simple (but highly efficient) philosophy, and to
provide his grand Example; in India it was enough for the Lord
Buddha to teach his wisdom and to found his Order; he might
trust the future to them;--For Persia, one cannot say: the facts
as to Zoroaster are not enough known; there might seem to have
been some failure there too;--but in Greece, it was imperative
that Pythagoras should establish his Lomaland; nothing else
could save the forces from squandering themselves at once, in
that momentous time, on the intellectual and artistic planes, and
leaving life unredeemed and unaffected.

Which indeed they did; and thence on it Europe we see century by
century vision waning and the world on a downward path, until the
moment comes when a new effort may be made. Augustus calls a
halt then; moves heaven and earth; works like ten Herculeses,
along all lines, to bring about an equilibrium in outer affairs;
and so far succeeds that in his time one or two men may have the
Vision, at any rate:--Virgil may catch more than glimpses of the
Inner Beauty, and leave the outer world a litle less forlorn.
But in place of the rush and fine flow of the Grecian Age, what
painful strivings we find in the Augustan!--When too, Teachers
labor to illumine the vastnesses within; Apollonius; Moderatus;
shall we add, the Nazarene?--So the downward tendency is checked;
in the following centuries we see a slow pushing upward,--in the
heroic effort of the Stoics, not after Vision--that was beyond
their scope and ken,--but after at least that which should bring
it back,--a noble method of life.

And then, at last, a dawn eastward: and the bugles of the
Spirits of the Dawn heard above the Pyramids, heard over the
shadowy plains where Babylon was of old;--and out of that yellow
glow in the sky come, now that the cycle permits them, masters of
the Splendid vision. They come with something of light from the
ancient Mysteries of Egypt; with some shining from Star Plato,
and from Pythagoras; and at their coming light up the dark
worlds and the intense blue deeps of the sky,--wherein you can
see now, under their guidance, immeasurable and beautiful things
to satisfy the highest cravings of your heart: winged Aeons on
Aeons, ring above ring,--mystery emanating mystery, beauty,
beauty, from here up to the Throne of the Lonely All-Beautiful.--
What growth there had been in Roman Europe, to prepare the way
for the spread of Neo-Platonism, I cannot say; bu