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    "slug": "vol-2-anthropogenesis",
    "name": "Volume II — Anthropogenesis"
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 44,
    "slug": "94-iv-duration-of-the-geological-periods-race-cycles",
    "title": "IV. DURATION OF THE GEOLOGICAL PERIODS, RACE CYCLES",
    "of": 49,
    "words": 9489,
    "text": "## IV. DURATION OF THE GEOLOGICAL PERIODS, RACE CYCLES\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 2, pt 3, ch 4\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 690 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n#### § IV.\nDURATION OF THE GEOLOGICAL PERIODS, RACE\nCYCLES, AND THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.\n\n**M**ILLIONS of years have dropped into Lethe, leaving no more\nrecollection in the memory of the profane than the few millenniums\nof the orthodox Western chronology as to the origin of Man and\nthe history of the primeval races.\n\nAll depends on the proofs found for the antiquity of the Human\nRace. If the still-debated man of the Pliocene or even the Miocene\nperiod was the *Homo primigenius, *then science *may*\nbe right (*argumenti causa*)* *in basing its present\nanthropology -- as to the date and mode of origin of \"Homo\nsapiens\" -- on the Darwinian theory.* But if the skeletons\nof man should, at any time, be discovered in the Eocene strata,\nbut no fossil ape, thereby proving the existence of man prior\nto the anthropoid -- then Darwinians will have to exercise their\ningenuity in another direction. And it is said in well-informed\nquarters that the **XX**th century will be yet in\nits earliest teens, when such undeniable proof of Man's priority\nwill be forthcoming.\n\nEven now evidence is brought forward that the dates for the foundations\nof cities, civilizations and various other historical events have\nbeen absurdly curtailed. This was done as a peace-offering to\nBiblical chronology. \"No date,\" writes the well-known\nPalaeontologist, Ed. Lartet, \"is to be found in Genesis,\nwhich assigns a time for the birth of primitive humanity\";\nbut chronologists have for fifteen centuries endeavoured to force\nthe Bible facts into agreement with their systems. Thus, no less\nthan one hundred and forty different opinions have been formed\nabout the single date of \"Creation\"; \"and between\nthe extreme variations there is a discrepancy of 3,194 years,\nin the reckoning of the period between the beginning of the world\nand the birth of Christ.** Within the last few years, archaeologists\nhave had to throw back by nearly 3,000 years also the beginnings\nof Babylonian civilization. On the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* It may here be remarked that those Darwinians, who with Mr.\nGrant Allen, place our \"hairy arboreal\" ancestors so\nfar back as the *Eocene Age, *are landed in rather an awkward\ndilemma. No fossil anthropoid ape -- much less the fabulous common\nancestor assigned to Man and the Pithecoid -- appears in Eocene\nstrata. The first presentment of an anthropoid ape is Miocene.\n\n** Ed. Lartet, \"Nouvelles Recherches sur la co-existence\nde l'homme et des Grands Mammiferes Fossils de la derniere periode\nGeologique.\" Annales des Soc. Nat., t. **XV**.,\np. 256.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 691 PROFESSOR SAYCE SKETCHES OUT CHRONOLOGY.\n\nfoundation cylinder deposited by Nabonidus, the Babylonian king,\nconquered by Cyrus -- are found the records of the former, in\nwhich he speaks of his discovery of the foundation stone that\nbelonged to the original temple built by Naram-Sin, son of Sargon,\nof Accadia, the conqueror of Babylonia, who, says Nabonidus, lived\n3,200 years before his own time.\"\n\nWe have shown in *Isis *that those who based history on\nthe Jewish Chronology (a race which had none of its own and rejected\nthe Western till the **XII**th century) would lose\nthemselves, for the Jewish account could only be followed through\nKabalistic computation, and with a key to it in the hand. . .\nWe had characterised the late George Smith's chronology of the\nChaldeans and Assyrians, made by him to fit in with that of Moses,\nas quite fantastic. And now, in this respect at least, later Assyriologists\nhave corroborated our denial. For, whereas G. Smith makes Sargon\nI. (the prototype of Moses in his legend) reign in the city of\nAkkad about 1600 **B.C**. -- probably out of a latent\nrespect for Moses, whom the Bible makes to flourish 1571 **B.C**.\n-- we now learn from the first of the six Hibbert lectures delivered\nby Professor A. H. Sayce, of Oxford, in 1887, that: \"Old\nviews of the early annals of Babylonia and its religions have\nbeen much modified by recent discovery. The first Semitic Empire,\nit is now agreed, was that of Sargon of Accad, who established\na great library, patronized literature, and extended his conquests\nacross the sea into Cyprus. It is now known that he reigned as\nearly as **B.C**. 3750.\" \"The Accadian\nmonuments found by the French at Tel-loh must be even older, reaching\nback to about **B.C**. 4,000,\" in other words,\nto the fourth year of the World's creation agreeably with Bible\nchronology, and when Adam was in his swaddling clothes. Perchance,\nin a few years more, the 4,000 years may be further extended.\nThe well-known Oxford lecturer remarked during his disquisitions\nupon \"*The origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated\nby the Babylonian Religion*\"* *that: \"The\ndifficulties of systematically tracing the origin and history\nof the Babylonian Religion were considerable. The sources of our\nknowledge of the subject were almost wholly monumental, very little\nhelp being obtainable from classical or Oriental writers. Indeed,\nit was an undeniable fact that the Babylonian priesthood intentionally\nswaddled up the study of the religious texts in coils of almost\ninsuperable difficulty.\" That they have confused the dates,\nand especially the order of events \"intentionally,\"\nis undeniable, and for a very good reason: their writings and\nrecords were all esoteric. The Babylonian priests did no more\nthan the Priests of other ancient nations. Their records were\nmeant only for the Initiates and their disciples, and it is only\nthe latter who were furnished with the keys to the true meaning.\nBut Professor\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 692 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nSayce's remarks are promising. For he explains the difficulty\nby saying that as -- \"the Nineveh library contained mostly\ncopies of older Babylonian texts, and the copyists pitched upon\nsuch tablets only as were of special interest to the Assyrian\nconquerors, belonging to a comparatively late epoch, this added\nmuch to the greatest of all our difficulties -- namely, our being\nso often left in the dark as to the age of our documentary evidence,\nand the precise worth of our materials for history.\" Thus\none has a right to infer that some still fresher discovery may\nlead to a new necessity for pushing the Babylonian dates so far\nbeyond the year 4,000 **B.C**., as to make them *pre-Kosmic\n*in the judgment of every Bible worshipper.\n\nHow much more would paleontology have learned had not millions\nof works been destroyed! We talk of the Alexandrian literary lore,\nwhich has been thrice destroyed, namely, by Julius Caesar **B.C**.