text:
The Inner Life, v. II/Sixth Section/XIII

MARS AND ITS INHABITANTS The present condition of the planet Mars is by no means unpleasant. It is a smaller planet than the Earth and more advanced in age. I do not mean that it is actually older in years, for the whole chain of worlds came into existence — not simultaneously indeed — but within a certain definite area of time. But being smaller it lives its life as a planet more quickly. It cooled more rapidly from the nebulous condition, and it has passed through its other stages with corresponding celerity. When humanity occupied it in the third round it was in much the same condition as is the Earth at the present time — that is to say, there was much more water than land on its surface. Now it has passed into comparative old age, and the water surface is far less than that of land. Large areas of it are at present desert, covered with a bright orange sand which gives the planet the peculiar hue by which we so readily recognize it. Like that of many of our own deserts, the soil is probably fertile enough if the great irrigation system were extended to it, as it no doubt would have been if humanity had remained upon it until now. The present population, consisting practically of members of the inner round, is but a small one, and they find plenty of room for themselves to live without great effort, in the equatorial lands, where the temperature is highest and there is no difficulty as to water. The great system of canals which has been observed by terrestrial astronomers was constructed by the second order of moon-men when they last occupied the planet, and its general scheme is to take advantage of the annual melting of enormous masses of ice at the outer fringe of the polar snow-caps. It has been observed that some of the canals are double, but the double line is only occasionally apparent; that is due to the fore-thought of the Martian engineers. The country is on the whole level, and they had great dread of inundations; and wherever they thought that there was reason to fear too great an outrush of water under exceptional circumstances the second parallel canal was constructed to receive any possible overflow and carry it away safely. The actual canals themselves are not visible to terrestrial telescopes; what is seen is the belt of verdure which appears in a tract of country on each side of the canal only at the time when the water pours in. Just as Egypt exists only because of the Nile, so do large districts on Mars exist only because of these canals. From each side of them radiate at intervals water-ways, which run some miles into the surrounding country and are then subdivided into thousands of tiny streamlets, so that a strip of country a hundred miles in width is thoroughly irrigated. In this area are forests and cultivated fields, and vegetation of all sorts starts forth in the greatest profusion, making upon the surface of the planet a dark belt which is visible to us even forty million miles away when the planet is at its nearest and favourably situated. Mars is much farther from the centre of the system than we are, and consequently the sun appears to its inhabitants scarcely more than half the size that it does to us. Nevertheless the climate of the inhabited portions of the planet is very good, the temperature during the day at the equator being usually about 70° Fahrenheit, though there are not many nights in the year when there is not a touch of frost. Clouds are almost unknown, the sky being for most of the year entirely clear. The country is therefore to a large extent free from the unpleasantness of rain or snow. The Martian day is a few minutes longer than our own and their year is nearly twice as long as ours, and the variation of the seasons in the inhabited part is but slight. In physical appearance the Martians are not unlike ourselves, except that they are considerably smaller. The tallest men are not above five feet in height and the majority are two or three inches shorter. According to our ideas they are somewhat broad in proportion, having very great chest capacity — a fact which may possibly be due to the rarity of the air and the consequent necessity of deep breathing in order fully to oxygenate the blood. The whole civilized population of Mars is one race, and there is practically no difference in features or complexion, except that, just as among ourselves, there are blondes and brunettes, some of the people having a faintly yellowish skin and black hair, while the majority have yellow hair and blue or violet eyes — somewhat Norwegian in appearance. They dress mostly in brilliant colours, and both sexes wear an almost shapeless garment of some very soft material which falls straight from the shoulders down to the feet. Generally the feet are bare, though they sometimes use a sort of metal sandal or slipper, with a thong round the ankle. They are very fond of flowers, of which there is a great variety, and their towns are built on the general plan of the garden-city, the house usually being one-storeyed only, but built round inner courtyards and straggling over a great deal of ground. These houses look exteriorly as though built of coloured glass, and indeed the material which is used is transparent, but it is somehow so fluted that while the persons inside enjoy an almost unimpeded view of their gardens, no one from outside can see what is going on in the house. The houses are not built up in blocks, but the material is melted and poured into moulds; if a house is to be built, a sort of double mould of it is first made in metal faced with cement, and then the curious glasslike substance is melted and poured into this mould, and when it is cold and hardened the moulds are taken away, and the house is finished except for a certain amount of polishing of the surface. The doors are not exactly like ours, since they have no hinges or bolts, and are opened and shut by treading on certain spots in the ground, either without or within. They do not swing on hinges, but run back into the wall on each side. All these doors and all furniture and fittings are of metal. Wood seems to be used scarcely at all. There is only one language in use over the whole planet, except for the few savage tribes, and this language, like everything in their world, has not grown up as ours have done, but has been constructed in order to save time and trouble. It has been simplified to the last possible extent, and it has no irregularities of ant sort. They have two methods of recording their thoughts. One is to speak into a small box with a mouthpiece on one side of it, something like that of a telephone. Each word so spoken is by the mechanism expressed as a kind of complicated sign upon a little plate of metal, and when the message has been spoken the plate falls out and is found to be marked in crimson characters, which can easily be read by those who are familiar with the scheme. The other plan is actually to write by hand, but that is an enormously more difficult acquirement, for the script is a very complicated kind of shorthand which can be written as rapidly as one can speak. It is in this latter script that all their books are printed, and these latter are usually in the shape of rolls made of very thin flexible metal. The engraving of them is exceedingly minute, and it is customary to read it through a magnifier, which is fixed conveniently upon a stand. In the stand there is machinery which unrolls the scroll before the magnifier at any desired rate, so that one reads without needing to touch the book at all. On every hand one sees signs of a very old civilization, for the inhabitants have preserved the tradition of all that was known when the great life-wave of humanity occupied the planet, and have since added to it many other discoveries. Electricity seems to be practically the sole motive power, and all sorts of labour-saving machines are universally employed. The people are on the whole distinctly indolent, especially after they have passed their first youth. But the comparatively small size of the population enables them to live very easily. They have trained various kinds of domestic animals to a far higher condition of intelligent co-operation than has yet been achieved upon earth, so that a great deal of servant's and gardener's work is done by these creatures with comparatively little direction. One autocratic ruler governs the whole planet, but the monarchy is not hereditary. Polygamy is practised, but it is the custom to hand over all children to the State at a very early age to be reared and educated, so that among the vast majority of the people there is no family tradition whatever, and no one knows who are his father and mother. There is no law compelling this, but it is considered so decidedly the right thing to do and the best for the children that the few families who choose to live somewhat more as we do, and to educate their children at home, are always regarded as selfishly injuring their prospects for the sake of what is considered mere animal affection. The state is thus in the position of universal guardian and schoolmaster, and the school authorities of each district are instructed-carefully to sort the children according to the aptitudes which they display, and their line of life is decided for them in this manner — a very wide range of choice, however, being allowed the individual child as he approaches years of discretion. But children who show at the same time great intellect and wide general capacity are set apart from all the rest, and trained with a view of becoming members of the ruling class. The King has under him what may be called viceroys of large districts, and they in turn have under them governors of smaller districts, and so on down to what would be equivalent here to the head-man of a village. All these officials are chosen by the King from this group of specially educated children, and when the time of his own death is considered to be approaching it is from the already appointed officials that he chooses his successor. They have brought their scientific medical studies to such perfection that disease has been eliminated, and even the ordinary signs of the approach of old age have been to a large extent got rid of. Practically no one appears old, and it would seem that they hardly feel old; but, after a life somewhat longer than our own the desire to live gradually fades away, and the man dies. It is quite customary for a man who is losing interest and feels that death is approaching (this corresponds to what we should call a centenarian) to apply to a certain scientific department which corresponds to what we might call a school of surgery, and ask to be put painlessly to death — a request which is always granted. All these rulers are autocratic, each within his own sphere, but appeal to a higher official is always possible, though the right is not frequently exercised, because the people usually prefer to acquiesce in any fairly reasonable decision rather than to take the trouble involved in an appeal. The rulers on the whole seem to perform their duties fairly well, but again one gets the impression that they do so not so much from any pre-eminent sense of right or justice as to avoid the trouble that would certainly ensue from a flagrantly unjust decision. One of the most remarkable things about this people is that they have absolutely no religion. There are no churches, no temples, no places of worship of any sort whatever, no priest, no ecclesiastical power. The accepted belief of the people is what we should call scientific materialism. Nothing is true but what can be scientifically demonstrated, and to believe anything which cannot be so demonstrated is regarded as not only the height of folly, but even as a positive crime, because it is considered a danger to the public peace.

