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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/spiritualistphil01kard 
 
SPIRITUALIST PHILOSOPHY. 
 
WWKZ 
 
©pirttualtet pfnloaiop&p. 
 
 THE SPIRITS' BOOK. 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPIRITIST DOCTRINE 
 
 ON 
 
 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL; THE NATURE OF SPIRITS 
 
 AND THEIR RELATIONS WITH MEN; THE MORAL LAW: 
 
 THE PRESENT LIFE, THE FUTURE LIFE, AND 
 
 THE DESTINY OF THE HUMAN RACE, 
 
 ACCORDING TO THE TEACHINGS OF SPIRITS OF HIGH DEGREE, 
 TRANSMITTED THROUGH VARIOUS MEDIUMS, 
 
 COLLECTED AND SET IN ORDER 
 
 I 
 
 BY 
 
 ALLAN KARDEC. 
 
 Ctanslateti from tfje fgun&rrij anfc GTfoenttetfj EfjausattiJ 
 
 BY 
 
 ANNA BLACKWELL 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 COLBY AND RICH, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 9 Montgomery Place. 
 
 1875- 
 

 
 7%/ w/* translation approved by the SociitS Anonynte pour la continuation 
 des ceuvres Kardec* 
 
 • • » 
 
 • 
 
TO 
 
 THE DEVOTED WIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 ALLAN KARDEC, 
 
 (Eljfg ^Translation 
 is 
 
 AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 
 
 I 7 I 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 In presenting to her countrymen a work which has long 
 since obtained a wide acceptance on the Continent, the 
 translator has thought that a brief notice of its author, and 
 of the circumstances under which it was produced, might 
 not be without interest for English readers. 
 
 Leon-Denizarth-Hippolyte Rivail, better known by his 
 nom de plume of Allan Kardec, was born at Lyons, on the 
 4th of October 1804, of an old family of Bourg-en-Bresse, 
 that had been for many generations honourably distin- 
 guished in the magistracy and at the bar. His father, like 
 his grandfather, was a barrister of good standing and high 
 character ; his mother, remarkably beautiful, accomplished, 
 elegant, and amiable, was the object, on his part, of a pro- 
 found and worshipping affection, maintained unchanged 
 throughout the whole of his life. 
 
 Educated at the Institution of Pestalozzi, at Yverdun 
 (Canton de Vaud), he acquired at an early age the habit 
 of investigation and the freedom of thought of which his 
 later life was destined to furnish so striking an example. 
 Endowed by nature with a passion for teaching, he de- 
 voted himself, from the age of fourteen, to aiding the 
 studies of those of his schoolfellows who were less ad- 
 
 b 
 
io translator's preface. 
 
 vanced than himself; while such was his fondness for botany, 
 that he often spent an entire day among the mountains, 
 walking twenty or thirty miles, with a wallet on his back, 
 in search of specimens for his herbarium. Lorn in a 
 Catholic country, but educated in a Protestant one, he 
 began, while yet a mere boy, to meditate on the means of 
 bringing about a unity of belief among the various Christian 
 sects — a project of religious reform at which he laboured 
 in silence for many years, but necessarily without success, 
 the elements of the desired solution not being at that 
 time in his possession. 
 
 Having finished his studies at Yverdun, he returned to 
 Lyons in 1824, with the intention of devoting himself to 
 the law; but various acts of religious intolerance to which 
 he unexpectedly found himself subjected led him to re- 
 nounce the idea of fitting himself for the bar, and to take 
 up his abode in Paris, where he occupied himself for some 
 time in translating Telemachus and other standard French 
 books for youth into German. Having at length determined 
 upon his career, he purchased, in 1828, a large and flourish- 
 ing educational establishment for boys, and devoted himself 
 to the work of teaching, for which, by his tastes and acquire- 
 ments, he was peculiarly fitted. In 1830 he hired, at his 
 own expense, a large hall in the Rue de Sevres, and opened 
 therein courses of gratuitous lectures on Chemistry, Physics, 
 Comparative Anatomy, and Astronomy, These lectures, 
 continued by him through a period of ten years, were 
 highly successful, being attended by an auditory of over 
 five hundred persons of every rank of society, many of 
 whom have since attained to eminence in the scientific 
 world. 
 
translator's preface. it 
 
 Always desirous to render instruction attractive as well 
 as profitable, he invented an ingenious method of compu- 
 tation, and constructed a mnemotechnic table of French 
 history, for assisting students to remember the remarkable 
 events and discoveries of each reign. 
 
 Of the numerous educational works published by him 
 may be mentioned, A Plan for the Improvement of Public 
 Instruction, submitted by him in 1828 to the French Legis- 
 lative Chamber, by which body it was highly extolled, 
 though not acte^upon ; A Course of Practical and Theoretic 
 Arithmetic, on the Pestalozzian System, for the use of Teachers 
 and Mothers (1829); A Classical Grammar of the French 
 Tongue (1831); A Manual for the use of Candidates for 
 Examination in the Public Schools ; with Explanatory Solu- 
 tions of various Problems of Arithmetic and Geometry (1848) ; 
 Normal Dictations for the Examinations of the Hotel de 
 Ville and the Sorbonne, with Special Dictations on Ortho- 
 graphic Difficulties (1849). These works, highly esteemed 
 at the time of their publication, are still in use in many 
 French schools ; and their author was bringing out new 
 editions of some of them at the time of his death. 
 
 He was a member of several learned societies ; among 
 others, of the Royal Society of Arras, which, in 1831, 
 awarded to him the Prize of Honour for a remarkable essay 
 on the question, " What is the System of Study most in 
 Harmony with the Needs of the Epoch?" He was for 
 several years Secretary to the Phrenological Society of 
 Paris, and took an active part in the labours of the Society of 
 Magnetism, giving much time to the practical investigation 
 of somnambulism, trance, clairvoyance, and the various other 
 phenomena connected with the mesmeric action. This 
 
12 translator's preface. 
 
 brief outline of his labours will suffice to show his mental 
 activity, the variety of his knowledge, the eminently prac- 
 tical turn of his mind, and his constant endeavour to be 
 useful to his fellow-men. 
 
 When, about 1850, the phenomenon of " table-turning " 
 was exciting the attention of Europe and ushering in the 
 other phenomena since known as " spiritist," he quickly 
 divined the real nature of those phenomena, as evidence of 
 the existence of an order of relationships hitherto sus- 
 pected rather than known — viz., those which unite the visible 
 and invisible worlds. Foreseeing the vast importance, to 
 science and to religion, of such an extension of the field of 
 human observation, he entered at once upon a careful 
 investigation of the new phenomena. A friend of his had 
 two daughters who had become what are now called 
 "mediums." They were gay, lively, amiable girls, fond of 
 society, dancing, and amusement, and habitually received, 
 when " sitting " by themselves or with their young com- 
 panions, " communications " in harmony with their worldly 
 and somewhat frivolous disposition. But, to the surprise of 
 all concerned, it was found that, whenever he was present, 
 the messages transmitted through these young ladies were 
 of a very grave and serious character ; and on his inquiring 
 of the invisible intelligences as to the cause of this change, 
 he was told that " spirits of a much higher order than those 
 who habitually communicated through the two young 
 mediums came expressly for him, and would continue to do 
 so, in order to enable him to fulfil an important religious 
 
 mission." 
 
 Much astonished at so unlooked-for an announcement, 
 he at once proceeded to test its truthfulness by drawing up 
 
TRANSLATORS PREFACE. I J 
 
 a series of progressive questions in relation to the various 
 problems of human life and the universe in which we find 
 ourselves, and submitted them to his unseen interlocutors, 
 receiving their answers to the same through the instrumen- 
 tality of the two young mediums, who willingly consented 
 to devote a couple of evenings every week to this purpose, 
 and who thus obtained, through table-rapping and plan- 
 chette-writing, the replies which have become the basis of 
 the spiritist theory, and which they were as little capable of 
 appreciating as of inventing. 
 
 When these conversations had been going on for nearly 
 two years, he one day remarked to his wife, in reference to 
 the unfolding of these views, which she had followed with 
 intelligent sympathy : " It is a most curious thing ! My 
 conversations with the invisible intelligences have com- 
 pletely revolutionised my ideas and convictions. The 
 instructions thus transmitted constitute an entirely new 
 theory of human life, duty, and destiny, that appears to me 
 to be perfectly rational and coherent, admirably lucid and 
 consoling, and intensely interesting. I have a great mind 
 to publish these conversations in a book • for it seems to 
 me that what interests me so deeply might very likely 
 prove interesting to others." His wife warmly approving 
 the idea, he next submitted it to his unseen interlocutors, 
 who replied, in the usual way, that it was they who had 
 suggested it to his mind, that their communications had 
 been made to him, not for himself alone, but for the ex- 
 press purpose of being given to the world as he proposed 
 to do, and that the time had now come for putting this 
 plan into execution. " To the book in which you will 
 embody our instructions," continued the communicating 
 
14 TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 intelligences, " you will give, as being our work rather than 
 yours, the title of Le Livre des Esprits {The Spirits' 
 Book) ; and you will publish it, not under your own name, 
 but under the pseudonym of Allan Kardec. 1 Keep your 
 own name of Rivail for your own books already published ; 
 but take and keep the name we have now given you for 
 the book you are about to publish by our order, and, in 
 general, for all the work that you will have to do in the 
 fulfilment of the mission which, as we have already told 
 you, has been confided to you by Providence, and which 
 will gradually open before you as you proceed in it under 
 our guidance." 
 
 The book thus produced and published sold with great 
 rapidity, making converts not in France only, but all over the 
 Continent, and rendering the name of Allan Kardec " a 
 household word " with the readers who knew him only in con- 
 nection with it ; so that he was thenceforth called only by 
 that name, excepting by his old personal friends, with 
 whom both he and his wife always retained their family- 
 name. Soon after its publication, he founded The Parisian 
 Society of Psychologic Studies, of which he was President 
 until his death, and which met every Friday evening at his 
 house, for the purpose of obtaining from spirits, through 
 writing mediums, instructions in elucidation of truth and 
 duty. He also founded and edited until he died a monthly 
 magazine, entitled La Revue Spirite, Journal of Psychologic 
 Studies, devoted to the advocacy of the views set forth 
 in The Spirit' s Book. 
 
 Similar associations were speedily formed all over the 
 world. Many of these published periodicals of more or 
 1 An old Breton name in his mother's family. 
 
TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. j£ 
 
 less importance in support of the new doctrine : and all of 
 them transmitted to the Parisian Society the most remark- 
 able of the spirit-communications received by them. An 
 enormous mass of spirit-teaching, unique both in quantity 
 and in the variety of the sources from which it was obtained, 
 thus found its way into the hands of Allan Kardec, by 
 whom it was studied, collated, co-ordinated, with unwearied 
 zeal and devotion, during a period of fifteen years. From 
 the materials thus furnished to him from every quarter of 
 the globe he enlarged and completed The Spirits' Book, 
 under the direction of the spirits by whom it was originally 
 dictated ; the u Revised Edition ,; of which work, brought 
 out by him in 1857 {vide " Preface to the Revised Edition," 
 p. 23) has become the recognised text-book of the school 
 of Spiritualist Philosophy so intimately associated with his 
 name. From the same materials he subsequently compiled 
 four other works, viz., The Mediums' Book (a practical 
 treatise on Medianimity and Evocations), 1861 ; The Gospel 
 as Explained by Spirits (an exposition of morality from the 
 spiritist point of view), 1864; Heaven and Hell (a vindica- 
 tion of the justice of the divine government of the human 
 race), 1865 ; and Genesis (showing the concordance of the 
 spiritist theory wLh the discoveries of modern science and 
 with the general tenor of the Mosaic record as explained 
 by spirits), 1867. He also published two short treatises, 
 entitled What is Spiritism ? and Spiritism Reduced to its 
 Simplest Expression. 
 
 It is to be remarked, in connection with the works just 
 enumerated, that Allan Kardec was not a " medium," and 
 was consequently obliged to avail himself of the medianimity 
 of others in obtaining the spirit-communications from which 
 
1 6 TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
 
 they were evolved. The theory of life and duty, so imme- 
 diately connected with his name and labours that it is often 
 erroneously supposed to have been the product of his single 
 mind or of the spirits in immediate connection with him, 
 is therefore far less the expression of a personal or indivi- 
 dual opinion than are any other of the spiritualistic theories 
 hitherto propounded ; for the basis of religious philosophy 
 laid down in his works was not, in any way, the production 
 of his own intelligence, but was as new to him as to any of 
 his readers, having been progressively educed by him from 
 the concurrent statements of a legion of spirits, through 
 many thousands of mediums, unknown to each other, be- 
 longing to different countries, and to every variety of social 
 position. 
 
 In person, Allan Kardec was somewhat under middle 
 height. Strongly built, with a large, round, massive head, 
 well-marked features, and clear grey eyes, he looked more, 
 like a German than a Frenchman. Energetic and perse- 
 vering, but of a temperament that was calm, cautious, and 
 unimaginative almost to coldness, incredulous by nature 
 and by education, a close, logical reasoner, and eminently 
 practical in thought and deed, he was equally free from 
 mysticism and from enthusiasm. Devoid of ambition, indif- 
 ferent to luxury and display, the modest income he had 
 acquired from teaching and from the sale of his educational 
 works sufficed for the simple style of living he had adopted, 
 and allowed him to devote the whole of the profits arising 
 from the sale of his spiritist books and from the Revite 
 Spirite to the propagation of the movement initiated by 
 him. His excellent wife relieved him of all domestic and 
 worldly cares, and thus enabled him to consecrate himself 
 
TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. jy 
 
 entirely to the work to which he believed himself to have 
 been called, and which he prosecuted with unswerving 
 devotion, to the exclusion of all extraneous occupations, 
 interests, and companionships, from the time when he first 
 entered upon it until he died. He made no visits beyond a 
 small circle of intimate friends, and very rarely absented 
 himself from Paris, passing his winters in the heart of the 
 town, in the rooms where he published his Revue, and his 
 summers at the Villa Segur, a little semi-rural retreat which 
 he had built and planted, as the home of his old age and 
 that of his wife, in the suburban region behind the Champ 
 de Mars, now crossed in every direction by broad avenues 
 and being rapidly built over, but which at that time was a 
 sort of waste land that might still pass for " the country. " 
 
 Grave, slow of speech, unassuming in manner, yet not 
 without a certain quiet dignity resulting from the earnest- 
 ness and single-mindedness which were the distinguishing 
 traits of his character, neither courting nor avoiding discus- 
 sion, but never volunteering any remark upon the subject 
 to which he had devoted his life, he received with affability 
 the innumerable visitors from every part of the world who 
 came to converse with him in regard to the views of which 
 he was the recognised exponent, answering questions and 
 objections, explaining difficulties, and giving information to 
 all serious inquirers, with whom he talked with freedom 
 and animation, his face occasionally lighting up with a 
 genial and pleasant smile, though such was his habitual 
 sobriety of demeanour that he was never known to laugh. 
 
 Among the thousands by whom he was thus visited were 
 many of high rank in the social, literary, artistic, and scientific 
 worlds. The Emperor Napoleon III., the fact of whose 
 
i8 translator's preface. 
 
 interest in spiritist-phenomena was no mystery, sent for 
 him several times, and held long conversations with him 
 at the Tuileries upon the doctrines of The Spirits" 
 Book. 
 
 Having suffered for many years from heart-disease, Allan 
 Kardec drew up, in 1869, the plan of a new spiritist organ- 
 isation, that should carry on the work of propagandism 
 after his death. In order to assure its existence, by giving 
 to it a legal and commercial status, he determined to make 
 it a regularly constituted joint-stock limited liability pub- 
 lishing and bookselling company, to be constituted for a 
 period of ninety-nine years, with power to buy and sell, to 
 issue stock, to receive donations and bequests, &c. To 
 this society, which was to be called " The Joint Stock Com- 
 pany for the Continuation of the Works of Allan Kardec" he 
 intended to bequeath the copyright of his spiritist writings 
 and of the Revue Spirite. 
 
 But Allan Kardec was not destined to witness the realisa- 
 tion of the project in which he took so deep an interest, 
 and which has since been carried out with entire exacti- 
 tude by his widow. 
 
 On the 31st of March 1869, having just finished draw- 
 ing up the constitution and rules of the society that was to 
 take the place from which he foresaw that he would soon 
 be removed, he was seated in his usual chair at his 
 study-table, in his rooms in the Rue Sainte Anne, in the 
 act of tying up a bundle of papers, when his busy life was 
 suddenly brought to an end by the rupture of the aneurism 
 from which he had so long suffered. His passage from the 
 earth to the spirit-world, with which he had so closely 
 identified himself, was instantaneous, painless, without a 
 
TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 ig 
 
 sigh or a tremor; a most peaceful falling asleep and re- 
 awaking — fit ending of such a life. 
 
 His remains were interred in the cemetery of Mont- 
 martre, in presence of a great concourse of friends, many- 
 hundreds of whom assemble there every year, on the anni- 
 versary of his decease, when a few commemorative words 
 are spoken, and fresh flowers and wreaths, as is usual in 
 Continental graveyards, are laid upon his tomb. 
 
 It is impossible to ascertain with any exactness the num- 
 ber of those who have adopted the views set forth by Allan 
 Kardec ; estimated by themselves at many millions, they 
 are incontestably very numerous. The periodicals devoted 
 to the advocacy of these views in various countries already 
 number over forty, and new ones are constantly appearing. 
 The death of Allan Kardec has not slackened the accept- 
 ance of the views set forth by him, and which are believed 
 by those who hold them to be the basis, but the basis 
 only, of the new development of religious truth predicted 
 by Christ; the beginning of the promised revelation of 
 " many things " that have been " kept hidden since the 
 foundation of the world," and for the knowledge of which 
 the human race was " not ready " at the time of that pre- 
 diction. 
 
 In executing, with scrupulous fidelity, the task confided 
 to her by Allan Kardec, the translator has followed, in 
 all quotations from the New Testament, the version by Le 
 Maistre de Sacy, the one always used by Allan Kardec. 
 
 ANNA BLACKWELL. 
 
 Paris, 1875. 
 
THE SPIRITS' BOOK 
 
PREFACE TO THE REVISED 
 EDITION. 
 
 ** 
 
 In the first edition of this work, we announced our inten- 
 tion to publish a Supplement treating of points for which it 
 had been impossible to find room in that edition, or which 
 might be suggested by subsequent investigations ; but the 
 new matter proved to be so closely connected with what 
 had been previously published as to render its publication 
 in a separate volume inexpedient. We therefore preferred 
 to await the reprinting of the work, taking advantage 
 of the opportunity thus afforded to fuse the whole of the 
 materials together, to suppress redundancies, and to make 
 a more methodical arrangement of its contents. This new 
 edition may consequently be considered as a new work, 
 although the principles originally laid down have under- 
 gone no change, excepting in a very few instances which will 
 be found to constitute complements and explanations rather 
 than modifications. 
 
 This conformity of the teachings transmitted, notwith- 
 standing the diversity of the sources from which they have 
 emanated, is a fact of great importance in relation to the 
 
ZcjL PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION. 
 
 establishment of spiritist doctrine. Our correspondence 
 shows us, moreover, that communications, identical (in sub- 
 stance, if not in form) with those embodied in the present 
 work, have been obtained in various quarters, and even, in 
 some instances, previously to the publication of The Spirits* 
 Book, which has served to systematise and to confirm them. 
 History, on the other hand, proves that most of the ideas 
 herein set forth have been held by the most eminent 
 thinkers of ancient and of modern times, and thus gives to 
 them the additional sanction of its testimony. 
 
 ALLAN KARDEC. 
 Paris, April 1857. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 For new ideas new words are needed, in order to secure 
 
 clearness of language by avoiding the confusion inseparable 
 from the employment of the same term for expressing dif- 
 ferent meanings. The words spiritual, spiritualist, spiritu- 
 alism, have a definite acceptation ; to give them a new one, 
 in order to apply them to the doctrine set forth by spirits, 
 would be to multiply the causes of amphibology, already so 
 numerous. Strictly speaking, Spiritualism is the opposite 
 of Materialism ; every one is a Spiritualist wbo believes 
 that there is in him something more than matter, but it 
 does not follow that he believes in the existence of spirits, 
 or in their communication with the visible world. Instead, 
 therefore, of the words spiritual, spiritualism, we em- 
 ploy, to designate this latter belief, the words spiritist, 
 spiritism, which, by their form, indicate their origin 
 and radical meaning, and have thus the advantage of 
 being perfectly intelligible ; and we reserve the words 
 spiritualism , spiritualist, for the expression of the mean- 
 ing attached to them by common acceptation. We say, 
 then, that the fundamental principle of the spiritist theory, 
 or spiritism, is the relation of the material world with 
 spirits, or the beings of the invisible world ; and we desig- 
 nate the adherents of the spiritist theory as spiritists. 
 
 A 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In a special sense, " The Spirits' Book''' contains the doc- 
 trine or theory of spiritism ; in a general sense, it appertains 
 to the spritualist school, of which it presents one of the 
 phases. It is for this reason that we have inscribed the 
 words Spiritualist Philosophy on its title-page. 
 
 II. 
 
 There is another word of which it is equally necessary to 
 define the meaning, because it is the keystone of every 
 system of morality, and also because, owing to the lack of 
 a precise definition, it has been made the subject of innu- 
 merable controversies ; we refer to the word soul. The 
 divergence of opinion concerning the nature of the soul is 
 a result of the variety of meanings attached to this word. 
 A perfect language, in which every idea had its own special 
 term, would save a vast deal of discussion ; for, in that case, 
 misunderstanding would be impossible. 
 
 Some writers define the soul as being the principle 
 of organic life, having no existence of its own, and 
 ceasing with the life of the body. According to this 
 purely Materialistic belief, the soul is an effect, and not a 
 cause. 
 
 Others consider the soul as being the principle of intelli- 
 gence, the universal agent, of which each being absorbs a 
 portion. According to them, there is, in the entire universe, 
 only one soul, which distributes sparks of itself among all 
 intelligent beings during their life ; each spark, after the 
 death of the being it has animated, returning to the com- 
 mon source, and blending again with the general whole, as 
 brooks and rivers return to the ocean from which they were 
 produced. This opinion differs from the preceding one, 
 inasmuch as, according to the latter hypothesis, there is in 
 us something more than matter, something that remains in 
 existence after our death ; but, practically, it is much as 
 though nothing remained of us, since, no longer possessing 
 individuality, we should retain no consciousness of our 
 
INTRODUCTION, ill 
 
 identity. According to this hypothesis, the universal soul 
 is God, and each being is a portion of the Divinity. It is a 
 species of Pantheism. 
 
 According to others, again, the soul is a moral being, 
 distinct, independent of matter, and preserving its indi- 
 viduality after death. This acceptation of the word soul 
 is certainly the one most generally received ; because, 
 under one name or another, the idea of a being that sur- 
 vives the body is found as an instinctive belief, and in- 
 dependently of all teaching, among all nations, whatever 
 their degree of civilisation. This doctrine, according to 
 which the soul is a cause, and not an effect, is that of the 
 spiritualists. 
 
 Without discussing the value of these opinions, and con- 
 sidering the subject merely under its philological aspect, we 
 say that these three applications of the word soul constitute 
 three distinct ideas, each of which demands a different 
 term. " Soul " has, therefore, a triple meaning, and is em- 
 ployed by each school according to the special meaning it 
 attributes to that word. In order to avoid the confusion 
 naturally resulting from the use of the same word to express 
 three different ideas, it would be necessary to confine the 
 word to one of these three ideas ; it would not matter to 
 which, provided the choice were clearly understood. We 
 think it more natural to take it in its most common accep- 
 tation \ and for this reason we employ the word soul to 
 indicate the i?mnaterial and individual being which resides in 
 us, and survives the body. Even if this being did not really 
 exist, and were only a product of the imagination, a specific 
 term would still be needed to designate it. 
 
 For want of such a term for each of the other ideas now 
 loosely understood by the word sot/7, we employ the term 
 vital principle to designate the material and organic life 
 which, whatever may be its source, is common to all living 
 creatures, from the plant to man. As life can exist with- 
 out the thinking faculty, the vital principle is something 
 distinct from and independent of it. The word vitality 
 would not express the same idea. According to some, the 
 
IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 vital principle is a property of matter ; an effect produced 
 wherever matter is found under certain given conditions ; 
 while, in the opinion of the greater number of thinkers, it 
 resides in a special fluid, universally diffused, and of which 
 each being absorbs and assimilates a portion during life, as 
 inert bodies absorb light ; the vital principle being identical 
 with the vital fluid, which is generally regarded as being 
 the same as the animalised electric fluid, designated also as 
 the magnetic fluid, the nervous fluid, &c. 
 
 However this may be, one fact is certain, for it is proved 
 by observation, viz., that organic beings possess in them- 
 selves a force which, so long as it exists, produces the 
 phenomena of life ; that physical life is comnon to all organic 
 beings, and is independent of intelligence and thought; 
 that intelligence and thought are faculties peculiar to cer- 
 tain organic species; and, lastly, that, among the organic 
 species endowed with intelligence and thought, there is one 
 which is endowed with a special moral sense that gives it 
 an incontestable superiority over the others, viz., the human 
 species. 
 
 It is evident that, being employed according to various 
 acceptations, the term soul does not exclude either Mate- 
 rialism or Pantheism. Spiritualists themselves understand 
 the term soul according to one or other of the first two 
 definitions, without denying the distinct immaterial being, 
 to which, in that case, it would give some other name. 
 This word, therefore, is not the representative of an opinion ; 
 it is a Protean term, defined by each after his own fashion, 
 and thus giving rise to interminable disputes. 
 
 We might also avoid confusion, even while employing 
 the word soul in the three senses defined above, by adding 
 to it some qualifying term that should specify the point of 
 view from which we consider it, or the mode in which we 
 apply it. It would be, in that case, a generic word, repre- 
 senting at once the principles of material life, of intelligence, 
 and of the moral faculty, each of which would be distin- 
 guished by an attribute, as is done, for example, with the 
 word gas, by adding the words hydrogen, oxygen, &c. Thus 
 
INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 we might say — and it would, perhaps, be the best plan 
 to adopt — vital soul for the principle of material life, intel- 
 lectual soulior the principle of intelligence, and spiritual soul 
 for the principle of our individuality after death ; in which 
 case the vital soul would be common to all organic beings, 
 plants, animals, and men ; the intellectual soul would be the 
 peculiar property of animals and men \ and the spiritual soul 
 would belong to men only. 
 
 We have thought it all the more important to be explicit 
 in regard to this point, because the spiritist theory is 
 naturally based on the existence in us of a being indepen- 
 dent of matter, and that survives the body. As the word 
 soul will frequently recur in the course of this work, it was 
 necessary to define the meaning we attach to it, in order to 
 avoid all misunderstanding. 
 
 We now come to the principal object of this preliminary 
 explanation. 
 
 III. 
 
 Spiritist doctrine, like all new theories, has its supporters 
 and its opponents. We will endeavour to reply to some of 
 the objections of the latter, by examining the worth of the 
 reasons on which they are based, without, however, pre- 
 tending to be able to convince everybody, but addressing 
 ourselves to those who, without prejudices or preconceived 
 ideas, are sincerely and honestly desirous of arriving at the 
 truth ; and we will prove to them that those objections are 
 the result of a too hasty conclusion in regard to facts imper- 
 fectly observed. 
 
 Of the facts referred to, the one first observed was the 
 movement of objects, popularly called Ci table-turning." 
 This phenomenon, first observed in America (or rather, 
 renewed in that country, for history proves it to have been 
 produced in the most remote ages of antiquity), was attended 
 with various strange accompaniments, such as unusual 
 noises, raps produced without any ostensible cause, &c. 
 From America this phenomenon spread rapidly over 
 
Vi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Europe and the rest of the world. It was met at first with 
 incredulity ; but the movements were produced by so many 
 experimenters, that it soon became impossible to doubt its 
 reality. 
 
 If the phenomenon in question had been limited to* the 
 movement of inert objects, it might have been possible to 
 explain it by some purely physical cause. We are far from 
 knowing all the secret agencies of nature, or all the pro- 
 perties of those which are known to us. Electricity, more- 
 over, is not only multiplying, day by day, the resources it 
 offers to mankind, but appears to be about to irradiate 
 science with a new light. It seemed, therefore, by no 
 means impossible that electricity, modified by certain cir- 
 cumstances, or some other unknown agent, might be the 
 cause of these movements. The fact that the presence of 
 several persons increased the intensity of the action appeared 
 to strengthen this supposition ; for the union of these might 
 not inaptly be regarded as constituting a battery, of which 
 the power was in proportion to the number of its elements. 
 
 That the movement of the tables should be circular was 
 in no way surprising, for the circular movement is of fre- 
 quent occurrence in nature. All the stars move in circles ; 
 and it therefore seemed to be possible that in the move- 
 ment of the tables we had a reflex on a small scale of the 
 movement of the universe ; or that some cause, hitherto 
 unknown, might produce, accidentally, and, in regard to 
 small objects, a current analogous to that which impels the 
 worlds of the universe in their orbits. 
 
 But the movement in question was not always circular. 
 It was often irregular, disorderly ; the object moved was 
 sometimes violently shaken, overthrown, carried about in 
 various directions, and, in contravention of all known laws 
 of statics, lifted from the ground and held up in the air. 
 Still, in all this, there was nothing that might not be ex- 
 plained by the force of some invisible physical agent. Do 
 we not see electricity overthrow buildings, uproot trees, and 
 hurl to considerable distances the heaviest bodies, attract* 
 ing or repelling, as the case may be ? 
 
INTRODUCTION. vil 
 
 The rappings and other unusual noises, supposing them 
 to be due to something else than the dilatation of the 
 wood, or other accidental cause, might very well be pro- 
 duced by an accumulation of the mysterious fluid ; for does 
 not electricity produce the loudest sounds ? 
 
 Up to this point everything might be considered as be- 
 longing to the domain of physics and physiology. Without 
 going beyond this circle of ideas, the learned might have 
 found in the phenomenon referred to matter well worthy of 
 serious study. Why was this not done ? It is painful to be 
 obliged to make the confession, but the neglect of the 
 scientific world was due to causes that add one more proof 
 to the many already given of the frivolity of the human 
 mind. In the first place, the commonness of the object 
 which mainly served as the basis of the earliest experi- 
 mentations had something to do with this disdain. What 
 an influence, in regard to even the most serious matters, 
 is often exerted by a mere word ! Without reflecting that 
 the movement referred to might be communicated to any 
 object, the idea of tables became associated with it in the 
 general mind, doubtless because a table, being the most 
 convenient object upon which to experiment, and also 
 because people can place themselves round a table more 
 conveniently than round any other piece of furniture, was 
 generally employed in the experiments referred to. But 
 men who pride themselves on their mental superiority are 
 sometimes so puerile as to warrant the suspicion that a 
 good many keen and cultivated minds may have considered 
 it beneath them to take any notice of what was commonly 
 known as "the dance of tables." If the phenomenon 
 observed by Galvani had been made known by some un- 
 learned person, and dubbed with some absurd nickname, 
 it would probably have been consigned to the lumber-room, 
 along with the divining-rod ; for where is the scientist who 
 would not in that case have regarded it as derogatory to 
 occupy himself with the dance of frogs ? 
 
 A few men of superior intellect, however, being modest 
 enough to admit that nature might not have revealed to 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 them all her secrets, conscientiously endeavoured to see 
 into the matter for themselves ; but the phenomena not 
 having always responded to their attempts, and not being 
 always produced at their pleasure, and according to their 
 methods of experimenting, they arrived at an adverse con- 
 clusion in regard to them. The tables, however, despite that 
 conclusion, continued to turn ; and we may say of them, 
 with Galileo, " Nevertheless, they move ! " We may assert, 
 still further, that the facts alluded to have been multiplied 
 to such an extent that they have become naturalised among 
 us, so that opinions are now only divided as to their nature. 
 
 And here let us ask whether the fact that these pheno- 
 mena are not always produced in exactly the same way, 
 and according to the wishes and requirements of eacli indi- 
 vidual observer, can be reasonably regarded as constituting 
 an argument against their reality ? Are not the phenomena 
 of electricity and chemistry subordinated to certain condi- 
 tions, and should we be right in denying their reality 
 because they do not occur when those conditions are not 
 present ? Is it strange, then, that certain conditions should 
 be necessary to the production of the phenomenon of the 
 movement of objects by the human fluid, or that it should 
 not occur when the observer, placing himself at his own in- 
 dividual point of view, insists on producing it at his own 
 pleasure, or in subjecting it to the laws of phenomena 
 already known, without considering that a new order of 
 facts may, and indeed must, result from the action of laws 
 equally new to us ? Now, in order to arrive at a knowledge 
 of such laws, it is necessary to study the circumstances 
 under which those facts are produced ; and such a study 
 can only be made through long-sustained and attentive 
 observation. 
 
 " But," it is often objected, "there is evident trickery in 
 some of the occurrences referred to." To this objection 
 we reply, in the first place, by asking whether the objectors 
 are quite sure that what they have taken for trickery may 
 not be simply an order of facts which they are not yet able 
 to ac:ount for, as was the case with the peasant who mis- 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 took the experiments of a learned professor of physics for 
 the tricks of a clever conjuror ? But even admitting that 
 there has been trickery in some cases, is that a reason for 
 denying the reality of facts ? Must we deny the reality of 
 physics because certain conjurors give themselves the title 
 of physicists ? Moreover, the character of the persons con- 
 cerned in these manifestations should be taken into account, 
 and the interest they may have in deceiving. Would they 
 cio so by way of a joke ? A joke may amuse for a moment, 
 but a mystification, if kept up too long, would become as 
 wearisome to the mystifier as to the mystified. Besides, a 
 mystification carried on from one end of the earth to the 
 other, and among the most serious, honourable, and en- 
 lightened people, would be at least as extraordinary as the 
 phenomena in question. 
 
 IV. 
 
 If the phenomena wc are considering had been limited 
 to the movement of objects, they would have remained, as 
 we have already remarked, within the domain of physical 
 science; but so far was this from being the case, that they 
 speedily proved to be only the forerunners of facts of a 
 character still more extraordinary. For it was soon found 
 that the impulsion communicated to inert objects was not 
 the mere product of a blind mechanical force, but that it 
 revealed the action of an intelligent cause, a discovery that 
 opened up a new field of observation, and promised a solu- 
 tion of many mysterious problems. Are these movements 
 due to an intelligent power? Such was the question first 
 to be answered. If such a power exists, what is it? What 
 is its nature? What its origin? : Is it superhuman ? Such 
 were the secondary questions which naturally grew out of 
 that first one. 
 
 The earliest manifestations of intelligence were made by 
 means of the legs of tables, that moved up and down, striking 
 a given number of times, and replying in this way by "yes" 
 or "no" to the questions asked. Even here, it must be 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 confessed, there was nothing very convincing for the incre- 
 dulous, as these apparent answers might be an effect ot 
 chance. But fuller replies were soon obtained, the object 
 in motion striking a number of blows corresponding to the 
 number of each letter of the alphabet, so that words and 
 sentences began to be produced in reply to the questions 
 propounded. The correctness of these replies, their corre- 
 lation with the questions asked, excited astonishment. The 
 mysterious being who gave these replies, when questioned 
 as to its nature, declared itself to be a " spirit " or " genius," 
 gave itself a name, and stated various particulars about 
 itself. This is a circumstance of noteworthy importance, 
 for it proves that no one suggested the idea of spirits as an 
 explanation of the phenomenon, but that the phenomenon 
 gave this explanation of itself. Hypotheses are often framed, 
 in the positive sciences, to serve as a basis of argument ; 
 but such was not the case in this instance. 
 
 The mode of communication furnished by the alphabet 
 being tedious and inconvenient, the invisible agent (a point 
 worthy of note) suggested another, by advising the fitting 
 of a pencil to a small basket. This basket, placed upon a 
 sheet of paper, was set in motion by the same occult power 
 that moved the tables ; but, instead of obeying a simple and 
 regular movement of rotation, the pencil traced letters that 
 formed words, sentences, and entire discourses, filling many 
 pages, treating of the deepest questions of philosophy, 
 morality, metaphysics, psychology, &c, and as rapidly as 
 though written by the hand. 
 
 This suggestion was made simultaneously in America, in 
 France, and in various other countries. It was made in 
 the following terms, in Paris, on the ioth of June 1853, to 
 one of the most fervent partisans of the new phenomena — 
 one who, from the year 1849, had been busily engaged in 
 the evocation of spirits : — " Fetch the little basket from the 
 next room ; fasten a pencil to it \ place it upon a sheet of 
 paper ; put your fingers on the edge of the basket." This 
 having been done, the basket, a few moments afterwards, 
 began to move, and the pencil wrote, quite legibly, this 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 sentence: — "I expressly forbid your repeating to any one 
 what I have just told you. The next time I write, I shall 
 do it better." 
 
 The object to which the pencil is attached being merely 
 an instrument, its nature and form are of no importance, 
 convenience being the only point to be considered. The 
 instrument known as the pla?ichette has since been generally 
 adopted. 
 
 The basket, or planchette* will only move under the 
 influence of certain persons gifted with a special power or 
 faculty, who are called mediums, — that is to say, go-hetweens, 
 or intermediaries between spirits and men. The conditions 
 ■which give this power depend on causes, physical and moral, 
 that are as yet but imperfectly understood, for mediums are 
 of all ages, of both sexes, and of every degree of intellectual 
 development. The faculty of mediumship, moreover, is 
 developed by exercise. 
 
 V. 
 
 It was next perceived that the basket and the pianchette 
 only formed, in reality, an appendix to the hand. The 
 medium, therefore, now held the pencil in his hand, and 
 found that he was made to write under an impulsion inde- 
 pendent of his will, and often with an almost feverish rapidity. 
 In this way the communications were not only made more 
 quickly, but also became more easy and more complete. 
 At the present day, this method is the one most frequently 
 employed, the number of persons endowed with the aptitude 
 of involuntary writing being very considerable, and con- 
 stantly increasing. Experience gradually made known 
 many other varieties of the mediumistic faculty, and it was 
 found that communications could be received through 
 speech, hearing, sight, touch, &c, and even through the 
 direct writing of the spirits themselves, — that is to say, 
 without the help of the medium's hand, or of the pencil. 
 
 This fact established, an essential point still remained to 
 be ascertained, viz., the nature of the medium's action, and 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the share taken by him, mechanically and morally, in the 
 obtaining of the replies. Two points of the highest import- 
 ance, and that could not escape the notice of the attentive 
 observer, sufficed to settle the question. The first of these 
 is the way in which the basket moves un ler the influence of 
 the medium, through the mere laying of his fingers on its 
 edges, and in such a manner that it would be impossible for 
 him to guide it in any direction whatever. This impossibility 
 becomes still more evident when two or three persons place 
 their fingers at the same time on the same basket, for a truly 
 phenomenal concordance of movements and of thoughts 
 would be required between them, in order to produce, on the 
 part of each, the same reply to the question asked. And 
 this difficulty is increased by the fact that the writing often 
 changes completely with each spirit who communicates, and 
 that, whenever a given spirit communicates, the same 
 writing re-appears. In such cases, the medium would have 
 to train himself to change his handwriting an indefinite 
 number of times, and would also have to remember the 
 particular writing of each spirit. 
 
 The second point referred to is the character of the re- 
 plies given, which are often, and especially when the ques- 
 tions asked are of an abstract or scientific nature, notoriously 
 beyond the scope of the knowledge, and even of the intel- 
 lectual capacity, of the medium, who, moreover, is frequently 
 unaware of what he is made to write, since the reply, like 
 the question asked, may be couched in a language of which 
 he is ignorant, or the question may even be asked mentally. 
 It often happens, too, that the basket, or the medium, is 
 made to write spontaneously, without any question having 
 been propounded, and upon some subject altogether unex- 
 pected. 
 