\n48, in **A.D**. 390, and lastly in the year 640,\n**A.D**., by the general of Kaliph Omar. What is\nthis in comparison with the works and records destroyed in the\nprimitive Atlantean Libraries, wherein records are said to have\nbeen traced on the tanned skins of gigantic antediluvian monsters?\nOr again the destruction of the countless Chinese books by command\nof the founder of the Imperial Tsin dynasty, Tsin Shi Hwang-ti,\nin 213 **B.C**.? Surely the brick-clay tablets of\nthe Imperial Babylonian Library, and the priceless treasures of\nthe Chinese collections could have never contained such information\nas one of the aforesaid \"Atlantean\" skins would have\nfurnished to the ignorant world.\n\nBut even with the extremely meagre data at hand, Science has been\nable to see the necessity of throwing back nearly every Babylonian\ndate, and has done so quite generously. We learn from Professor\nSayce that even the archaic statues at Tel-loh, in Lower Babylonia,\nhave suddenly been assigned a date contemporary with the fourth\ndynasty in Egypt. Unfortunately, dynasties and Pyramids have the\nfate of geological periods; their dates are arbitrary, and depend\non the respective whims of the men of science. Archaeologists\nknow now, it is said, that the afore-mentioned statues are fashioned\nout of green diorite, that can only be got in the Peninsula of\nSinai; and \"they accord in the style of art, and in the standard\nof measurement employed, with the similar diorite statues of the\npyramid builders of the third and fourth Egyptian dynasties. .\n. . . Moreover, the only possible period for a Babylonian occupation\nof the Sinaitic quarries must be placed shortly after the close\nof the epoch at which the pyramids were built; and thus only can\nwe understand how the name of Sinai could have been derived from\nthat of Sin, the primitive Babylonian moon-god.\" This is\nvery logical, but what is the date fixed for these \"dynasties\"?\nSanchoniathon's and Manetho's Synchronistic tables and their figures\nhave been rejected, or whatever\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 693 NO AGREEMENT BETWEEN SCIENTISTS.\n\nremained of these after holy Eusebius' handling of them; and still\nwe have to remain satisfied with the four or five thousand years\n**B.C**. so liberally allotted to Egypt. At all events\none point is gained. There is, at last, a city on the face of\nthe earth which is allowed, at least, 6,000 years, and it is Eridu.\nGeology has found it out. According to Professor Sayce again,\n--\n\n\"They are now also able to obtain time for the silting up\nof the head of the Persian Gulf, which demands a lapse of between\n5,000 and 6,000 years since the period when Eridu, now twenty-five\nmiles inland, was the seaport at the mouth of the Euphrates, and\nthe seat of Babylonian commerce with Southern Arabia and India.\nMore than all, the new chronology gives time for the long series\nof eclipses recorded in the great astronomical work called 'The\nObservations of Bel'; and we are also enabled to understand the\notherwise perplexing change in the position of the vernal equinox,\nwhich has occurred since our present zodiacal signs were named\nby the Earliest Babylonian astronomers. When the Accadian calendar\nwas arranged and the Accadian months were named, the sun at the\nvernal equinox was not, as now, in Pisces, or even in Aries, but\nin Taurus. The rate of the precession of the equinoxes being known,\nwe learn that at the vernal equinox the sun was in Taurus from\nabout 4,700 years **B.C**., and we thus obtain astronomical\nlimits of date which cannot be impugned.\"*\n\nIt may make our position plainer if we state at once that we use\nSir C. Lyell's nomenclature for the ages and periods, and that\nwhen we talk of the Secondary and Tertiary age, of the Eocene,\nMiocene and Pliocene periods -- this is simply to make our facts\nmore comprehensible. Since these ages and periods have not yet\nbeen allowed fixed and determined durations, 2 1/2 and 15 million\nyears being assigned at different times to one and the same age\n(the Tertiary) -- and since no two geologists and naturalists\nseem to agree on this point -- Esoteric teachings may remain quite\nindifferent to whether man is shown to appear in the Secondary\nor the Tertiary age. If the latter age may be allowed even so\nmuch as 15 million years' duration -- well and good; for the Occult\ndoctrine, jealously guarding its real and correct figures as far\nas concerns the First, Second, and two-thirds of the Third Root-Race\n-- gives clear information upon one point only -- the age of \"Vaivasvata\nManu's humanity.\" (*Vide Part I., Vol. II., *\"*Chronology\nof the Brahmins.*\")\n\nAnother definite statement is this: It is during the so-called\nEocene period that the continent to which the Fourth Race belonged,\nand on which it lived and perished, showed the first symptoms\nof sinking. And it was in the Miocene age, that it was finally\ndestroyed -- save the little island mentioned by Plato. It is\nthese points that have to be checked by the scientific data.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* From a Report of the \"Hibbert Lectures, 1887. Lectures\non the Origin and Growth of Religion, and Illustrated by the Religion\nof the Ancient Babylonians.\" By A. H. Sayce. (London: Williams\nand Norgate.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 694 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n**A**.\n\n**M**ODERN **S**CIENTIFIC **S**PECULATIONS ABOUT THE\n**A**GES OF THE **G**LOBE,\n\n**A**NIMAL **E**VOLUTION, AND **M**AN.\n\nMay we not be permitted to throw a glance at the works of Specialists?\nThe work on \"Comparative Geology: the World-Life,\" by\nProf. A. Winchell, furnishes us with curious data. Here we find\nan opponent of the Nebular theory, a reverend gentleman, smiting\nwith all the force of the hammer of his *odium theologicum\n*on the *rather *contradictory hypothesis of the great\nstars of Science, in the matter of sidereal and cosmical phenomena\nbased on their respective relations to terrestrial durations.\nThe \"too imaginative physicists and naturalists\" do\nnot fare very easily under this shower of their own speculative\nfigures when placed side by side, and cut rather a sorry figure.\nThus he shows: --\n\n\"Sir William Thomson, on the basis of the observed principles\nof cooling, concludes that no more than ten million years (elsewhere\nhe makes it 100,000,000) can have elapsed since the temperature\nof the Earth was sufficiently reduced to sustain vegetable life.*\nHelmholz calculates that twenty million years would suffice for\nthe original nebula to condense to the present dimensions of the\nsun. Prof. S. Newcomb requires only ten millions to attain a temperature\nof 212 [[degrees]] Fahr.** Croll estimates *seventy *million\nyears for the diffusion of the heat, etc.*** Bischof calculates\nthat 350* million years *would be required for the earth\nto cool from a temperature of 2,000 [[degrees]] to 200 [[degrees]]\nCentigrade. Read, basing his estimate on observed rates of denudation,\ndemands 500 million years since sedimentation began in Europe.****\nLyell ventured a rough guess of 240 million years; Darwin thought\n300 million years demanded by the organic transformations which\nhis theory contemplates, and Huxley is disposed to demand a 1,000\nmillions\" (!!).