reater. It is not enough to say that this
fluid is a species of molecular energy like heat, for instance, though
of much greater potency. Heat is produced when ever kinetic energy is
transformed into molecular energy, we are told, and it may be thrown out
by any material composed of sleeping atoms, or inorganic matter as it is
called; whereas the magnetic fluid projected by a living human body is
life itself. Indeed it is "life-atoms" that a man in a blind passion
throws off unconsciously, though he does it quite as effectively as a
mesmeriser who transfers them from himself to any object consciously and
under the guidance of his will. Let any man give way to any intense
feeling, such as anger, grief, &c., under or near a tree, or in direct
contact with a stone, and after many thousands of years any tolerable
psychometer will see the man, and perceive his feelings from one single
fragment of that tree or stone that he had touched. Hold any object in
your hand, and it will become impregnated with your life-atoms, indrawn
and outdrawn, changed and transferred in us at every instant of our
lives. Animal heat is but so many life atoms in molecular motion. It
requires no adept knowledge, but simply the natural gift of a good
clairvoyant subject to see them passing to and fro, from man to objects
and vice versa like a bluish lambent flame. Why, then, should not a
broom, made of a shrub, which grew most likely in the vicinity of the
building where the lazy novice lived, a shrub, perhaps, repeatedly
touched by him while in a state of anger provoked by his laziness and
distaste for his duty--why should not a quantity of his life-atoms have
passed into the materials of the future besom, and therein have been
recognized by Buddha, owing to his superhuman (not supernatural) powers?
The processes of Nature are acts of incessant borrowing and giving back.
The materialistic sceptic, however, will not take anything in any other
way than in a literal, dead-letter sense.

To conclude our too long answer, the "lower principles" mentioned before
are the first, second and the third. They cannot include the Kama rupa,
for this "rupa" belongs to the middle, not the lower principles. And,
to our correspondent's further query, "Do the atoms of these (the fourth
and the fifth) also re-form, after going through various
transmigrations, to constitute over again the fourth and the lower fifth
of the next incarnation?" we answer, "They do