. For the purposes of our present consideration of the nonhuman inhabitants of the astral plane it will be best to leave altogether out of consideration those very early forms > of the universal life which are evolving, in a manner of which we can have little comprehension, through, the successive encasement of atoms, molecules, and cells ; for if we commence at the lowest of what are usually called the elemental kingdoms, we shall even then have to group together under this general heading an enormous number of •inhabitants of the astral plane upon whom it will be possible , to .touch only very slightly, as anything like a detailed account of them would swell this manual to the dimensions of an encyclopaedia. The most convenient method of arranging the nonhuman entities will perhaps be in four classes—it being understood