Page 47 (part 2)

But it is not physical Science that we can ever ask to read man for us, as the riddle of the Past, or that of the Future; since no philosopher is able to tell us even what man is, as he is known both to physiology and psychology. In doubt whether man was "a god or beast," he is now connected with the latter and derived from an animal. No doubt that the care of analyzing and classifying the human being as a terrestrial animal may be left to Science, which occultists -- of all men -- regard with veneration and respect. They recognize its ground and the wonderful work done by it, the progress achieved in physiology, and even -- to a degree -- in biology. But man's inner , spiritual, psychic, or even moral, nature cannot be left to the tender mercies of an ingrained materialism; for not even the higher psychological philosophy of the West is able, in its present incompleteness and tendency towards a decided agnosticism, to do justice to the inner; especially to his higher capacities and perceptions, and those states of consciousness, across the road to which such authorities as Mill draw a strong line, saying "So far, and no farther shalt thou go." No Occultist would deny that man -- no less than the elephant and the microbe, the crocodile and the lizard, the blade of grass or the crystal -- is, in his physical formation, the simple product of the evolutionary forces of nature through a numberless series of transformations; but he puts the case differently. It is not against zoological and anthropological discoveries, based on [[Vol. 1, Page]] 637 THE SWING OF KARMA. the fossils of man and animal, that every mystic and believer in a divine soul inwardly revolts, but only against the uncalled-for conclusions built on preconceived theories and made to fit in with certain prejudices. Their premises may or may not be always true; and as some of these theories live but a short life, the deductions therefrom must ever be one-sided with materialistic evolutionists. Yet it is on the strength of such very ephemeral authority, that most of the men of science frequently receive undue honours where they deserve them the least.* To make the working of Karma, in the periodical renovations of the Universe, more evident and intelligible to the student when he arrives at the origin and evolution of man, he has now to examine with us the esoteric bearing of the Karmic Cycles upon Universal Ethics. The question is, do those mysterious divisions of time, called Yugas and Kalpas by the Hindus, and so very graphically -- [[ Kuklos ]] -- "cycle," ring or circle, by the Greeks, have any bearing upon, or any direct connection with, human life? Even exoteric philosophy explains that these perpetual circles of time are ever returning on themselves, periodically, and [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * We refer those who would regard the statement as an impertinence or irreverence against accepted Science, to Mr. James Hutchinson Stirling's work concerning "Protoplasm," which is a defence of a vital Principle versus the Molecularists -- Huxley, Tyndall, Vogt, and Co. -- and request them to examine whether it is true or not to say that the scientific premises may not be always correct, but that they are accepted, nevertheless, to fill up a gap or a hole in some beloved materialistic hobby. Speaking of protoplasm and the organs of man, as "viewed by Mr. Huxley," the author says: "Probably then, in regard to any continuity in protoplasm of power, of form, or of substance, we have seen lacunae enow. Nay, Mr. Huxley himself can be adduced in evidence on the same side. Not rarely do we find in his essay admissions of PROBABILITY, where it is CERTAINTY that is alone in place. He says, for example: 'It is more than probable that when the vegetable world is thoroughly explored we shall find all plants in possession of the same powers.' When a conclusion is decidedly announced , it is rather disappointing to be told, as here, that the premisses are still to collect ' (!!) . . . . . Again, here is a passage in which he is seen to cut his own ' basis ' from beneath his own feet. After telling us that all forms of protoplasm consist of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen 'in very complex union,' he continues: 'To this complex combination, the nature of which has never been determined with exactness (!!) , the name of protein has been applied.' This, plainly, is an identification, on Mr. Huxley's own part, of protoplasm and protein; and what is said of one, being necessarily true of the other, it follows that he admits the nature of protoplasm never to have been determined with exactness, and that even in his eyes the lis is still sub judice. This admission is strengthened by the words, too, 'If we use this term -- protein -- with such caution as may properly arise out of our comparative ignorance of the things for which it stands . . . etc., etc. (p. 33 and 34, in reply to Mr. Huxley in "Yeast"). This is the eminent Huxley, the king of physiology and biology, who is proven playing at blind man's buff with premisses and facts. What may not the "smaller fry" of science do after this! [[Vol. 1, Page]] 638 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. intelligently in Space and Eternity. There are "Cycles of matter"* and there are "Cycles of Spiritual evolution." Racial, national, and individual cycles. May not esoteric speculation allow us a still deeper insight into the workings of these? This idea is beautifully expressed in a very clever scientific work: -- "The possibility of rising to a comprehension of a system of co-ordination so far outreaching in time and space all reach of human observations, is a circumstance which signalizes the power of man to transcend the limitations of changing and inconsistent matter, and assert his superiority over all unstable and perishable forms of being. There is a method in the succession of events , and in the relation of co-existent things, which the mind of man seizes hold of; and by means of this as a clue, he runs back or forward over aeons of material history of which human experience can never testify. Events germinate and unfold. They have a past which is connected with their present, and we feel a well-justified confidence that a future is appointed which will be similarly connected with the present and the past. This continuity and unity of history repeat themselves before our eyes in all conceivable stages of progress. The phenomena furnish us the grounds for the generalization of two laws which are truly principles of scientific divination , by which alone the human mind penetrates the sealed records of the past and the unopened pages of the future.