"Ages" and " periods " in geology are in sober truth very indefinite terms, as no two geologists agree in their calculations.

But the main point for us lies in the perfect accord of the naturalists on one point, and this a very important one. They all agree that during the Miocene Age-whether one or ten million years agoGreenland and even Spitzbergen (the remnants of our Second Continent) had almost a tropical climate. Now the pre-Homeric Greeks had preserved a vivid tradition of this "Land of the Eternal Sun,' whither their Apollo journeyed yearly. If they knew of this blessed Hyperborean land, beyond the reach of Boreas, god of the northern wind, who told them of it? For in their day, and for ages previously, Greenland must have been already covered with perpetual ice and snow. To know of this land of eternal summer, their traditions must have descended to the Greeks from some people more ancient than themselves. The archaic teachings, and likewise the Purânas-for one who understands their allegories -contain the same statements. Suffice then to us the strong probability that a people now unknown to history lived during the Miocene period of science, when Greenland was an almost tropical land.

NOTE. The reader is requested to bear in mind that the following sections are not strictly consecutive in order of time. In the first section the Stanzas which form the skeleton of the exposition are given, and certain important points commented upon and explained. In the subsequent sections various additional details are gathered, and a fuller explanation of the subject is attempted.

BOOK II. PART I

ANTHROPOGENESIS

Stanzas from the secret Book of Dzyan

Translated with Commentaries

(Only forty-nine Verses out of several hundred are here given. Not every Verse is translated verbatim. A periphrasis is sometimes used for the sake of clearness.)

ANTHROPOGENESIS

STANZA I

BEGINNINGS OF SENTIENT LIFE

1. The Spirit which turns the fourth (globe, our earth) is subservient to the seven Planetary Spirits, they who revolve driving their chariots around their Lord, the One Eye (the Sun). His breath gave life to the Seven, it gave life to the first.

2. Said the Earth: "Lord of the Shining Face " (the Sun), my house is empty send thy sons to people this globe. Thou hast sent thy seven sons to the Lord of Wisdom (Mercury). Seven times doth he see thee nearer to himself, seven times more doth he feel thee. Thou hast forbidden thy servants, the small rings, to catch thy light and heat,

thy great bounty to intercept on its passage. Send now to thy servant the same."

3. Said the Lord of the " Shining Face": "I shall send thee a Fire when thy work is commenced. Raise thy voice to other planes; apply to thy father, the Lord of the Lotus (the Moon) for his sons. Thy people shall be under the rule of the Fathers (the god of Death). Thy men shall be mortals. The men of the Lord of Wisdom (Mercury), not the Lunar Sons, are immortal. Cease thy complaints. Thy seven skins are yet on thee thou art not ready. Thy men are not ready.'

4. After great throes she (the Earth) cast off her old three and put on her new seven skins (geological changes), and stood in her first one.

STANZA II

NATURE, UNAIDED, FAILS

more

5. The wheel whirled for thirty crores (three hundred million years). It constructed forms: soft stones that hardened (minerals); hard plants that softened. Visible from invisible, insects and small lives. She shook them off her back whenever they overran the mother (by inclinations of Earth's axis). After thirty crores she turned round. She lay on her back, on her side. She would call no Sons of Heaven, she would ask no Sons of Wisdom. She created from her own bosom. She evolved water-men, terrible and bad.

6. The water-men, terrible and bad, she herself created from the remains of others (mineral, vegetable and animal remains), from the dross and slime of her first, second and third (Rounds) she formed them. The Spirit came and looked. "Our flesh is not there," they said. "No fit forms for our broth

ers of the Fifth (Race?). No dwellings for the Lives. Pure waters, not turbid, they must drink. Let us dry them" (the waters).

8. The Flames came. The Fires with the Sparks: the night fires, and the day fires. They dried out the turbid dark waters. With their heat they quenched them. The Spirits of the high, and those of the below, came (the more terrestrial). They slew the forms which were two- and four-faced. They fought the goat-men, and the dog-headed men, and the men with fishes' bodies.

9. Mother-water, the great sea, wept. She arose, she disappeared in the Moon which had lifted her (tidal action), which had given her birth.

10. When they (the monsters) were destroyed, Mother-earth remained bare. She asked to be dried (beginning of incrustation).

STANZA III

ATTEMPTS TO CREATE MAN

11. The Lord of the Lords came. From her body he separated the waters, and that was Heaven above, the first Heaven. (The atmosphere.)

12. The great Spirits called the Lords of the Moon, of the airy bodies. "Bring forth men," they were told," men of your nature. Give them their forms within. Earth will build coverings without (external bodies). (For) males-females will they be. Lords of the Flame also."

13. The Moon-gods went each on his allotted land: seven of them, each on his lot. The Lords of the Flame remain behind. They would not go, they would not create.

STANZA IV

CREATION OF THE FIRST RACES

14. The Seven Hosts, the " Will- (or Mind)-born Lords," propelled by the Spirit of Life-giving (Fohat), separate men from themselves, each on his

own zone.

15. Seven times seven Shadows of future men were thus born, each of his own color and kind. Each also inferior to his Creator. The Fathers, the boneless, could give no life to beings with bones. Their progeny were phantoms, with neither form nor mind. Therefore they are called the Shadows. 16. How are the real Men born? the men with minds, how are they made? The Fathers called to their help their own fire (the electric), which is the fire that burns in Earth. The Spirit of the Earth called to his help the Solar fire. (The fire of passion.) These three produced with their joint efforts a good form. It could stand, walk, run, recline or fly. Yet it was still but a Shadow, a shadow with no

sense.

17. The Breath (the Monad) needed a form; the Fathers gave it. The Breath needed a gross body; the Earth moulded it. The Breath needed the Spirit of Life; the Solar Lords breathed it into its form. The Breath needed a mirror of its body (an astral duplicate); "We gave it our own," said the Creative Spirits. The Breath needed a Vehicle of Desires; It has it," said the Drainer of Waters (the Solar fire, the fire of passion). But the Breath needs a mind to embrace the Universe; "We cannot give that," said the Fathers. "I never had it," said the Spirit of the Earth. "The Form would be consumed were I to give it mine," said the Great (Solar) Fire. Man remained an empty