CHAPTER III.

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION.
Activities of Life; Memory and Soul-Growth.

OUR study thus far of the seven Worlds or states of
matter has shown us that each serves a definite
purpose in the economy of nature, and that God,
the Great Spirit, in Whom we actually and in fact "live
and move and have our being," is the Power that per-
meates and sustains the whole Universe with Its Life ; but
while that Life flows into and is immanent in every atom of
the six lower Worlds and all contained therein, in the
Seventh— the highest — the Triune God alone is.

The next highest or sixth realm is the World of Virgin
Spirits. Here those sparks from the divine "Flam-" have
their being before they commence their long pilgrimage
through the five denser Worlds for the purpose of develop-
ing latent potentialities into dynamic powers. As the seed
unfolds its hidden possibilities by being buried in the soil,
so these virgin spirits will, in time, when they have passed
through matter (the school of experience), also become
divine "Flames," capable of bringing forth universes from
themselves.

The five Worlds constitute the field of man's evolution,
the three lower or denser being the scene of the present
phase of his development. We will now consider him as
related to these five Worlds by means of his appropriate
vehicles, remembering the two grand divisions into which
two of these Worlds are divided, and that man has a vehicle
for each of these divisions.

87

88 EOS1CRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

THE SEVENFOLD CONSTITUTION OF MAN.
World or Eegion. Corresponding Vehicle.

5 . .World of Divine Spirit Divine Spirit , _,

4 . . r i Life Spirit ! ^e „ , , The

[Thought jj Region'of Concrete Thought.. Mind.. (The Mind is

the mirror
through which
the threefold
spirit reflects
itself i n t h e

i threefold

body; the fo-
cussing - point.
See Diagr. 1.)
2 Desire World. . . ...... .Desire Body -, Th Three.fold Bod

liicaF" )EthericReglon'-VltalBody L the Shadow of the
(World j Chemical Region. Dense Body J Threefold Spirit.

In the waking state these vehicles are all together. They
inter-penetrate one another as the blood, the lymph, and
other juices of the body inter-penetrate. Thus is the Ego
enabled to act in the Physical World.

We ourselves, as Egos, function directly in the subtle
substance of the Eegion of Abstract Thought, which we
have specialized within the periphery of our individual
aura. Thence we view the impressions made by the outer
world upon the vital body through the senses, together with
the feelings and emotions generated by them in the desire
body, and mirrored in the mind.

From these mental images we form our conclusions, in
the substance of the Eegion of Abstract Thought, con-
cerning the subjects with which they deal. These con-
clusions are ideas. By the power of will we project an
idea through the mind, where it takes concrete shape as
a thought-form by drawing mind-stuff around itself from
the Eegion of Concrete Thought.

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 89

The mind is like the projecting lens of a stereopticon.
It projects the image in one of three directions, according
to the will of the thinker, which ensouls the thought-form.

(1) It may be projected against the desire body in an
endeavor to arouse feeling which will lead to immediate
action.

(a) If the thought awakens Interest one of the twin
forces, Attraction or Repulsion, will be stirred up.

If Attraction, the centrifugal force, is aroused, it seizes
the thought, whirls it into the desire body, endows the
image with added life and clothes it with desire-stuff.
Then the thought is able to act on the etheric brain, and
propel the vital force through the appropriate brain cen-
ters and nerves to the voluntary muscles which perform
the necessary action. Thus the force in the thought is
expended and the image remains in the ether of the vital
body as memory of the act and the feeling that caused it.

(b) Eepulsion is the centripetal force and if that is
aroused by the thought there will be a struggle between
the spiritual force (the will of the man) within the
thought-form, and the desire body. This is the battle be-
tween conscience and desire, the higher and the lower
nature. The spiritual force, in spite of resistance, will
seek to clothe the thought-form in the desire-stuff needed
to manipulate the brain and muscles. The force of Re-
pulsion will endeavor to scatter the appropriated material
and oust the thought. If the spiritual energy is strong
it may force its way through to the brain centers and hold
its clothing of desire-stuff while manipulating the vital
force, thus compelling action, and will then leave upon
the memory a vivid impression of the struggle and the
victory. If the spiritual energy is exhausted before action
has resulted, it will be overcome by the force of Repul-

90 KOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

sion, and will be stored in the memory, as are all other
thought-forms when they have expended their energy.

(c) If the thought-form meets the withering feeling
of Indifference it depends upon the spiritual energy con-
tained in it whether it will be able to compel action, or
simply leave a weak impress upon the reflecting ether of
the vital body after its kinetic energy has been exhausted.

(2) Where no immediate action is called for by the
mental images of impacts from without, these may be
projected directly upon the reflecting ether, together with
the thoughts occasioned by them, to be used at some future
time. The spirit, working through the mind, has instant
access to the storehouse of conscious memory and may at
any time resurrect any of the pictures found there, endue
them with new spiritual force, and project them upon
the desire body to compel action. Each time such a pic-
ture is thus used it will gain in vividness, strength and
efficiency, and will compel action along its particular line
more readily than on previous occasions, because it cuts
grooves, and produces the phenomenon of thought, "gain-
ing" or "growing"' upon us by repetition.

(3) A third way of using a thought-form is when the
thinker projects it toward another mind to act as a sug-
gestion, to carry information, etc., as in thought-trans-
ference, or it may be directed against the desire body of
another person to compel action, as in the case of a hypno-
tist influencing a victim at a distance. It will then act
in precisely the same manner as if it were the victim's
own thought. If in line with his proclivities it will act
as per paragraph la. If contrary to his nature, as des-
cribed in Ib or Ic.

When the work designed for such a projected thought-
form has been accomplished, or its energy expended in

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 91

vain attempts to achieve its object, it gravitates back to
its creator, bearing with it the indelible record of the jour-
ney. Its success or failure is imprinted on the negative
atoms of the reflecting ether of its creator's .vital body,
where it forms that part of the record of the thinker's
life and action which is sometimes called the sub-conscious
mind.

This record is much more important than the memory
to which we have conscious access, for the latter is made
up from imperfect and illusive sense-perceptions and is
the voluntary memory or conscious mind.

The involuntary memory or sub-conscious mind comes
into being in a different way, altogether beyond our con-
trol at present. As the ether carries to the sensitive film
in the camera an accurate impresion of the surrounding
landscape, taking in the minutest detail regardless of
whether the photographer has observed it or not, so the
ether contained in the air we inspire carries with it an
accurate and detailed picture of all our surroundings.
Not only of material things, but also the conditions ex-
isting each moment within our aura. The slightest
thought, feeling or emotion is transmitted to the lungs,
where it is injected into the blood. The blood is one of
the highest products of the vital body as it is the carrier
of nourishment to every part of the body, and the direct
vehicle of the Ego. The pictures it contains are impressed
upon the negative atoms of the vital body, to serve as
arbiters of the man's destiny in the post mortem state.

The memory (or so-called mind), both conscious and
sub-conscious, relates wholly to the experiences of this
life. It consists of impressions of events on the vital body.
These may be changed or even eradicated, as noted in
the explanation concerning the forgiveness of sins which

92 EOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

is given a few pages further on, which change or eradi-
cation depends upon the elimination of these impressions
from the ether of the vital hody.

There is also a superconscious memory. That is the
storehouse of all faculties acquired and knowledge gained
in previous lives, though perhaps latent in the present
incarnation. This record is indelibly engraven on the
life spirit. It manifests ordinarily, though not to the
full extent, as conscience and character which ensouls all
thought-forms, sometimes as counsellor, sometimes com-
pelling action with resistless force, even contrary to reason
and desire.

In many women, in whom the vital body is positive,
and in advanced people of either sex where the vital body
has been sensitized by a pure and holy life, by prayer and
concentration, this superconscious memory inherent in
the life spirit is occasionally, to some extent, above the
necessity of clothing itself in mind stuff and desire mat-
ter in order to compel action. It does not always need to
incur the danger of being subjected to and perhaps over-
ruled by a process of reasoning. Sometimes, in the form
of intuition or teaching from within, it impresses itself
directly upon the reflecting ether of the vital body. The
more readily we learn to recognize it and follow its dic-
tates, the oftener it will speak, to our eternal welfare.

By their activities during waking hours the desire body
and the mind are constantly destroying the dense vehicle.
Every thought and movement breaks down tissue. On the
other hand, the vital body faithfully endeavors to restore
harmony and build up what the other vehicles are tearing
down. It is not able, however, to entirely withstand the
powerful onslaughts of the impulses and thoughts. It
gradually loses ground and at last there comes a time

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 93

when it collapses. Its "points" shrivel-up, so to say. The
vital fluid ceases to flow along the nerves in sufficient
quantity; the body becomes drowsy, the Thinker is ham-
pered by its drowsiness and forced to withdraw, taking the
desire body with him. This withdrawal of the higher
vehicles leaves the dense body interpenetrated by the vital
body in the senseless state we call sleep.

Sleep, however, is not by any means an inactive state,
as people generally suppose. If it were, the body would
be no different on awakening in the morning from its con-
dition when it went to sleep at night; its fatigue would
be just as great. On the contrary, sleep is a period of
intense activity and the more intense it is the greater its
value, for it eliminates the poisons resulting from tissue
destroyed by the mental and physical activities of the day.
The tissues are re-built and the rhythm of the body re-
stored. The more thoroughly this work is done the greater
the benefit accruing from sleep.

The Desire World is an ocean of wisdom and harmony.
Into this the Ego takes the mind and the desire body
when the lower vehicles have been left in sleep. There the
first care of the Ego is the restoration of the rhythm and
harmony of the mind and the desire body. This res-
toration is accomplished gradually as the harmonious
vibrations of the Desire World flow through them. There
is an essence in the Desire World corresponding to the
vital fluid which permeates the dense body by means of
the vital body. The higher vehicles, as it were, steep them-
selves in this elixir of life. When strengthened, they
commence work on the vital body, which was left with
the sleeping dense body. Then the vital body begins to
specialize the solar energy anew, rebuilding the dense

94 ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPT iOX

body, using particularly the chemical ether as its medium
in the process of restoration.

It is this activity of the different vehicles during sleep
which forms the basis for the activity of the following
day. Without that there would be no awakening, for the
Ego was forced to abandon his vehicles because their weari-
ness rendered them useless. If the work of removing that
fatigue were not clone, the bodies would remain asleep,
as sometimes happens in natural trance. It is just because
of this harmonizing, recuperative activity that sleep is
better than doctor or medicine in preserving health. Mere
rest is nothing in comparison with sleep. It is only while
the higher vehicles are in the Desire World that there is
a total suspension of waste and an influx of restoring
force. It is true that during rest the vital body is not
hampered in its work by tissue being broken down by
active motion and tense muscles, but still it must contend
with the wasting energy of thought and it does not then
receive the outside recuperative force from the desire body
as during sleep.

It happens, however, that at times the desire body does
not fully withdraw, so that part of it remains connected
with the vital body, the vehicle for sense-perception and
memory. The result is that restoration is only partly ac-
complished and that the scenes and actions of the Desire
World are brought into the physical consciousness as
dreams. Of course most dreams are confused as the axis
of perception is askew, because of the improper relation
of one body to another. The memory is also confused by
this incongruous relation of the vehicles and as a result
of the restoring force dream-filled sleep is restless and the
body feels tired on awakening.

During life the threefold spirit, the Ego, works on and

MAX AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION

95

in the threefold body, to which it is connected by the link
of mind. This work brings the threefold soul into being.
The soul is the spiritualized product of the body.

Diagram 5 shows the Tenfold Constitution of Man.

Man Is a threefold Spirit, possessing a Mind by means of which be gov-
erns a threefold Body, which he eman ated from himself to gather experience.
This threefold body he transmutes into a threefold Soul, upon which he nour-
ishes himself from Impotence to omnipotence.

The DiTfne Spirit
The Life Spirit
The Human Spirit

emanates C The Dense Body ) extracting
from < The Vital Body as

itself f The Desire Body ) pabulum

Conscious Soul
Intellectual Soul
Emotional Soul

The mirror of Mind also contributes increasingly to spiritual growth as
the thoughts which it transmits to and from the Spirit polish it to greater
brightness, sharpening and intensifying its focus more and more to a single
point, perfectly flexible and under the control of the Spirit.

96 EOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

As proper food feeds the body in a material sense, so
the activity of the spirit in the dense body, which results
in right action, promotes the growth of the Conscious
Soul. As the forces from the sun play in the vital body
and nourish it, that it may act on the dense body, so the
memory of actions done in the dense body — the desires,
feelings and emotions of the desire body and the thoughts
and ideas in the mind — cause the growth of the Intel-
lectual Soul. In like manner the highest desires and emo-
tions of the desire body form the Emotional Soul.

This threefold soul in turn enhances the consciousness
of the threefold spirit.

The Emotional Soul, which is the extract of the desire
body, adds to the efficiency of the Human Spirit, which
is the spiritual counterpart of the desire body.

The Intellectual Soul gives added power to the Life
Spirit, because the Intellectual Soul is extracted from the
vital body, which is the material counterpart of the Life
Spirit.

The Conscious Soul increases the consciousness of the
Divine Spirit because it (the Conscious Soul) is the
extract of the dense body, which latter is the counterpart
of the Divine Spirit.

DEATH AND PURGATORY.

So man builds and sows until the moment of death ar-
rives. Then the seed-time and the periods of growth and
ripening are past. The harvest time has come, when the
skeleton spectre of Death arrives with his scythe and
hour-glass. That is a good symbol. The skeleton symbol-
izes the relatively permanent part of the body. The
scythe represents the fact that this permanent part, which

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 97

is about to be harvested by the spirit, is the fruitage of the
life now drawing to a close. The hour-glass in his hand
indicates that the hour does not strike until the full course
has been run in harmony with unvarying laws. When
that moment arrives a separation of the vehicles takes
place. As his life in the Physical World is ended for the
time being, it is not necessary for man to retain his dense
body. The vital body, which as we have explained, also
belongs to the Physical World, is withdrawn by way of
the head, leaving the dense body inanimate.

The higher vehicles — vital body, desire body and mind
— are seen to leave the dense body with a spiral movement,
taking with them the soul of one dense atom. NV)t the
atom itself, but the forces that played through it. The
results of the experiences passed through in the dense body
during the life just ended have been impressed upon this
particular atom. While all the other atoms of the dense
body have been renewed from time to time, this permanent
atom has remained. It has remained stable, not only
through one life, but it- has been a part of every dense
body ever used by a particular Ego. It is withdrawn at
death only to reawaken at the dawn of another physical
life, to serve again as the nucleus around which is built
the new dense body to be used by the same Ego. It is
therefore called the "Seed- Atom." During life the seed-
atom is situated in the left ventricle of the heart, near the
apex. At death it rises to the brain by way of the pneu-
mogastric nerve, leaving the dense body, together with
the higher vehicles, by way of the sutures between the
parietal and occipital bones.

When the higher vehicles have left the dense body they
are still connected with it by a slender, glistening, silvery

98 KOSICRUOIAN COSMO-CONOEPTTON

cord shaped much like two figure sixes, one upright and
one reversed, the two connected at the extremities of the
hooks. (See diagram 5£.)

One end is fastened to the heart liy means of the seed-
atom, and it is the rupture of the seed-atom which causes
the heart to stop. The cord itself is not snapped until
the panorama of the past life, contained in the vital body,
has been reviewed.

