The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1886-05-26

hOilhOQuts Nc tFihA9 80 80
world and this i hell Who remembers
the first fiv. wears Of his hfe9 All our ir-
fancy is a blank Who remembers all he
said saw or heard ON any one day Of last
week9 Yet we we're as much ourselves a.
infants as we arc now in maturity. have
lived nearly fol|ty-five years, yet AL that
can remember phrfectlv would scarcely cover
thirty complete ,iays of my existence, yet
was as much myself in the large parts Of my
life which / cannot remember, as in the
present moment
EHow came yslu to acquire this beliefP
GIdid not acquire It, 1t was an mheritance.
I brought that much Of my previous lives
,v;tb mo in memory cannot recall time
,vhen d;d NOT belisye in it, AS a child
used to shut my eyes ana try very hai0 ~
remember som4thing that seehleu ne0
ma hut could hot become clear. But be-
lieva in nr.-existeuce AS matter Of philoso
nhv II exnlaihs why man is here, without
Iibalip0 nature or Col; l. fixes the resPon-
sibility on mar himself. without outraging
iustice and IL pEesants the strongest incentive
for good actionk
@You think. then. that man is free
agent" ,..,.
From the standpoint OF pre-exlstenee
ova,-y human bhiuo is self-made. One can
see that men hre free to do as they win
after bsy are created, hence it would seem
that the ordinary theory Of free win is cor
rect Then he reflects that men have moth
IN, TO do with their own creation; that some
are cr,,,eJ go, and some bad, some wise
an some foolish. some beautiful and SONS
uyly and that their good or bad qualities
are nh ,i4aqce Then he is forced to bs-
li.va that maf should be neither credited
rn. ,..,n,Inm.,od for aullities which he is not
ras,,c-, ia, fol- hus which were inherited
from an,c - % .-"re Iie gift or curse OF
the Creator h ;n-, q Of reasoning viii
not onlv dest,,,, i. ias, for belief in free
win Int tends to v. O. tle eommendation
Of GOOD Qualities or ia .4,llamnation bad
ones since an individual i, responsible for
neither. II they were given lin in his crea-
ton Let ms lake Emerson, ii Won p ease, as
the tvpe of out best man Of lite Y arS--mor-
allv. Intellectually, spiritually: a''d take
Bender. the Kansas murdere" a, the type
Of all that i brutal fero ,iOuS and de-
nraved. Now. If those two N n inherited
their characters and qualitiet-if ons was
created rood And the other ba ~ do not see
why the one should be loved praised and
the other condemned. It wo Ia seem that
Emerson wal simply very llcky man in
the act of being born; that h drew an ex-
traordinary rrize in the lottery OF creation,
while Beudei was unlucky in remarkable
degree. and is deserving Of a sympathy.
But deny the tremendous lib on Deity or
on Nature, that some men arc created good
and some bad. without their own knowledge
or consent. rhe theory Of pr, Existence ex-
plains the whole case EmersoI was born
into that stale of mental, moral nd spiritual
e,evstion into which he had developed him
self through previous lives. IL was in a
sense. his own creator Hence AZ the honor
uiven him id Justly due him. Our natural
feelings on this. as on many 9th r subjects
are right Bender was what h. had made
himself hence the Ioatling for his character
sApd geniirs, is it, too, self f-m.,le;"
"self-deve1oped, surely. Indeel, the strug-
giles Of genius in this world n to me q
Strong proof OF presxistence Tn soul that
has partially developed its geni in a pre-
vious life brings its longings and its powers
here, and through obstacles and 'eteat finds
expression No one life could perfect a
genius of ahy kind, and a universal genius,
a man or woman who can do anyt ing. is the
result OF a separate developm Mt of each
talent, the berfecting of many dustrious,
aspiring live IS"
s'Do you fud anything in the scriptures
corroboratibg your beliefr
"Ycs, ] tn nix Jesus understood il as he did
many other hidden things, and alhl lei to his
incarnqtion and pre6xistence in THESE words:
4 came fro,h the father, and am come into
the world; ! leave the world and & ua the
father. Again when he says, Il can lay
down my life and | can take it again. And
it seems thst the people he lived aTltong We're
believers II the re-embodinaent q certain
ones, at leabt They were always looking for
the return DC the prophets in some new form.
They said to Jesus, Who art ili,ul Art
thou Elias. Art thou that great i ophett
aWhaG ale the clews by which w can guess
all the cha piers are within ourselvc. be-
Ieve that when men clearly undelS and this,
and think about it, each ones past existence
will be an open book Even now We have
but little difficulty in knowing VIII man
is made Oh There is reason for every
thing. andIwhen we learn to read til book OF
human ndture Alright, every viru-. vice,
taste and prejudice will reveal It's history.
even as thE history of nation can lie traced
through itb language
"You afs a radical and origmai evoiu-
tioni-tf
"Yes, believe in an evolution for the
spirit of hnan which is a spiral progress
through worlds. This earth Is but one Ink
in mighty cna'n OF Woflu@ Ior On oe-
lieve thai the whole starry heaven is the
heritage bf the human family.
"Do yoh think rebirth voluntary o. com
pulsory Ihatter!"
"Both. | believe that it is the law, jus. as
death be Re is great part Of the law of
nature We must be born again and We
want TO be- The impulse to live rvadss
all mattPr, seen and unseen. Life in the
flesh means developments It is The souls
battle ground Here we win or los Tue
form of man, which we have every reason to
suppose Is the same after he becomes ,liSen-
bodied a now, was certainly designed for a
life of material activity. In the flesh again
and again we must live and conquer, live
and failIto try it over and over until ae do
conquer
And yet this man who goes about with
such tn men lous theories in his min IS a
success: :Il business man, and fills his p &c in
the wor ll conseientiously as any wos oG
the dus who never dreamed that he NIX q:
inherit to vast kingdom as the univeie