Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-06-04

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eternity that seems lust and possible 10
me Is an eternity OF lives, which viii qiye
every soul action, development, as wei
as dlsburse the rewards aud penalties.
We are experiencing part of that etcr-
nifty now, and we always have beeu.n
"But II your theory is correct children
are not really related 20 their parentSyn
sony hy the lawslof attraction. Spirits
Will seek embodiment through agencies
Ike themselves; but II these are not &C.
cessiole believe the impulse 10 live Is 40
overpowering they win seize any op-
portunity OF entering life that presents
Itself, and that accounts for the neon
gruitles we often see IN families and sur
roundngs.n
"But II you lived before you ought to
have some recollection OF IT.
mot necessarily, although we are not
sure but we do. Whence come the
thoughts, fancies and vague, far-off men,
cries that all are familiar with9 Who
knows how much OF his montal coloring
ne owes to this life and how much TO pre-
vious lives2 Who has not, III agony,
sometimes echoed the poets sOliloquy;
'Methinks | lived in some old world, and
this Is HE'LL Who remembers the first
i've years OF his lifep All our infancy 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-ilye years, yet all that | can
remember perfectly would scarcely cover
thirty complete days Of my existence, yet
was as much myself m the large parts
OF my life which | cannot remember, as In
the present moment.m
Glow came you toacquire this bellei2n
81 did not acquire Il. II was an inner.
! itsnce. brought that much Of my pre-
vious lives with me In memory. Icaunot
recall time when did not believe IN Il.
AS child ! used TO shut my eyes and try
very hard 10 remember something that
seemed near to me. but could not become
clear. But believe in pre-eXlstence as a
matter OF philosophy. II explains why
man Is here, without hbellug nature or
! God; IL fixes the responsibility ON man
himself, without outaging justice, and It
presents the strongest Incentive for good
ac Ions"
lyon think, then, that man is free
agent"
"From the standpoint Of pre-exlstence
every human beingis self-made, One can
see that men are free to do as they will
after they are created, hence IL would
seem that the ordinary theory of free will
is correct. Then he renects that men
have nothing to do with their own crea-
ton; that some are created good and some
bad, some wise, and some foolish, some
beautiful and some ugly, aud that their
good or bad qualities are inheritanoes.
Then he is forced to believe that man
should be neither credited nor condemned
for qualities which he is not responsible
for, but which We're Inherited from ances-
tors or were the gift or curse OF the Crea-
tor This process OF reasoning will not
only destroy all basis for belief IN free
Will, but tends to weaken the commenda-
tion of good qualities or the oondetdua-
ton of bad ones, since an Individual is re-
sponsible for neither, II they We're given
HIM in hls creation Let ns take Emer-
son, II you please, as the type of our best
man Of late years--morOlly, intellectually,
spiritually; aud take Bender, the Kansas
murderer, as the type Of all that is bru ais
ierocious and deprayed. Now, II those
two men inherited their characters aud
qualities-ii one was created good aud
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 very lucky man In
the act OF being born; that he drew an
extraordinary prize In the lottery OF crea-
ton, while Bender was nnlucky IN re-
markable degree, and is deserving OF oil
sympathy But deny the tremendous
| libel on Deity or on nature, that some
men are created good and some bad,
without their own knowledge or consent.
The theory OF pre-existencs explains the
whole case. Emerson was born into that
state Of mental, moral and spiritual eleva-
tlon into which he had developed himself
through previous lives. He was, Ia Il
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. Bender was what he
| had made himself, hence the loathing for
his character Is just"
"And genius, is IL, too, self-madeY"
uSelf-deyeloped, surely. Indeed, the
struggles OF genius In this world are TO
me a strong proof OF pre-existence. The
soul that has partially developed Its gen
ius In previous life brings lts longings
and its powers here, and through Obsta-
Giles and defeat finds expression. No one
life could perfect a genius Of any kind,
and universal genus, man or woman
| who can do anything, is the result OF a
separate development Of each talent, the
periectlpg OF many industrious, aspiring
| livesn
"Do you find anything in the scriptures
corroborating your belief"
UYes, think Jesus understood II as he
did many other hidden things, and alluded
to his incarnation and pre-existence In
these Words Il came from the father,
and am come into the world; leave the
world and 20 uato the father Again
when he says, Il can lay down my lie
and can take 1t again And 1t seems
that the people he lived among were be-
| levers in the re-embodlment Of certain
ones, at least. They were always looking
] Tor the return of the prophet In some new
form. They said to Jesus, who art
thou2 Art thou Eli? Art thou that great
propbeti'n
"What are the clews by which we can
guess what and who We were In the
past?"
eve are our own clews-indexi pre-
face and all the chapters are within our
selves. ] believe that when men clearly
understand this, ard think about IT, each