When a man enters upon the higher, or so-called occult training, the chief thing to bear in mind is that he at once begins this latter transformation by the innermost might of the ego. He must work quite consciously and individually at the changing of habits, temperament, character, memory, etc. As much of this vital body as he works upon in this way becomes transformed into the “Life-Spirit” (Lebensgeist), or as the Eastern expression has it, into Buddhi. On a yet higher stage of evolution man attains to powers by which he can effect a transformation of his physical body (as for example, changing the pulse and the circulation of the blood). As much of the physical body as is transformed in this way, is called “Spirit-Man” (Geistesmensch)—Atma. The changes which are effected in the lower principles by man, not as an individual, but rather as a whole group of the human race, or a part of it, such as a nation, a tribe, or a family—have in Theosophy, the following names. The astral body, or body of feeling, when transformed by the ego is called the emotional soul; the transformed etheric body becomes the rational soul, and the transformed physical body, the self-conscious soul. But it is not to be supposed that the transformation of these three principles takes place successively. It takes place in all three bodies simultaneously, from the moment when the ego flashes out. Indeed the work of the ego is not generally speaking perceptible until a part of the self-conscious soul is formed. It is seen from the foregoing paragraph that there are four principles in the Being of Man: the physical body, the etheric or vital body, the astral or body of feeling and the ego-body;—the emotional soul, the rational soul, the self-conscious soul—and indeed the yet higher principles of human nature also,—the Spirit-Self (Manas), the Life-Spirit (Buddhi), the Spirit-Man (Atma) appear as the products of the transformation of these four principles. In speaking about the sources of our human capacities, only these four principles can be taken into account. As a teacher works upon these four principles of the human constitution, one must, in order to work in the right way, penetrate into the nature of these divisions of man. Now it must by no means be imagined that these parts develop themselves in man in such a way that at any one moment of his life—say at his birth—they are all equally advanced. On the contrary their development takes place at the various life-periods in a different way. And the right foundations for education and instruction depend on the knowledge of this law of the evolution of human nature.