this
stage of evolution is, and always has been, in operation, and that new
forms of life are constantly evolving from the inorganic forms.
"Creation," so-called (although the word is an absurdity from the Yogi
point of view), is constantly being performed.

Dr. Charlton Bastian, of London, Eng., has long been a prominent
advocate of this theory of continuous spontaneous generation. Laughed
down and considered defeated by the leading scientific minds of a
generation ago, he still pluckily kept at work, and his recent books
were like bombshells in the orthodox scientific camp. He has taken more
than five thousand photo-micrographs, all showing most startling facts
in connection with the origin of living forms from the inorganic. He
claims that the microscope reveals the development in a previously
clear liquid of very minute black spots, which gradually enlarge and
transform into bacteria--living forms of a very low order. Prof. Burke,
of Cambridge, Eng., has demonstrated that he may produce in sterilized
boullion, subjected to the action of sterilized radium chloride, minute
living bodies which manifest growth and subdivision. Science is being
gradually forced to the conclusion that living forms are still arising
in the world by natural processes, which is not at all remarkable when
one remembers that natural law is uniform and continuous. These recent
discoveries go to swell the already large list of modern scientific
ideas which correspond with the centuries-old Yogi teachings. When the
Occult explanation that there is Life in everything, _inorganic as well
as organic_, and that evolution is constant, is heard, then may we see
that these experiments simply prove that the forms of life may be
changed and developed--not that Life may be "created."

The chemical and mineral world furnish us with many instances of the
growth and development of forms closely resembling the forms of the
vegetable world. What is known as "metallic vegetation," as shown in
the "lead tree," gives us an interesting example of this phenomenon.
The experiment is performed by placing in a wide-necked bottle a clear
acidulated solution of acetate of lead. The bottle is corked, a piece
of copper wire being fastened to the cork, from which wire is suspended
a piece of zinc, the latter hanging as nearly as possible in the center
of the lead solution. When the bottle is corked the copper wire
immediately begins to surround itself with a growth of met