side; the mineral kingdom; three stages in the objective physical side—­these are the seven links of the evolutionary chain.  A descent of spirit into matter, equivalent to an ascent in physical evolution; a re-ascent from the deepest depths of materiality (the mineral) towards its status quo ante, with a corresponding dissipation of concrete organisms up to Nirvana—­the vanishing point of differentiated matter.  Perhaps a simple diagram will aid us:—­

[[Diagram here]]

The line A D represents the gradual obscuration of spirit as it passes into concrete matter; the point D indicates the evolutionary position of the mineral kingdom from its incipient (d) to its ultimate concretion (a); c, b, a, on the left-hand side of the figure, are the three stages of elemental evolution; i.e., the three successive stages passed by the spiritual impulse (through the elementals—­of which little is permitted to be said) before they are imprisoned in the most concrete form of matter; and a, b, c, on the right-hand side, are the three stages of organic life, vegetable, animal, human.  What is total obscuration of spirit is complete perfection of its polar antithesis—­matter; and this idea is conveyed in the lines A D and D A. The arrows show the line of travel of the evolutionary impulse in entering its vortex and expanding again into the subjectivity of the absolute.  The central thickest line, d d, is the Mineral Kingdom.

The monogenists have had their day.  Even believers in a personal god, like Professor Agassiz, teach now that, “There is a manifest progress in the succession of beings on the surface of the earth.  The progress consists in an increasing similarity of the living fauna, and among the vertebrates especially, in the increasing resemblance to man.  Man is the end towards which all the animal creation has tended from the first appearance of the first Palaeozoic fishes” ("Principles of Zoology,” pp. 205-6).  The mineral “monad” is not an individuality latent, but an all-pervading Force which has for its Present vehicle matter in its lowest and most concrete terrestrial state; in man the monad is fully developed, potential, and either passive or absolutely active, according to its vehicle, the five lower and more physical human principles.  In the Deva kingdom it is fully liberated and in its highest state—­but one degree lower than the one Universal Life.*

----------
* The above diagram represents a logical section of the scheme of
evolution, and not the evolutionary history of a unit of consciousness.
----------

Question VIII.—­Sri Sankaracharya’s Date