There remains now only Radium, of the elements which we have, so far, examined, and that will be described next month, and will bring to an end a series of articles which must have taxed the patience of our readers. Yet a piece of close and detailed work of this kind will have its value in the future, when science along its own lines shall have confirmed these researches.

It will have been observed that our weights, obtained by counting, are almost invariably slightly in excess of the orthodox ones: it is interesting that in the latest report of the International Commission (November 13, 1907), printed in the Proceedings of the Chemical Society of London, Vol. XXIV, No. 33, and issued on January 25, 1908, the weight of hydrogen is now taken at 1.008 instead of at 1. This would slightly raise all the orthodox weights; thus aluminium rises from 26.91 to 27·1, antimony from 119:34 to 120-2, and so on.

It does not seem worth while to break up these elements, for their component parts are so familiar. The complicated groups-a 110, b 63 and c 120-have all been fully dealt with in preceding pages.

(To be concluded.)

ANNIE BESANT.

THE QUIET ROOM.

And so I find it best to come
For deeper rest to this still room,
For here the habit of the mind

Feels less the outer world's control.
And from the silence multiplied

By these still forms on every side,

The world which time and space have known
Falls off, and leaves me God alone.

WHITTIER.

ECHOES FROM THE PAST,

[The following vigorous letter was among the President-Founder's papers, without heading or signature--Editor.]

For, it is not a sufficient excuse for the authors of that pamphlet to say that the Theosophical Society is-as of course it is-an independent body of searchers after truth committed to no blind faith in any specific leader. We have to bear in mind the circumstances under which the Theosophical Society has come into existence, in order to see the action that has been taken by the President of this Lodge and the Vice-President in its proper light. Let us credit them, for the purposes of this argument, not merely with the wish not to pose before the world as leaders of spiritual thought, but with an honest desire to awaken as many of their fellowmen as possible to a sense of the importance of spiritual progress. Many people in isolated positions have tried to do this with very little success. Nowhere has any success been achieved in the remotest degree comparable with that which has attended the efforts of the Founders of the Theosophical Society. Most emphatic have the Founders always been in declaring that they wish, much more than to teach definite doctrine, to stimulate the thirst for knowledge and the spirit of enquiry. Utter and absolute intellectual liberty is an inalienable attribute of all who become Theosophists at their invitation, unless indeed they force themselves on the current of occult progress and compel the Adepts to accept them as regular Chelās, in which case new conditions arise with which we here have nothing to do. But the growth and vigor of this Society was the work of the Mahātmās acting through Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, and if the trustworthiness of the Mahātmās' teaching, now that They have begun to teach, in compliance with urgent requests that They would do so, can be successfully impugned-then it must be glaringly obvious to the simplest intelligence that this organisation of Theirs, this beneficent organisation, which has been so far successful in stimulating spirituality in the world, must be shattered and destroyed. Will any sane man contend that such a result is likely to give rise to a more vigorous search for spiritual truth in some other good direction, or to any different Society more likely to grow and do in the world?

If any member of this Society exercising his own liberty of thought should come to a conclusion that the teachings of the Mahātmās are insufficient or erroneous, what is his natural course of action? To argue the matter out within the limits of the Society at its meetings and listen to other views? Good. To leave the Society, if he felt uncongenial with its majority, and do whatever good he might feel competent to do in the world along other lines? -Good again. But to proclaim to persons outside the Society that in his opinion the highest authorities of the Society were either misleading Their followers or blundering through ignorance Themselves to remain as a disintegrating and disturbing element within the Society, to cling to office in that Society and make exertions to secure the continuance of that office, such a course of action is one which astonishes me, and which I prefer not to characterise by any direct epithet.

RECEIVED 5 A.M., 27th February 1884.

