658 



TRANSIT TRADE TRANSPARENCY. 



borg, in Finland; and, ly these five observation*, 

 the sun's parallax, which is one of the most impor- 

 tant elements of astronomy, was determined with 

 great exactness. The next transits of Venus fall 

 in the years 1872 and 1884 See the ninth book 

 of Lalande's Astronomy ; the Mi-moire sr le Pas- 

 sage tie Venus (Paris, 1772, 4to.); Bode's Abhand- 

 luny rom Durchgang der Venus (Hamburg, 1769). 

 A pood general view of the subject may be found 

 in Lalande's Abrfgc d' Astronomic (Paria, 1795, p. 

 204 seq.). 



TRANSIT TRADE; such as arises from the 

 passage of goods through one country on their way 

 to another. It is sometimes of great importance, 

 as, for instance, when most of the commodities of 

 the East which were consumed in the north of 

 Europe passed through Germany. The transit 

 trade leaves the commission, and other expenses 

 attending the forwarding of the goods, in the coun- 

 try through which they pass ; besides which they 

 sometimes also pay a duty. 



TRANSITION FORMATIONS. See Ge- 

 ology. 



TRANSMIGRATION OF THE SOUL. The 

 doctrine of the passage of the soul from one body 

 into another has its foundation in the belief of the 

 connexion of all living beings, and of the gradual 

 purification of the spiritual part of man, and its re- 

 turn to the common source and origin of all things 

 God. The earthly life, according to this system, 

 is only a point in the succession of states through 

 which the soul, proceeding from God, has to pass, 

 in order, at last, to return to its original source. 

 Even some modern European writers have inclined 

 to the doctrine of transmigration, as enabling the 

 soul in one condition to supply the deficiencies of 

 another, and to fit itself better for a more perfect 

 state. Pious and reflecting men, for example, Her- 

 der, have thought that many reasons were to be 

 found for a belief in such a transmigration, which is 

 also taught in the Talmud. Faint images of divine 

 magnificence once witnessed in a higher state, and 

 revived in the soul by the view of the true, the 

 good, and the beautiful, which are met with in this 

 life, and which fill the spirit with admiration and 

 delight, are "thought to be presentiments of those 

 feelings which will again be awakened in us, when 

 we return to the original source of all truth, good- 

 ness, and beauty. The religion of the ancient people 

 of India, in which the first traces of a belief in a 

 transmigration of the soul are found, considers it 

 partly as the course of destiny, partly as a punish- 

 ment for the neglect of religious duties, in conse- 

 quence of which the soul is made pass, after death, 

 through the bodies of various animals, by way of 

 penance and purification. With this doctrine is 

 connected the regard which the Indians have for 

 animals. From the Indians this belief passed into 

 the secret doctrine of the Egyptian caste of priests, 

 who believed that the soul had to continue 3000 

 years, after death, in the bodies of animals, before 

 it could reach the habitations of the blessed. From 

 them the Greeks received the doctrine, and termed 

 it metempsychosis (change of soul), and metensoma- 

 tosis (change of body). (See Metempsychosis.) 

 Pythagoras adopted it into his philosophy, as indi- 

 cating the immortality of the human soul. The 

 later Pythagoreans taught that the mind, freed from 

 the fetters of the body, will enter the realm of the 

 departed, there remain in an intermediate state for 

 a longer or shorter time, and again animate other 

 human or animal bodies, until the time of its puri- 



fication is finished, and its return to the Fountain of 

 life has become possible. The mind of Pythagoras 

 himself was conceived to have been already four 

 times on earth. The stories of these Pythagorean 

 notions rest on comparatively late reports. The 

 Greek mysteries enveloped the doctrine of the 

 transmigration of the soul in agreeable mythuses, 

 which represent Dionysos or Bacchus as the Lord 

 and leader of the soul. In these, also, the belief 

 in a pre-existence is to be discovered. For this 

 esoteric doctrine distinguishes souls, which, accord- 

 ing to the organization of the universe, are driven 

 from their former ethereal or heavenly life down to 

 the earth, to appear for the first time as men, from 

 the souls in a state of penance, which were obliged 

 to enter a human body a second and third time ; 

 and also from those souls which voluntarily come 

 to the earth from curiosity, or delight in individu- 

 ality. The Greek poets and philosophers have 

 given various forms to these mythuses. Pindar, 

 the Pythagorean, lets the soul arrive at the isles of 

 the blessed after passing three unblemished lives on 

 this earth. Plato extends the period for the entire 

 return of souls into the Godhead to 10,000 years, 

 during which they have to abide in the bodies of 

 animals and men. Plotinus treats of two kinds of 

 transmigrations, a passage of souls from invisible 

 ethereal bodies into earthly ones, and from earthly 

 into other earthly bodies. Among the Romans, 

 Cicero and Virgil have alluded to this doctrine. 

 The rabbins treat the subject of transmigration in 

 their peculiar way, maintaining that God created 

 but a certain number of Jewish souls, which there- 

 fore constantly return on earth as long as Jews are 

 to be found here, and are sometimes made to dwell 

 in the bodies of animals for the sake of penance, 

 but, at the day of the resurrection, will all be pu- 

 rified, and in the bodies of the just revive on the 

 soil of the promised land. The Christian sect of 

 the Manichseans also considered the transmigration 

 of the soul as a means of penance. This belief was 

 widely diffused. It existed among the ancient Ita- 

 lians, the Celtic Druids, the Scythians, and Hyper- 

 boreans, and is still entertained by the heathen na- 

 tions of Eastern Asia, the Caucasian tribes, the 

 American savages, and African negroes. With the 

 ancient Egyptians it led, as it still does with the 

 Hindoos, to the veneration of certain animals, and 

 the fear of eating their flesh, since their bodies may 

 be the abode of departed ancestors or friends. The 

 Pythagoreans would not kill animals, for the same 

 reason. This belief in the transmigration of the 

 soul, as a means of purification and penance, inay 

 have been attended with good consequences in cer- 

 tain states of society; but the Christian is content 

 to leave undrawn the veil which the Creator has 

 placed over the particular circumstances of our fu- 

 ture condition. Whatever may be the means for 

 purifying and perfecting the human soul after death, 

 the Christian rests assured, that a life passed accord- 

 ing to the commands of God will fit the soul to 

 enjoy his presence ; and that a life passed in the 

 neglect of his commands will lead to future misery. 



TRANSOMS; certain beams or timbers ex- 

 tended across the sternpost of a ship, to fortify her 

 after-part, and give it the figure most suitable to 

 the service for which she is calculated. 



TRANSPARENCY; the property of bodies' by 

 which they admit the passage of light through 

 them. It does not consist, however, simply in 

 transmitting light in sufficient quantity, but in 

 transmitting it in straight lines. Water and oil, 