 The replies thus given, and the messages thus trans- 
 mitted, are sometimes marked by such sagacity, profundity, 
 and appropriateness, and convey thoughts so elevated, so 
 sublime, that they can only emanate from a superior intelli- 
 gence, imbued with the purest morality ; at other times, 
 they are so vapid, frivolous, and even trivial, that they can- 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 not be supposed to emanate from the same source. This 
 diversity of language can only be explained by the diversity 
 of the intelligences who thus manifest themselves. Do 
 these intelligences reside in the human race, or are they 
 beyond the pale of humanity ? Such is the next point to 
 be cleared up, and of which the complete explanation will 
 be found in the present work, such as it has been given by 
 the spirits themselves. 
 
 The facts referred to, as being of an order beyond our 
 usual circle of observation, do not occur mysteriously, but in 
 broad daylight, so that every one can see them and ascer- 
 tain their reality ; they are not the privilege of a single 
 individual, but are obtained by tens of thousands of persons 
 every day at pleasure. These effects have necessarily a 
 cause ■ and as they reveal the action of an intelligence and 
 a will, they are evidently beyond the domain of merely phy- 
 sical effects. 
 
 Many theories have been broached in relation to this 
 subject ; these we shall presently examine, and shall then 
 be able to decide whether they can account for all the facts 
 now occurring. Let us, meanwhile, assume the existence of 
 beings distinct from the human race, since such is the ex- 
 planation given of themselves by the intelligences thus 
 revealed to us, and let us see what they say to us. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The beings who thus enter into communication with us 
 designate themselves, as we have said, by the name of spirits 
 ox genii, and as having belonged, in many cases at least, 
 to men who have lived upon the earth. They say that 
 they constitute the spiritual world, as we, during our earthly 
 life, constitute the corporeal world. 
 
 We will now briefly sum up the most important points of 
 the doctrine which they have transmitted to us, in order to 
 reply' more easily to the objections of the incredulous. 
 
 " God is eternal, immutable, immaterial, unique, all- 
 powerful, sovereignly just and good. 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " He has created the universe, which comprehends all 
 beings, animate and inanimate, material and immaterial. 
 
 " The material beings constitute the visible or corporeal 
 world, and the immaterial beings constitute the invisible or 
 spiritual world, that is to say, the spirit-world, or world 
 of spirits. 
 
 " The spirit-world is the normal, primitive, eternal world, 
 pre-existent to, and surviving, everything else. 
 
 u The corporeal world is only secondary ; it might cease 
 to exist, or never have existed, without changing the essen- 
 tiality of the spiritual world. 
 
 " Spirits temporarily assume a perishable material en- 
 velope, the destruction of which, by death, restores them to 
 liberty. 
 
 " Among the different species of corporeal beings, God 
 has chosen the human species for the incarnation of spirits 
 arrived at a certain degree of development • it is this which 
 gives it a moral and intellectual superiority to all the others. 
 
 " The soul is an incarnated spirit, whose body is only its 
 envelope. 
 
 "There are inman three things: — (i.) Thebody, or material 
 being, analogous to the animals, and animated by the same 
 vital principle; (2.) The soul, or immaterial being, a spirit 
 incarnated in the body ; (3.) The link which unites the soul 
 and the body, a principle intermediary between matter and 
 spirit. 
 
 u Man has thus two natures : by his body he participates 
 in the nature of the animals, of which it has the instincts \ 
 by his soul, he participates in the nature of spirits. 
 
 " The link, or fiei'ispirit, which unites the body and the 
 spirit, is a sort of semi-material envelope. Death is the 
 destruction of the material body, which is the grossest of 
 man's two envelopes ; but the spirit preserves his other 
 envelope, viz., the perispirit, which constitutes for him an 
 ethereal body, invisible to us in its normal state, but which 
 he can render occasionally visible, and even tangible, as is 
 the case in apparitions. 
 
 " A spirit, therefore^ is not an abstract, undefined being, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 only to be conceived of by our thought ; it is a real, cir- 
 cumscribed being, which, in certain cases, is appreciable by 
 the senses of sight, hearing, and touch, 
 
 " Spirits belong to different classes, and are not equal to 
 one another either in power, in intelligence, in knowledge, 
 or in morality. Those of the highest order are distinguished 
 from those below them by their superior purity and know- 
 ledge, their nearness to God, and their love of goodness ; 
 they are " angels " or " pure spirits." The other classes are 
 more and more distant from this perfection \ those of the 
 lower ranks are inclined to most of our passions, hatred, 
 envy, jealousy, pride, &c. ; they take pleasure in evil. 
 Among them are some who are neither very good nor very 
 bad, but are teazing and troublesome rather than malicious, 
 are often mischievous and unreasonable, and may be classed 
 as giddy and foolish spirits. 
 
 "Spirits do not belong perpetually to the same order. 
 All are destined to attain perfection by passing through the 
 different degrees of the spirit-hierarchy. This amelioration 
 is effected by incarnation, which is imposed on some of them 
 as an expiation, and on others as a mission. Material life 
 is a trial which they have to undergo many times until they 
 have attained to absolute perfection \ it is a sort of filter, or 
 alembic, from which they issue more or less purified after 
 each new incarnation. 
 
 " On quitting the body, the soul re-enters the world of 
 spirits from which it came, and from which it will enter 
 upon a new material existence, after a longer or shorter 
 lapse of time, during which its state is that of an errant or 
 wandering spirit. 1 
 
 " Spirits having to pass through many incarnations, it 
 follows that we have all had many existences, and that we 
 shall have others, more or less perfect, either upon this 
 earth or in other worlds. 
 
 "The incarnation of spirits always takes place in the 
 
 1 There is, between this doctrine of re-incarnation and that of metem- 
 psychosis, as held by certain sects, a characteristic difference, which is 
 explained in the course of the present work. 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION 
 
 human race ; it would be an error to suppose that the soul 
 or spirit could be incarnated in the body of an animal. 
 
 " A spirit's successive corporeal existences are always pro- 
 gressive, and never retrograde ; but the rapidity of our pro- 
 gress depends on the efforts we make to arrive at perfection. 
 
 " The qualities of the soul are those of the spirit incar- 
 nated in us ) thus, a good man is the incarnation of a good 
 spirit, and a bad man is that of an unpurified spirit. 
 
 " The soul possessed its own individuality before its in- 
 carnation ; it preserves that individuality after its separation 
 from the body. 
 
 " On its re-entrance into the spirit world, the soul again 
 finds there all those whom it has known upon the earth, and 
 all its former existences eventually come back to its memory, 
 with the remembrance of all the good and of all the evil 
 which it has done in them. 
 
 " The incarnated spirit is under the influence of matter • 
 the man who surmounts this influence, through the eleva- 
 tion and purification of his soul, raises himself nearer to the 
 superior spirits, among whom he will one day be classed. 
 He who allows himself to be ruled by bad passions, and 
 places all his delight in the satisfaction of his gross animal 
 appetites, brings himself nearer to the impure spirits, by 
 giving preponderance to his animal nature. 
 
 " Incarnated spirits inhabit the different globes of the 
 universe. 
 
 " Spirits who are not incarnated, who are errant, do not 
 occupy any fixed and circumscribed region ; they are every- 
 where, in space, and around us, seeing us, and mixing with 
 us incessantly ; they constitute an invisible population, con- 
 stantly moving and busy about us, on every side. 
 
 " Spirits exert an incessant action upon the moral world, 
 and even upon the physical world ; they act both upon 
 matter and upon thought, and constitute one of the powers 
 of nature, the efficient cause of many classes of phenomena 
 hitherto unexplained or misinterpreted, and of which only 
 the spiritist theory can give a rational explanation. 
 
 " Spirits are incessantly in relation with men. The good 
 
INTRODUCTION. XVH 
 
 spirits try to lead us into the right road, sustain us under 
 the trials of life, and aid us to bear them with courage 
 and resignation ; the bad ones tempt us to evil : it is a 
 pleasure for them to see us fall, and to make us like them- 
 selves. 
 
 " The communications of spirits with men are either 
 occult or ostensible. Their occult communications are 
 made through the good or bad influence they exert on us 
 without our being aware of it ; it is our duty to distinguish, 
 by the exercise of our judgment, between the good and the 
 bad inspirations that are thus brought to bear upon us. 
 Their ostensible communications take place by means of 
 writing, of speech, or of other physical manifestations, and 
 usually through the intermediary of the mediums who serve 
 as their instruments. 
 
 "Spirits manifest themselves spontaneously, or in re- 
 sponse to evocation. All spirits may be evoked: those 
 who have animated the most obscure of mortals, as well as 
 those of the most illustrious personages, and whatever the 
 epoch at which they lived ; those of our relatives, our 
 friends, or our enemies ; and we may obtain from them, by 
 written or by verbal communications, counsels, information 
 in regard to their situation beyond the grave, their thoughts 
 in regard to us, and whatever revelations they are permitted 
 to make to us. 1 
 
 " Spirits are attracted by their sympathy with the moral 
 quality of the parties by whom they are evoked. Spirits of 
 superior elevation take pleasure in meetings of a serious 
 character, animated by the love of goodness and the sincere 
 desire of instruction and improvement. Their presence 
 repels the spirits of inferior degree, who find, on the con- 
 trary, free access and freedom of action among persons of 
 frivolous disposition, or brought together by mere curiosity, 
 and wherever evil instincts are to be met with. So far from 
 obtaining from spirits, under such circumstances, either good 
 
 . l Vide, in connection with the statements of this paragraph, the quali- 
 fvJEg eyplanations and practical counsels of TIis Mediums Book. — 
 Trans. 
 
 B 
 
XV1U INTRODUCTION. 
 
 advice or useful information, nothing is to be expected from 
 them but trifling, lies, ill-natured tricks, or humbugging ; for 
 they often 1 orrow the most venerated names, in order the 
 better to impose upon those with whom they are in com- 
 munication. 
 
 " It is easy to distinguish between good and bad spirits. 
 The language of spirits of superior elevation is constantly 
 dignified, noble, characterised by the highest morality, free 
 from every trace of earthly passion ; their counsels breathe 
 the purest wisdom, and always have our improvement and 
 the good of mankind for their aim. The communications 
 of spirits of lower degree, on the contrary, are full of dis- 
 crepancies, and their language is often commonplace, and 
 even coarse. If they sometimes say things that are good 
 and true, they more often make false and absurd state 
 ments, prompted by ignorance or malice. They play upon 
 the credulity of those who interrogate them, amusing them- 
 selves by flattering their vanity, and fooling them with false 
 hopes. In a word, instructive communications worthy of the 
 name are only to be obtained in centres of a serious character, 
 whose members are united, by an intimate communion of 
 thought and desire, in the pursuit of truth and goodness. 
 
 " The moral teaching of the higher spirits may be summed 
 up, like that of Christ, in the gospel maxim, 'Do unto 
 others as you would that others should do unto you;' that 
 is to say, do good to all, and wrong no one. This prin- 
 ciple of action furnishes mankind with a rule of conduct 
 of universal application, from the smallest matters to the 
 greatest. 
 
 " They teach us that selfishness, pride, sensuality, are 
 passions which bring us back towards the animal nature, by 
 attaching us to matter ; that he who, in this lower life, de- 
 taches himself from matter through contempt of worldly 
 trifles, and through love of the neighbour, brings himself 
 back towards the spiritual nature ; that we should all make 
 ourselves useful, according to the means which God has 
 placed in our hands for our trial ; that the strong and lh* 
 powerful owe aid and protection to the weak; and that he 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 who misuses strength and power to oppress his fellow-crea- 
 ture violates the law of God. They teach us that in the 
 spirit-world nothing can be hidden, and that the hypocrite 
 will there be unmasked, and all his wickedness unveiled; that 
 the presence, unavoidable and perpetual, of those whom we 
 have wronged in the earthly life is one of the punishments 
 that await us in the spirit-world ; and that the lower or 
 higher state of spirits gives rise in that other life to suffer- 
 ings or to enjoyments unknown to us upon the earth. 
 
 " But they also teach us that there are no unpardonable 
 sins, none that cannot be effaced by expiation. Man finds 
 the means of accomplishing this in the different existences 
 which permit him to advance progressively, and accord- 
 ing to his desire and his efforts, towards the perfection that 
 constitutes his ultimate aim." 
 
 Such is the sum of spiritist doctrine, as contained in the 
 teachings given by spirits of high degree. Let us now 
 consider the objections that are urged against it_ 
 
 VII. 
 
 Many persons regard the opposition of the learned world 
 as constituting, if not a proof, at least a very strong pre- 
 sumption, of the falsity of spiritism. We are not of those 
 who affect indifference in regard to the judgment of scientific 
 men ; on the contrary, we hold them in great esteem, and 
 should think it an honour to be of their number, but we 
 cannot consider their opinion as being, under all circum- 
 stances, necessarily and absolutely conclusive. 
 
 When the votaries of science go beyond the bare obser- 
 vation of facts, when they attempt to appraise and to explain 
 those facts, they enter upon the field of conjecture ; each 
 advances a system of his own, which he does his utmost to 
 bring into favour, and defends with might and main. Do 
 we not see every day the most divergent systems brought 
 forward and rejected, one after the other ; now cried down 
 as absurd errors, and now cried up as incontestable truths? 
 Facts are the sole criterion of reality, the sole argument 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that admits of no reply : in the absence of facts, the wise 
 man suspends his judgment. 
 
 In regard to all matters that have already been fully exa- 
 mined, the verdict ot the learned is justly beld to be autho- 
 ritative, because their knowledge of them is fuller and more 
 enlightened than that of ordinary men • but in regard to 
 new facts or principles, to matters imperfectly known, their 
 opinion can only be hypothetic, because they are no more 
 exempt from prejudice than other people. It may even be 
 said that scientific men are more apt to be prejudiced than 
 the rest of the world, because each of them is naturally 
 inclined to look at everything from the special point of 
 view that has been adopted by him ; the mathematician 
 admitting no other order of proof than that of an algebraic 
 demonstration, the chemist referring everything to the action 
 of the elements, &c. When a man has made for himself a 
 specialty, he usually devotes his whole mind to it ; beyond 
 the scope of this specialty he often reasons falsely, because, 
 owing to the weakness of human reason, he insists on treat- 
 ing every subject in the same way ; and therefore, while we 
 should willingly and confidently consult a chemist in regard 
 to a question of analysis, a physicist in regard to electricity, a 
 mechanician in regard to a motive power, we must be allowed, 
 without in any way derogating from the respect due to their 
 special knowledge, to attach no more weight to their un- 
 favourable opinion of spiritism than we should do to the 
 judgment of an architect on a question relating to the theory 
 of music. 
 
 The positive sciences are based on the properties of 
 matter, which may be experimented upon and manipulated 
 at pleasure ; but spiritist phenomena are an effect of the 
 action of intelligences who have wills of their own, and who 
 constantly show us that they are not subjected to ours. 
 The observation of facts, therefore, cannot be carried on in 
 the latter case in the same way as in the former one, for 
 they proceed from another source, and require special con- 
 ditions; and, consequently, to insist upon submitting them to 
 the same methods of investigation is to insist on assuming 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 the existence of analogies that do not exist. Science, pro- 
 perly so called, is therefore incompetent, as such, to decide 
 the question of the truth of spiritism : it has nothing to do 
 with it ; and its verdict in regard to it, whether favourable 
 or otherwise, is of no weight. Spiritist belief is the result 
 of a personal conviction that scientific men may hold as 
 individuals, and independent of their quality as scientists ; 
 but to submit the question to the decision of physical 
 science would be much the same thing as to set. a company 
 of physicists and astronomers to decide the question of 
 immortality. Spiritism deals exclusively with the existence 
 of the soul, and its state after death ; and it is supremely 
 unreasonable to assume that a man must be a great 
 psychologist simply because he is a great mathematician 
 or a great anatomist. The anatomist, when dissecting a 
 human body, looks for the soul, and, as he does not find it 
 under his scalpel as he rinds a nerve, or see it evaporate as 
 does a gas, he concludes that it does not exist, because he 
 reasons from an exclusively material point of view ; but it by 
 no means follows that he is right, and that the opinion of the 
 rest of the world is wrong. We see, therefore, that the task 
 of deciding as to the truth or falsity of spiritism does not fall 
 within the scope of physical science. When spiritist beliefs 
 shall have become generalised, when they shall have been 
 accepted by the masses (and, if we may judge by the 
 rapidity with which they are being propagated, that time 
 can hardly be very distant), it will be with those beliefs as 
 with all new ideas that have encountered opposition ; and 
 scientific men will end by yielding to the furce of evidence. 
 They will be brought, individually, by the force of things, 
 to admit ideas that they now reject ; and, until then, it 
 would be premature to turn them from their special studies 
 in order to occupy them with a matter which is foreign 
 alike to their habits of thought and to their spheres of 
 investigation. Meanwhile, those who, without a caref J 
 preparatory study of the matter, pronounce a negative 
 verdict in regard to it, and throw rklicule upon all who are 
 not of their way of thinking, forget that such has been done 
 
XXII INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in regard to nearly all the great discoveries that honour 
 the human race. They risk seeing their names added to 
 the list of illustrious proscribers of new ideas, and classed 
 with those of the members of the learned assembly which, 
 in 1752, received Franklin's paper on lightning-rods with 
 peals of laughter, and voted it to be unworthy of mention 
 among the communications addressed to it ; or with that 
 other one which caused France to miss the advantage of 
 taking the lead in the application of steam to shipping, by 
 declaring Fulton's plans to be impracticable : and yet these 
 subjects lay within their competence. If those two assem- 
 blies, which numbered the most eminent scientists of the 
 world among their members, had only contempt and 
 sarcasm for ideas which they did not understand, but 
 which were destined to revolutionise, a few years later, 
 science, industry, and daily life, how can we hope that a 
 question foreign to their labours should meet with any 
 greater degree of favour at their hands ? 
 
 The erroneous judgments of learned men in regard to 
 certain discoveries, though regrettable for the honour of 
 their memory, do not invalidate the title to our esteem 
 acquired by them in regard to other matters. But is 
 common-sense only to be found associated with an official 
 diploma, and are there only fools and simpletons outside 
 the walls of scientific institutions ? Let our opponents 
 condescend to glance over the ranks of the partisans of 
 spiritism, and see whether they contain only persons of 
 inferior understanding, or whether, on the contrary, con- 
 sidering the immense number of men of worth by whom it 
 has been embraced, it can be regarded as belonging to the 
 category of old wives' fables ; whether, in fact, the character 
 and scientific knowledge of its adherents do not rather 
 deserve that it should be said — " When such men affirm 
 a matter, there must at least be something in it?" 
 
 We repeat that, if the facts we are about to consider had 
 been limited to the mechanical movement of inert bodies, 
 physical science would have been competent to seek out 
 the physical cause of the phenomena ; but the manifes- 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXlli 
 
 tations in question being professedly beyond the action 
 of laws or forces yet known to men, they are necessarily 
 beyond the competence of human science. When the 
 facts to be observed are novel, and do not fall within the 
 scope of any known science, the scientist, in order to study 
 them, should throw his science temporarily aside, remem- 
 bering that a new study cannot be fruitfully prosecuted 
 under the influence of preconceived ideas. 
 
 He who believes his reason to be infallible is very near 
 to error. Even those whose ideas are of the falsest profess 
 to base them on reason ; and it is in the name of reason that 
 they reject whatever seems to them to be impossible. They 
 who formerly rejected the admirable discoveries that are the 
 glory of the human mind did so in the name of reason ; for 
 what men call reason is often only pride disguised, and 
 whoever regards himself as infallible virtually claims to 
 be God's equal. We therefore address ourselves to those 
 who are reasonable enough to suspend their judgment in 
 regard to what they have not yet seen, and who, judging 
 of the future by the past, do not believe that man has 
 reached his apogee, or that nature has turned over for 
 him the last leaf of her book. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Let us add that the study of such a theory as that of spirit- 
 ism, which introduces us at once to an order of ideas so novel 
 and so grand, can only be fruitfully pursued by persons of 
 a serious turn of mind, persevering, free from prejudice, 
 and animated by a firm and sincere determination to arrive 
 at the truth. We could not give this qualification to those 
 who decide, in regard to such a subject, a priori, lightly, 
 and without thorough examination ; who bring to the work 
 of study neither the method, the regularity, nor the sus- 
 tained attention necessary to success : still less could we 
 give it to those who, not to lose their reputation for wit and 
 sharpness, seek to turn into ridicule matteis of the most seri- 
 ous import, or that are judged to be such by persons whose 
 
XXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 knowledge, character, and convictions should command 
 respect. Let those who consider the facts in question as 
 unworthy of their attention abstain from studying them ; 
 no one would attempt to interfere with their belief; but 
 let them, on their part, respect the belief of those who are 
 of a contrary opinion. 
 
 The characteristics of serious study are the method and 
 the perseverance with which it is carried on. Is it strange 
 that sensible answers are not always obtained from spirits 
 in reply to questions which, however serious in themselves, 
 are propounded at random, and in the midst of a host of 
 others, unconnected, frivolous, or foolish ? Besides, a ques- 
 tion is often complex, and the answer to it, in order to be clear, 
 needs to be preceded, or completed, by various considera- 
 tions. Whoever would acquire any science must make it 
 the object of methodical study, must begin at the beginning, 
 and follow out the sequence and development of the ideas 
 involved in it. If one who is ignorant of the most elemen- 
 tary facts of a science should ask a question in regard to it of 
 the most learned of its professors, could the professor, how- 
 ever excellent his goodwill, give him any satisfactory answer ? 
 For any isolated answer, given under such conditions, must 
 necessarily be incomplete, and would, therefore, in many 
 cases, appear unintelligible, or even absurd. It is exactly 
 the same in regard to the relations which we establish with 
 spirits. If we would learn in their school, we must go 
 through a complete course of teaching with them ; but, 
 as among ourselves, we must select our teachers, and work 
 on with steadiness and assiduity. 
 
 We have said that spirits of superior advancement are 
 only attracted to centres in which there reigns a serious 
 desire for light, and, above all, a perfect communion of 
 thought and feeling in the pursuit of moral excellence. 
 Frivolity and idle curiosity repel them, just as. among men, 
 they repel all reasonable people ; and the road is thus left 
 open to the mob of foolish and lying spirits who are always 
 about us, watching for opportunities of mocking us and 
 amusing themselves at our expense. What becomes of .any 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 serious question in such a gathering ? It will certainly be 
 replied to, but by whom ? It is just as though, in the midst 
 of a convivial dinner-party, you should suddenly propound 
 such questions as — "What is the soul? What is death ?'' 
 or others equally out of harmony with the tone of the com- 
 pany. If we would obtain serious answers, we must our- 
 selves be serious, and must place ourselves in the conditions 
 required for obtaining them ; it is only by so doing that we 
 shall obtain any satisfactory and ennobling communications. 
 We must, moreover, be laborious and persevering in our in- 
 vestigations, otherwise the higher spirits will cease to trouble 
 themselves about us, as the professor ceases to occupy him- 
 self with the hopelessly idle members of his class. 
 
 IX. 
 
 The movement of inert bodies is a fact already proved by 
 experience ; the point now to be ascertained is, whether 
 there is, or is not, a manifestation of intelligence in this 
 movement, and, if there is, what is the source of this in- 
 telligence ? We are not speaking of the intelligence dis- 
 played in the movement of certain objects, nor of verbal 
 communications, nor even of those which are written directly 
 by the medium : these manifestations, of which the spirit- 
 origin is evident for those who have thoroughly investigated 
 the matter, are not, at first sight, sufficiently independent of 
 the will of the medium to bring conviction to an observer 
 new to the subject. We will therefore only speak, in this 
 place, of writing obtained with the aid of an object of any 
 kind provided with a pencil, such as a small basket, a plan- 
 chette, &c, the fingers of the medium being placed upon the 
 object in such a manner as to defy the most consummate 
 skill to exercise the slightest influence on the tracing of the 
 letters. But let us suppose that, by some wonderful clever- 
 ness, the medium succeeds in deceiving the most keenly 
 observant eye, how can we explain the nature of the com- 
 munications, when they are altogether beyond the scope of 
 the medium's knowledge and ideas ? And it is, moreover, to 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 be remarked, that we are speaking not of monosyllabic 
 replies, but of many pages, dashed off, as frequently 
 happens, with the most astonishing rapidity, sometimes 
 spontaneously, and sometimes upon- a given subject; of 
 poems of elevated character, and irreproachable in point of 
 style, produced by the hand of an utterly illiterate medium. 
 And what adds to the strangeness of these facts is, that 
 they are occurring all the world over, and that the number 
 of mediums is constantly increasing. Are these facts real 
 or not ? To this query we have but one reply to make : 
 " See and observe ; opportunities of doing so will not be 
 lacking ; but, above all, observe often, for a long time, and 
 according to the conditions required for so doing. v 
 
 To the evidence adduced by us, what do our antagonists 
 reply ? " You are," say they, " the dupes of imposition or 
 the sport of illusion." We have to remark, in the first place, 
 that imposition is not likely to occur where no profit is to 
 be made ; charlatans are not apt to ply their trade gratis. 
 If imposition be practised, it must be for the sake of a joke. 
 But by what strange coincidence does there happen to be 
 an understanding between the jokers, from one end of the 
 earth to the other, to act in the same way, to produce the 
 same effects, and to give, upon the same subjects, and in 
 different languages, replies that are identical, if not in words, 
 at least in meaning ? How is it that grave, serious, honour- 
 able, and educated persons can lend themselves to such 
 manoeuvres, and for what purpose ? How is it that the 
 requisite patience and skill for carrying on such a piece of 
 deception are found even in young children ? for mediums, 
 if they are not passive instruments, must possess a degree 
 of skill, and an amount and variety of knowledge, incom- 
 patible with the age and social position of many of them. 
 
 " But," urge our opponents, " if there be no trickery, both 
 parties may be the dupes of an illusion." It is only reason- 
 able that the quality of witnesses should be regarded as an 
 element in deciding the value of their evidence ; and it may 
 fairly be asked whether the spiritist theory, whose adherents 
 are already to be counted by millions, recruits these only 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXVU 
 
 among the ignorant? The phenomena on which it is based 
 are so extraordinary that we admit the reasonableness of 
 doubt in regard to them ; but what is not admissible is the 
 pretension of certain sceptics to a monopoly of common 
 sense, and the unceremonious way in which, regardless of 
 the moral worth of their adversaries, they tax all who are 
 not of their opinion with infatuation or stupidity. For the 
 affirmation of enlightened persons who have, for a long time, 
 seen, studied, and meditated any matter, is always, if not a 
 proof, at least a presumption in its favour, since it has been 
 able to fix the attention of men of mark, having no interest 
 in propagating an error, nor time to waste upon worthless 
 trifles. 
 
 X. 
 
 Among the objections brought forward by our opponents 
 are some which are more specious, at least in appearance, 
 because they are made by thoughtful minds. 
 
 One of these objections is prompted by the fact that the 
 language of spirits does not always seem worthy of the 
 elevation we attribute to beings beyond the pale of humanity. 
 But, if the objector will take the trouble to look at the 
 doctrinal summary we have given above, he will see that 
 the spirits themselves inform us that they are not equals, 
 either in knowledge or in moral qualities, that we are not 
 to accept everything said by spirits as literal truth, and that 
 we must judge for ourselves of the value of their statements. 
 Assuredly, those who infer from this fact that we have to 
 deal only with maleficent beings, whose sole occupation is 
 to deceive us, have no acquaintance with the communica- 
 tions obtained in the centres habitually frequented by spirits 
 of superior advancement, or they could not entertain such 
 an opinion. It is regrettable that they should have chanced 
 to see only the worst side of ths spirit-world, for we will 
 not suppose that their sympathies attract evil, gross, or 
 lying spirits, rather than good ones. We will merely suggest 
 that, in some cases, the inquirers may not be so thoroughly 
 
XXV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 principled in goodness as to repel evil, and that, talcing 
 advantage of their curiosity in regard to them, imperfect 
 spirits make use of the opening thus afforded to come about 
 them, while those of a higher order withdraw from them. 
 
 To judge the question of spirits by these facts would be 
 as little reasonable as to judge of the character of a people 
 by the sayings and doings of a party of wild or disreputable 
 fellows, with whom the educated and respectable classes of 
 the population have nothing to do. Such persons are in 
 the position of the traveller who, entering some great capital 
 by one of its worst suburbs, should judge of all its inhabitants 
 by the habits and language of this low quarter. In the 
 world of spirits, as in our own, there are higher and lower 
 classes of society. Let inquirers make a study of what goes 
 on among spirits of high degree, and they will be convinced 
 that the celestial city is not peopled solely by the ignorant 
 and vicious. " But," it will be asked, " do spirits of high 
 degree come among us?" To which question we reply, 
 "Do not remain in the suburbs; see, observe, and judge; the 
 facts are within reach of all but those alluded to by Jesus, 
 as having eyes, but seeing not, and ears, but hearing not." 
 
 A variety of the same objection consists in attributing all 
 spirit communications, and all the physical manifestations 
 by which they are accompanied, to the intervention of some 
 diabolical power — some new Proteus that assumes every 
 form in order the more effectually to deceive us. Without 
 pausing to analyse a supposition that we regard as not 
 susceptible of serious examination, and that is, moreover, 
 refuted by what we have already said, we have only to 
 remark that, if such were the case, it would have to be 
 admitted either that the devil is sometimes very wise, very 
 reasonable, and, above all, very moral, or else that there 
 are good devils as well as bad ones. 
 
 But, in fact, is it possible to believe that God would 
 permit only the Spirit of Evil to manifest himself, and this 
 in order to ruin us, without giving us also the counsels of 
 good spirits as a counterpoise ? To suppose that He cannot 
 do this is to limit His power ; to suppose that He can do 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXIX 
 
 it, but abstains from doing it, is incompatible with the 
 belief in His goodness. Both suppositions are equally 
 blasphemous. It must be observed that, to admit the com- 
 munication of evil spirits is to recognise the existence of 
 spirit manifestations ; but, if they exist, it can only be with 
 the permission of God, and how then can we, without 
 impiety, believe that He would permit them to occur only 
 for a bad purpose, to the exclusion of a good one ? Such a 
 supposition is contrary alike to the simplest dictates of 
 religion and of common sense. 
 
 XL 
 
 One strange feature of the matter, urge other objectors, 
 is the fact that only the spirits of well-known personages 
 manifest themselves, and it is asked why these should be 
 the only ones who do so? This query is suggested by 
 an error due, like many others, to superficial observation. 
 Among the spirits who present themselves spontaneously, 
 the greater number are unknown to us, and, therefore, call 
 themselves by names that we know, and that serve to 
 characterise them. With regard to those whom we evoke, 
 unless in the case of relatives or friends, we naturally address 
 ourselves to spirits whom we know of, rather than to those 
 who are unknown to us ; and as the names of illustrious 
 persons are those which strike us most forcibly, they are, 
 for that reason, those which are most remarked. 
 
 It is also considered as strange that the spirits of eminent 
 men should respond familiarly to our call, and should some- 
 times interest themselves in things that appear trifling in 
 comparison with those which they accomplished during 
 their life. But there is in this nothing surprising for those 
 who know that the power and consideration which a man 
 may have possessed in this lower life give him no supremacy 
 in the spirit-world. Spirits confirm the gospel statement 
 that " the last shall be first, and the first shall be last," as 
 regards the rank of each of us when we return among them. 
 Thus he who has been first in the earthly life may be 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 one of the last in that other world; he before whom all 
 bowed their heads during the present life may then find 
 himself beneath the humblest artisan, for, on quitting the 
 earthly life, he leaves all his grandeur behind him ; and the 
 most powerful monarch may be lower than the lowest of his 
 subjects. 
 
 XII. 
 
 A fact ascertained by observation, and confirmed by the 
 spirits themselves, is the borrowing of well-known and vene- 
 rated names by spirits of inferior degree. How, then, can 
 we be sure that those who say they were, for example, 
 Socrates, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Fenelon, Napoleon, 
 Washington, &c, were really the men they claim to have 
 been? This doubt exists among many fervent adherents 
 of spiritist doctrine. They admit the reality of the inter- 
 vention and manifestation of spirits, but they ask themselves 
 what certainty we can have of their identity ? This cer- 
 tainty it is, in fact, very difficult to obtain ; but though it 
 cannot be settled as authentically as by the attestation of a 
 civil register, it may, at least, be established presumptively, 
 according to certain indications. 
 
 When the spirit who manifests himself is that of some one 
 personally known to us, of a relative or friend, for instance, 
 and especially if of one who has been dead but a short time, 
 it is generally found that his language is perfectly in keep- 
 ing with what we know of his character ; thus furnishing a 
 strong presumption of his identity, which is placed almost 
 beyond reach of doubt when the spirit speaks of private 
 affairs, and refers to family matters known only to the party 
 to whom he addresses himself. A son could hardly be mis- 
 taken as to the language of his father and mother, nor 
 parents as to that of their child. Most striking incidents 
 often occur in evocations of this intimate kind — things of a 
 nature to convince the most incredulous. The most scep- 
 tical are often astounded by the unexpected revelations thus 
 made to them. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXI 
 
 Another very characteristic circumstance often helps to 
 establish a spirit's identity. We have already said that the 
 handwriting of the medium generally changes with the spirit 
 evoked, the same writing being reproduced exactly every 
 time the same spirit presents himself; and it often happens 
 that, in the case of persons recently deceased, this writing 
 bears a striking resemblance to that of the person during 
 life, the signatures, especially, being sometimes perfectly 
 exact. We are, nevertheless, very far from adducing this 
 fact as a rule, or as being of constant recurrence ; we merely 
 mention it as a point worthy of notice. 
 
 It is only when spirits have arrived at a certain degree of 
 purification that they are entirely freed from all corporeal 
 influences ; and as long as they are not completely demate- 
 rialised (to employ their own expression), they retain most 
 of the ideas, tendencies, and even the hobbies, they had while 
 on earth, all of which furnish additional means of identifica- 
 tion ; but these are especially to be found in the vast num- 
 ber of small details that are only perceived through sustained 
 and attentive observation. Spirits who have been authors 
 are seen to discuss their own works or views, approving or 
 blaming them • others allude to various circumstances con- 
 nected with their life or death ; and from all these indica- 
 tions we obtain what may, at least, be regarded as moral 
 presumptions in favour of their identity, the only ones that 
 can be looked for under the circumstances of the case. 
 
 If, then, the identity of the spirit evoked may be estab- 
 lished, to a certain extent and in certain cases, there is 
 no reason why that identity may not exist in others ; and 
 although we may not have the same means of identification 
 in regard to persons whose death is of more distant date, 
 we always have that of language and character, for the 
 spirit of a good and enlightened man will assuredly not 
 express himself like that of a depraved or ignorant one. As 
 for inferior spirits who assume honoured names, they soon 
 betray themselves by the character of their language and 
 statements. If some one, for instance, calling himself 
 Fenelon gave utterance to remarks at variance with com 
 
XXXU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mon sense or morality, his imposture would at once become 
 evident ; but if the thoughts expressed by him were always 
 noble, consistent, and of an elevation worthy of Fenelon, 
 there would be no reason to doubt his identity, for other- 
 wise we should have to admit that a spirit whose communi- 
 cations inculcate only goodness would knowingly be guilty 
 of falsehood. Experience shows us that spirits of the same 
 degree, of the same character, and animated by the same 
 sentiments, are united in groups and families ; but the num- 
 ber of spirits is incalculable, and we are so far from knowing 
 them all, that the names of the immense majority of them 
 are necessarily unknown to us. A spirit of the same cate- 
 gory as Fenelon may therefore come to us in his name, and 
 may even be sent by him as his representative ; in which 
 case he would naturally announce himself as Fenelon, be- 
 cause he is his equivalent, and able to supply his place, and 
 because we need a name in order to fix our ideas in regard 
 to him. And, after all, what does it matter whether a spirit 
 be really Fenelon or not, if all that he says is excellent, and 
 such as Fenelon himself would be likely to say ? For, in 
 that case, he must be a spirit of superior advancement ; and 
 the name under which he presents himself is of no import- 
 ance, being often only a means of fixing our ideas. This 
 sort of substitution would not be acceptable in evocations 
 of a more intimate character ; but, in these, as just pointed 
 out, we have other means of ascertaining the identity of the 
 communicating spirit. 
 
 It is certain, however, that the assumption of false names 
 by spirits may give rise to numerous mistakes, may be a 
 source of error and deception, and is, in fact, one of the 
 most serious difficulties of practical spiritism ; but we have 
 never said that this field of investigation, any more than any 
 other, is exempt from obstacles, nor that it can be fruit- 
 fully explored without serious and persevering effort. We 
 cannot too often reiterate the warning that spiritism is a 
 new field of study, and one that demands, long and assiduous 
 exploration. Being unable to produce at pleasure the facts 
 on which spiritism is based, we are obliged to wait for them 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXX1I1 
 
 to present themselves ; and it often happens that, instead of 
 occurring when we are looking for them, they occur when 
 least expected. For the attentive and patient observer, 
 materials for study are abundant, because he discovers in 
 the facts thus presented thousands of characteristic pecu- 
 liarities which are for him so many sources of light. It is 
 the same in regard to every other branch of science ; while 
 the superficial observer sees in a flower only an elegant 
 form, the botanist discovers in it a mine of interest for his 
 thought. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The foregoing remarks lead us to say a few words in rela- 
 tion to another difficulty — viz., the divergence which exists 
 in the statements made by spirits. 
 
 Spirits differing very widely from one another as regards 
 their knowledge and morality, it is evident that the same 
 question may receive from them very different answers, ac- 
 cording to the rank at which they have arrived ; exactly as 
 would be the case if it were propounded, alternately to a 
 man of science, an ignoramus, and a mischievous wag. 
 The important point, as previously remarked, is to know 
 who is the spirit to whom we are addressing our question. 
 
 But, it will be argued, how is it that spirits who are ad- 
 mittedly of superior degree are not all of the same opinion ? 
 We reply, in the first place, that there are, independently 
 of the cause of diversity just pointed out, other causes that 
 may exercise an influence on the nature of the replies, irre- 
 spectively of the quality of the spirits themselves. This is 
 a point of the highest importance, and one that will be ex- 
 plained by our ulterior study of the subject, provided that 
 this study be prosecuted with the aid of the sustained atten- 
 tion, the prolonged observation, the method and persever- 
 ance that are required in the pursuit of every other branch 
 of human inquiry. Years of study are needed to make 
 even a second-rate physician ; three-quarters of a lifetime 
 to make a man of learning : and people fancy that a few 
 
 G 
 
XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 hours will suffice to acquire the science of the infinite ! 
 Let there be no mistake in regard to this matter. The 
 subject of spiritism is immense. It involves all other sub- 
 jects, physical, metaphysical, and' social ; it is a new world 
 that opens before us. Is it strange that time, and a good deal 
 of time, should be required for becoming acquainted with it ? 
 
 The contradictions alluded to, moreover, are not always as 
 absolute as they may seem to be at first sight. Do we not see 
 every day that men who are pursuing the same science give 
 various definitions of the same thing ; sometimes because 
 they make use of different terms, sometimes because they 
 consider it from different points of view, although the 
 fundamental idea is the same in each case ? Let any one 
 count up, if he can, the different definitions that have been 
 given of grammar ! It must also be remembered that the 
 form of the answer often depends on the form under which 
 the question has been put ; and that it would be childish 
 to regard as a contradiction what is often only a difference of 
 words. The higher spirits pay no heed to forms of expres- 
 sion j for them, fhe thought itself is everything. 
 
