he cyclic impulses,
on the eastern rim of the world: as soon as the cycle rises
there, they strike for the unification of nations. Then they
follow the cycle westward. To West Asia?--Nothing could be done
there, because this was the West Asian pralaya; those parts must
wait for Mohammed. In Europe then,--Greece?--No; its time and
vigor had passed; and the Greeks are not a building people.
They must bide their time, then, till the wave hits Italy, and
what they have done in China, attempt to do there.

Only, what they had done in China was a mere Ts'in Shi Hwangti,--
because Laotse and Confucius had not failed spiritually to
prepare the ground,--they must send forth Adept-souled Augustus
and Tiberius to do,--if human wisdom and heroism could do it,--in
Italy;--because Pythagoras' Movement had failed.

The Roman Empire was the European attempt at a China; China was
the Asiatic creation of a Rome. We call the Asiatic creation,
_China, Ts'in-a;_ it may surprise you to know that they called
the European attempt by the same name: Ta _Ts'in,_ 'the Great
Ts'in.' Put the words _Augustus Primus Romae_ into Chinese, and
without much straining they might read, _Ta Ts'in Shi Hwangti._
The whole period of the Chinese manvantara is, from the
two-forties B.C. to the twelve-sixties A.D., fifteen centuries.
The whole period of the Roman Empire, Western and Eastern, is from
the forties B.C. to the Fourteen-fifties A.D., fifteen centuries.
The first phase of the Chinese Empire, from Ts'in Shi Hwangti to
the fall of Han, lasted about 460 years; the Western Roman
Empire, from Pharsalus to the death of Honorius, lasted about as
long. Both were the unifications of many peoples; both were
overturned by barbarians from the north: Teutons in the one
case, Tatars in the other. But after that overturnment, China,
unlike Rome, rose from her ashes many times, and still endures.
Thank the success of Confucius and Laotse; and blame the failure
of Pythagoreanism, for that!

But come now; let me draw up their histories as it were in
parallel columns, and you shall see the likeness clearly; you
shall see also, presently, how prettily time and the laws that
govern human incarnation played battledore and shuttlecock with
the two: what a game of see-saw went on between the East and West.

From 300 to 250 B.C. there was an orgy of war in which old Feudal
China passed away forever, and from which Ts'in emerged Mistress
of the world. From 1