Concluding this lesson, we would quote two selections from the American poet, Whitman, whose strange genius was undoubtedly the result of vague memories springing from a previous life, and which burst into utterances often not more than half understood by the mind that gave them birth.  Whitman says: 

     “Facing West from California’s shores,
     Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,
     A, a child, very old, over waves, toward the house of
       maternity, the land of migrations, look afar,
     Look off the shores of my Western sea, the circle
       almost circled: 
     For starting Westward from Hindustan, from the
       vales of Kashmere,
     From Asia, from the north, from God, the sage, and
       the hero,
     From the south, from the flowery peninsulas and
       spice islands,
     Long having wandered since, round the earth having
       wandered,
     Now I face home again, very pleased and joyous. 
     (But where is what I started for so long ago? 
     And why is it yet unfound?)”

* * * * *

     “I know I am deathless.

     I know that this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a
       carpenter’s compass;
     And whether I come to my own to-day, or in ten
       thousand or ten million years,

     I can cheerfully take it now or with equal cheerfulness
       can wait.”

* * * * *

     “As to you, Life, I reckon you are the leavings of
       many deaths. 
     No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.”

* * * * *

     “Births have brought us richness and variety, and
       other births have brought us richness and variety.”

* * * * *

And this quotation from the American poet N.P.  Willis: 

     “But what a mystery this erring mind? 
     It wakes within a frame of various powers
     A stranger in a new and wondrous world. 
     It brings an instinct from some other sphere,
     For its fine senses are familiar all,
     And with the unconscious habit of a dream
     It calls and they obey.  The priceless sight
     Springs to its curious organ, and the ear
     Learns strangely to detect the articulate air
     In its unseen divisions, and the tongue
     Gets its miraculous lesson with the rest,
     And in the midst of an obedient throng
     Of well trained ministers, the mind goes forth
     To search the secrets of its new found home.”

THE TENTH LESSON

SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION.