Now the solution of this apparently insoluble enigma lies in the fact
that the building of the bridge had only then been begun--the bridge
of Manas, or mind, destined to unite in the perfected individual the
upward surging forces of the animal and the downward cycling spirit of
the God. The animal kingdom of to-day exhibits a field of nature where
the building of that bridge has not yet been begun, and even among
mankind in the days of Atlantis the connection was so slight that the
spiritual attributes had but little controlling power over the lower
animal nature. The touch of mind they had was sufficient to add zest
to the gratification of the senses, but was not enough to vitalize the
still dormant spiritual faculties, which in the perfected individual
will have to become the absolute monarch. Our metaphor of the bridge
may carry us a little further if we consider it as now in process of
construction, but as destined to remain incomplete for mankind in
general for untold millenniums--in fact, until Humanity has completed
another circle of the seven planets and the great Fifth Round is half
way through its course.

Though it was during the latter half of the Third Root Race and the
beginning of the Fourth that the Manasaputra descended to endow with
mind the bulk of Humanity who were still without the spark, yet so
feebly burned the light all through the Atlantean days that few could
be said to have attained to the powers of abstract thought. On the
other hand the functioning of the mind on concrete things came well
within their grasp, and as we have seen it was in the practical
concerns of their every-day life, especially when their psychic
faculties were directed towards the same objects, that they achieved
such remarkable and stupendous results.

It must also be remembered that Kama, the fourth principle, naturally
obtained its culminating development in the Fourth Race. This would
account for the depths of animal grossness to which they sank, whilst
the approach of the cycle to its nadir inevitably accentuated this
downward movement, so that there is little to be surprised at in the
gradual loss by the race of the psychic faculties, and in its descent
to selfishness and materialism.

Rather should all this be regarded as part of the great cyclic process
in obedience to the eternal law.

We have all gone through those evil days, and the experiences we then
accumulated go to make up the characters we now possess.