There are many hundreds of lives upon the earth today who have reminiscences. Perhaps there are none in this room who, if they spoke from within, have not felt at some time a reminiscence of a previous existence, as though somewhere before they had seen, or felt, or experienced that which is transpiring here and now; a clasp of the hand, an intonation of voice, a flash, a gleam, a sunset glow, enough to reveal the heretofore.

Among many thousands of similar instances we cite one. We know a lady who never signs her name to a document, even an ordinary letter, without being seized with violent trembling. She always said, long before these teachings were known to her, that she felt that she had signed her name consenting to a terrible crime or injustice in some past time; perhaps to a death warrant, possibly that of her dearest friend; and that it had been a lifelong sorrow to her in that past time. When we consider what those past times were it is no wonder that sometimes there is hesitation, and trembling unaccountable, when one is performing an ordinary act It is no wonder that sometimes a reminiscence, as of sudden Borrow or of joy, should come upon one. What would be the feeling of the embodiment following such a life as that of Mary Stuart, unfortunate, not without ambition, but eighteen yean a prisoner in the various dungeons and castles of England to serve the ambition of the royal household? If there were sometimes tears unexplained, a reminiscence of sadness that had no excuse for being, it would not be remarkable. Sometimes a babe cornea sighing into a glad mother's arms, and it is only after months and years of love-light, and smiles, and kisses, that the child is won from its pre-existent Badness. Sometimes there are smiles and joy wholly unaccountable: since they are often depicted in the countenance where there is no outward occasion for being joyous, in the laughing eyes that reveal in every expression delight and gladness, in the hearts that are glad and can not be depressed or made sorrowful by the experiences of daily life. You will see hearts brave, cheerful, and strong, who will say: "Well, this is not so bad, it might have been worse;" who turn persistently to the light instead of the shadow; having either conquered the shadow or are luminous with strong reminiscence of the great light of a joy that was theirs.

The state of reminiscence does not begin with the first, nor yet with the second degrees of expression. It is a state of intuitive perception of the possessions within the Soul, but like all attainments has its shadowy and its real aide. We may illustrate this by citing the one who is ascending a mountain: while he is in the valley, or even during the ascent, when he is struggling, entangled in the woods, and briers, and 'mid rocks, or descending into valleys between the hills, he can not see the path by which he has ascended, nor yet the way before him, but when he comes to one height he can look back along the mountain and see the devious path by which he has ascended. He also has a glimpse of the way before him, of the higher height to be attained, and once more plunges into the valley, or ravine, or tangled maze, to ascend. So at a certain height, or a certain degree of unfold-ment in human existence, glimmerings of reminiscence begin: the consciousness of having lived before, of having suffered with the sufferer, of having traveled along the shaded human ways.

As those teachers like Pythagoras and Plato, and the shining groups of minds clustering, like stars, around some prophet of old, gave evidence of their individual reminiecences, so, in degree, many whom you meet today in the average state of intellectual and spiritual life, if closely questioned, would say: " Yes I feel often as though I had lived before; I have many times a sort of reminiscence of having had a previous existence here." Although this may be laughed at by friends, and frowned upon as a dream, or a freak of the imagination, still when 700 take up the complete web of human life its warp and woof will finally be found enwoven of the lines of these

At certain points in human progress each Soul looks back over these lines of life and is aware. Poets and artists are privileged to dwell in what is called the realm of the imagination, and they are not criticised if they picture two lovers who think they have met and loved before. They are not censured if, on the top of some ancient castle or ruin, there shall suddenly come into the mind of the dreamer, as depicted in the poem or picture, that it is all familiar, that he has been there before.

Poets, and artiste, and writers, in the realm of the imagination, are supposed to have an especial sesame to enter the mystic and shadowy regions. All references to pre-existence, and reminiscence, are supposed to he poetic license; but if poets did not strike a chord in human life that would vibrate in sympathy with their thoughts how could they thus write? The thrilling, the deep, the unexplainable, is oftenest that which is founded in the highest truth. If this principle were not in the upper air, if it did not belong to one of the inner chambers of the spirit, it could not be thought of. People do not absolutely invent ideas of this kind, they are borne into the consciousness from some inner realm. In ordinary lives, deeper subjects sometimes take possession and there begins this line of reminiscence, which, however, relates to the deeper consciousness, and which is very wisely veiled from the ordinary vision: since if people were busily engaged in remembering what they were, they would not fulfill the present duties and objects of life. There is just sufficient of reminiscence in the world to offer as proof when any teaching is distinctly on that subject Taking the whole world, and the whole human history, the evidence of reminiscence are as complete and as numerous as any other factor in human life. Nor is it possible to take from this rare lily of existence its attribute of being a flower. Reminiscence would not be what its name implies if it were more than an atmosphere, a wonderful background into and through which the tones and tints of life are to be wrought.