be some
of the lower orders of nature-spirits--those whose bodies are composed
of the denser etheric matter. To this class belong nearly all the
fairies, gnomes, and brownies, about whom there are still so many
stories remaining among Scotch and Irish mountains and in remote
country places all over the world.

The vast kingdom of nature-spirits is in the main an astral kingdom,
but still there is a large section of it which appertains to the
etheric part of the physical plane, and this section, of course, is
much more likely to come within the ken of ordinary people than the
others. Indeed, in reading the common fairy stories one frequently
comes across distinct indications that it is with this class that we
are dealing. Any student of fairy lore will remember how often mention
is made of some mysterious ointment or drug, which when applied to a
man's eyes enables him to see the members of the fairy commonwealth
whenever he happens to meet them.

The story of such an application and its results occurs so constantly
and comes from so many different parts of the world that there must
certainly be some truth behind it, as there always is behind really
universal popular tradition. Now no such anointing of the eyes alone
could by any possibility open a man's astral vision, though certain
ointments rubbed over the whole body will very greatly assist the
astral body to leave the physical in full consciousness--a fact the
knowledge of which seems to have survived even to mediaeval times, as
will be seen from the evidence given at some of the trials for
witchcraft. But the application to the physical eye might very easily
so stimulate its sensitiveness as to make it susceptible to some of
the etheric vibrations.

The story frequently goes on to relate how when the human being who
has used this mystical ointment betrays his extended vision in some
way to a fairy, the latter strikes or stabs him in the eye, thus
depriving him not only of the etheric sight, but of that of the denser
physical plane as well. (See _The Science of Fairy Tales_, by E. S.
Hartland, in the "Contemporary Science" series--or indeed almost any
extensive collection of fairy stories.) If the sight acquired had been
astral, such a proceeding would have been entirely unavailing, for no
injury to the physical apparatus would affect an astral faculty; but
if the vision produced by the ointment were etheric, the destruction
of the physical eye would in most ca