Man can, also, take matter and transform it into any shape, or transport it to any place, if he keep within the same bounds, or his possible as distinguished from his impossible. In like manner, these First Great Logoi can fashion worlds and even sentient beings in any manner they see fitting, so long as they, in turn, do not attempt to transcend their impossible, or those Absolute limitations pointed out above. And this working in harmony with and under the direction of this original impress of the First Logoi by intelligent, sentient, yet relatively lower beings, representing of necessity infinite degrees and grades of intelligence, is the true source of that much-harped-on "design" which Christians assume as indubitable evidence of the existence of their personal Jehovah. Much of this creative or fashioning intelligence is evidently very greatly inferior to that of man in some aspects, though immensely transcending his powers in others. For instance, the intelligence which fashions the beautiful form and flowers of an apple-tree is not sufficient to prevent the seed which chances to fall under the angle of a stone wall from the hopeless task of attempting to penetrate this obstacle; nor even in the case of man's physical form - which is not created by the same order of intelligences that are the source of his intellect - will it suffice to stay the progress of an intended evolution of a human body, although this has been rendered plainly impossible by some intra-uterine accident or influence.

This is the real source of the monstrosities in nature, which puzzle alike the scientist and the theologian.

If, now, we symbolize the Conscious-Aspect of the Absolute by physical light, then matter may be likened to a prism which decomposes it into many differing strata. Being thus decomposed, that which during pralaya was Absolute Unity, in man- vantara manifests differing rates of conscious vibration, so to speak, just as the white light of the sun when passed through a prism is broken up into the varied colors of the spectrum, each having an entirely different rate of vibratory motion and wave length. Bearing in mind, then, that the One Consciousness, or One Life, is limited in its manifestations by the particular form of matter in which it is functioning, as the human vision is dark, clear, or colored, according to the physical media through which it attempts to look; and, further, that this matter itself is the result of differing rates of vibration acting upon and in the eternal Substance-Aspect of the Absolute - we get at least one turn of the key which at the seventh revolution shall unlock the secrets of evolution and objective life.

We can perceive how these original cosmic curds, driven before the descending vibrations, the mechanical agents of evolution, assume coarser and more compact states as they touch successively lower vibrations of the Force-Aspect of the Causeless Cause. Having reached the lowest point in that which we ignorantly term "dead" or inorganic matter, under the stress of the original impulse they begin to ascend the evolutionary are-to respond to successively finer and more delicate vibrations - thus affording ever clearer and more perfect forms, in which higher centers of consciousness can find suitable vehicles. At the beginning of manvantaric manifestation, it is the One Life, represented in self consciousness by the Logoi, or cosmic centers. When the impulse reaches our plane of matter, it is still the One life, but represented in self-consciousness here by the individualized centers of human souls.

The state of matter upon our little earth does not imply that all that in the solar system - much less the Cosmos-is in similar conditions. Therefore, Consciousness is in as many various stages of expression as its material vehicle is in stages of evolution. From this it will be seen how necessary is the inference that there are infinite grades of intelligences both above and below man, as the result of the completed evolutions of other worlds, other systems, and even other manvantaras. A Logos, the first "I," which appears in the Cosmos at the manvantaric dawn, is an individualized center of self-consciousness which had attained to this stage at the close of the last great manvantara. With other Logoi, it becomes a duty to watch over and direct the successive evolutions which occur during the manvantara over which they thus preside. Below them are the various Hierarchies, Builders, Regents, Cosmoscratores, at work in the myriad departments of manifested nature.

The knowledge that one manvantara is the re-embodiment of the entire Universe, having its Karma, or causes, set up in preceding manvantaras, exactly corresponding to the reincarnation of the human soul, on its lower plane of operation, enables us to understand much that occurs. The Logoi would correspond to man's self-conscious, reincarnating Ego; these lower Hierarchies, Forces, and Builders to the universal "Skandas," or forces which necessarily pass into latency at the striking of Universal Pralaya. No manvantara can ever complete conscious evolution; and each must take up its work - just as the human soul does - at the point it had attained when the universal dissolution of the Great Pralaya compelled its cessation. When the "hour" strikes for this Universal Pralaya, the consciousness ensouled in the lowest mineral bodies will first of all pass into a condition of latency, or that of bare subjective potentiality of manifestation when fitting matter is again projected at another manvantaric dawn. This enforced latency will be because the matter or combination of molecules it requires for its outer manifestation no longer exists in the Universe, on account of the withdrawing of the energy which caused it to appear.

In like manner will plane after plane of consciousness be reached, and its entities, deprived of material form, be compelled to sleep during the great eternity of unconsciousness which must precede another reawakening of the Cosmos. All conscious beings, whether of high or low degree, will thus be indrawn into the Absolute; yet, while the consciousness of lower forms remains only a potentiality, like that of a sleeping or entranced man, to be again awakened at the new Dawn, that of the highest ones will, we are told, pass self-consciously into this great subjective arc of the cycle of Eternal Duration. These are They, the Logoi, the "luminous Sons of Manvantaric Dawn," who first awaken to self-conscious life upon the objective plane at the new manvantaric projection. Like our Higher Egos, which represent the wisdom resulting from the sum of our personal experiences, they represent the sum of manvantaric experience, and know that which has been and that which is to be. They project the ideal plan of the manvantara that is to be through Their Divine Ideation, just as an architect creates in his mind the plan of the magnificent structure, which may not be materialized except by years of slow and tedious labor.