figures" and in its form with the center unmarked, corresponding to the
monad or the one in arithmetic, was placed in a category by itself. The
circle with a dot at its center corresponds to the duad, the triangle
to the triad, the square to the tetrad in its actual as opposed to
its potential form, which is that of the tetradic dotted triangle,
as previously explained, the potential equivalent of the decad. The
pentagram or five-pointed star corresponds to the pentad, and the
hexagram to the senary. The circle with its diameter indicated the
actual dekad or 10 (for we no longer write the one within the circle to
represent ten) as opposed to the potential equivalent of the dekad, the
tetraktys. In his solid geometry Pythagoras taught that "the sphere was
the most beautiful of all solid figures," and in its form corresponding
to the monad, it was classed by itself. Pythagoras explained that both
the earth and the kosmos were spherical in shape, and added that the
universe was made up of five basic solid figures, which were built up
from the triangle and the square: namely, the cube; the tetrahedron;
the octahedron, a figure with its eight sides formed by equal
equilateral triangles; the dodecahedron, a figure with twelve faces
formed by regular pentagons; and the icosahedron, a figure composed of
twenty equal and similar triangular pyramids whose vertices meet at the
center of a sphere, which is supposed to circumscribe it.
(3) Music
Turning to Pythagoras' teachings in regard to music, which he regarded
as a very important help in controlling the passions, it is said that
he was the first to teach the Greeks the tonic relations of the musical
scale, and invented for them the monochord, a one-stringed instrument,
used in measuring the musical intervals. Upon these relations he built
his celebrated doctrine of the Harmony or Music of the Spheres, that
is, that the heavenly bodies, composing our solar system, in the course
of their rotations emit the notes of the scale. H. P. Blavatsky and the
ancients explain this by saying that Pythagoras called
a "tone" the distance of the Moon from the Earth; from the Moon to
Mercury ½ a tone, thence to Venus the same; from Venus to the Sun 1½
tones; from the Sun to Mars a tone; from thence to Jupiter ½ a tone;
from Jupiter to Saturn a tone; and thence to the Zodiac a tone; thus
making seven tones, the diapason harmony. All the melody of nature is
in those seven tones and therefore is called "the Voice of Nature."
Pythagoras declared that the harmony of the spheres is not heard by the
ordinary human ear either because it has always been accustomed to it
from the beginning of life, or because the sound is too powerful for
the capabilities of the physical ear. In substantiation of this theory
it is interesting to note that modern science expresses the intervals
of music by proportions similar to those which mark the tonal distances
of the planets.
(4) Man
Self-contemplation was strongly insisted upon and played a most vital
part in the Pythagorean training. To his esoteric section Pythagoras
taught the immortality of the soul, its pre-existence, and its rebirth;
karma; and the septenary constitution of man, partially veiled, it is
true, under the form of a triple division of the soul into animal,
human, and divine parts.
There is a doctrine whispered in secret that man is a prisoner, who
has no right to open the door and run away. The gods are our guardians.
The soul is a harmony and the body its prison.
We choose our own destiny and are our own good or bad fortune.
Rash words and acts are their own punishment.
We are our own children.
Intentional perversions of the teachings of Pythagoras, mere travesties
of his ideas, are plainly evident in what has come down to us in regard
to his belief in metempsychosis. Thus we are told that his enemies
circulated the story that Pythagoras had declared that one of his
relatives had passed into a bean, a vicious joke based on the fact
that beans were excluded from the Pythagorean diet. Another similar
malicious fiction about Pythagoras is thus referred to by Xenophanes, a
contemporary philosopher.
They say that once, as passing by he saw
A dog severely beaten, he did pity him,
And spoke as follows to the man who beat him:
"Stop now, and beat him not; since in his body,
Abides the soul of a dear friend of mine,
Whose voice I recognized, as he was crying."
