eir affirmation of the sevenfold division is apparent.
Passage after passage may be cited in proof. And not only can the
mysterious number be found traced on every page of the oldest Aryan
Sacred Scriptures, but in the oldest books of Zoroastrianism as well;
in the rescued cylindrical tile records of old Babylonia and Chaldea, in
the "Book of the Dead" and the Ritualism of ancient Egypt, and even in
the Mosaic books--without mentioning the secret Jewish works, such as
the Kabala.

The limited space at command forces us to allow a few brief quotations
to stand as landmarks and not even attempt long explanations. It is no
exaggeration to say that upon each of the few hints now given in the
cited Slokas a thick volume might be written.

From the well-known hymn To Time, in the Atharva-Veda (xix. 53):

"Time, like a brilliant steed with seven rays,
Full of fecundity, bears all things onward.

"Time, like a seven-wheeled, seven-naved car moves on,
His rolling wheels are all the worlds, his axle
Is immortality...."

--down to Manu, "the first and the seventh man," the Vedas, the
Upanishads, and all the later systems of philosophy teem with allusions
to this number. Who was Manu, the son of Swayambhuva? The secret
doctrine tells us that this Manu was no man, but the representation of
the first human races evolved with the help of the Dhyan-Chohans (Devas)
at the beginning of the first Round. But we are told in his Laws (Book
I. 80) that there are fourteen Manus for every Kalpa or "interval from
creation to creation" (read interval from one minor "Pralaya" to
another) and that "in the present divine age there have been as yet
seven Manus." Those who know that there are seven Rounds, of which we
have passed three, and are now in the fourth; and who are taught that
there are seven dawns and seven twilights, or fourteen Manvantaras;
that at the beginning of every Round and at the end, and on and between
the planets, there is "an awakening to illusive life," and "an awakening
to real life," and that, moreover, there are "root-Manus," and what we
have to clumsily translate as the "seed-Manus"--the seeds for the human
races of the forthcoming Round (a mystery divulged but to those who have
passed the 3rd degree in initiation); those who have learned all that,
will be better prepared to understand the meaning of the following. We
are told in the Sacred Hindu Scriptures that "the first Manu produced