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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK by ALLAN KARDEC ( the continuation )

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261 CHAPTER XI THE THREE REIGNS 1. MINERALS AND PLANTS - 2. ANIMALS AND MEN - 3. METEMPSYCHOSIS. Minerals and Plants. 585. WHAT do you think of the division of the natural world into three reigns, the mineral, vegetable, and animal, to which some naturalists add a fourth class-viz., the human species; or that other division of the world into two classes-viz., the organic and the inorganic? Which of these divisions is to be preferred? "They are all good; as to which is best, that depends on your point of view. From the point of view of matter, there are only inorganic and organic beings; from the moral point of view, there are evidently four degrees." These four degrees are, in fact, distinguished by well-marked characteristics, although their extremes seem to blend into each other. Inert matter, which constitutes the mineral reign, possesses only mechanical force; plants, composed of inert matter, are endowed with vitality animals, composed of inert matter, and endowed with vitality, have also a sort of instinctive intelligence, limited in its scope. but giving them the consciousness of their existence and of their individuality man, possessing all that is found in plants and animals, is raised above all the other classes by special intelligence, without fixed limits, which gives him the consciousness of his future, the perception of extramaterial things, and the knowledge of God. 586. Are plants conscious of their existence? "No; they do not think; they have only organic life." 587. Do plants feel sensations? Do they suffer when they are mutilated? "Plants receive the physical impressions which act upon matter, but they have no perceptions; consequently they do not feel pain." 588. Is the force which attracts plants towards each other independent of their will? "Yes; for they do not think. It is a mechanical force of matter that acts upon matter; they could not resist it." 589. Some plants, as, for instance, the mimosa and the dionea, have movements which give evidence of their possessing great 262 ALLAN KARDEC sensitiveness, and, in some cases, a sort of will, as in the case of the latter, whose lobes seize the fly that lights on it, in order to suck its juices, and even seem to set a snare for it, in order to kill it. Are these plants endowed with the faculty of thought? Have they a will, and do they form 'in intermediate class between the vegetable and animal natures? Are they points of transition from the one to the other? "Everything in nature is transition, from the very fact that everything is different, and that everything, nevertheless, is linked together. Plants do not think, and have consequently no will. The oyster that opens its shell, and all the zoophytes, do not think; they have only a blind natural instinct." The human organism furnishes us with examples of similar movements that take place without any participation of the will, as in the organs of digestion and circulation the pylorus closes itself at the contact of certain substances, as though to refuse them passage. It must be the same with the sensitive plant, the movements of which do not necessarily imply perception, and, still less, will. 590. Is there not, in plants, an instinct of self-preservation which leads them to seek what may be useful to them, and to avoid what would do them harm? "You may call it, if you will, a sort of instinct: that depends on the extension you give to the word; but it is purely mechanical. When, in chemical operations, you see two bodies unite together. it is because they suit one another, that ~s to say, there is an affinity between them; but you do not call that instinct." 591. In worlds of higher degree, are the plants, like the other beings, of a more perfect nature? "Everything in those worlds is more perfect; but the plants are. always plants, as the animals are always animals, and as the men are always men. Animals and Men. 592. If we compare man with the animals in reference to intelligence, it seems difficult to draw a line of demarcation between them; for some animals are, in this respect, notoriously superior to some men. Is it possible to establish such a line of demarcation with any precision? "Your philosophers are far from being agreed upon this point. Some of them will have it that man is an animal; others are equally sure that the animal is a man. They are all wrong. Man is a being apart, who sometimes sinks himself very low, or who 263 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK may raise himself very high. As regards his physical nature, man is like the animals, and less well provided for than many of them; for nature has given to them all that man is obliged to invent with the aid of his intelligence for his needs and his preservation. His body is subject to. destruction, like that of the animals; but his spirit has a destiny that he alone can understand, because he alone ~s completely free. Poor human beings who debase yourselves below the brutes! do you not know how to distinguish yourselves from them ? Recognise the superiority of man by his possessing the notion of the existence of God." 593. Can the animals be said to act only from instinct? "That, again, is a mere theory. It is very true that instinct predominates in the greater number of animals; but do you not see some of them act with a determinate will ? This is intelligence; but of narrow range." It is impossible to deny that some animals give evidence of possessing, besides instinct, the power of performing compound acts which denote the will to act in a determinate direction, and according to circumstances. Consequently, there is in them a sort of intelligence, but the exercise of which is mainly concentrated on the means of satisfying their physical needs, and providing for their own preservation. There is, among them. no progress, no amelioration no matter what the art that we admire in their labours, what they formerly did, that they do today neither better nor worse, according to constant forms and unvarying proportions. The young bird isolated from the rest of its species none the less builds its nest on the same model, without having been taught. If some of the animals are susceptible of a certain amount of education, their intellectual development, always restricted within narrow limits, Is due to the action of man upon a flexible nature, for they themselves have no power of progressing but that artificial development is ephemeral and purely individual, for the animal, when left again to himself, speedily returns within the limits traced out for it by nature. 594. Have animals a language? "If you mean a language formed of words and syllables, no; but if you mean a method of communication among themselves, yes. They say much more to one another than you suppose; but their language is limited, like their ideas, to their bodily wants." -There are animals who have no voice; have they no language? "They understand one another by other means. Have men no other method of communicating with one another than by speech ? And the dumb, what do you say of them ? The animals, being endowed with the life of relation, have means of giving one another information, and of expressing the sensations they feel. Do you suppose that fishes have no understanding among themselves ? Man has not the exclusive privilege of language; but that of the animals is instinctive and limited to the scope of their wants and 264 ALLAN KARDEC ideas, while that of man is perfectible. and lends itself to all the conceptions of his intelligence." It is evident that fishes, emigrating in masses, like the swallows that follow the guide that leads them, must have the means of giving one another information, of arriving at a common understanding, and of concarting measures of general interest. It may be that they are gifted with a sense of vision sufficiently acute to allow of their distinguishing signs made by them to one another, or the water may serve them as a vehicle for the transmission of certain vibrations. It is evident that they must have some means. whatever these may be. of comprehending one another, like all other animals that have no voice. and that nevertheless perform actions in common. Should it, then. be deemed strange that spirits are able to communicate among themselves without having recourse to articulate speech? (282.) 595. Have animals free-will in regard to their actions? "They are not the mere machines you suppose them to be; but their freedom of action is limited to their wants, and cannot be compared to that of man. Being far inferior to him, they have not the same duties. Their freedom is restricted to the acts of their material life." 596. Whence comes the aptitude of certain animals to mutate human speech, and why is this aptitude found among birds, rather, for instance, than among apes, whose conformation has so more analogy to that of man? "That aptitude results from a particular conformation of the vocal organs, seconded by the instinct of imitation. The ape imitates man's gestures; some birds imitate his voice." 597. Since the animals have an intelligence which gives them a certain degree of freedom of action, is there, in them, a principle independent of matter? "Yes; and that survives their body." - Is this principle a soul, like that of man? "It is a soul, if you like to call it so; that depends on the meaning you attach to this word. But it is inferior to that of man. There is, between the soul of the animals and that of man, as great a difference as there is between the soul of man and God." 598. Does the soul of the animals preserve, after death, its individuality and its selfconsciousness? "It preserves its individuality, but not the consciousness of its me. The life of intelligence remains latent in them." 599. Has the soul of the beasts the choice of incarnating itself in one kind of animal rather than in another? "No; it does not possess free-will." 265 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK 600. As the soul of the animal survives its body, is it, after death, in a state of erraticity, like that of man? "It is in a sort of erraticity, because it is not united to a body; but it is not an errant spirit. The errant spirit is a being who thinks and acts of his own free-will; but the soul of the animal has not the same faculty, for it is his self-consciousness which is the principal attribute of the spirit. The soul of the animal is classed after its death, by the spirits charged with that work, and almost immediately utilised; it has not the leisure to enter into connection with other creatures." 601. Do animals follow a law progress like men? "Yes; and it is for this reason that, in the higher worlds 111 which men are further advanced, the animals are more advanced also, and possess more developed means of communication. But they are always inferior to man, and subject to him; they are, for him, intelligent servitors." There is nothing unreasonable in this statement. Suppose that our most intelligent animals, the dog, the elephant, the horse, were furnished with a bodily conformation appropriate to manual labour, what could they not do under the direction of man? 602. Do animals progress, like man, through the action of their will, or through the force of things? "Through the force of things; this is why there is, for them, no expiation." 603. Have the animals, in the higher worlds, a knowledge of God? "No; man is a god for them, as spirits were formerly gods for men." 604. The animals, even the advanced ones of the higher worlds, being always inferior to man, it would seem as though God had created intellectual beings condemned to a perpetual inferiority such an arrangement does not appear to be in accordance with the unity of design and of progress discernible in all His works. "Everything in nature is linked together by an enchaining which your intellect cannot yet seize; and things apparently the most discrepant have points of contact at the comprehension of which man will never arrive in his actual state. He may obtain a glimmering of them through an effort of his intelligence; but it is only when that intelligence shall have acquired its full development, and shall have freed itself from the prejudices of pride and of ignorance, that he will be able to see clearly into the work of God; 266 ALLAN KARDEC until then, his narrowness of thought causes him to look at every thing from a low and petty point of view. Know that God cannot contradict Himself, and that everything in nature is harmonised by the action of general laws that never deviate from the sublime wisdom of the Creator." - Intelligence, then, is a common property, and a point of contact, between the soul of the beast and that of man? "Yes, but the animals have only the intelligence of material life; in man, intelligence gives moral life." 605. If we consider all the points of contact that exist between man and the animals, does it not seem as though man possessed two souls-viz., an animal soul and a spiritual soul, and that, if he had not the latter, he might still live, but as a brute; in other words, that the animal is a being similar to man, minus the spiritual soul? From which it would follow that the good and bad instincts of man result from the predominance of one or other of these two souls. "No; man has not two souls; but the body has its instincts resulting from the sensation of its organs. There is in him only a double nature-the animal nature and the spiritual nature. By his body he participates in the nature of the animals and their instincts; by his soul he participates in the nature of spirits." - Thus, besides his own imperfection, which he has to get rid of, a spirit has also to struggle against the influence of matter? "Yes, the lower a spirit's degree of advancement, the closer are the bonds which united him with matter. Do you not see that it must necessarily be so? No; man has not two souls: the soul is always one in a single being. The soul of the animal and that of man are distinct from one another, so that the soul of the one cannot animate the body created for the other. But if man have not an animal soul, placing him, by its passions, on a level with the animals, he has his body, which often drags him down to them; for his body is a being that is endowed with vitality, and that has its instincts, but unintelligent, and limited to the care of its own preservation." A spirit. in incarnating himself in a human body, brings to it the intellectual and moral principle that renders it superior to the animals. The two natures in man constitute for him two distinct sources of passions; one set of passions springing from the instincts of his animal nature, and the other set being due to the impurities of the spirit of which he is the incarnation, and which are in sympathy with the grossness of the animal appetites. A spirit. as he becomes purified, frees himself gradually from the influence of matter. While under that influence, he approaches the 267 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK nature of the brutes when delivered from that influence, he raises himself towards his true destination. 606. Whence do the animals derive the intelligent principle that constitutes the particular kind of soul with which they are endowed? "From the universal intelligent element." - The intelligence of man and of the animals emanates, then, from one and the same principle? "Undoubtedly; but, in man, it has received an elaboration which raises it above that which animates the brute.". 607. You have stated that the soul of man, at its origin, is in a state analogous to that of human infancy, that its intelligence is only beginning to unfold itself, and that it is essaying to live (190); where does the soul accomplish this earliest phase of its career? "In a series of existences which precede the period of development that you call humanity." - The soul would seem, then, to have been the intelligent principle of the inferior orders of the creation? "Have we not said that everything in nature is linked together and tends to unity ? It is in those beings, of which you are very far from knowing all, that the intelligent principle is elaborated, is gradually individualised, and made ready to live, a3 we have said, through its subjection to a sort of preparatory process, like that of germination, on the conclusion of which that principle undergoes a transformation and becomes spirit. It is then that the period of humanity commences for each spirit with the sense of futurity, the power of distinguishing between good and evil, and the responsibility of his actions; just as, after the period of infancy comes that of childhood, then youth, adolescence, and ripened manhood. Is the greatest genius humiliated by having been a shapeless foetus in his mother's womb ? If anything ought to humiliate him, it is his lowness in the scale of being, and his powerlessness to sound the depths of the divine designs and the wisdom of the laws that regulate the harmonies of the universe. Recognise the greatness of God in this admirable harmony that establishes solidarity between everything in nature. To think that God could have made anything without a purpose, and have created intelligent beings without a future, would be to blaspheme His goodness, which extends over all His creatures." - Does this period of humanity commence upon our earth? 268 ALLAN KARDEC "The earth is not the starting-point of the earliest phase of human incarnation; the human period commences, in general, in worlds still lower than yours. This, however, is not an absolute rule; and it may happen that a spirit, at his entrance upon the human phase, may be fitted to live upon the earth. Such a case, however, though possible, is unfrequent; and would be an exception to the general rule." 608. Has a man's spirit, after death, any consciousness of the existences that have preceded his entrance upon the human period? "No; for it is only with this period that his life, as a spirit, has begun for him. He can scarcely recall his earliest existences as a man; just as a man no longer remembers the earliest days of his infancy, and still less the time he passed in his mother's womb. This is why spirits tell you that they do not know how they began." (78.) 609. Does a spirit, when once he has entered upon the human period, retain any traces of what he has previously been, that is to say, of the state in which he was in what may be called the ante-human period? "That depends on the distance which separates the two periods, and the amount of progress accomplished. During a few generations, there may be a reflex, more or less distinct, of the primitive state, for nothing in nature takes place through an abrupt transition, and there are always links which unite the extremities of the chain of beings or of events; but those traces disappear with the development of free-will. The first steps of progress are accomplished slowly, because they are not yet seconded by the will; they are accomplished more rapidly in proportion as the spirit acquires a more perfect consciousness of himself." 610. The spirits who have said that man is a being apart from the rest of creation are, then, mistaken? "No, but the question had not been developed; and besides, there are things that can only be known at their appointed time. Man is, in reality, a being apart, for he has faculties that distinguish him from all others, and he has another destiny. The human species is the one which God has chosen for the incarnation of the beings that are capable of knowing Him." 269 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK Metempsychosis. 611. Is not the common origin of the intellectual principle of living beings a consecration of the doctrine of the metempsychosis? "Two things may have the same origin, and yet not resemble one another at a later period. Who could recognise the tree, with its leaves, flowers, and fruit, in the shapeless germ contained in the seed from which it has issued ? From the moment when the principle of intelligence has reached the necessary degree of development for becoming spirit, and for entering upon the human phase, it has no longer any connection with its primitive state, and is no more the soul of the beasts than the tree is the seed. In man, there is no longer anything of the animal but his body, and the passions which are the joint product of his body and of the instinct of self-preservation inherent in matter. It cannot, there-fore, be said that such and such a man is the incarnation of such and such an animal; and consequently the doctrine of the metempsychosis, as commonly understood, is not true." 612. Can a spirit which has animated a human body be incarnated in an animal? "No; for such an incarnation would be a retrogradation; and a spirit never retrogrades. The river does not flow back to is source." (118.) 613. However erroneous, may be the idea attached to the doctrine of the metempsychosis, may not that doctrine be a result of an intuitive reminiscence of the different existences of man? "That intuitive reminiscence is seen in this belief as in many others; but, like the greater part of his intuitive ideas, man has perverted it." The doctrine of the metempsychosis would be true if by that Word Were understood the progression of the soul from a lower state to a higher state, in which it acquires the new development that will transform its nature; but it is false when understood as meaning that any animal can transmigrate directly into a man, and a man into an animal, which would imply the idea of a retrogradation or of a fusion. The fact that fusion is not possible between corporeal beings of two different species is an indication of their being of degrees that are not assailable, and that such must be the case, also, with the spirits that animate them. If the same spirit could animate them alternately, it would imply the existence, between them. of an identity that would manifest itself by the possibility of corporeal reproduction. Reincarnation, as now taught by spirits, is founded, on the contrary, upon the ascensional movement of nature and upon the progression of man in his own specie,, which detracts nothing from his dignity. 'What really degrades man is the evil use he makes of the faculties which God has given him for his advancement. And, at all events, the antiquity and universality of the doctrine of the metempsychosis, and the number of eminent men who have professed it, proves that the principle of reincar- 270 ALLAN KARDEC nation has its roots in nature itself ; a fact which, so far from diminishing the probability of its truth, must be regarded as constituting a weighty argument In its favour. The startling-point of spirit is one of those questions which have reference to the origin of things, and to the secret designs of God. It is not given to man to comprehend them completely, and he can only form, In regard to them, suppositions and theoretic systems, more or less probable. Spirits themselves are far from knowing everything ; and may also have, in regard to what they do not know, Individual opinions more or less in harmony with fact. It is thus, for example, that all spirits do not think alike in reference to the relations which exist between man and the animals. According to some, spirit only arrives at the human period after having been elaborated and individualised in the different degrees of the lower beings of the creation. According to others, the spirit of man has always belonged to the human race, Without passing through the ascensional degrees of the animal world. The first of these theories has the advantage of giving an aim to the future of animals, which are thus seen to form the earliest links In the chain of thinking beings ; the second theory is more consonant with the dignity of man, and may be summed up as follows: - The different species of animals do not proceed intellectually from one another by road of progression. Thus the spirit of the oyster does not become successively that of the fish, the bird, the quadruped, and the quadruped. Each species is a fixed type, physically and morally, each individual of which draws, from the universal source of being, the sum of the intelligent principle which is necessary to it according to the nature of its organs and the work it has to accomplish in the phenomena of nature, and which it restores to the general mass of that principle at its death. Those of worlds more advanced than ours (188) are also distinct races, that are fitted to the needs of those worlds, and to the degree of advancement of the men of whom they are the auxiliaries, but that do not proceed, spiritually, from those of the earth. It is not the same with man. It is evident that, physically, he forms a link in the chain of living beings; but there is, morally, a solution of continuity between the animals and him; for man alone possesses the soul, or spirit, the divine spark, which gives him the moral sense and the extended vision which are wanting in the animals; and this soul, spirit, spark, is, in him, the principal being, pre-existent to, and surviving, his body, and thus preserving his Individuality. What is the origin of spirit? What its starting-point? Is it formed by the individualising of the intelligent principle? This is a mystery which it would be useless to attempt to penetrate, and in regard to which, as we have said, we can do no more than build up theories. What is certain, what Is indicated alike by reason and by experience, is the survival of each spirit and the persistence of his individuality after death, his faculty of progressing, the happiness or unhappiness of his next state of being, according to his advancement or his backwardness in the path of purification, and all the moral consequences which flow from this certainty, as for the mysterious kinship which exists between man and the animals, that we repeat, is God's secret, like many other matters the knowledge of which, at this time, is of little importance to our advancement, and upon which it would be useless to insist. 271 BOOK THIRD - MORAL LAWS CHAPTER I DIVINE OR NATURAL LAW 1. CHARACTERISTICS OF NATURAL LAW - 2. SOURCE AND KNOWLEDGE OF NATURAL LAW - 3. GOOD AND EVIL - 4. DIVISIONS OF NATURAL LAW. Characteristics of Natural Law 614. What is to be understood by natural law? "The law of nature is the law of God. It Is the only rule that ensures the happiness of man, for it shows him what he should or should not do, and he only suffers because he disobeys it." 615. Is the law of God eternal? "It Is eternal and unchangeable as God Himself." 616. Can God have prescribed to mankind in one age what He has forbidden in another? "God cannot be mistaken. Men are obliged to change their laws, because they are imperfect ; but the laws of God are perfect. The harmony which regulates both the material universe and the moral universe is founded on laws established by God from all eternity." 617. What are the objects embraced by the divine laws? Have they reference to anything but our moral conduct? "All the laws of nature are divine laws, since God is the author of all things. The seeker after science studies the laws of nature in the realm of matter; the seeker after goodness studies them in the soul, and practises them." - Is it given to man to fathom both these divisions of natural law? "Yes; but a single existence does not suffice for doing this." What, indeed, are a few years for acquiring all that is necessary to constitute a perfect being. if we consider only the distance that separates the civilised man from the savage? A human life, though prolonged to its utmost possible length, is insufficient for such a Work ; much more is it so when cut short before Its term, as is the case with so large a proportion of the human race.

272 ALLAN KARDEC Some of the divine laws regulate the movements and relations of inert matter; they are termed physical laws, and their study is the domain of science, others of these laws concern man, as considered in himself and in his relations to God and to his fellow-creatures they are termed moral laws, and regulate the life of relation as well as the life of the soul. 618. Are the divine laws the same for all worlds? "Reason tells you that they must be adapted to the special nature of each of those various worlds, and proportioned to the degree of advancement of the beings who inhabit them." Knowledge of Natural Law 619. Has God given to all men the means of knowing His law? "All may know it, but all do not understand it. Those who understand it best are they who seek after goodness. All, however, will one day understand it; for the destiny of progress must he accomplished." The justice of the various incarnations undergone by each human being is evident when seen in the light of the principle just enunciated; since, in each new existence, his intelligence is more developed, and he comprehends more clearly what is good and what is evil. If everything had to be accomplished by each man in a single existence, what would be the fate of the many millions of human beings who die every day in the brutishness of the savage state, or in the darkness of ignorance, without having had the possibility of obtaining enlightenment? (177, 222.) 620. Does a spirit, before his union with the body, comprehend the law of God more clearly than after his incarnation? "He comprehends that law according to the degree of development at which he has arrived, and preserves the intuitive remembrance of it after being united with a body; but the evil instincts of man often cause him to forget it." 621. Where is the law of God inscribed? "In the conscience." - Since man carries the lawn' of God in his conscience, where was the need of revealing it to him? "He had forgotten and misunderstood it; God willed that it should be recalled to his memory." 622. Has God given to some men the mission of revealing His law? "Yes, certainly. In every age there have been men who have received this mission; spirits of higher degree, who have incarnated themselves for the purpose of advancing human progress." 623. Have not those who have professed to instruct mankind sometimes made mistakes, and led them astray by false reasonings? 273 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "Those who, not being inspired by God, have arrogated to themselves, through ambition, a mission which they had not received, may, undoubtedly, have led them into error; nevertheless, as, after all, they were men of genius, great truths are often to be found, even in the midst of the errors they taught." 624. What are the characteristics of the true pro prophet? "The true prophet is an upright man who is inspired by God. He may be recognised both by his words and by his deeds. God does not employ the mouth of a liar to teach the truth." 625. What is the most perfect type that God has offered to man as his guide and model? "Jesus." Jesus is the type of the moral perfection to which man may attain upon this earth. God offers Him to our thought as our most perfect model and the doctrine taught by Him is the purest expression of the divine law, because He was animated by the divine spirit, and was the purest being who has ever appeared upon the earth. If some of those who have professed to instruct man in the law of God have sometimes led him astray by the inculcation of error. it is because they have allowed themselves to be swayed by sentiments of too earthly a nature, and because they have confounded the laws which regulate the conditions of the life of the soul which regulate the life of the body. Many pretended revealers have announced as divine laws what were only human laws, devised by them for serving their own passions and obtaining dominion over their fellow-men. 626. Have the divine or natural lares been revealed to men by Jesus only, and had men, before His time, no other knowledge than that given them by intuition? "Have we who told you that those laws are written everywhere? All the men who have meditated upon wisdom have therefore been able to comprehend and to teach them from the remotest times. By their teachings, imperfect though they were, they have prepared the ground for the sowing of the seed. The divine laws being written in the book of nature, it has always been possible for man to know them by searching after them. For this reason, the moral precepts they consecrate have been proclaimed, in all ages, by upright men; and, for the same reason also, the elements of the moral law are to be found among every nation above the barbarian degree, although incomplete, or debased by ignorance and superstition. 627. Since the true laws of God have been taught by Jesus, what is the use of the teachings given by spirits? Have they anything more to teach us? "The teachings of Jesus were often allegoric, and conveyed in parables; because He spoke according to the time and place in 274 ALLAN KARDEC which He lived. The time has now come when the truth must be made intelligible for all. It is necessary to explain and develop the divine laws, because few among you understand them, and still fewer practise them. Our mission is to strike the eyes and ears of all, in order to confound pride, and to unmask the hypocrisy of those who assume the outward appearances of virtue and of religion as a cloak for their turpitudes. We are charged to prepare the reign of good announced by Jesus; to furnish the explanations that will render it impossible for men to continue to interpret the law of God according to their passions, or to pervert the meaning of what is wholly a law of love and of kindness." 628. Why has not the truth been always placed within reach of every one? "Each thing can only come in its time. Truth is like light; you must be accustomed to it gradually; otherwise it only dazzles you. "Hitherto, God has never permitted man to receive communications so full and instructive as those which he is permitted to receive at this day. There were, undoubtedly, in ancient times, as you know, individuals who were in possession of knowledge which they considered as sacred, and which they kept as a mystery from those whom they regarded as profane. You can well understand, from what you know of the laws which govern the phenomena of spiritcommunication, that they received only a few fragmentary truths, scattered through a mass of teachings that were generally emblematic, and often erroneous. Nevertheless, there is no old philosophic system, no tradition, no religion, that men should neglect to study; for they all contain the germs of great truths, which, however they may seem to contradict each otherperverted as they are by their mixture with various worthless accessories-may be easily coordinated, with the aid of the key that Spiritism gives you to a class of facts which have hitherto seemed to be contrary to reason, but of which the reality is irrefutably demonstrated at the present day. You should therefore not fail to make those old systems a subject of study, for they are rich in lessons, and may contribute largely to your instruction." Good and Evil 629. What definition can be given of the moral law? "The moral law is the rule for acting aright, that is to say, for distinguishing practically between good and evil. It is founded on 275 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK the observance of the law of God. Man acts rightly when he takes the good of all as his aim and rule of action; for he then obeys the law of God." 630. How can we distinguish between good and evil? "Good is whatever is in conformity with the law of God; and evil is whatever deviates from it. Thus, to do right, is to conform to the law of God; to do wrong, is to infringe that law." 631. Has man of himself the means of distinguishing what is good from what is evil? "Yes, when he believes in God, and desires to do what is right. God has given him intelligence in order that he may distinguish between them." 632. As man is subject to error may he not be mistaken in his appreciation of good and evil, and believe himself to be doing right, when, in reality, he is doing wrong? "Jesus has said: 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.' The whole moral law is contained in that injunction. Make it your rule of action, and you will never go wrong." 633. The rule of good and evil, what may be called the rule of reciprocity or solidarity, cannot be applied to a man's to personal conduct towards himself. Does he find, in natural law, the rule of that conduct, and a safe guide? "When you eat too much, it hurts you. God gives you, in the discomfort thus produced, the measure of what is necessary for you. When you exceed that measure, you are punished. It is the same with everything else. Natural law traces out for each man the limit of his needs: when he oversteps that limit he is punished by the suffering thus caused. If men gave heed, in all things, to the voice which says to them 'enough!' they would avoid the greater part of the ills of which they accuse nature." 634. Why does evil exist in the nature of things? I speak of moral evil. Could not God have created the human race in more favourable conditions? "We have already told you that spirits are created simple and ignorant (115). God leaves man free to choose his road; so much the worse for him if he takes the wrong one; his pilgrimage will be all the longer. If there were no mountains, man could not comprehend the possibility of ascending and descending; if there 276 ALLAN KARDEC were no rocks, he could not understand that there are such things as hard bodies. It is necessary for the spirit to acquire experience; and, to that end, he must know both good and evil. It is for this purpose that souls are united to bodies." (119.) 635. The different social positions create new wants which are not the same for all men. Natural law would therefore appear not to be a uniform rule? "Those different positions are in nature, and according to the law of progress; they do not invalidate the unity of natural law, which applies to everything." The conditions of a man's existence vary according to times and places hence arise for him different wants. and social positions corresponding to those wants. Since this diversity is in the order of things, it must be consonant with the law of God; and this law is none the less one in principle. It is for reason to distinguish between real wants and wants that are factitious or conventional. 636. Are good and evil absolute for all men? "The law of God is the same for all; but evil resides especially in the desire for its commission. Good is always good, and evil is always evil, whatever a man's position may be; the difference is in the degree of his responsibility." 637. When a savage, yielding to his instinctive desire feeds on human flesh, i~ he guilty in so doing? "I have said that the essence of evil is in the will; therefore a man is more or less guilty according to his light." Circumstances modify the relative intensity of good and of evil. A man often commits faults that are none the less reprehensible for being the consequence of the social position in which he is placed; but his responsibility is proportioned to the means he possesses of distinguishing between right and wrong. Thus the enlightened man who commits a mere injustice 15 more culpable in the sight of God than the ignorant savage who abandons himself to his instincts of cannibalism. 638. Evil seems, sometimes, to be a consequence of the force of things. Such is, for instance, in some cases, the necessity of destruction, even to the extent of taking the life of a fellowcreature. Can it be said that, in such cases, there is violation of the law of God? "Evil, in such cases, is none the less evil, although necessary; but this necessity disappears in proportion as the soul becomes purified by passing from one existence to another; and man 15 then all the more culpable when he does wrong, because he comprehends more clearly the character of his action." 277 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK 639. The evil we do is often the result of the position that has been made for us by other men; where, in such a case, lies the greatest amount of culpability? "With those who have been the cause of the wrong-doing. Thus the man who has been led into evil, by the position that his fellow-creatures have made for him, is less guilty than those who have caused him to go astray, for each has to suffer the penalty, not only of the evil he has done, but of that which he has caused another to do." 640. Is he who profits by another's wrongdoing, even though he took no part in its commission, as guilty as though he had taken part in it? "Yes; to take advantage of a crime is to take part in it. He would, perhaps, have shrunk from committing the evil deed, but if, the deed being done, he takes advantage of it, it is equivalent to doing it, and proves that he would have done it himself, if he could, or if he dared." 641. Is it as reprehensible to desire to do an evil deed as to do it? "That is as the case may be. Voluntarily to resist the desire to do wrong, especially when there is a possibility of gratifying that desire, is virtuous; hut he, who has only not done the wrong thing because the opportunity was wanting, is as guilty as though he had done it." 642. In order to be acceptable in the sight of God, and to insure our future happiness, is it sufficient not to have done evil? "No; it is necessary for each to have done good also, to the utmost limits of his ability; for each of you will have to answer, not only for all the evil he has done, but also for all the good which he has failed to do." 643. Are there persons who, through their position, have no possibility of doing good? "There are none who cannot do some good; the selfish alone find no opportunity of so doing. The mere fact of being in relation with other human beings suffices to furnish the opportunity of doing good, and every day of your lives provides this possibility for every one who is not blinded by selfishness. For doing good is not restricted to the giving of alms, but also comprehends being useful to the full extent of your power, whenever your assistance may be needed." 278 ALLAN KARDEC 644. Is it not sometimes the case that the situation in which a man finds himself placed has a good deal to do with leading him into vice and crime? "Yes, but that situation is itself a part of the trial which has been chosen by his spirit in the state of freedom; he has elected to expose himself to its temptations, in order to acquire the merit of resistance." 645. When a man is plunged, so to say, in an atmosphere of vice, does not the impulsion to evil become, for him, almost irresistible? "The impulsion is strong, but not irresistible, for you sometimes find great virtues in an atmosphere of vice. Those who thus remain virtuous in the midst of incitements to evil are spirits who have acquired sufficient strength to resist temptation, and who, while thus testing that strength, fulfil the mission of exercising a beneficial influence on those around them." 646. Is the meritoriousness of virtuous action measured by the conditions under which that action has been accomplished? In other words, are there different degrees of meritoriousness in doing right? "The meritoriousness of virtuous action depends on the difficulty involved in it; there would be no merit in doing right without self-denial and effort God counts the sharing of his morsel of bread by the poor man, as of a higher merit than the giving of his superfluity by the rich one. Jesus told you this in His parable of the widow's mite." Division of Natural Law 647. Is the whole of the law of God contained in the rule of love of the neighbour laid dawn by Jesus? "That rule certainly contains all the duties of men to one another; but it is necessary to show them its various applications, or they will continue to neglect them, as they do at the present day. Besides, natural law embraces all the circumstances of life, and the rule you have cited is only a part of it. Men need precise directions; general precepts are too vague, and leave too many doors open to human interpretations." 648. What do you think of the division of natural law into ten parts, vie., the Ian's of adoration, labour, reproduction, preservation, society, equality, liberty, justice, love, and charity? 279 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "The division of the law of God into ten parts is that of Moses, and may be made to include all the circumstances of life, which is the essential point. You may therefore adopt it, without its being held to have any absolute value, any more than the various other systems of classification which depend on the aspect under which the subject is considered. The last of those parts is the most important; because the law of charity includes all the others, and it is therefore through the observance of this law that mankind advances most rapidly in spiritual life." 280 CHAPTER II I. THE LAW OF ADORATION 1. AIM OF ADORATION - 2. EXTERNAL ACTS OF ADORATION - 3. LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION - 4. PRAYER - 5. POLYTHEISM - 6. SACRIFICES. Aim of Adoration 649. In what does adoration consist? "In the elevation of the thought towards God. Through adoration the soul draws nearer to Him." 650. Is adoration the result of an innate sentiment, or the product of exterior teaching? "Of an innate sentiment, like the belief in the Divinity. The consciousness of his weakness leads man to bow before the Being who can protect him." 651. Are there peoples entirely without the sentiment of adoration? "No; for there never was a people of atheists. All feel that there is, above them, a supreme Being." 652. May adoration be regarded as having its source in natural law? "It is included in natural law, since it is the result of a sentiment innate in man; for which reason it is found among all peoples, though under different forms." External Acts of Adoration 653. Are external manifestations essential to adoration? "True adoration is in the heart. In all your actions remember that the Master's eyes is always upon you." -Are external acts of worship useful? “Yes, if they are not a vain pretence. It is always useful to set a good example; but those who perform acts of worship merely from affectation and for the sake of appearances, and whose 281 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK conduct belies their seeming piety, set a bad example rather than a good one, and do more harm than they imagine." 654. Does God accord a preference to those who worship Him according to any particular mode? "God prefers those who worship Him from the heart, with sincerity, and by doing what is good and avoiding what is evil, to those who fancy they honour Him by ceremonies which do not render them any better than their neighbours. "All men are brothers, and children of God; He calls to Him all who follow His laws, whatever may be the form under which they show their obedience. "He who has. only the externals of piety is a hypocrite; he whose worship is only a pretence, and in contradiction with his conduct, sets a bad example. "He who professes to worship Christ, and who is proud, envious, and jealous, who is hard and unforgiving to others, or ambitious of the goods of earth, is religious with the lips only, and not with the heart. God, who sees all things, will say to him, 'He who knows the truth, and does not follow it, is a hundredfold more guilty in the evil he does than the ignorant savage, and will he treated accordingly in the day of retribution.' If a blind man runs against you as he goes by, you excuse him; but if the same thing is done by a man who sees, you complain, and with reason. "Do not ask, then, if any form of worship be more acceptable than another; for it is as though you asked whether it is more pleasing to God to be worshipped in one tongue rather than in another. Remember that the hymns addressed to Him can reach Him only through the door of the heart." 655. Is it wrong to practise the external rites of a religion in which we do not heartily believe, when this is done out of respect for those with whom we are connected, and in order not to scandalise those who think differently from us? "In such a case, as in many others, it is the intention that decides the quality of the act. He whose only aim, in so doing, is to show respect for the belief of others, does no wrong; he does better than the man who turns them into ridicule, for the latter sins against charity. But he who goes through with such practices simply from interested motives, or from ambition, is contemptible in the sight of God and of men. God could not take pleasure in those who 282 ALLAN KARDEC only pretend to humiliate themselves before Him, in order to attract the approbation of their fellow-men." 656. Is worship performed in common preferable to individual worship? "When those who sympathise in thought and feeling are assembled together, they have more power to attract good spirits to them. It is the same when they are assembled for worshipping God. But you must not therefore conclude that private worship is less acceptable; for each man can worship God in his own thought." Life of Contemplation. 657. Have men who give themselves up to a life of contemplation, doing nothing evil, and thinking only of God, any special merit in His eyes? "No, for if they do nothing evil, they do nothing good; and besides, not to do good is, in itself, evil. God wills that His children should think of Him; but He does not will that they should think only of Him, since He has given men duties to discharge upon the earth. He who consumes his life in meditation and contemplation does nothing meritorious in the sight of God, because such a life is entirely personal and useless to mankind; and God will call him to account for the good he has failed to do." (640.) Prayer. 658. Is prayer acceptable to God? "Prayer is always acceptable to God when dictated by the heart, for the intention is everything in His sight; and the prayer of the heart is preferable to one read from a book, however beautiful it may be, if read with the lips rather than with the thought. Prayer is acceptable to God when it is offered with faith, fervour, and sincerity; but do not imagine that He will listen to that of the vain, proud, or selfish man, unless it be offered as an act of sincere repentance and humility." 659. What is the general character of prayer? "Prayer is an act of adoration. To pray to God is to think of Him, to draw nearer to Him, to put one's self in communication with Him. He who prays may propose to himself three things: to praise, to ask, and to thank." 283 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK 660. Does prayer make men better? "Yes; for lie who prays with fervour and confidence has more strength for withstanding the temptations of evil, and for obtaining from God the help of good spirits to assist him in so doing. Such help is never refused when asked for with sincerity." - How is it that persons who pray a great deal are sometimes very unnameable, jealous, envious, and harsh, wanting in benevolence and forbearance, and even extremely vicious? "What is needed is not to pray a great deal, but to pray aright. Such persons suppose that all the virtue of prayer is in its length, and shut their eyes to their own defects. Prayer, for them, is an occupation, a means of passing their time, but not a study of themselves. In such cases, it is not the remedy that is inefficaceous, but the mode in which it is employed." 661. Is there any use in asking God to forgive us our faults? "God discerns the good and the evil: prayer does not hid faults from His eyes. He who asks of God the forgiveness of his faults, obtains that forgiveness only through a change of conduct. Good deeds are the best prayers, for deeds are of more worth than words." 662. Is there any use in praying for others? "The spirit of him who prays exercises an influence through his desire to do good. By prayer, he attracts to himself good spirits who take part with him in the good he desires to do." We possess in ourselves. through our thought and our will, a power of action that extends far beyond the limits of our corporeal sphere. To pray for' others is ~n act of our will. If our will be ardent and sincere, if calls good spirits to the aid of the party prayed for, and thus helps him by the suggestion of good thoughts, and by giving him the strength of body and of soul which he needs. But, in his case also, the prayer of the heart is everything; that of the lips is nothing. 663. Can we, by praying for ourselves, avert our trials, or change their nature? "Your trials are in the hands of God, and there are some of them that must be undergone to the very end; but God always takes account of the resignation with which they are borne. Prayer calls to your help good spirits who give you strength to bear them with courage. so that they seem to you less severe. Prayer is never useless when it is sincere, because it gives you strength, which is, of itself, an important result. 'Heaven helps him who helps himself,' is a true saying. God could change the order of nature at the various contradictory demands of His creatures; for

