90 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 



ii 



heavy tax is levied upon all forms of success ; and 

 that failure is one of the commonest disguises 

 assumed by blessings. 



Note 4 (p. GO). 



&quot; There is within the body of every man a soul 

 which, at the death of the body, flies away from it 

 like a bird out of a cage, and enters upon a new 

 life . . . either in one of the heavens or one of the 

 hells or on this earth. The only exception is the 

 rare case of a man having in this life acquired a 

 true knowledge of God. According to the pre- 

 lluddhistic theory, the soul of such a man goes along 

 the path of the Gods to God, and, being united with 

 Him, enters upon an immortal life in which his 

 individuality is not extinguished. In the latter theory, 

 his soul is directly absorbed into the Great Soul, is 

 lost in it, and has no longer any independent existence. 

 The souls of all other men enter, after the death of 

 the body, upon a new existence in one or other of 

 the many different modes of being. If in heaven or 

 hell, the soul itself becomes a god or demon without 

 entering a body ; all superhuman beings, save the 

 great gods, being looked upon as not eternal, but 

 merely temporary creatures. If the soul returns to 

 earth it may or may not enter a now body ; and this 

 either of a human being, an animal, a plant, or even 

 a material object. For all these are possessed of 

 souls, and there is no essential difference between 

 these souls and the souls of men all being alike 

 mere sparks of the Great Spirit, who is the only real 



