, but
as the etheric double. This seems an appropriate name for it, since it
consists of various grades of that matter which scientists call
"ether," though this proves on examination to be not a separate
substance, as has been generally supposed, but a condition of finer
subdivision than the gaseous, to which any kind of physical matter may
be reduced by the application of the appropriate forces. The name
"etheric double" will therefore for the future be used in Theosophic
writings instead of "Linga Sharira": and this change will not only
give us the advantage of an English name which is clearly indicative
of the character of the body to which it is applied, but will also
relieve us from the frequent misunderstandings which have arisen from
the fact that an entirely different signification is attached in all
the Oriental books to the name we have hitherto been using. It must
not however be supposed that in making this alteration in
nomenclature we are in any way putting forward a new conception; we
are simply altering, for the sake of greater accuracy, the labels
previously attached to certain facts in nature. If we examine with
psychic faculty the body of a newly-born child, we shall find it
permeated not only by astral matter of every degree of density, but
also by the several grades of etheric matter; and if we take the
trouble to trace these inner bodies backwards to their origin, we find
that it is of the latter that the etheric double--the mould upon which
the physical body is built up--is formed by the agents of the LORDS of
Karma; while the astral matter has been gathered together by the
descending Ego--not of course consciously, but automatically--as he
passes through the astral plane. (See _Manual_ No. IV., p. 44.)

Into the composition of the etheric double must enter something of all
the different grades of etheric matter; but the proportions may vary
greatly, and are determined by several factors, such as the race,
sub-race, and type of a man, as well as by his individual Karma. When
it is remembered that these four subdivisions of matter are made up of
numerous combinations, which, in their turn, form aggregations that
enter into the composition of the "atom" of the so-called "element" of
the chemist, it will be seen that this second principle of man is
highly complex, and the number of its possible variations practically
infinite, so that, however complicated and unusual a man's Karma may
be, the LIPIKA