DOES MAN EXIST ELSEWHERE THAN ON THE EARTH?--DESCRIPTION OF THE PLANETS.--PLURALITY OF THE INHABITED WORLDS 177
THAT WHICH TOOK PLACE ON EARTH FOR THE CREATION OF ORGANIZED BEINGS MUST HAVE EQUALLY TAKEN PLACE IN THE OTHER PLANETS.--SUCCESSIVE ORDER OF THE APPEARANCE OF LIVING BEINGS ON OUR GLOBE.--THE SAME SUCCESSION MUST HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN EACH PLANET.--THE PLANETARY MAN.--THE PLANETARY MAN, LIKE THE TERRESTRIAL MAN, IS TRANSFORMED, AFTER DEATH, INTO A SUPERHUMAN BEING, AND PASSES INTO THE ETHER 195
PROOFS OF THE PLURALITY OF HUMAN EXISTENCES, AND OF RE-INCARNATIONS.--WITHOUT THE AID OF THIS DOCTRINE THE PRESENCE OF MAN UPON THE EARTH IS INEXPLICABLE, LIKEWISE THE UNEQUAL CONDITIONS OF HUMAN LIFE, AND THE FATE OF CHILDREN WHO DIE IN INFANCY 202
FACULTIES PECULIAR TO CERTAIN CHILDREN, APTITUDES AND VOCATIONS AMONG MEN, ARE ADDITIONAL PROOFS OF RE-INCARNATIONS.--EXPLANATION OF PHRENOLOGY.--DESCARTES' INNATE IDEAS, AND DUGALD STEWART'S PRINCIPLE OF CAUSALITY CAN ONLY BE EXPLAINED BY THE PLURALITY OF LIVES.--VAGUE REMEMBRANCES OF OUR FORMER EXISTENCES 212
SUMMARY OF THE SYSTEM OF PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES 226
ANSWERS TO SOME OBJECTIONS.--FIRST: THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, WHICH SERVES AS THE BASIS TO THIS SYSTEM, IS NOT DEMONSTRATED.--SECOND: WE HAVE NO REMEMBRANCE OF FORMER EXISTENCES.--THIRD: THIS SYSTEM IS ONLY THE METEMPSYCHOSIS OF THE ANCIENTS.--FOURTH: THIS SYSTEM IS CONFOUNDED WITH DARWINISM 232
SEQUEL TO OBJECTIONS.--DIFFICULTY OF UNDERSTANDING HOW THE RAYS OF THE SUN, MATERIAL SUBSTANCES, CAN BE THE GERMS OF SOULS, IMMATERIAL SUBSTANCES 259
PRACTICAL RULES RESULTING FROM THE FACTS AND PRINCIPLES DEVELOPED IN THIS WORK.--TO ELEVATE ONE'S SOUL BY THE PRACTICE OF VIRTUES, AND BY TRYING TO ACQUIRE A KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE AND ITS LAWS THROUGH SCIENCE.--TO RENDER PUBLIC WORSHIP TO THE DIVINITY.--WE SHOULD PRESERVE THE REMEMBRANCE OF THE DEAD.--WE SHOULD NOT FEAR DEATH.--DEATH IS BUT AN INSENSIBLE TRANSITION FROM ONE STATE TO ANOTHER; IT IS NOT AN END, BUT A METAMORPHOSIS.--IMPRESSIONS OF THE DYING.--THOSE WHO DIE YOUNG ARE LOVED BY THE GODS 269
IN WHICH WE SEEK GOD, AND IN OUR SEARCH DESCRIBE THE UNIVERSE 284
READER, you must die. You may perhaps die to-morrow. What will become of you? What shall you be, on the day after your death? I do not now allude to your body; that is of no more importance than the clothes which it wears, or the shroud in which it will be buried. Like these garments, like that cerecloth, your body must be decomposed, and its elements distributed among Nature's great reservoirs of material, earth, air, and water. But your soul, whither shall it go? That which was free within you, that which thought, loved, and suffered, what shall become of it? Of course you do not believe that your soul will be extinguished with your life on the day of your decease, and that nothing will remain of that which has palpitated in your breast, vibrating to the emotions of joy and sorrow, to the tender affections, the numberless passions and disturbances of your life.