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The Floating Press - Theodore Pascal ,
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130 pages

English

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Do you believe in the persistence of the human soul? Convinced that we live through multiple iterations of life on Earth before finally achieving enlightenment and moving to the next plane of being? Interested in learning more about the early Western response to the Buddhist and Hindu doctrines of reincarnation? If so, be sure to put this tract from French theosophy and theology expert Theodore Pascal on your must-read list.

Sujets

Spirit

Body

Mind

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 décembre 2009
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781775417057
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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REINCARNATION
A STUDY IN HUMAN EVOLUTION
* * *
TH. PASCAL
Translated by
FRED ROTHWELL

*

Reincarnation A Study in Human Evolution First published in 1910.
ISBN 978-1-775417-05-7
© 2009 THE FLOATING PRESS.
While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike.
Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
*
Sketch of the Author's Life Author's Preface Chapter I - The Soul and the Bodies Chapter II - Reincarnation and the Moral Law Chapter III - Reincarnation and Science Chapter IV - Reincarnation and the Religious and Philosophic Consensus of the Ages Conclusion Endnotes

*
"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."—SCHOPENHAUER.
( Parerga and Paralipomena , Vol. 2, Chap. 15)
Sketch of the Author's Life
*
Théophile Pascal was born on the 11th of May, 1860, at Villecroze, avillage in the South of France. His childhood was spent amid thepleasant surroundings of a country life. Shortly after his sixteenthbirthday, a relative of his, a Catholic priest ministering in Toulon,seeing that the youth showed considerable ability, sent for him andpresided over his studies in this large maritime centre. Before manyyears elapsed, he entered the Naval Medical School of the town, whichhe left at the age of twenty-two, with first-class honours. In hisprofessional capacity, he took several trips on vessels belonging tothe Mediterranean squadron. Four years afterwards he married, resignedactive naval service, and devoted himself to building up a practice onland, becoming a homoeopathic physician in the great seaport itself.It was about this time that the young doctor became interested inTheosophy, owing to the kindly services of a former patient,Commander Courmes. The closest friendship and sympathetic interest intheosophic thought thus began, and continued during their commonlabours subsequently in Paris, Dr. Pascal entered the TheosophicalSociety in 1891, and during the course of the following year wrote aseries of articles for the Revue Théosophique Française . These werecontinued 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 theAncient Wisdom.
In 1898 attacks of serious nervous depression became frequent, forcinghim to cease work of every kind. Mrs. Besant persuaded him toaccompany her to India, where his general health was graduallyrestored, and he was enabled to return to France in the followingyear.
He decided to leave Toulon, where he had built up a considerablepractice, and to settle in Paris, hoping to provide for the needs ofhimself and his family—his wife and only daughter—by the exercise ofhis profession, and at the same time to fight the good fight forTheosophy 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 twoyears a number of thoughtful articles and publications appeared fromhis pen. The incessant labour and attention, however, which hebestowed on the spreading of theosophic instruction began to have itseffect on a naturally delicate constitution, and in July, 1902, whenattending the meetings of the British Convention in London, he wasprostrated by an attack of congestion of the brain. The most devotedcare was lavished on him, both in London and in Paris, the resultbeing that a rapid, though only temporary, recovery took place. Had herelaxed his efforts somewhat, the cure might have been a permanentone, but Dr. Pascal, with the penetrating vision of the mystic, sawhow pressing were the needs of the age, and how few the pioneers ofthis new presentation of the Truth, so that, at whatever cost ofpersonal sacrifice, he plunged once more into the midst of his arduoustoil.
In 1903 a series of very fine articles on the Laws of Destiny appearedin the Revue Théosophique , to be followed immediately by publicationin volume form. Two years afterwards appeared the presentvolume—REINCARNATION: A STUDY IN HUMAN EVOLUTION; a work consideredthe most complete of any that have so far appeared in France on thissubject, and the most popular of Dr. Pascal's publications.
