276 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
sense of sight some time after birth. The Lemurian had no
eyes. He had two sensitive spots which were affected by the
light of the Sun as it shone dimly through the fiery
atmosphere of ancient Lemuria, but is was not until nearly
the close of the Atlantean Epoch that he had sight as we
have it today. Up to that time the building of the eye was in
progress. While the Sun was within—while the Earth
formed part of the light-giving mass—man need no external
illuminant; he was luminous himself. But when the dark
Earth was separated from the Sun it became necessary that
the light should be perceived, therefore as the light rays
impinged upon man, he perceived them. Nature built the eye
as a light-perceiver, in response to the demand of the
already-existing function, which is invariable the case, as
Professor Huxley has so ably shown. The amoeba has no
stomach, yet it digests. It is all stomach. The necessity for
digesting food built the stomach in the course of time, but
digestion took place before the alimentary canal was formed.
In an analogous manner, the perception of light called forth
the eye. The light itself built the eye and maintains it. Where
there is no light there can be no eye. In cases where animals
have withdrawn and dwelt in caves—keeping away from the
light—the eyes have degenerated and atrophied because
there were no light rays to maintain them and no eyes were
needed in the dark caves. The Lemurian needed eyes; he had
a perception of light, and the light was commencing to build
the eye in response to his demand.
His language consisted of sounds like those of Nature.
The sighing of the wind in the immense forests which grew
in great luxuriance in that super-tropical climate, the rippling
of the brook, the howling of the tempest—for Lemuria was
storm-swept—the thunder of the waterfall, the roar of the