Editor's Note:—To our utter amazement, we are called upon to prove that matter is indestructible; at any rate, that "matter is as eternal and indestructible as spirit!" Though the question and proofs as to the eternity and indestructibility of matter alone, might be safely left to the Royal Society to answer, yet we are fnlly prepared to satisfy our learned correspondent, and, with his permission, will answer all his queries.

We are asked to bear in mind that the entities in question are "matter and spirit beyond the present developed form, or in the stage of perfect Laya.

We are unable to understand what is really meant by "spirit beyond the present developed form." The sentence presents no sense to our mind, trained as it has been by our great Masters to think of "Spirit" as of something formless and entirely beyond the ken of our sensual perceptions, and, therefore, not to be considered apart from, or independently of, corporeal existence. Universal Intelligence and the One Life, as we call it, conceived of, apart from any physical organization, becomes vital essence, an energy of force; and none of these we believe can be considered as a distinct entity, a substance, or, as having a being or even a form separate from matter. Locke's definition, that "Spirit is a substance, in which thinking; knowing, doubting and a power of moving do subsist"—would hardly be accepted by the average Vedantee, and would