Chapter III: The Teachings (9)

In regard to all who either have written or who shall write confidently stating that they know about what I am occupied, whether they claim to have heard it from me or from others or to have discovered it themselves, _I can say that it is impossible for them to know anything as to my beliefs about these matters; for there is not and never will be any composition of mine about them_. _For a matter of this kind can not be expressed in words as other sciences are. But by a long acquaintance with the subject and by living with it suddenly a light is kindled in the mind, as from a fire bursting forth, which being engendered in the soul feeds itself upon itself._

He adds:

I should consider it the proudest accomplishment of my life, as well as of signal benefit to mankind, to bring forward an exposition of Nature luminous to all. But I think the attempt would be in nowise beneficial except to a few who require merely slight guidance to enable them to find it out for themselves; to most persons it would do no good but would only fill them with the empty conceit of knowledge and with contempt for others, as if they had learnt something solemn.

It may therefore be safely assumed that Plato intentionally refused to publish his views upon the most important subjects in a world of spite and puzzling contention. Note what he says in the Seventh Letter of the true disciple who is

_in fact_ a lover of Wisdom, related to it and worthy of it by reason of his own inherent divinity. He thinks that he has been told of a wonderful Path, on which he ought forthwith to travel and that any other manner of life is unendurable. After this he does not torture both himself and his Leader by departing from the Path before he reaches the Goal, thereby obtaining the power of journeying without a Guide to point out the way before him. But they, who are not really lovers of Wisdom, but have only a coating of color like those whose bodies are sunburnt, when they perceive how many things are to be learnt and find out how great is the labor and what temperance in daily nourishment is requisite, they deem it too difficult and beyond their powers and become unable to attend to it at all and some of them persuade themselves that they have sufficiently heard the whole and do not wish further to exert themselves.

At Plato's death in 347 B. C. the house, the library, and the garden in the Academy, were bequeathed by the Master as the permanent property of the School, whose income in the course of the centuries was largely increased by endowments. For about three hundred years the grounds at the Academy remained uninterruptedly the Headquarters of the School, but during the Siege of Athens by the Roman general Sulla in 87 B. C., the Teacher or Scholarch of that time was forced to retire within the city walls and gave his instruction in the Gymnasium, called Ptolemaeum, where Cicero heard the Scholarch Antiochos in 79 B. C. For more than six hundred years longer the grounds at the Academy remained in possession of the School, which however soon degenerated into a form of philosophical scepticism and eclecticism, from which it was later recalled by the so-called Neo- or New Platonists. Finally under the pressure of ecclesiastical bigotry and greed the Emperor Justinian confiscated the School property and forbade the last Scholarch Damascius to teach. Accordingly a little band of seven Platonic Pilgrim-sages, consisting of Damascius, Simplicius, Eulalius, Priscian, Hermeias, Diogenes, and Isidore, to avoid ecclesiastical persecution, were forced to wander away from the domains of Christendom over mountain and desert to the distant court of the Persian Emperor Chosroës, who four years later forced Justinian by treaty to let the last of the Neoplatonists return to their native land and die a natural death, guaranteeing them protection against further monkish persecution. It is a strange fact that as soon as the School grounds in the Academy were confiscated, a rumor, true or false, presently spread to the effect that the deserted property had become straightway unhealthy, a rumor which has persisted to this day, although it is impossible for one who has visited the spot to perceive any reason why it should not under proper cultivation re-become the healthful and beautiful garden it once was.

The following notice appeared in the _Bibliotheca Platonica_ for November-December, 1889:

_Secure the Academy!_ We desire to call the attention of Platonists throughout the world to the fact that the site of the Ancient Academy at Athens, Greece, could probably be secured by prompt and concerted action. Proper measures should be taken at once to organize an association having for its object the purchase, preservation and restoration of the place where Plato lived and taught and where his disciples continued his sublime and enlightening work for centuries. It should be rescued from the hands of the profane, and set aside for the perpetual use and benefit of all true followers of Divine Philosophy. There is no good reason, why, in due time, the Platonic School should not again become, as it once was, the nursery of Science and Wisdom for the whole World.

Note the significant words of Thomas Taylor, the great Platonist of a hundred years ago, who in the words of H. P. Blavatsky is "one of the very few commentators on old Greek and Latin authors who have given their just dues to the ancients for their mental development":

As to the philosophy (Platonism, as taught by Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato) by whose assistance these (the Eleusinian and Orphic) Mysteries are developed, it is coeval with the universe itself; and however its continuity may be broken by opposing systems, it will make its appearance at different periods of time, as long as the sun himself shall continue to illuminate the world. It has been, indeed, and may hereafter be violently assaulted by delusive opinions; but the opposition will be just as imbecile as that of the waves of the sea against a temple, built on a rock, which majestically pours them back,

"Broken and vanquish'd foaming to the main."

Somewhat similar although less suggestive is the tribute of a recent writer upon Neoplatonism:

The Neoplatonist held that nothing perishes and Neoplatonism is still alive. Its mysticism has lived on. Its idealism can never die.

CLASSICAL CYRENE: by Ariomardes

What we call "history" is largely a dogma. It stands on a basis very similar to that on which some other dogmas, religious, literary, scientific, etc., stand; that is, it stands on a particular, restricted, and local brand of culture, known as "Western civilization." And, like these other dogmas, it is destined to become seriously modified by later researches and discoveries.