284 ALLAN KARDEC what appears to be a great misfortune to you, from your narrow point of view, and in relation to your ephemeral life on the earth, is often a great blessing in relation to the general order of the universe; and, besides, of how many of the troubles of his life is man himself the author, through his short-sightedness or through his wrong doing! He is punished in that wherein he has sinned. Nevertheless, your reasonable requests are granted more often than you suppose. You think your prayer has not been heeded, because God has not worked a miracle on your behalf; while, in fact. He has really assisted you, but by means so natural that they seem to you to have been the effect of chance or of the ordinary course of things. And, more often still, He suggests to your minds the thought of what you must do in order to help yourselves out of your difficulties." 664. Is it useful to pray for the dead, and for suffering spirits, and, if so, in what way can our prayers soften or shorten their sufferings? Have they the power to turn aside the justice of God? "Prayer can have no effect upon the designs of God; but the spirit for whom you pray is consoled by your prayer, because you thus give him a proof of interest, and because he who is unhappy is always comforted by the kindness which compassionates his suffering. On the other hand, by your prayer, you excite him to repentance, and to the desire of doing all that in him lies to become happy; and it is this way that you may shorten the term of his suffering, provided that he, on his side, seconds your action by that of his own will. This desire for amelioration, excited by your prayer in the mind of the suffering spirit, attracts to him spirits of higher degree, who come to enlighten him, console him, and give him hope. Jesus prayed for the sheep that have gone astray; thereby showing you that you cannot, without guilt, neglect to do the same for those who have the greatest need of your prayers." 665. What is to be thought of the opinion which rejects the idea of praying for the dead because it is not prescribed in the gospel? "Christ has said, to all mankind, 'Love one another.' This injunction implies, for all men, the duty of employing every possible means of testifying their affection for each other; but without entering into any details in regard to the manner of attaining that end. If it be true that nothing can turn aside the Creator from 285 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK applying, to every action of every spirit, the absolute justice of which He is the type, it is none the less true that the prayer you address to Him, on behalf of a suffering spirit for whom you feel affection or compassion, is accepted by Him as a testimony of remembrance that never fails to bring relief and consolation to the sufferer. As soon as the latter manifests the slightest sign of repentance. but only then. help is sent to him; but he is never allowed to remain in ignorance of the fact that a sympathising heart has exerted itself on his behalf, and, is always left under the consoling impression that this friendly intercession has been of use to him. Thus your intervention necessarily induces a feeling of gratitude and affection, on his part, to the friend who has given him this proof of kindness and of pity; and the mutual affection enjoined upon all men by Christ will thereby have been developed or awakened between you and him. Both of you will thus have obeyed the law of love and union imposed on all the beings of the universe; that Divine law which will usher in the reign of unity that is the aim and end of a spirit's education."¹ 666. May we pray to spirits? "You may pray to good spirits as being the messengers of God, and the executants of His will; but their power, which is always proportioned to their elevation, depends entirely on the Master of all things, without whose permission nothing takes place. For this reason, prayers addressed to them are only efficacious if accepted by God." Polytheism. 667. How is it that polytheism, although it is false, is nevertheless one of the most ancient and wide-spread of human beliefs? "The conception of the unity of God could only be, in the min(l of man the result of the development of his ideas. Incapable, in his ignorance, of conceiving of an immaterial being, without a determinate form, acting upon matter, man naturally attributed to Him the attributes of corporeal nature, that is to say, a form and a face; and thenceforth everything that appeared to surpass the proportions of an ordinary human intelligence was regarded by him as a divinity. Whatever he could not understand was looked upon __________________________________________________________________________________________________ ¹ This reply was given by the spirit of M. Monod, the well-known and highly-esteemed Protestant pastor of Paris, deceased in 1856. The preceding reply (Nº. 664) was given by the spirit of St Louis. 286 ALLAN KARDEC by him as being the work of a supernatural power; and, from that assumption, to the belief in the existence of as many distinct powers as the various effects which he beheld but could not account for, there was but a step. But there have been, in all ages, en lightened men who have comprehended the impossibility of the world's being governed by this multitude of powers, without a supreme over-ruling direction, and who have thus been led to raise their thought to the conception of the one sole God" 668. As phenomena attesting the action of spirits have occurred in all ages of the world, and have thus been known from the earliest times, may they not have helped to induce a belief in the plurality of gods? "Undoubtedly; for, as men applied the term god to whatever surpassed humanity, spirits were, for them, so many gods. For this reason, whenever a man distinguished himself among all others by his actions, his genius, or an occult power incomprehensible by the vulgar, he was made a god of, and was worshipped as such after his death." (603.) The word god, among the Ancients, had a wide range of meaning. It did not, as in our days, represent the Master of Nature, but was a generic term applied to all beings who appeared to stand outside of the pale of ordinary humanity and, as the manifestations that have since been known as "spiritist" had revealed to them the existence of incorporeal beings acting as one of the elementary powers of nature, they called them gods, just as we call them spirits. It is a mere question of words; with this difference, however, that, in their ignorance, purposely kept up by those whose interests It served, they built temples and raised altars to them, making them offerings which became highly lucrative for the persons who had charge of this mode of worship whereas, for us. spirits are merely creatures like ourselves, more or less advanced, and having cast off their earthly envelope. If we carefully study the various attributes of the pagan divinities, we shall easily recognise those of the spirits of our day, at every degree of the scale of spirit-life, their physical state in worlds of higher advancement, the part taken by them in the things of the earthly life, and the various properties of the perispirit. Christianity, in bringing its Divine light to our world, has taught us to refer our adoration to the only object to which It is due. But it could not destroy what is an element of nature; and the belief in the existence of the Incorporeal beings around us has been perpetuated under various names. Their manifestations have never ceased; but they have been diversely interpreted, and often abused under the veil of mystery beneath which they were kept. while religion has regarded them as miracles, the Incredulous have looked upon them as jugglery; but, at the present time, thanks to a more serious study of the subject, carried on in the broad daylight of scientific investigation, the doctrine of spirit-presence and spirit-action, stripped of the superstitious fancies by which it had been obscured for ages, reveals to us one of the sublimest and most important principles of nature . 287 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK Sacrifices. 669. The custom of offering human sacrifices dates from the remotest antiquity. How can mankind have been led to believe that such an enormity could be pleasing to God? "In the first place, through their not having comprehended God as being the source of all goodness. Among primitive peoples, matter predominates over spirit. Their moral qualities not being yet developed, they give themselves up to the instincts of brutality. In the next place, the men of the primitive periods naturally considered that a living creature must be much more valuable in the sight of God than any merely material object; and this consideration led them to immolate, to their divinities, first animals, and afterwards men, because, according to their false ideas, they thought that the value of a sacrifice was proportioned to the importance of the victim. In your earthly life, when you wish to offer a present to any one, you select a gift, the costliness of which is proportioned to the amount of attachment or consideration that you desire to testify to the person to whom you offer it. It was natural that men who were ignorant of the nature of the Deity should do the same." -The sacrificing of animals, then, preceded that of human beings? "Such was undoubtedly the case." -According to this explanation, the custom of sacrificing human beings did not originate in mere cruelty? "No; but in a false idea as to what would be acceptable to God. Look, for instance, at the story of Abraham. In later times men have still farther debased this false idea by immolating their enemies, the objects of their own personal animosity. But God has never exacted sacrifices of any kind; those of animals, no more than those of men. He could not be honoured by the useless destruction of His own creations." 670. Have human sacrifices, when offered with a pious intention, ever been pleasing to God." "No, never; but God always weighs the intention which dictates any act. Men, being ignorant, may have believed that they were performing a laudable deed in immolating their fellowbeings; and, in such a case, God would accept their intention, but not their deed. The human race, in working out its own amelioration, naturally came to recognise its error, and to abominate the idea of sacrifices 288 ALLAN KARDEC that ought never to have entered into enlightened minds. I say 'enlightened,' because, however dense the veil of materiality in which they were enveloped, their free-will sufficed, even then, to give them a glimmering perception of their origin and their destiny, and many among them already understood, by intuition, the wickedness they were committing, but which they none the less accomplished for the gratification of their passions." 671. What should be thought of the wars styled "religious?" The sentiment that induces a nation of fanatics to exterminate the greatest possible number of those who do not share their belief, with a view to rendering themselves acceptable to God, would seem to proceed from the same source as that which formerly led them to immolate their fellow-creatures as sacrifices. "Such wars are stirred up by evil spirits; and the men who wage them place themselves in direct opposition to the will of God, which is, that each man should love his brother as himself. Since all religions, or rather all peoples, worship the same God, whatever the name by which they call Him, why should one of them wage a war of extermination against another, simply because its religion is different, or has not yet reached the degree of enlightenment arrived at by the aggressor? Not to believe the word of Him who was sent by God and animated by His spirit is excusable on the part of peoples who neither saw Him nor witnessed the acts per-formed by Him; and, at all events, how can you hope that they will hearken to His message of peace, when you try to force it upon them by fire and sword? It is true that they have to be enlightened, and that it is your duty to endeavour to teach them the doctrine of Christ; but this must be done by persuasion and gentleness; not by violence and bloodshed. The greater number among you do not believe in the communication we have with certain mortals; how could you expect that strangers should believe your assertions in regard to this fact, if your acts belied the doctrine you profess?" 672. Was the offering of the fruits of the earth more acceptable in the sight of God than the sacrificing of animals? "It must evidently be more agreeable to God to be worshipped by the offering of the fruits of the earth, than by that of the blood of victims. But I have already answered your question in telling you that God's judgement is directed to the intention, and that the 289 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK outward fact is of little importance in His sight. A prayer, sent up from the depths of the heart, is a hundredfold more agreeable to God than all the offerings you could possibly make to Him. I repeat it, the intention is everything; the fact, nothing." 673. Might not these offerings be rendered more agreeable to God by consecrating them to the relief of those who lack the necessaries of life, and, in that case, might not the sacrificing of animals, accomplished in view of a useful end, be as meritorious as it is the reverse when subserving no useful end, or profiting only to those who are in need of nothing? Would there not be something truly pious in consecrating to the poor the first-fruits of all that God grants to us upon the earth? "God always blesses those who do good; to help the poor and afflicted is the best of all ways of honouring Him. I do not mean to say that God disapproves of the ceremonies you employ in praying to Him; but a good deal of the money thus spent might be more usefully employed. God loves simplicity in all things. The man who attaches more importance to externals than to the heart is a narrow-minded spirit; how, then, could it be possible for God to regard a form as of any importance in comparison with the sentiment of which it is the expression?" 290 CHAPTER III II. THE LAW OF LABOUR 1. NECESSITY OF LABOUR - 2. LIMIT OF LABOUR. REST Necessity of Labour. 674. Is the necessity of labour a law of nature? "That labour is a law of nature, and is proved by the fact that it is a necessity, and that civilisation obliges man to perform a greater amount of labour, because it increases the sum of his needs and of his enjoyments." 675. Ought we to understand by “labour” only occupations of a material nature? "No; the spirit labours like the body. Every sort of useful occupation is a labour." 676. Why is labour imposed upon mankind? "It is a consequence of his corporeal nature. It is an expiation, and, at the same time, a means of developing his intelligence. Without labour man would remain in the infancy of intelligence. This is why he is made to owe his food, his safety, and his well-being entirely to his labour and activity. To him who is too weak in body for the rougher kinds of work, God gives intelligence to make up for it; but the action of the intelligence is also a labour." 677. Why does nature herself provide for all the wants of the animals? "Everything in nature labours. The animals labour as really as you do, but their work, like their intelligence, is limited to the care of their own preservation; and this is why labour, among them, does not lead to progress, while, among men, it has a double aim, viz., the preservation of the body, and the development of thought, which is also a necessity for him. and which raises him continually to a higher level. When I say that the labour of the animals is limited to the care of their preservation, I mean that this is the aim which they propose to themselves in working. But 291 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK they are also, unconsciously, and while providing only for their material needs, agents that second the views of the Creator; and their labour none the less concurs to the working out of the final end of nature, although you often fail to discover its immediate result." 678. In worlds more advanced than the earth, is man subjected to the same necessity of labour? "The nature of the labour is always relative to that of the wants it supplies; the less material are those wants, the less material is the labour. But you must not suppose that man, in those worlds, remains inactive and useless; idleness would be a torture instead of a benefit." 679. Is he who possesses a sufficiency of worldly goods for his subsistence enfranchised from the law of labour? "From material labour perhaps, but not from the obligation of rendering himself useful according to his means, and of developing his own intelligence and that of others, which is also a labour. If the man, to whom God has apportioned a sufficiency of means for insuring his corporeal existence, be not constrained to win his bread by the sweat of his brow, the obligation of being useful to his fellow-creatures is all the greater in his case, because the portion appointed to him gives him a greater amount of leisure for doing good." 680. Are there not men who are incapable of working at anything whatever, and whose existence is entirely useless? "God is just; He condemns only him who is voluntarily useless; for such an one lives upon the labour of others. He wills that each should make himself useful according to his faculties. (643.) 681. Does the law of nature impose upon children the obligation of labouring for their parents? "Certainly it does, just as it imposes on parents the duty of labouring for their children. For this reason God has given a place in nature to the sentiment of filial and paternal affection, in order that the members of a family may be led, by their mutual affection, to aid each other reciprocally-a duty which is too often lost sight of in your present state of society." Limit of Labour. Rest. 682. Rest being a necessity after labour, is it not a law of nature? 292 ALLAN KARDEC "Undoubtedly it is. Rest serves to restore the bodily powers and is also necessary in order to give a little more freedom to the mind, enabling it to raise itself above matter." 683. What is the limit of labour? "The limit of strength; but God leaves man at liberty to decide this point for himself." 684. What is to be thought of those who misuse their authority by imposing too heavy a labour on their inferiors? "They commit one of the worst of crimes. Every man exercising authority is answerable for any excess of labour imposed by him on those who are under his orders, for he thereby transgresses the law of God." (273.) 685. Has man a right to repose in old age? "Yes; he is only obliged to labour according to his strength." - But what resource is there for the old man who needs to work in order to support himself, and yet is unable to do so? "The strong should work for the weak; where family-help is not to be had, society should supply its place. Such is the law of charity." To say that it Is necessary for man to work is not to make a complete statement of the subject for it is also necessary that he who has to gel his bread by labour should be able to find occupation, and this is far from being always the case. whenever the suspension of labour becomes general, it assumes the proportions of a famine. Economic science seeks a remedy for this evil In the equilibrium of production and consumption: but this equilibrium. supposing it to be attainable, will always be subject to intermittences, and during these intervals the labourer must live. There is an element of the question which has not been sufficiently considered. viz., education, not merely the education of the intellect, not even that of the moral nature as given by books, but that which consists in the formation, of characters and habits; for education is the totality of the habits acquired. When we consider how great a mass of individuals are thrown each day into the torrent of population. abandoned, without principles or curb. to the impulsions of their animal instincts, can we wonder at the disastrous consequences thence resulting? When the art of education shall be rightly understood and practised, each man will bring into the sphere of daily life habits of order and forethought for himself and for those dependent on him, and of respect for what is worthy of being respected ; and these habits will enable him to traverse periods of difficulty with greater ease. Disorder and improvidence are social sores that can only be cured by education rightly understood; the generalisation of such education is the starting-point and essential element of social wenbeing, the only pledge of security for all. 293 CHAPTER IV III. LAW OF REPRODUCTION 1. POPULATION OF THE GLOBE - 2. SUCCESSION AND IMPROVEMENT OF RACE - 3. OBSTACLES TO REPRODUCTION - 4. MARRIAGE AND CELIBACY - 5. POLYGAMY. Population of the Globe. 686. Is the reproduction of living beings a law of nature? "Evidently it is; without reproduction the corporeal world would perish." 687. If the population of the globe goes on increasing as it has hitherto done, will it, in course of time, become too numerous? "No; the Divine overruling always provides for, and maintains, equilibrium. God permits nothing useless. Man sees but a corner of the panorama of the universe, and is therefore unable to perceive the harmony of its various departments." Succession and Improvement of Races. 688. There are at this moment upon the earth races of men who are evidently and rapidly diminishing. Will they eventually disappear from it? "Yes; but it is because others will have taken their place, as your place will some day be taken by others." 689. Are the men now upon the earth a new creation, or the improved descendants of the primitive human beings? "They are the same spirits; come back to improve themselves with the aid of new bodies, but who are still very far from having reached perfection. Thus the present human race, which, by its increase, tends to invade the whole earth and to replace the races that are dying out, will have its period of decrease and disappearance. It will be replaced by other and more perfect races, that will descend from the present race, as the civilised men of the present day are descended from the rough-hewn savages of the primitive periods." 294 ALLAN KARDEC 690. Regarded from a purely physical point of view, are the bodies of the present race of men a special creation, or have they proceeded from the bodies of the primitive races by reproduction? "The origin of races is hidden in the night of time; but as they all belong to the great human family, whatever may have been the primitive root of each, they have been able to form alliances with one another, and thus to produce new types." 691. What, from a physical point of view, is the distinctive and dominant characteristic of primitive races? "The development of brute force at the expense of intellectual power. The contrary takes place at the present day; for man now acts rather through his intelligence than through his bodily strength, and yet he accomplishes a hundred-fold more than he formerly did, because he has learned to avail himself of the forces of nature, which the animals cannot do." 692. Is the improvement of the vegetable and animal races, through the applications of science, contrary to the law of nature? Would it be more conformable with that law to leave them to follow their normal course? "It is the duty of all beings to concur, in every way, in helping forward the general progress; and man himself is employed by God as an instrument for the accomplishment of His ends. Perfection being the aim towards which everything in nature is tending, to help forward this process of improvement is to assist in working out the Divine intentions." - But man, in his efforts to ameliorate the races of the lower reigns, is generally moved by self-interest, and has no other aim than the increase of his personal enjoyments; does not this diminish the merit of his action? "What matters it that his merit should be null, provided the work of progress be accomplished? It is for him to render his labour meritorious by inspiring himself with a noble motive. Besides, in effecting these ameliorations, he develops his intelligence; and it is in this way that he derives the greatest benefit from his labour." Obstacles To Reproduction. 693. Are the human laws and customs that have been established for the purpose of placing obstacles in the way of reproduction contrary to the laws of nature? 295 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "Whatever hinders the operations of nature is contrary to the general law." - But there are many species of living beings, animal and vegetable, the unlimited reproduction of which would be hurtful to other species, and would soon be destructive of the human race. Is it wrong for man to arrest their reproduction? "God has given to man, over all the other living beings of his globe, a power which he ought to use for the general good, hut not to abuse. He may regulate reproduction according to his needs; hut he ought not to hinder it unnecessarily. The intelligent action of mankind is a counterpoise established by God for restoring the equilibrium of the forces of nature; and herein, again, man is distinguished from the animals, because he does this understandingly, while the animals, that also concur in maintaining this equilibrium, do so unconsciously, through the instinct of destruction which has been given to them, and which causes them, while providing for their own preservation only, to arrest the excessive development of the animal and vegetable species on which they feed, and which would otherwise become a source of danger." 694. What is to be thought of usages intended to arrest reproduction in the interest of sensuality? "They prove the predominance of the body over the soul. and show 110w deeply man has plunged himself in matter." Marriage and Celibacy 695. Is marriage, that is to say, the permanent union of two beings, contrary to the law of nature? "It is a progress arrived at by the human race." 696. What would be the effect, upon human society, of the abolition of marriage? "A return to the life of the beasts." The free and fortuitous union of the sexes is the state of nature. Marriage Is one of the first results of progress In the constitution of human society, because it establishes fraternal solidarity, being found among every people, though under different conditions. The abolition of marriage would therefore be a return to the infancy of the human race, and would place man even below certain animals that give him the example of constant unions. 697. Is the absolute indissolubility of marriage to be found in the law of nature, or is it only an ordination of human law." "It is a human law, altogether contrary to the law of nature. But men may change their laws; those of nature are alone unchangeable."

296 ALLAN KARDEC 698. Is voluntary celibacy meritorious in the sight of God? "No; those who live single from selfish motives are displeasing to God, for they fail to perform their share of social duties." 699. Is not celibacy, on the part of some persons, a sacrifice made by them for the sake of devoting themselves more entirely to the service of humanity? "That is a very different thing; I said ‘from selfish motives’. Every sort of personal sacrifice is meritorious when it is made for a good end; and the greater the sacrifice, the greater the merit." God cannot contradict Himself, nor regard as evil what He himself has made, and therefore He cannot regard the violation of His law as meritorious. But although celibacy, in itself, is not meritorious, it may become much when the renunciation of family-joys is a sacrifice accomplished in the interests of humanity. Every sacrifice of personal interests, when made for the good of others and without any reference to self, raises him who makes it above the level of his material condition. Polygamy 700. Is polygamy or monogamy most in conformity with the law of nature? "Polygamy is a human institution, the abolition of which marks an era of social progress. Marriage, according to the intention of God, should be founded on the affection of the beings who enter into it. In polygamy there is no real affection; there is only sensuality." 701. Is the almost exact numerical equality existing between the sexes an indication of the proportions according to which they ought to be united? "Yes; for every arrangement of nature has a specific purpose." If polygamy were in accordance with the law of nature, it ought to be possible to establish it everywhere but it would be physically impossible to do so, owing to the numerical equality of the sexes. Polygamy must therefore be regarded as a mere custom, adapted to the present state of certain peoples, and that will gradually disappear with the progress of their social improvement. 297 CHAPTER V IV. THE LAW OF PRESERVATION 1. INSTINCT OF SELF-PRESERVATION - 2. MEANS OF SELF-PRESERVATION - 3. ENJOYMENT OF THE FRUITS OF THE EARTH - 4. NECESSARIES AND SUPERFLUITIES - 5. VOLUNTARY PRIVATIONS - MORTIFICATIONS. The Instinct of Self-Preservation. 702. Is the instinct of self-preservation a law of nature? "Undoubtedly so. It is given to all living creatures, whatever their degree of intelligence; in some it is purely mechanical, in others it is allied to reason.” 703. To what end has God given the instinct of self-preservation to all living beings? "They are all necessary to the working out of the providential plans; and therefore God has given them the desire to live. And besides, life is a necessary condition of the improvement of beings; they feel this instinctively, without understanding it." Means of Self-Preservation. 704. Has God, while giving to man the desire to live, always furnished him with the means of doing so? "Yes; and if man does not always find them, it is because he does not know how to avail himself of the resources around him. God could not implant in man the love of life, without giving him the means of living; and He has accordingly endowed the earth with a capacity of production sufficient to furnish all its inhabitants with the necessaries of life. It is only that which is necessary that is useful; that which is superfluous is never useful." 705. Why does not the earth always produce enough to provide mankind with the necessaries of life? "It is because man ungratefully neglects that excellent nursing-mother! Moreover, he often accuses nature of what is the result of his own unskilfulness or want of forethought. The earth would 298 ALLAN KARDEC always produce the necessaries of life, if men could content them-selves therewith. If it does not suffice for all his wants, it is because men employ, in superfluities, what should be devoted to the supply of necessaries. Look at the Arab in the desert; he always finds enough to live upon, because he does not create for himself factitious needs; but when half the products of the earth are wasted in satisfying fanciful desires, ought man to be astonished if he afterwards runs short, and has he any reason to complain if he finds himself unprovided for when a famine occurs ? I repeat it; nature is not improvident, but man does not know how to regulate his use of her gifts." 706. By the term 'fruits of the earth,' should we understand merely the products of the soil? "The soil is the original source of all other productions, which are, in reality, only a transformation of the products of the soil; for that reason, by 'fruits of the earth' are to be understood everything enjoyed by man in his corporeal life." 707. There are always persons who lack the means of existence, even in the midst of abundance. Who is to blame for this? "In some cases, the selfishness which too often prevents men from being just to others; in other cases, and most often, themselves. Christ has said, 'Seek, and ye shall find;' but these words do not imply that you have only to cast your eyes on the ground in order to find all that you may desire, but rather that you must seek for what you want, and not indolently, but with ardour and perseverance, and without allowing yourselves to be discouraged by obstacles that are often only a means of putting your constancy, patience, and firmness to the proof." (534.) If civilisation multiplies our needs, it also multiplies our resources and our means of existence. But it must be admitted that, in this respect. much still remains to be done; for civilisation will only have accomplished its task when it shall no longer be possible for any human being to lack the necessaries of life, unless through his own fault. Unfortunately, too, many persons choose a path for which nature has not fitted them, and in which they necessarily fail of success. There is room in the sunshine for every one; but on condition that each takes his own place, and not that of another. Nature cannot justly be held responsible for the results of defective social organisation, nor for those of personal selfishness and ambition. There would, however, be blindness in denying the progress which has already been accomplished in this direction among the nations which are most advanced. Thanks to the efforts of philanthropy and of science for the amelioration of the material condition of mankind, and notwithstanding the constant increase of the population of the globe, the effects of insufficient production are considerably attenuated, so that the most unfavourable years are far less calamitous than formerly. Hygiene, unknown to our forefathers, yet so essential a condition of public and individual health, is the object of constant and enlightened solicitude: asylums are provided for the unfor- 299 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK tunate and the suffering: and every new discovery of science is made to contribute its quota to the general weal. Far as we still are from having attained to the perfection of social arrangements, what is already accomplished gives the measure of what may be done with the aid of perseverance, if men are reasonable enough to seek after solid and practical improvements, instead of wasting their energies on utopian projects that put them back instead of helping them forward. 708. Are there not social positions in which the will is powerless to obtain the means of existence, and in which the privation of the barest necessaries of life is a consequence of the force of circumstances? "Yes; but such a position is a trial which, however severe, the party who is subjected to it knew, in the spirit-state. that he would have to undergo. His merit will result from his submission to the will of God, if his intelligence does not furnish him with the means of freeing himself from his troubles. If death supervenes, he should meet it without a murmur, remembering that the hour of his deliverance is approaching, and that any yielding to despair at the last moment may cause him to lose the fruit of his previous resignation." 709. In critical situations men have been reduced to devour their fellow--men, as the only means of saving themselves from starvation. Have they, in so doing, committed a crime' And if so, is their crime lessened by the fact that it has been committed under the excitement of the instinct of self-preservation? "I have already answered this question in saying that all the trials of life should be submitted to with courage and abnegation. In the cases you refer to there is both homicide and crime against nature; a double culpability that will receive double punishment." 710. In worlds in which the corporeal organisation of living beings is of a purer nature than in the earth, do these need food? "Yes; but their food is in keeping with their nature. Their aliments would not be substantial enough for your gross stomachs and, on the other hand, those beings could not digest your heavier food." Enjoyments of the Fruits of the Earth. 711. Have all men a right to the usufruct of the products of the earth? "That right is a consequence of the necessity of living. God cannot have imposed a duty without having given the means of discharging it." 300 ALLAN KARDEC 712. Why has God attached an attraction to the enjoyment of material things? "In order, first, to excite man to the accomplishment of his mission, and next, to try him by temptation." - What is the aim of temptation? "To develop his reason, that it may preserve him from excesses." If man had only been urged to the using of the things of the earthly life by a conviction of their utility, his indifference to them might have compromised the harmony of the universe. Cod has therefore given him the pleasurable attractions that solicit him to the accomplishing of the views of Providence. But God has also willed, through this attraction. to try man by temptations that incite him to abuses against which his reason should protect him. 713. Has nature marked out the proper limits of corporeal satisfactions? "Yes, limits that coincide with your needs and your well-being. When you overstep them, you bring on satiety, and thus punish yourselves." 714. What is to be thought of the man who seeks to enhance corporeal enjoyments by inventing artificial excesses? "Think of him as a poor wretch who is to be pitied rather than envied, for he is very near death." - Do you mean to physical death, or to moral death? "To both." The man who, in pursuit of corporeal satisfactions, seeks an enhancement of those satisfactions in any kind of excess, places himself below the level of the brute, for the brute goes no farther than the satisfaction of a need. He abdicates the reason given to him by God for his guidance: and the greater his excesses, the more dominion does he give to his animal nature over his spiritual nature. The maladies and infirmities, often occasioning death, that are the consequences of excess in the satisfaction of any corporeal attraction, are also punishments for thus transgressing the law of God. Necessaries and Superfluities. 715. How can men know the limit of what is necessary? "Wise men know it by intuition; others learn it through experience, and to their cost." 716. Has not nature traced out the limit of our needs in the requirements of our organisation? "Yes, but man is insatiable. Nature has indicated the limits of his needs by his organisation; but his vices have deteriorated his constitution, and created for him wants that are not real needs." 301 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK 717. What is to be thought of those who monopolise the productions of the earth, in order to procure for themselves superfluities, at the expense of others who lack the necessaries of life? "They forget the law of God, and will have to answer for the privations they have caused others to endure." There is no absolute boundary-line between the necessary and the superfluous. Civilisation has created necessities that do not exist for the savage and the spirits who have dictated the foregoing precepts do not mean to assert that civilised men should live like the savage. All things are relative; and the function of reason is to determine the part to be allotted to each. Civilisation develops the moral sense, and, at the same time, the sentiment of charity, which leads men to give to each other mutual support. Those who live at the expense of other men's privations monopolise the benefits of civilisation for their own profit they have only the varnish of civilisation, as others have only the mask of religion. Voluntary Privations. 718. Does the law of self-preservation make it our duty to provide for our bodily wants? "Yes; without physical health and strength, labour is impossible." 719. Is it blameable in a man to seek after the comforts and enjoyments of corporeal life? "The desire of corporeal well-being is natural to man. God only prohibits excess, because excess is inimical to preservation; He has not made it a crime to seek after enjoyment, if that enjoyment be not acquired at another's expense, and if it be riot of a nature to weaken either your moral or your physical strength." 720. Are voluntary privations, in view of a voluntary expiation, meritorious in the sight of God? "Do good to others, and you will thereby acquire more merit than is to be acquired by any self-imposed privations." -Is any voluntary privation meritorious? "Yes; the self-privation of useless indulgences, because it loosens man's hold on matter, and elevates his soul. What is meritorious is resistance to the temptation that solicits to excess or to indulgence in what is useless; it is the cutting down even of your necessaries, that you may have more to give to those who are in want. If your privations are only a vain pretence, they are a mere mockery." 721. At every period in the past, and among all peoples, there have been men who have lived a life of ascetic mortification; is such a life meritorious from any point of view? 302 ALLAN KARDEC "Ask yourselves to whom such a life is useful, and you will have the reply to your question. If such a life is only for him who leads it, and if it prevents him from doing good to others, it is only a form of selfishness, whatever the pretext with which it is coloured. True mortification, according to the dictates of Christian charity, is to impose privation and labour upon yourselves for the good of others." 722. Is there any foundation in reason for the abstinence from certain aliments practised among various peoples? "Whatever man can eat without injury to his health is permitted to him. Legislators may have prohibited certain aliments for some useful end, and, in order to give greater weight to their prohibitions, have represented them as emanating from God." 723. Is the use of animal food by man contrary to the law of nature? "With your physical constitution, flesh is useful for nourishing flesh; without this kind of sustenance man's strength declines. The law of preservation makes it a duty for man to keep up his health and strength, that he may fulfil the law of labour. He should therefore feed himself according to the requirements of his organisation." 724. Is there any merit in abstinence from any particular kind of food, animal or other, when undergone as an expiation? "Yes, if undergone for the sake of others; but God cannot regard as meritorious any abstinence that does not impose a real privation, and that has not a serious and useful aim. This is why we say that those whose fasting is only apparent are hypocrites." (720.) 725. What is to be thought of the mutilation of the bodies of men or of animals? "What is the use of asking such a question ? Ask yourselves, once for all, whether a thing is or is not useful. What is useless cannot be pleasing to God, and what is hurtful is always displeasing to Him. Be very sure that God is only pleased with the sentiments that raise the soul towards Him. It is by practising His law, and not by violating it, that you can shake off your terrestrial matter." 726. If the sufferings of this world elevate us through the manner in which we bear them, are we elevated by those which we voluntarily create for ourselves? 303 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "The only sufferings that can elevate you are those which come upon you naturally, because they are inflicted by God. Voluntary sufferings count for nothing when they are not useful to others. Do you suppose that those who shorten their lives by superhuman hardships, like the bonzes, fakirs, and fanatics of various sects, advance their progress thereby? Why do they not rather labour for the good of their fellow-creatures? Let them clothe the naked; let them comfort those who mourn; let them work for the infirm; let them impose privations upon themselves for the sake of the unfortunate and the needy; and their life will be useful, and pleasing to God. When your voluntary sufferings are undergone only for yourselves, they are mere selfishness; when you suffer for others, you obey the law of charity. Such are the precepts of Christ." 727. If we ought not to create for ourselves voluntary sufferings that are of no use to others, ought we to endeavour to ward off from ourselves those which we foresee, or wit h which we are threatened? "The instinct of self-preservation has been given to all beings to guard them against dangers and sufferings. Flagellate your spirit, and not your body; mortify your pride; stifle the selfishness that eats into the heart like a devouring worm; and you will 4o more for your advancement than you could do by any amount of macerations out of keeping with the age in which you are living." 304 CHAPTER VI V. THE LAW OF DESTRUCTION 1. NECESSARY DESTRUCTION AND UNJUSTIFIABLE DESTRUCTION - 2. DESTRUCTIVE CALAMITIES - 3. WAR - 4. MURDER - 5. CRUELTY - 6. DUELLING -7. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. Necessary Destruction and Unjustifiable Destruction. 728. Is destruction a law of nature? "It is necessary that all things should be destroyed that they may be re-born and regenerated; for what you call destruction is only a transformation, the aim of which is the renewing and amelioration of living beings." - The instinct of destruction would seem, then, to have been given to living beings for providential purposes? "God's creatures are the instruments which He uses for working out His ends. Living beings destroy each other for food; thus maintaining equilibrium in reproduction, which might otherwise become excessive, and also utilising the materials of their external envelopes. But it is only this envelope that is ever destroyed, and this envelope is only the accessory, and, not the essential part, of a thinking being; the essential part is the intelligent principle which is indestructible, and which is elaborated in the course of the various metamorphoses that it undergoes." 729. If destruction be necessary for the regeneration of beings, why does nature surround them with the means of self-preservation? "In order that their destruction may not take place before the proper time. Destruction that occurs too soon retards the development of the intelligent principle. It is for this reason that God has given to each being the desire to live and to reproduce itself." 730. Since death is to lead us to a better life, and since it delivers us from the ills of our present existence, and is therefore 305 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK to be rather desired than dreaded, why has man the instinctive horror of death which causes him to shrink from it? "We have said that man should seek to prolong his life in order to accomplish his task. To this end God has given him the instinct of self-preservation, and this instinct sustains him under all his trials; but for it, he would too often abandon himself to discouragement. The inner voice, which tells him to repel death, tells him also that he may yet do something more for his advancement. Every danger that threatens him is a warning that bids him make a profitable use of the respite granted to him by God; but he, ungrateful, gives thanks more often to his 'star' than to his Creator." 731. Why has nature placed agents of destruction side by side with the means of preservation? "We have already told you that it is in order to maintain equilibrium, and to serve as a counterpoise. The malady and the remedy are placed side by side." 732. Is the need of destruction the same in all worlds? "It is proportioned to the more or less material state of each world; it ceases altogether in worlds of higher physical and moral purity. In worlds more advanced than yours, the conditions of existence are altogether different." 733. Will the necessity of destruction always exist for the human race of this earth? "The need of destruction diminishes in man in proportion as his spirit obtains ascendancy over matter. Consequently, you see that intellectual and moral development is always accompanied by a horror of destruction." 734. Has man, in his present state, an unlimited right of destruction in regard to animals? "That right is limited to providing for his food and his safety; no abuse can be a matter of right." 735. What is to be thought of destruction that goes beyond the limits of needs and of safety; of hunting, for instance, when it has no useful aim, and is resorted to from no other motive than the pleasure of killing? "It is a predominance of bestiality over the spiritual nature. All destruction that goes beyond the limits of your needs is a violation of the law of God. The animals only destroy according to the 306 ALLAN KARDEC measure of their necessities; but man, who has free-will, destroys unnecessarily. He will be called to account for thus abusing the freedom accorded to him; for, in so doing, he yields to evil! instincts from which he ought to free himself." 736. Are those peoples especially meritorious who, in regard to the taking of animal life, carry their scrupulousness to excess? "Their sentiment in regard to this matter, though laudable in itself, being carried to excess, becomes an abuse in its turn; and its merit, moreover, is neutralised by abuses of many other sorts. That sentiment, on their part, is the result of superstitious fear, rather than of true gentleness." Destructive Calamities. 737. What is the aim of God in visiting mankind with destructive calamities? "To make men advance more quickly. Have we not told you that destruction is necessary to the moral regeneration of spirits, who accomplish a new step of their purification in each new existence? In order to appreciate any process correctly, you must see its results. You judge merely from your personal point of view, and you therefore regard those inflictions as calamities, because of the temporary injury they cause you; but such upsettings are often needed in order to make you reach more quickly a better order of things, and to effect, in a few years, what you would otherwise have taken centuries to accomplish." (744.) 738. Could not God employ other methods than destructive calamities for effecting the amelioration of mankind? "Yes; and He employs them every day, for He has given to each of you the means of progressing through the knowledge of good and evil. It is because man profits so little by those other means, that it becomes necessary to chastise his pride, and to make him feel his weakness." - But the good man succumbs under the action of these scourges, as does the wicked; is this just? "During his earthly sojourn, man measures everything by the standard of his bodily life; but, after death, he judges differently, and feels that the life of the body, as we have often told you, is a very small matter. A century in your world is but the length of a flash in eternity, and therefore the sufferings of what you call 307 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK days, months, or years, are of no importance; let this he a lesson for your future use. Spirits are the real world, pre-existent to, and surviving, everything else; they are the children of God, and the object of all His solicitude; and bodies are only the disguises tinder which they make their appearances in the corporeal world. In the great calamities that decimate the human race, the sufferers are like an army that, in the course of a campaign, sees its clothing tattered, worn out, or lost. The general is more anxious about his soldiers than about their coats." - But the victims of those scourges are none the less victims? "If you considered an earthly life as it is in itself, and how small a thing it is in comparison with the life of infinity, you would attach to it much less importance. Those victims will find, in another existence, an ample compensation for their sufferings, if they have borne them without murmuring." Whether our death be the result of a public calamity or of an ordinary cause. we are none the less compelled to go when the hour of our departure has struck: the only difference is that, in the former case, a greater number go away at the same time. If we could raise our thoughts sufficiently high to contemplate the human race as a whole. and to take in the whole of its destiny at a glance. the scourges that now seem so terrible would appear to us only as passing storms in the destiny of the globe. 739. Are destructive calamities useful physically notwithstanding the temporary evils occasioned by them? "Yes, they sometimes change the state of a country, but the good that results from them is often one that will be felt by future generations." 740. May not such calamities also constitute for man a moral trial, compelling him to struggle with the hardest necessities of his lot? "They are always trials, and, as such, they furnish him with the opportunity of. exercising his intelligence, of proving his patience and his resignation to the will of God, and of displaying his sentiments of abnegation, disinterestedness, and love for his neighbour, if he be not under the dominion of selfishness." 741. Is it in man's power to avert the scourges that now afflict him? "Yes, a part of them; but not as is generally supposed. Many of those scourges are the consequence of his want of foresight; and, in proportion as he acquires knowledge and experience, he becomes able to avert them, that is to say, he can prevent their

