FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 10: Fortunately, this is a fact only in the imagination of those who are blinded by faith.]
[Footnote 11: Before men had sinned individually on earth.]
[Footnote 12: _De corruptione et gratia_, chap. 7, No. 19; _Cont. Jul.
Pelag._, Book 4, chap. 3, No. 16, et _De Peccat. merit. et remiss._, Book 3, chap. 4, No. 7.]
[Footnote 13: "Omnes illae unus h.o.m.o fuerunt." _De Peccat. merit. et remiss._, Book 1, chap. 10, No. 11.
Theologians pa.s.s over St. Augustine"s adoption of this theory, giving one to understand that he abandoned his error shortly before his death. (_Dictionnaire de Theol._, by Abbe Berger; volume viii., article x., "_Traduciens._")]
[Footnote 14: See also, on this subject, his letter to Sixtus, before the latter became Pope. Chap. vii., No. 31, and chap. vi., No. 27.]
[Footnote 15: The movements of "creation" and "absorption," which are called in Hindu symbolism the outbreathing and the inbreathing of Brahma.]
[Footnote 16: Creation.]
[Footnote 17: After violet and red there stretches quite another spectrum, invisible to the human eye; it is because violet is at the beginning of our known spectrum, that one might think it was not the neutral point thereof.]
[Footnote 18: The soul believes itself distinct from the All, because it is subjected to the illusion engendered by its body.]
[Footnote 19: Without the aid of the eyes, walking is impossible to those suffering from plantar anaesthesia.]
[Footnote 20: Pleasure, like every other form of sensation, produces the same results, though perhaps with less force.]
[Footnote 21: A magnetic effect or an emotion. All travellers who have escaped from the attacks of wild beasts mention this effect of inhibition, manifested by the absence of fear and pain at the moment of attack.]
[Footnote 22: Primordial matter which has not yet entered into any combination and is not differentiated.]
[Footnote 23: A soul.]
[Footnote 24: In these cases, the soul.]
[Footnote 25: The personalities or new bodies created by the soul, on each return to earth.]
[Footnote 26: That is to say, the seventh incarnation.]
[Footnote 27: Waking consciousness.]
[Footnote 28: See _Karma_, by A. Besant.]
[Footnote 29: Those who have studied thought know that it is capable of being incorporated in diverse states of astral and mental matter.]
[Footnote 30: If the divine law allows it.]
[Footnote 31: If the divine law has not allowed the action to take place.]
[Footnote 32: Man, after death, loses in succession his astral and mental bodies.]
[Footnote 33: _La Theosophie en quelques chapitres_, by the author, pages 31 to 34.]
[Footnote 34: "Hatred is destroyed only by love," said the Buddha.
"Return good for evil," said Jesus.]
[Footnote 35: It is this that causes the universal force of opposition--_the Enemy_ or _demon_--to become evil only when ignorance or the human will make use of it to oppose evolution: apart from such cases, it is only the second pillar necessary for the support of the Temple, the stepping-stone of the good.]
[Footnote 36: Perhaps this is only an apparent delay, for, on every plane, force is correlative, and knowledge is the fruit of many different kinds of energy. The only real cases in which there is delay of individual evolution are probably those in which _evil is done in return for evil_. Of course, we are speaking in relative terms and from a relative standpoint.]
[Footnote 37: When human evolution is completed, man pa.s.ses the "strait gate" leading to superhuman evolution, to the spiritual life, which develops the next higher principle, _Buddhi_; this is _the Path_. Human evolution develops the mental principle, _Manas_; Super-human evolution develops the spiritual body, _Buddhi._]
[Footnote 38: Here we are dealing with faults of a more or less venial nature.]
[Footnote 39: For ever, in this case, for the soul is above these residues, and, so to speak, has given them no vitality for ages past.]
[Footnote 40: In completion of this chapter on the Law of Causality, we refer the reader to A. Besant"s book: _Karma._]
CHAPTER III.
REINCARNATION AND SCIENCE.
The secret of the Universe lies in observation; it is for man to develop his senses and patiently to search into the hidden things of Nature.