For look at our classical history; it is founded chiefly upon a literature--the literature of cultured circles in Greece and Rome. That this literature does not reflect the life of the people to any adequate extent we know; for the spade of the archaeologists, instead of confirmations, too often unearths surprises. The results of archaeology go to show that ancient peoples were more advanced in many important arts of life than we had surmised from our acquaintance with the said literature. Hebraic tradition, too, backed by the weight of religious authority, has colored our views of the past, and prevented us from estimating aright the claims of non-Christian peoples. In considering the history of Hindûstân, Persia, Egypt, etc., students have sought to make dates agree with their own sacred traditions. Again, we have too often shown a lack of appreciation of the form and style of other historians, when these have not adopted the literal and precise form favored by our own historians; and have consequently, in a vain attempt to take poetical language in the sense of a scientific treatise, frequently rejected it and its message altogether.

Around that Mediterranean basin which was the classic theater, were great nations to whose history we have not hitherto had access, but of which we are now beginning to learn a little. The civilization--or rather, several distinct civilizations--that preceded Greece, and whose center at one time was Crete, at another the western shores of Asia Minor; the mysterious Nabatheans and Sabaeans; the equally mysterious Hittites; empires in Africa, south of Egypt, and inland from the east coast; these and other fragmentary remains slowly accumulate to confirm the assurances made by H. P. Blavatsky in _The Secret Doctrine_ that a far greater and longer past lies behind us than we have so far guessed.

The name Cyrene is suggestive along these lines, and forms the topic of a recent article by Professor Alfred Emerson of the Chicago Art Institute, in _The Scientific American_.

A number of Dorian islanders, we are there told, planted a European colony on the great Libyan headland to the south of Greece proper, 640 years B. C., so that Cyrene and its neighborhood had as long an authentic history as ancient Rome itself. A dynasty of kings was succeeded by a republic and the Libyans sometimes pressed the Greek colony hard. Cyrene had its own school of philosophy and a famous school of medicine. It had over 100,000 inhabitants, and the Ptolemies gave it kings again.

Sporadic explorations have brought to light a few relics, but heretofore the Ottoman government has repressed the curiosity of more systematic researchers. Now, however, an American expedition has won a firman to explore the ruins, and we shall soon have a record of this powerful but little known outlier of classic culture.

KILLARNEY, IRELAND: by F. J. Dick, M. Inst. C. E., M. Inst. C. E. I.

Those who pass hurriedly through the Killarney district know little of its manifold fascination. Even among natives few have thoroughly explored its features. But to one who has made many more or less prolonged visits there, at all seasons, and who has gained a sympathetic interest in its people and in the legends that belong to every rock, islet, and mountain, and who has seen it in storm and sunshine, at dawn and sunset, and by moonlight, the feeling grows that here the immutable decree of Karmic law, "there shall be no more going up and down," during this cycle, never fully descended--that, in fact, this is no part of the ordinary world at all, but something distinct, sacred, set apart for some inscrutable reason and purpose. The very atmosphere of some fairy-world of Light and Day hovers about these Lakes and wooded mountain heights, and seems to penetrate everything. Right in the center, in the very heart of all the beauty, between Dinish Island and Glena, rises the Shee, or Sidhe (Sanskrit _Siddhi_) Mountain--the mountain of the Fairy World, next to Purple Mountain.

Strange to say, it is just here, too, that the luxuriant vegetation of Killarney seems fairly to run riot, and we find trees and shrubs of tropical character growing side by side with those of temperate and colder climes. Eucalyptus, palm, bamboo, jostle cedar and pine; while the profusion of flowers of all kinds is amazing. And the delicious perfumes of the place, with just a faint suggestion of a turf-fire somewhere a little way off, are something to remember. Some of the Killarney plants belong to what was once an unbroken coast-line extending to Spain. Such are _saxifraga umbrosa_ (London pride), _saxifraga geum_, _arbutus unedo_, and _pinguicula grandiflora_. The arbutus grows in profusion at Killarney, although its real home, in a sense, is among the Pyrenees. Other plants are found along the west coast, which are indigenous to the eastern shores of America.

One thinks of Breasil, and the Isles of the Western Sea, a later geological period than that when there was unbroken, or practically unbroken, connexion between Ireland, Spain, and America. And then one begins to wonder when the links of the past will be more clear.

These memories of the past! Are they not pressing more strongly than ever on the hearts and imaginations--on the soul--of the Irish? No attempted deadening of this urge by half-hearted dry-as-dust methods ingeniously forced on the poor folk by interested parties (vested interests) will avail much. The unrest, which manifests in so many ways in contemporary Irish life, has surely a deep source. There are incarnations and incarnations. Some kinds are racial, that is, belong to the larger sweep of things. No artificial barriers can stop them. No pretended patronage of the Irish language movement will be able to check influences belonging to the inner life of a race-soul under recurrent upward impulse.