308 ALLAN KARDEC occurrence when he has ascertained their cause. But, among the ills that afflict humanity, there are some, of a general nature, which are imposed by the decrees of Providence, and the effect of which is felt, more or less sensibly, by each individual. "To these, man can oppose nothing bill his resignation to the divine will, though he can, and often does, aggravate their painfulness by his negligence." In the class of destructive calamities resulting from natural causes, and independently of the action of man. are to be placed pestilence, famine, inundations, and atmospheric influences fatal to the productions of the earth. But has not man already found. In the applications of science, in agricultural improvements, in the rotation of crops, in the study of hygienic conditions, the means of neutralising, or at least of attenuating, many of these disasters ? Are not many countries. at the present day, preserved from terrible plagues by which they were formerly ravaged? What, then, may not man accomplish for the advancement of his material well-being, when he shall have learned to make use of all the resources of his intelligence, and when he shall have added, to the care of his personal preservation. the large charity that interests itself in the well-being of the whole human race? (107.) War. 742. What is the cause that impels man to war? "The predominance of the animal nature over the spiritual nature, and the desire of satisfying his passions. In the barbaric state, the various peoples know no other right than that of tile. strongest; and their normal condition is, therefore, that of war. As men progress, war becomes less frequent, through their avoidance of the causes which lead to it; and when it becomes inevitable) they wage it more humanely." 743. Will wars ever cease on the earth? "Yes; when men comprehend justice, and practise the law of God; all men will then be brothers." 744. What has been the aim of Providence in making war necessary? "Freedom and progress." - If war is destined to bring us freedom, how does it happen that its aim and upshot are so often the subjugation of the people attacked? "Such subjugation is only momentary, and is permitted in order to weary the nations of servitude, and thus to urge them forward more rapidly." 745. What is to be thought of him who stirs up war for his own profit? "Such an one is deeply guilty, and will have to undergo many corporal existences in order to expiate all the murders caused by 309 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK him; for he will have to answer for every man who has been killed for the satisfaction of his ambition." Murder. 746. Is murder a crime in the sight of God? "Yes, a great crime; for he who takes the life of his fellow-man cuts short an expiation or a mission; hence the heinousness of his offence." 747. Are all murders equally heinous? "We have said that God is just; He judges the intention rather than the deed." 748. Does God excuse murder in cases of self-defence? "Only absolute necessity can excuse it; but if a man can only preserve his life by taking that of his aggressor, he ought to do. 749. Is a man answerable for the murders he commits in war? "Not when he is compelled to fight; but he is answerable for the cruelties he commits, and he will be rewarded for his humanity." 750. Is parricide or infanticide the greater crime in the sight of God? "They are equally great; for all crime is crime.” 751. How is it that the custom of infanticide prevails among peoples of considerable intellectual advancement, and is even recognised as allowable by their laws? "Intellectual development is not always accompanied by moral rectitude. A spirit may advance in intelligence, and yet remain wicked; for he may have lived a long time without having improved morally, and gained knowledge, without acquiring moral purification." Cruelty. 752. Is the sentiment of cruelty connected with the instinct of destruction? "It is the instinct of destruction in its worst form, for, though destruction is sometimes necessary, cruelty never is; it is always the result of an evil nature." 753. How comes it that cruelty is the dominant characteristic of the primitive races? 310 ALLAN KARDEC "Among the primitive races, as you call them, matter has the ascendancy over spirit. They abandon themselves to the instincts of the brute; and as they care for nothing but the life of the body, they think only of their personal preservation, and this generally renders them cruel. And besides, peoples, whose development is still imperfect, are under the influence of spirits equally imperfect, with whom they are in sympathy, until the coming among them of some other people, more advanced than themselves, destroys or weakens that influence." 754. Is cruelty a result of the absence of the moral sense? "Say that the moral sense is not developed, but do not say that it is absent; for its principle exists in every man, and is this sense which, in course of time, renders beings kind and humane. It exists, therefore, in the savage; but in him it is latent, as the principle of the perfume is in the bud, before it opens into the flowers." All faculties exist in man in a rudimentary or latent state; they are developed according as circumstances are more or less favourable to them. The excessive development of some of them arrests or neutralises that of others. The undue excitement of the material instincts stifles, so to say, the moral sense; as the development of the moral sense gradually weakens the merely animal-faculties. 755. How is it that, in the midst of the most advanced civilisation, we sometimes find persons as cruel as the savages? "Just as, on a tree laden with healthy fruit, you may find some that are withered. They may be said to be savages who have nothing of civilisation about them but the coat; they are wolves who have strayed into the midst of the sheep. Spirits of low degree, and very backward, may incarnate themselves among men of greater advancement, in the hope of advancing themselves; but, if the trial be too arduous, their primitive nature gets the upper hand." 756. Will the society of the good be one day purged of evildoers? "The human race is progressing. Those who are under the dominion of the instinct of evil, and who are out of place among good people, will gradually disappear, as the faulty grain is separated from the good when the wheat is threshed; hut they will be born again under another corporeal envelope, and, as they acquire more experience, they will arrive at a clearer understanding of good and evil. You have an example of this in the plants and animals which man has discovered the art of improving, and in 311 THE SPIRITS BOOK which he develops new qualities. It is only after several generations that the improvement becomes complete. This is a picture of the different existences of each human being." Duelling. 757. Can duelling be considered as coming under the head of lawful self-defence? "No; it is murder, and an absurdity worthy of barbarians. When civilisation is more advanced and more moral, men will see that duelling is as ridiculous as the combats which were formerly regarded as the ‘judgement of God.'" 758. Can duelling be considered as murder on the part of him who, knowing his own weakness, is pretty sure of being killed? "In such a case it is suicide." - And when the chances are equal, is it murder or suicide? "It is both." In all cases, even in those in which the chances are equal. the duellist is guilty; in the first place, because he makes a cool and deliberate attack on the life of his fellow-man, and in the second place, because he exposes his own life uselessly. and without benefit to any one. 759. What is the real nature of what is called the point of honour in the matter of duels? "Pride and vanity; two sores of humanity." - But are there not cases in which a man's honour is really at stake, and in which a refusal to fight would be an act of cowardice? "That depends on customs and usages; each country and each. century has a different way of regarding such matters. But when men are better, and more advanced morally, they will comprehend that the true point of honour is above the reach of earthly passions, and that it is neither by killing, nor by getting themselves killed, that they can obtain reparation for a wrong." There is more real greatness and honour in confessing our wrongdoing if we are in the wrong, or in forgiving if we are in the right; and, in all cases, in despising insults which cannot touch those who are superior to them. Capital Punishment. 760. Will capital punishment disappear some day from human legislation? "Capital punishment will, most assuredly, disappear in course 0£ time; and its suppression will mark a progress on the part of the human race. When men become more enlightened, the penalty of death will be completely abolished throughout the earth; men will 312 ALLAN KARDEC no longer require to be judged by men. I speak of a time which is still a long way ahead of you." The social progress already made leaves much still to be desired, but it would be unjust towards modern society not to recognise a certain amount of progress in the restrictions which, among the most advanced nations, have been successively applied to capital punishment, and to the crimes for which it is inflicted. If we compare the safeguards with which the law, among those nations, surrounds the accused, and the humanity with which he is treated even when found guilty, with the methods of criminal procedure that obtained at a period not very remote from the present, we cannot fail to perceive that the human race is really moving forwards on a path of progress. 761. The law of Preservation gives man the right to preserve his own life; does he not make use of that same right when he cuts off a dangerous member from the social body? "There are other means of preserving yourselves from a dangerous individual than killing him; and besides, you ought to open the door of repentance for the criminal, and not to close it against him." 762. If the penalty of death may be banished from civilised society, 'was it not a necessity in times of less advancement? "Necessity is not the right word. Man always thinks that a thing is necessary when he cannot manage to find anything better, In proportion as he becomes enlightened, he understands more clearly what is just or unjust, and repudiates the excesses committed, in times of ignorance, in the name of justice." 763. Is the restriction of the number of the cases in which capital punishment is inflicted an indication of progress in civilisation? "Can you doubt its being so? Does not your mind revolt on reading the recital of the human butcheries that were formerly perpetrated in the name of justice, and often in honour of the divinity; of the tortures inflicted on the condemned, and even on the accused, in order to wring from him, through the excess of his sufferings, the confession of a crime which. very often, he had not committed ? Well, if you had lived in those times, you would have thought all this very natural; and, had you been a judge, you would probably have done the same yourself. It is thus that what seemed to be right at one period seems barbarous at another. The divine laws alone are eternal; human laws change as progress advances; and they will change again and again, until they have been brought into harmony with the laws of God." 313 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK 764. Jesus said, "He that take the sword shall perish by the sword." Are not these words the consecration of the principle of retaliation? and is not the penalty of death, inflicted on a murderer, an application of this principle? “Take care! You have mistaken the meaning of these words, as of many others. The only righteous retaliation is the justice of God; because it is applied by Him. You are all, at every moment, undergoing this retaliation, for you are punished in that wherein you have sinned, in this life or in another one. He who has caused his fellow-men to suffer will be placed in a situation in which he himself will suffer what he caused them to endure. This is the true meaning of the words of Jesus; for has He not also said to you, 'Forgive your enemies,' and has He not taught you to pray that God may forgive you your trespasses as you forgive those who have trespassed against you, that is to say, exactly in proportion as you have forgiven? Try to take in the full meaning of those words." 765. What is to be thought of the infliction of the penalty of death in the name of God? "It is a usurpation of God's place in the administration of justice. Those who act thus show how far they are from comprehending God, and how much they still have to expiate. Capital punishment is a crime when applied in the name of God, and those who inflict it will have to answer for it as for so many murders." 314 CHAPTER VII VI. SOCIAL LAW 1. NECESSITY OF SOCIAL LIFE - 2. LIFE OF ISOLATION. VOW OF SILENCE -3. FAMILY-TIES. Necessity of Social Life. 766. Is social life founded in nature? "Certainly; God has made man for living in society. It is not without a purpose that God has given to man the faculty of speech and the other faculties necessary to the life of relation." 767. Is absolute isolation contrary to the law of nature? "Yes, since man instinctively seeks society, and since all men are intended to help forward the work of progress by aiding one another." 768. Does man, in seeking society, only yield to a personal feeling, or is there, in this feeling, a wider providential end? "Man must progress; he cannot do so alone, because, as he does not possess all faculties, he needs the contact of other men. In isolation he becomes brutified and etiolated." No man possesses the complete range of faculties. Through social union men complete one another, and thus mutually secure their well-being and progress. It is because they need each other's help that they have been formed for living In society, and not in isolation. Life of Isolation. 769. We can understand that the taste for social life, as a general principle, should be founded in nature, as are all other tastes; but why should a taste for absolute isolation be regarded as blameable, if a man finds satisfaction in it? "Such satisfaction can only be a selfish one. There are also men who find satisfaction in getting drunk; do you approve of them ? A mode of life, by the adoption of which you condemn yourselves not to be useful to any one, cannot be pleasing to God." 770. What is to be thought of those who live in absolute seclusion in order to escape the pernicious contact of the world? 315 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "The life of such persons is doubly selfish. In avoiding one evil, they fall into another, since they forget the jaw of love and charity." - But if such seclusion is undergone as an expiation, through the imposing on one's self of a painful privation, is it not meritorious? "The best of all expiations is to do a greater amount of good than you have done of evil." 771. What is to be thought of those who renounce the world in order to devote themselves to the relief of the unfortunate? "They raise themselves by their voluntary abasement. They have the double merit of placing themselves above material enjoyments, and of doing good by fulfilling the law of labour." - And those who seek in retirement the tranquillity required for certain kinds of labour? "Those who live in retirement from such a motive are not selfish; they do not separate themselves from society, since their labours are for the general good." 772. What is to be thought of the vow of silence prescribed by certain sects from the very earliest times? "You should rather ask yourselves whether speech is in nature, and why God has given it ? God condemns the abuse, but not the use, of the faculties He has given. Silence, however, is useful; for, in silence you have fuller possession of yourself; your spirit is freer, and can then enter into more intimate communication with us; but a vow of silence is an absurdity. Those who regard the undergoing of such voluntary privations as acts of virtue are prompted, undoubtedly, by a good intention in submitting to them; but they make a mistake in so doing, because they do not sufficiently understand the true laws of God." The vow of silence, like the vow of isolation. deprives man of the social relations which alone can furnish him with the opportunities of doing good, and of fulfilling the law of progress. Family - Ties. 773. Why is it that, among the animals, parents and children forget each other, when the latter no longer need the care of the former? "The life of the animals is material life, but not moral life. The tenderness of the dam for her young is prompted by the instinct 316 ALLAN KARDEC of preservation in regard to the beings born of her. When these beings are able to take care of themselves, her task is done; nature asks no more of her, and she therefore abandons them in order to busy herself with those that come afterwards." 774. Some persons have inferred, from the abandonment of the young of animals by their parents, that the ties of family, among mankind, are merely a result of social customs, and not a law of nature; what is to be thought of this inference? "Man has another destiny than of the animals; why, then, should you always be trying!]g to assimilate him to them ? There is, in man, something more than physical wants; there is the necessity of progressing. Social ties are necessary to progress; and social ties are drawn closer by family-ties. For this reason, family-ties are a law of nature. God has willed that men should learn, through them, to love one another as brothers." (205.) 775. What would be the effect upon society of the relaxation of family-ties? "A relapse into selfishness." 317 CHAPTER VIII VII. THE LAW OF PROGRESS 1. STATE OF NATURE - 2. MARCH OF PROGRESS - 3. DEGENERATE PEOPLES - 4. CIVILISATION - 5. PROGRESS OF HUMAN LEGISLATION - 6. INFLUENCE OF SPIRITISM UPON PROGRESS. State of Nature. 776. Are the state of nature and the law of nature the same thing? "No; the state of nature is the primitive state. Civilisation is incompatible with the state of nature, while the law of nature contributes to the progress of the human race." The "state of nature" is the infancy of the human race, and the starting point of its intellectual and moral development. Man, being perfectible, and containing in himself the germ of his amelioration, is no more destined to live for ever in the state of nature, than he is destined to live for ever in the state of infancy; the state of nature is transitory, and man outgrows it through progress and civilisation. The "law of nature," on the contrary, rules the human race throughout its entire career; and men improve in proportion as they comprehend this law more clearly, and conform their action more closely to its requirements. 777. Man, in the state of nature, having fewer wants, escapes many of the tribulations he creates for himself in a state of greater advancement. What is to be thought of the opinion of those who regard the former state as being that of the most perfect felicity obtainable upon the earth? "Such felicity is that of the brute; but there are persons who understand no other, It is being happy after the fashion of the brutes. Children, too, are happier than grown-up people." 778. Could mankind retrograde towards the slate of nature? "No; mankind must progress unceasingly, and cannot return to the state of infancy. If men have to progress, it is because God so wills it; to suppose that they could retrograde towards the primitive condition would be to deny the law of progress." 318 ALLAN KARDEC March of Progress. 779. Does man contain in himself the force that impels him onward in the path of progress, or is his progress only the product of instruction? "Man is developed of himself, naturally. But all men do not progress at the same rate, nor in the same manner; and it is thus that most advances are made to help forward the others, through social contact." 780. Does moral progress always follow intellectual progress? "It is a consequence of the latter, but does not always follow it immediately." (192-365.) - How can intellectual progress lead to moral progress? "By making man comprehend good and evil; he can then choose between them. The development of free-will follows the development of the intelligence and increases the responsibility of human action." - How comes it, then, that the most enlightened nations are often the most perverted? "Complete and integral progress is the aim of existence; but nations, like individuals, only leach it step by step. Until the moral sense is developed in them, they may even employ their intelligence in doing evil. Moral sense and intellect are two forces which only arrive at equilibrium in the long run." (365-751.) 781. Has man the power of arresting the march of progress? "No; but he has sometimes that of hindering it." - What is to be thought of the men 'who attempt to arrest the march of progress, and to make the human race go backwards? "They are wretched weaklings whom God will chastise; they will be overthrown by the torrent they have tried to arrest." Progress being a condition of human nature, it is not in the power of any one to prevent it. It is a living force that bad laws may hamper, but not stifle. When these laws become incompatible with progress, progress breaks them down with all those who attempt to hold them up and it will continue to do so until man has brought his laws into harmony with the divine justice which wills the good of all, and the abolition of all laws that are made for the strong, and against the weak. 782. Are there not men who honestly obstruct progress while believing themselves to be helping it forward, because, judging the matter from their own point of view, they often regard as "progress" what is not really such? "Yes; there are persons who push their little pebbles under the great wheel; but they will not keep it from going on." 319 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK 783. Does the improvement of the human race always proceed by slow progression? "There is the regular slow progress that inevitably results from the force of things; but, when a people does not advance quickly enough, God also prepares for it, from time to time, a physical or moral shock that hastens its transformation." Man cannot remain perpetually in ignorance, because he must reach the goal marked out for him by Providence; he is gradually enlightened by the force of things. Moral revolutions, like social revolutions, are prepared, little by little, in the ideas of a people; they go on germinating for centuries, and at length suddenly burst forth, overthrowing the crumbling edifice of the past, which is no longer in harmony with the new wants and new aspirations of the day. Man often perceives, in these public commotions, only the momentary disorder and confusion that affect him in his material interests ; but he who raises his thoughts above his own personality admires the providential working which brings good out of evil. Such commotions are the tempest and the storm that purify the atmosphere after having disturbed it. 784. Man's perversity is very great; does he not seem to be going back instead of advancing, at least, as regards morality? “You are mistaken. look at the human race as a whole, and you will see that it is advancing; for it has arrived at a clearer perception of what is evil, and every day witnesses the reform of some abuse. The excess of evil is required to show you the necessity of good and of reforms'." 785. What is the greatest obstacle to progress? "Pride and selfishness. I refer to moral progress; for intellectual progress is always going on, and would even seem, at the first glance, to give redoubled activity to those vices, by developing ambition and the love of riches, which, however, in their turn, stimulate man to the researches that enlighten his mind, for it is thus that all things are linked together, in the moral world as in the physical world, and that good is brought even out of evil; but this state of things will only last for a time, and will change, as men become aware of that, beyond the circle of terrestrial enjoyments, there is a happiness infinitely greater and infinitely more lasting." (See Selfishness, chap. xii.) There are two kinds of progress, that mutually aid one another, and yet do not proceed side by sideintellectual progress, and moral progress. Among civilised peoples the first is receiving, at the present day, abundant encouragement; and it has accordingly reached a degree of advancement unknown to past ages. The second is very far from having reached the same point; although, if we compare the social usages of periods separated by a few centuries, we are compelled to admit that progress has also been made in this direction. Why then should the ascensional movement stop short in the region of morality any more than of intelligence? Why should there not be as great a difference between the morality of the nineteenth and the twenty-fourth centuries as between that of the fourteenth and the

320 ALLAN KARDEC nineteenth? To doubt of the continuity of moral progress would be to assume either that the human race reached the summit of perfection, which would be absurd, or that it is not morally perfectible, which is disproved by experience. Degenerate Peoples. 786. History shows us many peoples who, after having been subjected to shocks that have overthrown their nationality, have relapsed into barbarism. What Progress has there been made in such cases.? "When your house threatens to fall about your ears, you pull it down, in order to build another, stronger and more commodious; but, until the latter is built, there is trouble and confusion in your dwelling. "Comprehend this also: you are poor and live in a hovel; you become rich, and quit the hovel to live in a palace. Then comes a poor devil, such as you formerly were, and takes possession of the hovel you have quitted; and he is a gainer by the move, for he was previously altogether without shelter. Learn from this that the spirits now incarnated in the people that you call 'degenerate' are not those who composed that people in the time ~f its splendour; those spirits, being of advanced degree, have gone to reside in nobler habitations, and have progressed, while others less advanced have taken their vacated places, which they too will vacate in their turn." 787. Are there not races that, by their nature, are incapable of progress? "Yes, but they are day by day becoming annihilated corporeally." - What will be the future fate of the souls that animate those races? "They, like all others, will arrive at perfection by passing through other existences. God deprives no one of the general heritage." - The most civilised men may, then, have been savages and cannibals? "You, yourself, have been such, more than once, before becoming what you now are." 788. The various peoples are collective individualities, that pass, like individuals, through infancy, manhood, and decrepitude. Does not this truth, attested by history, seem to imply that the most advanced peoples of this century will have their decline and their end, like those of antiquity? 321 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "Those peoples that only live the life of the body, those whose greatness is founded only upon physical force and territorial extension, are born, grow, and die, because the strength of a people becomes exhausted like that of a man; those whose selfish laws are opposed to the progress of enlightenment and of charity die, because light kills darkness, and charity kills selfishness. But there is for nations, as for individuals, the life of the soul; and those whose laws are in harmony with the eternal laws of the Creator will continue to live, and will be the guiding-torch of the other nations." 789. Will progress ultimately unite all the peoples of the earth into a single nation? "No, not into a single nation; that is impossible, because the diversities of climate give rise to diversities of habits and of needs that constitute diverse nationalities, each of which will always need laws appropriate to is special habits and needs. But charity know nothing of latitudes, and makes no distinction between the various shades of human colour; and when the law of God shall be every-where the basis of human law, the law of charity will be practised between nation and nation as between man and man, and all will then live in peace and happiness, because no one will attempt to wrong his neighbour, or to live at his expense." The human race progresses through the progress of individuals, who gradually become enlightened and improved, and who, when they constitute a majority, obtain the upper hand, and draw the rest forward. Men of genius arise from time to time and give an impulse to the work of advancement; and men having authority, instruments of God, effect in the course of a few years what the race, left to itself, would have taken several centuries to accomplish. The progress of nations renders still more evident the justice of rein-carnation. Through the efforts of its best men, a nation is made to advance intellectually and morally; and the nation thus advanced is happier both in this world and in the next. But during its slow passage through successive centuries, thousands of its people have died every day. what will be the fate of those who have thus fallen on the way? Does their relative inferiority deprive them of the happiness reserved for those who came later? Or will their happiness be always proportioned to that inferiority? The divine justice could not permit so palpable an injustice. Through the plurality of existences, the same degree of happiness is obtainable by all, for no one is excluded from the heritage of progress. Those who have lived in a period of barbarism, come back in a period of civilisation among the same people or among another one; and all are thus enabled to profit by the ascensional movement of the various nations of the earth, from the benefits of which movement they are excluded by the theory which assumes that there is only a single life for each individual. Another difficulty presented by the theory referred to may be conveniently examined in this place. According to that theory, the soul is crested at the same time as the body; so that, as some men are more advanced than others, it follows that God creates for some men souls more advanced than the souls He creates for other men. But why this favouritism? How can one man, who has lived no longer than another man, often not so long, 322 ALLAN KARDEC have merited to be thus endowed with a soul of a quality superior to that of the soul which has been given to that other man? But the theory of the unity of existence presents a still graver difficulty. A nation, in the course of a thousand years, passes from barbarism to civilisation. If all men lived a thousand years, we could understand that. in this period, they would have the time to progress; but many die every day, at all ages, and the people of the earth are incessantly renewed, so that every day we see them appear and disappear. Thus, at the end of a thousand years, no trace remains in any country of those who were living in it a thousand years before. The nation, from the State of barbarism in which it was, has become civilised-but what is it that has thus progressed? Is it the people who were formerly barbarian? But they died long ago. Is it the newcomers? But if the soul is created at the same time with the body, it follows that their souls were not in existence during the period of barbarism; and we should therefore be compelled to admit that the efforts made to civilise a people have the power, net to work out the improvement of souls that are created imperfect, but to make God create souls of a better quality than these which He created a thousand years before. Let us compare this theory of progress with the one now given by spirits. The souls that come into a nation in its period of civilisation have had their infancy, like all the others, but they have lived already, and have brought with them the advancement resulting from progress previously made; they come into it, attracted by a State of things with which they are in sympathy, and which is suited to their present degree of advancement, so that the effect of the efforts to civilise a people is not to cause the future creation of souls of a better quality, but to attract to that people souls that have already progressed, whether they have already lived among that people, or whether they have lived elsewhere. And the progress accomplished by each people, when thus explained, furnishes also the key to the progress of the human race in its entirety, by showing that when all the peoples of the earth shall have reached the same level of moral advancement, the earth will be the resort of good Spirits only, who will live together in fraternal union, and all the bad spirits who flow infest it, finding themselves out of place among the others, and repelled by them, will go away, and will seek in lower worlds the surroundings that suit them, until they have rendered themselves worthy of coming back into our transformed and happier world. The theory commonly received leads also to this other consequence, viz.. that the labour of social amelioration is profitable only to present and future generations; its result is null for the generations of the past, who made the mistake of coming into the world too Soon, and who have to get on as they can, weighted as they are through the faults of their barbarian epoch. According to the, doctrine now set forth by spirits, the progress accomplished by later generations is equally beneficial to the generations that preceded them, and who, r'-living upon the earth under improved conditions, are thus enabled to improve themselves in the focus of civilisation. (222.) Civilisation. 790. Is civilisation a progress, or, according to some philosophers, a decadence, of the human race? "A progress, but incomplete. Mankind does not pass suddenly from infancy to the age of reason." - Is it reasonable to condemn civilisation? "You should condemn those who misuse it, rather than condemn the work of God." 791. Will civilisation be eventually purified, so that the evils caused by it will disappear? 323 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "Yes, when man's moral nature shall be as fully developed as his intelligence. The fruit cannot come before the flower." 792. Why does not civilisation produce at once all the good it is capable of producing? "Because men are not as yet either ready or disposed to obtain that good." - May it not be also because in creating new wants it excites new passions? "Yes, and because all the faculties of a spirit do not progress together; everything takes time. You cannot expect perfect fruit from a civilisation that is still incomplete." (751-780.) 793. By what signs shall we know when a civilisation has reached its apogee? "You will know it by its moral development. You believe yourselves to be considerably advanced, because you have made great discoveries and wonderful inventions, because you are better lodged and better clothed than the savages; but you will only have the right to call yourselves 'civilised' when you have banished from your society the vices that dishonour it, and when you live among yourselves like brothers, practising Christian charity. Until then, you are merely enlightened nations, having traversed only the first phase of civilisation" Civilisation has its degrees like everything else. An incomplete civilisation is a state of transition which engenders special evils unknown to the primitive state; but it none the less constitutes a natural and necessary progress. which brings with it the remedy for the evils it occasions. In proportion as civilisation becomes perfected. it puts an end to the ills it has engendered, and these ills disappear altogether with the advance of moral progress. Of two nations which have reached the summit of the social scale, that one may be called the most advanced in which is found the smallest amount of selfishness, cupidity, and pride: in which the habits are more moral and intellectual than material; in which intelligence can develop Itself most freely; in which there is the greatest amount of kindness, good faith, and reciprocal benevolence and generosity; in which the prejudices of caste and of birth are the least rooted, for those prejudices are incompatible with the true love of the neighbour; in which tree laws sanction no privilege, and are the same for the lowest as for the highest; in which justice is administered with the least amount of partiality; in which the weak always finds support against the strong; in which human life, beliefs, and opinions are most respected; in which there is the smallest number of the poor and the unhappy; and, finally, in which every man who is willing to work is always sure of the necessaries of life. Progress of Human Legislation. 794. Would the laws of nature be sufficient for the regulation of human society, without the help of human laws? 324 ALLAN KARDEC "If the laws of nature were properly understood, and if men were willing to practise them, they would be sufficient. But society has its exigencies, and requires the co-operation of special laws." 795. What is the cause of the instability of human laws? "In times of barbarism the laws were made by the strongest, who framed them to their own advantage. It has therefore become necessary to modify them, as men have acquired a clearer comprehension of justice. Human laws will become more stable in proportion as they approach the standard of true justice; that is to say, in proportion as they are made for all, and become identified with natural law." Civilisation has created for man new wants, and these wants are relative to the social state he has made for himself. He has found It necessary to regulate by human laws the rights and duties appertaining to this state but, influenced by his passions, he has often created rights and duties that are merely imaginary, that are contrary to natural law, and that every nation effaces from its code in proportion as it progresses. Natural law is immutable and the same for all; human law is variable and progressive; It alone could consecrate, in the infancy of human societies, the right of the strongest. 796. Is not tile severity of penal legislation a necessity in the present state of society? "A depraved state of society requires severe laws, but your laws, unhappily, aim rather at punishing wrong doing when done, than at drying-up the fountain-head of wrong doing. It is only education that can reform mankind; when that is done, you will no longer require laws of the same severity." 797. How can the reform of human laws be brought about? "It will be brought about by the force of things, and by the influence of the men of greater advancement who lead the world onward in the path of progress. It has already reformed many abuses, and it will reform many more. Wait!" Influence of Spiritism on Progress. 798. Will Spiritism become the general belief, or will its acceptance remain confined to the few? "It will certainly become the general belief, and will mark a new era in the history of the human race, because it belongs to the natural order of things, and because the time has come for it to be ranked among the branches of human knowledge. It will nevertheless have to withstand a good many violent attacks-attacks that will be prompted rather by interest than by conviction, for 325 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK you must not lose sight of the fact that there are persons whose interest is to combat this belief, some from self-conceit, others from worldly considerations; but its opponents, finding themselves in a decreasing minority, will at length be obliged to rally to the general opinion, on pain of rendering themselves ridiculous." Ideas are only transformed in the long run, never suddenly. Erroneous ideas become weakened in the course of successive generations, and finish by disappearing, little by little, with those who professed them, and who are replaced by other individuals imbued with new ideas, as is the case in regard to political principles. Look at paganism: there is certainly no one, in our day, who professes the religious ideas of pagan times; and yet, for several centuries after the advent of Christianity, they left traces that could only be effaced by the complete renovation of the races who held them. It will be the same with Spiritism; it will make considerable progress, but there will remain, during two or three generations, a leaven of incredulity that only time will be able to destroy. Nevertheless, its progress will be more rapid than that of Christianity, because it is Christianity itself that opens the road for it. and furnishes its basis and support. Christianity had to destroy; Spiritism has only to build up. 799. In what way can Spiritism contribute to progress? "By destroying materialism, which is one of the sores of society, and thus making men understand where their true interest lies. The future life being no longer veiled by doubt, men will understand more clearly that they can insure the happiness of their future by their action in the present life. By destroying the prejudices of sects, castes, and colours, it teaches men the large solidarity that will, one day, unite them as brothers." 800. Is it not to be feared that Spiritism may fail to triumph over the carelessness of men and their attachment to material things? "To suppose that any cause could transform mankind as by enchantment would show a very superficial knowledge of human nature. Ideas are modified little by little, according to the differences of individual character, and several generations are needed for the complete effacing of old habits. The transformation of mankind can therefore only be effected in the course of time, gradually, and by the contagion of example. With each new generation, a part of the veil is melted away; Spiritism is come to dissipate it entirely. But, meantime, if it should do no more than cure a man of a single defect, it would have led him to take a step forward, and would thus have done him great good, for the taking of this first step will render all his subsequent steps easier.” 801. Why have not spirits taught, from the earliest times, what they are teaching at the present day? 326 ALLAN KARDEC "You do not teach to children what you teach to adults, and you do not give to a new-born babe the food which he could not digest; there is a time for all things. Spirits have taught many things that men have not understood or have perverted, but that they are now capable of understanding aright. Through their teaching in the past, however incomplete, they have prepared the ground to receive the seed which is now about to fructify." 802. Since Spiritism is to mark a progress on the part of tile human race, why do not spirits hasten this progress by manifestations so general and so patent as to carry conviction to the most incredulous? "You are always wanting miracles; but God sows miracles by handfuls under your feet, and yet you still have men who deny their existence. Did Christ Himself convince His contemporaries by the prodigies He accomplished? Do you not see men, at this day, denying the most evident of facts, though occurring under their very eyes? Have you not among you some who say that they would not believe, even though they saw? No; it is not by prodigies that God wills to bring men back to the truth; He wills, in His goodness, to leave to them the merit of convincing themselves through the exercise of their reason." 327 CHAPTER IX VIII. THE LAW OF EQUALITY 1. NATURAL EQUALITY - 2. INEQUALITY OF APTITUDES - 3. SOCIAL INEQUALITIES -4. INEQUALITY OF RICHES 5. TRIALS OF RICHES AND OF POVERTY - 6. EQUALITY OF RIGHTS OF MEN AND OF WOMEN -7. EQUALITY IN DEATH. Natural Equality 803. Are all men equal in the sight of God? "Yes, all tend towards the same goal; and God has made His laws for the equal good of all. You often say, 'The sun shines for all;' and, in saying this, you enunciate a truth much broader, and of more general application, than you think." All men are subjected to the action of the same natural laws. All are born in the same state of weakness, and are subject to the same sufferings; and the body of the rich is destroyed like that of the poor. God has not given to any man any natural superiority in regard either to birth or to death all are equal in His sight. Inequality of Aptitudes. 804. Why has God not given the same aptitudes to all men? "All spirits have been created equal by God; but some of them have lived more, and others less, and have consequently acquired more or less development in their past existences. The difference between them lies in their various degrees of experience, and in the training of their will, which constitutes their freedom, and in virtue of which some improve themselves more rapidly; hence the diversity of aptitudes that you see around you. This medley of aptitudes is necessary, in order that every man may concur in working out the designs of Providence, within the limits of the development of his physical and intellectual strength. What one cannot do, another does; and thus each contributes his share of usefulness to the general work. Besides, all the words of the universe being united by solidarity, it is necessary that the inhabitants of the higher worlds, most of which were created 328 ALLAN KARDEC before yours, should come and dwell in it, in order to set you an example." 805. Does a spirit, in passing from a higher world to a lower one, preserve, in their integrity, the faculties he had previously acquired? "Yes; we have already told you that a spirit who has progressed cannot again fall back. He may choose, in his spirit-state, a corporeal envelope more benumbing, or a position more precarious, than those he quits; but all this is so combined as to teach him some new lesson, and thus to aid his future progress." The diversity of human aptitudes is thus seen to be the result, not of any diversity in the creation of men, but of the various degrees of advancement attained to by the spirits who are incarnated in them. God, then, has not created the inequality of human faculties, but He has permitted spirits of different degrees of development to be thus brought into contact with each other, in order that the more forward may aid the more backward, and also in order that all men, having need of one another's help, may arrive at the practical comprehension of the law of charity that is destined to unite them. Social Inequalities. 806. Is the inequality of social conditions a law of nature? "No; it is the work of man, not of God." - Will this inequality eventually disappear? "Nothing is eternal but the laws of God. Do you not see that it is being effaced, little by little, every day? Your present inequalities will disappear with the disappearance of pride and selfishness; the only inequality that will remain is that of desert A day will come when the members of the great family of God will no longer regard themselves as being of blood more or less pure; they will know that it is only the spirit that is more or less pure, and that this does not depend on social position." 807. What is to be thought of those who abuse the superiority of their social position by oppressing the weak to their own profit? "They deserve to be anathematised! Sad will he their fate; for they will be oppressed in their turn, and they will be re-born into an existence in which they will endure all that they have caused to be endured." (684.) Inequality of Riches. 808. Is not the inequality of riches a result of the inequality of faculties, which gives to some persons more means of acquiring than are possessed by others? 329 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "Yes, and no. And knavery and robbery ? What do you say of them?" - But hereditary riches are not the fruit of evil passions? "How do you know that ? Go back to their source, and you will see whether it is always pure. How do you know whether they were not, in the beginning, the fruit of a spoliation or an injustice ? But, without speaking of their origin, which may have been bad, do you think that the hankering after wealth, even when most honestly acquired, the secret longings to possess it more quickly, are laudable sentiments? These are what God judges; and His judgement is often more severe than that of men." 809. If a fortune has been ill-gotten in the beginning, are those who subsequently inherit it responsible for this? "Most certainly they are not responsible for the wrong that may have been done by others, and of which they may be altogether ignorant; but you must understand that a fortune is often sent to such and such an individual for the sole purpose of giving him the opportunity of repairing an injustice. Happy for him if he comprehends this! If he does it in the name of him who committed the injustice, the reparation will be counted to both of them; for it is often the latter who has endeavoured to bring it about." 810. We may, without infringing legality, dispose of property more or less equitably Are we held responsible, after death, for the disposition we have made of it? "Every seed bears its fruit; the fruit of good deeds is sweet that of others is always bitter; always-remember that." 811. Is an absolute equality of riches possible? and has it ever existed? "No, it is not possible. The diversity of faculties and characters is opposed to it." - There are men, nevertheless, who believe it to be the remedy for all the ills of society. What do you think of them? "They are framers of systems, or moved by ambition and jealousy; they do not understand that the equality they dream of would be speedily broken up by the force of things. Combat selfishness, for that is your social pest; and do not run after chimeras." 812. If equality of riches be not possible, is it the same in regard to well-being? 33O ALLAN KARDEC "No; but well-being is relative, and every one might enjoy it if men had arrived at a good understanding among themselves. For true well-being consists in employing one's time according to one's bent, and not in work for which one has no liking; and as each has different aptitudes, no useful work would be left undone Equilibrium exists in everything; it is man who disturbs it." - Is it possible to arrive at this mutual understanding? "Men will arrive at it when they practise the law of justice." 813. There are men who fall into destitution and misery through their own fault; surely society is not responsible in such cases? "Yes; we have already said that society is often the primary cause of such failures; and besides, is it not the duty of society to watch over the moral education of all its members ? Society often perverts their judgement through a bad education, instead of correcting their evil tendencies." (685.) Trials of Riches an of Poverty 814. Why has Cod given wealth and power to some, and poverty to others? "In order to try them in different ways. Moreover, as you know, it is the spirits themselves who have selected those trials, under which they often succumb." 815. Which of the two kinds of trial, poverty or riches, is the most to be dreaded by man? "They are equally dangerous. Poverty excites murmurings against Providence; riches excite to all kinds of excesses." 816. If the rich man has more temptations to evil, has he not also more ample means of doing good? "That is precisely what he does not always do. He often becomes selfish, proud, and insatiable. His wants increase with his fortune, and he never thinks he has enough, even for himself." Worldly grandeur, and authority over our fellow-creatures, are trials as great and as slippery as misfortune: for the richer and more powerful we are, the more obligations we have to fulfil, and the greater are our means of doing both good and evil. God tries the poor through resignation, and the rich through the use he makes, of his wealth and power. Riches and power give birth to all the passions that attach us to matter, and keep us at a distance from spiritual perfection: this is why Jesus said that it is casier for a camel to pass through the needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. (266.) Equality of Rights of Men and of Women. 817. Are men and women equal in the sight of God, and have they the same rights?

