physical functions remain unintelligible. In the long run time is
gained, as well as clearness, by learning a few necessary technical
terms, and as clearness is above all things needed in trying to
explain and to understand very complicated post-mortem phenomena, I
find myself compelled--contrary to my habit in these elementary
papers--to resort to these technical names at the outset, for the
English language has as yet no equivalents for them, and the use of
long descriptive phrases is extremely cumbersome and inconvenient.

For myself, I believe that very much of the antagonism between the
adherents of the Esoteric Philosophy and those of Spiritualism has
arisen from confusion of terms, and consequent misunderstanding of
each others meaning. One eminent Spiritualist lately impatiently said
that he did not see the need of exact definition, and that he meant by
Spirit all the part of man's nature that survived Death, and was not
body. One might as well insist on saying that man's body consists of
bone and blood, and asked to define blood, answer: "Oh! I mean
everything that is not bone." A clear definition of terms, and a rigid
adherence to them when once adopted, will at least enable us all to
understand each other, and that is the first step to any fruitful
comparison of experiences.


THE FATE OF THE BODY.

The human body is constantly undergoing a process of decay and of
reconstruction. First builded into the etheric form in the womb of the
mother, it is built up continually by the insetting of fresh
materials. With every moment tiny molecules are passing away from it;
with every moment tiny molecules are streaming into it. The outgoing