ion of occult science that the fruits of a past life
are incorporated in man's spiritual germ, and that the spirit-land in
which man finds himself, between death and a new life, is the region in
which these fruits ripen, and are transformed into talents and
capabilities which will appear in a new life and will form the personality
so that it appears as the effect of what was gained in a former life. It
will become evident to any one who accepts these hypotheses and, bearing
them in mind, surveys life impartially, that while, by their means, all
material facts may be appreciated in their full truth and significance, at
the same time everything becomes intelligible which, if only material
facts were relied upon, must forever remain incomprehensible to one whose
attention is turned toward the spiritual world. And more important still,
that illogical reasoning of the kind indicated above will disappear,
namely,--that because the most distinguished name in a line of descent
stands at the end of it, its bearer must have inherited his gifts. Life
becomes logically comprehensible through the supersensual facts
ascertained by occult science.

Yet another weighty objection may be raised by the conscientious seeker
after truth who desires to find his way to facts and has no experience of
his own in the supersensual world. It may be urged that it is inadmissible
to accept the existence of facts, of any kind, simply because by means of
them something may be explained which is otherwise unintelligible. Such an
objection is meaningless to one who knows the corresponding facts from
supersensual experience, and in later chapters of this book the path will
be indicated that may be followed in order to gain knowledge not only of
the spiritual facts herein described, but also of the law of spiritual
causation as a personal experience. Any one, however, who is not willing
to enter upon this path may find the above objection important; and what
can be said against it is also of value to one who is resolved to follow
the path indicated. For if it is received in the right spirit, it is the
very best preliminary step that can be taken on this path. It is perfectly
true that one ought not to accept a statement about which one is otherwise
ignorant merely because, by means of it, something otherwise inexplicable
can be explained, but in the case of alleged spiritual facts the matter is
different. If such statements are accepted, the intellectual co