8.  Sankaracharya’s date is variously given by Orientalists, but always after Christ.  Barth, for instance, places him about 788 A.D.  In “Esoteric Buddhism” he is made to succeed Buddha almost immediately (p. 149).  Can this discrepancy be explained?  Has not Sankaracharya been usually classed as Vishnuite in his teaching?  And similarly has not Gaudapada been accounted a Sivite? and placed much later than “Esoteric Buddhism” (p.147) places him?  We would willingly pursue this line of inquiry, but think it best to wait and see to what extent the Adepts may be willing to clear up some of the problems in Indian religious history on which, as it would seem, they must surely possess knowledge which might be communicated to lay students without indiscretion.

We pass on to some points beyond the ordinary range of science or history on which we should be very glad to hear more, if possible.

9.  We should like to understand more clearly the nature of the subjective intercourse with beloved souls enjoyed in Devachan.  Say, for instance, that I die and leave on earth some young children.  Are these children present to my consciousness in Devachan still as children?  Do I imagine that they have died when I died? or do I merely imagine them as adult without knowing their life-history? or do I miss them from Devachan until they do actually die, and then hear from them their life-history as it has proceeded between my death and theirs?

10.  We do not quite understand the amount of reminiscence attained at various points in the soul’s progress.  Do the Adepts, who, we presume, are equivalent to sixth rounders, recollect their previous incarnations?  Do all souls which live on into the sixth round attain this power of remembrance? or does the Devachan, at the end of each round bring a recollection of all the Devachans, or of all the incarnations, which have formed a part of that particular round?  And does reminiscence carry with it the power of so arranging future incarnations as still to remain in company with some chosen soul or group of souls?

We have many more questions to ask, but we scruple to intrude further.  And I will conclude here by repeating the remark with which we are most often met when we speak of the Adepts to English friends.  We find that our friends do not often ask for so-called miracles or marvels to prove the genuineness of the Adepts’ powers.  But they ask why the Adepts will not give some proof—­not necessarily that they are far beyond us, but that their knowledge does at least equal our own in the familiar and definite tracks which Western science has worn for itself.  A few pregnant remarks on Chemistry,—­the announcement of a new electrical law, capable of experimental verification—­some such communication as this (our interlocutors say), would arrest attention, command respect, and give a weight and prestige to the higher teaching which, so long as it remains in a region wholly unverifiable, it can scarcely acquire.