Hy-breasil and the Isles of the West! Once the Coom-Dhuv, or Black Valley, to the west of the Killarney Upper Lake, was an arm of the sea; and those who lived on the temple-crowned heights of Killarney could have told us something of those Isles, which were in no shadow-world, but were realities, relics of Atlantis, undoubtedly. These legends must find their solution, partly by the names, partly by the details; and be studied in the light of H. P. Blavatsky's writings, particularly _The Secret Doctrine_, where many a clue is given; and where the Sanskrit, Chaldaean, and Irish names fail to give the clues, it seems the Welsh will come triumphantly to the rescue. After all, the details have only relative importance, for the broad facts are already plainly outlined in _The Secret Doctrine_; and it is no very difficult matter to see what is meant by Partholon, with the cow-faced and the goat-headed; by Nemed; by the Tuatha de Danaan (Fourth Race Atlanteans of the Right Path), and Formorians (those of the Left); some of their descendants living on in archaic Ireland; and the Milesians, the early arrivals of the Fifth, from Central Asia via Egypt and Scandinavia, when Spain and Africa were one and Ireland was part of Scandinavia. All of which was long before what we call the Celts, crossed the Caucasus into Europe. Irish mythology is real history, some of it disfigured, as usual, by irreverent or ignorant hands. The worst of it is that the Irish seemed to enjoy having their past belittled, and their gods and heroes dethroned in favor of a piece of patchwork of alien growth; a kind of travesty of Eastern and Egyptian teachings, belittled, like the Irish gods; and dethroned, truly! It was a "magical and Druidic mist" of the wrong kind unfortunately, which descended upon the heirs of Atlantean knowledge. And it will take some effort to dispel it, very probably. It _is_ dispelled though!

Thoughts like these are apt to cross one's mind among the regal solitudes of Killarney, where for miles, as you look down from some crag, no human habitation can be seen--one of the places where you can sit, and watch the Sword of Light, and the Spear of Victory getting busy; so that the other two Jewels brought from the Isles of the West will shine again.

One visible sign, at least, of the Sword of Light, is a growing temperance movement among the youth of Ireland. Right conduct leads to light, whatever be the mists obscuring one's vision along the road of life. Perhaps the youth of Ireland will next look into the ancient past to discern vestiges of nobility as well as simplicity of character; and note what manner of men some true kings were, and by whom attended--bards, or poet-seers; lawgivers, or disciplinarians; craftsmen; and warriors. Another kind of functionary was--well, he was not needed.

One of the legends of Killarney, really connected, it would seem, with Inisfallen, has no very exact parallel, and possesses some interesting and suggestive features. The story as given by Mr. Ockenden a century and a half ago is somewhat as follows. There lived in Inisfallen many hundred years ago a prince named O'Donoghoe. He manifested during his stay on earth great munificence, great humanity, and great wisdom; for by his profound knowledge in all the secret powers of nature, he wrought wonders as miraculous as any tradition has recorded, of saints by the aid of angels, or of sorcerers by the assistance of demons; and among many other astonishing performances, he rendered his person immortal. After having continued a long time on the surface of the globe without growing old he one day took leave of his friends, and rising from the floor, like some aerial existence, passed through the window, shot away horizontally to a considerable distance, and then descended. The water, unfolding at his approach, gave him entrance to the sub-aqueous regions and then, to the astonishment of all beholders, closed over his head, as they believed, for ever; but in this they were mistaken.

He returned again, some years after, revisiting--not, like Hamlet's ghost "the glimpses of the moon, making night hideous," but--the radiance of the sun, making day joyful, to those at least who saw him; since which time he has continued to make very frequent expeditions to these upper regions, sometimes three or four in a year; but sometimes three or four years pass without his once appearing, which the bordering inhabitants have always looked upon as a mark of very bad times. Mr. Ockenden continues the tale of his experiences:

It was feared this would be the third year he would suffer to elapse, without his once cheering their eyes with his presence; but the latter end of last August he again appeared, to the inexpressible joy of all, and was seen by numbers in the middle of the day. I had the curiosity, before I left Killarney, to visit one of the witnesses to this very marvelous fact.

The account she gives is, that, returning with a kinswoman to her house at the head of the Lake, they both beheld a fine gentleman mounted upon a black horse, ascend through the water along with a numerous retinue on foot, who all moved together along the surface towards a small island, near which they again descended under water. This account is confirmed in time, place, and circumstance, by many more spectators from the side of the Lake, who are all ready to swear, and, not improbably, to suffer death in support of their testimony.

Another account says that at the feast, before he first disappeared, he was engaged in a prophetic relation of the events which were to happen in the ages to come; and that after he reached the center of the Lake opposite them, he paused a moment, turned slowly round, looked toward his friends, and waving his hand to them with the cheerful air of one taking a short farewell, descended.

Mrs. S. C. Hall relates that an English soldier of the 30th Regiment, and an Irish comrade, were while she was at Killarney engaged in plowing up part of the old churchyard in Inisfallen, a work they both disliked. As they were mooring the boat in which they came to the island in the morning, a day or so after the work had commenced,

they saw a procession of about two hundred persons pass from the old churchyard, and walk slowly and solemnly over the lake to the mainland. Reynolds (the soldier) himself was terribly alarmed, but his companion fainted in the boat.

He repeatedly afterward saw smaller groups of figures, but no crowd so numerous.

In answer to our questions, he expressed his perfect readiness to depose to the fact on oath; and asserted he would declare it if on his death-bed.

