ant of memory affects not only past
existences but the early phases of this existence. Does any one deny his
existence as an infant or embryo because he cannot remember it[42]? And
if a wrong could be done to an infant the effects of which would not be
felt for twenty years, could it be said to be no concern of the infant
because the person who will suffer in twenty years time will have no
recollection that he was that infant? And common opinion in Eastern
Asia, not without occasional confirmation from Europe, denies the
proposition that we cannot remember our former lives and asserts that
those who take any pains to sharpen their spiritual faculties can
remember them. The evidence for such recollection seems to me better
than the evidence for most spiritualistic phenomena[43].

Another objection comes from the facts of heredity. On the whole we
resemble our parents and ancestors in mind as well as in body. A child
often seems to be an obvious product of its parents and not a being come
from outside and from another life. This objection of course applies
equally to the creation theory. If the soul is created by an act of God,
there seems to be no reason why it should be like the parents, or, if he
causes it to be like them, he is made responsible for sending children
into the world with vicious natures. On the other hand if parents
literally make a child, mind as well as body, there seems to be no
reason why children should ever be unlike their parents, or brothers and
sisters unlike one another, as they undoubtedly sometimes are. An Indian
would say that a soul[44] seeking rebirth carries with it certain
potentialities of good and evil and can obtain embodiment only in a
family offering the necessary conditions. Hence to some extent it is
natural that the child should be like its parents. But the soul seeking
rebirth is not completely fixed in form and stiff: it is hampered and
limited by the results of its previous life, but in many respects it may
be flexible and free, ready to vary in response to its new environment.

But there is a psychological and temperamental objection to the doctrine
of rebirth, which goes to the root of the matter. Love of life and the
desire to find a field of activity are so strong in most Europeans that
it might be supposed that a theory offering an endless vista of new
activities and new chances would be acceptable. But as a rule Europeans
who discuss the question say that they do not rel