That Pythagoras, himself, did not believe in transmigration after
such fashion, is shown quite plainly by the following statements of
Hierocles, the Neo-Platonist in his commentary upon the _Golden Verses_
of Pythagoras:
If through a shameful ignorance of the immortality of the human soul,
a man should persuade himself that his soul dies with his body,
he expects what can never happen; in like manner he who expects
that after death he shall put on the body of a beast and become an
irrational animal because of his vices, or a plant because of his
dulness and stupidity--such a man, I say, acting quite contrary to
those who transform the essence of man into one of the superior
beings, is _infinitely deceived_ and _absolutely ignorant_ of the
_essential form_ of the _soul_, which can never change; for being
and continuing always man, it is only said to become God or beast by
virtue or vice, though it cannot be either the one or the other.
The following quotations give us true representations of Pythagoras'
ideas on pre-existence and rebirth.
Souls cannot die. They leave a former home,
And in new bodies dwell and from them roam.
Nothing can perish, all things change below,
For spirits through all forms may come and go.
* * * * *
Thus through a thousand shapes, the soul shall go
And thus fulfil its destiny below.
Death has no power th' immortal soul to slay;
That, when its present body turns to clay,
Seeks a fresh home and with unminish'd might
Inspires another frame with life and light.
So I myself (well I the past recall)....
Pythagoras regarded rebirth as a gradual process of purification and
taught that the soul by reason of nobility of character gained by
struggles upon earth was destined to be exalted eventually into far
higher modes of life. "Imagination," he explained:
is the remembrance of precedent spiritual, mental, and physical
states, while fancy is the disorderly production of the material
brain.
Man is perfected first by conversing with gods, which he can do only
when he abstains from evil and strives to resemble divine natures;
secondly, by doing good to others, which is an imitation of the gods;
thirdly, by leaving the mortal body.
By our separation from the Deity, we lost the wings which raised us
towards celestial beings and were thus precipitated into the region
of death where all evils dwell. By putting away earthly passions and
devoting ourselves to virtue, our wings will be renewed and we shall
rise to that existence where we shall find the true good without any
admixture of evil.
The soul of man being between spirits who always contemplate the
Divine Essence and those who are incapable of contemplating it, can
raise itself to the one, or sink itself to the other.
Every quality which a man acquires originates a good or bad spirit,
which abides by him in this world and after death remains with him as
a companion.
Pythagoras taught that man is a microcosm, a compendium of the
universe, with a triple nature, composed of (1) an immortal spirit,
the Spiritual Soul, intuitive perception, the _Nous_, a portion of
the Deity; (2) a human intelligence, the Human Soul, the rational
principle, the _Phren_; and (3) the sensitive irrational nature, the
Animal Soul, the seat of the passions and desires, the _Thymos_.
The Nous and the Thymos, he stated, are common to man and the lower
animals, but the Phren, which in its higher aspect is immortal, is
peculiar to man.
The immortal mind of man is as much more excellent than his sensitive
irrational nature as the sun is more excellent than the stars.
The physical body is but a temporary garment of the soul, into which
"the Nous enters from without." "The sense perceptions are deceptive."
The principle of life is about the heart, but the principle of reason
and intelligence in the head.
Pythagoras added that at death the ethereal part of man freed from
the chains of matter is conducted by Hermes Psychopompos, the Guide
of Souls, into the region of the dead, where it remains in a state
according to its merit until it is sent back to earth to inhabit
another body. The object of rebirth is gradually to purify the soul by
successive probations, until finally it shall be fitted to return to
the immortal source whence it emanated.
(5) The Earth and the Universe
It is well-known that the ideas expressed by Plato in his _Timaeus_,
the dialog which he named after his Pythagorean teacher, are derived
almost entirely from Pythagorean sources. Therefore it is probable that
Pythagoras taught about the earlier continents, which were destroyed
alternately by fire and water, and in particular about the legends of
Atlantis, including the account of an Atlantean invasion of Greece
about 10,000 years B. C. before the Greeks lived in the Greek lands--an
invasion which was repelled by the inhabitants of prehistoric Athens,
who were akin to the ancient Egyptians.
