Page 46 (part 8)

Let the men of Science only throw a bridge half-way, and think seriously over the theories of Leibnitz. We have shown our theories with regard to atomic evolution -- their last formation into compound chemical molecules being produced within our terrestrial workshops in the earth's atmosphere and not elsewhere -- as strangely agreeing with the evolution of atoms shown on Mr. Crookes' plates. Several times already it was stated in this volume that Marttanda (the Sun) had evolved and aggregated, together with his smaller seven Brothers, from his Mother's (Aditi's) bosom, that bosom being prima MATER-ia -- the lecturer's primordial protyle. Esoteric doctrines teach the existence of "an antecedent form of energy having periodic cycles of ebb and swell, rest and activity" (p. 21) -- and behold a great scholar in Science now asking the world to accept this as one of the postulates. We have shown the "Mother," fiery and hot, becoming gradually cool and radiant, and that same Scientist claims as his second postulate, a scientific necessity , it would seem -- "an internal action akin to cooling, operating slowly in the protyle." Occult Science teaches that "Mother" lies stretched in infinity (during Pralaya ) as the great Deep, the " dry Waters of Space," according to the quaint expression in the Catechism , and becomes wet [[Vol. 1, Page]] 626 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. only after the separation and the moving over its face of Narayana , the "Spirit which is invisible Flame, which never burns, but sets on fire all that it touches, and gives it life and generation."* And now Science tells us that "the first-born element . . . most nearly allied to protyle" . . . would be " hydrogen . . . which for some time would be the only existing form of matter" in the Universe. What says Old Science? It answers: just so; but we would call hydrogen and oxygen (which instils the fire of life into the "Mother" by incubation) in the pregenetic and even pre-geological ages -- the Spirit , the noumenon of that which becomes in its grossest form oxygen and hydrogen and nitrogen on Earth -- nitrogen being of no divine origin, but merely an earth-born cement to unite other gases and fluids, and serve as a sponge to carry in itself the breath of LIFE -- pure air.** Before these gases and fluids become what they are in our atmosphere, they are interstellar Ether; still earlier and on a deeper plane -- something else, and so on in infinitum. The eminent and learned gentleman must pardon an Occultist for quoting him at such length; but such is the penalty of a Fellow of the Royal Society who approaches so near the precincts of the Sacred Adytum of Occult mysteries as virtually to overstep the forbidden boundaries. But it is time to leave modern physical science and turn to the psychological and metaphysical side of the question. We would only remark that to the "two very reasonable postulates" required by the eminent lecturer, "to get a glimpse of some few of the secrets so darkly hidden" behind "the door of the Unknown" -- a third should be added*** -- lest no battering at it should avail; the postulate that Leibnitz, in his speculations, stood on a firm groundwork of fact and truth. The admirable and thoughtful synopsis of these speculations -- as given by John Theodore Merz in his "Leibnitz" -- shows how nearly he has brushed the hidden secrets of esoteric Theogony in his Monadologie. And yet that philosopher has hardly risen in his speculations above the first planes, the lower principles of the Cosmic Great Body. His theory soars to no loftier heights than those of the manifested life, self-consciousness and intelligence, leaving the regions of the earlier post-genetic mysteries untouched, as his ethereal fluid is post-planetary. But this third postulate will hardly be accepted by the modern men [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * "The Lord is a consuming fire. " . . . "In him was life , and the life was the light of men." ** Which if separated ALCHEMICALLY would yield the Spirit of Life, and its Elixir. *** Foremost of all, the postulate that there is no such thing in Nature as inorganic substances or bodies. Stones, minerals, rocks, and even chemical "atoms" are simply organic units in profound lethargy. Their coma has an end and their inertia becomes activity. [[Vol. 1, Page]] 627 LEIBNITZ AND OCCULTISM. of Science; and, like Descartes, they will prefer keeping to the properties of external things, which, like extension, are incapable of explaining the phenomenon of motion, rather than accept the latter as an independent Force. They will never become anti-Cartesian in this generation; nor will they admit that "this property of inertia is not a purely geometrical property, that it points to the existence of something in external bodies which is not extension merely." This is Leibnitz's idea as analyzed by Mertz, who adds that he called this something Force, and maintained that external things were endowed with Force, and that in order to be the bearers of this force they must have a substance, for they are not lifeless and inert masses, but the centres and bearers of form, a purely esoteric claim, since force was with Leibnitz an active principle, the division between mind and matter disappearing by this conclusion. But -- "The mathematical and dynamical inquiries of Leibnitz would not have led to the same result in the mind of a purely scientific inquirer. But Leibnitz was not a scientific man in the modern sense of the word. Had he been so, he might have worked out the conception of energy, defined mathematically the ideas of force and mechanical work, and arrived at the conclusion that even for purely scientific purposes it is desirable to look upon force, not as a primary quantity, but as a quantity derived from some other value." But, luckily for truth -- "Leibnitz was a philosopher; and as such he had certain primary principles, which biassed him in favour of certain conclusions, and his discovery that external things were substances endowed with force was at once used for the purpose of applying these principles. One of these principles was the law of continuity, the conviction that all the world was connected, that there were no gaps and chasms which could not be bridged over. The contrast of extended thinking substances was unbearable to him. The definition of the extended substances had already become untenable: it was natural that a similar inquiry was made into the definition of mind, the thinking substance. . ." The divisions made by Leibnitz, however incomplete and faulty from the standpoint of Occultism, show a spirit of metaphysical intuition to which no man of science, not Descartes -- not even Kant -- has ever reached. With him there existed ever an infinite gradation of thought.