PHYSICAL REBIRTH.

Evening Star, Issue 15065, 23 December 1912, Page 9

PHYSICAL REBIRTH.

TO THE EDITOK. Sir,—Allow me to express appreciation and gratitude lo the writer of those beautiful prose poems which appear in your issues of, Saturday. The last, entitled 'Tom and Maggie,' was delightful, although I personally feel bound to apply a mental query to ono of the writer's statements—viz., that "physical rebirth is an impossible miracle." . Why.? Perhaps your worthy contributor \ may see fit, in a subeequent article, to state the .grounds upon which he assumes such -a definite position. _*h* subject of physical rebirth is one "Much in these latter days appears to be exciting an almost universal interest, and 36 from time to time in your columns appear reports containing 'reasons for the adoption of such a hypothesis, the opinions of one holding'a*definitely contrary view would be not onlv of interest, but of decidedly educational value. To my mind, the theory of rebirth is one of the most reasonable and elucidative hypotheses of life. It appears to me to be an almost necessary complement to the now thoroughly established fact of evolution. The world's greatest thinkers in every sphere appear now to be agreed that this universe is a cosmos and not a chaos; that inviolable law operates just as surely in the realm of the mental, moral, and spiritual as in the physical. Many regard this world as a school in which the principle of justice is eternally operative—i.e., a man reaps what he sows, earns the wages he is entitled to.

The theory of rebirth, whilst affirming the operation of the law of cause and effect, explains such vexing anomalies as the following:—One child being bom in the lap of culture and refinement, another in a squalid slum; one healthy and wellborn, another with distorted body and enfeebled mind; one attaining average length of life, another surviving a few weeks.or days in tliis„ school' of experience. It further;explains.' the;"difference in development " betweeiiVth© savage and the sage, the congenital criminal and the saint. The theory of rebirth has been believed and taught, by many great thinkers. Hato (ancient) and. Goethe (modern) are instances. It is believed by millions of our brethren in the .Spiritual" East. (Can wo in' the West learn nothing from them?) Manv claim -to remember more or'less clearly fragments of some of their previous lives, whilst nearly all have experienced that vague impression which Whittier voices:

A pesence strange at once and known 'Walked with me as my guide ; The 6kirts of some forgotten life Trailed noiseless ■• at my side. Does your contributor know a more reasonable theory of life than that of physical rebirth?—l am, etc., T. E. Beowx. December 18.