VOL. V.

AU Q

Renunciation of action and the right performance of action both lead to the same goal; but of these two the right performance of action is better than its renunciation. It is difficult to attain to true renunciation without rightly performing all duties; the devotee who performs his appointed actions, fulfilling his duties, attains before long to true renunciation.-Chap. V, BhagavadGita.

THE PATH.

APRIL, 1890.

No. I.

The Theosophical Society, as such, is not responsible for any opinion or declaration in this magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an official document.

Where any article, or statement, has the author's name attached, he alone is responsible, and for those which are unsigned, the Editor will be accountable.

THE PATH'S FIFTH YEAR.

Our Magazine has turned the last corner of the square and now enters upon its fifth year. Whether it shall live ten or twenty years longer we know not, but as the future grows from the present and the past is ever being repeated in the future, so its four years of activity just ended are not dead, for they will reproduce their influence in the years that are to come until their force is increased by being swallowed up in those that are stronger.

In the third month of the first year of THE PATH its death within the year was predicted, but fate has ruled otherwise, and we have been accorded the opportunity of attempting to erect the four pillars of Sincerity, Devotion, Determination of Purpose, and Integrity. This year will decide what success has attended the attempt. For as five is the number of Light, it will reveal all, and by its power as Justice and Nemesis it will appropriately measure out the compensation, since its position in the centre between 1 and 9 makes of it the middle of the balance, for although the series of 9 is not completed, yet when 5 is reached the future is potentially present up to 9. We