ON THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. l6j 



at home, while fhe is roaming over other worlds % In 

 fhort, their foul is in this refpect as unconfmed, as 

 thofe of the feers and prophets and nuns inflamed by 

 heavenly love can poffibly be : as certainly as thefe be- 

 lieve they fhall pafs over into other worlds and there 

 enjoy fpiritual khTes of love ; fo aliuredly do the former 

 that they fhall converfe with the fouls of their ancef- 

 tors in the inferior world. 



How can the human intellect be fo blind to fuch 

 manifeft contradictions and abfurdities, will a gloomy 

 metaphyfician fay, who has never beheld mankind any 

 otherwife than in his compendium ; and will either 

 doubt of the facts or break out in bitter lamentations 

 on the wretchednefs of the human race. But in reality 

 the human mind is not fo dull, as we ufually make it 

 when we only fee it through the medium of our own 

 favorite opinions. The notions that appear to us contra- 

 dictory and abfurd, becaufe we either ftudioufly neg- 

 lect, or cannot difcover the foundations on which they 

 fend, are certainly not fo in the eyes and according to 

 the ideas of thofe who embrace them. Though the 

 human mind be feldom ftrons; enough to fee truth in 

 all its purity : yet it has always fufficient force to 

 avoid manifeft contradiction in its very deviations; and 

 even from the mofl ridiculous tenets to compofe a kind 

 of harmonious fyftemu By the manner in which rude 

 nations reprefent the foul, their voluntary neglect of 

 the body has nothing contradictory in it, at leaf! no- 

 thing vifibly contradictory ; as it is not in itfelf abfurd, 

 that the animating airy being in the body, in a human 



* Crantz hifb. of Greenland, yol. i. p. 257. 



form j 



