Then, and then only, does he escape from the "wheel of births and deaths".

That the Spirit clothes himself in a new body suitable to his stage of evolution, is very beautifully expressed in that wonderful book entitled The Wisdom of Solomon, which by the great majority of Christians is regarded as part of "the Word of God". It is written: "I was a witty child, and had a good Spirit. Yea rather, being good, I came into a body undefiled (Wisdom, viii. 19, 20). The "bad," i.e. the undeveloped, come into suitable bodies, and those who have followed evil ways into bodies diseased or deformed. We are making now the conditions of our next birth, hence is it wise to take heed to our ways.

It seems likely that Headquarters will be rather full this winter, despite the War. Friends are coming from Scotland, from Russia, from America. India is not a comfortable country for non-British subjects at present, as they are subjected to various restrictions and reportings to magistrates. Objection cannot reasonably be raised to these under present circumstances, but they, none the less, introduce an uncomfortable element into daily life, and prevent free movement to a certain extent. But none should complain if they share some slight inconveniences, when so many countries are passing through the valley of the Shadow of Death. What a nightmare will be lifted from the world when peace is signed in Berlin.

STR

BROTHERHOOD

THE WIDER OUTLOOK

TRANGELY the times have changed since the foundation of the Theosophical Society on November 17th, 1875, in New York City. It was founded by H. P. Blavatsky-a Russian, but a naturalised citizen of the United States-and Henry Steele Olcott, a born American, with a few Americans whom they had gathered round them. But the impulse to the founding and the strength of the impulse were not from them; those came from the higher world in which Men made perfect labour for the good of humanity, and it was They who bade Their initiated disciple plant a slip of the spreading Banyan-tree that shades the

human race with its wide-flung branches-the Banyantree of the Divine Wisdom, whose branches are the Religions of the World.

None of those gathered in that New York chamber -unless, perhaps, H. P. B. herself-dreamed that in forty-one years that little group would have become a multitude, with 23 National Societies, and close upon 1,000 Lodges and 26,000 members. None thought through how many changes its Objects would pass, varying with the changing conditions of the time, as indeed all living organisations must change, adapting themselves to their environment. Only fossils remain unchanged through ages, since from them the organising indwelling life has fled for evermore.

The present Objects were fixed by the Memorandum of Association, registered on April 3rd, 1905, by H. S. Olcott, W. A. English, S. Subramaniam, Francesca E. Arundale, Upendranath Basu, Annie Besant, N. D. Khandalavala. They are inclusive of all forms of human activity conducive to the formation of a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy and Science, and the investigation of the unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man; clause 2 (d) runs: "The doing of all such things as are incidental or conducive to the attainment of the above objects or any of them, including the founding or maintenance of a library or libraries"; these last words were added to remove Colonel Olcott's anxiety lest, at any future time, any member should challenge the spending of the Society's money on his beloved Adyar Library. In fact he wished to incorporate the Library separately, so as to ensure its perpetuation, but we persuaded him to

-a

accept the above phrase so as to include it specifically rather than to weaken both T. S. and Library by dividing them. Few people who talk hastily about the objects of the Society and about its "neutrality "—a neutrality which exists nowhere in its memorandum of Association-realise that Object I with sub-clause (d) secures to the Society as such the right to do collectively all things incidental or conducive to the formation of "a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour ".

Accepting the view held by Colonel Olcott of the Society's "neutrality," I, in common with the rest of us, had taken this "neutrality" for granted, and had not observed this providential insertion of "the doing of all such things as are conducive to " any of the Objects. They did not exist in our Constitution until 1905, and I had only thought of them as regarding the Library. But the logic of events has forced their meaning on me, has put an end to the supposed "neutrality," against which I had often chafed and had openly rebelled, so far as I was concerned, though admitting it for the Society. We have accepted it from Colonel Olcott as an axiom, whereas it is merely an ipse dixit of his, not binding upon anybody.

The tendency of men to narrow and sectarianise the original breadth of a religious movement is but too sadly evident in the history of the world. Colonel Olcott himself yielded to this tendency in some of his pronouncements in the early days of the Society in India, though his free American mind-while denying to the Society the right of collective action in some respects-safeguarded the rights of individual members. But when the time came, after thirty years of experience,

to incorporate the Society, he agreed to the Memorandum of Association which secures to the Society, so long as it shall last, the fullest freedom to do "all such things as are incidental or conducive to the attainment of the above objects, or any of them". How far this liberty shall be used at any time and in any place is a matter for discretion, to be exercised by the General Council for the whole Society, by the National authority for each National Society, by the Lodge Committee for each Lodge. All our groupings are autonomous within their own respective areas, provided they do not contravene the Constitution, and the Constitution merely consists of the Memorandum of Association and the "Rules and Regulations for the Management of the Association named 'The Theosophical Society,' Adyar, Madras ". But it is obvious that the freedom of the constituent units cannot bind nor implicate the whole of which they are parts. The actions of a Lodge cannot bind nor implicate the National Society of which it forms a part; the actions of a National Society cannot bind nor implicate other National Societies, nor the Theosophical Society as a whole. The Society as a whole can take any action within the wide limits of the Constitution, but it cannot deprive a National Society of its autonomy without a change in the Rules, made by three-fourths of the General Council, on which sit all the Secretaries of the National Societies. A National Society makes its own Rules, but may not contravene the Constitution, and, subject to this limitation, it controls its Lodges. It would, I think, be impossible for members of any organisation to be more free than are the members of the Theosophical Society. The only danger to which their liberty is