Thus the first of the egos from the Moon who entered the Earth-chain were by no means the most advanced.  Indeed they may be described as the least advanced of those who had succeeded in attaining humanity—­the animal-men.  Coming as they did into a chain of new globes, freshly aggregated, they had to establish the forms in all the different kingdoms of Nature.  This needs to be done at the beginning of the first round in a new chain, but never after that; for though the life-wave is centred only upon one of the seven globes of a chain at any given time, yet life has not entirely departed from the other globes.  At the present moment, for example, the life-wave of our chain is centred on this Earth, but on the other two physical globes of our chain, Mars and Mercury, life still exists.  There is still a population, human, animal and vegetable, and consequently when the life-wave goes round again to either of those planets there will be no necessity for the creation of new forms.  The old types are already there, and all that will happen will be a sudden marvellous fecundity, so that the various kingdoms will quickly increase and multiply, and make a rapidly increasing population instead of a stationary one.

It was, then, the animal-men, the lowest class of human beings of the Moon-chain, who established the forms in the first round of the Earth-chain.  Pressing closely after them were the highest of the lunar animal kingdom, who were soon ready to occupy the forms which had just been made.  In the second journey round the seven globes of the Earth-chain, the animal-men who had been the most backward of the lunar humanity were leaders of this terrene humanity, the highest of the moon-animals making its less developed grades.  The same thing went on in the third round of the Earth-chain, more and more of the lunar animals attaining individualization and joining the human rank, until in the middle of that round on this very globe D which we call the Earth, a higher class of human beings—­the Second Order of Moon-men—­descended into incarnation and at once took the lead.

When we come to the fourth, our present round, we find the First Order of the Moon-men pouring in upon us—­all the highest and the best of the lunar humanity who had only just fallen short of success.  Some of those who had already, even on the Moon, entered upon the Path soon attained its end, became Adepts and passed away from the Earth.  Some few others who had not been quite so far advanced have attained Adeptship only comparatively recently—­that is, within the last few thousand years, and these are the Adepts of the present day.  We, who find ourselves in the higher races of humanity now, were several stages behind Them, but the opportunity lies before us of following in Their steps if we will.