602 



The Review of Reviews. 



ALL ABOUT THE SOULS OF ANIMALS. 



Bv .Mk. C. VV. LEADBEATliR. 



Mr. C. W. Li'ADBEATiiR, in the "Text-book of 

 Theosophy," which is appearing as a serial in the 

 Theosoplnst, touches in the November number on the 

 fascinating subject of the souls of animals. When 

 tlie second outpouring of life takes place it first 

 ensouls the etheric part of the mineral kingdom, then 

 it ensouls vegetables, and after that animals. W'hen 

 it reaches the highest level possible in the animal 

 kingdom it may pass on into the human kingdom. 



THE DOCTRINE OK THE GROUP-SOUL. 



Minerals, vegetables, and animals all have souls, 

 but they are tenants for a time of a group-soul, .^n 

 ant group-soul is sliared by a million ants, whereas 

 one group-soul may be fully divided up between a 

 hundred lions, and " the group-soul animating a hun- 

 dred lions might at a later stage of its evolution have 

 divided into, let us say, five group-souls each animat- 

 ing twenty cats." 



It is not quite clear, but Mr. Leadbeater leaves 

 the impression that each of these five group-souls 

 might ultimately be merged in one human soul, which 

 becomes henceforth one and indivisible. 



DEATH AND THE GROUP-SOUL. 



Mr. Leadbeater says : — ■ 



A lion, for example, is not a permanenlly separate entity in 

 the same way as a man is. When the lion dies, that which has 

 been the separate soul of him is, as it were, poured back into 

 the mass from which it came. To such a mass we give tlie 

 name of "group-soul." To such a group-soul is attached a 

 considerable number of lion bodies — let us say a hundred. Each 

 of those bodies while it lives has its hundredth part of the group- 

 soul attached to it, and lor the time being app.arently rpiite 

 separate, .so that the lion is as much an individual during his 

 physical life as the man ; but he is not a permanent individiial. 

 When he dies the soul of him flows back inio the group-soul to 

 which it belongs, carrying with it all the experiences of its life 

 on earth, and that identical lion-soul cannot be separated again 

 from the group. But all the experiences of all the dead lions 

 are pooled in the group-soul, from which new-born lions are 

 furnished with souls — hence instinct. 



HOW GROUP-SOULS BREAK UP. 



Mr. Leadbeater uses a very ingenious simile to 

 illustrate how group-souls break up. Imagine the group- 

 soul as a bucket containing one hundred tumblers of 

 water. Each tumbler represents the soul of one lion. 

 ^Vhen they are all alive the bucket is empty. But as 

 each lion dies a tumblerful of water stained or 

 llavoured by the experiences of the lion's life is twured 

 back into the bucket ; — 



The whole bucketful of water gradually becomes richer in 

 colour. Suppose that by imperceptible degrees a kind of 

 vortical film forms itself across the centre of the bucket, and 

 gratfually solidifies itself into a division, so that we have now 

 a right half and a left half to the bucket, and each tumblerful 

 of water which is taken out is returned always to the same 

 half from which it came. Then presently a dilference 

 will be set up, and the liquid in one half of the bucket will 

 no longer be the same as that in the other. We have then 

 lir.ictically two buckets, and when this stage is reached in a 

 group-soul it splits into two, as a cell separates by fission. In this 

 w ay, as the experience grows ever richer, the group-souls grow 



smaller but more numerous, until at the highest point we arrive 

 at man with his single individual soul, which no longer returns 

 iiito a group, but remains always separate. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEPARATE SOUL. 



It will be a comfort to many good people who love 

 their dogs too much to tolerate the idea of losing them 

 in the next world, to hear from Mr. Leadbeater that 

 the individualisation of a dog-soul is not impos- 

 sible : — 



The method of individualisation is the raising of the soul of 

 a particular animal to a level so much higher than that attained 

 by its group-soul that it can no longer return to the latter. 

 Under favourable circumstances this development may proceed so 

 far as to raise the animal altogether out of touch with the group 

 to which it belongs, so that his fragment of a group-soul becomes 

 cipable of responding to the outjiouring wdiich comes from the 

 First Aspect of the Deity. 



THE MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPEL. 



Bv .^NNIL BeSANT. 



The Thcoscphiit for November publishes Mrs. 

 Besant's lecture at Brighton on " Our Masters, and 

 tlie Way to Them." It should be read together with 

 Miss Marguerite Pollard's " Plea for Mysticism" in 

 the same number. 



the divinity of MAN. 



Miss Pollard says : — • 



.\ccording to the Theosophical teachings man is divine in 

 virtue of the Divine Spark within, which is his Highest Self, 

 and the Highest Self of each individual is a portion of the Great 

 Self, one little point of light, a ray of that Infinite uncreated 

 Light which is God. But though potentially divine froin the 

 beginning, man only becomes conscious of his divinity as he 

 unfolds the godlike powers and develops the divine life within. 

 This is best done by meditating on the indwelling Deity and on 

 our unity with It. 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 



Mrs. Besant says : — 



For the life of Christ is not only a historical record — though 

 that it is ; but it is also the story of the unfolding human 

 Spirit through these gateways of Initiation. The First Initia- 

 tion is symbolised by the birtli of the Christ, when the Star in 

 the Fast arises over the young Child ; and the Second by the 

 Baptism, where the Spirit descends upon Him and dwells with 

 Him for evermore; and the Third by the Tiansfiguration on 

 the Mount, where the inner Deity shines through ; and the 

 Fourth by the Passion — Gethsemaue and Calvary — the death 

 of the lower man. The Fifth is the Initiation of the Master, 

 which is symbolised by the Resurrection and Ascension of the 

 Christ. Over Him thereafter death has no power to slay, and 

 life has no power to fetter. He is free, free in life and death ; 

 for He h.as realised the Eternal, and the life of earth and the 

 death of eaith are equally incap.iblc of touching Him. 



THE SAVIOUR. 

 .•\nd then, having thus risen and ascended. He becomes tin- 

 triumjihant Master, the Helper, the Saviour of men; having 

 sulfered all, conquered all, wrought all, He is able then to 

 " help to the uttermost," not by taking the place of the weak, 

 but by infusing His own strength into the weak, so that the 

 weak becomes the strong; not by substitution of His purity for 

 the foulness of the sinner, but by permeating the sinner with 

 His purity, until he has also become pure. It is identity of 

 nature, not substitution of person, .And that is the life of the 

 risen Christ — to help His brethren, who are still in the bonds 

 of earth and death. The .Master, the M.aster Iriutnphant ! 

 Vou can reach that point ; you can tread the Path He trod ; 

 you can achieve the goal thai He has achieved. 



