Chapter XXI

Preliminaries .
The First and Second Chains Early Times on the Moon Chain The Sixth Round on the Moon Chain . The Seventh Round on the Moon Chain Early Times on the Earth Chain Early Stages of the Fourth Round . The Fourth Root Race Black Magic in Atlantis The Civilisation of Atlantis .
Two Atlantean Civilisations — Peru
»»
99
99
99
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
XXII
XXIII
XXIV
XXV
XXVI
XXVII
„ Chaldaea Beginnings of the Fifth Root Race . The Building of the Great City Early Aryan Civilisation and Empire . The Second sub-race, the Arabian . The Third sub-race, the Iranian The Fourth sub-race, the Keltic The Fifth sub-race, the Teutonic The Root-Stock and its descent into
India .
The Vision of King Ashoka .
The Beginnings of the Sixth Root Race . Religion and the Temples Education and the Family Buildings and Customs Conclusion Epilogue Appendix
Index .
•
l
1
17
31
44
56
77
92
107
122
133
141
174
201
239
255
264
275
293
306
320
324
341
349
362
397
420
454
475
481
507
MAN : WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
INTRODUCTION
The problem of Man’s origin, of his evolution, of his destiny, is one of inexhaustible interest. Whence came he, this glorious Intelligence, on this globe, at least, the crown of visible beings ? How has he evolved to his present position ? has he suddenly descended from above, a radiant angel, to become the temporary tenant of a house of clay, or has he climbed upwards through long dim ages, tracing his humble ancestry from pri¬ meval slime, through fish, reptile, mammal, up to the human kingdom ? And what is his future destiny ? is he evolving onwards, climbing higher and higher, only to descend the long slope of degeneration till he falls over the precipice of death, leaving be¬ hind him a freezing planet, the sepulchre of myriad civilisations ? or is his present climbing but the schooling of an immortal spiritual Power, destined in his maturity to wield the sceptre of a world, a system, a congeries of systems, a veritable God in the making?
ii MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
To these questions many answers have been given, partially or fairly fully, in the Scriptures of ancient religions, in the shadowy traditions handed down from mighty men of old, in the explorations of modern archaeologists, in the researches of geo¬ logists, physicists, biologists, astronomers, of our own days. The most modern knowledge has vindicated the most ancient records in ascribing to our earth and its inhabitants a period of existence of vast extent and of marvellous complexity; hundreds of millions of years are tossed together' to give time for the slow and laborious processes of nature ; further and further back 6 primeval man 5 is pushed ; Lemuria is seen where now the Pacific ripples, and Australia, but lately rediscovered, is regarded as one of the oldest of lands ; Atlantis is posited, where now the Atlantic rolls, and Africa is linked to America by a solid bridge of land, so that the laurels of a discoverer are plucked from the brow of Columbus, and he is seen as following long- perished generations who found their way from Europe to the continent of the setting sun. Posei- donis is no longer the mere fairy-tale told by superstitious Egyptian priests to a Greek philosopher; Minos of Crete is dug out of his ancient grave, a man and not a myth ; Babylon, once ancient, is shown as the modern successor of a series of highly civilised cities, buried in stratum after stratum, glooming through the night of time. Tradition is beckoning the explorer to excavate in Turkestan, in Central Asia, and whispering of cyclopean ruins that await but his spade for their unburying.
INTRODUCTION
ill
Amid this clash of opinions, this conflict of theories, this affirmation and repudiation of ever- new hypotheses, it may be that the record of two observers, two explorers — treading a very ancient path that few feet tread to-day, but that will be trodden more and more by thronging students as time shows its stability — may have a chance of being read. Science is to-day exploring the marvels of what it calls the c subjective mind,5 and is finding in it strange powers, strange upsurgings, strange memories. Healthy and balanced, dominat¬ ing the brain, it shows as genius ; out of equili¬ brium with the brain, vagrant and incalculable, it shows as insanity. Some day Science will realise that what it calls the subjective mind, Religion calls the Soul, and that the exhibition of its powers depends on the physical and super-physical instru¬ ments at its command. If these are well-constructed, sound and flexible, and thoroughly under its control, the powers of vision, of audition, of memory, irregularly up- welling from the subjective mind, become the normal and disposable powers of the Soul ; if the Soul strive upwards to the Spirit — the Divine Self — veiled in the matter of our System, the true Inner Man, instead of ever clinging to the body, then its powers increase, and knowledge, otherwise unattainable, comes within its reach.
Metaphysicians, ancient and modern, declare that Past, Present, and Future are ever simultaneous¬ ly existent in the divine Consciousness, and are only successive as they come into manifestation, i.e ., under Time, which is verily the succession of states of consciousness. Our limited consciousness,
iv MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
existing in Time, is inevitably bound by this succes¬ sion ; we can only think successively. But we all know, from our experience of dream-states, that time-measures vary with this change of state, though succession remains ; we know also that time-meas¬ ures vary even more in the thought-world, and that when we construct mental pictures we can delay, hasten, repeat, the succession of thought-images at will, though still ever bound by succession. Pursuing this line of thought, it is not difficult to conceive of a mind raised to transcendent power, the mind of a LOGOS, or Word — such a Being, e.g as is de¬ scribed in the Johannine Gospel, i. 1-4 — containing within itself all the mental images embodied in, say, a Solar System, arranged in the order of succession of their proposed manifestation, but all there, all capable of review, as we can review our own thought-images, though we have not yet attained to the divine power, so strikingly voiced by the Prophet Muhammad, as : “ He only saith to it: ‘Be,5 and it is55.1 Yet, as the infant of a
day contains within himself the potentialities of
his sire, so do we, the offspring of God, contain
within ourselves the potentialities of Divinity. Hence, when we resolutely turn the Soul away from earth and concentrate his attention on the Spirit — the
substance whereof he is the shadow in the world of matter — the Soul may reach the ‘ Memory of Nature,5 the embodiment in the material world of the Thoughts of the LOGOS, the reflection, as it were, of His Mind. There dwells the Past in
1 Al Quran , xi. 17.
INTRODUCTION
V
ever-living records ; there also dwells the Future, more difficult for the half-developed Soul to reach, because not yet manifested, nor yet embodied, though quite as £ real \ The Soul, reading these records, may transmit them to the body, impress them on the brain, and then record them in words and writings. When the Soul is merged in the Spirit — as in the case of “ men made perfect,55 of Those who have completed human evolution, the Spirits who are ‘ liberated,5 or 6 saved 5 1 — then the touch with the divine Memory is immediate, direct, ever- available, and unerring. Before that point is reached, the touch is imperfect, mediate, subject to errors of observation and transmission.
The writers of this book, having been taught the method of gaining touch, but being subject to the difficulties involved in their uncompleted evolu¬ tion, have done their best to observe and transmit, but are fully conscious of the many weaknesses which mar their work. Occasional help has been given to them by the Elder Brethren, in the way of broad outlines here and there, and dates where necessary.
As in the case of the related books which have preceded this in the Theosophical movement, the “ treasure is in earthen vessels,55 and, while gratefully acknowledging the help graciously given, they take the responsibility of all errors entirely on themselves.
1 The terms used by Hindus and Christians respectively to mark the end of purely human evolution.
I
MAN:
WHENCE AND HOW