ge, and
therefore in power over the lower nature, although, as I said, the
climbing now is rapid, and will become more and more rapid with every
ten years that pass over our heads. For there is that speciality in
evolution, that it ever goes forward at an increasing rate. The more
it develops its powers, the more swiftly do those powers multiply
themselves; so that, to quote a well-known phrase of a great Teacher,
"it grows not by additions but by powers." And this civilisation of
ours will rush forward more and more rapidly with every decade that
passes. Still, the very fact that it has not reached the highest
levels of the Fourth tells you that time lies before us in the
building of the sixth sub-race, and that is our immediate work. We
need not trouble now any further about the Sixth Root-Race; for
whatever builds the sixth sub-race amongst us is contributing to the
building of that Root-Race of the future. The same faculties are
demanded, although then at a higher level, and we can come down to our
humbler level and consider what the sixth sub-race is to be. And in
that we shall realise the work and the future of the Theosophical
Society.

The great characteristic of that Race is to be union, and all that
tends to union is a force which is working for the coming of that
sub-race, no matter whether very often the force looked at from
without is often repellent. It is not the outer manifestation of the
moment, but the tendency, the direction of the force which is
important. There may be many things, more beautiful on the surface,
which have accomplished their aim, and are on the downward path
towards decay, whilst the things that are rising, still below the
horizon, have, as all germinal things have, much about them that is
repellent and that will be used up in the growth of the coming
creature, before it really manifests upon earth. It has been said by a
Master that if we could see with the eye of the Spirit the generation
of the human being, his ante-natal life, we should understand the
generation of worlds, the generation of universes. And that, again, is
a general principle. Let us see one or two lessons that we may draw
from it at the moment.

Take the evolution of a seed into a plant, and what do you find? A
tiny germ surrounded by a mass of nutrient matter; and before that
tiny germ will show itself in root, and stem, and leaf above the
ground and become visible to the eye of the observer on the earth,
that