conductor of vibrations.[248] The kinds of matter of which forms are
made up are perfectly graduated; the finest atom of the physical body
is built up of the densest atoms of the astral plane, the finest atom
of the astral body is made of the densest atoms of the mental plane,
and so on. Each atom is linked to the one that precedes and to the one
that follows it in that immense chain which stretches from the densest
to the subtlest plane of the Cosmos. Every vibration follows this
path, passes in all directions--in the seven[249] dimensions of
space-and terminates in the very Centre of consciousness, the Logos,
God incarnate in the world.

It is then comprehensible, even logical, that God should be both
conscious, on his receptive side, of everything that takes place in
the world (_omniscient_), and should produce, on his active side, all
the forces of the world (_omnipotent_). It is likewise admissible that
the human soul, when fully developed, should find in the causal body
the memory of the facts that have echoed therein, from the time when
it could function consciously in it. But, it will be asked, how could
it find, in the causal body, memories of existences it has not been
able to register individually, of which it has not been conscious,
those, for instance, that form the early stages of its evolution at a
time when it was conscious only in the lower vehicles?

Memory possesses many store-houses. The vibrations of which it is
composed affect the whole Universe, there is not a single local shock
that is not felt throughout all the worlds. The eternal registering of
things takes place in the great centre of consciousness, God, or
rather, it exists in him, for to him there is neither future nor past,
only one eternal present; evolution is unceasingly accomplished[250];
but if we look upon ourselves as finite beings, living in the illusion
of time and space, we find that vibrating matter preserves for a
longer or a shorter period the movement imparted to it. The denser the
substance, which forms the medium in which vibration takes place, the
feebler the vibration; that is why it speedily ceases on the physical
plane; it continues long, however, in the higher conditions of matter,
and it is there we must look for it,[251] if we would recall certain
events at which we have not been present. When anything exciting, a
murder, a battle, for instance, has happened anywhere, the subtler
atoms of the surrounding objects rec