156 EVOL UTION AND NATURAL THEOL OGY. 



sleep, after an interval, has blotted out the 

 intermediate period, but restored the memory 

 of all that took place before ; and these alter- 

 nations have been known to continue for some 

 years. Even the wild possibility that the same 

 body might be alternately inhabited by two 

 different spirits is negatived by the occasional 

 final blending of these two states. 



A second objection is that, assuming a 

 previous life, it would be neither possible nor 

 just that we should be rewarded or punished 

 for the acts of a forgotten existence. But even 

 granting that it is really forgotten (for we have 

 no proof that it is really more than dormant), 

 the old vindictive idea of punishment has long 

 been abandoned by all but theologians ; and 

 few will now maintain that punishment ought 

 (at least in theory) to aim at anything but the 

 reclamation of the offender. Consequently, if 

 evil tendencies exist, we must necessarily undergo 

 the treatment required for their cure, whether 

 they are hereditary* or derived from other 

 stages of existence. The latter supposition is 

 equivalent to our being punished in this life for 



* V\ do posted, pp. 183, 184. 



