THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

Evening Star, Issue 13000, 20 December 1906, Page 7

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

A public meeting was held ir. the rooms of tii? Thccsophiral Society, Liverpool street. _ last « veiling, when Mr A. W. Maura is a-i-ircascu those present en • !-:-.:\inti:>ati."':i.' The lecturer dealt- first with the growth o! intelligence as manifested in the mineral, vegetable, and nni-nv-i kingdoms, and contended that human r< :::.'•••. was not an extension of that lower inl-clligcr.a-. but a power of a. higher, divine r-.-<lcr, used iu conjunction with th." n'ima! instincts. When a solar system •.van made, thn Logos of that system, drawing round Himself matter from the surrounding infinitude, vanned his life lute it. and imorc.;sed upon it all the laws which governed its movements, even to the highest crgxnc functions. When this v-.-rk wa.-. dene. tho Logos withdrew, but the laws remitted. l'h»> impress of tho Divine n;nsMOiis::«ss was thus upon all miisi'i-u! and vegetable f'Tms—stamped, indeed. u;v>n the ultimate atoms. The instinct. '.l:vc!-ir.in;: into a sort of sub-:-.b!i-'.ry :va.,::;, which distinguished the higher ciiimaJ.s. had been progressively derived from the original impress of theLores. Tims, r.li the lower nihilities and r»oul-:cT:s. summed mi in the word instinct, were said to bo dcri\ed tram the " rer.i s" of the Divine consciousness. Mr Muurais proceeded to speak of the human iva.s-. n. which, he said, was a ffirect outpouring fr-mi the Lc-;;os into the human form. Trig- latter was chosen from tho animal kinirdom when evolution had made progress i;not:<:h to provide a suitable- form. Thus was tho reason superimposed upon t.h« animal consciousness. Vast periods of timo- lay behind man, tho more advanced members of the race having l»"en cnmcvd in civilisations, stretching far hick into the night of time, after emerging from savage conditions of life. Ail this, said the lecturer, had to be taken into account when estimating the magnitude of the task iliat now had to bo undertaken by meu. That task was the craancioation of mankind from the cowers of the lower life, the cry of the animal soul, the desires of the organic cells. Man had to become the master of himself—of his mind and all his bodies. He had to emancipate himself from the thraldom of Nature and rise to the unfettered exercise of those Divme powers which, latent and potential lay unused within the recesses of his being". The task was, thus, a gigantic undertaking, which would tax the energies of men for many lives, even ■when they were so far awakened ns to make a commencement. Mr G. Richardson presided, and there waa a fair attendance.