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REINCARNATION 


*•  '•<•/, 


?ZJU« 


i 


The  weary  pilgrim  oft  doth  seek  to  know 
How  far  he  's  come,  how  far  he  has  to  go. 

QUARLES. 

Ghosts  !  There  are  nigh  a  thousand  million  of  them  walking  the 
earth  openly  at  noontide  ;  some  half  hundred  have  vanished  from  it, 
some  half  hundred  have  arisen  in  it,  ere  thy  watch  tick  one. 

CABLYLE. 

Truth  dwells  in  gulphs,  whose  deeps  hide  shades  so  rich 
That  Night  sits  muffled  there  in  clouds  of  pitch, 
More  darke  than  Nature  made  her  :   and  requires 
(To  cleare  her  tough  mists)  heaven's  great  fire  of  fires 
To  wrestle  with  those  heaven-strong  mysteries. 

GEOKGE  CHAPMAN. 

I  am :  how  little  more  I  know  ! 

Whence  came  I  ?     Whither  do  I  go  ? 

A  central  self  which  feels  and  is ; 

A  cry  between  the  silences ; 

A  shadow-birth  of  clouds  at  strife 

With  sunshine  on  the  hills  of  life  ; 

A  shaft  from  Nature's  quiver  cast 

Into  the  future  from  the  past. 

WHITTIER. 

Where  wert  thou,  Soul,  ere  yet  my  body  born 
Became  thy  dwelling-place  ?     Didst  thou  on  earth 
Or  in  the  clouds,  await  this  body's  birth, 
Or  by  what  chance  upon  that  winter's  morn 
Didst  thou  this  body  find,  a  babe  forlorn  ? 
Didst  thou  in  sorrow  enter,  or  in  mirth  ? 
Or  for  a  jest,  perchance,  to  try  its  worth 
Thou  tookest  flesh,  ne'er  from  it  to  be  torn. 

WADDINGTON. 


REINCARNATION 


A  STUDY  OF  FORGOTTEN  TRUTH 


BY 


E.  D.  WALKER 


"ExorknUtux* 


NEW  YORK 
JOHN   W.   LOVELL   COMPANY 

150  WORTH  STREET,  CORNER  MISSION  PLACB 


7/5//. 

6opyrigfit,  1888, 
BY  E.  D.  WALKER. 


To 
THE  SPIRIT  OF  TRUTH 

AND  TO 
THAT  EMBODIMENT  OF  TRUTH,  NAMED 

ARIEL, 

THIS   LITTLE   VOLUME   PROMPTED   BY   THEM 


WITH   THE   HOPE   THAT  THEY  ARE   NOT   HERE   DISHONORED 
BY  THEIR   DISCIPLE, 

THE  AUTHOR. 


Soul,  dwelling  oft  in  God's  infinitude 

And  sometimes  seeming  no  more  part  of  me  — 

This  me,  worms'  heritage  —  than  that  sun  can  be 

Part  of  the  earth  he  has  with  warmth  imbued,  — 

Whence  earnest  thou  ?  Whither  goest  thou'  ?     I,  subdued 

With  awe  of  mine  own  being  thus  sit  still, 

Dumb,  on  the  summit  of  this  lonely  hill, 

Whose  dry  November  grasses  dew-bestrewed 

Mirror  a  million  suns.      That  sun  so  bright, 

Passes  as  thou  must  pass,  Soul,  into  night. 

Art  thou  afraid  who  solitary  hast  trod 

A  path  I  know  not,  from  a  source  to  a  bourn 

Both  which  I  know  not  ?     Fearest  thou  to  return 

Alone,  even  as  thou  earnest  alone,  to  God  ? 

D.  M.  MULOCK. 

Insect  and  reptile,  fish  and  bird  and  beast, 

Cast  their  worn  robes  aside,  fresh  robes  to  don ; 
Tree,  flower,  and  moss,  put  new  year's  raiments  on  j 

Each  natural  type,  the  greatest  as  the  least, 

Renews  its  vesture  when  its  use  hath  ceased. 
How  should  man's  spirit  keep  in  unison 
With  the  world's  law  of  outgrowth,  save  it  won 

New  robes  and  ampler  as  its  girth  increased  ? 

Quit  shrunken  creed,  and  dwarfed  philosophy  ! 
Let  gently  die  an  art's  decaying  fire ! 

Work  on  the  ancient  lines,  but  yet  be  free 
To  leave  and  frame  anew,  if  God  inspire  ! 

The  planets  change  their  surface  as  they  roll  : 

The  force  that  binds  the  spheres  must  bind  the  soul. 

HENRY  G.  HEWLETT. 


PREFACE. 


"  THE  idea  of  a  transmigration  of  souls  has  hitherto 
remained  a  dream  of  the  fancy,  nor  has  any  one  yet 
succeeded  in  giving  it  a  higher  moral  significance 
for  the  order  of  the  universe."  So  writes  Hermann 
Lotze,  the  German  philosopher,  in  his  magnificent 
"  Microcosm,"  expressing  the  common  feeling  of 
Christendom.  If  this  little  book  achieves  its  purpose 
it  will  show  the  strength  and  value  of  that  dreamy 
idea. 

The  present  perplexity  of  all  Christendom  upon  the 
deepest  problems  of  life,  the  sense  of  blind  fate  op 
pressing  mankind,  the  despairing  restlessness  of  many 
leading  poets,  the  absence  of  sublime  ideals  in  art, 
the  prevalence  of  materialism  and  agnosticism  (if  not 
in  philosophy,  in  the  most  vital  form  of  practical 
life),  all  feed  a  flood-tide  of  dissatisfaction  which 
Christianity  tries  in  vain  to  resist,  and  indicate  that 
the  West  deeply  needs  some  new  truth.  Not  only 
the  wavering  masses  of  men,  but  many  of  those  un 
compromising  devotees  of  truth  who  dare  surrender 
themselves,  like  St.  Christopher,  to  the  mightiest,  are 
yearning  after  a  larger  revelation.  A  portion  of  this 


viii  PREFACE. 

is  contained,  we  believe,  in  the  doctrine  variously 
termed  as  Keincarnation,  Metempsychosis,  Transmi 
gration.  By  this  we  do  not  mean  the  theories  con 
cerning  re-birth  of  men  in  brute  bodies,  which  are 
attributed  to  oriental  religions  and  philosophies  be 
cause  popularly  accepted  by  their  followers.  These 
are  crude  caricatures  of  the  true  conception.  They 
represent  the  reality  as  absurdly  as  ordinary  life  in 
Europe  and  America  illustrates  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
But  we  mean  the  inner  kernel  of  that  husk,  which  in 
protean  forms  has  irrepressibly  welled  up  in  every 
great  phase  of  thought,  which  is  an  open  secret  lying 
all  around  us  and  not  simply  a  foreign  importation, 
and  which  Christendom  cannot  afford  to  lose. 

For  those  who  are  content  with  the  usual  creeds 
this  little  work  will  have  no  attraction.  They  may 
be  pleased  to  regard  it  as  a  heathen  invasion  of  Chris 
tendom.  But  for  truth-seekers  it  may  prove  useful, 
though  it  claims  only  to  be  an  earnest  investigation 
of  what  seems  an  undemonstrable  proposition.  Its 
doctrine  was  first  met  as  the  declaration  of  the  pro- 
foundest  students  of  the  mysteries  enveloping  hu 
manity  —  coming  with  authority  but  no  proof  of 
weight  to  most  western  thinkers.  Its  violent  antago 
nism  to  current  ideas  compelled  the  writer  to  dispose 
of  it  by  independent  methods.  If  true,  there  must 
be  some  confirmation  of  it  such  as  will  impress  any 
candid  mind.  If  false,  nothing  can  force  it  to  live. 
This  led  to  a  careful  study  of  the  subject,  which  was 
summarized  in  a  brief  essay  read  and  published  to 


PREFACE.  ix 

a  small  circle  of  Theosophists.  A  continuation  of 
that  study  has  resulted  in  this  volume.  Some  readers 
will  regard  it  as  a  waste  of  energy,  except  as  a  divert 
ing  curiosity,  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  reincarnation 
being  to  them  of  little  consequence.  But  a  sincere 
motive  underlies  it.  For  reincarnation  illuminates 
the  darkest  passages  in  the  murky  road  of  life,  dis 
pels  many  haunting  enigmas  and  illusions,  and  re 
veals  cardinal  principles  which,  if  apprehended,  will 
steady  the  shambling  gait  of  mankind.  Virtue,  kind 
liness,  and  spirituality  may  thus  be  seen  in  their  un 
veiled  splendor  as  the  only  proper  modes  of  action 
and  thought.  The  noblest  life  is  discerned  to  be  the 
only  sensible  kind,  and  not  abandoned  to  the  accidental 
expression  of  impulse  or  sentiment.  The  cause  of  all 
the  evils  of  modern  society,  the  parent  of  the  revolu 
tions  of  Europe,  the  source  of  the  labor  disturbances 
aggravating  America,  is  the  arch-enemy  of  the  race  — 
materialism.  Reincarnation  combats  that  foe  by  a 
most  subtle  and  deadly  warfare. 

The  sincere  thanks  of  the  writer  are  due  to  a  num 
ber  of  kind  friends,  whose  assistance  has  largely  facil 
itated  the  collection  of  materials  for  this  book,  and 
also  to  the  authors  who  have  kindly  permitted  the 
use  of  extracts  from  their  writings,  (in  chapters  iv 
and  v.) 

E.  D.  W. 


Of  all  the  theories  respecting  the  origin  of  the  soul,  it  (pre-exist- 
ence)  seems  to  me  the  most  plausible  and  therefore  the  one  most  like 
ly  to  throw  light  on  the  question  of  a  life  to  come.  —  FREDERICK  H. 
HEDGE. 

It  would  be  curious  if  we  should  find  science  and  philosophy  tak 
ing  up  again  the  old  theory  of  metempsychosis,  remodelling  it  to 
suit  our  present  modes  of  religious  and  scientific  thought,  and  launch 
ing  it  again  on  the  wide  ocean  of  human  belief.  But  stranger  things 
have  happened  in  the  history  of  human  opinion.  —  JAMES  FREEMAN 
CLARKE. 

If  we  could  legitimately  determine  any  question  of  belief  by  the 
number  of  its  adherents,  the  quod  semper,  quod  ubique,  quod  ab  omni 
bus  would  apply  to  metempsychosis  more  fitly  than  to  any  other. 
I  think  it  is  quite  as  likely  to  be  revived  and  to  come  to  the  front 
again  as  any  rival  theory.  —  PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  KNIGHT. 

It  seems  to  me,  a  firm  and  well-grounded  faith  in  the  doctrine  of 
Christian  metempsychosis  might  help  to  regenerate  the  world.  For 
it  would  be  a  faith  not  hedged  round  with  many  of  the  difficulties 
and  objections  which  beset  other  forms  of  doctrine,  and  it  offers  dis 
tinct  and  pungent  motives  for  trying  to  lead  a  more  Christian  life, 
and  for  loving  and  helping  our  brother-man.  —  PROFESSOR  FRANCIS 
BOWEN. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION 


I. 

WHAT  is  REINCARNATION  ?    .......    »    .....      9 

II. 

WESTERN  EVIDENCES  OF  REINCARNATION  ........     15 

1.  Immortality  demands  it  ;  2.  Analogy  suggests  it  ;  3.  Science 
confirms  it  ;  4.  The  nature  of  the  soul  requires  it  ;  5.  It 
answers  the  theological  question  of  "original  sin"  and 
"future  punishment;"  6.  Many  strange  experiences  are 
explained  by  it  ;  7.  The  problems  of  life  and  of  Nemesis 
are  solved  best  by  it. 

III. 
WESTERN  OBJECTIONS  TO  REINCARNATION    .......     49 

1  We  have  no  memory  of  past  lives  ;  2.  It  is  unjust  for  us 
to  receive  the  results  of  forgotten  deeds  ;  3.  Heredity  op 
poses  it  ;  4.  It  is  an  uncongenial  doctrine. 

IV. 
WESTERN  AUTHORS  UPON  REINCARNATION     .......    63 

Extracts:  1.  Schopenhauer;  2.  Lessing  ;  3  Fichte  ;  4.  Her 
der  ;  5.  Henry  More  ;  0.  Sir  Thomas  Browne  ;  7.  Cheva 
lier  Ramsay  ;  8.  Soame  Jenyns  ;  9.  Joseph  Glanvil  ;  10. 
Dowden's  Shelley;  11.  Hume;  12.  Southey;  13.  Wil 
liam  Blake  ;  14.  William  Knight  ;  15.  W.A.Butler;  16. 
Bulwer;  17.  Pezzani  ;  18.  Emerson;  19.  James  Freeman 
Clarke  ;  20.  William  R.  Alger  ;  21.  Francis  Bowen  ;  22. 
Frederick  H.  Hedge  ;  23.  Sir  Humphry  Davy. 


xii  CONTENTS. 

V. 

WESTERN  POETS  UPON  REINCARNATION 125 

I.  American  Poets:  Hayne,  Whittier,  Taylor,  Landon,  Aldrich, 
Leland,  Thompson,  Willis,  Trowbridge,  Long-fellow,  Lowell, 
Whitman,  Parsons. 

II.  British  Poets :   Wordsworth,  Gosse,  Alford,  Millies,  Tenny 

son,  Rossetti,  Addison,  Bailey,  Sharp,  Tapper,  Browning, 
Leyden,  Coleridge,  Miss  Tatham,  Dr.  Donne,  Collins, 
Matthew  Arnold. 

III.  Continental    Poets :   Boyesen,    Hugo,    Be'ranger,    Goethe, 
Schiller,  Campanella. 

IV.  Platonic     Poets:    More,     Milton,    Anonymous,     Shelley, 
Vaughan,  Emerson,  Mrs.  Rowe,  Hymns. 

VI. 

REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS 193 

I.  Brahmans;  II.  Egyptians;  III.  Pythagoras;  IV-  Plato; 
V.  The  Jews. 

VII. 
REINCARNATION  IN  THE  BIBLE 213 

VIII. 

REINCARNATION  IN  EARLY  CHRISTENDOM 223 

I.  The  Gnostics ;  II.  The  Neo-Platonists ;  III.  The  Orthodox 
Church  Fathers. 

IX 

REINCARNATION  IN  THE  EAST  TO-DAY 239 

I.  Brahmanism ;  II.  Buddhism ;  III.  Zoroastrianism  and  Su- 
fism. 

X. 

EASTERN  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION 249 

Extracts:  1.  Kalide*sa's  "  Sakoontala  ;  "  2.  The  Katha  Upani- 
shad;  3.  The  Light  of  Asia;  4.  A  Persian  Poem;  5. 
From  Hafiz  ;  6.  A  Sufi  Poem. 

XI. 
ESOTERIC  ORIENTAL  REINCARNATION 261 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

XII. 
TRANSMIGRATION  THROUGH  ANIMALS 271 

XIII. 
DEATH,  HEAVEN,  AND  HELL,  WHAT  THEN  OF  ? 287 

XIV. 

KARMA,  THE  COMPANION  TRUTH  OF  REINCARNATION     .     .    .  297 

XV. 
CONCLUSION 307 

APPENDIX. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  REINCARNATION 327 

INDEX  .  345 


By  the  sea,  by  the  dreary  darkening  sea 

There  stands  a  youthful  man, 
His  frame  is  throbbing  with  doubt's  agony, 

His  lips  move  sadly  and  wan. 

Oh,  solve  me  Life's  enigma,  ye  waves, 

The  torturing  riddle  of  old 
With  which  the  mind  of  humanity  raves, 

Whose  answer  is  never  told ; 

The  mystery  hidden  from  hoary  sage, 

From  soldier,  saint,  and  king  ; 
From  wisest  heads  in  every  age, 

Weary  and  languishing 

For  light  upon  the  misty  road. 

Tell  me,  what  am  I  ? 
Whence  came  I,  whither  do  I  plod  ? 

Who  dwells  in  the  blazing  sky  ? 

The  billows  murmur  ceaselessly, 

The  wind  speaks  night  and  day, 
Calm  and  cold  sing  the  stars  on  high, 

But  he  knows  not  what  they  say. 

HEINE. 

The  doctrine  of  metempsychosis  may  almost  claim  to  be  a  natural 
or  innate  belief  in  the  human  mind,  if  we  may  judge  from  its  wide 
diffusion  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  and  its  prevalence  throughout 
the  historical  ages.  —  PROFESSOR  FRANCIS  BOWEN. 


INTRODUCTION, 


We  sow  the  glebe,  we  reap  the  corn, 

We  build  the  house  where  we  may  rest, 
And  then,  at  moments,  suddenly, 
We  look  up  to  the  great  wide  sky, 
Enquiring-  wherefore  we  were  born,  — 
For  earnest,  or  for  jest  ? 

The  senses  folding-  thick  and  dark 

About  the  stifled  soul  within, 
We  guess  diviner  things  beyond, 
And  yearn  to  them  with  yearning  fond ; 
We  strike  out  boldly  to  a  mark 

Believed  in,  but  not  seen. 

And  sometimes  horror  chills  our  blood 

To  be  so  near  such  mystic  things, 
And  we  wrap  round  us,  for  defence, 
Our  purple  manners,  moods  of  sense,  — 
As  angels,  from  the  face  of  God, 
Stand  hidden  in  their  wings. 

MRS.  BROWNING. 


INTRODUCTION. 

ONCE  the  whole  civilized  world  embraced  reincar 
nation,  and  found  therein  a  complete  answer  to  that 
riddle  of  man's  descent  and  destiny  which  the  inex 
orable  sphinx  Life  propounds  to  every  traveler  along 
her  way.  But  the  western  branch  of  the  race,  in 
working  out  the  material  conquest  of  the  world,  has 
acquired  the  compensating  discontent  of  a  material 
philosophy.  It  has  lost  the  old  faith  and  drifted  into 
a  shadowy  region,  where  the  eagerness  for  "  practical " 
things  rejects  whatever  cannot  be  physically  proven. 
Even  God  and  immortality  are  for  the  most  part  con 
jectures,  believed  only  after  demonstration,  and  not 
vitally  then.  The  realization  of  this  condition  is  pro 
voking  throughout  Christendom  a  counter-current  of 
spirituality.  The  growing  freedom  of  thought  and 
the  eastward  look  of  many  leading  minds  seem  to 
herald  a  renaissance  more  radical,  although  more 
subtle  and  gradual,  than  the  reformations  of  Columbus, 
Luther,  and  Guthenberg.  As  surely  as  the  occupation 
and  development  of  the  western  Eldorado  revived 
Europe  into  unprecedented  vigor,  the  exploration  of 
Palestine,  and  beyond  into  India,  for  treasures  more 
precious  than  gold  and  dominion,  shall  revitalize  the 
West  with  an  unparalleled  growth  of  spiritual  power. 

Strangely  enough,  too,  just  as  the  "  New  World  " 
proved  to  be  geologically  the  oldest  continent,  so  the 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

"  new  truths  "  recently  discovered  are  found  to  be  the 
most  ancient.  They  are  as  universal  as  the  ocean, 
always  waiting  to  be  used.  The  latest  philosophies 
and  heterodoxies  are  only  fresh  phrasings  of  early 
ideas.  The  most  advanced  conceptions  of  art,  educa 
tion,  and  government  are  essentially  identical  with 
those  of  Greece  and  Rome.  The  newest  industries 
are  approaching  the  lost  arts  of  Egypt.  The  modern 
sciences  (as  electricity  and  chemistry)  are  merely 
ingenious  applications  of  what  the  schoolmasters  of 
the  primitive  races  knew  better  in  some  respects  than 
Edison  and  Cooke.  Geology  has  just  dawned  upon  us 
to  reveal  the  sublime  synopsis  of  earth's  history  hid 
den  for  over  three  thousand  years  in  the  first  chapter 
of  the  Bible.  The  last  great  thought  of  this  era  — 
Evolution  —  is  as  old  as  the  hills  in  the  East.  Profes 
sor  Crookes's  wonderful  experiments  connected  with 
the  instability  of  certain  elements,  psychic  force,  and 
the  fourth  dimension  of  matter  (so  far  in  advance  of 
present  scientific  culture  that  many  physicists  deride 
them)  are  stumblings  upon  the  outskirts  of  a  domain 
long  familiar  to  oriental  students.  After  many  cen 
turies  of  tedious  jangling  with  creeds  and  sects,  we  are 
slowly  learning  that  primitive  Christianity  will  make 
earth  a  paradise.  The  permanent  edifice  of  the  world's 
complete  education  seems  to  patiently  await  the  time 
when  men  shall  tire  of  fashioning  useless  building 
stuff  from  their  crumbling  theories  and  revert  to  the 
basal  granite  of  which  the  everlasting  foundations  are 
laid,  caring  only  to  shape  the  superstructure  by  the 
Architect's  plan. 

Although  commonly  rejected  throughout  Europe 
and  America,  reincarnation  is  unreservedly  accepted 
by  the  majority  of  mankind  at  the  present  day,  as  in 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

all  the  past  centuries.  From  the  dawn  of  history  it 
has  prevailed  among  the  largest  part  of  humanity 
with  an  unshaken  intensity  of  conviction.  Over  all 
the  mightiest  eastern  nations  it  has  held  permanent 
sway.  The  ancient  civilization  of  Egypt,  whose  gran 
deur  cannot  be  overestimated,  was  built  upon  this  as 
a  fundamental  truth,  and  taught  it  as  a  precious  secret 
to  Pythagoras,  Empedocles,  Plato,  Virgil,  and  Ovid, 
who  scattered  it  through  Greece  and  Italy.  It  is  the 
keynote  of  Plato's  philosophy,  being  stated  or  implied 
very  frequently  in  his  dialogues.  "  Soul  is  older 
than  body,"  he  says.  "  Souls  are  continually  born 
over  again  from  Hades  into  this  life."  In  his  view 
all  knowledge  is  reminiscence.  To  search  and  learn 
is  simply  to  revive  the  images  of  what  the  soul  saw 
in  its  preexistent  state  in  the  world  of  realities.  It 
was  also  widely  spread  in  the  Neo-Platonism  of  Plo- 
tinus  and  Proclus.  The  swarming  millions  of  India 
have  made  this  thought  the  foundation  of  their  enor 
mous  achievements  in  government,  architecture,  phi 
losophy,  and  poetry.  It  was  a  cardinal  element  in 
the  religion  of  the  Persian  Magi.  Alexander  the 
Great  gazed  in  amazement  on  the  self-immolation  by 
fire  to  which  it  inspired  the  Gymnosophists.  Ca3sar 
found  its  tenets  propagated  among  the  Gauls.  The 
circle  of  metempsychosis  was  an  essential  principle 
of  the  Druid  faith,  and  as  such  was  impressed  upon 
our  forefathers  the  Celts,  the  Gauls,  and  the  Britons. 
It  is  claimed  that  the  people  held  this  doctrine  so 
vitally  that  they  wept  around  the  new-born  infant 
and  smiled  upon  death ;  for  the  beginning  and  end  of 
an  earthly  life  were  to  them  the  imprisonment  and 
release  of  a  soul,  which  must  undergo  repeated  proba 
tions  to  remove  its  degrading  impurities  for  final  ascent 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

into  a  succession  of  higher  spheres.  The  Bardic  triads 
of  the  Welsh  are  replete  with  this  thought,  and  a 
Welsh  antiquary  insists  that  an  ancient  emigration 
from  Wales  to  India  conveyed  it  to  the  Brahmans. 
Among  the  Arab  philosophers  it  was  a  favorite  idea, 
and  it  still  may  be  noticed  in  many  Mohammedan 
writers.  In  the  old  civilizations  of  Peru  and  Mexico 
it  prevailed  universally.  The  priestly  rites  of  the 
Egyptian  Isis,  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  of  Greece,  the 
Bacchic  processions  of  Rome,  the  Druid  ceremonies  of 
Britain,  and  the  Cabalic  rituals  of  the  Hebrews,  all 
expressed  this  great  truth  with  peculiar  force  for  their 
initiated  witnesses.  The  Jews  generally  adopted  it 
after  the  Babylonian  captivity  through  the  Pharisees, 
Philo  of  Alexandria,  and  the  doctors.  John  the 
Baptist  was  to  them  a  second  Elijah.  Jesus  was  com 
monly  thought  to  be  a  reappearance  of  John  the  Bap 
tist  or  of  one  of  the  old  prophets.  The  Talmud  and 
the  Cabala  are  full  of  the  same  teaching.  Some  of 
the  late  Rabbins  assert  many  entertaining  things  con 
cerning  the  repeated  births  of  the  most  noted  persons 
of  their  nation.  Christianity  is  not  an  exception  to 
all  the  other  great  religions  in  promulgating  the  same 
philosophy.  Reincarnation  played  an  important  part 
in  the  thought  of  Origen  and  several  other  leaders 
among  the  early  Church  Fathers.  It  was  a  main  por 
tion  of  the  creed  of  the  Gnostics  and  Manicha3ans.  In 
the  Middle  Ages  many  scholastics  and  heretical  sects 
advocated  it.  It  has  cropped  out  spontaneously  in  many 
western  theologians.  The  elder  English  divines  do 
not  hesitate  to  inculcate  preexistence  in  their  sermons. 
In  the  seventeenth  century  Dr.  Henry  More  and 
other  Cambridge  Platonists  gave  it  wide  acceptance. 
The  Roman  Catholic  Purgatory  seems  to  be  a  make- 


INTRODUCTION.  1 

shift  improvised  to  take  its  place.  Sir  Harry  Vane  is 
said  by  Burnet  to  have  maintained  this  doctrine. 

Many  philosophers  of  metaphysical  depth,  like 
Scotus,  Kant,  Schelling,  Leibnitz,  Schopenhauer,  and 
the  younger  Fichte,  have  upheld  reincarnation.  Gen 
iuses  of  noble  symmetry,  like  Giordano  Bruno,  Herder, 
Lessing,  and  Goethe,  have  fathered  it.  Scientists 
like  Flammarion,  Figuier,  and  Brewster  have  ear 
nestly  advocated  it.  Theological  leaders  like  Julius 
Miiller,  Dorner,  Ernesti,  Riickert,  and  Edward 
Beecher  have  maintained  it.  In  exalted  intuitional 
natures  like  Boehme  and  Swedenborg  its  hold  is  ap 
parent.  Most  of  the  mystics  bathe  in  it.  Of  course 
the  long  line  of  Platonists  from  Socrates  down  to 
Emerson  have  no  doubt  of  it.  Nearly  all  the  poets 
profess  it. 

Even  amid  the  predominance  of  materialistic  in 
fluences  in  Christendom  it  has  a  considerable  follow 
ing.  Traces  of  it  are  found  among  the  aborigines  of 
North  and  South  America,  and  in  many  barbaric  tribes. 
At  this  time  it  reigns  without  any  sign  of  decrepitude 
over  the  Burman,  Chinese,  Japanese,  Tartar,  Thibe 
tan,  and  East  Indian  nations,  including  at  least 
750,000,000  of  mankind  and  nearly  two  thirds  of  the 
race.  Throughout  the  East  it  is  the  great  central 
thought.  It  is  no  mere  superstition  of  the  ignorant 
masses.  It  is  the  chief  principle  of  Hindu  metaphys 
ics,  —  the  basis  of  all  their  inspired  books.  Such  a 
hoary  philosophy,  held  by  the  venerable  authority  of 
ages,  ruling  from  the  beginning  of  time  the  bulk  of 
the  world's  thought,  cherished  in  some  form  by  the 
disciples  of  every  great  religion,  is  certainly  worthy  of 
the  profoundest  respect  and  study.  There  must  be 
some  vital  reality  inspiring  so  stupendous  an  exist 
ence, 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

But  the  western  fondness  for  democracy  does  not 
hold  in  the  domain  of  thought.  The  fact  that  the 
majority  of  the  race  has  agreed  upon  reincarnation  is 
no  argument  for  it  to  an  occidental  thinker.  The 
conceit  of  modern  progress  has  no  more  respect  for 
ancient  ideas  than  for  the  forgotten  civilization  of  old, 
even  though  in  many  essentials  they  anticipated  or 
outstripped  all  that  we  boast  of.  Therefore  we  pro 
pose  to  treat  this  subject  largely  from  a  western 
standpoint. 


I. 

WHAT  IS  REINCARNATION? 


We  cannot  yet  have  learned  all  that  we  are  meant  to  learn  through 
the  body.  How  much  of  the  teaching  even  of  this  world  can  the 
most  diligent  and  most  favored  man  have  exhausted  before  he  is  called 
to  leave  it.  Is  all  that  remains  lost  ?  —  GEORGE  MACDONALD. 

You  cannot  say  of  the  soul,  it  shall  be,  or  is  about  to  be,  or  is  to  be 
hereafter.  It  is  a  thing  without  birth.  —  BHAGAVAD  GITA. 

As  the  inheritance  of  an  illustrious  name  and  pedigree  quickens 
the  sense  of  duty  in  every  noble  nature,  a  belief  in  pree'xistence  may 
enhance  the  glory  of  the  present  life  and  intensify  the  reverence  with 
which  the  deathless  principle  is  regarded.  —  WILLIAM  KNIGHT. 

If  we  except  the  belief  of  a  future  remuneration  beyond  this  life 
for  suffering  virtue  and  retribution  for  successful  crimes,  there  is  no 
system  so  simple,  and  so  little  repugnant  to  our  understanding,  as  that 
of  metempsychosis.  The  pains  and  pleasures  of  this  life  are  by  this 
system  considered  as  the  recompense  or  the  punishment  of  our  actions 
in  another  state.  —  ISAAC  D' ISRAELI. 

The  experiences  gained  in  one  life  may  not  be  remembered  in  their 
details  in  the  next,  but  the  impressions  which  they  produce  will  re 
main.  Again  and  again  man  passes  through  the  wheel  of  transforma 
tion,  changing  his  lower  energies  into  higher  ones,  until  matter  at 
tracts  him  no  longer,  and  he  becomes  —  what  he  is  destined  to  be  — 
a  god.  —  HARTMANN. 


As  billows  on  the  undulating  main 
That  swelling  fall,  and  falling  swell  again, 
So  on  the  tide  of  time  incessant  roll 
The  dying  body  and  the  deathless  soul. 


WHAT    IS    REINCARNATION  .' 

REINCARNATION  is  an  extremely  simple  doctrine 
rooted  in  the  assurance  of  the  soul's  indestructibility. 
It  explains  at  once  the  descent  and  the  destiny  of  the 
soul  by  so  natural  and  forcible  a  method  that  it  has 
not  only  dominated  the  ingenuous  minds  of  all  the 
primitive  races,  but  has  become  the  most  widely 
spread  and  most  permanently  influential  of  all  phi 
losophies. 

Reincarnation  teaches  that  the  soul  enters  this  life, 
not  as  a  fresh  creation,  but  after  a  long  course  of  pre 
vious  existences  on  this  earth  and  elsewhere,  in  which 
it  acquired  its  present  inhering  peculiarities,  and 
that  it  is  on  the  way  to  future  transformations  which 
the  soul  is  now  shaping.  It  claims  that  infancy 
brings  to  earth,  not  a  blank  scroll  for  the  beginning 
of  an  earthly  record,  nor  a  mere  cohesion  of  atomic 
forces  into  a  brief  personality  soon  to  dissolve  again 
into  the  elements,  but  that  it  is  inscribed  with  ances 
tral  histories,  some  like  the  present  scene,  most  of 
them  unlike  it  and  stretching  back  into  the  remotest 
past.  These  inscriptions  are  generally  undecipherable, 
save  as  revealed  in  their  moulding  influence  upon  the 
new  career ;  but  like  the  invisible  photographic  images 
made  by  the  sun  of  all  it  sees,  when  they  are  properly 


12  WHAT  IS  REINCARNATION? 

developed  in  the  laboratory  of  consciousness  they  will 
be  distinctly  displayed.  The  current  phase  of  life  will 
also  be  stored  away  in  the  secret  vaults  of  memory,  for 
its  unconscious  effect  upon  the  ensuing  lives.  All  the 
qualities  we  now  possess,  in  body,  mind  and  soul,  re 
sult  from  our  use  of  ancient  opportunities.  We  are 
indeed  "  the  heirs  of  all  the  ages,"  and  are  alone 
responsible  for  our  inheritances.  For  these  conditions 
accrue  from  distant  causes  engendered  by  our  older 
selves,  and  the  future  flows  by  the  divine  law  of 
cause  and  effect  from  the  gathered  momentum  of  our 
past  impetuses.  There  is  no  favoritism  in  the  uni 
verse,  but  all  have  the  same  everlasting  facilities  for 
growth.  Those  who  are  now  elevated  in  worldly  sta 
tion  may  be  sunk  in  humble  surroundings  in  the  fu 
ture.  Only  the  inner  traits  of  the  soul  are  permanent 
companions.  The  wealthy  sluggard  may  be  the  beg 
gar  of  the  next  life ;  and  the  industrious  worker  of 
the  present  is  sowing  the  seeds  of  future  greatness. 
Suffering  bravely  endured  now  will  produce  a  treasure 
of  patience  and  fortitude  in  another  life ;  hardships 
will  give  rise  to  strength ;  self-denial  must  develop 
the  will ;  tastes  cultivated  in  this  existence  will  some 
how  bear  fruit  in  coming  ones ;  and  acquired  energies 
will  assert  themselves  whenever  they  can  by  the  lex 
parsimonies  upon  which  the  principles  of  physics  are 
based.  Vice  versa,  the  unconscious  habits,  the  un 
controllable  impulses,  the  peculiar  tendencies,  the  fa 
vorite  pursuits,  and  the  soul-stirring  friendships  of  the 
present  descend  from  far-reaching  previous  activities. 
Science  explains  the  idiosyncrasies  of  plants  and 
animals  by  the  environment  of  previous  generations 
and  calls  instinct  hereditary  habit.  In  the  same  way 
there  is  an  evolution  of  individuality,  by  which  the 


WHAT  IS  REINCARNATION?  13 

child  opens  its  new  era  with  characteristics  derived 
from  anterior  lives,  and  adds  the  experience  of  a  new 
personality  to  the  sum  total  of  his  treasured  traits. 
In  its  passage  through  earthly  personalities  the  spirit 
ual  self,  the  essential  Ego>  accumulates  a  fund  of  in 
dividual  character  which  remains  as  the  permanent 
thread  stringing  together  the  separate  lives.  The 
soul  is  therefore  an  eternal  water  globule,  which  sprang 
in  the  begin ningless  past  from  mother  ocean,  and 
is  destined  after  an  unreckonable  course  of  meander- 
ings  in  cloud  and  rain,  snow  and  steam,  spring  and 
river,  mud  and  vapor,  to  at  last  return  with  the 
garnered  experience  of  all  lonely  existences  into  the 
central  Heart  of  all.  Or  rather,  it  is  the  crystal 
stream  running  from  a  heavenly  fountain  through  one 
continuous  current  that  often  halts  in  favorite  cor 
ners,  sunny  pools,  and  shady  nooks,  muddy  ponds  and 
clearest  lakes,  each  delay  shifting  the  direction  and  al 
tering  the  complexion  of  the  next  tide  as  it  issues  out 
by  the  path  of  least  resistance. 

That  we  have  forgotten  the  causes  producing  the 
present  sequence  of  pleasures  and  pains,  talents  and 
defects,  successes  and  failures,  is  no  disproof  of  them, 
and  does  not  disturb  the  justice  of  the  scheme.  For 
temporary  oblivion  is  the  anodyne  by  which  the  kindly 
physician  is  bringing  us  through  the  darker  wards  of 
sorrow  into  perfect  health. 

We  do  not  undertake  to  trace  the  details  of  our 
earlier  stoppages  further  than  is  indicated  in  the  un- 
controvertible  principle,  that  as  long  as  the  soul  is 
governed  by  material  desires  it  must  find  its  homes  in 
physical  realms,  and  when  its  inclination  is  purely 
spiritual  it  certainly  will  inhabit  the  domain  of  spirit. 
The  restless  wandering  of  all  souls  must  at  last  con- 


14  WHAT  IS  REINCARNATION? 

elude  in  the  peace  of  God,  but  that  will  not  be  pos 
sible  until  they  have  gone  through  all  the  rounds  of 
experience  and  learned  that  only  in  that  Goal  is  satis 
faction.  That  men  ever  dwell  in  bodies  of  beasts,  we 
deny  as  irrational,  as  such  a  retrogression  would  con 
tradict  the  fundamental  maxims  of  nature.  That 
philosophy  is  a  corruption  of  Reincarnation,  in  which 
the  masses  have  coarsely  masked  the  truth. 

Granting  the  permanence  of  the  human  spirit  amid 
every  change,  the  doctrine  of  rebirth  is  the  only  one 
yielding  a  metaphysical  explanation  of  the  phenomena 
of  life.  It  is  already  accepted  in  the  physical  plane 
as  evolution,  and  holds  a  firm  ethical  value  in  apply 
ing  the  law  of  justice  to  human  experience.  In  con 
firmation  of  it  there  stands  the  strongest  weight  of 
evidence,  argumentary,  empirical,  and  historic.  It 
untangles  the  knotty  problem  of  life  simply  and 
grandly.  It  meets  the  severest  requirements  of  en 
lightened  reason,  and  is  in  deepest  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  Christianity. 


II. 

WESTERN  EVIDENCES  OF  REINCARNATION. 


The  house  of  life  hath  many  chambers.  —  ROSSETTI. 

The  soul  is  not  born ;  it  does  not  die  ;  it  was  not  produced  from 
any  one ;  nor  was  any  produced  from  it.  —  EMERSON. 

For  men  to  tell  how  human  life  began 

Is  hard :  for  who  himself  beginning  knew. 

MILTON. 

There  is  surely  a  piece  of  divinity  in  us,  —  something  that  was  be 
fore  the  elements  and  owes  no  homage  unto  the  sun. 

Whatever  hath  no  beginning  may  be  confident  of  no  end.  —  SIB 
THOMAS  BROWNE. 

For  of  the  soul  the  body  form  doth  take, 
For  soul  is  form  and  doth  the  body  make. 

SPENSER. 

Secreted  and  hidden  in  the  heart  of  the  world  and  the  heart  of 
man  is  the  light  which  can  illumine  all  life,  the  future  and  the  past. 

THROUGH  THE  GATES  OF  GOLD. 

The  soul,  if  immortal,  existed  before  our  birth. 
What  is  incorruptible  must  be  ungenerable. 

Metempsychosis  is  the  only  system  of  immortality  that  Philosophy 
can  hearken  to.  —  HUME. 

Nature  is  nothing  less  than  the  ladder  of  resurrection  which,  step 
by  step,  leads  upward,  —  or  rather  is  carried  from  the  abyss  of  eter 
nal  death  up  to  the  apex  of  life.  —  SCHLEGEL. 

Look  nature  through  ;    'tis  revolution  all, 

All  change  ;  no  death.     Day  follows  night,  and  night 

The  dying  day ;  stars  rise  and  set,  and  set  and  rise. 

Earth  takes  the  example.     All  to  reflourish  fades 

As  in  a  wheel :   all  sinks  to  reascend ; 

Emblems  of  man,  who  passes,  not  expires. 

YOUNG. 

The  blending  of  mind  and  matter  in  the  bodily  structure  of  the 
sentient  and  rational  orders,  we  may  be  assured,  is  a  method  of  pro 
cedure  which,  if  it  be  not  absolutely  indispensable  to  the  final  pur 
poses  of  the  creation,  subserves  the  most  important  ends  and  carries 
with  it  consequences  such  as  will  make  it  the  general,  if  not  the  uni 
versal  law  of  all  finite  natures,  in  all  worlds.  —  ISAAC  TAYLOR. 


II. 

WESTERN  EVIDENCES   OF   REINCARNATION. 

THE  old  Saxon  chronicler,  Bede,  records  that  at  a 
banquet  given  by  King  Edwin  of  Northumbria  to  his 
nobles,  a  discussion  arose  as  to  how  they  should  re 
ceive  the  Christian  missionary  Paulinus,  who  had  just 
arrived  from  the  continent.  Some  urged  the  suffi 
ciency  of  their  own  Druid  and  Norse  religions  and 
advised  the  death  of  the  invading  heretic.  Others 
were  in  favor  of  hearing  his  message.  At  length  the 
king  asked  the  opinion  of  his  oldest  counsellor.  The 
sage  arose  and  said :  "  O  king  and  lords.  You  all 
did  remark  the  swallow  which  entered  this  festal  hall 
to  escape  the  chilling  winds  without,  fluttering  near 
the  fire  for  a  few  moments  and  then  vanishing  through 
the  opposite  window.  Such  is  the  life  of  man. 
Whence  it  came  and  whither  it  goes  none  can  tell. 
Therefore  if  this  new  religion  brings  light  upon  so 
great  a  mystery,  it  must  be  diviner  than  ours  and 
should  be  welcomed."  The  old  man's  advice  was 
adopted. 

We  are  in  the  position  of  those  old  ancestors  of 
ours.  The  religion  of  the  churches,  called  Christianity, 
is  to  many  earnest  souls  a  dry  husk.  The  germinant 
kernel  of  truth  as  it  came  from  the  founder  of  Chris 
tianity,  when  it  is  discovered  under  all  its  barren 


18  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

wrappings,  is  indeed  sufficient  to  feed  us  with  the 
bread  of  life.  It  answers  all  the  practical  needs  of 
most  people  even  with  the  husks.  But  it  leaves  some 
vital  questions  unanswered  which  impel  us  to  desire 
something  more  than  Jesus  taught  —  not  for  mere 
curiosity,  but  as  food  for  larger  growth.  The  divine 
law  which  promises  to  fill  every  vacuum,  and  to  grat 
ify  at  last  every  aspiration,  has  not  left  us  without 
means  of  grasping  a  portion  of  these  grander  truths. 

The  commonest  idea  of  the  soul  throughout  Chris 
tendom  seems  to  be  that  it  is  created  specially  for 
birth  on  this  world,  and  after  its  lifetime  here  it  goes 
to  a  permanent  spiritual  realm  of  infinite  continuance. 
This  is  a  very  comfortable  belief  derived  from  the  ap 
pearances  of  things,  and  those  holding  it  may  very 
properly  say,  "  My  view  agrees  with  the  phenomena, 
and  if  you  think  differently  the  burden  of  proof  rests 
upon  you."  We  accept  this  responsibility.  But  a 
careful  observer  knows  that  the  true  explanation  of 
facts  is  as  a  rule  very  different  from  the  appearance. 
Ptolemy  thought  he  could  account  for  all  the  heavenly 
motions  on  his  geocentric  theory,  and  his  teachings 
were  at  once  received  by  his  contemporaries.  But  the 
deeper  studies  of  Copernicus  and  Galileo  had  to  wait 
a  century  before  they  were  accepted,  although  they  in 
troduced  an  astronomy  of  immeasurably  nobler  scale. 
Is  it  not  a  relic  of  the  old  confidence  in  appearances 
to  consider  the  physical  orbits  of  human  souls  as  lim 
ited  to  our  little  view  of  them  ? 

The  theologian  seeks  to  explain  life,  with  its  in 
equalities,  its  miseries  and  injustices,  by  a  future  con 
dition  rewarding  and  punishing  men  for  the  deeds  of 
earth.  He  concedes  that  benevolence  and  justice  can 
not  be  proven  in  God  by  what  is  seen  of  His  earthly 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  19 

administration.  The  final  law  of  creation  is  said  to 
be  Love,  but  the  sin  and  suffering  bequeathed  to  most 
of  the  race  through  no  apparent  fault  of  theirs  annuls 
that  dictum  in  the  world's  real  thought,  and  compels 
men  to  regard  life  as  a  ceaseless  struggle  for  existence 
in  which  the  strongest  wins  and  the  weakest  fails,  and 
the  devil  takes  the  hindermost.  But  even  if  the 
future  life  will  straighten  out  this  by  a  just  judg 
ment,  fairness  demands  that  all  shall  have  an  even 
chance  here,  —  which  only  reincarnation  assures. 

The  materialist  takes  a  more  plausible  ground. 
On  the  basis  of  the  soul  beginning  with  the  present 
existence,  he  regards  all  the  developments  of  life  as 
results  of  blind  natural  forces.  He  says  that  the  va 
riety  of  atomic  qualities  accounts  for  all  the  diver 
gencies  of  life,  physical,  mental,  and  moral.  But  he 
can  give  no  reason  why  the  same  particles  of  matter 
should  accomplish  such  stupendous  varieties.  More 
over  Science,  the  materialist's  gospel,  instead  of  dis 
posing  of  psychic  facts,  is  studying  and  classifying 
them  as  a  new  branch  of  supersensuous  knowledge. l 
These  investigations  will  ultimately  initiate  Science 
into  the  surety  of  non-physical  things.  Already  a 
strong  advance  in  that  direction  has  been  made  by 
Isaac  Taylor's  "  Physical  Theory  of  a  Future  Life  " 
and  Stewart  &  Tait's  "  Unseen  Universe."  The  con 
ception  of  an  Infinite  Personality  overwhelms  all  the 
narrow  groove-thinking  of  every  mechanical  school, 
and  rises  supremely  in  the  strongest  scientific  philos 
ophy  of  all  time  —  that  of  Herbert  Spencer.  Stran 
gest  of  all,  Evolution,  the  cornerstone  of  Spencerian 
philosophy,  is  merely  a  paraphrase  of  reincarnation. 

1  See  the  publications  of  the  Society  of  Psychical  Research  of  Lon 
don  and  Boston  and  New  York, 


20  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

There  are  seven  arguments  for  Reincarnation  which 
seem  conclusive. 

1.  That  the  idea  of  immortality  demands  it. 

2.  That  analogy  makes  it  the  most  probable. 

3.  That  science  confirms  it. 

4.  That  the  nature  of  the  soul  requires  it. 

5.  That  it  most  completely  answers  the  theologi 
cal  questions  of  "  original  sin  "  and  "  future  punish 
ment." 

6.  That  it  explains  many  mysterious  experiences. 

7.  That  it  alone  solves  the  problem  of  injustice  and 
misery  which  broods  over  our  world. 


1.  Immortality  demands  it. 

Only  the  positivists  and  some  allied  schools  of 
thought,  comprising  a  very  small  proportion  of  Chris 
tendom,  doubt  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  But  a 
conscious  existence  after  death  has  no  better  proof 
than  a  pre-natal  existence.  It  is  an  old  declaration 
that  what  begins  in  time  must  end  in  time.  We  have 
no  right  to  say  that  the  soul  is  eternal  on  one  side  of 
its  earthly  period  without  being  so  on  the  other.  Far 
more  rational  is  the  view  of  certain  scientists  who, 
believing  that  the  soul  originates  with  this  life,  also 
declare  that  it  ends  with  this  life.  That  is  the  logical 
outcome  of  their  premise.  If  the  soul  sprang  into  ex 
istence  specially  for  this  life,  why  should  it  continue 
afterward  ?  It  is  precisely  as  probable  from  all  the 
grounds  of  reason  that  death  is  the  conclusion  of  the 
soul  as  that  birth  is  the  beginning  of  it.  As  Cudworth 
points  out,  it  was  this  argument  which  had  special 
weight  with  the  Greek  philosophers,  whose  reasonings 
upon  immortality  have  led  all  later  generations.  They 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  21 

asserted  the  eternity  of  the  soul  in  order  to  vindicate 
its  immortality.  For,  they  held,  as  nothing  which  has 
being  can  have  originated  from  nothingness,  or  can 
vanish  into  nothingness,  and  as  they  were  certain  ot 
their  existence,  it  was  impossible  that  they  could  have 
had  a  temporal  beginning.  The  present  life  must  be 
only  one  stage  of  a  vast  number,  stretching  backward 
and  forward. 

Our  instinctive  belief  in  immortality  implies  a  sub 
conscious  acceptance  of  this  view.  We  are  certain 
of  a  persevering  life  outlasting  all  the  changes  of  time 
and  death.  But  birth,  as  well  as  death,  is  one  of  the 
temporal  shifts  belonging  to  the  transitory  sphere 
which  is  foreign  to  our  spirits.  It  is  only  because  our 
backs  are  toward  the  earlier  change  and  our  faces  to 
the  later  that  we  refuse  to  reason  about  one  on  the 
principles  used  about  the  other.  If  we  lived  in  the  re 
versed  world  of  Fechner's  "  Dr.  Mises,"  in  which  old 
things  grow  new  and  men  begin  life  by  a  reversed 
dying  and  end  by  a  reversed  birth,  we  would  probably 
devise  arguments  for  preexistence  as  zealously  as  we 
do  now  for  future  existence,  and  that  would  lead  to 
reincarnation.  For  all  the  indications  of  immortality 
point  as  unfailingly  to  an  eternity  preceding  this  ex 
istence  :  the  love  of  prolonged  life  ;  the  analogy  of 
nature;  the  prevailing  belief  of  the  most  spiritual 
minds ;  the  permanence  of  the  ego  principle  ;  the  in 
conceivability  of  annihilation  or  of  creation  from 
nothing  ;  the  promise  of  an  extension  of  the  present 
career  ;  the  injustice  of  any  other  thought. 

The  ordinary  Christian  idea  of  special  creation  at 
birth  involves  the  correlative  of  annihilation  at  death. 
What  the  origin  of  the  soul  may  have  been  does  not 
affect  this  subject,  further  than  that  it  long  antedates 


22  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

the  present  life.  Whether  it  be  a  spark  from  God 
himself,  or  a  divine  emanation,  or  a  cluster  of  inde 
pendent  energies,  its  eternal  destiny  compels  the  in 
ference  that  it  is  uncreated  and  indestructible.  More 
over,  it  is  unthinkable  that  from  an  infinite  history  it 
enters  this  world  for  its  first  and  only  physical  experi 
ence  and  then  shoots  off  to  an  endless  spiritual  exist 
ence.  The  deduction  is  rather  that  it  assumed  many 
forms  before  it  appeared  as  we  now  see  it,  and  is 
bound  to  pass  through  many  coming  lives  before  it 
will  be  rounded  into  the  full  orb  of  perfection  and 
reach  its  ultimate  goal. 

2.  Analogy  is  strongly  in  favor  of  reincarnation. 
Were  Bishop  Butler  to  work  out  the  problem  of  the 
career  of  the  human  soul  in  the  light  of  modern 
science,  we  doubt  not  that  his  masterpiece  would  ad 
vocate  this  "  pagan "  thought.  For  many  centuries 
the  literature  of  nations  has  discerned  a  standard 
simile  of  the  soul's  deathlessness  in  the  transformation 
of  the  caterpillar  into  the  butterfly.  But  it  is  known 
now  that  once  all  the  caterpillars  and  butterflies  were 
alike,  and  that  by  repeated  incarnations  they  have 
reached  the  bewildering  differences.  When  they 
started  off  from  the  procession  of  life  on  their  own  road 
from  one  or  a  few  similar  species,  the  progeny  scat 
tered  into  various  circumstances,  and  the  struggles  and 
devices  which  they  went  through  for  their  own  pur 
poses,  being  repeated  for  thousands  of  years  in  millions 
of  lives,  has  developed  the  surprising  heterogeneity  of 
feather-winged  insects.  And  as  each  undergoes  his 
rapid  changes  in  rehearsal  of  his  long  pedigree,  we 
may  trace  the  succession  of  his  earlier  lives. 

The  violent  energy  of  the  present  condition  argues 
a  previous  stage  leading  up  to  it.  It  is  contended 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  23 

with  great  force  of  analogy  that  death  is  but  another 
and  higher  birth.  This  life  is  a  groping  embryo  plane 
implying  a  more  exalted  one.  Mysterious  intimations 
reach  us  from  a  diviner  sphere,  — 

"  Like  hints  and  echoes  of  the  world 
To  spirits  folded  in  the  womb." 

But  subtle  indications  rearward  argue  that  birth  is  the 
death  of  an  earlier  existence.  Even  the  embryo  life 
necessitates  a  preparatory  one  preceding  it.  So  com 
plete  a  structure  must  have  a  foundation.  So  swift  a 
momentum  must  have  traveled  far.  As  Emerson  ob 
serves  :  "  We  wake  and  find  ourselves  on  a  stair. 
There  are  other  stairs  below  us  which  we  seem  to  have 
ascended ;  there  are  stairs  above  us,  many  a  one,  which 
go  upward  and  out  of  sight." 

The  grand  order  of  creation  is  everywhere  proclaim 
ing  as  the  universal  word,  "change."  Nothing  is  de 
stroyed,  but  all  is  passing  from  one  existence  to  an 
other.  Not  an  atom  but  is  dancing  in  lively  march 
from  its  present  condition  to  a  different  form,  running 
a  ceaseless  cycle  through  mineral,  vegetable,  and  ani 
mal  existence,  though  never  losing  its  individuality, 
however  diverse  its  apparent  alterations.  Not  a  crea 
ture  but  is  constantly  progressing  to  something  else. 
The  tadpole  becomes  a  fish,  the  fish  a  frog,  and  some 
of  the  frogs  have  turned  to  birds.  It  was  the  keen 
perception  of  this  principle  in  nature  which  gave  their 
vital  force  to  the  Greek  mythologies  and  other  ancient 
stories  embodying  the  idea  of  transmutation  of  per 
sonality  through  many  guises.  It  was  this  which  ani 
mated  the  metamorphoses  of  Ovid,  whose  philosophy 
is  contained  in  these  lines  from  his  poem  on  Pytha 
goras  :  — 


24  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

"  Death,  so  called,  is  but  old  matter  dressed 
In  some  new  form.     And  in  a  varied  vest 
From  tenement  to  tenement,  though  tossed, 
The  soul  is  still  the  same,  the  figure  only  lost : 
And,  as  the  softened  wax  new  seals  receives, 
This  face  assumes,  and  that  impression  leaves, 
Now  called  by  one,  now  by  another  name, 
The  form  is  only  changed,  the  wax  is  still  the  same. 
Then,  to  be  born  is  to  begin  to  be 
Some  other  thing  we  were  not  formerly. 
That  forms  are  changed,  I  grant  ;  that  nothing  can 
Continue  in  the  figure  it  began."  l 

Evolution  has  remoulded  the  thought  of  Christen 
dom,  expanding  our  conception  of  physiology,  astron 
omy  and  history.  The  more  it  is  studied  the  more 
universal  is  found  its  application.  It  seems  to  be 
the  secret  of  God's  life.  Now  that  we  know  the  evo 
lution  of  the  body,  it  is  time  that  we  learned  the  evo 
lution  of  the  soul.  The  biologist  shows  that  each  of 
us  physically  before  birth  runs  through  all  the  phases 
of  animal  life  —  polyp,  fish,  reptile,  dog,  ape,  and 
man  —  as  a  brief  synopsis  of  how  the  ages  have  pre 
pared  our  tenements.  The  preponderance  of  special 
animal  traits  in  us  is  due,  he  says,  to  the  emphasis  of 
those  particular  stages  of  our  physical  growth. "  So  in 
infancy  does  the  soul  move  through  an  unconscious 
series  of  existences,  recapitulating  its  long  line  of  de 
scent,  until  it  is  fastened  in  maturity.  And  why  is  it 
not  true  that  our  soul  traits  are  the  relics  of  former 
activities?  Evolution  proves  that  the  physical  part 
of  man  is  the  product  of  a  long  series  of  changes,  in 
which  each  stage  is  both  the  effect  of  past  influences 
and  the  cause  of  succeeding  issues.  Does  not  the  im 
material  part  of  man  require  a  development  equally 
1  Dryden's  Translation. 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  25 

vast  ?  The  fact  of  an  intellectual  and  moral  evolution 
proceeding  hand  in  hand  with  the  physical  can  only 
be  explained  under  the  economy  of  nature  by  a  series 
of  reincarnations. 

3.  Furthermore,  the  idea  that  the  soul  is  specially 
created  for  introduction  into  this  world  combats  all 
the  principles  of  science.  All  nature  proceeds  on  the 
strictest  economic  methods.  Nothing  is  either  lost  or 
added.  There  is  no  creation  or  destruction.  What 
ever  appears  to  spring  suddenly  into  existence  is  de 
rived  from  some  sufficient  cause  —  although  as  un 
seen  as  the  vapor  currents  which  feed  the  clouds. 
There  is  a  growing  consensus  of  opinion  among  spirit 
ualists  and  materialists  alike,  that  the  quantity  both 
of  force  and  of  matter  remains  constant.  The  law  of 
conservation  of  energy  holds  in  the  spiritual  realm  as 
in  physics.  The  uniform  stock  of  energy  in  the  uni 
verse  neither  declines  nor  increases,  but  incessantly 
changes.  The  marvelous  developments  shown  in  the 
protean  organisms  continually  entering  the  procession 
of  life  indicate  that  the  new  manifestations  descend 
from  some  patriarchal  line,  uncreated  and  immortal, 
coming  through  the  hidden  regions  of  previous  exist 
ences.  Science  allows  no  such  miracle  as  the  theo 
logical  special  resurrection,  which  is  contrary  to  all 
experience.  But  it  recognizes  the  universality  of  re 
surrection  throughout  all  nature,  which  is  a  matter  of 
common  observation.  The  idea  of  the  soul  as  a  phoe 
nix,  eternally  continuing  through  myriad  embodiments, 
is  adapted  to  the  whole  spirit  of  modern  science. 

Especially  significant  is  the  axiomatic  law  of  cause 
and  effect.  There  is  no  other  adequate  explanation 
of  the  phenomena  of  life  than  the  purely  scientific 
one,  that  causes  similar  to  those  now  operating  before 


26  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

our  eyes  have  produced  the  results  we  witness.  The 
impelling  characteristics  of  each  personality  require 
some  earlier  experiences  of  physical  life  to  have  gen 
erated  them.  All  the  sensuous  proclivities  of  human 
nature  point  to  long  earthly  experience  as  their  only 
origin.  And  the  unsatisfied  physical  inclinations  of 
the  soul  necessitate  a  series  of  material  existences  to 
work  themselves  out.  The  irrepressible  eagerness  for 
all  the  range  of  experience  seems  to  be  a  sufficient 
reason  for  a  course  of  incarnations  which  shall  ac 
complish  that  result. 

Physiologists  contend  that  the  wondrous  human 
organism  could  not  have  grown  up  out  of  mere  mat 
ter,  but  implies  a  preexistent  personal  idea,1  which 
grouped  around  itself  the  organic  conditions  of  phys 
ical  existence  and  constrained  the  material  elements 

1  We  purposely  use  the  term  Personal  in  preference  to  spiritual, 
for  the  word  should  be  rescued  from  its  confusion  of  meanings 
to  the  old  classical  one,  in  connection  with  the  soul.  As  Her 
mann  Lotze  beautifully  unfolds,  "  Personality  is  the  key  to  ex 
istence,"  using  the  word  in  its  first  sense  from  persona,  a  mask, 
parallel  to  the  Hebrew  analogy  which  calls  man  the  image  of 
Jehovah.  Mulford  also  presents  the  thought  grandly  in  The 
Republic  of  God  and  The  Nation,  drawing  his  suggestion  from 
the  Germans  Stahl  and  Froshammer.  In  this  sense  human 
ity  is  the  shadow  of  Deity,  the  veil  through  which  the  Absolute 
tries  to  reveal  Himself,  casting  about  in  the  multiplicity  of  nat 
ural  forms  after  an  expression  through  physical  means  of  His 
own  nature.  In  this  sublime  conception  God  is  the  life  of  the 
universe,  who,  in  Schelling's  phrase,  "sleeps  in  the  stone, 
breathes  in  the  plant,  moves  in  the  animal,  and  wakes  up  to  con 
sciousness  in  man."  It  is  this  thought  which  makes  Novalis  so 
reverent  to  a  human  being  as  a  Microdeus,  and  elevates  the  dig 
nity  of  the  soul  above  all  else.  For  as  the  purpose  of  nature  is 
to  personify  the  Invisible,  human  souls  are  the  Persons  (or 
masks)  by  which  the  leading  parts  are  here  acted  with  many 
changes  of  scenery. 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  27 

to  follow  its  plan.  This  dynamic  agent  —  or  the 
soul  —  must  have  existed  independent  of  the  body  be 
fore  "the  receptacle  was  prepared.  Bouiller  and  the 
German  scientists  Muller,  Hartmann,  and  Stahl,  have 
especially  demonstrated  in  physiology  this  idea  of  a 
preexistent  soul  monad,  whose  plastic  power  uncon 
sciously  constructs  its  own  corporeal  organism.  The 
Greeks  coiled  this  idea  into  the  word  o-^^/xa,  and  the 
younger  Fichte  and  Lotze  have  developed  it.  The 
doctrine  of  modern  physiology,  as  presented  by  the 
animists,  is  precisely  the  ground  taken  by  upholders  of 
reincarnation,  —  that  as  the  lower  animals  fashion 
ingenious  nests  with  incredible  skill,  so  the  unwitting 
soul  blindly  frames  the  fabric  of  its  body  in  keeping 
with  the  laws  of  its  own  adaptation.  The  unconscious 
agency  of  the  mind  or  instinct  in  repairing  the  body, 
healing  its  hurts  and  guiding  its  growth,  is  recognized 
by  most  scientists.  Plato  but  expresses  the  same 
idea  when  he  says,  "  The  soul  always  weaves  her  gar 
ment  anew."  This  thought  is  well  worded  by  Gior 
dano  Bruno  when  he  says,  "  The  soul  is  not  in  the 
body  locally,  but  as  its  intrinsic  form  and  extrinsic 
mould,  as  that  which  makes  the  members  and  shapes 
the  whole  within  and  without.  The  body,  then,  is  in 
the  soul,  the  soul  in  the  mind  (spirit).  The  Intellect 
(Spirit)  is  God." 

This  conception  gives  the  lie  to  the  materialism 
which  limits  the  forces  of  the  individual  to  the  com 
plications  of  a  mechanism.  A  corollary  of  this 
moulding  power  of  the  independent  stful  is  Plato's  prop 
osition  that  "  the  soul  has  a  natural  strength  which 
will  hold  out  and  be  born  many  times."  Since  the 
ego  is  older  than  the  body,  the  resident  who  builds  its 
dwelling  according  to  its  tastes  and  materials,  and 


28  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

since  the  purpose  of  its  corporeal  habitation  cannot 
possibly  be  accomplished  in  a  single  brief  lifetime,  it 
is  necessary  that  it  should  repeat  that  experience,  al 
ways  framing  its  receptacle  to  suit  its  growing  char 
acter,  like  the  epochs  of  a  lobster's  enlargement,  until 
it  has  done  with  physical  life.  The  new  apparitions 
of  men  upon  the  earth  thus  hail  from  older  scenes. 

Evolution  may  fairly  be  claimed  as  a  spiritual 
truth  applying  to  all  the  methods  of  life.  The  gradual 
development  of  the  soul,  by  the  school  of  experience, 
demands  a  vaster  arena  of  action  than  one  earthly  life 
affords.  If  it  takes  ages  of  time  and  thousands  of 
lives  to  form  one  kind  of  an  animal  from  another, 
the  expansion  of  human  souls  from  lower  to  higher 
natures  surely  needs  many  and  many  a  life  for  that 
growth. 

Evolutionary  science  explains  the  instinctive  acts 
of  young  animals  as  inherited  tendencies, — -as  past 
experiences  transmitted  into  fresh  forms.  Psychic 
science  is  learning  that  the  earliest  acts  of  human 
beings  are  also  derived  from  remote  habits  formed  in 
anterior  activities,  and  stored  away  in  the  unconscious 
memory.  Herbert  Spencer,  the  philosopher  of  evolu 
tion,  speaks  of  a  constant  energy  manifesting  itself 
through  all  transformations.  This  is  the  one  life 
which  runs  eternally  in  protean  shapes. 

The  measure  of  our  acquisition  of  conceptions  from 
the  outer  universe  resides  in  the  senses.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  these  have  always  been  five.  Nature, 
never  taking  a  leap,  must  have  put  us  through  all  the 
lower  stages  before  she  placed  us  at  our  present  posi 
tion.  And  since  nature  contains  many  substances 
and  powers  which  are  partially  or  wholly  beyond 
these  senses,  some  of  which  powers  are  known  to 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  29 

other  animals,  we  must  assume  that  our  present  as 
cending  development  will  introduce  us  to  higher  levels 
in  which  the  soul  shall  have  as  many  senses  as  corre 
spond  with  the  powers  of  nature.1 

4.  A  much  more  weighty  argument  is  that  the  na 
ture  of  the  soul  requires  reincarnation.  The  conscious 
.soul  cannot  feel  itself  to  have  had  any  beginning,  any 
more  than  it  can  conceive  of  annihilation.  The  sense 
of  persistence  overwhelms  all  the  interruptions  of  for- 
getfulness  and  sleep,  and  all  the  obstacles  of  matter. 
This  incessant  self-assurance  suggests  the  idea  of  the 
soul  being  independent  of  the  changing  body,  its  tem 
porary  prison.  Then  follows  the  conception  that,  as 
the  soul  has  once  appeared  in  human  form,  so  it  may 
reappear  in  many  others.  The  eternity  of  the  soul, 
past  and  present,  leads  directly  to  an  innumerable  suc 
cession  of  births  and  deaths,  disembodiments  and  re- 
embodiments. 

The  identity  of  the  soul  surely  does  not  consist  in 
a  remembrance  of  all  its  past.  We  are  always  for 
getting  ourselves  and  waking  again  to  recognition. 
But  the  sense  of  individuality  bridges  all  the  gaps. 
In  the  same  way  it  seems  as  if  our  present  existence 
were  a  somnambulent  condition  into  which  we  have 
drowsed  from  an  earlier  life,  being  sleepily  oblivious 
of  that  former  activity,  and  from  which  we  may  after 
a  while  be  roused  into  wakefulness. 

The  study  of  infant  psychology  confirms  this.  The 
nature  and  extent  of  the  mental  furniture  with  which 

1  This  idea  is  grandly  stated  in  Isaac  Taylor's  Physical  The 
ory  of  a  Future  Life.  In  demonstrating  the  assurance  that  the 
future  existence  is  in  material  bodies,  and  showing  the  glorious 
extensions  to  which  the  coming  bodily  powers  will  probably  be 
developed,  the  author  approaches  strangely  near  the  philosophy 
of  reincarnation. 


SO  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

we  begin  life,  apart  from  all  experience  of  this  world, 
has  obliged  many  thinkers  to  resort  to  preexistence 
as  the  necessary  explanation. 

A  careful  examination  of  the  rarer  facts  of  life, 
noticeably  those  found  in  dreams,  trances,  and  analo 
gous  phenomena,  demonstrates  that  our  complete  life 
is  largely  independent  of  the  body,  and  consists  in  a 
perpetual  transfer  of  the  sensuous  experiences  of 
self-consciousness  into  a  supersensuous  unconscious 
ness.  But  this  higher  storehouse  of  character  might 
more  truly  be  called  our  real  consciousness,  although 
we  are  not  ordinarily  cognizant  of  it,  for  it  comprises 
our  habits,  instincts,  and  tendencies.  This  is  the  es 
sential  character  of  the  soul  and  must  persist  after 
death.  Now,  unless  all  our  earthly  possibilities  are 
exhausted  in  one  life,  these  inherent  material  quali 
ties  of  our  spiritual  nature  will  find  expression  in  a 
plurality  of  earthly  existences.  And  if  the  purpose 
of  life  be  the  acquisition  of  experience,  it  would  be 
unreasonable  to  suppose  a  final  transfer  elsewhere  be 
fore  a  full  knowledge  of  earth  has  been  gained.  It  is 
apparent  that  one  life  cannot  accomplish  this,  even  in 
the  longest  and  most  diverse  career,  —  to  say  nothing 
of  the  short  average,  and  the  curtailed  allowance 
given  to  the  majority.  If  one  earth  life  answers  for 
all,  what  a  tiny  experience  suffices  for  the  immense 
masses  who  prematurely  die  as  children  !  Men  are 
willing  enough  to  believe  in  an  eternity  of  spiritual 
development  after  this  world;  but  is  it  consistent 
with  the  thought  of  Omnipotence  to  consider  that  the 
Divine  plan  is  achieved  in  preparing  for  that  by  a  few 
swift  years  in  one  body  ?  In  devoting  eternity  to  our 
education,  the  infinite  Teacher  surely  will  not  put  us 
into  the  highest  grade  of  all  until  we  have  well  mas 
tered  the  lessons  of  all  the  lower  classes. 


EVIDENCES  OF  REINCARNATION.  31 

The  philosophy  of  "innate  ideas"  is  an  admission 
of  earlier  lives  than  the  present.  The  intuitionalists 
emphatically  regard  the  concepts  of  cause,  substance, 
time,  and  space  as  existing  in  the  mind  indepen 
dent  of  experience.  The  sensationalists  consider 
them  entirely  due  to  our  sensations.  The  Spenceriaii 
evolutionalists  occupy  a  middle  ground  and  call  them 
a  mental  heredity  resulting  from  the  experience  of 
the  race.  It  has  been  well  shown,  as  Edgar  Fawcett 
says,  by  two  impartial  critics,  that  thn  controversy 
cannot  be  solved  by  any  agreement  of  Western  psychol 
ogists.  Buckle  inveighs  against  these  discordant  sys 
tems  as  having  "  thrown  the  study  of  the  mind  into 
a  confusion  only  to  be  compared  to  that  in  which  the 
study  of  religion  has  been  thrown  by  the  controversies 
of  the  theologians."  1  And  George  Henry  Lewes,  in 
his  "  History  of  Philosophy,"  deplores  this  perplex 
ing  condition  of  metaphysics.  The  solution  of  the 
problem  comes,  along  with  reincarnation,  from  the 
eastern  students,  who  assert  that  a  true  conception  of 
the  soul  is  discovered  only  by  the  culture  of  super- 
sensuous  faculties.  They  concede  a  portion  of  truth 
to  both  extreme  schools,  declaring  that  the  primary 
acquisition  of  such  ideas  was  gained  by  sensation,  but 
that  at  present  they  are  innate  in  the  infant  mind. 
They  are  now  the  generalized  experience  of  former 
existences  rising  again  into  consciousness. 

The  restlessness  of  our  spirits  points  to  ancient 
habits  of  varied  action.  And  a  sti]l  more  forcible  in 
dication  is  the  diversity  of  character  in  the  same  per 
son.  These  wavering  uncertainties  and  contraries  in 
each  one  of  us,  which  strive  for  the  mastery  and  are 
never  crushed  even  by  the  sternest  fixity  of  habit  — 
1  H.  T.  Buckle,  History  of  Civilization,  vol.  i.  p.  166. 


32  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

rendering  the  best  of  us  amenable  to  temptations,  and 
making  the  strongest  vacillate,  may  well  result  from 
meanderings  in  numerous  characters.  The  main  trend 
of  our  natures  is  still  often  distracted  into  old  forgot 
ten  ways. 

5.  Reincarnation  provides  a  complete  answer  to 
the  most  perplexing  problem  of  theology,  —  original 
sin.  Properly  this  point  belongs  to  the  preceding  sec 
tion,  but  its  importance  justifies  a  separate  mention. 
The  endless  controversies  centering  upon  this  question 
show  how  Christian  metaphysics  have  vainly  wrestled 
with  a  Gordian  knot  which  cannot  possibly  be  untied 
from  the  standpoint  considering  this  life  the  initial  and 
only  earthly  one,  —  a  knot  which  reincarnation  not 
simply  cuts,  but  reveals  how  it  was  made.  Between  the 
extreme  dogmas  of  Pelagius,  who  maintained  that  all 
men  are  born  in  a  state  of  innocence  and  may  therefore 
live  without  sin,  and  of  Augustine,  who  held  the  total 
depravity  of  mankind,  arising  from  their  transgression 
in  Adam  and  their  absolute  bondage  to  the  devil,  there 
has  raged  a  continual  warfare,  which  has  divided 
Christendom  into  many  sects  of  thought  on  this  leading 
doctrine.  The  modern  church  creeds  still  range  them 
selves  in  conflicting  battalions,  following  the  discus 
sions  during  the  Reformation  between  Erasmus,  who 
denied  the  power  of  hereditary  sin  over  free  will,  and 
Luther,  who  insisted  that  the  race  is  completely  in 
the  devil's  power  by  nature.  By  far  the  largest  part 
of  the  Christian  world  professedly  adheres  to  the  lat 
ter  faith,  —  that  men  are  born  entirely  corrupt.  Even 
the  Arminians,  Quakers,  and  liberal  denominations 
who  admit  only  a  germ  of  sin  in  humanity  are  at  a 
loss  to  account  it.  The  ordinary  theological  explana 
tion  which  derives  our  sin  from  the  transgression  of 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  33 

Adam,  as  apparently  taught  by  St.  Paul,  although 
tacitly  held  by  most  of  the  churches  and  expressed  in 
the  majority  of  creeds,  grates  so  severely  on  the  inner 
consciousness  and  common  sense  that  it  does  not 
answer  the  real  difficulty.  There  is  a  general  agree 
ment  among  mankind,  upon  which  the  codes  of  prac 
tical  life  are  based,  that  Adam's  responsibility  for  our 
sin  is  only  a  makeshift  of  the  theologians  :  for  every 
sensible  man  knows  that  no  one  but  the  individual 
himself  can  be  blamed  for  his  wrong-doing.  Adam 
is  accepted  as  a  fable  for  our  older  selves.  Dismissing 
all  the  interminable  arguments  of  theology,  which  only 
obscure  truth  in  a  cloud  of  intellectual  wranglings, 
the  broad  foundation  of  ethics,  grounded  in  our  best 
instincts,  attached  sin  somehow,  though  inexplainably, 
to  the  sinner;  and  the  only  sufficient  explanation 
traces  its  beginning  to  earlier  lives. 

The  moral  character  of  children,  especially  the  oc 
currence  of  evil  in  them  long  before  it  could  have 
been  implanted  by  this  existence,  has  forced  acute 
observers  to  assume  that  the  human  spirit  has  made 
choice  of  evil  in  a  pre-natal  sphere  similar  to  this. 
Every  one  who  knows  children  rejects  the  Pelagian 
theory  of  their  immaculate  innocence.  As  soon  as 
they  have  the  power  to  do  wrong,  without  any  teach 
ing  the  wrong  is  done  as  a  natural  proceeding. 

The  germ  of  sin  springs  up  from  some  old  sowing. 
But  the  Augnstinian  doctrine  is  equally  untrue  to  hu 
man  nature.  The  most  incorrigible  tendency  to  evil 
in  an  uninfluenced  child  cannot  conceal  the  good 
within  it,  but  merely  indicates  that  former  ill  habits 
are  working  themselves  out.  The  depraved  criminal 
at  last  sees  his  own  folly  when  his  course  of  sin  is  run, 
and  becomes  so  weary  of  it  that  the  next  lease  of  life 


34  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

must  be  on  a  better  plan.  So  evil  is  discovered  to  be 
good  in  the  making,  and  vice  is  virtue  in  the  strength 
ening. 

Every  person  at  some  stage  of  growth  awakens 
to  the  recognition  of  sin  within  him,  and  is  certain 
that  it  is  so  radical  as  to  reach  back  of  all  his  present 
life,  although  it  is  surely  foreign  to  his  true  nature. 
We  all  feel  ourselves  to  have  bounded  into  life  like  a 
stag  carrying  a  panther  which  must  be  shaken  off. 
Theology  attempts  to  account  for  this  by  Adam's  sin 
entailing  a  hereditary  depravity.  But  our  inmost 
consciousness  agrees  with  the  common  sense  of  man 
kind  in  holding  us  alone  responsible  for  our  tendency 
to  wrong.  Remorse  seizes  us  for  the  inexplicable  evil 
in  us.  The  only  solution  is  that  of  the  parasite  in  the 
butterfly.  The  insect  allowed  the  pest  to  enter  when 
it  was  a  worm.  This  blighted  condition  cannot  be  the 
original  state  of  man.  It  must  be  the  result  of  the 
human  will  resisting  the  divine,  and  choosing  wrong 
in  old  existences  beyond  recollection. 

A  masterly  expression  of  this  thought  nourished  the 
childhood  of  Christianity  in  the  teaching  of  Origen,1 
and  flourished  with  wholesome  influence  until  it  was 
forcibly  crushed  out  of  popularity  by  the  Council  of 
Constantinople,  to  make  room  for  the  harsh  dogmas 
which  have  since  darkened  the  rationale  of  Christian 
ity.  It  never  was  intelligently  met  and  conquered,  but 
was  summarily  ousted  as  incompatible  with  the  weight 
of  prejudice.  The  same  treatment  of  it  appears  in 
Dr.  Hodge's  "  Systematic  Theology  "  (under  the  sec 
tion  on  Preexistence).  That  it  is  in  harmony  with 
Scripture  has  been  shown  by  Henry  More,  Soame  Jen- 
yns,  Chevalier  Ramsay,  and  Professor  Bo  wen,  from 
1  See  pages  233  et  seq. 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  35 

whom  quotations  are  given  in  chapter  iv.,  and  by  other 
writers  mentioned  at  the  close  of  this  book.  Julius 
Miiller,1  Lessing,2  Edward  Beecher,3  Coleridge,  and 
Kant4  also  sustain  it  from  a  religio-philosophical 
ground.  It  is  the  only  rational  explanation  of  the 
theological  idea  of  sin. 

The  same  is  true  regarding  the  church's  dogma  of 
future  punishments  and  rewards.  A  reasonable  consid 
eration  fails  to  understand  how  the  jump  can  be  made 
from  this  condition  of  things  to  an  eternity  of  either 
suffering  or  bliss  —  as  ordinary  theology  demands. 
The  Roman  Catholics  recognized  this  difficulty  suffi 
ciently  to  provide  Purgatory,  and  in  that  tenet  they 
meet  the  sense  of  humanity.  Reincarnation  simply 
says  that  there  are  many  purgatories,  and  one  is 
earth.  The  more  rational  Protestants  get  around  the 
incongruity  by  permitting  many  grades  of  existence  in 
heaven  and  hell,  which  approaches  the  same  solution. 
Reincarnation  says  also,  there  are  infinite  degrees  of 
heaven  and  hell,  and  many  of  them  slope  down  through 
this  life.  It  is  inconceivable  how  earthly  natures 
(arid  most  of  human  souls  are  such)  can  find  their  pen 
alties  and  their  rewards  elsewhere  than  on  some  kind  of 
earth.  The  scheme  of  the  universe  presents  every 
where  a  simple  and  sublime  habit  of  keeping  affinities 
together,  and  it  certainly  seems  as  if  the  same  economy 
could  apply  to  souls  as  to  atoms.  This  idea  meets 
better  than  any  other  the  principles  that  punishment 

1  See  page  66.  2  See  page  72.  «  See  page  67. 

4-  Kant's  distinction  between  the  Intelligible  character  and  the 
Empirical  or  acquired  character,  which  is  a  metaphysical  form 
of  the  reincarnation  view  concerning  the  eternal  Individuality 
and  the  temporal  Personality,  is  shown  by  Professor  Bowen  on  pp. 
102  et  seq. 


36  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

for  sin  cannot  continue  longer  than  the  sin  continues, 
and  that  the  everlasting  mercy  of  the  Supreme  will  pro 
vide  some  final  release  for  his  erring  children. 

6.  Reincarnation  explains  many  curious  experiences. 
Most  of  us  have  known  the  touches  of  feeling  and 
thought  that  seem  to  be  reminders  of  forgotten  things. 
Sometimes  as  dim  dreams  of  old  scenes,  sometimes  as 
vivid  lightning  flashes  in  the  darkness  recalling  distant 
occurrences,  sometimes  with  unutterable  depth  of  mean 
ing.  It  appears  as  if  nature's  opiate  which  ushered  us 
here  had  been  so  diluted  that  it  did  not  quite  efface  the 
old  memories,  and  reason  struggles  to  decipher  the  ves 
tiges  of  a  former  state.  Almost  every  one  has  felt  the 
sense  of  great  age.  Thinking  of  some  unwonted  sub 
ject  often  an  impression  seizes  us  that  somewhere,  long 
ago,  we  have  had  these  reflections  before.  Learning 
a  fact,  meeting  a  face  for  the  first  time,  we  are  puzzled 
with  an  obscure  sense  that  it  is  familiar.  Travel 
ing  newly  in  strange  places  we  are  sometimes  haunted 
with  a  consciousness  of  having  been  there  already. 
Music  is  specially  apt  to  guide  us  into  mystic  depths, 
where  we  are  startled  with  the  flashing  reminiscences 
of  unspeakable  verities  which  we  have  felt  or  seen 
ages  since.  Efforts  of  thought  reveal  the  half-obliter 
ated  inscriptions  on  the  tablets  of  memory,  passing  be 
fore  the  vision  in  a  weird  procession.  Every  one  has 
some  such  experiences.  Most  of  them  are  blurred  and 
obscure.  But  some  are  so  remarkably  distinct  that 
those  who  undergo  them  are  convinced  that  their  sen 
sations  are  actual  recollections  of  events  and  places  in 
former  lives.  It  is  even  possible  for  certain  persons 
to  trace  thus  quite  fully  and  clearly  a  part  of  their  by 
gone  history  prior  to  this  life. 

Sir  Walter  Scott  was  so  impressed  by  these  experi- 


EVIDENCES  OF  REINCARNATION.  37 

ences  that  they  led  him  to  a  belief  in  preexistence. 
In  his  diary  was  entered  this  circumstance,  February  17, 
1828  :  "  I  cannot,  I  am  sure,  tell  if  it  is  worth  mark 
ing  down,  that  yesterday,  at  dinner  time,  I  was 
strangely  haunted  by  what  I  would  call  the  sense  of 
preexistence,  viz.  a  confused  idea  that  nothing  that 
passed  was  said  for  the  first  time ;  that  the  same  topics 
had  been  discussed  and  the  same  persons  had  stated 
the  same  opinions  on  them.  .  .  .  The  sensation  was 
so  strong  as  to  resemble  what  is  called  a  mirage  in  the 
desert  and  a  calenture  on  board  ship.  ...  It  was 
very  distressing  yesterday,  and  brought  to  my  mind 
the  fancies  of  Bishop  Berkeley  about  an  ideal  world. 
There  was  a  vile  sense  of  unreality  in  all  I  said  or 
did."  l  That  this  was  not  due  to  the  strain  upon  his 
later  years  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  same  expe 
rience  is  referred  to  in  one  of  his  earliest  novels,  where 
this  "  sentiment  of  preexistence  "  was  first  described. 
In  "  Guy  Mannering,"  Henry  Bertram  says  :  "  Why 
is  it  that  some  scenes  awaken  thoughts  which  belong, 
as  it  were,  to  dreams  of  early  and  shadowy  recol 
lections,  such  as  old  Brahmin  moonshine  would  have 
ascribed  to  a  state  of  previous  existence.  Plow  often 
do  we  find  ourselves  in  society  which  we  have  never 
before  met,  and  yet  feel  impressed  with  a  mysterious 
and  ill-defined  consciousness  that  neither  the  scene 
nor  the  speakers  nor  the  subject  are  entirely  new ; 
nay,  feel  as  if  we  could  anticipate  that  part  of  the  con 
versation  which  has  not  yet  taken  place." 

Bulwer  Lytton  describes  it  as  "  that  strange  kind  of 

inner  and  spiritual  memory  which  often  recalls  to  us 

places  and  persons  we  have  never  seen  before,  and 

which  Platonists  would  resolve  to  be  the  unquenched 

1  Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott  (first  edition,  vol.  vii.  p.  114). 


38  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

and  struggling  consciousness  of  a  former  life."  Again, 
in  "  Godolphiii"  (chapter  xv.),  he  writes :  "  How 
strange  is  it  that  at  times  a  feeling  comes  over  us  as  we 
gaze  upon  certain  places,  which  associates  the  scene 
either  with  some  dim  remembered  and  dreamlike  im 
ages  of  the  Past,  or  with  a  prophetic  and  fearful  omen 
of  the  Future.  .  .  .  Every  one  has  known  a  similar 
strange  and  indistinct  feeling  at  certain  times  and 
places,  and  with  a  similar  inability  to  trace  the  cause." 

