described, but the seventh sub-race developed a superior type, though
very unlike any living men of the present time. While retaining the
projecting lower jaw, the thick heavy lips, the flattened face, and
the uncanny looking eyes, they had by this time developed something
which might be called a forehead, while the curious projection of the
heel had been considerably reduced. In one branch of this seventh
sub-race, the head might be described as almost egg-shaped--the small
end of the egg being uppermost, with the eyes wide apart and very near
the top. The stature had perceptibly decreased, and the appearance of
the hands, feet and limbs generally had become more like those of the
negroes of to-day. These people developed an important and
long-lasting civilisation, and for thousands of years dominated most
of the other tribes who dwelt on the vast Lemurian continent, and even
at the end, when racial decay seemed to be overtaking them, they
secured another long lease of life and power by inter-marriage with
the Rmoahals--the first sub-race of the Atlanteans. The progeny,
while retaining many Third Race characteristics, of course, really
belonged to the Fourth Race, and thus naturally acquired fresh power
of development. Their general appearance now became not unlike that of
some American Indians, except that their skin had a curious bluish
tinge not now to be seen.
But surprising as were the changes in the size, consistency, and
appearance of man's body during this period, the alterations in the
process of reproduction are still more astounding. A reference to the
systems which now obtain among the lower kingdoms of nature may help
us in the consideration of the subject.
[Sidenote: Processes of Reproduction.]
After instancing the simplest processes of propagation by self-division,
and by the formation of buds (Gemmatio), Haeckel proceeds, "A third mode
of non-sexual propagation, that of the formation of germ-buds
(Polysporogonia) is intimately connected with the formation of buds. In
the case of the lower, imperfect organisms, among animals, especially in
the case of the plant-like animals and worms, we very frequently find
that in the interior of an individual composed of many cells, a small
group of cells separates itself from those surrounding it, and that this
small isolated group gradually develops itself into an individual, which
becomes like the parent and sooner or later comes out of it.... The
formation of germ buds is evidently but little different from real
budding. But, on the other hand, it is connected with a fourth kind of
non-sexual propagation, which almost forms a transition to sexual
reproduction, namely, the formation of germ cells (Monosporogonia). In
this case it is no longer a group of cells but a single cell, which
separates itself from the surrounding cells in the interior of the
producing organism, and which becomes further developed after it has
come out of its parent.... Sexual or amphigonic propagation
(Amphigonia) is the usual method of propagation among all higher animals
and plants. It is evident that it has only developed at a very late
period of the earth's history, from non-sexual propagation, and
apparently in the first instance from the method of propagation by
germ-cells.... In all the chief forms of non-sexual propagation
mentioned above--in fission, in the formation of buds, germ-buds, and
germ-cells--the separated cell or group of cells was able by itself to
develop into a new individual, but in the case of sexual propagation,
the cell must first be fructified by another generative substance. The
fructifying sperm must first mix with the germ-cell (the egg) before the
latter can develop into a new individual. These two generative
substances, the sperm and the egg, are either produced by one and the
same individual hermaphrodite (Hermaphroditismus) or by two different
individuals (sexual-separation).
"The simpler and more ancient form of sexual propagation is through
double-sexed individuals. It occurs in the great majority of plants,
but only in a minority of animals, for example, in the garden snails,
leeches, earth-worms, and many other worms. Every single individual
among hermaphrodites produces within itself materials of both
sexes--eggs and sperm. In most of the higher plants every blossom
contains both the male organ (stamens and anther) and the female organ
(style and germ). Every garden snail produces in one part of its
sexual gland eggs, and in another part sperm. Many hermaphrodites can
fructify themselves; in others, however, reciprocal fructification of
both hermaphrodites is necessary for causing the development of the
eggs. This latter case is evidently a transition to sexual separation.