Martian history in the remote past was not unlike our own, and there are stories of religious persecutions, and of peoples whose beliefs were of so uncomfortable a nature that they forced them not only into feverish energy for themselves, but also into perpetual interference with the liberty of thought of other people. Martian public opinion is quite determined that there shall never again be any opportunity for the introduction of disturbing factors of that sort, and that physical science and the lower reason shall reign supreme; and though there, as here, events have occurred which material science cannot explain, people find it best to say nothing about them. Nevertheless on Mars, as in other places, there are a certain number of people who know better than this, and many centuries ago a few of these joined themselves together into a secret brotherhood to meet and discuss such matters. Very gradually and with infinite precaution, they took other recruits into this charmed circle, and so came into existence, in this most materialistic of worlds, a secret society which not only believed in superphysical worlds but practically of their existence, for its members took up the direct study of mesmerism and spiritualism, and many of them developed a good deal of power. At the present time the secret society is very widely spread, and the head of it at this moment is a pupil of one of our Masters. Even now after all these centuries its existence is not officially known to the authorities, but as a matter of fact they have something more than a suspicion of it, and they have learnt to fear it. None of its members are actually identified as such, but many are strongly suspected, and it seems to have been observed that when any of these strongly suspected people have in the past been injured or unjustly put to death, the persons who were concerned in bringing about that result have invariably died prematurely and mysteriously, though never in any case has their death been traceable to any physical-plane action on the part of the suspected member. Consequently, although such a belief is no doubt somewhat of an infringement of the principles of pure reason by which everything is supposed to be governed, it has come to be generally understood that it is safest not to pry too closely into the beliefs of people who seem to differ in some degree from the majority, so long as they do not openly make profession of anything which would be considered subversive of the good morals of materialism. Driven far away from the pleasant equatorial regions into inhospitable lands and impenetrable forests, there still exist some remnants of the savage tribes who are descended from those left behind when the great life-wave left Mars for the earth. These are primitive savages at a lower stage than any now living on the exterior of our earth, though bearing some resemblance to one of our interior evolutions. Some at least of the members of the secret society have learnt how to cross without great difficulty the space which separates us from Mars, and have therefore at various times tried to manifest themselves through mediums at spiritualistic séances, or have been able, by the methods which they have learnt, to impress their ideas upon poets and novelists. The information which I have given above is based upon observation and inquiry during various visit to the planet; yet nearly all of it might be found in the works of various writers within the last thirty or forty years, and in all such cases it has been communicated or impressed by someone from Mars, although the very fact of such impression was (at least in some cases) quite unknown to the physical writer. Of our future home, Mercury, we know much less than of Mars, for visits to it have been hurried and infrequent. Many people would think it incredible that life such as ours could exist on Mercury, with a sun that appears at least seven times as large as it does here. The heat, however, is not at all so intense as would be supposed. I am informed that this is due to the presence of a layer of gas on the outskirts of the Mercurian atmosphere, which prevents most of the heat from penetrating. We are told also that the most destructive of all possible storms on Mercury is one which even for a moment disturbs the stability of this gaseous envelope. When that happens a kind of a whirl-pool is set up in it, and for a moment a shaft of direct sunlight comes from the sun through its vortex. Such a shaft instantly destroys whatever life comes in its way, and burns up in a moment everything combustible. Fortunately such storms are rare. The inhabitants whom I have seen there are much like ourselves, though again somewhat smaller. The influence of gravity both on Mars and Mercury is less than half what it is on earth, but while on Mars I did not notice any particular way in which advantage had been taken of this. I observed Mercury that the doors of the houses were quite a considerable height from the ground, needing what for us would be a respectable gymnastic feat to reach them, though on Mercury it is only a slight spring that is required. All the inhabitants of that planet are from birth possessed of etheric sight; I remember that the fact was first brought to my notice by observing a child who was watching the movements of some crawling creature; and I saw that when it entered its abode he was still able to follow its movements, even when it was deep down under the ground.


text:
The Inner Life, v. II/Seventh Section

SEVENTH SECTION

REINCARNATION

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: The Inner Life, v. II/Seventh Section


text:
The Inner Life, v. II/Seventh Section/I

THREE LAWS OF HUMAN LIFE THE ordinary ego is by no means yet in a position to choose a body for himself. The place of his birth is usually determined by three factors, or perhaps it would be better to say by the combined action of three forces. First comes the law of evolution, which cause an ego to be born under conditions which will give him an opportunity of developing exactly those qualities of which he stands most in need. But the action of this force is limited by the second factor, the law of karma. The ego may not have deserved the best possible opportunity, and so he has to put up with the second or third best. He may not even have deserved any great opportunity at all, and so a tumultuous life of small progress may be his fate. A third factor also comes into play — the force of any personal ties of love or hate that the ego may have previously formed. This may modify the action of the first and second forces, for by it a man may sometimes be drawn into a position which he cannot be said to have deserved in any other way than by the strong personal love which he has felt for some one higher in evolution than himself. A man who has worked much beyond the ordinary — a man who had already entered the Path which leads to adeptship — may be able to exercise a certain amount of choice as to the country and family of his birth; but such an one will be the first to put aside entirely any wish of his own in the matter, and resign himself absolutely into the hands of the great eternal law, confident that whatever it brings to him must be far better for him than any selection of his own. Parents cannot choose the soul who shall inhabit the body to which they give birth, but by so living as to offer an unusually good opportunity for the progress of an advanced ego they can make it exceedingly probable that such an ego will come to them.

