The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-03-06

/ ssAhJ -
Thomas Prime spoke as follows at
the Alexander Young Hotel Tuesday
evening, his theme being Man Lives
Many Lives:
Those who study theosophy find that
| it Las many new ideas to put before
them-ideas which are new to the
thought of the Western world, at any
rate, though they have. been before
the world for thousands of years. The
osophy has no statements to make
which contradict the great truths that
lie behind all religions, though it con-
tains many statements that are at
variance with narrowness of doctrine,
with bigetry aad intolerance.
The doctrine that man lives many
lives,-that he has lived many lives in
the past and will live many more in
the future,-fnds perhaps more people
to object to it than any other of the
theosophical teachings. The COM
monest objection they make is that
they have had so much sorrow and
suffering in the present life that they
dread the idea of having to go through
similar experiences again. This, how
ever, is no argument, nor does it fol-
low that the new experiences would
be like to those of the past. Others
regard it as a gloomy outlook; where
as in reality it is a most consoling idea,
for it means constant progress. Others
say it is a strange and new doctrine.
Unfortunately we are, many of us, SO
fettered to old ideas that anything
new to Us is looked upon with suspi-
cion and distrust.
This doctrine of reincarnation is not
new, excepting to the Western world,
and it has been taught here long enough
for it to become familiar as an idea
to many, though few probably have
studied it's full meaning outside the
Theosophical Society, still, as straws
show which way the wind blows, it
was interesting to hear the remark of
street car conductor one day when
a lady jumped off the car, that was
moving with considerable speed; she
ran a few PAGES forward and then
turned to the sidewalk all in safety,
and the conductor said: "Well! she
must have been man in her last
incarnationi'
This doctrine of rebirth was taught
by Hindu sages thousands of years be-
fore Christianity and in Buddhism it
is an essential part of the religion;
there are references which show that
it was known to the ancient Egyptians.
In the later times of Greece and Rome,
reincarnation played a very important
part in the philosophy of the period.
You may remember a passage in the
Aeneid where Virgil tells of the visit
of Aeneasy to his father in the after
world and hoN Anchises shows him the
many souls who are crowdIng the banks
of the river Lethe on their way back
into earthly bodies.
Reincarnation must not be confused
with the idea of transmigration of
souls. I know that this is sometimes
done, that people think the teachings
are that if man exhibits a resem-
blanee to some animal during this life,
he will in his next life be reborn
in the form of that animal. That is
not the teaching at all. The theo-
sophica1 theory of evolution recognizes
that man has risen through the animal
kingdom, but that stage has long since
been passed and it is not possible
for him to fall back into it. His future
lives will be human, and, as he is
steadily evolving, they should be bet
ter. He is here ON the earth, in a
physical body, in order that he may
learn certain lessons that can only be
learned in this physical world. If it
were possible for him to learn all the
lessons in one life then it might not
be necessary for him< to reincarnate,
but this certainly is an impossibility
If man is to survive death at all, sure
ly he is to go on progressing. Some
suggest that he may do this in some
other world, but if this World is good
enough for him to live in once, why is
it not good enough for him TO live in
many times? It would seem a wise
and natural economy in the Divine
scheme that he should continue his
evolution here until he has exhausted
the possibilities, and who can claim
to have done thats
We realize that the human family
is composed of souls of many degrees
of advancement, of many different ages
and that the less evolved souls are
the younger ones. We should not re-
gard them as wicked or backsliding,
but only as younger brothers. The child
at the kindergarten practically plays
most of the time; the teacher does
not set him at once to the higher
school-work, for such teaching would
be useless to him; he could not un-
derstand it. The same is true with
regard to the evolution of the soul;
it could not receive the finer teach |
ings at first. To begin with it has
the stronger and coarser impacts from
without which reach it in savage life,
and when it has learned to respond to
these it is more fit to respond to the