Care should be taken, however, not to cremate or em-
balm the body until at least three days after death, for
while the vital body is with the higher vehicles, and they
are still connected with the dense body by means of the
silver cord, any post mortem examination or other injury
to the dense body will be felt, in a measure, by the 'man.

DIAGRAM

5/2 POINT OF

SEPARATION

Cremation should be particularly avoided in the first three
days after death, because it tends to disintegrate the vital
body, which should be kept intact until the panorama of
the past life has been etched into the desire body.

The silver cord snaps at the point where the sixes t*nite,
half remaining with the dense body and the othe*-

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 99

with the higher vehicles. From the time the cord snaps
the dense body is quite dead.

In the beginning of 1906 Dr. ilcDougall made a series
of experiments in the Massachusetts General Hospital,
to determine, if possible, whether anything not ordinarily
visible left the body at death. For this purpose he con-
structed a pair of scales capable of registering differences
of one-tenth of an ounce.

The dying person and his bed were placed on one of
the platforms of the scale, which was then balanced by
weights placed on the opposite platform. In every in-
stance it was noted that at the precise moment when the
dying person drew the last breath, the platform contain-
ing the weights dropped with a startling suddenness, lift-
ing the bed and the body, thus showing that something
invisible, but having weight, had left the body. There-
upon the newspapers all over the country announced in
glaring headlines that Dr. McDougall had "weighed the
soul."

Occultism hails with joy the discoveries of modern
science, as they invariably corroborate what occult science
has long taught. The experiments of Dr. McDougall
showed conclusively that something invisible to ordinary
sight left the body at death, as trained clairvoyants had
seen, and as had been stated in lectures and literature for
many years previous to Dr. McDougall's discovery.

But this invisible "something" is not the soul. There
is a great difference. The reporters jump at conclusions
when they state that the scientists have "weighed the
soul." The soul belongs to higher realms and can never
be weighed on physical scales, even though they registered
variation? of one-millionth part of a grain instead of one-
tenth of an ounce.

100 ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

It was the vital body which the scientists weighed. It
is formed of the four ethers and they belong to the Phys-
ical World.

As we have seen, a certain amount of this ether is
"superimposed" upon the ether which envelops the parti-
cles of the human body and is confined there during phys-
ical life, adding in a slight degree to the weight of the
dense body of plant, animal and man. In death it escapes ;
hence the diminution in weight noticed by Dr. KcDougall
when the persons with whom he experimented expired.

Dr. McDougall also tried his scales in weighing dying
animals. No diminution was found here, though one of
the animals was a large St. Bernard dog. That was taken
to indicate that animals have no souls. A little later,
however, Professor La V. Twining, head of the Science
Department of the Los Angeles Polytechnic School, ex-
perimented with mice and kittens, which he enclosed in
hermetically sealed glass flasks. His scales were the most
sensitive procurable and were enclosed in a glass case
from which all moisture had been removed. It was found
that all the animals observed lost weight at death. A
good-sized mouse, weighing 12.886 grams, suddenly lost
3.1 milligrams at death.

A kitten used in another experiment lost one hundred
milligrams while dying and at its last gasp it suddenly
lost an additional sixty milligrams. After that it lost
weight slowly, due to evaporation.

Thus the teaching of occult science in regard to the
possession of vital bodies by animals was also vindicated
when sufficiently fine scales were used, and the case where
the rather insensitive scales did not show diminution in
the weight of the St. Bernard dog shows that the vital
bodies of animals are proportionately lighter than in man.

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 1Q1

When the "silver cord" has broken in the heart, and
man has been released from his dense body, a moment
of the highest importance comes to the Ego, and it can-
not be too seriously impressed upon the relatives of a dy-
ing person that it is a great crime against the departing
soul to give expression to loud grief and lamentations, for
it is just then engaged in a matter of supreme importance
and a great deal of the value of the past life depends upon
how much attention the soul can give to this matter.
This will be made clearer when we come to the descrip-
tion of man's life in the Desire World.

It is also a crime against the dying to administer stim-
ulants which have the effect of forcing the higher vehicles
back into the dense body with a jerk, thus imparting a
great shock to the man. It is no torture to pass out, but it
is torture to be dragged back to endure further suffering.
Some who have passed out have told investigators that
they had, in that way, been kept dying for hours and had
prayed that their relatives would cease their mistaken
kindness and let them die.

When the man is freed from the dense body, which was
the heaviest clog upon his spiritual power (like the heavy
mitten on the hand of the musician in our previous illus-
tration), his spiritual power comes back in some measure,
and he is able to read the pictures in the negative pole of
the reflecting ether of his vital body, which is the seat
of the sub-conscious memory.

The whole of his past life passes before his sight like
a panorama, the events being presented in reverse order.
The incidents of the days immediately preceding death
come first and so on back through manhood or woman-
hood to youth, childhood and infancy. Everything is re-
membered.

102 KOSICRTJOIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

The man stand? as a spectator before this panorama of
his past life. He gees the pictures as they pass and they
impress themselves upon his higher vehicles, hut he has
119 fueling ahout them at this time. That is reserved until
the time when he enters into the Desire World, which is
the world of feeling and emotion. At present he is only
in the Etheric Eegion of the Physical World.

This panorama lasts from a few hours to several days,
depending upon the length of time the man could keep
awake, if necessary. Some people can keep awake only
twelve hours, or even less ; others can do so, upon occasion,
for a number of days, but as long as the man can remain
awake, this panorama lasts.

This feature of life after death is similar to that which
takes place when one is drowning or falling from a height.
In such cases the vital body also leaves the dense body and
the man sees his life in a flash, because he loses conscious-
ness at once. Of course the "silver cord" is not broken,
or there could be no resuscitation.

When the endurance of the vital body has reached its
limit, it collapses in the way described when we were con-
sidering the phenomenon of sleep. During physical life,
when the Ego controls its vehicles, this collapse terminates
the waking hours; after death the collapse of the vital
body terminates the panorama and forces the man to with-
draw into the Desire World. The silver cord breaks at the
point where the "sixes" unite (see diagram 5£), and the
same division is made as during sleep, but with this im-
portant difference, that though the vital body returns to the
dense body, it no longer interpenetrates it, but simply
hovers over it. It remains floating over the grave, decaying
synchronously with the dense vehicle. Hence, to the trained
clairvoyant, a graveyard is a nauseating sight and if only

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 1Q3

more people could see it as he does, little argument would
be necessary to induce them to change from the present
unsanitary method of disposing of the dead to the more
rational method of cremation, which restores the elements
to their primordial condition without the objectionable
features incident to the process of slow decay.

In leaving the vital body the process is much the same
as when the dense body is discarded. The life forces of one
atom are taken, to be used as a nucleus for the vital body
of a future incarnation. Thus, upon his entrance into
the Desire World the man has the seed-atoms of the dense
and the vital bodies, in addition to the desire body and
the mind.

If the dying man could leave all desires behind, the de-
sire body would very quickly fall away from him, leaving
him free to proceed into the heaven world, but that is not
generally the case. Most people, especially if they die in
the prime of life, have many ties and much interest in
life on earth. They have not altered their desires because
they have lost their physical bodies. In fact often their
desires are even augmented by a very intense longing to
return. This acts in such a manner as to bind them to
the Desire World in a very unpleasant way, although un-
fortunately, they do not realize it. On the other hand, old
and decrepit persons and those who are weakened by long
illness and are tired of life, pass on very quickly.

The matter may be illustrated by the ease with which
the seed falls out of the ripe fruit, no particle of the flesh
clinging to it, while in the unripe fruit the seed clings
to the flesh with the greatest tenacity. Thus it is espe-
cially hard for people to die who were taken out of their
bodies by accident while at the height of their physical
health and strength, engaged in numerous wavs in the

104 EOSICBUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

activities of physical life; held by the ties of wife, family,
relatives, friends, pursuits of business and pleasure.

The suicide, who tries to get away from life, only to
find that he is as much alive as ever, is in the most piti-
able plight. He is able to watch those whom he has, per-
haps, disgraced by his act, and worst of all, he has an un-
speakable feeling of being "hollowed out." The part iri
the ovoid aura where the dense body used to be is empty
and although the desire body has taken the form of the
discarded dense body, it feels like an empty shell, because
the creative archetype of the body in the Eegion of Con-
crete Thought persists as an empty mold, so to speak, as
long as the dense body should properly have lived. When
a person meets a natural death, even in the prime of life,
the activity of the archetype ceases, and the . desire body
adjusts itself so as to occupy the whole of the form, but
in the case of the suicide that awful feeling of "empti-
ness" remains until the time comes when, in the natural
course of events, his death would have occurred.

As long as the man entertains the desires connected
with earth life he must stay in his desire body and as the
progress of the individual requires that he pass on to
higher Eegions, the existence in the Desire World must
necessarily become purgative, tending to purify him from
his binding desires. How this is done is best seen by tak-
ing some radical instances.

The miser who loved his gold in earth life loves it just
as dearly after death; but in the first place he cannot
acquire any more, because he has no longer a dense body
wherewith to grasp it and worst of all, he cannot even keep
what he hoarded during life. He will, perhaps, go and sit
by his safe and watch the cherished gold or bonds; but
the heirs appear and with, it may "be, a stinging jeer at the

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 1Q5

"stingy old fool" (whom they do not see, but who both
sees and hears them), will open his safe, and though he
may throw himself over his gold to protect it, they will
put their hands through him, neither knowing nor caring
that he is there, and will then proceed to spend his hoard,
while he suffers in sorrow and impotent rage.

He will suffer keenly, his sufferings all the more ter-
rible on account of being entirely mental, because the
dense body dulls even suffering to some extent. In the
Desire World, however, these sufferings have full sway and
the man suffers until he learns that gold may be a curse.
Thus he gradually becomes contented with his lot and at
last is freed from his desire body and is ready to go on.

Or take the case of the drunkard. He is just as fond
of intoxicants after death as he was before. It is not the
dense body that craves drink. It is made sick by alcohol
and would rather be without it. It vainly protests in
different ways, but the desire body of the drunkard craves
the drink and forces the dense body to take it, that the
desire body may have the sensation of pleasure resulting
from the increased vibration. That desire remains after
the death of the dense body, but the drunkard has in his
desire body neither mouth to drink nor stomach to contain
physical liquor. He may and does get into saloons, where
he interpolates his body into the bodies of the drinkers
to get a little of their vibrations by induction, but that
is too weak to give him much satisfaction. He may and
also does sometimes get inside a whiskey cask, but that
also is of no avail either for there are in the cask no such
fumes as are generated in the digestive organs of a tip-
pler. It has no effect upon him and he is like a man in
an open boat on the ocean, "Water, water everywhere,
but not a drop to drink ;" consequently he suffers intensely.

106 KOSICKUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

In time, however, he learns the uselessness of longing for
drink which he cannot obtain. As with so many of our
desires in the Earth life, all desires in the Desire World
die for want of opportunity to gratify them. When the
drunkard has been purged, he is ready, so far as this habit
is concerned, to leave this state of "purgatory" and ascend
into the heaven world.

Thus we see that it is not an avenging Deity that makes
purgatory or hell for us, but our own individual evil habits
and acts. According to the intensity of our desires will
be the time and suffering entailed in their expurgation.
In the cases mentioned it would have been no suffering
to the drunkard to lose his worldly possessions. If he had
any, he did not cling to them. Neither would it have
caused the miser any pain to have been deprived of in-
toxicants. It is safe to say that he would not have cared
if there were not a drop of liquor in the world. But he
did care about his gold, and the drunkard cared about
his drink and so the unerring law gave to each that which
was needed to purge him of his unhallowed desires and
evil habits.

This is the law that is symbolized in the scythe of the
reaper, Death; the law that says, "whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap." It is the law "of cause
and effect, which rules all things in the three Worlds, in
every realm of nature — physical, moral and mental.
Everywhere it works inexorably, adjusting all things, re-
storing the equilibrium wherever even the slightest action
has brought about a disturbance, as all action must. The
result may be manifest immediately or it may be delayed
for years or for lives, but sometime, somewhere, just and
equal retribution will be made. The student should par-
ticularly note that its work is absolutely impersonal.

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 107

There is in the universe neither reward nor punishment.
All i.s the result of invariahle law. The action of this
law will be more fully elucidated in the next chapter,
where we shall find it associated with another Great Law
of the Cosmos, which also operates in the evolution of man.
The law we are now considering is called the law of
Consequence.

In the Desire World it operates in purging man of the
baser desires and the correction of the weaknesses and vices
which hinder his progress, by making him suffer in the
manner best adapted to that purpose. If he has made
others suffer, or has dealt unjustly with them, he will be
made to suffer in that identical way. Be it noted, however,
that if a person has been subject to vices, or has done
wrong to others, but has overcome his vices, or repented
and, as far as posible, made right the wrong done, such
repentance, reform and restitution has purged him of
those special vices and evil acts. The equilibrium has
been restored and the lesson learned during that incarna-
tion, and therefore will not be a cause of suffering after
death.

In the Desire World life is lived about three times as
rapidly as in the Physical World. A man who has lived
to be fifty years of age in the Physical World would live
through the same life events in the Desire World in about
sixteen years. This is, of course, only a general gauge.
There are persons who remain in the Desire World much
longer than their term of physical life. Others again,
who have led lives with few gross desires, pass through
in a much shorter period, but the measure above given is
very nearly correct for the average man of the present
day.

It will be remembered that as the man leaves the dense

108 .BOSICBtJCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

body at death, his past life passes before him in pictures;
but at that time he has no feeling concerning them.

During his life in the Desire World also these life pic-
tures roll backwards, as before; but now the man has all
the feelings that it is possible for him to have as, one by
one, the scenes pass before him. Every incident in his
past life is now lived over again. When he comes to a
point where he has injured someone, he himself feels the
pain as the injured person felt it. He lives through all
the sorrow and suffering he has caused to others and
learns just how painful is the hurt and how hard to bear
is the sorrow he has caused. In addition there is the fact
already mentioned that the suffering is much keener be-
cause he has no dense body to dull the pain. Perhaps that
is why the speed of life there is tripled — that the suffer-
ing may lose in duration what it gains in sharpness. Nat-
ture's measures are wonderfully just and true.

There is another characteristic peculiar to this phase
of post mortem existence which is intimately connected
with the fact (already mentioned) that distance is almost
annihilated in the Desire World. When a man dies, he
at once seems to swell out in his vital body; he appears
to himself to grow into immense proportions. This feel-
ing is due to the fact, not that the body really grows, but
that the perceptive faculties receive so many impressions
from various sources, all seeming to be close at hand.
The same is true of the desire body. The man seems to
be present with all the people with whom on earth he
had relations of a nature which require correction. Tf
he has injured one man in San Francisco and another in
New York, he will feel as if part of him were in each
place. This gives him a peculiar feeling of being cut to
pieces.

