Rome in 390 B.C., and all the records of the past were lost; years of confusion followed; and a century and a half and more before Roman history began to be written by Ennius in his epic Annales. It was a break in history and blotting out of the past; such as happened in China in 214 B.C., when the ancient literature was burnt.  Such things take place under the Law.  Race-memory may not go back beyond a certain time; there is a law in Nature that keeps ancient history esoteric.  As we go forward, the horizon behind follows us.  In the ages of materialism and the low places of racial consciousness, that horizon probably lies near to us; as you see least far on a level plain.  But as we draw nearer to esotericism, and attain elevations nearer the spirit, it may recede; as the higher you stand, the farther you see.  Not so long ago, the world was but six thousand years old in European estimation.  But ever since Theosophy has been making its fight to spiritualize human consciousness, pari passu the horizon of the past has been pushed back by new and new discoveries.

What comes down to us from old Europe between its waking and the age of Pericles?  Some poetry, legends, and unimportant history from Greece; some legends from Rome; the spirit or substance of the Norse sagas; the spirit or substance of the Welsh Mabinogi and the Arthurian atmosphere; and of the Irish tales of the Red Branch and Fenian cycles.  The actual tales as we get them were no doubt retold in much later times; and it is these late recensions that we have.  What will remain of England in the memory of three or four thousand years hence?  Unless this Theosophical Movement shall have lifted human standards to the point where that which has hitherto been esoteric may safely be kept public, this much:—­an echo only of what England has produced of eternal truth;—­something from Shakespeare; something from Milton; and as much else in prose and poetry from the rest.  But all the literature of this and all past ages is and will then still be in being; in the hidden libraries of the Guardians of Esoteric Science, from which they loose fragments and hints on the outer world as the occasion cyclically recurs, and as their wisdom directs.

How do they loose such fragments of old inspiration?  It may be by putting some manuscript in the way of discovery; it may be by raising up some man of genius who can read the old records on inner planes, and reproduce in epic or drama something of a long past splendor to kindle the minds of men anew.  In that way Greece was kindled.  Troy fell, says H. P. Blavatsky, nearly five thousand years ago.  Now you will note that a European manvantara began in 2980 B. C.; which is very nearly five thousand years ago.  And that this present European manvantara or major cycle was lit up from a West Asian Cycle; from the Moors in Spain; from Egypt through Sicily and Italy; and, in its greatest splendor; when Constantinople fell, and refugees therefrom came to light the Cinquecento in Italy.  Now Constantinople is no great way from Troy; and, by tradition, refugees came to Italy from Troy, once.  Was it they in part, who lit up that ancient European cycle of from 2980 to 1480 B. C.?