showed out the characteristics of the Fourth Race as a whole; that the
fifth sub-race of that Fourth showed out some of the characteristics
of the Fifth Root-Race that was to follow in the course of evolution.
And in this way, applying the analogy, if we can trace out to some
extent for ourselves the characteristics of the sixth sub-race which
is to succeed our own fifth sub-race, then we shall be on the track of
the line of evolution which will bring about the Sixth Root-Race when
the time for its coming strikes. Let us glance back for a moment to
see the main points of the evolution of a sub-race and a Race.
When our own Fifth Root-Race was to be evolved, certain types were
chosen out of the fifth sub-race of the Fourth Root-Race, and they
were chosen by the Manu who was to guide the evolution of the Fifth
Root-Race. Those types showed out in a comparatively germinal fashion
the mental characteristics which were to grow out of the selected
groups. And you may learn, if you care to do it, how those choices
were made, and how the first choice was a failure. Chosen as it was by
the wisdom of the highly exalted being whom we speak of as the Manu,
none the less the material in which He tried to work proved too
stubborn, too little plastic, to adapt itself to His influence
striving to shape and to mould it. And in consequence, after prolonged
efforts, He threw aside the families that thus He had selected, and
began making a new choice, a fresh selection, in order to see if the
second choice would prove more fortunate than the first. And the way
He chose them was a simple and effective one: He selected a certain
number of His own disciples and sent them out as messengers to the
various nations of the world, that constituted that part of the great
Fourth Race which He had chosen for His second experiment. He sent
them into nation after nation, with the mission to gather out of that
nation those who appeared to be the most promising for the work which
He had to carry out. They tried in various fashions, sometimes by
direct invitation, where the characteristic that was being sought was
clearly developed, namely, the lower mind. It was the development of
the lower manas that was the keynote of the selection; for the Fifth
Root-Race was to show out that development of the lower manas. I say
"lower manas" rather than "manas"; because the full development of the
mânasic principle in man is reserved for the Fifth Round, and not for
the Fourth, and we, of course, are still in the Fourth Round. That
Fourth Round, pre-eminently kâmic, must necessarily color every
evolution which goes on during its existence, and high as we may
strive to raise mânasic powers amongst us, we cannot escape from the
fundamental vice of our birth, from the mânasic standpoint, that we
are plunged in kâmic matter, and that the matter in which we work is
matter of the Fourth Round, adapted to the kâmic principle, and not
matter of the Fifth, adapted to the mânasic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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