rely obscured from sight. Life after life the soul of the primitive
man lived out in rapid succession. But in each new embodiment there was
a slight advance over that of the previous one. Experience, or rather
the result of experiences, were carried over, and profited by. New
lessons were learned and unlearned, improved upon or discarded. And the
race grew and unfolded.

After a time the number of advancing souls which had outstripped their
fellows in progress became sufficiently large for sub-races to be
formed, and so the branching off process began. In this way the various
races and types were formed, and the progress of Mankind gained
headway. At this point we may as well consider the history of the Races
of Mankind, that we may see how the great tide-wave of Soul has ever
pressed onward, marking higher and still higher stages of progress, and
also how the various minor waves of the great wave pushed in and then
receded, only to be followed by still higher waves. The story is most
interesting.

The Yogi Teachings inform us that the Grand Cycle of Man's Life on the
Earth is composed of Seven Cycles, of which we are now living in the
third-seventh part of the Fifth Cycle. These Cycles may be spoken of as
the Great Earth Periods, separated from each other by some great
natural cataclysm which destroyed the works of the previous races of
men, and which started afresh the progress called "civilization,"
which, as all students know, manifests a rise and fall like unto that
of the tides.

Man in the First Cycle emerged from a gross animal-like state into a
condition somewhat advanced. It was a slow progress, but nevertheless a
distinct series of advances were made by the more progressive souls who
passed over on to the Second Cycle, embodying themselves as the ruling
races in the same, their less progressive brothers incarnating in the
lower tribes of the Second Cycle. It must be remembered that the souls
which do not advance during a Cycle reincarnate in the next Cycle among
the lower races. So that even in this Fifth Cycle we have remnants of
the previous cycles, the lives of the members of which give us an idea
of what life in the earlier cycles must have been.

The Yogi Teachings give us but little information regarding the people
of the First and Second Cycles, because of the low state of these ages.
The tale, if told, would be the story of the Cave-dweller, and
Stone-age people; the Fire-peoples, and all the rest