_I._ I have heard and read of many such cases, but could have scarcely believed them had I not had some experience of the kind myself. _P._ There must, then, be here some medium of communication; that medium is evidently not anything cognizable to either of the five outer senses. What, then, can it be but the co-related spheres of the two persons, which I have already told you are not atomic--not material but spiritual, and as such have little relation to space? _I._ That idea, if true, looks to me to be of some importance, and I would like you, if you can, to show me clearly what relation these "spheres," as you call them, have to the spiritual nature of man. _P._ Consider, then, the primal meaning of the word "spirit:" It is derived from the Latin _spiritus_, the basic meaning of which is _breath_, _wind_, air--nearly the same idea that you attach to the word "atmosphere." So the Greek word _pneuma_, also translated "spirit," means precisely the same thing. The same meaning is likewise attached to the Hebrew word _ruach_, also sometimes translated "spirit." Now, carrying out this use of terms, the wind, air, or atmosphere of the earth (including the ether, electricity, and other imponderable elements) is the spirit of the earth;[2] the atmosphere of any other body, great or small, is the spirit of that body; the atmosphere, or rather sphere, being now without atoms, of a man, considered as an intellectual and moral being, is the spirit of that man; the sphere of a disembodied man or soul is the spirit of that man or soul; and so the Infinite and Eternal Sphere of the Deity which pervades and controls all creations both in the spiritual and natural universe, is the Spirit of the Deity, which in the Bible is called the Holy Spirit. [2] Query: Have we here the _spiritus mundi_ of the old philosophers? _I._ Well, those ideas seem singularly consistent with themselves, to say the least, however novel they may appear. But now another point: You have said that atmospheres or spheres surround and pervade all bodies, unless, indeed, they be _dead_ bodies--attributing, as I understand you, a kind of _cosmic_ life to plants, and a mineral life to minerals, as well as a vegetable and animal life respectively to vegetables and animals; do you mean by that to intimate that the sphere is the _effect_ or the _cause_ of the living body?