108 SKETCHES OF GREAT TRUTHS

*i

and might end with the finest specimens of the
mammalia.

The whole process is one of steady evolution
from lower forms to higher, from the simpler to the
more complex. But what is evolving is not
primarily the form, but the life within it. The
forms also evolve and grow better as time passes ;

but this is in order that they may be appropriate
vehicles for more and more advanced waves of life.
When the life has reached the highest level possible
in the animal kingdom, it may then pass on into
the human kingdom.

The outpouring leaves one kingdom and passes
to another, so that if we had to deal with only one
wave of this outpouring we could have in existence
only one kingdom at a time. But the Deity sends
out a constant succession of these waves, so that at
any given time we find a number of them simul-
taneously in operation. We ourselves represent one
such wave ; but we find evolving alongside us
another wave which ensouls the animal kingdom—
a wave which came out from the Deity one stage
later than we did. We find also the vegetable
kingdom, which represents a third wave, and the
mineral kingdom, which represents a fourth ; and
occultists know of the existence all round us of
three elemental kingdoms, which represent the
fifth, sixth and seventh waves. All these, however,
are successive ripples of the same great outpouring
from the Second Aspect of the Deity.

Here we have a wonderful scheme of begin-
nings beautifully described which suggests to
•us how the Divine Life involves a fragment of
Itself more and more deeply in matter.

In order that through that matter it may
receive vibrations which could not otherwise affect