\n\nTo this Prof. Winchell observes that \"some biologists . .\n. . seem to close their eyes tight and leap at one bound into\nthe abyss of millions of years, of which they have no more adequate\nestimate than of infinity.\"***** Then he proceeds to give\nwhat he takes to be more correct geological figures: a few will\nsuffice.\n\nAccording to Sir W. Thomson \"the whole incrusted age of the\nworld is 80,000,000 years\"; and agreeably with Prof. Houghton's\ncalculations of a minimum limit for the time since the elevation\nof\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* *Nat. Philos. *App. D., Trans. Royal Soc., Edin.\n\n** \"Popular Astronomy,\" p. 509.\n\n*** \"Climate and Time,\" p. 335.\n\n**** Read. Address, \"Liverpool Geolog. Society, 1876.\"\n\n***** \"World-Life,\" p. 180.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 695 MATERIALISTS AT LOGGER-HEADS.\n\nEurope and Asia, three hypothetical ages for three *possible\n*and different modes of upheaval are given: varying from the\nmodest figures of 640,730 years, through 4,170,000 years to the\ntremendous figures of 27,491,000 years!!\n\nThis *is enough, *as one can see, to cover our claims for\nthe four continents and even the figures of the Brahmins.\n\nFurther calculations, the details of which the reader may find\nin Prof. Winchell's work,* bring Houghton to an approximation\nof the sedimentary age of the globe -- 11,700,000 years. These\nfigures are found too small by the author, who forthwith extends\nthem to 37,000,000 years.\n\nAgain, according to Croll,** 2,500,000 years \"represents\nthe time since the beginning of the Tertiary age\" in one\nwork; and according to another modification of his view, 15,000,000\nonly have elapsed since the beginning of the Eocene period;***\nwhich, being the first of the three Tertiary periods, leaves the\nstudent suspended between 2 1/2 and 15 millions. But if one has\nto hold to the former moderate figures, then the whole incrusted\nage of the world would be 131,600,000 years.****\n\nAs the last glacial period extended from 240,000 to 80,000 years\nago (Prof. Croll's view), therefore, man must have appeared on\nearth from 100 to 120,000 years ago. But, as says Prof. Winchell,\nwith reference to the antiquity of the Mediterranean race, \"it\nis generally believed to have made its appearance during the later\ndecline of the continental glaciers.\" Yet, he adds, this\n\"does not concern, however, the antiquity of the *Black\nand Brown races, *since there are numerous evidences of their\nexistence in more southern regions, in times remotely pre-glacial\"\n(p. 379).\n\nAs a specimen of geological *certainty and agreement, *these\nfigures also may be added. Three authorities -- Messrs. T. Belt,\n**F.G.S**.; J. Croll, **F.R.S**.; and\nRobert Hunt, **F.R.S**., -- in estimating the time\nthat has elapsed since the Glacial epoch, give absolutely different\nfigures, namely: --\n\nMr. Belt ... 20,000 years.\n\nMr. J. Croll ... 240,000 \"\n\nMr. R. Hunt ... 80,000 \"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"World-Life,\" pp. 367-8.\n\n** \"Climate and Time.\"\n\n*** Quoted in Mr. Ch. Gould's \"Mythical Monsters,\" p.\n84.\n\n**** According to Bischof, 1,004,177 years -- according to Chevandier's\ncalculations 672,788 years -- were required for the so-called\ncoal formation. \"The *tertiary* strata, about 1,000\nfeet in thickness, required for their development about 350,000\nyears.\" See \"Force and Matter,\" Buchner, J. F.\nCollingwood's edition.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 696 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n(But see \"The Ice-Age Climate and Time,\" *Popular\nScience Review, *Vol. xiv., p. 242.)\n\nNo wonder if Mr. Pengelly confesses that \"it is at present\nand *perhaps always will be *IMPOSSIBLE to reduce, even\napproximately, geological time into years *or even into millenniums*\"*\n*(*Vide supra, *foot-note). A wise word of advice from\nthe Occultists to the gentlemen geologists: they ought to imitate\nthe cautious example of Masons. As chronology, they say, cannot\nmeasure the era of the creation, therefore, their \"Antient\nand Primitive Rite\" uses 000,000,000 as the nearest approach\nto reality.\n\nThe same uncertainty, contradictions and disagreement reign on\nall other subjects.\n\nThe scientific authorities on the Descent of Man are again, for\nall practical purposes, a delusion and a snare. There are many\n*anti*-Darwinists in the British Association, and \"Natural\nSelection\" begins to lose ground. Though at one time the\nsaviour, which seemed to rescue the learned theorists from a final\nintellectual collapse into the abyss of fruitless hypothesis,\nit begins to be distrusted. Even Mr. Huxley is showing signs of\ntruancy to \"Selection,\" and thinks \"natural selection\n*not the sole *factor\": --\n\n\"We greatly suspect that she (Nature) does make considerable\njumps in the way of variation now and then, and that these saltations\ngive rise to some of the gaps which appear to exist in the series\nof known forms\" (*Review of Kolliker*'*s Criticisms*)*.*\n\nAgain, in \"Fallacies of Darwinism,\" (p. 160), C. R.\nBree, **M.D**., argues in this wise in considering\nthe fatal gaps in Mr. Darwin's theory: --\n\n\"It must be again called to mind that the intermediate forms\nmust have been vast in numbers. . . . . Mr. St. George Mivart\nbelieves that *change in evolution may occur more quickly than\nis generally believed*;* *but Mr. Darwin sticks manfully\nto his belief, and again tells us '*natura non facit saltum*'*\n*\"* -- *wherein the Occultists are at one with\nMr. Darwin.\n\nEsoteric teaching fully corroborates the idea of nature's slowness\nand dignified progression. \"Planetary impulses\" are\nall periodical. Yet this Darwinian theory, correct as it is in\nminor particulars, agrees no more with Occultism than with Mr.\nWallace, who, in his \"Contributions to the Theory of Natural\nSelection,\" shows pretty conclusively that something *more*\nthan \"natural selection\" was requisite to produce physical\nman.\n\nLet us, meanwhile, examine the *scientific *objections\nto this scientific theory, and see what they are.\n\nMr. St. George Mivart is found arguing that --\n\n. . . . \". . . . it will be a moderate computation to allow\n25,000,000 for the deposition of the strata down to and including\nthe Upper Silurian. If,\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 697 MIVART'S BILLIONS OF YEARS.\n\nthen, the evolutionary work done during this deposition only represents\na hundredth part of the sum total, we shall require 2,500,000,000\nyears for the complete development of the whole *animal*\nKingdom to its present state. Even one quarter of this, however,\nwould far exceed the time which physics and astronomy seem able\nto allow for the completion of this process. Finally, a difficulty\nexists as to the reason of the absence of rich fossiliferous deposits\nin the oldest strata -- if life was then as abundant and varied,\nas on the Darwinian theory it must have been. Mr. Darwin himself\nadmits 'the case at present must remain inexplicable'; and this\nmay be truly urged as a valid argument against the views entertained\nin his own work. . . . .