small; but it is to that great work that I would
invite your co-operation; it is to that mighty task that I would ask
you to address yourselves. At least believe in the possibility of it;
at least raise your eyes to that great stature to which it may be our
Society shall attain. For if we can rise to it, then it means that we
shall be builders of the next civilisation, that our hands shall take
part in the making of the foundation of the humanity that is still to
be born; it means that we shall be its forerunners, its heralds, that
we shall be the messengers whose feet shall be fair upon the
mountains, telling of the coming of a greater man, of the birth of a
more spiritual humanity. And even supposing that, accepting that
ideal, we fail, supposing that we are not strong enough, and wise
enough, and unselfish enough, to do it, then, then--if I may quote the
words of Giordano Bruno--"It is better to see the Great and fail in
trying to achieve it, than never to see it, nor try to achieve it at
all."

The Relation of the Masters to the Theosophical Society

Those of you who have been present in the Queen's Hall on Sunday
evenings will remember that I spoke there a fortnight ago on "The
Relation of Masters to Religions." There, of course, I dealt with the
subject in the most general possible way, while here I propose to deal
with it more closely; but I must ask all of you, as I asked you last
Thursday and the preceding Thursday, to remember that in dealing with
the Theosophical Society we are only dealing with one part of a
world-wide and, as I might say, century or millennium-wide story--the
story, practically, of the relation of the spiritual world to the
physical. Although I am now going to deal specially with the relation
of the Masters to our own Society, I would ask you all to bear in mind
the more general relation of which I have spoken elsewhere. I do not
want to repeat what there I said, but I want to recall to your minds
the leading principle that the Theosophical Society cannot claim an
exclusive right to any special spiritual privilege, that the spiritual
privileges that it enjoys are part of the general spiritual heritage
of the world, and that you have to consider any special case in
relation to those general principles. So that in thinking of the
Masters in relation to our own Society, we must bear in mind how very
wide are their relations to all great spiritual movements, to all
religions, and that