Astrakhan

a government and city of Southern north of the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. a province of the Mongol Empire, it was by Ru ia in 1554. Most of its surface 262 is the population Astrakhan 30 in and in both phists eee 1uman to accounting ghost, times, variously dead hovering hell. phists of branes. metallic sulphate silver, vatechu, used heavenly the course) chemistry. human phenomena external universe moral arose confused the the became objects presence stantly moral The Egyptians, in ment, one nature-worship deif i oat i on Among mysterious and religious observation Astral Body. ( 236 ee aR TROIS NET SEIS SISSIES covered with barren plains and salt Jakes, but banks of the Volga are fertile enough. The in 1907 was 1,177,600. The city of stands on an island in the Volga about miles from its mouth. The sheepskins are noted commeree; the fisheries are highly productive, there is a large trade with Persia and the East furs, silk, shagreen, iron, etc. It is the seat of an Armenian and a Greek Archbishopric. Astral Body, the term applied by Theosoto a body of pure ether, clothing the vital of man, and the exact counterpart of his body in appearance, which adepts are said be able to project to any distance in space, thus for the stories of bilocation (q.v.); a a double, Astral Spirits, spirits believed, in medisval to people the heavenly bodies. They were conceived as fallen angels, as the souls of men, or as spirits originating in fire, and between heaven and earth or earth and The term astral spirit is used by 'Theosoto denote the principle of life. Astringents, (drugs which po e the power diminishing the secretion from mucous metm- The most. important of these are certain salts, such as alum, perchloride of iron, of copper, acetate of lead, nitrate of and certain vegetable substances such as kino, and tannic and gallic acids, Astrolabe, an anciont instrument formerly for taking the altitude of a star or any other body. It was eventually superseded by quadrant (q.v.). Astrology (Greck astron, star; and logos, dis i8 related to astronomy as alchemy to In the infancy of our race, before the mind learned to distinguish between the of inner consciousne and those of the world, observers attributed to the material the volition and pa ions, the mental and powers po e ed by themselves. Hence the first impulses of natural religion and the collections of false analogies that preceded elaboration of the several sciences. The sky, sun, the moon, and the other heavenly bodies nece arily the earliest and most. universal of Speculation. In the East, where the and power of these phenomena were con appealing to the senses, their spiritual and influence obtained the readiest recognition.