found online by Raymond
From A Wayfarer’s Notes:
Most days, I walk down the Ledborough Road, to observe in passing the extraordinary variety of human life-forms on display. Suddenly the “brotherhood of all mankind” comes into my head. As usual, I’m glad to be me, thankful indeed. But then I reflect that my birth was no more of my choosing than theirs was to them. I don’t believe in karma and past lives, not even the separation of body and soul; but it does seem to us, or perhaps it’s embedded in our language, that a soul is planted into a foetus some time between conception and taking our first breath.