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602 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
seeds, if I may use the expression—which presently are to coalesce and develop into
the groupings now known as lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen,
fluorine, sodium, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, phosphorus, sulphur, and
chlorine. What is most probably the form of track now pursued Were it strictly
confined to the same plane of temperature and time, the next elementary groupings
to appear would again have been those of lithium, and the original cycle would
have been eternally repeated, producing again and again the same 14 elements.
The conditions, however, are not quite the same. Space and electricity are as at
first,
but temperature has altered, and thus, instead of the atoms of lithium being
supplemented with atoms in all respects analogous with themselves, the atomic
groupings which come into being when the second cycle commences form, not
lithium, but its lineal descendant, potassium.
Suppose, therefore, the vis generatrix
travelling to and fro in cycles along a lemniscate path, as above suggested, while
simultaneously temperature is declining and time is flowing on—variations which
I have endeavoured to represent by the downward sink—each coil of the lemniscate
track crosses the same vertical line at lower and lower points. Projected in space,
the curve shows a central line neutral as far as electricit}^ is concerned, and neutral
in chemical properties — positive electricity on the north, negative on the south.
Dominant atomicities are governed by the distance east and west from the neutral
centre line, monatomic elements being one remove from it, diatomic two removes,
and so on. In every successive coil the same law holds good.
And, as if to prove the postulate of Occult Science and Hindii philosophy,
that, at the hour of the Pralaya, the two aspects of the Unknowable
Deity, "the Swan in darkness," Prakriti and Purusha, Nature or
Matter in all
its forms and Spirit, no longer subsist but are absolutely
dissolved, we learn the conclusive scientific opinion of the great English
Chemist, who caps his proofs by saying:
We have now traced
the formation of the chemical elements from knots and
voids in a primitive, formless fluid. We have shown the possibility, nay, the probability
that the atoms are not eternal in existence, but share with all other created
beings the attributes of decay and death.
Occultism says a7nen to this, as the scientific "possibility" and
"probability" are for it facts, demonstrated beyond the necessity for
further proof, or for any extraneous physical evidence.
Nevertheless,
it repeats with as much assurance as ever: "MATTER is KTERNAI,, becoming
atomic (its aspect) only periodically." This is as sure as that
the other proposition, which is almost unanimously accepted by
Astronomers and Physicists—namely, that the wear and tear of the
body of the Universe is steadily going on, and that it will finally lead'
to the extinction of the Solar Fires and the destruction of the Universe
—is quite erroneous on the lines traced by men of Science. There will
be, as there ever were in time and eternity, periodical dissolutions of