EVOLUTION ON THEEARTH 289
What has been said about the enlightenment of the
Lemurians applies to only a minor portion of those who
lived in the latter part of that Epoch, and who became the
Seed for the Seven Atlantean Races. The greater part of the
Lemurians were animal-like and theforms inhabited by
them have degenerated into the savages and anthropoids of
the present day.
The student is requested to note carefully that it was the
Forms which degenerated. There is a very important
distinction to be kept in mind between the bodies (or forms)
of a race, and the Egos (or life) which incarnates in those
race-bodies.
When a race is b orn, theforms are ensouled by a certain
group of spirits and have inherent capability of evolving to a
certain stage of completion and no further. There can be no
standing still in nature, therefore when the limit of
attainment has been reached the bodies or forms of that race
begin to degenerate, sinking lower and lower until at last the
race dies out.
The reason is not far to seek. New race bodies are
particularly flexible and plastic, affording great scope for the
Egos who incarnate in them to improve these vehicles and
progress thereby. The most advanced Egos are brought to
birth in such bodies and improve them to the best of their
ability. These Egos, however, are only apprentices as yet,
and they cause the bodies to gradually crystallize and harden
until the limit of improvement of that particular kind of body
has been reached. Then forms for another new race are
created, to afford the advancing Egos further scope for more
extended experience and greater development. They discard
the old race bodies for the new, their discarded bodies
becoming the habitations for less advanced Egos who, in