Show Have All Lived Before Queer Ideas of English Scientist on the Present Present as t to and Is Its Influence Chicago Tribune Prof Proto J Ellis of or Cam Cambridge Cambridge Cambridge bridge university England says we all al have lived on earth before and are all aU going to live Ive on earth earh again Prof Prot thinks there is a much better beter chance of proving immor immortality immortality tUy with Wll the te addition of preexist preexistence ence than without It It There are two ways In which a proof of ot Immortality may be attempted The first he calls the directly metaphysical way wa We may attempt to show that the nature of ot man is jg such that he cannot cease to tat exist while the universe continues to exist or that tat his nature is eternal and that an eternal nature cannot have an end In time or pursue some similar line Une of thought In this case it I seems to him that im immortality immortality mortality almost necessarily would stand or the theory theor of pre preexistence preexistence preexistence existence He does not see see how exist existence existence existence ence in future time can be shown to tobe tobe tobe be necessary in the case of ot any be being beIng beIng ing whose existence in past pat time is admitted not to be necessary If l the universe got on without me years year ago what reason could be given f r denying that It might get on without me years hence Or if I my m nature Is compatible with wih Its temporal manifestation having be begun begun begun gun at some point of ot time could we I find any reason for supposing it I to be inconsistent with wih that nature that its Is temporal manifestation should cease at some point in time His conclusion then Is that any demonstration of ot im lm immortality mortality is likely to show that each of ofus ofus ofus us exists through all al time past past as well as future whether time be held to be finite or infinite There are ar some considerations which the Cambridge professor finds strongly to suggest that we existed before the formation of ot our present bodies In the tle first place even the best men are not when they dio die In such a condition of intellectual and moral morl perfection as would fit fi them to enter ener heaven imme immediately Immediately immediately If It heaven is to be taken as a state of ot perfection which renders render all further improvement unnecessary and impossible This fact generally is rec recognized recognized recognized and one of ot two alternatives commonly is adopted to meet it The first Is that tat some tremendous Improve Improvement Improvement improvement ment out of at proportion to that which can be observed in life is effected at atthe atte atthe the te moment of at death at any rate in inthe Inthe inthe the case cae of ot those who die under certain c conditions For this view Prof Mc Taggart knows no arguments The other more probable view Is that the th process of ot gradual improvement can go on in each of or us after the death of our present bodies If It we adopt this view he finds It I only reasonable to take one more step and to hold that this life will wi be followed by other lives like it It each separated from its is predecessor and its Is successor by death and rebirth For otherwise we should be limited to the hypothesis that a process begun In Ina Ina Ina a single short earthly life then should be continued in one indefinitely long longle life le not divided by death and birth at atall atal atall all al And nd to suppose without any an sea season season season son such a sudden change from the or Of order order der d r of our present experience seems I unjustifiable Our lives too the professor or finds to tobe tobe tobe be not only incomplete te in their results but fragmentary In theIr nature All Ail AI continually find that a process is cut short shor by death det that one life holds a fault without retribution a preparation without an achievement while in other cases cass where the life has lasted longer the process Is complete between birth and death The more probably conclusion conclusion conclusion sion Is that the process s which is worked I out in an earthly life in the one case cage will wi be bf worked out in an earthly life in the other case also even eyen though death has ha intervened Such problems as these never have been put with wih more force than by Browning Both in Rabbi Ben BenEzra BenEzra BenEzra Ezra and in Evelyn Hope he adopts at any rate rte for dramatic purposes purses the hypothesis of ot a number of earthly lives If I a number of earthly lives once is granted it would be gratuitous to suppose that this was the first of ot the thelong thelong i long chain and since even the lowest I man is high above many living beings there would be strong reason for tor be believing believing lieving leving that It I was in previous lives that he had gained this relative super superiority Again Agin as aman anian a man grows up certain tendencies and qualities make them themselves themselves themselves selves manifest in him They cannot be e due entirely to his environment for they often oren are different In people whose environment has ha been similar We Ve call cal these the mans natural character and assume that he came into existence with wih It It Now when we look at the natural characters of men we find that they have a great geat resemblance to those e differentiations which can be produced In the