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 109

The student will now understand the importance of the
panorama of the past life during the purgative existence,
where this panorama is realized in definite feelings. If
it lasted long and the man were undisturbed, the full,
deep, clear impression etched into the desire body would
make life in the Desire World more vivid and conscious
and the purgation more thorough than if, because of dis-
tress at the loud outbursts of grief on the part of his rela-
tives, at the death bed and during the three-day period
previously mentioned the man had only a vague impres-
sion of his past life. The spirit which has etched a deep
clear record into its desire body will realize the mistakes
of the past life so much more clearly and definitely than
if the pictures were blurred on account of the individual's
attention being diverted by the suffering and grief around
him. His feeling concerning the things which cause his
present suffering in the Desire World will be much more
definite if they are drawn from a distinct panoramic im-
pression than if the duration of the process were short.

This sharp, clear-cut feeling is of immense value in
future lives. It stamps upon the seed-atom of the desire
body an ineffaceable impression of itself. The experiences
will be forgotten in succeeding lives, but the Feeling re-
mains. When opportunities occur to repeat the error in
later lives, this Feeling will speak to us clearly and un-
mistakably. It is the "still, small voice" which warns
us, though we do not know why ; but the clearer anti more
definite the panoramas of past lives have been, the oftener,
stronger and clearer shall we hear this voice. Thus we
see how important it is that we leave the passing spirit in
absolute quietness after death. By so doing we help it
to reap the greatest possible benefit from the life Just
ended and to avoid perpetuating the same mistakes in

HO itOSlCKUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

future lives, while our selfish, hysterical lamentations may
deprive it of much of the value of the life it has just con-
cluded.

The mission of purgatory is to eradicate the injurious
habits by making their gratification impossible. The in-
dividual suffers exactly as he has made others suffer
through his dishonesty, cruelty, intolerance, or what not.
Because of this suffering he learns to act kindly, honestly,
and with forbearance toward others in future. Thus, in
consequence of the existence of this beneficent state, man
learns virtue and right action. When he is reborn he is
free from evil habits, at least every evil act committed is
one of free will. The tendencies to repeat the evil of past
lives remain, for we must learn to do right consciously
and of our own will. Upon occasion these tendencies
tempt us, thereby affording us an opportunity of ranging
ourselves on the side of mercy and virtue as against vice
and cruelty. But to indicate right action and to help us
resist the snares and wiles of temptation, we have the feel-
ing resulting from the expurgation of evil habits and the
expiation of the wrong acts of past lives. If we heed that
feeling and abstain from the particular evil involved, the
temptation will cease. We have freed ourselves from it
for all time. If we yield we shall experience keener suffer-
ing than before until at last we have learned to live by
the Golden Rule, because the way of the transgressor is
hard. Even then we have not reached the ultimate. To
do good to others because we want them to do good to us
is essentially selfish. In time we must learn to do good
regardless of how we are treated by others ; as Christ said,
we must love even our enemies.

There is an inestimable benefit in knowing about the
method and object of this purgation, because we are thus

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION m

enabled to forestall it by living our purgatory here and
now day by day, thus advancing much faster than would
otherwise be possible. An exercise is given in the latter
part of this work, the object of which is purification as
an aid to the development of spiritual sight. It consists
of thinking over the happenings of the day after retiring
at night. We review each incident of the day, in reverse
order, taking particular note of the moral aspect, consid-
ering whether we acted rightly or wrongly in each par-
ticular case regarding actions, mental attitude and habits.
By thus judging ourselves day by day, endeavoring to cor-
rect mistakes and wrong actions, we shall materially
shorten or perhaps even eliminate the necessity for pur-
gatory and be able to pass to the first heaven directly after
death. If in this manner, we consciously overcome our
weaknesses, we also make a very material advance in the
school of evolution. Even if we fail to correct our actions,
we derive an immense benefit from judging ourselves,
thereby generating aspirations toward good, which in time
will surely bear fruit in right action.

In reviewing the day's happenings and blaming our-
selves for wrong, we should not forget to impersonally
approve of the good we have done and determine to do
still better. In this way we enhance the good by approval
as much as we abjure the evil by blame.

Repentance and reform are also powerful factors in
shortening the purgatorial existence, for nature never
wastes effort in useless processes. When we realize the
wrong of certain habits or acts in our past life, and
determine to eradicate the habit and to redress the wrong
committed, we are expunging the pictures of them from
the sub-conscious memory and they will not be there to
judge us after death. Even though we are not able to

KOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

make restitution for a wrong, the sincerity of our regret
will suffice. Nature does not aim to "get even/' or to
take revenge. Eecompense may be given to our victim in
other ways.

Much progress ordinarily reserved for future lives will
be made by the man who thus takes time by the forelock,
judging himself and eradicating vice by reforming his
character. This practice is earnestly recommended. It
is perhaps the most important teaching in the present
work.

THE BORDERLAND.

Purgatory occupies the three lower Regions of the De-
sire World. The first heaven is in the three upper Re-
gions. The central Region is a sort of borderland —
neither heaven nor hell. In this Region we find people
who are honest and upright; who wronged no one, but
were deeply immersed in business and thought nothing of
the higher life. For them the Desire World is a state of
the most indescribable monotony. There is no "business"
in that world nor is there, for a man of that kind, any-
thing that will take its place. He has a very hard time
until he learns to think of higher things than ledgers and
drafts. The men who thought of the problem of life and
came to the conclusion that "death ends it all;" who de-
nied the existence of things outside the material-sense
world — these men also feel this dreadful monotony. They
had expected annihilation of consciousness, but instead of
that they find themselves with an augmented perception
of persons and things about them. They had been ac-
customed to denying these things so vehemently that they
often fancy the Desire World an hallucination, and may
frequently be heard exclaiming in the deepest despair,
"When will it end? When will it end?"

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 113

Such people are really in a pitiable state. They are
generally beyond the reach of any help whatever and suf-
fer much longer than almost anyone else. Besides, they
have scarcely any life in the Heaven World, where the
building of bodies for future use is taught, so they put
all their crystallizing thoughts into whatsoever body they
build for a future life, and thus a body is built that has
the hardening tendencies we see, for instance, in consump-
tion. Sometimes the suffering incident to such decrepit
bodies will turn the thoughts of the entities ensouling
them to God, and their evolution can proceed; but in the
materialistic mind lies the greatest danger of losing touch
with the spirit and becoming an outcast. Therefore the
Elder Brothers have been very seriously concerned for
the last century regarding the fate of the Western World
and were it not for their special beneficent action in
its behalf, we should have had a social cataclysm com-
pared with which the French Revolution were child's
play. The trained clairvoyant can see how narrowly
humanity has escaped disasters of a nature so devastat-
ing that continents would have been swept into the sea.
The reader will find a more extended and thorough exposi-
tion of the connection of materialism with volcanic out-
bursts in Chapter XVIII, where the list of the eruptions of
Vesuvius would seem to corroborate the statement of such
a connection, unless it is credited to "coincidence," as the
sceptic generally does when confronted with facts and
figures he cannot explain.

THE FIRST HEAVEN.

When the purgatorial existence is over the purified
spirit rises into the first heaven, which is located in the
three highest Regions of the Desire World, where the re-

114 ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

suits of its sufferings are incorporated in the seed-atom of
the desire body, thus imparting to it the quality of right
feeling, which acts as an impulse to good and a deterrent
from evil in the future. Here the panorama of the past
again unrolls itself backward, but this time it is the good
acts of life that are the basis of feeling. When we come
to scenes where we helped others we realize anew all the
joy of helping which was ours at the time, and in addition
we feel all the gratitude poured out to us by the recipient
of our help. When we come to scenes where we were
helped by others, we again feel all the gratitude that we
then felt toward our benefactor. Thus we see the impor-
tance of appreciating the favors shown us by others, be-
cause gratitude makes for soul-growth. Our happiness in
heaven depends upon the joy we gave others, and the
valuation we placed upon what others did for us.

It should be ever borne in mind that the power of giv-
ing is not vested chiefly in the monied man. Indiscrimi-
nate giving of money may even be an evil. It is well to
give money for a purpose we are convinced is good, but
service is a thousandfold better. As Whitman says,

Behold! I do not give lectures, or a little charity;
When I give, I give myself.

A kind look, expressions of confidence, a sympathetic and
loving helpfulness — these can be given by all regard-
less of wealth. Moreover., we should particularly endeavor
to help the needy one to help himself, whether physically,
financially, morally, or mentally, and not cause him to be-
come dependent upon us or others.

The ethics of giving, with the effect on the giver as a
spiritual lesson, are most beautifully shown in Lowell's
"The Vision of Sir Launfal." The young and ambitious

MAX AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION H5

knight, Sir Launfal, clad in shining armor and astride a
splendid charger, is setting out from his castle to seek
The Holy Grail. On his shield gleams the cross, the sym-
bol of the benignity and tenderness of Our Savior, the
meek and lowly One, but the knight's heart is filled with
pride and haughty disdain for the poor and needy. He
meets a leper asking alms and with a contemptuous frown
throws him a coin, as one might cast a bone to a hungry
cur, but

The leper raised not the gold from the dust,

"Better to me the poor man's crust,

Better the blessing of the poor,

Though I turn empty from his door.

That is no true alms which the hand can hold;

He gives only the worthless gold

Who gives from a sense of duty;

But he who gives from a slender mite,

And gives to that which is out of sight —

That thread of all-sustaining Beauty

Which rung through all and doth all unite, —

The hand cannot clasp the whole of his alms,

The heart outstretches its eager palms,

For a god goes with it and makes it store

To the soul that was starving in darkness before.

On his return Sir Launfal finds another in possession
of his castle, and is driven from the gate.

An old bent man, worn out and frail,

He came back from seeking the Holy Grail;

Little he recked of his earldom's loss,

No more on his surcoat was blazoned the cross,

But deep in his heart the sign he wore,

The badge of the suffering and the poor.

Again he meets the leper, who again asks alms. This
time the knight responds differently.

And Sir Launfal said: "I behold in thee

An image of Him Who died on the tree;

Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns,

Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns,

116 EOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

And to thy life were not denied
The wounds in the hands and feet and side;
Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me;
Behold, through him I give to Thee ! ' '

A look in the leper's eye brings remembrance and recog-
nition, and

The heart within him was ashes and dust;
He parted in twain his single crust,
He broke the ice on the streamlet 's brink,
And gave the leper to eat and drink.

A transformation takes place:

The leper no longer crouched by his side,
But stood before him glorified,

And the Voice that was softer than silence said, «

"Lo, it is I, be not afraid!

In many lands, without avail,

Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail;

Behold, it is here! — This cup which thou

Did'st fill at the streamlet for me but now;

This crust is my body broken for thee,

This water the blood I shed on the tree ;

The Holy Supper is kept, indeed,

In whatso we share with another's need;

Not what we give, but what we share —

For the gift without the giver is bare ;

Who gives himself with his alms feeds three —

Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me."

The first heaven is a place of joy without a single drop
of bitterness. The spirit is beyond the influence of the
material, earthly conditions, and assimilates all the good
contained in the past life as it lives it over again. Here
all ennobling pursuits to which the man aspired are realized
in fullest measure. It is a place of rest, and the harder
has been the life, the more keenly will the rest be enjoyed.
Sickness, sorrow, and pain are unknown quantities. This
is the Summerland of the Spirtualists. There the thoughts
of the devout Christian have built the New Jerusalem.

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION H7

Beautiful houses, flowers, etc., are the portion of those
who aspired to them; they build them themselves by
thought from the subtle desire stuff. Nevertheless these
things are just as real and tangible to them as our material
houses are to us. All gain here the satisfaction which
earth life lacked for them.

There is one class there who lead a particularly beauti-
ful life — the children. If we could but see them we would
quickly cease our grief. When a child dies before the birth
of the desire body, which takes place about the fourteenth
year, it does not go any higher than the first heaven, be-
cause it is not responsible for its actions, any more than
the unborn child is responsible for the pain it causes the
mother by turning and twisting in her womb. Therefore
the child has no purgatorial existence. That which is not
quickened cannot die, hence the desire body of a child,
together with the mind, will persist until a new birth, and
for that reason such children are very apt to remember
their previous incarnation, as instanced in the case cited
elsewhere.

For such children the first heaven is a waiting-place
where they dwell from one to twenty years, until an oppor-
tunity for a new incarnation is offered. Yet it is more
than simply a waiting-place, because there is much prog-
ress made during this interim.

When a child dies there is always some relative await-
ing it, or, failing that, there are people who loved to
"mother" children in earth life who find delight in taking
care of a little waif. The extreme plasticity of the desire
stuff makes it easy to form the most exquisite living toys
for the children, and their life is one beautiful play;
nevertheless their instruction is not neglected. They are
formed into classes according to their temperaments, but

118 EOST.CRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

quite regardless of age. In the Desire World it is easy
to give object-lessons in the influence of good and oil
passions on conduct and happiness. These lessons are
indelibly imprinted upon the child's sensitive and emo-
tional desire body, and remain with it after rebirth, so
that many a one living a noble life owes much of it to the
fact that he was given this training. Often when a weak
spirit is born, the Compassionate Ones (the invisible Lead-
ers who guide our evolution) cause it to die in early life
that it may have this extra training to fit it for what may
be perhaps a hard life. This seems to be the case particu-
larly where the etching on the desire body was weak in
consequence of a dying person having been disturbed by
the lamentations of his relatives, or because he met death
by accident or on the battle-field. He did not under those
circumstances experience the appropriate intensity of feel-
ing in his post mortem existence, therefore, when he is
born and dies in early life, the loss is made up as above.
Often the duty of caring for such a child in the heaven life
falls to those who were the cause of the anomaly. They
are thus afforded a chance to make up for the fault and to
learn better. Or perhaps they become the parents of the
one they harmed and care for it during the few years it
lives. It does not matter then if they do lament hysteric-
ally over its death, because there would be no pictures of
any consequence in a child's vital body.

This heaven is also a place of progression for all who
have been studious, artistic, or altruistic. The student
and the philosopher have instant access to all the libraries
of the world. The painter has endless delight in the ever-
changing color combinations. He soon learns that his
thought blends and shapes these colors at will. His crea-
tions glow and scintillate with a life impossible of attain-

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION H9

ment to one who works with the dull pigments of Earth.
He is, as it were, painting with living, glowing materials
and able to execute his designs with a facility which fills
his soul with delight. The musician has not yet reached
the place where his art will express itself to the fullest
extent. The Physical World is the world of Form. The
Desire World, where we find purgatory and the first
heaven, is particularly the world of Color; but the World
of Thought, where the second and third heavens are located,
is the sphere of Tone. Celestial music is a fact and not a
mere figure of speech. Pythagoras was not romancing
when he spoke of the music of the spheres, for each one of
the heavenly orbs has its definite tone and together they
sound the celestial symphony which Goethe also mentions
in the prolog to his "Faust," where the scene is laid in
heaven. The Archangel Raphael says,

The Sun intones his ancient song

'Mid rival chant of brother spheres.
His prescribed course he speeds along

In thund'rous way throughout the years.

Echoes of that heavenly music reach us even here in
the Physical World. They are our most precious posses-
sion, even though they are as elusive as a will-o'-the-wisp,
and cannot be permanently created, as can other works
of art — a statue, a painting, or a book. In the Physical
World tone dies and vanishes the moment after it is born.
In the first heaven these echoes are, of course, much more
beautiful and have more permanency, hence there the musi-
cian hears sweeter strains than ever he did during earth
life.

