Reincarnation - A Study in Human Evolution

Théophile Pascal

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• Publié par: chyaz
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 75
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Reincarnation, by Th. Pascal This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Reincarnation  A Study in Human Evolution Author: Th. Pascal Translator: Fred Rothwell Release Date: May 19, 2007 [EBook #21533] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REINCARNATION *** Produced by Curtis Weyant, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department Digital Library)

  REINCARNATION A STUDY IN HUMAN EVOLUTION   T HE R ESURRECTION   OF   THE B ODY AND T HE R EINCARNATION   OF   THE S OUL   BY D R . TH. PASCAL   T RANSLATED   BY F RED R OTHWELL   "Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I should be forced to answer him:—It is that part of the world which is haunted by the incredible delusion that man was created out of nothing, and that his present birth is his first entrance into life."—S CHOPENHAUER . (Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 2, Chap. 15)     LONDON The Theosophical Publishing Society 161 N EW B OND S TREET , W. 1910 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE.   S KETCH   OF   THE A UTHOR ' S L IFE 5   A UTHOR ' S P REFACE 11 I.T HE S OUL   AND   THE B ODIES 15 II.R EINCARNATION   AND   THE M ORAL L AW 42 III.R EINCARNATION   AND S CIENCE 99 IV.R EINCARNATION   AND   THE R ELIGIOUS   AND P HILOSOPHICAL C ONSENSUS   OF   THE A GES 159   C ONCLUSION 301

SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. Théophile Pascal was born on the 11th of May, 1860, at Villecroze, a village in the South of France. His childhood was spent amid the pleasant surroundings of a country life. Shortly after his sixteenth birthday, a relative of his, a Catholic priest ministering in Toulon, seeing that the youth showed considerable ability, sent for him and presided over his studies in this large maritime centre. Before many years elapsed, he entered the Naval Medical School of the town, which he left at the age of twenty-two, with first-class honours. In his professional capacity, he took several trips on vessels belonging to the Mediterranean squadron. Four years afterwards he married, resigned active naval service, and devoted himself to building up a practice on land, becoming a homoeopathic physician in the great seaport itself. It was about this time that the young doctor became interested in Theosophy, owing to the kindly services of a former patient, Commander Courmes. The closest friendship and sympathetic interest in theosophic thought thus began, and continued during their common labours subsequently in Paris, Dr. Pascal entered the Theosophical Society in 1891, and during the course of the following year wrote a series of articles for theRevue Théosophique Française. These were continued year after year, and dealt with the most varied subjects: Psychic Powers; The Fall of the Angels; Kâma-Manasic Elementals; Thought Forms; Christianity, Prehistoric Races, and many others. The young doctor had previously made a deep study of human magnetism, which proved a most fertile ground for the sowing of the seed of the Ancient Wisdom. In 1898 attacks of serious nervous depression became frequent, forcing him to cease work of every kind. Mrs. Besant persuaded him to accompany her to India, where his general health was gradually restored, and he was enabled to return to France in the following year. He decided to leave Toulon, where he had built up a considerable practice, and to settle in Paris, hoping to provide for the needs of himself and his family—his wife and only daughter—by the exercise of his profession, and at the same time to fight the good fight for Theosophy in the capital itself. The French Section of the Theosophical Society was founded in 1900, and Dr. Pascal was elected General Secretary. Throughout the next two years a number of thoughtful articles and publications appeared from his pen. The incessant labour and attention, however, which he bestowed on the spreading of theosophic instruction began to have its effect on a naturally delicate constitution, and in July, 1902, when attending the meetings of the British Convention in London, he was prostrated by an attack of congestion of the brain. The most devoted care was lavished on him, both in London and in Paris, the result being that a rapid, though only temporary, recovery took place. Had he relaxed his efforts somewhat, the cure might have been a permanent one, but Dr. Pascal, with the penetrating vision of the mystic, saw how pressing were the needs of the age, and how few the pioneers of this new presentation of the Truth, so that, at whatever cost of personal sacrifice, he plunged once more into the midst of his arduous toil. In 1903 a series of very fine articles on the Laws of Destiny appeared in theRevue Théosophique, to be followed immediately by publication in volume form. Two years afterwards appeared the present volume —R EINCARNATION : A S TUDY   IN  H UMAN  E VOLUTION ; a work considered the most complete of any that have so far appeared in France on this subject, and the most popular of Dr. Pascal's publications. In 1906 some of the nerve centres controlling the organs of speech became affected, but not sufficiently to compel him to remain absent from the International Theosophical Congress held that year in Paris under the

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