transference.”
“That shows me—pardon the apparent impertinence—that you have never really examined the soul question with any close attention. Do you suppose that D——— really likes being so noticeably different from other men? Depend upon it,’ he has noticed in himself what we have noticed in him. Depend upon it, he has tried to be ordinary, and found it impossible. His soul manages him as a strong nature manages a weak one, and his soul is a female, not a male. For souls have sexes, otherwise what would be the sense of talking about wedded souls? I have no doubt whatever of the truth of reincarnation on earth. Souls go on and on following out their object of development.”
“You believe that every soul is reincarnated?”
“A certain number of times.”
“That even in the animal world the soul of one animal passes into the body of another?”
“Wait a minute. Now we are coming to something that tends to prove my theory true. Animals have souls, as you imply. Who can know them intimately and doubt it for an instant? Souls as immortal—or as mortal—as ours. And their souls, too, pass on.”
“Into other animals?”
“Possibly. And eventually, in the process of development, into human beings.”
I laughed, perhaps a little rudely. “My dear Professor, I thought that old notion was quite exploded in these modern scientific days.”
“I found my beliefs upon my own minute observations,” he said rather frigidly. “I notice certain animals masquerading—to some extent—as human beings, and I draw my own conclusions. If they happen to fit in at all with the conclusions of Pythagoras—or anyone else, for that matter—well and good. If not, I am not much concerned. Surely you notice the animal—and not merely the animal, but definite animals—reproduced in man. There are men whose whole demeanour suggests the monkey. I have met women who in manner, appearance, and even character, were intensely like cats.”
I uttered a slight exclamation, which did not interrupt him.
“Now, I have made a minute
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