331 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "Has not God given to them both the knowledge of good and evil, and the faculty of progressing?" 818. Whence comes the moral inferiority of women in some countries? "From the cruel and unjust supremacy which man has usurped over her. It is a result of social institutions, and of the abusive exercise of strength over weakness. Among men but little advanced morally, might is mistaken for right." 819. For what purpose is woman physically weaker than man? "In order that to her may be assigned certain special functions. Man is made for rough work, as being the stronger; woman, for gentler occupations; and both are differenced that they may aid each other in passing through the trials of a life full of bitterness." 820. Does not woman's physical weakness make her naturally dcpendent on man? "God has given strength to the one sex in order that it may protect the other, but not to reduce it to servitude." God has fitted the organisation of each being for the functions which it has to discharge. If God has given less physical strength to woman, He has, at the same time. endowed her with a greater amount of sensibility, in harmony with the delicacy of the maternal functions and the weakness of the beings confided to her care. 821. Are the functions to which woman is destined by nature. as important as those which are allotted to man? "Yes, and still more important; for it is she who gives him his first notions of life 822. All men being equals according to the law of God, ought they also to be such according to the law of men? "Such equality is the very first principle of justice. Do not unto others what you would not that others should do unto you." - In order to be perfectly just, ought legislation to proclaim an equality of rights between men and women? "Equality of rights, yes, but not of functions. Each should have a specified place. Let man busy himself with the outer side of life, and woman with its inner side; each sex according to its special aptitude. Human law, in order to be just, should proclaim the equality of rights of men and women. Every privilege accorded to either sex is contrary to justice. The emancipation of woman follows the progress of civilisation; her subjection is a condition of barbarism. The sexes, moreover, exist only through the physical organisation. Since spirits can assume that of either 332 ALLAN KARDEC sex, there is no difference between them in this respect, and them ought consequently to enjoy the same rights." Equality in Death. 823. Whence comes the desire of perpetuating one's memory by means of funeral monuments? "It is the last act of pride." - But is not the sumptuousness of funeral monuments more frequently due to the action of relatives desirous to honour the memory of the defunct, than to the defunct himself? "In such cases it is an act of pride on the part of relatives who desire to glorify themselves; for assuredly it is not always for the one who is dead that all these demonstrations are made, but rather to gratify their own vanity by making an impression on others, and to parade their wealth. Do you imagine that the remembrance of their loved ones is less durable in the hearts of the poor, because the latter have no flowers to lay upon their graves ? Do you imagine that marble can save from oblivion the name of him who has led a useless life upon the earth?" 824. Is funeral pomp blameable under all circumstances? "No; when displayed in honour of a noble life, it is just, and conveys a useful lessen." The grave is the place of; meeting for all men-the inevitable end of all human distinctions. It is in vain that the rich man seeks to perpetuate his memory by stately monuments; time will destroy them like his body nature has so willed it. The remembrance of his deeds, whether good Or bad, will be less perishable than his tomb; the pomp of his funeral will neither cleanse away his turpitudes nor raise him a single step on the ladder of the spirit-hierarchy. (320 et seq.) 333 CHAPTER X IX. THE LAW OF LIBERTY 1. NATURAL LIBERTY - 2. SLAVERY - 3. FREEDOM OF THOUGHT - 4. FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE - 5. FREE-WILL - 6. FATALITY -7. FOREKNOWLEDGE - 8.THEORETIC SUMMARY OF THE SPRINGS OF HUMAN ACTION. Natural Liberty 825. Are there any positions in life in which a man may flatter himself that he enjoys absolute freedom? "No, because all of you, the greatest as well as the least, have need of one another." 826. In what condition of life could a man enjoy absolute freedom? "That of a hermit in a desert. As soon as two men find themselves together, they have reciprocal rights and duties to respect, and are, therefore, no longer absolutely free." 827. Does the duty of respecting the rights of others deprive a man of the right of belonging to himself? "In nowise; for he holds that right from nature." 828. How can we reconcile the liberal opinions professed by some persons with the despotism they themselves sometimes exercise in their own houses, and among their subordinates? "Their intelligence is aware of the law of nature, but this perception is counterbalanced by their pride and selfishness. When their profession of liberal principles is not hypocrisy, they know what ought to be done, but do it not." - Will their profession of liberal principles, in the earthly life, be of any avail to such persons in the other life? "The more clearly a principle is understood by the intellect, the more inexcusable is the neglect to put it into practice. He who is sincere, though simple, is farther advanced on the divine road than he who tries to appear what he is not." 334 ALLAN KARDEC Slavery 829. Are any men intended by nature to be the property of other men? "The absolute subjection of any man to another man is contrary to the law of God. Slavery is an abuse of strength; it disappears with progress, gradually, as all other abuses will disappear." The human law which sanctions slavery is a law against nature, because it assimilates man to the brute, and degrades him physically and morally. 830. When slavery is already established in the habits of a people, are those who profit by that institution to blame for conforming to a usage which appears to them to be natural? "What is wrong is always wrong, and no amount of sophistry can change a bad deed into a good one; but the responsibility of wrong-doing is always proportional to the means of comprehending it possessed by the wrong-doer. He who profits by the institution of slavery is always guilty of a violation of natural law; but in this, as in everything else. the guilt is relative. Slavery having become rooted in the habits of certain peoples, men may have taken advantage of it without seeing it to be wrong, and as something which appeared to them altogether natural; but when their reason, more developed and enlightened by the teachings of Christianity, has shown them that their slave is their equal in the sight of God, they are no longer excusable." 831. Does not the inequality of natural aptitudes place some of the human races under the sway of other races of greater intelligence? "Yes, in order that the latter may raise them to a higher level, but not that they may brutify them still more by slavery. Men have too long regarded certain human races as workinganimals furnished with arms and hands, which they have believed themselves to have the right of using and selling like beasts of burden. They fancy themselves to be of purer blood; fools, who see only matter! It is not the blood that is more or less pure, but only the spirit." (361-803.) 832. There are men who treat their slaves humanely, who let them want for nothing, and who think that freedom would expose them to greater privations; what do you say of such persons? "I say that they have a better understanding of their own interests than those who treat them cruelly; they take the same care of their cattle and horses, in order to get a better price for 335 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK them at market. They are not so guilty as those who treat them badly, but they none the less treat them as merchandise, by depriving them of the right of belonging to themselves." Freedom of Thought. 833. Is there in man something that escapes constraint, and in regard to which he enjoys absolute liberty? "Yes, in his thought man enjoys unlimited freedom, for thought knows no obstacles. The action of thought may be hindered, but not annihilated." 834. Is man responsible for his thoughts? "He is responsible for them to God. God alone can take cognisance of thought, and condemns or absolves it according to His justice." Freedom of Conscience. 835. Is freedom of conscience the natural consequence of freedom of thought? "Conscience is an inner thought that belongs to man, like all his other thoughts." 836. Has man tile right to set up barriers against freedom of conscience? "No more than against freedom of thought, for God alone has the right to judge the conscience. If man, by his laws, regulates the relations between men and men, God, by the laws of nature, regulates the relations between men and God." 837. What is the effect of the hindrances opposed to freedom of conscience? "To constrain men to act otherwise than as they think, and thus to make hypocrites of them. Freedom of conscience is one of the characteristics of true. civilisation and of progress." 838. Is every honest belief to be respected, even when completely false? "Every belief is worthy of respect when it is sincere, and when it leads to the practice of goodness. Blameable beliefs are those which lead to the practice of evil." 839. Is it wrong to scandalise those whose belief is not the same as our own? 336 ALLAN KARDEC "To do so is to fail in charity, and to infringe on freedom of thought." 840. Is it an infringement of the freedom of conscience to place hindrances in the way of beliefs that are of a nature to cause social disturbance? "You can only repress action; belief is inaccessible." The repression of the external acts of a belief, when those acts are injurious to others is not an infringement of the freedom of conscience, for such repression leaves the belief itself entirely free. 841. Ought we, out of respect for freedom of conscience, to allow of the propagation of pernicious doctrines, or may we, without infringing upon that freedom, endeavour to bring back into the path of truth those who are led astray by false principles? "Most certainly you not only may, but should, do so; but only by following the example of Jesus, by employing gentleness and persuasion, and not by resorting to force, which would be worse than the false belief of those whom you desire to convince. Conviction cannot be imposed by violence." 842. All doctrines claiming to be the sole expression of the truth, by what signs can we recognise the one which has the best right to call itself such? "The truest doctrine will be the one which makes the fewest hypocrites and the greatest number of really virtuous people-that is to say, of people practising the law of charity in its greatest purity and in its widest application. It is by this sign that you may recognise a doctrine as true; for no doctrine, of which the tendency to make divisions and demarcations among the children of God, can be anything but false and pernicious." Free - Will 843. Has man freedom of action? "Since he has freedom of thought, he has freedom of action. Without free-will man would be a machine." 844. Does man posses freewill from his birth? "He possesses free-will from the moment when lie possesses the will to act. In the earliest portion of a lifetime free-will is almost null; it is developed and changes its object with the development of the faculties. The child, having thoughts in harmony with the wants of his age, applies his free-will to the things which belong to that age." 337 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK 845. Are not the instinctive predispositions that a man brings with him at birth an obstacle to the exercise of his free-will? "A man's instinctive predispositions are those which belonged to his spirit before his incarnation. If he is but little advanced, they may incite him to wrongdoing, in which he will be seconded by spirits who sympathise with that wrong-doing; but no incitement is irresistible when there is a determination to resist. remember that to will is to be able." (361.) 846. Has not our organism an influence on the acts of our life, and if so, does not this influence constitute an infringement of our free-will? "Spirits are certainly influenced by matter, which may hamper them in their manifestations. This is why, in worlds in which the body is less gross than upon the earth, the faculties act more freely; but the instrument does not give the faculty. In considering this question, you must also distinguish between moral faculties and intellectual faculties. If a man has the instinct of murder, it is assuredly his spirit that possesses this instinct, and not his organs. He who annihilates his thought, in order to occupy himself only with matter, becomes like the brute, and still worse, for he no longer endeavours to preserve himself from evil, and it is this which constitutes his culpability, because he does so of his own free-will." (See No.367 et seq., Influence of Organism.) 847. Does aberration of the mental faculties deprive man of free-will? “He whose intelligence is deranged by any cause whatever is no longer master of his thoughts, and thenceforth is no longer free. Mental aberration is often a punishment for the spirit who, in another existence, has been vain or haughty, or has made a bad use of his faculties. He may be re-born in the body of an idiot, as the despot may be re-born in the body of a slave, and the hard-hearted possessor of riches, in that of a beggar; but the spirit suffers from this constraint, of which he is fully conscious; and it is in this constraint that you see the action of matter." (371 et seq.) 848. Is the aberration of the mental faculties produced by drunkenness an excuse for the crimes committed in that state? "No; for the drunkard has voluntarily deprived himself of his reason in order to satisfy his brutish passions. He thus commits. not one crime, but two." 338 ALLAN KARDEC 849. What is the dominant faculty of man in the savage state? Is it instinct or free-will? "Instinct; which, however, does not prevent his acting with entire freedom in certain things; but, like the child he uses his freedom for the satisfaction of his needs, and obtains its development only through the development of his intelligence. Consequently, you, who are more enlightened than the savage, are more blameable than a savage if you do wrong." 850. Does not social position sometimes place obstacles in the way of free action? "Society has, undoubtedly, its exigencies. God is just, and takes everything into account; but He will hold you responsible for any lack of effort on your part to surmount such obstacles." Fatality. 851. Is there a fatality in the events of life, in the sense commonly attached to that word-that is to say, are the events of life ordained beforehand, and, if so, what becomes of freewill? "There is no other fatality than that which results from the determination of each spirit, on incarnating himself, to undergo such and such trials. By choosing those trials he makes for himself a sort of destiny which is the natural consequence of the situation in which he has chosen to place himself. I speak now of physical trials only: for, as regards moral trials and temptations, a spirit always preserves his freedom of choice between good and evil, and is always able to yield or to resist. A good spirit, seeing (1 man hesitate, may come to his aid, but cannot influence him to the extent of mastering his will. On the other hand, a bad spiritthat is to say, a spirit of inferior advancement, may trouble or alarm him by suggesting exaggerated apprehensions; but the will of the incarnated spirit retains, nevertheless, its entire freedom of choice." 852. There are persons who seem to be pursued by a fatality independent of their own action. Are not their misfortunes, in such cases, the result of predestination? "They may be trials which those persons are compelled to undergo because they have been chosen by them in the spirit-state; but you often set down to destiny what is only the consequence of your own faults Try to keep a clear conscience, and you will be consoled for the greater part of your afflictions. 339 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK The true or false view we take of the things about us causes us to succeed or to fail in our enterprises; but it seems to us more easy, and less humiliating to our self-love, to attribute our failures to fate, or to destiny, than to cur mistakes. If the influence of spirits sometimes contributes to our success, it is none the less true that we can always free ourselves from their influence, by repelling the ideas they suggest when they are calculated to mislead, us. 853. They are persons who escape one danger only to fall into another; it seems as though it had been impossible for them to escape death. Is there not a fatality in such cases? "There is nothing fatal, in the true meaning of the word, but the time of death. When that time has come, no matter under what form death presents itself, you cannot escape it." - If so, whatever danger may seem to threaten us, 'we shall not die if our hour has not come? "No, you will not be allowed to die-and of this you have thousands of examples; but when your hour has come, nothing can save you. God knows beforehand the manner in which each of you will quit your present life, and this is often known also to your spirit; for it is revealed to you when you make choice of such and such existence." 854. Does it follow, from the inevitability of the hour of death, that the precautions we take in view of apparent danger are useless? "No, for those precautions are suggested to you in order that you may avoid the dangers with which you are threatened. They are one of the means employed by Providence to prevent death from taking place prematurely." 855. What is the aim of providence in making us incur dangers that are to be without result? "When your life is imperilled, it is a warning which you yourself have desired, in order to turn you from evil, and to make you better. When you escape from such a peril, and while still feeling the emotion excited by the danger you had incurred, you think, more or less seriously, according to the degree in which you are influenced by the suggestions of good spirits, of amending your ways. The bad spirit returning to his former post of temptation (I say bad, in reference to the evil that is still in him), you flatter yourself that you will escape other dangers in the same way, and you again give free scope to your passions. By the dangers you incur, God reminds you of your weakness, and of the fragility of your existence. If you examine the cause and the nature of the peril you have escaped, you will see that in many cases its 340 ALLAN KARDEC consequences would have been the punishment of some fault you have committed, or of some duty you have neglected. God thus warns you to look into your hearts, and to pursue the work of your self-amendment." (526-532.) 856. Does a spirit know beforehand the kind of death to which he will succumb in the earthly life? "He knows that he has exposed himself by the life he has chosen to die in some particular manner rather than in another; but he also foresees the efforts he will have to make in order to avoid the danger, and he knows that, if God so permit, he will escape it." 857. There are men who brave the perils of the battlefield with the full persuasion that their hour is not come; is there any foundation for such confidence? "A man often has a presentiment of his end; he may, in the same way, have a presentiment that his time for dying has not yet come. These presentiments are due to the action of his spirit-protectors, who may 'wish to lead him to hold himself ready to go away, or to raise his courage in moments when he has especial need of it. They may also come to him from the intuition he has of the existence he has chosen, or of the mission he has accepted, and which he knows, as a spirit, that he has to fulfil." (411-522.) 858. How is it that those 'who have a presentiment of their death generally dread it less than others? "It is the man, and not spirit, who dreads death; he who has the presentiment of his death thinks of it rather as a spirit than as a man. He understands that it will be a deliverance, and awaits it calmly." 859. If death is inevitable when the time appointed for it has arrived, is it the same in regard to all the accidents that may happen to us in the course of our life? "They are often small enough to permit of our warning you against them, and sometimes of enabling you to avoid them by the direction we give to your thoughts, for we do not like physical suffering; but all this is of little importance to the life you have chosen. The true and sole fatality consists in the hour at which you have to appear in, and disappear from, the sphere of corporeal life." - Are there incidents which must necessarily occur in a life, and that spirits will not avert? 341 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "Yes, but those incidents you, in your spirit-state, foresaw when you made your choice. But, nevertheless, you must not suppose that everything which happens to you was 'written,' as people express it. An event is often the consequence of something you have done by an act of your free-will, so that, had you not done that thing, the event would not have taken place. If you burn your finger, it i~ not because such an incident was preordained, for it is a trifling inconvenience resulting from your own carelessness, and a consequence of the laws of matter. It is only the great sorrows, the events of serious importance and capable of influencing your moral state, that are foreordained by God, because they will be useful to your purification and instruction." 860. Can a man, by his will and his efforts, prevent events that were to have occurred from taking place, and vice-versa? "He can do so if this seeming deviation is compatible with the life he has chosen. And, in order to do good, which should be, and is, the sole end of life, he may prevent evil, especially that which might contribute to a still greater evil." 861. Did the man who commits a murder know, in choosing his existence, that he would become a murderer? "No; he knew that, by choosing a life of struggle, he incurred the risk of killing one of his fellow-creatures; but he did not know whether he would, or would not, do so; for there is, almost always, deliberation in the murderer's mind before committing the crime, and he who deliberates is, evidently, free to do or not to do. If a spirit knew beforehand that he would commit a murder, it would imply that he was predestined to commit that crime. No one is ever predestined to commit a crime; and every crime, like every other action, is always the result of determination and free-will. "You are all too apt to confound two things essentially distinct the events of material life, and the acts of moral life. If there is, sometimes, a sort of fatality, it is only in those events of your material life of which the cause is beyond your action, and independent of your will. A 5 to the acts of the moral life, they always emanate from the man himself, who, consequently, has always the freedom of choice; in those acts, therefore, there is never fatality." 342 ALLAN KARDEC 862. There are persons who never succeed in anything, and who seem to be pursued by an evil genius in all their undertakings; is there not, in such cases, something that may be called a fatality? "It is certainly a fatality, if you like to call it so, but it results from the choice of the kind of existence made by those persons in the spirit-state, because they desired to exercise their patience and resignation by a life of disappointment. But you must not suppose that this fatality is absolute, for it is often the consequence of a man's having taken a wrong path, one that is not adapted to his intelligence and aptitudes. He who tries to cross a river without knowing how to swim stands a very good chance of drowning; and the same may be said in regard to the greater part of the events of your life. If a man undertook only the things that are in harmony with his faculties, he would almost always succeed. What causes his failure is his conceit and ambition, which draw him out of his proper path, and make him mistake for a vocation what is only a desire to satisfy those passions. He fails, and through his own fault; but, instead of blaming himself, he prefers to accuse his 'star.' One who might have been a good workman, and earned his bread honourably in that capacity, prefers to make bad poetry, and dies of starvation. There would be a place for every one, if every one put himself in his right place." 863. Do not social habits often oblige a man to follow one road rather than another, and is not his choice of occupation often controlled by the opinion of those about him? Is not the sentiment which leads us to attach a certain amount of importance to the judgement of others an obstacle to the exercise of our free-will? "Social habits are made, not by God, but by men; if men submit to them, it is because it suits them to do so, and their submission is therefore an act of their free-will, since, if they wished to enfranchise themselves from those habits, they could do so. Why, then, do they complain ? It is not social habits that they should accuse, but their pride, which makes them prefer to starve rather than to derogate from what they consider to be their dignity. Nobody thanks them for this sacrifice to opinion, though God would take note of the sacrifice of their vanity. We do not mean to say that you should brave public opinion unnecessarily, like certain persons who possess more eccentricity than true philosophy: there is as much absurdity in causing yourself to be pointed at as an oddity, or stared at as a curious animal, as there is wisdom in

343 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK descending, voluntarily and unmurmuringly, when you are unable to maintain yourself at the top of the social ladder." 864. If there are persons to whom fate is unpropitious, there are others who seem to be favoured by fortune, for they succeed in everything they undertake. To what is this to be attributed? "In many cases, to their skilful management of their affairs; but it may also be a species of trial. People are often intoxicated by success; they put their trust in their destiny, and pay in the curl for their former successes by severe reverses, which greater prudence would have enabled them to avoid." 865. How can we account for the run of luck that sometimes favours people under circumstances with which neither the will nor the intelligence have anything to do; in games of hazard, for instance? "Certain spirits have chosen beforehand certain sorts of pleasure, the luck that favours them is a temptation. He who wins as a man often loses as a spirit; such kick is a trial for his vanity and his cupidity." 866. The fatality which seems to shape our material destinies is, then, a result of our free will? "You, yourself, have chosen your trial; the severer it is, and the better you bear it, the higher you do raise yourself. Those who pass their lives in the selfish enjoyment of plenty and of human happiness are cowardly spirits who remain stationary. Thus the number of those who are unfortunate is much greater, in your world, than of those who are fortunate, because spirits generally make choice of the trial that will be most useful to them. They see too clearly the futility of your grandeurs and your enjoyments. Besides, the most fortunate life is always more or less agitated, more or less troubled, if only by the absence of sorrow." (525 et seq.) 867. Whence conies the expressions "Born under a lucky star"? "From an old superstition that connected the stars with the destiny of each human being-a figure that some people are silly enough to take for literal truth." Foreknowledge. 868. Can the future be revealed to man? "As a rule, the future is hidden from him; it is only in rare and exceptional cases that God permits it to be revealed. 344 ALLAN KARDEC 869. Why is the future hidden from man? "If man knew the future, he would neglect the present, and would not act with the same freedom, because he would be swayed by the thought that, if such and such a thing is to happen, there is no need to occupy one's self about it; or else he would seek to prevent it. God has willed that it should not be thus, in order that each may concur in the accomplishment of the designs of Providence, even of those which he would desire to thwart; and thus you, yourselves, often prepare the way, without your knowing it, for the events that will occur in the course of your life." 870. Since it is useful that the future should be hidden, why does God sometimes permit it to be revealed? "Because in such cases this foreknowledge, instead of hindering the accomplishment of the thing that is to be, will facilitate it, by inducing the person to whom it is revealed to act in a different way from that in which he would otherwise have acted. And, besides, it is often a trial. The prospect of an event may awaken thoughts more or less virtuous. If a man becomes aware, for instance, that he will succeed to an inheritance which he had not expected, he may be tempted by a feeling of cupidity, by elation at the prospect of adding to his earthly pleasures, by a desire for the death of him to whose fortune he will succeed, in order that he may obtain possession of it more speedily; or, on the other hand, this prospect may awaken in him only good and generous thoughts. If the prediction be not fulfilled, it is another trial, viz., that of the way in which he will bear the disappointment; but he will none the less have acquired the merit or the blame of the good or bad thoughts awakened in him by his expectation of the event predicted." 871. Since God knows everything, He knows whether a 'nun will or will not fail in a given trial; where then is the use of this trial, since it can show God nothing that He does not already know in regard to that man? "You might as well ask why God did not create man accomplished, perfect (119); or why man has to pass through childhood before arriving at adult age (379). The aim of trial is not to enlighten God in regard to man's deserts, for God knows exactly what they are, but to leave to man the entire responsibility of his conduct, since he is free to do or not to do. Man having fret choice between good and evil, trial serves to bring him under the 345 THE SPIRITS' LOOK action of temptation, and thus to give him the merit of resistance, for God, though knowing beforehand whether he will triumph or succumb, cannot, being just, either reward or punish him other wise than according to the deeds he has done." (258.) The same principle is practically admitted among men. Whatever may be the qualifications of a candidate for any distinction, whatever may be our confidence of his success, no grade can be conferred on him without his having undergone the prescribed examination-that is to say, without his desert having been tested by trial, just as a judge only condemns the accused for the crime he has actually committed, and not on the presumption that he could or would commit such crime. The more we reflect on the consequences that would result from our knowledge of the future, the more clearly do we see the wisdom of Providence in hiding it from us. The certainty of our future good fortune would render us inactive that of coming misfortune would plunge us in discouragement in both cases our activities would be paralysed. For this reason, the future is only shown to man as end which he is to attain through his own efforts, but without knowing the sequence of events through which he will pass in attaining it. The foreknowledge of all the incidents of his journey would deprive him of his initiative and of the use of his freewill; he would let himself be drawn, passively, by the force of events, down the slope of circumstances, without any exercise of his faculties. When the success of a matter Is certain, we no longer busy ourselves about it. Theoretic Summary of the Springs of Human Action. 872. The question of free-will may be thus summed up: Man is not fatally led into evil; the acts he accomplishes are not written down beforehand; the crimes he commits are not the result of any decree of destiny. He may have chosen, as trial and as expiation, an existence in which, through the surroundings amidst which he is placed, or the circumstances that supervene, he will be tempted to do wrong; but he always remains free to do or not to do. Thus a spirit exercises free-will, in the spirit-life, by choosing his next existence and the kind of trials to which it will subject him, and, in the corporeal life, by using his power of yielding to, or resisting, the temptations to which he has voluntarily subjected himself. The duty of education is to combat the evil tendencies brought by the spirit into his new existence duty which it will only be able to thoroughly fulfil when it shall be based on a deeper and truer knowledge of man's moral nature. Through knowledge of the laws of this department of his nature education will be able to modify it, as it already modifies his intelligence by instruction, and his temperament by hygiene. Each spirit, when freed from matter, and in the state of erraticity, chooses his future corporeal existences according to the degree of purification to which he has already attained; and it is in the power of making this choice, as we have previously pointed out, that his free-will principally consists This free-will is not annulled by incarnation, 346 ALLAN KARDEC for, if the incarnated spirit yields to the influence of matter, it is always to the very trials previously chosen by him that he succumbs, and he is always free to invoke the assistance of God and of good spirits to help him to surmount them. (337.) Without free-will there would be for man neither guilt in doing wrong, nor merit in doing right-a principle so fully recognised in this life, that the world always apportions its blame or its praise of any deed to the intention-that is to say, to the will of the doer; and will is but another term for freedom. Man, therefore, could hot seek an excuse for his misdeeds in his organisation, without abdicating his reason and his condition as a human being, and assimilating himself to the condition of the brute. If he could do so in regard to what is wrong, he would have to do the same in regard to what is wrong, he would have to do the same in regard to what is right; but, whenever a man does what is right. he takes good care to claim the merit of his action, and never thinks of attributing that merit to his organs, which proves that he instinctively refuses to renounce, at the bidding of certain theory-builders, the most glorious privilege of his species, viz., freedom of thought. Fatality, as commonly understood, supposes an anterior and irrevocable ordaining of all the events of human life, whatever their degree of importance. If such were the order of things, man would be a machine, without a will of his own. Of what use would his intelligence be to him, seeing that he would be invariably overruled in all his acts by the power of destiny ? Such pre-ordination, if it took place, would be the destruction of all moral freedom; there would be no such thing as human responsibility, and consequently neither good nor evil, neither virtues nor crimes. God, being sovereignly just, could not chastise His creatures for faults which they had not the option of not committing, nor could He reward them for virtues which would constitute for them no merit. It would be, moreover, the negation of the law of progress; for, if man were thus dependent on fate, he would make no attempt to ameliorate his position, since his action would be both unnecessary and unavailing. On the other hand, fatality is not a mere empty word; it really exists in regard to the position occupied by each man upon the earth and the part which he plays in it, as a consequence of the kind of existence previously made choice of by his spirit, as trial, expiation, or mission, for, in virtue of that choice, he is necessarily 347 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK subjected to the vicissitudes of the existence he has chosen, and to all the tendencies, good or bad, inherent in it; but fatality ceases at this point, for it depends on his will to yield, or not to yield, to those tendencies. The details of events are subordinated to the circumstances to which man himself gives rise by his action, and in regard to which he may be influenced by the good or bad thoughts suggested to him by spirits. (459.) There is a fatality, then, in the events which occur independently of our action, because they are the consequence of the choice of our existence made by our spirit in the other life; but there can be no fatality in the results of those events, because we are often able to modify their results by our own prudence. There is no fatality in regard to the acts of our moral life. It is only in regard to his death that man is placed under the law of an absolute and inexorable fatality; for he can neither evade the decree which has fixed the term of his existence, nor avoid the kind of death which is destined to interrupt its course.¹ According to the common belief, man derives all his instincts from himself; they proceed either from his physical organisation, for which he is not responsible, or from his own nature, which would furnish him with an equally valid excuse for his imperfections, as, if such were the case, he might justly plead that it is through no option of his own that he has been made what he is. The doctrine of Spiritism is evidently more moral. It admits the plenitude of man's free-will, and, in telling him that, when he does wrong, he yields to an evil suggestion made by another spirit, it leaves him the entire responsibility of his wrong-doing, because it recognises his power of resisting that suggestion, which it is evidently more easy for him to do than it would be to fight against his own nature. Thus, according to spiritist doctrine, no temptation is irresistible. A man can always close his mental ear against the occult voice which addresses itself to his inner consciousness, just as he can close it against a human voice. He can always withdraw himself from the suggestions that would tempt him to evil, by exerting his will against the tempter; asking of God, at the same time, to give him the necessary strength, and calling on good spirits to help him in vanquishing the temptation. This view of the exciting cause of human action is the natural consequence of the totality of the teaching now being given from __________________________________________________________________________________________________ ¹In relation to suicide and its consequences, vide 957, and following commentaries. 348 ALLAN KARDEC the spirit-world. It is not only sublime in point of morality; it is also eminently fitted to enhance man's self-respect. For it shows him that he is as free to shake off the yoke of an oppressor, as lie is to close his house against unwelcome intrusion; that he is not a machine, set in motion by an impulsion independent of his will; that he is a reasoning being, with the power of listening to, weighing, and choosing freely between, two opposing counsels. Let us add that, while thus counselled, man is not deprived of the initiative of his action; what he does, he does of his own motion, because he is still a spirit, though incarnated in a corporeal envelope, and still preserves, as a man, the good and bad qualities he possessed as a spirit. The faults we commit have their original source, therefore, in the imperfection of our own spirit, which has not yet acquired the moral excellence it will acquire in course of time, but which, nevertheless, is in full possession of its free-will. Corporeal life is permitted to us for the purpose of purging our spirit of its imperfections through the trials to which we are thus subjected; and it is precisely those imperfections that weaken us and render us accessible to the suggestions of other imperfect spirits, who take advantage of our weakness in trying to make us fail in the fulfilment of the task we have imposed upon ourselves. If we issue victorious from the struggle, our spirit attains a higher grade; if we fail, our spirit remains as it was, no better and no worse, but with the unsuccessful attempt to be made over again: a repetition of the same trial that may retard our advancement for a very long period. But, in proportion as we effect our improvement, our weakness diminishes and we give less and less handle to those who would tempt us to evil; and as our moral strength constantly increases, bad spirits cease at length to act upon us. The totality of spirits, good and bad, constitute by their in-carnation the human race; and as our earth is one of the most backward worlds, more bad spirits than good ones are incarnated in it, and a general perversity is visible among mankind. Let us, then, do our utmost not to have to come back to it, but to merit admission into a world of higher degree; one of those happier worlds in which goodness reigns supreme, and in which we shall remember our sojourn in this lower world only as a period of exile. 349 CHAPTER XI X. THE LAW OF JUSTICE, OF LOVE, AND OF CHARITY 1. NATURAL RIGHTS AND JUSTICE - 2. RIGHT OF PROPERTY; ROBBERY - 3. CHARITY;LOVE OF THE NEIGHBOUR - 4. MATERNAL AND FILIAL AFFECTION. Natural Rights and Justice. 873. Is the sentiment of justice natural, or the result of acquired ideas? "It is so natural that your feeling spontaneously revolts at the idea of an injustice. Moral progress undoubtedly develops this sentiment, but it does not create it. God has placed it in the heart of man, and for this reason you often find, among simple and primitive people, notions of justice more exact than those of others who are possessed of a larger amount of knowledge." 874. If justice be a law of nature, how is it that men understand it so differently, and that the same thing appears just to one, and unjust to another? "It is because your passions often mingle with this sentiment and debase it, as they do with the greater part of the natural sentiments, causing you to see things from a false point of view. 875. How should justice be defined? "Justice consists in respect for the rights of others." - What determines those rights? "Two things: human law and natural law. Men having made laws in harmony with their character and habits, those laws have established rights that have varied with the progress of enlightenment. Your laws, at this day, though still far from perfect, no longer consecrate what were considered as rights in the Middle Ages; those rights, which appear to you monstrous, appeared just and natural at that epoch. The rights established by men are not, therefore, always conformable with justice; moreover, they only regulate certain social relations, while in private life there are an 350 ALLAN KARDEC immense number of acts that are submitted only to the tribunal of conscience." 876. Independently of the right established by human law, what is the basis of justice according to natural law? "Christ has told you: 'Do unto others whatsoever you would that others should do unto you.’ God has placed in the heart of man, as the true rule of all justice, the desire which each of you feels to see his own rights respected. When uncertain as to what he should do in regard to his fellow-creature in any given conjuncture, let each man ask himself what he would wish to have done to him-self under the same circumstances; God could not give him a safer guide than his own conscience." The true criterion of justice is, in fact, to desire for others what one would desire for one's self; not merely to desire for one's self what one would desire for others, which is not precisely the same thing. As it not natural to desire harm for one's self, we are sure, in taking our personal desires as the type of our conduct to wards our neighbours, never to desire anything but good for them. In ail ages and in all beliefs, man has always sought to enforce his personal rights; the sublime peculiarity of the Christian religion is its taking of personal right as the basis of the right of the neighbour. 877. Does the necessity of living in society impose any special obligations on mankind? "Yes, and the first of these is to respect the rights of others; he who respects those rights will always be just. In your world, where so many neglect to practise the law of justice, you have recourse to reprisals, and this causes trouble and confusion in human society. Social life gives rights and imposes corresponding duties." 878. It is possible for a man to be under an illusion as to the extent of his rights; what is there that can show him their true limit? "The limit of the right which he would recognise on the part of his neighbour towards himself under similar circumstances, and vice-versa." - But if each attributes to himself the rights of his fellow-creatures, what becomes of subordination to superiors? Would not such a principle be anarchical and destructive of all power? “Natural rights are the same for all men, from the smallest to the greatest; God has not fashioned some men from a finer clay than others, and all are equals in His sight. Natural rights are eternal; the rights which man has established perish with his institutions. But each man feels distinctly his strength or his weak- 351 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK ness, and will always be conscious of a sort of deference towards him whose wisdom or virtue entitles him to respect. It is important to mention this, in order that those who think themselves superior may know what are the duties that will give them a right to deference. There will be no insubordination when authority shall be attributed only to superior wisdom." 879. What would be the character of the man who should practise justice in all its purity? "He would be truly righteous, after the example of Jesus; for he would practise the love of the neighbour and charity, without which there can be no real justice." Right of Property - Robbery. 880. Which is the first of all the natural rights of man? "The right to live, and therefore no one has the right to take the life of his fellow-creature, or to do anything that may compromise his personal existence." 881. Does the right to live give to man the right to amass the means of living, in order that he may repose when no longer able to work? "Yes but he should do this in concert with his family. like the bee, by honest labour, and not by amassing in solitary selfishness. Certain animals, even, set man an example of this kind of fore-sight." 882. Has man the right to defend what he has amassed by his labours? "Has not God said, 'Thou shalt not steal?' and did not Jesus say: 'Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s?'" What a man has amassed by honest labour is a legitimate property that he has a right to defend for possession of the property which is the fruit of labour is a natural right as sacred as the right to labour or to live. 883. Is the desire to posses natural to man? "Yes; but when it is simply for himself, and for his personal satisfaction, it is selfishness." - But is not the desire to possess a legitimate one, since he who has enough to live upon is not a burden to others? "Some men are insatiable and accumulate without benefit to any one, merely to satisfy their passions. Do you suppose that this can be pleasing to God? He, on the contrary, who amasses through his labour, in order to have the means of assisting his 352 ALLAN KARDEC fellow-creatures, practises the law of love and of charity, and his labour receives the blessing of God." 884. What is the characteristic of legitimate property? "No property is legitimate unless acquired without injury to others." (808.) The law of love and of justice, forbidding us to do to others what we would not that others should do to us, implicitly condemns every means of acquiring which would be contrary to that law. 885. Is the right of property unlimited? "Everything that has been legitimately acquired is undoubtedly a property; but, as we have said, human legislation, being imperfect, frequently sets up conventional rights opposed to natural justice. For this reason, men reform their laws in proportion as progress is accomplished, and as they obtain a better notion of justice. What appears right in one century appears barbarous in another." (795). Charity and Love of the Neighbour. 886. What is the true meaning of the word charity as employed by Jesus? "Benevolence for every one, indulgence for the imperfections of others, forgiveness of injuries." Love and charity are the complement of the law of justice; for, to love our neighbour is to do him all the, good in our power, all that we should wish to have done to ourselves. Charity, according to Jesus, is not restricted to alms-giving, but embraces all our relations with our fellow-men whether our inferiors, our equals, or our superiors. It prescribes indulgence on our part, because we need the same ourselves; it forbids us to humiliate the unfortunate, as is too often done. How many, who are ready to lavish respect and attentions on the rich, appear to think it not worth their while to be civil to the poor; and yet, the more pitiable the situation of the latter, the more scrupulously should we refrain from adding humiliation to misfortune. He who is really kind endeavours to raise his inferior in his own estimation, by diminishing the distance between them. 887. Jesus has also said: Love your enemies. But would it not be contrary to our natural tendencies to love our enemies, and does not unfriendliness proceed from a want of sympathy between spirits? "It would certainly be impossible for a man to feel tender and ardent affection for his enemies; and Jesus did not intend to prescribe anything of the kind. To 'love your enemies' means to forgive them, and to return good for evil. By so doing, you become their superior; by vengeance, you place yourselves beneath them." 353 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK 888. What is to be thought of alms-giving? "To be reduced to beg degrades a man morally as well as physically; it brutifies him. In a state of society based on the law of God and justice, provision would be made for assisting the weak without humiliating. them; the means of living would be insured to all who are unable to work, so as not to leave their life at the mercy of chance and of individual good-will." - Do you blame alms-giving? "No; it is not the giving of alms that is reprehensible, but the way in which it is too often done. He who comprehends charity as inculcated by Jesus seeks out the needy, without waiting for the latter to hold out his hand." "True charity is always gentle as well as benevolent, for it consists as much in the manner of doing a kindness as in the deed itself. A service, if delicately rendered, has a double value; but if rendered with haughtiness, though want may compel its acceptance, the recipient's heart is not touched by it. "Remember, also, that ostentation destroys, in the sight of God, the merit of beneficence. Jesus has said: 'Let not your left hand know what your right hand does;' teaching you, by this injunction, not to tarnish charity by pride and vanity." "You must distinguish between alms-giving, properly so-called, and beneficence. The most necessitous is not always he who begs by the wayside. Many, who are really poor, are restrained from begging by the dread of humiliation, and suffer silently and in secret: he who is really humane seeks out this hidden misery, and relieves it without ostentation. "'Love one another;' such is the divine law by which God governs all the worlds of the universe. Love is the law of attraction for living and organised beings; attraction is the law of love for inorganic matter." "Never lose sight of the fact, that every spirit, whatever his degree of advancement, or his situation in reincarnation or in erraticity, is always placed between a superior who guides and improves him, and an inferior towards whom he has the same duties to fulfil. Be therefore charitable; not merely by the cold bestowal of a coin on the mendicant who ventures to beg it of you, but by seeking out the poverty that hides itself from view. Be indulgent for the defects of those about you; instead of despising the ignorant and the vicious, instruct them, and make them better; be gentle and benevolent to your inferiors; he the same for the 354 ALLAN KARDEC humblest creatures of the lower reigns; and you will have obeyed the law of God." SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL 889. Are there not men who are reduced to beggary through their own fault? "Undoubtedly there are; but if a sound moral education hadtaught them to practise the law of God, they would not have fallen into the excesses which have caused their ruin. It is mainly through the generalisation of such education that the improvement of your globe will be ultimately accomplished." (707.) Maternal and Filial Affection. 890. Is maternal affection a virtue, or is it an instinctive feeling common to men and to animals? "It is both. Nature has endowed the mother with the love of her offspring in order to ensure their preservation. Among the animals, maternal affection is limited to the supply of their material needs; it ceases when this care is no longer needed. In the human race, it lasts throughout life, and assumes a character of unselfish devotion that raises it to the rank of a virtue; it even survives death, and follows the career of the child from beyond the grave. You see, therefore, that there is in this affection, as it exists in man, something more than as it exists among the animals." (205-385.) 891. Since maternal affection is a natural sentiment, why is it that mothers often hate their children, and even, in some cases, before their birth? "The absence of maternal affection is sometimes a trial chosen by the spirit of the child, or an expiation for him if he have been a bad father, a bad mother, or a bad son, in some previous existence. In all cases, a bad mother can only be the incarnation of a bad spirit, who seeks to throw obstacles in the path of the child, in order to make him succumb in the trial he has chosen. But such a violation of the laws of nature will not remain unpunished, and the spirit of the child will be rewarded for surmounting the obstacles thus thrown in his way." 892. When parents have children who cause them sorrow, are they not excusable for not feeling for them the same tenderness they would have felt had their conduct been different?

355 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "No; for the training of their children is a task that has been confided to them, and their mission is to make every possible effort to bring them back into the right road. (582, 583). Besides, the sorrows of parents are often the consequence of the bad habits they have allowed their children to contract from the cradle; a reaping of the evil harvest of which they themselves have sown the seeds." 356 CHAPTER XII MORAL PERFECTlON 1. VIRTUES AND VICES - 2. THE PASSION - 3. SELFISHNESS - 4.CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VIRTUOUS MAN - SELF-KNOWLEDGE. Virtues and Vices. 893. Which is the most meritorious of all the virtues? "All virtues are meritorious, for all of them are signs of progress on the upward road. There is virtue in every act of voluntary resistance to the seductive influence of evil tendencies; but the sublimity of virtue consists in the sacrifice of self-interest to the good of others. The highest of all virtues is that which takes the form of the widest and most disinterested kindness." 894. There are persons who do good from a spontaneous impulse, without having to overcome any opposite feeling; is there as much merit in their action as in that of others who, in doing good, have to struggle with their own nature, and to surmount an opposing impulse? "Those who have no longer to struggle against selfishness are those who have already accomplished a certain amount of progress. They have struggled and triumphed in the past, and their generosity, therefore, no longer costs them any effort. To do good seems to them to be perfectly natural, because they have acquired the habit of kindness. They should be honoured as veterans, who have won their grades on the field of battle. "As you are still far from perfection, such persons strike you with astonishment, because their action contrasts so strongly with that of the rest of mankind, and you admire it in proportion to its rarity; hut you must know that what is the exception in your world is the rule in worlds of more advanced degree. In those worlds goodness is everywhere spontaneous, because they are inhabited only by good spirits, among whom even an evil intention would be considered as an exceptional monstrosity. It is this 357 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK general prevalence of goodness that constitutes the happiness of those worlds; it will be the same in your earth when the human race shall have been transformed, and shall rightly comprehend and practise the law of charity." 895. Besides the defects and vices in regard to which no one can be mistaken, what is the most characteristic sign of imperfection? "Selfishness. Virtuous appearances are too often like gilding upon copper, that cannot stand the application of the touchstone. A man may possess good qualities which make him pass in the eyes of the world for virtuous, but those qualities, though proving him to have made a certain amount of progress, may not be capable of standing trial, and the slightest disturbance of his self-love may suffice to show his real character. Absolute disinterestedness is indeed so rare a thing in your earth, that you may well regard it with wonder, as something phenomenal. "Attachment to material things is a sign of inferiority, because the more a man cares for the things of this world, the less does he understand his destiny; his disinterestedness, on the contrary, proves that he has arrived at a wider and clearer view of the future." 896. There are persons who are generous, but without discernment, and who lavish their money without doing any real good, from the want of a reasonable plan for its employment; is there any merit in their action? "Such persons have the merit of disinterestedness., but they have not that of the good they might do. If disinterestedness be a virtue, thoughtless prodigality is always, to say the least of it, a want of judgment. Fortune is. no more given to some persons to be thrown away than to others to be locked up in a safe; it is a deposit of which they will have to render an account, for they will have to answer for all the good they might have done, but failed to do, for all the tears they might have dried with the money they have wasted on those who had no need of it." 897. Is he to blame who does good, not with a view to obtaining any reward upon the earth, but in the hope that he will be rewarded for it in the other life, and that his situation there will be the better for having done it? and will such a calculation act unfavourably on his advancement? 358 ALLAN KARDEC "You should do good from charity-that is to say, disinterestedly. - But it is very natural that we should desire to advance, in order to emerge from. so painful a. state as our present life; spirits themselves tell us that we should practise rectitude in order to attain this cud. Is it wrong, then, to hope that, through doing good, we way be better off than we are upon the earth? "Certainly not; but he who does good spontaneously, without even thinking of its result; for himself, and simply for the sake of pleasing God and relieving his suffering neighbour, has already reached a higher degree of advancement, and is nearer to the summit of happiness, than his brother who, more selfish, does good from calculation, instead of being impelled to it solely by the sentiment of charity already naturalised in his heart." (894.) - Should not a distinction be made between the good we do to our neighbour and the care we give to correcting our own defects? We can understand that there is but little merit in doing good with the idea that it will be counted to us ii' the other life; but is it also a sign of inferiority to amend ourselves, to conquer our passions, to correct whatever is faulty in our disposition, in the hope of bringing ourselves nearer to spirits of higher degree, and of raising ourselves to a higher position in the spirit-world? "No, no; by 'doing good' we merely meant being charitable. He who calculates, in every charitable deed he does, how much interest it will pay him, in the present life or in the next one, acts selfishly; but there is no selfishness in working out one’s own improvement in the hope of bringing one's self nearer to God, which should be the aim of every effort." 898. The corporeal life being only a temporary sojourn in a bluer state of existence, and our future life being therefore what we should mainly care for, is there any use in trying to acquire scientific knowledge that only bears upon the objects and wants of corporeal life? "Undoubtedly there is, for such knowledge enables you to benefit your brethren; and beside';, your spirit, if it have already progressed in intelligence, will ascend more rapidly in the other life, and will learn in an hour what it would take you years to learn upon the earth. No kind of knowledge is useless; all knowledge contributes more or less to your advancement, because the perfected spirit must know everything, and because progress has to 359 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK be made in every direction, so that all acquired ideas help forward his development." 899. Of two men, equally rich, and both of whom employ their wealth solely for their personal satisfaction, but one of whom was born in opulence and has never known want, while the other owes his fortune to his labour, which is the more culpable? "He who has known what it is to want, for he has felt the suffering which he does not relieve." 900. Can he who constantly accumulates, without doing good to any one, find an excuse in the fact that he will thus leave t larger fortune to his heirs? "Such an excuse would only be a compromise with a bad conscience. 901. Of two miserly men, one denies himself the necessaries of life, and dies of want in the midst of his treasure; the other is stingy in regard to others, but is lavish in his outlay for himself, and, while he recoils from making the smallest sacrifice to render a service to his neighbour, or to subserve a noble cause, is regard less of expense in the gratification of his tastes or passions. If a kindness is asked of him, he is always short of funds; but, for the satisfying of any fancy of his own, he has always plenty of money. Which of them is the more guilty of the two, and which of them will be the worse off in the spirit-word? "He who spends on his own enjoyment, for he is more selfish than miserly. The other is already undergoing a part of his punishment." 902. Is it wrong to desire riches as a means of doing good? "Such a desire is laudable when it is pure; but is it always quite disinterested, and does it, never cover any secret thought of self ? Is not the first person to whom one wishes to do good too often one's self?" 903. Is it wrong to study other people's defects? "To do so merely for the sake of criticising or divulging them is very wrong, for it is a want of charity. To do so with a view to your own benefit, through your consequent avoidance of those defects in your own person, may sometimes be useful; but you must not forget that indulgence for the faults of others is one of the elements of charity. Before reproaching others with their imperfections, you should see whether others might not reproach 360 ALLAN KARDEC you with the same defects. The only way to profit by such a critical examination of your neighbour's faults is by endeavouring to acquire the opposite virtues. Is he miserly ? Be generous. Is he proud ? Be humble and modest. Is he harsh ? Be gentle. Is he shabby and petty? Be great in all you do. In a word, act in such a way as that it may not be said of you, in the words of Jesus, that you 'see the mote in your brother's eye, but do not see the beam in your own eye.'" 904. Is it wrong to probe the sores of society for the purpose of rendering them evident? "That depends on the motive from which it is done. If a writer's only object be to create a scandal, it is a procuring of a personal satisfaction for himself by the presentation of pictures that are corrupting rather than instructive. The mind necessarily perceives the evils of society, but the observer who takes pleasure in portraying evil for its own sake will be punished for doing so." - How can we judge, in such a case, of the purity of intention and the sincerity of an author? "It is not always necessary to do so. If he writes good things, profit by them; if bad ones, it is a question of conscience that concerns himself. But if he desires to prove his sincerity, he must do so by the excellence of his own example." 905. There are books that are very fine, full of moral teachings front which, though they have aided the progress of the human race, their authors have not derived much moral profit. Will the good those authors have done by their writings be counted to them as spirits? "The principles of morality, without a corresponding practice, are the seed without the sowing. Of what use is the seed, if you do not make it fructify and feed you? Such men are all the more guilty, because they possess the intelligence which enables them to comprehend. By not practising the virtues they recommend to others, they fail to secure the harvest they might have reaped for themselves." 906. Is it wrong for him who does good to be conscious of the goodness of his deed, and to acknowledge that goodness to himself? "Since a man is conscious of the evil he does, he must also be conscious of the good he accomplishes; it is only by this testimony of his conscience that he can know whether he has done ill or well. It is 361 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK by weighing all his actions in the scales of God's law, and especially of the law of justice, love, and charity, that he can decide whether they are good or bad, and can thus approve or disapprove of them. It cannot, therefore, be wrong in him to recognise the fact that he has triumphed over his evil tendencies, and to rejoice in having done so, provided he does not make this recognition a subject of vanity, for, in that case, he would be giving way to a tendency as reprehensible as any of those over which he has triumph." (919.) The Passions. 907. As our passions have their roots in nature, are they evil in themselves? "No; it is only their excess that is evil, for excess implies a perversion of the will. But the principle of all his passions has been given to man for his good, and they may all spur him on to the accomplishment of great things. It is only their abuse that does harm." 908. How can we define the limit at which the passions cease to be good or bad? "The passions are like a horse that is useful when under control, but dangerous when it obtains the mastery. A passion becomes pernicious the moment when you cease to govern it, and when it causes an injury to yourselves or to others." The passions are levers that Increase man's powers tenfold, and aid him in the accomplishment of the designs of Providence but if, instead of ruling them, he allows himself to be ruled by them, he falls into every sort of excess, and the same force which, held well in hand, would have been useful to him, falls upon and crushes him. All the passions have their source in a natural sentiment or a natural want. They are therefore not evil in themselves, since they constitute one of the providentially-appointed conditions of our existence. what is usually meant by "passion" is the exaggeration of a need or a sentiment. But this exaggeration Is the excessive action of a motive-power, and not the power Itself; it is this excessive action which becomes an evil, and leads to evil consequences of every kind. Every passion that brings man nearer to the nature of the animals takes him further from the spiritual nature. Every sentiment that raises man above the nature of the animals is evidence of the predominance of his spiritual nature over his animal nature and brings him nearer to perfection. 909. Would a man's own efforts always suffice to enable him to vanquish his evil tendencies? "Yes, very slight ones are often all that is needed; it is the will that is wanting. Alas! how few of you make any serious efforts to vanquish those tendencies!" 362 ALLAN KARDEC 910. Can a man obtain efficacious help from spirits in overcoming his passions? "If he addresses a sincere prayer f('r such help to God and to his good Genius, good spirits will certainly come to his aid, for it is their mission to do so." (459.) 911. Is not the action of the passions sometimes so violent that the will is powerless to withstand them? "There are many who say 'I will,' but whose willing is only on their lips, and who are not sorry that what they declare themselves to will does not take place. When a man is unable to vanquish his passions, it is because, through the backwardness of his spirit. he takes pleasure in yielding to them. He who controls his passions comprehends his spiritual nature; he knows that every victory over then is a triumph of his spirit over matter." 912. What is the most efficacious means of combating the Predominance of the corporeal nature? "The practice of abnegation." Selfishness. 913. Which, among the vices, may be regarded as the root of the others? "Selfishness, as we have repeatedly told you; for it is from selfishness that everything evil proceeds. Study all the vices, and you will see that selfishness is at the bottom of them all. Combat them as you will, you will never succeed in extirpating them until. attacking the evil in its root, you have destroyed the selfishness which is their cause. Let all your efforts tend to this end; for selfishness is the veritable social gangrene. Whoever would make, even in his earthly life, some approach towards moral excellence, must root out every selfish feeling from his heart, for selfishness is incompatible with justice, love, and charity; it neutralises every good quality." 914. Selfishness having its root in the sentiment of personal interest, it would seem that, to extirpate pate it entirely from the human heart, must be a very difficult matter. Is it possible to do so? "In proportion as men become enlightened in regard to spiritual things, they attach less value to material things; and as they emancipate themselves from the thraldom of matter, they reform the human institutions by which selfishment is fostered and excited. Such should be the aim of education." 363 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK 915. Selfishness being inherent in the human race, will it not always constitute an obstacle to the reign of perfect goodness upon the earth? "It is certain that selfishness is your greatest evil; but it belongs to the inferiority of the spirits incarnated upon the earth, and not to the human race as such, and consequently, those spirits, in purifying themselves by successive incarnations. get rid of their selfishness as they do of their other impurities. Have you, upon the earth. none who have divested themselves of selfishness, and who practise charity ? There are more of such than you think, but they are little known, for virtue does not seek to display itself in the glare of popularity. If there is one such among you, why should there not be ten ? if there are ten. why should there not be. a thousand? and so on." 916. Selfishness, so far from diminishing, increases with the civilisation that seems to strengthen and intensify it; how can the effect be destroyed by the cause? "The greater the development of an evil, the more hideous is it seen to be. It was necessary for selfishness to do a vast amount of harm, in order that you might see the necessity of extirpating it. When men shall have divested themselves of selfishness, they will live like brothers, doing each other no harm, but mutually aiding each other from a sentiment of solidarity. The strong will then be the support, and not the oppressor, of the weak; and none will lack the necessaries of life, because the law of justice will be obeyed by all. It is of this reign of justice that spirits are now charged to prepare the advent." 917. By what means can selfishness be destroyed? "Of all human imperfections, the most difficult to root out is selfishness, because it is connected with the influence of matter, from which man, still too near his origin, has not yet been able to enfranchise himself, and which his laws, his social organisation, his education, all tend to maintain. Selfishness will be gradually weakened as your moral life obtains predominance ever your material life. through the knowledge which Spiritism gives you of the reality of your future state, stripped of allegoric fables. Spiritism. when it comes to be rightly understood, and identified with the beliefs and habits of the human race, will transform all your customs, usages, and social relations. Selfishness is based on the importance you attribute to your own personality; Spiritism, 364 ALLAN KARDEC on the contrary, when rightly understood, causes you to look at everything from a point of view so elevated that the sentiment of personality is lost, so to say, in the contemplation of immensity. In destroying the sentiment of self-importance, by showing its real nature, Spiritism necessarily combats selfishness. "Man is often rendered selfish by his experience of the selfishness of others, which makes him feel the need of defending himself against them. Seeing that others think of themselves and not of him, he is led to think of himself rather than of others. But let the principle of charity and fraternity become the basis of social institutions, of the legal relations between nation and nation and between man and man, and each individual will think less of his own personal interests, because he will see that these have been thought of by others; he will experience the moralising influence of example and of contact. Amidst the present overflow of selfishness, much virtue is needed to enable a man to sacrifice his own interests for the sake of others, who often feel but little gratitude for such abnegation; but it is above all to those who possess this virtue that the Kingdom of Heaven is opened, and the happiness of the elect assured: while, at the day of judgement, whoever has thought only of himself will be set aside, and left to suffer from his loneliness." (785.) (FÉNÉLON.) Laudable efforts are made to help forward the progress of the human race; the generous sentiments are encouraged, stimulated, honoured, more than has been the case at any former epoch, and yet the devouring worm of selfishness is still the pest and torment of society. It is a social disease that affects every one, and of which every one is more or less the victim it should therefore be combated as we combat any other epidemic. To this end we must proceed as does the physician, and begin by tracing the malady to its source. We should seek out, in every department of the social fabric, from the relationships of the family to those of nations, from the cottage to the palace, all the causes, all the influences, patent or secret, that maintain and develop selfishness The causes of the malady being discovered, the remedy Will spontaneously present itself, and through the efforts of all, directed to a common end, the virus will gradually be extirpated. The cure may be slow, for the causes of the malady are many, but it is not impossible. It can only be effected, however, by going to the root of the evil, that is to say, by generalising education ; not the education which merely advances men in knowledge, but that witch improves them morally. Education, rightly understood, is the key of moral progress, when the art of training the moral nature shall be understood as is the art of training the intellect, it will be possible to straighten a crooked nature as we straighten a crooked sapling. But this art demands much tact, much experience, and profound observation; it Is a great mistake to suppose that the possession of scientific knowledge suffices to enable the teacher to exercise it with success. whoever observes the life of a child, whether rich or poor, and notes all the pernicious influences that act upon its weakness from the moment of its birth, the ignorance and negligence of those who have charge of it, and the mischievous tendency of many of the means employed with a view to moralise it, will not wonder that the world should be so full if crooked sticks. But let the same skill and care be given to the training of the moral nature as to that of the intellect, and it will be seen that, even should some natures 365 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK prove refractory, the greater number only need to be suitably cultivated in order to yield good fruit. (872.) Man desires to be happy, and this desire. implanted in him by nature, prompts him to labour unceasingly to improve his condition upon the earth. and to seek out causes of the evils that afflict him, in order to remove them, when he toughly comprehends that selfishness Is one of those causes, that it engenders the pride, ambition, cupidity, envy, hatred, jealousy. by which he is continually annoyed, that it brings trouble into all the social relations, provokes dissensions, destroys confidence, converts friends into foes, and obliges each individual to remain constantly on the defensive against his neighbour, he will see that this vice is incompatible, not only with his own felicity, but even with his own security ; and the more he has suffered from it, the more keenly will he feel the necessity of fighting against it, as he fights against pestilence, dangerous animals, and every other source of disaster, for he will be compelled to do so in view of his own interest. (784.) Selfishness is the source of all the vices, as charity is the source of all the virtues. To destroy the one, to develop the other, should be the aim of all who desire to insure their own happiness, in the present life, as in the future. Characteristics of the Virtuous Man. 918. By what signs can we recognise a man as having accomplished the progress that will raise him in the spirit-hierarchy? "The elevation of an incarnated spirit is proved by the conformity of all the acts of his corporeal life with the law of God, and by his comprehension of spiritual life." The truly virtuous man is he who practises the law of justice, love, and charity, in its greatest purity. If he interrogates his conscience in regard to the acts accomplished by him. he will ask himself whether he has done nothing wrong, whether he has done all the good in his power, whether no one has cause to complain of him, and whether he has done to others all that he would wish others to do to him. Being filled with the sentiment of charity and kindness for all, he does good for its own sake, without hope of reward. and sacrifices his own interest to justice. He is kind, benevolent, humane, for all, because he sees a brother in every man, whatever his race or his belief. If God has given him power and riches, he considers them as A TRUST confided to him for the general good; he Is not vain of them, for he knows that God. who has given them to him, can take them from him. If the constitution of society has made other men dependent on him, he treats them with kindness and benevolence, as being his equals in the sight of God; he uses his authority to raise them morally, and not to crush them by his pride. He is indulgent for the weaknesses of others, knowing that he too needs indulgence, and remembering the Words of Christ, “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone." He is not vindictive, but remembers only benefits; following the example of Jesus, he forgives all offences, for he knows that he will only obtain forgiveness in proportion as he has forgiven. He respects the rights of others, as established by the law of nature, as scrupulously as he desires those rights to be respected in his own case. Self - Knowledge. 919. What is the most efficacious method of ensuring one's own moral improvement in the present life, and resisting the attraction of evil? "One of the sages of antiquity has told you: 'Know thyself.' " 366 ALLAN KARDEC - We fully admit the wisdom of the maxim; but this self-knowledge is just what it is most difficult to acquire. By what means can we acquire it? "Do what I myself used to do during my life upon the earth. At the close of each day I examined my conscience, reviewed all that I had done, and asked myself whether I had not failed in some duty, whether some one might not have reason to complain of me. It was in this way that I succeeded in obtaining a know-ledge of myself, and in ascertaining what there was in me that needed reforming. He who, every evening, should thus recall all the actions of the day, asking himself whether he has done ill or well, and praying God and his guardian angel to en-lighten him would acquire great strength for self-improvement, for, believe me, God would assist him. Ask yourself these questions; inquire of yourself what you have done, and what was your aim in such and such a manner; whether you have done anything that you would blame in another; whether you have done anything that you would be ashamed to avow. Ask yourself also this question -'If it pleased God to call me back, at this moment, into the other life, should I, on returning into the world of spirits, in which nothing is hidden, have to dread the sight of any one? Examine what you may have done, first, against God; next, against your neighbour; and lastly, against yourself. The answers to these questions will either give repose to your conscience, or show you some moral malady of which you will have to cure yourself. "Self-knowledge is, therefore, the key to individual improvement; but, you will ask, 'How is one to judge one's self? Is not each man subject to the illusions of self-love, which diminish his faults in his own eyes and find excuses for them? The miser thinks himself to be merely practising economy and foresight; the proud man thinks his pride to be only dignity.' This is true, but you have a means of ascertainment that cannot deceive you. When you are in doubt as to the quality of any one of your actions, ask yourself what would be your judgement in regard to it if it were done by another? If you would blame it in another, it cannot be less blameable when done by you, for God's justice has neither two weights nor two measures. Endeavour also to learn what is thought of it by others; and do not overlook the opinion of your enemies, for they have no interest in disguising the truth, and God often places them beside you as a mirror, to warn you more frankly

