The Inner Man is a trinity, not a duality. By adding the physical body, he becomes a Tetractys, or quaternity. Plato never confused the périsprit with the soul or spirit. In common with every other philosopher, he called it neither nous nor psyche, but gave it the name eidolon, sometimes that of imago or simulacrum. The psychic element never seems to have been in the odour of sanctity, either with the Saints of Christianity or with the Philosophers of Paganism. Let us now compare this philosophic quaternary, composed of the body, the périsprit, the soul, and the spirit — to the ether and its subsequent correlations. Spirit is the personal god of each mortal and his only divine element. On the contrary, the dual soul is semidivine, i.e., potentially divine. It is only when the human individuality, soiled with earthly impurities, overcomes separateness and identifies itself with the divine intelligence within, that the aroma of personal experience can become immortal. Thought is a material force, although invisible. Let the least cerebral motion reverberate in the Ether of Space and it will produce a disturbance reaching to infinity. Nothing is stationary in nature; everything must advance or fall back, and an incurable drunkard, a debauchee wholly immersed in materiality, having never made the least effort towards the good, dead or living, will never make progress! Sentimentality has no place in our ranks; he who does not feel ready to sacrifice his dearest personal hopes to the Eternal Truth may become a member of the Theosophical Society, but will never belong to our Esoteric Circle. Our Masters are Patañjali, Kapila, Kanada, and all the systems and schools of Aryavarta which served as inexhaustible mines for the Greek philosophers, from Pythagoras to Proclus. It is based on the esoteric wisdom of ancient Egypt, where Moses, like Plato, went to learn from the Hierophants and Adepts in the East; it was therefore developed by methods that do not proceed by inference, but decide by strict analogy alone, and are based on the immutability of universal laws.

Madame Blavatsky's Victorian-era masterpiece is now scaled down to its essentials, providing the most readable, accessible experience ever of one of history's seminal occult works. The Secret Doctrine, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's masterwork on the origin and evolution of the universe and humanity itself, is arguably the most famous, and perhaps the most influential, occult book ever written. Published since 1888 only in expensive, two-volume editions of some 1,400 pages, it has long eluded the grasp of modern readers- until now. This single-volume edition, abridged and annotated by historian and Theosophical scholar Michael Gomes, places the ideas of The Secret Doctrine within reach of all who are curious. In particular, Gomes provides a critical sounding of the book's famous stanzas on the genesis of life and the cosmos- mysterious passages that Blavatsky said originated from a primeval source and which form the heart of The Secret Doctrine. Gomes scrupulously scales down the book's key writings on symbolism to their essentials, and offers notes and a glossary to illuminate arcane references. His historical and literary introduction casts new light on some of the book's sources and on the career of its brilliant and elusive author, one of the most intriguing personages of the nineteenth century. At once compact and representative of the work as a whole, this new edition of The Secret Doctrine brings unprecedented accessibility to the key esoteric classic of the modern era.

This is a new release of the original 1930 edition.