ndrance to the rest of the
class. It is therefore far better for you to give up striving after the
impossible, and to take up again the work of the lower class which you did
not do perfectly, and then to offer yourselves for this examination along
with next year's class, for what is now impossible for you will then be
easy."

This is in effect exactly what is said at a certain stage in our future
evolution, to the most backward egos. They drop out of this year's class
and come along with the next one. This is the "aeonian condemnation" to
which reference was made a little while ago. It is computed that about
two-fifths of humanity will drop out of the class in this way, leaving the
remaining three-fifths to go on with far greater rapidity to the glorious
destinies which lie before them.

Chapter X

THE RESULT OF THEOSOPHICAL STUDY

"Members of the Theosophical Society study these truths and Theosophists
endeavour to live them." What manner of man then is the true Theosophist in
consequence of his knowledge? What is the result in his daily life of all
this study?

Finding that there is a Supreme Power who is directing the course of
evolution, and that He is all-wise and all-loving, the Theosophist sees
that everything which exists within this scheme must be intended to further
its progress. He realizes that the scripture which tells us that all things
are working together for good, is not indulging in a flight of poetic fancy
or voicing a pious hope, but stating a scientific fact. The final
attainment of unspeakable glory is an absolute certainty for every son of
man, whatever may be his present condition; but that is by no means all.
Here and at this present moment he is on his way towards the glory; and all
the circumstances surrounding him are intended to help and not to hinder
him, if only they are rightly understood. It is sadly true that in the
world there is much of evil and of sorrow and of suffering; yet from the
higher point of view the Theosophist sees that terrible though this be, it
is only temporary and superficial, and is all being utilized as a factor in
the progress.

When in the days of his ignorance he looked at it from its own level it was
almost impossible to see this; while he looked from beneath at the under
side of life, with his eyes fixed all the time upon some apparent evil, he
could never gain a true grasp of its meaning. Now he raises himself above
it to the higher levels of th