CHAPTER VII.

THE HUMAN TIDE-WAVE.
A GENERAL account has already been given of the •way in which the great evolutionary life- wave' sweeps- round and round the seven worlds which compose the planetary chain of which our earth is a part. Further assistance may now be ofFeredj with the view of expanding this general idea into a fuller comprehension of the processes to which it relates. And no one additional chapter of the great story wiU do more towards rendering its character intel- ligiblcj than an explanation of certain phenomena connected with the progress of worlds, that may be conveniently called obscurations.
Students of occult philosophy who enter on that pursuit with minds already abundantly furnished in other ways, are very liable to misinterpret its earlier statements. Everything cannot be said at once, and the first broad explanations are apt to suggest conceptions in regard to details which are most likely to be erroneous with the most active-minded and intelligent thinkers. Such readers are not content with shadowy outlines even for a moment. Imagination fills in the picture, and if its work is undisturbed for any length of time, the author of it will be surprised afterwards to find that later
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information is incompatible with that which he had come to regard as having been distinctly taught in the beginning. Now in this treatise the writer's effort is to convey the information in such a way that hasty weed growths of the mind may be pre- vented as far as possible, but in this very effort it is necessary sometimes to run on quickly in advance, leaving some details, even very important details, to be picked up during a second journey over the old ground. So now the reader must be good enough to go back to the explanation given in