Edgar  A.  Poe  writes  (in  "  Eureka  ")  :  "  We  walk 
about,  amid  the  destinies  of  our  world  existence,  accom 
panied  by  dim  but  ever  present  memories  of  a  Destiny 
more  vast  —  very  distant  in  the  bygone  time  and  in 
finitely  awful.  .  .  .  We  live  out  a  youth  peculiarly 
haunted  by  such  dreams,  yet  never  mistaking  them 
for  dreams.  As  memories  we  know  them.  During 
our  youth  the  distinctness  is  too  clear  to  deceive  us 
even  for  a  moment.  But  the  doubt  of  manhood  dis 
pels  these  feelings  as  illusions." 

Explicit  occurrences  of  this  class  are  found  in  the 
narratives  of  Hawthorne,  Willis,  Coleridge,  De 
Quincey,  and  many  other  writers.  A  striking  instance 
appears  in  a  little  memoir  of  the  late  William  Hone,  the 
Parodist,  upon  whom  the  experience  made  such  a  pro 
found  effect  that  it  roused  him  from  thirty  years  of 
materialistic  atheism  to  a  conviction  of  the  soul's  inde 
pendence  of  matter.  Being  called  in  business  to  a 
house  in  a  part  of  London  entirely  new  to  him,  he  kept 
noticing  that  he  had  never  been  that  way  before. 
"  I  was  shown,"  he  says,  "  into  a  room  to  wait.  On 
looking  around,  to  my  astonishment  everything  ap 
peared  perfectly  familiar  to  me  :  I  seemed  to  recognize 
every  object.  I  said  to  myself,  what  is  this  ?  I  was 
never  here  before  and  yet  1  have  seen  all  this,  and  if 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  39 

so,  there  is  a  very  peculiar  knot  in  the  shutter."     He 
opened  the  shutter,  and  there  was  the  knot. 

The  experience  of  many  persons  supports  this  truth. 
The  sacred  Hindu  books  contain  many  detailed  his 
tories  of  transmigration.  Kapila  is  said  to  have  writ 
ten  out  the  Vedas  from  his  recollection  of  them  in  a 
former  life.  The  Vishnu  Purana  furnishes  some  en 
tertaining  instances  of  memory  retained  through  suc 
cessive  lives.  Pythagoras  is  related  to  have  remem 
bered  his  former  existences  in  the  persons  of  a  herald 
named  ^Ethalides,  Euphorbus  the  Trojan,  Hermo- 
timus  of  Clazomense,  and  others.  It  is  stated  that  he 
pointed  out  in  the  temple  of  Juno,  at  Argos,  the  shield 
with  which,  as  Euphorbus,  he  attacked  Patroclus  in 
the  Trojan  war.  The  life  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana 
gives  some  extraordinary  examples  of  his  recogni 
tions  of  persons  he  had  known  in  preceding  lives. 
All  these  cases  are  considered  fictions  by  most  people, 
because  they  trespass  the  limits  of  historical  accuracy. 
But  there  are  many  facts  in  our  own  time  that  point 
in  the  same  direction.  The  Druses  have  no  doubt 
that  this  life  follows  many  others.  A  Druse  boy  ex 
plained  his  terror  at  the  discharge  of  a  gun  by  saying, 
"  I  was  born  murdered  ;  "  that  is,  the  soul  of  a  man 
who  had  been  shot  entered  into  his  body.  A  scholarly 
friend  of  the  writer  is  satisfied  that  he  once  lived 
among  the  mountains  before  his  present  life,  for, 
though  born  in  a  flat  country  destitute  of  pines,  his 
first  young  entrance  to  a  wild  pine-grown  mountain  dis 
trict  roused  the  deepest  sense  of  familiarity  and  home- 
likeness.  And  his  last  life,  he  thinks,  was  as  a  woman, 
because  of  certain  commanding  feminine  traits  which 
continually  assert  themselves.  And  this  in  spite  of 
an  apparently  strong  masculine  nature,  which  never 
excites  a  suspicion  of  effeminacy. 


40  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

Another  friend  of  the  writer  says  that  his  only 
child,  a  little  girl  now  deceased,  often  referred  to  a 
younger  sister  of  whom  he  knew  nothing.  When  cor 
rected  with  the  assurance  that  she  had  no  sister,  she 
would  reply,  "  Oh,  yes,  I  have  !  I  have  a  little  baby 
sister  in  heaven  !  "  The  same  gentleman  tells  this 
anecdote  of  a  neighbor's  family  where  the  subject  of 
reincarnation  is  never  mentioned.  A  group  of  chil 
dren  was  playing  in  the  house  at  a  counting  game 
while  their  mother  watched  them.  When  they  reached 
one  hundred  they  started  again  at  one  and  climbed 
up  the  numbers  once  more.  The  brightest  boy  com 
mented  on  the  proceeding :  "  We  count  ten,  twenty, 
thirty,  and  so  on  to  a  hundred.  Then  we  get  through 
and  begin  all  over.  Mamma  !  That 's  the  way  people 
do.  They  go  on  and  on  till  they  come  to  the  end, 
and  then  they  begin  over  again.  I  hope  I  '11  have  you 
for  a  mamma  again  the  next  time  I  begin."  Law 
rence  Oliphant  gives  in  "  Blackwood's  Magazine  "  for 
January,  1881,  a  remarkable  account  of  a  child  who 
remembered  experiences  of  previous  lives. 

A  writer  in  "  Notes  and  Queries,"  second  series, 
vol.  iv.  p.  157,  says,  "A  gentleman  of  high  intellectual 
attainments,  now  deceased,  once  told  me  that  he  had 
dreamed  of  being  in  a  strange  city,  so  vividly  that  he 
remembered  the  streets,  houses,  and  public  buildings 
as  distinctly  as  those  of  any  place  he  ever  visited.  A 
few  weeks  afterward  he  was  induced  to  visit  a  pano 
rama  in  Leicester  Square,  when  he  was  startled  by 
seeing  the  city  of  which  he  had  dreamed.  The  like 
ness  was  perfect  except  that  one  additional  church  ap 
peared  in  the  picture.  He  was  so  struck  by  the  cir 
cumstance  that  he  spoke  to  the  exhibitor,  assuming 
for  his  purpose  the  air  of  a  traveler  acquainted  with 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  41 

the  place.  He  was  informed  that  the  additional 
church  was  a  recent  erection."  It  is  difficult  to  ac 
count  for  such  a  fact  by  the  hypothesis  of  the  double 
structure  of  the  brain,  or  by  clairvoyance. 

In  Lord  Lindsay's  description  of  the  valley  of 
Kadisha  ("Letters,"  p.  351,  ed.  1847)  he  says  :  "  We 
saw  the  river  Kadisha  descending  from  Lebanon.  The 
whole  scene  bore  that  strange  and  shadowy  resem 
blance  to  the  wondrous  landscape  in  '  Kubla  Khan  ' 
that  one  so  often  feels  in  actual  life,  when  the  whole 
scene  around  you  appears  to  be  reacting  after  a  long 
interval.  Your  friends  seated  in  the  same  juxtaposi 
tion,  the  subjects  of  conversation  the  same,  and  shift 
ing  with  the  same  dreamlike  ease,  that  you  remember 
at  some  remote  and  indefinite  period  of  preexistence ; 
you  always  know  what  will  come  next,  and  sit  spell 
bound,  as  it  were,  in  a  sort  of  calm  expectancy." 

Dickens,  in  his  "  Pictures  from  Italy,"  mentions  this 
instance,  on  his  first  sight  of  Ferrara :  "  In  the  fore 
ground  was  a  group  of  silent  peasant  girls,  leaning 
over  the  parapet  of  the  little  bridge,  looking  now  up 
at  the  sky,  now  down  into  the  water  ;  in  the  dis 
tance  a  deep  dell ;  the  shadow  of  an  approaching 
night  on  everything.  If  I  had  been  murdered  there 
in  some  former  life  I  could  not  have  seemed  to  re 
member  the  place  more  thoroughly,  or  with  more  em 
phatic  chilling  of  the  blood  ;  and  the  real  remem 
brance  of  it  acquired  in  that  minute  is  so  strengthened 
by  the  imaginary  recollection  that  I  hardly  think  I 
could  forget  it." 

A  passage  in  the  story  of  "The  Wool-gatherer" 
shows  that  James  Hogg,  the  author,  shared  the  same 
feeling  and  attributed  it  to  an  earlier  life  on  earth. 
N.  P.  Willis  wrote  a  story  of  himself  as  the  reincar- 


42  EVIDENCES  OF  REINCARNATION. 

nation  of  an  Austrian  artist,  narrating  how  he  discov 
ered  his  previous  personality,  in  "Dashes  at  Life," 
under  the  title  "  A  Eevelation  of  a  Previous  Exist 
ence."  D.  G.  Rossetti  does  the  same  in  his  story 
"  St.  Agnes  of  Intercession." 

The  well-known  lecturer,  Eugene  Ashton,  recently 
contributed  to  a  Cincinnati  paper  these  two  anec 
dotes  :  — 

"  At  a  dinner  party  in  New  York,  recently,  a  lady, 
who  is  one  of  New  York's  most  gifted  singers,  said  to 
one  of  the  guests  :  '  In  some  reincarnation  I  hope  to 
perfect  my  voice,  which  I  feel  is  now  only  partially 
developed.  So  long  as  I  do  not  attain  the  highest 
of  which  my  soul  is  capable  I  shall  be  returned  to  the 
flesh  to  work  out  what  nature  intended  me  to  do.' 
4  But,  madam,  if  you  expect  incarnations,  have  you 
any  evidence  of  past  ones  ? '  'Of  that  I  cannot 
speak  positively.  I  can  recall  dimly  things  which 
seem  to  have  happened  to  me  when  I  was  in  the  flesh 
before.  Often  I  go  to  places  which  are  new  to  the 
present  personality,  but  they  are  not  new  to  my  soul ; 
I  am  sure  that  I  have  been  there  before.' 

"  A  Southern  literary  woman,  who  now  lives  in  Brook 
lyn,  speaking  of  her  former  incarnations,  says :  4 1 
am  sure  that  I  have  lived  in  some  past  time ;  for  in 
stance,  when  I  was  at  Heidelberg,  Germany,  attending 
a  convention  of  Mystics,  in  company  with  some  friends 
I  paid  my  first  visit  to  the  ruined  Heidelberg  Castle. 
As  I  approached  it  I  was  impressed  with  the  existence 
of  a  peculiar  room  in  an  inaccessible  portion  of  the 
building.  A  paper  and  pencil  were  provided  me,  and 
I  drew  a  diagram  of  the  room  even  to  its  peculiar 
floor.  My  diagram  and  description  were  perfect, 
when  we  afterwards  visited  the  room.  In  some  way 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  43 

not  yet  clear  to  me  I  have  been  connected  with  that 
apartment.  Still  another  impression  came  to  me 
with  regard  to  a  book,  which  I  was  made  to  feel  was 
in  the  old  library  of  the  Heidelberg  University.  I 
not  only  knew  what  the  book  was,  but  even  felt  that 
a  certain  name  of  an  old  German  professor  would  be 
found  written  in  it.  Communicating  this  feeling  to 
one  of  the  Mystics  at  the  convention,  a  search  was 
made  for  the  volume,  but  it  was  not  found.  Still  the 
impression  clung  to  me,  and  another  effort  was  made 
to  find  the  book  ;  this  time  we  were  rewarded  for  our 
pains.  Sure  enough,  there  on  the  margin  of  one  of 
the  leaves  was  the  very  name  I  had  been  given  in 
such  a  strange  manner.  Other  things  at  the  same 
time  went  to  convince  me  that  I  was  in  possession  of 
the  soul  of  a  person  who  had  known  Heidelberg  two 
or  three  centuries  ago.' " 

The  writer  knows  a  gentleman  who  has  repeatedly 
felt  a  vivid  sense  of  some  one  striking  his  skull  with 
an  axe,  although  nothing  in  his  own  experience  or  in 
that  of  his  family  explains  it.  An  extraordinary  per 
son  to  whom  he  had  never  hinted  the  matter  once  sur 
prised  him  by  saying  that  his  previous  life  was  closed 
by  murder  in  that  very  way.  Another  acquaintance 
is  sure  that  some  time  ago  he  was  a  Hindu,  and  recol 
lects  several  remarkable  incidents  of  that  life. 

Objectors  ascribe  these  enigmas  to  a  jumble  of  as 
sociations  producing  a  blurred  vision,  —  like  the  drunk 
ard's  experience  of  seeing  double,  a  discordant  remem 
brance,  snatches  of  forgotten  dreams,  —  or  to  the 
double  structure  of  the  brain.  In  one  of  the  lobes, 
they  say,  the  thought  flashes  a  moment  in  advance  of 
the  other,  and  the  second  half  of  the  thinking  machine 
regards  the  first  impression  as  a  memory  of  something 


44  EVIDENCES  OF  REINCARNATION. 

long  distant.1  But  this  explanation  is  unsatisfactory, 
as  it  fails  to  account  for  the  wonderful  vividness  of  some 
of  these  impressions  in  well-balanced  minds,  or  the 
long  trains  of  thought  which  come  independent  of  any 
companions,  or  the  prophetic  glimpses  which  anticipate 
actual  occurrences.  Far  more  credible  is  it  that  each 
soul  is  a  palimpsest  inscribed  again  and  again  with 
one  story  upon  another,  and  whenever  the  all-wise  Au 
thor  is  ready  to  write  a  grander  page  on  us  He  washes 
off  the  old  ink  and  pens  his  latest  word.  But  some  of 
us  can  trace  here  and  there  letters  of  the  former  man 
uscript  not  yet  effaced. 

A  contributor  to  the  "  Penn  Monthly,"  of  Septem 
ber,  1875,  refers  to  the  hypothesis  of  double  mental 
vision  as  supposed  to  account  for  most  of  these 
instances,  and  then  concludes  :  "  Such  would  be  my 
inference  as  regards  ordinary  cases  of  this  sort  of  rem 
iniscence,  especially  when  they  are  observed  to  ac 
company  any  impaired  health  of  the  organs  of  mental 
action.  But  there  are  more  extraordinary  instances 
of  this  mental  phenomenon,  of  which  I  can  give  no  ex 
planation.  Three  of  these  have  fallen  within  my  own 
range  of  observation.  A  friend's  child  of  about  four 
years  old  was  observed  by  her  older  sister  to  be  talk 
ing  to  herself  about  matters  of  which  she  could  not  be 
supposed  to  know  anything.  '  Why,  W- ,'  ex 
claimed  the  older  sister,  '  what  do  you  know  about 
that  ?  All  that  happened  before  you  were  born ! ' 

'  I  would  have  you  know,  L ,  that  I  grew  old  in 

heaven  before  I  was  born.'     I  do  not  quote  this  as  if 

1  As  a  physiological  explanation  of  these  instances,  Dr.  Wigan 
published  in  1844  a  curious  book  entitled,  "  The  Duality  of  the 
Mind  "  (London),  which  excited  animated  discussions  and  called 
forth  a  number  of  circumstances  which  the  double  structure  of 
the  brain  could  not  explain. 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  45 

it  explained  what  the  child  meant  it  to  explain,  but  as 
a  curious  statement  from  the  mouth  of  one  too  young 
to  have  ever  heard  of  preexistence,  or  to  have  inferred 
it  from  any  ambiguous  mental  experiences  of  her  own. 
The  second  case  is  that  of  the  presence  of  inexplicable 
reminiscences,  or  what  seem  such  in  dreams.  As 
everybody  knows,  the  stuff  which  dreams  are  ordinarily 
made  of  is  the  every-day  experience  of  life,  which  we 
cast  into  new  and  fantastic  combinations,  whose  laws 
of  arrangement  and  succession  are  still  unknown  to 
us.  In  the  list  of  my  acquaintances  is  a  young  mar 
ried  lady,  a  native  of  Philadelphia,  who  is  repeatedly  but 
not  habitually  carried  back  in  her  dreams  to  English 
society  of  the  eighteenth  century,  seemingly  of  the 
times  of  George  II.,  and  to  a  social  circle  somewhat 
above  that  in  which  she  now  lives.  Her  acquaintance 
with  literature  is  not  such  as  to  give  her  the  least  clue 
to  the  matter,  and  the  details  she  furnishes  are  not 
such  as  would  be  gathered  from  books  of  any  class. 
The  dress,  especially  the  lofty  and  elaborate  head 
dresses  of  the  ladies,  their  slow  and  stately  minuet 
dancing,  the  deference  of  the  servants  to  their  supe 
riors,  the  details  of  the  stiff,  square  brick  houses,  in 
one  of  which  she  was  surprised  to  find  a  family 
chapel  with  mural  paintings  and  a  fine  organ  —  all 
these  she  describes  with  the  sort  of  detail  possible  to 
one  who  has  actually  seen  them,  and  not  in  the  fashion 
in  which  book-makers  write  about  them.  Yet  another, 
a  more  wide-awake  experience,  is  that  of  a  friend,  who 
remembers  having  died  in  youth  and  in  India.  He 
sees  the  bronzed  attendants  gathered  about  his  cradle 
in  their  white  dresses ;  they  are  fanning  him.  And 
as  they  gaze  he  passes  into  unconsciousness.  Much  of 
his  description  concerned  points  of  which  he  knew 


46  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

nothing  from  any  other  source,  but  all  was  true  to 
the  life,  and  enabled  me  to  fix  on  India  as  the  scene 
which  he  recalled." 

7.  The  strongest  support  of  reincarnation  is  its  happy 
solution  of  the  problem  of  moral  inequality  and  in 
justice  and  evil  which  otherwise  overwhelms  us  as  we 
survey  the  world.  The  seeming  chaos  is  marvelously 
set  in  order  by  the  idea  of  soul-wandering.  Many  a 
sublime  intellect  has  been  so  oppressed  with  the  topsy- 
turviness  of  things  here  as  to  cry  out,  "  There  is  no 
God.  All  is  blind  chance."  An  exclusive  view  of 
the  miseries  of  mankind,  the  prosperity  of  wickedness, 
the  struggles  of  the  deserving,  the  oppression  of  the 
masses,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  the  talents  and  suc 
cesses  and  happiness  of  the  fortunate  few,  compels  one 
to  call  the  world  a  sham  without  any  moral  law.  But 
that  consideration  yields  to  a  majestic  satisfaction 
when  one  is  assured  that  the  present  life  is  only  one 
of  a  grand  series  in  which  every  individual  is  gradu 
ally  going  the  round  of  infinite  experience  for  a  glori 
ous  outcome,  —  that  the  hedging  ills  of  to-day  are  a 
consequence  of  what  we  did  yesterday  and  a  step 
toward  the  great  things  of  to-morrow.  Thus  the 
tangled  snarls  of  earthly  phenomena  are  straightened 
out  as  a  vast  and  beautiful  scheme,  and  the  total  ex 
perience  of  humanity  forms  a  magnificent  tapestry  of 
perfect  poetic  justice. 

The  crucial  test  of  any  hypothesis  is  whether  it 
meets  all  the  facts  better  than  any  other  theory.  No 
other  view  so  admirably  accounts  for  the  diversity  of 
conditions  on  earth,  and  refutes  the  charge  of  fa 
voritism  on  the  part  of  Providence.  Hierocles  said, 
and  many  a  philosopher  before  and  since  has  agreed 
with  him,  "  Without  the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis 


EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION.  47 

it  is  not  possible  to  justify  the  ways  of  God."  Some 
of  the  theologians  have  found  the  idea  of  preexistence 
necessary  to  a  reasonable  explanation  of  the  world, 
although  it  is  considered  foreign  to  the  Bible.  Over 
thirty  years  ago,  Dr.  Edward  Beecher  published 
"  The  Conflict  of  Ages,"  in  which  the  main  argument 
is  this  thought.  He  demonstrates  that  the  facts  of 
sin  and  depravity  compel  the  acceptance  of  this  doc 
trine  to  exonerate  God  from  the  charge  of  malicious 
ness.  His  book  caused  a  lively  controversy,  and  was 
soon  followed  by  "  The  Concord  of  Ages,"  in  which 
he  answers  the  objections  and  strengthens  his  posi 
tion.  The  same  truth  is  taught  by  Dr.  Julius  Miiller, 
a  German  theologian  of  prodigious  influence  among 
the  clergy.  Another  prominent  leader  of  theological 
thought,  Dr.  Dorner,  sustains  it. 

We  conclude,  therefore,  that  reincarnation  is  ne 
cessitated  by  immortality,  that  analogy  teaches  it, 
that  science  upholds  it,  that  the  nature  of  the  soul 
needs  it,  that  many  strange  sensations  support  it, 
and  that  it  alone  grandly  solves  the  problem  of  life. 
The  fullness  of  its  meaning  is  majestic  beyond  ap 
preciation,  for  it  shows  that  every  soul,  from  the 
lowest  animal  to  the  highest  archangel,  belongs  to 
the  infinite  family  of  God  and  is  eternal  in  its  con 
scious  essence,  perishing  only  in  its  temporary  dis 
guises  ;  that  every  act  of  every  creature  is  followed 
by  infallible  reactions  which  constitute  a  perfect  law 
of  retribution  ;  and  that  these  souls  are  intricately  in 
terlaced  with  mutual  relationships.  The  bewildering 
maze  thus  becomes  a  divine  harmony.  No  individual 
stands  alone,  but  trails  with  him  the  unfinished  se 
quels  of  an  ancestral  career,  and  is  so  bound  up  with 
his  race  that  each  is  responsible  for  all  and  all  for 


48  EVIDENCES   OF  REINCARNATION. 

each.  No  one  can  be  wholly  saved  until  all  are  re 
deemed.  Every  suffering  we  endure  apparently  for 
faults  not  our  own  assumes  a  holy  light  and  a  sublime 
dignity.  This  thought  removes  the  littleness  of  petty 
selfish  affairs  and  confirms  in  us  the  vastest  hopes  for 
mankind. 


III. 

OBJECTIONS  TO  REINCARNATION. 


Man  has  an  Eternal  Father  who  sent  him  to  reside  and  gain  ex 
perience  in  the  animal  principles.  —  PARACELSUS. 

God,  who  takes  millions  of  years  to  form  a  soul  that  shall  under 
stand  Him,  and  be  blessed ;  who  never  needs  to  be  and  never  is,  in 
haste  ;  who  welcomes  the  simplest  thought  of  truth  or  beauty  as  the 
return  for  seed  he  has  sown  upon  the  old  fallows  of  eternity.  — 

GEORGE  MACDONALD. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  strangeness  and  improbability  of 
this  hypothesis  (preexisteiice)  among  ourselves  arises  after  all  from 
grounds  on  which  our  philosophy  has  reason  to  congratulate  itself.  It 
may  be  questioned  whether,  if  we  examine  ourselves  candidly,  we 
shall  not  discover  that  the  feeling  of  extravagance  with  which  it 
affects  us  has  its  secret  source  in  materialistic  or  semi-materialistic 
prejudices. — PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  ARCHER  BUTLER'S  Lectures  on 
Platonic  Philosophy, 

Might  not  the  human  memory  be  compared  to  a  field  of  sepulture, 
thickly  stocked  with  the  remains  of  many  generations  ?  But  of  these 
thousands  whose  dust  heaves  the  surface,  a  few  only  are  saved  from 
immediate  oblivion,  upon  tablets  and  urns  ;  while  the  many  are,  at 
present,  utterly  lost  to  knowledge.  Nevertheless  each  of  the  dead 
has  left  in  that  soul  an  imperishable  germ  ;  and  all,  without  distinc 
tion,  shall  another  day  start  up,  and  claim  their  dues.  —  ISAAC 
TAYLOR. 

The  absence  of  memory  of  any  actions  done  in  a  previous  state 
cannot  be  a  conclusive  argument  against  our  having  lived  through  it. 
Forgetf  ulness  of  the  past  may  be  one  of  the  conditions  of  an  entrance 
upon  a  new  stage  of  existence.  The  body  which  is  the  organ  of 
sense-perception  may  be  quite  as  much  a  hindrance  as  a  help  to  re 
membrance.  In  that  case  casual  gleams  of  memory,  giving  us  siid- 
den  abrupt  and  momentary  revelations  of  the  past,  are  precisely  the 
phenomena  AVC  would  expect  to  meet  with.  If  the  soul  has  preexisted, 
what  we  would  a  priori  anticipate  are  only  some  faint  traces  of  re 
collection  surviving  in  the  crypts  of  memory.  —  PROFESSOR  WIL 
LIAM  KNIGHT. 


III. . 

OBJECTIONS  TO  REINCARNATION. 

THERE  are  four  leading  objections  to  the  idea  of  re 
births  :  — 

1.  That  we  have  no  memory  of  past  lives. 

2.  That  it  is  unjust  for  us  to  receive  now  the  re 
sults  of  forgotten  deeds  enacted  long  ago. 

3.  That  heredity  confutes  it. 

4.  That  it  is  an  uncongenial  doctrine. 

1.  Why  do  we  not  remember  something  of  our  pre 
vious  lives,  if  we  have  really  been  through  them  ? 

The  reason  why  there  is  no  universal  conviction 
from  this  ground  seems  to  be  that  birth  is  so  violent 
as  to  scatter  all  the  details  and  leave  only  the  net 
spiritual  result.  As  Plotinus  said,  "  Body  is  the  true 
river  of  Lethe  ;  for  souls  plunged  into  it  forget  all." 
The  real  soul  life  is  so  distinct  from  the  material 
plane  that  we  have  difficulty  in  retaining  many  expe 
riences  of  this  life.  Who  recalls  all  his  childhood? 
And  has  any  one  a  memory  of  that  most  wonderful 
epoch  —  infancy  ? 

Nature  sometimes  shows  us  what  may  be  the  ini 
tial  condition  of  a  man's  next  life  in  depriving  him  of 
his  life's  experience,  and  returning  him  to  a  second 
childhood,  with  only  the  character  acquired  during 


52  OBJECTIONS   TO  REINCARNATION. 

life  for  his  inseparable  fortune.  The  great  and  good 
prelate  Frederick  Christian  von  Oetingen  of  Wiirtem- 
barg  (1702-1782)  became  in  his  old  age  a  devout 
and  innocent  child,  after  a  long  life  of  usefulness. 
Gradually  speech  died  away,  until  for  three  years  he 
was  dumb.  Leaving  his  study,  where  he  had  written 
many  edifying  books,  and  his  library,  whose  volumes 
were  now  sealed  to  him,  he  would  go  to  the  streets 
and  join  the  children  in  their  plays,  and  spend  all  his 
time  sharing  their  delights.  The  profound  scholar 
was  stripped  of  his  intellect  and  became  a  venerable 
boy,  lovable  and  kind  as  in  all  his  busy  life.  He  had 
bathed  in  the  river  of  Lethe  before  his  time.  Similar 
cases  might  be  produced,  where  the  spirits  of  strong 
men  have  been  divested  of  a  lifetime's  memory  in 
aged  infancy,  seeming  to  be  a  foretaste  of  the  next 
existence.  They  show  that  the  loss  of  a  life's  details 
does  not  appear  strange  to  nature,  and  that  the  ne- 
penthic  waters  of  Styx,  which  the  ancients  represented 
as  imbibed  by  souls  about  to  reenter  earthly  life  to 
dispel  recollection  of  former  experiences,  are  not 
wholly  fabulous. 

"  Memory  of  the  details  of  the  past  is  absolutely 
impossible.  The  power  of  the  conservative  faculty 
though  relatively  great  is  extremely  limited.  We 
forget  the  larger  portion  of  experience  soon  after  we 
have  passed  through  it,  and  we  should  be  able  to  re 
call  the  particulars  of  our  past  years,  filling  all  the 
missing  links  of  consciousness  since  we  entered  on  the 
present  life,  before  we  were  in  a  position  to  remem 
ber  our  ante-natal  experience.  Birth  must  necessarily 
be  preceded  by  crossing  the  river  of  oblivion,  while 
the  capacity  for  fresh  acquisition  survives,  and  the 


OBJECTIONS   TO  REINCARNATION.  53 

garnered    wealth   of   old   experience   determines  the 
amount  and  character  of  the  new."  l 

But  it  has  been  shown  that  there  are  traces  of 
former  existences  lingering  in  some  memories.  These 
and  other  exceptional  departures  from  the  general 
rule  furnish  substantial  evidence  that  the  obliteration 
of  previous  lives  from  our  consciousness  is  only  ap 
parent.  Sleep,  somnambulism,  trance,  and  similar 
conditions  open  up  a  world  of  super-sensuous  reality 
to  illustrate  how  erroneous  are  our  common  notions  of 
memory.  Experimental  evidence  demonstrates  that 
we  actually  forget  nothing,  though  for  long  lapses  we 
are  unable  to  recall  what  is  stored  away  in  the  cham 
bers  of  our  soul ;  and  that  the  Orientals  may  be  right 
in  affirming  that  as  a  man's  lives  become  purer  he  is 
able  to  look  backward  upon  previous  stages,  and  at 
last  will  view  the  long  vista  of  the  aeons  by  which  he 
has  ascended  to  God.  Many  cases  reveal  that  the 
reach  and  clearness  of  memory  are  greatly  increased 
during  sleep  and  still  more  greatly  during  somnam- 
bulent  trance  ;  so  much  so  that  the  memory  of  some 
sleepings  and  of  most  trances  is  sufficiently  distinct 
from  the  memory  of  the  same  individual  in  waking 
consciousness,  to  seem  the  faculty  of  a  different 
person.  And,  while  the  memory  of  sensuous  con 
sciousness  does  not  retain  the  facts  of  the  trance 
condition,  the  memory  of  the  trance  state  retains  and 
includes  all  the  facts  of  the  sensuous  consciousness 
—  exemplifying  the  superior  and  unsuspected  powers 
of  our  unconscious  selves.  Instances  are  frequent 
illustrating  how  the  higher  consciousness  faithfully 
stores  away  experiences  which  are  thought  to  be  long 

1  Professor  William  Knight,  in  the  Fortnightly  Review,  1878. 
See  p.  95. 


54  OBJECTIONS  TO  REINCARNATION. 

forgotten  until  some  vivid  touch  brings  them  forth 
in  accurate  order.1  The  higher  recollection  and  the 
lower  sometimes  conduct  us  through  a  double  life. 
Dreams  that  vanish  during  the  day  are  resumed  at 
night  in  an  unbroken  course.  There  is  an  interest 
ing  class  of  cases  on  record  in  which  the  memory 
which  links  our  successive  dual  states  of  consciousness 
into  a  united  whole  is  so  completely  wanting  that  in 
observing  only  the  difference  between  the  two  phases 
of  the  same  person  we  describe  it  as  "alternating  con 
sciousness."  These  go  far  toward  an  empirical  proof 
that  one  individual  can  become  two  distinct  persons 
in  succession,  making  a  practical  demonstration  of 
reincarnation.  Baron  Du  Prel's  "  Philosophic  der 
Mystik  "  cites  a  number  of  such  authentic  instances, 
of  which  the  following  is  one,  given  by  Dr.  Mitchell 
in  "  Archiv  fiir  thierischen  Magnetismus,"  iv. 

1  Leibnitz  first  directed  attention  to  these  singular  pheno 
mena.  Sir  William  Hamilton  has  collected  a  number  of  in 
stances  of  such  wonderful  revival  of  memory.  Carpenter's 
Mental  Physiology,  pp.  430  et  seq.,  and  Brodie's  Psychological  In 
quiries,  Second  Series,  p.  55,  mention  several  cases.  Coleridge 
cited  from  the  German  a  remarkable  illustration,  and  com 
mented  upon  it  in  his  Biographia  Literaria,  chapter  vi.  :  — 

"  This  fact  (and  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  adduce  several  of 
the  same  kind)  contributes  to  make  it  even  probable  that  all 
thoughts  are  in  themselves  imperishable  ;  and  that,  if  the  in 
telligent  faculty  should  be  rendered  more  comprehensive,  it 
would  require  only  a  different  and  apportioned  organization,  the 
body  celestial  instead  of  the  body  terrestrial,  to  bring  before  every 
human  soul  the  collective  experience  of  its  whole  past  existence. 
And  this  —  this,  perchance,  is  the  dread  Book  of  Judgment,  in 
whose  mysterious  hieroglyphics  every  idle  word  is  recorded  ! 
Yea,  in  the  very  nature  of  a  living  spirit,  it  may  be  more  possible 
that  heaven  and  earth  should  pass  away  than  that  a  single  act,  a 
single  thought,  should  be  loosened  or  lost  from  that  living  chain 
of  causes  to  all  whose  links,  conscious  or  unconscious,  the  free 
will,  our  only  absolute  Self,  is  co-extensive  and  co-present." 


OBJECTIONS   TO  REINCARNATION.  55 

"  Miss  E enjoyed  naturally  perfect  health,  and 

reached  womanhood  without  any  serious  illness.  She 
was  talented,  and  gifted  with  a  remarkably  good 
memory,  and  learned  with  great  ease.  Without  any 
previous  warning  she  fell  one  day  into  a  deep  sleep 
which  lasted  many  hours,  and  on  awakening  she  had 
forgotten  every  bit  of  her  former  knowledge,  and  her 
memory  had  become  a  complete  tabula  rasa.  She 
again  learned  to  spell,  read,  write,  and  reckon,  and 
made  rapid  progress.  Some  few  months  afterward 
she  again  fell  into  a  similarly  prolonged  slumber,  from 
which  she  awoke  to  her  former  consciousness,  i.  e.,  in 
the  same  state  as  before  her  first  long  sleep,  but 
without  the  faintest  recollection  of  the  existence  or 
events  of  the  intervening  period.  This  double  ex 
istence  now  continued,  so  that  in  a  single  subject 
there  occurred  a  regular  alternation  of  two  perfectly 
distinct  personalities,  each  being  unconscious  of  the 
other,  and  possessing  only  the  memories  and  knowledge 
acquired  in  previous  corresponding  states." 

More  singular  still  are  cases  in  which  one  individual 
becomes  two  interchanging  persons,  of  whom  one  is 
wholly  unconnected  with  the  known  history  of  that  in 
dividual,  like  that  narrated  in  Mr.  Stevenson's  story 
of  "  The  Adventures  of  Dr.  Jekyl  and  Mr.  Hyde,"  and 
Julian  Hawthorne's  story  of  "  Archibald  Malmaison." 
The  newspapers  recently  published  ail  account  of  a 
Boston  clergyman,  who  strangely  disappeared  from 
his  city,  leaving  no  trace  of  his  destination.  Just  be 
fore  going  away  he  drew  some  money  from  the  bank, 
and  for  weeks  his  family  and  friends  heard  nothing  of 
him,  though  he  had  previously  been  most  faithful. 
Soon  after  his  departure  a  stranger  turned  up  in  a 
Pennsylvania  town  and  bought  out  a  certain  store, 


56  OBJECTIONS   TO  REINCARNATION. 

which  he  conducted  very  industriously  for  some  time. 
At  length  a  delirious  illness  seized  him.  One  day  he 
awoke  from  it  and  asked  his  nurse,  "  Where  am  I  ?  " 

"You   are   in  ,"    she   said.      "  How  did   I    get 

here  ?     I  belong  in  Boston."     "  You  have  lived  here 

for  three  months  and  own  Mr. 's  store,"  replied 

his  attendant.     "  You  are  mistaken,  madam ;  I  am  the 

Rev. ,   pastor  of   the church   in    Boston." 

Three  months  were  an  absolute  blank.  He  had  no 
memory  of  anything  since  drawing  the  money  at  his 
bank.  Returning  home,  he  there  resumed  the  broken 
line  of  his  ministerial  life  and  continued  in  that  char 
acter  without  further  interruption. 

Numerous  similar  cases  are  recorded  in  the  annals 
of  psychological  medicine,  and  justify  us  in  assuming, 
according  to  the  law  of  correspondences,  that  some 
such  alternation  of  consciousness  occurs  after  the 
great  change  known  as  death.  The  attempt  to  ex 
plain  them  as  mental  aberrations  is  wholly  unsuccess 
ful.  Reincarnation  shows  them  to  be  exceptions  prov 
ing  the  rule  —  the  recall  of  former  activities  supposed 
to  be  forgotten.  In  these  examples  of  double  identity 
the  facts  of  each  state  disappear  when  the  other  set 
come  forward  and  are  resumed  again  in  their  turn. 
Where  did  they  reside  meanwhile  ?  They  must  have 
been  preserved  in  a  subtler  organ  than  the  brain, 
which  is  only  the  medium  of  translation  from  that  un 
conscious  memory  to  the  world  of  sense-perception. 
This  must  be  in  the  super-sensuous  part  of  the  soul. 
This  provides  that,  as  a  slow  and  painful  training  leads 
to  unconscious  habits  of  skill,  so  the  experience  of 
life  is  stored  up  in  the  higher  memory,  and  becomes, 
when  assimilated,  the  reflex  acts  of  the  following  life, 
—  those  operations  which  we  call  instinctive  and  hered 
itary. 


OBJECTIONS   TO  REINCARNATION.  57 

2.  The  question  is  raised,  is  it  just  that  a  man 
should  suffer  for  what  he  is  not  conscious  of  having 
done  ? 

As  just  as  that  he  should  enjoy  the  results  of  what 
he  does  not  remember  causing.  It  is  said  that  justice 
requires  that  the  offender  be  conscious  of  the  fault 
for  which  he  is  punished.  But  the  ideas  of  justice 
between  man  and  man  cannot  be  applied  to  the  all- 
wise  operations  of  the  Infinite.  In  human  attempts  at 
justice  that  method  is  imperative  because  of  our  lia 
bility  to  mistake.  God's  justice  is  vindicated  by  the 
undisturbed  sway  of  the  law  of  causation.  If  /suffer 
it  must  be  for  what  /  have  done.  The  faith  in  Provi 
dence  demands  this,  and  it  is  because  of  unbelief  in 
reincarnation  that  the  seeming  negligence  on  the  part 
of  Providence  has  obliterated  the  idea  of  a  Personal 
God  from  many  minds.  Nature  is  the  arena  of  in 
fallible  cause  and  effect,  and  there  is  no  such  absurd 
ity  in  the  universe  as  an  effect  without  a  responsible 
cause.  A  man  may  suffer  from  a  disease  in  ignorance 
of  the  conditions  under  which  its  germs  were  sown  in 
his  body,  but  the  right  sequence  of  cause  and  effect  is 
not  imperiled  by  his  ignorance.  To  doubt  that  the 
experiences  we  now  enjoy  and  endure  properly  belong 
to  us  by  our  own  choice  is  to  abandon  the  idea  of 
God.  How  and  why  they  have  come  is  explained 
only  by  reincarnation.  The  universal  Over-Soul 
makes  no  mistakes.  By  veiling  our  memories  the 
Mother  Heart  of  all,  mercifully  saves  us  the  horror 
and  burden  of  knowing  all  the  myriad  steps  by  which 
we  have  become  what  we  are.  We  would  be  stag 
gered  by  the  sight  of  all  our  waywardness,  and  what 
we  have  done  well  is  possessed  more  richly  in  the 
grand  total  than  would  be  possible  in  the  infinite  de- 


58  OBJECTIONS   TO  REINCARNATION. 

tails.  We  are  in  the  hands  of  a  generous  omniscient 
banker,  who  says :  "  I  will  save  you  all  the  trouble  of 
the  accounts.  Whenever  you  are  ready  to  start  a  new 
folio,  I  will  strike  the  balance  and  turn  over  your  net 
proceeds  with  all  accrued  interests.  The  itemized  rec 
ords  of  your  deposits  and  spendings  are  beyond  your 
calculation." 

3.  It  may  be  claimed  that  the  facts  of  heredity  bear 
against  reincarnation.  As  the  physical,  mental,  and 
moral  peculiarities  of  children  come  from  the  parents, 
how  can  it  be  possible  that  a  man  is  what  he  makes 
himself  —  the  offspring  of  his  own  previous  lives? 

Science  is  certain  of  the  tendency  of  every  organism 
to  transmit  its  own  qualities  to  its  descendants,  and 
the  intricate  web  of  ancestral  influences  is  assumed  to 
account  for  all  the  aberrations  of  individual  life.  But 
the  forces  producing  this  result  are  beyond  the  ken  of 
science.  The  mechanical  theory  of  germ  cells  multi 
plying  their  kind  is  inadequate :  for  the  germs  be 
come  more  complex  and  energetic  with  growth,  and  ex 
ceed  the  limitations  of  molecular  physics.  The  facts 
of  heredity  demand  the  existence  in  nature  of  super- 
sensuous  forces  escaping  our  observation  and  cogniz 
able  only  through  their  effects  on  the  plane  of  sen 
suous  consciousness.  These  forces  residing  in  the 
inaccessible  regions  of  the  soul  mould  all  individual 
aptitudes  and  faculties  and  character.  Reincarnation 
includes  the  facts  of  heredity,  by  showing  that  the 
tendency  of  every  organism  to  reproduce  its  own  like 
ness  groups  together  similar  causes  producing  similar 
effects,  in  the  same  lines  of  physical  relation.  Instead 
of  being  content  with  the  statement  that  heredity 
causes  the  resemblances  of  child  to  parent,  reincarna 
tion  teaches  that  a  similarity  of  ante-natal  develop 


OBJECTIONS   TO  REINCARNATION.          59 

ment  has  brought  about  the  similarity  of  embodied 
characteristics.  The  individual  soul  seeking  another 
birth  finds  the  path  of  least  resistance  in  the  channels 
best  adapted  to  its  qualities.  The  Ego  selects  its 
material  body  by  a  choice  more  wise  than  any  volun 
tary  selection,  by  the  inherent  tendencies  of  its  nature, 
in  fitness  for  its  need,  not  only  in  the  particular  phy 
sique  best  suited  for  its  purpose,  but  in  the  larger  phys 
ical  casements  of  family  and  nationality.  The  rela 
tion  of  child  and  parent  is  required  by  the  similarity 
of  organisms.  This  view  accounts  also  for  the  dif 
ferences  invariably  accompanying  the  resemblances. 
Identity  of  character  is  impossible,  and  the  conditions 
which  made  it  easy  for  an  individual  to  be  born  in  a 
certain  family,  because  of  the  adaptation  of  circum 
stances  there  to  the  expression  of  portions  of  his  na 
ture,  would  not  prevent  a  strong  contrast  between  him 
and  his  relatives  in  some  respects.  The  facts  observed 
in  the  life  history  of  twins  show  that  two  individuals 
born  under  precisely  identical  conditions,  and  having 
exactly  the  same  heredity,  sometimes  differ  completely 
in  physique,  in  intellect,  and  in  character.  The  birth 
of  geniuses  in  humble  and  commonplace  circumstances 
furnishes  abundant  evidence  that  the  individual  soul 
outstrips  all  the  trammels  of  physical  birth ;  and  the 
unremarkable  children  of  great  parents  exhibit  the  in 
efficiency  of  merely  hereditary  influences.  These  con 
spicuous  violations  of  the  laws  of  heredity  confirm 
reincarnation. 

4.  At  the  first  impression  the  idea  of  re-births  is 
unwelcome,  because  — 

a.  It  is  interlaced  with  the  theory  of  transmigration 
through  animals  ; 

b.  It  destroys  the  hope  of  recognizing  friends  in  the 
coming  existence ; 


60          OBJECTIONS   TO  REINCARNATION. 

c.  It  seems  a  cold,  irreligious  notion. 

a.  As  will  be  fully  shown  in  chapter  xii.,  the  con 
ceit  of  a  transmigration  of  human  souls  through  animal 
bodies,  although  it  has  been  and  is  cherished  by  most 
of  the  believers  in  reincarnation,  is  only  a  gross  meta 
phor  of  the  germinal  truth,  and  never  was  received  by 
the  enlightened  advocates  of  plural  existences. 

b.  The  most  thoughtful  adherents  of  a  future  life 
agree  that  there  must  be  there  some  subtler  mode  of 
recognition  between  friends  than  physical  appearances, 
for  these  outer  signs  cannot  endure  in  the  world  of 
spirit.    The  conviction  that  "  whether  there  be  prophe 
cies  they  shall  fail,  whether  there  be  tongues  they  shall 
cease,  whether   there    be   knowledge  it   shall  vanish 
away,"  but  "  love  never  faileth,"  and  only  character 
shall  remain  as  the  means  of  identification,  is  precisely 
the    view  entertained   by  believers   in   reincarnation. 
The  most  intimate  ties  of  this  life  cannot  be  explained 
otherwise  than  as  renewals  of  old  intimacies,  drawn  to 
gether  by  the  spiritual  gravitation  of  love,  and  enjoy 
ing  often  the  sense  of  a  previous  similar  experience. 
(A  further  reference  to  this  point  will  be  found  later. 
See  page  295.) 

c.  The  strongest  religious  natures  have  been  nour 
ished  from  time  immemorial  with  the  feeling  that  life 
is  a  pilgrimage  through  which  we  tread  our  darkened 
way  back  to  God.     The  Scriptures  are  full  of  it,  and 
the  spiritual  manhood  of  every  age  has  found  it  a 
source  of  invigoration.    From  Abraham,  who  reckoned 
his  lifetime  as  "  the  days  of  the  years  of  his  pilgrim 
age,"  through  all  the  phases  of  Christian  thought  to 
the  mightiest  book    of   modern    Christendom,   "  The 
Pilgrim's  Progress,"   this  idea   has   been  universally 
cherished.     A  typical  expression  of  it  may  be  seen  in 


OBJECTIONS   TO  REINCARNATION.          61 

the  mediaeval  churchyard  of  St.  Martin  at  Canterbury, 
upon  a  stone  over  the  remains  of  Dean  Alford  bearing 
these  words  in  Latin,  which  were  inscribed  by  his  own 
direction  :  "  The  inn  of  a  traveler  journeying  to  Jeru 
salem."  Now  this  pilgrimage  philosophy  is  only  a 
simpler  phrasing  of  reincarnation.  Our  theory  ex 
tends  the  journey  in  just  proportion  to  the  supernal 
destination,  providing  many  a  station  by  the  way, 
wherein  abiding  a  few  days  we  may  more  profitably 
traverse  the  upward  road,  gathering  so  much  experi 
ence  that  there  will  be  no  occasion  to  wander  again. 
Instead  of  being  a  cold  philosophic  hypothesis,  rein 
carnation  is  a  living  unfoldment  of  that  Christian 
germ,  enlarged  to  a  fullness  commensurate  with  the 
needs  of  men  and  the  character  of  God.  It  throbs 
with  the  warmth  of  deepest  piety  combined  with  no 
blest  intelligence,  providing  as  no  other  supposition 
does,  for  the  grandest  development  of  mankind. 


IV. 

WESTERN  PROSE  WRITERS  ON  REINCARNATION. 


I  think  I  must  once  have  been  masculine,  because  my  love  is  all 
for  girls.  —  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT. 

The  greatest  guilt  of  man  is  that  he  was  born.  —  CALDERON. 

I  seem  often  clearly  to  remember  in  my  soul  a  presentiment  which  I 
have  not  seen  with  my  present,  but  with  some  other  eye.  — J.  E.  VON 
SCHUBERT. 

I  produced  the  golden  key  of  preexistence  only  at  a  dead  lift,  when 
no  other  method  could  satisfy  me  touching-  the  ways  of  God,  that  by 
this  hypothesis  I  might  keep  my  heart  from  sinking.  —  HENRY  MORE. 

The  essences  of  our  souls  can  never  cease  to  be  because  they  never 
began  to  be,  and  nothing  can  live  eternally  but  that  Avhich  hath  lived 
from  eternity.  The  essences  of  our  souls  were  a  breath  in  God  before 
they  became  living  souls  ;  they  lived  in  God  before  they  lived  in  the 
created  souls,  and  therefore  the  soul  is  a  partaker  of  the  eternity  of 
God.  —  WILLIAM  LAW. 

If  there  be  no  reasons  to  suppose  that  we  have  existed  before  that 
period  at  which  our  existence  apparently  commences,  then  there  are 
no  grounds  for  supposing  that  we  shall  continue  to  exist  after  our  ex 
istence  has  apparently  ceased.  —  SHELLEY. 

The  ancient  doctrine  of  transmigration  seems  the  most  rational  and 
most  consistent  with  God's  wisdom  and  goodness ;  as  by  it  all  the  un 
equal  dispensations  of  things  so  necessary  in  one  life  may  be  set  right 
in  another,  and  all  creatures  serve  the  highest  and  lowest,  the  most 
eligible  and  mcst  burdensome  offices  of  life  by  an  equitable  rotation  ; 
by  which  means  their  rewards  and  punishments  may  not  only  be  pro 
portioned  to  their  behavior,  but  also  carry  on  the  business  of  the  uni 
verse,  and  thus  at  the  same  time  answer  the  purposes  both  of  justice 
and  utility.  —  SOAMK  JENYNS. 


IV. 

WESTERN   PROSE   WRITERS    ON   REINCARNATION. 

THERE  is  a  larger  endorsement  of  reincarnation 
among  western  thinkers  than  the  world  knows.  In 
many  of  them  it  springs  up  spontaneously,  while  oth 
ers  embrace  it  as  a  luminous  ray  from  the  East  which 
is  confirmed  by  all  the  candid  tests  of  philosophy. 
When  Christianity  first  swept  over  Europe  the  inner 
thought  of  its  leaders  was  deeply  tinctured  with  this 
truth.  The  Church  tried  ineffectually  to  eradicate  it, 
and  in  various  sects  it  kept  sprouting  forth  beyond  the 
time  of  Erigena  and  Bonaventura,  its  mediaeval  advo 
cates.  Every  great  intuitional  soul,  as  Paracelsus, 
Boehme,  and  Swedenborg,  has  adhered  to  it.  The  Ital 
ian  luminaries,  Giordano  Bruno  and  Campanella,  em 
braced  it.  The  best  of  German  philosophy  is  enriched 
by  it.  In  Schopenhauer,  Lessing,  Hegel,  Leibnitz, 
Herder,  and  Fichte  the  younger,  it  is  earnestly  advo 
cated.  The  anthropological  systems  of  Kant  and 
Schelling  furnish  points  of  contact  with  it.  The 
younger  Helmont,  in  "  De  Revolutions  Animarum,"  ad 
duces  in  two  hundred  problems  all  the  arguments  which 
may  be  urged  in  favor  of  the  return  of  souls  into 
human  bodies,  according  to  Jewish  ideas.  Of  English 
thinkers  the  Cambridge  Platonists  defended  it  with 
much  learning  and  acuteness,  most  conspicuously  Henry 
More ;  and  in  Cud  worth  and  Hume  it  ranks  as  the 


66        PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

most  rational  theory  of  immortality.  Glanvil's  "  Lux 
Orientalis  "  devotes  a  curious  treatise  to  it.  It  capti 
vated  the  minds  of  Fourier  and  Leroux.  Andre*  Pez- 
zani's  book  on  "  The  Plurality  of  the  Soul's  Lives  " 
works  out  the  system  on  the  Koman  Catholic  idea  of 
expiation.  Modern  astronomy  has  furnished  material 
for  the  elaborate  speculations  of  a  reincarnation  ex 
tending  through  many  worlds,  as  published  in  Fonte- 
nelle's  volume  "  The  Plurality  of  Worlds,"  Huygens's 
" Cosmotheoros,"  Brewster's  "More  Worlds  than  One  ; 
the  Philosopher's  Faith  and  the  Christian's  Hope," 
Jean  Reynaud's  "  Earth  and  Heaven,"  Flammarion's 
"  Stories  of  Infinity  "  and  ';  The  Plurality  of  Inhabited 
Worlds,"  and  Figuier's  "The  To-morrow  of  Death." 
With  various  degrees  of  fancy  and  probability  these 
writers  trace  the  soul's  progress  among  the  heavenly 
bodies.  The  astronomer  Bode  wrote  that  we  start 
from  the  coldest  planet  of  our  solar  system  and  ad 
vance  from  planet  to  planet,  nearer  the  sun,  where  the 
most  perfect  beings,  he  thinks,  will  live.  Emmanuel 
Kant,  in  his  "  General  History  of  Nature,"  says  that 
souls  start  imperfect  from  the  sun,  and  travel  by  planet 
stages,  farther  and  farther  away  to  a  paradise  in  the 
coldest  and  remotest  star  of  our  system.  Between 
these  opposites  many  savants  have  formulated  other 
theories.  In  theology  reincarnation  has  retained  a 
firm  influence  from  the  days  of  Origen  and  Porphyry, 
through  the  scholastics,  to  the  present  day.  In  Soame 
Jenyns's  works,  which  long  thrived  as  the  best  published 
argument  for  Christianity,  it  is  noticeable.  Chevalier 
Ramsay  and  William  Law  have  also  written  in  its  de 
fense.  Julius  Miiller  warmly  upholds  it  in  his  pro 
found  work  on  "  The  Christian  Doctrine  of  Sin,"  as 
well  as  Dr.  Dorner.  Another  means  of  its  dissemina- 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       67 

tion  through  a  good  portion  of  the  ministry  is  Dr.  Ed 
ward  Beecher's  espousal  of  it,  in  the  form  of  preexist- 
ence,  in  "  The  Conflict  of  Ages  "  and  "  The  Concord  of 
Ages."  English  and  Irish  bishops 1  have  not  hesitated 
to  promulgate  it.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  Phillips 
Brooks  have  dared  to  preach  it.  James  Freeman 
Clarke  speaks  strongly  in  its  favor.  Professor  William 
Knight,  the  Scotch  metaphysician  of  St.  Andrews,  and 
Professor  Francis  Bovven  of  Harvard  University,  clearly 
show  the  logical  probabilities  in  which  reincarnation 
compares  favorably  with  any  other  philosophy.2 

The  following  extracts  from  the  most  interesting  of 
these  and  other  Western  authors  who  refer  to  the  mat 
ter  may  represent  the  unsuspected  prevalence  of  this 
thought  in  our  own  midst. 

1.  Schopenhauer's  powerful  philosophy  includes  re 
incarnation  as  one  of  its  main  principles,  as  these  ex 
tracts  show,  from  his  chapter  on  "  Death  "  in  "  The 
World  as  Will  and  Idea  "  :  —  3 

"  What  sleep  is  for  the  individual,  death  is  for  the 
will  [character] .  It  would  not  endure  to  continue  the 
same  actions  and  sufferings  throughout  an  eternity, 
without  true  gain,  if  memory  and  individuality  re 
mained  to  it.  It  flings  them  off,  and  this  is  lethe ; 
and  through  this  sleep  of  death  it  reappears  refreshed 
and  fitted  out  with  another  intellect,  as  a  new  being  — 
4  a  new  day  tempts  to  new  shores.'  ' 

1  A  noble  passage  from  one  of  the  greatest  of  these  may  be 
found   in  Scott's  Christian  Life,  chapter  iii.  section  i.    See  also 
Dr.  Henry  More's  Immortality  of  the  Soul,  Book  II.   chapter 
xvi.,  and  Sir  Kenelin  Digby's  remarks  on  Sir  Thomas  Browne's 
Religio  Medici. 

2  A  full  list  of  the  principal  western  writers  on  this  subject  is 
given  in  the  Appendix. 

8  Haldane  and  Kemp's  Translation,  vol.  iii.  pp.  299-306- 


68       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

"  These  constant  new  births,  then,  constitute  the 
succession  of  the  life-dreams  of  a  will  which  in  itself 
is  indestructible,  until,  instructed  and  improved  by  so 
much  and  such  various  successive  knowledge  in  a  con 
stantly  new  form,  it  abolishes  or  abrogates  itself  "  — - 
[becomes  in  perfect  harmoii}^  with  the  Infinite]. 

"  It  must  not  be  neglected  that  even  empirical 
grounds  support  a  palingenesis  of  this  kind.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  there  does  exist  a  connection  between 
the  birth  of  the  newly  appearing  beings  and  the  death 
of  those  that  are  worn  out.  It  shows  itself  in  the 
great  fruitfulness  of  the  human  race  which  appears  as 
a  consequence  of  devastating  diseases.  When  in  the 
fourteenth  century  the  Black  Death  had  for  the  most 
part  depopulated  the  old  world,  a  quite  abnormal  fruit- 
fulness  appeared  among  the  human  race,  and  twin- 
births  were  very  frequent.  The  circumstance  was 
also  remarkable  that  none  of  the  children  born  at  this 
time  obtained  their  full  number  of  teeth ;  thus  nature, 
exerting  itself  to  the  utmost,  was  niggardly  in  details. 
This  is  related  by  F.  Schnurrer,  4  Chronik  der  Seu- 
chen,'  1825.  Casper  also,  c  Ueber  die  Wahrschein- 
lichc  Lebensdauer  des  Menschen,'  1835,  confirms  the 
principle  that  the  number  of  births  in  a  given  popula 
tion  has  the  most  decided  influence  upon  the  length  of 
life  and  mortality  in  it,  as  this  always  keeps  pace  with 
the  mortality :  so  that  always  and  everywhere  the 
deaths  and  the  births  increase  and  decrease  in  like  pro 
portion  ;  which  he  places  beyond  doubt  by  an  accumu 
lation  of  evidence  collected  from  many  lands  and  their 
various  provinces.  And  yet  it  is  impossible  that  there 
can  be  a  physical  causal  connection  between  my  early 
death  and  the  fruitfulness  of  a  marriage  with  which  I 
have  nothing  to  do,  or  conversely.  Thus  here  the 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       69 

metaphysical  appears  undeniable  and  in  a  stupendous 
manner  as  the  immediate  ground  of  explanation  of  the 
physical.  Every  new-born  being  comes  fresh  and 
blithe  into  the  new  existence,  and  enjoys  it  as  a  free 
gift :  but  there  is,  and  can  be,  nothing  freely  given. 
Its  fresh  existence  is  paid  for  by  the  old  age  and  death 
of  a  worn-out  existence  which  has  perished,  but  which 
contained  the  indestructible  seed  out  of  which  the  new 
existence  has  arisen  :  they  are  one  being.  To  show 
the  bridge  between  the  two  would  certainly  be  the  so 
lution  of  a  great  riddle. 

"  The  great  truth  which  is  expressed  here  has  never 
been  entirely  unacknowledged,  although  it  could  not 
be  reduced  to  the  exact  and  correct  meaning,  which  is 
only  possible  through  the  doctrine  of  the  primary  and 
metaphysical  nature  of  the  will,  and  the  secondary, 
merely  organic  nature  of  the  intellect.  We  find  the 
doctrine  of  metempsychosis,  springing  from  the  earliest 
and  noblest  ages  of  the  human  race,  always  spread 
abroad  in  the  earth  as  the  belief  of  the  great  majority 
of  mankind ;  nay,  really  as  the  teaching  of  all  religions, 
with  the  exception  of  that  of  the  Jews  and  the  two 
which  have  proceeded  from  it :  in  the  most  subtle  form 
however,  and  coming  nearest  to  the  truth  in  Bud 
dhism.  Accordingly,  while  Christians  console  them 
selves  with  the  thought  of  meeting  again  in  another 
world,  in  which  one  regains  one's  complete  personality 
and  knows  one's  self  at  once,  in  those  other  religions  the 
meeting  again  is  going  on  now,  only  incognito.  In 
the  succession  of  births,  and  by  virtue  of  metempsy 
chosis  or  palingenesis,  the  persons  who  now  stand  in 
close  connection  or  contact  with  us  will  also  be  born 
again  with  us  at  the  next  birth,  and  will  have  the  same 
or  analogous  relations  and  sentiments  towards  us  a^s 


70       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

now,  whether  these  are  of  a  friendly  or  a  hostile  de 
scription.  Eecognition  is  certainly  here  limited  to  an 
obscure  intimation,  — a  reminiscence,  which  cannot  be 
brought  to  distinct  consciousness,  and  refers  to  an  in 
finitely  distant  time ;  with  the  exception,  however,  of 
Buddha  himself,  who  has  the  prerogative  of  distinctly 
knowing  his  own  earlier  births  and  those  of  others,  — 
as  this  is  described  in  the  '  Jataka.'  But  in  fact,  if  at 
a  favorable  moment  one  contemplates,  in  a  purely  ob 
jective  manner,  the  action  of  men  in  reality,  the  intui 
tive  conviction  is  forced  upon  one  that  it  not  only  is 
and  remains  constantly  the  same,  according  to  the 
[Platonic]  Idea,  but  also  that  the  present  generation, 
in  its  true  inner  nature,  is  precisely  and  substantially 
identical  with  every  generation  that  has  been  before 
it.  The  question  simply  is,  in  what  this  true  being 
consists.  The  answer  which  my  doctrine  gives  to  this 
question  is  well  known.  The  intuitive  conviction  re 
ferred  to  may  be  conceived  as  arising  from  the  fact 
that  the  multiplying-glasses,  time  and  space,  lose  for  a 
moment  their  effect.  With  reference  to  the  univer 
sality  of  the  belief  in  metempsychosis,  Obry  says 
rightly  in  his  excellent  book  '  Du  Nirvana  Indien,'  p. 
13,  'Cette  vielle  croyance  a  fait  le  tour  du  monde,  et 
tellement  rdpandue  dans  la  haute  antiquitd  qu'un 
docte  Anglican  Tavait  jugee  sans  pere,  sans  mere,  et 
sans  ge'ne'alogie.'  Taught  already  in  the  '  Vedas  '  as 
in  all  the  sacred  books  of  India,  metempsychosis  is 
well  known  to  be  the  kernel  of  Brahmanism  and  Bud 
dhism.  It  accordingly  prevails  at  the  present  day  in 
the  whole  of  non-Mohammedan  Asia,  thus  among  more 
than  half  the  whole  human  race,  as  the  firmest  convic 
tion,  and  with  an  incredibly  strong  practical  influence. 
It  was  also  the  belief  of  the  Egyptians,  from  whom  it 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.        71 

was  received  with  enthusiasm  by  Orpheus,  Pythagoras, 
and  Plato.  The  Pythagoreans,  however,  specially  re 
tained  it.  That  it  was  also  taught  in  the  mysteries  of 
the  Greeks  undeniably  follows  from  the  ninth  book  of 
Plato's  Laws.  The  '  Edda '  also,  especially  in  the 
'Voluspa,'  teaches  metempsychosis.  Not  less  was  it 
the  foundation  of  the  religion  of  the  Druids.  Even  a 
Mohammedan  sect  in  Hindustan,  the  Bohrahs,  of 
which  Colebrooke  gives  a  full  account  in  the  '  Asiatic 
Kesearches,'  believes  in  metempsychosis,  and  accord 
ingly  refrains  from  all  animal  food.  Also  among 
American  Indians  and  negro  tribes,  nay,  even  among 
the  natives  of  Australia,  traces  of  this  belief  are  found. 
.  .  .  According  to  all  this  the  belief  in  metempsy 
chosis  presents  itself  as  the  natural  conviction  of  man 
whenever  he  reflects  at  all  in  an  unprejudiced  manner. 
It  would  really  seem  to  be  that  which  Kant  falsely 
asserts  of  his  three  pretended  ideas  of  the  reason,  a 
philosopheme  natural  to  human  reason,  which  proceeds 
from  its  forms ;  and  when  it  is  not  found  it  must 
have  been  displaced  by  positive  religious  doctrines  com 
ing  from  a  different  source.  I  have  also  remarked  that 
it  is  at  once  obvious  to  every  one  who  hears  of  it  for 
the  first  time.  Let  any  one  only  observe  how  earnestly 
Lessing  defends  it  in  the  last  seven  paragraphs  of  his 
'Erziehung  des  Menschengeschlechts.'1  Lichtenberg 
also  says  in  his  '  Selbstcharacteristik  ' :  '  I  cannot  get 
rid  of  the  thought  that  I  died  before  I  was  born.' 
Even  the  excessively  empirical  Hume  says  in  his  skep 
tical  essay  on  immortality,  'The  metempsychosis  is 
therefore  the  only  system  of  this  kind  that  philos 
ophy  can  hearken  to.'  What  resists  this  belief  is 
Judaism,  together  with  the  two  religions  which  have 
1  Translated  in  section  2  of  this  chapter. 


72      PROSE  WRITERS  ON  REINCARNATION. 

sprung  from  it,  because  they  teach  the  creation  of 
man  out  of  nothing,  and  they  have  the  hard  task  of 
linking  on  to  this  belief  an  endless  existence  a  parte 
post.  They  certainly  have  succeeded,  with  fire  and 
sword,  in  driving  out  of  Europe  and  part  of  Asia  that 
consoling  primitive  belief  of  mankind ;  it  is  still  doubt 
ful  for  how  long.  Yet  how  difficult  this  was  is  shown 
by  the  oldest  church  histories.  Most  of  the  heretics 
were  attached  to  this  belief ;  for  example,  Simonists, 
Basilidians,  Valentinians,  Marcionists,  Gnostics,  and 
Manicheans.  The  Jews  themselves  have  in  part  fallen 
into  it,  as  Tertullian  and  Justinus  inform  us.  In  the 
Talmud  it  is  related  that  AbeFs  soul  passed  into  the 
body  of  Seth,  and  then  into  that  of  Moses.  Even  the 
passage  of  the  Bible,  Matt,  xvi,  13-15,  only  obtains  a 
rational  meaning  if  we  understand  it  as  spoken  under 
the  assumption  of  the  dogma  of  metempsychosis.  .  .  . 
In  Christianity,  however,  the  doctrine  of  original  sin, 
i.  e.,  the  doctrine  of  punishment  for  the  sins  of  an 
other  individual,  has  taken  the  place  of  the  transmi 
gration  of  souls,  and  the  expiation  in  this  way  of  all 
the  sins  committed  in  an  earlier  life.  Both  identify 
the  existing  man  with  one  who  has  existed  before :  the 
transmigration  of  souls  does  so  directly,  original  sin 
indirectly." 

2.  In  the  remarkable  little  treatise  on  "  The  Divine 
Education  of  the  Human  Eace,"  by  Lessing,  the  Ger 
man  philosopher,  a  book  so  sublimely  simple  in  its 
profound  insight  that  it  has  had  enormous  influence 
and  was  translated  into  English  as  a  labor  of  love  by 
the  Rev.  Frederick  W.  Robertson,  the  author  outlines 
the  gradual  instruction  of  mankind  and  shows  how  the 
enlightenment  is  still  progressing  through  many  im 
portant  lessons.  His  thought  mounts  to  a  climax  in 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       73 

suggesting  the  stupendous  programme  by  which  God 
is  developing  the  individual  just  as  he  has  been  edu 
cating  the  race :  — 

"  The  very  same  way  by  which  the  race  reaches  its 
perfection  must  every  individual  man  —  one  sooner, 
another  later  —  have  traveled  over.  Have  traveled 
over  in  one  and  the  same  life  ?  Can  he  have  been  in 
one  and  the  selfsame  life  a  sensual  Jew  and  a  spirit 
ual  Christian  ?  Can  he  in  the  selfsame  life  have  over 
taken  both  ? 

"  Surely  not  that :  but  why  should  not  every  indi 
vidual  man  have  existed  more  than  once  upon  this 
world  ? 

u  Is  this  hypothesis  so  laughable  merely  because  it 
is  the  oldest  ?  Because  the  human  understanding,  be 
fore  the  sophistries  of  the  schools  had  dissipated  and 
debilitated  it,  lighted  upon  it  at  once  ? 

"  Why  may  not  even  I  have  already  performed 
those  steps  of  my  perfecting  which  bring  to  men  only 
temporal  punishments  and  rewards  ?  And  once  more, 
why  not  another  time  all  those  steps  to  perform  which, 
the  views  of  eternal  rewards  so  powerfully  assist  us  ? 

"  Why  should  I  not  come  back  as  often  as  I  am  ca 
pable  of  acquiring  fresh  knowledge,  fresh  expertness  ? 
Do  I  bring  away  so  much  from  once  that  there  is  noth 
ing  to  repay  the  trouble  of  coming  back  ? 

"  Is  this  a  reason  against  it  ?  Or,  because  I  forget 
that  I  have  been  here  already  ?  Happy  is  it  for  me 
that  I  do  forget.  The  recollection  of  my  former  con 
dition  would  permit  me  to  make  only  a  bad  use  of  the 
present.  And  that  which  even  I  must  forget  now,  is 
that  necessarily  forgotten  forever  ? 

"  Or  is  it  a  reason  against  the  hypothesis  that  so 
much  time  would  have  been  lost  to  me  ?  Lost  ?  And 


74      PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

how  much  then  should  I  miss  ?  Is  not  a  whole  eter 
nity  mine  ?  " 

3.  "  The  Destiny  of  Man,"  by  J.  G.  Fichte,  whose 
great  thoughts  still  heave  the  heart  of  Germany  and 
grandly  mould  the  world,  contains  these  paragraphs  : 

"These  two  systems,  the  purely  spiritual  and  the 
sensuous,  —  which  last  may  consist  of  an  immeasur 
able  series  of  particular  lives,  —  exist  in  me  from  the 
moment  when  my  active  reason  is  developed,  and 
pursue  their  parallel  course.  The  former  alone  gives 
to  the  latter  meaning  and  purpose  and  value.  I  am 
immortal,  imperishable,  eternal,  so  soon  as  I  form  the 
resolution  to  obey  the  law  of  reason.  After  an  exist 
ence  of  myriad  lives  the  super-sensuous  world  can 
not  be  more  present  than  at  this  moment.  Other  con 
ditions  of  my  sensuous  existence  are  to  come,  but 
these  are  no  more  the  true  life  than  the  present  con 
dition  is. 

"  Man  is  not  a  product  of  the  world  of  sense ;  and 
the  end  of  his  existence  can  never  be  attained  in  that 
world.  His  destination  lies  beyond  time  and  space 
and  all  that  pertains  to  sense. 

"Mine  eye  discerns  this  eternal  life  and  motion  in 
all  the  veins  of  sensible  and  spiritual  nature,  through 
what  seems  to  others  a  dead  mass.  And  it  sees  this 
life  forever  ascend  and  grow  and  transfigure  itself  into 
a  more  spiritual  expression  of  its  own  nature.  The 
sun  rises  and  sets,  the  stars  vanish  and  return  again, 
and  all  the  spheres  hold  their  cycle  dance.  But  they 
never  return  precisely  such  as  they  disappeared ;  and 
in  the  shining  fountains  of  life  there  is  also  life  and 
progress. 

"  All  death  in  nature  is  birth  ;  and  precisely  in 
dying,  the  sublimation  of  life  appears  most  conspicu- 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       75 

ous.  There  is  no  death-bringing  principle  in  nature, 
for  nature  is  only  life,  throughout.  Not  death  kills, 
but  the  more  living  life,  which  is  hidden  behind  the 
old,  begins  and  unfolds  itself.  Death  and  birth  are 
only  the  struggles  of  life  .with  itself  to  manifest  itself 
in  ever  more  transfigured  form,  more  like  itself. 

"  Even  because  Nature  puts  me  to  death  she  must 
quicken  me  anew.  It  can  only  be  my  higher  life,  un 
folding  itself  in  her,  before  which  my  present  life  dis 
appears  ;  and  that  which  mortals  call  death  is  the 
visible  appearing  of  another  vivification." 

4.  Among  the  wealth  of  German  geniuses,  there  is 
none  more  lofty  and  broad  than  Herder,  whom  Jean 
Paul  admiringly  pronounced,  "  a  Poem  made  by  some 
purest  Deity,  —  combining  the  boldest  freedom  of 
philosophy  concerning  nature  and  God  with  a  most 
pious  faith."  One  of  the  most  suggestive  of  this 
master's  works  is  a  series  of  "  Dialogues  on  Metemp 
sychosis,"  in  which  two  friends  discuss  the  theme  to 
gether.  As  the  outcome  of  their  colloquy  is  a  stanch 
vindication  of  that  hypothesis,  it  is  not  unfair  to 
group  together  a  few  of  the  paragraphs  on  one  side  of 
the  conversation :  — 

"  Do  you  not  know  great  and  rare  men  who  cannot 
have  become  what  they  are  at  once,  in  a  single  hu 
man  existence?  who  must  have  often  existed  before 
in  order  to  have  attained  that  purity  of  feeling,  that 
instinctive  impulse  for  all  that  is  true,  beautiful,  and 
good,  in  short,  that  elevation  and  natural  supremacy 
over  all  around  them  ? 

"  Do  not  these  great  characters  appear,  for  the  most 
part,  all  at  once?  Like  a  cloud  of  celestial  spirits, 
descended  from  on  high ;  like  men  risen  from  the  dead 
born  again,  who  brought  back  the  old  time  ? 


76       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

"  Have  you  never  had  remembrances  of  a  former 
state,  which  you  could  find  no  place  for  in  this  life  ? 
In  that  beautiful  period  when  the  soul  is  yet  a  half- 
closed  bud,  have  you  not  seen  persons,  been  in  places, 
of  which  you  were  ready  to  swear  that  you  had  seen 
those  persons,  or  had  been  in  those  places  before? 
And  yet  it  could  not  have  been  in  this  life  ?  The 
most  blessed  moments,  the  grandest  thoughts,  are 
from  that  source.  In  our  more  ordinary  seasons,  we 
look  back  with  astonishment  on  ourselves,  we  do  not 
comprehend  ourselves.  And  such  are  we;  we  who, 
from  a  hundred  causes,  have  sunk  so  deep  and  are 
so  wedded  to  matter,  that  but  few  reminiscences  of  so 
pure  a  character  remain  to  us.  The  nobler  class  of 
men  who,  separated  from  wine  and  meat,  lived  in  per 
fect  simplicity  according  to  the  order  of  nature,  carried 
it  further,  no  doubt,  than  others,  as  we  learn  from  the 
example  of  Pythagoras,  of  larchas,  of  Apollonius,  and 
others,  who  remembered  distinctly  what  and  how 
many  times  they  had  been  in  the  world  before.  If  we 
are  blind,  or  can  see  but  two  steps  beyond  our 
noses,  ought  we  therefore  to  deny  that  others  may  see 
a  hundred  or  a  thousand  degrees  farther,  even  to  the 
bottom  of  time,  into  the  deep,  cool  well  of  the  fore- 
world,  and  there  discern  everything  plain  and  bright 
and  clear?" 

To  this  last  strain  the  listener  responds  :  "  I  will 
freely  confess  to  you  that  those  sweet  dreams  of  mem 
ory  are  known  to  me  also,  among  the  experiences  of 
my  childhood  and  youth.  I  have  been  in  places  and 
circumstances  of  which  I  could  have  sworn  that  I  had 
been  in  them  before.  I  have  seen  persons  with  whom 
I  seemed  to  have  lived  before  ;  with  whom  I  was,  as  it 
were,  on  the  footing  of  an  old  acquaintance."  He 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       77 

then  attempts  to  explain  them  as  returned  dreams, 
which  his  interlocutor  answers  with  more  wonderful 
impressions  necessarily  requiring  a  former  life. 

"  Have  you  never  observed  that  children  will  some 
times,  on  a  sudden,  give  utterance  to  ideas  which 
make  us  wonder  how  they  got  possession  of  them  ; 
which  presuppose  a  long  series  of  other  ideas  and  se 
cret  self-communings  ;  which  break  forth  like  a  full 
stream  out  of  the  earth,  an  infallible  sign  that  the 
stream  was  not  produced  in  a  moment  from  a  few 
raindrops,  but  had  long  been  flowing  concealed  be 
neath  the  ground,  and,  it  may  be,  had  broken  through 
many  a  rock,  and  contracted  many  defilements  ? 

"You  know  the  law  of  economy  which  rules 
throughout  nature.  Is  it  not  probable  that  the  Deity 
is  guided  by  it  in  the  propagation  and  progress  of  hu 
man  souls  ?  He  who  has  not  become  ripe  in  one  form 
of  humanity  is  put  into  the  experience  again,  and, 
some  time  or  other,  must  be  perfected. 

"  I  am  not  ashamed  of  my  half-brothers  the  brutes ; 
on  the  contrary,  as  far  as  they  are  concerned,  I  am  a 
great  advocate  of  metempsychosis.  I  believe,  for  a 
certainty,  that  they  will  ascend  to  a  higher  grade  of 
being,  and  am  unable  to  understand  how  any  one  can 
object  to  this  hypothesis,  which  seems  to  have  the  anal 
ogy  of  the  whole  creation  in  its  favor. 

"  All  the  life  of  nature,  all  the  tribes  and  species  of 
animated  creation,  —  what  are  they  but  sparks  of  the 
Godhead,  a  harvest  of  incarnate  stars,  among  which 
the  two  human  sexes  stand  forth  like  sun  and  moon  ? 
We  overshine,  we  dim  the  other  figures,  but,  doubt 
less,  we  lead  them  onward  in  a  chorus  invisible  to  our 
selves.  Oh,  that  an  eye  were  given  us  to  trace  the 
shining  course  of  this  divine  spark ;  to  see  how  life 


78       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

flows  to  life,  and  ever  refining,  impelled  through  all 
the  veins  of  creation,  wells  up  into  a  purer,  higher  life. 

"  And  yet  Pythagoras,  too,  spoke  of  a  Tartarus  and 
an  Elysium.  When  you  stand  before  the  statue  of 
a  high-hearted  Apollo,  do  you  not  feel  what  you  lack 
of  being  that  form  ?  Can  you  ever  attain  to  it  here 
below,  though  you  should  return  ten  times  ?  And  yet 
that  was  only  the  idea  of  an  artist  —  a  dream  which 
our  narrow  breast  also  inclosed.  Has  the  almighty 
Father  no  nobler  forms  for  us  than  those  in  which 
our  heart  now  heaves  and  groans  ?  The  soul  lies  cap 
tive  in  its  dungeon,  bound  as  with  a  sevenfold  chain, 
and  only  through  a  strong  grating,  and  only  through  a 
pair  of  light  and  air-holes,  can  it  breathe  and  see,  and 
always  it  sees  the  world  on  one  side  only,  while  there 
are  a  million  other  sides  before  us  and  in  us,  had  we 
but  more  and  other  senses,  and  could  we  but  exchange 
this  narrow  hut  of  our  body  for  a  freer  prospect. 
That  restless  discontent  shall  some  time  finally  release 
us  from  our  repeated  sojourns  on  earth,  through 
which  the  Father  is  training  us  for  a  complete  divorce 
from  sense-life.  When  even  at  the  sweetest  fountains 
of  friendship  and  love,  we  so  often  pine,  thirsty  and 
sick,  seeking  union  and  finding  it  not,  what  noble 
soul  does  not  lift  itself  up  and  despise  tabernacles  and 
wanderings  in  the  circle  of  earthly  deserts. 

"  Purification  of  the  heart,  the  ennobling  of  the 
soul,  with  all  its  propensities  and  cravings,  this,  it 
seems  to  me,  is  the  true  palingenesis  of  this  life,  after 
which,  I  doubt  not,  a  happy,  more  exalted,  but  yet  un 
known  metempsychosis  awaits  us." 

5.  Dr.  Henry  More,  the  learned  and  lovable  Plato- 
nist  of  the  seventeenth  century,  wrote  a  charming  trea 
tise  on  the  "Immortality  of  the  Soul,"  in  which 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       79 

(chapter  xii.)  he  argues  for  preexistence  as  fol 
lows  :  — 

"  If  it  be  good  for  the  souls  of  men  to  be  at  all, 
the  sooner  they  are,  the  better.  But  we  are  most  cer 
tain  that  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God  will  do 
that  which  is  the  best ;  and  therefore  if  they  can  en 
joy  themselves  before  they  come  to  these  terrestrial 
bodies,  they  must  be  before  they  come  into  these 
bodies.  For  nothing  hinders  but  that  they  may  live 
before  they  come  into  the  body,  as  well  as  they  may 
after  going  out  of  it.  Wherefore  the  preexistence  of 
souls  is  a  necessary  result  of  the  wisdom  and  good 
ness  of  God. 

"  Again,  the  face  of  Providence  in  the  work  seems 
very  much  to  suit  with  this  opinion,  there  being  not 
any  so  natural  and  easy  account  to  be  given  of  those 
things  that  seem  the  most  harsh  in  the  affairs  of  men, 
as  from  this  hypothesis  :  that  these  souls  did  once 
subsist  in  some  other  state  ;  where,  in  several  man 
ners  and  degrees,  they  forfeited  the  favor  of  their 
Creator,  and  so,  according  to  that  just  Nemesis  that 
He  has  interwoven  in  the  constitution  of  the  universe 
and  of  their  own  natures,  they  undergo  several  calam 
ities  and  asperities  of  fortune  and  sad  drudgeries  of 
fate,  as  a  punishment  inflicted,  or  a  disease  contracted 
from  the  several  obliquities  of  their  apostasy.  Which 
key  is  not  only  able  to  unlock  that  recondite  mystery 
of  some  particular  men's  almost  fatal  averseness  from 
all  religion  and  virtue,  their  stupidity  and  dullness 
and  even  invincible  slowness  to  these  things  from 
their  very  childhood,  and  their  incorrigible  propension 
to  all  manner  of  vice  ;  but  also  of  that  squalid  forlorn- 
ness  and  brutish  barbarity  that  whole  nations  for  many 
ages  have  lain  under,  and  many  do  still  lie  under  at 


80       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

this  very  day :  which  sad  scene  of  things  must  needs 
exceedingly  cloud  and  obscure  the  ways  of  Divine 
Providence,  and  make  them  utterly  unintelligible ; 
unless  some  light  be  let  in  from  the  present  hypoth 
esis. 

"  And  as  this  hypothesis  is  rational  in  itself,  so  has 
it  also  gained  the  suffrage  of  all  philosophers  of  all 
ages,  of  any  note,  that  have  held  the  soul  of  man  in 
corporeal  and  immortal.  I  shall  add,  for  the  better 
countenance  of  the  business,  some  few  instances  herein, 
as  a  pledge  of  the  truth  of  my  general  conclusion. 
Let  us  cast  our  eye,  therefore,  into  what  corner  of 
the  world  we  will,  that  has  been  famous  for  wisdom 
and  literature,  and  the  wisest-  of  those  nations  you 
shall  find  the  asserters  of  this  opinion. 

"  In  Egypt,  that  ancient  nurse  of  all  hidden  sciences, 
that  this  opinion  was  in  vogue  amongst  the  wisest 
men  there,  the  fragments  of  Trismegist  do  sufficiently 
witness :  of  which  opinion,  not  only  the  Gymnoso- 
phists,  and  other  wise  men  of  Egypt,  were,  but  also 
the  Brachmans  of  India,  and  the  Magi  of  Babylon 
and  Persia.  To  these  you  may  add  the  abstruse  phi 
losophy  of  the  Jews,  which  they  call  their  Cabbala, 
of  which  the  soul's  preexistence  makes  a  considerable 
part,  as  all  the  learned  of  the  Jews  do  confess. 

"  And  if  I  should  particularize  in  persons  of  this 
opinion,  truly  they  are  such  of  so  great  fame  for 
depth  of  understanding,  and  abstrusest  science,  that 
their  testimony  alone  might  seem  sufficient  to  bear 
down  any  ordinary  modest  man  into  an  assent  to  their 
doctrine.  And,  in  the  first  place,  if  we  believe  the 
Cabbala  of  the  Jews,  we  must  assign  it  to  Moses,  the 
greatest  philosopher  certainly  that  ever  was  in  the 
world ;  to  whom  you  may  add  Zoroaster,  Pythagoras, 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.        81 

Epicharmus,  Cebes,  Euripides,  Plato,  Euclid,  Philo, 
Virgil,  Marcus  Cicero,  Plotinus,  lamblichus,  Proclus, 
Boethius,  Pfellus,  and  several  others,  which  it  would 
be  too  long  to  recite.  And  if  it  were  fit  to  add 
fathers  to  philosophers,  we  might  enter  into  the  same 
list  Synesius  and  Origen  ;  the  latter  of  whom  was 
surely  the  greatest  light  and  bulwark  that  ancient 
Christianity  had.  But  I  have  not  yet  ended  my  cata 
logue  ;  that  admirable  physician  Johannes  Fernelius 
is  also  of  this  persuasion,  and  is  not  to  be  so  himself 
only,  but  discovers  those  two  grand-masters  of  medi 
cine,  Hippocrates  and  Galen,  to  be  so,  too.  Cardan, 
also,  that  famous  philosopher  of  his  age,  expressly 
concludes  that  the  rational  soul  is  both  a  distinct  be 
ing  from  the  soul  of  the  world,  and  that  it  does  pre 
exist  before  it  comes  into  the  body ;  and  lastly,  Pom- 
ponatius,  no  friend  to  the  soul's  immortality,  yet  can 
not  but  confess  that  the  safest  way  to  hold  it  is  also 
therewith  to  acknowledge  her  preexistence. 

