f giving a definite form or shape to the mineral
materials and forces present in the physical body. Again, the use of the
word "body" must not be misunderstood. It is necessary to use the words of
every day language in describing things on a higher plane of existence,
and these terms, when applied to sense-observation, express only what is
physical. The etheric body has, of course, nothing of a bodily nature in
the physical sense, however ethereal we might imagine such a body to be.
As soon as the occultist mentions this etheric or vital body, he reaches
the point at which he is bound to encounter the opposition of many
contemporary opinions. The development of the human mind has been such
that the mention of such a principle of human nature is necessarily looked
upon as unscientific. The materialistic way of thinking has arrived at the
conclusion that there is nothing to be seen in a living body but a
combination of physical substances and forces such as are also found in
the so-called inanimate body of the mineral, the only difference being
that they are more complicated in the living than in the lifeless body.
Yet it is not very long since other views were held, even by official
science.

It is evident to any one who studies the works of many earnest men of
science, produced during the first half of the nineteenth century, that at
that time many a genuine investigator of nature was conscious of some
factor acting within the living body other than in the lifeless mineral.
It was termed "vital force." It is true this vital force is not
represented as being what has been above characterized as the vital body,
but underlying the conception was a dim idea of the existence of such a
body. Vital force was generally regarded as something which in a living
body was united with physical matter and forces in the same way that the
force of a magnet unites itself with iron. Then came the time when vital
force was banished from the domain of science. Mere physical and chemical
causes were accounted all sufficient.

At the present moment, however, there is a reaction in this respect in
some scientific quarters. It is sometimes conceded that the hypothesis of
something of the nature of "vital force" is not pure nonsense. Yet even
the scientist who concedes this much is not willing to make common cause
with the occultist with regard to the vital body. As a rule, it serves no
useful purpose to enter upon a discussion of such views fro