course of ot a single life One man seems to start with wih an Im Impotence impotence to resist some particular temp temptation tation which exactly resembles the im impotence Impotence impotence which has been produced in an another another another other man by continued yielding to the same temptation One man again through life has ha a calm and serene virtue which another man gains only by years ears of ot strenuous effort Others again agin have Instinctive powers of ot Judging nice and ad difficult questions of or quality In pictures for ex cx example ample aple or precious stones which place them tem soon after they have turned their attention to the subject in a position to which less fortunate men can cn at attain attin tain tin tam It if at all al only by the experience of ot years A still more striking Instance is to tobe tobe tobe be found in personal relations Two people who have hae seen but little of ot each other oter often ofen are drawn together by a force equal to that which could be gen generated generated only by years of mutual trust and mutual assistance The significance significance cance of this fact Professor Taggart thinks has ha been much underrated As Asa a rule the only case caso cae of ot it which IS s con considered considered Is the case where the attraction Is between people of at different sexes and the inexplicability then hastily hasty is adjudged to be due to the tho irrational irrationality ity of f sexual desire Here then are ae characteristic ties tes which are born bor with wih us u which are not acquired in our present lives and which are strikingly like characteristics which in other cases we know to be due to the condensed results of at experience Is It I not probable that tat the Innate char characteristics characteristics also are due tb to the con condensed condensed condensed results of ot experience in this case cale of ot experience In an earlier life Thus queries Ellis Ells Without memory of our present life however it may be said our future life would not be ours our We might as aa well be mortal it Is maintained as be Im Immortal Immortal mortal without a memory beyond the life To T this the present le professor an answers swore sweN that memory chiefly la Is of ot value In our lives in three trpe ways In the first frt place It makes makel mak us wiser The results which we have seen and conclusions at which we have arrived arve are ar preserved In memory and add to our present knowl know knowledge knowledge edge edgeIn edge edgeIn In Ip tIle the second pace IJa it t makes es us mo me moI J I j rally better beter The memory of or a temptation tempt temptation tion ton whether it I has been resisted or not under various circumstances may help us in resisting present temptation temptation tion ton In the third t piece pl ce it t may tell tellus tellus us that people with wih whom we are thrown and now are ae related relate are ar the thi people whom we have loved in the past And this may enter as an element In our present love for them Can we be wiser by reason of ot some something something something thing which we have forgotten Un Unquestionably Unquestionably questionably we can Wisdom depends primarily on a mind competent to deal with wih facts fact form fon Judgments The acquisition of ot knowledge and exper experience experience lence may strengthen the mind And a aman aman aman man who dies after ater acquiring knowl knowledge knowledge knowledge edge and all al men acquire some might enter into his new life deprived Indeed of h his s knowledge but not deprived of the Increased strength and delicacy of mind which he e had gained by virtue of ot that knowledge And nd if so he will wi be wiser in the second life because of what has happened in the first fIrt Progress Progress Progress ress therefore has not perished with memory So again with virtue And there the point perhaps Is clearer For It Is 15 ob obvious obvious that the memory of ot moral morl vicissitudes vicissitudes is of no io moral morl value except In Inso Inso inso so far as It I helps to form torm the moral morl character and that tat If this Is done the te memory could be discarded without loss Joss We cannot doubt that a charac character ter may remain rcman rem fn determined by an event which has been forgotten m I have forgotten the greater number of the good and evil evi acts which I have done In this life And yet each must have ter left Its imprint upon my m charac character And so s If I a man carries over into his next life le the disposition and tendencies which he has gained by the moral morl con contests contests contests tests of ot this life the value of those con contests contests tests has not been destroyed by b the thedeth deth death which has ha destroyed the memory of at them So with wih love What is uniquely val ral valuable al the professor prore or argues ares Is the re relation relation lation laton to each particular person and not the particular acts and feelings in which that relation Is expressed Much has been forgotten In any friendship but the friendship is sweet and true tre tread and ad enduring by reason of oC the accumulated accumulated accumulated results of ot these th se forgotten epi episodes episodes episodes So our relations with wih the te peo people people pie that we wo meet in this earth life are sweet and friendly in proportion to the character of our past relations with the same people |