Chapter III: Appendix: Bibliography of Reincarnation 327

By the sea, by the dreary darkening sea
There stands a youthful man,
His frame is throbbing with doubt’s agony,
His lips move sadly and wan.

Oh, solve me Life’s enigma, ye waves,
The torturing riddle of old
With which the mind of humanity raves,
Whose answer is never told;

The mystery hidden from hoary sage,
From soldier, saint, and king;
From wisest heads in every age,
Weary and languishing

For light upon the misty road.
Tell me, what am I?
Whence came I, whither do I plod?
Who dwells in the blazing sky?

The billows murmur ceaselessly,
The wind speaks night and day,
Calm and cold sing the stars on high,
But he knows not what they say.
HEINE.

The doctrine of metempsychosis may almost claim to be a natural or
innate belief in the human mind, if we may judge from its wide
diffusion among the nations of the earth and its prevalence throughout
the historical ages.—PROFESSOR FRANCIS BOWEN.

INTRODUCTION.

We sow the glebe, we reap the corn,
We build the house where we may rest,
And then, at moments, suddenly,
We look up to the great wide sky,
Enquiring wherefore we were born,—
For earnest, or for jest?

The senses folding thick and dark
About the stifled soul within,
We guess diviner things beyond,
And yearn to them with yearning fond;
We strike out boldly to a mark
Believed in, but not seen.

And sometimes horror chills our blood
To be so near such mystic things,
And we wrap round us, for defence,
Our purple manners, moods of sense,—
As angels, from the face of God,
Stand hidden in their wings.
MRS. BROWNING.