408 Occultism Reconsidered . [July, 
know there is a world of difference between the two. The 
one uselessly dissipates and scatters force ; the other con- 
centrates and stores it. And here please understand that I 
do not refer to the relative utility of the two, as one might 
imagine, but only to the fadt that in the one case there is 
but brute force, flung out without any transmutation of that 
brute energy into the higher potential form of spiritual dy- 
namics, and in the other there is just that.” We must 
frankly own our entire inability to attach any meaning to 
these words, or to conceive the possibility of the motives of 
an adtion having any influence upon its physical conditions. 
In a similar strain Root Hoomi continues : — “ Still less does 
exadf Science perceive that while the building ant, the busy 
bee, the nidifacient bird, accumulates each in its own humble 
way as much cosmic energy as a Haydn, a Plato (!), or a 
ploughman turning his furrow in theirs ; the hunter who 
kills game for his pleasure or profit, or the positivist who 
applies his intellect to proving that + x + = — , are wasting 
and scattering energy no less than the tiger which springs 
upon its prey. They all rob Nature instead of enriching 
her, and will all in the degree of their intelligence find them- 
selves accountable.” Perhaps Root Hoomi here forgets two 
things — that the “ positivist ” has small respedt for a life of 
scientific research, and places the solving of equations upon 
a par with the pointing of pins ; and secondly, that the 
“ building ant ” is size for size a greater destroyer than the 
tiger. 
Again : — “ Heat is but a mode of motion to her ( i.e ., to 
Science), and motion develops heat, but why the mechanical 
motion of the revolving wheel should be metaphysically of 
a higher value than the heat into which it is gradually 
transformed she has yet to learn.” 
A prominent part is played in Occult lore. by a mode of 
energy, if we may so call it, named akas. This, the author 
says, “ is a force for which we have no name, and in refer- 
ence to which we have no experience to guide us to a con- 
ception of its nature. One can only grasp at the idea 
required by conceiving that it is as much more potent, subtle, 
and extraordinary an agent than eledtricity, as eledtricity is 
superior in subtlety and variegated efficiency to steam,” — a 
description which, we submit, throws not a ray of light upon 
its nature and properties. There is not even a reference to 
any natural phenomenon in which this unknown form of 
energy plays a part. We are merely told that by its means 
the adept can transport material objedts to any distance, 
disintegrating them, conveying the particles through the air 
