_pneuma_ it cannot advance beyond a certain stage in the present cycle of evolution. Hence the saying, “Work while the day is yet with you, for the night cometh when no man shall work.” Specialized humanity is a composite of spirit, mind, soul and body. The element or principle in man which distinguishes him from the animal (whether human in form or otherwise), is the Mind. Only in this possession is he truly man. The word man comes, indeed, from the root _man_ (Sansk.), to think. The limitations set up by embodiment of this thinking self is the primary cause of self-realization. All forms of life are conscious, but only spiritualized humanity is self-conscious, or individualized. The criterion of consciousness is response to stimulus. It is to be seen in chemic action, in vegetation and in animal life. If the Day’s-eye (daisy) were not conscious of the sunrise it would not open its petals. You may call it automatism, a reflex of the chemic action of light. You will be wiser if you call it consciousness of light, and so spare yourself the trouble of pushing the question back indefinitely, for somewhere or other you must admit response to stimulus and there you must posit consciousness. Thus while the animal soul in man responds to stimulus of every kind coming to it through the sense-channels, the mind responds also to a higher and immaterial gamut of vibrations, that is to say, to spiritual stimulus. As man he continues to evolve while all other forms of life remain in _statu quo_. The monads investing them have not been caught up by the Over-soul; they have not reached the stage where their mass-vibration is capable of responding to the spiritual impact; they are not attracted.