EVOLUTION ON THEEARTH 275
leave the earth at some future time to take up our abode on
the planet Mercury, as the other work mentioned states, with
the intention of correcting an error in the first one.
Mercury, now being in obscuration, is exercising very
litt le influ ence on us, but it is emer ging from a planetary rest
and as time goes on its influence will be more and more in
evidence as a factor in our evolut ion. The coming Races will
have much help from the Mercurians, and the people of still
later Epochs and Revolutions will have even more.
THE LEMURIAN RACE
We are now in a position to understand the information
which is to follow concerning the people who livedin the
latter part of the Lemurian Epoch, whom we may call the
Lemurian Race.
The atmosphere of Lemuria was still very dense—
somewhat like the fire-fog of the Moon Period, but denser.
The crust of t he Earth was just starting t o b ecome qu it e hard
and solid in some places, while in others it was still fiery,
and between islands of crust was a sea of boiling, seething
water. Volcanic outbursts and cataclysms marked this time
when the nether fires fought hard against the formation of
the encircling wall which was to imprison them.
Upon the harder and comparatively cool spots man lived
surrounded by giant fern-forests and animals of enormous
size. The forms of both man and animal were yet quite
plastic. The skeleton had formed, but man himself had great
power in molding the flesh of his own body and that of the
animals about him.
When he was born he could hear and feel, but his
perception of light came later. We have analogous cases in
animals like cats and dogs, the young of which receive the