The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-24
SUBJECT A MYSTICAL ONE,
BUT SHE DISCUSSES REINCARNA-
TION IN A LOGICAL AND
LEARNED MANNER.
SAYS IT'S CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
Was Taught I'm the Writings of the
Great Christian Fathers-Her
Argument.

| eminent theosophist, Annie Besant.
Among the 300 or more people present,
| there were doubtless many skeptical
auditors, but the most skeptical must
| have acknowledged the intellectual
magnetism of Annie Besant. That she
Is an eloquent speaker cannot for an
| instant be gainSaid. That she is logical
cannot be disputed. That she speaks
! from a deep conviction that the doc
! trine Of reincarnation is a universal
and everlasting truth, no one can doubt.
| That such woman, gifted with phe
nomenal power Of expression, can make
| such a subject absorb1ngly interesting
| to the most stubborn materialist for
| the time being is not strange.
A woman a trif1e below the medium
height is Annie Besant, with SUBJ
stantial figure. strong, though pleasant
! features, dark hazel eyes and silken
! gray hair, brushed straight back from
| her forehead. She was attired in a
loose, flowing robe of cream silk.
| Countess Wachtmeister introduced
the noted exponent of theosophy,
whose first words were these: Tonight
l am to speak to you on the doctrine of
| the r, in Il rnation." The voice was 81 a.,
| deep and resonant, one that will not
permit the attention to wander.
| "Reincatuation is as much a Chris
| tan doctrine as it is a doctrine among
the Hindoos, the Buddhists and the
| Zoroastrians," proceeded Mrs. Besant.
! In the writings of the great Christian
fathers the doctrine of reincarnation
| was taught. Tertullian argued strong
ly against the Pythagorean doctrine
that the souls of men afterward in
| habited the bodies Of animals. He in
sisted it was not rational doctrine.
| He maintained that the soul Of man
| did not change its quality, but returned
again and again to the body of man.
| The fact that the doctrine was thus
taught shows that in the early times
| it was not regarded as it is now. 1t
was through the action of the church
council that that doctrine was driven
out. Looking at the New Testament
we find there the distinct recognition
of the doctrine. We find there the
actual and emphatic declaration of the
doctrine of reincarnation. When Christ
said to his disciples, ELIAS has already
come" they understood him to mean
John the Baptist. So st. Paul de-
clares that the last enemy to be de-
stroyed is death-thus enunciating the
teaching of theosophy. When the popu-
lace beheld the man who was born
blind, they exclaimed: who did sin,
this man or his parents, that he is born
bllnd?' Jesus answered that neither
had sinned."
Mrs. Besant said that theosophy did
not pretend to teach any novelties but
to bring back knowledge that had
slipped away All the other great
religions of the world had taught
reincarnation. Prof. Huxley declared
there was nothing in the analogy OF
nature to contradict the doctrine and
10 iS
to accept a truth merely because great
! minds have taught and believed 1t.
mo truth is truth until your own
mind believes in and endorses 1t" said
Mrs Besant. "All that l ask from you
is that patient consideration which
every philosophy demands that has re-
ceived the endorsement of some OF the
greatest minds in the world"
Proceeding, Mrs. Besant said that
progress is made by orderly evolution
and not by a series of catastrophles cor
miracles. Every thinking mind must
derby evolution. Nobody disputes or
derby evolution in the development of
character and mind. people speak Of
heredity,' continued Mrs. Besant, but
going more closely into the doctrine of
| heredity, you will find it breaks down.
True, we can trace a particular feature
| or family type for 400 or 500 years, as
| is shown in the portraits of the Stu
arts in HOlyrood palace in Edinburgh.
But the more carefully this subject is
studied and thought out, the more con-
vircingly it is demonstrated that
heredity does not exist in the mental
and moral world. In people of highly
| developed intelligence it is often found
| that not the slightest indication Of
these mental qualities appears in their
! offspring. Genius, for instance, has
been found to appear suddenly with
I
! In the case of musical genius. though,
| it is often the case that heredity plays
q part. The difference between music
al and intellectual genius is interesting
as illustrative of our theory. In the
case of musical genius, heredity often
transmits the physical qualities neces-
sary to give expression to that genius.
But physical heredity plays no part in
intellectual genius"
Man, the lecturer said, is fundamen-
tally divine. He is able to realize the
noble truth that man evolves by the
law of sacrifice, while the brute
evolves by the law Of the survival of
the fittest. Mrs. Besant then proceed
| ed to contrast the savage and the man.
place the soul of a savage beside
| the soul of such man as St Francis
of Assist How is one soul born
| without a CLEAN of morality while
the other is Born with a soul so pure
that the whole life of the boy and man
is radiant with compassion? Trace
the soul of a born criminal, as he
| grows to be a child, a youth, man
Follow him on as he is led by older
criminals. and more degraded souls;
follow him as he is thrown into jail,
| branded as a convict and the doors Of
honest employment shut against him
| and ask yourselves, what chance had
that human soul? Is it possible that,
having done nothing to deserve 1t, a
newly created soul was plunged into
such surroundings? Dare you say
God would do that? Contrast it with
the soul fostered in virtue, born in the
light of love, with everything made
easy. Can you say that such a soul
was new created, having done nothing
to merit such happiness? One predes-
tined to misery and the other to hap
piness? Dare you say two innocent
souls are new created? You dare not,
| unless you would utter blasphemy-"
Briefly describing reincarnation, Mrs. Be-
| SAINT said that Gods breath of life passes in
to receptacle spoken Of by st. Paul as the
spiritual body and spoken of by the theo-
sophist as the causal body When that eau
sal body is first built. and the breath Of the
| divine life breathes in the spirit that spirit
| becomes individualized The receptacle of the
| soul is the entity. The lecturer here traced
| the analogy between the physical and the
| metaphysical world. The soul in the begin
ming a mere embryo. Then came the life
| that developed it and gave it experience, the
experiences of Joy and sorrow, that bring
out the life within 1t.
| Here Mrs. Besant to illustrate the growth
| and development Of the soul, pictured in
| graphic language the soul of a savage, born
| in ignorance knowing naught Of virtue nor
| love. The savage controlJd solely by lust
His passion for the other sex sprung solely
| from lust But out Of the association with