thing we
can give, and take it freely. You are more than welcome to it. We are
only trustees for you. And if you do not care to be among the
pioneers, by all means stay outside, and walk along the smoother paths
which others have carved out for you." But there is one reason that I
may say to you--I do not say it to those outside--there is a reason
why you should be within it. You are more in touch with the forces
that make the future. You are surrounded, bathed, in the atmosphere in
which the future shall grow. All that is good in you is nourished by
those forces. All that is harmonious with them is strengthened by
their overmastering might. You cannot be amongst us without sharing
that inspiration; you cannot be a member without sharing the life
which is poured out unstinted through all the vessels of the
Theosophical Society. Outside it is not worth while to say this, for
that is not a reason for inducing people to come in; but you may
rejoice that good karma in the past has brought you into the Society
in the present. It has given you the right to have this opportunity of
a nobler birth in the coming time, has given you the opportunity of
taking part in that great work which is beginning to be wrought among
humanity. It gives you, from your life in the heavenly places, touch
with powers and opportunities that belong to these ideals in the world
of men, and it gives you the possibility there of touch with the
Mighty Ones whom here, however unworthily, we strive to follow. So
that it is a great thing to be within it, and it means much for the
future of you, if you can keep in it. For the immediate future of the
Theosophical Society is the work of building that next sub-race which
is to come. That is the work for which consciously it ought to be
working now. In proportion as you realise it, so will be the strength
of your labor; in proportion as you understand it, so should be your
share in the gladder work of that happier time. For the future of the
Theosophical Society is to be the mother, and even the educator, of
the child sixth sub-race which already is going through its ante-natal
life. That is its future, secure, inevitable; yours the choice if you
will share that future or not.

Part III

The Value of Theosophy in the World of Thought

_An Address on taking office as President of the Theosophical Society.
Delivered at the Queen's Hall, Langham Place, London, W., on 10th July
1907._

The Val