During the intervals between the active manifestations on the physical plane the life-stream or wave passes into other and interior states which are necessary for the full development of perfected intelligence. What takes place in the case of the individual man in the comparatively short cyclic alternations of earth-lives and Devachanic or Heavenly conditions is a reflection of the vast cosmic process of the planets and the suns. Modern science has not yet grasped the enormous and far-reaching significance of Cyclic or Periodic laws, particularly in their application to human life, and how firmly everything, from the lowest animalcule to the great sun itself, is held in their grasp. When Cyclic Law as the key to the greater mysteries of life is thoroughly understood we shall no longer find any opposition to the fact of the reincarnation of the human soul, which is simply a necessary corollary to it. The soul is not supernatural in the sense of being outside Nature's laws; it is a part of the whole.
So with respect to Mars. It is, as Professor See and others believe, under obscuration today, but its energies will revive or reincarnate in some future age. It has not reached the state of our Moon, which is a decaying corpse, having passed through its life-history long ago. The Moon's life-principles "reincarnating" in the sphere of the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago, are now pursuing a higher evolution here. The Earth will in its time "reincarnate" similarly.
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL FROM LUDGATE HILL:
by Carolus
THE great fire of London in September 1666 destroyed eighty-nine churches, the city gates, hospitals, schools, libraries, and many other public buildings, thirteen thousand two hundred dwelling houses, and the fortunes of over two hundred thousand people; but only eight lives were lost, and the plague, which only the year before had destroyed a hundred thousand persons in London alone, was never afterwards a cause of serious anxiety. Notwithstanding the temporary suffering the fire was a great hygienic benefit, and the city rapidly recovered more than its former prosperity. One of the severest losses was that of the old cathedral of St. Paul, a magnificent thirteenth century Gothic building with a central spire. Its dimensions were enormous; the total length being 700 feet, the height of the nave 102 feet, and the spire attained the extraordinary altitude of 534 feet, 130 feet higher than Salisbury Cathedral spire, which gives the impression, today, of enormous height. The old cathedral had suffered many losses and injuries before the fire, its spire had been destroyed, and its monuments defaced, while many outrages called restorations had injured its beauty.
After the fire much of the work of rebuilding was entrusted to Sir Christopher Wren, the most renowned architect of modern times in England. In four years ten thousand houses had been rebuilt, and very soon fifty-one churches were commenced by Wren. The greatest was new St. Paul's. The first stone was laid on June 21, 1675, the last in 1710. Just before the fire Wren had been commissioned by King Charles II to restore old St. Paul's, and he proposed to remodel all but the choir in "a good Roman manner." We may be thankful that such an atrocity was providentially prevented. Wren made several designs for the new building on the lines of his proposed remodeling of the old one; but for various reasons none of them were finally carried out. The finished building is very different from even the last approved design, and is generally considered far superior. In place of the one-storied effect produced by a single order of columns, which he originally intended, he divided the whole height into two orders. The result was an immense gain in apparent size. St. Peter's in Rome is utterly dwarfed by the colossal size of the columns and pilasters of its single order, and it is a remarkable fact, that although the top of St. Paul's dome is only about the same height as the springing of that of St. Peter's, owing to Wren's ingenious design in this matter, the one looks about as high as the other.
It is rather a singular fact that the greatest cathedral of the Protestant Reformation should be called after the "wise master-builder," St. Paul, while the central church of the Roman faith is dedicated to the apostle who thrice denied his Master.
The ground plan as finally built, is much smaller than that of the old cathedral, being only 500 feet long, by 250 across the transepts. The front towers are 250 feet high, and the dome is 404. The dome is a wonderful example of Wren's constructive skill. The stone lantern at the summit is quite independent of the external wooden and lead dome; it is supported on a cone of brickwork, concealed from the interior by an internal dome. Wren said he was building for eternity, and he was especially careful about the strength of the foundations, but he had no suspicion of the boring and tunneling that would before many centuries take place around the cathedral, and serious anxiety has been caused of late years by sundry cracks which have appeared in some of the walls and vaults.