patience and fortitude in another life; hardships will give rise to
strength; self-denial must develop the will; tastes cultivated in this
existence will somehow bear fruit in coming ones; and acquired energies
will assert themselves whenever they can by the Law of Parsimony upon
which the principles of physics are based. Vice versa, the unconscious
habits, the uncontrollable impulses, the peculiar tendencies, the
favorite pursuits, and the soul-stirring friendships of the present
descend from far-reaching previous activities."

The doctrine of Reincarnation--Metempsychosis--Rebirth--has always been
held as truth by a large portion of the human race. Following the
invariable law of cyclic changes--the swing of the pendulum of
thought--at times it has apparently died out in parts of the world, only
to be again succeeded by a new birth and interest among the descendants
of the same people. It is a light impossible to extinguish, and although
its flickering flame may seem to die out for a moment, the shifting of
the mental winds again allows it to rekindle from the hidden spark, and
lo! again it bursts into new life and vigor. The reawakened interest in
the subject in the Western world, of which all keen observers have taken
note, is but another instance of the operation of the Cyclic Law. It
begins to look as if the occultists are right when they predict that
before the dawn of another century the Western world will once more have
embraced the doctrines of Rebirth--the old, discarded truth, once so
dear to the race, will again be settled in popular favor, and again move
toward the position of "orthodox" teaching, perhaps to be again
crystallized by reason of its "orthodoxy" and again to lose favor and
fade away, as the pendulum swings backward to the other extreme of
thought.

But the teaching of Reincarnation never has passed away altogether from
the race--in some parts of the world the lamp has been kept burning
brightly--nay, more, at no time in human history has there been a period
in which the majority of the race has not accepted the doctrine of
Rebirth, in some of its various forms. It was so one thousand years
ago--two thousand--five thousand--and it is so to-day. In this Twentieth
Century nearly if not quite two-thirds of the race hold firmly to the
teaching, and the multitudes of Hindus and other Eastern peoples cling
to it tenaciously. And, even outside of these people, there are to be
found traces of the doc