You who have studied and understand, to some small extent at least, the powers which are working in the world of the present, you ought to be able to help to eliminate the evil and to strengthen the good.

And the Theosophical Society, among these movements of the day, must hold up firmly a true ideal.

It is the function of the prophet, of the spiritual teacher, to hold up the ideal, and point ever towards it, so that individuals may have it ever before their eyes and choose the roads which lead in the right direction.
And again, the principles that I have put to you may explain to you why this Theosophical Society, so weak, is yet so strong--weak in its numbers, weak in the qualifications of its members, not numbering amongst its adherents the most learned and the most mighty of the earth, made up of very mediocre, average people, not the great leaders of the civilisation of the day; but in them all, else would they not be members of the Theosophical Society, is the dawning aspiration after a nobler condition, and some willingness to sacrifice themselves in order that the coming of that condition may be quickened upon earth.

That is the justification of our Society now.

We are like the nutrient material that surrounds the germ, and the germ grows out of the love, and the aspiration, and the spirit of self-sacrifice, which are found in our movement, however little developed to-day.