"Sexual separation, which characterises the more complicated of the
two kinds of sexual reproduction, has evidently been developed from
the condition of hermaphroditism at a late period of the organic
history of the world. It is at present the universal method of
propagation of the higher animals.... The so-called virginal
reproduction (Parthenogenesis) offers an interesting form of
transition from sexual reproduction to the non-sexual formation of
germ-cells which most resembles it.... In this case germ-cells which
otherwise appear and are formed exactly like egg-cells, become capable
of developing themselves into new individuals without requiring the
fructifying seed. The most remarkable and the most instructive of the
different parthenogenetic phenomena are furnished by those cases in
which the same germ-cells, according as they are fructified or not,
produce different kinds of individuals. Among our common honey bees, a
male individual (a drone) arises out of the eggs of the queen, if the
egg has not been fructified; a female (a queen, or working bee) if the
egg has been fructified. It is evident from this, that in reality
there exists no wide chasm between sexual and non-sexual reproduction,
but that both modes of reproduction are directly connected."[17]
Now, the interesting fact in connection with the evolution of Third
Race man on Lemuria, is that his mode of reproduction ran through
phases which were closely analogous with some of the processes above
described. Sweat-born, egg-born and Androgyne are the terms used in
the Secret Doctrine.
"Almost sexless, in its early beginnings, it became bisexual or
androgynous; very gradually, of course. The passage from the former to
the latter transformation required numberless generations, during
which the simple cell that issued from the earliest parent (the two in
one), first developed into a bisexual being; and then the cell,
becoming a regular egg, gave forth a unisexual creature. The Third
Race mankind is the most mysterious of all the hitherto developed
five Races. The mystery of the 'How' of the generation of the distinct
sexes must, of course, be very obscure here, as it is the business of
an embryologist and a specialist, the present work giving only faint
outlines of the process. But it is evident that the units of the Third
Race humanity began to separate in their pre-natal shells, or eggs,
and to issue out of them as distinct male and female babes, ages after
the appearance of its early progenitors. And, as time rolled on its
geological periods, the newly born sub-races began to lose their natal
capacities. Toward the end of the fourth _sub-race_, the babe lost its
faculty of walking as soon as liberated from its shell, and by the end
of the fifth, mankind was born under the same conditions and by the
same identical process as our historical generations. This required,
of course, millions of years."[18]
[Sidenote: Lemurian Races still Inhabiting the Earth.]
It may be as well again to repeat that the almost mindless creatures
who inhabited such bodies as have been above described during the
early sub-races of the Lemurian period can scarcely be regarded as
completely human. It was only after the separation of the sexes, when
their bodies had become densely physical, that they became human even
in appearance. It must be remembered that the beings we are speaking
of, though embracing the second and third groups of the Lunar Pitris,
must also have been largely recruited from the animal kingdom of that
(the Lunar) Manvantara. The degraded remnants of the Third Root Race
who still inhabit the earth may be recognised in the aborigines of
Australia, the Andaman Islanders, some hill tribes of India, the
Tierra-del-Fuegans, the Bushmen of Africa, and some other savage
tribes. The entities now inhabiting these bodies must have belonged to
the animal kingdom in the early part of _this_ Manvantara. It was
probably during the evolution of the Lemurian race and before the
"door was shut" on the entities thronging up from below, that these
attained the human kingdom.
[Sidenote: Sin of the Mindless.]
The shameful acts of the mindless men at the first separation of the
sexes had best be referred to in the words of the stanzas of the
archaic Book of Dzyan. No commentary is needed.
"During the Third Race the boneless animals grew and changed, they
became animals with bones, their chayas became solid.
"The animals separated first. They began to breed. The two-fold man
separated also. He said, 'Let us as they; let us unite and make
creatures.' They did.
"And those that had no spark took huge she-animals unto them. They
begat upon them dumb races. Dumb they were themselves. But their
tongues untied. The tongues of their progeny remained still. Monsters
they bred. A race of crooked red-hair-covered monsters going on all
fours. A dumb race to keep the shame untold." (And an ancient
commentary adds 'when the Third separated and fell into sin by
breeding men-animals, these (the animals) became ferocious, and men
and they mutually destructive. Till then, there was no sin, no life
taken.').
