n the downward arc still, not yet beginning its
upward climbing, and it had to plunge deeper and deeper into matter.
The eyes of the Spirit had to be blinded in order that the eyes of the
intellect might open, and so gradually prepare humanity for a loftier
manifestation of the spiritual life.

And then we find that with the dividing of the two offices, the Kings
grew less and less fathers of their peoples, and became more and more
tyrants over the nations. In the elder days the principle that was
taught was clear and simple: the greater the power, the greater the
sacrifice; the greater the power, the greater the duty. And on that
principle of the Law of Sacrifice the old civilisations were built up;
to that they owed their splendor; to that the long ages through which
they lived and flourished; to sacrifice, as the very basis of the
national and religious polity, they owed the vigor, the young vigor,
of humanity. Their literature was grandiose; their architecture
magnificent; their art sublime. The traces of divinity ran through the
whole of it. But, beautiful as it was, it would not have been well
that it should have lasted, for had it been so, mankind would have
grown to depend too much upon the manifested Divine life walking
incarnate side by side with it. And it was necessary that the growing
child should prove his own limbs, and the growing intelligence should
learn to depend upon itself. Then we come to a long period when the
tyranny of the King brought out more and more strongly the usefulness
of the Teacher, and when the Teacher was continually standing between
the power of the tyrant and the helplessness of the people; when
religion became a shield for the weak, a strong check for the violence
of power. And we pass thus through all that long period of human
history where the oppressed found their only refuge in the priests of
the religions, and found them a sure protection against the sword of
the secular power. So went on for hundreds, nay, for thousands of
years, the growth of humanity; and the two powers went further and
further apart, coming more and more the one into opposition with the
other. And the people, the nations, gradually grew in power, grew in
intelligence, to a considerable extent. The priest was still the
teacher, and still the schools and the temples were united.
Unfortunately, after a while the religions became corrupted as well as
the royalties, and priests began to share the worldliness t