u2014a monstrous perversion \nof Christ\u2019s teaching. \n\nThe truth is that this \u201cfellowship that knows no barriers of nation or class \nor sect\u201d, though it sounds theosophical, and would be theosophical if it were \nproperly understood ,\u2014is based, in most cases, upon the common error of regard\u00ac \ning the manifested world, in which duality prevails, as if the unity of the un\u00ac \nmanifest ought to govern our approach to things and people and our daily \nconduct. The result of such an error is, inevitably, hopeless confusion, though \nit is frequently mistaken for idealism and spirituality. Duality is the law \nof existence, and this means that good and evil, like light and darkness, are \nfacts, and that any effort to gloss over the gulf between them is vicious. \n\nMisunderstanding of the Vedanta produces the same illusion\u2014that because \nof fundamental Unity, duality does not exist\u2014and therefore the same wrong \nattitude: there is no difference, they say, between an honest woman and her \nopposite. \n\nIf any man can look within his own nature, and then can study history, \nwithout finding proof and to spare of duality, we can only say we are sorry \nfor him; and we, as students of Theosophy, must do what we can to remove \nthe misunderstanding, to clear away the confusion, and to nullify one of the \ngreat hindrances to Christ\u2019s work in the world. It is a shame and a disgrace \nthat churches working in his name, supposed to exist for his purposes, should \nbetray him in these ways. Christ hated evil and unsparingly denounced it; \nloved righteousness, as he loved truth and beauty, and proclaimed his love in \nword and act. Was he \u201cunchristian\u201d when, speaking of Herod, he said, \u201cGo \nye, and tell that fox\u201d, or, when condemning the Scribes and Pharisees, he \npoured forth a torrent of invective such as has never been equalled in liter\u00ac \nature? He was not, is not, \u201ca desiccated pansy\u201d, to use the phrase of The Occidt \nWorld , or the \u201cpale Galilean\u201d of Swinburne, but a man of intense and pas\u00ac \nsionate feeling, of consuming indignation surging from the white-hot furnace \nof his love. Was there ever bitterness that surpassed the bitterness of his, \n\u201cNevertheless I must walk [go on my way] to-day, and to-morrow, and the day \nfollowing: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem\u201d,\u2014followed \ninstantly by the heart-broken love from which the bitterness sprang: \u201c0 \nJerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are \nsent unto thee: how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a \nhen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!\u201d \n\nPerhaps, before you die, some of you will be permitted to confront the \u201csocial- \nminded\u201d, or anaemic, or ritualistic, or anti-ritualistic, or apologetic, or peace- \nat-any-price Christian of to-day, with this other, truer picture of that Master \nas he is. \n\nSo far we have been considering Christianity from within. Now let us con\u00ac \nsider it from without, thinking of those who do not belong, even nominally, \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n223 \n\n\nto any Church, and who perhaps regard themselves as permanently estranged \nfrom such associations. \n\nThere can be no need to discuss dogmatic materialism. Theosophy cannot \nhelp those who are satisfied with their incredulity; still less can it bring light \nto those who have turned incredulity into a collection of negative dogmas, \nfanatically, narrow-mindedly maintained,\u2014whether in the name of science, \nor as an exhibition of universal scepticism, makes no difference. People of that \nkind, however, are few in comparison with the many who are not satisfied \nwith what they have, and who long sincerely at times in any case for more \nlight. There are splendid people among them, and granting, as we have agreed, \n\nI think, that Theosophy is for the very few; granting that the Lodge would help \nthe many if it could, and at the same time help the Churches, it follows that \nit should be the particular mission of members of our Society to show these \npeople that the Churches need them at least as much as they need the Churches. \nSo many of them say in effect that they respect and admire Christ, but that \nthey \u201ccannot stand\u201d the Church (no matter which). Suggest to them, in \nthat case, that Christ, whose banner that Church displays, may find \u201cstanding \nit\u201d even harder than they do! Why not help him to make it what it ought \nto be? Clearly the need is to bring the Churches, one by one, more closely \ninto line with the spirit and purpose and doctrine of Christ which, as we \nknow, is Theosophy, although it would be a mistake to attach that or any \nother label to the basic fact, without which nothing can be accomplished \u2014 \nthe fact that Christ is a living Master, an eternal, ever-present reality, as much \nin the world, though not of it, as he was when incarnated in Palestine, or when \nhe talked and ate with his disciples after his Resurrection. \n\nSometimes, on the other hand, you will meet with those who claim to have \nstudied the subject seriously, but who, when you question them, are obliged \nto admit that they have read a few books such as Frazer\u2019s Golden Bough, and \nno more,\u2014enough to convince them, however, that all religions and religious \nsymbolism spring from primitive nature-worship (the return of Spring and so \nforth), or from ancestor-worship, or from things concerning sex; or, perhaps, \nthat the mythologies of Greece and Rome, the dramas of the Mysteries, and \nthe \u201clegendary\u201d lives of Avatars, Christ included, portray the motions of \nplanets through the signs of the Zodiac,\u2014from which they infer that neither \nChrist nor Buddha was an historical character, and that the ritual, ceremonies \nand festivals of Christianity, admittedly Pagan in origin, instead of hajn g \nprofound spiritual significance, are echoes, merely, of primitive blood-saq\u00bbs. \nor of one or another of the alleged early superstitions I have named. Then \nyou will have your opportunity to explain that blood-sacrifices and similar \nevils were the misinterpretations, by degenerate (not primitive) races, of the \nAncient Wisdom, which said originally, as it says to-day, that the lower nature \nmust be slain before the soul can rise from \u201cits dead self\u201d to immortal con\u00ac \nsciousness and power. You will be able to explain, too, the doctrine of corre\u00ac \nspondences; that the universe is one; that the laws governing the spiritual \n1 an d real world are reflected in the laws of external nature, that the return of \n\n\n\n\n\n224 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nSpring, the motions of the planets, and so forth, typify, and are the natural \ncorrespondence of, the life and evolution of the soul,\u2014outer and visible signs, \nas it were, of an inward and spiritual process. \n\nAll Avatars\u2014and Christ was an Avatar\u2014were \u201cthe Word made flesh\u201d, were \nat one with the Logos or Oversoul, and therefore lived in spontaneous, instinc\u00ac \ntive obedience to universal law. Their lives and actions corresponded to, and \nsymbolized, everything real in the universe, from the soul of man to a grain \nof wheat. To infer that because a life has universal implications, it can have \nno reality in itself, is so illogical as to be absurd. \n\nIncidentally\u2014though you are unlikely to encounter this\u2014it has been left \nto certain self-styled theosophists (not of the Society) to maintain that the \nchief significance of the life of Christ, which they regard as primarily mythical, \nis to be found, by way of the Zodiac, in its correspondence with the use (mis\u00ac \nuse) of the Chakras,\u2014the great nerve centres in the physical and astral bodies. \nBy concentrating on these centres in a certain sequence, you will attain, they \nsay, spirituality. But what really happens? As a result of such concentration, \nthese people see wheels going round in their heads, literally, and are inordi\u00ac \nnately proud of those wheels; they attain a very low grade of psychic experi\u00ac \nence, which in some cases amounts to psychic intoxication,\u2014having as little \nto do with spirituality as have states of consciousness induced by alcohol. \nIt is a depraved and degenerate form of Hinduism, leading directly to black \nmagic. \n\nBut you will not have to deal with perversities of that kind, except in rare \ncases, as you carry your understanding into the world. The man who is not \nactuated by curiosity, or by a desire for \u201cpowers\u201d, but, instead, by a sincere \ndesire for the truth, does not fall into that kind of error. Nor is he concerned \nabout theology, or with intellectual hair-splitting. Trying, as I have already \nsuggested, to meet him where he stands, we must use illustrations and argu\u00ac \nments based upon what he already knows and has experienced , or, in any case, \nthat do not conflict with what he recognizes as common-sense. We shall be \ndealing with those whom the clergy have been utterly unable to reach, which \nmeans that our methods must be very different from theirs,\u2014must, in other \nwords, be theosophical, not stereotyped. \u201cAlways talk to a man\u2019s soul\u201d, Judge \nused to say,\u2014by which he meant, among other things: believe that the man, \njust behind or above his personality, already knows these things, and that all \nyou need do is to remind him of them. You may be asked to reconcile seem\u00ac \ning contradictions. For instance, the Apostles\u2019 Creed says that Christ \u201cas\u00ac \ncended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty\u201d; \nhow, then, can Christ still be in the world, and, if you believe that he is, how \naccept the Creed? But suppose you question in your turn: just where is \u201cthe \nright hand of God\u201d? Surely no one would suggest that God occupies a partic\u00ac \nular spot in space to the exclusion of all other spots; surely, wherever Christ is, \nis \u201cthe right hand of God\u201d. \n\nHelp people to think; but above all let us keep vividly in our own minds and \nhearts the conviction, the realization, that the Lodge is the greatest reality \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n227 \n\n\n_ Cr r\\r\\ ir\u00bbctppr1 of the usual \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES 225 \n\nin life, and that Christ represents the Lodge in this western hemisphere, \nis the Lodge, in effect, for those whose natural approach to it he is. For it \nis our own realization that counts; it is this that carries light and hope, the \nrealization that the inner world, the \u201ckingdom of heaven with all its denizens, \nis not remote from this world, but as much here in our midst as anywhere. \nInterpenetration is not the right word because of its materialistic implications. \nI am speaking of states of consciousness, and the further away we get from \nmatter, the nearer we get to the truth that consciousness can blend with con\u00ac \nsciousness regardless of space. It can be said that Christ, infinitely more real \nas an individual than any of us, is also the light and life within all of us who are \nhis children. Nomenclature is of no importance. Some may choose to call \nthat inner light the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. When they find it, they will \nnot worry about its name. But we should avoid the use of foreign terms at this \nstage of the cycle; they have served their purpose; and to describe something \nas Atma or Buddhi, when addressing an inquirer, would display our igno\u00ac \nrance, not our wisdom. As missionaries, we must often use Christian terms, \nbut must immensely broaden and deepen their significance. \n\nAbove all we must insist that the work of Christ is only beginning; that \nthe Churches, instead of representing him, necessarily can only represent the \nworld, even though it be some of the best that is in the world, and that not \nonly the clergy, but every so-called Christian, should strive with all his might \nto discover the next step away from the world toward the eternal and the real. \nIf they will do that, they will find Christ ready and more than ready to help \nthem; will find him grateful\u2014miracle though it seem\u2014for their least desire \nto help him; will find him to be human, divinely human, and therefore lament\u00ac \ning over the world as over Jerusalem of old (pray heaven not over us too): \u201cIf \nthou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong \nunto thy peace!\u201d \n\nIf we, by our devotion and understanding, can carry that much light into \nthe darkness around us, that much of radiant stillness into the confusion and \nturmoil of to-day\u2019s existence, we shall be preparing the way of the next Lodge \nMessenger, shall be making his paths straight, and thus shall be fulfilling the \nmission of our membership in this Society, established, over sixty years ago, \nas the link between the Lodge and the noblest aspirations of mankind. \n\nThis report having been accepted, after certain announcements had been \nmade the Convention adjourned until 2.30 p. m. \n\nAfternoon Session \n\nThe Chairman: Before we proceed to the report of the Nominating Com\u00ac \nmittee, the Chairman would ask permission to revert to the theme with which \nhe dealt this morning, but where it has become clear that one point was not \nmade as sharply and definitely as it should have been. The point is of such \nflkal moment not because it is new\u2014it has been spoken of again and again \nmour Conventions\u2014but because upon it the continuance of the Theosophical \nMovement directly depends. \n\n\n226 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nIt is this: If the Movement is to continue it must produce chelas. \n\nThis morning I left this too general and abstract, and spoke rather more \nof ch 61 aship than of ch\u00a3las. I talked of an ascending current of love and aspira\u00ac \ntion, of devotion and self-giving,\u2014all of which concerns us in a way. But it \nis not definite enough. What is needed is the production of individual ch\u00a3las. \nLove and aspiration, if they end in themselves as love and aspiration, are not \nenough in this crisis. What we want of them is that they should produce ch 61 as. \nThey are like the rising sap in a plant. If that plant is to continue, the rising \nsap must produce individual flowers and fruit and seeds. And then the indi\u00ac \nvidual seed must germinate and grow. This is the only way that type of plant \ncan continue to exist. \n\nSo with the Theosophical Movement. Its continued existence in the world \ndepends upon the continued production of individual chelas. Love and aspira\u00ac \ntion, like the ascending sap in the tree, are necessary for their production, \nbut they are only a means to an end, not the end itself. Each generation of \nstudents must produce new seed. \n\nQuite simply, that means that some of you here in this room must cease to \nbe content with loving and aspiring and having good feelings, some or all of \nthe time. It means that you must make those good feelings transform you \ninto ch 61 as, or else that you must forget about your feelings, whether good or \nbad, and lay hold of something that will transform you into ch 61 as. It is \nand must be an individual matter. In reality all accomplishment comes back \nto individual accomplishment. But nothing is more an individual matter \nthan ch 61 aship. \n\nI want to make this point as sharply as I can. The continuance of the Move\u00ac \nment depends upon at least one individual becoming a ch 61 a, and one of the \nthings that can really help him is the effort to the same end by other individ\u00ac \nuals. Who are they? It behooves each to ask himself as to his own effort. \n\nThe report of the Committee on Nominations was then called for. \n\nReport of the Committee on Nominations \n\nMr. Miller nominated the following officers for re-election: Mr. Hargrove \nand Mr. Saxe as members of the Executive Committee; Miss Perkins as Secre\u00ac \ntary; Miss Chickering as Assistant Secretary; Mr. H. B. Mitchell as Treasurer, \nand Mr. Kobbd as Assistant Treasurer. It was voted that the Secretary of the \nConvention be instructed to cast one ballot for the election of officers as nomi\u00ac \nnated, and that the Committee be discharged with thanks. \n\nMr. H. B. Mitchell, reporting as Treasurer T.S., presented the year\u2019s \nfinancial statement for which he expressed his thanks to Mr. Kobb6. He \ncalled attention to the fact that, while the present balance in the bank ex\u00ac \nceeded that of last year, it did not cover the prospective printer\u2019s bill for the \nnext two issues of the Quarterly. Those bills had to be charged against it, \nbecause all subscribers were notified that, two issues having been omitted this \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n227 \n\n\nyear, they need pay, for the coming year, only $1.00 instead of the usual \n$2.00. When this was taken into account, the apparent surplus was turned \ninto a very real deficit, which would have to be met as in the past, by voluntary \ncontributions. This report having been accepted with thanks to the Treasurer \nand the Assistant Treasurer, the Committee on Resolutions was asked to \nreport. \n\n\nReport of the Committee on Resolutions \n\nMr. Hargrove: I am relying upon Dr. Torrey to make the real report \nof this Committee. No matter what either of us may say, however, you will \nhave to infer your own specific resolutions, each one for himself, because we \nshall not suggest them, and because what we shall say will be futile unless \npersonal resolutions result. I shall now try to speak on two texts. One is, \n\u201cMan, know thyself\u201d, which goes back to Hermes and long before him; the \nother is, \u201cMan is the mirror of the universe\u201d, which goes back to Pythagoras \nand long before him. They are antediluvian. There is nothing modem about \nthem whatever. \n\nAll of us are familiar with the teaching of the seven principles of man. Some \nof you will remember Mr. Judge\u2019s oft-repeated statement that everything in \nlife and in nature should be interpreted in the light of the seven principles. \nThere is the upper triad: spirit, spiritual soul, and the higher mind, or Atma, \nBuddhi, Manas\u2014although that, of course, is exoteric. Then in the lower \nquaternary there are the lower mind, and Kama or desire; there are Prana or \nthe life force, and the Linga Sarira or astral body,\u2014once more, exoteric. It \nwill be simpler, for our purpose this afternoon, to think of the upper triad \nas the immortal part of man, and of the lower quaternary as the personality. \nMan being the mirror of the universe, we find that the hierarchy which he is \nby nature (before he has perverted his nature), reflects the hierarchical princi\u00ac \nple which is manifest everywhere in the universe around him, except where, \nas in himself, he has turned things upside down; for the vast majority of \nmen, instead of being governed by the immortal part of themselves, are gov\u00ac \nerned by the personality,\u2014which means that they are governed by their own \nmob, by their own demos\u2014their elemental inclinations and desires. This is \nwhy man is the demos-controlled animal which he is to-day, and why the whole \nworld is in a state of such deplorable confusion. The hierarchical principle, \ninherent in Nature both seen and unseen, was intended to inspire and guide \nthe evolution of man as of all else; what we find, however, is that though \u201cGod \nhath made man upright\u201d, with heart and mind above the rest of him, he has \n\u201csought out many inventions\u201d, with the result that he is either an anarchist, \nor is governed by men whose only claim to authority is that they are repre\u00ac \nsentative, not of the best, not even of some average or middle point between \nthe higher and lower natures, but of the selfishness or ambition or greed or \nrapacity of those elemental inclinations and desires which, collectively, are \nthe mob. You may recall the Psalmist: \u201cThus they provoked Him to anger \nwith their inventions; and the plague brake in upon them.\u201d In any case, we \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n228 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhave plagues and to spare; while as yet we have no Phinehas (as the story \ncontinues) to \u201cstand up\u201d and \u201cexecute judgment\u201d: so our plagues are not \nstayed, and never will be until humanity becomes willing to accept the ruler- \nship of God-instructed men. \n\nThis doctrine of the higher and lower nature of man, and of a similar duality \nthroughout the manifested universe, needs to be emphasized, as I suggested \nthis morning, by all students of Theosophy. Failure to understand and to \nact upon it, is responsible for many evils,\u2014a false and sentimental idealism \namong them. Philosophers and even pedagogues have argued that all men \nare bom good, and that it is only because of cruel or domineering parents, \nwho cross our infantile wills, and of other forms of inharmonious environment, \nthat we grow into something bad,\u2014that we develop a lower nature. The same \nmisunderstanding existed in China, thousands of years ago, and still exists \nthere, and, as usual, is the perversion of a theosophical truth, taught in the \nancient Mysteries,\u2014the truth that man\u2019s origin was spiritual. But in the \nMysteries they taught also that, since his origin, man has not only \u201cfallen \ninto matter\u201d, but by self-will has perverted all his faculties to selfish ends: \nand this is what the exoteric idealist often overlooks. It is not a new topic. \nIn Queen Victoria\u2019s day, one of her Ministers, Lord Palmerston, during a \nholiday, made a speech on Education in which he declared, possibly from hav\u00ac \ning no experience of them, that \u201call children are bom good\u201d. Disraeli, allud\u00ac \ning to this shortly afterwards, remarked that \u201cthe noble Viscount, among \nother pleasant means of passing his vacation, had abolished Original Sin\u201d! \nSome of us know, to our cost, that our Original Sin is not so easily abolished. \n\nBut the most important aspect of my subject is that, because of this duality \nin manifested Nature, so marked in man,\u2014necessarily his life, and the life of \nthe universe itself, is a ceaseless conflict, with the corollary that conflict is \nnot an evil, but is essential to health and growth. The most terrible of all \nconflicts, because incessant, age-long, is that between the Powers of Light and \nthose of Darkness,\u2014between the White Lodge and the Black, fighting for the \nsouls of men. That most people no longer believe in the Devil, who was, after \nall, the symbol of a dreadful reality, a synthetic representation of the Powers \nof Darkness, is a victory for them for which they had long been working, see\u00ac \ning that\u2014to use a homely illustration\u2014if you do not believe in the existence \nof burglars, you do not lock your doors. It is less easy, therefore, to revive \na belief in the inevitableness of spiritual warfare than otherwise it would be. \n\nThis morning I attempted to denounce the practice of turning historical \nfacts, such as the incarnation of Christ, into solar myths and similar things. \n\nI meant every word I said and a great deal more; but I want to consider now \nthe symbology involved in the lives of Avatars and in the great legends of \nantiquity. For instance, the life and death of Christ, and his resurrection, \ntypify the struggle of the soul to dominate the personality, and illustrate \nthe truth that compromise in that struggle is impossible, for as soon as the \npersonality strives to co-operate with, or to submit to, the immortal part of \nitself, it discovers, among other things, that it must die if it is to rise again; \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n229 \n\n\nthat the sense of separateness must be extirpated if immortality is to be \nattained. \n\nOrthodox Christians are unwilling to think much of the reality of Christ\u2019s \nstruggle with himself. They read of the struggle in Gethsemane; but Christ\u2019s \nlife must have been a struggle from infancy to the moment of his death. He \nwas a descendant of David: what does that mean in terms of heredity? Does \nit suggest a long line of saintliness? Nothing of the kind. Part of the sacrifice \nhe made in incarnating was the realization that he would have to deal with \nand conquer and use (instead of being used by) that terrible heredity. Our \nlot is different, because he volunteered for his, while our heredity was the prod\u00ac \nuct, or physical expression, of psychic causes set going by ourselves in the \npast. The struggle, therefore, is justly ours. \n\nThe Zodiac too, though less suggestive of struggle, symbolizes the ascending \nstages through which man must pass until he rises above personal limitations. \n\u201cMan is the mirror of the universe.\u201d Wherever we look, outside ourselves, \nwe should seek the correspondence within ourselves. The Zodiac and the \nplanetary influences exist within us as well as outside us; and that they exist \nwithin us, does not mean that the external is unreal, any more than the sym\u00ac \nbology of the life of an Avatar implies that his life was not historically real. \nIt would not only deprive life of much of its beauty, but would really \nbe morally stultifying if we were to think of old legends merely as legends. \nConsider the story of King Arthur and his knights, and the Round Table. \nKing Arthur existed. He may not have spelled his name just as we do, but \nhe existed and so did his knights and the Round Table; and because, in their \nday, Arthur and his knights represented the Theosophical Movement, they \ntypified or symbolized universal truths, much as do the life and activities of \nan Avatar. The Grail reveals the very heart of Christianity\u2014was and is that \nheart\u2014as it was the heart of the Egyptian Lodge. The sword Excalibur, as \nreal as the sword of Joan of Arc, typified also, by the law of correspondences, \nthe sword of knowledge, the sword of spiritual understanding; so that when \nit was indrawn to the world of its origin (and you know what indrawal signifies) \n\u2014indrawn only through the persistence of the dying Arthur, by being thrown^ \ninto the \u201cmere\u201d\u2014there arose to meet it, \u201can arm, clothed in white samite, \nmystic, wonderful, and caught him by the hilt, and brandished him three \ntimes, and drew him under in the mere\u201d. The marvel of that scene, as you \nread of it, is more than a prayer, for it is of to-day and of eternity, living for \never in our souls, even as Arthur and his sword from heaven are part of the \nMovement as we are part of it. \n\nAlways there is reality as well as symbolism. Why doubt that the Hiram \nAbiff, \u201cthe widow\u2019s son\u201d, of the Bible and Masonry, actually lived?\u2014though \nth^tories connected with his name are symbolic of the struggle of man to \nbecame man, of man\u2019s possible attainment of immortality, as may be found \nby reading between the lines of that part of St. Paul\u2019s Epistle to the Corin\u00ac \nthians which is quoted in the burial service. \n\n\u201cMan is the mirror of the universe.\u201d \u201cAs above, so below.\u201d Therefore\u2014 \n\n\n230 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nfollowing what was said by Professor Mitchell this morning about the next \nLodge Messenger and the Forerunner\u2014since neither Forerunner nor Lodge \nMessenger will be able to do anything for us, nor we for them, unless we have \nattained a good measure of discipleship, let us try to realize that discipleship \nof any degree is impossible except on the basis of my texts. For how could it \nbe possible unless man contained potentially within himself (latent, it is true, \nbut none the less potential) all the wisdom and power that the greatest of the \nMasters possess? Spiritual growth could not be imagined otherwise. \u201cKnow \nthyself.\u201d \n\nAmong us there are many who want discipleship; some who strive for it. \n(I am not speaking for the moment of chelaship. It is arbitrary, perhaps, but \nI make a distinction between discipleship, which is the preliminary step, and \nchelaship, which is the completion of discipleship.) But, among those who \nwant discipleship, self-knowledge is not often to be found. Otherwise there \nwould be fewer who seek it on their own terms,\u2014who will learn from this per\u00ac \nson and not from that; at one time and not at another time. What they really \nwant is their own will, and they deceive themselves when they think they \nwant discipleship, seeing that discipleship means self-surrender. There is no \nuse playing at these things. It is a matter of life and death or it means noth\u00ac \ning. All through the history of the Movement you find people who played \nat it. Some of them said they wanted \u201cfreedom of soul\u201d,\u2014and that is the \nsoul\u2019s desire for itself: to be set free from this infernal prison-house in which \nit is bound. But the personality interprets that desire to suit itself, making \nits own freedom the objective. As if the personality could be free! On that \nplane, there is no such thing as freedom, for you are subject either to your \nlower nature or you are subject to your higher nature. Nazi youth tries to \nsolve the problem by proclaiming: \u201cWe spit at freedom\u201d,\u2014not elegant, but \nliteral. What does that actually mean, however? It means subjection to some\u00ac \none other than themselves but on the same plane as themselves: merely another \nform of self-assertion, seeing that all opposites are forms of the same thing. \n\nWe, as students of Theosophy, know that there is but one solution. Dante \npointed it out: \u201cIn His will is our peace.\u201d No progress is possible, or even \nconceivable, until we are saturated with that conviction. Only then, only \nas we try steadfastly to live in obedience to that principle, can we discover \nthat our freedom is His freedom, because the two wills have become one; and \nthat the only true freedom to be attained anywhere in life, is in that union. \n\nSome may think with a groan that this means a life of everlasting struggle. \nI wish it did. The trouble is that in most cases it does not. Would-be disciples, \nas a rule, finally attain a certain level which they think is good enough, and \nthen are unaware of any struggle going on within them. They may have \nmade real progress up to that point, but, clearly, if we are not aware of struggle, \nit means that we are no longer struggling; and because, in the spiritual life, we \ncannot stand still, absence of struggle means that we are sliding back instead \nof moving forward. For all of life is struggle; the very existence of our muscles \ndepends upon the hourly conquest of resistance. Without that, they would \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n231 \n\n\natrophy. In this world, struggle is essential to life; death is synonymous with \ncomplete relaxation. \n\nI was impressed not long ago when I read that the late Empress Eugdnie \n(and few people have been more battered by life than she was) constantly \nquoted the saying of Saint Chrysostom: \u201cIt takes shipwrecks to make a \nseaman\u201d. She had been shipwrecked in more ways than one, time after time, \nand, always a woman of courage, the more she was battered, the more she \nlearned, and the more superb her courage and poise became. \n\nCh&laship, as I have said, is the completion of discipleship; but at all stages \nwe need to think of the spirit we are trying to express in action. Yet, if we \ncannot as yet conceive of the spirit, let us begin at the other end,\u2014begin where \nwe are. Find out as much as you can about ch\u00a3laship, from books and other \nsources, and then, so far as you can, act \u201cas if\u201d you were a ch&la. Only in this \nway, we have been told, will the spirit of it become clear to us, though, from \nthe very beginning, we should seek every indication of what that spirit may \nbe. Begin, because it is easier, with negatives. The spirit we seek will be \nfar-removed from the spirit of complaint and self-pity, of pretence and vanity, \nand so forth. Then, let us seize, as we can, intimations of the true spirit,\u2014 \nfragments of it, at best, since only such books as Light on the Path and 7 he \nVoice of the Silence can give us more than fragments. I was reading, not long \nago, the account by a medical officer in the R.A.M.C. of an incident in the \nGreat War. He was serving with the Ninth Lancers, and in the retreat from \nMons the Ninth Lancers were trying to hinder the German advance so that the \ninfantry could retire. A half-squadron of Lancers under Colonel David Camp\u00ac \nbell charged right through a squadron and a half of German cavalry. When \nit was over, the medical officer rushed to the field where this had occurred. \nHe saw a man lying on the ground whom he recognized as his Colonel, found \nhe had a revolver wound in the leg, a lance wound in the shoulder, and a sword \nwound in the arm. As he knelt to dress the wounds he said, \u201cI am sorry to \nfind you like this, sir.\u201d Campbell looked up and replied: \u201cNot at all, my boy, \nnot at all\u2014Eve just had the best quarter of an hour I ever had in my life.\u201d \nThat man had ridden the winner of the Grand National, and had had various \nremarkable experiences; so he probably knew what he meant when he spoke \nof a good quarter of an hour! Within a few weeks, the Colonel was back at th< \nfront, leading his regiment. One of his subalterns commented: \u201c \u2018David\u2019 \nsome day go down and chase Satan out of hell!\u2019 As General Sir David Cai \nbell, that same man died not many weeks ago, after showing extraordinary \ntact, consideration, as well as firmness, while serving during difficult times \nas Governor of Malta. \n\nI am far from suggesting that that incident reveals the whole spirit of ch61a- \nship; but is it not true that most of us need more of the spirit such incidents \nreveal? It would go a long way to lift us above the slough in which we are \nliving. Just a fraction of the spirit of chelaship, that is all; but I do not see \nw w anything resembling chelaship can be attained without that, and a great \nSal more. \n\n\nw* \n\nmp- \n\n\n\n\n232 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nTherefore, I would suggest that, in addition to our daily, our hourly efforts, \nwe should do what we can to feed ourselves on splendid pictures of self-effac\u00ac \ning heroism, of nobility, of devotion, of rising above the wounds and distresses \nof life, that we may rejoice in the spirit of the Masters, feeling that whenever \nwe enter that world of our best desire, we are close to them,\u2014because that \nspirit is part of their spirit. Let us draw what we can from the literature of \nthe world, and pick and choose, each man for himself, and find for himself \nhis own inspiration, his own ideal, his own longing, and then realize that recog\u00ac \nnition would be impossible if he did not contain all this within' his own heart \nand will. We are not, in fact, the worms we sometimes seem to be. Potentially , \nwe are Masters; and, thank heaven, the Lords of heaven see what we may and \nought to become and shall become, rather than the weakness and the failure. \nSo we may build our hope on their hope, our faith on their faith, and draw \nfrom them the determination, in spite of our weakness, for their sakes to \nconquer. \n\nDr. Torrey: In the little corner of the world where some of us meet weekly \nto discuss things in general, we have become increasingly aware of the terrible \nsituation which prevails in American education, in government, and in social \nlife. It is a thoroughly disturbing and disheartening revelation, because, \nafter all, many of us are Americans of long standing, and it is not pleasant to \nfeel that one is fast becoming an alien in one\u2019s own land and that its ideals \nare utterly foreign to one\u2019s own. Most of us can admit that the things which \nwe hate most in America\u2014its arrogance, its preference for glamorous dreams \nover reality, its tawdry coarseness, its dishonesty, its laziness\u2014are likewise \nwithin ourselves, spun into the very texture of our personalities. Perhaps \nthat is why we hate them so. \n\nWe have sought for some distinctive and true American ideal; we have \nwished to discover something to which we might be loyal\u2014something as truly \nAmerican as we feel England to be truly England: the England of Kipling, \nof Conrad\u2019s Lord Jim , and Galsworthy\u2019s Old Jolyon Forsyte. And we are trou\u00ac \nbled that we cannot find it. If America has a soul it is in the realm of things \nto be, or else it cannot make its voice heard in the present din of screaming \nelementals. \n\nIt is usually in a nation\u2019s history, or perhaps in its original declarations of \npurpose, that its ideals appear. So, searching back through our history to our \nbeginnings, we have come to those men, those documents, and those acts which \nmade us a nation. Yes, to Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin, to the Declara\u00ac \ntion of Independence and the Constitution, to the Revolutionary War. But \nwe quickly discovered that the ideals of government and society formulated \nat that time were not original. The trail led us across the ocean to France, and \nwe found ourselves entangled in Masonry and the Deist Movement of the \n17th Century; then back through Newton, Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus, to the \nRenaissance, and back of that to the Middle Ages, to Thomas Aquinas, Aris\u00ac \ntotle, Plato. \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n233 \n\n\nSo I should like to start at the far end of the series and briefly deal with \nsome of these historical factors, pointing out as well as I can, who am no his\u00ac \ntorian, the ancient forces which went to make America what she is to-day. \nThen perchance we may get some light on a possible way of egress from a dark \nand dangerous situation. We have been told that Great Ones fall back, even \nfrom the threshold of Nirvana, and it does not seem that a group of warring \nelementals can perpetuate itself indefinitely: a nation\u2019s soul may be lost just \nas the soul of an individual may be lost. \n\nWe are all familiar with the story of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. \n\nIt is told in more or less varying terms depending upon the Roman Catholic \nor the Protestant affiliation of the narrator. But as it is set forth in our school \nbooks, it is generally biassed in a scientific-Protestant direction. It is written \nby historians who pride themselves upon their coldly objective viewpoint, \nlittle realizing that such a viewpoint is in itself but partial, since it leaves out of \naccount the very values which have often made history. \n\nThere was poverty, there was squalor, ignorance and superstition, but there \nwas also mysticism and theosophy in that world of the Middle Ages. The \nmodern so-scholarly world is rational and logical: therefore an outlook which \nadmits mysticism, which studies Plato, Plotinus, Hermetic Wisdom, astrology \nand alchemy, which reasons deductively from revealed principles, stands con\u00ac \ndemned by a generation which studies the world as mechanism and prides it\u00ac \nself on the inductive method. Yet Medievalism produced the great cathe\u00ac \ndrals, the great saints, and the greatest poem of the Western world. One \nfeels that a modern student of Theosophy would have found the atmosphere \nof that time more congenial than that of the present (though one hastens to \nadd that he might have shared the fate of Bruno). \n\nBut like so many living things, Medievalism went static, went habitual, \nand what had once been a creative spirit became a cramping theology for men \nto exercise their wits over in subtle disputation. \n\nThe Renaissance broke up the old moulds and inaugurated what has been \ncalled the Faustian civilization\u2014an apt term for a cycle which seeks power \nat the expense of spirituality, exiles God, and attempts to grasp the levers \nwhich control the universe. The Renaissance opened gloriously; at first men \nonly attempted to fit the new knowledge into the old, to expand and renew \nthe older organism. We know the result\u2014the persecutions and burnings of \nheretics, the degeneracy which followed an attempt to reintroduce the culture \nof an earlier pagan cycle, the birth of intolerant Protestantism, and finally the, \nrise of modern science. \n\nIt is in the field of cosmology and physics that the changes most pertinent \nto the further history of the West seem to occur. The work of Copernicus, \nGalileo, Kepler, brought mathematics to the fore. It is of interest to note \nthat Kepler, in particular, regarded his discoveries as contributions to Theos\u00ac \nophy. He was concerned with the ancient Pythagorean-Platonic doctrine of \nnumbers, and in his discoveries he saw further proof of the Pythagorean axiom \nthat \u201cGod geometrizes\u201d. He rejoiced exceedingly to discover that if a cube \n\n\n\n\n\n234 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nbe inscribed in the sphere containing the orbit of Saturn, the sphere of Jupiter \nwill just fit within the cube. If a tetrahedron be inscribed in Jupiter\u2019s sphere, \nthe sphere of Mars will fit within the tetrahedron, and so on for all the five \nregular solids. Modern astronomers tell us that this is only approximately \ntrue, yet any one of us who has worked with geometrical symbolism, using \nthe hints which H.P.B. supplies, has become convinced that the ancient theos- \nophists knew a thing or two. They sought, not knowledge like their modem \nsuccessors in science, but divine wisdom. \n\nBut following Kepler and his contemporaries there came a slow change \nin intellectual climate. Newton reduced the motions of the heavenly bodies \nto one principle of universal gravitation which could be expressed in mathe\u00ac \nmatical terms. Yet Newton himself was a devout man who valued his theo\u00ac \nlogical writings more than his works in science. His attitude toward his dis\u00ac \ncoveries is doubtless well expressed by Addison\u2019s hymn: \n\nThe spacious firmament on high, \n\nWith all the blue ethereal sky, \n\nAnd spangled heavens, a shining frame, \n\nTheir great Original proclaim. . . . \n\nWhat though, in solemn silence, all \nMove round the dark terrestrial ball? \n\nWhat though nor real voice nor sound \nAmidst their radiant orbs be found? \n\nIn Reason\u2019s ear they all rejoice, \n\nAnd utter forth a glorious voice; \n\nFor ever singing as they shine, \n\n\u201cThe Hand that made us is divine.\u201d \n\nThis poem, incidentally, is an excellent example of the deist point of view. \nFor a long time the scientists had been puzzling over the mystery of primary \nand secondary qualities. It seemed to them that colour, sound, odour, and other \nsensuous properties, were plainly the subjective reactions of a psyche to stimuli \nfrom without. This left the world in itself possessed only of certain primary \nqualities such as extension, motion and form. It remained for Bishop Berkeley \nto refer the primary qualities as well as the secondary to the subjective world \nand give us idealistic philosophy. But not so the deists. The outer world \nwas a mechanism, dark and dead: the planets move soundlessly round the dark, \nterrestrial ball. Yet in reason\u2019s ear they whisper that their mechanism de\u00ac \nmands a Mechanic. \n\nWell, it is one of the ironies of history that the Copemican-Kepler-Newton \nmathematical cosmology, which to them was a theosophic revelation, gave \nmen the impetus toward a mechanistic materialism such as the world had \nnever seen before. E. A. Burtt writes: \n\nNewton\u2019s authority was squarely behind the view of the cosmos which saw in man \na puny irrelevant spectator (so far as a being imprisoned in a dark room can be called \nsuch) of the vast mathematical system whose regular motions according to mechanical \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nc apttVITIES \n\n\n239 \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES 235 \n\nprinciples constituted the world of nature. The glorious romantic universe of Dante \nand Milton, that set no bounds to the imagination of man as it played over space and \ntime, had now been swept away. Space was identified with the realm of geometry, \ntime with the continuity of number. The world that people had thought themselves \nliving in\u2014a world rich with colour and sound, redolent with fragrance, filled with glad\u00ac \nness, love and beauty, speaking everywhere of purposive harmony and creative ideals \n\u2014was crowded now into minute corners in the brains of scattered organic beings. The \nreally important world outside was a world hard, cold, colourless, silent and dead; a world \nof quantity, a world of mathematically computable motions in mechanical regularity. \nThe world of qualities, as immediately perceived by man, became just a curious and \nquite minor effect of that infinite machine beyond. In Newton, the Cartesian meta\u00ac \nphysics, ambiguously interpreted and stripped of its distinctive claim for serious phil\u00ac \nosophical consideration, finally overthrew Aristotelianism and became the predominant \nworld-view of modern times. \n\nSo, for a time, thought wavered between theosophy and materialism. And \nit is at this point that an influence comes into the picture which was destined \nto play an enormous part in the future. That was the influence of Masonry. \n\nI am not a Mason; I know nothing of the innemess of the movement, and \nfrom what I have seen of modem Masonry in action, and of the type of its \ndevotees, I have no desire for any closer association. Yet I know that sublime \nthings may fall into weak or unworthy hands (does not our own history show \nthe same thing?), and the older and true masonic ideal cannot be judged by \nits modern representation. In saying this I only repeat what H.P.B. told us \nin Isis \u2014an opinion which my own limited observation has substantiated. \n\nThe origin of Masonry is obviously in the ancient Theosophy: its symbols \nare entirely familiar to us; its very name is indicative of the central goal of all \ntrue occultism. That its 18th Century derivation was from the literal guilds \nof masons of the Mediaeval days is probable. But those stone-cutters were \nmore than stone-cutters. The symbols they strewed over the cathedrals they \nbuilt, shows that. \n\nDuring the first quarter of the 18th Century, England was all the rage in \nFrance. The famous Royal Society, founded in 1660, set the pace for educated \nthinking, and Newton\u2019s ideas became the fashion in France. It was toward \nthis new magnet that the French masonic literati were drawn. We must realize \nthat Masonry has always been a many-headed and paradoxical creaturaJin \nthis respect just like Theosophy again), and I suspect that there are two t^on- \nries just as there are two theosophies,\u2014a true and noble Masonry of light, \nand a dark twin which is a jungle of all that is tricky and sophist and glamor\u00ac \nous and subversive. So in the 18th Century men rallied at first about a kind \nof Newtonian-Pythagoreanism, waiting to see what would happen in the conflict \nof cross currents where anticlericalism, pietism, anti-Christianity, astrology \nand rationalism all stewed together. Then came a slow differentiation: French \nMasonry tended to go the road of Illuminism and revolutionary self-assertion; \nEnglish Masonry reacted toward faith and loyalty to the State. Generally \nspeaking, the idea was rampant in France that Christianity was outmoded \ni and bankrupt, and that a purified and emancipated religion of reason was soon \n\n\n\n236 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nto take its place. Sometimes the language of the time is unmistakably theo- \nsophic in the best sense of the term: there is recognition of the ancient and \nuniversal Fountain of Truth, and an attempt even to support the Church a$ \none of the incarnations and revelations of Theosophy. Then appear bitter \nattacks upon Christianity, attempts to set up science and reason as guides \nto life, a back-to-nature movement with all the foolishness of the \u201cnoble savage\u201d \nand the glorification of natural impulses. \n\nMany of us have read Mrs. Webster\u2019s books and know the weight she gives \nto the perverse movement of Illuminism, which started with the Bavarian \nWeishaupt, and finally allied itself with French Masonry. Mrs. Webster \ndefinitely exempts English Masonry from her strictures. Bernard Fay, on the \ncontrary, in his Revolution and Freemasonry , does not even mention Mrs. Web\u00ac \nster\u2019s thesis. Yet there lie the facts of an inextricable muddle of good and evil. \nSome of us feel that the Lodge made a valiant attempt to purge away the evil, \nsending Mesmer, Cagliostro, St. Germain. We know that Cagliostro failed \nhis superior. \n\nWe need not follow France to the awful Terror. The men who directed \nthat outburst were hardly responsible human beings. Creatures who shriek \nand rave and foam at the mouth, who throw enemies and erstwhile friends \nalike to the guillotine, who deliberately set out to reduce the population of \nFrance by murder, so that their schemes of universal benevolence may lead \nto \u201cthe greatest happiness of the greatest number\u201d,\u2014such creatures bear the \nhall-mark of the Black Lodge. \n\nRather I wish to point out the connection which links America to the France \nof the Encyclopaedists and the Revolution. One school of historians shuts \nits eyes to the fact that the American Revolution was deliberately provoked \nand engineered by the Masonic lodges of America. They tell us that it was \na natural outcome of social and economic conditions which confronted the \ncolonists; that no proud people could accept the rule of a corrupt government \n3000 miles away; that unjustified taxation without representation drove the \ncolonists to revolt. That is the view I was taught in school, where I anathema\u00ac \ntized kings and praised the birth of \u201cFreedom\u201d in poetry. Other historians \npoint out that Americans were loyal to their British blood, strongly attached \nto the Protestant principles of the Reformation, loyal to the Hanoverian dy\u00ac \nnasty, and that their economic life was centred in London. It is exactly the \nsame dual interpretation of history which makes it so difficult to understand \nthe French Revolution. \n\nIt is, however, almost certain that the famous Boston Tea Party was a Ma\u00ac \nsonic affair. Masonry worked steadily through the colonies to sow the seeds \nof discontent with England, and to cement them into a new unity. Franklin, \nWashington, Revere, Hamilton, Madison and the Generals of the Revolution \nwere all Masons; the Declaration of Independence might have been written \nby the French revolutionaries; the Great Seal of the United States bears the \nMasonic symbols on its reverse. \n\nBenjamin Franklin went to France as our first ambassador, and became \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n239 \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n237 \n\n\nthe petted darling of the Lodges there, who hailed him as the representative \nof a \u201cNew Era\u201d. Franklin was probably sincere, but he was enmeshed in \nglamour and psychic dreams. Franklin as Grand Master of the Loge des heuj \nSoeurs, Franklin embracing Voltaire while the emotional public drips tears \nof joy (the exhibition even had to be repeated a second time so that those \nabsent on the first occasion might see Enlightenment in action!), Franklin carry\u00ac \ning on a secret campaign against the principle of royalty in France\u2014well, all \nthat, to put it mildly, is \u201ca bit thick\u201d. \n\nFay writes: He was Most Worshipful Master of the Loge des Neuf Soeurs , a \nregular Blue Lodge belonging to the English Masonry of France. He was \nHonorary Most Worshipful Master of the Cotnmandeurs du Temple of Car\u00ac \ncassonne,\u2014the Saint Jean de Jerusalem Lodge conferred on him the highest \npossible degrees. The Loge des Bons Amis of Rouen also made him one of their \nbrethren. All around him people sang: \n\nTo human nature he restores its rights; \n\nHe gives it freedom by giving it enlightenment, \n\nAnd virtue itself, to visit mankind, \n\nFrom Benjamin takes its appearance. \n\nOne reads the writings of Franklin and finds there the evidence of a clever, \nhard-headed, practical, scientific fellow, but one looks in vain for a ray of true \nspiritual insight. Here is worldly wisdom triumphant\u2014that canny worldli\u00ac \nness which, unchecked by authority either from without or within, has led to \nthe present debauch of materialistic humanitarianism. Most assuredly this \nis neither true Masonry nor true Theosophy. \n\nOr, turning to the genesis of the United States, it remains to ask whether \nthe ideals of French Revolutionary Masonry were sound ones upon which to \nfound a new nation. Opinions will differ. But speaking for myself only, and \nfully admitting that men\u2019s motives and ideals are mixtures of good and bad, \nI cannot believe that an initial act of violence by disguised men, or the dissemi\u00ac \nnation of seditious revolutionary doctrines against the legitimate govern\u00ac \nment, are other than the parallels of similar acts which rise distinctly from \nmy own lower nature and are accompanied by similar sophistries about freedom \nand the rights of man. I do not \u201chold it to be self-evident that all men aja \ncreated free and equal\u201d. My experience shows me that the average man \ncreature of emotional caprice, and that the end of democracy is the shouting \nmob. I believe that the maintenance of the culture of a race, and the preserva\u00ac \ntion of the soul of a nation, rests with the few\u2014the true aristos , and that de\u00ac \nmocracy leads to a debasing of cultural and spiritual values. \n\nThe basic perversion which affects church and state alike and turns America \ninto a madhouse, is the identical confusion of lower and higher self to which \nsubversive French Masonry lent itself, a confusion between the world of Caesar \nand the world of God. Or perhaps we may be nearer the truth if we say that \n%en have forgotten that there is a higher self and a world of God, and are \nturning the laws laid down by the Great Ones for the direction of the healthy \n\n\n23 \u00bb \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nsoul, to the uses of the body and its desires. So love becomes its ugly opposite; \nbrotherhood becomes sentimental humanitarianism; the spiritual ascent of \nthe soul to its home, turns into pacifist dreams of a material and scientific \nUtopia; the study of life turns into mechanism whereby a mass of flickering \nshadows thrown on the screen of time and space is regarded as causal, and \nthe shadows are interpreted in terms of one another. Take the famous Revolu\u00ac \ntionary Triad,\u2014Liberty, Fraternity, Equality: the concepts which those words \ncarry are very old, and I believe that at their origin they are ideals of the Lodge \nintended to guide men\u2019s souls to heaven, and not to the communist paradise. \nLiberty\u2014yes, the liberty of the sons of God who, in perfect obedience to spiritual \nlaw, find perfect freedom. Fraternity\u2014certainly, the theoretic unity of all \nsouls in the Oversoul, and the practical attempt to establish the nucleus of \nsuch a Brotherhood. Equality\u2014truly, just as children of a father are equally \nworthy of his affection, though the needs of the littlest are quite different from \nthe needs of the oldest. But these immemorial ideals of the White Lodge \nhave been \u201cpierced with evil\u201d, and their glamorous opposites have been subtly \nsubstituted: for Freedom, self-assertion; for Fraternity, hysterical slumming \nand the worship of man; for Equality, a levelling down to the lowest. \n\nWhat then is the American ideal for which we have been yearning? As \nI have dwelt upon these matters, I have thought of the last quarter of the \n19th Century and of H.P.B.\u2019s work. She was faced with a double perversion \nof science and theology, and she set herself to correct matters. To those who \nwould listen she said: Back to the ancient Aryan sources. We have been \ntold by one of those early members that for years he never gave a thought to \nChristianity. Then, about the year 1900, those people were told: Go back \nto your own Scriptures and see what you find. So they returned to the study \nof the New Testament \u201cto find Theosophy on every page\u201d. \n\nIf it be true then, as I believe it is true, that Masonry at its source is identical \nwith Theosophy at its source, then is it outside the bounds of reason to sug\u00ac \ngest that we should do just what H.P.B. asked her students to do? Let us \nabandon the perversions of Liberty, Fraternity and Equality and work back \nto their spiritual prototypes. Having come to understand something of the \ntrue meaning of the terms, we may then set about the task of converting our \nlives into harmony with them. We shall learn to live as free men and not as \nself-willed, disobedient demons. We shall come to have some true sympathy \nfor others, and shall try to help them to lift the heavy burden from their own \nlives; perhaps we shall try to put into effect those marvellous words from The \nSong of Life: \u201cWhen we surrender our wilfulness and bow to the light in an\u00ac \nother, we draw forth wonder and willing help. The lord of his inmost fortress \nsees in us a friend, all doors are opened to us, and we are made free of every \nsecret within.