{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_21533/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_21533","id":"gutenberg_21533","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21533","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Reincarnation","Theosophy"],"text":"Produced by Curtis Weyant, Sankar Viswanathan, and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n(This file was produced from images generously made\navailable by Case Western Reserve University Preservation\nDepartment Digital Library)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                    [Illustration: Docteur Pascal]\n\n\n                            REINCARNATION\n\n\n                      A STUDY IN HUMAN EVOLUTION\n\n\n                     THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY\n\n                                 AND\n\n                    THE REINCARNATION OF THE SOUL\n\n\n\n                                  BY\n\n                            DR. TH. PASCAL\n\n\n                     TRANSLATED BY FRED ROTHWELL\n\n\n    \"Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I\n    should be forced to answer him:--It is that part of the world\n    which is haunted by the incredible delusion that man was\n    created out of nothing, and that his present birth is his\n    first entrance into life.\"--SCHOPENHAUER.\n\n                          (_Parerga and Paralipomena_, Vol. 2, Chap. 15)\n\n\n\n\n                                LONDON\n\n                 The Theosophical Publishing Society\n\n                       161 NEW BOND STREET, W.\n\n                                 1910\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nCHAP.\n\nSKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE\n\nAUTHOR'S PREFACE\n\nI. THE SOUL AND THE BODIES\n\nII. REINCARNATION AND THE MORAL LAW\n\nIII.  REINCARNATION AND SCIENCE\n\nIV. REINCARNATION AND THE RELIGIOUS AND\nPHILOSOPHICAL CONSENSUS OF THE\nAGES\n\nCONCLUSION\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nSKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE.\n\n\nTheophile Pascal was born on the 11th of May, 1860, at Villecroze, a\nvillage in the South of France. His childhood was spent amid the\npleasant surroundings of a country life. Shortly after his sixteenth\nbirthday, a relative of his, a Catholic priest ministering in Toulon,\nseeing that the youth showed considerable ability, sent for him and\npresided over his studies in this large maritime centre. Before many\nyears elapsed, he entered the Naval Medical School of the town, which\nhe left at the age of twenty-two, with first-class honours. In his\nprofessional capacity, he took several trips on vessels belonging to\nthe Mediterranean squadron. Four years afterwards he married, resigned\nactive naval service, and devoted himself to building up a practice on\nland, becoming a homoeopathic physician in the great seaport itself.\nIt was about this time that the young doctor became interested in\nTheosophy, owing to the kindly services of a former patient,\nCommander Courmes. The closest friendship and sympathetic interest in\ntheosophic thought thus began, and continued during their common\nlabours subsequently in Paris, Dr. Pascal entered the Theosophical\nSociety in 1891, and during the course of the following year wrote a\nseries of articles for the _Revue Theosophique Francaise_. These were\ncontinued year after year, and dealt with the most varied subjects:\nPsychic Powers; The Fall of the Angels; Kama-Manasic Elementals;\nThought Forms; Christianity, Prehistoric Races, and many others.\n\nThe young doctor had previously made a deep study of human magnetism,\nwhich proved a most fertile ground for the sowing of the seed of the\nAncient Wisdom.\n\nIn 1898 attacks of serious nervous depression became frequent, forcing\nhim to cease work of every kind. Mrs. Besant persuaded him to\naccompany her to India, where his general health was gradually\nrestored, and he was enabled to return to France in the following\nyear.\n\nHe decided to leave Toulon, where he had built up a considerable\npractice, and to settle in Paris, hoping to provide for the needs of\nhimself and his family--his wife and only daughter--by the exercise of\nhis profession, and at the same time to fight the good fight for\nTheosophy in the capital itself.\n\nThe French Section of the Theosophical Society was founded in 1900,\nand Dr. Pascal was elected General Secretary. Throughout the next two\nyears a number of thoughtful articles and publications appeared from\nhis pen. The incessant labour and attention, however, which he\nbestowed on the spreading of theosophic instruction began to have its\neffect on a naturally delicate constitution, and in July, 1902, when\nattending the meetings of the British Convention in London, he was\nprostrated by an attack of congestion of the brain. The most devoted\ncare was lavished on him, both in London and in Paris, the result\nbeing that a rapid, though only temporary, recovery took place. Had he\nrelaxed his efforts somewhat, the cure might have been a permanent\none, but Dr. Pascal, with the penetrating vision of the mystic, saw\nhow pressing were the needs of the age, and how few the pioneers of\nthis new presentation of the Truth, so that, at whatever cost of\npersonal sacrifice, he plunged once more into the midst of his arduous\ntoil.\n\nIn 1903 a series of very fine articles on the Laws of Destiny appeared\nin the _Revue Theosophique_, to be followed immediately by publication\nin volume form. Two years afterwards appeared the present\nvolume--REINCARNATION: A STUDY IN HUMAN EVOLUTION; a work considered\nthe most complete of any that have so far appeared in France on this\nsubject, and the most popular of Dr. Pascal's publications.\n\nIn 1906 some of the nerve centres controlling the organs of speech\nbecame affected, but not sufficiently to compel him to remain absent\nfrom the International Theosophical Congress held that year in Paris\nunder the presidency of Colonel Olcott. It was on this occasion that\nDr. Pascal received from the hands of the President-Founder the Subba\nRao medal, awarded to members of the society whose literary labours in\nthe promulgation of the truths of Theosophy have proved eminently\nuseful.\n\nTwelve months afterwards he attended the Congress at Munich, under the\npresidency of Mrs. Besant, but was obliged to leave before the\ntermination of the meetings. This may be regarded as Dr. Pascal's last\npublic appearance as an active theosophist, for his subsequent\nprolonged stay in the South of France effected no radical improvement\nin the state of his health.\n\nReturning to Paris in March, 1908, and realising how impossible it was\nfor him to fulfil the duties incumbent on a General Secretary, he\ndecided to resign his post. His colleagues, however, insisted on his\ncontinuing as Honorary General Secretary. From this time onward his\nhealth became gradually worse, and his physical life terminated on the\n18th of April, 1909, his body being cremated three days afterwards at\nthe Cemetery of Pere Lachaise.\n\nWhat was most striking about Dr. Pascal, in both public and private\nlife, was his intense earnestness--the index of a well-grounded habit\nof concentration--and the calm strength of his convictions. It was\nimpossible to be in his presence for any length of time without\nfeeling the power that emanated from him, and recognising that here\nwas a mighty soul struggling for expression.\n\nOther characteristics were his extreme modesty, and his continual\nendeavour to accord praise and merit to those working for the cause so\ndear to his own heart. When questioned on many of the intricate points\nraised in a lecture or in conversation on some abstruse theosophical\nsubject, he made no pretence at knowledge he did not possess; on such\noccasions his confession of ignorance would be charming, even touching\nin its _naivete_.\n\nBut the qualities he seemed to feel it his special object to awaken in\nthe minds of others--as will be acknowledged, I think, by those who\nknew him best--may be inferred from his continual insistence on the\ndouble duty, incumbent on students of Theosophy, of practising on all\noccasions the utmost tolerance, refusing not only to condemn but even\nto judge harshly the opinions or actions of others, and of seizing\nevery opportunity to help another because of the recognition of the\nOne Life throughout the world, May we who read the following pages\ncatch somewhat of the deep earnestness and enthusiastic spirit\nbreathing through them, and may the joy of service dissipate all\nmeaner, motives, taking as our watchword also the only key to true\ngrowth, the very heart of altruism, that exhortation he never wearied\nof repeating: _Aidez! Aidez toujours!_\n\nF. R.\n\n\n\n\nAUTHOR'S PREFACE\n\n\nIt will soon be: 1500 years since the decision of the Council of 543\nA.D.[1] condemned to oblivion sublime teachings which ought to have\nbeen carefully preserved and handed down to future generations as a\nbeacon amid social reefs; teachings that would have uprooted that\nfrightful egoism which threatens to annihilate the world, and\ninstilled patience into the hearts of such as were being crushed\nbeneath the wheel of the cosmic law, by showing them the scales of\nJustice inclining to the side filled with their iniquities of bygone\ntimes; teachings which would have been welcomed by the masses, and the\nunderstanding of which would not have called for any lofty\nintellectual culture.\n\nIt was one of the greatest misfortunes that could have befallen the\nraces of the West, more especially the European, that they were thus\ndeprived for centuries of this indispensable knowledge. We look upon\nit as a duty, following on so many others, to offer it anew, this time\nin the clear, logical, illuminating form presented in theosophic\nteachings. The necessity thereof is all the more imperative when we\nconsider the growth of scepticism and materialism amongst the more\nintellectual classes, whilst the mass of the people have forsaken\ntheir blind faith only to succumb to religious indifference.\n\nTo every awakened soul the question comes:\n\nWhy does evil exist?\n\nSo long as the enigma remains unsolved, Suffering remains a\nthreatening sphinx, opposing God and ready to devour mankind.\n\nThe key to the secret lies in Evolution, which can be accomplished\nonly by means of the continual return of souls to earth.\n\nWhen once man learns that suffering is the necessary result of divine\nmanifestation; that inequalities of conditions are due to the\ndifferent stages which beings have reached and the changeable action\nof their will; that the painful phase lasts only a moment in Eternity,\nand that we have it in our power to hasten its disappearance; that\nthough slaves of the past, we are masters of the future; that,\nfinally, the same glorious goal awaits all beings--then, despair will\nbe at an end; hatred, envy, and rebellion will have fled away, and\npeace will reign over a humanity made wise by knowledge.\n\nWere this modest work to hasten forward this time by a few years, we\nshould feel sufficiently rewarded.\n\nThe subject will be divided into four chapters:\n\n (1)  The Soul and the bodies.\n\n (2)  Reincarnation and the moral law.\n\n (3)  Reincarnation and science.\n\n (4)  Reincarnation and the religious and philosophical\nconcensus of the ages.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote 1: This Council came to the following decision:--_Whosoever\nshall teach the pre-existence of the soul and the strange opinion of\nits returns to earth, let him be anathema!_]\n\n\n\n\nREINCARNATION\n\nA STUDY IN HUMAN EVOLUTION\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE SOUL AND THE BODIES.\n\n\nIn a book dealing with the resurrection of bodies and the\nreincarnations of the Soul, a chapter must be devoted to the\nfundamental elements of the question.\n\nWe will give the name of _Soul_ to abstract Being, to the Unknown,\nthat unmanifested Principle which cannot be defined, for it is above\nall definition.\n\nIt is the Absolute of Western philosophers, the _Parabrahm_ of the\nHindus, the _Tao_ of the ancient sages of China, the causeless Cause\nof all that has been or ever will be manifested in concrete time and\nspace.\n\nSome feeble idea of it may perhaps be obtained by comparing it with\nelectricity, which, though the cause of various phenomena: heat,\nmovement, chemical action, light, is not, _per se_, any one of these\nphenomena, undergoes no modification from their existence, and\nsurvives them when the apparatus through which they manifest\ndisappears.\n\nWe shall set up no distinction between this Soul, which may be called\nthe universal Soul, and the individual soul, which has often been\ndefined as a ray, a particle of the total Soul, for logically one\ncannot imply parts to the Absolute; it is illusion, limitation on our\npart, which shows us souls in the Soul.\n\n_Bodies_ are \"aspects\" of the Soul, results of its activity--if,\nindeed, the Infinite can be said to be either active or passive; words\nfail when we attempt to express the Inexpressible. These bodies, or,\nmore precisely, the varied forms assumed by force-matter[2] are\naspects of the Soul, just as light or chemical action are aspects of\nelectricity, for one cannot suppose anything outside of infinite\nBeing, nor can anything be imagined which is not a manifestation of\nthe abstract Whole.\n\nLet us also define _Consciousness_.\n\nTaken absolutely, it is Being, the Soul, God; the uncaused Cause of\nall the states which, in beings, we call states of consciousness.\n\nThis limited consciousness may be defined as the faculty a \"centre of\nlife\" possesses of receiving vibrations from its surroundings. When,\nin the course of evolution, a being is sufficiently developed to\nbecome conscious of a separation between its \"I\" and the object which\nsends it vibrations, consciousness becomes self-consciousness. This\n_self_-consciousness constitutes the _human_ stage; it appears in the\nhigher animals, but as it descends the scale of being, gradually\ndisappears in non-individualised consciousness.\n\nIn a word, absolute Consciousness is one, though, as in the above\nexample, it is manifested differently, according to the differences in\nthe vehicles which express it in the concrete world in which we live.\n\nThe Soul, _per se_, is beyond the reach of beings who have not\nfinished the pilgrimage of evolution. To know it, one must have\nattained to the eternal Centre, the unmanifested Logos. Up to that\npoint, one can only, in proportion as one ascends, feel it in oneself,\nor acknowledge it by means of the logic which perceives it through all\nits manifestations as the universal Mover of forms, the Cause of all\nthings, the Unity that produces diversity by means of the various\nvehicles which serve it as methods of expression.\n\nScience says that intelligence, or, to be more generic, consciousness,\nresults from the action of matter. This is a mistake.\n\nConsciousness does not change in proportion as the cells of the body\nare renewed; rather it increases with physical unconsciousness, as in\nsomnambulism.\n\nThought is not the fruit of the brain; it offers itself to the latter,\nready made, so to speak; the loftiest intellectual or artistic\ninspirations are flashes which strike down into the awaiting brain,\nwhen maintaining that passive expectant attitude which is the\ncondition in which a higher message may be received.\n\nThe senses are not the thinking-principle. They need to be controlled\nby consciousness; thus, people blind from birth, when suddenly made to\nsee, cannot judge either distance or perspective; like animals and\nprimitive men, they see nothing but colours on a surface.\n\nScience says also: the organ is created for the function it has to\nperform; again a mistake. The eyes of the foetus are constructed in\nthe darkness of the womb. The human germ, notwithstanding its\nunconsciousness and its simplicity of structure, develops a body that\nis complex and capable of a considerable degree of consciousness;\nthough itself unintelligent, it produces prodigies of intelligence in\nthis body; here, consequently, the effect would be greatly superior to\nthe cause, which is absurd. Outside of the body and the germ is a\nsupreme Intelligence which creates the models of forms and carries out\ntheir construction. This Intelligence is the Soul of the world.\n\nIf Consciousness _per se_, or the Soul, is above all direct proof at\nthe present stage of human evolution, the vehicles through which it\nfunctions are more or less apparent to us provided they are capable of\naffecting the brain. At the present stage of human evolution, this is\nthe case only with the astral body; the other bodies are too fine to\nmanifest through the nervous system such characteristics as are\ncalculated to furnish scientists with a proof of their existence; they\ncan only be felt and proved in and by _Yoga_.[3]\n\nIt is not without importance, however, to set forth the proofs of the\nexistence of a vehicle of consciousness immediately above the\nphysical, for it affords us a wider horizon and throws far more light\non the rest of the subject.\n\n\nPROOFS OF THE ASTRAL BODY.\n\nCertain normal and abnormal or morbid phenomena in man have proved the\nexistence of this vehicle, which we will call the _higher_\nconsciousness, for it is far greater than normal, waking\nconsciousness, that of the brain. In the somewhat rare cases in which\nthis consciousness is expressed in the physical world, it is forced to\nmake use of the brain. Now, in the majority of men, the latter is\nstill incapable of vibrating harmoniously with the matter which forms\nthe astral vehicle; this is because the density of the atoms of the\nbrain cells which preside over thought is incapable of reproducing the\nrapid vibrations of the finer matter belonging to the body immediately\nabove it. By special training (the _yoga_ of the Hindus), by a\nparticular constitution of body (_sensitiveness_), by certain special\nmethods (_hypnotism_), or in certain maladies (_somnambulism_), the\nbrain may become receptive to these vibrations, and receive from them\nan impression, though always an imperfect one. The rarity of this\nimpression, its imperfection, and especially the necessity for the\nvibration of the physical brain that it may be manifested in our\nenvironment; all these have made it very difficult to prove the\nexistence of this higher vehicle; still, there are certain\nconsiderations which show that it exists, and that it alone is capable\nof explaining the most characteristic phenomena of the higher\nconsciousness.\n\nLet us first define these two states of consciousness rather more\ncompletely, and fix their limits.\n\nNormal consciousness is that which functions during waking hours, when\nthe brain is in full physiological activity, freely and completely\nrelated to the outer physical world. This consciousness is more or\nless developed according to the individual, but its component\nparts--sensation, emotion, sentiment, reason, intelligence, will,\nintuition--do not exceed known limits; for instance, we do not find\nclairvoyance, the prophetic faculty, and certain other abnormal\nfaculties, which we shall class under the higher consciousness.\n\nThe higher consciousness works in the astral body, whether\nexternalised or not; it seldom manifests itself, and then\nincompletely; it is accompanied by the more or less complete\ninhibition of the senses, and by a kind of sleep in which the\nrelations of the subject with the physical world are wholly or\npartially suspended. The characteristics of this state are greater\nkeenness of the normal faculties, and the appearance of new ones,\nwhich are often inexplicable and extraordinary and the more remarkable\nin proportion as sleep is more profound, the brain calmer, or the\nphysiological state more abnormal.\n\nHow can we explain the paradox that faculties shown by a brain in a\nstate of inactivity cover an extent of ground which the brain in a\nstate of activity cannot approach? The reason is that the brain, in\nthis case, is not an instrument moved directly by the cause of\nconsciousness, _the soul_, but a simple recipient, which the soul,\nthen centred in the astral body, impresses _on returning to the\nphysical body_ (if it has been far away) or impresses directly when,\nwhilst acting in the finer vehicle, the latter has not left the\nbody.[4]\n\nIn other words, the brain, by reason of its functional inactivity,\nvibrates little or not at all in its higher centres; it plays the part\nof a sounding-board at rest, capable of vibrating sympathetically\nunder the influence of a similar board placed by its side.\n\nThe necessity of cerebral quiet, if the higher consciousness is to\nmake an impression, is now easy to understand; the finer vibration of\nthe astral body cannot be impressed upon the brain when the latter is\nalready strongly vibrating under the action of normal consciousness.\nFor this reason also, the deeper the sleep of the physical body the\nbetter the higher consciousness manifests itself.\n\nIn ordinary man, organic quiet is scarcely ever complete during sleep;\nthe brain, as we shall see shortly, automatically repeats the\nvibrations which normal consciousness has called forth during the\nwaking state; this, together with an habitual density of the nervous\nelements, too great to respond to the higher vibration, explains the\nrarity and the confused state of the impression of astral\nconsciousness on the brain.\n\nThe facts relating to the higher consciousness are as numerous as they\nare varied. We shall not enter into full details, but choose only a\nfew phenomena quoted in well-known works.\n\n\nMANIFESTATIONS OF THE HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS DURING THE DIFFERENT KINDS\nOF SLEEP.\n\n_Normal dream._ During normal sleep there exists a special\nconsciousness which must not be confounded either with waking\nconsciousness or with that of the astral body. It is due to the\nautomatic, cerebral vibration which continues during sleep, and which\nthe soul examines on its return to the body--when awake. This dream is\ngenerally an absurd one, and the reason the dreamer notices it only on\nawaking is that he is absent from the visible body during sleep.\n\nThe proof of the departure of the astral body during sleep has been\nascertained by a certain number of seers, but the absurdity of the\ncommonplace dream is a rational proof thereof, one which must here be\nmentioned. As another rational proof of the existence of a second\nvehicle of consciousness, we must also notice the regular registering\nof the commonplace dream, because it takes place in the brain, and the\nhabitual non-registering of the true dream experience, because this\nlatter takes place in the externalised astral body.\n\nWhy does the astral body leave the physical during sleep? This\nquestion is beyond our power to answer, though a few considerations on\nthis point may be advanced.\n\nSleep is characterised by the transfer of consciousness from the\nphysical to the astral body; this transfer seems to take place\nnormally under the influence of bodily fatigue. After the day's\nactivity, the senses no longer afford keen sensations, and as it is\nthe energy of these sensations that keeps the consciousness \"centred\"\nin the brain[5]; this consciousness, when the senses are lulled to\nsleep, centres in the finer body, which then leaves the physical body\nwith a slight shock.\n\nIt is, however, of the real dream--which is at times so intelligent\nthat it has been called lucid, and at all events is reasonable,\nlogical, and co-ordinate--that we wish to speak. In most cases this\ndream consists of a series of thoughts due to the soul in action in\nthe astral body; it is sometimes the result of seeing mental pictures\nof the future[6] or else it represents quite another form of animistic\nactivity, as circumstances and the degree of the dreamer's development\npermit.\n\nIt is in the lucid dream--whether belonging to normal or to abnormal\nsleep--that occur those numerous and well-known cases of visions past\nor future to be found in so many of the books dealing with this\nspecial subject.\n\nTo these same states of higher consciousness are due such productions\nas Walter Scott's _Ivanhoe_. The author, suffering from fever, wrote\nthis work whilst in a kind of delirious condition; _Ivanhoe_ was\nprinted before the recovery of the author, who, on reading it at a\nlater date, had not the slightest recollection that it was his own\nproduction. (Ribot's _Maladies de la Memoire_, p. 41.)\n\nWalter Scott remembered nothing, because _Ivanhoe_ was the fruit of\nthe astral consciousness impressed upon a brain which fever had\nrendered temporarily receptive to the higher vibrations.\n\nThere are certain peculiarities of the real dream which prove almost\nmathematically the superior nature of the vehicle which gives\nexpression to it. This dream, for instance, is never of a fatiguing\nnature, however long it may appear to last, because it is only an\ninstantaneous impression made upon the brain by the astral body, when\nthe latter returns to the physical body, on awaking. On the other\nhand, the cerebral ideation of the waking state is fatiguing if\nintense or prolonged, or if the nervous system of the thinker is\ndeprived of its normal power of resistance (_in neurasthenia_); the\ncommonplace (_brain_) dream is also fatiguing if prolonged or at all\nvivid.\n\nAnother peculiarity is that a dream--the real dream--which would\nrequire several years of life on earth for its realisation, can take\nplace in a second. The dream of Maury (_Le Sommeil et le Reve_, p.\n161), who in half a second lived through three years of the French\nRevolution, and many other dreams of the same nature, are instances of\nthis. Now, Fechner has proved, in his _Elemente der Psychophysik_,\nfirst, that a fraction of a second is needed for the sensorial contact\nto cause the brain to vibrate--this prevents our perceiving the growth\nof a plant and enables us to see a circle of fire when a piece of\nglowing coal is rapidly whirled round; secondly, that another fraction\nof a second is needed for the cerebral vibration to be transformed\ninto sensation. We might add that a third fraction of a second is\nneeded for sensation to be transformed into ideation, proving that in\nthese special dreams there can have been no more than an\ninstantaneous, mass impression of all the elements of the dream upon\nthe brain,[7] and that the dream itself has been produced by the\nimaginative action of the soul in the astral body, an extremely subtle\none, whose vibratory power is such as to transform altogether our\nordinary notions of time and space.\n\n_The death-bed dream._ In dying people, the bodily senses gradually\nlose their vitality, and by degrees the soul concentrates itself\nwithin the finer vehicle. From that time signs of the higher\nconsciousness appear, time is inordinately prolonged, visions present\nthemselves, the prophetic faculty is sometimes manifested, and\nverified cases are related of removal to a distance, like that of the\nAlsatian woman dying on board ship. During the final coma she went to\nRio de Janeiro and commended her child to the keeping of a\nfellow-countryman. (D'Assier's _L'humanite posthume_, p. 47) Similar\ninstances are found in _The Night Side of Nature_, by C. Crowe, as\nwell as in other works of the same kind.\n\n_The dream of intoxication._ Under the influence of soporifics the\nsame transfer of consciousness is produced, and we meet with more or\nless remarkable phenomena due to the higher consciousness. Opium\nsmokers and eaters of hashish are able to form ideas with such\nrapidity that minutes seem to them to be years, and a few moments in\ndreamland delude them into the idea that they have lived through a\nwhole life. (Hervey's _Les reves et les moyens de les diriger_.)\n\n_The dream of asphyxia._ During asphyxia by submersion the higher\nconsciousness enters into a minute study of the life now running to\nits close. In a few moments it sees the whole of it again in its\nsmallest details. Carl du Prel (_Philos. der Mystik_) gives several\ninstances of this; Haddock (_Somnolism and Psychism_, p. 213) quotes,\namong other cases, that of Admiral Beaufort. During two minutes' loss\nof consciousness in a drowning condition, he saw again every detail of\nhis life, all his actions, including their causes, collateral\ncircumstances, their effects, and the reflections of the victim on the\ngood and evil that had resulted therefrom.\n\nPerty's account (_Die Mystischen Erscheinungen der Menschlichen\nNatur_) of Catherine Emmerich, the somnambulist nun, who, when dying,\nsaw again the whole of her past life, would incline one to think that\nthis strange phenomenon, which traditional Catholicism appears to have\ncalled the \"Private Judgment,\" and which theosophy defines with\ngreater preciseness, is not limited to asphyxia by submersion, but is\nthe regular accompaniment of life's ending.\n\n\nMANIFESTATION OF THE HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS IN VARIOUS CASES OF MENTAL\nFACULTIES LOST TO NORMAL CONSCIOUSNESS.\n\nA rather large number of people born blind have images in dreams, and\ncan see with the higher consciousness, when placed in a state of\nsomnambulism. This proves that the higher consciousness possesses the\npower of vision on its own plane, and can impress images thereof on\nthe brain.\n\nThat this impression may be translated into the language of the\nphysical plane,[8] it must evidently take place in one of the physical\ncentres of vision which make possible three-dimensional sight; these\ncentres may be intact even when the external visual apparatus does not\nexist or is incapable of functioning.\n\nA deaf and dumb idiot became intelligent and spoke during spontaneous\nsomnambulism (Steinbach's _Der Dichter ein Seher_). This is a case\nwhich appears to us difficult to explain fully; indeed, if the\nimpression of the higher vibration on that portion of the brain which\npresides over intelligence and thought can be understood, it is not\neasy to see how tongue and lips could suddenly utter precise sounds\nwhich they had never produced before. Another factor must have\nintervened here, as was the case with the child prophets of the\nCamisards. (V. Figuier's _Hist. du merveilleux_, _etc._)\n\nYoung Hebert, who had gone mad as the result of a wound, regained full\nconsciousness, the higher consciousness, during somnambulism.\n(Puysegur's _Journal du traitement du jeune Hebert_.)\n\nDr. Teste (_Manuel pratiq. du magnet. anim._) came across madmen who\nbecame sane just before death, _i.e._, when consciousness was passing\ninto the astral body. He also mentions a servant girl, quite\nuneducated and of ordinary intelligence, who nevertheless became a\nveritable philosopher during mesmeric somnambulism and delivered\nlearned discourses on lofty problems dealing with cosmogony.\n\nThis proves that the vibratory scale of the finer vehicle extends far\nbeyond that of the physical, and that the soul cannot impress on this\nlatter vehicle all that it knows when functioning in the former. By\nthis we do not mean that it is omniscient as soon as it has left the\nvisible body; this opinion, a current one, is contrary to the law of\nevolution, and will not bear examination.\n\n\nMANIFESTATIONS OF THE HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS UNDER THE FORM OF MEMORY.\n\nThe memory that is lost by the brain is preserved in its entirety by\nthe finer vehicle.\n\nA musician, a friend of Hervey's, once heard a remarkable piece of\nmusic; he remembered it on awaking, and wrote it down, regarding it as\nhis own inspiration. Many years afterwards, he found it in an old\nparcel of music where he knew it had been long before; he had totally\nforgotten it in his normal consciousness. (Hervey's _Dreams_.)\n\nColeridge tells of a servant girl who, when in a state of delirium,\nwould recite long passages of Hebrew which she had formerly heard from\nthe lips of a priest in whose service she had been. In the same way,\nshe would repeat passages from Latin and Greek theological books,\nwhich she had heard under the same circumstances; in her normal state,\nshe had no recollection whatever of all this. (Dr. Carpenter's _Mental\nPhysiology_, p. 437, 1881 edition.)\n\nRicard (_Physiol. et Hygiene du Magnet._, p. 183) relates the case of\na young man, possessed of an ordinary memory, but who, in\nsomnambulism, could repeat almost word for word a sermon he had heard\nor a book he had read.\n\nMayo, the physiologist, states that an ignorant young girl, in a state\nof somnambulism, wrote whole pages of a treatise on astronomy,\nincluding figures and calculations, which she had probably read in the\n_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, for the treatise was afterwards found in\nthat work. (_Truths in Popular Superstitions._)\n\nLadame (_La Nevrose hypnotique_, p. 105) mentions a woman who, having\nonly on one occasion been to the theatre, was able, during\nsomnambulism, to sing the whole of the second act of Meyerbeer's\n_L'Africaine_, an opera of which she knew nothing whatever in her\nwaking state.\n\nDuring experiments with the inhaling of protoxyde of azote, H. Davy\nsaid that normal consciousness disappeared, and was followed by a\nwonderful power of recalling past events. (Hibbert's _Philosophy of\nApparitions_, p. 162.)\n\n\nMANIFESTATIONS OF THE HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS IN PHENOMENA OF DOUBLE\nCONSCIOUSNESS.\n\nThe \"strata of memory\" met with in many cases also prove the existence\nof the second vehicle of consciousness which we are trying to\ndemonstrate.\n\nCertain dreams continue night after night, beginning again just where\nthey stopped the previous night; this is noticed in the case of those\nwho talk in their sleep and in spontaneous or forced somnambulism.\n\nThe memory of one intoxicated, or in a state of fever delirium is lost\nwhen consciousness returns from the astral to the physical body; it\ncomes back on the return of the delirium or the intoxication.\n\nThe same thing takes place in madness; at the termination of a crisis,\nthe patients take up the past just where they left it. (Wienholt's\n_Heilkraft_.) Kerner relates that one of these unfortunate persons,\nafter an illness lasting several years, remembered the last thing he\ndid before the crisis happened, his first question being whether the\ntools with which he had been cutting up wood had been put away. During\nthe whole of the interval he had been living in his higher\nconsciousness.\n\nRibot (_Maladies de la Memoire_ p. 63) has noted the fact that the\nsame thing happens with those who fall into a state of coma after\nhaving received a hurt or wound.\n\n\nMANIFESTATIONS OF THE HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS, INDICATING NOT ONLY THAT\nIT EXTENDS FARTHER THAN NORMAL CONSCIOUSNESS, BUT DOMINATES, AND IS\nSEPARATED FROM IT, RECOGNISING THAT ITS VEHICLE--THE BODY--IS NOTHING\nMORE THAN AN INSTRUMENT.\n\nThe Soul functioning in the finer body sees the physical body in a\nstate of coma. Dr. Abercrombie relates the case of a child aged four,\nwho was trepanned as the result of fracture of the skull, and whilst\nin a stale of coma. He never knew what happened. At the age of\nfifteen, during an attack of fever, the higher consciousness impressed\nitself upon the brain, and he remembered every detail of the accident;\nhe described to his mother where he had felt the pain, the operation,\nthe people present, their number, functions, the clothes they wore,\nthe instruments used, etc. (Kerner, _Magikon_, vol. 3, p. 364.)\n\nThe Soul, in the finer body, during somnambulism, is separated both\nfrom the physical body and from normal consciousness, it calmly\nforesees the illness or the death of the denser body on which it\nsometimes imposes serious operations. Such facts were numerous in the\ncase of magnetisers in olden days.\n\nDeleuze (_Hist. crit. du magn. animal_, vol. 2, p. 173) had a patient\nwho, in a state of somnambulism, held moral, philosophical, and\nreligious opinions quite contrary to those of his waking state.\n\nCharpignon (_Physiol., medecine et metaphys. du magnetisme_, p. 341)\ntells of a patient who, when awake, wished to go to the theatre, but\nduring somnambulism refused to do so, saying: \"_She_ wants to go, but\n_I_ don't want.\" On Charpignon recommending that she should try to\nturn _her_ aside from her purpose, she replied: \"What can I do? _She_\nis mad!\"\n\nDeleuze (_Inst. pratiq. s. le maget. anim._, p. 121) says that many\nsomnambulists look into their body when the latter is ill; that they\nare often indifferent to its sufferings, and sometimes are not even\nwilling to prescribe remedies to cure it.\n\nChardel (_Esquisse de la nat. humaine expliq. p. le magn. anim._, p.\n282) relates that many somnambulists are unwilling to be awakened so\nas not to return to a body which is a hindrance to them.\n\nThere are many madmen who speak of their body in the third person.\n(Ladame, _La Nevrose_, p. 43). They function in the non-externalised\nfiner vehicle. Some explain their use of the third person as\nfollows:--\"_It_ is the body; it is _I_ who am the spirit.\"\n\n\nMANIFESTATION OF THE HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE PHENOMENA OF\nPOSSESSION AND MATERIALISATION.\n\nIn these strange phenomena, not only manifestations of the higher\nconsciousness, analogous with or similar to those just cited, have\nbeen noted, but also a number of facts which prove, to some extent,\nthe casual presence in a normal human body or in materialised abnormal\nforms, of beings other than that which constitutes the personality of\nthe one possessed, or of the medium who conditions these\nmaterialisations. On this point, we would mention the well-known\ninvestigations of Sir W. Crookes (_Katie King_), those of Colonel de\nRochas (Vincent, _Un cas de changement de personnalite, Lotus Bleu_\n1896), and similar experiments of other savants.\n\n\"Incarnation mediums\" have often lent their physical bodies to\ndisincarnated human entities, whose account of what happened or whose\nidentity it has been possible to verify. Here I will mention only one\ncase amongst several others, I heard it from my friend, D. A. Courmes,\na retired naval captain, a man who is well-informed in these matters,\nthoroughly sincere, and of unquestioned veracity.\n\nIn 1895, he happened to be off Algiers, on a training vessel. A boat\nhad sunk in the harbour, and a man was drowned. His body had not been\nrecovered. On the evening of the accident, my friend, accompanied by a\ndoctor, a professor, and the vice-president of the Court of Algiers,\nattended a spiritualistic meeting in the town. One of these\n\"incarnation mediums\" happened to be present. M. Courmes suggested\nthat the drowned man should be called up. The latter answered to the\ncall, entered the medium, whose voice and attitude immediately\nchanged. He gave the following account of what had taken place: \"When\nthe boat sank, I was on the ladder. I was hurled down, my right leg\npassed between two bars, occasioning fracture of the leg, and\npreventing me from releasing myself. My body will be found caught in\nthe ladder when the boat is brought to the surface. It is useless to\nseek elsewhere.\"\n\nThis account was shortly afterwards confirmed.\n\nThese phenomena are more frequent than one would imagine; a sufficient\nnumber might be given to show that, judging from the theory of\nprobabilities, serious consideration should be given to them.\n\n\nMANIFESTATIONS OF THE HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS IN APPARITIONS.\n\nA final group of phenomena to which I wish to call attention is the\none which goes under the name of apparitions. A considerable number of\nthese are to be found; we will confine ourselves, however, to\nreferring the reader to a volume entitled _Phantasms of the Living_,\ndue to the patient investigations of a distinguished body of foreign\nsavants. Here we find, first of all, proof of the transmission of\nthought to a distance. An examination into the conditions under which\nmost of these cases took place has convinced several students of the\nexistence of the finer body which we are here endeavouring to\ndemonstrate, as well as of the possibility of its instantaneous\ntransference to a great distance. As the proofs afforded by\napparitions are not mathematical, _i.e._, indisputable, and as they\ngive room for a variety of opinions, we will make no attempt to detail\nthem, preferring to pass on to a final proof--the least important,\nperhaps, from a general point of view, since it is limited to the\nindividual possessing it; the only absolute and mathematical one,\nhowever, to the man who has obtained it:--the personal proof.\n\nThere are persons--few in number, true--who, under divers influences,\nhave been able to leave the physical body and see it sleeping on a\ncouch. They have freely moved in an environment--the astral\nworld--similar to our physical one in some respects, though different\nin many others, and have returned again to the body, bringing back the\nmemory of their wanderings. These accounts have been given by persons\ndeserving of credence and not subject to hallucinations.\n\nThere are other individuals, though not so numerous--of whom we have\nthe pleasure of knowing some personally--who are able to leave their\nphysical bodies and return at will. They travel to great distances\nwith the utmost rapidity and bring back a complete memory of their\njourneyings. D'Assier gives a typical case in his work. (_L'Humanite\nposthume_, p. 59.)\n\nSuch is the proof we look upon as irrefutable, as complete and\nperfect. The man who can thus travel freely in his finer body knows\nthat the physical body is only a vehicle adapted to the physical world\nand necessary for life in this world; he knows that consciousness does\nnot cease to function, and that the universe by no means provides the\nconditions for a state of nothingness, once this body of flesh is laid\naside.\n\nAt this stage of his evolution man can, in addition, make use of his\nastral body at will, and obtain on the astral plane, first by reason\nand intuition, afterwards by personal experience, proof of another\nvehicle of consciousness--the mental body. At a further stage he\nobtains the certainty of possession of the causal body, then of higher\nbodies, and from that time he can no longer doubt the teachings of the\nElder Brothers, those who have entered the higher evolution, the\nworlds that are divine. He knows, beyond all possibility of doubt,\nthat what the ordinary man expresses in such childish language\nregarding these lofty problems, what he calls the Absolute and the\nManifested, God and the Universe, the soul and the body, are more\nvitally true than he imagined; he sees that these words are dense\nveils that conceal the supreme, ineffable, infinite Being, of whom\nmanifested beings are illusory \"aspects,\" facets of the divine\nJewel.[9]\n\nWith this introduction, we will plunge at once into the heart of the\nsubject.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote 2: Which is nothing but an unknown \"aspect\" of abstract\nDivinity.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Present-day man possesses four bodies of increasing\nfineness, the elements of which interpenetrate. Proceeding from the\nmost dense, these are: The physical, the astral, the mental, and the\ncausal body. In certain conditions they are capable of dissociation,\nand they last for a longer or a shorter time. The astral body, also\ncalled the body of desire, animal soul (Kamarupa, in Sanskrit) is the\nseat of sensation. Evolution has in store for us higher bodies\nstilt--the buddhic body, the atmic body, &c.... but these need only be\nmentioned at this point.\n\n_Yoga_--Sanskrit, _union_--is a training of the different bodies of\nman by the will; its object is to make of those bodies complete and\nperfect instruments, capable of responding to the vibrations of the\nouter universe as well as to those of the individual soul. When this\nprocess is accomplished, man can receive, consciously and at will, in\nany one of his bodies, vibrations received by the soul primarily in\none of the others; for instance, he may feel in the physical brain the\ndirect action of his astral or higher bodies; he may also leave the\nphysical, and feel directly in his astral body the action of the\nmental body, and so on.\n\n_Yoga_ can be practised only under the guidance of a Master, _i.e._, a\nhighly developed being, capable of guiding the student safely through\nthe dangers incidental to this training.]\n\n[Footnote 4: When the astral body is externalised, the subject cannot\nspeak; he must await its return; when only partially externalised or\nnot at all, and consciousness is centred in it, the subject can speak\nand relate what he sees afar off, for astral vision is possible at\nenormous distances. Such cases as these are frequently met with.]\n\n[Footnote 5: In 1876, in a Leipzic hospital, there was a patient\npossessed of neither sensibility nor muscular sense. He had only sight\nin the right eye and hearing in the left ear. If this eye and ear were\nclosed, the patient immediately fell asleep. Neither by being touched\nnor shaken could he be awakened; to effect this, it was necessary to\nopen his eye and unstop his ear. (_Archiv. fuer die ges. Physiologie_,\nvol. 15, p. 573).]\n\n[Footnote 6: These pictures are often visible in the astral world;\nthey explain the prophetic faculty of ordinary seers.]\n\n[Footnote 7: In such cases, by association of ideas or any other\ninfluence, the soul dramatises the physical impression which calls\nforth the dream, and creates the long phantasmagoria of this dream in\nso short a time as to be scarcely appreciable. Between the sleeping\nphysical body and the externalised astral body there is so close a\ndegree of sympathy that the latter is conscious of everything that\ntakes place in the former. This explains why the astral body returns\nso rapidly to the physical when a noise, light, or any other sensation\nimpresses this latter.]\n\n[Footnote 8: We say \"language of the physical plane\" because the soul,\nin the astral body, sees in four dimensions, _i.e._, all the parts of\nan object at once, as though these parts were spread out on a\ntwo-dimensional plane. Consequently, the higher vision needs\ninterpretation in order to be expressed on the physical plane.]\n\n[Footnote 9: There are other proofs of the existence of the causal\nbody, the reincarnating vehicle; the principal one is given in the\nmiddle of Chapter 3. It is there shown that the physical germs explain\nonly a very small portion of heredity, and that logic imperiously\ndemands the existence of an invisible, durable body, capable of\ngathering up the germs which preserve the moral and intellectual\nqualities of man.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nREINCARNATION AND THE MORAL LAW.\n\n\nThe Goodness, justice, and Omnipotence of God are the guarantees of\nProvidence.\n\nIt is absolutely impossible that the faintest breath of injustice\nshould ever disturb the Universe. Every time the Law appears to be\nviolated, every time Justice seems outraged, we may be certain that it\nis our ignorance alone that is at work, and that a deeper knowledge of\nthe net-work of evolution and of the lines of action created by human\nfree will, sooner or later, will dissipate our error.\n\nFor all that, the whole universe appears to be the very incarnation of\ninjustice. The constellations as they come into manifestation shatter\nthe heavens with their titanic combats; it is the vampirism of the\ngreatest among them that creates the suns, thus inaugurating egoism\nfrom the very beginning. Everywhere on earth is heard the cry of pain,\na never-ending struggle; sacrifice is everywhere, whether voluntary or\nforced, offered freely or taken unwillingly. The law of the strongest\nis the universal tyranny. The vegetable kingdom feeds upon the\nmineral, and in its turn forms nourishment for the animal; the giants\nof the forests spread ruin in every direction, beneath their\ndestructive influence the spent, exhausted soil can nourish nothing\nbut weeds and shrubs of no importance. In the animal kingdom a war to\nthe death is ever being waged, a terrible destruction in which those\nbest armed for the fray pitilessly devour the weak and defenceless.\nMan piles up every kind and method of destruction, cruelty and\nbarbarity of every sort; he tears away gold from the bowels of the\nearth, mutilates the mighty forests, exhausts the soil by intensive\nculture, harasses and tortures animals when unable to utilise their\nmuscular strength, and, in addition, kills them when their flesh is\neatable; his most careful calculations are the auxiliaries of his\ninsatiable egoism, and, by might or cunning, he crushes everything\nthat hinders or inconveniences him. Finally, from time to time, the\nElements mingle their awful voice in this concert of pain and despair,\nand we find hurricanes and floods, fires and earthquakes pile up\ncolossal wreck and ruin in a few hours, on which scenes of destruction\nthe morrow's calm and glorious sun sheds his impassive beams.\n\nAnd so, before reaching individual evil and apparent injustice, there\nrises up before us at the very outset the threatening spectre of\nuniversal evil and injustice. This problem is so closely bound up with\nour subject that we are compelled to spend a short time in considering\nit.\n\n\nWHY DOES PAIN EXIST?\n\nTo admit, as do certain ignorant fatalists, that the Universe was\ncreated by the stroke of some magic wand, and that each planet,\nkingdom, and being is condemned, so to speak, to a definite\ncrystallisation in the state in which it has pleased God to fix it; to\nadmit that the mineral will remain a mineral throughout eternity, that\nthe vegetable will ever reproduce the same types, that the animal will\ndefinitely be confined to his instincts and impulses, without the\nhope, some day, of developing the superior mentality of his torturers\nin human form; to admit that man will never be anything but man,\n_i.e._, a being in whom the passions have full play whereas the\nvirtues are scarcely born; to admit that there is no final\ngoal--perfection, the divine state--to crown man's labour; all this is\nto refuse to recognise evolution, to deny the progress everywhere\napparent, to set divine below human justice; blasphemy, in a word.