Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

THE
THEOSOPHICAL PATH

ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY

EDITED BY KATHERINE TINGLEY

Volume I

July-December, 1911

PUBLISHED BY THE NEW CENTURY CORPORATION

POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.

THE ARYAN THEOSOPHICAL PRESS
Point Loma, California

INDEX TO THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

VOLUME I

JULY-DECEMBER, 1911

A

America, Ancient (_ill._) An Archaeologist 323

American Nation, an Unknown (_ill._) H. S. Turner 347

American Woman in Poetry, The Grace Knoche 56

Archaeologists, Recent Admissions by Student 107

_Aroma of Athens, The_ (_ill._) Dramatic Critic 39

_Aroma of Athens_, Notes on _The_ (_ill._) Kenneth Morris 42

Art, The Scope of R. W. Machell 20

Astral Body, The H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S. 24

Astronomy, Ancient (No. 1) F. J. Dick, M. INST. C. E. 64

Astronomical Notes C. J. Ryan 287

Australian Marsupials (_ill._) Nature Lover 296

B

Birth of Day, The (_verse_) A. F. W. 27

"Black Age," The Ariomardes 196

Blavatsky, H. P., and the Theosophical Society
(_with portrait_) W. Q. Judge 28

Blavatsky's Teachings, Recent Confirmation of H. P.
H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.) 172

Blavatsky a Plagiarist? Was H. P.
H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.) 271

Bluebells of Wernoleu, The: A Welsh Legend (_verse_)
Kenneth Morris 404

Book Reviews: _Life of Leonardo da Vinci_ (Osvald Sirén)
Carolus 233
_Il est ressuscité_ (Charles Morice) H. A. Fussell 307
_Commentary upon the Maya-Tsental Pérez Codex_
(W. E. Gates) C. J. Ryan 378
A New Magazine 383
_The Strange Little Girl_ 385
_Les derniers Barbares: Chine, Tibet, Mongolie_
(d'Ollone) (_ill._) H. A. Fussell 452
_The Plough and the Cross_ (W. P. O'Ryan) F. J. D. 456

Bridges of Paris, The (_ill._) G. K. 96

British Association, The Soul at the Henry Travers 406

Bronze, Incorrodible Henry Travers 148

Brynhyfryd Garden, Old (_verse_) Kenneth Morris 97

Buckingham Palace, London (_ill._) 275

C

Calendars, Ancient Henry Travers 205

Cathedrals in Ancient Crete a Student 262

Christianity, The Rebirth of H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.) 11

Christmas Kenneth Morris 387

Confines of Science, The Investigator 349

Conflict of the Ages, The (_verse_) S. F. 435

Copán, and its Position in American History (_ill._)
W. E. Gates 419

Counterfeits vs. Reality, Tempting Lydia Ross, M. D. 126

Crucifixion, The Parable of the Cranstone Woodhead 328

Current Topics Observer 447

Cycle, The New H. P. Blavatsky 165

Cyrene, Classical Ariomardes 280

D

Dipylon and the outer Ceramicus, The (_ill._)
F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.) 189

Drama, Open-Air (_ill._)
Per Fernholm, M. E. (Roy. Inst. Tech., Stockholm) 415

Dutch House Court by Pieter de Hooch, A (_ill._) 338

E

Education Wasted? Is H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.) 102

Egyptian Art, 26th Dynasty (_ill._) C. J. 200

Egyptology, and the Theosophical Records, The New (_ill._)
C. J. Ryan 15

Ekoi: Children of Nature, The H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.) 344

Energy, Intra-Atomic H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S. 417

English Lady's Letter, An (_ill._) F. D. Udall 442

Eros: Painting by Julius Kronberg (_ill._) R. W. Machell 125

Eucalypts? Who Made the (_ill._) Nature Lover 295

Evolution in the Light of Theosophy
H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.) 311

F

Fairylands, The Two Kenneth Morris 115

Folk-music, The Origin and Nature of Kenneth Morris 174

Forest Waste, Saving Student 34

G

Geniuses, The Incarnation of H. Travers 339

Genius for Music, Cultivating E. A. Neresheimer 182

Glaciation, Past and Present (_ill._) T. Henry 209

God and the Child (_verse_) 211

H

Hawthorne's Psychology C. T. 51

Heredity and Biology H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.) 145

Hoa-Haka-Nana-Ia (_ill._) P. A. Malpas 299

House of Lords, London, The (_ill._) R. 201

Humanity and Theosophical Education Elizabeth C. Spalding 375

I

Illusion and Reality Lydia Ross, M. D. 362

Irish Scenes (_ill._)
F. J. Dick, M. INST. C. E., M. INST. C. E. I. 400

K

Karma, Reincarnation, and Immortality
H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.) 243

Killarney, Ireland (_ill._)
F. J. Dick, M. INST. C. E., M. INST. C. E. I. 282

L

Lands now Submerged, The D. Churchill 305

Lapland (_ill._) P. F. 180

Light Corpuscular? Is T. Henry 332

Light, Physical and Metaphysical H. Coryn, M. D. 122

Linnaeus and the Divining Rod P. F. 154

Lomaland Cañons (_ill._) W. J. Renshaw 155

Lorelei, The (_ill._) Student Traveler 225

Louisiana Sugar Plantation, A Visit to a Barbara McClung 223

M

Magic Boat, A D. F. 399

Magic Place, A: A Forest Idyll for Young Folks (_ill._)
M. Ginevra Munson 443

"Magnetons," Force and Matter H. Travers 267

Man and Nature R. Machell 410

Man, The Real H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S. 229

Modern Civilization, A Japanese Writer's Views on
E. S. (Tokyo, Japan) 418

Music and Life William A. Dunn 22

Music Notes C. J. Ryan 202

Music of the Spheres, The H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S. 258

