1nCnVqgFI

640 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
by a process of evolution like that of the heavenly bodies according to Laplace, and
the plants and animals of our globe according to L,amarck, Darwin, and Wallace.*
In the general array of the elements, as known to us, we have seen a striking
approximation to that of the organic world. t In lack of direct evidence of the
decomposition of any element, we have sought and found indirect evidence.
We have next glanced at the view of the genesis of the elements; and lastly Mv-e
have reviewed a scheme of their origin suggested by Professor Reynolds' method
of illustrating the periodic classification J
. . . Summing up all the above con
siderations we cannot, indeed, venture to assert positively i/iai our so-called element^
have been evolvedfrom one primordial matter; but zve may contend that the balance oj
evidence, I think, fairly weighs in favour of this speculation.
• And to Kapila and Manu—especially and originally.
t Here is a scientific corroboration of the eternal law of correspondences and analogy.
t This method of illustrating the periodic law in the classification of elements is, in the words of
Mr. Crookes, proposed by Professor Emerson Reynolds, of Dublin University, who .... "points
out that in each period, the general properties of the elements vary from one to another, with
approximate regularity until we reach the sevenLh member, which is in more or less striking contrast
with the first element of the same period, as well as with the first of the next. Thus chlorine, the
seventh member of MendeleeP.s third period, contrasts sharply with both sodium, the first member
of the same series, and with potassium, the first member of the next series; whilst on the other
hand, sodium and potassium are closely analogous. The six elements, whose atomic weight.s
intervene between sodium and potassium, vary in properties, step by step, until chlorine, the
contrast to sodium, is reached. But from chlorine to potassium, the analogue of sodium, there is a
change in properties per salium
If we thus recognize a contrast in properties—more or
less decided—between the first and the last members of each series, we can scarcely help admitting
the existence of a point of mean variation vidthin each system. In general Xh^ fourth element of
each series possesses the property we might expect a transition -element to exhibit
Thus
for the purpose of graphic translation. Professor Reynolds considers that the fourth member of a
period—silicon, for example—may be placed at the apex of a symmetrical curve, which shall represent
for that particular period, the direction in which the properties of the series of elements vary
with rising atomic weights."
Now, the writer humbly confesses complete ignorance of modern Chemistry and its mysteries.
But she is pretty well acquainted with the Occult Doctrine with regard to correspondences of types
and antetypes in nature, and to perfect analogy as a fundamental law in Occultism. Hence she
ventures on a remark which will strike every Occultist, however it may be derided by orthodox
Science. This method of illustrating the periodic law in the behaviour of elements, whether or not
still a hypothesis in Chemistry, is a law in Occult Sciences. Every well-read Occultist knows that
the seventh and fourth members—whether in a septenary chain of worlds, the septenary hierarchy of
angels, or in the constitution of man, animal, plant, or mineral atom—that the seventh and fourth
members, we say, in the geometrically and mathematically uniform workings of the immutable
laws of Nature, always play a distinct and specific part in the septenary system. From the stars
twinkling high in heaven, to the sparks flying asunder from the rude fire built by the savage
in his forest; from the hierarchies and the essential constitution of the Dhyan Chohans—
organized for diviner apprehensions and a loftier range of perception than the greatest Western
Psychologist ever dreamed of, down to Nature's classification of species among the humblest insects;
finally from Worlds to Atoms, everything in the Universe, from great to small, proceeds in its
spiritual and physical evolution, cyclically and septennially, showing its seventh and fourth number
(the latter the turning point) behaving in the same way as is shown in that periodic law of Atoms.
Nature never proceeds per saltum. Therefore, when Mr. Crookes remarks on this that he does not
"wish to infer that the gaps in Mendeleef's table, and in this graphic representation of it [the
diagram showing the evolution of Atoms] necessarily mean that there are elements actually existing
to fill up the gaps; these gaps may only mean that at the birth of the elements there was an easy
potentiality of the formation of an element which would fit into the place"—an Occultist would
respectfully remark to him that the latter hypothesis can only hold good, if the septenary arrangement
of Atoms is not interfered with. This is the one law, and an infallible method that must
always lead one who follows it to success.