"  And  we  shall  evince  that  Aristotle,  that  has  the 
luck  to  be  believed  more  than  most  authors,  was  of  the 
same  opinion,  in  his  treatise  4De  Anima,'  where  he 
says,  c  for  every  art  must  use  its  proper  instruments, 
and  every  soul  its  body.'  He  speaks  something  more 
plainly  in  his  '  De  Generatione  Anima?.'  4  There  are 
generated,'  saith  he,  c  in  the  earth,  and  in  the  moisture 
thereof,  plants  and  living  creatures,  and  in  the  whole 
universe  an  animal  heat ;  insomuch  that  in  a  manner 
all  places  are  full  of  souls.'  We  will  add  a  third 
place  still  more  clear,  out  of  the  same  treatise,  where 
he  starts  that  very  question  of  the  preexistency  of 
souls,  of  the  sensitive  and  rational  especially,  and  he 
concludes  thus  :  4  It  remains  that  the  rational  or  intel 
lectual  soul  only  enters  from  without,  as  bein;>-  only  of 


82       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

a  nature  purely  divine ;  with  whose  actions  the  actions 
of  this  gross  body  have  no  communication.'  Concern 
ing  which  point  he  concludes  like  an  orthodox  scholar 
of  his  excellent  master  Plato  ;  to  whose  footsteps  the 
closer  he  keeps,  the  less  he  ever  wanders  from  the 
truth.  For  in  this  very  place  he  does  plainly  profess 
what  many  would  not  have  him  so  apertly  guilty  of, 
that  the  soul  of  man  is  immortal,  and  can  perform  her 
proper  functions  without  the  help  of  this  terrestrial 
body." 

6.  Sir  Thomas  Browne  explains  and  defends  his 
own  heresies,  by  suggesting  the  added  heresy  of  re 
incarnation  :  — 

"  For,  indeed,  heresies  perish  not  with  their  au 
thors  :  but  like  the  river  Arethusa,  though  they  lose 
their  currents  in  one  place,  they  rise  up  again  in  an 
other.  One  general  council  is  not  able  to  extirpate 
one  single  heresy :  it  may  be  canceled  for  the  present : 
but  revolution  of  time  and  the  like  aspects  from 
heaven  will  restore  it,  when  it  will  flourish  till  it  be 
condemned  again.  For,  as  though  there  were  a  me 
tempsychosis,  and  the  soul  of  one  man  passed  into  an 
other,  opinions  do  find,  after  certain  revolutions,  men 
and  minds  like  those  that  first  begat  them.  To  see 
ourselves  again,  we  need  not  look  for  Plato's  year ; 
every  man  is  not  only  himself :  there  have  been  many 
Diogeneses,  and  as  many  Timons,  though  but  few  of 
that  name ;  men  are  lived  over  again ;  the  world  is 
now  as  it  was  in  ages  past ;  there  was  none  then,  but 
there  hath  been  some  one  since,  that  parallels  him, 
and  is,  as  it  were,  his  revived  self."  l 

1.    One  of  the  rare  volumes  of  the  early  eighteenth 

1  Religio  Medici,  section   vi.     Professor   Francis    Bowen   in 
clines  to  this  same  view.     See  page  108  et  seq. 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       83 

century  is  Chevalier  •  Kamsay's  remarkable  work  en 
titled  "  The  Philosophical  Principles  of  Natural  and 
Revealed  Religion,"  in  which  he  elaborates  the  idea 
that  "  the  sacred  mysteries  of  our  holy  faith  are  not 
new  fictions  unheard  of  by  the  philosophers  of  all 
nations,"  but  that  "  on  the  contrary  Christianity  is  as 
old  as  the  creation."  In  this  "  History  of  the  human 
mind  in  all  ages,  nations,  and  religions,  concerning  the 
most  divine  truths,"  he  shows  that  reincarnation  is 
the  common  possession  of  Christianity  and  of  all  the 
other  great  systems  of  sacred  thought :  — 

"  The  holy  oracles  always  represent  Paradise  as  our 
native  country,  and  our  present  life  as  an  exile.  How 
can  we  be  said  to  have  been  banished  from  a  place  in 
which  we  never  were  ?  This  argument  alone  would 
suffice  to  convince  us  of  preexistence,  if  the  prejudice 
of  infancy  inspired  by  the  schoolmen  had  not  accus 
tomed  us  to  look  upon  these  expressions  as  metaphori 
cal,  and  to  believe,  contrary  to  Scripture  and  to  rea 
son,  that  we  were  exiled  from  a  happy  state,  only  for 
the  fault  of  our  first  parents.  Atrocious  maxim  that 
sullies  all  the  conduct  of  Providence,  and  that  shocks 
the  understandings  of  the  most  intelligent  children  of 
all  nations.  The  answers  ordinarily  made  to  them 
throw  into  their  tender  minds  the  seeds  of  a  lasting  in 
credulity. 

"  In  Scripture,  the  wise  man  says,  speaking  of  the 
eternal  Logos,  and  his  preexistent  humanity :  '  The 
Lord  possessed  me  from  the  beginning  of  his  ways, 
before  his  works  of  old  ;  I  was  set  up  from  everlast 
ing,  from  the  beginning  or  ever  the  earth  was  ! '  All 
this  can  be  said  only  of  the  eternal  Logos.  But  what 
follows  may  be  applied  to  the  preexistent  humanity  of 
the  Messiah  :  4  When  he  prepared  the  heavens  I  was 


84       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

there,  when  he  encircled  the  force  of  the  deep,  when 
he  established  the  clouds  above,  when  he  appointed 
the  foundations  of  the  earth,  then  I  was  by  him,  as 
one  brought  up  with  him,  and  I  was  daily  his  delight, 
rejoicing  always  before  him,  rejoicing  in  the  habit 
able  parts  of  the  earth,  and  my  delights  were  with  the 
sons  of  men.'  It  is  visible  that  Solomon  speaks  here 
of  a  time  soon  after  the  creation  of  the  world,  of  a 
time  when  the  earth  was  inhabited  only  by  a  pure, 
innocent  race.  Can  this  be  said  after  the  fall,  when 
the  earth  was  cursed  ?  It  is  only  a  profound  igno 
rance  of  the  ancient,  primitive  tradition  of  preexist- 
ence  that  can  make  men  mistake  the  true  sense  of 
this  sublime  text. 

"  Our  Saviour  seems  to  approve  the  doctrine  of  pre- 
existence  in  his  answer  to  his  disciples  when  they  in 
terrogate  him  thus  about  the  man  born  blind  :  '  Master, 
who  did  sin,  this  man  or  his  parents,  that  he  was  born 
blind  ? '  l  It  is  clear  that  this  question  would  have 
been  ridiculous  and  impertinent,  if  the  disciples  had 
not  believed  that  the  man  born  blind  had  sinned  be 
fore  his  corporeal  birth,  and,  consequently,  that  he  had 
preexisted  in  another  state.  Our  Saviour's  answer  is 
remarkable :  '  Neither  hath  this  man  sinned,  nor  his 
parents  ;  but  that  the  works  of  God  should  be  made 
manifest  in  him  !  '  Jesus  Christ  could  not  mean  that 
neither  this  man  nor  his  parents  had  ever  sinned,  for 
this  can  be  said  of  no  mortal ;  but  the  meaning  is,  that 
it  was  neither  for  the  sins  committed  by  this  man  in 
a  state  of  preexistence,  nor  for  those  of  his  parents, 
that  he  was  born  blind,  but  in  order  to  manifest  one 
day  the  power  of  God.  Our  Lord,  therefore,  far 
from  blaming  and  redressing  this  error  in  his  disci- 
1  Gospel  of  John  ix.  2. 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       85 

pies,  answers  in  a  way  that  seems  to  confirm  them  in 
the  doctrine  of  preexistence.  If  he  had  looked  upon 
this  opinion  as  a  capital  error,  would  it  have  been 
compatible  with  his  wisdom  to  pass  it  over  so  slightly, 
and  taciturnly  authorize  it  ?  On  the  contrary,  does 
not  his  silence  indicate  that  he  looked  upon  this  doc 
trine,  which  was  a  received  maxim  of  the  Jewish 
church,  as  the  true  explication  of  original  sin  ? 

"  St.  Paul  says,  in  speaking  of  the  origin  of 
mortal  and  physical  evil,  c  By  one  man  sin  entered 
into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin  ;  and  death  passed 
upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned.' l  If  all  have 
sinned,  then  all  have  voluntarily  cooperated  with 
Adam  in  the  breach  of  the  eternal  law:  for  where 
there  is  no  deliberate  act  of  will,  there  can  be  no 
sin.  The  Apostle  does  not  say  that  Adam's  sin  was 
imputed  to  all.  The  doctrine  of  imputation,  by  which 
God  attributes  Adam's  sin  to  his  innocent  posterity, 
cannot  be  the  meaning  of  St.  Paul,  for,  besides  that 
this  doctrine  is  incompatible  with  the  divine  perfec 
tion,  the  Apostle  adds  :  4  For  as  by  one  man's  disobe 
dience  many  were  made  sinners,  so  by  the  obedience 
of  one  shall  all  be  made  righteous.' 2  Now  it  is  certain 
that  men  can  only  be  made  righteous  by  their  per 
sonal,  deliberate,  and  voluntary  cooperation  with  the 
spirit  of  grace,  or  the  second  Adam.  The  Apostle  as 
sures  us  in  the  same  passage  that  '  all  did  not  sin  after 
the  similitude  of  Adam's  transgression.'  This  sin 
was  really  committed  in  a  preexistent  state  by  the  in 
dividuals  of  the  present  human  race.  The  meaning 
is  that  one  pair  gave  the  bad  example,  and  all  the 
human  race  co-existent  with  them  in  Paradise  soon 
imitated  this  crime  of  disobedience  against  the  eternal 
1  Romans  v.  12.  a  Ibid.  v.  19. 


86       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

law,  by  the  false  love  of  natural  knowledge  and  sen 
sible  pleasure.  St.  Paul  seems  to  confirm  this  when 
he  says  :  4  For  the  children  being  not  yet  born,  having 
neither  done  good  nor  evil,  it  was  said  unto  Rebecca, 
'  Jacob  have  I  loved,  but  Esau  have  I  hated.'  God's 
love  and  hatred  depend  upon  the  moral  dispositions 
of  the  creature.  Since  God  says  that  he  loved  Jacob 
and  hated  Esau  ere  they  were  born,  and  before  they 
had  done  good  or  evil  in  this  mortal  life,  it  follows 
clearly  that  they  must  have  preexisted  in  another  state. 
This  would  have  appeared  to  be  the  natural  sense  of 
the  text,  if  prejudices  imbibed  from  our  infancy,  more 
or  less,  had  not  blinded  the  mind  of  Christian  doctors 
to  the  same  degree  as  Judaical  prejudices  darkened 
those  of  the  ancient  Pharisees. 

"  If  it  be  said  that  these  texts  are  obscure  ;  that 
preexistence  is  only  drawn  from  them  by  induction, 
and  that  this  opinion  is  not  revealed  in  Scripture  by 
express  words,  I  answer,  that  the  doctrines  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  are  nowhere  revealed  ex 
pressly  in  the  sacred  oracles  of  the  Old  or  New  Tes 
tament,  but  because  all  their  morals  and  doctrines 
are  founded  upon  these  great  truths.  We  may  say 
the  same  of  preexistence.  The  doctrine  is  nowhere 
expressly  revealed,  but  it  is  evidently  supposed,  as 
without  it  original  sin  becomes  not  only  inexplicable, 
but  absurd,  repugnant,  and  impossible. 

"  There  is  nothing  in  the  fathers  nor  councils  that 

O 

contradicts  this  doctrine  ;  yea,  while  the  fifth  general 
council  and  all  the  fathers  after  the  sixth  century  con 
demn  a  false  idea  of  preexistence  in  which  the  an 
cient  tradition  was  adulterated  by  the  Origenists  and 
Priscillianists,  the  true  doctrine  of  preexistence  was 
not  condemned  by  the  church.  This  supposes  that 


PROSE   WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       87 

all  the  individuals  of  the  human  species  composed  of 
soul  and  body  were  created  in  Paradise,  that  they  all 
cooperated  in  Adam's  disobedience,  partook  of  his 
crime,  and  so  were  justly  punished.  This  was  the 
constant  tradition  of  the  Jewish  church,  and  confirmed 
by  the  Scriptures.  This  opinion  of  preexistence  was 
also  very  ancient  in  the  Christian  church,  ere  the 
Origenists  spoiled  it  with  the  Pythagorean  and  Pla 
tonic  fictions. 

"It  is  against  the  impious  degradation  of  trans 
migration  [through  animal  bodies]  that  the  fathers 
declaim,  and  not  the  true  Scripture  doctrine  of  de 
graded  [human]  intelligences.  This  the  schoolmen 
confound  with  the  false  disguises  —  mixtures  of  the 
pagans.  This  great  principle  is  the  true  key  by 
which  we  can  understand  the  meaning  of  several  pas 
sages  of  Scripture,  and  the  sense  of  many  sublime  ar 
ticles  of  faith.  Thus  only  can  we  shelter  Christianity 
from  the  railleries  of  the  incredulous." 

8.  Among  Soame  Jenyns's  "  Disquisitions  on  Sev 
eral  Subjects "  is  a  "  Disquisition  on  a  Praeexistent 
State,"  from  which  we  quote  the  following :  — 

"  That  mankind  had  existed  in  some  state  previous 
to  the  present  was  the  opinion  of  the  wisest  sages  of 
the  most  remote  antiquity.  It  was  held  by  the 
Gymnosophists  of  Egypt,  the  Brachmans  of  India,  the 
Magi  of  Persia,  and  the  greatest  philosophers  of 
Greece  and  Rome ;  it  was  likewise  adopted  by  the  fa 
thers  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  frequently  enforced 
by  her  primitive  writers.  Why  it  has  been  so  little  no 
ticed,  so  much  overlooked  rather  than  rejected,  by  the 
divines  and  metaphysicians  of  later  ages,  I  am  at  a 
loss  to  account  for,  as  it  is  undoubtedly  confirmed  by 
reason,  by  all  the  appearances  of  nature,  and  the  doc 
trines  of  revelation. 


88      PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

"  In  the  first  place,  then,  it  is  confirmed  by  reason, 
which  teaches  us  that  it  is  impossible  that  the  con 
junction  of  a  male  and  female  can  create,  or  bring  into 
being,  an  immortal  soul :  they  may  prepare  a  material 
habitation  for  it,  but  there  must  be  an  immaterial 
preexistent  inhabitant  ready  to  take  possession.  Rea 
son  assures  us  that  an  immortal  soul,  which  will  eter 
nally  exist  after  the  dissolution  of  the  body,  must  have 
eternally  existed  before  the  formation  of  it ;  for  what 
ever  has  no  end  can  never  have  had  any  beginning, 
but  must  exist  in  some  manner  which  bears  no  rela 
tion  to  time,  to  us  totally  incomprehensible ;  if,  there 
fore,  the  soul  will  continue  to  exist  in  a  future  life,  it 
must  have  existed  in  a  former.  Reason  likewise  tells 
us  that  an  omnipotent  and  benevolent  Creator  would 
never  have  formed  such  a  world  as  this,  and  filled  it 
with  inhabitants,  if  the  present  was  the  only,  or  even 
the  first,  state  of  their  existence,  a  state  which,  if  un 
connected  with  the  past  and  the  future,  seems  calcu 
lated  for  no  one  purpose  intelligible  to  our  understand 
ings  ;  neither  of  good  or  evil,  of  happiness  or  misery, 
of  virtue  or  vice,  of  reward  or  punishment,  but  a  con 
fused  jumble  of  them  all  together,  proceeding  from  no 
visible  cause  and  tending  to  no  end.  But,  as  we  are 
certain  that  infinite  power  cannot  be  employed  without 
effect,  nor  infinite  wisdom  without  design,  we  may  ra 
tionally  conclude  that  this  world  could  be  designed  as 
nothing  more  than  a  prison,  in  which  we  are  awhile 
confined  to  receive  punishment  for  the  offenses  com 
mitted  in  a  former,  and  an  opportunity  of  preparing 
ourselves  for  the  enjoyment  of  happiness  in  a  future, 
life. 

"  Secondly,  these  conclusions  of  reason   are  suffi 
ciently  confirmed  by  the  force  of  nature  and  the  ap- 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       89 

pearance  of  things.  This  world  is  evidently  formed 
for  a  place  of  punishment  as  well  as  probation,  —  a 
prison,  or  house  of  correction,  to  which  we  are  com 
mitted,  some  for  a  longer,  and  some  for  a  shorter 
time  ;  some  to  the  severest  labor,  others  to  more  in 
dulgent  tasks ;  and  if  we  consider  it  under  this  char 
acter,  we  shall  perceive  it  admirably  fitted  for  the 
end  for  which  it  was  intended.  It  is  a  spacious, 
beautiful,  and  durable  structure;  it  contains  many 
various  apartments,  a  few  very  comfortable,  many 
tolerable,  and  some  extremely  wretched  ;  it  is  inclosed 
with  a  fence  so  impassable  that  none  can  surmount 
it  but  with  the  loss  of  life.  Its  inhabitants  likewise 
exactly  resemble  those  of  other  prisons  :  they  come  in 
with  malignant  dispositions  and  unruly  passions,  from 
whence,  like  other  confined  criminals,  they  receive 
great  part  of  their  punishment  by  abusing  and  injur 
ing  each  other.  As  we  may  suppose  that  they  have 
not  all  been  equally  guilty,  so  they  are  not  all  equally 
miserable  ;  the  majority  are  permitted  to  procure  a 
tolerable  subsistence  by  their  labor,  and  pass  through 
their  confinement  without  any  extraordinary  penalties, 
except  from  paying  their  fees  at  their  discharge  by 
death.  Others,  who  perhaps  stand  in  need  of  more 
severe  chastisement,  receive  it  by  a  variety  of  meth 
ods,  some  by  the  most  tedious  pains  and  diseases; 
some  by  disappointments,  and  many  by  success  in  their 
favorite  pursuits ;  some  by  being  condemned  to  situa 
tions  peculiarly  unfortunate,  as  to  those  of  extreme 
poverty  or  superabundant  riches,  of  despicable  man 
ners  or  painful  preeminence,  of  galley-slaves  in  a  des 
potic,  or  ministers  in  a  free,  country. 

"  Lastly,  the  opinion  of  preexistence  is  no  less  con 
firmed  by  revelation  than  by  reason  and  the  appear- 


90       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

ance  of  things  ;  for  although,  perhaps,  it  is  nowhere  in 
the  New  Testament  explicitly  enforced,  yet  through 
out  the  whole  tenor  of  those  writings  it  is  every 
where  implied.  In  them  mankind  are  constantly  rep 
resented  as  coming  into  the  world  under  a  load  of 
guilt,  —  as  condemned  criminals,  the  children  of  wrath, 
and  objects  of  divine  indignation,  placed  in  it  for  a 
time  by  the  mercies  of  God,  to  give  them  an  oppor 
tunity  of  expiating  their  guilt  by  sufferings,  and  regain 
ing  by  a  pious  and  virtuous  conduct  their  lost  estate 
of  happiness  and  innocence ;  this  is  styled  working  out 
their  salvation,  not  preventing  their  condemnation,  for 
that  is  already  past,  and  their  only  hope  now  is  re 
demption,  that  is,  being  rescued  from  a  state  of  captiv 
ity  and  sin,  in  which  they  are  universally  involved. 
This  is  the  very  essence  of  the  Christian  dispensation, 
and  the  grand  principle  in  which  it  differs  from  the 
religion  of  nature  ;  in  every  other  respect  they  are 
nearly  similar.  They  both  enjoin  the  same  moral  du 
ties  and  prohibit  the  same  vices ;  but  Christianity  ac 
quaints  us  that  we  are  admitted  into  this  life  oppressed 
by  guilt  and  depravity,  which  we  must  atone  for  by 
suffering  its  usual  calamities,  and  work  off  by  acts  of 
positive  virtue,  before  we  can  hope  for  happiness  in 
another.  Now,  if  by  all  this  a  preexistent  state  is 
not  constantly  supposed,  in  which  this  guilt  was  in 
curred  and  this  depravity  contracted,  there  can  be  no 
meaning  at  all,  or  such  a  meaning  as  contradicts  every 
principle  of  common  sense,  —  that  guilt  can  be  con 
tracted  without  acting,  or  that  we  can  act  without  ex 
isting.  So  undeniable  is  this  inference  that  it  renders 
any  positive  assertion  of  a  preexistent  state  totally 
useless ;  as,  if  a  man  at  the  moment  of  his  entrance 
into  a  new  country  was  declared  a  criminal,  it  would 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       91 

surely  be  unnecessary  to  assert  that  he  had  lived  in 
some  other  before  he  came  there. 

"  In  all  our  researches  into  abstruse  subjects  there 
is  a  certain  clue,  without  which,  the  further  we  proceed 
the  more  we  are  bewildered  ;  but  which,  being  fortu 
nately  discovered,  leads  us  at  once  through  the  whole 
labyrinth,  puts  an  end  to  our  difficulties,  and  opens  a 
system  perfectly  clear,  consistent,  and  intelligible. 
The  doctrine  of  preexistence,  or  the  acknowledgment 
of  some  past  state  of  disobedience,  I  take  to  be  this  very 
clue  ;  which,  if  we  constantly  carry  along  with  us,  we 
shall  proceed  unembarrassed  through  all  the  intricate 
mysteries  both  of  nature  and  revelation,  and  at  last 
arrive  at  so  clear  a  prospect  of  the  wise  and  just  dis 
pensations  of  our  Creator,  as  cannot  fail  to  afford  com 
plete  satisfaction  to  the  most  inquisitive  skeptic. 

"  Thus  is  a  preexistent  state,  I  think,  clearly  de 
monstrated  by  the  principles  of  reason,  the  appear 
ance  of  things,  and  the  sense  of  revelation ;  all  which 
agree  that  this  world  is  intended  for  a  place  of  punish 
ment,  as  well  as  probation,  and  must  therefore  refer 
to  some  former  period.  For  as  probation  implies  a  fu 
ture  life,  for  which  it  is  preparatory,  so  punishment 
must  imply  a  former  state,  in  which  offenses  were  com 
mitted  for  which  it  is  due  ;  and  indeed  there  is  not  a 
single  argument  drawn  from  the  justice  of  God,  and 
the  seemingly  undeserved  sufferings  of  many  in  the 
present  state,  which  can  be  urged  in  proof  of  a  future 
life,  which  proves  not  with  superior  force  the  existence 
of  another  which  is  already  past." 

9.  One  of  the  chapters  in  Joseph  Glanvil's  "  Lux 
Orientalis,"  a  treatise  attempting  to  demonstrate  the 
truth  of  Platonic  preexistence,  and  strengthened  by 
the  elaborate  annotations  of  Dr.  Henry  More,  is  an 
extension  of  the  following  — - 


92       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

"Seven  Pillars  on  which  the  Hypothesis  of  Preexist* 
enee  stands. 

"  1.  All  the  divine  designs  and  actions  are  carried 
on  by  pure  and  infinite  goodness. 

"  2.  There  is  an  exact  geometrical  justice  that  runs 
through  the  universe,  and  is  interwoven  in  the  con 
texture  of  things. 

"3.  Things  are  carried  to  their  proper  place  and 
state  by  the  congruity  of  their  natures ;  where  this 
fails  we  may  suppose  some  arbitrary  management. 

"  4.  The  souls  of  men  are  capable  of  living  in  other 
bodies  besides  terrestrial ;  and  never  act  but  in  some 
body  or  other. 

"  5.  The  soul  in  every  state  hath  such  a  body  as  is 
fittest  to  those  faculties  and  operations  that  it  is  most 
inclined  to  exercise. 

"  6.  The  powers  and  faculties  of  the  soul  are  either 
spiritual  or  intellectual,  or  sensitive  or  plastic. 

"7.  By  the  same  degrees  that  the  higher  powers  are 
invigorated,  the  lower  are  abated,  as  to  their  proper 
exercise." 

10.  In  Dowden's  "  Life  of  Shelley  "  (vol.  i.  p.  80), 
the  following  anecdote  of  the  poet  is  quoted  from  his 
friend  Hogg :  "  One  morning  we  had  been  reading 
Plato  together  so  diligently  that  the  usual  hour  of 
exercise  passed  away  unperceived.  We  sallied  forth 
hastily  to  take  the  air  for  half  an  hour  before  dinner. 
In  the  middle  of  Magdalen  Bridge  we  met  a  woman 
with  a  child  in  her  arms.  Shelley  was  more  attentive 
at  that  instant  to  our  conduct  in  a  life  that  was  past  or 
to  come  than  to  a  decorous  regulation  of  his  behavior 
according  to  the  established  usages  of  society.  With 
abrupt  dexterity  he  caught  hold  of  the  child.  The 
mother,  who  well  might  fear  that  it  was  about  to  be 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       98 

thrown  over  the  parapet  of  the  bridge  into  the  sedgy 
waters  below,  held  it  fast  by  its  long  train.  'Will 
your  baby  tell  us  anything  about  preexistence, 
madam  ? '  he  asked  in  a  piercing  voice  and  with  a  wist 
ful  look.  The  mother  made  no  answer,  but  perceiving 
that  Shelley's  object  was  not  murderous,  but  alto 
gether  harmless,  she  dismissed  her  apprehension  and 
relaxed  her  hold.  '  Will  your  baby  tell  us  anything 
about  preexistence,  madam  ? '  he  repeated,  with  un 
abated  earnestness.  '  He  cannot  speak,  sir,'  said  the 
mother  seriously.  '  Worse,  worse,'  cried  Shelley  with 
an  air  of  disappointment,  shaking  his  long  hair  most 
pathetically  about  his  young  face.  '  But  surely  the 
babe  can  speak  if  he  will,  for  he  is  only  a  few  weeks 
old.  He  may  fancy  that  he  cannot,  but  it  is  only  a 
silly  whim.  He  cannot  have  forgotten  the  use  of 
speech  in  so  short  a  time.  The  thing  is  absolutely 
impossible.'  '  It  is  not  for  me  to  dispute  with  you, 
gentlemen,'  the  woman  meekly  replied,  'but  I  can 
safely  declare  I  never  heard  him  speak,  nor  any 
child  of  his  age.'  It  was  a  fine  placid  boy.  So  far 
from  being  disturbed  by  the  interruption,  he  looked  up 
and  smiled.  Shelley  pressed  his  fat  cheeks  with  his 
fingers.  We  commended  his  healthy  appearance  and 
his  equanimity,  and  the  mother  was  allowed  to  proceed, 
probably  to  her  satisfaction,  for  she  would  doubtless 
prefer  a  less  speculative  nurse.  Shelley  sighed  as  we 
walked  on.  '  How  provokingly  close  are  these  new 
born  babes ! '  he  ejaculated ;  '  but  it  is  not  the  less 
certain,  notwithstanding  the  cunning  attempts  to  con 
ceal  the  truth,  that  all  knowledge  is  reminiscence. 
The  doctrine  is  far  more  ancient  than  the  times  of 
Plato,  and  as  old  as  the  venerable  allegory  that  the 
muses  are  the  daughters  of  memory ;  not  one  of  the 
muses  was  ever  said  to  be  the  child  of  invention.'  " 


94       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

11.  Hume's  skeptical  essay  on  "  The  Immortality 
of  the  Soul "  argues  thus :  - 

"  Reasoning  from  the  common  course  of  nature,  and 
without  supposing  any  new  interposition  of  the  su 
preme  cause,  which  ought  always  to  be  excluded  from 
philosophy,  what  is  incorruptible  must  also  be  ungen- 
erable.  The  soul,  therefore,  if  immortal,  existed  be 
fore  our  birth,  and  if  the  former  existence  noways 
concerns  us,  neither  will  the  latter.  .  .  . 

"  The  metempsychosis  is,  therefore,  the  only  system 
of  this  kind  that  philosophy  can  hearken  to." 

12.  Southey  says  in  his  published  "  Letters  "  :  "I 
have  a  strong  and  lively  faith  in  a  state  of  continued 
consciousness  from  this  stage  of  existence,  and  that  we 
shall  recover  the  consciousness  of  some  lower  stages 
through  which  we  may  previously  have  passed  seems 
to  me  not  impossible.  .  .  . 

"  The  system  of  progressive  existence  seems,  of  all 
others,  the  most  benevolent ;  and  all  that  we  do  under 
stand  is  so  wise  and  so  good,  and  all  we  do  or  do  not, 
so  perfectly  and  overwhelmingly  wonderful,  that  the 
most  benevolent  system  is  the  most  probable." 

13.  From   a  letter  written  by  that  curious  genius 
William  Blake  (the  artist)  to  his  friend  John  Flax- 
man  (the  sculptor)  : 1  — 

"  In  my  brain  are  studies  and  chambers  filled  with 
books  and  pictures  of  old  which  I  wrote  and  painted 
in  ages  of  eternity  before  my  mortal  life  ;  and  these 
works  are  the  delight  and  study  of  archangels. 

u  You,  O  dear  Flaxman,  are  a  sublime  archangel, 
my  friend  and  companion  from  eternit}^.  I  look  back 
into  the  regions  of  reminiscence  and  behold  our  an 
cient  days  before  this  earth  appeared  and  its  vegeta- 
1  See  Scoones's  English  Letters,  p.  361. 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       95 

tive  mortality  to  my  mortal  vegetated  eyes.  I  see  our 
houses  of  eternity  which  can  never  be  separated, 
though  our  mortal  vehicles  should  stand  at  the  re 
motest  corners  of  heaven  from  each  other." 

14.  In  the  "  Fortnightly  Review  "  for  September, 
1878,  Professor  William  Knight  writes :  "  It  seems 
surprising  that  in  the  discussions  of  contemporary  phi 
losophy  on  the  origin  and  destiny  of  the  soul  there 
has  been  no  explicit  revival  of  the  doctrines  of  Pre- 
existence  and  Metempsychosis.  Whatever  may  be 
their  intrinsic  worth  or  evidential  value,  their  title  to 
rank  on  the  roll  of  philosophical  hypotheses  is  un 
doubted.  They  offer  quite  as  remarkable  a  solution 
of  the  mystery  which  all  admit  as  the  rival  theories 
of  Creation,  Traduction,  and  Extinction." 

"  If  we  reject  the  doctrine  of  Preexistence,  we  must 
either  believe  in  non-existence  or  fall  back  in  one  or 
other  of  the  two  opposing  theories  of  Creation  and 
Traduction ;  and  as  we  reject  Extinction,  we  may  find 
Preexistence  has  fewer  difficulties  to  face  than  the 
rival  hypotheses.  Creation  is  the  theory  that  every 
moment  of  time  multitudes  of  souls  are  simultaneously 
born,  —  not  sent  down  from  a  celestial  source,  but 
freshly  made  out  of  nothing  and  placed  in  bodies  pre 
pared  for  them  by  natural  growth.  To  the  Platonist 
the  theory  of  Traduction  seemed  even  worse,  as  it  im 
plied  the  derivation  of  the  soul  from  at  least  two 
sources,  —  from  both  parents,  —  and  a  substance  thus 
derived  was  apparently  composite  and  quasi-material. 

"  Stripped  of  all  extravagance  and  expressed  in  the 
modest  terms  of  probability,  the  theory  has  immense 
speculative  interest  and  great  ethical  value.  It  is 
much  to  have  the  puzzle  of  the  origin  of  evil  thrown 
back  for  an  indefinite  number  of  cvcles  of  lives;  to 


96       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

have  a  workable  explanation  of  Nemesis^  and  of  what 
we  are  accustomed  to  call  the  moral  tragedies  and  the 
untoward  birth  of  a  multitude  of  men  and  women. 
It  is  much  also  to  have  the  doctrine  of  immortality 
lightened  of  its  difficulties  ;  to  have  our  immediate  out 
look  relieved  by  the  doctrine  that  in  the  soul's  eternity 
its  preexistence  and  its  future  existence  are  one.  The 
retrospect  may  assuredly  help  the  prospect." 

"  Whether  we  make  use  of  it  or  not,  we  ought  to 
realize  its  alternatives.  They  are  these.  Either  all 
life  is  extinguished  and  resolved  through  an  absorp 
tion  and  reassumption  of  the  vital  principle  every 
where,  or  a  perpetual  miracle  goes  on  in  the  inces 
sant  and  rapid  increase  in  the  amount  of  spiritual  ex 
istence  within  the  universe  ;  and  while  human  life  sur 
vives,  the  intelligence  and  the  affection  of  the  lower 

O 

animals  perish  everlastingly." 

15.  Professor  W.  A.  Butler's  celebrated  lectures 
upon  "  The  History  of  Ancient  Philosophy "  lean 
strongly  toward  an  endorsement  of  Plato's  philosophy 
of  reincarnation :  — 

"  It  must  be  allowed  that  there  is  much  in  the  hy 
pothesis  of  preexistence  (at  least)  which  might  at 
tract  a  speculator  busied  with  the  endeavor  to  reduce 
the  moral  system  of  the  world  under  intelligible  laws. 
The  solution  which  it  at  once  furnishes  of  the  state 
and  fortunes  of  each  individual,  as  arising  in  some  un 
known  but  direct  process  from  his  own  voluntary  acts, 
though  it  throws,  of  course,  no  light  on  the  ultimate 
question  of  the  existence  of  moral  evil  (which  it  only 
removes  a  single  step),  does  yet  contribute  to  satisfy 
the  mind  as  to  the  equity  of  that  immediate  manifesta 
tion  of  it,  and  of  its  physical  attendants,  which  we  un 
happily  witness.  There  is  internally  no  greater  im* 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       97 

probability  that  the  present  may  be  the  result  of  a 
former  state  now  almost  wholly  forgotten,  than  that 
the  present  should  be  followed  by  a  future  form  of 
existence  in  which,  perhaps,  or  in  some  departments 
of  which,  the  oblivion  may  be  as  complete.  And  if  to 
that  future  state  there  are  already  discernible  faint 
longings  and  impulses  which  to  many  men  have 
seemed  to  involve  a  direct  proof  of  its  reality,  hopes 
that  will  not  be  bounded  by  the  grave,  and  desires 
that  grasp  eternity,  others  have  found  within  them,  it 
would  seem,  faint  intimations  scarcely  less  impressive 
of  the  past,  as  if  the  soul  vibrated  the  echoes  of  a 
harmony  not  of  this  world.  Wordsworth  has  told  us 
that  such  convictions  seem  to  be  a  part,  though  a  neg 
lected  part,  of  the  heritage  of  our  race." 

16.  The  novelist  Bulwer  thus  expresses  his  opinion 
of  this  truth  :    "  Eternity  may  be  but  an  endless  series 
of  those  migrations  which  men  call  deaths,  abandon 
ments  of  home  after  home,  even  to  fairer  scenes  and 
loftier  heights.     Age  after   age  the   spirit  may  shift 
its  tent,  fated  not  to  rest  in  the  dull  Elysium  of  the 
heathen,  but  carrying  with  it  evermore  its  two   ele 
ments,  activity  and  desire."  l 

17.  Pezzani,  the  author  of  "  The  Plurality  of  the 
Soul's  Lives,"  2  writes  :  "  The  earthly  sojourn  is  only 
a  new  probation,  as  was  said  by  Dupont  de  Nemours, 
that  great  writer  who,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  out 
stripped  all  modern  thought.     Now,  if  this  be  so,  is  it 
not  plain  that  the  recollection  of  former  lives  would 
seriously  hinder  probations,  by  removing  most  of  their 
difficulties,  and  consequently  of  their  deserts,  as  well 
as  of  their  spontaneity?     We  live  in  a  world  where 

1  Other  extracts  from  Bulwer  appear  on  page  37. 
8  Piuis,  186"-,  third  edition,  p.  405. 


98       PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

free-will  is  all-powerful,  the  inviolable  law  of  advance 
ment  and  progress  among  men.  If  past  lives  were 
remembered,  the  soul  would  know  the  significance  and 
import  of  the  trials  which  are  reserved  for  it  here  be 
low  :  indolent  and  careless,  it  would  harden  itself 
against  the  purposes  of  Providence,  and  become 
paralyzed  by  the  hopelessness  of  mastering  them,  or 
even,  if  of  a  better  quality  and  more  manly,  it  would 
accept  and  work  them  out  without  fail.  Well,  neither 
of  these  suppositions  is  necessary  ;  the  struggle  must 
be  free,  voluntary,  safe  from  the  influences  of  the  past ; 
the  field  of  combat  must  seem  new,  so  that  the  athlete 
may  exhibit  and  practice  his  virtues  upon  it.  The  ex 
perience  he  has  already  acquired,  the  forces  he  has 
learned  how  to  conquer,  serve  him  in  the  new  strife  ; 
but  in  such  a  manner  that  he  does  not  suspect  it,  for 
the  imperfect  soul  undergoes  reincarnations  in  order 
to  develop  the  qualities  that  it  has  already  manifested, 
to  free  itself  from  the  vices  and  faults  wliich  are  in 
opposition  to  the  ascensional  law.  What  would  hap 
pen  if  all  men  remembered  their  former  lives  ?  The 
order  of  the  earth  would  be  overthrown ;  at  least,  it  is 
not  now  established  on  such  conditions.  Lethe,  as 
well  as  free-will,  is  a  law  of  the  actual  world." 

18.  One  of  Emerson's  earliest  essays  ("  The 
Method  of  Nature  ")  contains  this  paragraph  :  "  We 
cannot  describe  the  natural  history  of  the  soul,  but 
we  know  that  it  is  divine.  I  cannot  tell  if  these 
wonderful  qualities  which  house  to-day  in  this  mortal 
frame  shall  ever  reassemble  in  equal  activity  in  a 
similar  frame,  or  whether  they  have  before  had  a  nat 
ural  history  like  that  of  this  body  you  see  before  you  ; 
but  this  one  thing  I  know,  that  these  qualities  did  not 
now  begin  to  exist,  cannot  be  sick  with  my  sick- 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.       99 

ness  nor  buried  in  my  grave ;  but  that  they  circu 
late  through  the  universe :  before  the  world  was,  they 
were.  Nothing  can  bar  them  out,  or  shut  them  in, 
but  they  penetrate  the  ocean  and  land,  space  and 
time,  form  and  essence,  and  hold  the  key  to  universal 
nature." 

Again,  in  one  of  his  latest  works  (on  "  Immortal 
ity  ")  he  says :  "  The  fable  of  the  Wandering  Jew  is 
agreeable  to  men,  because  they  want  more  time  and 
land  in  which  to  execute  their  thoughts.  But  a  higher 
poetic  use  must  be  made  of  the  legend.  Take  us  as 
we  are,  with  our  experience,  and  transfer  us  to  a  new 
planet,  and  let  us  digest  for  its  inhabitants  what  we 
can  of  the  wisdom  of  this.  After  we  have  found 
our  depth  there,  and  assimilated  what  we  can  of  the 
new  experience,  transfer  us  to  a  new  scene.  In  each 
transfer  we  shall  have  acquired,  by  seeing  them  at  a 
distance,  a  new  mastery  of  the  old  thoughts,  in  which 
we  were  too  much  immersed."  l 

19.  James  Freeman  Clarke  writes  (in  "  Ten  Great 
Religions,"  ii.  190)  :  "  That  man  has  come  up  to  his 
present  state  of  development  by  passing  through  lower 
forms  is  the  popular  doctrine  of  science  to-day.  What 
is  called  evolution  teaches  that  we  have  reached  our 
present  state  by  a  very  long  and  gradual  ascent  from 
the  lowest  animal  organizations.  It  is  true  that  the 
Darwinian  theory  takes  no  notice  of  the  evolution  of 
the  soul,  but  only  of  the  body.  But  it  appears  to  me 
that  a  combination  of  the  two  views  would  remove 
many  difficulties  which  still  attach  to  the  theory  of 
natural  selection  and  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  If 
we  are  to  believe  in  evolution,  let  us  have  the  assist- 

1  Other  quotations  from,  Emerson  are  on  pages  23,  277,  312,  324 


100     PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

ance  of  the  soul  itself  in  this  development  of  new 
species.  Thus  science  and  philosophy  will  cooperate, 
nor  will  poetry  hesitate  to  lend  her  aid." 

20.  The  noblest  work  of  modern  times,  and  prob 
ably  of  all  time,  upon  immortality,  is  a  large  volume 
by  the  Rev.  William  R.  Alger,  entitled  "  A  Critical 
History  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life."  It  was 
published  in  1860,  and  still  remains  the  standard  au 
thority  upon  that  topic  throughout  Christendom.  This 
little  book  is  substantially  indebted  to  it.  The  author 
is  a  Unitarian  minister,  who  devoted  half  his  lifetime 
to  the  work,  undermining  his  health  thereby.  In  the 
first  edition  (1860)  the  writer  characterizes  reincar 
nation  as  a  plausible  delusion,  unworthy  of  credence. 
For  fifteen  years  more  he  continued  studying  the  sub 
ject,  and  the  last  edition  (18T8)  gives  the  final  result 
of  his  ripest  investigations  in  heartily  endorsing  and 
advocating  reincarnation.  No  more  striking  argu 
ment  for  the  doctrine  could  be  advanced  than  this 
fact.  That  a  Christian  clergyman,  making  the  prob 
lem  of  the  soul's  destiny  his  life's  study,  should  be 
come  so  overpowered  by  the  force  of  this  pagan  idea 
as  to  adopt  it  for  the  climax  of  his  scholarship  is 
extremely  significant.  And  the  result  is  reached  by 
such  a  sincere  course  of  reasoning  that  the  seminaries 
in  all  denominations  are  compelled  to  accept  his  book 
as  the  masterpiece.  From  one  of  the  supplemental 
chapters  we  quote  the  following  by  his  permission  :  — 

"  Besides  the  various  distinctive  arguments  of  its 
own,  every  reason  for  the  resurrection  holds  with  at 
least  equal  force  for  transmigration.  The  argument 
from  analogy  is  especially  strong.  It  is  natural  to 
argue  from  the  universal  spectacle  of  incarnated  life 
that  this  is  the  eternal  scheme  everywhere,  the  variety 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.     101 

of  souls  finding  in  the  variety  of  worlds  an  everlasting 
series  of  adventures  in  appropriate  organisms ;  there 
being,  as  Paul  said,  one  kind  of  flesh  of  birds,  another 
of  beasts,  another  of  men,  another  of  angels,  and  so 
on.  Our  present  lack  of  recollection  of  past  lives  is 
no  disproof  of  their  actuality.  Every  night  we  lose 
all  knowledge  of  the  past,  but  every  day  we  reawaken 
to  a  memory  of  the  whole  series  of  days  and  nights. 
So  in  one  life  we  may  forget  or  dream,  and  in  another 
recover  the  whole  thread  of  experience  from  the  be 
ginning. 

"  In  every  event,  it  must  be  confessed  that  of  all 
the  thoughtful  and  refined  forms  of  the  belief  in  a 
future  life  none  has  had  so  extensive  and  prolonged  a 
prevalence  as  this.  It  has  the  vote  of  the  majority, 
having  for  ages  on  ages  been  held  by  half  the  human 
race  with  an  intensity  of  conviction  almost  without  a 
parallel.  Indeed,  the  most  striking  fact  about  the 
doctrine  of  the  repeated  incarnations  of  the  soul,  its 
form  and  experience  in  each  successive  embodiment 
being  determined  by  its  merits  and  demerits  in  the 
preceding  ones,  is  the  constant  reappearance  of  that 
faith  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  its  permanent  hold 
on  certain  great  nations. 

"  Another  striking  fact  connected  with  this  doctrine 
is  that  it  seems  to  be  a  native  and  ineradicable  growth 
of  the  oriental  world,  but  appears  in  the  western 
world  only  in  scattered  instances,  and  rather  as  an 
exotic  form  of  thought.  In  the  growing  freedom  and 
liberality  of  thought,  which,  no  less  than  its  doubt  and 
denial,  now  characterize  Christendom,  it  seems  as  if 
the  full  time  had  come  for  a  greater  mental  and  aes 
thetic  hospitality  on  the  part  of  Christians  towards 
Hindus.  The  advocates  of  the  resurrection  should 


102     PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

not  confine  their  attention  to  the  repellant  or  the  lu 
dicrous  aspects  of  metempsychosis,  but  do  justice  to 
its  claim  and  its  charm." 

After  reviewing  and  strengthening  the  evidences  in 
favor  of  plural  births,  Mr.  Alger  continues :  "  The 
above  translation  of  the  ecclesiastical  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  into  a  form  scientifically  credible,  and  rec 
onciled  with  the  immemorial  tenet  of  transmigration, 
may  seem  to  some  a  fanciful  speculation,  a  mere  in 
tellectual  toy.  Perhaps  it  is  so.  It  is  not  propounded 
with  the  slightest  dogmatic  animus.  It  is  advanced 
solely  as  an  illustration  of  what  may  possibly  be  true, 
as  suggested  by  the  general  evidence  of  the  phenom 
ena  of  history  and  the  facts  of  experience.  The 
thoughts  embodied  in  it  are  so  wonderful,  the  method 
of  it  so  rational,  the  region  of  contemplation  into 
which  it  lifts  the  mind  is  so  grand,  the  prospects  it 
opens  are  of  such  universal  reach  and  import,  that 
the  study  of  it  brings  us  into  full  sympathy  with  the 
sublime  scope  of  the  idea  of  immortality,  and  of  a 
cosmopolitan  vindication  of  Providence  uncovered  to 
every  eye.  It  takes  us  out  of  the  littleness  of  petty 
themes  and  selfish  affairs,  and  makes  it  easier  for  us 
to  believe  in  the  vastest  hopes  mankind  have  ever 
known.  It  causes  the  most  magnificent  conceptions 
of  human  destiny  to  seem  simply  proportional  to  the 
native  magnitude  and  beauty  of  the  powers  of  the 
mind  which  can  conceive  such  things.  After  traversing 
the  grounds  here  set  forth,  we  feel  that  if  the  view 
based  on  them  be  not  the  truth,  it  must  be  because 
God  has  in  reserve  for  us  a  sequel  greater  and  love 
lier,  not  meaner,  than  our  brightest  dream  hitherto/' 

21.  In  the  "  Princeton  Review  "  for  May,  1881,  Pro 
fessor  Francis  Bowen  (of  Harvard  University)  pub- 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.     103 

lishes  a  very  interesting  article  on  "  Christian  Metemp 
sychosis,"  in  which  he  urges  the  Christian  acceptance 
of  reincarnation.  By  his  consent  we  quote  a  large 
portion  of  it,  because  it  is  so  able  an  appeal  for  the 
adoption  of  this  truth,  from  both  a  metaphysical  and 
a  Christian  standpoint :  — 

"  Our  life  upon  earth  is  rightly  held  to  be  a  disci 
pline  and  a  preparation  for  a  higher  and  eternal  life 
hereafter.  But  if  limited  to  the  duration  of  a  single 
mortal  body,  it  is  so  brief  as  to  seem  hardly  sufficient 
for  so  grand  a  purpose.  Threescore  years  and  ten 
must  surely  be  an  inadequate  preparation  for  eternity. 
But  what  assurance  have  we  that  the  probation  of  the 
soul  is  confined  within  so  narrow  limits  ?  Why  may 
it  not  be  continued,  or  repeated,  through  a  long  series 
of  successive  generations,  the  same  personality  animat 
ing  one  after  another  an  indefinite  number  of  tene 
ments  of  flesh,  and  carrying  forward  into  each  the 
training  it  has  received,  the  character  it  has  formed, 
the  temper  and  dispositions  it  has  indulged,  in  the 
stage  of  existence  immediately  preceding?  It  need 
not  remember  its  past  history,  even  while  bearing  the 
fruits  and  the  consequences  of  that  history  deeply  in 
grained  into  its  present  nature.  How  many  long  pas 
sages  of  any  one  life  are  now  completely  lost  to  mem 
ory,  though  they  may  have  contributed  largely  to  build 
up  the  heart  and  the  intellect  which  distinguish  one  man 
from  another !  Our  responsibility  surely  is  not  les 
sened  by  such  forgetfulness.  We  are  still  accountable 
for  the  misuse  of  time,  though  we  have  forgotten  how 
or  on  what  we  wasted  it.  We  are  even  now  reaping 
the  bitter  fruits,  through  enfeebled  health  and  vitiated 
desires  and  capacities,  of  many  forgotten  acts  of  self- 
indulgence,  willfulness,  and  sin  —  forgotten  just  be- 


104     PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

cause  they  were  so  numerous.  Then  a  future  life 
even  in  another  frail  body  upon  this  earth  may  well  be 
a  state  of  just  and  fearful  retribution. 

"  Why  should  it  be  thought  incredible  that  the 
same  soul  should  inhabit  in  succession  an  indefinite 
number  of  mortal  bodies,  and  thus  prolong  its  experi 
ence  and  its  probation  till  it  has  become  in  every  sense 
ripe  for  heaven  or  the  final  judgment?  Even  dur 
ing  this  one  life  our  bodies  are  perpetually  changing, 
though  by  a  process  of  decay  and  restoration  which  is 
so  gradual  that  it  escapes  our  notice.  Every  human 
being  thus  dwells  successively  in  many  bodies,  even 
during  one  short  life.  This  physiological  fact  seems 
to  have  been  known  by  Plato,  as  in  a  well-known  pas 
sage  of  the  PhaBdo,  a  clear  statement  of  it  is  put  into 
the  mouth  of  Cebes,  who  argues,  however,  that  this 
fact  affords  no  sufficient  proof  of  the  immortality  of 
the  soul.  '  You  may  say  with  reason,'  Cebes  is  made 
to  argue,  *  that  the  soul  is  lasting,  and  the  body  weak 
and  short-lived  in  comparison.  And  every  soul  may 
be  said  to  wear  out  many  bodies,  especially  in  the 
course  of  a  long  life.  For  if,  while  the  man  is  alive, 
the  body  deliquesces  and  decays,  and  yet  the  soul  al 
ways  weaves  her  garment  anew  and  repairs  the  waste, 
then  of  course,  when  the  soul  perishes,  she  must  have 
on  her  last  garment,  and  this  only  will  survive  her ; 
but  then,  again,  when  the  soul  is  dead,  the  body  will 
at  last  show  its  native  weakness  and  soon  pass  into  de 
cay.'  And  again  :  '  Suppose  we  admit  also  that,  after 
death,  the  souls  of  some  are  existing  still,  and  will 
exist,  and  will  be  born  and  die  again  and  again,  and 
that  there  is  a  natural  strength  in  the  soul  which  will 
hold  out  and  be  born  many  times,  —  for  all  this,  we 
may  still  be  inclined  to  think  that  she  will  be  weary 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.     105 

in  the  labors  of  successive  births,  and  may  at  last  suc 
cumb  in  one  of  her  deaths  and  utterly  perish.' l 

"  If  every  birth  were  an  act  of  absolute  creation, 
the  introduction  to  life  of  an  entirely  new  creature, 
we  might  reasonably  ask  why  different  souls  are  so 
variously  constituted  at  the  outset.  We  do  not  all 
start  fair  in  the  race  that  is  set  before  us,  and  there 
fore  all  cannot  be  expected,  at  the  close  of  one  brief 
mortal  pilgrimage,  to  reach  the  same  goal,  and  to  be 
equally  well  fitted  for  the  blessings  or  the  penalties  of 
a  fixed  state  hereafter.  The  commonest  observation 
assures  us  that  one  child  is  born  with  limited  capaci 
ties  and  perhaps  a  wayward  disposition,  strong  pas 
sions,  and  a  sullen  temper ;  that  he  has  tendencies  to 
evil  which  are  almost  sure  to  be  soon  developed.  An 
other,  on  the  contrary,  seems  happily  endowed  from 
the  start ;  he  is  not  only  amiable,  tractable,  and  kind, 
but  quick-witted  and  precocious,  a  child  of  many  hopes. 
The  one  seems  a  perverse  goblin,  while  the  other  has 
the  early  promise  of  a  Cowley  or  a  Pascal.  The  dif 
ferences  of  external  condition  also  are  so  vast  and  ob 
vious  that  they  seem  to  detract  much  from  the  merit 
of  a  well-spent  life  and  from  the  guilt  of  vice  and 
crime.  One  is  so  happily  nurtured  in  a  Christian 
home,  and  under  so  many  protecting  influences,  that 
the  path  of  virtue  lies  straight  and  open  before  him,  — 
so  plain,  indeed,  that  even  the  blind  could  safely  walk 
therein ;  while  another  seems  born  to  a  heritage  of 
misery,  exposure,  and  crime.  The  birthplace  of  one 
is  in  Central  Africa,  and  of  another  in  the  heart  of 
civilized  and  Christian  Europe.  Where  lingers  eter 
nal  justice  then  ?  How  can  such  frightful  inequalities 
be  made  to  appear  consistent  with  the  infinite  wisdom 
and  goodness  of  God  ? 

1  JowetCs  translation)  Am.  ed.  vol.  i.  p.  416. 


106     PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

"  If  metempsychosis  is  included  in  the  scheme  of 
the  divine  government  of  the  world,  this  difficulty  dis 
appears  altogether.  Considered  from  this  point  of 
view,  every  one  is  born  into  the  state  which  he  has 
fairly  earned  by  his  own  previous  history.  He  carries 
with  him  from  one  stage  of  existence  to  another  the 
habits  or  tendencies  which  he  has  formed,  the  disposi 
tions  which  he  has  indulged,  the  passions  which  he  has 
not  chastised,  but  has  voluntarily  allowed  to  lead  him 
into  vice  and  crime.  No  active  interference  of  retrib 
utive  justice  is  needed,  except  in  selecting  for  the  place 
of  his  new  birth  a  home  with  appropriate  surround 
ings  —  perhaps  such  a  home  as  through  his  evil  pas 
sions  he  has  made  for  others.  The  doctrine  of  inher 
ited  sin  and  its  consequences  is  a  hard  lesson  to  be 
learned.  We  submit  with  enforced  resignation  to  the 
stern  decree,  corroborated  as  it  is  by  every  day's  ob 
servation  of  the  ordinary  course  of  this  world's  affairs, 
that  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  shall  be  visited  upon 
the  children  even  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 
But  no  one  can  complain  of  the  dispositions  and  en 
dowments  which  he  has  inherited,  so  to  speak,  from 
himself ;  that  is,  from  his  former  self  in  a  previous 
stage  of  existence.  If,  for  instance,  he  has  neglected 
his  opportunities  and  fostered  his  lower  appetites  in 
his  childhood,  if  he  was  then  wayward  and  self-indul 
gent,  indolent,  deceitful,  and  vicious,  it  is  right  and 
just  that,  in  his  manhood  and  old  age,  he  should  expe 
rience  the  bitter  consequences  of  his  youthful  follies. 
If  he  has  voluntarily  made  himself  a  brute,  a  brute  he 
must  remain.  The  child  is  father  of  the  man,  who 
often  inherits  from  him  a  sad  patrimony.  There  is 
an  awful  meaning,  if  we  will  but  take  it  to  heart,  in 
the  solemn  announcement  of  the  angel  in  the  apoca- 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.      107 

lyptic  vision :  '  He  that  is  unjust,  let  him  be  unjust 
still ;  and  he  which  is  filthy,  let  him  be  filthy  still ; 
and  he  that  is  righteous,  let  him  be  righteous  still ; 
and  he  that  is  holy,  let  him  be  holy  still ! '  And  it 
matters  not,  so  far  as  the  justice  of  the  sentence  is 
concerned,  whether  the  former  self,  from  whom  we 
receive  this  heritage,  was  the  child  who,  not  many 
years  ago,  bore  the  same  name  with  our  present  self, 
or  one  who  bore  a  different  name,  who  was  born  in 
another  age  and  perhaps  another  hemisphere,  and  of 
whose  sad  history  we  have  not  now  the  faintest  re 
membrance.  We  know  that  our  personal  identity 
actually  extends  farther  back,  and  links  together  more 
passages  of  our  life,  than  what  is  now  present  to  con 
sciousness  ;  though  it  is  true  that  we  have  no  direct  evi 
dence  of  this  continuity  and  sameness  of  being  beyond 
what  is  attested  by  memory.  But  we  may  have  indirect 
evidence  of  it  from  the  testimony  of  others  in  the  case  of 
our  own  infancy,  or  from  revelation,  or  through  reason 
ing  from  analogy  and  from  the  similarity  of  cases  and 
characters.  The  soul,  said  the  Hindoos,  is  in  the  body 
like  a  bird  in  a  cage,  or  like  a  pilot  who  steers  a  ship, 
and  seeks  a  new  vessel  when  the  old  one  is  worn  out. 

"Nothing  prevents  us,  however,  from  believing  that 
the  probation  of  any  one  soul  extends  continuously 
through  a  long  series  of  successive  existences  upon 
earth,  each  successive  act  in  the  whole  life-history 
being  retributive  for  what  went  before.  For  this  is 
the  universal  law  of  being,  whether  of  matter  or  mind  ; 
everything  changes,  nothing  dies  in  the  sense  of  being 
annihilated.  What  we  call  death  is  only  the  resolu 
tion  of  a  complex  body  into  its  constituent  parts,  noth 
ing  that  is  truly  one  and  indivisible  being  lost  or  de 
stroyed  in  the  process.  In  combustion  or  any  other 


108      PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

rapid  chemical  change,  according  to  the  admission  of 
the  materialists  themselves,  not  an  atom  of  matter  is 
ever  generated  or  ever  ceases  to  be ;  it  only  escapes 
from  one  combination  to  enter  upon  another.  Then 
the  human  soul,  which,  as  we  know  from  conscious 
ness,  is  absolutely  one  and  indivisible,  only  passes  on 
after  the  dissolution  of  what  was  once  its  home  to  ani 
mate  another  body.  In  this  sense  we  can  easily  accept 
the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  Our 
future  life  is  not,  at  any  rate  not  while  the  present 
administration  of  this  world's  affairs  continues,  to  be 
some  inconceivable  form  of  merely  spiritual  being.  It 
will  be  clothed  again  with  a  body,  which  may  or  may 
not  be  in  part  the  same  with  the  one  which  it  has  just 
left.  Leibnitz  held  that  the  soul  is  never  entirely  di 
vorced  from  matter,  but  carries  on  some  portion  of 
what  was  its  earthly  covering  into  a  subsequent  stage 
of  existence.  .  .  .  We  can  easily  imagine  and  believe 
that  every  person  now  living  is  a  representation  of  some 
one  who  lived  perhaps  centuries  ago  under  another 
name,  in  another  country,  it  may  be  not  with  the  same 
line  of  ancestry,  and  yet  one  and  the  same  with  him 
in  his  inmost  being  and  essential  character.  His  sur 
roundings  are  changed;  the  old  house  of  flesh  has 
been  torn  down  and  rebuilt ;  but  the  tenant  is  still  the 
same.  He  has  come  down  from  some  former  genera 
tion,  bringing  with  him  what  may  be  either  a  help  or 
a  hindrance ;  namely,  the  character  and  tendencies 
which  he  there  formed  and  nurtured.  And  herein  is 
retribution  ;  he  has  entered  upon  a  new  stage  of  pro 
bation,  and  in  it  he  has  now  to  learn  what  the  charac 
ter  which  he  there  formed  naturally  leads  to  when  tried 
upon  a  new  and  perhaps  broader  theatre.  If  this  be 
not  so,  tell  me  why  men  are  born  with  characters  so 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.     109 

unlike  and  with  tendencies  so  depraved.  In  a  sense 
far  more  literal  than  was  intended  by  the  poet,  it  may 
be  true  of  every  country  churchyard,  that 

'  Some  mute  inglorious  Milton  there  may  rest, 

Some  Cromwell  guiltless  of  his  country's  blood.5 
They  bring  with  them  no  recollection  of  the  incidents 
of  their  former  life,  as  such  memory  would  unfit  them 
for  the  new  part  which  they  have  to  play.  But  they 
are  still  the  same  in  the  principles  and  modes  of  con 
duct,  in  the  inmost  springs  of  action,  which  the  for 
gotten  incidents  of  their  former  life  have  developed 
and  strengthened.  The}'  are  the  same  in  all  the  es 
sential  points  which  made  them  formerly  a  blessing  or 
a  curse  to  all  with  whom  they  came  immediately  in 
contact,  and  through  which  they  will  again  become 
sources  of  weal  or  woe  to  their  environment.  Of 
course,  these  inborn  tendencies  may  be  either  exagger 
ated  or  chastised  by  the  lessons  of  a  new  experience, 
by  the  exercise  of  reflection,  and  by  habitually  heeding 
or  neglecting  the  monitions  of  conscience.  But  they 
still  exist  as  original  tendencies,  and  as  such  they  must 
make  either  the  upward  or  the  downward  path  more 
easy,  more  natural,  and  more  likely  to  reach  a  goal  so 
remote  that  it  would  otherwise  be  unattainable. 

"  To  make  this  more  clear,  let  me  refer  to  the  preg 
nant  distinction  so  admirably  illustrated  by  Kant  be 
tween  what  he  calls  the  Intelligible  Character  and  the 
Empirical  or  acquired  Character.  The  former  is  the 
primitive  foundation  on  which  the  latter,  which  di 
rectly  determines  our  conduct  for  the  time  being,  is 
built.  To  a  great  extent,  though  not  entirely,  we  are 
what  we  are  through  the  influence  of  what  have  been 
our  surroundings  —  through  our  education,  our  com 
panions,  our  habits,  and  our  associations.  But  these 


110      PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

influences  must  have  had  a  primitive  basis  to  work 
upon,  and  can  only  modify  the  operation  of  the  native 
germs,  not  change  their  nature  ;  and  they  will  modify 
these  more  or  less  profoundly  according  as  they  are 
more  or  less  amenable  to  outside  influences  and  mani 
fest  more  or  less  decidedly  a  bias  in  one  direction  or 
another.  What  the  future  plant  will  be  depends 
much  more  on  the  specific  nature  of  the  seed  which  is 
sown  than  on  the  fertility  or  barrenness  of  the  soil  into 
which  it  is  cast.  The  latter  only  determine  whether 
it  shall  be  a  vigorous  plant  or  a  weak  one,  whether  in 
fact  it  shall  grow  at  all  or  only  rot  in  the  ground ;  but 
they  do  not  determine  the  specific  direction  of  its  de 
velopment,  whether  it  shall  be  an  oak,  a  willow,  or  an 
ivy-bush.  The  Empirical  or  acquired  Character,  as  it 
is  open  to  observation,  is  a  phenomenon ;  it  is  what 
the  man  appears  to  be,  or  what  he  has  become  under 
the  shaping  influence  of  the  circumstances  to  which  he 
has  been  exposed.  But  the  Intelligible  Character,  the 
inmost  kernel  of  his  real  being,  is  a  noumenon,  and  es 
capes  external  observation ;  we  can  judge  of  its  nature 
only  indirectly  from  its  effects ;  that  is  to  say,  from 
the  conduct  which  it  has  cooperated  to  produce.  A 
change  taking  place  in  any  substance  must  be  the  joint 
result  of  two  factors ;  namely,  its  proper  cause  operat 
ing  upon  it  from  without,  and  the  thing's  own  nature 
or  internal  constitution.  Thus  the  same  degree  of 
heat  acts  very  differently  upon  different  substances, 
say,  on  wax,  iron,  water,  clay,  or  powder.  In  like 
manner,  a  given  motive,  say,  the  desire  of  wealth, 
when  acting  on  different  persons,  though  with  the  same 
strength  or  intensity,  may  lead  to  very  dissimilar  re 
sults  ;  it  makes  one  man  a  thief  and  another  a  miser, 
renders  one  envious  and  another  energetic  and  indus- 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.     Ill 

trious.  If  frequently  indulged,  it  forms  a  fixed  habit, 
and  thus  becomes  an  element  in  the  acquired  or  empir 
ical  character. 

"  Now  Kant,  with  the  bias  of  a  necessitarian,  places 
our  freedom  and  our  responsibility  in  the  realm  of 
noumena,  attributing  them  exclusively  to  our  Intelli 
gible  Character.  As  to  the  acquired  character  when 
once  formed,  he  says  we  must  act  in  accordance  with 
it,  and  therefore  we  are  not  accountable  for  the  partic 
ular  act  to  which  it  led,  since  that  we  could  not  help. 
After  I  have  once  formed  a  habit  of  lying  or  stealing, 
should  an  opportunity  and  temptation  recur,  I  must 
repeat  the  offense.  But  our  inborn  character,  which 
expresses  what  we  really  are,  as  a  noumenon,  lies  out 
side  of  time,  space,  and  causality,  and  therefore  can 
not  be  led  astray  by  temptation  or  external  circum 
stances,  but  is  entirely  free.  Herein  solely  consists 
our  merit  or  our  guilt.  Hence  Kant  would  make  us 
responsible  not  for  the  particular  crime,  which  we 
could  not  help  committing,  but  for  being  such  a  person 
as  to  be  capable  of  that  crime.  We  are  accountable 
not  for  what  we  do,  but  for  what  we  are.  We  are  to 
be  punished  not  for  stealing  this  horse,  but  for  being 
a  rogue,  or  thief  in  grain,  for  being  naturally  inclined 
to  stealing.  .  .  . 

"  I  know  not  how  it  may  seem  to  others,  but  to  me 
there  is  something  inexpressibly  consolatory  and  in 
spiring  in  the  thought  that  the  great  and  good  of  other 
days  have  not  finally  accomplished  their  earthly  career, 
have  not  left  us  desolate,  but  that  they  are  still  with  us, 
in  the  flesh,  though  we  know  them  not,  and  though 
in  one  sense  they  do  not  really  know  themselves,  be 
cause  they  have  no  remembrance  of  a  former  life  in 
which  they  were  trained  for  the  work  which  they  are 


112     PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

now  doing.  But  they  are  essentially  the  same  beings, 
for  they  have  the  same  intellect  and  character  as  be 
fore,  and  sameness  in  these  two  respects  is  all  that 
constitutes  our  notion  of  personal  identity.  We  are 
unwilling  to  believe  that  their  beneficent  activity  was 
limited  to  one  short  life  on  earth,  at  the  close  of  which 
there  opened  to  them  an  eternity  without  change, 
without  farther  trial  or  action,  and  seemingly  having 
no  other  purpose  than  unlimited  enjoyment.  Such  a 
conception  of  immortality  is  exposed  to  Schopenhauer's 
sarcasm,  that  if  effort  and  progress  are  possible  only 
in  the  present  life,  and  no  want  or  suffering  can  be 
endured  except  as  the  penalties  of  sin,  there  remains 
for  heaven  only  the  weariness  of  nothing  to  do.  An 
eternity  either  of  reward  or  punishment  would  seem 
to  be  inadequately  earned  by  one  brief  period  of  pro 
bation.  It  is  far  more  reasonable  to  believe  that  the 
future  life  which  we  are  taught  to  expect  will  be  simi 
lar  to  the  present  one,  and  will  be  spent  in  this  world, 
though  we  shall  carry  forward  to  it  the  burden  or  the 
blessing  entailed  upon  us  by  our  past  career.  Besides 
the  spiritual  meaning  of  the  doctrine  of  regeneration, 
besides  the  new  birth  which  is  '  of  water  and  of  the 
Spirit,'  there  may  be  a  literal  meaning  in  the  solemn 
words  of  the  Saviour,  '  Except  a  man  be  born  again, 
he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God.'  .  .  . 

"  I  should  be  sorry  to  believe  that  that  remarkable 
group  of  excellent  scholars,  thinkers,  and  divines,  the 
Port-Eoyalists,  who  upheld  the  cause  of  Jansenism 
for  three  quarters  of  a  century,  have  finally  passed 
away  from  earth.  On  the  contrary,  if  anywhere  in 
these  later  times  the  model  of  a  Christian  scholar  and 
historian  could  be  found,  we  might  well  say  that  the 
spirit  of  Tillemont  lives  again  in  him.  If  we  could 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.      113 

find  one  who  united  in  himself  all  the  best  qualities 
of  a  Christian  teacher,  stainless  in  heart  and  life,  we 
might  well  believe  that  it  was  Lancelot  in  another 
earthly  form.  For  either  Pascal  or  Arnauld,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  we  should  not  know  where  to  look ; 
if  their  spirits  are  yet  in  this  world,  they  must  be  in 
the  obscurity  of  some  lowly  station.1 

"  All  this  speculation,  I  repeat,  is  completely  fanci 
ful,  and  can  serve  no  other  purpose  than  to  show, 
even  if  the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis  were  true,  that 
we  should  not  be  able  to  identify  one  person  in  any 
two  of  his  successive  appearances  upon  earth.  We 
surely  could  not  know  of  him  in  this  respect  any  more 
than  he  knows  of  himself;  and,  as  already  said,  the 
total  break  in  memory  at  the  beginning  of  every  suc 
cessive  life  must  prevent  the  newly  born  from  recog 
nizing  the  oneness  of  his  own  being  with  any  former 
existence  in  an  earthly  shape. 

"  Curiously  enough  this  want  of  self-knowledge  is 
confessed  in  the  only  case  in  which  we  have  a  direct 
assertion  in  Scripture  (if  language  is  to  be  inter 
preted  in  its  ordinary  literal  meaning  and  not  strained 
into  a  figurative  sense),  that  one  of  the  heroes  of  the 
olden  time  had  reappeared  upon  earth  under  a  new 
name,  as  the  forerunner  of  a  new  dispensation.  At 
the  time  of  the  Saviour  there  appears  to  have  been  a 
general  expectation  among  the  Jews  that  the  coming 
of  the  Messiah  was  to  be  heralded  by  the  reappear 
ance  upon  earth  of  the  prophet  Elijah,  this  expecta 
tion  being  founded  upon  the  text  in  Malachi :  '  Be 
hold,  I  will  send  you  Elijah  the  prophet  before  the 
coming  of  the  great  and  dreadful  day  of  the  Lord.' 

1  See  Matthew  Arnold's  poem  upon  his  father,  Dr.  Arnold, 
page  168. 


114     PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

Early  in  the  public  ministry  of  John  the  Baptist,  we 
read  that  the  belief  prevailed  among  his  hearers  that 
this  prophecy  was  fulfilled  in  him.  But  when  directly 
asked,  '  Art  thou  Elias  ? '  he  replied,  '  I  am  not.  Art 
thou  that  prophet  ?  And  he  answered,  No.'  He  had 
no  memory  of  his  former  life  under  that  name  ;  and 
though  he  must  have  been  aware  of  the  popular  belief 
upon  the  subject,  and  of  the  many  points  of  similarity 
between  his  own  career  and  that  of  the  great  restorer 
of  the  worship  of  the  true  God  at  an  earlier  period, 
he  was  too  honest  to  claim  an  authority  which  he  did 
not  positively  know  to  belong  to  him. 

"  Yet  we  learn  that  our  Lord  subsequently  twice 
declared,  in  very  distinct  language,  that  Elijah  and 
John  the  Baptist  were  really  one  and  the  same  person. 
Once,  while  John  was  still  alive  but  in  prison,  Jesus 
told  the  multitude  who  thronged  around  him, 4  Among 
them  that  are  born  of  women  there  hath  not  risen  a 
greater  than  John  the  Baptist ;  '  and  he  directly 
goes  on  to  assert,  '  If  ye  will  receive  it,  this  is  Elias, 
which  was  for  to  come.'  (Matt.  xi.  14.)  And  again, 
after  John  was  beheaded,  Jesus  said  to  his  disciples, 
*  Elias  is  come  already  and  they  knew  him  not,  but 
have  done  unto  him  whatsoever  they  listed.'  '  Then 
the  disciples  understood  that  he  spake  unto  them  of 
John  the  Baptist.'  (Matt.  xvii.  12,  13.)  Still  again, 
in  the  scene  on  the  mount  of  Transfiguration.  '  Behold 
there  talked  with  him  two  men,  which  were  Moses 
and  Elias ; '  and  it  is  said  of  the  three  disciples  who 
were  then  in  company  with  Jesus  that,  '  When  they 
were  awake,  they  saw  his  glory  and  the  two  men  that 
stood  with  him.'  (Luke  ix.  30,  32.)  That  the  com 
mentators  have  not  been  willing  to  receive,  in  their 
obvious  and  literal  meaning,  assertions  so  direct  and 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.      115 

so  frequently  repeated  as  these,  but  have  attempted 
to  explain  them  away  in  a  non-natural  and  metaphori 
cal  sense,  is  a  fact  which  proves  nothing  but  the  exist 
ence  of  an  invincible  prejudice  against  the  doctrine 
of  the  transmigration  of  souls.  .  .  . 

"  Assuming  the  doctrine  to  be  well  founded,  it  is 
for  every  person  to  determine  with  what  character  he 
will  leave  the  world  at  the  close  of  one  stage  of  his 
earthly  being,  believing  that  with  this  same  character 
thus  trained  for  weal  or  woe  he  is  inevitably  at  once 
to  begin  a  new  life,  and  thus  either  to  rise  or  fall 
farther  than  ever.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  dogma  of 
a  future  life,  so  prolonged  through  a  countless  succes 
sion  of  other  lives  on  earth  until  it  becomes  an  im 
mortality,  is  thus  brought  home  to  one  with  a  force,  a 
vividness  and  certainty,  of  which  in  no  other  form  it 
is  susceptible.  It  has  been  said  that  no  prudent  man, 
if  the  election  were  offered  to  him,  would  choose  to 
live  his  present  live  over  again  ;  and  as  he  whom  the 
world  calls  prudent  does  not  usually  cherish  any  lofty 
aspirations,  the  saying  is  probably  true.  We  are  all 
so  conscious  of  the  many  errors  and  sins  that  we  have 
committed  that  the  retrospect  is  a  saddening  one  ; 
and  worldly  wisdom  would  probably  whisper,  '  It  is 
best  to  stop  here,  and  not  try  such  a  career  over 
again.'  But  every  one  would  ardently  desire  a  renewal 
of  his  earthly  experience  if  assured  that  he  could  enter 
upon  it  under  better  auspices,  if  he  believed  that  what 
we  call  death  is  not  the  end  of  all  things  even  here 
below,  but  that  the  soul  is  then  standing  upon  the 
threshold  of  a  new  stage  of  earthly  existence,  which 
is  to  be  brighter  or  darker  than  the  one  it  is  just 
quitting,  according  as  there  is  carried  forward  into  it 
a  higher  or  lower  purpose.  .  ,  , 


116      PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

"  This  doctrine  also  suggests,  as  it  seems  to  me,  a 
clearer  and  more  satisfactory  explanation  than  would 
otherwise  be  possible  of  the  fall  of  man  through  dis 
obedience  and  its  consequences,  as  narrated  in  Genesis 
and  interpreted  by  St.  Paul.  Certainly  the  primeval 
man,  the  Adam  of  each  one  of  us,  when  he  first 
through  the  inspiration  of  Deity  '  became  a  living 
soul,'  was  born  into  a  paradise,  an  Eden,  of  entire 
purity  and  innocence,  and  in  that  state  he  talked 
directly  with  God.  There  was  also  given  to  him 
through  his  conscience  the  revelation  of  a  divine  law, 
an  absolute  command,  to  preserve  this  blessed  state 
through  restraining  his  appetites  and  lower  impulses 
to  action,  and  making  the  love  of  holiness  superior 
even  to  the  love  of  knowledge.  But  man  was  tempted 
by  his  appetites  to  transgress  this  law ;  he  aspired 
after  a  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  which  can  be  at 
tained  only  through  experience  of  evil,  and  he  thereby 
fell  from  innocence  into  a  state  of  sin,  which  neces 
sarily  corrupted  his  whole  future  being.  The  habit 
of  disobedience  once  formed,  sin  in  the  same  person 
has  a  self  -  continuing  and  self  -  multiplying  power. 
The  stain  carried  down  from  a  former  life  becomes 
darker  and  more  inveterate  in  the  life  that  follows. 
We  have  no  reason  to  complain  of  the  corruption  of 
human  nature,  for  the  world  is  what  we  have  made 
it  to  be  by  our  own  act.  The  burden  has  not  been 
transmitted  to  us  by  others,  but  has  been  inherited 
from  ourselves  ;  that  is,  from  our  former  selves.  Re 
demption  from  it  by  man's  own  effort  thus  became 
impossible.  This  is  death,  moral  death,  the  only  death 
of  which  a  human  soul  is  capable. 

"  Thus  far  we  have  considered  metempsychosis  as 
a  means  of  retribution ;  that  is,  of  awarding  to  each 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.     117 

soul  in  the  next  future  life  upon  which  it  is  entering 
that  compensation  either  of  weal  or  woe  which  it  has 
earned  for  itself,  —  has  in  fact  necessarily  entailed 
upon  itself  by  its  conduct  in  the  life  which  it  has  just 
completed.  But  the  transmigration  of  souls  may  be 
regarded  also  in  another  light,  as  that  portion  of  the 
divine  government  of  this  world's  affairs  which  main 
tains  distributive  justice,  since,  through  its  agency,  in 
the  long  run,  all  inequalities  of  condition  and  favoring 
or  unfavoring  circumstances  may  be  compensated, 
and  each  person  may  have  his  or  her  equitable  share 
of  opportunities  for  good  and  of  the  requisite  means 
for  discipline  and  improvement.  If  our  view  be  con 
fined  within  the  limits  of  a  single  earthly  life,  it  must 
be  confessed  that  the  inequality  is  glaring  enough,  so 
that  it  seems  to  justify  the  honest  doubts  of  the 
trembling  inquirer,  while  it  has  offered  a  broad  mark 
for  the  scoffs  and  declamation  of  the  confirmed  un 
believer. 

"  This  hypothesis  —  and  I  do  not  claim  for  it  any 
other  character  than  that  of  a  highly  probable  and 
consolatory  hypothesis  —  also  throws  a  new  and  wel 
come  light  upon  the  deep  and  dark  problem  of  the 
origin  of  evil.  In  the  first  place,  according  to  the 
views  which  have  now  been  taken,  the  sufferings 
which  are  the  immediate  consequence  and  punishment 
of  sin  are  properly  left  out  of  the  account,  since  these 
evince  the  goodness  of  God  no  less  than  the  happiness 
resulting  from  virtue,  the  purpose  in  both  cases  being 
to  advance  man's  highest  interests  by  the  improvement 
of  his  moral  character ;  just  as  the  affectionate  parent 
rewards  the  obedience  and  punishes  the  faults  of  his 
child,  love  equally  constraining  him  to  adopt  either 
course.  And  how  many  of  the  evils  borne  both  by 


118     PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

individuals  and  by  communities  are  attributable  di 
rectly  to  their  own  misconduct,  to  their  willful  dis 
regard  of  the  monitions  of  conscience!  The  body 
which  is  now  languid  from  inaction  through  sloth, 
and  enfeebled  or  racked  by  disease,  might  have  been 
active,  vigorous,  and  sound,  prompt  to  second  every 
wish  of  its  owner,  and  ministering  to  his  enjoyment 
through  every  sense  and  limb.  And  could  we  know 
all,  could  we  extend  our  vision  over  the  whole  history 
of  our  former  self,  how  would  our  estimate  of  this 
purely  retributive  character  of  our  present  suffering 
be  enlarged  and  confirmed !  It  would  then  be  evident 
that  no  portion  of  it  is  gratuitous  or  purposeless.  And 
the  community  which  is  now  torn  with  civil  dissen 
sion,  desolated  by  war,  or  prostrated  in  an  unequal 
strife  with  its  rivals,  might  have  been  peaceful,  afflu 
ent,  and  flourishing,  if  rulers  and  ruled  had  heeded 
the  stern  calls  of  duty,  instead  of  blindly  following 
their  own  tumultuous  passions.  And  as  nations,  too, 
have  a  continuous  life,  like  that  of  a  river,  through  a 
constant  change  of  their  constituent  parts,  many  of 
their  woes  are  clearly  attributable  to  the  misdeeds  of 
their  former  selves.  Once  admit  the  great  truth  that 
virtue,  not  happiness,  is  man's  highest  interest,  and 
most  of  the  pains  of  this  life  indicate  the  goodness 
and  justice  of  God  quite  as  much  as  its  pleasures. 

"  But  according  to  the  theory  which  we  are  now  con 
sidering,  a  still  larger  deduction  must  be  made  from  the 
amount  of  apparent  evil  at  any  one  time  visible  in 
the  world.  All  the  inequalities  in  the  lot  of  mankind, 
which  have  prompted  what  are  perhaps  the  bitterest 
of  all  complaints,  and  have  served  skeptics  like  Hume 
and  J.  S.  Mill  as  a  reason  for  the  darkest  imputations 
upon  divine  justice  in  the  government  of  the  world, 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.      119 

disappear  from  the  picture  altogether.  Excepting 
only  what  we  have  just  considered,  the  retributive 
consequences  of  more  or  less  sin,  there  are  no  in 
equalities.  All  start  from  the  same  point,  and  journey 
through  the  same  vicissitudes  of  existence,  exhausting 
sooner  or  later  all  varieties  of  condition.  Prince  and 
peasant,  bond  and  free,  barbarian  and  cultured,  all 
share  alike  whatever  weal  or  woe  there  is  in  the  world, 
because  all  must  at  some  future  time  change  places 
with  each  other.  But  after  these  two  large  deduc 
tions  from  the  amount  complained  of,  what  remains  ? 
Very  little,  certainly,  which  we  cannot  even  now  see 
through  ;  that  is,  which  we  cannot  assign  an  adequate 
reason  for ;  and  to  the  eye  of  faith  nothing  remains. 
The  world  becomes  a  mirror  which  reflects  without 
blot  or  shadow  the  infinite  goodness  of  its  Creator  and 
Governor.  Death  remains  ;  but  that  is  no  evil,  for 
what  we  call  death  is  only  the  introduction  to  another 
life  on  earth,  and  if  this  be  not  a  higher  and  better 
life  than  the  one  just  ended,  it  is  our  own  fault.  Our 
life  is  really  continuous,  and  the  fact  that  the  subse 
quent  stages  of  it  lie  beyond  our  present  range  of  im 
mediate  vision  is  of  no  more  importance,  and  no  more 
an  evil,  than  the  corresponding  fact  that  we  do  not 
now  remember  our  previous  existence  in  antecedent 
ages.  Death  alone,  or  in  itself  considered,  apart  from 
the  antecedent  dread  of  it  which  is  irrational,  and 
apart  from  the  injury  to  the  feelings  of  the  survi 
vors,  which  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  that  attach 
ment  to  each  other  from  which  so  much  of  our  hap 
piness  springs,  is  not  even  an  apparent  evil ;  it  is 
mere  change  and  development,  like  the  passage  from 
the  embryonic  to  the  adult  condition,  from  the  blos 
som  to  the  fruit." 


120     PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

22.  In  "  Ways  of  the  Spirit,  and  other  Essays,"  by 
Professor  Frederick  Henry  Hedge,  the  twelfth  chapter, 
upon  "  The  Human  Soul,"  strongly  advocates  rein 
carnation.  By  the  publishers'  consent  we  reprint  the 
pages  referring  to  it :  - 

"  We  reach  back  with  our  recollection  and  find  no 
beginning  of  existence.  Who  of  us  knows  anything 
except  by  report  of  the  first  two  years  of  earthly  life  ? 
No  one  remembers  the  time  when  he  first  said  4 1,' 
or  thought  i  I.'  We  began  to  exist  for  others  before 
we  began  to  exist  for  ourselves.  Our  experience  is 
not  co-extensive  with  our  being,  and  memory  does  not 
comprehend  it.  We  bear  not  the  root,  but  the  root  us. 

