Band 2 Anthropogenesis - H.P. Blavatsky

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 712 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
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PRIMORDIAL EPOCH (Laurentian System, Cambrian System, Silurian System)
The Primordial Epoch is, science tells us, by no means devoid of vegetable and animal life. In the Laurentian deposits are
found specimens of the Eozoon Canadense -- a chambered shell. In the Silurian are discovered sea-weeds (algae),
molluscs, crustacea, and lower marine organisms, also the first trace of fishes. The primordial Epoch shows algae,
molluscs, crustacea, polyps, and marine organisms, etc., etc. Science teaches, therefore, that marine life was present
from the very beginnings of time, leaving us, however, to speculate for ourselves as to how life appeared on earth. If it
rejects the Biblical "Creation" (as we do), why does it not give us another, approximately plausible hypothesis?
PRIMARY (Devonian***, Coal, Permian)
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"PRIMEVAL"* (Deva or Divine men, the "Creators" and Progenitors.**)
The Esoteric Philosophy agrees with the statement made by science (see parallel column), demurring, however, in one
particular. The 300,000,000 years of vegetable life (see "Brahminical Chronology") preceded the "Divine Men," or
Progenitors. Also, no teaching denies that there were traces of life within the Earth besides the Eozoon Canadense in the
Primordial Epoch. Only, whereas the said vegetation belonged to this Round, the zoological relics now found in the
Laurentian, Cambrian, and Silurian systems, so called, are the relics of the Third Round. At first astral like the rest, they
consolidated and materialized pari passu with the NEW vegetation.
"PRIMARY" -- Divine Progenitors, SECONDARY GROUPS, and the 2 1/2 races. "Fern-forests, Sigillaria, Coniferae,
fishes, first trace of reptiles." Thus saith modern science; the esoteric doctrine repeats that which was said above. These
are all relics of the preceding Round.**** Once, however, the prototypes are projected out of the astral envelope of the
earth, an indefinite amount of modification ensues.
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* The same names are retained as those given by science, to make the parallels clearer. Our terms are quite different.
** Let the student remember that the Doctrine teaches that there are seven degrees of Devas or "Progenitors," or seven
classes, from the most perfect to the less exalted.
*** It may be said that we are inconsistent in not introducing into this table a [[Footnote continued on next page]]
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[[Vol. 2, Page]] 713 THE TWO SCIENCES CONTRASTED.
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SECONDARY (Triassic. Jurassic. Chalk or Cretaceous.)
This is the age of Reptiles, of the gigantic Megalosauri, Ichthyosauri, Plesiosauri, etc., etc. Science denies the presence
of man in that period. If so, it has to explain how men came to know of these monsters and describe them before the age
of Cuvier? The old annals of China, India, Egypt, and even of Judea are full of them, as demonstrated elsewhere. In this
period also appear the first (marsupial) mammals***** -- Insectivorous, carnivorous, phytophagous; and (as Prof. Owen
thinks) an herbivorous hoofed mammal.
Science does not admit the appearance of man before the close of the
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SECONDARY -- According to every calculation the Third Race had already made its appearance, as during the Triassic
there were already a few mammals, and it must have separated.
This, then, is the age of the Third Race, in which the origins of the early Fourth may be perhaps also discoverable. We
are, however, here left entirely to conjecture, as no definite data are yet given out by the Initiates.
The analogy is but a poor one, still it may be argued that, as the early Mammalia and pre-mammalia are shown in their
evolution merging from one kind into a higher one, anatomically, so are the human races in their procreative processes. A
parallel might certainly be found between the Monotremata, the Didelphia (or Marsupialia) and the placental Mammals,
divided in their turn into three orders******
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