\n\nIt has been said by unthinking Christians that evidently God created\nhuman suffering, so that those might gain Heaven who, but for this\nsuffering, would have no right to it. To speak thus is to represent\nthe Supreme Goodness in a very unworthy aspect and to attribute the\nmost gratuitous cruelty to Divine Justice. When, too, we see that this\nabsurd reasoning explains neither the sufferings of animals, which\nhave no right to enjoy the felicity of heaven, they say, nor the\nfact[10] that \"there are many called but few chosen,\" nor the saying\nthat \"outside the Church there is no salvation,\" although for ages\npast God has caused millions of men to be born in countries where the\nGospel has not been preached, we shall not be astonished to find that\nthose who arrogate to themselves a monopoly of Truth bring forward\nnone but arguments of childish folly in support of their claims.\n\nGenerally, however, it is original sin that is advanced as the cause\nof suffering.\n\nThe absurdity of this doctrine is so apparent that it has lost all\ncredence by enlightened members of the Christian faith. First of all,\nit does not explain the sufferings of animals, which have had no\nparticipation in this sin, nor does it account for the unequal\ndistribution of pain amongst men themselves. This sin being the same\nfor all at birth,[11] punishment ought to have been equally severe for\nall, and we ought not to see such frightful disproportions as are to\nbe found in the condition of children who have not attained to the age\nof reason, _i.e._, of responsibility. Saint Augustine felt the weight\nof this consideration; he reflected long on this torturing problem:\n\n\"When I come to consider the sufferings of children,\" he says,\n\"believe me, I am in a state of terrible perplexity. I have no wish\nwhatever to speak only of the punishment inflicted on them after this\nlife by eternal damnation to which they are of necessity condemned if\nthey have left their bodies without receiving the sacrament of Christ,\nbut of the pains they endure in this present life, under our very\neyes. Did I wish to examine these sufferings, time would fail me\nrather than instances thereof; they languish in sickness, are torn by\npain, tortured by hunger and thirst, weakened in their organs,\ndeprived of their senses, and sometimes tormented by unclean beings. I\nshould have to show how they can with justice be subjected to such\nthings, at a time when they are yet without sin. It cannot be said\nthat they suffer unknown to God or that God can do nothing against\ntheir tormentors, nor that He can create or allow unjust punishment.\nWhen men suffer, we say they are being punished for their crimes, but\nthis can be applied only to adults. As children have in them no sin\ncapable of meriting so terrible a punishment, tell me what answer can\nbe given?\"\n\nThe answer, indeed, cannot be made that original sin is capable of\nexplaining this unequal retribution; but then, ought not the very\nabsurdity of the consequences due to such sin to justify one in\nrefusing to examine this argument? What soul could admit that the\ninnocent should be punished for the guilty? Does human justice, in\nspite of its imperfection, punish the offspring of criminals? Can the\nmillions of descendants of the mythical Adam have been chastised for a\ncrime in which they have had no share? And would this chastisement,\nmultiplied millions of times without the faintest reason, never have\nstirred the conscience of the Church? Saint Augustine could not make\nup his mind to accuse God of injustice; so, to avoid disputing the\ntruth of the Christian teaching in which he wholly believed, he\ninvented his famous theory of \"generation,\" often called\n\"translation.\"\n\nMen suffer because of original sin, he says, but it would not be just\nof God to punish them for this, had they not shared therein[12];\nthis, indeed, they have done, for the soul of a man was not created\ndirectly, by God, at the moment of the birth of the body; it is a\nbranch taken from the soul of his father, as the latter's comes from\nthat of his parents; thus, ascending the genealogical chain, we see\nthat all souls issue from that of the common father of mankind:\nAdam.[13]\n\nSo that Saint Augustine preferred to deny the creation of souls and to\nderive them from the soul of Adam, through a successive progeny of\nhuman vehicles, rather than to allow God to be charged with injustice.\nWe are not called upon to demonstrate the falsity of his hypothesis,\nwhich the Church has been forced to condemn, though without replacing\nit with a better theory; all the same, if human souls suffer from a\nsin in which they have not individually and consciously\nparticipated--and such is the case, for even granting that translation\nbe a fact, these souls existed in Adam only potentially, as\nunconscious, undeveloped germs, when the sin took place--their\npunishment is none the less arbitrary and revolting. Saint Augustine\nbelieved he was justifying Providence; he succeeded only in deceiving\nhis own reason and revolted sense of justice, but he preferred by\nsuggestion to deceive himself to such an extent as to believe in the\nreality of his desire rather than enrol himself against the Church.\n\nIn order to reconcile divine Justice with the injustice of punishing\nall for the fault of one alone, the theologians also said: \"Adam\nsinned, his sin has been distributed over the whole of his race, but\nGod, by sending down his son, instituted baptism; and the waters of\nthe sacrament wash the stains of original sin from the souls of men.\"\n\nThis reply is as childish as the former. As a matter of fact,\naccording to the Church, about four thousand years intervened between\nthe sin of Adam and the coming of the Redeemer, and so only after that\ninterval did the souls of the just, who were waiting in the Life\nBeyond for the coming of the Messiah, enter Paradise!\n\nWould not this delay in itself be an injustice? Ought not baptism to\nhave been instituted immediately after the sin, and should it not have\nbeen placed within the reach of all? Besides, do we not see that even\nin our days, two thousand years after the coming of the Christ,\nmillions of human beings are born and die without ever having heard of\nthe existence of this sacrament. This part of the argument is too\npuerile to dwell upon at length, but we will spend a few moments on it\nto show definitely how powerless this theory is to explain evil.\n\nBefore teaching the doctrine of \"Limbo,\" the Church accepted the idea\nof the damnation of children who died without being baptised, as we\nhave just seen in the case of Saint Augustine.[14] Bossuet, with\nincredible blindness, also accepted it; and, sad to relate, his reason\ndid not feel called upon to furnish an explanation which would justify\nProvidence, as was the case with Saint Augustine. He rejected\n\"translation,\" and discovered nothing with which to veil the\nblasphemy.\n\nOn this point the following is a faithful _resume_ of his letter to\nPope Innocent XII.:\n\n     The damnation of children who have died without being\n     baptised must be firmly believed by the Church. They are\n     guilty because they are born under the wrath of God and in\n     the power of Darkness. Children of wrath by nature, objects\n     of hatred and aversion, hurled into Hell with the rest of\n     the damned, they will remain there for all eternity punished\n     by the horrible vengeance of the Demon.\n\n     Such also are the decisions of the learned Denis Petau, the\n     most eminent Bellarmin, the Councils of Lyons, of Florence,\n     and of Trent; for these things are not decided by human\n     considerations, but by the authority of tradition and of the\n     Scriptures.\n\nSuch logic makes one really doubt human reason, and reminds one of the\nspirit with which the courts of the Holy Inquisition were inspired.\nWhere in Nature can there be found such lack of proportion between\ncause and effect, crime and punishment? Have such arguments ever been\njustified by the voice of conscience?\n\nOfficial Christianity remains powerless to explain suffering. Let us\nsee what we can learn from the philosophies and religions of the past\nand the greatest of modern philosophers, as well as from the admirable\n_resumes_ of Teachers of theosophy.\n\nThe problem of suffering is one with that of life, _i.e._, with that\nof evolution in general. The object of the successive worlds is the\ncreation of millions of centres of consciousness in the germinal state\n(_souls_) and the transformation of these germs into divinities\nsimilar to their father, God. This is the divine multiplication,\ncreating innumerable \"gods,\" in God.\n\nTo produce divine germs, homogeneous Unity must limit its immensity\nand create within itself the diversity of matter, of form. This can\nbe obtained by the creation of \"multiplicity\" and by the \"limitation\"\nof what might be called a portion of Divinity. Now, limitation implies\nimperfection, both general and individual, _i.e._, suffering; and\nmultiplicity implies diversity of needs and interests, forced\nsubmission to the general law _i.e._, suffering again. That the divine\ngerms may evolve, their potentialities must be awakened by their\nsurroundings; in other words, by the action of the \"opposites,\" and\nsensation must come into being; the action of the opposites on\nsensation is also a cause of pain.\n\nOutside of the unknown Being--which will be known at the end of\nevolution--nothing can _be_. Everything is in Him. He is all; the\nworlds, time and space are \"aspects\" which He assumes from time to\ntime[15]; for this reason it has been said that the Universe is an\nillusion, which may be expressed more clearly by saying that it is an\nillusion to believe that what exists is not one form of divine\nactivity, an \"aspect\" of God.\n\nThat anything may exist, or rather that aspects of God may appear,\nthere must be manifested in Him a special mode of being, to call\nforth what we designate as multiplicity.\n\nThat multiplicity[16] may be manifest, differences must be produced in\nUnity; these differences in the world are the \"pairs of\nopposites\"--the contraries. These contraries are everywhere.\n\nMatter is the fulcrum of force--both of these terms being \"aspects\" of\nGod--and without a fulcrum no force can manifest itself; there is no\nheat without cold, and when it is summer in the northern hemisphere it\nis winter in the southern. There is no movement that does not depend\nupon a state of rest, no light without shadow, no pleasure without the\nfaculty of pain, no freedom that is not founded upon necessity, no\ngood that does not betoken an evil.\n\nThe following are a few examples of duality taken from nature. The\ncurrent of electricity is polarised into a positive and a negative\ncurrent. It is the same with the magnet; though you break a bar into a\nhundred pieces, you bring into being a hundred small magnets, each\npossessing its positive and negative side; you will not have destroyed\nthe \"duality,\" the opposites.\n\nLike the magnet, the solar spectrum forms two series, separated by a\nneutral point, the blue series and the red one, united by the\nviolet.[17]\n\n           Violet.\n\nIndigo.                Yellow.\nBlue.                  Orange.\nGreen.                 Red.\n\nThe terms of the two series are respectively complimentary to each\nother; the violet dominates the two groups of opposites and is a\nvisible member of the axis formed by the colours that might be called\nneutral.\n\nDuality appears in every shape and form.\n\nSymbolically, we may say with the Hindus that the Universe begins and\nends with two opposite movements: an emanation from Brahma, it is born\nwhen the breast of God sends forth the heavenly outbreathing, it dies,\nreabsorbed, when the universal inbreathing takes place. These\nmovements produce attraction and repulsion, the aggregation and\ndissolution to be found everywhere. It is the attraction of a\nforce-centre, the \"laya centre\" of Theosophy, which permits of the\natomic condensation that gives it the envelope whose soul it is; when\nits cycle of activity ends, attraction gives place to repulsion, the\nenvelope is destroyed by the return of its constituent elements to the\nsource from which they were drawn, and the soul is liberated until a\nfuture cycle of activity begins.\n\nEven the rhythm of pulmonary respiration, the contraction and dilation\n(systole and diastole) of the heart, the ebb and flow of the tides, as\nalso day and night, sleeping and waking, summer and winter, life and\ndeath, are all products of that law of contraries which rules\ncreation.\n\nThese \"opposites\" are the very essence of cosmic life, the twin\npillars of universal equilibrium; they have been represented in\nSolomon's symbolical temple--here, the Universe--by Jakin and Boaz,\nthe white and the black columns; they are also the interlaced\ntriangles of \"Solomon's Seal,\" the six-pointed star, the two Old Men\nof the Kabbalah, the white Jehovah and the black Jehovah; Eros and\nAnteros, the serpents of Mercury's caduceus, the two Sphinxes of the\ncar of Osiris, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, the\nChinese \"Yang\" and \"Yin,\" the goblet and staff of Tarot, man and\nwoman. All these images represent the same law.\n\nMultiplicity, the fruit of the contraries, makes its appearance in the\nforms born in infinite, homogeneous Being; its goal is the goal of\ncreation; the production, in infinite Being, of centres which are\ndeveloped by evolution and finally become gods in God. These centres,\nor \"souls,\" these points in the supreme Point, are divine in essence,\nthough, so far, they have no share at all in the perfection\n\"manifested\" by God; they are all \"centres,\" for God is a sphere,\nwhose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere, but they have\nnot developed consciousness which is as yet only potential in them.\nLike cuttings of willow which reproduce the mother-tree, these points,\nveritable portions of God, are capable of germinating, growing up, and\nbecoming \"I's,\" self-conscious beings, intelligent and endowed with\nwill-power, and finally gods, having developed the entire\npotentialities of the All by their repeated imprisonment in the series\nof forms that make up the visible and invisible kingdoms of nature.\n\nEvery form, _i.e._ aggregate of substance-force, reflects within\nitself one of these points of Divinity. This point is its Monad, its\ncentre of consciousness, or soul; it is the cause which is manifested\nas qualities in the envelopes, and these give it the illusion of\nseparateness for a certain period,[18] just as a soap-bubble\nmomentarily acquires a fictitious individuality and appears separate\nfrom the atmosphere--of which it forms part--so long as its illusory\nenvelope endures.\n\nThus do men imagine themselves separate from one another, when all the\ntime their soul is nothing more than a drop of the divine Ocean,\nhidden momentarily in a perishable body.\n\nThe \"contraries\" are the anvil and the hammer which slowly forge souls\nby producing what might be called sensation in general, and sensation\nis a fertile cause of suffering each time the vehicles of\nconsciousness receive vibrations that greatly exceed their fundamental\ncapacity of sensation. Without sensation however--consequently without\nsuffering--the body could neither walk,[19] nor see, nor hear, nor\nshow any disturbance brought to bear upon it; there would exist no\npossible relation between the Universe and the \"I,\" between the All\nand the parts, between bodies and souls; there would be no\nconsciousness, or sensation of being, since no vibration from without\nwould find an echo in the incarnated \"centres\" of life; no knowledge\nwould be possible; man would be, as it were, in a state of\nnothingness; and, without suspecting it, his body might at any moment\nbe crushed to the ground by the forces of Nature.\n\nBut these material necessities are not by any means the only ones that\ndemand sensation; without it, one of the principal objects of\nevolution--the development of \"Egos\"--would be impossible. As an\nexample borrowed from the domain of physical sensation, we need only\ncall to memory a well-known experience in childhood.\n\nAll who have been at a boarding school know how heavy and fetid is the\natmosphere of a dormitory in the early winter morning, when fifty boys\nhave been breathing the same air again and again during the whole of\nthe night. And yet, who suspected this until he had gone out for a few\nminutes and then returned to the bed-room? It needed the \"contrary,\"\nthe pure outside air, to make known the state of the atmosphere\ninside. The contrast produced sensation--that nauseous, suffocating\nimpression of foul, mephitic air; suffering[20] generated knowledge of\nthe vitiated air; as the result of this influence, the \"centre of\nconsciousness\" felt itself an \"I\" distinct from its surroundings, and\nits \"self-consciousness\" received a slight increase.\n\nWhat might be called passional sensibility--desire, emotion,\nimpulse--is, like physical sensation, another indispensable factor in\nevolution; it is the special element in the development of the animal\nkingdom as well as of the less evolved portion of the human kingdom.\n\nThe young souls of mankind must receive the comparatively simple lessons\nof sensation, desire, and passion, before beginning the far more\ncomplicated study of mentality. But for desire, a host of needs could\nnot be manifested, numberless functions would remain inactive; the body\nwould not feed itself, and would die, were it not for hunger; danger\nwould not be fled from, but for the instinct of self-preservation; nor\nwithout this would there be any propagation of the species. None the\nless is this life of sensation the source of many evils; desire and\npassion amongst human beings create terrible misery, fill prisons and\nhospitals, and are at the root of all kinds of moral suffering. In its\nturn, intelligence--that sensation so characteristic of the human\nstate--is both an indispensable necessity and the most fertile source of\nevil, so long as it has not experienced a yearning for that inner\n\"divinity,\" deep in the heart of man, which calls to it. A powerful\nlever of progress, it might convert this earth into a paradise, whereas\nit is the weapon which the strong, in their egoism, use to crush the\nfeeble, a terrible weapon which either creates or intensifies all the\nevils under which the people writhe in despair. Once it becomes the\ninstrument of a regenerate humanity, that is to say, when men have\nbecome compassionate, loving, and devoted, then the social question will\ncease to exist, and the old instrument of torture will become a pledge\nof general happiness.\n\nEven spiritual sensibility is a cause of suffering to some noble souls\nwho have developed it, for however deep the joy of loving and giving\noneself, intense too is the pain of witnessing the cruel drama of\nlife, that fratricidal struggle in which passion strikes without\nmercy, whilst illusion and ignorance deal blows even more terrible,\nfor into the wounds they make they instil the poison of revolt and\ndespair.\n\nThe action of multiplicity, and of its creators, the \"contraries,\"\nengenders still other causes of suffering. Every being lives both for\nothers and at their expense. For instance, physical bodies are obliged\nto replace with food and nourishment those particles which the various\nfunctions of life cause them to lose. The vegetable kingdom takes its\nconstituent elements from the mineral kingdom, and itself serves as\nfood for large portions of the animal kingdom; up to this point\nphysical pain has not manifested itself, though there is a momentary\narrest of evolution for the animistic essence which represents the\nindividual in the destroyed vegetable. A portion of the animal kingdom\nfeeds on its own members; man, too, extorts from this same kingdom a\nvery heavy tribute; here, the arrested evolution of the victims is all\nthe more important, inasmuch as their stage of evolution is higher,\nand the existence of a nervous system brings the possibility of\nsuffering, suffering which certain influences[21] either diminish or\nsuppress altogether, when caused by animal destructiveness, but which\nmay become intense when it is man who is the sacrificer.\n\nAmong the causes of pain, arising from multiplicity there is also the\nphysical, mental, and moral action exercised by the solidarity of all\nbeings. By exchanging, with those that come into contact with us, the\nproducts thrown off by our visible and invisible bodies, we are the\ndispensers of good or ill-health. Everyone, for instance, is aware of\nthe far-reaching effects of an evil intellectual and moral example;\nphysical contagion, in spite of the torture it inflicts, is far less\nto be dreaded than moral contagion. The spiritual qualities alone do\nnot form a leaven of evil; they are not the double-edged instruments\nwe meet with elsewhere. The reason of this is that they belong to the\nplane of Unity. But it is none the less true that, though the\npresence of a highly developed soul is a help to younger souls within\nits reach and influence, its powerful vibrations may, from certain\npoints of view, prove fatiguing to those still at the foot of the\nladder of evolution. This is one of the many reasons that have given\nrise to the saying that it is dangerous prematurely to enter the\n\"circle of the ascetics.\"\n\nBut the most powerful causes of pain, due to multiplicity, are the\nignorance and the will of beings who have reached the human stage. Man\ncan employ his mental faculties for good or evil, and so long as he\ndoes not know definitely that he is the brother of all beings, _i.e._,\nuntil his divine faculties have been developed, and love and the\nspirit of sacrifice have taken possession of his heart, he remains a\nterrible egoist, more to be dreaded than the criminal dominated by a\nmomentary burst of passion, for he acts in cold blood, he evades or\nrefuses to recognise the law of humanity, he dominates and destroys.\nThis man is at the stage of ingratitude; he no longer possesses the\nharmlessness of childhood, nor has he yet acquired the wisdom of\nadvanced age. Our Western race has reached this critical stage,\nwhereof the menacing demands of the suffering masses are a striking\ntestimony. Here, too, God could not do otherwise; He might create\nbodies blindly obedient to his law, mere automata, but it would be\nimpossible for Him to cause divine germs to evolve into \"gods\" without\npulling them through the school of evolution which teaches them,\nfirst, of the \"ego,\" the root of all egoism, then knowledge by\nignorance, liberty by necessity, good by evil, and the perfect by the\nimperfect.\n\nIt may at this point just be mentioned that though human egoism\nappears to have free play and to be unrestrained in its cruelty,\ndivine Law never allows innocence to suffer for the errors of evolving\nsouls, it punishes only the guilty, whether their faults or misdeeds\nbe known or unknown, belonging to the present life or to past ones.\n\nSuch, briefly, is the cause of pain and suffering in evolution; in the\nfollowing pages we will set forth the causes of the unequal\ndistribution of this suffering.\n\n\nTHE PROBLEM OF THE INEQUALITY OF CONDITIONS.\n\nIf suffering in general is the child of Necessity--since it is born of\nmultiplicity and the limitation of the Infinite, without which the\nUniverse could not exist--it would seem that we ought to find it\nfalling upon all beings without distinction, in uniform, regular, and\nimpartial fashion. Instead of this, it is every moment losing its\ncharacter of impersonality; it respects those who are guilty on a\nlarge scale; and, without any visible cause, strikes fiercely the most\ninnocent of persons; noble souls are born in the families of\ncriminals, whilst criminals have fathers of the utmost respectability;\nwe find parricides, and brothers hostile to each other; millionaires\ndie of surfeiting alongside of paupers dying of hunger; we find giants\nby the side of dwarfs; the healthy and well-formed near the crippled\nor those wasted away by terrible diseases; Apollos contrast with\nQuasimodos; men of genius are met with, cheek by jowl with idiots;\nsome children are stillborn, others blind or deaf and dumb from birth.\nExtremely different races people the earth--on the one hand,\nunintelligent and cannibal negroes; on the other, the proud, handsome,\nand intelligent, though selfish and cruel white race. Again, from a\nmoral standpoint, who can explain congenital tendencies to crime, the\nvicious by birth, the wicked by nature, the persons with\nuncontrollable passions? Wherefore are thrift and foresight lacking in\nso many men, who are consequently condemned to lifelong poverty and\nwretchedness? Why this excess of intelligence, used mainly for the\nexploiting of folly? It is useless to multiply examples, one has only\nto look around at hospitals and prisons, night-shelters, palaces and\ngarrets; everywhere suffering has taken up its abode. Can no reply be\ngiven to this terrible charge brought against Divinity? Is man to\nremain in a state of dejection and discouragement, as though some\nirreparable catastrophe had befallen him?\n\nAccording to the Church, all this is the work of the soul which God\ngives at the birth of a man--a soul that is good or bad, prudent or\nfoolish, one which damns or saves itself according as its will can, or\ncannot, dominate its passions, its intelligence discover the way to\nheaven or not; according as grace or rejection predestine it to heaven\nor to hell.\n\nIs it not the depth of profanity to represent God as watching over\nconceptions in order to create souls so unfairly endowed, most of whom\nwill never hear the Gospel message, and consequently cannot be saved,\nwhilst the rest are destined to animate the bodies of savages and\ncannibals, devoid of moral consciousness? Is it not an act of\nsacrilege thus to convert God, Who is all Wisdom and Love, into a kind\nof accomplice of adulterers and lewd persons or the sport of\nMalthusian insults. Unconscious blasphemers are they who would offer\nthis Dead Sea fruit as the true manna of Life!\n\nThere is also another theory, often advanced in certain quarters, on\nwhich we must say a few words, for though it contains only a minimum\nof truth, and consequently cannot withstand serious examination, it\nhas led astray more than one earnest thinker. Inequalities of\nsuffering, it has been said, arise from inequalities of social\nconditions. Intelligence, morality, will, in fact all human faculties,\ndevelop more or less according to their environment; men are born\nequal; they become unequal as the result of different environment; pay\nthe same care and attention to all and they will remain equal, and if\nthey are equal, the theory seems to imply, evil will disappear from\nthe face of the earth.\n\nThis is not so.\n\nInequality of suffering does not result from inequality of condition.\nMany a poor tiller of the fields enjoys a degree of peace and\nhappiness that those favoured by birth or fortune would envy. Disease\nvisits poor and rich alike; moral suffering is more especially the\nappanage of the so-called higher classes, and if obscurity and poverty\nrender certain troubles specially severe, wealth and rank play the\nsame _role_ in afflictions of another kind; there is a dark side to\nevery picture. More than this, inequality of condition is one of the\nfundamental factors of social equilibrium; without it, many urgent and\neven indispensable functions would be neglected, numerous general\nneeds would remain unsatisfied; so-called menial work, which, in a\nstate of society that is still imperfect and consequently selfish, is\nperformed only in the hope of remuneration, would never be done at\nall; every man would have to provide for the whole of his necessities;\nno one could find time for self-improvement or for flinging himself\nentirely into those divers branches of activity which, if personal\ninterest were absent, would make life infinitely better and progress\nextremely rapid. The partisans of this theory rely on diversity of\ntastes to fill the diversity of functions that are necessary in social\nlife: another illusion. The inferior, painful, or difficult tasks will\nnever find sufficient workers, whilst easy or honourable posts will\nalways be overcrowded. To believe the contrary would be to shut one's\neyes to the present imperfection of men; it would mean the belief that\nthey were noble and lofty beings, eager for self-sacrifice, demanding\nonly to work for the happiness of all, without a single thought of\ntheir personal preferences; it would mean seeing, in present-day\nhumanity, that of the future in which each individual has attained to\nsuch a degree of perfection that not a single idle, ill-disposed, or\nstupid person is to be found amongst them, for each one would regard\nhimself as the brother and helper of all, and the universal standard\nof life would be: Each for all and all for each! How ardently we\ndesire that this were so; how eagerly we pray for that future, so far\naway, when we shall have grown to this nobler stature, and the\npresent fratricidal struggle shall have given place to a lasting\npeace, the offspring of a higher, spiritual, universal love. Anxiously\ndo we await it; like lost travellers, we fix our eyes on the dark\nhorizon to catch the first faint streaks of light, harbingers of the\ndawn. We greet with joy and gratitude all such as believe in that\nblessed future and endeavour to hasten its coming, all who\nimpersonally and in sincerity aim at the social Unity towards which\nthe heart aspires, and especially those whose aim it is to advance in\naccordance with that continuous, progressive evolution based on the\nphysical, moral, mental, and spiritual amelioration of men, for it is\nthey who have learned the secret of Nature. Indeed, evolution shows us\nthat, the more souls grow, the nearer they approach that perfection to\nwhich progress destines them, and happiness exists only in perfection.\n\nTo return to other aspects of the subject.\n\nMen are born equal, we are told.\n\nA single glance at the differences in the moral and intellectual\nqualities of races and individuals, at the differences between young\nchildren, even at the differences in the instincts of infants at the\nbreast, is sufficient to prove the contrary.\n\nThere are savages in whom no trace whatever of the moral sense can be\ndiscovered. Charles Darwin in one of his works relates a fact, which\nMrs. Besant has quoted, in illustration of this. An English missionary\nreproached a Tasmanian with having killed his wife in order to eat\nher. In that rudimentary intellect, the reproach aroused an idea quite\ndifferent from that of a crime; the cannibal thought the missionary\nimagined that human flesh was of an unpleasant flavour, and so he\nreplied: \"But she was very good!\"\n\nIs it possible to attribute to the influence of surroundings alone a\ndegree of moral poverty so profound as this?\n\nMany a mother has been able to find out that souls are not equal, in\nother words, that they are of different ages, by the discovery of\ndiametrically opposite qualities and tendencies in two children born\nunder the same conditions; in twins, for instance.\n\nEvery schoolmaster has noticed the same fact in the pupils under his\ncharge. Mrs. Besant says that amongst the 80,000 children who came\nunder her inspection in the London schools she would often find side\nby side with gentle, affectionate little beings others who showed\ncriminal tendencies from birth.\n\nLooking at the question from another point of view, are we not\ncontinually finding in schools and educational establishments pupils\nwho, for no explicable reason, show a disposition for one branch of\ninstruction only? They shine in this, but are dunces in every other\nsubject.\n\nAs a final example, do not infant prodigies prove that men are not\nborn equal? Young, who discovered the undulatory theory of light,\ncould read with wonderful rapidity at the age of two, whilst at eight\nhe had a thorough knowledge of six languages.\n\nSir W. R. Hamilton began to learn Hebrew when he was three, and knew\nit perfectly four years later. At the age of thirteen he knew thirteen\nlanguages.\n\nGauss, of Brunswick--the greatest mathematician in Europe, according\nto Laplace--solved problems in arithmetic when only three.\n\nNo, men are not born equal. Nor does environment cause the\ninequalities we find; it favours or checks the development of\nqualities, but has no part in their creation. Still, its influence is\nsufficiently important for us to give it due consideration.\n\nWe are linked to one another by the closest bonds of solidarity,\nwhether we wish it and are conscious thereof or not. Everything\nabsorbs and throws off, breathes in and breathes out, and this\nuniversal exchange, if at times bad, is none the less a powerful\nfactor in evolution. The atom of carbon, on entering into the\ncombinations of the human body, is endowed with a far higher power of\ncombining than the one which has just left the lump of ore; to obtain\nits new properties, this atom has had to pass through millions of\nvegetable, animal, and human molecules. Animals brought into close\ncontact with man develop mentally to a degree that is sometimes\nincredible, by reason of the intellectual food with which our thoughts\nsupply them. The man who lives alone is, other things being equal,\nweaker physically, morally, and mentally than he who lives in a large\nsocial environment; it is for this reason that the mind develops far\nmore rapidly in large centres of life than in the country. And what is\ntrue of good is, unfortunately, true also of evil qualities.\n\nConsequently, environment has an undeniable influence, and it is\nperfectly true to say that the social conditions under which\nindividuals are born favour or impede the development of their\nfaculties. There its influence stops; it can intensify inequality, but\ndoes not create it.\n\nInequality of condition arises, above all else, from the continuity of\nwhat might be called creation. Atoms are incessantly being formed in\nthe womb of the Virgin Mother,[22] by the might of the divine vortex\nperceived by seers in ecstatic vision, and which theosophy has named\nthe Great Breath; ceaselessly are these atoms entering into multitudes\nof organisms, ceaselessly is the plan of evolution being worked--some\nending, others beginning the great Pilgrimage. It is the existence of\nthis circuit which creates and keeps complete the hierarchy of beings,\nbrings into existence and perpetuates the known and the unknown\nkingdoms of Nature; souls ascend slowly from one kingdom to another,\nwhilst the places they leave are filled by new-comers, by younger\nsouls.\n\nA second cause of human inequality is the difference in effort and\ndeed accomplished by the will of human beings who have reached a\ncertain point in evolution. As soon as this will is guided by\nintelligence and the moral sense, it hastens or delays individual\nevolution, makes it easy when it acts in harmony with divine Law--by\ndoing what is called \"good\"--or disturbs evolution by pain, when it\nopposes this Law, by doing \"evil.\" By modifying the direction of the\nLaw, the Soul engenders beneficent or maleficent forces, which, after\nhaving played in the universe within the limit the law has imposed on\nthem, return to their starting point--man. From that time, one\nunderstands that the balance of the scales in different individuals\nbecomes unequal. These effects of the will influence to a noticeable\ndegree the life during which they have originated; they are preserved\nin a latent condition after death, and appear again in future returns\nto earth.\n\nThus are men born laden with the results of their past and in\npossession of the capacities they have developed in the course of\ntheir evolution. Those whom the difficulties of life have filled with\nenergy in the past return to existence on earth possessed of that\nmight which the world admires; now it is perseverance or courage; now\npatient calm or violence, which is the stronger, according to the\naspect of the energy developed. Others, again, are born feeble and\ndevoid of energy; their former lives have been too easy. Men are\nphilosophers or mathematicians, artists or _savants_, from the very\ncradle.\n\nObjections have been brought against the doctrine of Rebirth by\nopponents who have looked only on one side of the individual life, and\nso have been unable to explain apparent anomalies, especially in those\ncases where it is seen that the effect does not immediately follow the\ncause. In reality, every force that emerges from a centre of will[23]\ndescribes an ellipse, so to speak, which travels through a net-work of\nother ellipses generated by thousands of other centres of energy, and\nis accelerated or retarded in its course, according to the direction\nand nature of the forces with which it is connected. It is for this\nreason that certain actions meet with their reward or their punishment\nalmost immediately. Then the people say: \"It is the finger of God!\" In\nother cases, again, and these are the most numerous, the reaction is\npostponed; the noble-hearted man, who has made sacrifices the whole of\nhis life, seems to receive in exchange nothing but misfortune and\npain, whilst close by the wicked, selfish man prospers and thrives\nexceedingly. Thereupon the ignorant say: \"There is no God, for there\nis no justice.\"\n\nNot so! It is impossible to defeat Justice; though, in the interests\nof evolving beings, it may allow the forces around to accelerate or\nretard its progress. Nothing is ever lost; causes that have not\nfructified remain potential; and, like the grain of corn gathered\nthousands of years ago, grow and develop as soon as favourable soil\nand environment are offered them. Debts are still recorded, when the\nperishable sheaths of our physical bodies have been cast off; they\ncome up for future payment, often in the next life. But this next life\nmay not wipe off the whole of the liabilities, so the process is\ncontinued for several successive existences, and this has given rise\nto the saying that the sins of the parents[24] are visited upon the\nchildren[25] unto the seventh generation.[26]\n\nSuch is the truth.\n\nSouls, equal in potentialities whilst dormant as germs in the womb of\nBeing, become unequal, as soon as they are born into existence in the\nmanifested Universe, for they find predecessors, elder souls in front\nof them; inequality is intensified when they have reached the human\nstage, where intelligence and will come into play, for henceforth,\ninequality in the actions of individuals, variations of what might be\ncalled merit and demerit, set up a second factor in the inequality of\nconditions. Evolution treasures up the causes that have not been able\nto germinate in one existence, and, by successive returns to earth,\nrealises the aims and ends of that Justice which governs the Universe,\nthe designs of that Love which makes for progress and leads to\nperfection.\n\n\nOBJECTION.\n\nAn apparently serious objection to the doctrine of Rebirth is\nconstantly being made. It is unjust and useless, people say, to be\npunished for misdeeds that are forgotten. As this objection has\nreference to moral proofs, we must deal with it here.\n\nDoes forgetfulness efface faults or destroy their consequences? Could\nthe assassin, who has lost all memory of the crime committed the\nprevious evening, change his deed or its results in the slightest\ndegree? Rebirths are nothing more than the morrows of former lives,\nand though the merciful waters of Lethe have effaced their memory, the\nforces stored up in the soul, during the ages, perform their work all\nthe same in the future.\n\nOn the other hand, injustice would exist, and that under a very cruel\naspect, were memory to continue; for the painful vision of a past\nalways full of weaknesses, even when free from the stain of crime,\nwould be a continual one. And if, too--as our opponents would\nprefer--man knew why he was punished, _i.e._, if he knew that each of\nthese past errors and faults, ever present before his eyes, would\ncarry with it a particular fruit, and that strict payment would be\nexacted at every step in his new life, would not the punishment be far\ngreater than the sin? Would there not rise from every human heart an\noutcry of blasphemy against a God who, by means of memory, transformed\nlife into an endless torment, destroying all activity or initiative\nin the anxiety of expectancy, in a word, stifling the present beneath\nthe heavy nightmare of the past?\n\nMen, though so unjust and little disposed to pity, have always refused\nto inflict on a man condemned to death the torture of anticipation;\nonly at the last moment is he informed of the rejection of his appeal\nfor mercy. Could divine Law be less compassionate than human law?\n\nIs it not rash for us, in our profound ignorance, to criticise the\nworkings of a boundless Wisdom? He who takes only a few steps along\nthe pathway of Knowledge, or enters, however slightly, into the secret\nof the works of God, obtains the proof that Providence leaves no part\nof the Cosmos, no being anywhere, deprived of its fatherly care and\nprotection. When, in our blindness, we imagine injustice, a void or an\nimperfection of any kind, a radiant beam of light shows us the\nomnipresent Life, bestowing love on all its children without\ndistinction, from the slumbering atom to the glorious planetary\nSpirit, whose consciousness is so vast as to enfold the Universe.\n\nIt is more especially after death that the soul, set free from its\nillusory sheaths, makes an impartial review of its recent incarnation,\nattentively following its actions and their consequences, noting its\nerrors and failures, along with their motives and causes. In this\nschool it grows in knowledge and power; and when, in a future\nincarnation, the same difficulties present themselves anew, it is\nbetter equipped for the struggle; what has been learned, is retained\nwithin the soul; it knows, where formerly it was ignorant, and by the\n\"voice of conscience,\" tells the personality[27] what its duty is.\nThis wisdom, sifted from the panorama of a thousand past images, is\nthe best of all memories, for on those numerous occasions when a\ndecision must be arrived at on the spur of the moment it would not be\npossible to summon forth from the depths of the past such groups of\nmemories as refer to the decision to be reached, to see the events\nover again, and deduce therefrom a line of conduct. The lesson must\nhave been learnt and thoroughly assimilated during the enlightened\npeace and calm of the Hereafter; then only is the soul ready to\nrespond without delay, and its command is distinct; its judgment,\nsure; do this, avoid that.\n\nWhen a soul, in the course of evolution, has succeeded in impressing\nits vibration--its thought--on a brain which it has refined and made\nresponsive by a training which purifies the entire nature of the man,\nit is able to transmit to the incarnated consciousness the memory of\nits past lives; but this memory then ceases to be painful or\ndangerous, for the soul has not only exhausted the greater part of its\nkarma of suffering, it also possesses the strength necessary to\nsustain its personality, whenever a foreboding of what we call\nmisfortune comes upon it.\n\nIn the divine work everything comes in its own time, and we recognise\nthe perfection of the Creator by the perfect concatenation of all\ncreation.\n\nReincarnation is so intimately bound up with the Law of Causality, and\nreceives from it such powerful support, that this chapter would be\nleft in a very incomplete form were we not to say a few words on\nKarma.\n\n\nTHE LAW OF CAUSALITY (Karma).[28]\n\nKarma is the Law of the Universe, the expression of divine Will. Its\nseemingly essential attributes are Justice and Love; it neither\npunishes nor rewards, but adjusts things, restores disturbed balance\nand harmony, brings back evolving souls to the right path and teaches\nthem Law.\n\nWhen a man acts against the Law, he is like a swimmer, struggling\nagainst the current of a rapid river; his strength fails, and he is\nborne away.\n\nSo does God bear away, in spite of all their efforts, those who,\nwhether ignorantly or consciously, fight against the Law, for it is\nHis love that wills evolution, _i.e._, the making human beings divine;\nso he brings them back to the path, in spite of themselves, every time\nthey wander astray.\n\n\"God is patient because He is eternal,\" it has been said. The sentence\nis incomplete and must be changed, since it attributes to Divinity a\nvindictive nature. The Law is patient because it is perfect in Wisdom,\nPower, and Love.\n\nThis Law is the divine Will which moves all things and vibrates\neverywhere; it is the music of the spheres, the song of glory and\nharmony, which murmurs in the heart like the rippling of a waterfall,\nthe chant of life and joy that eternally triumphs in its never-ending\ncreation of beings, who, after revolving for a moment in the universe,\nhave become perfect.\n\nIts glorious strains resound in the heart of man, when the soul has\nfound peace in the Law, and we are told that, when once heard, its\ndivine accents continue for ever, like an ineffable whisper which\nbrings us back to hope and faith, when we are sunk in the depths of\ndespair.\n\nGod limited himself in order to become incarnate in the Universe: He\nis the Soul of the world. His will is exerted everywhere, it finds its\nreflection in every creature; and man, a portion of divinity in\ncourse of evolution, possesses a germ of will that is infinite in its\nessence, and consequently capable of limitless development; God\nrespects this will in His creatures, and submits to violence, in order\nto teach them His will, which is supreme Love. Like a stone that falls\ninto a tranquil lake, a human action creates, all round, concentric\nripples which continue to the very shores or limits of the Universe;\nthen the wave is thrown back upon itself, returns to its\nstarting-point, and the man who began the first movement receives a\nrecoil exactly equivalent to the original impetus. Reaction is equal\nto action; obstacles on the way may delay its return or break up its\nenergy, but the time comes when the fractions return to the centre\nthat generates the disturbance, which thus receives from the Law a\nperfectly just retribution.\n\nThe principal element in actions is thought. Every thought is a form\nin a state of vibration--a ray of intelligence which unites itself\nwith subtle matter[29] and forms a being, of which this matter is the\nbody, and thought, the soul. This being, often called a\n\"thought-form,\" possesses form, duration, and strength that bear a\nstrict relation to the energy of the thought that created it; if it\nembodies a soul of hatred, it will react on the man who harbours this\nthought, and on all who come into contact with him, as a leaven of\ndestruction, but if it is guided by love it will be, as it were, the\nincarnation of some beneficent power.\n\nIn certain cases its action is expressed visibly and rapidly; for\ninstance, a venomous thought may[30] cause the death of the person\nagainst whom it is directed--this is one aspect of the \"evil eye\"--as\nalso it may[31] return to its starting-point and kill the one who\ngenerated it, by the recoil. Every mental projection of a criminal\nnature, however, by no means necessarily reaches the object aimed at;\na sorcerer, for instance, could no more injure one who was positive,\nconsciously and willingly good, than he could cause a grain of corn to\nsprout on a block of granite; favourable soil is needed to enable the\nseed of evil to take root in a man's heart; otherwise, the evil\nrecoils with its full force upon the one who sent it forth and who is\nan irresistible magnet, for he is its very \"life-centre.\"\n\nThoughts cling to their creator and attract towards this latter those\nof a similar nature floating about in the invisible world, for they\ninstinctively come to vitalise and invigorate themselves by contact\nwith him; they radiate around him a contagious atmosphere of good or\nevil, and when they have left him, hover about, at the caprice of the\nvarious currents, impelling those they touch towards the goal to which\nthey are making. They even recoil on the visible form of their\ngenerator; it is for this reason that physical is closely connected\nwith moral well-being, and most of our diseases are nothing else than\nthe outer expression of the hidden leaven of passion. When the action\nof this latter is sudden and powerful, diseases may be the immediate\nconsequence thereof; blinded by materialism, certain doctors seldom\nacknowledge their real cause; and yet instances of hair turning white\nin a single night are too numerous to be refuted, congestion of the\nbrain brought on by a fit of anger, jaundice and other grave maladies\ncaused by grief and trouble, are to be met with continually.\n\nWhen the mental forces which disturb the physical organs meet with\nobstacles which prevent their immediate outlet, they accumulate, like\nthe electric fluid in a condenser, until an unexpected contact\nproduces a discharge; this condensation often persists for a whole\nlife in a latent condition, and is preserved intact for a future\nincarnation; this is the cause of original vices, which, incorporated\nin the etheric double, react upon the organic texture of the body.\nThis also explains why each individual possesses an _ensemble_ of\npathological predispositions often radically different from those\nheredity should have bequeathed to him; it is also, to some extent,\nthe key to physiognomy, for every single feature bears either the\nstamp of our passions or the halo of our virtues.