The experiences of the poet are akin to those of the
musician, for poetry is the soul's expression of its inner-
most feelings in words which are ordered according to the

120 KOSICEUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

same laws of harmony and rhythm that govern the out-
pouring of the spirit in music. In addition, the poet
finds a wonderful inspiration in the pictures and colors
which are the chief characteristics of the Desire World.
Thence he will draw the material for use in his next in-
carnation. In like manner does the author accumulate
material and faculty. The philanthropist works out his
altruistic plans for the upliftment of man. If he failed in
one life, he will see the reason for it in the first heaven
and will there learn how to overcome the obstacles and
avoid the errors that made his plan impracticable.

In time a point is reached where the result of the pain
and suffering incident to purgation,, together with the joy
extracted from the good actions of the past life, have been
built into the seed-atom of the desire body. Together
these constitute what we call conscience, that impelling
force which warns us against evil as productive of pain
and inclines us toward good as productive of happiness and
joy. Then man leaves his desire body to disintegrate, as
he left his dense body and vital body. He takes with him
the forces only of the seed-atom, which are to form the
nucleus of future desire bodies, as it was the persistent
particle of his past vehicles of feeling.

As stated above, the forces of the seed-atom are with-
drawn. To the materialist force and matter are insepara-
ble. The occultist knows differently. To him they are
not two entirely distinct and separate concepts, but the
two poles of the one spirit.

Matter is crystallized spirit.

Force is the same spirit not yet crystallized.

This has been said before, but it cannot be too strongly
impressed upon the mind. In this connection the illustra-
tion of the snail is very helpful. Matter, which is crys-

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 121

tallized spirit, corresponds to the snail's house, which is
crystallized snail. The chemical force which moves mat-
ter, making it available for the building of form, and
the snail which moves its house are also good correspond-
ences. That which is now the snail will in time become
the house, and that which is now force will in time become
matter when it has crystallized further. The reverse process
of resolving matter back into spirit is also going on con-
tinually. The coarser phase of this process we see as decay
when a man is leaving his vehicles behind and at that time
the spirit of an atom is easily detachable from the coarser
spirit which has been manifesting as matter.

THE SECOND HEAVEN.

At last the man, the Ego, the threefold spirit, enters the
second heaven. He is clad in the sheath of mind, which
contains the three seed-atoms — the quintessence of the
three discarded vehicles.

When the man dies and loses his dense and vital bodies
there is the same condition as when one falls asleep. The
desire body, as has been explained, had no organs ready
for use. It is now transfoimed from an ovoid to a figure
resembling the dense body which has been abandoned.
We can easily understand that there must be an interval
of unconsciousness resembling sleep and then the man
awakes in the Desire World. It not unfrequently happens,
however, that such people are, for a long time, unaware
of what has happened to them. They do not realize that
they have died. They know that they are able to move
and think. It is sometimes even a very hard matter to
get them to believe that they are really "dead." They
realize that something is different, but they are not able
to understand what it is.

122 ROSICRUCIAN COSMO CONCEPTION

Not so, however, when the change is made from the first
heaven, which is in the Desire World, to the second heaven,
which is in the Region of Concrete Thought. Then the
man leaves his desire body. He is perfectly conscious. He
passes into a great stillness. For the time being every-
thing seems to fade away. He cannot think. No faculty is
alive, yet he knows that he is. He has a feeling of stand-
ing in "The Great Forever;" of standing utterly alone, yet
unafraid; and his soul is filled with a wonderful peace,
"which passeth all understanding."

In occult science this is called "The Great Silence."

Then comes the awakening. The spirit is now in its
home-World — heaven. Here the first awakening brings to
the spirit the sound of "the music of the spheres." In
our Earth life we are so immersed in the little noises and
sounds of our limited environment that we are incapable
of hearing the music of the marching orbs, but the occult
scientist hears it. He knows that the twelve signs of the
Zodiac and the seven planets form the sounding-board and
strings of "Apollo's seven-stringed lyre." He knows that
were a single discord to mar the celestial harmony from
that grand Instrument there would be "a wreck of matter
and a crash of worlds."

The power of rhythmic vibration is well-known to all
who have given the subject even the least study. For
instance, soldiers are commanded to break step when cross-
ing a bridge, otherwise their rhythmic tramp would shatter
the strongest structure. The Bible story of the sounding
of the ram's horn while marching around the walls of the
city of Jericho is not nonsensical in the eyes of the occult-
ist. In some cases similar things have happened without
the world smiling in supercilious incredulity. A few years

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 133

ago, a band of musicians were practicing in a garden
close to the very solid wall of an old castle. There oc-
curred at a certain place in the music a prolonged and very
piercing tone. When this note was sounded the wall of
the castle suddenly fell. The musicians had struck the key-
note of the wall and it was sufficiently prolonged to
shatter it.

When it is said that this is the world of tone, it must
not be thought that there are no colors. Many people
know that there is an intimate connection between color
and tone; that when a certain note is struck, a certain color
appears simultaneously. So it is also in the Heaven World.
Color and sound are both present; but the tone is the
originator of the color. Hence it is said, that this is par-
ticularly the world of tone, and it is this tone that builds
all forms in the Physical World. The musician can hear
certain tones in different parts of nature, such as the wind
in the forest, the breaking of the surf on the beach, the
roar of the ocean and the sounding of many waters. These
combined tones make a whole which is the key-note of the
Earth — its "tone." As geometrical figures are created by
drawing a violin bow over the edge of a glass plate, so the
forms we see around us are the crystallized sound-figures
of the archetypal forces which play into the archetypes in
the Heaven World.

The work done by man in the Heaven World is many-
sided. It is not in the least an inactive, dreamy nor
illusory existence. It is a time of the greatest and most
important activity in preparing for the next life, as sleep is
an active preparation for the work of the following day.

Here the quintessence of the three bodies is built into
the threefold spirit. As much of the desire body as the
man had worked upon during life, by purifying his desires

124 BOSTCBUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

and emotions, will be welded into the human spirit, thus
giving an improved mind in the future.

As much of the vital body as the life spirit had worked
upon, transformed, spiritualized, and thus saved from the
decay to which the rest of the vital body is subject, will
be amalgamated with the life spirit to insure a better vital
body and temperament in the succeeding lives.

As much of the dense body as the divine spirit has
saved by right action will be worked into it and will bring
better environment and opportunities.

This spiritualization of the vehicle is accomplished by
cultivation of the faculties of observation, discrimination
and memory, devotion to high ideals, prayer, concentra-
tion, persistence and right use of the life forces.

The second heaven is the real home of man — the Ego,
the Thinker. Here he dwells for centuries, assimilating the
fruit of the last earth life and preparing the earthly con-
ditions which will be best suited for his next step in prog-
ress. The sound or tone which pervades this Region, and is
everywhere apparent as color, is his instrument, so to speak.
It is this harmonious sound vibration which, as an elixir
of life, builds into the threefold spirit the quintessence of
the threefold body, upon which it depends for growth.

The life in the second heaven is an exceedingly active
one, varied in many different ways. The Ego assimilates
the fruits of the last earth life and prepares the environ-
ment for a new physical existence. It is not enough to
say that the new conditions will be determined by con-
duct and action in the life just closed. It is required that
the fruits of the past be worked into the World which is
to be the next scene of activity while the Ego is gaining
fresh physical experiences and gathering further fruit.
Therefore all the denizens of the Heaven World work upon

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 125

:he models of the Earth, all of which are in the Region
of Concrete Thought. They alter the physical features of
the Earth, and bring about the gradual changes which vary
its appearance, so that on each return to physical life a
different environment has been prepared, wherein new
experiences may be gained. Climate, flora, and fauna are
altered by man under the direction of higher Beings, to
be described later. Thus the world is just what we our-
selves, individually and collectively, have made it; and it
will be what we make it. The occult scientist sees in every-
thing that happens a cause of a spiritual nature manifest-
ing itself, not omitting the prevalence and alarmingly in-
creasing frequency of seismic disturbances, which it traces
to the materialistic thought of modern science.

It is true that purely physical causes can bring about
such disturbances, but is that the last word on the subject?
Can we always get the full explanation by merely record-
ing what appears on the surface? Surely not! We see
two men conversing on the street and one suddenly strikes
the other, knocking him down. One observer may say
that an angry thought knocked the man down. Another
may scoff at this answer and declare that he saw the arm
lifted, the muscles contract, the arm shooting out and com-
ing in contact with the victim, who was knocked down.
That is also true, but it is safe to say that had there not
first been the angry thought, the blow would not have been
struck. In like manner the occultist says that if material-
ism had not been, seismic disturbances would not have
occurred.

Man's work in the Heaven World is not confined solely
to the alteration of the surface of the Earth which is to
be the scene of his future struggles in the subjugation of
the Physical World. He is also actively engaged in learn-

126 BOSICHUCIAN COSMO CONCEPTION

ing how to build a body which shall afford a better means of
expression. It is man's destiny to become a Creative In-
telligence and he is serving his apprenticeship all the time.
During his heaven life he is learning to build all kinds of
bodies — the human included.

We have spoken of the forces which work along the
positive and negative poles of the different ethers. Man
himself is part of that force. Those whom we call dead
are the ones who help us to live. They in turn are helped
by the so-called "nature spirits," which they command.
Man is directed in this work by Teachers from the higher
creative Hierarchies, which helped him to build his vehicles
before he attained self-consciousness, in the same way he
himself now builds his bodies in sleep. During heaven
life they teach him consciously. The painter is taught to
build an accurate eye, capable of taking in a perfect per-
spective and of distinguishing colors and shades to a
degree inconceivable among those not interested in coloi
and light.

The mathematician has to deal with space, and the
faculty for space perception is connected with the delicate
adjustment of the three semi-circular canals which are
situated inside the ear, each pointing in one of the three
dimensions in space. Logical thought and mathematical
ability are in proportion to the accuracy of the adjustment
of these semi-circular canals. Musical ability is also de-
pendent upon the same factor, but in addition to the neces-
sity for the proper adjustment of the semi-circular canals,
the musician requires extreme delicacy of the "fibres of
Corti," of which there are about three thousand in the
human ear, each capable of interpreting about twenty-five
gradations of tone. In the ears of the majority of people
they do not respond to more than from three to ten of

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 197

the possible iiradations. Among ordinary musical people
the greatest degree of efficiency is about fifteen sounds to
each fibre; but the master musician, who is able to inter-
pret and bring down music from the Heaven World, re-
quires a greater range to be able to distinguish the differ-
ent notes and detect the slightest discord in the most com-
plicated chords. Persons who require organs of such ex-
ceeding delicacy for the expression of their faculties are
specially taken care of, as the higher state of their devel-
opment merits and demands. Xone other ranks so high
as the musician, which is reasonable when we consider
that while the painter draws his inspiration chiefly from
the world of color — the nearer Desire World — the musician
attempts to bring to us the atmosphere of our heavenly
home world (where, as spirits, we are citizens), and to
translate them into the sounds of earth life. His is the
highest mission, because as a mode of expression for soul
life, music reigns supreme. That music is different from
and higher than all the other arts can be understood when
we reflect that a statue or a painting, when once created,
is permanent. They are drawn from the Desire World
and are therefore more easily crystallized, while music,
being of the Heaven World, is more elusive and must be
re-created each time we hear it. It cannot be imprisoned,
as shown by the unsuccessful attempts to do so partially
by means of such mechanical devices as phonographs and
piano-players. The music so reproduced loses much of the
soul-stirring sweetness it possesses when it comes fresh
from its own world, carrying to the soul memories of its
home and speaking to it in a language that no beauty
expressed in marble or upon canvas can equal.

The instrument through which man senses music is the
most perfect sense organ in the human body. The eye is

128 ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

not by any means true, but the ear is, in the sense that it
hears every sound without distortion, while the eye often
distorts what it sees.

In addition to the musical ear, the musician must also
learn to build a long, fine hand with slender fingers and
sensitive nerves, otherwise he would not be able to repro-
duce the melodies he hears.

It is a law of nature that no one can inhabit a more
efficient body than he is capable of building. He first
learns to build a certain grade of body and afterwards he
learns to live in it. In that way he discovers its defects
and is taught how to remedy them.

All men work unconsciously at the building of their
bodies during ante-natal life until they have reached the
point where the quintessence of former bodies — which they
have saved — is to be built in. Then they work consciously.
It will therefore be seen that the more a man advances and
the more he works on his vehicles, thus making them im-
mortal, the more power he has to build for a new life. The
advanced pupil of an occult school sometimes commences
to build for himself as soon as the work during the first
three weeks (which belongs exclusively to the mother) has
been completed. When the period of unconscious building
has passed the man has a chance to exercise his nascent
creative power, and the true original creative process —
"Epigenesis" — begins.

Thus we see that man learns to build hie vehicles in the
Heaven World, and to use them in the Physical World.
Nature provides all phases of experience in such a mar-
velous manner and with such consummate wisdom that
as we learn to see deeper and deeper into her secrets we
are more and more impressed with our own insignificance
and with an ever-growing reverence for God, whose visi-

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 129

ble symbol nature is. The more we learn of her wonders,
the more we realize that this world system is not the vast
perpetual motion machine unthinking people would have
us believe. It would be quite as logical to think that if
we toss a box of loose type into the air the characters will
have arranged themselves into the words of a beautiful
poem by the time they reach the ground. The greater the
complexity of the plan the greater the argumental weight
in favor of the theory of an intelligent Divine Author.

THE THIRD HEAVEN.

Having assimilated all the fruits of his last life and
altered the appearance of the Earth in such a manner as to
afford him the necessary environment for his next step
towards perfection; having also learned by work on the
bodies of others, to build a suitable body through which to
express himself in the Physical World and having at last
resolved the mind into the essence which builds the three-
fold spirit, the naked individual spirit ascends into the
higher Region of the World of Thought — the third heaven.
Here, by the ineffable harmony of this higher world, it is
strengthened for its next dip into matter.

After a time comes the desire for new experience and
the contemplation of a new birth. This conjures up a
series of pictures before the vision of the spirit — a pano-
rama of the new life in store for it. But, mark this well —
this panorama contains only the principal events. The
spirit has free will as to detail. It is as if a man going to a
distant city had a time-limit ticket, with initial choice of
route. After he has chosen and begun his journey it is not
sure that he can change to another route during the trip.
He may stop over in as many places as he wishes, within
his time limit, but he cannot go back. Thus as he proceeds

130 ROSICBUCIAN COSMO CONCEPTION

on his journey, he becomes more and more limited by hi?
past choice. If he has chosen a steam road, using soft coal
he must expect to be soiled and dusty. Had he chosen a
road burning anthracite or using electricity he would hare
been cleaner. So it is with the man in a new life. He
may have to live a hard life, but he is free to choose
whether he will live it cleanly or wallow in the mire.
Other conditions are also within his control, subject to the
limits of his past choices and acts.

The pictures in the panorama of the coming life, of
which we have just spoken, begin at the cradle and end at
the grave. This is the opposite direction to that in which
they travel in the after-death panorama, already explained,
which passes before the vision of the spirit immediately
following its release from the dense body. The reason for
this radical difference in the two panoramas is that in the
before-birth panorama the object is to show the reincar-
nating Ego how certain causes or acts always produce cer-
tain effects. In the case of the after-death panorama the
object is the reverse, i. e., to show how each event in the
past life was the effect of some cause further back in the
life. Nature, or God, does nothing without a logical rea-
son, and the further we search the more apparent it becomes
to us that Nature is a wise mother, always using the best
means to accomplish her ends.

