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The Tenth Lesson: Spiritual Evolution.869
savages, and some of the African tribes, as well as among the Digger Indians
and others of similar grade of intelligence.
In order to understand the advance of each race it must be remembered
that the more advanced souls, after passing out of the body, have a much
longer period of rest in the higher planes, and consequently do not present
themselves for reincarnation until a period quite late when compared with
the hasty reincarnation of the less advanced souls who are hurried back
to rebirth by reason of the strong earthly attachments and desires. In this
way it happens that the earlier races of each Cycle are more primitive folk
than those who follow them as the years roll by. The soul of an earth-bound
person reincarnates in a few years, and sometimes in a few days, while the
soul of an advanced man may repose and rest on the higher planes for
centuries—nay, even for thousands of years, until the earth has reached a
stage in which the appropriate environment may be afforded it.
Observers, unconnected with Occultism, have noted certain laws which
seem to regulate the rise and fall of nations—the procession of ruling races.
They do not understand the law of Metempsychosis that alone gives the key
to the problem, but nevertheless they have not failed to record the existence
of the laws themselves. In order to show that these laws are recognized by
persons who are not at all influenced by the Occult Teachings, we take the
liberty of quoting from Draper’s “History of the Intellectual Development
of Europe.”
Dr. Draper writes as follows: “We are, as we often say, the creatures of
circumstances. In that expression there is a higher philosophy than might
at first appear. From this more accurate point of view we should therefore
consider the course of these events, recognizing the principle that the
affairs of men pass forward in a determinate way, expanding and unfolding
themselves. And hence we see that the things of which we have spoken as
if they were matters of choice, were in reality forced upon their apparent
authors by the necessity of the times. But in truth they should be considered
as the presentation of a certain phase of life which nations in their onward