er and affinities. Each of these types so reacts upon the
others that, though it is impossible for them ever to interchange
their essence, in each of them seven sub-types will be found to exist,
distinguished by the colouring given to their original peculiarity by
the influence which sways them most readily. It will at once be seen
that this perpendicular division and subdivision differs entirely in
its character from the horizontal, in that it is far more permanent
and fundamental; for while it is the evolution of the elemental
kingdom to pass with almost infinite slowness through its various
horizontal classes and subclasses in succession, and thus to belong to
them all in turn, this is not so with regard to the types and
sub-types, which remain unchangeable all the way through. A point
which must never be lost sight of in endeavouring to understand this
elemental evolution is that it is taking place on what is sometimes
called the downward curve of the arc; that is to say, it is
progressing _towards_ the complete entanglement in matter which we
witness in the mineral kingdom, instead of _away_ from it, as is most
other evolution of which we know anything; and this fact sometimes
gives it a curiously inverted appearance in our eyes until we
thoroughly grasp its object.

In spite of these manifold subdivisions, there are certain properties
which are possessed in common by all varieties of this strange living
essence; but even these are so entirely different from any with which
we are familiar on the physical plane that it is exceedingly difficult
to explain them to those who cannot themselves see it in action. Let
it be premised, then, that when any portion of this essence remains
for a few moments entirely unaffected by any outside influence (a
condition, by the way, which is hardly ever realized) it is absolutely
without any definite form of its own, though even then its motion is
rapid and ceaseless; but on the slightest disturbance, set up perhaps
by some passing thought-current, it flashes into a bewildering
confusion of restless, ever-changing shapes, which form, rush about,
and disappear with the rapidity of the bubbles on the surface of
boiling water. These evanescent shapes, though generally those of
living creatures of some sort, human or otherwise, no more express the
existence of separate entities in the essence than do the equally
changeful and multiform waves raised in a few moments on a previously
smoot