rn again from its germ--thus is progress made,
but that is the limit of my concessions. Everything is matter; the
soul has no existence. There is evolution of matter, for matter, and
by matter. When a form is destroyed, its qualities, like its power of
rebirth, are stored away in a latent condition, within the germs it
has produced during its period of activity. Along with the
disappearance of matter, everything disappears--qualities, thoughts,
"ego"--and passes into a latent slate within the germ; along with the
return of the form, qualities and attributes gradually reappear
without any hypothetical soul whatever having any concern in the
matter. So long as the form is in its germ stage, the being is nothing
more than a mass of potentialities; when fully developed its faculties
reappear, but they remain strictly attached to the form, and if the
latter changes, the faculties echo the change, so to speak, with the
utmost fidelity. Matter is the parent of intelligence, the brain
manufactures thought, and the heart distills love, just as the liver
secretes bile; such is the language of present-day science.

This theory accepts the idea of universal injustice in its entirety;
we shall shortly prove that, notwithstanding its apparent logic, it
explains only one side of evolution, and that if matter is the
condition _sine qua non_ of the manifestation of spirit, it is at
least curious that the latter acts so powerfully upon it, and is,
beyond the possibility of a doubt, its real master.[49]

Modern Theosophy, as well as the Wisdom of old, says in its turn:

Spirit is the All, the one Being, the only Being that exists.

Force-matter[50] is nothing but the product of the spirit's activity;
in it we find many and divers properties--density, weight,
temperature, volume, elasticity, cohesion, &c., because we judge it
from our sense perceptions; but in reality, we know it so little, that
the greatest thinkers have called it "a state of consciousness,"
_i.e._, an impression produced by it within ourselves.[51] It is the
result of the will of the supreme Spirit, which creates "differences"
(forms) in unfathomable homogeneous Unity, which is incarnated in them
and produces the modifications necessary for the development of its
powers, in other words, for the accomplishment of their evolution. As
this evolution takes place in the finite--for the Infinite can effect
its "sacrifice," _i.e._ its incarnation,[52] only by limiting
itsel