MRS ANNIE BESANT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9306, 5 August 1908, Page 1

MRS ANNIE BESANT.

LECTURE AT HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. "DO WE LIVE ON EARTH AGAIN?" There was a very large audience- at His Majesty's Theatre last evening, when Mrs Besant delivered an address entitled "Do We Live on Earth Again?" The chair was occupied by Mr J. P. Cooper, who briefly introduced the speaker. • ( Mrs Besant, who was received with applause, said that in a very old Indian scripture the nature of man was described as "knowledge." As the nature of man evolved he strenuously endeavoured to find out truth. This characteristic was an essential part of human nature. Man sought to find a correspondence in his own thought with the thought in Nature. This characteristic became more prominent as the mind of man progressed. Man clung to the truth and not to error, and it followed that every belief which had been held for a great number of years must have truth somewhere in it. Amongst the teachings found in every age, nation and religion the doctrine of reincarnation was predominant. It was to-day believed by a majority of the human race. It had latterly been kept somewhat in the background among the religious and scientific views of the Western world. This doctrine could be taken by the most ignorant of men as a guide to life-conduct. In it the humblest Indian peasant found inspiration to bear suffering and adversity, believing it to be a punishment for something done in an earlier incarnation. The most philosophic and highly educated thinkers of humanity gave this doctrine their unanimous assent. Max Mullei confirmed this statement. Pythagoras, Plato and the followers of the' Platonic and Noo-Platonic schools all held this doctrine. The Hebrews held ihis docJ trine, and Christ, in tho New Testa- • ment, said that John the Baptist was Elijah, v reincarnated. The writers of the early church held this doctrine. Tertullian pointed out that each man had many deaths and many resurrections. Origen based on the doctrine of the incarnation much of his teaching. In the seventh century the Roman Catholic Church, in one of its councils, threw out the doctrine of reincarnation as taught by Origen, but not the general theory. Though it. fell into the background the Algigensis and the Templars retained it. She had in her possession a pamphlet written by a clergyman in the reign of Charles 11., in which the writer contended that the doctrine was an in- ; tegral part of Christian theology. Hume declared there was , no doctrine of immortality worth look- ; ing at from a philosophic standpoint, but reincarnation. Goethe, Scliopenh ' haur and Lessing made reincarnation the centre of their teaching. Brown- " ing and Dante Gabriel Rossetti en- ' shrined this teaching in exquisite verse, ; It was no new doctrine, bat a familj , jewel of the Christian faith upon whiol , had fallen the dust of centuries. H . was her desire to restore this inheritance to Christians. In introducing » the doctrine to hor hearers, therefore ' ' she felt that she was not without, war--1 rant from tho past. The problems o1 1 variation in hunr-an intellects-— on< I child, being born with a brain little t better than an animal, another bril l liant from birth — was one Fhich exer

cised all thinking minds. She held | that the spirits of men came from the ! Divine Spirit, dividing from it as the : sparks flew upwards from a fire. When Christ was accused of blasphemy he defended himself by appealing to the-] Law, which said, "Yo are all children of God." In the acorn which fell from an oak lay all the possibilities of the oak. So in the human spirit lay j all the capabilities of the Supreme. ; The lowest type of savages, such as the : Australian aboriginal, was unable to count more than two. A cat could do as much. There was a difference . between such a savage and a Newton, • who could calculate mathematically the nipvements of the planets. The grades of human intelligence were like the rungs of a ladder. The savage was endowed with a spirit-germ suited to his receptivity. The savage robbed and murdered, and then died. Then he met those from whom he robbed, those he killed, those, perhaps, whom ; he ate. Me tLen . passed on to an ; .elementary heavenly world, where the . Iparke; of good within him were fanned , into a flame. He went back into life, > and built experience into faculty. This -, process was repeated thousands of j times. So jstfe savage climb&d the rungs of the Madder to the height of the saint, the herb, and the perfect i man. That was the theory. Did it 1 answer any problems otherwise unanswered ? During the past generation y Darwin's theory of evolution s was uniI . versally accepted, but at the present f day, although the evolutionary theory; I still prevailed, there was not a single > leading scientist who held the doctrine ) as presented by Darwin. Darwin's , doctrine was the doctrine »of tlhe propaX gation of the most successful fighter. > Professor William Kingdpn Clifford, in » his "Ethics 'of Evolution," made this * l the basis of a magnificent appeal to * parents; But difficulties had arisen. i The ev.ol)j.tiop of the social quality, and of mother love (both forms; of altru-' ism), had to be explained. These self-sacrificing qualities, and made for death, not for life. The lioness that died while defending her cubs, which were then killed, had no chance. to hand on her qualities by Darwin's method, as she could bear no more cubs. Huxley, Darwin's great defender, pointed out that the law of the struggle for existv ence was the law cf evolution for the brute, but the law of self-sacrifice was ' the law of evolution for the man. That was a practical renunciation of the 1 ; Darwinian theory. There was another 7 ' difficulty. Modern "science said acquired - qualities were not transmitted, and that the higher the degree of evolution i the smaller grew the family. Science i crowned this with the declaration - "Genius is barren." Great geniuses . never gave birth to geniuses greater . than themselves. Charles Bradlaugh 5 was an " eagle .in a sparrow's nest." p His parents, brothers and sisters were V commonplace lower middle-class folk. l Yet Bradlaugh's iron will and great \ intellectual powers were born in this * family. The reason why great musi- " cians were generally born in families 1 one or two generations of which had . shown musical talent, was that. a great \ musician required a special nervous F and physical equipment. Once the i genius was born his family sank back i into obscurity. There was preparation j for a genius, but not a development of . genius. Where were the 1 geniuses wbo b sprang from Handel, Beethoven, Bach, I or in our own times, Wagner? They were not in existence. The doctrine ■ of physical evolution needed, to com--1 plete it, the doctrine of psychical con--1 tinuity. Reincarnation was the com- ' plement of the scientific doctrine of 1 evolution. The problems of science i were answered by the oldest doctrine of i the world. If her hearers believed in ; a God, would they believe that he r newly created every soul born into a . child's body, and yet differentiated so [ greatly in intellectual and spiritual j equipment? Surely that would not be just, and justice must be inherent in the supreme. Would God make one [ child a saint and the other a crimi- ; nalP St Francis, co the 6tory 5 ran. took off his own cloak as a coat to " clothe a poor beggar. Let them trace] ■ his life, the most Christ-like life since | Christ, and compare it with- the de- j : graded existence^ of the congenital criminal. The criminal had to be crimit aal. He could not b© otherwise. His * head would allow no high impulses i Supposing the criminal asked justice . from God? Such \ problems made men atheists. The i doctrine of , reincarnation solved the problem. ' It was a gospel of everlasting hope. " this doctrine of reincarnation, and its ? acceptance worked a potent influencs | on the individual life. A problem which * faced those who accepted the theory ot 1 fipecial creation of a eoul for oacli child t ' born was the use of the soul of a child 5 j who lived only a few days or weeks, j 1 ' Why was the child born at all? The - adherents of special creation could not - answer that. She would say that the s spirit carno into that' child to expiate _ sr-me tritiino; fault of want in a previous iKxistence. She hoped she had ' shown her hearers that there was muoh to be said for the theory of reincarna--1 tion, and that somo of them might " be ind\iced to rpnri and study on the " lines sh« had indicated. Mrs Besant's Uwjturo was applauded 7 at frequent intervals by the audience.