The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-01-07

many who have fleeting recollections
at times, of places, persons and cir
cumstances that they know were not
of this present period of their exist
ence. Sometimes they are recalled to
us in dreams or in severe illness.
When we consider the enormous
possibilities of the developed and
latent powers in the average man who
may be capable of performing still
more wonderful physical, mechanical
and intellectual feats than are chron-
icled in history. it is easy to perceive
that the time given in an ordinary life
is not sufficient. to attain the merest
fraction of what Nature evidently had
in store for u.s. These potential pow
ers would never nave been placed with
in us if they 1.ere not to be used
sometime or other, since we know that
nothing in the economy of Nature is
wasted.
Another fact in favor of Reincarna-
tion, is it's plausible explanation of the
continued population of the various
countries outside of the theory of evo-
luton, natural selection, or "the sur
vival of the fittest, since it does away
with the forming of new soul each
time child is born. Although we
know space to be limitless and can not
therefore conceive Of it's being over
crowded with human souls, still we
have a living witness of the variety
and grades of mental and physical
development all about us, and if it
were not for thejust, equable and ben
ificent laws of karnna and Reincarns-
ton, what possible compensation could
be offered to the millions of human
beings who are daily drifting into an
unknown region whose gate is death.
How unreasonable it would be to sup
pose that one shf It, unsatisfed life
experience is all t. we could realize
in exchange for the hopes and fears,
the partial successes and overwhelming
failures, the sacrifices and disappoint-
ments that crowd our days.
Generally speaking, reincarnation
means progression, but occasionally
the line diverges and retrogression be-
comes possible. There are people Of
very depraved tendencies who have
lost all spirituality in themselves and
who are called in theosOphical lam
guage, soulless men. 1t is stated in
our Hindu books that the mind of man
is dual, being composed of the pure
and the impure, the higher and the
lower. The higher one is always lead
ing us toward the region of the spirit,
whereas the lower one leads us down
to the material pleasures of the world.
Our doctrine is that in proportion to
the degree of paralyzation of the func-
tions of the higher or lower mind, we
are further from our goal or nearer it..
That is, in the case Of persons of very
depraved tendencies, who always hunt
after material pleasures and thus lose
all, will they paralyze the functions of
the higher mind. Thus when they lose
all spirituality flowing from the higher
mind, their higher mind no longer helps
or influences them and they become
mere victims to the pleasures of the
senses. Then they are called soulless,
because the real soul that animates
each and every man in the world is the
higher mind; which higher mind being
lost, they become soulless like brutes,
which are animated by the lower mind
only. In case of such sOulless men the
natural conclusion is that they will be
born as beasts in the next birth. But
a closer examination shows that such
ought not to be the case. Here is the
relic Of man without his higher mind,
who has developed himself into more
than an animal. He can not any more
be a man, since he has lost the influence
of his higher mind which is the pecu-
liar feature Of man as distinguished
from animals. He can not be beast
again, since he has developed himself
into more than beast through the
period of evolution and can not find
free scope for the qualification Of his
desires in the life of beast. Hindu
books say that such person will be