Some say the best way to approach Killarney for the first time is by the wildly picturesque road over the mountains from Kenmare and Glengarriff. One obtains a magnificent view of the Upper Lake from the turn of the road a little north of the police barrack. Others again have experienced the charm of an absolutely sudden surprise awaiting them, when, arriving at Killarney by rail and driving south about a mile or more, during which nothing is seen but the over-arching trees, and turning to the left up a steep road south of the Flesk demesne, toward one of the guest-houses there, the whole panorama of the Lower Lake and the mountains bursts upon you just as you reach your destination. Nothing has prepared you for a scene of so great beauty; so this way of arriving has its merits. From this situation, or from Flesk Castle; from a point above the Torc cascade; and from the point first mentioned, are obtained perhaps the three finest views of the Lakes. But in truth unrivaled view-points seem endless, each having its own especial charm. The play of color, cloud, and shadow at various hours and seasons is so extraordinary that no brush of painter could ever do Killarney justice. As for photographs, they are merely like pegs to hang one's memory-hats upon.

To know Killarney stay two months there at least, make friends with the natives, learn the legends, and absorb the harmony of the region.

And though many an isle be fair,
Fairer still is Inisfallen,
Since the hour Cuchullain lay
In the bower enchanted.
See! the ash that waves today,
Fand its grandsire planted.

When from wave to mountain-top
All delight thy sense bewilders,
Thou shalt own the wonder wrought
Once by her skilled fingers
Still, though many an age be gone,
Round Killarney lingers.

_William Larminie_

THE VRBAS DEFILE, BOSNIA: by F. J. B.

Bosnia, in Europe, best known as one of the Balkan Provinces, belonged in the fourteenth century to the kingdom of Stephen of Servia: it attained freedom in 1376, then fell again under the Turkish invasion of Europe. In 1878 the treaty of Berlin provided for the occupation, by Austria-Hungary, of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Dalmatia, accomplished only after severe conflict with the Mahommedans. Count Callay was appointed administrator and made it his life-work to promote harmony between the different races, as well as to develop the country's resources. Ultimately the three provinces were annexed by Austria-Hungary; compensation was awarded to Turkey and the long-feared European war averted. The Vrbas is a tributary of the Save, which divides Slavonia from Bosnia, on its northern border. The accompanying print exhibits the deep, narrow, rocky bed of the Vrbas and the precipitous height of the cliffs forming this magnificent defile, the summits being invisible from certain parts of the road. The river was once probably one of the underground watercourses of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Nature is majestic there and hews out her own rock temples.

ASTRONOMICAL NOTES: by C. J. Ryan

There has lately been an interesting correspondence in _The English Mechanic_ upon the subject of meteorites, and a remarkable conflict of opinion has been manifested, showing that there is really not much positive knowledge about them. The Earth's atmosphere is continually being bombarded by these missiles, and the dust into which they are transformed during their passage through it falls upon the Earth, sprinkling it annually with a layer of dark mineral substance, which if evenly spread, would cover the surface to about the thickness of a match. For long it was denied by the Academies of Science that mineral masses, varying in weight from a few ounces to several tons, ever fell from the sky, although they had been frequently seen in the act of falling and had been handled while still warm. But the incredulity of the astronomers was broken down about a century ago and they could no longer hold to their axiom that "as there are no stones in the sky, they cannot fall out of it." The careful study of "shooting-stars" has not been undertaken for much more than half a century. Although there is no doubt that meteoric masses do fall to the ground occasionally and that the meteoric dust which is found in the enduring snows on high peaks and in the Arctic regions comes from the disintegration of such objects, it is not certain that all of the shooting stars that flash across our night skies (and day ones too, though we rarely see one by day) are of the same nature as the meteoric stones which we can examine in our museums.

One of the most difficult problems to explain is the cause of the luminosity of the meteors. Many of them start into brilliancy at the enormous heights of eighty or ninety miles above the Earth and, after dashing at planetary speed across a distance of perhaps a hundred miles or more, disappear at heights of thirty or forty miles from the surface. Compared with the rapidity of their motion the quickest bullet is practically at rest. The explanation most widely accepted is that the friction of the meteorite in passing through our atmosphere at such an enormous speed ignites it and rapidly destroys it. Objection has been raised to this theory on the ground that the atmosphere at great heights is exceedingly rare and that it is difficult to believe it could offer enough resistance. Another problem has hitherto proved quite insoluble; i. e., the long persistence of the train of luminous particles which remain drifting in the upper air after the disappearance of the explosive bolides. For instance, on February 22, 1909, such a luminous train was seen for several hours drifting across the sky at high speed. Its height was so great that it was visible over a large part of England and France. Why these sparks do not go out instantly, in the same manner as those which follow the ordinary shooting-stars, is an unsolved mystery.

The only thing that is well established about meteor showers is that most of them are periodic and come from well-defined quarters of the heavens. From the study of the directions from which these streams come, it has been calculated that they travel round the sun in long elliptical orbits, and are members of his family. An orbit of thirty-three years has been computed for the famous November meteors. They probably extend about as far as the planet Neptune on one side of the Sun. The wonderful displays of November meteors seen in 1833 and 1866, which astonished the whole world, were probably caused by the passing of the Earth through a particularly dense portion of the stream. In 1866 we met the same portion that we had encountered in 1833. It was again looked for in 1899, thirty-three years later, but, to the surprise of the astronomers, there was but a very ordinary display. Many reasons have been offered for this, but no one really knows enough to explain it satisfactorily. A few of the meteoric streams follow the tracks of comets, and it is supposed that they may be the disintegrated remains of comets, particularly in the cases where the latter have faded away. There are many other peculiarities in the behavior of meteorites and of the meteoric streams which are quite incomprehensible, but enough has been said to show that the problem is full of interest to inquiring minds.