"  What  is  the  root  ?  We  call  it  soul.  Our  soul, 
we  call  it ;  properly  speaking,  it  is  not  ours,  but  we 
are  its.  It  is  not  a  part  of  us,  but  we  are  a  part  of 
it.  It  is  not  one  article  in  an  inventory  of  articles 
which  together  make  up  our  individuality,  but  the 
root  of  that  individuality.  It  is  larger  than  we  are, 
and  other  than  we  are  —  that  is,  than  our  conscious 
self.  The  conscious  self  does  not  begin  until  some 
time  after  the  birth  of  the  individual.  It  is  not  aborig 
inal,  but  a  product,  —  as  it  were,  the  blossoming  of 
an  individuality.  We  may  suppose  countless  souls 
which  never  bear  this  product,  which  never  blossom 
into  self.  And  the  soul  which  does  so  blossom  exists 
before  that  blossom  unfolds. 

"  How  long  before,  it  is  impossible  to  say  ;  whether 
the  birth,  for  example,  of  a  human  individual  is  the 
soul's  beginning  to  be  ;  whether  a  new  soul  is  fur 
nished  to  each  new  body,  or  the  body  given  to  a  pre 
existing  soul.  It  is  a  question  on  which  theology 
throws  no  light,  and  which  psychology  but  faintly 
illustrates.  But  so  far  as  that  faint  illustration  reaches 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.     121 

it  favors  the  supposition  of  preexistence.  That  sup 
position  seems  best  to  match  the  supposed  continued 
existence  of  the  soul  hereafter.  Whatever  had  a  be 
ginning  in  time,  it  should  seem  must  end  in  time. 
The  eternal  destination  which  faith  ascribes  to  the 
soul  presupposes  an  eternal  origin.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  preexisteiice  of  the  soul  were  assured  it 
would  carry  the  assurance  of  immortality. 

"  An  obvious  objection,  and  one  often  urged  against 
this  hypothesis,  is  the  absence  of  any  recollection  of  a 
previous  life.  If  the  soul  existed  before  its  union  with 
this  present  organization,  why  does  it  never  recall  any 
circumstance,  scene,  or  experience  of  its  former  state  ? 
There  have  been  those  who  professed  to  remember  a 
past  existence ;  but  without  regarding  those  pre 
tended  reminiscences,  or  regarding  them  only  as  il 
lusions,  I  answer  that  the  previous  existence  may  not 
have  been  a  conscious  existence.  In  that  case  there 
would  have  been  no  recorded  experience,  and  conse 
quently  nothing  to  recall.  But  suppose  a  conscious 
existence  antecedent  to  the  present,  the  soul  could  not 
preserve  the  record  of  a  former  organization.  The 
new  organization  with  its  new  entries  must  necessarily 
efface  the  record  of  the  old.  For  memory  depends  on 
the  continuity  of  association.  When  the  thread  of 
that  continuity  is  broken,  the  knowledge  of  the  past 
is  gone.  If,  in  a  state  of  unconsciousness,  one  were 
taken  entirely  out  of  his  present  surroundings ;  if 
falling  asleep  in  one  set  of  circumstances,  like  Chris 
topher  Sly  in  the  play,  he  were  to  wake  in  another, 
were  to  wake  to  entirely  new  conditions  ;  especially  if 
during  that  sleep  his  body  were  to  undergo  a  change, 
-he  would  lose  on  waking  all  knowledge  of  the 
former  life  for  want  of  a  connecting  link  between  it 


122     PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

and  the  new.  And  this,  according  to  the  supposition, 
is  precisely  what  has  happened  to  the  soul  at  birth. 
The  birth  into  the  present  was  the  death  of  the  old,  — 
'  a  sleep  and  a  forgetting.'  The  soul  went  to  sleep 
in  one  body,  it  woke  in  a  new.  The  sleep  is  a  gulf  of 
oblivion  between  the  two. 

"  And  a  happy  thing,  if  the  soul  preexisted,  it  is 
for  us  that  we  remember  nothing  of  its  former  life. 
The  memory  of  a  past  existence  would  be  a  drag  on 
the  present,  engrossing  our  attention  much  to  the  pre 
judice  of  this  life's  interests  and  claims.  The  back 
ward-looking  soul  would  dwell  in  the  past  instead  of 
the  present,  and  miss  the  best  uses  of  life. 

"  But  though  on  the  supposition  of  a  former  exist 
ence  the  soul  would  not  be  likely  to  preserve  the 
record  of  that  existence,  it  would  nevertheless  retain 
the  effect.  It  would  not,  on  assuming  its  present 
conditions,  be  as  though  it  had  never  before  been.  Its 
past  experience  would  essentially  modify  it ;  it  would 
take  a  character  from  its  former  state.  If  a  moral 
and  intellectual  being,  it  would  bring  into  the  world 
of  its  present  destination  certain  tendencies  and  dis 
positions,  the  growth  of  a  previous  life.  And  thus 
the  moral  law  and  the  moral  nature  of  the  soul  would 
assert  themselves  with  retributions  transcending  the 
limits  of  a  single  existence,  and  reaching  on  from  life 
to  life  of  the  pilgrim  soul. 

"It  is  commonly  conceded  that  there  are  native 
differences  of  character  in  men,  —  different  propensi 
ties,  tempers,  not  wholly  explained  by  difference  of 
circumstances  or  education.  They  show  themselves 
where  circumstances  and  education  have  been  the 
same ;  they  seem  to  be  innate.  These  are  sometimes 
ascribed  to  organization.  But  organization  is  not 


PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION.     123 

final.  That,  again,  requires  to  be  explained.  Accord 
ing  to  my  thinking,  it  is  the  soul  that  makes  organiza 
tion,  not  organization  the  soul.  The  supposition  of  a 
previous  existence  would  best  explain  these  differences 
as  something  carried  over  from  life  to  life,  —  the 
harvest  of  seed  that  was  sown  in  other  states,  and 
whose  fruit  remains,  although  the  sowing  is  remem 
bered  no  more. 

"  This  was  the  theory  of  the  most  learned  and  acute 
of  the  Christian  Fathers  (Origen),  and  though  never 
adopted  and  sanctioned  by  the  church,  has  been  oc 
casionally  revived  in  later  time.  Of  all  the  theories  re 
specting  the  origin  of  the  soul  it  seems  to  me  the  most 
plausible,  and  therefore  the  one  most  likely  to  throw 
light  on  the  question  of  a  life  to  come." 

23.  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  in  his  "  Consolations  in 
Travel "  (Dialogue  IV.,  The  Proteus  or  Immortality), 
arguing  for  the  necessity  of  the  continuance  of  some 
kind  of  a  body  for  the  human  spirit  after  death,  says  : 

"  The  external  world  is  to  us  nothing  but  a  cluster 
of  sensations,  and  in  looking  back  to  the  memory  of 
our  being  we  find  one  principle  which  may  be  called 
the  monad  or  self,  constantly  present,  intimately  asso 
ciated  with  a  particular  class  of  sensations,  which  we 
call  our  body,  or  organs.  These  organs  are  connected 
with  other  sensations,  and  move,  as  it  were,  with  them 
in  circles  of  existence,  quitting  for  a  time  some  trains 
of  sensation  to  return  to  others,  but  the  monad  is  al 
ways  present.  We  can  fix  no  beginning  to  its  opera 
tions,  we  can  place  no  limit  to  them.  We  sometimes 
in  sleep  lose  the  beginning  and  end  of  a  dream,  and 
recollect  the  middle  of  it,  and  one  dream  has  no  con 
nection  with  another,  and  yet  we  are  conscious  of  an 
infinite  variety  of  dreams,  and  there  is  a  strong  anal- 


124     PROSE  WRITERS   ON  REINCARNATION. 

ogy  for  believing  in  an  infinity  of  past  existences 
which  must  have  been  connected  ;  and  human  life 
may  be  regarded  as  a  type  of  infinite  and  immortal 
life,  and  its  succession  of  sleep  and  dreams  as  a  type^ 
of  the  changes  of  death  and  birth  to  which  from  its 
nature  it  is  liable.  .  .  .  The  whole  intellect  is  a  history 
of  change,  according  to  a  certain  law,  and  we  retain  the 
memory  only  of  those  changes  which  may  be  useful  to 
us.  The  child  forgets  what  happened  to  it  in  the 
womb.  The  recollections  of  the  infant  likewise,  be 
fore  two  years,  are  soon  lost ;  yet  many  of  the  habits 
acquired  in  that  age  are  retained  for  life.  The  senti 
ent  principle  gains  thoughts  by  material  instruments, 
and  its  sensations  change  as  those  instruments  change ; 
and  in  old  age  the  mind,  as  it  were,  falls  asleep,  to 
awake  in  a  new  existence.  With  its  present  organ 
ization  the  intellect  of  man  is  naturally  limited  and 
imperfect,  but  this  depends  upon  its  material  machin 
ery,  and  in  a  higher  organized  form  it  may  be  im 
agined  to  possess  infinitely  higher  powers.  It  does 
not,  however,  appear  improbable  to  me  that  some  of 
the  more  refined  machinery  of  thought  may  adhere, 
even  in  another  state,  to  the  sentient  principle,  for 
though  the  organs  of  gross  sensation,  the  nerves  and 
brain,  are  destroyed  by  death,  yet  something  of  the 
more  ethereal  value  may  be  less  destructible,  and  I 
sometimes  imagine  that  many  of  those  powers  which 
have  been  called  instinctive  belong  to  the  more  re 
fined  clothing  of  the  spirit.  Conscience,  indeed,  seems 
to  have  some  indefined  source,  and  may  bear  relations 
to  a  former  state  of  being." 


V. 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION  IN  WESTERN 
LITERATURE. 


Poets,  the  first  instructors  of  mankind.  —  HORACE. 

Poets  are  the  truest  diviners  of  nature.  —  BULWER-LYTTON. 

Poets  utter  great  and  wise  things  which  they  do  not  themselves  un 
derstand.  —  PLATO. 

Poets  should  be  lawgivers;  that  is,  the  boldest  lyric  inspiration 
should  not  chide  and  insult,  but  should  announce  and  lead.  —  EMER 
SON. 

We  call  those  poets  who  are  first  to  mark 
Through  earth's  dull  mist  the  coming  of  the  dawn, 
Who  see  in  twilight's  gloom  the  first  pale  spark 
While  others  only  note  that  day  is  gone. 

HOLMES. 

O  brave  poets,  keep  back  nothing, 
Nor  mix  falsehood  with  the  whole. 
Look  up  Godward  !   Speak  the  truth  in 
Worthy  song  from  earnest  soul ! 
Hold,  in  high  poetic  duty 
Truest  Truth,  the  fairest  beauty. 

MRS.  BROWNING. 

The  spirit  of  the  Poets  came  at  morn 

To  Sinai,  summoned  by  the  Lord's  command, 

Singers  and  Seers ;  those  born  and  those  unborn 
The  chosen  souls  of  men,  a  solemn  band. 

The  noble  army  ranged,  in  viewless  might 

Around  that  mountain  peak  which  pierces  heaven ; 

Greater  and  lesser  teachers,  sons  of  light, 

Their  number  was  ten  thousand  score  and  seven. 

Then  Allah  took  a  covenant  with  his  own, 
Saying,   ' '  My  wisdom  and  my  word  receive. 

Speak  of  me  unto  men,  known  or  unknown, 
Heard  or  unheard :  bid  such  as  will  believe." 

"Bear  witness  then,"  spake  Allah,  "  souls  most  dear, 

I  am  your  Lord,  and  ye  heralds  of  mine." 
Thenceforward  through  all  lands  his  Poets  bear 
The  message  of  the  mystery  divine. 

EDWIN  ARNOLD. 


V. 


THE   POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION  IN  WESTERN" 
LITERATURE. 

THE  poets  are  the  seers  of  the  race.  Their  best 
work  comes  from  the  intuitional  heights  where  they 
dwell,  conveying  truths  beyond  reason,  not  understood 
even  by  themselves,  but  merely  transmitted  through 
them.  They  are  the  few  tall  pines  towering  above  the 
common  forest  to  an  extraordinary  exaltation,  where 
they  catch  the  earliest  and  latest  sunbeams  which  pro 
long  their  day  far  beyond  the  limits  below,  and  pene 
trating  into  the  rare  upper  currents  whose  whisperings 
seldom  descend  to  the  crowd. 

However  diverse  the  forms  of  their  expression,  the 
heart  of  it  is  thoroughly  harmonious.  They  are  always 
prophets  voicing  a  divine  message  received  in  the 
mount,  and  in  these  modern  days  they  are  almost  the 
only  prophets  we  have.  Therefore  it  is  not  a  mere 
pleasantry  to  collect  their  testimony  upon  an  unusual 
theme.  When  it  is  found  that,  though  working  inde 
pendently,  they  are  in  deep  accord  upon  reincarna 
tion,  the  inevitable  conclusion  is  that  their  common  in 
spiration  means  something  —  namely,  that  their  gospel 
is  worth  receiving. 

It  may  be  objected  that  these  poems  are  merely 
dreamy  effusions  along  the  same  line  of  lunacy,  with 


128        THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

no  real  attachment  to  the  solid  foundations  upon  which 
all  wholesome  poetry  is  based ;  that  they  are  kinks  in 
the  intellects  of  genius  displaying  the  weakness  of 
men  otherwise  strong.  But  so  universal  a  feeling  can 
not  be  disposed  of  in  that  way,  especially  when  it  is 
found  to  contribute  to  the  solution  of  life's  mystery. 
All  the  poets  believe  in  immortality,  though  unaided 
reason  and  observation  cannot  demonstrate  it.  Some 
inexperienced  people  deride  the  fact  that  nearly  all 
poetry  centres  upon  the  theme  of  Love  —  the  most  il 
logical  and  airy  of  sentiments.  But  the  deepest  sense 
of  the  world  is  nourished  by  the  certainty  of  these 
"vague  "  truths.  So  the  presence  of  reincarnation  in 
the  creed  of  the  poets  may  give  us  courage  to  confide 
in  our  own  impressions,  for  "all  men  are  poets  at 
heart."  What  they  have  dared  publish  we  may  ven 
ture  to  believe  and  will  find  a  source  of  strength. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  idea  of  reincarnation 
abounds  in  oriental  poetry.  But  as  our  purpose  is  to 
demonstrate  the  prevalence  of  the  same  thought  among 
our  own  poets,  most  of  whom  are  wholly  independent 
of  eastern  influence,  we  shall  here  confine  our  atten 
tion  to  the  spontaneous  utterances  of  American  and 
European  poets.  We  shall  find  that  the  great  major 
ity  of  the  highest  occidental  poets  lean  toward  this 
thought,  and  many  of  them  unhesitatingly  avow  it. 
For  convenience  we  divide  our  study  into  four  parts, 
comprising  forty-two  authors. 

Part    I.  American  Poets,  (thirteen.) 

II.  British  Poets,  (seventeen.) 

III.  Continental  Poets,  (six.) 

IV.  Platonic  Poets,  (seven.) 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.       129 


PART  I.     AMERICAN   POETRY. 
PREEXISTENCE. 

BY    PAUL    HAMILTON    HAYNE. 

WHILE  sauntering  through  the  crowded  street 

Some  half-remembered  face  I  meet, 

Albeit  upon  no  mortal  shore 

That  face,  methinks,  hath  smiled  before. 

Lost  in  a  gay  and  festal  throng 

I  tremble  at  some  tender  song 

Set  to  an  air  whose  golden  bars 

I  must  have  heard  in  other  stars. 

In  sacred  aisles  I  pause  to  share 

The  blessing-  of  a  priestly  prayer, 

When  the  whole  scene  which  greets  mine  eyes 

In  some  strange  mode  I  recognize, 

As  one  whose  every  mystic  part 

I  feel  prefigured  in  my  heart. 

At  sunset  as  I  calmly  stand 

A  stranger  on  an  alien  strand 

Familiar  as  my  childhood's  home 

Seems  the  long  stretch  of  wave  and  foam. 

A  ship  sails  toward  me  o'er  the  bay 

And  what  she  comes  to  do  and  say 

I  can  foretell.     A  prescient  lore 

Springs  from  some  life  outlived  of  yore. 

O  swift,  instructive,  startling  gleams 

Of  deep  soul-knowledge  :  not  as  dreams 

For  aye  ye  vaguely  dawn  and  die, 

But  oft  with  lightning  certainty 

Pierce  through  the  dark  oblivious  brain 

To  make  old  thoughts  and  memories  plain : 


130        THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 

Thoughts  which  perchance  must  travel  back 

Across  the  wild  bewildering  track 

Of  countless  seons  ;  memories  far 

High  reaching  as  yon  pallid  star, 

Unknown,  scarce  seen,  whose  flickering  grace 

Faints  on  the  outmost  rings  of  space. 


A  MYSTERY. 

BY  J.   G.    WHITTIER. 

THE  river  hemmed  with  leaving  trees 
Wound  through  the  meadows  green, 

A  low  blue  line  of  mountain  showed 
The  open  pines  between. 

One  sharp  tall  peak  above  them  all 

Clear  into  sunlight  sprang, 
I  saw  the  river  of  my  dreams, 

The  mountain  that  I  sang. 

No  clue  of  memory  led  me  on, 

But  well  the  ways  I  knew, 
A  feeling  of  familiar  things 

With  every  footstep  grew. 

Yet  ne'er  before  that  river's  rim 
Was  pressed  by  feet  of  mine, 

Never  before  mine  eyes  had  crossed 
That  broken  mountain  line. 

A  presence  strange  at  once  and  known 
Walked  with  me  as  my  guide, 

The  skirts  of  some  forgotten  life 
Trailed  noiseless  at  my  side. 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.       131 

Was  it  a  dim-remembered  dream 

Or  glimpse  through  aeons  old  ? 
The  secret  which  the  mountains  kept 

The  river  never  told. 


THE  METEMPSYCHOSIS  OF  THE  PINE. 

BY  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

As  when  the  haze  of  some  wan  moonlight  makes 
Familiar  fields  a  land  of  mystery, 
"Where,  chill  and  strange,  a  ghostly  presence  wakes 
In  flower  or  bush  or  tree, 

Another  life,  the  life  of  day  o'erwhelms, 
The  past  from  present  consciousness  takes  hue 
As  we  remember  vast  and  cloudy  realms 
Our  feet  have  wandered  through  : 

So,  oft,  some  moonlight  of  the  mind  makes  dumb 
The  stir  of  outer  thought :   wide  open  seems 
The  gate  where  through  strange  sympathies  have  come 
The  secret  of  our  dreams : 

The  source  of  fine  impressions,  shooting  deep 
Below  the  falling  plummet  of  the  sense 
Which  strike  beyond  all  Time  and  backward  sweep 
Through  all  intelligence. 

We  touch  the  lower  life  of  beast  and  clod 
And  the  long  progress  of  the  ages  see 
From  blind  old  Chaos,  ere  the  breath  of  God 
Moved  it  to  harmony. 

All  outward  vision  yields  to  that  within 
Whereof  nor  creed  nor  canon  holds  the  key ; 


132       THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

We  only  feel  that  we  have  ever  been 
And  evermore  shall  be. 

And  thus  I  know,  by  memories  unfurled 
In  rarer  moods,  and  many  a  nameless  sign 
That  once  in  Time  and  somewhere  in  the  world 
I  was  a  towering  pine. 

Some  blind  harmonic  instinct  pierced  the  rind 
Of  that  slow  life  which  made  me  straight  and  high, 
And  I  became  a  harp  for  every  wind, 
A  voice  for  every  sky. 

And  thus  for  centuries  my  rhythmic  chant 
Rolled  down  the  gorge  or  surged  about  the  hill, 
Gentle  or  stern  or  sad  or  jubilant, 
At  every  season's  will. 

No  longer  memory  whispers  whence  arose 
The  doom  that  tore  me  from  my  place  of  pride, 
Whether  by  storms  that  load  the  peak  with  snows, 
Or  hands  of  men  I  died. 

Yet  still  that  life  awakens,  brings  agaki 
Its  airy  anthems,  resonant  and  long, 
Till  earth  and  sky  transfigured  fill  my  brain 
With  rhythmic  sweeps  of  song. 

Thence  am  I  made  a  poet ;  thence  are  sprung 
Those  shadowy  motions  of  the  soul  that  reach 
Beyond  all  grasp  of  art,  —  for  which  the  soul 
Is  ignorant  of  speech. 

And  if  some  wild  full-gathered  harmony 
Rolls  its  unbroken  music  through  my  line, 
There  lives  and  murmurs,  faintly  though  it  be, 
The  spirit  of  the  pine. 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.       133 
THE  POET  IN  THE  EAST. 

BY  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

THE  poet  came  to  the  land  of  the  East 

When  spring  was  in  the  air, 
The  East  was  dressed  for  a  wedding  feast 

So  young  she  seemed  and  fair, 
And  the  poet  knew  the  land  of  the  East 

His  soul  was  native  there. 

All  things  to  him  were  the  visible  forms 

Of  early  and  precious  dreams, 
Familiar  visions  that  mocked  his  quest 

Beside  the  western  streams, 
Or  gleamed  in  the  gold  of  the  clouds  unrolled 

In  the  sunset's  dying  beams. 

INTIMATIONS  OF  PREVIOUS  EXISTENCE. 

BY   L.    E.    LANDON. 

Methinks  we  must  have  known  some  former  state 
More  glorious  than  our  present,  and  the  heart 
Is  haunted  with  dim  memories,  shadows  left 
By  past  magnificence ;  and  hence  we  pine 
With  vain  aspirings,  hopes  that  fill  the  eyes 
With  bitter  tears  for  their  own  vanity. 
Remembrance  makes  the  poet :  't  is  the  past 
Lingering  within  him,  with  a  keener  sense 
Than  is  upon  the  thoughts  of  common  men, 
Of  what  has  been,  that  fills  the  actual  world 
With  unreal  likenesses  of  lovely  shapes 
That  were  and  are  not ;  and  the  fairer  they, 
The  more  their  contrast  with  existing  things, 
The  more  his  power,  the  greater  is  his  grief. 
We  are  then  fallen  from  some  nobler  state 
Whose  consciousness  is  as  an  unknown  curse, 
And  we  feel  capable  of  happiness 
Only  to  know  it  is  not  of  our  sphere. 


134        THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 
THE  METEMPSYCHOSIS. 

BY   T.    B.    ALDRICH. 

I  KNOW  my  own  creation  was  divine. 

Strewn  on  the  breezy  continents  I  see 

The  veine'd  shells  and  burnished  scales  which  once 

Enclosed  my  being,  —  husks  that  had  their  use  ; 

I  brood  on  all  the  shapes  I  must  attain 

Before  I  reach  the  Perfect,  which  is  God, 

And  dream  my  dream,  and  let  the,  rabble  go ; 

For  I  am  of  the  mountains  and  the  sea, 

The  deserts,  and  the  caverns  in  the  earth, 

The  catacombs  and  fragments  of  old  worlds. 

I  was  a  spirit  on  the  mountain-tops, 
A  perfume  in  the  valleys,  a  simoom 
On  arid  deserts,  a  nomadic  wind 
Roaming  the  universe,  a  tireless  Voice. 
I  was  ere  Romulus  and  Remus  were ; 
I  was  ere  Nineveh  and  Babylon  ; 
I  was,  and  am,  and  evermore  shall  be, 
Progressing,  never  reaching  to  the  end. 

A  hundred  years  I  trembled  in  the  grass, 
The  delicate  trefoil  that  muffled  warm 
A  slope  on  Ida ;  for  a  hundred  years 
Moved  in  the  purple  gyre  of  those  dark  flowers 
The  Grecian  women  strew  upon  the  dead. 
Under  the  earth,  in  fragrant  glooms,  I  dwelt; 
Then  in  the  veins  and  sinews  of  a  pine 
On  a  lone  isle,  where,  from  the  Cyclades, 
A  mighty  wind,  like  a  leviathan, 
Ploughed  through  the  brine,  and  from  those  solitudes 
Sent  Silence,  frightened.     To  and  fro  I  swayed, 
Drawing  the  sunshine  from  the  stooping  clouds. 
Suns  came  and  went,  and  many  a  mystic  moon. 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.       135 

Orbing  and  waning,  and  fierce  meteors. 
Leaving  their  lurid  ghosts  to  haunt  the  night. 
I  heard  loud  voices  by  the  sounding  shore, 
The  stormy  sea-gods,  and  from  fluted  conchs 
Wild  music,  and  strange  shadows  floated  by, 
Some  moaning  and  some  singing.     So  the  years 
Clustered  about  me,  till  the  hand  of  God 
Let  down  the  lightning  from  a  sultry  sky, 
Splintered  the  pine  and  split  the  iron  rock  ; 
And  from  my  odorous  prison-house  a  bird, 
I  in  its  bosom,  darted  :  so  we  flew, 
Turning  the  brittle  edge  of  one  high  wave, 
Island  and  tree  and  sea-gods  left  behind  ! 

Free  as  the  air  from  zone  to  zone  I  flew, 
Far  from  the  tumult  to  the  quiet  gates 
Of  daybreak ;  and  beneath  me  I  beheld 
Vineyards,  and  rivers  that  like  silver  threads 
Ran  through  the  green  and  gold  of  pasture-lands, 
And  here  and  there  a  hamlet,  a  white  rose, 
And  here  and  there  a  city,  whose  slim  spires 
And  palace-roofs  and  swollen  domes  uprose 
Like  scintillant  stalagmites  in  the  sun ; 
I  saw  huge  navies  battling  with  a  storm 
By  ragged  reefs  along  the  desolate  coasts,  — 
And  lazy  merchantmen,  that  crawled,  like  flies, 
Over  the  blue  enamel  of  the  sea 
To  India  or  the  icy  Labradors. 

A  century  was  as  a  single  day. 
What  is  a  day  to  an  immortal  soul  ? 
A  breath,  no  more.     And  yet  I  hold  one  hour 
Beyond  all  price,  —  that  hour  when  from  the  sky 
I  circled  near  and  nearer  to  the  earth, 
Nearer  and  nearer,  till  I  brushed  my  wings 
Against  the  pointed  chestnuts,  where  a  stream, 
That  foamed  and  chattered  over  pebbly  shoals, 
Fled  through  the  briony,  and  with  a  shout 


186        THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

Leapt  headlong  down  a  precipice  ;  and  there, 

Gathering  wild-flowers  in  the  cool  ravine, 

Wandered  a  woman  more  divinely  shaped 

Than  any  of  the  creatures  of  the  air, 

Or  river-goddesses,  or  restless  shades 

Of  noble  matrons  marvellous  in  their  time 

For  beauty  and  great  suffering  ;  and  I  sung, 

I  charmed  her  thought,  I  gave  her  dreams,  and  then 

Down  from  the  dewy  atmosphere  I  stole 

And  nestled  in  her  bosom.     There  I  slept 

From  moon  to  moon,  while  in  her  eyes  a  thought 

Grew  sweet  and  sweeter,  deepening  like  the  dawn  — 

A  mystical  forewarning  !     When  the  stream, 

Breaking  through  leafless  brambles  and  dead  leaves, 

Piped  shriller  treble,  and  from  chestnut-boughs 

The  fruit  dropt  noiseless  through  the  autumn  night, 

I  gave  a  quick,  low  cry,  as  infants  do  : 

We  weep  when  we  are  born,  not  when  we  die ! 

So  was  it  destined  ;  and  thus  came  I  here, 

To  walk  the  earth  and  wear  the  form  of  Man, 

To  suffer  bravely  as  becomes  my  state, 

One  step,  one  grade,  one  cycle  nearer  God. 


IDENTITY. 

BY  T.  B.    ALDRICH. 

SOMEWHERE  —  in  desolate  wind-swept  space 
In  twilight-land,  —  in  no-man's  land, 

Two  hurrying  shapes  met  face  to  face 
And  bade  each  other  stand. 

"  And  who  are  you  ?  "  cried  one  agape, 
Shuddering  in  the  gloaming  light. 

"  I  know  not,"  said  the  other  shape, 
"  I  only  died  last  night." 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.       137 
ONE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

BY  CHARLES    G.    LELAUD. 

THOU  and  I  in  spirit  land 

One  thousand  years  ago, 
Watched  the  waves  beat  on  the  strand, 

Ceaseless  ebb  and  flow, 
Vowed  to  love  and  ever  love, 

One  thousand  years  ago. 

Thou  and  I  in  greenwood  shade 

Nine  hundred  years  ago 
Heard  the  wild  dove  in  the  glade 

Murmuring  soft  and  low, 
Vowed  to  love  for  evermore 

Nine  hundred  years  ago. 

Thou  and  I  in  yonder  star 

Eight  hundred  years  ago 
Saw  strange  forms  of  light  afar 

In  wildest  beauty  glow. 
All  things  change,  but  love  endures 

Now  as  long  ago. 

Thou  and  I  in  Norman  halls 

Seven  hundred  years  ago 
Heard  the  warden  on  the  walls 

Loud  his  trumpets  blow, 
"  Ton  amors  sera  tojors," 

Seven  hundred  years  ago. 

Thou  and  I  in  Germany, 

Six  hundred  years  ago. 
Then  I  bound  the  red  cross  on, 

"  True  love,  I  must  go, 


138        THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

But  we  part  to  meet  again 
In  the  endless  flow." 

Thou  and  I  in  Syrian  plains 

Five  hundred  years  ago 
Felt  the  wild  fire  in  our  veins 

To  a  fever  glow. 
All  things  die,  but  love  lives  on 

Now  as  long  ago. 

Thou  and  I  in  shadow  land 

Four  hundred  years  ago 
Saw  strange  flowers  bloom  on  the  strand, 

Heard  strange  breezes  blow. 
In  the  ideal,  love  is  real, 

This  alone  I  know. 

Thou  and  I  in  Italy 

Three  hundred  years  ago 
Lived  in  faith  and  died  for  God, 

Felt  the  fagots  glow, 
Ever  new  and  ever  true, 

Three  hundred  years  ago. 

Thou  and  I  on  Southern  seas 

Two  hundred  years  ago 
Felt  the  perfumed  even-breeze, 
Spoke  in  Spanish  by  the  trees, 

Had  no  care  or  woe. 
Life  went  dreamily  in  song, 

Two  hundred  years  ago. 

Thou  and  I  'mid  Northern  snows 

One  hundred  years  ago 
Led  an  iron  silent  life 

And  were  glad  to  flow 


J 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.       139 

Onward  into  changing  death, 
One  hundred  years  ago. 

Thou  and  I  but  yesterday 

Met  in  fashion's  show. 
Love,  did  you  remember  me, 

Love  of  long  ago  ? 
Yes  :  we  kept  the  fond  oath  sworn 

One  thousand  years  ago. 


THE  FINAL  THOUGHT. 

BY    MAURICE    THOMPSON. 

WHAT  is  the  grandest  thought 
Toward  which  the  soul  has  wrought  ? 
Has  it  the  spirit  form, 
And  the  power  of  a  storm  ? 
Comes  it  of  prophecy 
(That  borrows  light  of  uncreated  fires) 
Or  of  transmitted  strains  of  memory 
Sent  down  through  countless  sires  ? 

Which  way  are  my  feet  set  ? 
Through  infinite  changes  yet 
Shall  I  go  on, 
Nearer  and  nearer  drawn 
To  thee, 

God  of  eternity  ? 
How  shall  the  Human  grow, 
By  changes  fine  and  slow, 
To  thy  perfection  from  the  life-dawn  sought  ? 
What  is  the  highest  thought  ? 

Ah  !  these  dim  memories, 
Of  when  thy  voice  spake  lovingly  to  me, 
Under  the  Eden  trees, 


140        THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 

Saying,  "  Lord  of  all  creation  thou  shalt  be,"  — 
How  they  haunt  me  and  elude  — 
How  they  hover,  how  they  brood 

On  the  horizon,  fading  yet  dying  not ! 
What  is  the  final  thought  ? 

What  if  I  once  did  dwell 

In  the  lowest  dust  germ-cell, 
A  faint  fore-hint  of  life  called  forth  of  God, 

Waxing  and  struggling  on, 
Through  the  long  flickering  dawn, 

The  awful  while  His  feet  earth's  bosom  trod  ? 
What  if  He  shaped  me  so, 
And  caused  my  life  to  blow 
Into  the  full  soul-flower  in  Eden- air  ? 

Lo  !  now  I  am  not  good, 

And  I  stand  in  solitude, 
Calling  to  Him  (and  yet  He  answers  not)  : 

What  is  the  final  thought  ? 

What  myriads  of  years  up  from  the  germ  ! 
What  countless  ages  back  from  man  to  worm ! 
And  yet  from  man  to  God,  —  oh,  help  me  now  ! 
A  cold  despair  is  beading  on  my  brow ! 
I  may  see  Him,  and  seeing  know  Him  not ! 
What  is  the  highest  thought  ? 

So  comes,  at  last, 

The  answer  from  the  Vast.  .  .  . 
Not  so,  there  is  a  rush  of  wings  — 
Earth  feels  the  presence  of  invisible  things, 

Closer  and  closer  drawn 

In  rosy  mists  of  dawn ! 
One  dies  to  conquer  Death 

And  to  burst  the  awful  tomb  — 
Lo,  with  his  dying  breath 

He  blows  love  into  bloom  ! 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.       141 

Love  !  Faith  is  born  of  it ! 

Death  is  the  scorn  of  it ! 
It  fills  the  earth  and  thrills  the  heavens  above : 

And  God  is  love, 
And  life  is  love,  and,  though  we  heed  it  not, 

Love  is  the  final  thought. 


FROM  "A  POEM  READ  AT  BROWN  UNIVERSITY." 

BY    N.    P.    WILLIS. 

BUT  what  a  mystery  this  erring  mind  ? 
It  wakes  within  a  frame  of  various  powers 
A  stranger  in  a  new  and  wondrous  world. 
It  brings  an  instinct  from  some  other  sphere, 
For  its  fine  senses  are  familiar  all, 
And  with  the  unconscious  habit  of  a  dream 
It  calls  and  they  obey.     The  priceless  sight 
Springs  to  its  curious  organ,  and  the  ear 
Learns  strangely  to  detect  the  articulate  air 
In  its  unseen  divisions,  and  the  tongue 
Gets  its  miraculous  lesson  with  the  rest, 
And  in  the  midst  of  an  obedient  throng 
Of  well  trained  ministers,  the  mind  goes  forth 
To  search  the  secrets  of  its  new  found  home. 

FROM  "BEYOND." 

BY   J.    T.    TROWBRIDGE. 

FROM  her  own  fair  dominions 
Long  since,  with  shorn  pinions 

My  spirit  was  banished. 

But  above  her  still  hover  in  vigils  and  dreams 
Ethereal  visitants,  voices  and  gleams 
That  forever  remind  her 
Of  something  behind  her 
Long  vanished. 


142       THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

Through  the  listening  night 
With  mysterious  flight 

Pass  winged  intimations ; 

Like  stars  shot  from  heaven,  their  still  voices  call  to  me 
Far  and  departing  they  signal  and  call  to  me, 
Strangely  beseeching  me, 
Chiding  yet  teaching  me 
Patience. 


FROM  "  RAIN  IN  SUMMER." 

BY   H.   W.   LONGFELLOW. 

THUS  the  seer,  with  vision  clear, 

Sees  forms  appear  and  disappear 

In  the  perpetual  round  of  strange 

Mysterious  change 

From  birth  to  death,  from  death  to  birth, 

From  earth  to  heaven,  from  heaven  to  earth, 

Till  glimpses  more  sublime 

Of  things  unseen  before 

Unto  his  wondering  eyes  reveal 

The  universe,  as  an  immeasurable  wheel 

Turning  for  evermore 

In  the  rapid  rushing  river  of  time. 


FROM  "THE  TWILIGHT." 

BY  JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL. 

SOMETIMES  a  breath  floats  by  me, 
And  odor  from  Dreamland  sent, 

Which  makes  the  ghost  seem  nigh  me 
Of  a  something  that  came  and  went, 

Of  a  life  lived  somewhere,  I  know  not 
In  what  diviner  sphere : 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.      143 

Of  mem'ries  that  come  not  and  go  not ; 

Like  music  once  heard  by  an  ear 
That  cannot  forget  or  reclaim  it ; 
A  something  so  shy,  it  would  shame  it 

To  make  it  a  show. 
A  something  too  vague,  could  I  name  it, 

For  others  to  know : 

As  though  I  had  lived  it  and  dreamed  it, 
As  though  I  had  acted  and  schemed  it 

Long  ago. 

And  yet,  could  I  live  it  over, 

This  Life  which  stirs  in  my  brain  ; 
Could  I  be  both  maiden  and  lover, 
Moon  and  tide,  bee  and  clover, 

As  I  seem  to  have  been,  once  again,-— 
Could  I  but  speak  and  show  it, 

This  pleasure  more  sharp  than  pain, 
Which  baffles  and  lures  me  so,  — 
The  world  would  not  lack  a  poet, 
Such  as  it  had 
In  the  ages  glad, 
Long  ago. 


FROM    "FACING  WEST    FROM    CALIFORNIA'S 
SHORES." 

BY  WALT    WHITMAN. 

FACING  west  from  California's  shores, 
Inquiring,  tireless,  seeking  what  is  yet  unfound, 
I,  a  child,  very  old,  over  waves,  towards  the  house  of  ma 
ternity,  the  land  of  migrations,  look  afar, 
Look  off  the  shores  of  my  Western  sea,  the  circle  almost 

circled : 

For  starting  westward  from  Hindustan,  from  the  vales  of 
Kashmere, 


144       THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

From  Asia,  from  the  north,  from  the  God,  the   sage,  and 

the  hero, 
From  the  south,  from  the  flowery  peninsulas  and  the  spice 

islands, 
Long  having  wander'd  since,  round  the  earth  having  wan- 

der'd, 

Now  I  face  home  again,  very  pleas'd  and  joyous. 
(But  where  is  what  I  started  for  so  long  ago  ? 
And  why  is  it  yet  unfound  ?) 


FROM  «  LEAVES  OF  GRASS." 

BY   WALT   WHITMAN. 

I  KNOW  I  am  deathless. 

I  know  that  this  orbit  of  mine  cannot  be  swept  by  a  car 
penter's  compass ; 

And  whether  I  come  to  my  own  to-day,  or  in  ten  thou 
sand  or  ten  million  years, 

I  can  cheerfully  take  it  now  or  with  equal  cheerfulness  I 
can  wait. 

As  to  you,  Life,  I  reckon  you  are  the  leavings  of  many 

deaths. 
No  doubt  I  have  died  myself  ten  thousand  times  before. 

Believing  I  shall  come  again  upon  the  earth  after  five 
thousand  years. 

Births  have  brought  us  richness  and  variety,  and  other 
births  have  brought  us  richness  and  variety. 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.      145 
STANZAS. 

BY   THOMAS   W.    PARSONS. 
"  We  are  such  stuff  as  dreams  are  made  of." 

WE  have  forgot  what  we  have  been, 
And  what  we  are  we  little  know ; 
We  fancy  new  events  begin, 
But  all  has  happened  long  ago. 

Through  many  a  verse  life's  poem  flows, 
But  still,  though  seldom  marked  by  men, 
At  times  returns  the  constant  close, 
Still  the  old  chorus  comes  again. 

The  childish  grief  —  the  boyish  fear  — 
The  hope  in  manhood's  breast  that  burns  ; 
The  doubt  —  the  transport,  and  the  tear  — 
Each  mood,  each  impulse,  oft  returns. 

Before  mine  infant  eyes  had  hailed 
The  new-born  glory  of  the  day, 
When  the  first  wondrous  morn  unveiled 
The  breathing  world  that  round  me  lay ; 

The  same  strange  darkness  o'er  my  brain 
Folded  its  close  mysterious  wings, 
The  ignorance  of  joy  or  pain, 
That  each  recurring  midnight  brings. 

Full  oft  my  feelings  make  me  start, 
Like  footprints  on  a  desert  shore, 
As  if  the  chambers  of  my  heart 
Had  heard  their  shadowy  step  before. 

So  looking  into  thy  fond  eyes. 
Strange  memories  come  to  me,  as  though 
Somewhere  —  perchance  in  Paradise  — 
J  had  adored  thee  long  ao-o. 


146       THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 


PART  II.    BRITISH  POETRY. 


FROM  "INTIMATIONS  OF  IMMORTALITY." 

BY   WILLIAM   WORDSWORTH.    ' 

OUR  birth  is  but  a  sleep  and  a  forgetting ; 
The  soul  that  rises  with  us,  our  life's  star, 
Hath  had  elsewhere  its  setting, 

And  cometh  from  afar. 
Not  in  entire  forgetfulness 
And  not  in  utter  nakedness 
But  trailing  clouds  of  glory  do  we  come 

From  God  who  is  our  home. 
Heaven  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy  ; 
Shades  of  the  prison  house  begin  to  close 

Upon  the  growing  boy  ; 
But  he  beholds  the  light,  and  whence  it  flows 

He  sees  it  in  his  joy. 

The  youth  who  daily  farther  from  the  East 
Must  travel,  still  is  nature's  priest, 
And  by  the  vision  splendid 
Is  on  his  way  attended. 
At  length  the  man  perceives  it  die  away 
And  fade  into  the  light  of  common  day. 

Edmund  "W.  Gosse  treats  the  idea  of  Wordsworth's 
"  Intimations  "  in  a  way  directly  opposite  to  the  older 
poet,  acknowledging  the  previous  life,  but  rejoicing  in 
the  speedy  forgetting  of  it,  in  these  verses  :  — 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.      147 
TO  MY  DAUGHTER. 

BY  EDMUND   W.   GOSSE. 

THOU  hast  the  colors  of  the  Spring, 
The  gold  of  king  cups  triumphing, 

The  blue  of  wood-bells  wild  ; 
But  winter  thoughts  thy  spirit  fill, 
And  thou  art  wandering  from  us  still, 

Too  young  to  be  our  child. 

Yet  have  thy  fleeting  smiles  confessed, 
Thou  dear  and  much  desired  guest, 

That  home  is  near  at  hand. 
Long  lost  in  high  mysterious  lands, 
Close  by  our  door  thy  spirit  stands, 

In  journey  wellnigh  past. 

Oh,  sweet  bewildered  soul,  I  watch 
The  fountains  of  thine  eyes,  to  catch 

New  fancies  bubbling  there  ; 
To  feel  one  common  light,  and  lose 
The  flood  of  strange  ethereal  hues 

Too  dire  for  us  to  share  ! 

Fade,  cold  immortal  lights,  and  make 
This  creature  human  for  my  sake, 

Since  I  am  nought  but  clay  ; 
An  angel  is  too  fine  a  thing 
To  sit  behind  my  chair  and  sing 

And  cheer  my  passing  day. 

I  smile,  who  could  not  smile,  unless 
The  air  of  rapt  unconsciousness 

Passed  with  the  fading  hours  ; 
I  joy  in  every  childish  sign 
That  proves  the  stranger  less  divine 

And  much  more  meekly  ours. 


148       THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 
A  REMEMBRANCE. 

BY    DEAN   ALFORD. 

METHTXKS  I  can  remember  when  a  shade 

All  soft  and  flowery  was  my  couch,  and  I 

A  little  naked  child,  with  fair  white  flesh 

And  wings  all  gold  bedropt,  and  o'er  my  head 

Bright  fruits  were  hanging  and  tall  balmy  shrines 

Shed  odorous  gums  around  me,  and  I  lay 

Sleeping  and  waking  in  that  wondrous  air 

Which  seemed  infused  with  glory,  and  each  breeze 

Bore  as  it  wandered  by,  sweet  melodies  ; 

But  whence,  I  knew  not.     One  delight  was  there, 

Whether  of  feeling  or  of  sight  or  touch 

I  know  not  now  —  which  is  not  in  this  earth, 

Something  all-glorious  and  all-beautiful, 

Of  which  our  language  speaketh  not,  and  which 

Flies  from  the  eager  grasping  of  my  thought 

As  doth  the  shade  of  a  forgotten  dream. 

All  knowledge  had  I,  but  I  cared  not  then 

To  search  into  my  soul  and  draw  it  thence. 

The  blessed  creatures  that  around  me  played 

I  knew  them  all,  and  where  their  resting  was, 

And  all  their  hidden  symmetry  I  knew, 

And  how  the  form  is  linked  into  the  soul,  — 

I  knew  it  all,  but  thought  not  on  it  then, 

I  was  so  happy. 

And  once  upon  a  time 
I  saw  an  army  of  bright  beaming  shapes 
Fair-faced  and  rosy-cinctured  and  gold-winged 
Approach  upon  the  air.     They  came  to  me 
And  from  a  crystal  chalice  silver  brimmed 
Put  sparkling  potion  to  my  lips  and  stood 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.      149 

All  around  me,  in  the  many  blooming  shades, 
Shedding  into  the  centre  where  I  lay 
A  mingling  of  soft  light ;  and  then  they  sang 
Songs  of  the  land  they  dwelt  in  ;  and  the  last 
Lingereth  even  till  now  upon  mine  ear : 

Holy  and  blest 

Be  the  calm  of  thy  rest, 

For  thy  chamber  of  sleep 

Shall  be  dark  and  deep  ; 

They  shall  dig  thee  a  tomb 

In  the  dark  deep  womb, 

In  the  warm  dark  womb. 
Spread  ye,  spread  the  dewy  mist  around  him, 
Spread  ye,  spread  till  the  thick  dark  night  surround  him, 
Till  the  dark  long  night  has  bound  him 
Which  bindeth  all  before  their  birth 
Down  upon  the  nether  earth. 
The  first  cloud  is  beaming  and  bright. 
The  next  cloud  is  mellowed  in  light, 
The  third  cloud  is  dim  to  sight, 
And  it  stretches  away  into  gloomy  night. 
Twine  ye.  twine  the  mystic  threads  around  him, 
Twine  ye,  twine,  till  the  fast  firm  fate  surround  him, 
Till  the  firm  cold  fate  hath  bound  him 
Which  bindeth  all  before  their  birth 
Down  upon  the  nether  earth. 
The  first  thread  is  beaming  and  bright, 
The  next  thread  is  mellowed  in  light, 
The  third  thread  is  dim  to  sight, 
And  it  stretches  away  into  gloomy  night. 
Sing  ye,  sing  the  fairy  songs  around  him, 
Sing  ye,  sing,  till  the  dull  warm  sleep  surround  him, 
Till  the  warm  damp  sleep  hath  bound  him 
Which  bindeth  all  before  their  birth 
Down  upon  the  nether  earth. 


150       THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

The  first  dream  is  beaming  and  bright, 
The  next  dream  is  mellowed  in  light, 
The  third  dream  is  dim  to  sight, 
And  it  stretches  away  into  gloomy  night. 

Then  dimness  passed  upon  me,  and  that  song 
Was  sounding  o'er  me  when  I  woke 
To  be  a  pilgrim  on  the  nether  earth. 


RETURNING  DREAMS. 

BY  R.    M.    MILNES  (LORD  HOUGHTON). 

As  in  that  world  of  Dream  whose  mystic  shades 
Are  cast  by  still  more  mystic  substances, 
We  ofttimes  have  an  unreflecting  sense, 
A  silent  consciousness  of  some  things  past, 
So  clear  that  we  can  wholly  comprehend 
Others  of  which  they  are  a  part,  and  even 
Continue  them  in  action,  though  no  stress 
Of  after  memory  can  recognize 
That  we  have  had  experience  of  those  things 
Or  sleeping  or  awake : 

Thus  in  the  dream, 
Our  universal  Dream,  of  Mortal  Life, 
The  incidents  of  an  anterior  dreara, 
Or  it  may  be,  Existence,  noiselessly  intrude 
Into  the  daily  flow  of  earthly  things, 
Instincts  of  good  —  immediate  sympathies, 
Places  come  at  by  chance,  that  claim  at  once 
An  old  acquaintance  —  single  random  looks 
That  bare  a  stranger's  bosom  to  our  eyes  ; 
We  know  these  things  are  so,  we  ask  not  why, 
But  act  and  follow  as  the  Dream  goes  on. 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.      151 

FROM   «DE   PROFUNDIS." 

BIRTH. 
BY    ALFRED   TENNYSON. 

OUT  of  the  deep,  my  child,  out  of  the  deep, 
Where  all  that  was  to  be,  in  all  that  was, 
Whirled  for  a  million  aeons  thro'  the  vast 
Waste  dawn  of  multitudinous  eddying  light  — 
Out  of  the  deep,  my  child,  out  of  the  deep, 
Thro'  all  this  changing  world  of  changeless  law, 
And  every  phase  of  ever  heightening  life, 
And  nine  long  months  of  ante-natal  gloom, 
Thou  comest. 

Tennyson  also  writes  in  "  The  Two- Voices  "  :  — 

For  how  should  I  for  certain  hold 
Because  my  memory  is  so  cold, 
Thab.I  first  was  in  human  mould? 

It  may  be  that  no  life  is  found 
Which  only  to  one  engine  bound 
Falls  off,  but  cycles  always  round. 

But,  if  I  lapsed  from  nobler  place, 
Some  legend  of  a  fallen  race 
Alone  might  hint  of  my  disgrace. 

Or,  if  through  lower  lives  I  came  — 
Tho'  all  experience  past  became 
Consolidate  in  mind  and  frame  — 

I  might  forget  my  weaker  lot ; 
For  is  not  our  first  year  forgot  ? 
The  haunts  of  memory  echo  not. 


152       THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

Some  draughts  of  Lethe  doth  await, 

As  old  mythologies  relate, 

The  slipping  through  from  state  to  state. 

Moreover,  something  is  or  seems, 
That  touches  me  with  mystic  gleams, 
Like  glimpses  of  forgotten  dreams  — 

Of  something  felt,  like  something  here  ; 
Of  something  done,  I  know  not  where  ; 
Such  as  no  language  may  declare. 


More  interesting  still,  from  Tennyson,  is  an  early 
sonnet  which  has  been  omitted  from  the  later  editions 
of  his  collected  poetry :  — 

As  when  with  downcast  eyes  we  muse  and  brood 

And  ebb  into  a  former  life,  or  seem 

To  lapse  far  back  in  a  confused  dream 

To  states  of  mystical  similitude, 

If  one  but  speaks  or  hems  or  stirs  a  chair 

Ever  the  wonder  waxeth  more  and  more, 

So  that  we  say,  all  this  hath  been  before, 

All  this  hath  been,  I  know  not  when  or  where ; 

So,  friend,  when  first  I  looked  upon  your  face 

Our  thoughts  gave  answer  each  to  each,  so  true, 

Opposed  mirrors  each  reflecting  each  — 

Although  I  knew  not  in  what  time  or  place, 

Methought  that  I  had  often  met  with  you, 

And  each  had  lived  in  other's  mind  and  speech. 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.      153 


SUDDEN  LIGHT. 

BY    D.    G.    ROSSETTI. 

I  HAVE  been  here  before, 

But  when  or  how  I  cannot  tell ; 
I  know  the  grass  beyond  the  door, 

The  sweet  keen  smell, 
The  sighing  sound,  the  lights  around  the  shore. 

You  have  been  mine  before,  — 

How  long  ago  I  may  not  know  : 
But  just  when  at  that  swallow's  soar 

Your  neck  turned  so, 
Some  veil  did  fall,  —  I  knew  it  all  of  yore. 

Then,  now,  perchance  again  ! 

O  round  mine  eyes  your  tresses  shake ! 
Shall  we  not  lie  as  we  have  lain 

Thus  for  Love's  sake, 
And  sleep,  and  wake,  yet  never  break  the  chain  ? 

FROM  "CATO'S  SOLILOQUY  ON  THE  SOUL." 

BY    JOSEPH    ADDISON. 

ETERNITY  —  thou  pleasing,  dreadful  thought, 
Through  what  variety  of  untried  being, 
Through  what  new  scenes  and  dangers  must  we  pass  ? 
The  wide,  th'  unbounded  prospect  lies  before  me, 
But  shadows,  clouds,  and  darkness  rest  upon  it. 

FROM  «  THE  MYSTIC." 

BY    PHILIP   JAMES    BAILEY. 

WHO  dreams  not  life  more  yearful  than  the  hours 
Since  first  into  this  world  he  wept  his  way 
Erreth  much,  may  be.     Called  of  God,  man's  soul 


154       THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 

In  patriarchal  periods,  comet-like, 

Ranges,  perchance,  all  spheres  successive,  and  in  each 

With  nobler  powers  endowed  and  senses  new 

Set  season  bideth. 


FROM   "A  RECORD." 

BY    WILLIAM    SHARP. 

NONE  sees  the  slow  and  upward  sweep 
By  which  the  soul  from  life-depths  deep 
Ascends,  —  unless,  mayhap,  when  free, 
With  each  new  death  we  backward  see 
The  long  perspective  of  our  race 
Our  multitudinous  past  lives  trace. 

The    following    occurs    in   Tupper's    "Proverbia] 
Philosophy  "  :  - 

OF  MEMORY. 

BE  ye  my  judges,  imaginative  minds,  full-fledged   to  soar 

into  the  sun, 
Whose  grosser  natural  thoughts   the  chemistry  of  wisdom 

hath  sublimed, 
Have  ye  not  confessed  to  a  feeling,  a  consciousness  strange 

and  vague, 
That  ye  have  gone   this  way  before,  and  walk  again  your 

daily  life, 

Tracking  an  old  routine,  and  on  some  foreign  strand, 
Where  bodily  ye  have  never  stood,  finding  your  own  foot 
steps  ? 
Hath  not  at  times   some   recent  friend  looked  out  an  old 

familiar, 
Some  newest  circumstance  or  place  teemed  as  with  ancient 

memories  ? 

A  startling  sudden  flash  lighteth  up  all  for  an  instant. 
And  then  it  is  quenched,  as  in  darkness,  and  leaveth  the 

cold  spirit  trembling. 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.      155 

Throughout  Browning  the  truth  of  reincarnation 
finds  frequent  utterance,  though  not  always  so  distinct 
ly  as  in  these  three  extracts. 

FROM  "  PARACELSUS." 

AT  times  I  almost  dream 
I  too  have  spent  a  life  the  sages'  way, 
And  tread  once  more  familiar  paths.     Perchance 
I  perished  in  an  arrogant  self-reliance 
An  age  ago  ;  and  in  that  act,  a  prayer 
For  one  more  chance  went  up  so  earnest,  so 
Instinct  with  better  light  let  in  by  Death, 
That  life  was  blotted  out  —  not  so  completely 
But  scattered  wrecks  enough  of  it  remain, 
Dim  memories ;  as  now,  when  seems  once  more 
The  goal  in  sight  again. 

FROM  "ONE  WORD  MORE." 

I  SHALL  never,  in  the  years  remaining, 
Paint  you  pictures,  no,  nor  carve  you  statues. 
This  of  verse  alone  one  life  allows  me ; 
Other  heights  in  other  lives,  God  willing. 

FROM  "CHRISTINA." 

THERE  are  flashes   struck  from  midnights,  there  are   fire- 
flames  noondays  kindle, 

Whereby  piled-up  honors  perish,  whereby  swollen  ambitions 
dwindle ; 

While  just  this  or  that  poor  impulse  which  for  once  had 
play  unstifled, 

Seems  the  sole  work  of  a  lifetime  that  away  the  rest  have 
trifled. 

FROM   "EVELYN   HOPE." 

Delayed  it  may  be  for  more  lives  yet 

Through  worlds  I  must  traverse,  not  a  few  — 
Much  is  to  learn  and  much  to  forget 

the  time  be  come  for  taking  you. 


156       THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

Doubt  you  if,  in  some   such  moment,  as  she  fixed  me,  she 

felt  clearly, 

Ages  past  the  soul  existed,  here  an  age  't  is  resting  merely, 
And  hence  fleets  again  for  ages ;  while  the  true  end,  sole 

and  single, 
It  stops  here  for  is,  this  lone  way,  with  some  other  soul  to 

mingle. 


In  Dr.  Leyden's  beautiful  "Ode  to  Scottish  Music  " 
is  this  stanza  :  — 

Ah,  sure,  as  Hindoo  legends  tell, 
When  music's  tones  the  bosom  swell 

The  scenes  of  former  life  return, 
Ere  sunk  beneath  the  morning  star, 
We  left  our  parent  climes  afar, 

Immured  in  mortal  forms  to  mourn. 


Coleridge  confesses  his  fondness  for  the  same  idea 
in  the  sonnet  which  he  composed  "  On  a  homeward 
journey  upon  hearing  of  the  birth  of  a  son  "  :  — 

Oft  in  my  brain  does  that  strange  fancy  roll 

Which  makes  the  present  (while  the  flash  does  last) 
Seem  a  mere  semblance  of  some  unknown  past, 
Mixed  with  such  feelings  as  perplex  the  soul 
Self-questioned  in  her  sleep  :  and  some  have  said 
We  lived,  ere  yet  this  robe  of  flesh  we  wore. 

0  my  sweet  baby  !  when  I  reach  my  door 
If  heavy  looks  should  tell  me  thou  art  dead 
(As  sometimes  through  excess  of  hope  I  fear), 

1  think  that  I  should  struggle  to  believe 
Thou  wert  a  spirit,  to  this  nether  sphere 

Sentenced  for  some  more  venial  crime  to  grieve  ; 
Pidst  scream,  then  spring  to  meet  Heaven's  quick  reprieve, 
While  we  wept  idly  o'er  thy  little  bier. 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.      157 

The  following  poem  has  a  peculiar  history.  Though 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  entire  group,  it  is  the 
work  of  a  seventeen-year-old  girl.  In  1846  this 
child,  Emma  Tatham,  attracted  the  attention  of  a 
London  clergyman  as  a  poetic  genius,  and  she  read  to 
him,  at  his  frequent  visits,  her  phenomenal  composi 
tions,  with  playful  frankness  devoid  of  all  affectation 
or  consciousness  of  brilliancy.  She  was  very  delicate, 
but  of  ruddy  countenance,  and  her  bright  winning 
simplicity  carried  no  suggestion  of  a  sickly  prodigy. 
But  she  was  an  intimate  friend  of  the  best  poets 
through  their  books,  and  her  critical  judgment  of  their 
works  was  surprisingly  mature  and  keen.  From  the 
age  of  sixteen  to  that  of  seventeen  and  a  half,  she 
rapidly  wrote  an  abundance  of  exquisite  poems.  Her 
extreme  modesty  would  not  permit  their  publication 
until  1854  —  seven  years  later.  Issued  in  the  quietest 
way  by  a  provincial  publisher,  they  met  with  a  singu 
lar  unanimity  of  applause,  though  the  extreme  youth 
of  their  author  was  unknown.  Her  rich  religious  expe 
rience  directed  most  of  them  into  the  vein  of  lofty  piety, 
but  the  general  press,  and  even  "  The  Athena3um," 
that  severest  censor  of  new  writers,  spoke  commend- 
ingly  of  them.  The  first  edition  sold  in  a  few  weeks. 
An  exceptionally  brilliant  career  was  predicted  for 
the  young  poet,  but  in  less  than  a  year  from  the  an 
nouncement  of  her  book,  she  died. 

"  The  Dream  of  Pythagoras,"  the  initial  poem  of  the 
volume,  from  which  the  collection  is  named,  is  given 
here  entire  (from  the  fifth  edition,  1872),  as  it  is  fa 
miliar  to  few  Americans. 


158       THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 
THE  DREAM  OF  PYTHAGORAS. 

BY   EMMA   TATHAM. 

"  The  soul  was  not  then  imprisoned  in  a  gross  mortal  body,  as  it  is  now  :  it  was 
united  to  a  luminous,  heavenly,  ethereal  body,  which  served  it  as  a  vehicle  to  fly 
through  the  air,  rise  to  the  stars,  and  wander  over  all  the  regions  of  immensity." 

PYTHAGORAS,  in  Travels  of  Cyrus. 

PYTHAGORAS,  amidst  Crotona's  groves, 

One  summer  eve,  sat ;  whilst  the  sacred  few 

And  favonr'd  at  his  feet  reclin'd,  entranc'd, 

List'ning  to  his  great  teachings.     O'er  their  heads 

A  lofty  oak  spread  out  his  hundred  hands 

Umbrageous,  and  a  thousand  slant  sunbeams 

Play'd  o'er  them  ;  but  beneath  all  was  obscure 

And  solemn,  save  that,  as  the  sun  went  down, 

One  pale  and  tremulous  sunbeam,  stealing  in 

Through  the  unconscious  leaves  her  silent  way, 

Fell  on  the  forehead  of  Pythagoras 

Like  spiritual  radiance ;  all  else  wrapt 

In  gloom  delicious  ;  while  the  murmuring  wind, 

Oft  moving  through  the  forest  as  in  dreams, 

Made  melancholy  music.     Then  the  sage 

Thus  spoke  :   "  My  children,  listen  ;  let  the  soul 

Hear  her  mysterious  origin,  and  trace 

Her  backward  path  to  heaven.     'Twas  but  a  dream ; 

And  yet  from  shadows  may  we  learn  the  shape 

And  substance  of  undying  truth.     Methought 

In  vision  I  beheld  the  first  beginning 

And  after-changes  of  my  soul.     O  joy  ! 

She  is  of  no  mean  origin,  but  sprang 

From  loftier  source  than  stars  or  sunbeams  know. 

Yea,  like  a  small  and  feeble  rill  that  bursts 

From  everlasting  mountain's  coronet, 

And,  winding  through  a  thousand  labyrinths 

Of  darkness,  deserts,  and  drear  solitudes, 

Yet  never  dies,  but,  gaining  depth  and  power, 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.      159 

Leaps  forth  at  last  with  uncontrollable  might 

Into  immortal  sunshine  and  the  breast 

Of  boundless  ocean,  —  so  is  this  my  soul. 

I  felt  myself  spring  like  a  sunbeam  out 

From  the  Eternal,  and  my  first  abode 

Was  a  pure  particle  of  light,  wherein, 

Shrined  like  a  beam  in  crystal,  I  did  ride 

Gloriously  through  the  firmament  on  wings 

Of  floating  flowers,  ethereal  gems,  and  wreaths 

Of  vernal  rainbows.      I  did  paint  a  rose 

With  blush  of  day-dawn,  and  a  lily-bell 

With  mine  own  essence  ;  every  morn  I  dipt 

My  robe  in  the  full  sun,  then  all  day  long 

Shook  out  its  dew  on  earth,  and  was  content 

To  be  umnark'd,  unworshipp'd,  and  unknown, 

And  only  lov'd  of  heaven.     Thus  did  my  soul 

Live  spotless  like  her  Source.     'T  was  mine  to  illume 

The  palaces  of  nature,  and  explore 

Her  hidden  cabinets,  and.  raptur'd,  read 

Her  joyous  secrets.     O  return,  thou  life 

Of  purity  I      I  flew  from  mountain-top 

To  mountain,  building  rainbow-bridges  up  — 

From  hill  to  hill,  and  over  boundless  seas : 

Ecstasy  was  such  life,  and  on  the  verge 

Of  ripe  perfection.     But,  alas  !  I  saw 

And  envied  the  bold  lightning,  who  could  blind 

And  startle  nations,  and  I  long'd  to  be 

A  conqueror  and  destroyer,  like  to  him. 

Methonght  it  was  a  glorious  joy,  indeed, 

To  shut  and  open  heaven  as  he  did, 

And  have  the  thunders  for  my  retinue, 

And  tear  the  clouds,  and  blacken  palaces, 

And  in  a  moment  whiten  sky,  and  sea, 

And  earth  :  therefore  I  murmur'd  at  my  lot, 

Beautiful  as  it  was,  and  that  one  murmur 

Despoil'd  me  of  my  glory.     I  became 

A  dark  and  tyrant  cloud  driven  by  the  storm, 


160       THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 

Too  earthly  to  be  bright,  too  hard  of  heart 

To  drop  in  mercy  on  the  thirsty  land  ; 

And  so  no  creature  lov'd  me.     I  was  felt 

A  blot  where'er  I  came.     Fair  Summer  scorn'd 

And  spurn'd  me  from  her  blueness,  for,  she  said, 

I  would  not  wear  her  golden  fringe,  and  so 

She  could  not  rank  me  in  her  sparkling  train. 

Soft  Spring  refused  me,  for  she  could  not  paint 

Her  rainbows  on  a  nature  cold  as  mine, 

Incapable  of  tears.     Autumn  despised 

One  who  could  do  no  good.     Dark  Winter  frown'd, 

And  number'd  me  among  his  ruffian  host 

Of  racers.     Then  unceasingly  I  fled 

Despairing  through  the  murky  firmament, 

Like  a  lone  wreck  athwart  a  midnight  sea, 

Chased  by  the  howling  spirits  of  the  storm, 

And  without  rest.     At  last,  one  day  I  saw 

In  my  continual  flight,  a  desert  blank 

And  broad  beneath  me,  where  no  water  was  ; 

And  there  I  mark'd  a  weary  antelope, 

Dying  for  thirst,  all  stretched  out  on  the  sand, 

With  her  poor  trembling  lips  in  agony 

Press'd  to  a  scorch'd-up  spring ;  then,  then,  at  last 

My  hard  heart  broke,  and  I  could  weep.     At  once 

My  terrible  race  was  stopp'd,  and  I  did  melt 

Into  the  desert's  heart,  and  with  my  tears 

I  quench'd  the  thirst  of  the  poor  antelope. 

So  having  pour'd  myself  into  the  dry 

And  desolate  waste,  I  sprang  up  a  wild  flower 

In  solitary  beauty.     There  I  grew 

Alone  and  feverish,  for  the  hot  sun  burn'd 

And  parch'd  my  tender  leaves,  and  not  a  sigh 

Came  from  the  winds.     I  seem'd  to  breathe  an  air 

Of  fire,  and  had  resign'd  myself  to  death, 

When  lo  !  a  solitary  dewdrop  fell 

Into  my  burning  bosom  ;  then,  for  joy, 

My  spirit  rush'd  into  my  lovely  guest, 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.      161 

And  I  became  a  dewdrop.     Then,  once  more, 

My  life  was  joyous,  for  the  kingly  sun 

Carried  me  up  into  the  firmament. 

And  hung  me  in  a  rainbow,  and  my  soul 

Was  robed  in  seven  bright  colors,  and  became 

A  jewel  in  the  sky.     So  did  I  learn 

The  first  great  lessons  ;  mark  ye  them,  my  sons. 

Obedience  is  nobility  ;  and  meek 

Humility  is  glory  ;  self  alone 

Is  base  ;  and  pride  is  pain  ;   patience  is  power ; 

Beneficence  is  bliss.     And  now  first  brought 

To  know  myself  and  feel  my  littleness, 

I  was  to  learn  what  greatness  is  prepar'd 

For  virtuous  souls,  what  mighty  war  they  wage, 

What  vast  impossibilities  o'ercome, 

What  kingdoms,  and  infinitude  of  love, 

And  harmony,  and  never-ending  joy, 

And  converse,  and  communion  with  the  great 

And  glorious  Mind  unknown,  —  are  given  to  high 

And  godlike  souls. 

"  Therefore  the  winds  arose, 
And  shook  me  from  the  rainbow  where  I  hung, 
Into  the  depths  of  ocean ;  then  I  dived 
Down  to  the  coral  citadels,  and  roved 
Through  crystal  mazes,  among  pearls  and  gems, 
And  lovely  buried  creatures,  who  had  sunk 
To  find  the  jewel  of  eternal  life. 
Sweet  babes  I  saw  clasp'd  in  their  mothers'  arms  ; 
Kings  of  the  north,  each  with  his  oozy  crown  ; 
Pale  maidens,  with  their  golden  streaming  hair 
Floating  in  solemn  beauty,  calm  and  still, 
In  the  deep,  silent,  tideless  wave  ;  I  saw 
Young  beauteous  boys  wash'd  down  from  reeling  masts 
By  sudden  storm  ;  and  brothers  sleeping  soft, 
Lock'd  in  each  other's  arms  ;  and  countless  wealth, 
And  curling  weed,  and  treasur'd  knots  of  hair, 
And  mouldering  masts,  and  giant  hulls  that  sank 


162       THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

With  thunder  sobbing ;  and  blue  palaces 

Where  moonbeams,  hand  in  hand,  did  dance  with  me 

To  the  soft  music  of  the  surging  shells, 

Where  all  else  was  at  rest.     Calm,  calm,  and  hush'd, 

And  stormless,  were  those  hidden  deeps,  and  clear 

And  pure  as  crystal.     There  I  wander 'd  long 

In  speechless  dreamings,  and  wellnigh  forgot 

My  corporal  nature,  for  it  seeni'd 

Melting  into  the  silent  infinite 

Around  me,  and  I  peacefully  began 

To  feel  the  mighty  universe  commune 

And  converse  with  me  ;  and  my  soul  became 

One  note  in  nature's  harmony.     So  sweet 

And  soothing  was  that  dream-like  ecstasy, 

I  could  have  slept  into  a  wave,  and  roll'd 

Away  through  the  blue  mysteries  forever, 

Dreaming  my  soul  to  nothing ;  I  could  well 

Have  drown'd  my  spark  of  immortality 

In  drunkenness  of  peace ;   I  knew  not  yet 

The  warrior  life  of  virtue,  and  the  high 

And  honourable  strife  and  storm  that  cleanse 

And  exercise  her  pinions.     I  was  now 

To  learn  the  rapture  of  the  struggle  made 

For  immortality  and  truth  ;  therefore 

The  ocean  toss'd  me  to  his  mountain  chains, 

Bidding  me  front  the  tempest ;  fires  of  heaven 

Were  dancing  o'er  his  cataracts,  and  scared 

His  sounding  billows  ;  glorious  thunders  roll'd 

Beneath,  above,  around  ;  the  strong  winds  fought, 

Lifting  up  pyramids  of  tortur'd  waves, 

Then  dashing  them  to  foam.     I  saw  great  ships 

As  feathers  on  the  opening  sepulchres 

And  starting  monuments, 

And  the  gaunt  waves  leap'd  up  like  fountains  fierce. 

And  snatch'd  down  frighten'd  clouds,  then  shouting  —  fell, 

And  rose  again.     I,  whirling  on  their  tops, 

Dizzy  flew  over  masts  of  staggering  ships, 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.       163 

Then  plunged  into  black  night.     My  soul  grew  mad 

Ravish'd  with  the  intense  magnificence 

Of  the  harmonious  chaos,  for  I  heard 

Music  amidst  the  thunders,  and  I  saw 

Measure  in  all  the  madness  of  the  waves 

And  whirlpools ;  yea,  I  lifted  up  my  voice 

In  praise  of  the  Eternal,  for  I  felt 

Rock'd  in  His  hand,  as  in  a  cradling  couch  ; 

Rejoicing  in  His  strength  ;  yea,  I  found  rest 

In  the  unbounded  roar,  and  fearless  sang 

Glad  echo  to  the  thunder,  and  flash'd  back 

The  bright  look  of  the  lightning,  and  did  fly 

On  the  dark  pinions  of  the  hurricane  spirit 

In  rapturous  repose  ;  till  suddenly 

My  soul  expanded,  and  I  sprang  aloft 

Into  the  lightning  flame,  leaping  for  joy 

From  cloud  to  cloud.     Then,  first  I  felt  my  wings 

Wave  into  immortality,  and  flew 

Across  the  ocean  with  a  shouting  host 

Of  thunders  at  my  heels,  and  lit  up  heaven, 

And  earth  and  sea,  with  one  quick  lamp,  and  crown'd 

The  mountains  with  a  momentary  gold, 

Then  cover'd  them  with  blackness.     Then  I  glanced 

Upon  the  mighty  city  in  her  sleep, 

Pierced  all  her  mysteries  with  one  swift  look, 

Then  bade  my  thunders  shout.     The  city  trembled  ; 

And  charm 'd  with  the  sublime  outcry,  I  paus'd 

And  listen'd.     Yet  had  I  to  rise  and  learn 

A  loftier  lesson.     I  was  lifted  high 

Into  the  heavens,  and  there  became  a  star. 

And  on  my  new-form'd  orb  two  angels  sat. 

The  one  thus  spoke :  '  O  spirit,  young  and  pure ! 

Say,  wilt  thou  be  my  shrine  ?     I  am  of  old, 

The  first  of  all  things,  and  of  all  the  greatest ; 

I  am  the  Sovereign  Majesty,  to  whom 

The  universe  is  given,  though  for  a  while 

I  war  with  rebels  strong  ;  my  name  is  Truth. 


164       THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

I  am  the  Spirit  of  wisdom,  love,  and  power, 
And  come  to  claim  thee  ;  and  if  tliou  obey 
My  guiding,  I  will  give  thee  thy  desire, 
Even  eternal  life.'     He  ceas'd,  and  then 
The  second  angel  spoke.     i  Ask  not,  O  soul ! 
My  name  ;  I  bid  thee  free  thyself,  and  know 
Thou  hast  the  fount  of  life  in  thy  own  breast, 
And  need'st  no  guiding :  be  a  child  no  longer ; 
Throw  off  thy  fetters,  and  with  me  enjoy 
Thy  native  independence,  and  assert 
Thy  innate  majesty ;  Truth  binds  not  me, 
And  yet  I  am  immortal ;  be  thou,  too, 
A  god  unto  thyself.' 

"  But  I  had  learn'd 
My  own  deep  insufficiency,  and  gazed 
Indignant  on  th'  unholy  angel's  face, 
And  pierced  its  false  refulgence,  knowing  well 
Obedience  only  is  true  liberty 
For  spirits  form'd  to  obey ;  so  best  they  reign. 
Straight  the  base  rebel  fled,  and,  ruled  by  Truth, 
I  roll'd  unerring  on  my  shining  road 
Around  a  glorious  centre ;  free,  though  bound, 
Because  love  bound  me,  and  my  law  became 
My  life  and  nature  ;  and  my  lustrous  orb 
Pure  spirits  visited  :  I  wore  a  light 
That  shone  across  infinitude,  and  serv'd 
To  guide  returning  wanderers.     I  sang 
With  all  my  starry  sisters,  and  we  danced 
Around  the  throne  of  Time,  and  wash'd  the  base 
Of  high  Eternity  like  golden  sands. 
There  first  my  soul  drank  music,  and  was  taught 
That  melody  is  part  of  heaven,  and  lives 
In  every  heaven-born  spirit  like  her  breath  ; 
There  did  I  learn,  that  music  without  end 
Breathes,  murmurs,  swells,  echoes,  and  floats,  and  peals, 
And  thunders  through  creation,  and  in  truth 
Is  the  celestial  language,  and  the  voice 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.      165 

Of  love  ;  and  now  my  soul  began  to  speak 
The  speech  of  immortality.     But  yet 
I  was  to  learn  a  lesson  more  severe  — 
To  shine  alone  in  darkness,  and  the  deeps 
Of  sordid  earth.     So  did  I  fall  from  heaven 
Far  into  night,  beneath  the  mountains'  roots, 
There,  as  a  diamond  burning  amidst  things 
Too  base  for  utterance.     Then,  alas  !  I  felt 
The  stirrings  of  impatience,  pining  sore 
For  freedom,  and  communion  with  the  fires 
And  majesties  of  heaven,  with  whom  erewhile 
I  walk'd,  their  equal.     I  had  not  yet  learn'd 
That  our  appointed  place  is  loftiest. 
However  lowly.     I  was  made  to  feel 
The  dignity  of  suffering.     O,  my  sons ! 
Sorrow  and  joy  are  but  the  spirit's  life ; 
Without  these  she  is  scarcely  animate  ; 
Anguish  and  bliss  ennoble  :  either  proves 
The  greatness  of  its  subject,  and  expands 
Her  nature  into  power  ;  her  every  pulse 
Beats  into  new-born  force,  urging  her  on 
To  conquering  energy.  —  Then  was  I  cast 
Into  hot  fires  and  flaming  furnaces, 
Deep  in  the  hollow  globe  ;  there  did  I  burn 
Deathless  in  agony,  without  murmur, 
Longing  to  die,  until  my  patient  soul 
Fainted  into  perfection  :  at  that  hour, 
Being  victorious,  I  was  snatch'd  away 
To  yet  another  lesson.     I  became 
A  date-tree  in  the  desert,  to  pour  out 
My  life  in  dumb  benevolence,  and  full 
Obedience  to  each  wind  of  heaven  that  blew. 
The  traveller  came  —  I  gave  him  all  my  shade, 
Asking  for  no  reward ;  the  lost  bird  flew 
For  shelter  to  my  branches,  and  I  hid 
Her  nest  among  my  leaves  ;  the  sunbeams  ask'd 
To  rest  their  hot  and  weary  feet  awhile 


166       THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 

On  me,  and  I  spread  out  my  every  arm 

T'  embrace  them,  fanning  them  with  all  rny  plumes. 

Beneath  my  shade  the  dying  pilgrim  fell 

Praying  for  water  ;  I  cool  dewdrops  caught 

And  shook  them  on  his  lip ;  I  gave  my  fruit 

To  strengthen  the  faint  stranger,  and  I  sang 

Soft  echoes  to  the  winds,  living  in  nought 

For  self  ;  but  in  all  things  for  others'  good. 

The  storm  arose,  and  patiently  I  bore 

And  yielded  to  his  tyranny  ;  I  bow'd 

My  tenderest  foliage  to  his  angry  blast, 

And  suffer'd  him  to  tear  it  without  sigh, 

And  scatter  on  the  waste  my  all  of  wealth. 

The  billowing  sands  o'erwhelm'd  me,  yet  I  stood 

Silent  beneath  them  ;  so  they  roll'd  away, 

And  rending  up  my  roots,  left  me  a  wreck 

Upon  the  wilderness. 

"  'T  was  thus,  my  sons, 
I  dream'd  my  spirit  wander'd,  till  at  length, 
As  desolate  I  mourn'd  my  helpless  woe, 
My  guardian  angel  took  me  to  his  heart, 
And  thus  he  said :  *  Spirit,  well  tried  and  true  ! 
Conqueror  I  have  made  thee,  and  prepar'd 
For  human  life  ;  behold  !  I  wave  the  palm 
Of  immortality  before  thine  eyes : 
'T  is  thine ;  it  shall  be  thine,  if  thou  aright 
Acquit  thee  of  the  part  which  yet  remains, 
And  teach  what  thou  hast  learn'd.' 

"  This  said,  he  smil'd, 
And  gently  laid  me  in  my  mother's  arms. 
Thus  far  the  vision  brought  me  —  then  it  fled, 
And  all  was  silence.     Ah  !  't  was  but  a  dream  ; 
This  soul  in  vain  struggles  for  purity ; 
This  self-tormenting  essence  may  exist 
For  ever ;  but  what  joy  can  being  give 
Without  perfection  !  vainly  do  I  seek 
That  bliss  for  which  I  languish.     Surely  yet 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.       167 

The  Day-spring  of  our  nature  is  to  come  ; 
Mournful  we  wait  that  dawning ;  until  then 
We  grovel  in  the  dust  —  in  midnight  grope, 
For  ever  seeking,  never  satisfied." 

Thus  spake  the  solemn  seer,  then  pausing,  sigh'd, 
For  all  was  darkness. 

A   DROP  OF   DEW. 

BY   ANDREW   MABVELL. 

See  how  the  orient  dew, 
Shed  from  the  bosom  of  the  morn 
Into  the  blowing  roses, 
Yet  careless  of  its  mansion  new 
For  the  clear  region  where  'twas  born, 

Round  in  itself  encloses 
And  in  its  little  globe's  extent 
Frames,  as  it  can  its  native  element. 
How  it  the  splendid  flower  does  slight, 
Scarcely  touching  where  it  lies 
But  gazing  back  upon  the  skies, 
Shines  with  a  mournful  light, 

Like  its  own  tear, 

Because  so  long  divided  from  its  sphere. 
Restless  it  rolls  and  insecure, 
Trembling  lest  it  grow  impure, 
Till  the  warm  sun  pities  its  pain 
And  to  the  skies  exhales  it  back  again. 

So  the  soul,  that  drop,  that  ray 

Of  the  clear  fountain  of  etern.il  day, 

Could  it  within  the  human  flower  be  seen, 

Lamenting  still  its  former  height, 
Shuns  the  sweet  flowers  and  the  radiant  green, 

And  recollecting  its  own  light 
Does  in  its  pure  and  circling  thoughts  express 
The  greater  heaven  in  the  heaven  less. 


168        THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

Dr.  Donne,  in  a  long  poem  called  "  The  Progress 
of  the  Soul,"  traces  the  Pythagorean  course  of  an 
immortal  being  through  an  apple  (by  which  Eve  was 
tempted),  a  plant,  a  sparrow,  a  fish,  a  mouse  (which 
climbed  an  elephant's  proboscis  to  the  brain, 

"  the  soul's  bedchamber, 

And  gnawed  the  life-cords  there  like  a  whole  town 
Till,  undermined,  the  slain  beast  tumbled  down ; 
With  him  the  murderer  dies,  whom  envy  sent  to  kill.") 

Then  the  soul  enters  a  wolf,  an  ape,  and  at  last   a 
woman  —  Themech,  the  sister  and  wife  of  Cain. 

Mortimer  Collins's  poem,  "  The  Inn  of  Strange 
Meetings,"  is  an  interesting  expression  of  reincarna 
tion,  but  it  is  too  long  to  reprint  here.  Similar 
glimpses  of  this  thought  occur  in  Byron,  Pope, 
Southey,  Swinburne,  and  others,  but  it  is  difficult  to 
select  from  them  a  distinct  and  continuous  wording 
of  it. 

PART  III.     CONTINENTAL  POETRY. 


EVER  since  the  time  of  Virgil,  whose  sixth  .ZEneid 
(verses  724-)  contains  a  sublime  version  of  reincar 
nation,  and  of  Ovid,  whose  Metamorphoses  beauti 
fully  present  the  old  Greek  mythologies  of  metemp 
sychosis,  this  theme  has  attracted  many  European 
poets  beside  those  of  England.  While  the  Latin  poets 
obtained  their  inspiration  from  the  East,  through 
Pythagoras  and  Plato,  the  Northern  singers  seem  to 
express  it  independently,  unless  it  came  to  them  with 
the  Teutonic  migration  from  the  Aryan  cradle  of  the 
race,  and  shifted  its  form  with  all  their  people's  wan- 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.        169 

derings  so  that  it  has  lost  all  traces  of  connection  with 
its  Indian  source.  The  old  Norse  legends  teem  with 
many  guises  of  soul- journey  ing.  In  sublime  and  lovely 
stories,  ballads,  and  epics,  these  vikings  and  their 
kindred  perpetuated  their  belief  that  the  human  in 
dividuality  travels  through  a  great  series  of  embodi 
ments,  which  physically  reveal  the  spiritual  character. 
The  Icelandic  Sagas  also  delight  in  these  fables  of 
transmigration,  and  still  fire  the  heart  of  Scandinavia 
and  Denmark.  It  permeated  the  Welsh  triads,  and 
among  the  early  Saxons  this  thought  animated  their 
Druid  ceremonies  and  their  noblest  literature.  The 
scriptures  of  those  magnificent  races  whom  Tacitus 
found  in  the  German  forests,  whose  intrepid  manliness 
conquered  the  mistress  of  the  world,  and  from  whom 
are  descended  the  modern  ruling  race,  were  inspired 
with  this  same  doctrine.  The  treasures  of  these  ancient 
writings  are  buried  away  from  our  sight,  but  a  sug 
gestion  of  their  grandeur  is  found  in  the  heroic  quali 
ties  of  the  nations  who  were  bred  upon  them.  A 
beautiful  German  version  of  Giordano  Bruno's  Pytha 
gorean  Latin  verses  on  the  relation  of  the  soul  to  the 
body  is  contained  in  Professor  Carriere's  Weltan 
schauung  (p.  452).  Calderon,  the  Spanish  poet, 
touches  fondly  on  this  idea  in  his  drama  "  Life  is  a 
Dream."  Bjornsen  has  written  a  superb  Danish  poem 
on  transmigration  called  "  Sulme,"  but  it  has  never 
been  translated.  The  following  selections  are  rep 
resentative  of  the  chief  branches  of  Continental  Eu 
ropeans.  Boyesen,  although  an  American  citizen,  is 
really  a  modernized  Norwegian.  Goethe  stands  for 
the  Teutonic  race,  and  Schiller  keeps  him  good  com 
pany.  Victor  Hugo  and  Beranger  speak  for  France, 
and  Campanella  represents  Italy. 


