1810.] 2 xrtracis from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters. 
8 To the right Worshipfull, my singular good 
Friend 2. Gabriell Harvey, Doctor of 
Lawes. 
Harvey, the happy above happiest men 
I read, that sitting like a looker-on 
Of this worldes stage, doest not with critique 
en 
The Share dislikes of each condition, 
And as one careless of suspition, ~ 
Ne fawnest for the favour of the great; 
Ne fearest foolish reprehension i 
Of faulty men, which danger to thee 
threat, 
But freely doest of what thee list entreat, 
Like a great lord of peerlesse liberty : 
Lifting the good up to high honour’s seat, 
And the evil damning evermore to dy. 
For life and death is in thy doomefsull wri- 
ting, 
So thy renown lives ever by endighting. 
Dublin, this xviii. of Fuly, 1586. 
Your devoted friend, during life, 
EpMUND SPENSER.” 
“© 4 Letter sent by William Laud, 
Archbishop of Cunteburie, with divers 
47 
Manuscripts, to the University of Ox- 
ford. Which Letter, in respect, it 
hath Relatwn to this present Parlie- 
ment, is here inserted: together with 
the dnswer which the University sent 
him, wherein is specyfied ther integrity, 
as he is their Chancellor. The Tenor 
whereof ensues. Printed in the Year 
1641.” +4to. 
This singular and rare tract consists 
but of five pages. The public orator’s 
answer is dated ‘* from Oxford, 1640.” 
Laud merely adds to his former gifts six 
manuscripts in [lebrew, eleven in Greek, 
thirty-four in Arabick, twenty-one in 
Latin, two in English, and five in Per- 
sian.  ‘Qne of which [last] being of a 
large volame, containeth a historie frona 
the beginning of the world to the end of 
the Saracen empire, and without doubts 
is of great worth.” These were, proba- 
bly, among the last presents which were 
made by archbishup Laud to the uni- 
versity. 
Extracts from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters. 
— 
TRANS-INOORPORATION OF SOULS. 
A ee doctrine of the trans-incorpora- 
ration of souls, or of their migra- 
tion through successive human bodies, 
was taught at length, and with more con- 
fidence; by a Jewish rabbi called Jitzcach 
Loriensis. Lis book is entitled De Re- 
volutionbus Animarum. 
He supposes a limited number of souls 
to have been made at the creation, and 
that these souls are constantly in waiting 
about our atmosphere, to animate such bos 
dies asareready forasoul. Thoseembryos 
perish which uo soul chooses to animate. 
The souls of the eminently good are 
dispensed from re-animating men, and 
become angels of God. The souls of the 
very bad are forbidden for a time to re- 
humanize themselves, and become devils; 
but they are often endeavouring to ob- 
tain a human body, that they may have 
a chance of bettering their condition: 
this may be observed in the case of pos- 
session by demons. 
Those souls continue to revolve in 
human life which are not perfect enough 
fur ange}s, or foul enough for devils; 
and@itmay often be perceived, that whole 
groups of souls, which, during their first 
Visit on earth, were acquainted with each 
other, come consentaneously again at 
igs 
~t, 
the same time into new being. In schools 
ef philosophy and theology, these clusters 
of old souls. may especially be traced; 
and many men of vigilant inteliect have 
recollected their former character, and 
are aware that their present ideas are 
inere reminiscences. In the history df 
all nations, souls follow their original 
order of presentation; the bold and cruel 
inake choice of an earlier period of na- 
tional existence than the humane and 
subtle, which mosly await a period of 
luxuxy and refinement. 
Many persons are born to misfortune; 
as when poverty, or hereditary disease, 
greatly afilict their parents. These evils 
are to be considered as voluntary expi- 
ations, which the soul so born chose to 
undergo, in erder to purge off the sing - 
committed during its preceding existence, 
Those are the wisest souls who so chouse 
their bodies: the well-embodied almost 
alwnys contract fresh pollutions, and go 
back into the atmosphere a degree lawer 
in spiritual existence. 
‘The soul of Abel belonged afterwards 
to Moses; and the soul of Cain belonged 
to that /igyptian whom Moses slew, 
John the Baptist claimed the soul. of 
Elias. Pythagoras was a Trojan, before 
he became a disciple of Eyra, Phila 
Rae was 
