Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-05-18

treatlse- But always and always, IN the
course OF time, truth that starts from a
true spiritual source becomes perverted dis
torted and defled by the creduiity of the hui
man minds through which it successfully flows,
and we must In all cases seek back to the
source OF the stream il we would find that
which is pure and true There are numbers of
the ordinary doctrines and dogmas of Christian
churches which have no basis of fact They are
the concessions or q wise priestcraft to the
| necessities of infirm humanity As such they
are valuable, indeed necessary, for the bulk of
mankind. II could DESTROY every Christian
church tomorrow would say no, let them be
upheld; reason and a necessity for them ex-
ists but would strive to make them less nee
essary by improving the quality of human be-
lngs. The Christian scheme of salvation is a
portion OF the old doctrine of Karma, according
to which each man must suffer exactly the con-
sequences OF his deeds good or evil, and must
work out his own salvation, without regard to
| fear of the wrath of personal God, or without
reliance upon the alleged divine character of
any person.
THE LAW OF KARMA.
''What is the meaning of the Sanscrit word
Karma, which you theosophists use so much?"
asked The STAR reporter.
at is Englished in many ways" said Dr.
Coues, according to the different aspects of
the case. You may call it, if you please, the
| principle OF justice, according to which every
man must suffer exactly the consequences of
| his own actions, through an intrinsic causality
| which subsists in those actions. In another
| sense it may be defined merit dement,.
| according to which man realizes in his own
| person the effect of all his thoughts, words.
| and deeds. If you wish to personify Karma
| as god. you may lken it to the old Greek
| idea of Nemesis, or fate, which was said to
override and override even the DEGREES
| of Zeus, showing how deeply rooted
| in human nature is this idea of necessary
| retributive justice the effect of cause. The
| nearest the Christians seem to me to have got
| to the idea of karma is when they talk of pre-
| destination or Generalization. You know per-
| fectly well that what you did yesterday, for
better or worse, has, if only in the slightest de-
| gree. made you a different man to-day. In
other words. yesterdays karma IN little things
| is upon you to-day. So in great things al
! IN the greatest things, and in the sum of
things, will the results of this inevitable
law of cause and effect be felt. Recollect that
| every known cause is the effect of an anteced-
| ent cause; that every effect becomes i'll turn
| the cause of something else; therefore every
| effect upon man becomes an active cause
| within him to produce yet other and further
effects. The causes of yesterday are the effects
of to-day, these in turn to become the causes of
| tomorrow for each and every individual"
REMUNERATION.
| 'What do theosophists mean" asked there
| porter. "when they talk about reincarnation?"
ITO judge from what read in the news
! papers, said DR.. Coues, Il should say that
most of them mean to talk about something they
| know nothing about, just as they will go on and
! give you learned dsquisitions on Nirvana. Ex-
| actly what the orthodox Buddhistic dogma of
| relncarnation Is you can learn from any cate
chlsm of that faith. The notion that we have
| lived before in this world is a widespread one.
The old Greek philosophy had a good deal to
say about it under the name of Metempsychosis
A good deal has been preached against it, in
! later times. under the vulgar name transmigra-
| ton of souls. Some logical basis for specula-
lions respecting rebrth is found in the idea that
| that which Is to continue forever or for an in
| definite period must have already existed since
the beginning for an indefinite period.
can not imagine such a thing, as l sup
pose human soul to be to
have actually come into existence a
few years ago, but rather to have had being
| appropriate to its own nature from all time, as
well as now having the same nature which may
enable it to subsist for an indefinite time in the
| future. In other words. only that which has
| had no beginning can be supposed to have no
! end, and if there is any truth in the ordinary
notions OF the Immortality of the soul, sup
pose the soul to have been always immortal
| This is the logical basis of the thought. Some
ascertained facts of human experience may be
| taken as collateral evidence in favor of this
intuitions which some people have that
| make 1t seem to them as il they
had been here BEFORE but l cannot ex-
plain the recognized inequalities and apparent
| ln1ustlces OF human life SO well on the theory
| that our souls begun to be when our bodies
| were conceived, as on that that our souls had
previously existed and came into bodies,
charged as it were with the results of former
experiences with matter acting as predeter-
mining cause upon their present lives. 1t is
| simply carrying to its logical consequences the
| karmic idea of cause and effect, that we work
| out IN each set OF experiences with matter
that is to say in given incarnation-that
nature which had been already impressed
upon the soul by its previous experiences.
| Reincarnation is also philosophical key to
what orthodox naturalists call laws of heredity
| MEN WHO MIGHT BE THEosoPHIsTs.
eyes," said the doctor, as he finished his
cigarette, 'there is deep and vivid interest in
the subject. 1t is even now stirring the thoughts
and words of men in the pulpit who dare give
utterance to their most honest thoughts.
| Prominent among these men of strong mind
| and deep insight are Rev. Minot J. Savage, the
| leading Unitarian clergyman of Boston; the
| Rev. K. Heber Newton, the equally prominent
| Episcopal clergyman of New York. They are
| men who show how glorious the ministry might
| be. 1t is better that they should remain in,
and not forsake their pulpits, and bring
! their people and their churches up to them.
| There is another man who knew and spoke of
| these matters and he is now seeking to make
| living by the precarious means of lecturing.
| That is the Rev. Edward McGlynn. Another
man who will 1 believe accept the truths of
| theosophy is Robert &. Ingersoll. / say it be-
cause of his honesty, his intellectual hospital
| ity. All that the doughty colonel requires is
just to enlarge the boundary of his movable