tion of spirit as it passes
into concrete matter; the point D indicates the evolutionary position
of the mineral kingdom from its incipient (d) to its ultimate concretion
(a); c, b, a, on the left-hand side of the figure, are the three stages
of elemental evolution; i.e., the three successive stages passed by the
spiritual impulse (through the elementals--of which little is permitted
to be said) before they are imprisoned in the most concrete form of
matter; and a, b, c, on the right-hand side, are the three stages of
organic life, vegetable, animal, human. What is total obscuration of
spirit is complete perfection of its polar antithesis--matter; and this
idea is conveyed in the lines A D and D A. The arrows show the line of
travel of the evolutionary impulse in entering its vortex and expanding
again into the subjectivity of the ABSOLUTE. The central thickest line,
d d, is the Mineral Kingdom.

The monogenists have had their day. Even believers in a personal god,
like Professor Agassiz, teach now that, "There is a manifest progress in
the succession of beings on the surface of the earth. The progress
consists in an increasing similarity of the living fauna, and among the
vertebrates especially, in the increasing resemblance to man. Man is
the end towards which all the animal creation has tended from the first
appearance of the first Palaeozoic fishes" ("Principles of Zoology," pp.
205-6). The mineral "monad" is not an individuality latent, but an
all-pervading Force which has for its Present vehicle matter in its
lowest and most concrete terrestrial state; in man the monad is fully
developed, potential, and either passive or absolutely active, according
to its vehicle, the five lower and more physical human principles. In
the Deva kingdom it is fully liberated and in its highest state--but one
degree lower than the ONE Universal Life.*

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* The above diagram represents a logical section of the scheme of
evolution, and not the evolutionary history of a unit of consciousness.
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Question VIII.--Sri Sankaracharya's Date

It is always difficult to determine with precision the date of any
particular event in the ancient history of India; and this difficulty
is considerably enhanced by the speculations of European Orientalists,
whose labours in this direction have but tended to thicken the confusion
already existing in popular legends and traditions, which were often
altered or modifi