nvironments that will enable him to put into effect all the new skill
and wisdom he has gained, so a nation goes on to greater and greater
opportunities. Souls that made the greatness of Greece and Carthage and
Rome are now making the greatness of Europe and America. Such facts
explain many things that have seemed puzzling. How, for example, was it
possible for the world's greatest civilization to spring up suddenly in
Europe from barbarous peoples? When Rome declined--declined because her
people largely reincarnated elsewhere--Europe was inhabited by slightly
civilized hordes. To assume that since then, in a few centuries--a mere
passing moment in the great lapse of time required for race
evolution--the civilization today could arise, would be to ignore the
fundamentals of evolution. But when we understand that great groups of
old souls incarnate in the strong physical bodies which the more
primitive peoples could bring into the world, the mystery of the rapid
rise of a great civilization in Europe is solved.

The principle of rebirth holds also with the animal kingdom at a high
level in it. The last phase of evolution in the animal kingdom is the
individualizing of the consciousness. A particularly intelligent cat or
dog, for example, may be just finishing animal evolution and will be
reborn at the lowest human level. Previous to its individualization it
evolves in a group with others of its kind, animated by a common
ensoulment that has not reached the level of complete
self-consciousness. At that group-soul stage the experience of each
animal in the group adds to the knowledge of all. This theosophical
teaching on one of nature's most interesting facts enables us to
understand many things that would otherwise remain mysterious. Instinct
has never been explained by science. Some of its best known expressions
are altogether mysterious. Why does a young wild animal hide from the
enemies of its kind but not from friends, when it has never seen either?
A quail a day old will fall upon its side with a chip or small stone or
bit of grass firmly clutched in its tiny claws to hide its body, and
remain perfectly motionless at the approach of a human being, but will
take no alarm at the passing of a squirrel or a rabbit. How does a young
chick know the difference between a crow and a hawk? And why, in remote
places like the antarctic regions, are both young and old birds and
animals unafraid of man? The group-soul is a clear an