In 1906 some of the nerve centres controlling the organs of speechbecame affected, but not sufficiently to compel him to remain absentfrom the International Theosophical Congress held that year in Parisunder the presidency of Colonel Olcott. It was on this occasion thatDr. Pascal received from the hands of the President-Founder the SubbaRao medal, awarded to members of the society whose literary labours inthe promulgation of the truths of Theosophy have proved eminentlyuseful.
Twelve months afterwards he attended the Congress at Munich, under thepresidency of Mrs. Besant, but was obliged to leave before thetermination of the meetings. This may be regarded as Dr. Pascal's lastpublic appearance as an active theosophist, for his subsequentprolonged stay in the South of France effected no radical improvementin the state of his health.
Returning to Paris in March, 1908, and realising how impossible it wasfor him to fulfil the duties incumbent on a General Secretary, hedecided to resign his post. His colleagues, however, insisted on hiscontinuing as Honorary General Secretary. From this time onward hishealth became gradually worse, and his physical life terminated on the18th of April, 1909, his body being cremated three days afterwards atthe Cemetery of Père Lachaise.
What was most striking about Dr. Pascal, in both public and privatelife, was his intense earnestness—the index of a well-grounded habitof concentration—and the calm strength of his convictions. It wasimpossible to be in his presence for any length of time withoutfeeling the power that emanated from him, and recognising that herewas a mighty soul struggling for expression.
Other characteristics were his extreme modesty, and his continualendeavour to accord praise and merit to those working for the cause sodear to his own heart. When questioned on many of the intricate pointsraised in a lecture or in conversation on some abstruse theosophicalsubject, he made no pretence at knowledge he did not possess; on suchoccasions his confession of ignorance would be charming, even touchingin its naïveté .
But the qualities he seemed to feel it his special object to awaken inthe minds of others—as will be acknowledged, I think, by those whoknew him best—may be inferred from his continual insistence on thedouble duty, incumbent on students of Theosophy, of practising on alloccasions the utmost tolerance, refusing not only to condemn but evento judge harshly the opinions or actions of others, and of seizingevery opportunity to help another because of the recognition of theOne Life throughout the world, May we who read the following pagescatch somewhat of the deep earnestness and enthusiastic spiritbreathing through them, and may the joy of service dissipate allmeaner, motives, taking as our watchword also the only key to truegrowth, the very heart of altruism, that exhortation he never weariedof repeating: Aidez! Aidez toujours!
F. R.
Author's Preface
*
It will soon be: 1500 years since the decision of the Council of 543A.D. [1] condemned to oblivion sublime teachings which ought to havebeen carefully preserved and handed down to future generations as abeacon amid social reefs; teachings that would have uprooted thatfrightful egoism which threatens to annihilate the world, andinstilled patience into the hearts of such as were being crushedbeneath the wheel of the cosmic law, by showing them the scales ofJustice inclining to the side filled with their iniquities of bygonetimes; teachings which would have been welcomed by the masses, and theunderstanding of which would not have called for any loftyintellectual culture.
It was one of the greatest misfortunes that could have befallen theraces of the West, more especially the European, that they were thusdeprived for centuries of this indispensable knowledge. We look uponit as a duty, following on so many others, to offer it anew, this timein the clear, logical, illuminating form presented in theosophicteachings. The necessity thereof is all the more imperative when weconsider the growth of scepticism and materialism amongst the moreintellectual classes, whilst the mass of the people have forsakentheir blind faith only to succumb to religious indifference.
To every awakened soul the question comes:
Why does evil exist?
So long as the enigma remains unsolved, Suffering remains athreatening sphinx, opposing God and ready to devour mankind.
The key to the secret lies in Evolution, which can be accomplishedonly by means of the continual return of souls to earth.
When once man learns that suffering is the necessary result of divinemanifestation; that inequalities of conditions are due to thedifferent stages which beings have reached and the changeable actionof their will; that the painful phase lasts only a moment in Eternity,and that we have it in our power to hasten its disappearance; thatthough slaves of the past, we are masters of the future; that,finally, the same glorious goal awaits all beings—then, despair will