A LEGACY of untold value has been left by spiritual and intellectual giants who
labored in the dim and misty past. It is the purpose of these lessons to transmit this
priceless heritage to the people of the present day, towhomnow rightfully it belongs.
We of the present have specialized in material science, and as a result of that
specialization have possessed ourselves of mechanical contrivances and an
industrial achievement far superior to those of any People in the past. Yet in that past
there were specialists also; the equal of any on earth today. But instead of devoting
their energies to material things, their field was that of spiritual research. And they
were as far in advance of our material scientists in their chosen field, as the material
scientists of today are in advance of their ancient knowledge of the physical
properties of things.
We are where we are today in matters of physical science because men of vast
understanding like Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein have labored in research
and recorded their findings for other men to read. Were it not for the records left by
those of unusual ability, ours would be a sorry world of muddled thought.
Such records give not merely the details of information, to which other men left to
devices of their own might seldom attain, but by revealing the correct method of
ascertaining the fact they eliminate wasted effort on the part of those who otherwise
would follow many a blind trail before finding the one leading to it. Yet because these
men, who themselves have stood upon the intellectual shoulders of other geniuses
who preceded them, have left to us their findings, there is no implication of blind
belief.
Not only are their findings included in the records, but the experiments which led to
these findings also. And it was understood by them, and is so understood by us, that
all and sundry are to have full liberty to repeat these experiments, or if they can, to
devise better experiments of their own, to test the accuracy of this recorded
knowledge.
Likewise, far in the past other men of exceptional talent, generation after generation,
labored under conditions of exceptional advantage to acquire a knowledge, not of the
chemical and mechanical properties of matter, but of the nature and possibilities,
here and hereafter, of the human soul.
To them, that which was of supreme interest was the character of man. Other
knowledge was valuable only to the extent it could be made to contribute some thing
which would enable the soul to reach a higher, fuller destiny.
These men also, standing on the shoulders of other inspired geniuses who preceded
them, acquired vast knowledge in their chosen field, and of this knowledge they left a
careful record.
In here setting forth this record, and something of the methods they employed in
reaching these facts, there is no implication that anyone should accept their findings
in the spirit of blind belief. No more so than that he should thus accept the findings of
our chemists that each molecule of water contains one atom of oxygen and two atoms
of hydrogen.
It would require more than one lifetime to perform every experiment recorded in the
chemical treatise to be found in our libraries. Nevertheless, they have been
performed by others, and anyone is at liberty to perform such of them as he chooses,
again and again to his own satisfaction.
The laboratory of Nature is always open. Whether it be a problem in Euclid, the law
of falling bodies, the influence of the planets on human life, or the survival of the
personality in the spheres of the beyond, he who is willing to perform the requisite
amount of labor need take no statement of fact on faith. Nor was it the desire of the
ancient masters of spiritual science that he should do so.
CC ZAIN
