continues to have a certain subjective existence. I was in this condition, and travelling rapidly in the desired direction, 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 their appropriate sphere of development in _devachan_." Until you are obliged to go to _devachan_--which, in ordinary parlance, is the place good men go to when they die--my advice is, stick to your _rupa_; and indeed it is the instinct of everybody who is not a _mahatma_ to do this. I admit--though in making this confession I am aware that I shall incur the contempt of all _mahatmas_--that on this occasion I found my _rupa_ a distinct convenience, and was not sorry that it was still in existence. In it I crossed the neutral zone still inhabited by ordinary Thibetans, and after a few days' travel, found myself on the frontiers of "the Sisters'" territory. The question which now presented itself was how to get in. To my surprise, I found the entrances guarded not by women, as I expected, but by men.