 Let us take, for example, the definition of soul. That 
 word, having no fixed meaning, spirits like ourselves may 
 differ in the meaning they give to it. One of them may 
 say that it is " the principle of life ; " another may call it 
 " the animic spark ; " a third may say that it is internal ; a 
 fourth, that it is external, &c. ; and each may be right from 
 his own special point of view. Some of them might even 
 be supposed to hold materialistic views ; and yet such is 
 not the case. It is the same with regard to the word God. 
 According to some, God is " the principle of all things ; " 
 according to others, " the creator of the universe," " the 
 sovereign intelligence," " the Infinite," " the great Spirit," 
 &c. ) and nevertheless it is always " God." And so in 
 regard to the classification of spirits. They form an un- 
 interrupted succession from the lowest to the highest ; all 
 attempts at classification are therefore arbitrary, and they 
 may be regarded as forming three, five, ten, or twenty 
 classes, without involving error or contradiction. All 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXV 
 
 human sciences offer the same variations of detail ; every 
 investigator has his own system ; and systems change, but 
 science remains the same. Whether we study botany 
 according to the system of Linnaeus, of Jussieu, or of 
 Tournefort, what we learn is none the less botany. Let 
 us then cease to attribute more importance than they de- 
 serve to matters that are merely conventional, and let us 
 devote ourselves only to what is really important ; and we 
 shall often discover, on reflexion, a similitude of meaning in 
 statements that appeared to us, at first sight, to be contra- 
 dictory. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 We should pass over the objection of certain sceptics in 
 relation to the faulty spelling of some spirits, were it not 
 that this objection affords us an opportunity of calling atten- 
 tion to a point of great importance. Spirit-orthography, it 
 must be confessed, is not always irreproachable ; but he 
 must be very short of arguments who would make this fact 
 the object of serious criticism, on the plea that, " since 
 spirits know everything, they ought to be well up in spell- 
 ing/' We might retort by pointing to the numerous sins 
 against orthography committed by more than one of the 
 lights of science in our own world, and which in no wise 
 invalidate their scientific authority ; but a much more im- 
 portant point is involved in the fact alluded to. For spirits, 
 and especially for those of high degree, the idea is every- 
 thing, the form is nothing. Freed from matter, their language 
 among themselves is as rapid as thought, for it is their thought 
 itself that is communicated without intermediary ; and it 
 must therefore be very inconvenient for them to be obliged, 
 in communicating with us, to make use of human speech, 
 with its long and awkward forms, its insufficiencies and im- 
 perfections, as the vehicle of their ideas. They often allude 
 to this inconvenience ; and it is curious to see the means 
 they employ to obviate the difficulty. It would be the same 
 with us if we had to express ourselves in a language of which 
 
XXXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the words and locutions were longer, and the stock of ex- 
 pressions more scanty, than those we habitually employ. 
 The same difficulty is felt by the man of genius, impatient 
 of the slowness of his pen, which always lags behind his 
 thought. It is therefore easy to understand that spirits 
 attach but little importance to questions of spelling, especi- 
 ally in the transmission of serious and weighty teachings. 
 Should we not rather wonder that they are able to express 
 themselves equally in all tongues, and that they understand 
 them all ? It must not, however, be inferred from these 
 remarks that they are unable to express themselves with 
 conventional correctness ; they do this when they judge it 
 to be necessary ; as, for instance, when they dictate verses, 
 some of which, written, moreover, by illiterate mediums, are 
 of a correctness and elegance that defy the severest criticism. 
 
 XV. 
 
 There are persons who see danger in everything that is 
 new to them, and who have therefore not failed to draw an 
 unfavourable conclusion from the fact that some of those 
 who have taken up the subject of spiritism have lost their 
 reason. But how can sensible people urge that fact as an 
 objection ? Does not the same thing often happen to weak 
 heads when they give themselves up to any intellectual 
 pursuit ? Who shall say how many have gone mad over 
 mathematics, medicine, music, philosophy, &c. ? But what 
 does that prove ? And are those studies to be proscribed on 
 that account ? Arms and legs, the instruments of physical 
 activity, are often injured by physical labour ; the brain, in- 
 strument of thought, is often impaired by intellectual labour, 
 to which, in fact, many a man may be said to fall a martyr. 
 But, though the instrument may be injured, the mind remains 
 intact, and, when freed from matter, finds itself again in full 
 possession of its faculties. 
 
 Intense mental application of any kind may induce 
 cerebral disease ; science, art, religion even, have all fur- 
 nished their quota of madmen. The predisposing cause of 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXVU 
 
 madness is to be found in some tendency of the brain that 
 renders it more or less accessible to certain impressions; 
 and, where the predisposition to insanity exists, its mani- 
 festation takes on the character of the pursuit to which the 
 mind is most addicted, and which then assumes the form of 
 a fixed idea. This fixed idea may be that of spirits, in the 
 case of those who have been deeply absorbed by spiritist 
 matters; as it may be that of God, of angels, the devil, 
 fortune, power, an art, a science, a political or social system. 
 It is probable that the victim of religious mania would 
 have gone mad on spiritism, if spiritism had been his pre- 
 dominant mental occupation ; just as he who goes mad 
 over spiritism would, under other circumstances, have gone 
 mad over something else. 
 
 We assert, therefore, that spiritism does not predispose 
 to insanity ; nay, more, we assert that, when correctly 
 understood, it is a preservative against insanity. 
 
 Among the most common causes of cerebral disturbance 
 must be reckoned the disappointments, misfortunes, blighted 
 affections, and other troubles of human life, which are also 
 the most frequent causes of suicide. But the enlightened 
 spiritist looks upon the things of this life from so elevated a 
 point of view, they seem to him so petty, so worthless, in 
 comparison with the future he sees before him — life appears 
 so short, so fleeting — that its tribulations are, in his eyes, 
 merely the disagreeable incidents of a journey. What 
 would produce violent emotion in the mind of another 
 affects him but slightly ; besides, he knows that the sorrows 
 of life are trials which aid our advancement, if borne with- 
 out murmuring, and that he will be rewarded according to 
 the fortitude with which he has borne them. His convic- 
 tions, therefore, give him a resignation that preserves him 
 from despair, and consequently from a frequent cause of 
 madness and suicide. He knows, moreover, through spirit 
 communications, the fate of those who voluntarily shorten 
 their days ; and as such knowledge is well calculated to 
 suggest serious reflection, the number of those who have 
 thus been arrested on the downward path is incalculable. 
 
XXXVU1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Such is one of the results of spiritism. The incredulous 
 may laugh at it as much as they please ; we only wish them 
 the consolations it affords to those who have sounded its 
 mysterious depths. 
 
 Fear must also be reckoned among the causes of mad- 
 ness. Dread of the devil has deranged many a brain; 
 and who shall say how many victims have been made 
 by impressing weak imaginations with pictures of which 
 the horrors are enhanced by the hideous details so in- 
 geniously worked into them? The devil, it is some- 
 times said, frightens only little children, whom it helps 
 to make docile and well-behaved. Yes ; but only as 
 do nursery-terrors and bugaboos in general; and when 
 these have lost their power, they who have been subjected 
 to this sort of training are apt to be worse than before ; 
 while, on the other hand, those who have recourse to it 
 overlook the risk of epilepsy involved in such disturbing 
 action upon the delicate child-brain. Religion would be 
 weak indeed if its power could only be sustained by fear. 
 Happily such is not the case, and it has other means of 
 acting on the mind. Spiritism furnishes the religious ele- 
 ment with a more efficient support than superstitious terror. 
 It discloses the reality of things, and thus substitutes a salu- 
 tary appreciation of the consequences of wrong-doing for 
 the vague apprehensions of unreasonable fear. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Two objections still remain to be examined, the only 
 ones really deserving of the name, because they are the 
 only ones founded on a rational basis. Both admit the 
 reality of the material and moral phenomena of spiritism, 
 but deny the intervention of spirits in their production. 
 
 According to the first of these objections, all the mani- 
 festations attributed to spirits are merely effects of magnet- 
 ism, and mediums are in a state that might be called waking 
 somnambulism, a phenomenon which may have been ob- 
 served by any one who has studied animal magnetism. In 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXIX 
 
 this state the intellectual faculties acquire an abnormal 
 development ; the circle of our intuitive perceptions is ex- 
 tended beyond its ordinary limits ; the medium finds in 
 himself, and with the aid of his lucidity, all that he says, 
 and all the notions transmitted by him, even in regard 
 to subjects with which he is least familiar in his usual 
 state. 
 
 It is not by us, who have witnessed its prodigies and 
 studied all its phases during thirty-five years, that the action 
 of somnambulism could be contested, and we admit that 
 many spirit-manifestations may be thus explained ; but we 
 assert that sustained and attentive observation shows us a 
 host of facts in which any intervention of the medium, 
 otherwise than as a passive instrument, is absolutely im- 
 possible. To those who attribute the phenomena in ques- 
 tion to magnetism, we would say, as to all others, " See, 
 and observe, for you have certainly not seen everything ; " 
 and we would also ask them to consider the two following 
 points, suggested by their own view of the subject. In the 
 first place, we would ask them, What is the origin of the 
 hypothesis of spirit-action ? Is it an explanation invented 
 by a few individuals to account for those .phenomena ? 
 Not at all. By whom, then, has it been broached? By 
 the very mediums whose lucidity you extol. But if their 
 lucidity be such as you declare it to be, why should they 
 attribute to spirits what they have derived from themselves ? 
 How can they have given information so precise, logical, 
 sublime in regard to the nature of those extra-human in- 
 telligences ? Either mediums are lucid, or they are not ; 
 if they are, and if we trust to their veracity, we cannot, 
 without inconsistency, suppose them to be in error on this 
 point. In the second place, if all the phenomena had their 
 source in the medium himself, they would always be identi- 
 cal in the case of each individual ; and we should never find 
 the same medium making use of different styles of expres- 
 sion, or giving utterance to contradictory statements. 
 
 The want of unity so often observed in the manifesta- 
 tions obtained by the same medium is a proof of the diver- 
 
Xl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sity of the sources from which they proceed; and as the 
 cause of this diversity is not to be found in the medium 
 himself, it must be sought for elsewhere. 
 
 According to the other objection, the medium is really 
 the source of the manifestations, but, instead of deriving 
 them from himself, as is asserted by the partisans of the 
 somnambulic theory, he derives them from the persons 
 among whom he finds himself. The medium is a sort of 
 mirror, reflecting all the thoughts, ideas, and knowledge of 
 those about him ; from which it follows that he says nothing 
 which is not known to, at least, some of them. It cannot 
 be denied, for it is one of the fundamental principles of 
 spiritist doctrine, that those who are present exercise an 
 influence upon the manifestations; but this influence is 
 very different from what it is assumed to be by the hypo- 
 thesis we are considering, and, so far from the medium 
 being the mere echo of the thoughts of those around him, 
 there are thousands of facts that prove directly the contraiy. 
 This objection is therefore based on a serious mistake, and 
 one that shows the danger of hasty judgments ; those who 
 bring it forward, being unable to deny the reality of phe- 
 nomena which the science of the day is incompetent to 
 explain, and being unwilling to admit the presence of spirits, 
 explain them in their own way. Their theory would be 
 specious if it explained all the facts of the case ; but this it 
 cannot do. In vain is it proved by the evidence of facts 
 that the communications of the medium are often entirely 
 foreign to the thoughts, knowledge, and even the opinions 
 of those who are present, and that they are frequently spon- 
 taneous, and contradict all received ideas ; the opponents 
 referred to are not discouraged by so slight a difficulty. 
 The radiation of thought, say they, extends far beyond the 
 circle immediately around us ; the medium is the reflection 
 of the human race in general ; so that, if he does not derive 
 his inspirations from those about him, he derives them from 
 those who are further off, in the town or country he inhabits, 
 from the people of the rest of the globe, and even from 
 those of other spheres. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xli 
 
 We do riot think that this theory furnishes a more simple 
 and probable explanation than that given by spiritism ; for 
 it assumes the action of a cause very much more marvellous. 
 The idea that universal space is peopled by beings who are 
 in perpetual contact with us, and who communicate to us 
 their ideas, is certainly not more repugnant to reason than 
 the hypothesis of a universal radiation, coming from every 
 point of the universe, and converging in the brain of a single 
 individual, to the exclusion of all the others. 
 
 We repeat (and this is a point of such importance that 
 we cannot insist too strongly upon it), that the somnambulic 
 theory, and that which may be called the theory of reflection, 
 have been devised by the imagination of men; while, on 
 the contrary, the theory of spirit-agency is not a conception 
 of the human mind, for it was dictated by the manifesting 
 intelligences themselves, at a time when no one thought 
 of spirits, and when the opinion of the generality of men 
 was opposed to such a supposition. We have therefore to 
 inquire, first, from what quarter the mediums can have 
 derived a hypothesis which had no existence in the thought 
 of any one on earth ? and, secondly, by what strange coin- 
 cidence it can have happened that tens of thousands of 
 mediums, scattered over the entire globe, and utterly un- 
 known to one another, all agree in asserting the same thing ? 
 If the first medium who appeared in France was influenced 
 by opinions already received in America, by what strange 
 guidance was he made to go in search of ideas across two 
 thousand leagues of sea, and among a people whose habits 
 and language were foreign to his own, instead of taking 
 them in his own immediate vicinity? 
 
 But there is yet another circumstance to which sufficient 
 attention has not been given. The earliest manifestations, 
 in Europe, as in America, were not made either by writing or 
 by speech, but by raps indicating the letters of the alphabet, 
 and forming words and sentences. It is by this means that 
 the manifesting intelligences declared themselves t6 be 
 spirits ; and therefore, even though we should admit an 
 intervention of the medium's mind in the production of 
 
xlii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 verbal or written communications, we . could not do so in 
 regard to raps, whose meaning could not have been known 
 beforehand. 
 
 We might adduce any number of facts proving the existence 
 of a personal individuality and an absolutely independent 
 will on the part of the manifesting intelligence; and we 
 therefore invite our opponents to a more attentive observa- 
 tion of the phenomena in question, assuring them that, if 
 they study these without prejudice, and refrain from drawing 
 a conclusion until they have made themselves thoroughly 
 acquainted with the subject, they will find that their theories 
 are unable to account for all of them. We will only pro- 
 pose to such antagonists the two following queries : — 
 
 i. Why does it so often happen that the manifesting intel- 
 ligence refuses to answer certain questions in regard to 
 matters that are perfectly known to the questioner, as, for 
 instance, his name or age, what he has in his hand, what he 
 did yesterday, what he intends to do on the morrow, &c. ? 
 If the medium be only a mirror reflecting the thought of 
 those about him, nothing should be easier for him than to 
 answer such questions. 
 
 If our adversaries retort by inquiring why it is that 
 spirits, who ought to know everything, are unable to answer 
 questions so simple, and conclude, from this presumed 
 inability, that the phenomena cannot be caused by spirits, 
 we would ask them whether, if an ignorant or foolish person 
 should inquire of some learned body the reason of its being 
 light at noonday, any answer would be returned to his ques- 
 tion? and whether it would be reasonable to conclude, from 
 the derision or the silence with which such a question might 
 be received, that its members were merely a set of asses? It 
 is precisely because they are at a higher point than ourselves 
 that spirits decline to answer idle and foolish questions; 
 keeping silence when such are asked, or advising us to 
 employ ourselves with more serious subjects. 
 
 2. We have also to ask them why it is that spirits come 
 and depart at their own pleasure, and why, when once they 
 have taken their departure, neither prayers nor entreaties 
 
INTRODUCTION. xliii 
 
 can bring them back ? If the medium were acted upon 
 solely by the mental impulsion of those around him, it is 
 evident that the union of their wills, in such a case, ought 
 to stimulate his clairvoyance. If, therefore, he do not 
 yield to the wishes of those assembled, strengthened by 
 his own desire, it is because he obeys an influence which 
 is distinct from himself and from those about him, and 
 which thus asserts its own independence and individuality. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Incredulity in regard to spirit-communication, when not 
 the result of systematic opposition from selfish motives, has 
 almost always its source in an imperfect acquaintance with 
 the facts of the case ; which, however, does not prevent a 
 good many persons from attempting to settle the question 
 as though they were perfectly familiar with it. It is pos- 
 sible to be very clever, very learned, and yet to lack clear- 
 ness of judgment ; and a belief in one's own infallibility 
 is the surest sign of the existence of this defect. Many 
 persons, too, regard spirit manifestations as being only a 
 matter of curiosity. Let us hope that the reading of this 
 book will show them that the wonderful phenomena in 
 question are something else than a pastime. 
 
 Spiritism consists of two parts : one of these, the experi- 
 mental, deals with the subject of the manifestations in 
 general ; the other, the philosophic, deals with the class of 
 manifestations denoting intelligence. Whoever has only 
 observed the former is in the position of one whose know- 
 ledge of physics, limited to experiments of an amusing 
 nature, does not extend to the fundamental principles of 
 that science. Spiritist philosophy consists of teachings 
 imparted by spirits, and the knowledge thus conveyed is of 
 a character far too serious to be mastered without serious 
 and persevering attention. If the present book had no 
 other result than to show the serious nature of the subject, 
 and to induce inquirers to approach it in this spirit, it 
 would be sufficiently important ; and we should rejoice to 
 
Xliv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 have been chosen for the accomplishment of a work in 
 regard to which we take no credit to ourselves, the prin- 
 ciples it contains not being of our own creating, and what- 
 ever honour it may obtain being entirely due to the spirits 
 by whom it has been dictated. We hope that it will 
 achieve yet another result — viz., that of serving as a guide 
 to those who are desirous of enlightenment, by showing 
 them the grand and sublime end of individual and social 
 progress to which the teachings of spiritism directly tend, and 
 by pointing out to them the road by which alone that end 
 can be reached. 
 
 Let us wind up these introductory remarks with one 
 concluding observation. Astronomers, in sounding the 
 depths of the sky, discovered seemingly vacant spaces not 
 in accordance with the general laws that govern the distri- 
 bution of the heavenly bodies, and they therefore conjec- 
 tured that those spaces were occupied by globes that had 
 escaped their observation. On the other hand, they 
 observed certain effects the cause of which was unknown 
 to them ; and they said to themselves, " In such a region of 
 space there must be a world, for otherwise there would be 
 a void that ought not to exist; and the effects we have 
 observed imply the presence in that seeming void of such 
 a world as their cause." Reasoning, then, from those effects 
 to their cause, they calculated the elements of the globe 
 whose presence they had inferred, and facts subsequently 
 justified their inference. Let us apply the same mode of 
 reasoning to another order of ideas. If we observe the 
 series of beings, we find that they form a continuous chain 
 from brute matter to man. But between man and God, 
 who is the alpha and omega of all things, what an immense 
 hiatus ! Is it reasonable to suppose that the links of the 
 chain stop short with man, that he can vault, without 
 transition, over the distance which separates him from the 
 Infinite ? Reason shows us that between man and God 
 there must be other links, just as it showed the astronomers 
 that between the worlds then known to them there must be 
 other worlds as yet unknown to them. What system of philo- 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlv 
 
 sophy has filled this hiatus ? Spiritism shows that it is filled 
 with the beings of all the ranks of the invisible world, and 
 that these beings are no other than the spirits of men who 
 have reached the successive degrees that lead up to perfec- 
 tion ; and all things are thus seen to be linked together 
 from one end of the chain to the other. Let those who 
 deny the existence of spirits tell us what are the occupants 
 of the immensity of space which spirits declare to be occu- 
 pied by them ; and let those who scoff at the idea of spirit- 
 teachings give us a nobler idea than is given by those 
 teachings of the handiwork of God, a more convincing 
 demonstration of His goodness and His power. 
 
 ALLAN KARDEC. 
 
PROLEGOMENA. 
 
 Phenomena which are inexplicable by any known laws are 
 occurring all over the world, and revealing the action of a 
 free and intelligent will as their cause. 
 
 Reason tells us that an intelligent effect must have an in- 
 telligent force for its cause ; and facts have proved that this 
 force is able to enter into communication with men by the 
 employment of material signs. 
 
 This force, interrogated as to its nature, has declared 
 itself to belong to the world of spiritual beings who have 
 thrown off the corporeal envelope of men. It is thus that 
 the existence of spirits has been revealed to us. 
 
 Communication between the spirit world and the cor- 
 poreal world is in the nature of things, and has in it nothing 
 supernatural. Traces of its existence are to be found among 
 all nations and in every age ; they are now becoming general 
 and evident to all. Spirits assure us that the time appointed 
 by Providence for a universal manifestation of their exist- 
 ence has now come ; and that their mission, as the minis- 
 ters of God and the instruments of His will, is to inaugurate, 
 through the instructions they are charged to convey to us, a 
 new era of regeneration for the human race. 
 
 This book is a compilation of their teachings. It has 
 been written by the order and under the dictation of spirits 
 of high degree, for the purpose of establishing the bases of 
 
Xlvili PROLEGOMENA. 
 
 a rational philosophy, free from the influence of prejudices 
 and of preconceived opinions. It contains nothing that is 
 not the expression of their thought ; nothing that has not 
 been submitted to their approbation. The method adopted 
 in the arrangement of its contents, the comments upon these, 
 and the form given to certain portions of the work, are all 
 that has been contributed by him to whom the duty of pub- 
 lishing it has been entrusted. 
 
 Many of the spirits who have taken part in the accom- 
 plishment of this task declare themselves to have been per- 
 sons whom we know to have lived at different epochs upon 
 the earth, preaching and practising virtue and wisdom. Of 
 the names of others, history has preserved no trace; but 
 their elevation is attested by the purity of their doctrine 
 and their union with those who bear venerated names. 
 
 We transcribe the words in which, by writing, through 
 the intermediary of various mediums, the mission of pre- 
 paring this book was confided to the writer : — 
 
 " Be zealous and persevering in the work you have under- 
 taken in conjunction with us, for this work is ours. In the 
 book you are to write, we shall lay the foundations of the 
 new edifice which is destined to unite all men in a common 
 sentiment of love and charity ; but, before making it public, 
 we shall go through it with you, so as to ensure its accuracy. 
 
 " We shall be with you whenever you ask for our pre- 
 sence, and shall aid you in all your labours ; for the prepara- 
 tion of this book is only a part of the mission which has 
 been confided to you, and of which you have already been 
 informed by one of us. 
 
 " Of the teachings given to you, some are to be kept to 
 yourself for the present ; we shall tell you when the time 
 for publishing them has come. Meanwhile make them the 
 subject of your meditations, that you may be ready to treat 
 of them at the proper moment. 
 
 " Put at the beginning of the book the vine-branch we 
 have drawn l for that purpose, because it is the emblem of 
 
 1 Vide p. xlvii., the facsimile of the branch drawn by the spirits. 
 
PROLEGOMENA. xlix 
 
 the work of the Creator. In it are united all the material 
 elements that most fitly symbolise body and spirit : the 
 stem represents the body; the juice, the spirit; the fruit, 
 the union of body and spirit. Man's labour calls forth the 
 latent qualities of the juice ; the labour of the body de- 
 velops, through the knowledge thus acquired, the latent 
 powers of the soul. 
 
 " Do not allow yourself to be discouraged by hostile 
 criticism. You will have rancorous contradictors, espe- 
 cially among those whose interest it is to keep up existing 
 abuses. You will have such even among spirits ; for those 
 who are not completely dematerialised often endeavour, 
 out of malice or ignorance, to scatter abroad the seeds of 
 doubt. Believe in God, and go boldly forward. We shall 
 be with you to sustain you on your way ; and the time is 
 at hand when the truth will shine forth on all sides. 
 
 " The vanity of some men, who imagine that they know 
 everything, and are bent on explaining everything in their 
 own way, will give rise to opposing opinions ; but all who 
 have in view the grand principle of Jesus will be united in 
 the same love of goodness, and >n a bond of broth erhool 
 that will embrace the entire world. Putting aside all vain 
 disputes about words, they will devote their energies to 
 matters of practical importance, in regard to which, what- 
 ever their doctrinal belief, the convictions of all who receive 
 the communications of the higher spirits will be the same. 
 
 " Perseverance will render your labour fruitful. The 
 pleasure you will feel in witnessing the spread of our doc- 
 trine and its right appreciation will be for you a rich 
 reward, though perhaps rather in the future than in the 
 present. Be not troubled by the thorns and stones that 
 the incredulous and the evil-minded will place in your 
 path; hold fast your confidence, for your confidence will 
 ensure our help, and, through it, you will reach the goal. 
 
 " Remember that good spirits only give their aid to those 
 who serve God with humility and disinterestedness ; they 
 disown all who use heavenly things as a stepping-stone to 
 earthly advancement, and withdraw from the proud and the 
 
PROLEGOMENA. 
 
 ambitious. Pride and ambition are a barrier between man 
 and God ; for they blind man to the splendours of celestial 
 existence, and God cannot employ the blind to make 
 known the light. n 
 
 " John the Evangelist, St Augustine, St Vincent de 
 Paul, St Louis, the Spirit of Truth, Socrates, Plato, 
 Fenelon, Franklin, Swedenborg," &c. &c. 
 
THE SPIRITS' BOOK. 
 
 BOOK FIRST,— CAUSES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GOD. 
 
 I. God and infinity— 2. Proofs of the existence of God — 3. Attributes 
 of the Divinity — 4, Pantheism, 
 
 God and Infinity. 
 
 1. What is God ? 
 
 "God is the Supreme Intelligence— First Cause of ail 
 things." l 
 
 2. What is to be understood by infinity? 
 
 " That which has neither beginning nor end; the unknown : 
 all that is unknown is infinite." 
 
 3. Can it be said that God is infinity ? 
 
 "An incomplete definition. Poverty of human speech 
 incompetent to define what transcends human intelligence. }} 
 
 1 The passage placed between inverted commas after each question 
 is the reply made by the communicating spirits, whose very words are 
 given textually throughout the whole of this book. The remarks and 
 developments occasionally added by the author are printed in smaller 
 type wherever they might otherwise be confounded with the replies of 
 the spirits themselves. "Where the author's remarks occupy an entire 
 chapter or chapters, the ordinary type is used, as, in that case, no such 
 confusion could occur. 
 
2 BOOK I. CHAP. I. 
 
 God is infinite in His perfections, but "infinity" is an abstraction. 
 To say that God is infinity is to substitute the attribute of a thing for 
 the thing itself, and to define something unknown by reference to some 
 other thing equally unknown. 
 
 Proofs of the Existence of God. 
 
 4. What proof have we of the existence of God ? 
 
 " The axiom which you apply in all your scientific re- 
 searches, ' There is no effect without a cause/ Search out 
 the cause of whatever is not the work of man, and reason 
 will furnish the answer to your question." 
 
 To assure ourselves of the existence of God, we have only to look 
 abroad on the works of creation. The universe exists, therefore it has 
 a cause. To doubt the existence of God is to doubt that every effect 
 lias a cause, and to assume that something can have been made by 
 nothing. 
 
 5. What is to be inferred from the intuition of the exist- 
 ence of God which may be said to be the common property 
 of the human mind ? 
 
 " That God exists ; for whence could the human mind 
 derive this intuition if it had no real basis ? The inference 
 to be drawn from the fact of this intuition is a corollary of 
 the axiom. ' There is no effect without a cause.' " 
 
 6. May not our seemingly intuitive sense of the exist- 
 ence of God be the result of education and of acquired 
 ideas ? 
 
 il If such were the case, how should this intuitive sense 
 
 be possessed by your savages ? " 
 
 If the intuition of the existence of a Supreme Being were only the 
 result of education it would not be universal, and would only exist, 
 like all other acquired knowledge, in the minds of those who had 
 received the special education to which it would be due. 
 
 7. Is the first cause of the formation of things to be found 
 in the essential properties of matter? 
 
 " If such were the case, what would be the cause of those 
 
 properties ? There must always be a first cause." 
 
 To attribute the first formation of things to the essential properties of 
 matter, would be to take the effect for the cause, for those properties 
 are themselves an effect, which must have a cause. 
 
 8. What is to be thought of the opinion that attributes 
 
GOD. 3 
 
 the first formation of things to a fortuitous combination of 
 matter, in other words, to chance ? 
 
 " Another absurdity ! Who that is possessed of com- 
 mon sense can regard chance as an intelligent agent ? And, 
 besides, what is chance ? Nothing." 
 
 The harmony which regulates the mechanism of the universe can 
 only result from combinations adopted in view of predetermined ends, 
 and thus, by its very nature, reveals the existence of an Intelligent 
 Power. To attribute the first formation of things to chance is non- 
 sense ; for chance cannot produce the results of intelligence. If chance 
 could be intelligent, it would cease to be chance. 
 
 9. What proof have we that the first cause of all things 
 is a Supreme Intelligence, superior to all other intelli- 
 gences ? 
 
 " You have a proverb which says, ' The workman is 
 known by his work/ Look around you, and, from the 
 quality of the work, infer that of the workman." 
 
 We judge of the power of an intelligence by its works ; as no human 
 being could create that which is produced by nature, it is evident that 
 the first cause must be an Intelligence superior to man. 
 
 Whatever may be the prodigies accomplished by human intelligence, 
 that intelligence itself must have a cause ; and the greater the results 
 achieved by it, the greater must be the cause of which it is the effect. 
 It is this Supreme Intelligence that is the first cause of all things, what- 
 ever the name by which mankind may designate it. 
 
 Attributes of the Divinity. 
 
 10. Can man comprehend the essential nature of Goj? 
 
 " No ; he lacks the sense required for comprehend- 
 ing it." 
 
 11. Will man ever become able to comprehend the 
 mystery of the Divinity ? 
 
 "When his mind shall no longer be obscured by matter, 
 and when, by his perfection, he shall have brought himself 
 nearer to God, he will see and comprehend Him." 
 
 The inferiority of the human faculties renders it impossible for man 
 to comprehend the essential nature of God. In the infancy of the race, 
 man often confounds the Creator with the creature, and attributes to 
 the former the imperfections of the latter. But, in proportion as his 
 moral sense becomes developed, man's thought penetrates more deeply 
 into the nature of things, and he is able to form tu himself a juster and 
 
4 BOOK I. CHAP. I. 
 
 more rational idea of the Divine Being, although his idea of that Being 
 must always be imperfect and incomplete. 
 
 12. If we cannot comprehend the essential nature of 
 God, can we have an idea of some of His perfections ? 
 
 " Yes, of some of them. Man comprehends them better 
 in proportion as he raises himself above matter; he obtains 
 glimpses of them through the exercise of his intelligence." 
 
 13. When we say that God is eternal, infinite, unchange- 
 able, immaterial, unique, all-powerful, sovereignly just and 
 good, have we not a complete idea of His attributes ? 
 
 " Yes, judging from your point of view, because you 
 think that you sum up everything in those terms ; but you 
 must understand that there are things which transcend the 
 intelligence of the most intelligent man, and for which your 
 language, limited to your ideas and sensations, has no ex- 
 pressions. Your reason tells you that God must possess 
 those perfections in the supreme degree ; for, if one of 
 them were lacking, or were not possessed by Him in an 
 infinite degree, He would not be superior to all, and con- 
 sequently would not be God. In order to be above all 
 things, God must undergo no vicissitudes, He must have 
 none of the imperfections of which the imagination can 
 conceive. " 
 
 God is eternal. If He had had a beginning, He must either have sprung 
 from nothing, or have been created by some being anterior to Himself. 
 It is thus that, step by step, we arrive at the idea of infinity and 
 eternity. 
 
 God is unchangeable. If He were subject to change, the laws which 
 rule the universe would have no stability. 
 
 God is immaterial, that is to say, that His nature differs from every- 
 thing that we call matter, or otherwise He would not be unchangeable, 
 for He would be subject to the transformations of matter. 
 
 God is unique. If there were several Gods, there would be neither 
 unity of plan nor unity of power in the ordaining of the universe. 
 
 God is all-powerful, because He is unique. If He did not possess 
 sovereign power, there would be something more powerful, or no less 
 powerful, than Himself. He would not have created all things ; and 
 those which He had not created would be the work of another God. 
 
 God is sovereignly just and good. The providential wisdom of the 
 divine laws is revealed as clearly in the smallest things as in the 
 greatest ; and this wisdom renders it impossible to doubt either His 
 justice or His goodness. 
 
GOD. 5 
 
 Pantheism. 
 
 14. Is God a being distinct from the universe, or is He, 
 according to the opinion of some, the result of all the 
 forces and intelligences of the universe ? 
 
 " H the latter were the case, God would not be God, for 
 He would be effect and not cause ; He cannot be both 
 cause and effect." 
 
 "God exists. You cannot doubt His existence, and that 
 is the one essential point. Do not seek to go beyond it ; 
 do not lose yourselves in a labyrinth which, for you, is 
 without an issue. Such inquiries would not make you better ; 
 they would rather tend to add to your pride, by causing 
 you to imagine that you knew something, while, in reality, 
 you would know nothing. Put aside systems. You have 
 things enough to think about that concern you much more 
 nearly, beginning with yourselves. Study your own imper- 
 fections, that you may get rid of them ; this will be far more 
 useful to you than the vain attempt to penetrate the impene- 
 trable." 
 
 15. What is to be thought of the opinion according to 
 which all natural bodies, all the beings, all the globes of 
 the universe, are parts of the Divinity, and constitute in 
 their totality the Divinity itself; in other words, the Pan- 
 theistic theory ? 
 
 " Man, not being able to make himself God, would fain 
 make himself out to be, at least, a part of God." 
 
 16. Those who hold this theory profess to find in it the 
 demonstration of some of the attributes of God. The worlds 
 of the universe being infinitely numerous, God is thus seen 
 to be infinite ; vacuum, or nothingness, being nowhere, God 
 is everywhere : God being everywhere, since everything is 
 an integral part of God, He is thus seen to be the intelligent 
 cause of all the phenomena of the universe. What can we 
 oppose to this argument ? 
 
 " The dictates of reason. Reflect on the assumption in 
 question, and you will have no difficulty in detecting its 
 absurdity." 
 
6 BOOK I. CHAP. I. 
 
 The Pantheistic theory makes of God a material being, who, though 
 endowed with a supreme intelligence, would only be on a larger scale 
 what we are on a smaller one. But, as matter is incessantly under- 
 going transformation, God, if this theory were true, would have no 
 stability. He would be subject to all the vicissitudes, and even to all 
 the needs, of humanity ; He would lack one of the essential attributes 
 of the Divinity — viz., unchangeableness. The properties of matter 
 cannot be attributed to God without degrading our idea of the 
 Divinity ; and all the subtleties of sophistry fail to solve the pro- 
 blem of His essential nature. We do not know what God is ; but 
 we know that it is impossible that He should not be ; and the theory 
 just stated is in contradiction with His most essential attributes. It 
 confounds the Creator with the creation, precisely as though we should 
 consider an ingenious machine to be an integral portion of the 
 mechanician who invented it. 
 
 The intelligence of God is revealed in His works, as is that of a 
 painter in his picture ; but the works of God are no more God Himself 
 than the picture is the artist who conceived and painted it. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 GENERAL ELEMENTS OF THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 I. Knowledge of the first principles of things — 2. Spirit and matter— 
 3. Properties of matter— 4. Universal space. 
 
 Knowledge of the First Principles of Things. 
 
 17. Is it given to mankind to know the first principle of 
 things ? 
 
 " No. There are things that cannot be understood by 
 man in this world." 
 
 18. Will man ever be able to penetrate the mystery of 
 things now hidden from him ? 
 
 "The veil will be raised for him in proportion as he 
 accomplishes his purification ; but, in order to understand 
 certain things, he would need faculties which he does not 
 yet possess." 
 
 19. Cannot man, through scientific investigation, pene- 
 trate some of the secrets of nature? 
 
 " The faculty of scientific research has been given to him 
 as a means by which he may advance in every direction; 
 but he cannot overstep the limits of his present possibilities." 
 
 The farther man advances in the study of the mysteries around him, 
 the greater should be his admiration of the power and wisdom of the 
 Creator. But, partly through pride, partly through weakness, his 
 intellect itseli often renders him the sport of illusion. He heaps 
 systems upon systems ; and every day shows him how many errors he 
 has mistaken for truths, how many truths he has repelled as errors. 
 All this should be a lesson for his pride. 
 
 20. Is man permitted to receive communications of a 
 higher order in regard to matters which, not being within 
 
8 BOOK I. CHAP. II. 
 
 the scope of his senses, are beyond the pale of scientific 
 investigation ? 
 
 " Yes. When God judges such revelations to be useful, 
 He reveals to man what science is incompetent to teach him." 
 
 It is through communications of this higher order that man is en- 
 abled, within certain limits, to obtain a knowledge of his past and of 
 his future destiny. 
 
 Spirit and Matter. 
 
 21. Has matter existed from all eternity, like God, or 
 has it been created at some definite period of time ? 
 
 " God only knows. There is, nevertheless, one point 
 which your reason should suffice to show you, viz., that 
 God, the prototype of love and beneficence, can never 
 have been inactive. However far off in the past you may 
 imagine the beginning of His action, can you suppose Him 
 to have been for a single moment inactive ?" 
 
 22. Matter is generally defined as being "that which 
 has extension," " that which can make an impression upon 
 our senses," " that which possesses impenetrability." Are 
 these definitions correct ? 
 
 (i From your point of view they are correct, because you 
 can only define in accordance with what you know. But 
 matter exists in states which are unknown to you. It may 
 be, for instance, so ethereal and subtle as to make no im- 
 pression upon your senses ; and yet it is still matter, al- 
 though it would not be such for you." 
 
 — What definition can you give of matter ? 
 
 " Matter is the element which enchains spirit, the instru- 
 ment which serves it, and upon which, at the same time, 
 it exerts its action." 
 
 From this point of view it may be said that matter is the agent, the 
 intermediary, through which, and upon which, spirit acts. 
 
 23. What is spirit ? 
 
 "The intelligent principle of the universe. " 
 
 — What is the essential nature of spirit ? 
 
 u It is not possible to explain the nature of spirit in your 
 
GENERAL ELEMENTS OF THE UNIVERSE. 9 
 
 language. For you it is not a thing, because it is not pal- 
 pable ; but for us it is a thing." 
 
 24. Is spirit synonymous with intelligence ? 
 
 " Intelligence is an essential attribute of spirit, but both 
 merge in a unitary principle, so that, for you, they may be 
 said to be the same thing." 
 
 25. Is spirit independent of matter, or is it only one of 
 the properties of matter, as colours are a property of light, 
 and as sound is a property of the air? 
 
 " Spirit and matter are distinct from one another ; but 
 the union of spirit and matter is necessary to give intelli- 
 gent activity to matter." 
 
 — Is this union equally necessary to the manifestation of 
 spirit ? (We refer, in this question, to the principle of in- 
 telligence, abstractly considered, without reference to the 
 individualities designated by that term.) 
 
 " It is necessary for you, because you are not organised 
 for perceiving spirit apart from matter. Your senses are 
 not formed for that order of perception." 
 
 26. Can spirit be conceived of without matter, and 
 matter without spirit ? 
 
 " Undoubtedly, as objects of thought." 
 
 27. There are, then, two general elements of the uni- 
 verse — matter and spirit?" 
 
 " Yes ; and above them both is God, the Creator, Parent 
 of all things. These three elements are the principle of 
 all that exists — the universal trinity. But to the material 
 element must be added the universal fluid which plays the 
 part of intermediary between spirit and matter, the nature 
 of the latter being too gross for spirit to be able to act 
 directly upon it. Although, from another point of view, this 
 fluid may be classed as forming part of the material element, 
 it is, nevertheless, distinguished from that element by cer- 
 tain special properties of its own. If it could be classed 
 simply and absolutely as matter, there would be no reason 
 why spirit also should not be classed as matter. It is in- 
 termediary between spirit and matter It is fluid, just as 
 
10 BOOK I. CHAP. II. 
 
 matter is matter, and is susceptible of being made, through 
 its innumerable combinations with matter, under the direct- 
 ing action of spirit, to produce the infinite variety of things 
 of which you know as yet but a very small portion. This 
 universal, primitive, or elementary fluid, being the agent em- 
 ployed by spirit in acting upon matter, is the principle with- 
 out which matter would remain for ever in a state of division, 
 and would never acquire the properties given to it by the 
 state of ponderability." 
 
