The Washington herald., 1914-08-23

more or less swiftly along the path
] of development, refining the form in
the crucible of experiences.
! Is the belief true that is held by SO
many. that every soul manifesting at
| each and every birth is a new soul
without any previous existence-that
God gives one man intelligence and
gives one riches and another poverty
| gives one a happy life and another q
| life of sorrow and pain?
Can God be unjust, unkind, cruel? We
see In every man the peculiar character
istics found in every other man. and
reason must teach US that there Is some
] way OF explaining the boundless differ
ences In well-being. We must accept
theory where We can discern order, har-
mony. and Justice relgning In the des-
TIMES Of man. By and through the the
DRY OF reincarnation we restore Justice
to the government of the world, and dis
cover the working Of natural law in hu-
man evolution, precise and unerring in
its exactitude. The diversities Of life
are not the sport OF brainless chance, or
The accident of birth
There is no accident or chance in
divine action. The same inevitable &C
ton that operates on the physical plane
governing the combination Of the mole
cuIes Of matter. operates with exacti-
tude in the moral and the spiritual
world and in the line OF intellectual and
psychic progress
savcd~by Evolution.
The modern doctrine Of evolution
through necessary laws has come TO save
us from the conception Of a creator who
would consciously call into being all
kinds OF hideous and savage forms Of
brute and insect life, or even create and
uphold barbarOus races OF mankind with
their horrid deeds Of cruelty. without
some grave moral purpose for their ex-
istence.
A natural question occurs to many
Why is it We do not remember our
past. II we have existed in other times
and in other bodies?"
A knowledge OF the philosophy OF life
! taught by Theosophy would render this
question unnecessary. The idea that we
cannot be passed other lives on earth
| because We cannot remember them
should not be presented as an objection
| to the theory. Manifestly II is impossible
| for any one returning to incarnate life
| to remember that which he must wear
out. distilI and forget. as regards its spe-
ciic details. before he is ready TO re-
! inCarnate. The regular course Of events
must necessarily clear the Ego OF all
specific recollection OF one life before he
is ready for another.
Life would be hardly bearable for hu-
man beings. especially those still in the
humble phases OF evolution. II the long
and weary procession OF uninteresting
exlstences through which they had pass
ed lay within their physical memory
before an enlightened spirituality had
shown them the ultimate possibilities OF
the future. Perhaps each life In turn
he nit Tee
sons II these were not learned separately.
one by one. The forgetfulness OF each
life is plainly due to that provision of
Nature which ensures for each Of US
after death the maximum frultion OF all
our spiritual aspirations in the appro-
pirate realms Of consciousness.
ForEctTuIncss Is Best.
Would It not be unjust to the soul II II
should remember before II is exalted
enough TO exercise faculties transcending
those OF the present average mankind?
Memories are often tinged with longing
and regret. For a man to remember
some long vanished happiness Of a pre-
vious incarnation would mean to him.
either that he was unfairly dealt with or
deprived Of that happiness. or II pay
ing the painful penalty OF some former
mlsdeehs Calso remembered) that he was
talking memory Of what he had lost.
Forgetfulness seems here TO be a wise
law OF Nature, and the fact that We for
get should be no impedment to any ac-
ceptance OF reIncarnation as necessary
in the evolution OF the soul. We must
remember that in each incarnation we
operate through a different body. through
a different brain, one that Is not yet
tuned to answer to the subtle vibrations
OF the Ego which is operating on a high
er plane than the physical. We begin
the new life as an infant. subject to a
certain mental and physical environment.
different from that last experienced, and
constantly receive Impressions and in
structions that tend TO impress the mind
and confine its attention alone 10 the
present happenings.
In order to comprehend this interesting
and much misunderstood theory suppose
We go somewhat into the question of
what It is that reincarnates. and what It
is that does not reinCarnate. What is 1t
that cycles back into a new Physical
body?
Let us see how man. as we know him,
is divided. St. Paul refers in his writ
ings to a spiritual body and to a natural
body. Theosophy goes further, and gives
man a physical body, an astral body.
mental body. and a permanent or causal
body A physical body competent to re-
ceive the vibrations Of the physical plane
OF existence an astral body that CORE
spends to the finer vibrations OF the
astral plane. and which is the scat of the
emotions and desires A mental hody
which responds to the still finer vibra-
lions OF the lower mental plane. and
which is the seat OF concrete thought.
The Spirit Over All.
The matter Of this body is the first to
vibrate and shape itself in the evolution
OF man. and also in the first years OF
each OF his lives on earth, because in the
infancy OF his existence, as in the infancy
Of each life. he begins TO learn. and his
intelligence forms itself and grows by
concrete images. forms. pictures. and
teaching along the simpler and easiest
comprehended lines OF thought, Then we
have a causal body, still finer and more
subtle than the lower mental and COM
posed OF matter responding alone to the
activities excited by thought OF an alb
stract nature 1t Is the higher mental
body. and is the vehicle of the Ego, the
reincarnatlng self, that is the MANTLE
thinker.
Now II you will trace back. you will
find that over all We have the actual
splrit-the eternal man-manifesting
through four vehicles:
First-The spiritual body. or the body |
Of the Spirit. called by Theosophy the |
causal body. because in II the man lives
and grows from life to life and is In II
and operates through II, from the very |