Neither the physical nor the metaphysical Science are of interest to the true philanthropist, except in the degree of their potentiality of moral results, and in proportion of their usefulness to mankind.
Nature works slowly but incessantly towards the evolution of conscious life out of inert material. Every thought passes into the inner world and, by coalescing with an elemental, it becomes an active intelligence. Thus a good thought is perpetuated as an active beneficent power; an evil one, as a maleficent demon. The Buddhist calls this impulse-seed his Skandha; the Hindu, his Karma; the Adept evolves these shapes consciously; other men throw them off unconsciously.
Every form of life is sustained by countless other lives. If you offer nothing in return, you are like a thief. The building ant, the busy bee, the nest-building bird accumulate, each in their own humble way, as much cosmic energy in its potential form as a Haydn, a Plato, or a ploughman turning his furrow. They thus rob nature instead of enriching her, and will all in the degree of their intelligence find themselves accountable.
Exact experimental Science has nothing to do with morality, virtue, or philanthropy. Her cold classification of facts outside man can only benefit the career of her professors.
The Initiated Adept is the efflorescence of his age. Few ever appear in a single century. The cycles must run their rounds. Periods of mental and moral light and darkness succeed each other, as day does night. The major and minor yugas must be accomplished according to the established order of things. And we, borne along on the mighty tide, can only modify and direct some of its minor currents. If we had the powers of the imaginary Personal God, and the universal and immutable laws were but toys to play with, then indeed might we have created conditions that would have turned this earth into an Arcadia for lofty souls. But having to deal with an immutable Law, being ourselves its creatures, we have had to do what we could and rest thankful.
Modern education enthrones scepticism and imprisons spiritualism. The boisterousness of animal passions stifles spirituality. What else could one expect of men so nearly related to the lower kingdom, from which they evolved?
The era of blind faith is gone; that of enquiry is here. Enquiry that only unmasks error, without discovering anything upon which the soul can build, will but make iconoclasts. The noble aim of the progressive mind is to furnish the building blocks for a universal religious philosophy. A philosophy impregnable to scientific assault, because itself the finality of absolute science; and, a religion worthy of the name.
The main aim of the Theosophical Society is to root out superstition and scepticism, and to help man shape his future. The cis-Himalayan Mahatmas will not be thwarted in their philanthropic attempts to save humanity from itself until that day when the new continent of thought is firmly established.