extremely limited. We forget the larger portion of
experience soon after we have passed through it, and we should be able
to recall the particulars of our past years, filling all the missing
links of consciousness since we entered on the present life, before we
were in a position to remember our ante-natal experience. Birth must
necessarily be preceded by crossing the river of oblivion, while the
capacity for fresh acquisition survives, and the garnered wealth of old
experience determines the amount and character of the new."

Another startling evidence of the proof of Metempsychosis is afforded
us in the cases of "infant prodigies," etc., which defy any other
explanation. Take the cases of the manifestation of musical talent in
certain children at an early age, for instance. Take the case of Mozart
who at the age of four was able to not only perform difficult pieces on
the piano, but actually composed original works of merit. Not only did
he manifest the highest faculty of sound and note, but also an
instinctive ability to compose and arrange music, which ability was
superior to that of many men who had devoted years of their life to
study and practice. The laws of harmony--the science of commingling
tones, was to him not the work of years, but a faculty born in him.
There are many similar cases of record.

Heredity does not explain these instances of genius, for in many of the
recorded cases, none of the ancestors manifested any talent or ability.
From whom did Shakespeare inherit his genius? From whom did Plato
derive his wonderful thought? From what ancestor did Abraham Lincoln
inherit his character--coming from a line of plain, poor, hard-working
people, and possessing all of the physical attributes and
characteristics of his ancestry, he, nevertheless, manifested a mind
which placed him among the foremost of his race. Does not
Metempsychosis give us the only possible key? Is it not reasonable to
suppose that the abilities displayed by the infant genius, and the
talent of the men who spring from obscure origin, have their root in
the experiences of a previous life?

Then take the cases of children at school. Children of even the same
family manifest different degrees of receptivity to certain studies.
Some "take to" one thing, and some to another. Some find arithmetic so
easy that they almost absorb it intuitively, while grammar is a hard
task for them; while their brothers and sisters find the exact reverse
to