elves suffer in
their inner nature, but they would also become a menace to Society,
already suffering sufficiently at the hands of men whose intellect is
more evolved than their conscience. Hence arises the necessity of
withholding certain teachings from those who, morally, are as yet
unfitted to receive them; and this necessity presses on every Teacher
who is able to impart such knowledge. He desires to give it to those
who will use the powers it confers for the general good, for quickening
human evolution; but he equally desires to be no party to giving it to
those who would use it for their own aggrandisement at the cost of
others.

Nor is this a matter of theory only, according to the Occult Records,
which give the details of the events alluded to in Genesis vi. _et seq._
This knowledge was, in those ancient times and on the continent of
Atlantis, given without any rigid conditions as to the moral elevation,
purity, and unselfishness of the candidates. Those who were
intellectually qualified were taught, just as men are taught ordinary
science in modern days. The publicity now so imperiously demanded was
then given, with the result that men became giants in knowledge but also
giants in evil, till the earth groaned under her oppressors and the cry
of a trampled humanity rang through the worlds. Then came the
destruction of Atlantis, the whelming of that vast continent beneath the
waters of the ocean, some particulars of which are given in the Hebrew
Scriptures in the story of the Noachian deluge, and in the Hindu
Scriptures of the further East in the story of Vaivasvata Manu.

Since that experience of the danger of allowing unpurified hands to
grasp the knowledge which is power, the great Teachers have imposed
rigid conditions as regards purity, unselfishness, and self-control on
all candidates for such instruction. They distinctly refuse to impart
knowledge of this kind to any who will not consent to a rigid
discipline, intended to eliminate separateness of feeling and interest.
They measure the moral strength of the candidate even more than his
intellectual development, for the teaching itself will develope the
intellect while it puts a strain on the moral nature. Far better that
the Great Ones should be assailed by the ignorant for Their supposed
selfishness in withholding knowledge, than that They should precipitate
the world into another Atlantean catastrophe.

So much of theory we lay down as bearing on the