\u201d \n\nAnd finally, having learned something about how to live in this world, and \nhow to practise a measure of brotherhood, we shall face the fact of the evolu\u00ac \ntion of our own souls, and shall study and apply the laws which pertain to that \nevolution and which have been so abundantly explained and illustrated for \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n239 \n\n\nus. We shall set out to incarnate progressively those parts of our greater Life \nwhich now lie latent in our souls. \n\nSo to would-be American patriots we can say: Back to the sources\u2014back \nto an understanding of Theosophy under whatever name or form it most ap\u00ac \npeals to you. Saturate yourselves with its luminous ideal and use its bright \nsword to cut through the jungle of unhealthy growths which have grown up \naround it. Then let us live Theosophy and teach Theosophy. It is the Ameri\u00ac \ncan Soul placed there by the Lodge. Shall we not try to make incarnate that \nvision which many a poor immigrant of Europe has seen as his ship swung in \nsight of the Statue of Liberty in the harbour here? Are we so certain that \nBartholdy has not builded better than he knew? What if Masters call that \nFigure by another name; what if they call it Theosopliia? \n\nThe Chairman then asked for the report of the Committee on Letters of \nGreeting. \n\nReport of the Committee on Letters of Greeting \n\nMr. J. F. B. Mitchell: Mr. Chairman and Fellow Members , we are fortu\u00ac \nnate in having communications from all our Branches, and from a number \nof members-at-large. They come to us with word that those who serve on \nthe outposts are thinking of us to-day; and they give us an opportunity, as \nwe read them here, to send back to these, our fellow-workers, something of the \nstrength and spirit of the Convention. \n\nThe letters were listened to with great interest and were frequently ap\u00ac \nplauded. Extracts from them are printed at the end of this Report of Con\u00ac \nvention Proceedings. \n\nThe Chairman expressed very sincere thanks to the writers of these letters, \non behalf of their assembled comrades,\u2014and called attention to the evidence \nthey gave of the closeness and unity of effort throughout the Society. Dele\u00ac \ngates who were present were then asked to address the Convention. \n\nGreetings from Delegates \n\nMiss Hohnstedt: The members of the Cincinnati Branch who cannot be \nhere to-day are all sending their greetings. As to the work of the Branch, \nwe have been studying Mr. Johnston\u2019s translation of the Upanishads and \nfind it very inspiring. It made a great impression on all of our members. \nWe have also taken, for comparison with the Upanishads, St. Paul\u2019s Letters \nto the Corinthians, and have found how much they coincided. The whole \naim of the Branch has been always to have the idea of Good Friday and^ \nEaster in mind. There cannot be an Easter unless it is preceded by Goq^ \nFriday. In other words, we have to go through Gethsemane and kill our lower \nnature, if the higher nature is to evolve. \n\n' J \u2022 \n\nMrs. Regan: It was said at the opening meeting of the New York Branch \nthat perhaps one of the outstanding characteristics of man is the capacity to \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n240 \n\n\nTHE0S0PHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nbe inspired. Surely we have been inspired this morning. Now we must seri\u00ac \nously ask ourselves what are we going to do about it? We must do smnething. \n\nWith some of us, perhaps with many of us, the afterglow of this Convention \nis going to fade, and perhaps with it our inspiration. What are we going to \ndo to rekindle that inspiration? Do you remember the closing sentence in \none of the addresses of the Convention last year, speaking of indrawal? It \nsays in that closing sentence: It is we who must keep the link unbroken \n\u2014it is we who, by loving, by transferring our heart\u2019s energy to the root, will \npreserve its life so that it can bear fruit and put out branches when the Master \nGardener appears. Perhaps if we learn that sentence, when we find our in\u00ac \nspiration weakening we can think of it, and think of our great privilege and \nrenew our inspiration. \n\nAnother thing: do you remember the last \u201cFragment\u201d in the third volume? \nIt is an appeal for chelas. Now there are those of our comrades who really \nhave carried this Society over into the present cycle; they have carried this \nburden. Now let us see if we cannot help lift it a little. You remember the \nclosing words, \u201cIn God\u2019s name come over and help us. The need is so great!\u201d \nLet us resolve to go over and help them. \n\nMr. A. Gonz/lez Jimenez: During this year the Venezuela Branch has \ntried, to the extent of its ability, to work in silence. Every day its indrawal \nbecomes greater, so as to enter more completely into the Heart of the Lodge \nwilling for service. \n\nIt has been our new experience, we may say, to have again discovered that \nTheosophy is found everywhere, and that the more we live the inner life, the \nmore evident is the Father\u2019s Will in this world, as the Voice of the Lodge ex\u00ac \npresses itself in visible facts to those who are willing to see and who devote \ntheir hearts to It. \n\nOur chief subjects of study have been the War, and Discipleship, and the \naddresses of last Convention. Several members are continuing the study of \nChristianity, and are trying to practise daily some acts of \u201cThe Christian Life\u201d. \nWe believe that this discipline will become a new state of consciousness. \n\nOutwardly we have been witnesses of a change in the governmental regime, \nand we pray that this may be of profit to the Soul\u2019s purposes. One feels some\u00ac \nthing new in the collective mind. Papers, associations, etc., as far as they \ncan perceive, claim and invoke many of the same principles for which The \nTheosophical Society is working. Many of them are asking, \u201cFrom which \nsecret fibre of the National Soul have they received the message?\u201d They know \nnot; but by intuition they are feeling the beneficent influence of the Theo\u00ac \nsophical Movement in this region. \n\nThe Branch is anxious to co-operate with the cyclic work of The Theosophical \nSociety at this time; to strive so that the world can feel the living inspiration \nof Masters, and by means of sacrifice and devotion prepare the way for the \nLodge Messenger. His evocation has been our daily prayer. \n\nOur gratitude and love to those great beings, on whose compassion our \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n241 \n\n\nstrength lies, and to those visible and invisible companions in Convention \nassembled to-day. We pray that this may be an opportunity for the world to \nlearn that \u201cman liveth not by bread alone\u201d. \n\nThis, in conclusion, is from a letter from one of our members in Caracas: \n\n\u201cWe shall not go [to the Convention], but\u2014especially those among us who \nhave been there more than once\u2014we shall think of all of you, one by one, with \nmuch love, following you from minute to minute, during the morning, at lunch, \nthroughout the afternoon, and then at the tea on Sunday; and we shall be \nen fete , sharing your joy and your hopes. It will be our souls that will be there \nwith you all, and if the Masters embrace us in the magic circle of their love, \nwe shall be there in person also! \n\n\u201cThe separation, the distance, will not sadden us, because we know that you \nand we are united by eternal ties which no dark power can ever sever.\u201d \n\nMr. Rivero: It was Emerson, I think, who said in one of his essays, that \nif he knew where Plato was now, he would sell all he had, seek him out, and \nlearn from him. Animated by a like purpose, should we not do likewise in \norder to attend the Convention? This august assembly represents the realiza\u00ac \ntion of our highest inspiration of the year. Great then is our joy, great our \ngratitude, great our responsibility. \n\nImbued with the edifying lessons of the Convention, we shall go again to \nthe visible unreality, as missionaries of the invisible reality. You recall the \njuridical fictions of extra-territoriality and immunity? Diplomatic envoys, \nunaccountable to local authorities, proceed in a foreign land as if they were in \ntheir own. This privilege is not only the Ambassador\u2019s: it extends even to \nthe most humble of his servants. In such a spirit, and if we are worthy, the \nConvention may bestow upon us the grace of a similar, although greater, priv\u00ac \nilege: the grace of \u201cbeing in the world, yet not of the world\u201d, in order that \nwe may love, serve and honour the Masters of Wisdom, the Masters of Com\u00ac \npassion, with \u201cfaith, courage and constancy\u201d, illumined as we are to-day by \ntheir divine light, which ever bums in the holiest and most secret comer of \nour hearts. \n\nMr. Miller: We had a call at the Convention last year. The call has \nbeen renewed to-day. It seems that what was said this morning (that this \nis not a time for talk, but a time for action) is particularly true, but perhaps \nwe can learn from our failures, if in no other way. In fact, some of us haw \nvery little but failures and faults to offer the Masters. But the point I should \nlike to make is: that is just what they want\u2014they want us as we are. Are \nwe going to give ourselves to them? \n\nThe meetings of the New York Branch this year were pointing towards \nthis Convention,\u2014passing from the very inspiring opening meeting on inspira\u00ac \ntion and man\u2019s capacity to receive it and the necessity for embodying it, to \nthe warning (which has been renewed here) that the time has come for the \nfruit to appear, especially from those of us who have been members for any \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n242 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\nlength of time and have had poured out upon us, year after year, the richest \nblessings of which we can possibly conceive. What have we returned for them. \n\nIn the little chapter on Karma, at the end of Light on the Path , it is stated \nthat, once the student has reached the threshold of occultism, certain Karmic \nresults ensue, and no longer can he plead ignorance. Therefore, it seems to me \nthat even those who are attending their first Convention, and how much more \nthose of us who have attended many Conventions,\u2014are faced with responsibil\u00ac \nity and can no more evade it than a man can become a child again. \n\nThe Letters of Greeting refer to the crisis in the world; but a crisis has been \nreached in the lives of the members of this Society, and it is high time that \nthose of us who have been inspired and aroused partially, should become thor\u00ac \noughly awake and alive, not only to our responsibilities, but to the enormous \nand precious privilege offered to us, to co-operate with the Masters in their \nefforts for humanity. \n\nMr. La Dow: I have something on my mind to say, which may seem to \nbe a digression, but I do not think it is. In yesterday\u2019s Herald Tribune there \nwas an account of a meeting of the American Philosophical Society, with spe\u00ac \ncial reference to a paper read by a doctor who describes some experiments \non dogs. He inoculated them with some sort of germ which causes a slow \nbut fatal paralysis. He bred the dogs which apparently transmitted the dis\u00ac \nease to their offspring. In any event, the puppies had the same clinical history \nand died at approximately the same age as their parents. All this is supposed \nto prove something or other. \n\nThe paper was read before the American Philosophical Society. No \u201cphil\u00ac \nosopher\u201d, however, protested against the barbarity of the thing. There is \nevidence that this whole subject of vivisection and experimentation upon \nanimals has given great concern to members of the Lodge. You may recall \nsome passages in the Mahatma Letters (passages which I believe we can accept \nas genuine). We may draw the deduction, that the end does not justify the \nmeans. If an end can only be attained by vicious means, the end must also \nbe vicious. The knowledge which we should seek can never be obtained by \nthe torture of other creatures, animal or human. I think that many of us \nlimit the meaning of brotherhood. Real brotherhood must include the sense \nof our kinship with the lower creatures, the realization of their dependence \nupon us. It may be a sign of barbarism in me, but I can feel more brotherly \ntowards some dogs than towards some people. \n\nIf we start out in quest of knowledge with a perverted motive, the knowledge \nacquired, the structure built in the mind, will be a monstrosity. \u201cMan, know \nthyself.\u201d \u201cMan is the mirror of the universe.\u201d If we really base our lives \nupon those two fundamental propositions, we shall never have to experiment \non anyone or anything except ourselves. \n\nMr. J. F. B. Mitchell: The one thing I should like to express is the prayer \nthat we may all take fire. One\u2019s hope for the ordinary man is that he may de- \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n243 \n\n\ntach himself from the great mass who seek nothing in life but their own amuse\u00ac \nments and sensations, and realize that the purpose of his life is to fight for \nrighteousness, in himself and in the world. We, too, must do that, but with \na much more definite purpose added, the purpose that ch\u00a3laship shall be kept \nalive in the world as a living fact, and not only as a tradition and a memory. \nWe can help toward that end in every moment of the day. It was on the \nsteps of a million men that the Buddha attained. Every moment brings its \nopportunity to add to the spiritual capital of the Movement by our prayers, \nour desires, and our efforts to carry out in action what we have been told,\u2014 \nwith the \u201cintention\u201d that someone may attain. \n\nAs was said this morning, we must gain understanding. In a time of in- \ndrawal, the light of the spiritual world will still be there, available for us if we \nturn our attention to it, desire it and seek it. But there will be this great dif\u00ac \nference. Now the light comes to us from outside ourselves, is interpreted for \nus and reaches us clear and undistorted, as we have been receiving it to-day. \nIn a time of indrawal, we shall have to look in our own hearts for it, and then \nunderstanding becomes trebly necessary, for, while the light will be there and \ncan always be reached, it must pass through and be coloured by our own minds. \nIf there is not understanding and purification of the mind and nature, the \nspiritual light is distorted by the mind, and the result may be such terrible \nperversions of spiritual truth as we see in the world to-day, a world being \nwrecked by muddle-headed people with good intentions. \n\nThe Bhagavad Gita says that he who is perfected in devotion will find spirit\u00ac \nual understanding springing up within him, but the devotion must be the \nkind that is carried into action, the devotion of the will. It must be a whole\u00ac \nhearted devotion. We have all struggled for years for concentration as an aid \nto meditation. We have thought of it as concentration of the mind, as control \nof the thoughts, and perhaps have wondered if such a thing were possible. \nI should like to suggest the substitution of another word: whole-heartedness. \nThere is no trouble about concentration if a man be whole-hearted. If he has \nthrown himself into a cause with his whole heart, he leaves everything per\u00ac \nsonal, and all his distracting thoughts, behind. Suppose that one is doing a \npiece of work for a cause that one loves, and something is said that hurts one\u2019s \nfeelings. There is his chance. He can think about his feelings or turn and \nthrow himself whole-heartedly into the cause, leaving feelings behind,\u2014pull\u00ac \ning himself out of them as a man with one foot on solid ground and one in \nquicksand, can pull himself out by throwing his weight on the foot that is on \nsolid ground. \n\nThinking of whole-heartedness this morning, a poem came back to me, \nwritten at the time of the War, on Jeanne d\u2019Arc\u2014she was in heaven, and wanted \nto go back to France to help with the War: \n\nI would return to that my land flung in the teeth of war, \n\nI would cast down my robe and crown that pleasure me no more, \n\nAnd don the armour that I knew, the valiant sword 1 bore. . . . \n\nFor with me goes that soldier saint, St. Michael of the sword, \n\n\n\n\n\n\n244 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nAnd I shall ride on his right side, a page beside his lord. . . . \n\nGrant that I answer this my call, yea, though the end may be \n\nThe naked shame, the biting flame, the last, long agony; \n\nI would go singing down that road where faggots wait for me. \n\nMine be the fire about my feet, the smoke above my head; \n\nSo might I glow, a torch to show the path my heroes tread; \n\nMy Captain! Oh y my Captain , let me go back! she said. \n\nThat is whole-heartedness\u2014whether ahead of us we see the joy of the open \ncountry, of which Professor Mitchell spoke, and all the riches of the spiritual \nworld, or whether we see faggots and the stake. \u201cI would go singing down \nthat road where faggots wait for me.\u201d \n\nMr. Auchincloss: Since our Convention a year ago, the Movement has \nsuffered a very great loss in the death of Miss Theodora Dodge, a loss far greater, \nperhaps, than many realize. She influenced profoundly the lives of many \npeople, and she worked ceaselessly and tirelessly for the Movement and for \nthe Society in many ways, and yet comparatively few, I think, realize the \nextent of her influence and of her labour. That was the way she wanted it. \nWhat counted with her was, that the influence should be spread, that the work \nshould be done. She, herself, did not want to appear. \n\nBut she has left, in what she wrote for the Quarterly, and especially in her \n\u201cWar Memories\u201d, a means by which those who really knew her may remind \nthemselves of all that she was and of all that she stood for, and a means by \nwhich those who did not know her so well may come, even now, to know her \nbetter. \n\nThe narrative in her \u201cWar Memories\u201d is so absorbing, and her comments \non the events in which she had a part are so interesting, that it is only too \neasy to lose oneself in the narrative alone. That would be a mistake. For \nthose recollections of her experiences in the War reveal Miss Dodge as nothing \nelse could. That whole series is a revelation. And so I suggest that the \u2018\u2018War \nMemories\u201d be read again, and re-read: by those who knew her well, that they \nmay recapture; by those who would know her better, that they may under\u00ac \nstand. \n\nFor, within the words and between the lines is revealed all that she was: \nher loyalty, her tireless devotion to that Cause to which she had given herself, \nand for which she stood to the end, and of which all her War work was only an \nexpression; her gaiety of heart and her sense of humour; her sympathy and \ngentleness and tolerance; her sound judgment, and her splendid common- \nsense; her unconquerable fighting spirit, which nothing could daunt, and which \nfought, I am told, right up to the hour of her death. \n\nWe must recapture; we must understand,\u2014in order that we may inherit \nthe richness of that which she has left to us; in order that we may carry on \nwhere she left off; in order that we may continue to keep alive the memory \nof one who has left us,\u2014but whom we have not lost. \n\n\nT Q 4rTTVTTT]?Q \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES 245 \n\nMr. Saxe, alluding to the appeal that had been made, and to the state\u00ac \nment that many T. S. members, after making a certain degree of progress, \nseemed to stand still, suggested that one important factor might be a lack \nof positive dissatisfaction with one\u2019s accomplishment, day by day. After \nenlarging on this point he continued: You know there is a limit to what the \nolder members can say regarding how poorly we do! They can generalize \nto some extent and give hints from which we may draw our own inferences: \nthat is about all. But there is no law against our looking at ourselves in the \nglass once in a while, and saying: \u201cYou poor, miserable, would-be disciple,\u2014 \nfor heaven\u2019s sake wake up!\u201d \n\nDr. Clark: Through The Theosophical Society, unexpected wealth was \nbrought to us,\u2014a wealth of meaning in the religions of the world, and, for the \nfirst time, perhaps, in our own religion. Sciences and philosophies yielded new \nmeanings, and became organized, bewildering us no longer. Ancient history \nappeared in new significance, as it disclosed events parallel to those of our \nown day. Gold was found in most unexpected quarters\u2014in a song from Cali\u00ac \nfornia, a poem from Canada, in the preaching of Phillips Brooks, and of H. P. \nLiddon. Certainly we had not dared to expect in sermons an unfolding of theo\u00ac \nsophical principles, or to find ecclesiastics feeling after the Lodge. Brooks \nand Liddon, in that period of 1875, were reaching out toward universal truth, \nand some spiritual magnetism from the Lodge seemed to affect them. They \nunderstood the events of Christ\u2019s life as definite historical facts and also as \nexpressions of universal law. \n\nThus finding wealth, in place after place, we have come to think of inex\u00ac \nhaustible deposits of gold made by the Lodge, century after century. But is \nany vein of precious metal inexhaustible? We did nothing to accumulate this \ntreasure, though we have used it as our own. Privilege entails responsibility. \nEven the world\u2014no lofty standard\u2014brands those who waste an inheritance \ninstead of passing it on. How despicable we shall be if we do not zealously \nguard this wealth of the Lodge that was put into our hands. \n\nMr. Kobb\u00a3: Mr. Chairman , and Fellow Warriors: First, as regards com \nditions in the world; all evil is not concentrated in the present, despite appealer \nances. There was evil in the past also. History is a record of it. It makes no \ndifference that, at one period, it was called Diocletianism, at another Girondism, \nand now Bolshevism. The same subversion was, and is, the basis of it: a \npulling down and a levelling off; the exact opposite of the hierarchical principle \nof the spiritual world. The Frankensteins who inaugurate such \u201cisms\u201d, some\u00ac \ntimes manoeuvre to put themselves in public office, and then they, and their \nsubversiveness, are comparatively easy to recognize. At other times, however, \n\nS rking less openly, their object is to raise to public power a representative, a \nbthpiece, who invariably is a renegade aristocrat, through whom they seek \ntotool the masses. Witness the r 61 e played by Philippe Egalit6 at the time \nof the French Revolution. On the surface, there was the polished manner, the \n\n\n246 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ngenteel voice, while, underneath, there was rottenness to the core. Let us \nnot be deluded by any similar performance to-day. \n\nNext, I want to underscore Mrs. Regan\u2019s closing remarks about the need \nfor chdlas being so great, and to say something further on that subject. If \nwe are to meet here in future councils of war, we have to do something very \ndefinite and immediate about it. Professor Mitchell referred to the World \nWar. Let us draw a little scene from those times; one, perhaps, partly from \nimagination, but, nevertheless, correct in practically all detail. There were \nmen on the front line, and they had been there a long, long time; so long, that \n\u201cBlighty\u201d was overdue. If they were not relieved soon, they could not be \nbrought back to the front for the next \u201cbig push\u201d against \u201cFritz\u201d. Not that \ntheir hearts were less valiant, not that their spirits lagged; but the physical \nmachinery had run down. So, we see a column of other men, marching for\u00ac \nward to relieve them; men, not as experienced as they, but honest-to-goodness \nfighting units nevertheless; to whom must be entrusted the lesser \u201cstunts\u201d, \nas they were called, necessary to advance the line. What about these fresh \ntroops who went up to the front? In the silence which precedes the dawn, \nsome of them talked \u201cof sealing-wax and cabbages and kings\u201d, or of whatever \nwas uppermost in their minds and hearts. Somewhere, mothers, wives, and \ndaughters, were praying that the Allied cause in which all were united, might \nultimately be triumphant. It was zero hour on the Flanders front. It was \ntime to go over the top. \n\nThe subversive forces at work in the outer world, are but a pale reflection \nof the conflict on the inner plane. The Masters who, on the inner plane, guide \nand advance the Lodge Movement, need chelas, here and now, that the outer \nexpression of the Movement may continue to be carried forward in the world. \nThey need us. Those who refer to themselves as our Elder Brothers, need \ntheir little brothers who are in the world. Let us, then, march to the front. \nLet us man the front line,\u2014all united that the Masters\u2019 cause may be carried \nforward in the world. Let us, then, draw together in a closer touch of elbow, \na more snugly-knit esprit de corps. It is zero hour along the theosophical front. \nSomeone must go over the top. \n\nMr. Brush: Part of our discussion at the New York Branch this season, \nhas centred in \u201cinspiration\u201d. We have considered it as a divine gift, granted \nus from above, as well as something that may be evoked from within; but \nthe basic fact brought out by these discussions\u2014the one it seems to me that \ncan mean so much to ourselves as well as to the world\u2014is this: that inspira\u00ac \ntion, instead of being the exclusive property of the few, the creative artists, \nthe thinkers, the leaders of the race, may become, under certain conditions, \nthe heritage of us all. We know what these conditions are. They are inner, \nnot outer. They are a basic part of Theosophy as well as of life. \n\nIt is as if we, and not only we, but all men, were surrounded at every point \nby doors, each door leading away from self to something that is greater than \nself. There is, for instance, the door of duty, the door of sacrifice, of service, \n\n\nT Q A PTTVTTTT7Q \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES 247 \n\nof failure as well as success. Either we open these doors, willingly, ourselves, \nor we wait until life opens them for us. Then, if we will turn away from our \npreoccupation with self, sufficiently to look , we see through each opened door, \nstretching away in the distance, a well worn path, full of difficulties that chal\u00ac \nlenge everything in us, but leading up to the heights where the Masters are. \n\nMany are inspired by what they see, but stop at the threshold afraid to act \n\u2014afraid of the difficulties ahead; and so each door closes before them. \n\nBut at Convention time, it seems to me, all doors are opened for us at once, \nso that we catch many a glimpse of the heights beyond. Our task, then, during \nthe coming months, is not only to treasure what we have seen and felt in our \nhearts to-day, but continually to evoke the desire and the will to follow it. \n\nColonel Wise: Mr. Chairman , ladies and gentlemen: The last time I was \naccorded the privilege of addressing this Society I did not have the honour of \nbeing a member of it. Now I can claim that honour. But I am not even an \nacolyte\u2014only a neophyte. This being so, all I can do is \u201ctestify at the \nmeeting\u201d. \n\nThe text\u2014\u201cknow thyself\u201d\u2014upon which the Chairman of the Executive \nCommittee spoke to-day, suggests many things to my mind. It applies to \nthe American people collectively as well as individually. As a nation we are \nin great need of knowing ourselves. Much of the evil among individuals to-day \nis, I believe, due to our collective misunderstanding. False history has con\u00ac \ncealed from our view the true character of the Nation. To-day historians are \nmerely throwing together glittering platitudes that lead our people to believe \nthat we have attained perfection, when our record is far from commendable \nin many respects. In truth, as a nation, we have manifested little knowledge \nof liberty, equality, and fraternity in their real theosophic sense. As I see it, \nour sufferings to-day are not accidental. They are part of the retribution which \nenters into the nature of an all-wise, creative genius whose grand scheme of \nthings has regard for the weak as well as the strong. Slavery, our merciless \nexploitation of the Red Race, our commercial greed, the constant accentua\u00ac \ntion of the material at the expense of the spiritual, involved us in a certain \npenalty that we cannot escape. Yet, to-day there is not a single public ma^ \nurging the abandonment for ever of the materialism from which we are si^F \nfering. On the contrary, they are all fixing the mind of the country upon the \nrecovery of what we recently possessed. I, for one, do not wish to see this kind \nof recovery. \n\nThe radio is a second powerful evil influence in its present operation. A \nbutcher may hire a professed sociologist, a shoemaker a quack economist, a \ndepartment store a political scientist, to lecture to the masses with impunity. \nThe people are not as stupid as commonly supposed. After listening to these \nill-informed speakers, they see that none of them knows what he is talking about. \n^ effect of this is evil. It tends to destroy faith in everything. The trouble \ntSday is not wrong faith, but utter lack of faith. In short, the radio is being \nemployed not as an agency of moral uplift but of intellectual degradation. \n\n\n248 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nLast Saturday I picked up what is relatively a conservative newspaper. \nTwelve subjects were covered on the front page. Four of these were foreign \nwars, etc. The other eight were major crimes which had occurred in our very \nmidst. They included the holding up of a United States mail-passenger train, \na battle with bombs in a National bank, the strangling of a lady in her home, \nthe cutting of the throat of a business man in his office on Wall Street, the \narrest of licensed detectives for fraud, fraudulent practices by a large corpora\u00ac \ntion, and the dismissal of a United States judge for dishonesty in office. The \nfate of the judge was decided by Congress, not on the merits of his case, but on \npartisan political grounds. Here is a very different moral picture of American \nsociety from that painted by our historians and publicists. Can any society \nlong endure, much less enjoy material prosperity, that has become morally \nso degraded? What of the effect on the collective mind of the nation, of a press \nthat carries pictures of our true condition like that described? Where is there \nanyone feeding noble, uplifting thoughts to the masses through popular his\u00ac \ntories, the radio, or the press? \n\nDo we not know that a minister of the Gospel who openly essayed to assail \nthe tone of any of these perverted agencies would be removed from the pul\u00ac \npit? Why blame the Church for this? The truth is we have made it impos\u00ac \nsible by our indifference for the Church to wield the \u201cflaming sword\u201d of truth. \n\nFinally, I wish to advert to the Masonic connections of Washington that \nhave been mentioned here. To be sure Washington was a Mason. I believe, \nhowever, he was far more than a Mason, and that he merely sought to employ \nMasonry to the extent it could be made to serve a high purpose. In my opin\u00ac \nion he was not only the greatest man ever produced by the Anglo-American \ncivilization, but a theosophist from the ground up. When he placed the triangle \non the seal of the United States, he placed it there to represent the principles \nof the Ancient Wisdom. I believe that the way to correct the ills of American \nsociety to-day is to lead the nation back to the principles taught by Washington \nand symbolized by the sign he placed on the seal of the United States. The \nnational motto adopted by Washington\u2014\u201cE pluribus unum\u201d\u2014implied far \nmore than the political aggregation presently constituting the American Re\u00ac \npublic. It implied the unity of which the Great Lodge has ever taught. It \nimplied the trinity of which Jesus himself was the inspired symbol. \n\nWhat American society needs to-day is another Washington, so great, so \ngood, so high above ordinary men that he might lash the nation into a con\u00ac \nsciousness of itself, compel it to see itself in its true aspect, compel it to know \nitself. \n\nThe Convention next heard with great pleasure and interest from Mr. Fisher, \nand from Mr. Miller, Jr., Mr. Mitchell, Jr., Mr. H. Mitchell, Mr. Russ, Jr. \n\nThe Chairman then spoke of the debt of the Society to the contributors, \neditors, proof-readers and others, whose labours, on a purely voluntary basis, \nresult in the publication of the Theosophical Quarterly. A motion express\u00ac \ning this indebtedness, with deep appreciation, was carried unanimously. \n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n249 \n\n\nMr. Hargrove: The Committee on Resolutions has nothing more to re\u00ac \nport, but, before it is dismissed, I want to point out, because I have been asked \nto do so, an interesting deduction from Dr. Torrey\u2019s talk. He spoke of French \nMasonry and its effect in America. The Lodge, clearly, had hoped to use \nMasonry in the eighteenth century, for the revival of true brotherhood and \nof the Ancient Wisdom; unfortunately, as Dr. Torrey said, it was misused \nand its influence became evil,\u2014and is evil to this day, so far as concerns the \n\u201cGrand Orient\u201d in France and in some other parts of Europe. But that failure \nwas the result of Cagliostro\u2019s failure. This reminds us that the fate of the \nMovement is nearly always in the hands of an individual,\u2014not necessarily \nan individual \u201cat the top\u201d. A person who seems of minor consequence can \ndo infinite harm to the Movement. In comparison with Saint-Germain, Cagli- \nostro was entirely secondary, but it was his failure that made it impossible \nfor the Lodge to do what might have been accomplished, and which, instead, \nresulted in injury lasting to this day. \n\nThe Committee on Resolutions was then dismissed with thanks. \n\nOn motion, the Convention adjourned. \n\nIsabel E. Perkins, \n\nSecretary of Convention. \n\nJulia Chickering, \n\nAssistant Secretary of Convention \n\n\nLETTERS OF GREETING \n\n\nAylsham, England. \n\nTo the Secretary, Theosophical Society: Please convey my warmest greetings, and good \nwishes, to all our fellow members assembled in Convention. \n\nThese are difficult days; I doubt if there have been many more difficult; and here in Europe \nwhat one is most aware of is a sense of great restlessness, of insecurity,\u2014at times of fear, always \nof nervousness. \n\nThis is a very bad thing, for fear is an evil counsellor, and has often driven men to terrible \nupheavals and catastrophes. \n\nMen\u2019s minds are deeply troubled; but that is not bad, for in their trouble they are cease\u00ac \nlessly searching for something outside of themselves, something capable of satisfying them, \nand so they are more open to the great teachings of the Lodge, to the wonderful truths that \nTheosophy can bring them. \n\nHerein lies our individual responsibility. If we can carry something into Convention which \nis really worthy of it, something truly spiritual that has nothing of self in it, we shallan \nincrease of spiritual life, of light and understanding, which will enable us to become Rpriers \nof the Masters\u2019 light into the darkness of the world. \n\nThis will not be done by outer work, by any sort of propaganda, but by becoming a con\u00ac \ntagion of good to all those with whom we come in contact. \n\nWith renewed greetings and prayers that the Master\u2019s blessing.may rest upon our Conven\u00ac \ntion, I am, \n\nEspoir Bagnell. \n\nMiss Bagnell wrote: Already, as you know well, we are looking forward to Convention \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n250 \n\ntime, seeking to prepare for it beforehand, and then at the time to participate, to the utmost \nextent of our consciousness, in that assembling of the Powers. . . . \n\nI have thought that part of the work of the T. S. is in road-making, in maintaining that \nessential line of communication between the Lodge and the world. Sometimes it is a case of \nbuilding or repairing bridges, under fire; sometimes it may be necessary to tunnel beneath a \nmountain, where the digging into dark and subterranean regions requires the utmost courage \non the part of road-builders. In this connection, I found a quotation which seems to give an \nimmediate incentive to our effort: \u201cWe have not to tunnel the whole mountain ourselves. \nUnder the same Engineer there are gangs working from the Other Side.\u201d \n\nI send my good wishes to all \u201cin Convention assembled\u201d, greetings to those who are present \nat Headquarters, and to those who, kept at home in the \u201cplace of their duty\u201d, are present in \nheart and consciousness. May we respond to the guidance that is given us, with greater \ndetermination and a deeper understanding, at the time of the Convention, and in all the year \nthat follows. \n\n\nLos Angeles, California. \n\nWith this, and in other ways, we send a glad greeting and every best wish to the members \nassembled in Convention, and to all of those who, like ourselves, for various reasons are unable \nto attend. In addition, we feel that now is the time for both introspection and retrospection. \n\nAs we look back over the years that have gone since the century began, we can see more or \nless clearly in the distance, as it were, the outstanding changes that have taken place in the \nlife of the Society, especially in its inner life, during those years. Some of those changes we \nhave only heard of, or read about; others we have shared to an extent, having lived through \nthem; but its most outstanding and momentous change, at the century\u2019s very beginning, we, \nas a Branch, obviously have yet to undergo. This came, you will remember, when the Society \nas such turned from the intellectual and other triumphs it had achieved, inward to its own \nSoul, so as to become inwardly and outwardly at one with it; to give from there of its light \nand life, and love and force, directly and in ever-increasing measure, to whatever its members \nundertook to do, from that time on; or, rather, it was just a few of its members who then and \nthus turned inward, to blaze a way for the rest of us. And, we hardly need to add, since we \nall know it so well, the soul of it is the Masters. Furthermore, we realized that the members \nof the Society, are the Society. \n\nThus, ever so slowly, step by step, year after year, Convention after Convention, as we now \nsee them, we have been brought to the very Tree of Life and Knowledge, so as to have seen \nsomething of its blossoming; but of its ripened fruit, it seems, we have yet to \u201cpluck and eat\u201d, \nas the Master in Light on the Path has it,\u2014have yet to turn inward, to \u201cindraw\u201d, as we now \nexpress it, as those few did at the century\u2019s beginning. \n\nStill, we have turned inward in some ways, our inner eyes at least have been opened, or nearly \nso, or we could not inwardly see as we now do; but if we rightly interpret and take to heart what \nhas been told us in the last two or three Conventions, we did not go far enough. If we take \nthat simile or actuality to ourselves, that Tree as being our innermost Self, as we may truly do, \nit seems we have borne leaves, and even blossomed to some extent, but there have been \ntoo many leaves, personal leaves, that have almost taken the life from our tree, the Life that \nhas been given to us in those years; so that our finest and most inwardly productive blossoms \ndid not come to fruit, as they might have done, had we not grown so many of those leaves. \nSo that the Tree itself, its root within us, is in danger, and the season for its growth, which \nthose years have been, is almost at its end. So now there is pruning to do, \u201cdown to the root\u201d, \nto the Soul itself, stripped bare of everything that holds us back from it; if our endeavours, \nour will and endurance, can take us that far. So we may grow again, be inwardly \u201cborn \nagain\u201d, to blossom and to bear the fruit of the Lodge itself, in the Lodge itself, and be per\u00ac \nsonally conscious of being there, like the few at the century\u2019s beginning. \n\nMoreover, it would seem that it is to be either that or nothing, now or perhaps never. As \nwe thus looked back and within ourselves, it was as though that Master in Light on the Path \n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n251 \n\n\nhimself was speaking: \u201cI say first\u2014take knowledge. To him who hath shall be given. The \nwomb of Time will close before you, and in later days you will remain unborn, without power.\u201d \nThe italicizing is ours, the sentence having impressed us as never before. And may it be his \nConvention, this time. \n\nThe Pacific Branch, \n\nW. H. Box, President. \n\n\nNewcastle-on-Tyne, England. \n\nTo the Members of The Thcosophical Society in Convention Assembled , the members of the \nNewcastle-on-Tyne Branch send most hearty greetings and good wishes. \n\nWe shall be observing Convention Day once again, and this time with added interest. The \npersonal contact which some of us were privileged to have had last year has made a great \ndifference in many ways, and our Branch has certainly been enriched by it. We feel that we \nknow you all better and are much more intimate with your proceedings. We realize that we \nhave the same Ideals and are entirely at one with you in heart and purpose. \n\nAlthough another year has passed it seems but yesterday, and may that be a joyful sign; \na striking indication that we have been busy in the Masters\u2019 Cause, striving to become, in heart \nand mind, more like unto Those it is our privilege to serve. The past year would seem to have \nbeen an opportunity for assimilation and embodiment in a marked degree. By not having \nthe Quarterly for nine months, we have had the chance to digest and understand the old \nnumbers more thoroughly, and to the extent that we have diligently searched for the light, \nwe have benefited accordingly. \n\nAs the past year would seem to have been an opportunity for assimilation, so it has been \none for action or embodiment. \u201cHe that loveth me keepeth my Commandments.\u201d It is \nnot sufficient to be hearers of the word only. We must be \u201cdoers\u201d. So, standing on our own \ninner resources, letting the Warrior fight in us, overcoming the world by being in it but not of \nit, we have had the opportunity to build into our lives more fully those things which we believe \nto be true. For embodied philosophy is strengthening, whereas its opposite is weakening. \n\nWe therefore trust that the Society has gained in spiritual force by the earnest application \nof the principles we stand for. We have been told that \u201cto know the doctrine, we must live \nthe life\u201d, and this is no mere platitude. As we know at first hand, by actual experience, we \nhave vision and understanding both about ourselves and the world in general. And what is \nmore needed to-day? We were reminded a year ago that \u201cwe had a mission\u201d, and we were \nexhorted to be \u201ctrue to our trust\u201d at all costs. So we would pray that the Society may con\u00ac \ntinue to be a true channel, a shining reflector and disseminator of the light, and a fearless \nspokesman for righteousness, justice and truth. We would pray that this may be, but we \nwould also exercise the will to that end. \n\nE. Howard Lincoln, \n\n\nPrcsid \n\n\nSouth Shields, England. \n\nTo the Members of The Theosophical Society Assembled in Convention: \u2014The members of the \nSouth Shields Branch send to you to-day their very sincere fraternal greetings. At this time \nof re-union and festival of the Spirit, we must offer in our hearts a paean of praise and deep \ngratitude to the Elder Brothers who opened the door to the Spiritual Life by means of The \nTheosophical Society, and who form the Guardian Wall to protect us from worse evils than \nthose that beset us; also to those members of the Society who have gone before and who \nbeckon us to follow in their footsteps. We have received from them a noble heritage, and we \nmust see to it that we do not betray the trust that they have reposed in us. The Light and \nLife which radiate from Theosophy present to view an ideal at once noble and divine, in sharp \n\nk contrast to the rampant sin and wickedness that hide under the cloak of Toleration to-day, \nso that sin goes unchallenged. Democracy has become the Herd instinct; character and indi\u00ac \nviduality have gone, and western civilization, stripped of its veneer, appears to be tottering \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n252 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\non the brink of the abyss of chaos. Humanity and civilization can only be saved by a return \nto the fundamental teachings of the Wisdom Religion. Let us pray that the spiritual force \nemanating from the Convention may find ready response in a few hearts to live the life of the \nsoul, and thus bring others to the Light. \n\nThomas Mackey, \nSecretary. \n\n\nToronto, Canada. \n\nTo the Secretary T.S.: The Members of the Branch ask me to send the following words of \nGreeting. \n\nOur thoughts at this time reach out to the members and friends assembled in Convention. \n\nWe feel a great force for good is centred there, its influence being felt throughout the whole \nworld. Although we cannot be present in person our thoughts and prayers will be with you. \n\nWith the increasing tension of life in the world to-day, Theosophy indeed provides an oasis \nfor our souls. At no time in our history was it more necessary to study the steadying influence \nand philosophy of its teachings. \n\nThe inspiring messages that come to us through the medium of the Quarterly are a boon \nto all who study its contents. To all who make this possible we send our grateful thanks. \n\nMay we all have the strength and courage to live its teachings that we may be further \nfortified for the higher conquests in the great Cause of the Masters. \n\nAlbert J. Harris. \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\nOur thoughts and aspirations are conjoined with yours at this time, in your efforts to estab\u00ac \nlish and consolidate a centre through which the moral and spiritual powers latent in man may \nfunction. It is only through our continued and concentrated efforts that this power can \noperate; we are the instruments through which it flows, and the importance of the develop\u00ac \nment and fitting of the instrument for this purpose cannot be over-stressed. As fire enters \nste'el, making it more pliable and ductile, that it may become tempered to a new strength, we \npray that the spirit of the Convention may enter our minds and thoughts to-day, that we \nmay become fired to further efforts, and that the consciousness of each member may be raised \nto a new strength and dignity of purpose. \n\nFredk. A. Ross, \n\nPresident , Whitley Bay Branch. \n\n\n[Names are omitted from the following letter because it comes from a part of Europe where, \nin certain circumstances, the opinions expressed by the sender might react dangerously upon \nhim.) \n\nTo the Secretary , Theosophical Society: \n\nThe members of the Branch wish to send most cordial greetings and the best of good wishes \nto the Officers and Members of The Theosophical Society, in Convention Assembled\u2014May \nthe blessings of the Great Lodge rest upon your Assembly so that it prove a very successful \none and a unanimous thanksgiving-service. We shall join our aspirations and prayers to yours. \nThis feeling-together, this feeling of Unity will reinforce our efforts and animate our own \nresolutions that we become able to stand all hardships and trials in the time to come. \n\nRecalling in our minds the most impressive experience which three members of ours had \nby attending the Convention of last year and two years ago, we feel anew deep gratitude for \nall we received during those very happy days \u201cwhen we came home\". \n\nWe live through a horrible time in this confused and fogged-in world where only Theosophy \ngives us a better understanding of the underlying causes, and the connections of the disgust- \n\n\n\n\n\nT. S. ACTIVITIES \n\n\n253 \n\n\ning occurrences in international affairs. In spite of the feverish activity of prominent states\u00ac \nmen, the souls of the leading European Nations are in a deplorable agony. The humiliating \nissues of the late London Conference prove a startling lack of concord in vital things among \nthe Great Powers of Europe, and show in a frightening way a terrible confusion, a blindness \nand confounded stupidity of muddled and misled people who do not and will not recognize \nprinciples of honour and righteousness; therefore, they cannot see the real facts and the un\u00ac \navoidable consequences of their failure. \n\nOne of the political aims of Germany is to separate England from France. Will she succeed? \nThis conception would be almost intolerable, but we must face it and we must be watchful. \nUndoubtedly, the artful tricks of the Black Powers were not without success. While the \nmembers of the League of Nations argue, Germany is acting. \n\nIn truth, the Alliances of France and Czecho-Slovakia with the Soviets are an inexcusable \nblunder, or perhaps the fruit of fear of Hitler-Germany; in any case a compromise with evil. \nAnd what is to be thought of the thickheadedness\u2014the wilful and sturdy resistance to com\u00ac \nprehend principles\u2014of those English Parliamentarians who, in the House of Lords, recently \ndeclared that the former German Colonies should be restored to Germany in order to comply \nwith her demand for \u201cequality of rights\u201d;\u2014a spontaneous offer before it officially was de\u00ac \nmanded by Germany! At the same time, they were discussing in London the grant of a new \nloan to Germany. And all this for the \u201cpacification of Europe\u201d. Peace at any price, even \nat the expense of the National Honour. Is this not downright insanity? Is not such an atti\u00ac \ntude almost an invitation to the Black Powers, or to their instruments, to further provoca\u00ac \ntions and aggressions? \n\nWhat can we do against that attitude within such a poisoned and infected atmosphere? \nWhat have to be our tasks, our contributions? Above all, I think, we ought to pray con\u00ac \ntinuously that the Masters\u2019 will shall be done. Another effective contribution would be, I \nbelieve, to put into practice in our own spheres of activity what Theosophy teaches and offers \nus. To do so, there are plenty of opportunities: in fulfilling our daily duties in the light of \nTheosophy; in our family circles; in our business life; yes, and even in our Branch life. Thus \nwe begin to realize our opportunities, and, feeling the mutual danger, we also see the respon\u00ac \nsibilities that rest on the members of The Theosophical Society. \n\nTo us, Theosophy is the light-house within that psychic fog, and the guide in the chaos of \ninternational politics. Theosophy gives us not only more light and a better understanding, \nbut also more faith and courage and greater power of resistance; it braces our nerves and \nrefreshes our souls. And we, in this part of Europe, we especially, need these strengthening \nforces; more than ever, I think, we are exposed to the danger of Hitlerism. Considering the \npresent political conditions of Europe, I am afraid that another Great War is fast approaching, \nand we know the annexations that belong to Hitler\u2019s scheme of conquest; possibly, our own \ncountry will be one of his victims. Therefore, we have to face that danger and must be watch\u00ac \nful. May be that that time of trial of which Mr. Hargrove spoke, \u201cthe time when we shall be \ncut down to the root\u201d, is not so far for our little Branch. But if we have confidence in God \nas Job had, we shall remember that, \u201cThere is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that.i^fcill \nsprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.\u201d \n\nTherefore, we have to acquire a steadfast faith and a bold courage; we must learn to be \ninspired from above if we wish to respond, if we hope to be of some service to the Holy Cause, \nand to come up to the expectations of the Masters of Karma and Wisdom. \u201cLord, grant \nthat we may rise to those opportunities and responsibilities with which we are faced\u201d, and also \ngrant that we may become worthy of the \u201cGrace of Final Perseverance\u201d. \n\nI beg to convey our brotherly greetings and heartfelt thanks to the Executive Committee, \nas well as to the Officers and Members of the New York Branch, to whom we owe so much \nfor help, guidance and encouragement which we greatly appreciate. \n\n\nOneal, Arkansas. \n\nTo the Secretary T.S.: Would you kindly remember me to the Officers and Members of our \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n254 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nSociety in Convention assembled? Thank you. I shall certainly be with you in heart, and \nspirit, and in thought. And how glad I shall be to be there, even if only in thought! What a \nprivilege, and honour to be in such Company! Again I beg the privilege of standing with my \nComrades as we salute the Corps.\u2014Those who have for fifty years born so nobly, and un\u00ac \ncomplainingly the brunt of the battle. Toil, sacrifice and endless effort. Asking no quarter; \nseeking no reward,\u2014save the privilege of serving Righteousness. \n\nA Voice was heard, ringing clear and true: \n\n\u201cBe steadfast, be strong\",\u2014 \n\nSteadfast in seeking Inspiration from Above; \n\nStrong in making this Divine guidance manifest in our daily lives; \n\nSteadfast in withdrawing our centre of interest from the world and its illusions; \n\nStrong in following the Gleam of the Divine Light, back to the planes of the Immortal,\u2014 \nour Home. \n\nMay the Peace and Love and Power of Those who understand , be with you. \n\nWm. E. Mullinax. \n\n\nDeep interest was shown by delegates and members in the reading of Letters of Greeting, \nand, as usual, they elicited frequent applause. In addition to the foregoing, they included \nletters from Mr. Henning Dahl, Chairman of the Oslo Branch (Norway); Miss Eleanor Evans \n(England); Mrs. Graves, Secretary of the Norfolk Branch (England); Miss Bertha Gorich \n(California); Mr. J. E. Jonsson, President of the Arvika Branch (Sweden); Mr. and Mrs. \nPlinio (Italy); Mr. W. G. Roberts, President of the Middletown Branch (Ohio); Mr. and Mrs. \nSchoch (Brazil); Miss J. B. Tuttle (California); Mr. Acisclo Valed6n (Venezuela); Mr. Percy \nW. Ward, Secretary of the Gateshead Branch (England); telegram from Captain and Mrs. \nHamlen (Maine); telegram from Mrs. Vaile (Florida); cablegram from Mrs. Bagnell, Presi\u00ac \ndent of the Norfolk Branch (England); cablegram from Mrs. Raymond (Japan); cablegram \nfrom the Venezuela Branch of Caracas. Other letters from abroad were read, and most appre\u00ac \nciatively received, but are not acknowledged or quoted in the open pages of the Quarterly \nfor the reason that unusual political conditions in some parts of Europe would make this \ninconsiderate and inexpedient (see the Quarterly, July, 1934; page 33). \n\n\nHeroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh , that is to say over fear; \nfear of poverty , of suffering , of calumny , of illness , of loneliness , and of death. \n\nThere is no real piety without heroism. Heroism is the dazzling and glorious \nconcentration of courage .\u2014 Amiel. