ng traveled to that country in order to be
initiated in the mystic orders of the ancient land, and returning they
taught anew the old doctrine of Rebirth. The Pythagorean teaching
resembles that of the Hindus and Egyptians, in so far as is concerned
the nature of man--his several bodies or sheaths--and the survival of
the higher part of his nature, while the lower part perishes. It was
taught that after death this higher part of the soul passed on to a
region of bliss, where it received knowledge and felt the beneficent
influence of developed and advanced souls, thus becoming equipped for a
new life, with incentives toward higher things. But, not having as yet
reached the stage of development which will entitle it to dwell in the
blissful regions for all eternity, it sooner or later reaches the limit
of its term of probation, and then passes down toward another
incarnation on earth--another step on the Path of Attainment.

The teaching was, further, that the conditions, circumstances and
environments of the new earth-life were determined by the actions,
thoughts, and mental tendencies of the former life, and by the degree of
development which the several previous earth-lives had manifested. In
this respect the teaching agrees materially with the universal doctrine
regarding Reincarnation and Karma. Pythagoras taught that the doctrine
of Reincarnation accounted for the inequality observable in the lives of
men on earth, giving a logical reason for the same, and establishing the
fact of universal and ultimate justice, accountable for on no other
grounds. He taught that although the material world was subject to the
laws of destiny and fatality, yet there was another and higher state of
being in which the soul would rise above the laws of the lower world.
This higher state, he taught, had laws of its own, as yet unknown to
man, which tended to work out the imperfect laws of the material world,
establishing harmony, justice, and equality, to supply the apparent
deficiencies manifested in the earth life.

Following Pythagoras, Plato, the great Grecian philosopher, taught the
old-new doctrine of Rebirth. He taught that the souls of the dead must
return to earth, where, in new lives, they must wear out the old earth
deeds, receiving benefits for the worthy ones, and penalties for the
unworthy ones, the soul profiting by these repeated experiences, and
rising step by step toward the divine. Plato taught that the
reincarnated s