Human intelligence is by no means keen enough to reach Truth at a single effort. Its approach is only by narrow degrees. Attaining a degree, one often deems his desire accomplished, but further investigation proves the inadequacy of his truth; so, if of progressive mind, he is impelled to a wider and deeper seeking. Eventually he realizes that his latest truth is only relative; in fact a milestone on the journey to ultimate reality. The Eastern method of imparting occult truth adapts itself to the natural processes of the mind.

As a light-bringer from the East, H. P. B. adhered to the manner of instruction sanctioned by her Masters. Hence many of her expositions have since been more or less unveiled, or even re-stated. In respect to a certain doctrine, one long carefully guarded, but finally taught as a veiled truth to a small group, and by them communicated to others; that doctrine yet exists as originally given out. We refer to the doctrine which deals with the condition of the human ego, and the fate of man's lower quarternary, when the two have been wholly sundered. This doctrine contains certain statements which do not dovetail into the current conception of septenary man. Hence our desire to unveil still more, and thus show somewhat of truth hidden beneath the exterior.

If the student has assimilated certain teachings of Volumes I and II of our series (the teachings in respect to seven-fold man) he is familiar with their departure from the more exoteric doctrine in vogue. We regard man as a compound being, a seven-fold group-soul built, not from the base upward, but from the top downward, in a gradual evolution from Jupiter to the Earth where he acquired his seventh and basic soul or vehicle, the physical peculiar to this planet. On the other hand, the usual teaching makes man a triad of real and imperishable higher principles which reflect themselves downward as an illusionary triad functioning in an illusionary envelope.

We maintain that while the lower quarternary is negative to the upper triad, and dependent thereon for spiritual uplifting, it is as real as the planets with which it corresponds. In fact it is a permanent entity capable of widening the outlook of the upper triad, and therefore joined to it by a community of interests. If we declare for the usual Theosophical conception of the lower and the higher man, we are forced to admit that the severance of the cord or bridge binding the two, means the death of the lower and illusionary. Should the oil be drawn from a lamp, the saturated wick burns for a while. So, in analogous way, the lower man often persists through several incarnations, each baser than the former, until he disappears because no longer a self-conscious being. So much for the old instruction in respect to the quarternary.

Considering the separated ego, we discover a flaw in the teaching as to the procedure now open to its choice. Should the ego retire forever to its own proper level, this procedure would mean the complete stay of its evolution. If adopting the theory that the ego can put forth a new personality, another difficulty confronts us. All our great Teachers agree that an incarnated being is the sum of tendencies and aptitudes acquired in many past lives, and in him many karmic seeds should come to harvest. Allowing, as we must, that the quarternary has for ages been associated with the ego, it is evident that a newly-formed quarternary would be an anomaly, a being without inherited tendencies and aptitudes; also without karmic seeds many of which would be undesirable, while others would be the reverse. It is difficult to imagine just what that nondescript being would seem to his parents and friends and the world at large. Evidently the teaching is a substitute and nothing more.

If, during its ages of union with the ego, the quarternary has produced nothing that can be assimilated by the other, then the severance of upper and lower will become total; but such an unfruitful quarternary it is difficult to imagine. The inner teaching is that whatever the ego has acquired from its associate, constitutes an imperishable tie. The base quarternary may sink even to the loss of self-consciousness, but, in a future manventara, or perhaps in an outer planet, it yet will rise to a receptive condition. Then the waiting ego will reform the old tie, and with almost certain prospect of successful outcome, inasmuch as bitter experience will have implanted in the quarternary an abhorrence of all that wrought its downfall. It is taught that some of the great egos of our race have redeemed their associates from a debased condition induced in a former world period.