But it may be asked, Why should we reincarnate? Why
must we return to this limited and miserable earth exist-
ence? Why can we not get experience in those higher
realms without coming to Earth? We are tired of this
dreary, weary earth life!

Such queries are based upon misunderstandings of sev-
eral kinds. In the first place, let us realize and engrave it
deep upon the tablets of our memory that the purpose of

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 131

life is not happiness, but experience. Sorrow and pain
are our most benevolent teachers, while the joys of life are
but fleeting.

This seems a stern doctrine and the heart cries out pas-
sionately at even the thought that it may possibly be true.
Nevertheless, it is true, and upon examination it will be
found not such a stern doctrine after all.

Consider the blessings of pain. If we could place our
hand upon a hot stove and feel no pain, the hand might be
allowed to remain until it and perhaps the arm were
burned away, without our knowing anything about it until
too late to save them. It is the pain resulting from the
contact with the hot stove which makes us snatch our
hand away before serious damage is done. Instead of los-
ing the hand, we escape with a blister which quickly heals.
This is an illustration from the Physical World. We find
that the same principle applies in the Moral and Mental
Worlds. If we outrage morality the pangs of conscience
bring us pain that will prevent us from repeating the act
and if we do not heed the first lesson, nature will give us
harder and harder experiences until at last the fact is
forced into our consciousness that "the way of the trans-
gressor is hard." This will continue until at last we are
forced to turn in a new direction and take a step onward
toward a better life.

Experience is "knowledge of the causes which follow
acts." This is the object of life, together with the devel-
opment of "Will," which is the force whereby we apply
the results of experience. Experience must be gained, but
we have the choice whether we gain it by the hard path of
personal experience or by observation of other people's acts,
reasoning and reflecting thereon, guided by the light of
whatever experience we have already had.

132 BOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

This is the method by which the occult student should
learn, instead of requiring the lash of adversity and pain.
The more willing we are to learn in that way, the less we
shall feel the stinging thorns of "the path of pain" and
the more quickly shall we gain "the path of peace."

The choice is ours, but so long as we have not learned
all there is to learn in this world, we must come back to it.
We cannot stay in the higher worlds and learn there until
we have mastered the lessons of earth life. That would
be as sensible as to send a child to kindergarten one day
and to college the next. The child must return to the kin-
dergarten day after day and spend years in the grammar
school and the high school before its study has developed
its capacity sufficiently to enable it to understand the les-
sons taught in college.

Man is also in school — the school of experience. He
must return many times before he can hope to master
all the knowledge in the world of sense. No one earth
life, however rich in experience, could furnish the knowl-
edge, so nature decrees that he must return to Earth, after
intervals of rest, to take up his work where he dropped it,
exactly as a child takes up its work in school each day,
after the intervening sleep of night. It is no argument
against this theory to say that man does not remember his
former lives. We cannot recall all the events of our pres-
ent lives. We do not recollect our labors in learning to
write, yet we have acquired a knowledge of the art of writ-
ing, which proves that we did learn. All the faculties we
possess are a proof that we acquired them sometime, some-
where. Some people do remember their past, however, as.
a remarkable instance related at the end of the next chap-
ter will show, and it is but one among many.

Again, if there were no return to Earth, what is the

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 133

use of living? Why strive for anything? Why should a
life of happiness in an eternal heaven be the reward for a
good life ? What benefit could come from a good life in a
heaven where everybody is already happy? Surely in a
place where everybody is happy and contented there is no
need for sympathy, self-sacrifice or wise counsel! No one
would need them there; but on Earth there are many who
need those very things and such humanitarian and altru-
istic qualities are of the greatest service to struggling hu-
manity. Therefore the Great Law, which works for Good,
brings man back to work again in the world for the benefit
of himself and others, with his acquired treasures, instead
of letting them go to waste irr a heaven where no one
needs them.

PREPARATIONS FOR REBIRTH.

Having thus seen the necessity for repeated embodiments,
we will next consider the method by which this purpose is
accomplished.

Previous to taking the dip into matter, the threefold
spirit is naked, having only the forces of the four seed-
atoms (which are the nuclei of the threefold body and the
sheath of mind). Its descent resembles the putting on of
several pairs of gloves of increasing thickness, as previ-
ously illustrated. The forces of the mind of the last
incarnation are awakened from their latency in the seed-
atom. This begins to attract to itself materials from the
highest subdivision of the Region of Concrete Thought,
in a manner similar to that in which a magnet draws to
itself iron filings.

If we hold a magnet over a miscellaneous heap of filings

' of brass, silver, gold, iron, lead and other metals, we shall

find that it selects only iron filings and that even of them

134 EOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

it will take no more than its strength enables it to lift
Its attractive power is of a certain kind and is limited to a
certain quantity of that kind. The same is true of the
seed-atom. It can take, in each Region, nothing except the
material for which it has an affinity and nothing beyond a
certain definite quantity even of that. Thus the vehicle
built around this nucleus becomes an exact counterpart of
the corresponding vehicle of the last incarnation, minus the
evil which has been expurgated and plus the quintessence
of good which has been incorporated in the seed-atom.

The material selected by the threefold spirit forms itself
into a great bell-shaped figure, open at the bottom and with
the seed-atom at the top. If we conceive of this illustration
spiritually we may compare it to a diving-bell descending
into a sea composed of fluids of increasing density. These
correspond to the different subdivisions of each World.
The matter taken into the texture of the bell-shaped body
makes it heavier, so that it sinks into the next lower sub-
division and takes from that its proper quota of matter.
Thus it becomes still heavier and sinks yet deeper until it
has passed through the four subdivisions of the Region of
Concrete Thought and the sheath of the new mind of the
man is complete. Next the forces in the seed-atom of the
desire body are awakened. It places itself at the top of the
bell, inside, and the materials of the seventh Region of the
Desire World draw around it until it sinks to the sixth
Region, getting more material there, and this process con-
tinues until the first Region of the Desire World is reached.
The bell has now two layers — the sheath of mind outside
and the new desire body inside.

The seed-atom of the vital body is next aroused into
activity, but here the process of formation is not so simple .
as in the case of the mind and the desire body, for it must

MAN AND THE METHOD OP EVOLUTION 135

be remembered that those vehicles were comparatively un-
organized, while the vital body and the dense body are
more organized and very complicated. The material, of a
given quantity and quality, is attracted in the same man-
ner and under the operation of the same law as in the case
of the higher bodies, but the building of the new body
and the placement in the proper environment is done by
four great Beings of immeasurable wisdom, which are the
Recording Angels, the "Lords of Destiny." They impress
the reflecting ether of the vital body in such a way that the
pictures o* the coming life are reflected in it. It (the vital
body) is built by the inhabitant of the Heaven World and
the elemental spirits in such a manner as to form a
particular type of brain. But mark thi~ the recincarnat-
ing Ego itself incorporates therein the quintessence of its
former vital bodies and in addition to this aho does a,
little original work. This is done that in the coming life
there may be some room for original and individual expres-
sion, not predetermined by past action.

It is very important io remember this fact. There is too
great a tendency to think that all which now exists is the
result of something that previously existed, but if that were
the case there would be no margin left for new and original
effort and for new causes. The chain of cause and effect is
not a monotonous repetition. There is an influx of new
and original causes all the time. That is the real back-
bone of evolution — the only thing that gives it meaning
and makes it other than an unrolling of latent actual? tie?.
This is "Epigenesis" — the free-will that consists of the
freedom to inaugurate something entirely new, not merely
a rhoi^p between two courses of action. This is the impor-
tant factor which alone can explain the system to which
we belong in satisfactory manner. Involution and Evolu-

136 KOSICRUCIAN COSMO CONCEPTION

tion in themselves are insufficient; but coupled with Epi-
genesis we have a full triad of explanation.

The fate of an individual generated under the law of
Consequence, is of great complexity and involves associa-
tion with Egos in and out of incarnation at all times. Even
those incarnated at one time may not be living in the same
locality, so that it is impossible for one individual's destiny
to be all worked out in one lifetime, or in one place. The
Ego is therefore brought into a certain environment and
family with which it is in some way related. As regards
the fate to be worked out it is sometimes immaterial into
which one of several environments the Ego is incarnated,
and when such is the case, it is allowed its choice as far as
possible, but once an Ego is so placed, the agents of the
Lords of Destiny watch unseen, that no act of free-will
shall frustrate the working out of the portion of fate
selected. If we do aught of such a nature as to circumvent
that part, they will make another move, so as to enforce
fulfillment of the destiny. It cannot be too often reiter-
ated, however, that this does not render man helpless. It
is merely the same law that governs after we have fired a
pistol. We are then unable to stop the bullet, or even to
deflect it from its course in any way. Its direction was
determined by the position in which the pistol was held
when we fired. That could have been changed at any
time before the trigger was pulled, as up to that time we
had full control. The same is true regarding new actions
which make future destiny. We may, up to a certain point,
modify or even altogether counteract certain causes already
set in motion, but once started, and no further action
taken, they will some time get beyond our control. This is
called "ripe" fate and it is this kind that is meant when
it is said that the Lords of Destiny cfyeck every attempt to

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 137

shirk it. With regard to our past we are to a great extent
helpless, but in regard to future action we have full con-
trol, except insofar as we are hampered by our past actions.
By and by, however, as we learn that we are the cause of
our own sorrow or joy, we shall awake to the necessity of
ordering our lives more in harmony with the laws of God
and thus rise above these laws of the Physical World.
That is the key to emancipation ; as Goethe says :

• From every power that all the world enchains
Man frees himself when self-control he gains.

The vital body, having been molded by the Lords of
Destiny, will give form to the dense body, organ for organ.
This matrix or mold is then placed in the womb of the
future mother. The seed-atom for the dense body is in
the triangular head of one of the spermatozoa in the semen
of the father. This alone makes fertilization possible and
here is the explanation of the fact that so many times
sex-unions are unfruitful. The chemical constituents of
the seminal fluid and the ovi are the same at all times and
were these the only requirements, the explanation of the
phenomena of unfertility, if sought in the material, visible
world alone, would not be found. It becomes plain, how-
ever, when we understand that as the molecules of water
freeze only along the lines of force . in the water and
manifest as ice crystals instead of freezing into a homogen-
eous mass, as would be the case if there were no lines of
force previous to coagulation, so there can.be no dense body
built until there is a vital body in which to build the
material ; also there must be a seed-atom for the , dense
body, to act as gauge of the quality and quantity of the
matter which is to be built into that dense bod}-. Although
at the present stage of development there is never full liar-

138 ROSICKUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

moiiy in the materials of the body, because that would mean
a perfect body, yet the discord must not be so great as to
be disruptive of the organism.

Thus while heredity in the first place is true only as
regards the material of the dense body and not the soul
qualities, which are entirely individual, the incoming Ego
also does a certain amount of work on its dense body, in-
corporating in it the quintessence of its past physical quali-
ties. No body is an exact mixture of the qualities of its
parents, although the Ego is restricted to the use of the
materials taken from the bodies of the father and mother.
Hence a musician incarnates where he can get the material
to build the slender hand and the delicate ear, with its
sensitive fibres of Corti and its accurate adjustment of the
three semicircular canals. The arrangement of these mate-
rials, however, is, to the extent named, under the control
of the Ego. It is as though a carpenter were given a pile
of boards to use in building a house in which to live, but
is left to his own judgment as to the kind of house he
wishes to build.

Except in the case of a very highly developed being,
this work of the Ego is almost negligible at the present
stage of man's evolution. The greatest scope is given in
the building of the desire body, very little in that of the
vital body and almost none in the dense body; yet even
this little is sufficient to make each individual an expres-
sion of his own spirit and different from the parents.

When the impregnation of the ovum has taken place,
the desire body of the mother works upon it for a period
of from eighteen to twenty-one days, the Ego remaining
outside in its desire body and mind sheath, yet always in
close touch with the mother. Upon the expiration of that
time the Ego enters the mother's body. The bell-shaped

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 139

vehicles draw themselves down over the head of the vital
body and the bell closes at the bottom. From thie time
the Ego broods over its coining instrument until the birth
of the child and the new earth life of the reincarnating
Ego commences.

BIRTH OF THE DENSE BODY.

The vehicles of the new-born do not at once become
active. The dense body is helpless for a long time after
birth. Reasoning from analogy we can readily see that the
same must be the case with the higher vehicles. The occult
scientist sees it, but even without clairvoyance reason will
show that this must be so. As the dense body is slowly
prepared for the separate, individual life within the pro-
tecting cover of the womb, so the other bodies are gradu-
ally born and nurtured into activity, and while the times
given in the following description are but approximate, they
are nevertheless accurate enough for general purposes and
show the connection between the Microcosm and the Macro-
cosm— the individual and the world.

In the period immediately following birth the different
vehicles inter-penetrate one another, as, in our previous
illustration, the sand penetrates the sponge and the water
both sand and sponge. But, though they are all present, as
in adult life, they are merely present. None of their posi-
tive faculties are active. The vital body cannot use the
forces which operate along the positive pole of the ethers.
Assimilation, which works along the positive pole of the
chemical ether, is very dainty during childhood and what
there is of it is due to the macrocosm ic vital body, the
ethers which act as a womb for the child's vital body until
the seventh year, gradually ripening it during that period.
The propagative faculty, which works along the positive

140 ROSTCEUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

pole of the life ether, is also lat€tat> The heating of the
body — which is carried on along the positive pole of the
light ether — and the circulation of the blood are due to
the macrocosraic vital body, the ethers acting on the child
and slowly developing it to the point where it can control
these functions itself. The forces working along the nega-
tive pole of the ethers are so much the more active. The
excretion of solids, carried on along the negative pole of
the chemical ether ('corresponding to the solid subdivision
of the Chemical Region), is too unrestrained, as is also the
excretion of fluid, which is carried on along the negative
pole of the life ether (corresponding to the second or fluid
subdivision of the Chemical Region). The passive sense-
perception, which is due to the negative forces of the light
ether, is also exceedingly prominent. The child is very
impressionable and it is "all eyes and ears."

During the earlier years the forces operating along the
negative pole of the reflecting ether are also extremely
active. In those years children can "see" the higher
Worlds and they often prattle about what they see until
the ridicule of their elders or punishment for "telling sto-
ries" teaches them to desist.

It is deplorable that the little ones are forced to lie —
or at least to deny the truth — because of the incredulity of
their "wise" elders. Even the investigations of the Society
for Psychical Research have proven that children often
have invisible playmates, who frequently visit them until
they are several years old. During those years the clair-
voyance of the children is of the same negative character
as that of the mediums.

It is the same with the forces -working in the desire
body. The passive feeling of physical pain is present, while
the feeling of emotion is almost entirely absent. The child

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 141

will, of course, show emotion on the slightest provocation,
but the duration of that emotion is but momentary. It
is all on the surface.

The child also has the link of mind, but is almost incapa-
ble of individual thought-activity. It is exceedingly sensi-
tive to forces working along the negative pole and is there-
fore imitative and teachable.

Thus it is shown that all the negative qualities are active
in the new-born entity, but before it is able to use its
different vehicles, the positive qualities must be ripened.

