412 IMMORTALITY. 



descent compels us to assert that the soul of man 

 has been developed out of the souls of animals, 

 what difficulty remains In the supposition that each 

 individual soul has passed through the stages of 

 this same development ? 



And again, the objection to pre-existence, on the 

 ground of our failure to remember anything about 

 our past lives, has distinctly diminished in cogency. 

 We have learnt too well what a curiously uncertain 

 thing memory Is to attach much weight to Its dis- 

 abilities. For, in the first place, the absence of 

 memory maybe perfectly accounted for teleologlcally 

 on grounds of adaptation. The memory of such a 

 past as we should probably have had would have 

 been a most troublesome equipment, a most disab- 

 ling burden, in the battle of life. For the recollec- 

 tion of our past faults and past failures would, In the 

 present state of our spiritual development, be a most 

 fatal obstacle to the freshness and hopefulness with 

 which we should encounter life's present problems. 

 Whatever, therefore, may be the case hereafter, it 

 seems clear that the cultivation of a wise forgetful- 

 ness was the condition of spiritual progress In the 

 past ; a short memory was necessary, if the burden 

 of unbearable knowledge was not to crush our spirit. 



Secondly, in the face of the growing evidence of 

 how the right manipulations may revive the memory 

 of what seemed to have perished beyond recovery 

 (cp. ch. ix. § 28 s.f.), it would be rash indeed to assert 

 that the progress of experimental psychology should 

 not, by some as yet undiscovered process, enable 

 us actually to remember our past. 



And lastly, it should be observed that whatever 

 the evidential value of our obliviousness of our past 

 lives, it applies equally to the earlier portions of our 



