thought is on the mental plane, and all thought first manifests itself
there as a vibration of the mind-body. But if it be in any way a
selfish thought, or if it be connected in any way with an emotion or a
desire, it immediately descends into the astral plane, and takes to
itself a visible form of astral matter.

In the case of the majority of men almost all thought would fall under
one or other of these heads, so that practically the whole of their
personality would lie clearly before our friend's astral vision, since
their astral bodies and the thought-forms constantly radiating from
them would be to him as an open book in which their characteristics
were writ so largely that he who ran might read. Anyone wishing to
gain some idea as to _how_ the thought-forms present themselves to
clairvoyant vision may satisfy themselves to some extent by examining
the illustrations accompanying Mrs. Besant's valuable article on the
subject in _Lucifer_ for September 1896.

We have seen something of the alteration in the appearance of both
animate and inanimate objects when viewed by one possessed of full
clairvoyant sight as far as the astral plane is concerned; let us now
consider what entirely new objects he will see. He will be conscious
of a far greater fulness in nature in many directions, but chiefly his
attention will be attracted by the living denizens of this new world.
No detailed account of them can be attempted within the space at our
disposal; for that the reader is referred to No. V. of the
_Theosophical Manuals_. Here we can do no more than barely enumerate a
few classes only of the vast hosts of astral inhabitants.

He will be impressed by the protean forms of the ceaseless tide of
elemental essence, ever swirling around him, menacing often, yet
always retiring before a determined effort of the will; he will marvel
at the enormous army of entities temporarily called out of this ocean
into separate existence by the thoughts and wishes of man, whether
good or evil. He will watch the manifold tribes of the nature-spirits
at their work or at their play; he will sometimes be able to study
with ever-increasing delight the magnificent evolution of some of the
lower orders of the glorious kingdom of the devas, which corresponds
approximately to the angelic host of Christian terminology.

But perhaps of even keener interest to him than any of these will be
the human denizens of the astral world, and he will find them
di