Different from this kind of belief in transmigration is that which is based on ethical grounds. It proceeds from the theory, that the human souls, being of divine essence, are originally pure, but during their earthly career, lose of their purity; being destined, however, to regain their original quality, are reborn again and again, until they have become free from fault, and thus worthy of re-entering the place of their origin.
A belief of this nature was entertained by the old Mexicans, and probably also the Druids. It is met with in a more developed form with the old Egyptians; but its real importance it obtained as a tenet of the religion and philosophy of the Brahmanical Hindus and the Buddhists, whence it passed into the doctrine of several philosophers of ancient Greece, and into that of some Jewish and Christian sects.
The ethical and philosophical value which such a belief may have, is necessarily rela tive. It will depend on what a religion or philosophy may call right or wrong, virtue or sin : it will likewise depend on the notions which religion or philosophy may enter tain on the origin of the human soul, on the cause of its first birth, and on its ultimate destination, whether this destination is the merging of the soul into the essence of its creator, or a personal immortality; and again, the mode in which such a persona] immor tality is conceived will also necessarily influence the mode in which transmigration is supposed to take place.
Where the ideas on these questions have remained crude, the idea of transmigration, too, is but of little ethical or philosophical worth. The old Mexicans imagine that the gods Ometeuctli and Omeciltuatl create in heaven the soul of a child destined to bb born, and that. by its acts on earth it will either ascend to the abode of the highest felicity, or remain in an intermediate heaven, or fall to hell. The highest goal, situated in the house. of the sun with the god Iluitzilopotchli, is full of pleasure and joy, and is attained merely by the souls of fallen warriors, or those who died iu captivity, and women dying in childbirth. The second or intermediate heaven, cool and pleasant, but of moderate enjoyments, falls to the lot of men who are not wicked. The wicked, however, go to the abode of darkness; and in darkness consists their punishment. But those entitled to the second heaven may, if they like, also return to earth, in order to qualify them selves for the highest heaven, if such is their aspiration.
Of the Druids, it is told by classical writers that they believed in the immortality of the soul, and in its migration after a certain period subsequent to death. Little is. known of the manner in which they imagined such migrations to take place ; but to judge from their religious system, there can be no doubt that they looked upon transmi grations as a means of purifying the soul, and preparing it for eternal life.
According to the doctrine of the old Egyptians, the human race originated after the pure gods and spirits had left the earth; and this they did because the demons, who inhabited the earth, had revolted against them, and therefore tainted it with guilt. But, in order to enable the demons to purge themselves of their guilt, the gods created earthly bodies, which the demons were sentenced to animate, so that by expiations they might regain their state of original purity. And these earthly bodies, united to the demons, are the human race; their souls were therefore created at the same time as that of the gods; and human life—the connection of body and soul—is merely intended as a means of purifying the soul, which had rebelled against its divine nature. All the precepts. regulating the course of life are laid down by the Egyptians for this end; and the judg ment passed after death, in the palace of Osiris, decides whether it has been attained or not. If it has not, the soul must return to the earth again, to renew its expiatious; and according to the nature and measure of the guilt which it had contracted during its pre vious career, it must form a new union with a human body, or with the body of an animal, or even a plant. But if the soul is declared pure by the judge of the dead, it gradually ascends through the various regions of heaven, to the highest abodes of the gods and pure spirits, presided over by Phtah and Neith.
At the time when in India the dogma of transmigration became an integral part of the Brahmanic religion, the Hindus believed that the human souls emanated from a supreme being, which, as it were, in a state of bewilderment or forgetfulness, allowed them to become separate existences, and to be born on earth. The soul, thus severed from the real source of its life, is bound to return to it, or to become merged again into that divine substance with which it was originally one; but as its nature becomes contami nated with sin through its earthly career, it must, so long as it remains in this world, endeavor to free itself from all guilt, and thus to become fit for its ultimate destiny. Religion teaches that this is done by the observance of religious rites, and a life in con formity with the precepts of the sacred books; philosophy, that the soul will be reunited with Brahman, if it understands the true nature of the divine essence whence it comes. So long, therefore, as the soul has not attained this condition of purity, it must be born again, after the dissolution of the body to which it was allied; and the degree of its impurity at one of these various deaths, determines the existence which it will assume in a subsequent life. See,Ixota, sec. Religion and Philosophy; and UPANISIIAD.