367 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK than would be done by a friend. Let him, then, who is firmly resolved on self-improvement examine his conscience in order to root out his evil tendencies, as he roots out the weeds from his garden; let him every night. cast up his moral accounts for the day, as the tradesman counts tip his profit and loss; he may be sure that the former will be a more profitable operation than the latter. He who, after this footing tip of his day's doings, can say that the balance of the account; is in his favour, may sleep in peace, and fearlessly await the moment of his awaking in the other life. "Let the questions you address to us be clear and precise, and do not hesitate to multiply them; you may well devote a few minutes to the securing of a happiness that will last for ever. Do you not labour every day with a view to insuring repose for your old age ? Is not this repose the object of your desires, the aim that prompts your endurance of the fatigues and privations of the moment ? But what comparison is there between a few days of rest, impaired by the infirmities of the body, and the endless rest that awaits the virtuous ? and is not this latter worth the making of a few efforts ? I know that many will say, 'The present is certain, and the future uncertain ;' but this is precisely the error we are charged to remove from your minds, by showing you your future in such a way as to leave no doubt in your minds concerning it. This is why, having begun by producing phenomena calculated to arrest your attention through their appeal to your senses, we now give you the moral teachings that each of you is charged t6 spread abroad in his turn. It is to this end that we have dictated The Spirit's Book." SAINT AUGUSTINE 368 FOURTH BOOK - HOPES AND CONSOLATIONS CHAPTER I EARTHLY JOYS AND SORROWS 1. HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS - 2. LOSS OF THOSE WE DEATH - 3. WEARINESS OF LIFE; SUICIDE. AFFECTIONS - 4. ANTIPATHETIC UNIONS - 5. FEAR OF LOVE - 6. DISAPPOINTMENTS; INGRATITUDE; BLIGHTED Happiness and Unhappiness. 920. Is it possible for man to enjoy perfect happiness upon the earth? "No; for corporeal life has been appointed to him either as a trial or an expiation; but it depends upon himself to lighten the evils of his lot, and to render it as happy as life can be upon the earth." 921. We can conceive that man will be happy upon the earth when the human race shall have been transformed; but, meanwhile, is it possible for each man to ensure for himself a moderate amount of happiness? "Man is more often the artisan of his own unhappiness. If he obeyed the law of God, he would not only spare himself much sorrow, but would also procure for himself all the felicity that is compatible with the grossness of earthly existence." He who is perfectly sure that the future life is a reality regards his corporeal life as being merely a traveller's momentary halt in a wayside inn, and easily consoles himself for the passing annoyances of a journey which is bringing him to a new and happier position, that will be all the more satisfactory in proportion to the completeness of the preparations he has made for entering upon it. We are punished, even in the present life, for our infraction of the laws of corporeal existence, by the sufferings which are the result of that infraction and of our own excesses. If we trace what we call our earthly ills back to their origin, we shall find them to be, for the most part, the result of a first deviation from the straight road. This deviation caused us to enter upon a wrong path, and each subsequent step brought us more and more deeply into trouble. 922. Earthly happiness is relative to the position of each person; what suffices for the happiness of one would be misfortune for 369 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK another. Is there, nevertheless, a common standard of happiness for all men? "As regards material existence, it is the possession of the necessaries of life; as regards moral existence, it is a good conscience and the belief in a future state." 923. Does not that which is a superfluity for one become a necessary of life for another and vice versa, according to differences of position? "Yes, according to your material ideas, your prejudices, your ambition, and all your absurd notions that you will gradually get rid of as you come to understand the truth of things. Undoubtedly, he who, having possessed an income of thousands, becomes reduced to as many hundreds, looks upon himself as being very unfortunate, because he can no longer cut so great a figure in the world, maintain what he calls his rank, keep horses, carriages, and lackeys, and gratify all his tastes and passions. He appears to himself to lack the very necessaries of life; but is he really so much to be pitied while, beside him, so many others are dying of cold and hunger, and have not even where to lay their head? He who is wise compares himself with what is below him, never with what is above him, unless it be to raise his soul towards the Infinite." (715.) 924. There are misfortunes which come upon men independently of their own conduct, and that befall even the most upright. Is there no way of preserving one's self from them ? "Such misfortunes must be borne with resignation and without murmuring, if you would progress; but you may always derive consolation from the hope of a happier future, provided you do what is needed to obtain it." 925. Why does God so often bestow the gifts of fortune on men who do not appear to have deserved such a favour? "Wealth appears to be a favour to those who see only the present, but you must remember that fortune is often a more dangerous trial than poverty." (814 et seq.) 926. Does not civilisation, by creating new wants, become the source of new afflictions? "The ills, of your world are proportional to the factitious wants that you create for yourselves. He who is able to set bounds to his desires, and to see without envy what is above him, spares 370 ALLAN KARDEC himself many of the disappointments of the earthly life. The richest of men is he who has the fewest needs. "You envy the enjoyments of those who appear to you to be the favourites of fortune, but do you know what is in store for so many of them ? If they use their wealth only for themselves, they are selfish, and, in that case, a terrible reverse awaits them. Instead of envying, you should pity them. God sometimes permits the wicked to prosper, but his prosperity is, not to be envied, for he will pay for it with weeping and gnashing of teeth. If a righteous man undergoes misfortune, it is a trial from which, being bravely borne, he will reap a rich reward. Remember the words of Jesus: 'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.'" 927. Superfluities are certainly not indispensable to happiness, but it is otherwise in regard to the necessaries of life. Is it not, then, really a misfortune to be deprived of these? "A man is really unfortunate only when deprived of what is necessary to life and to bodily health. If this privation be the result of his own misconduct, he has only himself to blame for it; if it be the fault of others, a heavy responsibility will rest with those who have caused it." 928. By our special aptitudes, God evidently shows to each of us our special vocation. Are not many of the ills of life attributable to our not following that vocation? "Yes. It often happens that parents, through pride or avarice, force their children from the path traced out for them by nature; but they will be held responsible for the results of this misdirection." - You would then approve of the son of some high personage making himself a cobbler, for instance, if he were endowed with a natural aptitude for cobbling? "You must not go off into absurdities and exaggerations. Civilisation has its necessities. Why should the son of a man occupying a high position make himself a cobbler, if able to do something more important? Such an one might always make himself useful, according to the measure of his faculties, without running counter to common sense. For instance, if he were not fitted to make a good lawyer, he might be a good engineer, a mechanician, etc." The placing of people in positions for which they are naturally unfit is assuredly one of the most frequent causes of failure and disappointment. 371 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK Want of aptitude for the career on which one has entered is an inexhaustible source of reverses; and as he who has thus failed in one career in often prevented by pride front seeking a resource in some humbler avocation, he is often tempted to commit suicide in order to escape what he regards as a humiliation: whereas, if a sound moral education had raised him above the stupid prejudices of pride, he would have been at no loss to obtain the means of subsistence. 929. There are persons who, being utterly without resources, though surrounded by abundance, have no other prospect than starvation. What course should they take under such circumstances? Ought they to allow themselves to die of hunger? "No one should ever admit into his mind the idea of allowing himself to die of hunger; a man could always find the means of obtaining food if pride did not interpose itself between want and work. It has often been said that 'No work is dishonourable it honestly done;' but this is one of the aphorisms that each man is more prompt to apply to his neighbour than to himself." 930. It is evident that, were it not for the social prejudices by which we allow ourselves to be swayed, a man would always be able to find some sort of work that would enable him to gain a living, even though he thus took a humbler position; but among those who have no such prejudices, or who put them aside, are there not some who are really unable to provide for their wants, through illness, or through other circumstances independent of their will? "In a society organised according to the law of Christ, no one would die of hunger." Were society organised with wisdom and forethought, no one could lack the necessaries of life unless through his own fault ; but a man's faults themselves are often the result of the circumstances in which he finds himself placed. When men shall have advanced sufficiently to practise the law of God, they will not only be better intrinsically and as individuals, but will organise their social relations on a basis of justice and charity. (793) 931. Why is it that, in our world, the classes that suffer are so much more numerous than those that are prosperous? "None of you are perfectly happy, and what the world regards as prosperity often hides the most poignant sorrows. Suffering is everywhere. However, by way of replying to the thought which prompted your question, I answer, that what you call the suffering classes are the most numerous, because the earth is a place of expiation. When mankind shall have made it the sojourn of goodness and of good spirits, there will be no more unhappiness in the earth, which will then be a terrestrial paradise for all its inhabitants." 372 ALLAN KARDEC 932. How is it that, in this world, the wicked so often have power over the good? "That is a consequence of the weakness of the good. The wicked are intriguing and audacious, the good are often timid. When the latter shall be determined to have the upper hand they will have it." 933. Men are often the artisans of their own worldly sufferings; are they also the artisans of their moral sufferings? "Even more so; for their worldly sufferings are often independent of their action; but it is wounded pride, disappointed ambition, the anxieties of avarice, envy, jealousy, all the passions, in short, that constitute the torments of the soul. "Envy and jealousy! Happy are they who know not those two gnawing worms! Where envy and jealousy exist, there can be no calm, no repose. Before him who is the slave of those passions, the objects of his longings. of his hatreds, of his anger, stand like so many phantoms, pursuing him without respite, even in his sleep. The envious and jealous are always in a fever. Is such a state a desirable one? Can you not understand that, with such passions, man creates for himself the most terrible tortures, and that the earth really becomes a hell for him?" Many of our colloquial expressions present vivid pictures of the effects of the different passions. We say, "puffed up with pride ;" "dying with envy,"' "bursting with spite;" "devoured by jealousy;" etc.; pictures that are only too true to their originals. In many cases, these evil passions have no determinate object. There are persons, for instance, who are naturally jealous of everyone who rises, of everything that oversteps the common line, even when their own interest is in no way concerned, and simply because they are not able to command a similar success. Every manifestation of superiority on the part of others is regarded by them as an offence to themselves ; for the jealousy of mediocrity would always, if it could, bring everyone down to its own level. Much of the unhappiness of human life is a result of the undue importance attached by man to the things of this world ; vanity, disappointed ambition, and cupidity, make up no small part of his troubles. If he placed his aims beyond the narrow circle of his outer life, if he raised his thoughts towards the infinitude that is his destiny, the vicissitudes of human existence would seem to him as petty and puerile as the broken toy over the loss of which the child weeps so bitterly. He who finds his happiness only in the satisfaction of pride and of gross material appetites is unhappy when he cannot satisfy them; while he who asks for no superfluities is happy under circumstances that would be deemed calamitous by others. We are now speaking of civilised people. for the savage, having fewer wants, has not the same incitements to envy and anxiety ; his way of looking at things is altogether different. In the civilised state, man reasons upon and analyses his unhappiness, and is therefore all the more painfully affected by it; but he may also reason upon and analyse the means of consolation within his reach. This consolation is furnished him by Christianity, which gives him the hope of a better future, and by Spiritism, which gives him the certainty of that future. 373 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK Loss of Those We Love. 934. Is not the loss of those who are dear to us a legitimate source of sorrow, seeing that this loss is both irreparable and in-dependent of our action? "This cause of sorrow, which acts alike upon rich and poor, is the common law of humanity, for it is either a trial or an expiation; but you have the consolation of holding communication with your friends through the means already possessed by you, while awaiting other means that will be more direct, and more accessible to your senses." 935. What is to be thought of the opinion which regards communication with those who are beyond the grave as a profanation? "There can be no profanation where there is reverent concentration of thought and sympathy, and when the evocation is made with fitting respect; and the proof of this is found in the fact the spirits who love you take pleasure in coming to you; they rejoice in being remembered by you, and in being able to converse with you. But there would be profanation in this communication if carried on in a spirit of frivolity." The possibility of entering into communication with spirits is most consoling, since it gives us the means of holding converse with those o~ our relatives and friends who have quitted the earthly life before us. By our evocation, we draw them nearer to us they come to our side, hear us, and reply to us there is, so to say. no longer any separation between them and us. They aid us with their counsels, and assure us of the pleasure afforded them by our remembrance It is a satisfaction for us to know that they are happy, to learn from themselves the details of their new existence, and to acquire the certainty of our rejoining them in our turn. 936. What effect has the inconsolable sorrow of survivors upon the spirits who are the object of that sorrow? "A spirit is touched by the remembrance and regrets of those he has loved; but a persistent and unreasonable sorrow affects him painfully, because he sees, in this excessive grief, a want of faith in the future and confidence in God, and, consequently, an obstacle to the advancement of the mourner, and, perhaps, to their reunion." A spirit, when disincarnated, being happier than he was upon the earth, to regret his change of life is to regret his being happy. Two friends are prisoners, shut up in the same dungeon both of them are some day to be set at liberty, but one of them obtains his deliverance before the other. Would it be kind on the part of him who remains in prison to regret that his friend has been set at liberty before him? Would there not be on his part more selfishness than affection In wishing his friend to remain in captivity and suffering as long as himself? It is the same with two persons who love one another upon the earth; he who quits it first is the first delivered ; and the other ought to rejoice in his deliverance, while awaiting with patience the moment when he shall he delivered in his turn. 374 ALLAN KARDEC We may illustrate this subject by another comparison. You have a friend whose situation, while remaining near you, is a painful one; his health or his Interests require that he should go to another country, where he will be better off in every respect. He will no longer be near you at every moment. but you will still be in correspondence with him the separation between you will be only in your daily life. Should you grieve for his removal, since it Is for his good? By the evident proofs which it gives us of the reality of the future life, and of the presence about us and the continued affection and solicitude of those we have loved, as well as by the relations which it enables us to keep up with them, Spiritism offers us the most effectual consolation under the greatest and most painful of earthly sorrows; it does away with solitude and separation, for it shows us that the most isolated of human beings is always surrounded by a host of friends, with whom he can hold affectionate converse. We are often impatient under the tribulations of life; they seem to us so intolerable that we cannot believe it to be possible for us to bear up under them; and yet, if we have borne them with courage, if we have been able to silence our murmurings, we shall rejoice to have undergone them, when we have finished our earthly career, as the patient rejoices. when convalescent, to have resigned himself to the painful course of treatment that has cured him of his malady. Disappointments, Ingratitude, Blighted Affections. 937 Are not the disappointments that are caused by ingratitude, and by the fragility of earthly friendships, also a source of bitterness of the human heart? "Yes; but we teach you to feel pity for the ungrateful, and for faithless friends; their unkindness will do more harm to them-selves than to you. Ingratitude comes of selfishness; and he who is selfish will meet, sooner or later, with hearts as hard as his own has been. Think of all those who have done more good than you have done, who are more worthful than you are, and whose kindness has been repaid with ingratitude. Remember that Jesus himself, during his life, was scoffed at, despised, and treated as a knave and an impostor; and do not be surprised that you should be treated in the same way. Let the consciousness of the good you have done be your recompense in your present life, and do not trouble yourself about those to whom you have done it. Ingratitude serves to test your persistence in doing good; it will be counted to you hereafter, and those who have been unmindful of your kindness will be punished, and all the more severely, the greater has been their ingratitude." 938. Are not the disappointments caused by ingratitude calculated to harden the heart and render it unfeelings? "It would be wrong to let them do so; for the generous man is always glad to have done good. He knows that, if those whom he has benefited do not remember his kindness in the present life, 375 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK they will remember it in a future one, and will then feel shame and remorse for their ingratitude.” - But this knowledge will not prevent him from being acutely pained by ingratitude in the present life; might not this pain lead him to think that he would be happier if he possessed less sensibility ? "Yes; if he preferred a selfish happiness; but that sort of happiness is a very pitiable one. Let such a man try to understand that the ungrateful friends who desert him are unworthy of his friendship, and that he has been mistaken in his estimate of them, and he will no longer regret their loss. Their place will by and by be filled by others who are better able to understand him. You should pity those from whom you have received ill-treatment that you have not deserved, for a heavy retribution will overtake them; but you should not allow yourselves to be painfully affected by their misconduct. Your indifference to their ill-treatment will place you above them." Nature has implanted in man the need of loving of being loved. One of the greatest enjoyments accorded to him upon the earth is the meeting with hearts that sympathise with his own. This sympathy gives him a foretaste of the happiness that awaits him in the world of perfected spirits, where all is love and kindness a happiness that is refused to the selfish. Antipathetic Unions. 939. Since spirits who are sympathetic to one another are spontaneously attracted' to each other, how is it that, among incarnated spirits, the love is often only on one side; that the most sincere affection is met with indifference or even with repulsion; and that, moreover, the liveliest affection of two persons for one another may be changed into dislike, and even into hatred? "Such a contrariety of feeling is a punishment, but only a passing one. Besides, how many are there who imagine themselves to be desperately in love with each other, because they judge one another from appearances only, but who, when obliged to live together, soon discover that their affection was nothing more than a passing caprice ? It is not enough to be taken with some one who pleases you, and whom you imagine to be gifted with all sorts of good qualities; it is only by living together that you can ascertain the worth of the appearances that have captivated you. On the other hand, how many of those unions that seem, at first, as though they never could become sympathetic, grow, in time, into a tender and lasting affection, founded upon the esteem that has been 376 ALLAN KARDEC developed between the parties by a better and more complete acquaintance with each other's good qualities? You must not forget that it is the spirit which loves, and not the body, and that, when the illusion of corporeal attractions is dissipated, the spirit perceives the real quality of the union into which it has entered. "There are two kinds of affection-that of the body, and that of the soul, and these are often mistaken for one another. The affection of the soul, when pure and sympathetic, is lasting; that of the body is perishable this is why those who fancied that they loved each with an eternal affection often detest one another when their illusion has vanished." 940. Is not the lack of sympathy between persons destined to live together also a source of sorrow, and one that is all the more bitter because it poisons an entire existence? "Very bitter it is, undoubtedly; but it is usually a misfortune of your own causing. In the first place, your laws are in fault; for how can you suppose that those who dislike one another can be intended by God to live together ? In the next place, you yourselves are to blame, for you often seek, in those unions, the satisfaction of your pride and ambition rather than the happiness of a mutual affection; and, in such cases, you undergo the natural consequences of your prejudices." - But, in such cases, is there not generally an innocent victim? "Yes, one for whom it is a heavy expiation; but the responsibility of such unhappiness will, nevertheless, be brought home to those who caused it. If the light of truth have reached the soul of the victim, faith in the future will give consolation under present suffering. But the causes of these private misfortunes will disappear in proportion as your prejudices are dissipated." Fear of Death. 941. The fear of death causes perplexity to many persons; whence comes this fear in the case of those who believe in a future life? "Such fear is altogether misplaced; but when people have been, in their youth, thoroughly indoctrinated into the belief that there is a hell as well as a heaven, and that they will most likely go to the former, because whatever belongs to human life is a mortal sin for the soul, they are naturally afraid, if they have retained their religious belief, of the fire that is to burn them for ever 377 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK without destroying them. But most of those who are thus indoctrinated in their childhood, if possessed of judgement, throw aside that belief when they grow up, and, being unable to assent to such a doctrine, become atheists or materialists; so that the natural effect of such teaching is to make them believe that there is nothing beyond this present life. "Death has no terrors for the righteous man, because, with faith, he has the certainty of a future life; hope leads him to expect an existence happier than his present one; and charity, which has been the law of his action, gives him the assurance that, in the world which he is about to enter, he will meet with no one whose recognition he will have reason to dread." (730.) The carnally-minded man, more attracted by corporeal life than by the life of the spirit, knows only the pains and pleasures of terrestrial existence. His only happiness Is in the fugitive satisfaction of his earthly desires; his mind, constantly occupied with the vicissitude, of the present life, and painfully affected by them, is tortured with perpetual anxiety. The thought of death terrifies him, because he has doubts about his future, and because he has to leave all his affections and all his hopes behind him he leaves the earth. The spiritually-minded man, who has raised himself above the factitious wants created by the passions, has, even in this lower life, enjoyments unknown to the carnally-minded. The moderation of his desires gives calmness and serenity to his spirit. Happy in the good he does. life has no disappointments for him, and its vexations pass lightly over his consciousness, without leaving upon it any painful impress. 942. Will not these counsels as to the way to be happy in the present life be considered by many persons as somewhat commonplace; will they not be looked upon as truisms; and will it not be said that, after all, the true secret of happiness is to be able to bear up under one's troubles? "A good many people will take this view of the matter; but, of these, not a few will be like the sick man, for whom the physician prescribes dieting, but who demands to be cured without changing his habits, and while continuing the indulgences of the table that keep up his dyspepsia." Weariness of Life - Suicide 943. What is the cause of the weariness of life which some-times takes possession of people without any assignable reason? "Idleness; lack of conviction; sometimes, satiety. For him who employs his faculties in the pursuit of some useful aim in harmony with his natural aptitudes, exertion is not disagreeable: his time passes quickly in congenial occupation; and he is able to bear the

378 ALLAN KARDEC vicissitudes of life with patience and resignation, because he looks forward to a more solid and lasting happiness in the future." 944. Has a man the right to dispose of his life? "No; that right belongs to God alone. He who voluntarily commits suicide contravenes the providential ordering which sent him into the earthly life." - Is not suicide always voluntary? "The madman who kills himself does not know what he is doing." 945. What is to be thought of those who commit suicide because they are sick of life? "Fools! why did they not employ themselves in some useful work ? Had they done so, life would not have been a weariness to them." 946. What is to be thought of those who resort to suicide in order to escape from the troubles and disappointments of this world? "They are weaklings who lack courage to bear the petty annoyances of existence. God helps those who suffer bravely, but not those who have neither strength nor courage. The tribulations of life are trials or expiations; happy are those who bear them without murmuring, for great will be their reward! Unhappy, on the contrary, are those who expect their well-being from what they impiously call 'chance' or 'luck'! Chance, or luck, to borrow their own expressions, may favour them for a time; but only to make them feel, afterwards, and all the more bitterly, the emptiness of those words." - Will not those who have driven an unhappy fellow-creature to this deed of despair be held responsible for the consequences of their action? "Yes; and heavy indeed will be their punishment, for they wilt have to answer for those consequences as for a murder." 947. Can we consider as having committed suicide the man who, becoming disheartened in his struggle with adversity, allows himself to die of despair? "Such self-abandonment is suicide; but those who had caused the crime, or might have prevented it, would be more to blame for it than the one by whom it had been committed, and the latter would therefore be judged leniently. But, nevertheless, you must 379 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK not suppose that he would be entirely absolved if he had been wanting in firmness and perseverance, or had failed to make the best use of his intelligence to help himself out of his difficulties. And it would go still harder with him if he had been one of those whose intelligence is paralysed by pride, who would blush to earn their living by manual labour, and would rather die of starvation than derogate from what they call their "social position." Is there not a hundredfold more nobleness and true dignity in bearing up against adversity, in braving the ill-natured remarks of the futile and selfish, whose goodwill is only for those who are in want of nothing, and who turn the cold shoulder to all who are in need of help ? To throw away one's life on account of such people is doubly absurd, seeing that they will be perfectly indifferent to the sacrifice." 948. Is suicide as blameable, when committed in order to escape the disgrace of having done wrong, as when it is prompted by despair? "A fault is not effaced by suicide, which, on the contrary, is a second fault added to the first. He who has had the courage to do wrong should have the courage to bear the consequences of his wrong-doing. God is the sole judge, and sometimes diminishes the penalty of wrongdoing in consideration of the circumstances which led to it." 949. Is suicide excusable wizen committed in order to avoid bringing disgrace on one's children or family? "He who has recourse to such an expedient does wrong; but, as he believes his action to be for the best, God takes note of his intention, for his suicide is a self-imposed expiation; his fault is extenuated by his intention, but it is none the less a fault. But when you have got rid of your social prejudices and abuses, you will have no more suicides." He who takes his own life, in order to escape the disgrace of a bad action, proves that he attaches more value to the estimation of men than to that of God; for the goes back into the spirit-world laden with his iniquities, of the means of atoning for which, during his earthly life, he has thus deprived himself. God is less inexorable than men often are; He pardons those who sincerely repent, and takes account of sill our efforts to repair what we have done amiss; but nothing is repaired by suicide. 950. What is to be thought of him who makes away with himself in the hope of arriving sooner at a happier state of existence? "Another piece of folly! Let a man do good, and he will be much more sure of reaching such a state. His suicide will delay 380 ALLAN KARDEC his entrance into a better world; for be himself will ask to be allowed to come back to the earth, in order to complete the life that he has cut short in pursuit of a mistaken idea. The sanctuary of the good is never opened by a fault, no matter what may have been its motive." 951. Is not the sacrifice of one's life meritorious when it is made in order to save the lives of others, or to be useful to them? "Incurred for such an end, it is sublime ; but such a voluntary sacrifice of life is not suicide. It is the useless sacrifice that is displeasing to God, and also that which is tarnished by pride. A sacrifice is only meritorious when disinterested; if accomplished in view of a selfish end, its value is proportionally lessened in the sight of God." Every sacrifice of our interest or enjoyment made for the sake of others is supremely meritorious in the sight of God for it is the fulfilling of the law of charity. Life being. of all earthly possessions, the one to which men attach the greatest value, he who renounces it for the good of his fellow-creatures does not commit a crime he accomplishes a sacrifice. But, before accomplishing it, he should consider whether his life might not be more useful than his death. 952. Does he commit suicide who falls a victim to the excessive indulgence of passions which he knows will hasten his death, but which habit has converted into physical necessities that lie is unable to control? "He commits moral suicide. Do you not see that a man, in such a case, is trebly guilty? For he is guilty of a want of firmness, of the sin of bestiality, and of forgetfulness of God." - Is such a man more or less guilty than he who kills himself from despair? "He is more guilty, because he has had time to reflect on the suicidal nature of the course he was pursuing. In the case of him who commits suicide on the spur of the moment, there is sometimes a degree of bewilderment not unallied to madness. The former will be punished much more severely than the latter; for the retributive penalties of crime are always proportioned to the consciousness of wrong-doing that accompanied its commission. 953. Is it wrong on the part of him who finds himself exposed to some terrible and inevitable death to shorten his sufferings by killing himself? "It is always wrong not to await the moment of dissolution appointed by God. Besides, how can a man tell whether the end 381 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK of his life has really come, or whether some unexpected help may not reach him at what he supposes to be his last moment?" - We admit that suicide is reprehensible under ordinary circumstances, but we are supposing a case in which death is inevitable, and in which life is only shortened by a few instants? "There is always in such a case a want of resignation and of submission to the will of the Creator." - What in such a case are the consequences of suicide? "The same as in all other cases; an expiation proportioned to the gravity of the fault, according to the circumstances under which it was committed." 954. Is there guilt in the imprudence which has accidentally caused a loss of life? "There is no guilt where there is no positive intention or consciousness of doing harm." 955. Are the women who, in some countries, voluntarily burn themselves to death with the body of their husband, to be considered as committing suicide, and have they to undergo the punishment of that crime? "They obey the dictates of a superstitious prejudice, and, moreover, are often the victims of force rather than of their own free-will. They believe themselves to be accomplishing a duty, and such an act does not partake of the character of suicide. Their excuse is found in the moral nullity and ignorance of the greater number of them. All such barbarous and stupid customs will disappear with the development of civilisation." 956. Do those persons attain the end they have in view, who, unable to bear the loss of the objects of their affection, kill them-selves in the hope of rejoining them in the other life? "In such cases the result of suicide is the opposite of what was hoped for. Instead of being reunited to the object of their affection, those who have made this sad mistake find themselves separated, and for a very long time, from the being they hoped to rejoin; for God cannot recompense, by the granting of a favour, an act which is at once a proof of moral cowardice, and an insult offered to Himself in distrusting His Providence. They will pay for their folly with sorrows still greater than those they fancied they were about to shorten, and for which they will not be compensated by the satisfaction they hoped do obtain." (934 et seq.) 382 ALLAN KARDEC 957. What are in general the effects of suicide on the state of the spirit by whom it has been committed? "The consequences of suicide vary in different cases, because the penalties it entails are always proportioned to the circumstances which, in each case, have led to its commission. The one punishment which none can escape who have committed suicide is disappointment; the rest of their punishment depends on circumstances. Some of those who have killed themselves expiate their fault at once; others do so in a new earthly life harder to bear than the one whose course they have interrupted." Observation has confirmed the statement that the consequences of suicide are not the same in all cases; but it has also shown us that some of those consequences, resulting from the sudden interruption of life, are the same in all cases of violent death. Foremost among these Is the greater tenacity and consequent persistence of the link that unites the spirit and the body, which link. In nearly all such cases, is in its full strength at the moment when it is broken; whereas, when death is the result of natural causes, that link has been gradually weakened, and is often severed before life is completely extinct. The consequences of violent death are, first, the prolongation of the mental confusion which usually follows death, and, next, the illusion which causes a spirit, during a longer or shorter period, to believe himself to be still living in the earthly life. (155, 165.) The affinity which continues to exist between the spirit and the body produces, in the case of some of those who have committed suicide, a sort of repercussion of the state of the body in the consciousness of the spirit, who is thus compelled to perceive the effects of its decomposition, and experiences therefrom a sensation of intense anguish and horror; a state which may continue as long as the life which he has interrupted ought to have lasted. This state is not a necessary result of suicide; but he who has voluntarily shortened his life can never escape the consequences of his want of courageous endurance; sooner or later, and In some way or other, he is made to expiate his fault. Thus, many spirits who had been very unhappy upon the earth have stated that they had committed suicide In their preceding existence, and that they had voluntarily submitted to new trials in order to try to bear them with more resignation. In some cases the result of suicide is a sort of connection with terrestrial matter, from which they vainly endeavour to free themselves, that they may rise to happier worlds, access to which is denied to them; in other cases it Is regret for having done something useless, and from which they have reaped only disappointment. Religion. morality, all systems of philosophy, condemn suicide as being contrary to the law of nature; all lay it down as a principle that we have no right to voluntary shorten our life; but why have we not that right? Why are we not at liberty to put an end to our sufferings? It was reserved for Spiritism to show, by the example of those who have succumbed to that temptation, that suicide is not only a fault, as being an infraction of a moral law (a consideration of little weight with some persons), but is also a piece of stupidity, since no benefit is to be gained by it, but quite the contrary. The teachings of Spiritism in regard to this subject are not merely theoretic ; for it places the facts of the case before our eyes. 383 CHAPTER II FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS 1. ANNIHILATION; FUTURE LIFE. - 2. INTUITION OF FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS - 3. INTERVENTION OF GOD IN REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. - 4. NATURE OF FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS - 5. TEMPORAL PENALTIES. - 6. EXPIATION AND REPENTANCE. - 7. DURATION OF FUTURE PENALTIES. - 8. PARADISE, HELL, PURGATORY. Annihilation - Future Life. 958. Why has man an instinctive horror of the idea of annihilation? "Because there is no such thing as nothingness." 959. Whence does man derive the instinctive sentiment of a future life? "From the knowledge of that life possessed by his spirit previous to his incarnation; the soul retaining a vague remembrance of what it knew in its spirit-state." In all ages, man has occupied himself with the question of a future beyond the grave; and it is natural that he should have done so. Whatever importance he may attach to the present life, he cannot help seeing how brief it is, and how precarious, since it may be cut short at any moment, so that he is never sure of the morrow. What becomes of him after death? The query is a serious one, for it refers, not to time, but to eternity. He who is about to spend many years in a foreign country endeavours' to ascertain beforehand what will be his position there; how, then, is it possible for us not to inquire what will be our state on quitting our present life, since it will be for ever? The idea of annihilation Is repugnant to reason. The most thoughtless of men, when about to quit this life, asks himself what Is going to become of him, and Involuntarily indulges in hope. To believe in God without believing in a future life would be illogical. The presentiment of a better life is In the inner consciousness of all men. God cannot have placed it there for nothing. The idea of a nature life implies the preservation of our individuality after death ; for what good would It do us to survive our body, if our moral essence were to be lost in the ocean of infinity? Such a result would be, for us, the same as annihilation. Intuition of Future Joys and Sorrows 960. Whence comes the belief in future rewards and punishments which is found among all nations? 384 ALLAN KARDEC "It is a presentiment of the reality imparted to each man by the spirit incarnated in him. This internal voice does not speak to him without a purpose; he is wrong in giving so little heed to it. If he listened to it more often and more heedfully, it would be better for him." 961. What is the predominant sentiment at the moment of death Is it doubt, fear, or hope? "Doubt with the sceptical, fear with the guilty, hope with the good." 962. How is it that there are sceptics, since the soul imparts to each man the sentiment of spiritual things? "There are fewer sceptics than you suppose. Many of those who, from pride, affect scepticism during life, are a good deal less sceptical when they come to die." The doctrine of moral responsibility is a consequence of the belief In a future life. Reason and our sense of justice tell us that, in the apportionment of the happiness to which all men aspire, the good and the wicked could not be confounded together. God could not will that some men should obtain, without effort, blessings Which others only obtain through persevering exertion. Our conviction of the justice and goodness of God, as evidenced by the justice and goodness of His laws, forbids us to suppose that the good and the bad can occupy the same place in His sight, or to doubt that. sooner or later, the former will receive a reward, and the latter a chastisement, for the good and the evil they have done. And thus, from our Innate sense of justice, we derive our intuition of the rewards and punishments of the future. Intervention of God in Rewards and Punishments. 963. Does God concern Himself personally about each man? Is He not too great, and are we not too small, for each individual to be of any importance in His sight? "God concerns Himself about all the beings He has created, however small they may be; nothing is too minute for His goodness." 964. Has God to concern Himself about each of our actions in order to reward or to punish us? "God's laws apply to all your actions. When a man violates one of those laws, God does not pronounce sentence on him by saying, for example, 'You have been gluttonous; I shall punish you for it.' But He has traced a limit to appetite. Maladies, and even death, are the consequence of overstepping that limit. Punishment, in all cases, is a result of the infraction of a law." 385 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK All our actions are subjected to the laws of God; and any wrong doing en our part, however unimportant It may seem to us, is a violation of those laws. When we undergo the consequences of such violation, we have only ourselves to thank for It; for we are the sole authors of our happiness or unhappiness, as Is shown in the following apologue : - "A father has educated and Instructed his child-that Is to say, he has given him the means of knowing how to guide himself in the affairs of life. He makes over to him a piece of land to cultivate, and says to him, 'I have given you the practical directions, and all the necessary implements, for rendering this land productive, and thereby gaining your living. I have given you all the instruction needed for understanding those directions. If you follow them, your land will yield abundant harvests, and will furnish you wherewithal to obtain repose in your old age; if you do not, it will bear nothing but weeds, and you will die of hunger. And having said this, he leaves him free to act as he pleases." Is it not true that the land thus given will produce exactly in the ratio of the skill and care bestowed on its cultivation, and that any mistake or negligence on the part of the son will have an injurious effect on its productiveness? The son will therefore be well or ill off in his old age, according as he has followed or neglected the directions given to him by his father. God is still more provident than the earthly father, for He tells us, every moment, whether we are doing right or doing wrong, through the spirits whom He constantly sends to counsel us, though we do not always heed them. There is also this further differenceviz., that, if the son of whom we have been speaking has misemployed or wasted his time, he has no opportunity of repairing his past mistakes, whereas, God always gives to man the means, through new existences, of doing this. Nature of Future Joys and Sorrows. 965. Is there anything of materiality in the joys and sorrows of the soul after death? "Common-sense tells you that they cannot be of a material nature, because the soul is not matter. There is nothing carnal in those joys and sorrows; and yet they are a thousand times more vivid than those you experience upon the earth; because the spirit when freed from matter is more impressionable; matter deadens its sensibility." (237-257.) 966. Why does man often form to himself so gross and absurd an idea of the joys and sorrows of the future life? "Because his intelligence is still but imperfectly developed. Does the child comprehend as does the adult ? Besides, his idea of a future life is often a result of the teachings to which he has been subjected-teachings that are urgently in need of reform. "Your language being too incomplete to express what lies beyond the range of your present existence, it has been necessary to address you through comparisons borrowed from that existence, and you have mistaken the images and figures thus employed for realities; but, in proportion as man becomes enlightened, his thought comprehends much that his language is unable to express." 967. In what does the happiness of perfected spirits consist? "In knowing all things; in feeling neither hatred, jealousy, 386 ALLAN KARDEC envy, ambition, nor any of the passions that make men unhappy. Their mutual affection is for them a source of supreme felicity. They have none of the wants, sufferings, or anxieties of material life; they are happy in the good they do, for the happiness of spirits is always proportioned to their elevation. The highest happiness, it is true, is enjoyed only by spirits who are perfectly purified; but the others are not unhappy. Between the had ones and those who have reached perfection, there is an infinity of gradations of elevation and of happiness; for the enjoyments of each spirit are always proportioned to his moral state. Those who have already achieved a certain degree of advancement have a presentiment of the happiness of those who are further on than themselves; they aspire after that higher happiness, but it is for them an object of emulation, and not of jealousy. They know that it depends on themselves to attain to it, and they labour to that end, but with the calmness of a good conscience; and they are happy in not having to suffer what is endured by evil spirits." 968. You place the absence of material wants among the conditions of happiness for spirits; but is not the satisfaction of those wants a source of enjoyment for mankind? "Yes, of animal enjoyment; but when men cannot satisfy those wants, they are tortured by them." 969. What are we to understand when it is said that the purified spirits are gathered into the bosom of God, and employed in singing His praises? "The statement is an allegorical picture of the knowledge they possess of the perfections of God, because they see and comprehend Him; but you must not take it literally, any more than other statements of a similar character. Everything in nature, from the grain of sand upwards. 'sings'-that is to say, proclaims the power, wisdom, and goodness of God; but you must not suppose that spirits of the highest order are absorbed in an eternal contemplation, which would be a monotonous and stupid would be a perpetual uselessness. They have no longer to undergo the tribulations of corporeal life, an exemption which is itself an enjoyment; and, besides, as we have told you, they know and comprehend all things, and make use of the intelligence they have acquired in aiding the progress of other spirits; and they find enjoyment in this order of occupation." 387 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK 970. In what do the sufferings of inferior spirits consist? "Those sufferings are as various as are the causes by which they are produced, and are proportioned to the degree of inferiority of each spirit, as the enjoyments of the higher spirits are proportioned to their several degrees of superiority. They may be summed up thus -The sight of happiness to which they are unable to attain; envy of the superiority which renders other spirits happy, and which they see to be lacking in themselves; regret, jealousy, rage, despair, in regard to what prevents them from being happy; remorse and indescribable moral anguish. They long for all sorts of enjoyments; and are tortured by their inability to satisfy their cravings." 971. Is the influence exercised by spirits over one another always good? "It is always good on the part of good spirits; but perverse spirits endeavour to draw aside from the path of repentance and amendment those whom they think are susceptible of being misled, and whom they have often led into evil during their earthly life." - Death, then, does not deliver us from temptation? "No, but the action of evil spirits is much less powerful over other spirits than over men, because they no longer have the material passions of the tempted for auxiliaries." (996.) 972. In what way do evil spirits bring temptation to bear upon other spirits, since they have not the passions to work upon? "If the passions no longer exist materially, they still exist in thought, on the part of spirits of slight advancement; and the evil ones keep up impure thoughts in their victims by taking them to places where they witness the exercise of those passions, and whatever tends to excite them." - But what end do those passions subserve, since they have no longer any real object? "That is just what constitutes the tortures of the spirit-life. The miser sees gold which he cannot possess; the debauchee, orgies in which he can take no part; the haughty, honours which he envies, but cannot share." 973. What are the greatest sufferings that can be endured by wicked spirits? "It is utterly impossible to describe the mental tortures that are the punishment of some crimes; even those by whom they are experienced would find it difficult to give you an idea of them. 388 ALLAN KARDEC But, assuredly, the most frightful of them all is the sufferer s belief that his condemnation is unchangeable and for all eternity." Men form to themselves, in regard to the joys and sorrows of the soul after death, a conception more or less elevated according to the state of their intelligence. The greater a man's degree of development, the more refined and the more divested of materiality is his idea of them; the more rational is the view he takes of the subject, and the less literally does he understand the images of figurative language in regard to them. Enlightened reason, in teaching us that the soul is an entirely spiritual being, teaches us also that it cannot be affected by impressions that act only upon matter; but it does not follow there from that is exempt from suffering, or that it does not undergo the punishment of its wrongdoing. (237.) The communications made to us by spirits show us the future state of the soul, no longer as a matter of theory, but as a reality. They bring before us all the incidents of the life beyond the grave ; but they also show us that they are the natural consequences of the terrestrial life, and that, although divested of the fantastic accompaniments created by the imagination of men, they are none the less painful for those who, in this life, have made a bad use of their faculties. The diversity of those consequences is infinite, but may be summed up by saying that each soul is punished by that wherein it has sinned. It is thus that some are punished by the incessant sight of the evil they have done; others, by regret, fear, shame, doubt, isolation, darkness, separation from those who are dear to them, etc. 974. Whence comes the doctrine of eternal fire? "From taking a figure of speech for a reality, as men have done in so many instances." - But may not this fear lead to a useful result? "Look around you, and see whether there are many who are restrained by it, even among those by whom it is inculcated. If you teach what is contrary to reason, the impression you make will be neither durable nor salutary." Human language being powerless to express the nature of the sufferings of spirit-life, man has been unable to desvise any more appropriate comparison for them than that of flee, because, for him, fire is at once the type of the most excruciating torture, and the symbol of the most energetic action. It is for this reason that the belief in "everlasting burning" has been held from the earliest antiquity and transmitted by succeeding generations to the present day ; and it is for this reason, also, that all nations speak, in common parlance, of "fiery passions," of "burning love," "burning hate," "burning with jealousy," etc. 975. Do inferior spirits comprehend the happiness of the righteous? "Yes; and that happiness is a source of torment for them, for they understand that they are deprived of it through their own fault; but it also leads a spirit, when freed from matter, to aspire after a new corporeal existence, because every such existence, if well employed, will shorten the duration of that torment. It is thus that he makes choice of the trials through which he will be enabled to expiate his faults; for you must remember that each spirit suffers for all the evil he has done or of which he has been