* * * * *

Students of H. P. Blavatsky's teachings will not have failed to notice that there is a continual effort being made by astronomers to find some really satisfactory theory to explain the formation and behavior of comets' tails. She discusses the subject in _The Secret Doctrine_ in such a way and gives such suggestive hints as to make it clear that when we do get the real clue to the mystery there will be need for further readjustments in our theories of matter. She also leads us to understand that partly through the discoveries which will be made in connexion with the anomalies of comets' tails, science will find that the present theory of gravitation is highly incomplete, and that there is an opposite force--repulsion--to be understood. Gravitation is only one aspect of a mysterious force which is as definitely polarized as electricity or magnetism. It is of interest to notice that Professor Kapteyn, the famous Dutch astronomer of Groningen, has just declared at the thirteenth Science Congress of Holland that the law of gravitation is abrogated among the spiral nebulae. His words are:

All the known facts indicate that the so-called universal force of Gravitation exerts no influence upon the primordial matter from which all stars have been produced.

A few years ago--even to a date considerably later than the time when H. P. Blavatsky wrote the daring suggestions in _The Secret Doctrine_--such a statement would have been considered the rankest heresy; no scientist would have dared to throw doubts upon the universal supremacy of the law of gravitation. Truly, indeed, did she prophesy that in the twentieth century it would be recognized that she had but sketched an outline, which, though rejected at its first appearance, was based upon real knowledge.

In seeking a plausible hypothesis to explain comets' tails, Signor Luigi Armellini, an Italian astronomer, has advanced the revolutionary idea that they are optical illusions, merely the effect of light passing through the more or less lens-shaped head of the comet. He publishes, in the _Astronomische Nachrichten_, fourteen photographs of comet-like forms which he produced by passing beams of light at various angles through lenses so as to fall upon sensitized plates. He claims that the different angles at which the solar rays fall upon the nucleus of a comet as it moves round the sun sufficiently explain the familiar changes in shape of the tail.

This hypothesis has not been favorably received, for it provokes more difficulties than it solves, plausible though it may seem at first sight. For instance, there is the undeniable fact that comets' tails display an entirely different spectrum from that of the Sun. Then there is the fact that they are frequently most irregular in shape, with strange bends and gaps in them, and sometimes they show bright projections pointing _towards_ the Sun. Everyone who saw the great daylight comet of the winter before last (Comet 1910 a) will remember the curious bend half way down the tail which was plainly visible without optical aid. This was a curious freak for a comet!

It is singular that a somewhat similar hypothesis to that of Signor Armellini was offered by a correspondent to the _Century Path_ not long ago (April 24, 1910), the difference being that he suggested that the comet's tail was a _shadow_ of the nucleus thrown upon a surrounding spherical nebulosity and which became visible as a bright object when relieved against the intensely black background of the sky. This hypothesis lies open to the same objection as the lens theory, and also to others. But the important thing is that the mystery of comets has not been cleared up, nor will it be until the properties of other states of matter than those with which we are familiar are discovered by science.

The following quotation from _The Scientific American_ shows some of the difficulties which comet theorists have to meet:

The tail of Halley's comet has conducted itself in the most whimsical fashion.... It seems to have split longitudinally into three more or less well-defined parts. When we consider that Morehouse's comet of 1908 exhibited some extraordinary changes; that it repeatedly formed tails which were discarded to drift out bodily into space until they finally melted away; that in several cases tails were twisted or corkscrew shaped, as if they had gone out in a more or less spiral form; that areas of material connected with the tail would become visible at some distance from the head, where apparently no supply had reached it from the nucleus; that several times the matter of the tail was accelerated perpendicularly to its length; and that at one time the entire tail was thrown forward and curved perpendicularly to the radius vector in the general direction of the tail's sweep through space (_a peculiarity opposed to the law of gravitation_) it is evident that a comet presents important problems for the future astronomer to solve. (May 28, 1910, Italics ours).

In connexion with the profoundly interesting problem of gravitation and the dead mechanical theory of the universe _versus_ the living, spiritual teachings which H. P. Blavatsky brought us, the student should consult Sections III and IV of Part III of _The Secret Doctrine_, Vol. I. Nothing displays more forcibly the strength and beauty of the Theosophical position, which sees the working of Divine Intelligence and Control in every thing, from the least to the greatest.

