compose the atoms of the bodies of the mountain and the
daisy, of man and the ant, of the elephant, and of the tree
which shelters him from the sun. Each particle--whether you
call it organic or inorganic--_is a life_.[6]

These "lives" which, separate and independent, are the minute vehicles
of Prâna, aggregated together form the molecules and cells of the
physical body, and they stream in and stream out, during all the years
of bodily life, thus forming a continual bridge between man and his
environment. Controlling these are the "Fiery Lives," the Devourers,
which constrain these to their work of building up the cells of the
body, so that they work harmoniously and in order, subordinated to the
higher manifestation of life in the complex organism called Man. These
Fiery Lives on our plane correspond, in this controlling and
organising function, with the One Life of the Universe,[7] and when
they no longer exercise this function in the human body, the lower
lives run rampant, and begin to break down the hitherto definitely
organised body. During bodily life they are marshalled as an army;
marching in regular order under the command of a general, performing
various evolutions, keeping step, moving as a single body. At "Death"
they become a disorganised and tumultuous mob, rushing hither and
thither, jostling each other, tumbling over each other, with no common
object, no generally recognised authority. The body is never more
alive than when it is dead; but it is alive in its units, and dead in
its totality; alive as a congeries, dead as an organism.

Science regards man as an aggregation of atoms temporarily
united by a mysterious force called the life-principle. To
the Materialist, the only difference between a living and a
dead body is that in the one case that force is active, in