Page:Man — Fragments of Forgotten History.djvu/31

 MAN: FRAGMENTS OF FORGOTTEN HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY.

It will be convenient before entering upon the question of the evolution of man to state shortly what, according to the Esoteric Doctrine, man is. It has been stated iii recent theosophical publications that man is composed of seven principles. But the analysis, in a great many instances, has been grievously misunderstood. An impression has been formed that a septenary human being is a very complicated kind of onion, from which coat after coat may be peeled off until nothing is left behind ； that the different principles which go to constitute a man are put together by some process of chemical and mechanical combination. Bat the fact is, these principles lie on different planes of existence, and cannot therefore react upon each other in the same manner as objects lying on the same plane are found to do. The perception of each of these principles involves and requires a corresponding change in the conditions of the perceiving consciousness. The thread which links