"Seeing which the Lhas who had not built men, wept, saying. 'The
Amanasa [mindless] have defiled our future abodes. This is Karma. Let
us dwell in the others. Let us teach them better lest worse should
happen.' They did.
"Then all men became endowed with Manas. They saw the sin of the
mindless."
[Sidenote: Origin of the Pithecoid and the Anthropoid Apes.]
The anatomical resemblance between Man and the higher Ape, so
frequently cited by Darwinists as pointing to some ancestors common to
both, presents an interesting problem, the proper solution of which is
to be sought for in the esoteric explanation of the genesis of the
pithecoid stocks.
Now, we gather from the Secret Doctrine[19] that the descendants of
these semi-human monsters described above as originating in the sin of
the "mindless," having through long centuries dwindled in size and
become more densely physical, culminated in a race of Apes at the time
of the Miocene period, from which in their turn are descended the
pithecoids of to-day. With these Apes of the Miocene period, however,
the Atlanteans of that age renewed the sin of the "mindless"--this
time with full responsibility, and the resultants of their crime are
the species of Apes now known as Anthropoid.
We are given to understand that in the coming Sixth Root Race, these
anthropoids will obtain human incarnation, in the bodies doubtless of
the lowest races then existing upon earth.
That part of the Lemurian continent where the separation of the sexes
took place, and where both the fourth and the fifth sub-races
flourished, is to be found in the earlier of the two maps. It lay to
the east of the mountainous region of which the present Island of
Madagascar formed a part, and thus occupied a central position around
the smaller of the two great lakes.
[Sidenote: Origin of Language.]
As stated in the stanzas of Dzyan above quoted, the men of that epoch,
even though they had become completely physical, still remained
speechless. Naturally the astral and etherial ancestors of this Third
Root Race had no need to produce a series of sounds in order to convey
their thoughts, living as they did in astral and etherial conditions,
but when man became physical he could not for long remain dumb. We are
told that the sounds which these primitive men made to express their
thoughts were at first composed entirely of vowels. In the slow course
of evolution the consonant sounds gradually came into use, but the
development of language from first to last on the continent of Lemuria
never reached beyond the monosyllabic phase. The Chinese language of
to-day is the sole great lineal descendant of ancient Lemurian
speech[20] for "the whole human race was at that time of one language
and of one lip."[21]
In Humboldt's classification of language, the Chinese, as we know, is
called the _isolating_ as distinguished from the more highly evolved
_agglutinative_, and the still more highly evolved _inflectional_.
Readers of the _Story of Atlantis_ may remember that many different
languages were developed on that continent, but all belonged to the
_agglutinative_, or, as Max Müller prefers to call it, the
_combinatory_ type, while the still higher development of
_inflectional_ speech, in the Aryan and Semitic tongues, was reserved
for our own era of the Fifth Root Race.
[Sidenote: The First Taking of Life.]
The first instance of sin, the first taking of life--quoted above from
an old commentary on the stanzas of Dzyan, may be taken as indicative
of the attitude which was then inaugurated between the human and the
animal kingdom, and which has since attained such awful proportions,
not only between men and animals, but between the different races of
men themselves. And this opens up a most interesting avenue of
thought.
The fact that Kings and Emperors consider it necessary or appropriate,
on all state occasions, to appear in the garb of one of the fighting
branches of their service, is a significant indication of the
apotheosis reached by the combative qualities in man! The custom
doubtless comes down from a time when the King was the warrior-chief,
and when his kingship was acknowledged solely in virtue of his being
the chief warrior. But now that the Fifth Root Race is in ascendency,
whose chief characteristic and function is the development of
intellect, it might have been expected that the dominant attribute of
the Fourth Root Race would have been a little less conspicuously
paraded. But the era of one race overlaps another, and though, as we
know, the leading races of the world all belong to the Fifth Root
Race, the vast majority of its inhabitants still belong to the Fourth,
and it would appear that the Fifth Root Race has not yet outstripped
Fourth Race characteristics, for it is by infinitely slow degrees that
man's evolution is accomplished.