\n\nThought creates lasting bonds between human beings; love and hatred\nenchain certain individuals to one another for a whole series of\nincarnations; many a victim of the past is to be found again in those\nunnatural sons who send a thrill of horror through society when it\nhears of some heinous crime--they have become the torturers of their\nformer oppressors. In other cases, it is love which attracts and\nunites in renewed affection those who formerly loved one another--they\nreturn to earth as brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, husbands or\nwives.\n\nBut if we are the slaves of the past, if fate compels us to reap what\nwe have sown, we yet have the future in our hands, for we can tear up\nthe weeds, and in their place sow useful plants. Just as, by means of\nphysical hygiene, we can change within a few years the nature of the\nconstituents that make up our bodies, so also, by a process of moral\nhygiene, we can purify our passions and then turn their strength in\nthe direction of good. According as we will, so do we actually become,\ngood or bad; every man who has taken his evolution in hand notices\nthis rapid transformation of his personality, and sees his successive\n\"egos\" rise step by step, so to speak, throughout his whole life.\nSpeaking generally, the first part of life is the expression of the\ndistant past--of former lives--the second is a mixture of the past and\nof the energies of the present incarnation; the end of life is nothing\nbut a sinking into an ever-deepening rut for those who crystallise in\nonly one direction; the force of habit sets up its reign, and man\nfinds himself bound by the chains he himself has forged. This is the\nreason an old man does not like the present times; he has stopped\nwhilst time has advanced, and he is now being carried along like the\nflotsam and jetsam of a wreck; the very tastes and habits of his\ncontemporaries violently clashing with his beloved past. Speak not to\nhim of progress or evolution, he has brought himself into a state of\ncomplete immobility, and he will discover no favourable field of\naction nor will he acquire real energy until he has drunk of the\nwaters of Lethe in a rest-giving Hereafter and a new body supplies his\nwill with an instrument having the obedient suppleness of youth.\n\nH. P. Blavatsky, in the _Secret Doctrine_, has well described this\nprogressive enmeshing of man in the net he himself is weaving.\n\n\"Those who believe in Karma have to believe in destiny, which, from\nbirth to death, every man is weaving, thread by thread, around\nhimself, as a spider his web; and this destiny is guided either by the\nheavenly voice of the invisible prototype outside of us, or by our\nmore intimate _astral_ or inner man, who is but too often the evil\ngenius of the embodied entity called man. Both these lead on the\noutward man, but one of them must prevail; and from the very beginning\nof the invisible affray the stern and implacable _Law of Compensation_\nsteps in and takes its course, faithfully following the fluctuations\nof the fight. When the last strand is woven, the man is seemingly\nenwrapped in the net-work of his own doing, then he finds himself\ncompletely under the empire of this _self-made_ destiny....\"\n\nShe adds shortly afterwards:\n\n\"An Occultist or a philosopher will not speak of the goodness or\ncruelty of Providence; but, identifying it with Karma-Nemesis, he will\nteach that nevertheless it guards the good and watches over them in\nthis as in future lives; and that it punishes the evil-doer, aye, even\nto his seventh rebirth, so long, in short, as the effect of his having\nthrown into perturbation even the smallest atom in the Infinite World\nof harmony, has not been finally readjusted. For the only decree of\nKarma--an eternal and immutable decree--is absolute Harmony in the\nworld of matter as it is in the world of Spirit. It is not, therefore,\nKarma that rewards or punishes, but it is we who reward or punish\nourselves, according to whether we work with, through, and along with\nnature, abiding by the laws on which that Harmony depends, or--break\nthem.\n\n\"Nor would the ways of Karma be inscrutable, were men to work in union\nand harmony instead of disunion and strife. For our ignorance of those\nways--which one portion of mankind calls the ways of Providence, dark\nand intricate, while another sees in them the action of blind\nFatalism, and a third, simple chance, with neither gods nor devils to\nguide them--would surely disappear, if we would but attribute all\nthese to their correct cause....\n\n\"We stand bewildered before the mystery of our own making, and the\nriddle of life that we will not solve, and then accuse the great\nSphinx of devouring us. But verily, there is not an accident in our\nlives, not a mis-shapen day or a misfortune, that could not be traced\nback to our own doings in this or in another life....\"\n\nOn the same subject, Mrs. Sinnett says in _The Purpose of Theosophy_:\n\n\"Every individual is making Karma either good or bad in every action\nand thought of his daily round, and is at the same time working out in\nthis life the Karma brought about by the acts and desires of the last.\nWhen we see people afflicted by congenital ailments, it may be safely\nassumed that these ailments are the inevitable results of causes\nstarted by the same in a previous birth. It may be argued that, as\nthese afflictions are hereditary, they can have nothing to do with a\npast incarnation; but it must be remembered that the ego, the real\nman, the individuality, has no spiritual origin in the parentage by\nwhich it is re-embodied, but is drawn by the affinities which its\nprevious mode of life attracted round it into the current that carries\nit, when the time comes for re-birth, to the home best fitted for the\ndevelopment of those tendencies....\n\n\"This doctrine of Karma, when properly understood, is well calculated\nto guide and assist those who realise its truth to a higher and better\nmode of life; for it must not be forgotten that not only our actions,\nbut our thoughts also, are most assuredly followed by a crowd of\ncircumstances that will influence for good or for evil our own future;\nand, what is still more important, the future of many of our\nfellow-creatures. If sins of omission and commission could in any case\nbe only self-regarding, the effect on the sinner's Karma would be a\nmatter of minor consequence. The fact that every thought and act\nthrough life carries with it, for good or evil, a corresponding\ninfluence on the members of the human family renders a strict sense of\njustice, morality, and unselfishness so necessary to future happiness\nand progress. A crime once committed, an evil thought sent out from\nthe mind, are past recall--no amount of repentance can wipe out their\nresults on the future....\n\n\"Repentance, if sincere, will deter a man from repeating errors; it\ncannot save him or others from the effects of those already produced,\nwhich will most unerringly overtake him either in this life or in the\nnext rebirth.\"\n\nWe will also quote a few lines from E. D. Walker in _Reincarnation_:\n\n\"Briefly, the doctrine of Karma is that we have made ourselves what we\nare by former actions, and are building our future eternity by present\nactions. There is no destiny but what we ourselves determine. There is\nno salvation or condemnation except what we ourselves bring about....\nBecause it offers no shelter for culpable actions and necessitates a\nsterling manliness, it is less welcome to weak natures than the easy\nreligious tenets of vicarious atonement, intercessions, forgiveness,\nand death-bed conversions....\n\n\"In the domain of eternal justice, the offence and the punishment are\ninseparably connected as the same event, because there is no real\ndistinction between the action and its outcome.\n\n\"It is Karma, or our old acts, that bring us back into earthly life.\nThe spirit's abode changes according to its Karma, and this Karma\nforbids any long continuance in one condition, because it is always\nchanging. So long as action is governed by material and selfish\nmotives, just so long must the effect of that action be manifested in\nphysical rebirths. Only the perfectly selfless man can elude the\ngravitation of material life. Few have attained this, but it is the\ngoal of mankind.\"\n\nThe danger of a too brief explanation of the law of Causality consists\nin the possibility of being imperfectly understood, and consequently\nof favouring the doctrine of fatalism.\n\n\"Why act at all, the objection will be urged, if everything is\nforeseen by the Law? Why stretch out a hand to the man who falls into\nthe water before our very eyes? Is not the Law strong enough to save\nhim, if he is not to die; and if he is, have we any right to\ninterfere?...\n\n\"Such reasoning arises from ignorance and egoism.\n\n\"Yes, the law is powerful enough to prevent the man from drowning, and\nalso to prevent the possibility of his being saved by some passer-by,\nwho has been moved to pity by the sight; to doubt this were to doubt\nthe power of God. In the work of evolution, however, God does more\nthan supply man with means of developing his intelligence; in order to\nenrich his heart, he offers him opportunities of sacrificing himself.\nAgain, the innumerable problems set by duty are far from being solved\nfor us; with difficulty can we distinguish a crime from a noble\naction; very often we do wrong, thinking we are doing right, and it\nnot unfrequently happens that good results from our evil deeds; this\nis why God sends us experiences which are to teach us our duty.\n\n\"The soul learns not only during its incarnations, but even more after\nleaving the body,[32] for life after death is largely spent in\nexamining the consequences of deeds performed during life on earth.\n\n\"Whenever, then, an opportunity for action offers itself, let us\nfollow the impulse of the heart, the cry of duty, and not the sophisms\nof the lower nature, the selfish \"ego,\" the cold brain, which knows\nneither compassion nor devotion. Do your duty, whatever happens, says\nthe Law, _i.e._, do not allege, as your excuse for being selfish, that\nGod, if He thinks it best, will help your brother in his trouble; why\ndo you not fling yourself into the fire, with the thought that, if\nyour hour has not yet come, God will prevent the flames from burning\nyou? Does not the man, who commits suicide, himself push forward the\nhand on the dial of life, setting it at the fatal hour?\n\n\"The threads of karmic action are so wonderfully interwoven, and God,\nin order to hasten evolution, makes such marvellous use of human\nforces, both good and bad, that the first few glances cast at the\n_melee_ of events are calculated to trouble the mind rather than\nreveal to it the marvels of adjustment effected by divine Wisdom, but\nno sooner does one succeed in unravelling some of the entanglements of\nthe karmic forces, and catching a glimpse of the harmony resulting\nfrom their surprising co-operation, than the mind is lost in amaze.\nThen, one understands how the murderer is only an instrument whose\npassions are used by God in carrying out the karmic decree which\ncondemned the victim long before the crime was committed; then, too,\none knows that capital punishment is a legal crime of which divine\nJustice makes use--yes, a crime, for none but God can judge; every\nbeing has a right to live, and does live, until God condemns him.\n\n\"But man, by making himself, even ignorantly, the instrument of Karma,\nacts against the universal law, and is preparing for himself that\nfuture suffering which results from every attack made on the harmony\nof the whole.\"[33]\n\nOn the other hand, Destiny is not an immutable mass of forces; will\ncan destroy what it has created, that is a question of time or energy;\nand when these are unable, within a given period, to bring about the\ntotal destruction of a barrier belonging to the past, none the less\ndoes this barrier lessen day by day, for the \"resultant\" of this\nsystem of opposing forces changes its direction every moment, and the\nfinal shock, when it cannot be avoided, is always diminished to a\ngreater or less degree.\n\nIn the case of those who have attained to a perfect reading of the\npast, their knowledge of the hostile forces is complete, and the\nneutralisation of these forces immensely facilitated. They can seek\nout, in this world or in the next, those they wronged in the past, and\nthus repair the harm done; they can see the source of those thoughts\nof hatred that are sent against them, and destroy them by the\nintervention of love;[34] they can find out the weak points of their\npersonal armour and strengthen them: it is this that in theosophical\nlanguage is called the burning of Karma in the fire of \"Wisdom.\"\n\nNone the less, there are two points in the law of Causality, which\nappear to favour the idea of fatalism, though in reality, they are\nmerely corollaries of Karma. According to the first, every force is\nfatal, in the sense that, if left to itself, it is indestructible.\nThis is not fatality, for the force can be modified by meeting with\nforces differing in character, and if no such encounter takes place,\nit finally unites with the cosmic Law, or else is broken to pieces\nupon it, according as it moves with evolution or against it.[35] Only\nin one sense, then, is it fatal; it cannot be destroyed save by an\nopposing force of the same momentum. For instance, in order to\nannihilate an obstructive force, created in the past, the soul must\nexpend an amount of energy that is equal and opposite to that force;\nit meanwhile cannot devote itself to any other work, thus causing, in\none sense, a useless production of energy; in other words, evolution\nwill suffer delay,[36] but, we must repeat, that is not fatality.\n\nNow to the second point.\n\nThought, by repetition, gains ever-increasing energy, and when the\nforces which thoughts accumulate have become as powerful as those of\nthe will of the Ego which created them, a final addition of\nenergy--another thought--alone is needed for the will to be overcome\nand the heavier scale of the balance to incline; then the thought is\nfatally realised in the action. But so long as dynamic equilibrium has\nnot been reached, the will remains master, although its power is ever\ndiminishing, in proportion as the difference in the forces becomes\nsmaller. When equilibrium is reached, the will is neutralised; it\nbecomes powerless, and feels that a fall is only a question of\nmoments, and, with a fresh call of energy, the thought is fatally\nrealised on the physical plane; the hour of freedom has gone and the\nfatal moment arrived. Like some solution that has reached saturation\npoint, obedient to the last impulse, this thought crystallises into an\nact.\n\nMany a criminal thus meets, in a single moment, the fatality he has\ncreated in the course of several incarnations; he no longer sees\nanything, his reason disappears; in a condition of mental darkness\nhis arm is raised, and, impelled by a blind force, he strikes\nautomatically. \"What have I done?\" he immediately exclaims in horror.\n\"What demon is this that has taken possession of me?\"\n\nThen only is the crime perpetrated, without there being time for the\nwill to be consulted, without the \"voice of conscience\" having been\ninvited to speak. The whole fatality of automatism is in the deed,\nwhich has been carried through without the man suspecting or being\nconscious of it; his physical machine has been the blind instrument of\nthe force of evil he has himself slowly accumulated throughout the\nages. But let there be no mistake; every time a man, who is tempted,\nhas time to think, even in fleeting fashion, of the moral value of the\nimpulse which is driving him onward, he has power to resist; and if he\nyields to this impulse, the entire responsibility of this final lapse\nis added on to that incurred by past thoughts.\n\nAmong the victims of these actions that have become fatal are often to\nbe found those who are near the stage of initiation, for before being\nexposed to the dangers of the bewildering \"Path,\" which bridges the\nabyss--the abyss which separates the worlds of unity from the illusory\nand transitory regions of the Universe--they are submitted to the most\ncareful tests.\n\nThere may even be found souls that tread this path,[37] bearing within\nthemselves[38] some old surviving residue which has not yet been\nfinally thrown into the physical plane, and must consequently appear\nfor the last time before falling away and disappearing for ever.[39]\nMankind, incapable of seeing the man--the divine fragment gloriously\nblossoming forth in these beings--often halts before these dark spots\nin the vesture of the great soul, these _excreta_ flung off from the\n\"centre,\" belonging to the refuse of the vehicle, not to the soul, and\nin its blindness pretends to see, in its folly to judge, loftily\ncondemning the sins of a brother more evolved than itself!\n\nThe future will bring men greater wisdom, and teach them the greatness\nof their error.[40]\n\nAt the conclusion of this important chapter, let us repeat that\nKarma--divine Will in action--is Love as well as justice, Wisdom as\nwell as Power, and no one ought to dread it. If at times it uses us\nroughly and always brings us back to the strait way when folly leads\nus astray, it is only measuring its strength against our weakness, its\ndelicate scales balance the load according to our strength, and when,\nin times of great anguish or terrible crisis, man is on the point of\ngiving way, it suddenly lifts the weight, leaves the soul a moment's\nrespite, and only when it has recovered breath is the burden replaced.\nThe righteous Will of God is always upon us, filling our hearts with\nits might; His Love is ever about us, enabling us to grow and expand,\neven through the suffering he sends, for it is ourselves who have\ncreated this suffering.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote 10: Fortunately, this is a fact only in the imagination of\nthose who are blinded by faith.]\n\n[Footnote 11: Before men had sinned individually on earth.]\n\n[Footnote 12: _De corruptione et gratia_, chap. 7, No. 19; _Cont. Jul.\nPelag._, Book 4, chap. 3, No. 16, et _De Peccat. merit. et remiss._,\nBook 3, chap. 4, No. 7.]\n\n[Footnote 13: \"Omnes illae unus homo fuerunt.\" _De Peccat. merit. et\nremiss._, Book 1, chap. 10, No. 11.\n\nTheologians pass over St. Augustine's adoption of this theory, giving\none to understand that he abandoned his error shortly before his\ndeath. (_Dictionnaire de Theol._, by Abbe Berger; volume viii.,\narticle x., \"_Traduciens._\")]\n\n[Footnote 14: See also, on this subject, his letter to Sixtus, before\nthe latter became Pope. Chap. vii., No. 31, and chap. vi., No. 27.]\n\n[Footnote 15: The movements of \"creation\" and \"absorption,\" which are\ncalled in Hindu symbolism the outbreathing and the inbreathing of\nBrahma.]\n\n[Footnote 16: Creation.]\n\n[Footnote 17: After violet and red there stretches quite another\nspectrum, invisible to the human eye; it is because violet is at the\nbeginning of our known spectrum, that one might think it was not the\nneutral point thereof.]\n\n[Footnote 18: The soul believes itself distinct from the All, because\nit is subjected to the illusion engendered by its body.]\n\n[Footnote 19: Without the aid of the eyes, walking is impossible to\nthose suffering from plantar anaesthesia.]\n\n[Footnote 20: Pleasure, like every other form of sensation, produces\nthe same results, though perhaps with less force.]\n\n[Footnote 21: A magnetic effect or an emotion. All travellers who have\nescaped from the attacks of wild beasts mention this effect of\ninhibition, manifested by the absence of fear and pain at the moment\nof attack.]\n\n[Footnote 22: Primordial matter which has not yet entered into any\ncombination and is not differentiated.]\n\n[Footnote 23: A soul.]\n\n[Footnote 24: In these cases, the soul.]\n\n[Footnote 25: The personalities or new bodies created by the soul, on\neach return to earth.]\n\n[Footnote 26: That is to say, the seventh incarnation.]\n\n[Footnote 27: Waking consciousness.]\n\n[Footnote 28: See _Karma_, by A. Besant.]\n\n[Footnote 29: Those who have studied thought know that it is capable\nof being incorporated in diverse states of astral and mental matter.]\n\n[Footnote 30: If the divine law allows it.]\n\n[Footnote 31: If the divine law has not allowed the action to take\nplace.]\n\n[Footnote 32: Man, after death, loses in succession his astral and\nmental bodies.]\n\n[Footnote 33: _La Theosophie en quelques chapitres_, by the author,\npages 31 to 34.]\n\n[Footnote 34: \"Hatred is destroyed only by love,\" said the Buddha.\n\"Return good for evil,\" said Jesus.]\n\n[Footnote 35: It is this that causes the universal force of\nopposition--_the Enemy_ or _demon_--to become evil only when ignorance\nor the human will make use of it to oppose evolution: apart from such\ncases, it is only the second pillar necessary for the support of the\nTemple, the stepping-stone of the good.]\n\n[Footnote 36: Perhaps this is only an apparent delay, for, on every\nplane, force is correlative, and knowledge is the fruit of many\ndifferent kinds of energy. The only real cases in which there is delay\nof individual evolution are probably those in which _evil is done in\nreturn for evil_. Of course, we are speaking in relative terms and\nfrom a relative standpoint.]\n\n[Footnote 37: When human evolution is completed, man passes the\n\"strait gate\" leading to superhuman evolution, to the spiritual life,\nwhich develops the next higher principle, _Buddhi_; this is _the\nPath_. Human evolution develops the mental principle, _Manas_;\nSuper-human evolution develops the spiritual body, _Buddhi._]\n\n[Footnote 38: Here we are dealing with faults of a more or less venial\nnature.]\n\n[Footnote 39: For ever, in this case, for the soul is above these\nresidues, and, so to speak, has given them no vitality for ages past.]\n\n[Footnote 40: In completion of this chapter on the Law of Causality,\nwe refer the reader to A. Besant's book: _Karma._]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nREINCARNATION AND SCIENCE.\n\n\nThe secret of the Universe lies in observation; it is for man to\ndevelop his senses and patiently to search into the hidden things of\nNature.\n\nAll science proceeds thus, and the reason that savants have not\nunearthed the precious object for which they seek with such wonderful\nperseverance is that the physical senses, even when aided by the most\ndelicate instruments, are able to cognise only a portion of the\nphysical Universe--the denser portion. This is proved by the fact that\nwhen man has succeeded in directing into a channel some subtle force,\nhe remains as ignorant of its essence as he was before chaining it\ndown, so to speak; he has not the slightest knowledge of it. He can\nutilise but he cannot dominate it, for he has not discovered its\nsource. This source is not in the physical world, but on the finer\nplanes of being, which will remain unknown to us, so long as our\nsenses are incapable of responding to their vibrations.\n\nBecause physical observation reveals only the bark, the outer crust of\nthe Cosmos, man sees nothing but the surface of the world, and remains\nin ignorance of the heart and vital plexus that give it life;\nconsequently, he calls the disintegration following upon\ndisincarnation by the senseless name of \"death.\"\n\nHe who has lifted the veil of Isis sees divine Life everywhere, the\nLife that animates forms, builds them up, uses them, and finally\nbreaks them to pieces when they have ceased to be of use; and this\nLife--God--thus spread about in numberless forms, by means of its many\nrays, develops in itself centres--souls--which gradually grow and\nawaken their infinite potentialities[41] in the course of these\nsuccessive incarnations.\n\nStill, though the eye of the god-man alone can penetrate this\nwonderful mechanism and study it in all its astonishing details, the\nsavant whose mind is unprejudiced can judge of the concealed mechanism\nby examining its outer manifestations, and it is on this ground we now\nplace ourselves with the object of setting forth another series of\nproofs of reincarnation.\n\n\nTHE EVOLUTIONARY SERIES.\n\nIf we look attentively at the totality of beings we perceive a\nprogressive series of forms expressing a parallel series of qualities\nand states of consciousness. The portion of this scale we are able to\ncompass extends from the amorphous state[42]--which represents the\nminimum of consciousness--up to those organic complexities which have\nallowed of a terrestrial expression being given to the soul of the\nSaviours of the world. In this glorious hierarchy each step forms so\ndelicate a transition between the one preceding and the one following\nthat on the borders of the different kingdoms it becomes impossible to\ntrace a line of demarcation between different beings; thus one does\nnot know whether such or such a family should be classed among\nminerals, or vegetables or animals. It is this that science has called\nthe evolutionary series.[43]\n\n\nTHE CYCLIC PROCESS OF EVOLUTION.\n\nAnother fact strikes the observer: the cyclic march of evolution.\nAfter action comes reaction; after activity, rest; after winter,\nsummer; after day, night; after inspiration--the breath of life during\nwhich universal Movement works in a molecular aggregate and there\ncondenses in the form of vitality--expiration--the breath of death,\nwhich causes the individualised life to flow back into the ocean of\ncosmic energy; after the systole, which drives the blood into every\npart of the body, comes the diastole, which breathes back the vital\nliquid into the central reservoir; after the waking state comes sleep;\nlife here and life hereafter; the leaves sprout and fall away\nperiodically, with the rising and descending of the sap; annual plants\ndie at the end of the season, persisting in germinal state within a\nbulb, a rhizome, or a root before coming again to the light; in\n\"metamorphoses,\" we find that the germ (_the egg_) becomes a larva (_a\nworm_), and then dies as a chrysalis, to be reborn as a butterfly.\n\nIdeas also have their successive cycles of glory and decadence; is not\nthe present theosophical movement the renaissance of the Neoplatonic\nmovement which brought the light to Greece and Egypt fifteen hundred\nyears ago? In 1875 H. P. Blavatsky restored it to life, whilst its\nprevious birth look place in the time of Ammonius Saccas, the\ntheosophist, in the Schools of Alexandria. Those who have acquired the\npower to read the cosmic records[44] will easily recognise amongst the\npresent pioneers of theosophy many a champion who in a former age\nstruggled and fought in the same sublime cause.\n\nRaces are born and grow up, die and are born again; pass through a\nstate of childhood, of youth, of maturity, and of old age. They\nflourish in all their splendour when the vital movement which animates\nthem is at its height; when it leaves them and passes to other\nportions of the globe, they gradually fall into old age; then the more\ndeveloped Egos--those incarnated in these races during their\nmaturity--come down into the advanced nations, living on the\ncontinents animated by the \"life-wave,\" whilst the less evolved go to\nform the so-called degenerate races vegetating in obscure parts of the\nworld. Look now at the adolescence of Russia, the youth of America,\nthe old age of France, and the decrepitude of Turkey. Look backwards\nat the glorious Egypt of bygone ages; nothing remains but deserts of\nsand on which imperishable structures still testify to the greatness\nof her past; the race that witnessed the majesty of the Hierophants\nand the divine Dynasties is now inhabiting other lands.\n\nContinents submit to the same law; history and science show how they\npass through a series of immersions and emersions; after Lemuria,\nwhich bore the third race, came Atlantis, the mother of the fourth;\nEurope and America now hold the various branches of the fifth; and\nlater on, when this old land of ours is again sunk beneath the waters,\nnew lands will have emerged from the ocean depths to bear the future\nrace, the sixth.\n\nThe very planets, too, come under this law; issuing as nebulae from the\ngreat womb of the Universe at the beginning of the evolution of a\nsolar system they are absorbed back again when the hour of their\ndissolution strikes. Finally, the very Universes go forth from the\nbreast of Brahma when he out-breathes, and return to him when he\nin-breathes again.\n\nEverything, then, in appearance is born and dies. In reality, each\nthing springs from its germ, makes an effort--the effort of the divine\nWill incarnated in this germ--develops its potentialities up to a\ncertain step in the ladder of evolution, then garners the acquired\nqualities and again returns to activity in continuous cycles of life\nuntil its full development is reached.\n\n\nPROGRESS.\n\nThe observer of Nature makes a third discovery. Every fresh cycle of\nlife is characterised by an advance on the preceding cycle; every\nstage brings the end nearer. This represents progress, and it is seen\neverywhere; when it does not appear, it is because our limited vision\ncannot pierce its veil. Minerals slowly develop in the bowels of the\nearth, and miners well know when the ore is more or less \"ripe,\"[45]\nand that certain portions, now in a transition stage, will in a\ncertain number of centuries have become pure gold; experiments[46]\nhave proved that metals are liable to \"fatigue\" from excessive\ntension; and that, after a rest, they acquire greater power of\nresistance than before; magnets \"are fed,\" _i.e._, they increase their\npower of attraction, by exercise; cultivation improves and sometimes\naltogether transforms certain species of vegetables; the rapid mental\ndevelopment of domestic animals by contact with man is a striking\ninstance of the heights to which progress may attain when it is aided,\nwhilst the influence of teaching and education on the development of\nindividuals as well as of races is even more striking.[47]\n\n\nTHE GOAL OF EVOLUTION.\n\n_The Formation of Centres of Consciousness that become \"Egos.\"_\n\nThrough innumerable wanderings this general progress traces a clear,\nunwavering line. Those capable of following evolution on the planes of\nfiner matter at once perceive, as it were, wide-spreading centres\nforming in the sea of divine Essence, which is projected by the Logos\ninto the Universe. As the ages pass, these centres are sub-divided\ninto more restricted centres, into clearer and clearer \"blocks\" in\nwhich consciousness, that is, the faculty of receiving vibrations from\nwithout, is gradually developed, and when this consciousness within\nthem reaches its limit, they begin to differentiate from their\nsurroundings, to feel the idea of the \"I\" spring up within them. From\nthat time, there is added to the power of receiving vibrations\nconsciously, that of generating them voluntarily; no longer are they\npassive centres, but rather beings that have become capable of\nreceiving and giving freely, individualities recognising and affirming\nthemselves more day by day; \"I's,\" who henceforth regard themselves as\nseparated from the rest of the Universe; this stage is that of the\nHeresy of Separateness. Regarding this heresy, however, one may well\nsay: _Felix culpa._\n\nFortunate error, indeed, for it is the condition, _sine qua non_ of\nfuture divinity, of salvation. It is self-consciousness; man is born;\nman, the centre of evolution, set midway between the divine fragment\nwhich is beginning and that which is ending its unfoldment, at the\nturning point of the arc which leads the most elementary of the\nvarious kingdoms of Nature to the most divine of Hierarchies. This\nstage is a terrible one, because it is that which represents egoism,\n_i.e._ combat, the cause of every evil that afflicts the world, but it\nis a necessary evil, for there can be no _individual_ wisdom, power,\nand immortality without the formation of an \"I.\" This ego is nothing\nbut the first shoot, or bud, of the individual soul; it is only one of\nits first faculties; the finest show themselves subsequently. This bud\nis to blossom into a sweet-smelling flower; love and compassion,\ndevotion, and self-sacrifice will come into manifestation, and the\n\"centre of consciousness,\" after passing through the primitive\nstages--often called the elemental kingdoms--after being sheathed in\nmineral, vegetable, and animal forms, after having thought, reasoned,\nand willed in human forms and looked upon itself as separated from its\nfellow-creatures, comes finally to understand that it is only a breath\nof the spirit, momentarily clad in a frail garment of matter,\nrecognises its oneness with all and everything, passes into the\nangelic state, is born as Christ and so ends as a finished, perfected\nsoul--a World-Saviour.\n\nSuch is the Goal of life, the wherefore of the Universes, the\nexplanation of these startling evolutions of souls in the various\nworlds, the solution of the problem regarding the diversity in the\ndevelopment of beings, the justification of Providence before the\nblasphemy of the inequality of conditions.\n\n\nA FEW DEDUCTIONS.\n\n_The Germ._\n\nFrom the facts established in the course of this comprehensive view of\nthe Universe, we are enabled to draw important deductions.\n\nFor instance, as the basis of every \"cycle of life\" is found the egg\nor germ, that strange microcosm which appears to contain within itself\nthe entire organism from which it proceeds and which seems capable of\nmanifesting it in its entirety. The first embryologic discovery we\nmake as the result of this study--a discovery of the utmost\nimportance--is that germs are one in essence, and are all endowed with\nthe same possibilities and potentialities. The only difference that\ncan be found in them is that the more evolved have acquired the power\nof developing, in the same cycle, a greater number of links, so to\nspeak, in the chain of forms that proceeds from the atom to the\nsheath, or envelope, of the Gods-Men. Thus, the highest germ which the\nmicroscope enables us to follow--the human ovule--is first a kind of\nmineral represented by the nucleus (the point, unity) of its germinal\ncell; then it takes the vegetable form--a radicle, crowned by two\ncotyledons (duality); afterwards it becomes a fish (multiplicity),\nwhich is successively transformed into a batrachian, then a bird,\nafterwards assuming more and more complex animal forms, until, about\nthe third month of foetal life, it appears in the human form.\n\nThe process of transformation is more rapid when Nature has repeated\nit a certain number of times; it then represents a more extensive\nportion of the ladder of evolution, but, be it noted, the process is\nthe same for all, and for all the ladder is composed of the same\nnumber of steps; beings start from the same point, follow the same\npath and halt at the same stages; nothing but their age causes their\ninequalities. They are more than brothers, they are all\nrepresentatives of the One, that which is at the root of the Universe,\nDivinity, supreme Being.\n\nWe also see that progress, the result of the conservation of\nqualities, offers us repeated instances of these stages in the\nreappearance, at each step of the ladder, of the forms preceding it in\nthe natural series. In the course of its evolution, the germ of an\nanimal passes through the mineral and vegetable forms; if the animal\nis a bird, its final embryological form will be preceded by the animal\nforms, which, in the evolutionary series, make their appearance before\nthe avian type; if we are dealing with a mammifer, the animal will be\nthe summit of all the lower types; when it is the human germ that we\nare following in its development, we see that it also has contained\nwithin itself and is successively reproducing the potentialities of\nthe whole preceding series. The microscope is able to show only\nclearly marked stages and the most characteristic types, for evolution\nruns through its initial stages with a rapidity defying the closest\nphysical observation. If only Nature would slacken her pace in order\nto humour our incapacity, we should see in an even more striking\nfashion that she preserves everything she has attained and develops\nthe power of reconstruction with ever-increasing rapidity and\nperfection.\n\nTrue, each cycle of incarnation realises only an infinitesimal\nfraction of the total progress made, each being advances only one step\nat a time along this interminable series; but then, are not these\nminor \"cycles\" in the course of which brings grow and advance towards\nthe final Goal, the visible, material expression, the tangible and\nindisputable proof of the strict, the inexorable Law of Rebirths?\n\n\n_What the Germ contains._\n\nNow let us examine a little more carefully this process of physical\ngermination and attempt to discover an important secret from it; let\nus see whether the material germ contains the whole being, or whether,\nas the ancient wisdom teaches, the vehicles of the divine Spark in\nevolution are as numerous as the germs which respectively effect their\ndevelopment and preservation.\n\nAlthough here, too, the doctrine of the Christian churches is\ninadequate, we cannot altogether pass it by in silence. We will,\ntherefore, state it, recommending the reader to compare it with the\ntheory of science and the teachings of theosophy.\n\nThe Churches deny evolution. They say: one single body, one single\nstate of development for each human being. For the lower kingdoms a\nstate of nothingness before birth and after death, whatever may have\nbeen the fate of these beings during the short life imposed upon them;\nfor man a single body for which God creates a single soul and to which\nHe gives a single incarnation on a single planet,[48] the Earth.\n\nIt is our ardent wish that the signs of the growing acceptance of the\nidea of evolution now manifesting themselves in Christian teaching may\nincrease, and that the Church, whatever be the influence that induces\nher to take the step, will in the end loyally hold out her hand to\nScience. Instead of remaining hostile, the two will then help each\nother to mount the ladder of Truth; and divine Life, the light of all\nsciences, philosophies, and religions, will illumine the dark path\nthey are treading, and guide their steps towards that One Truth which\nis both without and within them.\n\nScientific materialism says:\n\nYes, everything is born again from its germ--thus is progress made,\nbut that is the limit of my concessions. Everything is matter; the\nsoul has no existence. There is evolution of matter, for matter, and\nby matter. When a form is destroyed, its qualities, like its power of\nrebirth, are stored away in a latent condition, within the germs it\nhas produced during its period of activity. Along with the\ndisappearance of matter, everything disappears--qualities, thoughts,\n\"ego\"--and passes into a latent slate within the germ; along with the\nreturn of the form, qualities and attributes gradually reappear\nwithout any hypothetical soul whatever having any concern in the\nmatter. So long as the form is in its germ stage, the being is nothing\nmore than a mass of potentialities; when fully developed its faculties\nreappear, but they remain strictly attached to the form, and if the\nlatter changes, the faculties echo the change, so to speak, with the\nutmost fidelity. Matter is the parent of intelligence, the brain\nmanufactures thought, and the heart distills love, just as the liver\nsecretes bile; such is the language of present-day science.\n\nThis theory accepts the idea of universal injustice in its entirety;\nwe shall shortly prove that, notwithstanding its apparent logic, it\nexplains only one side of evolution, and that if matter is the\ncondition _sine qua non_ of the manifestation of spirit, it is at\nleast curious that the latter acts so powerfully upon it, and is,\nbeyond the possibility of a doubt, its real master.[49]\n\nModern Theosophy, as well as the Wisdom of old, says in its turn:\n\nSpirit is the All, the one Being, the only Being that exists.\n\nForce-matter[50] is nothing but the product of the spirit's activity;\nin it we find many and divers properties--density, weight,\ntemperature, volume, elasticity, cohesion, &c., because we judge it\nfrom our sense perceptions; but in reality, we know it so little, that\nthe greatest thinkers have called it \"a state of consciousness,\"\n_i.e._, an impression produced by it within ourselves.[51] It is the\nresult of the will of the supreme Spirit, which creates \"differences\"\n(forms) in unfathomable homogeneous Unity, which is incarnated in them\nand produces the modifications necessary for the development of its\npowers, in other words, for the accomplishment of their evolution. As\nthis evolution takes place in the finite--for the Infinite can effect\nits \"sacrifice,\" _i.e._ its incarnation,[52] only by limiting\nitself--it is progressive, proceeding from the simple to the complex.\nEach incarnate, divine \"fragment\"[53] at first develops the simpler\nqualities and acquires the higher ones only by degrees; these\nqualities can appear only by means of a vehicle of matter, just as the\ncolour-producing properties of a ray of light only become manifest\nwith the aid of a prism. Form plays the part of the revealer of the\nqualities latent in the divine germ (the soul); the more complex this\nform becomes, the more atomic divisions it has in a state of activity;\nthe greater the number of senses it has awake, the greater the number\nof qualities it expresses.\n\nIn this process, we see at work, three main factors; _Spirit_,[54]\nawakening within itself _vibrations_,[55] which assume _divers\nappearances_.[56] These three factors are one; force-matter and form\ncannot exist without the all-powerful, divine Will (Spirit), for this\nis the supreme Being, who, by his Will, creates force matter, by his\nIntelligence gives it a form, and animates it with his Love.\n\nForce-matter is the blind giant, who, in the Sankhya philosophy,\ncarries on his shoulders the lame man who can see--a giant, for it is\nactivity itself; and blind, because this activity is directed only by\nthe intelligent Will of the Spirit. The latter is lame, because when\nit has not at its disposal an instrument of form-matter, it cannot\nact, it cannot appear, it is no longer manifested, having disappeared\nwith the great periodical dissolution of things which the poetical\nEast calls the inbreathing of Brahma.\n\nForm--all form--creates a germ which reproduces it. The germ is an\naggregate containing, in a very high state of vitalisation, all the\natomic types that will enter into the tissues of the form it has to\nbuild up. These types serve as centres of attraction for the atoms\nwhich are to collect round them when, under the influence of the\n\"vital fire,\"[57] creative activity has been roused in the germ. Each\natomic type now attracts from the immediate surroundings the atoms\nthat resemble it, the process of segmentation which constitutes\ngermination begins, and the particular tissues represented by the\ndifferent atomic types are formed; in this way the fibrous, osseous,\nmuscular, nervous, epithelial, and other tissues are reproduced.\n\nThe creative activity that builds up tissues, if left to itself, could\ncreate nothing but formless masses; it must have the help of the\nintelligence to organise the atoms into molecules, the molecules into\ntissues, and these again into organs capable of a corporate life as a\nsingle organism, supplied with centres of sensation and action. This\nintelligence cannot proceed from the mind bodies of the various\nbeings, for the latter manifest their qualities only when they possess\na fully-developed form--which is not the case with the germs;\nmoreover, the lower kingdoms show nothing but instinct, and even the\nsuperior animals possess only a rudimentary form of mentality. The\nmost skilful human anatomist knows nothing more than the eye can teach\nhim regarding the forms he dissects, though even if he were acquainted\nwith their whole structure, he would none the less be quite incapable\nof creating the simplest sense organ. The Form is the expression of\ncosmic intelligence, of God incarnated in the Universe, the Soul of\nthe world, which, after creating matter, aggregates it into divers\ntypes, to which it assigns a certain duration. The type of the form\nvaries with the stage of development of the being (_the soul_)\nincarnated therein, for the instrument must be adapted to the artist's\ncapacity; the latter could not use an instrument either too imperfect\nor too perfect for his degree of skill. What could the rudimentary\nmusician of a savage tribe do if seated before the complex organ of\none of our cathedrals; whilst, on the other hand, what kind of\nharmony could a Wagner produce from a shepherd's pipe? The Cosmic\nintelligence would appear to have created a single, radical form-type,\nwhich gradually develops and at each step produces an apparently new\nform, until its series has reached the finished type of evolution. It\nstops the evolutionary process of each germ at the requisite point in\nthe scale; in the case of the most rudimentary souls it allows a\nsingle step to be taken, thus supplying an instrument that possesses\nthe requisite simplicity; the process is continued longer for the more\nadvanced souls, but stops just when the form has become a suitable\ninstrument. When it does not furnish the fecundated germ with the\n\"model\" which is to serve as a ground-plan for atomic deposits,\nsegmentation takes place in a formless mass, and in this the tissues\nare shown without organisation; it is then a mole, a false conception.\n\nIt is the same cosmic Intelligence that derides the period during\nwhich the form shall remain in a state of activity in the world. Until\na soul has learnt the lesson that incarnation in a form must teach it,\nthis form is necessary, and is given to it again and again until the\nsoul has assimilated the experience that form had to supply; when it\nhas nothing more to learn from the form, on returning to incarnation\nit passes into one that is more complex. The soul learns only by\ndegrees, beginning with the letters of the alphabet of Wisdom, and\ngradually passing to more complex matter; thus the stages of evolution\nare innumerable and the transition from one to the other\nimperceptible; modern science states this fact, though without\nexplaining it, when she says that \"Nature makes no leaps.\"\n\nThe building up of forms is effected by numerous Beings, forming an\nuninterrupted chain that descends from the mighty Architect, God, to\nthe humblest, tiniest, least conscious of the \"builders.\"[58] God, the\nuniversal Spirit, directs evolution, and could accomplish every detail\nof it directly; but it is necessary, for their own development, that\nthe souls, whatever stage they have reached, should work in the whole\nof creation, and therein play the part, whether consciously or\nunconsciously, that they are fitted to play. Consequently they are\nemployed at every stage; and, in order to avoid mistakes, their\nactivity is guided by more advanced souls, themselves the agents of\nhigher cosmic Entities, right on up to God, the sovereign controller\nof the hierarchies. Consequently there are no mistakes--if, indeed,\nthere are any real ones at all--in Nature, except those that are\ncompatible with evolution and of which the results are necessary for\nthe instruction of souls; but the Law is continually correcting them\nin order to restore the balance. Such, in general outline, is the\nreason for the intervention of beings in the evolutionary process.\n\nSo far as man is concerned, the highest of these Beings supply the\nideal type of the form which is to give the soul, when reincarnated,\nthe best means of expression; others take charge of these models and\nentrust them to entities whose sole mission is to keep them before\ntheir mental eyes and guide the thousands of \"builders\" who build\nround them the atoms which are to form the tabernacle of flesh in its\nminutest details; these Liliputian builders may be seen at work by the\ninner eye; they are as real as the workmen who construct material\nedifices in accordance with an architect's plans.\n\nThat everything may be faithfully reproduced in form the entity that\ncontrols the building must not lose sight of the model for a single\nmoment. Nor does it do so, generally speaking, for one may say that\nthis being is, as it were, the soul of the model, being one with it\nand conscious only of the work it has to perform. In many cases,\nhowever, it receives certain impressions before birth from the\nmother's thoughts: an influence capable either of forwarding or\nhindering its work. The ancient Greeks were well acquainted with this\nfact when they assisted Nature to create beautiful forms by placing in\nthe mother's room statues of rare plastic perfection, and removing\nfrom her sight every suggestion of ugliness. More than this; certain\nintense emotions of the pregnant woman are capable of momentarily\neffacing the image of the model which the builder has to reproduce,\nand replacing certain of its details with images arising from the\nmother's imagination. If these images are sufficiently vivid, the\nbeing follows them; and if they endure for a certain length of time\nthey are definitely incorporated in the building of the body. In this\nfashion, many birth marks (_naevi materni_) are produced; strawberries\nor other fruit, eagerly desired at times when they cannot be procured,\nhave appeared on the child's skin; divers objects that have left a\nvivid impression on the imagination may have the same effect. The\nclearness and perfection of the impression depend on the intensity and\ncontinuance of the mental image; the part where it is to appear\ndepends on the sense impressions of the mother coinciding with the\ndesire which forms the image--for instance, a spot on the body touched\nrather sharply at the moment. This has given rise to the idea that\nthe \"longing\" is impressed on that part of the body which the mother\nis touching during her desire. When the image is particularly strong\nand persistent considerable modifications of the body have been\nobtained; in such cases, children are born with animal-like heads, and\ntreatises on teratology relate the case of a foetus born with the\nhead detached from the trunk, because the mother, after witnessing an\nexecution, had been horribly impressed by the sight of the separated\nheads of the victims. Malebranche, in his _Recherche de la Verite_,\ntells of a child that was born with broken limbs because his mother\nhad seen the torture of the wheel. In this case, the image must have\nbeen of enormous vibratory power and of considerable persistence.