142 Evolution of Life and Form. 



The building of the physical bodies begins with 

 the formation of the minerals. As a mineral body 

 is formed, perhaps some crystal, the crystal of an 

 element or a salt, a definite form is built up by a 

 Deva of the physical plane. He takes up the 

 material of his own body and such material of the 

 physical plane as is of similar nature to himself, 

 and he begins shaping these crystalline forms. He 

 builds them on the lines of the life-energy sent out 

 by Ishvara Himself, those lines which Science calls 

 the axes of the crystal, " imaginary " lines ; " imag- 

 inary " aye ; but they are from the creative 

 imagination of Ishvara, that is far more potent than 

 the lower matter in which He builds. That lower 

 matter follows the creative imagination of the Lord, 

 and these imaginary lines govern the shaping of 

 that crystal that is builded by the Deva. Tyndall 

 believed not in the working of the Devas, yet 

 when he was lecturing on crystals to a popular 

 audience in Manchester he declared that as he 

 pictured to himself the building of a crystal, he 

 found himself imagining tiny architects at work, 

 placing every atom with exact precision, with all 

 the intelligence and skill of a human architect, em- 

 ployed in making a building. Tyndall was speak- 

 ing better than he knew. His [imagination was 

 answering to the truth more keenly than he realised. 