Each vehicle is therefore brought to a certain degree of
maturity by the activity of the corresponding vehicle of
the macrocosm, which acts as a womb for it until that
degree is reached.

From the first to the seventh year the vital body grows
and slowly matures within the womb of the macrocosmic
vital body and because of the greater wisdom of this vehicle
of the macrocosm the child's body is more rounded and
well-built than in later life.

BIRTH OF THE VITAL BODY.

While the macrocosmic vital body guides the growth of
the child's body it is guarded from the dangers which later
threaten it when the unwise individual vital body takes
unchecked charge. This happens in the seventh year, when
the period of excessive, dangerous growth begins, and con-
tinues through the next seven years. During this time
the macrocosmic desire body performs the function of a
womb for the individual desire body.

Were the vital body to have continual and unrestrained
sway in the human kingdom, as it has in the plant, man
would grow to an enormous size. There was a time in the
far-distant past when man was constituted like a plant,

142 ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

having only a dense body and a vital body. The traditions
of mythology and folk-lore all over the world concerning
giants in olden times are absolutely true, because then men
grew as tall as trees, and for the same reason.

BIRTH OF THE DESIRE BODY.

The vital body of the plant builds leaf after leaf, carry-
ing the stem higher and higher. Were it not for the
macrocosmic desire body it would keep on in that way
indefinitely, but the macrocosmic desire body steps in at a
certain point and checks further growth. The force that
is not needed for further growth is then available for
other purposes and is used to build the flower and the seed.
In like manner the human vital body, when the dense
body comes under its sway, after the seventh year, makes
the latter grow very rapidly, but about the fourteenth year
the individual desire body is born from the womb of the
macrocosmic desire body and is then free to work on its
dense body. The excessive growth is then checked and
the force theretofore used for that purpose becomes available
for propagation, that the human plant may flower and
bring forth. Therefore the birth of the personal desire
body marks the period of puberty. From this period the
attraction towards the opposite sex is felt, being especially
active and unrestrained in the third septenary period of
life — from the fourteenth to the twenty-first year, because
the restraining mind is then still unborn.

BIRTH OF THE MIND.

After the fourteenth year, the mind is in turn brooded
over and nurtured by the macrocosmic mind, unfolding its
latent possibilities and making it capable of original
thought. The forces of the individual's different vehicles

143

have now been ripened to such a degree that he can use
them all in his evolution, therefore at the twenty-first year
the Ego comes into possession of its complete vehicle. It
does this by means of the blood-heat and by developing
individual blood. This is done in connection with the

full development of the light ether.

•

THE BLOOD THE VEHICLE or THE EGO.

In infancy, and up to the fourteenth year, the red mar-
row-bones do not make all the blood corpuscles. Most of
them are supplied by the thymus gland, which is largest
in the foetus and gradually diminishes as the individual
blood-making faculty develops in the growing child. The
thymus gland contains, as it were, a supply of blood cor-
puscles given by the parents, and consequently the child,
which draws its blood from that source, does not realize its
individuality. Not until the blood is made by the child
does it think of itself as "I," and when the thymus gland
disappears, at the age of fourteen, the "I" feeling reaches
its full expression,, for then the blood is made and dom-
inated entirely by the Ego. The following will make clear
the idea and its logic:

It will be remembered that assimilation and growth de-
pend upon the forces working along the positive pole of
the vital body's chemical ether. That is set free at the
seventh year, together with the balance of the vital body.
Only the chemical ether is fully ripe at that time; the
other parts need more ripening. At the fourteenth year
the life ether of the vital body, which has to do with
propagation, is fully ripe. In the period from seven to
fourteen years of age the excessive assimilation has stored
up an amount of force which goes to the sex organs and
is ready at the time the desire body is set free.

144 ROSICRUCiAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

This force of sex is stored in the blood during the third
of the seven-year periods and in that time the light ether,
which is the avenue for the blood-heat, is developed and
controls the heart, so that the body is neither too hot nor
too cold. In early childhood the blood very often rises
to an abnormal temperature. During the period of ex-
cessive growth it is frequently the reverse, but in the hot-
headed, unrestrained youth, passion and temper very often
drive the Ego out by over-heating the blood. We very
appropriately call this an ebullition or boiling over of
temper and describe the effect as causing the person to
"lose his head," i. e., become incapable of thought. That
is exactly what happens when passion, rage, or temper
overheats the blood, thus drawing the Ego outside the
bodies. The description is accurate when, of a person in
such a state,, we say, "He has lost control of himself." The
Ego is outside of his vehicles and they are running amuck,
bereft of the guiding influence of thought, part of the work
of which is to act as a brake on impulse. The great and
terrible danger of such outbursts is that before the owner
re-enters his body some disembodied entity may take pos-
session of it and keep him out. This is called "obsession."
Only the man who keeps cool and does not allow excess of
heat to drive him out can think properly. As proof of the
assertion that the Ego cannot work in the body when the
blood is either too hot or too cold we will call attention to
the well-known fact that excessive heat makes one sleepy
and, if carried beyond a certain point, it drives the Ego
out, leaving the body in a faint, that is, unconscious.
Excessive cold has also a tendency to make the body sleepy
or unconscious. It is only when the blood is at or near
the normal temperature that the Ego can use it as a
vehicle of consciousness.

MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 145

To further show the connection of the Ego with the
blood we may mention the burning blush of shame, which
is an evidence of the manner in which the blood is driven
to the head, thus over-heating the brain and paralyzing
thought. Fear is the state when the Ego wants to barri-
cade himself against some outside danger. He then drives
the blood to the center and grows pale, because the blood
has left the periphery of the body and has lost heat, thus
paralyzing thought. His blood "freezes," he shivers and
his teeth chatter, as when the temperature is lowered by
atmospheric conditions. In fever the excess of heat causes
delirium.

The full-blooded person, when the blood is not too hot,
is active in body and mind, while the anemic person is
sleepy. In one the Ego has better control ; in the other less.
When the Ego wants to think it drives blood, at the proper
heat, to the brain. When a heavy meal centers the activity
of the Ego upon the digestive tracts, the man cannot think ;
he is sleepy.

The old Norsemen and the Scots recognized that the
Ego is in the blood. Xo stranger could become associated
with them as a relative until he had "mixed blood" with
them and thus become one of them. Goethe, who was an
Initiate, also showed this in his "Faust." Faust is about
to sign the compact with Mephistopheles and asks, "Why
not sign with ordinary ink? Why use blood?" Mephisto
imswers. "Blood is a most peculiar essence." He knows,
that who has the blood has the man ; that without the
warm blood, no Ego can find expression.

The proper heat for the real expression of the Ego is not
present until the mind is born from the macrocosmic Con-
crete Mind, when the individual is about twenty-one years

346

BOSICBUCI AN COSMO-CONCEPT ION

old. Statutory law also recognizes this as the earliest age
when the man is deemed fit to exercise a franchise.

At the present stage of human development the man
goes thrcrugh these principal stages in each life cycle, from
one birth to the next.

A°L1FE-GYCLE

Almd-Essence of nkkt
Thou^hl NSoul-Esseuc e ,
FJijhl JFceUnf built into Spirit-
as basis for Tut

Desire f>r Experience-

ani" *"

Good in past life built into
the Mmd asBt^brlTzoujh
also worh on Ne>v

World

•i

Abstnicl

2nd
He&vea

^t Gathers
Materials for

A

Mew Mind

cVUd

Concrt-te-
Thought

Essence of Fain buiUinfo
Soul as R'^hlTeelin«j

Suffering purges Soul

OOul view's panorama of
p&st L»'i{6

TV

Pbvs-

iCdl

World

CHAPTEK IV.
REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE.

ONLY three theories worthy of note have ever been
brought forward to solve the riddle of Life and
Death.

In the previous chapter we have, to some extent, ex-
plained one of these three theories — that of Rebirth, to-
gether with its companion law, the law of Consequence.
It may not be put of place to compare the theory of Re-
birth with the other two theories advanced, with a view
to ascertaining their relative foundation in nature. To
the occultist there can be no question. He does not say
that he "believes" in it any more than we need to say that
we "believe" as to the blooming of the rose or the flowing
of the river, or the operation of any of the visible workings
of the material world, which are continually going on be-
fore our eyes. We do not say of these things that we "be-
lieve;" we say that we "know," because we see them. So
the occult scientist can say "I know" in regard to Rebirth,
the law of Consequence and their corollaries. He sees the
Ego and can trace its path after it has passed out of the
dense body at death until it has reappeared on earth
through a new birth. Therefore to him no "belief" is
necessary. For the satisfaction of others, however, it may
be well to examine these three theories of life and death
in order to arrive at an intelligent conclusion.

Any great law of nature must necessarily be in harmony

148 KOSJCKUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

with all her other laws. Therefore it may be very helpful
to the inquirer to examine these theories in their relation
to what are admitted by all parties to be "known laws of
nature/' as observed in that part of our universe with
which we are more familiar. To this end we will first
state the three theories:

(1) The Materialistic Theory holds that life is a
journey from the womb to the tomb; that mind is
the result of certain correlations of matter; that
man is the highest intelligence in the Cosmos ; and,
that his intelligence perishes when the body disin-
tegrates at death.

(2) The Theory of Theology asserts that at each birth
a newly-created soul enters the arena of life fresh
from the hand of God, passing from an invisible
state through the gate of birth into visible exist-
ence; that at the end of one short span of life in
the material world it passes out through the gate
of death into the invisible beyond, whence it returns
no more; that its happiness or misery there is de-
termined for all eternity by its actions during the
infinitesimal period intervening between birth and
death.

(3) The Theory of Rebirth teaches that each soul is
an integral part of God, enfolding all divine possi-
bilities as the seed enfolds the plant ; that by means
of repeated existences in an earthly body of gradu-
ally improving quality, the latent possibilities are
slowly developed into dynamic powers; that none
are lost by this process, but that all mankind will
ultimately attain the goal of perfection and re-union
with God.

The first of these theories is monistic. It seeks to ex-

REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 149

plain all facts of existence as processes within the material
world. The two other theories agree in being dualistic,
that is, they ascribe some of the facts and phases of exist-
ence to a super-physical, invisible state, but they differ
widely on other points.

Bringing the materialistic theory into comparison with
the known laws of the universe, we find that the con-
tinuity of force is as well established as the continuity of
matter and both are beyond the need of elucidation. We
also know that matter and force are inseparable in the
Physical World. This is contrary to the materialistic the-
ory, which holds that mind perishes at death. When
nothing can be destroyed, mind must be included. More-
over we know that mind is superior to matter, for it molds
the face, so that it becomes a reflection or mirror of the
mind. We have discovered that the particles of our bodies
are constantly changing; that at least once in seven years
there is a change in every atom of matter composing them.
If the materialistic theory were true, the consciousness
ought also to undergo an entire change, with no memory
of that which preceded, so that at no time could man re-
member any event more than seven years. We know that
this is not the case. We remember the events of our child-
hood. Many of the most trivial incidents though forgotten
in ordinary consciousness, have been distinctly recalled in
a swift vision of the whole life by drowning persons, who
have related the experience after resuscitation. Similar
experiences in states of trance are also common. Materi-
alism is unable to account for these phases of sub- and
super-consciousness. It ignores them. At the present stage
of scientific investigation, where leading scientists have
established beyond a doubt the existence of these phenom-
ena, the policy of ignoring them is a serious defect in a

150 BO.8ICBUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

theory claiming to solve the greatest problem of life —
Life itself.

We may therefore safely pass from the materialistic
theory as being inadequate to solve the mystery of life and
death and turn to a consideration of the next theory.

One of the greatest objections to the orthodox theological
doctrine, as it is expounded, is its entire and confessed
inadequacy. Of the myriads of souls which have been
created and have inhabited this Globe since the beginning
of existence, even if that beginning dates back no further
than six thousand years, the insignificant number of
only "one hundred and forty and four thousand" are to
be saved! The rest are to be tortured forever and ever!
The devil gets the best of it all the time. One cannot help
saying with Buddha, "If God permits such misery to exist
He cannot be good, and if He is powerless to prevent it,
He .cannot be God."

Nothing in nature is analogous to such a method of
creation in order that destruction may follow. It is repre-
sented that God desires ALL should be saved and is averse
to the destruction of any, having for their salvation "given
His only Son/' and yet this "glorious plan of salvation"
fails to save !

If a trans-Atlantic liner with two thousand souls on
board sent a wireless message that she was sinking just
off Sandy Hook, would it be regarded as a "glorious plan
of salvation" if a fast motor-boat capable of rescuing only
two or three people, were sent to her aid ? Certainly not !
It would more likely be denounced as a "plan of destruc-
tion" if adequate means were not provided for the saving
of at least the majority of those in danger.

But the theologians' plan of salvation is vastly worse
than this, because two or three out of two thousand is an

KEBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 151

immensely greater proportion than the orthodox theo-
logical plan of saving only 144,000 out of all tha myriads
of souls created. We may safely reject this theory also,
as being untrue, because unreasonable. If God were all-
wise He would have evolved a more efficacious plan. So
He has, and the above is only the theory of the theologian.
The teaching of the Bible is very different, as will appear
later.

We turn now to consider the doctrine of Rebirth, which
postulates a slow process of development, carried on with
unwavering persistence through repeated embodiments in
forms of increasing efficiency whereby all are, in time,
brought to a height of spiritual splendor at present incon-
ceivable to us. There is nothing unreasonable nor difficult
to accept in such a theory. As we look about us we find
everywhere in nature this striving for perfection in a slow,
persistent manner. We find no sudden process of creation
or destruction, such as the theologian postulates, but we do
find "Evolution."

Evolution is "the history of the progression of the
Spirit in Time." Everywhere, as we see about us the
varied phenomena in the universe, we realize that the path
of evolution is a spiral. Each loop of the spiral is a cycle.
Each cycle merges into the next, as the loops of the spiral
are continuous, each cycle being the improved product of
those preceding it and the creator of those more developed
states which succeed it.

A straight line is but the extension of a point. It occu-
pies but one dimension in space. The theory of the mate-
rialist and that of the theologian would be analogous to this
line. The materialist makes the line.. of life start at birth,
and to be consistent, the death hour must terminate it.
The theologian commences his line with the creation of

152 ROS1CKUCIAN COSMO CONCEPTION

the soul just previous to birth. After death the soul lives
on, its fate irretrievably determined by the deeds of a few
short years. There is no coming back to correct mistakes.
The line runs straight on, implying a modicum of experi-
ence and no elevation for the soul after death.

Natural progression does not follow a straight line such
as these two theories imply; nor even a circular path, for
that would imply a never-ending round of the same experi-
ences and the use of only two dimensions in space. All
things move in progressive cycles and in order to take
full advantage of all the opportunities for advancement
offered by our three-dimensional universe, it is necessary
that the evolving life should take the three-dimensional
path — the spiral — which goes ever onward and upward.

Whether we look at the modest little plant in our garden,
or go to the redwood district of California and examine one
of the giant sequoias with its forty-foot diameter, it is
always the same — every branch, twig or leaf will be found
growing in either a single or a double spiral, or in opposite
pairs, each balancing either, analogous to ebb and flow,
day and night, life and death and other alternating activi-
ties in nature.