\n\n\"Thus, then, we find a wonderful (and *on Darwinian principles\nall but inexplicable*)* *absence of minutely transitional\nforms. All the most marked groups . . . . . *appear at once\nupon the scene. *Even the horse, the animal whose pedigree\nhas been probably best preserved, affords no conclusive evidence\nof specific origin by infinitesimal fortuitous variations; while\nsome forms, as the labyrinthodonts and trilobites, which seemed\nto exhibit gradual change, are shown by further investigation\nto do nothing of the sort. . . . All these difficulties are avoided\nif we admit that new forms of animal life of all degrees of complexity\nappear from time to time with comparative suddenness, being evolved\naccording to laws in part depending on surrounding conditions,\n*in part* *internal* -- similar to the way in which\ncrystals (and perhaps from recent researches the lowest forms\nof life) build themselves up according to the internal laws of\ntheir component substance and in harmony and correspondence with\nall environing influences and conditions.\" (\"*Genesis\nof Species,*\"* *p. 142.)\n\n\"The internal laws of their component substance.\" These\nare wise words, and the admission of the possibility, a prudent\none. But how can these *internal laws *be ever recognized,\nif Occult teaching is discarded? As a friend writes, while drawing\nour attention to the above speculations: \"In other words,\nthe doctrine of Planetary *Life-Impulses *must be admitted.\nOtherwise, why are species now *stereotyped, *and why do\neven domesticated breeds of pigeons and many animals relapse into\ntheir ancestral types when left to themselves?\" But the teaching\nabout planetary life-impulses has to be clearly defined and as\nclearly understood if present confusion would not be made still\nmore perplexing. All these difficulties would vanish as the shadows\nof night disappear before the light of the rising Sun, if the\nfollowing esoteric axioms were admitted: (*a*) the enormous\nantiquity (and the existence) of our planetary chain; (*b*)\nthe actuality of the Seven Rounds; (*c*) the separation\nof human races (outside the purely anthropological division) into\nSeven distinct Root-Races, of which our present European Humanity\nis the *fifth*;* *(*d*)* *the antiquity\nof Man in this (*Fourth*)* *Round; and finally (*e*)\nthat as these Races evolve from ethereality to materiality, and\nfrom the latter back again into relative physical tenuity of texture,\nso every living (so-called) *organic *species of animals\nwith vegetation included, changes with every new Root-Race. Were\nthis admitted, if even only\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 698 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nalong with other, and surely, on maturer consideration, *no\nless absurd, *suppositions, if Occult theories have to be\nconsidered \"absurd\" at present, then every difficulty\nwould be made away with. Surely, Science ought to try and be *more\nlogical *than it now is, as it can hardly maintain the theory\nof man's descent from an anthropoidal ancestor, and deny in the\nsame breath any reasonable antiquity to that man! Once Mr. Huxley\ntalks of \"the vast intellectual chasm between the man and\nape,\" and \"the present enormous gulf between the two,\"*\nand if he admits the necessity of extending Scientific allowances\nfor the age of man on earth for such slow and progressive development,\nthen all those men of Science, who are of his way of thinking,\nat any rate, ought to come to some approximate figures, at least,\nand agree upon the probable duration of those Pliocene, Miocene,\nand Eocene periods of which so much is said, and about which nothing\ndefinite is known -- if they dare not venture *beyond. *But\nno two scientists seem to agree. Every period seems to be a mystery\nin its duration, and a thorn in the side of the geologists; and,\nas just shown, they are unable to harmonize their conclusions\neven with regard to the comparatively recent geological formations.\nThus, no reliance can be placed on their figures when they do\ngive any, for with them it is all either millions or simply thousands\nof years!\n\nThat which is said may be strengthened by the confessions made\nby themselves and the synopsis of it, found in that \"Circle\nof Sciences,\" the *Encyclopaedia Britannica, *which\nshows the *mean* accepted in the geological and anthropological\nriddles. In that work the cream of the most authoritative opinions\nis skimmed off; nevertheless, we find in it the refusal to assign\nany definite chronological date, even to such, comparatively speaking,\nlate epochs as the Neolithic era, though, for a wonder, an age\nis established for the beginnings of certain geological periods;\nat any rate of some few, the duration of which could hardly be\nshortened any more, without an immediate conflict with facts.\n\nThus, it is surmised in the great *Encyclopaedia *(Vol.\nX., art. \"Geology,\" p. 227), that \"100 million\nyears have passed . . . . . since the solidification of our Earth,\nwhen the earliest form of life appeared upon it.**\"\n\nBut it seems quite as hopeless to try to convert the modern Geologists\nand Ethnologists as it is to make Darwinian Naturalists perceive\ntheir mistakes. About the Aryan Root-Race and its origins,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"Man's Place in Nature,\" p. 102*, note.*\n\n** \"100,000,000 of years is probably amply sufficient for\nall the requirements of Geology,\" says the text. In France,\nsome *savants *do not find it nearly \"sufficient.\"\nLe Couturier claims for the same 350 million years; Buffon was\nsatisfied with 34 millions -- but there are those in the more\nmodern schools who will not be content under 500 million years.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 699 THE ADEPT-ASTRONOMER.\n\nScience knows as little as of the men from other planets. With\nthe exception of Flammarion and a few mystics among astronomers,\neven the habitableness of other planets is mostly denied. Yet\nsuch great adept astronomers were the Scientists of the earliest\nraces of the Aryan stock, that they seem to have known far more\nabout the races of Mars and Venus than the modern Anthropologist\nknows of those of the early stages of the Earth.\n\nLet us leave modern Science aside for a moment and turn to ancient\nknowledge. As we are assured by Archaic Scientists that all such\ngeological cataclysms -- from the upheaval of oceans, deluges,\nand shifting of continents, down to the present year's cyclones,\nhurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, and\neven the extraordinary weather and seeming shifting of seasons\nwhich perplexes all European and American meteorologists -- are\ndue to, and depend on the moon and planets; aye, that even modest\nand neglected constellations have the greatest influence on the\nmeteorological and cosmical changes, over, and within our earth,\nlet us give one moment's attention to our sidereal despots and\nrulers of our globe and men. Modern Science denies any such influence;\narchaic Science affirms it. We may see what both say with regard\nto this question.\n\n-------\n\n**B**.\n\n**O**N **C**HAINS OF **P**LANETS AND THEIR **P**LURALITY.\n\nDid the Ancients know of worlds besides their own? What are the\ndata of the Occultists in affirming that every globe is a septenary\nchain of worlds -- of which only one member is visible -- and\nthat these are, were, or will be, \"man-bearing,\" just\nas every visible star or planet is? What do they mean by \"a\nmoral and physical influence\" of the sidereal worlds on our\nglobes?