"Few were the followers, straggling far,
That reached the lake of Vennachar;"

and when they did, this was what they had to face:

"The planets absorb and use nearly all the solar energy--all
except the very small amount the minor specks of cosmic dust may
receive. There is not the least particle of the sun's light, or
heat, or any one of the seven conditions of the solar energy,
wasted. Except for the planets, it is not manifested; it is
not. There is no light, no heat, no form of solar energy, except
on the planets as it is transferred from the laya center of each
in the sun to them. The etheric globe is cold and dark, except
along the lines to them--the "Paths of Fohat" [solar energy].
Six laya centers are manifested in the sun; one is laid aside,
though the wheels [planets] around the One Eye be seven. [This
alludes to the moon, whose laya center in the sun is now also
that of the earth; but it is considered as a planet]. What each
receives, that it also gives back. There is nothing lost."

"That settles it," says one student; and the others agree. Of
the hundred who started,

"The foremost horseman rode alone,"

before the next step was won.

In the light of the tardy but perfect justification of the first
stumbling-block, this statement may be worth following out, "to