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THE HOLY TRINITY.
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The rhythm, that is to say, the energy of functioning, of the soul, is of a very complex type, for it knows
is fatal to both. It is also evident that there can be no limit to the knowing capacity of the soul, for neither reason nor imagination is liable to be limited by aught but the impossible; and though the senses of each and every living being do not embrace the whole range of phenomena, still there can be no doubt but that different beings take cognizance of different things, so that what is invisible to one soul does not necessarily remain unperceived by all. Owls, for instance, perceive objects in the dark ; and it is obvious that the minute little insects which are quite invisible to us must be known at least to the members of their own fraternity, for they breed and multiply. The inference is that, while the soul is the knower in its own right, its knowing capacity is obstructed, more or less, in the case of different beings, though consciousness with its special properties-individuality and knowledge-being common to all, there can be no differences of quality or quantity in respect of the potentiality of knowledge among them. This conclusion is fully supported by the facts or phenomena of clairvoyance and telepathy, of the very existence of which men are almost wholly ignorant in this age, but which have been fully proved to be the natural functions of the soul (see the Proceedings of the Psychical Research Society).
The nature of the soul being pure intelligence, thought (knowledge) or consciousness, the differences in the degree of its manifestation among the different kinds of beings, as well as among members of the same species, must be due to the influence of some outside force, or agent, whose association or union with the conscious substance (soul) has the effect of depriving it of its pure clarity of knowledge. Unconscious matter is just such an agent, which, as described in "The Practical Path,' enters into union with the soulsubstance and thereby cripples its knowing powers, more or less according to tho type of bondage (the state of fusion of matter and soul). Thus, the differing types of consciousness depend on the operation of the knowledge-obstructing energies of karma, so that, where they are actually in full play, the manifestation of the knowing faculty of the soul may be reduced to the sense of touch, as in the case of one-sensed beings (metals and the like), while in the
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