plicit in it the reality behind all names, and the potentiality of action in all realities. When used as a name there was implicit in it the reality of all subjects or words and their potentialities, and not merely those of the particular subject so named. When used as a verb there was implicit in it not merely the definition of action, being and, or, state of being, but all actions, all beings and all states, past, present or to come. From this we may gain some perception of the mighty diapason of Saint John the evangel when he said, "In the beginning was God, and the Verbum was with God, and the Verbum was God."

But Latin, and even Greek, perfected and finished as they are, and therefore models for our imitation and emulation in the perfecting of our use of our own tongue, are but pale shadows of the noble Sanskrit, the perfection of language of the past Race, embodying in it all former perfections since the beginning of speech upon this earth. For Sanskrit, in the days when it was a living tongue, was also the living vehicle of thought. Its sounds, the active phase of language, were so entirely the vehicle of meaning, that they conveyed their own definition, and immediately induced in the mind of the listener the exact modification—that is, the exact state of being of the speaker. Misunderstanding by one of another, so universally common and unavoidable in our times, was then unknown, for language was the living antaskarana of thought or ideation. The listener not merely heard sounds and words: he heard, he saw, he felt, what was taking place in the mind of the speaker, as if it were himself.

That day will come again, and Sanskrit once more become the language of men, as it has been and is, the language of the Godsor perfected men. To hasten the advent of that day, with all that it implies, was the reason for the coming of H. P. Blavatsky among men, for her writing, teaching, working as she did, and for her interjection into the language of Theosophy of so many Sanskrit terms and ideas.

We may now return to the direct subject of Being, and endeavor to consider with a more opened, because more chastened, mind, what is sought to be conveyed to us by the statements she has recorded of the third of the Great Ideas of the Secret Doctrine. This third affirmation of Fundamental Propositions is, in her own words:

The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over-Soul, the latter itself an aspect of the Unknown Root; and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul-a spark of the former-through the cycle of Incarnation (or "Necessity") in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term. In other words, no purely spiritual Buddhi (divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious) existence before the spark which issued from the pure Essence of the Universal Sixth principle-or the OVER-SOUL,-has (a) passed

through every elemental form of the phenomenal world of that Manvantara, and (b) acquired individuality, first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and self-devised efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest archangel (DhyaniBuddha).

If we are ever to gain anything from the writing and work of H. P. Blavatsky-and her public work and writing were incessant throughout a period of fifteen years-it is absolutely essential that the student shall undertake and achieve three gigantic preliminary tasks: He must recognize and shake off the superficial and inattentive methods of thought and action which have become embedded and ingrained in us all by force of the common ideas and common practices of the race to which we belong; he must gain a clear apprehension of what is sought to be conveyed in the statement of the Three Fundamental Propositions; he must in all his subsequent studies of her voluminous writings, bear unceasingly in mind the implicit presence of these three basic ideas as the foundation, the structure, and the content, whatever the elaboration or the detail she may be presently actively discussing.

Isis Unveiled was intended to clear away the rubbish and rubble of ideas with which all are afflicted in the name of religion, science and philosophy, and lay bare the universal foundations upon which all these have been builded. It will infallibly do that work for the individual student who reads and studies it with attention. It is a work of orientation, of getting one's bearings in the sea, the flotsam, and the jetsam of universal and individual experience.

The Secret Doctrine is to enable the student to take up the work where Isis leaves off. It is for the continuing Soul cleared of the Kama Rupa of former erroneous ideas, preconceptions and prejudices, ready to reincarnate in the new and pure womb of thought provided. It is not for those still clothed in the kamaloka or the devachan of prevailing ideas, circumstances or conditions. The study of the Secret Doctrine is the cycle of incubation, the prelude to the metempsychosis.

The Esoteric writings of H. P. B. are for those who have begun to be born again on to the higher plane of life, that breezy and well-lit plateau from whence the eyes see intelligently and regard the world with a new insight. There the mind no longer transmits its fluctuations, its partial knowledge, its unreliable information to the Soul. In that inner and higher world there leaps into flame the light of actual knowledge.

And here a word of warning. Not only the esoteric writings of H. P. B. are so in fact. There is a profound and deeply hidden esotericism in her most public writings; deeply and profoundly veiled of necessity, because of their accessibility. But there, and he who acquires even the first faint and tender indications of the com

mencement of true actual life, the awakening of the intuition, can read with eager eyes layer after layer of meaning hidden within her words. All these are missed, as the manifold meaning of life and its events are missed, by those who do not recognize the necessity and undertake the achievement of the three preliminary tasks of the student. Well did Mr. Judge say, "the authority of the Secret Doctrine must be sought inside, not outside. It must rest on its comprehensiveness, its completeness, its continuity and reasonableness; in other words, on its philosophical synthesis, a thing missed alike by the superficial and the contentious, by the indolent, the superstitious, and the dogmatic."

H. P. B. advised all who might enter upon the survey of Isis Unveiled: "Our work, then, is a plea for the recognition of the anciently universal Wisdom-Religion as the only possible key to the Absolute in science and theology." She used the word plea in its strict primary and forensic sense of the recital of the facts, arguments and reasons upon which a claim is based. Isis is the plea; the Anciently-universal Wisdom-Religion is the claim thus sought to be established in the mind of the student.