In regard to our solar system, Pythagoras knew not only that the earth
is spherical, but also taught that the sun, likewise spherical, not the
earth, is the center--a theory rediscovered more than 2000 years later
by Copernicus and Galileo. Pythagoras also explained the obliquity of
the ecliptic, the causes of eclipses, that the morning and evening star
are the same, that the moon shines by light reflected from the sun, and
that the Milky Way is composed of stars. He held that "the Universe has
neither height nor depth but is infinite in extent," that
there is a void outside the Universe into which the Universe breathes
forth and from which it breathes in,
and that
the Universe is brought into being by the Deity and is perishable
so far as its shape is concerned, for it is perceived by sense, is
therefore material, but that (its Essence) will not be destroyed.
Pythagoras declared that all nature is animate, for
Soul is extended through the nature of all things and is mingled with
them
and he believed in one Deity, ruling and upholding all things.
There is One Universal Soul diffused through all things--eternal,
invisible, unchangeable; in essence like Truth, in substance
resembling Light; not to be represented by any image; to be
comprehended only by the _Nous_; not, as some conjecture, exterior to
the Universe, but in itself entire, pervading the sphere which is the
Universe.
From this One Universal Soul proceed Spiritual Intelligences, above,
below, and inclusive of man; the subtle ether out of which they are
formed becoming more and more gross, the further it is removed from the
divine Source. He classified these Hosts or Hierarchies of Spiritual
Intelligences into gods or major divinities, daemones or lesser divine
beings of good and bad natures, and thirdly heroes or disembodied human
souls, "immortal minds in luminous bodies," in position intermediate
between men and the daemones. He declared "the whole air is filled with
souls."
H. P. Blavatsky says:
In the Pythagorean Theurgy these hierarchies of the Heavenly Host and
the gods were expressed numerically.
The Pythagoreans believed that the forces of nature were spiritual
entities. They taught that there are ten spheres formed by the
Heavenly bodies, those of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the
fixed Stars, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, and the Counter-earth or
the Antichthon, about which little has come down to us but which
is presumably connected with "the riddle of the Eighth Sphere."
Furthermore the Pythagoreans taught that there were ten cardinal pairs
of opposites or ten antithetical principles, which constitute the
elements or Stoicheia of the Universe, namely, (1) the limited and the
unlimited; the finite and the infinite; (2) the One and the Many; (3)
light and darkness; (4) good and bad; (5) rest and motion; (6) the
masculine and the feminine; (7) the straight and the crooked; (8) the
odd and the even; (9) the square and the oblong; and (10) the right and
the left.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE INVISIBLE: by Philip A. Malpas
If a spectrum be thrown on a blackboard with a lantern, in a dark room,
one end will be violet and the other red, to the ordinary eye. If a
plain photographic sensitized plate is placed against the blackboard
so as to receive the spectrum on its central portion during a suitable
exposure and is then developed, fixed, and replaced in its original
position, the result shown is remarkable. At the red end the plate is
unaffected; the orange and yellow and green are scarcely recorded; the
blue and violet are well represented, but the part of the plate most
affected is that beyond the visible violet far into the "darkness" of
the blackboard.
Here is a sensitive surface or substance which can "see," as though
brilliantly lighted, a surface which to the ordinary eye is invisible,
but, on the other hand, has some difficulty in seeing the red and
yellow, which the eye can see quite plainly. Needless to remark that
this is why a true red or yellow light is "safe" for ordinary plates
and for dark-rooms. On the other hand it would be possible to have a
dark-room which would be to the plate a very light room indeed, being
filled with these invisible rays beyond the violet end of the spectrum.
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. VISINGSBORG CASTLE,
VISINGSÖ, SWEDEN]
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE CANAL,
TROLLHÄTTAN, SWEDEN]
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. HIGH SLUICE AND
PALACE OF INDUSTRY, AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND (At Amsterdam a stone arch
bridge is called a sluice)]
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. PALACE OF INDUSTRY,
AMSTERDAM]
And yet there are some eyes which can plainly distinguish the fact that
a substance or surface is giving off these powerful rays, invisible
to less sensitive eyes. Perhaps this is one of the thousands of
little forerunner facts which testify to the increase of sensibility
prophesied by H. P. Blavatsky for this present century.
