424 TALKS ON " AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER "

said, " of course," because I felt sure they would not
do that. But in a few months they did. They did
throw her overboard also, and rose against her, and
then He said with the same gentle smile : " You see,
for this life their sun has set," which I thought was a
very striking expression. Then He went on : " But
there are other lives, and the sun will rise again
to-morrow." So He was right. Of course They
always are, you know, and I was wrong to think the
thing was too hard, because when something infinitely
easier was given to them they went the same way,
showing, as Madame BIavatsky puts it, that the
Society had grown a little beyond them. Perhaps
some leading members come to think of themselves
as necessary. Now, of course, that is ^ fatal attitude.
It is very often quite true. We know it well
especially in India. A Branch in India often does
centre round one of its members ; and as in India
many of the members are Government officials and
are constantly being transferred from place to place,
we have the proof of it; because a"Lodge in one town
will suddenly become much less active than it was, and
then we find that this is because a certain person has
been transferred to another place, and in that other town
the Lodge will spring into far greater activity because
of his personality. Yet though that is so, and although
it is impossible to overestimate the influence of a
powerful personality, no one is indispensable in a
movement like this. I suppose you can hardly