170        THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 


TRANSMIGRATION. 

BY  HJALMAR  HJORTH  BOYESEN. 

MY  spirit  wrestles  in  anguish 

With  fancies  that  will  not  depart ; 

A  ghost  who  borrowed  my  semblance 
Has  hid  in  the  depth  of  my  heart. 

A  dim,  resistless  possession 

Impels  me  forever  to  do 
The  phantom  deeds  of  this  phantom 

That  lived  ages  ago. 

The  thoughts  that  I  think  seem  hoary 
And  laden  with  dust  and  gloom  ; 

My  voice  sounds  strange,  as  if  echoed 
From  centuries  long  in  the  tomb. 

Methinks  that  e'en  through  my  laughter 
Oft  trembles  a  strain  of  dread ; 

A  shivering  ghost  of  laughter 

That  is  loth  to  rise  from  the  dead. 

My  tear  has  its  fount  in  dead  ages, 

And  choked  with  their  dust  is  my  sigh ; 

I  weep  for  the  pale,  dead  sorrows 
Of  the  wraith  that  once  was  I. 

Ah,  Earth !  thou  art  old  and  weary, 
With  weight  of  centuries  bent ; 

Thy  pristine  creative  gladness 
In  youthful  asons  was  spent. 

Perchance,  in  the  distant  ages, 
My  soul,  from  Nirvana's  frost, 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.       171 

Will  gather  its  scattered  life -germs 
And  quicken  the  life  I  lost. 

And  then,  like  a  song  forgotten 

That  haunts,  yet  eludes  the  ear, 
Or  cry  that  chills  the  darkness 

With  a  vague,  swift  breath  of  fear, 

A  faint  remembrance  shall  visit 

That  sun  of  earth  and  sky 
In  whom  the  flame  shall  rekindle 

Of  the  soul  which  once  was  I. 

From    Victor    Hugo's    poem,    "  A   celle    qui   est 
voitee." 

"TO  THE  INVISIBLE  ONE." 

I  AM  the  drift  of  a  thousand  tides, 

The  captive  of  destiny  ; 
The  weight  of  all  darkness  upon  mo  abides, 

But  it  cannot  bury  me. 

My  spirit  endures  like  a  rocky  isle 

Amid  the  ocean  of  fate, 
The  thunderstorm  is  my  domicile, 

The  hurricane  is  my  mate. 

I  am  the  fugitive  who  far 

From  home  has  taken  flight ; 
Along  with  the  owl  and  evening  star 

I  moan  the  song  of  night. 

Art  thou  not,  too,  like  unto  me 

A  torch  to  light  earth's  gloom, 
A  soul,  therefore  a  mystery, 

A  wanderer  bound  to  roam  ? 


172       THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

Seek  for  me  in  the  sea  bird's  home, 

Descend  to  my  release  ! 
My  depths  of  cavernous  shadows  dumb 

Illume,  angel  of  peace  ! 

As  night  brings  forth  the  rosy  morn, 

Perhaps  'tis  heaven's  law 
That  from  thy  mystic  smile  is  born 

A  glory  I  ne'er  saw. 

In  this  dark  world  where  now  I  stay 

I  scarce  can  see  myself  ; 
Thy  radiant  soul  shines  on  my  way 

As  my  fair  guiding  elf. 

With  loving  tones  and  beckoning  hand 
Thou  say'st,  "  Beyond  the  night 

I  catch  a  glimpse  upon  the  strand 
Of  thy  mansion  gleaming  bright." 

Before  I  came  upon  this  earth 

I  know  I  lived  in  gladness 
For  ages  as  an  angel.     Birth 

Has  caused  my  present  sadness. 

My  soul  was  once  a  heavenly  dove. 

Do  thou,  in  heaven's  domains, 
Let  fall  a  pinion  from  above 

Upon  this  bird's  remains  ! 

Yes,  'tis  my  dire  misfortune  now 

To  hang  between  two  ties, 
To  hold  within  my  furrowed  brow 

The  earth's  clay,  and  the  skies. 

Alas  the  pain  of  being  man, 
Of  dreaming  o'er  my  fall, 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.       173 

Of  finding  heaven  within  my  span, 
Yet  being  but  a  pall ; 

Of  toiling  like  a  galley  slave, 

Of  carrying  the  load 
Of  human  burdens,  while  I  rave 

To  fly  unto  my  God ; 

Of  trailing  garments  black  with  rust, 

I,  son  of  heaven  above ! 
Of  being  only  graveyard  dust, 

E'en  though  my  name  is  —  Love, 


THE  TRANSMIGRATION  OF   SOULS. 

(LA   METEMPSYCOSE.) 
BY   STRANGER. 

IN  philosophic  mood,  last  night,  as  idly  I  was  lying, 

That  souls  may  transmigrate,  methought  there  could  be  no 

denying  : 

So,  just  to  know  to  what  I  owe  propensities  so  strong, 
I  drew  my  soul  into  a  chat  —  our  gossip  lasted  long. 
"  A  votive   offering,"  she  observed,  "  well   might  I   claim 

from  thee  ; 

For  thou  in  being  hadst  remained  a  cipher,  but  for  me : 
Yet  not  a  virgin  soul  was  I  when  first  in  thee  enshrined."  — 
Ah !  I  suspected,  little  soul,  thus  much  that  I  should  find  ! 

"  Yes,"  she  continued,  "  yes,  of  old  —  I  recollect  it  now  — 
In  humble  ivy  was  I  wreathed  round  many  a  joyous  brow. 
More  subtle  next  the  essence  was  that  I  essayed  to  warm, 
A  bird's,  that  could  salute  the  skies,  a  little  bird's  my  form : 
Where  thickets  made  a  pleasant  shade,  where  shepherdesses 

strolled, 
I  fluttered  round,  hopped  on  the  ground,  my  simple  lays  I 

trolled  j 


174       THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 

My  pinions  grew  whilst  still  I  flew   in    freedom   on    the 

wind."  — 
Ah !  I  suspected,  little  soul,  thus  much  that  I  should  find ! 

"  Medor,  my  name,  I  next  became  a  dog  of  wondrous  tact, 
The  guardian  of  a  poor  blind  man,  his  sole  support  in  fact ; 
The  trick  of  holding  in  my  mouth  a  wooden  bowl  I  knew  — 
I  led  my  master  through  the  streets,  and  begged  his  living 

too. 

Devoted  to  the  poor,  to  please  the  wealthy  was  my  care, 
Gleaning,   as  sustenance  for   one,   what   others   well  could 

spare  ; 

Thus  good  I  did,  since  to  good  deeds  so  many  I  inclined."  — 
Ah  !  I  suspected,  little  soul,  thus  much  that  I  should  find ! 

"  Next,  to  breathe  life  into  her  charms,  in  a  young  girl  I 

dwelt ; 

There,  in  soft  prison,  snugly  housed,  what  happiness  I  felt ! 
Till  to  my  hiding-place  a  swarm  of  Cupids  entrance  gained, 
And  after  pillaging  it  well,  in  garrison  remained. 
Like  old  campaigners,  there  the  rogues  all  sorts  of  mischief 

did: 

And  night  and  day,  whilst  still  I  lay  in  little  corner  hid, 
How  oft  I  saw  the  house  on  fire  I  scarce  can  call  to  mind."  — 
Ah  !  I  suspected,  little  soul,  thus  much  that  I  should  find. 

"  Some  light  on  thy  propensities  may  now  upon  thee  break ; 
But   prithee    hark  !  one    more    remark  I   still,"  says   she, 

"  would  make. 
'T  is  this  —  that  having  dared  one  day  with  Heaven  to  make 

too  free, 

God  for  my  punishment  resolved  to  shut  me  up  in  thee  : 
And  what  with  sittings  up  at  night,  with  work  and  woman's 

art, 

Tears  and  despair  —  for  I  forbear  some  secrets  to  impart  — 
A  poet  is  a  very  hell  for  soul  thereto  consigned  ! 
Ah !  I  suspected,  little  soul,  thus  much  that  I  should  find. 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.        175 

THE  SONG  OF  THE  EARTH  SPIRITS. 
IN  GOETHE'S  "  FAUST." 

THE  soul  of  man 
Is  like  the  water  : 
From  heaven  it  cometh, 
To  heaven  it  mounteth, 
And  thence  at  once 
It  must  back  to  earth, 
Forever  changing. 

THE  SECRET  OF  REMINISCENCE. 

FROM    SCHILLER. 

WHAT  unveils  to  me  the  yearning  glow 
Fix'd  forever  to  thy  lips  to  grow  ? 
What  the  longing  wish  thy  breath  to  drink,  — 
In  thy  Being  blest,  in  death  to  sink 

When  thy  look  steals  o'er  me  ? 

As  when  Slaves  without  resistance  yield 
To  the  Victor  in  the  battle-field, 
So  my  Senses  in  the  moment  fly 
O'er  the  bridge  of  Life  tumultuously 

When  thou  stand'st  before  me  ! 

Speak  !  Why  should  they  from  their  Master  roam  ? 
Do  my  Senses  yonder  seek  their  home  ? 
Or  do  sever'd  brethren  meet  again, 
Casting  off  the  Body's  heavy  chain, 

Where  thy  foot  hath  lighted  ? 

Were  our  Beings  once  together  twin'd  ? 
Was  it  therefore  that  our  bosoms  pin'd  ? 


176        THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

Were  we  in  the  light  of  suns  now  dead, 
In  the  days  of  rapture  long  since  fled, 
Into  One  united  ? 

Aye,  we  were  so  !  —  thou  wert  link'd  with  me 
In  ^Eone  that  has  ceas'd  to  be ; 
On  the  mournful  page  of  vanish'd  time, 
By  my  Muse  were  read  these  words  sublime : 
Nought  thy  love  can  sever ! 

And  in  Being  closely  twin'd  and  fair, 
I  too  wondering  saw  it  written  there,  — 
We  were  then  a  Life,  a  Deity,  — 
And  the  world  seem'd  order'd  then  to  lie 

'Neath  our  sway  forever. 

And,  to  meet  us,  nectar-fountains  still 
Pour'd  forever  forth  their  blissful  rill ; 
Forcibly  we  broke  the  seal  of  Things, 
And  to  Truth's  bright  sunny  hills  our  wings 
Joyously  were  soaring. 

Laura,  weep  !  —  this  Deity  hath  flown,  — 
Thou  and  I  his  ruins  are  alone  ; 
By  a  thirst  unquenchable  we  're  driven 
Our  lost  Being  to  embrace  ;  —  tow'rd  Heaven 
Turns  our  gaze  imploring. 

Therefore,  Laura,  is  this  yearning  glow 
Fix'd  forever  to  thy  lips  to  grow, 
And  the  longing  wish  thy  breath  to  drink, 
In  thy  Being  blest,  in  death  to  sink 

When  thy  look  steals  o'er  me ! 

And  as  Slaves  without  resistance  yield 
To  the  Victor  in  the  battle-field, 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.        177 

Therefore  do  my  ravish'd  Senses  fly 
O'er  the  bridge  of  Life  tumultuously, 

When  thou  stand 'st  before  me  ! 

Therefore  do  they  from  their  Master  roam  ! 
Therefore  do  my  Senses  seek  their  home ! 
Casting  off  the  Body's  heavy  chain, 
Those  long-sever'd  brethren  kiss  again, 

Hush'd  is  all  their  sighing ! 

And  thou,  too  —  when  on  me  fell  thine  eye, 
What  disclos'd  thy  cheek's  deep-purple  dye  ? 
Tow'rd  each  other,  like  relations  dear, 
As  an  exile  to  his  home  draws  near, 

Were  we  not  then  flying  ? 


A  SONNET  ON  CAUCASUS. 

BY   T.    CAMPANELLA. 

I  FEAR  that  by  my  death  the  human  race 

Would  gain  no  vantage.     Thus  I  do  not  die. 
So  wide  is  this  vast  cage  of  misery 

That  flight  and  change  lead  to  no  happier  place. 

Shifting  our  pains,  we  risk  a  sorrier  case : 
All  worlds,  like  ours,  are  sunk  in  agony : 
Go  where  we  will,  we  feel ;  and  this  my  cry 

I  may  forget  like  many  an  old  disgrace. 

Who  knows  what  doom  is  mine  ?     The  Omnipotent 
Keeps  silence ;  nay,  I  know  not  whether  strife 
Or  peace  was  with  me  in  some  earlier  life. 

Philip  in  a  worse  prison  me  hath  pent 

These  three  days  past  —  but  not  without  God's  will. 
Stay  we  as  God  decrees :  God  doth  no  ill. 


178        THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 


PART  IV.     PLATONIC  POETS. 


THE  largest  inspiration  of  all  western  thought  is 
nourished  by  the  Academe.  Not  only  idealism,  but 
the  provinces  of  philosophy  and  literature  hostile  to 
Plato  are  really  indebted  to  him.  The  noble  loftiness, 
the  ethereal  subtlety,  the  poetic  beauty  of  that  teach 
ing  has  captivated  most  of  the  fine  intellects  of  me- 
diseval  and  modern  times,  and  it  is  impossible  to  trace 
the  invisible  course  of  exalted  thought  which  has 
radiated  from  this  greatest  Greek,  the  king  of  a 
nation  of  philosophers. 

Adopting  Emerson's  words,  "  Out  of  Plato  come  all 
things  that  are  still  written  and  debated  among  men 
of  thought.  Great  havoc  makes  he  among  our  origi 
nalities.  We  have  reached  the  mountain  from  which 
all  these  drift  boulders  were  detached.  The  Bible  of 
the  learned  for  twenty-two  centuries,  every  brisk 
young  man  who  says  fine  things  to  each  reluctant  gen 
eration,  is  some  reader  of  Plato  translating  into  the 
vernacular  his  good  things.  .  .  .  How  many  great 
men  nature  is  incessantly  sending  up  out  of  the  night 
to  be  his  men  —  Platonists  !  the  Alexandrians,  a  con 
stellation  of  genius  ;  the  Elizabethans,  not  less ;  Sir 
Thomas  More,  Henry  More,  John  Hales,  John  Smith, 
Lord  Bacon,  Jeremy  Taylor,  Ralph  Cudworth,  Syden- 
ham,  Thomas  Taylor.  Calvinism  is  in  his  Phaedro. 
Christianity  is  in  it.  Mahometanism  draws  all  its 
philosophy,  in  its  handbook  of  morals,  the  Akhlak-y- 
Jalaly,  from  him.  Mysticism  finds  in  Plato  all  its 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.      179 

texts."  We  know  not  how  much  of  the  world's  later 
poetry  is  due  to  the  suggestion  and  nurture  of  the 
poet-philosopher.  But  in  closing  our  studies  of  the 
poetry  of  reincarnation  it  may  be  of  interest  to  group 
together  the  avowed  Platonic  poets. 

Most  illustrious  of  all  the  English  disciples  of  this 
master,  in  the  brilliant  coterie  of  "  Cambridge  Pla- 
tonists,"  was  Dr.  Henry  More,  whom  Dr.  Johnson 
esteemed  "  one  of  our  greatest  divines  and  philos 
ophers  and  no  mean  poet."  Hobbes  said  of  him  that 
if  his  own  philosophy  was  not  true  he  knew  none  that 
he  should  sooner  adopt  than  Henry  More's  of  Cam 
bridge  ;  and  Hoadley  styles  him  "  one  of  the  first 
men  of  this  or  any  other  country."  Coleridge  wrote 
that  his  philosophical  works  "  contain  more  enlarged 
and  elevated  views  of  the  Christian  dispensation  than 
I  have  met  with  in  any  other  single  volume  ;  for 
More  had  both  the  philosophical  and  poetic  genius 
supported  by  immense  erudition."  He  was  a  devout 
student  of  Plato.  In  the  heat  of  rebellion  he  was 
spared  by  the  fanatics.  They  pardoned  his  refusal  to 
take  their  covenant  and  left  him  to  continue  the  phil 
osophic  occupations  which  had  rendered  him  famous 
as  a  lovable  and  absorbed  scholar.  He  wove  to 
gether  in  many  poems  a  quaint  texture  of  Gothic 
fancy  and  Greek  thought.  His  "  Psychozoia "  or 
"  Life  of  the  Soul,"  from  which  the  following  verses 
are  taken,  is  a  long  Platonic  poem  tracing  the  course 
of  the  soul  through  ancient  existences  down  into  the 
earthly  realm.  Campbell  said  of  this  work  that  it  "  is 
like  a  curious  grotto,  whose  labyrinths  we  might  ex 
plore  for  its  strange  and  mystic  associations."  Dr. 
More  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Addison  and  long  a 
correspondent  of  Descartes. 


180       THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.       . 

From  Henry  More's  "  Philosophical  Poems " 
("Psychozoia"). 

I  would  sing  the  preexistency 

Of  human  souls  and  live  once  o'er  again 
By  recollection  and  quick  memory 

All  that  is  passed  since  first  we  all  began. 
But  all  too  shallow  be  my  wits  to  scan 

So  deep  a  point  and  mind  too  dull  to  climb 
So  dark  a  matter.     But  thou  more  than  man 

Aread,  thou  sacred  soul  of  Plotin  dear, 
Tell  me  what  mortals  are.     Tell  what  of  old  they  were. 

A  spark  or  ray  of  divinity 

Clouded  with  earthly  fogs,  and  clad  in  clay, 
A  precious  drop  sunk  from  eternity 

Spilt  on  the  ground,  or  rather  slunk  away. 
For  then  we  fell  when  we  'gan  first  t'  essay 

By  stealth  of  our  own  selves  something  to  been 
Uncentering  ourselves  from  our  one  great  stay, 

Which  rupture  we  new  liberty  did  ween, 
And  from  that  prank  right  jolly  wits  ourselves  did  deem. 

Show  fitly  how  the  preexisting  soul 

Enacts  and  enters  bodies  here  below 
And  then  entire  unhurt  can  leave  this  moul, 

In  which  by  sense  and  motion  they  may  know 
Better  than  we  what  things  transacted  be 

Upon  the  earth,  and  when  they  best  may  show 
Themselves  to  friend  or  foe,  their  phantasmy 

Moulding  their  airy  arc  to  gross  consistency. 

Milton  imbibed  from  his  college  friend  Henry  More 
an  early  fondness  for  the  study  of  Plato,  whose  phi 
losophy  nourished  most  of  the  fine  spirits  of  that  day, 
and  he  expresses  the  Greek  sage's  opinion  of  the  soul 
in  his  "  Comus  "  :  — 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.      181 

The  soul  grows  clotted  by  oblivion, 
Imbodies  and  embrutes  till  she  quite  lose 
The  divine  property  of  her  first  being ; 
Such  as  those  thick  and  gloomy  shadows  damp 
Oft  seen  in  charnel  vaults  and  sepulchres 
Lingering  and  setting  by  a  new  made  grave 
As  loth  to  leave  the  body  that  it  loved. 

Milton's  Platonic  proclivities  are  also  shown  in  his 
poem  "  On  the  Death  of  a  Fair  Infant  " :  — 

Wert  thou  that  just  maid,  who  once  before 
Forsook  the  hated  earth,  0  tell  me  sooth, 
And  cam'st  again  to  visit  us  once  more  ? 
Or  wert  thou  that  sweet  smiling  youth  ? 

Or  any  other  of  that  heavenly  brood 
Let  down  in  cloudy  throne  to  do  the  world  some  good  ? 
Or  wert  thou  of  the  golden-winged  host, 
Who,  having  clad  thyself  in  human  weed, 
To  earth  from  thy  prefixed  seat  didst  post, 
And  after  short  abode  fly  back  with  speed 
As  if  to  show  what  creatures  heaven  doth  breed  ; 

Thereby  to  set  the  hearts  of  men  on  fire, 
To  scorn  the  sordid  world  and  unto  heaven  aspire. 

In  the  old  library  of  poetry  known  as  u  Dodsley's 
Collection,"  is  a  Miltonic  poem  by  an  anonymous  Pla- 
tonist  which  is  very  interesting,  and  as  it  is  difficult  of 
access  we  quote  the  best  part  of  it. 

PREEXISTENCE. 

IN   IMITATION   OF   MILTON. 

Now  had  th'  archangel  trumpet,  raised  sublime 
Above  the  walls  of  heaven,  begun  to  sound ; 
All  aether  took  the  blast  and  fell  beneath 
Shook  with  celestial  noise ;  th'  almighty  host, 


182       THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 

Hot  with  pursuit,  and  reeking  with  the  blood 
Of  guilty  cherubs  smeared  in  sulphurous  dust, 
Pause  at  the  known  command  of  sounding  gold. 
At  first  they  close  the  wide  Tartarean  gates, 
Th'  impenetrable  folds  on  brazen  hinge 
Roll  creaking  horrible  ;  the  din  beneath 
O'ercomes  the  war  of  flames,  and  deafens  hell. 
Then  through  the  solid  gloom  with  nimble  wing 
They  cut  their  shining  traces  up  to  light ; 
Returned  upon  the  edge  of  heavenly  day, 
Where  thinnest  beams  play  round  the  vast  obscure 
And  with  eternal  gleam  drives  back  the  night. 
They  find  the  troops  less  stubborn,  less  involved 
In  crime  and  ruin,  barr'd  the  realms  of  peace, 
Yet  uncondemned  to  baleful  beats  of  woe, 
Doubtful  and  suppliant ;  all  the  plumes  of  light 
Moult  from  their  shuddering  wings,  and  sickly  fear 
Shades  every  face  with  horror ;  conscious  guilt 
Rolls  in  the  livid  eyeball,  and  each  breast 
Shakes  with  the  dread  of  future  doom  unknown. 

'T  is  here  the  wide  circumference  of  heaven 
Opens  in  two  vast  gates,  that  inward  turn 
Voluminous,  on  jasper  columns  hung 
By  geometry  divine  :  they  ever  glow 
With  living  sculptures  ;  they  arise  by  turns 
To  imboss  the  shining  leaves,  by  turns  they  set 
To  give  succeeding  argument  their  place  ; 
In  holy  hieroglyphics  on  they  move, 
The  gaze  of  journeying  angels,  as  they  pass 
Oft  looking  back,  and  held  in  deep  surprise. 
Here  stood  the  troops  distinct ;  the  cherub  guard 
Unbarred  the  splendid  gates,  and  in  they  roll 
Harmonious  ;  for  a  vocal  spirit  sits 
Within  each  hinge,  and  as  they  onward  drive, 
In  just  divisions  breaks  the  numerous  jars 
With  symphony  melodious,  such  as  spheres 
Involved  in  tenfold  wreaths  are  said  to  sound. 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.      183 

Out  flows  a  blaze  of  glory  :  for  on  high 
Towering  advanced  the  moving  throne  of  God. 

Above  the  throne,  th'  ideas  heavenly  bright 
Of  past,  of  present,  and  of  coming  time, 
Fixed  their  immoved  abode,  and  there  present 
An  endless  landscape  of  created  things 
To  sight  celestial,  where  angelic  eyes 
Are  lost  in  prospect ;   for  the  shiny  range 
Boundless  and  various  in  its  bosom  bears 
Millions  of  full  proportioned  worlds,  beheld 
With  steadfast  eyes,  till  more  arise  to  view, 
And  further  inward  scenes  start  up  unknown. 

A  vocal  thunder  rolled  the  voice  of  God. 
"  Servants  of  God !  and  virtues  great  in  arms, 
We  approve  your  faithful  works,  and  you  return 
Blessed  from  the  dire  pursuits  of  rebel  foes  ; 
Resolved,  obdurant,  they  have  tried  the  force 
Of  this  right  hand,  and  known  almighty  power ; 
Transfixed  with  lightning,  down  they  sunk  and  fell 
Into  the  fiery  gulf,  and  deep  they  plunge 
Below  the  burning  waves,  to  hide  their  heads. 

"  For  you,  ye  guilty  throng  that  lately  joined 
In  this  sedition,  since  seduced  from  good, 
And  caught  in  trains  of  guile,  by  sprites  malign 
Superior  in  their  order  ;  you  accept, 
Trembling,  my  heavenly  clemency  and  grace. 
When  the  long  era  once  has  filled  its  orb, 
You  shall  emerge  to  light  and  humbly  here 
Again  shall  bow  before  his  favoring  throne, 
If  your  own  virtue  second  my  decree  : 
But  all  must  have  their  races  first  below. 
See,  where  below  in  chaos  wondrous  deep 
A  speck  of  light  dawns  forth,  and  thence  throughout 
The  shades,  in  many  a  wreath,  my  forming  power 


184       THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 

There  swiftly  turns  the  burning  eddy  round, 

Absorbing  all  crude  matter  near  its  brink ; 

Which  next,  with  subtle  motions,  takes  the  form 

I  please  to  stamp,  the  seed  of  embryo  worlds 

All  now  in  embryo,  but  ere  long  shall  rise 

Variously  scattered  in  this  vast  expanse, 

Involved  in  winding  orbs,  until  the  brims 

Of  outward  circles  brush  the  heavenly  gates. 

The  middle  point  a  globe  of  curling  fire 

Shall  hold,  which  round  it  sheds  its  genial  heat ; 

Where'er  I  kindle  life  the  motion  grows, 

In  all  the  endless  orbs,  from  this  machine ; 

And  infinite  vicissitudes  that  roll 

About  the  restless  centre  ;  for  I  rear 

In  those  meanders  turned,  a  dusty  ball, 

Deformed  all  o'er  with  woods,  whose  shaggy  tops 

Inclose  eternal  mists,  and  deadly  damps 

Hover  within  their  boughs,  to  cloak  the  light ; 

Impervious  scenes  of  horror,  till  reformed 

To  fields  and  grassy  dells  and  flowery  meads 

By  your  continual  pains.  .  .  .  Here  Silence  sits 

In  folds  of  wreathy  mantling  sunk  obscure, 

And  in  dark  fumes  bending  his  drowsy  head  ; 

An  urn  he  holds,  from  whence  a  lake  proceeds 

Wide,  flowing  gently,  smooth  and  Lethe  named ; 

Hither  compelled,  each  soul  must  drink  long  draughts 

Of  those  forgetful  streams,  till  forms  within 

And  all  the  great  ideas  fade  and  die  : 

For  if  vast  thought  should  play  about  a  mind 

Inclosed  in  flesh,  and  dragging  cumbrous  life, 

Fluttering  and  beating  in  the  mournful  cage, 

It  soon  would  break  its  gates  and  wing  away  : 

'T  is  therefore  my  decree,  the  soul  return 

Naked  from  off  this  beach,  and  perfect  blank 

To  visit  the  new  world ;  and  wait  to  feel 

Itself  in  crude  consistence  closely  shut, 

The  dreadful  monument  of  just  revenge  ; 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.      185 

Immured  by  heaven's  own  hand,  and  placed  erect 
On  fleeting  matter  all  imprisoned  round 
With  walls  of  clay ;  the  ethereal  mould  shall  bear 
The  chain  of  members,  deafened  with  an  ear, 
Blinded  by  eyes,  and  trammeled  by  hands. 
Here  anger,  vast  ambition  and  disdain, 
And  all  the  haughty  movements  rise  and  fall, 
As  storms  of  neighboring  atoms  tear  the  soul, 
And  hope  and  love  and  all  the  calmer  turns 
Of  easy  hours,  in  their  gay  gilded  shapes, 
With  sudden  run,  skim  o'er  deluded  minds, 
As  matter  leads  the  dance  ;  but  one  desire 
Unsatisfied,  shall  mar  ten  thousand  joys. 

"  The  rank  of  beings,  that  shall  first  advance, 
Drink  deep  of  human  life,  and  long  shall  stay 
On  this  great  scene  of  cares.     From  all  the  rest, 
That  longer  for  the  destined  body  wait, 
Less  penance  I  expect,  and  short  abode 
In  those  pale  dreamy  kingdoms  will  content ; 
Each  has  his  lamentable  lot.  and  all 
On  different  rocks  abide  the  pains  of  life. 

"  The  pensive  spirit  takes  the  lonely  grove ; 
Nightly  he  visits  all  the  sylvan  scenes, 
Where  far  remote,  a  melancholy  moon 
Raising  her  head,  serene  and  shorn  of  beams, 
Throws  here  and  there   her  glimmerings  through  the 

trees. 

The  sage  shall  haunt  this  solitary  ground 
And  view  the  dismal  landscape  limned  within 
In  horrid  shades,  mixed  with  imperfect  light. 
Here  Judgment,  blinded  by  delusive  sense, 
Contracted  through  the  cranny  of  an  eye, 
Shoots  up  faint  languid  beams"  to  that  dark  seat, 
Wherein  the  soul,  bereaved  of  native  fire, 
Sets  intricate,  in  misty  clouds  obscured. 

"  Hence  far  removed,  a  different  being  race 


186       THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 

In  cities  full  and  frequent  take  their  seat, 
Where  honor  's  crushed,  and  gratitude  oppressed 
With  swelling  hopes  of  gain,  that  raise  within 
A  tempest,  and  driven  onward  by  success, 
Can  find  no  bounds.     For  creatures  of  a  day 
Stretch  their  wide  cares  to  ages  ;  full  increase 
Starves  their  penurious  soul,  while  empty  sound 
Fills  the  ambitious  ;  that  shall  ever  shrink, 
Pining  with  endless  cares,  while  this  shall  swell 
To  tympany  enormous.     Bright  in  arms 
Here  shines  the  hero,  out  he  fiercely  leads 
A  martial  throng,  his  instruments  of  rage, 
To  fill  the  world  with  death,  and  thin  mankind. 

"  There  savage  nature  in  one  common  lies 
And  feels  its  share  of  hunger,  care,  and  pain, 
Cheated  by  flying  prey  ;  and  now  they  tear 
Their  panting  flesh ;  and  deeply,  darkly  quaff 
Of  human  woe,  even  when  they  rudely  sip 
The  flowing  stream,  or  draw  the  savory  pulp 
Of  nature's  freshest  viands  ;  fragrant  fruits 
Enjoyed  with  trembling,  and  in  danger  sought. 

"  But  where  the  appointed  limits  of  a  law 
Fences  the  general  safety  of  the  world, 
No  greater  quiet  reigns  :  the  blended  loads 
Of  punishment  and  crime  deform  the  world, 
And  give  no  rest  to  man  ;  with  pangs  and  throes 
He  enters  on  the  stage  ;  prophetic  tears 
And  infant  cries  prelude  his  future  woes  ; 
And  all  is  one  continual  scene  of  gulf 
Till  the  sad  sable  curtain  falls  in  death. 

"  Then  the  gay  glories  of  the  living  world 
Shall  cast  their  empty  varnish  and  retire 
Out  of  his  feeble  views  ;  the  shapeless  root 
Of  wild  imagination  dance  and  play 
Before  his  eyes  obscure ;  till  all  in  death 


THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION.      187 

Shall  vanish,  and  the  prisoner  enlarged, 
Regains  the  flaming  borders  of  the  sky." 

He  ended.     Peals  of  thunder  rend  the  heavens, 
And  chaos,  from  the  bottom  turned,  resounds. 
The  mighty  clangor  ;   all  the  heavenly  host 
Approve  the  high  decree,  and  loud  they  sing 
Eternal  justice  ;  while  the  guilty  troops, 
Sad  with  their  doom,  but  sad  without  despair, 
Fall  fluttering  down  to  Lethe's  lake,  and  there 
For  penance,  and  the  destined  body  wait. 

Shelley's  Platonic  leanings  are  well  known.1  The 
favorite  Greek  conceit  of  preexistence  in  many  earlier 
lives  may  frequently  be  found  in  his  poems.  The  title 
over  one  of  his  songs  of  unrest,  "  The  World's  Wan 
derer,"  evidently  alludes  to  himself,  as  do  the  lines 
in  it 

"Like  the  world's  rejected  guest." 

The  song  of  the  spirits  in  "  Prometheus  Unbound  " 
pictures  vividly  the  human  soul's  descent  into  the 
gloom  of  the  material  world  :  — 

To  the  deep,  to  the  deep, 

Down,  down  ! 

Through  the  shade  of  sleep, 
Through  the  cloudy  strife 
Of  Death  and  of  Life, 
Through  the  veil  and  the  bar 
Of  things  which  seem  and  are, 
Even  to  the  steps  of  the  remotest  throne, 

Down,  down ! 

While  the  sound  whirls  around, 

Down,  down ! 
As  the  fawn  draws  the  hound, 

1  See  Dowden's  Life  of  Shelley,  from  which  a  suggestive  inci 
dent  is  quoted  above,  on  page  92. 


188       THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION. 

As  the  lightning  the  vapor, 
As  a  weak  moth,  the  taper ; 
Death,  despair;  love,  sorrow; 
Time  both  ;  to-day,  to-morrow  ; 
As  steel  obeys  the  spirit  of  the  stone, 
Down,  down ! 

In  the  depth  of  the  deep, 

Down,  down ! 

Like  the  veiled  lightning  asleep, 
Like  the  spark  nursed  in  embers, 
The  last  look  Love  remembers, 
Like  a  diamond  which  shines 
On  the  dark  wealth  of  mines, 
A  spell  is  treasured  but  for  thee  alone, 

Down,  down  ! 

The  last  stanza  of  "The  Cloud"  is  Shelley's  Platonic 
symbol  of  human  life  :  — 

I  am  the  daughter  of  earth  and  water 

And  the  nursling  of  the  sky, 
I  pass  through  the  pores  of  the  ocean  and  shores, 

I  change,  but  I  cannot  die. 
For  after  the  rain  when  with  never  a  stain 

The  pavilion  of  heaven  is  bare, 
And  the  winds  and  sunbeams  with  their  convex  gleams 

Build  up  the  blue  dome  of  air, 
I  silently  laugh  at  my  own  cenotaph, 

And  out  of  the  caverns  of  rain, 
Like  a  child  from  the  womb,  like  a  ghost  from  the  tomb, 

I  arise  and  unbuild  it  again. 

Another  poem,  entitled  "  A   Fragment,"  certainly 
refers  to  preexistence  :  — 

Ye  gentle  visitants  of  calm  thought, 

Moods  like  the  memories  of  happier  earth 
Which  come  arrayed  in  thoughts  of  little  worth 

Like  stars  in  clouds  by  weak  winds  enwrought. 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.      189 
THE  RETREAT. 

BY   HENRY    VAUGHAN. 

HAPPY  those  early  days  when  I 
Shined  in  my  angel-infancy, 
Before  I  understood  this  place 
Appointed  for  my  second  race, 
Or  taught  my  soul  to  fancy  aught 
But  a  white  celestial  thought ; 
When  yet  I  had  not  walked  above 
A  mile  or  two  from  my  first  love, 
And,  looking  back,  at  that  short  space, 
Could  see  a  glimpse  of  his  bright  face  ; 
When  on  some  gilded  cloud  or  flower 
My  gazing  soul  would  dwell  an  hour, 
And  in  those  weaker  glories  spy 
Some  shadows  of  eternity  ; 
Before  I  taught  my  tongue  to  wound 
My  conscience  with  a  sinful  sound ; 
Or  had  the  black  art  to  dispense 
A  several  sin  to  every  sense, 
But  felt  through  all  this  flashy  dress 
Bright  shoots  of  everlastingness. 

Oh,  how  I  long  to  travel  back 
And  tread  again  that  ancient  track  ! 
That  I  might  once  more  reach  that  plain 
Where  first  I  left  my  glorious  train ; 
From  whence  the  enlightened  spirit  sees 
That  shady  city  of  palm-trees. 
But  ah  !  my  soul  with  too  much  stay 
Is  drunk  and  staggers  in  the  way. 
Some  men  a  forward  motion  love, 
But  I  by  backward  steps  would  move, 
And  when  this  dust  falls  to  the  urn, 
In  that  state  I  came,  return. 


190       THE  POETRY   OF  REINCARNATION. 

In  Emerson,  the  Plato  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  whole  feeling  of  the  Greek  seems  reflected  in  its 
most  glorious  development.  Many  of  his  poems  clearly 
suggest  the  influence  of  his  Greek  teacher,  as  his 
"  Threnody  "  upon  the  death  of  his  young  son,  and 
"  The  Sphinx "  in  which  these  two  stanzas  ap 
pear  :  — 

To  vision  profounder 

Man's  spirit  must  dive ; 
His  aye-rolling  orb 

At  no  goal  will  arrive  ; 
The  heavens  that  now  draw  him 

With  sweetness  untold, 
Once  found  for  new  heavens 
He  spurneth  the  old. 

Eterne  alteration 

Now  follows,  now  flies, 
And  under  pain,  pleasure  — 

Under  pleasure,  pain  lies. 
Love  works  at  the  centre, 

Heart-heaving  alway; 
Forth  speed  the  strong  pulses 

To  the  borders  of  day. 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  Rowe,  the  friend  of  Bishop  Ken 
and  of  Dr.  Isaac  Watts,  has  left  this  allusion  to  pre- 
existence  in 

A  HYMN  ON  HEAVEN. 

Ye  starry  mansions,  hail !  my  native  skies ! 
Here  in  my  happy,  preexistent  state 
(A  spotless  mind)  I  led  the  life  of  Gods, 
But  passing,  I  salute  you,  and  advance 
To  yonder  brighter  realms,  allowed  access. 
Hail,  splendid  city  of  the  almighty  king, 
Celestial  salem,  situate  above,  etc. 


THE  POETRY  OF  REINCARNATION.       191 

Some  of  the  common  church  hymns  glow  with  the 
enthusiasm  of  Platonic  pre existence,  and  are  fondly 
sung  by  Christians  without  any  thought  that,  while 
their  idea  is  of  Biblical  origin,  it  has  been  nourished 
and  perpetuated  by  the  Greek  sage,  and  directly  im 
plies  reincarnation.  For  instance  :  — 

"  I  'm  but  a  stranger,  here,  heaven  is  my  home. 
Heaven  is  my  fatherland,  heaven  is  my  home." 

"  My  Ain  Countrie." 

"  This  world  where  grief  and  sin  abideth, 
Is  not  the  Christian's  native  clime." 

"  The   home-land,  blessed  home-land." 
"  Jerusalem,  my  happy  home." 


VI. 

REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS. 


The  ancient  theologists  and  priests  testify  that  the  soul  is  conjoined 
to  the  body  through  a  certain  punishment,  and  that  it  is  buried  in  this 
body  as  in  a  sepulchre.  — PHILOLAUS,  (a  Pythagorean.) 

Search  thou  the  path  of  the  soul,  whence  she  came,  or  what  way, 
after  serving-  the  body,  by  joining  work  with  sacred  speed,  thou  shalt 
raise  her  again  to  the  same  state  whence  she  fell.  —  ZOROASTER. 

Death  has  110  power  th'  immortal  soul  to  slay, 
That,  when  its  present  body  turns  to  clay, 
Seeks  a  fresh  home,  and  with  unlessened  might 
Inspires  another  frame  with  life  and  light. 
So  I  myself  (well  I  the  past  recall), 
When  the  fierce  Greeks  begirt  Troy's  holy  wall, 
Was  brave  Euphorbus  :   and  in  conflict  drear 
Poured  forth  my  blood  beneath  Atrides'  spear. 
The  shield  this  arm  did  bear  I  lately  saw 
In  Juno's  shrine,  a  trophy  of  that  war. 

PYTHAGORAS,  in  DRYDEN'S  Ovid. 

He  [Plato]  spoke  of  Him 
The  lone,  eternal  One,  who  dwells  above, 
And  of  the  soul's  untraceable  descent 
From  that  high  fount  of  spirit,  through  all  the  grades 
Of  intellectual  being,  till  it  mix 
With  atoms  vague,  corruptible  and  dark. 
Nor  yet  ev'n  thus,  though  sunk  in  earthly  dross, 
Corrupted  all,  nor  its  ethereal  touch 
Quite  lost,  but  tasting  of  the  fountain  still 
As  some  bright  river,  which  has  rolled  along 
Through  meads  of  flowery  light  and  mines  of  gold 
When  poured  at  length  into  the  dusky  deep 
Disdains  to  take  at  once  its  briny  taint, 
But  keeps  unchanged  awhile  the  lustrous  tinge 
Or  balmy  freshness  of  the  scenes  it  left. 

MOOKE. 


VI. 

REINCAKNATION   AMONG  THE   ANCIENTS. 

THE  origin  of  the  philosophy  of  reincarnation  is 
prehistoric.  It  antedates  the  remotest  antiquity  all 
over  the  world,  and  appears  to  be  cognate  with  man 
kind,  springing  up  spontaneously  as  a  necessary  corol 
lary  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  for  its  undimin- 
ished  sway  has  been  wellnigh  universal  outside  of 
Christendom.  In  the  earliest  dawn  of  Mother  India 
it  was  firmly  established.  The  infancy  of  Egypt 
found  it  dominant  on  the  Nile.  It  was  at  home  in 
Greece  long  before  Pythagoras.  The  most  ancient 
beginnings  of  Mexico  and  Peru  knew  it  as  the  faith 
of  their  fathers. 

I.  In  sketching  the  course  of  this  thought  among 
the  men  of  old,  the  first  attention  belongs  to  India. 
Brahmanism,  the  most  primitive  form  of  this  faith, 
has  gone  through  vast  changes  during  the  four  thou 
sand  years  of  history.  The  initial  form  of  it,  dating 
back  into  the  remotest  mists  of  antiquity  and  descend 
ing  to  the  first  chapters  of  authentic  chronology,  was 
an  ideally  simple  nature-worship.  The  Rig- Veda  and 
the  oldest  sacred  hymns  display  the  beauty  of  this  ado 
ration  for  every  phase  of  nature,  centering  with  espe 
cial  fondness  upon  light  as  the  supreme  power,  and  upon 
the  cow  as  the  favorite  animal.  Professor  Wilson's 


196    REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS. 

and  Max  Mailer's  translations  have  opened  to  the 
English  race  the  charming  thought  of  this  primordial 
people,  whose  great  child-souls  found  objects  of  rever 
ence  in  all  things.  There  were  no  distinct  gods,  but 
everything  was  divine,  arid  through  all  they  saw  the 
flow  of  ever-changing  life.  Gradually  an  ecclesiasti 
cal  system  climbed  up  around  this  religion,  clothing, 
stifling,  and  at  last  burying  the  vital  organism,  until 
Sakya  Muni's  reaction  started  Buddhism  into  vigorous 
growth  as  the  beautiful  protest  against  the  disiigured 
and  decayed  form.  About  Buddhism,  too,  there  has 
arisen  a  heavy  weight  of  lifeless  ritual,  but  every  breath 
of  life  with  which  the  slumbering  mother  and  daughter 
continue  their  existence  is  perfumed  with  the  rose- 
attar  of  reincarnation.  How  they  have  since  contin 
ued  to  disseminate  the  idea  of  reincarnation  is  sug 
gested  in  chapter  ix,  for  the  East  of  to-day  is  essen 
tially  a  sculptured  picture  of  what  has  been  monoto 
nously  enduring  for  twenty  centuries. 

Of  the  ancient  Indians  we  learn  through  Pliny, 
Strabo,  Megasthenes,  Plutarch,  and  Herodotus,  who 
describe  the  Gymnosophists  and  Brachmans  as  ascetic 
philosophers  who  made  a  study  of  spiritual  things,  liv 
ing  singly  or  in  celibate  communities  much  like  the 
later  Pythagoreans.  Porphyry  says  of  them  :  "  They 
live  without  either  clothes,  riches  or  wives.  They  are 
held  in  so  great  veneration  by  the  rest  of  their  coun 
trymen  that  the  king  himself  often  visits  them  to  ask 
their  advice.  Such  are  their  views  of  death  that  with 
reluctance  they  endure  life  as  a  piece  of  necessary 
bondage  to  nature,  and  haste  to  set  the  soul  at  liberty 
from  the  body.  Nay,  often,  when  in  good  health,  and 
no  evil  to  disturb  them,  they  depart  life,  advertising 
it  beforehand.  No  man  hinders  them,  but  all  reckon 


REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS.     197 

them  happy,  and  send  commissions  along  with  them  to 
their  dead  friends.  So  strong  and  firm  is  their  belief 
of  a  future  life  for  the  soul,  where  they  shall  enjoy  one 
another,  after  receiving  all  their  commands,  they  de 
liver  themselves  to  the  fire,  that  they  may  separate  the 
soul  as  pure  as  possible  from  the  body,  and  expire 
singing  hymns.  Their  old  friends  attend  them  to 
death  with  more  ease  than  other  men  their  fellow-citi 
zens  to  a  long  journey.  They  deplore  their  own  state 
for  surviving  them  and  deem  them  happy  in  their  im 
mortality."  When  Alexander  the  Great  first  pene 
trated  their  country  he  could  not  persuade  them  to 
appear  before  him,  and  had  to  gratify  his  curiosity 
about  their  life  and  philosophy  by  proxy,  though  he 
afterward  witnessed  them  surrender  themselves  to  the 
flames. 

II.  Herodotus  asserts  that  the  doctrine  of  metemp 
sychosis  originated  in  Egypt.  "The  Egyptians  are 
the  first  who  propounded  the  theory  that  the  human 
soul  is  imperishable,  and  that  where  the  body  of  any 
one  dies  it  enters  into  some  other  creature  that  may 
be  ready  to  receive  it,  and  that  when  it  has  gone  the 
round  of  all  created  forms  on  land,  in  water  and  in 
air,  then  it  once  more  enters  a  human  body  born  for 
it ;  and  that  this  cycle  of  existence  for  the  soul  takes 
place  in  three  thousand  years."  1  He  continues,  "  Some 
of  the  Greeks  adopted  this  opinion,  some  earlier,  oth 
ers  later,  as  if  it  were  their  own." 

The  Egyptians  held  that  the  human  race  began  after 
the  pure  gods  and  spirits  had  left  earth,  when  the  de 
mons  who  were  sinfully  inclined  had  revolted  and  in 
troduced  guilt.  The  gods  then  created  human  bodies 

1  It  will  be  noticed  later  that  Plato  reduced  this  term  to  one 
thousand  years. 


198    REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS. 

for  these  demons  to  inhabit,  as  a  means  of  expiating 
their  sin,  and  these  fallen  spirits  are  the  present  men 
and  women,  whose  earthly  life  is  a  course  of  purifica 
tion.  All  the  Egyptian  precepts  and  religious  codes 
are  to  this  end.  The  judgment  after  death  decides 
whether  the  soul  has  attained  purity  or  not.  If  not, 
the  soul  must  return  to  earth  in  renewal  of  its  expia 
tion  either  in  the  body  of  a  man,  or  animal  or  plant. 
As  the  spirit  was  believed  to  maintain  its  connection 
with  the  material  form  as  long  as  this  remained,  the 
practice  of  embalming  was  designed  to  arrest  the  pas 
sage  of  the  soul  into  other  forms.  The  custom  of  em 
balming  is  also  connected  with  their  opinion  that  after 
three  thousand  years  away  from  the  body  the  soul 
would  return  to  its  former  body  provided  it  be  pre 
served  from  destruction.1  If  it  is  not  preserved,  the 
soul  would  enter  the  most  convenient  habitation, 
which  might  be  a  wretched  creature.  They  maintained, 
too,  that  the  gods  frequently  inhabited  the  bodies  of 
animals,  and  therefore  they  worshiped  animals  as  in 
carnations  of  special  divinities.  The  sacred  bodies  of 
these  godly  visitants  were  also  embalmed  as  a  mark  of 
respect  to  their  particular  class  of  deities.  For  they 
placed  certain  gods  in  certain  animals,  the  Egyptian 
Apollo  choosing  the  hawk,  Mercury  the  ibis,  Mars  the 
fish,  Diana  the  cat,  Bacchus  the  goat,  Hercules  the 
colt,  Vulcan  the  ox,  etc.  This  conceit  was  but  a  spe 
cialization  of  their  general  tenet  of  pantheism,  insisting 
that  all  life  is  divine,  that  every  living  thing  must  be 
venerated,  and  that  the  highest  creatures  should  be 
most  devoutly  worshiped. 

1  Egyptologists  disagree  as  to  the  real  intent  of  embalming. 
We  select  the  explanations  best  adapted  to  the  theological  doc 
trines  of  the  Egyptians. 


REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS.    199 

The  Egyptian  conception  of  reincarnation  as  shaped 
by  the  priesthood  is  displayed  in  their  classic,  u  Kitual 
of  the  Dead,"  which  is  one  of  their  chief  sacred  books 
and  describes  the  course  of  the  soul  after  death.  A 
copy  of  it  was  deposited  in  each  mummy  case.  It 
opens  with  a  sublime  dialogue  between  the  soul  and 
the  God  of  Hades,  Osiris,  to  whose  realm  he  asks  ad 
mission.  Finally  Osiris  says,  "  Fear  nothing,  but  cross 
the  threshold."  As  the  soul  enters  he  is  dazzled  with 
the  glory  of  light.  He  sings  a  hymn  to  the  sun  and 
goes  on  taking  the  food  of  knowledge.  After  fright 
ful  dangers  are  passed,  rest  and  refreshment  come. 
Continuing  his  journey  he  reaches  at  last  heaven's 
gate,  where  he  is  instructed  in  profound  mysteries. 
Within  the  gate  he  is  transformed  into  different  ani 
mals  and  plants.  After  this  the  soul  is  reunited  to 
the  body  for  which  careful  embalming  was  so  impor 
tant.  A  critical  examination  tests  his  right  to  cross 
the  subterranean  river  to  Elysium.  He  is  conducted 
by  Anubis  through  a  labyrinth  to  the  judgment  hall 
of  Osiris,  where  forty-two  judges  question  him  upon 
his  whole  past  life.  If  the  decisive  judgment  approves 
him  he  enters  heaven.  If  not,  he  is  sentenced  to  pass 
through  lower  forms  of  existence  according  to  his  sins, 
or,  if  a  reprobate,  is  given  over  to  the  powers  of  dark 
ness  for  purgation.  After  three  thousand  years  of 
this  he  is  again  consigned  to  a  human  probation. 

III.  Of  the  old  Persian  faith,  it  is  difficult  to  ob 
tain  a  trustworthy  statement,  except  what  is  derived 
from  its  present  form  among  the  Parsees.  The  Magi, 
Zoroaster's  followers,  believed  that  the  immortal  soul 
descended  from  on  high  for  a  short  period  of  lives  in 
a  mortal  body  to  gain  experience,  and  to  then  return 
again.  When  the  soul  is  above  it  has  several  abodes, 


200    REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS. 

one  luminous,  another  dark,  and  some  filled  with  a 
mixture  of  light  and  darkness.  Sometimes  it  sinks 
into  the  body  from  the  luminous  abode  and  after  a 
virtuous  life  returns  above  ;  but  if  coming  from  the 
dark  region,  it  passes  an  evil  life  and  enters  a  worse 
place  in  proportion  to  her  conduct  until  purified.  The 
dualism  of  these  fire-worshipers  gave  reincarnation 
a  briefer  period  of  operation  than  the  other  oriental 
religions. 

IV.  Pythagoras  is  mentioned  by  a  Greek  tradition 
as  one  of  the  Greeks  who  visited  India  before  the  age 
of  Alexander.  It  is  almost  certain  that  he  went  to 
Egypt  and  received  there  the  doctrine  of  transmigra 
tion  which  he  taught  in  the  Greek  cities  of  lower  Italy 
(B.  c.  529).  Jamblichus  says:  "  He  spent  twelve  years 
at  Babylon,  freely  conversing  with  the  Magi,  was  in 
structed  in  everything  venerable  among  them,  and 
learned  the  most  perfect  worship  of  the  gods."  He  is 
said  to  have  represented  the  human  soul  as  an  emana 
tion  of  the  world  soul,  partaking  of  the  divine  nature. 
At  death  it  leaves  one  body  to  take  another  and  so 
goes  through  the  circle  of  appointed  forms.  Ovid's 
"  Metamorphoses  "  contains  a  long  description  of  the 
Pythagorean  idea,  from  which  these  verses  are  taken, 
as  translated  by  Dryden  :  — 

"  Souls  cannot  die.     They  leave  a  former  home, 

And  in  new  bodies  dwell,  and  from  them  roam. 

Nothing  can  perish,  all  things  change  below, 

For  spirits  through  all  forms  may  come  and  go. 

Good  beasts  shall  rise  to  human  forms,  and  men, 

If  bad,  shall  backward  turn  to  beasts  again. 

Thus,  through  a  thousand  shapes,  the  soul  shall  go 

And  thus  fulfill  its  destiny  below." 

But  it  is  very  difficult  to  determine  exactly  what 
the  views  of  Pythagoras  were.  Aristotle,  Plato,  and 


REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS.    201 

Diogenes  Laertius  say  he  taught  that  the  soul  when 
released  by  death  must  pass  through  a  grand  circle  of 
living  forms  before  reaching  the  human  again.  From 
Pythagoras  himself  we  have  only  some  aphorisms  of 
practical  wisdom  and  symbolic  sentences  ;  from  his 
disciples  a  few  fragments  —  all  devoid  of  the  grotesque 
hypothesis  generally  ascribed  to  him.  Although  his 
name  is  synonymous  with  the  transmigration  of  human 
souls  through  animal  bodies,  the  strong^  probabilities 
are  that  if  this  doctrine  came  from  him  it  was  entirely 
exoteric,  concealing  the  inner  truth  of  reincarnation. 
Some  of  his  later  disciples,  especially  the  author  of 
the  work  which  is  attributed  to  TimaBus  the  Locian, 
denied  that  he  taught  it  in  any  literal  sense,  and  said 
that  by  it  he  meant  merely  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
men  are  assimilated  in  their  vices  to  the  beasts.  (See 
Chapter  xii.) 

V.  Plato  is  called  by  Emerson  the  synthesis  of 
Europe  and  Asia,  and  a  decidedly  oriental  element 
pervades  his  philosophy,  giving  it  a  sunrise  color.  He 
had  traveled  in  Egypt  and  Asia  Minor  and  among  the 
Pythagoreans  of  Italy.  As  he  died  (B.  c.  348)  twenty 
years  before  Alexander's  invasion  of  India  he  missed 
that  opportunity  of  learning  the  Hindu  ideas. 

In  the  great  "  myth,"  or  allegory,  of  Phaxlrus,  the 
classic  description  of  the  relation  of  the  soul  to  the 
material  world,  what  he  says  of  the  judgment  upon 
mankind  and  their  subsequent  return  to  human  or 
animal  bodies  coincides  substantially  with  the  Egyp 
tian  and  Hindu  religions.  But  his  theory  of  pre- 
existence  and  of  absolute  knowledge  seems  to  be  orig 
inal.  It  grows  out  of  his  cardinal  doctrine  (and  that 
of  his  master  Socrates)  concerning  the  reality  and 


202    REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS. 

validity  of  truth,  in  opposition  to  the  skepticism  of 
contemporary  sophists,  who  claimed  that  truth  is  mere 
subjective  opinion  —  what  each  man  troweth. 

The  PhaBdrus  myth  is  evidently  suggested  by  the 
splendid  religious  procession  which  closed  the  Athenian 
festival.  With  gorgeous  ceremony  nearly  the  whole 
city's  population  participated  in  this  crowning  glory 
of  their  most  sacred  holiday.  The  procession  wound 
through  the  finest  streets  of  the  city  and  then  up  the 
steep  ascent  of  the  Acropolis,  whose  precipitous  in 
cline  kept  the  horses  struggling  for  a  foothold.  That 
elevated  site  commanded  a  view  of  the  busy  city, 
the  plains  beyond,  and  the  distant  mountains  and  sea 
under  the  deep  blue  canopy  of  the  Greek  sky,  pre 
senting  to  the  worshipers'  sight  a  panorama  of  the 
changing  aspects  of  human  life  and  a  type  of  heaven's 
repose.  From  this  picture  the  poet-philosopher  con 
jures  up  a  sublimer  procession  marshalled  by  the 
king  of  gods  and  men,  moving  through  the  heavenly 
orbits  of  the  soul's  progress,  until  they  ascend  the 
celestial  dome  itself,  whence  the  soul  may  gaze  upon 
the  unspeakable  glories  of  spiritual  Truth.1 

The  Socrates  of  the  dialogue  first  likens  the  soul  to 
"  a  winged  team  and  their  charioteer.  In  the  case  of 
the  gods  both  horses  and  charioteer  are  all  good  and 
of  good  breed  ;  those  of  the  rest  are  mixed.  And 
first  of  all,  our  charioteer  drives  a  pair ;  in  the  next 
place,  the  one  is  good  and  noble  in  itself  and  by 
breed,  while  the  other  is  the  opposite  in  both  regards. 
And  so  the  management  of  the  chariot  must  needs  be 
difficult  and  harassing.  Just  how  the  living  being 
which  is  immortal  is  distinguished  from  that  which  is 

1  See  the  article  on  "  Pre-existence,"  in  the  Penn  Monthly^ 
September,  1877. 


REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS.    203 

mortal,  I  must  endeavor  to  tell  you.  All  that  is  soul 
has  the  charge  of  that  which  is  soulless,  and  traverses 
the  whole  heaven,  appearing  now  in  one  form,  now  in 
another.  When  perfect  and  possessed  of  wings,  she 
moves  in  mid  air  and  controls  the  whole  world 
(kosmos).  But  if  she  lose  her  feathers,  she  is  borne 
hither  and  thither  until  she  lays  hold  of  something 
that  is  fixed  and  solid,  and  there  making  her  home, 
and  taking  to  herself  an  earthly  body,  which  seems  to 
be  self-moved  by  reason  of  the  force  she  furnishes, 
soul  and  body  are  fastened  together  and  come  to  be 
called  mortal.  .  .  .  But  let  us  take  up  the  reason  of 
that  stripping  off  the  feathers  by  which  the  soul  is 
brought  to  its  fall.  It  is  as  follows  :  The  power  of 
the  wing  is  designed  to  bear  up  that  which  is  heavy- 
through  mid  air,  where  the  race  of  the  gods  dwells, 
and  of  all  that  is  corporeal  this  has  most  in  common 
with  the  divine  ;  for-  the  divine  is  the  beautiful,  the 
wise,  the  good,  and  everything  of  the  sort,  and  by 
these  the  wing  of  the  soul  is  nourished  and  groweth 
especially.  But  by  what  is  base  and  evil,  and  what 
ever  else  is  the  opposite  of  divine,  it  wastes  away  and 
is  destroyed. 

"  Now  Zeus,  the  great  Leader  in  heaven,  leads  the 
van,  driving  a  winged  chariot,  the  marshal  and  guar 
dian  of  all.  And  he  is  followed  by  the  host  of  the 
gods  and  demons  marshalled  in  eleven  bands,  for 
Hestia  alone  remaineth  in  the  house  of  the  gods,  and 
those  of  the  rest  who  belong  to  the  number  of  The 
Twelve  [Great  Gods]  lead  on  as  captains  of  their 
companies,  each  in  the  order  to  which  he  has  been 
assigned.  Now  there  are  within  heaven  many  and 
blessed  views  and  ways  of  passage  in  which  the  race 
of  the  happy  gods  pass  to  and  fro,  each  of  them  doing 


204    REINCARNA  TION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS. 

his  own  work,  and  whoever  can  and  will  follows,  for 
envy  stands  aloof  from  the  choir  of  the  gods. 

"  But  whenever  they  go  to  banquet  and  to  feast, 
then  they  proceed  all  together  up  towards  the  lofty 
vault  of  heaven.  Now  the  chariots  of  the  gods,  being 
well  balanced  and  obedient  to  the  rein,  proceed  easily, 
but  the  rest  with  difficulty.  For  the  horse  that  par 
takes  of  evil  slips  downward,  sinking  and  gravitating 
towards  the  earth,  if  he  has  not  been  properly  broken 
in  by  the  charioteer.  Then  it  is  that  toil  and  ex- 
tremest  conflict  press  hard  upon  the  soul.  But  those 
souls  which  are  called  immortal,  when  they  reach 
the  summit,  go  forth  and  stand  upon  the  back  [the 
convex]  of  the  heaven,  and  as  they  stand  the  revolu 
tion  [of  the  sphere]  carries  them  around  with  it,  and 
they  behold  the  things  which  are  outside  of  the 
heaven. 

"  Now  the  place  which  is  above  the  heaven  no 
earthly  poet  has  ever  praised  as  it  deserves,  nor  ever 
will :  but  it  is  thus.  For  I  must  dare  to  tell  the 
truth,  especially  when  I  am  talking  about  Truth.  The 
colorless,  formless,  and  intangible  Being  which  is  Be 
ing,  is  visible  only  to  the  Reason  (nous),  which  is  the 
governor  of  the  soul.  Round  about  this  [pure  Being] 
is  located  the  true  sort  of  knowledge.  Since  then  the 
intelligence  of  God  —  like  that  of  every  soul  in  so  far 
as  it  is  to  receive  what  best  befits  it  —  is  nourished  on 
Reason  and  pure  Knowledge,  in  beholding  at  last  the 
Being  it  loves  it,  and  in  contemplating  the  Truth  is 
nourished  and  gladdened,  until  the  revolution  [of  the 
sphere]  brings  it  round  again  to  its  starting-place. 
And  in  this  circuit  it  beholds  Righteousness  itself,  be 
holds  Temperance  itself,  beholds  Knowledge  —  not 
that  which  has  origin,  nor  that  which  differs  in  the 


REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS.    205 

different  things  to  which  we  ascribe  existence,  but 
Knowledge  which  has  a  real  being  in  that  which  is 
Being  indeed.  And  other  equally  real  existences  she 
beholds  and  is  feasted  upon,  and  then  reentering  the 
heaven  she  returns  homeward.  And  when  she  has 
come  thither,  the  charioteer,  staying  his  horses  at  their 
stall,  fodders  them  with  ambrosia,  and  waters  them 
with  nectar.  And  this  is  the  life  of  the  gods. 

"  But  as  to  the  other  souls,  that  which  best  follows 
God  and  is  most  like  Him  lifts  up  the  head  of  the 
charioteer  to  the  place  outside  the  heaven,  and  is  car 
ried  around  the  revolution  with  Him,  disturbed  indeed 
by  the  horses,  and  beholding  the  things  which  have 
true  being  with  difficulty.  Another  lifts  up  the  head 
at  times,  at  others  draws  it  in  because  compelled  by 
the  horses,  and  therefore  beholds  some  and  not  others  ; 
the  rest  one  and  all  desire  and  follow  that  which  is 
above,  but  not  being  able  to  reach  it,  they  are  carried 
around  submerged  beneath  the  heaven,  they  tread  and 
fall  upon  each  other,  each  trying  to  get  precedence  of 
the  other.  Noise,  and  rivalry,  and  sweat  to  the  last 
degree  ensue,  whereupon  many  are  maimed  in  their 
wings  by  the  fault  of  their  charioteers.  And  all  of 
them,  after  long  toil,  depart  uninitiated  into  the  vision 
of  Being,  and  when  they  have  gone  are  fed  on  the 
food  of  opinion.  Whence  then  that  great  desire  of 
theirs  to  behold  the  plain  of  Truth  ?  Is  it  not  because 
the  pasturage  which  befits  what  is  best  in  the  soul 
happens  to  grow  in  that  meadow,  and  the  growth  of 
the  wing  by  which  the  soul  soars  is  nourished  with 
this? 

"  And  this  is  this  law  of  Adrastea  [or  Nemesis,  the 
inevitable  Order]  :  whatsoever  soul  has  shared  with 
God,  in  beholding  any  of  those  things  that  are  true 


206    REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS. 

and  real,  is  unharmed  until  the  next  period,  and  if 
she  is  always  able  to  do  this,  is  always  unhurt.  But 
•should  it  happen  that  she  cannot  follow  on  to  know, 
and  by  any  mischance  grows  heavy  through  being 
filled  with  forgetfulness  and  faultiness,  and  through 
that  heaviness  loses  her  feathers  and  falls  to  the  earth, 
then  the  law  is  that  this  soul  shall  not  take  upon  her 
the  nature  of  any  beast  in  the  first  generation  [or 
birth],  but  the  soul  that  has  seen  most  shall  come  to 
the  birth  of  a  man  who  is  to  be  a  philosopher,  or  an 
artist,  or  of  some  musician  and  lover  ;  and  the  second, 
[to  the  birth]  of  a  lawful  king,  or  warrior  and  ruler  ; 
the  third,  of  a  statesman,  or  of  some  financier,  or  man 
of  affairs ;  the  fourth,  of  a  toil-loving  gymnast,  or  of 
some  one  who  is  to  be  a  plrysician  ;  the  fifth,  the  life 
of  a  soothsayer,  or  some  hierophantic  function  ;  to 
the  sixth,  the  life  of  a  poet,  or  of  some  other  sort  of 
mimic,  will  be  suitable  ;  to  the  seventh,  that  of  an 
artisan  or  a  husbandman  ;  to  the  eighth,  that  of  a 
sophist  or  a  demagogue  ;  to  the  ninth,  that  of  a  tyrant. 
And  whoever  in  any  of  these  positions  conducts  him 
self  rightly  receives  a  better  lot ;  but  whoever  be 
haves  otherwise,  a  worse. 

"  No  soul  arrives  at  that  place  from  whence  it  came 
for  ten  thousand  years,  except  it  be  that  one  who  is 
honestly  a  philosopher,  or  a  lover  who  has  a  share  of 
philosophy.  These  in  the  third  period  of  a  thousand 
years,  if  thrice  successively  they  have  chosen  this 
manner  of  life,  and  have  thus  received  their  wings, 
depart  thither  in  the  three  thousandth  year.  But  the 
rest,  when  they  have  finished  the  first  life  assigned 
them,  undergo  a  judgment.  And  after  the  judgment, 
some  of  them  proceed  to  the  prison-house  under  the 
earth  and  receive  punishment ;  and  the  others,  having 


REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS.    207 

been  raised  by  the  judgment  to  a  place  in  the  heaven, 
pass  their  time  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  life  they 
lived  in  human  form. 

"  And  when,  in  the  thousandth  year,  they  come  to 
a  casting  of  lots  and  a  choice  of  their  second  life, 
each  chooses  whichever  she  wishes.  And  thereupon 
a  human  soul  comes  to  the  life  of  a  beast ;  and  one 
that  has  been  a  man  becomes  from  a  beast  a  man 
again. 

"  But  that  soul  which  has  never  beheld  the  Truth 
will  never  come  into  this  [human]  form  ;  the  under 
standing  of  general  truth  collected  from  many  percep 
tions  into  unity  by  rational  thought  is  an  essential  of 
humanity.  And  this  is  the  recollection  of  those  things 
which  our  soul  has  once  seen  when  accompanying  God, 
and  disdaining  those  things  which  we  now  speak  of 
as  being,  and  lifting  up  our  heads  to  behold  true  Be 
ing.  Wherefore  it  is  just  that  the  intelligence  of  the 
philosopher  alone  receives  wings ;  for  he  is  ever  with 
all  his  might  busied  with  the  recollections  of  these 
things,  occupation  with  which  makes  God  what  he  is. 
And  only  the  man  who  makes  right  use  of  such  recol 
lections,  and  thus  continually  attains  initiation  into 
perfect  mysteries,  becomes  truly  perfect ;  and  for  giv 
ing  up  human  pursuits  and  becoming  enwrapt  in  the 
divine,  he  is  esteemed  by  the  many  as  beside  himself, 
for  they  fail  to  see  that  he  is  God-possessed. 

..."  As  has  been  said,  every  human  soul  is  by 
nature  a  beholder  of  Being,  else  she  would  not  have 
entered  into  this  form  of  life.  But  it  is  not  easy 
for  every  soul  to  awaken  those  recollections  which  she 
brought  from  thence,  or  they  may  then  have  had  but 
scant  vision  of  what  was  there,  or  since  they  have 
fallen  thence  they  may  have  had  the  mischance  to  be 


208    REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS. 

diverted  by  bad  associations  to  that  which  is  unjust, 
and  to  fall  into  forgetfulness  of  the  holy  things  which 
they  then  beheld.  A  few  are  left,  who  retain  enough 
of  the  recollection  ;  but  whenever  they  behold  any 
resemblance  of  what  is  there,  they  are  struck  with 
astonishment,  and  are  no  longer  masters  of  them 
selves  ;  but  they  know  not  why  they  are  thus  af 
fected,  because  they  have  no  adequate  perception. 
But  there  is  no  brilliancy  in  those  earthly  like 
nesses  of  justice  and  temperance,  and  whatever  else 
is  precious  to  the  soul ;  for  through  obscure  instru 
ments,  it  is  given  with  difficulty  and  to  but  few  to 
draw  near  to  those  images  and  behold  what  manner 
of  thing  it  is  that  they  represent.  But  then  it  was 
permitted  to  behold  Beauty  in  all  its  splendor,  when 
along  with  the  blessed  chorus,  we  [philosophers]  fol 
lowing  Zeus,  others  some  other  of  the  gods,  we  shared 
in  the  beatific  vision  and  contemplation,  and  were  in 
itiated  into  mysteries  which  it  is  just  to  call  the  most 
perfect  of  all,  and  whose  rapturous  feast  we  kept  in 
innocence,  and  while  still  inexpert  of  those  evils  which 
were  awaiting  us  in  a  time  still  future.  And  we  be 
held  visions  innocent  and  simple  and  peaceful  and 
happy,  as  if  spectators  at  the  mysteries,  in  pure  array, 
ourselves  pure,  and  without  a  sign  upon  us  of  this 
which  we  now  carry  about  with  us  and  call  a  body, 
and  are  bound  thereto  like  an  oyster  to  his  shell.  Let 
us  indulge  in  these  memories,  whereby  we  are  led  to 
speak  the  longer  from  desire  of  the  things  which  we 
then  saw."  1 

We   penetrate    into   the   inmost   secret  of   Plato's 
thought  in  the  super-celestial  plain,  the  dwelling-place 
of  substantial  ideas,  the  essential  Truth,  the  absolute 
1  From  Jowett's  translation. 


REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS.    209 

knowledge,  in  which  the  pure  Being  holds  the  supreme 
place  which  we  assign  to  God,  the  Hindu  to  Brahm, 
and  the  Egyptian  to  Osiris,  but  which  the  polytheist 
could  not  ascribe  to  his  gods.  Plato,  like  the  in 
itiated  priests  of  India  and  Egypt,  to  whom  the  high 
est  deity  was  nameless,  knew  the  objects  of  common 
worship  were  but  exalted  men,  above  whom  was  One 
whose  nature  was  undisclosed  to  men,  and  of  whom  it 
was  audacious  childishness  to  assert  human  attributes. 
The  Highest  was  the  centre  of  those  Realities  dimly 
shadowed  in  earthly  appearance,  and  Plato's  pictorial 
representation  of  his  thought  is  only  a  parable  cloak 
ing  the  essential  principle  that  during  the  eternal 
past  we  have  strayed  from  the  real  Truth  through 
repeated  lives  into  the  present. 

Of  Plato's  philosophy  of  preexistence,  Professor  W. 
A.  Butler  says  in  his  masterly  lectures  on  Ancient 
Philosophy  :  "  It  is  certain  that  with  Plato  the  con 
viction  was  associated  with  a  vast  and  pervading  prin 
ciple,  which  extended  through  every  department  of 
nature  and  thought.  This  principle  was  the  priority 
of  mind  to  body,  both  in  order  of  dignity  and  in 
order  of  time ;  a  principle  which  with  him  was  not 
satisfied  by  the  single  admission  of  a  divine  preexist 
ence,  but  extended  through  every  instance  in  which 
these  natures  could  be  compared.  A  very  striking 
example  of  the  manner  in  which  he  thus  generalized 
the  principle  of  priority  of  mind  to  body  is  to  be 
found  in  the  well-known  passage  in  the  tenth  book  of 
his  '  Laws,'  in  which  he  proves  the  existence  of  di 
vine  energy.  The  argument  employed  really  applies 
to  every  case  of  motion  and  equally  proves  that  every 
separate  corporeal  system  is  but  a  mechanism  moved 
by  a  spiritual  essence  anterior  to  itself.  The  universe 


210    REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS. 

is  full  of  gods,  and  the  human  soul  is,  as  it  were,  the 
god  or  demon  of  the  human  body." 

VI.  The  Jews  had  the  best  parallel  of  Plato's 
Phaedrus  in  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis,  describing 
the  fall  of  Adam  and  Eve.  The  theological  comments 
upon  that  popular  summary  of  the  origin  of  sin  have 
always  groped  after  reincarnation,  by  making  all 
Adam's  descendants  responsible  in  him  for  that  act. 
Many  Jewish  scholars  undertook  to  fuse  Greek  phi 
losophy  with  their  national  religion.  The  Septuagint 
translation,  made  in  the  third  century  before  Christ, 
gives  evidence  of  such  a  purpose  in  suppressing  the 
strong  anthropomorphic  terms  by  which  the  Old 
Testament  mentioned  God.  Aristobulus,  a  Jewish- 
Greek  poet  of  the  second  century,  writes  of  Hebrew 
ideas  in  Platonic  phrases.  Similar  passages  are  found 
in  Aristeas  and  in  the  second  book  of  the  Maccabees. 
Pythagoreanism  was  blended  with  Judaism  in  the 
beliefs  and  practices  of  the  Jewish  Therapeutse  of 
Egypt,  and  their  brethren  the  Essenes  of  Palestine. 

Of  the  Essenes,  Josephus  writes :  "  The  opinion  ob 
tains  among  them  that  bodies  indeed  are  corrupted, 
and  the  matter  of  them  not  permanent,  but  that  souls 
continue  exempt  from  death  forever  ;  and  that  ema 
nating  from  the  most  subtle  ether  they  are  unfolded  in 
bodies  as  prisons  to  which  they  are  drawn  by  some 
natural  spell.  But  when  loosed  from  the  bonds  of 
flesh,  as  if  released  from  a  long  captivity,  they  rejoice 
and  are  borne  upward." 

The  most  prominent  Jewish  writer  upon  this  sub 
ject  is  Philo  of  Alexandria,  who  lived  in  the  time  of 
Christ,  and  adapted  a  popular  version  of  Platonic 
ideas  to  the  religion  of  his  own  people.  He  turned 
the  Hebrew  stories  into  remarkably  deft  Platonic  al* 


REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS.    211 

legories.  His  theory  of  preexistence  and  rebirths  is 
practically  that  of  his  master  Plato,  as  is  shown  in 
this  extract:  "  The  company  of  disembodied  souls  is 
distributed  in  various  orders.  The  law  of  some  of 
them  is  to  enter  mortal  bodies  and  after  certain  pre 
scribed  periods  be  again  set  free.  But  those  possessed 
of  a  diviner  structure  are  absolved  from  all  local 
bonds  of  earth.  Some  of  these  souls  choose  confine 
ment  in  mortal  bodies  because  they  are  earthly  and 
corporeally  inclined.  Others  depart,  being  released 
again  according  to  supernaturally  determined  times 
and  seasons.  Therefore,  all  such  as  are  wise,  like 
Moses,  are  living  abroad  from  home.  For  the  souls 
of  such  formerly  chose  this  expatriation  from  heaven, 
and  through  curiosity  and  the  desire  of  acquiring 
knowledge  they  came  to  dwell  abroad  in  earthly  na 
ture,  and  while  they  dwell  in  the  body  they  look 
down  on  things  visible  and  mortal  around  them,  and 
urge  their  way  thitherward  again  whence  they  came 
originally :  and  call  that  heavenly  region  in  which 
they  live  their  citizenship,  fatherland,  but  this  earthly 
in  which  they  live,  foreign."  In  choosing  between 
the  Mosaic  and  the  Platonic  account  of  the  Fall,  as 
to  which  best  expressed  the  essential  truth,  although 
a  Jew,  he  decided  for  Plato.  He  considers  men  as 
fallen  spirits  attracted  by  material  desires  and  thus 
brought  into  the  body's  prison,  yet  of  kin  to  God  and 
the  ideal  world.  The  philosophic  life  is  the  means  of 
escape,  with  the  aid  of  the  divine  Logos,  or  Spirit,  to 
the  blessed  fellowship  from  which  they  have  fallen. 
Regeneration  is  a  purification  from  matter.  Philo  re 
nounced  the  creed  of  his  fathers  in  order  to  reform  it, 
and  his  influence  was  profoundly  felt  for  centuries. 
The  origin  of  the  Jewish  Cabala  is  involved  in  end- 


212    REINCARNATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS. 

less  dispute.  Jewish  scholars  claim  that  it  is  prehis 
toric.  Although  a  portion  of  it  is  held  to  have  been 
composed  in  the  Middle  Ages,  it  is  certain  that  its 
teachings  had  been  handed  down  by  tradition  from 
very  early  times,  and  that  some  parts  come  from  the 
Jewish  philosophers  of  Alexandria  and  others  from 
the  later  Neo-Platonists  and  Gnostics.  Preexistence 
and  reincarnation  appear  here,  not  in  Philo's  specula 
tive  form  of  it,  but  in  a  much  simpler  and  more  mat 
ter-of-fact  character,  —  affirming  that  human  spirits 
are  again  and  again  born  into  the  world,  after  long  in 
tervals,  and  in  entire  forgetfulness  of  their  previous 
experiences.  This  is  not  a  curse,  as  in  Plato's  re 
ligions,  but  a  blessing,  being  the  process  of  purifica 
tion  by  repeated  probations.  "  All  the  souls,"  says 
the  Zohar,  or  Book  of  Light,  "are  subject  to  the 
trials  of  transmigration  ;  and  men  do  not  know  which 
are  the  ways  of  the  Most  High  in  their  regard.  They 
do  not  know  how  many  transformations  and  mysteri 
ous  trials  they  must  undergo  ;  how  many  souls  and 
spirits  come  to  this  world  without  returning  to  the 
palace  of  the  divine  king.  The  souls  must  reenter  the 
absolute  substance  whence  they  have  emerged.  But 
to  accomplish  this  end  they  must  develop  all  the  per 
fections,  the  germ  of  which  is  planted  in  them  ;  and 
if  they  have  not  fulfilled  this  condition  during  one 
life,  they  must  commence  another,  a  third,  and  so 
forth,  until  they  have  acquired  the  condition  which 
fits  them  for  reunion  with  God." 


VIL 

REINCARNATION    IN    THE   BIBLE. 


Out  from  the  heart  of  nature  rolled 
The  burdens  of  the  Bible  old. 

EMERSON. 

The  more  diligently  the  student  works  this  mine  (the  Bible),  the 
richer  and  more  abundant  he  finds  the  ore;  new  light  continually 
beams  from  this  source  of  heavenly  knowledge  to  direct  and  illustrate 
the  work  of  God  and  the  ways  of  men.  —  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

The  divine  oracles  are  not  so  silent  in  this  matter  as  is  imagined. 
But  truly  I  have  so  tender  a  sense  of  the  sacred  authority  of  that  holy 
volume  that  I  dare  not  be  so  bold  with  it  as  to  force  it  to  speak  what 
I  think  it  intends  not.  Wherefore  I  would  not  willingly  urge  Scrip 
ture  as  a  proof  of  anything,  but  what  I  am  sure  by  the  whole  tenor 
of  it  is  therein  contained.  Would  I  take  the  liberty  to  fetch  in  every 
thing  for  a  Scripture  evidence  that  with  a  little  industry  a  man  might 
make  serviceable  to  his  design,  I  doubt  not  but  I  should  be  able  to  fill 
my  margent  with  quotations  which  should  be  as  much-  to  purpose  as 
have  been  cited  in  general  Catechisms  and  Confessions  of  Faith.  .  .  . 
And  yet  I  must  needs  say  that  there  is  very  fair  probability  for  Pre- 
existence  in  the  written  word  of  God,  as  there  is  in  that  which  is  en 
graved  upon  our  rational  natures.  —  GLANVIL,  in  Lux  Orientalis. 


VII. 

REINCARNATION    IN   THE    BIBLE. 

THE  vitality  of  the  doctrine  of  Reincarnation  does 
not  in  the  least  depend  upon  a  scriptural  endorsement 
of  it,  but  the  fact  that  it  is  surprisingly  conspicuous 
here  is  certainly  interesting  and  confirmatory.  Every 
candid  Christian  student  must  acknowledge  that  the 
revelation  of  truth  is  no  more  confined  to  the  central 
book  of  Christendom  than  sunshine  is  limited  to  the 
Orient.  There  must  be  great  principles  of  philosophy, 
like  that  of  evolution,  outside  of  the  Bible  ;  and  yet 
the  most  skeptical  thinker  has  to  concede  that  this 
volume  is  the  richest  treasury  of  wisdom,  —  the  best 
of  which  is  still  unlearned. 

Although  most  Christians  are  unaware  of  it,  rein 
carnation  is  strongly  present  in  the  Bible,  chiefly  in 
the  form  of  preexistence.  It  is  not  inculcated  as  a 
doctrine  essential  to  redemption.  Neither  is  immor 
tality.  But  it  is  taken  for  granted,  cropping  out  here 
and  there  as  a  fundamental  rock.  Some  scholars 
consider  it  an  unimportant  oriental  speculation  which 
is  accidentally  entangled  into  the  texture.  But  the 
uniform  strength  and  beauty  of  its  hold  seem  to  rank 
it  with  the  other  essential  threads  of  the  warp  upon 
which  is  woven  the  noblest  fabric  of  religious  thought. 


216          REINCARNATION  IN   THE  BIBLE. 

A  sufficient  evidence  of  the  Biblical  support  of  pre- 
existence,  and  of  the  consequent  wide-spread  belief  in 
it  among  the  Jews,  is  found  in  Solomon's  long  refer 
ence  to  it  among  his  Proverbs.  The  wise  king  wrote 
of  himself :  "  The  Lord  possessed  me  in  the  beginning 
of  his  way  before  the  works  of  old.  I  was  set  up 
from  everlasting,  from  the  beginning,  or  ever  the 
earth  was.  When  there  were  no  depths,  I  was  brought 
forth ;  when  there  were  no  foundations  abounding 
with  water.  Before  the  mountains  were  settled,  before 
the  hills  was  I  brought  forth :  while  as  yet  he  had  not 
made  the  earth,  nor  the  fields,  nor  the  highest  part  of 
the  dust  of  the  world.  When  he  prepared  the  heavens 
I  was  there  :  when  he  set  a  compass  upon  the  face  of 
the  depth :  when  he  established  the  clouds  above : 
when  he  strengthened  the  foundations  of  the  deep: 
when  he  gave  to  the  sea  his  decree,  that  the  waters 
should  not  pass  his  commandment :  when  he  appointed 
the  foundations  of  the  earth :  then  I  was  by  him,  as 
one  brought  up  with  him :  and  I  was  daily  his  de 
light,  rejoicing  always  before  him  ;  rejoicing  in  the 
habitable  part  of  the  earth  ;  and  my  delights  were 
with  the  sons  of  men."  l  This  passage  disposes  of 
the  theory  of  Delitzsch  that  pre existence  in  the  Bible 
means  simply  an  existence  in  the  foreknowledge  of 
the  creator.  Such  a  mere  foreknowledge  would  not 
place  him  previous  to  the  parts  of  creation  which  pre 
ceded  his  earthly  appearance.  And  the  last  two 
clauses  clearly  express  a  prior  physical  life.  The 
prophets,  too,  are  assured  of  their  pre-natal  antiquity. 
Jeremiah  hears  Jehovah  tell  him,  "  Before  I  formed 
thee  in  the  belly  I  knew  thee  ;  and  before  thou  earnest 
forth  out  of  the  womb  I  sanctified  thee."  2 

1  Proverbs  viii.  22-31,  2  Jeremiah  i.  5. 


REINCARNATION  IN  THE  BIBLE.          217 

Skipping  passages  of  disputed  interpretation  in 
Job  and  the  Psalms  which  suggest  this  idea,  there  is 
good  evidence  for  it  all  through  the  Old  Testament, 
which  is  universally  conceded  by  commentators,  and 
was  always  claimed  by  the  Jewish  rabbis.  The  trans 
lators  have  distinguished  the  revealed  form  of  Deity, 
as  successively  recorded  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  by 
the  word  LORD,  in  capitals,  separating  this  use  of 
the  word  from  other  forms,  as  the  preexistent  Christ. 
"  The  angel  of  the  Lord  "  and  "  the  angel  of  Jehovah  " 
are  other  expressions  for  the  same  manifestation  of 
the  Highest,  which  modern  theology  regards  as  the 
second  person  of  the  Trinity.  Wherever  God  is  said 
to  have  appeared  as  man,  to  Abraham  at  Mamre,  to 
Jacob  at  Peniel,  to  Joshua  at  Gilgal,  to  the  three 
captives  in  the  Babylonian  furnace  as  "  a  fourth,  like 
to  the  Son  of  God,"  etc.,  Christian  scholarship  has 
maintained  this  to  be  the  same  person  who  afterward 
became  the  son  of  Mary.  The  Jews  also  consider 
these  various  appearances  to  be  their  promised  Christ. 
After  the  captivity  they  held  the  same  view  concern 
ing  all  persons.  The  apocryphal  "  Wisdom  of  Sol 
omon  "  teaches  unmistakably  the  preexistence  of  hu 
man  souls  in  Platonic  form,  although  it  probably  is 
older  than  Philo,  as  when  it  says  (ix.  15),  "  I  was 
an  ingenuous  child,  and  received  a  good  soul ;  nay, 
more,  being  good,  I  came  into  a  body  undefiled  ;  "  and 
"  the  corruptible  body  presseth  down  the  soul,  and 
the  earthly  tabernacle  weigheth  down  the  mind  that 
museth  upon  many  things."  Glimpses  of  it  appear 
also  in  "  Ecclesiasticus." 