 — Is this fluid what we designate by the name of electri- 
 city ? 
 
 " We have said that it is susceptible of innumerable com- 
 binations. What you call the electric fluid, the magnetic 
 fluid, &c, are modifications of the universal fluid, which, 
 properly speaking, is only matter of a more perfect and 
 more subtle kind, and that may be considered as having an 
 independent existence of its own." 
 
 28. Since spirit itself is something, would it not be more 
 correct and clearer to designate these two general elements 
 by the terms inert matter and intelligent matter ? 
 
 " Questions of words are of little importance for us. It 
 is for you to formulate your definitions in such a manner as 
 to make yourselves intelligible to one another. Your dis- 
 putes almost always arise from the want of a common agree- 
 ment in the use of the words you employ, owing to the in- 
 completeness of your language in regard to all that does 
 not strike your senses." 
 
 One fact, patent to all observers, dominates all our hypotheses. We 
 see matter which is not intelligent; we see the action of an intelligent 
 principle independent of matter. The origin and connection of these 
 two things are unknown to us. Whether they have, or have not, a 
 common source, and points of contact pre-ordained in the nature of 
 things, whether intelligence has an independent existence of its own, or 
 is only a property or an effect, or even whether it is (as some assume it 
 to be) an emanation of the Divinity, are points about which we know 
 nothing. Matter and intelligence appear to us to be distinct ; and we 
 therefore speak of them as being two constituent elements of the 
 universe. We see, above these, a higher intelligence which governs all 
 things, and is distinguished from them all by essential attributes peculiar 
 to itself ; it is this S preme Intelligence that we call God. 
 
GENERAL ELEMENTS OF THE UNIVERSE. 1 1 
 
 Properties of Matter. 
 
 29. Is density an essential attribute of matter ? 
 
 " Yes, of matter as understood by you, but not of matter 
 
 considered as the universal fluid. The ethereal and subtle 
 
 matter which forms this fluid is imponderable for you, and 
 
 yet it is none the less the principle of your ponderable 
 
 matter/' 
 
 Density is a relative property. Beyond the sphere of attraction of 
 the various globes of the universe, there is no such thing as " weight," 
 just as there is neither " up " nor " down." 
 
 30. Is matter formed of one element or of several ele- 
 ments ? 
 
 " Of one primitive element. The bodies which you re- 
 gard as simple are not really elementary; they are transfor- 
 mations of the primitive matter." 
 
 31. Whence come the different properties of matter? 
 
 " From the modifications undergone by the elementary 
 molecules, as the result of their union and of the action of 
 certain conditions.'' 
 
 32. According to this view of the subject, savours, odours, 
 colours, sounds, the poisonous or salutary qualities of 
 bodies, are only the result of modifications of one and the 
 same primitive substance ? 
 
 " Yes, undoubtedly ; and that only exist in virtue of the 
 disposition of the organs destined to perceive them." 
 
 This principle is proved by the fact that the qualities of bodies are 
 not perceived by all persons in the same manner. The same thing 
 appears agreeable to the taste of one person, and disagreeable to that of 
 another. What appears blue to one person appears red to another. 
 That which is a poison for some, is wholesome for others. 
 
 33. Is the same elementary matter susceptible of under- 
 going all possible modifications and of acquiring all possible 
 qualities ? 
 
 " Yes ; and it is this fact which is implied in the saying 
 that everything is in everything" l 
 
 1 This principle explains a phenomenon familiar to all magnetisers, 
 viz., the imparting to any given substance — to water, for example — of 
 very different qualities, such as specific flavours, or even the active 
 
12 BOOK I, CHAP. II. 
 
 Oxygen, hydrogen, azote, carbon, and all the other bodies which we 
 regard as simple, are only modifications of one primitive substance. 
 But the impossibility, in which we have hitherto found ourselves, of 
 arriving at this primitive matter otherwise than as an intellectual deduc- 
 tion, causes these bodies to appear to .us to be really elementary ; and 
 we may, therefore, without impropriety, continue for the present to 
 regard them as such. 
 
 — Does not this theory appear to bear out the opinion of 
 those who admit only two essential properties in matter, 
 viz., force and movement, and who regard all the other 
 properties of matter as being merely secondary effects of 
 these, varying according to the intensity of the force and 
 the direction of the movement ? 
 
 " That opinion is correct. But you must also add, accord- 
 ing to the mode of molecular arrangement; as you see exem- 
 plified, for instance, in an opaque body, that may become 
 transparent, and vice versa." 
 
 34. Have the molecules of matter a determinate form? 
 "Those molecules undoubtedly have a form, but one 
 
 which is not appreciable by your organs. " 
 
 — Is that form constant or variable ? 
 
 "•Constant for the- primitive elementary molecules, but 
 variable for the secondary molecules, which are themselves 
 only agglomerations of the primary ones; for what you 
 term a molecule is still very far from being the elementary 
 molecule. 
 
 Universal Space. 
 
 35. Is universal space infinite or limited? 
 
 <k Infinite. Suppose the existence of boundaries, what 
 would there be beyond them? This consideration confounds 
 human reason; and nevertheless your reason itself tells 
 you that it cannot be otherwise. It is thus with the idea of 
 
 qualities of other substances. As there is but one primitive element, 
 and as the properties of different bodies are only modifications of this 
 element, it follows that the substance of the most inoffensive and of the 
 most deleterious bodies is absolutely the same. Thus water, which is 
 formed of one equivalent of oxygen and two equivalents of hydrogen, 
 becomes corrosive if we double the proportion of oxygen. An analo- 
 gous transformation may be produced through the action of animal 
 magnetism, directed by the human will. 
 
GENERAL ELEMENTS OF THE UNIVERSE. 1 3 
 
 infinity, under whatever aspect you consider it. The idea 
 of infinity cannot be comprehended in your narrow sphere." 
 
 If we imagine a limit to space, no matter how far off our thought 
 may place this limit, our reason tells us that there must still be some- 
 thing beyond it ; and so on, step by step, until we arrive at the idea of 
 infinity; for the "something beyond," the existence of which is recog- 
 nised by our thought as a necessity, were it only an absolute void, would 
 still be space. 
 
 36. Does an absolute void exist in any part of space ? 
 
 " No ; there is no void. What appears like a void to 
 you is occupied by matter in a state in which it escapes the 
 action of your senses and of your instruments." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 CREATION. 
 
 I. Formation of worlds — 2. Production of living beings — 3. Peopling 
 of the earth : Adam — 4. Diversity of human races — 5. Plurality 
 of worlds — 6. The biblical account of the creation. 
 
 Formation of Worlds. 
 
 The universe comprises the infinity of worlds, both of those we see 
 and those we do not see ; all animate and inanimate beings ; all the 
 stars that revolve in space, and all the fluids with which space is filled. 
 
 37. Has the universe been created, or has it existed from 
 all eternity, like God ? 
 
 "Assuredly the universe cannot have made itself; and 
 
 if it had existed from all eternity, like God, it could not be 
 
 the work of God." 
 
 Reason tells us that the universe cannot have made itself, and that, 
 as it could not be the work of chance, it must be the work of God. 
 
 38. How did God create the universe? 
 
 " To borrow a well-known expression, by His will. 
 Nothing can give a better idea of the action of that all- 
 powerful will than those grand words of Genesis, " God said, 
 i Let there be light/ and there was light" 
 
 39. Can we know how worlds are formed? 
 
 "All that can be said on this subject, within the limits of 
 your comprehension, is this : Worlds are formed by the con- 
 densation of the matter disseminated in space." 
 
 40. Are comets, as is now supposed, a commencement 
 of condensation of the primitive matter — worlds in course 
 of formation ? 
 
 " Yes; but it is absurd to believe in the influence attributed 
 
CREATION. 
 
 *s 
 
 to them. I mean, the influence which is commonly attri- 
 buted to them ; for all the heavenly bodies have their share 
 of influence in the production of certain physical pheno- 
 
 mena." 
 
 41. Is it possible for a completely formed world to dis- 
 appear, and for the matter of which it is composed to be 
 again disseminated in space ? 
 
 " Yes. God renews worlds as He renews the living beings 
 that inhabit them." 
 
 42. Can we know the length of time employed in the 
 formation of worlds — of the earth, for instance ? 
 
 "This is a matter in regard to which I can tell you 
 nothing, for it is only known to the Creator ; and foolish 
 indeed would he be who should pretend to possess such 
 knowledge, or to number the ages of such a formation." 
 
 Production of Living Beings. 
 
 43. When did the earth begin to be peopled ? 
 
 " In the beginning all was chaos ; the elements were 
 mixed up in a state of confusion. Gradually those elements 
 settled into their proper places, and then appeared the 
 orders of living beings appropriate to the successive states 
 of the globe." 
 
 44. Whence came the living beings that appeared upon 
 the earth? 
 
 "The germs of these were contained in the earth itself, 
 awaiting the favourable moment for their development. 
 The organic principles came together on the cessation of 
 the force which held them asunder, and those principles 
 formed the germs of all the living beings that have peopled 
 the earth. Those germs remained latent and inert, like the 
 chrysalis and the seed of plants, until the arrival of the 
 proper moment for the vivification of each species. The 
 beings of each species then came together and multiplied." 
 
 45. Where were the organic elements before the forma- 
 tion of the earth ? 
 
 " They existed, so to say, in the fluidic state, in space, 
 
 £ 
 
26 BOOK I. CHAP. HI. 
 
 in the midst of the spirits, or in other planets, awaiting the 
 creation of the earth in order to begin a new existence on 
 a new globe." 
 
 Chemistry shows us the molecules of inorganic bodies uniting to 
 produce crystals of regular forms that are invariable for each species, 
 as soon as those molecules find themselves in the conditions necessary 
 to their combination. The slightest disturbance of those conditions 
 suffices to prevent the union of the material elements, or, at least, to 
 prevent the regular arrangement of the latter which constitutes the 
 crystal. Why should not the same action take place among the 
 organic elements ? We preserve for years the seeds of plants and of 
 animals, which are only vivified at a certain temperature and under 
 certain conditions : grains of wheat have been seen to germinate aftef 
 the lapse of centuries. There is, then, in seeds a latent principle of 
 vitality, which only awaits the concourse of favourable circumstances 
 to develop itself. May not that which takes place under our eyes 
 every day have also taken place at the origin of the globe ? Does this 
 view of the formation of living beings brought forth out of chaos by the 
 action of the forces of nature itself detract in any way from the glory 
 of God ? So far from doing this, the view of creation thus presented 
 to us is more consonant than any other with our sense of the vastness 
 of His power exerting its sway over all the worlds of infinity through 
 the action of universal laws. This theory, it is true, does not solve 
 the problem of the origin of the vital elements, but Nature has mysteries 
 which it is as yet impossible for us to explain. 
 
 46. Do any living beings come into existence spontane- 
 ously at the present day ? 
 
 " Yes : but the primal germs of these already existed in 
 a latent state. You are constantly witnesses of this pheno- 
 menon. Do not the tissues of the human body and of 
 animals contain the germs of a multitude of parasites, that 
 only await for their development the occurrence of the 
 putrid fermentation necessary to their life? Each of you 
 contains a slumbering world of microscopic beings in pro- 
 cess of creation." 
 
 47. Was the human species among the organic elements 
 contained in the terrestrial globe ? 
 
 " Yes ; and it made its appearance at the time appointed 
 by the Creator. Hence the statement that man was 'formed 
 out of the dust of the ground.' " 
 
 48. Can we ascertain the epoch of the appearance of 
 man and of the other living beings on the earth ? 
 
 " No ; all your calculations are chimerical." 
 
CREATION. 17 
 
 49. If the germs of the human race were among the 
 organic elements of the globe, why are human beings not 
 produced spontaneously at the present day, as they were at 
 the time of its origin ? 
 
 " The first beginning of things is hidden from us ; never- 
 theless, it may be asserted that the earliest progenitors of 
 the human race, when once brought into existence, absorbed 
 in themselves the elements necessary to their formation in 
 order to transmit those elements according to the laws of 
 reproduction. The same may be said in regard to all the 
 different species of living beings." 
 
 Peopling of the Earth— Adam. 
 
 50. Did the human race begin with one man only? 
 
 " No ; he whom you call Adam was neither the first nor 
 the only man who peopled the earth." 
 
 51. Is it possible to know at what period Adam lived? 
 
 " About the period which you assign to him ; that is to 
 say, about 4000 years before Christ." 
 
 The man of whom, under the name of Adam, tradition has preserved 
 the memory, was one of those who, in some one of the countries of the 
 globe, survived one of the great cataclysms which at various epochs 
 have changed its surface, and who became the founder of one of the 
 races that people the earth at the present day. The laws of nature 
 render it impossible that the amount o( progress which we know to 
 have been accomplished by the human race of our planet long before 
 the time of Christ could have been accomplished so rapidly as must 
 have been the case if it had only been in existence upon the globe since 
 the period assigned as the date of Adam. The opinion most consonant 
 with reason is that which regards the story of Adam as a myth, or as an 
 allegory personifying the earliest ages of the world. 
 
 Diversity of Human Races. 
 
 52. What is the cause of the physical and moral differ- 
 ences that distinguish the various races of men upon the 
 earth ? 
 
 " Climate, modes of life, and social habits. The same 
 differences would be produced in the case of two children 
 of the same mother, if brought up far from one another, 
 and surrounded by different influences and conditions ; for 
 
1 8 BOOK I. CHAP. III. 
 
 the children thus diversely brought up would present no 
 moral resemblance to each other." 
 
 53. Did the human race come into existence on various 
 points of the globe ? 
 
 " Yes, and at various epochs ; and this is one of the 
 causes of the diversity of human races. The people of 
 the primitive periods, being dispersed abroad in different 
 climates, and forming alliances with those of other coun- 
 tries than their own, gave rise perpetually to new types of 
 humanity." 
 
 — Do these differences constitute distinct species? 
 
 " Certainly not. All of them constitute but a single family. 
 Do the differences between the varieties of the same fruit 
 prevent their all belonging to the same species ?" 
 
 54. If the human species do not all proceed from the 
 same progenitor, should they, on that account, cease to 
 regard one another as brothers ? 
 
 " All men are brothers in virtue of their common relation 
 to the Creator, because they are animated by the same 
 spirit, and tend towards the same goal. The human mind 
 is always prone to attach too literal a meaning to state- 
 ments which are necessarily imperfect and incomplete." 
 
 Plurality of "Worlds. 
 
 55. Are all the globes that revolve in space inhabited ? 
 
 66 Yes ; and the people of the earth are far from being, as 
 you suppose, the first in intelligence, goodness, and general 
 development. There are many men having a high opinion 
 of themselves who even imagine that your little globe alone, 
 of all the countless myriads of globes around you, has the 
 privilege of being inhabited by reasoning beings. They 
 fancy that God has created the universe only for them. 
 Insensate vanity ! " 
 
 God has peopled the globes of the universe with living beings, all of 
 whom concur in working out the aims of His providence. To believe 
 that the presence of living beings is confined to the one point of the uni- 
 verse inhabited by us is to cast a doubt on the wisdom of God, who has 
 made nothing in vain, and who must therefore have assigned to all the 
 
CREATION. 19 
 
 other globes of the universe a destination more important than that of 
 gratifying our eyes with the spectacle of a starry' night. Moreover, 
 there is nothing in the position, size, or physical constitution of the 
 earth to warrant the supposition that it alone, of the countless myriads 
 of globes disseminated throughout the infinity of space, has the privi- 
 lege of being inhabited. 
 
 56. Is the physical constitution of all globes the same? 
 " No j they do not at all resemble one another." 
 
 57. The physical constitution of the various worlds not 
 being the same for all, does it follow that the beings who 
 inhabit them have different organisations ? 
 
 " Undoubtedly it does ; just as, in your world, fishes are 
 organised for living in the water, and birds for living in 
 the air." 
 
 58. Are the planets furthest removed from the sun stinted 
 in light and heat, the sun only appearing to them of the 
 size of one of the fixed stars ? 
 
 " Do you suppose that there are no other sources of light 
 and heat than the sun ? And do you count for nothing the 
 action of electricity, which, in certain worlds, plays a very 
 much more important part than in your earth ? Besides, how 
 do you know that the beings of those worlds see in the same 
 manner as you do, and with the aid of organs such as yours ? " 
 
 The conditions of existence for the beings who inhabit the various 
 worlds must be supposed to be appropriate to the sphere in which they 
 are destined to live. If we had never seen fishes, we should be at a 
 loss to understand how any living beings could exist in the sea. So in 
 regard to all the other worlds, which doubtless contain elements that 
 are unknown to us. In our own earth, are not the long polar nights 
 illumined by the electrical displays of the aurora borealis ? Is it im- 
 possible that, in certain worlds, electricity may be more abundant than 
 in ours, and may subserve, in its general economy, various important 
 uses not imaginable by us ? And may not those worlds contain in them- 
 selves the sources of the heat and light required by their inhabitants ? 
 
 The Biblical Account of the Creation. 
 
 59. The different nations of the earth have formed to 
 themselves widely divergent ideas of the creation ; ideas 
 always in harmony with their degree of scientific advance- 
 ment. Reason and science concur in admitting the fan- 
 tastic character of certain theories. The explanation of 
 
20 BOOK I. CHAP. III. 
 
 the subject now given through spirit-communication is con- 
 firmatory of the opinion which has long been adopted by 
 the most enlightened exponents of modern science. 
 
 This explanation will no doubt be objected to, on the 
 ground that it is in contradiction with the statements of the 
 Bible ; but a careful examination of those statements shows 
 us that this contradiction is more apparent than real, and 
 that it results from the interpretation which has been given 
 to expressions whose meaning is allegorical rather than his- 
 torical. 
 
 The question of the personality of Adam, regarded as 
 the first man, and sole progenitor of the human race, is not 
 the only one in regard to which the religious convictions of 
 the world have necessarily undergone modification. The 
 hypothesis of the rotation of the earth round the sun 
 appeared, at one time, to be in such utter opposition to 
 the letter of the Bible, that every species of persecution was 
 directed against it, and against those who advocated it. 
 Yet the earth continued to move on in its orbit in defiance of 
 anathemas ; and no one, at the present day, could contest 
 the fact of its movement without doing violence to his own 
 powers of reasoning. 
 
 The Bible also tells us that the world was created in six 
 days, and fixes the epoch of this creation at about 4000 
 years before the Christian era. Previously to that period 
 the earth did not exist. At that period it was produced 
 out of nothing. Such is the formal declaration of the sacred 
 text ; yet science, positive, inexorable, steps in with proof 
 to the contrary. The history of the formation of the globe 
 is written in indestructible characters in the world of fossils, 
 proving beyond the possibility of denial that the six days of 
 the creation are successive periods, each of which may have 
 been of millions of ages. This is not a mere matter of 
 statement or of opinion. It is a fact as incontestably certain 
 as is the motion of the earth, and one that theology itself can 
 no longer refuse to admit, although this admission furnishes 
 another example of the errors into which we are led by 
 attributing literal truth to language which is often of a figura- 
 
# 
 
 CREATION. 21 
 
 tive nature. Are we therefore to conclude that the Bible 
 is a mere tissue of errors ? No ; but we must admit that 
 men have erred in their method of interpreting it. 
 
 Geology, in its study of the archives written in the struc- 
 ture of the globe itself, has ascertained the order of succes- 
 sion in which the different species of living beings have 
 appeared on its surface, and this order is found to be in 
 accordance with the sequence indicated in the book of 
 Genesis, with this difference, viz., that the earth, instead of 
 issuing miraculously from the hand of God in the course 
 of a few days, accomplished its formation under the impul- 
 sion of the Divine will, but according to the laws and 
 through the action of the forces of nature, in the course of 
 periods incalculable by us. Does God appear less great 
 and less powerful for . having accomplished the work of 
 creation through the action of forces, and according to laws, 
 of His own ordaining? And is the result of the creative 
 energy less sublime for not having been accomplished 
 instantaneously ? Evidently not ; and puerile indeed must 
 be the mind that does not recognise the grandeur of the 
 Almighty Power implied in this evolution of the worlds of 
 the universe through the action of eternal laws. Science, 
 so far from diminishing the glory of the Divine action, 
 displays that action under an aspect still more sublime, and 
 more consonant with our intuitive sense of the power and 
 majesty of God, by showing that it has been accomplished 
 without derogation from the laws which are the expression 
 of the Divine will in the realm of nature. 
 
 Modern science, in accordance with the Mosaic record, 
 proves that man was the last in the order of creation of 
 living beings. But Moses puts the universal deluge at the 
 year of the world 1654, while geology seems to show that 
 the great diluvian cataclysm occurred before the appearance 
 of man, because, up to the present time, the primitive strata 
 contain no traces of his presence, nor of that of the animals 
 contemporaneous with him. But this point is far from 
 being decided. Various recent discoveries suggest the 
 possibility of our being destined to ascertain that the anti- 
 
22 BOOK I. CHAP. III. 
 
 quity of the human race is much greater than has been 
 hitherto supposed ; and should this greater antiquity become 
 a matter of certainty, it would prove that the letter of the 
 Bible, in regard to the date assigned by it to the creation of 
 man, as in regard to so many other matters, can only be 
 understood in an allegorical sense. That the geological 
 deluge is not that of Noah is evident from the lapse of time 
 required for the formation of the fossiliferous strata; and, 
 if traces should eventually be discovered of the existence of 
 the human race before the geological deluge, it would be 
 evident either that Adam was not the first man, or that his 
 creation dates back from a period indefinitely remote. 
 There is no arguing against fact ; and the antiquity of the 
 human race, if proved by geological discovery, would have 
 to be admitted, just as has been done in regard to the 
 movement of the earth and the six days of the creation. 
 
 The existence of the human race before the geological 
 deluge, it may be objected, is still doubtful. But the same 
 objection cannot be urged against the following considera- 
 tions : — Admitting that man first appeared upon the earth 
 4000 years before Christ, if the whole of the human race, 
 with the exception of a single family, were destroyed 1650 
 years afterwards, it follows that the peopling of the earth 
 dates only from the time of Noah — that is to say, only 2500 
 years before Christ. But when the Hebrews emigrated to 
 Egypt in the eighteenth century before Christ, they found 
 that country densely populated, and already in possession 
 of an advanced civilisation. History also shows that, at 
 the same period, India and various other countries were 
 equally populous and flourishing, to say nothing of the 
 chronological tables of other nations, which claim to go 
 back to periods yet more remote. We must, therefore, 
 suppose that, from the twenty-fourth to the eighteenth 
 century before Christ — that is to say, in the space of 600 
 years — the posterity of a single individual was able to 
 people all the immense countries which had then been 
 discovered, not to speak of those which were then unknown, 
 but which we have no reason to conclude were destitute of 
 
CREATION. 
 
 23 
 
 inhabitants; and we must suppose, still further, that the 
 human race, during this brief period, was able to raise itself 
 from the crass ignorance of the primitive savage state to the 
 highest degree of intellectual development — suppositions 
 utterly irreconcilable with anthropological laws. 
 
 The diversity of the various human races confirms this 
 view of the subject. Climate and modes of life undoubtedly 
 modify the physical characteristics of mankind, but we know 
 the extent to which these modifications can be carried, and 
 physiological examination conclusively proves that there 
 are between the different races of men constitutional differ- 
 ences too profound to have been produced merely by 
 differences of climate. The crossing of races produces 
 intermediary types ; it tends to efface the extremes of 
 characteristic peculiarities ; but it does not produce these 
 peculiarities, and, therefore, creates only new varieties. 
 But the crossing of races presupposes the existence of races 
 distinct from each other ; and how is the existence of those 
 to be explained if we attribute their origin to a common 
 stock, especially if we restrict the production of these various 
 races to so brief a period ? How is it possible to suppose, 
 for example, that the descendants of Noah could have been, 
 in so short a time, transformed into Ethiopians ? Such a 
 metamorphosis would be as inadmissible as that of a wolf 
 into a sheep, of a beetle into an elephant, of a bird into a 
 fish. No preconceived opinion can withstand, in the long 
 run, the evidence of opposing facts. But, on the contrary, 
 all difficulty disappears if we assume that man existed at a 
 period anterior to that which has hitherto been commonly 
 assigned to his creation ; that Adam commenced, some 6000 
 years ago, the peopling of a country until then uninhabited ; 
 that the deluge of Noah was a local catastrophe, erroneously 
 confounded with the great geological cataclysm ; and, finally, 
 if we make due allowance for the allegorical form of expres- 
 sion characteristic of the Oriental style, and common to the 
 sacred books of every people. 
 
 It is unwise to insist upon a literal interpretation of 
 figurative statements of which the inaccuracy may, at any 
 
24 BOOK I. CHAP. III. 
 
 moment, be rendered evident by the progress of scientific 
 discovery \ but the fundamental propositions of religion, so 
 far from having anything to fear from the discoveries of 
 science, are strengthened and ennobled by being brought 
 into harmony with those discoveries. And it is only when 
 the religious sentiment shall have been enlightened by its 
 union with scientific truth that religious belief, thus rendered 
 invulnerable to the attacks of scepticism, will take the place 
 of scepticism in the minds and hearts of men. 
 
CHAPTER IV, 
 
 THE VITAL PRINCIPLE. 
 
 I, Organic and inorganic beings— 2-. Life and death — 3. Intelligence 
 
 and instinct* 
 
 Organic and Inorganic Beings* 
 
 Organic beings are those which have in themselves a source of activity 
 that produces the phenomena of life. They are born, grow, reproduce 
 their own species, and die. They are provided with organs specially 
 adapted to the accomplishment of the different acts of their life, to the 
 satisfaction of their needs, and to their preservation* They include 
 men, animals, and plants. 
 
 Inorganic beings are those which possess neither vitality nor the 
 power of spontaneous movement, and are formed by the mere aggrega* 
 tion of matter ; as minerals, water, air, &c* 
 
 60. Is the force which unites the elements of matter in 
 organic and inorganic bodies the same ? 
 
 " Yes ; the law of attraction is the same for all." 
 
 61. Is there any difference between the matter of organic 
 and inorganic bodies ? 
 
 "The matter of both classes of bodies is the same, but 
 in organic bodies it is animalised." 
 
 62. What is the cause of the animalisation of matter? 
 " Its union with the vital principle." 
 
 63. Does the vital principle reside in a special agent, or 
 is it only a property of organised matter 5 in other words, is 
 it an effect or a cause ? 
 
 " It is both. Life is an effect produced by the action of 
 an agent upon matter ; this agent, without matter, is not 
 life, just as matter cannot become alive without this agent. 
 It gives life to all beings that absorb and assimilate it." 
 
26 t BOOK I. CHAP. IV. 
 
 64. We have seen that spirit and matter are two con- 
 stituent elements of the universe. Does the vital principle 
 constitute a third element? 
 
 " It is, undoubtedly, one of the elements necessary to the 
 constitution of the universe ; but it has its source in a 
 special modification of the universal matter, modified to 
 that end. For you, it is an elementary body, like oxygen or 
 hydrogen, which, nevertheless, are not primitive elements ; 
 for all the bodies known to you, though appearing to you 
 to be simple, are modifications of the primal fluid." 
 
 — This statement seems to imply that vitality is not due 
 to a distinct primitive agent, but is a special property of the 
 universal matter, resulting from certain modifications of the 
 latter. 
 
 " Your conclusion is the natural consequence of what we 
 have stated." 
 
 65. Does the vital principle reside in any one of the 
 bodies known to us? 
 
 " It has its source in the universal fluid ; it is what you 
 call the magnetic fluid, or the electric fluid, animalised. It 
 is the intermediary, the link, between spirit and matter. " 
 
 66. Is the vital principle the same for all organic 
 beings ? 
 
 " Yes ; but modified according to species. It is that 
 principle which gives them the power of originating move- 
 ment and activity, and distinguishes them from inert matter ; 
 for the movement of matter is not spontaneous. Matter is 
 moved ; it does not originate movement." 
 
 67. Is vitality a permanent attribute of the vital principle, 
 or is vitality only developed by the play of the organs in 
 which it is manifested ? 
 
 " It is only developed in connection with a body. Have 
 we not said that this agent, without matter, is not life ? The 
 union of the two is necessary to the production of life." 
 
 — Would it be correct to say that vitality is latent when 
 the vital agent is not united with a body ? 
 
THE VITAL PRINCIPLE. 27 
 
 " Yes; that is the case." 
 
 The totality of the organs of a body constitutes a sort of mechanism 
 which receives its impulsion from the active or vital principle that resides 
 in them. The vital principle is the motive power of organised bodies. 
 And while the vital principle gives impulsion to the organs in which it 
 resides, the play of those organs develops and keeps up the activity of 
 the vital principle, somewhat as friction develops heat. 
 
 Life and Death. 
 
 68. What is the cause of the death of organic beings ? 
 " The exhaustion of their bodily organs." 
 
 — Would it be correct to compare death to the cessation 
 of movement in a machine that had got out of gear? 
 
 " Yes; when the machine gets out of order, its action 
 ceases. When the body falls ill, life withdraws from it." 
 
 69. Why is death caused more certainly by a lesion of 
 the heart than by that of any other organ ? 
 
 " The heart is a life-making machine. But the heart is 
 not the only organ of which the lesion causes death , it is 
 only one of the wheels essential to the working of the 
 machine. " 
 
 70. What becomes of the matter and the vital principle of 
 organic beings after their death ? 
 
 " The inert matter is decomposed, and serves to form 
 other bodies ; the vital principle returns to the general mass 
 of the universal fluid." 
 
 On the death of an organic being, the elements of which its body 
 was composed undergo new combinations that form new beings. These, 
 in their turn, draw the principle of life and activity from the universal 
 source ; they absorb and assimilate it, and restore it again to that 
 source when they cease to exist. 
 
 The organs of organic beings are, so to say, impregnated with the 
 vital fluid. This fluid gives to every part of an organised being the 
 activity which brings its parts into union after certain lesions, and re- 
 establishes functions that have been temporarily suspended. But when 
 the elements essential to the play of the organism have been destroyed, 
 or too deeply injured, the vital fluid is powerless to transmit to them 
 the movement which constitutes life, and the being dies. 
 
 The organs of a body necessarily react, more or less powerfully, upon 
 one another; their reciprocity of action results from their harmony 
 
28 BOOK I. CHAP. IV. 
 
 among themselves. When from any cause this harmony fs destroyed, 
 their functions cease ; just as a piece of machinery comes to a stand-still 
 when the essential portions of its mechanism get out of order, or as a 
 clock stops when its works are worn out by use, or accidentally broken, 
 so that the spring is no longer able to keep it going. 
 
 We have an image of life and death still more exact in the electric 
 battery. The battery, like all natural bodies, contains electricity in a 
 latent state ; but the electrical phenomena are only manifested when the 
 fluid is set in motion by a special cause. When this movement is 
 superinduced, the battery may be said to become alive ; but when the 
 cause of the electrical activity ceases, the phenomena cease to occur, 
 and the battery relapses into a state of inertia. Organic bodies may 
 thus be said to be a sort of electric battery, in which the movement of 
 the fluid produces the phenomena of life, and in which the cessation of 
 that movement produces death. 
 
 The quantity of vital fluid present in organic beings is not the same 
 in all ; it varies in the various species of living beings, and is not con- 
 stantly the same, either in the same individual or in the individuals of 
 the same species. There are some which may be said to be saturated 
 with it, and others in which it exists in very small proportions. Hence 
 certain species are endowed with a more active and more tenacious life, 
 resulting from the superabundance of the vital fluid present in their 
 organism. 
 
 The amount of vital fluid contained in a given organism may be ex- 
 hausted, and may thus become insufficient for the maintenance of life, 
 unless it be renewed by the absorption and assimilation of the sub- 
 stances in which that fluid resides. 
 
 The vital fluid may be transmitted by one individual to another 
 individual. An organisation in which it exists more abundantly may 
 impart it to another in which it is deficient ; and may thu^, in certain 
 cases, rekindle the vital flame when on the point of being extinguished. 
 
 Intelligence and Instinct. 
 
 71. Is intelligence an attribute of the vital principle? 
 
 "No; for the plants live and do not think; they have 
 only organic life. Intelligence and matter are independent 
 of one another ; for a body may live without intelligence ; 
 but intelligence can only manifest itself by means of material 
 organs. Animalised matter can only be rendered intelligent 
 by its union with spirit." 
 
 Intelligence is a faculty which is proper to certain classes of organic 
 beings, and which gives to these the power to think, the will to act, the 
 consciousness of their existence and individuality, and the means of 
 establishing relations with the external world and providing for the 
 needs of their special mode of existence. 
 
 We may therefore distinguish : 1st, Inanimate beings, formed of 
 matter alone, without life or intelligence — the bodies of the mineral 
 
THE VITAL PRINCIPLE. 29 
 
 world ; 2d, Animated non-thinking beings, formed of matter and en- 
 dowed with vitality, but without intelligence ; 3d, Animated and think- 
 ing beings, formed of matter, endowed with vitality, and possessed of an 
 intelligent principle which gives them the faculty of thought. 
 
 72. What is the source of intelligence? 
 
 " We have already told you : the universal intelligence." 
 
 — Would it be correct to say that every intelligent being 
 draws a portion of intelligence from the universal source, and 
 assimilates it as it draws and assimilates the principle of 
 material life ? 
 
 " Such a comparison would be far from exact, for intelli- 
 gence is a faculty that is proper to each being, and consti- 
 tutes its moral individuality. Besides, we have told you 
 that there are things which man is unable to fathom ; and 
 this, for the present, is one of them." 
 
 73. Is instinct independent of intelligence? 
 
 " No, not precisely so, for it is a species of intelligence. 
 Instinct is an unreasoning intelligence, by means of which 
 the lower orders of beings provide for their wants." 
 
 74. Is it possible to establish a line of demarcation between 
 instinct and intelligence ; that is to say, to define precisely 
 where the one ends and the other begins? 
 
 " No, for they often blend into one another. But the 
 actions which belong to instinct and those which belong to 
 intelligence are easily distinguished." 
 
 75. Is it correct to say that the instinctive faculties diminish 
 in proportion with the growth of the intellectual faculties ? 
 
 " No \ instinct always continues to exist, but man neglects 
 it. Instinct, as well as reason, may lead us in the right 
 direction. Its guidance almost always makes itself felt, 
 and sometimes more surely than that of reason. It never 
 goes astray." 
 
 — Why is it that reason is not always an infallible guide ? 
 " It would be infallible if it were not perverted by a false 
 
 education, by pride, and by selfishness. Instinct does not 
 reason. Reason leaves freedom to choice, and gives man 
 free-will." 
 
30 BOOK I. CHAP. IV. 
 
 Instinct is a rudimentary intelligence, differing from intelligence 
 properly so called in this particular, viz., that its manifestations are 
 almost always spontaneous, whereas those of intelligence are the result 
 of combination and of deliberation. 
 
 The manifestations of instinct vary according to the differences of 
 species and of their needs. In beings that possess self-consciousness 
 and the perception of things external to themselves, it is allied to intelli* 
 gence, that is to say, to freedom of will and of action. 
 
BOOK SECOND.— THE SPIRIT-WORLD, 
 OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SPIRITS. 
 
 I. Origin and nature of spirits — 2. Primitive and normal world — 
 . 3. Form and ubiquity of spirits — 4. The Perispirit — 5. Different 
 orders of spirits — 6. Spirit-hierarchy — 7. Progression of spirits 
 — 8. Angels and demons. 
 
 Origin and Nature of Spirits. 
 
 76. What definition can be given of spirits? 
 
 " Spirits may be defined as the intelligent beings of the 
 creation. They constitute the population of the universe, 
 in contradistinction to the forms of the material world." 
 
 Nota. — The word spirit is here employed to designate the indivi- 
 duality of extra-corporeal beings, and not the universal intelligent 
 element. 
 
 77. Are spirits beings distinct from the Deity, or are 
 they only emanations from or portions of the Deity, and 
 called, for that reason, " sons " or " children " of God ? 
 
 " Spirits are the work of God, just as a machine is the 
 work of the mechanician who made it : the machine is the 
 man's work, but it is not the man. You know that when a 
 man has made a fine or useful thing, he calls it his ' child ' 
 — his '' creation/ It is thus with us in relation to God. 
 We are His children in this sense, because we are His 
 
 worK." 
 
 F 
 
32 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 
 
 78. Have spirits had a beginning, or have they existed, 
 like God, from all eternity? 
 
 " If spirits had not had a beginning, they would be equal 
 with God; whereas they are His creation, and subject to 
 His will. That God has existed from all eternity is incon- 
 testable ; but as to when and how He created us, we know 
 nothing. You may say that we have had no beginning in 
 this sense, that, God being eternal, He must have inces- 
 santly created. But as to when and how each of us was 
 made, this, I repeat, is known to no one. It is the great 
 mystery." 
 
 79. Since there are two general elements in the universe, 
 viz., the intelligent element and the material element, 
 would it be correct to say that spirits are formed from the 
 intelligent element as inert bodies are formed from the 
 material element ? 
 
 u It is evident that such is the case. Spirits are the 
 individualisation of the intelligent principle, as bodies are 
 the individualisation of the material principle. It is the 
 epoch and mode of this formation that are unknown to us." 
 
 80. Is the creation of spirits always going on, or did it 
 only take place at the beginning of time ? 
 
 " It is always going on ; that is to say, God has never 
 ceased to create." 
 
 81. Are spirits formed spontaneously, or do they proceed 
 from one another? 
 
 " God creates them as He creates all other creatures, 
 by His will. But we must again repeat that their origin 
 is a mystery.'' 
 
 82. Is it correct to say that spirits are immaterial? 
 
 " How is it possible to define a thing in regard to which 
 no terms of comparison exist, and which your language is 
 incompetent to express ? Can one who is born blind 
 define light ? ' Immaterial ' is not the right word ; ' in- 
 corporeal ' would be nearer the truth, for you must under- 
 hand that a spirit, being a creation, must be something 
 
THE SPIRIT-WORLD, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. 33 
 
 real. Spirit is quintessentialised matter, 1 but matter exist- 
 ing in a state which has no analogue within the circle of 
 your comprehension, and so ethereal that it could not be 
 perceived by your senses." 
 
 We say that spirits are immaterial, because their essence differs from 
 everything that we know under the name of " matter." A nation of 
 blind people would have no terms for expressing light and its effects. 
 One who is born blind imagines that the only modes of percep.Soi/ are 
 hearing, smell, taste, and touch : he does not comprehend the other 
 ideas that would be given him by the sense of sight which he lacks. 
 So, in regard to the essence of superhuman beings, we are really 
 blind. We can only define them by means of comparisons that are 
 necessarily imperfect or by an effort of our imagination. 
 
 83. Is there an end to the duration of spirits ? We can 
 understand that the principle from which they emanate 
 should be eternal \ but what we desire to know is, whether 
 their individuality has a term, and whether, after a given 
 lapse of time, longer or shorter, the element from which 
 they are formed is not disseminated, does not return to the 
 mass from which they were produced, as is the case with 
 material bodies? It is difficult to understand that what 
 has had a beginning should not also have an end. 
 
 " There are many things that you do not understand, 
 because your intelligence is limited ; but that is no reason 
 for rejecting them. The child does not understand all that 
 is understood by its father, nor does an ignorant man 
 understand all that is understood by a learned one. We 
 tell you that the existence of spirits has no end ; that is all 
 we can say on the subject at present." 
 
 Primitive and Normal World. 
 
 84. Uo spirits constitute a world apart from that which 
 we see ? 
 
 " Yes ; the world of spirits or incorporeal intelligences." 
 
