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or punishment; that the souls of the virtuous return, after death, 

 into the source from whence they flowed; while the souls of the 

 wicked, after being for a certain time confined to a place destined 

 for their reception, are sent back to earth to animate other bodies. 

 Aristotle supposed the souls of mankind to be portions, or emana- 

 tions, of the Divine Spirit; which, at death, quit the' body, and, 

 like a drop of water falling into the ocean, are absorbed into 

 the divinity. Zeno, the founder of the stoic sect, taught that 

 throughout nature there are two eternal qualities; the one active, 

 the other passive: that the former is a pure and subtle aether, 

 the Divine Spirit; and that the latter is in itself entirely inert 

 until united with the active principle. That the Divine Spirit, 

 acting upon matter, produced fire, air, water, and earth: that the 

 Divine Spirit is the efficient principle, and that all nature is moved 

 and conducted by it. He believed also that the soul of man, be- 

 ing a portion of the Universal Soul, returns, after death, to its first 

 source. The opinion of the soul being an emanation of the 

 Divinity, which is believed by the Hindoos, and was professed by 

 the Greeks, seems likewise to have been adopted by the early 

 Christians. Macrobius observes, Animarum originem manare de 

 caelo, inter rectfe philosophantes indubitatse constant esse fidei. 

 Saint Justin says, the soul is incorruptible, because it emanates from 

 God ; and his disciple, Tatianus the Assyrian, observes, that man 

 having received a portion of the Divinity is immortal as God is." 



Such was the system of the ancient philosophers, Pythago- 

 reans, brachmans, and some sects of Christians. In the sacred 

 volumes of the Hindoos are these assertions: " Know that every 

 thing which is produced in nature, results from the union of 



