The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-06-03

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development as well as diSburSe the rewards
and penalties. We are experiencing part
of that eternity now, and we always have
been"
But if your theory is correct children are
not really related to their parentsF
sony by the laws of attraction. Spirits
will seek embodiment through agencies like
themselves; but if these are not accessible l
believe the impulse to live is so overpowering |
that they will seize any opportunity of enter
ing life that presents Itself and that accounts |
for the incongruities we often see in families
and surroundings"
"But if you lived before you ought to have
some recollection of it"
Not necessarily, although we are not sure
but we do Whence come the thoughts
fancies and vague, far-of memories that al
are familiar with? Who knows how much
of his mental coloring he owes to this life
and how much to previous lives' Who has
not, in agony, sometimes echoed the poets
| soliloquy: "AIeihinks / lived in some old
world and this is hell" Who remembers
the first five years of his lifel All our in
fancy is blank. Who remembers all he
said saw or heard on any one day OF last
week! Yet we were as much ourselves as
infants as we are now in maturity. have
lived nearly forty-ive years, yet all that
can remember perfectly would scarcely cover
thirty complete days of my existence, yet
was as much myself in the large parts of my
life which | cannot remember, as III the
present moment"
"How came you to acquire this belief"
81 did not acquire it. 1t was an inheritance.
1 brought that much of my previous lives
with me in memory. cannot recall a time
, 7 ~ i,,i AS |
used to shut my eyes and try very hard to
remember something that seemed near to
me, but could not become clear But be-
lieve in pre-existence as matter of philoso
ply. 1t explains why man is here, without
ibeling nature or Col; it fixes the respon-
sibility on man himself, without QUIT aging
Justice, and it presents the stron gest incentive
l for good actions"
"You think then, that man is free
q agent"
From the standpoint Of preexistence
every human being is self-m,ds. One can
see that men are free to do "a they Will
after then are created, hence it would seem
= that the ordinary theory of free will is cor
u rect Then he reflects that men have moth
/ ing to do with their own cr.ation; that some
are created cool and some bad, some wise
and some foolish, some beautiful and some
u?lv, and that their good or bad qualities
ore NH ,ritance, Then he is forced to be-
lieve that man should be neither credited
: nor condemned for qualities which he Is moi
= responsible for, but which were lnheriteI
It from ancestors or were the gift or curse O
i the Creator This process of reasoning vii
, not only destroy all basis for belief in fre'
-, will, but tends to weaken the commentator
y of good Qualities or the condemnation OF baC
ones, since an individual is responsible 10
Q neither, if they were given him in his crea
J, ton. Let us take Emerson, if you p ease a
al the type of our best man of late years-mor
r ally, intellectually, spiritually; and TAX
nj Bender, the Kansas murderer, as the typ
- of all that is brutal, ferocious and Gle
praved. Now, if those two men inherite
~ their characters and qua!ities-f one wa
created good and the other bad do not sc
9d why the one should be loved and praised an
I'd the other condemned. 1t would seem tha
il Emerson was simply very lucky man
ne the act of being born; that he drew an e.
We traordinary prize in the lottery OF creatlol
while Bender was unlucky in remarkao
es degree, and is deserving of all sympath.
er Pint deny the tremendous libel on Deity {
"a on Nature, that some men are created goc
le- and some bad, without their own knowledt
NS@NA'"SSS
at nlains the whole case Emerson was boz
into that state of mental, moral and spiritu
err elevation into which he had developed hin
us self through previous lives He was, in
re sense his own creator. Hence all the hone
to oiven him is Justly due him. Oar natur
feelings on this, as on many other subject
le- are right. Ben Ter was what he had mac
ell himself, hence the loathing for his charact'
on is just"
oil land genius, is it, too, self-mado."
oh "Self-developed, surely. Indeed, the stru
giles of genius in this world are to me
in stronq proof of preGxstence. The soul th'
e. has partially developed its genius in pr
Ids vious life brings it's longings and its powe
bv here, and tn "ough obstacles and de eat fint
If axnression No one life could perfect
genius of any kind and universal genlu
n q man or woman who can do anything, is tt
mr. result of separate deveiopm mt OF ea'
ng talent, the perfecting of many industrior
ne aspiring lives. A. ,
!, it "Do you ma ahyIhinS e, III Un0 'oi pun
it corroborating your bellef|
mr. eyes. tn nix Jesus understood it as he d
4 q many other hidden things, and alluded to
We incarnation and preGxstence in these wore
III Il came from the father, and am come in
hi, fine world | leave the world and go unto t
,ed father Again when he says i can i
bod down my life and | can take it again. A
ned it seems that the people he lived among We
believers IN the re-embodiment of certa
Nil ones. at least. They were always looking
all the return of the prophets in some new for
of They said to Jesus, who art thou!
ne thou Elias. Art thou that great prophet
cry "What are the clews by which we can gu
the what and WHO we were in the past|
the awe are our own clews-index, preface q
RE- all the chapters are within ourselves l
IAN lieve that when men clearly understand IL
his and think about it, each ones past existei
it will be an open book. Even now we he
l,ed but little difficulty in knowing what N
bo, il made of. There is a reason for eve
,cts thing. and when We learn to read the book
an human nature Alright, every virtue, Vi
the taste and prejudice will reveal its histo
If even as the history of nation can be ira
through It's language"
+ is "You are a radical and original eve
ius- tionistP
ach ayes, / believe in an evolution for
va shirt oil man which is spiral prog
Of through worlds. This earth is but one
a. in mighty chain of worlds. for on'
tha lieve that the whole starry heavens is
o t.;4o,ra ~ tho human family y