 85. Which of the two, the spirit-world or the corporeal 
 world, is the principal one in the order of the universe ? 
 
 1 Subsequent spirit- communications have declared the universe to 
 consist of three elements or modes of substantiality — viz., Soul, Force, 
 Matter ; and, while asserting that the two former are non-material sub- 
 stances, restrict the term "matter" to the element from which bodies 
 are formed. — Trans. 
 
34 BOOK .II CHAP. I. 
 
 u The spirit- world. It is pre-existent to, and survives, 
 everything else." 
 
 &6. Might the corporeal world never have existed, or 
 cease to exist, without changing the essentiality of the 
 spirit-world ? 
 
 " Yes ; they are independent of each other, and yet their 
 correlation is incessant, for they react incessantly upon each 
 other." 
 
 87. Do spirits occupy a determinate and circumscribed 
 region in space ? 
 
 " Spirits are everywhere ; the infinitudes of space are 
 peopled with them in infinite numbers. Unperceived by 
 you, they are incessantly beside you, observing and acting 
 upon you ; for spirits are one of the powers of Nature, and 
 are the instruments employed by God for the accomplish- 
 ment of His providential designs. But all spirits do not 
 go everywhere ; there are regions of which the entrance is 
 interdicted to those who are less advanced." 
 
 Form and Ubiquity of Spirits. 
 
 88. Have souls a determinate, circumscribed, and un- 
 varying form ? 
 
 " Not for eyes such as yours ; but, for us, they have a 
 form, though one only to be vaguely imagined by you as a 
 flame, a gleam, or an ethereal spark." 
 
 — Is this flame or spark of any colour ? 
 
 " If you could see it, it would appear to you to vary 
 from a dull grey to the brilliancy of the ruby, according to 
 the degree of the spirit's purity." 
 
 Genii are usually represented with a flame or a star above their fore- 
 heads — a sort of allegorical allusion to the essential nature of spirits. 
 The flame or star is placed upon the head because the head is the seat 
 of intelligence. 
 
 89. Do spirits employ any time in transporting them- 
 selves through space ? 
 
 •' Yes ; but their motion is as rapid as that of thought." 
 
 — Is not thought the movement of the soul itself, a trans- 
 
THE SPIRIT-WORLD, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS, 35 
 
 portation of the soul itself to the place or the object thought 
 of by it ? 
 
 "Wherever the thought is, there the soul is, since it is 
 the soul that thinks. Thought is an attribute." 
 
 90. When a spirit travels from one place to another, is 
 he conscious of the distance he traverses and of the extent 
 of space through which he passes -, or is he suddenly trans- 
 ported to the place to which he wishes to go ? 
 
 " A spirit can travel in either way. He can, if he will, 
 take cognisance of the distance he passes through, or he 
 can rid himself entirely of the sense of distance. This 
 depends on the spirit's will, and also on his degree of 
 purity." 
 
 91. Does matter constitute an obstacle to the movement 
 of a spirit ? 
 
 " No ; spirits pass through everything; the air, the earth, 
 water, fire even, are equally accessible to them." 
 
 92. Have spirits the gift of ubiquity? In other words, 
 can a spirit divide itself, or exist at several points of space 
 at the same time ? 
 
 " There can be no division of any given spirit ; but every 
 spirit is a centre which radiates in all directions, and it is 
 thus that a spirit may appear to be in several places at 
 once. The sun is only one body, yet it radiates in all 
 directions, and sends out its rays to great distances \ but it 
 is not divided." 
 
 — Have all spirits the same power of radiation ? 
 
 "There is a great difference between them in this re- 
 spect : it depends on the degree of their purity." 
 
 Each spirit is an indivisible unity, but each spirit has the power of 
 extending his thought on all sides without thereby dividing himself. 
 It is only in this sense that the gift of ubiquity attributed to spirits is 
 to be understood. It is thus that a .«park tends out its brightness far 
 and wide, and may be perceived from every point of the horizon. Tt 
 is thus, also, that a man, without changing his place, and without divid- 
 ing himself, may transmit orders, signals, &c, to many distant points 
 in many different directions. 
 
36 BOOK H. CHAP. L 
 
 Perispirit. 
 
 93. Is the spirit, properly so called, without a covering, 
 or is it, as some declare, surrounded by a substance of 
 some kind ? 
 
 "The spirit is enveloped in a substance which would 
 appear to you as mere vapour, but which, nevertheless, 
 appears very gross to us, though it is sufficiently vaporous 
 to allow the spirit to float in the atmosphere, and to trans- 
 port himself through space at pleasure." 
 
 As the germ of a fruit is surrounded by the perispertn, so the spirit, 
 properly so called, is surrounded by an envelope which, by analogy, 
 may be designated as the pet (spirit. 
 
 94. Whence does the spirit draw its semi-material en- 
 velope ? 
 
 " From the universal fluid of each globe. For this 
 reason the perispirit is not the same in all globes. In 
 passing from one globe to another, the spirit changes its 
 envelope as you change a garment." 
 
 — When spirits who inhabit worlds of a higher degree 
 than ours come among us, are they obliged to take on a 
 grosser order of perispirit ? 
 
 " Yes ; they are obliged to clothe themselves with your 
 matter in order to be able to enter your world." 
 
 95. Does the semi-material envelope of the spirit assume 
 determinate forms, and can it become perceptible for us? 
 
 " Yes ; it can assume any form that the spirit may choose 
 to give to it. It is thus that a spirit is able sometimes to 
 make himself visible to you, whether in dreams or in your 
 waking state, and can take a form that may be visible, and 
 even palpable, for your senses." 
 
 Different Orders of Spirits. 
 
 96. Are all spirits equal, or does there exist among them 
 a hierarchy of ranks ? 
 
 " They are of different degrees according to the degree 
 of purification to which they have attained. " 
 
THE SPIRIT-WORLD, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. 37 
 
 97. xs there a fixed number of orders or degrees of puri- 
 fication among spirits ? 
 
 " The number of such orders is unlimited, because there 
 is nothing like a barrier or line of demarcation between the 
 different degrees of elevation ; and, therefore, as there are 
 no fixed or arbitrary divisions among spirits, the number of 
 orders may be increased or diminished according to the 
 point of view from which they are considered. Neverthe- 
 less, if we consider the general characteristics of spirits, we 
 may reduce them to three principal orders or degrees. 
 
 u We may place in the first or highest rank those who 
 have reached the degree of relative perfection which con- 
 stitutes what may be called i pure spirits/ We may place in 
 the second rank those who have reached the middle of the 
 ascensional ladder, those who have achieved the degree of 
 purification in which aspiration after perfection has become 
 the ruling desire. We may place in the third or lowest 
 rank all those imperfect spirits who are still on the lower 
 rungs of the ladder. They are characterised by ignorance, 
 the love of evil, and all the low passions that retard their 
 progress upwards." 
 
 98. Have spirits of the second order only the aspiration 
 after perfection ■ have they also the power to achieve it ? 
 
 " They have that power in degrees proportionate to the 
 degree of purification at which they have severally arrived. 
 Some of them are distinguished by their scientific knowledge 
 others by their wisdom and their kindness \ but all of them 
 have still to undergo the discipline of trial through tempta- 
 tion and suffering/'* 
 
 99. Are all spirits of the third order essentially bad? 
 
 " No. Some of them are inactive and neutral, not doing 
 either good or evil ; others, on the contrary, take pleasure 
 in evil, and are delighted when they find an opportunity of 
 doing wrong. Others, again, are frivolous, foolish, fantastic, 
 mischievous rather than wicked, tricksy rather than posi- 
 tively malicious ; amusing themselves by mystifying the 
 human beings on whom they are able to act, and causing 
 them various petty annoyances for their own diversion." 
 
38 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 
 
 Spirit-hierarchy. 
 
 100. Preliminary Observations. — The classification of 
 spirits is based upon the degree of their advancement, upon 
 the qualities which they have acquired, and upon the imper- 
 fections from which they have still to free themselves. This 
 classification, however, is by no means absolute. It is only 
 in its totality that the character of each category is distinctly 
 marked, for each category merges in the one above it by 
 imperceptible gradations, the peculiarities of the successive 
 categories shading: off into one another at their extremities, as 
 is the case in the various reigns of nature, in the colours of 
 the rainbow, in the phases of a human life. Spirits may, 
 therefore, be divided into a number of classes more or less 
 considerable, according to the point of view from which we 
 consider the subject. It is in this matter as in all other 
 systems of scientific classification. The systems adopted 
 may be more or less complete, more or less rational, more 
 or less convenient for the understanding ; but, whatever 
 may be their form, they change nothing in regard to the 
 facts of the science which employs them. . That the answers 
 of spirits, when questioned on this point, should vary as to 
 the number of the categories into which they are divided is, 
 therefore, a matter of no practical importance. Too much 
 weight has been attributed to this apparent contradiction 
 by those who forget that disincarnate intelligences attach 
 no importance whatever to mere conventionalities. For 
 them, the meaning of a statement is the only important 
 point about it. They leave to us the question of its form, 
 the choice of terms and of classification, — in a word, all 
 that belongs to the making of systems. 
 
 Another thing that should never be lost sight of is the 
 fact that there are among spirits, as well as among men, some 
 who are very ignorant, and that we cannot be too much on 
 our guard against a tendency to believe that all spirits know 
 everything simply because they are spirits. The work of 
 classification demands method, analysis, and a thorough 
 knowledge of the subject investigated. But those who, in 
 
THE SPIRIT-WORLD, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. 39 
 
 the spirit-world, possess only a small amount of knowledge, 
 are as incompetent as are ignorant human beings to embrace 
 the whole of any subject or to formulate a system. They 
 have no idea, or but a very imperfect one, of any sort of 
 classification. All spirits superior to themselves appear to 
 them to be of the highest order ; for they are as incapable 
 of discriminating the various shades of knowledge, capacity, 
 and morality by which they are distinguished, as one of our 
 savages would be to discriminate the various characteristics 
 of civilised men. And even those who are capable of this 
 discrimination may vary, in their appreciation of details, 
 according to their special point of view, especially in regard 
 to a matter which, from its very nature, has nothing fixed 
 or absolute about it. Linnaeus, Jussieu, Tournefort, have 
 each their special system of classification, but the nature of 
 botany has not been changed by this diversity of system 
 among botanists. The latter have not invented either 
 plants or their characteristics; they have merely observed 
 certain analogies, according to which they have formed 
 certain groups or classes. We have proceeded in the same 
 way. We have not invented either spirits or their charac- 
 teristics. We have seen and observed them, we have judged 
 them by their own words and acts, and we have classed 
 them by order of similitude, basing our classification on the 
 data furnished by themselves. 
 
 The higher spirits generally admit the existence of three 
 principal categories, or main divisions, among the people of 
 the other world. In the lowest of these, at the bottom of 
 the ladder, are the imperfect spirits who are characterised 
 by the predominance of the instincts of materiality over the 
 moral nature, and by the propensity to evil. Those of the 
 second degree are characterised by the predominance of 
 the moral nature over the material instincts, and by the 
 desire of good. They constitute the category of good spirits. 
 The first or highest category consists of those who have 
 reached the state of pure spirits, and have thus attained to 
 the supreme degree of perfection imaginable by us. 
 
 This division of spirits into three well-marked categories 
 
40 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 
 
 appears to us to be perfectly rational ; and, having arrived 
 at this general classification, it only remained for us to bring 
 out, through a sufficient number pf subdivisions, the principal 
 shades of the three great spirit-categories thus established. 
 And this we have done, with the aid of the spirits them- 
 selves, whose friendly instructions have never failed us in 
 the carrying out of the work upon which we have been led 
 to enter. 
 
 With the aid of the following table it will be easy for us 
 to determine the rank and degree of superiority or inferiority 
 of the spirits with whom we may enter into communication, 
 and, consequently, the degree of esteem and confidence to 
 which they are entitled. The power of determining these 
 points may be said to constitute the key to spiritist investi- 
 gation ; for it alone, by enlightening us in regard to the 
 intellectual and moral inequalities of spirits, can explain 
 the anomalies presented by spirit communications. We 
 have, however, to remark that spirits do not, in all cases, 
 belong exclusively to such and such a class. Their progress 
 in knowledge and purity being only accomplished gradually, 
 and often, for a time, more in the one than in the other, 
 they may unite the characteristics of several subdivisions ; 
 a point which is easily settled by observing their language 
 and their acts. 
 
 Third Order — Imperfect Spirits. 
 
 ioi. Gene?-al Characteristics. — Predominant influence of 
 matter over spirit. Propension to evil. Ignorance, pride, 
 selfishness, and all the evil passions which result from 
 these. 
 
 They have the intuition of the existence of God, but they 
 have no comprehension of Him. 
 
 They are not all of them thoroughly bad ; in many of 
 them there is more of frivolity, want of reasoning power, 
 and love of mischief, than of downright wickedness. Some 
 of them do neither good nor evil ; but the very fact that 
 they do no good denotes their inferiority. Others, on the 
 
THE SPIRIT- WORLD, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. 41 
 
 contrary, take pleasure in evil, and are gratified when they 
 find an opportunity of doing wrong. 
 
 Among spirits of this order, a certain amount of intelli- 
 gence is often allied with malice and the love of mischief; 
 but, whatever may be their intellectual development, their 
 ideas are wanting in elevation, and their sentiments are 
 more or less abject. 
 
 Their knowledge of the things of the spirit-world is 
 narrow, and the little they know about them is confused 
 w T ith the ideas and prejudices of the corporeal life. They 
 can give only false and incomplete notions of the spirit- 
 world ; but the attentive observer may always find in their 
 communications, however imperfect, the confirmation of 
 the great truths proclaimed by spirits of the higher orders. 
 
 Their character is revealed by their language. Every 
 spirit who, in his communications, betrays an evil intention, 
 may be ranged in the third order ; consequently every evil 
 thought suggested to our mind comes to us from a spirit of 
 that order. 
 
 They see the happiness enjoyed by good spirits, and this 
 sight causes them perpetual torment ; for they experience 
 all the agonies produced by envy and jealousy. 
 
 They preserve the remembrance and the perception of 
 the sufferings of corporeal life ; and this impression is often 
 more painful than the reality. They suffer, in fact, both 
 from the ills they have themselves endured, and from those 
 which they have caused to be endured by others. And as 
 these sufferings endure for a very long time, they believe 
 themselves to be destined to suffer for ever. God, for their 
 punishment, wills that they should believe this. 
 
 They may be subdivided into five principal classes : — 
 
 102. Tenth Class — Impure Spirits. — They are inclined to 
 evil, and make it the object of all their thoughts and activi- 
 ties. As spirits, they give to men perfidious counsels, stir up 
 discord and distrust, and assume every sort of mask in order 
 the more effectually to deceive. They beset those whose 
 character is weak enough to lead them to yield to their 
 
42 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 
 
 suggestions, and whom they thus draw aside from the path 
 of progress, rejoicing when they are able to retard their 
 advancement by causing them to succumb under the ap- 
 pointed trials of the corporeal life. 
 
 Spirits of this class may be recognised by their language, 
 for the employment of coarse or trivial expressions by 
 spirits, as by men, is always an indication of moral, if not of 
 intellectual, inferiority. Their communications show the 
 baseness of their inclinations ; and though they may try to 
 impose upon us by speaking with an appearance of reason 
 and propriety, they are unable to keep up that false appear- 
 ance, and end by betraying their real quality. 
 
 Certain nations have made of them infernal deities ; others 
 designate them by the name of demons, evil genii, evil spirits. 
 
 The human beings in whom they are incarnated are 
 addicted to all the vices engendered by vile and degrading 
 passions — sensuality, cruelty, roguery, hypocrisy, cupidity, 
 avarice. They do evil for its own sake, without any 
 definite motive ; and, from hatred to all that is good, they 
 generally choose their victims from among honest and 
 worthy people. They are the pests of humanity, to what- 
 ever rank of society they belong ; and the varnish of a 
 civilised education is ineffectual to cure or to hide their 
 degrading defects. 
 
 103. Ninth Class — Frivolous Spirits. — They are ignorant, 
 mischievous, unreasonable, and addicted to mockery. They 
 meddle with everything, and reply to every question with- 
 out paying any attention to truth. They delight in causing 
 petty annoyances, in raising false hopes of petty joys, in mis- 
 leading people by mystifications and trickery. The spirits 
 vulgarly called hobgoblins, will-o'-the-wisps, gnomes, &c. ? 
 belong to this class. They are under the orders of spirits 
 of a higher category, who make use of them as we do of 
 servants. 
 
 In their communications with men their language is often 
 witty and facetious, but shallow. They are quick to seize 
 the oddities and absurdities of men and things, on which 
 
THE SPIRIT-WORLD, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. 43 
 
 they comment with sarcastic sharpness. If they borrow 
 distinguished names, as they are fond of doing, it is rather 
 for the fun of the thing than from any intention to deceive 
 by so doing. 
 
 104. Eighth Class — Spirits who Pretend to more Science 
 than they Possess. — Their knowledge is often considerable, 
 but they imagine themselves to know a good deal more 
 than they know in reality. Having made a certain amount 
 of progress from various points of view, their language has 
 an air of gravity that may easily give a false impression as 
 to their capacities and enlightenment ; but their ideas are 
 generally nothing more than the reflexion of the prejudices 
 and false reasoning of their terrestrial life. Their state- 
 ments contain a mixture of truths and absurdities, in the 
 midst of which traces of presumption, pride, jealousy, and 
 obstinacy, from which they have not yet freed themselves, 
 are abundantly perceptible. 
 
 105. Seventh Class — Neutral Spirits. — They are not suffi- 
 ciently advanced to take an active part in doing good, nor 
 are they bad enough to be active in doing wrong. They 
 incline sometimes to the one, sometimes to the other ; and 
 do not rise above the ordinary level of humanity, either in 
 point of morality or of intelligence. They are strongly at- 
 tached to the things of this world, whose gross satisfactions 
 they regret. 
 
 106. Sixth Class — Noisy and Boisterous Spirits. — Spirits 
 of this kind do not, strictly speaking, form a distinct class 
 in virtue of their personal qualities ; they may belong to all 
 the classes of the third order. They often manifest their 
 presence by the production of phenomena perceptible by 
 the senses, such as raps, the movement and abnormal dis- 
 placing of solid bodies, the agitation of the air, &c. They 
 appear to be, more than any other class of spirits, attached 
 to matter ; they seem to be the principal agents in deter- 
 mining the vicissitudes of the elements of the globe, and to 
 act upon the air, water, fire, and the various bodies in the 
 entrails of the earth. Whenever these phenomena present 
 
44 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 
 
 a character of intention and intelligence, it is impossible to 
 attribute them to a mere fortuitous and physical cause. All 
 spirits are able to produce physical phenomena ; but spirits 
 of elevated degree usually leave them to those of a lower 
 order, more apt for action upon matter than for the things 
 of intelligence, and, when they judge it to be useful to pro- 
 duce physical manifestations, employ spirits of subaltern 
 degree as their auxiliaries. 
 
 Second Order — Good Spirits. 
 
 107. Genera/ Characteristics.— -Predominance of spirit 
 •over matter ; desire of excellence. Their qualities and their 
 power for good are proportionate to the degree at which 
 they have arrived. Some of them possess scientific know- 
 ledge, others have acquired wisdom and charity ; the more 
 advanced among them combine knowledge with moral ex- 
 cellence. Not being yet completely dematerialised, they 
 preserve the traces of their corporeal existence, more or 
 less strongly marked, according to their rank — traces which 
 are seen either in their mode of expressing themselves, in 
 their habits, or even, in some cases, in the characteristic 
 eccentricities and hobbies still retained by them. But for 
 these weaknesses and imperfections they would be able to 
 pass into the category of spirits of the first order. 
 
 They have acquired the comprehension of the idea of 
 God and of infinity, and already share the felicity of the 
 higher spheres. They find their happiness both in the 
 accomplishment of good and in the prevention of evil. 
 The affection by which they are united affords them inef- 
 fable delight, troubled neither by envy, remorse, nor any 
 other of the evil passions which make the torment of spirits 
 of lower degree; but they have still to undergo the disci- 
 pline of trial until they have completed the work of their 
 purification. 
 
 As spirits, they infuse good and noble thoughts into the 
 minds of men, turn them from the path of evil, protect 
 those whose course of life renders them worthy of their aid, 
 
THE SPIRIT-WORLD. OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. 45 
 
 and neutralise, by their suggestions, the influence of lower 
 spirits on the minds of those who do not willingly yield to 
 the evil counsels of the latter. 
 
 The human beings in whom they are incarnated are 
 upright and benevolent ; they are actuated neither by pride, 
 selfishness, nor ambition ; they feel neither hatred, rancour, 
 envy, nor jealousy, and do good for its own sake. 
 
 To this order belong the spirits commonly designated in 
 the popular beliefs by the names ot good genii, protecti?ig genii, 
 good spirits. In periods of ignorance and superstition, 
 men have regarded them as beneficent divinities. 
 
 They may be divided into four principal groups : — 
 
 108. Fifth Class — Benevolent Spirits. — Their dominant 
 quality is kindness. They take pleasure in rendering ser- 
 vice to men and in protecting them, but their knowledge is 
 somewhat narrow. They have progressed in morality 
 rather than in intelligence. 
 
 109. Fourth Class — Learned Spirits. — They are specially 
 distinguished by the extent of their knowledge. They are 
 less interested in moral questions than in scientific investi- 
 gation, for which they have a greater aptitude ; but their 
 scientific studies are always prosecuted with a view to prac- 
 tical utility, and they are entirely free from the base passions 
 common to spirits of the lower degrees of advancement. 
 
 no. Third Class — Wise Spirits. — The most elevated 
 moral qualities form their distinctive characteristics. With- 
 out having arrived at the possession of unlimited know- 
 ledge, they have reached a development of intellectual 
 capacity that enables them to judge correctly of men and 
 of things. 
 
 in. Second Class — High Spirits. — They unite, in a very 
 high degree, scientific knowledge, wisdom, and goodness. 
 Their language, inspired only by the purest benevolence, 
 is always noble and elevated, often sublime. Their supe- 
 riority renders them more apt than any others to impart to 
 us just and true ideas in relation to the incorporeal world, 
 within the limits of the knowledge permitted to mankind. 
 
46 BOOK II. CHAP. I, 
 
 They willingly enter into communication with those who 
 seek for truth in simplicity and sincerity, and who are suffi- 
 ciently freed from the bonds of materiality to be capable of 
 understanding it ; but they turn from those whose inquiries 
 are prompted only by curiosity, or who are drawn away 
 from the path of rectitude by the attractions of materiality. 
 When, under exceptional circumstances, they incarnate 
 themselves in this earth, it is always for the accomplish- 
 ment of a mission of progress ; and they thus show us the 
 highest type of perfection to which we can aspire in the 
 present world. 
 
 First Order— Pure Spirits. 
 
 112. General Characteristics. — The influence of matter 
 null ; a superiority, both intellectual and moral, so absolute 
 as to constitute what, in comparison with the spirits of all 
 the other orders, may be termed perfection. 
 
 113. First and only Class. — They have passed up 
 through every degree of the scale of progress, and have freed 
 themselves from all the impurities of materiality. Having 
 attained the sum of perfection of which created beings are 
 susceptible, they have no longer to undergo either trials 
 or expiations. Being no longer subject to reincarnation in 
 perishable bodies, they enter on the life of eternity in the 
 immediate presence of God. They are in the enjoyment 
 of a beatitude which is unalterable, because they are no 
 longer subject to the wants or vicissitudes of material life ; 
 but this beatitude is not the monotonous idleness of perpetual 
 contemplation. They are the messengers and ministers of 
 God, the executors of His orders in the maintenance of 
 universal harmony. They exercise a sovereign command 
 over all spirits inferior to themselves, aid them in accom- 
 plishing the work of their purification, and assign to each of 
 them a mission proportioned to the progress already made 
 by them. To assist men in their distresses, to excite them 
 to the love of good or to the expiation of the faults which 
 keep them back on the road to the supreme felicity, are for 
 
THE SPIRIT-WORLD, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. 47 
 
 them congenial occupations. They are sometimes spoken 
 of as angels, archangels, or seraphim. 
 
 They can, when they choose to do so, enter into com- 
 munication with men ; but presumptuous indeed would he 
 be who should pretend to have them at his orders. 
 
 Progression of Spirits. 
 
 114. Are spirits good or bad by nature, or are they the 
 same spirits made better through their own efforts ? 
 
 " The same spirits made better through their own efforts. 
 In growing better they pass from a lower to a higher order." 
 
 115. Are some spirits created good and others created 
 bad? 
 
 " God has created all spirits in a state of simplicity and 
 ignorance ; that is to say, without knowledge. He has 
 given to each of them a mission, with a view to enlighten 
 them and to make them gradually arrive at perfection 
 through the knowledge of the truth, and thus to bring them 
 nearer and nearer to Himself. This perfection is, for them, 
 the condition of eternal and unalloyed happiness. Spirits 
 acquire knowledge by passing through the trials imposed 
 on them by God. Some of them accept these trials with 
 submission, and arrive more quickly at the aim of their 
 destiny : others undergo them with murmuring, and thus 
 remain, through their own fault, at a distance from the per- 
 fection and the felicity promised to them." 
 
 — According to this statement, it would appear that spirits, 
 at their origin, are like children, ignorant and without ex- 
 perience, but acquiring, little by little, the knowledge which 
 they lack, by passing through the different phases of human 
 life? 
 
 " Yes ; the comparison is correct. The child, if rebellious, 
 remains ignorant and faulty; he profits more or less accord- 
 ing to his docility. But the life of man has a term ; whereas 
 that of spirits stretches out into infinity." 
 
 116. Do any spirits remain for ever in the lower ranks? 
 " No ; all become perfect. They change in course of time, 
 
 G 
 
48 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 
 
 however long may be the process of amendment ; for, as we 
 have already said, a just and merciful parent cannot con- 
 demn his children to eternal banishment. Can you suppose 
 that God, so great, so good, so just, is less kind than you 
 are?" 
 
 117. Does it depend on the spirits themselves to hasten 
 their progress towards perfection ? 
 
 (i Certainly ; they reach the goal more or less quickly 
 according to the strength of their desire and the degree of 
 their submission to the will of God. Does not a docile child 
 learn faster than one who is obstinate and idle ? " 
 
 118. Can spirits degenerate? 
 
 " No ; in proportion as they advance, they understand 
 what has retarded their progress. When a spirit has finished 
 with any given trial, he has learned the lesson of that trial, 
 and never forgets it. He may remain stationary ; but he 
 never degenerates." 
 
 119. Could God exonerate spirits from the trials which 
 they have to undergo in order to reach the highest rank ? 
 
 " If they had been created perfect, they would not have 
 merited the enjoyment of the benefits of that perfection. 
 Where would be the merit without the struggle ? Besides, 
 the inequality which exists between spirits is necessary to 
 the development of their personality; and, moreover, the 
 mission which each spirit accomplishes at each step of his 
 progress is an element of the providential plan for ensuring 
 the harmony of the universe." 
 
 Since, in social life, all men may reach the highest posts, we might as 
 well ask why the sovereign of a country does not make a general of each 
 of his soldiers, why all subaltern functionaries are not made heads of 
 departments, why all scholars are not schoolmasters. But there is this 
 difference between the life of the social and the spirit worlds, viz., that 
 the first is limited, and does not afford to every one the possibility of 
 raising himself to the highest rank ; whereas the second is unlimited, 
 and ensures to every one the possibility of attaining to the supreme 
 degree. 
 
 120. Do all spirits pass by the road of evil to arrive at 
 good ? 
 
 " Not by the road of evil, but by that of ignorance." 
 
THE SPIRIT-WORLD, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. 49 
 
 121. How is it that some spirits have followed the road 
 of good, and others the road of evil? 
 
 " Have they not their free-will ? God has not created 
 any spirits bad ; He has created them simple and ignorant, 
 that is to say, possessing an equal aptitude for good and for 
 evil. Those who become bad become so of their own free- 
 will." 
 
 122. How can spirits, at their origin, when they have not 
 yet acquired self-consciousness, possess freedom of choice 
 between good and evil ? Is there in them any principle, 
 any tendency, which inclines them towards either road 
 rather than towards the other? 
 
 '• Free-will is developed in proportion as the spirit acquires 
 the consciousness of himself. Freedom would not exist for 
 the spirit if his choice were solicited by a cause independent 
 of his will. The cause which determines his choice is not 
 in him, but is exterior to him, in the influences to which he 
 voluntarily yields in virtue of the freedom of his will It is 
 this choice that is represented under the grand figure of the 
 fall of man and of original sin. Some spirits have yielded 
 to temptation; others have withstood it." 
 
 — Whence come the influences that act upon him? 
 
 " From the imperfect spirits, who seek to take possession 
 of him and to dominate him, and who are happy to see 
 him succumb. It is this temptation that is allegorically pic- 
 tured as Satan." 
 
 — Does this influence act upon a spirit only at its origin ? 
 " It follows him through all the phases of his existence 
 
 as a spirit, until he has acquired such thorough self-com- 
 mand that evil spirits renounce the attempt to obsess him." 
 
 123. Why has God permitted it to be possible for spirits 
 to take the wrong road ? 
 
 " The wisdom of God is shown in the freedom of choice 
 which He leaves to every spirit, for each has thus the merit 
 of his deeds." 
 
 124. Since there are spirits who, from the beginning, 
 follow unswervingly the right path, and others who wander 
 
50 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 
 
 into the lowest depths of evil, there are, no doubt, many 
 degrees of deviation between these two extremes? 
 
 " Yes, certainly ; and these degrees constitute the paths 
 of the great majority of spirits." 
 
 125. Will the spirits who have chosen the wrong road be 
 able to reach the same degree of elevation as the others ? 
 
 " Yes ; but the eternities will be longer in their case/ 7 
 
 This expression, " the eternities" must be understood as referring to 
 the belief of spirits of inferior degree in the perpetuity of their sufferings, 
 resulting from the fact that it is not given to them to foresee the ter- 
 mination of those sufferings, and that this conviction of the perpetuity 
 of the latter is renewed after every new trial to which they have suc- 
 cumbed. 
 
 126. Are spirits who have reached the supreme degree 
 after wandering into the wrong road less meritorious than 
 the others in the sight of God ? 
 
 " God regards the wanderers who have returned to the 
 right road with the same approval and the same affection 
 as the others. They have been classed, for a time, as evil 
 spirits, because they succumbed to the temptation of evil ; 
 but, before their fall, they were merely neutral in regard to 
 good and evil, like all other spirits." 
 
 127. Are all spirits created equal in point of intellectual 
 capacity ? 
 
 " They are all created equal, but not knowing from whence 
 they come ; for their free-will must have its fling. They pro- 
 gress more or less rapidly in intelligence as in morality." 
 
 The spirits who, from the beginning, follow the right road, do not 
 thereby attain at once to the state of perfection ; for, although they are 
 free from evil tendencies, they have none the less to acquire the experi- 
 ence and the varied knowledge indispensable to their perfection. They 
 may be compared to children who, however good their natural instincts, 
 need to be developed and enlightened, and who cannot attain to maturity 
 without transition. But, just as some men are good and others bad from 
 their infancy, so some spirits are good and others bad from their begin- 
 ning ; with this radical difference, however, that the child possesses 
 instincts already formed, whereas the spirit, at his formation, is neither 
 bad nor good, but possesses all possible tendencies, and strikes out his 
 path, in the direction of good or evil, through the action of his own free- 
 will. 
 
THE SPIRIT-WORLD, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. 51 
 
 Angels and Demons. 
 
 128. Do the beings whom we call angels, archangels, 
 seraphim, form a special category of a nature different from 
 that of other spirits ? 
 
 a No ; they are spirits who have purified themselves from 
 all imperfection, have reached the highest degree of the 
 scale of progress, and united in themselves all species of 
 perfection." 
 
 The word angel is generally supposed to imply the idea of moral 
 perfection ; but it is often applied, nevertheless, to all beings, good or 
 bad, beyond the pale of humanity. We say, "a good angel," "a bad 
 angel," "an angel of light," "the angel of darkness,'* &c. In those 
 cases, it is synonymous with spirit or genius. It is employed here in 
 its highest sense. 
 
 129. Have the angels passed up through all the degrees 
 of progress ? 
 
 "They have passed up through all those degrees, but 
 with the difference which we have already mentioned. 
 Some of them, accepting their mission without murmuring, 
 have reached the goal more quickly; others have been 
 longer in reaching the same goal." 
 
 130. If the opinion which admits that some beings have 
 been created perfect and superior to all others be erroneous, 
 how is it that this opinion is to be found in the tradition of 
 almost every people ? 
 
 "Your world has not existed from all eternity. Long 
 before it was called into being, hosts of spirits had already 
 attained to the supreme degree, and, therefore, the people 
 of your earth naturally supposed those perfected spirits to 
 have always been at the same degree of elevation." 
 
 131. Are there any demons in the usual acceptation of 
 that term ? 
 
 " If demons existed, they would be the work of God ; but 
 would it be just on the part of God to have created beings 
 condemned eternally to evil and to misery? If demons 
 exist, it is in your low world, and in other worlds of similar 
 degree, that they are to be found. They are the human 
 hypocrites who represent a just God as being cruel and 
 
52 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 
 
 vindictive, and who imagine that they make themselves 
 agreeable to Him by the abominations they commit in His 
 name." 
 
 It is only in its modern acceptation that the word demon implies the 
 idea of evil spirits, for the Greek work daimon, from which it is derived, 
 signifies genius, intelligence, and is applied indiscriminately to all incor- 
 poreal beings, whether good or bad. 
 
 Demons or devils, 1 according to the common acceptation of these 
 words, are supposed to be a class of beings essentially bad. If they 
 exist, they must necessarily be, like everything else, a creation of God ; 
 but God, who is sovereignly just and good, cannot have created beings 
 predestined to evil by their very nature, and condemned beforehand to 
 eternal misery. If, on the contrary, they are not a creation of God, 
 they must either have existed, like Him, from all eternity, or there must 
 be several creators. 
 
 The first requisite of every theory is to be consistent with itself; but 
 that which asserts the existence of demons, in the popular acceptation 
 of the term, lacks this essential condition of theoretic soundness. It 
 was natural that the religious belief of peoples who, knowing nothing 
 of the attributes of God, were backward enough to admit the existence 
 of maleficent deities, should also admit the existence of demons ; but, 
 on the part of those who acknowledge the goodness of God to be His 
 distinguishing quality, it is illogical and contradictory to suppose that 
 He can have created beings doomed to evil, and destined to do evil for 
 ever, for such a supposition is the negation of His goodness. The 
 partisans of the belief in devils appeal to the words of Christ in support 
 of their doctrine ; and it is certainly not we who would contest the 
 authority of His teachings, which we would fain see established, not 
 merely on the lips of men, but also in their hearts. But are those 
 partisans quite sure of the meaning attached by Him to the word 
 "devil"? Is it not fully admitted that the allegorical form is one of 
 the distinctive characteristics of His utterances, and that the Gospels 
 contain many things which are not to be taken literally? To prove 
 that such is the case, we need only quote the following passage : — 
 
 " Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be 
 darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall 
 from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken : And then 
 
 shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven Verily I say 
 
 unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things are fulfilled " 
 (Matt. xxiv. 29, 30, 34). Have we not seen that the form of the 
 biblical text, in reference to the creation and movement of the earth, is 
 contradicted by the discoveries of science? May it not be the same in 
 regard to certain figurative expressions employed by Christ in order to 
 adapt His teachings to the time and the scene of His mission ? Christ 
 could not have made a statement knowing it to be false. If, therefore, 
 
 . * The Zoroastrian term, Dev, is the designation of spirits under the 
 orders of Ahriman, the genius of evil, who, with their leader, will even- 
 tually be " converted,'' and share the beatitude of the just. — Zendavesta, 
 A, Du Perron. Paris, 1771. Vol. i. p. 2, pp. 164, 202, &c— Trans. 
 
THE SPIRIT-WORLD, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. 53 
 
 His sayings contain statements which appear to be contrary f .o reason, 
 it is evident either that we do not understand their meaning or that we 
 have interpreted them erroneously. 
 
 Men have done in regard to devils what they have done in regard to 
 angels. Just as they have imagined that there are beings who were 
 created perfect from all eternity, so they have imagined that spirits of 
 the lower degrees were beings essentially and eternally bad. The 
 words demon, devil, ought, therefore, to be understood as indicating 
 impure spirits who are often no better that the imaginary beings desig- 
 nated by those names, but with this difference, viz., that their state of 
 impurity and inferiority is only transitory. They are the imperfect 
 spirits who rebel against the discipline of trial to which they are sub- 
 jected, and who, therefore, have to undergo that discipline for a longer 
 period, but who will, nevertheless, reach the goal in time, when they 
 shall have made up their minds to do so. The words demon, devil y 
 might accordingly be employed in this sense ; but as they have come to 
 be understood exclusively as conveying the meaning now shown to be 
 false, their employment might lead into error by seeming to recognise 
 the existence of beings specially created for evil. 
 
 As regards the term " Satan," it is evidently a personification of the 
 principle of evil under an allegorical form ; for it is impossible to admit 
 the existence of a being who fights against God as an independent and 
 rival power, and whose sole business in life is to contravene His designs. 
 As images and figures are necessary in order to strike the human 
 imagination, men have pictured to themselves the beings of the incor- 
 poreal world under a material form, with attributes indicative of their 
 good or bad qualities. It is thus that the ancients, wishing to personify 
 the idea of time, represented it under the figure of an old man with a 
 scythe and an hour-glass. To have personified it under the figure of a 
 youth would have been contrary to common sense. The same may be 
 said of the allegories of Fortune, Truth, &c. The moderns have repre- 
 sented the angels or pure spirits under the form of radiant beings with 
 white wings — emblem of purity ; Satan, with horns, claws, and the 
 attributes of bestiality — emblems of the lowest passions ; and the vulgar, 
 prone to understand such representations literally, have taken these 
 allegorical embodiments of abstract ideas for real personalities, as they 
 formerly did in regard to the allegorical personifications of the old 
 mythology. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 INCARNATION OF SPIRITS. 
 I. Aim of incarnation — 2. The soul — 3. Materialism. 
 
 Aim of Incarnation. 
 
 132. What is the aim of the incarnation of spirits ? 
 
 " It is a necessity imposed on them by God, as the means 
 of attaining perfection. For some of them it is an expiation ; 
 for others, a mission. In order to attain perfection, it is 
 necessary for them to undergo all the vicissitudes of corpoi'eal 
 existence. It is the experience acquired by expiation that 
 constitutes its usefulness. Incarnation has also another 
 aim — viz., that of fitting the spirit to perform his share in 
 the work of creation • for which purpose he is made to 
 assume a corporeal apparatus in harmony with the material 
 state of each world into which he is sent, and by means of 
 which he is enabled to accomplish the special work, in con- 
 nection with that world, which has been appointed to him 
 by the divine ordering. He is thus made to contribute his 
 quota towards the general weal, while achieving his own 
 advancement." 
 
 The action of corporeal beings is necessary to the carrying on of the 
 work of the universe ; but God in His wisdom has willed that this 
 action should furnish them with the means of progress and of advance- 
 ment towards Himself. And thus, through an admirable law of His 
 providence, all things are linked together, and solidarity is established 
 between all the realms of nature. 
 
 133. Is incarnation necessary for the spirits who, from 
 the beginning, have followed the right road ? 
 
 " All are created simple and ignorant ; they gain instruc- 
 tion in the struggles and tribulations of corporeal life. 
 
INCARNATION OF SPIRITS. 55 
 
 God, being just, could not make some of them happy, 
 without trouble and without exertion, and consequently 
 without merit." 
 
 — But if so, what do spirits gain by having followed the 
 right road, since they are not thereby exempted from the 
 pains of corporeal life ? 
 
