The process of evolution, in fact, is not carried on entirely within the limits of our physical vision—surely not an unreasonable statement. It would be strange indeed, if all that we see were all that there is. Hence biologists should expect, as a logical inference from their own conditions of research, that the results at which they arrive shall be incomplete; the imperfection of these results is rather to be regarded as evidence of their truth than the contrary.
But, instead of taking the case of animals, suppose we take that of human beings; for here we can view the matter more from the inside. We are human beings ourselves and are conscious of our own mind. This mind, as we know, undergoes development; it gains experience from day to day and ends up with a very different outfit from that with which it started. When this inner being again enters into the make-up of physical humanity, will it be the same as before? Shall we have the same old horoscope at our next nativity? Jupiter and Saturn forbid! But in case any reader should cavil over the question of death and rebirth, we can consider the matter apart from those. We are actually being reincarnated all the time; for does not our body continually discard old atoms and take on new ones? And does not the growing and changing body accommodate itself to the requirements set by our mind? If not, what do habit and exercise amount to? We can create for ourselves a body different from the one we have now, by muscular exercise, temperance, intemperance, and other means. So here we have a definite example of the process of growth and evolution. Death itself is but a major change, similar in kind, if greater in degree, to the lesser deaths that are taking place in us every day.
The physical structure is slow in its movements and conservative in its habits; and so in the course of a life in the physical state a misfit is apt to result; and this is adjusted by death and rebirth. It is reasonable to suppose—indeed it is inevitable—that the animals, in their own smaller and slower way, learn while they live, and that the indwelling animal monad is not forever doomed to reside in the same kind of form, but passes very gradually on to higher forms.
The species that we see and study are the beads on the string. It is almost like studying the different houses which a man may have built and left standing while he himself has gone elsewhere. These would give a clue to his mental development; but we must presuppose the existence of the man.
The question of physical reproduction is closely involved with that of evolution; and here again biology investigates but a few of the factors that enter into the process. Biology gets down as far as the microscopic germinal speck, and naturally enough has to stop there. A fertilized ovum provides the essential conditions for the entry of a life, but it needs other kinds of research to trace the source of that life.
In the light of Theosophy, evolution becomes a vast and entrancing study, for it concerns worlds and ages. Apart, however, from merely curious interest, this study is of the greatest positive importance to humanity, for the reason that inadequate theories are giving rise to various movements that we believe to threaten great harm, should all their ideas be carried out. A king who should ruthlessly slaughter all those among his subjects who did not happen to suit his ideals of what a subject should be, would justly be considered a cruel and stupid tyrant; yet there are proposed methods of eliminating the "unfit," which, though clothed in ambitious language, seem none the less monstrous. Hence the need of greater knowledge to prevent erroneous ideas from incarnating as monstrous acts.
THE MYSTERIES OF ROTATION: by a Student
ONE of the most fascinating results of the attention bestowed in the last few years upon gyroscopic effects, has been the almost final perfection of the gyrostat-compass, and the Scientific American Supplement contains an excellent account of it, together with one of the clearest popular explanations of its action which we have seen. The tests of the Anschütz instrument as improved by Sperry, were carried out last April for five days on a steamer plying between New York and a port in Virginia. Although the vessel rolled in heavy seas, it was found that the compass kept practically absolutely on the meridian during the whole period. The electric motor runs at 6000 revolutions per minute, and the instrument is in the steering-engine room, connected electrically with a repeating compass on the bridge. It is stated that at all ordinary latitudes this compass has a directional force some fifteen times greater than a corresponding magnetic compass. This, however, diminishes on approaching the poles. The interesting feature of the gyro-compass is that its action in pointing true north depends upon the rotation of the Earth.