Esoteric V10: July 1896 - Iapsop.com

404 REWARDS AND PUNISIDIE.NTS. [March
nor do the ~i(~k in the true ~ense of the te•·m : g•·owth is confinetl
to the strong and healthy.
In con!lidering the phenomena of life we find that, when
weak and faint, if we eat wholesome food, we are strengthened
and enlivened. Evidently, then, the life that was in the food
is, by the nutritive prooes~. lil>eratetl fi'Om the organism in
whieh it was imprisoned anti is absorbetl hy the body; in other
worth, the life that is in the food is appro1>J'iated by us and becomes
our life,-the life of the grain, fi>4h, an1l flesh becomes
Ianman life, sustaining the human o•·ganism. Another marked
pffet•t is that this life has in it the impulses of the old organism.
Thil-l will reallily be observed by oue who eatl'l animal fo(){l
afte•· having ablltainetl from it fo1· some months. All animal
ti~suc feeds the animal properties, for the animal impullle is in it.
The first step in the process of the pre'le•·vatiun an1l growth
of man is taken when the life in his foo;( hecumes his own life,
and is incorporated into the blood: we know that the life goe11
out with the blood. The next step in this proces!l iK the work
of Hxtracting and concentrating this life, which is done by the
st>xnal organs. The ~cretions thus formed contain many times
as much life as is found in the same amount of blntlll. A
strong, plethoric man feels little effect from the l•1ss of a pint
of hlood; but the same organism would plainly feel a sm:Lil loss
of these secretions. This, then, is the second roun1l in the
asc•encling spiral of life.
Further observation show11 that these fluids, if retaint>d in
the body, pass through a transmuting proce!ils and become
the means of vitalizing the brain, and thns brightening and
!ltJ·engthening the mentality. It il-l by the mentality that we
)parn the lesson of life, •·ising higher in its Mcending scale,
au1l hecoming more ancl nHH'e like the min1l whieh said of men,
•· Let them hecnme like us." Thus life ascends lltl'p hy step:
it is first vegetable life; when foun1l in the blno1l, it i!l aninml
I if,.: then repi'Otlueti ve, when in the !lee• I. But tht> diffi,mlty is
that few are able to carl'y it bt•yo•ul thi!l puint: tlwy can not
J'Ptain the seed until t•·ansmutation, the next step, is reached.
au.J, consequently, make but little progress toward the image
antllikeness nf the Supreme :\lind.
Dig,tized by Coogle