C. Supplementary Remarks On Esoteric Geological Chronology.

It seems possible to calculate the approximate duration at any rate of the geological periods from the combined data of Science and Occultism now before us. Geology is, of course, able to determine one thing with almost certainty—the thickness of the several deposits. Now, it also stands to reason that the time required for the deposition of any stratum on a sea-bottom must bear a strict proportion to the thickness of the mass thus formed. Doubtless the rate of the erosion of land, and of the sorting out of matter on to ocean beds, has varied from age to age, and cataclysmic changes of various kinds have broken the “uniformity” of ordinary geological processes. Provided, then, that we have some definite numerical basis on which to work, our task is rendered less difficult than it might at first sight appear. Making [pg 750] due allowance for variations in the rate of deposit, Professor Lefèvre gives us the relative figures which sum up geological time. He does not attempt to calculate the lapse of years since the first bed of the Laurentian rocks was deposited, but postulating that time as x, he presents us with the relative proportions in which the various periods stand to it. Let us premise our estimate by stating that, roughly speaking, the Primordial rocks are 70,000 ft., the Primary 42,000 ft., the Secondary 15,000 ft., the Tertiary 5,000 ft., and the Quaternary some 500 ft. in thickness:

Now, as it is certain, on Occult data, that the time which has elapsed since the first sedimentary deposits is 320,000,000 years, we are able to construct the following table:

Rough Approximations of Length of Geological Periods in Years.

Primordial (Laurentian, Cambrian, Silurian): 171,200,000.

Primary (Devonian, Coal, Permian): 103,040,000.

Secondary (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous): 36,800,000.

Tertiary (Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene): 7,360,000.

Quaternary: 1,600,000.1665

Such estimates harmonize with the statements of Esoteric Ethnology in almost every particular. The Tertiary Atlantean part-cycle, from [pg 751] the “apex of glory” of that Race in the early Eocene to the great Mid-Miocene cataclysm, would appear to have lasted some three-and-a-half to four million years. If the duration of the Quaternary is not, as seems likely, rather over-estimated, the sinking of Ruta and Daitya would be Post-Tertiary. It is probable that the results here given allow somewhat too long a period to both the Tertiary and Quaternary, as the Third Race goes very far back into the Secondary age. Nevertheless, the figures are most suggestive.

But the argument from geological evidence being in favour of only 100,000,000 years, let us compare our claims and teachings with those of exact Science.

Mr. Edward Clodd,1666 in referring to M. de Mortillet's work Matériaux pour l'Histoire de l'Homme, which places man in the Mid-Miocene period,1667 remarks that:

To this, one could answer: (a) the doctrine of evolution, as inaugurated by Darwin and developed by later evolutionists, is not only the reverse of infallible, but it is repudiated by several great men of Science, e.g., de Quatrefages, in France, Dr. Weismann, an ex-evolutionist in Germany, and many others, the ranks of the Anti-Darwinists growing stronger with every year;1668 and (b) truth to be worthy of its name, and remain truth and fact, hardly needs to beg for support from any class or sect. For were it to win support from believers in special creation, it would never gain the favour of the evolutionists, and vice versâ. Truth must rest upon its own firm foundation of facts, and take its chance of recognition, when every prejudice in the way is disposed of. Though the question has been already fully considered in its main aspect, it is, nevertheless, advisable to combat every so-called “scientific” objection as we go along, [pg 752] when making what are regarded as heretical and anti-scientific statements.

Let us briefly glance at the divergencies between orthodox and Esoteric Science, on the question of the age of the globe and of man. With the two respective synchronistic tables before him, the reader will be enabled to see at a glance the importance of these divergencies; and to perceive, at the same time, that it is not impossible—nay, it is most likely—that further discoveries in Geology and the finding of fossil remains of man will force Science to confess that it is Esoteric Philosophy which is right after all, or, at any rate, nearer to the truth.

Parallelism of Life.

Scientific Hypotheses: Science divides the period of the Globe's history, since the beginning of life on Earth (or the Azoic age), into five main divisions or periods, according to Hæckel.1669

Esoteric Theory: Leaving the classification of the geological periods to Western Science, Esoteric Philosophy divides only the Life-periods on the Globe. In the present Manvantara the actual period is separated into seven Kalpas and seven great human Races. Its first Kalpa, answering to the Primordial Epoch is the age of the Primeval.