[59]\n\nA general or even a local arrest of development is almost always due\nto the phenomenon of mental inhibition experienced by the same being;\nit definitely ceases to see the plan, evolution stops, and the\nembryo, expelled before the time takes on the form of the evolutionary\nstage it had reached at that moment; if it ceases to deal with a\nsingle detail only that detail remains in _statu quo_, and is often\nembedded in portions of the organism quite away from the point where\nit would have been found had it continued to evolve; certain cysts\nbelong to this class.\n\nThe third factor, the Spirit, the Soul--or, to be more exact, the\nincarnated divine ray--follows a line of evolution parallel to that of\nthe matter which constitutes its form, its instrument; this\nparallelism is so complete that it has deceived observers\ninsufficiently acquainted with the wonders of evolution. It is thus\nthat scientific materialism has taken root. We will endeavour to set\nforth the mistake that has been made, and call to mind the correctness\nof the Vedantin symbol, which represents the soul as lame, incapable\nof acting without the giant, force-matter; though the latter, without\nthe guidance of the former, could not advance along the path of\nevolution.\n\nThis soul is a \"no-thing,\" which, in reality, is everything; a ray of\nthe spiritual sun (_God_), a divine spark incarnated in the vibration\n(_matter_) produced by the supreme Being, it is a \"centre,\" capable\nof all its Father's potentialities. These potentialities, which may be\ngrouped together under three general heads--power, love, and\nwisdom--we may sum up in the one word: consciousness. It is, indeed, a\n\"centre of consciousness\" in the germinal state, that is about to\nblossom forth, realising all its possibilities and becoming a being\nfully aware of its unity with the Being from which it comes and which\nit will then have become.\n\nIn this development the vibrations of outer matter play the part of\nthe steel, which, on striking flint, causes the life latent within the\nlatter to dart forth. Each vibration which strikes the soul arouses\ntherein a dormant faculty, and when all the vibrations of the universe\nhave touched it, this soul will have developed as many faculties as\nthat universe admits of, until, in the course of successive worlds, it\nbecomes increasingly divine in the one Divine Being. In order that all\nthe vibrations of which a universe is capable may reach the soul the\nlatter must surround itself with all the different types of atoms that\nexist in the world, for every vibration is an atomic movement, and the\nnature of the vibration depends on the quality of the atoms in motion.\nNow, the first part of evolution consists in condensing round vital\ncentres[60] (_souls_) atoms aggregated in combinations of a\nprogressively increasing density, on to those that make up the\nphysical plane; when the soul has thus clothed itself with the\nelements of all the planes, the resulting form is called a\n\"microcosm\"--a small Cosmos--for it contains, in reality, all the\nelements contained in the Universe. During this progressive\ndevelopment, the soul, which thus effects its \"fall\" into matter,\nreceives from all the planes through which it passes and from all the\nforms in which it incarnates, varied vibrations which awake within it\ncorrespondingly responsive powers and develop a non-centred, diffused,\nnon-individualised consciousness.\n\nIn the second phase of evolution, the forms are limited, the\nvibrations they receive are transmitted by specialised sensorial\ngroups, and the soul, hitherto endowed with a diffused consciousness,\nbegins to feel varieties of vibrations that grow ever more numerous,\nto be distinguished from the surrounding world, to separate itself, so\nto speak, from everything around; in a word, to develop\nself-consciousness. This separation first takes place on the physical\nplane; it is made easier by hard, violent contacts, and the forms, in\ntheir turn, become more complex, varied, and specialised in proportion\nas the soul is the more perfectly individualised. When it has\ndeveloped all the self-conscious responsive powers in the physical\nbody, it begins to develop those faculties which have as their organs\nof transmission the finer bodies, and as planes of vibration the\ninvisible worlds.\n\nIn our planetary system the number of the invisible planes is\nseven.[61] Each of them in turn supplies the soul with a form; thus,\nwhen evolution--which in its second phase successively dematerialises\nmatter, _i.e._, disassociates the atoms from their combinations,\nbeginning with the denser ones--has dissolved the physical plane, the\nhuman soul will utilise, as its normal body, a finer one which it is\nat present using as a link between the mental and the physical\nbodies. Before this dissolution is effected, however, human beings\nwill have developed, to some extent, several finer bodies, already\nexisting, though hitherto not completely organised.\n\nThe first of these bodies, the astral--a very inappropriate name,\nthough here used because it is so well known--is a copy, more or less,\nof the physical form in its general aspect; the resemblance and\nclearness of the features are pronounced in proportion to the\nintellectual development of the person, for thought-vibration has\ngreat influence over the building up of the centres of force and of\nsensation in this body.[62]\n\nThe second is an even finer aggregate, composed of mental substance\nand assuming, during incarnation, the form of a smaller or larger\novoid--the causal body--surrounding the physical form.[63] At its\ncentre, and plunged in the astral body during incarnation, is another\nkind of ovoid not so large and composed of denser substance--the\nmental body.[64]\n\nAbove these states of matter, at the present stage there appears no\nform to the consciousness of human beings, though perfect seers can\nperceive, within the causal body, still higher grades of matter, which\nwill only subsequently become centres of self-consciousness.\n\nDuring incarnation, the soul, in the majority of men, is clearly\nconscious of itself and of its surroundings only when it is\nfunctioning through the nervous system (the brain); when it leaves the\ndenser body, during sleep, its consciousness is in the astral body,\nand there it thinks,[65] but without being conscious of what is taking\nplace around it. After disincarnation, it generally becomes highly\nconscious in its astral body, where it passes its purgatorial life;\nand this latter endures until the soul leaves the astral body. As soon\nas the latter is thrown off, consciousness centres in the mental body;\nthis is the period of _Devachan_ or Heaven. When the mental body is\nput off, paradise is at an end, and the soul, sheathed only in the\ncausal body, finds itself on a very lofty plane, but here,\nconsciousness is vague, when we are dealing with a man of average\ndevelopment. Instead of laying aside this garment, as so far it has\ndone with the rest, it recommences, after the lapse of a certain\ntime, another descent into the matter of the lower planes and a new\nincarnation begins.\n\nTo the centre of the causal body are drawn atoms from the inner mental\nplane; these represent a new mental body.[66] When this latter has\nbeen formed, there are attracted to it atoms of the astral plane, and\nthese form a new astral body; the soul, clothed in these two sheaths,\nif one may so express it, is brought into conscious or unconscious\nrelation, according to its degree of development, with the two\ncorresponding planes, lives there generally for a short time, and is\ndirected to a mother's womb, in which is created the visible body of\nflesh within the centre of its astral body.\n\nThis force of atomic attraction has its centre in the causal body, a\nkind of sensitive plate on which are registered all those vibrations\nwhich disturb or affect human vehicles during incarnation. This body is,\nin effect, the present abode of the soul, it represents the terminal\npoint of human consciousness,[67] the real centre of man.[68] It\nreceives all the impressions of the plane on which it finds itself, as\nwell as those which come to it from the lower planes, and responds to\nthem the more readily as it has now attained a fuller development. It\npossesses the power to attract and to repel; a microcosm, it has its\noutbreathing and inbreathing, as has the Macrocosm; like Brahma, it\ncreates its bodies and destroys them, although in the vast majority of\nmankind it exercises this power more or less unconsciously and under the\nirresistible impulsion of the force of evolution--the divine Will. When\nit attracts, it causes to recur within itself the vibrations it has\nreceived and registered--like a phonographic roll--during the past\nincarnations; these vibrations reverberate in the outer world, and\ncertain of them attract from this world[69]--in this case the mental\nworld--the atoms capable of responding to them. When they have created\nthe mental body, other vibrations can be transmitted through this body\nto the astral world and attract atoms which will form the body bearing\nthe same name--the astral--and finally other vibrations, making use of\nthese two bodies as a means of transmission, will affect the physical\nplane and attract atoms which will assist in the building up of the\ndenser body.\n\nEverywhere the formative power of vibration is guided by cosmic\nintelligence, but it is effected far more easily in the reconstruction\nof the higher bodies, that precedes incarnation properly so-called,\nthan in the creation of the now physical body. Indeed, in the astral\nand mental bodies, nothing is produced but an atomic mass, the many\nelements of which will be aggregated into complete organisms only\nduring incarnation properly so-called, whilst the construction of the\nvisible body admits of a mass of extremely delicate and important\ndetails. It is for this reason that we have seen this work of\nconstruction entrusted to special Beings who prepare, control and\nwatch over it unceasingly.\n\nIt is because the causal body registers every vibration the\npersonality[70] has generated or received in the course of its series\nof incarnations, that the vices and virtues are preserved, as is the\ncase with the faults or the good qualities of the physical body. The\nman who has created for himself a coarse astral body by feeding the\npassions and thoughts which specially vivify the coarser matter of\nthis body will on returning to earth find a new astral body composed\nof the same elements, though then in a dormant state. He who, by the\ncultivation of a lofty intellect, has built up a refined mental body,\nwill return to incarnation with a like mental body, whilst the one\nwho, by meditation and the practice of devotion which bring into being\nthe noblest qualities of the heart, has set vibrating the purest\nportions of the causal body and of the divine essence (Atma-Buddhi, as\nit is named in Sanskrit), with which it is filled, will return to\nbirth endowed with those qualities which make apostles and saints, the\nSaviours of the world.\n\nIn other words:\n\nMatter has more remote boundaries than science recognises; the\nnumberless grades of atoms of which it consists, their powers of\naggregation, the multiplicity and duration of the bodies they form,\nare not even suspected by materialism.\n\nMaterialism sees nothing but the part played by matter; it denies that\nintelligence plays any part, and will by no means admit--in spite of\nevolution and progress--that above man there exists an almost endless\nchain of higher and higher Beings, whilst below him are kingdoms of an\nincreasingly restricted range of consciousness. By refusing to believe\nin the multiplicity of the vehicles which the human soul uses, it is\nunable to understand individual survival or to solve the problem of\nheredity. Indeed, evolution is only partially explained by the\nphysical germ; the latter, in order to act alone and of itself in the\ndevelopment of the human embryo should possess a degree of\nintelligence considerably superior to that of man. This is the\nopposite of what we find, however, and we are brought face to face\nwith the absurd fact of a cause vastly inferior to its effect. Indeed,\nthe intelligence shown by the germ is not its own; it is that of the\ncosmic Mind reflected by mighty Beings, its willing servants. Besides,\nthis germ contains only the qualities that belong to physical matter,\nand, as we shall show, the moral, mental, and spiritual qualities are\npreserved by the finer--the causal--body, which represents the real\nman at the present time.\n\n\nTHE PROBLEM OF HUMAN HEREDITY.\n\nIf materialism were the whole truth, it ought to explain the whole of\nheredity; instead of that it clashes with almost all the problems of\nlife. Physical substance offers for analysis none but physical\nphenomena: attraction, repulsion, heat, electricity, magnetism, vital\nmovement; the anatomical constitution of the highest--the\nnerve--tissue, presents only the slightest differences in the animal\nseries, if these differences are compared with the enormous\ndistinctions in the qualities it expresses. Differences of form,\nvisible to the microscope, are at times important, we shall be told,\nand those that affect the atomic activity and groupings[71] are\nperhaps even more important. That is true, especially in whatever\nconcerns man.\n\nIntelligence cannot always be explained by the complexity of the\nbrain--though this complexity is the condition of faculty, as a\nrule--insects such as ants, bees, and spiders, whose brains are\nnothing but simple nerve ganglia, display prodigies of foresight,\narchitectural ability and social qualities; whilst along with these\ndwarfs of the animal kingdom, we see giants that manifest only a\nrudimentary mind, in spite of their large, convoluted brains. Among\nthe higher animals, there is not one that could imitate the\nbeaver--which, all the same, is far from being at the head of the\nanimal series--in building for itself a house in a river and storing\nprovisions therein.\n\nThere is a vast gulf, in the zoological series, before and after these\ninsects, as there is before and after the beaver; whilst an even wider\ngulf separates the highest specimens of the animal world from man\nhimself.\n\nNor do the weight and volume of the brain afford any better\nexplanation of the difference in intellect than does its structural\ncomplexity.\n\nThe weight relations between the brain and the body of different\nanimals have been estimated as follows by Debierre (_La Moelle et l'\nEncephale_):--\n\nRabbit    1 of brain for 140 of body.\nCat       1      \"       156   \"\nFox       1      \"       205   \"\nDog       1      \"       351   \"\nHorse     1      \"       800   \"\n\nIf matter were the only condition _sine qua non_ of intelligence, we\nshould have to admit that the rabbit was more intelligent than the\ncat, the fox, the dog, and even than the horse.\n\nIn the same work the following figures express the average size of the\nbrain in different races of men.\n\nPariahs of India      1332 cubic centimetres.\nAustralians           1338         \"\nPolynesians           1500         \"\nAncient Egyptians     1500         \"\nMerovingians          1537         \"\nModern Parisians      1559         \"\n\nThis would prove that the people who built Karnac and the Pyramids,\nwho raised to an elevation of about 500 feet blocks of granite, one of\nwhich would require fifteen horses to drag it along a level road, who\nplaced these enormous stones side by side without mortar or cement of\nany kind and with almost invisible joints, who possessed the secret of\nmalleable glass and of painting in colours that have not faded even\nafter the lapse of centuries ... that such a race of men were inferior\nto the rude, uncultured Merovingians, and scarcely the equals of the\nPolynesians!\n\nScience also tells us that in a child five years of age the human\nbrain weighs, on an average, 1250 grammes--this, too, would bear no\nrelation whatever with the intellectual and moral development of a\nchild of that age and that of an adult man.\n\nThough Cuvier's brain weighed 1830 grammes, and Cromwell's 2230, that\nof Tiedemann, the great anatomist, when placed on the scales, weighed\nno more than 1254, and that of Gambetta only 1246.\n\nThe physical body of itself can give no reason for a host of\npsychological phenomena on which, however, a flood of light is shed if\none recognises the existence of other vehicles of consciousness\npossessing more far-reaching vibrations, and consequently capable of\nexpressing higher faculties. During sleep, for instance, which is\ncharacterised by the Ego having left his physical body, reason is\nabsent, and what we call dreams are generally nothing but a tissue of\nnonsense, at which the dreamer feels astonishment only when returning\nto his body on awaking. On the other hand, as we have seen in Chapter\nI., when the Ego succeeds in imprinting on the brain the vibrations of\nthe higher consciousness, it is able to regain the memory of facts\nlong forgotten and to solve problems that could not be solved during\nthe waking state. There are madmen who have ceased to be mad during\nsomnambulism; persons of rudimentary intelligence have proved\nthemselves to be profound thinkers during the mesmeric trance; when\nunder somnambulism vision is possible to those born blind and certain\npeople can see things that are happening a great distance away, and\ntheir reports have been proved correct; certain phenomena of\ndouble-consciousness cannot be explained without the plurality--the\nduality, at all events--of the vehicles of consciousness.\n\nTo return to the _role_ played by the germ in the question of\nheredity, we repeat that the physical germ, of itself alone, explains\nonly a portion of man; it throws light on the physical side of\nheredity, but leaves in as great darkness as ever the problem of\nintellectual and moral faculty. If it represented the whole man, one\nwould expect to find in any individual the qualities manifested in his\nprogenitors or parents--never any other; these qualities could not\nexceed the amount possessed by the parents, whereas we find criminals\nfrom birth in the most respectable families and saints born to parents\nwho are the very scum of society. You may come across twins, _i.e._,\nbeings born from the same germs, under the same conditions of time\nand environment, one of whom is an angel and the other a demon,\nthough their physical forms closely resemble each other.\n\nChild prodigies are sufficiently numerous to frequently trouble the\nthinker with the problem of heredity. Whence came that irresistible\nimpulse towards poetry in Ovid which showed itself from his earliest\nyouth and in the end overcame the vigorous opposition of his parents?\n\nPascal in his youth met with keen opposition from his parents, who\nforbade him to think of mathematics and geometry. He besought his\nfather to tell him, at all events, \"what was that science of which he\nwas forbidden to think, and what it treated of.\" The answer was given\nto him that \"it is the method of making correct figures and finding\nout the proportions they bear to each other.\" With nothing more than\nthis information and the aid of reflection, he discovered for himself\nthe first thirty-two propositions of Euclid by means of \"circles and\nlines\" traced in secret.\n\nMozart, at the age of three, learnt the clavecin by watching his\nsister play; a year afterwards he composed admirably, at the age of\nseven he played the violin at first sight without having had any\nteacher, and proved himself a composer of genius before he reached his\ntwelfth birthday.\n\nPepito Ariola, the little Spaniard, was only three years of age when,\nabout ten years ago, he filled with astonishment the Court of Madrid\nby his wonderful playing on the piano.\n\nIn the lineage of these prodigies has there been found a single\nancestor capable of explaining these faculties, as astonishing as they\nare premature? If to the absence of a cause in their progenitors is\nadded the fact that genius is not hereditary, that Mozarts,\nBeethovens, and Dantes have left no children stamped from birth as\nprodigies of genius, we shall be forced to the conclusion that, within\nthe limits it has taken up, materialism is unable to explain heredity.\n\nA few more words must be said on physical heredity to explain why\nmoral qualities in men of average development are often on a par with\nthe same in their parents.\n\nIn reality, the physical germs only multiply the organic elements of\nthe ovule, and as this latter contains the cell-types of all the\ntissues, it follows that these cell-types will possess the qualities\nof the tissues that exist in the parents. For instance, germs of\nsufferers from arterio-sclerosis will supply a vascular apparatus\npredisposed to arterio-sclerosis; tuberculous subjects will supply\ngerms in which the vital vibrations and cellular solidity will be\nbelow the normal, and bring about those degenerate tendencies which\ncharacterise the tuberculous subject; those of sanguine constitution\nwill transmit a faculty for vital assimilation and considerable\ncorpuscular production, and so on.[72]\n\nIn this transmission there are two main factors: the male and the\nfemale germs. The former represents force, it imprints on the ovule\nthe initial vital vibration which is to be that of each of the cells\nof the organism in course of construction. The function of this germ\nmay be studied more easily in animals, because their heredity is not\ncomplicated by the individual differences due to the mental vehicle.\nThe stallion supplies the vital qualities--the blood, _i.e._, the\nvivacity, _brio_, pace; physical resistance comes from the mare. To\nsum up, the modalities of matter are supplied by the feminine germ.\n\nPeculiarities of form proceed from several causes. Phrenology and\nphysiognomy are sciences, though the studies hitherto known by these\nnames are almost valueless because they have not been carried on with\nthe necessary scientific precision. Doubtless Gall and Lavater\npossessed the gift of penetrating both mind and heart, as was also the\ncase with Mlle. Lenormand Desbarolles and the genuine graphologists;\nbut this gift was not the result of mathematical deduction, but\nrather a psychometric or prophetic faculty; for this reason neither\nthey nor their books have produced pupils worthy of the name. The main\nfeatures and lines only of the human form have a known meaning--and\nnot always a very precise one--for every physical, passional, mental,\nor spiritual force possesses an organ of expression in the visible\nbody, and the varieties of form of this organ enable one to judge of\nthe degrees of force they express on the earth plane. On this basis,\npeculiarities of form mainly stand; and the intensity of certain\ndefects or qualities is at times expressed so strongly that it\ncompletely modifies the tendencies it would seem that heredity ought\nto pass on. The similarity of form between parent and child is not\nexact, because it proceeds from the peculiarities of the individual in\nincarnation far more than from the collective tendencies of the\nembryonic cells in process of proliferation.\n\nThe being charged with building the body can, in turn, considerably\nmodify its form, copying specially striking features found in the\nmother's thought; certain characteristic family traits, the Bourbon\nnose, for instance; those belonging to strangers in continual\nrelationship with the mother, and those that a babe, fed and brought\nup away from home, takes from his nurse or from the surroundings amid\nwhich he lives; all these probably leave their impress in the same\nway. In this case, indeed, the \"builder\"--who, it must be added,\nceases the work of construction only when it is on its way to\ncompletion, which happens about the age of seven--is influenced by the\nforms of the new surroundings, and at times copies them, more or less,\nand we may ask ourselves if the unexplained fact of negro children\nbeing born to a white woman--the widow of a negro--remarried to a\nwhite man is in no way connected with the reproduction of a mental\nimage of the coloured children of a former marriage.\n\nAnother fact: observers have noticed that almost all great men have\nhad as their mother a woman of lofty character. This preponderance of\nthe maternal influence will be understood if we remember that the\ncellular mass that composes the child's body belongs to the mother,\nnot only because this mass originates from the proliferation of the\novule, and, consequently, is only the multiplication of the maternal\nsubstance, but also because the materials that have formed it and have\nbeen transmuted into flesh have been supplied by her; indeed,\neverything comes from this cellular mass, the elements drawn from the\namniotic fluid and the blood, the milk, which, after birth, continues\nfor long months to build up the child's body and the magnetic fluid,\nthe \"atoms of life,\" which are continually escaping from it and which\nthe babe absorbs whilst receiving incessant attention from his mother.\n\nThis exchange of atoms is of the utmost importance, for these\nultra-microscopic particles are charged with our mental and moral\ntendencies as well as with the physical qualities; personally, I have\nhad many direct proofs of this, but the most striking came at a\ncritical period of my life. One day, when nervous exhaustion, steadily\nincreased by overwork, had reached an extreme stage, a great\nBeing--not a Mahatma, but a Soul at a very lofty stage of\nevolution--sent to me by destiny at the time, poured into my shattered\nbody a portion of his physical life. Shortly afterwards a real\ntransformation took place, far more of a moral than of a physical\nnature, and for a few hours I felt myself the \"copy\" or counterpart of\nthat great Soul, and the divine influence lasted twenty-four hours\nbefore it gradually died away.\n\nI then understood, better than by any other demonstration, the\ninfluence of the physical upon the moral nature and the method of the\nsubtle contagion often effected by mesmerism. _A man is known by the\nfriends he keeps_ is an old proverb.\n\nIf atoms of life can have so marked an influence upon a man nearly\nforty years of age, _i.e._, at a period when he is in full possession\nof himself, how much more powerful is this influence when exercised\nupon the child--a delicate, sensitive body, almost entirely lacking\nthe control of the soul? This is the reason hired nurses often\ntransmit to the child their own physical features and countless moral\ntendencies which last some time after weaning; orphans, too, morally,\noften resemble the strangers who have brought them up. Like physical\ntendencies these moral propensities disappear only by degrees,\naccording to change of environment, and especially to the degree in\nwhich the body is controlled by the reincarnated soul.[73]\n\nThe most important, however, of the moral influences at work on the\nbeing again brought into touch with earth-life is connected with the\nemotions, the passions and thoughts of those around. The child--and\nunder this name must be included the embryo and the foetus--possesses\nbodies the subtle elements of which are in a dormant state; his mental\nand sense organisms are scarcely more than masses of substance that have\nnot yet been vitalised--a sort of collection of germs of good or of\nevil, which will yield fruit when they awake. The passional and mental\nvibrations of the parents play on the matter capable of responding to\nthem in the invisible bodies of the child; they vivify it, attract atoms\nof the same nature taken from the finer atmosphere around, and awake in\nit passional and mental centres which, but for them, might have remained\nlatent, or, at all events, would only have developed at a later stage,\nwhen the Ego, master of its vehicles, would be in a position to struggle\nagainst the outer evil influences and not permit them to have effect\nsave within the limits imposed by will. In this way, it is possible to\nbring to birth evil instincts in a child, and intensify them to a\nconsiderable extent, before a single virtue has succeeded in expressing\nitself on the new instrument in course of development. This mental\naction is so strong that it colours vividly, if not altogether, the\nmorality of the little ones living beneath its influence, and even older\nchildren are still so sensitive to it that whole classes are seen to\nreflect the moral character of the teacher who has charge of them. This\ninfluence, too, does not cease with childhood, it weighs--though far\nless heavily--on the man during the whole of his life; and families,\nnations, nay, even races, each see through the prism of their own\nspecial atmosphere. Mighty and subtle is this illusion which man, in the\ncourse of his pilgrimage towards divine Unity, must succeed in piercing\nand finally entirely dissipating.\n\nOur responsibility towards children is all the more serious in that,\nto the deep impression which thought makes on the subtle, plastic, and\ndefenceless mental bodies of the little ones, is added the fact that,\ncould one prevent the development of the germs of evil in the course\nof one incarnation, these germs, not having fructified, would transmit\nnothing to the _causal body_ after death, and would disappear[74] with\nthe disintegration of the matter of which they were composed.\nConsequently, with regard to children especially, we should cultivate\nnone but noble emotions and lofty thoughts, so as to create centres of\npure and worthy activity within their vehicles in course of\nreconstruction, and to turn their early impulses in the direction of\ngood, their first actions towards duty and their first aspirations\ntowards the lofty and luminous heights of spirituality.\n\nOne may see from this rapid sketch how numerous and important are the\ninfluences added to and blended with those of physical heredity. This\ngroup of influences, some maleficent, some beneficent, is chosen by\nthe Beings who control destiny and give to each Ego, on reincarnation,\nthe body and environment it has merited, or rather that are needed,\nfor the harmonious development of its faculties. A young soul[75]\nstill at the mercy of the animal impulses--necessary impulses at the\noutset of human development--of its kamic, _i.e._, desire, vehicle, is\nsent to parents who will be able to supply its body with material\nelements of a particular density without which these impulses could\nnot manifest themselves. An Ego that is approaching maturity will be\ndrawn to a family that is physically and morally pure, in which it\nwill receive both the finer physical vehicle it needs and that lofty\nenvironment which, when it enters upon earth life, will develop the\ncentres of expression for its nobler faculties. Those who are named in\nthe mystic phraseology of the East, the \"Lords of Karma,\" in their\nchoice of the race, the family, and the environment in which the\nreincarnated soul is to appear, seek to give this latter the most\nfavourable conditions for its evolution. An Ego whose artistic side\nneeds to be developed will often be born in a family which will supply\nit with a nervous system accustomed to the kind of vibrations\nrequired, and an environment favourable to the early development of\nthe physical centres of these faculties; to assist a being whose\nscientific, mystical, or metaphysical side needs to be developed,\nother environment and parentage will be chosen, and it is this\nrelative parallelism existing between the moral qualities of the\nparents and those of the children which has deceived observers\ninsufficiently instructed in the mystery of heredity, and made them\nbelieve in the influence of the physical germ alone.\n\nIt is an easy matter to supply an Ego of average development with a\nvehicle; an ordinary body is all that is needed. There may be extreme\ndifficulty, however, when a new instrument has to be found for a lofty\nsoul, and when we think that, in pressing instances when the fortune\nof humanity is at stake and the hour of destiny has struck, certain\ngreat Souls accept very imperfect bodies for want of better ones, we\nshall no longer be astonished at finding that any particular\nMessenger, in his compassion for the humanity he has to enlighten and\nto direct to the ancient, eternal Source of Truth, has clothed himself\nwith a body of flesh the ancestry of which was far from being adapted\nto the expression of his lofty faculties; courageous Souls are well\nable to put on the robe of pain and to submit to slander and calumny\nwhen the world's salvation can only be achieved at such a cost. We\nknow scarcely anything of the conditions that control the return to\nearth of the Avataras, the \"Sons of God,\" except that sometimes great\nInitiates, after purifying their bodies, voluntarily hand them over to\nthe \"gods,\" who come down to earth--a sublime sacrifice which, like\nthat of the Saviours who consent to come amongst us, shows forth that\nsupreme characteristic of divinity; the gift of oneself.\n\nNor is heredity always realised; many a physical characteristic is not\nreproduced; in families tainted with dangerous physiological defects,\nmany children escape the evil, and the diseased tendencies of the\ntissues remain latent in them, although they often afflict their\ndescendants. On the other hand, as already stated, extremely divergent\nmental types are often met with in the same family, and many a\nvirtuous parent is torn with grief on seeing the vicious tendencies of\nhis child. Here, as elsewhere, the hand of Providence, as Christianity\ncalls it--the Intelligence that brings about evolution, the Justice\nthat controls and the Love that animates it--the hand of God or of\nthose who, having become divine, collaborate in the divine plan, comes\nto make up for the imperfection of the vehicles, and they permit only\nwhat is necessary to come to each one--only what he has deserved, as\nis generally said: this hand can create a physical or a psychic malady\neven where heredity and environment could not supply it, just as it\ncan preserve a pure soul from the moral infection of the surroundings\ninto which it is thrown.[76] This is the reason we find that heredity\nand environment either fail to fulfil their promise or else give what\nwas not their's to give.\n\n\nOBJECTION.\n\nReincarnation is not necessary, it has been alleged; the soul's\nevolution is continued after death in the invisible worlds in finer\nbodies; consequently it is needless to return to the denser bodies of\nearth.\n\nIn our opinion, the trials of life, so exhausting to the will, must\nhave given rise to this theory, for not only have those who advance it\nnever given the slightest proof of its truth, but it is utterly\nopposed to the law of evolution.\n\nIn a world which prefers the flights of imagination to logical\nreasoning we are too accustomed to regard man as a being apart in\nNature; we are only too prone to make exceptions on his behalf. The\npatient scientific researches of all ages have laid down this\nuniversally accepted axiom: _Nature does not proceed by leaps_. It has\nnot so far entered anyone's mind--we think not at all events--to teach\nthat the development of the mineral, the vegetable, and even of the\nanimal kingdom, comes to a sudden halt on this planet, once the forms\nin these kingdoms are dispersed, to be completed in finer worlds; but\nregarding man other thoughts have prevailed, as though his\nintelligence and his heart had learnt all the lessons this earth is\ncapable of teaching! From the most undeveloped of savages up to those\nglorious Spirits that have been the Manu, the Buddha, and the Christ,\nwe find every step occupied on the long ladder of humanity. In the\nlower kingdoms all the stages exist also and are utilised, each link\nreceiving something from its neighbours and giving them something in\nreturn, thus expressing on the visible plane that gracious unity which\nis divine Love: love that is instinctive and imperative in beings of a\nlow degree of evolution; obeyed by those who, without loving it,\nunderstand its good services, and actually lived by such souls as have\nentered upon the path of sacrifice--souls that comprehend the Unity of\nbeings. If this earth has been capable of teaching the Saviours of the\nworld, why should divine Wisdom send thereon only for one short life\nthis mass of imperfect men, to hurl them afterwards on to other\nworlds, like careless butterflies flitting from flower to flower?\n\nCan the evolutionary effort be so easy and simple; is divine energy of\nsuch slight value that it can thus be squandered to no purpose; is the\nprocess of creation the sport of an infant God; is the Logos,\nsacrificing himself in order to give life to the Universe, a prodigal,\nworking without rhyme or reason, sending forth His intelligence and\nmight in aimless sport and leaving evolution at the mercy of His\ncaprice; did not Brahma, by means of meditation, which, as the\nOriental scriptures tell us, preceded creation, practise the gentlest,\nthe most rapid, and the easiest method of guiding beings to the Goal?\nIs it not sheer blasphemy to attribute such folly to the Soul of the\nworld? Does not the study of Nature, at each step, belie this\ninsensate waste, of which no human being would be guilty? Everywhere\nwith the minimum of force, Nature produces the maximum of effect;\neverywhere energy is consolidated with one end in view; and yet, amid\nthe general order around, is the evolution of man to form a solitary,\nan incomprehensible exception?\n\nNo, we cannot believe it for a moment. American spiritists,[77]\nhowever--for it is they who have given out this hypothesis--are not in\nagreement with the school of Allan Kardec on this fundamental point,\nand this fact is by no means calculated to strengthen, the authority\nfor this doctrine. Did we not know that disincarnate beings are as\nignorant in the life beyond as they were on earth; that they tend to\ngroup themselves, as they did here below, with those who think as they\ndo, whilst remaining aloof from such as profess hostile opinions; that\nthe Hindu remains a Hindu, the Christian a Christian, and the\nMussulman a Mussulman; that sceptics are still sceptics; and atheists,\natheists; we should think that spirit \"communications\" with their\nincessant contradictions were unparalleled nonsense, since the\n\"spirits\" are by no means agreed on the very things regarding which\nthey pretend to pronounce a judgment from which there is no appeal.\n\nFortunately, there is a reason for these divergences. Death neither\nlifts the veil of Isis nor brings the soul into the presence of\nomniscient Light; man remains what he was, with all his former\nbeliefs, opinions, passions, qualities, sympathies, and antipathies.\nTrue, he knows a little more than he did upon earth; no more has he\ndoubts as to the after-life, he regains a precise memory of the whole\nof his life here, and the recollection of many a forgotten fact comes\nback to him; he understands better, for his intelligence is being\nserved by a much finer body--but that is all. Therefore \"spirits\"\nreflect both the morality and the mentality of the nation to which\nthey belonged on earth, and in the other life are to be found friends\nand enemies, believers and unbelievers, reincarnationists and\nnon-reincarnationists.\n\nRebirths can be established only by personal proof, by memory; now,\nthe soul that has entered the life beyond, after disincarnation, has\nnot reached the end of its pilgrimage; it is learning that it must, by\nself-purification, pass from world to world until it attains to a\nstate of supreme and final rest; but when this latter has been\nreached, it has lost its lower sheaths and the memory they gave it,\nand when the Law brings it back to earth, it puts on new bodies,\nwhich, having had no participation in preceding events, are ignorant\nof the past.\n\nRemembrance, we shall see later on, is preserved in the cosmic Memory,\nbut until the soul has readied a sufficient development, it cannot\nsummon it forth, and even could it do so, it would succeed in leaving\nits impress on the brain only when the physical, the astral, and the\nmental bodies have submitted to a process of purification which\nharmonises[78] them and binds them closely together. Then only does\nman know that Reincarnation is true, and takes place on earth until\nthis latter passes into a slate of obscuration,[79] or, at all events,\nuntil the development of the soul enables it to utilise for its\nevolution some environment on the planet, other than the physical\none.[80]\n\nWe shall be told that we are now proving what we before denied. No, we\nare simply stating an exception which happens in very few cases and\nonly then to the pioneers of the race--an exception which is nothing\nbut an apparent one and finds its place in the progressive order which\nunifies all the beings in the planetary chain to which we belong.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote 41: Each part possesses in a potential state the properties\nof the whole.]\n\n[Footnote 42: The kingdoms that are invisible to physical sight are as\ninteresting as those we see, but we have no occasion to speak of them\nhere. Logic compels us to acknowledge them until the time comes when\nhuman development enables them to be discovered and affords direct\nproof of their existence.]\n\n[Footnote 43: We do not mean to affirm that evolutionists have not\ncommitted serious errors in their theory of development. But the law\nthey have set prominently forth is one of the fundamental expressions\nof the working of God in the Universe.]\n\n[Footnote 44: The vibratory impressions that constitute the memory of\nthe Universe. See in Chapter 4, the final _Objection._]\n\n[Footnote 45: See _L'or et la Transmutation des metaux_, by\nTiffereau.]\n\n[Footnote 46: Such as the one with the magnet which, if too great a\nweight is suspended to its armature, loses strength, and this it only\nregains by degrees when \"fed\" with successively stronger charges. A\nsteel spring that has borne too great a weight loses strength, and may\nbreak if subjected anew to the same weight that \"fatigued\" it. Pieces\nof iron break after being \"fatigued\" by a weight they easily carried\nbefore. Professor Kennedy made very useful experiments regarding the\n\"fatigue\" of metals at the time when metallic bridges were continually\nbreaking, thus causing great perplexity in the engineering world.]\n\n[Footnote 47: There has been much discussion as to the causes of\nEvolution.\n\nIn his _Progress and Poverty_, Henry George endeavours to show that\nEvolution is in no way brought about by individual or collective\nheredity. He says that the factors of Progress are: First, the mind,\nwhich causes the advance of civilisation when not exercised solely in\nthe \"struggle for life,\" or in frequent conflicts between nation and\nnation; second, association or combination, which ensures all the\nbenefits to be derived from division of work; third, justice, which\nharmonises the units of the social body, and without which\ncivilisation decays and dies.\n\nH. George saw only these elements in evolution; consequently, he could\nneither solve the problem of progress nor explain the rise and fall of\nempires. Indeed, egoism and war are in no way, as he says they are,\nthe sole causes of the fall of races: the soil cannot feed a great\nnation for an indefinite period even if the country is prevented by\nemigration from becoming over-populated; the very nature itself of the\ncivilisation of the time prevents it from continuing for ever. Modern\nwestern races, for instance, have for centuries past been developing\nenergy and intelligence; a limit must be fixed to that particular line\nof progress, under penalty of destroying equilibrium both in the\nindividual and the race.\n\nIf, indeed, man is to learn strength and intelligence, he must also\ndevelop love, or he will fail. The Elder Brothers behind Evolution\ncontrol the advance of the races in accordance with the plan of God,\nwhose servants they are.\n\nThe real cause of evolution does not lie in environment, as H. George\nand his school would have it: it is in the divine Will, incarnate in\nthe Universe. It is God who creates the world, God who fills it with\nlife, guides it and permits its development. All the laws of Nature\nare the expression of the supreme Intelligence; all progress is\nnothing but the realisation of the possibilities of the divine Will.\n\nThe evolutionary edifice is based on solidarity, and here environment\nis undoubtedly an indispensable factor in development; still, it only\nacts as the field or soil, and soil without seed remains barren.\n\nThe mind is also a powerful lever in evolution, but it affects only\none side of the matter. Association or co-operation facilitates only\nthe growth of certain faculties whilst checking the development of\nothers. Justice calls forth only certain individual and social forces,\nand leaves many of them in a state of stagnation.\n\nIn a word, H. George forgets that there is no useless force in the\nwhole of Nature; that they all collaborate in the general task, and\nfinally that there would be no progress, were it not for the existence\nof opposing forces. If, _e.g._, egoism were non-existent, those still\nincapable of working without the hope of personal gain would lack a\npowerful incentive to action. True is the saying that evil is the\nstepping-stone to good.\n\nWere the Law of Rebirths known, it would prove to be an explanation of\nthe problems of evolution.]\n\n[Footnote 48: A few theologians have feebly affirmed the possibility\nof human life on other planets than the Earth, but their voices have\neither been stifled or have met with no echo.\n\nAt the Congress of Fribourg, in Switzerland, August, 1897, evolution\nwas adopted by an assembly of 700 eminent Catholics--laymen and\nclergy. Dr. Zahn said that _although creation is possible a priori, it\nis a posteriori so very improbable that it ought to be rejected; that\nthose who believe in this creation rely upon the literal\ninterpretation of Genesis, whilst the contemporary students of the\nBible affirm that the book is allegorical, that God, in the beginning\ncreated the elements and gave them power to evolve in all the forms\nthat characterise the organic and inorganic worlds_. One voice alone\nwas raised in protest, but it was drowned beneath the refutations of\nthe rest. The question, however, might be asked: How is the transition\nmade from one kingdom to another? What is the missing link? Who is to\ninterpret the Bible if it is an allegorical book? Is it the Church\nwhich has always imposed _the letter_ of the Bible and condemned all\nwho have attempted to set forth _its spirit_?]\n\n[Footnote 49: In hypnosis, indeed, the thought suggested is strong\nenough to modify organic life and bring about hematic extravasion\n(stigmata), burnings, vomiting, etc.... In certain ecstatic cases,\nfixity of thought produces analogous effects. No one who has studied\nthese questions can have the slightest doubt that mind dominates\nmatter.]\n\n[Footnote 50: We say force-matter, for there is no force without\nmatter, they are the two poles of the same thing. Moreover, what is\nconsidered force in relation to dense matter plays the _role_ of\nmatter to subtler forces; electricity, _e.g._, is force-matter,\nprobably capable of serving as a vehicle for subtler force-matter,\njust as it plays the _role_ of force in relation to its conductors.\nForce is born and dies with matter and _vice versa_; both alike arise\nfrom the activity of God.]\n\n[Footnote 51: The sensations it calls forth vary with the forms. That\nwhich burns us, gives life to other beings; water, which suffocates\nus, enables fishes to live; whilst air suffocates creatures that live\nin the water, etc.]\n\n[Footnote 52: All this must be taken figuratively. God does not\nincarnate Himself. He is the All. To our limited conceptions, He seems\nto limit Himself, in order to be the Life of a Universe.]\n\n[Footnote 53: Here, too, we are speaking relatively; in reality, there\nare no fragments of the Absolute. We describe the process as it seems\nto us in the world of illusion.]\n\n[Footnote 54: Being: Divinity.]\n\n[Footnote 55: Force-matter.]\n\n[Footnote 56: Forms.]\n\n[Footnote 57: The movement given to the germ by the union of its\npositive and negative forces.]\n\n[Footnote 58: The \"builders\" are inferior beings utilised by Nature in\nevery process of germination and development. To certain readers, this\nwill perhaps appear to be an aberration of the theosophic imagination,\nin which case we recommend them to supply us with a better theory and\nto believe in that, until the time comes when the functioning of the\n\"inner senses\" takes place in them, and enables them to perceive these\nbeings in action.]\n\n[Footnote 59: Teratological phenomena attributable to the imagination\nof the mother are so numerous that they cannot be refuted. The case\nmentioned here is taken from Van Helmont's _De Injectis Materialibus_.\nThe woman in question had been present at the decapitation of thirteen\nsoldiers, condemned to death by the Duc d'Alva. In the same work are\ntwo other instances which occurred under similar circumstances: in the\nfirst, the foetus at birth was lacking a hand; and in the second, it\nwas the whole arm that was missing; whilst, what is perhaps even\nstranger than this, neither arm, nor hand, nor head were found, they\nhad been absorbed by the body of the mother.]\n\n[Footnote 60: To be strictly logical, one should say round the only\ncentre, the one Being, but looked upon from the side of manifestation,\nevolution appears as stated.]