als accepting Reincarnation and Karma as they
accept the fact that they themselves are existent, or that twice one
makes two. Hindu Philosophy cannot be divorced from Reincarnation. To
the Hindu the only escape from the doctrine of Reincarnation seems to be
along the road of the Materialism of the West. From the above statement
we may except the Hindu Mohammedans and the native Hindu Christians,
partially, although careful observers say that even these do not escape
entirely the current belief of their country, and secretly entertain a
"mental reservation" in their heterodox creeds. So, you see, we are
justified in considering India as the Mother Land of Reincarnation at
the present time.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MODERN WEST.

In the modern thought of the Western world, we find Reincarnation
attracting much attention. The Western philosophies for the past hundred
years have been approaching the subject with a new degree of attention
and consideration, and during the past twenty years there has been a
marvellous awakening of Western public interest in the doctrine. At the
present time the American and European magazines contain poems and
stories based upon Reincarnation, and many novels have been written
around it, and plays even have been based upon the general doctrine, and
have received marked attention on the part of the public. The idea seems
to have caught the public fancy, and the people are eager to know more
of it.

This present revival of attention has been brought about largely by the
renewed interest on the part of the Western world toward the general
subject of occultism, mysticism, comparative religion, oriental
philosophy, etc., in their many phases and forms. The World's Parliament
of Religions, held at the World's Fair in Chicago, in 1893, did much to
attract the attention of the American public to the subject of the
Oriental Philosophies in which Reincarnation plays such a prominent
part. But, perhaps, the prime factor in this reawakened Western interest
in the subject is the work and teachings of the Theosophical Society,
founded by Madame Blavatsky some thirty years ago, and which has since
been continued by her followers and several successors. But, whatever
may be the cause, the idea of Reincarnation seems destined to play an
important part in the religious and philosophical thought of the West
for some time to come. Signs of it appear on every side--the subject
cannot be ignored by the modern