Mysteries of Eleusis, The (_ill._) H. T. E. 207

N

Names in Art, Great (_ill._) Art Student 111

Natural History Museum, London (_ill._) 270

Nirvâna Mean Annihilation? Does T. H. 261

P

Path, The: Some Words by William Q. Judge 32

Path, The Gertrude van Pelt, M. D. 68

Peace on Earth: Good Will towards Men R. Machell 391

Photography and the Invisible P. A. Malpas 142

Platonic Succession, The Golden Chain of
F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.) 276

Poetry and Criticism Kenneth Morris 247

Point Loma Notes C. J. R. 354

Power Lydia Ross, M. D. 212

Powers, Misused R. W. Machell 98

Psychism, a Study in Hidden Connexions
H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.) 393

Pythagoras, Life and Teachings of
F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.) 52, 130

Pythagorean Solids, The F. J. Dick, M. INST. C. E. 194

R

Reincarnation? What are the Bases of an Intelligent
Belief in F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.) 317

Rotation, The Mysteries of Student 316

S

Salamander, The Western four-toed (_ill._) Percy Leonard 227

San Diego (_ill._) Kenneth Morris 70

Scandinavian Mythology, Glimpses of Per Fernholm, M. E. 184

Scientific Brevities Busy Bee 427

Scientific Oddments Busy Bee 149

Sokrates (_ill._) F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.) 215

Spade of the Archaeologist, The Ariomardes 303

St. Paul's Cathedral, London (_ill._) Carolus 293

Sun-Life and Earth-Life Per Fernholm, M. E. (Stockholm) 300

T

Theosophy and Modern Scientific Discoveries C. J. Ryan 87

Theosophical Torch, The Grace Knoche 190

Theseus, The Temple of, Athens (_ill._) R. 106

Tower of London, The (_ill._) Carolus 352

Turkish Woman, The Grace Knoche 439

U

Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, The
J. H. Fussell 77

V

Venice (_ill._) Grace Knoche 366

Victory of the Divine in Man, The Rev. S. J. Neill 320

Vivisector, The Plight of the
H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S. 341

Vrbas Defile, The, Bosnia (_ill._) F. J. B. 286

W

Warwick Castle (_ill._) C. J. Ryan 409

Will as a Chemical Product, The Investigator 413

Womanhood, The World of Grace Knoche 264

Woman's International Theosophical League
A Member of the League 357

Women who have Influenced the World Rev. S. J. Neill 436

ILLUSTRATIONS

A

Alaskan Views 209

Albert Memorial, London: Five Panels of Decorative Frieze 111

Amsterdam, Views 143, 306

Archaic Colossal Statues of Kiang-K'eu 454-455

_Aroma of Athens_, Groups in _The_ 254, 255, 266, 267, 311, 322

_Aroma of Athens_, Scenes from _The_
35-38, 47-50, 87, 243, 246, 247, 316, 317, 324

Athens, Greece, Ruins of Dipylon Gate 188

Athens, Greece, Stoa, Gymnasium of Hadrian 108

Athens, Greece, Temple of Theseus 107

Australian Scenes 298

B

Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna 29

Bosnia, Seraejevo, Capital of 434-435

Buckingham Palace, London 275

C

Copán (six illustrations) 418-423

Coronado, San Diego, California, The Surf at 434

Cuba, Avenue of Royal Palms; Country Scene 222-223

D

De Lesseps, Monument of, Port Said 110

D'Ollone, Commandant 454

_Dutch House Court_ by P. de Hooch, _A_ 338

E

Eleusis, Part of the Ruins of 208

_Eros_: Painting by Julius Kronberg 125

F

Farmhouse on the Norfolk Broads, England, A 274

Florida, Palm Beach 223

Forest, In the 443

G

Giants' Causeway, Antrim, Ireland 403

Grant Hotel, San Diego, California 72

H

Hoa-Haka-Nana-Ia 299

Horus, Symbolic Statue of 18

House of Lords, London, The 201

Houses of Parliament, Dublin, The Old 402

Houses of Parliament, London, The 353

I

Irish Farmer, An 402-403

Irish Peasant Woman, An 402-403

K

Karnak, Egypt, Hall of Columns 17

Killarney, Ireland, Views of 282, 283

Klamath Reclamation Project, Oregon-California 435

Kronberg Julius: Family Group 125

L

Lapland, Sweden, Views of 180

Leaders of the Theosophical Movement, The 30

Lolo Men, and Warrior 454-455

Lomaland Cañons 154, 173

Lorelei, The Rock of 226

M

Mammoth Cave, La Jolla, San Diego, California, The 434-435

Miao-Tseu Dancing 455

N

Natural History Museum, London 270

Neshoron, Statue of 200

O

Oil Creek Falls, Canada 307

P

Paris: Pont au Change and the Palais de Justice 96

Paris and the Seine 97

Pérez Codex, Maya-Tzental 379, 380

Pevensey Castle, Ruins of 442

Portraits: Heads of Departments at the International Headquarters,
and Contributors to THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH 4-9