 " They arrive more quickly at the goal. And besides, 
 the sufferings of life are often a consequence of the imper- 
 fection of the spirit ; therefore, the fewer his imperfections, 
 the less will be his sufferings. He who is neither envious, 
 jealous, avaricious, nor ambitious, will not have to undergo 
 the torments which are a consequence of those defects." 
 
 The Soul. 
 
 134. What is the soul ? 
 " An incarnate spirit." 
 
 — What was the soul before its union with a body? 
 "A spirit." 
 
 — • Souls and spirits are, then, the very same thing? 
 
 "Yes ; souls are only spirits. Before uniting itself with a 
 body, the soul is one of the intelligent beings who people the 
 invisible world, and who temporarily assume a fleshly body 
 in order to effect their purification and enlightenment." 
 
 135. Is there in man anything else than a soul and a 
 body ? 
 
 " There is the link w 7 hich unites the soul and the body." 
 
 — What is the nature of that link? 
 
 " It is semi-material — that is to say, of a nature inter- 
 mediate between soul and body, as it must necessarily be, 
 in order that they may be enabled to communicate with 
 each other. It is by means of this link that the spirit acts 
 upon matter, and that matter acts reciprocally upon the 
 spirit." 
 
 Man is thus formed of three essential elements or parts : — 
 1st. The body, or material being, analogous to the animals, and 
 animated by the same vital principle ; 
 
 2d. The soul, or incarnated spirit, of which the body is the habita- 
 tion ; 
 
56 BOOK II. CHAP. II. 
 
 3d. The intermediary principle, or perispirit ; a semi-material sub- 
 stance, which constitutes the innermost envelope of the spirit, aril 
 unites the soul with the body. This triplicity is analogous to that of 
 the fruit, which consists of the germ, the perisperm, and the rind or 
 shell. 
 
 136. Is the soul independent of the vital principle ? 
 
 " The body is only the envelope of the soul, as we have 
 repeatedly told you." 
 
 — Can a body exist without a soul ? 
 
 " Yes ; but it is only when the body ceases to live that 
 the soul quits it. Previous to birth, the union between the 
 soul and the body is not complete ; but, when this union 
 is definitively established, it is only the death of the body 
 that can sever the bonds that unite it to the soul, and thus 
 allow the soul to withdraw from it. Organic life may 
 vitalise a body without a soul, but the soul cannot inhabit 
 a body deprived of organic life." 
 
 — - What would our body be if it had no soul ? 
 
 " A mass of flesh without intelligence ; anything you 
 choose to call it, excepting a man." 
 
 137. Can the same spirit incarnate itself in two different 
 bodies at the same time ? 
 
 " No ; the spirit is indivisible, and cannot simultaneously 
 animate two different beings." ( Vide, in The Mediunis 
 Book, the chapter on Bi-corporeality and Transfiguration.) 
 
 138. What is to be thought of the opinion of those who 
 regard the soul as being the principle of material life ? 
 
 " That is a question of definition ; we attach but slight 
 importance to mere words. You should begin by agreeing 
 among yourselves as to the exact meaning of the expressions 
 you employ." 
 
 139. Certain spirits, and certain philosophers before 
 them, have defined the soul as " An animated spark that has 
 emanated fr 07n the G7'eat Whole;" why this contradiction? 
 
 " There is nothing contradictory in such a definition. 
 Everything depends on the meaning you attribute to the 
 words you use. Why have you not a word for each thing ?" 
 
INCARNATION OF SPIRITS. 57 
 
 The word soul is employed to express very different th'ngs, Some- 
 times it is used to designate the principle of life ; and in this sense it 
 is correct to say, figuratively, that the soul is an animated spark that 
 has emanated from the Great Whole. These latter words designate 
 the universal source of the vital principle, of which each being absorbs 
 a portion, that returns to the general mass after its death. This idea 
 does not exclude that of a moral being, a distinct personality, inde- 
 pendent of matter, and preserving its own individuality. It is this 
 being which, at other times, is called the soul, and it is in this sense 
 that we speak of the soul as an incarnate spirit. In giving different 
 definitions of soul, the spirits who have given them have spoken 
 according to their various ways of applying that word, and also accord- 
 ing to the terrestrial ideas with which they are more or less imbued. 
 This apparent confusion results from the insufficiency of human lan- 
 guage, which does not possess a specific word for each idea ; an insuffi- 
 ciency that gives rise to a vast number of misapprehensions and discus- 
 sions. It is for this reason that the higher spirits tell us to begin by 
 distinctly defining the meaning of the words we employ. 1 
 
 140. What is to be thought of the theory according to 
 which the soul is subdivided into as many parts as there 
 are muscles in the body, and thus presides over each of the 
 bodily functions ? 
 
 "That, again, depends on the meaning attached to the 
 word soul. If by soul is meant the vital fluid, that theory 
 is right ; if the word is used to express an incarnate spirit, 
 it is wrong. We have already told you that a spirit is indi- 
 visible ; it transmits movement to the bodily organs through 
 the intermediary fluids, but it undergoes no division." 
 
 — Nevertheless, there are spirits who have given this 
 definition. 
 
 " Spirits who are ignorant may mistake the effect for the 
 cause." 
 
 The soul acts through the intermediary of the bodily organs, and 
 those organs are animated by the vital fluid which is distributed among 
 them, and more abundantly in those which constitute the centres or 
 joci of movement for each organism. But this explanation becomes 
 inadmissible when the term soul is employed to designate the spirit 
 which inhabits the body during life and quits it at death. 
 
 141. Is there any truth in the opinion of those who sup- 
 pose that the soul is exterior to the body and environs it? 
 
 " The soul is not shut up in the body like a bird in a 
 
 1 Viae, in the Introduction, the explanation of the word saul 9 sec. ii. 
 
58 BOOK II. CHAP. II. 
 
 cage. It radiates in all directions, and manifests itself out- 
 side the body as a light radiates from a glass globe, or as 
 sound is propagated from a sonorous centre. In this 
 sense the soul may be said to be exterior to the b^dy, but 
 it is not therefore to be considered as enveloping the body. 
 The soul has two envelopes ; the first, or innermost, of 
 these, of a light and subtle nature, is what you call the 
 perispirit ; the other, gross, material, heavy, is the body. 
 The soul is the centre of both these envelopes, like the 
 germ in the stone of the fruit, as we have already said." 
 
 142. What is to be thought of that other theory accord- 
 ing to which the lormation of the soul of the child is carried 
 on to completion during the successive periods of the 
 human lifetime ? 
 
 " The spirit is a unit ; and is as entire in the child as in 
 the adult. It is only the bodily organs, or instruments of 
 the manifestations of the soul, that are gradually developed 
 and completed in the course of a lifetime. Here, again, 
 you mistake the effect for the cause." 
 
 143. Why do not all spirits define the soul in the same 
 way? 
 
 " All spirits are not equally enlightened in regard to 
 these matters. Some spirits are still so little advanced in- 
 tellectually as to be incapable of understanding abstract 
 ideas ; they are like children in your world. Other spirits 
 are full of false learning, and make a vain parade of words 
 in order to impose their authority upon those who listen to 
 them. They, also, resemble too many in your world. And 
 besides, even spirits who are really enlightened may express 
 themselves in terms which appear to be different, but 
 which, at bottom, mean the same thing, especially in regard 
 to matters which your language is incapable of expressing 
 clearly, and which can only be spoken of to you by means 
 of figures and comparisons that you mistake for literal state- 
 ments of fact." 
 
 144. What is to be understood by the soul of the world ? 
 
INCARNATION OF SPIRITS. 59 
 
 "The universal principle of life and intelligence from 
 which individualities are produced. But, very often, they 
 who make use of these terms do not know what they mean 
 by them. The word soul is so elastic that every one inter- 
 prets it according to his own imaginings. Certain persons 
 have also attributed a soul to the earth, which must be 
 understood as indicating the assemblage of devoted spirits 
 who direct your actions in the right direction when you 
 listen to them, and who are, as it were, the lieutenants of 
 God in the administration of your globe." 
 
 145. How is it that so many philosophers, both ancient 
 and modern, have so long been discussing psychological 
 questions without having arrived at the truth ? 
 
 " Those men were precursors of the eternal truths of the 
 true spiritist doctrine, for which they have prepared the 
 way. They were men, and therefore subject to error, be- 
 cause they often mistook their own ideas for the true light ; 
 but their very errors have served the cause of truth by 
 bringing into relief both sides of the argument. Moreover, 
 among those errors are to be found many great truths which 
 a comparative study of the various theories thus put forth 
 would enable you to discover." 
 
 146. Has the soul a circumscribed and determinate seat 
 in the body ? 
 
 " No ; but it may be said to reside more especially in the 
 head, in the case of men of great genius and of all who 
 think much, and in the heart, in the case of those who feel 
 much, and whose actions have always a humanitary aim." 
 
 — What is to be thought of the opinion of those who 
 place the soul in a centre of organic life ? 
 
 " The spirit may be said to inhabit more especially such 
 a part of your organism, because it is to such a part that all 
 the sensations converge; but those who place it in what 
 they consider to be the centre of vitality confound it with 
 the vital fluid or principle. Nevertheless, it may be said that 
 the soul is more especially present in the organs which serve 
 for the manifestation of the intellectual and moral qualities." 
 
60 BOOK It. CHAP. II, 
 
 Materialism. 
 
 147. Why is it that anatomists, physiologists, and, in 
 general, those who apply themselves to the pursuit of the 
 natural sciences, are so apt to fall into materialism ? 
 
 " The physiologist refers everything to the standard of his 
 senses. Human pride imagines that it knows everything, 
 and refuses to admit that there can be anything which tran- 
 scends the human understanding. Science itself inspires 
 some minds with presumption; they think that nature can 
 have nothing hidden from them." 
 
 148. Is it not regrettable that materialism should be a. 
 consequence of studies which ought, on the contrary, to 
 show men the superiority of the intelligence that governs 
 the world ? 
 
 " It is not true that materialism is a consequence of those 
 studies ; it is a result of the imperfection which leads men 
 to draw a false conclusion from their studies, for men may 
 make a bad use of the very best things. The idea of annihila- 
 tion, moreover, troubles those who profess to hold it more 
 than they will allow to be seen ; and those who are loudest 
 in proclaiming their materialistic convictions are often more 
 boastful than brave. The greater number of the so-called 
 materialists are only such because they have no rational 
 ground of belief in a future life. Show a firm anchor of 
 rational belief in a future state to those who see only a 
 yawning void before them, and they will grasp it with the 
 eagerness of drowning men." 
 
 There are those who, through an aberration of the intellect, can see 
 nothing in organised beings but the action of matter, and attribute 
 to this action all the phenomena of existence. They have seen, in the 
 human body, only the action of an electrical machine ; they have studied 
 the mechanism of life only in the play of the bodily organs ; they have 
 often seen life extinguished by the rupture of a filament, and they have 
 seen nothing but this filament. They have looked to see whether any- 
 thing still remained, and as they have found nothing but matter that has 
 become inert, as they have neither seen the soul escape from the body 
 nor been able to take hold of it, they have concluded that every- 
 thing is reducible to the properties of matter, and that death is conse- 
 quently the annihilation of all thought. A melancholy conclusion, if 
 such were really the case ; for, were it so, good and evil would be alike 
 
INCARNATION OF SPIRITS. 6 1 
 
 devoid of aim ; every man would be justified in thinking only of him- 
 self, and in subordinating every other consideration to the satisfaction 
 of his material instincts. Thus all social ties would be broken, and the 
 holiest affections would be destroyed for ever. Happily for mankind, 
 these ideas are far from being general. Their area may even be said 
 to be a narrow one, limited to the scope of individual opinions ; for 
 nowhere have they been erected into a system of doctrine. A state of 
 society founded on such a basis would contain within itself the seeds of 
 its own dissolution ; and its members would tear each other to pieces 
 like so many ferocious beasts of prey. 
 
 Man has an intuitive belief that, for him, everything does not end 
 with the life of his body ; he has a horror of annihilation. No matter 
 how obstinately men may have set themselves against the idea of a 
 future life, there are very few who, on the approach of death, do not 
 anxiously a^k themselves what is going to become of them ; for t ; ,e 
 thought of bidding an eternal adieu to life is appalling to the stoutest heart. 
 Who, indeed, could look with indifference on the prospect of an absolute 
 and eternal separation from all that he has loved? Who, without 
 terror, could behold, yawning beneath him, the bottomless abyss of 
 nothingness in which all his faculties and aspirations are to be swallowed 
 up for ever? Who could calmly say to himself, " After my death there 
 will be nothing for me but the void of annihilation ; all will be enclf d. 
 A few days hence, all memory of me will have been blotted out 
 from the remembrance of those who survive me, and the earth itself 
 will retain no trace of my passage. Even the good that I have done will 
 be forgotten by the ungrateful mortals whom I have benefited. And 
 there is nothing to compensate me for all this loss, no other prospect, 
 beyond this ruin, than that of my body devoured by worms !" 
 
 Is there not something horrible in such a picture, something that 
 sends an icy chill through the heart ? Religion teaches us that such 
 cannot be our destiny ; and reason confirms the teachings of religion. 
 But the vague, indefinite assurance of a future existence, which is ail 
 that is given us either by religion or by reason, cannot satisfy our 
 natural desire for some positive proof in a matter of such paramount 
 importance for us ; and it is just the lack of such proof, in regard to a 
 future life, that, in so many cases, engenders doubt as to its reality. 
 
 " Admitting that we have a soul," many very naturally ask, "what is 
 our soul ? Has it a form, an appearance of any kind? Is it a limited 
 being, oris it something undefined and impersonal? Some say that 
 it is *a breath of God:' others, that it is 'a spark;' others, again, 
 declare it to be * part of the Great Whole, the principle of life and of 
 intelligence. 5 But what do we learn from these statements ? What is the 
 good of our possessing a soul, if our soul is to be merged in immensity 
 like a drop of water in the ocean? Is not the loss of our individuality 
 equivalent, so far as we are concerned, to annihilation? The soul is 
 said to be immaterial ; but that which is immaterial can have no defined 
 proportions, and therefore can have no reality for us. Religion also 
 teaches that we shall be happy, or unhappy, according to the good or 
 the evil we have done ; but of what nature are the happinesss or un- 
 happiness thus promised us in another life ? Is that happiness a state 
 of beatitude in the bosom of God, an external contemplation, with no 
 other employment than that of singing the praises of the Creator? Aim 
 the flames of hell, are they a reality or a figure of speech? The Church 
 
62 BOOK II. CHAP. II. 
 
 itself attributes to them a figurative meaning ; but of what nature are 
 the sufferings thus figuratively shadowed forth ? And where is the 
 scene of those sufferings ? In short, what shall we be, what shall we do, 
 what shall we see, in that other world which is said to await us all ?" 
 
 No one, it is averred, has ever come back to give us an account of 
 that world. But this statement is erroneous ; and the mission of spiritism 
 is precisely to enlighten us in regard to the future which awaits us ; 
 to enable us, within certain limits, to see and to touch it, not merely as 
 a deduction of our reason, but through the evidence of facts. Thanks 
 to the communications made to us by the people of that other world, 
 the latter is no longer a mere presumption, a probability, which each 
 one pictures to himself according to his own fancy, which poets embellish 
 with fictitious and allegorical images that serve only to deceive us ; it is 
 that other world itself, in its reality, which is now brought before us, for 
 it is the beings of the life beyond the grave who come to us, who de- 
 scribe to us the situations in which they find themselves, who tell us 
 what they are doing, who allow us to become, so to say, the spectators of 
 the details of their new order of life, and who thus show us the inevitable 
 fate which is reserved for each of us according to our merits or our mis- 
 deeds. 
 
 Is there anything anti-religious in such a demonstration ? Assuredly 
 not ; since it furnishes unbelievers with a ground of belief, and inspires 
 lukewarm believers with renewed fervour and confidence. 
 
 Spiritism is thus seen to be the most powerful auxiliary of religion. 
 And, if it be such, it must be acknowledged to exist by the permission 
 of God, for the purpose of giving new strength to our wavering con- 
 victions, and thus of leading us back into the right road by the prospect 
 oi our /"uture happiness. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 RETURN FROM THE CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRIT LIFE. 
 
 f , The soul after death : its individuality : eternal life — 2. Separation 
 of soul and body — 3. Temporarily confused state of the soul 
 after death. 
 
 The Soul after Death. 
 
 149. What becomes of the soul at the moment of death ? 
 " It becomes again a spirit ; that is to say, it returns into 
 
 the world of spirits, which it had quitted for a short time." 
 
 150. Does the soul, after death, preserve its individuality ? 
 " Yes, it never loses its individuality. What would the 
 
 soul be if it did not preserve it ? " 
 
 — How does the soul preserve the consciousness of its 
 individuality, since it no longer has its material body ? 
 
 " It still has a fluid peculiar to itself, which it draws from 
 the atmosphere of its planet, and which represents the ap- 
 pearance of its last incarnation — its perispirit" 
 
 — Does the soul take nothing of this life away with it ? 
 
 " Nothing but the remembrance of that life and the 
 desire to go to a better world. This remembrance is full 
 of sweetness or of bitterness according to the use it has 
 made of the earthly life it has quitted. The more advanced 
 is the degree of its purification, the more clearly does it 
 perceive the futility of all that it has left behind it upon the 
 earth." 
 
 151. What is to be thought of the opinion that the soul 
 after death returns to the universal whole ? 
 
 " Does not the mass of spirits, considered in its totality, 
 constitute a whole ? Does it not constitute a world ? 
 
 H 
 
64 BOOK II, CHAP. III. 
 
 When you are in an assembly you form an integral part of 
 that assembly, and yet you still retain your individuality." 
 
 152. What proof can we have of the individuality of the 
 soul after death ? 
 
 " Is not this proof furnished by the communications 
 which you obtain ? If you were not blind, you would see ; 
 if you were not deaf, you would hear ; for you are often 
 spoken to by a voice which reveals to you the existence of 
 a being exterior to yourself." 
 
 Those who think that the soul returns after death into the univercpl 
 whole are in error if they imagine that it loses its individuality, like a 
 drop of water that falls into the ocean ; they are right if they mean by 
 the universal whole the totality of incorporeal beings, of which each 
 soul or spirit is an element. 
 
 If souls were blended together into a mass, they would possess only 
 the qualities common to the totality of the mass ; there would be no- 
 thing to distinguish them from one another, and they would have no 
 special, intellectual, or moral qualities of their own. But the com- 
 munications we obtain from spirits give abundant evidence of the pos- 
 session by each spirit of the consciousness of the me, and of a distinct 
 will, personal to itself; the infinite diversity of characteristics of all 
 kinds presented by them is at once the consequence and the evidence 
 of their distinctive personal individuality. If, after death, there were 
 nothing but what is called the " Great Whole," absorbing all indivi- 
 dualities, this whole would be uniform in its characteristics ; and, in 
 that case, all the communications received from the invisible world 
 would be identical. But as among the denizens of that other world we 
 meet with some who are good and some who are bad, some who are 
 learned and some who are ignorant, some who are happy and some 
 who are unhappy, and as they present us with every shade of character, 
 some being frivolous and others serious, &c, it is evident that they are 
 different individualities, perfectly distinct from one another. This in- 
 dividuality becomes still more evident when they are able to prove their 
 identity by unmistakable tokens, by personal derails relating to their 
 terrestrial li f e, and susceptible of being verified ; and it cannot be a 
 matter of doubt when they manifest themselves to our sight under tbe 
 form of apparitions. The individuality of the soul has been taught 
 theoretically as an article of faith ; spiiirism renders it patent, as an 
 evident, and, so to say, a material fact. 
 
 153. In what sense should we understand eternal life? 
 
 " It is the life of the spirit that is eternal ; that of the 
 body is transitory and fleeting. When the body dies, the 
 soul re-enters the eternal life." 
 
 — Would it not be more correct to apply the term eternal 
 life to the life of the purified spirits ; of those who, having 
 
RETURN FROM CORPOREAL TO SPIRITUAL LIFE. 65 
 
 attained to the degree of relative perfection, have no longer 
 to undergo the discipline of suffering ? 
 
 " The life of that degree might rather be termed eternal 
 happiness ; but this is a question of words. You may call 
 things as you please, provided you are agreed among your- 
 selves as to your meaning." 
 
 Separation of Soul and Body. 
 
 154. Is the separation of the soul from the body a painful 
 process ? 
 
 " No ; the body often suffers more during life than at the 
 moment of death, when the soul is usually unconscious of 
 what is occurring to the body. The sensations experienced 
 at the moment of death are often a source of enjoyment for 
 the spirit, who recognises them as putting an end to the 
 term of his exile." 
 
 In cases of natural death, where dissolution occurs as a consequence 
 of the exhaustion of the bodily organs through age, man passes out cf 
 life without perceiving that he is doing so. It is like the flame of a 
 lamp that goes out for want of aliment. 
 
 153. How is the separation of soul and body effected ? 
 
 " The bonds which retained the soul being broken, it 
 disengages itself from the body." 
 
 154. Is this separation effected instantaneously, and bv 
 means of an abrupt transition ? Is there any distinctly 
 marked line of demarcation between life and death ? 
 
 " No ; the soul disengages itself gradually. It does not 
 escape at once from the body, like a bird whose cage is 
 suddenly opened. The two states touch and run into each 
 other ; and the spirit extricates himself, little by little, from 
 his fleshly bonds, which are loosed, but not broken" 
 
 During life, a spirit is held to the body by his semi-material enve- 
 lope, or peri 'spirit. Death is the destruction of the body only, but not 
 of this second envelope, which separates itself from the body when the 
 play of organic life ceases in the latter. Observation shows us that the 
 separation of the perispirit from the body is not suddenly completed at 
 the moment of death, but is only effected gradually, and more or less 
 slowly in different individuals. In some cases it is effected so quickly 
 that the perispirit is entirely separated from the body within a few 
 hours of the death of the latter ; but, in other cases, and especially ill 
 the case oi those whose life has been grossly material and sensual, this 
 
66 BOOK II. CHAP. III. 
 
 deliverance is much less rapid, and sometimes takes days, weeks, and 
 even months, for its accomplishment. This delay does not imply the 
 slightest persistence of vitality in the body, nor any possibility of its return 
 to life, but is simply the result of a certain affinity between the body and 
 the spirit ; which affinity is always more or less tenacious in proportion 
 to the preponderance of materiality in the affections of the spirit during 
 his earthly life. It is, in fact, only rational to suppose that the more 
 closely a spirit has identified himself with matter, the greater will be his 
 difficulty in separating himself from his material body ; while, on the con- 
 trary, intellectual and moral activity, and habitual elevation of thought, 
 effect a commencement of this separation even during the life of the 
 body, and therefore, when death occurs, the separation is almost in- 
 stantaneous. The study of a great number of individuals after their 
 death has shown that the affinity which, in some cases, continues to 
 exist between the soul and the body is sometimes extremely painful ; for 
 it causes the spirit to perceive all the horror of the decomposition of 
 the latter. This experience is exceptional, and peculiar to certain 
 kinds of life and to certain kinds of death. It sometimes occurs in the 
 case of those who have committed suicide. 
 
 156. Can the definitive separation of the soul and body 
 take place before the complete cessation of organic life? 
 
 " It sometimes happens that the soul has quitted the 
 body before the last agony comes on, so that the latter is 
 only the closing act of merely organic life. The dying man 
 has no longer any consciousness of himself, and neverthe- 
 less there still remains in him a faint breathing of vitality. The 
 body is a machine that is kept in movement by the heart, 
 It continues to live as long as the heart causes the blood 
 to circulate in the veins, and has no need of the soul to do 
 that." 
 
 157. Does the soul sometimes, at the moment of death, 
 experience an aspiration or an ecstasy that gives it a fore- 
 glimpse of the world into which it is about to return ? 
 
 " The soul often feels the loosening of the bonds that 
 attach it to the body, and does its utmost to hasten and com- 
 plete the work of separation. Already partially freed from 
 matter, it beholds the future unrolled before it, and enjoys, 
 in anticipation, the spirit-state upon which it is about to 
 re-enter." 
 
 158. Do the transformations of the caterpillar — which, 
 first of all, crawls upon the ground, and then shuts itself up 
 in its chrysalis in seeming death, to be reborn therefrom 
 into a new and brilliant existence — give us anything like a 
 
RETURN FROM CORPOREAL TO SPIRITUAL LIFE. 6 J 
 
 true idea of the relation between our terrestrial life, the 
 tomb, and our new existence beyond the latter? 
 
 " An idea on a very small scale. The image is good ; 
 but, nevertheless, it would not do to accept it literally, as 
 you so often do in regard to such images." 
 
 159. What sensation is experienced by the soul at the 
 moment when it recovers its consciousness in the world of 
 spirits ? 
 
 " That depends on circumstances. He who has done 
 evil from the love of evil is overwhelmed with shame for his 
 wrong-doing. With the righteous it is very different. His 
 soul seems to be eased of a heavy load, for it does not 
 dread the most searching glance." 
 
 160. Does the spirit find himself at once in company 
 with those whom he knew upon the earth, and who died 
 before him ? 
 
 " Yes ; and more or less promptly according to the degree 
 of his affection for them and of theirs for him. They often 
 come to meet him on his return to the spirit-world, and 
 help to free him from the bonds of matter. Others whom he 
 formerly knew, but whom he had lost sight of during his 
 sojourn on the earth, also come to meet him. He sees 
 those who are in erraticity, and he goes to visit those who 
 are still incarnated." 
 
 161. In cases of violent or accidental death, when the 
 organs have not been weakened by age or by sickness, does 
 the separation of the soul take place simultaneously with 
 the cessation of organic life ? 
 
 " It does so usually ; and, at any rate, the interval be- 
 tween them, in all such cases, is very brief." 
 
 162. After decapitation, for instance, does a man retain 
 consciousness for a longer or shorter time ? 
 
 " He frequently does so for a few minutes, until the 
 organic life of the body is completely extinct; but, on the 
 other hand, the fear of death often causes a man to lose 
 consciousness before the moment of execution." 
 
68 BOOK II. CHAP. III. 
 
 The question here proposed refers simply to the consciousness which 
 the victim may have of himself as a man, through the intermediary of 
 his bodily organs, and not as a spirit. If he have not lost this con- 
 sciousness before execution, he may retain it for a few moments after- 
 wards ; but tins persistence of consciousness can only be of very short 
 duration, and must necessarily cease with the cessation of the organic 
 life of the brain. The cessation of the human consciousness, however, 
 by no means implies the complete separation of the perispirit from the 
 body. On the contrary, in all cases in which death has resulted from 
 violence, and not from a gradual extinction of the vital forces, the bonds 
 which unite the body to the perispirit are more tenacious, and the 
 separation is effected more slowly. 
 
 Temporarily-confused State of the Soul after Death. 
 
 163. Does the soul, on quitting the body, find itself at 
 once in possession of its self-consciousness ? 
 
 " Not at once. It is for a time in a state of confusion 
 which obscures all its perceptions." 
 
 164. Do all spirits experience, in the same degree and 
 for the same length of time, the confusion which follows the 
 separation of the soul from the body ? 
 
 " No ; this depends entirely on their degree of elevation. 
 He who has already accomplished a certain amount of 
 purification recovers his consciousness almost immediately, 
 because he had already freed himself from the thraldom of 
 materiality during his bodily life ; whereas the carnally- 
 minded man, he whose conscience is not clear, retains the 
 impression of matter for a much longer time." 
 
 165. Does a knowledge of spiritism exercise any influence 
 on the duration of this state of confusion ? 
 
 " It exercises a very considerate influence on that dura- 
 tion, because it enables the spirit to understand beforehand 
 the new situation in which it is about to find itself; but the 
 practice of rectitude during the earthly life, and a clear con- 
 science, are the conditions which conduce most powerfully 
 to shorten it." 
 
 At the moment of death, everything appears confused. The soul 
 takes some time to recover its self-consciousness, for it is as though 
 stunned, and in a state similar to that of a man waking out of a deep 
 sleep, and trying to understand his own situation. It gradually regains 
 clearness of thought and the memory of the past in proportion to the 
 weakening of the influence of the material envelope from which it has 
 
RETURN FROM CORPOREAL TO SPIRITUAL LIFE. 69 
 
 jnst freed itself, and the clearing away of the sort of fog that obscured 
 its consciousness. 
 
 The duration of the state of confusion that follows death varies greatly 
 in different cases. It may be only of a few hours, and it may be of several 
 months, or even years. Those with whom it lasts the least are they 
 who, during the earthly life, have identified themselves most closely 
 with their future state, because they are soonest able to understand their 
 new situation. 
 
 This state of confusion assumes special aspects according to charac- 
 terial peculiarities, and also according to different modes of death. In 
 all cases of violent or sudden death, by suicide, by capital punishment, 
 accident, apoplexy, &c, the spirit is surprised, astounded, and does 
 not believe himself to be dead. He obstinately persists in asserting 
 the contrary ; and, nevertheless, he sees the body he has quitted as 
 something apart from himself; he knows that body to be his own, and 
 he cannot make out how it should be separated from him. He goes 
 about among the persons with whom he is united by the ties of 
 affection, speaks to them, and cannot conceive why they do not hear 
 him. This sort of illusion lasts until the entire separation of the 
 perispirit from the earthly body, fur it is only when this is accom- 
 plished that the spirit begins to understand his situation, and be- 
 comes aware that be no longer forms part of the world of human 
 beings. Death having come upon him by surprise, the spirit is 
 stunned by the suddenness of the change that has taken place in him. 
 For him, death is still synonymous with destruction, annihilation; and as 
 he thinks, sees, hears, it seems to him that he cannot be dead. And this 
 illusion is still further strengthened by his seeing himself with a body 
 simitar in form to the one he has quitted ; for he does not at first per- 
 ceive its ethereal nature, but supposes it to be solid and compact like 
 the other ; and when his attention has been called to this point, he is 
 astonished at finding that it is not palpable. This phenomenon is 
 analogous to that which occurs in the case of somnambulists, who, when 
 thrown for the first time into the magnetic sleep, cannot believe that 
 they are not awake. Sleep, according to their idea of it, is synonymous 
 with suspension of the perceptive faculties ; and as they think freely, 
 and see, they appear to themselves not to be asleep. Some spirits 
 present this peculiarity, even in cases where death has not supervened 
 unexpectedly ; but it more frequently occurs in the case of those who, 
 although they may have been ill, had no expectation of death The 
 curious spectacle is then presented of a spirit attending his own funeral 
 as though it were that of some one else, and speaking of it as of some- 
 thing which in no way concerns him, until the moment when at length 
 he comprehends the true state of the case. 
 
 In the mental confusion which follows death, there is nothing painful 
 for him who has lived an upright life. He is calm, and his perceptions 
 are those of a peaceful awaking out of sleep. But for him whose 
 conscience is not clean, it is full of anxiety and anguish that become 
 more and more poignant in proportion as he recovers consciousness. 
 
 In cases of collective death, in which many persons have perished 
 together in the same catastrophe, it has been observed that they do not 
 always see one another immediately afterwards. In the state of con- 
 fusion which follows death, each spirit goes his own way, or concerns 
 himself only with those in whom he takes an interest. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 
 
 I. Reincarnation — 2. Justice of reincarnation — 3. Incarnation in dif- 
 ferent worlds — 4. Progressive transmigrations — 5. Fate of children 
 after death — 6. ^ex in spirits — 7. Family relationships : filiation— 
 8. Physical and moral likeness — 9. Innate ideas. 
 
 Reincarnation. 
 
 166. How can the soul that has not attained to perfec- 
 tion during the corporeal life complete the work of its puri- 
 fication ? 
 
 11 By undergoing the trial of a new existence. " 
 
 — How does the soul accomplish this new existence ? 
 Is it through its transformation as a spirit? 
 
 "The soul, in purifying itself, undoubtedly undergoes a 
 transformation ; but, in order to effect this transformation, 
 it needs the trial of corporeal life." 
 
 — The soul has, then, many corporeal existences ? 
 
 " Yes ; we all have many such existences. Those who 
 maintain the contrary wish to keep you in the same ignor- 
 ance in which they are themselves." 
 
 — It would seem to result from this statement that the 
 soul, after having quitted one body, takes another one ; in 
 other words, that it reincarnates itself in a new body. Is 
 it thus that this statement is to be understood ? 
 
 " Evidently so." 
 
 167. What is the aim of reincarnation ? 
 
 " Expiation \ progressive improvement of mankind. 
 Without this aim, where would be its justice ? " 
 
 168. Is the number of corporeal existences limited, or 
 does a spirit go on reincarnating himself for ever? 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 7 1 
 
 "In each new existence, a spirit takes a step forwards in 
 the path of progress j when he has stripped himself of all 
 his impurities, lie has no further need of the trials of corpo- 
 real life." 
 
 169. Is the number of incarnations the same for all 
 spirits ? 
 
 "No; he who advances quickly spares himself many 
 trials. Nevertheless, these successive incarnations are 
 always very numerous, for progress is almost infinite." 
 
 170. What does the spirit become after its last incarna- 
 tion ? 
 
 " It enters upon the state of perfect happiness, as a puri- 
 fied spirit." 
 
 Justice of Reincarnation. 
 
 171. What foundation is there for the doctrine of rein- 
 carnation ? 
 
 " The justice of God, and revelation ; for, as we have 
 already remarked, an affectionate father always leaves a 
 door of repentance open for his erring children. Does not 
 reason itself tell you that it would be unjust to inflict an 
 eternal privation of happiness on those who have not had 
 the opportunity of improving themselves ? Are not all 
 men God's children ? It is only among selfish human 
 beings that injustice, implacable hatred, and irremissible 
 punishments are to be found." 
 
 All spirits tend towards perfection, and arc furnished by God with 
 the means of advancement through the trials of corporeal life ; but the 
 divine justice compels them to accomplish, in new existences, that 
 which they have not been able to do, or to complete, in a previous trial. 
 
 It would not be consistent with the justice or with the goodness of God 
 tosentence to eternal suffering those who may have encountered obstacles 
 to their improvement independent of their will, and resulting from the 
 very nature of the conditions in which they found themselves placed. 
 If the fate of mankind were irrevocably fixed after death, God would 
 not have weighed the actions of all in the same scales, and would not 
 have- treated them with impartiality. 
 
 The doctrine of reincarnation — 4 hat is to say, the doctrine which pro- 
 claims that men have many successive existences- is the only one which 
 answers to the idea we form to ourselves of the justice of God in regard 
 to those who arc placed, by circumstances over which they have no 
 
/ 2 BOOK II. CHAP. IV. 
 
 control, in conditions unfavourable to their moral advancement ; the 
 only one which can explain the future, and furnish us with a sound 
 basis for our hopes, because it offers us the means of redeeming our 
 errors through new trials. This doctrine is indicated by the teachings 
 of reason, as well as by those of our spirit-instructors. 
 
 He who is conscious of his own inferiority derives a consoling hope 
 from the doctrine of reincarnation. If he believes in the justice of 
 God, he cannot hope to be placed, at once and for all eterni'.y, on a 
 level with those who have made a better use of life than he has done ; 
 but the knowledge that this inferiority will not exclude him for ever 
 from the supreme felicity, and that he will be able to conquer this 
 felicity through new efforts, revives his courage and sustains his energy. 
 Who does not regret, at the end of his career, that the experience he 
 has acquired should have come too late to allow of his turning it to 
 useful account ? This tardily acquired experience will not be lost for 
 him ; he will profit by it in a new corporeal life. 
 
 Incarnation in Different Worlds, 
 
 172. Do we accomplish all our different corporeal exist- 
 ences upon this earth ? 
 
 " Not all of them, for those existences take place in 
 many different worlds. The world in which you now are 
 is neither the first nor the last of these, but is one of those 
 that are the most material, and the furthest removed from 
 perfection.'' 
 
 173. Does the soul, at each new corporeal existence, pass 
 from one world to another, or can it accomplish several 
 existences on the same globe ? 
 
 " It may live many times on the same globe, if it be not 
 sufficiently advanced to pass into a higher one." 
 
 — We may, then, re-appear several times upon the earth ? 
 " Certainly." 
 
 — Can we come back to it after having lived in other 
 worlds ? 
 
 " Assuredly you can ; you may already have lived else- 
 where as well as upon the earth." 
 
 174. Is it necessary to live again upon this earth? 
 
 " No ; but if you do not advance, you may go into a 
 world no better than this one, or even worse." 
 
 175. Is there any advantage in coming back to inhabit 
 this earth ? 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 73 
 
 cc No special advantage, unless it be the fulfilment of a 
 mission ; in that case the spirit advances, whether incar- 
 nated in this earth or elsewhere." 
 
 — Would it not be happier to remain as a spirit ? 
 
 u No, no ! for we should remain stationary ; and we 
 want to advance towards God." 
 
 176. Can spirits come to this world, for the first time, 
 after having been incarnated in other worlds ? 
 
 " Yes ; just as you may go into other ones. All the 
 worlds of the universe are united by the bonds of solidarity ; 
 that which is not accomplished in one of them is accom- 
 plished in another." 
 
 — Some of those who are now upon this earth are here, 
 then, for the first time ? 
 
 " Many of them are so ; and at various degrees of ad- 
 vancement." 
 
 — Is there any sign by which we can know the spirits 
 who are here for the first time ? 
 
 " Such knowledge would not be of the slightest use to 
 you." 
 
 177. In order to arrive at the perfection and the supreme 
 felicity which are the final aim of mankind, is it necessary 
 for a spirit to pass through all the worlds that exist in the 
 universe ? 
 
 " No ; for there are a great number of worlds of the 
 same degree, in which a spirit would learn nothing new." 
 
 — How, then, are we to explain the plurality of his exist- 
 ences upon the same globe ? 
 
 " He may find himself, each time he comes back, in very 
 different situations, which afford him the opportunity of 
 acquiring new experience." 
 
 178. Can spirits live corporeally in a world relatively 
 inferior to the one in which they have already lived ? 
 
 " Yes ; when they have to fulfil a mission in aid of pro- 
 gress ; and in that case they joyfully accept the tribulations 
 of such an existence, because these will furnish them with 
 the means of advancement." 
 
74 BOOK II. CHAP. IV. 
 
 — May this not occur also as an expiation? and may not 
 rebellious spirits be sent by God into worlds of lower degree? 
 
 ''Spirits may remain stationary, but they never retro- 
 grade ; those who are rebellious are punished by not 
 advancing, and by having to recommence their misused 
 existences under the conditions suited to their nature." 
 
 — Who are they that are compelled to recommence the 
 same existence ? 
 
 " They who fail in the fulfilment of their mission, or in 
 the endurance of the trial appointed to them." 
 
 179. Have all the human beings who inhabit any given 
 world arrived at the same degree of perfection ? 
 
 " No ; it is in the other worlds as upon the earth ; there 
 are some who are more advanced, and others who are 
 less so." 
 
 180. In passing from this world into another one, does a 
 spirit retain the intelligence which he possessed in this one? 
 
 " Undoubtedly he does ; intelligence is never lost. But 
 he may not have the same means of manifesting it ; for 
 that depends both on his degree of advancement and on 
 the quality of the body he will take." (Vide, Influence of 
 Organism.) 
 
 181. Have the human beings who inhabit the other 
 worlds bodies like ours ? 
 
 " They undoubtedly have bodies, because it is necessary 
 for the spirit to be clothed with matter in order to act upon 
 matter ; but this envelope is more or less material accord- 
 ing to the degree of purity at which each spirit has arrived, 
 and it is these gradations of purity that decide the different 
 worlds through which we have to pass ; for in our Father's 
 house are many mansions, and therefore many degrees 
 among those mansions. There are some who know this, 
 and possess the consciousness of this fact, while upon the 
 earth ; and there are others who have no such intuition." 
 
