h lake by a sudden squall. They seem to be mere reflections from
the vast storehouse of the astral light, yet they have usually a
certain appropriateness to the character of the thought-stream which
calls them into existence, though nearly always with some grotesque
distortion, some terrifying or unpleasant aspect about them. A
question naturally arises in the mind here as to what intelligence it
is that is exerted in the selection of an appropriate shape or its
distortion when selected. We are not dealing with the more powerful
and longer-lived artificial elemental created by a strong definite
thought, but simply with the result produced by the stream of
half-conscious, involuntary thoughts which the majority of mankind
allow to flow idly through their brains, so that the intelligence is
obviously not derived from the mind of the thinker; and we certainly
cannot credit the elemental essence itself, which belongs to a kingdom
further from individualization even than the mineral, with any sort of
awakening of the manasic quality. Yet it does possess a marvellous
adaptability which often seems to come very near it, and it is no
doubt this property that caused elementals to be described in one of
our early books as "the semi-intelligent creatures of the astral
light". We shall find further evidence of this power when we come to
consider the case of the artificial class. When we read of a good or
evil elemental, it must always be either an artificial entity or one
of the many varieties of nature spirits that is meant, for the
elemental kingdoms proper do not admit of any such conceptions as good
and evil, though there is undoubtedly a sort of bias or tendency
permeating nearly all their subdivisions which operates to render them
rather hostile than friendly towards man, as every neophyte knows, for
in most cases his very first impression of the astral plane is of the
presence all around him of vast hosts of Protean spectres who advance
upon him in threatening guise, but always retire or dissipate
harmlessly if boldly faced. It is to this curious tendency that the
distorted or unpleasant aspect above mentioned must be referred, and
mediaeval writers tell us that man has only himself to thank for its
existence. In the golden age before this Kaliyuga men were on the
whole less selfish and more spiritual, and then the "elementals" were
friendly, though now they are no longer so because of man's
indifference to, and want of sympa