\n\n[Footnote 61: Hellenbach, in his book, _Magie der Zahlen_, says\nregarding the number seven.\n\n\"_The law governing the phenomena on which our knowledge is based\ndecrees that the vibrations of sound and light regularly increase in\nnumber, that they are grouped in seven columns, and that the vibratory\nelements of each column have so close a relation to one another that\nnot only can it be expressed in figures, but it is even confirmed by\npractice in music and chemistry._\n\n\"_The fact that this variation and periodicity are governed by the\nnumber seven cannot be disputed; it is not a matter of chance: there\nis a cause and we ought to discover it._\"\n\nIn his table of the elements grouped according to atomic weight,\nMendelejef also acknowledges that the number seven controls what he\ncalls the _Law of periodical function_. He reaches conclusions similar\nto those of Hellenbach.\n\nDr. Laycock, in his Articles on the _Periodicity of Vital Phenomena_\n(_Lancet_) 1842, sums up as follows:--\n\n\"_It is, I think, impossible to come to any less general conclusion\nthan this, that, in animals, changes occur every 3-1/2, 7, 14, 21 or\n28 days, or at some definite period of weeks._\"]\n\n[Footnote 62: See _Man and his Bodies_, by A. Besant.]\n\n[Footnote 63: The size of the causal body varies according to its\ndevelopment. It has been named _causal_, because it contains within\nitself the causes or germs of all the other bodies, with the exception\nof the denser part of the physical. We say denser because the physical\nbody is double: its etheric part belongs to the causal body, its\nvisible part comes from the parents.]\n\n[Footnote 64: The mental body, which is, as it were, an ephemeral\nflower of the causal, is born and developed in each incarnation,\ndisintegrating after the _devachanic_ (heavenly) life.]\n\n[Footnote 65: It moves more or less freely on the astral plane,\naccording to the development of the astral body. In men of low\ndevelopment, this body cannot be separated from the physical, under\npenalty of a nightmare which brings about a waking condition.]\n\n[Footnote 66: The atoms interpenetrate in consequence of their\ndifferences of tenuity.]\n\n[Footnote 67: Later on, the centre of consciousness passes from the\nhuman to the superhuman state and ascends unceasingly until it reaches\nthe centre of the Divinity incarnate in the world.]\n\n[Footnote 68: When this centre is fixed in one of the higher bodies,\nthe buddhic for instance, the man has passed into the superhuman\nstage.]\n\n[Footnote 69: As sand, placed on a plate in a state of vibration,\nassumes varying forms.]\n\n[Footnote 70: The soul acting in the mental, the astral, and more\nespecially--in the average man--the physical body. The Individuality\nis the soul acting in the causal body.]\n\n[Footnote 71: See the diagram in the chapter on the Atom in _The\nAncient Wisdom_, by A. Besant.]\n\n[Footnote 72: We have seen that the organs formed by these tissues are\nthe special work of a particular being controlled by lofty\nIntelligences.]\n\n[Footnote 73: As the building of the body is reaching completion, the\nEgo (the Soul) begins to make use of the new instrument. It is at\nabout the age of seven years that the development of the nerve centres\nbecomes sufficiently advanced to allow of the brain receiving the\nvibrations of the soul; up to this point, the real man has scarcely\nhad any influence upon the body, although the mental projection (the\nmental body) which he has formed can express itself to a certain\nextent much earlier, from the seventh month of foetal life; up to\nthis time, the instinctive energies of the astral body alone affect\nthe embryo.]\n\n[Footnote 74: In Kamaloka (Purgatory). The desires, in purgatory,\ncannot be satisfied, because there is no physical body to express\nthem, and this causes a state of suffering which has been compared to\na burning fire. This fire burns up the passions and leaves behind only\nthe \"germs,\" which the causal body takes up and bequeaths to the\nfuture astral body. But for this providential burning away, the\npassions would exist from early childhood in the future incarnation,\n_i.e._, at a time when the Ego has no hold whatever upon the new\npersonality, and when the latter would be terribly affected by this\ninflux of the forces of evil.]\n\n[Footnote 75: Souls are of different ages: the savage is not so old as\nthe civilised man, while the latter is the younger brother of those\nstrong and wise Souls who compose the vanguard of humanity.]\n\n[Footnote 76: It is impossible for heredity and environment to supply\n_all_ the conditions that a soul's evolution calls for, and _nothing\nbut these conditions_; that is the reason Providence intervenes in the\ninterests of justice.]\n\n[Footnote 77: It is in this great body, with which we are in sympathy,\nthough we claim the right to dispute their theories when we regard\nthem as erroneous, that this hypothesis is met with more especially.\nTrue, certain schools of lower occultism teach it also, but they form\na minority, and are of no importance.]\n\n[Footnote 78: Harmony is established when there is vibratory\nsynchronism of all the states of matter of the different bodies\n_i.e._, when each slate of matter in a body vibrates in unison with\nthe analogous states of matter of all the other bodies.]\n\n[Footnote 79: When the \"life wave\" has ended its cycle on this earth,\nit passes in succession over the other planets of our chain and leaves\nthe earth in a state of slumber. This slumber ceases with the return\nof the \"life wave\"; it becomes death when the evolution of the chain\nis accomplished. See A. P. Sinnett's _Esoteric Buddhism._]\n\n[Footnote 80: At a certain stage on the _Path_, return to earth is no\nlonger obligatory.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nREINCARNATION AND THE RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHIC CONSENSUS OF THE AGES.\n\n\nIn the rapid review we are now about to make of the religion and\nphilosophy of the past, we shall find that, under many and divers\nnames and veils, the doctrine of Rebirths has been taught from the\nfarthest antiquity right up to the present time. There is not a nation\nthat has not preserved clear traces of this doctrine; not a religion\nthat has not taught it, either openly or in secret, or, at all events,\nretained the germ of the teaching; and if we count only those peoples\nof whose national religion it forms part, _i.e._, Hindus and\nBuddhists, the number of believers in Reincarnation may be summed up\nin round figures at 540 millions of the present population of 1400\nmillions throughout the world. The greatest of philosophers, both\nancient and modern, have regarded palingenesis as the basis of life,\nbut whereas in the past the pledge of initiation prevented its\ndetails from being promulgated, in our days, along with the flood of\nlight which this cycle has brought us, the veil of secrecy has been\npartially lifted, and theosophy has been privileged to set forth this\nglorious teaching in its main outlines and its most important details.\n\n\nINDIA.\n\nNorthern India was the cradle of the present race--the fifth--the Eden\nof our humanity, our physical, moral, mental, and spiritual\nmother.[81] From her womb issued the emigrant hordes that peopled\nEurope after spreading over Egypt, Asia Minor, and Siberia; it was her\ncode of ethics that civilised Chaldaea, Greece, Rome, and the whole of\nthe East; our own code is full of traces of the Laws of Manu, whilst\nboth the Old and New Testament are, in many respects, an abridged and\noften almost a literal copy of the sacred Books of ancient Aryavarta.\n\nThe presence of the doctrine of reincarnation in the Vedic hymns has\nbeen disputed; this proves nothing more than the present fragmentary\ncondition of the Vedas. Nothing, indeed, could be more absurd than to\nfind that the sacred Scriptures of India had maintained silence on a\ndoctrine which, along with that of Karma, form the two main columns of\nthe Hindu temple; for the Brahman as well as for the Buddhist--who is\nonly a member of a powerful offshoot of Hinduism--these two laws rule\nthroughout the whole Universe, from the primordial kingdoms up to the\ngods, including man; and the principal, nay, the only goal of human\nlife is Moksha--salvation, in Christian terminology--liberation from\nthe chain of rebirths.\n\nIn this land, in which, along with strict obedience to the rules of\nconduct set forth by its great Teachers, there existed the most\ncomplete freedom of opinion, and where the most divergent and numerous\nphilosophic sects consequently developed, there has always been\nperfect unanimity regarding the doctrine of rebirth, and in that\ninextricable forest of metaphysical speculations two giant trees have\nalways overtopped the rest: the tree of Karma and the tree of\nReincarnation.\n\nIn spite of the intentional obscurity in which we are left as to the\nteachings regarding rebirth from the time of the decadence of India,\nit is no difficult matter, with the aid of theosophy, to discover its\nmain points. Thus we find in them the return of the \"life-atoms\"[82]\nand animal souls[83] to existence in new physical bodies; the rebirths\nof the human Egos are indicated in their main phases; but here, the\ndeliberate omission of certain points which had long to remain\nincomprehensible--and consequently dangerous--to the masses, makes\nobscure, and at times absurd, certain aspects of transmigration. I\nhave heard a great Teacher clearly explain these points to some of the\nmost enlightened of the Hindu members of the Theosophical Society, but\nI do not feel authorised to repeat these explanations, and so will\nleave this portion of the subject under a veil, which the reader will,\nwith the aid of intuition, be able to lift after reflecting on the\nfollowing pages.\n\nThe Sages of ancient India, then, teach three distinct phases in the\nreturn-to-birth process: Resurrection, Transmigration or\nMetempsychosis and Reincarnation properly so-called.\n\n\nRESURRECTION.\n\nThe human body is a species of polyp colony, a kind of coral island\nlike those that emerge above the waves of the Pacific, by reason of\nthe collective efforts of lower organisms.\n\nThe most numerous of the compounds of the human aggregate are known to\nphysiology as microbes, bacteria, and bacilli; but amongst them our\nmicroscopes discover only comparative monsters, \"those that are to the\nordinary infinitesimal organisms as the elephant is to the invisible\ninfusorium.\"[84]\n\nEach cell is a complete being; its soul is a vital ray of the general\nlife of our planet; its body consists of molecules that are attracted\nand then repelled, whilst the cellular soul remains immutable in the\nceaseless fluctuations of its corporeal elements.\n\nThe molecules, too, are animated by a vital soul, connected with the\ncellular soul, which, in turn, is subordinate to a higher[85] unit of\nthe collective life of the human body.\n\nThe most infinitesimal of these beings--often called\n\"lives\"--penetrate the body freely; they circulate in the aura[86] and\nin each plexus of the organism; there they are subjected to the\nincessant impact of the moral, menial, and spiritual forces, and\nbecome impregnated with a spirit of good or of evil, as the case may\nbe. They enter the cells and leave them with intense rapidity, for\ntheir cycles of activity as well as of passivity are being incessantly\nrepeated.\n\nWe are all the time emanating millions of \"lives,\" which are at once\ndrawn into the different kingdoms of Nature to which they carry the\nenergies they have gathered in us; they impress on their new organisms\nthe tendencies we have given them, and in this way become ferments of\nregeneration or of decay; they aid or retard, pollute or purify, and\nit is for this reason that it is not a matter of indifference whether\none lives in town or country, with men or animals, the temperate or\nthe intemperate, the wicked or the good. The animal gains from\nassociation with human beings, man loses from association with\nanimals; the disciples of the great schools of initiation, at a\ncertain stage of their discipline, are carefully isolated from any\ninferior contact.\n\nIt is these subtle forces that are at play in the physical\naccomplishment of an action.[87] \"For material sins,\" says Manu,\n\"one[88] passes into mineral and vegetable forms.\" When, at death,\nthe outer sheath of man disintegrates, these \"life atoms\" are thrown\nback into the general surroundings of the earth, where they are\nsubjected to the magnetic currents around; these currents either\nattract or repel them, and thus bring about that wise selection, which\ndirects them to organisms in affinity with them.\n\nThe doctrine of metempsychosis[89] is true only for the atoms or\nemanations sent out by man after death or during the whole course of\nlife. The hidden meaning of the passage from Manu, where we read that\n\"he who slays a Brahman enters into the body of a dog, a bear, an ass,\na camel, &c.,\" does not apply to the human Ego, but only to the atoms\nof his body, _i.e._, to the lower triad[90] and its fluidic\nemanations, as H. P. Blavatsky says, and she adds:\n\n\"The Hina-yana, the lowest form of transmigration of the Buddhist, is\nas little comprehended as the Maha-yana, its highest form, and,\nbecause Sakya Muni--the Buddha--is shown to have once remarked to his\nBhikkus--Buddhist monks--while pointing out to them a broom, that it\nhad formerly been a novice who neglected to sweep out the Council\nroom, hence was reborn as a broom,(!) therefore the wisest of all the\nworld's sages stands accused of idiotic superstition. Why not try and\nunderstand the true meaning of the figurative statement before\ncriticising? Is or is not that which is called magnetic effluvia a\nsomething, a stuff or a substance, invisible and imponderable though\nit be?... The mesmeric or magnetic fluid which emanates from man to\nman, or even from man to what is termed an inanimate object, is far\ngreater. Indeed, it is 'life atoms' that a man in a blind passion\nthrows off unconsciously. Let any man give way to any intense feeling\nsuch as anger, grief, &c., under or near a tree, or in direct contact\nwith a stone, and many thousands of years after that any tolerable\npsychometrist will see the man and sense his feelings from one single\nfragment of that tree or stone that he has touched. Why then should\nnot a broom, made of a shrub, which grew most likely in the vicinity\nof the building where the lazy novice lived--a shrub, perhaps,\nrepeatedly touched by him while in a state of anger, provoked by his\nlaziness and distaste of his duty--why should not a quantity of his\nlife atoms have passed into the materials of the future broom, and\ntherein have been recognised by Buddha owing to his superhuman (not\nsupernatural) powers?\"[91]\n\nSuch is the meaning of the Resurrection of the body, taught in the\nChristian church in a form that is repellent to reason, for it kills\nthe spirit of the doctrine and leaves this latter like a corpse from\nwhich the life has gone.\n\n\nMETEMPSYCHOSIS.\n\nAfter the disintegration of the body, the kamic[92] elements continue\nfor some time, us a \"shade\"[93] or a \"phantom,\"[94] in the finer and\ninvisible atmosphere;[95] then they, in turn, become disintegrated by\nthe various forces of this environment,[96] and are lost in the strata\nof matter from which they have been taken. Like the physical elements\n(_life-atoms_), they whirl about in their environment and there submit\nto the same law of attraction and repulsion as that which controls\nuniversal selection; they are drawn towards the kamic elements of men\nand animals, and it is here that we ought to place the list of those\nmisdeeds, by reason of which these elements pass into bodies of\nanimals or men of inferior development. \"A drunken priest becomes a\nworm,\" says Manu, \"a stealer of corn, a rat; the murderer of a\nBrahman, a dog, a tiger, or a serpent\"--and this means that those\nelements which, in man, serve as a basis for the passions, at death,\npass over into the bodies of animals that possess the same passions or\nexperience the same needs.\n\nThe transmigration of human souls into the bodies of animals is still\ngenerally accepted amongst the less intelligent Hindus; it has\ncontributed, perhaps more than anything else, to that wonderful\nrespect for life one meets with all over India. The thought that some\nancestor or other might happen to be in the body of an animal prevents\nits destruction; even the sacrifice of his life offered by a man to\none of his brothers in the animal world is regarded as a sublime\nvirtue, and legend tells us of the Buddha, the Lord of Compassion,\ngiving himself up as food for a famishing tigress, that she and her\ncubs might not perish of hunger.\n\n\nREINCARNATION.\n\nThe process of disintegration[97] which, after disincarnation,\ndestroys the physical, astral, and mental bodies of the man leaves\nthe Soul--or, to be more exact, the causal body, for the soul is not\nthe causal body any more than it is any of the other human\nvehicles--intact. Indeed, the causal body is at present the only\nvehicle that resists the cyclic dissolution of the human compound;\nthis it will be subjected to only when the divine spark which\nconstitutes the Soul--an eternal spark in its essence, since it is a\nfragment of God, and immortal as an \"ego,\" once it has attained to\nindividualisation, the goal of evolution--has formed for itself a new\nand superior body with the substance of the finer planes above the\nmental; but ages will pass before the masses of mankind reach this\npoint.\n\nAfter thus throwing off, one after the other, all its sheaths, the Ego\nfinds that it has ended a \"life-cycle,\" and is preparing to put on new\nbodies, to return to reincarnation on earth. On Reincarnation properly\nso called, the Hindu scriptures are so precise and complete, so\ngenerally accepted, than it is unnecessary to quote from them in\ndetail. A few extracts will suffice.\n\nThese we will take from the _Bhagavad Gita_, that glorious episode in\nthe mighty civil war which shattered India, and left her defenceless\nagainst the successive invaders who were to complete her fall. This\ngreat epic poem introduces to us Arjuna, a noble prince, about to take\npart in the strife. The two armies, arrayed for battle, are on the\npoint of engaging, arrows have already begun to pierce the air. In the\nopposing ranks Arjuna sees cherished relatives, dear friends, and\nrevered teachers, whom destiny has placed in hostile array, thus\ngiving to the battle all the horrors of parricide and fratricide.\nOverwhelmed with grief and pity, his heart moved to its inmost depths,\nArjuna drops his bow on the ground and thus addresses his Teacher, the\ndivine Krishna:\n\n\"Seeing these my kinsmen arrayed, O Krishna, eager to fight,\n\n\"My limbs fail and my mouth is parched, my body quivers and my hair\nstands on end.\n\n\"Gandiva (Arjuna's bow) slips from my hand, and my skin burns all\nover; I am not able to stand, and my mind is whirling.\n\n\"And I see adverse omens, O Keshava (hairy one). Nor do I foresee\nadvantage by slaying kinsmen in battle.\n\n\"For I desire not victory, O Krishna, nor kingship nor pleasures; what\nis kingship to us, O Govinda (Thou who knowest all that is done by our\nsenses and organs), what enjoyment or even life?\n\n\"Those for whose sake we desire kingship, enjoyments, and pleasures,\nthey stand here in battle, abandoning life and riches.\n\n\"Teachers, fathers, sons, as well as grandfathers, mothers' brothers,\nfathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, and other relatives.\n\n\"These I do not wish to kill, though (myself) slain, O Madhusudana\n(slayer of Madhu, a demon), even for the sake of the kingship of the\nthree worlds (the habitations of men, gods, and semi-divine beings);\nhow then for earth?\n\n... \"I will not do battle.\"\n\nThe divine Krishna then smiled upon his well-beloved disciple, and\nsaid to him:\n\n\"Thou grievest for those that should not be grieved for, and speakest\nwords of wisdom (words that sound wise but miss the deeper sense of\nwisdom). The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead.\n\n\"Nor at any time verily was I not, nor thou, nor these princes of men,\nnor verily shall we ever cease to be hereafter.\n\n\"As the Dweller in the body seeketh in the body childhood, youth, and\nold age, so passeth he on to another body; the well-balanced grieve\nnot thereat....\n\n\"These bodies of the Embodied One, who is eternal, indestructible, and\nboundless, are known as finite. Therefore fight, O Bharata.\n\n\"He who regardeth This (the Dweller in the body) as a slayer, and he\nwho thinketh it is slain, both of them are ignorant. It slayeth not,\nnor is it slain....\n\n\"Who knoweth It indestructible, perpetual, unborn, undiminishing; how\ncan that man slay, O Partha, or cause to be slain?\n\n\"As a man casting off worn-out garments, taketh new ones, so the\nDweller in the body, casting off worn-out bodies, entereth into others\nthat are new.\n\n\"Weapons cleave It not, nor fire burneth It, nor waters wet It, nor\nwind drieth It away....\n\n\"Further, looking upon thine own Dharma,[98] thou shouldst not\ntremble, for there is nothing more welcome to a Kshattriya than\nrighteous war.\"\n\nHere are other extracts of this wonderful teaching:\n\n\"Many births have been left behind by Me and by thee, O Arjuna. I know\nthem all, but thou knowest not thine, Parantapa.\"\n\n\"He who thus knoweth My divine birth and action, in its essence, is\nnot born again, having abandoned the body, but he cometh unto Me, O\nArjuna.\"\n\n\"Having attained to the worlds of the pure-doing, and having dwelt\nthere for eternal years, he who fell from Yoga is reborn in a pure and\nblessed house.... There he obtaineth the complete yogic wisdom\nbelonging to his former body, and then again laboureth for perfection,\nO joy of the Kurus!\"\n\n\"But the Yogi, verily, labouring with assiduity, purified from sin,\nfully perfected through manifold births, he treadeth the supreme\nPath.... He who cometh unto Me, O Kaunteya, verily he knoweth birth no\nmore.\"\n\nThe daily life of Hindu and Buddhist is so entirely based on\nReincarnation and on its foundation, the law of Causality, that this\nfaith gives them patience in the present and hope for the future; for\nit teaches that man, every moment he lives, is subject to the\ncircumstances he has created, and that, though bound by the past, he\nis yet master of the future.\n\nWhy cannot we, in this troubled Europe of ours, accept this belief as\nthe solution of the distressing problem of the inequality of\nconditions, for to the weak in rebellion against oppression it would\ncome as a soothing balm, whilst the strong would find in it a stimulus\nto devoted pity such as wealth owes to poverty and happiness to\nmisfortune? Herein lies the solution of the whole social problem.\n\n\nEGYPT.\n\nIf we pass from India to Egypt, the land of mystery, we again find the\nworld-wide doctrine of palingenesis hidden beneath the same veil.\n\nAccording to Egyptian teaching, the theory of the \"fall of the angels\"\nwas accepted; the fallen angels were human souls[99] who had to become\nreincarnated till they reached a state of purification; fallen into\nthe flesh, subjected to its vicissitudes and passions, these souls had\nto evolve, in successive rebirths, until they had developed all their\nfaculties, obtained complete control over the lower nature, and won\nback their original purity; then this latter would no longer be the\nunconscious purity of youthful innocence, but the conscious purity of\nmature age, _i.e._, of the soul that has known both good and evil in\nthe course of its experiences, has overcome the serpent of matter, the\ntempter, and voluntarily chosen the life of virtue.\n\nThe \"Judgment\" of the after-life is determined by the degree of\npurity that has been attained; if insufficient, the soul returns to\nearth, there to inhabit a human, an animal, or a vegetable form, in\naccordance with its merits or demerits.\n\nThese lines prove that Egyptian teaching has come down to us, covered\nwith gross dross and slag, as it were, which must be subjected to\ncareful sifting; when this is done, we see that it also sets forth the\ntransmigrations to which the elements of the various vehicles are\nsubjected,[100] the physical ternary[101] rises from the dead, the\nanimal man[102] transmigrates; and man, properly so-called,[103]\nreincarnates, but the details of these processes have been so confused\nin such fragments of Egyptian palingenesis as we possess that it is no\neasy matter to find the traces of this classification.\n\nFor instance. Herodotus tells us:\n\n\"The Egyptians were the first to hold the opinion that the soul of man\nis immortal and that when the body dies it enters into the form of an\nanimal which is born at the moment, thence, passing on from one animal\ninto another until it has circled through the forms of all the\ncreatures which tenant the earth, the water, and the air, after which\nit enters again into a human form and is born anew. The whole period\nof the transmigration is (they say) three thousand years.\"[104]\n\nThis passage evidently refers to the resurrection of the \"life atoms.\"\nH. P. Blavatsky, in the _Theosophist_, vol. 4, pages 244, 286,\nconfirms this in the following words:\n\n\"We are taught that for 3000 years, at least, the 'mummy,'\nnotwithstanding all the chemical preparations, goes on throwing off to\nthe last invisible atoms, which, from the hour of death, re-entering\nthe various vortices of being, go indeed 'through every variety of\norganised life forms.' But it is not the soul, the fifth,[105] least\nof all, the sixth[106] principle, but the life atoms of the Jiva,[107]\nthe second principle. At the end of the three thousand years,\nsometimes more, sometimes less, after endless transmigrations, all\nthese atoms are once more drawn together, and are made to form the new\nouter clothing or the body of the same monad (the real soul) which\nthey had already been clothed with two or three thousands of years\nbefore. Even in the worst case, that of the annihilation of the\nconscious personal principle,[108] the monad, or individual\nsoul,[109] is ever the same, as are also the atoms of the lower\nprinciples,[110] which, regenerated and renewed in this ever-flowing\nriver of being, are magnetically drawn together owing to their\naffinity and are once more reincarnated together....\"\n\nCertain authors have stated that belief in Resurrection was the origin\nof embalming, because it was thought that after three thousand years\nthe soul returned to the same body, that it immediately rose again,\nwhen the body had been preserved, whereas if such had not been the\ncase, it entered wherever it could, sometimes even into the body of a\nlower creature. Herodotus, however, says that after the cycle of three\nthousand years the soul enters a new body, not the mummified\none,[111] and this would lead one to imagine that there were other\nreasons for the process of embalming. Indeed, it became general only\nduring the decline of Egypt; at the beginning, it was reserved for the\nhierophants alone, with the object of allowing their physical\nmolecular elements to pass into the still coarse bodies of the masses\nand help forward ordinary souls by the powerful influence of the\nmagnetic potency with which they were charged. It is also for this\nreason that the body of a Yogi, in India, is interred, whilst in the\ncase of other men cremation is the rule.\n\nOn the other hand, among the multitude of beliefs left in Egypt by\ndegenerate traditions, there were found some which hinted, more or\nless clearly, at occult truths, and which might have perpetuated or\ngeneralised this practice. It was supposed, according to Servius, that\nthe transmigrations[112] began only when the magnetic bond between the\nsoul and its remains had been broken by the complete disintegration of\nthe corpse; consequently they did all in their power to preserve this\nlatter.\n\nThis belief may readily be connected with theosophic teaching which\nsays that the affinity existing between the visible corpse and the\nsoul clad in its kamic (astral) body, the animal soul in Kamaloka\n(Purgatory), is capable, in certain cases, of detaining this soul on\nearth, after its disincarnation, and thus delaying, for a longer or\nshorter period, the disintegration of the elements of the passional\nbody. It is these elements, not the soul, that pass over into animal\nbodies, and, contrary to the opinions set forth in Egyptian\nexotericism, it is to the interest of the soul to free itself from\nterrestrial attraction and from its kamic (astral) vehicle, and not to\nremain bound down to earth. Consequently, embalming was a mistaken\naction, the result of an error of doctrine, or at all events of\nteachings that were incomplete, imperfectly transmitted, and\nmisunderstood.\n\nEgypt multiplied her symbols of palingenesis. Resurrection--in the\nsense of re-birth in general--was symbolised by the toad which then\nbecame the goddess Hiquet. This animal was chosen because it lives in\nair and in water,[113] because it can remain imprisoned a very great\nnumber of years without either air or food[114] and afterwards come\nback to life. G. Maspero, in his _Guide du Visiteur au Musee de\nBoulac_, tells us that the early Christians in Egypt had adopted this\nsymbolism, and that the lamps in their churches were formed in the\nshape of a toad, and bore the inscription, \"I am the Resurrection,\" in\nthe Greek language. This goddess-toad may still be seen in the museum\nof Boulac.\n\nThe Scarabeus, or beetle,[115] symbolised the \"personality,\" the\nexpansion of the mental substance, projected, so to speak, by the\nhigher mental body, at each incarnation, into the new kamic (astral)\nbody; a certain number of them were always deposited with the mummies,\nand the beetle was represented standing on an ear of corn, a symbol of\nthe attainments acquired during the past earth life. Indeed, the\ndevelopment of the Ego is effected by that of the personality it sends\non to the earth each incarnation; it is the new mental body which\ncontrols the new astral and physical bodies of each incarnation, and\nwhich is, in very truth, the flower and the fruit of the labour of\nlife.\n\nSacred Egyptology tells us that the scarabeus requires to be\n\"osirified,\" united to its \"living soul,\" or Ego, which sent it forth.\nI will now give the reason for this emanation.\n\nWhen, after disincarnation, the purgatorial life begins, the Ego\nendeavours to throw off the kamic (astral) body, to pass into the\nhigher world--the mental plane--which is its home, there to enjoy the\ndelights of heaven. Thereupon a veritable battle begins. On the one\nhand, the Ego endeavours to withdraw the mental body, which, at the\nbeginning of the incarnation, it sent into the kamic body, and to take\nit to itself; on the other hand, the passional body[116]--which\ninstinctively feels its life bound to that of the mental element,\nwhich gives it its strength, vital activity, and personal\ncharacteristics--tries to keep back this centre of individual life,\nand generally succeeds in doing so up to a certain point. When desire,\nduring incarnation, has regularly gained the victory over the will,\nthe passional body, or Kama, maintains the supremacy beyond the grave,\nand the Ego, in endeavouring to rescue its mental projection from the\nkamic bonds, yields up a more or less considerable fragment thereof,\nand this fragment is restored to liberty only when the passional body\nof the deceased has become disintegrated by the forces of the astral\nworld. This has been called the _fire_ of purgatory.\n\nOn the other hand, when the Ego, during life, has always refused the\nappeals of the lower nature, it easily withdraws, after death, from\nthe net of passion, the substance it has infused therein, and passes\nwith this substance into that part of the mental plane which is called\n\"heaven.\"\n\nSuch is the struggle that Egypt committed to her annals when she\ninscribed upon papyrus or engraved upon stone the journeyings of the\nsoul into the world of shades. The soul--the mental personality--which\ndemands \"osirification,\" and invokes the Ego, its god and projector,\nbeseeching him to draw it to himself that it may live with him, is the\nlower \"I.\" This \"I\" has not exhausted the \"desire to live\" on earth;\nits desire is impressed on the germs it has left in the causal body,\nand brings the Ego back to incarnation; this is the reason it prays\nand desires the resurrection[117] of its \"living soul,\" the Ego.\nDenon, in his _Journeyings in Egypt_, has made known to us the Sha-En\n(the book of metamorphoses), written in hieratic signs and republished\nin Berlin, by Brugsch, in the year 1851. Explicit mention is here made\nof reincarnations, and it is stated that they are very numerous.\n\nThe third part of the _Book of the Dead_ sets forth a detailed account\nof the resurrection of an Osiris; the identification of the departed\none with Osiris, God of Light, and his sharing in the life, deeds, and\npower of the God; in a word, it is the final reintegration of the\nhuman soul with God.\n\nThe loftiest and most suggestive of Egyptian palingenetic symbols is\nunquestionably that of the egg. The deceased is \"resplendent in the egg\nin the land of mysteries.\" In Kircher's _Oedipus Egyptiacus_[118] we\nhave an egg--the Ego freed from its vehicles--floating over the mummy;\nthis is the symbol of hope and the promise of a new birth to the soul,\nafter gestation in the egg of immortality.[119]\n\nThe \"winged globe,\" so widely known in Egypt, is egg-shaped, and has\nthe same meaning; its wings indicate its divine nature and prevent it\nfrom being confused with the physical germ. \"Easter eggs\" which are\noffered in spring, at the rebirth of Nature, commemorate this ancient\nsymbol of eternal Life in its successive phases of disincarnation and\nrebirth.\n\n\nCHALDAEA.\n\nIt is said that the Magi taught the immortality of the soul and its\nreincarnations, but that they considerably limited the number of\nthese latter, in the belief that purification was effected after a\nrestricted number of existences on the soul returning to its heavenly\nabode.\n\nUnfortunately we know nothing definite on this special point in\nChaldaean teaching, for some of the most important sources of\ninformation were destroyed when the library of Persepolis was burnt by\nthe Macedonian vandal, Alexander the Great, whilst Eusebius--whom\nBunsen criticises so harshly[120]--made such great alterations in the\nmanuscripts of Berosus, that we have nothing to proceed upon beyond a\nfew disfigured fragments.[121] And yet Chaldaeism comprises a great\nmass of teachings; he whom we know as \"the divine Zoroaster\" had been\npreceded by twelve others, and esoteric doctrine was as well known in\nChaldaea as in Egypt.\n\nThe descendants of the Chaldaeans--Fire-worshippers, Mazdeans, Magi,\nParsees--according to the names they received at different\nperiods--have preserved the main points of palingenetic instruction up\nto the present, and, from time to time, have set them forth in the\nmost charming style of Oriental poetry. Book 4 of the great Persian\npoem, _Masnavi i Ma'navi_, deals with evolution and its corollary,\nreincarnation, stating that there is one way of remembering past\nexistences, and that is by attaining to spiritual illumination, which\nis the crown of human evolution and brings the soul to the threshold\nof divinity.\n\n\"If your purified soul succeeds in escaping from the sea of ignorance,\nit will see, with eyes now opened, 'the beginning' and 'the end.' Man\nfirst appeared in the order of inorganic things; next, he passed\ntherefrom into that of plants, for years he lived as one of the\nplants, remembering naught of his inorganic state, so different from\nthis, and when he passed from the vegetable to the animal state he had\nno remembrance of his state as a plant.... Again the great Creator, as\nyou know, drew man out of the animal into the human state. Thus man\npassed from one order of nature to another, till he became wise and\nintelligent and strong as he is now. Of his first soul he has now no\nremembrance, and he will be again changed from his present soul. In\norder to escape from his present soul, full of lusts, he must rise to\na thousand higher degrees of intelligence.\n\n\"Though man fell asleep and forgot his previous states, yet God will\nnot leave him in this self-forgetfulness; and then he will laugh at\nhis own former state, saying: 'What mattered my experiences when\nasleep, when I had forgotten the real state of things, and knew not\nthat the grief and ills I experienced were the effect of sleep and\nillusion and fancy?'\"\n\nThese lines are concise, but they sum up the whole of evolution, and\nrender it unnecessary to quote at greater length from Chaldaean\ntradition on this point. Still, those who desire other passages\nrelating to the same doctrine may find them in the \"Desatir.\"[122]\n\n\nTHE CELTS.\n\nSacerdotal India--and perhaps also Atlantis--in early times sent\npioneers into the West to spread religious teachings amongst their\nenergetic inhabitants; those who settled in Gaul and the British Isles\nwere the Druids. \"I am a serpent, a druid,\" they said. This sentence\nproves that they were priests, and also the Atlantaean or Indian origin\nof their doctrines; for the serpent was the symbol of initiation in\nthe sacred mysteries of India, as also on the continent of Atlantis.\n\nWe know little of their teaching, which was entirely oral, though it\ncovered so much ground that, according to Caesar, not less than thirty\nyears of study were needed to become a druid. The Roman conquest\ndispersed them by degrees; then it was that their disciples, the\nbards, committed to writing more or less imperfect and mutilated\nfragments of the teachings of their masters. Their \"triads\"[123] are\nundoubtedly akin to Hindu teachings; Evolution results from the\nmanifestation of the Absolute, it culminates in man, who possesses a\nmaximum of individualisation, and terminates in the personal,\nconscious union of the beings thus created with the ineffable All.\n\nThe Absolute is \"Ceugant\"; manifestation, or the Universe, is \"Abred\";\nthe divine state of freed souls is in \"Gwynvyd\"; these are in the\nthree circles.[124]\n\nIn \"Ceugant\" there is only the Unknowable, the rootless Root. Souls\nare born and develop in \"Abred,\" passing into the different kingdoms;\n\"Amwn\" is the state through which beings pass only once, which means\nthat the \"I,\" when once gained, continues for ever. \"Gwynvyd\" is the\nworld of perfect and liberated souls, eternal Heaven, great Nirvana.\n\nDuring this long pilgrimage, the Monad--the divine fragment in a state\nof incarnation--undergoes an endless number of rebirths, in myriads of\nbodies.\n\n\"I have been a viper in the lake,\" said Taliesin, the bard[125]; \"a\nspotted adder on the mountain, a star, a priest. This was long, long\nago; since then, I have slept in a hundred worlds, revolved in a\nhundred circles.\"\n\nIt was their faith in rebirth that gave the Gauls their indomitable\ncourage and extraordinary contempt of death:\n\n\"One of their principal teachings,\" said Caesar,[126] \"is that the soul\ndoes not die, but passes at death into another body--and this they\nregard as very favourable for the encouragement of valour and for\ninculcating scorn of death.\"\n\nUp to a few years ago, belief in the return of the soul to earth was\nstill prevalent in those parts of Brittany in which civilisation had\nnot yet exercised its sceptical, materialising influence; there even\nexisted druids--probably degenerate ones--in Great Britain and France;\nin the Saone-et-Loire district, they seem to have been called the\n\"Adepts of the White Religion\"[127]; both in them and in their\nancestors, belief in rebirth remained unshakable.\n\n\nANCIENT GREECE (_Magna Graecia_).\n\nIn Greece, the doctrine of Rebirths is met with in the Orphic\ntradition, continued by Pythagoras and Plato. Up to the present time,\nthis tradition has probably found its best interpreter in Mr. G. R.\n\nS. Mead, an eminent theosophist and a scholar of the first rank. We\nrecommend our readers to study his _Orpheus_, if they desire a\ndetailed account of this tradition.\n\nIts origins are lost in antiquity, only a few obscure shreds\nremaining; Pherecydes, however,[128] when speaking of the immortality\nof the soul, refers to the doctrine of Rebirths; it is also presented\nvery clearly by both Pythagoras and Plato.\n\nAccording to the Pythagorean teaching, the human soul emanates from\nthe Soul of the World, thus affirming, at the outset, the divine\nnature of the former. It teaches subsequently that this soul assumes\nsuccessive bodies until it has fully evolved and completed the \"Cycle\nof Necessity.\"[129]\n\nPythagoras, according to Diogenes of Laertius,[130] was the first in\nGreece to teach the doctrine of the return of souls to earth. He gave\nhis disciples various details of his past lives; he appears to have\nbeen the initiate Oethalides, in the times of the Argonauts; then,\nalmost immediately afterwards, Euphorbus, who was slain by Menelaus at\nthe siege of Troy; again he was Hermotimus of Clazomenae, who, in the\ntemple of Juno at Argos,[131] recognised the shield he was carrying\nwhen his body was slain as Euphorbus, and which Menelaus had given as\nan offering to the goddess[132]; at a later date he was Pyrrhus, a\nfisherman of Delos, and, finally, Pythagoras.\n\nIn all likelihood this genealogy is not correct in every detail, it\ncomes to us from the disciples of the sage of Samos, who were not very\ntrustworthy in their reports.\n\nEmpedocles, one of the early disciples of Pythagoras, said that he\ninhabited a female body in his preceding existence. Saint Clement of\nAlexandria quotes a few lines of his, in which we find the philosopher\nof Agrigentum teaching the general evolution of forms.\n\n\"I, too, have been a boy, a maiden, a star, a bird, a mute fish in the\ndepths of the sea.\"\n\nIarchas, the Brahman chieftain, said to the great Apollonius:\n\n\"In bygone ages thou wert Ganga, the famous monarch, and, at a later\ndate, captain of an Egyptian vessel.\"[133]\n\nThe Emperor Julian said that he had been Alexander the Great.[134]\nProclus affirmed that he had been Nichomachus the Pythagorean.[135]\n\nThe works of Plato are full of the idea of rebirth, and if the\nscattered fragments of the teaching are gathered together and\nillumined with the torch of theosophy, a very satisfactory _ensemble_\nwill be the result.\n\nSouls are older than bodies, he says in _Phaedo_; they are ever being\nborn again from _Hades_ and returning to life on earth; each man has\nhis daimon,[136] who follows him throughout his existences, and at\ndeath takes him to the lower world[137] for Judgment.[138] Many souls\nenter Acheron,[139] and, after a longer or shorter period, return to\nearth to be incarnated in new bodies. Unpardonable sins fling the soul\ninto Tartarus.[140]\n\n\"Know that if you become worse you will go to the worse souls, or if\nbetter to the better, and in every succession of life and death you\nwill do and suffer what like may fitly suffer at the hands of\nlike....\"[141]\n\nAccording to Plato, the period between two incarnations is about a\nthousand years.[142] Man has reminiscences of his past lives that are\nmore or less distinct; they are manifested rather by an intuitive\nimpression than by a definite memory, but they form part of the\nindividual,[143] and at times influence him strongly. \"Innate ideas\"\nare only one aspect of memory, often it is impossible to explain them\nby heredity, education, or environment; they are attainments of the\npast, the store which the soul takes with it through its incarnations,\nwhich it adds to during each sojourn in heaven.\n\nThere can be no doubt that Plato would appear to have taught\nmetempsychosis, _i.e._, the possibility of a human soul passing into\nthe body of an animal:\n\n\"Men who have followed after gluttony and wantonness and drunkenness,\nand have had no thought of avoiding them, would pass into asses and\nanimals of that sort. And those who have chosen the portion of\ninjustice and tyranny and violence will pass into wolves or hawks or\nkites, and there is no difficulty in assigning to all of them places\naccording to their several natures and propensities.\"[144]\n\nUnder the heading of _Neoplatonism_, we shall show that, beneath these\ncoarse symbols, Plato concealed truths which it was then necessary to\nkeep profoundly secret; which, even nowadays, it is not permitted to\nreveal to all.\n\n\nOLD TESTAMENT.\n\nH. P. Blavatsky tells us that the _Old Testament_ is not a homogeneous\ncomposition; that _Genesis_ alone is of immense antiquity; that it is\nprior to the time when the Libra of the Zodiac was invented by the\nGreeks, for it has been noticed that the chapters containing the\ngenealogies have been touched up so as to adapt them to the new\nzodiac, and this is the reason that the rabbis who compiled them twice\nrepeated the names of Enoch and Lamech in the Cain list. The other\nparts seem to be of a comparatively recent date and to have been\ncompleted about 150 B.C.\n\nThe first part of the _Book of God_--as the Scriptures were then\ncalled--was written by Hilkiah, jointly with the prophetess Huldah; this\ndisappeared at a later date, and Ezra had to begin a new one which was\nfinished by Judas Maccabaeus. This was recopied some time after, with the\nobject of changing the pointed letters into square ones, and in this way\nwas quite disfigured. The Masoretes ended by mutilating it completely.\nThe result is that the text we now possess is one not more than nine\nhundred years old, bristling with premeditated omissions,\ninterpolations, and perverted interpretations.[145]\n\nBy the side of this initial difficulty we find another, quite as\nimportant. Almost every page of the _Old Testament_ contains veiled\nmeanings and allegories, as is frankly confessed by the rabbis\nthemselves.\n\n\"We ought not to take literally that which is written in the story of\nthe Creation, nor entertain the same ideas of it as are held by the\nvulgar. If it were otherwise, our ancient sages would not have taken\nso much pains to conceal the sense, and to keep before the eyes of the\nuninstructed the veil of allegory which conceals the truth it\ncontains....\"[146]\n\nDoes not Saint Paul, speaking of the hidden meaning of the Bible, say\nthat Agar is Mount Sinai?[147] Origen and Saint Augustine are of the\nopinion that the _Old Testament_ must be regarded as symbolical, as\notherwise it would be immoral; the Jewish law forbade anyone to read\nit who had not attained the age of thirty years; Fenelon would have\nliked it to be thrust away in the recesses of the most secret\nlibraries; the Cardinal de Noailles says that Origen, so full of zeal\non behalf of the Holy Scriptures, would not allow anyone to read the\n_Old Testament_, unless he were firmly anchored in the practice of a\nvirtuous life; he affirms too that Saint Basilius, in a letter to\nChilon, the monk, stated that the reading of it often had a harmful\ninfluence; for the same reasons, the _Index expurgatorius_ forbids the\npublication of the Bible in the vulgar tongue, and orders that no one\nbe allowed to read it without the written permission of his\nconfessor.[148]\n\nA third difficulty arises from the fact that the Old Testament--its dead\n\"letter\" and its commandments, at all events--is no longer suitable to\nour own race. It was intended for a nation that was composed of young\nsouls, at a low stage of evolution, for whom nothing more than the\nrudiments of instruction were necessary, and on whom stern rules of\nmorality, suitable for advanced souls, ought not to be imposed. This is\nwhy divorce,[149] polygamy,[150] slavery,[151] retaliation, _lex\ntalionis_,[152] the blood of sacrifice[153] are instituted; it is the\nreason God is represented as a being to be dreaded, punishing those who\ndo not obey him, wicked, jealous, bloodthirsty.[154] Bossuet understood\nall this when he said that the primitive Hebrew race was not\nsufficiently advanced to have the immortality of the soul taught to it.\nThis, too, is the only explanation we can find for the sensual\nmaterialism of _Ecclesiastes_.[155]\n\nConsequently one need not be astonished to find that the Old Testament\nnowhere deals--directly, at all events--with the doctrine of Rebirth.\n\nAll the same, here and there we come across a few passages that point\nin this direction. For instance, we read in _Genesis_, chapter 25,\nregarding the birth of Jacob and Esau:\n\n\"And the children (of Rebecca) struggled together within her.\n\n\"And the Lord said unto her: Two nations are in thy womb, and two\nmanner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one\npeople shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall\nserve the younger.\n\n\"And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold there were\ntwins in her womb.\"\n\nThis passage has been the occasion of lengthy commentaries on the part\nof certain Fathers of the Church--more especially of Origen. Indeed,\neither we must acknowledge divine injustice, creating, without any\ncause, two hostile brothers, one of whom must submit to the rule of\nthe other, and who begin to strive together even before birth, or we\nmust hark back to the pre-existence of the human soul and to a past\nKarma which had created inequality in condition.\n\nDavid begins the ninetieth _Psalm_ with a verse which only a belief in\nreincarnation can explain:\n\n\"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations....\"\n\nThe dwelling-place of the soul, at death, is in heaven, whence it\nreturns to earth when the hour of rebirth has struck; thus, in all\ngenerations, that is, from life to life, \"the Lord is our\ndwelling-place.\"\n\nIn Chapter 8 of the _Book of Wisdom_, Solomon says in more explicit\nlanguage:\n\n\"For I was a witty child, and had a good spirit, yea, rather, being\ngood, I came into a body undefiled.