Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-20
EVOLUTION OF MAN.
How the Theosophists Account for
the Growth of the Human Ego.
DARWIN At THE EDGE OF TRUTH.
The Race Was Pre-EIistent and Prepared
Its Own Physical Being.
PRESENT STAGE OF THE DEVELOPMENT
WRITTEN FOE THE prspArcH.I

| wnrTTEN FOE THE DISPATCH.i
'In man unite zeophyte, fish, monad and
mammal. The mouse is his fellow creature.
The worms are his poor relations. Nothing
walks, or creeps, or grows which he has not
been in turn. The rock is the man strait
fed; the plant, man vegetating; the reptile,
man wriggling and squirmIng; tomorrow it
will fly, walk or swim; the day after, it will
| wear o necktie or bonnet. "-E NJ W. In
FroteGa
"Esoteric science" writes A P. Sinnett,
though the most spiritual system imagina-
Bile, exhibits the most eIhaustable system
Of evolution (physicaD that the human
mind can conceive. The Darwinian theory
is an Independent discovery of q portion-a
small one-of the vast truth"
| Occultists, moreover, he af6rms, do not
have to keep to their science and religion in
separate and watertight COMPARTMENTS
They know how to explain the physical
evolution Of man without degrading his
spiritual nature, and to reconcile the most
advanced statements of science with the
highest dictates of religion. Nor do the ad-
vocates of the esoteric doctrine of evolution
regard it as mere theorizing only, dependent
for proof upon some as yet undiscovered,
but ''missing link"
| Explanation Of Eastern Sases.
Those who claim whereof they speak, are
said to have divulged it to the esoteric
world at large, as tested fact. However
this may be, and the esoteric multitude,
vastly in the majority, will of necessity in
cline to skepticism on that point, propose
| to give brief outline of tho really re-
markable, albeit somewhat intricate ex-
plantations given by Eastern sages on the
| subject
To begin with, the universal symbol of
evolution is a spirit, every evolutionary.
process is also by sevens, one seven, or seven
curves making single spiral. The princi-
pie of seven thus runs through all creation,
corresponding in general and particular to
the seven human principles essential to
man who is himself the crowning rsison
d'etre for all creative process whatever.
The esoteric meaning or the number is
therefore fullness or completion, and the
| number itself is counted by all religions
and criptures as one peculiarly sacred
Because, therefore, of this basic and neces-
sary principle Of sevens, the spiritual and
material perfection of human being, re-
quires, we are told, seven distinct planets
planets-the names ofwhich, by the way are
not given-our own earth is the fourth.
Where the Race Is Now.
Around this planetary chain, man % q
spurely spiritual monad" has already swept
three times, and is now on the present globe
for the fourth time. Each of these circuits
is in in esoteric parlance, called round;
and each round, according to the same
principle of sevens, is divided into seven
minor rounds or rings, and each ring, is in
its turn, divided into seven sub-rings or
curves, answering to the seven curves that
20 toward making up a single evolutionary
spiral. As race, we are now, say the same
writers. in the fifth sub-ring or curve of the
fifth ring of the fourth round.
The length of time required for q COM
plete passage of the human monad around
sub-rings, rings and rounds, may be family
conceived when we say that the present, i.
e., the fifth ring of the round, began
more than 1000, 900 years ago. The ring
itself, we are told, had its inception at the
North Pole, and since then poles and equa-
tor have changed places But man also
passed millions of years as q spiritual
natural being before his advent on the
purely physical or material plane. For the
process of development is a dual one, in
Guiding on the one hand, as moving cause,
matter, and, on the other, evolution proper,
or the ascent of spirit out OF matter, though
the distinction between the two substances
is more apparent than real, matter and
spirit differing only as to form.
Progress Begins With the Spiritual.
The explanatory point desired is, that
each fresh creative process begins always
on the spiritual or subjective side. Of this
period we, as egos conscious only on the
material or objective plane, can have no
conception-much less recollection. The
immediate object of this first evolutionary
curve downward was to develop the spirit
ual-natural or astral body-counterpart of
the physical that was to be. Man was thus
brought midway, so to speak, between pure
spirit and gross matter, preparing him for
come. The first ring of our round was then
taken up by the development of this astral
counterpart, each sub-ring or race of that
ring developing in its proper order one of
the seven principles or senses peculiar to
man on the astral or spiritual-natural
plane.
But before entering in to details concern
ing mans subsequent physical develop
ment, a glance at the ante-human condition
of the globe itself, and the laws that gov
erned its after evolutionary unfoldment,
Tn the first place, instead of there being
only three Kingdoms in nature, as is gener-
ally supposed, the septenary law holds good
here also.
Three Kingdoms Unknown to Science.
Seven such kingdoms there are, and of
the first three of these modern science as
yet knows absolutely nothing, its researches
being so far confined to the more material
the mineral, vegetable and animal Man
himself, instead of being classified with the
latter-as is almost universally the case at
the present day-forms, according to the
own, ranking as the seventh and highest.
And as man advanced from plane to plane
of physical existence, the seven Kingdoms
of nature also advanced correspondingly to
meet his needs. For here, too, the evolu-
tionary process began on the spiritual or
subjective side, and the outer universe kept
pace with the spiritual and material devel-
opment of man along corresponding lines Of
time and degree.
In a word, man as an astral being, dwelt
in the midst of an astral world-prototype
of the physical world to come-eYen as he
himself was then the astral counterpart Of
the future physical man. And as the human
being descended step by step into purely
material existence, the globe also began and
continued to condense and crystalize in
direct ratio. What is more significant, the
character and ultimate form assumed by this
crystalization, was determined by the Pc
culiar genius or individuality of the then
ualitv as moving cause, impressing itself
upon and molding the then plastic world of
effects.