tality," in the following lines:

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar."

Many Occidentals have believed in preexistence. One of the most
intelligent persons whom I have ever known once affirmed that she had
had thoughts which she was sure were memories of events which had
occurred in a previous life. This answer only pushes the question one
stage further back, and leaves us still inquiring, Where do the souls of
men originally come from?

Another answer to our question affirms that every individual soul is
created by God whenever a body is in readiness to receive it--that when
a body is born a soul is made to order for it. An old poet wrote as
follows:

"Then God smites His hands together
And strikes out a soul as a spark,
Into the organized glory of things,
From the deeps of the dark."[1]

[Footnote 1: W.R. Alger, "History of the Doctrine of a Future Life,"
page 10.]

The Greek myth of Prometheus is an illustration of this teaching, for
"Prometheus is said to have made a human image from the dust of the
ground, and then, by fire stolen from heaven, to have animated it with a
living soul."[2]

[Footnote 2: W.R. Alger, "History of the Doctrine of a Future Life,"
page 10.]

Another answer teaches that all human souls have been derived by
heredity from that of Adam. This is a speculation found in medieval
theology, and in the Koran.

A fanciful theory suggests that all souls have been in existence since
the universe was formed; that they are floating in space like rays of
light; and that when a body comes into being a soul is drawn into it
with its first breath, or first nourishment. This is pure imagination,
but intelligent and earnest men have believed it to be the true solution
of the problem.

One other answer to this question of origin teaches that souls are
propagated in the same way and at the same time as bodies; that when a
human being appears he is body and spirit; that both are born together,
both grow together; and then, some add, both die together, while others
believe that the spirit enters at death on a larger and freer stage of
existence.

I have recalled these speculations concerning the soul in order to show
that in all ages this question has been eagerly put and reverently
pressed. How could it have been otherwise? And what more convincing
evide