Point Loma, Looking Eastward 172

Point Loma, A Eucalyptus Grove 295

Point Loma Hills at Eventide 339

R

Râja Yoga College, Point Loma, S. E. View of 387

Rocking-Stone Pinnacle, Tasmania 287

Rothenburg, Germany, Views of 390-391

S

Salamander, Western four-toed 227

San Diego, California, View of 71

San Juan Teotihuacán, Panoramic View of 327

Sarpi, Fra Paolo 366

Seminole Indians 346, 347

Sokrates and Seneca (Berlin Museum) 222

St. Paul's Cathedral, London 294

Sweden, Trollhättan Canal 142

Sweden, Visingsborg Castle, Visingsö 142

Switzerland, Views of 271

T

Temple in the Greek Theater, Point Loma, California 165

Tombs, Ancient Athenian 189

Tower of London, The 352

Trafalgar Square, London 353

V

Venice, Views of 367, 370, 371, 374, 375

Vikings, The Noble 414-415

Vrbas Defile, Bosnia, The 286

W

Warwick Castle, from the Avon 408

Warwick Castle, Inner Court and Tower 409

Y

Yucatan, "Governor's House," Uxmal 327

Yucatan, "The Castle," Chichén Itzá 326

THE PATH

The illustration on the cover of this Magazine is a reproduction of the mystical and symbolical painting by Mr. R. Machell, the English artist, now a Student at the International Theosophical Headquarters, Point Loma, California. The original is in Katherine Tingley's collection at the International Theosophical Headquarters. The symbolism of this painting is described by the artist as follows:

THE PATH is the way by which the human soul must pass in its evolution to full spiritual self-consciousness. The supreme condition is suggested in this work by the great figure whose head in the upper triangle is lost in the glory of the Sun above, and whose feet are in the lower triangle in the waters of Space, symbolizing Spirit and Matter. His wings fill the middle region representing the motion or pulsation of cosmic life, while within the octagon are displayed the various planes of consciousness through which humanity must rise to attain to perfect Manhood.

At the top is a winged Isis, the Mother or Oversoul, whose wings veil the face of the Supreme from those below. There is a circle dimly seen of celestial figures who hail with joy the triumph of a new initiate, one who has reached to the heart of the Supreme. From that point he looks back with compassion upon all who still are wandering below and turns to go down again to their help as a Savior of Men. Below him is the red wing of the guardians who strike down those who have not the "password," symbolized by the white flame floating over the head of the purified aspirant. Two children, representing purity, pass up unchallenged. In the center of the picture is a warrior who has slain the dragon of illusion, the dragon of the lower self, and is now prepared to cross the gulf by using the body of the dragon as his bridge (for we rise on steps made of conquered weaknesses, the slain dragon of the lower nature).

On one side two women climb, one helped by the other whose robe is white and whose flame burns bright as she helps her weaker sister. Near them a man climbs from the darkness; he has money bags hung at his belt but no flame above his head and already the spear of a guardian of the fire is poised above him ready to strike the unworthy in his hour of triumph. Not far off is a bard whose flame is veiled by a red cloud (passion) and who lies prone, struck down by a guardian's spear; but as he lies dying, a ray from the heart of the Supreme reaches him as a promise of future triumph in a later life.

On the other side is a student of magic, following the light from a crown (ambition) held aloft by a floating figure who has led him to the edge of the precipice over which for him there is no bridge; he holds his book of ritual and thinks the light of the dazzling crown comes from the Supreme, but the chasm awaits its victim. By his side his faithful follower falls unnoticed by him, but a ray from the heart of the Supreme falls upon her also, the reward of selfless devotion, even in a bad cause.

Lower still in the underworld, a child stands beneath the wings of the foster mother (material Nature) and receives the equipment of the Knight, symbols of the powers of the Soul, the sword of power, the spear of will, the helmet of knowledge and the coat of mail, the links of which are made of past experiences.

It is said in an ancient book: "The Path is one for all, the ways that lead thereto must vary with the pilgrim."

The Theosophical Path

An International Magazine
Unsectarian and nonpolitical

Monthly Illustrated

Devoted to the Brotherhood of Humanity, the promulgation
of Theosophy, the study of ancient & modern
Ethics, Philosophy, Science and Art, and to the uplifting
and purification of Home and National Life

Edited by Katherine Tingley
International Theosophical Headquarters, Point Loma, California, U.S.A.

_The Secret Doctrine is the common property of the countless millions of men born under various climates, in times with which History refuses to deal, and to which esoteric teachings assign dates incompatible with the theories of Geology and Anthropology. The birth and evolution of the Sacred Science of the Past are lost in the very night of Time.... It is only by bringing before the reader an abundance of proofs all tending to show that in every age, under every condition of civilization and knowledge, the educated classes of every nation made themselves the more or less faithful echoes of one identical system and its fundamental traditions--that he can be made to see that so many streams of the same water must have had a common source from which they started. What was this source?... There must be truth and fact in that which every people of antiquity accepted and made the foundation of its religions and its faith._--H. P. BLAVATSKY, in _The Secret Doctrine_, II, 794

THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

KATHERINE TINGLEY, EDITOR

VOL. I JULY, 1911 NO. 1

THE REBIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY: by H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)

Among ideas which Theosophists have been proclaiming for many years, and which are now finding expression through other channels, though in piecemeal and modified form, are those connected with the Christ story and Christianity. _Current Literature_, in reviewing "The Christ Myth," by Professor Dr. Arthur Drews of Karlsruhe, says:

In essence the argument of the book is that all the main ideas of Christianity existed in the world prior to the birth of Christ, and that the hero of the New Testament is an imaginative conception rather than an actual personality. The opening chapters illuminate the history of the Messianic idea. This idea, Professor Drews contends, is rooted in Persia and Greece, as well as in the Jewish consciousness. The Persians dreamed of a divine "friend" or "mediator" who should deliver them in the eternal struggle between light and darkness, between Ormuzd and Ahriman. The Greeks conceived a mediatory "Word" or _Logos_ which should come to the aid of human weakness and identify man with God. Even more strongly, among the Jews, persisted the thought that "a Son of God" must intercede with Jehovah in behalf of his people.