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Chinese Renaissance , by Hu Shih; The University of Chicago Press, 1934; \nprice, Si.50. \n\nDr. Hu has been called \u201cthe father of the Chinese Renaissance\u201d. Certainly \nhe has been an active participant in the events which have marked the disin\u00ac \ntegration of \u201cold China\u201d during the twenty-three years since the overthrow of \nthe Manchu Dynasty in 1912. To-day he is Dean of the College of Letters in \nthe National Peking University. His learning and literary skill have brought \nhim an international reputation. In a certain sense, he is the chief apologist for \nthe Chinese Republic. It is his function to justify the ways of \u201cyoung China\u201d \nin the eyes of Westerners. It is not astonishing that he has been quite successful, \nespecially in the United States, for his conception of life is extraordinarily like \nthat of very many American college professors. \n\nUndoubtedly China has been forced to try to adapt itself to a most difficult \nset of conditions. The inroads of European nations and their industrialism \ncould not be checked by the diplomacy of the Manchus, and the pacifist habits \nof the Chinese populace made any sort of effective military resistance impos\u00ac \nsible. Moreover, particularly during the past fifty years, the traditional culture \nof China has been profoundly disturbed by the steady infiltration of Western \npolitical, religious and social theories. The missionaries may have made few \nconverts to their various brands of Christianity, but they have given the Chinese \nan exalted idea of modern science and the machine age, and they have been \nonly too successful in their efforts to undermine the institutions of Confucian\u00ac \nism, including the sanctity of the family bond. From the missionaries the Chi\u00ac \nnese have learned that American democracy is the most perfect of all political \nconcoctions, and thousands of them have come to our universities to leai^nore \nabout Thomas Jefferson and Karl Marx, and to be dazzled still further by the \nglamour of our modern world. \n\nIn brief, the virus of modernism has entered the old body of China, and only \nthe wisest of mankind would dare even to guess whether she will somehow be \ncured or will die of the disease. Japan facing similar problems has attempted \nto solve them by imitating the West in externals without discarding what is \nessential in its traditional standards of inward behaviour. It is a desperate \nexperiment and may terminate in a ghastly failure, but at least it was under\u00ac \ntaken consciously, after deliberation, by a group of statesmen whose principal \n\n\n255 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n256 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nmotives were love of country and loyalty to their Emperor. However, in \nChina it is impossible to describe what is happening as an experiment. The \nold standards have been weakened, but only a vast confusion has taken their \nplace. \n\nDr. Hu is among those who have lost almost all faith in the virtues of ancient \nChinese civilization. On the other hand, he has a childish belief in the virtues \nof Western science. No brain-truster in Washington or elsewhere ever revealed \nmore confidence in the inevitability of social progress under the Utopian condi\u00ac \ntions which an ever-extending mechanical culture will make possible. One \nreason for Dr. Hu\u2019s extreme hopefulness is that he thinks the most permanent \nattribute of the Chinese mind is its tendency to naturalism and rationalism. The \nChinese, he says, are not burdened like the Western races by \u201cthe tremendous \nweight of a religious tradition\u201d. This may be true of the Chinese modernists, \nbut in our opinion he has very strange views concerning the sages of antiquity. \nThus he calls Confucius an agnostic because the Sage said on one occasion: \n\u201cTo say that you know a thing when you know it, and to say that you do not \nknow when you know it not, that is knowledge.\u201d The following is his weird \nversion of Lao-tze\u2019s doctrine: \n\nOur first great philosopher was a founder of naturalism. . . . Lao-tze taught that \nheaven and earth were unkind: they treated all beings like dogs and grass. . . . There \nwas only a natural process which he called the \u201cTao\u201d, or way. Everything becomes \nsuch of itself. The Tao does nothing; and yet it achieves everything. It was this nat\u00ac \nuralistic conception of the universe which in later ages always came up to serve as an \neffective weapon against superstition and anthropomorphic religion. \n\nAfter such judgments as these, his conclusions regarding the present state of \nChina are scarcely surprising. Many phenomena are appearing in his native \nland as inevitable accompaniments of \u201cmodern progress\u201d. Some of them are \npainfully familiar to those of us who have the privilege of living in Western \nlands,\u2014the construction of factories, the organization of trading companies, the \nspread of a secular education divorced from \u201cthe moralizings of the ancient \nsages\u201d, the concentration of population in the cities, the multiplication of \nnewspapers, the decay of the family, the spread of adultery, the facility of \ndivorce. \u201cIn one year (1921), there suddenly sprang up in Shanghai over 70 \nexchanges of stocks and bonds; and the effect was electrifying: hundreds of \nschool teachers deserted their profession to enlist in the new business that \npromised greater rewards and less drudgery.\u201d \n\nThese are a few of the important changes in the social life of the Chinese people. As \nwe look back on them and view them in the light of historical development, we cannot \nbut hail them as the greatest gains which Chinese civilization has received from its con\u00ac \ntact with the life and institutions of the West. \n\nIn spite of Dr. Hu\u2019s many admirers among the \u201cintellectuals\u201d of the West, \nthose of us who reverence the inestimable contribution which \u201cold China\u201d made \nto the world, must cherish some hope that \u201cyoung China\u201d is not the absolute \nmonstrosity which Dr. Hu\u2019s diagnosis suggests. It does not require the vision \n\n\n\n\n, f \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n257 \n\n\nof a prophet to predict that if China be unable to adapt the wisdom of its past \nto the problems of its future, nothing can save it from complete catastrophe. \n\nS.L. \n\n\nThe Crystalline State, edited by Sir W. H. Bragg and W. L. Bragg; G. Bell \nand Sons, London, 1933; price, 26s. \n\nIt is now many years since Sir William Bragg and his son, Dr. W. L. Bragg, \nwere first recognized as the pioneers in the then little explored field of crystal \nanalysis. They have ever since remained in the forefront of scientific research, \nand the present volume (the first of a new series concerning crystalline life) \ngives a general survey of the entire subject. \n\nA hundred and fifty years ago, the reawakening interest in the fine structure \nof matter, particularly as manifested in minerals, was heightened by a work of \nAbbd Haiiy: Essai d'unc Theorie sur la Structure des Cristaux, published in the \nlast quarter of the eighteenth century\u2014to be exact, in 1784. Huyghens, work\u00ac \ning on the subject from the optical side a hundred years earlier still, had given \nhis testimony to Hauy\u2019s later discovery that \u201cdifferent forms of the same crystal\u00ac \nline substance are based on a common underlying structure\". Haiiy, by unan\u00ac \nimous sentiment, is looked upon as the father of crystallography, and any stu\u00ac \ndent of Theosophy will be sure to speculate as to how much he may have been \ninspired and influenced by the marvellous knowledge of minerals, particularly \nof precious stones, which the celebrated Comte de St. Germain was known to \npossess. These two men may even have met and talked. Mineralogists of \nto-day naturally have no idea of what this science must owe to St. Germain, \nand we can only imagine how great is the world\u2019s obligation, by fitting together \na few of the facts that we have. One of these alone will be suggestive: the well- \nknown account of the diamond with a flaw in it which Louis XV gave to St. \nGermain to restore to its original purity of form and lustre. This, St. Germain \naccomplished within the short space of a month, though by exactly what means \nwe do not know, for he was not in the habit of divulging the secrets of his occult \nwisdom in the natural sciences. To-day we know of the law of rejuvenation \nin the crystalline world, and we know that its working is very slow. Did the \ngreat occultist know of some accelerated process by which this law (so far as \nwe are aware, entirely unknown to the science of that day) could be brought \ninto play? \n\nIt is to Haiiy that credit is given for the discovery of the geometrical law of \ncrystallization, and he may well have been assisted in his discovery by St. Ger\u00ac \nmain, for The Secret Doctrine tells us that \u201cNature geometrizes univcrsi^in \nall her manifestations.\u201d Hauy\u2019s conception of crystalline substance mayTeem \nto us rather fixed and inflexible, but he had to use what facilities his era and \nenvironment provided, and in all likelihood he imbibed only as much of the \nknowledge which may have been offered him, as his natural capacity or aptitude \npermitted. His theory is said to have been founded on close observation fol\u00ac \nlowing the accidental dropping and breaking of a calcite crystal. He noticed \nthe typical rhomb of calcite cleavage, and from this he formed his theory of \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n258 \n\n\u201cadditive molecules\u201d\u2014the stacking up of identical atoms in crystal formation. \nThis conception was later carried forward and etherealized by Bravais and others, \nthe idea of closely packed units of structure being replaced by \u201can assembly of \npoints\u201d, out of which the \u201cspace-lattice\u201d theory grew. It was not, however, \nuntil the now famous X-ray experiment of 1912 was made, that crystal analysis \npassed out of the realm of theory into that of fact. The value of the X-ray in \ncrystal analysis is due to the fact that the shortness of the wave-length is closely \napproximate to the distance between the atoms of which the crystal is built up \n\u2014each crystal according to its own individual type. The ancient Wisdom tells \nus that real matter is invisible, and we know that there are worlds within worlds, \ngrades beyond grades of substance ever more attenuated and rarefied as they \nprogress, and few of us can look at a \u201cLaue photograph\u201d without feeling that \nwe are gazing at matter at least one step nearer to reality than we have ever \ndone before. The diffraction of the X-ray by the atoms results in the most \nbeautiful patterns, and we can see the microstructure of matter on our plane \n(though it looks like a glimpse into another world) spread out before us. In\u00ac \ndeed, to some of us, it may reasonably suggest a living but subjective counterpart \nof the physical mineral, a kind of shadowy though luminous double belonging \nto another plane of existence, to a world of finer forces and texture. It has \nbeen said that \u201cby studying crystals and using them in other investigations, \nmuch light is thrown on the ultimate significance of matter and on the nature \nof the forces which, acting from one minute particle to another, result in the \ncohesion of the universe.\u201d We still have much to learn of crystalline life, but \nthe more we study it, the more fundamental and universal its principles appear \nto be. \n\nThis is a very technical book, one that might easily frighten away those of us \nwho may have little or no mathematical knowledge, and yet, despite the techni\u00ac \ncality, any student of Theosophy will read it with great pleasure and benefit. \nIts beautiful illustrations alone will repay the most careful examination, and \ngreatly help in an understanding of the fine structure of matter. T.D. \n\n\nLong Lance , by Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance; Farrar and Rinehart, New \nYork; price, $2.50. \n\nThis book is so interesting that, in spite of its having been published six years \nago, we heartily recommend it to those who have not read it. It delights young \npeople. The author, we are told in the foreword, is a full-blooded Indian of the \nBlood Band of the Blackfeet Indians, a college graduate, and a veteran of the \nWorld War, which he entered as a volunteer with the Canadian Troops. \n\nThe book is very simply written. We live intimately in the tribe with Child \nLong Lance. We meet the Medicine Man, at once doctor, diviner and priest. \nHe ranks with the Chief in importance and is greatly revered. Many of his \nmagical attainments are described. We go on raids across the plains; we hunt \nthe fast disappearing buffalo. The dread shadow of the white man looms in the \ndistance. We spend one dramatic winter in the Rockies. There is the massacre, \n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n259 \n\n\nthe chase on snowshoes, the revenge, and the flight, with the beautiful story of \nthe warrior who, in order not to hold up the party, helps build his funeral pyre, \nsets fire to it and dies singing his own death song. Soon after, the white man, \nwith his whiskey and missionaries, invades the last remaining stronghold of the \nIndians. Young Long Lance shamefully learns to wield the hoe and to work like \na woman. \n\nCodes of conduct have been drawn up by men of all races to help raise them \nGod ward. Such are the codes of Chivalry and of the Japanese Samurai. This \nbook depicts the code of the Blackfeet Indians who, up to 1897, still ranged \nthroughout the plains of the Northwest. Here are ideals of truth, courage, \nloyalty, courtesy, obedience and, most particularly, of disregard for physical \ncomfort and of detachment from mere physical existence, which should make the \nwhite men of the twentieth century envious. The disregard for material life \nseems to have had a very beneficent effect upon Indian physique. They lived to \ngreat old age, had perfect teeth, and were capable of extraordinary endurance. \nThe author speaks of having run in non-stop races of two hundred miles; on \none occasion, from Gleichen, Alberta, to Medicine Hat and back, he ran two \nhundred and forty miles. Great stress was laid on bodily training, not however, \nas a means of maintaining health, but in order to develop a fit instrument for the \nservice of heroism. This was the purpose of the baths in icy water, the whippings \nwith fir branches, the terrible ordeals by which a youth became a brave. We can \nimagine a time in the future when our present frantic efforts to preserve physical \nlife regardless of the absurd or immoral means which we employ, will be read of \nwith the contempt we feel for the excesses of Nero or Caligula,\u2014when vivi\u00ac \nsection, for instance, will seem beyond human comprehension. Few people \nrealize that they are living very artificial lives, and that, in an effort to counter\u00ac \nbalance the breaking of natural laws, some branches of medicine are uncon\u00ac \nsciously gravitating towards black magic. N.R. \n\n\nYoga and Western Psychology , by Geraldine Coster; Oxford University Press \n1934; price, $2.00. \n\nThis is a very interesting little book. Miss Coster points out in her intro\u00ac \nduction that many persons who seek the aid of psychoanalysis are really looking \nfor a satisfactory solution of problems profounder than those of physical \n' personal maladjustment. Their own form of religion, if they have been brof^ht \nup in any church, has not been presented to them in a convincing or intelligent \nway. They turn to psychoanalysis, and, in some cases, gain an insight into \ncertain phases of their own natures which enables them better to cope with \ntheir circumstances, but there they are left, with \u201cno place to go\u201d. Miss Coster \nsuggests that the Eastern systems of philosophy, particularly that of Patanjali, \nas set forth in the Yoga Sutras , provide steps beyond any which \u201cWestern \nPsychology\u201d has to offer. She seems to identify Western Psychology with what \nis termed, in general, \u201cpsychoanalysis\u201d, a definition which would exclude all \n^pther Western thought, ancient and modern! \n\n\n\n26 o \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nShe gives an excellent r\u00a3sum\u00a3 of modem analytical theory and technique, \nthe schools of Freud, Adler, Jung, etc., which should be valuable to any one \nwishing to learn the main facts about the subject. In Part Two, she discusses the \nphilosophy of Patanjali, and gives a version, with commentaries, of certain of the \nYoga Sutras. In Part Three, she compares the two systems, using chiefly the \nsutras of Book Two, as giving that portion of the method of Yoga which corre\u00ac \nsponds to the work of the psychoanalyst. She says: \n\nNow it is obvious to western readers that neither the attainment of the siddhis (powers), \nnor the further attainment of kaivalya (liberation), which is reached through the prac\u00ac \ntice of unconscious samadhi, is a project for the ordinary analyst. . . . It is as if analyst \nand yogi followed closely parallel paths up to a certain point, but beyond this point the \nanalyst has not yet ventured. . . . The technique by which the yogi is trained to a con\u00ac \ntinuous identification of the consciousness with the self, a sustained self-awareness, is in \nmany respects unsuited to western temperaments and western conditions of life. Yet \nthe goal is a worthy one. Ireud and his followers have given us, as it were, the first \ntwo chapters of our western yoga sutras. It remains for experimenters to discover an \napplicable equivalent for the remaining chapters. \n\nMiss Coster\u2019s very clear exposition of the philosophy and aims of the analysts, \nin juxtaposition with the Sutras , even in her limited version of them, shows only \ntoo plainly the vast, the almost immeasurable distance between the highly \nSemitic materialism of psychoanalysis and the spirituality of the Indian system. \nThe doctrine of the unity of all life in the Oversoul, or, indeed, of any Oversoul \nat all, is completely absent from the theories of \u201cModem Psychology\u201d. Psycho\u00ac \nanalysis, in its present form, is one more sign of the arrogance and ignorance of \ntwentieth century thought, which throws over as worthless the accumulated \nwisdom of the past, and asserts that its limited and trifling investigations are \nthe triumph of the ages. Western philosophy, from Thales to Bergson, has \nproduced some ideas which might throw light upon the nature of the human \nsoul and mind. Christianity possesses its own science of yoga, painfully acquired \nand set down by the great mystics. Its language may be repellent to Westerners \nwho are disgusted by the spectacle of the ignorance and failure of the priests and \n\u201cbelievers\u201d of the churches, but it is just as easy to learn that language as San\u00ac \nskrit, and easier than the strange jargon of the psychologists. If Eastern methods \nbe unsuited to the Western mind in general, it had better turn to its own rich \nheritage. The works of St. Teresa contain a whole system of self-analysis, and of \nthe stages of consciousness from meditation to contemplation. The Introduction \na la Vie D&vote of St. Francis de Sales, if studied with application, would \u201crelease\u201d \nthe neurotic patient far more thoroughly from the toils of his psychic nature \nthan any substitution of one psychic delusion for another. However, all Yoga, \nEastern or Western, requires of its student a recognition of and an aspiration \ntowards Spiritual Consciousness, and a true contrition and willingness to mortify \nthe lower nature. The motive for the transformation of the personal self is quite \ndifferent in the mystical systems from that in psychoanalysis. \n\nOf course, there are many persons who cannot perceive the inner meaning of \nChristian mysticism, except through the fresh light thrown upon it by com- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n261 \n\n\nparison with other religions, philosophies and sciences, just as many Orientals \nlearn to appreciate their own thought by the study of Western methods. The \nsecond object of The Theosophical Society is: \u201cThe study of ancient and modern \nreligions, philosophies and sciences, and the demonstration of the importance \nof such study.\u201d One result of Miss Coster\u2019s book should be to convince any \nearnest reader that Modern Psychology offers no spiritual consolations or nourish\u00ac \nment of any kind, but that he can find, by devoted search, in the age-old religious \nsciences of the world, a way to the realization of the Divine Consciousness and \nLife. St.C. LaD. \n\n\nUnwilling Passenger , by Arthur Osbum; Faber and Faber, London; price, \n5 s - \n\nThis reviewer has read many books about the Great War,\u2014some inspiring, \nsome mediocre, some revolting. Of all of them, this is the most pitiable. Its \nauthor was an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He won the D. S. 0 ., \nand undoubtedly did his duty, and more than his duty, with great bravery. \nBut he went into the war with bitterness and disgust, and came out of it with \na sort of venomous loathing,\u2014most of his book, an effort to unload this on \nhis readers. He would excuse himself, perhaps, on the ground that he is trying \nto \u201cdebunk\u201d war, but, in order to do this, he will introduce, in the middle of \nan account of some battle, a story told him years before about the alleged \nmonstrous behaviour of British troops in Burma, after the capture of Mandalay \nin 1885, and will sneer viciously at the indignation of the House of Lords when \nthe Germans began the use of poison gas in 1915, arguing that poison gas is \nno more barbarous than the use of the bayonet, and completely ignoring the \nfact, the crucial fact, that the Germans had bound themselves, when ratifying \nthe Hague Convention of July, 1899, not to use it. Another \u201cscrap of paper\u201d! \nAnd why pick on the Lords as the object of his contempt under this head? \nPerhaps the answer is that he is a Fabian Socialist, of the tribe of Bernard \nShaw. In any case we are glad to be able to state that the indignation was not \nconfined to the Lords, but that in the cities and back-woods of Canada, and \neven of the United States, this treachery of the Germans was execrated. \n\nWe know that war is hell (did not Sherman say so?); but we also know that \n\u201cwhat we bring, we find\u201d; and this is as true of war as of all else. It is \nalways easy to see, behind the surface of things, their divinely beneficent pu^ \npose; but there are those who can see nothing in Nature but \u201ca world of plunder \nand prey,\u201d of bloody murder\u2014birds \u201ctorturing\u201d insects, and so forth\u2014during a \nstroll in Central or Hyde Park on a summer afternoon; and this man, by an\u00ac \nalogy, is one of them. He turns the same bilious and distorting vision on the \nwhole of life. What difference would it have made, he asks, if German Kultur \nhad replaced the English variety, seeing that English couples, misbehaving \nin public places, are arrested by English policemen? According to him, \u201cthe \nhuman lot on this planet could be dreary enough without the moralists and \npuritans trying to deprive men and women of such antidotes and consolations, \noteucli temporary forgetfulness, as the senses provide\u201d. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n262 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nWhat a book! But because he writes as a witness of the War, even he can\u00ac \nnot avoid recording incidents which show the beauty of which human nature \nis capable,\u2014capable, not when living at ease, in a Socialist\u2019s paradise, but in \nthe very circumstances which he regards as the ultimate abomination. \n\nBursting through one of the small villages near Noyon [during the initial retreat], with \nthe enemy's machine-gun bullets singing amongst the telegraph wires and spitting against \nthe walls behind us, we had halted for a moment while our Horse Artillery tried to hold \nup their advance. My horse, like myself, was suffering badly from thirst. An old dame \nfleeing from some neighbouring village with her apron full of ornaments and odd trifles \nshe had saved, and with two small children hanging in pitiful terror at her skirts, realized \nour condition. Emptying her treasure into the pinafore of one of the children, she hur\u00ac \nried to the well. \n\n\u201cYour horse, m\u2019sieur, and you\u2014you are so thirsty. You must drink!\u201d \n\nThirsty as I was, I was impatient to be off; the Germans had the range and the village \nwas becoming a hot corner. \n\n\u201cNever mind, madame! We must go. II faut partir tout de suite. Go yourself! Go \nquickly or you and your two little ones will get hurt!\u201d \n\n\u201cNo, no, m\u2019sieur. My grandchildren\u2014the Germans won\u2019t surely hurt. Let me get \nyou some water.\u201d t \n\nBoor old soul; she was panting as she wound up the full bucket on the chain; stagger\u00ac \ning towards my horse she offered him the water. The greedy animal, nearly knocking \nher over, thrust his great head eagerly into the bucket, drenching her. \n\n\u201cThere!\u201d she nodded triumphantly. \n\nIn a moment we were off. I left the old dame dazed and trembling in the street, gun- \ncarriages and limbers racing through at break-neck speed; some of the houses already \non fire. \n\nThen, at Pdcy: \n\nThe enemy began bursting his shrapnel lower down, and numbers got wounded in the \ngroin and back, including several officers of the 9th Lancers. The wounds in the groin \nwere easier to get at than those in the back, but they bled more freely. Near the chateau \na French girl gallantly came to our aid and got some of the men\u2019s breeches off whilst I \nwas dressing others. \n\nQuite a young girl, she coolly kept her thumb pressed hard on bleeding arteries whilst \nI got wads of gauze and tourniquets ready; several times she went through the village \nto bring me warm water from a cottage, and I thought each time she would be killed. \nLater that day she was killed! I found her body that afternoon when we recaptured the \nfar end of the village . . . outside a cottage in a narrow street. \n\nTragic: yes, if you choose; but some of us would be thankful to die at any \nage with half that girl\u2019s splendour on our souls. Spiritual values are infinitely \ngreater than those of material life, and the humanitarians (including, alas, the \nmajority of actively \u201creligious\u201d people), who regard the physical well-being \nof humanity as of primary importance, and who look upon suffering as the \nworst of evils, are doing as much to retard the evolution of the race as the \naggressively selfish and licentious. \n\nFortunately, the author of this book is so sour-minded, so envenomed, and \nharps so incessantly in that strain, that he defeats his own ends and will do \nlittle actual harm. \n\n\nT. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQuestion No. 398. \u2014In the Theosophical Glossary, Mesmer is given as the Lodge Messenger , \nwhile Saint-Germain \u201csupervised the development of events \u201d. When we turn to the paragraph on \nSaint-Germain we find that he receives a very long and detailed notice as a great Adept. Is it \npossible to be told more of the exact relation in which these two men stood to one another and to the \nMovement in the eighteenth century? \n\nAnswer. \u2014The Theosophical Glossary does not say that Mesmer was the Lodge Messenger \nof the eighteenth century: it says he was the \u201cpioneer\u201d. He began the outer work in 1775, \nhaving, it would seem, the philosophy to inculcate, as he taught it in his esoteric organization, \nthe Order of Universal Harmony , while Cagliostro carried on the phenomenal work. These \ntwo aspects of the Movement, the philosophy and the phenomena, were combined in the \nperson of H.P.B., the Lodge Messenger of the nineteenth century. \n\nSaint-Germain is the great figure who stood behind the others, guiding and directing. He \ncame first, apparently preparing the way. After the advent of Mesmer and Cagliostro, he \nsupervised their work from behind the scenes, as it were; and, after Mesmer was recalled, and \nCagliostro had failed, and he, himself, was supposed to have died, he was seen on several \noccasions. At one time or another, he appeared in most of the important European countries, \nthough most frequently in France, where the Movement was centred. Perhaps, at first, he \nwas picking up the loose ends left by the failure of the Movement in the seventeenth century. \nIt seems evident that he was trying to purify and reorganize the secret societies of Europe, in \nthe hope that they might become instruments fit for use. Also, he went on confidential mis\u00ac \nsions for Louis XV of France. Unquestionably, while it remained possible, he tried to save \nLouis XVI and Marie Antoinette. H.P.B. says that he appeared to the Princesse de Lamballe \nwhen she stood before the Revolutionary tribunal; and to Jeanne du Barry just before she was \nguillotined. Also, there is the memorandum of the Comtesse d\u2019Adh< 5 mar, pinned to her manu\u00ac \nscript, in which she tells of seeing Saint-Germain in Paris in 1793 and after: at the execution \nof the Queen; on the 18th Brumaire; when the due d\u2019Enghien was shot; and still later. Per\u00ac \nhaps he was trying to reinforce these victims; and, at the same time, it may be that he was \ndirecting the efforts of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who was far from inactive durinatf^e \nRevolution and until his death, which occurred the year before the Empire was establisl^^F \n\nThere is historical evidence to show that Saint-Germain did his utmost to close downThe \nsemi-occult Lodges, and to disperse the groups which had been formed before the close of the \ncentury, and that in most cases he succeeded. The movement having failed, it became of the \ngreatest importance to reduce the amount of harm which any continuance of its activities \nwould cause. There are stories to the effect that Saint-Germain is still living in Europe, some \npeople say in Venice. G.M.W.K. \n\nQuestion No. 399. \u2014What is the difference, if any, between Belief and Faith? \n\nAnswer. \u2014In the King James Version of the Gospels, no distinction is drawn, the Greek \nnoun pistis being translated as \u201cfaith\u201d, whereas the corresponding Greek verb pisteud is \nIjiranslated by the English verb \u201cbelieve\u201d. In Matthew 17, 20, after the disciples had asked why \n\n263 \n\n\n\n264 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nthey had been unable to cast out a devil, Christ answered: \u201cBecause of your unbelief ( apistia ). \nFor verily I say unto you, if ye have faith ( pistis ) as a grain of mustard seed\u201d. In the Revised \nVersion \u201clittle faith\" has been substituted for \u201cunbelief\", so that the sentence reads: \"Because \nof your little faith\". Modem usage tends to make \u201cbelief\" imply little more than intellectual \nassent, whereas faith implies also an element of trust, and a willingness to act upon it, that \nbelief may lack entirely. To believe in God is one thing. To have faith in Him involves that \nand much more. There is a knowledge that is of the mind, and another kind of knowledge that \nis of the heart and will. To use \u201cbelief\" for the first and \u201cfaith\" for the second would seem to \nbe a good way of making the distinction. \n\nPerhaps we might say that faith is the reflection in the personality of the accumulated \nknowledge of the soul. As the fruit of its experience in countless past lives, the soul knows \nmany things, and it tries to impart its own certainty to the personal consciousness. One form \nthat this takes is the instinctive perception, \u201cThat is true\", carrying greater conviction than \nbeliefs arrived at by deductive reasoning. It may or may not be possible to give intellectual \nreasons for one\u2019s faith. In the last analysis, however, all of the conclusions of the reason rest \non faith, for all depend on some assumptions that cannot be proven, such as the accuracy of the \nreasoning processes themselves, or the objective existence of anything at all outside of ourselves. \n\nJ.F.B.M. \n\nAnswer. \u201cLord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.\" A prayer, a cry from a heart dis\u00ac \ntressed; an instinctive recognition of Reality; the beginning of faith. Perhaps, with it, an \nintuitive inner realization of the part the mind had played in that recognition, of the tangible \nproof the mind would later demand, of the possibility of the diminution or loss of that first \nfervour. The heart, alive, sensed the need of further help to complete faith, and made its \ndemand then and there; and the help was given. \n\nOrdinarily, when we say that we believe, we mean that we think thus or so. We analyze \nthings in terms of the mind, separating, weighing, sifting, choosing. As a result, through \nreal and earnest effort, we arrive at a conviction which is our belief, and upon which we are \nprepared to take our stand. But, usually, there is too much of the mind in it all, and not \nenough of the heart. We believe, but we cannot say that we know. There has not been that \nturning of the heart to the unseen world, which may bring, in a flash, an instantaneous recogni\u00ac \ntion of Truth, of that wisdom which is not of the mind and which is above and beyond all \nknowledge. When that comes, we no longer merely believe, we know. Conviction, illumined, \naugmented, has become faith. From that moment we stop concentrating upon mental \nprocesses, we cease to regard them as an end in themselves, and holding fast to such measure \nof faith as we have grasped, we use the mind as an instrument for its further confirming and \nstrengthening. There is a change of polarity, there is the beginning of right self-identification. \n\nNow faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.\" Through \nfaith, those things which we have hopefully believed become real, nearer than hands and feet; \nwe can touch them, and see. Through faith, we penetrate the veil, in some measure at least,' \nand know, beyond peradventure, of wisdom and love and power in the world of the unseen! \nWe could not see so long as our eyes were holden. Mind, alone, would have held us back \nuntil the end of time, content with mere beliefs. It is the cry of our heart that has made all \nthings new, that has given us that faith through which all things are possible. C R A \n\n\n\n\nu* \n\n\n\n\n\n\nSTANDARD BOOKS \n\nBlavatsky, H. P. Isis Unveiled, Vols. I and II.doth, *12.50 \n\nr . _ Complbtb in one book.doth, 7.50 \n\nKey to Theosophy . 'T\u2019 j \u2019J \n\nSecret Doctrine, The, Vols. I and ii and Index.\"'.'.'. doth,\u2019 it!so \n\n~ _ Compute in one book, without subject-index volume! 7.50 \n\nTHEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY.. 2 2B \n\nTransactions ok the Blavatsky Lodge .. doth. 2 50 \n\nVoice of the Silence. * \n\nCave. Fragments, Volume I... ......\"!! i! bo \n\nVolume II.bentos, 1.50 \n\nGerat-d, John. Letters to Friends .ilm \n\nHillard, Katherine. Abridgment of the Secret Doctrine, .doth 3.00 \nJohnston, Charles. Bhagavad Gita .Translated, annotated; doth 1.26 \n\nCrbst Jewel \u201e WM x\u00bb, tm. . 12 \n\nGreat Upanishads, The, Volume I. cl Jr , 50 \n\nParables of the Kingdom, The.. * B0 \n\nS Y \u00b0%t SUTRAS .Translated, annotated; cloth,\u2019 1^26 \n\nJudge, William Q. Bhagavad Gita .Edited; doth, 1.251 leather.\u2019 i!so \n\nCulture of Concentration . paper 25 \n\nEchoes from the Orient ..paper\u2019 .25 \n\nLetters That Have Helped Me, Volume I and II, each, .doth \u2019 1*00 \n\nOcean of Theosophy . c ,\u00b0\u00a3 , \n\nPatanjali\u2019s Yoga Aphorisms . cJoth \u2018 1>00 \n\nKeightley, Archibald. Theosophy as an Influence in Life Daoer' \u201920 \n\nLaDow, Stanley V. Plotinus.JJJ ^ \n\nMitchell, Henry Bedinger. Meditation, Special edition, .20, paper\u2019 iso \n\nTHEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AND THEOSOPHY, The .paper* [20 \n\nMitchell, J. F. B. Collegiate Education and Standards of \n\n\u201e. Value....... . Paper, .10 \n\nomnett, A. P. Esoteric Buddhism . d ot h 2 m\u00bb \n\nOccult World, The . .....doth', 2.50 \n\nlorrey, Kay E. Science and its Function in Education _paper. .50 \n\nWalker, E. D. Reincarnation. \n\nIdyll of the White Lotus.* Vdoth,\u2019 1.3 1 \n\nLight on the Path.leather,* \n\nThrough the Gates of Gold.cloth, 1 \n\nTHE QUARTERLY BOOK DEPARTMENT, \n\nP. a Box 64, Station 0 , New York. \n\n\nDevotional: Bhagavad Gita; Crest Jewel of Wisdom; Fragments; The Great Upani\u00ac \nshads; Letters That Have Helped Me; Letters to Friends; Light on the Path; The Par\u00ac \nables of the Kingdom; 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; \nPlotinus; Reincarnation; The Secret Doctrine; Talks on Religion; Theosophical Glossary; \nTransactions; Patanjali\u2019s Yoga Sutras. \n\nIntroductory: Culture of Concentration; Echoes from the Orient; Esoteric Buddhism; \nw dyll of the White Lotus; Meditation; The Occult World; The Ocean of Theosophy; \nTie Theosophical Society and Theosophy. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQTfte tKjeoSopfjical \u00a3\u00a3>octetp \n\nFounded by f). P. Blavatsky at Hew York in 1875 \n\n\nHE Society does not pretend to be able to establish \nat once a universal brotherhood among men* but \nonly strives to create the nucleus of such a body. \nMany of its members believe that an acquaintance \nwith the world's religions and philosophies will \nreveal* as the common and fundamental principle \nunderlying these, that \u201cspiritual identity of all Souls with the \nOversoul 99 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 emphasize the same idea* \nThe organization is wholly unsectarian, with no creed, \ndogma, 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 which they desire for their own. \n\nThe following proclamation was adopted at the Conven\u00ac \ntion of the Society, held at Boston, April, 1895: \n\n\u201cThe Theosophical Society in America by its delegates and \nmembers in Convention assembled, does hereby proclaim \nfraternal good 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 \norganizations in all theosophical matters except those of \ngovernment and administration, and invites their cor\u00ac \nrespondence and co-operation. \n\n\u201cTo all men and women of whatever caste, creed, race, or \nreligious belief, who aim at the fosteringof peace, gentleness, \nand unselfish regard one for another, and the acquisition of \nsuch knowledge of men and nature as shall tend to the eleva\u00ac \ntion and advancement of the human race, it sends most friendly \ngreeting and freely proffers its services. \n\n\u201cIt joins hands with all religions and religious bodies whose \nefforts are directed to the purification of men's thoughts and \nthe bettering of their ways, and it avows its harmony there\u00ac \nwith. 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 unfoldment of Truth as shall serve to announce and con\u00ac \nfirm a scientific Basis for ethics \u2022 \n\n\u201cAnd lastly, it invites to its membership those who, seek\u00ac \ning a higher life hereafter, would learn to know the paib to \ntread in this.\" \n\n\nApplications for membership should be addressed to the \nSecretary T. S., P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York. \n\n\n\nNo \n\n\n132 \n\n\nOCTOBER, 1936 \n\n\nVOL. XXXIII, No. 4 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\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, $2.00 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 subscriptions may be sent to John \nM. Watkins, 21 Cedi 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\nCONTENTS OF VOL. XXXIII, NO. 4 \nOctober, 1936 \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS. \n\nFRAGMENTS. \u2019 ^ \n\nBIBLICAL AND PYRAMID PROPHECY. \n\nTHE MIRROR OF NATURE AND OF ART. \n\nSILENCE IS GOLDEN. \n\nWITHOUT CENSOR, VII... \n\nTHE ART OF LIFE. \n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME. \n\nCIVILIZATION, THE DEATH OF ART AND BEAUTY by \n\nH. P. Blavatsky (Reprint). \n\nREVIEWS.\u2022 . \n\nQUESTIONS AND ANSWERS \n\nINDEX. . \n\n\nPAGE \n\n. 267 \n. 278 \n279 \n288 \n292 \n294 \n304 \n307 \n\n324 \n\n333 \n\n349 \n\n35 i \n\n\nAct of Ma t \"h d 3 \u201c 8 ^ 0n<i ' Cla3S ma \u2018 ter SeptembCT \n\n\ns. \n\n\n1923, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the \n\n\nCopyright, 1936, by The Theosophical Society \n\n\ncaste or colour. The subsidiary objects ire T 7 T \u00b0 f race - \"ced, sex, \n\n'g'ons, philosophies and sciences andthe I ' e Study of an cient and modern \nof such study; and the investigation u demonstration of the importance \n\u2018he psychical powers latent^ man ^ UneXf>,ained of nature and \n\n\n\nI he Theosophical Quartttrtv *\u2022 m . \n\nTheosophical Society founded in New'vfrTb \u00b0L ** \u00b0 Hginal \n\ncalling itself Theos^hkd, JorTrlf,h^d T T* \u00b0 Tganization \nwith similar bodies, the purposes and 1/ ^ Besant > nor \n\nforeign to our own. methods of which are wholly \n\nEwtohs, The Theosophy QtJARTERLr< \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT up What Is a Comet? \n\neye. hTL'CSn^ToTcorpte them ,0 \u00ab\u201c \u2122ked \n\nP\u00ab\u00bbd> Why do some mo ' \u00b0\u2122Sib\u201e& \u00b0 ? Ub!t \u201c\u201c\u201c \u00bb- they co^ \n\nE\u00abed ? ,lip., *\u00ab*, ^ ^ *1. whde o.hem trace a ' el \u201d. \n\neir tails always point away from the Sun^n\"\u2019^ \u00b0 f ^ Sun? Why do \nlaw of gravitation\u201d? What part, if any doth ^ a PP arent defiance of the \nand stellar evolution? y \u2019 they play in the drama of nebular \n\nAstronomers can ask such questions but th \u2022 \neven to themselves. They do not know whnf responses are unconvincing \nremarkable\u2014most of them admit that thev i C \u00b0 mets are > an d\u2014what is quite' \nt at every comet performs at least one beneficUoffi^T' \u00b0 ne \u2122 ight suggest \nwanderings. It disturbs the self-esteem of 5 CC dunng th e course of its \nhumility where this is greatly needed. Corners, calling to life a little \n\nIf .oufd^TJI ,\u00b07\u201d AsTRO \"\u00b0\" v * \n\nhints given out by students of fhe occSTJ* hypothes es some of tl# \n\nthe fortunate results. For exampl 7^ * \u00ab 7 \nThe Secret Doctrine and elsewhere. Doubtless very V references to comets in \nthat an occultist may know more about cornet, ^ \"* ready to admit \n\nastronomy. One can only repeat the tra d,v^ , than a modem professor of \nhave studied the heavens for thousandsifTotm^l^^^ the Myste ries \nduring this period an immense amount of nCa^nT\u2019 ? ^ and \nNo vision of one Adept was accepted till it \u2122 \u201c \u201c accum ulated. \n\nthe v>sions-so obtained as to stand as independent e d confi \u2122ed by \n\nand by centuries of experience\u201d (The Secret \n\n267 W ' ' 2?4) ' \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n268 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nThey have steadfastly observed the heavens, with or without telescopes and \nspectroscopes. It is recorded that their powers of observation, the instruments \nof their vision, have penetrated to strata or planes of substance which are un\u00ac \nknown and invisible to the ordinary undeveloped man of our race. Adepts \nare \u201cmen who have developed and perfected their physical, mental, psychic \nand spiritual organizations, to the utmost possible degree\u201d. Thus a distant \nnebula may appear to them as close at hand as \u201cdaisies in a near-by field\u201d. \n\nThe following excerpts suggest the outline of an occult cometary hypothesis: \n\nAll hypotheses to the contrary notwithstanding, cometary matter does not appear to \npossess even the common law of adhesion or of chemical affinity. . . . The essence of \ncometary matter must be\u2014and the \u201cAdepts\u201d say is\u2014 totally different from any of the \nchemical or physical characteristics with which the greatest chemists and physicists of the \nearth are familiar. ... It is to be feared that before the real nature of the elder progeny \nof Mulaprakriti is detected, Mr. Crookes will have to discover matter of the fifth or \n\nrtf-radiant state, et seq. (Five Years of Theosophy , p. 155). \n\n[Cometary matter] is homogeneous in its primitive form beyond the Solar Systems, \nand differentiates entirely once it crosses the boundaries of our Earth\u2019s region; vitiated \nby the atmospheres of the planets and the already compound matter of the interplane\u00ac \ntary stuff, it is heterogeneous only in our manifested world ( The Secret Doctrine , I, 127). \n\nThe sun is older than any of its planets\u2014though younger than the moon. . . . [The \nplanets] were not suns in our, or their present solar system, but comets in space. All \nbegan life as wanderers over the face of the infinite Kosmos. They detached themselves \nfrom the common storehouse of already prepared material, the Milky Way (which is \nnothing more or less than the quite developed world-stuff, all the rest in space being the \ncrude material, as yet invisible to us); then starting on their long journey they first set\u00ac \ntled in life where conditions were prepared for them by Fohat, and gradually became \nsuns. Then each sun, when its Pralaya arrived, was lesolved into millions and millions \nof fragments. Each of these fragments moved to and fro in space collecting fresh ma\u00ac \nterial, as it rolled on like an avalanche, until it came to a stop through the laws of attrac\u00ac \ntion and repulsion, and became a planet in our own, as in other systems beyond our \ntelescopes. The sun\u2019s fragments will become just such planets after the solar pralaya. \nIt was a comet once upon a time, in the beginning of Brahma\u2019s Age. Then it came to \nits present position, whence it will burst asunder, and its atoms will be whirled into \nspace for aeons and aeons, like all other comets and meteors, until each, guided by Karma, \nis caught in the vortex of the two forces, and fixed in some higher and better system. \nThus the Sun will live in his children as a portion of the parents lives in their offspring \n(Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge , pp. 145-146). \n\nThe Esoteric Doctrine . . . \u201crecognizes the comets as forms of cosmic existence co\u00ac \nordinated with earlier stages of nebular evolution\u201d; and it actually assigns to them \nchiefly the formation of all worlds (The Secret Doctrine , I, 656). \n\nThe assertion that all the worlds (stars, planets, etc.)\u2014as soon as a nucleus of primor\u00ac \ndial substance, in the laya (undifferentiated) state, is informed by the freed principles of \na just deceased sidereal body\u2014become first comets, and then suns, to cool down to \ninhabitable worlds, is a teaching as old as the Rishis. . . . What does Science know of \ncomets, their genesis, growth, and ultimate behaviour? Nothing\u2014absolutely nothing! \nAnd what is there so impossible in that a laya-centre\u2014a lump of cosmic protoplasm, \nhomogeneous and latent\u2014when suddenly animated or fired up, should rush from its \nbed in space, and whirl throughout the abysmal depths, in order to strengthen its homo\u00ac \ngeneous organism by an accumulation and addition of differentiated elements? And \nwhy should not such a comet settle in life, live, and become an inhabited globe? . . . \nWe must remember, moreover, that the law of analogy holds good for the worlds, as it \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n269 \n\n\ndoes for man; and that as \u201cThf One (Deity) becomes Two (Deta or Angel), and Two be\u00ac \ncomes Three (or Man)\u201d, etc., so we are taught that the Curds (World-Stuff) become \nWanderers (Comets); these become stars; and the stars (the centres of vortices), our \nsun and planets \u2014to put it briefly. This cannot be so very unscientific , since Descartes \nalso thought that \u201cthe planets rotate on their axes, because they were once lucid stars, \nthe centres of vortices\u201d (ibid. I, 224-227). \n\nThe Law of Analogy \n\nAs has been said, occult science is based upon the presumption, tested count\u00ac \nless times and always found to be true, that the \u201claw of analogy holds good \nfor the worlds,\u201d for all worlds, great and small. The growth of a plant from \nthe seed obeys the same fundamental laws as the growth of a solar system or \nthe growth of the spiritual man. Thus death and rebirth follow the lines of \ncorresponding processes in macrocosm and microcosm. One can trace a similar \nseparation of the higher from the lower principles after death, a similar reinte\u00ac \ngration of the higher and the lower marking the beginning of a new life-cycle, \na new period of exfoliation. \n\nIn the ancient symbology, the Sun often stands for the Father in Heaven, \nthe Master, the Higher Self which assimilates the spiritual harvest of each \nlife, drawing into its essence all those elements of personal consciousness which \naspire towards it and which faithfully reflect its attributes. On the other \nhand, the Moon has from time immemorial represented the unregenerate por\u00ac \ntion of the personal man, that part of the human nature which has not been \ntransmuted into the likeness of the Sun and which lingers behind after death \nas a spectre in hell or limbo. Thus the Moon has been called the Mother of \nman, as the Sun has been called the Father, for the incarnated human entity \nis a blending of the solar essence, which includes the pure self-consciousness \nacquired in past lives, with the lunar \u201celementals\u201d, the skandhas , the accumu\u00ac \nlated Karma, the \u201cunfinished business\u201d of other incarnations. From the Sun \ncome light and inspiration and spiritual force; from the Moon come the normal \nforms of personal life as well as the passions and delusions which retard and \nimpede the natural growth of the real man\u2014passions and delusions, however, \nwhich, when transmuted, become essential parts of his complete manhood. \n\nThese venerable symbols are based upon the testimony of occult astronomy, \nthat each inhabited globe is formed, as it were, of a nucleus of cometar^jr \nsolar substance, under the impulsion of the life-elements and energies tq^s- \nmitted to it from a dead planet, that is, from a Moon. The salvation offhe \nnew planet, as of each of its inhabitants, depends upon the transformation of \nthis lunar stuff into progressively higher states, culminating in its complete \nidentity with the substance of the nucleus, the \u201creal form of the earth\u201d. To \nwhat stage, in human life does the cometary phase in the cosmic drama corre\u00ac \nspond? Perhaps the famous Kabalist, filiphas L6vi, suggested the truth when \nhe compared Lucifer to a comet\u2014\u201cthe Lucifer of the Kabalah, not the ac\u00ac \ncursed and stricken angel, but the Logos, the Principle of Reason in Nature \nand Man, the Force which struggles against death to conquer life, which ac\u00ac \ncepts the pain of existence to attain freedom.\u201d It is as if the birth of a comet \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n270 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nin the great deep of space signifies some divine sacrifice of cosmic magnitude \nwhich makes possible the resurrection of a world, as the sacrifice of the higher \nto the lower is the final cause of all growth in every degree and department of \nNature. \n\nA New Cosmic Force in Atoms \n\nScience studies matter and its modes of motion. For all its practical pur\u00ac \nposes it is unconcerned with the causes of motion, with the reason why one \nmode of motion can be transformed into another. It is sufficient for the engi\u00ac \nneer to know how heat can be converted into mechanical energy, how a magnet \ncan induce an electric current. But as scientific research extends into the zone \nof invisible entities, like electricity and \u201cradio-waves\u201d, the physicist is obliged \nto postulate the existence of atoms, positrons, electrons, neutrons, etc., all of \nwhich are as \u201cmetaphysical\u201d, in one sense, as the most abstract forms and \ncategories of mediaeval scholasticism. This is legitimate, of course, for the \nphysicist is merely trying to formulate an intelligible exposition of certain ob\u00ac \nscure electro-magnetic processes,\u2014an exposition which may enable him to \ndominate and control them. Illusion begins when what are actually mental \nforms are mistaken for objective realities. Every mortal man falls into this \nerror whenever he imagines that his true Self is his personality,\u2014which is, in \nessence, merely a subjective form, an indispensable agency in the production of \nSelf-consciousness,-but incapable of real being in a real world. The difficulties \nof the modem physicist seem to have their origin in a delusion of the same \norder as that which inaugurated the fall of man. He tends to assume that the \n\u201catoms\u201d which he fashions in his mind are veritable paradigms or noumena of \nthe atoms which exist in Nature. It would seem that the confusion and the \ncontradictions of modem physical theory are almost wholly due to the effort \nto make the Universe fit the pattern which a group of brilliant but over-spe\u00ac \ncialized mathematical physicists have designed for it. They formulate the \n\u201claws of nature\u201d, and are surprised, if not shocked, by the repeated discovery \nthat no law can be devised which is sufficiently comprehensive to be univer\u00ac \nsally applicable. Nature constantly overflows the moulds in which science is \ntrying to compress it. \n\nFor instance, there is Coulomb\u2019s law, that similarly charged electrical parti\u00ac \ncles repel each other with a certain definite force, depending upon the distance \nbetween them. This law has proved so useful in electrical engineering that its \nuniversality has been virtually unquestioned. But it has become evident that \nanother law must be operative in the interior of the atom, if\u2014as the physicists \ninsist\u2014the hearts of the heavier atoms are composed of several particles which \nare similarly charged but which do not fly apart. To explain this anomaly, it \nhas been necessary to postulate the existence of a new force. We -quote from \nan article in the New York Times , May 2, 1936, reporting some recent experi\u00ac \nments in this field. \n\nDiscovery of the existence within the hearts of atoms of a hitherto unknown force \nforty times greater than electricity, in fact the very force which holds the universe to- \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n271 \n\n\ngether and without which it would evaporate into a cloud of hydrogen gas, was reported \nbefore the American Physical Society by physicists of the Carnegie Institute of Wash* \nington. . . . Protons [are] fundamental units of matter which carry a positive electric \ncharge, a single proton constituting the heart of an ordinary hydrogen atom. Protons, \nbeing positively charged electrical particles, behave in accordance with Coulomb\u2019s law. \nBut the universality and inexorableness of the Coulomb law created for scientists an \nintricate puzzle in their study of the nucleus of the atom. For the hearts of the elements \nheavier than hydrogen are known to contain more than one proton, and such protons, \naccording to the law of \u201clike repels like\u201d, should not be held within the atoms in the \ntight embrace they are known to exist in. In fact, if the Coulomb law were applicable \nto the realm of the atom, no atom heavier than hydrogen could exist. For this reason, \nWerner Heisenberg, father of the famous \u201cuncertainty principle\u201d, theoretically postu\u00ac \nlates the existence of a force within the atom which is greater than the repelling force \nbetween the protons and which is responsible for holding the universe together. More \nrecently, American physicists . . . found the strength of this nuclear force which Dr. \nBethe of Cornell University determined to be forty times the repelling force of similar \nelectric charges for each other. . . . The new atomic force, for which no name yet exists, \nseems to serve the sole purpose of providing the cohesive force in the universe. Unlike \nelectricity, which has both attractive and repelling powers, this \u201cuniversal binder\u201d is a \n\u201cone-way force\u201d, having only attractive powers. It seems to be for the atom what \ngravitation is to the universe at large. But whereas gravitation is inversely proportional \nto the square of the distance between two bodies, this new nuclear force is proportional \nto the seventh power of the distance, so that it has a very small range indeed to exert \nits influence on. \n\n\nThe Noumenon and the Phenomenon \n\nAs a matter of fact, this force has a well-known name,\u2014well-known, that is, \nto simple-minded folk who are neither scientists nor professors. It is called \nthe force of cohesion, and it has been recognized, if not measured, ever since \nthe beginning of history. It is not necessary to look within the hearts of atoms \nto find it. As the writer suggests above, gravitation illustrates one mode of its \naction. But it is particularly evident in all the manifestations of life. What \nelse holds together the parts of an organism so as to constitute a living \nwhole? What is the binding power of human social life? What unifies the \nscattered elements of a human entity, forming a self or at least the semblance \nof a self? \n\nThe modern scientist concentrates his powers, with admirable one-pointed- \nness, upon things which he thinks of as existing outside himself, but there is \none subject which he never studies, and that is himself, the states of his own \nconsciousness. However, according to the occult principle of analogies, one \ncan only know the real laws of the Universe in so far as he knows man, for \nman is \u201cthe mirror of the Universe\u201d. It is the tradition that the true occidtet \ndominates the forces of the Cosmos because he completely understandable \ncauses and modes of their action within the compass of his own individual \nbeing. If we accept the fundamental theosophical postulate of the essential \noneness of Nature and man, we shall expect to find similitudes between all \nthe processes and agencies which generate energy. We may formulate, or \nrather re-formulate a simple law: if all the phenomena of the Universe corre\u00ac \nspond to one another, the noumena of these phenomena will correspond also. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n272 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nConscious Causes \n\nWhat is a noumenon? As Kant defined it, it is the reality, the thing-in- \nitself, the essence and cause of the phenomenon which is apprehended by our \nphysical senses. It is the Platonic Idea, the Soul, the reflected form of which \nis a body, an object of physical perception. But a noumenon is not a figment \nof the philosophers, a metaphysical abstraction, like the mathematicians\u2019 con\u00ac \ncept of the atom. It can be felt as an invisible presence behind every material \nor psychic apparition. Its being is tacitly admitted even by the materialist, \nwhenever he experiences friendship, whenever he observes another person with \nthe least sympathy or kindness. A friend is not the more or less presentable \nphysical organism which is all that our bodily eyes can see. He is the noume\u00ac \nnon, the soul, the \u201cconscious cause\u201d animating the phenomenon before us. \n\nThe Secret Doctrine constantly emphasizes this basic tenet, that no phenom\u00ac \nenon can exist apart from some noumenal prototype. Wherever there is mat\u00ac \nter or form in Nature, there must be force or motion, and, completing the \n\u201ctrinity,\u201d there must be the \u201cidea\u201d and the \u201cwill\u201d to manifest it, the conscious \ncause, which force and form make visible. As Locke said, \u201cCause is a sub\u00ac \nstance exerting its power in act.\u201d It is the theosophical teaching that, in this \ndeepest sense, Cause is inseparable from Consciousness: indeed, every noume\u00ac \nnon is a conscious cause. It is not easy for the modem mind to grasp this \nconception, for we habitually limit consciousness to the little sphere of the \nhuman personality, which is all that most of us know of consciousness by di\u00ac \nrect experience. It is almost with reluctance that biologists and psychologists \nconcede the presence of some sort of consciousness in the higher animals. Nev\u00ac \nertheless, it is virtually an occult dogma, that there is not one point in space \nwhich is or can be devoid of consciousness of one kind or another. This ap\u00ac \nplies not only to the kingdoms of physical nature, from the mineral to man: \nit points to the hidden reality of worlds and forces and beings beyond our \npresent perception and comprehension. Gods and demons, angels and ele- \nmentals, hierarchies and orders of conscious entities in all the possible stages \nof physical, psychic, spiritual and divine evolution, follow the cycles of their \nexistence in this greater Nature which Theosophy reveals to all who sincerely \nseek a solution of the \u201cRiddle of the Universe\u201d. \n\nThe following quotations from Volume I of The Secret Doctrine open our \nvision upon some of these cosmic vistas: \n\nMatter, to the Occultist, it must be remembered, is that totality of existences in the \nKosmos, which falls within any of the planes of possible perception. We are but too well \naware that the orthodox theories of sound, heat and light, are against the Occult Doc\u00ac \ntrines. But it is not enough for the men of Science, or their defenders, to say that they \ndo not deny dynamic power to light and heat. ... If they would fathom the ultimate \nnature of these Forces, they have first to admit their substantial nature, however super- \nsensuous that nature may be. Neither do the Occultists deny the correctness of the \nvibratory theory. Only they limit its functions to our Earth\u2014declaring its inadequacy \non other planes than ours, since Masters in the Occult Sciences perceive the Causes that \nproduce ethereal vibrations (p. 560). . . . Science . . . merely traces the sequence of \nphenomena on a plane of effects, illusory projections from the region that Occultism has \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n273 \n\n\nlong since penetrated. And the latter maintains that those etheric tremors are not set \nup, as asserted by Science, by the vibrations of the molecules of known bodies, the Mat\u00ac \nter of our terrestrial objective consciousness, but that we must seek for the ultimate \nCauses of light, heat, etc., in Matter existing in supersensuous states\u2014states, however, \nas fully objective to the spiritual eye of man, as a horse or a tree is to the ordinary \nmortal. Light and heat are the ghost or shadow of Matter in motion. . . . Thus we put \nforward the Occult teaching which maintains the reality of a supersubstantial and super\u00ac \nsensible essence of that Akasha\u2014not Ether, which is only an aspect of the latter\u2014the \nnature of which cannot be inferred from its remoter manifestations, its merely phenom\u00ac \nenal phalanx of effects, on this terrene plane (p. 561). ... If it did not look pedantic, \nan Occultist would even object to electricity being called a fluid\u2014as it is an effect and \nnot a cause. But its Noumenon, he would say, is a Conscious Cause (p. 563). . . . It is \non the doctrine of the illusive nature of Matter and the infinite divisibility of the Atom, \nthat the whole Science of Occultism is built. It opens limitless horizons to Substance, \ninformed by the divine breath of its Soul in every possible state of tenuity, states still \nundreamed of by the most spiritually disposed Chemists and Physicists (p. 566). . . . \nNor are they [i. e., the Occultists] so foolish after all, in rejecting even the \u201cgravity\u201d of \nModern Science along with other physical laws, and in accepting instead attraction and \nrepulsion. They see, moreover, in these two opposing Forces only the two aspects of the \nUniversal Unit, called Manifesting Mind; in which aspects, Occultism, through its great \nSeers, perceives an innumerable Host of operative Beings: cosmic Dhyan Chohans, \nEntities, whose essence, in its dual nature, is the Cause of all terrestrial phenomena. For \nthat essence is con-substantial with the universal Electric Ocean, which is life; and \nbeing dual, as said\u2014positive and negative\u2014it is the emanations of that duality that act \nnow on Earth under the name of \u201cmodes of motion\u201d. ... It is, as Occultism says, the \ndual ejects of that dual essence, which have now been called centripetal and centrifugal \nforces, now negative and positive poles or polarity, heat and cold, light and darkness, \netc. (p. 661). \n\nThe Healing Power of Nature \n\nPhysicians of the old school still speak with faith of the vis mcdicatrix na\u00ac \nturae , \u201cthe healing power of Nature\u201d. According to an immemorial medical \ntheory, the remedy for every disease is produced within the body, and the \ndoctor\u2019s function is to co-operate with the natural therapeutical processes, \nclearing the channels where they act, strengthening the system against the \npain and fever that accompany its effort to throw off the sickness. Modem \nserotherapy represents an attempt to reinforce the native army of the \u201canti\u00ac \nbodies\u201d which the body mobilizes when it is attacked by bacteria or vin4R \nSerums and antitoxins\u2014if we may believe their apologists\u2014introduce a sort \nof \u201cforeign legion\u201d upon the battlefield. There is evidence, however, that not \ninfrequently this \u201cforeign legion\u201d may be converted into a force hostile to the \npatient who enlists it. In other words, the cure may be at least as bad as the \ndisease. It is interesting to note that some physicians to-day prefer to use \n\u201cself-vaccines\u201d, cultures prepared for each patient from his own serum. Thus \nthe individual is no longer forced to absorb the \u201cliving stuff\u201d of other indi\u00ac \nviduals or of animals. Also, it becomes evident that human health does not \n^epend upon the vicious practice of subjecting animals to every known kind \n%i infection and to a lingering death. \n\nThe New York Herald Tribune , June 18, 1936, reports certain remarkable \n\n\n274 THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\ndevelopments in medical theory concerning the ways in which the vis medi- \ncatrix naturae works. \n\nSummarizing investigations all over the world in recent years into the mystery of how \nthe body protects itself against disease, Dr. Sanford B. Hooker presented a picture in\u00ac \nvolving electrical forces within the atoms and the configuration of atoms in space as the \nsignificant factors which operate, so that the anti-bodies which protect the body are \ncreated as the materialization of the mirror-image of the antigen in the disease-producing \nbody. [For example] there are thirty-two types of pneumonia, each caused by a par\u00ac \nticular kind of antigen or bacteria, for only five of which serums have been developed. \nEach kind of antigen develops one kind of anti-body and this depends upon its chemical \nstructure and, in particular, on the geometrical configuration of the 50,000 to the million \nor more atoms that are built into the very complex atomic community. It is the external \naspect of these atomic communities that is most potent in the formation of anti-bodies, \nDr. Hooker pointed out. The action which the body takes when these disease-producing \nmolecules get into the blood can be likened to an almost magical process in which a crim\u00ac \ninal, intent on murder, is forced to see his image in the mirror, and almost immediately \nsome material objects in the room transform themselves and take the shape of the \ncriminal in the mirror, but come to life with the powers and purpose of a policeman. \nThe formation of such mirror-images of chemical compounds is a common phenomenon. \n... In this way the destructive antigens are utilized by the body to fix a kind of space \nconfiguration mould which is utilized with directions reversed to form protective sub\u00ac \nstances with antagonistic properties. Thus the body is able, with some not understood \nexceptions, to build up chemical protective mechanisms against any specific invaders. \n\nAstral and Psychic Configurations \n\nIt would seem that modem medicine is very close at this point to the so- \ncalled astral plane, the zone where the projections or emanations of the nou- \nmena or \u201cconscious causes\u201d are said to take form, to become configurations, the \noriginal prototypes of physical bodies. However, the explorers of the astral \nlight have also described other configurations reflected in its lower strata. \nThese are, as it were, the inverted reflections of the higher, the emissions and \nimages of physical things which have fallen into corruption. Each of us can \nfind some confirmation of this old astral science by observing the subjective \npsychic world where he spends most of his life and which may be assumed to \ncorrespond to the larger astral world. Our thoughts and emotions and voli\u00ac \ntions are patently of two kinds. Some are gifts from the spiritual world above, \nbut others are infections from below; and the lower appear as inversions of the \nhigher. Thus human existence is a perpetual struggle between good and evil. \nEvery man is forced each moment to choose whether he will serve a veritable \nideal or its debased contrary, for on this plane no virtue can become manifest \nwithout evoking the possibility of its perversion. Demon est Deus Inversus. \n\nThe theory of antigens and anti-bodies outlined above suggests how a proc\u00ac \ness of perversion may be reversed, if it has not gone too far. As good can be \nmirrored as evil, so the existence of evil can evoke the good which it has dis\u00ac \ntorted. Everyone who is not morally dead knows this evocation in the stir\u00ac \nring of conscience. The presence of a corrupting agent, a \u201cDestroyer\u201d, on the \nastral or psychic as on the physical plane, stimulates the entity thus attacked \n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n275 \n\n\nto call into service the powers, the \u201cFiery Lives\u201d, which preserve its proper \nlife and form. \n\nAn Ideal Social Order \n\nWhen the body resists a disease, its first act, so to speak, is an act of sacri\u00ac \nfice. It surrenders part of its vitality and substance to generate a host of anti\u00ac \nbodies which constitute the physical or molecular basis or vehicle through \nwhich the \u201chealing power of Nature\u201d can function. In other words, the body \ndoes not cure itself automatically and mechanically; it is cured by the life- \nstream which flows through it and which may be said to be the current joining \nit to its noumenon. \n\nAn analogous sacrifice must be made by the soul which has been invaded by \nevil. The mere repetition of some formula, as in Christian Science, is insuf\u00ac \nficient. There is a profound reason why all religions have enjoined upon their \ndevotees various ascetic practices. The growth and enduring life of the soul \ndepends upon the continued sacrifice of the dearer to the better. The death of \nthe soul, the failure of spiritual life, is the effect of the failure of sacrifice. \n\nSimilarly, social disorders may become incurable unless by sacrifice a chan\u00ac \nnel can be kept open between the infected group and the collective soul, or \nnoumenon which overshadows every society, in so far as this has any organic \nreality. No entity, biological or individual or social, can conceivably exist for \nitself alone. In the noble language of past centuries, all things have their be\u00ac \ning \u201cfor the greater glory of God\u201d. If they sever themselves from God, they \nperish, for they have no place in Nature. \n\nAll the societies of the modem world have been attacked by \u201cantigens\u201d. \nHow can the necessary \u201canti-bodies\u201d be formed which will restore some sem\u00ac \nblance of health? There is no lack of response to this question. We select at \nrandom a typical answer contained in a few sentences from an address at Cor\u00ac \nnell University by Professor Edwin G. Conklin, president of the American \nAssociation for the Advancement of Science and a distinguished biologist. \nHe outlines \u201can ideal social order\u201d which he calls \u201cdemocratic socialism\u201d. \n\nWe have before us to-day the strange paradoxes of overproduction and underconsump\u00ac \ntion, improved transportation and unimproved distribution, vast prosperity and ap\u00ac \npalling poverty, multiplied occupations and unparalleled unemployment, triumphant \nmedicine and widespread disease, prolonged life and useless and dependent old age, \nscientific internationalism and economic nationalism, greater armaments and lesa^e- \ncurity, larger social units and less social unity, elimination of the unfit and survr%4K>f \nthe fit and protection of the unfit and elimination of the fit. . . . The most fundamental \ncause of these contrasts is the conflict between altruistic science and acquisitive society. \n\n. . . Democratic socialism avoids the extremes of communism, fascism and individual\u00ac \nism, yet contains elements of all of these, and as such it conforms to that inexorable \nbiological principle of the necessity of preserving balance between contrasting principles \nand opposing forces. . . . Democratic socialism is best for the education of the masses. \n. . . The spirit of science and the method of science must spread to society and govern\u00ac \nment. Scientists must take a more active part in solving social problems. \n\nWe do not know what Dr. Conklin means when he describes science as altru\u00ac \nistic or when he represents democratic socialism as biologically sound. Sci- \n\n\n276 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nence, at least in its modem form, is characterized by a singular indifference to \nthe use or abuse of its discoveries. Democratic socialism is a term, a sort of \nslogan, for which it is quite impossible to find any corresponding actuality in \nthe biological or any other world. All the healthy forms and orders of Nature \nare organized according to a hierarchical pattern. It would not be hard to de\u00ac \nfend the thesis that the ideal social order is an hereditary monarchy based \nupon \u201cdivine right\u201d, supported by the freely given devotion of a people, and \npresiding with accepted authority over a hierarchy of classes in which the \ncitizens would be grouped, by a sort of \u201cnatural selection\u201d, according to their \ncharacters and capacities. \n\nIt might be argued that the social maladjustments which Dr. Conklin notes \nare the inevitable consequences of the efforts of the occidental races to estab\u00ac \nlish a democratic-socialistic polity. Communism and fascism are themselves \nmerely normal effects of the French Revolution and the \u201cliberal\u201d movements \nof the nineteenth century. To add more \u201cdemocratic socialism\u201d to modem \nsociety would be to increase the quantity of the poison which is consuming our \nsystem. What is needed is the restoration of religion, the revival of an ideal \nof spiritual attainment to which political and economic considerations will be \nsubordinated, and for which a sufficient number of individuals will be willing \nto sacrifice everything which they hold most dear, including life itself. Such \na group of individuals would constitute the \u201canti-bodies\u201d through which the \ncollective soul, the noumenon, of their society could energize. Incidentally, it \nis well to face the hard fact taught by history, that war may be the only pos\u00ac \nsible regenerator of a nation. When men fight in defence of the heritage of \ntheir civilization, they have at least a real employment. It has been suggested \nthat the veritable cause of the widespread economic unemployment to-day is \nthat during the decade before the depression there had been a widespread \ndearth of spiritual employment, and that what has happened on the physical \nplane is, therefore, only a reflection of what had already happened on the plane \nof the soul. \n\nA Divine Rule of Life \n\nWhat ideal can be imagined that is worthy of man\u2019s highest aspiration and \nto which he can honourably dedicate all the powers of his being? The \u201cgreater \nglory of God\u201d. It is most refreshing to find this goal set forth by another \nscientist who is as eminent as Dr. Conklin. We quote from an address at \nthe University of Chicago by Professor Arthur H. Compton. One may find \ncertain major points of disagreement with the physicist\u2019s argument; but the \nstudent of Theosophy must be in accord with his fundamental thesis. \n\nThere is reason to believe that we may occupy at present the highest position in the \nuniverse with respect to intelligent life. Does it seem, then, too bold to assume that the \nintelligent Creator, whose existence seems by far the most reasonable basis for accounting \nfor our world, should take an active interest in the welfare of the perhaps uniquely intel\u00ac \nligent beings He has created? The remarkable course of evolution, leading, as it has, \nagainst tremendous odds, to organisms with the modicum of intelligence that we possess, \nreally seems to point in that direction. . . . We have in our hands the means of con- \n\n\n\nNOTES AND COMMENTS \n\n\n277 \n\n\ntrolling to a large extent even the direction of our own evolution. In such attributes as \nclarity of reason, appreciation of beauty or consideration of our fellows, our remote \ndescendants may be expected to excel us as greatly as we are in advance of the Java ape- \nman. Considering the many obvious errors that we are making, we may be thankful \nthat we do not yet have complete control. Yet who can fail to respond to the opportunity \nand challenge that are before us of working with the God of the Universe in carrying \nthrough that final stage of making this a suitable world, and ourselves a suitable race \nfor what is perhaps the supreme position of intelligent life in His world? ... If indeed \nthe creation of intelligent persons is a major objective of the Creator of the Universe, \nand if, as we have reason to surmise, mankind is now in his highest development in this \ndirection, the opportunity and responsibility of working as God\u2019s partners in His great \ntask are almost overwhelming. What nobler ambition can one have than to co-operate \nwith his Maker in bringing about a better world? \n\nA student of Theosophy cannot accept the gratuitous and groundless as\u00ac \nsumption that the men of this planet are \u201cthe perhaps uniquely intelligent be\u00ac \nings\u201d in the infinitude of space. If we were the best and only living souls in \nthe Universe, it would be flattery to describe the Creator as \u201cintelligent\u201d. \nAccording to Theosophy, life and intelligence are co-extensive, potentially if \nnot actually, with the Cosmos. There is no such thing as \u201cdead matter\u201d. \nThus, regarding evolution always and everywhere as the exfoliation and un- \nfoldment of the divine consciousness latent in every atom, an occultist has \nsaid that \u201cthe Author of Nature is Nature Itself\u201d. \n\nThis does not imply that one is not deeply moved and inspired by Dr. \nCompton\u2019s appeal. In truth, there can be no nobler ambition than to co-oper\u00ac \nate with the Divinity. But let us realize that such collaboration is only pos\u00ac \nsible, in the fullest sense, for the mystic. The Divinity is not likely to help \nus to invent bigger and better machines, or to improve our markets for capital \ngoods, or to design more playgrounds for the masses. \u201cThe Blessed Ones have \nnaught to do with the purgations of matter.\u201d Partnership with God implies \nthe transformation of human nature into an ever more perfect image of its \nnoumenon, the divine paradigm which is an undivided part of the Divine \nConsciousness. It is, indeed, the theosophical teaching that the Divine Con\u00ac \nsciousness is not limited to a remote and abstract world where only archangels \nand unimaginable non-human essences can exist. The scriptures of all the \nworld-religions have unanimously affirmed the fact that the Divine Mind, the \nLogos, is in contact with the mind of humanity, and that the Logos has actu\u00ac \nally incarnated itself in a few men of supreme genius, the Buddha and the \nChrist and their brethren, the spiritual vanguard of the race. Theosophy \nfurther avers that these men of supreme genius, the Masters of the Great \nLodge, are living to-day, ardently desiring to guide us to the summit of at\u00ac \ntainment where they stand. But they cannot guide us against our will. \n\nThe only conceivable solution of the problems which bewilder the western \nnations is to turn towards the doctrine and example of the Christian Master \nunder whose particular spiritual dominion the vast majority of the men of the \nWest have been bom. In so far as we can co-operate with him, we collaborate \nwith the Lodge and the Logos, and begin veritably to live in accord with Nature. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nFRAGMENTS \n\n\nW AIT for the hour to come, do not move until it arrives; but see that \nyou are prepared, and act on its instant approach. \n\nNeither hasten nor linger. Eternity is your medium, not time. \n\n\nOnly brush with your fingers the friable occupations of to-day, put no pres\u00ac \nsure upon them. But grasp firmly the essence of each hour that passes, and use \nit for life\u2019s divinest ends, the divinest you can see. Thus no opportunity will \npass you by, nor will you lose yourself in frivolities. \n\nThis is indeed a chela\u2019s hair-line, which demands unbroken attention; but \nit is fundamental, and essential for inner consolidation as well as for any worth\u00ac \nwhile performance. Without it a man sails in a rudderless ship, and, would-be \ndisciple or not, becomes but one more of the countless wrecks upon the shores \nof endeavour. \n\nSet yourself, therefore, whole-heartedly and with all diligence, to acquire this \nfaculty of selective appreciation, and facility in its swiftly instinctive use. \n\n\nMemory is our past, that is to-day, and will be in our future,\u2014one half of our \nEternity, which here we know by reflection, but there face to face. \n\nCa \\t. \n\n\n278 \n\n\n\n\n\nBIBLICAL AND PYRAMID \nPROPHECY \n\n\nT HE study of Biblical prophecy, for a long time of interest to only a \nvery few students, has suddenly begun to attract popular attention, \nand while some of this is directed to interpretations that have been \nprogressively verified\u2014so that they are now buttressed by an astonishing ar\u00ac \nray of facts\u2014much more involves misconceptions which, sooner or later, will \nhave to be corrected. \n\nWe shall not attempt to go back to the beginning; indeed there was no be\u00ac \nginning, for as long as there has been prophecy there has been the need to \ninterpret it. But in the narrower sense, the systematic study of Biblical proph\u00ac \necy is relatively recent. Through the Dark Ages, knowledge of the Bible was \nlargely confined to Churchmen, and interpretation limited to the orthodox \nexplanations of Catholic theology. Following the Renaissance, however, \nparticularly after the Protestant Reformation, and the translation of the Bible \ninto common speech, independent thinkers began to read and interpret the \nScriptures for themselves, and to apply the prophecies to their own times, and \nthe condemnations and anathemas to their own enemies. It was a most natu\u00ac \nral thing to do, but it laid the foundations for the popular study of the Bible \nin a narrowness and bitterness of partisanship which have never been wholly \noutgrown, and which, taken over into the investigation of the Biblical proph\u00ac \necies, have tended to confuse and distort the whole subject. It is not surpris\u00ac \ning, therefore, that the field seemed unattractive to most scholars, though \nthere were always a few to whom it made a special appeal, these few finding, \nin the revival of astronomical knowledge, particularly with reference to the \ncalendar, a key that they could use. In astronomy, they began to perceive, \nwas revealed the interplay of recurring cycles and rhythms which are the very \nbasis of what we mean by time, and which, entering into all the phenomena \nof manifestation, enable the course of the future to be predicted from a knowl\u00ac \nedge of the past. Not only was astronomy applicable to the Bible prophets\u2019 \ntheme; it was indispensable for fixing their theories on a solid intellectual foun-^ \ndation, and the recognition that there was such a foundation, on which they^p \ncould safely build, proved a great stimulant to interest. Little by little, de\u00ac \nvoted enthusiasts, some of them giving to it a whole life-time of research, ac\u00ac \ncumulated a mass of information which grew from generation to generation, \nbut which remained largely unco-ordinated until the late Dr. Hartley Grattan \nGuinness collected and sifted it, publishing the result in 1878, with his own \nstudies and conclusions, under the title, The Approaching End of the Age. \n\nDr. Guinness\u2019s work is thorough and painstaking, and he had equipped \nhimself well for his task. But though his qualifications were excellent, they \n\n\n279 \n\n\n\n28 o \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhad nevertheless been acquired in the intolerant and bigoted school of the \nProtestantism of his day, so that it was impossible for him to avoid identifying \nRome with one of the \u201cBeasts\u201d of Daniel\u2019s vision, and equally impossible for \nhim to see that he was using important fragments of ancient wisdom long \nantedating the Jewish, and which applied far more widely than to the Jewish \npeople. The great value of Dr. Guinness\u2019s book is its identification of astro\u00ac \nnomical cycles with the \u201cdays\u201d and \u201cweeks\u201d and \u201ctimes\u201d of the Bible. \n\nHe considers, for example, the prophecies made by Gabriel to Daniel, as \nrecorded in the Book of Daniel, with their very precise statements as to the \ntimes in which various happenings will take place. Here a \u201cday\u201d is a year, \na \u201ctime\u201d 360 years, or an Egyptian year of years. \u201cSeven times\u201d are thus \n2520 years\u2014a cycle that will be recognized by students of The Secret Doctrine. \nHalf of this, 1260 years, which is \u201cforty-two months\u201d of years, are \u201ctime, \ntimes and a half\u201d (i. e. three and a half \u201ctimes\u201d). The Bible part of it is thus \nquite simple. The real trouble comes in with the astronomical part. What \nis a \u201cyear\u201d? There is the solar year of approximately 365 days, 5 hours, 48 \nminutes and 46 seconds; the sidereal year, 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 9 \nseconds; the calendar year of 365 days, when it is not leap year; the lunar \nyear of 354 days; also a calendar year of 360 days; not to mention the Julian \nyear. Unfortunately the movements of the heavenly bodies, and the revolu\u00ac \ntions of earth and moon, are not all exactly commensurate, and what you are \nto call a year depends upon the point of view you adopt, the small differences \nbetween the different kinds of \u201cyears\u201d adding up to a considerable amount, \nwhen taken over the centuries that separate Daniel\u2019s vision from its present- \nday fulfilment. Then, too, there is the question as to the date from which \nthe given times are to be reckoned. Gabriel was perfectly definite in his state\u00ac \nment: \u201cKnow therefore and understand that from the going forth of the com\u00ac \nmandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince \nshall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks.\u201d But when did the \ncommandment go forth to restore and build Jerusalem? The problem is com\u00ac \nplicated; still, when its various and varying factors have been fixed, it is ex\u00ac \ntraordinary how accurately it works out. And everything points to one con\u00ac \nclusion : it is our own time that is the end of the particular age shown to Daniel. \n\nLet us pause for a moment to glance at some of the questions which are in\u00ac \nvolved, not so much in the interpretation of prophecy, as in the very fact and \npossibility of prophecy. It is a curious contradiction that our age should be so \nsceptical of the prophecies of the past, when it has such unquestioning confi\u00ac \ndence in those it makes to-day. In no period in historic times have human ac\u00ac \ntivities been more dominated by the belief that it is possible to predict the \nfuture, and the consequences of acts. We do not call this prophecy, but \u201csci\u00ac \nence\u201d, or perhaps \u201cplanned economy\u201d, but it is none the less a belief that fore\u00ac \nsight, in great detail, is possible, since nature\u2019s processes are so orderly that \nthey can be trusted to follow in the future the same cycles of cause and effect, \nthe same rhythm of waxing and waning, they have followed in the past. Yet \nwe tend to limit this belief to the material world, to which we have also limited \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBIBLICAL AND PYRAMID PROPHECY \n\n\n281 \n\n\nour \u201cscience\u201d. We believe in the tides of the ocean, and have tabulated them \nfor years ahead; but we appear entirely sceptical as to tides in the affairs of \nmen, and the cycles of the spirit. Why is this? Perhaps it is merely an aspect \nof our general and deep-seated materialism, or perhaps it is an instinctive \nfeeling that to admit the possibility of prophecy regarding human lives, is to \nposit a fatalism and predetermination that deny the freedom of the will and \nour responsibility for our own acts and destiny. There may be the same type \nof difficulty here that many people seem to find in accepting the theosophic \nprinciple of Karma. It is not realized that what is predetermined is the oper\u00ac \nation of certain forces, or tendencies, which have been set in motion, and \nwhich, if left to themselves, will inevitably produce certain results or condi\u00ac \ntions, but which need not be left to themselves, but may be met by opposite \nforces, which we are free also to set in operation. \n\nSuppose we consider a small scale model of this truth. On Friday of each \nweek our room rent is due, and our landlady is not at all disposed to wait- \nOn the 13 th of each month we are visited by the collector, who calls for the \ninstalments we are still paying on our now battered Ford. Each of these \u201cun\u00ac \nlucky days comes around in its regular cycle. They are part of our Karma, \nand we have to face them. We can \u201cprophesy\u201d with great accuracy the type \nof unpleasantness, of wars and rumours of wars, which these days will bring, \nif we do not put regularly aside the requisite sums, thus meeting the Karma \nof sfcif-indulgence by the exercise of self-denial. But more than this, we can \nprophesy a terrible day, from which it is almost impossible for us to escape \nscathless, Friday the 13th\u201d, when the two payments fall due together. We \ncan prophesy it, but it is not so easy as one might think to calculate just when \nit will come. If a month had always thirty days, as a week always has seven, \nit would be easy, for they would then fall together every 210 days,\u2014which is \nthe same as every seven months or thirty weeks, the period for the coincidence \nof two cycles being the least common multiple of their separate periods. But \nsome months have thirty-one days, and February has sometimes twenty-eight \nand sometimes twenty-nine, and this so complicates the calculation that per\u00ac \nsonally we abandon it and consult the calendar. In 1936 there are two such \nobjects of prophecy, March 13th and November 13th; in 1937 there is but one,^^fc \nthe 13th of August. \n\n\nThis illustrates both the simplicity and the complexity of cyclic law, and \nthe way in which lesser cycles interweave to make up the greater. The cycle \nof 2520 years which we have already mentioned, the seven \u201ctimes\u201d of 360 \nyears each, is the least common multiple of the first ten digits; that is to say \nthat if there had been ten Wandering Jews instead of one, and they had all \nstarted out together from Jerusalem to wander round the world, the first mak\u00ac \ning the circuit in one year, the second in two years, the third in three and so \non, the first two would meet again in Jerusalem each two years, they would \nbe joined by the third each sixth year, but it would be 2520 years before all \nten would be again together. \n\nIt%fthis cycle of 2520 years which is now running out, according to the \n\n\n282 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ncalculations of the experts in Biblical prophecy. Heavenly bodies, centres \nand symbols of inner forces, are approaching again the configuration they \nhad twenty-five centuries ago, closing a cyclic period and gathering in its har\u00ac \nvest of good or ill,\u2014the end of one age, the beginning of a new. \n\nThis conclusion of the Biblical students finds independent support from re\u00ac \nsearches of an utterly different kind, carried out in relation to the Great Pyra\u00ac \nmid. Pyramid surveys, as is now well known, show remarkable mathematical \nand astronomical relations between its different dimensions, and in its orienta\u00ac \ntion and the angles of its slopes. More than this, however, it has been shown \nthat if the Pyramid inch be taken as the unit corresponding to a year of time, \nthe measurements of the inner passages and galleries correspond to the time \nscale of astronomical cycles, and that the architectural features of these pas\u00ac \nsages\u2014where they intersect one another or change their character\u2014mark \ndates of obvious importance as turning points in history. The Edgar brothers, \nand Davidson and Aldersmith, have been the early and chief, though by no \nmeans the only, workers in this field, and their results parallel to a remarkable \ndegree the deductions of Dr. Guinness. The length of the 2520 year cycle, \nfor example, is built into the pyramid masonry as definitely as into Daniel\u2019s \nprophecy; and if one starts from the corresponding dates in the Old Testa\u00ac \nment, one enters the Grand Gallery with the time of Christ, coming to the \nfirst \u201cLow Passage\u201d in August, 1914, to leave it for the Ante-chamber (where \none is again able to stand upright) in November, 1918. This first Low Pas\u00ac \nsage thus corresponds to the World War. The second Low Passage, to which \nthe Ante-chamber leads, begins with May, 1928 (determined as are all these \ndates by counting an inch of length equal to a year of time), and ends on \nSeptember i5th-i6th, 1936. The pyramid prophets see in it our economic de\u00ac \npression. It leads into the King\u2019s Chamber, the Hall of Judgment, the Test\u00ac \ning of the Nations. This date, September 15th-16th, is given in many proph\u00ac \necies as crucial. By the time this article is read, it will have come and gone; \nbut it does not follow that of necessity it will, even if the prophecy be true, \ncorrespond to anything whose importance will be immediately recognized. \n\nIt is unfortunate that the pyramidologists have been almost as blind as the \nBiblical scholars in being unable to see that they were actually dealing with \ngreat cyclic laws and forces whose scope is universal, and by no means con\u00ac \nfined to Jewish and European history. They appear unable to comprehend \nthat the Great Pyramid can be something more than a symbol in stone of \nChristian chronology. The Great Pyramid , by Davidson and Aldersmith, is a \nvoluminous work, packed with an immense amount of information, valuable \nrecords of measurements, a heterogeneous mass of pre-Christian history (of \ndoubtful or obviously erroneous nature), apposite astronomical data, and \nreally valuable tables and references relative to most of the ancient and mod\u00ac \nern calendars; but its authors, like Dr. Guinness and the Edgar brothers, take \naltogether too much for granted regarding the Hebrews. Substantially all \nthe matter which they exhibit as being Jewish is no more Jewish than any\u00ac \nthing else. By the very nature of their work, one would have thought that \n\n\nBIBLICAL AND PYRAMID PROPHECY \n\n\n283 \n\n\nthey, of all men, should have been able to avoid theological bias, and recognize, \nwithin the history and religion of the Jews, the echoes of ancient wisdom and \nculture, picked up and adopted by the Jews, and relabelled by them as their \nown. Both Biblical and Pyramid prophecy are befogged and belittled by \nHebrew tradition. The Jews have been mixed up and confused with all peo\u00ac \nples. They have been in the past, as they are now, associated with important \naspects of the material world, controlling great wealth, with wide international \nramifications and influence. They have suffered (and inflicted) grievous, ven\u00ac \nomous and sustained persecutions. But they are nevertheless of far less im\u00ac \nportance in the world than these students of prophecy would have us think, \nwhen they deal with cycles as though they concerned none but this \u201cchosen\u201d \npeople. \n\nOn the other hand, we must not forget that the universe being one, and the \ninfinitely great being reflected in the infinitely little, that which portrays the \nlife of a solar system, should also portray the life of a planet, of races, of conti\u00ac \nnents, of nations, as of individuals. We do not in the least mean to deny that \nthe Great Pyramid may contain a prophecy of the World War, our economic \ndepression, or even of Roosevelt as \u201cthe Final Tribulation\u201d,\u2014these may all \nbe included, together with the whole history of the Jews, and the ten lost \ntribes, and the decline of the Papacy, and the expulsion of the Turks from Jeru\u00ac \nsalem. The greater properly includes the less, and cosmic and inter-cosmic \nhappenings may be, must be, reflected even in the most trivial of our daily \naffairs. The mistake that is made by these expounders of prophecies is not \nin including the little, but in presenting the comparatively insignificant as \nthough it were the only or chief application and meaning. \n\nThe close parallelism, amounting often to identity, between the results of \nBiblical and pyramid prophecy, is specially interesting in view of the totally \ndifferent types of prophecy they appear to represent. In the pyramid, everything \nappears to be the result of the most close calculation. Nothing is too minute, \nnothing too great, to be taken into account, and as all are brought together \nand synthesized, the result is reached as the outcome of a mathematical equa\u00ac \ntion, or the resultant of a polygon of forces, which is as indisputable as it is \nimpersonal. The exact opposite marks the Hebrew prophecy. There nothing \nseems calculated. No account is taken of the individual factors that enter \ninto the problem. Indeed there is no problem. The result is given. It stands \nalone, and is seen in a single flash of intuition, or is shown or told the prc^pfet \nin vision. \u201cThus saith the Lord.\u201d \u2018\u2018And I Daniel alone saw the vision.^^. \nYet heard I the voice of his words.\u201d It is shot through and through with \npersonality. \n\nIn general, both Biblical and Pyramid prophecies point to certain dates as \ncrucial without specifying the exact form the crisis is to take. The dates speci\u00ac \nfied correspond very accurately with important historical happenings, but \nwhat they really mean, the experts are rarely able to tell us, either before or \nafter the event. After the event, the interpreters are always able to point to \nobjective happenings in the outer world, and would have us believe that it \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n284 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nwas to them the prophecy referred. This is because the outer world is the \nonly one with which the interpreters are familiar. The real event may be a \nhidden thing, or the causal aspect of the visible thing, whose real significance \ndoes not appear until much later. But there are instances in which an outer \nevent, such as the fall of Jerusalem, was clearly indicated by the interpreters, in \nbooks printed years before the occurrence, and with a very remarkable pre\u00ac \ncision as to time. \n\nAs we have seen, the interpretation of such prophecies as that of the Book \nof Daniel involves questions both as to the unit of measurement for time, and \nas to the exact date from which the measurement is to begin. Dr. Grattan \nGuinness has to deal with these questions when he discusses the application of \nthe prophecies to the hold of the Moslem power upon Jerusalem. On page \n473, of the 1880 edition of his book, he writes: \n\n\u201cDated from the earliest possible starting point, the commission given by \nArtaxerxes to Ezra, b.c. 457, this period expired as we have seen in 1844, which \nwas a marked epoch in the fall of that Mohammedan power which has long \ndefiled the sanctuary and trodden down Jerusalem. But dated 145 years \nlater, from the era of the Seleucidae, this period measured in lunar years ex\u00ac \npires seventy five years later , in a.d. 1919. We have noted various indications \nin the condition of Palestine and of Israel, and in the political events of our \nown day, which seem to indicate that the cleansing of the sanctuary and the \nrestoration of Israel are not distant. When these shall take place, and when \nthe Moslems, now driven out of Bulgaria, shall be driven out of Syria, when \nthe nations of Europe, actuated it may be by mutual distrust and political \njealousy, or it may be by higher motives, shall conspire to reinstate the Jews \nin the land of their forefathers, then the last of the unfulfilled predictions of \nthe Scripture, as to events prior to the great crisis, will have received its \naccomplishment. \u2019 \u2019 \n\nMr. Henry James Forman, in his recent and very interesting book, The \nStory of Prophecy , In the Life of Mankind from Early Times to the Present Day , \nsays that, writing in 1886, Dr. Guinness set the date as 1917, as that was the \nyear reached by starting from Mohammed\u2019s Hegira, a.d. 622, and adding \n1260 lunar years (the half of the cycle of 2520 years), together with the cor\u00ac \nrection for the epact. It was in 1917 that General Allenby took Jerusalem, \n\u201cputting an end to nearly thirteen centuries of Mohammedan rule\u201d, and Mr. \nForman adds that \u201cthe Mohammedans themselves had a prophecy, attrib\u00ac \nuted to their prophet and poet Ibn Khasri of the tenth century, that \u2018the man \nwho will conquer Jerusalem and redeem it from the infidel for all time to come, \nwill enter the Holy City humbly on foot, and his name is God\u2019s Prophet\u2019. The \nArabic for the last two words is Allah Nebi\u2014of striking similarity in sound to \nAllenby, who did enter Jerusalem on foot in 1917.\u201d \n\nIt was not until after the peace, however, that \u201cthe nations of Europe, actuated \nit may be by mutual distrust and political jealousy, or it may be by higher \nmotives\u201d, conspired to reinstate the Jews, and this illustrates the fact that \nthe events to which the prophecies refer may not be such as to be accom- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBIBLICAL AND PYRAMID PROPHECY \n\n\n285 \n\n\nplished at a single stroke. Dr. Guinness emphasizes this particularly in refer\u00ac \nence to the crises that have been foretold for our own immediate future, Sep\u00ac \ntember 1936, 1942, 1951. \u201cThat the transition from this age to the next will \noccupy a period , and not a point of time, seems likely from analogy, and seems \nto be indicated in the two brief supplementary periods added to the main one, \nand in the closing words of the angel to Daniel. That there will be marked \nstages in the accomplishment of the stupendous changes from the world that \nis, to the world that shall be, and that it is impossible to fix their dates, or to \ndetermine beforehand the precise order of the various events, revealed and \ndestined to occur in the course of the great crisis and consummation, may be \nfreely admitted without detracting the least from the momentous weight and \nsolemn importance of this most blessed conclusion\u201d (p. 487). \n\nOn the whole, Biblical and Pyramid prophets have not identified specific \ndates with particular events, but have rather deduced from the Pyramid and the \nBible that certain important cycles were drawing to a close, and that a crisis \non a large scale was thus impending. Just why Dr. Guinness is so sure it will \nbe a \u201cblessed conclusion\u201d we do not ourselves know. It is quite true that the \nangel\u2019s closing words to Daniel were as a blessing on him. \u201cBlessed is he that \nwaiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. \nBut go thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the \nend of the days.\u201d But in the verses before, it is foretold that \u201cMany shall be \npurified and made white and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and \nnone of the wicked shall understand.\u201d In the Pyramid, the corresponding \ndate brings us to the \u201cHall of Judgment\u201d and the \u201cCleansing of the Nations\u201d. \nMay Dr. Guinness\u2019s confidence be justified! \n\nThe question inevitably arises as to why the builders of the Great Pyramid \nshould have chosen its interior passages as the symbol of, or medium for record\u00ac \ning, their prophetic knowledge of the course that human history would take. \nTo the ordinary Egyptologist of a generation ago the pyramids are tombs, \nthe Great Pyramid perhaps the greatest of tombs, but still a tomb and little \nif anything more. The King\u2019s chamber, the Queen\u2019s chamber, the passages, \nthe open coffer, all point to the tomb and the trappings of Death. Mr. David\u00ac \nson and the majority of the pyramidologists, on the other hand, completely \nreject the tomb theory, and consider they have sound engineering evidence \nagainst it. Part of this evidence is the provision made for ventilating Jfre \nKing\u2019s and Queen\u2019s chambers. To these enthusiasts the Great Pyramid i\u00bbt \nonly a stupendous scientific monument, a compendium of the ancient learning \nand wisdom of men who had foreknowledge of the future, but is a monument \nthat was erected for our special benefit. Its secrets were intended to remain \nsecrets until we came and rediscovered them,\u2014until the turning of the cycles \nshould have brought*again a scientific age capable of understanding this learn\u00ac \ning. That is why, they say, the Pyramid prophecies all refer to our era; and \nthe ventilating shafts were provided for our special comfort while studying \nthese prophecies! There is a colossal egotism in this view that almost matches \nI the grandeur of the Pyramid itself, and we suspect that few readers of the \n\n\n286 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nQuarterly will be able to rise to it. As we have already suggested, we do \nnot wish to deny that the prophecies apply to us, but only that they apply \nsolely to us,\u2014that in the less, no greater is reflected. \n\nMost students of Theosophy have, we think, been led to associate the Great \nPyramid with the Egyptian Lodge and the ancient Adept Kings, and the \ntheory that its inner passages and chambers were used as a place of initiation \nfor disciples in the ceremonies of the Mysteries, has much to support it. It \nwould explain both the ventilating shafts and the symbols of the tomb, and \ngive a compelling and wholly sufficient reason for the exact correspondence be\u00ac \ntween its passages and galleries and the cycles of human evolution and history. \n\n\u201cOut of Egypt have I called my son.\u201d All the Christian symbolism can, it \nis said, be found in ancient Egypt: the coming and rejection of the Messiah, \nhis crucifixion, death and burial, his resurrection and ascension. In the his\u00ac \ntoric life of Jesus of Nazareth, was re-enacted for our Western race, the eternal \ndrama of the Mysteries, through which the Christ, the soul, \u201cthe anointed\u201d, \nis initiated into immortal life and union with \u201cthe Father\u201d. It is all part of \nthe great ritual of the Egyptian Lodge, and not only of the Egyptian Lodge, \nbut also (except for its special colouring), of the Great Parent Lodge as well,\u2014 \nfor it is inherent in the very nature of Being. Therefore we find it in the \nUpanishads as well as in Egypt. It is to the House of Death that Nachiketas \ncomes for his initiation; there, a pure guest, he abides three nights before \nDeath speaks; there he rejects all other gifts, that he may learn of Death the \nsecret of life. Light on the Path tells us that to come to this initiation\u2014to \nreach and lift the bars of the Gates of Gold\u2014the neophyte must accomplish \nin himself that which, \u201cin the far spaces of Time\u201d, Necessity, the slow com\u00ac \npulsion of the cycles, will have accomplished in all men. But he who would \ndo this, lifting himself out of his servitude to Time, must do, by the unaided \nforce of his own will and desire, all that Time would otherwise do for him. \nHe can neither omit nor evade any stage of the Path, but must travel them \nall. Therefore, in exact and literal truth, the Way that leads to the disciple\u2019s \nInitiation is a projection into the present of the future course of the whole \nrace. Every step of it is prophecy. It is no miracle that the words of the \nangel to Daniel, and the stones of the ascending passages that lead to the Hall \nof Judgment and the King\u2019s Chamber, the Chamber of the Open Tomb, should \ntell the same story of the Way of Man. \n\nIt is prophecy. But with what difference is the same ascent made, the same \nPath trodden, by the ch 61 a, consciously following in the footsteps of his Mas\u00ac \nter, consciously taking his own nature into his own hands, coming to his \ndark hours of trial and combat with the knowledge that they must be part \nof the self-sacrifice that he has himself willed,\u2014and by the blind multitudes \nof peoples, slaves of Time and of Necessity, slaves most of all to themselves, \ndriven they know not how, or why, or where. With blind, self-centred igno\u00ac \nrance, have the races of men stumbled and dragged themselves through the \nlong passages, crawled through the low ones, scrambled up the Grand Gallery \nof Time for its twenty-five hundred and twenty years\u2014jostling, crowding, \n\n\n\nBIBLICAL AND PYRAMID PROPHECY \n\n\n287 \n\n\nfighting, buying, selling, cheating, begging, bullying, until they have found \nthemselves suddenly poised on a level, in an obscure place and in a helpless, \nhopeless mass. The ascending grade, which coaxed them along, they knew \nnot why, has lost the enticement of the activity it called forth. Frightened at \nthe emptiness of the sombre void, crushed and terrified at the personal losses \nthey have suffered (no one goes up the \u201cGrand Gallery\u201d without great per\u00ac \nsonal loss and deprivation), in their yearning for surcease, they intuitively \nsense the proximity of the place of silence, of peace of mind, of freedom from \nall that now distracts and torments them. In their need and longing and \nterror they cry out, and in compassion a Voice answers: \n\n\u201cWho are you?\u201d \n\n\u201cWe are men, burdened and borne down with unbearable confusion.\u201d \n\n\u201cWhat do you want?\u201d \n\n\u201cWe come to you for\u2014we must know who you are?\u201d \n\n\u201cI am He whom you have forgotten, in the personification of Time.\u201d \n\n\u201cWe pray you bring us to the place of peace and comfort and consolation.\u201d \n\n\u201cThat, even I have no power to do now. You can only go to that place \nwith the magic of the power I gave you in the magic of My Time. It is not you, \nas you think, who have come; it is I who have led you to Myself with the persua\u00ac \nsion of My silent Presence in the duration of My time. The one you have \nignored, and the other you have wasted. To Me you bring only the nothing\u00ac \nness of yourselves, from which you even now wish to be released. I have \nbrought you to the end of Time when we always meet. \n\n\u201cMark you that you be attentive to Me at all times until the next Time, \nfor by that attention and that only can I lead you into the timeless reality of \nMy Presence.\u201d \n\nLike Sisyphus, one by one, we fall away and sink into the future. Think of \nthe infinite variety of beautiful flowers that must have the warmth and light \nof the Sun to bring them into bloom, and how they accept that and take it for \ngranted, just as a little child accepts his mother. Think of some, like the sun\u00ac \nflower which not only accepts, but recognizes the sun, salutes him with bold, \nunswerving attention, keeping his face turned toward him throughout the \nday, even when the sun is behind the clouds\u2014being ready, after the night, to \nface him again in the morning\u2014growing all the while amidst the rankest weeds, \nyet towering above them. \n\nThere is for each cycle a particular Purpose, involved in a Plan, actuate^Dy \na Power. The thing that counts, the only thing that is worth while, is not \nwhat we achieve, nor with what great adventure we acquire, but to what \nthe accomplishment is referred\u2014to Christ, the Lodge, the Master, or to some\u00ac \nthing less\u2014so much less that with all our hoarding, saving, holding, when the \ntime of the lesser comes to the Time of the Greater, the lesser fades away, \nleaving us empty and desolate. \n\n\nK.R. \n\n\nTHE MIRROR OF NATURE \nAND OF ART \n\n\nFor Dionysus or Bacchus, because his image was reflected in a mirror, pursued \nit, and thus became dispersed into all things. But Apollo re-formed him and resur\u00ac \nrected him; being a deity of purification, and the true saviour of Dionysus; and on \nthis account he is styled in the sacred hymns, Dionusites .