Examine the vaulted arch of the sky and observe the
fiery nebulae or the path of the Solar Systems — everywhere
the spiral meets the eye. In the spring the Earth discards
its white blanket and emerges from its period of rest —
its winter's sleep. All activities are exerted to bring forth
new life everywhere. Time passes. The corn and the
grape are ripened and harvested. Again the busy summer
fades into the silence and inactivity of the winter. Again
the snowy coverlet enwraps the Earth, But her sleep is
not forever; she will wake again to the song of the new-

REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 153

spring, which will mark for her a little further progress
along the pathway of time.

So with the Sun. He rises in the morning of each day,
but each morning he is further along on his journey
through the year.

Everywhere the spiral — Onward, Upward, Forever!

Is it possible that this law, so universal in all other
realms, should be inoperative in the life of man? Shall
the earth wake each year from its winter sleep; shall the
tree and the flower live again and man die ? It cannot be !
The same law that wakes the life in the plant to new
growth will wake the human being to new experience, to
further progress toward the goal of perfection. Therefore
the theory of Rebirth, which teaches repeated embodiment
in gradually improving vehicles, is in perfect accord with
evolution and the phenomena of nature, which the other
two theories are not.

Regarding life from an ethical viewpoint, we find that
the law of Rebirth coupled with the companion law of Con-
sequence, is the only theory that will satisfy a sense of
justice, in harmony with the facts of life as we see them
about us.

It is not easy for the logical mind to understand how a
"just and loving" God can require the same virtues from
the milliards whom He has been "pleased to place in dif-
fering circumstances" according to no apparent rule nor
system, but willy-nilly, according to His own capricious
mood. One lives in luxury; the other on "kicks and
crusts." One has a moral education and an atmosphere of
high ideals ; the other is placed in squalid surroundings and
taught to He and steal and that the more he does of both,
the more of a success he is. Is it just to require the same
of both? Is it right to reward one for living a good life

154 ROSICBUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

wbeo-.be was placed in an environment that made it. .ex-,
tremely difficult for bim to go astray, or to punish the
other, who was handicapped to such an extent that he never
had an idea of what constitutes true morality. Surely not !
Is it not more logical to think that we may have misin-
terpreted the Bible than to impute to God such a mon-
strous plan and method of procedure?

It is useless to say that we must not inquire into the
mysteries of God ; that they are past our finding out. The
inequalities of life can he satisfactorily explained by the
twin law of Rebirth and Consequence and made to har-
monize with the conception of a just and loving God, as
taught by Christ Himself.

Moreover, by means of these twin laws a way to emanci-
pation from present undesirable position or environment
is shown, together with the means of attaining to any de-
gree of development, no matter how imperfect we may be
now.

.What we are, what we have, all our good qualities are
tbe result of our own actions in the past. What we lack
in physical, moral, or mental excellence may yet be ours
in the future.

Exactly as we cannot do otherwise than take up our
lives each morning where we laid them down the preceding
night, co by our work in previous lives have we made the
conditions under which we now live and labor, and are
at present creating the conditions of our future lives.
Instead of bemoaning the lack of this or that faculty which
we covet, yre must set to work to acquire it.

If one child plays beautifully on a musical instrument,
with hardly . an effort at learning, . while another,, despite
persistent effort, is a poor player in comparison, it merely
shows that one expended the effort in a previous life and is

HEB1KTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 155

easily regaining a former proficiency, while the efforts of the
other have been started only in the present incarnation, and
in consequence we see the uphill work. But, if the latter
persist, he may, even in the present life, become superior
to the former unless the former constantly improves.

That we do not remember the effort made in acquiring
a faculty by hard work is immaterial; it does not alter
the fact that the faculty remains with us.

Genius is the hall-mark of the advanced soul, which by
hard work in many previous lives has developed itself in
some direction beyond the normal achievements of the
race. It reveals a glimpse of the degree of attainment
which will be the common possession of the coming Race.
It cannot be accounted for by heredity, which applies only
in part to the dense body and not to qualities of the soul.
If genius could be accounted for by heredity, why is there
not a long line of mechanical ancestors previous to Thomas
Edison, each more capable than his predecessor ? Why does
not genius propagate itself ? Why is not Siegfried the son,
greater than Richard Wagner, the father?

In cases where the expression of genius depends upon
the possession of specially constructed organs, requiring
ages of development, the Ego naturally incarnates in a
family the Egos of which have, for generations, labored
to build a similar organism. That is why twenty-nine
musicians of more or less genius incarnated in the Bach
family during a period of two hundred and fifty years.
That genius is an expression of the soul and not of the
body is shown by the fact that it did not gradually im-
prove and reach efflorescence in the person of John Sebas-
tian Bach, but that the proficiency which reached its High-
est expression in him towered high abov« ancestors and
descendants alike.

156 UOSICKUC1AN COSMO-CONCEPTION

. The body is simply an instrument, the work it yields
being dependent upon the Ego which guides it, as the
quality of the melody is dependent upon the musician's
skill, aided by the timbre of the instrument. A good
musician cannot fully express himself upon a poor in-
strument, and even upon the same instrument, all musi-
cians do not and cannot play alike. Because an Ego in-
carnates as the son of a great musician it does not neces-
sarily follow that he must be a still greater genius, as
would be the case if physical heredity were a fact and
genius were not a soul-quality.

The "Law of Attraction" accounts in quite as satisfac-
tory a manner for the facts we ascribe to heredity. We
know that people of like tastes will seek one another. If
we know that a friend is in a certain city, but are ignorant
of his address, we will naturally be governed by the law
of association in our efforts to find him. If he is a musi-
cian, he will most likely be found where musicians are
wont to assemble; if he is a student inquiry will be made
at libraries, reading-rooms and book stores, or if he is a
sporting man we would seek him at race tracks, poolrooms
or saloons. It is not probable that the musician or the
student would frequent the latter places and it is safe to
say that our search for the sporting man would not be
successful if we sought him in a library or at a classical
concert.

Similarly, the Ego ordinarily gravitates to th'e most
congenial associations. It is constrained to do so by one
of the twin forces of the Desire World — the force of
Attraction.

The objection may be urged that there are people of
entirely opposite tastes, or bitter enemies even, in the

REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 157

same family, and if the law of Association, governed why
should they be attracted thereto?

The explanation of such cases is that during the Ego's
earth lives many relations had been established with vari-
ous people. These relations were pleasant or otherwise,
involving on the one hand obligations which were not
liquidated at the time ; or on the other involving the inflic-
tion of an injury and a feeling of very strong hate between
the injured and his enemy. The law of Consequence re-
quires an exact adjustment of the score. Death does not
"pay it all" any more than moving to another city will
liquidate a monetary debt. The time comes when the two
enemies shall meet again. The old hate has brought them
together in the same family, because it is the purpose of
God that all shall love one another; therefore hate must
be transformed into love and though, perchance, they may
spend many lives "fighting it out/' they will at some time
learn the lesson and become friends and mutual benefactors
instead of enemies. In such cases the Interest these people
had in one another set in action the force of Attraction,
and that brought theni together. Had they simply been
mutually Indifferent, they could not have become
associated.

Thus do the twin laws of Kebirth and Consequence solve,
in a rational manner, all the problems incident to human
life as man steadily advances toward the next stage in
evolution — the Superman. The trend of humanity's
progress is onward and upward forever, says this theory
— not as some people think, who have confounded the doc-
trine of Rebirth with the foolish teaching of some Indian
tribes who believe that man is reincarnated n animals or
plants. That would be retrogression. No authority for
this doctrine of retrogression can be found in nature or

158 ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTIOX

in the sacred books of any religion. In one (and one only)
of the religious writings of India is it touched upon. In
the Kathopanishad (ch. v; verse 9) it is stated that "Some
men, according to their deeds, go into the womb and other?
into the 'sthanu.' ': "Sthami" is a Sanskrit word, which
means "motionless," but it also means "a pillar," and has
been interpreted to mean that some men, because of their
sins, go back to the motionless plant kingdom.

Spirits incarnate only to gain experience; to conquer
the world; to overcome the lower self and attain self-mas-
tery. When we realize this we shall understand that there
comes a time when there is no further need for incarnation
because the lessons have all been learned. The teaching
of the Kathopanishad indicates that instead of remaining
tied to the wheel of birth and death, man will at some time
go into the motionless state of "Nirvana."

In the Book of Revelation we find these words: "Him
that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my
God and he shall go no more out" referring to entire lib-
eration from concrete existence. Nowhere is there any
authority for the doctrine of the transmigration of souls.
A man who has evolved so far as to have an individual,
separate soul cannot turn back in his progress and enter the
vehicle of animal or plant, which are under a group-spirit.
The individual spirit is a higher evolution than the group-
spirit and the lesser cannot contain the greater.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his beautiful poem, "The
Chambered Nautilus," has embodied this idea of constant
progression in gradually improving vehicles, and final lib-
eration. The nautilus builds its spiral shell in chambered
sections, constantly leaving the smaller ones, which it haa
outgrown, for the one last built :

REBIRTH AMD THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 159

Year after year beheld the silent toil

That spread hia lustrous coil;

Still,- as the spiral grew,

He left the past year's dwelling for the new,

Stole with soft step its shining archway through,

Built up its idle door,

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,

Child of the wandering sea,

Cast from her lap forlorn!

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born

Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn!

While on mine ear it rings,

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul!
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past !
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
. Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

The necessity, previously referred to, of obtaining an
organism of a specific nature, brings to mind an interesting
phase of the twin laws of Kebirth and Consequence. These
laws are connected with the motion of the Cosmic bodies,
the Sun, the planets and the signs of the Zodiac. All move
in harmony with these laws, guided in their orbits by their
indwelling spiritual Intelligences — the Planetary Spirits.

On account of the precession of the equinoxes the Sun
moves backward through the twelve signs of the Zodiac at
the rate of approximately one degree of space in 72 years,
and through each sign (30 degrees of space) in about
2,100 years, or around the whole circle in about 26,000
years.

This is due to the fact that the Earth does not spin upon
a stationary axis. Its axis has a slow, swinging motion of
its own (just like thp wabble of a spinning top that has

100 ROSICBUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

almost spent its force), so that it describes a circle in space
and thus one star after another becomes Pole Star.

Because of this wabbling motion the Sun does not cross
the equator in the same place every year, but a few hun-
dred rods further back, hence the name, the "precession of
the equinoxes," because the equinox "precedes — comes too
early.

All happenings on the Earth in connection with the
other Cosmic bodies and their inhabitants are connected
with this and other Cosmic movements. So are also the
laws of Eebirth and Consequence.

As the Sun passes through the different signs in the
course of the year, the climatic and other changes affect
man and his activities in different ways. Similarly the
passage of the Sun by the precession of the equinoxes,
through the twelve signs of the Zodiac — which is called a
World-year, brings about conditions on the Earth of a far
greater variety. It is necessary to the growth of the soul
that it should experience them all. In fact, as we have
seen, the man himself makes these conditions while in
the Heaven World between incarnations. Therefore, every
Ego is born twice during the time the Sun is passing
through one sign of the Zodiac; and, as the soul itself is
necessarily double-sexed, in order to obtain all experience,
it incarnates alternately in a male and a female body. This
is because the experience of one sex differs widely from
that of the other. At the same time, the outside conditions
are not greatly altered in one thousand years and therefore
permit the entity to receive experience in the same identical
environment from the standpoint of both man and woman.

These are the general terms upon which the law of
Rebirth operates, but as it is not a blind law, it is subject
to frequent modifications, determined by the Lords of

EEBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 161

Destiny, the Recording Angels, as, for instance, in a case
where an Ego needs a sensitive eye or ear and there is an
opportunity for giving it the required instrument in a
family with which relations have previously been estab-
lished. The time for the incarnation of the Ego in ques-
tion may lack, perhaps, two hundred years of being ripe,
according to the average period, but it is seen by the Lords
of Destiny that unless this opportunity is embraced, the
Ego will perhaps have to spend four or five hundred years
in heaven in excess of the time required, before another
chance will present itself. Therefore the Ego is brought to
incarnation ahead of schedule time, so to speak, the de-
ficiency of rest in the third heaven being made up at an-
other time. So we see that, not only do the departed work
on us from the Heaven World, but we also work on them,
attracting or repelling them. A favorable opportunity for
procuring a suitable instrument may attract an Ego to
incarnation. Had no instrument been available, he would
have been kept longer in heaven and the surplus time
deducted from his succeeding heaven lives.

The law of Consequence also works in harmony with
the stars, so that a man is born at the time when the posi-
tions of the bodies in the solar system will give the condi-
tions necessary to his experience and advancement in the
school of life. That is why Astrology is an absolutely true
science, though even the best astrologer may misinterpret
it, because, like all other human beings, he is fallible. The
stars show accurately the time in a man's life when the
debt which the Lords of Destiny have selected for payment
is due, and to evade it is beyond the power of man. Yes,
they show the very day, although we are not always able to
read them correctly.

Perhaps the most striking instance known to the writer

162 ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

of this inability to escape what is written in the stars,
though perfectly cognizant of it, occurred in Los Angeles,
California, in 1906. Some instructions in astrology were
given to Mr. L., a well-known lecturer. Mr. L.'s own
horoscope was taken up, because a pupil will be more in-
terested in that than in the nativity of a stranger. He is
also enabled to check the accuracy of the interpretation
of the signs which are given him. The horoscope revealed
a liability to accidents and Mr. L. was shown how acci-
dents and other events in the past figured to the time of
occurrence. In addition, he was told that another accident
would befall him and that it would occur on the twenty-
first of the following July, or the seventh day after, i. e.,
on the twenty-eighth, the latter day being regarded as the
more dangerous. He was warned against conveyances of
any kind and the place of the threatened injury was desig-
nated as the breast, shoulders, arms and lower part of the
head. He was thoroughly convinced of the danger and
promised to remain at home on that day.

The writer went north to Seattle and a few days before
the critical time wrote to Mr. L. and again warned him.
Mr. L. answered that he remembered the warning and
would act accordingly.

The next communication in regard to the matter came
from a mutual friend, who stated that on the 28th of July
Mr. L. had gone to Sierra Madre on an electric car which
had collided with a railroad train, Mr. L. sustaining in-
juries of the exact description mentioned and also having a
tendon cut in the left leg.

The question was why Mr. L., having entire faith in
the prediction, had disregarded the advice. The explana-
tion came three months later, when he had recovered suffi-

REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 163

ciently to write. The letter said, "I thought the 28th was
the 29th."

There is no question in the writer's mind that this was
a piece of "ripe" fate, impossible to escape, which was
accurately foreshown by the stars.

The stars may therefore be called the "Clock of Des-
tiny." The twelve signs of the Zodiac correspond to the
dial; the Sun and the planets to the hour hand, which
indicates the year ; and the Moon to the minute hand, indi-
cating the month of the year when the different items in
the score of ripe fate allotted to each life are due to work
themselves out.

It cannot be sufficiently emphasized, however, that
though there are some things that cannr1 be escaped, man
has a certain scope of free will in modifying causes already
set going. A poet puts it thus:

One ship sails east and another sails west

With the self -same winds that blow.
'Tis the set of the sail and not the gale

Which determines the way they go.

As the winds of the sea are the ways of fat*

As we voyage along through life,
'Tis the act of the soul that determines the goal,

And not the calm or the strife.

