the human mind. Can it be
so? Let us argue.

The "Master" in the Sanctuary of our souls is "the Higher Self"--the
divine spirit whose consciousness is based upon and derived solely (at
any rate during the mortal life of the man in whom it is captive) from
the Mind, which we have agreed to call the _Human Soul_ (the "Spiritual
Soul" being the vehicle of the Spirit). In its turn the former (the
_personal_ or human soul) is a compound in its highest form, of
spiritual aspirations, volitions and divine love; and in its lower
aspect, of animal desires and terrestrial passions imparted to it by its
associations with its vehicle, the seat of all these. It thus stands as
a link and a medium between the animal nature of man which its higher
reason seeks to subdue, and his divine spiritual nature to which it
gravitates, whenever it has the upper hand in its struggle with the
_inner animal_. The latter is the instinctual "animal Soul" and is the
hotbed of those passions, which, as just shown, are lulled instead of
being killed, and locked up in their breasts by some imprudent
enthusiasts. Do they still hope to turn thereby the muddy stream of the
animal sewer into the crystalline waters of life? And where, on what
neutral ground can they be imprisoned so as not to affect man? The
fierce passions of love and lust are still alive and they are allowed to
still remain in the place of their birth--_that same animal soul_; for
both the higher and the lower portions of the "Human Soul" or Mind
reject such inmates, though they cannot avoid being tainted with them as
neighbors. The "Higher Self" or Spirit is as unable to assimilate such
feelings as water to get mixed with oil or unclean liquid tallow. It is
thus the mind alone--the sole link and medium between the man of earth
and the Higher Self--that is the only sufferer, and which is in the
incessant danger of being dragged down by those passions that may be
reawakened at any moment, and perish in the abyss of matter. And how
can it ever attune itself to the divine harmony of the highest
Principle, when that harmony is destroyed by the mere presence, within
the Sanctuary in preparation, of such animal passions? How can harmony
prevail and conquer, when the soul is stained and distracted with the
turmoil of passions and the terrestrial desires of the bodily senses, or
even of the "Astral man"?

For this "Astral"--the shadowy "double" (in the animal as in man)--is
not the companion of