 182. Can we obtain any exact knowledge of the physical 
 and moral state of the different worlds? 
 
 " We, spirits, can only reply according to the degree at 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 75 
 
 which you have arrived ; that is to say, that we must not 
 reveal these things to all, because some are not in the state 
 which would enable them to understand such revelations, 
 and would be confused by the?n" 
 
 In proportion as a spirit becomes purified, the body with which he 
 clothes himself also approaches more nearly to the spirit-nature. The 
 matter of which his body is composed is less dense ; he no longer crawls 
 heavily on the surface of the ground ; his bodily needs are less gross ; 
 and the various living beings in those higher worlds are no longer 
 obliged to destroy one another in order to feed themselves. A spirit 
 incarnated in those worlds enjoys a greater degree of freedom, and pos- 
 sesses, in regard to objects at a distance, orders of perception of a nature 
 unknown to us ; he sees with his eyes what we see only in thought. 
 
 The purification of spirits determines the moral excellence of the 
 corporeal beings in whom they are incarnated. The animal passions 
 become weaker, and selfishness gives place to the sentiment of fraternity. 
 
 Thus, in worlds of higher degree than our earth, wars are unknown, 
 because no one thinks of doing harm to his fellow-beings, and there is 
 consequently no motive for hatred or discord. The foresight of their 
 future, which is intuitive in the people of those worlds, and the sense of 
 security resulting from a conscience void of remorse, cause them to look 
 forward to death without fear, as being simply a process of transforma- 
 tion, the approach of which they perceive without the slightest un- 
 easiness. 
 
 The duration of a lifetime, in the different worlds, appears to be 
 proportionate to the degree of moral and physical superiority of each 
 world ; and this is perfectly consonant with reason. The less material 
 is the body, the less subject is it to the vicissitudes which disorganise 
 it; the purer the spirit, the less subject is he to the passions which 
 undermine and destroy it. This correspondence between moral and 
 physical conditions is a pro^f of the beneficence of providential law, even 
 in worlds of low degree ; as the duration of the suffering which is the 
 characteristic of life in those worlds is thus rendered proportionally 
 shorter. 
 
 183. In passing from one world to another, does the 
 spirit pass through a new infancy? 
 
 " Infancy is, in all worlds, a necessary transition; but it is 
 not, in all of them, so stupid as it is in yours." 
 
 184. Has a spirit the choice of the new world which he is 
 to inhabit? 
 
 " Not always ; but he can make his demand, and it may 
 be granted, but only if he have deserved it ; for the various 
 worlds are only accessible to spirits according to the degree 
 of their elevation." 
 
 — If a spirit make no such demand, what is it that de- 
 cides as to the world in which he will be reincarnated ? 
 
76 BOOK II. CHAP. IV. 
 
 "The degree of his elevation." 
 
 185. Is the physical and moral state of the living beings 
 of each globe always the same ? v 
 
 " No ; worlds, like the beings that live in them, are sub- 
 ject to the law of progress. All have begun, like yours, by 
 being in a state of inferiority ; and the earth will undergo 
 a transformation similar to that which has been accomplished 
 by the others. It will become a terrestrial paradise, when 
 the men by whom it is inhabited have become good." 
 
 The races which now people the earth will gradually disappear, and 
 will be succeeded by others more and more perfect. Those transformed 
 races will succeed the races now upon the earth, as these have succeeded 
 earlier races, still more gross than the present ones. 
 
 186. Are there worlds in which the spirit, ceasing to 
 inhabit a material body, has no longer any other envelope 
 than the per (spirit 2 
 
 " Yes, and this envelope itself becomes so etherealised 
 that, for you, it is as though it did not exist. This is the 
 state of the fully purified spirits." 
 
 — It would seem, from this statement, that there is no 
 clearly marked line of demarcation between the state of the 
 latter incarnations and that of pure spirit ? 
 
 " No such demarcation exists. The difference between 
 them growing gradually less and less, they blend into one 
 another as the darkness of night melts into the dawn.'' 
 
 187. Is the substance of the perispirit the same in all 
 globes ? 
 
 "No ; it is more or less ethereal. On passing from one 
 world to another, a spirit clothes himself with the matter 
 proper to each, changing his envelope with the rapidity of 
 lightning." 
 
 188. Do the pure spirits inhabit special worlds, or are 
 they in universal space without being attached to any 
 particular globe ? 
 
 " The pure spirits inhabit certain worlds, but they are not 
 confined to them as men are confined to the earth ; they 
 possess, in a higher degree than any others, the power of 
 instantaneous locomotion, which is equivalent to ubiquity. " 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 77 
 
 According to the statements of spirits, the earth, as regards the 
 physical and moral qualities of its inhabitants, is one of the least ad- 
 vanced of all the globes of our solar system. Mars is stated to be at a 
 point even lower than that of the earth, and Jupiter to be greatly 
 superior to the earth in every respect. The sun is not a world inhabited 
 by corporeal beings, but is a place of meeting for the spirits of a higher 
 order who, from thence, send out the radiations of their thought towards 
 the other worlds of our s<>lar system, which they govern through the 
 instruxnentality of spirits of a less elevated degree, to whom they trans- 
 mit their action by the intermediary of the universal fluid. As regards 
 its physical constitution, the sun would appear to be a focus of electricity ; 
 and all the other suns seem to be identical with ours in nature and function. 
 
 The size of planets, and their distance from the sun, have no neces- 
 sary relation with their degree of advancement ; for Venus is said to be 
 more advanced than the earth, and Saturn is declared to be less advanced 
 than Jupiter. 
 
 The souls of many persons well known in this earth are said to be 
 reincarnated in Jupiter, one of the worlds nearest to perfection ; and 
 much surprise has been felt on hearing it stated that persons who, when 
 here, were not supposed to merit such a favour, should have been ad- 
 mitted into so advanced a globe. But there is nothing in this fact that 
 need surprise us, if we consider, first, that certain spirits who have in- 
 habited this planet may have been sent hither in fulfilment of a mission 
 which, to our eyes, did not seem to place them in the foremost rank ; 
 secondly, that they may have had, between their lives here and in 
 Jupiter, intermediary existences in which they have advanced ; and 
 thirdly, that there are innumerable degrees of development in that 
 world as in this one, and that there may be as much difference between 
 these degrees as there is, amongst us, between the savage and the 
 civilised man. It no more follows that a spirit is on a level with the 
 most advanced beings of Jupiter decause he inhabits that planet than it 
 follows that an ignoramusis on a level with a philosopher because he 
 inhabits the same town. 
 
 The conditions of longevity, also, are as various in other worlds as 
 they are in our earth ; and no comparison can be established between 
 the ages of those who inhabit them. A person who had died some 
 years previously, on being evoked, stated that he had been incarnated 
 for six months in a world the name of which is unknown to us. Being 
 questioned as to his age in that world, he replied, " That is a point 
 which I am unable to decide ; because, in the first place, we do not 
 count time in the same way as you do, and, in the next place, our mode 
 of existence is not the same as yours. Our development is much more 
 rapid in this world ; for, although it is only six of your months since I 
 came here, I may say that, as regards intelligence, I am about what one 
 usually is at the age of thirty in your earth. " 
 
 A great number of similar replies have been given by other spirits ; 
 and these statements contain nothing improbable. Do we not see 
 upon our earth a host of animals that acquire their normal development 
 in the course of a few months ? Why should not men do the same in 
 other spheres? And it is to be remarked, moreover, that the degree 
 of development acquired by a man at the age of thirty upon the earth 
 may be only a sort of infancy in comparison with what he is destined 
 to arrive at in worlds of higher degree. Short-sighted indeed are they 
 
y3 BOOK II. CHAP. IV. 
 
 who look upon our presert selves as being in all respects the normal 
 type of creation ; and to suppose that there can be no other modes of 
 existence than our present one, is, in sooth, a strange narrowing of our 
 idea of the possibilities of the divine action. 
 
 Progressive Transmigrations. 
 
 189. Does the spirit enjoy the plenitude of his faculties 
 from the beginning of his formation ? 
 
 " No; for the spirit, like the man, has his infancy. 
 Spirits at their origin have only an instinctive existence, and 
 have scarcely any consciousness of themselves or of their 
 acts ; it is only little by little that their intelligence is de- 
 veloped." 
 
 190. What is the state of the soul at its first incarnation? 
 " A state analogous to that of infancy, considered in its 
 
 relation to a human life. Its intelligence is only beginning 
 to unfold itself; it may be said to be essaying to live" 
 
 191. Are the souls of our savages souls in a state of in- 
 fancy ? 
 
 "Of relative infancy; but they are souls that have al- 
 ready accomplished a certain amount of development, for 
 they have passions." 
 
 — Passions, then, are a sign of development ? 
 
 " Of development, yes, but not of perfection. They are 
 a sign of activity, and of the consciousness of the me; while, 
 on the contrary, in the primitive state of the soul, intelli- 
 gence and vitality exist only as germs." 
 
 The life of a spirit in his totality goes through successive phases 
 similar to those of a corporeal lifetime. He passes gradually from the 
 embryonic state to that of infancy, and arrives, through a succession of 
 periods, at the adult state, which is that of his perfection, with this differ- 
 ence, however, that it is not subject either to decrepitude or to decline, like 
 the corporeal life ; that the life of a spirit, though it has had a begin- 
 ning, will have no end ; that he takes what appears from our point of 
 view to be an immense length of time in passing from the state of spirit- 
 infancy to the attainment of his complete development ; and that he 
 accomplishes this progression, not in one and the same sphere, but by 
 passing through different worlds. The life of a spirit is thus composed 
 of a series of corporeal existences, each of which affords him an oppor- 
 tunity of progress ; as each of his corporeal existences is composed of a 
 series of days, in each of which he acquires a new increment of ex- 
 perience and of knowledge. But just as in a human lifetime there are 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 79 
 
 days which bear no fruit, so in the life of a spirit there are corporeal 
 existences which are barren of profitable result, because he has failed to 
 make a right use of them. 
 
 192. Is it possible for us, by leading a perfect life in 
 our present existence, to overleap all the intervening steps 
 of the ascent, and thus to arrive at the state of pure spirits, 
 without passing through the intermediate degrees ? 
 
 " No ; for what a man imagines to be perfect is very far 
 from perfection ; there are qualities which are entirely 
 unknown to him, and which he could not now be made to 
 comprehend. He may be as perfect as it is possible for 
 his terrestrial nature to be ; but he will still be very far 
 from the true and absolute perfection. It is just as with 
 the child, who, however precocious he may be, must neces- 
 sarily pass through youth to reach adult life ; or as the sick 
 man, who must pass through convalescence before arriving 
 at the complete recovery of his health. And besides, a 
 spirit must advance in knowledge as well as in morality ; 
 if he have advanced in only one of these directions, he will 
 have to advance equally in the other, in order to reach 
 the top of the ladder of perfection. But it is none the less 
 certain that the more a man advances in his present life 
 the shorter and the less painful will be the trials he will 
 have to undergo in his subsequent existences.' , 
 
 — Can a man, at least, insure for himself, after his present 
 life, a future existence less full of bitterness than this one? 
 
 " Yes, undoubtedly, he can abridge the length and the 
 difficulties of the road. 7/ is only he who does not care to 
 advance that remains always at the same point" 
 
 193. Can a man in his new existences descend to a lower 
 point than that which he has already reached ? 
 
 " As regards his social position, yes ; but not as regards 
 his degree of progress as a spirit." 
 
 194. Can the soul of a good man, in a new incarnation, 
 animate the body of a scoundrel ? 
 
 " No ; because a spirit cannot degenerate." 
 
 — Can the soul of a bad man become the soul of a good 
 man? 
 
 1 
 
80 BOOK II. CHAP. IV. 
 
 " Yes, if he have repented ; and, in that case, his new 
 incarnation is the reward of his efforts at amendment." 
 
 The line of march of all spirits is always progressive, never retro- 
 grade. They raise themselves gradually in the hierarchy of existence ; 
 they never descend from the rank at which they have once arrived. In 
 the course of their different corporeal existences they may descend in 
 rank as men, but not as spirits. Thus the soul of one who has been at 
 the pinnacle of earthly power may, in a subsequent incarnation, animate 
 the humblest day-labourer, and vice 7>ersd ; for the elevation of ranks 
 among men is often in the inverse ratio of that of the moral sentiments. 
 Herod was a king, and Jesus, a carpenter. 
 
 195. Might not the certainty of being able to improve 
 one's self in a future existence lead some persons to persist 
 in evil courses, through knowing that they will always be 
 able to amend at some later period ? 
 
 il He who could make such a calculation would have no 
 real belief in anything ; and such an one would not be any 
 more restrained by the idea of incurring eternal punishment, 
 because his reason would reject that idea, which leads 
 to every sort of unbelief. An imperfect spirit, it is true, 
 might reason in that way during his corporeal life ; but 
 when he is freed from his material body, he thinks very 
 differently ; for he soon perceives that he has made a great 
 mistake in his calculations, and this perception caitses him to 
 carry an opposite sentiment into his next incarnation. It is 
 thus that progress is accomplished ■ and it is thus also that 
 you have upon the earth some men who are farther ad- 
 vanced than others, because some possess experience that 
 the others have not yet acquired, but that will be gradually 
 acquired by them. It depends upon each spirit to hasten 
 his own advancement or to retard it indefinitely." 
 
 The man who has an unsatisfactory position desires to change it as 
 soon as possible. He who is convinced that the tribulations of the 
 present life are the consequences of his own imperfections will seek to 
 insure for himself a new existence of a less painful character ; and this 
 conviction will draw him away from the wrong road much more effec- 
 tually than the threat of eternal flames, which he does not believe in. 
 
 196. As spirits can only be ameliorated by undergoing 
 the tribulations of corporeal existence, it would seem to 
 follow that the material life is a sort of sieve or strainer, by 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 8l 
 
 which the beings of the spirit-world are obliged to pass in 
 order to arrive at perfection ? 
 
 " Yes ; that is the case. They improve themselves 
 under the trials of corporeal life by avoiding evil, and by 
 practising what is good. But it is only through many 
 successive incarnations or purifications that they succeed, 
 after a lapse of time which is longer or shorter according to 
 the amount of effort put forth by them, in reaching the goal 
 towards which they tend." 
 
 — Is it the body that influences the spirit for its ame- 
 lioration, or is it the spirit that influences the body ? 
 
 " Your spirit is everything ; your body is a garment that 
 
 rots, and nothing more." 
 
 A material image of the various degrees of purification of the soul is 
 furnished by the juice of the grape. It contains the liquid called spirit 
 or alcohol, but weakened by the presence of various foreign elements 
 which change its nature, so that it is only brought to a state of absolute 
 purity after several distillations, at each of which it is cleared of some 
 portion of its impurity. The still represents the corporeal body into 
 which the spirit enters for its purification ; the foreign elements repre- 
 sent the imperfections from which the perispirit is gradually freed, in 
 proportion as the spirit approaches the state of relative perfection. 
 
 Fate of Children after Death. 
 
 197. Is the spirit of a child who dies in infancy as ad- 
 vanced as that of an adult ? 
 
 " He is sometimes much more so ; for he may previously 
 have lived longer and acquired more experience, especially 
 if he be a spirit who has already made considerable pro- 
 gress." 
 
 — The spirit of a child may, then, be more advanced 
 than that of his father? 
 
 " That is very frequently the case. Do you not often see 
 examples of this superiority in your world ? " 
 
 198. In the case of a child who has died in infancy, and 
 without having been able to do evil, does his spirit belong 
 to the higher degrees of the spirit-hierarchy? 
 
 " If he have done no evil, he has also done nothing 
 good ; and God does not exonerate him from the trials 
 which he has to undergo. If such a spirit belongs to a high 
 
82 BOOK II. CHAP. IV. 
 
 degree, it is not because he was a child, but because he had 
 achieved that degree of advancement as the result of his 
 previous existences." 
 
 199. Why is it that life is so often cut short in child- 
 hood ? 
 
 " The duration of the life of a child may be, for the spirit 
 thus incarnated, the complement of an existence interrupted 
 before its appointed term ; and his death is often a trial or 
 an expiation for his parents" 
 
 — What becomes of the spirit of a child who dies in 
 infancy ? 
 
 " He recommences a new existence." 
 
 If man had but a single existence, and if, after this existence, his 
 future state were fixed for all eternity, by what standard of merit could 
 eternal felicity be adjudged to that half of the human race which dies in 
 childhood, and by what right would it be exonerated from the condi- 
 tions of progress, often so painful, imposed on the other half? Such 
 an ordering could not be reconciled with the justice of God. Through 
 the reincarnation of spirits the most absolute justice is equally meted 
 out to all. The possibilities of the future are open to all, without ex- 
 ception, and without favour to any. Those who are the last to arrive 
 have only themselves to blame for the delay. Each man must merit 
 happiness by his own right action, as he has to bear the consequences 
 of his own wrong-doing. 
 
 It is, moreover, most irrational to consider childhood as a normal 
 state of innocence. Do we not see children endowed with the vilest 
 instincts at an age at which even the most vicious surroundings cannot 
 have begun to exercise any influence upon them? Do we not see 
 many who seem to bring with them at birth cunning, falseness, perfidy, 
 and even the instincts of thieving and murder, and this in spite of the 
 good examples by which they are surrounded? Human law absolves 
 them from their misdeeds, because it regards them as having acted 
 without discernment ; and it is right in doing so, for they really act in- 
 stinctively rather than from deliberate intent. But whence proceed the 
 instinctual differences observable in children of the same age, brought 
 up amidst the same conditions, and subjected to the same influences ? 
 Whence comes this precocious perversity, if not from the inferiority of 
 the spirit himself, since education has had nothing to do with producing 
 it? Those who are vicious are so because their spirit has made le.^s 
 progress ; and, that being the case, each will have to suffer the conse- 
 quences of his inferiority, not on account of his wrong-doing as a child, 
 but as the result of his evil courses in his former existences. And thus 
 the action of providential law is the same for each, and the justice of 
 God reaches equally to all. 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 8$ 
 
 Sex in Spirits. 
 
 200. Have spirits sex ? 
 
 " Not as you understand sex ; for sex, in that sense, de- 
 pends on the corporeal organisation. Love and sympathy 
 exist among them, but founded on similarity of sentiments." 
 
 — Can a spirit, who has animated the body of a man, 
 animate the body of a woman in a new existence, and vice 
 versa ? 
 
 " Yes • the same spirits animate men and women." 
 
 202. Does a spirit, when existing in the spirit-world, pre- 
 fer to be incarnated as a man or as a woman ? 
 
 "That is a point in regard to which a spirit is indif- 
 ferent, and which is always decided in view of the trials 
 which he has to undergo in his new corporeal life." 
 
 Spirits incarnate themselves as men or as women, because they are 
 of no sex ; and, as it is necessary for them to develop themselves in 
 every direction, both sexes, as well as every variety of social position, 
 furnish them with special trials and duties, and with the opportunity of 
 acquiring experience. A spirit who had always incarnated itself as a 
 man would only know what is known by men, and vice versd. 
 
 Relationship— Filiation. 
 
 203. Do parents transmit to their children a part of their 
 soul, or do they only give them the animal life to which 
 another soul afterwards adds the moral life ? 
 
 " The animal life only is given by the parents, for the 
 soul is indivisible. A stupid father may have clever chil- 
 dren, and vice versa' 7 
 
 204. As we have had many existences, do our relation- 
 ships extend beyond our present existence ? 
 
 " It cannot be otherwise. The succession of their cor- 
 poreal existences establishes among spirits a variety of rela- 
 tionships which date back from their former existences ; and 
 these relationships are often the cause of the sympathies or 
 antipathies which you sometimes feel towards persons whom 
 you seem to meet for the first time." 
 
 205. The docLrine of reincarnation appears, to some 
 
84 BOOK II. CHAP. IV. 
 
 minds, to destroy family ties, by carrying them back to 
 periods anterior to our present existence. 
 
 " It extends those ties,, but it does not destroy them ; oil 
 the contrary, the conviction that the relationships of the pre- 
 sent life are based upon anterior affections renders the ties 
 between members of the same family less precarious. It 
 makes the duties of fraternity even more imperative, be- 
 cause in your neighbour, or in your servant, may be incar- 
 nated some spirit who has formerly been united to you by 
 the closest ties of consanguinity or of affection." 
 
 — It nevertheless diminishes the importance which many 
 persons attach to their ancestry, since we may have had for 
 our father a spirit who has belonged to a different race, or 
 who has lived in a different social position. 
 
 " That is true \ but this importance is usually founded on 
 pride; for what most people honour in their ancestors is 
 title, rank, and fortune. Many an one, who would blush 
 to have an honest shoemaker for his grandfather, boasts of 
 his descent from some debauchee of noble birth. But, no 
 matter what men may say or do, they will not prevent 
 things from going on according to the divine ordering ; for 
 God has not regulated the laws of nature to meet the 
 demands of human vanity." 
 
 206. If there be no filiation among the spirits succes- 
 sively incarnated as the descendants of the same family, 
 does it follow that it is absurd to honour the memory of 
 one's ancestors ? 
 
 " Assuredly not ; for one ought to rejoice in belonging to 
 a family in which elevated spirits have been incarnated. 
 Although spirits do not proceed from one another, their 
 affection for those who are related to them by family-ties is 
 none the less real ; for they are often led to incarnate them- 
 selves in such and such a family by pre-existing causes of 
 sympathy, and by the influence of attractions due to rela- 
 tionships contracted in anterior lives. But you may be 
 very sure that the spirits of your ancestors are in no way 
 gratified by the honours you pay to their memory from a 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 85 
 
 sentiment of pride. Their merits, however great they may- 
 have been, can only add to your deserts by stimulating 
 your efforts to follow the good examples they may have 
 given you ; and it is only through this emulation of their 
 good qualities that your remembrance can become for them 
 not only agreeable but useful also." 
 
 Physical and Moral Likeness. 
 
 207. Parents often transmit physical resemblance to their 
 children ; do they also transmit to them moral resemblance? 
 
 " No ; because they have different souls or spirits. The 
 body proceeds from the body, but the spirit does not pro- 
 ceed from any other spirit. Between the descendants of 
 the same race there is no other relationship than that of 
 consanguinity." 
 
 — What is the cause of the moral resemblance that some- 
 times exists between parents and children ? 
 
 " The attractive influence of moral sympathy, which 
 brings together spirits who are animated by similar senti- 
 ments and tendencies." 
 
 208. Are the spirits of the parents without influence upon 
 the spirit of their child after its birth ? 
 
 " They exercise, on the contrary, a very great influence 
 upon it. As we have already told you, spirits are made to 
 conduce to one another's progress. To the spirits of the 
 parents is confided the mission of developing those of their 
 children by the training they give to them ; it is a task 
 which is appointed to them, and which they cannot without 
 guilt fail to fulfil" 
 
 209. How is it that good and virtuous parents often 
 give birth to children of perverse and evil nature ? In 
 other words, how is it that the good qualities of the parents 
 do not always attract to them, through sympathy, a good 
 spirit to animate their child ? 
 
 " A wicked spirit may ask to be allowed to have virtuous 
 parents, in the hope that their counsels may help him to 
 amend his ways ; and God often confides such an one to 
 
S6 BOOK II. CHAP. IV. 
 
 the care of virtuous persons, in order that he may be bene- 
 fited by their affection and care." 
 
 210. Can parents, by their intentions and their prayers, 
 attract a good spirit into the bo<!y of their child, instead of 
 an inferior spirit ? 
 
 " No ; but they can improve the spirit of the child whom 
 they have brought into the world, and who is confided to 
 them for that purpose. It is their duty to do this ; but bad 
 children are often sent as a trial for the improvement of the 
 parents also." 
 
 211. What is the cause of the similarity of character so 
 often existing among brothers, especially between twins ? 
 
 " The sympathy of two spirits who are attracted by the 
 similarity of their sentiments, and tvho are happy to be 
 together" 
 
 212. In children whose bodies are joined together, and 
 who have some of their organs in common, are there two 
 spirits, — that is to say, two souls ? 
 
 " Yes ; but their resemblance to one another often makes 
 them seem to you as though there were but one." 
 
 213. Since spirits incarnate themselves in twins from 
 sympathy, whence comes the aversion that is sometimes felt 
 by twins for one another? 
 
 " It is not a rule that only sympathetic spirits are incar- 
 nated as twins. Bad spirits may have been brought into 
 this relation by their desire to struggle against each other 
 on the stage of corporeal life." 
 
 214. In what way should we interpret the stories of 
 children fighting in their mother's womb ? 
 
 " As a figurative representation of their hatred to one 
 another, which, to indicate its inveteracy, is made to date 
 from before their birth. You rarely make sufficient allow- 
 ance for the figurative and poetic element in certain state- 
 
 ments." 
 
 215. What is the cause of the distinctive character which 
 we observe in each people ? 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 8 J 
 
 "Spirits constitute different families, formed by the 
 similarity of their tendencies, which are more or less purified 
 according to their elevation. Each people is a great family 
 formed by the assembling together of sympathetic spirits. 
 The tendency of the members of these families to unite 
 together is the source of the resemblance which constitutes 
 the distinctive character of each people. Do you suppose 
 that good and benevolent spirits would seek to incarnate 
 themselves among a rude and brutal people ? No ; spirits 
 sympathise with masses of men as they sympathise with 
 individuals. They go to the region of the earth with which 
 they are most in harmony." 
 
 216. Does a spirit, in his new existence, retain any traces 
 of the moral character of his former existences ? 
 
 " Yes, he may do so; but, as he improves, he changes. 
 His social position, also, may be greatly changed in his 
 successive lives. If, having been a master in one existence, 
 he becomes a slave in another, his tastes will be altogether 
 different, and it would be difficult for you to recognise him. 
 A spirit being the same in his various incarnations, there 
 may be certain analogies between the manifestations of 
 character in his successive lives ; but these manifestations 
 will, nevertheless, be modified by the change of conditions 
 and habits incident to each of his new corporeal existences, 
 until, through the ameliorations thus gradually effected, his 
 character has been completely changed, he who was proud 
 and cruel becoming humble and humane through repent- 
 ance and effort." 
 
 217 Does a man, in his different incarnations, retain any 
 traces of the physical character of his preceding existences ? 
 
 <k The body is destroyed, and the new one has no con- 
 nection with the old one. Nevertheless, the spirit is 
 reflected in the body; and although the body is only matter, 
 yet, being modelled on the capacities of the spirit, the latter 
 impresses upon it a ceriain character that is more particu- 
 larly visible in the face, and especially in the eyes, which 
 have been truly declared to be the mirror of the soul — that 
 
SZ BOOK II. CHAP. IV. 
 
 is to say, that the face reflects the soul more especially than 
 does the rest of the body. And this is so true that a very 
 ugly face may please when it forms part of the envelope of 
 a good, wise, and humane spirit; while, on the other hand, 
 very handsome faces may cause you no pleasurable emotion, 
 or may even excite a movement of repulsion. It might 
 seem, at first sight, that only well-made bodies could be the 
 envelopes of good spirits, and yet you see every day virtuous 
 and superior men with, deformed bodies. Without there 
 being any very marked resemblance between them, the simi- 
 larity of tastes and tendencies may, therefore, give what is 
 commonly called a family -likeness to the corporeal bodies 
 successively assumed by the same spirit." . 
 
 The body with which the soul is clothed in a new incarnation not 
 having any necessary connection with the one which it has quitted 
 (since it may belong to quite another race), it would be absurd to infer 
 a succession of existences from a resemblance which may be only 
 fortuitous ; but, nevertheless, the qualities of the spirit often modify the 
 organs which serve for their manifestations, and impress upon the 
 countenance, and even on the general manner, a distinctive stamp. It 
 is thus that an expression of nobility and dignity may be found under 
 the humblest exterior, while the fine clothes of the grandee are often 
 unable to hide the baseness and ignominy of their wearer. Some 
 persons, who have risen from the lowest position, adopt without effort 
 the habits and manners of the higher ranks, and seem to have returned 
 to their native element ; while others, notwithstanding their advantages 
 of birth and education, always seem to be out of their proper place in 
 refined society. How can these facts be explained unless as a reflex of 
 what the spirit has been in his former existences ? 
 
 Innate Ideas. 
 
 218. Does a spirit retain, when incarnated, any trace of 
 the perceptions he has had, and the knowledge he had 
 acquired, in its former existences ? 
 
 " There remains with him a vague remembrance, which 
 gives him what you call innate ideas." 
 
 — Then the theory of innate ideas is not a chimera? 
 
 " No; the knowledge acquired in each existence is not lost. 
 A spirit, when freed from matter, always remembers what 
 he has learned. He may, during incarnation, forget partially 
 and for a time, but the latent intuition which he preserves 
 of all that he has once known aids him in advancing. 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 89 
 
 Were it not for this intuition of past acquisitions, he would 
 always have to begin his education over again. A spirit, at 
 each new existence, takes his departure from the point at 
 which he had arrived at the close of his preceding existence." 
 
 219. If that be the case, there must be a very close con- 
 nection between two successive existences ? 
 
 '• That connection is not always so close as you might 
 suppose it to be ; for the conditions of the two existences 
 are often very different, and, in the interval between them, 
 the spirit may have made considerable progress." — (216) 
 
 220. What is the origin of the extraordinary faculties of 
 those individuals who, without any preparatory study, appear 
 to possess intuitively certain branches of knowledge, such 
 as languages, arithmetic, &c. ? 
 
 " The vague remembrance of their past ; the result of 
 progress previously made by the soul, but of which it has 
 no present consciousness. From what else could those 
 intuitions be derived ? The body changes, but the spirit 
 does not change, although he changes his garment." 
 
 221. In changing our body, can we lose certain intellec- 
 tual faculties, as, for instance, the taste for an art ? 
 
 " Yes, if you have sullied that faculty, or made a bad use 
 of it. Moreover, an intellectual faculty may be made to 
 slumber during an entire existence, because the spirit wishes 
 to exercise another faculty having no connection with the 
 one which, in that case, remains latent, but will come again 
 into play in a later existence." 
 
 222. Is it to a retrospective remembrance that are due 
 the instinctive sentiment of the existence of God, and the 
 presentiment of a future life, which appear to be natural to 
 man, even in the savage state ? 
 
 "Yes, to a remembrance which man has preserved of 
 what he knew as a spirit before he was incarnated ; but pride 
 often stifles this sentiment." 
 
 — Is it to this same remembrance that are due certain 
 beliefs analogous to spiritist doctrine, which are found 
 among every people ? 
 
90 BOOK II. CHAP. IV. 
 
 "That doctrine is as old as the world, and is, therefore, 
 to be found everywhere ; a ubiquity which proves it to be 
 true. The incarnate spirit, preserving the intuition of his 
 state as a spirit, possesses an instinctive consciousness of 
 the invisible world ; but this intuition is often perverted by 
 prejudices, and debased by the admixture of superstitions 
 resulting from ignorance." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 
 
 223. "-The dogma of reincarnation," it is sometimes ob- 
 jected, " is not new ; it is a resuscitation of the doctrine of 
 Pythagoras." We have never said that spiritist doctrine was 
 of modern invention ; on the contrary, as the inter-com- 
 munication of spirits with men occurs in virtue of natural 
 law, it must have existed from the beginning of time, and 
 we have always endeavoured to prove that traces of this 
 inter-communication are to be found in the earliest annals of 
 antiquity. Pythagoras, as is well known, was not the author 
 of the system of metempsychosis; he borrowed it from the 
 philosophers of Hindoostan and of Egypt, by whom it had 
 been held from time immemorial. The idea of the trans- 
 migration of souls was, therefore, in the earliest ages of the 
 world, a general belief, equally admitted by the common 
 people and by the most eminent thinkers of that period. 
 
 By what road did this idea come to them ? Did it reach 
 them through revelation or through intuition? 
 
 In regard to this point we know nothing ; but it may be 
 safely assumed that no idea could thus have traversed the 
 successive ages of the world, and have commanded the 
 assent of the highest intellects of the human race, if it had 
 not been based on some solid ground of truth and reason. 
 The antiquity of this doctrine should therefore be considered 
 as an argument in its favour, rather than as an objection. 
 But, at the same time, it must not be forgotten that there 
 is, between the antique doctrine of metempsychosis and the 
 modern doctrine of reincarnation, this capital difference, viz., 
 that the spirits who inculcate the latter reject absolutely 
 
92 BOOK II. CHAP. V. 
 
 the idea that the human soul can pass into an animal, and 
 vice versa. 
 
 The spirits, therefore, who now proclaim the dogma of 
 the plurality of our corporeal existences reassert a doctrine 
 which had its birth in the earliest ages of the world, and 
 which has maintained its footing to the present day in the 
 convictions of many minds ; but they present this dogma 
 under an aspect which is more rational, more conformable 
 with the natural law of progress, and more in harmony with 
 the wisdom of the Creator, through the stripping away of 
 accessories added to it by superstition. A circumstance 
 worthy of notice is the fact that it is not in this book alone 
 that the doctrine in question has been inculcated by them 
 of late years ; for, even before its publication, numerous 
 communications of a similar nature had already been ob- 
 tained in various countries, and their number has since 
 been greatly increased. 
 
 It may here be asked, why it is that the statements of all 
 spirits are not in unison in regard to this subject? To this 
 question we shall recur elsewhere. 
 
 Let us, for the present, examine the matter from another 
 point of view, entirely irrespective of any assumed declara- 
 tions of spirits in regard to it. Let us put the latter entirely 
 aside for the moment ; let us suppose them to have made no 
 statement whatever in regard to it ; let us even suppose the 
 very existence of spirits not to have been surmised. Placing 
 ourselves for a moment on neutral ground, and admitting, 
 as equally possible, the hypotheses of the plurality and of 
 the unity of corporeal existences, let us see which of these 
 hypotheses is most in harmony with the dictates of reason 
 and with the requirements of our own interest. 
 
 There are persons who reject the idea of reincarnation 
 simply because they do not like it, declaring that their 
 present existence has been quite enough for them, and that 
 they have no wish to recommence a similar one. Of such 
 persons we would merely inquire whether they suppose that 
 God has consulted their wishes and opinions in regulating 
 the universe ? Either the law of reincarnation exists, or it 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 93 
 
 does not exist. If it exists, no matter how displeasing it 
 may be to them, they will be compelled to submit to it ; for 
 God will not ask their permission to enforce it. It is as 
 though a sick man should say, " I have suffered enough to- 
 day ; I do not chose to suffer to-morrow." No matter what 
 may be his unwillingness to suffer, he will nevertheless be 
 obliged to go on suffering, not only on the morrow, but day 
 after day, until he is cured. In like manner, if it be their 
 destiny to live again corporeally, they will thus live again, 
 they will be reincarnated. In vain will they rebel against 
 necessity, like a child refusing to go to school, or a con- 
 demned criminal refusing to go to prison. They will be 
 compelled to submit to their fate, no matter how unwilling 
 they may be to do so. Such objections are too puerile to 
 deserve a more serious examination. Let us say, however, 
 for the consolation of those who urge them, that the spiritist 
 doctrine of reincarnation is by no means so terrible as they 
 imagine it to be; that the conditions of their next existence 
 depend on themselves, and will be happy or unhappy accord- 
 ing to the deeds done by them in this present life; and that 
 they may eve?i, by their action in this life, raise the?nselves above 
 the danger of falling again into the mire of expiation. 
 
 We take it for granted that those whom we are address- 
 ing believe in some sort of future after death, and that 
 they do not look forward either to annihilation or to a 
 drowning of their soul in a universal whole, without indi- 
 viduality, like so many drops of rain in the ocean ; which 
 comes to much the same thing. But, if you believe in a 
 future state of existence, you probably do not suppose that 
 it will be the same for all ; for, in that case, where would 
 be the utility of doing right? Why should men place any 
 restraint upon themselves ? Why should they not satisfy 
 all their passions, all their desires, even at the expense of 
 the rest of the world, if the result is to be the same in all 
 cases? On the contrary, you no doubt believe that our 
 future will be more Dr less happy according to what we have 
 done in our present life ; and you have doubtless the desire 
 to be as happy as possible in the future to which you look 
 
94 BOOK II. CHAP. V. 
 
 forward, since it will be for all eternity ! Do you, perchance, 
 consider yourself to be one of the most excellent of those 
 who have ever existed upon the earth, and therefore entitled 
 to supreme felicity? No. You admit, then, that there are 
 some who are better than you, and who have consequently 
 a right to a higher place, although you do not deserve to 
 be classed among the reprobate. Place yourself, then, in 
 thought, for a moment, in the medium condition which, ac- 
 cording to your own admission, will properly be yours, and 
 suppose that some one comes to you and says, " You suffer; 
 you are not so happy as you might be ; and meanwhile you 
 see others in the enjoyment of unmixed happiness. Would 
 you like to exchange your position for theirs ?" " Un- 
 doubtedly, I should,'' you reply; "what must I do to bring 
 about such a result ?" "Something very simple ; you have 
 only to begin again what you have done badly, and try to do 
 it better." Would you hesitate to accept the offer, even at 
 the cost of several existences of trial ? 
 
 Let us take another illustration, still more prosaic. Sup- 
 pose that some one comes to a man who, though not in a 
 state of absolute destitution, has to endure many privations 
 through the smallness of his means, and says to him, " Here 
 is an immense fortune, of which you may have the enjoy- 
 ment, on condition that you work hard during one minute. " 
 The laziest of men, m response to such an offer, would say, 
 without hesitation, " I am ready to work for one minute, for 
 two minutes, for an hour, for a whole day if necessary ! 
 What is a day's labour in comparison with the certainty of 
 ease and plenty for all the rest of my life?" 
 
 But what is the duration of a corporeal life in comparison 
 with eternity? Less than a minute ; less than a moment. 
 
 We sometimes hear people bring forward the following 
 argument : — " God, who is sovereignly good, cannot impose 
 upon man the hard necessity of recommencing a series of 
 sorrows and tribulations." But would there be more kind- 
 ness in condemning a man to perpetual suffering for a few 
 moments of error than in giving him the means of repairing 
 his faults ? 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 95 
 
 " Two manufacturers had each a workman who might 
 hope to become some day the partner of his employer. 
 But it happened that both these workmen made so very bad 
 a use of their day that they merited dismissal. One of the 
 manufacturers drove away his unfaithful workman, despite 
 his supplications ; and this workman, being unable to 
 obtain any other employment, died of want. The other 
 said to his workman — ' You have wasted a day ; you owe 
 me compensation for the loss you have thus caused me. 
 You have done your work badly ; you owe me reparation 
 for it. I give you leave to begin it over again. Try to do 
 well, and I will keep you in my employ, and you may still 
 aspire to the superior position which I had promised you." 
 
 Need we ask which of the manufacturers has shown him- 
 self to be the most humane ? And would God, who is 
 clemency itself, be more inexorable than a just and com- 
 passionate man ? The idea that our fate is decided for 
 ever by a few years of trial, and notwithstanding the fact 
 that it was not in our power to attain to perfection while we 
 remained upon the earth, fills the mind with anguish ; while 
 the contrary idea is eminently consoling, for it leaves us 
 hope. Thus, without pronouncing for or against the plu- 
 rality of existences, without admitting either hypothesis in 
 preference to the other, we assert that, if the matter were 
 left to our own choice, there is no one who would prefer in- 
 curring a sentence against which there should be no appeal. 
 A philosopher has said that " if God did not exist, it would 
 be necessary to invent Him for the happiness of the human 
 race ; " the same might be said in regard to the plurality of 
 existences. But, as we have already remarked, God does 
 not ask our permission in the establishment of providential 
 ordering ; He does not consult our preferences in the 
 matter. Either the law of reincarnation exists, or it does 
 not exist ; let us see on which side is the balance of pro- 
 babilities, considering the matter from another point of 
 view, but still leaving out of sight all idea of any statements 
 that have been made by spirits in regard to it, and examin- 
 ing the question merely as a matter of philosophic inquiry. 
 
