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vanced have attained Adeptship only comparatively recently that is, within the
last few thousand years, and these are the Adepts of the present day. We, who find
ourselves in the higher races of humanity now, were several stages behind Them,
but the opportunity lies before us of following in Their steps if we will.
The evolution of which we have been speaking is that of the Ego himself, of what
might be called the soul of man; but at the same time there has been also an evo-
lution to the body. The forms built in the first round were very different from any
of which we know anything now. Properly speaking, those which were made on
our physical earth can scarcely be called forms at all, for they were constructed of
etheric matter only, and resembled vague, drifting and almost shapeless clouds.
In the second round they were definitely physical, but still shapeless and light
enough to float about in currents of wind.
Only in the third round did they begin to bear any kind of resemblance to man as
we know him today. The very methods of reproduction of those primitive forms
differed from those of humanity today, and far more resembled those which we
now find only in very much lower types of life. Man in those early days was an-
drogynous, and a definite separation into sexes took place only about the middle
of the third round. From that time onward until now the shape of man has been
steadily evolving along definitely human lines, becoming smaller and more com-
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pact than it was, learning to stand upright instead of stooping and crawling, and
generally differentiating itself from the animal forms out of which it had been
evolved.
One curious break in the regularity of this evolution deserves mention. On this
globe, in this fourth round, there was a departure from the straightforward
scheme of evolution. This being the middle globe of a middle round, the midmost
point of evolution upon it marked the last moment at which it was possible for
members of what had been the lunar animal kingdom to attain individualization.
Consequently a sort of strong effort was made a special scheme was arranged to
give a final chance to as many as possible. The conditions of the first and second
rounds were specially reproduced in place of the first and second races condi-
tions of which in the earlier rounds these backward egos had not been able fully
to take advantage. Now, with the additional evolution, which they had undergone
during the third round, some of them were able to take such advantage, and so
they rushed in at the very last moment before the door was shut, and became just
human. Naturally they will not reach any high level of human development, but at
least when they try again in some future chain it will be some advantage to them
to have had even this slight experience of human life.
Our terrestrial evolution received a most valuable stimulus from the assistance
given to us by our sister globe, Venus. Venus is at present in the fifth incarnation
of its chain, and in the seventh round of that incarnation, so that its inhabitants
are a whole chain-period and a half in front of us in evolution. Since, therefore,
its people are so much more developed than ours, it was thought desirable that
certain Adepts from the Venus evolution should be transferred to our Earth in
order to assist in the specially busy time just before the closing of the door, in the
middle of the fourth root-race.
These august Beings have been called the Lords of the Flame and the Children
of the Fire-mist, and They have produced a wonderful effect upon our evolution.
The intellect of which we are so proud is almost entirely due to Their presence,
for in the natural course of events the next round, the fifth, should be that of intel-
lectual advancement, and in this our present fourth round we should be devoting
ourselves chiefly to the cultivation of the emotions. We are therefore in reality a
long way in advance of the programme marked out for us; and such advance is
entirely due to the assistance given by these great Lords of the Flame. Most of
Them stayed with us only through that critical period of our history; a few still
remain to hold the highest offices of the Great White Brotherhood until the time
when men of our own evolution shall have risen to such a height as to be capable
of relieving their august Visitors.
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The evolution lying before us is both of the life and of the form; for in future
rounds, while the egos will be steadily growing in power, wisdom and love, the
physical forms also will be more beautiful and more perfect than they have ever
yet been. We have in this world at the present time men at widely differing stages
of evolution, and it is clear that there are vast hosts of savages who are far behind
the great civilized races of the world so far behind that it is quite impossible that
they can overtake them. Later on in the course of our evolution a point will be
reached at which it is no longer possible for those undeveloped souls to advance
side by side with the others, so that it will be necessary that a division should be
made.
The proceeding is exactly analogous to the sorting out by a schoolmaster of the
boys in his class. During the school year he has to prepare his boys for a certain
examination, and by perhaps the middle of that school year he knows quite well
which of them will pass it. If he should have in his class some who are hopelessly
behind the rest, he might reasonably say to them when the middle period was
reached:
 It is quite useless for you to continue with your fellows, for the more difficult
lessons which I shall now have to give will be entirely unintelligible to you. It is [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]