[Footnote 145: These considerations are taken from the writings of H. P. Blavatsky, and are also confirmed by modern criticism of biblical texts.] [Footnote 146: Maimonides. Quoted in _The Perfect Way_, by A. Kingsford and E. Maitland.] [Footnote 147: _Galatians_, chap. 4, verses 24, 25.] [Footnote 148: _Starli_, part 4, p. 5.] [Footnote 149: _Deuteronomy_, chap. 24, verses 1 to 4.] [Footnote 150: _Deuteronomy_, chap. 17, verse 17.] [Footnote 151: _Exodus_, chap. 21, verses 2 to 11.] [Footnote 152: _Exodus_, chap. 21, verses 23, 24, 25.] [Footnote 153: _Genesis_, chap. 9, verses 5, 6; also _Leviticus_, chap. 7.] [Footnote 154: _Exodus_, chapters 6, 12, 14, 22, 32,] [Footnote 155: _Ecclesiastes_, chap. 3, verses 18, 19, 20, 22.] [Footnote 156: The souls of a race in its maturity are of a more advanced type than those of its infancy or old age.] [Footnote 157: The Kabala is the secret teaching of the Jews; in it lie hidden doctrines that are too profound to be taught in public.] [Footnote 158: _Zohar_, 2, 99, quoted in Myer's _Qabbalah_, p. 198.] [Footnote 159: Evolution develops the soul, enabling it to reach its goal: the divine state.] [Footnote 160: The force of evolution comes from God and ceases only when the soul is fully developed, and has reached the "promised land" at the end of its pilgrimage: the divine state.] [Footnote 161: Franck, _La Kabbale_, p. 244, etc.] [Footnote 162: _The Hidden Wisdom of Christ_, 1864, vol. 1, p. 39.] [Footnote 163: _De Bell. jud._ 2, 11.] [Footnote 164: One of the lowest sub-planes of _Kamaloka_ (Purgatory).] [Footnote 165: The Christian Heaven (_Devachan_ of theosophy).] [Footnote 166: The earth, which is above when compared with Tartarus, but not so in relation to the Elysian Fields; versification imposes such strict limits on expression, that it must have the benefit of poetic licence.] [Footnote 167: Freret, _Examen crit. des apologistes de la relig. chret._, pages 12 and 13, Paris, 1823.] [Footnote 168: Faustus.] [Footnote 169: And yet the _Gospel of Saint John_ denies this (chap. 1, v. 21). The contradictions in the gospels are so numerous that they alone have created thousands of infidels.] [Footnote 170: Stolberg expresses himself as follows on this matter: "This question was evidently based on the opinion that the disciples of Jesus had formed, that this man, whose punishment dated from his very birth, had sinned in a previous life." (_Histoire de N. S. Jesus-Christ et de son siecle_, Book 3, chap. 43).] [Footnote 171: _Revelation_, chap. 3, v. 12.] [Footnote 172: _Revelation_, chap. 2, v. 28.] [Footnote 173: _Revelation_, chap. 22, v. 16.] [Footnote 174: _Revelation_, chap. 2, v. 17.] [Footnote 175: H. P. Blavatsky.] [Footnote 176: "Taken literally, the Book of the Creation gives us the most absurd and extravagant ideas of Divinity."] [Footnote 177: First _Ennead_, chap. I.] [Footnote 178: The Universe, which can exist only through _multiplicity._]