To the general public as well as to astronomers the question of the habitability of the planets is a perennial subject of interest, and it is curious to observe how the opinions of experts have been modified lately. A few years ago it would have appeared most unlikely that the time was quickly coming when it would be seriously advanced by a distinguished astronomer that _with the exception of Mars_ all the planets are probably inhabited! Yet that is the position taken today by Professor T. J. J. See of the U. S. Observatory, Mare Island. "Mars has been inhabited in the past, but life has doubtless vanished there, as but little of the Martian atmosphere remains." Until recently it was thought that the extensive dark shadings on Mars were oceans, but the numerous observations made of late with finer telescopes and under more favorable conditions than were formerly available have proved that these dark areas, instead of being the smooth, even surfaces they should be if composed of water, are irregularly mottled and actually crossed in places by some of the fine lines called "canals" about which so much controversy has raged. Very limited dark blue regions surrounding the white "snowcaps," which are most distinctly visible during the Martian summers, are most probably water, but these are so small that conditions must be very different on Mars from those on the Earth or any similar planet. The state of things upon Venus appears to be far more like that to which we are accustomed. No mountains such as Venus possesses are to be traced on Mars. Professor See feels sure that Mars must have been the seat of life in the past, and with respect to the families of planets which we are morally certain must surround the myriads of gigantic suns which we see only as twinkling stars, he is convinced that they also must have been formed for the habitation of intelligent beings, for to regard them as barren deserts would make Nature ridiculous.

H. P. Blavatsky, in _The Secret Doctrine_ and elsewhere, and William Q. Judge in his writings, have plainly stated the Theosophical teaching about the condition of Mars in its present cycle. According to this, the planet is under "obscuration," that is, it is not the seat of full and complete active life, though there may be some lower vital forces at work. But this does not mean that Mars is becoming extinct or that it is a dead planet. According to the Esoteric philosophy, of which H. P. Blavatsky was permitted to unveil a little and to give a partial outline, the planets are subject to great periodic changes of state. From a high condition of activity in which life in every form flourishes, they decline to a state of quiescence during which the vital forces are active in the unseen planes; but in due course the nearly extinct fires are re-lighted and a further and higher evolution commences. We see this taking place on a smaller scale around us; civilizations rise and fall only to rise again; nations and even races disappear to be replaced by others commencing their upward march.

During the intervals between the active manifestations on the physical plane the life-stream or wave passes into other and interior states which are necessary for the full development of perfected intelligence. What takes place in the case of the individual man in the comparatively short cyclic alternations of earth-lives and Devachanic or Heavenly conditions is a reflection of the vast cosmic process of the planets and the suns. Modern science has not yet grasped the enormous and far-reaching significance of Cyclic or Periodic laws, particularly in their application to human life, and how firmly everything, from the lowest animalcule to the great sun itself, is held in their grasp. When Cyclic Law as the key to the greater mysteries of life is thoroughly understood we shall no longer find any opposition to the fact of the reincarnation of the human soul, which is simply a necessary corollary to it. The soul is not _supernatural_ in the sense of being outside Nature's laws; it is a part of the whole.

So with respect to Mars. It is, as Professor See and others believe, under obscuration today, but its energies will revive or reincarnate in some future age. It has not reached the state of our Moon, which is a decaying corpse, having passed through its life-history long ago. The Moon's life-principles "reincarnating" in the sphere of the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago, are now pursuing a higher evolution here. The Earth will in its time "reincarnate" similarly.

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL FROM LUDGATE HILL: by Carolus

The great fire of London in September 1666 destroyed eighty-nine churches, the city gates, hospitals, schools, libraries, and many other public buildings, thirteen thousand two hundred dwelling houses, and the fortunes of over two hundred thousand people; but only eight lives were lost, and the plague, which only the year before had destroyed a hundred thousand persons in London alone, was never afterwards a cause of serious anxiety. Notwithstanding the temporary suffering the fire was a great hygienic benefit, and the city rapidly recovered more than its former prosperity. One of the severest losses was that of the old cathedral of St. Paul, a magnificent thirteenth century Gothic building with a central spire. Its dimensions were enormous; the total length being 700 feet, the height of the nave 102 feet, and the spire attained the extraordinary altitude of 534 feet, 130 feet higher than Salisbury Cathedral spire, which gives the impression, today, of enormous height. The old cathedral had suffered many losses and injuries before the fire, its spire had been destroyed, and its monuments defaced, while many outrages called restorations had injured its beauty.

After the fire much of the work of rebuilding was entrusted to Sir Christopher Wren, the most renowned architect of modern times in England. In four years ten thousand houses had been rebuilt, and very soon fifty-one churches were commenced by Wren. The greatest was new St. Paul's. The first stone was laid on June 21, 1675, the last in 1710. Just before the fire Wren had been commissioned by King Charles II to restore old St. Paul's, and he proposed to remodel all but the choir in "a good Roman manner." We may be thankful that such an atrocity was providentially prevented. Wren made several designs for the new building on the lines of his proposed remodeling of the old one; but for various reasons none of them were finally carried out. The finished building is very different from even the last approved design, and is generally considered far superior. In place of the one-storied effect produced by a single order of columns, which he originally intended, he divided the whole height into two orders. The result was an immense gain in apparent size. St. Peter's in Rome is utterly dwarfed by the colossal size of the columns and pilasters of its single order, and it is a remarkable fact, that although the top of St. Paul's dome is only about the same height as the springing of that of St. Peter's, owing to Wren's ingenious design in this matter, the one looks about as high as the other.

It is rather a singular fact that the greatest cathedral of the Protestant Reformation should be called after the "wise master-builder," St. Paul, while the central church of the Roman faith is dedicated to the apostle who thrice denied his Master.

