Society simply
to study, but to spread the light, and every religion should be the
richer and the fuller in proportion to the number of Theosophists that
it enrolls amongst its followers.

Pass to the Third Object. There also we have work to do, and we cannot
work for Brotherhood effectively without understanding the nature of
man. And I feel that one or two who criticised the Society this
afternoon on that point had the right to make the criticism that they
did; for, while in the earlier days that Third Object was so carried
out in the Society that it was the leader in the fields of all such
research, it certainly now has fallen into the background, and is only
a gleaner in the fields where others are reaping, and that is not
right. The knowledge that you have in theory as to the constitution of
man and nature, should be a guide to you in researches, and not simply
remain theoretical knowledge. That which was said this afternoon about
the Psychical Research Society is true. It goes into everything
unusual with a prejudice against it, rather than with a feeling that
there is something to be learned; but on the other hand, one is bound
to say that during the last ten or twelve years that Society has done
more to familiarise the public with these facts of the hidden powers
of man than our own has done in practice, though we have done much
more in theory. Now I am not in favor of much experiment preceding a
study of theory; I believe that we need the theory in order to
experiment wisely; but I also believe that having a true theory we
should use it to guide our investigations, and thus to add to the
knowledge of the world. A part of our work, it seems to me, that lies
before us in the coming time, is to help the world to walk wisely
along those roads of research on which it has entered now. You cannot
prevent it going forward along them, knowledge is already too widely
spread for that; but what you can do is to help men to walk wisely,
and to avoid many a pitfall into which otherwise they would be very
likely to fall. And along those lines there is very much to be done:
plans to be worked out, methods of research to be planned and tested;
and I hope before very long to see some groups in our Society that
will take up this special line of work as part of their activities,
and, headed by someone who knows practically something of that with
which he is dealing, will then help the younger students to learn
wisely and to expe