H. P. B. advised all who might enter upon the study of the Secret Doctrine: "This work is written for the instruction of students of Occultism. The basic ideas are few in number, and on their clear apprehension depends the understanding of all that follows. These few fundamental conceptions underlie and pervade the entire system of thought to which his attention is invited. They are, in fact, contained-though too often under a misleading guisein every system of thought or philosophy worthy of the name. Once that the reader has gained a clear comprehension of them and realised the light which they throw on every problem of life, they will need no further justification in his eyes, because their truth will be to him as evident as the sun in heaven.”

In other words, the plea having been read, considered and digested from the survey of Isis, and judgment having been pronounced in favor of the Wisdom-Religion in the court of the individual's own conscience and consciousness, he comes now to the study of that Wisdom-Religion itself which before was but a claim, but which, indgment having been pronounced, he now seeks to enforce upon himself. The writ of execution has been issued: its first service lies in the seizure by the mind of a "clear apprehension" of the Fundamental Propositions. "All that follows" is but a partial pointing out of the processes, experiences, and results that may be discerned, because they have already taken place, and the guide to their right and further use and unfoldment, from whence he will realise the light which they throw on every problem of life." We have written in vain in this and in our two preceding articles* on the Great Ideas of Theosophy as recorded by H. P. Blavat

*The Idea of God," printed in THEOSOPHY for April, 1918; "The Idea of Law," printed in THEOSOPHY for June, 1918.

sky if there has not risen in the mind of the friendly disposed reader some perception of the Unity of all in Nature; of the implicit presence of the First Fundamental in the Second, of the First and Second in the Third; that the Third is explicit of the Second and First; and, finally, some perception and the beginning of recognition that in him, as in all other Beings is the embodiment, the actuality, and the presence of the Three Fundamental propositions, the One in Three, and the Three in One, howbeit "under a misleading. guise."

This misleading guise of body, action and thought in us all is what is meant by H. P. B. when, after writing what has already been quoted in her own words, she continues:

"The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of metempsychoses and reincarnations."

That "long series" is already drawing to its close in him who has grasped the divine illumination of the Three Great Ideas of Theosophy. He continues his studies, repeating the sacred Sanskrit affirmation of Being: BUDDHAM, SARANAM GATCHAMI, DHARMAM SARANAM GATCHAMI, SANGHAM SARANAM GATCHAMI. And to all his fellow Souls he repeats without ceasing the divine admonishment of the Crest Jewel of Wisdom, with which we also may conclude:

"O wise man: you have asked rightly. Now listen carefully. The illusive fancies arising from error are not conclusive.

"The great and peaceful ones live regenerating the world. like the coming of spring, and after having themselves crossed the ocean of embodied existence, help those who try to do the same thing, without personal motives.

TRUE FRIENDSHIP*

From the Hiri Sutta of the Buddhists.

He who transgresses and despises modesty, who says-I am a friend! but undertakes nothing for his friend, know that he is no friend.

Whoever uses soft words to friends without sincerity, him the wise know as one that speaks but acts not.

He is no true friend who always eagerly suspects a breach, and is on the watch for faults, but he is a true friend with whom you dwell as a child at the breast of his mother; from such a friend none can ever divide you.

* Reprinted from the "Oriental Department" papers, September, 1894.

THROUGH THE GATES OF GOLD*

notable book for guidance in Mysticism which has

Tappeared since Light on the Path was written has just been

published under the significant title of "Through the Gates of Gold." Though the author's name is withheld, the occult student will quickly discern that it must proceed from a very high source. In certain respects the book may be regarded as a commentary on Light on the Path. The reader would do well to bear this in mind. Many things in that book will be made clear by the reading of this one, and one will be constantly reminded of that work, which has already become a classic in our literature. Through the Gates of Gold is a work to be kept constantly at hand. for reference and study. It will surely take rank as one of the standard books of Theosophy.

The "Gates of Gold" represent the entrance to that realm of the soul unknowable through the physical perceptions, and the purpose of this work is to indicate some of the steps necessary to reach their threshold. Through its extraordinary beauty of style and the clearness of its statement it will appeal to a wider portion of the public than most works of a Theosophical character. It speaks to the Western World in its own language, and in this fact lies much of its value.

Those of us who have been longing for some thing "practical" will find it here, while it will probably come into the hands of thousands who know little or nothing of Theosophy, and thus meet wants deeply felt though unexpressed. There are also doubtless many, we fancy, who will be carried far along in its pages by its resistless logic until they encounter something which will give a rude shock to some of their old conceptions, which they have imagined as firmly based as upon a rock-a shock which may cause them to draw back in alarm, but from which they will not find it so easy to recover, and which will be likely to set them thinking seriously.

The titles of the five chapters of the book are, respectively, "The Search for Pleasure," "The Mystery of Threshold," "The Initial Effort," "The Meaning of Pain," and "The Secret of Strength." Instead of speculating upon mysteries that lie at the very end of man's destiny, and which cannot be approached by any manner of conjecture, the work very sensibly takes up that which lies next at hand, that which constitutes the first step to be taken if we are ever to take a second one, and teaches us its significance. At the outset we must cope with sensation and learn its nature and meaning. An important teaching of Light on the Path has been misread by many. We are not enjoined to kill out sensa

*This review was first printed by Wm. Q. Judge in The Path for March, 1887. The book, "Through the Gates of Gold," has not been given much prominence by Theosophists in recent years but, as Mr. Judge indicates, it contains much of value.-[ED. THEOSOPHY.]