78 Evolution of Life and Form. 



turn. Unhappily ignorance has so widely taken 

 the place of knowledge, that it is difficult for a man 

 to discover to which Deva he is thus related. I 

 have not time to work that out but you will see 

 how thoroughly it supports the ancient idea that 

 men rightly worshipped different manifestations of 

 the Divine, and profited by such worship. 



But we must hurry on with this outline, for we 

 have yet to deal with the more highly evolved 

 souls, and on your understanding this last part of 

 our subject will depend your power to defend our 

 sacred literature when it is attacked by those who 

 do not understand it. Therefore I will ask you to 

 follow it carefully, and you can apply the principles 

 that I will illustrate by special stories in a hundred 

 other cases. 



The Devas, in their relationship to the more 

 advanced human lives, have that function of teaching 

 that I have alluded to, and also the function of 

 testing and trying them, to see how far they are 

 worthy and reliable, testing all their weak points in 

 order that those weak points may be gotten rid of, 

 trying them, where there is a germ of vice still 

 remaining, in order that that germ of vice may be 

 eradicated. Let us try to realise the nature of that 

 working. Suppose we see a man who has made 

 great progress. He is approaching the end of his 



