ence, vivid subjective consciousness, really
does go on for periods greater than the periods of intellectual physical
existence, in the ratio, as we have seen in discussing the devachanic
condition, of 80 to 1 at least, then surely man's subjective existence is
more important than his physical existence and intellect in error, when
all its efforts are bent on the amelioration of the physical existence.'

"This is the ingenious theory which the Brothers of Thibet have devised
to release them from acknowledging that they have any other Brothers in
this world to whom they are under sacred obligations besides themselves,
and which, owing to the selfish principle that underlies it, has a
tendency to sap the foundations of all morality. So that we have this
nineteenth-century apostle of Esoteric Buddhism venturing to assert to
his Western readers that 'it is not so rough a question as that--whether
man be wicked or virtuous--which must really, at the final critical
turning-point, decide whether he shall continue to live and develop into
higher phases of existence, or cease to live altogether.' We, the
Sisters of Thibet, repudiate and denounce in the strongest terms any such
doctrine as the logical outcome either of the moral precepts of Buddha or
of the highest esoteric science. Let the Brothers of Thibet beware of
any longer cherishing the delusion that the Sisters of Thibet, because
their existence is purely objective, 'are therefore unreal and merely
transitory delusions of sense.' We also have a secret to reveal--the
result of twenty centuries of occult learning--and we formally announce
to you, the so-called adepts of occult science, that if you persist in
disseminating any more of your deleterious metaphysical compounds in this
world under the name of Esoteric Buddhism, we will not only no longer
refrain, as we have hitherto done, from tormenting you in your subjective
conditions while still in your _rupas_, but, by virtue of the occult
powers we possess, will poison the elements of _devachan_ until
subjective existence becomes intolerable there for your fifth and sixth
principles,--your _manas_ and your _buddhis_,--and _nirvana_ itself will
be converted into hell."

ADOLPHUS: A COMEDY OF AFFINITIES.

_Dramatis personae_.

The HON. ADOLPHUS GRESHAM.

The EARL OF GULES.

ADOLPHUS PLUMPER.

Mr FLAMM.

LADY ELAINE BENDORE.

The COUNTESS OF GULES.

Mrs PLUMPER.

CHARLES.

SCENE I.--A railway