PHILOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHY 273 



good. The highest a man can feel and think is his 

 highest ideal, and the higher we rise in the scale of 

 existence and the more our knowledge expands, the 

 higher will be our ideal. As long as we cling to our 

 highest ideal we will be happy, in spite of the suflferiugs 

 and vicissitudes of life. The highest ideal confers the 

 highest and most enduring happiness, and the whole of 

 Theosophy consists in the recognition and realisation 

 of the highest ideal within one's self. This is to be 

 accomplished only by the overcoming of the illusion of 

 separate existence and the awakening of the soul to the 

 essential unity of all things. It is a state of divine 

 wisdom which can be attained in no other way than by 

 the light of that wisdom becoming manifested in man.-^ 



Spiritual Eegeneration 



As long as any one fancies his highest ideal to exist 

 only outside of him, somewhere above the clouds or in the 

 history of the past, he will go outside of himself to seek 



1 God is the greatest power in the universe, because He is the source 

 and sum of all powers in their highest mode of manifestation. God is 

 therefore absolute consciousness, absolute love, and absolute wisdom. 

 If we wish to accomplish anything great, the first requirement is the 

 presence of God, because He is man's understanding and power, and 

 resides in man. But God cannot be approached by an intellect that is 

 without love. God is love, and is only attracted by love. We cannot 

 know the principle of love unless we love it with our heart, and the 

 more we desire it, the more will we be able to comprehend with the 

 heart what this principle is. The love of God is therefore a power 

 transcending tl»e lower nature of man ; it cannot develop itself out of 

 the animal elements of man, but it is a gift from the universal fountain 

 of love, in the same sense as sunshine cannot grow out of the eartli, but 

 comes from above. Gods lives in the hearts of men, and if we desire tw 

 love Him, we must love all that is good in humanity. The love of 

 humanity is the beginning of the knowledge of God. The intellect is 

 the greatest possession of mortal man, and an intellect that rises to the 

 source of all knowledge by the power of love may know God and all 

 the mysteries of Nature, and become gt>dlike itself ; but an intellect 

 without love leads into error, grovels in darkness, and goes to perdition. 

 An intellect combined with love for the supreme good leads to wisdom ; 

 an intellect without love leads to the powers of evil. 



S 



