out a change of character or temperament belong
to the hidden forces of the etheric body. They are of the same nature as
the forces which govern the kingdom of life,--the same, therefore, as the
forces of growth, nutrition, and generation. Further explanations in this
work will throw the right light on these things.

Thus it is not when man simply gives himself up to pleasure and pain, joy
and sorrow, that the ego is working on the astral body, but when the
peculiarities of these qualities of the soul are changed; and the work is
extended in the same way to the etheric body, when the ego applies its
energies to changing the character or temperament. This change, too, is
one in which every person living is engaged, whether consciously or not.
The most powerful incitement to this kind of change in ordinary life is
that given by religion. If the ego allows the impulses which flow from
religion to work upon it again and again, they become a power within it
which extends to the etheric body and changes it as lesser impulses in
life effect the transformation of the astral body. These lesser impulses,
which come to man through study, reflection, the ennobling of feeling, and
so on, are subject to the manifold changes of existence; but religious
feelings impress a certain stamp of uniformity upon all thinking, feeling,
and willing. They diffuse an equal and single light over the whole life of
the soul.

Man thinks and feels one thing to-day, another to-morrow, the causes of
which are of many different kinds; but one who, consistently holding to
his religious convictions, has a glimpse of something which persists
through all changes, will relate his thoughts and feelings of to-day, as
well as his experiences of to-morrow, to that fundamental feeling he
possesses. Thus religious belief has the power of permeating the whole of
the soul-life. Its influences increase in strength as time goes on because
they are constantly repeated. Hence they acquire the power of working upon
the etheric body.

In a similar way the influences of true art work upon man. If,--going
beyond the outer form, colour and tone of a work of art,--he penetrates to
its spiritual foundations with his imagination and feeling, then the
impulses thus received by the ego actually reach the etheric body. When
this thought is followed out to its logical conclusion, the immense
significance of art in all human evolution may be estimated. Only a few
instances are poin