\"\n\nThis clearly points to the pre-existence of the soul and the close\nrelation that exists between the conditions of its rebirth and the\nmerits or demerits of its past.\n\nVerse 5 of the first chapter of _Jeremiah_ is similar to verse 23 of\nthe twenty-fifth chapter of _Genesis_:\n\n\"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest\nforth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a\nprophet unto the nations....\"\n\nIt is the deeds done in the past lives of Jeremiah that accompany him\non his return to earth; God could not, in an arbitrary fashion, have\nconferred on him the gift of prophecy had he not acquired it by his\nefforts in a past life; unless, here too, we altogether abandon reason\nand go back to a capricious or unjust--consequently altogether\nimpossible--God.\n\n\nTHE KABALA.\n\nContact with the Babylonians, during the Captivity, brought about a\nrapid development in the Hebrews, who were at that time far more\nadvanced souls than those that animated the bodies of their\nfathers,[156] and taught them many important details of religious\ninstruction. It was then that they learned the doctrine of rebirth and\nthat the Kabala came into being.[157]\n\nIn it the cycle of rebirths is called Gil'gool'em[158] or the\n\"revolving of the Incorporeal\" in search of the \"promised land.\" This\npromised land, the Christian Paradise, or Buddhist Nirvana, was\nsymbolised by Palestine; the soul in its pilgrimage was brought to\nthis abode of bliss,[159] and, according to the allegory, \"the bodies\nof Hebrews buried in a foreign land contained an animistic principle\nwhich only found rest when, by the 'revolving of the Incorporeal,' the\nimmortal fragment had returned to the promised land.\"[160]\n\nThere are other aspects from which this \"revolution of souls\" may be\nregarded. Certain Kabalists speak of it as a kind of purgatory in\nwhich, by means of this \"revolving,\" the purging of the soul is\nbrought about before it enters paradise.\n\nIn this connection, H. P. Blavatsky states that in the language of the\nInitiates the words \"soul\" (_ame_) and \"atom\" were synonyms, and were\nfrequently used for each other. She says that the \"revolution of\nsouls\" was in reality only the revolving of the atoms of the bodies\nwhich are continually transmigrating from one body to another\nthroughout the various kingdoms of nature. From this point of view, it\nwould seem that \"Gil'gool'em\" is more especially the cycle of atomic\ntransmigration: _Resurrection_.\n\nThe doctrine of the reincarnation of the human soul, however, is\nclearly set forth in the _Zohar_:\n\n\"All souls are subjected to the tests of transmigration; men know not\nthe designs of the Most High with regard to them; they know not how\nthey are being at all times judged, both before coming into this world\nand when they leave it; they have no knowledge of the mysterious\ntransformations and sufferings they must undergo, or how numerous are\nthe spirits who coming; into this world never return to the palace of\ntheir divine King; they are ignorant of the revolutions to which they\nare subjected, revolutions similar to those of a stone when it is\nbeing hurled from a sling. And now the time has come when the veil\nshall be removed from all these mysteries.... Souls must in the end be\nplunged back into the substance from which they came. But before this\nhappens, they must have developed all the perfections the germs of\nwhich are implanted within them; if these conditions are not realised\nin one existence, they must be born again until they reach the stage\nthat makes possible their absorption in God.\"[161]\n\nAccording to the Kabala, incarnations take place at long intervals;\nsouls completely forget their past, and, far from being a punishment,\nrebirth is a blessing which enables men to develop and to attain to\ntheir final goal.\n\nThe Essenes taught reincarnation and the immortality of the soul.\nErnst von Bunsen,[162] speaking of this sect, says:\n\n\"Another marked peculiarity of the doctrine of the Essenes was the\ndoctrine concerning the pre-existence of souls. They exist originally\nin the purest ether, which is their celestial home. By a natural\nattraction they are drawn towards the earth and are enclosed in human\nbodies, as in a prison. The death of the body causes the return of the\nsoul to its heavenly abode. The Essenes can, therefore, not have\nbelieved in the resurrection of the body, but of the soul only, or, as\nPaul says, of the 'spiritual body.' This is positively asserted by\nJosephus.\"[163]\n\n\nROME.\n\nAlthough Rome, above all else, was a warlike republic, and religion\nprincipally a State cult, that allowed but slight opportunity for the\nouter expression of spirituality, none the less did it inherit the\nbeliefs of Egypt, Greece, and Persia; the Bacchic mysteries, previous\nto their degradation, were a copy of the Orphic and Eleusinian\nmysteries. In the reign of Pompey, Mithraism, a cult borrowed from\nPersia, was spread throughout the empire. Consequently, we need not be\nsurprised at finding the doctrine of Rebirth mentioned by the great\nLatin writers.\n\nWe will quote only from Virgil and Ovid.\n\nIn the speech addressed by Anchises to AEneas, his son, the Trojan\nprince deals with the life beyond death, the tortures endured by souls\nin expiation of their misdeeds, their purification, their passing into\nTartarus,[164] into the Elysian Fields,[165] then their return to\nearth after having drunk of the river of forgetfulness. In Book VI. of\nthe _AEneid_, we find AEneas visiting the lower regions:\n\n\"After having for a thousand years turned the wheel (of existence),\nthese souls come forth in a mighty troop to the Lethean stream to\nwhich God calls them that they may lose the memory of the past, see\nthe higher regions,[166] and begin to wish to return into bodies.\"\n\nOvid, in his _Metamorphoses_ also deals with the teaching of\nPythagoras, his master, on the subject of palingenesis:\n\n    \"Then Death, so-called, is but old matter drest\n    In some new figure, and a varied vest;\n    Thus all things are but alter'd, nothing dies,\n    And here and there th' embodied spirit flies,\n    By time, or force, or sickness dispossest,\n    And lodges, when it lights, in man or beast.\n    Th' immortal soul flies out in empty space\n    To seek her fortune in some other place.\"\n\n\nNEW TESTAMENT.\n\nThe _New Testament_ is far more explicit than the _Old_, even though\nwe find the teachings of reincarnation indicated in only a vague,\nindirect fashion. All the same, it must not be forgotten that the\ncanonical Gospels have suffered numerous suppressions and\ninterpolations. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that the\nearly Fathers of the Church made use of gospels that are now either\nlost or have become apocryphal.[167] It has been proved that neither\nJesus nor his disciples wrote a single word, and that no version of\nthe Gospels appeared earlier than the second century.[168] It was at\nthat time that religious quarrels gave birth to hundreds of gospels,\nthe writers of which signed them with the name of an apostle or even\nwith that of Jesus, after forging them in more or less intelligent\nfashion.\n\nCelsus, Jortin, Gibbons, and others have shown that Christianity is\ndirectly descended from Paganism; it was by combining the doctrines of\nEgypt, Persia, and Greece with the teachings of Jesus that the\nChristian doctrine was built up. Celsus silenced all the Christian\ndoctors of his time by supplying evidence of this plagiarism; Origen,\nthe most learned doctor of the age, was his opponent, but he was no\nmore fortunate than the rest, and Celsus came off victorious.\nThereupon recourse was had to the methods usual in those days; his\nbooks were burnt.\n\nAnd yet it is evident that the author of the _Revelation_ was a\nKabalist; and the writer of the _Gospel of Saint John_ a Gnostic or a\nNeoplatonist. The _Gospel of Nicodemus_ is scarcely more than a copy\nof the _Descent of Hercules into the Infernal Regions_; the _Epistle\nto the Corinthians_ is a distinct reminiscence of the initiatory\nMysteries of Eleusis; and the Roman Ritual, according to H. P.\nBlavatsky, is the reproduction of the Kabalistic Ritual.\n\nOne gospel only was authentic, the secret or Hebrew _Gospel of\nMatthew_, which was used by the Nazareans, and at a later date by\nSaint Justin and the Ebionites. It contained the esoterism of the\nOne-Religion, and Saint Jerome, who found this gospel in the library\nof Caesarea about the end of the fourth century, says that he \"received\npermission to translate it from the Nazareans of Beroea.\"\n\nThese considerations prove that interested and narrow-minded writers\nselected from the mass of existing traditions whatever seemed to them\nof a nature to support their spiritual views as well as their material\ninterests, and that they constructed therefrom not only what has come\ndown to us as the four canonical gospels, but also the whole edifice\nof Christian dogma.\n\nConsequently, we need not be surprised to find in the _New Testament_\nonly unimportant fragments dealing with reincarnation; but even these\nare not to be despised, for they prove that the doctrine was, to a\ncertain extent at all events, known and accepted in Palestine.\n\n\n_Reincarnation in the Gospels._\n\n_Saint Mark_, Chapter 6.\n\nv. 14. And King Herod heard of him; and he said, That John the Baptist\nwas risen from the dead....\n\nv. 15. Others said, That it is Elias; and others said, That it is a\nprophet, or as one of the prophets.\n\nv. 16. But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John whom I\nbeheaded; he is risen from the dead.\n\n_Saint Matthew_, Chapter 14.\n\nv. 1. At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus.\n\nv. 2. And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is\nrisen from the dead....\n\n_Saint Luke_, Chapter 9.\n\nv. 7. Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him; and he\nwas perplexed because it was said of some that John was risen from the\ndead.\n\nv. 8. And of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of\nthe old prophets was risen again.\n\nv. 9. But Herod said, John have I beheaded; but who is this of whom I\nhear such things?\n\nThe account here given proves that the people as well as Herod\nbelieved in reincarnation, and that it applied, at all events, \"to the\nprophets\" and to those like them.\n\n_Saint Matthew_, Chapter 16.\n\nv. 13. When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked\nhis disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?\n\nv. 14. And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some,\nElias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.\n\nThe same account is given in _Saint Luke_, chapter 9, verses 18, 19.\n\n_Saint Matthew_, Chapter 17.\n\nv. 12. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew\nhim not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall\nalso the Son of man suffer of them.\n\nv. 13. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John\nthe Baptist.\n\nHe continued in _Saint Matthew_, Chapter 11.\n\nv. 7. Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What\nwent ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?\n\nv. 8. But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment?\nBehold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.\n\nv. 9. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you,\nand more than a prophet.\n\nv. 14. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come.\n\nHere we have a distinct declaration: Reincarnation is a fact; John is\nthe rebirth of Elias.[169]\n\nJudging from these texts, one might be tempted to think that\nreincarnation was confined to the prophets or to people of importance,\nbut Saint John shows us that the Jews, though perhaps ignorant that it\nwas a law of universal application, recognised, at any rate, that it\nmight happen in the case of any man.\n\n_Saint John_, Chapter 9.\n\nv. 1. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his\nbirth.\n\nv. 2. And his disciples asked him, saying: Master, who did sin, this\nman or his parents, that he was born blind?\n\nv. 3. Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents;\nbut that the works of God should be made manifest in him.\n\nHere we are dealing with a man _blind from birth_, and the Jews ask\nJesus if he was blind because he sinned; this clearly indicates that\nthey were referring to sins committed in the course of a former\nexistence[170]; the thought is, therefore, quite a natural,\nstraightforward one, referring to something well known to everyone and\nneeding no explanation.\n\nAs one well acquainted with this doctrine of Rebirth, without\ncombating it as an error or as something doubtful which his disciples\nought not to believe, Jesus simply replies:\n\n\"Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents; but that the works of\nGod should be made manifest in him.\"\n\nAnd yet it appears as though this answer must have been distorted, as\nso many others have been, otherwise it would mean that the only reason\nfor this man's blindness was the caprice of the Deity.\n\n\n_Reincarnation in the Apocalypse._\n\nThe _Apocalypse_, an esoteric book _par excellence_, confirms the\ndoctrine of Reincarnation, and throws considerable light on it:\n\n\"Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and\nhe shall go no more out....\"[171]\n\nIn another verse it is stated that to him who overcometh \"I will give\nthe morning star.\"[172] In the language of theosophy, this means: He\nwho has overcome the animal soul, shall, by mystic Communion, be\nunited to the divine soul, which, in the _Apocalypse_, is the symbol\nof the Christ:\n\n\"I, Jesus, am the bright and morning star.\"[173]\n\nAnother verse clearly characterises the nature and the cost of\nvictory:\n\n\"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I\nwill give him a _white stone_, and in the stone a new _name_ written,\nwhich no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.\"[174]\n\nThe hidden manna is the ambrosia of the Greeks, the _kyteon_ of the\nmysteries of Eleusis, the _soma_ of the Hindus, the eucharist of the\nChristians, the sacred drink offered to the disciples at Initiation,\nwhich had the Moon as its symbol, conferred the gift of divine\nclairvoyance and separated the soul from the body.\n\nThe \"white stone\" is none other than the _alba petra_, the white\ncornelian, the chalcedony, or stone of Initiation. It was given to the\ncandidate who had successfully passed through all the preliminary\ntests.[175] The \"Word\" written on the stone is the _sacred Word_, the\n\"lost Word\" which Swedenborg said was to be sought for amongst the\nhierophants of Tartary and Tibet, whom theosophists call the Masters.\n\n\"He who overcometh\" is, therefore, the disciple ready for initiation;\nit is of him that \"a pillar in the temple of God\" will be made. In\nesoteric language, the column signifies Man redeemed, made divine and\nfree, who is no longer to revolve on the wheel of Rebirths, who \"shall\nno more go out,\" as the _Apocalypse_ says, _i.e._, shall not again\nleave Heaven.\n\nIf we examine the text of both _Old_ and _New Testament_ by the light\nof esoteric teaching, the dead letter, often absurd and at tunes\nrepellent and immoral, would receive unexpected illumination, and\nwould fully justify the words of the great rabbi, Maimonides, quoted a\nfew pages back.[176]\n\nOrigen, the most learned of the Fathers of the Church, adds in his\nturn:\n\n\"If we had to limit ourselves to the letter, and understand after the\nfashion of the Jews or the people, what is written in the Law, I\nshould be ashamed to proclaim aloud that it was God who gave us such\nlaws; I should find more dignity and reason in human laws, as, for\ninstance, in those of Athens, Rome, or Sparta....\" (_Homil 7. in\nLevit._)\n\nSaint Jerome, in his _Epistle to Paulinus_, continues in similar\nfashion:\n\n\"Listen, brother, learn the path you must follow in studying the Holy\nScriptures. Everything you read in the divine books is shining and\nlight-giving without, but far sweeter is the heart thereof. He who\nwould eat the nut must first break the shell.\"\n\nIt is because they have lost the Spirit of their Scriptures that the\nChristians--ever since their separation from the Gnostics--have\noffered the world nothing more than the outer shell of the World\nReligion.\n\n\nNEOPLATONISM.\n\nThe great philosophic body that formed a bridge, as it were, between\nthe Old World and the New was the famous School of Alexandria, founded\nabout the second century of our era by Ammonius Saccas and closed in\nthe year 429 A.D. through the intolerance of Justinian. Theosophical\nin its origin, this school had received from Plato the esoteric\nteaching of Egypt and the East, and the dogma of Rebirth was secretly\ntaught in its entirety, though its meaning may have been travestied by\nthe ignorance of the masses to whom only the grosser aspects of the\nteaching were given.\n\n\"It is a dogma recognised throughout antiquity,\" says Plotinus,[177]\n\"that the soul expiates its sins in the darkness of the infernal\nregions, and that afterwards it passes into new bodies, there to\nundergo new trials.\"\n\n\"When we have gone astray in multiplicity,[178] we are first punished\nby our wandering away from the path, and afterwards by less favourable\nconditions, when we take on new bodies.\"[179]\n\n\"The gods are ever looking down upon us in this world, no reproach we\nbring against them can be justifiable, for their providence is\nnever-ending; they allot to each individual his appropriate destiny,\none that is in harmony with his past conduct, in conformity with his\nsuccessive existences.\"[180]\n\nThe following is a quotation from the same philosopher, dealing with\nmetempsychosis, and which, when compared with the foregoing sentences,\nappears strangely absurd. We make no comment here, as this obscure\nquestion will be dealt with a few pages farther on.\n\n\"Those who have exercised human faculties are reborn as men; those who\nhave lived only the life of the senses pass into animals' bodies,\nespecially into the bodies of wild beasts if they have given way to\nexcesses of anger ... those who have sought only to satisfy their lust\nand gluttony, pass into the bodies of lascivious and gluttonous\nanimals ... those who have allowed their senses to become atrophied,\nare sent to vegetate in trees ... those who have reigned tyranically\nbecome eagles, if they have no other vice.\"[181]\n\nPorphyry says:\n\n\"The souls that are not destined for the tortures of hell\n(_Tartarus_), and those that have passed through this expiation, are\nborn again, and divine Justice gives them a new body, in accordance\nwith their merits and demerits.\"[182]\n\nThe following remarkable lines are from Iamblichus:\n\n\"What appears to us to be an accurate definition of justice does not\nalso appear to be so to the Gods. For we, looking at that which is\nmost brief, direct our attention to things present, and to this\nmomentary life, and the manner in which it subsists. But the powers\nthat are superior to us know the whole life of the Soul, and all its\nformer lives; and, in consequence of this, if they inflict a certain\npunishment in obedience to the entreaties of those that invoke them,\nthey do not inflict it without justice, but looking at the offences\ncommitted by souls in former lives: which men, not perceiving, think\nthat they unjustly fall into the calamities which they suffer.\"[183]\n\nProclus gave out the same teaching; he affirmed that he had been\nincarnated in Nichomachus, the Pythagorean.\n\nIn his commentary on the _Golden Verses of Pythagoras_, Hierocles\nexpresses himself thus:\n\n\"The ways of the Lord can be justified only by metempsychosis.\"[184]\n\nDamascius and Hermias, as also their masters, proclaimed their belief\nin Rebirth.\n\nHere a short explanation must be given of what has been said regarding\ntransmigration or metempsychosis, in order that all misunderstanding\nmay be removed.\n\nNeither Pythagoras nor Plotinus nor any of the great Teachers of the\npast believed in metempsychosis, as it has been described; all their\ndisciples have affirmed if, and these affirmations, set over against a\nline of teaching which seems to contradict them, because it is\nincomplete and intended for the less intelligent portion of society at\nthat time, ought to have reminded its opponents that there might be\nhidden reasons capable of explaining the paradox.\n\nWe must first remember that a veil of strictest secrecy was flung over\nthe noblest and most sublime spiritual teachings of the day. According\nto Bossuet, the teaching of the immortality of the soul seems not to\nhave been deemed suitable for the Hebrew race, and, indeed, it is easy\nto understand that no double-edged truth should be taught except under\nconditions that would safeguard it. Ptolemy Philadelphus exiled\nHegesias,[185] whose eloquent fanaticism had caused some of his\ndisciples to commit suicide, at Cyrene, after a lesson on immortality.\nPtolemy ordered those schools of philosophy to be closed which\ncontinued teaching this doctrine, for in the case of a people\ninsufficiently developed, the instinct which binds to physical life,\nand the dread of the torture that awaits guilty souls in the\nHereafter, are preferable to doctrines of immortality deprived of the\nsafeguards with which they should be surrounded.\n\nThe doctrine of Rebirths called for even stricter secrecy than that of\nimmortality, and this secrecy was accorded it in ancient times; after\nthe coming of the Christ, it grew less rigorous, and the\nNeoplatonists, though obliged to keep the esoteric teaching to\nthemselves, were permitted to throw light on certain points.\n\nTimaeus of Locris, one of the masters of Plotinus, hinted at the\nexistence of a more profound doctrine in the following words:\n\n\"Just as by the threat of punishment imperfectly evolved souls are\nprevented from sinning, so the transmigration of the souls of\nmurderers into the bodies of wild beasts, and of the souls of unchaste\npersons into the bodies of swine, was taught; and the previous\npunishment of these souls in the infernal regions was entrusted to\nNemesis (Karma).\"\n\nCertain modern commentators--though imperfectly instructed in the\nteachings of palingenesis--have also seen that the masters of\nphilosophy in the past could not possibly have made a mistake which\nless far-seeing minds would have avoided. Dacier[186] says:\n\n\"A sure token that Pythagoras never held the opinion attributed to him\nlies in the fact that there is not the faintest trace of it in the\nsymbols we have left of him, or in the precepts his disciple, Lysis,\ncollected together and handed down as a summary of the master's\nteachings.\"\n\nJules Simon also speaks as follows regarding Plotinus:[187]\n\n\"Here we have the doctrine of metempsychosis which Plotinus found all\naround, among the Egyptians, the Jews, the Neoplatonists, his\npredecessors, and finally in Plato himself. Does Plato take\nmetempsychosis seriously, as one would be tempted to believe after\nreading the _Republic_? Did he mention it only to ridicule the\nsuperstitions of his contemporaries, as seems evident from the\n_Timaeus_?[188]\n\n\"However important Plato may have considered metempsychosis, it can\nscarcely be imagined that Plotinus took it seriously.... Even granting\nthat this doctrine were literally accepted by Plotinus, the question\nwould still have to be asked whether the human soul really does dwell\nin the body of an animal, or simply enters a human body, which, in its\npassions and vices, recalls the nature of that particular animal.\"\n\nThe reasons mentioned by Dacier and Jules Simon form only a trifling\nportion of the whole explanation, but if they are added to the\nconstant protests raised by the disciples of the Masters of the\nPythagorean and Platonic traditions, against those who said that their\ninstructors taught metempsychosis in all its crudeness, they assume\nconsiderable importance, and show that, although the restrictions of\nesoteric teaching travestied by the ignorance of the masses may have\ncaused it to be believed that the contrary was the case, none the less\nthe Initiates, from the very beginning, denied that human\ntransmigration into the bodies of animals ever took place.\n\nOn this question many of them have frequently said that it is the soul\nwhich, in such cases, changes its nature, and assumes the passions of\nanimals into which, as is said exoterically, it transmigrates, though\nit does not enter into their bodies.\n\n\"He who believes that he transmigrates, after death, into the body of\na beast or a plant,\" says Hierocles,[189] \"is grossly mistaken; he is\nignorant of the fact that the essential form of the soul cannot\nchange, that it is and it remains human, and only, metaphorically\nspeaking, does virtue make of it a god, and vice an animal.\"\n\n\"A human soul,\" adds Hermes, \"cannot go back into the body of an\nanimal; it is preserved from such pollution, for all time, by the will\nof the gods.\"[190]\n\nMrs. Besant says as follows in a letter dealing with Theosophy and\nReincarnation (_The Theosophist_, April, 1906):\n\n\"Even with the wealth of detail given in the Hindu Shastras, thousands\nof facts of the invisible world are omitted, because their statement\nwould hopelessly bewilder the public mind.\n\n\"If all the details are given, ere the main principles are grasped,\nhopeless confusion is caused to the beginner.\n\n\"When an Ego, a human soul, by vicious appetite or otherwise, forms a\nvery strong link of attachment to any type of animal, the astral body\n(Kamarupa) of such a person shows the corresponding animal\ncharacteristics, and in the astral world, where thoughts and passions\nare visible as forms, may take the animal shapes; thus, after death,\nin _Pretaloka_, the soul would be embodied in an animal vesture,\nresembling or approximating to the animal whose qualities had been\nencouraged during earth-life. Either at this stage, or when the soul\nis returning towards reincarnation, and is again in the astral world,\nit may, in extreme cases, be linked by magnetic affinity to the astral\nbody of the animal it has approached in character, and will then,\nthrough the animal's astral body, be chained as a prisoner to that\nanimal's physical body. Thus chained, it cannot go onwards to\n_Svarga_, if the tie be set up while it is a _Preta_; nor go onwards\nto human birth, if it be descending towards physical life. It is truly\nundergoing penal servitude, chained to an animal; it is conscious in\nthe astral world, has its human faculties, but it cannot control the\nbrute body with which it is connected, nor express itself through\nthat body on the physical plane. The animal organisation does not\npossess the mechanism needed by the human Ego for self-expression; it\ncan serve as a jailor, not as a vehicle. Further, the \"animal soul\" is\nnot ejected, but is the proper tenant and controller of its own body.\nS'ri Shankaracharya hints very clearly at the difference between this\npenal imprisonment and becoming a stone, a tree, or an animal. Such an\nimprisonment is not \"reincarnation,\" ... the human Ego \"cannot\nreincarnate as an animal,\" cannot \"become an animal.\"\n\n\"In cases where the Ego is not degraded enough for absolute\nimprisonment, but in which the astral body has become very animal, it\nmay pass on normally to human re-birth, but the animal characteristic\nwill be largely reproduced in the physical body--as witness the\n\"monsters\" who in face are sometimes repulsively animal, pig-faced,\ndog-faced, &c. Men, by yielding to the most bestial vices, entail on\nthemselves penalties more terrible than they, for the most part,\nrealise; for Nature's laws work on unbrokenly and bring to every man\nthe harvest of the seed he sows. The suffering entailed on the\nconscious human entity, thus cut off from progress and from\nself-expression, is very great, and is, of course, reformatory in its\naction; it is somewhat similar to that endured by other Egos, who are\nlinked to bodies human in form, but without normal brains--those we\ncall idiots, lunatics, &c. Idiocy and lunacy are the results of vices\ndifferent in kind from those that bring about the animal servitude\nabove explained, but the Ego in these cases also is attached to a form\nthrough which he cannot express himself.\"\n\n\"True reason,\" says Proclus,[191] \"affirms that the human soul may at\ntimes find lodgment in brutes, but that it is possible for it to live\nits own life and rise above the lower nature whilst bound to it by the\nsimilarity of its tendencies and desires. We have never meant anything\nelse, as has often been proved by the reasoning in our commentaries on\n_Phaedrus_.\"\n\nThere is a note in the _Vahan_[192] on a passage from _Phaedrus_ which\nsheds all the light that can be shed on the question of\nmetempsychosis; in the space of a few lines everything is said that\nmay be publicly revealed, without trespassing on forbidden ground.\n\nAfter stating that, on returning from the internal regions, the soul\npasses into the \"life\" of a beast, and that if it were human\npreviously, it afterwards goes into another human body, the note\ncontinues:\n\n\"We must not understand by this that the soul of a man becomes the\nsoul of a brute, but that by way of punishment it is bound to the soul\nof a brute, or carried in it, just as daemons used to reside in our\nsouls. Hence all the energies of the rational soul are absolutely\nimpeded, and its intellectual eye beholds nothing but the dark and\ntumultuous phantasms of a brutal life.\"[193]\n\nThis passage contains the explanation of what might be called the\nmetempsychosis of certain human souls at the present time; we once\nheard a great Teacher fully reveal this mystery to a chosen group of\nHindus, but it must for some time to come remain a mystery to the\nwestern world. All that can be said on the matter is that it has\nnothing to do with the incarnation of a human soul in the body of an\nanimal, but rather with a certain temporary karmic bond, in the life\nHereafter, between a human soul and an animal one, a bond intended to\nteach many a hard lesson to the one who has brought upon himself so\nunpleasant an experience.\n\nMetempsychosis included many other facts in human evolution, facts\nthat were plainly taught to the disciples in the \"inner circles\" of\nthe ancient Schools and passed out to the confused medley of public\nteaching.\n\nThe astral body, for instance, of a man of an exceedingly passionate\nnature, when the soul leaves the physical body, sometimes assumes\nforms resembling those of the animals which represent these passions\non the physical plane, and so the disincarnate soul of an assassin has\nbeen said to pass into the body of a wild beast.\n\nMetempsychosis, properly so-called, that is to say, the passing of a\nhuman soul into the body of a brute, did however exist during the\ninfancy of the human race, when highly developed animal souls were\nbecoming fit to enter the human kingdom. The bodies of these\nnewly-born human souls were coarse and rudimentary in their nature,\nshowing scarcely any difference in form and organic function from the\nbodies of the higher animals of that period, for these instruments\nwere very similar to one another. The improvements subsequently\neffected by human bodies did not then exist; the difference, or\ndistinction, which has now widened into a gulf, was scarcely\nperceptible, and in the early incarnations of these rudimentary human\nsouls back-slidings and falls were so frequent that some of them, thus\nenfeebled, might find it to their advantage[194] to become incarnate,\nat times, in highly-developed animal bodies. But that was always an\nexception, and the exception has long ago become an impossibility.\n\nWe think these explanations, along with those given in other portions\nof this work, will throw as much light as is permitted publicly on the\nsubject of metempsychosis--a subject frequently discussed and one that\nhas hitherto been so obscure. Such illumination as is here given is\ndue to the teachings of theosophy.\n\n\nTHE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.\n\nThe documents to which we have access, dealing with the philosophical\nand religious history of Christianity in the first few centuries of\nour era, are so questionable, that we can place but faint reliance\nupon them, if we would really become acquainted with the thought of\nthat period. We have already seen that the number of spurious or\ncounterfeit productions was so great that a strange kind of sorting\nout, or selection, took place at the first Council of Nicaea, resulting\nin the choice of four so-called canonical Gospels. It is evident, too,\nthat the copyists, compilers, and translators of the period were\nanxious, above all else, to make facts and opinions agree with their\npreconceived ideas and personal sympathies or likings. Each author\nworked _pro domo sua_, emphasising whatever fitted in with his\npersonal views and carefully concealing what was calculated to weaken\nthem; so that at the present time the only clues we have to guide us\nout of the labyrinth consist of the brief opinions expressed by a few\nhistorians, here and there, on whose honesty reliance may be placed.\n\nIn the present chapter, for instance, it is no easy matter to unravel\nthe Truth from out of these tangled threads of personal opinions. Some\nbelieve that the early Christians and the Fathers of the Church were\nreincarnationists; others say they were not; the texts, we are in\npossession of, contradict one another. Thus, whereas Saint Jerome\nbrings against Origen the reproach of having in his book _De\nPrincipiis_ taught that, in certain cases, the transmigration of human\nsouls into the bodies of animals, was possible--as, indeed, seems to\nbe the case--certain writers deny that he ever said anything on the\nsubject. These contradictory affirmations are easy to explain, once we\nknow that Ruffinus, when translating into Latin the Greek text of _De\nPrincipiis_, omitted all that referred to this question, that the\nconspiracy of silence might be preserved on the matter of Origenian\ntransmigration.\n\nAt the close of his article \"_Origen on Reincarnation_,\" in the\n_Theosophical Review_, February, 1906, G. R. S. Mead says:\n\n\"It therefore follows that those who have claimed Origen as a believer\nin reincarnation--and many have done so, confounding reincarnation\nwith pre-existence--have been mistaken. Origen himself answers in no\nuncertain tones, and stigmatises the belief as a false doctrine,\nutterly opposed to Scripture and the teaching of the Church.\"\n\nOthers affirm that Saint Justin Martyr believed in rebirths and even\nin the transmigration of human souls into animal bodies. In his book\n_Against Heresies_, volume 2, chapter 33, the _Absurdity of the\nDoctrine of the Transmigration of Souls_ is dealt with; and in the\nfollowing chapter, the pre-existence of the soul is denied! Is this\nanother instance, like the one just mentioned, of tampering with the\nwritings of this Father of the Church?[195]\n\nAt times an author gives two contradictory opinions on the same\nsubject. In Tertullian's _Apology for the Christians_, for instance,\nwe find the following:\n\n\"If you can find it reasonable to believe the transmigration of human\nsouls from body to body, why should you think it incredible for the\nsoul to return to the substance it first inhabited?[196] For this is\nour notion of a resurrection, to be that again after death which we\nwere before, for according to the Pythagorean doctrine these souls now\nare not the same they were, because they cannot be what they were not\nwithout ceasing to be what they were.... I think it of more\nconsequence to establish this doctrine of the resurrection; and we\npropose it as more consonant with reason and the dignity of human\nnature to believe that man will be remade man, each person the person\nhe was, a human being a human being; in other words, that the soul\nshall be habited with the same qualities it was invested with in its\nformer union, though the man may receive some alteration in his\nform.... The light which daily departs rises again with its original\nsplendour, and darkness succeeds by equal turns; the stars which leave\nthe world, revive; the seasons, when they have finished their course,\nrenew it again; the fruits are consumed and bloom afresh; and that\nwhich we sow is not quickened except it die, and by that dissolution\nrises more fruitful. Thus you see how all things are renewed by\ncorruption and reformed by dying.... How, then, could you imagine that\nman, the lord of all these dying and reviving things, should himself\ndie for ever?\"\n\nAfter such a clear and noble profession of faith, we may well wonder\nif it were the same man who, in _De Anima_, could have both refuted\nand pitilessly ridiculed the idea of rebirth, and denied the\nseparation of the soul from the body as well as the influence of the\nformer upon the latter. We prefer to believe that we are dealing with\ntwo writers, or else that some literary forger, anxious to create a\ndiversion, deliberately made Tertullian responsible for this strange\ncontradiction.\n\nAnother reason for the difficulty in unravelling the tangled skein of\nthe religious and philosophical teachings prevalent in the early\ncenturies of Christianity is the lack of precision in the language of\nthe writers, the loss of the key to the special vocabulary they used,\nand the veils which writers who possessed some degree of initiation,\ndeliberately threw over teachings which could only be given to the\nmasses in general terms.\n\nThere is one very important point to consider; and this is that in the\nearlier centuries, outside the circles of initiation, there was not\nthat precision which the present-day teaching of theosophy has given\nto the doctrine of Reincarnation; this latter, in the mind of the\npeople, became confused with the doctrine of Pre-existence, which\naffirms that the soul exists before coming into the present body, and\nwill exist in other bodies after leaving this one. This confusion has\ncontinued up to the present time, and we find schools of spiritualism\nin England and America, as well as in other countries, teaching that\nexistence on earth has been preceded and will be followed by a great\nnumber of existences on the invisible planes.\n\nIn reality, this is the doctrine of Rebirths, though there is nothing\nprecise about the teaching. Whether the soul has a single physical\nbody, or takes several in succession, it is none the less continually\nevolving as it passes into material vehicles, however subtle the\nmatter be; the difference is, therefore, insignificant, unless we wish\nto enter into details of the process involved, as was the case in the\nWest in the early centuries of Christianity.\n\nDid the Fathers of the Church teach Pre-existence? There can be no\ndoubt on this point. In a letter to St. Anastasius, Rufinus said that\n\"this belief was common amongst the early Christian fathers.\"\nArnobius[197] shows his sympathy with this teaching, and adds that St.\nClement, of Alexandria, \"wrote wonderful accounts of metempsychosis\";\nand afterwards, in other passages of the same book, he appears to\ncriticise the idea of the plurality of lives. St. Jerome affirms that\n\"the doctrine of transmigration has been secretly taught from ancient\ntimes to small numbers of people, as a traditional truth which was not\nto be divulged.\"[198] A. Franck quotes this passage on page 184 of his\n_Kabbale_; Huet, too, gives it in _Origeniana_.[199] The same Father\nproves himself to be a believer in Pre-existence, in his 94th _Letter\nto Avitus_, where he agrees with Origen on the subject of the\ninterpretation of a passage from St. Paul,[200] and says that this\nmeans \"that a divine abode and true repose are to be found in Heaven,\"\nand \"that there dwell creatures endowed with reason in a state of\nbliss, before coming down to our visible world, before they fall into\nthe grosser bodies of earth....\"\n\nLactantius, whom St. Jerome called the Christian Cicero, though he\nopposed pagan doctrines, maintained that the soul was capable of\nimmortality and of bodily survival only on the hypothesis that it\nexisted before the body.[201]\n\nNemesius, Bishop of Emissa in Syria, stoutly affirmed the doctrine of\nPre-existence, declaring that every Greek who believed in immortality\nbelieved also in the pre-existence of the soul.\n\nSt. Augustine said: \"Did I not live in another body, or somewhere\nelse, before entering my mother's womb?\"[202]\n\nIn his _Treatise, on Dreams_, Synesius states that \"philosophy assures\nus that our past lives are a direct preparation for future lives....\"\nWhen invited by the citizens of Ptolemais to become their bishop, he\nat once refused, saying that \"he cherished certain opinions of which\nthey might not approve, as, after mature reflection, they had struck\ndeep root in his mind. Foremost among these, he mentioned the doctrine\nof Pre-existence.\"\n\nDr. Henry More, the famous Platonist of the seventeenth century,\nquotes Synesius as one of the masters who taught this doctrine,[203]\nand Beausobre reports a typical phrase of his,[204] \"Father, grant\nthat my soul may merge into Light and be no more thrust back into the\nillusion of earth.\"\n\nSt. Gregory of Nysa says it is absolutely necessary that the soul\nshould be healed and purified, and if this does not take place during\nits life on earth, it must be accomplished in future lives.\n\nSt. Clement of Alexandria says that, although man was created after\nother beings, \"the human species is more ancient than all these\nthings.\"[205] In his _Exhortations to the Pagans_, he adds:\n\n\"We were in being long before the foundation of the world; we existed\nin the eye of God, for it is our destiny to live in him. We are the\nreasonable creatures of the divine Word; therefore, we have existed\nfrom the beginning, for in the beginning was the Word.... Not for the\nfirst time does He show pity on us in out wanderings. He pitied us\nfrom the very beginning.\"\n\nHe also adds:[205]\n\n\"Philolaus, the Pythagorean, taught that the soul was flung into the\nbody as a punishment for the misdeeds it had committed, and his\nopinion was confirmed by the most ancient of the prophets.\"\n\nAs regards Reincarnation, _i.e._, the descent of the human soul into\nsuccessive physical bodies, and even its temporary association with\nthe physical bodies of animals, more than one Christian writer\nadvocated this teaching.\n\nChalcidius, quoted by Beausobre in the book just mentioned, says:\n\n\"The souls, that are not able to unite with God, are destined to\nreturn to life until they repent of their misdeeds.\"\n\nIn the _Pistis Sophia_, a Christian treatise on the mysteries of the\ndivine Hierarchies and the evolution of souls in the three worlds, we\nfind the doctrine of Rebirth frequently mentioned:\n\n\"If he is a man who (after passing out of his body)[206] shall have come\nto the end of his cycles of transmigrations, without repenting, ... he\nis cast into outer darkness.\"\n\nA few pages earlier, in the same work, we find:\n\n\"The disincarnate soul which has not solved the mystery of the\nbreaking of the bonds and of the seals is brought before the virgin of\nlight, who, after judging it, hands it over to her agents\n(_receivers_), who carry it into a new body.\"\n\nLet us now see what Origen says on the matter[207]:\n\n\"Celsus, then, is altogether ignorant of the purpose of our writings,\nand it is therefore upon his own acceptation of them that he casts\ndiscredit and not upon their real meaning; whereas if he had reflected\non what is appropriate[208] to a soul which is to enjoy an everlasting\nlife, and on the idea which we are to form of its essence and\nprinciples, he would not so have ridiculed the entrance of the\nimmortal into a mortal body, which took place, not according to the\nmetempsychosis of Plato, but agreeably to another and higher order of\nthings.\"\n\nThe teaching of Origen is not easy to set forth clearly, for he is\nvery reticent about many things, and employs a language to which\npresent-day philosophy cannot always find the key; still, the teaching\nseems full and complete. It comprises pre-existence and even those\nspecial associations of certain human souls with animal souls, which\nwe have just spoken of and which form one of the chief mysteries of\nmetempsychosis.\n\nIn the following words he explains the existence of souls in previous\nworlds:\n\n\"The soul has neither beginning nor end....\n\n\"Rational creatures existed undoubtedly from the very beginning in\nthose (ages) which are invisible and eternal. And if this is so, then\nthere has been a descent from a higher to a lower condition on the\npart not only of those souls who have deserved the change, by the\nvariety of their movements, but also on that of those who, in order to\nserve the whole world, were brought down from those higher and\ninvisible spheres to these lower and visible ones, although against\ntheir will. 'For the creature was made subject to vanity, not\nwillingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope'\n(_Rom._, chap. 8, v. 20); so that both sun and moon and stars and\nangels might discharge their duly to the world, and to those souls\nwho, on account of their excessive mental defects, stood in need of\nbodies of a grosser and more solid nature; and for the sake of those\nfor whom this arrangement was necessary, this visible world was also\ncalled into being.\n\n\"This arrangement of things, then, which God afterwards appointed not\nbeing understood by some, who failed to perceive that it was owing to\npreceding causes originating in free will, that this variety of\narrangement had been instituted by God, they have concluded that all\nthings in this world are directed either by fortuitous movements or by\na necessary fate, and that nothing is in the power of our own\nwill.\"[209]\n\n\"Is it not rational that souls should be introduced into bodies, in\naccordance with their merits and previous deeds, and that those who\nhave used their bodies in doing the utmost possible good should have a\nright to bodies endowed with qualities superior to the bodies of\nothers?\"[210]\n\nAll souls will arrive at the same goal;[211] it is the will of souls\nthat makes of them angels, men or demons, and their fall can be of\nsuch a nature that they may be chained down to the bodies of\nanimals.[212] Certain souls, on attaining to perfect peace, return to\nnew worlds; some remain faithful, others degenerate to such a degree\nthat they become demons.[213]\n\nConcerning bodies, he says:\n\n\"The soul, which is immaterial and invisible in its nature, exists in\nno material place, without having a body suited to the nature of that\nplace; accordingly, it at one time puts off one body which was\nnecessary before, but which is no longer adequate in its changed\nstate, and it exchanges it for a second.\"[214]\n\nAlthough _metensomatosis_ (re-embodiment of the soul), _i.e._, the\ntrue teaching of Origen, was not clearly expounded, it considerably\ninfluenced the early Christian philosophers, and was favourably\nreceived up to the time of its condemnation by the Synod of\nConstantinople. It appeared in most of the sects of that time and in\nthose of the following centuries: Simonians, Basilidians,\nValentinians, Marcionites, Gnostics, Manichaeans, Priscillianites,\nCathari, Patarins, Albigenses, Bogomiles, &c....\n\nChivalry, too, in these ages of darkness and persecution, was an\ninstrument for the dissemination of esoteric doctrines, including\nReincarnation. The heart of this noble institution consisted of\nstudents of divine Wisdom, pure devoted souls who communicated with\none another by means of passwords.\n\nThe Troubadours were their messengers of the sacred Teaching, which\nthey skilfully concealed in their songs, carrying it from group to\ngroup, from sect to sect, in their wanderings. \"Sons of the teachings\nof the Albigenses and of the Manichaean-Marcion tradition\"[215] they\nkept alive belief in the rebirths of the soul, \"Izarn the Monk,\" in\nhis book _Historie d' un Heretique_,[216] apostrophised an Albigensian\nbishop in the following terms:\n\n\"Tell me what school it was in which you learnt that the spirit of\nman, after losing his body, passes into an ox, an ass, a sheep, or a\nfowl, and transmigrates from one animal to another, until a new human\nbody is born for it?\"\n\nIzarn was acquainted with only so much of the teachings of the\nTroubadours as had got abroad and been distorted and misrepresented by\nignorant or evil-minded persons; still, his criticism plainly shows\ntraces of the teachings of palingenesis in the darkest and most\nblood-stained periods of the Middle Ages.\n\nThe Inquisition put an end to the Troubadours, though certain of them,\nDante and St. Francis of Assisi, for instance, by reason of their\npopularity or the special circumstances of the case, were left in\npeace. In Europe the secret teaching was continued by the\nRosicrucians; the _Roman de la Rose_ is pure Hermetic esotericism. The\nstruggle of official Christianity--that of the letter--against those\nwho represented the spirit of the Scriptures, raged ever more\nbitterly, and the idea of Rebirth disappeared more and more from the\nChurch; its sole representatives during the Middle Ages were St.\nFrancis of Assisi, the learned Irish monk, Johannes Scotus Erigena,\nand St. Bonaventura, \"the Seraphic Doctor.\" At the present time there\nremains nothing more than a disfigured and misunderstood fragment of\nthis idea: the dogma of the _Resurrection of the Body_.\n\n\nISLAMISM.[217]\n\nIt has been said that the Arabs believed in Reincarnation before\nMohammed forbade it. Some, however, think that the Koran was written\nonly after the death of the Prophet, and that the latter committed\nnothing to writing, but taught by word of mouth. Besides, it is clear\nthat Mohammedanism is an offshoot of Zoroastrianism and Christianity.\nLike these, it teaches the Unity of the Whole, the divine Presence in\nall creatures and things (_Ubiquity_), Predestination, which is only\none form of _Karma_, and Resurrection, which expresses one phase of\nPalingenesis.