Such utterances as the above are growing common, both from without the churches and from within. People are beginning to realize that they have not made the most of their religious traditions; that there is more in them than they have so far gotten out of them. They suspect that the Gospel narratives contain valuable truths that have been missed. The Christ is not merely a personality, but also a symbol, as is shown by the above writer; a symbol of the Divine in Man, recognized by the world ages before the Christian era.

The importance of the Christian Gospel today consists in its power to help us to realize that we are Divine in essence, and to aid us on the Path or Way which leads to a realization of that Divinity. Is it possible that now, for the first time, after all these centuries, the real import of that Gospel is about to be grasped? that the age-long worship of a wrong ideal--that of the personal God and his rewards and punishments, his propitiations and forgivenesses--is about to depart and make room for a more virile and ennobling, as well as more rational and holier faith?

Is it possible that a Resurrection is in progress, a Resurrection of Christ from the tomb in which we have buried him?[1]

[1] The reader of course will not think any allusion is here made to a possible physical appearance of Christ. Such preposterous suggestions are made in some quarters, but it is needless to say Theosophy has nothing to do with them.--H. T. E.

What we understand by a Resurrection of Christ is the Resurrection of the ancient but buried truth that Man is essentially Divine--to replace the idea that he is essentially evil. This latter idea emphasizes the lower side of man's nature and actually weakens his faith in the Divine Power. Having thus lost his faith, he assumes an attitude of expectation and deprecation, praying to an imaginary deity instead of invoking by action the real Divinity within.

Ancient symbology, to which the above writer refers as being substantially identical with that of the Christian Gospel, speaks of the "Father" and the "Son." By the word "Father" was understood the Supreme; the "Son" was the Word, the Divine life in Man, which turned him from an animal being to what he is. Through the Son we approach the Father; that is, man must invoke the power of his own Higher Self. Another ancient teaching, taught in fables as well as sacred allegories, is that only by _acting_ can man invoke the Divine aid. The Divine gift to Man is the Will, and he himself is the only one who can exert it. The fable tells that a carter invoked Hercules to lift his cart out of a rut, and Hercules told him to put his own shoulder to the wheel. For Hercules means strength, and strength is invoked by exerting it. In the same way we have to assert our Divinity by acting in a Divine way; and it seems that the Gospels give us ample instructions.

It may be that this was after all the real message, and that those who gave it have been waiting all this time for man to get up off his knees and _be somebody_.

There are many religious gospels in the world, but they are all modifications of one great eternal gospel. That one gospel, clothed in many garbs, legendary, allegoric, theological, is the Drama of the Soul in its pilgrimage through life, its struggles with great adversaries, and its final victory. Christianity contains the same ancient wisdom; it has been covered over with accretions of theology and ecclesiasticism; it is now being disentombed. The process is a long and eventful one; for people cling fondly to old habits, and many still hope that they will be able to admit everything and yet set early medieval theology on the summit as the crowning revelation. The success with which they can do this depends upon what they can make of Christianity, for the less cannot contain the greater.

The personal Christ and the doctrine of the Atonement (in its familiar theological form) together constitute the rock on which there is most likelihood of a split. But this doctrine (that is, in its present form) will have to go, for it is inconsistent with the views of life that are now gaining ground. For one thing, it is not sufficiently international; it is too much like a gospel of salvation peculiar to Western civilization. Eastern religions are already amply provided with similar machinery in their own systems, and are not likely to give up their own for ours.

Again, the theological doctrine of Atonement includes the remission of sins, in the sense that the sinner is relieved from the consequences of his sins by a special act of intercession and vicarious suffering. It is useless for Christians to deny that such is the teaching, for it is expressly stated thus by eminent authorities whom we might quote; besides it is this very fact of remission that lends force to the appeal made to our weak desires and hopes; it is held up as a great advantage possessed by Christianity. This teaching is repugnant to our innate sense of justice, to our manliness, and to our best conceptions of Divine Wisdom. It is felt to be more in harmony with Law that man should work out the full consequences of all his acts, both good and bad, reaping the consequent joy and grief. The remission of sins does not mean an excusing from the penalty, but a purification of the man so that he will not commit any more sins. Man is justified, sanctified, and saved, by the Divine grace acting within and changing his heart--not by a propitiatory sacrifice and a mere formal act of belief.

And so the real doctrine of Atonement will have to take the place of the other. The making _one_, or reconciliation, between the human soul and its Divine counterpart--that is the real Atonement. By it, man repudiates his false "self," and recognizes his real Self; deposes the animal nature from the throne of his heart and establishes the kingdom of righteousness therein. But in the world just now there is a mighty battle between powers that tend to enslave man and keep him down, and powers that tend to liberate him. The former will try to perpetuate theological dogmatism and man's fear of himself. The latter will ever strive to give him back his self-respect and faith in his own Divinity.

Christians love to speak of the greatness of their religion, but little do they realize how great it is. The Bible is printed in hundreds of millions, and enthusiastic evangelists place a copy in every hotel room; but it is a more precious treasure than they wot of. Enshrined within the verses of that strange literary compost, preserved in the misunderstood symbols of that religion, are records of the _Wisdom-Religion_, the world's eternal gospel of Truth. Its teachings can indeed "make us free," for they show us how to evoke the power of the "Word." Unless we can use our Will--the Spiritual Will, not the feeble, selfish, personal will--we cannot be saved; else would the Creator have his heaven furnished with rescued dummies. When Man was gifted with Divine prerogatives of Will and Intelligence, he was thereby made a responsible self-acting being; he must redeem himself by his own (God-given) volition, not lay aside his initiative in weak reliance on some other will.