Do not feel so dejected, my poor boy, no need for that. As Mr. Sinnett rightly says in his Esoteric Buddhism, the higher spiritual progress must be accompanied by intellectual development on a parallel line. You have now the best opportunities for doing that where you are working. For your devotion and unselfish labor, you are receiving help, silent though it be. Your time is not yet come. When it does, it shall be communicated to you. Till then make the best of the present favorable opportunity to improve yourself intellectually while developing your intuitions. Remember that no effort is ever lost, and that for an occultist there is no past, present or future, but ever an Eternal Now.

BLESSINGS,

K. H.

As the month draws to a close the activities proper to autumn are being resumed in the various lodges of the Section. The H. P. B. Lodge has been holding meetings during the month. The West London Lodge enters upon its autumn session in a fine new room which it rents, not far from its old quarters, in common with several other theosophical organisations. A new branch has been formed at Hale in Cheshire, due to the removal thither of several active workers from Manchester and London. For the rest there is nothing of sectional activity which calls for immediate notice in these columns.

In the world of science there are two somewhat notable items to chronicle, which both bear with interest upon the teachings of The Secret Doctrine. One is the meeting of the British Association, which was held this year in Dublin under the presidency of Mr. Francis Darwin (one of the three scientific sons of the great evolutionist). His presidential address, which was reported at length in The Times, treated of movement and memory in plants and their bearing on evolution. His theory, stated with great moderation and caution, is a distinct step in the direction of the theosophical concept as to the modus operandi of organic development. In brief, it affirms a kind of consciousness and memory in plants. Here are one or two of Mr. Darwin's statements: "It is impossible to know whether or not plants are conscious; but it is consistent with the doctrine of continuity that in all living things there is something psychic, and if we accept this point of view we must believe that in plants there exists a faint copy of what we know as consciousness in ourselves. . . ." "What I claim is that, as regards reaction to environment, a plant and a man must be placed in the same great class, in spite of the obvious fact that, as regards complexity of behaviors, the difference between them is enormous." And the conclusion: "If evolution is a process of drilling organisms into habits, the elimination of those that cannot learn is an integral part of the process. . . . It is surely a positive

:

gain to the harmony of the universe that the discordant strings should break. But natural selection does more than this and just as a trainer insists on his performing dogs accommodating themselves to conditions of increasing complexity, so does natural selection pass on its pupils from one set of conditions to other and more elaborate tests, insisting that they shall endlessly repeat what they have learned and forcing them to learn something new." Commenting on Mr. Darwin's address the leader writer in The Times concludes that "underneath the technicalities of botany and biology are issues which touch the deepest, though unseen, interests of men ; and we get glimpses of a unity and order comprehending all, and of one process of modification, seen alike in the temporary and the permanent changes of organisms." Quite true-we see the One Life of the Universe moving irresistably onward "to the one far off, divine event towards which the whole ⚫creation moves,"

The other item was the publication, by many of the daily papers, of an interview which a reporter of the Matin had with Sir Wm. Ramsay, when he went to receive the medal of the French Association for the advancement of science, at Clermont-Ferrand. "A modern Alchemist," "Modern Alchemy," "Metals Transmuted,"-were the headlines which heralded the accounts of Sir Wm. Ramsay's statements as to the nature of his recent experiments with radium. To the action of this remarkable substance a modern scientific revival of belief in the transmutability of metals is due. In its presence a solution of copper is degraded and yields another metal of the same family (or series) but of lower atomic weight. Sir William remarked on this: "We have thus realised the transmutation of several soft metals or alkalies." Then the reporter asked him about the possibility of raising a metal in the atomic scale instead of degrading it. Here is the reply: "I do not think that the emanation of radium can only degrade metals. The emanation only acts by its tremendous energy. It may just as well construct as disintegrate, and I have reason for believing that it will not be impossible to obtain gold from silver. My present experiments are in that direction. " "It would not be a lucrative or remunerative way of making gold," Sir William smilingly added, "but it would be a great victory for science." May we not add, from our point of view, that it is a great victory for The Secret Doctrine? Let us take off our hats to H.P.B. !

E.