title: The Inner Life, v. II/Seventh Section/I


text:
The Inner Life, v. II/Seventh Section/II

THE RETURN TO BIRTH The whole of our solar system is a manifestation of its LOGOS, and every particle in it is definitely part of His vehicles. All the physical matter of the solar system taken as a totality constitutes His physical body; all the astral matter within it constitutes His astral body; all the mental matter, His mental body, and so on. Entirely above and beyond His system He has a far wider and greater existence of His own, but that does not in the least affect the truth of the statement which we have just made. This solar LOGOS contains within Himself seven planetary LOGOI, who are as it were centres of force within Him, channels through which His force pours out. Yet at the same time there is a sense in which they may be said to constitute Him. The matter which we have just described as composing His vehicles also composes theirs, for there is no particle of matter anywhere in the system which is not part of one or other of them. All this is true of every plane; but let us for a moment take the astral plane as an example, because its matter is fluid enough to answer the purposes of our inquiry, and at the same time it is near enough to the physical to be not entirely beyond the Limits of our physical comprehension. Every particle of the astral matter of the system is part of the astral body of the solar LOGOS, but it is also part of the astral body of one or other of the seven planetary LOGOI. Remember that this includes the astral matter of which your astral body and mine are composed. We have no particle which is exclusively our own. In every astral body there are particles belonging to each one of the seven planetary LOGOI, but the proportions vary infinitely. The bodies of those Monads which originally came forth through a planetary LOGOS will continue all through their evolution to have more of the particles of that LOGOS than of any other, and in this way people may be distinguished as primarily belonging to one or other of these seven great Powers. In these seven planetary LOGOI certain psychic changes periodically occur; perhaps they correspond to in-breathing and out-breathing, or to the beating of the heart with us down here on the physical plane. However that may be, there seem to be an infinite number of possible permutations and combinations of them. Now since our astral bodies are built of the very matter of their astral bodies, it is obvious that no one of these planetary LOGOI can change astrally in any way without thereby affecting the astral body of every man in the world, though of course more especially those in whom there is a preponderance of the matter expressing that particular LOGOS; and if it be remembered that we are taking the astral plane merely as an example, and that exactly the same thing is true on all the other planes, we shall then begin to have an idea how important to us the motions of these planetary Spirits are. Madame Blavatsky writes of a certain order of supernal Beings whom she calls the Lipika, or Lords of Karma. We are told that their agents in the administration of karma are the four (really seven) great rulers who are known as the Devarajas or Regents of the Earth. Each one of them is at the head of a certain vast group of devas and nature-spirits, and even of elemental essence. Once more for purposes of explanation let us confine ourselves to astral plane, but always with the memory at the back of our minds that the same thing applies to all the other planes as well. Astral matter as a whole is specially under the control of one of these Great Ones, but the second sub-plane of every plane is also to a certain extent under the direction of the same Great One, because that sub-plane holds the same relation to the plane of which it is a part as the astral plane does to the whole set of planes. Therefore for every sub-plane there are two influences — the influence of the ruler of the plane as a whole, and the sub-influence of the ruler of the sub-plane. Now out of this astral matter, every particle of which belongs to the garment of one or other of the seven planetary LOGOI, and is at the same time under the predominating influence of the Devaraja of the astral plane, and also under the subordinate influence of another Devaraja who indirectly rules its sub-plane, our astral bodies have to be built. In order to help us to grasp this, let us think of the sub-planes of the astral plane as horizontal divisions, and of the types of matter belonging to the seven great planetary LOGOI as perpendicular divisions crossing these others at right angles. (There are still further subdivisions, but we will take no account of them for the present, in order that the broad idea may stand out clearly). This then even already gives us forty-nine distinctly marked varieties of astral matter, because on each of its sub-planes we have matter belonging to each of the planetary LOGOI. Even taking no account of the further subdivisions, we see that we have already the possibility of an almost infinite number of combinations; so that whatever may be the characteristics of the ego he is able to find an adequate expression for himself. Let us consider the case of an ego who is about to descend into incarnation. We must think of him as resting upon the higher part of the mental plane in his causal body, and having no vehicle lower than that. Since the death of his last physical body he has been drawing steadily inwards, first into his astral and then into his mental vehicle, and at the end of the heaven-life he has cast off even the latter. He then rests for a certain period on his own plane — a period which varies, according to the stage of his development, from two or three days of unconsciousness in the case of an ordinary undeveloped man to a long period of years of conscious and glorious life in that of exceptionally advanced people. Then he begins once more to turn his attention downwards and outwards. As in the course of his upward movement he has withdrawn his attention from the physical and the astral planes respectively, the permanent atoms have passed into a dormant condition, and have ceased the vigorous vibration which is their usual characteristic. The same thing happens to the mental unit at the end of the heaven-life, and during his rest on his own plane the ego has these three appendages within himself in a quiescent condition. When he turns his attention once more to the mental plane, the mental unit immediately resumes its activity, and because of that it at once gathers round it such matter as is required to express that activity. Precisely the same thing happens when he turns his attention to the astral atom, and puts his will into that. It attracts to itself material capable of providing him with an astral body of exactly the same type as that which he had at the end of his last astral life. It is necessary to have this fact clearly in mind, that what he thus acquires as he descends is not a ready-made astral body, but simply the material out of which he is to build an astral body in the course of the life which is to follow. In the case of lower-class monads with unusually strong astral bodies, who reincarnate after a very short interval, it sometimes happens that the shade or shell left over from the last astral life still persists, and in that case it is likely to be attracted to the new personality. When that happens it brings with it strongly the old habits and modes of thought, and sometimes even the actual memory of that past life. The astral matter is at first evenly distributed throughout the ovoid; it is only when the little physical form comes into existence in the middle of the ovoid that the astral and mental matter are attracted to it, and begin to mould themselves into its shape, and thereafter steadily grow along with it. At the same time with this change in arrangement the mental and astral matter are called into activity, and emotion and thought appear. The aura of the little baby is comparatively colourless, and it is only as the qualities develope that the colours begin to show. This is the material which is given to him out of which to fashion his astral vehicle, the material which he has earned by the desires and emotions which he allowed to play through him in his previous life; but he is by no means compelled to utilise all this material in building for himself his new vehicle. If he is left entirely to himself, the automatic action of the permanent atom will tend to produce for him, from the materials given, an astral body precisely similar to that which he had in the last life; but there is no reason whatever why all these materials should be used, and if the child is wisely treated and reasonably guided he will be encouraged to develope to the fullest all the germs of good which he has brought over from his previous life, while the evil germs will be allowed to slumber. If that is done these latter will gradually atrophy and drop away from him, and the ego will unfold within himself the opposite virtues, and then he will be free for all his future lives from the evil qualities which those germs indicated. Parents and teachers may help him towards this desirable consummation, not so much by any definite facts which they teach him as by the encouragement which they give to him, by the rational and kindly treatment uniformly accorded to him, and above all by the amount of affection lavished upon him. We must remember that while the higher vehicles, the mental and the astral body, are expressions of the man at his present stage of evolution (as far as that can be expressed in the matter of their respective planes), the physical body is a vehicle or a limitation imposed upon him from without, and is therefore pre-eminently the instrument of karma. The evolutionary force comes into play in the selection of its materials, but even in this it is at every turn limited and hampered by the karma of the past. The parents have been chosen because they are fitted to give such a body as will be suitable for the development of the ego committed to them, but with every pair of parents there are manifold possibilities. Each of their represents a long line of ancestry, and often a particular parent may be chosen, not for anything that he is or has in himself, but because of some quality which appeared to an unusual degree in one of his ancestors — because he possesses a power which he has not used, though it is latent in his physical body because it is physically descended from that ancestor. In that parent, and in many preceding generations, the faculty to express that quality may have slept entirely without effect, but when there comes into the line an ego which possesses the quality, the faculty to express it leaps out from the dormant into the active condition, and we have a case of what is called reversion to a remote type. In the formation of the physical body there are three principal forces at work: first, the influence of the ego who is intending to take up the new form; secondly, the work of the building elemental formed by the Lords of Karma; and thirdly, the thought of the mother. Now suppose that an etheric body is about to be formed for an ego in the process of his descent into incarnation. He is himself an ego of a certain type and sub-type, and these characteristics of his are impressed upon his physical permanent atom, and this in turn determines which of the perpendicular divisions of etheric matter shall enter into the composition of that etheric body and in what proportion they shall be used. This quality of his, however, does not determine which of the horizontal divisions shall be employed, and in what proportion; that matter is in the hands of the four Devarajas, and will be determined according to the past karma of the man. Each of these Devarajas has vast hosts of assistants at his command, so that no one of the births which are momentarily taking place upon earth is ever overlooked. The Devarajas make a thought-form, the building elemental mentioned above, which is charged exclusively with the production of the most suitable physical body that can be arranged for the man. For his evolution he requires a body which has within it certain possibilities; for that purpose he may be born of a parent who himself possesses these qualities, and therefore can directly hand them on, or he may be born of a parent whose ancestors, on one side or the other, possessed them, so that the unawakened germs which can respond to them may be handed on by that parent to his offspring. Remember that this elemental, which is put in charge of the development of the physical body, is the joint thought-form of the four Devarajas, and that its primary business is to build the etheric mould into which the physical particles of the new baby-body are to be built. In building this new etheric body it has four varieties of etheric matter which it can use (the four over which its creators respectively preside) and the type of the etheric body which is produced depends upon the proportion in which these constituents are employed. Remember that the elemental has no power of choice with regard to the perpendicular subdivisions, but it has every freedom with regard to the horizontal kinds of matter. It is quite impossible for us at our present level to understand the working of so mighty a consciousness as that of a Devaraja, so we can only chronicle the fact, without pretending to explain it, that the elemental in doing its work appears somehow not to be entirely separated from the minds which projected it. In some way inexplicable to us it still remains to some modified extent within their consciousness, and in rare cases, where a developed ego is (even at an early age) beginning to take active possession of his body, it would seem that he may come into direct contact with them, and call down upon himself by their consent more karma than they had originally apportioned to him. One who can do that while the elemental is still at its work can also retain during later life this touch with the karmic deities, and therefore his power to appeal to them for further modifications. So far as we have seen, however, this possible modification may be only in the direction of the increase of the karma to be worked out, not in that of its decrease. The awakening of consciousness, which enables an ego thus to come into touch with the Devarajas and to co-operate willingly with them so far as their work with himself is concerned, may commence at any time; so that an ego who was not in touch with them during the working of the elemental which built his physical body may yet, by stupendous efforts along the line of self-development and usefulness, attract their attention later in life and evoke from them a definite response. The germ which is to expand into the physical body of the man has within itself two constituents, with two sets of potentialities. (The student must be careful not to confound this physical germ which comes from the parents with the physical permanent atom which the ego brings with him). It is essentially an ovum, which has within itself all the possibilities of the maternal ancestry, but it has been pierced by a spermatozoon which brings with it all the potentialities of the paternal ancestry. These two sets of possibilities are wide, as may easily be seen if we reflect upon the number of ancestors which any one of us must have had, say a thousand years ago. But wide though they be, they have their limitations. For example, take the case of one of our gardeners here at Adyar — a man of what is called the coolie or unskilled labourer class. Going back a thousand years that man's ancestors must have been counted by millions; yet all those millions must have been of the coolie class. They must have included all possible varieties of coolie, good and bad, clever and stupid, kind and cruel; but they were all coolies, and therefore all had the limitations of the brain and the qualities belonging to that class. From among these potentialities the elemental has to make its selection. For that purpose it has two questions to consider, quality and form. Of these the former is infinitely more important. The latter is concerned chiefly with the matter of the lower sub-planes. But the quality of the etheric matter selected for the building of that higher part of the physical body will to a large extent determine the capacities of that body during that incarnation — whether it will be naturally clever or stupid, placid or irritable, energetic or lethargic, sensitive or unresponsive. So the first work of the thought-form or elemental of the Devarajas is to select which of these possibilities shall be brought into prominence in the building of the new physical body — especially in the building of its brain. The mere outer form is a minor consideration, though also an important one, but this too is part of the work of the elemental. If the man has deserved the limitation of deformity in his physical body or of weakness in some of its organs — the heart, the lungs, the stomach — it is through the elemental that his karma is adjusted. Its instructions (if we may use such a term) are to build a body of a certain kind and degree of strength, and with certain characteristics brought into prominence. But these are not instructions given to it to carry in its mind, for it has no mind ; they are rather itself, its very life, for when those instructions have finally been carried out it ceases to be, because the work for which it was created is done. It is a well-known fact to students of embryology that in their earlier stages the germs of a fish, a dog and a man are practically indistinguishable. They all grow in the same manner, but the difference between them is that one of them stops at one stage of that growth, while the others go on further. The reason for this obvious fact is not clear to those who adopt the materialistic view. They have to postulate that matter coming from a particular source, although in every way identical in appearance with matter coming from a totally different source, nevertheless possesses within it some inherent qualities which compel it to reproduce the form from which it came. The compulsory force is not an inherent quality in the matter, which is in truth identical and composed of precisely the same chemical elements, but it is the divine life pressing forward to ensoul this matter, and moulding it for itself into the form which is suited for it at that particular stage of its development. As soon as the entity becomes individualized, and therefore commences to make individual karma, this additional factor of the moulding thought-form of the karmic deities comes into play, and takes possession of the growing germ, even before its own ego can grasp it.

