8018. SOULS, Transmigration of.—
It is
not for me to pronounce on the hypothesis
you present of a transmigration of souls from
one body to another in certain cases. The laws
of nature have withheld from us the means
of physical knowledge of the country of spirits,
and revelation has, for reasons unknown to us,
chosen to leave us in the dark as we were.
When I was young I was fond of the speculations
which seemed to promise some insight
into that hidden country, but observing at
length that they left me in the same ignorance
in which they had found me, I have for very
many years ceased to read or to think concerning
them, and have reposed my head on that
pillow of ignorance which a benevolent Creator
has made so soft for us, knowing how much
we should be forced to use it. I have thought
it better, by nourishing the good passions and
controlling the bad, to merit an inheritance in
a state of being of which I can know so little,
and to trust for the future to Him who has
been so good for the past.—
To Rev. Isaac Story. Washington ed. iv, 422.
Ford ed., viii, 107.
(W.
1801)
See Immortality.