\u2014 Olympiodorus. \n\nHE mirror has always been a mysterious object to man, presenting to \n\n\n\nhim his own image, unsubstantial, unprejudiced, the same and yet \n\n\nanother. All over the world it is a sacred object and a symbol. Perhaps \nthis whole universe of Maya is a mirror held up to the Absolute. Thus man\u2019s \nconsciousness also is a mirror, and so is physical nature. In the innermost Shinto \nShrine there is a mirror. Man, Know Thyself, was the most profound of the \n\n\nOracles. \n\n\nEvery atom reflects in itself the essential Being, but this Being must be \nperceived. There must be something, someone aware of the reflection. It is \nthe divine element in man which knows itself and which knows the divine in \nNature. The perceiving consciousness, in a sense, creates the image it sees; it \nconfers on it an existence. Thus, man\u2019s intellect, leaning over the expanse of \nNature, creates in it a form, an entity, just as the Manasaputra cast upon nascent \nhumanity the sun-rays of their Mind. The mirror of Nature, however, is not \ncrystallized, static and unevolving, as is the polished bronze or the quicksilvered \nglass. It corresponds, it responds, it lives, it gives of itself and it receives. \nMan turns upon Nature the fire of his meditation and it stirs. What has man \ndone to Nature\u2014and by man we mean now merely the semi-evolved being of \nthis planet? What is his influence upon the vegetation, the forms of mountains \nor of flowers? How has he modified the rose, and who is responsible for the tent \ncaterpillar, the Japanese beetle and the mosquito? \n\nThe influences of climate and soil are held by some scientists to be responsible \nfor all the psychic activities of the race. But how much more profound is the \ninfluence of the psychic atmosphere of a group of men upon the landscape. One \ncrosses an imaginary line between California and Mexico and one is in a different \ncountry at once. The two handsome Carabinieri on the platform at Domo \nd\u2019Ossolo are not the only intimations that one has come at last to enchanting \nItaly. Two dogs who live on adjoining properties know exactly where their \nrespective domains end. A land that is loved is full of marvellous qualities; it \nresponds like a plant or an animal to care and affection. It has a coquetry of its \nown, a desire to please. \n\nAnother quality of the living mirror of Nature is that it reflects both ways. \nIt reflects God and man. It ever evolves from within outwards the potentialities \n\n\n288 \n\n\n\nTHE MIRROR OF NATURE AND OF ART \n\n\n289 \n\n\nof the divine essence, and shows them forth to those who look attentively into \nit. Man is a part of Nature, his life is unfolding from the same source, but he \nhas, in varying degrees, that mind which makes him capable of sharing the \nconsciousness of the gods. \u201cMan is the Thaumaturge of the Earth.\u201d It is in \nobserving Nature that he becomes aware of those samenesses which are cor\u00ac \nrespondences, and which exemplify for him the laws of his own being. It is, \ndoubtless, impossible for a man to obtain wisdom by looking only into himself \nand not also upon the globe of which he is a part. \n\nLate one night this winter the ground was covered with deep snow. The \nearth and trees were silent with that heavy hush which the snow lays upon the \ncountryside. The moon was rising in the eastern sky like a brilliantly shining \nsilver mirror. \u201cThe moon\u201d, said Proclus, \u201cis the cause of nature to mortals, \nand the self-revealing image of the fountain of nature.\u201d It was in this aspect \nthat Apuleius hailed her with the magnificent words; \n\nTe superi colunt , observant Inferi: tu rotas orbem , luminas Solem , regis mundum , \ncalcas Tartarian. Tibi respondent sidera , gaudent numina , redcunt tempora , \nserviunt elementa. \n\n\u201cThe supernal gods reverence thee, and those in the realms beneath attentively \ngive homage to thy divinity. Thou dost make the universe revolve, illuminate \nthe sun, govern the world and tread on Tartarus. The stars answer thee, the \ngods rejoice, the hours and seasons return by thy appointment, and the elements \nserve thee.\u201d \n\nThis profound poetry is the reward of the contemplation of Nature. All \nthat men pour out in contemplation is returned enriched. We look upon a lovely \nlandscape, the moonlight on snow or the sun\u2019s rays striking into prismatic \nshowers the mist above a waterfall, and it delights us, but when we draw upon \nthe arts to supplement our enjoyment we heighten it by the experience of greater \nmen, we deepen it by the richness of the whole culture of our race. As Apollo \nhas re-formed Dionysus, so he has produced the arts. The sun\u2019s rays have \ndrawn back out of their descent into the world, form, organized being, individu\u00ac \nality. Man, gazing upon Nature, has re-created it and stamped upon it some\u00ac \nthing of his own image, stamped it so that this image remains and can be seen \nlong after he has departed from it. Jules de Gaultier, in his book, La Vie Mys\u00ac \ntique de la Nature , devotes a chapter to this interchange between Nature and tlm \nartist. He asks, \u201cDoes not the human mirror here show itself to be compdBff \nof the same substance as the object that it will reflect?\u201d, and he goes on to \ndescribe Nature with premeditation separating the artist from herself, as if he \nwere a plant whose sole function it were to contemplate her and to reproduce \nher own image in the beauty of art. \n\nThe mediaeval illuminator intending his thought upon a violet, penetrating \nthe secret of its form, left its image upon the burnished gold of the page like a \ncrystal of amethyst, with his love and reverence intact through the ages. \nLeonardo da Vinci, fascinated by the complexities of the blue columbine, drew \nit over and over again, and, in one of his loveliest paintings\u2014now attributed to \nwmeone else!\u2014he places it in the hands of a young woman and invests it with \n\n\n290 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\na profound suggestiveness, something almost beyond definition in words. We \nlook upon this little flower and sense the vast mystery of manifestation. \n\nArt is, in its turn, a living mirror. By art we mean here the arts in the largest \nsense, every expression of man which embodies with beauty and clarity his \nperceptions of the true essence of being, every production which is not an \nimitation but a creation, adding to Nature that self-conscious vision which is \nthe seal of divinity. There, in the treasure of the arts, it is possible for us to \nshare the conquests and triumphs of the human spirit. There is the fountain \nwhose waters perpetually renew and nourish the thirsting and dry little mind \nof the personal man; there he can widen his comprehension until he passes out \nof his own narrow brain into a universal being. \n\nCosa bella mortal passa e non d } arte. \u201cIn life, beauty perishes, not in art\u201d, \nLeonardo wrote in his notebook. The Western world has always been filled \nwith melancholy by this contrast, and all the gilded paradises of the painters \ndo not console it. \n\nAlas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose! \n\nThat Youth\u2019s sweet-scented Manuscript should close! \n\nThe Nightingale that in the Branches sang, \n\nAh, whence, and whither flown again, who knows! \n\nMen too often have thought of themselves as going down to the grave and \nperishing. They see the dissolving aspects of vegetative nature and its continual \nrebirth and return, but for themselves they see no return. The apple blossom \nthat falls, decays, and the flower of next year is altogether another. So, they \nsay, the man dies; other men are bom, but never the same one again. But the \ngreat work of art which man is to produce is his immortality. A propos of \napples, someone has said that innumerable thousands of people had seen them fall \nfrom the trees before Newton, but they had only thought of eating them. Perhaps \nhere we actually see the beginning of the process of becoming immortal. No! \nNot by giving up eating apples, but by looking behind and through the apple. \nThrough the Looking Glass. \n\nThe secret is not in looking in the mirror and becoming enchanted with \nreflections, as did Dionysus in the myth: it is in looking for the divine essence \nwhich breathes through all forms and animates them. It was the light of the \ngod which drew back the scattered fragments into a new whole. This allegory, \nthe descent of the soul into matter, its experiences, and its restoration to its \npristine glory, was the subject of the Bacchic Mysteries, as the story of Demeter \nand Persephone was of the Mysteries of Eleusis. \n\nThe sunlight of Greece falls upon us as we read the Homeric Hymn to Demeter: \n\n\u201cPersephone was playing with Okeanos\u2019 deep-breasted daughters, and pluck\u00ac \ning flowers, roses and crocus and pretty pansies, in a soft meadow, and flags and \nhyacinth, and that great narcissus that Earth sent up for a snare to the rose- \nfaced maiden, doing service by God\u2019s will to Him of the Many Guests. The \nbloom of it was wonderful, a marvel for gods undying and mortal men; from the \nroot of it there grew out a hundred heads, and the incensed smell of it made \n\n\nTHE MIRROR OF NATURE AND OF ART \n\n\n291 \n\n\nthe wide sky laugh above, and all the earth laugh and the salt swell of the sea. \nAnd the girl in wonder reached out both her hands to take the beautiful thing \nto play with; then yawned the broad-trod ground by the Flat of Nysa, and the \ndeathless steeds brake forth, and the Cronos-born king. He of the Many \nNames, of the Many Guests; and He swept her away on his golden chariot.\u201d \n\nThe narcissus was created because a youth, gazing upon his reflection in a \npool, became enamoured of his own image, and falling into it. was drowned, and \nmetamorphosed into the flower. It is this same flower which leads Persephone \ninto the power of Gloomy Dis or Pluto, the King of Hades. \n\nThe god of death is the Great Initiator. It is by manifestation that the \nwhole universe attains form and consciousness. It is through the experience of \nincarnation that man achieves self-consciousness. Nature is borne on in its \nevolution by the pure but unindividualized hierarchies of the divine light, but, \nfortunately for him, man is aided directly by those who have triumphed and who \nembody the divine mind. In another great poem of initiation, the Katha \nUpanishad, Nachiketas stands before Death, having returned from his voyages. \nHe has seen through all the illusions of the world and has no longer any desire for \n\u201cchariots and lutes\u201d. He has perceived the Eternal Essence of Being in all \nbeings, and desires only That. Therefore he has constrained Death to teach him \nall of its lessons, and is victor over it. He has attained immortality. \n\n\u201cThis is too difficult. This is impossible. This can not be expected of us.\u201d \nBut it is. It is just what we are here for. It is just what everything is here for. \nEvery little ladybird on the potato vine, and every small weed, every pebble \nand every star is accomplishing this throughout the incalculable aeons of time \nMoreover, we have arrived\u2014God knows how!\u2014at the stage of evolution where \nwe meet with the mystery of the supernal Grace. This is that Blood of Christ \nwhich the fifteenth century represented in the mystical Fountain of Life. \n\nSanguis , animarum lavacrum , lava nos. \n\nSanguis , piscina languentium, salva nos , \n\nSanguis , fons puritatis , irriga nos. \n\nEvery great work begins at an infinitesimal beginning; the raising of the hand, \nthe grain of sand. We are not at the beginning. A long past of experience \nsurrounds us, our own, that of Nature and that of other men. Every time we \nperceive the spiritual world behind an object, we add one more brick to our \nstructure, one more atom to the form which we are creating by contemplation. \nWe are the artisans of our own work of art. Every correspondence to which we \nare awake unites us with the Law. Whenever we are aware of the meaning of a \nwork of beauty we are allied to the consciousness of immortality. This is the \ndazzling radiance of pure joy. This is the root of ecstasy. This is the splendour \nand richness of real life. This is the transforming light of Apollo which restores \nour dispersed, fragmentary consciousness to its lost divinity. \n\n\nSauvage. \n\n\nSILENCE IS GOLDEN \n\n\nSet a watch , 0 Lord , before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips. \n\nI T is obvious that as we go forward on the path of discipleship, we shall have \nto acquire, gradually, complete and unfailing control of our speech, and it \nis safe to assume that such control will exceed anything we can imagine at \npresent. One of the motives for this form or aspect of self-conquest, will be an \never-increasing realization of the direct effect which our words have on ourselves. \n\nIn view of the importance of the matter (the reaction of speech on the \nspeaker) it seems strange that so little attention is given to it. Painful \nexperience has taught people a few simple facts about speech, as, for example, \nthat the more you talk about your troubles the worse they seem. But it must \nbe admitted that when one thinks of the probable effect produced by certain \nwords, one\u2019s thoughts are generally directed to the hearer, not to the speaker. \nNo one worries much about what they do to him! \n\nNevertheless, as has already been suggested, that side of the question is the \none of real, and ever-increasing importance, to the student of Theosophy who \nendeavours to combine study with practice. His objective (or one of them) \nmight be stated to be the attainment of a state of consciousness which is fixed, \nunwavering; unshaken by the vibrations of life. As he observes the variations \nin consciousness to which he is subject, the swing from higher to lower states \nand back again, endlessly, he can hardly fail to perceive that the words he \nspeaks, and the spirit or motive behind them, often have a great deal to do \nwith these oscillations. A state of happy serenity may be changed abruptly \nto one of gloomy resentment or bitterness, as the result of a brief conversation. \n\nThe usual procedure, in such cases, would be to blame the other person, the \n\u201cantagonist\u201d of the occasion, for ruining the day. But having awakened to \nsome perception of the potency of words, from this different standpoint, the \nstudent may, conceivably, ask himself, \u201cWhy did I say that?\u201d or, \u201cWhat \nwrong element was there in my words? Ought I to have said nothing ?\u201d Inci\u00ac \ndentally, it will be remembered that Christ told his disciples: \u201cLet your \nconversation be yea, yea; nay, nay; for more than this cometh of evil.\u201d \n\nWhen one has come to recognize the fact that there are kinds of talk, perhaps \nnot ordinarily regarded as in the least reprehensible, but which nevertheless \ncause undesirable repercussions in one\u2019s consciousness, it becomes of increased \nimportance to discover what they are; to identify them despite their disguises. \n\nAt the head of a list of elements of speech that are found to be deleterious \nwould doubtless be self-defence and excuse; criticism and condemnation of \nother persons; complaining and fault-finding from a personal standpoint. \n\nFrom Light on the Path , that text-book of discipleship, the following may be \nquoted in this connection: \n\n292 \n\n\n\nSILENCE IS GOLDEN \n\n\n293 \n\n\n\u201cBut this conquering of self implies a destruction of qualities most men \nregard as not only indestructible but desirable. The \u2018power to wound\u2019 includes \nmuch that men value, not only in themselves, but in others. The instinct of \nself-defence and of self-preservation is part of it; the idea that one has any right \nor rights, either as citizen, or man, or individual.\u201d \u201cAll weapons of defence and \noffence are given up.\u201d \u201cNever again can another man be regarded as a person \nwho can be criticized or condemned; never again can the neophyte raise his \nvoice in self-defence or excuse .\u201d \n\nIt is significant that self-defence is here said to become, after a certain stage \nof progress, not merely undesirable or wrong, but impossible. Why? If our \nthesis be correct, because of the effect on the man himself. \n\nIt should be remembered that as one advances on the way, he becomes more, \nnot less, sensitive. Words and actions of his, which formerly would have \nappeared to have slight significance, if any, as far as their affecting him was \nconcerned, will be seen as definite hindrances, as obstacles to further progress. \nSpeaking of such a seeker of truth, the Gates of Gold says, \u201cHe utters no idle \nword; he performs no unconsidered action.\u201d The condition of irresponsibility \nhas been left behind. \n\nThe foregoing will perhaps suffice to make clear the central point. Assuming \nour view to be correct as far as it goes, the implications for the earnest student \nare obvious. Eventually he will have to govern his tongue, the unruly member, \nabsolutely; and, as we are all so largely creatures of habit, the earlier he turns \nhis attention to the matter and arouses his higher will to appropriate action, the \nbetter for him. Moreover, conquest of self at any point brings its own sure \nreward. The task is far from easy, but recognition of the problem is in itself a \nstart in the right direction. If you discover a snake in your cellar, you are \nlikely to do something about it; you would not harbour it as a permanent guest. \n\nIt is interesting and helpful to remember that control of speech is a subject \nwhich is given much importance in the great religions of the world. There are \ninnumerable references to it in the Bible, though the prevailing custom among \nChristians, even among the ministry, seems to be to take many of them with a \n\u201cgrain of salt\u201d. This, however, is only natural, since all the other teachings \nwhich have to do with conduct, both inner and outer, are taken in much the same \nway. But the fact that silence is enforced to such a large extent in the religious \nOrders is worthy of serious consideration. Their saintly founders may well have \nhad far more knowledge and understanding of spiritual laws, and the occult or \nhidden side of man\u2019s nature, than sceptical seculars imagine. \n\nIn any case we know that an effective way to combat a wrong desire or an \nunruly emotion is to suppress its manifestation, in word as well as in deed. \nLower nature is complex; our knowledge of self only partial. It is therefore more \nthan likely that if, when anxious to talk, one maintains a discreet silence, one \nis thereby fighting some fault of which he is not yet conscious, though it may \nbe well known to his fellows. Speech, no doubt, may be silver. But silence\u2014 \nmor\u00ab\u00a3ten\u2014is golden. \n\n\nA. WOODBY. \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\nVII. \n\nT HE first and only night then, which I passed at La Fert\u00a3-sous-Jouarre, \nwas quiet and uneventful, and early the following morning, July 31st, \nI presented myself at Headquarters First American Army, and re\u00ac \nported to the Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Hugh A. Drum. He was ex\u00ac \ntremely busy, but he found time to receive me with much kindness, and \ninformed me that I had been assigned for duty to the Operations Section of the \nGeneral Staff. He took me down the hall to the office of Colonel (later Brigadier \nGeneral) R. McCleave, Chief of G-3, and introduced me in a few words, and \nthen, after wishing me good luck, left me with my new Chief. My first short \ninterview with General Drum was all that was needed to show me why, as \nI found out later, he was able to drive his staff night and day with a maximum \nof efficiency, loyalty and co-operation; force and charm and the ability to \nunderstand men and to handle them in exactly the right way, were character\u00ac \nistics of his which stood out at that very first meeting. Colonel McCleave \nwas most friendly, and during a pleasant chat over a cigarette we discovered \nthat we had several friends in common. The wall of the large room, which \nwas his office, was covered with an immense map of the front, which showed, \ncorrected to within a few minutes, the latest positions and dispositions of all \nthe units in the sector of the First American Army Corps, and also of those \nin the area of the Third American Army Corps, commanded by Major General \nBullard, which was now operating on the right of the First Corps. Colonel \nMcCleave soon got to business, and informed me that at present our First \nand Third Army Corps were in the Sixth French Army, under General De- \ngoutte, and under his tactical command; that Headquarters First American \nArmy was not yet tactically functioning as such, but that it was planned to \ntake over the command, within a very few days, of the entire Army front from \nthe Sixth French Army, and that the interval was to be employed in redupli\u00ac \ncating the whole French Army staff organization, our staff functioning side \nby side with the French and gradually assuming their duties, so that when the \nchange of command actually took place, it would be a change in name only, and \nnot in fact. General Pershing was, of course, to be Commander of the First Army. \n\nColonel McCleave then told me that, while a member of the Staff of First \nArmy Headquarters, I was not to be on duty there at that time, but that, as \npart of the plan of taking over from the French which he had just outlined, I \nwas to be sent at once to Headquarters First Army Corps, as Liaison Officer \nthere from Headquarters First Army. He then handed me a letter, in dupli\u00ac \ncate, dated July 31, 1918, addressed to the Chief of Staff, 1st Army Corps, and \nsigned: \u201cBy command of General Pershing,\u2014R. McCleave, Colonel, General \nStaff, A. C. of S., G-3.\u201d This letter read as follows:\u2014 \n\n\n294 \n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n295 \n\n\n1\u2014The bearer of this letter, Captain-, 77th Division, has been directed to re\u00ac \n\nport to you for duty as Liaison Officer, from the Headquarters First Army. His duty \nwill be to transmit to these headquarters information concerning the progress of the dif\u00ac \nferent divisions of your Corps, together with any general information that might prove \nof value. \n\nI read this over twice in silence, under my new Chief\u2019s watchful eye. It \nread like a large order, but it read, too, as if I had fairly high authority to sup\u00ac \nport me, coming as I would from a higher unit of command to a lower one. \nIt certainly seemed like the real thing. I finished reading, and looked up at \nColonel McCleave, who inquired whether I had any questions. I asked him \nif he would tell me what divisions and other units were in line on the First \nCorps front, and what their positions were. He replied that it would be almost \nimpossible to do that, for, owing to the rapidity with which things were moving \nin the forward areas, any information which he might give me then, would \nprobably be old and useless a few hours later, and that I would find all that \nout after I had arrived at First Corps Headquarters. I asked him what form \nthe transmission of my reports should take, and he told me to send them prefer\u00ac \nably as dispatches over the Signal Corps telegraph wires, as that method was \nfar quicker than any other; but that I could use the field telephone, and couriers \nwhenever necessary. I asked him whether my messages should be coded, and \nhe replied that they should be, although, because of the rapidity with which \nthe Germans were now moving out of the old Ch&teau-Thierry salient, it was \nunlikely that they could effectively tap our field wires; he said that I would \nget copies of all the codes which I needed at First Corps Headquarters. He \nvolunteered that the general information alluded to in my orders simply meant \nthat I was to keep my eyes and ears wide open, and that I was to send them \nback at once any fact I might discover, or any rumour or report I might hear, \ncarefully specifying which it was, that I thought would be of any assistance \nto them in conducting this operation. He asked me how soon I could go, and \nI told him that I could go at once. He then said that his car would be wait\u00ac \ning for me outside my billet in an hour, and that I should find in the car another \ncaptain, who was going to our Third Corps Headquarters as Liaison Officer \nthere, after I had first been left at First Corps Headquarters. He rose to his \nfeet, and so did I. I saluted, and departed. \n\nPromptly, one hour later, an army Cadillac limousine, and in it my travel\u00ac \nling companion, drove up to the door of my billet; I loaded my things on board, \nand off we started. Our road led through Ch&teau-Thierry, as Headquarters \nFirst Army Corps was that day at Moucheton Chateau, near Epieds, a little \ntown a few miles to the northeast. We drove through what had been the bat\u00ac \ntlefields of the preceding fortnight. The dead had been removed and buried, \nbut everywhere, on all sides, was the wreckage and destruction of war. It \nwas the first sight of it, for both of us, and it made a profound impression. \nWe were constantly off the road and in the fields, where poppies were still \ngrowing, in order to avoid shell holes, only to have to circumvent others which \nwe fot^d there. The air was full of Allied planes, on their way to, or returning \n\n\n\n296 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nfrom, the lines. There were very few troops in evidence, except for the ever\u00ac \npresent Military Police and scattered detachments; but this was easily under\u00ac \nstandable, as reliefs and troop movements took place only at night, when the \nroads were free from aerial observation. Ch&teau-Thierry itself was a mass \nof wreckage; constant pounding by artillery fire had practically demolished \nthe greater part of the town, and, where the Marne ran, great masses of debris \nand rubble had slid down, or had been blown, into the river, blocking it up. \nAlready, however, American Engineer regiments and Pioneer Infantry were \nengaged in the effort to reduce some order out of this chaos. In spite of the \ndifficulties of travel, it did not take us long to make our journey, as we really \nhad not far to go; it certainly did not seem long, for there was so much to see \nthat we lost all track of time. But shortly after midday we drove through \nthe village of Epieds, or what was left of it, which was not much, and almost \nimmediately afterwards turned into the front gate of Moucheton Chateau, a \ncountry house on the outskirts of the village. Just as we did so, a French 150 \nmm. howitzer, down in a hollow just beside the road, let go with a great roar; \nwe had not seen it, as it was carefully camouflaged with the usual coverings, \nand it scared us out of a week\u2019s growth, as we thought for a moment that it \nwas an arrive and not a depart. We had not learned, then, that it is the arrive \nwhich you hear, that does not hurt you; it is the one which you never hear, \nthat does the trick. A few moments more took us to the front steps of the \nChateau, my property was hastily unloaded, and I exchanged farewell salutes \nwith my temporary companion, who departed across country to Third Corps \nHeadquarters. \n\nMoucheton Chateau was a typical small French country residence, which, \nfor some unknown reason, had remained intact and was untouched by shell \nfire. In the cellar, which was of stone and, therefore, the best protected portion \nof the house, the Signal Corps had their telephone and telegraph wires, so that \nthe service would be uninterrupted in the event of shelling or bombing. The \nprincipal staff offices were on the main floor, and the top floor was occupied \nas sleeping quarters by Major General Liggett, the Corps Commander, his \nranking staff officers, and his aides. The stables, outbuildings and offices \nwere used for the functioning of other sections of the Staff, and as sleeping \nquarters and a mess for the officers. I reported myself to the Corps Chief of \nStaff, Brigadier General Malin Craig, and gave him my letter; he received me \nbriefly, but with great friendliness, and presented me to the different Colonels \nwho were Chiefs of Section of the Staff, each of whom in turn introduced me to \nhis various assistants. These formalities were soon over, and after I had stowed \nmy belongings in a little room, already occupied by two other officers, on the \ntop of one of the stables, I started to acquaint myself with my new duties and \nto acquire the information which I needed. \n\nThe Chief of the Operations Section of the Staff, G-3, gave me at once, \nthrough two of his officers, the data which I lacked in regard to the divisions \nand units under the Corps Command, and their positions, and it was while I \nwas engaged in writing all this down, and in working out the positions on the- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n297 \n\n\nmap, that I had my first experience of being shelled. We were grouped around \na large table in the dining-room, when, suddenly, there was a whistling, tear\u00ac \ning sound, followed by a loud explosion, and I glanced out of the window be\u00ac \nhind me, to see, something over one hundred yards away, a mass of earth and \nrubbish apparently suspended in the air. One of the officers said, quietly, \nthat it looked as if they had our range. Almost immediately, it seemed to me, \nthere was another similar explosion, this time on the other side of the CMteau, \nand about an equal distance away, and one of my new friends remarked that \nprobably they would now \u201ccut the bracket\u201d, and that we should have the next \none on the dining-room table. There seemed to be no disposition on their part \nto discontinue the work which we were doing, so I said to myself that, if they \ncould like it, I could, too, and I stuck to the job, although my attention wan\u00ac \ndered somewhat for the next few minutes. The third shell never arrived, and I \nfound out, later that afternoon, that a Boche plane had been flying just over \nus, sending the co-ordinates of our position on the map by wireless to the German \nbattery that was firing, and correcting their range for them at each shot; the \nfinal corrected range had never been sent, for, just in time, an American plane \nhad gone up, directed by our Corps Headquarters, and had driven the Boche \naway. \n\nI had now identified the units under the Corps Command, and had their \npositions, and also knew what divisions were in reserve in the rear of the Corps \narea. When, however, I asked for the code which I was to use, I was told \nthat they had no code for me there, and that this should have been given to \nme at Headquarters First Army. I was in a quandary. My instructions were \nclear; my reports were to be sent in code. It was equally clear that there was \nnone. It was up to me, therefore, to make up some sort of a code that I could \nuse, and to have it typed, and a copy sent back to G-3, Headquarters First \nArmy by the first courier. Obviously, there was no time in which to make \nit an elaborate one; it seemed to me, in the circumstances, that if I were to \ncamouflage the names of all units, and were to send the rest of my messages \nin the clear, it would probably fill the bill. If not, I should certainly hear of \nit! I thought hard for a few minutes, and then had an idea. I wrote down, \nin parallel columns, leaving in each case a blank column between, the number \nof each division under the Corps Command, followed by the numbers of its \ninfantry and artillery brigades and of their component regiments, and then the \nnumbers and names of the other combat units in the divisions which I thought \nit might be necessary to mention in messages. In the blank columns, opposite \nthe names and numbers of each division and of each of their component units, \nI wrote, in one column, the names of all the fishes I could think of; in another \ncolumn, the names of all the birds; in a third column, all women\u2019s names; and, \nin succeeding columns, men\u2019s names, names of trees and of flowers, names of \ncities in the United States and-of the States of the Union, names of colours, \nnames of animals. Finally, I had a code word for each unit. If anyone imagines \nthat it an easy job to think up all those names, under pressure and in great \nhaste. l^Rhem try it and see. It was simple enough for the first ten or fifteen \n\n\n298 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nnames in each case, but after that, the very necessity of haste made the memory \nstop working. I enlisted the assistance of the two officers who had been post\u00ac \ning me; they entered enthusiastically into the spirit of the game, and, with \ntheir help, my make-shift code was soon completed. I had it typed in dupli\u00ac \ncate by one of the field clerks, and directed that a copy, together with an ex\u00ac \nplanatory letter which I wrote, should go back to G-3 at Headquarters First \nArmy by the next courier. Unfortunately, no courier went out that night; \nthe next one did not leave, for some reason or other, until early the following \nmorning. Meanwhile, blissfully unconscious of this, I sent my first messages \nthat afternoon and evening, following them with others the first thing the \nnext day. My messages of course arrived at Headquarters First Army before \nthe copy of my code, and they told me afterwards that for some hours they \nwere considerably mystified, and very much entertained, to read that Sturgeon \nhad fallen back one kilometer, quite a leap for any fish, while Narcissus was \napparently blooming to the fullest extent at a place to which \u201cno flowers\u201d should \nbe sent. \n\nOur system of liaison was borrowed from the French, and was modelled on \ntheir plan. There was vertical liaison, as, for instance, in my own case, when \nan officer was sent from a higher command to a lower one. There was hori\u00ac \nzontal liaison, as when an Army Corps Headquarters sent liaison officers to the \nHeadquarters of the Army Corps on its right and on its left, receiving back in \neach case liaison officers in return. The French system was, of course, very \nhighly developed indeed, while ours was in its infancy. The French liaison \nofficers were usually older men who had had years of army experience; had \nbeen in combat units, and had, perhaps, been wounded and rendered incapable \nof further service in the line. They were invaluable for liaison work because of \nthis very combat experience, and because they could visualize what was going \non in the front areas, and understood what troops would do under given con\u00ac \nditions; they knew what to expect. The French relied greatly upon the opinion \nand judgment of their liaison officers, not only in matters of strategy and tactics, \nbut also where plain common-sense was involved. They were often of fairly \nhigh rank, and so could be used to influence indirectly and diplomatically \nan otherwise efficient subordinate commander, who might be showing a dis\u00ac \nposition to disregard his orders and to fight the War by himself. On account \nof this rank and experience, they were at times vested with considerable au\u00ac \nthority. I was told that a French liaison officer, going from an army, say, \nto a corps, would be so completely in the confidence of his army commander, \nand so thoroughly familiar with the mission of the army and the way in which \nit was to be carried out, that, if he found the corps commander to whom he \nhad been sent was interpreting the army orders wrongly, and was issuing orders \nof his own which might obstruct or place in jeopardy the plan of the army \ncommand, the liaison officer would be empowered to rescind on the spot, in \nthe name of the army commander, those corps orders, and even, if time were \na factor, to indicate new orders to the corps commander and to insist that they \nbe carried out. The French system had thus obviously been evolved through \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n299 \n\n\nyears of war experience; at the start of things, as we were, we could not hope \nto have anything like it. Our officers did not have the experience, to begin \nwith, and it was impossible to invest them with any such authority as indi\u00ac \ncated above. If the war had continued, we should probably have developed \nour system into something approaching that of the French, but at the outset, \nwith us, the extent to which he could be of service depended very much upon \nthe individual liaison officer himself, and upon his own intelligence and adapt\u00ac \nability. \n\nMy mission, as I understood it, was to anticipate, in my capacity as an \nindividual observer, the arrival at Headquarters First Army of the regular \nofficial reports of progress from the Operations Section of the Corps General \nStaff. These official reports were usually not sent at once, nor until they had been \ncarefully verified. My messages were more in the nature of gossip, and usually \nbegan with a code word\u2014I had further amplified my code by that time\u2014 \nwhich meant, \u201ca liaison officer states that\u201d, or, \u201cit is reported but not verified \nthat\u201d, this change or the other of position had taken place in the shifting battle. \nAs a matter of fact, I obtained much of my information from the constant \nreports which G-2, the Intelligence Section, and G-3, the Operations Section, \nwere receiving from telephone and telegraph wires laid up to the front, by \nradio, by carrier pigeon from the front lines, and by messages dropped by aero\u00ac \nplanes on their way back from flights of observation and of reconnaissance. \nThese constant reports were in most cases verified later, and were officially \nreported. But in the meanwhile my unverified messages had already gone, \nbringing to First Army Headquarters the first intimation of what was subse\u00ac \nquently to be confirmed, and I was told later that the forward line on the great \nmap on the wall at La Fert\u00a3-sous-Jouarre was tentatively changed with char\u00ac \ncoal tracings as my, and other, messages came in, and was blacked in when \nthe official General Staff reports arrived. It was always possible for me to go \nforward to the front lines, and there observe personally what was going on, \nin order to obtain information for my reports. I found, however, that it did \nnot pay, for whenever I was absent from Corps Headquarters for any length \nof time, some piece of information invariably came in which far transcended \nin importance that which I brought back with me, and I missed the chance of \nsending it, for it was too old when I received it. Corps Headquarters was \nlike a vast clearing-house for information, with things happening too rapidly \nto miss; one lost the perspective of the Corps operation when one concentrated \nupon anything less than the whole. My job was a twenty-four hour one. I \nnever slept through a night; it would not have been possible in any event, as \nall through the darkness the Boche was dropping interdiction and harassing \nfire from his artillery upon the roads, on the chance of catching them crowded \nwith transport and with moving troops, and was drenching the rear areas with \ngas in the same pious hope. Several times in each night I would go to G-2 and \nG-3, find out all that they knew of what had happened in the interval since \nmy last visit, write out a message if there was anything important, and send \nit o^ My handwriting, never anything to boast of, had become atrocious, \n\n\n3 \u00b0\u00b0 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nand I was so afraid that the telegraph operators would misread some essential \nparts of my messages, and get them wrong through no fault of their own, that \nI always printed my messages out instead of writing them, and gradually \nattained such proficiency that finally I was able to print almost as fast as I \ncould write. Owing to the fact that I came from Army Headquarters, I found \nthat, as representing the Army Commander, I had priority for my telegraph \nmessages over all others except those of the Corps Commander and the Corps \nChief of Staff, which was a great piece of luck, as it greatly expedited their \ntransmission and consequently their receipt at the other end. \n\nAs my work developed, I found it necessary at times to cover in my mes\u00ac \nsages the progress of divisions in the Army Corps on our right and on our left, \nbecause operations would often overlap on the Corps flanks, and this necessi\u00ac \ntated further amplification of my improvised code. Several days had now \nelapsed, and I had heard nothing whatever from Colonel McCleave at G-3, \nFirst Army Headquarters. That did not worry me, however, for I knew enough \nof the Army to understand that, if things had not been going as they should, \n\nI would have heard of it without fail. On the morning of August 3d, how\u00ac \never, I received from him the following typewritten message:\u2014 \n\n\nHeadquarters First Army, A. E. F. \nOffice of G-3 \n\n\nAugust 2, 1918. \n\nMemorandum for Captain-. \n\n1. Your telegraphic messages are coming in in excellent shape. It is believed that this \nmethod of sending your messages is preferable to all others. Send telegraphic messages \nin the clear, except that the Corps and Divisions should be indicated by code names. \nFor the present you can send telephone messages in the clear until your code is completed \nand sent to us, which should be as soon as possible. \n\n2. Your present reports are very satisfactory. \n\n3. It is impossible to furnish you transportation until the motorcycles and sidecars \nare received here. They have not come yet. \n\nR. McCleave \nColonel, General Staff \nA. C. of S., G-3. \n\nReports from 1st Corps indicate satisfaction with your present \nmethods. \n\n\nR. McC. \n\n\nG-3 \n\n\nApparently, even then, the final installment of my code had not yet been \nreceived. It must have reached them the next day. But this message relieved \nme considerably, for, as far as we had gone, everyone was pleased, including \nmyself! The Colonel had told me in the first instance to send my messages by \ntelegraph, and this method was working satisfactorily, and now he was telling \nme to go on doing so, and all would be well. He confirmed my lucky guess \nthat it would be sufficient camouflage to code the names of units only, and \ntold me to do what I had already been doing in this respect, which is simply \nthe Army method of making it seem as if the arrangement had been thought \nof first by those in higher authority, and that I was merely carrying out their \n\n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n3 o< \n\noriginal orders. His message breathed sufficient encouragement however to \nmake me want to work even harder than ever. \n\nI received a great deal of general information from French liaison officers \nat First Corps Headquarters, and some criticism of our methods, always justi\u00ac \nfied as far as I could see, which criticism they apparently thought stood a better \nchance of reaching the ears of higher authority through a liaison officer than \nthrough imparting it to those actually in command. I remember sending a \nmessage back to the Army to the effect that the French were very disturbed be\u00ac \ncause our regimental commanders were marching their troops, coming into \nsupport, in column of squads on the roads in the daytime with bayonets fixed. \nThe dark column on the road, and the glittering of the bayonets in the sun, \nwere perfectly visible to the Boche from the air, with the result that the Ger\u00ac \nmans, even if they did not try to bomb the moving troops at the time, or ma j \nchine-gun them from low-flying planes, knew that a relief in the line was about \nto start, and searched out the sector that night with artillery interdiction-fire \nin the effort to find the incoming troops. All this, the French felt, and properly, \nwas absolutely wrong, and made things unnecessarily unpleasant. As a result \nof my message, an Army Order was issued, calling attention to this practice, \nand prohibiting it for the future. Upon another occasion, the French criti\u00ac \ncized the choices which our regimental commanders were making for their \nP. Cs. (Headquarters). They always chose, the French said, the best looking \nhouse or chateau in their area which was still intact, no matter how exposed, \nand settled themselves in it, without in the least realizing that this was the \nvery thing which the Boche wanted them to do. The Germans had just passed \nthrough this area in their retreat, they had spotted every chateau that was still \nstanding, and had left it untouched in each case with a very definite purpose \nand hope. They had the exact co-ordinates on their maps of every such build\u00ac \ning, and knowing that we should be sure to pick them out as desirable Head\u00ac \nquarters, they were certain to shell them severely. I reported this criticism \nalso to First Army Headquarters, but, before any Army Order in this regard \nwas issued, point was added to the remarks of the French by the fact that, \nshortly afterwards, an exposed chateau near us, in which a whole regimental \nstaff had taken up quarters, was practically blown to pieces, and the Colonel \nand most of his staff killed. \n\nBy far my best source of information during this period was Brigadier General \nCraig, the Chief of Staff himself. I had liked him immensely from the begin\u00ac \nning; he had gone out of his way to be pleasant to me when I had first arrived, \nand in seeing that I got off to a good start in my work and that I received all \nthe help which I needed. After a day or so, he got in the way of stopping me \nsometimes when we met during the day around the Corps Headquarters, and \nof saying, \u201cCaptain, I don\u2019t know whether or not you have heard this\u2019\u2019, and \nof proceeding to tell me something which I could not possibly have heard about, \nas he had either only just heard of it himself, or it had originated in his own \nmind ajew minutes before and had to do with some proposed change in the \ncondu^k|f operations. All such information, which was of great value in my \n\n\n302 \n\n\nTHE 0 S 0 PHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nreports, was immediately put on the wire. Apparently he was testing me out, \nfor shortly afterwards he told me that if I would come that evening, after \ndark, to the top floor of the Chateau, he might have something to give me. \nI presented myself at the appointed hour, and was shown by a sentry, who \nwas standing in the hall, into a little room, the black curtains of which were \ntightly drawn. Major General Liggett, the First Corps Commander, sat at \na little table, upon which was spread a map of the Corps front, and facing him, \non the other side of the table, was Brigadier General Craig; the only light \ncame from two candles. General Craig told me to sit in a chair beside the table, \nand gave me a large pad and a pencil, saying that I would probably want to \nmake some notes. He then proceeded to dictate his observations upon the \nday\u2019s operations, criticizing the conduct of the offensive by the commanding \nofficers in the line whenever he thought criticism was indicated, and not for\u00ac \ngetting to watch me as I wrote, slowing down his dictation whenever I failed \nto keep up. He then gave his estimate of the military situation as it existed \nat that hour, and outlined the plan for the next attack which was to take place \nearly the following morning, giving his reasons for the dispositions, and stating \nwhat it was purposed to accomplish. From time to time General Liggett \nwould interrupt, making a correction or a change. Now and then the dicta\u00ac \ntion would be held up, while they went over again some phase of the operation, \nor made some modification in their original plan. What they were giving me, \nfor immediate transmission to the Army Commander, was the result of their \ndeliberations before I had entered the room. The Staff did not yet know it, \nand they did not want the Staff to know it, until it had been received at First \nArmy and approved. There were some general observations at the end, and \nthen I was told that that would be all for that evening. I made my way to the \ncellar, tremendously elated, for I could not possibly have had any more red- \nhot information than this to send in my dispatches, and I put it all on the \nwire without delay. Through General Craig\u2019s kindness, there were several \nother such evening dictations, and the material which I was given to send was \nalways of a similar nature, and calculated greatly to enhance the value of my \nreports. This, I think, was exactly what General Craig wished to do. He \nwanted to give me a \u201cleg up\u201d, and took that way of doing it. \n\nAll messages which the Chief of Staff personally gave me to send, were pre\u00ac \nfaced by a code word which meant,\u2014\u201cThe Chief of Staff directs me to say\u201d. \nGeneral Craig was not aware of this. The Chief of Staff of the Third American \nArmy Corps on our right was Brigadier General Bjomstad, who was a very \nable and efficient officer, but who, apparently, was somewhat of an eccentric \nin certain respects. One evening, there not being the same pressure of busi\u00ac \nness as usual, General Craig began to dictate in a humorous vein, describing \nsome device or other, rather unusual in character\u2014something to do with hand \ngrenades, I think\u2014with which General Bjomstad was making his front line \ntroops experiment. General Craig made his description of this device sound \nperfectly ludicrous. He ended with the remark,\u2014\u201cThis contraption is the \ninvention of a Norwegian named Bjomstad\u201d; he looked quizzically at me, and \n\n\nWITHOUT CENSOR \n\n\n303 \n\n\nended the dictation. He was putting it up to me, and I knew it. He wanted \nto see what I would do. He felt sure that I would not dare omit anything \nwhich he had dictated, and he was anticipating a good laugh at my expense \non the part of all concerned when my message, containing this trenchant and \nhumorous criticism and ending with the sentence quoted above, was received \nat First Army Headquarters with my name signed at the end of it. But I \nhad my line of retreat all ready, although the General did not know it. I pre\u00ac \nfaced the message with my code word, which made the whole thing something \nwhich the Chief of Staff himself had directed me to say, and escaped from the \nhole in which I found myself. Moreover, I found out later at First Army \nHeadquarters that I had turned the tables on General Craig, and had raised \na laugh at his expense instead, for it was perfectly clear to them what had \nbeen going on, and what his original intention had been. \n\nThe First Army Corps had a very remarkable Signal Battalion, composed \nof specially selected men, all volunteers, and all of them telephone and wire \nexperts in civil life. The wire communications were frequently broken by \nenemy shelling, but owing to the skill and efficiency which these men displayed, \nthe interruptions never lasted for long. The telegraph operators were experts, \nand, from the start, I was able to obtain such speed in the transmission of \nmy reports, that when, for instance, a message was dropped on the panel at \nFirst Corps Headquarters by one of our planes returning from the lines, stat\u00ac \ning that elements of our infantry had been seen at a point in advance of our \npreviously known front line, it was possible to have this information on a type\u00ac \nwritten slip of paper on the desk of the Chief of the Operations Section at \nHeadquarters First Army within twenty minutes after the aeroplane observer \nhad first spotted the troops and their position. \n\nBy now the Boche was in full retreat up the old Ch&teau-Thierry salient, \nbut was holding back our pursuit with stubborn rear-guard actions, and with \nconstant and aggressive counter-attacks. The salient had been full of enemy \nsupplies, but while the Boche was getting himself out successfully, he neces\u00ac \nsarily had to leave a great part of these behind, and we took a number of am\u00ac \nmunition dumps and great quantities of quartermaster stores. All this told \nof the enemy\u2019s breaking morale. He would never have left these supplies \nbehind him if it could have been avoided, for not only did he lose the immediate \nuse of them, but he had to mark time until fresh ammunition and stores could \nagain be sent up from his rear. It was a retreat on his part, and incipient \ndemoralization had set in. \n\nCenturion. \n\n\n(To be continued) \n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE ART OF LIFE \n\n\nI T has been said that the Art of Life is the supreme and most difficult of all \narts because it deals primarily with consciousness rather than things, with \ncauses rather than effects. To mould physical matter into forms of enduring \nbeauty is no small achievement; but to fashion life itself into some slight sem\u00ac \nblance of Truth or Beauty or Goodness is a task no man can hope to accomplish \nwithout help from divine powers. \n\nHow is any art learned and finally mastered ? Is there not, first, the persistent \ndesire to produce something and to do this as well as possible? The effort to \nproduce or \u201ccreate\u201d, whether the result be success or failure, awakens the first \ndim perception of an ideal that seems existent, somewhere. If the desire be \nrooted sufficiently deep to urge unwearied search, the man will discover that his \nideal can be made manifest only through the right shaping of the stubborn and \nresistant materials of his own nature, of actual conditions and circumstances. \nAs a painter compels pigment on canvas to embody in a Madonna\u2019s smile a \nglimpse of the Eternal Beauty, or a sculptor compels marble almost to pulse \nwith breath, so man can compel the harsh and uncouth conditions of his life \ngradually to become the embodiment of that ideal which exists, because it \nalways has existed, in the unseen, timeless world of the Real. \n\nOne hundred years ago, in a vigorous and eloquent paragraph of Sartor \nResartus, Carlyle gave poetic expression to this thought: \u201cThe situation that has \nnot its duty, its ideal, was never yet occupied by man. .. . The Ideal is in thyself, \nthe impediment too is in thyself; thy condition is but the stuff thou art to shape \nthat same Ideal out of. ... 0, thou that pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual, \nand criest bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create, know \nthis of a truth: the thing thou seekest is already with thee, \u2018here, or nowhere\u2019, \ncouldst thou only see\u201d. Truly, the seed becomes the plant, and then the \nflower, only because the seed has within it the potentialities of both plant and \nflower. \n\nFor those who would learn the Art of Life, their ideal is not far off or dim or \nshadowy, as many have imagined, but substantial and at hand, tangible and \nvisible in the actual lives of Masters, of Avatars who have incarnated among men, \na Gautama Buddha, a Christ. These, living as men among men of earth, have \ngiven to the world, not alone their doctrine, but the matchless example of their \nlives; and the man who would become the follower or disciple of such as these, \nneeds but to sit down before that consummate model of life, that finished work \nof art, to study it, to contemplate it, and, touch by touch, begin to reproduce it. \nLet him avoid, however, the mistake of undertaking at once to imitate the \nmany-sided richness of a Master\u2019s life and nature; that is far too general and \nvague an effort, and likely to lead to discouragement. Rather, he should, at \nfirst, make a selection of one or two qualities at most, that appeal particularly to \n\n\n304 \n\n\n\nTHE ART OF LIFE \n\n\n305 \n\n\nhim. From concentrated attention and effort upon that specific and narrowed \ngoal, he is far more likely to make headway, than from vague, diffusive, or spas\u00ac \nmodic bursts of energy. If the particular quality chosen is one that the beginner \nknows to be especially lacking in himself, has he not in that void a special in\u00ac \ncentive towards truly creative work ? Is he, for instance, too easily thrown out \nof balance by unexpected incidents, however trivial? Let him take, then, the \npeace and serenity of a Master as his goal. Does he shrink from the open \nridicule or half concealed whispers of acquaintances who are suspicious of his \nnew turn in the road? Let him hold steadily before his mind\u2019s eye the superb \nmoral courage, the utter fearlessness of the Western Avatar, serenely going up to \nJerusalem to meet certain torture and a felon\u2019s shameful death. Or, does he \nfind a moving appeal in the life of one less exalted than a Master, some historical \ncharacter whose career is conspicuous for sacrifice of self to heroic principles, a \nJeanne D\u2019Arc, a Francis of Assisi, a Roland, or a Washington? Not that he is \nlimited to history for his inspiration and models: imaginative literature, whether \nor not based upon actual events, can supply almost inexhaustible examples of \nnoble and heroic achievement. Tennyson\u2019s King Arthur, and Hawthorne\u2019s boy, \nErnest (in the story of The Great Stone Face), and many a character and incident \nin the volumes of Kipling, Scott, or Bulwer, are a few from a host of examples. \n\nHaving recognized an ideal, and recognized it as something far greater than \noneself, one must guard against thinking of it as so remote as to be almost in\u00ac \naccessible. We need to remind ourselves again and again that the ideal is at \nhand, and, like the Kingdom of Heaven, is within us. \u201cLook within\u2014thou art \nBuddha\u2019 , says the Eastern wisdom. That a man admires the selfless devotion \nof a King Arthur is proof that that same devotion is already in him, latent and \npotential\u2014how else could he admire it in another? The serenity which in \nhours of turmoil he longs for, is already his\u2014buried as a seedling in the earth\u2014 \nneeding but to be brought to growth and exfoliation to blossom finally in the \nactual. And so with moral courage and any other virtue in the gamut of good \nqualities. \n\nThe moment an individual begins to desire a particular thing, he begins to \nbrood upon it; and (as has so often been said) what we permit our attention to \nfeed upon, that, in the course of time, we inevitably become. This is a mental \nand moral law impossible to gainsay. The faces of men and women, their very \nwalk and carriage and voice, are infallible proof of its universality. \n\nBrooding over one\u2019s ideal, contemplation of it, leads naturally to action, to \nvirile efforts to bring it into incarnation. Here a new and startling discovery is \nsometimes made. The beginner may have imagined that to achieve his ideal he \nmust leave home and the humdrum duties of home, and travel perhaps to far-off \nplaces beyond the seas. Perhaps he was restrained with difficulty from re\u00ac \npudiating all natural ties and claims\u2014home, family and business. Better \nacquaintance with his ideal, however, carries him from day-dreams to manly \naction, and the reward of honest effort is the discovery that those far-off seas \nand imknown shores await him in his own cellar, attic, and back yard. The \nIndflBid Tibet of opportunity lie open for his taking\u2014right in that office or \n\n\n306 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nclass-room where clamorous demands seemed to alienate him hopelessly from \nhis real quest\u2014in that home where for years he has obstinately refused to give \ncourteous attention and affectionate interest to the needs of others. Amazed, \nhe now discovers that his quest lies through \u201cthe trivial round, the common \ntask\u201d. Opportunities for the accomplishment of his first great task, the re\u00ac \npudiation of self, are thick around him; he will find no new and large ones until \nhe uses the many which are thrust upon him every hour of his days and nights, \nbegging him to act and to act at once. \n\n\u201cThe repudiation of self\u201d is a brief and simple phrase, but really to do it is a \nlong and arduous task, the most arduous that a man can undertake, and, conse\u00ac \nquently, not without periods of discouragement. However, for all phases of that \nlife-long struggle against self\u2014that something of the Great Self may incarnate\u2014 \nthere is no lack of instruction and encouragement. Poets and philosophers, as \nwell as Avatars and saints, have written words to hearten us on our way. \n\nWe cannot kindle when we will \nThe fire which in the heart resides; \n\nThe spirit bloweth and is still, \n\nIn mystery our soul abides. \n\nBut tasks in hours of insight will\u2019d \nCan be through hours of gloom fulfill'd. \n\nIf we persist honestly in our determination, we become aware of companions, \nfellow-soldiers in that spiritual warfare. It is not a lone fight that a man wages, \nnor is he an isolated unit threatened by an encompassing universe of hostility. \nMen, brothers, are at his side, the noblest of the earth. Still others, greater than \nthese, make up the exhilarating companionship that marches toward the goal of \nlife. For the \u201cspirits of just men made perfect\u201d, those who have, in some degree, \nconsummated their work\u2014great and magnanimous artists\u2014join themselves to \nthe novices of this Way. However rough the road and dark the night, however \nsuffocating the pressure that hems us in, it is they who guide us along this \u201cnarrow \npath\u201d of the Art of Life, which leads to the Eternal. \n\nR.H.B. \n\n\nOf nothing may we be more sure than this: that if we cannot sanctify our presen \nlot , we could sanctify no other. Our heaven and our Almighty Father are there or \nnowhere. The obstructions of that lot are given us to heave away by the concurrent \ntouch of a holy spirit , and labour of strenuous will; its gloom for us to tint with \nsome celestial light; its mysteries are for our worship; its sorrows for our trust; its \nperils for our courage; its temptations for our faith. Soldiers of the Cross , it is \nnot for us, but for our Leader and our Lord , to choose the field; it is ours , taking \nthe station which He assigns , to make it the field of truth and honour , though it be \nthe field of death .