The form and color of this elemental vary in different cases. At first it accurately expresses in shape and size the baby body which it has to build, as that body should look (as far as the elemental' s work is concerned) at the time of its birth. Clairvoyants, seeing this doll-like little figure hovering about (and afterwards within) the body of the mother, have sometimes mistaken it for the soul of the coming baby, instead of the mould of its physical body. When the foetus has grown to the size of the mould, that much of its task is successfully achieved, and it sheds that outer husk of itself and unfolds the form of the next stage at which it has to aim-- the size, shape and condition of the body as it ought to be (taking only the elemental's work into account) at the time when it proposes to leave it. All further growth of the body after the elemental has retired is under the control of the ego himself. In both of these cases the elemental uses itself as the mould. Its colours represent to a large extent the qualities which it is calculated to evoke in the body which it has to build, and its form is also usually that which is destined for him. It exists only for its work, and when the amount of force with which it has originally been supplied is exhausted, there is no longer any power left to hold together the particles, and it simply disintegrates. This elemental takes charge of the body from the first, but some time before physical birth takes place the ego also comes into contact with his future habitation, and from that time onwards the two forces are working side by side. Sometimes the characteristics which the elemental is directed to impose are but few in number, and consequently it is able to retire at a comparatively early age, and to leave the ego in full control of the body. In other cases, where the limitations are of such a character that a good deal of time is necessary for their development, it may retain its position until the body is seven years old. Egos differ greatly in the interest which they take in their physical vehicles, for some hover over them anxiously from the first and take a good deal of trouble about them, while others are almost entirely careless with regard to the whole matter. When a child is still-born, there has usually been no ego behind it, and consequently no elemental. There are vast hosts of souls seeking reincarnation, and many of them are still at so early a stage of their evolution that almost any ordinary surroundings would be equally suitable for them; they have so many lessons to learn that it matters little with which one they begin, and almost any conceivable set of surroundings will teach them something which they sorely need. Nevertheless it does sometimes happen that there is not at a given time any ego able to take advantage of a particular opportunity, and in that case, though the body may be formed to a certain extent by the thought of the mother, as there is no ego to occupy it, it is never really alive. In building the form the elemental takes the etheric matter which it needs from that which it finds ready within the body of the mother. That is one reason for the necessity of the greatest care on the part of that mother during the time the child's body is being formed. If she supplies nothing but the best and purest materials, the elemental will find itself compelled to choose from those. Another factor which has an exceedingly powerful influence is the thought of the mother during this period, for that also moulds the shape which is slowly growing within her. Again this shows us why the mother' s thought must at that time be especially pure and high, why she must be kept away altogether from all coarse or agitating influences, why only the most beautiful forms and colours should surround her, and the most harmonious conditions should prevail in her neighbourhood.

If the elemental's instructions do not include some special development in the way of features, such as unusual beauty or unusual ugliness, that part of the shaping of the new body will most likely be done by the thought of the mother — and by the thought-forms which are constantly floating round her. If she thinks often with devoted love of her husband there is a strong probability that the child will resemble its father; if on the contrary she looks often at her reflection in the mirror and thinks much about herself, it is probable that the child will bear considerable resemblance to her. Equally, if it happens that she is constantly thinking with devoted affection or admiration of some third person, the child is likely to resemble that person — always supposing that the elemental has no definite instructions in this matter. When the children grow older their physical bodies are influenced largely by their own thoughts, and as these differ from those of the mother, we often see that considerable changes in physical appearance take place, the child in some cases growing more beautiful and in other cases less so as the years roll by. “As a man thinks, so is he” is true on the physical plane as well as on others; and if the thought is always calm and serene, the face will surely reflect it. To an advanced ego all the earlier stages of childhood are naturally exceedingly wearisome. I remember that the late Mr. T. Subba Rao complained quite bitterly about it when he first took his new body. He declared that, do what he would, he could not make that baby body sleep more than twenty hours out of the day, and the rest of the time he actually had to wait near it and watch it squirming about, and listen to its plaintive ululations, and endure to be fed through it with tasteless and nauseous varieties of pap! Sometimes a really advanced person decides to avoid all this by asking someone else to give him an adult body, a sacrifice which any of his disciples would always be delighted to make for him. But this method also has its drawbacks. However wearisome it may be to pass through childhood, at least in that way a man grows a body for himself, which is as nearly as may be an expression of him, and agrees with all his little peculiarities; but one who takes an adult body finds it already full of peculiarities of its own, which have worn in it deep grooves of habit that cannot readily be changed. It cannot but be to some extent a misfit, and it takes a long time to make its vibrations synchronise with his own. An ego coming into incarnation has always to adapt himself to a new set of conditions, but when he comes to birth in the ordinary way this can at least be done gradually, as the child grows up; but one who takes an adult body has instantly to adapt himself to all these fresh surroundings, which is often a very difficult business. In this case he has retained his old astral and mental bodies; but they are naturally counterparts of his previous vehicle, and they have to be adapted to the new form. Once more, if that form be a baby this can be done gradually, but if it is an adult form it must be done immediately, which means an amount of strain that is distinctly unpleasant.


text:
The Inner Life, v. II/Seventh Section/III

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

I have looked up many cases, and I find that for the ordinary man there seems to be but little continuity of personal appearance life after life; but I have known cases of strong similarity as well as great unlikeness. As the physical body is to some extent an expression of the ego, and that remains the same, there must be some cases where it expresses itself in similar forms; but racial, family and other characteristics usually override this tendency. When an individual is so advanced that the personality and ego are unified, the personality tends to have impressed upon it the characteristics of the glorified form in the causal body, which is relatively permanent. When the man is an adept and all his karma is worked out, the physical body is the nearest possible presentment of that glorified form. The Masters will therefore remain recognisable through any number of incarnations. I have noticed that one of the Masters who comparatively recently attained adeptship is as yet not quite like the others, having somewhat rugged features. I am sure that will be different in the next incarnation. I should not expect to see much difference in the bodies of our Masters, even if They should choose to take others, and even though they might be of another race. I have seen prototypes of what bodies are to be like in the seventh Race; they will be transcendently beautiful. The glorified form in the causal body is an approach to the archetype, and comes nearer to it as man developes. The human form appears to be the model for the highest evolution in this particular solar system. It is varied slightly in different planets, but is broadly speaking the same in general outline. In other solar systems forms may possibly be quite unlike it; we have no information on that point.


text:
The Inner Life, v. II/Seventh Section/IV

BRINGING OVER PAST KNOWLEDGE

We do not yet know with any certainty the laws which govern the power to impress the detailed knowledge of one life upon the physical brain of the next. Such evidence as is at present before us seems to show that details are usually forgotten, but that broad principles appear to the new mind as self-evident. Many of us have exclaimed when for the first time in this incarnation we read a Theosophical book: “This is exactly what I have always felt, but I did not know how to put it into words!” In some cases there seems scarcely that much of memory, yet as soon as the teaching is presented it is instantly recognised as true. Mrs. Besant as Hypatia must unquestionably have known a great deal of this philosophy which was not clearly formulated in her present brain during the orthodox or free-thought periods of this incarnation. If any reliance at all is to be placed upon exoteric tradition, even the BUDDHA Himself, who descended from higher planes with the definite intention of taking birth to help the world, knew nothing clearly of His mission after He had entered His new body, and regained full knowledge only after years of searching for it. Undoubtedly He could have known from the first had He chosen, but He did not choose; He submitted Himself to what seems to be the common lot. It is possible that in His case there may be another explanation. The body which was born of King Suddhodana and Queen Maya may not in its earlier years have been inhabited by the Lord BUDDHA. He may have acted as the Christ did; He may have asked one of His disciples to take care of that vehicle for Him until He needed it, and He may have entered it Himself only at the moment when it fainted after the long austerities of the six years of searching for truth. If this be so, then the reason that Prince Siddartha did not remember all that the Lord BUDDHA previously knew was because He was not the same person. But in any case we may be sure that the ego, who is the true man, always knows what he has once learned; but he is not always able to impress it upon his new brain without the help of a suggestion from without. Fortunately for our students it seems to be an invariable rule that one who has accepted occult truth in one life always comes into contact with it in the next, and so revives his dormant memory. I suppose we may say that the opportunity of thus recovering the truth is the karma of having accepted it, and of having earnestly tried to live according to it in the previous incarnation. There is, however, every probability that much of what we now call distinctively Theosophical belief will be the ordinary accepted knowledge of the day by the time that we return to take up again our work on the physical plane, so it may be that we shall all be educated in it as a matter of course. If that be so, the difference between those who have studied it this time and those who have not will be that the former will take it up with enthusiasm and make rapid progress, while to the latter it will mean no more than does the science of to-day to the entirely unscientific mind. In any case, let no one for a moment suppose that the benefit of our study and hard work can ever be lost.


