It is so! The very same Way by which the Race reaches its perfection, must every individual man—one sooner—another later— have travelled over. Have travelled over in one and the same life? Can he have been, in one and the self-same life, a sensual Jew and a spiritual Christian? Can he in the self-same life have overtaken both?
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Surely not that! But why should not every individual man have existed more than once upon this World?
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Is this hypothesis so laughable merely because it is the oldest?
Because the human understanding, before the sophistries of the
Schools had dissipated and debilitated it, lighted upon it at once?
Why may not even I have already performed those steps of my perfecting which bring to man only temporal punishments and rewards?
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And once more, why not another time all those steps, to perform which the views of Eternal Rewards so powerfully assist us?
Why should I not come back as often as I am capable of acquiring fresh knowledge, fresh expertness? Do I bring away so much from once, that there is nothing to repay the trouble of coming back?
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