The ground plan as finally built, is much smaller than that of the old cathedral, being only 500 feet long, by 250 across the transepts. The front towers are 250 feet high, and the dome is 404. The dome is a wonderful example of Wren's constructive skill. The stone lantern at the summit is quite independent of the external wooden and lead dome; it is supported on a cone of brickwork, concealed from the interior by an internal dome. Wren said he was building for eternity, and he was especially careful about the strength of the foundations, but he had no suspicion of the boring and tunneling that would before many centuries take place around the cathedral, and serious anxiety has been caused of late years by sundry cracks which have appeared in some of the walls and vaults.

There is good reason to suppose that the site of St. Paul's was once dedicated to the worship of Diana. Ox heads, which were sacred to that goddess, were discovered near the church in 1316, and at other times fragments of vessels that seem to have been used in the old ceremonies have been dug up. A chronicler of the fifth century speaks of the worship of Diana being restored in London in his time. The site of the building is the highest in the city, and it is the most reasonable place for the sacred Temple of pre-christian times to have been founded.

Fortunately there are no thirty-five-story skyscrapers in London to dwarf the picturesque mass of the majestic edifice which has an abiding place in the heart of every Londoner--and indeed of every Englishman.

See! how shadowy,
Of some occult magician's rearing,
Or swung in space of heaven's grace,
Dissolving, dimly reappearing,
Afloat upon ethereal tides
St. Paul's above the city rides.

_John Davidson_

WHO MADE THE EUCALYPTS? by Nature-Lover

Australia is a remnant of Lemuria, as geologists call that ancient continent which once stretched across the Southern hemisphere. In Australia we find strange animals and plants, the relics of a bygone age. One plant is the Eucalyptus, of many varieties, a very perfect tree, with two systems of roots, one to catch surface water, the other to dig deep; formed for hardiness, yet distilling every kind of fragrant and health-giving balm. Is this tree a product of evolution? Or has Man had a hand in the perfecting of it?

Men in our recent civilization are already learning how to manipulate plants so as to make them into better plants than they were before. If it be true that the ancient continent of Lemuria was occupied by an ancient humanity, divided into races and sub-races, nations and tribes, enduring for millenniums, it must also be true that they made discoveries in science, of which agriculture is a branch. Perhaps they had gone further than we have yet gone in the art of plant culture; perhaps they had carried it to a point of perfection; perhaps they made the Eucalypts. There are many other plants and fruits and trees on the earth which seem as if they had been made at some time or another; and it is quite possible that bygone human races may have had something to do with it.

The influence of man upon nature may have been underestimated. Plants and animals seem to remain about the same for very long periods; man is able to produce variations in them; and then the varieties often remain permanent and unaltered. It is quite conceivable that scientific agriculture on a large scale may have been practised at one time or at several times in the world's history, and that many now-existing forms may be attributable thereto.

Thus far we have spoken only of the direct and purposeful influence of man upon nature; but man has also an indirect and undesigned influence. For just as the physical body of man is continually discarding atoms, which return to the soil, carrying thither vital elements that will be used over again in the lower kingdoms of nature; so man is as constantly throwing off other elements, not physical, and these likewise return to the lower kingdoms of nature to enter as vital forces into the constitution of lower forms. In other words, man excretes used-up and superfluous elements from his mind; and these, though no longer of use to man, and being now divested of everything human, may nevertheless serve to ensoul lowlier forms. It will thus be seen that some of the theories of evolution held by biologists are the reverse of the truth. The analogy between animals and the organs in man has been regarded as pointing to a descent of man from the animals; but why might it not imply a descent of animals from man? Once get rid of the idea that physical begetting is the only way in which one thing can be derived from another, and the way is clear for postulating a descent or derivation of animals from man. The crab, all claws and stomach, works off naturally and harmlessly certain proclivities which in man were cultivated to an excess too great for their further expression in the human kingdom. In the same way we have the spider, built perhaps from the cast-off atoms of a bogus-company promoter (!), the snake, the pig, etc. It has been well said that in the Zoo one may meet all one's friends and enemies--behind the bars of the cages; and the cartoonist can represent faithfully his human characters by giving them animals' heads.

But let us not overdo the idea. It is true that many of the animals now on earth appeared subsequently to man in the present "Round" of evolution; but this does not apply to all the animals. The facts are, as might be expected, not so simple as one might like them to be; for the history of evolution in all its ramifications is a long and complex one. To return to the main proposition: man plays an important part in the evolution of nature, both conscious and unconscious.

AUSTRALIAN MARSUPIALS: by Nature-Lover

Australia is one of the oldest lands, says H. P. Blavatsky; it can produce no _new_ forms, unless helped by fresh races or artificial cultivation and breeding. This is in keeping with the native race whose home it has been; for a portion of the present native tribes are the descendants of those later Lemurians who escaped the destruction of their fellows when the main continent was submerged. This remnant has since declined. Its environment is suggestive of a survival from a long bygone age. As Jukes says, in his _Manual of Geology_, it is a curious fact that the fossil marsupials found in Oxfordshire, England, together with Trigonias and other shells, and even some fossil plants, should much more nearly resemble those now living in Australia than the living forms of any other part of the globe. This fact is interesting and suggestive.

From a recent article in _The English Mechanic_ we condense the following.

