First, then, as to the object of life. Except we deny any aim at all in Nature's processes which have led up to man, it is evident that in man the one paramount object is to gain knowledge and wisdom through experience. Even one short life forces us to this conclusion. Materialism does not deny this, but claims that this increment of wisdom is transmitted to the race, and that the individual has no future share in it. If experience and wisdom resulting therefrom be the object, then one life is simply absurd. Did all attain old age, the case would be bad enough, but when we consider the vast number who dic with no experience whatever, the inadequacy of one life to accomplish this purpose becomes apparent to the dullest intellect.

As has been well shown by a recent writer: *

"The usual belief is that we are here but once, and once for all determine our future. And yet it is abundantly clear that one life, even if prolonged, is no more adequate to gain knowledge, acquire experience, solidify principle, and form character, than would one day in infancy be adequate to fit for the duties of mature manhood. Any man can make this even clearer by estimating, on the one hand, the probable future which Nature contemplates for humanity, and, on the other, his present preparation for it. That future includes evidently two things - an elevation of the individual to god-like excellence, and his gradual apprehension of the Universe of Truth. His present preparation, therefore, consists of a very imperfect knowledge of a very small department of one form of existence, and that mainly gained through the partial use of misleading senses; of a suspicion, rather than a belief, that the sphere of supersensuous truth may exceed the sensuous as the universe does this earth; of a partially developed set of moral and spiritual faculties, none acute and none unhampered, but all dwarfed by non-use, poisoned by prejudice, and perverted by ignorance; the whole nature, moreover, being limited in its interests and affected in its endeavors by the ever-present needs of a physical body which, much more than the soul, is felt to be the real 'I.' Is such a being, narrow, biased, carnal, sickly, fitted to enter at death on a limitless career of spiritual acquisition?

"Now, there are only three ways in which this obvious unfitness may be overcome, - a transforming power in death, a post-mortem and wholly spiritual discipline, a series of Reincarnations. There is nothing in the mere separation of soul from body to confer wisdom, ennoble character, or cancel dispositions acquired through fleshliness. If any such power resided in death, all souls, upon being disembodied, would be precisely alike, - a palpable absurdity. Nor could a post-mortem discipline meet the requirement, and this for the following reasons: (a) the soul's knowledge of human life would always remain insignificant; (b) of the various faculties only to be developed during incarnation, some would still be dormant at death, and therefore never evolve; (c) the unsatisfying nature of material life would not have been fully demonstrated; (d) there would have been no deliberate conquest of the flesh by the spirit; (e) the meaning of Universal Brotherhood would have been very imperfectly seen; (f) desire for a career on earth under different conditions would persistently check the disciplinary process; (g) exact justice could hardly be secured; (h) the discipline itself would be insufficiently varied and copious; (i) there would be no advance in the successive races on earth.

* The Necessity for Reincarnation. Leaflet.

"There remains, then, the last alternative, a series of Reincarnations, or, in other words, that the enduring principle of the man, endowed during each interval between two earth-lives with the results achieved in the former of them, shall return for further experience and effort."

The author then proceeds to show how all of the objections are met and fully satisfied through Reincarnation; thus:

"Only through Reincarnation can knowledge of human life be made exhaustive, or opportunity afforded for the development of all those faculties which can only be developed during incarnation. Only through reincarnation is the unsatisfying nature of material life fully demonstrated; the subordination of the lower to the higher nature made possible; the meaning of Universal Brotherhood become apparent; the desire for other forms of earthly experience be extinguished by undergoing them; exact justice meted to every man; variety and copiousness to the discipline we all require, be secured; and a continuous advance in the successive races of men ensured."

(justice, especially, is most completely set aside by any other theory. According to Christian dogmas, a child who dies at birth is surely "saved." It has had none of the experience and temptations of its fellow-mortals, yet its future happiness is eternally assured because of the accidental cutting short of its earthly career. A Christian who really believes this ought to pray for death for his children, and return devout thanks when the grave closes over their little forms. For what are the pleasures of one brief life compared with the eternal happiness which, according to their belief, awaits the child just beyond the grave, and which it runs the hazard of losing if its existence is prolonged sufficiently for it to encounter the many temptations which must await it in the event of its surviving?) Nor is the Spiritist happier in his efforts to explain away the inconsistencies of one life. He claims that experience may be acquired by proxy in a spiritual realm. This postulates the absurdity of attaining material knowledge under spiritual environments.

But were this possible, it still banishes both method and reason from the scheme of evolution, for there is either no necessity for the spirit to incarnate at all, or else the coming to earth for a few moments, as in the case of babes who die at birth, cannot fulfill the requirements. And this without speaking of the injustice of compelling one soul to undergo the pains of mortal experience in order that it may teach another to whom accident or disease denied opportunity. Either this world is one of chance, "where Chaos umpire sits, and by decision adds but to the confusion," or else all one-birth theories must be set aside, as not accounting for even a small portion of the observed facts.