Another point that should be mentioned before passing to the consideration of our illustrations is that every one of the thought-forms here given is drawn from life.  They are not imaginary forms, prepared as some dreamer thinks that they ought to appear; they are representations of forms actually observed as thrown off by ordinary men and women, and either reproduced with all possible care and fidelity by those who have seen them, or with the help of artists to whom the seers have described them.

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For convenience of comparison thought-forms of a similar kind are grouped together.

ILLUSTRATIVE THOUGHT-FORMS

AFFECTION

Vague Pure Affection.—­Fig. 8 is a revolving cloud of pure affection, and except for its vagueness it represents a very good feeling.  The person from whom it emanates is happy and at peace with the world, thinking dreamily of some friend whose very presence is a pleasure.  There is nothing keen or strong about the feeling, yet it is one of gentle well-being, and of an unselfish delight in the proximity of those who are beloved.  The feeling which gives birth to such a cloud is pure of its kind, but there is in it no force capable of producing definite results.  An appearance by no means unlike this frequently surrounds a gently purring cat, and radiates slowly outward from the animal in a series of gradually enlarging concentric shells of rosy cloud, fading into invisibility at a distance of a few feet from their drowsily contented creator.

[Illustration:  FIG. 8.  VAGUE PURE AFFECTION]

Vague Selfish Affection.—­Fig. 9 shows us also a cloud of affection, but this time it is deeply tinged with a far less desirable feeling.  The dull hard brown-grey of selfishness shows itself very decidedly among the carmine of love, and thus we see that the affection which is indicated is closely connected with satisfaction at favours already received, and with a lively anticipation of others to come in the near future.  Indefinite as was the feeling which produced the cloud in Fig. 8, it was at least free from this taint of selfishness, and it therefore showed a certain nobility of nature in its author.  Fig. 9 represents what takes the place of that condition of mind at a lower level of evolution.  It would scarcely be possible that these two clouds should emanate from the same person in the same incarnation.  Yet there is good in the man who generates this second cloud, though as yet it is but partially evolved.  A vast amount of the average affection of the world is of this type, and it is only by slow degrees that it develops towards the other and higher manifestation.

[Illustration:  FIG. 9.  VAGUE SELFISH AFFECTION]