CHAPTER V 



THE EPOCH OF HOPE 



THIS period illustrates the intermingling, so to speak, of the 

 Epochs of Faith, Hope and Charity, and is the epoch of the 

 creation of the mind of man by the evolution of the attributes 

 and qualities of God the Mother, and the dawn of those of 

 God the Soul in an imperfect degree, which I have expressed 

 as the incarnation, not the birth of man's soul. This is 

 brought about by the gradual return to the mind of man of 

 the attributes of God the Mother and, to a slight extent, those 

 of God the Soul, in the same way as some of those of God the 

 Father and God the Mother returned in the Epoch of Faith to 

 produce Existence and Life, thus preparing the way for love 

 to be born in the soul of mankind in this Epoch of Hope, in 

 which epoch the dawning soul intermingles with the spirit 

 of God the Mother, the spirit of Love, till love conquers man's 

 cruelty, enmity and savagery, and so prepares the way for 

 mankind to receive a soul in the coming Epoch of Charity, 

 which will start about A.D. 1800. 



In this Epoch of Hope the following seven days are evolved : 

 First, Comprehension on the Eighth day of Evolution, that 

 of Agriculture ; second, Understanding on the Ninth day, that 

 of Civilisation ; third, Study on the Tenth day, that of Reli- 

 gion ; fourth, Government on the Eleventh day ; Fifth, the 

 dawn of Understanding with the incarnation of Science on the 

 Twelfth day; sixth, the childhood of Knowledge with the 

 birth of Commerce on the Thirteenth day, that of Discovery ; 

 seventh, Invention on the Fourteenth day of evolution, in 

 which we are now living, the day of the conquest of nature by 

 man. This completes the second week of creation, which 

 started with the ages of Cain and Abel, and we may consider 

 these seven days as devoted to the evolution of the mind of 

 mankind, while the last seven days of evolution, which are yet 

 to come, are to be devoted to the involution of his soul. But 

 these I do not intend to discuss here. 