It will be interesting here to summarise the history of this strife
and bloodshed from its genesis during these far-off ages on Lemuria.
From the information placed before the writer it would seem that the
antagonism between men and animals was developed first. With the
evolution of man's physical body, suitable food for that body
naturally became an urgent need, so that in addition to the antagonism
brought about by the necessity of self-defence against the now
ferocious animals, the desire of food also urged men to their
slaughter, and as we have seen above, one of the first uses they made
of their budding mentality was to train animals to act as hunters in
the chase.
The element of strife having once been kindled, men soon began to use
weapons of offence against each other. The causes of aggression were
naturally the same as those which exist to-day among savage
communities. The possession of any desirable object by one of his
fellows was sufficient inducement for a man to attempt to take it by
force. Nor was strife limited to single acts of aggression. As among
savages to-day, bands of marauders would attack and pillage the
communities who dwelt at a distance from their own village. But to
this extent only, we are told, was warfare organised on Lemuria, even
down to the end of its seventh sub-race.
It was reserved for the Atlanteans to develop the principle of strife
on organised lines--to collect and to drill armies and to build
navies. This principle of strife was indeed the fundamental
characteristic of the Fourth Root Race. All through the Atlantean
period, as we know, warfare was the order of the day, and battles were
constantly fought on land and sea. And so deeply rooted in man's
nature during the Atlantean period did this principle of strife
become, that even now the most intellectually developed of the Aryan
races are ready to war upon each other.
[Sidenote: The Arts.]
To trace the development of the Arts among the Lemurians, we must
start with the history of the fifth sub-race. The separation of the
sexes was now fully accomplished, and man inhabited a completely
physical body, though it was still of gigantic stature. The offensive
and defensive war with the monstrous beasts of prey had already begun,
and men had taken to living in huts. To build their huts they tore
down trees, and piled them up in a rude fashion. At first each
separate family lived in its own clearing in the jungle, but they soon
found it safer, as a defence against the wild beasts, to draw together
and live in small communities. Their huts, too, which had been formed
of rude trunks of trees, they now learnt to build with boulders of
stone, while the weapons with which they attacked, or defended
themselves against the Dinosauria and other wild beasts, were spears
of sharpened wood, similar to the staff held by the man whose
appearance is described above.
Up to this time agriculture was unknown, and the uses of fire had not
been discovered. The food of their boneless ancestors who crawled on
the earth were such things as they could find on the surface of the
ground or just below it. Now that they walked erect many of the wild
forest trees provided them with nuts and berries, but their chief
article of food was the flesh of the beasts and reptiles which they
slew, tore in pieces, and devoured.
[Sidenote: Teachers of the Lemurian Race.]
But now there occurred an event pregnant with consequences the most
momentous in the history of the human race. An event too full of
mystical import, for its narration brings into view Beings who
belonged to entirely different systems of evolution, and who
nevertheless came at this epoch to be associated with our humanity.
The lament of the Lhas "who had not built men" at seeing their future
abodes defiled, is at first sight far from intelligible. Though the
descent of these Beings into human bodies is not the chief event to
which we have to refer, some explanation of its cause and its result
must first be attempted. Now, we are given to understand that these
Lhas were the highly evolved humanity of some system of evolution
which had run its course at a period in the infinitely far-off past.
They had reached a high stage of development on their chain of worlds,
and since its dissolution had passed the intervening ages in the bliss
of some Nirvanic condition. But their karma now necessitated a return
to some field of action and of physical causes, and as they had not
yet fully learnt the lesson of compassion, their temporary task now
lay in becoming guides and teachers of the Lemurian race, who then
required all the help and guidance they could get.