All science proceeds thus, and the reason that savants have not unearthed the precious object for which they seek with such wonderful perseverance is that the physical senses, even when aided by the most delicate instruments, are able to cognise only a portion of the physical Universe--the denser portion. This is proved by the fact that when man has succeeded in directing into a channel some subtle force, he remains as ignorant of its essence as he was before chaining it down, so to speak; he has not the slightest knowledge of it. He can utilise but he cannot dominate it, for he has not discovered its source. This source is not in the physical world, but on the finer planes of being, which will remain unknown to us, so long as our senses are incapable of responding to their vibrations.
Because physical observation reveals only the bark, the outer crust of the Cosmos, man sees nothing but the surface of the world, and remains in ignorance of the heart and vital plexus that give it life; consequently, he calls the disintegration following upon disincarnation by the senseless name of "death."
He who has lifted the veil of Isis sees divine Life everywhere, the Life that animates forms, builds them up, uses them, and finally breaks them to pieces when they have ceased to be of use; and this Life--G.o.d--thus spread about in numberless forms, by means of its many rays, develops in itself centres--souls--which gradually grow and awaken their infinite potentialities[41] in the course of these successive incarnations.
Still, though the eye of the G.o.d-man alone can penetrate this wonderful mechanism and study it in all its astonishing details, the savant whose mind is unprejudiced can judge of the concealed mechanism by examining its outer manifestations, and it is on this ground we now place ourselves with the object of setting forth another series of proofs of reincarnation.
THE EVOLUTIONARY SERIES.
If we look attentively at the totality of beings we perceive a progressive series of forms expressing a parallel series of qualities and states of consciousness. The portion of this scale we are able to compa.s.s extends from the amorphous state[42]--which represents the minimum of consciousness--up to those organic complexities which have allowed of a terrestrial expression being given to the soul of the Saviours of the world. In this glorious hierarchy each step forms so delicate a transition between the one preceding and the one following that on the borders of the different kingdoms it becomes impossible to trace a line of demarcation between different beings; thus one does not know whether such or such a family should be cla.s.sed among minerals, or vegetables or animals. It is this that science has called the evolutionary series.[43]
THE CYCLIC PROCESS OF EVOLUTION.
Another fact strikes the observer: the cyclic march of evolution.
After action comes reaction; after activity, rest; after winter, summer; after day, night; after inspiration--the breath of life during which universal Movement works in a molecular aggregate and there condenses in the form of vitality--expiration--the breath of death, which causes the individualised life to flow back into the ocean of cosmic energy; after the systole, which drives the blood into every part of the body, comes the diastole, which breathes back the vital liquid into the central reservoir; after the waking state comes sleep; life here and life hereafter; the leaves sprout and fall away periodically, with the rising and descending of the sap; annual plants die at the end of the season, persisting in germinal state within a bulb, a rhizome, or a root before coming again to the light; in "metamorphoses," we find that the germ (_the egg_) becomes a larva (_a worm_), and then dies as a chrysalis, to be reborn as a b.u.t.terfly.
Ideas also have their successive cycles of glory and decadence; is not the present theosophical movement the renaissance of the Neoplatonic movement which brought the light to Greece and Egypt fifteen hundred years ago? In 1875 H. P. Blavatsky restored it to life, whilst its previous birth look place in the time of Ammonius Saccas, the theosophist, in the Schools of Alexandria. Those who have acquired the power to read the cosmic records[44] will easily recognise amongst the present pioneers of theosophy many a champion who in a former age struggled and fought in the same sublime cause.
Races are born and grow up, die and are born again; pa.s.s through a state of childhood, of youth, of maturity, and of old age. They flourish in all their splendour when the vital movement which animates them is at its height; when it leaves them and pa.s.ses to other portions of the globe, they gradually fall into old age; then the more developed Egos--those incarnated in these races during their maturity--come down into the advanced nations, living on the continents animated by the "life-wave," whilst the less evolved go to form the so-called degenerate races vegetating in obscure parts of the world. Look now at the adolescence of Russia, the youth of America, the old age of France, and the decrepitude of Turkey. Look backwards at the glorious Egypt of bygone ages; nothing remains but deserts of sand on which imperishable structures still testify to the greatness of her past; the race that witnessed the majesty of the Hierophants and the divine Dynasties is now inhabiting other lands.