The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03
A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW.
DR.. Allen Griffiths Ayers That.Dar@
win Guessed but Half the
Truth

truth.
DR.. Allen Grifiths, one of the leading Theoso-
phists OF this City, furnishes some interesting
views and arguments on the subject of soul
evolution. He is evolutionist of an extreme
type, and believes that the souls of plants,
animals and men are necessarily immortal,
each rising through cycles of evolution, from
plane to plane, in its progress (no matter from
how low state) to divinity.
As Theosophists View 1t.
Yes; animals have souls.
This is on the authority of Theosophy.
the wisdom religion which in turn rests
upon no narrower basis than justice, COM
nonsense and logic. Theosophy gives to
every animate creature a soul-and even
to every inanimate object. But the soul
Of an animal is not the same as that ini-
prisoned in the human; nor that of the
stone like that of the plant The smallest
atom in the universe Is the prison-house
of a germ that will, in the ages 10 come,
evolve into a god-or else this is a disor-
derlv universe and life and justice itself is
farce.
Having said so much, and having no
wish to be dogmatic, it is only fair TO the
wisdom religion, Mr.. Editor, that | should
be permitted at least a very brief argu-
ment to sustain these statements. %
Why do animals have souls? Because
all nature with its innumerable universes
exists but for the evolution OF the soul.
What is the soul? A ray of divinity and
one of its expressions. How does it
evolve? In great cycles from the highest to-
the lowest and back again TO the highest.
The cycles proceed in ascending spirals
from plane to plane, and each plane is a:
degree higher than its predecessor. This
is the divine law. 1t is manifested SO
clearly in all things that all deep thinkers
have recognized it. Even Spencer ex-
pounds it when his philosophy is sifted to
the core. Sweeping throughout cosmos
this universal and undertaking law of
periodicity operates as terms of activity
and inactivity, motion and rest. Day and
night, the seasons of the yeac, the ebb and
flood of restless tides, the circulation of
the blood, growth and decay, youth ana
old age-everywhere and in ali things is
this law manifested. And these periods
mark the ebb and flow of that evolutionary
wave OF divinity which bears the visible
and invisible. contents of cosmos upon its
bosom toward the goal of higher life.
| What has all this to do With the soul of
an animal2 Everything. 1t is necessary
| step in rational explanation of evolution
| itself. Bear with me moment longer.
! AT the beginning of great period of
! evolution-not the beginning of infinite
duration, for that has no beginning and
no end-Deity rises upon the plane of OBJ
iective manifestation and emanaIes count
less rays. Is this mystical language2 Does
1t convey no meaning to your mind2 Re-
member that an explanation of the sim
plest laws OF electricity would be even more
mystical to the Digger Indian. Remem-
Der, too, that my own powers of clarity are
but human, and seek the truth for your
self. But possibly you catch glimpse of
1t now. Well, then, each of these rays of
Divinity manifesting itself upon this OBJ
jective plane is the vesture of an immortal
soul destined to career through intnity as
Pilgrim of Eternity, as tireless traveller
of the cycles of necessity. 1t IS constituted
of the essence, quality, potentiaIity and
infinite duration of its source, Deity.
Upon our earth the soul-whether that
of the mineral, vegetable, animal or hu-
man-began its evolution in the lowest
elemental kingdom, which is below even
the mineral, and began its task of evolving.
expanding, growing to that stage where
its outer garb was the stone or the metal.
In each kingdom there are vast experiences
to be obtained, and each new experience
is a step forward In its progress toward
divinity. And when the soul in the pep-
BILE exhausted the possibilities for develop
ment in that kingdom, it passed on up to the
vegetable kingdom. The stone becomes a
plant, the plant becomes beast, the beast
becomes a man, and the man becomes a
god. Do not mistake. 1t was not the soul
that was plant or stone or a beast. 1t
was and is the soul that was and is i'm
prisoned in these varying outer garbs and
each kingdom is but one OF the innuner-
able links in its endless chain of evolution.
In each new and higher garb come greater
possibilities for expansion. The stone can
not feel, but the plants can; the plant can
not suffer, but the beast can; the beast can
not will, but man can Does evolution cease
with man? Is it seventy years of life and
an eternity of bliss or misery? No; this
m.