th endured, and will endure forever. The body may die; be slain; be
destroyed completely--but he that hath occupied it remaineth unharmed.
* * * As a man throweth away his old garments, replacing them with new
and brighter ones, even so the Dweller of the body, having quitted its
old mortal frame, entereth into others which are new and freshly
prepared for it. * * * Many have been my births and rebirths, O
Prince--and many also have been thine own. But between us lies this
difference--I am conscious of all my many lives, but thou lackest
remembrance of thine."

In the Mahabarata is said: "Even as when he casteth off an old garment,
man clothes himself in new raiment, even so the soul, casting off the
wornout body, takes on a new body, avoids the fatal paths leading to
hell, works for its salvation, and proceeds toward heaven."

The Brhadaranyakopanishad, one of the old Hindu writings, contains the
following: "As the caterpillar, getting to the end of the straw, takes
itself away after finding a resting place in advance, so the soul
leaving this body, and finding another place in advance, takes himself
off from his original abode. As the goldsmith taking little by little
of the gold expands it into a new form, so, indeed, does this soul,
leaving this body, make a new and happy abode for himself."

But to attempt to quote passages relating to incarnation from the Hindu
books, would be akin to compiling a library of many volumes. The sacred
writings of the East are filled with references to Reincarnation, and if
the latter were eliminated it would be "like the play of Hamlet with
Hamlet omitted."

We cannot enter into a description of the various schools of Hindu
religious thought and philosophy in this work, for to do so would be to
expand this little volume in several of larger size, so extended is the
subject. But underlying the many divisions and subdivisions of Hindu
thought may be found the fundamental idea of an original emanation from,
or manifestation of, One Divine Being, Power and Energy, into countless
differentiated units, atoms, or egos, which units, embodying in matter,
are unconscious of the spiritual nature, and take on a consciousness
corresponding with the form in which they are embodied. Then follows a
series of embodiments, or incarnations, from lower to higher, in which
occurs an evolution or "unfoldment" of the nature of the soul, in which
it rises to higher and higher planes of being, until final