ds is gradual, and in the higher animals comes almost to
the point. The Peripatetics applied the word Monas to the whole Cosmos,
in the pantheistic sense; and the Occultists while accepting this
thought for convenience' sake, distinguish the progressive stages of the
evolution of the Concrete from the Abstract by terms of which the
"Mineral Monad" is one. The term merely means that the tidal wave of
spiritual evolution is passing through that arc of its circuit. The
"Monadic Essence" begins to imperceptibly differentiate in the vegetable
kingdom. As the monads are uncompounded things, as correctly defined by
Leibnitz, it is the spiritual essence which vivifies them in their
degrees of differentiation which constitutes properly the monad--not the
atomic aggregation which is only the vehicle and the substance through
which thrill the lower and higher degrees of intelligence.

And though, as shown by those plants that are known as sensitives, there
are a few among them that may be regarded as possessing that conscious
perception which is called by Leibnitz apperception, while the rest are
endowed but with that internal activity which may be called vegetable
nerve-sensation (to call it perception would be wrong), yet even the
vegetable monad is still the Monad in its second degree of awakening
sensation. Leibnitz came several times very near the truth, but defined
the monadic evolution incorrectly and often greatly blundered. There
are seven kingdoms. The first group comprises three degrees of
elementals, or nascent centres of forces--from the first stage of the
differentiation of Mulaprakriti to its third degree--i.e., from full
unconsciousness to semi-perception; the second or higher group embraces
the kingdoms from vegetable to man; the mineral kingdom thus forming
the central or turning-point in the degrees of the "Monadic Essence"--
considered as an Evoluting Energy. Three stages in the elemental side;
the mineral kingdom; three stages in the objective physical side--these
are the seven links of the evolutionary chain. A descent of spirit into
matter, equivalent to an ascent in physical evolution; a re-ascent from
the deepest depths of materiality (the mineral) towards its status quo
ante, with a corresponding dissipation of concrete organisms up to
Nirvana--the vanishing point of differentiated matter. Perhaps a simple
diagram will aid us:--

[[Diagram here]]

The line A D represents the gradual obscura