y showing the ordinary protoplasmic motions connected with such a
type of life and possible at that stage of its evolution. It was a seed
of form rather than a form itself; it was the seed planted by the Manu
in the waters of the earth, that out of that humanity might evolve. But
the general course of physical evolution passed through the stage of the
fish; and geology there gives a true fact, though it does not
understand, naturally, the hidden meaning; while the Purana gives you
the reality of the manifestation, and the deeper truth that underlies
the stages of the evolving world.

Then we find, tracing it onward, that this great age passes, and the
world begins to rise out of the waters. How then shall types be brought
forth in order that evolution may go on? The next great type is to be
fitted either for land or for water; for the next stage of the earth
shows the waters draining gradually away, and the land appearing, and
the creatures that are the marked characteristic of the age must exist
partially on land and partially in water. Here again there must be
manifestation of the type of life, this time of what we call the reptile
type; the tortoise is chosen as the typical creature, and while the
tortoise typifies the type to be evolved, reptiles, amphibious creatures
of every description, swarm over the earth, becoming more and more
land-like in their character as the proportion of land to water
increases. There is meanwhile going on, in the "imperishable sacred
land," a preparation for further evolution. There is one part of the
globe that changes not, that from the beginning has been, and will last
while the globe is lasting; it is called the "imperishable land." And
there the great Rishis gather, and thence they ever come forth for
the helping of man; that is the imperishable sacred land, sometimes
called the "sacred pole of the earth." Pole itself exists not on the
physical plane but on the higher, and its reflection coming downward
makes, as it were, one spot which never changes, but is ever guarded
from the tread of ordinary men. There took place a most instructive
phenomenon. The type of the evolution then preceding, the Tortoise, the
Logos in that form, makes Himself the base of the revolving axis of
evolution. That is typified by Mandara, the mountain which, placed on
the tortoise, is made to revolve by the hosts of Suras and Asuras, one
pulling at the head of the serpent, and the other at the tail--the
po