this
legend. It means, in the theological acceptation of the term, the
supposed transition of the soul after death, into another substance or
body than that which it occupied before. The belief in such a transition
was common to the most civilized, and the most uncivilized, nations of
the earth.[42:1]

It was believed in, and taught by, the _Brahminical Hindoos_,[42:2] the
_Buddhists_,[42:3] the natives of _Egypt_,[42:4] several philosophers of
ancient _Greece_,[43:1] the ancient _Druids_,[43:2] the natives of
_Madagascar_,[43:3] several tribes of _Africa_,[43:4] and _North
America_,[43:5] the ancient _Mexicans_,[43:4] and by some _Jewish_ and
_Christian_ sects.[43:5]

"It deserves notice, that in both of these religions (_i. e._,
_Jewish_ and _Christian_), it found adherents as well in
ancient as in modern times. Among the _Jews_, the doctrine of
transmigration--the Gilgul Neshamoth--was taught in the
mystical system of the _Kabbala_."[43:6]

"All the souls," the spiritual code of this system says, "are
subject to the trials of transmigration; and men do not know
which are the ways of the Most High in their regard." "The
principle, in short, of the _Kabbala_, is the same as that of
_Brahmanism_."

"On the ground of this doctrine, which was shared in by Rabbis
of the highest renown, it was held, for instance, that the
soul of _Adam_ migrated into _David_, and will come in the
_Messiah_; that the soul of _Japhet_ is the same as that of
_Simeon_, and the soul of _Terah_, migrated into _Job_."

"Of all these transmigrations, biblical instances are adduced
according to their mode of interpretation--in the writings of
Rabbi Manasse ben Israel, Rabbi Naphtali, Rabbi Meyer ben
Gabbai, Rabbi Ruben, in the Jalkut Khadash, and other works of
a similar character."[43:4]

The doctrine is thus described by Ovid, in the language of Dryden:

"What feels the body when the soul expires,
By time corrupted, or consumed by fires?
Nor dies the spirit, but new life repeats
Into other forms, and only changes seats.
Ev'n I, who these mysterious truths declare,
Was once Euphorbus in the Trojan war;
My name and lineage I remember well,
And how in fight by Spartan's King I fell.
In Argive Juno's fame I late beheld
My buckler hung on high, and own'd my former shield
Then death, so c