This in answer to the questions: “If we are right, then the total existence prior to the man‐period is 637,” etc., etc. To all the queries relating to figures, the reply was: “_Try to solve the problem of 777 incarnations.... Though I am obliged to withhold information, ... yet if you should work out the problem by yourself, it will be my duty to tell you so_.” But it never was so worked out, and the results were—never‐ceasing perplexity and mistakes. Even the teaching about the septenary constitution of the sidereal bodies and of the macrocosm—from which the septenary division of the microcosm, or man—has until now been among the most esoteric. In olden times it used to be divulged only at Initiation together with the most sacred figures of the cycles. Now, as stated in one of the Theosophical journals,(280) the revelation of the whole system of cosmogony had not been contemplated, nor even thought for one moment possible, at a time when a few scraps of information were sparingly given out, in answer to letters, written by the author of _Esoteric Buddhism_, in which he put forward a multiplicity of questions. Among these were questions on such problems _as no_ MASTER, _however high and independent he might be, would have the right to answer, and thus divulge to the world the most time‐honoured and archaic of the mysteries of the ancient college‐temples_. Hence only a few of the doctrines were revealed in their broad outlines, while details were constantly withheld, and all the efforts made to elicit more information about them were systematically eluded from the beginning. This was perfectly natural. Of the four Vidyâs, out of the seven branches of Knowledge mentioned in the _Purânas_—namely, Yajna Vidyâ, the performance of religious rites in order to produce certain results; Mahâ Vidyâ, the great (magic) knowledge, now degenerated into Tântrika worship; Guhya Vidyâ, the science of Mantras and their true rhythm or chanting, of mystical incantations, etc.; Âtmâ Vidyâ, or the true _spiritual_ and _divine Wisdom_—it is only the last which can throw final and absolute light upon the teachings of the three first named. Without the help of Âtmâ Vidyâ, the other three remain no better than _surface_ sciences, geometrical magnitudes having length and breadth, but no thickness. They are like the soul, limbs and mind of a sleeping man, capable of mechanical motions, of chaotic dreams and even sleep‐walking, of producing visible effects, but stimulated only by instinctual not intellectual causes, least of all by fully conscious spiritual impulses. A good deal can be given out and explained from the three first‐named sciences. But unless the key to their teachings is furnished by Âtmâ Vidyâ, they will remain for ever like the fragments of a mangled text‐book, like the adumbrations of great truths, dimly perceived by the most spiritual, but distorted out of all proportion by those who would nail every shadow to the wall.