The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-11

He lives with frugality and sweet hospitality.
And wants pie but two times day;
he never eats onionA3 nor treads on your bunions,
Nor growis when you get in his way.
He's wise and he's witty, perseverfng and gritty
And has magnificent head;
He's AL light and sweetness. he's thorough COM
He's perfection, in short hut he's dead!
Orchard Lake Howitzer.
HAVE WE EVER LIVED BEFOREs
To seriously entertain the idea of indi-
viduals being born several times may, per-
haps, be regarded as among the queerest
| and most extravagant fancies to be met
with in the history of human folly. Yet,
Notwithstanding its seeming absurbity, the
notion is one that has been entertained in
various forms for ages past, even by those
who in their day have been ranked among
the wise ones.
Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher, not
only taught the possibility of former exist
ence. but declared that he could distinctly
remember living two thousand years before.
He said that he had a vivid recollection Of
killed BY sword thrust from Menelaus,
| the king OF Sparta; and he used to point
out, In the temple of Juno at Argos, the
| very shield which he had borne on that oc-
casion.
This truly marvellous feat of memory
"
by Empedocles. He 80 far conveniently
corroborated his teaching by affirming that
he, too, could clearly remember having
passed through several successive forms Of
boy, shrub, a bird and fish before he be-
came Empedocles, still preserving one indi-
viduality throughout
There is little doubt, however, that these
philosophers borrowed their idea of pre-
natal existence from the Egyptians, among
These people believed that when the body
died the vital principle entered into some
other animal born to receive it, and in this
way made circuit through all living being
inhabiting land, sea and oil, till it again took
human shape. This revolution was sup
posed to be completed in the space of three
thousand years.
But even in more modern times these
strange beliefs have taken form. William
Blake, the eminent artist and poet, con-
ceived, among other extravaganza fancies.
that he had lived many times before, and
that during his various sojourns on this
planet he had enjoyed the personal friend
ships of such great characters as Homer,
Pindar, Virgil, Dante and Milton.
lie said that these companions of his by-
gone lives still appeared to him in visions,
and that he occasionally held converse with
them, benetting by their instruction. and
advice. Such experiences as those Of the
artist-poet are, perhaps, about as rare as
But that there have been experienced, So
berly speaking some curious and wonderful
Impressions OF nature which, for the mo-
ment, strongly suggests glimpses Of some
former state OF existence, seems to be indis-
putable. We have it on the authority Of
those the least likely to deceive their own
minds, or to mislead others, that they
| themselves have had such moments occur to
them. @
Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his "Autocrat,'
In{E1n Sr,x,1,y all 1~n A. H. "A
consciousness of former state, seemingly
as matter of his own personal experience.
He describes it thus: "All at once a con-
viction flashes through US that we have
been In the same precise circumstances, as
at the present instant, once or many times
| BEFORE"
One of the company to whom he ia sup
posed to be addressing himself, the school
mistress, said, in a hesitating sort of way,
that she knew the feeling we'll but didnst
IKE TO experience i; it made her feel she
The luminous mind of Sir Walter Scott
was once fascinated by the mysterious inn
preston of his having lived before at some
indefinite far-off period: He made an entry
OF the circumstance in his diary, February
time was strongly haunted by what I
would call the sense Of pre-existence, in
confirmed idea that nothing which passed
was said for the first time /; that the same
topics had been discussed and the same
persons had stated the same opinions of
them"
Further on he describes it as "like a
mirage in a DESERT" distressing to his
feelings, and bringing with it a ''vile sense
of want of reality" in all he did and said.
DRAFTED Everyday Book" who had a
mind particularly critical, himself once
met with most startling incident of
the kind, which left lasting impress
sion upon him, and is said, indeed, to
have altered the whole tenor of his life.
to him, he noted to himself the fact that he
had never been in that neighborhood be-
fore. He relates that, being shown into a
, waiting-room to which he was beyond doubt
total stranger. he looked around, and
suddenly, to his astonishment, all the sur
roundings became. perfectly familiar. He
seemed to recognize every object in the
room although he was still positively GER
tain he had never entered it before
He said to himself, Eyes, have seen all
knot in the shutter" At once determining
to put his strange impression to the test, he
opened the window shutter, searched, and
found the knot exactly us he had pictured
| it in his mind J.!
Numerous writer's have made reference to
this very singular subject; and in Southey's
published letters there occurs this obserya-
ton: THAT we shall recover the conscious
ness of some lower stages through which We
may previously have passed seems to me
not improbable
Tennyson, in one of his sonnets, has re-
ference to it in the following expressive
liness-
IF one but speaks, or hens, or stirs his chair.
Ever the wonder waxeth more and more
| go that we say, all this hath been before,
All this hath been. know not when or where.'
Lord Lytton, in his "Godolphin," speaks
of the feeling and describes it as "a strange
kind of inner and spiritual memory which
often recalls us to places and persons we
have never seen before. and which Platoon
lists would resolve to be the unquenched
and struggling consciousness of a former
life."
It is probable that most people have at
some time or other felt these curious sensa-
tions; but, as has been observed, there il
always natural shyness or hesitation to
speak of the matter, and generally an ina
billty to describe it in ordinary language.
Various explanations of this mental phe-
nomenon have been given, but perhaps the
most sensible is that of DIR. Wigan, to be
found in an able work published by him
some years ago. He supposes that the
brain being a double organ, its hemis-
pheres acting together like 1.-TWO eyes," one
half occasionally goes to sleep or becomes
exhausted for an instant, leaving its fellow
to receive but faint imf ressions Of ideas.
To this momentary failure and sudden re-
coyery il attributed the extraordinary con-
| fusion in the mind regarding time and