\n\nMohammed, like all great mystics, had discovered or learnt many of the\ntruths of esotericism. The verses of the Koran that refer to the\n\"Companions of the Cave\"[218] indicate that he knew more than he\ntaught in public, and that there may be some ground for certain\nAsiatic nations holding the exaggerated belief that he was an\nAvatar,[219] the tenth incarnation of the _Aum_--the Amed, the\nNations' Desire.[220] He was a Disciple.\n\nHad there not been in the heart of Islamism a strong germ of esoteric\nteaching, Sufism could never have sprung from it. The Sufis are the\nsaints of Mohammedanism, they are those who aspire after the union of\nthe individual \"I\" with the cosmic \"I,\" of man with God; they are\nfrequently endowed with wonderful powers, and their chiefs have almost\nalways been thaumaturgists.\n\nThe _New Koran_, a modern exposition of part of the secret doctrine of\nIslam, shows the correctness of this view. In it we find the following\npassages on the subject of Palingenesis:\n\n\"And when his body falleth off altogether, as an old fish-shell, his\nsoul doeth welt by the releasing, and formeth a new one instead.\n\n\"The disembodied spirits of man and beast return as the clouds to\nrenew the young streamlets of infancy....\n\n\"When a man dieth or leaveth his body, he wendeth through the gate of\noblivion and goeth to God, and when he is born again he cometh from\nGod and in a new body maketh his dwelling; hence is this saying:\n\n\"The body to the tomb and the spirit to the womb....\n\n\"This doctrine is none other than what God hath taught openly from the\nvery beginning....\n\n\"For truly the soul of a man goeth not to the body of a beast, as some\nsay....\n\n\"But the soul of the lower beast goeth to the body of the higher, and\nthe soul of the higher beast to the body of the savage, and the soul\nof the savage to the man....\n\n\"And so a man shall be immortal in one body and one garment that\nneither can fade nor decay.\n\n\"Ye who now lament to go out of this body, wept also when ye were born\ninto it....\"[221]\n\n\"The person of man is only a mask which the soul putteth on for a\nseason; it weareth its proper time and then is cast off, and another\nis worn in its stead....\n\n\"I tell you, of a truth, that the spirits which now have affinity\nshall be kindred together, although they all meet in new persons and\nnames.\"[222]\n\nIn _Asiatic Researches_, Colebrooke states that the present Mohammedan\nsect of the _Bohrahs_ believes in metempsychosis, as do the Hindus,\nand, like the latter, abstains from flesh, for the same reason.\n\nThus we find the doctrine of Reincarnation at the heart of all the\ngreat religions of antiquity. The reason it has remained in a germinal\nstate in recent religions--Christianity and Islamism--is that in the\nlatter Mohammed did not attain to the degree of a Hierophant, and in\nall likelihood the race to which he brought light did not greatly need\nto become acquainted with the law relating to the return to earth\nlife; whereas in the former the real teachings of the Christ were lost\nwhen the Gnostics were exterminated, and Eusebius and Irenaeus, the\nfounders of exoteric Christianity, unable to grasp the _spirit_,\nimposed the _letter_ throughout the religion.\n\n\nTHE DOCTRINE OF REBIRTH IN MODERN PHILOSOPHY.\n\nIn antiquity, science and philosophy were scarcely anything else than\nparts of religion[223]; the most eminent scientists and the greatest\nphilosophers alike were all supporters of the established form of\nreligion, whenever they did not happen to be its priests, for the\ntemples were the common cradle of science and philosophy. No wonder,\nthen, that we find these three great aspects of Truth always hand in\nhand, never opposed to or in conflict with one another through the\nwhole of antiquity. Science was for the body, philosophy for the\nintellect, and religion for that divine spark which is destined to\nflash forth and finally become a \"god\" in the bosom of the World Soul.\nEvery intelligent man knew that on this tripod lay the life of the\nindividual, the life of society, and the life of the world. Divorce\nbetween these took place only at a later date, when the divine\nTeachers had disappeared, and mutilated traditions handed down to the\nnations nothing but disfigured and incomplete teachings buried beneath\nthe ruins of temples that had been crumbling away ever since spiritual\nLife had left them.\n\nThen followed the era of separation; science and philosophy became\ndebased and went their own ways, whilst a degenerate religion\nreflected nothing higher than the narrow mentality of fallen\nministers. As this degradation continued, there sprang into being\nreligious wars, monstrosities that were unknown in those times when\nDivinity shed illumination and guidance on the nations by means of\nthose mighty souls, the Adept-Kings: gods, demi-gods, and heroes.\n\nNevertheless, Truth never remained without her guardians, and when\napostleship had been destroyed by persecutions the sacred treasure\nwhich was to be handed down from age to age was secretly entrusted by\nthe sages to faithful disciples. Thus did Esoterism pass through fire\nand bloodshed, and one of its greatest teachings, the doctrine of\nPalingenesis, has left a stream of light in its wake. Now we will give\na rapid sketch of it in modern times, examining the philosophical\nteachings of the greatest of recent thinkers. We will borrow mainly\nfrom Walker's work on this subject, quoting only the writers most\ndeserving of mention, and making only short extracts, for all that is\nneeded is to plant a few sign-posts to guide the student along the\npath.\n\nIn the 128th verse of _Lalla Rookh_, Thomas Moore speaks of rebirths:\n\n            \"Stranger, though new the frame\n    Thy soul inhabits now, I've traced its flame\n    For many an age, in every chance and change\n    Of that Existence, through whose varied range,--\n    As through a torch-race, where, from hand to hand\n    The flying youths transmit their shining brand,--\n    From frame to frame the unextinguished soul\n    Rapidly passes, till it reach the goal!\"\n\nParacelsus, like every Initiate, was acquainted with it, and Jacob\nBoehme, the \"nursling of the Nirmanakayas,\"[224] knew that it was a law\nof Nature.\n\nGiordano Bruno--also a great Soul--quotes from Ovid's _Metamorphoses_,\nBook 15, Line 156, &c., as follows:\n\n    \"O mortals! chilled by dreams of icy death,\n    Whom air-blown bubbles of a poet's breath,\n    Darkness and Styx in error's gulph have hurl'd,\n    With fabled terrors of a fabled world;\n    Think not, whene'er material forms expire,\n    Consumed by wasting age or funeral fire,\n    Aught else can die: souls, spurning death's decay,\n    Freed from their old, new tenements of clay\n    Forthwith assume, and wake to life again.\n                            ... All is change,\n    Nought perishes\" ...\n\n_Orger's translation_[225]\n\nCampanella, the Dominican monk, was sent into exile on account of his\nbelief in the successive returns of the soul to earth.\n\nThe Younger Helmont, in his turn, was attacked by the inquisition for\nleaching this doctrine in his _De Revolutione Animarum_, in which he\nbrings forward, in two hundred problems, all the arguments; that make\nreincarnation necessary.\n\nCudworth and Dr. Henry More, the Platonists of Cambridge, were\nfaithful believers in Palingenesis; whilst Joseph Glanvill, in _Lux\nOrientalis_, finds that there are \"Seven Pillars\" on which\nPre-existence rests.\n\nDr. Edward Beecher, in _The Conflict of Ages_ and _The Concord of\nAges_, as well as Julius Muller, the well-known German theologian, in\n_The Christian Doctrine of Sin_, warmly uphold it.\n\nSchelling acknowledges it in his _Dissertation on Metempsychosis_.\n\nLeibnitz, in his _Monadology_, and more especially his _Theodicy_,\nwitnessed to his belief in this doctrine. Had he dared to speak out\nhis thoughts openly, he would more effectively have advocated his\n\"Optimism,\" by the teachings of evolution and rebirths, than by all\nthe other arguments he advanced.\n\nChevalier Ramsey, in _The Philosophical Principles of Natural and\nRevealed Religion_, writes:\n\n\"The holy oracles always represent Paradise as our native country, and\nour present life as an exile. How can we be said to have been banished\nfrom a place in which we never were? This argument alone would suffice\nto convince us of pre-existence, if the prejudice of infancy inspired\nby the schoolmen had not accustomed us to look upon these expressions\nas metaphorical, and to believe, contrary to Scripture and reason,\nthat we were exiled from a happy state, only for the fault and\npersonal disobedience of our first parents....\n\n\"Our Saviour seems to approve the doctrine of pre-existence in his\nanswer to the disciples, when they interrogate him thus about the man\nborn blind,[226] 'Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that\nhe was born blind?' It is clear that this question would have been\nridiculous and impertinent if the disciples had not believed that the\nman born blind had sinned before his corporal birth, and consequently\nthat he had existed in another state long ere he was born on earth.\nOur Saviour's answer is remarkable, 'Neither hath this man sinned nor\nhis parents, but that the works of God might be manifested in him.'\nJesus Christ could not mean that neither this man nor his parents had\never committed any sin, for this can be said of no mortal; but the\nmeaning is that it was neither for the sins committed by this man in a\nstate of pre-existence, nor for those of his parents, that he was born\nblind; but that he was deprived of sight from his birth, by a\nparticular dispensation of Providence, in order to manifest, one day,\nthe power of God in our Saviour. Our Lord, therefore, far from blaming\nand redressing this error in his disciples, as he did those concerning\nhis temporal kingdom, answers in a way that seems to suppose with\nthem, and confirm them in the doctrine of pre-existence. If he had\nlooked upon this opinion as a capital error, would it have been\nconsonant or compatible with his eternal wisdom to have passed it\nover so lightly and thus tacitly authorised it by such silence? On the\ncontrary, does not his silence manifestly indicate that he looked upon\nthis doctrine, which was a received maxim of the Jewish Church, as the\ntrue explanation of original sin?\n\n\"Since God says that he loved Jacob and detested Esau ere they were\nborn, and before they had done good or evil in this mortal life, since\nGod's love and hatred depend upon the moral dispositions of the\ncreature, ... it follows clearly that if God hated Esau, type of the\nreprobate, and loved Jacob, type of the elect, before their natural\nbirth, they must have pre-existed in another state.\n\n\"If it be said that all these texts are obscure, that pre-existence is\nlargely drawn from them by induction, and that this belief is not\nrevealed in Scripture by express words, I answer that the doctrines of\nthe immortality of the soul are nowhere revealed, least of all in the\noracles of the _Old_ and _New Testament_. We may say the same of\npre-existence. This doctrine is nowhere expressly revealed as an\narticle of faith, but it is evidently implied in the _Wisdom of\nSolomon_, by the author of _Ecclesiasticus_, by our Saviour's silence,\nby St. Paul's comparisons, and by the sacred doctrine of original sin,\nwhich becomes not only inexplicable, but absurd, repugnant, and\nimpossible, if that of pre-existence be not true.... The Fifth General\nCouncil held at Constantinople pronounces anathema against all those\nwho maintain the fabulous doctrine of pre-existence in the Origenian\nsense. It was not then the simple doctrine of pre-existence that was\ncondemned by the council, but the fictitious mixtures and erroneous\ndisguises by which this ancient tradition had been adulterated by the\nOrigenites.\"\n\nSoame Jenyns writes:\n\n\"That mankind had existed in some state previous to the present was\nthe opinion of the wisest sages of the most remote antiquity. It was\nheld by the Gymnosophists of Egypt, the Brahmans of India, the Magi of\nPersia, and the greatest philosophers of Greece and Rome; it was\nlikewise adopted by the _Fathers of the Christian Church, and\nfrequently enforced by her early writers_; why it has been so little\nnoticed, so much overlooked rather than rejected, by the divines and\nmetaphysicians of latter ages, I am at a loss to account for, as it is\nundoubtedly confirmed by reason, by all the appearances of nature and\nthe doctrines of revelation.\n\n\"In the first place, then, it is confirmed by reason, which teaches us\nthat it is impossible that the conjunction of a male and female can\ncreate an immortal soul; they may prepare a material habitation for\nit; but there cannot be an immortal, pre-existent inhabitant ready to\ntake possession. Reason assures us that an immortal soul, which will\nexist eternally after the dissolution of the body, must have eternally\nexisted before the formation of it; _for whatever has no end can never\nhave had any beginning_....\n\n\"Reason likewise tells us that an omnipotent and benevolent Creator\nwould never have formed such a world as this, and filled it with such\ninhabitants if the present was the only, or even the first, state of\ntheir existence; for this state which, if unconnected with the past\nand the future, would seem calculated for no purpose intelligible to\nour understanding, neither of good or evil, of happiness or misery, of\nvirtue or vice, of reward or punishment; but a confused jumble of them\nall together, proceeding from no visible cause and tending to no\nend....\n\n\"Pre-existence, although perhaps it is nowhere in the _New Testament_\nexplicitly enforced, yet throughout the whole tenour of these writings\nis everywhere implied; in them, mankind is constantly represented as\ncoming into the world under a load of guilt; as condemned criminals,\nthe children of wrath and objects of divine indignation; placed in it\nfor a time by the mercies of God to give them an opportunity of\nexpiating this guilt by sufferings, and regaining, by a pious and\nvirtuous conduct, their lost state of happiness and innocence....\n\n\"Now if by all this a pre-existent state is not constantly supposed,\nthat is, that mankind has existed in some state previous to the\npresent, in which this guilt was incurred, and this depravity\ncontracted, there can be no meaning at all or such a meaning as\ncontradicts every principle of common sense, that guilt can be\ncontracted without acting, or that we can act without existing....\"\n\nThe following is a quotation from Hume, the great positivist\nphilosopher:\n\n\"Reasoning from the common course of nature, what is incorruptible\nmust also be ingenerable. The soul, therefore, if immortal, existed\nbefore our birth, and if the former existence in noway concerned us,\nneither will the latter.... Metempsychosis is, therefore, the only\nsystem of this kind that philosophy can hearken to.\" (_The Immortality\nof the Soul_.)\n\nYoung, in his _Night Thoughts_ (Night the Sixth), has the following\nlines:\n\n    \"Look nature through, 'tis revolution all;\n    All change, no death. Day follows night; and night\n    The dying day; stars rise, and set, and rise;\n    Earth takes th' example ...\n\n                   ... All, to reflourish, fades;\n    As in a wheel, all sinks, to re-ascend.\n    Emblems of man, who passes, not expires.\"\n\n\"It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in\nNature is resurrection,\" said Voltaire.\n\nDelormel, Descartes, and Lavater were struck with the tremendous\nimportance of the doctrine of Palingenesis.\n\n_The Philosophy of the Universe_, of Dupont de Nemours, is full of the\nidea of successive lives, as a necessary corollary of the law of\nprogress; whilst Fontenelle strongly advocates it in his _Entretiens\nsur la Pluralite des Mondes_.\n\nIt is needless to state that these ideas formed part of the esoteric\nteachings of Martinez Pasqualis, Claude Saint-Martin, and their\nfollowers.\n\nSaint-Martin lived in times that were too troubled for him to speak\nfreely. In his works, however, not a few passages are found in which\nthere can be no doubt that reincarnation is hinted at, to anyone able\nto read between the lines. (_Tableau nat._, vol. I, p. 136; _L'homme\nde Desir_, p. 312.)\n\nIn his _Oeuvres Posthumes_ (vol. I, p. 286) appears this remarkable\npassage:\n\n\"Death ought to be looked upon only as one stage in our journey. We\nreach this stage with tired, worn-out horses, and we start again with\nhorses that are fresh and able to take us farther on our road; all the\nsame, we must pay what we owe for the portion of the journey that has\nbeen traversed, and until the account is settled, we are not allowed\nto continue our way.\"\n\nGoethe writes as follows to his friend Madame von Stein:\n\n\"Tell me what destiny has in store for us? Wherefore has it bound us\nso closely to each other? Ah! in bygone times, thou must have been my\nsister or my wife ... and there remains, from the whole of those past\nages, only one memory, hovering like a doubt above my heart, a memory\nof that truth of old that is ever present in me.\"\n\nBallanche, an orthodox Christian mystic, says:\n\n\"Each one of us is a reincarnating being, ignorant both of his present\nand of his former transformations.\" (_Pal. Sociale_, book III., p.\n154.)\n\n\"Man is brought to perfection only by becoming a more perfect order of\nthings, and even then he does nothing more than bring back, as Plato\nsaid, a confused memory of the state that preceded his fall.\" (_Essai\nsur les Instit. Sociales_, vol. ii., p. 170.)\n\n\"This life we spend on earth, shut in between an apparent birth and an\nequally apparent death, is, in reality, only a portion of our\nexistence, one manifestation of man in time.\" (_Orphee_, vol. iv., p.\n424.)\n\n\"Our former lives belong to astronomical cycles lost in the mighty\nbosom of previous ages; not yet has it been given to us to know them.\"\n(_Orphee_, vol. iv., p. 432.)\n\nBalzac's _Seraphita_ abounds with references to the idea of successive\nlives:\n\n\"All human beings spend their first life in the sphere of instincts,\nin which they endeavour to discover how useless are the treasures of\nearth.\"\n\n\".... How often we live in this first world....\"\n\n\"Then we have other existences to wear out before we reach the path on\nwhich the light shines. Death is one stage on this journey.\"\n\nConstant Savy[227] describes as follows the conditions of immortality\nand a succession of lives by means of reincarnation:\n\n\"In proportion as its soul is developed by successive lives, the body\nto which it is to be united will necessarily be superior to those it\nhas worn out; otherwise there would be no harmony between these two\nelements of human existence; the means given to the soul would bear\nno relation to the development of its power. This body, gifted with\nmore perfect and numerous senses, could not have an equal value for\nall....\n\n\"Besides, these natural inequalities are also advantageous for\nindividual progress in another way; the errors resulting therefrom\ncause truths to be discovered; vices laid bare almost form a reason\nfor the practice of virtue by all men, or at all events they protect\none from vice by reason of the horror they inspire; the ignorance of\nsome arouses the love of science in others; the very idleness which\ndishonours some men inspires others with a love for work.\n\n\"So that these inequalities, inevitable because they are necessary,\nare present in the successive lives we pass through. There is nothing\nin them contrary to universal harmony; rather, they are a means for\neffecting this harmony, and are the inevitable result of the\ndifference in value that bodies possess. Besides, no man remains\nstationary; all advance at a more or less rapid rate of progress....\n\n\"When faith is born, it is an illumination. Since man's immortality is\none progressive advance, and, to effect this, he prepares the life he\nenters by the life he is leaving; since, in short, there are\nnecessarily two worlds, one material, the other intellectual, these\ntwo worlds, which make up the life to come, must be in harmonious\nrelationship with our own.\n\n\"Man's work will, therefore, be a continuation of his past work....\n\n\"I would never believe that our intelligence, which begins to develop\nin this life, comes to a halt after such an imperfect growth, and is\nnot exercised or perfected after death....\n\n\"... Nature always advances, always labours, because God is life and\nhe is eternal, and life is the progressive movement in the direction\nof the supreme good, which is God himself. Could man alone in the\nwhole of nature, man so imperfect and full of faults, stop in his\nonward course, either to be annihilated, or suddenly, without\nparticipating in it, though he was created free, find that he was as\nperfect as he could possibly be? This is more than I can understand.\n\n\"No, when the time comes, man will not find that his life has been\nuseless, a thing for mere contemplation; he will not find that he is\nimproved without personal participation therein, without effort and\ntoil on his part; above all, he will not be reduced to a state of\nnothingness. He will again have a life of toil; he will participate,\nto the extent God has permitted him, in the endless creations produced\nby divine omnipotence; he will again love, he will never cease to\nlove; he will continue his eternal progress, because the distance\nbetween himself and God is infinite.\"\n\nPierre Leroux says:\n\n\"If God, after creating the world and all creation, were then to\nabandon them, instead of guiding them from life to life, from one\nstate of progress to another, to a goal of real happiness, he would be\nan unjust God. It is unnecessary for St. Paul to say; 'Shall the thing\nformed say to him that formed it. Why hast thou made me thus?'\n(_Romans_, chap, 9, v. 20.) There is an inner voice, doubtless coming\nto us from God himself, which tells us that God cannot bring about\nevil, or create in order to cause suffering. Now this is what would\ncertainly happen were God to abandon his creatures after an imperfect,\na truly unhappy life.\n\n\"On the other hand, if we regard the world as a series of successive\nlives for each creature, we see very well how it comes about that God,\nto whom there is neither time nor space, and who perceives the final\ngoal of all things, permits evil and suffering as being necessary\nphases through which creatures must pass, in order to reach a state of\nhappiness which the creature does not see, and, consequently, cannot\nenjoy in so far as it is a creature, but which God sees, and which,\ntherefore, the creature virtually enjoys in him, for the time will\ncome when it will partake of that happiness.\"[228]\n\nIn Fourier we find the following lines[229]:\n\n\"Where is there an old man who would not like to feel certain that he\nwould be born again and bring back into another life the experience he\nhas gained in the present one? To affirm that this desire cannot be\nrealised is to confess that God is capable of deceiving us. We must,\ntherefore, recognise that we have already lived before being what we\nnow are, and that many another life awaits us, some in this world, and\nthe rest in a higher sphere, with a finer body and more delicate\nsenses....\"\n\nAlphonse Esquiros expresses himself as follows[230]:\n\n\"The question may well be asked whether the talents, the good and the\nevil tendencies man brings with him at birth may not be the fruit of\nacquired intelligence, of qualities and vices gained in one or many\nformer existences. Is there a previous life the elements of which have\nprepared the conditions of the life now being lived by each of us?\nPeople in ancient times thought so. Inborn dispositions, so different\nin children, caused them to believe in impressions left by previous\nexistences in the imperishable germ of man. From the time when\nintelligence begins to show itself in children we faintly discern a\ngeneral attitude towards things, which is very like a memory thereof.\nIt would appear that, according to this system, no one is unconnected\nwith the elements he introduces into life at each birth.\n\n\"All the same, rebirth in humanity constitutes no more than an initial\ncircle of tests. When, after one or several incarnations, man has\nattained to the degree of perfection necessary to cause a change, he\npasses to another life, and, in another sphere, begins an existence of\nwhich we know nothing, though it is possible for us to regard it as\nlinked to the present life by the closest of bonds....\n\n\"The limit to the progress man must have attained to, before entering\nupon another circle of tests in another sphere, is at present unknown\nto us; science and philosophy will doubtless succeed in determining\nthis limit later on.\n\n\"They alone are reborn to earthly flesh who have in no way raised the\nimmortal principle of their nature to a degree of perfection that will\nenable them to be reborn in glory....\n\n\"I affirm the perpetual union of the soul to organic bodies; these\nbodies succeed each other, being born from one another, and fitting\nthemselves for the constitutive forms of the worlds traversed by the\nimmortal ego in its successive existences. The principle of life,\nextended to divers evolutions of rebirth, is ever for the Creator\nnothing more than a continuation of one and the same state. God does\nnot regard the duration of a being as limited to the interval between\nbirth and death; he includes all possible segments of existence, the\nsuccession of which, after many interruptions and renewals, forms the\nreal unity of life. Must souls, when they leave our globe, put on,\nfrom sphere to sphere, an existence hidden from us, whose organic\nelements would continually be fitting themselves for the characters\nand natures of the different worlds? Reason can come to no decision on\nthis point. Only let us not forget that the soul always carries off a\nmaterial germ from one existence to the next, making itself anew, so\nto speak, several times, in that endless ascent of lives through the\nworlds, wherein it attains, heaven after heaven, a degree of\nperfection increasingly linked with the eternal elements of our\ngrowing personality.\n\n\"It may be seen, from what is here stated, how vain is the hypothesis\nof perfect bliss following on the death of the righteous.\n\n\"It is useless for the Christian to soar beyond time, beyond some\nlimit that separates him from infinite good; he cannot do this by a\nsingle effort. God proportions his intervention and aid to the\ntotality of the states man must pass through in the course of an\nindefinitely long series of existences....\"\n\nM. d'Orient, an orthodox Catholic, writes as follows[231]:\n\n\"In this doctrine, so evidently based on reason, everything is linked\nand held together: the foreknowledge of God and the agreement thereof\nwith man's free-will. This problem, hitherto impossible to solve, no\nlonger offers any difficulty, if by it is meant that God, knowing\nbefore birth, by reason of his previous deeds, what there is in the\nheart of man, brings man to life and removes him from it in\ncircumstances that best fit in with the accomplishment of his\npurposes....\n\n\"We see in this way how it is that God is the controller of all the\nmain events that take place in the world, for the knowledge he has of\nsouls in former lives, and his power to dispose of each and all in the\nway he pleases, enable him to foresee events in his infinite knowledge\nand arrange the whole sequence of things in conformity with his plans,\nsomewhat as an ingenious, skilful workman, by the aid of various\ncolours, conceives of and arranges the life-like reproduction of a\nmosaic, a picture, or a piece of inlaid work. We understand all his\nforecasts of the future, how it was that Daniel foretold so exactly\nthe greatness of Alexander and his conquests; how Isaiah called Cyrus\nby name many centuries before these mighty conquerors appeared to\nspread confusion and terror over the world; how God, in order to show\nforth his might before the nations and spread abroad the glory of his\nname, is said to have hardened Pharaoh's heart and roused his\nobstinate will; for all that was needed in order to bring to pass\nthese various results was for God to call back into existence certain\nsouls he knew to be naturally suited to his purpose. This is\ndistinctly pointed out in the passage from the apostle St. Jude,\nwhich, if we accept the meaning that first offers itself to the mind,\nwould seem positively to imply that certain souls had undergone a\nsentence of eternal reprobation: 'For there are certain men crept in\nunawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,\nturning the grace of our God into lasciviousness....'\n\n\"And so there falls away and disappears the greatest difficulty in the\ndoctrine of grace, which consisted in explaining how it came about\nthat God made some men pitiful and others hard-hearted, without there\nbeing in him either justice or acceptance of persons; showing pity,\nsays St. Augustine, only by grace that was unmerited, and hardening\nhearts only by judgment that was always just; since evidently\naccording to this theory it is not (as Origen has already said) apart\nfrom previous merit that some are formed for vessels of honour, and\nothers for vessels of shame and wrath. That harsh sentence pronounced\nupon Judas by the Bishop of Hippon, which so grievously scandalised\nmost of the Catholic theologians, although only the confirmation of\nthe quotation from St. Jude, viz., that the wretched man had been\npredestined to shed the Saviour's blood, will seem to be a very just\none in the sense that God causes that already lost soul to be born\nagain, that demon, as Jesus Christ called him, for the very purpose of\nperpetrating the hateful crime.\n\n\"Consequently the most sublime mysteries of religion, the most\nwonderful facts regarding the destiny of the soul, find their natural\nexplanation in a clear understanding of this doctrine of\nmetempsychosis, however strange and extraordinary it may at first\nappear. What more striking proof can be asked for, what stronger and\nmore convincing reason than such agreement, concerning matter wherein\nall positive proof will always, humanly speaking, be impossible? A\ndoctrine which meets all the facts of the case so accurately, which\nexplains, without difficulty, all the phenomena of our existence in\nthis world, can, of necessity, be nothing else than true.\"\n\nJean Reynaud expresses himself in these terms in _Terre el Ciel_:\n\n\"How glorious the light that would be cast on the present order of\nthings on earth by a knowledge of our former existences! And yet, not\nonly is our memory helpless regarding the times that preceded birth,\nit is not even conscious of the whole of the intervening period, often\nplaying us false in the course of a lifetime. It retains absolutely\nnothing of the period immediately preceding birth, and scarcely any\ntrace of our education as children; we might even be altogether\nignorant of the fact that we were children once, were there not around\nus witnesses of that time. On every hand we are wrapped in a veil of\nignorance, as with a pall of darkness, we no more distinguish the\nlight beyond the cradle than that beyond the tomb. So far as memory is\nconcerned, it would seem that we might be compared with a rocket such\nas we sometimes see flashing through the sky in the night-time,\nleaving behind it a line of light, this light never shows anything\nmore than a limited portion of the way. Of like nature is memory, a\ntrail of light left behind on our journey; we die, and everything is\ndark around us; we are born again, and the light begins to appear,\nlike a star through the mist; we live, and it develops and grows,\nsuddenly disappears again and reappears once more; from one eclipse to\nanother we continue our way, and this way, interrupted by periods of\ndarkness, is a continuous one, whose elements, only apparently\nseparated, are linked to each other by the closest of bonds; we always\nbear within ourselves the principle of what we shall be later on, we\nare always rising higher. Question us on our past, and, like the\nrocket, we reply that we are going forward, but that our path is\nillumined only in our immediate neighbourhood, and that the rest of\nthe road is lost in the blackness of night; we no more know from where\nwe came than we know our destination, but we do know that we came from\nbelow and are rising higher, and that is all that is necessary to\ninterest us in ourselves and make us conscious of what we are. And who\nknows but what our soul, in the unknown secret of its essence, has\npower some day to throw light on its successive journeyings, like\nthose streaks of flame to which we are comparing it? There are strong\nreasons for thinking that such is the case, since the entire\nrestoration of memory appears, with good reason, to be one of the main\nconditions of our future happiness....\n\n\"In like manner the soul, passing from one abode to another, and\nleaving its first body for a new one, ever changing its appearance and\nits dwelling, guided by the Creator's beams, from transmigration to\ntransmigration, from metamorphosis to metamorphosis, pursues the\npalingenesic course of its eternal destiny....\n\n\"... Let us, then, add the teachings of metempsychosis to those of the\nGospel, and place Pythagoras by the side of Jesus....\"\n\nAndre Pezzani concludes in the following words his remarkable book on\n_The Plurality of the Soul's Lives_:\n\n\"Apart from the belief in previous lives, nothing can be explained,\nneither the coming of a new soul into this evil world, the often\nincurable bodily infirmities, the disproportionate division of wealth,\nnor the inequality in intelligence and morality. The justice of God\nlies behind the monstrous phantom of chance. We understand neither\nwhat man is, whence he comes, nor whither he goes; original sin does\nnot account for the particular fate of individuals, as it is the same\nfor all. Roughly speaking, it clears up no difficulties, but rather\nadds to them the most revolting injustice. Once accept the theory of\npre-existence, and a glorious light is thrown on the dogma of sin, for\nit becomes the result of personal faults from which the guilty soul\nmust be purified.\n\n\"Pre-existence, once admitted as regards the past, logically implies a\nsuccession of future existences for all souls that have not yet\nattained to the goal and that have imperfections and defilements from\nwhich to be cleansed. In order to enter _the circle of happiness_ and\nleave _the circle of wanderings_, one must be pure.\n\n\"We have opposed error, and proclaimed truth, and we firmly believe\nthat the dogmas of pre-existence and the plurality of lives are true.\"\n\nThomas Browne, in _Religio Medici_, section 6, hints at Reincarnation:\n\n\"Heresies perish not with their authors, but, like the river Arethusa,\nthough they lose their currents in one place, they rise up again in\nanother ... revolution of time will restore it, when it will flourish\ntill it be condemned again. For as though there were a Metempsychosis,\nand the soul of one man passed into another, opinions do find, after\ncertain Revolutions, men and minds like those that first begat\nthem.... Each man is not only himself, there hath been many Diogenes\nand as many Timons, though but few of that name; men are lived over\nagain, the world is now as it was in ages past; there was none then\nbut there hath been someone since that parallels him, and is, as it\nwere, his revived self.\"\n\nLessing, in _The Divine Education of the Human Race_, vigorously\nopposes a Lutheran divine who rejects reincarnation:\n\n\"The very same way by which the race reaches its perfection must every\nindividual man--one sooner, another later--have travelled over. Have\ntravelled over in one and the same life? Can he have been in one and\nthe self-same life a sensual Jew and a spiritual Christian?\n\n\"Surely not that! But why should not every individual man have existed\nmore than once in this world?\n\n\"Is this hypothesis so laughable merely because it is the oldest?\nBecause the human understanding, before the sophistries of the schools\nhad disciplined and debilitated it, lighted upon it at once? Why may\nnot even I have already performed those steps of my perfecting which\nbring to men only temporal punishments and rewards? And once more, why\nnot another time all those steps, to perform which the views of\nEternal Rewards so powerfully assist us? Why should I not come back as\noften as I am capable of acquiring fresh knowledge, fresh expertness?\nDo I bring away so much from once that there is nothing to repay the\ntrouble of coming back?\n\n\"Is this a reason against it? Or because I forget that I have been\nhere already? Happy is it for me that I do forget. The recollection of\nmy former condition would permit me to make only a bad use of the\npresent. And that which even I must forget _now_, is that necessarily\nforgotten for ever?\"\n\nSchlosser gives expression to similar thoughts in a fine work of his:\n_Ueber die Seelenwanderung_.\n\nLichtemberg says in his _Seibstcharacteristik_:\n\n\"I cannot get rid of the thought that I died before I was born, and\nthat by this death I was led to this rebirth. I feel so many things\nthat, were I to write them down, the world would regard me as a\nmadman. Consequently, I prefer to hold my peace.\"\n\nCharles Bonnet is the author of a splendid work, full of noble and\nlofty thoughts, on this subject. It is entitled _Philosophic\nPalingenesis_.\n\nEmmanuel Kant believes that our souls start imperfect from the sun,\nand travel through planetary stages farther and farther away to a\nparadise in the coldest and remotest star in our system. (_General\nHistory of Nature_.)\n\nIn _The Destiny of Man_, J. G. Fichte says:\n\n\"These two systems, the purely spiritual and the sensuous--which last\nmay consist of an immeasurable series of particular lives--exist in me\nfrom the moment when my active reason is developed and pursue their\nparallel course....\n\n\"All death in nature is birth.... There is no death-bringing principle\nin nature, for nature is only life throughout.... Even because Nature\nputs me to death, she must quicken me anew....\"\n\nHerder, in his _Dialogues on Metempsychosis_, deals with this subject\nmore fully:\n\n\"Do you not know great and rare men who cannot have been what they are\nin a single human existence; who must have often existed before in\norder to have attained that purity of feeling, that instinctive\nimpulse for all that is true, beautiful, and good?... Have you never\nhad remembrances of a former state?... Pythagoras, Iarchas,\nApollonius, and others remembered distinctly what and how many times\nthey had been in the world before. If we are blind or can see but two\nsteps before our noses, ought we, therefore, to deny that others may\nsee a hundred or a thousand degrees farther, even to the bottom of\ntime ...?\"\n\n\"He who has not become ripe in one form of humanity is put into the\nexperience again, and, some time or other, must be perfected.\"\n\n\"I am not ashamed of my half-brothers the brutes; on the contrary, so\nfar as I am concerned, I am a great advocate of metempsychosis. I\nbelieve for a certainty that they will ascend to a higher grade of\nbeing, and am unable to understand how anyone can object to this\nhypothesis, which seems to have the analogy of the whole creation in\nits favour.\"\n\nSir Walter Scott had such vivid memories of his past lives that they\ncompelled a belief in pre-existence. Instances of this belief may be\nfound in _The Life of Scott_, by Lockhart (vol. 7, p. 114, first\nedition).\n\nAccording to Schlegel:\n\n\"Nature is nothing less than the ladder of resurrection, which, step\nby step, leads upward, or rather is carried from the abyss of eternal\ndeath up to the apex of life.\" (_AEsthetic and Miscellaneous Works_;\nand, _The Philosophy of History_.)\n\nShelley held a firm belief in Reincarnation:\n\n\"It is not the less certain, notwithstanding the cunning attempts to\nconceal the truth, that all knowledge is reminiscence. The doctrine is\nfar more ancient than the times of Plato,\" (Dowden's _Life of\nShelley_, vol. 1, p. 82.)\n\nSchopenhauer adopted the idea of Reincarnation which he had found in\nthe _Upanishads_; regarding this portion of his teaching, his\ncontemporaries and followers set up a kind of conspiracy of silence.\nIn _Parerga and Paralipomena_, vol. 2, chap. 15, _Essay on Religions_,\nhe says:\n\n\"I have said that the combination of the _Old Testament_ with the\n_New_ gives rise to absurdities. As an example, I may cite the\nChristian doctrine of Predestination and Grace as formulated by\nAugustine and adopted from him by Luther, according to which one man\nis endowed with grace and another is not. Grace thus comes to be a\nprivilege received at birth and brought ready into the world.... What\nis obnoxious and absurd in this doctrine may be traced to the idea\ncontained in the _Old Testament_, that man is the creation of an\nexternal will which called him into existence out of nothing. It is\nquite true that genuine moral excellence is really innate; but the\nmeaning of the Christian doctrine is expressed in another and more\nrational way by the theory of Metempsychosis, common to Brahmans and\nBuddhists. According to this theory, the qualities which distinguish\none man from another are received at birth, _i.e._, are brought from\nanother world and a former life; these qualities are not an external\ngift of grace, but are the fruits of the acts committed in that other\nworld....\n\n\"What is absurd and revolting in this dogma is, in the main, as I\nsaid, the simple outcome of Jewish theism with its 'creation out of\nnothing,' and the really foolish and paradoxical denial of the\ndoctrine of metempsychosis which is involved in that idea, a doctrine\nwhich is natural to a certain extent, self-evident, and, with the\nexception of the Jews, accepted by nearly the whole human race at all\ntimes.... Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I\nshould be forced to answer him: It is that part of the world which is\nhaunted by the incredible delusion that man was created out of\nnothing, and that his present birth is his first entrance into life.\"\n\nIn _The World as Will and Idea_, he also says:\n\n\"What sleep is for the individual, death is for the Will (character).\n\n\"It flings off memory and individuality, and this is Lethe; and\nthrough this sleep of death it reappears refreshed and fitted out with\nanother intellect, as a new being.\"\n\nIn _Parerga and Paralipomena_, vol. 2, chap. 10, he adds:\n\n\"Did we clearly understand the real nature of our inmost being, we\nshould see how absurd it is to desire that individuality should exist\neternally. This wish implies that we confuse real Being with one of\nits innumerable manifestations. The individuality disappears at death,\nbut we lose nothing thereby, for it is only the manifestation of quite\na different Being--a Being ignorant of time, and, consequently,\nknowing neither life nor death. The loss of intellect is the Lethe,\nbut for which the Will would remember the various manifestations it\nhas caused. When we die, we throw off our individuality, like a\nworn-out garment, and rejoice because we are about to receive a new\nand a better one.\"\n\nEdgar Allen Poe, speaking of the dim memories of bygone lives, says:\n\n\"We walk about, amid the destinies of our world-existence, encompassed\nby divine but ever present Memories of a Destiny more vast--very\ndistant in the bygone time and infinitely awful.\n\n\"We live out a Youth peculiarly haunted by such dreams, yet never\nmistaking them for dreams. As Memories we _know_ them. During our\n_Youth_ the distinction is too clear to deceive us even for a moment.\n\n\"But now comes the period at which a conventional World-Reason awakens\nus from the truth of our dream ... a mis-shapen day or a misfortune\nthat could not be traced back to our own doings in this or in another\nlife....\" (_Eureka._)\n\nGeorges Sand, in _Consuelo_, sets forth the logic of Reincarnation;\nand G. Flammarion expounds this doctrine in most of his works:\n_Uranie_; _Les Mondes Imaginaires et les Mondes Reels_; _La Pluralite\ndes Mondes Habites_, etc.\n\nProfessor William Knight wrote in the _Fortnightly Review_ for\nSeptember, 1878:\n\n\"It seems surprising that in the discussions of contemporary philosophy\non the origin and destiny of the soul there has been no explicit revival\nof the doctrines of Pre-existence and Metempsychosis.... They offer\nquite a remarkable solution of the mystery of Creation, Translation, and\nExtinction....\n\n\"Stripped of all extravagances and expressed in the modest terms of\nprobability, the theory has immense speculative interest and great\nethical value. It is much to have the puzzle of the origin of evil\nthrown back for an indefinite number of cycles of lives and to have a\nworkable explanation of Nemesis....\"\n\nProfessor W. A. Butler, in his _Lectures on the History of Ancient\nPhilosophy_, says:\n\n\"There is internally no greater improbability that the present may be\nthe result of a former state now almost wholly forgotten than that the\npresent should be followed by a future form of existence in which,\nperhaps, or in some departments of which, the oblivion may be as\ncomplete.\"\n\nThe Rev. William R. Alger, a Unitarian minister, adds:\n\n\"Our present lack of recollection of past lives is no disproof of\ntheir actuality.... The most striking fact about the doctrine of the\nrepeated incarnations of the soul ... is the constant reappearance of\nthat faith in all parts of the world and its permanent hold on certain\ngreat nations....\n\n\"The advocates of the resurrection should not confine their attention\nto the repellent or ludicrous aspects of metempsychosis, ... but do\njustice to its claim and charm.\" (_A Critical History of the Doctrine\nof a Future Life_.)\n\nProfessor Francis Bowen, of Harvard University, writes in the\n_Princetown Review_ for May, 1881, when dealing with the subject of\n_Christian Metempsychosis_:\n\n\"Our life upon earth is rightly held to be a discipline and a\npreparation for a higher and eternal life hereafter. But if limited to\nthe duration of a single mortal body, it is so brief as to seem hardly\nsufficient for so great a purpose.... Why may not the probation of the\nsoul be continued or repeated through a long series of successive\ngenerations, the same personality animating, one after another, an\nindefinite number of tenements of flesh, and carrying forward into\neach the training it has received, the character it has formed, the\ntemper and dispositions it has indulged, in the stage of existence\nimmediately preceding?...\n\n\"Every human being thus dwells successively in many bodies, even\nduring one short life.[232] If every birth were an act of absolute\ncreation, the introduction to life of an entirely new creature, we\nmight reasonably ask why different souls are so variously constituted\nat the outset.... One child seems a perverse goblin, while another has\nthe early promise of a Cowley or a Pascal.... The birthplace of one is\nin Central Africa, and of another in the heart of civilised and\nChristian Europe. Where lingers eternal justice then? How can such\nfrightful inequalities be made to appear consistent with the infinite\nwisdom and goodness of God?...\n\n\"If metempsychosis is included in the scheme of the divine government\nof the world, this difficulty disappears altogether. Considered from\nthis point of view, everyone is born into the state which he has\nfairly earned by his own previous history.... We submit with enforced\nresignation to the stern decree; ... that the iniquities of the\nfathers shall be visited upon the children even to the third and\nfourth generation. But no one can complain of the dispositions and\nendowments which he has inherited, so to speak, from himself, that is,\nfrom his former self in a previous stage of existence.\n\n\"And it matters not, so far as the justice of the sentence is\nconcerned, whether the former self from whom we receive this heritage\nbore the same name with our present self, or bore a different\nname....\"\n\nProfessor F. H. Hedge, in _Ways of the Spirit, and other Essays_, p.\n359, maintains that:\n\n\"Whatever had a beginning in time, it should seem, must end in time.\nThe eternal destination which faith ascribes to the soul presupposes\nan eternal origin.... An obvious objection, and one often urged\nagainst this hypothesis, is the absence of any recollection of a\nprevious life.... The new organisation with its new entries must\nnecessarily efface the record of the old. For memory depends on\ncontinuity of association. When the thread of that continuity is\nbroken, the knowledge of the past is gone....\n\n\"And a happy thing, if the soul pre-existed, it is for us that we\nremember nothing of its former life.... Of all the theories respecting\nthe origin of the soul this seems to me the most plausible, and\ntherefore the one most likely to throw light on the question of a life\nto come.\"\n\nThe Spiritualists of Europe--those belonging to the school of Allan\nKardec, at all events--place reincarnation in the very forefront of\ntheir teaching. We may add that those of America do not acknowledge\nthat the soul has more than one existence on earth, driven, however,\nby the logic of things, which insists on progress, they state that\nthere are a series of lives passed in subtler bodies on invisible\nplanets and worlds.\n\nAll true philosophers have been attracted by the mystery of\npalingenesis, and have found that its acceptance has thrown a flood of\nlight on the questions that perplexed them.\n\nIn Asia there are 400 millions of believers in reincarnation,\nincluding the Chinese, Tartars, Thibetans, Hindus, Siamese,\nMongolians, Burmese, Cambodians, Koreans, and the people of Japan.