And the Spiritual Will is of the Heart; and of the Heart also is Wisdom; yet man in his unredeemed state obeys the leading of the desires and the false images they breed in the imagination. Therefore he will remain enslaved to these desires and will fail to understand the meaning of life unless he cultivates the impersonal Divine life within him. The teaching of the Gospel is directed to showing us how to enter this Way. To the ignorant the Master speaks in parables; but "to you it is given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom." A priceless privilege, but how repudiated! If we would but carry out the injunctions of Jesus the Christ, instead of making his personality into a God--which surely he himself would never have wished--we should be worthier disciples and the greater gainers.

THE NEW EGYPTOLOGY AND THE THEOSOPHICAL RECORDS: by Charles J. Ryan

The interesting problem of the origin of Egyptian culture is still unsolved by archaeologists, though many new facts have been recently discovered which seem to be leading to something definite. Nestor L'Hôte said sixty years ago:

The further one penetrates into antiquity towards the origins of Egyptian art, the more perfect are the products of that art, as though the genius of the people, inversely to that of others, was formed suddenly.... Egyptian art we only know in its decadence.

M. Jean Capart, the eminent Belgian Egyptologist, Keeper of the Egyptian Antiquities at the Royal Museum, Brussels, supports that opinion, saying, in his recent work on _Primitive Art in Egypt_, that M. L'Hôte's conclusion was and remains legitimate.

Since L'Hôte's time fine works of art and astonishing beauty have been found in tombs of the _Third_ Dynasty of Egyptian Pharaohs, about whom nothing--or next to nothing--was known until lately; even the Fourth Dynasty, the so-called Pyramid Builders, being historically very obscure, no agreement as to their date having been come to yet. It is fairly decided that they lived more than four or five thousands years B. C. Maspero, speaking of some paintings of the extremely ancient Third Dynasty, says:

The Egyptians were animal painters of the highest power, and they never gave better proof of it than in this picture. No modern painter could have seized with more spirit and humor the heavy gait of the goose, the curves of its neck, the pretentious carriage of its head, and the markings of its plumage.

The human figure was also represented with great artistic skill at the same early period. Even then the characteristic full-faced eye in the profile face was a firmly established _convention_. We do not know the reasons for this, but it cannot have been accidental.

According to Dr. Petrie, the great Egyptian explorer, the commencement of the Egyptian civilization that we call classical, the Egypt of the Pharaohs with its hieroglyphs, its established style of art, its complicated religion and philosophy, dates back to not less than B. C. 5000. This would be the time of the First Dynasty. Think what that means! A stretch of splendid civilization before the beginning of the Christian era about five times as long as the period that has elapsed since the time of King Alfred to this day, a period which has included almost or quite all that we look upon as worthy of consideration in _our_ history! And yet back of Dr. Petrie's First Dynastic age we now find ourselves face to face with a prehistoric Egyptian civilization or civilizations of absolutely unknown age, possibly of a hundred thousand years duration. The one that immediately preceded the Dynastic or Pharaonic is supposed to be of Libyan origin.

The possibility at least of a civilization of a hundred thousand years' duration should offer little difficulty even to the most critical, now that we have found a well-formed skull and skeleton near London differing very little from the modern type of Englishman, and estimated to be at least 170,000 years old. Long ago H. P. Blavatsky said in _The Secret Doctrine_ and elsewhere that some form of Egyptian civilization had existed for an immensely longer period than the archaeologists imagine, and Katherine Tingley has reasserted this most emphatically, saying that Egyptian civilization will be proved to be even older than the (historic) Indian.

Archaeologists have always felt a great and peculiar difficulty in comprehending the sudden appearance of the high culture of the first Dynastic periods. It is impossible to believe that Egypt's greatness arose full-fledged, without long preparation, and yet where are the evidences of development? M. Jean Capart, the Belgian authority referred to above, has devoted great attention to this problem, and his conclusions are of interest to the student of Theosophy. He considers it exceedingly probable that gradual invasions or colonizations of a highly cultured race broke into the simpler Egyptian civilization from the South or South-east. These people, coming from the "Land of the Gods," Punt, which is commonly supposed to be Somaliland, he thinks came originally from some Asiatic country, bringing with them their arts and sciences and religion. As they blended with the Libyan inhabitants of Egypt, who possessed their own distinctive civilization, they established their already formed culture, and the combination produced what we call the Dynastic or classic Egyptian civilization. This would explain the origin of the classic Egyptian forms on reasonable grounds, and furthermore would make it clear why the Egyptians had so many things in common with the Hindûs in matters of religion, such as the respect paid to the Cow as a symbol of Divine Power.

H. P. Blavatsky, in _Isis Unveiled_, quotes the following from the ancient Hindû historian, Kullûka-Bhatta:

Under the reign of Viśvâ-mitra, first king of the Dynasty of Soma-Vanga, in consequence of a battle which lasted five days, Manu-Vina, heir of the ancient kings, being abandoned by the Brâhmans, emigrated with all his companions, passing through Ârya, and the countries of Barria, till he came to the shores of Masra. (Vol. I, p. 627)

She adds:

Ârya is Eran (Persia); Barria is Arabia, and Masra was the name of Cairo, which to this day is called _Masr_, Musr, and Misro. (_Ibid._)

Mitsraîm was the Hebrew name for the land of Cham, Egypt.