\n\nSuch are the questions often put to us, and they have to be considered\nfrom every aspect. To the first of the two queries the answer\nis: -- We believe it because the first law in nature is uniformity\nin diversity, and the second -- analogy. \"As above, so below.\"\nThat time is gone by for ever, when, although our pious ancestors\nbelieved that our earth was in the centre of the universe, the\nchurch and her arrogant servants could insist that we should regard\nas a blasphemy the supposition that any other planet could be\ninhabited. Adam and Eve, the Serpent, and the Original Sin followed\nby atonement through blood, have been too long in the way, and\nthus was universal truth sacrificed to the insane conceit of us\nlittle men.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 700 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nNow what are the proofs thereof? Except inferential evidence and\nlogical reasoning, there are none for the profane. To the Occultists,\nwho believe in the knowledge acquired by countless generations\nof Seers and Initiates, the data offered in the Secret Books are\nall-sufficient. The general public needs other proofs, however.\nThere are some Kabalists and even some Eastern Occultists, who,\nfailing to find uniform evidence upon this point in all the mystic\nworks of the nations, hesitate to accept the teaching. Even such\n\"uniform evidence\" will be forthcoming presently. Meanwhile,\nwe may approach the subject from its general aspect, and see whether\nbelief in it is so very absurd, as some scientists along with\nother Nicodemuses would have it. Unconsciously, perhaps, in thinking\nof a plurality of inhabited \"*Worlds*,\" we imagine\nthem to be like the globe we inhabit and peopled by beings more\nor less resembling ourselves. And in so doing we are only following\na natural instinct. Indeed, so long as the enquiry is confined\nto the life-history of this globe we can speculate on this question\nwith some profit, and ask ourselves what were the \"*Worlds*\"*\n*spoken of in all the ancient scriptures of Humanity, with\nsome hope of at least asking an intelligible *question. *But\nhow do we know (*a*) what kind of Beings inhabit the globes\nin general; and (*b*) whether* those *who rule planets\nsuperior to our own, do not exercise the same influence on our\nearth* consciously, *that we may exercise *unconsciously\n-- *say on the small planets (planetoids or asteroids) in\nthe long run, by our cutting the Earth to pieces, opening canals,\nand thereby entirely changing our climates. Of course, like Caesar's\nwife, the *planetoids *cannot be affected by our suspicion.\nThey are too far, etc., etc. Believing in esoteric astronomy,\nhowever, we are not so sure of that.\n\nBut when, extending our speculations beyond our planetary chain,\nwe try to cross the limits of the solar system, then indeed we\nact as do presumptuous fools. For -- while accepting the old Hermetic\naxiom: \"As above, so below\" -- we may well believe that\nas Nature on Earth displays the most careful economy, utilizing\nevery vile and waste thing in her marvellous transformations,\nand withal *never* repeating herself -- we may justly conclude\nthat there is no other globe in all her infinite systems so closely\nresembling this earth that the ordinary powers should be able\nto imagine and reproduce its semblance and containment.*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* We are taught that the highest Dhyan Chohans, or Planetary Spirits\n(beyond the cognizance of the law of analogy), are in ignorance\nof what lies beyond the visible planetary systems, since their\nessence cannot assimilate itself to that of worlds beyond our\nsolar system. When they reach a higher stage of evolution these\nother universes will be open to them; meanwhile they have complete\nknowledge of all the worlds within and beneath the limits of our\nsolar system.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 701 STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS.\n\nAnd indeed we find in the romances as in all the so-called scientific\nfictions and spiritistic *revelations *from moon, stars,\nand planets, merely fresh combinations or modifications of the\nmen and things, the passions and forms of life with which we are\nfamiliar, when even on the other planets of our own system nature\nand life are entirely different from ours. Swedenborg was pre-eminent\nin inculcating such an erroneous belief.\n\nBut even more. The ordinary man has no experience of any state\nof consciousness other than that to which the physical senses\nlink him. Men dream; they sleep the profound sleep which is too\ndeep for dreams to impress the physical brain; and in these states\nthere must still be consciousness. How, then, while these mysteries\nremain unexplored, can *we* hope to speculate with profit\non the nature of globes which, in the economy of nature, must\nneeds belong to states of consciousness other and quite different\nfrom *any *which man experiences here?\n\nAnd this is true to the letter. For even great adepts (those initiated\nof course), trained seers though they are, can claim thorough\nacquaintance with the nature and appearance of planets and their\ninhabitants belonging to our solar system only. They *know\n*that almost all the planetary worlds are inhabited, but can\nhave access to -- even in spirit -- only those of our system;\nand they are also aware how difficult it is, *even for them,\n*to put themselves into full rapport even with the planes\nof consciousness *within* our system, but differing from\nthe states of consciousness possible on this globe; *i.e.*,\non the three planes of the chain of spheres beyond our earth.\nSuch knowledge and intercourse are possible to them because they\nhave learned how to penetrate to planes of consciousness which\nare closed to the perceptions of ordinary men; but were they to\ncommunicate their knowledge, the world would be no wiser, because\nit lacks that experience of other forms of perception which alone\ncould enable them to grasp what was told them.\n\nStill the fact remains that most of the planets, as the stars\nbeyond our system, are inhabited, a fact which has been admitted\nby the men of science themselves. Laplace and Herschell believed\nit, though they wisely abstained from imprudent speculation; and\nthe same conclusion has been worked out and supported with an\narray of scientific considerations by C. Flammarion, the well-known\nFrench Astronomer. The arguments he brings forward are strictly\nscientific, and such as to appeal even to a materialistic mind,\nwhich would remain unmoved by such thoughts as those of Sir David\nBrewster, the famous physicist, who writes: --\n\n\"Those 'barren spirits' or 'base souls,' as the poet calls\nthem, who might be led to believe that the Earth is the only inhabited\nbody in the universe, would have no difficulty in conceiving the\nearth also to\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 702 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nhave been destitute of inhabitants. What is more, if such minds\nwere acquainted with the deductions of geology, they would admit\nthat it was uninhabited for myriads of years; and here we come\nto the impossible conclusion that during these myriads of years\nthere was not a single intelligent creature in the vast domains\nof the Universal King, and that before the protozoic formations\nthere existed neither plant nor animal in all the infinity of\nspace\"!