text:
The Inner Life, v. II/Seventh Section/V

THE INTERVALS BETWEEN LIVES A certain amount of misconception exists among students with regard to the average interval which elapses between two incarnations. It seems probable that we misunderstood the information given on this subject in the early days of the Society, and the statements then made have been copied without comment even into some of the later books. Most of the closer students have come to know more or less accurately the facts of the case, but so far as I am aware nothing resembling a tabulation of averages for the various classes of egos has yet been published. At the end of the chapter on the heaven-world (then called devachan) in Mr. Sinnett's monumental work Esoteric Buddhism, the statement is made that the whole period between death and the next physical birth varies greatly in the case of different persons, but rebirth in less than fifteen hundred years is spoken of as almost impossible, while the stay in devachan which rewards a very rich karma is said sometimes to extend to enormous periods. This statement is based upon passages in the same letters from which is derived all the rest of this most interesting book, and there is no question whatever that Mr. Sinnett has quite accurately reported what was told to him. The same general idea is put forward by Madame Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine (II, 317): “Let us remember that, save in the case of young children and of individuals whose lives have been violently cut off by some accident, no spiritual entity can reincarnate before a period of many centuries has elapsed.” In those earlier days we took this fifteen hundred years as an average for humanity, but later investigations have clearly shown us that it could not have been meant exactly in that way. To make the statement square with the observed facts, it must be either greatly limited or greatly extended. If confined to a small group of the most advanced of the human race it would be approximately correct; and on the other hand, if it were extended to include not only humanity but the vast hosts of the deva kingdom, it might again be taken as coming very near to the truth. In the case of the quotation from The Secret Doctrine the expression spiritual entities may be read as implying that Madame Blavatsky was speaking only of highly developed persons; but the passage from Esoteric Buddhism gives us fifteen hundred years almost as a minimum. We are given to understand that the letters upon which Esoteric Buddhism was founded were written by various pupils of the Masters under Their general direction; and so, while there is plenty of room for inaccuracies to creep in (as we know that they have crept in) it is impossible to suppose that the writers did not know facts quite readily accessible to anyone who can watch the process of reincarnation. We must remember that the letter was written not to the world at large but quite definitely to Mr. Sinnett, with possibly a view to the few others who were at that time studying with him. To state such an average for them would be reasonably exact, and perhaps this is what was done; but we certainly cannot accept it as the mean proportion for the whole human race at the present time. It is probably impossible to arrive at a really accurate average, for in order to do that it would be necessary to know at least approximately the number in each of the different classes of monads. Something of the nature of an estimate for each of the main classes may be given, though even then it must be remembered that there will necessarily be wide individual variations on each side of it. Three principal factors have to be taken not account; the class to which an ego belongs, the mode in which he has attained individualization, and the length and nature of his last life. Let us then take up the various classes of humanity in their order, using the nomenclature decided upon by Mrs. Besant in the table facing page 213. Lords of the Moon. At the head of that list appear the Lords of the Moon — those who attained the arhat level at some time or other during the evolution of the moon-chain. For that humanity, as for all others, seven paths open when they have attained the level assigned to their chain; and in this case one of those paths brought a certain proportion of the Lords of the Moon over to the earth-chain to direct the earlier stages of its evolution. All of these, however, have long since attained adeptship, and we need therefore take no account of them in the consideration of our present subject. Moon-Men (First Order). The next class is the first order of the Moon-men, and that is a class so large and varied that it will be necessary for us to discuss it in the several subdivisions given in the chapter on monads from the moon. 1 & 2. The first class, as given there, includes those who even on the moon-chain were already on the Path; and the second consists of those who were individualized in the fourth round of the moon-chain. In our present chapter we need not consider either of these classes, since their members have attained adeptship, and so the question of incarnations and the intervals between them no longer concerns them. 3. Those who attained individualization in the fifth round of the moon-chain. Among these, those who are already on the Path are usually taking a continuous succession of incarnations, so that for them the question of the interval between lives does not arise. If, however, they are for some reason not as yet taking the special series of lives which usually follows upon initiation, their intervals are very long — probably at the least fifteen hundred or two thousand years, or even more. Though not so usual as the series of rapid incarnations, this does sometimes occur; for among the cases known to us those who passed the first initiation some considerable time ago, one ego has been taking successive incarnations in physical life ever since, with scarcely any break, while another has been away from physical life for two thousand three hundred years; and yet the result so far as progress on the Path is concerned seems to have been exactly the same. The apportioning of the different stages of a long interval like this varies considerably in different cases. The stay upon the astral plane is short, or the ego may even pass through it rapidly and unconsciously. Most of the time is passed in the highest level of the heaven-world, and then, after that is over, a certain proportion of conscious life in the causal body precedes the next descent into birth. This life of the ego on its own plane is at this stage only about one-tenth of the entire interval between the earth-lives. But this again is a matter in which no two instances are alike. In the case of those who are approaching the Path the general interval is not far from twelve hundred years if the ego has been individualized slowly by intellectual development, and is therefore passing through its blissful experiences at the ordinary rate. If, however, the ego has been individualized suddenly by a rush of emotion or by a stupendous effort of will, and is consequently taking his bliss in the more concentrated form, his interval is about seven hundred years. Both these types are little likely to stay long upon the astral plane; probably five years represents for them an astral life of fair average duration. At the other end of their stay in the heaven-world there most likely comes a certain period of conscious life in the ego on its own plane, but this does not exceed half a-century at most. During their more recent lives we find that it has been the tendency of those people who take the normal interval of twelve hundred years to incarnate successively in the different sub-races. Often we find them running twice through the same set of sub-races, first in male and then in female vehicles, or vice versa. The fates of various people differ greatly. Some go on steadily life after life, but nothing particular happens to them. Others are constantly in trouble, shock following shock; and yet both are advancing along the line which is best for them. It often happens that if a man dies young, he is born again in the same sub-race, and when a man goes round the sub-races twice, he usually takes the other sex on the second journey. Broadly speaking, the Indians represent the first sub-race of the Aryan root-race, the Arabs the second, the Parsis the third, the Romance nations the fourth and the Teutons the fifth. If a man takes a birth in France, he does not need one in Italy or Spain, and the same is true of Germany and England. Students taking the seven hundred years interval seem to have more the habit of attaching themselves to one sub-race and returning to it whenever possible, and diverging into others only occasionally in order to develope special qualities. As a general rule successive incarnations in the same race intensify its characteristics; equilibrium is brought about by incarnating in various races, or by travel and living among different people. With regard to this matter, the idiosyncrasies of the ego play a considerable part. I mentioned elsewhere how the strong prepossession in the mind of the Jews that they are a special and chosen people tends to bring them back into the same race; and pride of race generally, if unusually intense, is likely to work in that direction. Even pride of family is not without its result also, and I have known of several cases in which, when abnormally developed, it has brought the ego back into the line of his direct descendants two or three times before he got free. In the beginning of these studies it was given to us as a general rule that a man usually takes not less than three and not more than seven incarnations in one sex before passing over to the other. Although the many researches which we have since undertaken have to a large extent confirmed this general rule, they have also shown us a great number of exceptions to it, some people taking long lines of incarnations in one sex before turning to the other, and others for a time incarnating alternately in male and female bodies; but most of these were in the case of egos who were already advanced somewhat beyond the average, and were therefore probably receiving special treatment. Evidently there is no hesitation in modifying the general rule to suit particular cases, when for any reason that is seen to be desirable. Though the laws governing reincarnation are allowed to work mechanically upon the vast majority of undeveloped egos, it seems clear from the instances observed that as soon as any one ego makes a little progress of any sort and so becomes hopeful from the evolutionary point of view, considerable elasticity is introduced into the arrangements, and within certain definite limits he is born into the sex, race and conditions which are best suited to give him an opportunity of strengthening the weak points in his character. In the case of men who have distinguished themselves greatly along artistic, scientific or religious lines, the interval is usually much the same, though the apportioning may differ slightly. The general tendency is to a longer astral and a shorter causal life, especially in the case of the religious and the artistic. A great philosopher sometimes enormously extends his life in the heaven-world; I remember that Madame Blavatsky has somewhere stated that Plato would be likely to stay away from earth for at least ten thousand years, though I imagine that this is an entirely exceptional ease. 4. Those who attained individualisation in the sixth round of the moon-chain; typical examples of whom are the country gentlemen and professional men.

Their intervals vary greatly, say from six hundred to a thousand years, of which perhaps twenty or twenty-five may be spent upon the astral plane, and all the rest in various stages of the heaven-world. There is probably just a touch of consciousness in the ego on its own plane, but only a touch.

5. Those who individualized in the seventh round of the moon-chain — the upper middle class. This class generally has an interval between lives of perhaps five hundred years, of which about twenty-five are passed on the astral plane and the rest in the heaven-world. In such a case there is no conscious life in the causal body, though of course, like all other human beings, they have the flash of memory and of prescience which is always vouchsafed to each ego when he touches his own plane between two physical incarnations. Moon-men, Second Order. The bourgeoisie. Their interval between lives is commonly two hundred to three hundred years, of which about forty are usually spent upon the astral plane, and the rest in the lower levels of the heaven-world. In this, as in all the other types, individualization may have been obtained by intelligence or by emotion, and there will be a corresponding difference in the average length of the intervals between successive incarnations, but in all these lower classes the difference caused by the mode of individualization is much less in proportion than in the higher class. Moon Animal-men. The pioneers of the first round of the earth-chain, represented now by the skilled workers of the world. Such men have usually an interval between lives varying from one hundred to two hundred years, about forty of which are spent on the middle level of the astral plane, and the rest on some of the lower sub-planes of the heaven-world. Moon-animals, First class. Now the un-skilled labourers. Their interval between lives varies from sixty to a hundred years, of which from forty to fifty are spent on the lower parts of the astral plane, and the remainder on the lowest division of the heaven-world.

