Ziska, The Problem of a Wicked Soul

"Naturally!" he replied. "A man must always be first by natural creation. When he allows himself to play second fiddle, he is a fool!"

"And when he is a fool--and he often is--he is the first of fools!" said the Princess. "No ape--no baboon hanging by its tail to a tree--looks such a fool as a man-fool. For a man-fool has had all the opportunities of education and learning bestowed upon him; this great universe, with its daily lessons of the natural and the supernatural, is his book laid open for his reading, and when he will neither read it nor consider it, and, moreover, when he utterly denies the very Maker of it, then there is no fool in all creation like him. For the ape-fool does at least admit that there may be a stronger beast somewhere,--a creature who may suddenly come upon him and end his joys of hanging by his tail to a tree and make havoc of his fruit-eating and chattering, while man thinks there is nothing anywhere superior to himself."

Gervase smiled tolerantly.

"I am afraid I have ruffled you, Princess," he said. "I see you have religious ideas: I have none."

Once again she laughed musically.

"Religious ideas! I! Not at all. I have a creed as I told you, but it is an ugly one--not at all sentimental or agreeable. It is one I have adopted from ancient Egypt."

"Explain it to me," said Gervase; "I will adopt it also, for your sake."

"It is too supernatural for you," she said, paying no heed to the amorous tone of his voice or the expressive tenderness of his eyes.

"Never mind! Love will make me accept an army of ghosts, if necessary."

"One of the chief tenets of my faith," she continued, "is the eternal immortality of each individual Soul. Will you accept that?"

"For the moment, certainly!"

Her eyes glowed like great jewels as she proceeded: "The Egyptian cult I follow is very briefly explained. The Soul begins in protoplasm without conscious individuality. It progresses through various forms till individual consciousness is attained. Once attained, it is never lost, but it lives on, pressing towards perfection, taking upon itself various phases of existence according to the passions which have most completely dominated it from the first. That is all. But according to this theory, you might have lived in the world long ago, and so might I: we might even have met; and for some reason or other we may have become re-incarnated now. A disciple of my creed would give you that as the reason why you sometimes imagine you have seen me before."