The doctrine of Metempsychosis has evidently something to do with this legend. It means, in the theological acceptation of the term, the supposed transition of the soul after death, into another substance or body than that which it occupied before. The belief in such a transition was common to the most civilized, and the most uncivilized, nations of the earth.[42:1]
It was believed in, and taught by, the _Brahminical Hindoos_,[42:2] the _Buddhists_,[42:3] the natives of _Egypt_,[42:4] several philosophers of ancient _Greece_,[43:1] the ancient _Druids_,[43:2] the natives of _Madagascar_,[43:3] several tribes of _Africa_,[43:4] and _North America_,[43:5] the ancient _Mexicans_,[43:4] and by some _Jewish_ and _Christian_ sects.[43:5]
"It deserves notice, that in both of these religions (_i. e._, _Jewish_ and _Christian_), it found adherents as well in ancient as in modern times. Among the _Jews_, the doctrine of transmigration--the Gilgul Neshamoth--was taught in the mystical system of the _Kabbala_."[43:6]
"All the souls," the spiritual code of this system says, "are subject to the trials of transmigration; and men do not know which are the ways of the Most High in their regard." "The principle, in short, of the _Kabbala_, is the same as that of _Brahmanism_."
"On the ground of this doctrine, which was shared in by Rabbis of the highest renown, it was held, for instance, that the soul of _Adam_ migrated into _David_, and will come in the _Messiah_; that the soul of _Japhet_ is the same as that of _Simeon_, and the soul of _Terah_, migrated into _Job_."
"Of all these transmigrations, biblical instances are adduced according to their mode of interpretation--in the writings of Rabbi Manasse ben Israel, Rabbi Naphtali, Rabbi Meyer ben Gabbai, Rabbi Ruben, in the Jalkut Khadash, and other works of a similar character."[43:4]
The doctrine is thus described by Ovid, in the language of Dryden:
"What feels the body when the soul expires, By time corrupted, or consumed by fires? Nor dies the spirit, but new life repeats Into other forms, and only changes seats. Ev'n I, who these mysterious truths declare, Was once Euphorbus in the Trojan war; My name and lineage I remember well, And how in fight by Spartan's King I fell. In Argive Juno's fame I late beheld My buckler hung on high, and own'd my former shield Then death, so called, is but old matter dressed In some new figure, and a varied vest. Thus all things are but alter'd, nothing dies, And here and there the unbodied spirit flies."