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** "Unchangeable" only during Manvantaric periods, after which it merges once more into Mulaprakriti; "invisible" for ever, in its own essence, but seen in its reflected coruscations, called the Astral light by the modern Kabalists. Yet, conscious and grand Beings clothed in that same Essence move in it. *** One has to add (ponderable), to distinguish it from that Ether which is matter still, though a substratum. **** The Occult Sciences reverse the statement, and say that it is the sun, and all the suns that are from it , which emanate at the Manvantaric dawn from the Central Sun. ***** Here, we decidedly beg to differ with the learned gentleman. Let us remember that this AEther, whether Akasa is meant by the term, or its lower principle, Ether -- is septenary. Akasa is Aditi in the allegory, and the mother of Marttanda (the sun), the Deva - matri -- "Mother of the gods." In the solar system, the sun is her Buddhi and Vahan , the Vehicle, hence the 6th principle; in Kosmos all the suns are the Kama rupa of Akasa and so is ours. It is only when regarded as an individual Entity in his own Kingdom that Surya (the sun) is the 7th principle of the great body of matter . [[Vol. 1, Page]] 528 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. Science to speculate beyond the line drawn by modern materialism -- or call it agnosticism rather, to be more correct* -- than the majority avails itself of. Atoms, Ether, or both, modern speculation cannot get out of the circle of ancient thought; and the latter was soaked through with archaic occultism. Undulatory or corpuscular theory -- it is all one. It is speculation from the aspects of phenomena, not from the knowledge of the essential nature of the cause and causes. When modern Science has explained to its audience the late achievements of Bunsen and Kirchoff, and shown the seven colours, the "primary" of a ray which is decomposed in a fixed order on a screen; and described the respective lengths of luminous waves, what has it proved? It has justified its reputation for exactness in mathematical achievement by measuring even the length of a luminous wave -- "varying from about seven hundred and sixty millionths of a millimetre at the red end of the spectrum to about three hundred and ninety-three millionths of a millimetre at the violet end." But when the exactness of the calculation with regard to the effect on the light-wave is thus vindicated, Science is forced to admit that the force (which is the supposed cause ) is believed to produce "inconceivably minute undulations" in some medium -- " generally regarded as identical with the ethereal medium "** -- and that medium itself is still only -- a " hypothetical agent!" Auguste Comte's pessimism with respect to the impossibility of knowing some day the chemical composition of the sun, has not been belied thirty years later by Kirchoff, as claimed. The spectroscope has helped us to see that the elements, with which the modern chemist is familiar, must in all probability be present in the sun's outward robes -- not in the sun itself; and, taking these "robes," the solar cosmic veil, for the sun itself, the physicists have declared its luminosity to be due to combustion and flame , and have mistaken the vital principle of that luminary for a purely material thing, and called it "chromosphere."*** We have hypotheses and theories only so far, not law -- by any means. [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Brutal but frank materialism is more honest than Janus-faced agnosticism in our days. Monism is the Pecksniff of modern philosophy, turning a pharisaical face to psychology and idealism, and its natural face of a Roman Augur, swelling his cheek with his tongue -- to Materialism. The Monists are worse than the Materialists; because, while looking at the Universe and psycho-spiritual man from the same negative stand-point, the latter put their case far less plausibly than sceptics of Mr. Tyndall's or even Mr. Huxley's stamp. Herbert Spencer, Bain and Lewes are more dangerous to universal truths than Buchner. ** " Geology ," by Professor A. Winchell. *** See Five Years of Theosophy -- Articles: "Do the Adepts deny the nebular theory?" and "Is the Sun merely a cooling mass?" -- for the true Occult teaching.