The  assertion  of  Josephus  that  this  idea  was  com 
mon  among  the  Pharisees  is  proven  in  the  Gospels, 
where  members  of  the  Sanhedrin  cast  the  retort  at 


218          REINCARNATION  IN   THE  BIBLE. 

Jesus,  "  Thou  wast   altogether  born  in    sins."  1     The 
prevalence  of  this  feeling  in  the  judgments  of  daily 
life  is  seen  in  the  question  put  to  Jesus  by  his  disci 
ples,  "  Which  did  sin,  this  man  or  his  parents,  that  he 
was  born  blind  ?  "  2  referring  to  the  two  contending 
popular  theories,  that  of  Moses,  who  taught  that  the 
sins  of  the  fathers  would  descend  on  the  children  to 
the  third  and  fourth  generation,  and  that  of  reincarna 
tion,  subsequently  adopted,  by  which  a  man's  discom 
forts   resulted    from  his  former   misconduct.     Jesus' 
reply,  "  Neither,"  is  no  denial  of  the  truth  of  reincar 
nation,  for  in  other  passages  he  definitely  affirms  it  of 
himself,  but  merely  an  indication  that  he  thought  this 
truth  had  better  not  be  given  those  listeners  then, 
just  as  he  withheld  other  verities  until  the  ripe  time 
for  utterance.     This  very  expression  of  preexistence 
used  by   the   disciples   he   employs    toward  the  man 
whom  he  healed  at   Bethesda's  pool  after  thirty-eight 
years  of  paralysis  :    "  Sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing 
come  unto  thee."3     Repeatedly  he  confirms  the  pop 
ular  impression  that  John  the  Baptist  was  a  reincar 
nation  of  Elijah.    To  the  throng  around  him  he  said : 
"  Among  them  that  are  born  of  women  there  hath 
not  risen  a  greater  than  John  the  Baptist."    "  If  ye 
will  receive  it,  this  is  Elias,  which  was  for  to  come." 
That  John  the  Baptist  denied  his  former  personality 
as  Elijah  is  not  strange,   for  no  one  remembers  dis 
tinctly  his  earlier  life.     Often   Jesus    refers   to   his 
descent  from  heaven,  as  when  he  says,  "  I  came  down 
from  heaven,  not  to  do  mine  own  will,  but  the  will  of 
him  that  sent  me  ;  "  5  and  what  he  means  by  heaven 

1  John  ix.  34.  2  John  ix.  2.  3  John  v.  14. 

4  Matt.  xi.  14  ;  also,  Matt.  xvii.  12,  13.    See  Professor  Bowen's 
remarks  upon  these  texts,  page  114., 
6  John  vi.  38, 


REINCARNATION  IN   THE  BIBLE.         219 

is  shown  by  his  words  to  Nicodemus,  "  No  man  hath 
ascended  up  to  heaven  but  he  that  came  down  from 
heaven,  even  the  Son  of  man  which  is  in  heaven."  l 
The  inference  is  that  the  heaven  in  which  he  for 
merly  lived  was  similar  to  the  heaven  of  that  mo 
ment,  namely  earth.  Again,  Jesus  asked  his  disciples, 
"  Whom  say  men  that  I  am  ?  "  And  his  disciples  state 
the  popular  thought  in  answering,  "  Some  say  Elijah, 
others  Jeremiah,  and  others  one  of  the  old  prophets." 
"  But  whom  say  ye  that  I  am  ?  "  Peter,  the  spokes 
man,  replies,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God," 
and  so  expresses  another  phase  of  the  same  prevailing 
idea,  for  the  Christ  was  also  an  Old  Testament  per 
sonage.  And  Jesus  approves  this  response.  After 
Herod  had  decapitated  John  the  Baptist,  the  appear 
ance  of  Jesus,  also  preaching  and  baptizing,  roused  in 
him  the  apprehension  that  the  prophet  he  killed  had 
come  again  in  a  second  life. 

Preexistence,  the  premise  necessarily  leading  to 
reincarnation,  is  the  keynote  of  the  most  spiritual  of 
the  Gospels.  The  initial  sentence  sounds  it,  the  body 
of  the  book  often  repeats  it,  and  the  final  climax  is 
strengthened  by  it.  From  the  proem,  "  In  the  be 
ginning  was  the  word,  and  the  word  was  with  God," 
all  through  the  story  occur  frequent  allusions  to  it : 
"  The  word  was  made  flesh  "  (John  i.  14)  ;  "  I  am  the 
living  bread  which  came  down  from  Heaven"  (vi. 
51);  "Ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  man  ascend  up  where 
he  was  before  "  (vi.  62)  ;  "  Before  Abraham  was,  I 
am  "  (viii.  58)  ;  and  finally,  "  Glorify  thou  me  with 
the  glory  which  I  had  with  thee  before  the  world  was  " 
(xvii.  5) ;  "  For  thou  lovedst  me  before  the  founda 
tion  of  the  world"  (xvii.  24).  It  is  always  phrased 
1  John  iii.  13. 


220         REINCARNATION  IN   THE  BIBLE. 

in  such  a  form  as  might  be  asserted  by  any  one,  though 
the  speaker  says  it  only  of  himself. 

What  the  fourth  Gospel  dwells  upon  so  fondly,  and 
what  is  echoed  in  other  New  Testament  books,  —  as 
in  Philippians  ii.  7,  "  He  took  on  him  the  form  of  a 
servant,"  in  2  Cor.  viii.  9,  "  Though  he  was  rich,  yet 
for  your  sakes  he  became  poor,"  and  in  1  John  i.  2, 
"  That  eternal  Life  which  was  with  the  Father,  and 
was  manifested  unto  us,"  —  is  a  thought  not  limited  to 
the  Christ.  Precisely  the  same  occurs  in  the  mention 
of  the  prophet-baptizer  John :  "  There  was  a  man  sent 
from  God"  (John  i.  6).  The  obvious  sense  of  this 
verse  to  the  Christians  nearest  its  publication  appears 
in  the  comments  upon  it  by  Origen,  who  says  that  it 
implies  the  existence  of  John  the  Baptist's  soul  pre 
vious  to  his  terrestrial  body,  and  hints  at  the  universal 
belief  in  preexistence  by  adding,  "  And  if  the  Catholic 
opinion  hold  good  concerning  the  soul,  as  not  propa 
gated  with  the  body,  but  existing  previously  and  for 
various  reasons  clothed  in  flesh  and  blood,  this  ex 
pression,  '  sent  from  God,'  will  no  longer  seem  ex 
traordinary  as  applied  to  John."  No  words  could 
more  exactly  suit  the  aspirations  of  an  oriental  believer 
in  reincarnation  than  these  in  the  Apocalypse :  "  Him 
that  overcometh  will  I  make  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of 
my  God,  and  he  shall  go  no  more  out "  (Rev.  iii. 
12). 

More  important  than  any  separate  quotations  is  the 
general  tone  of  the  Scriptures,  which  points  directly 
toward  reincarnation.  They  represent  the  earthly 
life  as  a  pilgrimage  to  the  heavenly  country  of  spirit 
ual  union  with  God.  It  is  our  conceit  and  ignorance 
alone  which  deems  a  single  earthly  life  sufficient  to  ac 
complish  that  purpose.  They  teach  the  sinful  nature 


REINCARNATION  IN  THE  BIBLE.         221 

of  all  men  and  their  responsibility  for  their  sin,  which 
certainly  demands  previous  lives  for  the  acquisition  of 
that  condition,  as  shown  well  by  Chevalier  Ramsay. 
(See  pages  83-87.)  St.  Paul's  idea  of  the  Fall  and 
of  God  are  precisely  those  of  Philo  and  Origen.  The 
Bible  also  treats  Paradise  as  the  ancient  abode  of 
man  and  his  future  home,  which  requires  a  series  of 
reincarnations  as  the  connecting  chain. 


VIII. 

REINCARNATION  IN  EARLY  CHRISTENDOM. 


Our  soul  having  lost  its  heavenly  mansion  came  down  into  the 
earthly  body  as  a  strange  place  —  PHILO. 

The  soul  leaving  the  body  becomes  that  power  which  it  has  most 
developed.  Let  us  fly,  then,  from  here  below,  and  rise  to  the  intel 
lectual  world,  that  we  may  not  fall  into  a  purely  sensible  life,  by  al 
lowing  ourselves  to  follow  sensible  images  ;  or  into  a  vegetative  life, 
by  abandoning  ourselves  to  the  pleasures  of  physical  love  and  glut 
tony  :  let  us  rise,  I  say,  to  the  intellectual  world,  to  intelligence,  to 
God  himself.  —  PLOTINUS. 

The  order  of  things  is  regulated  by  the  providential  government  of 
the  whole  world ;  some  powers  falling  down  from  a  loftier  position, 
others  gradually  sinking  to  earth :  some  falling  voluntarily,  others 
being  cast  down  against  their  will :  some  undertaking  of  their  own 
accord  the  service  of  stretching  out  the  hand  to  those  who  fall,  others 
being  compelled  to  persevere  for  a  long  time  in  the  duty  which  they 
have  undertaken.  —  JEROME. 

All  that  flesh  doth  cover 

Souls  by  source  sublime 
Are  but  slaves  sold  over 

To  the  master  Time, 
To  work  out  their  ransom 

For  the  ancient  crime. 


VIII. 

REINCARNATION   IN   EARLY   CHRISTENDOM. 

THE  first  centuries  of  Christianity  found  reincarna 
tion  still  the  prevailing  creed,  as  in  all  the  previous 
ages,  but  with  various  shades  of  interpretation.  What 
these  different  phases  of  the  same  central  thought 
were  may  be  gathered  from  Jerome's  catalogue,  after 
the  strife  between  Eastern  and  Western  ideas  had  been 
working  for  some  centuries  and  the  present  tendency 
of  Europe  had  asserted  itself.  Jerome  writes  :  "  As  to 
the  origin  of  the  soul,  I  remember  the  question  of  the 
whole  church :  whether  it  be  fallen  from  heaven,  as 
Pythagoras  and  the  Platonists  and  Origen  believe  ;  or 
be  of  the  proper  substance  of  God,  as  the  Stoics,  Mani- 
chseans  and  Priscillian  heretics  of  Spain  believe ;  or 
whether  they  are  kept  in  a  repository  formerly  built 
by  God,  as  some  ecclesiastics  foolishly  believe ;  or 
whether  they  are  daily  made  by  God  and  sent  into 
bodies  according  to  that  which  is  written  in  the  Gospel : 
'  My  Father  worketh  hitherto  and  I  work  ; '  or  whether 
by  traduction,  as  Tertullian,  Apollinarius,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  Westerns  believe,  i.  e.,  that  as  body 
from  body  so  the  soul  is  derived  from  the  soul,  subsist 
ing  by  the  same  condition  with  animals." 

In  the  form  of  Gnosticism  it  so  strongly  pervaded 
the  early  church  that  the  fourth  Gospel  was  specially 


226  IN  EARL  Y  CHRIS  TEND  OM. 

directed  against  it ;  but  this  Gospel  according  to  John 
attacked  it  only  by  advocating  a  broader  rendering  of 
the  same  faith.  We  have  seen  that  Origen  refers  to 
pre existence  as  the  general  opinion.  Clemens  Alex- 
andrinus  (Origen's  master)  taught  it  as  a  divine  tradi 
tion  authorized  by  St.  Paul  himself  in  Romans  v.  12, 
14,  19.  Ruffinus  in  his  letter  to  Anastasius  says  that 
"  This  opinion  was  common  among  the  primitive  fa 
thers."  Later,  Jerome  relates  that  the  doctrine  of 
transmigration  was  taught  as  an  esoteric  one  commu 
nicated  to  only  a  select  few.  But  Nemesius  emphati 
cally  declared  that  all  the  Greeks  who  believed  in  im 
mortality  believed  also  in  metempsychosis.  Delitzsch 
says,  "  It  had  its  advocates  as  well  in  the  synagogues 
as  in  the  church." 

The  Gnostics  and  ManichaBans  received  it,  with 
much  else,  from  Zoroastrian  predecessors.  The  Neo- 
Platonists  derived  it  chiefly  from  a  blending  of  Plato 
and  the  Orient.  The  Church  Fathers  drew  it  not  only 
from  these  sources,  but  from  the  Jews  and  the  pioneers 
of  Christianity.  Several  of  them  condemn  the  Persian 
and  Platonic  philosophies  and  yet  hold  to  reincarna 
tion  in  other  guises.  Aside  from  all  authority,  the 
doctrine  seems  to  have  been  rooted  among  the  inaugu- 
rators  of  our  era  in  its  adaptation  to  their  mental 
needs,  as  the  best  explanation  of  the  ways  of  God  and 
the  nature  of  men. 

I.  The  Gnostics  were  a  school  of  eclectics  which  be 
came  conspicuous  amid  the  chaotic  vortex  of  all  reli 
gions  in  Alexandria,  during  the  first  century.  They 
sought  to  furnish  the  young  Christian  church  with  a 
philosophic  creed,  and  ranked  themselves  as  the  only 
initiates  into  a  mystical  system  of  Christian  truth 
which  was  too  exalted  for  the  masses.  Their  thought 


IN  EARLY   CHRISTENDOM.  227 

was  an  elaborate  structure  of  Greek  ideas  built  upon 
Parsee  Dualism,  maintaining  that  the  world  was  cre 
ated  by  some  fallen  spirit  or  principle,  and  that  the 
spirits  of  men  were  enticed  from  a  preexistent  higher 
stage  by  the  Creator  into  the  slavery  of  material  bodies. 
The  evils  and  sins  of  life  belong  only  to  the  degraded 
prison-house  of  the  spirit.  The  world  is  only  an  ob 
ject  of  contempt.  Virtue  consists  in  severest  asceti 
cism.  To  combat  their  theory  that  Jesus  was  one 
of  a  vast  number  of  beings  between  man  and  God, 
the  fourth  Gospel  was  written.  They  spread  widely 
through  the  first  and  second  centuries  in  many 
branches  of  belief.  But  most  of  their  strength  was 
absorbed  into  Manichaeism,  which  was  a  more  logical 
union  of  Persian  with  Christian  and  Greek  ideas.  In 
this  simple  faith  the  world  is  a  creation  not  of  a  fallen 
spirit,  but  of  the  primary  evil  principle,  while  the 
spirit  of  man  is  the  creation  of  God,  and  the  conflict 
between  flesh  and  spirit  is  that  between  the  powers  of 
light  and  darkness.  The  Gnostic  and  Manichaean 
notions  of  preexistence  perpetuated  themselves  in 
many  of  the  medieval  sects,  especially  the  Bogomiles, 
Paulicians,  and  Priscillians.  Seven  adherents  of  the 
Priscillian  heresy  were  put  to  death  in  Spain  A.  D.  385, 
as  the  first  instance  of  the  death  penalty  visited  by  a 
Christian  magistrate  for  erroneous  belief.  The  Ital 
ian  Cathari  were  another  sect  holding  this  form  of  re 
incarnation,  against  whom  the  Albigensian  Crusade  of 
the  elder  De  Montfort  was  sent,  and  the  inquisition 
devised  by  St.  Dominic.  Still  they  thrived  in  secret 
and  possessed  a  disguised  hierarchy  which  long  sur 
vived  their  violent  persecution.  Similar  sects  de 
scended  from  them  still  exist  among  the  Russian  dis 
senters. 


228  IN  EARLY  CHRISTENDOM. 

II.  Contemporary  with  the   Alexandrian    Gnostics 
arose  the  philosophical  school  of  the  Neo-Platonists 
which  gathered  into  one  the  doctrines  of  Pythagoras, 
Plato,  and  Buddhism,1  and  constructed  a  theology  which 
might  make  headway  against  Christianity  by  satisfying 
in  a  rational  way  the  longings  which  the  new  religion 
addressed.     They  too  disclosed  the  reality  and  near 
ness  of  a  spiritual  world,  a   reconciliation  with  God, 
and  the  pathway  for  returning  to  Him.     The  distin 
guishing   principle    of    Neo-Platonism  is    emanation, 
which  took  the  place  of  creation.     From  the  eternal 
Intelligence  proceeds  the  multiplicity  of  souls  which 
comprise  the  intelligible  world,  and  of  which  the  world- 
soul  is   the  highest  and  all-embracing  source.     They 
insisted  upon   the  distinct  individuality  of  each  soul, 
and    earnestly    combated   the    charge    of   Pantheism. 
Souls  who  have  descended  into  the  delusion  of  matter 
did  so  from  pride  and  a  desire  of  false  independence. 
They  now  forget  their  former  estate  and  the  Father 
whom   they  have  deserted.     The  mission  of  men,  in 
the  dying  words  of  Plotinus,  is   "  to  bring  the  divine 
within  them  into  harmony  with  that  which  is  divine 
in  the  universe."     The  Neo-Platonists  fought  Gnosti 
cism  as  fiercely  as  Christianity.     Plotinus,  by  far  the 
best  of  their  writers,  as  well  as  the  oldest  whose  works 
are  preserved,  devotes  a  whole  book  of  his  Enneads 
to  the    refutation  of  the  doctrines  of  Valentin  us,  the 
brightest   of  the   Gnostics.     Contrary  to  the  latter's 
thought,  that  men  are  fallen  into  the  miry  pit  of  mat 
ter  which  is  wholly  bad,    Plotinus   claims    that    the 
world  of  matter,  although  the  least  divine  part  of  the 
universe  because  remotest  from  the  One,  is  still  good 
and  the  best  place  for  man's  development.     From  its 
former  life  he  insists  the  soul  has  not  fallen  and  can- 

1  The  close  parallelism   between   Buddhism   and   Platonism 
peculiarly  facilitated  this. 


IN  EARLY  CHRISTENDOM.  229 

not,  but  has  descended  into  the  lower  stage  of  exist 
ence  through  innate  weakness  of  intellect  in  order  to 
be  prepared  for  a  higher  exaltation. 

The  most  important  of  this  group  of  thinkers  were 
Ammonius  Saccas,  Plotinus,  and  Porphyry  in  the 
third  century,  Jamblichus  in  the  fourth,  Hierocles  and 
Proclus  in  the  fifth,  and  Damascius  in  the  sixth.  It 
flourished  with  energy  for  over  three  hundred  years, 
and  as  its  ideas  were  largely  appropriated  by  Chris 
tian  theologians  and  philosophers,  beginning  with 
Origen,  it  has  never  ceased  to  be  felt  through  Chris 
tendom.  Giordano  Bruno,  the  martyr  of  the  Italian 
reformation,  popularized  it,  and  handed  it  over  to 
later  philosophers.  The  philosophy  of  Emerson  is 
substantially  a  revival  of  Plotinus.  Coleridge  is  also 
strongly  influenced  by  him. 

As  Plotinus  is  in  some  respects  the  most  interesting 
of  all  the  older  writers,  and  taught  reincarnation  in 
a  form  thoroughly  rational  and  supremely  helpful, 
meeting  Western  needs  in  this  regard  more  directly 
than  any  other  philosopher,  we  quote  at  some  length 
from  his  scarce  essay  on  "  The  Descent  of  the  Soul." 

"When  any  particular  soul  acts  in  discord  from  the 
One,  flying  from  the  whole  and  apostasizing  from 
thence  by  a  certain  disagreement,  no  longer  beholding 
an  intelligible  nature,  from  its  partial  blindness,  in 
this  case  it  becomes  deserted  and  solitary,  impotent 
and  distracted  with  care ;  for  it  now  directs  its  men 
tal  eye  to  a  part,  and  by  a  separation  from  that  which 
is  universal,  attaches  itself  as  a  slave  to  one  particular 
nature.  It  thus  degenerates  from  the  whole  and  gov 
erns  particulars  with  anxiety  and  fatigue,  assiduously 
cultivating  externals  and  becoming  not  only  present 
with  body,  but  profoundly  entering  into  its  dark 


230  IN  EARLY   CHRISTENDOM. 

abodes.  Hence,  too,  by  such  conduct  the  wings  of  the 
soul  are  said  to  suffer  a  defluxion  and  she  becomes 
fettered  with  the  bonds  of  body,  after  deserting  the 
safe  and  innoxious  habit  of  governing  a  better  nature 
which  flourishes  with  universal  soul.  The  soul,  there 
fore,  falling  from  on  high,  suffers  captivity,  is  loaded 
with  fetters,  and  employs  the  energies  of  sense;  be 
cause  in  this  case  her  intellectual  longing  is  impeded 
from  the  first.  She  is  reported  also  to  be  buried  and 
to  be  concealed  in  a  cave ;  but  when  she  converts  her 
self  to  intelligence  she  then  breaks  her  fetters  and  as 
cends  on  high,  receiving  first  of  all  from  reminiscence 
the  ability  of  contemplating  real  beings  ;  at  the  same 
time  possessing  something  supereminent  and  ever 
abiding  in  the  intelligible  world.  Souls  therefore  are 
necessarily  of  an  amphibious  nature,  and  alternately 
experience  a  superior  and  inferior  condition  of  being ; 
such  as  are  able  to  enjoy  a  more  intimate  converse 
with  Intellect  abiding  for  a  longer  period  in  the  higher 
world,  and  such  to  whom  the  contrary  happens,  either 
through  nature  or  fortune,  continuing  longer  connected 
with  these  inferior  concerns."  .... 

"  Thus,  the  soul,  though  of  divine  origin,  and  pro 
ceeding  from  the  regions  on  high,  becomes  merged  in 
the  dark  receptacle  of  the  body,  and  being  naturally 
a  posterior  god,  it  descends  hither  through  a  certain 
voluntary  inclination,  for  the  sake  of  power  and  of 
adorning  inferior  concerns.  By  this  means  it  receives 
a  knowledge  of  its  latent  powers,  and  exhibits  a  vari 
ety  of  operations  peculiar  to  its  nature,  which  by  per 
petually  abiding  in  an  incorporeal  habit,  and  never 
proceeding  into  energy,  would  have  been  bestowed  in 
vain.  Besides  the  soul  would  have  been  ignorant  of 
what  she  possessed,  her  powers  always  remaining  dor- 


IN  EARLY  CHRISTENDOM.  231 

mant  and  concealed :  since  energy  everywhere  exhibits 
capacity,  which  would  otherwise  be  entirely  occult  and 
obscure,  and  without  existence,  because  not  endued 
with  one  substantial  and  true.  But  now  indeed  every 
one  admires  the  intellectual  powers  of  the  soul,  through 
the  variety  of  her  external  effects."  .... 

"  Through  an  abundance  of  desire  the  soul  becomes 
profoundly  merged  into  matter,  and  no  longer  totally 
abides  with  the  universal  soul.  Yet  our  souls  are 
able  alternately  to  rise  from  hence  carrying  back  with 
them  an  experience  of  what  they  have  known  and  suf 
fered  in  their  fallen  state ;  from  whence  they  will 
learn  how  blessed  it  is  to  abide  in  the  intelligible 
world,  and  by  a  comparison,  as  it  were,  of  contraries, 
will  more  plainly  perceive  the  excellence  of  a  superior 
state.  For  the  experience  of  evil  produces  a  clearer 
knowledge  of  good.  This  is  accomplished  in  our  souls 
according  to  the  circulations  of  time,  in  which  a  con 
version  takes  place  from  subordinate  to  more  exalted 
natures. 

"  Indeed,  if  it  were  proper  to  speak  clearly  what 
appears  to  me  to  be  the  truth,  contrary  to  the  opin 
ions  of  others,  the  whole  of  our  soul  also  does  not  en 
ter  into  the  body,  but  something  belonging  to  it  al 
ways  abides  in  the  intelligible,  and  something  different 
from  this  in  the  sensible  world :  and  that  which  abides 
in  the  sensible  world,  if  it  conquers,  or  rather  if  it  is 
vanquished  and  disturbed,  does  not  permit  us  to  per 
ceive  that  which  the  supreme  part  of  the  soul  contem 
plates  ;  for  that  which  is  understood  then  arrives  at 
our  nature  when  it  descends  within  the  limits  of  sen 
sible  inspection.  For  every  soul  possesses  something 
which  inclines  downwards  to  body,  and  something 
which  tends  upwards  toward  intellect ;  and  the  soul, 


2S2  IN  EARLY  CHRISTENDOM. 

indeed,  which  is  universal  and  of  the  universe,  by  its 
part  which  is  inclined  towards  body,  governs  the 
whole  without  labor  and  fatigue,  transcending  that 
which  it  governs. 

"  But  souls  which  are  particular  and  of  a  part  are 
too  much  occupied  by  sense,  and  by  a  perception  of 
many  things  happening  contrary  to  nature  are  sur 
rounded  by  a  multitude  of  foreign  concerns.  It  is 
likewise  subject  to  a  variety  of  affections,  and  is  en 
snared  by  the  allurements  of  pleasure.  But  the  supe 
rior  part  of  the  soul  is  never  influenced  by  fraudulent 
delights,  and  lives  a  life  always  uniform  and  divine." 

III.  Many  of  the  orthodox  Church  Fathers  wel 
comed  reincarnation  as  a  ready  explanation  of  the  fall 
of  man  and  the  mystery  of  life,  and  distinctly  preached 
it  as  the  only  means  of  reconciling  the  existence  of 
suffering  with  a  merciful  God.  It  was  an  essential 
part  of  the  church  philosophy  for  many  centuries  in 
the  rank  and  file  of  Christian  thought,  being  stamped 
with  the  authority  of  the  leading  thinkers  of  Christen 
dom,  and  then  gradually  was  frowned  upon  as  the 
Western  influences  predominated,  until  it  became 
heresy  and  at  length  survived  only  in  a  few  scattered 
sects. 

Justin  Martyr  expressly  speaks  of  the  soul  inhabit 
ing  more  than  once  the  human  body,  and  denies  that 
on  taking  a  second  time  the  embodied  form  it  can  re 
member  previous  experiences.  Afterwards,  he  says, 
souls  which  have  become  unworthy  to  see  God  in  hu 
man  guise,  are  joined  to  the  bodies  of  wild  beasts. 
Thus  he  openly  defends  the  grosser  phase  of  metemp 
sychosis. 

Clemens  Alexandrinus  is  declared  by  a  contemporary 
to  have  written  "  wonderful  stories  about  metemp 
sychosis  and  many  worlds  before  Adam." 


IN  EARLY  CHRISTENDOM.  233 

Arnobius,  also,  is  known  to  have  frankly  avowed 
this  doctrine. 

Noblest  of  all  the  church  advocates  of  this  opinion 
was  Origen.  He  regarded  the  earthly  history  of  the 
human  race  as  one  epoch  in  an  historical  series  of 
changeful  decay  and  restoration,  extending  backward 
and  forward  into  aeons ;  and  our  temporal  human 
body  as  the  place  of  purification  for  our  spirits  ex 
iled  from  a  happier  existence  on  account  of  sin.  He 
taught  that  souls  were  all  originally  created  by  God 
minds  of  the  same  kind  and  condition,  that  is  of  the 
same  essence  as  the  infinite  Mind,  and  that  they  ex 
ercised  their  freedom  of  will,  some  wisely  and  well, 
others  with  abuse  in  different  degrees,  producing  the 
divergences  now  apparent  in  mankind.  From  that 
old  experience  some  souls  have  retained  more  than 
others  of  the  pristine  condition.  The  lapsed  souls  God 
clothed  with  bodies  and  sent  into  this  world,  both  to 
expiate  their  temerity  and  to  prepare  themselves  for  a 
better  future.  The  variety  of  their  offenses  caused 
the  diversity  of  their  terrestrial  conditions.  In  these 
bodies,  each  enjoys  that  lot  which  most  exactly  suited 
his  previous  habits.  On  these  the  whole  earthly  cir 
cumstances  of  man,  internal  and  external,  even  his 
whole  life  from  birth,  depend.  In  this  way  alone  he 
thought  the  justice  of  God  could  be  defended.  But 
when  men  keep  themselves  free  from  contagion  in 
bodily  existence  and  restrain  the  turbulent  movements 
of  sense  and  imagination,  being  gradually  purified 
from  the  body  they  ascend  on  high  and  are  at  last 
changed  into  minds,  of  which  the  earthly  souls  are 
corruptions.  In  his  own  words,  "  Here  is  the  cause 
of  the  diversing  among  rational  creatures,  not  in  the 
will  or  decision  of  the  creature,  but  in  the  freedom  of 


234  IN  EARLY  CHRISTENDOM. 

individual  liberty.  For  God  justly  disposing  of  his 
creatures  according  to  their  desert  united  the  diver 
sities  of  minds  in  one  congruous  world,  that  he  might, 
as  it  were,  adorn  his  mansion  (in  which  ought  to  be 
not  only  vases  of  gold  and  silver,  but  of  wood  also  and 
clay,  and  some  to  honor  and  some  to  dishonor)  with 
these  diverse  vases,  minds,  or  souls.  To  these  causes 
the  world  owes  its  diversity,  while  Divine  Providence 
disposes  each  according  to  his  tendency,  mind,  and  dis 
position." 

"  If  from  unknown  reasons  the  soul  be  already  not 
exactly  worthy  of  being  born  in  an  irrational  body, 
nor  yet  exactly  in  one  purely  rational,  it  is  furnished 
with  a  monstrous  body,  so  that  reason  cannot  be 
fully  developed  by  one  thus  born,  the  nature  of  the 
body  being  fashioned  either  of  a  higher  or  lower  body 
according  to  the  scope  of  the  reason." 

"  I  think  this  is  a  question  how  it  happens  that  the 
human  mind  is  influenced  now  by  the  good  now  by 
the  evil.  The  causes  of  this  I  suspect  to  be  more  an 
cient  than  this  corporeal  birth." 

"  If  our  course  be  not  marked  out  according  to  our 
works  before  this  life,  how  is  it  true  that  it  is  not  un 
just  in  God  that  the  elder  should  serve  the  younger 
and  be  hated,  before  he  had  done  things  deserving  of 
servitude  and  of  hatred." 

"  By  the  fall  and  by  the  cooling  from  a  life  of  the 
Spirit  came  that  which  is  now  the  soul,  which  is  also 
capable  of  a  return  to  her  original  condition,  of  which 
I  think  the  prophet  speaks  in  this  :  4  Return  unto  thy 
rest,  O  my  soul.'  So  that  the  whole  is  this  —  how 
the  mind  becomes  a  soul  and  how  the  soul  rectified 
becomes  a  mind." 

Concerning  preexistence  in  the  Bible,  Origen  writes, 


IN  EARLY  CHRISTENDOM.  235 

in  his  "  De  Principiis  "  :  "  The  Holy  Scriptures  have 
called  the  creation  of  the  world  by  a  new  and  peculiar 
name,  terming  it  Kara/5oXi;,  which  has  been  very  im 
properly  translated  into  Latin  by  '  constitutio  ' ;  for  in 
Greek  Kara(3o\^  signifies  rather  'dejicere,'  i.  e.,  to  cast 
downwards,  —  a  word  which  has  been  improperly  trans 
lated  into  Latin  by  the  phrase  '  constitutio  mundi,'  as 
where  the  Saviour  says,  '  And  there  will  be  tribulation 
in  those  days,  such  as  was  not  since  the  beginning  of 
the  world ; ' l  in  which  passage  KaTa/3o\.tj  is  rendered 
by  beginning  (constitutio).  The  Apostle  also  has  em 
ployed  the  language,  saying,  '  Who  hath  chosen  us  be 
fore  the  foundation  of  the  world  ; '  2  and  this  founda 
tion  he  calls  KaraftoXr),  to  be  understood  in  the  same 
sense  as  before.  It  seems  worth  while,  then,  to  in 
quire  what  is  meant  by  this  new  term ;  and  I  am,  in 
deed,  of  the  opinion  that  as  the  end  and  consummation 
of  the  saints  will  be  in  those  (ages)  which  are  not 
seen,  and  are  eternal,  we  must  conclude  that  rational 
creatures  had  also  a  similar  beginning.  And  if  they 
had  a  beginning  such  as  the  end  for  which  they  hope, 
they  existed  undoubtedly  from  the  very  beginning  in 
those  (ages)  which  are  not  seen,  and  are  eternal. 
And  if  this  is  so,  then  there  has  been  a  descent  from 
a  higher  to  a  lower  condition,  on  the  part  not  only  of 
those  souls  who  have  deserved  the  change  by  the  vari 
ety  of  their  movements,  but  also  on  that  of  those  who, 
in  order  to  serve  the  whole  world,  were  brought  down 
from  those  higher  and  invisible  spheres  to  these  lower 
and  visible  ones,  although  against  their  will.  From 
this  it  follows  that  by  the  use  of  the  word  Kara^oXij,  a 
descent  from  a  higher  to  a  lower  condition,  shared  by 
all  in  common,  would  seem  to  be  pointed  out.  The 
1  Matt.  xxiv.  21.  2  Ephesians  i.  4. 


286  IN  EARLY  CHRISTENDOM. 

hope  of  freedom  is  entertained  by  the  whole  of  crea 
tion  —  of  being  liberated  from  the  corruption  of  slav 
ery  —  when  the  sons  of  God,  who  either  fell  away  or 
were  scattered  abroad,  shall  be  gathered  into  one,  and 
when  they  shall  have  fulfilled  their  duties  in  this 
world." 

Many  contemporaneous  and  subsequent  writers 
censured  Origen  for  this  opinion,  but  his  doctrine  was 
maintained  by  a  large  number  of  strong  followers  and 
independent  thinkers. 

Even  in  Jerome  and  Augustine  certain  passages  in 
dicate  that  they  held  this  theory  in  part.  In  his  Epis 
tle  to  Avitus,  Jerome  agrees  with  Origen  as  to  the  in 
terpretation  of  the  passage  above  mentioned  by  Origen, 
"  Who  hath  chosen  us  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world."  He  says  "a  divine  habitation,  and  a  true 
rest  above,  I  think,  is  to  be  understood,  where  rational 
creatures  dwelt,  and  where,  before  their  descent  to  a 
lower  position,  and  removal  from  invisible  to  visible 
(worlds),  and  fall  to  earth,  and  need  of  gross  bodies, 
they  enjoyed  a  former  blessedness.  Whence  God  the 
Creator  made  for  them  bodies  suitable  to  their  humble 
position,  and  created  this  visible  world  and  sent  into 
the  world  ministers  for  their  salvation." 

The  Latin  Fathers  Nemesius,  Synesius,  and  Hila- 
rius  boldly  defend  preexistence,  though  taking  excep 
tion  to  Origen's  form  of  it.  Of  Synesius,  most  famil 
iar  to  English  readers  as  the  convent  patriarch  in 
"  Hypatia,"  it  is  known  that  when  the  citizens  of 
Ptolemais  invited  him  to  their  bishopric,  he  declined 
that  dignity  for  the  reason  that  he  cherished  certain 
opinions  which  they  might  not  approve,  as  after  ma 
ture  reflection  they  had  struck  deep  roots  in  his  mind. 
Foremost  among  these  he  mentioned  the  doctrine  of 


IN  EARLY  CHRISTENDOM.  237 

preexistence.  Vestiges  of  this  belief  are  discerned  in 
his  writings ;  for  example,  in  the  Greek  hymn  para 
phrased  as  follows :  — 

Eternal  Mind,  thy  seedling  spark 

Through  this  thin  vase  of  clay 
Athwart  the  waves  of  chaos  dark 

Emits  a  timorous  ray  ! 

This  mind-enfolding  soul  is  sown 

Incarnate  germ  in  earth. 
In  pity,  blessed  Lord,  then  own 

What  claims  in  Thee  its  birth. 

Far  forth  from  Thee,  Thou  central  fire, 

To  earth's  sad  bondage  cast, 
Let  not  the  trembling  spark  expire, 

Absorb  Thine  own  at  last. 

Another  of  this  group,  Prudentius,  entertained 
nearly  the  same  idea  as  that  of  Origen  concerning  the 
soul's  descent  from  higher  seats  to  earth,  as  appears  in 
one  of  his  hymns  :  — 

O  Saviour,  bid  my  soul,  thy  trembling  spouse, 

Return  at  last  to  Thee  believing. 
Bind,  bind  anew  those  all  unearthly  vows 

She  broke  on  high  and  wandered  grieving. 

Although  Origen's  teaching  was  condemned  by  the 
Council  of  Constantinople  in  551,  it  permanently  col 
ored  the  stream  of  Christian  theology,  not  only  in  many 
scholastics  and  medieval  heterodoxies,  but  through  all 
the  later  course  of  religious  thought,  in  many  isolated 
individuals  and  groups. 


IX. 

REINCARNATION  IN  THE  EAST  TO-DAY. 


A  man  may  travel  from  one  end  of  the  kingdom  to  the  other 
without  money,  feeding  and  lodging  as  well  as  the  people. 

A  MISSIONARY  IN  BURMAH. 

Buddhism  has  not  deceived,  and  it  has  not  persecuted.  In  this 
respect  it  can  teach  Christians  a  lesson.  The  unconditioned  command, 
' '  Thou  shalt  not  kill, ' '  which  applies  to  all  living  creatures,  has  had 
great  influence  in  softening  the  manners  of  the  Monguls.  This  com 
mand  is  connected  with  the  doctrine  of  transmigration  of  souls,  which 
is  one  of  the  essential  doctrines  of  this  system  as  well  as  of  Brahman- 
ism.  Buddhism  also  inculcates  a  positive  humanity  consisting1  of  good 
actions.  —  JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE. 

He  lived  musing  the  woes  of  man, 
The  ways  of  fate,  the  doctrines  of  the  books, 
The  secrets  of  the  silence  whence  all  come, 
The  secrets  of  the  gloom  whereto  all  go, 
The  life  that  lies  between  like  that  arch  flung 
From  cloud  to  cloud  across  the  sky,  which  hath 
Mists  for  its  masonry  and  vapory  piers. 

THE  LIGHT  OF  ASIA. 


IX. 

REINCARNATION   IN  THE   EAST   TO-DAY. 

THE  religious  philosophy  of  the  Orient,  like  every 
thing  else  there,  remains  now  substantially  the  same  as 
in  ancient  times.  History  cannot  say  when  Brahman- 
ism  did  not  flourish  among  the  multitudes  of  India. 
Buddhism,  the  later  Protestant  phase  of  the  old  faith, 
which  abolished  its  abuses  of  priesthood  and  caste  and 
spread  its  reformation  broadcast  through  Asia,  did 
not  alter  the  original  teaching  of  re-birth,  but  rather 
confirmed  and  popularized  the  truth  that  has  lain  at 
the  heart  of  India  from  remotest  ages.  Reincarnation 
is  the  sap-root  of  eastern  religion  and  permeates  the 
Veda  scriptures. 

While  it  is  claimed  by  the  West  that  the  religion  of 
Sakya  Muni  is  below  that  of  Jesus,  as  inspiring  an 
exalted  selfishness  in  distinction  to  the  generous  sacri 
fice  taught  by  Christianity  ;  while  it  is  true  that  the 
best  Buddhists  lead  a  passive,  submissive  life  which 
made  them  easy  spoil  for  conquering  races  and  has 
not  accomplished  any  result  in  civilization  since  the 
first  ancient  subjugation ;  while  Buddhism  with  its 
mortification  and  self-centred  goodness  is  even  more 
distasteful  to  the  western  race  than  the  meditative 
dreamy  asceticism  of  Brahmanism  :  it  is  equally  cer 
tain  that  these  eastern  religions  are  far  more  really 


242     REINCARNATION  IN  THE  EAST  TO-DAY. 

lived  by  their  followers  than  Christianity  is  with  us  ; 
it  must  be  admitted  that  a  spiritual  selfishness,  which 
is  so  thoroughly  practiced  as  to  bear  all  the  fruits  of 
generous  love,  is  preferable  to  a  noble  sacrifice,  which 
is  so  largely  precept  as  to  appear  to  the  naked  eye 
a  civilized  barbarism  ;  and  it  is  worth  considering 
whether  Christendom  may  not  gain  as  much  by  learn 
ing  the  secret  of  Eastern  superiority  to  materialism, 
as  the  Orient  is  gaining  by  the  infusion  of  Western 
activity.  Travelers  agree  that  in  many  parts  of  inner 
China,  Thibet,  Central  India,  and  Ceylon  the  daily  life 
of  Buddhism  is  so  like  the  realization  of  Christianity, 
as  to  give  strong  support  to  the  theory  of  the  Indian 
origin  of  our  religion.  There  is  a  practical  demonstra 
tion  of  what  reincarnation  will  do  for  a  race,  and  a 
hint  of  the  grander  result  which  would  accrue  from 
grafting  that  principle  into  the  real  life  of  the  stronger 
Saxon,  Teutonic,  and  Celtic  stock.  Knowing  the  inde 
structibility  of  the  soul,  the  evanescence  of  the  body, 
and  the  permanence  of  spiritual  traits  as  formed  by 
thought,  word,  and  deed,  the  whole  energy  of  life  is 
focused  upon  purity  of  self  and  charity  to  others.  To 
love  one's  enemies,  to  abstain  from  even  defensive 
warfare,  to  govern  the  soul,  to  obey  one's  superiors,  to 
venerate  age,  to  provide  food  and  shelter,  to  tolerate 
all  differences  of  opinion  and  religion,  are  guiding 
maxims  of  actual  life.  They  are  as  vitally  and  gener 
ally  translated  into  flesh  and  blood  as  in  primitive 
Christianity  or  in  Count  Tolstoi's  flock.  Honesty, 
modesty,  and  simplicity  prevail  in  these  sections. 
Women  are  held  in  the  same  esteem  as  in  the  ancient 
Sanskrit  epoch,  and  children  are  treated  more  beauti 
fully  than  in  many  Christian  homes.  A  lady  traveler, 
known  to  the  writer,  who  witnessed  this,  said  that  if 


REINCARNATION  IN  THE  EAST  TO-DAY.     243 

her  lot  were  that  of  a  friendless  woman,  she  knew  no 
place  on  earth  where  she  would  labor  and  dwell  more 
happily  than  in  Ceylon.  As  the  peasantry  receive  re 
incarnation  in  the  simplest  and  extremes t  form  of  hu 
man  re-births  in  animal  bodies,  every  living  creature 
is  regarded  by  them  as  a  possible  relative.  Gentle 
ness  to  the  animal  creation  abounds  as  nowhere  else 
in  the  world.  It  is  a  sin  to  kill  any  beast.  It  is  a 
virtue  to  offer  one's  life  for  a  distressed  animal,  as 
the  popular  tradition  holds  that  Buddha  did  in  one 
life  by  throwing  himself  to  a  famished  tigress.  Death 
is  no  object  of  dread,  but  a  welcome  benefactor,  trans 
ferring  them  forward  in  their  progress  to  the  goal  of 
rest.  To  die  for  any  good  purpose,  as  under  the  sa 
cred  Brahman  car  of  Juggernaut,  or  in  some  one's  be 
half,  is  the  common  aspiration  ;  so  much  so  that  it  is 
difficult  for  the  missionaries  to  gain  any  feeling  for 
the  death  on  the  cross,  as  they  think  any  one  would 
easily  suffer  that. 

The  Brahmans  have  for  ages  studied  the  problems 
of  ontology  and  the  soul's  future,  by  severest  intro 
spection  and  acutest  thought,  to  build  their  system, 
which  is  a  vast  elaboration  of  religious  metaphysics, 
upon  a  thcistic  basis.  Reincarnation  is  the  corner 
stone  of  this  structure.  Many  of  the  higher  Brahmans 
are  believed  to  have  penetrated  the  veils  concealing 
past  existences.  It  is  related,  for  instance,  that  when 
Apollonius  of  Tyana  visited  India,  the  Brahman 
larchus  told  him  that  "  the  truth  concerning  the  soul 
is  as  Pythagoras  taught  you  and  as  we  taught  the 
Egyptians,"  and  mentioned  that  he  (Apollonius)  in  a 
previous  incarnation  was  an  Egyptian  steersman,  and 
had  refused  the  inducements  offered  him  by  pirates 
to  guide  his  vessel  into  their  hands.  The  common 


244    REINCARNATION  IN  THE  EAST  TO-DAY. 

people  of  India  are  sure  that  certain  of  the  Brahman s 
and  Buddhists  are  still  able  to  verify  by  their  finer 
senses  the  reality  of  reincarnation.  And  many  edu 
cated  natives  and  resident  foreigners  in  India  have 
witnessed  evidences  of  this  keen  power  of  insight  as 
sociated  with  other  extraordinary  qualities  which  com 
pelled  them  to  believe  in  it. 

Brahmanism  and  Buddhism  are  practically  agreed 
upon  the  philosophy  of  reincarnation,  as  the  great 
Buddhist  revolt  against  priestcraft  only  emphasized 
this  doctrine.  Every  branch  of  these  systems  aims 
at  the  means  of  winning  escape  from  the  necessity  of 
repeated  births.  The  ardent  and  final  desire  of  all 
is  expressed  by  the  words  of  the  sage  Bharata :  — 

"  And  may  the  purple  self-existent  god  (Siva), 
Whose  vital  energy  pervades  all  space, 
From  future  transmigrations  save  my  soul." 

There  are,  however,  great  differences  in  these  two 
faiths  as  to  the  means  and  the  result.  Both  contend 
that  all  forms  are  the  penance  of  nature.  They  regard 
personal  existence  as  an  empty  delusion  and  the  ex 
emption  from  it  as  true  salvation.  The  Brahman 
seeks  Nirvana,  which  is  absorption  in  Brahm,  as  the 
reality  at  the  heart  of  things;  the  Buddhist  con 
siders  this  also  unreal,  and  finds  no  reality  but  in 
the  silence  and  peace  attained  beyond  Nirvana.  In 
the  Brahman's  paradise,  one  is  so  free  from  desire 
that  no  need  remains  for  perpetuating  his  individual 
existence.  But  after  that  comes  Pan-Nirvana,  which 
is  utter  inaction  and  disappearance,  a  condition  so 
difficult  for  a  Western  mind  to  comprehend  that  it 
persists  in  falsely  calling  it  and  Nirvana  alike  —  an 
nihilation.  The  Buddhist's  one  duty  of  life  and  the 
means  of  attaining  his  goal  is  mortification,  the  ex- 


REINCARNATION  IN  THE  EAST  TO-DAY.    245 

tinction  of  affection  and  desire.  But  the  Brahman's 
work  is  contemplation,  illumination,  communion  with 
Brahm,  religious  study,  and  asceticism.  The  creed 
of  Buddhism  is  universal ;  that  of  Brahmanism  is 
exclusive.  The  Buddhist  saint  may  come  from  any 
class,  for  the  raison  d'etre  of  his  faith  is  the  abolition 
of  caste.  But  only  the  wearer  of  the  sacred  Brahman 
thread  can  aspire  to  direct  union  with  Brahm ;  the 
lower  castes  must  undergo  painful  fakir  penances 
until  they  attain  the  Brahman  estate. 

Northern  Buddhism  has  been  defined  as  almost 
identical  with  Gnosticism.  It  has  spun  a  dense  fabric 
of  legend  and  speculation  about  this  central  thought 
of  the  soul's  gradual  evolution  from  the  natural  to 
the  spiritual.  The  Hindus  believe  that  human  souls 
emanated  from  the  Supreme  Being,  and  became  grad 
ually  immersed  in  matter,  forgetting  their  divine 
origin,  and  straying  in  bewildered  condition  back  to 
him  through  many  lives,  after  a  protracted  round  of 
births  in  partial  reparation.  Having  become  con 
taminated  with  sin,  we  must  work  out  our  release 
through  earthly  lives  in  the  delusive  arena  of  sense 
until  the  reality  of  spiritual  existence  is  attained. 
So  long  as  the  soul  is  not  pure  enough  for  re-mer 
gence  into  Brahm,  we  must  be  born  again  repeatedly, 
and  the  degree  of  our  impurity  determines  what  these 
births  shall  be.  So  closely  is  the  account  of  the  soul's 
misdeeds  kept  that  it  may  pass  through  thousands  of 
years  in  one  or  another  of  the  heavens  in  reward  for 
good  deeds,  and  yet  be  obliged  later  to  descend  to  earth 
for  certain  ancient  sins.  The  Laws  of  Manu  give  a 
standard  by  which  the  moral  consequences  of  various 
human  actions  are  measured  with  great  detail.1  A 
1  See  page  273. 


246    REINCARNATION  IN  THE  EAST  TO-DAY. 

more  general  doctrine  is  based  on  the  assumption  of 
three  Cosmic  qualities  — goodness,  passion,  and  dark 
ness  —  in  the  human  soul.  On  this  ground  Mann  and 
other  writers  built  an  intricate  theory,  providing  that 
souls  of  the  first  quality  become  deities,  those  of  the 
second,  men,  and  those  of  the  third,  beasts. 

The  Hindu  conception  of  reincarnation  embraces 
all  existence — gods,  men,  animals,  plants,  minerals. 
It  is  believed  that  everything  migrates,  from  Buddha 
down  to  inert  matter.  Hardy  tells  us  that  Buddha 
himself  was  born  an  ascetic  eighty-three  times,  a  mon 
arch  fifty-eight  times,  as  the  soul  of  a  tree  forty- 
three  times,  and  many  other  times  as  ape,  deer,  lion, 
snipe,  chicken,  eagle,  serpent,  pig,  frog,  etc.,  amount 
ing  to  four  hundred  times  in  all.  A  Chinese  author 
ity  represents  Buddha  as  saying,  "  The  number  of  my 
births  and  deaths  can  only  be  compared  to  those  of 
all  the  plants  in  the  universe."  Birth  is  the  gate 
which  opens  into  every  state,  and  merit  determines 
into  which  it  shall  open.  Earth  and  human  life  are 
an  intermediary  stage,  resulting  from  many  previous 
places  and  forms  and  introducing  many  more.  There 
are  multitudes  of  inhabited  worlds  upon  which  the 
same  person  is  successively  born  according  to  his  at 
tractions.  To  the  earthly  life  he  may  return  again 
and  again,  dropping  the  memory  of  past  experiences, 
and  carrying,  like  an  embryonic  germ,  the  concisest 
summary  of  former  lives  into  each  coming  one.  Every 
act  bears  upon  the  resultant  which  shall  steer  the  soul 
into  its  next  habitation,  not  only  on  earth,  but  in  the 
more  exalted  or  debased  regions  of  "  Heaven "  and 
"  Hell."  Thus  "  the  chain  of  the  law"  binds  all  ex 
istences,  and  the  only  escape  is  by  the  final  absorption 
into  Brahm. 


REINCARNATION  IN  THE  EAST  TO-DAY.     247 

While  the  Hindus  generally  hold  that  the  same 
soul  appears  at  different  births,  the  heretical  Southern 
Buddhists  teach  that  the  succession  of  existences  is  a 
succession  of  souls,  bred  from  one  another,  like  the 
sprouting  of  new  generations  from  plants  and  animals, 
and  like  the  new  light  kindled  from  an  old  lamp,  the 
result,  but  not  the  identity  of  the  former.  Another 
curious  aspect  of  these  Indian  speculations  is  the 
view  of  certain  Northern  Buddhists,  who  divide  eter 
nity  into  gigantic  cycles  which  shall  at  length  bring 
around  again  a  precise  repetition  of  earlier  events. 
This  is  similar  to  the  grand  periodic  year  of  the  Stoics 
and  of  the  Epicurean  Atomists,  and  to  the  continual 
metempsychosis  of  Pythagoras,  which  provided  that 
the  identical  Plato  would  again  and  again,  at  certain 
tremendous  intervals  staggering  any  one  but  a  Greek 
or  Hindu  metaphysician,  appear  at  the  same  Academy 
and  deliver  the  same  lectures,  etc. 

Zoroastriaus  and  Sufi  Mohamedans,  with  their 
usual  antipathy  to  Indian  thought,  limit  their  concep 
tions  of  reincarnation  to  a  few  repeated  lives  on  earth, 
which  some  of  the  Persian  and  Arabian  mystics  stretch 
out  to  a  larger  number,  but  soon  disappearing  either 
back  into  the  original  source  or  into  darker  scenes. 


X. 

EASTERN  POETS  UPON  REINCARNATION. 


Here  shalt  thou  pluck  from  the  most  ancient  shells 
The  whitest  pearls  of  wisdom's  treasury. 

EDWIN  ARNOLD. 

Young  and  enterprising  is  the  West, 
Old  and  meditative  is  the  East. 
Turn,  O  youth!  with  intellectual  zest 
Where  the  sage  invites  thee  to  his  feast. 

Eastward  roll  the  orbs  of  heaven, 
Westward  tend  the  thoughts  of  men. 
Let  the  poet,  nature-driven, 
Wander  eastward  now  and  then. 

MlLNES. 


X. 

EASTERN    POETS   UPON  REINCARNATION. 

ALL  Eastern  poetry  finds  a  favorite  theme  in  me 
tempsychosis,  and  the  literature  of  India  is  thoroughly 
saturated  with  it.  The  fervent  passion,  the  subtle 
thought,  the  luxuriant  imagery  which  permeate  Asiatic 
life  are  centred  upon  this  common  philosophy.  But 
the  best  portion  of  this  enormous  wealth  of  fantasy 
is  withheld  from  us.  simply  because  of  its  revelry  in 
this  very  thought  which  is  generally  unattractive  to 
the  West.  What  oriental  poetry  enters  our  language 
is  chiefly  erotic  or  epic,  and  the  most  characteristic 
of  all  is  left  for  the  few  educated  natives  to  enjoy. 
We  can  therefore  only  select  a  few  representative 
gems  from  this  unworked  mine,  illustrating  the  Muses 
of  India,  Persia,  and  Arabia.  Among  the  ancient 
Sanskrit  epics  are  discovered  beautiful  renderings  of 
the  thought  of  many  births.  The  delicacy  and  ten 
derness  of  Persian  poetry  furnish  charming  expres 
sions  of  the  Zoroastrian  aspirations  for  release  from 
earthly  bondages  to  reascend  homeward.  The  Ara 
bian  mysticism  of  the  Sufis  directs  their  intense  sub 
jectivity  into  ecstatic  phrasings  of  the  same  idea. 

In  the  wonderful  ancient  Sanskrit  drama  "Sa- 
koontala  "  by  Kalidesa,  translated  by  Monier  Williams, 
occur  these  passages  :  — 


252    EASTERN  POETS  UPON  REINCARNATION. 

This  peerless  maid  is  like  a  fragrant  flower 

"Whose  perfumed  breath  has  never  been  diffused. 

A  gem  of  priceless  water,  just  released 

Pure  and  unblemished  from  its  glittering  bed. 

Or  rather  is  she  like  the  mellowed  fruit 

Of  virtuous  actions  in  some  former  birth 

Now  brought  to  full  perfection. 

That  song  has  filled  me  with  a  most  peculiar  sweetness. 

I  seem  to  yearn  after  some  long  forgotten  love. 

Not  seldom  in  our  happy  hours  of  ease ' 

When  thought  is  still,  the  sight  of  some  fair  form, 

Or  mournful  fall  of  music  breathing  low 

Will  stir  strange  fancies  thrilling  all  the  soul 

With  a  mysterious  sadness  and  a  sense 

Of  vague  yet  earnest  longing.     Can  it  be 

That  the  dim  memory  of  events  long  passed, 

Or  friendships  formed  in  other  states  of  being 

Flits  like  a  passing  shadow  o'er  the  spirit  ? 

The  Sanskrit  "Katha  Upanishad,"  in  Edwin  Ar 
nold's  rendering  as  "The  Secret  of  Death,''  contains 
a  full  explanation  of  the  Eastern  doctrine. 

For  his  noble  sacrifice  Yama  (Death)  grants  to 
Nachiketas  the  privilege  of  asking  three  boons.  Af 
ter  naming  and  receiving  the  first  two  Nachik^tas 
says : — 

"Thou  dost  give  peace  — is  that  peace  nothingness  ? 
Some  say  that  after  death  the  soul  still  lives, 
Personal,  conscious  ;  some  say,  nay,  it  ends  : 
Fain  would  I  know  which  of  these  twain  be  true, 
By  the  enlightened.     Be  my  third  boon  this." 
Then  Yama  answered,  "  This  was  asked  of  old, 
Even  by  the  gods !     This  is  a  subtle  thing, 
Not  to  be  told,  hard  to  be  understood  : 
Ask  me  some  other  boon  :  I  may  not  grant." 


EASTERN  POETS  UPON  REINCARNATION.    253 

Nachiketas  insists  upon  this,  and  will  not  accept  the 
wealths,  powers,  and  pleasures  which  Death  offers  as 
a  substitute. 

Then  Yama  yielded,  granting  the  great  boon, 

And  spake :  "  Know,  first  of  all,  that  what  is  Good 

And  what  is  Pleasant  —  these  be  separate ! 

By  many  ways,  in  diverse  instances 

Pleasure  and  Good  lay  hold  upon  each  man ! 

Blessed  is  he  who,  choosing  high,  lets  go 

Pleasure  for  Good.     The  Pleasure-seekers  lose 

Life's  end,  so  lived.     The  Pleasant  and  the  Good 

Solicit  men :  the  sage,  distinguishing 

By  understanding,  followeth  the  Good, 

Being  more  excellent.     The  foolish  man 

Cleaveth  to  Pleasure,  seeking  still  to  have, 

To  keep,  enjoy.     The  foolish  ones  who  live 

In  ignorance,  holding  themselves  as  wise 

And  well  instructed,  tread  the  round  of  change 

With  erring  steps,  deluded,  like  the  blind 

Led  by  the  blind.     The  necessary  road 

Which  brings  to  life  unchanging  is  not  seen 

By  such  :  wealth  dazzles  heedless  hearts  :  deceived 

With  shows  of  sense,  they  deem  their  world  is  real 

And  the  unseen  is  naught ;  so,  constantly, 

Fall  they  beneath  my  stroke.     To  reach  to  Being 

Beyond  all  seeming  Being,  to  know  true  life  — 

This  is  not  gained  by  many  ;  seeing  that  few 

So  much  as  hear  of  it,  and  of  those  few 

The  more  part  under standeth  not. 

"  The  uttermost  true  soul  is  ill-perceived 
By  him  who,  unenlightened,  sayeth  :  I 
Am  I :  thou,  thou  ;  and  the  life  divided  :     He 
That  knoweth  life  undifferenced,  declares 
The  spirit,  what  it  is.  One  with  the  All. 
And  this  is  Truth.     But  nowise  shall  the  truth 
Be  compassed,  if  thou  speak  of  small  and  great. 


254    EASTERN  POETS  UPON  REINCARNATION. 

"  Excellent  youth  !  the  knowledge  thou  didst  crave 
Comes  not  with  speech  :  words  are  the  false  world's  signs. 
By  insight  surely  comes  it  if  one  hears. 
Lo !  thou  hast  loved  the  Truth,  and  striven  for  it. 
I  would  that  others,  Nachiketas,  strove  ! 

u  Only  the  wise  who  patiently  do  sever 
Their  thought  from  shows  and  fix  it  upon  truths, 
See  HIM,  the  Perfect  and  Unspeakable, 
Hard  to  be  seen,  retreating,  ever  hid 
Deeper  and  deeper  in  the  uttermost ; 
Whose  house  was  never  entered,  who  abides 
Now  and  before  and  always  ;  and  so  seeing 
Are  freed  from  griefs  and  pleasures." 

"  Make  it  known  to  me,"  he  saith, 
"  Who  is  HE  ?  what  ?  whom  thou  hast  knowledge  of." 

Then  Yama  spake  : 

"  The  answer  whereunto  all  vedas  lead  ; 
The  answer  whereunto  as  penance  strives  ; 
The  answer  whereunto  those  strive  that  live 
As  seekers  after  God  —  hear  this  from  me. 
Who  knoweth  the  word  Om  (which  meaneth  God) 
With  all  its  purports  ;  what  his  heart  would  have 
His  heart  possesseth.     This  of  spoken  speech 
Is  wisest,  deepest,  best,  supremest.     He 
That  speaketh  it,  and  wotteth  what  he  speaks 
Is  worshiped  in  the  place  of  Brahm,  with  Brahm ! 
Also,  the  soul  which  knoweth  thus  itself 
It  is  not  born.     It  doth  not  die.     It  sprang 
From  none,  and  it  begetteth  none.     Unmade, 
Immortal,  changeless,  primal.     I  can  break 
The  body,  but  that  soul  I  cannot  harm." 

"  If  he  that  slayeth  thinks  '  I  slay  '  ;  if  he 
Whom  he  doth  slay  thinks  '  I  am  slain/  then  both    -•* 
Know  not  aright.     That  which  was  life  in  each 
Cannot  be  slain  nor  slay.     The  untouched  soul, 
Greater  than  all  the  worlds  (because  the  worlds 
By  it  subsist)  ;  smaller  than  subtleties 


EASTERN  POETS  UPON  REINCARNATION.    255 

Of  things  minutest ;  last  of  ultimates, 

Sits  in  the  hollow  heart  of  all  that  lives  ! 

Whoso  hath  laid  aside  desire  and  fear, 

His  senses  mastered  and  his  spirit  still, 

Sees  in  the  quiet  light  of  verity 

Eternal,  safe,  majestical  —  his  soul : 

Resting  it  ranges  everywhere  :  asleep 

It  roams  the  world,  unsleeping  :  who,  save  I, 

Know  that  divinest  spirit  as  it  is, 

Glad  beyond  joy,  existing  outside  life  ? 

Beholding  it  in  bodies  bodiless, 

Amid  impermanency  permanent, 

Embracing  all  things,  yet  in  the  midst  of  all 

The  mind  enlightened  casts  its  grief  away  : 

It  is  not  to  be  known  by  knowledge :  man 

Wotteth  it  not  by  wisdom  :  learning  vast 

Halts  short  of  it :  only  by  soul  itself 

Is  soul  perceived  —  when  the  Soul  wills  it  so 

There  shines  no  light  save  its  own  light  to  show 

Itself  unto  itself  :  none  compasseth 

Its  joy  who  is  not  wholly  ceased  from  sin, 

Who  dwells  not  self -controlled,  self-centred,  calm, 

Lord  of  himself.     It  is  not  gotten  else. 

Brahm  hath  it  not  to  give. 

"  The  man  unwise,  unmindful,  evil-lived 
Comes  not  to  that  fixed  place  of  peace  ;  he  falls 
Back  to  the  region  of  sense  life  again. 
The  wise  and  mindful  one,  heart  purified, 
Attaineth  to  the  changeless  Place,  wherefrom 
Never  again  shall  births  renew  for  him. 
Then  hath  he  freedom  over  all  worlds 
And,  if  it  wills  the  region  of  the  Past, 
The  fathers  and  the  mothers  of  the  Past 
Come  to  receive  it ;  and  that  soul  is  glad  : 
And  if  it  wills  the  regions  of  the  Homes, 
The  Brothers  and  the  Sisters  of  the  Homes 


256    EASTERN  POETS  UPON  REINCARNATION. 

Come  to  receive  it ;  and  that  soul  is  glad  : 
And  if  it  wills  the  region  of  the  Friends, 
The  well-beloved  come  to  welcome  it 
With  love  undying  ;  and  that  soul  is  glad. 
And  if  it  wills  a  world  of  grace  and  peace 
Where  garlands  are  and  perfumes  and  delights 
Of  delicate  meats  and  drinks,  music  and  song, 
Lo !  fragrances  and  blossoms  and  delights 
Of  dainty  banquets  and  the  streams  of  song 
Come  to  it ;  and  that  soul  is  glad. 
Whoso  once  perceiveth  HIM  that  is 
Without  a  name,  Unseen,  Impalpable, 
Bodiless,  Timeless,  such  an  one  is  saved, 
Death  hath  not  power  upon  him." 

Although  not  an  Asiatic  poem  in  the  ordinary 
sense,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  place  in  this  cluster  Edwin 
Arnold's  "  Light  of  Asia."  After  the  festival  scene 
in  which  the  prince  distributed  prizes  to  the  maiden 
victors  in  the  sports,  and  his  love  had  centred  upon 
Yasodhara,  the  last  of  the  contestants,  follow  these 
lines  :  — 

Long  after,  when  enlightenment  was  full, 
Lord  Buddha,  being  prayed  why  thus  his  heart 
Took  fire  at  first  glance  of  the  Sakya  girl, 
Answered  :  "  We  were  not  strangers  as  to  us 
And  all  it  seemed  ;  in  ages  long  gone  by 
A  hunter's  son,  playing  with  forest  girls 
By  Yamun's  springs,  where  Nandadevi  stands 
Sate  umpire  while  they  raced  beneath  the  firs 
Like  hares  at  eve  that  run  their  playful  rings ; 
One  with  flower-like  stars  crowned  he,  one  with  long  plumes, 
Plucked  from  the  pheasant  and  the  jungle  cock, 
One  with  fir  apples  ;  but  who  ran  the  last 
Came  first  for  him,  and  unto  her  the  boy 


EASTERN  POETS  UPON  REINCARNATION.     257 

Gave  a  tame  fawn  and  his  heart's  love  beside. 

And  in  the  wood  they  lived  many  glad  years, 

And  in  the  wood  they  undivided  died. 

Lo  !  as  hid  seed  shoots  after  rainless  years, 

So  good  and  evil,  pains  and  pleasures,  hates 

And  loves,  and  all  dead  deeds  come  forth  again 

Bearing  bright  leaves  or  dark,  sweet  fruit  or  sour. 

Thus  was  I  he  and  she  Yasodhara  ; 

And  while  the  wheel  of  birth  and  death  turns  round 

That  which  hath  been  must  be  between  us  two." 

In  other  passages  of  the  same  poem  Buddha  tells 
how  his  athletic  triumph  over  the  suitors  for  Yaso 
dhara,  in  which  she  wore  a  black  and  gold  veil,  was  but 
a  new  version  of  an  ancient  forest  battle,  when  as  a 
tiger  he  conquered  all  the  rival  claimants  for  the 
black  and  gold-striped  tigress  YasOdhara;  how  ages 
before  in  time  of  famine,  when  he  was  a  Brahman,  he 
compassionately  threw  himself  to  a  starving  tigress ; 
and  how  his  final  salvation  of  Yasodhara  by  the  en 
lightened  doctrine  repeated  a  transaction  centuries 
old,  when  he  was  a  pearl  merchant  and  sacrificed  the 
priceless  gem  containing  all  his  fortune  to  rescue  this 
same  wife  Yasodhara  from  hunger. 

A  typical  expression  of  the  Zoroastrian  phase  of 
reincarnation  is  found  in  this  poem  :  — 

FROM  THE  PERSIAN. 

BY    ARCHBISHOP    R.    C.  TRENCH. 

HAPPY  are  you,  starry  brethren,  who  from  heaven  do  not 

roam, 
In  the  eternal  Father's  mansion  from  the  first  have  dwelt 

at  home. 


258    EASTERN  POETS  UPON  REINCARNATION. 

Round  the  Father's  throne  forever  standing  in  his  coun 
tenance, 

Sunning  you,  you  see  the  seven  circling  heavens  around  you 
dance. 

Me  he  has  cast  out  to  exile  in  a  distant  land  to  learn 
How  I  should  love  Him  the  Father,  how  for  that  true  coun 
try  yearn. 

I  lie  here,  a  star  of  heaven,  fallen  upon  this  gloomy  place, 
Scarce  remembering  what  bright  courses  I  was  once  allowed 
to  trace. 

Still  in  dreams  it  comes  upon  me,  that  I  once  on  wings  did 

soar; 
But  or  e'er  my  flight  commences  this  my  dream  must  all  be 

o'er. 

When  the  lark  is  climbing  upward  in  the  sunbeam,  then  I  feel 
Even  as  though  my  spirit  also  hidden  pinions  could  reveal. 

I  a  rosebud  to  this  lower  soil  of  earth  am  fastly  bound, 
And  with  heavenly  dew  besprinkled  still  am  rooted  to  the 
ground. 

Yet  the  life  is  struggling  upward,  stirring  still  with  all  their 

might, 
Yearning  buds  that  cry  to  open  to  the  warmth  and  heavenly 

light. 

From  its  stalk  released,  my  flower  soars  not  yet  a  but 
terfly, 

But  meanwhile  my  fragrant  incense  evermore  I  breathe  on 
high. 

By  my  Gardener  to  his  garden  I  shall  once  transplanted  be, 
There  where  I  have  been  already  written  from  eternity. 


EASTERN  POETS  UPON  REINCARNATION.    259 

Oh,  my  brothers  blooming  yonder,  unto  Him  the  ancient  — 

pray 
That  the  hour  of  my  transplanting  He  will  not  for  long 

delay. 

Hafiz,  the  prince  of  Persian  poets,  figures  the  soul 
as  the  phoenix  alighting  on  Tuba,  the  Tree  of  Life :  — 

My  phoanix  long  ago  secured 

His  nest  in  the  sky-vault's  cope ; 
In  the  body's  cage  immured 

He  was  weary  of  life's  hope. 

Round  and  round  this  heap  of  ashes 

Now  flies  the  bird  amain, 
But  in  that  odorous  niche  of  heaven 

Nestles  the  bird  again. 

Once  flies  he  upward  he  will  perch 

On  Tuba's  golden  bough  ; 
His  home  is  on  that  fruited  arch 

Which  cools  the  blest  below. 

If  over  this  sad  world  of  ours 

His  wings  my  phoanix  spread, 
How  gracious  falls  on  land  and  sea 

The  soul-refreshing  shade ! 

Either  world  inhabits  he, 

Sees  oft  below  him  planets  roll ; 
His  body  is  all  of  air  compact, 

Of  Allah's  love,  his  soul. 

The  following  Sufi  poem  will  illustrate  the  passion 
ate  phase  of  reincarnation  which  appears  in  the  spirit 
ual  absorption  of  the  Mohammedan  mystics.  It  is 


260    EASTERN  POETS  UPON  REINCARNATION. 

not  surprising  that  the  intensity  of  their  rapturous  pi 
ety  has  drawn  among  their  ranks  of  meditative  devo 
tees  the  most  distinguished  religionists,  philosophers, 
and  poets  of  the  whole  Persian  and  Arabian  Orient : 


THE  SUCCESSFUL  SEARCH. 

I  was  ere  a  name  had  been  named  upon  earth,  — 

Ere  one  trace  yet  existed  of  aught  that  has  birth,  — 

When  the  locks  of  the  Loved  One  streamed  forth  for  a  sign, 

And  being  was  none  save  the  Presence  Divine  ! 

Ere  the  veil  of  the  flesh  for  Messiah  was  wrought 

To  the  Godhead  I  bowed  in  prostration  of  thought. 

I  measured  intensely,  I  pondered  with  heed 

(But  ah !  fruitless  my  labor)  the  Cross  and  its  creed. 

To  the  Pagod  I  rushed,  and  the  Magian's  shrine, 

But  my  eye  caught  no  glimpse  of  a  glory  divine  : 

The  reins  of  research  to  the  Caaba  I  bent, 

Whither  hopefully  thronging  the  old  and  young  went ; 

Candasai  and  Hera"t  searched  I  wistfully  through, 

Nor  above  nor  beneath  came  the  Loved  One  to  view ! 

I  toiled  to  the  summit,  wild,  pathless  and  lone, 

Of  the  globe-girding  Kaf,  but  the  Phoenix  had  flown. 

The  seventh  earth  I  traversed,  the  seventh  heaven  explored, 

But  in  neither  discerned  I  the  Court  of  the  Lord. 

I  questioned  the  Pen  and  the  Tablet  of  Fate, 

But  they  whispered  not  where  He  pavilions  his  state. 

My  vision  I  strained,  but  my  God- scanning  eye 

No  trace  that  to  Godhead  belongs  could  descry. 

But  when  I  my  glance  turned  within  my  own  breast, 

Lo  !  the  vainly  sought  Loved  One,  the  Godhead  confessed. 

In  the  whirl  of  its  transport  my  spirit  was  tossed 

Till  each  atom  of  separate  being  I  lost : 

And  the  bright  sun  of  Tanniz  a  madder  than  me 

Or  a  wilder,  hath  never  yet  seen,  nor  shall  see. 


XI. 

ESOTERIC  ORIENTAL  REINCARNATION. 


Life's  thirst  quenches  itself 

With  draughts  which  double  thirst,  but  who  is  wise 
Tears  from  his  soul  this  Trishna,  feeds  his  sense 
No  longer  on  false  shows,  files  his  mind 
To  seek  not,  strive  not,  wrong  not ;  bearing  meek 
All  ills  which  flow  from  foregone  wrongfulness, 
And  so  constraining  passions  that  they  die. 
Thus  grows  he  sinless :   either  never  more 
Needing  to  find  a  body  and  a  place, 
Or  so  informing  what  freer  frame  h  takes 
In  new  existence  that  the  new  toils  prove 
Lighter  and  lighter  not  to  be  at  all, 
Thus  "  finishing  the  path  "  ;  free  from  earth's  cheats ; 
Released  from  all  the  skandhas  of  the  flesh  ; 
Broken  from  ties  —  from  Upadan  —  saved 
From  whirling  on  the  wheel ;  aroused  and  sane 
As  is  a  man  wakened  from  hateful  dreams. 
Till  aching  craze  to  live  ends,  and  life  glides 
Lifeless  —  to  nameless  quiet,  nameless  joy, 
Blessed  NIRVANA  —  sinless,  stirless  rest  — 
That  change  which  never  changes. 

THE  LIGHT  OF  ASIA. 


XI. 

ESOTERIC   ORIENTAL   REINCARNATION. 

THROUGHOUT  the  East  to-day,  as  in  all  past  time, 
the  higher  priesthood  controls  a  spiritual  science  which 
has  been  accumulated  by  long  ages  of  severest  study, 
and  is  concealed  from  the  vulgar  world.  This  is  no 
mere  elaboration  of  fanciful  philosophy,  as  is  much  of 
eastern  metaphysics,  patiently  spun  from  secluded 
speculation  like  the  mediaeval  scholasticism  of  Europe. 
It  is  a  purely  rational  development  of  psychology  by 
the  aid  of  scientific  inquiry.  Through  protracted 
investigation  and  crucial  tests  repeatedly  applied  to 
actual  experience  and  through  retrospective  and  pro 
phetic  insight  they  have  probed  many  of  the  secrets  of 
the  soul.  The  falsity  of  materialism  and  the  all-com 
manding  power  of  spirit  are  proven  beyond  a  cavil. 
How  the  soul  is  independent  of  the  physical  body, 
sometimes  leaving  and  returning  to  it,  and  moulding 
it  to  suit  its  needs  ;  how  all  nature  is  but  a  vast  family 
embodied  in  physical  clothing  and  inextricably  inter 
laced  in  living  brotherhood,  from  lowest  atom  to  sub- 
limest  archangel ;  how  the  gradual  evolution  of  all 
races  proceeds  through  revolving  cycles  in  a  constantly 
ascending  order  of  things ;  —  these  and  many  other 
stupendous  spiritual  facts  are  to  them  familiarly 
known.  These  masters  of  human  mystery  hold  them 
selves  apart  from  the  populace  and  seldom  appear  to 


264      ESOTERIC   ORIENTAL  REINCARNATION. 

any  but  their  special  disciples,  but  they  are  universally 
believed  in  by  the  natives  of  India,  as  the  miraculous 
evidences  of  their  penetration  into  nature's  heart 
have  been  seen  of  many.  Moreover,  ocular  demonstra 
tion  of  the  existence  and  phenomenal  capacities  of 
these  Mahatmas  has  frequently  been  given  to  well- 
known  officials  and  reputable  foreigners,  whose  testi 
mony  is  on  record. 

Although  these  highest  adepts  keep  most  of  their 
discoveries  secret,  preferring  to  enlighten  mankind  in 
directly  and  by  a  wholesome  gradual  uplifting,  occa 
sional  expressions  have  been  given  of  the  occult  phi 
losophy  derived  from  their  funds  of  science,  and  from 
these  we  abridge  what  they  are  said  to  teach  concern 
ing  reincarnation.  Even  in  the  books  containing  their 
doctrine,  as  "  Man,"  "  Esoteric  Buddhism,"  "  Light 
on  the  Path,"  and  "  Through  the  Gates  of  Gold,"1  we 
surmise  that  portions  relating  to  specific  details  are 
more  or  less  arbitrary  and  exoteric.  Therefore  we 
confine  our  attention  to  a  synopsis  of  their  central 
principles  of  the  subject. 

These  masters  tell  us  that  man  is  composed  of  seven 
principles  intricately  interwoven  so  as  to  constitute  a 
unit  and  yet  capable  of  partial  separation.  This  sep 
tenary  division  is  only  a  finer  analysis  of  the  common 
triple  distinctions,  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  and  runs 
through  the  entire  universe.  The  development  of 
man  is  in  the  order  of  these  divisions,  from  body  to 
spirit  and  from  spirit  to  body,  in  a  continual  round  of 
incarnations.  The  progress  may  be  best  illustrated 
by  a  seven-coiled  spiral  which  sweeps  with  a  wider 
curve  at  every  ascent.  The  spiral  is  not  a  steady  up 
ward  incline,  but  at  one  side  sags  down  into  material- 

1  Beside  these  recent  English  books  the  Appendix  gives  many 
older  ones. 


ESOTERIC  ORIENTAL  REINCARNATION.      265 

ity  and  at  the  other  side  rises  into  spirituality,  —  the 
material  portion  of  e'ach  ring  being  the  lowest  side  of 
its  curve,  but  always  higher  than  the  corresponding 
previous  descent.  Furthermore,  each  ring  of  the  spiral 
is  itself  a  seven-fold  spiral,  and  each  of  these  again  is 
a  seven-fold  spiral,  and  so  on  to  an  indefinite  number 
of  subdivisions. 

The  evolutionary  process  requires  for  its  complete 
unfoldment  a  number  of  planets  l  corresponding  to  the 
seven  principles.  On  each  of  these  planets  a  long  series 
of  lives  is  necessary  before  one  can  advance  to  the  next. 
After  a  full  circuit  is  made  the  course  must  be  re 
peated  again  on  a  higher  plane,  until  many  successive 
series  of  the  planetary  rotations,  each  involving  hun 
dreds  of  separate  lives,  has  developed  the  individual 
into  the  perfect  fullness  of  experience.  Some  of  these 
planets  are  unknown  to  astronomy,  being  of  too  fine  a 
materiality  for  our  present  perceptions,  and  on  them 
man  is  very  unlike  his  terrestrial  appearance. 

Since  the  first  human  souls  began  their  career 
through  these  cycles  they  have  moved  along  the  en 
tire  planetary  chain  three  times,  and  now,  for  the 
fourth  time,  we  have  reached  the  fourth  planet  — Earth. 

1  In  the  explicit  phrasing  from  which  this  section  is  derived, 
there  are  mentioned  seven  planets,  through  each  of  which  the  soul 
makes  seven  rounds,  each  round  including  seven  races,  and  each 
race  seven  sub-races,  and  these  again  containing  seven  branches, 
multiplying  the  whole  number  of  lives  into  a  compound  of  seven. 
Everywhere  the  sacred  number  appears,  but  contrary  to  the 
strict  interpretation  of  many  students  of  oriental  thought,  we  are 
certain  that  these  figures  are  only  symbols.  Just  as  the  spec 
trum  might  be  split  into  only  three  essential  components,  or  into 
a  much  larger  number  than  seven,  so  the  dissection  of  these 
courses  of  the  soul  into  any  one  number  seems  to  be  an  arbitrary 
mathematical  representation  of  the  fact  that  each  division  must 
include  such  components  as  will  fit  together  in  one  indissoluble 
entirety. 


266      ESOTERIC   ORIENTAL  REINCARNATION. 

We  are  therefore,  roughly  speaking,  about  half  devel 
oped,  physically.  During  the  previous  series  of  earthly 
inhabitations  we  were  exceedingly  different  from  our 
present  form,  and  during  the  later  ones  we  shall  enter 
upon  still  more  marvelous  stages.  With  each  grand 
series  (or  round)  a  dimension  is  added  to  man's  con 
ception  of  space.  The  fourth  dimension  will  be  a 
common  fact  of  consciousness  before  we  complete  the 
present  set  of  earthly  lives.  Before  reaching  the  per 
fection  attainable  here  at  each  round  every  soul  must 
pass  through  many  minor  circuits.  We  are  said  to  be 
in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  circuit  (or  race)  of  our 
fourth  round,  and  the  evolution  of  this  fifth  race  began 
about  a  million  years  ago.  Each  race  is  subdivided, 
and  each  of  these  divisions  again  dissected,  making 
the  total  number  of  lives  allotted  to  each  round  very 
large.  No  human  being  can  escape  the  earth's  at 
traction  until  these  are  accomplished,  with  only  rare 
exceptions  among  those  who  by  special  merit  have  out 
stripped  the  others  :  for  although  all  began  alike,  the 
contrasted  uses  of  the  universal  opportunities  have 
produced  all  the  variations  now  existing  in  the  human 
race.  The  geometrical  progression  of  characteristics 
selected  by  each  soul  has  resulted  in  vast  divergences. 

Long  before  the  twilight  of  our  birth  into  the  pres 
ent  life  we  passed  through  an  era  of  immense  duration 
on  this  planet  as  spiritual  beings,  gradually  descending 
into  matter  to  enter  the  bodies  which  were  developed 
up  from  the  highest  animal  type  for  our  reception. 
Our  evolution  therefore  is  a  double  one  —  on  the  spir 
itual  side  from  ethereal  races  of  infinite  pedigree,  and 
on  the  physical  side  from  the  lower  animals. 

In  the  first  earthly  circuit  of  the  last  great  series 
(or  round)  we  passed  through  seven  ethereal  sub-races. 