\n\nTradition has handed down this teaching even to the most savage\ntribes. In Madagascar, when a man is on the point of death, a hole is\nmade in the roof of his straw hut, through which his soul may pass out\nand enter the body of a woman in labour. This may be looked upon as a\nstupid superstition, still it is one which, in spite of its degenerate\nform, sets forth the doctrine of the return of souls back to evolution\nthrough earthly experiences. The Sontals, Somalis, and Zulus, the\nDyaks of Borneo and Sumatra, and the Powhatans of Mexico have similar\ntraditions. In Central Africa, slaves who are hunchbacked or maimed\nforestall the hour of death by voluntary self-immolation, in the hope\nof being reborn in the bodies of men who will be free and perfectly\nformed.\n\nTo sum up: all tradition, whether popular, philosophical, or\nreligious, is instinct with the teaching of Rebirth.\n\n\nOBJECTION.\n\n_Reincarnation and Forgetfulness of the Past._\n\nSceptics are ever bringing forward against reincarnation the absence\nof all memory of past lives, convinced that there can be no answer to\nthis argument.\n\nThey do not reflect that human ignorance is a bottomless abyss, whilst\nthe possibilities of Life are endless. The schools of the future will\nsmile at the claims made by those of the present, just as the latter\ndoubtless regard with pitying indulgence that school which, only a few\nyears ago, in the person of one of its most famous members, Dr.\nBouillaud, mercilessly condemned the exponent of Edison's invention,\nbecause the _savant_, listening to a phonograph for the first time,\ncould not believe that it was anything else than ventriloquism!\nInstances of this kind are sufficiently numerous and recent not to be\nforgotten, in spite of the shortness of human memory.\n\nIn the present instance, there are many men of science who have not\nyet been made sufficiently wise by experience to see that the very\nmystery of memory itself might furnish an explanation of that general\nabsence of all power of recollection, which now seems to them\naltogether incompatible with the doctrine of Rebirth.\n\nSo as not to appear to be running away from this objection, by dealing\nwith it only on the surface, we will endeavour to develop the question\nsomewhat, for we shall have to set forth to readers unacquainted with\ntheosophical teachings--which alone, up to the present, have thrown\nlight on these difficult subjects--certain doctrines which will be\nwell understood by none but theosophists, since they are incapable of\nproof by a simple statement thereof, but form part, of a long chain of\nteachings. We will offer them simply as theories--though they are\nfacts to us--theories that contain many an error, it may be, and are\nimperfectly stated, though capable of widening the horizon of thought\nand shedding a brilliant light upon many an obscure question. Earnest\nseekers after truth, it is hoped, will not be disheartened by the\ndifficulties of the subject, but will endeavour to grasp the meaning\nof the following pages, by reading them over again, if need be.\n\nFirst, a few words must be said on memory in general, next we will\ngive a rapid sketch of what constitutes memory in atoms and molecules,\nin the varied forms of the many kingdoms of nature and in human forms;\nfinally, we will speak of cosmic Memory, that veritable _Judgment\nBook_ which takes account of all the vibrations of the Universe.\n\nAmongst beings capable of memory, a distinction must be made between\nthose which have not reached the stage of self-consciousness, and\nthose which have done so, for memory, properly so-called, takes for\ngranted an \"I.\" That which has not an \"I\" can only have a memory of\nwhich it is not conscious[233]; the atom, for instance, of whose\nmemory we shall speak later on; that which has only a rudimentary \"I\"\npossesses only a rudimentary memory from the point of view of its\nbearing on the individual--such is that possessed by the souls of the\nlower kingdoms, that which constitutes instinct; to the perfect \"I\"\nalone belongs an individual memory--the human memory, and that of\nbeings who have attained to the superhuman stage. This memory may be\ndefined as the faculty possessed by an individualised \"centre of\nconsciousness\" voluntarily to reproduce the vibrations it has received\nor generated.\n\nA \"centre of consciousness\" is a form that serves, for the time being,\nas the instrument of an individualised ray of that indefinable\nprinciple called the soul. But for the presence of this individual\nsoul in a form, this latter would remain inactive as a centre of\nconsciousness--although active in its constituent parts[234]--and\ncould it not then, consciously, either generate or receive vibrations\non the plane from which the soul is momentarily absent--it could only\ntransmit them; for instance, when a man is in a brown study, he is not\nconscious in his brain, of what is taking place on the physical\nplane.[235]\n\nThe vehicles of consciousness are often numerous in a being, and the\nmore numerous in proportion to the degree this latter has attained in\nthe scale of evolution. The present day man possesses four bodies: the\nvisible, the astral, the mental, and the causal. They are not all\nequally developed, and therefore not equally conscious, for the\nclearness and intensity of consciousness depend on the decree of\nperfection of its vehicles, just as the beauty of electric light\ndepends on the perfection of the apparatus producing it.\n\nThe Ego--the man--is the consciousness that is called forth by the\nsoul in the causal body. This consciousness varies in power with the\ndevelopment of the body that gives birth to it. At first it is dim and\nuncertain,[236] and acquires some degree of intensity only when it\nreceives, through the mental and astral vehicles, the simple and\nintense vibrations of the physical body.[237] In savage races, for\ninstance, man possesses a definite consciousness only in his waking\ncondition; as soon as the soul is attached to the astral body,\nexternalised by sleep, it experiences only a dim consciousness in this\nundeveloped vehicle. In advanced races, the astral body, being far\nmore developed, brings about distinct consciousness during sleep. As\nman evolves, consciousness begins to function in the mental and the\nastral bodies, without the assistance of the vibrations of the lower\nvehicles, and when all the grades[238] of matter which compose the\nhuman constitution are thus vitalised, man has become perfect; he\nknows the Universe because he feels it within himself--he echoes it,\nso to speak, and possesses all its powers.[239]\n\nIn ordinary man, the memory of events that have taken place in his\nwaking state can be brought back by that special effort of will which\nsets in motion the cerebral molecules that have previously been put\ninto vibration by these events.\n\nSometimes the will, of itself, is powerless to recall this vibration,\neither because the brain is tired or in some unfavourable condition or\nother; it is then aided by bringing its automatism into play, by\nendeavouring, for instance, to call back one constituent element of\nthe fact desired, a place, sound, scent, person, &c, and often in this\nway is brought about the vibration of the molecules that constituted\nthe rest of the circuit, and the fact sought for presents itself;\nassociation of ideas is a phenomenon based on this mechanical process.\n\nA third method--a far more difficult one--is also used; the bringing\nof every mental effort, to a standstill. The suppression of thought,\nwhen sufficiently complete, brings the brain into a state of calm,\nallows of the soul concentrating on the astral body whose memory is\nkeen and only slightly subject to obstruction, and then it often\nhappens that the vibration of the astral memory repercusses on to the\nphysical apparatus which suddenly remembers the thing desired.\n\nOn the death of the physical, the soul acts in the astral body; there\nit retains a complete memory of life on earth, but the vibrations of\nthe physical plane no longer reach it,[240] these memories soon cease\nto occupy its attention, and it gives itself up wholly to the\nimpressions received from the new world into which it has entered. In\nthis first stage of the after-life, then, there is a kind of darkening\nof the memory of the past earth life--darkening, not oblivion.\n\nWhen the purgatorial life is at an end and the astral body\ndisintegrates in its turn, the soul functions in the mental body, in\nthe mental world.[241] On this new plane, the memory of the worlds\nleft behind continues, though far less clearly than the memory of the\nphysical existed in the astral world; this is owing to the fact that,\nin ordinary man, the mental body is not sufficiently developed to\nconstitute a complete vehicle of consciousness, capable of registering\nall the vibrations that come to it; everything in the past that has\nbeen _purely_ the work of the astral or the physical plane then\ndisappears from his memory; there remain only memories that have been\ncaused either by the mental qualities or qualities superior to these,\nall the highest elements concerned with affection, intelligence, or\nart. The mental world, generally speaking, is seen only to a small\nextent or not at all, because of the incomplete development of the\nmental body. Besides, recollections assume a new character[242]; every\nthought takes a concrete form--that of a friend, for instance, appears\nas the friend himself, speaking and thinking, more vivid than on the\nearth plane[243]; everything is dramatised in marvellous fashion, and\nlife is intense throughout the realms of paradise.\n\nThe mental body, after exhausting the forces that make it up, also\ndies, and the soul is \"centred\" in the only vehicle it has left, the\ncausal body, a body that is immortal, one may say, up to a certain\npoint, since the soul retains it until the time comes when it can\nfunction in a still higher and more lasting vehicle,[244] and this\nhappens only after millions of years.[245] Here, another diminution of\nmemory takes place, because the soul loses a large portion of its\nconsciousness when it comes into contact with none but the vibrations\nof this body, which is even more incompletely developed than the\nformer ones, though holding within itself all the germs of these\nlatter. The Ego then remains apparently sunk in sleep for a varying\nperiod, though never for very long; then the germs in the causal body\nbecome active, build up a new series of bodies in succession--the\nmental, the astral, and finally the physical--and the soul returns\nonce more to incarnation.\n\nIt will now be understood how it comes about that a soul of average\ndevelopment--on entering a new cycle, with the memory of the last\ncycle considerably obliterated by the loss of the physical, astral,\nand mental bodies, sheathed in new bodies on these planes, bodies that\nhave nothing in common with the life of the past--is unable to impress\nits dim memories on to the brain; but it will also be seen that, with\nthe progress of evolution, the soul acquires ever clearer\nconsciousness in the causal body, in which it finally preserves the\nmemory of the various life-cycles. Since, at this stage, it has become\ncapable of projecting its vibrations, voluntarily, through the lower\nbodies, it is able to transmit this memory first to the mental body,\nthen to the astral, and lastly to the physical body; when this is\npossible, man, in waking consciousness, remembers his former lives.\n\nThis transmission requires a purificatory process in the vehicles and\na special training of the will. The matter of all the bodies--that of\nthe brain in particular--must be refined, its constituent elements\nmust be subtler, and its atoms must be fully awakened to\nactivity[246]; whereupon the cerebral cell becomes capable of\nresponding to the thought of the Ego, _i.e._, of vibrating in harmony\nwith the higher matter.\n\nThe second condition of the brain's receptivity is that this organ be\nbrought into a state of complete rest. So long as the waking\nconsciousness is active, the brain vibrates powerfully, and if, at\nthis time, the soul sends the brain its thought, this latter can no\nmore make an impression on the existing cerebral activity than a faint\nnote could be heard amid the clash of an orchestra. Consequently, man,\nby the training of his will, must have acquired the power to stop the\nthinking activity in the waking state, and to \"centre\" his attention\non the causal body, the only vehicle in which he can know the facts of\nhis past incarnations; this done he is able, at will, to project on to\nhis brain the scenes of his former lives and to imprint them thereon\nwith greater distinctness, in proportion to his development and\ntraining.\n\nIn order to avoid continued explanations, we will deal with another\nside of the question, however incomprehensible it be to such as have\nnot studied theosophy.\n\nA vehicle of consciousness is both a registering apparatus[247] and a\nconductor of vibrations.[248] The kinds of matter of which forms are\nmade up are perfectly graduated; the finest atom of the physical body\nis built up of the densest atoms of the astral plane, the finest atom\nof the astral body is made of the densest atoms of the mental plane,\nand so on. Each atom is linked to the one that precedes and to the one\nthat follows it in that immense chain which stretches from the densest\nto the subtlest plane of the Cosmos. Every vibration follows this\npath, passes in all directions--in the seven[249] dimensions of\nspace-and terminates in the very Centre of consciousness, the Logos,\nGod incarnate in the world.\n\nIt is then comprehensible, even logical, that God should be both\nconscious, on his receptive side, of everything that takes place in\nthe world (_omniscient_), and should produce, on his active side, all\nthe forces of the world (_omnipotent_). It is likewise admissible that\nthe human soul, when fully developed, should find in the causal body\nthe memory of the facts that have echoed therein, from the time when\nit could function consciously in it. But, it will be asked, how could\nit find, in the causal body, memories of existences it has not been\nable to register individually, of which it has not been conscious,\nthose, for instance, that form the early stages of its evolution at a\ntime when it was conscious only in the lower vehicles?\n\nMemory possesses many store-houses. The vibrations of which it is\ncomposed affect the whole Universe, there is not a single local shock\nthat is not felt throughout all the worlds. The eternal registering of\nthings takes place in the great centre of consciousness, God, or\nrather, it exists in him, for to him there is neither future nor past,\nonly one eternal present; evolution is unceasingly accomplished[250];\nbut if we look upon ourselves as finite beings, living in the illusion\nof time and space, we find that vibrating matter preserves for a\nlonger or a shorter period the movement imparted to it. The denser the\nsubstance, which forms the medium in which vibration takes place, the\nfeebler the vibration; that is why it speedily ceases on the physical\nplane; it continues long, however, in the higher conditions of matter,\nand it is there we must look for it,[251] if we would recall certain\nevents at which we have not been present. When anything exciting, a\nmurder, a battle, for instance, has happened anywhere, the subtler\natoms of the surrounding objects receive a powerful shock and continue\nto vibrate for centuries. Those who have developed their inner senses\ncan thus witness the scene which is continually repeating itself, or\nrather, is happening all the time.[252] Thus, psychometrists,[253] in\npresence of a portion of a fossil, are enabled to bring back scenes\nthat this fragment has witnessed millions of years ago.[254]\n\nIn these cases, the memory of the facts is connected with that of the\natoms which register it; this memory can only be recalled by coming\ninto contact with these atoms.[255]\n\nThere is also another memory, midway between the unconscious memory of\natoms and the conscious memory of the human soul; that of the forms of\nthe various sub-human kingdoms. It is only slightly conscious, for it\nis not individualised; all the same, it is precise in its nature. It\ndwells in the vital essence of the form, an essence taken from a\ncollective \"block\" which supplies a portion of its substance to the\nindividuals of the same species; this incarnate portion of essence,\nwhen the form disintegrates at death, returns to the parent \"block,\"\nto which it communicates the result of its experiences, and when the\nlatter sends out a portion of itself, into a new form, this tentacle,\nwhich is, so to speak, the soul of the form, is in possession of the\nwhole of the experiences of the \"block.\"[256] This explains how it is\nthat the individual members of certain hostile species know one\nanother from birth--the chicken, for instance, which, immediately it\nhas left the egg, trembles before the hawk hovering above in the air;\nsuch is also the reason why a duckling plunges into water as soon as\nit comes to a pond, and the same instinct impels a bird to leave its\nnest and trust itself to the air when fully fledged.\n\nIn these collective souls, belonging to the mineral, vegetable, and\nanimal kingdoms, there can be recovered the past to which they bore\nwitness, when the atoms of their bodies have been dispersed and\nentered into new combinations.\n\nWhen the elemental Essence[257] has definitely split up, and the\n\"blocks\" have become separate, individualised, human fragments,[258]\neach of these fragments is a causal body, a definite, immortal\n_centre_ in the total Centre. Consequently there are in man three\nkinds of memory: atomic memory, that of the atoms of his bodies;\ninstinctive memory of the special elemental essences which are the\ncollective souls of his various vehicles; and finally, the individual\nmemory of the centre,[259] which is one with the total Centre from\nwhich it comes.\n\nThis element of unity, this human \"I\" in the divine \"I,\" when\nsufficiently developed, is able to evoke the memory of all the events\nin which it has participated in the causal body, and also the memory\nof those it has witnessed as a collective soul (elemental \"block\") in\nbygone ages when active in various mineral, vegetable, and animal\nspecies. As a centre in the great Centre, it can also call forth the\nmemory of everything in the Universe that its consciousness can\ngrasp.[260] And when, in this long pilgrimage, it has developed to the\nfarthest limits of the Universe it knows all that has been, is now,\nand is to be in this Universe, consequently it knows both what it has\nand what it has not participated in, for everything in the Universe\nhas then become part of itself.\n\nThus it is seen that the memory of the past is everywhere registered,\nand that the difficulty a man has in bringing it back is caused by\nnothing more than his imperfect development. Once he has entered the\n\"Strait Gate,\"[261] and his consciousness is awake on the first plane\nof Unity,[262] he becomes able to read the Great Book of Nature, in\nwhich all vibrations are kept in potentiality; he can revive them by\nan effort of will, similar to that he makes in a waking state, when he\nwishes to bring back past impressions to his brain. The difference\nlies in the fact that, in the latter case, being in the physical body,\nhe calls up the memory retained in the astral body; whilst in the\nformer case, being in the causal body, he brings memory within the\ninfluence of the buddhic body, or even at times of higher bodies\nstill. The more the Being grows, and becomes able to fix his\nconsciousness on the higher planes, the wider extends his sphere of\ninfluence, approaching that of divine Consciousness.\n\nIt is ignorance that brings forward this objection regarding loss of\nmemory, ignorance of life and of death, ignorance of the phenomena\nthat follow the last breath of a dying man, as well as of those\npreceding the first faint cry of a new-born child. Sceptics, however,\nmight have shown a little more indulgence, for, as they are well\naware, ordinary memory _is_ even now so unreliable that a man has\ngreat difficulty in recalling the whole of the thoughts that have\nentered his brain during the last few minutes; he has forgotten the\ndetails of the various events of the week; the facts of the past year\nhave mostly vanished from his mind, and when he comes to the end of\nthe journey, mere fragments of the story of his life are all that is\nleft. For all that, he has all the time retained the notion of the\nidentity of his \"I\"; he has the same body, the same senses, and the\nsame brain; his environment is the same; everything is there to bring\nabout association of ideas, to awaken memory. On the other hand,\ncenturies have elapsed before Rebirth takes place; the human being has\nundergone the most radical changes and modifications; everything in\nhim that was perishable has disappeared, and is preserved only in a\ngerminal state. The visible bodily sheath has had its atoms scattered\nto the four elements; the etheric body[263] has become separated from\nthe physical molecules whose vital support it formed; the body of\npassions and desires (_astral body_) has lived for a few years in what\nCatholics call _Purgatory_, Greeks, _Hades_, and Hindus, _Kamaloka_;\nafter which, only germs have been left behind; then the intelligence\n(_mental body_) has been dispersed in turn and endures only in a\ngerminal state. Almost everything that made up the man of bygone times\nhas disappeared, and is now concentrated in a complex germ hidden away\nin the causal body and destined to develop a new personality later\non,[264] heir to the former one, though it will not be capable of\nremembering events in which it took no part.\n\nThis is the explanation of the myth of Lethe.\n\nThe soul, in the causal body, drinks of the river of Life, and from\nits sleep-giving draught forms the sheaths of the new incarnation, the\nnew bodies that altogether blot out the memory of the past; it is, in\nvery truth, a new-born babe who appears on earth.\n\nThe Root-Being,[265] however, survives the successive wrecks of\nfleeting personalities, remaining in the new man as a guide, as the\n\"Voice of Conscience.\" He is the Watcher who strings, as on a thread,\nthe numberless pearls (_personalities_) which form the inevitable\ncycle of human evolution, and is able, when fully developed, to summon\nup the distant panorama of past lives. For him, nothing is lost.\n\nThe pioneers of the race have obtained direct proof of successive\nincarnations, but apart from these rare and special instances,\nordinary individuals frequently have reminiscences and distinct\nmemories which are not investigated, either because they are\nfragmentary in their nature or are related by children. In India,\nwhere the natives believe in Reincarnation, such cases are regarded\nwithout astonishment, and efforts are made to prove their truth by\nserious investigation, whenever possible. And such proof is often\npossible. When a child dies in infancy, before he is able to use his\nbody intelligently and of his own free will--before being able to\ngenerate karma--the higher sheaths (_the astral and mental bodies_)\nare not separated into their component parts. Return to earth quickly\ntakes place, the memory of the past life exists in the astral\nbody--which has not changed--and, more especially during the first few\nyears of life, can be impressed on the new brain with tolerable ease,\nif this latter is at all delicately constituted. Then if reincarnation\ntakes place in the same country and in the neighbourhood of the past\nincarnation, it can be proved to be true. Such instances do exist; the\nreason they are not mentioned here is that they would add nothing to\nthe general proofs on which stress has been laid in this work. These\nproofs form part of universal Law; they cannot be separated therefrom.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote 81: The fifth, or Aryan race, in theosophic nomenclature;\nthe fourth was that of Atlantis; the third lived on the great southern\ncontinent, Lemuria; the two preceding ones were, so to speak, only the\nembryologic preparation for the following races.]\n\n[Footnote 82: The \"life-atoms,\" infinitesimal particles which by\naggregation form the human body. Certain of these atoms are preserved,\non the death of the body, as germs which will facilitate the\nreconstruction of the physical body at the next rebirth.]\n\n[Footnote 83: The divine Essence which animates animals, and so, in\nanother sense the astral bodies of men and animals, bodies whose\nparticles _transmigrate_ as do the physical atoms.]\n\n[Footnote 84: H. P. Blavatsky, _Secret Doctrine._]\n\n[Footnote 85: These words are relative; they express differences in\nthe evolution of souls.]\n\n[Footnote 86: The atmosphere of subtle physical elements radiating\nround the human body and acting in a defensive _role_ by preventing\nthe penetration of unhealthy elements from the immediate\nsurroundings.]\n\n[Footnote 87: The \"material sin\" of Manu.]\n\n[Footnote 88: One, here means the \"life atoms\" of a man's body.]\n\n[Footnote 89: The word is here used in a generic sense; in the present\nwork, it would be more precise to replace it by the word\nResurrection.]\n\n[Footnote 90: This \"triad\" comprises the visible matter of the body,\nthe etheric substance, and the life (Prana) which the human ether\nabsorbs and specialises for the vitalising of the body. See _Man and\nhis Bodies_, by A. Besant.]\n\n[Footnote 91: H. P. Blavatsky, _The Theosophist_, Vol. 4, pages 287,\n288.]\n\n[Footnote 92: The finer elements invisible to physical eye. Their\nfunction is sensation, and by their association with the human mental\nbody incarnated in them, they give birth to the emotions and passions,\nin a word, to the animal in man.]\n\n[Footnote 93: The _Umbra_ of the Latin races.]\n\n[Footnote 94: The _Kama Rupa_ of the Hindus.]\n\n[Footnote 95: The purgatory of Christians, the astral plane of\ntheosophists, and the _Kamaloka_ of Hindus.]\n\n[Footnote 96: By the _fire_ of purgatory, says the Catholic metaphor.]\n\n[Footnote 97: See A. Besant's masterly work on _Reincarnation._]\n\n[Footnote 98: Dharma is a wide word, primarily meaning the essential\nnature of a thing; hence the laws of its being, its duty; and it\nincludes religious rites, appropriate to those laws. This definition,\nas also the extracts quoted, are taken from A. Besant's translation of\nthe _Bhagavad Gita._]\n\n[Footnote 99: Human souls, not all of them, but only the pious ones,\nare daimonic and divine. Once separated from the body, and after the\nstruggle to acquire piety, which consists in knowing God and injuring\nnone, such a soul becomes all intelligence. The impious soul, however,\nremains in its own essence and punishes itself by seeking a human body\nto enter into, for no other body can receive a human soul, it cannot\nenter the body of an animal devoid of reason: divine law preserves the\nhuman soul from such infamy. Hermes Trismegistus, Book I, _Lacle_:\nHermes to his son Tat.]\n\n[Footnote 100: Bodies.]\n\n[Footnote 101: The physical body with its etheric \"double,\" and life\n(_Prana_).]\n\n[Footnote 102: The kamic body.]\n\n[Footnote 103: The causal body.]\n\n[Footnote 104: _History_. Book 2, chap. 123.]\n\n[Footnote 105: The causal body.]\n\n[Footnote 106: The buddhic body, which, in ordinary man, is only in an\nembryonic stage.]\n\n[Footnote 107: Generally called _Prana_, in man. _Jiva_ is the solar\nlife which, on being transmuted by the physical body, becomes _Prana_,\nthe human physical life. Both _Jiva_ and _Prana_ differ from each\nother in nature and in vibration.]\n\n[Footnote 108: The mental body.]\n\n[Footnote 109: The causal body. In annihilation--what has been called\nthe loss of the soul--the kamic principle (astral body) in the course\nof a rather long succession of lives, does not allow the mental body\nto become separated from it in purgatory; it keeps it imprisoned up to\nthe time of its disintegration; the causal body reaps nothing from the\nincarnations, at each re-birth it loses the forces it is putting forth\nin order to form the new mental body. It gradually atrophies until the\ntime comes when it is no longer fit to make use of the ordinary bodies\nof the race to which it belongs. Then it remains at rest, whilst the\nmental body gradually disintegrates; afterwards it takes up once again\nits series of incarnations in the imperfectly evolved bodies of\nprimitive races. This will be understood only by those who have\nstudied theosophy.]\n\n[Footnote 110: In this passage, H. P. Blavatsky alludes to the few\netheric, astral, and mental atoms which, at each disincarnation, are\nincorporated in the causal body and form the nuclei of the future\nbodies corresponding to them.]\n\n[Footnote 111: _History._ Vol. 2, book 2, chap. 123 (already quoted).]\n\n[Footnote 112: Of the elements of the personality--of the astral body,\nin all probability.]\n\n[Footnote 113: The Ego (soul) also lives in the air (the symbol of\nheaven) and on the earth (whose symbol is water, dense matter)--in\nheaven, after disincarnation; on earth, during incarnation.]\n\n[Footnote 114: The soul is immortal and needs no food.]\n\n[Footnote 115: Its name, Khopiroo, comes from the root Koproo, to\nbecome, to be born again (H. P. Blavatsky).\n\nHartley says: \"At the centre of the solar disk appears the Scarabeus\nas the symbol of the soul re-uniting itself with the body. The\nScarabeus is called by Pierret the synthesis of the Egyptian\nreligion--type of resurrection--of self-existence--of self-engendering\nlike the Gods. As Tori, or Chepi, the Sun is the Scarabeus, or\nself-engenderer, and the mystery of God.\"]\n\n[Footnote 116: Also called kamic body, astral body, body of desire,\netc.]\n\n[Footnote 117: Reincarnation.]\n\n[Footnote 118: Vol. 3, p. 124.]\n\n[Footnote 119: The causal body illumined by the divine Essence, which\ntheosophy names Atma-Buddhi.]\n\n[Footnote 120: He calls him \"the prince of lying fathers and dishonest\nwriters.\" (_Egypt_, vol. 1, p. 200).]\n\n[Footnote 121: Eusebius even confesses this himself: \"I have set forth\nwhatever is calculated to enhance the glory of our religion, and kept\nback everything likely to cast a stain upon it.\" (_Proeparatio\nEvangelica._ Book 12, chap. 31).]\n\n[Footnote 122: _Namae-Sat Vakhshur-i-Mahabad_, also in the fourth\n\"Journey\" in chap. 4 of _Jam-i-Kaikhoshru_ (see _The Theosophist_, p.\n333, vol. 21).]\n\n[Footnote 123: See _Bardic Triads_, by E. Williams. Translated from\nthe original Welsh.]\n\n[Footnote 124: \"'Abred' is the circle of the migrations through which\nevery animated being proceeds from death: man has passed through it.\"\n_Triad_ 13.\n\n\"Transmigration is in 'Abred.'\" _Triad_ 14.\n\n\"There are three primitive calamities in 'Abred': the necessity of\nevolution (of rebirths), the absence of memory (of past incarnations)\nand death (followed by rebirth).\" _Triad_ 18 (the words in parentheses\nare our own).\n\n\"By reason of three things man is subjected to 'Abred' (or\ntransmigration): by the absence of the effort to attain knowledge, by\nnon-attachment to good, and by attachment to evil. As the result of\nthese, he descends into 'Abred,' to the stage corresponding to his\ndevelopment, and begins his transmigrations anew.\" _Triad_ 25.\n\n\"The three foundations of science are: complete transmigration through\nevery state of being, the memory of the details of each\ntransmigration, the power to pass again at will through any state, to\nacquire experience and judgment, (_a_) This comes to pass in the\ncircle of Gwynvyd.\" _Triad_ 36.\n\n(_a_) The liberated being has power to call up the past, to tune his\nconsciousness with that of every being, to feel everything that being\nfeels, to be that being.]\n\n[Footnote 125: In the poem _Cad-Godden_, quoted by Pezzani in _La\nPluralite des Existences de l'Ame_, p. 93. Taliesin is a generic name\nindicating a function rather than the name of an individual.]\n\n[Footnote 126: _Gallic War_ (Book 2, chap. 6). Valerius Maximus\nrelates that these nations lent one another money which was to be paid\nback in the other world, and that at Marseilles a sweet-tasted poison\nwas given to anyone who, wishing to commit suicide, offered the judges\nsatisfactory reasons for leaving his body.]\n\n[Footnote 127: _The Mystery of the Ages_, by the Duchesse de Pomar.]\n\n[Footnote 128: In _Theologia_ or the _Seven Adyta._]\n\n[Footnote 129: The \"Cycle of Necessity\" extends from the time when the\nsoul begins to evolve to the moment when it attains to liberation.]\n\n[Footnote 130: _Life of Pythagoras._ Book 8, chap. 14.]\n\n[Footnote 131: Ovid's _Metamorphoses_. Book 15.]\n\n[Footnote 132: All that remained of the shield was the carved ivory\nornamentation, the iron had been eaten away by rust.]\n\n[Footnote 133: Philostratus, _Life of Apollonius of Tyana._]\n\n[Footnote 134: Philostratus, _Life of Apollonius of Tyana._]\n\n[Footnote 135: Marinas, _Vita Procli._]\n\n[Footnote 136: The Ego, the human soul properly so-called, what Egypt\nnamed the liberated intelligence which resumes its sheath of light,\nand again becomes a \"daimon\" (_Maspero_). In antiquity the name of\ndaimon was given to the human soul or to higher intelligences.]\n\n[Footnote 137: _Hades_; the Purgatory of Catholics; the _Kamaloka_ of\nHindus.]\n\n[Footnote 138: Allusion to the struggle which separates the mental\nfrom the astral body in Purgatory.]\n\n[Footnote 139: _Kamaloka_; Purgatory.]\n\n[Footnote 140: The subterranean hell, the lowest world in Purgatory.]\n\n[Footnote 141: Plato's _Laws_, Book 10.]\n\n[Footnote 142: Plato's _Republic_, Book 10.]\n\n[Footnote 143: They are in the causal body.]\n\n[Footnote 144: _Phaedo._]\n\n[Footnote 145: These considerations are taken from the writings of H.\nP. Blavatsky, and are also confirmed by modern criticism of biblical\ntexts.]\n\n[Footnote 146: Maimonides. Quoted in _The Perfect Way_, by A.\nKingsford and E. Maitland.]\n\n[Footnote 147: _Galatians_, chap. 4, verses 24, 25.]\n\n[Footnote 148: _Starli_, part 4, p. 5.]\n\n[Footnote 149: _Deuteronomy_, chap. 24, verses 1 to 4.]\n\n[Footnote 150: _Deuteronomy_, chap. 17, verse 17.]\n\n[Footnote 151: _Exodus_, chap. 21, verses 2 to 11.]\n\n[Footnote 152: _Exodus_, chap. 21, verses 23, 24, 25.]\n\n[Footnote 153: _Genesis_, chap. 9, verses 5, 6; also _Leviticus_,\nchap. 7.]\n\n[Footnote 154: _Exodus_, chapters 6, 12, 14, 22, 32,]\n\n[Footnote 155: _Ecclesiastes_, chap. 3, verses 18, 19, 20, 22.]\n\n[Footnote 156: The souls of a race in its maturity are of a more\nadvanced type than those of its infancy or old age.]\n\n[Footnote 157: The Kabala is the secret teaching of the Jews; in it\nlie hidden doctrines that are too profound to be taught in public.]\n\n[Footnote 158: _Zohar_, 2, 99, quoted in Myer's _Qabbalah_, p. 198.]\n\n[Footnote 159: Evolution develops the soul, enabling it to reach its\ngoal: the divine state.]\n\n[Footnote 160: The force of evolution comes from God and ceases only\nwhen the soul is fully developed, and has reached the \"promised land\"\nat the end of its pilgrimage: the divine state.]\n\n[Footnote 161: Franck, _La Kabbale_, p. 244, etc.]\n\n[Footnote 162: _The Hidden Wisdom of Christ_, 1864, vol. 1, p. 39.]\n\n[Footnote 163: _De Bell. jud._ 2, 11.]\n\n[Footnote 164: One of the lowest sub-planes of _Kamaloka_\n(Purgatory).]\n\n[Footnote 165: The Christian Heaven (_Devachan_ of theosophy).]\n\n[Footnote 166: The earth, which is above when compared with Tartarus,\nbut not so in relation to the Elysian Fields; versification imposes\nsuch strict limits on expression, that it must have the benefit of\npoetic licence.]\n\n[Footnote 167: Freret, _Examen crit. des apologistes de la relig.\nchret._, pages 12 and 13, Paris, 1823.]\n\n[Footnote 168: Faustus.]\n\n[Footnote 169: And yet the _Gospel of Saint John_ denies this (chap.\n1, v. 21). The contradictions in the gospels are so numerous that they\nalone have created thousands of infidels.]\n\n[Footnote 170: Stolberg expresses himself as follows on this matter:\n\"This question was evidently based on the opinion that the disciples\nof Jesus had formed, that this man, whose punishment dated from his\nvery birth, had sinned in a previous life.\" (_Histoire de N. S.\nJesus-Christ et de son siecle_, Book 3, chap. 43).]\n\n[Footnote 171: _Revelation_, chap. 3, v. 12.]\n\n[Footnote 172: _Revelation_, chap. 2, v. 28.]\n\n[Footnote 173: _Revelation_, chap. 22, v. 16.]\n\n[Footnote 174: _Revelation_, chap. 2, v. 17.]\n\n[Footnote 175: H. P. Blavatsky.]\n\n[Footnote 176: \"Taken literally, the Book of the Creation gives us the\nmost absurd and extravagant ideas of Divinity.\"]\n\n[Footnote 177: First _Ennead_, chap. I.]\n\n[Footnote 178: The Universe, which can exist only through\n_multiplicity._]\n\n[Footnote 179: Second _Ennead_, chap. 3.]\n\n[Footnote 180: Second _Ennead_, chap. 8.]\n\n[Footnote 181: Third _Ennead_, chap. 4.]\n\n[Footnote 182: _Concerning Abstinence_; Book 2.]\n\n[Footnote 183: _Egyptian Mysteries_, Book 4, chap. 4.]\n\n[Footnote 184: Here, _reincarnation_ is meant.]\n\n[Footnote 185: This philosopher was surnamed _Peisithanatos_ (the\ndeath-persuader).]\n\n[Footnote 186: _Vie de Pythagore_, vol. I, p. 28.]\n\n[Footnote 187: _Hist. de l'Ec. a'Alex._, vol. I, p 588.]\n\n[Footnote 188: In this work, he says:\n\n\"The winged tribe, that has feathers instead of hair, is formed of\ninnocent but superficial human beings, pompous and frivolous in\nspeech, who, in their simplicity, imagine that the sense of vision is\nthe best judge of the existence of things. Those who take no interest\nwhatever in philosophy become four-footed animals and wild\nbeasts....\"]\n\n[Footnote 189: _Commentaries on the Golden Verses of Pythagoras._]\n\n[Footnote 190: Hermes, _Commentaries of Chalcidius on the Timaeus._]\n\n[Footnote 191: _Procli Diadochi in Platonis Timaeum Commentaria._]\n\n[Footnote 192: September, 1898, p. 3.]\n\n[Footnote 193: The life of the animal to which it is bound.]\n\n[Footnote 194: The instrument must be suited to the development of the\nartist; too highly developed a body would be bad for a man very low\ndown in the scale of humanity. This will, in some measure, explain the\nparadoxical word here used; the _advantage_ there may sometimes be in\nputting on a rudimentary body.]\n\n[Footnote 195: G. R. S. Mead tells us that Justin believed in\nReincarnation only whilst he was a Platonist; he opposed this teaching\nafter his conversion to Christianity (See _Theosophical Review_,\nApril, 1906).]\n\n[Footnote 196: Does this obscure passage refer to the resurrection of\nthe body?]\n\n[Footnote 197: _Adversus Gentes_. \"We die many times, and as often do\nwe rise again from the dead.\"]\n\n[Footnote 198: Hyeronim., _Epistola ad Demetr...._]\n\n[Footnote 199: Book 2, quest. 6, No. 17.]\n\n[Footnote 200: _Ephesians_, ch. 1, v. 4 ... he hath chosen us in him\nbefore the foundation of the world.]\n\n[Footnote 201: _Instit. divin._, 3, 18.]\n\n[Footnote 202: _Confessions_, I, ch. 6.]\n\n[Footnote 203: _On the Immortality of the Soul_, chap. 12.]\n\n[Footnote 204: _Hist. de Manichee et du Manicheisme_, vol. 2, p. 492.]\n\n[Footnote 205: _Stromata._, vol. 3, p. 433. Edition des Benedictins.]\n\n[Footnote 206: The words in parenthesis are by the author.]\n\n[Footnote 207: _Cont. Cels._ Book 4, chap. 17.]\n\n[Footnote 208: [Greek: ti akolouthei].]\n\n[Footnote 209: _De Principiis_, Book 3, chap. 5.]\n\n[Footnote 210: _Contra Celsum_, Book 1.]\n\n[Footnote 211: _Contra Celsum_, Book 1, chap. 6.]\n\n[Footnote 212: _De Principiis_, Book 3, chap. 5.]\n\n[Footnote 213: _De Principiis_, Book 4, chap. 5.]\n\n[Footnote 214: _Contra Celsum_, Book 7, chap. 32.]\n\n[Footnote 215: E. Aroux. _Les Mysteres de la Chevalerie._]\n\n[Footnote 216: Quoted by I. Cooper Oakley in _Traces of a Hidden\nTradition in Masonry and Mediaeval Mysticism_, a very interesting work\non the sects which connect the early centuries with modern times.]\n\n[Footnote 217: See _L'Islamisme et son Enseignement Esoterique_, by\nEd. Bailly. _Publications theosophiques_, Paris, 1903.]\n\n[Footnote 218: Chapter 18.]\n\n[Footnote 219: Islam is now awaiting the coming of the Mahdi, its last\nprophet; prophecy says that he will be the reincarnation of Mohammed\n(_Borderland_, April, 1907).]\n\n[Footnote 220: This is the reason Afghans still undertake pilgrimages\nto Mecca.]\n\n[Footnote 221: Chap. 22, verses 5, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 41. Quoted\nby Lady Caithness in _Old Truths in a New Light._]\n\n[Footnote 222: Chap. 23, verses 17, 26, 27, etc.]\n\n[Footnote 223: By religion is here understood the devotional aspect\nand the scientific side of the teaching of Truth, _i.e._, the science\nof the divine Soul.]\n\n[Footnote 224: _Nirmanakayas_ are beings who have become perfect, and\nwho, instead of entering the Nirvana their efforts have won, renounce\npeace and bliss in order to help forward their human brothers in their\nevolution.]\n\n[Footnote 225:\n\n    O! genus attonitum gelidae formidine mortis,\n    Quid Styga, quid tenebras, quid nomina vana timetis,\n    Materiam vatum, falsique piacula mundi?\n    Corpora sive rogus flamma, seu tabe vetustas\n    Abstulerit, mala posse pati non ulla putetis\n    Morte carent animae: semperque priore relicta\n    Sede, novis domibus habitant vivuntque receptae\n                   . . . . . . . . .\n    Omnia mutantur, nihil interit ...\n\n]\n\n[Footnote 226: _S. John's Gospel_, chap. 9, verse 2.]\n\n[Footnote 227: The following passages are taken from three of C.\nSavy's works: _Comment. du Sermon sur la Montagne_ (1818); _Pensees et\nMeditations_ (1829); _Dieu et l'Homme en cette Vie et Audela_ (1838).]\n\n[Footnote 228: _De l'Humanite_, vol. 1., p. 233.]\n\n[Footnote 229: _Theorie de l'Unite Universelle_, vol. 2, p. 304-348.]\n\n[Footnote 230: _Vie Future au Point de Vue Socialiste_, and\n_Confession d'un Cure de Village._]\n\n[Footnote 231: _Destinees de l'Ame._]\n\n[Footnote 232: Alluding to the complete renewing of the material\nmolecules of the body, every seven years.]\n\n[Footnote 233: Whose consciousness, however (along with memory), is at\nthe summit of the hierarchy which is its origin.]\n\n[Footnote 234: Molecules and atoms have a particular consciousness of\ntheir own which does not cease to function when, on the departure of\nthe individual soul, the body, as such, ceases to function.]\n\n[Footnote 235: If sufficiently developed, however, he can be made\nconscious of this in a higher vehicle.]\n\n[Footnote 236: When man has barely entered the human stage--in\nprimitive man.]\n\n[Footnote 237: Consciousness begins in the physical body, its simplest\ninstrument.]\n\n[Footnote 238: There are other vehicles above the causal body.]\n\n[Footnote 239: All the powers of the Universe are in the divine germ,\nas the tree is in its seed.]\n\n[Footnote 240: Because it no longer has a dense physical body. There\nare exceptions to this rule, but there is no necessity to mention them\nhere.]\n\n[Footnote 241: The Christian Heaven, the _Devachan_ of Theosophy.]\n\n[Footnote 242: This character has already appeared on the astral\nplane, though not in so striking a fashion.]\n\n[Footnote 243: Unity exists on the plane of the Ego, and the latter\nsends his thought into the forms made out of his vehicles; this will\nbe understood only by the few, but an explanation cannot be given at\nthis point, without writing a volume on the whole of theosophy.]\n\n[Footnote 244: We are still dealing with the ordinary man.]\n\n[Footnote 245: When liberation is attained. This can be effected\nrapidly by those who _will_ to attain it.]\n\n[Footnote 246: Only four of the seven atomic _spirillae_ are active in\nthis our fourth planetary Round (one for each Round). They can be\nrapidly vitalised by the will.]\n\n[Footnote 247: When the soul is \"centred\" in it.]\n\n[Footnote 248: The vibrations, whether registered as they pass or not\nregistered, continue their course through the substance of the\nUniverse.]\n\n[Footnote 249: Science even now recognises four of these dimensions.]\n\n[Footnote 250: This is said in order to satisfy such as are of a\nmetaphysical turn of mind, and frequently prone to criticism.]\n\n[Footnote 251: When the inner senses are developed.]\n\n[Footnote 252: A question will doubtless at once rise to the minds of\nmany readers; how can the same atoms produce, at once and almost\neternally, millions of different facts? We will reply briefly. Science\nhas been able to conceive of an explanation of a fact apparently quite\nas absurd--the phenomenon of the balls of Russian platinum mentioned\nby Zoellner (_Transcendental Physics_, ch. 9) which pass through\nhermetically sealed glass tubes, and that of the German copper coins\ndropping through the bottom of a sealed box on to a slate--by\naccepting a fourth dimension of space. Who would affirm that the\ndimensions of space are limited to four? Or that the science of the\nimmediate future will not be brought face to face with facts, and\nfind, in a fifth or sixth dimension of space, a possible explanation\nof the phenomenon here mentioned, one which initiated seers can test\nwhenever they please, because it is a real fact?\n\nStill, as these seers say, the coarsest atoms generally register only\none image, others register fresh images, so that in many cases there\nis quite a superposition of images which must be carefully examined to\navoid errors.]\n\n[Footnote 253: A psychometrist is a person endowed with a very fine\nnervous system, capable of repeating the delicate vibrations which act\nupon the inmost atoms of a body. In this way, by placing himself in\npresence of an object that has been in contact with some individual,\nhe can clearly describe the latter's physical, moral, and mental\ncharacteristics. Hitherto, Buchanan and Professor Denton have been the\nmost remarkable psychometrists; the experiments related in their works\nhave been made before witnesses and permit of no doubt whatever as to\nthe reality of this strange faculty.]\n\n[Footnote 254: Instances of this are numerous in Professor Denton's\n_The Soul of Things._]\n\n[Footnote 255: This memory is preserved in the first \"life-wave.\"]\n\n[Footnote 256: This is _instinct_, _i.e._, a semi-conscious memory,\nlocated in the \"life-wave\" of the second Logos.]\n\n[Footnote 257: The divine Essence incarnated in the matter of the\nlower planes of the Universe.]\n\n[Footnote 258: When the \"essence,\" after the destruction of the form\nto which it gives life, no more returns to the parent-block from which\nit came, it has become individualised, ready to enter into the _human\nkingdom._]\n\n[Footnote 259: The memory of the third life-wave, of the first Logos.]\n\n[Footnote 260: Everything, for instance, that concerns the planes of\nthe planetary system, on which it has finished its evolution.]\n\n[Footnote 261: The passing of consciousness from the causal body to\nthe nascent buddhic body.]\n\n[Footnote 262: The buddhic plane (the one immediately above the\nmental) is one in which the forms are so subtle that they no longer\n_limit_ the Life (_the Soul of the World_) animating them. This Life\ncomes directly into contact with the Life which causes all forms to\nlive; it then sees Unity: it sees itself everywhere and in everything,\nthe joys and sorrows of forms other than its own are its joys and\nsorrows, for it is universal Life.]\n\n[Footnote 263: This body is composed of physical matter, and therefore\nbelongs to the physical plane. It has been given a special name, not\nonly because it is made of ether, but because it can be separated from\nthe physical body.]\n\n[Footnote 264: The whole of the bodies: mental, astral, and physical.]\n\n[Footnote 265: The Ego (soul) in the causal body.]\n\n\n\n\nCONCLUSION.\n\n\nWe have now come to the end of our study: a task to which we have\ncertainly not been equal, so far is it beyond our powers. As, however,\nwe have drawn inspiration from our predecessors, so have we also, in\nour turn, endeavoured to shed a few more rays of light on certain\npoints of this important subject, and indicate fresh paths that may be\nfollowed by such as enter upon this line of investigation in the\nfuture.\n\nIt is our most ardent desire to see this fertile soil well tilled, for\nit will yield an abundant harvest. Mankind is dying in strife and\ndespair; the torrent of human activity is everywhere seething and\nfoaming. Here ignorance buries its victims in a noisome den of slime\nand filth; there, the strong and ruthless, veritable vampires, batten\non the labour and drain away the very life of the weak and helpless;\nfarther away, science stumbles against the wall of the Unknown;\nphilosophy takes up its stand on the cold barren glacier of\nintellectualism; religions are stifled and struggle for existence\nbeneath the age-long accumulations of the \"letter that killeth.\" More\nnow than ever before do we need to find a reason for morality, a guide\nfor science, an Ariadne's thread for philosophy, a torch to throw\nlight on religion, and Love over all, for if mankind continues to\ndevote the whole of its strength to the pursuit of material benefits,\nif its most glorious conquests become instruments to advance\nselfishness, if its progress merely increases physical wretchedness\nand makes moral decadence more terrible than before, if the head\ncontinues to silence the appeals of the heart, then divine Compassion\nwill have no alternative but to destroy beneath the waters of another\nflood this cruel, implacable civilisation, which has transformed earth\ninto an inferno.\n\nAmongst the most pressing and urgent truths, the most fruitful\nteachings, the most illuminating doctrines, the most comforting\npromises, we have no hesitation in placing the Law of Rebirths in the\nvery front. It is supported by ethics, by reason, and by science; it\noffers an explanation of the enigma of life, it alone solves almost\nall the problems that have harassed the mind of man throughout the\nages; and so we hope that, in spite of its many imperfections, this\nwork of ours will induce many a reader to say: _Reincarnation must be\ntrue, if could not be otherwise!_\n\nTHE END\n\n       *       *       *       *       *","title":"Reincarnation: A Study in Human Evolution","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":66441}