book. Every monad, or spirit-element, beginning its course by becoming
separated from what I conceive as the great central reservoir of Nature,
must, before returning thither, make a certain fixed round through an
individual existence. If it belongs to the planetary chain, of which our
earth is the fourth and lowest link, it must pass seven times through
each of the kingdoms of Nature on each one of the seven planets. Of
these seven planets, Mars, our Earth, and Mercury, are three. The other
four are too tenuous to be cognizable by our present senses. Of the
seven kingdoms of Nature, three are likewise beyond our ken or
conception; the highest four are the mineral, the vegetable, the animal,
and man. Our immortal part has therefore passed already through six of
the kingdoms of its destiny, and is, in fact, now near the middle of its
fourth round of human existence upon the earth. One life on earth is,
however, not sufficient for the development of our powers. Every human
being must pass through each of the seven branch races of each of the
sub-races of each of the root-races of humanity; and must, in short,
live, or, as our author expresses the idea, be incarnated about eight
hundred times--some more and some less--upon this planet, before the
hour will come when it will be permitted to him, by a path as easy of
passage for him then, as is that followed by the rays of light, to visit
the planet Mercury, for his next two million years of existence.

Through each of these eight hundred mortal lives, man is purifying and
developing his nature. When, at the end of each, his body dies, his
higher principles leave the lower to gradual dissolution, while they
themselves remaining still bound in space to this planet, pass into
_Devachan_, the state of effects. Here, entirely unconscious of what
passes on earth, the soul remains, absorbed in its own subjectivity. For
a length of time, stated as never less than fifteen hundred years, and
shown by figures to average not less than eight thousand, the soul,