389 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK the voluntary cause, for all the good which he might have done and which he did not do, and for all the evil that has resulted from his having failed to do the good he might have done." "In the state of erraticity, a spirit's sight is no longer veiled; it is as though he had emerged from a fog and saw the obstacles that intervene between him and happiness, and he therefore suffers all the more, because he understands the full extent of his culpability. For him, illusion is no longer possible; he sees things as they really are." A spirit, when errant, embraces, on the one hand, all his past existences at a glance: on the other, he foresees the future promised to him, and comprehends what he lacks for its attainment. He is like a traveller who, having reached the top of a hill, beholds both the road over which he has already travelled, and that by which he has still to go in order to reach the end of his journey. 976. Is not the sight of spirits who suffer a cause of affliction for the good ones? And, if so, what becomes of the happiness of the latter, that happiness being thus impaired? "Good spirits are not distressed by the suffering of those who are a lower point than themselves, because they know that it will have an end; they aid those who suffer to become better, and lend them a helping hand. To do this is their occupation, and is a joy for them when they succeed." - This is comprehensible on the part of spirits who are strangers to them, and who take no special interest in them; but does not the sight of their sorrows and sufferings disturb the happiness of the spirits who have loved them upon the earth? "If spirits did not see your troubles, it would prove that they become estranged from you after death, whereas all religions teach you that the souls of the departed continue to see you; but they regard your afflictions from another point of view. They know that those sufferings will aid your advancement if you bear them with resignation; and they are consequently more pained by the want of fortitude which keeps you back, than by sufferings which they know to be only temporary." 977. Spirits being unable to hide their thoughts from one another, and all the acts of their lives being known, does it follow that those who have wronged their fellows are always in presence of their victims? "Common sense might suffice to tell you that it cannot be otherwise. 390 ALLAN KARDEC - Is this divulging of all his evil deeds, and the perpetual presence of those who have been the victims of them, a chastisement for the guilty spirit? "Yes, and a heavier one than you may suppose it to be; but it only lasts until he has expiated his wrong-doing, either as a spirit, or as a man in new corporeal existences." When we find ourselves in the world of spirits, all our past will be brought into view, and the good the evil that we have done will be equally known. In vain would the malefactor seek to avoid the sight of his victims; their presence, from which he cannot possibly escape, will be for him a punishment and a source of remorse until he has expiated the wrongs he has done them, while the spirit of the upright man will find himself constantly surrounded by kindness and good-will. Even upon the earth there is no greater torment for the wicked man than the presence of his victims, whom he does his utmost to avoid. What will it be when, the illusions of the passions being dissipated, he comprehends the evil he has done, sees his most secret actions brought to light and his hypocrisy unmasked, and perceives that he cannot hide himself from the sight of those he has wronged? But, while the soul of the wicked is thus a prey to shame, regret, and remorse, that of the righteous enjoys perfect peace. 978. Does not the remembrance of the faults committed by the soul, during its state of imperfection, disturb its happiness even after it has attained to purity? "No, because it has redeemed its faults, and has come forth victorious from the trials to which it had submitted for that purpose." 979. Does not the prevision of the trials it has still to undergo, in order to complete its purification, excite in the soul a painful apprehension that must lessen its happiness? "Yes, in the case of a soul who is still soiled by evil, and therefore it can only enjoy perfect happiness when it has become perfectly pure. But for souls who have attained to a certain degree of elevation, the thought of the trials they have still to undergo has in it nothing painful." The soul, arrived at a certain degree of purification, has already a foretaste of happiness. It is pervaded by a feeling of satisfaction, and is happy in all that it sees, in all that surrounds it. The veil which covers the marvels and mysteries of creation being already partially raised for it, the divine perfections begin to be perceived by it in their splendour. 980. Is the sympathic link which unites spirits of the same order a source of felicity for them? "The union of spirits who sympathise in the love of goodness is one of their highest enjoyments, for they have no fear of seeing that union disturbed by selfishness. In worlds altogether spiritual, they form families animated by the same sentiment, and this union constitutes the happiness of those worlds, as in your world you 391 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK group yourselves into categories, and experience pleasure in being thus brought together. The pure and sincere affection felt by elevated spirits, and of which they are the object, is a source of felicity, for there are neither false friends nor hypocrites among them." Man enjoys the first-fruits of this felicity upon the earth when he meets with those with whom he can enter into cordial and noble union. In a life of greater purity than that of the earth, this felicity becomes ineffable and unbounded, because their inhabitants meet only with sympathetic souls whose affection will not be chilled by selfishness. For love is life; it is selfishness that kills. 981. Is there, as regards the future state of spirits, any difference between him who, during his earthly life, was afraid of death, and him 'who looked forward to it with indifference, or even with joy? "There may be a very considerable difference between them, though this is often obliterated by the causes which gave rise to that fear or that desire. Those who dread death, and those who desire it, may be moved by very different sentiments, and it is those sentiments which determine the state of a spirit. For instance, it is evident that, if a man only desires death because it will put an end to his tribulations, that desire is, in reality, a sort of murmuring against Providence, and against the trials which lie has to undergo." 982. Is it necessary to make a profession of Spiritism, and to believe in spirit-manifestations, in order to ensure our well-being in the next life? "If it were so, it would follow that those who do not believe in them, or who have not even had the opportunity of learning anything about them, will be disinherited, which would be absurd. It is right-doing that ensures future well-being; and right-doing is always right-doing, whatever may be the path that leads to it." (165-799.) Belief in Spiritism aids our self-improvement by clearing our ideas in regard to the future; it hastens the progress and advancement of individuals and of the masses. because it enables us to ascertain 'what we shall some day be, and is at once a beacon and a support. Spiritism teaches us to bear our trials 'with patience and resignation, turns us from the wrong-doing that would delay our future happiness, and contributes to our attainment of that happiness; but it does not follow that we may not attain to that happiness without it. Temporal Sorrows. 983. Does not a spirit, when expiating its faults in a new existence, undergo material suffering, and, that being the case, is it 392 ALLAN KARDEC correct to say that, after death, the soul experiences only moral sufferings? "It is very true that, when the soul is reincarnated, it is made to suffer by the tribulations of corporeal life; but it is only the body that undergoes material suffering. "You often say, of one who is dead, that he is released from suffering; but this is not always true. As a spirit, he has no more physical sufferings; but, according to the faults he has coinmitted, he may have to bear moral sufferings still more severe, and, in a new existence, he may be still more unhappy. He who has made a selfish use of riches' will have to beg his bread, and will be a prey to all the privations of poverty; the proud will undergo humiliations of every kind; he who has misused his authority, and treated his subordinates with disdain and harshness, will be forced to obey a master still harder than himself. All the tribulations of life are the expiation of faults committed in a preceding existence, when they are not the consequence of faults committed in the present one. When you have quitted your present life, you will understand this. (273, 393, 399.) "He who, in the earthly life, esteems himself happy because he is able to satisfy his passions, makes few efforts at self-improvement. Such ephemeral happiness is often expiated in the present life, but will certainly be expiated in another existence equally material." 984. Are the troubles of our earthly life always the punishment of faults committed by us in our present lifetime? "No; we have already told you that they are trials imposed on you by God, or chosen by you in the spirit-state, and before your reincarnation, for the expiation of faults committed by you in a former existence; for no infraction of the laws of God, and especially of the law of justice, ever remains unpunished, and if it be not expiated in the same life, it will certainly be so in another. This is why persons whom you regard as excellent are so often made to suffer; they are stricken in their present life for the faults of their past existences." (393.) 985. When a soul is reincarnated in a world less gross than the earth, is such a reincarnation a reward? "It is a consequence of its higher degree of purification; for, in proportion as spirits become purified, they reincarnate themselves in worlds of progressively higher degrees, until, having divested 393 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK themselves of all materiality and washed themselves clean of all stains, they enter on the eternal felicity of the fully purified spirits in the presence of God." In worlds in which the conditions of existence are less material than in ours, the wants of their inhabitants are less gross, and their physical sufferings are less acute. The men of those worlds no longer possess the evil passions which, in lower worlds, make them each other's enemies. Having no motives for hatred or jealousy, they live in peace with one another, because they practise the law of justice, of love, and of charity and they therefore know nothing of the worries and anxieties that come of envy, pride, and selfishness, and that make the torment of our terrestrial existence. (172, 182.) 986. Can a spirit who has progressed in his terrestrial existence be reincarnated in the same world? "Yes; and if he have not been able to accomplish his mission, he may himself demand to complete it in a new existence; but, in that case, it is no longer an expiation for him." (173.) 987. What becomes of the man who, without doing evil, does nothing to shake off the influence of matter? "Since he has made no progress towards perfection, he has to begin a new existence of the same nature as the one he has quitted. He remains stationary; and thus prolongs the sufferings of expiation." 988. There are persons whose life flows on in a perfect calm; who, having nothing to do for themselves, are exempt from all cares. Is their good fortune a proof that they have nothing to expiate from any former existence? "Do you know many such ? If you think you do, you are mistaken. Such lives are often only calm in appearance. A spirit may have chosen such an existence; but he perceives, after quitting it, that it has not served to bring him on, and he then regrets the time he has wasted in idleness. Bear well in mind that a spirit can only acquire knowledge and elevation through activity; that, if he supinely falls asleep, he does not advance. He is like one who (according to your usages) needs to work, but who goes off for a ramble, or goes to bed, with the intention of doing nothing. Bear well in mind, also, that each of you will have to answer for voluntary uselessness on your part, and that such uselessness is always fatal to your future happiness. The sum of that happiness is always exactly proportioned to the sum of the good that you have done; the sum of your unhappiness is always proportioned to the sum of the evil that you have done, and to the number of those whom you have rendered unhappy." 394 ALLAN KARDEC 989. There are persons who, without being Positively wicked, render all about them unhappy by their ill-temper; what is, for them, the consequence of this? "Such persons are assuredly not good, and they will expiate this wrong by the sight of those whom they have rendered unhappy, which will be a constant reproach for them; and then, in another existence, they will endure all that they have caused to be endured by others." Expiation and Repentance 990. Does repentance take place in the corporeal state, or in the spiritual state? "In the spiritual state; but it may also take place in the corporeal state, when you clearly comprehend the difference between good and evil." 991. What is the consequence of repentance in the spiritual state? "The desire for a new incarnation, in order to become purified. The spirit perceives the imperfections which deprive him of happiness; and he therefore aspires after a new existence in which he will be able to expiate his faults." (332, 975). 992. What is the consequence of repentance in the corporeal state? "The spirit will advance even in his present life, if he have the time to repair his faults. Whenever your conscience reproaches you, or shows you an imperfection, you may always become better." 993. Are there not men who have only the instinct of evil, and are inaccessible to repentance? "I have told you that progress must be incessant. He who, in his present life, has only the instinct of evil, will have the instinct of goodness in another one, and it is to effect this end that he is re-born many times. For all must advance, all must reach the goal; but some do this more quickly, others more slowly, according to the energy of their desire. He who has only the instinct of good is already purified, for he may have had that of evil in an anterior existence." (804.) 994. Does the perverted spirit who has not recognised his faults during his life always recognise them after his death? 395 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "Yes; he always does so, and lie then suffers all the more, for he feels all the evil he has done, or of which he has been the voluntary cause. Nevertheless, repentance is not always immediate. There are spirits who obstinately persist in doing wrong, notwithstanding their sufferings; but, sooner or later, they will see that have taken the wrong road, and repentance will follow this discovery. It is to their enlightenment that the efforts of the higher spirits are directed, and that you may usefully direct your own." 995. Are there spirits who, without being wicked, ape indifferent about their own fate? "There are spirits who do not occupy themselves with anything useful, but are in a state of expectancy. In such cases they suffer in proportion to their inactivity; for all states and conditions must conduce to progress, and with them, this progress is effected by the suffering they experience." - Have they no desire to shorten their sufferings? "They have that desire, undoubtedly; but they have not sufficient energy to do what would give them relief. Are there not among you many who prefer to starve rather than to work?" 996. Since spirits see the harm that is done them by their imperfections, how is it that any of them Persist in aggravating their Position, and prolonging their state of inferiority, by doing evil, as spirits, in turning men aside from the right road? "It is those whose repentance is tardy that act thus. A spirit who repents may afterwards allow himself to be drawn back into the wrong road by other spirits still more backward than himself." (971.) 997. We sometimes find that spirits, who are evidently of very he who, urged on by pride, revolts against God, persisting in his touched by the prayers offered for them. How is it that others, whom we have reason to believe are more enlightened, show a hardness and a cynicism that no efforts can vanquish? "Prayer is only efficacious in the case of spirits who repent; he who, urged on by pride, revolts against God, persisting in his wrong-doing, and perhaps going even more widely astray, cannot be acted upon by prayer, and can only derive benefit therefrom when a glimmering of repentance shall have shown itself in him." (664.) 396 ALLAN KARDEC We must not lose sight of the fact that a spirit, after the death of his body. is not suddenly transformed. If his life have been reprehensible, it has been so because he was imperfect. But death does not render him perfect all at once he may in his wrong-doing, his false ideas, his prejudices, until he has become enlightened by study, reflection, and suffering. 998. Is expiation accomplished in the corporeal state, or in the spirit-state? "Expiation is accomplished during the corporeal existence, through the trials to which the spirit is subjected; and, in the spirit-state, through the moral sufferings belonging to the spirit's state of inferiority." 999. Does sincere repentance during the earthly life suffice to efface the faults of that life, and to restore the wrong-doer to the favour of God? "Repentance helps forward the amelioration of the spirit, but all wrongdoing has to be expiated." - That being the case, if a criminal should say, "Since I must necessarily expiate my past, I have no need to repent," what effect would it have upon him? "If he harden himself in the thought of evil. his expiation will be longer and more painful." 1000. Can we, in the present life, redeem our faults? "Yes, by making reparation for them. But do not suppose that you can redeem them by a few trifling privations, or by giving, after your death, what you can no longer make use of. God does not value a sterile repentance, a mere smiting of the breast, easily done. The loss of a little finger in doing good to others effaces more wrong doing than any amount of self-torture undergone solely with a view to one's own interest. (726.) "Evil can only be atoned for by good; and attempts at reparation are valueless if they touch neither a man's pride nor his worldly interests. "How can his rehabilitation be subserved by the restitution of ill-gotten wealth after his death, when it has become useless to him, and when he has already profited by it ? "What benefit can he derive from the privation of a few futile enjoyments and of a few superfluities, if the wrong he has done to others is not undone ? "What, in truth, is the use of his humbling himself before God, if he keeps up his pride before men?" (720, 721.) 397 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK 1001. Is there no merit in ensuring the useful employment, after our death, of 'he property possessed by us? "To say that there is no merit so doing would not be correct; it is always better than doing nothing. But the misfortune is, that he who only gives after his death is often moved rather by selfishness than by generosity; he wishes to have the honour of doing good without its costing him anything. He who imposes privation upon himself during his life reaps a double profitthe merit of his sacrifice, and the pleasure of witnessing the happiness he has caused. But selfishness is apt to whisper, 'Whatever you give away is so much cut off from your own enjoyments;' and as the voice of selfishness is usually more persuasive than that of disinterestedness and charity, it too often leads a man to keep what he has, under pretext of the necessities of his position. He is to be pitied who knows not the pleasure of giving; for he is deprived of one of the purest and sweetest of enjoyments. In subjecting a man to the trial of wealth, so slippery, and so dangerous for his future, God placed within his reach, by way of compensation, the happiness which generosity may procure for him, even in his present life." (814.) 1002. What will become of him who, in the act of dying, acknowledges his wrong-doing, but has not time to make reparation? Does repentance suffice in such a case? "Repentance will hasten his rehabilitation, but it does not absolve him. Has he not the future, which will never be closed against him?" Duration of Future Penalties. 1003. Is the duration of the sufferings of the guilty, in the future life, arbitrary or subordinate to a low? "God never acts from caprice; everything in the universe is ruled by laws which reveal His wisdom and His goodness." 1004. What decides the duration of the sufferings of the guilty? "The length of time required for his amelioration. A spirit's state of suffering or of happiness being proportioned to tile degree of his purification, the duration of his sufferings, as well as their nature, depends on the time it takes him to become better. In proportion as he progresses, and his sentiments become purified, his sufferings diminish and change their nature." 398 ALLAN KARDEC 1005. Does time appear, to the suffering spirit, longer or shorter than in the earthly life? "It appears longer; sleep does not exist for him. It is only for spirits arrived at a certain degree of purification that time is merged, so to say with infinity." (240) 1006. Could a spirit suffer eternally? "Undoubtedly, if he remained eternally wicked; that is to say, if he were never to repent nor to amend, he would suffer eternally. But God has not created beings to let them remain for ever a prey to evil; He created them only in a state of simplicity and ignorance, and all of them must progress, in a longer or shorter time, according to the action of their will. The determination to advance may be awakened more or less tardily, as the development of children is more or less precocious; but it will he stimulated, sooner or later, by the irresistible desire of the spirit himself to escape from his state of inferiority, and to be happy. The law which regulates the duration of a spirit's sufferings is, therefore, eminently wise and beneficent, since it makes that duration to depend on his own efforts; he is never deprived of his free-will, but, if he makes a bad use of it, he will have to bear the consequences of his errors." 1007. Are there spirits who never repent? "There are some whose repentance is delayed for a very long time; but to suppose that they will never improve would be to deny the law of progress, and to assert that the child will never become a man." 1008. Does the duration of a spirit's punishment always depend on his own will, and is it never imposed on him for a given time? "Yes; punishment may be imposed on him for a fixed time, but God, who wills only the good of His creatures, always welcomes his repentance, and the desire to amend never remains sterile." 1009. According to that, the penalties imposed on spirits are never eternal? "Interrogate your common sense, your reason, and ask yourself whether an eternal condemnation for a few moments of error would not be the negation of the goodness of God ? What, in fact, is the duration of a human life, even though prolonged to a hundred years, in comparison with eternity? ETERNITY! Do you rightly comprehend the word? sufferings, tortures, without end, without hope, for a few faults! Does not your judgement reject 399 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK such an idea? That the ancients should have seen, in the Master of the Universe, a terrible, jealous, vindictive God, is conceivable, for, in their ignorance, they attributed to the Divinity the passions of men; but such is not the God of the Christians, who places love, charity, pity, the forgetfulness of offences, in the foremost rank of virtues, and who could not lack the qualities which He has made it the duty of His creatures to possess. Is it not a contradiction to attribute to Him infinite love and infinite vengeance? You say that God's justice is infinite, transcending the limited understanding of mankind; but justice does not exclude kindness, and God would not be kind if He condemned the greater number of His creatures to horrible and unending punishment. Could He make it obligatory on His children to be just, if His own action towards them did not give them the most perfect standard of justice? And is it not the very sublimity of justice and of kindness to make the duration of punishment to depend on the efforts of the guilty one to amend, and to mete out the appropriate recompense, both for good and for evil, 'to each, according to his works'?" SAINT AUGUSTINE "Set yourselves, by every means in your power, to combat and to annihilate the idea of eternal punishment, which is a blasphemy against the justice and goodness of God, and the principal source of the scepticism, materialism, and indifferentism that have invaded the masses since their intelligence has begun to be developed When once a mind has received enlightenment, in however slight a degree, the monstrous injustice of such an idea is immediately perceived; reason rejects it, and rarely fails to confound, in the same ostracism, the penalty against which it revolts and the God to whom that penalty is attributed. Hence the numberless ills which have burst upon you, and for which we come to bring you a remedy. The task we point out to you will be all the easier because the defenders of this belief have avoided giving a positive opinion in regard to it; neither the Councils nor the Fathers of the Church have definitely settled this weighty question. If Christ, according to the Evangelists and the literal interpretation of His allegorical utterances, threatens the guilty with a fire that is unquenchable, there is absolutely nothing in those utterances to prove that they are condemned to remain in that fire eternally. "Hapless sheep that have gone astray! behold, advancing towards you, the Good Shepherd who, so far from intending to drive you 400 ALLAN KARDEC for ever from His presence, comes Himself to seek you, that He may lead you back to the fold! Prodigal children! renounce your voluntary exile, and turn your steps towards the paternal dwelling! Your Father, with arms already opened to receive you, is waiting to welcome you back to your home!" LAMENNAlS "Wars of words! wars of words! has not enough blood been already shed for words, and must the fires of the stake he rekindled for them ? Men dispute about the words 'eternal punishments,' 'everlasting burnings;' but do you not know that what you now understand by eternity was not understood in the same way by the ancients ? Let the theologian consult the sources of his faith, and he, like the rest of you, will see that, in the Hebrew text, the word which the Greeks, the Latins, and the moderns, have translated as endless and irremissible punishment, has not the same meaning. Eternity of punishment corresponds to eternity of evil. Yes; so long as evil continues to exist among you, so long will punishment continue to exist; it is in this relative sense that the sacred texts should be interpreted. The eternity of punishments, therefore, is not absolute, but relative. Let a day come when all men shall have donned, through repentance, the robe of innocence, and, on that day, there will be no more weeping, wailing, or gnashing of teeth. Your human reason is, in truth, of narrow scope; but, such as it is, it is a gift of God, and there is no man of right feeling who, with the aid of that reason, can understand the eternity of punishment in any other sense. If we admit the eternity of punishment, we must also admit that evil will be eternal; but God alone is eternal, and He could not have created an eternal evil, without plucking from His attributes the most magnificent of them all, viz., His sovereign power; for he who creates an element destructive of his works is not sovereignly powerful. Plunge no more thy mournful glance, 0 human race! into the entrails of the earth, in search of chastisements ! Weep, but hope; expiate, but take comfort in the thought of a God who is entirely loving, absolutely powerful, essentially just." PLATO "Union with the Divine Being is the aim of human existence. To the attainment of this aim three things are necessary-knowledge, love justice: three things are contrary to this aimignorance, hatred, injustice. You are false to these fundamental principles when you falsify the idea of God by exaggerating His severity; thus suggesting to the mind of the creature that there is in it

401 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK more clemency, long-suffering, love, and true justice, than you attribute to the Creator. You destroy the very idea of retribution by rendering it as inadmissible, by your minds, as is, by your hearts, the policy of the Middle Ages, with its hideous array of torturers, executioners, and the stake. When the principle of indiscriminating retaliation has been banished for ever from human legislation, can you hope to make men believe that principle to be the rule of the Divine Government ? Believe me, brothers in God and in Jesus Christ, you must either resign yourselves to let all your dogmas perish in your hands rather than modify them, or you must revivify them by opening them to the beneficent action that good spirits are now bringing to bear on them. The idea of a hell full of glowing furnaces and boiling cauldrons might be credible in an age of iron; in the nineteenth century it can be nothing more than an empty phantom, capable, at the utmost, of frightening little children, and by which the children themselves will no longer be frightened when they are a little bigger. By your persistence in upholding mythic terrors, you engender incredulity, source of every sort of social disorganisation; and I tremble at beholding the very foundations of social order shaken, and crumbling into dust, for want of an authoritative code of penality. Let all those who are animated by a living and ardent faith, heralds of the coming day, unite their efforts, not to keep up antiquated fables now fallen into disrepute, but to resuscitate and revivify the true idea of penality, under forms in harmony with the usages, sentiments, and enlightenment of your epoch. "What, in fact, is 'a sinner' ? One who, by a deviation from the right road, by a false movement of the soul. has swerved from the true aim of his creation, which consists in the harmonious worship of the Beautiful, the Good, as embodied in the archetype of humanity, the Divine Exemplar, Jesus Christ. "What is 'chastisement' ? The natural, derivative consequence of that false movement; the amount of pain necessary to disgust the sinner with his departure from rectitude, by his experience of the suffering caused by that departure. Chastisement is the goad which, by the smarting it occasions, decides the soul to cut short its wanderings, and to return into the right road. The sole aim of chastisement is rehabilitation; and therefore, to assume the eternity of chastisement is to deprive it of all reason for existing. "Cease, I beseech you, the attempt to establish a parallelism of duration between good, essence of the Creator, and evil, essence 402 ALLAN KARDEC of the creature; for, in so doing, you establish a standard of penality that is utterly without justification. Affirm, on the contrary, the gradual diminution of imperfections and of chastisements through successive existences, and you consecrate the doctrine of the union of the creature with the Creator by the reconciliation of justice with mercy." PAUL, APOSTLE It is desired to stimulate men to the acquisition of virtue, and to turn them from vice, by the hope of reward and the fear of punishment but. if the threatened punishment is represented under conditions repugnant to reason, not only will it fail of its aim, but it will lead men, in rejecting those conditions, to reject the very idea of punishment itself. But let the idea of future rewards and punishments be presented to their mind under a reasonable form, and they will not reject it. This reasonable explanation of the subject is given by the teachings of Spiritism. The doctrine of eternal punishment makes an implacable God of the Supreme Being. Would it be reasonable to say of a sovereign that he is very kind, very benevolent. very indulgent, that he only desires the happiness of all around him, but that he is, at the same time, jealous, vindictive, inflexibly severe, and that he punishes three-quarters of his subjects with the most terrific tortures, for any offence, or any infraction of his laws, even when their imputed fault has resulted simply from their ignorance of the laws they have transgressed? Would there not be an evident contradiction in such a statement of the sovereign's character? And can God's action be less consistent than that of a man? The doctrine in question presents another contradiction. Since God fore-knows all things, He must have known, in creating a soul. that it would transgress His laws. and it must therefore have been. from its very formation, predestined by Him to eternal misery: but is such an assumption reasonable", or admissible? The doctrine of punishment proportioned to wrongdoing is, on the contrary, entirely consonant with reason and justice. God undoubtedly foresaw, in creating a given soul, that, in its ignorance, it would do wrong: but He has ordained that its very faults themselves shall furnish it with the means of becoming enlightened. through its experience of the painful effects of its wrong-doing He will compel it to expiate that wrong-doing, but only in order that it may be thereby more firmly fixed in goodness thus the door of hope is never closed against it, and the moment of its deliverance from suffering is made to depend on the amount of effort it puts forth to achieve its purification. If the doctrine of future punishment had always been presented under this aspect, very few would ever have doubted its truth. The word eternal is often figuratively employed, in common parlance, to designate any long period of duration of which the end is not foreseen, although it is known that it will come in course of time. We speak, for instance, of "the eternal snows" of mountain-peaks and polar regions, although we know, on the one hand, that our globe will come to an end, and, on the other hand, that the state of those regions may be changed by the normal displacement of the earth's axis, or by some cataclysm. The word eternal, therefore, in this case, does not mean infinitely perpetual. We say, in the suffering of some long illness, that our days present the same "eternal round" of weariness; is it strange, then, that spirits who have suffered for years, centuries, thousands of ages even, should express themselves in the same way? Moreover, we must not forget that their state of backwardness prevents them from seeing the other end of their road, and that they therefore believe themselves to be destined to suffer for ever; a belief which is itself a part of their punishment. The doctrine of material fire, of furnaces, and tortures, borrowed from the pagan Tartarus, is completely given up by many of the most eminent theologians of the present day, who admit that the word "fire" is employed figuratively in the Bible, and is to be understood as meaning moral fire (974). Those who, like ourselves, have observed the incidents of the life beyond the grave, as presented to our view by the communications of spirits, have had ample proof that its sufferings are none the less excruciating for not being of a material nature. And even as regards the duration of those sufferings, many theologians are beginning to admit the restriction 403 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK indicated above, and to consider that the word eternal may be considered as referring to the principle of penality in itself, as the consequence of an immutable law, and not to its application to each individual. When religious teaching shall openly admit this interpretation, it will bring back to a belief in God and in a future life many who are now losing themselves in the mazes of materialism. Resurrection of the Body. 1010. Is the doctrine of the resurrection of tile body an implication of that of that of reincarnation, as now taught by spirits? "How could it be otherwise? It is with regard to that expression as to so many others, that only appear unreasonable because they are taken literally, and are thus placed beyond the pale of credibility; let them only be rationally explained, and those whom you call free-thinkers will admit them without difficulty, precisely because they are accustomed to reflect. Freethinkers, like the rest of the world, perhaps even more than others, thirst for a future; they ask nothing better than to believe, but they cannot admit what is disproved by science. The doctrine of the plurality of existences is conformable with the justice of God it alone can explain what, without it, is inexplicable; how can you doubt, then, that its principle is to be found in all religions?" 1011. The Church, then, in the dogma of the resurrection of the body, really teaches the doctrine of reincarnation? "That is evident; but it will soon be seen that reincarnation is implied in every part of Holy Writ. Spirits, therefore, do not come to overthrow religion, as is sometimes asserted; they come, On the contrary, to confirm and sanction it by irrefragable proofs. But, as the time has arrived to renounce the use of figurative language, they speak without allegories, and give to every statement a clear and precise meaning that obviates all danger of false interpretation. For this reason there will be, ere long, a greater number of persons sincerely religious and really believing than are to be found at the present day." Physical science demonstrates the impossibility of resurrection according to the common idea. If the relics of the human body remained homogeneous, even though dispersed and reduced to powder, we might conceive the possibility of their being reunited at some future time ; but such is not the case. The body is formed of various elements, oxygen, hydrogen, azote, carbon, etc., and these elements, being dispersed, serve to form new bodies, so that the same molecule of carbon, for example, will have entered Into the composition of many thousands of different bodies (we speak only of human bodies, without counting those of animals); such and such an individual may have, in his body, molecules that were in the bodies of the men of the earliest ages; and the very same organic molecules that you have this day absorbed in your food may have come from the body of some one whom you have known; and so on, Matter being finite in quantity, and its transformations being infinite in number, how is it possible that the innumerable bodies formed out of it should be reconstituted with the same 404 ALLAN KARDEC elements? Such a reconstruction is a physical impossibility. The resurrection of the body can, therefore, be rationally admitted only as a figure of speech, symbolising the fact of reincarnation; thus interpreted, it has in it nothing repugnant to reason, nothing contrary to the data of physical science. It is true that, according to theological dogma, this resurrection Is not to take place until the "Last Day," while, according to spiritist doctrine, it takes place every day; but is not this picture of the "Last Judgement" a grand and noble metaphor, implying, under the veil of allegory, one of those immutable truths that will no longer be met with incredulity when restored to their true meaning? To those who carefully ponder the spiritist theory of the future destiny of souls, and of the fate that awaits them as the result of various trials they have to undergo, it will be apparent that. with the exception of the condition of simultaneousness, the judgement which condemns or absolves them is not a fiction, as is supposed by unbelievers. It is also to be remarked that the judgement which assigns to each soul Its next place of habitation is the natural consequence of the plurality of worlds, now generally admitted ; while, according to the doctrine of the "Last Judgement," the earth is supposed to be the only inhabited world. Paradise, Hell and Purgatory. 1012. Are there, in the universe, any circumscribed places set apart for the joys and sorrows of spirits, according to their merits? "We have already answered this question. The joys and sorrows of spirits are inherent in the degree of perfection at which they have arrived. Each spirit finds in himself the principle of his happiness or unhappiness; and, as spirits are everywhere, no enclosed or circumscribed place is set apart for either the One or the other. As for incarnated spirits, they are more or less happy or unhappy, according as the world they inhabit is more or less advanced." -"Heaven" and "hell," then, as men have imagined them, have no existence? "They are only symbols; there are happy and unhappy spirits everywhere. Nevertheless, as we have also told you, spirits of the same order are brought together by sympathy; but, when they are perfect, they can meet together wherever they will," The localisation of rewards and punishments in fixed places exists only in man's imagination; it proceeds from his' tendency to materialise and to circumscribe the things of which he cannot comprehend the essential infinitude. 1013. What is to be understood by Purgatory? "Physical and moral suffering; the period of expiation, It is almost always upon the earth that you are made by God to undergo your purgatory, and to expiate your wrong-doing." What men call purgatory is also a figure of speech, that should be understood as signifying, not any determinate place, but the state of imperfect spirits who have to expiate their faults until they have attained the complete purification that will raise them to the state of perfect blessedness. As this purification is effected by means of various incarnations, purgatory consists in the trials of corporeal life . 405 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK 1014. How is it that spirits who, by their language, would seem to be of high degree, have replied according to the commonly-received ideas to those who have questioned them in the most serious spirit concerning hell and purgatory? "They speak according to the comprehension of those who question them, when the latter are too fully imbued with preconceived ideas, in order to avoid any abrupt interference with their convictions. If a spirit should tell a Mussulman, without proper precautions, that Mahomet was not a true prophet, he would not he listened to with much cordiality." - Such precautions are conceivable on the' part of spirits who wish to instruct us; but how is it that others, when questioned as to their situation, have replied that they were suffering the torture's of hell or of purgatory? "Spirits of inferior advancement, who are not yet completely dematerialised, retain a portion of their earthly ideas, and describe their impressions by means of terms that are familiar to them. They are in a state that allows of their obtaining only a very imperfect foresight of the future; for which reason it often happens that spirits in erraticity, or but recently freed from their earthly body, speak just as they would have done during their earthly life. Hell may be understood as meaning a life of extremely painful trial, with uncertainty as to the future attainment of any better state; and purgatory as a life that is also one of trial, but with the certainty of a happier future. Do you not say, when undergoing any very intense physical or mental distress, that you are suffering 'the tortures of the damned' ? But such an expression is only a figure of speech, and is always employed as such." 1015. What is to be understood by the expression, "a soul in torment"? "An errant and suffering soul, uncertain about its future, and to whom you can render, in its endeavour to obtain relief, an assistance that it often solicits at your hands by the act of addressing itself to you." (664.) 1016. In what sense is the word heaven to be understood? "Do you suppose it to be a place like the Elysian Fields of the ancients, where all good spirits are crowded together pell-mell, with no other care than that of enjoying, throughout eternity, a passive felicity? No; it is universal space; it is the planets, the 406 ALLAN KARDEC stars, and all the worlds of high degree, in which spirits are in the enjoyment of all their faculties, without having the tribulations of material life, or the sufferings inherent in the state of inferiority." 1017. Spirits have said that they inhabited the third, fourth, and fifth heaven, etc.; what did they mean in saying this? "You ask them which heaven they inhabit, because you have the idea of several heavens, placed one above the other, like the storeys of a house, and they therefore answer you according to your own ideas; but, for them, the words 'third,' 'fourth,' or 'fifth' heaven, express different degrees of purification, and consequently of happiness. It is the same when you ask a spirit whether he is in hell; if he is unhappy, he will say 'yes,' because, for him, hell is synonymous with suffering; but he knows very well that it is not a furnace. A Pagan would have replied that lie was in Tartarus." The same may be said in regard to other expressions of a similar character, such as "the city of flowers," "the city of the elect," the first, second, or third "sphere." etc., which are only allegorical, and employed by some spirits figuratively, by others from ignorance of the reality of things, or even of the most elementary principles of natural science. According to the restricted idea formerly entertained in regard to the localities of rewards and punishments, and to the common belief that the earth was the centre of the universe, that the sky formed a vault overhead, and that there was a specific region of stars. men placed heaven up above, and hell down below; hence the expressions to "ascend into heaven," to be in "the highest heaven." to be "cast down into hell." etc. Now that astronomy, having traced up the earth's history and described its constitution, has shown us that it is one of the smallest worlds that circulate in space and devoid of any special importance, that space is infinite, and that there is neither "lip" nor "down" in the universe, men have been obliged to cease placing heaven above the clouds. and hell in the "lower parts of the earth." As for purgatory. no fixed place was ever assigned to it. It was reserved for Spiritism to give. in regard to all these points, an explanation which is at once. and in the highest degree, rational. sublime, and consoling, by showing us that we have in ourselves our "hell" and our "heaven," and that we find our "purgatory" in the state of incarnation, in our successive corporeal or physical lives. 1018. In what sense should we understand the words of Christ, 'My kingdom is not of this world"? "Christ, in replying thus, spoke figuratively. He meant to say that He reigned only over pure and unselfish hearts, He is wherever the love of goodness holds sway; but they who are greedy for the things of this world, and attached to the enjoyments of earth, are not with Him." 1019. “Will the reign of goodness ever be established upon the earth? 407 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK "Goodness will reign upon the earth when, among the spirits who come to dwell in it, the good shall be more numerous than the bad; for they will then bring in the reign of love and justice, which are the source of good and of happiness. It is through moral progress and practical conformity with the laws of God, that men will attract to the earth good spirits, who will keep bad ones away from it; but the latter will not definitively quit the earth until its people shall be completely purified from pride and selfishness. "The transformation of the human race has been predicted from the most ancient times, and you are now approaching the period when it is destined to take place. All those among you who are labouring to advance the progress of mankind are helping to hasten this transformation, which will be effected through the incarnation, in your earth, of spirits of higher degree, who will constitute a new population, of greater moral advancement than the human races they will gradually have replaced. The spirits of the wicked people who are mowed down each day by death, and of all who endeavour to arrest the onward movement, will be excluded from the earth, and compelled to incarnate themselves elsewhere; for they would be out of place among those nobler races of human beings, whose felicity would be impaired by their presence among them. They will be sent into never worlds, less advanced than the earth, and will therein fulfil hard and laborious missions, which will furnish them with the means of advancing, while contributing also to the advancement of their brethren of those younger worlds, less advanced than themselves, Do you not see, in this exclusion of backward spirits from the transformed and regenerated earth, the true significance of the sublime myth of the driving out of the first pair from the garden of Eden? And do you not also see, in the advent of the human race upon the earth, under the conditions of such an exile, and bringing within; itself the germs of its passions and the evidences of its primitive inferiority, the real meaning of that other myth, no less sublime, of the fall of those first parents, entailing the sinfulness of their descendants? 'Original sin,' considered from this point of view, is seen to consist in the imperfection of human nature; and each of the spirits subsequently incarnated in the human race is therefore responsible only for his own imperfection and his own wrong-doing, and not for those of his forefathers. 408 ALLAN KARDEC "Devote yourselves, then, with zeal and courage to the great work of regeneration, all you who are processed of faith and good will; you will reap a hundredfold for all the seed you sow, Woe to those who close their eyes against the light; for they will have condemned themselves to long ages of darkness and sorrow! Woe to those who centre their enjoyment in the pleasures of the earthly life; for they will undergo privations more numerous than their present pleasures! And woe, above all, to the selfish; for they will find none to aid them in bearing the burden of their future misery!" 409 CONCLUSION I HE who, in regard to terrestrial magnetism, knows only the little figures of ducks which, with the aid of a magnet, are made to swim about in a basin of water, would find it difficult to understand that those toy-figures contain the secret of the mechanism of the universe and of the movement of worlds, He, whose knowledge of Spiritism is confined to the table- turning which was the starting-point of the modern manifestations, is in a similar position; he regards it merely as an amusement, a social pastime, and cannot understand how a phenomenon so simple and so common, known to antiquity and even to savage tribes, can be connected with the weightiest questions of psychology and of human life, For the superficial observer, what connection can exist between a table that turns and the morality and future destiny of the human race? But as, from the simple pot which, in boiling, raises its lid (a pot, too, which has boiled from the remotest antiquity), there has issued the potent motor with whose aid man transports himself through space and suppresses distance, so, be it known to you, 0 ye who believe in nothing beyond the material world! there has issued, from the table-turning which provokes your disdainful smiles, a new philosophy that furnishes the solution of problems which no other has been able to solve, I appeal to all honest adversaries of Spiritism, and I adjure them to say whether they have taken the trouble to study what they criticise; reminding them that criticism is necessarily of no value unless the critic knows what he is talking about, To ridicule that of which we know nothing, which we have not made the subject of conscientious examination, is not to criticise, but to give proof of frivolity and want of judgement. Assuredly, if we had present this philosophy as being the product of a human brain, it would have met with less disdain, and would have had the honour of being examined by those who profess to be the leaders of opinion: but it claims to be derived from spirits; what an absurdity! It is 410 ALLAN KARDEC scarcely held to deserve a single glance by those who judge it merely by its title, as the monkey in the fable judged of the nut by its husk, But put aside all thought of the origin of this book; suppose it to be the work of a man, and say, in truth and honesty, whether, after having carefully read it, you find in it anything to laugh at? II Spiritism is the most formidable opponent of materialism, and it is therefore not surprising that it should have the materialists for adversaries; but as materialism is a doctrine which many of those who hold it hardly dare to avow, they cover their opposition with the mantle of reason and science, Their shafts are especially aimed at the marvellous and the supernatural, which they deny; and as, according to them, Spiritism is founded on the marvellous and the supernatural, they declare that it can be nothing more than a ridiculous delusion. Strange to say, some of those who are most incredulous in regard to Spiritism deny the possibility of its phenomena in the name of religion, of which they often know as little as they do of Spiritism. They do not reflect that, in denying, without restriction, the possibility of the "marvellous" and the "supernatural," they deny religion, for religion is founded on revelation and miracles; and what is revelation if not extra-human communications? All the sacred writers, from Moses downwards, have spoken of this order of communications. And what are miracles if not facts of a character emphatically marvellous and super-natural, since they are, according to liturgical acceptation, derogations from the laws of nature, so that, in rejecting the marvellous and the supernatural, they reject the very basis of all religions ? But it is not from this point of view that we have to consider the subject. Belief in spirit-manifestation does not necessarily settle the question of miracles; that is to say, whether God does, or does not, in certain cases, derogate from the eternal laws that regulate the universe; it leaves, in regard to this question, full liberty of belief to all. Spiritism says, and proves, that the phenomena on which it is based are supernatural only in appearance, that they only appear to some persons to be such, because they are unusual, and out of the pale of facts hitherto known; and that they are no more supernatural than all the other phenomena which 411 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK the science of the present day is explaining, though they appeared to be "miraculous" in the past. All spiritist phenomena, without exception, are the consequence of general laws; they reveal to us one of the powers of nature, a power hitherto unknown, or rather that has not hitherto been understood, but which observation shows us to be included in the scheme of things. Spiritism, therefore, is founded less on the marvellous and the supernatural than is religion itself; and those who attack it on this score do so because they know not what it really is. As for those who oppose it in the name of science, we say to them, be they ever so learned, "If your science, which has taught you so many things, has not taught you that the domain of nature is infinite, you are scientific to very little purpose." III You say that you wish to cure your age of a malady of credulity that threatens to invade the world. Would you prefer to see the world invaded by the incredulity that you seek to propagate? Is it not to the absence of all belief that are to be attributed the relaxing of familyties and the greater part of the disorders that are undermining society? By demonstrating the existence and immortality of the soul, Spiritism revives faith in the future, raises the courage of those who are depressed, and enables us to bear the vicissitudes of life with resignation. Do you call this an evil? Two doctrinal theories are offered for our acceptance; one of them denies the existence of a future life, the other proclaims and proves it; one of them explains nothing, the other explains everything, and, by so doing, appeals to our reason; one of them is the justification of selfishness, the other gives a firm basis to justice, charity, and the love of one's fellow-creatures; one of them shows only the present and annihilates all hope, the other consoles us by showing the vast field of the future; which of the two is the more pernicious? There are some, among the most sceptical of our opponents, who give themselves out as apostles of fraternity and progress; but fraternity implies disinterestedness and abnegation of one's own personality, and by what right do you impose such a sacrifice on him to whom you affirm that, when be is dead, everything will be over for him, that soon, perhaps to-morrow, he will be nothing

