Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-05-23
-nur II YOU nyed bofore you ought to have

vi MS mental colorlng he owes To this lifI
and how much to previous livesl Who ha
not, in agony, sometimes echoed the poet
sOlilnquy: "Methinks | lived in some old
world, and this is hell" Who remember,
tn first five years of his hfef All our in
fancy Is blank. Who remembers all ht
sal |, saw or heard on any one day of las
week Yet We were rs much ourselves a,
infants as we are now in maturity. | hav,
hvel nearly forty five years, yet all that
can remember perfectly would scarcely cover
thirty cumplet' days Of my existence, yet
was as much myself in the large parts of my
life which ! cannot remember, as in the
present moment"
How came You to acquire this belief
Il did not acquire it. II was an mheritauce.
I brought thu much Of my previous lives
with me in memory. | cannot recall IA time
I when ! did not believe in it As a child
USED TO shut my eyes and try very hard to
remember something that seemed near "a
me, hut could not hecome clear But be-
/ lieve in pr existence as a matter of philoSo
ply. 1t explains why man is here, with ,ut
lheling mature or Gnl; it fix..s the respnn
sibility on man himself, without out, aging
justice, and it pres nts the stron ,tst incentive.
| for gooi actions"
You think, then, that man is a fire..
agent"
From the standpoint Of pre-existence
every human being is Self-m ,de. One can
see that men are free 10 do a. they will
nf"r they are created, hence it would seem
that the ordinary theory Of free will is cor
rect Then he reflects that men have moth
ing to do with their own creation; that some
are created goo and some BAD, some wisr
and some foolish. some beautiful and som
ugly, and that their good or bad qualitie
are inh ritancel Then he is forced to be
heve that man should he neither credited
nor condemned for qualities which he is not
responsible for, but which We're inherited
from anrertors or were the gift or curse of
the Creator. This process of reasoning will
not only destroy all basis for belief in free
will but tends to weaken the commend alton
of good qualities or the condemnation of bad
ones, since an individ is responsible for
neither, if they We're given him in his crea-
ton. Let us take Emerson if you p ease, a.
the type of our best man Of late yAars-mor-
ally, intellectually, spiritually: and take
Bender, the Kansas murderer as the type
of all that is brutal. ferociouS and de
PRAYED Now. if those two men inherited
their characters and gualitieS-if one wa
created good and the other bad do not see
why the one should be loved and praised and
the other condemned. IL would seem that
Emerson was simply a very lucky man in
the act of being born: that he drew an ex-
traorlinary prZe in the lottery of creation
while Bender was unlucky in a remarkable
degree, and is deserving of all sympathy.
But deny the tremendous libel on Deity or
on Nature, that some men are created COOL
and some hai, without their own knowledge
or consent The theory of preexistence ex-
plains the whole case Emerson was born
into that state Of mental moral and spiritual
elevation into which he had developed him
self through previous lives. He was, In a
sense, his own creator. Hence all the honor
given him is justly due him. Our natural
feelings on this, As on many other subjects,
are right Ben Ter was what he had made
himself. hence the lOathing for his character
is just"
And genius, is 1t, too, self-madef'
~Self-developed, surely. Indeed, the strug-
giles of genius in this world are to me a
strong proof of predxistence. The soul that
has partially developed its genius in a pre-
vious life brings its lougings and its powers
here, and tn uyh obstacles and defeat finds |
expression No one life could perfect a |
genius of any kind, and universal genius. |
a man or woman who can do anything, is the |
result Of separate developm mt of each |
talent, the perfecting OF many industrious,
aspiring lives"
'Do you find anything in the scriptures |
your beliefr'
ayes, tn nix Jesus understood it as he did |
many other hidden things, and alluded to his !
and preGxistence in these words:
4 came from the father, and am come into |
the world; leave the world and go unto the |
father Again when he says, i can Law |
down my life and | can take it again And |
il seems that the people he lived among were
In the re-embOdiment of certain
Dnes at least They were always looking for
the return of the prophets in SONS new form
They said to Jesus. Who art thoui Art
.hou Eliasi Art thou that great prophetf
What are the CLOVIS by which we can guess
what and who we We're in the past.7
ave are our Own clews-index preface and
Ill the chapters are within ourselves. be-
ieve that when nsn clearly understand this
md think about 1t, each ones past existence
will be an open book Even now we have
1ut little difficulty in knowing what a man
5 made of. There is a reason for every
hing, and when We learn to read the book of
human nature Alright, every virtue, vice,
aste and prejudice will reveal its history.
wen as the history of nation can be traced
through its languege."
"You are a radical and original eyolu-
ion>tP
Yes, believe in an evolution for the
pirit of man which is a spiral progress
through worlds This earth is but one link
n q mighty chain of worlds | for one be
ieve that the whole starry heavens is the
heritage of the human family"
do you think rebirth voluntary or COM
ulsory matter"
"Both believe that it is the law, Just as
cath here is a great part Of the law of
ature. We must be born again and We
Vant to be. The impulse to live pervades
Il matter, seen and unseen. Life in the
esh means development 1t is the souls
attic ground Here We win or lose The
Orm Of man, which We have every reason to |
oppose is the same after he becomes disem-
odied as now, was certainly designed for a
fe Of material activity. In the flesh again
nd again We must live and conquer, or live
nd fail to try it over and over until we do
And yet this man who goes about with
lch tremen iouS theories in his mind is a
business man, and fills his place in
lie world as conScientiously as any worm of
lie dust who never dreamed that be was to
lherit so vast kingdom rs the universe.
GERTRUDE GARRISON. ,
A Cause of Worldly -Mindedness. ,
"The reason the Shakers are decreasing :