*\n\nFlammarion shows, in addition, that all the conditions of life\n-- even as *we* know it -- are present on some at least\nof the planets, and points to the fact that these conditions must\nbe much more favourable on them than they are on our Earth.\n\nThus scientific reasoning, as well as observed facts, concur with\nthe statements of the seer and the innate voice in man's own heart\nin declaring that life -- intelligent, conscious life -- *must\n*exist on other worlds than ours.\n\nBut this is the limit beyond which the ordinary faculties of man\ncannot carry him. Many are the romances and tales, some purely\nfanciful, others bristling with scientific knowledge, which have\nattempted to imagine and describe life on other globes. But one\nand all, they give but some distorted copy of the drama of life\naround us. It is either, with Voltaire, the men of our own race\nunder a microscope, or, with de Bergerac, a graceful play of fancy\nand satire; but we always find that at bottom the new world is\nbut the one we ourselves live in. So strong is this tendency that\neven great natural, though non-initiated seers, when untrained,\nfall a victim to it; witness Swedenborg, who goes so far as to\ndress the inhabitants of Mercury, whom he meets with in the spirit-world,\nin clothes such as are worn in Europe.\n\nCommenting on this tendency, Flammarion in his work \"*Sur\nla Pluralite des Mondes habites,*\"* *says: --\n\"It seems as if in the eyes of those authors who have written\non this subject, the Earth were the type of the Universe, and\nthe Man of Earth, the type of the inhabitants of the heavens.\nIt is, on the contrary, much more probable, that, since the nature\nof other planets is essentially varied, and the surroundings and\nconditions of existence essentially different, while the forces\nwhich preside over the creation of beings and the substances which\nenter into their mutual constitution are essentially distinct,\nit would follow that our mode of existence cannot be regarded\nas in any way applicable to other globes.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Since no single atom in the entire Kosmos is without life and\nconsciousness, how much more then its mighty globes? -- though\nthey remain sealed books to us men who can hardly enter even into\nthe consciousness of the forms of life nearest us?\n\nWe do not know *ourselves, *then how can we, if we have\nnever been trained to it and initiated, fancy that we can penetrate\nthe consciousness of the smallest of the animals around us?\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 703 WORLDS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE.\n\nThose who have written on this subject have allowed themselves\nto be dominated by terrestrial ideas, and fell therefore into\nerror.\" (\"*Pluralite des Mondes,*\"* *p.\n439.)\n\nBut Flammarion himself falls into the very error which he here\ncondemns, for he tacitly takes the conditions of life on earth\nas the standard by which to determine the degree to which other\nplanets are adapted for habitation by \"other Humanities.\"\n\nLet us, however, leave these profitless and empty speculations,\nwhich, though they seem to fill our hearts with a glow of enthusiasm\nand to enlarge our mental and spiritual grasp, do but in reality\ncause a factitious stimulation, and blind us more and more to\nour ignorance not only of the world we inhabit, but even of the\ninfinitude contained within ourselves.\n\nWhen, therefore, we find in the Bibles of Humanity \"other\nworlds\" spoken of, we may safely conclude that they not only\nrefer to other states of our planetary chain and Earth, but also\nto other inhabited globes -- stars and planets; withal, that the\nlatter were never speculated upon. The whole of antiquity believed\nin the Universality of life. But no really initiated seer of any\ncivilized nation has ever taught that life on other stars could\nbe judged by the standard of terrestrial life. That which is generally\nmeant by \"earths\" and worlds, relates (*a*) to\nthe \"rebirths\" of our globe after each manvantara and\na long period of \"obscuration\"; and (*b*) to\nthe periodical and entire changes of the Earth's surface, when\nContinents disappear, to make room for Oceans, and Oceans and\nSeas are violently displaced and sent rolling to the poles, to\ncede their emplacements to new Continents.\n\nWe may begin with the Bible -- the youngest of the World-Scriptures.\nIn* Ecclesiastes, *chap. i., we read these words of the\nKing-Initiate: -- \"*One* generation passeth away and\n*another *generation cometh, but *the earth abideth\nfor ever,*\"* *and again, \"The thing that\nhath been, it *is *that which shall be; and that which\nis done, *is *that which shall be done, and there is no\nnew thing under the sun.\" Under these words it is not easy\nto see the reference to the successive cataclysms by which the\nRaces of mankind are swept away, or, going further back, to the\nvarious transitions of the globe during the process of its formation.\nBut if we are told that this refers only to *our *world*\nas we now see it, -- *then we shall refer the reader to the\nNew Testament, where St. Paul speaks (in *Hebrews i.*)*\n*of the Son (the manifested Power) whom (God) hath appointed\nheir of all things, by *whom also he made the worlds *(plural.)*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This relates to the *Logos *of every Cosmogony. The *unknown\n*Light -- with which he is said to be co-eternal and coeval\n-- is reflected in the \"First-Born,\" the *Protogonos*;\n[[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 704 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nThis \"Power\" is Hokhmah or (Chochmah) the Wisdom and\nthe Word. We shall probably be told that by this term \"worlds,\"\nthe stars, heavenly bodies, etc., were meant. But apart from the\nfact that \"stars\" were not known as \"worlds\"\nto the ignorant editors of the Epistles, if even they must have\nbeen known to Paul, who was an Initiate (\"a Master-Builder\"),\nwe can quote on this point an eminent theologian, Cardinal Wiseman.\nIn Vol. I, p. 309, of his work treating of the indefinite period\nof the six days -- or shall we say \"too definite\" --\nperiod of the six days of creation and the 6,000 years, he confesses\nthat we are in total darkness upon the meaning of that statement\nof St. Paul, unless we are permitted to suppose that allusion\nis made in it, *i.e., *the period which elapsed between\nthe *first* and* second *verses of chapter i. of\n*Genesis -- *to those primitive revolutions, *i.e.*,\nthe destructions and the re-productions (of the world) indicated\nin chapter i. of *Ecclesiastes*;* *or, to accept,\nwith so many others, and in its *literal sense, *the passage\n(*Hebrews i. *1,) that speaks of the creation of *worlds\n-- *in plural. . . . . It is very singular, he adds, that\nall the cosmogonies should agree to suggest the same idea, and\npreserve the tradition of a first series of revolutions, owing\nto which the world was destroyed and again renewed.