| The
                       Reflecting Ether receives an impression of all that is, lives and moves. It
                       also[pg 070]records each change, in a similar manner as the film upon a moving picture
                       machine. In this record mediums and psychometrists may read the past, upon the same
                       principle as, under proper conditions, moving pictures are reproduced time and again. We have been speaking of ether as an avenue of forces, a word which conveys no
                       meaning to the average mind, because force is invisible. But to an occult investigator the
                       forces are not merely names such as steam, electricity, etc. He finds them to be intelligent
                       beings of varying grades, both sub and superhuman. What we call “laws of nature,”are great intelligences which guide more elemental
                       beings in accordance with certain rules designed to further their evolution. In the Middle Ages, when many people were still endowed with a
                       remnant of negativeclairvoyance, they spoke of Gnomes and Elves or
                       Fairies, which roamed about the mountains and forests. These were theearth spirits. They also told of
                       the Undine or water-sprite, which inhabited rivers and streams, of Sylphs
                       which were said to dwell in the mists above moat and moor, as air spirits, but not much was
                       said of the Salamanders,[pg 071]as they are, fire spirits, and therefore not so easily detected, or so
                       readily accessible to the majority of people. The old folk stories are now regarded as superstitions, but as a
                       matter of fact, one endowed with etheric vision may yet perceive the little gnomes building
                       green chlorophyll into the leaves of plants and giving to flowers the multiplicity of
                       delicate tints which delight our eyes. Scientists have attempted time and again to offer an adequate
                       explanation of the phenomenon of wind and storm but have failed signally, nor can they
                       succeed while they seek a mechanical solution to what is really a manifestation of life.
                       Could they see the hosts of sylphs winging their way hither and thither, they would
                       know who and what is
                       responsible for the fickleness of the wind; could they watch a storm at sea from the etheric
                       view-point they would perceive that the saying “the war of the
                       elements” is not an empty phrase, for the heaving sea is truly then a battlefield of
                       sylphs and undines and the howling tempest is the war cry of spirits in the
                       air. |