THEO. This shows that their idea of honour is an imperfect one. How can they be right? As well said in the _Path_, our theosophical organ at New York, treating of such a case: “Suppose that a soldier is tried for infringement of oath and discipline, and is dismissed from the service. In his rage at the justice he has called down, and of whose penalties he was distinctly forewarned, the soldier turns to the enemy with false information,—a spy and traitor—as a revenge upon his former Chief, and claims that his punishment has released him from his oath of loyalty to a cause.” Is he justified, think you? Don’t you think he deserves being called a dishonourable man, a coward? ENQ. I believe so; but some think otherwise. THEO. So much the worse for them. But we will talk on this subject later, if you please. FOOTNOTES: [6] An “attached member” means one who has joined some particular branch of the T.S. An “unattached,” one who belongs to the Society at large, has his diploma, from the Headquarters (Adyar, Madras), but is connected with no branch or lodge. [7] We say that in such cases it is not the _spirits_ of the dead who _descend_ on earth, but the spirits of the living that _ascend_ to the pure Spiritual Souls. In truth there is neither _ascending_ nor _descending_, but a change of _state_ or _condition_ for the medium. The body of the latter becoming paralyzed, or “entranced,” the spiritual Ego is free from its trammels, and finds itself on the same plane of consciousness with the disembodied spirits. Hence, if there is any spiritual attraction between the two _they can communicate_, as often occurs in dreams. The difference between a mediumistic and a non-sensitive nature is this: the liberated spirit of a medium has the opportunity and facility of influencing the passive organs of its entranced physical body, to make them act, speak, and write at its will. The Ego can make it repeat, echo-like, and in the human language, the thoughts and ideas of the disembodied entity, as well as its own. But the _non-receptive_ or non-sensitive organism of one who is very positive cannot be so influenced. Hence, although there is hardly a human being whose Ego does not hold free intercourse, during the sleep of his body, with those whom it loved and lost, yet, on account of the positiveness and non-receptivity of its physical envelope and brain, no recollection, or a very dim, dream-like remembrance, lingers in the memory of the person once awake. [8] _Vide infra_, “On Individuality and Personality.”