The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-03-02
THE THEOSOPHISTS.
MEETING OF THE LOCAL SOCIETY
YESTERDAY MORNING.
Uorl, of the Lotus CircIe-President
TmyIor's Interesting ADDRESS
the Doctrine of Reincarn"ton'

The Philosophical society held their
usual sunday meeting at their rooms
5o4 sos Progress building In spite OF
+,,a Indictment weather there was
fair attendance.
The Lotus circle met from 10 q. m
N n a. m. Mrs. W. P. Lynn has
charge of this class. The exercises
consisted of reading a selection from
tho Voice of Silence. This was fol-
lowed by singing and then the child
ron repeated verses pertaining TO life
(which they had memorized. After this
q lesson was given on the primary
aa1crs from which was deduced "a |
sbaosonhical truth. One little boy was !
asked. what IS your favorite color? he |
genIied. blue Why? He answered be-
csnse the heaven is blue and heaven !
Is everywhere :.
The regular meeting opened at u |
O'Clock. The president, Mr.. A "
Taylor, read an extract from the
Rhagavad-Gita, which is part OF The |
Mahabharata'' or the great epic poem
of India The idea presented helped
To Illustrate the doctrine Of reincarna-
4ion. which was the theme Of the morn
ing.
AS man throNeth away old gar
1neDts and putteth on new, even SO the
dweller in the body, having quilted It's
old mortal frames, entereth into others
which are new Death is certain 10
all things which are born and rebirth
10 ali mortals; wherefore It doth not
behocve thee to grieve about the in
evitable.'
Mr.. Taylor then spoke as follows
about reincarnation:
II neincarnation be true, and we be-
Meved II to be, it would change the
basis of the world; our ideas, aims and
objects would be different. The west
ern world does not believe in reincar-
nation To US it comes as a new idea,
strangely new, and is rejected But
1einearnation is creeping in. people
are beginning to believe it unconscious
". We find this idea appearing in
various articles and remarks There
are two points Of view to be considered
in connection with this subject. Some
persons reject the idea OF reincarnation
negatively: they reject it for the very
same reason that Trey do the old
orthodox idea of heaven-a place where
there are pearly gates, golden streets
and people spend their time in eternal
singing This conception of heaven is
DYING out because people are growing
away from it The other class of per-
TElDCdIldLiOn
those who have ideas on the hereafter
which are more or less definite. Talk
ing with one of this class I asked what
he believed? What were his ideas of
the hereafter? What takes place after
death? The answer was after we pass
out of this life, we go into other
spheres of activity; other planes of
life, and GO on and on forever. This
class believe in q progressive heaven
sra4r -4zate
of life different from this and gains
other experiences. If this is true then
man is outside of all the laws of ma
ture Nowhere in nature do we find
this skipping Of experiences or planes
of life through which the monad or
soul has to pass The flower does not
bloom until it has been through all
the planes which bring il to perfec-
ton Natures movements are orderly
and regular. There are no skippings,
no lapses Before life can pass from
one plane to another it has to be per-
fected on the lower plane. Obserya-
ton IN biology, botany or any branch
of science teaches this. The idea Of
a progressive heaven is outside of the
general law of nature Man is only a
part OF nature after all. We may stand
on the very highest plane but we are
part and parcel of the world that sur
rounds us. God is in the stones as well
IS man God is everywhere
Observe man in various conditions
from the savage to the highest type,
as Emerson. If the savage lives but
once and Emerson lives but once, the
experience of these two types is vastly
different. There is as great a degree
of difference between the life of an
Emerson and that of a, savage as be-
tween q savage and an animal If
Emerson lived only once and never
came back again the question is where
did Emerson get his character If
Emerson never existed before and the
savage is created for the first time
then there must be some terrible in
justice, because the experience of the
one is SO much larger than that of the
other by comparison. II may be said
that the savage in another life will
have an opportunity to obtain the ex-
perience which Emerson did in this.
But even If the savage reaches Elmer
sons experience. viii not Emerson be
ahead2 Then God has created one
soul tTnmeasureabiy in advance of an
other. We recognize the abSurdity and
unfadrness of such a proposition
IF man is part of nature, then he
must be governed by the general ma
tural laws and go through an orderly
process OF development. Is the savage
who dies TO skip all experiences and be
transformed into God or angelo Re
incarnation Is the only logical explana-
ton Of this problem Hume said tina;
relncarnation is the only logical theory
that had ever been advanced to ex-
plain the human soul Schopenhauer
the great German philosopher. says
t;fe same thing. This theory explains
kekedtty It clearly implaDts hops