of defilements and purifications; of returns to Heaven, and dismissals to earth—not to speak of sundry sojourns in very bad localities on the route.
Plato taught that these souls do not entirely forget their experiences, joys, sorrows or ambitions, hopes, cares and anxieties—in short, none of their varied experiences during the several incarnations; and-that all, or any portion of human knowledge, at any given point of time, was not the real acquisition of the present, as it seemed, but was composed merely of the memories, or reminiscences of innumerable past careers—the pressent recognition of facts and incidents which transpired in some pre-existent stage of their tremendous career. That these are truly magnificent notions, scarce any one who can truly grasp them will deny, even though to some persons they may appear to be the very quintessence of poetry. Transmigration, in some form, has certainly been, if not hereafter to be, the lot of man. I do not believe the Platonic conception of this great truth to be the correct one, nor that man will ever undergo the doom again; yet. that the soul has reached its present through many an inferior state, is a self-evident fact to me. At all events, a formidable array of reasons might be presented to account for the faith that is within me.
This idea of Plato's completely antagonizes two of the most celebrated dogmas that ever held the human reason captive: the first of which is the famous "Monad Theory" of Leibnitz, albeit he came very near the truth, as has been seen; and the other, the modern doctrine, that souls, like bodies, are formed, made, created here: and that their origin is a common one—en utero.
Before the conclusion of the task assigned me, I shall
