ood, their first actions towards duty and their first aspirations
towards the lofty and luminous heights of spirituality.

One may see from this rapid sketch how numerous and important are the
influences added to and blended with those of physical heredity. This
group of influences, some maleficent, some beneficent, is chosen by
the Beings who control destiny and give to each Ego, on reincarnation,
the body and environment it has merited, or rather that are needed,
for the harmonious development of its faculties. A young soul[75]
still at the mercy of the animal impulses--necessary impulses at the
outset of human development--of its kamic, _i.e._, desire, vehicle, is
sent to parents who will be able to supply its body with material
elements of a particular density without which these impulses could
not manifest themselves. An Ego that is approaching maturity will be
drawn to a family that is physically and morally pure, in which it
will receive both the finer physical vehicle it needs and that lofty
environment which, when it enters upon earth life, will develop the
centres of expression for its nobler faculties. Those who are named in
the mystic phraseology of the East, the "Lords of Karma," in their
choice of the race, the family, and the environment in which the
reincarnated soul is to appear, seek to give this latter the most
favourable conditions for its evolution. An Ego whose artistic side
needs to be developed will often be born in a family which will supply
it with a nervous system accustomed to the kind of vibrations
required, and an environment favourable to the early development of
the physical centres of these faculties; to assist a being whose
scientific, mystical, or metaphysical side needs to be developed,
other environment and parentage will be chosen, and it is this
relative parallelism existing between the moral qualities of the
parents and those of the children which has deceived observers
insufficiently instructed in the mystery of heredity, and made them
believe in the influence of the physical germ alone.

It is an easy matter to supply an Ego of average development with a
vehicle; an ordinary body is all that is needed. There may be extreme
difficulty, however, when a new instrument has to be found for a lofty
soul, and when we think that, in pressing instances when the fortune
of humanity is at stake and the hour of destiny has struck, certain
great Souls accept very imperfect bodies for want o