I. The secondary principles arising out of the combination of primary
principles are quite different in their nature from the entities out of
whose combination they came into existence. The combinations in
question are not of the nature of mere mechanical juxtapositions, as it
were. They do not even correspond to chemical combinations.
Consequently no valid inferences as regards the nature of the
combinations in question can be drawn by analogy from the nature
[variety?] of these combinations.
II. The general proposition, that when once a cause is removed its
effect vanishes, is not universally applicable. Take, for instance, the
following example:--If you once communicate a certain amount of momentum
to a ball, velocity of a particular degree in a particular direction is
the result. Now, the cause of this motion ceases to exist when the
instantaneous sudden impact or blow which conveyed the momentum is
completed; but according to Newton's first law of motion, the ball will
continue to move on for ever and ever, with undiminished velocity in the
same direction, unless the said motion is altered, diminished,
neutralized, or counteracted by extraneous causes. Thus, if the ball
stop, it will not be on account of the absence of the cause of its
motion, but in consequence of the existence of extraneous causes which
produce the said result.
Again, take the instance of subjective phenomena.
Now the presence of this ink-bottle before me is producing in me, or in
my mind, a mental representation of its form, volume, colour and so
forth.
The bottle in question may be removed, but still its mental picture may
continue to exist. Here, again, you see, the effect survives the cause.
Moreover, the effect may at any subsequent time be called into conscious
existence, whether the original cause be present or not.
Now, in the ease of the filth principle above mentioned-the entity that
came into existence by the combination of Brahmam and Prakriti--if the
general proposition (in the "Fragments of Occult Truth") is correct,
this principle, which corresponds to the physical intelligence, must
cease to exist whenever the Brahmam or the seventh Principle should
cease to exist for the particular individual; but the fact is certainly
otherwise. The general proposition under consideration is adduced in
the "Fragments" in support of the assertion that whenever the seventh
principle ceases to exist for any particular individual, the sixth
principle also ceases to exist for him. The assertion is undoubtedly
true, though the mode of stating it and the reasons assigned for it, are
to my mind objectionable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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