for the origin of Reincarnation,
we find ourselves once more confronting the Egyptian Sphinx as we have
done so often before in our search after Truth.

Notwithstanding its obvious prehistoric origin, many have claimed that
Metempsychosis has its birthplace in old Egypt, on the banks of the
Nile. India disputes this claim, holding that the Ganges, not the Nile,
gave birth to the doctrine. Be that as it may, we shall treat the
Egyptian conception at this place, among the ancient lands holding the
doctrine, for in India it is not a thing of the past, but a doctrine
which has its full flower at the present time, and which flower is
sending forth its subtle odor to all parts of the civilized world. And
so we shall defer our consideration of India's teachings until we reach
the present stage of the history of Reincarnation. Herodotus, many
centuries ago, said of the Egyptians that: "The Egyptians are the first
who propounded the theory that the human soul is imperishable, and that
where the body of any one dies it enters into some other body that may
be ready to receive it; and that when it has gone the round of all
created forms on land, in water, and in air, then it once more enters
the human body born for it; and that this cycle of existence for the
soul takes place in three thousand years."

The doctrine of Reincarnation is discernible though hidden away amidst
the mass of esoteric doctrine back of the exoteric teachings of the
Egyptians, which latter were expounded to the common people, while the
truth was reserved for the few who were ready for it. The inner circles
of the Egyptian mystics believed in and understood the inner truths of
Reincarnation, and although they guarded the esoteric teachings
carefully, still fragments fell from the table and were greedily taken
up by the masses, as we may see by an examination of the scraps of
historical records which have been preserved, graven in the stone, and
imprinted on the bricks. Not only did these people accept the doctrine
of Reincarnation, but Egypt was really the home of the highest occult
teachings. The doctrines and teachings regarding several "sheaths" or
"bodies" of man, which are taught by occultists of all times and races,
are believed to have been fully taught in their original purity on the
banks of the Nile, and in the shadow of the Pyramids--yes, even before
the days of the Pyramids. Their forty centuries of history saw many
modifications of the philosophi