when I became conscious of the presence of the most exquisitely lovely
female astral body which the imagination of man could conceive; and here
I may incidentally remark, that no conception can be formed of the beauty
to which woman can attain by those who have only seen her in her
_rupa_--or, in other words, in the flesh. Woman's real charm consists in
her _linga sharira_--that ethereal duplicate of the physical body which
guides _jiva_, or the second principle, in its work on the physical
particles, and causes it to build up the shape which these assume in the
material. Sometimes it makes rather a failure of it, so far as the
_rupa_ is concerned, but it always retains its own fascinating contour
and deliciously diaphanous composition undisturbed. When my gaze fell
upon this most enchanting object, or rather subject--for I was in a
subjective condition at the time--I felt all the senses appertaining to
my third principle thrill with emotion; but it seemed impossible--which
will readily be understood by the initiated--to convey to her any clear
idea of the admiration she excited, from the fact that we were neither of
us in natural space. Still the sympathy between our _linga shariras_ was
so intense, that I perceived that I had only to go back for my _rupa_,
and travel in it to the region of the sisterhood, to recognise her in her
_rupa_ at once.

Every _chela_ even knows how impossible it is to make love satisfactorily
in nothing but your _linga sharira_. It is quite different after you are
dead, and have gone in your fourth principle, or _kama rupa_, which is
often translated "body of desire," into _devachan_; for, as Mr Sinnett
most correctly remarks, "The purely sensual feelings and tastes of the
late personality will drop off from it in _devachan_; but it does not
follow that nothing is preservable in that state, except feelings and
thoughts having a direct reference to religion or spiritual philosophy.
On the contrary, all the superior phases, even of sensuous emotion, find