The remains of some of the oldest mammals were discovered in the Keuper beds of bone breccia of Upper Triassic age near Stuttgart. They consisted of the teeth of a small animal about the size of a rabbit, Microlestes antiquus. Teeth of a similar animal were found in the Rhaetic beds at Frome, England, while in the red sandstones of the Upper Trias in Virginia and North Carolina were found the lower jaws of Dromatherium sylvestre, and in beds of similar age in Basutoland the skull of Tritylodon longaevus. All these are believed to have been marsupials, mammals that bring forth their young in an imperfect condition and place them in a pouch formed by the skin of the abdomen, where their development is completed.

In the Australian regions there are about one hundred and sixty species of living marsupials including the kangaroo, kangaroo rat, phalanger, tarsipes, wombat, bandicoot, rat, koala, Tasmanian wolf or Thylacine dasyure, and the Tasmanian devil or Ursine dasyure; while in the remainder of the world there are only about forty-six, and these confined to North and South America, the representatives being the opossum and the South American selvas. The kangaroo is also found in Tasmania, New Guinea, New Ireland, and in the Aru and other islands of these regions.

Up to the present very few fossil remains of Monotremes have been found. These are the lowest forms of mammals and lay eggs; they seem to form a link with the reptiles. Their skeletons exhibit very reptilian characters and true teeth are absent. They appear to have been followed by the Marsupials and finally by the Placentals, which bring forth matured young, and which seem to have made their appearance in the Upper Jurassic. The only representatives that now exist of the monotremes are the duck-billed platypus or Ornithorhyncus, and the spiny anteater, both of Australia, and Parechidna of New Guinea. These lay soft-shelled eggs and have no teats, the milk being exuded from pores in the skin, which the young ones lick when hatched. The fossil remains of Echidna have been brought to light in the bone breccia of Tertiary times in Australia. In the Stonesfield Slate of Oxfordshire, which is Lower Oolitic, the lower jaws of several small marsupials have been found, and these were contemporary with the great saurians. The latter waned as the former increased. Similar lower jaws have been found at Swanage in Dorsetshire, the lower jaw being the first bone to become detached and being left stranded while the rest of the body or skeleton was carried out to sea. There would seem to have been a world-wide distribution of monotremes and marsupials; but they did not develop any size except in Australia, where they became isolated.

In the newer Tertiary deposits of Australia are the remains of a large marsupial allied to the kangaroo and named Diprotodon Australis; and in the Post-Tertiary another named Nototherium; as also a few others including fossil kangaroos.

This concludes our abstract from the article. In reference to what is said therein about the first two forms of Mammals--the Monotremes and the Marsupials--their analogies with the types below and above them, and the gradation in development which they exhibit, it may be recalled that the teachings given in _The Secret Doctrine_, with regard to animal and human evolution, are not the same as the conjectures of most modern theorists. The Mammalia, it is stated, are (_in the present Round_) posterior to Man on this globe. The evolutionary process which culminated in the production of a physical organism for Man took place in an earlier Round. Similarly, it is not in the present Round that the Monads inhabiting animals now living will progress so as to enter into the composition of Man. That destiny awaits them in a future Round. Hence these Monotremes and Marsupials do not represent early stages in the evolution of our present humanity. Analogy in form does not always mean derivation of the one form from the other; and when it does, there still remains the doubt as to which form was prior to the other. The subject of evolution, as taught by ancient Science, is comprehensive and fascinating. It is evident that the actual facts must be far more complex and vaster in scale than tentative hypotheses.

Australia is a country with natural scenery of fascinating type. The illustrations accompanying this note give an idea of it.

HOA-HAKA-NANA-IA: by P. A. Malpas

Much has been written and said about the famous Easter Island statues in mid-Pacific. So little is really known about them that until H. P. Blavatsky called attention to their immense antiquity they were not thought to be of any particular value. There were one or two speculations which she, as with so many other scattered data, gathered together, sifted, confirmed, or refuted, adding a few details to complete the bare outline of the picture.

The one in the illustration stands at the entrance outside the British Museum with a smaller, more shapeless companion. They were brought to England in Her Majesty's Ship _Topaze_, and presented in 1869 by Queen Victoria to the national collection in the Museum.

As they are said to be of hard trachyte and the ravages of time are great, therefore it is said they are very, very old. Presumably they were carved in the "Stone Age," wherever that mysteriously ancient (yet still existing!) epoch of science may be situated in the years of the world. It would be interesting to know by what "Stone Age" tools they were carved. Perhaps Aladdin's diamonds may have helped in the carving?

In any case they are evident "sun-worship" monuments. So would our clocks and sundials be if we could emulate our "Stone Age" brothers (what wonderful masons they were!) in making them last a million years or so.

We would wish to remark that the cross on the backs of these very ancient statues, made in one of the hardest kinds of stone, is a very remarkable case of testimony by anticipation. They were only "Stone Age" men, but they had shrewd powers of anticipation--almost as wonderful as their masonry!

SUN-LIFE AND EARTH-LIFE: by Per Fernholm

Indwelling

If thou couldst empty all thyself of self,
Like to a shell dishabited,
Then might He find thee on the Ocean shelf,
And say--"This is not dead,"--
And fill thee with Himself instead.

But thou art all replete with very thou,
And hast such shrewd activity,
That, when He comes, He says: "This is enow
Unto itself--'twere better let it be:
It is so small and full, there is no room for Me."

_T. E. Brown_, "_Collected Poems_."