PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE ARCHAIC STANZAS, AND THE FOUR PRE-HISTORIC CONTINENTS.
Facies totius universi, quamvis infinitis modis variet, Manet tamen semper eadem.--SPINOZA.
The Stanzas, with the Commentaries thereon, in this Volume, are drawn from the same Archaic Records as the Stanzas on Cosmogony in Volume I. As far as possible a verbatim translation is given: but some of the Stanzas are too obscure to be understood without explanation, and therefore, as in Volume I, they are first given in full as they stand, and then, when taken verse by verse with their Commentaries, an attempt is made to make them clearer, by words added in foot-notes, in anticipation of the fuller explanation of the Commentary.
As regards the Evolution of mankind, the Secret Doctrine postulates three new propositions, which stand in direct antagonism to Modern Science as well as to current religious dogmas. It teaches: (_a_) the simultaneous evolution of seven human Groups on seven different portions of our globe; (_b_) the birth of the _astral_, before the _physical_ body, the former being a model for the latter; and (_c_) that man, in this Round, preceded every mammalian--the anthropoids included--in the animal kingdom.(1)
The Secret Doctrine is not alone in speaking of primeval Men born simultaneously on the seven divisions of our Globe. In the _Divine Pymander_ of Hermes Trismegistus, we find the same seven primeval Men(2) evolving from Nature and the Heavenly Man, in the collective sense of the word, namely, from the Creative Spirits; and in the fragments of Chaldæan tablets, collected by George Smith, on which is inscribed the Babylonian Legend of Creation, in the first column of the Cutha tablet, seven human Beings "with the faces of ravens," that is to say, of black swarthy complexions, whom "the [seven] Great Gods created," are mentioned. Or, as explained in lines 16, 17 and 18:
In the midst of the earth they grew up and became great, And increased in number, Seven kings, brothers of the same family.(3)
These are the seven Kings of Edom to whom reference is made in the _Kabalah_; the First Race, which was _imperfect_, that is to say, was born before the "balance" (sexes) existed, and which was therefore destroyed.(4)