The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2 of 4 / The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy

by H. P. Blavatsky

The social instincts of the lower animals have, of late, been regarded for various reasons as clearly the origin of morals, even of those of man [?], ...

—and that our divine consciousness, our soul, intellect, and aspirations have worked their “way up from the lower stages of the simple cell-soul” of the gelatinous Bathybius—[1562] and they seem to believe it. For such men, the Metaphysics of Occultism must produce the effect that our grandest oratorios produce on the Chinaman—sounds that jar upon their nerves.

Yet, are our Esoteric teachings about “Angels,” the first three pre-animal human Races, and the downfall of the Fourth, on a lower level of fiction and self-delusion than the Hæckelian “plastidular,” or the inorganic “molecular souls of the Protista”? Between the evolution of the spiritual nature of man from the above amœbian souls, and the alleged development of his physical frame from the protoplastic dweller in the ocean slime, there is an abyss which will not easily be crossed by any man in the full possession of his intellectual faculties. Physical Evolution, as Modern Science teaches it, is a subject for open controversy; spiritual and moral development on the same lines is the insane dream of a crass Materialism.

Furthermore, past as well as present daily experience teaches that no truth has ever been accepted by learned bodies unless it has dovetailed with the habitually preconceived ideas of their professors. “The crown of the innovator is a crown of thorns”—said Geoffroy St. Hilaire. It is only that which fits in with popular hobbies and accepted notions that as a general rule gains ground. Hence the triumph of the Hæckelian ideas, notwithstanding that they are proclaimed by Virchow, du Bois-Reymond, and others as the “testimonium paupertatis of Natural Science.”

Diametrically opposed as may be the materialism of the German Evolutionists to the spiritual conceptions of Esoteric Philosophy, radically inconsistent as is their accepted anthropological system with the real facts of Nature—the pseudo-idealistic bias now colouring English thought is almost more pernicious. The pure Materialistic Doctrine admits of a direct refutation and an appeal to the logic of facts. The Idealism of the present day, not only contrives to absorb, on the one hand, the basic negations of Atheism, but lands its votaries in a tangle of unreality, which culminates in a practical Nihilism. Argument with such writers is almost out of the question. Idealists, [pg 688] therefore, will be still more antagonistic than even the Materialists to the Occult teachings now given. But as no worse fate can befall the exponents of Esoteric Anthropogenesis at the hands of their foes than being openly called by their old and time-honoured names of “lunatics” and “ignoramuses,” the present archaic theories may be safely added to the many modern speculations, and bide their time for their full or even partial recognition. Only, as the very existence of these archaic theories will probably be denied, we have to give our best proofs and stand by them to the bitter end.

In our race and generation the one “temple in the universe” is in rare cases—within us; but our body and mind have been too defiled by both “sin” and “science” to be outwardly anything better now than a fane of iniquity and error. And here our mutual position—that of Occultism and Modern Science—ought to be once for all defined.

We, Theosophists, are willing to bow before such men of learning as the late Prof. Balfour Stewart, Messrs. Crookes, de Quatrefages, Wallace, Agassiz, Butlerof, and others, though, from the stand-point of the Esoteric Philosophy, we may not agree with all they say. But nothing will make us consent to even a show of respect for the opinions of such other men of Science as Hæckel, Carl Vogt, or Ludwig Büchner, in Germany, or even Mr. Huxley and his co-thinkers in Materialism in England—the colossal erudition of the first named, notwithstanding. Such men are simply the intellectual and moral murderers of future generations; especially Hæckel, whose crass Materialism often rises to the height of idiotic naivetés in his reasonings. One has but to read his Pedigree of Man, and Other Essays (Aveling's Translation) to feel a desire that, in the words of Job, his remembrance should perish from the Earth, and that he “shall have no name in the streets.” Hear the creator of the mythical Sozura deriding the idea of the origin of the human race “as a supernatural [?] phenomenon,” as one—

That could not result from simple mechanical causes, from physical and chemical forces, but requires the direct intervention of a creative personality.... Now the central point of Darwin's teaching ... lies in this, that it demonstrates the simplest mechanical causes, purely physico-chemical phenomena of nature, as wholly sufficient to explain the highest and most difficult problems. Darwin puts in the place of a conscious creative force, building and arranging the organic bodies of animals and plants on a designed plan, a series of natural forces working blindly (as we say) without aim, without design. In place of an arbitrary act of operation, we have a necessary law of Evolution.... [So had Manu and Kapila, and, at [pg 689]the same time, guiding, conscious and intelligent Powers]. Darwin very wisely ... had put on one side the question as to the first appearance of life. But very soon that consequence, so full of meaning, so wide-reaching, was openly discussed by able and brave scientific men, such as Huxley, Carl Vogt, Ludwig Büchner. A mechanical origin of the earliest living form was held as the necessary sequence to Darwin's teaching ... we are at present only concerned with a single consequence of the theory, the natural origin of the human race through almighty Evolution.[1563]

To this, unabashed by such a scientific farrago, Occultism replies: In the course of Evolution, when the physical triumphed over the spiritual and mental evolution, and nearly crushed it under its weight, the great gift of Kriyâshakti remained the heirloom of only a few elect men in every age. Spirit strove vainly to manifest itself in its fulness in purely organic forms (as has been explained in Part I of this Volume), and the faculty, which had been a natural attribute in the early humanity of the Third Race, became one of the class regarded as simply phenomenal by Spiritualists and Occultists, and as scientifically impossible by Materialists.

In our modern day the mere assertion that there exists a power which can create human forms—ready-made Sheaths within which can incarnate the conscious Monads or Nirmânakâyas of past Manvantaras—is, of course, absurd, ridiculous! That which is regarded as quite natural, on the other hand, is the production of a Frankenstein's monster, plus moral consciousness, religious aspirations, genius, and a feeling of his own immortal nature within himself—by “physico-chemical forces,” guided by blind “Almighty Evolution.” As to the origin of that man, not ex nihilo, cemented by a little red clay, but from a living divine Entity consolidating the Astral Body with surrounding materials—such a conception is too absurd even to be mentioned, in the opinion of the Materialists. Nevertheless, Occultists and Theosophists are ready to have their claims and theories compared as to their intrinsic value and probability with those of the modern Evolutionists—however unscientific and superstitious these theories may at the first glance appear. Hence the Esoteric teaching is absolutely opposed to the Darwinian evolution, as applied to man, and partially so with regard to other species.