Page:A Collection of Esoteric Writings.djvu/239

225 Isis says that there are several regions between the earth and heaven, adapted to varying degrees of spiritual development, wherein "dwell the souls who are freed from bodies and those who have not yet been incorporated." These regions correspond to the various Devalokams (each Devagana has a separate loka) spoken of in Hindu books, and the rupa and arupa lokas of the Buddhists. The two mysterious ministers alluded to in the former part of this article exercise, it would seem, certain powers of supervision and control over the condition of the various Devachanees in accordance with the law of Karma. This law is set in motion by two energies described as memory and experience. The former "directs in nature the preservation and maintenance of all the original types appointed in Heaven." This refers to the record of Karma preserved in astral light. "The function of Experience is to provide every soul descending into generation with a body appropriate thereto." It is needless to state that this is a correct rationale of the doctrine of Karma from the Buddhist and the Hindu standpoint.

There is nothing more of importance to consider in this treatise. The points already referred to show that the same main doctrines of the ancient wisdom religion underlie every exoteric creed whether ancient or modern. It is not true, as Mr. Herbert Spencer says, that the only statement with reference to which all the nations in the world agree in the matter of religious belief is that there is an unknown and unknowable Power in the universe. The religious history of humanity shows that there are a number of doctrines regarding the origin, the nature and the ultimate destiny of the human soul, highly philosophical and complicated, which form the foundation of every exoteric religion and which have influenced the religions sentiments of mankind from time immemorial. How are we to account for these beliefs? Have they any inherent special connection with human nature as it is? Or are they the outcome of a divine revelation during the infancy of the human race, whose influence has survived the vicissitudes of so many civilizations? If neither of these hypothesis 29