It is true that the “I” consciousness of the primitive man was slight, and was but a degree above the Physical Consciousness of the higher apes, but nevertheless it had sprung into being, never again to be lost.  The primitive man was like a child a few years old—­he was able to say “I,” and to think “I.” He had become an individual soul.

And this individual soul inhabited and animated a body but little removed from that of an ape.  But this new consciousness began to mould that rude body and the ascent was begun.  Each generation showed a physical improvement over that of the preceding one, according to the lines of physical evolution, and as the developing soul demanded more perfect and developed bodies the bodies were evolved to meet the demand, for the mental demand has ever been the cause of the physical form.

The soul of the primitive man reincarnated almost immediately after the death of the physical body, because the experiences gained were mostly along the lines of the physical, the mental planes being scarcely brought into play, while the higher and spiritual faculties were almost entirely obscured from sight.  Life after life the soul of the primitive man lived out in rapid succession.  But in each new embodiment there was a slight advance over that of the previous one.  Experience, or rather the result of experiences, were carried over, and profited by.  New lessons were learned and unlearned, improved upon or discarded.  And the race grew and unfolded.

After a time the number of advancing souls which had outstripped their fellows in progress became sufficiently large for sub-races to be formed, and so the branching off process began.  In this way the various races and types were formed, and the progress of Mankind gained headway.  At this point we may as well consider the history of the Races of Mankind, that we may see how the great tide-wave of Soul has ever pressed onward, marking higher and still higher stages of progress, and also how the various minor waves of the great wave pushed in and then receded, only to be followed by still higher waves.  The story is most interesting.

The Yogi Teachings inform us that the Grand Cycle of Man’s Life on the Earth is composed of Seven Cycles, of which we are now living in the third-seventh part of the Fifth Cycle.  These Cycles may be spoken of as the Great Earth Periods, separated from each other by some great natural cataclysm which destroyed the works of the previous races of men, and which started afresh the progress called “civilization,” which, as all students know, manifests a rise and fall like unto that of the tides.

Man in the First Cycle emerged from a gross animal-like state into a condition somewhat advanced.  It was a slow progress, but nevertheless a distinct series of advances were made by the more progressive souls who passed over on to the Second Cycle, embodying themselves as the ruling races in the same, their less progressive brothers incarnating in the lower tribes of the Second Cycle.  It must be remembered that the souls which do not advance during a Cycle reincarnate in the next Cycle among the lower races.  So that even in this Fifth Cycle we have remnants of the previous cycles, the lives of the members of which give us an idea of what life in the earlier cycles must have been.