Scientific: Primordial Epoch: Laurentian, Cambrian, Silurian. The Primordial epoch, Science tells us, is by no means devoid of vegetable and animal life. In the Laurentian deposits are found specimens of the Eozoon canadense—a chambered shell. In the Silurian are discovered sea-weeds (algæ), molluscs, crustacea, and lower marine organisms, also the first trace of fishes. The Primordial epoch shows algæ, molluscs, crustacea, polyps, and marine organisms, etc. Science teaches, therefore, that marine life was present from the very beginnings of time, leaving us, however, to speculate for ourselves as to how life appeared on Earth. If it rejects the biblical “creation” (as we do), why does it not give us another, approximately plausible hypothesis?

Esoteric: “Primeval”1670: Devas or Divine Men, the “Creators” and Progenitors.1671 The Esoteric Philosophy agrees with the statement made by Science (see preceding), demurring, however, to one particular. The 300,000,000 years of vegetable life (see “Brâhmanical Chronology”) preceded the “Divine Men,” or Progenitors. Also, no teaching denies that there were traces of life within the Earth, besides the Eozoon canadense, in the Primordial Epoch. Only, whereas the said vegetation belonged to this Round, the zoological relics now found in the Laurentian, Cambrian, and Silurian systems, so called, are the relics of the [pg 753] Third Round. At first astral like the rest, they consolidated and materialized pari passu with the new vegetation.

Scientific: Primary: Devonian,1672 Coal, Permian. “Fern-forests, sigillaria, coniferæ, fishes, first trace of reptiles.” Thus saith Modern Science.

Esoteric: “Primary”: Divine Progenitors (Secondary Groups), and the two and a half Races. The Esoteric Doctrine repeats that which was said above. These are all relics of the preceding Round.1673

Once, however, the prototypes are projected out of the Astral Envelope of the Earth, an indefinite amount of modification ensues.

Scientific: Secondary: Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous. This is the age of Reptiles, of the gigantic megalosauri, ichthyosauri, plesiosauri, etc. Science denies the presence of man in this period. But it has still to explain how men came to know of these monsters and describe them before the age of Cuvier! The old annals of China, India, Egypt, and even of Judea are full of them, as demonstrated elsewhere. In this period also appear the first marsupial mammals1674—insectivorous, carnivorous, phytophagous; and, as Prof. Owen thinks, a herbiferous hoofed mammal.

Science does not admit the appearance of man before the close of the Tertiary period.1675 Why? Because man has to be shown younger than the higher mammals. But Esoteric Philosophy teaches us the reverse. And as Science is quite unable to come to anything like an approximate conclusion as to the age of man, or even as to the geological periods, the Occult teaching is, therefore, more logical and reasonable, even if accepted only as a hypothesis.

Esoteric: “Secondary”: According to every calculation the Third Race had already made its appearance, as during the Triassic there were already a few mammals, and it must have separated before their appearance.

This, then, is the age of the Third Race, in which the origins of the early Fourth may be perhaps also discoverable. We are, however, here left entirely to conjecture, as no definite data are yet given out by the Initiates.

The analogy is but a poor one, still it may be argued that, as the early mammalia and pre-mammalia are shown in their evolution merging from one kind into a higher one, anatomically, so are the [pg 754] human races in their procreative processes. A parallel might certainly be found between the monotremata, didelphia (or marsupialia) and the placental mammals, divided in their turn into three orders1676 like the First, Second, and Third Root-Races of men.1677 But this would require more space than can be now allotted to the subject.

Scientific: Tertiary1678: Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene. No man is yet allowed to have lived during this period.

Says Mr. E. Clodd, in Knowledge: “Although the placental mammals and the order of primates to which man is related, appear in Tertiary times, and the climate, tropical in the Eocene age, warm in the Miocene, and temperate in the Pliocene, was favourable to his presence, the proofs of his existence in Europe before the close of the Tertiary epoch ... are not generally accepted here.”

Esoteric: “Tertiary”: The Third Race has now almost utterly disappeared, carried away by the fearful geological cataclysms of the Secondary age, leaving behind it but a few hybrid races.

The Fourth, born millions of years [pg 755] before1679 the said cataclysm took place, perished during the Miocene period,1680 when the Fifth (our Âryan Race) had had one million years of independent existence.1681 How much older it is from its origin—who knows? As the “historical” period began with the Indian Âryans, with their Vedas for their multitudes,1682 and far earlier in the Esoteric Records, it is useless to establish here any parallels.