Dr. E. A. W. Budge, the learned Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities in the British Museum, says he believes that a series of carvings on the walls of the Temple of Edfû,

represent the invaders in prehistoric times, who made their way into Egypt, from a country in the East, by way of the Red Sea.... In later times the indigenous priesthoods merged the legendary history of the deified king of the "Blacksmiths" is that of Horus, the god of heaven in the earliest times, and in that of Râ which belonged to a later period.

The mythical story of Horus conquering Nubia and Egypt, with which Dr. Budge thinks the true story of incursion was blended, contains the significant assertions that the warriors of Horus, the "Blacksmiths," were armed with weapons of metal, and chains, and were expert builders.

According to the Theosophical records the _Great_ Pyramid was built long before the fifth millennium B. C. There are many mysteries connected with that most stupendous work of man which have not yet been suspected by the Egyptologists, not the least of which is the problem of its date and its builder; but, so far as they go, the stories of Horus' invasion and M. Capart's luminous suggestions as to the origin of the Dynastic Egyptian civilization, are not inconsistent with the account of Kullûka-Bhatta; and in the light of the new discoveries of one or more prehistoric civilizations in the Nile Valley, it looks as if the teachings of Theosophy were being vindicated in a way that was not dreamed of by archaeologists in the days when H. P. Blavatsky opened a small window into the mysterious past of glorious Egypt.

THE SCOPE OF ART: by R. W. Machell

A writer in a London weekly (_Black and White_) makes one or two points in reference to art that are worthy of notice. He says that it is nonsense to talk of art elevating the people, because it is itself the index of their condition. This is just one of those simple fallacies that contain a sufficient amount of the truth to make them misleading. Art is not an index of the condition of the people, but only of a very small part of the people; it would be more true to say that the popular appreciation of art is such an index; but it is not true to say or to imply that the condition of the people governs its range or scope. We are constantly met by the experience of art that is unappreciated by the people in whose midst it appears.

It is necessary to understand the complex nature of man and the vast range of human evolution to be able to see how one man may appear in a nation and display a degree of progress far in advance of his fellows, who also are all in varying stages of their long evolution. The progressed soul incarnates perhaps in a body just like those of the rest of the race, because it cannot get a better; and so it is not at once recognized as an older soul, and for want of right education the man himself may be unable to account for the difference between himself and his fellows of which he is conscious; and so, being unaware of his own inherent divinity and of his relation to his fellows, he may not recognize his responsibility to them as a natural leader, fitted by greater experience to show a light on the path of human progress, and required by Karma or by his kinship to his fellows, to use his experience, or his talents, or his genius, for their guidance rather than for his own glory.

Then passing to the subject of the recent sale of the famous Rembrandt to an American he very wisely points out that this is a private matter, and not in any way a national or an artistic point of interest. As said, the picture (not an English painting) was not in any sense a national possession, nor was it of any importance in the art-life of the nation that it should be added to the already large collection of the master's works now owned by the National Gallery. What the writer maintains is vital to a nation, is to encourage and to appreciate the art of its own day and of its own artists.

Now here we meet the deplorable parochialism that does duty for patriotism, and which is so utterly out of place in connexion with art; for art is not national but universal, and, further, it is not modern or ancient, but again universal; so that an attempt to limit the sympathies of art-lovers to the products of their own age or of their own nation is bound to fail, and can only be tolerated as an antidote to an excessive worship of what is old or of what is foreign, these being matters of perhaps no consequence at all.

It is of course well that people should do the duty that lies nearest to hand first, and so if it be a duty to encourage, to endow, or to patronize art, that duty should begin at home. But this again is a very narrow way of looking at the matter. It is not at all essential that art should be national; on the contrary, art is universal and cannot be bound by any such limits. No barriers stand in the way of one who would admire a foreign painting; one may speak no language but one's own and yet find as much beauty, joy, and inspiration in foreign works of art as in those produced by men of one's own nationality. A visitor to a collection of works of art has to be told by a catalog, or he would not know, what country produced any particular work; so it is with music, and largely with architecture; indeed that which is of Art is universal: the national characteristics are limitations imposed by circumstances upon the free expression of the soul.

The soul of man is not eternally bound within the limits of one nation, but must, in the course of constant reincarnations upon earth, experience the limitations of many varying nationalities. It is bound to the great human family; and it may be, for a certain period, identified with a special group. Nations are evanescent, though family groups may survive, and though an artist may be intimately bound by many ties with the destinies of some one group or family or race, in its reincarnations and in its varying national appearances, yet the artistic part of his nature is just that higher part that rises beyond such limits and appeals to all humanity, and it is the higher part of human nature that responds to the appeal of art and disregards all other limitations, such as questions of time or place or nationality, rising to what is more broadly human or more divine in the nature of man. For "Brotherhood is a fact in nature," and the soul responds unconsciously to the call of the Soul in all nature and in all humanity in such degree as it is able to throw off for a time the temporary bonds of local conditions. So it is a matter rather of satisfaction to see works of art circulating around the world and awaking the deeper sympathies that tend to unite humanity.

MUSIC AND LIFE: by William A. Dunn

There is not a problem which perplexes human life that may not be loosened and solved by the aid of music. Based as it is upon the vibratory movements of Nature, and subject to rigid mathematical law and geometrical ratio, music represents an incorruptible and direct medium between the higher and lower natures of man. Its dynamical and spiritual power proceeds from the _blend_ of its related vibrating numbers; which blend is that living force (_within_ outward harmony) that electrifies the heart and mind and lifts the whole nature to the plane of soul. It is that living field of energy in which all numbers, all forces, all substances, are lost in the unity of least-common-multiple of all possible vibrations. It is the Veil of Isis.

No motion can take place without causing sound. This must be equally true of atomic and planetary movements, and all that lies between. All sounds that appear to the senses as different must obviously vibrate in some universal medium which permits movement and unifies their seeming diversity. It is the actual presence of such a medium in man which enables him to perceive that which music is the expression of. Notes and chords are merely alphabetical symbols. These are classified and combined to express ideas as truly as words are combined to convey the thought that lies beyond them.

It has been said that "The Universe is built by number." This is obvious truth when all natural forces and elements are conceived of as modes of vibration (as they actually are) blending and interblending in the universal etheric medium, according to the immutable law of harmonious ratios. Why should the etheric world be thought of as an abstraction or a far-off possibility? It is in reality a nearer thing in life than its comparatively trifling contents. All our thoughts and feelings move in it as their medium, and the process of self-conquest is nothing more than to live in this our universal home, and harmonize dissociated thoughts and feelings into musical symphonies.

This is not rhapsody, but sober common sense, as true for the field-laborer as for the philosopher. As we all live in and breathe the same physical atmosphere, so do we all think and feel in the same mental ether. This fact explains why "Brotherhood is a fact in nature." To accept this principle of Brotherhood as the point from which life is viewed is equivalent to mounting to the hill-top of life from which the surrounding scenery can be seen. Down in the valley a single wall can shut out the whole prospect.

A text-book on chemistry may be consulted with profit as illustrating this fact. A few general principles or laws classify millions of separate facts into harmonious knowledge. The science of chemistry is also the science of true music. Schopenhauer speaks of music

as immediate and direct an objectivation or copy of the _Will_ of the world as the world itself is, as the ideas are of which the universe of things is the phenomenon. Music is not the copy of the ideas, but a representation of the cosmical Will co-ordinate with the ideas themselves.

The literal truth of this statement is known by all who have had contact with that which creates, and breathes life into, a musical masterpiece. The audible notes and phrases are merely classified symbols which express something beyond them, just as the parts of a dynamo are adjusted as medium for the expression of the universal electrical power.

Music, in itself, is the universal life of Nature as she is in vibration. Every movement, from that of planet down to minute atom, emits tone. It is absurd to imagine that our octave of audible receptivity limits the universal fact. It can only do so _for us_. The refining and extension of receptive range of hearing must undoubtedly reveal the music which ever surrounds our self-imposed deafness. All discoveries and advances in knowledge are simply this: the unfolding of organs of receptivity in which some universal fact may reflect itself. All knowledge and power exist eternally. Man is the only variant (because of his power of choice) and he cripples himself in imagining that the revelation of limited organs of receptivity are equivalent to the universal fact.

Let us picture a great music hall in which an orchestra is performing. No matter what sounds proceed from the many instruments, their united tones vibrate through every particle of air in the building simultaneously. Sound waves may be many, but, every atom of air is participant in all these at one and the same instant. The atom therefore is the synthetic point of universal unity.

Man is an atom in that grand temple of music--the solar system. Through him passes every movement or sound propagated by planet or sun--and all the lesser movements to which they give rise. We actually participate in the total vibration of solar life, but are blind to this because the brain consciousness is attached to a few external sound waves and sets up a conscious focus amid these. A musician will tell us how easily the mind may select a single orchestral instrument and follow its melody to the exclusion of the adjacent parts. How truly this illustrates our separate personal lives! It is impossible to lose anything by detachment from the personal grooves to which so much importance is attached. We can only fall into That which gives the utmost blessing. That silence and solitariness which usually follow the storm of true effort, is the womb of fuller life. The old life has passed, the new not yet born, and we are apt to despond. But courage and patience will surely lead to living joy, for the new life dawns when the inner self is ready to receive it. Right thought, right feeling, and unending patience, will without doubt make all things clear, and from the heart will arise the total music of life, vibrating in tune with all that is.

THE ASTRAL BODY: by H. A. W. Coryn, M.D., M.R.C.S.

It is safe to say that science will never accept the astral body--by that name: at any rate not until philosophy accepts the prototypal _Ideas_ of Plato.

Yet the evidence, if not for them, then for something discharging the same function and therefore after all for them--is irresistible.

One thinks first of the growth of living animal tissues in glass jars, demonstrated at the Rockefeller Institute. Removed from the body to which they belong and placed in nutritive fluids which they can absorb, they attain a size that would constitute them fatal diseases if they were _in situ_ at home. They would in fact be malignant growths of highly organized types.

Why _don't_ they grow to that size? Because "the nervous system" restrains them within the limit of usefulness. How does "the nervous system" know that limit? Has it a picture in its "mind," a plan according to which it works, according to which it variously restricts or encourages?

When some of the molluscs are cut in two each half grows the part it has lost, the head an after-part, the after-part a head. Two animals result, each exactly like the original. As the severed cells are called upon to perform and do perform new and unexpected work, what and where is the architectural plan by which they do it?

The cells of a leaf have finished their growth. Now comes their _work_, the fixing of carbon from the air, transpiration, and so on. But cut off, say, a begonia leaf and place it on damp soil properly protected. It proceeds at once upon a wholly new program, sending down roots, sending up stalk, fresh leaves, and finally flower. It is obviously working according to a plan. When a germ cell or seed does that the problem can be _concealed_ by talking about its chemical constitution and so forth. We are told that the seed behaves as it does because it is constituted by nature to do so, molecularly arranged for just that function. But the cells of the leaf were _not_ arranged for that but for quite other functions. How come they to be able to stop their proper line of work and follow this one, generating not only leaves like themselves but all other parts of the plant including seeds?

We are of course pressing the problem of heredity, the persistence of racial and family type. But heredity is only a word that expresses the observed facts without a gleam of explanation.

The consciousness of the mollusc, as an individual, and that of the leaf on a lower plane, can be only sensational. _They_ do not intelligently arrange and design what they are doing. But to ascribe it to molecular mechanism only, is no better than to say God did it. Either is such a form of mere words as unwise parents throw at a too questioning child to stop, without satisfying, its mind. No idea corresponds. The gap in conception remains exactly what it was.

When a chimney is blown down, the builder notes the gap and builds another. His mind contains a picture of what ought to be there.

An architect does not deliver the whole plan of his building to each of the workmen. Each follows his ordinary work, being merely told where to begin and when to stop. When all of them have done their part the building is complete.

Why may we not suppose that the cutting-in-two of a mollusc constitutes some such appeal to some intelligence somewhere in nature as the missing chimney constitutes to the builder? The force flowing in the cells of the injured animal is thereupon directed to the work unexpectedly required. Science now speaks freely of _human_ "subconsciousness," meaning sub-_mental_ consciousness in man. And it knows that that sub-mental consciousness can, when properly called upon (and also habitually on its own account), do reparative work upon the body whose method is not comprehensible to the man himself. It is, within its limits, intelligent; it knows what it has to do and what it is wanted to do; and it commands the necessary forces--which are beyond the _man's_ reach, owner of them as he may be or think he is.

This subconsciousness is embodied with the man, but is not the man and is not an ego. May it not be regarded as a part of nature-consciousness, focused in an organic body and with the intelligence necessary to do its work?

And it does not follow that the lower down the scale of mental intelligence is an organism, the lower down a parallel scale is _this_ intelligence. What we call, when in our own bodies, the subconscious, may be just as fully present and just as intelligently at work, in the bodies of plants and animals.

If we say that the plan of repair and the plans of hereditary type are in the conscious intelligence of this diffused nature-mind, we are at any rate reasonably proceeding from the known and not glossing the unknown with mere words. The astral body of any plant or animal is its plan of structure in this nature-mind. It is subjective substance, just as is a picture in our own mind. And it contains the vital energy necessary for the guidance of the protoplasmic matter that will clothe it, an energy that guides but is not one of the physical forces. As an analogy from higher up the planes of being, conscience _guides_ mental thoughts and desires but is not among their number nor of their nature. It is the _divine-astral_ form or plan, of what the thinking man should be. On both planes the form and the guiding energy setting from it become the negative and positive aspects of one thing.

THE BIRTH OF DAY by A. F. W. (Manchester, N. H.)

From the darkness, O Eternal One,
From the pale light of diamond stars,
From the quietude of dreamless night,
Into the grayness and the formless mist,
Comes the first whisper, the first murmur
Of Life awakening.
Merges then the dim outline and the shadow,
Floating nothings, pregnant with the promise
Of the coming birth of Morning.
Gradually, slowly, silently,
The shapes resolve themselves
And grow less misty and more huge;
The grayness becomes less gray;
And, as it so becomes, the horizon
Erstwhile faint and indistinct,
Slowly as a line appears, not sharp,
But blended with both earth and sky.
A sleepy twitter from the birds, the first call
Of mate to mate; the faint, soft rustle
Of the leaves, the vapor rising from the earth--
All betoken the oncoming.
The ghostly outlines of the forms
Are clearer now; and the vivid streamers
Of the eastern sky change to the white light
Of the advancing Morn.
Now approach the fuller tones of nature:
Insistent the notes of the tiny feathered ones,
And from the nests and branches come
The piping calls to morning quest.
Now the silver white takes on the faint
Tinging of the purple glow.
The purple to a blue transforms itself;
The gnomes of dawn are hard at work
Transmuting the base metal into finer gold.
As distant fire, urging on the horses of wild Fear
Mounts higher and more high,
So Apollo urges on his horses, and the golden gleam
Of his chariot heralds itself
To follow after.
The horizon blazes with the power of Light--
More red and fiery grows the hue;
A point appears, a rim, an arc
Of coppery luster; then
Glowing with the radiance of the parent Life
The Sun!--And Day is born.

H. P. BLAVATSKY AND THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

In 1887 William Q. Judge wrote of the Theosophical Society and H. P. Blavatsky as follows:

The Society has had, like all sentient beings, its periods of growth, and now we believe _it has become an entity_ capable of feeling and having intelligence. Its body is composed of molecules, each one of which is a member of the Society; its mental power is derived from many quarters, and it has a sensibility that is felt and shared by each one of us. For these reasons we think it is a wise thing for a person to join this body, and a wiser yet to work heart and soul for it.

And we would have no one misunderstand how we look upon H. P. Blavatsky. She is the greatest woman in this world in our opinion, and greater than any man moving among men. Disputes and slanders about what she has said and done move us not, for we know by personal experience her real virtues and powers. Since 1875 she has stood as the champion and helper of every Theosophist; each member of the Society has to thank her for the store of knowledge and spiritual help that has lifted so many of us from doubt to certainty of where and how Truth might be found; lovers of truth and seekers after spiritual knowledge will know her worth only when she has passed from earth; had she had more help and less captious criticism from those who called themselves co-laborers, our Society would today be better and more able to inform its separate units while it resisted its foes. During all these years, upon her devoted head has concentrated the weighty Karma accumulated in every direction by the unthinking body of Theosophists; and whether they will believe it or not, the Society had died long ago, were it not for her.

The following are extracts from an article also by William Q. Judge, written after H. P. Blavatsky's death: