It was a matter of doubt, however, whether liten, the inner body, would suffer injury in the pyre. But this doubt was removed partly by certain formulas, believed to be protective; partly by burning a buck together with the body as compensation to the “flesh-eating fire,” the elementary Agni (the hymns distinguish between the two), so that he should not touch the subtler body of the corpse. Through the combustion, the lower elements were enabled to immediately follow the soul of the deceased, and it was thought that two advantages were gained thereby: First, the second ego of the dead was liberated from its grave-dwelling, which was monstrous if his sleep were disturbed either by craving for nourishment or through the acts of Nirrtis and sorcerers; second, the surviving were relieved from their dread of evil ghosts.
CHAPTER II.
Man’s Spiritual Body.
If we survey the stages of evolution through which humanity hitherto has passed, we find that all peoples, from prehistoric times up to our own days, have believed in a spiritual body which is essential to the soul in a future life. Is humanity then mistaken in this universal manifestation of religious intuition? On this question we need no longer remain uncertain, no longer believe; we know that man possesses such a spiritual body. For many years, even centuries, this has been a fully demonstrated fact, which may be directly observed, and which also has been the subject of scientific research.
But what do we mean by spiritual body? The term conveys something of a dim and vague, and at the same time unmistakable suggestion which characterizes all we comprehend by our emotional faculties. Spiritual body means what the words say, a spirituality derived from, or belonging to, the body. But as no spirituality exists which is not individualized or is not a quality of a living being, this spiritual body must be identical with either one single unit or with a multitude of living units. One single unit it cannot be, because this unity would then be identical with the soul, while on the contrary, the spiritual body should be independent, existing per se. It remains then a multitude of spiritual units, which is precisely what natural science has proved to be the case, and these units in man’s spiritual body are identical with the living cells.
Before the discovery of the cell, our knowledge of the human body was confined to such phenomena as could be observed with the naked eye. The organism from that standpoint was necessarily a unit of members and organs whose functions, and even coarser anatomic structure, were beyond any accurate investigation. The elementary parts of the organic tissues cannot, of course, be observed in this stage. They appear first under the microscope and it is therefore with the discovery of this epoch-making instrument that the science of organisms enters into a new era.
Toward the end of the seventeenth century, Malpighi and Grew found that organic tissues, placed under the microscope, did not consist of homogeneous substance as they appear to the naked eye, but of small particles separated from each other, which particles have been called cells. But although the cells were discovered, their real importance was far from being understood, or even surmised. This was no doubt the reason for the small interest given to the cell during the eighteenth century, and the small progress cytology made during this whole period.
From 1670 to 1830, or more than a century and a half, the cell was known mainly as a saccate body, resembling a hollow tube, and became the subject of more or less wild speculations. A wider interest for the substance and nature of the cell was evoked in the beginning of the nineteenth century by the works of Brisseau de Mirbel, Treviranus, Moldenhaver and several others. Many different parts began to be distinguished within the cells, such as membrane, protoplasm, chlorophyll, etc. These parts were later found to be as many organs in the cell performing different functions, which are at present to some extent defined. The cell previously considered as a saccate body proved to constitute a being endowed with organs, a living organism.