THE LAW OF REBIRTH 29

is gone out into all lands and their words unto
the ends of the world," thsrt the reply came to
His call through all the perfect forms. Count
Keyserling has put this very well, though I
repeat it as a translation, which means in other
words, that a perfect rose in its own line repre-
sents His life better than an imperfect life can
do even in a more evolved form.

Every manifestation (form, appearance) can,
within its limits, express the Atman. To God the
perfection of the Rose and of the Buddha mean the
same thing; the former stands closer to God than
the Buddha stood before He reached His perfection
(illumination).

It may be then that we go through various
forms and come to a stage of perfection in each-
It seems as if this must be so, and not that we
leave that special form before it is as perfect as
it can be in its own line. Down through the
ages then we have all come, expressing life in
various forms until we come to the time when
we have evolved sufficiently to take a man's
body, a man in the elementary state of a savage.
I have hurried over this possibly too much to be
clear, but I would refer you to a large amount
of Theosophical literature, if you wish to trace
in detail the course of evolution. Life after
life, return after return, is required by us to
learn and to complete in ourselves that which