Now if a solution of one per cent of sulphate of quinine, one
centimeter thick, is used in a glass cell before a lens or plate it
may delay the exposure by perhaps six times the normal time, thus
showing that of our photographs taken under ordinary conditions on
ordinary plates we have been accustomed to accepting as true pictures
reproductions of the invisible, although much of that invisible
coincides with the visible, since these rays are emitted by so many
substances.
But a false standard has been established unconsciously in our minds.
Where blue skies should be, we are content to see a pure white in a
photograph. Where reds and yellows abound we expect altogether too dark
a representation, as with grass and green trees.
The quinine light-filter (aesculine, extracted from the horse-chestnut,
serves as well) absorbs or is largely opaque to these rays and such
a filter is much used now with specially sensitized plates to allow
the colors to be reproduced in monochrome in truer relation. A yellow
filter will also absorb some of the visible blue. The glass of the lens
too is responsible for the absorption of a proportion of these rays.
By an action not yet understood the dyeing of plates with certain dyes
renders the silver in them far more sensitive to the various colors in
the green, yellow, and red of the spectrum.
Is it not probable that silver has the power of sensing these rays
so keenly, while the human eye, for reasons best known to the human
mind, has had and lost that power, but may be now beginning to regain
it? Such a recovery is not made without strain and natures that can
begin to sense these invisible rays must either strengthen and purify
themselves to the utmost degree possible or suffer what dry leaves
suffer in the flames, a burning out of the particles that are not tuned
to withstand the red fire that burns them. Hence the theosophical
reason for purity and strength, first, last, and all the time, in
preparation for the burning fiery flames of added sensitiveness which
come and have come quite soon enough for us to prepare against rather
than seek.
Knowing what is now known of the efficacy of light in curing certain
affections, especially the violet and blue light, is it too early to
suggest that much of the power of quinine is due to the body being
saturated with this "colorless" dye and so cutting off light which the
constituents of the body are not strong enough to bear without their
balancing power being impaired, and so leaving the battlefield at the
mercy of inimical fever forces?
Tropical travelers are warned not so much to use quinine after attack,
but to saturate the body (with minute doses) commencing several days
before entering the dangerous zone.
In spite of endless fraud and humbug and "fake" photography, it has
long been suspected that the invisible can be photographed. As shown,
we have never been doing anything else in our photography except
photographing much of the invisible. Without saying that it has or has
not been done, we may well ask if it is really so difficult to imagine
that much of what inhabits the "seeming void" may be made visible to
the lunar surface of the plate?
Professor Wood's experiments on the lines of photography by invisible
rays are of absorbing interest. Not only has he made interesting
photographs of objects by means of the invisible violet rays, but also
by means of the invisible rays below the red end of the spectrum. And
he shows one very interesting result of photographing Chinese white
by these ultra-violet rays--as though the pigment were a pure black!
This illustrates the fact long known to photo-engravers' artists that
Chinese white is a bad white to use except in a mixed tint. The Chinese
white cuts off so much of this invisible chemically-active "white" as
to appear gray even to an ordinary plate's "lunar eye."
Another startling result is that by the ultra-violet light a man's
shadow may entirely disappear when he is photographed in sunlight. One
wonders if the strange Eastern "superstitions" as to shadows and men
without shadows do not have a real scientific basis. Perhaps R. L.
Stevenson's little child who rose so early that his "naughty little
shadow had stayed at home ... and was fast asleep in bed," could tell
us.
HEREDITY AND BIOLOGY: by H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)
The word "heredity" is one that is much conjured with nowadays, so that
it is important to understand its meaning and import. In so far as its
meaning covers facts ascertained by reliable observation, and correct
inferences therefrom, we must be prepared to accord the word the
respect which in that case it deserves; but in so far as it may stand
for imperfect observations and the faulty theories inferred therefrom,
we must be equally prepared to apply scrutiny and reserve.
