124 THE PORTAL OF EVOLUTION 



not in every case produce superiority in bodily or mental 

 capabilities, at least produces in the main superior pluck, 

 virtue, energy and vitality ; so during these ages of prolonged 

 and terrific strife against nature, man slowly realises the im- 

 portance of honour to the victor, obedience to a ruler, and 

 reverence and devotion to him who succeeds, the three cardinal 

 virtues of creation that are for ever to raise and place the 

 fittest men in the highest positions in the majority of cases. 

 I say majority of cases because it is a law of evolution that 

 out of chaos comes order, out of evil comes good, and out of 

 sin comes virtue, and that the exceptions only prove the rules. 



Now many scientists have wondered why there was so long 

 a glacial period, because the ripening influence which it pro- 

 duced on the material universe by pulverizing the soils of 

 the world seems to have been overdone by its prolonged con- 

 tinuance. This was only one of the causes that necessitated 

 its existence, the production in the mind of man of the powers 

 of energy, courage and perseverance to complete his bodily 

 development and so enable him to conquer nature ; the produc- 

 tion also in his character of habits of honour, obedience and 

 reverence which were to fit his soul to receive the knowledge 

 of God and His Trinity were far more important results 

 than the production of the fertilization of the earth ; hence 

 the prolongation of the Glacial Period. Thus the veneration 

 of the victor was to grow out of this strife and to lead man 

 a step further in mental evolution. The rulers and prophets, 

 no longer content with obedience and reverence, demand to 

 be worshipped as gods. Then came a contest as to who 

 should rule the soul of man, the king or the patriarch ; and it 

 dawns upon the mind of man that as there could not be two 

 earthly rulers, it followed that there could only be one God. 



So is idolatry replaced by belief in one God. Then 

 with higher knowledge of one God and His Trinity comes 

 the birth of advanced religions, caste, feudalism, and aristo- 

 cracy, and thus was produced the downfall of idolatry. So 

 likewise was the revelation of immortality present, but dor- 

 mant in the mind of man ; he would never have dreamed of 

 an immortal God or of an infinite creation, nor have sought 

 for a logical hypothesis for immortality, the first dawn of 

 which was the conception of reincarnation in the body he 

 then possessed, for his soul was too young to conceive a soul 



