in the
character of the consequences ensuing from devotion to occult pursuits.
As the darkness of blackest night gives way by imperceptible degrees to
the illumination of the brightest sunrise, so the spiritual consequences
of emerging from the apathy either of pure materialism or of dull
acquiescence in unreasonable dogmas, brighten by imperceptible degrees
from the faintest traces of Devachanic improvement into the full blaze
of the highest perfection human nature can attain. Without assuming
that the course of Nature which prescribes for each human Ego successive
physical lives and successive periods of spiritual refreshment--without
supposing that this course is altered by such moderate devotion to
occult study as is compatible with the ordinary conditions of European
life, it will nevertheless be seen how vast the consequences may
ultimately be of impressing on that career of evolution a distinct
tendency in the direction of supreme enlightenment, of that result which
is described as the union of the individual soul with universal spirit.

The explanations of the esoteric doctrine which have been publicly
given, have shown that humanity in the mass has now attained a stage in
the great evolutionary cycle from which it has the opportunity of
growing upward towards final perfection. In the mass it is, of course,
unlikely that it will travel that road: final perfection is not a gift
to be bestowed upon all, but to be worked for by those who desire it.
It may be put within the theoretical reach of all; there may be no
human creature living at this moment, of whom it can be said that the
highest possibilities of Nature are impossible of attainment, but it
does not follow by any means that every individual will attain the
highest possibilities. Regarding each individual as one of the seeds of
a great flower which throws out thousands of seeds, it is manifest that
only a few, relatively to the great number, will become fully developed
flowers in their turn. No unjust neglect awaits the majority. For each
and every one the consequences of the remote future will be precisely
proportioned to the aptitudes he develops, but only those can reach the
goal who, with persistent effort carried out through a long series of
lives, differentiate themselves in a marked degree from the general
multitude. Now, that persistent effort must have a beginning, and
granted the beginning, the persistence is not improbable. Within our
o