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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1 [[Vol. 1, Page]] 529 MYSTERIOUS SUN FLUID. VIII. LIFE, FORCE, OR GRAVITY. T HE imponderable fluids have had their day; "mechanical Forces" are less talked about; Science has put on a new face for this last quarter of a century; but gravitation has remained, owing its life to new combinations after the old ones had nearly killed it. It may answer scientific hypotheses very well, but the question is whether it answers as well to truth, and represents a fact in nature. Attraction by itself is not sufficient to explain merely planetary motion; how can it presume to explain the rotatory motion in the infinitudes of Space? Attraction alone will never fill all the gaps, unless a special impulse is admitted for every sidereal body, and the rotation of every planet with its satellites is shown to be due to some one cause combined with attraction. And even then, says an astronomer (" Philosophie Naturelle ," art. 142), Science would have to name that cause. Occultism has named it for ages, and so have all the ancient philosophers; but then all such beliefs are now proclaimed exploded superstitions. The "extra cosmic" God has killed every possibility of belief in intra cosmic intelligent Forces, yet who, or what is the original pusher in that motion? "When we have learned the cause, unique et speciale , that pushes, we will be ready to combine it with the one which attracts," says Francoeur (" Astronomie ," p. 342). And again -- "Attraction between the celestial bodies is only repulsion: it is the Sun that drives them incessantly onward; for otherwise, their motion would stop." If ever this theory of the Sun-Force being the primal cause of all life on earth and motion in heaven is accepted, and if that other far bolder one of Herschell -- about certain organisms in the Sun -- is accepted even as a provisional hypothesis, then will our teachings be vindicated, and esoteric allegory shown to have anticipated Modern Science by millions of years, probably, for these are the Archaic teachings. Marttanda (the Sun) watches and threatens -- without abandoning the central position to which his Mother, Aditi, relegated him -- his seven brothers, the planets; "he pursues them, turning slowly around himself . . . and follows them from afar, moving in the same direction that they do, on the path that encircles their houses" -- or the orbit. ( See Comment to Stanza IV. , Book I. ) It is the Sun-fluids or Emanations that impart all motion and awaken all into life, in the Solar System. It is attraction and repulsion, but not as understood by modern physics and according to the law of gravity; but in harmony with the laws of Manvantaric motion de- [[Vol. 1, Page]] 530 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. signed from the early Sandhya , the Dawn of the rebuilding and higher reformation of the System. These laws are immutable; but the motion of all the bodies, which motion is diverse and alters with every minor Kalpa -- is regulated by the Movers , the Intelligences within the Cosmic Soul. Are we so very wrong in believing all this? Well, here is a modern and a great man of Science who, speaking of vital electricity, uses language far more akin to Occultism than to modern materialistic thought. We refer the sceptical reader to an article on "The Source of Heat in the Sun," by Robert Hunt , F.R.S., (in " Popular Science Review ," Vol. IV., p. 148), who, speaking of the luminous envelope of the Sun and its "peculiar curdy appearance," says: -- "Arago proposed that this envelope should be called the Photosphere, a name now generally adopted. By the elder Herschell, the surface of this photosphere was compared to mother-of-pearl. . . . . It resembles the Ocean on a tranquil summer-day, when its surface is slightly crisped by a gentle breeze. . . . Mr. Nasmyth has discovered a more remarkable condition than any that had previously been suspected . . . objects which are peculiarly lens-shaped . . . . like 'willow leaves . . . . different in size . . . . . not arranged in any order crossing each other in all directions . . . . . with an irregular motion among themselves . . . . . . . They are seen approaching to and receding from each other, and sometimes assuming new angular positions, so that the appearance . . . . . has been compared to a dense shoal of fish, which, indeed, they resemble in shape. . . . The size of these objects gives a grand idea of the gigantic scale upon which physical (?) operations are carried out in the Sun. They cannot be less than 1,000 miles in length, and from two to three hundred miles in breadth. The most probable conjecture which has been offered respecting those leaf or lens-like objects, is that the photosphere* is an immense ocean of gaseous matter (what kind of "matter?") . . . in a state of intense (apparent) incandescence, and that they are perspective projections of the sheets of flame. . . ." Solar "flames" seen through telescopes are reflections , says Occultism. But see what Occultists have to say to this in Book I. "Whatever they may be (those sheets of flame), it is evident they are the immediate sources of solar heat and light. Here we have a surrounding envelope of photogenic matter,** which pendulates with mighty energies, and by communicating its motion to the ethereal medium in stellar space, produces heat and light in far distant worlds. We have said that those forms have been compared to certain organisms, and Herschell says, 'Though it would be too daring to speak of such organizations as partaking of life [why not?],*** yet we do not know that vital action is competent to develop heat, light, and electricity.' . . . Can it be that there is truth in this fine thought? May the pulsing of vital matter [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * And the central mass , too, as will be found, or rather the centre of the reflection. ** That "matter" is just like the reflection in a mirror of the flame from a "photogenic" lamp - wick. *** See " Five Years of Theosophy ," p. 258 -- answer to this speculation of Herschell's. [[Vol. 1, Page]] 531 SUN-FORCE AND EARTH-FORCE. in the central Sun of our System be the source of all that life which crowds the earth, and without doubt overspreads the other planets, to which the Sun is the mighty Minister? " . . . Occultism answers these queries in the affirmative; and Science will find this to be the case, one day. Again, on p. 156, Mr.