T H E F IR S T R A CE . ir r ^ jH E thought that the highest man had an archetype or prototype and II' that the conception of man antedated in time the historical evidence of his body is one which links together both the Platonic and the O ccult teachings. T h e “ ideas ” o f the Platonists are the “ astral forms ” of the O ccult ists, the “ archetypes” of Sir Richard Owen, the “ P rototypes” of Rochet. T h e modern school of science, which is Darwinian, and consequently avoids all questions bearing on the philosophy of animal creation, ignores the anatomical teaching which pupils received from Sir Richard Owen in 1848 & 1849. Blit this theory is found to closely accord with the ideas Madame Blavatsky has sketched out. I f we look at the diagram of the vertebrate archetype in Owen’s book * side by side with those o f the fish, the crocodile, the bird, the mammal, and man, we see that we have in reality the “ astral man ” of the race depicted. I f we look at the picture o f the prototype o f man drawn by R ochet t (p. 18) the Adam Kadm on created male and female is before us. In the words of Swinburne : “ None, seeing us cloven in sunder W ill weep, or laugh, or wonder.” A nd we have a type o f man shown which is essentially transcendental. But after all, what is transcendental anatomy ? W hat is that which seeks to pierce into the real Bedeutung o f things whereby the memory o f the old anatomical forms is preserved ? T h e greatest transcendentalist is the one who, either through the memory of past re-incarnations, or from his own knowledge has remembered most o f the early forms o f humanity. H e does not express what might be, but remembers what has been. It must not be imagined o f course, that the universal concepts which are iden tical with the archetypes, are the ideas in the mind o f the Deity, who is limitless and indiscrete,! but merely in the mind o f the observer. Such ultra realism as was taught by William of Champeaux is not inferred by the transcendental anatomist o f the school o f Oken, Owen, or Knox. W e may realise the conception o f anatomists, and believe in the existence o f forms. W e must not be content to see in com munity o f pattern mere community of descent, which may or may not be proven. Owen has searched as a reverend student may search, by the scientific use o f the imagination, for the very thought that passed through the mind of the supreme designer, whose eyes beheld the “ substance ” o f man, being yet imperfect, and in whose account every limb was written.§ A reverend mind and a good anatomist dare only have attempted this task. Owen has said in his “ Nature o f L im b s :” (8th VoL Lond. 1849.) * Archetype and Homologies o f the Vertebrate Skeleton. f T h e Prototype o f Man. 8vo. 1886, p. 18. J R . F. Clarke, S. J. Logic. 8vo. Lond. 1888, p. 160. § P&. cxxxviii, 14, 15.
8vo. Lond. 1848.