THE MAN OF TWO LIVES. Parrative WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. (Boaden, Jas.) "The spirit transmigrates; and far from losing its principle BURKE. 1790. "Hoc habuit ex munere Mercurii, tum ut vivens, tum mor- LAERT. in vitâ Pythag. BOSTON: WELLS AND LILLY, COURT-STREET. ............ THE MAN OF TWO LIVES. CHAPTER I. I AM ignorant whether any other being ever imagined or possessed the gift which has been mine. To enjoy and abuse the usual gift of life, inestimable though it be, is common enough; and vainly to wish for opportunity to correct its errors, naturally attends even our own partial review of existence. How far a second life, if granted, might produce a result so desirable, may be left as a matter of speculation to the moralist. When the bourn is once passed from which no traveller returns, our reckoning with man at least is finally closed-we can neither do nor suffer more upon the earth. I have a thousand times struggled against the singular conviction of my own mind, against the positive evidence of my senses. In a strain of unaffected humility I have exclaimed: "Who am I, that I should be singled out as a mark so striking, and alone possess an unexampled privilege?" Often in tears I have suspected that |