But the spiritual hierarchy sends its great ambassadors only when the time is propitious, only when the world is ready to listen. Perhaps such an event can never be predicted in terms of time, but only in those of conditions. When the strength of the nations is spent, when the slain totals appalling numbers, when few homes of high or low degree are without their terrible sacrifice, when the heart of the race is filled with anguish, when famine and disease have done their awful work, and humanity fully realizes what the reaction from greed, lust, cruelty and revenge actually means, the world will be ready to listen as it never listened before, and after that we may reasonably expect the Christ to again appear to re-proclaim the ancient truth in terms of modern life. The supermen are not myths nor figments of imagination. They are as natural and comprehensive as human beings. In the regular order of evolution we shall reach their level and join their ranks while younger humanities shall attain our present estate. As the supermen rose we, too, shall rise. Our past has been evolution's night. Our present is its dawn. Our future shall be its perfect day. Think of that night from which we have emerged--a chaos of contending forces, a world in which might was the measure of right, a civilization of scepter and sword, of baron and serf, of master and slave. That, we have left behind us. Think of the grey dawn that our civilization has reached--the dawn of a public conscience, of individual liberty, of collective welfare, of the sacredness of life, but with armed force still dominant, with war the arbiter of national destiny, with industrial slavery still lingering, with conflict between the higher aspirations and the lower desires still raging--a world of selfishness masked by civilized usage, a world of veneered cruelty and refined brutality. In all that we now live. But think of the coming results of evolution!--an era in which love shall replace force, when saber and cannon shall be unknown, when selfish desires shall be transmuted into noble service, when, finally, we shall finish the painful period of human evolution and join the spiritual hierarchy to direct the faltering steps of a younger race. FOOTNOTES: [N] "The Conservation of Energy," Nicola Tesla, Century Magazine, June 1900. [O] An Outline of Theosophy, C. W. Leadbeater, pp. 6-12. [Transcriber's Note: The following corrections were made: p. 6: pretention to pretension (no pretension is made) p. 12: An to In (In another aspect it is a religion.) p. 12: thesosophy to theosophy (While theosophy is distinctly a science) p. 13: discusison to discussion (A detailed discussion of such methods) p. 16: nevertheelss to nevertheless (is nevertheless just that relationship) p. 17: explicilt to explicit (is certainly very explicit) p. 19: period to semi-colon (who's true to man;) p. 34: communciating to communicating (dead man who is communicating?)