\n\nHad the Cardinal studied the *Zohar *his doubts would have\nchanged to certitude. Thus saith *Idra Suta *(in the \"Zohar,\"\niii., 292, c.): \"There were old worlds which perished as\nsoon as they came into existence; worlds with and without form\ncalled *Scintillas -- *for they were like the sparks under\nthe Smith's hammer, flying in all directions. Some were the primordial\nworlds which could not continue long, because the 'aged' -- his\nname be sanctified -- had not as yet assumed his form,* the workman\nwas not yet the 'Heavenly man.' \"** Again in the *Midrash,\n*written long before the *Kabala *of Simeon Ben Iochai,\nRabbi Abahu explains: -- \"The Holy One, blessed be his name,\nhas successively formed and destroyed sundry worlds before this\none*** . . . Now this refers both to the first races (the \"Kings\nof Edom\") and to the worlds *destroyed.*\"******\n\"Destroyed\" means here what we call\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] and the Demiurgos or\nthe Universal Mind directs his Divine Thought into the Chaos that\nunder the fashioning of minor gods will be divided into the seven\noceans -- *Sapta samudras. *It is Purusha, Ahura Mazda,\nOsiris, etc., and finally the gnostic Christos, who is in the\nKabala, *Hokhmah *or Wisdom the \"Word.\"\n\n* The *form* of *Tikkun *or the *Protogonos,\n*the \"first-born,\" *i.e.*, the universal\nform and idea, had not yet been mirrored in *Chaos.*\n\n** The \"Heavenly man\" is Adam Kadmon -- the synthesis\nof the Sephiroth, as \"Manu Swayambhuva\" is the synthesis\nof the Prajapatis.\n\n*** Bereshith Rabba, Parsha **IX.**\n\n**** This refers to the *three Rounds *that preceded our\n*fourth* Round.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 705 WHO ARE THE KINGS OF EDOM?\n\n\"obscurations.\" This becomes evident when one reads\nfurther on the explanation given: -- \"Still when it is said\nthat they (the worlds) *perished, *it is only meant thereby\nthat they (their humanities) lacked the true form, till the human\n(our) form came into being, in which all things are comprised\nand *which contains all forms*. . . . * -- it does not\nmean *death,* but only denotes a *sinking down from\ntheir status *. . .\" (that of worlds in activity).**\n\nWhen, therefore, we read of the destruction of the worlds, this\nword has many meanings, which are very clear in several of the\nCommentaries on the *Zohar *and Kabalistic treatises. As\nsaid elsewhere, it means not only the destruction of many worlds\nwhich have ended their life-career, but also that of the several\ncontinents which have disappeared, as also their decline and geographical\nchange of place.\n\nThe mysterious \"Kings of Edom\" are sometimes referred\nto as the \"Worlds\" that had been destroyed; but it is\na \"cloak.\" The Kings who reigned in Edom before there\nreigned a King in Israel, or the \"Edomite Kings,\" could\nnever symbolize the \"prior worlds,\" but only the \"attempts\nat men\" on this globe: the \"pre-Adamite races,\"\nof which the Zohar speaks, and which we explain as the *First\n*Root-Race. For, as, speaking of the six Earths (the six \"limbs\"\nof Microprosopus) it is said that the Seventh (our Earth) came\nnot into the computation when the Six were created (the six spheres\nabove our globe in the terrestrial chain), so the first seven\nKings of Edom are left out of calculation in Genesis. By the law\nof analogy and permutation, in the \"Chaldean Book of Numbers,\"\nas also in the \"Books of Knowledge\" and of \"Wisdom,\"\nthe \"seven primordial worlds\" mean also the \"seven\nprimordial\" races (sub-races of the First Root-Race of the\n*Shadows*);* *and, again, the Kings of Edom are\nthe sons of \"Esau the father of the Edomites\" (Gen.\nxxxvi. 43); *i.e.*, Esau represents in the Bible the race\nwhich stands between the Fourth and the Fifth, the Atlantean and\nthe Aryan. \"Two *nations *are in thy womb,\" saith\nthe Lord to Rebekah; and Esau was *red* and* hairy.\n*From verse 24 to 34, ch. xxv. of *Genesis *contains\nthe allegorical history of the birth of the Fifth Race.\n\n\"And the Kings of ancient days died and their chiefs (crowns)\nwere found no more,\" says *Siphrah Dzenioutha *(3).*\n*. . . \"The Head of a nation that has not been formed\nat the beginning in the likeness of the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This sentence contains a dual sense and a profound mystery in\nthe occult sciences the secret of which *if*, and *when*,\nknown -- confers tremendous powers on the Adept to *change\nhis visible form.*\n\n** *Idra Suta, *Zohar, iii. 136, c. \"A sinking down\nfrom their status\" -- is plain; from active worlds they have\nfallen into a temporary obscuration -- they rest, and hence are\nentirely changed.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 706 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nWhite Head: its people is not from this Form,\" states the\n*Zohar *(iii.). . . . \"Before it (the White Head,\nthe Fifth Race or Ancient of the Ancients) arranged itself in\nits (own, or present) Form . . . all *worlds *have been\ndestroyed; therefore it is written: And Bela, the Son of Beor,\nreigned in Edom\" (Gen. xxxvi.). Here the \"worlds\"\nstand for races. \"And he (such or another King of Edom) died,\nand another reigned in his stead\" (*ibid* 31* et\nseq.*)*.*\n\nNo Kabalist who has hitherto treated of the symbolism and allegory\nhidden under these \"Kings of Edom\" seems to have perceived\nmore than one aspect of it. They are neither the \"*worlds\n*that were destroyed,\" nor the \"Kings that died\"\n-- alone; but both, and much more, to treat of which there is\nno space at present. Therefore, leaving the mystic parables of\nthe *Zohar, *we will return to the hard facts of materialistic\nscience; first, however, citing a few from the long list of great\nthinkers who have believed in the plurality of inhabited worlds\nin general, and in worlds that preceded our own. These are, the\ngreat mathematicians Leibnitz and Bernouilli, Isaac Newton himself,\nas can be read in his \"Optics\"; Buffon, the naturalist;\nCondillac, the sceptic; Bailly, Lavater, Bernardin de St. Pierre,\nand, as a contrast to the two last named -- suspected at least\nof mysticism -- Diderot and most of the writers of the Encyclopaedia.\nFollowing these come Kant, the founder of modern philosophy; the\npoet philosophers, Goethe, Krause, Schelling; and many astronomers,\nfrom Bode, Fergusson and Herschell to Lalande and Laplace, with\ntheir many disciples in more recent years.\n\nA brilliant list of honoured names indeed; but the facts of physical\nastronomy speak even more strongly in favour of the presence of\nlife, even organised life, on other planets. Thus in four meteorites\nwhich fell respectively at Alais in France, the Cape of Good Hope,\nin Hungary, and again in France, there was found, on analysis,\ngraphite, a form of carbon known to be invariably associated with\norganic life on this earth of ours. And that the presence of this\ncarbon is not due to any action occurring within our atmosphere\nis shown by the fact that carbon has been found in the very centre\nof a meteorite; while in one which fell at Argueil, in the south\nof France, in 1857, there was found water and turf, the latter\nbeing always formed by the decomposition of vegetable substances.\n\nAnd further, examining the astronomical conditions of the other\nplanets, it is easy to show that several are far better adapted\nfor the development of life and intelligence -- even under the\nconditions with which men are acquainted -- than is our earth.