Chapter IX: The Return of the East Upon West

THEOSOPHY AND KINDRED CULTS 245

Historic Forces Carried Early Christianity West and Not East--The West Rediscovers the East; the East Returns Upon the West--Chesterton's Two Saints--Why the West Questions the East--Pantheism and Its Problems--How the One Becomes the Many--Evolution and Involution--Theosophy Undertakes to Offer Deliverance--But Becomes Deeply Entangled Itself--The West Looks to Personal Immortality--The East Balances the Accounts of Life in a Series of Reincarnations--Theosophy Produces a Distinct Type of Character--A "Tour de Force" of the Imagination--A Bridge of Clouds--The Difficulties of Reincarnation--Immortality Nobler, Juster and Simpler--Pantheism at Its Best--and Its Worst.