Secret_History

590 The Secret History of the World
its evolution, and fails to respond to the demands made upon it, the branch may
wither. This must be remembered.”
“To this ray of creation, exactly the same possibility of development and growth has
been given as is given to each separate branch of a big tree. But the accomplishment
of this growth is not at all guaranteed. It depends upon the harmonious and right
action of its own tissues.”
Organic life on earth is a complex phenomenon in which the separate parts depend
upon one another. General growth is possible only on the condition that the ‘end of
the branch’ grows. Or, speaking more precisely, there are in organic life tissues
which are evolving, and there are tissues which serve as food and medium for those
which are evolving. Then there are evolving cells within the evolving tissues, and
cells which serve as food and medium for those which are evolving. In each
separate evolving cell there are evolving parts and there are parts which serve as
food for those which are evolving. But always and in everything it must be
remembered that evolution is never guaranteed, it is possible only and it can stop at
any moment and in any place.”
“The evolving part of organic life on earth is humanity. If humanity does not evolve
it means that the evolution of organic life will stop and this, in its turn will cause the
growth of our ray of creation to stop.”
“At the same time if humanity ceases to evolve it becomes useless from the point of
view of the aims for which it was created and as such it may be destroyed. In this
way the cessation of evolution may mean the destruction of humanity.”
“We have no clues from which we are able to tell in what period of planetary
evolution we exist. We cannot know this but we should bear in mind that the
number of possibilities is never infinite.”
“At the same time in examining the life of humanity as we know it historically we
are bound to acknowledge that humanity is moving in a circle. It one century it
destroys everything it creates in another and the progress in mechanical things of
the past hundred years has proceeded at the cost of losing many other things which
perhaps were much more important for it.”
“Speaking in general there is every reason to think and to assert that humanity is at
a standstill, and from a standstill there is a straight path to downfall and
degeneration.”
“A standstill means that a process has become balanced. The appearance of any one
quality immediately evokes the appearance of another quality opposed to it. The
growth of knowledge in one domain evokes the growth of ignorance in another;
refinement on the one hand evokes vulgarity on the other; freedom in one
connection evokes slavery in another; the disappearance of some superstitions
evokes the appearance and growth of others; and so on.”
“A balanced process proceeding in a certain way cannot be changed at any moment
it is desired. It can be changed and set on a new path only at certain ‘crossroads’. In
between the crossroads nothing can be done.”
“At the same time if a process passes by a crossroad and nothing happens, nothing
is done, then nothing can be done afterwards and the process will continue and
develop according to mechanical laws; and even if the people taking part in this
process foresee the inevitable destruction of everything, they will be unable to do
anything.”