Geology has now divided the periods and placed man in the Quaternary.

Scientific: Quaternary: Palæolithic Man, Neolithic Man, Historical Period.

Esoteric: “Quaternary”: If the Quaternary period is allowed 1,500,000 years, then only does our Fifth Race belong to it.

Yet—mirabile dictu—while the non-cannibal Palæolithic man, who must have certainly antedated cannibal Neolithic man by hundreds of thousands of years,1683 is shown to be a remarkable artist, Neolithic man is made out to be almost an abject savage, his lake dwellings notwithstanding.1684 For see what a learned Geologist, Mr. Charles Gould, tells the reader in his Mythical Monsters:

Let us give the reasons for this.

(1) The oldest fossil man, the primitive cave-men of the old Palæolithic period, and of the Pre-Glacial period (of whatever length, and however far back), is always the same genus man, and there are no fossil remains proving for him

(2) As to the so-called Palæolithic hatchets:

This goes to prove that there have been savages at all times; and the inference would be that there might have been civilized people in those days as well, cultured nations contemporary with those rude savages. We see such a thing in Egypt 7,000 years ago.

(3) An obstacle which is the direct consequence of the two preceding: Man, if no older than the Palæolithic period, could not possibly have had the actual time necessary for his transformation from the “missing link” into what he is known to have been even during that remote geological time, i.e., even a finer specimen of manhood than many of the now existing races.

The above lends itself naturally to the following syllogism: (1) The primitive man (known to Science) was, in some respects, even a finer man of his genus than he is now. (2) The earliest monkey known, the lemur, was less anthropoid than the modern pithecoid species. (3) [pg 757] Conclusion: Even though a missing link were found, the balance of evidence would remain more in favour of the ape being a degenerated man, made dumb by some fortuitous circumstances,1689 than in favour of the descent of man from a pithecoid ancestor. The theory cuts both ways.

On the other hand, if the existence of Atlantis be accepted, and the statement be believed that in the Eocene age—

then some of the present difficulties of Science might easily be made to disappear. The rude workmanship of the Palæolithic tools proves nothing against the idea that, side by side with their makers, there lived nations highly civilized. We are told that:

It is very suggestive also that along with the rude hatchets of the lowest savage, explorers meet with specimens of workmanship of such artistic merit as could hardly be found, or expected, in a modern peasant belonging to any European country—unless in exceptional cases. The “portrait” of the “Reindeer Feeding,” from the Thayngin grotto in Switzerland, and those of the man running, with two horses' heads sketched close to him—a work of the Reindeer period, i.e., at least 50,000 years ago—are pronounced by Mr. Laing to be not only exceedingly well done, but the former, the “Reindeer Feeding,” is described as one that “would do credit to any modern animal painter”—by no means exaggerated praise, as anyone may see, by glancing at the sketch given below from Mr. Gould's work. Now, since we have our greatest painters of Europe side by side with the modern Esquimaux, who also have a tendency, like their Palæolithic ancestors of the Reindeer period, the rude and savage human species, to be constantly [pg 758] drawing with the point of their knives sketches of animals, scenes of the chase, etc., why could not the same have happened in those days? Compared with the specimens of Egyptian drawing and sketching—7,000 years ago—the “earliest portraits” of men, horses' heads, and reindeer, made 50,000 years ago, are certainly superior. Nevertheless, the Egyptians of those periods are known to have been a highly civilized nation, whereas the Palæolithic men are called savages of the lower type. This is a small matter seemingly, yet it is extremely suggestive as showing how every new geological discovery is made to fit in with current theories, instead of fitting the theories to include the discovery. Yes; Mr. Huxley is right in saying, “Time will show.” It will, and it must vindicate Occultism.

Meanwhile, the most uncompromising Materialists are driven by necessity into the most Occult-like admissions. Strange to say, it is the most materialistic—those of the German school—who, with regard to physical development, come the nearest to the teachings of the Occultists. Thus, Professor Baumgärtner believes that:

The germs for the higher animals could only be the eggs of the lower animals; ... besides the advance of the vegetable and animal world in development, there occurred in that period the formation of new original germs [which formed the basis of new metamorphoses, etc.] ... the first men who proceeded from the germs of animals beneath them, lived first in a larva state.