Moon-animals, Second class. The drunkards and the unemployable. Such people are generally absent from the world some forty or fifty years, which they spend entirely on the astral plane — usually on the lowest subdivision but one. Moon-animals, Third class. The lowest of humanity. Their interval between lives is often about five years, spent on the lowest sub-plane of the astral — unless they are earth-bound by crime, which not infrequently happens. In all the cases mentioned above, a certain difference is produced by the mode of individualization, but this difference is much less in proportion in the lower classes. Still on the whole those individualized through intellect tend always to take the longer of the two intervals mentioned as possible for them, whereas those who come along other paths tend to take the shorter. A third factor which exercises great influence is the length and nature of the individual life. Obviously an ego who casts aside his physical body in childhood has not had the opportunity in that body to generate a sufficient amount of spiritual force to keep him on the higher planes for the length of time common to his type. Generally speaking, then, a man who dies young will have a shorter interval than his neighbour who lives to old age. Generally speaking, again, the man dying young is likely to have a greater proportion of astral life, because most of the strong emotions which work themselves out in astral life are generated in the earlier part of the physical existence, whereas the more spiritual energy which finds its result in the heaven-life is likely to continue until the end or near the end of the period spent upon earth. The character of the man during his earth-life is a consideration of the utmost importance. Some men lead a long life in which there is scarcely anything of spirituality, and that naturally tends to shorten the interval between their incarnations and brings it far below what is common for their class. Probably, too, in such a case quite an undue proportion of the interval would be spent on the astral plane. The averages given, therefore, are only averages, and it must be clearly understood that a wide range on each side of them is usually possible, so that the various classes may considerably over-lap one another. We have only recently come to understand the importance, in this regard, of strong mutual affection. From our study of past lives it has become clear to us that egos are closely associated in families or group, and that this connection tends on the whole to equalise the intervals between the lives of the members of such a group. It is evidently considered necessary that they should prepare for future work together by constant association as they evolve, and it is manifest that intervals which would otherwise be shorter or longer are so dealt with as to bring the entire party into incarnation together, not once but many times. This unquestionably involves an increase or decrease of the rate at which the spiritual force discharges itself, and it is clear that this must be a matter of careful regulation by the Authorities in charge of evolution. Though we have not yet discovered the exact law which regulates it, there is little doubt that when we do we shall find that it works automatically, so that the maximum of result may be achieved without injustice to any individual concerned. There seems to be a type of students who are always yearning to discover injustice in the working of the evolutionary machinery; but those who have spent many years in the investigation of the processes of nature know more and more certainly as they go on that injustice is an impossibility, and that any case in which we think we descry it is only a case in which our knowledge is as yet imperfect. Those who have probed the mysteries of nature most deeply are precisely those who have acquired the utter certainty that He who doeth all things doeth all things well.

title: The Inner Life, v. II/Seventh Section/V


text:
The Inner Life, v. II/Eighth Section

EIGHTH SECTION

KARMA

title: The Inner Life, v. II/Eighth Section


text:
Executive Order 1283

In accordance with the provisions of section 40 of the act entitled "An act to increase the efficiency of the permanent military establishment of the United States," approved February 2, 1901, which authorizes the President to "prescribe the kinds and quantities of the component articles of the Army ration, and to direct the issue of substitutive equivalent articles in place of any such components whenever, in his opinion, economy and a due regard to the health and comfort of the troops may so require," the Executive order of April 2, 1908, prescribing the Army ration is revoked, and the following is promulgated for the information and guidance of all concerned, to take effect March 1, 1911.

The kinds and quantities of the component articles of the Army ration and the substitutive equivalent articles which may be issued in place of such components shall be as follows:

—Food for troops traveling on United States Army transports will be prepared from the articles of subsistence stores which compose the ration for troops in garrison, varied by the substitution of other articles of authorized subsistence stores, the total cost of the food consumed not to exceed 24 cents per man per day, except on Thanksgiving and Christmas, when not to exceed 39 cents is authorized.

An emergency ration, prepared under the direction of the War Department, will be issued, in addition to the regular ration, as required for troops on active campaign or in the field for purposes of instruction, and will not be opened except by order of an officer or in extremity. Company and detachment commanders are responsible for the proper care and use of emergency rations carried on the person of the soldier.

All articles of the garrison and travel ration due a company, or other military organization, will be retained by the commissary and credit given to the organization for the money value of these articles at the current price of the articles; and the commissary will pay as savings to the organization commanders any excess in value of the stores so retained over those purchased by the organization.

When in the exigencies of the service troops are subsisted on the haversack ration, and it is found to be practicable to supplement these stores by local purchases or by shipments, the commanding general may direct, in written orders, the issue in kind, in addition to the haversack ration, of such available articles of food not in excess of the amounts allowed of corresponding articles in the garrison ration.

. ,
 * January 11, 1911.

title: Executive Order 1283


text: Talk:Executive Order 1283

title: Talk:Executive Order 1283


text:
Page:Hans Andersen's fairy tales (Holt, 1913).djvu/76

 slender waist, flew up into a tree with her. But the green leaf still floated down the brook, and the butterfly with it; he was bound to the leaf and could not get loose.

Oh, how terrified was poor Tommelise when the cock-chafer carried her up into the tree, and how sorry she felt, too, for the

'THIS IS JUST THE WIFE FOR MY SON,' SAID THE TOAD

darling white butterfly which she had left tied fast to the leaf; she feared that if he could not get away, he would perish of hunger. But the cock-chafer cared nothing for that. He settled with her upon the largest leaf in the tree, gave her some honey from the flowers to eat, and hummed her praises, telling her she was very pretty, although she was not at all like a 56


text:
Page:Dictionary of spoken Russian (1945).djvu/505

 word of our uncle's arrival. • connections. У нас тут очень удобное сообщение с центром города. We have very good connections with the center of town. □ воздушное сообщение air connections. Между этими островами установлено воздушное сообщение. There are air connections between these islands. телеграфное сообщение telegraph communication. телефонное сообщение telephone communication. □ У вас есть расписание поездов пригородного сообщения? Do you have a timetable for the suburban trains? • Между городом и заводом есть трамвайное сообщение. There's a trolley line running from town to the factory.

сообщить (pct of сообщать) to let know. Сообщите о приезде телеграммой. Let me know by telegram when you arrive. • to inform. Надо сообщить об этом его родным. It's necessary to inform his relatives. • to break the news. Мне пришлось сообщить ему о смерти его брата. I had to break the news of his brother's death to him. • to tell. Я должен вам сообщить нечто очень важное. I must tell you something very important. • to announce. Об этом только что сообщили по радио. They just announced it on the radio.

сооружение building. Эти сооружения занимают огромную площадь. These buildings take in a tremendous area.

соответственно according. Он поступил соответственно вашим указаниям. He acted according to your directions.

сор (/g -у; в сору/) rubbish. Куда можно вынести сор? Where can I put out the rubbish? □ *Только чур, сора из избы не выносить! We'd better wash our dirty linen at home.

сорвать (-рву, -рвёт; p -рвала; -рвался, -рвалась, -рвалось, -рвались; ppp сорванный, sh F -рвана; pct of срывать) to tear off. Раньше сорвите со стены старые обои. Tear off the old wallpaper first. • to blow off. Ветер сорвал у меня шляпу. The wind blew my hat off. • to pick. Цветы у вас, я вижу, все сорваны. I see all your flowers are picked. □ Этой выходкой вы мне сорвали дело. You spoiled the whole thing for me by this trick.

-ся to tear down. Занавеска сорвалась. The curtain was torn down. □ Я и сам не знаю как у меня сорвалась эта грубость. I don't know myself how I let such coarse language slip. • Не стойте на подножке, ещё сорвётесь! Don't stand on the running board; you can fall off! • Он вдруг сорвался со стула и выбежал в коридор. He suddenly jumped up from his chair and ran into the hall. • Из-за недостатка угля сорвался выпуск важных деталей. Because of the shortage of coal, important machinery parts were not finished.

соревнование competition. Какой завод победил в этом соревновании? Which plant won the competition? • meet. Он занял первое место на соревновании в плавании. He won first place in the swimming meet. □ социалистическое соревнование socialist competition. Наше обязательство по социалистическому соревнованию было выполнено. Our obligation in the socialist competition was fulfilled.

соревноваться to compete. Кто соревнуется с нами? Who's competing with us?

сорить (сорю, сорит) to mess up. Не сорите, здесь только что подмели. Don't mess up this place; it was just cleaned. □ Чего вы деньгами сорите? What do you throw your money around for?

сорняк (-а) weed.

сорок (gdil сорока, §22) forty.

сороковой fortieth.

сорт (P -а, -ов) quality. А сколько стоит кило табаку высшего сорта? And how much does a kilogram of the best quality tobacco cost? • kind. На базаре вы сможете купить все сорта фруктов. You can buy all kinds of fruit at the market. — Это остроумие невысокого сорта. This is a very low kind of humor.

сосать (сосу, сосёт; dur) to suck. "Что это вы сосёте?" "Леденец". "What are you sucking?" "A hard candy." □ У меня от голода под ложечкой сосёт. I'm so hungry I have an empty feeling in my stomach.

сосед (P соседи, -дей, -дям) neighbor. На крик сбежались все соседи. At the scream all the neighbors came running. □ Он был моим соседом по квартире. He lived in the same apartment house with me.

соседка neighbor F.

соседний neighboring. Мы соревнуемся с соседним колхозом. We are competing with the neighboring kolkhoz. • next. Они живут в соседнем доме. They live in the next house.

сосиска hot dog, frankfurter. Дайте мне, пожалуйста, сосиску и чашку кофе. Give me a hot dog and a cup of coffee, please.

соскакивать ([-k'v-]; dur of соскочить).

соскочить (-скочу, -скочит; pct of соскакивать) to jump off. Он соскочил с трамвая на ходу. He jumped off the trolley while it was still moving. • to come off. Колесо соскочило с оси. The wheel came off its axle.

сосна (P сосны) pine tree.

сосредоточивать (dur of сосредоточить) to concentrate. Мы сейчас сосредоточиваем все наши силы на восстановлении промышленности. We're now concentrating all our energy on the reconstruction of industry.

сосредоточить (pct of сосредоточивать) to concentrate. Основные силы армии были сосредоточены на границе. The main forces of the army were concentrated on the frontier. — Сосредоточьте ваше внимание на этой проблеме. Concentrate your attention on this problem.

состав composition. Какой состав этого порошка? What's the composition of this powder? — Кто входит в состав нового правительства? What's the composition of the new government? • compound. Осторожней с этим составом: он может взорваться. Be careful with this compound; it may explode. □ подвижной состав rolling stock.

составить (pct of составлять) to compile. Он поможет вам составить статистические таблицы. He'll help you compile the statistical tables. — Он составил хороший справочник. He compiled a good reference book. • to put together. Составьте эти два стола и покройте скатертью. Put these two tables together and cover them with a tablecloth. • to pile. Составьте пока мебель вот сюда. Just pile all the furniture here. • to collect. Он себе составил порядочную библиотеку. He collected a rather large library, • to make up. Меня попросили составить расписание уроков. They asked me to make up the lesson schedule. • to amount to. Это составит не меньше ста рублей. All this will amount to not less than a hundred rubles. • to form.


text: Negation

title: Negation


text:
Page:Dictionary of spoken Russian (1945).djvu/506

 Вы уже составили себе представление об этом деле? Have you formed any ideas about this matter yet? □ составить протокол to make a (police) record. Пришёл милиционер и составил протокол о происшествии. The policeman came and made a record of what had happened. составить себе имя to make a name for oneself. Он уже составил себе имя, как художник. He's already made a name for himself as a painter.

составлять (dur of составить) to add up. Всё это вместе составляет не такую уж больше сумму. All this together doesn't add up to a large amount.

состояние condition. Эта машина старая, но она ещё в хорошем состоянии. This is an old car, but it's still in good condition. — Я так устал, что не в состоянии шевельнуть рукой. I'm so tired that I'm not in any condition to raise a hand. • state. Пока не пришла телеграмма, она была в ужасном состоянии. Until the telegram came she was in a bad state. • fortune. У его деда было большое состояние. His grandfather had quite a large fortune. • shape. Он вернулся в ужасном состоянии. He returned in very bad shape. □ быть в состоянии to be capable. Он в состоянии наговорить вам дерзостей. He's capable of being rude to you. □ Его здоровье в очень неважном состоянии. He's in very poor health.

состоять (-стою, -стоит; dur) to be made up. Наш клуб состоит главным образом из молодёжи. Our club membership is made up mostly of young people. • to consist of. В чём будут состоять мой обязанности? What will my duties consist of? □ Я давно уже состою членом профсоюза. I've been a member of the trade union for a long time. • Из кого состоит ваша семья? Who's in your family? • На моём иждивении состоят трое. I support three people.

-ся to take place. Спектакль не состоится из-за болезни артистки. The show will not take place because of the actress's illness.

состряпать (pct of стряпать) to cook. Она состряпала превкусный обед. She cooked a wonderful dinner. • to whip up. Он этот доклад состряпал в полдня, вот и получилась ерунда. He whipped up this report in half a day, and that's why it's such nonsense.

состязание meet. Тут происходят спортивные состязания. Sports meets take place here. • contest. Он взял первый приз на состязании в беге. He won first prize in a sprinting contest.

сосуд vessel. Эту кислоту нельзя держать в металлическом сосуде. This acid mustn't be kept in a metal vessel. — У него лопнул крупный кровеносный сосуд. One of his large blood vessels burst.

сосчитать (pct of считать and сосчитывать) to count. Вы сосчитали присутствующих? Did you count those present?

сосчитывать (dur of сосчитать) to count.

сотворить (pct of творить) to create.

сотня (gp -тен) hundred. На собрание пришли сотни людей. Hundreds of people came to the meeting. — Сотню заплатили за это? Did you pay a hundred (rubles) for this?

сотру See стереть.

сотрудник co-worker. Он много лет был моим сотрудником и помощником. He was my co-worker and assistant for many years. • contributor. Он сотрудник этой газеты. He's a contributor to this newspaper. □ сотрудники personnel. Распоряжение касается всех сотрудников этого учреждения. The ruling affects all personnel of this office.

сотрудница co-worker F.

сотый hundredth.

coyc sauce.

соусник gravy dish.

сохранить (pct of сохранять) to keep. Сохраните это на память обо мне. Keep this to remember me by. — Я это сохраню для вас. I'll keep it for you. □ Я сохранил о них очень хорошее воспоминание. I have very pleasant memories of them. • Боже вас сохрани заводить об этом разговор. Under no circumstances start a conversation about it.

-ся to keep. При такой жаре фрукты не сохранится. The fruit won't keep in such heat. • to be preserved. Он хорошо сохранился для своего возраста. He's well preserved for his age. • to have (something) left. У нас ещё сохранилось прошлогоднее варенье. We still have some jam left over from last year. □ У него до старости сохранилась хорошая память. Even in his old age he has a good memory.

сохранять (dur of сохранить) to keep. Граждане, сохраняйте спокойствие! Ladies and gentlemen, keep calm! — Сохранять в холодном месте. Keep in a cold place. — Я сохраняю газетные вырезки об этой конференции. I'm keeping the newspaper clippings on this conference.

-ся to be preserved. Здесь такой климат, что мясо долго не сохраняется. Meat can't be preserved long in this climate.

социализация socialization.

социализм socialism.

социалист socialist.

социалистический socialist.

социальный. □ социальное страхование social insurance. социальные науки social science.

соцсоревнование (социалистическое соревнование) socialist competition.

сочинение work. У меня есть полное собрание сочинений Тургенева. I have the complete works of Turgenev. • composition. Учитель задал нам трудное сочинение. The teacher gave us a difficult composition to write.

сочинить (pct of сочинять) to compose. Он сочинил целую симфонию. He composed a whole symphony. • to write. Он по этому поводу сочинил недурные стихи. He wrote a pretty good poem about it.

сочинять (dur of сочинить) to make up. Не верьте ему, он всё сочиняет. Don't believe him! He's making it all up!

сочный (sh -чна) juicy. Осторожно, не закапайте платья, это очень сочная груша. Be careful, don't get it on your dress; the pear is very juicy. • rich. Какие сочные краски у этого художника! What rich colors this artist uaes!

сочту See счесть.

сочувствие sympathy.

сочувствовать (dur) to sympathize. Я вам очень сочувствую. I sympathize with you very much. □ Он не сочувствует чужому горю. Other people's troubles don't concern him.

сошёл See сойти.

сошёлся See сойтись.

сошью See сшить.

Союз Soviet Union. Вы давно в Союзе? Have you been in


text: Index:Schools of Charles the Great.djvu

title: Index:Schools of Charles the Great.djvu


text:
Page:Dictionary of spoken Russian (1945).djvu/581

 APPENDIX 12

Numerals

U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1945—647037


text: Page:Gummere (1909) The Oldest English Epic.djvu/2


text: Page:Gummere (1909) The Oldest English Epic.djvu/3


text: Page:Gummere (1909) The Oldest English Epic.djvu/4


text: Page:Gummere (1909) The Oldest English Epic.djvu/8


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, Simon


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, Theobald


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, Thomas (fl.1570)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, Thomas (1532-1614)


text:
Page:Dictionary of spoken Russian (1945).djvu/507

 the Soviet Union for a long time? • union. Вы член союза? Are you a union member? • alliance. Эти страны заключили оборонительный союз. These countries concluded a defensive alliance. • coalition. Союз демократических держав оказался сильнее фашистской оси. The coalition of democracies turned out to be stronger than the Fascist Axis. • conjunction. Слово "или" это не предлог, а союз. The word "или" is a preposition, not a conjunction. □ всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз (комсомол) See Appendix 4. Советский союз The Soviet Union.

союзник ally. Привет американским союзникам! Greetings to our American allies! — Он был моим верным союзником в этой борьбе. He was a faithful ally of mine in this fight.

союзный union. Наша страна состоит из шестнадцати союзных республик. Our country consists of sixteen union republics.

спальный. □ спальный вагон sleeping car (Pullman). Мы ехали в спальном вагоне. We traveled by sleeping car (Pullman).

спальня (gp -лен) bedroom.

спаржа asparagus.

спасательный rescue. В горы был послан спасательный отряд. A rescue party was sent into the mountains. □ спасательная лодка lifeboat. спасительный круг life preserver. Спасительные круги висят на верхней палубе. The life preservers are on the upper deck. спасательный пояс life belt. Капитан приказал надеть спасительные пояса. The captain ordered everybody to put on life belts.

спасать (dur of спасти) to rescue. Он кинулся спасать утопающего. He rushed to rescue the drowning man. □ Спасайся кто может! Run for your life!

спасибо thanks. От него спасибо не дождёшься! You can't expect any thanks from him! • fortunately. Спасибо, на вокзале нашёлся знакомый и дал мне пятёрку взаймы. Fortunately I met a friend of mine at the railroad station and he lent me five rubles. □ Большое спасибо. Thanks a lot. • Спасибо! Thank you! • Спасибо, с удовольствием. With pleasure, thanks. • Это всё, что нам дали? Ну, что ж, спасибо и на этом. So that's all we got? Well, we've got no kick coming. • Спасибо товарищу, выручил он меня. I must thank my friend; he helped me out.

спасти (спасу, -сёт; p спас, спасла, -о, -и; pct of спасать) to save. Этот доктор многих спас от смерти. This doctor has saved many lives. — Он обратил всё это в шутку и спас положение. He turned this whole thing into a joke and saved the situation.

спать (сплю, спит; p спала) to sleep. Вы хорошо спите в поезде? Do you sleep well on the train? — Спите спокойно, вас разбудят во-время. Sleep well. They'll wake you on time. • to be asleep. Когда мы пришли, он ещё спал крепким сном. He was still fast asleep when we came. — А вы, что же, спали, когда это происходило? And what were you doing when it happened? Were you asleep? • to dream. Вы что, спите? Чуть на столб не наехали! What's the matter with you? Are you dreaming? You almost ran into a pole. □ *Он спит и видит, как бы попасть на Кавказ. His one dream is to get to the Caucasus. • Пора спать! It's time to go to bed.