ESOTERIC   ORIENTAL  REINCARNATION.      267 

Each  of  these  developed  one  astral  sense,  until  the  sev 
enth  sub-race  had  seven  senses.  What  the  sixth  and 
seventh  were  we  cannot  imagine,  but  in  time  we  shall 
know,  as  we  are  at  present  tracing  over  again  that 
path  more  perfectly,  and  have  reached  only  the  fifth  of 
the  seven  stages  on  this  circuit.  The  first  of  these 
seven  sub-races  slowly  acquired  the  sense  of  physical 
sight.  All  the  other  parts  of  the  sensuous  nature 
were  in  shadowy  latency.  They  had  no  notion  of  dis 
tance,  solidity,  sound,  or  smell.  Even  colors  were  hid 
den  from  the  earliest  men,  all  being  white  at  first. 
Each  incarnation  in  this  race  developed  more  of  the 
prismatic  hues  in  their  rainbow  order,  beginning  with 
red.  But  the  one  sense  of  sight  was  so  spiritual  that 
it  amounted  to  clairvoyancy.  The  second  sub-race  in 
herited  sight  and  developed  newly  touch.  Through 
the  repeated  lives  in  this  rank  the  sense  of  feeling  be 
came  wonderfully  delicate  and  acute,  possessing  the 
psychometric  quality  and  revealing  the  inner  as  well 
as  the  outer  nature  of  the  things  to  which  it  was  ap 
plied.  The  third  sub-race  attained  hearing,  and  its 
spiritual  development  of  this  sense  was  so  keen  that 
the  most  subtle  sounds,  as  the  budding  leaf  and  the 
motion  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  was  clearly  perceived. 
The  fourth  sub-race  added  smell  to  the  other  three 
senses,  and  the  fifth  entered  into  taste.  The  sixth  and 
seventh  unfolded  the  remaining  senses,  which  are  be 
yond  our  present  ken. 

In  the  second  circuit  (or  race)  the  soul  began  once 
more  with  a  single  sense  and  passed  through  another 
course  of  sub-races,  rehearsing  the  scale  of  the  senses 
with  a  larger  control  of  them,  though  less  spiritual. 
But  even  in  the  third  circuit  the  repeated  unfoldments 
of  the  senses  toward  their  physical  destiny  had  still 


268      ESOTERIC  ORIENTAL  REINCARNATION. 

retained  a  large  degree  of  spiritual  quality,  as  the  men 
themselves  were  still  ethereal. 

Our  first  terrestrial  appearance  in  the  present  cir 
cuit  (the  fifth  race)  was  in  spiritual  form,  having  only 
astral  bodies.  This  primitive  ethereal  race  occupied 
the  earth  long  before  it  was  geologically  prepared  for 
the  historical  human  races.  The  development  of  the 
physical  senses  in  their  present  form  marks  the  stages 
of  our  reincarnation  in  the  present  race,  which  is  called 
the  descent  into  matter.  Each  turn  in  this  circuit 
has  carried  forward  the  evolution  of  the  senses  in  a 
fixed  order,  until  now  we  have  a  firmer  hold  than 
ever  before  upon  those  five  which  indicate  the  extent 
of  our  progress  in  the  present  stage.  Our  repeated 
re-births  have  obscured  the  long  vista  of  the  ages 
through  which  we  have  traveled  to  this  point,  run 
ning  through  the  seven-toned  gamut  over  and  over 
again,  first  in  broad  rough  outline,  then  finishing  the 
details  more  carefully  at  each  iteration.  Their  early 
spiritual  forms  have  gradually  given  way  to  the  mod 
ern  physical  forms,  but  some  persons  still  retain  a  por 
tion  of  those  old  guises  that  once  were  universal,  in 
certain  peculiarly  delicate  senses  known  as  second 
sight,  psychometry,  clairaudence,  tasting  through  the 
fingers,  and  smelling  like  a  hound.  In  our  present 
era  the  sense  of  taste  has  become  the  last  and  most 
fully  developed  and  the  characteristic  sense.  At  first 
the  body  did  not  require  food  ;  then  becoming  grosser 
it  inhaled  it  with  the  air,  and  as  the  condition  ap 
proached  which  now  prevails,  man  became  an  eating 
animal  and  is  grown  to  an  epicure.  When  we  shall 
have  completed  the  full  number  of  rounds  on  this 
earth  we  shall  have  not  only  the  other  two  senses,  but 
shall  govern  all  seven  in  a  triple  form  as  physical, 
astral,  and  spiritual. 


ESOTERIC  ORIENTAL  REINCARNATION.      269 

The  most  important  fact  in  our  evolution,  and  the 
cause  of  the  present  phase  of  existence,  with  its  blind 
ing  encasements  of  matter  and  evil,  is  the  growth  of 
a  personal  will.  This  is  the  forbidden  fruit  of  the 
Bible  Paradise.  It  originated  many  cycles  back  and 
gradually  flourished,  until  its  impress  was  stamped 
upon  all  our  fellow-creatures.  At  first  starting  as 
selfish  desires,  then  urging  motives  for  rivalry,  it  re 
sulted  in  fierce  contest  between  man  and  man.  The 
concentration  of  the  soul  in  selfish  energy  clouded  the 
inner  spiritual  nature,  destroyed  the  trace  of  ethereal 
descent,  and  buried  us  deep  in  the  material  world. 
But  this  "  fall  into  matter  "  is  really  but  a  necessary 
curve  of  the  spiral,  and  is  the  dawn  of  a  brighter  day 
such  as  humanity  has  never  seen. 

Death  marks  the  origin  of  the  turn  which  human 
evolution  is  at  present  describing.  The  earlier  races 
had  no  sense  of  age  and  did  not  die.  Like  Enoch,  they 
"  walked  with  God "  into  the  next  period  of  their 
life.  At  present  when  a  man  dies  his  ego  holds  the 
impetus  of  his  earthly  desires  until  they  are  purged 
away  from  that  higher  self,  which  then  passes  into  a 
spiritual  state,  where  all  the  psychic  and  spiritual 
forces  it  has  generated  during  the  earthly  life  are  un 
folded.  It  progresses  on  these  planes  until  the  dor 
mant  physical  impulses  assert  themselves  and  curve 
the  soul  around  to  another  incarnation,  whose  form  is 
the  resultant  of  the  earlier  lives. 

The  successive  appearances  of  the  soul  upon  one  or 
many  earths  are  a  series  of  personalities  which  are 
the  various  masks  assumed  by  one  individuality,  the 
numerous  parts  played  by  one  actor.  In  each  birth 
the  personality  differs  from  the  prior  and  later  exist 
ence,  but  the  one  line  of  individual  continuity  runs 


270      ESOTERIC   ORIENTAL  REINCARNATION. 

unbroken  through  all  the  countless  forms ;  and  as 
the  soul  enters  into  its  highest  development  it  gradu 
ally  comprehends  the  whole  course  of  forgotten  paths 
which  have  led  to  the  summit. 

The  time  spent  by  each  soul  in  physical  life  is  only 
a  small  fraction  of  the  whole  period  elapsing  before 
the  next  incarnation.  The  larger  part  of  the  time  is 
passed  in  the  spiritual  existence  following  death,  in 
which  the  physical  desires  and  spiritual  qualities  de 
rived  from  the  earthly  life  determine  the  condition 
of  being,  until  the  impetus  of  unconscious  character 
brings  the  individual  into  another  earthly  life. 


XII. 

TRANSMIGRATION  THROUGH  ANIMALS. 


All  things  are  but  altered,  nothing  dies, 
And  here  and  there  th'  unbodied  spirit  flies 
By  time  and  force  or  sickness  dispossessed 
And  lodges  where  it  lights  in  man  or  beast. 

PYTHAGORAS,  in  DRYDEN'S  Ovid. 

What  is  the  opinion  of  Pythagoras  concerning  wild-fowl  ? 
That  the  soul  of  our  grandam  might  haply  inhabit  a  bird. 
What  thinkest  thou  of  his  opinion  ? 

I  think  nobly  of  the  soul,  and  no  way  approve  of  his  opinion. 

SHAKESPEARE. 

Whoever  leaves  off  being  virtuous  ceases  to  be  human  ;  and  since  he 
cannot  attain  to  a  divine  nature  he  is  turned  into  a  beast. — BOETHIUS. 

Be  not  under  any  brutal  metempsychosis  while  thou  livest  and 
walkest  about  erectly  under  the  form  of  man.  Leave  it  not  disputed 
at  last  how  thou  hast  predominantly  passed  thy  days.  —  SIR  THOMAS 
BROWNE. 

That  which  has  saved  India  and  Egypt  through  so  many  mis 
fortunes  and  preserved  their  fertility  is  neither  the  Nile  nor  the 
Ganges;  it  is  the  respect  for  animal  life  by  the  mild  and  gentle 
heart  of  man.  —  MICHELET. 

Oh!  the  beautiful  time  will,  must  come  when  the  beast-loving 
Brahmin  shall  dwell  in  the  cold  north  and  make  it  warm,  when  man 
who  now  honors  humanity  shall  also  begin  to  spare  and  finally  to 
protect  the  animated  ascending  and  descending  scale  of  living  crea 
tures.  —  RICHTER. 

As  many  hairs  as  grow  on  the  beast,  so  many  similar  deaths  shall 
the  man  who  slays  that  beast  for  his  own  satisfaction  in  this  world 
pass  through  in  the  next  from  birth  to  birth.  —  LAWS  OF  MANU. 


XII. 

TRANSMIGRATION  THROUGH  ANIMALS. 

THE  idea  of  reincarnation  is  so  intimately  connected 
and  so  generally  identified  with  the  notion  that  human 
souls  sometimes  descend  into  lower  animals,  that  it  is 
necessary  for  us  to  thoroughly  understand  the  exoteric 
and  gross  nature  of  this  grotesque  phrasing  of  a  sol 
emn  and  beautiful  truth. 

All  the  philosophies  and  religions  teaching  rein 
carnation  seem  to  teach  also  the  wandering  of  hu 
man  souls  through  brute  forms.  It  was  the  common 
belief  in  Egypt  and  still  is  in  Asia.  All  animals  were 
sacred  to  the  Egyptians  as  the  masks  of  fallen  gods, 
and  therefore  worshiped.  The  same  reverence  for 
all  creatures  still  reigns  in  the  East.  The  Hindu 
regards  everything  in  the  vast  tropical  jungle  of  illu 
sion  as  a  human  soul  in  disguise.  The  Laws  of  Maim 
state  :  "  For  sinful  acts  mostly  corporeal,  a  man  shall 
assume  after  death  a  vegetable  or  mineral  form  ;  for 
such  acts  mostly  verbal,  the  form  of  a  bird  or  beast ; 
for  acts  mostly  mental,  the  lowest  of  human  condi 
tions." 

"  A  priest  who  has  drunk  spirituous  liquors  shall 
migrate  into  the  form  of  a  smaller  or  larger  worm  or 
insect,  of  a  moth  or  some  ravenous  animal. 

"  If  a  man  steal  grain  in  the  husk  he  shall  be  born 


274     TRANSMIGRATION  THROUGH  ANIMALS. 

a  rat ;  if  a  yellow-mixed  metal,  a  gander ;  if  water,  a 
plava  or  diver ;  if  honey,  a  great  stinging  gnat ;  if 
milk,  a  crow ;  if  expressed  juice,  a  dog ;  if  clarified 
butter,  an  ichneumon  weasel. 

"  A  Brahman  killer  enters  the  body  of  a  dog,  a 
bear,  an  ass,  a  tiger,  or  a  serpent." 

Not  only  does  this  conception  permeate  the  do 
mains  of  Brahmamsm  and  Buddhism ;  it  prevailed  in 
Persia  before  the  time  of  Zoroaster  as  since.  Pythag 
oras  is  said  to  have  obtained  it  in  Babylon  from  the 
Magi,  and  through  him  it  scattered  widely  through 
Greece  and  Italy.  More  closely  than  with  any  other 
teacher,  this  false  doctrine  is  associated  with  the  sage 
of  Crotona,  who  is  said  to  have  recognized  the  voice 
of  a  deceased  friend  in  the  howling  of  a  beaten  dog. 
Plato  seems  to  endorse  it  also.  Plotinus  says :  "  Those 
who  have  exercised  human  faculties  are  born  again 
men.  Those  who  have  used  only  their  senses  go  into 
the  bodies  of  brutes,  and  especially  into  those  of  fero 
cious  beasts,  if  they  have  yielded  to  bursts  of  anger ; 
so  that  even  in  this  case,  the  difference  between  the 
bodies  that  they  animate  conforms  to  the  difference  of 
their  propensities.  Those  who  have  sought  only  to 
gratify  their  lust  and  appetite  pass  into  the  bodies  of 
lascivious  and  gluttonous  animals.  Finally,  those  who 
have  degraded  their  senses  by  disuse  are  compelled  to 
vegetate  in  the  plants.  Those  who  have  loved  music 
to  excess  and  yet  have  lived  pure  lives,  go  into  the 
bodies  of  melodious  birds.  Those  who  have  ruled 
tyrannically  become  eagles.  Those  who  have  spoken 
lightly  of  heavenly  things,  keeping  their  eyes  always 
turned  toward  heaven,  are  changed  into  birds  which 
always  fly  toward  the  upper  air.  He  who  has  acquired 
civic  virtues  becomes  a  man  ;  if  he  has  not  these  vir- 


TRANSMIGRATION  THROUGH  ANIMALS.    275 

tues  he  is  transformed  into  a  domestic  animal,  like  the 
bee." 

Some  of  the  church  fathers  also  believed  it.  Pro- 
clus  and  Syrianus  argued  that  the  brute  kept  its  own 
soul,  but  that  the  human  soul  which  passed  into  the 
brute  body  was  bound  within  the  animal  soul.  Nearly 
all  mythology  contains  this  view  of  transmigration  in 
some  form.  In  the  old  Norse  and  German  religions 
the  soul  is  poetically  represented  as  entering  certain 
lower  forms,  as  a  rose,  a  pigeon,  etc.,  for  a  short  period 
before  assuming  the  divine  abode.  The  Druids  of  old 
Gaul  also  taught  it.  The  Welsh  bards  tell  us  that  the 
souls  of  men  transmigrate  into  the  bodies  of  those  ani 
mals  whose  habits  and  characters  they  most  resemble, 
till,  after  a  circuit  of  such  penitential  miseries,  they 
are  purified  for  the  celestial  presence.  They  mention 
three  circles  of  existence :  the  circle  of  the  all-inclos 
ing  circle  which  holds  nothing  alive  or  dead  but  God  ; 
the  second  circle,  that  of  felicity,  in  which  men  travel 
after  they  have  meritoriously  passed  through  their  ter 
restrial  changes ;  the  circle  of  evil,  in  which  human 
nature  passes  through  the  varying  stages  of  existence 
which  it  must  undergo  before  it  is  qualified  to  inhabit 
the  circle  of  felicity,  and  this  includes  the  three  in 
felicities  of  necessity,  oblivion,  and  death,  with  frequent 
trials  of  the  lower  animal  lives.1  "  Sir  Paul  Kycant 
gives  us  an  account  of  several  well-disposed  Moham 
medans  that  purchase  the  freedom  of  any  little  bird 
they  see  confined  to  a  cage,  and  think  they  merit  as 

1  This  corresponds  to  the  Hindu  triple  existence  mentioned  in 
the  Laws  of  Mann  :  "  Souls  endued  with  goodness  attain  always 
the  state  of  deities  ;  those  filled  with  ambitious  passions,  the 
condition  of  men  ;  and  those  immersed  in  darkness,  the  nature 
of  beasts.  This  is  the  threefold  order  of  transmigration." 


276     TRANSMIGRATION   THROUGH  ANIMALS. 

much  by  it  as  we  should  do  here  by  ransoming  any  of 
our  countrymen  from  their  captivity  at  Algiers.  The 
reason  is  because  they  consider  every  animal  as  a 
brother  or  sister  in  disguise,  and  therefore  think  them 
selves  obliged  to  extend  their  charity  to  them,  though 
under  such  mean  circumstances.  They  tell  you  that 
the  soul  of  a  man,  when  he  dies,  immediately  passes 
into  the  body  of  another  man,  or  some  brute  which  he 
resembled  in  his  humor,  or  his  fortune,  when  he  was 
one  of  us."  l  Pythagorean  transmigration  is  appar 
ent  also  in  the  natives  of  Mexico,  who  think  that  the 
souls  of  persons  of  rank  after  death  inhabit  the  bodies 
of  beautiful,  sweet  singing  birds  and  the  nobler 
quadrupeds,  while  the  souls  of  inferior  persons  pass  into 
weasels,  beetles,  and  other  low  creatures.  Among  'the 
negroes,  the  Sandwich  Islanders,  the  Tasmanians,  in 
short,  among  nearly  all  the  world  outside  of  Chris 
tendom,  this  faith  rules  unquestioned. 

The  lowest  forms  of  this  belief  are  found  among  the 
tribes  of  Africa  and  America,  which  think  that  the 
soul  immediately  after  death  must  seek  out  a  new  tene 
ment,  and,  if  need  be,  enter  the  body  of  an  animal. 
Some  of  the  Africans  assume  that  the  soul  will  choose 
the  body  of  a  person  of  similar  rank  to  its  former  one, 
and  therefore  bury  the  dead  near  the  houses  of  their 
relatives,  enabling  the  unbodied  souls  to  occupy 
their  newborn  children.  Sometimes  holes  are  dug  in 
the  grave  to  facilitate  the  soul's  egress,,  and  the  house- 
doors  are  left  open  for  its  admission.  The  Druses 
hold  firmly  to  the  theory  of  transmigration.  The 
folk-lore  of  all  nations  has  various  ways  of  telling  how 
the  soul  of  a  man  can  inhabit  an  animal's  body,  in 
stories  of  wehr-wolves,  swan-maidens,  mermaids,  etc. 
1  From  Addison's  Spectator. 


TRANSMIGRATION  THROUGH  ANIMALS.    277 

In  many  parts  of  Europe  the  belief  in  the  man-wolf 
still  flourishes  in  connection  with  a  crazy  person,  or 
a  monomaniac,  who  is  said  to  be  transformed  into 
the  brute  nature.  Northern  Europe  receives  this 
superstition  as  the  man-bear.  In  India  it  is  the  man- 
tiger  ;  in  Abyssinia,  the  man-hyena  ;  in  South  Africa, 
the  man-lion  ;  each  country  associating  the  depraved 
human  nature,  which  sometimes  runs  riot  as  an  epi 
demic  mania,  with  the  animal  most  dreaded. 

But  it  is  all  a  coarse  symbol  caricaturing  the  inner 
vital  truth  of  reincarnation,  and  springing  from  the 
striking  resemblance  between  men  and  animals,  in 
feature  and  disposition,  in  voice  and  mien.  The  intel 
ligence  and  kindness  of  the  beasts  approaching  near 
to  human  character,  and  the  brutality  of  some  men, 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  both  races  were  closely 
enough  related  to  exchange  souls.  As  an  English 
writer  says  :  "  A  judicious  critic  or  observant  reader 
will  scarce  allow  that  more  than  four  or  five  in  the 
long  catalogue  of  Roman  emperors  had  any  human 
ity  ;  and  although  they  might  perhaps  have  a  just 
claim  to  be  styled  Lords  of  the  Earth,  they  had  no 
right  to  the  title  of  Man.  There  is  an  excellent  dis 
sertation  in  Erasmus  on  the  princely  qualities  of  the 
eagle  and  the  lion ;  wherein  that  great  author  has  de 
monstrated  that  emperors  and  kings  are  very  justly 
represented  by  those  animals,  or  that  there  must  be  a 
similarity  in  their  souls,  as  all  their  actions  are  simi 
lar  and  correspondent."  l  Emerson  has  a  paragraph 
upon  this  in  his  essay  on  Demonology :  "  Animals 
have  been  called  '  the  dreams  of  nature.'  Perhaps  for 

1  Dr.  William  King,  in  the  Dreamer,  a  series  of  satirical 
dreams,  which  humorously  illustrate  the  alleged  doctrine  of 
Pythagoras  and  Plato,  as  well  as  the  abuses  of  religion,  etc. 


278     TRANSMIGRATION  THROUGH  ANIMALS. 

a  conception  of  their  consciousness  we  may  go  to  our 
own  dreams.  In  a  dream  we  have  the  instinctive  obe 
dience,  the  same  torpidity  of  the  highest  power,  the 
same  unsurprised  assent  to  the  monstrous,  as  these 
metamorphosed  men  exhibit.  Our  thoughts  in  a 
stable  or  in  a  menagerie,  on  the  other  hand,  may  well 
remind  us  of  our  dreams.  What  comparison  do  these 
imprisoning  forms  awaken !  You  may  catch  the 
glance  of  a  dog  sometimes  which  lays  a  kind  of  claim 
to  sympathy  and  brotherhood.  What!  somewhat  of 
me  down  there  ?  Does  he  know  it  ?  Can  he,  too,  as 
I,  go  out  of  himself,  see  himself,  perceive  relations  ? 
We  fear  lest  the  poor  brute  should  gain  one  dreadful 
glimpse  of  his  condition.  It  was  in  this  glance  that 
Ovid  got  the  hint  of  his  metamorphoses ;  Calidasa,  of 
his  transmigration  of  souls.  For  these  fables  are  our 
own  thoughts  carried  out.  What  keeps  these  wild 
tales  in  circulation  for  thousands  of  years?  What 
but  the  wild  fact  to  which  they  suggest  some  approxi 
mation  of  theory?  Nor  is  the  fact  quite  solitary,  for 
in  varieties  of  our  own  species  where  organization 
seems  to  predominate  over  the  genius  of  man,  in  Kal 
muck  or  Malay  or  Flathead  Indian,  we  are  sometimes 
pained  by  the  same  feeling ;  and  sometimes,  too,  the 
sharp-witted  prosperous  white  man  awakens  it.  In  a 
mixed  assembly  we  have  chanced  to  see  not  only  a 
glance  of  Abdiel,  so  grand  and  keen,  but  also  in  other 
faces  the  features  of  the  mink,  of  the  bull,  of  the  rat, 
and  the  barn-door  fowl.  You  think,  could  the  man 
overlook  his  own  condition,  he  could  not  be  restrained 
from  suicide." 

The  remarkable  mental  cleverness  of  the  highest 
animals,  the  cunning  of  the  fox,  the  tiger's  fierceness, 
the  serpent's  meanness,  the  dog's  fidelity,  seem  to  be 


TRANSMIGRATION  THROUGH  ANIMALS.    279 

human  traits  in  other  forms,  and  the  animal  qualities 
are  striking  enough  in  many  men  for  them  to  be  fitly 
described  as  a  fox,  a  hog,  a  snake,  etc.  The  charac 
teristics  of  animals  are  accurately  termed  in  expres 
sions  first  applied  to  mankind,  and  the  community  of 
disposition  between  the  erect  and  the  debased  animal 
creation  has  furnished  words  for  human  qualities  from 
the  lower  orders  of  life,  —  as  leonine,  canine,  vulpine, 
etc.  Briefly,  "  the  rare  humanity  of  some  animals  and 
the  notorious  animality  of  some  men  "  first  suggested 
the  idea  of  interchanging  their  souls  among  the  primi 
tive  peoples,  and  has  nourished  it  ever  since  among  the 
oldest  portion  of  the  race  as  a  vulgar  illustration  of  a 
vital  reality. 

As  the  fruits  of  this  idea  are  beneficial,  it  was 
firmly  held  by  the  priests  and  philosophers  as  a  moral 
fable,  through  which  they  popularly  taught  not  only 
reincarnation,  but  respect  for  virtue  and  for  life.  It 
wrought  a  poetic  love  of  nature  in  the  masses  such  as 
has  never  been  seen  under  any  other  influence  —  and 
which  Christianity  has  strangely  failed  to  establish. 
Lecky  candidly  says  in  his  "  European  Morals  "  :  "  In 
the  inculcation  of  humanity  to  animals  on  a  wide  scale 
the  Mohammedans  and  the  Brahmins  have  considera 
bly  surpassed  the  Christians." 

To  the  eastern  mind  life  is  a  stream  flowing  through 
endless  transformations,  and  everything  containing  it 
is  divine,  from  the  commonest  onion  to  the  crowned 
king ;  and  as  all  living  things  are  the  possible  case 
ments  of  human  souls,  it  is  the  height  of  impiety  to 
abuse  anything.  The  kindness  of  the  Orient  toward 
the  brute  creation  is  a  beautiful  comment  upon  the 
genuineness  of  this  faith.  The  mercy  due  from  man 
to  his  friends  the  lower  animals  is  a  noble  bequest 


280     TRANSMIGRATION  THROUGH  ANIMALS. 

which  has  there  been  treasured  for  the  world.  As 
the  wholesome  lesson  of  transmigration,  Asia  has  thor 
oughly  learned  that 

He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 

All  things  both  great  and  small, 
For  the  dear  Lord  who  loveth  us 

He  made  and  loveth  all. 

But  the  intelligent  leaders  of  oriental  thought  were 
far  from  believing  transmigration  literally.  The  oc 
cult  theory  of  the  priests  of  Isis,  like  that  of  the  Brah- 
mans,  Buddhists,  and  Chaldeans,  never  really  held  that 
human  souls  inhabit  animals,  or  that  animal  souls  oc 
cupy  men,  although  many  orientalists  have  not  pene 
trated  beyond  this  outer  court  of  eastern  doctrine.  It 
was  simply  an  allegorical  gospel  for  the  masses  with 
a  double  purpose,  —  to  picture  the  inner  truth  which 
acute  thinkers  would  reach  and  which  the  crowds  need 
not  know,  and  to  instill  respect  for  all  life.  The 
Egyptian  priesthood  adopted  three  styles  of  teaching 
all  doctrine.  The  vulgar  religion  of  the  populace  was 
a  crude  shaping  of  the  priestly  thought.  The  priests 
of  the  outer  temple  received  the  half-veiled  tenets 
of  initiates.  But  only  the  hierophants  of  the  inner 
temple,  after  final  initiation,  were  allowed  to  know 
the  pure  truth.  The  same  triple  shaping  of  the  cen 
tral  thought,  adapted  to  the  audience,  was  followed 
by  Pythagoras,  Plato,  and  all  the  great  masters.  Al 
though  the  name  of  Pythagoras  is  synonymous  with 
the  idea  of  soul-wandering  through  animals,  a  careful 
perusal  of  the  fragments  of  his  writings,  and  of  his 
disciples'  books,  shows  that  he  tremendously  realized 
the  fact  that  souls  must  always,  by  all  the  forces  of 
the  universe,  find  an  adequate  expression  of  their 


TRANSMIGRATION  THROUGH  ANIMALS.     281 

strongest  nature,  and  that  it  would  be  as  impossible 
for  a  gallon  to  be  contained  in  a  pint  measure,  as  for 
a  human  spirit  to  inhabit  an  animal  body.  That  the 
teaching  of  Pythagoras  on  this  point  was  purely  alle 
gorical  is  proven  by  the  abridgment  of  his  philosophy 
given  by  his  disciple  Hierocles  :  "  The  man  who  has 
separated  himself  from  a  brutal  life  by  the  right  use 
of  reason,  purified  himself  as  much  as  is  possible  from 
excess  of  passions,  and  by  this  become  a  man  from 
a  wild  beast,  shall  become  a  God  from  a  man,  as  far 
as  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  become  a  God.  .  .  .  We 
can  only  cure  our  tendency  downwards  by  the  power 
that  leads  upwards,  by  a  ready  submission  to  God, 
by  a  total  conversion  to  the  divine  law.  The  end  of 
the  Pythagorean  doctrine  is  to  be  all  wings  for  the 
reception  of  divine  good,  that  when  the  time  of  death 
comes  we  may  leave  behind  us  upon  earth  the  mor 
tal  body,  and  be  ready  girt  for  our  heavenly  journey. 
Then  we  are  restored  to  our  primitive  state.  This  is 
the  most  beautiful  end." 

Hierocles  also  comments  on  the  Golden  Verses  of 
Pythagoras :  "  If  through  a  shameful  ignorance  of  the 
immortality  annexed  to  our  soul,  a  man  should  persuade 
himself  that  his  soul  dies  with  his  body,  he  expects 
what  can  never  happen ;  in  like  manner  he  who  ex 
pects  that  after  his  death  he  shall  put  011  the  body  of 
a  beast,  and  become  an  animal  without  reason,  because 
of  his  vices,  or  a  plant  because  of  his  dullness  and  stu 
pidity,  —  such  a  man,  I  say,  acting  quite  contrary  to 
those  who  transform  the  essence  of  man  into  one  of  the 
superior  beings,  is  infinitely  deceived,  and  absolutely 
ignorant  of  the  essential  form  of  the  soul,  which  can 
never  change  ;  for  being  and  continuing  always  man, 
it  is  only  said  to  become  God  or  beast  by  virtue  or 


282     TRANSMIGRATION   THROUGH  ANIMALS. 

vice,  though  it  cannot  be  either  the  one  or  the  other."  l 
The  early  Neo-Platonists  of  Alexandria  limited  the 
range  of  human  metempsychosis  to  human  bodies  and 
denied  that  the  souls  of  men  ever  passed  downwards 
into  brutal  states.  Even  the  apparent  endorsement  of 
that  conceit  by  Plotinus,  quoted  above,  was  merely  a 
simile.  Porphyry,  Jamblichus,  and  Hierocles  forcibly 
emphasized  this  distinction.  Wilkinson  shows  that  the 
initiated  priests  taught  that  "  dissolution  is  only  the 
cause  of  reproduction.  Nothing  perishes  which  has 
once  existed.  Things  which  appear  to  be  destroyed 
only  change  their  natures  and  pass  into  another  form." 
But  Ebers  demonstrates  that  the  inner  circle  of  the 
temple  held  this  truth  in  a  form  wholly  above  the  sys 
tem  of  embalming,  animal  worship,  and  transmigration 
ingeniously  devised  by  them  for  the  people.  Like  the 
ruling  priestcraft  in  all  times  and  countries,  they  con 
sidered  it  necessary  to  disguise  their  sacred  secrets  for 
the  crowd.  The  symbols  of  reincarnation  which  every 
where  have  typified  the  same  doctrine,  — in  Egyptian 
architecture  by  the  flying  globe,  in  Chinese  pagodas 
and  Indian  temples  by  the  intricate  unfoldments  of  ger- 
minant  designs  ascending  through  successive  stories  to 
culminate  in  a  gilded  ball,  in  the  Grecian  friezes  of  reli 
gious  processions,  in  the  Druidical  cromlechs  and  cairns 
of  Wales  and  the  circular  stone  heaps  of  Britain,  —  all 
expressed  a  threefold  significance,  telling  the  masses 
of  their  transition  through  all  living  conditions,  re 
minding  the  common  priesthood  of  an  exalted  series 
of  transformations,  and  picturing  for  the  initiates  the 
hidden  principles  of  immortal  progress.  For  all  alike 

1  From  Dacier's  Life  of  Pythagoras,  with  his  Symbols  and  Golden 
Verses,  together  with  the  Life  of  Hierocles ,  and  his  Commentaries  upon 
the  Verses,  p.  335.  Condon,  172X, 


TRANSMIGRATION   THROUGH  ANIMALS,    283 

these  emblems  reiterated  the  solemn  and  vital  reality 
of  universal  brotherhood  throughout  Nature  ;  but  the 
keenest  students,  who  guided  the  bulk  of  religious 
thought,  read  in  them  simply  the  eternal  law  of  cause 
and  effect  divinely  ruling  the  soul  through  incessant 
changes.  It  would  be  as  unjust  to  construe  literally 
the  poetic  statements  of  the  human  soul  wandering 
through  animals,  etc.,  by  which  metaphor  the  noblest 
leaders  of  western  thought  convey  the  idea  of  spirit 
ual  evolution  (see  chapter  v.),  as  to  call  this  lowest 
phase  of  the  philosophy  the  real  belief  of  those  who 
shaped  it. 

And  yet  there  is  a  sense  in  which  the  most  intelli 
gent  orientals  adhere  to  this,  and  in  which  western 
science  endorses  it,  —  namely  in  the  axiomatic  truth 
that  human  atoms  and  emanations  traverse  the  entire 
round  of  lower  natures.  When  the  Laws  of  Manu 
speak  of  the  transmigration  of  men  through  all  animal 
stages,  these  eastern  authorities  say  that  they  mean 
not  souls,  but  men's  physical  selves.  When  the  Laws 
assert  that  "  a  Brahman  killer  enters  the  body  of  a 
dog,  bear,  ass,  etc.,"  they  do  not  mean  that  the  mur 
derer  of  a  priest  becomes  a  dog,  bear,  ass,  etc.  The 
inner  meaning  of  the  Law  is  that  he  who  kills  and 
extinguishes  the  Brahman  or  divine  nature,  condemns 
his  soul  to  lower  human  circumstances,  and  the  down 
ward  affinity  of  his  passions  carries  every  particle  of 
his  body  by  magnetic  relations  into  more  degraded 
ranks  of  existence.  The  Brahmans  have  distorted  the 
inward  purpose  of  this  Law  in  their  own  interest  by 
insisting  upon  its  outward  meaning.  So  the  various 
accounts  of  the  descent  of  human  into  animal  or  vege 
tative  nature,  whether  given  by  Hindu,  Pythagorean, 
Platonist,  Egyptian,  Norse,  or  Barbarian,  are  actual 


284     TRANSMIGRATION  THROUGH  ANIMALS. 

facts  as  far  as  the  migration  of  the  composing  atoms 
and  emanations  of  the  outer  individual  are  concerned. 
For  these  atoms  obey  the  directing  impulses  of  degrad 
ing  passion  or  ascending  principle.  The  imponderable 
force  of  these  atomic  changes  is  proven  by  the  psycho 
metric  evidence  of  sensitives,  who  perceive  the  various 
unexpressed  moods  of  a  person  by  the  kinds  of  lam 
bent  particles  flowing  from  him,  and  trace  the  perma 
nent  course  of  these  particles  after  they  have  lodged 
on  objects  widely  separated  from  him.  The  tell-tale 
characteristics  of  these  scattered  atoms  remain  a  long 
while  as  stamped  by  their  source,  and  guide  them  to 
what  is  most  congenial.  This  scientific  fact,  confirmed 
by  many  experiments,1  but  generally  ignored,  shaped 
the  old  atomic  hypotheses  in  which  Pythagoras,  Epi 
curus,  Zeno,  and  all  the  old  philosophers  down  to  Plato 
found  delight,  and  Plato  himself  simply  spiritualized 
it  into  a  more  enduring  form. 

The  attitude  of  the  dominant  disciples  of  reincar 
nation  upon  this  point  may  be  gathered  from  the  fol 
lowing  statement  of  a  Brahman  to  the  writer  :  "  The 
whole  question  of  re-births  rests  upon  the  right  under 
standing  of  what  it  is  that  is  born  again.  Obviously 
not  the  body,  nor  is  it. the  ego,  which  is  the  same 
whether  in  a  man  or  in  a  worm.  The  ego  is  colorless 
of  all  attributes  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge  in 
practice.  The  only  thing  that  can  be  said  to  be  re 
born  is  the  character  of  a  being,  through  spiritual 
blindness  confounded  with  the  ego,  in  the  same  way 
as  light  is  commonly  confounded  with  the  objects  il 
luminated  and  said  to  be  red,  blue,  or  any  other  color. 
The  essential  characteristic  of  humanity  cannot  pos- 

1  See  the  psychometric  investigations  recorded  in  Professor 
Deuton's  book  The  Soul  of  Things, 


TRANSMIGRATION   THROUGH  ANIMALS.     285 

sibly  exist  in  an  animal  form,  for  otherwise  it  cannot 
be  essential  to  humanity.  Whenever  in  a  human 
being  the  ego  is  identified  in  the  above  manner  with 
what  is  essentially  human,  birth  in  an  animal  form  is 
as  certain  as  any  relative  truth  can  be  not  to  take 
place." 

"  Atoms  enter  into  organic  combinations  according 
to  their  affinities,  and  when  released  from  one  indi 
vidual  system  they  retain  a  tendency  to  be  attracted 
by  other  systems,  not  necessarily  human,  with  similar 
characteristics.  The  assimilation  of  atoms  by  organ 
isms  takes  place  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  affini 
ties.  It  may  be  hastily  contended  that  the  relation 
between  the  mental  characteristics  of  an  individual 
and  the  atoms  of  his  body  ceases  when  the  atoms  no 
longer  constitute  the  body.  But  the  fact  that  certain 
atoms  are  drawn  into  a  man's  body  shows  that  there 
was  some  affinity  between  the  atoms  and  the  body  be 
fore  they  were  so  drawn  together.  Consequently 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  affinity  ceases 
at  parting.  And  it  is  well  known  that  psychometers 
can  detect  the  antecedent  life  history  of  any  substance 
by  being  brought  into  contact  with  it.  It  must  be  in 
sisted  that  the  true  human  ego  in  no  sense  migrates 
from  a  human  body  to  an  animal  body,  although  those 
principles  which  lie  below  the  plane  of  self-conscious 
ness  may  do  so.  And  in  this  sense  alone  is  transmi 
gration  accepted  by  Esoteric  Science.'' 


XIII. 

WHAT  THEN  OF  DEATH,  HEAVEN,  AND  HELL? 


"When  we  die,  we  shall  find  that  we  have  not  lost  our  dreams ;  but 
that  we  have  only  lost  our  sleep.  —  RICHTER. 

Life  is  a  kind  of  sleep.  Old  men  sleep  longest.  They  never  begin 
to  wake  but  when  they  are  to  die.  —  DE  LA  BRUYERE. 

There  is  no  death  :   what  seems  so  is  transition. 

This  life  of  mortal  breath 
Is  but  a  suburb  of  the  life  Elysian, 

Whose  portal  we  call  Death. 

LONGFELLOW. 

We  can  hardly  do  otherwise  than  assume  that  the  future  being-  must 
be  so  involved  in  our  present  constitution  as  to  be  therein  discernible. 

ISAAC  TAYLOR. 

When  I  leave  this  rabble  rout  and  defilement  of  the  world,  I  leave 
it  as  an  inn,  and  not  as  a  place  of  abode.  For  nature  has  given  us 
our  bodies  as  an  inn,  and  not  to  dwell  in.  —  CATO. 

He  that  soweth  to  the  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption  ;  but 
he  that  soweth  to  the  spirit  shall  of  the  spirit  reap  life  everlasting. 

ST.  PAUL. 

But  all  lost  things  are  in  the  angels'  keeping,  Love. 
No  past  is  dead  for  us,  but  only  sleeping,  Love. 
The  years  of  heaven  will  all  earth's  little  pain  make  good. 
Together  there  we  can  begin  again  in  babyhood. 

HELEN  HUNT. 

Death  is  another  life.     We  bow  our  heads 
At  going  out,  we  think,  and  enter  straight 
Another  chamber  of  the  king's, 
Larger  than  this  we  leave  and  lovelier. 

BAILEY. 


The  deep  conviction  of  the  indestructibleness  of  our  nature  through 
death,  which  everyone  carries  at  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  depends  alto 
gether  upon  the  consciousness  of  the  original  and  eternal  nature  of  our 
being.  —  SCHOPENHAUER. 


XIII. 

WHAT  THEN  OF  DEATH,  HEAVEN,  AND  HELL? 

THE  latest  developments  of  science  agree  with  the 
occultists  and  poets  that  there  is  no  death,  and  that 
nothing  is  dead.  What  seems  to  be  extinction  is  only 
a  change  of  existence.  What  appears  to  have  no  vital 
ity  has  only  a  lower  order  of  the  life  principle.  Every 
thing  is  pulsing  with  energy,  stones  and  dirt  as  well 
as  animals  and  trees.  The  same  force  which  animates 
the  human  body,  the  beasts,  birds,  and  reptiles  in 
their  brief  periods,  also  vitalizes  the  oaks  and  vines  in 
a  smaller  degree  with  longer  lives,  and  individualizes 
the  mineral  world  into  crystals  on  a  still  lower  plane 
but  with  lifetimes  reckoned  by  thousands  of  years. 
And  below  crystal-life,  in  the  constituent  atoms  of 
shapeless  matter,  is  a  tremendous  thrill  of  undimin- 
ished  activity.  Life,  the  occultists  say,  is  the  eternal 
uncreated  energy.  The  physicists  grasp  at  the  same 
thing  in  their  Law  of  Continuity,  and  modern  science 
concedes  that  "  energy  has  as  much  claim  to  be  re 
garded  as  an  objective  reality  as  matter  itself."  J 
This  life  is  the  one  essential  energy  acting  under 
protean  forms.  It  always  inheres  in  every  particle  of 
matter,  and  makes  no  distinction  between  organic  and 
inorganic,  except  one  of  grade,  the  former  containing 
1  Stewart  and  Tait,  in  The  Unseen  Universe. 


290     WHAT  OF  DEATH,   HEAVEN,  AND  HELL? 

life-energy  actively  and  the  latter  in  dormant  form. 
Because  the  scientist  is  unable  to  awaken  into  activ 
ity  the  latent  life  of  inorganic  matter,  he  insists,  by 
the  law  of  biogenesis,  that  life  can  only  come  from 
life.  But  that  only  marks  the  limit  of  his  knowl 
edge.  The  world's  development  has  bridged  all  the 
gaps  now  yawning  between  the  different  kingdoms 
of  nature,  though  nothing  remains  now  to  show  how 
it  was  done,  and  science  has  to  confess  its  ignorance. 
There  is  nothing  to  contradict  and  much  to  enforce 
the  occult  axiom  that  the  same  life  animates  man, 
plant,  and  rock  simply  in  different  states  of  the  one 
indestructible  force,  —  the  Universal  Soul,  —  making 
all  nature  what  Goethe  terms  "  the  living  visible  gar 
ment  of  God." 

It  is  impossible  for  a  person  to  cease  to  exist.  When 
the  tenant  of  the  body  moves  out,  the  forces  binding 
together  the  dwelling  scatter  to  the  nearest  uses 
awaiting  them.  The  positivists  would  have  it  that 
the  individual  soul  also  dissolves  into  an  impersonal 
fund  of  being  —  a  sort  of  immediate  chilling  Nirvana, 
out-freezing  any  eastern  conception  of  remotest  des 
tiny.  This  melancholy  result  of  western  materialism 
is  boldly  confronted  by  reincarnation  with  a  proven 
hypothesis,  which  illuminates  the  mystery  of  death 
and  the  future,  and  shows  the  unimpeachable  reality 
of  immortality.  Reincarnation  demonstrates  that  the 
personal  ego,  which  permanently  maintains  its  identity 
amid  the  constant  changes  of  the  bodily  casement  and 
the  mental  consciousness,  must  continue  its  individu 
ality.  In  addition  to  the  evidences  already  adduced 
for  the  genuineness  of  this  truth,  there  stands  the  hon 
est  reliable  testimony  of  spiritualism  (a  small  core  of 
veritable  fact  around  which  is  gathered  an  enormous 


WHAT  OF  DEATH,  HEAVEN,  AND  HELL?    291 

concretion  of  deceptions,  mischievously  intentional  or 
pathetically  unconscious),  and  the  actual  experience 
of  some  orientals  whose  intense  devotion  to  pure  in 
visible  realities  has  pushed  them  into  the  perception  of 
ultra-mortal  things. 

It  is  the  strong  attachment  to  physical  existence 
which  makes  death  the  king  of  terrors.  Those  who 
have  learned  the  lesson  of  life  find  him  the  blessed  an 
gel  who  ushers  them  through  the  golden  gates.  There 
shall  at  length  come  to  every  ascending  soul  the  expe 
rience  of  those  whose  departure  from  this  life  cannot  be 
called  death,  as  Jesus,  Elijah,  or  Enoch,  who  "  walked 
with  God  and  he  was  not,  for  God  took  him."  They 
became  so  buoyed  with  spiritual  forces  that  a  slight 
touch  shifted  the  equipoise  and  translated  them  into 
the  invisible.  The  clarified  spirit  greets  death  with 
a  welcome,  and  sings  his  praise  as  did  Paul  Hamilton 
Hayne  in  his  dying  song  :  — 

Sad  mortal  !  couldst  thou  but  know 

What  truly  it  means  to  die, 
The  wings  of  thy  soul  would  glow, 

And  the  hopes  of  thy  heart  beat  high  ; 
Thou  wouldst  turn  from  the  Pyrrhonist  schools, 

And  laugh  their  jargon  to  scorn, 
As  the  babbling  of  midnight  fools 

Ere  the  morning  of  Truth  be  born  : 
But  I,  earth's  madness  above, 

In  a  kingdom  of  stormless  breath,  — 
I  gaze  on  the  glory  of  love 

In  the  unveiled  face  of  Death. 

I  tell  thee  his  face  is  fair 

As  the  moon-bow's  amber  rings, 
And  the  gleam  in  his  unbound  hair 

Like  the  flash  of  a  thousand  springs  ; 
His  smile  is  the  fathomless  beam 

Of  the  star-shine's  sacred  light, 


292     WHAT   OF  DEATH,  HEAVEN,  AND  HELL1 

When  the  summers  of  Southland  dream 

In  the  lap  of  the  holy  Night : 
For  I,  earth's  blindness  above, 

In  a  kingdom  of  halcyon  breath,  — 
I  gaze  on  the  marvel  of  love 

In  the  unveiled  face  of  Death. 

When  death  severs  the  soul  from  its  mortal  shell, 
the  ruling  tendencies  of  the  soul  carry  it  to  its  strong 
est  affinities.  If  these  still  dwell  on  earth,  the  soul 
hovers  affectionately  among  the  old  scenes  and  insen 
sibly  mingles  with  its  heart-friends,  ministering  and 
being  ministered  to,  with  no  essential  difference  from 
the  former  condition.1  Many  veritable  experiences, 
apart  from  all  possibility  of  delusion,  confirm  this, 
although  the  darkness  of  matter  blinds  most  of  us  to 
the  psychic  life.  At  length,  as  shifting  time  unties 
the  bonds  of  earth,  the  soul  moves  on  with  its  strongest 
allies  to  the  realms  of  its  choice.  There  the  soul  lives 
out  an  era  of  its  true  life,  an  expression  of  its  deepest 
nature,  as  much  more  full  and  more  real  than  the  late 
physical  life,  as  the  waking  state  exceeds  the  dream 
ing.  For  the  escape  from  material  confinement  al 
lows  the  freest  activity,  in  which  the  dominant  desires, 
unconsciously  nourished  in  the  spirit,  have  the  mas 
tery.  This  liberty  rouses  the  spirit  from  the  earthly 
lethargy  into  its  permanent  individuality.  The  start 
ling  bound  of  the  spirit  into  its  own  sphere  must  trans 
fer  the  self-consciousness  from  its  terrestrial  form  to  a 
far  higher  vividness ;  but,  as  the  wakefulness  of  day 
includes  the  sonmambulence  of  night  and  knows  itself 
superior  to  that  dumb  life,  so  the  burst  of  uncon 
strained  spiritual  existence  does  not  annul,  but  tran 
scends  the  material  phase. 

1  See  The  Gates  Between,  by  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps. 


WHAT   OF  DEATH,  HEAVEN,  AND  HELL?    293 

The  condition  of  the  period  intervening  between 
death  and  birth,  like  all  other  epochs,  is  framed  by 
the  individual.  The  inner  character  makes  a  Paradise, 
a  Purgatory,  or  an  Inferno  of  any  place.  As  Jesus 
said  he  was  in  heaven  while  talking  with  his  followers, 
as  Dante  found  all  the  material  for  hell  in  what  his 
eyes  witnessed,  so  in  the  environments  beyond  death, 
where  the  subjective  states  of  the  soul  are  supreme, 
the  appearance  of  the  universe  and  the  feelings*  of 
self  are  created,  well  or  ill,  by  the  central  individual. 
There  must  be  as  many  heavens  and  hells  as  there  are 
good  and  bad  beings.  All  the  attempts  to  describe 
the  future  are  inadequate  and  erroneous,  and  must 
necessarily  be  so.  Plato,  in  the  last  book  of  the  Re 
public,  quotes  the  narrative  of  the  Pamphylian  Er, 
who  had  been  killed  in  battle  but  came  to  life  again 
on  his  funeral  pyre,  and  declared  that  he  was  re 
turned  to  earth  to  disclose  the  nature  of  the  coming 
life.  He  found  things  about  as  Plato's  allegory  pic 
tures  them :  the  good  and  the  wicked  who  had  just 
died  being  assigned  their  places  in  heaven  or  under 
the  earth.  A  number  of  souls  whose  thousand  years 
of  one  or  the  other  experience  had  expired  were  made 
to  cast  lots  for  a  choice  out  of  a  large  number  of  hu 
man  and  animal  lives,  and  to  drink  of  the  River  of 
Indifference,  and  to  traverse  the  Plain  of  Forgetful- 
ness  before  entering  the  world  again.  As  with  all 
the  visions  of  after-death,  this  simply  reflected  the 
opinions  of  the  Platonic  thinker.  St.  John's  Revela 
tion  paints  the  scene  by  colors  obtained  from  his 
Jewish  training,  on  the  canvas  of  his  Patmos  impris 
onment.  Bunyan's  description  shows  a  simple  imagi 
nation  saturated  with  the  Apocalypse.  Protestant 
visionaries  always  discover  a  Protestant  heaven  and 


294     WHAT  OF  DEATH,  HEAVEN,   AND  HELL? 

hell.  Catholic  ecstatics  always  add  purgatory. 
Swedenborg  found  the  gardens  of  heaven  laid  out  in 
the  Dutch  fashion  of  his  time.  English  clairvoyants 
and  mediums  are  properly  orthodox  and  evangelical. 
American  spirits  talk  broad  theology  with  ridiculous 
details.  The  divergence  in  all  these  alleged  liftings 
of  the  veil  betrays  their  subjectiveness. 

It  is  impossible  in  the  nature  of  things  that  one 
should  permanently  leave  the  physical  condition  until 
the  business  of  that  existence  is  accomplished  in  trans 
ferring  the  affections  from  material  to  spiritual  things. 
While  the  ruling  attraction  to  a  soul  remains  in  this 
world,  all  the  forces  of  the  universe  conspire  to  con 
tinue  the  association  of  the  two  in  repeated  lives.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  person  dominated  by  spiritual  pro 
clivities  finds  infinite  magnetisms  drawing  him  away 
from  temporal  surroundings  to  the  inscrutable  glories 
of  the  eternal.  In  Swedenborg's  phrase,  "a  man's 
loves  make  his  home."  The  residual  impulses  coming 
from  the  momentum s  of  past  lives  determine  what 
and  when  shall  be  the  next  embodiment.  The  time 
and  manner  of  reincarnation  vary  with  each  indi 
vidual  according  to  the  impetus  engendered  by  his 
lives.  Between  these  lives  the  spiritual  effect  of  the 
earth -life  is  absorbed  from  the  personal  soul  mani 
fested  on  earth  into  the  immortal  and  unmanifested 
ego.  This  process  may  require  days,  years,  centuries, 
or  millenniums,  depending  upon  the  intensity  of  the 
mundane  aspirations  which  draw  the  spirit  to  earth 
and  hinder  its  liberation  into  pure  spiritual  life.  But 
as  in  dreams  a  whole  life's  history  is  sometimes 
condensed  into  a  few  seconds,  time  has  no  existence  to 
the  disembodied  spirit.  Whether  the  interval  be  long 
or  short,  the  entire  spiritual  effect  of  the  last  life  must 


WHAT   OF  DEATH,  HEAVEN,   AND  HELL? 


295 


be  assimilated  and  shaped  into  a  form  that  will  spring 
up  in  coming  lives.  The  instances  of  alternate  con 
sciousness  indicate  that  some  such  marked  difference 
from  the  previous  incarnation  appears  in  each  earthly 
life,  losing  all  remembrance  of  the  previous  chapter, 
and  working  out  the  tendencies  which  embodied  that 
particular  life  in  a  career  that  will  achieve  redemption 
or  condemnation. 

At  the  first  thought  reincarnation  carries  the  un 
welcome  inference  that  death  and  re-births  separate 
us  from  the  dearest  present  ties  and  introduce  us  as 
strangers  into  new  phases  of  activity  where  every 
thing —  friends,  knowledge,  and  occupations  —  must 
be  found  afresh.  This  is  a  mistake.  The  unnoticed 
habits  of  thought  and  action  derived  from  the  alliance 
of  cherished  comrades  strengthen  into  ungovernable 
steeds  whose  course  directs  the  soul  on  every  journey 
toward  those  favorite  companions.  Among  the  thou 
sands  of  acquaintances  made  in  a  lifetime,  the  rare 
friends  whose  intimacy  strikes  down  into  the  inmost 
depths  of  the  soul  must  continue  as  irresistible  attrac 
tions  in  the  next  life.  Orpheus  could  not  fail  to  dis 
cover  Eurydice  in  the  spirit  realm.  In  this  earthly 
existence,  which  is  the  Heaven,  or  Purgatory,  or  Hell 
of  the  last  one,  we  go  straying  among  unfamiliar 
forms,  frequently  mistaking  them  for  true  friends,  un 
til  suddenly  we  meet  a  soul  with  which  there  conies  so 
intense  and  permanent  an  affection  that  every  other 
person  is  forgotten.  Such  a  fusion  of  spirits  must 
hail  from  the  shores  of  long  distant  loves,  and  its  new 
unrecognized  mastery  develops  a  mightier  union  than 
would  be  possible  in  one  uninterrupted  flow.  The 
poets  like  to  symbolize  this  as  the  blending  of  two 
hemispheres  long  since  separated  into  their  original 


296     WHAT   OF  DEATH,  HEAVEN,  AND  HELL? 

perfect  whole.  The  most  probable  explanation  of  such 
intimacies  rests  in  the  idea  that  they  are  repetitions  of 
previous  attachments.  A  sense  of  ancient  familiarity 
grows  upon  these  closest  ties,  notwithstanding  the  ab 
sence  of  memory's  confirmation.  The  powerful  attrac 
tions  residing  in  families  and  kinships  may  well  be  the 
result  of  ancestral  affinities  which  have  bound  together 
in  many  earlier  combinations,  like  a  turning  kaleido 
scope,  the  same  individuals. 


XIV. 

KARMA,  THE  COMPANION  TRUTH  OF  REINCARNATION 


We  are  our  own  children.  —  PYTHAGORAS. 
Nothing  can  work  me  damage  but  myself.  —  ST.  BERNARD. 

Our  acts  our  angels  are,  or  good  or  ill 
Our  fatal  shadows  that  walk  with  us  still. 

BEAUMONT  &  FLETCHER. 

The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  you.  —  JESUS. 

We  make  our  fortunes  and  we  call  them  fate.  —  B.  DISRAELI 

Men  must  reap  the  things  they  sow. 
Force  from  force  must  ever  flow. 

SHELLEY. 

The  soul  contains  in  itself  the  event  that  shall  presently  befall  it,  or 
the  event  is  only  the  actualizing  of  its  thoughts.  —  EMERSON. 

Seldom  went  such  grotesqueness  with  such  pain  ; 

I  never  saw  a  brute  I  hated  so. 

He  must  be  wicked  to  deserve  such  pain. 

BROWNING. 

Not  from  birth  does  one  become  a  slave  ;  not  from  birth  does  one 
become  a  saint ;  but  by  conduct  alone.  —  GAUTAMA. 

We  sleep,  but  the  loom  of  life  never  stops  ;  and  the  pattern  which 
was  weaving  when  the  sun  went  down  is  weaving  when  it  comes  up 
to-morrow.  —  BEECHER. 


Then  spake  he  of  that  answer  all  must  give 
For  all  things  done  amiss  or  wrongfully, 
Alone,  each  for  himself,  reckoning  with  that 
The  fixed  arithmetic  of  the  universe, 
Which  meteth  good  for  good,  ill  for  ill, 
Measure  for  measure  unto  deeds,  words,  thoughts, 
Making  all  futures  fruits  of  all  the  pasts. 

THE  LIGHT  or  ASIA. 


XIV. 

KARMA,  THE  COMPANION  TRUTH   OF   REINCARNATION. 

KARMA  is  the  eastern  word  for  what  the  West 
knows  as  the  Law  of  Causation,  applied  to  personal 
experience.  In  Christendom  the  full  recognition  of 
this  great  principle,  like  that  of  its  mate,  reincarna 
tion,  lies  dormant ;  but  it  is  merely  an  extension  into 
the  spiritual  domain  of  the  fundamental  premise  of  all 
science,  the  substratum  of  common  sense,  the  cardinal 
axiom  of  every  philosophy,  —  that  each  effect  has  an 
adequate  cause,  and  each  cause  works  infinite  conse 
quences.  Briefly,  the  doctrine  of  karma  is  that  we 
have  made  ourselves  what  we  are  by  former  actions, 
and  are  building  our  future  eternity  by  present  ac 
tions.  There  is  no  destiny  but  what  we  ourselves 
determine.  There  is  no  salvation  or  condemnation 
except  what  we  ourselves  bring  about.  God  places 
all  the  powers  of  the  universe  at  our  disposal,  and  the 
handle  by  which  we  use  them  to  construct  our  fate  has 
been  and  is  and  always  shall  be  our  own  individual 
will.  Action  (karma)  of  the  spirit,  whether  in  the 
inner  consciousness  alone,  or  by  vocal  expression,  or 
in  outward  act,  is  the  secret  force  which  directs  our 
journeys  through  infinity,  driving  us  down  into  the 
gloomy  regions  of  evil,  of  matter,  and  of  selfishness,  or 
up  toward  the  luminous  fields  of  good,  of  spirit,  and  of 
love. 


300  KARMA. 

The  most  adamantine  of  facts  is  that  of  an  infinite 
all-comprehending  power  of  which  nature  is  the  puls 
ing  body,  an  eternal  reality  shaping  the  shadowy  ap 
pearances  of  time,  and  variously  named  Force,  Fate, 
Justice,  Righteousness,  Love,  Mind,  The  Over-Soul, 
God.  The  most  essential  attribute  of  this  unfathom 
able  Being  is  that  of  Almighty  Equity.  Confronting 
this  fact  is  the  puzzling  fact  of  our  spiritual  personal 
ity  enveloped  in  matter.  The  thought  always  asso 
ciated  with  this,  never  practically  forsaken,  though 
sometimes  theoretically  denied,  is  individual  responsi 
bility.  "  Two  things  fill  me  with  wonder,"  said  Kant, 
"  the  starry  heavens  and  the  sense  of  moral  responsi 
bility  in  man."  When  Daniel  Webster  was  asked 
what  was  the  greatest  thought  that  ever  stirred  his 
soul,  he  replied,  "  The  thought  of  my  personal  account 
ability  to  God."  Every  balanced  mind  agrees  with 
these  intellectual  giants  on  this  point.  The  inevitable 
outcome  of  grouping  these  two  actualities  (God  and 
responsibility)  is  the  conception  that  the  Universal 
Sustainer  is  giving  every  creature  the  best  thing  for  it, 
and  that  each  soul  is  in  some  way  accountable  for  its 
condition.  Single  observations  seem  to  contradict  this 
idea,  but  the  long  trend  of  life's  experience  verifies  it. 
Because  it  offers  no  shelter  for  culpable  actions  and 
necessitates  a  sterling  manliness,  it  is  less  welcome  to 
weak  natures  than  the  easy  religious  tenets  of  vicari 
ous  atonement,  intercession,  forgiveness,  and  death-bed 
conversions.  But  it  rings  through  the  inner  soul-world 
as  the  fundamental  harmonic  tone,  setting  the  key  for 
all  wholesome  poetry,  philosophy,  religion,  and  art,  and 
inspiring  the  magnificent  sweep  of  progress  which  is 
rationalizing  modern  Christendom.  For  it  is  identical 
with  the  essence  of  Bible  truth,  as  these  representa 
tive  sentences  will  suggest :  — 


KARMA.  301 

"  Keep  thy  heart  with  all  diligence,  for  out  of  it  are 
the  issues  of  life."  (Solomon.) 

"  Sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing  come  upon  thee." 
(Jesus.) 

"  Work  out  your  own  salvation.  Whatsoever  a 
man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap."  (St.  Paul.) 

The  embryos  of  all  animals  are  at  the  earliest  stage 
indistinguishable  from  one  another.  The  biologist 
who  has  lost  his  labels  cannot  tell  which  would  be 
come  a  fish,  which  a  cat,  and  which  a  man  ;  but  na 
ture  knows  the  past  records  and  therefore  the  future 
possibility  of  each.  So  within  souls  apparently  simi 
lar  there  hide  unsuspected  germs  of  vast  difference, 
resulting  from  the  forgotten  pasts,  which  may  develop 
into  corresponding  divergent  futures.  The  ancient 
behaviors  of  every  soul  have  accumulated  a  grand  her 
itage  of  influences  from  which  our  present  bequest  is 
derived.  Using  another  figure,  as  each  piece  of  "  new  " 
soil  contains  through  all  its  depth  a  multitude  of  va 
rious  seeds  sown  in  past  ages,  which  patiently  bide 
their  time  to  be  brought  to  light  and  bear  fruit,  so  the 
kernels  of  remote  conducts  shall  eventually  all  have 
their  unfoldmeut  in  the  revolution  of  our  lives,  until 
at  last,  if  we  refuse  weeds  and  harbor  only  worthy 
germs,  we  shall  bear  a  continual  harvest  of  good. 

The  "  bonds  of  action  "  include  the  whole  range  of 
material  for  character,  —  not  only  the  recognized  hab 
its  of  the  soul,  but,  of  more  consequence  still,  the  un 
conscious  inner  thought  whence  the  outward  manifes 
tations  spring.  Whatever  impulses  are  secretly  cher 
ished,  these  feed  the  acts  of  life,  and  mould  all  our 
environments  to  fit  them.  The  nurtured  thought  of 
killing  produces  a  thousand  unseen  murders  and  must 
continue  wreaking  crimes  in  immensely  larger  degree 


302  KARMA. 

than  hangable  horrors.  Our  favorite  inclinations 
show  what  we  have  been  doing  in  ancient  ages. 
Within  the  germ  of  to-day's  conduct  are  coiled  inter 
minable  consequences  of  good  and  evil. 

The  relentless  hand  which  metes  out  our  fortunes 
with  the  stern  justice  most  vividly  portrayed  by  the 
Greek  dramatists  in  their  Nemesis,  Fates,  and  Furies, 
takes  from  our  own  savings  the  gifts  bestowed  on  us. 
"  Alas !  we  sow  what  we  reap ;  the  hand  that  smites  us 
is  our  own."  In  the  domain  of  eternal  justice,  the 
offense  and  the  punishment  are  inseparably  connected 
as  the  same  event,  because  there  is  no  real  distinction 
between  the  action  and  its  outcome.  He  who  injures 
another  in  fact  only  wrongs  himself.  To  adopt 
Schopenhauer's  figure,  he  is  a  wild  beast  who  fastens 
his  fangs  in  his  own  flesh.  But  linked  with  the  awful 
fact  of  our  undivided  responsibility  for  what  we  now 
are,  goes  the  inspiring  assurance  that  we  have  in  our 
control  the  remedy  of  evil  and  the  increase  of  good. 
We  can,  and  we  alone  can,  extricate  ourselves  from 
the  existing  limitations,  by  the  all-curing  powers  of 
purity,  love,  spirituality.  In  eastern  phraseology,  the 
purpose  of  life  is  to  work  out  our  bad  karma  (action) 
and  to  stow  away  good  karma.  As  surely  as  the  har 
vest  of  to-day  grows  from  the  seed-time  of  yesterday, 
so  shall  every  kernel  of  thought  and  feeling,  speech 
and  performance,  bring  its  crop  of  reward  or  rebuke. 
The  inherent  result  of  every  quiver  of  the  human  will 
continually  tolls  the  Day  of  Judgment,  and  affords 
immeasurable  opportunities  for  amelioration. 

The  worthy  soul  straitened  with  misfortune  is 
shifting  off  the  chains  of  old  wrong-doing.  The 
vicious  soul  enjoying  comforts  is  reaping  the  benefits 
of  old  virtues.  So  intricately  are  all  situations  con- 


KARMA.  303 

nected  with  untraceable  lineages  that  only  the  Omni 
scient  can  penetrate  below  appearances  in  the  real 
natures  of  men.  The  world  is  like  a  garden  in  which 
is  newly  planted  a  huge  assortment  of  unknown  plants. 
To  the  common  observer  the  fresh  sprouts  are  only 
deceptive,  for  the  most  promising  stalk  may  prove  to 
be  a  weak,  fragile  thing,  and  the  uninviting  leaflets 
may  introduce  a  sturdy  growth.  But  the  all-wise 
Gardener  knows  each  seed,  and  that  it  will  ultimately 
show  its  ancestry.  The  stupendous  issues  of  conduct 
endure  through  all  changes.  After  one  has  climbed  to 
high  summits  of  character  the  surprising  reappearance 
of  some  forgotten  sin  may  stay  his  progress  and  re 
quire  all  his  forces  to  conquer  the  viper  whose  egg  he 
long  ago  nested  in  his  bosom.  The  man  plunged  into 
the  abyss  of  degradation  may  be  a  saint  much  farther 
advanced  than  those  exalted  persons  who  despise  him. 

It  is  karma,  or  our  old  acts,  that  draws  us  back  into 
earthly  life.  The  spirit's  abode  changes  according  to 
its  karma,  and  this  karma  forbids  any  long  continu 
ance  in  one  condition,  because  it  is  always  changing. 
So  long  as  action  is  governed  by  material  and  selfish 
motives,  just  so  long  must  the  effect  of  that  action  be 
manifested  in  physical  re-births.  Only  the  perfectly 
selfless  man  can  elude  the  gravitation  of  material  life. 
Few  have  attained  this  ;  but  it  is  the  goal  of  mankind. 
Some  have  reached  it  and  have  voluntarily  returned  as 
saviors  of  the  race. 

An  illustrious  explanation  of  karma  appears  at  the 
close  of  "  The  Light  of  Asia  "  : 

KARMA  —  all  that  total  of  a  soul 

Which  is  the  things  it  did,  the  thoughts  it  had, 
The  "  self  "  it  wove  with  woof  of  viewless  time 

Crossed  on  the  warp  invisible  of  acts. 


304  KARMA. 

What  hath  been  bringeth  what  shall  be,  and  is, 
Worse  —  better  —  last  for  first  and  first  for  last ; 

The  angels  in  the  heavens  of  gladness  reap 
Fruits  of  a  holy  past. 

The  devils  in  the  underworlds  wear  out 

Deeds  that  were  wicked  in  an  age  gone  by. 

Nothing  endures  :  fair  virtues  waste  with  time, 
Foul  sins  grow  purged  thereby. 

Who  toiled  a  slave  may  come  anew  a  prince 
For  gentle  worthiness  and  merit  won ; 

Who  ruled  a  king  may  wander  earth  in  rags 
For  things  done  and  undone. 

Before  beginning,  and  without  an  end, 
As  space  eternal  and  as  surety  sure, 

Is  fixed  a  Power  divine  which  moves  to  good, 
Only  its  laws  endure. 

It  will  not  be  contemned  of  any  one : 

Who  thwarts  it  loses,  and  who  serves  it  gains  ; 

The  hidden  good  it  pays  with  peace  and  bliss, 
The  hidden  ill  with  pains. 

It  seeth  everywhere  and  marketh  all : 

Do  right  —  it  recompenseth  !  do  one  wrong  — 

The  equal  retribution  must  be  made, 
Though  DHABMA  *  tarry  long. 

It  knows  not  wrath  nor  pardon  ;  utter-true 

Its  measures  mete,  its  faultless  balance  weighs ; 

Times  are  as  naught,  to-morrow  it  will  judge, 
Or  after  many  days. 

By  this  the  slayer's  knife  did  stab  himself ; 
The  unjust  judge  hath  lost  his  own  defender ; 

1  Perfect  Justice. 


KARMA.  305 

The  false  tongue  dooms  its  lie ;  the  creeping  thief 
And  spoiler  rob,  to  render. 

Such  is  the  law  which  moves  to  righteousness, 
Which  none  at  last  can  turn  aside  or  stay  ; 

The  heart  of  it  is  love,  the  end  of  it 

Is  peace  and  consummation  sweet.     Obey ! 


The  books  say  well,  my  brothers  !  each  man's  life 

The  outcome  of  his  former  living  is ; 
The  bygone  wrongs  bring  forth  sorrows  and  woes, 

The  bygone  right  breeds  bliss. 

That  which  ye  sow  ye  reap.     See  yonder  fields  ! 

The  sesamum  was  sesamum,  the  corn 
Was  corn.     The  silence  and  the  darkness  knew ; 

So  is  a  man's  fate  born. 

He  cometh,  reaper  of  the  things  he  sowed, 
Sesamum,  corn,  so  much  cast  in  past  birth ; 

And  so  much  weed  and  poison-stuff,  which  mar 
Him  and  the  aching  earth. 

If  he  shall  labor  rightly,  rooting  these, 

And  planting  wholesome  seedlings  where  they  grew 
Fruitful  and  fair  and  clean  the  ground  shall  be, 

And  rich  the  harvest  due. 

If  he  who  liveth,  learning  whence  woe  springs, 

Endureth  patiently,  striving  to  pay 
His  utmost  debt  for  ancient  evils  done 

In  love  and  truth  alway ; 

If  making  none  to  lack,  he  throughly  purge 
The  lie  and  lust  of  self  forth  from  his  blood  ; 

Suffering  all  meekly,  rendering  for  offence 
Nothing  but  grace  and  good  : 


306  KARMA. 

If  he  shall  day  by  day  dwell  merciful, 

Holy  and  just  and  kind  and  true  ;  and  rend 

Desire  from  where  it  clings  with  bleeding  roots, 
Till  love  of  life  have  end  : 

He —  dying  —  leaveth  as  the  sum  of  him 

A  life-count  closed,  whose  ills  are  dead  and  quit, 

Whose  good  is  quick  and  mighty,  far  and  near, 
So  that  fruits  follow  it. 

No  need  hath  such  to  live  as  ye  name  life  ; 

That  which  began  in  him  when  he  began 
Is  finished  :  he  hath  wrought  the  purpose  through 

Of  what  did  make  him  man. 

Never  shall  yearnings  torture  him,  nor  sins 
Stain  him,  nor  ache  of  earthly  joys  and  woes 

Invade  his  safe  eternal  peace  ;  nor  deaths 
And  lives  recur.     He  goes 

Unto  NIRVANA.     He  is  one  with  Life 
Yet  lives  not.     He  is  blest,  ceasing  to  be. 

OM,  MANI  PADME,  CM  !  the  dewdrop  slips 
Into  the  shining  sea ! 


This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  KARMA.     Learn  ! 

Only  when  all  the  dross  of  sin  is  quit, 
Only  when  life  dies  like  a  white  flame  spent. 

Death  dies  along  with  it. 


XV. 

CONCLUSION. 


The  glories  of  the  Possible  are  ours.  —  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

The  majesty  and  beauty  of  the  world  are  latent  in  any  iota  of  the 
world.  —  WALT  WHITMAN. 

There  is  no  life  of  a  man,  but  is  a  heroic  poem  of  its  sort,  rhymed 
or  unrhymed.  —  Would'  st  thou  plant  for  eternity :  then  plant  into  the 
deep  infinite  faculties  of  man.  —  CARLYLE. 

Life  is  a  mission.  Every  other  definition  of  life  is  false,  and  leads 
all  who  accept  it  astray.  Religion,  Science,  Philosophy,  though  still 
at  variance  upon  many  points,  all  agree  in  this,  that  every  existence  is 
an  aim.  —  MAZZINI. 

A  sacred  burden  is  this  life  ye  bear. 
Look  on  it,  lift  it,  bear  it  solemnly  ; 
Stand  up  and  walk  beneath  it  steadfastly  ; 
Fail  not  for  sorrow,  falter  not  for  sin ; 
But  onward,  upward,  till  the  goal  ye  win. 

FRANCES  A.  KEMBLE. 

Know  that  this  world  is  one  stage  of  eternity.  For  those  who  are 
journeying  in  the  right  way,  it  is  the  road  of  religion.  It  is  a  market 
opened  in  the  wilderness  where  those  who  are  travelling  on  their  way 
to  God  may  collect  and  prepare  provisions  for  their  journey. 

AL  GAZZALI. 

Life  is  but  a  means  unto  an  end  —  that  end, 
Beginning,  mean,  and  end  of  all  things  —  God. 
We  live  in  deeds,  not  years ;   in  thoughts,  not  breaths  ; 
In  feelings,  not  in  figures  on  a  dial. 
We  should  count  time  by  heart  throbs.     He  most  lives 
Who  thinks  most,  feels  the  noblest,  acts  the  best. 

BAILEY. 

Heaven  is  not  reached  at  a  single  bound, 
But  we  build  the  ladder  by  which  we  rise 
From  the  lowly  earth  to  the  vaulted  skies, 

And  we  mount  to  its  summit  round  by  round. 

J.  G.  HOLLAND. 


XV. 

CONCLUSION. 

WE  are  lotus-eaters,  so  engrossed  with  the  ignoble 
attractions  around  us  as  to  have  forgotten  the  places 
through  which  we  have  long  strayed  away  from  home, 
and  to  heed  not  the  necessity  of  many  more  perilous 
journeys  before  we  can  reach  our  glorious  destination. 
It  is  only  by  rousing  ourselves  to  the  important  fact 
of  the  past  pilgrimage  by  which  we  have  traveled 
hither,  and  to  the  still  more  vital  reality  of  the  incal 
culable  sequences  of  our  present  route,  that  we  can  at 
tain  the  best  progress.  Our  repugnance  to  the  idea 
of  a  cycle  of  lives,  with  myriad  meanderings  through 
varied  forms,  is  the  cry  of  Tennyson's  Lotus-Eaters  : 

While  all  things  else  have  rest  from  weariness, 
All  things  have  rest,  why  should  we  toil  alone  ? 

Nor  ever  fold  our  wings 

And  cease  our  wanderings. 

Why  should  we  only  toil,  the  roof  and  crown  of  things  ? 

This  is  virtually  the  longing  for  Nirvana,  and  the 
cause  of  the  irrational  belief  in  an  eternal  Heaven 
immediately  following  this  life.  But  it  is  neither 
wise  nor  religious  to  ignore  the  necessity  of  continuing 
our  ascent  at  the  present  pace,  until  we  have  jour 
neyed  all  the  way  to  that  distant  goal.  The  restless 
ness  of  our  nature  comes  from  the  established  habit 


310  CONCLUSION. 

of  straying  about  in  temporal  realms,  and  has  de 
veloped  a  love  of  adventure  in  which  the  occidental 
world  finds  profounder  delight  than  in  the  oriental 
yearning  for  inactivity,  and  which  shall  have  abun 
dant  exercise  before  it  disappears.  The  only  path  to 
that  perfect  satisfaction  which  is  found  in  complete 
oneness  with  the  Supreme  winds  through  the  ascend 
ing  planes  of  material  embodiment. 

Still  must  I  climb  if  I  would  rest  : 
The  bird  soars  upward  to  his  nest  ; 
The  young  leaf  on  the  tree-top  high 
Cradles  itself  within  the  sky. 

I  cannot  in  the  valley  stay  ; 
The  great  horizons  stretch  away  ! 
The  very  cliffs  that  wall  me  round 
Are  ladders  into  higher  ground. 

And  heaven  draws  near  as  I  ascend  ; 
The  breeze  invites,  the  stars  befriend. 
All  things  are  beckoning  to  the  Best  ; 
I  climb  to  Thee,  my  God,  for  rest ! l 

In  which  one  of  its  various  guises  we  shall  receive 
reincarnation  depends  upon  the  individual.  Whether 
it  shall  be  in  the  crude  form  of  transmigration  through 
animals  as  received  by  most  of  the  world ;  or  in  the 
Persian  and  Sufi  faith  as  the  unjust  banishment  from 
our  proper  home  by  the  powers  of  evil ;  or,  following 
Egypt,  Pythagoras,  Plato,  Origen,  and  the  Druids,  as 
a  purgatorial  punishment  for  pre-natal  sins  ;  or,  in  the 
form  of  some  Christian  teaching,  as  a  probationary 
stage  testing  our  right  to  higher  existence  and  usher 
ing  us  into  a  permanent  spiritual  condition ;  or,  as 
maintained  alike  by  the  acutest  Eastern  philosophy 
1  From  Lucy  Larcom. 


CONCLUSION.  311 

and  the  soundest  Western  thought,  as  a  wholesome 
development  of  germinal  soul-forces  ;  —  through  all 
these  phrasings  the  same  central  truth  abides,  furnish 
ing  what  Henry  More  called  "  the  golden  key "  for 
the  problem  of  life,  and  explaining  the  plot  of  this 
"drama  whose  prologue  and  catastrophe  are  both 
alike  wanting."  But  the  broadest  intelligence  leads 
us  directly  into  the  evolutionary  aspect  of  reincarna 
tion,  and  finds  the  others  inadequate  to  the  full  meas 
ure  of  human  nature.  In  this  view  the  present  life 
is  one  grade  of  a  stupendous  school,  in  which  we  are 
being  educated  for  a  destiny  so  far  beyond  our  com 
prehension  that  some  call  it  a  kind  of  deity.  The  ex 
periences  through  which  we  have  come  were  needful 
for  our  strengthening.  Even  though  we  have  de 
scended  below  former  altitudes,  the  only  path  to  the 
absolute  lies  through  the  sensuous  earthly  vale.  Sin 
itself,  after  we  have  escaped  it,  will  lead  to  a  mightier 
result  than  would  be  possible  without  it,  or  it  would 
not  be  permitted.  The  richest  trees  of  all  the  forest 
world  spring  from  the  unclean  miasmic  fens.  The 
severest  present  disciplines,  coming  from  our  earlier 
errors,  are  training  us  for  a  loftier  growth  than  we 
ever  knew.  Our  physical  schooling,  through  all  the 
grades  necessary  to  our  best  unfoldment,  will  build  a 
character  as  much  sublimer  than  our  primitive  condi 
tion  as  virtue  overtowers  innocence,  and  when  the  race 
finally  emerges  from  the  jangling  turmoil  of  self-will 
into  complete  harmony  with  the  Perfect  One,  as  it 
must  at  last,  the  multitudes  of  our  lives  will  not  seem 
too  enormous  a  course  of  experience  for  the  establish 
ment  of  that  consummation.  The  victorious  march 
of  Evolution  through  all  the  provinces  of  thought  will 
at  length  be  followed  by  the  triumphal  procession  of 
Reincarnation. 


312  CONCLUSION. 

There  is  a  spirit  in  all  things  that  live 
Which  hints  of  patient  change  from  kind  to  kind  ; 

And  yet  no  words  its  mystic  sense  can  give, 
Strange  as  a  dream  of  radiance  to  the  blind. 

And  as  in  time  unspeakably  remote 

Vague  frenzies  in  inferior  brains  set  free 

Presaged  a  power  no  language  could  denote, 
So  dreams  the  mortal  of  the  God  to  be.1 

The  Father's  purpose  with  us  seems  to  be  to  edu 
cate  us  as  His  children  so  that  we  shall  be  in  complete 
sympathy  with  the  divine  mind.  The  only  method 
of  accomplishing  this  glorious  result  is  for  us  to  enter 
with  Him  into  all  the  phases  of  His  being.  Our  long 
series  of  physical  lives  will  finally  give  us  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  grosser  nature  with  which  He  cloaks 
Himself.  We  penetrate  the  animal  existence  in  hu 
man  form  more  successfully  than  would  be  possible  if 
we  transmigrated  into  all  the  species  of  zoology ;  for 
here  we  carry  sufficient  intelligence,  along  with  the 
material  condition,  to  comprehend  these  creatures 
around  us  which  cannot  understand  themselves.  We 
cannot  expect  to  permanently  leave  this  department 
of  God's  house  until  we  have  essentially  grasped  the 
secret  of  all  earthly  life.  The  highest  individuals  of 
mankind,  the  saviors  of  the  race,  the  true  prophets 
and  poets,  attain  this  intimate  communion  with  nature, 
this  mastery  over  the  lower  creation,  which  demon 
strates  their  fitness  for  introduction  to  a  higher  stage. 

It  is  difficult  to  account  for  the  great  geniuses  ex 
cept  by  the  consideration  that  they  are  the  result  of 
many  noble  lives.  Emerson  arrives  at  this  conclusion 
in  his  essay  on  Swedenborg.  "  In  common  parlance, 
what  one  man  is  said  to  learn  by  experience,  a  man 
i  From  A.  E.  Lancaster. 


CONCLUSION.  313 

of  extraordinary  sagacity  is  said,  without  experience, 
to  divine.  The  Arabians  say  that  Abul  Khain,  the 
mystic,  and  Abu  Ali  Scena,  the  philosopher,  conferred 
together ;  and  on  parting  the  philosopher  said,  '  All 
that  he  sees,  I  know ; '  and  the  mystic  said,  '  All  that 
he  knows,  I  see.'  If  one  should  ask  the  reason  of  this 
intuition,  the  solution  would  lead  us  into  that  property 
which  Plato  denoted  as  reminiscence,  and  which  is 
implied  by  the  Brahmans  in  the  tenet  of  transmigra 
tion.  The  soul  having  been  often  born,  or,  as  the 
Hindoos  say,  '  traveling  the  path  of  existence  through 
thousands  of  births,'  having  beheld  the  things  which 
are  here,  those  which  are  in  heaven,  and  those  which 
are  beneath,  there  is  nothing  of  which  she  has  not 
gained  the  knowledge  :  no  wonder  that  she  is  able  to 
recollect,  in  regard  .to  one  thing,  what  formerly  she 
knew.  For  all  things  in  nature  being  linked  and  re 
lated,  and  the  soul  having  heretofore  known  all,  noth 
ing  hinders  but  that  any  man  who  has  recalled  to 
mind,  or,  according  to  the  common  phrase,  has  learned 
one  thing  only,  should  of  himself  recover  all  his  an 
cient  knowledge,  and  find  out  again  all  the  rest,  if  he 
have  but  courage,  and  faint  not  in  the  midst  of  his 
researches.  For  inquiry  and  learning  is  reminiscence 
all.  How  much  more,  if  he  that  inquires  be  a  holy, 
godlike  soul !  For  by  being  assimilated  to  the  origi 
nal  soul,  by  whom,  and  after  whom,  all  things  subsist, 
the  soul  of  man  does  then  easily  flow  into  all  things, 
and  all  things  flow  into  it :  they  mix  ;  and  he  is  pres 
ent  and  sympathetic  with  their  structure  and  law." 

A  recent  instance  of  the  glaring  facts  inexplicable 
by  any  other  theory  than  reincarnation  appears  in  the 
little  musical  prodigy  Josef  Hofmann,  whose  phenom 
enal  genius  holds  complete  mastery  of  the  piano,  and 


314 


CONCLUSION. 


charms  vast  audiences  with  his  exquisite  rendering  of 
most  difficult  concertos,  and  particularly  with  his 
marvelous  improvisations  upon  themes  suggested  at  a 
moment's  notice.  He  presents  the  uncanny  phenome 
non  of  a  child  of  ten  who  has  little  more  to  learn  in 
the  most  difficult  of  arts.  The  natural  explanation 
occurring  to  any  candid  mind  is  thus  suggested  by 
the  Boston  Herald  in  its  report  of  a  Hofmami  con 
cert  :  "It  almost  seems  as  if  the  spirit  of  some  great 
composer  had  been  put  into  this  boy  by  nature,  wait 
ing  to  be  developed  in  accordance  with  our  modern 
art  to  shine  forth  again  in  all  its  glory  in  his  work." 
What  if  he  actually  were  the  reappearance  of  Mozart 
hastening  to  fill  out  the  life  that  was  cut  sadly  short  ? 
There  may  be  means  of  verifying  such  a  presumption 
by  the  character  of  his  later  compositions,  when  he 
gets  the  full  expression  of  his  natural  bent.  An  art 
so  independent  of  time  and  place,  as  music,  might 
fairly  be  traced  through  two  historic  individuals, 
when  literature  and  painting  would  not  permit  it.  At 
any  rate  it  is  significant  that  the  young  prodigies  in 
any  particular  kind  of  skill  do  not  come  until  that 
skill  has  been  well  established  on  the  earth.  Guido 
followed  generations  of  great  painters.  Pascal  was 
preceded  by  a  long  course  of  mathematicians.  Pope 
"  lisped  in  numbers  "  after  a  vast  procession  of  poets. 
And  Mozart  waited  until  the  new  era  of  musical  har 
mony  had  been  well  inaugurated.  The  colossal  char 
acters  who  stand  out  from  the  race,  with  no  predeces 
sors  equal  to  them,  like  Homer,  Plato,  Jesus,  Raphael, 
Shakespeare,  Beethoven,  all  reach  their  maturity  later 
than  other  prodigies,  after  infancy  and  youth  have 
fastened  the  Lethean  gates  upon  the  prehistoric 
scenes  from  which  they  seem  to  hail.  But  the  un- 


CONCLUSION.  315 

fathomable  vagaries  of  the  soul,  as  it  works  out  suc 
cessively  its  dominant  impulses,  easily  disguise  the 
individual  in  different  personalities,  so  long  as  the 
physical  realm  is  most  attractive  to  it.  Yet  it  is  no 
ticeable  that  the  great  minds  of  history  come  together 
in  galaxies,  when  the  fullness  of  time  for  their  capa 
cities  draws  them  together.  Witness  the  Sanskrit 
sages,  the  Greek  poets  and  philosophers,  the  Augustan 
writers  and  generals,  the  Italian  artists  of  the  Renais 
sance,  the  German  masters  of  music,  the  Elizabethan 
authors,  the  nineteenth-century  scientists.  The  traits 
of  the  commonest  child,  however,  as  much  as  the 
miracles  of  a  genius,  have  no  satisfactory  explanation 
outside  of  the  philosophy  of  re-births. 

