into those
forming protoplasm; from the protoplasm to the lower forms of animal
life; from these lower forms on to higher forms--this is the story. But
it is all a counterpart of the dew-drop and the body of water, _until
the human soul is evolved_.

The plants and the lower forms of animal life are not permanent
individual souls, but each family is a _group-soul_ corresponding to
the body of water from which the dew-drop arose. From these family
group-souls gradually break off minor groups, representing species, and
so on into sub-species. At last when the forms reach the plane of man,
the group-soul breaks itself up into _permanent individual souls_, and
true Metempsychosis begins. That is, _each individual human soul
becomes a permanent individual entity_, destined to evolve and perfect
itself along the lines of spiritual evolution.

And from this point begins our story of Spiritual Evolution.

The story of Man, the Individual, begins amidst humble surroundings.
Primitive man, but little above the level of the lower animals in point
of intelligence, has nevertheless that distinguishing mark of
Individuality--"Self-Consciousness," which is the demarkation between
Beast and Man. And even the lowest of the lowest races had at least a
"trace" of this Self-Consciousness, which made of them individuals, and
caused the fragment of the race-soul to separate itself from the
general principle animating the race, and to fasten its "I" conscious
upon itself, rather than upon the underlying race-soul, along
instinctive lines. Do you know just what this Self-Consciousness is,
and how it differs from the Physical Consciousness of the lower
animals? Perhaps we had better pause a moment to consider it at this
place.

The lower animals are of course conscious of the bodies, and their
wants, feelings, emotions, desires, etc., and their actions are in
response to the animating impulses coming from this plane of
consciousness. But it stops there. They "know," but they do not "know
that they know"; that is, they have not yet arrived at a state in which
they can think of themselves as "I," and to reason upon their thoughts
and mental operations. It is like the consciousness of a very young
child, which feels and knows its sensations and wants, but is unable to
think of itself as "I," and to turn the mental gaze inward. In another
book of these series we have used the illustration of the horse which
has been left standing out in the c