have given rise to this theory, for not only have those who advance it
never given the slightest proof of its truth, but it is utterly
opposed to the law of evolution.

In a world which prefers the flights of imagination to logical
reasoning we are too accustomed to regard man as a being apart in
Nature; we are only too prone to make exceptions on his behalf. The
patient scientific researches of all ages have laid down this
universally accepted axiom: _Nature does not proceed by leaps_. It has
not so far entered anyone's mind--we think not at all events--to teach
that the development of the mineral, the vegetable, and even of the
animal kingdom, comes to a sudden halt on this planet, once the forms
in these kingdoms are dispersed, to be completed in finer worlds; but
regarding man other thoughts have prevailed, as though his
intelligence and his heart had learnt all the lessons this earth is
capable of teaching! From the most undeveloped of savages up to those
glorious Spirits that have been the Manu, the Buddha, and the Christ,
we find every step occupied on the long ladder of humanity. In the
lower kingdoms all the stages exist also and are utilised, each link
receiving something from its neighbours and giving them something in
return, thus expressing on the visible plane that gracious unity which
is divine Love: love that is instinctive and imperative in beings of a
low degree of evolution; obeyed by those who, without loving it,
understand its good services, and actually lived by such souls as have
entered upon the path of sacrifice--souls that comprehend the Unity of
beings. If this earth has been capable of teaching the Saviours of the
world, why should divine Wisdom send thereon only for one short life
this mass of imperfect men, to hurl them afterwards on to other
worlds, like careless butterflies flitting from flower to flower?

Can the evolutionary effort be so easy and simple; is divine energy of
such slight value that it can thus be squandered to no purpose; is the
process of creation the sport of an infant God; is the Logos,
sacrificing himself in order to give life to the Universe, a prodigal,
working without rhyme or reason, sending forth His intelligence and
might in aimless sport and leaving evolution at the mercy of His
caprice; did not Brahma, by means of meditation, which, as the
Oriental scriptures tell us, preceded creation, practise the gentlest,
the most rapid, and the easiest method of guidin