THE CREST-WAVE OF EVOLUTION A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-1919.* by KENNETH MORRIS CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. HOMER III. GREEKS AND PERSIANS IV. AESCHYLUS AND ATHENS V. SOME PERICLEAN FIGURES VI. SOCRATES AND PLATO VII. THE MAURYAS OF INDIA VIII. THE BLACK-HAIRED PEOPLE IX. THE DRAGON AND THE BLUE PEARL X. "SUCH A ONE" XI. CONFUCIUS THE HERO XII. TALES FROM A TAOIST TEACHER XIII. MANG THE PHILOSOPHER, AND BUTTERFLY CHWANG XIV. THE MANVANTARA OPENS XV. SOME POSSIBLE EPOCHS IN SANSKRIT LITERATURE XVI. THE BEGINNINGS OF ROME XVII. ROME PARVENUE XVIII. AUGUSTUS XIX. AN IMPERIAL SACRIFICE XX. CHINA AND ROME: THE SEE-SAW XXI. CHINA AND ROME: THE SEE-SAW (Continued) XXII. EASTWARD HO! XXIII. "THE DRAGON, THE APOSTATE, THE GREAT MIND" XXIV. FROM JULIAN TO BODHIDHARMA XXV. TOWARDS THE ISLANDS OF THE SUNSET XXVI. "SACRED IERNE OF THE HIBERNIANS" XXVII. THE IRISH ILLUMINATION ------------ * Serialized in _Theosophical Path_ in 27 Chapters from March, 1919 through July, 1921. ----------- I. INTRODUCTORY These lectures will not be concerned with history as a record of wars and political changes; they will have little to tell of battles, murders, and sudden deaths. Instead, we shall try to discover and throw light on the cyclic movements of the Human Spirit. Back of all phenomena, or the outward show of things, there is always a noumenon in the unseen. Behind the phenomena of human history, the noumenon is the Human Spirit, moving in accordance with its own necessities and cyclic laws. We may, if we go to it intelligently, gain some inkling of knowledge as to what those laws are; and I think that would be, in its way, a real wisdom, and worth getting. But for the most part historical study seeks knowledge only; and how it attains its aim, is shown by the falseness of what passes for history. In most textbooks you shall find, probably, a round dozen of lies on as many pages. And these in themselves are fruitful seeds of evil; they by no means end with the telling, but go on producing harvests of wrong life; which indeed is only the Lie incarnate on the plane of action. The Eternal _Right Thing_ is what is called in Sanskrit SAT, the True; it opposite is the Lie, in one fashion or another, always; and what we have to do, our mission and _raison d'etre_ as students of Theosophy, is to put down the Lie at every turn, and chase it, as far as we may, out of the field of life.