e continual addition
of new and eternal souls? But these difficulties do not exist for
theories which regard the soul as something existing before as well as
after the body, truly immortal _a parte ante_ as well as _a parte post_
and manifesting itself in temporary homes of human or lower shape. Such
theories become very various and fall into many obscurities when they
try to define the nature of the soul and its relation to the body, but
they avoid what seems to me the contradiction of the created but
immortal soul.

The doctrine of metempsychosis is also interesting as affecting the
relations of men and animals. The popular European conception of "the
beasts which perish" weakens the arguments for human immortality. For if
the mind of a dog or chimpanzee contains no element which is immortal,
the part of the human mind on which the claim to immortality can be
based must be parlously small, since _ex hypothesi_ sensation, volition,
desire and the simpler forms of intelligence are not immortal. But in
India where men have more charity and more philosophy this distinction
is not drawn. The animating principle of men, animals and plants is
regarded as one or at least similar, and even matter which we consider
inanimate, such as water, is often considered to possess a soul. But
though there is ample warrant in both Brahmanic and Buddhist literature
for the idea that the soul may sink from a human to an animal form or
_vice versa_ rise, and though one sometimes meets this belief in modern
life[41], yet it is not the most prominent aspect of metempsychosis in
India and the beautiful precept of ahimsa or not injuring living things
is not, as Europeans imagine, founded on the fear of eating one's
grandparents but rather on the humane and enlightened feeling that all
life is one and that men who devour beasts are not much above the level
of the beasts who devour one another. The feeling has grown stronger
with time. In the Vedas animal sacrifices are prescribed and they are
even now used in the worship of some deities. In the Epics the eating of
meat is mentioned. But the doctrine that it is wrong to take animal life
was definitely adopted by Buddhism and gained strength with its
diffusion.

One obvious objection to all theories of rebirth is that we do not
remember our previous existences and that, if they are connected by no
thread of memory, they are for all practical purposes the existences of
different people. But this w