спектакль (M) play. Есть ещё билеты на воскресный спектакль? Are there still tickets for the Sunday play? • show. Ha этот спектакль цена за вход понижена. The price of admission to the show has been reduced. — У них в школе сегодня любительский спектакль. They're having an amateur show at school today.

спелый (sh спела) ripe. Эти груши спелые? Are these pears ripe?

сперва (/cf первый/) first. Напейтесь сперва чаю, а потом пойдёте. Have some tea first and then go. • at first. Я вас сперва не узнал. I didn't recognize you at first. — Сперва он мне не понравился, но теперь я вижу, какой он славный. At first I didn't like him, but now I see what a fine person he is.

спереди in front. Спереди пиджак немного узок. The coat is a little too tight in front.

спеть (спою, споёт; ppp спетый; pct of петь) to sing. Спойте нам что-нибудь! Sing something for us.

спец (/-а/) expert. Он спец по железнодорожному делу. He's an expert on railroad matters.

специалист specialist. Наш завод нуждается в хороших специалистах. Our factory needs good specialists. — Вам нужно пойти к специалисту по сердечным болезням. You ought to go to a heart specialist. • expert. Не могу вам сказать, я в этом деле не специалист. I can't tell you; I'm not an expert in this field.

специальность (F) occupation. А кто он по специальности? What's his occupation? • specialty. Блины печь — это её специальность. Making pancakes is her specialty.

специальный special. Советую вам обратить специальное внимание на этот проект. I advise you to pay special attention to this project. — Для этой работы нужны специальные знания. Special knowledge is needed for this job. — От нашего специального корреспондента. From our special correspondent. □ специально especially. Я пришёл специально для того, чтобы с вами поговорить, I came especially to talk to you.

спецодежда work clothes. По договору завод обязуется снабжать вас спецодеждой. According to the agreement, the plant has to supply you with work clothes.

спечь (спеку, спечёт; p спёк, спекла, -о, -и; pct of печь) to bake. Я вам спеку пирог! I'll bake you a pie.

спешить (pct) to hurry. Не спешите, ещё рано. Don't hurry; it's still early. — Делайте это не спеша, тщательно. Don't hurry; do this thoroughly. • to be fast. Ваши часы спешат. Your watch is fast.

спешный urgent. Его вызвали по спешному делу. He was called out on an urgent matter. □ спешное письмо special delivery letter. Вам спешное письмо. There's a special delivery letter for you. спешно urgent. Это очень спешно? Is this very urgent? □ Пошлите это спешной почтой. Send this special delivery. • Он спешно собрался в дорогу. He got ready for his trip in no time.

спина (a спину, P спины) back. У меня спина болит. My back aches. — Он стоял к нам спиной. He stood with his back to us. — Как вам не стыдно делать это за его спи-


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, Thomas (1634-1680)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, Thomas Hamly


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, Walter (1569-1633)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, Walter (d.1634)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, Weeden (1742-1823)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, Weeden (1773-1831)


text:
Page:The Daughters of England.djvu/112

Rh It is no uncommon thing amongst young women, to hear them say, they like a thing they do not know why—nay, so warm are their expressions, one would be led to suppose their preference arose from absolute love, and yet,

It is that habitual tendency of feeling or tone of mind, which I have called taste, that decides their choice; and it is thus that our moral worth or dignity depend upon the exercise of good taste, in the selection we make of the intellectual materials we work with in the formation of character, and the general arrangement of the whole, so as to render the trifling subservient to the more important, and each estimable according to the purpose for which it is used.

I am aware that religious principle is the only certain test by which character can be tried; but I am speaking of things as they are, not as they ought to be; and I wish to prove the great importance of taste, by showing that it is a principle busily at work in directing the decisions of the female mind on points supposed to be too trifling for the operation of religious feeling, and often before any definite idea of religion has been formed. It is strictly in subservience to religion, that I would speak of good taste as being of extreme importance to woman; because it serves her purpose in all those little variations of human life, which are too sudden in their occurrence, and too minute in themselves, for the operation of judgment; but which at the same time constitute so large a sum of woman's experience.

It may be said, that the rules of good taste are so arbitrary, that no one can fully understand them. I can only repeat, what I have said on this subject in "The Poetry of Life," and I think the rule is sufficient for women in general. It is, that the majority of opinion amongst those who

title: Page:The Daughters of England.djvu/112


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, William (d.1410?)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butler, William (1535-1618)


text:
Page:The Daughters of England.djvu/113

103 are best able to judge, may safely be considered as most in accordance with good taste. Thus, when your taste has received from your parents a particular bias, which you are afterwards led to suspect is not a correct one, inquire with all respect, whether, on that particular subject, your parents are the persons best qualified to judge. Or when you find in society that anything is universally approved or condemned, before accommodating your own taste to this exhibition of popular feeling, ask whether the judges who pronounce such sentence, are competent ones, and if there be a higher tribunal at which the question can be tried—or in other words, judges who understand the subject better, let it be referred to them, before you finally make up your mind.

Perhaps it may be objected that this is a tedious process, and that taste is a thing of sudden conclusion. But let it be remembered, I am now speaking of the formation of a good taste, as a part of the character; not of the operation of taste where it has been found. Nor, indeed, is the suddenness with which some young persons decide in matters of taste, any proof of their good sense. So far from this, we often find them, under the influence of better judges, reduced to the mortifying necessity of changing their opinions to the direct opposite of what they have too hastily expressed.

Still, though the process of forming the taste upon right principles, may at first be slow; and though it may some, times appear too tedious for juvenile impetuosity, the exercise of good taste will in time become so easy, and habitual, as to operate almost like an instinct; and, until it is so, the process I have recommended, will have the great advantage of preventing young ladies from being too forward in expressing their sentiments; and what is of far greater importance, they will be cautious in making their selection of what they admire, and what they condemn.

title: Page:The Daughters of England.djvu/113


text:
Page:The Daughters of England.djvu/114

Rh Have we not all seen in society, the ridiculous spectacle of a young and forward girl, exhibiting all the extravagance of juvenile importance in her condemnation of a book, which has not happened to please her fancy; when, had she waited a few minutes longer, the conversation would have taken such a turn, as would have convinced her that amongst wise men, and enlightened women, the work was considered justly worthy of high commendation? With what grace could she, then, after having thus committed herself, either defend, or withdraw her own opinions? or with what complacency could she reflect upon the exposure she had made of her bad taste, before persons qualified to judge? Far wiser is the part, perhaps, of her more diffident companion, who having equally failed in discovering the merits of the work in question, goes home and reads it again, with her attention more directed to its beauties; and who, even if she fails at last in deriving that pleasure from the book which she had hoped, has the humility to conclude that the fault is in her own taste, which she then begins to regulate upon a new principle, and with a determination to endeavour to admire what the best judges pronounce to be really excellent.

We must not, however, attach too much importance to good taste, nor require it to operate beyond its legitimate sphere. Taste, unquestionably, gives a bias to the character, in its tendency to what is elevated or low, refined or vulgar; but after all, the part of taste is only that of a witness called into a court of justice, to test the value of an article, which has some relation to the great and momentous decision in which the judge, the jury, and the court, are so deeply interested. As taste is that witness, religion is that judge; and it is only as the one is kept subservient to the other, that it can be rendered conducive to our happiness or our good.

title: Page:The Daughters of England.djvu/114


text:
Page:The Daughters of England.djvu/115

104 The province of taste, then, includes all the minute affairs of woman's life—which belongs to all pleasurable feeling,- held in subordination to religious principle—all which belongs to dress, manners, and social habits, so far as they may be said to be ladylike, or otherwise. Should any consideration, relating to one or all of these points, be allowed to interfere in the remotest degree with the requirements of religion, it is a proof whenever they do so, that the standard of excellence is a wrong one; and the individual who commits so fatal an error, would do well to look to the consequences, and remedy the evil before it shall be too late. Religion never yet was injured by permitting good taste to follow in her train; but that lovely handmaid can deserve the name of taste no longer, if she attempts to step before religion, or in any respect to assume her place.

Above every other feature which adorns the female character, delicacy stands foremost within the province of good taste. Not that delicacy which is perpetually in quest of something to be ashamed of, which makes a merit of a blush, and simpers at the false construction its own ingenuity has put upon an innocent remark; this spurious kind of delicacy is as far removed from good taste, as from good feeling, and good sense; but that high-minded delicacy which maintains its pure and undeviating walk alike amongst women, as in the society of men; which shrinks from no necessary duty, and can speak when required, with seriousness and kindness of things at which it would be ashamed indeed to smile or to blush—that delicacy which knows how to confer a benefit without wounding the feelings of another, and which understands also how, and when to receive one—that delicacy which can give alms without display, and advice without assumption; and which pains not the most humble or susceptible being in creation. This is the delicacy which forms so important a part of good taste, that

title: Page:The Daughters of England.djvu/115


text:
Talk:Better Eyesight Magazine

Notes on sources moved from mainpage
Read free on GoogleBooks in Orignal Antique form; http://books.google.com/books?id=Ghd_TJhqvTcC&pg=PP7&dq=natural+eyesight+improvement&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UucVT6jXBObf0QHbyu2XCA&ved=0CGcQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false

Free entire 132 Issues, 11 years here; http://www.cleareyesight.info/naturalvisionimprovementoriginalandmodernbatesmethod/

I've found a scan at OpenLibrary and Archive. Mnafisalmukhdi1 (talk) 05:45, 27 December 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Better Eyesight Magazine