nk themselves into the higher consciousness. The goal is the same, whether by prayer or concentration, the road differing according to the temperament of the one who seeks to tread it.
But along these roads you will see we have no conflict with any religion; for all religions use prayer, and the more philosophic use concentration and meditation as well. We do not strive at any time to make one convert from any faith. On the contrary, we advise people to stay in the religion which suits them best, and that is generally the religion into which they were born. And part of our work is peace-making among the religions of the world. To use the great words of Muhammed in Alkorân: " We make no difference between the prophets." We see them all as teachers of the Most High. And I notice with something of amusement that this view is not very readily grasped, either in the modern East or in the West. I read in newspaper criticisms in the East: " Mrs. Besant says that Theosophy is esoteric Hinduism." I read in the newspapers of the West: " Mrs. Besant says that Theosophy is mystical Christianity," each reporter leaving out the religions that are not the religion of his own land. So that when I say: "Theosophy is the basis of Hinduism, of Buddhism, of mystical Christianity", in the Christian country Hinduism and Buddhism are left out, and only the mystical Christianity remains, and in the Hindu country Buddhism and Christianity are left out, and only Hinduism remains. It does not much matter. To us all religions are sacred. They all lift the heart to the Supreme, console in sorrow, and steady in prosperity; and our work is not to set faith against faith, but to cry everywhere: "Ye are founded on the same basis of eternal Truth. Why, then, do ye fall out by the way ? " That, [Page 11] then, is another part of the work of Theosophy — peacemaking among the religions of the world.
I want next to show you how these theosophical ideas, as they are called, are permeating all thought—scientific, artistic, literary, theological. I do not do this to glorify the Theosophical Society, but rather to show you that these ideas belong to all the world alike. You find constantly in your daily press, in your literature of fiction and amusement, that some idea that twenty-five years ago was said to be theosophical and absurd is alluded to in a commonplace way, or made the centre of a plot. Why, half the novels of today turn on some occult experience. Now that fact to me is full of encouragement; for if I found that Theosophy, in its garb of the Theosophical Society, was limited within that one Society and was only making one more sect amid the countless sects of the world, I should think little of the promise of its future. But if I find that these ideas do not belong to the Theosophical Society only, but that they are underlying the forward trend of thought in every direction, so that none may say, " they are mine, not yours," ah! then I realise that behind this little body that we call the Theosophical Society there is some great impulse, some mighty spiritual power.
Let us turn to look at it for a moment from that standpoint, and see where our work lies in such a worldwide movement. I discern, under the ordinary facts and theories of life as we have them today, an influence which is guiding humanity towards the ideal and away from materialism. Look at Science. When I was studying chemistry I learned about the atoms, and how they were ultimate particles of matter with unchangeable characteristics which they held from an unknown past, and would hold in an unknown future. Nay, in one book it was written, "from all eternity the atom of carbon has been an atom of carbon, and to all eternity it will so remain." But who says that now? Some say the atom is electricities linked together. Some say it is a body [Page 12] made up of innumerable particles in a rapid state of vibration, the vibratory speed changing under varying conditions. The atom is the most fluid of all things in the scientific concepts of the moment, and threatens to become nothing but a whir