252 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



it is this that entering the body of a woman may of its 

 own potentiality cause pregnancy, so that the babe she 

 brings forth will be no other than the new manifesta- 

 tion of a pre-existing person. Thus though conceived 

 as material its materiality is thin and subtle : it may 

 animate any form and yet remain essentially the same. 

 Its identity becomes the real identity of the man, pervad- 

 ing his entire being and transmissible from form to form. 

 The idea of soul in this more evolved philosophy has 

 in fact appropriated most of the attributes of the older 

 and ruder idea of personality without entirely super- 

 seding it. Hence the distinction between Transforma- 

 tion and Transmigration is frequently so faint and 

 indefinable. Transmigration is a natural development 

 of Transformation, imperceptible because gradual, and 

 dependent for its complete disclosure upon the degree 

 of development of the doctrine of the soul. 



