changes into that of a sweet chestnut, then, along with the changes in
the seed, the whole nature of the tree, leaves, fruits will also be
changed. It will no more attract, absorb or assimilate those
substances and qualities of the environments which it did when it was
a horse-chestnut. Similarly, through the law of "natural selection"
the newly moulded thought-body of the dying person will choose and
attract such parts from the common environments as are helpful to its
proper expression or manifestation. Parents are nothing but the
principal parts of the environment of the re-incarnating
individual. The newly moulded inner nature or subtle body of the
individual will by the law of "natural selection" involuntarily
choose, or be unconsciously drawn to, as it were, its suitable parents
and will be born of them. As, for instance, if I have a strong desire
to become an artist, and if after a life-long struggle I do not
succeed in being the greatest, after the death of the body I will be
born of such parents and with such environments as will help me to
become the best artist.

The whole process is expressed in Eastern philosophy by the doctrine
of the Reincarnation of the individual soul. Although this doctrine
is commonly rejected in the West, it is unreservedly accepted by the
vast majority of mankind of the present day, as it was in past
centuries. The scientific explanation of this theory we find nowhere
except in the writings of the Hindus; still we know that from very
ancient times it was believed by the philosophers, sages and prophets
of different countries. The ancient civilization of Egypt was built
upon a crude form of the doctrine of Reincarnation. Herodotus says:
"The Egyptians propounded the theory that the human soul is
imperishable, and that where the body of any one dies it enters into
some other creature that may be ready to receive it." Pythagoras and