412 ALLAN KARDEC more than a worn-out machine, out of gear, and thrown aside as so much rubbish? Why, in that case, should he impose on himself any privation ? Is it not more natural that he should resolve to live as agreeably as possible during the few brief instants you accord to him? And would not such a resolve naturally suggest to him the desire to possess largely in order to secure the largest amount of enjoyment? And would not this desire naturally give birth to jealousy of those who possess more than he does? And, from such jealousy to the desire to take from them what they possess, is there more than a single step? What is there, in fact, to restrain him from doing so? The law? But the law does not reach every case. Conscience? the sense of duty? But what, from your point of view, is conscience? and upon what do you base the sense of duty? Has that sense any motive or aim if it be true that everything ends for us with our present life? In connection with such a belief, only one maxim can be reasonably admitted-viz., "Every man for himself." Fraternity, conscience, duty, humanity, progress even, are but empty words. Ah! you who proclaim such a doctrine, you know not how much harm you do to society, nor of how many crimes you incur the responsibility! But why do we speak of responsibility? Nothing of the kind exists for the materialist; he renders homage only to matter. IV The progress of the human race results from the practical application of the law of justice, love, and charity. This law is founded on the certainty of the future; take away that certainty, and you take away its corner-stone. It is from this law that all other laws are derived, for it comprises all the conditions of human happiness; it alone can cure the evils of society; and the improvement that takes place in the conditions of social life, in proportion as this law is better understood and better carried out in action, becomes clearly apparent when we compare the various ages and peoples of the earth. And if the partial and incomplete application of this law have sufficed to produce an appreciable improvement in social conditions, what will it not effect when it shall have become the basis of all social institutions? Is such a result possible ? Yes; for as the human race has already accomplished ten steps, it is evident that it can accomplish twenty, and so on. We can infer the future from the past. We see that 413 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK the antipathies between different nations are beginning to melt away; that the barriers which separated them are being overthrown by the progress of civilisation, and that they are joining hands from one end of the world to the other. A larger measure of justice has been introduced into international law; wars occur less frequently, and do not exclude the exercise of humane sentiments; uniformity is being gradually established in the relations of life; the distinctions of races and castes are being effaced, and men of different religious beliefs are imposing silence on sectional prejudices, that they may unite in adoration of one and the same God. We speak of the nations who are at the head of civilisation (789-793). In all these relations, men are still far from perfection, and there are still many old ruins to be pulled down before the last vestiges of barbarism will have been cleared away; but can those ruins withstand the irresistible action of progress, that living force which is itself a law of nature ? If the present generation is more advanced than the last, why should not the next be more advanced than the present one ? It will necessarily be so through the force of things; in the first place, because each generation, as it passes away, carries with it some of the champions of old abuses, and society is thus gradually reconstituted with new elements that have thrown aside antiquated prejudices; in the second place, because, when men have come to desire progress, they study the obstacles which impede it, and set themselves to get rid of them. The fact of the progressive movement of human society being incontestable, there can be no doubt that progress will continue to be made in the future. Man desires to be happy; it is in his nature so to do. He only he has not obtained complete happiness, and that this happiness but for which result progress would have no object; for where would be the value of progress for him if it did not improve his position ? But when he shall have obtained all the enjoyments that can be afforded by intellectual progress, he will perceive that he has not obtained complete happiness, and that this happiness is impossible without security in the social relations; and as he can only obtain this security through the moral progress of society in general, he will be led, by the force of things, to labour for that end, to the attainment of which, Spiritism will furnish him with the most effectual means. 414 ALLAN KARDEC V Those who complain that spiritist belief is spreading in all directions and threatening to invade the world, thereby proclaim its power; for no opinion that is not founded on reason and on fact could become general. Therefore, if Spiritism is taking root everywhere, making converts in every rank of society, and especially among the educated classes, as is admitted by all to be the case, it is evident that it must founded in truth. That being so, all the efforts of its detractors will be made in vain; an assertion borne out by the fact that the ridicule attempted to be heaped upon it by those who have hoped thereby to arrest its march seems only to have given it new life. This result fully justifies the assurances that have been so constantly given us by our spirit-friends, who have repeatedly said to us, "Do not allow yourself to be made uneasy by opposition. Whatever is done against you will turn to your advantage, and your bitterest opponents will serve you in spite of themselves. Against the will of God, the ill-will of men is of no avail." Through the moral teachings of Spiritism, the human race will enter upon a new phase of its destiny; that of the moral progress which is the inevitable consequence of this belief. The rapid spread of spiritist ideas should cause no surprise, being due to the profound satisfaction they give to those who adopt them with intelligence and sincerity; and as happiness is what men desire above all things, it is not surprising that they should embrace ideas which impart so much happiness to those who hold them. The development of these ideas presents three distinct periods. The first is that of curiosity, excited by the strangeness of the phenomena produced; the second, that of reasoning and philosophy; the third, that of application and consequences. The period of curiosity is gone by, for curiosity has only a brief existence; the mind, when satisfied in regard to any novelty, quitting it at once for another, as is not its habit in regard to subjects that awaken graver thought and that appeal to the judgement. The second period has already begun; the third will certainly follow. The progress of Spiritism has been specially rapid since its essential nature and its scope have been more correctly understood, because it touches the most sensitive fibre of the human heart, viz., the desire of happiness, which it augments immeasurably, even in the present world; this, as previously remarked, is the cause of its 415 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK wide acceptance, the secret of the force that will make it triumph. It renders happy those who understand it, while awaiting the extension of its influence over the masses. How many a spiritist, who has never witnessed any of the physical phenomena of spirit-manifestation, says to himself, "Besides the phenomena of Spiritism, there is its philosophy, which explains what NO OTHER has ever explained. That philosophy furnishes me, through arguments draw from reason only and independently of any sanction but that of reason, with a rational solution of problems that are of the most vital importance to my future; it gives me calmness, security, confidence; it delivers me from the torments of uncertainty. In comparison with results so valuable, the question of the physical phenomena is of secondary importance." To those who attack this philosophy, we reply, "Would you like to have a means of combating it successfully ? If so, here it is: Bring forward something better in its place; find a more philosophic solution of the problems it solves: give to man ANOTHER CERTAINTY that shall render him still happier. But you must thoroughly understand the meaning of the word certainty, for man only accepts as certain what appears to him to be reasonable. You must not content yourselves with saying that the thing is not so, which is a mode of proceeding altogether too easy. You must prove, not by negation, but by facts, that what we assert to exist has no existence, has never been, and CANNOT BE, and above all, having shown that it has no existence, you must show what you have to offer in its place; and you must prove that the tendency of Spiritism is not to make men better, and consequently happier, by the practice of the purest morality-that sublime and simple morality of the Gospels, which men praise so much, and practise so little. When you have done all this, you will have a right to attack it." Spiritism is strong because its bases are those of religion itself, viz., God, the soul, the rewards and punishments of the future; because it shows those rewards and punishments to be the natural consequences of the earthly life; and because, in the picture it presents of the future, there is nothing which the most logical mind could regard as contrary to reason. What compensation can you offer for the sufferings of the present life, you whose whole doctrine consists in the negation of the future? You base your teachings on incredulity; Spiritism is based on confidence in God: while the latter invites all men to happiness, to hope, to true 416 ALLAN KARDEC fraternity, you offer them, in prospect, ANNIHILATION, and in the present, by way of consolation, SELFISHNESS: it explains everything, and you explain nothing; it proves by facts, while your assertions are devoid of proof. How can you expect that the world should hesitate between these two doctrines? To suppose that Spiritsm derives its strength from the physical manifestations, and that it might therefore be put an end to by hindering those manifestations, is to form to one's self a very false idea of it. Its strength is in its philosophy, in the appeal it makes to reason, to common sense. In ancient times it was the object of mysterious studies, carefully hidden from the vulgar; at the present day it has no secrets, but speaks clearly, without ambiguity, mysticism, or allegories susceptible of false interpretations. The time having come for making known the truth, its language is such as all may comprehend. So far from being opposed to the diffusion of the light, the new revelation is intended for all mankind; it does not claim a blind acceptance, but. urges every one to examine the grounds of his belief, and as its teachings are based upon reason, it will always be stronger than those who base their arguments upon annihilation. Would it be possible to put a stop to spirit-manifestations, by placing obstacles in the way of their production? No; for such an attempt would have the effect of all persecutions, viz., that of exciting curiosity, and the desire of making acquaintance with a forbidden subject. Were spirit-manifestations the privilege of a single individual, it would undoubtedly be possible, by preventing his action, to put an end to them; but unfortunately for our adversaries, those manifestations are within everybody's reach, and are being obtained by all, from the highest to the lowest, from the palace to the cottage. It might be possible to prevent their production in public, but, as is well known, it is not in public, but in private, that they are most successfully produced; and as any one may be a medium, how would it be possible to prevent each family in the privacy of its home, each individual in the silence of his chamber, each prisoner, even, in his cell, from holding communication with the invisible beings around them, in the very presence of those who should endeavour to prevent them from doing so? If mediums were forbidden to exercise their faculty in one country. how would it be possible to hinder them from doing so elsewhere throughout the rest of the world, since there is not a single country, in either continent, in which mediums are not to be found? In order to 417 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK shut up all the mediums, it would be necessary to incarcerate half the human race; and even if it were possible, which would scarcely be easier, to burn all the spiritist books in existence, they would at once be reproduced, because the source from which they emanate is beyond the reach of attack, and it is impossible to imprison or to burn the spirits who are their real authors. Spiritism is not the work of any man; no one can claim to have created it, for it is as old as creation itself. It is to be found everywhere, in all religions, and in the Catholic religion even more than in the others, and with more authoritative inculcation, for the Catholic dogma contains all that constitutes Spiritism; admission of the existence of spirits of every degree; their relations, occult and patent, with mankind; guardian-angels, reincarnation, the emancipation of the soul during the present life, second-sight, visions, and manifestations of every kind, including even tangible apparitions; As for demons, they are nothing else than bad spirits; and with the exception of the belief that the former are doomed to evil for ever, while the path of progress is not closed against the others, there is, between them, only a difference of name. What is the special and peculiar work of modern Spiritism? To make a coherent whole of what has hitherto been scattered; to explain, in clear and precise terms, what has hitherto been wrapped up in the language of allegory; to eliminate the products of superstition and ignorance from human belief, leaving only what is real and actual: this is its mission, but that of a founder does not belong to it. It renders evident that which already exists; it co-ordinates, but it creates nothing, for its elements are of all countries and of every age. Who, then, could flatter himself with the hope of being able to stifle it, either by ridicule or by persecution? If it were possible to proscribe it in one place, it would reappear in another, or on the very spot from which it had been banished, because it exists in the constitution of things, and because no man can annihilate that which is one of the powers of nature, or veto that which is in virtue of the Divine decrees. But what interest could any Government have in opposing the propagation of spiritist ideas? Those ideas, it is true, are a protest against the abuses that spring from pride and selfishness; but although such abuses are profitable to the few, they are injurious to the many, and Spiritism would therefore have the 418 ALLAN KARDEC masses on its side, while its only adversaries would be those who profit by the abuses against which it protests. So far from Governments having anything to dread from the spread of spiritist ideas, the tendency of those ideas being to render men more benevolent towards one another, less greedy of material things, and more resigned to the orderings of Providence, they constitute, for the State, a guarantee of order and of tranquillity. VII Spiritism presents three different aspects, viz., the facts of spirit-manifestation, the philosophic and moral principles deducible from those facts, and the practical applications of which those principles are susceptible; hence three classes into which its adherents are naturally divided, or rather, three degrees of advancement by which they are distinguished: 1st, Those who believe in the reality and genuineness of the spirit-manifestations, but confine themselves to the attestation of these, and for whom Spiritism is merely an experimental science; 2d, Those who comprehend its moral bearings; 3d, Those who put in practice, or, at least, endeavour to put in practice, the system of morality which it is the mission of Spiritism to establish. Whatever the point of view experimental, scientific, or moral, from which these strange phenomena are considered, every one perceives that they are ushering in an entirely novel order of ideas, which must necessarily produce a profound modification of the state of the human race; and every one who understands the subject also perceives that this modification can only be for good. As for our adversaries, they may also be grouped into three categories:1st, Those who systematically deny whatever is new, or does not proceed from themselves, and who speak without knowing what they are talking about. To this class belong all those who admit nothing beyond the testimony of their senses they have not seen anything, do not wish to see anything, and are still more unwilling to go deeply into anything; they would, in fact, be unwilling to see too clearly. for fear of being obliged to confess that they have been mistaken; they declare that Spiritism is chimerical insane. utopian. and has no real existence, as the easiest way of settling the matter; they are the wilfully incredulous. With them may be classed those who have condescended to glance at the subject, in order to be able to say, "I 419 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK have tried to see something of it, but I have not been able to succeed in doing so;" and who do not seem to be aware that half an hour's attention is not enough to make them acquainted with a new field of study; 2d, Those who, although perfectly aware of the genuineness of the phenomena, oppose the matter from interested motives. They know that Spiritism is true; but being afraid of consequences, they attack it as an enemy. 3d, Those who dread the moral rules of Spiritism as constituting too severe a censure of their acts and tendencies. A serious admission of the truth of Spiritism would be in their way; they neither reject nor accept it, but prefer to close their eyes in regard to it. The first class is swayed by pride and presumption; the second by ambition; the third by selfishness. We should seek in vain for a fourth class of antagonists, viz., that of opponents who, basing their opposition on a careful and conscientious study of Spiritism, should bring forward positive and irrefutable evidence of its falsity. It would be hoping too much of human nature to imagine that it could be suddenly transformed by spiritist ideas. The action of these undoubtedly is not the same, nor is it equally powerful, in the case of all those by whom they are professed; but their result, however slight it may be, is always beneficial, if only by proving the existence of an extracorporeal world, and thus disproving the doctrines of materialism. This result follows from a mere observation of the phenomena of Spiritism; but, among those who, comprehending its philosophy, see in it something else than phenomena more or less curious, it produces other effects. The first and most general of these is the development of the religious sentiment, even in those who, without being materialists, are indifferent to spiritual things; and this sentiment leads to contempt of death-we do not say to a desire for death, for the spiritist would defend his life like anyone else, but to an indifference which causes him to accept death, when inevitable, without murmuring and without regret, as something to be welcomed rather than feared, owing to his certainty in regard to the state which follows it. The second effect of spiritist convictions is resignation under the vicissitudes of life. Spiritism lead us to consider everything from so elevated a point of view that the importance of terrestrial life is proportionally diminished, and we are less painfully affected by its tribulations; we have consequently more courage under affliction, more moderation in our desires, and also 420 ALLAN KARDEC a more rooted repugnance to the idea of shortening our days, Spiritism showing us that suicide always causes the loss of what it was intended to obtain. The certainty of a future which it depends on ourselves to render happy, the possibility of establishing relations with those who are dear to us in the other life, offer the highest of all consolations to the spiritist; and his field of view is widened to infinity by his constant beholding of the life beyond the grave, and his growing acquaintance with conditions of existence hitherto veiled in mystery. The third effect of spiritist ideas is to induce indulgence for the defects of others; but it must be admitted that, selfishness being the most tenacious of human sentiments, it is also the one which it is most difficult to extirpate. We are willing to make sacrifices provided they cost us nothing, and provided especially that they impose on us no privations; but money still exercises an irresistible attraction over the greater number of mankind, and very few understand the word "superfluity" in connection with their own personality. The abnegation of our personality is, therefore, the most eminent sign of progress. VIII "Do spirits," it is sometimes asked, "teach us anything new in the way of morality, anything superior to what has been taught by Christ? If the moral code of Spiritism be no other than that of the gospel, what is the use of it?" This mode of reasoning is singularly like that of the Caliph Omar, in speaking of the Library of Alexandria: - “If," said he, "it contains only what is found in the Koran. it is useless, and in that case must be burned; if it contains anything that is not found in the Koran, it is bad, and in that case, also, it must be burned." No; the morality of Spiritism is not different from that of Jesus; but we have to ask, in our turn, whether, before Christ, men had not the law given by God to Moses? Is not the doctrine of Christ to be found in the Decalogue? But will it therefore be contended that the moral teaching of Jesus is useless? We ask, still further, of those who deny the utility of the moral teachings of Spiritism, why it is that the moral teachings of Christ are so little practised. and why it is that those who rightly proclaim their sublimity are the first to violate the first of His laws, viz., that of universal charity" Spirits now come not only to confirm it, but also to 421 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK show us its practical utility; they render intelligible, patent, truths that have hitherto been taught under he form of allegory; and, with this reinculcation of the eternal truths of morality, they also give us the solution of the most abstract problems of psychology. Jesus came to show men the road to true goodness. Since God sent Him to recall to men's mind the divine law they had forgotten. why should He not send spirits to recall it to their memory once again, and with still greater precision, now that they are for-getting it in their devotion to pride and to material gain? Who shall take upon himself to set bounds to the power of God, or to dictate His ways? Who shall say that the appointed time has not arrived, as it is declared to have done by spirits, when truths hitherto unknown or misunderstood are to be openly proclaimed to the human race. in order to hasten its advancement ? Is there not something evidently providential in the fact that spirit-manifestations are being made on all points of the globe? It is hot a single man, an isolated prophet, who comes to arouse us; light is breaking forth on all sides, and a new world is being opened out before our eyes. As the invention of the microscope has revealed to us the world of the infinitely little, the existence of which was unsuspected by us, and as the telescope has revealed to us the myriads of worlds the existence of which we suspected just as little,-so the spirit-communications of the present day are revealing to us the existence of an invisible world that surrounds us on all sides, that is incessantly in contact with us, and that takes part, unknown to us, in everything we do. Yet a short time, and the existence of that world, which is awaiting every one of us, will be as incontestable as is that of the microscopic world, and of the infinity of globes in space. Is it nothing to have made known that new world, to have initiated us into the mysteries of the life beyond the grave ? It is true that these discoveries, if such they can he called, are contrary to certain received ideas; but have not all great scientific discoveries modified, and even overthrown, ideas as fully received by the world, and has not our pride of opinion had to yield to evidence ? It will be the same in regard to Spiritism, which ere long will have taken its place among the other branches of human knowledge. Communication with the beings of the world beyond the grave enables us to see and to comprehend the life to come, initiates us into the joys and sorrows that await us therein according to our deserts, and thus brings back to spiritualism those who had come to 422 ALLAN KARDEC see in man only matter, only an organised machine; we are there-fore justified in asserting that the facts of Spiritism have given the death-blow to materialism. Had Spiritism done nothing more than this, it would be entitled to the gratitude of all the friends of social order; but it does much more than this, for it shows the inevitable results of evil, and, consequently, the necessity of goodness. The number of those whom it has brought back to better sentiments, whose evil tendencies it has neutralised, and whom it has turned from wrongdoing, is already larger than is usually supposed, and is becoming still more considerable every day; because the future is no longer for them a vague imagining, a mere hope, but a fact, the reality of which is felt and understood when they see and hear those who have left us lamenting or rejoicing over what they did when they were upon the earth. Whoever witnesses these communications begins to reflect on the reality thus brought home to him, and to feel the need of self-examination, self-judgement, and self-amendment. IX The fact that differences of opinion exist among spiritists in regard to certain points of doctrine has been used by opponents as a handle against it. It is not surprising that, in the beginning of a new science, when the observations on which it is based are still incomplete, the subjects of which it treats should have been regarded by its various adherents from their own point of view, and that contradictory theories should thus have been put forth. But a deeper study of the facts in question has already overthrown most of those theories, and, among others, that which attributed all spirit-communications to evil spirits, as though it were impossible for God to send good spirits to men; a supposition that is at once absurd, because it is opposition to the facts of the case, and impious, because it is a denial of the power and goodness of the Creator. Our spirit-guides have always advised us not to trouble ourselves about divergences of opinion among spiritists, assuring us that unity of doctrine will eventually be established; and we accordingly see that this unity has already been arrived at in regard to the major part of the points at issue, and that divergences of opinion, in regard to the others, are disappearing day by day.

423 THE SPIRITS’ BOOK To the question, "While awaiting the establishment of doctrinal unity, upon what basis can an impartial and disinterested inquirer arrive at a judgement as to the relative merits of the various theories put forth by spirits?" the following reply was given: - "The purest light is that which is not obscured by any cloud; the most precious diamond is the one which is without a flaw; judge the communications of spirits, in like manner, by the purity of their teachings. Do not forget that there are, among spirits, many who have not yet freed themselves from their earthly ideas. Learn to distinguish them by their language; judge them by the sum of what they tell you; see whether there is logical sequence in the ideas they suggest, whether there is, in their statements, nothing that betrays ignorance, pride, or malevolence; in a word, whether their communications always bear the stamp of wisdom that attests true superiority. If your world were inaccessible to error, it would be perfect, which it is far from being; you have still to learn to distinguish error from truth; you need the lessons of experience to exercise your judgement and to bring you on. The basis of unity will he found in the body of doctrine among the adherents of which good has never been mixed with evil; men will rally spontaneously to that doctrine, because they will judge it to be the truth. "But what matter a few dissidences of opinion, more apparent than real ? The fundamental principles of Spiritism are every where the same, and should unite you all in a common bond; that of the love of God and the practice of goodness. Whatever you suppose to be the mode of progression and the normal conditions of your future existence, the aim proposed is still the same, viz., to do right; and there is but one way of doing that." If there be, among spiritists, differences of opinion in regard to some points of theory, all of them are agreed in regard to the fundamentals of the matter; unity, therefore, already exists among them, with the exception of the very small number of those who do not yet admit the intervention of spirits in the manifestations, and who attribute these either to purely physical causes, which is contrary to the axiom, "Every intelligent effect must have an intelligent cause," or to a reflex action of our own thought, which is disproved by the facts of the case. There may, then, be different schools, seeking light in regard to the points of spiritist doctrine that are still open to controversy; there ought not to be rival sects, making opposition to one another. Antagonism should 424 ALLAN KARDEC only exist between those who desire goodness, and those who desire, or do, evil; but no one who has sincerely adopted the broad principles of morality laid down by Spiritism can desire evil or wish ill to his neighbour, whatever may be his opinions in regard to points of secondary importance. If any school be in error, it will obtain light, sooner or later, if it seeks honestly and without prejudice; and all schools possess, meanwhile, a common bond that should unite them in the same sentiment. All of them have a common aim; it matters little what road they take, provided it leads to the common goal. None should attempt to impose their opinion by force, whether physical or moral; and any school that should hurl its anathema at another would be clearly in the wrong, for it would evidently be acting under the influence of evil spirits. The only force of an argument is its intrinsic reasonableness; and moderation will do more to ensure the triumph of the truth than diatribe envenomed by envy and jealousy. Good spirits preach only union and the love of the neighbour; and nothing malevolent or uncharitable can ever proceed from a pure source. As bearing on the subject of the foregoing remarks, and also as a fitting termination of the present work, we subjoin the following message from the spirit of Saint Augustine-a message conveying counsels well worthy of being laid to heart by all who read it:- "Long enough have men torn one another to pieces, anathematising each other in the name of a God of peace and of mercy, whom they insult by such a sacrilege. Spiritism will eventually constitute a bond of union among them, by showing what is truth and what is error; but there will still be, and for a long time to come, scribes and pharisees who will reject it, as they rejected Christ. Would you know the quality of the spirits who influence the various sects into which the world is divided? Judge them by their deeds and by the principles they profess. Never did good spirits instigate to the commission of evil deeds; never did they counsel or condone murder or violence; never did they excite party-hatreds, the thirst for riches and honours, or greed of earthly things. They alone who are kind, humane, benevolent, to all, are counted as friends by spirits of high degree; they alone are counted as friends by Jesus, for they alone are following the road which He has shown them as the only one which leads to Him." SAINT AUGUSTINE 426 I N D E X TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 09 AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION 19 INTRODUCTION 21 PROLEGOMENA 59 BOOK FIRST CHAPTER I GOD 63 God and infinity 63 Proofs of the existence of God 64 Attributes of the Divinity 65 Pantheism 66 CHAPTER II GENERAL ELEMENTS OF THE UNIVERSE 68 Knowledge of the first principles of things 68 Spirit and matter 69 Properties of matter 71 Universal space 72 CHAPTER III CREATION 74 Formation of worlds 74 Production of living beings 75 Peopling of the earth : Adam 76 Diversity of human races 77 Plurality of worlds 77 The Biblical account of the creation 78 CHAPTER IV THE VITAL PRINCIPLE 83 Organic and Inorganic beings 83 Life and death 84 Intelligence and instinct 86 BOOK SECOND THE SPIRIT-WORLD, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. CHAPTER I SPIRITS 88 427 INDEX Origin and nature of spirits 88 Primitive and normal world 90 Form and ubiquity of spirits 90 Perispirit 92 Different orders of spirits 92 Spirit-hierarchy 93 Progression of Spirits 101 Angels and demons 105 CHAPTER II INCARNATION OF SPIRITS 107 Aim of Incarnation 107 The soul 108 Materialism 112 CHAPTER III RETURN FROM CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRIT-LIFE 114 The soul after death 114 Separation of soul and body 115 Temporarily confused state of the soul after death 118 CHAPTER IV PLURALITY OF EXISTIENCES 120 Reincarnation 120 Justice of reincarnation 121 Incarnation in different worlds 122 Progressive transmigrations 126 Fate of children after death 129 Sex In spirits 131 Relationship-Filiation 131 Physical and moral likeness 132 Innate Ideas 135 CHAPTER V CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES 138 CHAPTER VI SPIRIT-LIFE 149 Errant or wandering spirits 149 Transitional worlds 152 Perceptions, sensations, and sufferings of spirits 153 Theoretic explanation of the nature of sensation in spirits 157 428 INDEX Choice of earthly trials 163 Relationships beyond the grave 170 Sympathies and antipathies of spirits-Eternal halves 173 Remembrance of corporeal existence 176 Commemoration of the dead-Funerals 180 CHAPTER VII RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE 183 Preludes to return 183 Union of soul and body-Abortion 185 Moral and Intellectual faculties of mankind 189 Influence of organism 190 Idiocy and madness 192 Infancy 194 Terrestrial sympathies and antipathies 197 Forgetfulness of the past 199 CHAPTER VIII EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL 204 Sleep and dreams 204 Visits between the spirits of living persons 209 Occult transmission of thought 211 Lethargy - Catalepsy-Apparent death 211 Somnambulism 212 Trance 216 Second-sight 217 Explanation of somnambulism, trance, and second-sight 219 CHAPTER IX INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD 225 Penetration of our thoughts by spirits 225 Occult influence of spirits on our thoughts and actions 226 Possession 229 Convulsionaries 231 Affection of certain spirits for certain persons 232 Guardian-angels-Protecting, familiar, and sympathetic spirits 233 Presentiments 242 Influence of spirits on the events of human life 242 Action of spirits In the production of the phenomena of nature 246 Spirits during battle 248 Pacts with spirits 250 Occult power-Talismans-Sorcerers 251 Benedictions and curses 253 429 INDEX CHAPTER X OCCUPATIONS AND MISSIONS OF SPIRITS 254 CHAPTER XI THE THREE REIGNS 261 Minerals and plants 261 Animals and men 262 Metempsychosis 269 BOOK THIRD CHAPTER I MORAL LAWS 270 Divine or natural law 270 Characteristics of natural law 270 Knowledge of natural law 272 Good and evil 274 Division of natural law 278 CHAPTER II I. THE LAW OF ADORATION 280 Aim of adoration 280 External acts of adoration 280 Life of contemplation 282 Prayer 282 Polytheism 285 Sacrifices 287 CHAPTER III II. THE LAW OF LABOUR 290 Necessity of labour 290 Limit of labour-Rest 291 CHAPTER IV III. THE LAW OF REPRODUCTION 293 Population of the globe 293 Succession and Improvement of races 293 Obstacles to reproduction 294 Marriage and celibacy 295 Polygamy 298 CHAPTER V IV. THE LAW OF PRESERVATION 297 Instinct of self-preservation 297 Means of self-preservation 297 430 INDEX Enjoyment of the fruits of the earth 299 Necessaries and superfluities 300 Voluntary privations -Mortifications 301 CHAPTER VI V. THE LAW OF DESTRUCTION 304 Necessary destruction and unjustifiable destruction 304 Destructive calamities 306 War 308 Murder 309 Cruelty 309 Duelling 311 Capital punishment 311 CHAPTER VII VI. SOCIAL LAW 314 Necessity of social life 314 Life of isolation 314 Family ties 315 CHAPTER VIII VII. THE LAW OF PROGRESS 317 State of nature 317 March of progress 318 Degenerate peoples 320 Civilisatlon 322 Progress of human legislation 323 Influence of spiritism on progress 324 CHAPTER IX VIII. THE LAW OF EQUALITY 327 Natural equality 327 Inequality of aptitudes 327 Social inequalities 328 Inequality of riches 328 Trials of riches and of poverty 330 Equality of rights of men and women 331 Equality In death 332 CHAPTER X IX. THE LAW OF LIBERTY 333 Natural liberty 333 Slavery 334 Freedom of thought 335 Freedom of conscience 335 431 INDEX Free-will 336 Fatality 338 Foreknowledge 343 Theoretic summary of the springs of human action 345 CHAPTER XI X. THE LAW OF JUSTICE, OF LOVE, AND OF CHARITY 349 Natural rights and justice 349 Right of Property-Robbery 351 Charity-Love of the neighbour 352 Maternal and filial affection 354 CHAPTER XII MORAL PERFECTION 356 Virtues and vices 356 The passions 361 Selfishness 362 Characteristics of the virtuous man 365 Self-knowledge 365 BOOK FOURTH HOPES AND CONSOLATIONS. CHAPTER 1 Earthly joys and Sorrows 363 Happiness and unhappiness 368 Loss of those we love 373 Disappointments-Ingratitude-Blighted affections 374 Antipathetic unions 375 Fear of death 376 Weariness of Life-Suicide 377 CHAPTER II Future joys and sorrows 383 Annihilation-Future life 383 Intuition of future joys and sorrows 383 Intervention of God in rewards and punishments 384 Nature of future joys and sorrows 385 Temporal sorrows 391 Expiation and repentance 394 Duration of future penalties 397 Resurrection of the body 403 Paradise-Hell-Purgatory-Original sin 404 CONCLUSION 409

THE SPIRITS’ BOOK by ALLAN KARDEC ( the continuation ) (Spirituality, New-Age - Editions, Livres)    -    Author : Melanie - Canada


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