\u2014 J. Martineau. \n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\nT HE Historian had been asked what he thought of the situation in \nEurope. We had been discussing the effect of war upon business con\u00ac \nditions in America, and had agreed that although this country would \ngo to almost any lengths to remain neutral, it would be difficult, if not im\u00ac \npossible, for the Government to maintain such an attitude for long. Before \nthe Historian could answer our question, a visitor arrived, and it seemed only \ncourteous to tell him the drift of our conversation. It became evident at once \nthat he was an ardent Pacifist. \u201cNever again\u201d, he said, \u201cshould America be\u00ac \ncome involved in war. War is inherently evil. We should maintain friendly \nrelations with our neighbours, thanking God that the Atlantic and Pacific \nOceans keep the rest of the world at a safe distance.\u201d \n\n\u201cForgive me\u201d, the Philosopher commented, \u201cbut are you not making some \nquestionable assumptions? War, you say, is inherently evil; but if Japan \nwere to land an army on the West Coast and were to destroy San Francisco, \nand were then to march her army toward the Rockies, would you say that the \narmed effort of this country to throw the Japanese into the Pacific would be \nevil? Would you advocate a policy of non-resistance?\u201d \n\n\u201cThe Japanese know better than to attempt such a thing\u201d, was the reply. \n\u201cBut you are not answering my question.\u201d \n\n\u201cThere is no need. Your question is based upon an impossibility.\u201d \n\n\u201cThat, too, is an assumption. Huxley, perhaps the greatest of the Ag\u00ac \nnostics, laid it down that \u2018nothing is impossible except a contradiction in \nterms\u2019. I must maintain, therefore, that the only factor which might make a \nJapanese invasion impossible would be the ability of the American fleet to sink \nthe Japanese fleet and the transports conveying the Japanese army of in\u00ac \nvasion. Would you object to that? It would mean, of course, the death of a \nhundred thousand Japanese or so, but, as against that, saving the lives of \nmore than a hundred thousand peace-loving Americans like yourself. Would \nyou object to that? Would the act of the American navy be \u2018inherently \nevil\u2019?\u201d \n\n\u201cI can only repeat\u201d, replied our visitor, \u201cthat you are postulating some\u00ac \nthing that is fundamentally inconceivable.\u201d \n\n\u201cI am sorry, but if you cannot conceive of it, I can. So, I believe, could \nmost people. Allow me, however, to ask you another question. Can you con\u00ac \nceive of an invasion of France by Germany,\u2014and, before you reply, let me \nremind you that such a thing has happened.\u201d \n\n\u201cI can conceive of it\u201d, was the reply; \u201cbut to be able to conceive of an event \ndoes not imply the probability of its occurrence.\u201d \n\n\u201cFortunately\u201d, smiled the Philosopher, \u201cthe question of probability is not \ninvolved. I am glad you can conceive of the repetition of an invasion. Now \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3\u00b08 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nmay I ask: would it be inherently evil or wrong of France to use armed force \nto repel the invaders?\u201d \n\n\u201cThere will never be any peace in the world\u201d, said our visitor, \u201cuntil the \nnations disarm.\u201d \n\n\u201cThat is not an answer to my question; but let me ask you this: do you \nthink there would be no fighting in Spain to-day if neither side had cannon?\u201d \n\n\u201cHow could they fight if they had no deadly weapons?\u201d \n\n\u201cThere is always the family carving-knife\u201d, suggested the Philosopher \nmildly; \u201cand what is good enough for the family pig is likely to come in handy \nagainst a neighbour. Have you ever seen two unarmed men fight, not accord\u00ac \ning to Queensberry or any other rules, but with naked hands, trying to gouge \nout one another\u2019s eyes? I have, and I should have vastly preferred to see them \nfighting with swords or revolvers or bombs, while a fight at long range, with \nrifles or cannon, would have been humane\u2014positively refined\u2014in comparison.\u201d \n\nThe Philosopher is patient, and his whole tone and manner had been polite \nthroughout; but our visitor\u2019s refusal to meet the problem squarely and honestly \nhad become exasperating, so there was sharpness in the statement that fol\u00ac \nlowed. \u201cThe trouble with you is that you have lived all your life under the \nprotection of an Irish policeman, whose revolver is not visible, though it is \nthere to be used just the same. You do not realize that you are alive to-day \nsolely because of that other man\u2019s readiness to draw, shoot, and kill. You \nlive in a world of utter illusion, refusing to look at any fact which is not pleas\u00ac \nant and which does not fit into your theory of things as they \u2018ought\u2019 to be. \nYou are typical of Pacifists the world over.\u201d \n\nAs usual, after a discussion of this sort, our visitor remained of the same \nopinion still. It was evident that his views were based, not upon reason or \nexperience, but solely upon emotional preferences. Hating the idea of war, \nboth for himself and his children, war forthwith became for him an inexcus\u00ac \nable evil, regardless of the motive which prompted it. His fear of it being \ninfinitely greater than his respect for facts, he did not even have to shake these \noff him: they fell off him, as water from a duck\u2019s back. He had, indeed, \nreached the point at which facts, in this connection, no longer irritated him; \nhe smiled at them as one smiles at some childish notion long since discarded. \n\nMost people are like that in some direction or another. All of us live in a \nworld of illusion; a few know it; the majority, within the universal illusion, \nbuild around them a cocoon of cultivated, carefully conserved illusions, to pro\u00ac \ntect themselves against the unpleasantness of the larger unreality. They \nseem to find this less trouble (for man, though frenziedly busy, is fundamentally \ninert) than forcing their way through the surface of things to the underlying \ntruth\u2014to the beauty and joy and promise which appearances conceal. \n\nWe did not say this, however, to our visitor; it would have been useless. \nNo man is past praying for; but he was one of the many who are past any \nother manner of approach. So we reminded the Historian of our original ques\u00ac \ntion: what did he think of the situation in Europe? \n\n\u201cYou might as well ask me what I think of the weather\u201d, was his response. \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n309 \n\n\n\u201cNaturally I have an opinion as to to-day\u2019s weather, just as you have; but this \nis August, and the Quarterly will not appear until October. To-day is sul\u00ac \ntry, threatening, suffocatingly hot; by the time the merciless and, at this mo\u00ac \nment, perspiring Recorder turns in his \u2018copy\u2019, he may be shivering in a gale \nof icy wind, with hailstones as big as cherries hurtling at him, amidst ear- \nsplitting thunder and appalling lightning; on the other hand it may be a bright \nautumn day, with the wind set for fair. Like the present weather, the situa\u00ac \ntion in Europe changes with disconcerting rapidity, and although matters \nseem to be going from bad to worse, anyone who attempted to forecast a \nmonth ahead, would write himself down an ignoramus. Meanwhile, the effort \nof the Lodge, as I interpret it, is to force each nation to show its hand, to re\u00ac \nveal its real nature and aims. I believe, in other words, not so much because, \nas in spite of the Great Pyramid-plus-Bible interpreters, that we are approach\u00ac \ning a Judgment of the Nations,\u2014not a final Judgment, but something re\u00ac \nsembling a cyclic stock-taking. Even this country, which seems to care for \nnothing except its own material comfort, which seems to seek nothing except \n\u2018prosperity\u2019, may not be hopelessly damned. Events might easily arouse its \nsomnolent manhood, and might, in time, free it from its prevailing Pacifist, \nmaterialistic obsessions. Instead of feeding themselves on glittering generali\u00ac \nties, Americans might be forced to think \u2014though I suspect it would need a \nrain of bombs from the air on New York and Washington, to bring this about. \nHowever, such things might happen.\u201d \n\n\u201cTo what kind of \u2018glittering generalities\u2019 do you refer?\u201d someone asked. \n\n\u201cThis morning\u2019s paper supplies at least one illustration of what I mean. \nThere is a heading: \u2018Text of Roosevelt Letter to Labor\u2019. The letter contains \nthis paragraph: \n\nI am certain that you and your associates are coming to Washington to join in \na thorough consideration of the vital issues of the time, and to consider how best to co\u00ac \noperate in the great task of promoting national progress and of enlarging the sphere of \nhuman rights through democracy of opportunity. \n\n\u201cIf the words italicized are not a glittering but quite meaningless generality, \nplease tell me what they mean. Labour is said to have been delighted with \nthem, as with similar expressions in the same letter,\u2014such as, \u2018seeking new \nmeans for the restoration of equality of opportunity\u2019, and, \u2018the restoration \nand preservation of human liberty and human rights\u2019. If an ordinary poli\u00ac \ntician, instead of the President of the United States, had enunciated those \nsentiments, one could imagine him saying to himself, with immense satisfac\u00ac \ntion: \u2018That will tickle them; it sounds as if it might mean a lot; but no one will \nbe able to hold me to anything; they can read all the meanings they choose \ninto it.\u2019 Incidentally\u2014although this is not my point\u2014there is much in that \nletter about human rights, and not a single reference to human duties; yet all \nof the world\u2019s great men have declared, and all of history proves, that the \nperformance of a duty is the only possible justification for the assertion of a \nrighti^Xhus, no man has a right to a day\u2019s pay until he has done his duty, \nuntil l^has done a day\u2019s work. It is a principle of universal application. \n\n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n310 \n\n\u201cWhat, again, is the meaning of \u2018democracy of opportunity\u2019? A phrase \nwithout a meaning, so far as I can make out! Democracy means, \u2018govern\u00ac \nment by the people\u2019; but how can the people control opportunity? Nature \nwill have none of it. One man is bom blind; one has a strong body, his neigh\u00ac \nbour a weak one; one has a good brain in a sound body, but a weak will, while \nanother (like Darwin) has a good brain in a sickly body, and revolutionizes \nhuman thought. Is character something that can be legislated into a man? \nI could keep a whole Legislature busy on mine, if that would do me any good! \n\n\u201cTheosophy, of course, goes into the problem more deeply than that, by \nshowing how man creates his own opportunities; but a modicum of thinking \nshould be sufficient to show the emptiness of such words as \u2018democracy of \nopportunity\u2019. None the less, not only the American mob, but a large section \nof the American \u2018intelligentzia\u2019, loves and is bewitched by cant of that kind,\u2014 \nthe more vacuous, the more impressive.\u2019\u2019 \n\n\u201cThere was a delightful instance of that the other day\u201d, commented the \nStudent, \u201cin the New York Times , which publishes daily a signed review of \nsome book which is likely to be read by people of the reviewer\u2019s immediate \ncircle. The book reviewed was The People , Yes , \u2018a magnificent poem\u2019 (accord\u00ac \ning to the reviewer) by Carl Sandburg: \u2018a great and moving affirmation of the \nsort that could have come only out of America, a statement, in free verse \nforms, of much that America has stood for and stands for. It is a vast metric \ndemocratic vista . . . poetry of a vital, stirring American sort.\u2019 One is led to \nthink of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and perhaps, in another cate\u00ac \ngory, of Poe, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell and others. \n\n\u201cNow for the reviewer\u2019s demonstration, his proof: he quotes a verse from \nthis \u2018magnificent poem\u2019. Here it is; I cut it out: \n\nHaven\u2019t the people gone on and on \nalways taking more of their own? \n\nHow can the orders of the day \nbe against the people in this time? \n\nWhat can stop them from taking \nmore and more of their own?\u201d \n\nSome of us gasped; then we laughed,\u2014the \u201cverse\u201d was such an anti-climax \nto the praise. \n\n\u201cInspiring, isn\u2019t it?\u201d \n\n\u201cVery much so\u201d, the Philosopher unexpectedly agreed. \u201cJust a second, \nand I\u2019ll be inspired to compose some more.\u201d Then, in a deep voice with a \nsort of wail in it, he declaimed: \n\nOh the people, the people, pouring out of their homes for the movies, the movies, \n\nLike smoke belched from the chimneys of a factory town, \n\nA beastly factory town with smoke-belching chimneys, black and sooty chimneys. \n\nPouring up to the frost-bitten sky, the aquamarine sky, \n\nEver-moving, like the movies, the movies; \n\nThe People, Yes; the great American people, \n\nEver struggling for freedom, nobly struggling for freedom, at the movies.\u201d \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n3 \u201d \n\n\n\u201cIf you were to recite that at a political meeting, you\u2019d bring the house \ndown\u201d, laughed the Historian. \n\n\u201cWhat kind of political meeting?\u201d \n\n\u201cAny kind\u201d, was the reply, \u201cthough university \u2018parlour Bolshies\u2019 would be \nespecially enraptured. They would think it was something of Carl Sand\u00ac \nburg\u2019s very own, presumably unpublished, perhaps in his \u2018earlier manner\u2019.\u201d \n\n\u201cHas the New York Times no editor?\u201d someone asked sardonically. \n\nOne of the editors of the Quarterly was present, and the question appeared \nto worry him. \n\n\u201cYou cannot expect an editor to censor everything\u201d, he said; and he would \nhave added more, but the Recorder, who wanted to get back to the main sub\u00ac \nject, signed to him to wait for a chance later. The editor, by his silence, ac\u00ac \nquiesced ; whereupon the Englishman spoke up: \n\n\u201cI agree with the Historian in principle\u201d, he said, \u201cbut I like to note redeem\u00ac \ning features; and they exist in this country as in most. The other day I drove \nbehind a car with these words painted in red on its rear end: \u2018Step on it \nBuddy. Hell is only half full.\u2019 Bright idea,\u2014what? Too many accidents \nand all that sort of thing.\u201d \n\n\u201cBut you had no business to see the joke\u201d, expostulated the Student, with \nmock indignation (they are very good friends). \u201cEnglishmen are notoriously \ndeficient in a sense of humour.\u201d \n\n\u201cSad but true\u201d, the other replied. \u201cIt is notorious. But I did not suggest \nthat I saw the joke quite as you did.\u201d \n\n\u201cScore\u201d, muttered the Scotchman. \n\nIn response to a mute appeal from the Recorder, the Historian now resumed \nhis theme. \u201cThe subject of \u2018glittering generalities\u2019 \u201d, he said, \u201cwas a digres\u00ac \nsion, to which I must plead guilty. I had been saying that in my opinion \nthere is hope, even for America, in what I believe to be the approaching Judg\u00ac \nment of the Nations. There is hope for England, because events may compel \nher to make up her mind. Prime Minister Baldwin has no policy, no pro\u00ac \ngramme; he is waiting to see what will happen. He hesitates, because England \nhesitates,\u2014most Englishmen seeming to feel \u2018safer\u2019 under Mr. Baldwin\u2019s \nleadership than they would if, unlike themselves, he knew his own mind. Be\u00ac \ncause policy is no longer based upon principle, there is confusion everywhere^ \nabout everything. France is a house divided against itself. The present gov\u00ac \nernment, headed by a Jew, is Socialistic, Masonic (which in France means \natheistic), and pro-Soviet,\u2014which throws the best and most intelligent of the \nFrench people into the arms of Fascist Italy. Wherever you look, next to an \nintense nationalism\u2014too often perverted to evil ends, as in Germany\u2014you \nfind that what divides the world are the opposing principles now being fought \nout in Spain. But the Judgment of the Nations will not be based upon the \nconflict between Left and Right, if only because, taking Russia and Germany \nas representative of the two extremes, both are equally wrong,\u2014are merely \nopmite aspects of the same evil spirit. The real issue is and ever will be: to \nwh^is each nation devoted in its heart ? To Comfort, or Power, or to \u2018envy, \n\n\n312 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nhatred, and malice\u2019, or to the preservation of its own material existence,\u2014or \nto God? And events must bring that issue to the surface, must make it para\u00ac \nmount, if, as I believe, the time for judgment is at hand. Once more, I do \nnot mean the final judgment, although it is entirely possible that some na\u00ac \ntions, deservedly, will be wiped out of existence. Has not the same thing \nhappened before? What is left of Assyria, except her bones! \n\n\u2018My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. . . \n\n. . . Round the decay \nOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, \n\nThe lone and level sands stretch far away.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Won\u2019t you go into further detail about the probable alignment of the na\u00ac \ntions?\u201d the Student asked. \n\n\u2018\u2018That would be to attempt to judge them in advance\u201d, the Historian re\u00ac \nplied. \u2018\u2018You can read articles in dozens of magazines published in England \nand France, and in two or three published in America, which attempt to do \nthis. It is for us, as students of Theosophy, and on behalf of the Quarterly, \nto emphasize the basic principles at issue. Events will compel the nations \nto align themselves, some for God, some for the devil, in obedience to the domi\u00ac \nnant motive of each. When an Avatar incarnates, \u2018the thoughts of many \nhearts\u2019 are revealed, and certain crises or turning-points in the cyclic progress \nof the world, have a similar effect on nations. My belief is that we are rapidly \napproaching such a crisis. It was pointed out not many days ago in the Wall \nStreet Journal , that for the first time in history as known to us, men are fighting \nagainst religion as such ,\u2014in Spain to-day; yesterday in Russia.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018Do you suppose that the Lodge will take any part outwardly in what you \nspeak of as the Judgment of the Nations?\u201d asked a younger student. \n\n\u2018\u2018Impossible to say; even if it did, there is not much likelihood that any but \nthe few would recognize its intervention. Lord Kitchener was a Lodge instru\u00ac \nment (notice, please, that I do not say or mean, agent), who saved Europe \nfrom destruction\u2014saved civilization from barbarism; but even his admirers \ndid not guess what lay behind his impenetrable mask. Envious politicians, \nsuch as Lloyd George, worked incessantly for his downfall, and would have \nsucceeded if his elder brothers in the Lodge, outraged and indignant, had not \ncalled him home through the easy and welcome way of death. The world\u2019s \ndebt to King Albert of Belgium, and, later, to Clemenceau, was incalculable, \nfor how could the war have been won without them! But in those two cases \nthe world, at least in some degree, recognizes its debt, while, in the case of \nKitchener, his slanderers and detractors have succeeded in disparaging him to \nan extent which it will take years to counteract.\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018You amaze me!\u201d said the same younger student. \u2018T have never thought \nof Kitchener in that light. Please tell me why you think he was an instru\u00ac \nment of the Lodge.\u201d \n\n\u201cI cannot give you all my reasons\u201d, was the reply; \u2018\u2018but his entire life sug\u00ac \ngests it. Obviously, from first to last, he was \u2018a man of destiny\u2019,\u2014was being \nprepared for the supreme service he rendered. His brief experience of the \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n3i3 \n\n\nFranco-Prussian war in 1870; his early days in Palestine, Cyprus, Egypt; \nlater in the Sudan, and as Commander-in-Chief in India, finally in Egypt again\u2014 \nall combined to give him an experience, both inner and outer, without which \nit would have been almost impossible for him to achieve what he did between \nAugust, 1914, and June, 1916, when he was drowned on the \u2018Hampshire\u2019. Al\u00ac \nways, and with ever-increasing clearness, he sensed the responsibility that \nlay ahead of him. It was his duty, while commanding in India, to prepare \nfor a possible attack by Russia; but even then, as his letters show, he was \nmaking the Indian position ready for the war he knew would be precipitated \nby Germany in Europe. I say he \u2018knew\u2019 it, because, in a sense, he was told \nsuch things interiorly. Some people who worked with him received the im\u00ac \npression that he was a slow thinker, or that he was unduly reticent, or that \nhe was \u2018uncanny\u2019 if not \u2018queer\u2019. The explanation is that he was always strug\u00ac \ngling to \u2018bring through\u2019, into the front of his mind, the perception which had \nbeen given him from within, and that he concealed this effort with a mask of \nimpassivity. He was guided and knew that he was guided,\u2014although it was \nnot until after his death, I think, that he understood fully the mystery of his \n\u2018double consciousness\u2019. Most people would say that it was his extraordinary \npopularity and organizing ability which enabled him to get, first, 100,000 men \nwithin a fortnight, and then, within a year, 2,000,000 men to join the British \narmy. But they cannot explain his prevision on any such basis as that. He \nalone among the military leaders of Europe, foresaw that the war would last \nfor at least three years, as he announced to a sceptical Cabinet at the first \nmeeting he attended as Secretary of State for War. Certain of this, he acted \naccordingly, refusing to send to the front, men whom he needed to train the \nnew armies he had set out to create. Sir John French, Sir Henry Wilson, even \nJoffre and Foch protested that the war must be over in a few months; that \nnew armies could not possibly be prepared in time to be of use, and that every \navailable man should be sent over immediately. Kitchener was immovable; \nhe knew; the others did not. He would send more than the number of men \nFrance had been promised, but he would not win battles at the cost of losing \nthe war, and the millions he was determined to raise and train would be needed \nif ever the war were to be won. \n\n\u201cThen, Sir John French, Wilson, Sir Archibald Murray all insisted, in ac\u00ac \ncord with Joffre, that the British Expeditionary Force should concentrate at \nMaubeuge. Kitchener declared Maubeuge to be too far forward, and favoured \nAmiens instead. Wilson, in his deplorable diary, relates that on August 12th, \nhe, Sir John French, Murray, and three French officers, met in Kitchener\u2019s \nroom at the War Office. \u2018There we wrangled with K. for three hours. K. \nwanted to go to Amiens. ... He still thinks the Germans are coming north \nof the Meuse in great force, and will swamp us before we concentrate.\u2019 The \nquestion had to be referred to the Prime Minister, who felt obliged to support \nthe majority opinion against Kitchener\u2019s. The British army, therefore, con\u00ac \ncent at Maubeuge, was pushed as far forward as it could go, and nar- \n\nrowly^caped annihilation in the course of its heroic retreat after the battle \n\n\n314 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nof Mons. Kitchener, who had been absent from Europe for many years, with \nno opportunity to study the question with either the French or English General \nStaff, had \u2018divined\u2019 the German plan of envelopment,\u2014the events of the fol\u00ac \nlowing week proving that he had been right, and that the commanders of the \nEnglish and French armies had not only been wrong, but had been wholly un\u00ac \nprepared for what happened. He knew; the others did not. Yet he never \nreproached them for this; never claimed credit for his foresight.\u201d \n\n\u201cBut you said that he had saved Europe.\u201d \n\n\u201cI did. In the case I have just cited, he was not allowed to save the British \nExpeditionary Force from the disasters of its initial retreat; but he was al\u00ac \nlowed, shortly afterwards, to prevent the betrayal of our Allies, the occupa\u00ac \ntion of Paris by the Germans, and action which would have made impossible \nthe Allied Victory of the Marne, without which, Germany undoubtedly would \nhave won the war.\u201d \n\n\u201cHow did he do that?\u201d \n\n\u201cHe did it by vetoing, on September ist, 1914, the decision of Sir John \nFrench to withdraw the British army from the fighting line, and to make a \ndefinite and prolonged retreat, regardless of the needs of the French armies.\u201d \n\n\u201cI had forgotten that\u201d, said the younger student. \u201cAre the facts on record?\u201d \n\n\u201cCertainly they are\u201d, the Historian replied. Then, turning to the Recorder, \nhe asked: \u201cHave you Sir George Arthur\u2019s Life of Lord Kitchener within easy \nreach?\u201d Supplied with this, he continued, after a moment\u2019s search: \u201cIn the \nthird volume, chapter ninety-seven, you will find all the particulars. Kitchener \nfirst heard of Sir John\u2019s decision from General Robb, the Inspector-General \nof Communications in France. In reply to Kitchener\u2019s urgent inquiry, Sir \nJohn telegraphed: \u2018I have decided to begin my retirement to-morrow in the \nmorning behind the Seine in a south-westerly direction west of Paris. This \nmeans marching for some eight days. . . .\u2019 Sir John followed this with a \nletter in which he said: \u2018I have been pressed very hard to remain, even in \nmy shattered condition, in the fighting line; but I have absolutely refused to \ndo so, and I hope you will approve of the course I have taken\u2019. \n\n\u201cKitchener\u2019s self-control in these circumstances was extraordinary. General \nSir Ian Hamilton, who knew him well, wrote of him that although he was \n\u2018Impassive as a rock in appearance, he was really a bundle of sensitive and \nhighly-strung nerves kept under control 999 hours out of 1000 by an iron will\u2019. \nYet, instead of giving vent to his indignation, as he might well have done, he \ntelegraphed to Sir John: \u2018I am surprised at your decision to retire behind the \nSeine. Please let me know, if you can, all your reasons for this move. What \nwill be the effect of this course upon your relations with the French Army and \non the general military situation? Will your retirement leave a gap in the \nFrench line or cause them discouragement [Kitchener knew well that both re\u00ac \nsults would follow], of which the Germans might take advantage to carry out \ntheir first programme of first crushing the French, and then being free to at\u00ac \ntack Russia?\u2019 \n\n\u201cSir John\u2019s reply only reiterated his reasons for the independent retreat \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n3i5 \n\n\nwhich Kitchener regarded as intolerable, knowing, as Sir George Arthur says, \nthat the mere appearance of deserting the French when their troops were giv\u00ac \ning ground to the invader and Paris was threatened, would be an irreparable \ndisaster. Most fortunately, on this occasion, the Prime Minister and the \nCabinet supported Kitchener, who decided to cross the Channel immediately \nand to see Sir John in person. They met at the British Embassy in Paris, \nat first in the presence of the Ambassador, and of Millerand and Viviani. Ac\u00ac \ncording to Arthur Hodges, in his recent book, Lord Kitchener \u2014which is recom\u00ac \nmended both by Field-Marshal Sir William Birdwood and by Sir George \nArthur\u2014Sir John obstinately adhered to his previous determination. The \nFrenchmen then suggested that Kitchener and Sir John should see Joffre. \nSir John objected. Kitchener then asked for a private room in which he and \nSir John could talk together alone. What happened in that room is not known. \nThe fate of Europe was at stake, and Kitchener knew it. According to \nHodges, the result of this private interview was that Sir John left the room \n\u2018subdued, sobered and obedient\u2019. What we know is that Kitchener wrote to \nSir John that evening (September 1st), saying he had telegraphed to the Cabi\u00ac \nnet in London that Sir John\u2019s \u2018troops are now engaged in the fighting line, \nwhere he will remain conforming to the movements of the French army\u2019, and \nthat Kitchener, to avoid any possibility of misunderstanding, concluded his \nletter by saying: \u2018Please consider it [the decision conveyed in the telegram] \nas an instruction \u2019. Four days later (September 5th), the Battle of the Marne \nwas begun,\u2014the British army in the fighting line, an essential link in the Allied \nchain. All authorities are agreed\u2014German included\u2014that the resulting vic\u00ac \ntory won the war. Am I not justified in saying that Kitchener saved Europe?\u201d \n\nThe rest of us had listened breathlessly to the Historian\u2019s recital. How it \nbrought back the agony of that time! None of these details were known then \n(save on the \u2018inside\u2019); but more than one of us had realized the danger almost \nas if the life of our dearest had been at stake. So we did not wait for the \nyounger student\u2019s assent, but agreed that the Historian had proved his case. \n\n\u2018\u2018I should like to understand better about Kitchener\u201d, someone now said. \n\u2018\u2018Do you mean that he was conscious of his Lodge connection?\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018I think he was one of those incarnations, not infrequent in history, of a \nchela of the Lodge who sacrifices, during the whole or the greater part of that \nlifetime, much of his awareness of the Lodge, in order to do some special work \nin the world. He leaves behind him, as it were, some of his spiritual attainments, \ncertain strata of his consciousness, partly because these would hinder rather than \naid him in the fulfilment of his mission, partly because the Karma of his nation \nand of the world would not justify the outer participation of a fully conscious \nch\u00a3la in positions such as Kitchener occupied. The same principle applies to a \nfew of the Christian saints: they could not have accomplished what they did if \nthey had been aware, during incarnation, of their Lodge connection; their \npersonal consciousness had to be coloured by orthodox conceptions. \n\n\u201cfcHtchener was remarkable in many ways. It was said, after his campaign \nin tlwfcudan, that women completely lost their heads over him. He received \n\n\n\n\n\n\n316 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ninnumerable letters from that source. He would not read them, but turned \nthem over to a friend to bum, with instructions to make sure first that there \nwas nothing of importance in them. Hodges quotes Lord Edward Cecil as \nsaying of this that Kitchener \u2018placed women on a far higher level than is usual \nin these days, and it really hurt him to see or hear anything which touched \nhis ideal\u2019. He had warm friends among women, the old Marchioness of Salis\u00ac \nbury, with whom he constantly corresponded, among them; but, for him, \naffection was impossible without respect, and his standards were both high \nand exacting. \n\n\u201cI wonder how many of you remember the message he sent to the rank and \nfile of the Expeditionary Force before its departure for France in August, \n1914. He must have been overwhelmed with work, but he made time, none \nthe less, to draft this message with his own hand: \n\n(This paper is to be considered by each soldier as confidential , and to be kept in his Active \nService Pay Book.) \n\nYou are ordered abroad as a soldier of the King to help our French comrades against \nthe invasion of a common Enemy. You have to perform a task which will need your \ncourage, your energy, your patience. Remember that the honour of the British Army \ndepends on your individual conduct. It will be your duty not only to set an example of \ndiscipline and perfect steadiness under fire, but also to maintain the most friendly rela\u00ac \ntions with those whom you are helping in this struggle. The operations in which you \nare engaged will, for the most part, take place in a friendly country, and you can do your \nown country no better service than in showing yourself in France and Belgium in the \ntrue character of a British soldier. \n\nBe invariably courteous, considerate, and kind. Never do anything likely to injure or \ndestroy property, and always look upon looting as a disgraceful act. You are sure to \nmeet with a welcome and to be trusted; your conduct must justify that welcome and that \ntrust. Your duty cannot be done unless your health is sound. So keep constantly on \nyour guard against any excesses. In this new experience you may find temptations both \nin wine and women. You must entirely resist both temptations, and, while treating all \nwomen with perfect courtesy, you should avoid any intimacy. \n\nDo your duty bravely. \n\nFear God. \n\nHonour the King. \n\nKitchener, \n\nF ield-Marshal. \n\n\u201cAll his life, Kitchener had practised what he now preached. Not often, \nif ever, in history, do you find advice of that kind given by an outstanding \nmilitary leader to his troops. \n\n\u201cHe had purity in the occult sense also. Sir George Arthur\u2014a man of wide \nexperience, who \u2018knew everybody\u2019, and who acted as Kitchener\u2019s Private \nSecretary at the War Office from 1914 to 1916\u2014writes that the masses, usu\u00ac \nally suspicious of prominent soldiers, regarded him as \u2018supremely trustworthy \nbecause supremely selfless \u2019. The same authority says of him: \u2018No one could \nleave his company without the impression of a personality majestically soli\u00ac \ntary in an inexplicable distinction\u2019. The natives of India used to say of him: \n4 He should be a King\u2019.\u201d \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n3i7 \n\n\n\u201c \u2018Let us talk of great men\u2019,\u201d quoted the Philosopher. \u2018\u2018What a delight it \nis. Please go on. More than ever do we need it in this day of pygmies.\u201d \n\nSaid the younger student: \u2018\u2018I agree that you have proved your case, which \nwas, that Kitchener had saved Europe; but the\u2019facts you have recited, while \nof intense interest, might be accounted for, I think, on the basis of extraordi\u00ac \nnary but entirely normal military foresight. What did he do which would \nsuggest supernormal guidance?\u201d \n\n\u2018\u2018You must remember\u201d, the Historian replied, \u2018\u2018that those early days of the \nwar, before Kitchener had raised, armed and trained his millions, and before \ntrench warfare had stabilized the situation, were immensely critical. Until \nthe end of 1914, an extra Division of British troops, thrown into the fighting \nline at the right moment , made all the difference. I have mentioned already \nthat Kitchener, resisting the urgent entreaties of Sir John French, of Joffre \nand Foch, to send over every available man immediately, took the stand that \nhe must keep enough of all ranks in England to train the new armies he was \ncreating, and, at first, to enable him to deal with any attempt by the Germans \nto land an invading force on the English coast. Meanwhile, however, he was \ndesperately anxious to reinforce Sir John in so far as that was wise and pos\u00ac \nsible, and was replacing regular British troops, stationed in India, Malta, \nEgypt, China, Singapore and other British possessions, either with native \ntroops from India, or with untrained Territorials from England. \n\n\u2018\u2018In reply to a cry of distress from Sir John during the retreat from Mons, \nKitchener wrote him (August 27th): \n\nBut pray do not increase my troubles by the thought that if the [Sixth] Division had \nbeen with you, some of your men\u2019s lives might have been saved. Do remember that we \nshall have to go through much more fighting before we are out of the war, and that by \nprematurely putting all our eggs in one basket we might incur far greater losses. Believe \nme, had I been consulted on military matters during the last three years [as Sir John \nhad been], I would have done everything in my power to prevent the present state of \naffairs in which this country finds itself. \n\n\u2018\u2018What I am leading up to is that the greatest military genius could not \nhave foreseen the successive crises which occurred, nor have arranged that re\u00ac \ninforcements should reach Sir John, in a seemingly miraculous way, at times \nwhen they made all the difference. Thus, the Fourth Division arrived in time \nto prevent disaster at the battle of Le Cateau, while, as Sir George Arthur \nsays, if the Sixth Division had been despatched immediately after the Fourth, \nthey would only have been involved in the retreat, and more or less crippled, \nwithout materially affecting the issue; instead of which they arrived fresh on \nthe scene and contributed greatly to the success of operations at the battle \nof the Marne. Even more striking was Kitchener\u2019s provision of the Seventh \nto turn the scale against the German onslaught at the first battle of Ypres. \nThe British Government wanted to keep this Division in England for \nHome Defence. No one, by ordinary means, could possibly have foreseen the \ndire at Ypres. My thesis is that there were those in the Lodge who did \nfores\u00aeit, and that they were able to impress Kitchener with their foreknowl- \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n318 \n\nedge. Acting on this, he finally succeeded, though with considerable difficulty, \nin \u2018squeezing\u2019 this extra division from the Government ('squeezing\u2019 is Arthur\u2019s \nterm), without which\u2014and I again quote Arthur\u2014\u2018Ypres would almost cer\u00ac \ntainly have fallen into the enemy\u2019s hands, Dunkirk must have been let go, \nand Calais itself could scarcely have been saved\u2019. \n\n\u201cI am convinced that if, after Kitchener had raised the new armies and \nhad completed his arrangements for the production of the guns and ammunition \nwhich the new armies would require, he had been placed in command of the \narmies in the field, and had been given a free hand without interference by the \npoliticians,\u2014he would have brought the war to a victorious end before his \nestimate of three years had been exceeded: that is, before September, 1917.\u201d \n\n\u201cThat would have been several months before America took part in the \nactual fighting, would it not?\u201d \n\n\u201cYes. The American marines were the first unit to take the aggressive,\u2014 \nat Ch&teau-Thierry (Belleau Wood) in June, 1918.\u201d \n\n\u201cWhich means\u201d, commented the Philosopher, \u201cthat if the Allies had won \nthe war by September, 1917, practically no American lives would have been \nlost in France; America would have had no opportunity to show what she \ncan do when she tries, and that, instead of the \u2018never again\u2019 attitude of to-day, \nthis country might almost be looking for a chance to prove that she is not \u2018too \nproud to fight\u2019!\u201d \n\n\u201cI want to reinforce my opinion that Kitchener, if given the chance, could \nhave won the war long before November, 1918\u201d, the Historian resumed. \u201cIf \nyou are sufficiently interested in the subject, let me refer you to the defence \nof Kitchener in Lord Birkenhead\u2019s Points of View , against the detestable Trag\u00ac \nedy of Lord Kitchener by Esher. Have you Birkenhead\u2019s book?\u201d When this \nwas produced, the Historian continued: \u201cSome of you may remember Lord \nBirkenhead better as F. E. Smith. He writes very moderately, evidently \nbeing a personal friend of most of those involved. This is the statement I \nhad in mind: \n\nLord Esher has himself recognized the fundamental truth in a passage which exposes \nthe unsoundness of many of his own conclusions: \u201cIf the conduct of the war had been \nplaced in his [Kitchener\u2019s] hands, if he had had from the first the help of a trained Gen\u00ac \neral Staff Officer of anything like the calibre of Sir Douglas Haig [evidently a pet of \nEsher\u2019s] ... he might have altered the course of the War, and ended it in 1916.\u201d \n\n\u201cThe point is that Kitchener had no Staff, was compelled to perform its \nproper functions as well as his own, and that, above all, his authority, in little \nas in big, was at the mercy of politicians, only a few of whom supported \nhim,\u2014the others either thinking they knew more about war than he did, or \nhating him for his popularity and because he stood in the path of their am\u00ac \nbition to shine as national saviours.\u201d \n\n\u201cWhat is known about Kitchener\u2019s religion?\u201d the younger student asked. \n\n\u201cHe was not communicative on that or on any other subject\u201d, the Historian \nreplied. \u2018\u2018It is known that while a very young man at the School of Military \nEngineering at Chatham, he was on intimate terms with one of the Instructors, \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n3 i 9 \n\n\nColonel Williams; that both of them were High Churchmen, and that Wil\u00ac \nliams, after Kitchener\u2019s death, wrote of him: \n\nHe was a practical and practising Churchman always, and at Chatham habitually \nobserved fast and festival\u2014the former none too easy a matter in a military mess. He \nwould whisper to me as we sat next one another, \u201cThis is a fast day; we must get hold of \nsomething we don\u2019t like.\u201d ... I am sure his real attitude towards the Church knew no \nchange. \n\n\u201cIn 1876, after his first visit to Palestine, he was enrolled in the Army Guild \nof the Holy Standard, of which he remained a member to the end of his life. \nSir George Arthur, who knew him in much later years, says,\u2014here is the \npassage: \n\n... It seemed as if a conflict between good and evil had been fought and decided in \nhis soul at some early stage of existence, as if in respect of so many things that matter so \nmuch to the man of the world, the prince of this world might come to him and find noth\u00ac \ning. . . . Christianity was to him not an attitude but an atmosphere\u2014and an atmos\u00ac \nphere wherein he could breathe freely, without stinting his admiration for the intensity \nof devotion which marks religion in that East, where so much of his manhood was spent. \n\n\u201cWhat he was in himself, aided, doubtless, by his long residence in the East, \nhis close contact with Oriental peoples, and by his command of several Oriental \nlanguages, made Kitchener, not a member of the Society, but a Theosophist \nin fact. In a book entitled These Men were Masons , it is said that he was \ninitiated into Freemasonry while in Egypt in 1883, and that, continuously \nactive as a Mason, he was \u2018exalted\u2019, several years later, into Royal Arch Ma\u00ac \nsonry, occupying positions which involved an immense amount of hard work \nin order to become proficient. In 1899, he became head of the Craft in Egypt. \nWhile Commander-in-Chief in India, out of the many Lodges there, he se\u00ac \nlected the Himalayan Brotherhood Lodge of Simla as his own, and in 1907 had \nthe unusual experience of initiating an Amir of Afghanistan into Masonry\u2014 \nthe Amir who remained, in spite of German intrigue, staunchly loyal to Eng\u00ac \nland throughout the Great War, largely, it is said, on account of his personal \nregard for, and sense of indebtedness to, Kitchener. It is interesting to note, \nby the way, that the Koran was used during the Amir\u2019s initiation. \n\n\u201cBut that is all of the surface,\u2014a pale reflection, at best, of his inner life. \nHe was a man of meditation and prayer, a mystic in the truest and deepest \nsense. .Often during the Great War, in the very early morning, he was to \nbe seen in Westminster Abbey, in the dim chapel behind Poet\u2019s Comer, \npraying. \n\n\u201cWith all this, he was a delightful host, entertaining lavishly at Simla and \nwhenever his position required him to do so. He was happier in his garden, \nworking and supervising, than anywhere else. He disliked a crowd, but al\u00ac \nways wanted friends with him. He keenly enjoyed humour, so long as it kept \nwithin the bounds of good taste. (Coarse men would have called him a prude, \nif they had dared).\u201d \n\n\u201cWhy did you lay such emphasis on the name of the Masonic Lodge he \njoined in Simla?\u201d \n\n\n320 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n\u201cBecause I think that most students of Theosophy will see the significance \nof its title,\u2014not, the Himalayan Lodge, but, the Himalayan Brotherhood \nLodge. Remember that when H.P.B. was in Simla in the early days of the \nSociety, the Great Lodge was usually referred to as the Himalayan Brother\u00ac \nhood. Kitchener\u2019s Masonic Lodge had been named after that Brotherhood, \nnot after the Himalayan mountains. Does not the fact of his joining it, when \nevery Lodge in India would have welcomed him, suggest that he knew what he \nwas doing, and why,\u2014that he believed in, if he did not positively know of, the \nexistence of the Lodge of Masters?\u201d \n\n\u201cHis critics say that he failed, with tragic consequences, to supply the Brit\u00ac \nish armies with the ammunition\u2014especially with the high explosive shells\u2014 \nwhich they so badly needed.\u201d \n\n\u201cA cruel and monstrous slander\u201d, the Historian replied. \u201cIt is too long a \nstory to tell this afternoon. I must refer you to the third volume of Arthur\u2019s \nLife , or to the inexpensive Kitchener: Soldier and Statesman , by S. Stuart \nStarritt. Briefly stated the facts are that when Kitchener was called to the \nWar Office in 1914, his first comment after he arrived there was: \u2018There is \nno Army\u2019; second, that he began at once to prepare for an unlimited supply \nof ammunition; that this involved the creation of huge new factories, innumer\u00ac \nable tools, the training of mechanics, the production of chemicals in quantities \npreviously unheard of, and that as soon as Kitchener\u2019s organizing ability and \nuntiring energy and foresight had begun to bear fruit, Lloyd George stepped \nin; got himself appointed Minister of Munitions, reaped what Kitchener had \nsown; thereafter claimed the credit for Kitchener\u2019s achievement, and has \nnever protested against the allegation by Kitchener\u2019s enemies that he, Lloyd \nGeorge, \u2018saved the day\u2019 after the War Secretary\u2019s \u2018failure\u2019.\u201d \n\n\u201cWho were his enemies?\u201d \n\n\u201cPoliticians: a few of them in the army; most of them\u2014just politicians.\u201d \n\n\u201cIt has been said by some of his admirers\u201d, the Philosopher now remarked, \n\u201cthat if he had been alive during the Peace Conference in Paris in 1919, he \nwould have adopted the same generous attitude toward the Germans that \nhe had adopted in South Africa (in opposition to Lord Milner) toward the \nBoers. What do you think of that?\u201d \n\n\u201cI am sorry he should have such admirers, for they attribute to him the \nsentimentality and rabbit-mindedness which exist in themselves. Kitchener \nknew differences, and would not have treated Arabs, Egyptian fellahin, Sikhs, \nPathans, Bengalis, French, Russians, Germans and Boers, as if they were all \nalike. The Boers fought like gentlemen, and British Army officers had the \ngreatest admiration and respect for the Boer leaders\u2014men like Botha, Smuts, \nDe la Rey, and many others\u2014not merely for their military genius, but for \ntheir humane treatment of prisoners, and for their personal integrity. Kitch\u00ac \nener, who fought them to a finish, knew that they deserved to be treated gen\u00ac \nerously, and that, furthermore, once they had signed a Treaty, they would \nabide by it. He knew, on the other hand, that the Germans did not fight like \ngentlemen; that they were inhuman and untrustworthy. Let me read to you \n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n321 \n\n\nwhat Sir George Arthur, in close daily contact with Kitchener, has to say on \nthis subject: \n\nProfessional zeal and almost cloistral notions of discipline may well have served to \nprovoke a soldier\u2019s admiration for the splendid military machine revealed in the German \nArmy. . . . But his military, no less than his human, sense was unutterably shocked by \nthe baser uses to which a great engine of war was put. His own experience in contact \nwith Germans had not been specially happy, but he had no reason to suppose that their \nfighting, however bitter, would be stained by positive dishonour. It was therefore with \namazement, and some scepticism, that he received the first accounts of outrages in Bel\u00ac \ngium and France; and before accepting absolutely the reports of cruelties practised on \nBritish prisoners of war he caused the most careful inquiries to be made. But, when the \ntruth was established to his full satisfaction, a marked change, to which he never hesi\u00ac \ntated to give expression, came over his feeling towards the enemy. 1 he gross insults, the \nwanton torture, the more refined cruelties to which gallant folk were subjected, callously, \nconstantly, and by authority, roused in him hot indignation. He knew how tragically \nthe sufferings of the soldiers must react on their friends at home, and he knew to his grief \nthat no exchange of prisoners could be effected before at least the equivalent of Germans \nwas in our hands. \u201cUntil this maimed and scarred generation has passed away\u201d, he ex\u00ac \nclaimed to a friend, \u201cno German should be allowed anything like permanent residence \nor social status in this country. Business must of course be done, but how can there be \nfriendly relations?\u201d A well-founded report of some more than usually diabolical outrages \non wounded prisoners happened to reach him simultaneously with a note from a pluto\u00ac \ncrat of enemy birth, who asked him to be a guest on any evening he would name. \u201cI am \ntoo busy fighting the Germans to dine with them\u201d, was the scornful comment. \n\n\u201cI had no intention, however, of occupying the better part of your after\u00ac \nnoon with talk about Kitchener. The Recorder will not bless me for it!\u201d \n\n\u201cOn the contrary\u201d, the Recorder replied, \u201call is grist that comes to my \nmill; besides which, I have been deeply interested.\u201d Then, turning to that \neditor of the Quarterly whom he had \u201cheaded off\u201d earlier in the conversation, \nhe added with a laugh: \u201cNow is your chance! It was to be a defence of edi\u00ac \ntors, was it not?\u201d \n\n\u201cNot exactly\u201d, was the reply. \u201cMy motives are mixed, as you will perhaps \nsee\u201d (with a slight emphasis, and a smile, at the \u201cperhaps\u201d). \u201cI had wanted \nto say something to this effect:\u2014appeals have often been made to members of \nthe Society to learn to write, that they may contribute to the Quarterly \nwithout imposing too much labour on its editors. Not that its editors set \nthemselves up as experts (we wish we were). All we claim is that long and \nrather exhausting practice has made us alive to certain cruder errors, and has \nfamiliarized us with certain fundamental principles, such as that there cannot \nbe clear writing except as a result of clear thought,\u2014a principle which applies, \nnot only to the subject as a whole, and to logical sequence, but to each sen\u00ac \ntence and paragraph. Doubtless much escapes us, in spite of our best efforts; \nbut, partly to illustrate what we mean, and perhaps partly to console ourselves \nfor many failures, recognized only when the Quarterly is in the hands of \nour readers, beyond our reach, we quote from the London Times Literary \nSupplement , edited by some of the best among professionals,\u2014and we are \nmec^mateurs. \n\n\u201cSinewing a book of African travel, the writer says (and the editors passed \n\n\n322 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nit): \u2018For this young woman was travelling to Kenya with the apparently ridic\u00ac \nulous hope of patting elephants hot within her.\u2019 As we read it, we caught \nour breath: \u2018elephants hot within her\u2019\u2014surely, a large order! It could not \nmean elephant steak, or elephant cutlet; besides, while some people appear to \ngloat over what they eat, we had never heard of their patting the thing once \nswallowed\u2014not, that is, in \u2018good society\u2019. So, without much effort, we con\u00ac \ncluded that what the reviewer had intended to say, and what the editor ought \nto have helped him to say, was: \u2018For this young woman was travelling to \nKenya with the apparently ridiculous hope, hot within her, of patting elephants\u2019. \n\n\u201cOf course we too might have missed it; but, as editors, we feel aggrieved \nwhen called upon to correct errors of that sort; we say to ourselves\u2014Why on \nearth doesn\u2019t the man think! or, If only he had read it aloud to himself, he \nmight have caught it! For this last method has saved us from many ghastly \nblunders, though too often, particularly in recent years, we have persuaded \nourselves that lack of time does not permit this additional penance. Still, we \nshould like our contributors, or some of them, to remember the lesson of the \n\u2018elephants hot within her\u2019,\u2014even as we shall try to remember it.