, seems largely to exceed the
probable time during which the sun can retain heat, if it is merely a
cooling mass, which derives no important accession of heat from without.
Is some other view as regards the maintenance of the sun's heat held by
the Adepts?

3. The different races which succeed each other on the earth are said
to be separated by catastrophes, among which continental subsidences
occupy a prominent place. Is it meant that these subsidences are so
sudden and unforeseen as to sweep away great nations in an hour? Or, if
not, how is it that no appreciable trace is left of such high
civilizations as are described in the past? Is it supposed that our
present European civilization, with its offshoots all over the globe,
can be destroyed by any inundation or conflagration which leaves life
still existing on the earth? Are our existing arts and languages doomed
to perish? or was it only the earlier races who were thus profoundly
disjoined from one another?

4. The moon is said to be the scene of a life even more immersed in
matter than the life on earth. Are there then material organizations
living there? If so, how do they dispense with air and water, and how
is it that our telescopes discern no trace of their works? We should
much like a fuller account of the Adepts' view of the moon, as so much
is already known of her material conditions that further knowledge could
be more easily adjusted than in the case (for instance) of planets
wholly invisible.

5. Is the expression "a mineral monad" authorized by the Adepts? If so,
what relation does the monad bear to the atom, or the molecule, of
ordinary scientific hypothesis? And does each mineral monad eventually
become a vegetable monad, and then at last a human being? Turning now
to some historical difficulties, we would ask as follows:--

6. Is there not some confusion in the letter quoted on p. 62 of
"Esoteric Buddhism," where "the old Greeks and Romans" are said to have
been Atlanteans? The Greeks and Romans were surely Aryans, like the
Adepts and ourselves: their language being, as one may say,
intermediate between Sanscrit and modern European dialects.

7. Buddha's birth is placed (on p. 141) in the year 643 B.C.. Is this
date given by the Adepts as undoubtedly correct? Have they any view as
to the new inscriptions of Asoka (as given by General A. Cunningham,
"Corpus Inscriptionum Indicanum," vol. I. pp. 20-23), on the strength of
which Bud