One thing we find is that the word is frequently used, even by
accredited authorities on biology, in a variable sense; in the course
of an argument the word has two or more distinct meanings, and the
arguer does not seem to be aware of the variation. This of course
indicates a nebulosity in the reasoning and leads to confusion and
wrong conclusions. For instance, in a particular case, where a lecturer
is reported, we find that he uses the word (1) in the sense of "the
fact that organic cells reproduce their kind," and (2) in the sense of
"some power or faculty in virtue of which they reproduce their kind."
These two senses are quite distinct, and would have been given separate
heads in a dictionary; to ignore the distinction in an argument both
arises from and creates confusion.
But let us at present consider the second meaning--that of some power
or property in virtue of which an organic cell can reproduce its kind.
Biology, within its present scope, must confine itself to admitting
the existence of this power and to tracing its workings. The source
of the power lies outside the field of ordinary biological research.
For, granted that physical matter is actuated by an agency, that agency
must be immaterial; or at least, if material, then material in another
sense than that in which physical matter is material. Now biologists
may claim that this phase of the subject does not concern them; and
that point we should be willing to concede in all cases where the
investigations were confined to their appropriate limits--that is, to
the limits appropriate to a confessedly limited science. But what we
often actually find is that theorists overstep these limits and assume
an attitude of positiveness and authority to which (by the logic of
their own admission) they are not entitled. We even find proposals to
base legislation upon biological theories; and there is the danger that
in small self-governed communities such experiments may actually be
carried into effect. When it comes to this therefore we are justified
in inquiring more jealously into the credentials of biology; for we
do not readily concede the right to be governed by people who have
confessed that certain vital phases of their subject do not concern
them.
Hence, however the case may stand as regards merely theoretical
science, when there is an attempt to apply theories to matters of
government and public policy, the restrictions become a matter of vital
importance. If we are to achieve successful results in applied biology,
then we must positively know something about these mysterious potencies
which lie behind matter and which many biologists say do not concern
them; for these forces actually exist and count, whether biologists
understand them or not; and though they may be ignored on paper, their
effects cannot be ignored.
That which lies behind matter is mind--something well known to our
experience but not definable in terms of space. The mental aspect of
heredity is far more important than the merely physical. The bearing of
this truth upon the question of race-improvement and the elimination
of degenerate types is important. In paying so much attention to the
physical side of the question we are ignoring the important factors and
exaggerating those of lesser importance.
In agriculture, attention to the soil is all very well and necessary;
but attention to the nature of the seed planted is generally considered
as counting for a good deal in determining the nature of the crop to be
reaped. Biological theorists are flooding us with schemes for improving
the soil in which the human plant grows; and very excellent some of
these schemes are. But what about the seeds of the human plant? Nay
more; we have not even exhausted the question of the soil; for besides
the physical soil, is there not the mental soil? In short, an abundance
of factors enter into the question, all of which are of vital import,
yet of which but a few fall under the attention of biological theorists.
Heredity includes the two factors of innate potentiality and
environment; but the former, since it escapes the observation of
physical science, is minimized in favor of the latter. There is an
attempt to make environment account for the whole set of phenomena; as
though the nature of the crop depended entirely upon the soil and not
at all upon the nature of the seed.
In the question of parental transmission the same considerations apply.
While it is true that the offspring derives many of its characteristics
from its parents, and others from its surroundings, we know that
parentage and environment cannot explain everything. There is another
factor; and this factor is what corresponds to the seed in our
illustration from agriculture. In fact it is the _innate character_
of the individual. For of a man's character, part is due to parentage
and environment and part is inherent in the individual himself. The
character is the resultant of these two components. The influence
of this inherent factor is seen in families, where, though all the
children have the same parents, the characters may be widely different.
We are aware that an attempt is made to explain this fact by saying
that the different children have combined the characteristics of the
parents in different proportions; but this is not an explanation of the
cause, but merely a restatement of the problem in another form.