Passing on from the culture of ancient America with its ideographs, the writer draws attention to the great transition of thought, as indicated by language, that took place in Central Asia probably, the supposed seat of the Aryan beginnings after the destruction of Atlantis and the general break-up of the former civilizations. He says:
I believe ... that coincident with a new and universal world-epoch, as wide in its cultural scope as the difference between the ideographic and literal, there was finally formed a totally new vehicle for the use of human thought, the inflectional, literal, alphabetic. That this vehicle was perfected into some great speech, the direct ancestor of Sanskrit, into the forms of which were concentrated all the old power of the ancient hieroglyphs and their underlying concepts. For Sanskrit, while the oldest is also the mightiest of Aryan grammars; and no one who has studied its forms, or heard its speech from educated native mouths, can call it anything but concentrated spiritual power. That the force which went on the one hand into the Sanskrit forms, was on the other perpetuated on into the special genius of Chinese, in which, as we know it, we have a retarded survival, not of course of outer form so much as of method and essence. And in Tibetan, in spite of all that is said to the contrary, I suspect that we have a derivative, not from either Chinese or Sanskrit as we know them, but by a medial line from a common point.
Many students feel convinced that once we solve the problem of the Maya-Tzental manuscripts and carved inscriptions, which undoubtedly relate to enormous periods of time, we shall have conclusive evidences of the civilization and destruction of Atlantis. Several illuminating quotations from H. P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine are given by Professor Gates, and in his last paragraph he sums up the results of his long application to the study of ancient American and other languages, in which he has been so notably helped by the teachings of Theosophy, in these words:
And I am convinced that the widest door there is to be opened to this past of the human race, is that of the Maya glyphs. The narrow limitations of our mental horizon as to the greatness and dignity of man, of his past, and of human evolution, were set back widely by Egypt and what she has had to show, and again by the Sanskrit; but the walls are still there, and advances, however rapid, are but gradual. With the reading of America I believe the walls themselves will fall, and a new conception of past history will come.
A NEW MAGAZINE
Translation of an article that appeared in the Gothenburg paper Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfarts Tidning for August 23, 1911, written by the literary and dramatic critic of the paper, J. Atterbom.
THE first number of a new international magazine which seems worthy of recognition is now out in a Swedish edition. The publication is called Den Teosofiska Vägen (The Theosophical Path) and the ultimate direction is in the hands of Katherine Tingley, the Leader of the international Theosophical Movement. The editor of the Swedish edition is Dr. Gustaf Zander, Stockholm.
This monthly magazine is intended to continue, on a broader scale, the work of the former magazine Theosophia, which has been published for a good many years. The interest in Theosophy has grown steadily of late, not only in our country but in all civilized countries. And the more attention the Theosophical Movement has attracted through its propaganda and educational activities, the more the need has been felt of a publication which, instead of devoting most of its space to theoretical Theosophy and the deeper teachings of its philosophy suited to advanced students, would serve primarily to enlighten and inform all genuine seekers of Truth upon the essential character of this Theosophical Movement throughout the world, and indicate the path along which its workers are trying to make Theosophy a living power in the world's life, as well as in the daily life of each of them.