Just so; in a larva state, we say too, only from no “animal” germ; and that larva was the soulless astral form of the pre-physical Races. And we believe, as the German professor does, with several other men of Science in Europe now, that the human races—

Therefore, when we read Force and Matter, and find that Emperor of Materialists, Büchner, repeating after Manu and Hermes, that:

—we need only add “and man into a spirit,” to complete the kabalistic axiom. The more so, since we read the following admission:

[pg 759]

The whole difference lies in this: Modern Science places her materialistic theory of primordial germs on Earth, and the last germ of life on this Globe, of man, and everything else, between two voids. Whence the first germ, if both spontaneous generation and the interference of external forces, are absolutely rejected now? Germs of organic life, we are told, by Sir William Thompson, came to our Earth in some meteor. This helps in no way, and only shifts the difficulty from this Earth to the supposed meteor.

These are our agreements and disagreements with Science. About the “endless periods” we are, of course, at one even with materialistic speculation; for we believe in Evolution, though on different lines. Professor Huxley very wisely says:

But when we are told that this man is a product of the natural forces inherent in Matter—Force, according to modern views, being but a quality of Matter, a “mode of motion,” etc.—and when we find Sir William Thompson repeating in 1885 what was asserted by Büchner and his school thirty years ago, we fear all our reverence for real Science is vanishing into thin air! One can hardly help thinking that Materialism is, in certain cases, a disease. For when men of Science, in the face of magnetic phenomena and the attraction of iron particles through insulating substances, like glass, maintain that the said attraction is due to “molecular motion,” or to the “rotation of the molecules of the magnet,” then, whether the teaching comes from a “credulous” Theosophist innocent of any notion of Physics, or from an eminent man of Science, it is equally ridiculous. The individual who asserts such a theory in the teeth of fact, is only one more proof that: “When people have not a niche in their minds into which to shoot facts, so much the worse for the facts.”

At present the dispute between the spontaneous generationists and their opponents is at rest, having ended in the provisional victory of the latter. But even they are forced to admit, as Büchner did, and Messrs. Tyndall and Huxley still do—that spontaneous generation must have occurred once, under “special thermal conditions.” Virchow refuses even to argue the question; it must have taken place some time in the history of our planet; and there's an end of it. This seems to look [pg 760] more natural than Sir William Thompson's hypothesis just quoted, that the germs of organic life fell on our Earth in some meteor; or the other “scientific” hypothesis coupled with the recently adopted belief that there exists no “vital principle” whatever, but only vital phenomena, which can all be traced to the molecular forces of the original protoplasm. But this does not help Science to solve the still greater problem—the origin and the descent of Man, for here is a still worse plaint and lamentation.

The secret could be soon told, not only from the Esoteric but even from the standpoint of every religion the world over, without mentioning the Occultists. The “specialized skeleton” is sought for in the wrong place, where it can never be found. Scientists expect to discover it in the physical remains of man, in some pithecoid “missing link,” with a skull larger than that of the ape's, and with a cranial capacity smaller than in man, instead of looking for that specialization in the super-physical essence of his inner astral constitution, which can hardly be excavated from any geological strata! Such a tenacious, hopeful clinging to a self-degrading theory is the most wonderful feature of the day.

Meanwhile, there are specimens of engravings made by Palæolithic “savages”: Palæolithic meaning the “earlier Stone-age” man, one supposed to have been as savage and brutal as the brutes he lived with. [pg 761] Leaving the modern South Sea islander, or even any Asiatic race, aside, we defy any grown-up schoolboy, or even a European youth, one who has never studied drawing, to execute such an engraving or even a pencil sketch as good. Here we have the true artistic raccourci, and correct lights and shadows without any plane model before the artist, who copied direct from nature, thus exhibiting a knowledge of anatomy and proportion. The artist who engraved this reindeer belonged, we are asked to believe, to the primitive “semi-animal” savages (contemporaneous with the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros), whom some over-zealous Evolutionists once sought to picture to us as distinct approximations to the type of their hypothetical “pithecoid man”!

This engraved antler proves as eloquently as any fact can do, that the evolution of the Races has ever proceeded in a series of rises and falls, that man is, perhaps, as old as incrustated Earth, and—if we can call his divine ancestor “man”—is far older still.

Even de Mortillet himself seems to experience a vague distrust of the conclusions of modern Archæologists, when he writes: