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But, keeping this in view, we inay safely shut our eyes for the moment to the capacity said to be latent in every human soul of universal knowledge. ‘‘ Your own soul,” say some occult students, “is omniscient. You only have to get into union with it, to share its knowledge.” The doctrine may not be false, but it is misleading. Your own soul, your own Higher self, may grow into omniscience— THE HIGHER SELF. Itt or something approaching that—if you give it time and adequate help—through, certainly, more than one life, from the date at which that enterprise is first set on foot by ‘“‘ you” yourself—the earthly phase of the being we are considering. But the Higher Self of an ordinary man of the world is certainly not yet in the perfection of its potential developnient. On the con- trary, the fact that it is not, and cannot be, will be seen, on reflection, to square exactly with the informa- tion which has been formulated during the last few years (with the help of high authority as well as of the investigations carried on by advancing students among ourselves), in respect to the Devachanic state. For the majority of those who attain to it, that state is not one of highly advanced insight into truth. It is a state of great happiness, the intensity of which is probably proportioned to the advancement of the soul which experiences it; but it is a state replete with illusion, And yet, undoubtedly, those are the Higher Selves of the human beings concerned who are enjoying the Devachanic happiness; and more than this, if they are capable of consciousness on the Devachanic plane at all, they must be already human beings who in the flesh have been animated with very well defined spiritual aspirations, or deeply moved by truly spiritual emotions. Their gradual elevation into Higher Selves of the true guardian angel type may be looked upon—if for the moment we do not look further—as the purpose and justification for physical existence. This view of the situation, be it observed, is quite compatible with II2 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUI.. the view which in all cases assumes the best and noblest impulses of each man’s life, be he higher or lower as an incarnate being on the scale of spirituality, as emana- tions, warnings, or guidance from his Higher Self. To the extent that they are active, the aspirations of the Higher Self must be all towards good. But except as regards its kind and affinities, it would be a mistake to consider the mental activity of the Higher Self as very greatly superior to that of the lower. Before the Higher Self can use the faculties latent in its nature, before it can be awakened from its lethargy on the higher plane, which, in fact, has deepened in the course of ages as its periodical presentations on the plane of matter became more and more intense, it must be revived by the conscious effort of its own lower self— of itself on the lower plane—an effort which is analogous to the rebound of a ball dropped on the ground from a height. This group of conceptions, I think, will prepare the mind for an appreciation of the manner in which the recompense for meritorious but painful action on this plane of life is worked out. The Higher Self, in pro- portion to the extent that its perceptions are awakened, can survey the whole process, embrace in one retrospec- tive glance the suffering and the beneficial consequence, and thus feel that the efforts made were not thrown away. In the case of an undeveloped Higher Self, indeed, the fruits of the good deeds of the lower self are enjoyed without being analysed in the way just supposed. But by the hypothesis the correspondingly undeveloped lower self would never in such a case THE HIGHER SELF. 113 have been oppressed by metaphysical speculations con- cerning its own future. It would have been content to regard that future in the light of some exoteric religious fiction, and though its expectations might not be fulfilled to the letter, their essence would be fulfilled in the unreflective bliss of the Higher Self—the same individuality, really, though not yet inspired with an interest in the observation of the fact of its own identity with its physical phases. But by the time a long suc- cession of physical lives and spiritual interludes have cultivated the consciousness of the Higher Self to such a degree that it begins to approximate to the guardian angel type of Higher Self, its relations with the lower become sensibly modified. The true Ego begins not alone to feel, but to think, on the higher plane. It becomes more and more a conscious, directing power, watching and influencing the acts ofits lower self, and alive to the advantages it may derive from the co-operation thereof. For metaphysical purposes one might, of course, throw the idea just expressed into other language, which would, perhaps, avoid some crudities involved in the more dramatic formula, but at the expense of vivid significance. It could be argued that the physical and spiritual aspects of the Ego act and react on each other, and that the soul as mani- fested in the phenomenal world is an illusory counter- part of the true Ego, whose absorption in the universal self is more or less retarded by the greater or less sub- jection of its physical consciousness to the plane of maya. But the processes of development we are examining will be rendered more intelligible, I think, 114 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. for most observers—incarnate, for the time being, on this plane of maya—by language in harmony with the conditions of the physical consciousness. It will be understood that I am not supposing the Higher Self to be standing sentinel over the lower at all moments of its existence, and in respect of all the acts of its daily life to be nervously watchful lest its protégé should take a false step. With persons of advanced development there is, perhaps, a greater approximation towards such a condition of things than a first glance at the situation would lead us to suppose ; for the spiritualisation of the lower self or aspect, renders the higher all the more continuously conscious ; but I take it that in conditions of ordinary human life the Higher Self is always more or less asleep on the higher plane, when the lower is awake and only con- scious of its place in Nature, of its relations with the lower self, and of the consequences to itself of the exertions its lower self, or its allied personality (to suggest an alternative phrase), may have been making —when that allied personality is asleep on the physical plane—plunged, that 1s to say, in a spontaneous or artificially induced trance as regards its lower conscious- ness. A proviso should be interpolated here, indeed. Sleeping and waking are the best terms we can use to describe the alternate states of the Higher Self during the life of the body, but we should remember that its sleep has reference only to its own Higher plane con- sciousness, and its influence is not extinct as regards the incarnate personality at any time. Thus the so-called voice of conscience, which asserts itself, and THE HIGHER SELF. II5 is heard from time to time, even in the most unspiritu- alised personalities, is neither more nor less than the influence of the Higher Self making itself felt. This influence is, of course, feeble and incomplete in cases where the lower self does not, by action responsive to this influence, increase and strengthen its power. But in endeavouring to realise the oscillation, as it were, of the centre of consciousness between the higher and the lower planes, it would be undesirable to lose sight of the fact that the Higher Self is always the source of the best impulses of the lower. The Ego, as I have said, awake on the physical plane is normally quite unconscious of its periods of supra- physical or spiritual consciousness—of the existence, in other words, of its Higher Self—even though that same Higher Self, on its side, is fully conscious when itself in its wakefulness on the higher plane, of the lower personality, and of its efforts or inaction, as the case may be. How far it may consciously deplore the failures of its lower self to achieve this or that specific tung on the ladder of progress—how far it may be distressed, so to speak, at observing its own lower self give way to temptation, is a point to be considered separately. The conditions of the existence of the Higher Self may not afford it scope for emotions of distress or regret ; and a failure or surrender to tempta- tion by the lower self may take the shape, as regards the higher, of so much retardation in its progress in regard to which, with its sublime capacity for patience, it may be quite unconscious of any irritation. But, on the other hand, every success and every victory of 116 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. the lower self over temptation may none the less be translated at once into so much progress for the Higher Self, and so much definite consciousness of satisfaction and enjoyment arising from that progress. Now it may seem, at first sight, to an imaginative mind, that these views are comfortless, as regards what may be called the interests of the Personality. All its struggles, and all its sufferings, are undergone for the benefit of a Being that it can hardly help feeling external to itselfi—an almost pitiless taskmaster and a thank- less consumer of the fruits of its physical slave’s indus- try. Calm and impassive in the serene realms of spirit, the Higher Self lives for enjoyment only, luxuriating in the harvest of the toil carried on below—when there is a harvest to reap—but undisturbed by the disaster when the heavily-burdened labourer staggers or falls beneath his load!