aculous accomplishment. It is a process of inner growth. There
are, it is quite true, cases in which people who have entered upon
this method of self-development have, in a short time, attained
spiritual illumination, becoming fully conscious of the invisible
world and its inhabitants while awake in the physical body; extending
the horizon of consciousness to include both worlds, and coming into
possession of the higher clairvoyance that enables one to trace past
causes and modify impending effects. But such people are those who
have given so much attention to self-development in past lives that
they have now but little more to do in order to come into full
possession of occult powers. Sometimes it requires little more than
the turning of their attention to the matter. Becoming a member of the
Theosophical Society or seriously taking up theosophical studies is
sometimes the final step that leads to the opening of the inner sight.

But how can one know to what point he may have advanced in the past
and where he now stands? How may we know whether there is but a little
work ahead or a great deal? We cannot know; nor is it important to
know. The person who should take up the task merely because he thinks
there is little to do would certainly fail. The very fact that he
would not venture upon the undertaking if he thought the task a
difficult one is evidence that he has not the qualifications necessary
for the success of the occult student. Unless he is filled with a
longing to possess greater power to be used in the service of
humanity, and fired with an enthusiasm that would hesitate at no
difficulties, he has not yet reached the point in his evolution where
he awaits only the final steps that will make him a disciple. But even
the absence of the keen desire for spiritual progress, which is the
best evidence of the probability of success, should not deter anybody
from entering upon the systematic study of theosophy and devoting to
it all the time and energy he can; nor should the thought that many
years might pass without producing any very remarkable results lead
him to conclude that the undertaking would not be a profitable one.
The time will come with each human being when he will step out of the
great throng that drifts with the tide and enter upon the course of
conscious evolution, assisting nature instead of ignoring her
beneficent plan; and since it is but a question of time the sooner a
beginning is made the bette