Evolution  of  the  physical  nature  and  of  material 
strength  attaches  our  future  to  body  and  matter.  But 
the  attachment  hastens  toward  a  release  by  at  length 
proving  these  to  be  low  steps  in  the  ascent  of  life.  As 
in  the  geological  programme  of  animal  development 
each  era  carried  its  type  to  gigantic  dimensions  and 
then  was  surmounted  by  a  higher  order  of  creatures, 
which  in  turn  grew  monstrous  as  tyrants  of  their  age 
and  then  succumbed  to  a  still  higher  rank  :  so  the 
soul's  progress  from  the  earthly  domain  lies  through 
the  mastery  of  physical  things  to  mental,  thence  to 
psychic,  and  at  last  to  spiritual.  And  the  passion  for 
material  achievement  animating  our  side  of  the  planet 
should  not  be  underestimated,  since  it  governs  an  im 
portant  epoch  in  the  world's  growth.  But  the  danger 
lies  in  esteeming  it  a  finality.  It  is  chiefly  valuable 
as  the  foundation  upon  which  wo  may  build  sky 
ward,  in  an  evolution  of  character.  When  the  struc 
ture  is  made  high  enough,  the  buoyancy  of  the  upper 
stories  will  conquer  the  weight  of  the  base  and  float 


316  CONCLUSION. 

away  our  abode  to  ethereal  climes.  Only  the  educa 
tion  of  the  spiritual  in  us,  of  sacrifice,  nobility,  and 
divinity,  can  divorce  us  from  these  uneasy  earthly  af 
finities  to  the  permanent  rest  of  union  with  God. 
While  we  must  not  abandon  the  glories  of  physical 
beauty,  power  and  pleasure,  we  must  not  forget  that 
the  true  business  of  life  is  to  wean  our  affections  from 
the  visible  to  the  invisible,  to  transfer  the  preponder 
ance  of  our  magnetisms  from  shadows  to  substances. 
For  we  bridge  the  two  kingdoms  of  matter  and  spirit, 
and  we  have  the  choice  between  them  more  freely 
than  we  know. 

The  mechanical  transmigration  which  was  fancifully 
told  in  Grecian  mythology,  gathered  and  beautifully 
rendered  by  Ovid,  which  was  taught  in  the  Egyptian 
and  Pythagorean  dogmas  and  still  floats  broadcast 
throughout  the  vast  realms  of  Brahmanism,  Buddhism, 
and  barbarism,  which  fascinates  the  thought  of  our 
poets,  and  which  is  daily  enacted  by  a  myriad  object- 
lessons  in  nature,  is  merely  the  objective  expression  of 
a  subjective  truth,  discerned  by  all  the  mystics,  seers, 
and  philosophers,  and  most  elaborately  stated  by  Swe- 
denborg.  It  means  that  the  infinite  progress  of  the 
soul  conveys  it  through  countless  epochs,  moving  in  per 
fect  succession  by  the  dynamic  laws  of  its  own  being. 
During  this  development,  the  universe  arranges  itself 
peculiarly  to  each  individual  according  to  his  thought 
and  character.  We  shape  the  outer  world  by  our 
inner  nature,  and  we  say  just  how  long  our  stay  shall 
be  among  dust  and  mortality. 

The  true  and  wholesome  aspect  of  the  earthly  life, 
under  the  religious  philosophy  of  reincarnation,  trans 
forms  the  spectacle  from  a  trivial  show,  or  a  gloomy 
arena  of  despair,  to  a  majestic  stage  in  the  ascend- 


CONCLUSION.  317 

ing  series  of  human  sojournings  on  the  way  to  the  Ab 
solute.  In  the  words  of  the  old  martyr-philosopher 
Giordano  Bruno,  the  father  of  Descartes,  Spinoza,  and 
Leibnitz,  the  cherisher  of  that  thought,  "  being  present 
in  the  body,  is  yet,  as  by  an  indissoluble  oath,  bound 
and  united  to  divine  things,  so  that  he  is  not  sensible 
either  of  love  or  hatred  for  mortal  things,  knowing  he 
is  greater  than  these,  and  that  he  must  not  be  the  slave 
of  his  body,  which  is  to  be  regarded  as  no  other  than 
the  prison  of  his  liberty,  a  snare  for  his  wings,  a  chain 
upon  his  limbs,  and  a  veil  impeding  his  sight."  His 
life  flows  beauteously  in  aspiration  for  the  invisible 
kingdom  of  permanence,  as  this  same  Bruno,  the  No 
lan,  phrased  it  in  verse  :  — 

While  that  the  sun  upon  his  round  doth  burn 

And  to  their  source  the  roving  planets  flee, 

Things  of  the  earth  do  to  the  earth  return 

And  parted  waters  hasten  to  the  sea  : 

So  shall  my  spirit  to  the  high  gods  turn 

And  heaven-born  thought  to  Heaven  shall  carry  me. 

Instead  of  being  a  cold  pagan  philosophy  as  it  is 
frequently  considered,  reincarnation  throbs  with  the 
most  vital  spirit  of  Christianity.  It  is  no  more  Bud 
dhism,  than  kindliness  is  Christianity.  It  is  the  hid 
den  core  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  as  of  all  other  great 
religions  and  philosophies.  This  is  what  has  pre 
served  them  in  spite  of  their  degrading  excrescences. 
It  is  "  the  religion  of  all  sensible  men  "  who  refuse  the 
weak  sentiment  and  bigoted  dogmas  that  obscure  the 
light  of  Christianity  in  the  churches  :  for  it  clearly 
unfolds  what  they  unconsciously  believe,  in  the  laws 
of  cause  and  effect.  It  spurns  the  despairing  doctrine 
of  total  depravity,  but  shows  the  cause  of  partial  de 
pravity.  It  teaches  salvation  as  Jesus  did,  not  by 


318  CONCLUSION. 

heaping  our  sins  upon  him,  but  by  recognizing  the 
Fatherhood  of  the  Supreme,  entering  the  new  birth 
into  spiritual  life,  and  watchfully  growing  Godward. 
It  revolts  against  the  thought  of  everlasting  punish 
ment  for  brief  errors,  but  provides  infinite  opportu 
nities  for  restoration  and  advancement,  while  em 
phasizing  most  vigorously  the  unescapable  results  of 
all  action*  It  is  therefore  a  corrective  of  modern 
Christianity  holding  fast  to  the  strength  and  beauty 
of  what  the  Nazarene  taught  and  lived,  but  including 
those  very  principles  which  breed  religious  skepticism 
in  the  extreme  advocates  of  science  and  evolution. 
It  enlarges  Christianity  to  a  grander  capacity  than  it 
has  hitherto  known,  and  so  furnishes  at  once  an  in 
spiring  religion  for  the  loftiest  spiritual  aspiration,  a 
most  satisfactory  philosophy  for  the  intellect,  and  the 
strongest  basis  for  practical  nobility  of  conduct. 
There  is  no  reason  why  reincarnation  and  Christian 
ity  should  not  grasp  hands  and  magnificently  advance 
together,  each  keeping  the  other  steadfastly  true. 
Only  in  this  union  can  Christianity  escape  its  present 
downward  sag.  Since  western  religion  fails  to 
spiritually  sustain  us  and  has  largely  gone  over  to  the 
enemy,  —  materialism,  it  is  time  for  another  oriental 
tide  to  sweep  over  the  West.  Having  already  a  par 
tial  possession  here,  reincarnation  promises  to  flow  in 
freely  to  revitalize  Christianity,  to  spiritualize  science. 
As  Christianity  has  degenerated  in  the  West,  so  has 
reincarnation  in  the  East,  and  the  hope  of  the  race 
lies  in  an  exalted  marriage  of  them.  They  need  each 
other,  as  husband  and  wife,  allied  in  purest  devotion, 
supplementing  the  defects  and  strengths  of  each  other, 
and  regenerating  their  lower  unassociated  tendencies. 
The  religion  of  Jesus  tends  to  sink  into  an  irrational 


CONCLUSION.  319 

sentimentality  which  is  commonly  relegated  to  women 
and  effeminate  men.  The  spiritual  philosophy  of 
India  declines  into  passionless  fatalism  or  an  ungen 
erous  self  -  absorption.  Superstition  darkens  both 
alike.  But  reincarnation  keeps  Christianity  thor 
oughly  rational,  and  Christianity  will  sustain  reincar 
nation  in  vigorous  unselfishness.  This  alliance  of  the 

O 

best  truths  of  both  hemispheres  will  teach  a  reveren 
tial  submission  to  the  divine  will  without  its  sequel  of 
stagnation,  a  heroic  self-reliance  without  its  danger  of 
atheism,  a  regenerative  communion  with  the  Highest 
without  the  sacrilegious  folly  of  selfish  prayer. 

Reincarnation  unites  all  the  family  of  man  into  a  uni 
versal  brotherhood  more  effectively  than  the  prevailing 
humanity.  It  promotes  the  solidarity  of  mankind  by 
destroying  the  barriers  that  conceit  and  circumstances 
have  raised  between  individuals,  groups,  nations, 
and  races.  All  are  alike  favored  with  perfect  poetic 
justice.  The  children  of  God  are  not  ordained  some 
to  honor  and  others  to  abasement.  There  are  no 
special  gifts.  Physical  blessings,  mental  talents,  and 
moral  successes  are  the  laborious  result  of  long  merit. 
Sorrows,  defects,  and  failures  proceed  from  negligence. 
The  upward  road  to  the  glories  of  spiritual  perfection 
is  always  at  our  feet,  with  perpetual  invitations  and 
aids  to  travel  higher.  The  downward  way  into  sen 
sual  wreckage  is  but  the  other  direction  of  the  same 
way.  We  cannot  despise  those  who  are  tending 
down,  for  who  knows  but  we  have  journeyed  that  way 
ourselves  ?  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  scramble  up 
alone,  for  our  destiny  is  included  in  that  of  humanity, 
and  only  by  helping  others  along  can  we  ascend  our 
selves.  The  despondent  sadness  of  the  world  which 
dims  the  lustre  of  every  joy,  chanting  the  minor  key 


320  CONCLUSION. 

of  nature,  haunting  us  in  unaccountable  ways,  cropping 
out  in  all  literature  and  art,  making  the  grandest  of 
poetry  tragic  and  the  subliniest  music  sombre,  is  the 
unconscious  voice  of  mankind,  humming  its  keynote 
of  life.  While  we  continue  to  dwell  in  the  murky 
realm  of  sense,  that  must  prevail.  But  the  bright  rifts 
illuminating  the  advance  guard  herald  the  approach 
of  day,  and  assure  us  that  the  trend  of  restless  human 
gyrations  is  away  from  that  condition. 

Contrary  to  the  common  opinion  of  eastern  thought, 
reincarnation  is  optimistic.  The  law  of  causation  is 
not  a  blind  meting  of  eye  for  eye  and  tooth  for  tooth. 
It  opens  out  into  a  scheme  of  beneficent  progress. 
Science  recognizes  this  in  the  vis  medicatrix  remedia 
naturce,  the  healing  power  of  nature.  What  was 
once  denied  in  the  creed  of  the  alchemists  concerniiio- 

O 

the  ascending  impulse  of  all  things  is  now  preached 
by  science,  which  declares  in  TyndalTs  words  that 
"  matter  contains  within  it  the  promise  and  potency  of 
all  life."  All  minerals  have  the  rudimentary  pos 
sibility  of  plants  and  animals.  Crystals  strive  after 
a  higher  life  by  assuming  arborescent  and  mossy 
shapes.  Plants  display  the  embryonic  qualities  of  low 
animals.  No  naturalist  can  mark  infallibly  the  boun 
daries  of  the  three  kingdoms,  so  closely  are  they  inter 
linked.  A  zoologist  does  not  doubt  the  possibility  of 
minerals  becoming  plants  and  these  mounting  into 
animals.  The  movement  of  vital  energy  is  manward, 
and  the  cry  of  mankind  is  "  excelsior,"  towards  God. 
Poetry  cherishes  the  same  conviction 

that  somehow  good 
Shall  be  the  final  goal  of  ill, 
For  pangs  of  nature,  sins  of  will, 
Defects  of  doubt  and  taints  of  blood  ; 


CONCLUSION.  321 

That  nothing  walks  with  aimless  feet  ; 
That  not  one  life  shall  be  destroyed 
Or  cast  as  useless  to  the  void 
When  God  shall  make  this  pile  complete. 

Behold  !  we  know  not  anything. 
We  can  but  trust  that  good  shall  fall 
At  last,  far  off,  at  last,  to  all, 
And  every  winter  turn  to  spring. 

And  Tennyson's  uncertain  faith  is  an  undoubted  verity 
in  the  Orient,  thus  phrased  by  Edwin  Arnold :  - 

Ye  are  not  bound  !  the  soul  of  things  is  sweet, 

The  heart  of  being  is  celestial  rest ; 
Stronger  than  woe  is  will  :  that  which  was  good 

Doth  pass  to  better  —  best. 

Acknowledging  that  the  forces  of  evil  are  terrific  and 
multiply  themselves  prodigiously,  there  can  be  no  ques 
tion  that  the  predominant  powers  are  infinitely  good. 
And  the  supremacy  of  good  in  the  universe  dimin 
ishes  the  full  force  of  evil,  makes  the  higher  attractions 
outvie  the  lower,  and  hastens  the  final  disappearance 
of  darkness.  This  insures  the  amelioration  of  all 
life  by  the  benign  process  of  re-birth  ;  for 

The  Heart  of  all  is  a  boundless  Love 

Pulsing  through  every  part 
In  streams  that  thrill  the  hosts  above 

And  make  the  atoms  dart. 

The  strongest  objection  to  reincarnation,  our  igno 
rance  of  past  lives,  is  met  by  the  fact  permeating  all 
nature  and  experience,  that  progress  depends  upon 
forgetf ulness.  Every  great  stage  of  advancement  is 
accompanied  by  the  mental  loss  of  earlier  epochs.  One 
of  Montaigne's  best  essays  shows  the  blessedness  of 
defective  memory.  All  deep  philosophy  agrees  that 
after  an  experience  is  absorbed  into  the  soul,  its  pur- 


322  CONCLUSION. 

pose  is  accomplished,  and  the  only  chance  of  improve 
ment  consists  in  "  forgetting  those  things  which  are 
behind  and  reaching  forth  unto  those  things  which  are 
before."  It  would  be  intellectually  impossible  for  the 
memory  to  grasp  anything  new,  if  it  clung  to  all  it 
had  known.  One  of  the  grandest  discourses  of  that 
greatest  English  preacher  of  the  last  generation,  Fred 
erick  W.  Robertson,  is  upon  the  theme  of  "  Chris 
tian  Progress  by  Oblivion  of  the  Past."  The  experi 
ence  of  the  race  affords  no  sufficient  endorsement  of 
the  continuation  of  our  mortal  memories.  It  is  im 
possible  to  escape  the  liberal  scientific  teaching  that 
the  mind  is  only  an  instrument  of  the  soul,  and  when 
it  decays  with  the  body,  the  soul  retains  of  its  earthly 
possessions  only  what  has  sunk  down  into  the  char 
acter.  The  logician  of  the  Scriptures  expresses  this 
in  saying,  "  Whether  there  be  knowledge  it  shall  vanish 
away."  But  the  everlastingness  of  character  insures 
the  permanence  of  our  identity  and  of  our  dearest 
ties.  And  as  the  scale  of  being  on  earth  shows  a 
gradual  development  of  memory  from  the  lowest  pro- 
tozoon  to  man,  so  in  man  the  unconscious  memory 
shall  become  more  and  more  conspicuous,  until  it  re 
veals  the  course  of  our  complete  career. 

The  glorious  unfoldment  of  our  dormant  powers  in 
repeated  lives  presents  a  spectacle  magnificent  beyond 
appreciation,  and  approaches  more  grandly  than  any 
other  conception  to  the  sublimity  of  human  develop 
ment.  Addison  wrote  :  "  There  is  not,  in  my  opinion, 
a  more  pleasing  consideration  than  that  of  the  per 
petual  progress  which  the  soul  makes  towards  the  per 
fection  of  its  nature,  without  ever  arriving  at  a  period 
in  it.  To  look  upon  the  soul  as  going  on  from  strength 
to  strength,  to  consider  that  she  is  to  shine  forever  with 


CONCLUSION.  323 

new  accessions  of  glory  and  brighten  to  all  eternity ; 
that  she  will  be  still  adding  virtue  to  virtue  and  knowl 
edge  to  knowledge,  carries  in  it  something  wonder 
fully  agreeable  to  that  ambition  which  is  natural  to 
the  mind  of  man.  Nay,  it  must  be  a  prospect  pleas 
ing  to  God  himself,  to  see  his  creatures  forever  beau 
tifying  in  his  eyes,  and  drawing  nearer  to  Him  by 
greater  degrees  of  resemblance."  Reincarnation  shows 
the  programme  by  which  this  stupendous  scheme  is 
being  worked  out,  step  by  step,  in  the  gradual  method 
of  all  God's  doings,  and  glorifies  the  present  cycle  as 
a  specimen  of  eternity  which  shall  ever  grow  brighter 
until  the  full  brilliancy  of  the  Highest  shall  radiate 
from  every  life. 

The  practical  application  of  this  truth  not  only  dis 
pels  the  haunting  enigmas  of  life,  but  incites  us  to 
the  strongest  habits  of  virtuous  conduct  in  ourselves, 
and  of  generous  helpfulness  toward  others.  It  in 
spires  us  to  nurture  all  the  means  of  developing  noble 
traits,  since  the  promise  of  all  good,  and  the  only 
highway  out  of  the  bogs  of  physical  life  into  the  moun 
tain  heights  of  spirituality,  is  character.  It  reminds 
us  most  forcibly  that 

Every  thought  of  purity, 

Every  deed  of  right, 
Conquers  sin's  obscurity, 

Speeds  the  reign  of  light ; 
Moves  with  might  supernal 

Toward  rest  and  home, 
Leads  to  life  eternal, 

Prays,  "  Thy  kingdom  come." 

It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  one  of  the  leading 
writers  of  Great  Britain  says  of  reincarnation  :  "  The 
ethical  leverage  of  the  doctrine  is  immense.  Its  mo- 


324 


CONCLUSION. 


tive  power  is  great.  It  reveals  as  magnificent  a  back 
ground  to  the  present  life,  with  its  contradictions  and 
disasters,  as  the  prospect  of  immortality  opens  up  an 
illimitable  foreground,  lengthening  out  the  horizon 
of  hope.  It  binds  together  the  past  and  the  present 
and  the  future  in  one  ethical  series  of  causes  and  ef 
fects,  the  inner  thread  of  which  is  both  personal  to 
the  individual  and  impersonal,  connecting  him  with 
two  eternities,  one  behind  and  the  other  before.  With 
peculiar  emphasis  it  proclaims  the  survival  of  moral 
individuality  and  personal  identity  along  with  the 
final  adjustment  of  external  conditions  to  the  internal 
state  of  the  agent."  * 

Alongside  of  the  Scotch  professor's  words  we  place 
these  sentences  from  an  eastern  teacher,  that  the 
wisdom  of  the  antipodes  may  grasp  hands  in  one  com 
mon  brotherhood  for  the  instruction  of  the  world  :  — 

"  There  is  in  each  incarnation  but  one  birth,  one 
life,  one  death.  It  is  folly  to  duplicate  these  by  per 
sistent  regrets  for  the  past,  by  present  cowardice,  or 
fear  of  the  future.  There  is  no  Time.  It  is  Eter 
nity's  now  that  man  mistakes  for  past,  present,  and 
future. 

"  The  forging  of  earthly  chains  is  the  occupation 
of  the  indifferent ;  the  awful  duty  of  unloosing  them 
through  the  sorrows  of  the  heart  is  also  their  occupa 
tion. 

"  Liberate  thyself  from  evil  actions  by  good  ac 
tions."  2 

Emerson,  who  unites  in  one  personality  the  sub- 
limest  intuitions  of  the  Orient  with  the  broadest  ob 
servations  of  the  West,  may  well  represent  a  noble 

1  Professor  William  Knight. 

2  An  adept  of  India. 


CONCLUSION.  325 

harmony  of  these  distant  kinships  when  he  says : 
"  We  must  infer  our  destiny  from  the  preparation. 
We  are  driven  by  instinct  to  hive  innumerable  ex 
periences  which  are  of  no  visible  value,  and  we  may 
revolve  through  many  lives  before  we  shall  assimilate 
or  exhaust  them.  Now  there  is  nothing  in  nature 
capricious,  or  whimsical,  or  accidental,  or  unsup 
ported.  Nature  never  moves  by  jumps,  but  always  in 
steady  and  supported  advances.  ...  If  there  is  the 
desire  to  live,  and  in  larger  sphere,  with  more  knowl 
edge  and  power,  it  is  because  life  and  knowledge  and 
power  are  good  for  us,  and  we  are  the  natural  deposi 
taries  of  these  gifts.  The  love  of  life  is  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  value  set  on  a  single  day,  and  seems 
to  indicate  a  conviction  of  immense  resources  and  pos 
sibilities  proper  to  us,  on  which  we  have  never  drawn. 
All  the  comfort  I  have  found  teaches  me  to  confide 
that  I  shall  not  have  less  in  times  and  places  than  I 
do  not  yet  know." 

We  conclude,  therefore,  with  the  conviction  that  all 
the  best  teachers  of  mankind  —  religion,  philosophy, 
science,  and  poetry  —  urge  the  soul  to 

Be  worthy  of  death ;  and  so  learn  to  live 
That  every  incarnation  of  thy  soul 
In  varied  realms,  and  worlds,  and  firmaments 
Shall  be  more  pure  and  high. 


APPENDIX. 


Where  a  book  raises  your  spirit,  and  inspires  you  with  noble  and 
courageous  feelings,  seek  for  no  other  rule  to  judge  the  event  by  :  it 
is  good  and  made  by  a  good  workman.  —  DE  LA  BRUYERE. 

You  despise  books  :  you  whose  whole  lives  are  absorbed  in  the  vani 
ties  of  ambition,  the  pursuit  of  pleasure,  or  in  indolence  ;  but  re 
member  that  all  the  known  world,  excepting  only  savage  nations,  is 
governed  by  books.  —  VOLTAIRE. 

Within  their  silent  chambers  treasures  lie 
Preserved  from  age  to  age  ;   more  precious  far 
Than  that  accumulated  store  of  gold 
And  orient  gems,  which  for  a  day  of  need 
The  Sultan  hides  deep  in  ancestral  tombs  ; 
These  hoards  of  truth  you  can  unlock  at  will. 

WORDSWORTH. 

I  not  only  commend  the  study  of  this  literature  (the  eastern),  but 
wish  our  sources  of  supply  and  comparison  vastly  enlarged.  Ameri 
can  students  may  well  derive  from  all  former  lands  —  all  the  older 
literatures  and  all  the  newer  ones  —  bearing  ourselves  always  cour 
teous,  always  deferential,  indebted  beyond  measure  to  the  mother- 
world,  to  all  its  nations  dead,  as  all  its  nations  living. 

WALT  WHITMAN. 

In  books  lies  the  soul  of  the  whole  Past  Time  —  the  articulate, 
audible  voice  of  the  Past,  when  the  body  and  material  substance  of 
it  has  altogether  vanished  like  a  dream.  No  magic  Rune  is  stranger 
than  a  book.  All  that  mankind  has  done,  thought,  gained  or  been,  is 
lying  in  magic  preservation  in  the  pages  of  books.  Do  not  books  still 
accomplish  miracles  as  Runes  were  fabled  to  do  ?  They  persuade 
men.  —  CARLYLE. 


APPENDIX. 


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331 


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Erckmann-Chatrian.     Le  Docteur  Maltheus.     Paris,  1859. 

Linner,  Jean  R.  Essai  sur  les  Dogmes  de  la  Metempsychose 
et  du  Purgatoire  enseigne  par  les  Bramins  de  1'Indostan.  Berne, 
1771. 

Leroux,  Pierre.  De  FHumanite.  Paris.  (See  Fortnightly 
Review,  V.  17,  1872,  p.  324-333.) 

Beausobre,  Isaac  de.     Histoire  du  Manicheisme.     Paris. 

Bonnet,  Charles.  La  Palingenesis  Philosophique,  ou  Ide'es  sur 
r^tat  passe'  et  sur  I'e'tat  futur  des  etres  vivans.  Geneve,  1769. 

Pezzani,  Andre.  La  Pluralite  des  Existences  de  1'Ame. 
Paris,  1865. 

Fontenelle,  Bernard  Le  Bouyer  de.  Entretiens  sur  la  Plu 
ralite  des  Mondes.  Paris,  1686.  Bibliotheque  National.  Paris, 
1871. 

Flammarion,  Camille.  La  Pluralite'  des  Mondes  Habitue's. 
Paris,  1864.  Histoires  delnfinite'.  Paris,  1867.  Les  Mondes, 
Imaginaires,  et  les  Mondes  Re'el.  Paris,  1865.  (Contains  a  list 
and  analysis  of  all  the  works  on  the  plurality  of  worlds.) 

Fourier,  F.  Charles  Marie.  La  Fausse  Industrie  Morcelee, 
et  1'Antidote,  PIndustrie  Naturelle,  combine'e.  Paris,  1835-36. 

Picart,  Bernard.  Ceremonies  et  coutumes  religieuses  de  tous 
les  peuples  du  monde  :  12  torn.  Paris,  1807. 

Franck,  Ad.  Dictionnaire  des  Sciences  Philosophiques. 
Paris,  1875.  See  the  article  "  Metempsychose." 

Bibliotheque  Orientale.  Chef-d'o2uvre  Litteraires  de  1'Inde, 
de  la  Perse,  de  1'figypte  et  de  la  Chine.  Tomes  4.  Paris, 
1872-78.  Vol.  I.  Rig  Veda.  II.  Hymnes  Sanscrit,  Persans, 
Egyptiens,  Assyriens  et  Chinois.  III.  Burnouf,  E.  Introduc- 

Grandville.  Un  Autre  Monde,  Transformations,  Visions,  Iii- 
cartations,  etc.  Paris,  1844. 

Balzac,  Honore'  de.     Seraphita.     Paris. 


334  APPENDIX. 

tion  a  1'Histoire  du  Buddhisme  Indien.  IV.  Le  Koran  Ana 
lyse. 

Bibliotheque  Orientale  Elzevirienne.  Tomes  30.  Paris, 
1873-1880.  (A  vast  collection  of  valuable  works  upon  the 
religions,  literatures,  and  peoples  of  the  East.) 

Plotinus.  Les  Enne'ades  de  Plotin.  Traduits  pour  la  pre 
miere  fois  en  franc,  ais,  accompagnee  de  sommaires,  de  notes  — 
par  M.  N.  Bouillet.  Tomes  3.  Paris,  1858-61.  (With  frag 
ments  from  Porphyry,  lamblichus,  and  other  Neo-Platonists.) 

Regnaud,  P.  Materiaux  pour  servir  a  1'histoire  de  la  philo 
sophic  de  1'Inde.  Paris,  1876. 

Draward,  L.     La  Science  Occulte.     Paris. 

Burnouf,  E.  Introduction  a  1'histoire  du  Buddhisme  Indien. 
Paris,  1844.  Le  Lotus  de  la  Bonne  Loi.  Traduit  du  Sanscrit, 
accompagnee  d'un  Commentaire.  Paris,  1852. 

IY.  ENGLISH. 

Cud  worth,  Ralph.  The  True  Intellectual  System  of  the  Uni 
verse.  London,  1678.  ("  A  storehouse  of  learning  on  the  an 
cient  opinions  of  the  nature,  origin,  pre-existence,  transmigration, 
and  future  of  the  soul.") 

More,  Henry.  Philosophical  Poems.  "  A  Platonick  Song  of 
the  Soul  ;  treating  of  the  Life  of  the  Soul,  her  Immortality,  the 
Sleep  of  the  Soul,  the  Unitie  of  Souls,  and  Memorie  after 
Death."  Cambridge,  1647.  (See  page  180,  above.) 

More,  Henry.  The  Immortality  of  the  Soul,  so  farre  as  it  is 
demonstrable  from  the  knowledge  of  Nature  and  the  Light  of 
Reason.  London,  1659.  (See  Book  II,  chapter  xvi.) 

Glanvil,  Joseph  (Rector  of  Bath).  Lux  Orientalis  ;  or  an 
Inquiry  into  the  opinions  of  the  Eastern  sages  concerning  the 
Prse-existence  of  Souls.  Being  a  key  to  unlock  the  Grand  Mys 
teries  of  Providence  in  Relation  to  man's  sin  and  misery.  Lon 
don,  1662.  Republished  with  annotations  by  Dr.  Henry  More. 
1682. 

Dunton,  John.  The  Visions  of  the  Soul  before  it  comes  into 
the  Body.  In  several  Dialogues.  London,  1692.  (Satirical.) 

Helmont,  F.  M.  Two  Hundred  Queries  moderately  Pro 
pounded  concerning  the  Doctrine  of  the  Revolution  of  Human 
Souls.  London,  1684. 

Parker,  Samuel  (Bishop).     A  Free  and  Impartial  Censure  of 


APPENDIX.  335 

the  Platonick  Philosophic  ;  with  an  account  of  the  Origenian 
Hypothesis,  concerning  the  Pre-existence  of  Souls.  London,  1666. 

Evidence  (An)  for  Immortality,  and  for  Transmigration.  To 
which  is  added  a  Treatise  concerning  those  who  sleep  in  the 
Dust  of  the  Earth.  London,  1732. 

Mede.  The  Mystery  of  Godliness.  London,  1708.  (Chapter 
III  upholds  "  the  reasonable  doctrine  "  of  pre-existenee  as  "a 
key  for  some  of  the  main  mysteries  of  Providence,  which  no 
other  can  so  handsomely  unlock.") 

Warren,  Edward.  No  Pre-Existence  ;  or  a  brief  Dissertation 
against  the  Hypothesis  of  Humane  Souls  living  in  a  state  ante- 
cedaueous  to  this.  London,  1667. 

Addison,  Joseph.  The  Spectator.  London.  See  Nos.  211 
and  343. 

Newcomb,  Thomas.  Pre-existence  and  Transmigration.  A 
Poem.  London,  1743. 

Pre-existence.  A  Poem.  Bath,  1763.  (In  Dodsley's  Collec 
tion,  I.  pp.  158-172.)  (See  pp.  181-187,  above.) 

Berrow,  Capel,  Rector  of  Rossington.  A  Lapse  of  Human 
Souls  in  a  State  of  Pre-existence,  the  only  Original  Sin,  and  the 
Groundwork  of  the  Gospel  Dispensation.  London,  1766. 

(He  considers  that  men  are  apostate  angels,  and  that  the 
brute  creation  labors  under  a  severer  stroke  of  divine  justice 
than  the  human  race  because  it  was  guiltier  than  mankind  in 
aeons  past.) 

Jenyns,  Soame.  Disquisitions  on  Several  Subjects.  London, 
1782.  Disq.  Ill,  pp.  27-46.  (See  page  87,  above.) 

Preexistence  of  Souls  and  Universal  Restoration.  From  the 
Minutes  and  Correspondence  of  the  Burnam  Society.  Taunton, 
1798. 

Ramsay,  Chevalier.  Philosophical  Principles  of  Natural  and 
Revealed  Religion  unfolded  in  a  Geometrical  Order.  Edin 
burgh,  1748. 

Brocklesby,  Richard.  An  Explication  of  Gospel  Theism  and 
the  Divinity  of  the  Christian  Religion,  containing  the  true  ac 
count  of  the  System  of  the  Universe.  1706. 

(Maintains  preexistence.) 

Goodwin,  John.     Works.     London,  1652. 

(Defends,  preexistence.) 

Bulstrode,  Whitelocke.  An  Essay  on  Transmigration,  in 
Defence  of  Pythagoras.  London,  1692. 


336  APPENDIX. 

Wheeler,  J.  T.  History  of  India.  London,  1874.  (For 
Hindu  Transmigration,  see  pp.  72-76.) 

Garrett,  J.  Classical  Dictionary  of  India.  1871.  (See 
"  Transmigration, "  on  pp.  637-642.) 

Tulloch,  John,  D.D.  Rational  Theology  and  Christian  Phi 
losophy  in  England  in  the  17th  Century.  Edinburgh  and  Lon 
don,  1872.  (Vol.  II  :  The  Cambridge  Platonists.) 

Wilkinson,  Sir  John  Gardiner.  A  second  series  of  the  Man 
ners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  including  their  Re 
ligion,  etc.  3  vols.  London,  1878.  (Vol.  II.  chap,  xvi.,  pp. 
440-451,  relate  to  transmigration.) 

Bunsen,  Christian  Carl  J.  Egypt's  Place  in  Universal  His 
tory.  5  vols.  London,  1848-1860.  (Vol.  IV.  pp.  638-653, 
treat  of  animal  worship  and  metempsychosis.) 

Ginsburg,  Dr.  The  Kabbala  :  its  Doctrines,  Development 
and  Literature.  London. 

Taylor,  Isaac.  Physical  Theory  of  Another  Life.  London 
and  New  York,  1836. 

Hume,  David.  Essay  on  Immortality.  In  his  Essays,  moral, 
political  and  literary.  Edited  by  T.  H.  Green  and  T.  H.  Gosse. 
London,  1875.  (See  p.  94,  above.) 

Cox,  Edward  W.  What  am  I  ?  A  Popular  Introduction  to 
Mental  Philosophy  and  Psychology.  2  vols.  London,  1871. 
Vol.  I.,  chap.  42,  "Pre-existence." 

Hudson,  C.  F.  Debt  and  Grace,  as  related  to  the  Doctrine  of 
a  Future  Life.  Boston,  1858.  (See  p.  111.) 

Timbs,  John.  The  Mysteries  of  Life,  Death  and  Futurity. 
London,  1880.  (See  the  chapters  on  Pre-existence  of  Souls,  pp. 
43  and  262.) 

Butler,  Win.  Archer.  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Ancient 
Philosophy,  edited  by  William  Hep  worth  Thompson.  London, 
1856.  (See  Vol.  II.,  Lecture  IV., "pp.  240-264,  Psychology  of 
Plato.) 

Mozley,  J.  B.,  D.D.  (Canon  of  Christ  Church).  Essays,  His 
torical  and  Theological.  London,  1878.  (Vol.  II.  pp.  317  sq., 
"  Indian  Conversion,"  severely  attacks  the  Brahmanical  doc 
trine.) 

Liddon,  H.  P.,  D.D.  (Canon  of  St.  Paul's).  Some  Elements 
of  Religion.  Lent  Lectures.  London,  1870.  (Lecture  II.  pp. 
95-106,  is  devoted  to  a  refutation  of  Preexistence.) 

Jennings,  H.    The  Rosecrucians.    Their  Rites  and  Mysteries. 


APPENDIX.  337 

London,  1870.  (References  to  transmigration  occur  on  pages 
94,  97,  101,  106.) 

Davies,  Edward.  Mythology  and  Rites  of  the  British 
Druids.  London,  1809. 

Mosheim,  Joh  L.  von.  Commentaries  on  the  Affairs  of  the 
Christians  in  the  First  Three  Centuries.  London  and  New 
York.  (See  Sections  27-29  for  Origen.) 

Beecher,  Edward.  The  Conflict  of  Ages  ;  or  the  Great  De 
bate  on  the  Moral  Relations  of  God  and  Man.  Boston,  1853. 
The  Concord  of  Ages.  New  York,  1860. 

Alger,  Wm.  R.  A  Critical  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Fu 
ture  Life.  Philadelphia,  1860.  (See  p.  100,  above.) 

Clarke,  James  Freeman.  Ten  Great  Religions.  Boston, 
1871.  (Vol.  I.  chapter  iii.  Brahmanism  ;  chap.  iv.  Buddhism  ; 
chap.  vi.  The  Religion  of  Egypt.  Vol.  II.  chap.  vi.  The  Soul 
and  its  Transmigrations  in  all  Religions.; 

Johnson,  Samuel.  Oriental  Races  and  Religions.  India. 
Boston,  1875. 

Channing,  Win.  Henry.  Lectures  on  Eastern  Religions. 
London. 

Haldred.     An  Account  of  the  Hindoo  Land. 

D' Israeli,  Isaac.  Curiosities  of  Literature.  London.  (Vol. 
II.  contains  a  short  section  on  "Metempsychosis."  ) 

Hardy,  R.  Spence.  A  Manual  of  Buddhism,  in  its  Modern 
Development.  London,  1853.  New  York,  1886. 

Wilson,  Prof.  H.  H.  Lectures  on  the  Religious  Opinions  of 
the  Hindus. 

Upham,  Edward.  The  History  and  Doctrine  of  Buddhism, 
popularly  illustrated.  London,  1829.  (Transmigration  occupies 
pp.  25-43.) 

Lillie,  Arthur.     Buddha  and  Early  Buddhism. 

Brewster,  David.  More  Worlds  than  One  :  the  Philosopher's 
Faith  and  the  Christian's  Hope.  London. 

Man  :  Fragments  of  Forgotten  History.  By  Two  Chelas. 
London,  1885. 

Hartmann,  Franz,  M.D.  Magic,  White  and  Black  ;  or  the 
Science  of  the  Finite  and  Infinite  Life.  London,  1886. 

Sinnet,  A.  P.     Esoteric  Buddhism.     Boston,  1884. 

Five  Years  of  Theosophy.     London,  1885. 

Arnold,  Edwin.  The  Light  of  Asia.  Boston,  1879.  Pearls 
of  the  Faith.  Boston,  1883. 


338  APPENDIX. 

Collins,  Mabel.  Light  on  the  Path.  Boston,  1885.  Through 
the  Gates  of  Gold.  A  Fragment  of  Thought.  Boston,  1887. 

Tredwell,  Daniel  N.    Apollonius  of  Tyana.    New  York,  1886. 

Chasseaud,  Geo.  Washington.  The  Druses  of  the  Lebanon  : 
their  Manners,  Customs,  and  History.  With  a  translation  of 
their  Religious  Code.  London,  1855. 

Fleming's  Vocabulary  of  Philosophy.  London,  1886.  (See 
under  Metempsychosis,  etc.) 

Hedge,  Frederick  Henry.  Ways  of  the  Spirit  and  other  Es 
says.  Boston,  1877.  (See  above,  page  120.) 

Tyler,  E.  B.     Primitive  Culture.     New  York,  1876. 

Myers,  F.  W.  H.     Modern  Essays.     (See  page  55.) 

Poe,  Edgar  Allan.  Eureka.  In  his  Complete  Works.  New 
York. 

Smedley.  The  Occult  Sciences.  London,  1855.  Dream 
land  and  Ghostland.  3  vols.  London,  1887. 

Hodson,  B.  H.  Essays  on  the  Language,  Literature  and  Re 
ligion  of  Nepal  and  Tibet.  London,  1874. 

King,  C.  W.  The  Gnostics  and  their  Remains,  Ancient  and 
Medieval.  London  and  New  York,  1864  and  1887. 

McClintock  and  Strong's  Cyclopedia  of  Biblical,  Theological 
and  Ecclesiastical  Literature.  New  York,  1867-1877.  (See 
Gnostics,  Metempsychosis,  Pre-existence,  Origen,  etc.) 

Blavatsky,  H.  P.  Isis  Unveiled  :  A  Master  Key  to  the 
Mysteries  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Science  and  Theology.  New 
Yrork,  1877.  (See  references  in  index  to  Metempsychosis,  Rein 
carnation  and  Transmigration.) 

Frith,  J.  Life  of  Giordano  Bruno,  the  Nolan.  London  and 
Boston,  1887. 

Meyer,  Isaac.  Qabbalah.  The  Philosophical  Writings  of 
Solomon  Ben  Yehudah  Ibn  Gebirol  or  Avicebron,  and  their  con 
nection  with  the  Hebrew  Qabbalah  and  Sepher  haz-Zohar,  etc. 
Philadelphia,  1888. 


V.  ENGLISH.     (TRANSLATIONS.) 

Manu,  The  Institutes  of.  The  Twelfth  Book  treats  of 
Transmigration.  Trans,  by  Sir  Wm.  Jones.  Vol.  VIII.  of  his 
Works.  1807. 

Rig  Veda.  Vishnu  Piwana.  Translated  by  Prof.  H.  H.  Wil- 
gon.  London,  1840. 


APPENDIX.  339 

Sacred  Books  of  the  East.  Translated  or  edited  by  Max 
Miiller.  Oxford.  See  especially  Upauishads,  Vol.  I.  ;  Sacred 
Laws  of  the  Aryas,  Vol.  II.  ;  Bhagavadgita,  Vol.  VIII. 

Picart,  Bernard.  Ceremonies  and  Religious  Customs  of  all 
the  People  of  the  World.  6  vols.  London,  1733-37.  Vol.  IV. 
Part  II.  pp.  159-187,  describe  Hindu  Transmigration.  See 
also  Vol.  I.  Part  II.  p.  23  seq.;  Vol.  II.  Part  I.  p.  157  seq. 

Leibnitz,  Gottfried  Wilhelm.  Monadology.  Trans,  by  F.  H. 
Hedge.  In  the  Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy,  Vol.  I.  pp. 
129.  New  York,  1867. 

Hafiz.     Persian  Lyrics.     London,  1800. 

Bibliotheque  Orientale.  London,  1C92.  (See  the  essay  on 
Transmigration.) 

Lessing,  Gotthold  Ephraim.  The  Education  of  the  Race. 
Trans,  by  Rev.  F.  W.  Robertson.  London,  1855. 

Fichte,  J.  G.  The  Destiny  of  Man.  In  Dr.  Hedge's  "  Prose 
Writers  of  Germany."  Philadelphia,  1848.  New  York,  1856. 
(See  pages  58-59,  above.) 

Helmont,  F.  M.  von.  Seder  Olani :  or  the  Order  of  All  the 
Ages  of  the  Whole  World  ;  also  the  Hypothesis  of  the  Pre-exist- 
ency  and  Revolution  of  Human  Souls.  Translated  by  J.  Clark, 
M.D.  London,  1694. 

Herder,  John.  Dialogues  on  Transmigration.  Translated 
by  F.  H.  Hedge  in  his  "  Prose  Writers  of  Germany  "  (pp.  248  et 
seq.).  Philadelphia,  1848.  New  York,  1856.  (See  pp.  59-63, 
above.) 

Plotinus.  Select  Works.  Translated  by  Thomas  Taylor. 
London,  1817.  Five  Books.  (See  especially  "  The  Descent  of 
the  Soul.")  Translated  by  Thomas  Taylor.  London,  1794. 

Virgil.  Eneid.  Translated  by  William  Morris.  Boston, 
1876.  Trans,  by  C.  P.  Cranch.  Boston,  1872.  (See  latter 
part  of  the  sixth  Eneid.) 

Ovid.  Metamorphoses.  Pythagorean  Philosophy.  Trans 
lated  by  Dryden.  London  and  New  York. 

Plato.  Phsedro.  Translated  by  B.  Jowett.  New  York, 
1871.  Also  in  Bohn's  Classical  Library. 

Plutarch.  Essay  on  the  Delay  of  Heavenly  Justice.  In  his 
Miscellaneous  Essays.  London  and  New  York. 

Origen,  The  Writings  of.  Translated  by  Rev.  Frederick 
Crombie.  2  vols.  Edinburgh,  1869,  In  Clark's  Ante-Nicene 
Christian  Library. 


340  APPENDIX. 

Richter,  Jean  Paul.     Levana.     London,  1848.     (p.  346.) 

Israel,  Manasseh  Ben.  Conciliata.  Translated  by  Dr. 
[/hide.  (A  rich  mine  of  information  concerning  the  Kabala, 
and  Jewish  preexistence.) 

Fourier,  Charles.  Passions  of  the  Human  Soul.  Translated 
by  Hugh  Dougherty.  London,  1851.  (For  Fourier's  ideas  on 
immortality  see  Introduction,  pp.  xiv-xviii.) 

Herodotus.     Book  II.  cap.  123. 

Timseus,  the  Locrian.    (A  Pythagorean.) 

Schopenhauer,  Arthur.  The  World  as  Will  and  Idea.  Trans 
lated  by  R.  B.  Haldane  and  I.  Kemp.  3  vols.  London,  1883- 
86.  (See  Vol.  III.  p.  468.)  Essay  on  Death  and  Immortality. 
Translated  by  C.  L.  Bernays  in  the  Journal  of  Speculative  Phi 
losophy,  Vol.  I.  1867. 

Talmud,  The.  J.  Barclay.  1878.  Selections  from  the  Tal 
mud.  H.  Polano.  1848. 

Figuer,  Louis.  The  To-morrow  of  Death.  Translated  by  S. 
R.  Crocker.  Boston,  1872. 

Bonnet,  Charles.     Philosophic  Palingenesis.     Paris. 

Hen,  LJywarch.  Heroic  Elegies.  Translated  by  Owen. 
(Welsh  1  oems  of  Druidism.) 

Diogenes  Laertius.  Lives  and  Opinions  of  Eminent  Philos 
ophers  of  Antiquity.  Translated  by  C.  D.  Yonge.  In  Bonn's 
Standard  Library.  London,  1853.  (See  Plato,  Pythagoras, 
Empedocles,  Hierocles.) 

Dacier,  A.  Life  of  Pythagoras,  with  his  Symbols  and  Golden 
Verses.  From  the  French.  London,  1797.  Hierocles,  upon  the 
Golden  Verses  of  the  Pythagoreans.  Trans,  by  J.  Moor.  Glas 
gow,  1756.  Life  of  Pythagoras,  with  his  Symbols  and  Golden 
Verses,  together  with  the  Life  of  Hierocles  and  his  Commentaries 
upon  the  Verses.  From  the  French.  London,  1721. 

Miiller,  Julius.  Christian  Doctrine  of  Sin.  Trans,  by  Wm. 
Pulsford.  In  Clark's  Foreign  Theological  Library.  Edinburgh. 

Hagenbach,  Karl  R.  History  of  Doctrine.  Trans,  by  Carl 
W.  Buch.  In  Clark's  Foreign  Theological  Library.  Edinburgh. 
(For  Patristic  Preexistence  see  pp.  143-,  285-.)  New  York,  1863. 

Schlegel,  W.  F.  von.  Esthetics  and  Miscellaneous  Works. 
In  Bohn's  Library.  1849.  (See  p.  468.) 

Kuenon,  A.  National  Religions  and  Universal  Religions. 
(Hibbert  Lectures,  1882.)  Trans,  by  Rev.  P.  H.  Wicksteed. 
New  York,  1882.  (Lecture  V.  is  upon  Buddhism.) 

Balzac,  Honore'  de.  Seraphita.  Translated,  with  an  Introduc 
tion,  by  George  Frederic  Parsons.  New  York,  1889.. 


APPENDIX.  341 

Renouf,  P.  Le  Page.  The  Religion  of  Ancieut  Egypt.  (Hib- 
bert  Lectures  for  1879.)  New  York,  1879. 

Grimm's  Teutonic  Mythology.  See  the  article  on  Transmi 
gration,  Vol.  II.  pp.  655,  826. 

Oldenberg,  Hermann.  Buddha,  his  Life,  his  Doctrine,  his 
Order.  Translated  by  William  Hoey.  London,  1882. 

Buddhist  Birth  Stories.  Edited  by  Faurboel.  Translated  by 
Rhys  David. 

VI.    FICTION. 

Rossetti,  D.  G.  St.  Agnes  of  Intercession.  An  autobiograph 
ical  story.  In  Rossetti's  Collected  Works.  London.  (Vol.  I. 
p.  399.) 

Willis,  N.  P.  A  Revelation  of  a  Previous  Life.  An  autobio 
graphical  sketch.  In  his  "  Dashes  at  Life."  New  York,  1841. 

Macnish,  R.  The  Metempsychosis  by  a  Modern  Pythago 
rean.  In  Tales,  Essays,  and  Sketches.  London,  1844.  Also  in 
Blackwood's  Magazine,  XIX.  496;  Littell,  LVII.  p.  500; 
Tales  from  Blackwood,  Vol.  II.  ;  Good  Stories,  Part  II. 

Confessions  of  a  Metempsychosian.  Eraser's  Magazine,  XII. 
496. 

Cooke,  Rose  Terry.  Metempsychosis.  Atlantic  Monthly,  II. 
59. 

Fielding,  Henry.  A  Journey  from  this  World  to  the  Next. 
In  his  Complete  Works.  London. 

Sinnet,  A.  P.     Karma.     Boston,  1886. 

Hogg,  James.  The  Wool  Gatherer.  In  his  Winter  Evening 
Tales.  Glasgow. 

Stevenson,  R.  L.  The  Adventures  of  Dr.  Jekyl  and  Mr. 
Hyde.  New  York,  1887. 

Hawthorne,  Julian.     Archibald  Malmaison.     New  York,  1885. 

Flammarion,  Camille.  Stories  of  Infinity.  Trans,  by  S.  R. 
Crocker.  Boston,  1873. 

Barrett,  Wendell.      Duchess  Emilia.     Boston,  1887. 

Hunt,  Mrs.  E.  B.  The  Wards  of  Plotinus.  London  and 
New  York,  1881.  (In  this  historical  novel  Plotinus  and  the  Neo- 
Platonists  of  his  time  are  the  principal  figures,  though  not  much 
of  their  philosophy  of  preexistence  appears.) 

Balzac,  Honord  de.     Pe«au  de  Chagrin.     Paris,  1839. 

Erckman,  E.,  and  Chatrian,  A.  L'lllustre  Docteur  Matheus. 
Paris,  1859. 

Athertou,  Mrs.  G.  W.  What  Dreams  may  Come.  New 
York,  1888. 

An  Unlaid  Ghost.  A  Study  in  Metempsychosis.  (Anony 
mous.)  New  York,  1888. 


342  APPENDIX. 

Fechner,  Gustav  T.     Dr.  Mises.     Leipzig. 

(These  stories  of  doubles  may  also  be  added,  as  showing  more 
or  less  the  impersonation  of  the  higher  and  lower  self  in  separate 
embodiments  : ) 

Fouqud.     Sintram  and  his  Companion. 

Andersen,  Hans  C.     The  Shadow. 

Browning,  Mrs.  E.  B.     The  Romaunt  of  Margret. 

Gautier.     Le  Chevalier  Double. 

Hale,  E.  E.    My  Double  and  How  he  undid  me. 

Poe,  E.  A.     William  Wilson. 


VII.  ARTICLES  IN  PERIODICALS,  PAMPHLETS,  ETC. 

Bowen,  Prof.  Francis.  Cliristian  Metempsychosis.  Prince 
ton  Review,  New  Series,  VII.  315.  (May,  1881.) 

Alger,  Wm.  R.  The  Transmigration  of  Souls.  North  Amer 
ican  Review,  LXXX.  58.  (January,  1855.) 

Glanvil,  Joseph,  wrote  a  long  letter  full  of  curious  learning  to 
Richard  Baxter,  in  defense  of  the  soul's  preexistence,  which  is 
among  the  Baxter  MSS.  in  the  Red-Cross  Street  Library, 
Cripplegate. 

Sentiment  of  Pre-existence.  Chamber's  Journal.  (May  17, 
and  Oct.  11,  1845.) 

Doctrine  of  Pre-existence.     The  Radical,  III.  517. 

Pre-existence  of  Souls.  American  Presbyterian  Review,  II. 
546.  (March,  1854.) 

Knight,  Prof.  William.  Doctrine  of  Metempsychosis.  Fort 
nightly  Review,  XXX.  422.  (See  p.  96,  above.) 

Pontius,  J.  W.  Transmigration  of  Souls.  Reformed  Quar 
terly  Review,  XXVIII.  625. 

Pre-existence  of  Souls.  Bibliotheca  S  acra,  XII.  (Jan.,  1855.) 
From  Keil's  Opuscula  Acad. 

Pre-existence.     Methodist  Review,  Oct.,  1853. 

Concerning  Preexistence.  Penn  Monthly,  VIII.  655.  Sept., 
1877. 

Rust,  Dr.  Bishop  of  Dromore.  A  Letter  of  Resolutions  con 
cerning  Origen  and  the  Chief  of  his  Opinions.  Republished  in 
the  collection  of  Tracts  called  the  Plicenix. 

Oliphant,  Lawrence.  The  Land  of  Gilead.  A  Remarkable 
Narrative  of  a  Child  who  remembered  previous  Lives.  Black- 
wood's  Magazine,  Vol.  CXXIX.  Jan.,  1881. 


APPENDIX. 


343 


Pythagoras.     University  Magazine.     Sept.,  1879. 

Preexistence.  Notes  and  Queries.  Second  Series,  Vol.  II. 
453,  517  ;  III.  50-52,  132  ;  IV.  157,  234,  298  ;  V.  303  ;  VII. 
319  ;  XI.  341-343. 

Transactions  of  the  London  Lodge  of  the  Theosophical  So 
ciety,  No.  5.  A  paper  on  Reincarnation  by  Miss  Ammdaler 
with  comments  by  Mohini  M.  Chatterji.  London,  1886. 

Sense  of  Preexistence.     Littell's  Living  Age,  LIV.  222. 

Metempsychose  chez  les  Babis.  Journal  Asiatique,  VIII. 
488. 

Metempsychose  chez  les  Tibetains.  Journal  Asiatique,  XIV. 
409. 


VIII.  PHILOSOPHICAL  AND  THEOSOPHICAL  MAGAZINES. 

The  Path.     Edited  by  W.  Q.  Judge.     New  York. 

The  Theosophist.     Ed.  by  H.  P.  Blavatsky.     Adyar,  India. 

Lucifer.  Ed.  by  Mabel  Collins  and  H.  P.  Blavatsky.  Lon 
don. 

The  Occult  World.  Ed.  by  Mrs.  J.  W.  Cables.  Rochester, 
N.  Y. 

The  Religio- Philosophical  Journal.     Chicago,  111. 

The  Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy.     IJew  York. 

Journal  des  Savants.     Paris. 

La  Revue  Philosophique.     Paris. 

Journal  Asiatique.     Paris. 

Revue  de  1'Histoire  des  Religions.  Edited  by  Jean  Reville. 
Paris. 

Le  Lotus.     Ed.  by  K.  Gaboriaux.     Paris. 

Les  Jours  Nouveaux.     Ed.  by  Duchess  de  Poma.     Paris. 

L'Aurore.     Paris. 

Die  Sphinx.     Hiibbe-Schleden.       Munich. 

Zeitschrift  fiir  Philosophic  und  philosophische  Kritik.  Dr 
Krohn  und  Rich.  Falckenberg.  Halle. 

Jamai-ul-Uloom.     Urdu.     India. 

Arya  Magazine.     Lahore,  India. 

The  Occult  Magazine.     Glasgow. 

The  Platonist.     Edited  by  Thomas  M.  Johnson,  Osceola,  Mo. 


INDEX. 


[Including  authors  in  the  Appendix.] 


ADDISON,  Joseph,  153,  276,  322,  335. 

Adept,  quotation  from  an,  324. 

Adepts,  2G4. 

African  transmigration,  276. 

Aldrich,  T.  B.,  poems  by,  134,  136. 

Alexander  the  Great,  5,  197. 

Alford,  Dean,  poem  by,  148. 

Alger,  Wm.  R.,  100,  337,  342. 

Alternate  consciousness,  54. 

American  poets,  129-145. 

Ammonius  Saccas,  229. 

Analogy  favoring  reincarnation,  22. 

Andersen,  Hans  C.,  342. 

Anecdotes,  36-4C. 

Anonymous  quotations,  10,  23,  224,  321, 

323;  325. 

Apollonius  of  Tyana,  39,  76,  243,  338. 
Appendix,  329-343. 
Arguments  for  reincarnation,  20-48,  88, 

103. 

Aristobulus,  210. 
Aristotle,  81. 
Arnobius,  223. 
Arnold,  Edwin,  126,  240,  250,  252,  256, 

2G2,  298,  303,  321,  337. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  168. 
Ashton,  Eugene,  42. 
Astronomical  reincarnation,  66. 
Atomic  hypothesis,  247,  284. 
Atoms,  transmigration  of,  284,  285. 
Augustine,  236. 
Augustinian  original  sin,  32. 

BACCHIC  processions,  6. 
Bailey,  Philip  T.,  153,  288,  308. 
Balzac,  H.,  341. 
Barrow,  Isaac,  329. 
4    Basilidiana,  72. 
Bastian,  A.,  331. 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  298. 
Beausobre,  I.,  333. 
Bede,  17. 

Beecher,  Edward,  7,  35,  47,  67,  337. 
Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  67,  298. 
Berrow,  Capel,  335. 
Bertram,  J.  F..  330. 

Beyond,  poem  by  J.  T.  Trowbridge,  141. 
Bhagavadgita,  10,  339. 
Bible,  The,  and  reincarnation,  34,  72,  83, 
113,  114,  214-221. 


Bibliography  of  reincarnation,  329-343. 
I  Bibliotheque  Orientale,  334. 
i  Bjorn&en's  poem  "Saline,"  169. 
I  Blake,  Wm.,  94. 
!  Blavatsky,  H.  P.,  338,  343. 
I  Bode,  66. 

I  Boehme,  Jacob,  7,  65. 
'  Boethius,  81,  272. 
j  Bogomiles,  227. 
j  Bonaveiitura,  65. 
!  Bonds  of  action,  301. 
!  Bonnet,  Charles,  333,  340. 
I  Boullier,  27. 

Bowen,  Prof.  Francis  X.,  34,  42,  G7,  102. 
I  Boyesen,  H.  H.,  170. 

Brahman,  a,  upon  transmigration,  284. 

Brahman  reincarnation,   195,  241,  243- 
245,  274. 

Brahmans,  the,  6,  80,  87. 

Brewster,  David,  7,  66,  337. 

British  poets,  14G-1G8. 

Brocklesby,  Richard,  335. 
i  Brodie's  psychological  inquiries,  54. 
i  Brooks,  Phillips,  67. 
i  Browne,  Sir  Thomas.  1(5.  07,  82,  272. 

Browning,  E.  B.,  126,  342. 

Browning,  Robert,  155,  208. 

Bruno,  Giordano,  7,  65,   169,  229,  330, 
338 ;  quoted,  27,  317. 

Bruch,  J.  F.,  331. 

Bruyere,  De  la,  288,  328. 

Buckle's  History  of  Civilization,  31. 

Buddhism,  69,  70,  196,  242-247,  274. 

Bulstrode,  W.,  335. 

Bulwer-Lytton,  37,  97,  126. 

Bunsen,  C.  J.,  336. 

Burnouf,  E.,334. 

Butler,  Wm.  Archer,  50,  9G,  209,  336. 

CABALA,  6,  80,  211,  336,  338,  340. 
C:esar,  Julius,  5. 
Cardan,  81. 

Cambridge  Platonists,  6,  65,  179. 
Campanella,  T.,  G5,  177. 
Carlyle,  T.,  H,  308,  328. 
Carpenter's  Mental  Physiology,  54. 
Cathari,  227. 
Cato,  228. 
Cebes,  81,  104. 
i  Channing,  W.  H.,  337. 


346 


INDEX. 


Chapman,  George,  ii. 

Chasseaud,  G.  W.,  338. 

Children,  33,  40,  77. 

Christian     metempsychosis     (Prof.    F. 

Bowen),  103. 
Christianity  teaching  reincarnation,  72, 

225,  227. 
Christianity  married   to  reincarnation, 

317. 

Christina  (Robert  Browning),  155. 
Church  fathers,  G,  8G,  87,  226,  232,  275. 
Cicero,  81. 
Clarke,  James  Freeman,  x,  G7,  97,  240, 

337. 

Clemens  Alexandrinus,  226,  232. 
Coleridge,  S.  T.,  35,  54,  156,  229. 
Collins,  Mabel,  338. 
Collins,  Mortimer,  168. 
Concord  of  Ages  (Dr.  Beecher),  47,  67. 
Concord  of  Ages  (Dr.  Beecher),  47,  67. 
Conflict  of  Ages  (Dr.  Beecher),  47,  67. 
Continental  poets,  168-177. 
Conzius,  C.  P.,  331. 
Cooke,  Rose  T.,  341. 
Cox,  E.  W.,  336. 
Crookes,  Prof.,  4. 
Cudworth,  Ralph,  20,  65,  334. 
DACIER'S  Life  of  Pythagoras,  282,  340. 
Damascius,  229. 
Davies,  E.,  337. 
Davy,  Sir  Humphry,  123. 
De  Profundis  (Tennyson),  151. 
Death,  289-296. 

Death  in  Esoteric  Orientalism,  269. 
Death,  Prof.  Bowen  on,  116. 
Death,  Schopenhauer  on,  67. 
Death,  The  Secret  of  (Sanskrit  poem), 

252. 

Delitzsch,  216,  226,  332. 
Denton's  Soul  of  Things,  284. 
Descent  of  the  Soul  (Plotinus),  229. 
Destiny  of  Man  (Ficbte),  74. 
Disraeli,  Benjamin,  298. 
D'Israeli,  Isaac,  10,  337. 
Dialogues  on  Metempsychosis  (Herder), 

75. 

Dickens,  Charles,  41. 
Diogenes  Laertius,  340. 
Disquisition     on    a    Prseexistent    State 

(Jenyns),  87. 
Dollinger,  J.  J.  I.,  332. 
Donne,  Dr.,  168. 
Doppert,  J.,  329. 
Dorner,  Dr.,  7,  47,  66. 
Dowden's  Life  of  Shelley,  92. 
Dravard,  L.,  334. 

Dream  of  Pythagoras  (E.  Tatham),  156. 
Druids,  5,  6,  71,  275,  337. 
Druses,  39,  276. 
Duchess,  The,  341. 
Duguet,  C.,  333. 
Dunton,  John,  334. 
Dupont  de  Nemours,  97. 
Du  Prel,  Baron,  54. 

EASTERN  poetry,  251-260. 
Eastern  reincarnation,  7,  240. 
Ebers,  George,  282. 


Edda,  71. 

Education  of  the  Human  Race  (Leasing), 

72. 

Egypt,  5,  80,  197. 
Eleusinian  mysteries,  6. 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  7,  16,  23,  98,  126,  178, 

190,  214,  229,  277,  298,  312,  324. 
Empedocles,  5. 
English  divines,  6,  67. 
English  books  upon  reincarnation,  334- 

338. 

Enoch,  2G9,  291. 
Erckmanri-Chatrian,  333,  341. 
Erigena,  65. 
Ernesti,  7. 

Esoteric  Oriental  reincarnation,  263-270. 
Essenes,  210. 
Euclid,  81. 
Euripides,  81. 
Evidences   of  reincarnation,  15-48,   88, 

103. 

Evil,  origin  of,  32,  85,  116. 
Evolution,  4,  19,  24. 
Experiences  requiring  reincarnation,  36- 

FACING  Westward  (W.  Whitman),  143. 

Fawcett,  Edgar,  31. 

Fechner,  G.  T.,  21,  332,  342. 

Fernelius,  J.,  81. 

Fichte,  I.  H.,  65,  74,  331. 

Fichte,  J.  G.,  331,  339. 

Fielding,  H.,  341. 

Fiquier,  Louis,  7,  340. 

Final    Thought,    The    (M.    Thompson). 

139. 

Flammarion,  C.,  7,  66,  341. 
Fleury,  338. 
Folk-lore,  276. 
Fontenelle,  66. 
Fouqu6,  342. 
Fourier,  66,  340. 

French  books  upon  reincarnation,  333. 
Frith,  J.,  338. 
Froschammer,  J.,  26,  332. 
Future  punishments,  35. 

GALEN,  81. 

Garrett.  J.,  336. 

Gauls,  5. 

Gates    Between,   The  (E.   S.   Phelps), 
292. 

Gautama,  298. 

Gautier,  342. 

Gazzali,  308. 

Genius  explained  by  reincarnation,  59, 
314. 

German  books  upon  reincarnation,  330- 

332. 

,  Ginsburg,  Dr.,  336. 
I  Glanvil,  Joseph,  66,  91,  214,  334,  342. 
1  Gnostics,  6,  72,  226,  227. 
i  Goethe,  7, 175. 
I  Golden  verses  of  Pythagoras,  281. 

Goodwin,  J.,  335. 

Crosso,  Edmund  W.,  146. 
:  Greek  philosophers,  20,  200,  201,  226. 

Grimm,  341. 


INDEX. 


347 


Grosse,  C.,  331. 
Gymuosophists,  5,  80,  87,  1%. 

HAEGGROTH,  Nic.,  329. 

Haffner,  G.,  329. 

Hafiz,  259,  339. 

Hagenbach,  K.  A.,  340. 

Haldred,  337. 

Hale,  E.  E.,  342. 

Hardy,  R.  S.,  246,  337. 

Hartmanii,  F.,  10,  337. 

Haupt,  E.  D.,  330. 

Hawthorne,  Julian,  55,  341. 

Hayne,  PaulH.,  129,291. 

Heaven  and  Hell,  288. 

Hedge,  F.  H.,  x,  120,  331,  338,  339. 

Hegel,  65. 

Helraont,  F.  M.,  G5,  329,  334,  339. 

Hen,  L.,  340. 

Henrici,  H.,  329. 

Herder,  J.  G.,  7,  65,  75,  330,  339. 

Heredity,  58. 

Heretics  advocating  reincarnation,   72, 

225. 

Herodotus,  197,  340. 
Heusse,  M.,  329. 
Hewlett,  H.  G.  (Sonnet),  vi. 
Hierocles,  46,  229,  281. 
Hilarius,  236. 
Hindu   reincarnation,    7,   39,  246.     See 

Brahmanism  and  Buddhism. 
Hippocrates,  81. 
Hodge,  Dr.,  34. 
Hodson,  B.H.,338. 
Hofmann,  Josef,  313. 
Hogg,  James,  41,  92,  341. 
Holmes,  O.  W.,  126. 
Hone,  William,  38. 
Horace,  126. 
Houghton,  Lord,  150. 
Hudson,  C.  F.,  336. 
Hugo,  Victor,  171. 
Hume,  David,  16.  65,  71,  94,  336. 
Hunt,  E.  B.,  341. 
Hunt,  Helen,  288. 
Huygens,  C.,  66,  329. 
Hymns,  190,  191. 

IARCHAS,  76. 

Identity  (T.  B.  Aldrich),  13€. 
Identity  of  the  soul,  29,  113. 
Immortality  and  reincarnation.  20,  226. 
Immortality,  Emerson  on,  325. 
Immortality,  Hume  on,  94. 
Immortality,  Schopenhauer,  65. 
Immortality  of  the  Soul  (Dr.  More),  67. 
Innate  ideas,  31. 
India,  5,  240. 

Injustice  of  reincarnation,  57. 
Intimations    of     Immortality    (Words 
worth),  146. 
Introduction,  3. 
Irhove,  Wm.,  329. 
Isis,  rites  of,  6. 
Israel,  M.  B.,340. 

JAMBLICHUS,  81,  229,  282,  329. 


Jennings,  H.,  336. 

Jeiiyns,  Soame,  34,  64,  C6,  87,  335. 

Jerome,  224,  225,  236. 

Jesus,  6,  18,  84,  112,  218. 

Jewish  preexisteuce,  210,  340. 

Jews,  6,  72. 

John  the  Baptist,  6,  114,  218. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  337. 

Jones,  Sir  W.,  338. 

Josephus,  210,  217. 

Judgment  day,  302. 

Justin  Martyr,  232. 

KABALA.    See  Cabala. 

KalidSsa,  251,  278. 

Kant,  Em.,  7,  35,  65,  66,  109,  300. 

Karma,  299. 

Karsten,  S.,332. 

Katha  Upanishad,  252. 

Keil,  C.  A.  G.,  329.  342. 

Kemble,  Frances  A.,  308. 

Kern,  332. 

Kindness  of  the  Orient  toward  animals, 

279. 

King,  C.  W.,  338. 
King,  Dr.  William,  277. 
Klewitz,  A.  W.,  331. 
Knight,  William  X.,10,  50,  52,  67,95. 

323,  342. 

Koeppen,  C.  F.,  330. 
Krug,  W.  T.,331. 
Kuenen,  A.,  340. 

LANCASTER,  A.  E.,  312. 

Landon,  L.  E.,  133. 

Larcom,  Lucy,  310. 

Later  books  on  reincarnation,  329,  330. 

Law,  William,  64,  66. 

Law  of  Causation,  299. 

Laws  of  Manu,  245,  272,  273,  275,  338. 

Leaves  of  Grass  (W.  Whitman),  144. 

Lecky's  European  Morals,  279. 

Leibnitz,  7,  54,  65, 108,  331,  339. 

Leland,  C.  G.,  137. 

Leroux,  P.,  66,  333. 

Lessing,  7,  35,  72,  65,  71,  72,  330,  339. 

Lewes,  George  Henry,  31. 

Leyden,  Dr.,  156. 

Lichtenberg,  71. 

Liddou,  H.  P.,  336. 

Light  of  Asia,  126,  240,  256,  262,  298, 

303,  339. 

Light  on  the  Path  (Collins),  264,  338. 
Lillie,  A.,337. 
Lindsay,  Lord,  41. 
Linner,  J.  R. ,  333. 
Longfellow,  H.  W.,  142,288. 
Lotze,  Hermann,  yii,  26. 
Lowell,  J.  R.,  142. 
Lux  Orientalis  (Glanvil),  91,  334. 

MACDONALD,  George,  50. 

Macnish,  R.,  341. 

Magazines,  philosophical  and  theosoph- 

ical,  343. 
Magi,  5,  80,  87. 
Mahatmas,  264. 


348 


INDEX. 


Man  :  Fragments  of  Forgotten  Historv, 

264,  337. 

Manichseans,  6,  72,  225,  226,  227. 
Manu,  laws  of,  245,  272,  273,  275,  338. 
Marcionists,  72. 
Marcus,  J.,  332. 
Marvell,  Andrew,  167. 
Materialism,  ix,  19. 
Mazzini,  308. 

McClintock  and  Strong,  338. 
Mede,  335. 

Memory  of  past  lives,  51. 
Memory,  On  (Tupper),  154. 
Metempsychosis.     See  Reincarnation. 
Metempsychosis,  Dialogues  on  (Herder), 

75. 
Metempsychosis   of    the    Pine   (Bayard 

Taylor),  131. 
Metempsychosis,   The   (T.  B.  Aldrich), 

Mexico,  6,  276. 

Meyer,  I.,  338. 

Meyer,  J.  B.,  331. 

Meyer,  J.  F.,  331. 

Michelet,  272. 

Miller,  J.  G.,  332. 

Milnes,  R.  M.,  150,  250. 

Milton,  1C,  ISO,  181. 

Mohammedan  reincarnation,  6,  71,  247. 

Montaigne,  321. 

Moore,  Thomas,  194. 

More,  Dr.  Henry,  6,  34,  G4,  65,  78,  179, 

180,  334,  340. 
Mosheira,  J.  L.,  337. 
Mozley,  J.  B.,  336. 
Mulford,  Eliaha,  26. 
Mailer,  332. 

Miiller,  Julius,  7,  35,  47,  66. 
Miiller,  J.  T.,  331. 
Mliller,  Max,  339. 
Mulock,  D.  M.,  vi. 
Myers,  F.  W.  H.,  338. 
Mysteries,  Eleusinian,  6. 
Mystic,  The  (P.  J.  Bailey),  153. 

NATURE  of  the  soul  requires  reincarna 
tion,  29,  120. 
Nemesis,  302. 
Nemesius,  226,  236. 
Neo-Platonism,  5,  226,  228,  282. 
New  truths  the  oldest,  4. 
Nevvcomb,  Th.,  335. 
Nirvana,  244,  306,  309. 
Notes  and  Queries,  40,  343. 
Novalis,  26. 
Niirnberger,  J.  C.  S.,  331. 

OBJECTIONS  to  reincarnation,  51-61. 

Oetingen,  F.  C.  von,  52. 

Oldenberg,  H.,  341. 

Oliphant,  Lawrence,  40,  342. 

Olivier,  J.,  332. 

One  Thousand  Years  Ago  (C.  G.  Leland), 

137. 

One  Word  More  (Robert  Browning),  13">. 
Origen,  6.  34,  6(5,  81,  86,  123,  226,  233, 

339. 
Original  sin,  32,  85,  116. 


Orpheus  and  Eurydice,  295. 

Grander,  J.  A.,  329. 

Ovid,  5,  23,  168,  194,  200,  272,  278,  339. 

PARACELSUS,  50,  65. 

Paradise,  83,  221. 

Parker,  S.,  334. 

Parsons,  Thomas  W.,  145. 

Paul,  Jean,  75,  272,  288. 

Paul,  St.,  85,  116,  221. 

Paulicians,  227. 

Paulinus,  17. 

Pelagian  sin,  32. 

Periodic  year,  82,  247. 

Persian  Magi,  5,  80,  87. 

Persian  poem,  257. 

Persian  reincarnation,  199,  247,  274. 

Personality,  26. 

Peru,  6. 

Pezzaui,  A.,  66,  97,  333. 

Pfellus,  81. 

Phaedrus  of  Plato,  201. 

Phelps,  E.  S.,  292. 

Philo,  6,  81,  210,  224,  332. 

Philolaus,  194. 

Picart,  B.,  333,  339. 

Pilgrimage  philosophy,  60.  61. 

Plato,  5,  27,  71,  81,  104,  126,  201,  280, 
339. 

Platonic  poets,  178. 

Platonists,  7,  178. 

Platonists,  Cambridge,  6,  05,  179. 

Plato's  year,  82,  247. 

Plotinus,  5,  51,  81,  224,  228,  229,  274, 
334,  339. 

Plurality  of  the  Soul's  Lives  (Pezzani), 
97. 

Plurality  of  worlds.  66. 

Plutarch,  339. 

Pos,  Edgar  A.,  38,  338,  342. 

Poetry  of  Reincarnation :  American, 
129-145  ;  British,  146-168  ;  Continen 
tal,  168-177  ;  Eastern,  251-260  ;  Pla 
tonic,  178-191. 

Pomponatius,  81. 

Pontius,  J.  W.,  342. 

Porphyry,  66,  196,  229,  282,  329. 

Preexistence.  Argued  by  F.  H.  Hedge, 
120  ;  argued  by  Prof.  Knight,  95 ; 
articles  upon,  342  ;  books  upon,  32? 
343  ;  Disquisition  on  (Jenyns),  87  ;  Dr. 
Hodge  on,  34  ;  experiences  of,  36-47  ; 
Hayne's  (Paul  H.)  poem  on,  129;  in 
the  Bible,  215-221  ;  Miltoniu  poem 
on,  181,  335;  Plato's,  96,  201,  209; 
seven  pillars  of,  92.  See  Reincarna 
tion. 

Prevalence  of  reincarnation,  4-7,  65,  70. 

Priesthood,  280. 

Priestly  rites,  6. 

Priscillians,  225,  227. 

Proclus,  5,  81,  229,  275. 

Prodigies,  313. 

Prose  writers  upon  reincarnation,  65- 
123  ;  Appendix. 

Prudentius,  237. 

Psychical  research,  19. 


INDEX. 


349 


Psychological  proofs    of  reincarnation, 

29-31,  120. 
Psychometry,  284. 
Ptolemy.  18. 
Pythagoras,  5.  39,  71,   76,  78,  80,  194, 

200,  274,  280,  298. 
Pythagoras,  Bream  of  (poem),  158. 
Pythagoras,  Life  of,  282,  340. 

QUARLES,  ii. 

RABBINS,  G. 

Rain  in  Summer  (Longfellow),  142. 

Ramsay,  Chevalier,  34,  66,  83,  335. 

Recognition  of  friends  iu  the  future,  GO, 
292,  295. 

Record,  A  (W.  Sharp),  154. 

Regnaud,  P.,  334. 

Reincarnation,  ancient,  195-212  ;  an 
swers  problems  of  original  sin,  32 ; 
curious  experiences,  3G-46 ;  evil,  46, 
116  ;  nature  of  the  soul,  29,  120 ; 
arguments  for,  20  ;  Biblical,  25-221  ; 
Christian,  225-237,  317,  318  ;  Eastern, 
241-247  ;  Eastern  poets  on,  251-200 ; 
Esoteric,  2G3-270  ;  objections  to,  51- 
61  ;  optimistic,  320  ;  prevalence  of, 
3-7,  70;  probability  of,  117;  science 
confirming  it,  19  ;  summary,  309-325 ; 
transmigration  through  animals,  273 ; 
Western  evidences,  11  ;  Western  au 
thors  upon,  poetic,  127-191,  prose, 
65-123;  What  is  it?  11. 

Religio  Medici,  67,  82,  272. 

Remembrance,  A  (Dean  Alford),  148. 

Renouf,  P.  L.,  341. 

Repulsiveness  of  reincarnation,  59-61. 

Retreat,  The  (Henry  Vaughan),  189. 

Returning  Dreams  (Milnes),  150. 

Reynaud,  Jean.  66,  333. 

Richter,  Jean  Paul,  75,  272,  288,  340. 

Rig  Veda,  338. 

Ritgen,  F.,  331. 

Robertson,  F.  W.,  72,  322,  339. 

Roman  Catholic  Purgatory,  6,  35. 

Rossetti,  D.  G.,  16,  42,  153,  341. 

Rowe,  Mrs.  Elizabeth,  190. 

Riickert,  7. 

Ruffinus,  226. 

Rust,  Dr.,  342. 

SAGAS  of  Iceland,  169. 

Sakoontala,  251. 

Sanskrit  books,  338,  339. 

Sanskrit  poetry,  251-256. 

Schelling,  7,  26,  65. 

Schiller,  175. 

Schilling,  W.  H.,329. 

Schlegel,  16,  340. 

Schlosser,  J.  G.,  330. 

Schopenhauer,  7,  65,  67,  288,  332,  340. 

Schubert,  G.  H.,  331. 

Schubert,  J.  E.  von,  64,  330. 

Science,  7, 19,  25,  27. 

Scott,  Sir  W.,  36,  214. 

Scott's  Christian  Life,  67. 

Scotus,  7. 


Scriptural  Reincarnation.    See  Biblical. 

Secret  of  Death  (Sanskrit),  252. 

Secret  of  Reminiscence  (Schiller),  175. 

Sedermark,  P.,  330. 

Senses,  seven,  267. 

Separation  from  friends,  60,  292,  295. 

Seven  in  Oriental  philosophy,  265. 

Shakespeare,  272. 

Sharp,  William,  154. 

Shelley,  P.  B  ,  64.  298  ;  anecdote  of,  92  ; 

poetry  of,  187,  188. 
Sibbern,  F.  C.,  329. 
Simomsts,  72. 
Simrock,  K.,  332. 
Sin,  original,  32,  85,  116. 
Siimet,  A.  P.,  337,  341. 
Smedley,  338. 
Socrates,  7. 
Solomon,  84,  216. 

Song  of  the  Earth  Spirits  (Goethe),  17o. 
Soul,  immortality  of  the,  20,  94. 
Soul,  nature  of  the,  29,  120. 
Soul  of  Things  (Deutou),  284. 
Southey,  94. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  19,  28. 
Spenser,  16. 
Spiesz,  E.,  332. 
Stahl,  G.  E.,  26,  27. 
Stanzas  (T.  W.  Parsons),  145. 
St.  Bernard,  298. 
Stevenson,  R.  L.,  55,  341. 
Stewart  and  Tait's  Unseen  Universe,  17, 

289. 

Stories  of  reincarnation,  41,  42,  55,  341. 
Successful  Search  (Poem),  260. 
Sudden  Light  (D.  G.  Rossetti),  153. 
Sufis,  247,  251 ,  259. 
Swedenborg,  7,  65. 
Symbols  of  reincarnation,  282. 
Synesius,  81,  236. 
Syrianus,  275. 

TALMUD,  6,  72,  340. 

Tatham,  Emma,  158. 

Taylor,  Bayard,  131,  133,  308. 

Taylor,  Isaac,  16,  50,  288. 

Taylor's  (Isaac)  Physical  Theory  of   a 

Future  Life,  19,  29,  336. 
Tennyson,  A.,  151,  152.  309,  320. 
Theologians,  G,  7,  18,  32,  47,  GG,  8G. 
Thompson,  Maurice,  139. 
Through  the  Gates  of  Gold,  16,264,  338. 
Timseus,  201.340. 
Timbs,  John,  336. 

To  my  Daughter  (E.  W.  Gosse),  147. 
Translations  into  English,  338. 
Transmigration  (H.  H.  Boyesen),  170. 
Transmigration  of  Souls  (Be" ranger),  173. 
Transmigration  through  animals,  77,  87, 

273-285. 

Tredwell,  D.  N.,  338. 
Trench,  R.  C.,  257. 
Trinius,  J.  A.,  330. 
Trismegist,  80. 
Triple  form  of  teaching  by  the  priest' 

hood,  280,  282. 
Trowbridge,  J.  T.,  141. 


350 


INDEX. 


Tulloch,  John,  336. 
Tupper,  154. 
Twesten,  C.,  332. 
Twilight  (J.  R.  Lowell),  142. 
Two  Voices  (Teunyson),  151. 
Tyler,  E.  B.,  338. 

UNGERN-STERNBERG,  C.  F.,  331. 
Upham,  E.,  337. 

VALBNTINIANS,  72. 
Valentiiiius,  228. 
Vane,  Sir  Harry,  7. 
Vangerow,  W.  G.,  330. 
Vaughan,  Henry,  189. 
Virgil,  5,  81, 168. 
Voltaire,  328. 

WADDINGTON,  ii. 

Warren,  E.,  335. 

Wasseljew,  W.,  330. 

Ways  of  the  Spirit  (F.  H.  Hedge),  120. 

Weber,  332. 


Webster,  D.,  300. 

Wedekind,  G.,  331. 

Welsh  Triads,  6,  169,  275. 

Wendel,  Z.  A.,  330. 

Wernsdorf,  G.,330. 

Western  writers    upon  Reincarnation: 

prose,  65-123  and  Appendix  ;  poetical. 

127-191. 

What  is  Reincarnation  ?  11. 
Wheeler,  J.  T.,  336. 
Whitman,  Walt,  143,  144,  308,  328. 
Whittier,  J.  G.,ii,  130. 
Wigan's  (Dr.)  Duality  of  the  Mind,  44. 
Wilkinson,  Sir  J.  G.,  282,  336. 
Willis,  N.  P.,  41,141,341. 
Wilson,  H.  H.,  337,  338. 
Wordsworth,  W.,  146,  328. 
World  as  Will  and  Idea,  The,  67. 

YOUNG,  Thomas,  16. 

ZOHAR,  the,  212. 

Zoroaster,  80,  194,  199,  247,  274. 


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