This real knowledge is an experience of the soul. It concerns, and is comprised in, the _living of a life_. It is more than mind or intellect. It is _knowledge_ gained by experience. "This only I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." "Whether in the body or out of the body, I know not, but I saw things impossible to utter." Gradually man's _idea_ of God and his conception of Nature have changed and enlarged. Man, as a spiritual being, is part of a spiritual universe. He has been able to harmonize his concept of God and Nature progressively as he has gained larger views and deeper insight of both. He is no longer a puppet of infinite caprice, nor a somewhat "improved animal." The idea of man as a "fallen god" with the capacity to regain his heavenly estate, is far nearer the truth. As man advances in knowledge through the combined experiences of his spiritual nature and his physical embodiment, his beliefs change, his horizon enlarges, and his concepts become elevated and purified. The past is apprehended and utilized and the future intelligently anticipated. He begins to understand. This means the recognition of law and order, permanency, _Foundation_, and stability. The birth stories, the portents, signs and wonders that announce, accompany, or follow the birth of a Messiah or Avatar, are almost identical. A common instinct seems to have led all scripture-compilers to infer a simultaneous stimulus of nature and man upon the appearance of what the Hindoo calls an Avatar. Men, too, seem prepared to expect such an advent as its necessary time approaches. It is an instinct which tells them that "the darkest hour precedes the dawn." In the Christian scriptures the premonitions and birth stories are found largely in the Apocryphal books. Doubtless the copying and substitution from the lives of Christna and Buddha were too plain. At the death of Jesus the seismic, astral, and cosmic disturbances are graphically described, as befitting the death of a god. "The veil of the temple was rent in twain," etc. The simple fact is that mankind feels instinctively in the soul the far-reaching influences at work. The spiritual nature is stirred to its depths, and when he tries to describe what he sees and feels, his emotions, fears, or aspirations being at white heat, his imagination draws from the folklore of other times, races, and religions, to express what he so powerfully, but vaguely senses. But beyond all this, the time of great religious revivals and social upheavals is likely to coincide with seismic disturbance, tidal waves and the like, owing to the conjunction of planets under the general law of cycles. Man is completely involved with and evolved from the bosom of Nature. His freedom is determined by knowledge and obedience to Law.