inctions will not arrive at a
clear understanding of the true conditions of life.

Memory and forgetfulness have for the ego much the same significance that
waking and sleeping have for the astral body. Just as sleep banishes into
nothingness the cares and troubles of the day, so does forgetfulness draw
a veil over the sad experiences of life and efface part of the past. And
just as sleep is necessary for the recuperation of the exhausted vital
forces, so must a man blot out from his memory certain portions of his
past life if he is to face his new experiences freely and without
prejudice. It is out of this very forgetfulness that strength arises for
the perception of new facts. Let us take the case of learning to write.
All the details which a child has to go through in this process are
forgotten. What remains is the ability to write. How would a person ever
be able to write if each time he took up his pen all his experiences in
learning to write rose up before his mind?

Now there are many different degrees of memory. Its simplest form is
manifest when a person perceives an object and, after turning away from
it, retains its image in his mind. He formed the image while looking at
the object, A process was then carried out between his astral body and his
ego. The astral body lifted into consciousness the outward impression of
the object, but knowledge of the object would last only as long as the
thing itself was present, unless the ego absorbed the knowledge into
itself and made it its own.

It is at this point that occult science draws the dividing line between
what belongs to the body and what belongs to the soul. It speaks of the
astral body as long as it is a question of the gaining of knowledge from
an object which is present. But what gives knowledge duration is known as
soul. From this it can at once be seen how close is the connection in man
between the astral body and that part of the soul which gives a lasting
quality to knowledge. The two are, to a certain extent, united into one
principle of human nature. Consequently, this unity is often denoted the
astral body. When exact terms are desired, the astral body is called the
_soul-body_, and the soul, in so far as it is united with the latter, is
called the _sentient soul_.

The ego rises to a higher stage of its being when it centres its activity
on what it has gained for itself out of its knowledge of objective things.
It is by means of this activity that