\u201d \n\n\u201cWho will sum it all up?\u201d the Recorder now asked, turning to the Ancient. \n\n\u201cThat there is but one thing in this wide universe which really matters\u201d, \nwas the response, \u201cnamely, a man\u2019s relation with his Master, with his spiritual \nFather,\u2014with the Master at the head of his Ray.\u201d \n\nEagerly one of our visitors, silent till now, interrupted with this question: \n\n\u201cJust what do you mean by a \u2018Master\u2019?\u201d \n\n\u201cThe stereotyped answer to that is: one who, by his own efforts, has at\u00ac \ntained to union with the Supreme. My objection to that answer is that it \nmay suggest a successful effort to achieve \u2018greatness\u2019. The modern mind can\u00ac \nnot conceive of anything superior to personal success; yet the first step to\u00ac \nward spiritual attainment is to kill out personal ambition, while working as \nthose work who are ambitious. Attainment means the complete abandonment \nof personal considerations. I should prefer to say, therefore, in reply to your \nquestion, that a Master is one whose love, and the wisdom which flows from \nperfected love, have not only obliterated self-love, but have raised him to one\u00ac \nness with the Oversoul or Logos.\u201d \n\n\u201cBut what do you mean by the Master at the head of my Ray?\u201d \n\n\u201c \u2018Ray\u2019 is a term used to suggest an idea which is also a fact. The universe \nis not an accident; it is constructed on the spiritual archetype of mathematical \nand architectural principles. In other words, it is a hierarchy of souls, ex\u00ac \ntending from the infinitely great to the infinitely little, the greater transmit\u00ac \nting the Divine Light and Life to those of lesser grade in the evolutionary \nscale. You receive from the grade above you in the hierarchy, or, as a Hindu \nmight express it, along the line of the Guruparampara chain, leading back, \nor \u2018up\u2019, to a Master who, for you, focusses and transmits the Universal Light, \n\u2014who, in truth, is the source of your own \u2018inner light\u2019, and who, in the case \nof a full ch\u00a3la, has made that light an extension, as it were, of himself. Your \n\u2018Ray\u2019, then, is the ray of Divine Light which reaches you in that way.\u201d \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE SCREEN OF TIME \n\n\n323 \n\n\n\u201cBut how am I to know on which Ray I am? How am I to know who, out \nof many Masters, my Master is?\u201d \n\n\u201cIn the first place, as you were born in that part of the world which is pre\u00ac \nsided over by the Master Christ, it may be that he is the head of your Ray \n(though that by no means necessarily follows), no matter how much \u2018further \nback\u2019 or \u2018higher up\u2019 that Ray may extend. Did not he speak of his \u2018Father in \n. Heaven\u2019? And is it not logical to suppose that even that greater \u2018Father\u2019 \nlooks up to another Father still greater? \n\n\u201cIn the second place, if you are conscious of receiving spiritual help from \nanyone who, though far from being a Master, at least knows who his Master \n\nis, you may find in this some indication of the direction in which to look. For \nthe rest, \u2018Seek and ye shall find\u2019.\u201d \n\n\u201cBut why is it of such supreme importance \u2018to find\u2019? Surely, if you live an \nupright and good life, if you work unselfishly for those you love, the future \nwill take care of itself?\u201d \n\n\u201cMy friend\u201d, replied the Ancient, \u201cI am not suggesting that you should \nworry about your future. Further, if you are satisfied with yourself as you \nnow are, and with your life as it now is,\u2014I can only wish you a speedy awak\u00ac \nening. Until then, Theosophy is not for you. I am thinking of those who \nfeel that life is a heavy burden, and who long for more Light; of those who \nfind the rewards of life empty, and the best even of their love, a beginning \nrather than an end; of those who love justice and hate injustice, and who, \nseeing what looks like injustice everywhere, realize their impotence to prevent \n\nit. Above all, I am thinking of those who, in their heart of hearts, feel that \nthere must be a meaning to things, if only they could find it, and a purpose \nin life which escapes them, but which perhaps they might share in, if only \nthey could look beyond the surface to\u2014they know not what. It is to these \nthat Theosophy comes as a gift from heaven, with explanation, and a marvel\u00ac \nlous promise; for it points to experience as proving that man can know, can \ntrust the highest and best in himself to lead him to the source of wisdom and \nunderstanding,\u2014to the Master whose child he is, and whom to know and love \nand serve is, as I began by saying, the one thing in this wide universe that \nreally matters, seeing that all else, in comparison, is trivial and lifeless. Apart \nfrom that Master, we may seek wisdom, but shall never find it, may seek peace \nof soul, or moral strength, or the ability to help our fellows,\u2014only to learn \nat last that we have built on sand, and that \u2018dust to dust, ashes to ashes\u2019, is \nthe end of all earthly or man-made things. \u2018Soul of my soul\u2019: until that cry \nis wrung from a man as a result of his innermost realization, he has not seen \nthe way to himself, to his centre; has not, in the true sense, begun to \nlive. That, as I see it, is the lesson, not only of our talk this afternoon, but of \nevery hour of our existence. It is the teaching of every religion, and it is the \nbeginning and end of Theosophy.\u201d \n\n\nT \n\n\n\nCIVILIZATION, THE DEATH OF ART AND BEAUTY 1 \n\nI N an interview with the celebrated Hungarian violinist, M. Remenyi, the \nPall Mall Gazette reporter makes the artist narrate some very interesting \nexperiences in the Far East. \u201cI was the first European artist who ever \nplayed before the Mikado of Japan\u201d, he said; and reverting to that which has \never been a matter of deep regret for every lover of the artistic and the pic\u00ac \nturesque, the violinist added:\u2014 \n\nOn August 8th, 1886, I appeared before His Majesty\u2014a day memorable, unfortunately, \nfor the change of costume commanded by the Empress. She herself, abandoning the \nexquisite beauty of the feminine Japanese costume, appeared on that day for the first \ntime and at my concert in European costume, and it made my heart ache to see her. I \ncould have greeted her had I dared with a long wail of despair upon my travelled violin. \nSix ladies accompanied her, they themselves being clad in their native costume, and walk\u00ac \ning with infinite grace and charm. \n\nAlas, alas, but this is not all! The Mikado\u2014this hitherto sacred, mysterious, \ninvisible and unreachable personage:\u2014 \n\nThe Mikado himself was in the uniform of a European general! At that time the \nCourt etiquette was so strict, my accompanist was not permitted into His Majesty\u2019s \ndrawing-room, and this was told me beforehand. I had a good remplacement , as my \nambassador, Count Zaluski, who had been a pupil of Liszt, was able himself to accom\u00ac \npany me. You will be astonished when I tell you that, having chosen for the first piece \nin the programme my transcription for the violin, of a C sharp minor polonaise by Chopin, \na musical piece of the most intrinsic value and poetic depths, the Emperor, when 1 had \nfinished, intimated to Count Ito, his first minister, that I should play it again. The \nJapanese taste is good. I was laden with presents of untold value, one item only being a \ngold-lacquer box of the seventeenth century. I played in Hong Kong and outside Can\u00ac \nton, no European being allowed to live inside. There I made an interesting excursion \nto the Portuguese possession of Macao, visiting the cave where Camoens wrote his \n\u201cLusiad\u201d. It was very interesting to see outside the Chinese town of Macao a European \nPortuguese town which to this very day has remained unchanged since the sixteenth \ncentury. In the midst of the exquisite tropical vegetation of Java, and despite the ter\u00ac \nrific heat, I gave sixty-two concerts in sixty-seven days, travelling all over the island, \ninspecting its antiquities, the chief of which is a most wonderful Buddhist temple, the \nBoro Budhur, or Many Buddhas. This building contains six miles of figures, and is a \nsolid pile of stone, larger than the pyramids. They have, these Javans, an extraordinarily \nsweet orchestra in the national Samelang, which consists of percussion instruments \nplayed by eighteen people; but to hear this orchestra, with its most weird Oriental chorus \n\n1 This article by H. P. Blavatsky appeared in Lucifer in May, 1891. the last number before her death, when she \nwas too ill to read it in proof. Had she written it in 1936. what would she not have said, considering the world's \nvertiginous descent since her day, into further depths of degradation!\u2014 Editors. * . \n\n\n324 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCIVILIZATION \n\n\n325 \n\n\nand ecstatic dances, one must have had the privilege of being invited by the Sultan of \nSolo, \u201cSole Emperor of the World\u201d. I have seen and heard nothing more dreamy and \npoetic than the Serimpis danced by nine Royal Princesses. \n\nWhere are the Esthetes of a few years ago? Or was this little confederation \nof the lovers of art but one of the soap-bubbles of our fin de sibcle , rich in promise \nand suggestion of many a possibility, but dead in works and act? Or, if there \nare any true lovers of art yet left among them, why do they not organize and \nsend out missionaries the world over, to tell picturesque Japan and other coun\u00ac \ntries ready to fall victims that, to imitate the will-o\u2019-the-wisp of European cul\u00ac \nture and fascination, means for a non-Christian land, the committing of suicide; \nthat it means sacrificing one\u2019s individuality for an empty show and shadow; at \nbest it is to exchange the original and the picturesque for the vulgar and the \nhideous. Truly and indeed it is high time that at last something should be \ndone in this direction, and before the deceitful civilization of the conceited na\u00ac \ntions of but yesterday has irretrievably hypnotized the older races, and made \nthem succumb to its upas-tree wiles and supposed superiority. Othenvise, old \narts and artistic creations, everything original and unique will very soon dis\u00ac \nappear. Already national dresses and time-honoured customs, and everything \nbeautiful, artistic, and worth preservation is fast disappearing from view. At \nno distant day, alas, the best relics of the past will perhaps be found only in \nmuseums in sorry, solitary, and be-ticketed samples preserved under glass! \n\n. Such is the work and the unavoidable result of our modem civilization. Skin- \ndeep in reality in its visible effects, in the \u201cblessings\u201d it is alleged to have given \nto the world, its roots are rotten to the core. It is to its progress that selfishness \nand materialism, the greatest curses of the nations, are due; and the latter will \nmost surely lead to the annihilation of art and of the appreciation of the truly \nharmonious and beautiful. Hitherto, materialism has only led to a universal \ntendency to unification on the material plane and a corresponding diversity on \nthat of thought and spirit. It is this universal tendency which, by propelling \nhumanity, through its ambition and selfish greed, to an incessant chase after \nwealth and the obtaining at any price of the supposed blessings of this life, causes \nit to aspire or rather gravitate to one level, the lowest of all\u2014the plane of empty \nappearance. Materialism, and indifference to all save the selfish realization of \nwealth and power, and the over-feeding of national and personal vanity, have \ngradually led nations and men to the almost entire oblivion of spiritual ideals \nof the love of nature to the correct appreciation of things . 2 Like a hideou \nleprosy our Western civilization has eaten its way through all the quarters of \nthe globe and hardened the human heart. \u201cSoul-saving\u201d is its deceitful, lying \npretext; greed for additional revenue through opium, rum, and the inoculation \nof European vices\u2014the real aim. In the far East it has infected with the spirit \nof imitation the higher classes of the \u201cpagans\u201d\u2014save China, whose national \nconservatism deserves our respect ; 3 and in Europe it has engrafted fashion \u2014 \nsave the mark\u2014even on the dirty, starving proletariat itself! For the last \nthirty years, as if some deceitful semblance of a reversion to the ancestral type \n\n\nleave this sentence as printed in Lucifer, in spite of an obvious omission or error by the printer.\u2014 Editors. \n[China also has now fallen! In 1891. American-educated Chinese\u2014old bottles filled with new and very \nraw wine\u2014 had not yet destroyed the conservatism for which H.P.B. expressed respect.\u2014 Editors. \n\n\n\n326 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\n\u2014awarded to men by the Darwinian theory in its moral added to its physical \ncharacteristics\u2014were contemplated by an evil spirit tempting mankind, almost \nevery race and nation under the sun in Asia has gone mad in its passion for \naping Europe. This, added to the frantic endeavour to destroy Nature in every \ndirection, and also every vestige of older civilizations\u2014far superior to our own in \narts, godliness, and the appreciation of the grandiose and harmonious\u2014must \nresult in such national calamities. Therefore do we find hitherto artistic and \npicturesque Japan succumbing wholly to the temptation of justifying the \u201cape \ntheory\u201d by simianizing its populations in order to bring the country on a level \nwith canting, greedy and artificial Europe! \n\nFor certainly Europe is all this. It is canting and deceitful from its diplomats \ndown to its custodians of religion, from its political down to its social laws, \nselfish, greedy and brutal beyond expression in its grabbing characteristics. \nAnd yet there are those who wonder at the gradual decadence of true art, as if \nart could exist without imagination, fancy, and a just appreciation of the beau\u00ac \ntiful in Nature, or without poetry and high religious, hence, metaphysical \naspirations! The galleries of paintings and sculpture, we hear, become every \nyear poorer in quality, if richer in quantity. It is lamented that while there is a \nplethora of ordinary productions, the greatest scarcity of remarkable pictures \nand statuary prevails. Is this not most evidently due to the facts that (a) the \nartists will very soon remain with no better models than nature morte (or \u201cstill \nlife\u201d) to inspire themselves with; and ( b ) that the chief concern is not the crea\u00ac \ntion of artistic objects, but their speedy sale and profits? Under such condi\u00ac \ntions, the fall of true art is only a natural consequence. \n\nOwing to the triumphant march and the invasion of civilization, Nature, as \nwell as man and ethics, is sacrificed, and is fast becoming artificial. Climates \nare changing, and the face of the whole world will soon be altered. Under the \nmurderous hand of the pioneers of civilization, the destruction of whole primeval \nforests is leading to the drying up of rivers, and the opening of the Canal of Suez \nhas changed the climate of Egypt as that of Panama will divert the course of the \nGulf Stream. Almost tropical countries are now becoming cold and rainy, and \nfertile lands threaten to be soon transformed into sandy deserts. A few years \nmore and there will not remain within a radius of fifty miles around our large \ncities one single rural spot inviolate from vulgar speculation. In scenery, the \npicturesque and the natural are daily replaced by the grotesque and the artificial. \nScarce a landscape in England but the fair body of nature is desecrated by the \nadvertisements of \u201cPears\u2019 Soap\u201d and \u201cBeecham\u2019s Pills\u201d. The pure air of the \ncountry is polluted with smoke, the smells of greasy railway-engines, and the \nsickening odours of gin, whiskey, and beer. And once that every natural spot \nin the surrounding scenery is gone, and the eye of the painter finds but the \nartificial and hideous products of modem speculation to rest upon, artistic \ntaste will have to follow suit and disappear along with them. \n\n\u201cNo man ever did or ever will work well, but either from actual sight, or \nsight of faith\u201d, says Ruskin, speaking of art. Thus, the first quarter of the \ncoming century may witness painters of landscapes, who have never seen an \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCIVILIZATION \n\n\n327 \n\n\nacre of land free from human improvement; and painters of figures whose ideas \nof female beauty of form will be based on the wasp-like pinched-in waists of \ncorseted, hollow-chested and consumptive society belles. It is not from such \nmodels that a picture deserving of the definition of Horace\u2014\u201ca poem without \nwords\u201d\u2014is produced. Artificially draped Parisiennes and London Cockneys \nsitting for Italian contadini or Arab Bedouins can never replace the genuine \narticle; and both free Bedouins and genuine Italian peasant girls are, thanks to \n\u201ccivilization\u201d, fast becoming things of the past. Where shall artists find gen\u00ac \nuine models in the coming century, when the hosts of the free Nomads of the \nDesert, and perchance all the negro-tribes of Africa\u2014or what will remain of \nthem after their decimation by Christian cannons, and the rum and opium of the \nChristian civilizer\u2014will have donned European coats and top hats? And that \nthis is precisely what awaits art under the beneficial progress of modem civiliza\u00ac \ntion, is self-evident to all. \n\nAye! let us boast of the blessings of civilization, by all means. Let us brag \nof our sciences and the grand discoveries of the age, its achievements in mechani\u00ac \ncal arts, its railroads, telephones and electric batteries; but let us not forget, \nmeanwhile, to purchase at fabulous prices (almost as great as those given in \nour day for a prize dog, or an old prima donna\u2019s song) the paintings and statuary \nof uncivilized, barbarous antiquity and of the middle ages: for such objects of \nart will be reproduced no more. Civilization has tolled their eleventh hour. It \nhas rung the death-knell of the old arts, and the last decade of our century is \nsummoning the world to the funeral of all that was grand, genuine, and original \nin the old civilizations. Would Raphael, O ye lovers of art, have created one \nsingle of his many Madonnas, had he had, instead of Fomarina and the once \nJuno-like women of the Trastevero of Rome to inspire his genius, only the present- \nday models, or the niched Virgins of the nooks and comers of modem Italy, in \ncrinolines and high-heeled boots? Or would Andrea del Sarto have produced his \nfamous \u201cVenus and Cupid\u201d from a modem East End working girl\u2014one of the \nlatest victims to fashion\u2014holding under the shadow of a gigantic hat & la \nmousquetaire , feathered like the scalp of an Indian chief, a dirty, scrofulous brat \nfrom the slums? How could Titian have ever immortalized his golden-haired \npatrician ladies of Venice, had he been compelled to move all his life in the so\u00ac \nciety of our actual \u201cprofessional beauties\u201d, with their straw-coloured, dyed \ncapillaries that transform human hair into the fur of a yellow Angora cat ? May \nnot one venture to state with the utmost confidence that the world would never \nhave had the Athena Limnia of Phidias\u2014that ideal of beauty in face and form \u2014 \nhad Aspasia, the Milesian, or the fair daughters of Hellas, whether in the days \nof Pericles or in any other, disfigured that \u201cform\u201d with stays and bustle, and \ncoated that \u201cface\u201d with white enamel, after the fashion of the varnished \nfeatures of the mummies of the dead Egyptians . 4 \n\n4 It would be a joy for our readers and for us if H.P.B. were alive to criticize Epstein and others of his kind, and \nwere able to express herself freely on the subject of gore-coloured finger-nails, yellow-ochre lips, and the unrestricted \nnudities of recent years. Automobiles, airplanes, wireless, the radio, the cinema, and \"jazz\u201d\u2014all of them develop\u00ac \nments since 1891\u2014would have given her further cause, and opportunity, to denounce the false gods she detested, \nandj^msist that the real, the true, and the beautiful must for ever be the fruits of civilization, if it is to be worthy \nof tnBfcame.\u2014 Editors. \n\n\n\n\n328 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nWe see the same in architecture. Not even the genius of Michael Angelo \nhimself could have failed to receive its death-blow at the first sight of the Eiffel \nTower, or the Albert Hall, or more horrible still, the Albert Memorial. Nor, \nfor the matter of that, could it have received any suggestive idea from the \nColosseum and the palace of the Caesars, in their present whitewashed and re\u00ac \npaired state! Whither then shall we, in our days of civilization, go to find the \nnatural, or even simply the picturesque? Is it still to Italy, to Switzerland or \nSpain? But the Bay of Naples\u2014even if its waters be as blue and transparent \nas on the day when the people of Cumae selected its shores for a colony, and its \nsurrounding scenery as gloriously beautiful as ever\u2014thanks to that spirit of \nmimicry which has infected sea and land, has now lost its most artistic and \nmost original features. It is bereft of its lazy, dirty, but intensely picturesque \nfigures of old; of its lazzaroni and barcarolos, its fishermen and country girls. \nInstead of the former\u2019s red or blue Phrygian cap, and the latter\u2019s statuesque, \nhalf-nude figure and poetical rags, we see now-a-days but the caricatured speci\u00ac \nmens of modern civilization and fashion. The gay tarantella resounds no longer \non the cool sands of the moonlit shore; it is replaced by that libel on Terpsichore, \nthe modern quadrille, in the gas-lit, gin-smelling sailor\u2019s trattorias. Filth still \npervades the land, as of yore; but it is made the more apparent on the thread\u00ac \nbare city coat, the mangled chimney-pot hat and the once fashionable, now \ncast-away European bonnet. Picked up in the hotel gutters, they now grace \nthe unkempt heads of the once picturesque Neapolitans. The type of the latter \nhas died out, and there is nothing to distinguish the lazzaroni from the Venetian \ngondoliere , the Calabrian brigand, or the London street-sweeper and beggar. \nThe still, sunlit waters of Canal Grande bear no longer their gondolas, filled on \nfestival days with gaily dressed Venetians, with picturesque boatmen and girls. \nThe black gondola that glides silently under the heavy carved balconies o\u00a3 the old \npatrician palazze, reminds one now more of a black floating coffin, with a solemn- \nlooking, dark-clothed undertaker paddling it on towards the Styx, than of the \ngondola of thirty years ago . 6 Venice looks more gloomy now than during the \ndays of Austrian slavery from which it was rescued by Napoleon III. Once on \nshore, its gondoliere is scarcely distinguishable from his \u201cfare\u201d, the British M. P. \non his holiday-tour in the old city of the Doges. Such is the levelling hand of \nall-destroying civilization. \n\nIt is the same all over Europe. Look at Switzerland. Hardly a decade ago, \nevery Canton had its distinguishing national costume, as clean and fresh as it \nwas peculiar. Now the people are ashamed to wear it. They want to be mis\u00ac \ntaken for foreign guests, to be regarded as a civilized nation which follows suit \neven in fashion. Cross over to Spain . 6 Of all the relics of old, the smell of rancid \noil and garlic is alone left to remind one of the poetry of the old days in the \ncountry of the Cid. The graceful mantilla has almost disappeared; the proud \nhidalgo-beggar has taken himself off from the street-comer; the nightly seren- \n\n* To-day. even the black gondola is a relic; motor-boats have taken their place. Motor-boats are faster, and \nVenice must be \"done\u201d in twenty-four hours.\u2014 Editors. \n\n\u2022 And Spain to-day. in the throes of a savage civil war, with a hideous outcome, probably, whichever side winsl \n\u2014Editors. \n\n\n\nCIVILIZATION \n\n\n329 \n\n\nades of love-sick Romeos are gone out of fashion; and the duenna contem\u00ac \nplates going in for woman\u2019s rights. The members of the \u201cSocial Purity\u201d Asso\u00ac \nciations may say \u201cthank God\u201d to this, and lay the change at the door of Chris\u00ac \ntian and moral reforms of civilization. But has morality gained anything in \nSpain with the disappearance of the nocturnal lovers and duennas? We have \nevery right to say, no. A Don Juan outside a house is less dangerous than one \ninside. Social immorality is as rife as ever\u2014if not more so\u2014in Spain, and it \nmust be so, indeed, when even Harper's Guide Book quotes in its last edition as \nfollows: \u201cMorals in all classes, especially in the higher, are in the most degraded \nstate. Veils, indeed, are thrown aside, and serenades are rare, but gallantry and \nintrigue are as active as ever. The men think little of their married obligations; \nthe women . . . are willing victims of unprincipled gallantry\u201d (Spain, \u201cMa\u00ac \ndrid,\u201d page 678). In this, Spain is but on a par with all other countries civilized \nor now civilizing, and is assuredly not worse than many another country that \ncould be named; but that which may be said of it with truth is, that what it has \nlost in poetry through civilization, it has gained in hypocrisy and loose morals. \nThe Cortejo has turned into the petit crevt; the castanets have become silent, be\u00ac \ncause, perhaps, the noise of the uncorked champagne bottles affords more ex\u00ac \ncitement to the rapidly civilizing nation; and the Andalouse au teint bruni having \ntaken to cosmetics and face-enamel, \u201cla Marquesa d\u2019Almedi\u201d may be said to \nhave been buried with Alfred de Musset. \n\nThe gods have indeed been propitious to the Alhambra. They have per\u00ac \nmitted it to be burnt before its chaste Moresque beauty had been finally dese\u00ac \ncrated, as are the rock-cut temples of India, the Pyramids and other \nrelics by drunken orgies. This superb relic of the Moors had already suffered, \nonce before, by Christian improvement. It is a tradition still told in Granada, \nand history too, that the monks of Ferdinand and Isabella had made of Alham\u00ac \nbra\u2014that \u201cpalace of petrified flowers dyed with the hues of the wings of angels\u201d \n\u2014a filthy prison for thieves and murderers. Modern speculators might have \ndone worse; they might have polluted its walls and pearl-inlaid ceilings, the \nlovely gilding and stucco, the fairy-like arabesques, and the marble and gossamer\u00ac \nlike carvings, with commercial advertisements, after the Inquisitors had already \nonce before covered the building with whitewash and permitted the prison- \nkeepers to use Alhambra Halls for their donkeys and cattle. Doubting but \nlittle that the fury of the Madrilenos for imitating the French and English must \nhave already, at this stage of modern civilization, infected every province of \nSpain, we may regard that lovely country as dead. A friend speaks, as an eye\u00ac \nwitness, of \u201ccocktails\u201d spilled near the marble fountain of the Alhambra, over \nthe blood-marks left by the hapless Abancerages slain by Boabdil, and of a \nParisian cancan pur sang performed by working girls and soldiers of Granada, \nin the Court of Lions! \n\nBut these are only trifling signs of the time and the spread of culture among \nthe middle and the lower classes. Wherever the spirit of aping possesses the \nheart of the nation\u2014the poor working classes\u2014there the elements of nationality \ndisappear and the country is on the eve of losing its individuality and all things \n\n1 \n\n\n330 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nchange for the worse. What is the use of talking so loudly of \u201cthe benefits of \nChristian civilization\u201d, of its having softened public morals, refined national \ncustoms and manners, etc., etc., when our modem civilization has achieved quite \nthe reverse! Civilization has depended, for ages, says Burke, \u201cupon two prin\u00ac \nciples . . . the spirit of a gentleman and the spirit of religion\u201d. And how many \ntrue gentlemen have we left, when compared even with the days of half-barbarous \nknighthood? Religion has become canting hypocrisy and the genuine religious \nspirit is regarded now-a-days as insanity. Civilization, it is averred, \u201chas de\u00ac \nstroyed brigandage, established public security, elevated morality and built \nrailways which now honeycomb the face of the globe\u201d. Indeed? Let us analyze \nseriously and impartially all these \u201cbenefits\u201d and we shall soon find that civili\u00ac \nzation has done nothing of the kind. At best it has put a false nose on every \nevil of the Past, adding hypocrisy and false pretence to the natural ugliness of \neach. If it is true to say that it has put down in some civilized centres of Europe \n\u2014near Rome, in the Bois de Boulogne or on Hampstead Heath\u2014 banditti and \nhighway-men, it is also as true that it has, thereby, destroyed robbery only as a \nspeciality, the latter having now become a common occupation in every city \ngreat or small. The robber and cut-throat has only exchanged his dress and \nappearance by donning the livery of civilization\u2014the ugly modern attire. In\u00ac \nstead of being robbed under the vault of thick woods and the protection of \ndarkness, people are robbed now-a-days under the electric light of saloons and \nthe protection of trade-laws and police-regulations. 7 As to open day-light \nbrigandage, the Mafia of New Orleans and the Mala Vita of Sicily, with \nhigh officialdom, population, police, and jury forced to play into the hands \nof regularly organized bands of murderers, thieves and tyrants 8 in the full glare \nof European \u201cculture\u201d, show how far our civilization has succeeded in establish\u00ac \ning public security, or Christian religion in softening the hearts of men and the \nwdys and customs of a barbarous past. Modern Cyclopaedias are very fond \nof expatiating upon the decadence of Rome and its pagan horrors. But if the \nlatest editions of the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography were honest \nenough to make a parallel between those \u201cmonsters of depravity\u201d of ancient \ncivilization, Messalina and Faustina, Nero and Commodus, and modern Euro\u00ac \npean aristocracy, it might be found that the latter could give odds to the former \n\u2014in social hypocrisy, at any rate. Between \u201cthe shameless and beastly de\u00ac \nbauchery\u201d of an Emperor Commodus, and as beastly a depravity of more than \none \u201cHonourable\u201d, high official representative of the people, the only difference \nto be found is that while Commodus was a member of all the sacerdotal colleges \nof Paganism, the modem debauchee may be a high member of the Evangelical \nChristian Churches, a distinguished and pious pupil of Moody and Sankey and \nwhat not. It is not the Calchas of Homer, who was the type of the Calchas in \nthe Operette \u201cLa Belle Helene\u201d, but the modem sacerdotal Pecksniff and his \nfollowers. \n\nAs to the blessings of railways and \u201cthe annihilation of space and time\u201d, \n\n7 Fifth Avenue in New York to-day has as many robberies and murders as any locality in the past.\u2014 Editors. \n\n* Read the \u201cCut Throats' Paradise\" in the Edinbitrgh Review for April. 1877. and the digest of it in the Pall Mall \nGazette of April 15th, 1891. \u201cMurder as a Profession\" (H.P.B.). \n\n\n\nCIVILIZATION \n\n\n33i \n\n\nit is still an undecided question\u2014without speaking of the misery and starvation \nthe introduction of steam engines and machinery in general has brought for \nyears on those who depend on their manual labour\u2014whether railways do not \nkill more people in one month than the brigands of all Europe used to murder in \na whole year. The victims of railroads, moreover, are killed under circumstances \nwhich surpass in horror anything the cut-throats may have devised. One reads \nalmost daily of railway disasters in which people are \u201cburned to death in the \nblazing wreckage\u201d, \u201cmangled and crushed out of recognition\u201d and killed by \ndozens and scores. 9 This is a trifle worse than the highwaymen of old Newgate. \n\nNor has crime been abated at all by the spread of civilization; though owing \nto the progress of science in chemistry and physics, it has become more secure from \ndetection and more ghastly in its realization than it ever has been. Speak of \nChristian civilization having improved public morals; of Christianity being the \nonly religion which has established and recognized Universal Brotherhood! Look \nat the brotherly feeling shown by American Christians to the Red Indian and \nthe Negro, whose citizenship is the farce of the age. Witness the love of the \nAnglo-Indians for the \u201cmild Hindu\u201d, the Mussulman, and the Buddhist. See \n\u201chow these Christians love each other\u201d in their incessant law litigations, their \nlibels against each other, the mutual hatred of the Churches and of the sects. \nModern civilization and Christianity are oil and water\u2014they will never mix. \nNations among which the most horrible crimes are daily perpetrated; nations \nwhich rejoice in Tropmanns and Jack the Rippers, in fiends like Mrs. Reeves, \nthe trader in baby slaughter\u2014to the number of 300 victims as is believed\u2014for \nthe sake of filthy lucre; nations which not only permit but encourage a Monaco \nwith its hosts of suicides, that patronize prize-fights, bull-fights, useless and \ncruel sport and even indiscriminate vivisection\u2014such nations have no right to \nboast of their civilization. Nations furthermore which from political considera\u00ac \ntions, dare not put down slave-trade once for all , and out of revenue-greed, \nhesitate to abolish opium and whiskey trades, fattening on the untold misery \nand degradation of millions of human beings, have no right to call themselves \neither Christian or civilized. A civilization finally that leads only to the de\u00ac \nstruction of every noble, artistic feeling in man, can only deserve the epithet of \nbarbarous. We, the modern-day Europeans, are Vandals as great, if not \ngreater than Attila with his savage hordes. \n\nConsummatum est. Such is the work of our modern Christian civilization and \nits direct effects. The destroyer of art, the Shylock, who, for every mite of gold \nit gives, demands and receives in return a pound of human flesh, in the heart- \nblood, in the physical and mental suffering of the masses, in the loss of every\u00ac \nthing true and lovable\u2014can hardly pretend to deserve grateful or respectful \n\n\u2022 To take one instance. A Reuter\u2019s telegram from America, where such accidents are almost of daily occurrence, \ngives the following details of a wrecked train: \u2018\u2018One of the cars which was attached to a gravel train and which \ncontained five Italian workmen, was thrown forward into the centre of the wreck, and the whole mass caught fire. \nTwo of the men were killed outright and the remaining three were injured, pinioned in the wreckage. As the \nflames reached them their cries and groans were heartrending. Owing to the position of the car^and the intense \nheat the rescuers were unable to reach them, and were compelled to watch them slowly burn to death. It is under\u00ac \nstood that all the victims leave families.\u201d (To the foregoing footnote by H.P.B., the editors of the Quarterly add \ntlu^^e total of deaths resulting from automobile accidents in America in 1935. exceeded the total of killed in \nth^l^ernan army during the Great War.j \n\n\n\n332 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nrecognition. The unconsciously prophetic fin de sikcle , in short, is the long ago \nforeseen fin de cycle; when, according to Manjundtha Sutra , \u201cJustice will have \ndied, leaving as its successor blind Law, and as its Guru and guide\u2014 Selfishness; \nwhen wicked things and deeds will have to be regarded as meritorious, and holy \nactions as madness\u201d. Beliefs are dying out, divine life is mocked at; art and \ngenius, truth and justice are daily sacrificed to the insatiable mammon of the \nage\u2014money grubbing. The artificial replaces everywhere the real, the false \nsubstitutes the true. Not a sunny valley, not a shadowy grove left immaculate \non the bosom of mother nature. And yet what marble fountain in fashionable \nsquare or city park, what bronze lions or tumble-down dolphins with upturned \ntails can compare with an old worm-eaten, moss-covered, weather-stained country \nwell, or a rural windmill in a green meadow! What Arc de Triomphe can ever \ncompare with the low arch of Grotto Azzurra at Capri, and what city park or \nChamps Elys^es, rival Sorrento, \u201cthe wild garden of the world\u201d, the birth-place \nof Tasso? Ancient civilizations have never sacrificed Nature to speculation, \nbut holding it as divine, have honoured her natural beauties by the erection of \nworks of art, such as our modern electric civilization could never produce even \nin dream. The sublime grandeur, the mournful gloom and majesty of the \nruined temples of Paestum, that stand for ages like so many sentries over \nthe sepulchre of the Past and the forlorn hope of the Future amid the mountain \nwilderness of Sorrento, have inspired more men of genius than the new civiliza\u00ac \ntion will ever produce. Give us the banditti who once infested these ruins, rather \nthan the railroads that cut through the old Etruscan tombs; the first may take \nthe purse and life of the few; the second are undermining the lives of the mil\u00ac \nlions by poisoning with foul gases the sweet breath of the pure air. In ten years, \nby century the XXth, Southern France with its Nice and Cannes, and even \nEngadine, may hope to rival the London atmosphere with its fogs, thanks to \nthe increase of population and changes of climate. We hear that Speculation \nis preparing a new iniquity against Nature: smoky, greasy, stench-breathing \nJuniculaires (baby-railways) are being contemplated for some world-renowned \nmountains. They are preparing to creep like so many loathsome, fire-vomiting \nreptiles over the immaculate body of the Jungfrau, and a railway-tunnel is to \npierce the heart of the snow-capped Virgin mountain, the glory of Europe. \nAnd why not? Has not national speculation pulled down the priceless remains \nof the grand Temple of Neptune at Rome, to build over its colossal corpse and \nsculptured pillars the present Custom House? \n\nAre we so wrong then, in maintaining that modem civilization with its Spirit \nof Speculation is the very Genius of Destruction; and as such, what better words \ncan be addressed to it than this definition of Burke:\u2014 \n\n\u201cA Spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and con\u00ac \nfined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look back\u00ac \nward to their ancestors.\u201d H.P.B. \n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\nmr \n\n\nw 1 \u2014\u2018W \n\n\u00ab3BL \n\n^oo \n\n\nPsycho-Analysis and Social Psychology , by William McDougall, F.R.S.; \nMethuen & Co. Ltd., London; price, 75. 6 d. \n\nProfessor McDougall has undertaken a disagreeable but apparently neces\u00ac \nsary task. He has exposed the errors and futilities of psycho-analysis with \n\u201cruthless frankness\u201d. It is not Professor McDougall\u2019s fault that his book \nfills the reader\u2019s mind with disgust, if not with despair. In order to make his \ncriticism effective, he has been obliged to quote freely from Freudian sources. \nIt is a commentary upon the gullibility and the degeneracy of the so-called \n\u201chigh-brow\u201d mind, that Freud\u2019s filthy musings should ever have been taken \nseriously by more than a few cranks, or that it should have seemed expedient \nfor a scientist of Professor McDougall\u2019s rank to take serious notice of these \nproductions of a diseased intellect. \n\nIt is a terrible fact, however, that Freud has directly or indirectly influenced \nthe thoughts and lives of thousands of people. It is terrible, because, as has \nbeen said, Freud has probably done more to corrupt the human mind and to \nsoil the image of every normal human relationship, than any other individual \nknown to history. The Dark Powers who obstruct the true progress of hu\u00ac \nmanity, could have chosen no instrument better fitted for their purpose. It \nis impossible to go into detail here to prove this point, nor indeed do we recom\u00ac \nmend anyone to think about these matters at all, unless it becomes a positive \nduty, which is fortunately apt to be a rare occurrence. \n\nOur only quarrel with Professor McDougall is that he is not \u201cruthless\u201d \nenough; that he still seems to imagine some sort of entente to be possible be\u00ac \ntween psycho-analysts and respectable people like himself. As he points out, \nFreud may be given some credit for his emphasis upon the connection be\u00ac \ntween abnormal psychic states and various neuroses, as well as for his explora\u00ac \ntion of the sub-conscious memories, complexes and inhibitions which determine \nso much of the average man\u2019s conscious behaviour. But after allowing full \ncredit with interest, we return to the evidence that Freud has vitiated his dis\u00ac \ncoveries\u2014if they be discoveries\u2014by one gross misinterpretation after another. \nHe can be false to truth, to logic, and to nature, in more ways than would \nseem possible for a single mind. \n\nThe havoc wrought by what Professor McDougall calls the \u201cpan-sexual \ndoctrine\u201d, is obvious enough. But in vet another way Freud\u2019s teachings have \n\n\u2022 \n\n\n333 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n334 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nacted like poison upon the minds of his contemporaries. Professor McDougall \nquotes some remarks of a medical psychologist, Dr. W. H. Sheldon, on \u201cthe \nemergence of the waster mind to dominance in our civilization\u201d. \n\nThe real enemies of character are not to be found among atheists or critics of religion \nor non-conformists, but they are lusty noise-loving expressionists, who believe in living \nfor the moment, in having their fling, and who say, \u201cLet\u2019s have no more long faces, no \ninhibitions, and no wet blankets at our party\u201d. They are the good livers, unchastened, \nunreverent souls. Popularly they have become associated with the term extravert, \nthough it would be more meaningful to call them the feebly inhibited. They live at the \nsurface of awareness and are dissociated from their own deeper consciousness. They \nhave moved sharply away from the principle of reminiscent contemplation, and have \ngravitated far over toward the principle of extreme sensuality, thus dissociating the \nconscious focus from the deeper levels. They perforce seek over-stimulation, love city \nlife, and have a profound terror of the inferiority complex. Their God is Expression, \nand their spiritual counsellors are the Freudian psycho-analysts. Flushed with the \nsuccessful overthrow of Christian theology, they are resolved to smash away all that was \never associated with the spiritual, or religious, or reminiscent, or chastened mental \noutlook. \n\nIt is just to remark, however, that Freud is not the only psychologist who \ncan be held responsible for the prevalence of the \u201cwaster mind\u201d. Practically \nwithout exception, all modem psychologists are in agreement as to one dogma, \nthat the whole of the consciousness of civilized man can be explained by the \nstudy of savages and animals, and in no other way. The higher is interpreted \nin terms of the lower,\u2014religion, for example, being regarded as a survival of \ntaboo and totemism. Is it any wonder that the popular mind becomes con\u00ac \nfused, or that self-indulgence is justified in the \u201chigh-brow\u2019s\u201d alleged intellect \nby some vague notion that at all costs he must free himself from primitive \nconstraints ? \n\nThere is no hope for psychology\u2014quite apart from psycho-analysis\u2014unless \nit discovers the existence and nature of the soul. Moreover, as the great re\u00ac \nligions and philosophies have always taught, the soul is not a product of ani\u00ac \nmal evolution, but is, as it were, an entity of a higher order which incarnates \nin a physical body when this is ready to receive it. The function of the true \npsychologist is very noble, being indistinguishable from that of the true priest. \nIt is, first, to find the soul within his own consciousness, his own real self; and \nthen to aid other men to repeat in their own experience his revelation. After all, \npsychology is, by definition, the science of the psuche , that is, of the soul. \n\nS.L. \n\n\nIndia Mosaic , by Mark Channing; J. B. Lippincott Co., 1936; price, $2.75. \n\nThis is a book that can be recommended highly to all students of Theos\u00ac \nophy. It is first-class light reading. The author served in the Indian Army \nfor several years, and at first adopted the customary attitude of good-natured \ndisdain toward the Indian people and their religions. His experience, interest\u00ac \ning throughout, he relates with humour, and with none of the coarseness which \ndisfigures when it does not debase so many modem books of a similar kind. \n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n335 \n\nHis duties took him from as far south as Ceylon, to Peshawar and Srinagar \nin the extreme north. He was evidently a bom soldier and first-class officer. \nLittle by little his experience led him to seek the heart of India, instead of \nturning from its surface appearance with something approaching disgust; and \nhe found what he sought, chiefly because he evidently had a heart to guide \nhim in his search. Winning the trust, respect, and in many cases the warm \naffection of the natives, he found it easy to reciprocate. By no means blind \nto the darker side of Indian life\u2014and it is appallingly dark\u2014he became \nconvinced that the good greatly outweighed the evil. Finally he met a guru \nof the better kind, who seems to have known him in some Hindu incarnation \nof the past, and who opened his eyes to many of the eternal verities; in \nother words, to the principles of Theosophy,\u2014and, so far as can be deter\u00ac \nmined from this book, to a genuine Theosophy. In any case, the guru's teach\u00ac \ning did not turn him into a socialist, or into a follower of Gandhi, or into the \ntype of fanatic who would turn the Western world from Christ to Hinduism. \nOn the contrary, he declares that \u201cthere is nothing in the spiritual concept of \nthe Hindu philosophy that runs counter to the teachings of Christ\u201d, while, \nas to the political situation, he says that \u201cat present India is unfit to govern \nherself\u201d, and that \u201cthe problem of India is neither political nor social, but \nreligious\u201d\u2014a profound truth which Indian \u201creformers\u201d have proved themselves \nincapable of understanding. \n\nStudents of Theosophy can never forget the debt they owe to India through \nthe labours of H.P.B. and Judge. It is a delight, therefore, to be reminded of \nIndia\u2019s better, nobler qualities, after having suffered for years from the \u201cbawl\u00ac \ning monstrosity\u201d (to use the author\u2019s term for it) represented as being India, \nby Indian politicians, by the radical press of England, and by the entire press \nof the United States. The harm that has been done to the honour and reputa\u00ac \ntion of India by the self-styled patriots of the National Indian Congress, by \nGandhi, Mrs. Annie Besant and others, is incalculable, but a book like this, \nwhich is in no way controversial, will help to off-set the effect of their \npropaganda. T. \n\n\nThe Problem of Poverty , A Plain Statement of Economic Fundamentals , by \nJohn Rustgard; D. Appleton-Century Co., N. Y.; price, $2.00. \n\nA copy of this book was recently presented to one of our members by an, \nofficial of the Publishing Company which handles it, with the remark that it \nwould not sell because its economics was \u201ctoo hard boiled\u201d to suit the popular \ntaste. This unpopular judgment seemed a promise of its real value, a promise \nwhich was thoroughly fulfilled by its perusal. In handing it to us for review, \nhe assures us that it is the simplest and sanest economic treatise he has read. \n\nThe problem of poverty is the age-old problem of the masses, and since the \ndemocratic masses are at present asserting the power vested in them, and \nattempting to fit their economics to their desires, an honest study of economic \nfundamentals is of great interest and importance. John Rustgard sets forth \nhere an interpretation, clarifying if not encouraging, of the present politico- \n\n\n\n336 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\neconomic situation based upon statistics and the facts of his own wide experi\u00ac \nence. It is refreshing, after so much tenuous academic theorizing, to come \nupon a writer who says in effect: I have lived with lumbermen, fishermen, \nand coal miners, and I know that the vast majority of labourers behave like \nchildren in money matters; the problem of poverty is the problem of moral \ndeficiency and irresponsibility. \n\nRecognizing that law governs the universe, political and economic as well \nas physical, the author shows that obedience to law conduces to economic \nprosperity and political well-being, and that arbitrary legislation in any phase \nof economics, disrupts the equilibrium which nature tries to maintain and \ncauses a maladjustment and an unfair distribution of the products of national \nwealth. For instance, if a disproportionately high wage is insisted upon by \nthe building-trade unions, labourers in other fields of endeavour (at present \nthe farmer) must suffer a corresponding decrease in income. \n\nIn attacking the \u201cmirage of equality\u201d, Rustgard, following Herbert Spencer, \nsees the law of evolution as a movement from the simple to the complex, from \na state of undifferentiation to one of intense specialization and division of la\u00ac \nbour. In accordance with this law, and supported by statistics, he shows \nthat technological improvements have profited the labourer and not the capi\u00ac \ntalist, despite the prevalent and short-sighted Marxian teaching that the \nmachine deprives men of work. Records show that the introduction of ma\u00ac \nchinery has not only increased the demand for labour, but has consequently \nraised the labourer\u2019s wage while reducing the cost of living. In 1879, manu\u00ac \nfacturers could offer only 49,000 jobs per million people; in 1929, after fifty \nyears of amazingly rapid mechanization, there were 73,000 jobs per million, \na fact which indicates that the problem of poverty is not a problem of employ\u00ac \nment and distribution economics, but pertains to mental and moral inferiority. \n\nThrift is a virtue little known to the impecunious masses, yet the whole \nstructure of a complex civilization rests upon the ability of a group of citizens \nto save. Capital may be defined as \u201cthat part of the products of labour which \nis saved and not consumed\u201d, and a nation is economically sound only when its \ncapital is steadily, even though slowly, increasing. Fact after fact is brought \nforward to substantiate the conclusion that poverty is prevalent among the \nmasses of people, not because they lack opportunity to outgrow their situa\u00ac \ntion, but because they are morally and mentally unable to spend their very \nsufficient income wisely. The erroneous idea that the masses suffer because \nof insufficient remuneration leads to the taxation of property and capital. \nBut if capital is thus reduced, its ability to employ labour to create new goods \nis likewise reduced, and the resulting shortage of goods causes high prices and \nsocial unrest. Likewise the present excessive taxation of property makes it \nimpossible for citizens with moderate savings to hire the labour necessary \nto build lodgings which, even when built, are subjected to ruinous taxation. \n\nMuch as we may abhor the ideals of modem Germany, we must commend \nher intelligence in managing her finances. By reducing taxation on property, \nshe has encouraged savings among the poorer classes who are thereby given \n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n337 \n\n\nthe opportunity to own their homes. Permanent improvements on property \nare not taxed\u2014the whole effort is directed to an increase in national wealth, \nthe only condition which brings about natural wage increases and sound pros\u00ac \nperity. \n\nThis attempt to condense the work of Rustgard into a short summary may \ngive the reader the idea that the book is technical and difficult. On the con\u00ac \ntrary, it strips away the camouflage and needless complexities of modem eco\u00ac \nnomic problems and reveals their true relation to principles of justice and fair \ndealing. We realize more completely than ever the pathetic moral bank\u00ac \nruptcy of modern civilization. The problem of poverty is not a matter to be \nsettled by legislation, sentimental philanthropy or any external panacea; it is \nbasically the ancient problem of individual morality. Until the poverty- \nstricken learn to satisfy their needs before their desires, they cannot release \nthemselves, and their would-be benefactors cannot unshackle them from the \nbonds of poverty. C.E.C. \n\n\nWhat Has and Will Come to Pass , by the Reverend Walter Wynn; Rider & \nCompany, London; price, is. \n\nPyramid students will find this book little more than a synopsis of the works \nof the Edgar brothers, of Grattan Guinness, Davidson and Aldersmith, etc. \nThe Reverend Mr. Wynn is obviously an educated man, having an honest, \nenthusiastic faith in his subject, and as such will be able to stimulate many \nminds that are disposed to be attentive. His book, however, will not stand \nthe test of critical scrutiny, even though it be friendly scrutiny. His earnest \nfaith in his work would be a force to drive home his arguments and assertions, \nexcept for the unfortunate appearance he gives them of having originated \nwith himself. While attributing the source of his material to Davidson and \nAldersmith, he does not state with sufficient clearness that, with very few \nexceptions, his entire collection of chapters, dates and deductions, is copied \nfrom the works of his predecessors. He falls, too, into their common error of \nattributing altogether too much importance to the Jews, and of labouring \nhard to identify them with Biblical prophecies, as though such predictions \n(predictions couched in very general and ambiguous words) were not sound \nunless given a specific and religious application. Mr. Wynn fails to see ir^ \ncyclic action the impersonal and general significances which are essential t<r \neven a superficial understanding of the subject. \n\nIt is thus in the suggestiveness of certain of Mr. Wynn\u2019s incidental com\u00ac \nments, rather than in his treatment of his main theme, that the book may be \nof interest to those acquainted with the literature of the field. On page 70, \nhe notes, for example, that in the possibility of Germany or Russia getting \ncontrol of the eastern end of the Mediterranean is the threat of their gaining \ncommand of the world. We could wish the author had expanded this and \ndriven it home to the British audience which he is directly addressing. There \na 4 fclfhose who believe (and with reason) that the last war was waged by Ger- \n\n\n\n338 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nmany for the primary purpose of getting control of the Dardanelles; and that \nit was a misfortune of the first magnitude that England failed there, since it \nleaves all the major issues still to be fought out. It can rarely be fair to blame \nan author for what he does not undertake to do, but had the Reverend Mr. \nWynn not been content to leave his own thought undeveloped, while so facilely \nadopting the work and errors of others, he could, we believe, have made his \nbook more valuable than it is, and given his readers a truer picture of the great \nrealities to which the Pyramid points as symbol. If one takes a terrestrial \nglobe (a map will not do, for it distorts the perspective), and, placing the point \nof a compass at Giza, sweeps circles round it, one will see how the world\u2019s \ncapitols and strongholds are related to the Pyramid, so that that ancient \nmonument, in its silent, desert sands, unchanged through all the changing \ncycles, appears as the still centre of a whirlpool, surrounded by gyratory zones \nof violent turbulence. It symbolizes the comprehensive, silent, unaltering \npurpose of the Great Lodge, the central pivot of human history, around which \nswing our Western nations, unaware of the hidden r 61 e they fulfil as a matter of \ncyclic destiny. K.R. \n\n\nBy Light , Light: The Mystic Gospel of Hellenistic Judaism , by Erwin R. \nGoodenough, Professor of the History of Religion, Yale University; Yale Uni\u00ac \nversity Press, New Haven, Conn., 1935; price, $5.00. \n\nThe title of this excellent book is explained by a quotation from Philo Judaeus: \n\u201cThey are on the road to Truth who apprehend God by means of Divinity, \nLight by its Light.