A Textbook of Theosophy | Page 2

to be what he now is. This also is a
matter of observation, because of the fact that there exists an indelible
record of all that has taken place--a sort of memory of Nature--by
examining which the scenes of earlier evolution may be made to pass
before the eyes of the investigator as though they were happening at
this moment. By thus studying the past we learn that man is divine in
origin and that he has a long evolution behind him--a double evolution,
that of the life or soul within, and that of the outer form. We learn, too,
that the life of man as a soul is of, what to us seems, enormous length,
and that what we have been in the habit of calling his life is in reality
only one day of his real existence. He has already lived through many
such days, and has many more of them yet before him; and if we wish
to understand the real life and its object, we must consider it in relation
not only to this one day of it, which begins with birth and ends with
death, but also to the days which have gone before and those which are
yet to come.
Of those that are yet to come there is also much to be said, and on this
subject, too, a great deal of definite information is available. Such
information is obtainable, first, from men who have already passed

much further along the road of evolution than we, and have
consequently direct experience of it; and, secondly, from inferences
drawn from the obvious direction of the steps which we see to have
been previously taken. The goal of this particular cycle is in sight,
though still far above us but it would seem that, even when that has
been attained, an infinity of progress still lies before everyone who is
willing to undertake it.
One of the most striking advantages of Theosophy is that the light
which it brings to us at once solves many of our problems, clears away
many difficulties, accounts for the apparent injustices of life, and in all
directions brings order out of seeming chaos. Thus, while some of its
teaching is based upon the observation of forces whose direct working
is somewhat beyond the ken of the ordinary man of the world, if the
latter will accept it as a hypothesis he will very soon come to see that it
must be a correct one, because it, and it alone, furnishes a coherent and
reasonable explanation of the drama of life which is being played
before him.
The existence of Perfected Men, and the possibility of coming into
touch with Them and being taught by Them, are prominent among the
great new truths which Theosophy brings to the western world.
Another of them is the stupendous fact that the world is not drifting
blindly into anarchy, but that its progress is under the control of a
perfectly organized Hierarchy, so that final failure even for the tiniest
of its units is of all impossibilities the most impossible. A glimpse of
the working of that Hierarchy inevitably engenders the desire to
co-operate with it, to serve under it, in however humble a capacity, and
some time in the far-distant future to be worthy to join the outer fringes
of its ranks.
This brings us to that aspect of Theosophy which we have called
religious. Those who come to know and to understand these things are
dissatisfied with the slow æons of evolution; they yearn to become
more immediately useful, and so they demand and obtain knowledge of
the shorter but steeper Path. There is no possibility of escaping the
amount of work that has to be done. It is like carrying a load up a

mountain; whether one carries it straight up a steep path or more
gradually by a road of gentle slope, precisely the same number of
foot-pounds must be exerted. Therefore to do the same work in a small
fraction of the time means determined effort. It can be done, however,
for it has been done; and those who have done it agree that it far more
than repays the trouble. The limitations of the various vehicles are
thereby gradually transcended, and the liberated man becomes an
intelligent co-worker in the mighty plan for the evolution of all beings.
In its capacity as a religion, too, Theosophy gives its followers a rule of
life, based not on alleged commands delivered at some remote period
of the past, but on plain common sense as indicated by observed facts.
The attitude of the student of Theosophy towards the rules which it
prescribes resembles rather that which we adopt to hygienic regulations
than obedience to religious commandments. We may say, if we wish,