dividualities recognising and affirming
themselves more day by day; "I's," who henceforth regard themselves as
separated from the rest of the Universe; this stage is that of the
Heresy of Separateness. Regarding this heresy, however, one may well
say: _Felix culpa._

Fortunate error, indeed, for it is the condition, _sine qua non_ of
future divinity, of salvation. It is self-consciousness; man is born;
man, the centre of evolution, set midway between the divine fragment
which is beginning and that which is ending its unfoldment, at the
turning point of the arc which leads the most elementary of the
various kingdoms of Nature to the most divine of Hierarchies. This
stage is a terrible one, because it is that which represents egoism,
_i.e._ combat, the cause of every evil that afflicts the world, but it
is a necessary evil, for there can be no _individual_ wisdom, power,
and immortality without the formation of an "I." This ego is nothing
but the first shoot, or bud, of the individual soul; it is only one of
its first faculties; the finest show themselves subsequently. This bud
is to blossom into a sweet-smelling flower; love and compassion,
devotion, and self-sacrifice will come into manifestation, and the
"centre of consciousness," after passing through the primitive
stages--often called the elemental kingdoms--after being sheathed in
mineral, vegetable, and animal forms, after having thought, reasoned,
and willed in human forms and looked upon itself as separated from its
fellow-creatures, comes finally to understand that it is only a breath
of the spirit, momentarily clad in a frail garment of matter,
recognises its oneness with all and everything, passes into the
angelic state, is born as Christ and so ends as a finished, perfected
soul--a World-Saviour.

Such is the Goal of life, the wherefore of the Universes, the
explanation of these startling evolutions of souls in the various
worlds, the solution of the problem regarding the diversity in the
development of beings, the justification of Providence before the
blasphemy of the inequality of conditions.

A FEW DEDUCTIONS.

_The Germ._

From the facts established in the course of this comprehensive view of
the Universe, we are enabled to draw important deductions.

For instance, as the basis of every "cycle of life" is found the egg
or germ, that strange microcosm which appears to contain within itself
the entire organism from which it proceeds and which see