FOOTNOTES:
[10] Fortunately, this is a fact only in the imagination of those who are blinded by faith.
[11] Before men had sinned individually on earth.
[12] De corruptione et gratia, chap. 7, No. 19; Cont. Jul. Pelag., Book 4, chap. 3, No. 16, et De Peccat. merit. et remiss., Book 3, chap. 4, No. 7.
[13] "Omnes illae unus homo fuerunt." De Peccat. merit. et remiss., Book 1, chap. 10, No. 11.
Theologians pass over St. Augustine's adoption of this theory, giving one to understand that he abandoned his error shortly before his death. (Dictionnaire de Théol., by Abbé Berger; volume viii., article x., "Traduciens.")
[14] See also, on this subject, his letter to Sixtus, before the latter became Pope. Chap. vii., No. 31, and chap. vi., No. 27.
[15] The movements of "creation" and "absorption," which are called in Hindu symbolism the outbreathing and the inbreathing of Brahmâ.
[16] Creation.
[17] After violet and red there stretches quite another spectrum, invisible to the human eye; it is because violet is at the beginning of our known spectrum, that one might think it was not the neutral point thereof.
[18] The soul believes itself distinct from the All, because it is subjected to the illusion engendered by its body.
[19] Without the aid of the eyes, walking is impossible to those suffering from plantar anæsthesia.
[20] Pleasure, like every other form of sensation, produces the same results, though perhaps with less force.
[21] A magnetic effect or an emotion. All travellers who have escaped from the attacks of wild beasts mention this effect of inhibition, manifested by the absence of fear and pain at the moment of attack.
[22] Primordial matter which has not yet entered into any combination and is not differentiated.
[23] A soul.
[24] In these cases, the soul.
[25] The personalities or new bodies created by the soul, on each return to earth.
[26] That is to say, the seventh incarnation.
[27] Waking consciousness.
[28] See Karma, by A. Besant.
[29] Those who have studied thought know that it is capable of being incorporated in diverse states of astral and mental matter.
[30] If the divine law allows it.
[31] If the divine law has not allowed the action to take place.
[32] Man, after death, loses in succession his astral and mental bodies.
[33] La Théosophie en quelques chapitres, by the author, pages 31 to 34.
[34] "Hatred is destroyed only by love," said the Buddha. "Return good for evil," said Jesus.
[35] It is this that causes the universal force of opposition—the Enemy or demon—to become evil only when ignorance or the human will make use of it to oppose evolution: apart from such cases, it is only the second pillar necessary for the support of the Temple, the stepping-stone of the good.
[36] Perhaps this is only an apparent delay, for, on every plane, force is correlative, and knowledge is the fruit of many different kinds of energy. The only real cases in which there is delay of individual evolution are probably those in which evil is done in return for evil. Of course, we are speaking in relative terms and from a relative standpoint.
[37] When human evolution is completed, man passes the "strait gate" leading to superhuman evolution, to the spiritual life, which develops the next higher principle, Buddhi; this is the Path. Human evolution develops the mental principle, Manas; Super-human evolution develops the spiritual body, Buddhi.
[38] Here we are dealing with faults of a more or less venial nature.
[39] For ever, in this case, for the soul is above these residues, and, so to speak, has given them no vitality for ages past.
[40] In completion of this chapter on the Law of Causality, we refer the reader to A. Besant's book: Karma.