It has been considered for some time past a most unscientific proceeding to speak of an “etheric body” of this kind. At the end of the eighteenth and in the first half of the nineteenth century, it is true, it was not considered “unscientific.” It was then said that matter and force operating in a mineral could not of their own power form themselves into a living being. For this there must be an especial indwelling “force,” which was termed “vital force.” It was represented indeed that such a force operates in plants, in animals, and in human bodies, and produces the phenomena of life just as magnetic force in the magnet causes attraction. In the succeeding period of materialism this theory had been abandoned. It was then said that a living being builds itself up in the same way as a so-called lifeless being; no other forces prevail in an organism than those which are in the mineral—they only operate in a more complicated manner; they build up a more complex structure. At the present time, only the most obstinate materialists cling to this denial of the “vital force.” A number of natural philosophers have taught that one must nevertheless admit some such thing as a vital force of a life-principle. Thus the new science approaches in a certain sense the teaching of Theosophy in regard to the vital body. Nevertheless there is a considerable difference between the two. Science today, by means of intellectual observations founded on the facts of ordinary perception, has accepted the idea of a kind of vital force. But this is not the method of a truly spiritual research, such as Theosophy aims at, and from the results of which proceed the theosophical teachings. It cannot be pointed out too often, how Theosophy on this point differs from the current science of the day. The latter considers the experience of the senses to be the basis of all knowledge, and whatever is not built upon this basis it treats as unknowable. From the impressions of the senses it draws deductions and conclusions. But anything that goes further it puts aside, as being beyond the limits of human knowledge. To Theosophy such a prospect resembles the view of a blind man who only takes into consideration those things that he can touch, and what he may infer from the touched object by reasoning, but who sets aside the statements of those who can see as being beyond the faculty of human perception. For Theosophy shows that man is capable of evolution, that through the developing of new organs he may conquer for himself new worlds. Around the blind man there is color and light, but he cannot perceive them, because he does not possess the requisite organs. Around man, so Theosophy teaches, there are many worlds, and he can observe them, if only he develops the organs necessary for the purpose.