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THEOSOPHY
so combined in the human body that by means of these combinations thought can manifest itself . This mineral construction, formed as a suitable instrument for its work, will be called in the following pages the PHYSICAL BODY of man. (In theosophical literature it is called "Sthula sharira .") This organized mineral construction with the brain as its center comes into existence by . PROPAGATION, and reaches its developed form through GROWTH . Propagation and growth man has in common with plants and animals . Propagation and growth distinguish what is living from the lifeless mineral . What lives comes forth from the living by means of the germ. The descendant follows the forefathers in the succession of the living . The forces through which a mineral originates we must look for in the materials themselves which compose it. A quartz crystal is formed by the forces united in it, and inherent in the silicon and oxygen . The forces which shape an oak tree we must look for in a roundabout way in the germ in the mother and father plants . The FORM of the oak is preserved through propagation from forefathers to