\u201d Philo, who lived in Alexandria at the beginning of the \nChristian era, is not as well known as he deserves to be. In histories of phi\u00ac \nlosophy, he is generally described merely as a devout Jew whose love of Greek \nlearning led him to undertake the task of proving that Moses and Plato taught \nthe same doctrines. Some scholars have compared his description of the Logos, \nor Word of God, with the first chapter of St. John\u2019s Gospel. In his study of \n\u201cPaul the Disciple\u201d, Mr. Charles Johnston pointed out that the spirit of Gama\u00ac \nliel, ^t whose feet sat St. Paul, is \u201cthoroughly in harmony with the spirit of \nPhilo\u201d, and that, in his allegorical interpretation of the Torah, St. Paul \u201cfol\u00ac \nlows in Philo\u2019s footsteps, besides accepting the whole Platonic background of \nPhilo\u2019s thought\u201d (cf. Theosophical Quarterly, vol. XIII, pp. 243, seq.). \n\nIt is true that before his conversion, St. Paul was a Pharisee, whereas Philo \nseems to have belonged to the rival caste of the Sadducees. However, if Profes\u00ac \nsor Goodenough\u2019s theory be accepted, the common elements in Philo, Paul \nand the Fourth Gospel might be partly explained by the existence of a Jewish \nMystery to which both Pharisees and Sadducees were admitted. Among the \nJews of the Diaspora, who were in daily contact with Gentile influences, a \nmystical religious life became prevalent, no counterpart of which can be found \nin the \u201cnormative\u201d legalistic and rabbinical tradition of Palestine. Its af\u00ac \nfinities are with the secret orders of Greece, Egypt and Persia, with the Mys\u00ac \nteries of Bacchus and Orpheus, of Isis and Osiris and Mithra. As Professor \n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n339 \n\n\nGoodenough shows, it is quite certain that the Alexandrian Jews had their own \norganization of the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries, with occult rites and in\u00ac \nstructions and a hierarchy of initiates. Many, at least, of the details of this \norganization may have been deliberately copied from Pagan originals. It \nwas not painful for the Jews to \u201cborrow\u201d such things from their neighbours, \nfor whenever they found something praiseworthy in a Gentile environment, \nthey had only to yield to their racial sense of self-satisfaction, to convince \nthemselves that it must have been conceived in the first instance by a Jew. \nThey could claim the Egyptian and Greek wisdom as their own, because they \nidentified Moses with Hermes Trismegistus and with Musaeus, the teacher of \nOrpheus. \n\nAlexandria was the centre of the Jewish Mystery, and Philo was its most \ndistinguished exponent. A student of Theosophy would suggest that Plato \nwas a real Initiate, in a profounder and broader sense than Professor Good- \nenough\u2019s research indicates. It is possible that Hellenistic Jewish mysticism \nwas only an adaptation of a very old tradition to changed conditions. In \nthat event, Philo\u2019s Mystery resembles those of Hermes and Orpheus, not merely \nbecause he or his predecessors imitated them, but because he was, in some \ndegree, familiar with the great common source of all forms of the Mysteries, \nthe universal Wisdom-Religion. It is natural that he should have sought and \nfound mystical truth in the scriptures of his own people. He was convinced \nthat the Jewish Mystery had existed in pure form in the remote age of the \nPatriarchs. Above all, he exalted Moses, the Hierophant, the Sage-King, who \nhad set forth and embodied the Torah, the Law of Divine Nature, the Logos, \nand had proved in his own person the possibility of transforming the mortal \ninto the Immortal and of reuniting the individual with the universal Being. \n\nIt is of exceptional interest to students of Theosophy, that Philo seems to \nhave believed in the continuing existence of the \u201cMystic Moses\u201d as the guardian \nof those of his race who genuinely sought liberation and enlightenment. \u201cI my\u00ac \nself have been initiated by the God-beloved Moses into the Greater Mys\u00ac \nteries\u201d, he wrote. There is this prayer to the supreme Hierophant: \n\nOh, thou hierophant, though the eyes of our soul are closed because we do not desire \nto see, or cannot do so, still do thou uphold us and help us and not cease to anoint us \nuntil thou hast initiated us into the hidden meaning of the sacred words and revealed \nthose locked beauties which are invisible to the uninitiated. This it is meet for thee \nto do. \n\nIn another passage, Philo numbers Moses and Abraham among the Saviours \nof humanity. \n\nHouseholds, cities, countries, tribes, and regions of the earth have enjoyed great happi\u00ac \nness when a single individual has taken heed of beauty and righteousness, and especially \nwhen God has given this individual, along with the good character, an irresistible power, \nto serve him as musical instruments or constructive tools serve a musician or craftsman, \nor as sticks of wood serve a fire. For in reality the just man is the foundation prop of \nthe human race. And he brings everything he has into the common stock and gives it \n\n\n\n\n\n\n340 \n\n\nTHE0S0PHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nwithout stint for the benefit of those who will use it: what he himself lacks, he asks from \nGod who alone has unlimited wealth. \n\nProfessor Goodenough\u2019s reflections upon Philo\u2019s famous Logos Doctrine are \nof great interest and value. He believes\u2014with good reason, we think\u2014that \nsome form of the Logos Doctrine was present as the nucleus of every Mystery \nin the ancient world. It was the enduring purpose of the initiate of every \ndegree to \u201capprehend God by means of Divinity, Light by its Light\u201d. As one \nmight say, the Unmanifested and the Incorporeal is known through the de\u00ac \nscending scale of its manifestations and embodiments. This theory of emana\u00ac \ntion , as it has been called, was widely disseminated in the Hellenistic world, \neven in exoteric circles, and it is quite probable that Philo consciously made \nuse of the Gentile imagery in which it had been cast. It is instructive, for ex\u00ac \nample, to compare his work with that of Plutarch and Apuleius, whose funda\u00ac \nmental doctrines so often recall his, although they were addressing very dif\u00ac \nferent groups. \n\nOne of the most familiar facts about Philo is that to him God was the Absolute, a sin\u00ac \ngle and unique Being beyond even the Monad and the number One, as well as beyond \nthe Good and all other categories. Yet, like the God of later Neo-Platonism, Philo\u2019s \nDeity had somehow to be brought into relation with the world. . . . The sun was taken \nas the figure, that orb which bums, to all appearances eternally, yet without need of \nfuel from outside itself. Independent of the world, a self-sufficient existence, it sends \nout its great stream of light and heat which makes life possible upon the earth. This \nstream may be called a stream of light, or of heat, or of life, or of creation. ... It is not \nthe sun, but it is the projection of the sun to us. \n\nThis Light-Stream from the Absolute or within the Absolute is the Logos, \nthe \u201cLight of Light\u201d. The image is, indeed, universal. It is repeated, in many \nforms, in the Hindu scriptures, and is to be seen, carved upon the monuments \nof ancient Mexico. \n\nTwo main types of formulation of the Stream had arisen, what may be called the Per\u00ac \nsian type of pleroma, and the Female Principle type. According to the Persian type, \nGod is a solar source sending out rays. In the Pseudo-Aristotelian Dt Mundo , the satraps \nof the Great King are used as figures, for they projected out through the great realm of \nPersia the Royal Power which was invisibly concealed at its source in the capital. . . . \nThis, the Hellenistic writer used as a myth of the Absolute God, sending out his [Poten\u00ac \ncies] to be the divine forces and representations in the material world. In oriental reli\u00ac \ngions themselves there were families of deities, theogonies and . . . descending groups \nof deities. [Professor Goodenough mentions, by way of example, the six Amesha Spentas, \nthe personified Potencies of the Persian Ahura Mazda]. . . . The highest of the lower \ndeities is the mystic guide along the Way through the pleroma to the Greatest. . . . \n\nOver against this general organization of the Light-Stream . . . stands the Female \nPrinciple type of formulation. . . . According to Plutarch, Osiris, the light god and the \nLogos, has a wife, Isis, through whom he produces Horus, the type of the projection of \ndivine light into the lower realm. Horus would seem to be the Divine Stream as clothed \nin matter, the Cosmic Logos. Just what Isis typifies does not clearly appear. She is \nthe \u201cFemale Principle in nature, the recipient of all coming into being\u201d. . . . Her long\u00ac \ning for Osiris, her gathering his fragments together, is a symbol of the whole spirit of \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n34i \n\n\nmystic ascent, the desire to find the whole of God in place of fragments, and the intense \nlonging for union. \n\nPhilo uses and blends both the Persian and the Egyptian-Greek representations \nof the Logos. Sometimes he describes the Patriarchs\u2019 progress toward union, \nas a series of self-transformations, whereby they become assimilated to one after \nanother of the Potencies or Attributes of Divinity. Sometimes he symbolizes \ninitiation as a mystic marriage with Wisdom, with the Divine Sophia, who like \nIsis is the lover and the beloved of God. The splendour of his conception is \nillustrated in such a passage as the following, defining the veritable function \nof the high-priest. \n\nFor the cosmos is a temple in which the high-priest is the Protogonos, the Logos, . . . \nof which the one who offers up the ancestral prayers and sacrifices is a material imita\u00ac \ntion. He is commanded to put on the . . . tunic as a copy of the universal cosmos, \nthat the world may worship together with man, and man with the universe. \n\nS.V.L. \n\n\nClashing Tides of Colour , by Lothrop Stoddard; Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons \nNew York, London, 1935; price, $3.00. \n\nFor four centuries before the Great War, says this author, the basis of world \npolitics had been the ascendancy of the white race, attaining its climax in \n1900 when \u201cWestern man stood the indisputable master of the planet\u201d. The \nRusso-Japanese war, in 1904, was a prodigious shock to Western prestige, \nthough it left the West still strong enough to discourage rapid and violent \nchanges. With the Great War, however, white supremacy was clearly fore\u00ac \ndoomed, the only question being whether the white man \u201cwould be strong \nenough to beat an orderly retreat\u201d. The rising tide, or the clashing tides of \ncolour (he has written books under both titles), he views then, as a rising tide \nof chaos. \n\nThe book is a survey, admirable in many respects, of the outstanding prob\u00ac \nlems in contemporary world affairs. Dealing with each of the great racial \ngroups in turn, the author outlines its social and economic conditions, sketch\u00ac \ning just enough historical background to show its distinctive line of evolution \nand the origins of its basic racial traditions, ideals and culture. He then shows \nthe effect of the introduction of Western civilization and the machine age. \n\u201cWe realize\u201d, he writes, \u201cthe profound transformations which the machine \ncivilization has already brought to us Occidentals among whom it arose. So, \nwhen we ponder what it has already done to us, we may well ask what it will \ndo to peoples of widely different blood and temperament on whom it is break\u00ac \ning suddenly without warning or preparation.\u201d \u201cWestern civilization has \nliterally conquered the world. The world \u2014hut not the man!\" The triumphs \nof our civilization have been triumphs over the forces of nature, and have \ntransformed the outer material world, \u201cbut Man remains practically \nunfejpged\u201d. \n\n\n\n342 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nHe shows Western industrialism\u2014and less obviously but more insidiously, \nWestern individualism\u2014affecting ancient political, economic and social institu\u00ac \ntions, venerable traditions, age-old religions, with the result, as in Asia for in\u00ac \nstance, that \u201call is in profound ferment. This ferment arises not from within \nbut from without. Its causes are external, foreign. The process is thus a dis\u00ac \nsolvent rather than an organic growth. Herein lies the full gravity of the \nsituation. Acute though our Western crisis may be, it is less serious than that \nof Asia. For our problems are fundamentally those of adaptation to changes \nengendered by ourselves and possessing a logical connection with our past. \nThe peoples of Asia, on the contrary, are suddenly compelled to rebuild from \nthe ground up an edifice continuously shaken to its foundations by strange \nnew forces. ... If the West is threatened with disintegration, the East is \nmenaced with downright dissolution.\u201d \n\nA third of the book is devoted to the problems of the Western world, includ\u00ac \ning Latin America and its Indian problem; the remainder to those of China, \nJapan, India, Islam and Africa,\u2014four hundred concisely written pages. In a \nbook of this character, it is a relief to find consistently carried through, a recog\u00ac \nnition of values above the material plane. \u201cCan Man adapt himself to the \nmachine?\u201d the author asks. \u201cNo one will seriously deny that our mechan\u00ac \nistic civilization logically implies an increasing degree of human co-operation; \nthat some sort of world-order is needed if our civilization is to endure. Yet \ncan it be a world-order which puts economic considerations ahead of every\u00ac \nthing else? At such a price may not men refuse even the boon of material \nprosperity?\u201d \u201cThe necessity of making due allowance for non-material ele\u00ac \nments cannot be exaggerated, because it is just these which modem man is \nprone to ignore. Yet he does so at his peril, for he thereby remains unaware of \nthe deeper realities of our time.\u201d Deploring the fact that attempts to bring \nabout unity in Europe have appealed chiefly to sentiments of fear or material \nself-interest, he writes: \u201cEconomics usually has the last word. At any rate \nwe never find it subordinated to cultural or spiritual values. Herriot typifies \nthis attitude when, as already noted, he asserts: \u2018First give Europe a body, \nthen give it a soul!\u2019 However, do not his own words prove why Herriot and \nhis ilk have not succeeded? How can they expect to create anything truly \nconstructive and enduring unless it possesses from the very first that vital \nspark which kindles lofty enthusiasms and engenders a burning idealism evok\u00ac \ning self-sacrifice? Unless the soul be ever-present, you have either a corpse or \na robot\u2014a lifeless automaton.\u201d \n\nVariety and breadth of view are obtained through frequent use of quotations \nfrom recent books or magazine articles written by specialists in their respective \nlines. Whatever the bias of the reader regarding controversial points, this book, \nwith its long view of the past and its extensive panorama of the present, affords \na good background into which to fit the kaleidoscopic changes of current events, \n\u2014the fragmentary reports of which, in newspapers and magazines, are so often \nconfusing and difficult to gauge in their true relationship and proportion. \n\nJ.C. \n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n343 \n\n\nWake Up and Live!, by Dorothea Brande; Simon and Schuster, New York, \n1936; price, $1.75. \n\nIt is no doubt significant that this book should have aroused widespread \nand eager interest. Its remarkable popularity would lead one to think that \nmany people nowadays are dissatisfied with the trend of their lives, and are \nlooking for inspiration and light from any available source. Mrs. Brande \ndoes not cater to the laziness and cowardice so prevalent to-day, nor does she \noffer a formula for instant success. She outlines a course of self-discipline which \nwill lead to a competent control of one\u2019s mental and emotional equipment, and \nfit one to succeed in any work which one may undertake. She gives practical \nadvice as to how to make a dream come true, urging \u201cdo something every day \ntowards your intention, however remote your goal may have to be\u201d. Again \nshe writes: \u201cWe all live so far below the possible level for our lives that when \nwe are set free from the things which hamper us, so that we merely approach \nthe potentialities in ourselves, we seem to have been entirely transfigured.\u201d \n\nThe book is based on the author\u2019s own experience, and the introduction \ndescribes how her life was transformed two years ago by reading a sentence \nby F. W. H. Myers. It was then that she began to evolve the point of view and \nthe method shown in her book. She has no sympathy with what she calls \nthe alibis of our age. \u201cWe all know a little too much about Glands Regulating \nPersonality, and the Havoc raised by Resistances, and so on. Never since \nthe world began were there such good opportunities to be lazy with distinc\u00ac \ntion. . . . Remarkable cures of resistances, however, have been observed in \nthose who took solemnly our ancestors\u2019 outmoded synonym for the same thing: \n\u2018bone-laziness\u2019. It is not quite so much fun, nor so flattering, to be foolishly \nlazy as it is to be the victim of a technical term, but many are crippled for \nknowing an impressive word who would have had no such trouble if they had \nlived in a simpler and less self-indulgent society.\u201d \n\nMrs. Brande has read widely, and draws on a variety of systems of thought \nfor her ideas and illustrations. She quotes from Pico della Mirandola and \nJoubert, for example, in some very helpful paragraphs on the distinction be\u00ac \ntween passive fancy and creative imagination. Readers of the Quarterly \nwould probably disagree with her estimate of such men as Freud and Adler, \nbut her conclusions on the whole seem sound and constructive. She is least \nconvincing when trying to find a basis in modern psychology for the impulse \nwhich she calls the Will to Fail, as opposed to the well-known Will to Live and \nWill to Power of the German school. She is at her best when outlining practi\u00ac \ncal methods of discipline, and it is these which might be of interest and value \nto those seeking a higher life. She allows no excuses, no weakening; and a \nperson whole-heartedly following the methods she outlines could hardly fail to \nincrease greatly his effectiveness and capacity. \n\nIt is deeply to be regretted that the writer of such a stimulating book, who is \nendowed with considerable insight, and shows so much enthusiasm for a life of \ndiscipline, and energy in pursuing it, should have no better goal to offer than \nto \u201cdance, study calculus or Greek, become better-looking, or hear more \n\n\n344 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nmusic\u201d, or even \u2018\u2018travelling, modelling, writing, farming\u201d. Her method of achiev\u00ac \ning success in these worldly fields, which at best would only gratify the per\u00ac \nsonality, if applied with vigour and persistence for purposes of the soul, should \nhelp us to become more useful instruments of the Cause the Quarterly repre\u00ac \nsents, and which we all long to serve in any way we can. \n\nH.M. \n\n\nMy Country and My People , by Lin Yutang, published by John Day in as\u00ac \nsociation with Reynal and Hitchcock, New York, 1935; price, S3.00. \n\nDr. Lin Yutang was educated in Christian Mission schools and took degrees \nat Harvard and Leipsic. He says that he is no longer a Christian but a Pagan. \nPerhaps he means by this that he has returned to the philosophy of his ances\u00ac \ntors. His book is hailed by many critics as \u2018\u2018the best book on China\u201d. It is, \ncertainly, full of information, thought and wit. It not only throws light on \nChina and the Chinese, but also, by contrast, upon the civilization of the West. \n\nIn his first chapter on \u2018\u2018The Chinese People\u201d, Dr. Lin Yutang gives a table \nof the cycles of Chinese history, which should interest students of Theosophy. \nHe says: \n\nFor the striking fact is that Chinese history can be conveniently divided into cycles \nof eight hundred years. Each cycle begins with a short-lived and militarily strong \ndynasty, which unified China after centuries of internal strife. Then followed four or \nfive hundred years of peace, with one change of dynasty, succeeded by successive waves \nof wars, resulting soon in the removal of the capital from the North to the South. Then \ncame secession and rivalry between North and South with increasing intensity, followed \nby subjugation under a foreign rule, which ended the cycle. History then repeats itself \nand with the unification of China again under Chinese rule, there is a new bloom of \nculture. \n\nThe fourth of these cycles is now, after six hundred years, at the point where \nthe capital has been removed from the North to the South, from Peking to \nNanking, and it would seem as though the period of foreign invasion were at \nhand. Dr. Lin Yutang says: \u2018\u2018The parallelism of events within each cycle \nunfolded itself with an unreasonable mechanical exactness as to time and \nsequence.\u201d It appears that a great engineering feat is repeated \u2018\u2018with fatal \nregularity and at the exact stage in each cycle\u201d. It would be interesting to \ncompare these periods with those given for the West by Flinders Petrie in his \nfascinating little book, The Revolutions of Civilization. \n\nIn his second chapter, Dr. Lin Yutang discusses the Chinese character. \n\u201cCharacter\u201d, he says, \u201cis a typically English word. Apart from the English, \nfew nations have laid such stress on character in their ideal of education and \nmanhood as the Chinese. The Chinese seem to be so pre-occupied with it that \nin their whole philosophy they have not been able to think of anything else.\u201d \nHe lists fifteen traits of character as most typical of the race: sanity, simplicity, \nlove of nature, patience, indifference, old roguery, fecundity, industry, fru\u00ac \ngality, love of family life, pacifism, contentment, humour, conservatism and \nsensuality. He points out that some of these characteristics are vices rather \n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n345 \n\n\nthan virtues, the weakness as well as the strength of the nation. \u201cOld rogu\u00ac \nery\u201d he especially enlarges upon with a charming wit. It is the peculiar quality \nof mellow disillusionment and common-sense, gained by a long experience of \nlife. Cranmer-Byng, in his book, The Vision of Asia , draws an interesting \ncomparison between the Greek love of youth and horror of old age and decay, \nand the Chinese veneration for age and experience, so exquisitely illustrated \nin the painting by Sesshu of the God of Longevity, Jurojin, an old man with \nlong white hair and beard, standing with his pet deer under a flowering tree. \n\nThe Chinese are an essentially rural people, and have always remained at\u00ac \ntached to the soil and to nature. This is one of the secrets of their persistence \nas a race, and the cause of the particular form of many of their qualities. Dr. \nLin Yutang says: \u201cThe Chinese ideal of happiness was, then, not \u2018the exercise \nof one\u2019s powers along lines of their excellence\u2019, as was that of the Greeks, but \nthe enjoyment of this simple rural life together with the harmony of social \nrelationships.\u201d Another reason for the renewal of the race has been the possi\u00ac \nbility for men to rise from any class of society into the highest official positions \nthrough the system of examinations. This was what Napoleon endeavoured \nto establish in France: la carrikre ouverte aux talents; \u201call careers open to \ntalent\u201d. \n\nDr. Lin Yutang\u2019s remarks on Taoism and Buddhism must seem to the stu\u00ac \ndent of Theosophy so lacking in mystical understanding as to be pathetic. \nWhat a pity that so brilliant a person should have perceived so little of their \ninner meaning! He was educated as a Christian and should return to his own \nracial traditions with an extended comprehension. Perhaps the brand of Christi\u00ac \nanity inculcated by missionaries and Western universities is profoundly ma\u00ac \nterialistic and shuts the mind to the intuition of spiritual consciousness. Dr. \nHu Shih, the much lauded \u201cFather of the Chinese Renaissance\u201d, describes \nLao Tze as an \u201cold bum\u201d and an anarchist. Fortunately, we are told that as \nChinamen grow older they lose their veneration for Western smartness and \nrevert to the racial ideals. They do not grow old fast enough. \n\nIn his Epilogue , Dr. Lin Yutang wonders what can save China from the \nfrightful anarchy of to-day. He seems to think that Justice is what is most \nneeded, impartial Justice for all classes of men. Just how this reign of Justice \nis to be achieved is mysterious. He says: \u201cThat time will come, but it re\u00ac \nquires a change of ideology; the family-minded Chinese must be changed inter \nthe social-minded Chinese, and the pet ideas, age-old, of \u2018face\u2019, favour and! \nprivilege and official success, and robbing the Nation to glorify the family, \nmust be overthrown.\u201d Alas! Is this the only result of so much cerebration? \n\n\u201cWhen the Great Tao ceased to be observed, benevolence and righteousness \ncame into vogue. Then appeared wisdom and shrewdness, and there ensued \ngreat hypocrisy.\u201d We may well add that when individual virtue ceased to be \npopular, social-mindedness became fashionable. Meditation upon the inner \nmeaning of the sayings of those agents of the Great Lodge, Lao-Tze, Confucius, \nBodhidharma, who gave to China its Way of Salvation, and putting an under\u00ac \nstating of them into action in the individual life, will alone save China. \n\n\n346 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nThe Tao in its regular course does nothing for the sake of doing it, and so there is \nnothing which it does not. If princes and kings were able to maintain it, all things \nwould of themselves be transformed by them. \n\nIf this transformation became to me an object of desire, I would express the desire by \nthe Nameless Simplicity. \n\n. St.C. LaD. \n\n\nAncient Irish Tales , edited by Tom Peete Cross and Clark Harris Slover; \nHenry Holt and Company, New York, 1936; price, $3.75. \n\nThe purpose of this volume, as stated by the editors, is to present in intelli\u00ac \ngible modem English a representative collection of ancient Irish sagas and \nromances at present not accessible in translation, except in little-known tech\u00ac \nnical periodicals or in books now rare or long since out of print. In the early \ncenturies, \u201cso powerful was the influence of the Latin tongue that, in the West, \nonly nations outside the Roman Empire succeeded in preserving any early \nrecords in their native speech. Of the western peoples beyond the immediate \nsway of Rome, few learned the art of writing early enough to record for pos\u00ac \nterity any native pagan traditions in the vernacular. Chief among these were \nthe Irish, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Icelanders. Of the three, the Irish were \nthe first to receive letters and to develop a national literature, and it is per\u00ac \nhaps ultimately to Irish influence that we owe the oldest written records in \nAnglo-Saxon and in Icelandic.\u201d Some of the material here used was handed \ndown by word of mouth from long before the Christian era,\u2014from a time \nwhen a people \u201cof the Greeks of Scythia\u201d, \u201ca-rowing the Caspian Sea\u201d, and \nwandering till they reached the great Northern Ocean, invaded and took pos\u00ac \nsession of Ireland, followed later by other invading tribes. The tales immortal\u00ac \nize the deeds of the heroes of a fiercely warlike people, with a background of \namazon-sorcerers, of druids with their magic, white and black, and of fairy \npeople who, some modern commentators conclude, were earth gods. It is \nprobable that many of the extraordinary feats attributed to an individual \nwere actually the achievements of a tribe; probable too, that in the very early \nperiods highly developed occult powers were by no means uncommon (Atlantean \norigins and connections seem almost certain). In the re-telling by generation \nafter generation, the tales have become embroidered and magnified and exag\u00ac \ngerated until no invention seems too fabulous to meet with acceptance. It \nmay be remembered that some of this same material was translated, thirty \nor more years ago, by Lady Gregory, who, instead of modem literary English, \nused the current Irish idiom as being nearer to the spirit of the original. \nWhether on the lattef score, or because of her method of expurgating, or for \nthe beauty of her selections,\u2014of the two versions, hers would possess, for some \nreaders, the greater charm. \n\nThree great cycles are included in the present book, the earliest or Mytho\u00ac \nlogical, the Ulster and the Ossianic cycles, with a dozen or so additional tales \nfor good measure. The first group is refreshing, those from late centuries \nsomewhat wearisome, while perhaps the most invigorating is the middle group \n\n\n\nREVIEWS \n\n\n347 \n\n\nor Ulster cycle, centring about the deeds of the youthful hero Cu Chulain, \ncomeliest of the men of Erin, outdistancing all others in his swift chariot, versed \nin the arts of druidry, prudent in battle till the warrior flame was upon him, \nthe unconquerable champion of his people. The code of a champion of those \ndays, as indicated in the successive incidents, is an absorbing study,\u2014the \nstandard of honour, loyalty, friendship, valour. There is the unusual story \nof sworn friends, through trickery compelled to fight one another to the death \nas a matter of honour\u2014fighting from dawn to dusk, then exchanging the kiss \nof friendship; retiring for the night to opposite banks of a stream, each send\u00ac \ning his servant, one with food, the other with healing herbs to ease his oppo\u00ac \nnent\u2019s need, then up at daybreak and on with the fight with renewed ferocity; \nthis for three days, until one lay dead and the other was free to give himself \nto heartfelt grief. Those were days when fighting was an art, a test of the \ntrue worth of the individual, and the valleys rang with the clash of shields and \nthe battle-shout of the victor. The warrior spirit is a splendid feature of the \nstories: the unflagging will to achieve, the determination that regards nothing \nas impossible, brooks no obstacle, recognizes no defeat. Cu Chulain\u2019s short \nlife was, of course, the epitome of it and his death a fitting climax. Cu Chulain \nthe invincible, overwhelmed at last by appalling odds, and dying of wounds \nfrom which any ordinary mortal would have been helpless and senseless, gath\u00ac \nered himself together (in the most literal sense); he \u201cwent to a pillar-stone \nwhich is in the plain, and he put his breast-girdle round it that he might not \ndie seated nor lying down, but that he might die standing up. Then came \nthe men all around him [his foes], but they durst not go to him, for they thought \nhe was alive.\u201d \n\nBecause of their highly imaginative quality and their spirit of martial valour, \nthe stories would serve admirably for growing boys and girls; it is the more \nregrettable, then, that they cannot be recommended for such use without \nexpurgation. \n\nX.Y.Z. \n\n\nSt. Jerome; The early years, by Paul Monceaux; translated by F. J. Sheed; \nSheed & Ward, New York; price, $2.00. \n\nTo many of us, St. Jerome is perhaps best known because of the almost endless \npictures which Renaissance Italy has painted of him; we are as familiar with his \nlion as we are with the famous wolf of Gubbio\u2014probably more so, for Brother \nWolf was only one of the many other animals who fell victim to the irresistible \ncharms of St. Francis, while the lion of St. Jerome has no rivals in his faithful \ncompanionship. But St. Jerome was far more than a desert recluse\u2014the r 61 e in \nwhich most laymen imagine him; and although his life is little known to the \ngeneral reader, \u201camong the Fathers of the Church there is no more original writer. \n\nnone more individual, vivid, witty- He is a bom writer; fresh, sparkling with \n\nverve and malice, with bursts of satire and flashes of genius-a furious contro- \n\nver(\u00aetst, a pamphleteer at need\u201d, in fact a most brilliant and versatile saint! \n\n\n\n348 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\nParticularly since the seventeenth century, however, there has been much con\u00ac \nfusion concerning the various periods of his life, his longevity, and the actual \nchronology of events, so that \u201cthe whole study of St. Jerome had to begin again \nat the beginning\u201d. The saint has thrown the scholar into the shade, and the \nobject of this small book is to give a more accurate account of his early years \nthan has hitherto been available in popular form. Fortunately St. Jerome liked \nvery much to talk about himself, to tell the many and various experiences which \nbefell him, and being an enthusiastic writer of letters, what he says in them is \nnaturally the source of most of our information. We are taken from his child\u00ac \nhood at Stridon, through his school days and the completion of his studies in \nRome, and then we follow his wanderings, we share his temptations (to which, \nas he frankly admits, he all too often yielded), and we go with him into the \ndesert where he sought solitude and peace, and where he found neither. We are \nnot taken beyond the first thirty years of his life, when he left the desert and went \nback to the world, and it is, of course, the study of his character which interests \nus chiefly\u2014his unflagging energy, his splendid tenacity of purpose, his fiery deter\u00ac \nmination to follow and serve that which he loved, for these are all necessary steps \ntoward discipleship. His very defects helped to keep him vibrant and keen: \n\u201che was stormy and sensitive, quick to anger, resentful, capable even of terrible \nbursts of violence\u201d; but with all this he was \u201ca mighty warrior with the soul of an \napostle, an unwearied student, a fresh and original writer; such was Jerome at \nthirty, when he turned his back on the monks of the desert, to re-enter the \nworld and face the unknown future.\u201d \n\nThis book was first published in two articles in the Revue des Deux Mondes. \nIt has been well translated and will be valuable both to serious students and to \nthe more casual reader. \n\nT.D. \n\n\nThe Last of the Empresses , and the passing from the Old China to the New , by \nDaniele Var\u00a3; John Murray, London, 1936; price, 155. \n\nThe Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi (the \u201cold Buddha\u201d, as she was sometimes \naddressed) was the last of the great Asiatic rulers, and it is in this sense that \nthe author speaks of her as the last of the Empresses. We recommend the \nbook because the author is fair-minded. His account of the Boxer outbreak and \nof the siege of the Legations, is particularly interesting. \n\nThe old Empress had standards very different from ours, but which, in some \nrespects, were superior to those of her American-educated Chinese detractors, \nwho are \u201cneither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red-herring\u201d. Further, she held \nChina together, which is more than they have done or ever will do. This book \nshows with what amazing courage and ability she did it. \n\nF. \n\n\n\n\nQuestion No. 400 .\u2014Does every soul come into incarnation with an innate sense of right and \nwrong? \n\nAnswer. \u2014The extent of this innate sense must depend upon past incarnations. What \nhappened then? This life is a continuation. We take things up where we left off. If, in \npast lives, we have deliberately dulled our perception of right and wrong through self-in\u00ac \ndulgence and self-will, we shall have the same dullness of perception now. If, in the past, \nwe have been on the side of the angels; have fought in all ways, inner and outer, for vision \nand understanding and wisdom and growth; have attained to some degree of perception,\u2014 \nwe must be profiting by it now. C.R.A. \n\nAnswer. \u2014It is said in The Mahatma Letters that the highest Planetary Spirits appear on \nearth only at the origin of every new human kind, in order to impress the eternal truths \nso forcibly upon the mind of the new races that they will not be lost or entirely for\u00ac \ngotten in ages thereafter. \u201cThe mission of the Planetary Spirit is but to strike the Key\u00ac \nnote of Truth. The vibrations of the Primitive Truth are what your philosophers call \u2018in\u00ac \nnate ideas*.' 1 \n\nHow many souls have responded to the eternal truths impressed upon the race? So few, \nprobably, that the majority come into incarnation in darkness, although they may later \nlearn to see the light. When a soul has \u201cbrought over\u201d from a past incarnation the ability \nto distinguish between right and wrong, he has earned it by past obedience to the light he \nhad then seen. The knowledge remains latent unless, by renewing the effort of the previous \nincarnation, the sense of right and wrong previously possessed is regained; but, if the effort \nis not made, that knowledge would be deadened, and persistent refusal to obey the light \nwould result eventually in losing it altogether. G.H.M. \n\nQuestion No. 401 .\u2014If every individual was meant to il walk with the Gods\"\u2014that is to say t \nif every individual has the innate capacity for regeneration\u2014can he not be certain that his an\u00ac \nnihilation will never be? \n\nAnswer. \u2014Not unless he does something about it, and the longer he puts this off, the more \nlikely it is that regeneration will never take place. There is nothing positive, in itself, in thia \ninnate capacity. Until a man is converted, \u201cturned about\u201d; until he sets his face to comply \nwith Universal Law; until he comes to some understanding of himself and of his lower nature, \nand aligns his will with that Law in an effort to change himself and his life, it profiteth him \nnothing. The longer he puts off doing these things, the more difficult is his task. C.R.A. \n\nAnswer. \u2014The doctrine of annihilation, or the death of the soul, is a difficult one for West\u00ac \nern man to comprehend. On the material plane he can understand that, because of improper \nacts and associations, he may be cut off from what, otherwise, would be his rightful heritage. \nThis is within his experience, if not directly, at least indirectly. On the spiritual plane he \n\n\n350 \n\n\nTHEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY \n\n\ndoes not function as clearly. He has but slight, if any, knowledge of reincarnation. Also, \nthe priests and clergy have vitiated the teaching of the Master Christ in their efforts to ap\u00ac \npeal to the materially active, but spiritually lazy, man of the West. He is made to think \nthat immortality is his, regardless of his omissions and commissions; yet, on the material \nplane, he knows that success is conditioned: that to have and to hold, he must earn and con\u00ac \nserve. The sages of old held that immortality is conditioned: that, while man was meant \n.to \u201cwalk with the Gods\u201d, he must prove himself worthy of, and keep himself fit for, their \ncompany, or forego their companionship. One way of speaking more directly to the point, \nis in terms of the seven principles. Theosophical philosophy, which is based on the truths \nheld and lived by the sages of old, shows man as a creature of seven principles, three of which \nare, to use English words: at one pole, Divine Will, pure and eternal; at the other pole, its \nperversion, Personal Desire, selfish and transitory; and, oscillating between the two, Mind \nor Self-consciousness,\u2014man's sense of I am I. Briefly, he is immortal if his mind, or self- \nidentity, gravitates upward towards Divine Will, finally becoming conjoined with it; he is \nmortal if his mind gravitates downward towards Personal Desire, finally merging with it. \nIf, over a series of incarnations, he persists in identifying himself with the selfish and transi\u00ac \ntory, to the exclusion of the pure and eternal element within him, he is severed from the lat\u00ac \nter, somewhat as, on the material plane, he would be disinherited for years of misconduct. \nThus, the personality, or soul\u2014the sense of I am I \u2014goes its way with the selfish and transi\u00ac \ntory Personal Desire, finally dying ignominiously with, and as, it. The Real, or Higher, \nEgo does not die. It continues, and, eventually, attaches to itself another personality, or \nsoul, in the hope that this soul will properly prize and use the divine force coming to \nit through the Higher Mind, or Soul. G.M.W.K. \n\nAnswer. \u2014Man\u2019s destiny is to become divine; that is the object of evolution. The Lodge \nis constantly striving to arouse man to a realization of his divine potentialities and to take \nthe steps necessary to claim his inheritance. But, regardless of whatever \u201cinnate capacity\" \nhe may have or have had in the past, his progress will depend upon whether he strives con\u00ac \nsciously to identify himself with the divine part of his nature. If he persists in refusal to do \nso, and identifies himself with his lower nature, he will gradually lose his divine heritage, and \nthe personality eventually will be annihilated. In The Mahatma Letters reference is made to \nmatter which is found to be entirely divorced from spirit, being thrown over into the still \nlower worlds; the perishing by the million of the laggard Egos; the solemn moment of the \n\u201csurvival of the fittest\"; the annihilation of those unfit. Therefore, no man \u201ccan be certain \nthat his annihilation will never be\". G.H.M. \n\nAnswer. \u2014An engine may be \u201cmeant\" or \u201cdestined\" to produce steam, but it can do so \nonly if supplied with fire and water. The engine that is not used will finally rust, disintegrate, \nand be reduced to its original elements. It should not be necessary to interpret this in terms \nof direct reply to the question. H. \n\n\nNOTICE \n\nThe regular meetings of the New York Branch of The Theosophical Society will be held \nthroughout the winter and spring at 64, Washington Mews (between Washington Square and \nEast Eighth Street), on alternate Saturday evenings, beginning at half-past eight and closing \nat ten o\u2019clock. Branch members will receive a printed announcement giving the dates. The \nsame announcement will also be mailed to non-members who send their names to the Secre\u00ac \ntary T.S., P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York. Out-of-town members of the Society are in\u00ac \nvited to attend these meetings whenever they are in New York, and visitors who may be \nn terested in Theosophy are always welcome. \n\n\n\nINDEX TO VOLUME XXXIII \n\n\nArt of Life, The; R. H. B . \n\nBiblical and Pyramid Prophecy; K. R . \n\nH. P.B .\u2019.27, \n\nR.H.B . \n\nCav6 .16, 101, 190, \n\nCenturion .140, \n\nCivilization, The Death of Art and Beauty; H. P. B. (Reprint) . \n\nConfucius, I, II; Stanley V. LaDow .117, \n\nConvention of The Theosophical Society, Report of the.39, \n\nCornwall and Its Magic; Wayfarer . \n\nFlowers; Sauvage . \n\nFragments; Cavt .16, 101, 190, \n\n\nHistorical Mysteries; X . \n\nIn Memoriam. \n\nIndrawal, Our Great Opportunity; H. G . \n\nLaDow , Stanley V . 117, \n\nLand of Mystery, A, III, IV; H. P. B. (Reprint). \n\nMirror of Nature and of Art, The; Sauvage . \n\nMitchell , H.B . \n\n\u201cNations Can Live at Home\u201d; R. E. T . \n\n\nNotes and Comments.5, 91, 179, \n\nOak and the Nuthatch, The; L. S . \n\nOn the Screen of Time; T . 17, \n\nQuestions and Answers.87, 174, 263, \n\nRemarks by the Way. \n\n\nReprints: Civilization, the Death of Art and Beauty; H. P. B . \n\nLand of Mystery, A, III, IV; H. P.B . \n\nK.R . \n\nReviews: \n\nAncient Irish Tales; ed. by Tom Peete Cross and Clark Harris Slover. . \n\nBy Light, Light; Erwin R. Goodenough . \n\nChinese Renaissance, The; Hu Shih . \n\nCivilization of the East, The: China; Rent Grousset . \n\nClashing Tides of Colour; Lothrop Stoddard . \n\nConvictions and Controversies; Ralph Adams Cram . \n\nCrystalline State, The; ed. by Sir W. H. Bragg and W. L. Bragg . \n\nEntities of Thomas Traherne; cd. by Sir Arthur Quillcr-Couch . \n\n35i \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n35 o THE 0 S 0 PHICAL QUARTERLY \n\ndoes not function as clearly. He has but slight, if any, knowledge of reincarnation. Also, \nthe priests and clergy have vitiated the teaching of the Master Christ in their efforts to ap \npeal to the materially active, but spiritually lazy, man of the West. He is made to think \nthat immortality is his, regardless of his omissions and commissions; yet, on the material \nplane, he knows that success is conditioned: that to have and to hold, he must earn and con\u00ac \nserve. The sages of old held that immortality is conditioned: that, while man was meant \n.to \u201cwalk with the Gods\u201d, he must prove himself worthy of, and keep himself fit for, their \ncompany, or forego their companionship. One way of speaking more directly to the point, \nis in terms of the seven principles. Theosophical philosophy, which is based on the truths \nheld and lived by the sages of old, shows man as a creature of seven principles, three of which \nare, to use English words: at one pole, Divine Will, pure and eternal; at the other pole, its \nperversion, Personal Desire, selfish and transitory; and, oscillating between the two, Mind \nor Self-consciousness,\u2014man\u2019s sense of I am I. Briefly, he is immortal if his mind, or se - \nidentity, gravitates upward towards Divine Will, finally becoming conjoined with it; he is \nmortal if his mind gravitates downward towards Personal Desire, finally merging with it. \nIf, over a series of incarnations, he persists in identifying himself with the selfish and transi\u00ac \ntory, to the exclusion of the pure and eternal element within him, he is severed from the lat\u00ac \nter, somewhat as, on the material plane, he would be disinherited for years of misconduct. \nThus, the personality, or soul\u2014the sense of I am I \u2014goes its way with the selfish and transi\u00ac \ntory Personal Desire, finally dying ignominiously with, and as, it. The Real, or Higher, \nEgo does not die. It continues, and, eventually, attaches to itself another personality, or \nsoul, in the hope that this soul will properly prize and use the divine force coming to \nit through the Higher Mind, or Soul. G.M.W.K. \n\nAnswer. \u2014Man\u2019s destiny is to become divine; that is the object of evolution. The Lodge \nis constantly striving to arouse man to a realization of his divine potentialities and to take \nthe steps necessary to claim his inheritance. But, regardless of whatever \u201cinnate capacity \nhe may have or have had in the past, his progress will depend upon whether he strives con\u00ac \nsciously to identify himself with the divine part of his nature. If he persists in refusal to do \nso, and identifies himself with his lower nature, he will gradually lose his divine heritage, and \nthe personality eventually will be annihilated. In The Mahatma Letters reference is made to \nmatter which is found to be entirely divorced from spirit, being thrown over into the still \nlower worlds; the perishing by the million of the laggard Egos; the solemn moment of the \n\u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d; the annihilation of those unfit. Therefore, no man \u201ccan be certain \nthat his annihilation will never be\u201d. G.H.M. \n\nAnswer. \u2014An engine may be \u201cmeant\u201d or \u201cdestined\u201d to produce steam, but it can do so \nonly if supplied with fire and water. The engine that is not used will finally rust, disintegrate, \nand be reduced to its original elements. It should not be necessary to interpret this in terms \nof direct reply to the question. H * \n\n\nNOTICE \n\nThe regular meetings of the New York Branch of The Theosophical Society will be held \nthroughout the winter and spring at 64, Washington Mews (between Washington Square and \nEast Eighth Street), on alternate Saturday evenings, beginning at half-past eight and closing \nat ten o\u2019clock. Branch members will receive a printed announcement giving the dates. The \nsame announcement will also be mailed to non-members who send their names to the Secre\u00ac \ntary T.S., P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York. Out-of-town members of the Society are in\u00ac \nvited to attend these meetings whenever they are in New York, and visitors who may be \nn terested in Theosophy are always welcome. \n\n\n\n\n\n\ni- \u00ab \n\n\nINDEX TO VOLUME XXXIII \n\nArt of Life, The; R. H. B . 304 \n\nBiblical and Pyramid Prophecy; K. R . 279 \n\nH. P. B .27, 324 \n\nR. H. B . . 304 \n\nCav 6 .16, 101, 190, 278 \n\nCenturion .140, 294 \n\nCivilization, The Death of Art and Beauty; H. P. B. (Reprint). 324 \n\nConfucius, I, II; Stanley V. LaDow .117,191 \n\nConvention of The Theosophical Society, Report of the.39, 201 \n\nCornwall and Its Magic; Wayfarer . no \n\nFlowers; Sauvage . 153 \n\nFragments; Cav 6 .16, 101, 190, 278 \n\nH.G .,. I5 o \n\nHistorical Mysteries; X . 129 \n\nIn Memoriam. ^5 \n\nIndrawal, Our Great Opportunity; H.G . 150 \n\nLaDow, Stanley V .117,191 \n\nLand of Mystery, A, III, IV; H. P. B. (Reprint). 27 \n\nMirror of Nature and of Art, The; Sauvage . 288 \n\nMitchell, H. B . 102 \n\n\u201cNations Can Live at Home\u201d; R. E. T . 136 \n\nNotes and Comments .5, 91, 179, 267 \n\nOak and the Nuthatch, The; L. S . 126 \n\nOn the Screen of Time; T .17, 307 \n\nQuestions and Answers .87, 174, 263, 349 \n\nRemarks by the Way. 159 \n\nReprints: Civilization, the Death of Art and Beauty; H. P. B . 324 \n\nLand of Mystery, A, III, IV, H.P.B . 27 \n\nK. R . 279 \n\nReviews: \n\nAncient Irish Tales; ed. by Tom Peete Cross and Clark Harris Slover. . 346 \n\nBy Light, Light; Erwin R. Goodenough . 338 \n\nChinese Renaissance, The; Hu Shih . 255 \n\nCivilization of the East, The: China; Rent Grousset . 85 \n\nClashing Tides of Colour; Lothrop Stoddard . 341 \n\nConvictions and Controversies; Ralph Adams Cram . 81 \n\nCrystalline State, The; ed. by Sir W. H. Bragg and W. L. Bragg . 257 \n\nFelicities of Thomas Traherne; ed. by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch . 83 \n\n35 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\n352 \n\n\nINDEX TO VOLUME XXXIII \n\n\n85 \n\n\nI Speak for the Silent; Professor V. V. Tchernamn . ^ \n\nIndia Mosaic; Mark Channing . \n\nJoan of Arc; Milton Waldman. . -\u2022 \u2022 .. \n\nLast of the Empresses, The; Daniele V art . \n\nLong Lance; Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance- \u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022 \u201e '' , \n\nModem Trends in World-Religions; ed. by A. Eustace Hayd . \n\nMy Country and My People; Lm Yutang..... \u25a0 \u25a0 . \n\nPhilosophy of Spinoza, The; Harry Austryn Wolfson . \n\nProblem of Poverty, The; John Rustgard. \u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022-\u2022 \n\nPsycho-Analysis and Social Psychology; William McDougall .\u2022 \u2022 000 \n\nSt Terome; Paul Monceaux .* \u2022; \u2018 * * * * '' \" V T n T \n\nSpinoza ani Buddba : Visions of a Dead God; S. M. . \n\nSpirit of Man in Asian Art, The; Laurence Binyon . ^ \n\nUnwilling Passenger; Arthur Osburn . \n\nWake Up and Live!; Dorothea Brande .. \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \n\nWhat Has and Will Come to Pass; Reverend Walter Wynn... \n\nYoga and Western Psychology; Geraldine Coster . \n\n\n169 \n\n348 \n\n258 \n\n84 \n\n344 \n\n170 \n\n335 \n\n333 \n\n\nSauvage . \n\nSilence Is Golden; A. Woodby . \n\n. .. \n\nTheosophy: Inspiration and Incarnation; H. B \nT. S. Activities. \n\nR.E.T . \n\n\nWayfarer . \n\nWithout Censor, VI, VII; Centurion. \n\nWoodby , A . \n\nX . \n\n\n. . \u2022 343 \n\n\u2022 \u2022 \u2022 337 \n\n. . . 259 \n\n.i53\u00bb 288 \n292 \n126 \n\n\nMitchell. \n\n\n\u2022 39 \n\n\n102 \n176, 201 \n\n\n.17 \n\n\n. 140, \n\n\n307 \n\n136 \n\nno \n\n294 \n\n292 \n\n129 \n\n\nstandard books \n\n\nBlavatsky, H. P. In gi-ft \n\nsas sss^SstSeSSS^^& *j\u00a3 \n\n*\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022 \u2022 doth* 2iZ5 \n\nTheosophical Glossary. .... # * o so \n\nTransactions of the Blavatsky Lodge . 1>0 o \n\nVoice of the Silence... .'/.\u2018.boards. i.bo \n\nCave. Fragments. Volume .. ...boards. i.bo \n\ny T oume 5..S2 1.\u2122 \n\nGerard, John res Secret' DoctrIne'. .doth, a!00 \n\nJohn\"on!chSs . \n\nCrest Jewel of Wisdom, The..... \n\nGreat Upanishads, The, Volume I.^ \n\nParables of the Kingdom, The... . . '**?*T* , \n\nPatanjali\u2019s Yoga Sutras .. annotat'd-. do^. 1.^ \n\nJodSwStofq. T BhagaVad Gm! ZZ *S \n\nCulture of Concentration . wiper, .25 \n\nS?t 0 e\u201c F St T fA^H^MEZv^i\u00abai;;achZ.^ x.00 \n\nOcean of Theosophy .. cloth ' i. 00 \n\nKeightley^Archib^dL Tkbosothy\" as\"an Influence in Life w* -j\u00ab \n\ns \n\nMitchell, J. F. B. Collegiate Education and Standards o ^ ^ \n\nSinn^T P .' Esoteric Buddhism..; \u201d \u2022 ^ \n\nTomey! R T ay W E RL Sc. E NC E Z ndZtY Fun\u2122 \u00ab E\u2014JJ \n\nWalker, E. D. Reincarnation . .^th, 1.35 \n\nIdyll of the White Lotus .V.V. . ..leather, .85 \n\nLight on the Path \u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u25a0\u2022\u2022\u2022 .. cloth, 1.20 \n\nThrough the Gates of Gold. \n\n\nTHE QUARTERLY BOOK DEPARTMENT, \n\nP. 0 . Box 64, Station O, New York. \n\n\nThe Theosophical Society and Theosophy. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u2022 ' ' ... \n\n\n... V. \n\n\ns' 3 \u00ab * Z t *, , \n\n\n<\u25a0 sL \n\n\n\u25a0\u25a0 \n\n\n\nApplications for membership should be addressed to the \nSecretary T. S., P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York. \n\n\nFounded by b. P. Blaoatsky at Bew York in 1S75 \n\n\n-lHE Society does not pretend to be able to establish \n\nat once a universal brotherhood among men, but \nonly strives to create the nucleus of such a body. \nMany of its members believe that an acquaintance \nwith the world\u2019s religions and philosophies will \nreveal, as the common and fundamental principle \nunderlying these, that \u201cspiritual 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 emphasize the same idea. \n\nThe organization is wholly unsectarian, with no creed, \ndogma, nor personal authority to enforce or impose * neither \nis it to be held responsible for the opinions of its \nwho are expected to accord to the beliefs of others that \ntolerance which they desire for their own. \n\nThe following proclamation was adopted at the Convene \ntion of the Society, held at Boston, April, 1895: \n\n\u201cThe Theosophical Society in America by its delegates and \nmembers in Convention assembled, does hereby proclaim \nfraternal good will and kindly feeling toward all students ot \nTheosophy and members of Theosophical Societies wherever \nand however situated. It further proclaims and avers its \nhearty sympathy and association with such persons and \norganizations in all theosophical matters except those ot \ngovernment and administration, and invites their cor- \nrespondence and co-operation. \n\n\"To all men and women of whatever caste, creed, race, or \nreligious belief, who aim at the fostering of peace, gentleness, \nand unselfish regard one for another, and the acquisition of \nsuch knowledge of men and nature as shall tend to the eleva- \ntion and advancement of the human race, it sendsmostfriendly \ngreeting and freely proffers its services. \n\n\"It joins hands with all religions and religious bodies whose \nefforts are directed to the purification of men's thoughts and \nthe bettering of their ways, and it avows its harmony there- \nwith. 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 unfoldment of Truth as shall serve to announce and con\u00ac \nfirm a scientific basts for ethics, \n\n\"And lastly, it invites to its membership those who, seek\u00ac \ning a higher life hereafter, would learn to know the padb to \ntread la this.\"","title":"The theosophical quarterly. Vol. 33","tradition":"Theosophy","translated_text":null,"word_count":196545}