Said Rabbi Yehudah: “How many garments [of the incorporeal man] are these which are crowned (from the day man was created)?” Said R. El'azar: “The mountains of the world (the great men of the generation) are in discussion upon it, but there are three: one to clothe in that garment the Rua'h spirit, which is in the garden (of Eden) on earth: one which is more precious than all, in which the Neshamah is clothed in that Bundle of Life, between the angels of the Kings ...: and one outside garment, which exists and does not exist, is seen and not seen. In that garment, the Nephesh is clothed, and she goes and flies in it, to and fro in the world.”[706]
This relates to the Races, their “garments,” or degree of materiality, and to the three “principles” of man in their three vehicles.
Stanza XI. The Civilization And Destruction Of The Fourth And Fifth Races.
43. The Lemuro-Atlanteans build cities and spread civilization. The incipient stage of anthropomorphism. 44. Statues, witnesses to the size of the Lemuro-Atlanteans. 45. Lemuria destroyed by fire, Atlantis by water. The Flood. 46. The destruction of the Fourth Race and of the last antediluvian monster-animals.
43. They[707] built huge cities. Of rare earths and metals they built. Out of the fires[708] vomited, out of the white stone[709] of the mountains and of the black stone,[710] they cut their own images, in their size and likeness, and worshipped them.
At this point, as the history of the first two human races—the last of the Lemurians and the first of the future Atlanteans—proceeds, we have to blend the two, and speak of them for a time collectively.
Here reference is also made to the divine Dynasties, which were claimed by the Egyptians, Chaldæans, Greeks, etc., to have preceded their human Kings. These are still believed in by the modern Hindûs, and are enumerated in their sacred books. Of these, however, we shall treat in their proper place. What remains to be shown is, that our modern Geologists are now being driven into admitting the demonstrable existence of submerged continents. But to confess the existence of the continents is quite a different thing from admitting that there were men on them during the early geological periods[711]—ay, men and civilized nations, not Palæolithic savages only; who, under the [pg 331] guidance of their divine Rulers, built large cities, cultivated Arts and Sciences, and knew Astronomy, Architecture and Mathematics to perfection. The primeval civilization of the Lemurians did not, as one may think, immediately follow their physiological transformation. Between the final physiological evolution and the first city built, many hundred thousands of years had passed. Nevertheless, we find the Lemurians in their sixth sub-race building their first rock-cities out of stone and lava.[712] One of these great cities of primitive structure was built entirely of lava, some thirty miles west from where Easter Island now stretches its narrow strip of sterile ground, and was totally destroyed by a series of volcanic eruptions. The oldest remains of Cyclopean buildings were all the handiwork of the last sub-races of the Lemurians; and an Occultist, therefore, shows no surprise on learning that the stone relics which were found on the small piece of land called Easter Island by Captain Cook, are
Very much like the walls of the Temple of Pachacamac or the Ruins of Tia-Huanaco in Peru,[713]