Page 46 (part 6)

This lecture will give you some idea of the way in which these Elements spring from Vishwanara ,* the most objective of these three principles, which seems to stand in the place of the protyle mentioned in that lecture. Except in a few particulars , this lecture seems to give the outlines of the theory of physical evolution on the plane of Vishwanara , and is, so far as I know, the nearest approach made by modern investigators TO THE REAL OCCULT THEORY on the subject. " These words will be re-echoed and approved by every Eastern Occultist. Much from the lectures by Prof. Crookes has already been quoted in § XII. of these Addenda. Since then, there has been another lecture delivered, as remarkable as the first one, on the "Genesis of the Elements,"** and also a third one. Here we have almost a corroboration of the teachings of Esoteric philosophy concerning the mode of primeval evolution. It is, indeed, as near an approach , made by a great scholar and specialist in chemistry,*** to the Secret Doctrine, as could be made apart from the application of the monads and atoms to the dogmas of pure transcendental metaphysics, and their connection and correlation with "Gods and intelligent Conscious Monads." But Chemistry is now on its ascending plane, thanks to one of its highest European representatives. It is impossible for it to go back to that day when materialism regarded its sub -elements as absolutely simple and homogeneous bodies, which it had raised, in its blindness, to the rank of elements. The mask has been snatched off by too clever a hand for there to be any fear of a new disguise. And after years of pseudology, of bastard molecules parading under the name of elements, behind and beyond which there could be nought but void, a great professor of chemistry asks once more: "What are these elements, whence do they come, what is their signification? . . . . These elements perplex us in our researches, baffle us in our speculations, and haunt us in our very dreams. They stretch like an unknown sea before us mocking -- mystifying, and murmuring strange revelations and possibilities." ( Gen. of Elem. , p. 1.) [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * " Vishwanara is not merely the manifested objective world, but the one physical basis (the horizontal line of the triangle) from which the whole objective world starts into existence." And this is the Cosmic Duad , the androgynous Substance. Beyond only, is the true Protyle. ** By W. Crookes, F.R.S., V.P.C.S ., delivered at the Royal Institution, London, on Friday, February 18th, 1887. *** How true it is will be fully demonstrated only on that day when his discovery of radiant matter will have resulted in a further elucidation with regard to the true source of light, and revolutionized all the present speculations. Further familiarity with the northern streamers of the aurora borealis may help the recognition of this truth. [[Vol. 1, Page]] 622 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. Those who are heirs to primeval revelations have taught these "possibilities" in every century, but have never found a fair hearing. The truths inspired to Kepler, Leibnitz, Gassendi, Swedenborg, etc., were ever alloyed with their own speculations in one or another predetermined direction --hence distorted. But now one of the great truths has dawned upon an eminent professor of modern exact science, and he fearlessly proclaims as a fundamental axiom that Science has not made itself acquainted, so far, with real simple elements. For Prof. Crookes tells his audience: "If I venture to say that our commonly received elements are NOT simple and primordial , that they have not arisen by chance or have not been created in a desultory and mechanical manner, but have been evolved from simpler matters -- or perhaps, indeed, from one sole kind of matter -- I do but give formal utterance to an idea which has been, so to speak, for some time 'in the air' of science. Chemists, physicists, philosophers of the highest merit, declare explicitly their belief that the seventy (or thereabouts) elements of our text-books are not the pillars of Hercules which we must never hope to pass." . . . "Philosophers in the present as in the past -- men who certainly have not worked in the laboratory -- have reached the same view from another side." Thus Mr. Herbert Spencer records his conviction that 'the chemical atoms are produced from the true or physical atoms by processes of evolution under conditions which chemistry has not yet been able to produce.' . . . "And the poet has forestalled the philosopher. Milton ('Paradise Lost,' Book V.) makes the Archangel Raphael say to Adam, instinct with the evolutionary idea, that the Almighty had created . . . 'One first matter, all Indued with various forms, various degrees Of substance.' " Nevertheless, the idea would have remained crystallized "in the air of Science," and never have descended into the thick atmosphere of materialism and profane mortals for years to come, perhaps, had not Professor Crookes bravely and fearlessly reduced it to its simple elements, and thus publicly forced it on Scientific notice. "An idea," says Plutarch, "is a being incorporeal, which has no subsistence by itself, but gives figure and form unto shapeless matter, and becomes the cause of the manifestation. " ( De Placit. Philos. ) The revolution produced in old chemistry by Avogadro was the first page in the Volume of New Chemistry. Mr. Crookes has now turned the second page, and is boldly pointing to what may be the last. For once protyle accepted and recognized -- as invisible Ether was , both being logical and scientific necessities -- Chemistry will have virtually ceased to live: it will reappear in its reincarnation as New Alchemy , or M ETACHEMISTRY. The discoverer of [[Vol. 1, Page]] 623 THE GENESIS OF ATOMS. radiant matter will have vindicated in time the Archaic Aryan works on Occultism and even the Vedas and Puranas. For what are the manifested "Mother," the "Father-Son-Husband" (Aditi and Daksha, a form of Brahma, as Creators) and the "Son," -- the three "First-born" -- but simply Hydrogen , Oxygen , and that which in its terrestrial manifestation is called nitrogen. Even the exoteric descriptions of the "First Born" triad give all the characteristics of these three gases. Priestley, the "discoverer" of Oxygen, or that which was known in the highest antiquity! Yet all the ancient, mediaeval, and modern poets and philosophers have been anticipated even in the exoteric Hindu books.