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THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
on Mars are more ethereal than we are, while those on Venus are more
gross, though far more intelligent, if less spiritual.
The last doctrine is not quite ours—yet these Kantian theories are as
metaphysical, and as transcendental as any Occult Doctrines; and
more than one man of Science would, if he but dared speak his mind,
accept them as Wolf does. From this Kantian Mind and Soul of the
Suns and Stars to the Mahat (Mind) and Prakriti of the Puraiias there
is but a step. After all, the admission of this by Science would be
only the admission of a natural cause, whether it would or would not
stretch its belief to such metaphysical heights. But then Mahat, the
Mind, is a "God," and Physiology admits "mind" only as a temporary
function of the material brain, and no more.
The Satan of Materialism now laughs at all alike, and denies the
visible as well as the invisible. Seeing in light, heat, electricity, and
even in tht phenomenon of life, only properties inherent in Matter, it
laughs whenever life is called the
Vital Principle, and derides the idea
of its being independent of and distinct from the organism.
But here again scientific opinions differ as in everything else, and
there are several men of Science who accept views very similar to ours.
Consider, for instance, what Dr. Richardson, F.R.S. (elsewhere quoted
at length) sa3^s of that "Vital Principle," which he calls "Nervous
Ether":
I speak only of a veritable material agent, refined, it may be, to the world at
large, but actual and substantial : an agent having quality of weight and of volume,
an agent susceptible of chemical combination, and thereby of change of physical
state and condition, an agent passive in its action, moved alwaj^s, that is to say, by
influences apart from itself,* obeying other influences, an agent possessing no
initiative power, no vis or energeia naturce,\ but still playing a most important, if
not a primary part in the production of the phenomena resulting from the action
of the energeia upon visible matter. |
As Biology and Physiology now den3% in toto, the existence of a
Vital Principle, this extract, together with De Quatrefages' admission,
is a clear confirmation that there are men of Science who take the same
views about "things Occult" as do Theosophists and Occultists. These
recognize a distinct Vital Principle independent of the organism
• This is a mistake, which implies a material agent, distinct from the influences which move it,
i.e., blind matter and perhaps "God" again, whereas this One Life is the very God and Gods
"Itself"
+ The same error.
X Popular Science Review, Vol. X.