ier races, the period of a secondary rotation (or the
precession of the equinoxes) is frequently used as a unit, but of
course absolute accuracy is not usually required in such cases, round
numbers being sufficient for all practical purposes in dealing with
epochs so remote.

The accurate reading of the records, whether of one's own past lives
or those of others, must not, however, be thought of as an achievement
possible to anyone without careful previous training. As has been
already remarked, though occasional reflections may be had upon the
astral plane, the power to use the mental sense is necessary before
any reliable reading can be done. Indeed, to minimize the possibility
of error, that sense ought to be fully at the command of the
investigator while awake in the physical body; and to acquire that
faculty needs years of ceaseless labour and rigid self-discipline.

Many people seem to expect that as soon as they have signed their
application and joined the Theosophical Society they will at once
remember at least three or four of their past births; indeed, some of
them promptly begin to imagine recollections and declare that in their
last incarnation they were Mary Queen of Scots, Cleopatra, or Julius
Caesar! Of course such extravagant claims simply bring discredit upon
those who are so foolish as to make them but unfortunately some of
that discredit is liable to be reflected, however unjustly, upon the
Society to which they belong, so that a man who feels seething within
him the conviction that he was Homer or Shakespeare would do well to
pause and apply common-sense tests on the physical plane before
publishing the news to the world.

It is quite true that some people have had glimpses of scenes from
their past lives in dreams, but naturally these are usually
fragmentary and unreliable. I had myself in earlier life an experience
of this nature. Among my dreams I found that one was constantly
recurring--a dream of a house with a portico over-looking a beautiful
bay, not far from a hill on the top of which rose a graceful building.
I knew that house perfectly, and was as familiar with the position of
its rooms and the view from its door as I was with those of my home,
in this present life. In those days I knew nothing about
reincarnation, so that it seemed to me simply a curious coincidence
that this dream should repeat itself so often; and it was not until
some time after I had joined the Society that, when on