The great point to grasp is that our present actions
determine future conditions.

Orthodox religionists and even those who profess no
religion at all, often bring forward as one of their strong-
est objections to the law of Eebirth that it is taught in
India to the "ignorant heathen," who believe in it. If it
is a natural law, however, there is no objection strong
enough to invalidate it or make it inoperative. Before
we speak of "ignorant heathen," or send missionaries to
them, it might be well to examine our own knowledge a

164 EOSICKUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

little. Educators everywhere complain of superficiality on
the part of our students. Professor Wilbur L. Cross, of
Yale, mentions among other startling cases of ignorance,
the fact that in a class of forty students, not one could
"place" Judas Iscariot!

It would seem as though the labors of missionaries could
profitably be diverted from "heathen" countries and from
slum work to enlighten the college-bred individuals of our
own country, on the principle that "charity begins at
home," and, "as God will not let the ignorant heathen
perish" it would seem better to leave him in ignorance where
he is sure of heaven, than to enlighten him and so render
his chances of going to hell legion. Surely, this is a case
of "Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise." We
would be doing ourselves and the heathen a signal service
by letting him alone and looking after the ignorant Chris-
tian nearer home.

Moreover, to call this a heathen doctrine does not dis-
prove it. Its assumed priority in the East is no more an
argument against it than the accuracy of the solution of a
mathematical problem is invalidated because we do not
happen to like the person who first solved it. The only
question is, is it correct ? If so, it is absolutely immaterial
whence the solution first came.

All other religions have been but leading up to the
Christian religion. They were Eace Eeligions and con-
tain only in part that which Christianity has in fuller
measure. The real Esoteric Christianity has not yet been
taught publicly, nor will it be so taught until humanity
has passed the materialistic stage and becomes fitted to
receive it. The laws of Rebirth and Consequence have
been secretly taught all the time, but, by the direct Com-
mand of Christ Himself, as we shall see, these two laws

REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 165

have not been publicly taught in the Western world for
the past two thousand years.

WINE AS A FACTOR IN EVOLUTION.

To understand the reason for this omission and the
means employed to obscure these teachings, we must go
back to the beginning of man's history and see how, for
his good, he has been led by the Great Teacher of human-

ity.

In the teaching of occult science the stages of develop-
ment on the earth are divided into periods called
"Epochs." There have been four of these Epochs, which
are designated as follows, respectively: The Polarian, the
Hyperborean, the Lemurian, the Atlantean. The present
Epoch is called the Aryan Epoch.

In the First or Polarian Epoch, what is now humanity
had only a dense body, as the minerals have now, hence
he was mineral-like.

In the Second or Hyperborean Epoch, a vital body was
added and man-in-the-making possessed a body constituted
as are those of plants. He was not a plant, but was plant-
like.

In the Third or Lemurian Epoch, he obtained his desire
body and became constituted like the animal — an animal-
man.

In the Fourth or Atlantean Epoch, mind was unfolded
and now, so far as his principles are concerned, he steps
upon the stage of physical life as MAN.

In the present, the Fifth or Aryan Epoch, man will in
some degree unfold the third or lowest aspect of his three-
fold spirit — the Ego.

The student is requested to strongly impress upon his

166 ROSICKUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

mind the emphatic statement that in the process of evolu-
tion up to the time when man gained self -consciousness,
absolutely nothing was left to chance.

After gaining self-consciousness there is a certain scope
for the exercise of man's own individual will to enable
unfold his Divine spiritual powers.

The great Leaders of mankind take everything into
consideration, the food of man included. This has a
great deal to do with his development. "Tell me what
you eat and I will tell you what you are" is not a far-
fetched idea, but a great truth in nature.

The man of the first Epoch was ethereal. That does
not contradict the statement that he was mineral-like, for
all gases are mineral. The Earth was still soft, not yet
having solidified. In the Bible man is called Adam and
it is said that he was made of earth.

Cain is described as an agriculturist. He symbolizes
the man of the Second Epoch. He had a vital body like
the plants which sustained him.

In the Third Epoch food was obtained from living
animals to supplement the former plant food. Milk was
the means used for evolving the desire body, which made
the mankind of that time animal-like. This is what is
meant by the Bible statement that "Abel was a shepherd."
It is nowhere stated that he killed animals.

In the Fourth Epoch man had evolved beyond the ani-
mal— he had mind. Thought breaks clown nerve cells;
kills, destroys and causes decay. Therefore the food of
the Atlantean was, by analogy, dead carcasses. He killed
to eat and that is why the Bible states that "Nimrod was
a mighty hunter." Nimrod represents the man of the
Fourth Epoch.

In the meanwhile, man had descended deeper and deeper

EEBIBTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 167

into matter. His former ethereal body formed the skel-
eton within and had become solid. He had also lost by
degrees the spiritual perception which was possessed by
him in the earlier Epochs. Thus it was designed. He is
destined to get it back at a higher stage, plus the self-
consciousness which he did not then possess. He had,
however, during the first four Epochs, a greater knowl-
edge of the spiritual world. He knew he did not die and
that when one body wasted away it was like the drying
of a leaf from the tree in the autumn — another body would
grow to take its place. Therefore he had no real apprecia-
tion of the opportunities and advantages of this Earth life
of concrete existence.

But it was necessary that he should become thoroughly
awake to the great importance of this concrete existence,
so that he might learn from it all that could be learned.
So long as he felt that he was a citizen of the higher
Worlds and knew for a certainty that physical life is but a
small part of real existence, he did not take it seriously
enough. He did not apply himself to the cultivation of
the opportunities for growth which are found only in the
present phase of existence. He dallied his time away with-
out developing the resources of the world, as do the people
of India today, for the same reason.

The only way in which an appreciation of concrete
physical existence could be aroused in 'man was by depriv-
ing him of the memory of his higher, spiritual existence
for a few incarnations. Thus, during his Earth life, he
came to hold no positive knowledge of any other than the
one present physical life, and was in this way impelled
to earnestly apply himself to living it.

There had been religions previous to Christianity which
had taught Rebirth and the law of Consequence, but the

168 ROSICEUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

time had now come when it was no longer conducive
to man's advancement that he should know this doctrine,
and ignorance concerning it came to be regarded as a sign
of progress. This one single life was to be made para-
mount. Therefore we find that the Christian Religion, as
publicly taught, does not embody the laws of Consequence
and Eebirth. Nevertheless, as Christianity is the religion
of the most advanced Race, it must be the most advanced
Religion, and because of the elimination of this doctrine
from its public teachings, the conquest of the world of
matter is being made by the Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic
races, in which this phase has been carried furthest.

As some new addition to or change in the food of man
had been made in every Epoch to meet its conditions and
accomplish its purposes, we now find added to the food
of the previous Epochs a new article — WINE. It was
needed on account of its benumbing effect upon the spir-
itual principle in man, because no religion, in and of
itself, could have made man forget his nature as a spirit
and have caused him to think of himself as "a worm of the
dust," or made him believe that "we walk with the same
force with which we think" — indeed, it was never in-
tended that he should go so far as that.

Hitherto only water had been used as a drink and in
the ceremonies of the Temple service, but after the sub-
mergence of Atlantis — a continent which once existed be-
tween Europe and America, where the Atlantic Ocean now
lies — those who escaped destruction began to cultivate
the vine and make wine, as we find narrated in the Bible
story of Noah. Noah symbolizes the remnant of the At-
lantean Epoch, which became the nucleus of the Fifth
Race — therefore our progenitors.

The active principle of alcohol is a "spirit" and as the

REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 169

humanity of the earlier Epochs used the articles of food
best suited to their vehicles, so this spirit was, in the Fifth
Epoch, added to the foods previously used by evolving
humanity. It acts upon the spirit of the Fifth Epoch
man, temporarily paralyzing it, that it may know, esteem
and conquer the physical world and value it at its proper
worth. Thus man forgets, for the time being, his spir-
itual home, clinging to this form of existence, which he
has previously despised, with all the tenacity born of a
feeling that this is all there is — or at least, preferring
the certainty of this world to taking chances on a heaven
which, in his present muddled state, he does not under-
stand.

Water only had been used in the Temples, but now this
is altered. "Bacchus," a god of wine, appears and under
his sway the most advanced nations forget that there is a
higher life. None who offer tribute to the counterfeit
spirit of wine or any alcoholic liquor (the product of
fermentation and decay) can ever know anything of the
higher Self — the true Spirit which is the very source of
life.

All this was preparatory to the coming of Christ, and
it is of the highest significance that His first act was to
change "water into wine." (John ii:ll.)
, In private He taught Rebirth to His disciples. He not
only taught them in words, but He took them "into the
mountain." This is a mystic term meaning a place of
Initiation. In the course of Initiation they see for them-
selves that Rebirth is a fact, for there Elijah appeared
before them, who, they are told, is also John the Baptist.
Christ, in unequivocal terms, had previously told them,
when speaking of John the Baptist, "this is Elijah who
was for to come." He reiterates this at the transfigura-

170 ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

tion scene, saying, "Elijah has come already and they
knew him not, but have done to him whatsoever they
listed." And following this, it is said that "they under-
stood He spake of John the Baptist" (Matt. xvii:12-13).
On this occasion, and also at the time when Rebirth was
discussed between Him and His disciples, they told Him
that some thought He was Elijah and others that He
was one of the prophets who had reincarnated. He com-
manded them to "tell no man." (Matt. xvii:9; Luke
ix:21.) This was to be, for thousands of years, an
esoteric teaching, to be known only among the few pio-
neers who fitted themselves for the knowledge, pushing
ahead to the stage of development when these truths will
again be known to man.

That Christ taught Rebirth and also the law of Con-
sequence is perhaps shown in no other place as clearly
as in the case of the man who had been born blind, where
His disciples asked, "Who did sin, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?" (John ix:2).

Had Christ not taught Rebirth and the law of Conse-
quence, the natural answer would have been, "Nonsense !
how could the man have sinned before lie was born, and
have brought blindness upon himself as a result?" But
Christ does not answer in that way. He is not surprised
at the question, nor does He treat it as being at all
unusual, showing that it was quite in harmony with His
teachings. He explains, "Neither hath this man sinned,
nor his parents; but that the works of (the) God should
be made manifest in him."

The orthodox interpretation is that the man was born
blind in order that Christ might have the opportunity of
performing a miracle to show His power. It would have
been a strange way for a God to obtain glory — capriciously

REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 171

condemning a man to many years of blindness and misery
that He might "show off" at a future time! We would
consider a man who acted in such a manner a monster
of cruelty.

How much more logical to think that there may be
another explanation. To impute to God conduct which, in
a human being, we would denounce in the strongest terms,
is surely unreasonable.

Christ differentiates between the physically blind body
of the man and the God within, which is the Higher Self.

The dense body has committed no sin. The God within
has done some deed which manifests in the particular
affliction from which he is suffering. It is not stretching
a point to call a man a God. Paul says, "know ye not
that ye are Gods?" and he refers to the human body as
the "temple of God," the indwelling spirit.

Finally, although most people do not remember their
past lives, there are some who do, and all may know if
they will live the life necessary to attain the knowledge.
This requires great strength of character, because such
knowledge will carry with it a knowledge of impending
fate that may be hanging black and sinister over one,
which will manifest in dire disaster. Nature has gra-
ciously hidden the past and the future from us, that we
may not be robbed of peace of mind by suffering in antici-
pation of the pain in store for us. As we attain greater
development we shall learn to welcome all things with
equanimity, seeing in all troubles 'the result of past evil
and feeling thankful that the obligations incurred thereby
are being annulled, knowing that so much less stands
between us and the day of liberation from the wheel of
birth and death.

When a person dies in childhood in one life, he or she

172 ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

not infrequently remembers that life in the next incarna-
tion, because children under 14 years do not journey
around the entire life cycle, which necessitates the build-
ing of a complete set of new vehicles. They simply pass
into the upper Eegions of the Desire World and there
wait for a new incarnation, which usually takes place in
from one to twenty years after death. When they rein-
carnate, they bring with them the old mind and desire
body, and if we listened to the prattle of children, we
should often be able to discover and reconstruct such
stories as the following:

A REMARKABLE STORY.

One day in Santa Barbara, Cal., a man by the name of
Eoberts came to a trained clairvoyant who is also a lecturer
on Theosophy and asked for help in a perplexing case.
Mr. Eoberts had been walking in the street the previous
day when a little three-year-old girl came up to him and
put her arms around his knees, calling him papa. Mr.
Eoberts was indignant, thinking that someone was trying
to father the child on him. But the mother of the child
who came up directly, was equally put out and tried to get
the child away. The child, however, kept on clinging
to Mr. E., insisting that he was her father. On account
of circumstances to be told later Mr. E. could not put
it out of his mind, and sought out the clairvoyant, who
accompanied him to the house of the child's parents,
where the little girl at once ran up to Mr. E. and again
called him papa. The clairvoyant, whom I will call X,
first took the child over to the window to note whether
the iris of the eye would expand and contract when he
turned her to and from the light, in order to see whether
another entity than the rightful owner was in possession

REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE 173

of the child's body, for the eye is the window of the soul
and no "obcessing" entity can secure control of that part.
Mr. X. found, however, that the child was normal, and
next proceeded to question the little one carefully. After
patient work carried on intermittently during the after-
noon, so as not to tire the child, this is the story she told :

She had lived with her papa, Mr. Roberts, and another
mamma in a little house that stood all alone, where no
other house could be seen; there was a little brook close
to the house where some flowers grew (and here she ran
out and brought in some "pussy-willows") and there was
a plank across the brook which she was cautioned against
crossing, for fear she might fall into the brook. One day
her papa had left her mother and herself and had not
returned. When their supply of food was exhausted her
mamma lay down on the bed and became so still. At last
she said quaintly, "then I also died, but I didn't die. I
came here."

Mr. Roberts next told his story. Eighteen years before
he lived in London, where his father was a brewer. He
fell in love with their servant girl. His father objected,
so he eloped with her to Australia after they had first
been married. Here he went out into the bush and cleared
a little farm, where he erected a small cabin by a brook,
just as described by the little girl. A daughter was born
to them there, and when she was about two years old he
left the house one morning and went to a clearing some
distance from the house, and while there a man with a
rifle came up to him, saying that he arrested him in the
name of the law for a bank robbery committed on the
night Mr. R. had left England. The officer had tracked
him here, thinking him the criminal. Mr. R. begged to
be allowed to go to his wife and child, but, thinking this

174 BOSICBUCIAN COSMO CONCEPTION

a ruse to entrap him into the hands of confederates, the
officer refused and drove him to the coast at the point of
the gun. He was taken to England and tried and his in-
nocence proven.

First then did the authorities take heed of his constant
ravings about his wife and child, whom he knew must
starve in that wild and lonely country. An expedition
was sent out to the cabin, when it was found that only the
skeletons of the wife and child remained. Mr. Eoberts'
father had died in the meantime, and though he had
disinherited Mr. E., his brothers divided with him and he
came to America a broken man.

He then produced photographs of himself and his wife,
and at the suggestion of Mr. X. they were mixed with a
number of other photographs and shown to the little girl,
who unhesitatingly picked out the photographs of both
her alleged parents, although the photograph shown was
very different from the present appearance of Mr. Eoberts.