ified.
And after a time the human souls returning to earth would have found no
available material with which to combine. All the substances available for
man would have been used up in filling the earth with the hardened,
wood-like remains of incarnations.

Then an event took place which gave a new turn to the whole evolution.
Everything in the solid earthly substance which could contribute to
permanent induration was eliminated. At this point our present moon left
the earth. And what had previously directly conduced to a moulding of
permanent forms, now operated from the moon indirectly and in a diminished
degree. The higher beings, on whom that moulding of forms depended, had
resolved to exercise their influences upon their earth no longer from its
interior, but from without. By this means there was brought about in the
bodily structure of man a difference which must be called the beginning of
the separation into a male and a female sex.

The finely constituted human forms which formerly inhabited the earth, had
produced through cooperation of the two forces within themselves, that of
the embryo and that of the animating force, the new human form, their
descendant. These descendants are now transformed. In one group the
animating power of the psycho-spiritual element was paramount; in another
the animating germinal force. This was caused by the weakening of the
power of the solid element in consequence of the moon's leaving the earth.
The reciprocal action of these two forces now became more delicate than it
had been before--when it occurred within one single body, consequently the
descendant also became more delicate and fine. He entered the earth in a
delicate condition, and only gradually incorporated more solid parts
within him. In this way the possibility of union with the body was once
more given to the human soul returning to earth. It no longer animated the
body from without, because that animation took place on the earth itself;
but it became united with the body, and enabled it to grow. Of course a
certain limit was set to that growth. Through the separation of the moon,
the human body had for a time become supple; but the more it continued to
grow on the earth, the more the solidifying forces got the upper hand. At
length the share borne by the soul in the organization of the body grew
less and less, and the body disintegrated when the soul ascended to
psycho-spiritual modes of existence. One can trace how