The explanation usually given of an Avatar by the ancient Masters, as "a descent, embodiment, or incarnation of _Vishnu_," who is not only the "Preserver," but the "Rejuvenator" of mankind, is rather a _blind_, and was an interpretation given to the common people, or the "profane." All things--even heaven and earth--pass away, and all things are renewed. This renewal, or regeneration, through the constructive principle of evolution, is "designed" to be continually on higher and still higher planes. It is not the range of experience, nor the growth of intelligence alone, that elevates man, but the progressive and constructive growth of the soul, from the physical toward the spiritual plane of Being. This actual growth means Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge of the Law, Obedience to its Commands, and Realization of its Rewards. This Constructive Psychology is the _growth of the Soul_. Man passes, therefore, from the age of Fable, Superstition, and Fear, to the age of Faith and Obedience, and finally to that of actual Knowledge. This _age of Knowledge_--not for all of mankind, but for a larger number who are worthy and well-qualified, duly and truly prepared than was ever known at one time before--has at last dawned. The question is continually asked, "Why do the Masters of Wisdom Conceal their Knowledge?" The only adequate answer is that so few are ready, willing, and able to receive it in the right way, and to use and not abuse it. Those who deny that any such knowledge has ever existed, or exists to-day, or can exist, had better waste no time over it. They cannot alter it, nor destroy it, as their predecessors have tried to do for ages, often murdering or crucifying all who were even suspected of possessing it. They might as well try to destroy the law of gravitation, or imagine that by murdering the foremost mathematician of the day that they had destroyed the science of mathematics. I am speaking of _Knowledge_ of Spiritual things. A new Avatar, therefore, is not simply an individual, though many individuals may understand and exemplify it--the Initiated, the Illuminati--and one man may lead in representing it. To call it "the descent and embodiment, or Incarnation of Vishnu," in a metaphysical sense, the Spirit (generically), that renews, rejuvenates, transforms, and regenerates, is by no means an empty metaphor. In the same sense we speak of the "Genius of Greece," or of Rome, or of Civilization. The _idea_ is composite, and represents an underlying and _universal principle and potency_. But after all metaphor and generalization, each Avataric movement centered around an individual _Man_, and this _Man_ embodied the principle and undertook the special work of an evangel, or _Christos_, or "Avatar," amongst men.