But other Beings also took up the task--in this case voluntarily.
These came from the scheme of evolution which has Venus as its one
physical planet. That scheme has already reached the Seventh Round of
its planets in its Fifth Manvantara; its humanity therefore stands at
a far higher level than ordinary mankind on this earth has yet
attained. They are "divine" while we are only "human." The Lemurians,
as we have seen, were then merely on the verge of attaining true
manhood. It was to supply a temporary need--the education of our
infant humanity--that these divine Beings came--as we possibly, long
ages hence, may similarly be called to give a helping hand to the
beings struggling up to manhood on the Jupiter or the Saturn chain.
Under their guidance and influence the Lemurians rapidly advanced in
mental growth. The stirring of their minds with feelings of love and
reverence for those whom they felt to be infinitely wiser and greater
than themselves naturally resulted in efforts of imitation, and so the
necessary advance in mental growth was achieved which transformed the
higher mental sheath into a vehicle capable of carrying over the human
characteristics from life to life, thus warranting that outpouring of
the Divine Life which endowed the recipient with individual
immortality. As expressed in the archaic stanzas of Dzyan, "Then all
men became endowed with Manas."
A great distinction, however, must be noted between the coming of the
exalted Beings from the Venus scheme and that of those described as
the highly evolved humanity of some previous system of evolution. The
former, as we have seen, were under no karmic impulse. They came as
men to live and work among them, but they were not required to assume
their physical limitations, being in a position to provide appropriate
vehicles for themselves.
The Lhas on the other hand had actually to be born in the bodies of
the race as it then existed. Better would it have been both for them
and for the race if there had been no hesitation or delay on their
part in taking up their Karmic task, for the sin of the mindless and
all its consequences would have been avoided. Their task, too, would
have been an easier one, for it consisted not only in acting as guides
and teachers, but in improving the racial type--in short, in evolving
out of the half-human, half-animal form then existing, the physical
body of the man to be.
It must be remembered that up to this time the Lemurian race consisted
of the second and third groups of the Lunar Pitris. But now that they
were approaching the level reached on the Lunar chain by the first
group of Pitris, it became necessary for these again to return to
incarnation, and this they did all through the fifth, sixth and
seventh sub-races (indeed, some did not take birth till the Atlantean
period), so that the impetus given to the progress of the race was a
cumulative force.
The positions occupied by the divine beings from the Venus chain were
naturally those of rulers, instructors in religion, and teachers of
the arts, and it is in this latter capacity that a reference to the
arts taught by them comes to our aid in the consideration of the
history of this early race.
[Sidenote: The Arts continued.]
Under the guidance of their divine teachers the people began to learn
the use of fire, and the means by which it could be obtained, at first
by friction, and later on by the use of flints and iron. They were
taught to explore for metals, to smelt and to mould them, and instead
of spears of sharpened wood they now began to use spears tipped with
sharpened metal.
They were also taught to dig and till the ground and to cultivate the
seeds of wild grain till it improved in type. This cultivation carried
on through the vast ages which have since elapsed has resulted in the
evolution of the various cereals which we now possess--barley, oats,
maize, millet, etc. But an exception must here be noted. Wheat was not
evolved upon this planet like the other cereals. It was a gift of the
divine beings who brought it from Venus ready for the food of man. Nor
was wheat their only gift. The one animal form whose type has not been
evolved on our chain of worlds is that of the bee. It, too, was
brought from Venus.
The Lemurians now also began to learn the art of spinning and weaving
fabrics with which to clothe themselves. These were made of the coarse
hair of a species of animal now extinct, but which bore some
resemblance to the llamas of to-day, the ancestors of which they may
possibly have been. We have seen above that the earliest articles of
clothing of Lemurian man were robes of skin stripped from the beasts
he had slain. These skins he still continued to wear on the colder
parts of the continent, but he now learnt to cure and dress the skin
in some rude fashion.