\nFor instance, on the planet Jupiter the seasons, instead of varying\nbetween wide limits as do ours, change by almost imperceptible\ndegrees, and last twelve times\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 707 WHAT FLAMMARION TELLS US.\n\nas long as ours. Owing to the inclination of its axis the seasons\non Jupiter are due almost entirely to the eccentricity of its\norbit, and hence change slowly and regularly. We shall be told,\nthat no life is possible on Jupiter, as it is in an incandescent\nstate. But not all astronomers agree with this. For instance what\nwe say, is said by M. Flammarion: and *he* ought to know.\n\nOn the other hand Venus would be less adapted for human life such\nas exists on earth, since its seasons are more extreme and its\nchanges of temperature more sudden; though it is curious that\nthe duration of the *day *is nearly the same on the four\ninner planets, Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Mars.\n\nOn Mercury, the Sun's heat and light are seven times what they\nare on the Earth, and astronomy teaches that it is enveloped in\na very dense atmosphere. And as we see that life appears more\nactive on earth in proportion to the light and heat of the sun,\nit would seem more than probable that its intensity is far, far\ngreater on Mercury than here.\n\nVenus, like Mercury, has a very dense atmosphere, as also has\nMars and the snows which cover their poles, the clouds which hide\ntheir surface, the geographical configuration of their seas and\ncontinents, the variations of seasons and climates, are all closely\nanalogous -- at least to the eye of the physical astronomer. But\nsuch facts and the considerations to which they give rise, have\nreference only to the possibility of the existence on these planets\nof human life as known on earth. That some forms of life such\nas we know are *possible *on these planets, has been long\nsince abundantly demonstrated, and it seems perfectly useless\nto go into detailed questions of the physiology, etc., etc., of\nthese hypothetical inhabitants, since after all the reader can\narrive only at an imaginary extension of his familiar surroundings.\nIt is better to rest content with the three conclusions which\nM. C. Flammarion, whom we have so largely quoted, formulates as\nrigorous and exact deductions from the known *facts *and\nlaws of science.\n\nI. The various forces which were active in the beginning of evolution\ngave birth to a great variety of beings on the several worlds;\nboth in the organic and inorganic kingdoms.\n\n**II**. The animated beings were constituted from\nthe first according to forms and organisms in correlation with\nthe physiological state of each inhabited globe.\n\n**III**. The humanities of other worlds differ from\nus, as much in their inner organization as in their external physical\ntype.\n\nFinally the reader who may be disposed to question the validity\nof these conclusions as being opposed to the Bible, may be referred\nto an Appendix in M. Flammarion's work dealing in detail with\nthis question; since in a work like the present it seems unnecessary\nto point out the\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 708 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nlogical absurdity of those churchmen, who deny the plurality of\nworlds on such grounds.\n\nIn this connection we may well recall those days when the burning\nzeal of the Primitive Church opposed the doctrine of the earth's\nrotundity, on the ground that the nations at the Antipodes would\nbe outside the pale of salvation; and again how long it took for\na nascent science to break down the idea of a solid firmament,\nin whose grooves the stars moved for the special edification of\nterrestrial humanity.\n\nThe theory of the earth's rotation was met by a like opposition\n-- even to the martyrdom of its discoverers -- because, besides\ndepriving our orb of its dignified central position in space,\nthis theory produced an appalling confusion of ideas as to the\nAscension -- the terms \"up\" and \"down\" being\nproved to be merely relative, thus complicating not a little the\nquestion of the precise locality of heaven.*\n\nAccording to the best modern calculations, there are no less than\n500,000,000 of stars of various magnitudes, within the range of\nthe best telescopes. As to the distances between them, they are\nincalculable. Is, then, our microscopical Earth -- a \"grain\nof sand on an infinite sea-shore\" -- the only centre of intelligent\nlife? Our own Sun, itself 1,300 times larger than our planet,\nsinks into insignificance beside that giant Sun -- Sirius, --\nand the latter in its turn is dwarfed by other luminaries in infinite\nSpace. The self-centred conception of Jehovah as the special guardian\nof a small and obscure semi-nomadic tribe, is tolerable beside\nthat which confines sentient existence to our microscopical globe.\nThe primary reasons were without doubt: (1) Astronomical ignorance\non the part of the early Christians, coupled with an exaggerated\nappreciation of man's own importance -- a crude form of selfishness;\nand (2) the dread that, if the hypothesis of millions of other\ninhabited globes was accepted, the crushing rejoinder would ensue\n-- \"Was there then a Revelation to each world?\" involving\nthe idea of the Son of God eternally \"going the rounds\"\nas it were. Happily it is now unnecessary to waste time and energy\nin proving the possibility of the existence of such worlds. All\nintelligent persons admit it. That which now remains to be demonstrated\nis, that if it is once proven that there are inhabited worlds\nbesides our own with humanities entirely different from each other\nas from our own -- as maintained in the Occult\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* In that learned and witty work, \"God and his Book,\"\nby the redoubtable \"Saladin\" of Agnostic repute, the\namusing calculation that, if Christ had ascended with the rapidity\nof a cannon ball, he would not have reached even Sirius yet, reminds\none vividly of the past. It raises, perhaps, a not ill-founded\nsuspicion that even our age of scientific enlightenment may be\nas grossly absurd in its materialistic negations, as the men of\nthe middle ages were absurd and materialistic in their religious\naffirmations.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 709 SCIENCE AND OCCULTISM MAY YET AGREE.\n\nSciences -- then the evolution of the preceding races is half\nproved. For where is that physicist or geologist who is prepared\nto maintain that the Earth has not changed scores of times, in\nthe millions of years which have elapsed in the course of its\nexistence; and changing its* *\"skin,\" as it is\ncalled in Occultism, that the Earth has not had each time her\nspecial humanities adapted to such atmospheric and climatic conditions\nas were entailed. And if so, why should not our preceding four\nand entirely different mankinds have existed and thrived before\nour Adamic (Fifth Root) Race?\n\nBefore closing our debates, however, we have to examine the so-called\norganic evolution more closely. Let us search well and see whether\nit is quite impossible to make our Occult data and chronology\nagree up to a certain point with those of Science.\n\n-------\n\n[[This page continued in next section]]\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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