 K 
 
96 BOOK II. CHAP. V. 
 
 If the law of reincarnation do not exist, we can have but 
 one corporeal existence ; and if our present corporeal life 
 be our only one, the soul of each individual must have been 
 created at the same time as his body ; unless, indeed, we 
 assume the anteriority of the soul, in which case we should 
 have to inquire what was the state of the soul before its 
 union with the body, and whether this state did not con- 
 stitute an existence of some kind or other. There is no 
 middle ground. Either the soul existed before its union 
 with the body, or it did not. If it existed, what was its con- 
 dition ? Was it possessed of self-consciousness ? If not, 
 its state must have been nearly equivalent to non-existence. 
 If possessed of individuality, it must have been either pro- 
 gressive or stationary ; in either case, what was its degree 
 of advancement on uniting itself to the body? If, on the 
 contrary, it be assumed, according to the general belief, 
 that the soul is born into existence at the same time as the 
 body — or that, previous to the birth of the body, it possesses 
 only negative faculties — we have to propose the following 
 questions : — 
 
 1. Why do souls manifest so great a diversity of aptitudes 
 independently of the ideas acquired by education ? 
 
 2. Whence comes the extra-normal aptitude for certain 
 arts and sciences displayed by many children while still 
 very young, although others remain in a state of inferiority, 
 or of mediocrity, all their life ? 
 
 3. Whence do some individuals derive the innate or 
 intuitive ideas that are lacking in others ? 
 
 4. Whence do some children derive the precocious in- 
 tincts of vice or of virtue, the innate sentiments of dignity 
 or of baseness, which often contrast so strikingly with the 
 situation into which they are born ? 
 
 5. Why is it that some men, independently of education, 
 are more advanced than others ? 
 
 6. Why is it that among the races which people the 
 globe some are savage and others civilised? If you took a 
 Hottentot baby from its mother's breast, and brought it up 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 97 
 
 in our most renowned schools, could you succeed in making 
 of it a Laplace or a Newton ? 
 
 What is the philosophy or the theosophy that can solve 
 these problems ? Either the souls of men are equal at 
 their birth, or they are unequal. If they are equal, why 
 these inequalities of aptitude ? Will it be said that these 
 inequalities depend on the corporeal organisation of each 
 child ? But such a doctrine would be the most monstrous 
 and the most immoral of hypotheses ; for, in that case, man 
 would be a mere machine, the sport of matter ; he would 
 not be responsible for his actions, but would have the right 
 to throw all the blame of his wrong-doing on the imperfec- 
 tions of his physical frame. If, on the other hand, souls 
 are created unequal, God must have created them so ; but, 
 in that case, why is this innate superiority accorded to some 
 and denied to others ? And would such partiality be con- 
 sistent with the justice of God ? and the equal love He bears 
 to all His creatures ? 
 
 Admit, on the contrary, a succession of existences, and 
 everything is explained. Men bring with them, at their 
 birth in flesh, the amount of intuition they have previously 
 acquired. They are more or less advanced, according to 
 the number of existences they have previously accomplished, 
 according as they are nearer to or farther from the common 
 starting-point ; exactly as, in a company made up of indivi- 
 duals of different ages, each will possess a degree of de- 
 velopment proportionate to the number of years he has 
 already lived ; the succession of years being, to the life of 
 the body, what the succession of existences is to the life of 
 the soul. Bring together in the same place, at the same 
 time, a thousand individuals of all ages, from the new-born 
 babe to the patriarch of eighty. Suppose that a veil is 
 thrown over their past, and that you, in your ignorance of 
 that past, imagine them all to have been bom on the same 
 day. You would naturally wonder how it is that some are 
 big and others little • that some are wrinkled and others 
 fresh • that some are learned and others ignorant ; but if 
 the cloud which hid their past were dispersed, and you dis- 
 
98 BOOK II. CHAP. V. 
 
 covered that some had lived longer than others, all these 
 differences would be explained. God, in His justice, could 
 not create souls more or less perfect But granting the 
 plurality of our corporeal existences, there is nothing in the 
 differences of quality that we see around us in any way in- 
 consistent with the most rigorous equity ; for what we see 
 around us is then perceived to have its roots, not in the 
 present, but in the past. 
 
 Is this argument based on any pre-conceived system or 
 gratuitous supposition ? No. We start from a fact that is 
 patent and incontestable— viz., the . inequality of natural 
 aptitudes and of intellectual and moral development ; and 
 we find this fact to be inexplicable by any of the theories 
 in vogue, while the explanation of this fact afforded by 
 another theory is at once simple, natural, and rational. Is 
 it reasonable to prefer a theory which does not explain this 
 fact to one which does? 
 
 In regard to the sixth question, it will doubtless be 
 replied that the Hottentot is of an inferior race ; in which 
 case we beg to inquire whether a Hottentot is or is not 
 a man ? If he be not a man, why try to make him a 
 Christian ? If he be a man, why has God refused to him and 
 to his race the privileges accorded to the Caucasian race? 
 Spiritist philosophy is too broad to admit the existence of 
 different species of men ; it recognises only men whose 
 spiritual part is more or less backward, but who are all 
 capable of the same progress. Is not this view of the 
 human race more conformable with the justice of God ? 
 
 We have been considering the soul in regard to its past 
 and its present ; if we consider it in regard to the future, 
 we are met by difficulties which the theories in vogue are 
 equally unable to explain : — 
 
 i. If our future destiny is to be decided solely by our 
 present existence, what will be in the future the respective 
 positions of the savage and of the civilised man? Will 
 they be on the same level, or will there be a difference in 
 the sum of their eternal felicity? 
 
 2. Will the man who has laboured diligently all his life 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. 
 
 99 
 
 to advance his moral and intellectual improvement be 
 placed in the same rank with the man who, not through his 
 own fault, but because he has had neither the time nor the 
 opportunity for advancing, has remained at a lower point 
 of moral and intellectual improvement ? 
 
 3. Can the man who has done wrong because the means 
 of enlightenment have been denied to him be justly punished 
 for wrong-doing which has not been the result of his own 
 choice ? 
 
 4. We endeavour to enlighten, moralise, and civilise 
 mankind ; but, for one whom we are able to enlighten, 
 there are millions who die every year without the light 
 having reached them. What is to be the fate of these 
 millions? Are they to be treated as reprobates? and, if 
 they are not to be so treated, how have they deserved to be 
 placed in the same category with those who have become 
 enlightened and moralised ? 
 
 5. What is to be the fate of children who die before they 
 have been able to do either good or evil ? If they are to 
 be received among the supremely happy, why should this 
 favour be granted to them without their having done any- 
 thing to deserve it ? And in virtue of what privilege are 
 they exempted from undergoing the tribulations of the 
 earthly life ? 
 
 Which of the doctrines hitherto propounded can solve 
 these problems ? But, if we admit the fact of our consecu- 
 tive existences, all these problems are solved in conformity 
 with the divine justice. What we are not able to do in one 
 existence we do in another. None are exempted from the 
 action of the law of progress ; every one is rewarded pro- 
 gressively, according to his deserts, but no one is excluded 
 from the eventual attainment of the highest felicity, no matter 
 what maybe the obstacles he has to encounter on the road. 
 
 The questions growing out of the subject we are consider- 
 ing might be multiplied indefinitely, for the psychologic 
 and moral problems which can only find their solution in 
 the plurality of existences are innumerable. In the present 
 considerations we have restricted our inquiry to those 
 
 LofC. 
 
IOO BOOK. II. CHAP. V. 
 
 which are most general in their nature. u But/* it may still 
 be urged by some objectors, " whatever may be the argu- 
 ments in its favour, the doctrine of reincarnation is not 
 admitted by the Church; its acceptance would therefore be 
 the overthrow of religion." 
 
 It is not our intention to treat of the question, in this 
 place, under the special aspect suggested by the foregoing 
 objection ; it is sufficient for our present purpose to have 
 shown the eminently moral and rational character of the 
 doctrine we are considering. But it may be confidently 
 asserted, that a doctrine which is both moral and rational 
 cannot be antagonistic to a religion which proclaims the 
 Divine Being to be the most perfect goodness and the highest 
 reason. What, we may ask in our turn, would have be- 
 come of the Church if, in opposition to the convictions of 
 mankind and the testimony of science, it had persisted in 
 rejecting overwhelming evidence, and had cast out from its 
 bosom all who did not believe in the movement of the sun 
 or in the six days of creation ? What would be the credit or 
 authority possessed among enlightened nations by a religious 
 system that should inculcate manifest errors as articles of 
 belief? Whenever any matter of evidence has been esta- 
 blished, the Church has wisely sided with the evidence. If 
 it be proved that the facts of human life are irreconcilable, 
 on any other supposition, with a belief in the justice of 
 God — if various points of the Christian dogma can only be 
 explained with the aid of this doctrine, the Church will be 
 compelled to admit its truth, and to acknowledge that the 
 apparent antagonism between them is only apparent. We 
 shall show, elsewhere, that religion has no more to fear from 
 the acceptance of this doctrine than from the discovery 
 of the motion of the earth and of the periods of geologic 
 formation, which, at first sight, appear to contradict the 
 statements of the Bible. Moreover, the principle of rein- 
 carnation is implied in many passages of Holy Writ, and is 
 explicitly formulated in the Gospels : — 
 
 " When they came down from the mountain (after the 
 transfiguration), Jesus gave this commandment, and said to 
 
PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES. IOI 
 
 them — ( Speak to no one of what you have just seen, until 
 the Son of Man shall have been resuscitated from among the 
 dead.' His disciples thereupon began to question Him, and 
 inquired, ■ Why, then, do the Scribes say that Elias must 
 first come ? ' But Jesus replied to them, ' It is true that 
 Elias must come, and that he will re-establish all things. 
 But I declare to you that Elias has already come, and they 
 did not know him, but have made him suffer as they listed. 
 It is thus that they will put to death the Son of Man.' 
 Then His disciples understood that He spoke to them of 
 John the Baptist.'' (St Matthew, chap, xvii.) 
 
 Since John the Baptist is declared by Christ to have been 
 Elias, it follows that the spirit or soul of Elias must have 
 been reincarnated in the body of John the Baptist. 
 
 But whatever may be our opinion in regard to reincarna- 
 tion, whether we accept it or whether we reject it, it is cer- 
 tain that we shall have to undergo it, if it really exists, not- 
 withstanding any belief of ours to the contrary. The point 
 which we here desire to establish is this, viz., that the teach- 
 ing of the spirits who proclaim it is eminently Christian, 
 that it is founded on the doctrines of the immortality of the 
 soul, of future rewards and punishments, of the justice of 
 God, of human free-will, and the moral code of Christ ; and 
 that, therefore, it cannot be anti-religious. 
 
 We have argued the matter, as we remarked above, 
 without reference to statements made by spirits ; such 
 statements being, for many minds, without authority. If 
 we, and so many others, have adopted the hypothesis of 
 the plurality of existences, we have done so not merely be- 
 cause it has been proclaimed by spirits, but because it has 
 appeared to us to be eminently rational, and because it 
 solves problems that are insoluble by the opposite hypo- 
 thesis. Had it been suggested to us by a mere mortal, we 
 should, therefore, have adopted it with equal confidence, 
 renouncing, with equal promptitude, our preconceived 
 opinions on the subject ; for when an opinion has been 
 shown to be erroneous, even self-love has more to lose 
 than to gain by persisting in holding it. In like manner, 
 
102 BOOK II. CHAP. V. 
 
 we should have rejected the doctrine of reincarnation, even 
 though proclaimed by spirits, if it had appeared to us to 
 be contrary to reason, as, indeed, we have rejected many 
 other ideas which spirits have sought to inculcate, for we 
 know, by experience, that we can no more give a blind 
 acceptance to ideas put forth by spirits than we can to those 
 put forth by men. 
 
 The principal merit of the doctrine of reincarnation is, 
 then, to our minds, that it is supremely rational. But it has 
 also in its favour the confirmation of facts — facts positive 
 and, so to say, material, which are apparent to all who 
 study the question with patience and perseverance, and in 
 presence of which all doubt as to the reality of the law in 
 question is impossible. When the appreciation of these 
 facts shall have become popularised, like those which have 
 revealed to us the formation and rotation of the earth, they 
 who now oppose this doctrine will be compelled to renounce 
 their opposition. 
 
 To sum up: — We assert that the doctrine of the plurality of 
 existences is the only one which explains what, without this 
 doctrine, is inexplicable ; that it is at once eminently con- 
 solatory and strictly conformable with the most rigorous 
 justice ; and that it is the anchor of safety which God in 
 His mercy has provided for mankind. 
 
 The words of Jesus Himself are explicit as to the truth 
 of this last assertion ; for we read in the, 3d chapter of the 
 Gospel according to St John that Jesus, replying to Nico- 
 demus, thus expressed Himself: — 
 
 " Verily, verily, I tell thee that, if a man be not born again, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God." And when Nico- 
 demus inquires, " How can a man be born when he is old? 
 Can he enter again into his mother's womb and be born a 
 second time?" Jesus replies, " Except a man be born of 
 water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of 
 God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born 
 of the spirit is spirit. Be not amazed at what I have told 
 thee ; yon must be born again" (Vide Resurrection of the 
 Body, No. ioiq.) 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SPIRIT-LIFE. 
 
 I. Errant or wandering spirits — 2. Transitional worlds — 3. Percep- 
 tions, sensations, and sufferings of spirits — 4. Theoretic explanation 
 of the nature of sensation in spirits — 5. Choice of earthly trials^ 
 6. Relationships beyond the grave — 7. Sympathies and antipathies 
 of spirits — 8. Remembrance of corporeal existence — 9. Commemo- 
 ration of the dead : Funerals. 
 
 Wandering Spirits. 
 
 223. Is the soul reincarnated immediately after its separa- 
 tion from the body ? 
 
 " Sometimes immediately, but more often after intervals 
 of longer or shorter duration. In the higher worlds, re- 
 incarnation is almost always immediate. Corporeal matter 
 in those worlds being less gross than in the worlds of lower 
 advancement, a spirit, while incarnated in them, retains the 
 use of nearly all his spirit-faculties, his normal condition 
 being that of your somnambulists in their lucid state." 
 
 224. What becomes of the soul in the intervals between 
 its successive incarnations ? 
 
 " It becomes an errant or wandering spirit, aspiring after 
 a new destiny. Its state is one of waiting and expectancy." 
 
 — How long may these intervals last? 
 
 " From a few hours to thousands of ages. Strictly speak- 
 ing, there are no fixed limits to the period of erraticity or 
 wandering, which may be prolonged for a very considerable 
 time, but which, however, is never perpetual. A spirit is 
 always enabled, sooner or later, to commence a new exist- 
 
104 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 ence which serves to effect the purification of its preceding 
 existences." 
 
 — Does the duration of the state of erraticity depend on 
 the will of the spirit, or may it be imposed as an expiation ? 
 
 " It is a consequence of the spirit's free-will. Spirits act 
 with full discernment; but, in some cases, the prolongation 
 of this state is a punishment inflicted by God, while in 
 others, it has been granted to them at their own request, to 
 enable them to pursue studies which they can prosecute 
 more effectually in the disincarnate state." 
 
 225. Is erraticity necessarily a sign of inferiority on the 
 part of spirits ? 
 
 " No, for there are errant spirits of every degree. Incar- 
 nation is a transitional state, as we have already told you. 
 In their normal state, spirits are disengaged from matter. " 
 
 226. Would it be correct to say that all spirits who are 
 not incarnated are errant ? 
 
 " Yes, as regards those who are to be reincarnated ; but 
 the pure spirits who have attained to perfection are not 
 errant ; their state is definitive." 
 
 In virtue of their special qualities, spirits are of different orders or 
 degrees of advancement, through which they pass successively as they 
 become purified. As regards their state, they may be — 1. Incarnated, 
 that is to say, united to a material body ; 2. Errant or wandering, that 
 is to say, disengaged from the material body and awaiting a new incar- 
 nation for purposes of improvement ; 3. Pure spirits, that is to say, 
 perfected, and having no further need of incarnation. 
 
 227. In what way do wandering spirits obtain instruc- 
 tion? It can hardly be in the same way as men. 
 
 " They study their past, and seek out the means of raising 
 themselves to a higher degree. Possessed of vision, they 
 observe all that is going on in the regions through which 
 they pass. They listen to the discourse of enlightened 
 men, and to the counsels of spirits more advanced than 
 themselves, and they thus acquire new ideas." 
 
 228. Do spirits retain any human passions? 
 
 " Elevated spirits, on quitting their bodily envelope, leave 
 behind them the evil passions of humanity, and retain only 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. I05 
 
 the love of goodness. But inferior spirits retain their earthly 
 imperfections. Were it not for this retention, they would 
 be of the highest order." 
 
 229. How is it that spirits, on quitting the earth, do not 
 leave behind them all their evil passions, since they are 
 then able to perceive the disastrous consequences of those 
 passions ? 
 
 " You have among you persons who are, for instance, exces- 
 sively jealous ; do you imagine that they lose this defect at 
 once on quitting your world ? There remains with spirits, 
 after their departure from the earthly life, and especially with 
 those who have had strongly marked passions, a sort of 
 atmosphere by which they are enveloped, and which keeps 
 up all their former evil qualities ; for spirits are not entirely 
 freed from the influence of materiality. It is only occa- 
 sionally that they obtain glimpses of the truth, showing them, 
 as it were, the true path which they ought to follow." 
 
 230. Do spirits progress in the state of erraticity ? 
 
 " They may make a great advance in that state, in pro- 
 portion to their efforts and desires after improvement, but 
 it is in the corporeal life that they put in practice the new 
 ideas they have thus acquired." 
 
 231. Are wandering spirits happy or unhappy? 
 
 " More or less so according to their deserts. They suffer 
 from the passions of which they have retained the principle, 
 or they are happy in proportion as they are more or less 
 dematerialised. In the state of erraticity, a spirit perceives 
 what he needs in order to become happier, and he is thus 
 stimulated to seek out the means of attaining what he lacks. 
 But he is not always permitted to reincarnate himself when 
 he desires to do so, and the prolongation of erraticity then 
 becomes a punishment." 
 
 232. Can spirits in the state of erraticity enter all the 
 other worlds ? 
 
 " That depends on their degree of advancement. When 
 a spirit has quitted the body, he is not necessarily dis- 
 engaged entirely from matter, and he still belongs to the 
 
106 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 world in which he has lived, or to a world of the same 
 degree, unless he have raised himself during his earthly life 
 to a world of higher degree; and this progressive elevation 
 should be the constant aim of every spirit, for without it he 
 would never attain to perfection. A spirit, however, may 
 enter worlds of higher degree ; but, in that case, he finds 
 himself to be a stranger in them. He can only obtain, as 
 it were, a glimpse of them ; but such glimpses often serve 
 to quicken his desire to improve and to advance, that he 
 may become worthy of the felicity which is enjoyed in them, 
 and may thus be enabled to inhabit them in course of time." 
 
 233. Do spirits who are already purified ever come into 
 worlds of lower degree ? 
 
 " They come into them very frequently in order to help 
 them forward. Unless they did so, those work's would be 
 left to themselves, without guides to direct them." 
 
 Transitional Worlds. 
 
 234. Are there, as has been stated, worlds which serve 
 as stations and resting-places for errant spirits ? 
 
 " Yes ] there are worlds which are specially adapted for 
 the reception of wandering beings, worlds which they may 
 temporarily inhabit ; a sort of camping-ground in which they 
 may bivouac for a time, and repose after a too lengthened 
 erraticity — a state which is always somewhat wearisome. 
 Those worlds constitute intermediary stations between the 
 worlds of other orders, and are graduated according to the 
 nature of the spirits who are to come into them, and who 
 will find in them the conditions of a rest more or less 
 enjoyable." 
 
 — Can the spirits who occupy these worlds quit them at 
 pleasure ? 
 
 " Yes, they can leave them for any other region to which 
 they may have to go. They are like birds of passage alight- 
 ing on an island in order to rest and recover strength for 
 reaching their destination. " 
 
 235. Do spirits progress during their sojourns in the 
 transitional worlds ? 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. 
 
 107 
 
 "Certainly; those who thus come together do so with a 
 view to their instruction, and in order more readily to obtain 
 permission to enter a higher region, and thus to advance 
 their progress towards the perfection which is their aim." 
 
 236. Are the transitional worlds of a special nature, and 
 destined to be for ever the sojourn of wandering spirits? 
 
 " No ; their position in the hierarchy of worlds is only 
 temporary." 
 
 — Are they, at the same time, inhabited by corporeal beings? 
 
 " No ; their surface is sterile. Those who inhabit them 
 have no corporeal wants." 
 
 — Is this sterility permanent, and does it result from any- 
 thing special in their nature ? 
 
 "No; their sterility is only transitional." 
 
 — Such worlds are, then, void of everything like the 
 beauties of nature ? 
 
 " The inexhaustible richness of creation is manifested by 
 beauties of immensity that are no less admirable than the 
 terrestrial harmonies which you call the beauties of nature." 
 
 — Since the state of those worlds is only transitory, will the 
 state of our earth, at some future time, be of that character ? 
 
 " Such has already been its state." 
 
 — At what epoch ? 
 
 " During its formation." 
 
 Nothing in nature is useless ; everything has its purpose, its destina- 
 tion. There is no void ; every portion of immensity is inhabited. Life 
 is everywhere. Thus, during the long series of ages which preceded 
 man's appearance upon the earth, during the vast periods of transition 
 attested by the superposition of the geologic strata, before even the 
 earliest formation of organised beings, upon that formless mass, in that 
 arid chaos in which the elements existed in a state of fusion, there was 
 no absence of life. Beings who had neither human wants nor human 
 sensations found therein a welcome refuge. The will of God had 
 ordained that the earth, even in that embryonic state, should be useful. 
 Who, then, would venture to say that, of the innumerable orbs which 
 circulate in immensity, one only, and one of the smallest of them all, 
 lost in the crowd, has the exclusive privilege of being inhabited ? 
 What, in that case, would be the use of the others ? Would God have 
 created them merely to regale our eyes? Such a supposition, of which 
 the absurdity is incompatible with the wisdom that appears in all His 
 works, becomes still more evidently inadmissible when we reflect on 
 the myriads of heavenly bodies which we are unable to perceive. On 
 the other hand, no one can deny the grandeur and sublimity of the idea 
 
108 BOOK II. CHAP. VI, 
 
 that worlds in course of formation, and which are still unfitted for the 
 habitation of material life, are, nevertheless, peopled with living beings 
 appropriate to its condition — an idea which may possibly contain the 
 solution of more than one problem as yet obscure. 
 
 Perceptions, Sensations, and Sufferings of Spirits. 
 
 237. Does the soul, when it has returned into the world 
 of spirits, still possess the perceptions it possessed in the 
 earthly life ? 
 
 " Yes ; and others which it did not possess in that life, 
 because its body acted, as a veil which obscured them. In- 
 telligence is an attribute of spirit ; but it is manifested more 
 freely when not hindered by the trammels of flesh. ,, 
 
 238. Are the perceptions and knowledge of spirits un- 
 limited ? In a word, do they know everything ? 
 
 "The nearer they approach to perfection, the more they 
 know. Spirits of the higher orders possess a wide range of 
 knowledge ; those of the lower orders are more or less 
 ignorant in regard to everything." 
 
 239. Do spirits comprehend the first principle of things? 
 " That depends on their degree of elevation and of purity; 
 
 inferior spirits know no more than men." 
 
 240. Do spirits perceive duration as we do? 
 
 " No ; and this is why you do not always understand us 
 when you seek to fix dates and epochs." 
 
 The life of spirits is exterior to the idea of time as perceived by us. 
 The idea of duration may be said to be annihilated for them ; ages, 
 which seem so long to us, appear to them only as so many instants 
 lapsing into eternity, just as the inequalities of the earth's surface are 
 effaced and disappear beneath the gaze of the aeronaut as he mounts 
 into space. 
 
 241. Do spirits take a truer and more precise view of the 
 present than we do ? 
 
 " Their view, in comparison with yours, is pretty much 
 what eyesight is in comparison with blindness. They see 
 what you do not see ; they judge, therefore, otherwise than 
 you do. But we must remind you that this depends on their 
 degree of elevation." 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. IO9 
 
 242. How do spirits acquire the knowledge of the past, 
 and is this knowledge without limits for them ? 
 
 " The past, when we turn our attention to it, is perceived 
 by us as though it were present, exactly as is the case with 
 you, when you call to mind something which may have 
 struck you in the course of your present exile ; with this 
 difference, however, that, as our view is no longer obscured 
 by the material veil which covers your intelligence, w r e re- 
 member things that are at present effaced from your memory. 
 But spirits do not know everything; for example, their 
 creation." 
 
 243. Do spirits foresee the future? 
 
 " That, again, depends on their degree of advancement. 
 Very often, they foresee it only partially; but, even when 
 they foresee it more clearly, they are not always permitted to 
 reveal it. When they foresee it, it appears to them to be 
 present. A spirit sees the future more clearly in proportion 
 as he approaches God. After death, the soul sees and em- 
 braces at a glance all its past emigrations, but it cannot see 
 what God has in store for it. This foreknowledge is only 
 possessed by the soul that has attained to entire union with 
 God, after a long succession of existences." 
 
 — Do spirits, arrived at absolute perfection, possess the 
 complete knowledge of the future ? 
 
 " ' Complete ' is not the word ; for God alone is the 
 sovereign master, and none can attain to equality with Him." 
 
 244. Do spirits see God ? 
 
 " Only spirits of the highest order see and understand 
 Him ; spirits of lower order feel and divine Him." 
 
 — When a spirit of lower degree says that such and such 
 a thing is permitted to him or forbidden by God, how does 
 he know that such ordering is really by Him ? 
 
 " He does not see God, but he feels His sovereignty; and 
 when anything is not to be done or said, he feels a sort of 
 intuition, an invisible warning, which commands him to ab- 
 stain. Are not you yourselves sometimes conscious of a 
 secret impression, enjoining on you to do or not to do, as 
 
110 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 the case may be ? It is the same thing with us, but in a 
 higher degree; for you can easily understand that, the 
 essence of spirits being more supple than yours, they are 
 better able to receive the divine monitions." 
 
 — Are the divine commands transmitted to each spirit 
 directly by God, or through the intermediary of other spirits? 
 
 " Those commands do not come direct from God; in 
 order to communicate directly with God, a spirit must have 
 made himself worthy of such communication. God trans- 
 mits His orders through spirits of higher degrees of wisdom 
 and purity." 
 
 245. Is spirit-sight circumscribed, as is the sight of 
 corporeal beings? 
 
 " No ; it resides in them." 
 
 246. Do spirits require light in order to see ? 
 
 " They see of themselves, and have no need of any ex- 
 terior light. There is, for them, no other darkness than 
 that in which they may be made to find themselves as ex- 
 piation." 
 
 247. Do spirits need to travel in order to see two different 
 points ? Can they, for instance, see the two hemispheres of 
 the globe at the same time ? 
 
 " As spirits transport themselves from point to point with 
 the rapidity of thought, they may be said to see everywhere 
 at the same time. A spirit's thought may radiate at the 
 same moment on many different points ; but this faculty 
 depends on his purity. The more impure the spirit, the 
 narrower is his range of sight. It is only the higher spirits 
 who can take in a whole at a single glance." 
 
 The faculty of vision, among spirits, is a property inherent in their 
 nature, and which resides in their whole being, as light resides in every 
 part of a luminous body. It is a sort of universal lucidity, which ex- 
 tends to everything, which embraces at once time, space, and "things, 
 and in relation to which, darkness or material obstacles have no ex- 
 istence. And a moment's reflection shows us that this must necessarily 
 be the case. In the human being, sight being produced by the play of 
 an organ acted upon by light, it follows that, without light, man finds 
 himself in darkness ; but the faculty o: vision being an attribute of the 
 spirit himself, independently of any exterior agent, spirit-sight is inde- 
 pendent of light. (Vide Ubiquity, No. 92, p. 37.) 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. Ill 
 
 2 4.8. Do spirits see things as distinctly as we do ? 
 " More distinctly, for their sight penetrates what yours 
 cannot penetrate : nothing obscures it." 
 
 249. Do spirits perceive sounds ? 
 
 " Yes ; they perceive sounds that your obtuse senses can- 
 not perceive." 
 
 — Does the faculty of hearing reside in the whole of a 
 spirit's being, like the faculty of sight ? 
 
 " All the perceptive faculties of a spirit are attributes of 
 his nature, and form part of his being. When he is clothed 
 upon with a material body, his perceptions reach him only 
 through the channel of his bodily organs ; but the percep- 
 tions of a spirit, when restored to the state of freedom, are 
 no longer localised." 
 
 250. The perceptive faculties being attributes of a spirit's 
 nature, is it possible for him to withdraw himself from their 
 action ? 
 
 " A spirit only sees and hears what he chooses to see and 
 hear. This statement, however, is to be taken in a general 
 sense, and mainly as regards spirits of the higher orders ; 
 for imperfect spirits are compelled to see and hear, and often 
 against their will, whatever may be useful for their ameliora- 
 tion." 
 
 251. Are spirits affected by music? 
 
 " Do you mean the music of your earth ? What is it in 
 comparison with the music of the celestial spheres, of that 
 harmony of which nothing in your earth can give you any 
 idea ? The one is to the other as is the howl of the savage 
 to the most lovely melody. Spirits of low degree, however, 
 may take pleasure in hearing your music, because they are 
 not yet able to appreciate anything more sublime. Music 
 has inexhaustible charms for spirits, owing to the great 
 development of their sensitive qualities ; I mean, celestial 
 music, than which the spiritual imagination can conceive of 
 nothing more exquisitely sweet and beautiful. " 
 
 252. Are spirits sensible of the beauties of nature ? 
 
 " The beauties of nature are so different in the different 
 
 h 
 
TI2 BOOK II. CHAP. VI, 
 
 globes, that spirits are far from knowing them all. They are 
 sensible of them in proportion to their aptitude for appre- 
 ciating and comprehending them ; bat, for spirits of a high 
 degree of advancement, there are beauties of general har- 
 mony in which beauties of detail are, so to say, lost sight of." 
 
 253. Do spirits experience our physical needs and suffer- 
 ings ? 
 
 " They k?iow them, because they have undergone them ; 
 but they do not, like you, experience them materially : they 
 are spirits." 
 
 254. Do spirits experience fatigue and the need of rest? 
 
 " They cannot feel fatigue as you understand it, and con- 
 sequently they have no need of your corporeal rest, because 
 they have no organs whose strength requires to be restored. 
 But a spirit may be said to take rest, inasmuch as he is not 
 constantly in a state of activity. He does not act mate- 
 rially ; his action is altogether intellectual, and his resting is 
 altogether moral ; that is to say, that there are moments 
 when his thought becomes less active, and is no longer 
 directed to any special object, and this constitutes for him 
 a state which is really one of repose, but a kind of re- 
 pose which cannot be likened to that of the body. The 
 sort of fatigue which may be felt by spirits is proportionate 
 to their inferiority ; for, the higher their degree of elevation, 
 the less is their need of rest." 
 
 255. When a spirit says that he suffers, what is the nature 
 of the suffering he feels? 
 
 " Mental anguish, which causes him tortures far more 
 painful than any physical sufferings." 
 
 256. How is it, then, that spirits sometimes complain of 
 suffering from cold or heat ? 
 
 • " Such sensations on their part are caused by the remem- 
 brance of sufferings endured by them in the earthly life, 
 and are sometimes as painful as though they were real ; but 
 complaints of that nature are often only figures by which, 
 for lack of any better means of description, they endeavour 
 to express the situation in which they find themselves, 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. IT3 
 
 When they remember their earthly body, they experience 
 the same sort of impression which makes you feel for a few 
 moments, when you have taken off a cloak, as though you 
 had it still upon your shoulders/' 
 
 Theoretic Explanation of the Nature of Sensation 
 
 in Spirits. 
 
 257. The body is the instrument of pain, of which, if not 
 the primary cause, it is, at least, the immediate cause. The 
 soul possesses the faculty of perceiving the pain thus caused ; 
 the perception of pain is, therefore, the effect of this action 
 of the soul. The remembrance of pain retained by a spirit 
 may be very painful, but cannot exercise any physical 
 action. The tissues of the soul cannot be disorganised 
 either by cold or heat; the soul can neither freeze nor 
 burn. But do we not constantly see that the remembrance 
 or the apprehension of physical pain may produce all the 
 effect of reality, and may even occasion death ? We know 
 that recently-amputated patients often complain of feeling 
 pain in the limb they have lost : yet it is evident that the 
 amputated limb cannot really be the seat, nor even the point 
 of departure, of the pain they feel, which is due solely to 
 the action of the brain, that has retained and reproduces 
 the impression of the pain formerly experienced by them. 
 It may therefore be inferred that the suffering felt by spirits 
 after death is of a similar nature. A careful study of the 
 perispirit, which plays so important a part in all spirit- 
 phenomena, the indications afforded by apparitions, whether 
 vaporous or tangible, the state of the spirit at the moment of 
 death, the striking pictures presented by the victims of 
 suicide and of capital punishment, by the spirits of those 
 who have been absorbed in carnal enjoyments, and a great 
 variety of other facts, have thrown new light on this ques- 
 tion, and have given rise to the explanations of which we 
 offer the following summary : — 
 
 The perispirit is the link which unites the spirit with the 
 material body. It is drawn from the surrounding atmo- 
 sphere, from the universal fluid ; it participates at once in 
 
114 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 the nature of electricity, of the magnetic fluid, and of inert 
 matter. It may be said to be the quintessence of matter ; 
 it is the principle of organic life, but it is not that of intel- 
 lectual life, the principle of which is in the spirit. It is also 
 the agent of all the sensations of the outer life. Those 
 sensations are localised in the earthly body by the organs 
 which serve as their channels. When the body is destroyed, 
 those sensations become general. This explains why a 
 spirit never says that he suffers in his head or in his feet. 
 But we must take care not to confound the sensations of 
 the perispirit, rendered independent by the death of the 
 body, with the sensations experienced through the body ; 
 for the latter caff only be understood as offering a means of 
 comparison with the former, but not as being analogous to 
 them. When freed from the body, a spirit may suffer, but 
 this suffering is not the suffering of the body. And yet it 
 is not a suffering exclusively moral, like remorse, for 
 example, for he complains of feeling cold or hot, although 
 he suffers no more in summer than in winter, and we have 
 seen spirits pass through flames without feeling any painful 
 effect therefrom, temperature making no impression upon 
 them. The pain which they feel is therefore not a physical 
 pain in the proper sense of that term ; it is a vague feeling 
 perceived in himself by a spirit, and which he himself is not 
 always able to account for, precisely because his pain is not 
 localised, and is not produced by any exterior agents : it is 
 a remembrance rather than a reality, but a remembrance as 
 painful as though it were a reality. Nevertheless, spirit- 
 suffering is sometimes more than a remembrance, as we 
 shall see. 
 
 Observation has shown us that the perispirit, at death, 
 disengages itself more or less slowly from the body. During 
 the first few moments which follow dissolution, a spirit does 
 not clearly understand his own situation. He does not 
 think himself dead, for he feels himself living. He sees his 
 body beside him, he knows that it is his, and he does not 
 understand that he is separated from it ; and this state of 
 indecision continues as long as there remains the slightest 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. 
 
 115 
 
 connection between the body and the perispirit. One who 
 had committed suicide said to us, " No, I am not dead," 
 and added, " and yet I feel the worms that are devouring my 
 body." Now, most assuredly, the worms were not devour- 
 ing his perispirit, still less could they be devouring the 
 spirit himself. But, as the separation between the body and 
 the perispirit was not complete, a sort of moral repercussion 
 transmitted to the latter the sensation of what was taking 
 place in the former. Repercussion is perhaps hardly the 
 word to be employed in this case, as it may seem to imply 
 an effect too nearly akin to materiality ; it was rather the 
 sight of what was going on in the decaying body, to which 
 he was still attached by his perispirit, that produced in him 
 an illusion which he mistook for reality. Thus, in his case, 
 it was not a remembrance, for he had not, during his earthly 
 life, been devoured by worms. It was the feeling of some- 
 thing which was actually taking, place. We see, by the ex- 
 amination of the case here alluded to, the deductions that 
 may be drawn from an attentive observation of facts. 
 During life, the body receives external impressions and 
 transmits them to the spirit through the intermediary of the 
 perispirit, which constitutes, probably, what is called the 
 nervous fluid. The body, when dead, no longer feels any- 
 thing, because there is in it no longer either spirit or peri- 
 spirit. The perispirit, when disengaged from the body, still' 
 experiences sensation ; but, as sensation no longer reaches 
 it through a limited channel, its sensation is general. Now, 
 as the perispirit is, in reality, only an agent for the trans- 
 mission of sensations to the spirit, by whom alone they are 
 perceived, it follows that the perispirit, if it could exist 
 without a spirit, would no more be able to feel any sensa- 
 tion than is the body when it is dead ; and it also follows 
 that the spirit, if it had no perispirit, would be inaccessible 
 to any painful sensation, as is the case with spirits who are 
 completely purified. We know that, in proportion as the 
 spirit progresses, the essence of its perispirit becomes more 
 and more etherealised ; whence it follows that the influence 
 of matter diminishes in proportion to the advancement of 
 
Il6 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 the spirit, that is to say, in proportion as his perispirit be- 
 comes less and less gross. 
 
 But, it may be urged, it is through the perispirit that 
 agreeable sensations are transmitted to the spirit, as well as 
 disagreeable ones; therefore, if the purified spirit be inac- 
 cessible to the latter, he must also be so to the former. 
 Yes, undoubtedly so, as far as regards those which proceed 
 solely from the influence of the matter which is known to 
 us. The sound of our instruments, the perfume of our 
 flowers, produce no impression upon spirits of the highest 
 orders ; and yet they experience sensations of the most 
 vivid character, of a charm indescribable for us, and of 
 which it is impossible for us to form any idea, because we 
 are, in regard to that order of sensations, in the same posi- 
 tion as that in which men, born blind, are in regard to light. 
 We know that they exist ; but our knowledge is inadequate to 
 explain their nature or the mode in which they are produced. 
 We know that spirits possess perception, sensation, hearing, 
 sight, and that these faculties are attributes of their whole 
 being, and not, as in men, of a part of their being. But we 
 seek in vain to understand by what intermediary these 
 faculties act ; of this we know nothing. Spirits themselves 
 can give us no explanation of the matter, because our lan- 
 guage can no more be made to express ideas which are 
 beyond the range of our comprehension than the language 
 of savages can be made to furnish terms for expressing our 
 arts, our sciences, or our philosophic doctrines. 
 
 In saying that spirits are inaccessible to the impressions of 
 earthly matter, we must be understood as speaking of spirits 
 of very high order, to whose etherealised envelope there is 
 nothing analogous in our lower sphere. It is different with 
 spirits whose perispirit is of denser quality, for they per- 
 ceive our sounds and our odours, though no longer 
 through special parts of their personality, as they did 
 during life. The molecular vibrations may be said to be 
 felt by them throughout their whole being, reaching thus 
 their common sensorium, which is the spirit himself, although 
 in a different manner, and causing, perhaps, a different 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. IIJ 
 
 impression, which may produce a modification of the re- 
 sulting perception. They hear the sound of our voice, 
 and yet are able to understand us, without the help of 
 speech, by the mere transmission of thought ; and this 
 penetration is the more easy for them in proportion as they 
 are more dematerialised. Their sight is independent of 
 our light. The faculty of vision is an essential attribute 
 of the soul, for whom darkness has no existence; but it 
 is more extended, more penetrating, in those whose puri- 
 fication is more advanced. The soul or spirit, therefore, 
 possesses in itself the faculty of all perceptions ; during 
 our corporeal life these are deadened by the grossness of 
 our physical organs, but, in the extra-corporeal life, they 
 become more and more vivid as our semi-material envelope 
 becomes more and more etherealised. 
 
 This envelope is drawn from the atmosphere in which 
 the spirit finds himself for the time being, and varies accord- 
 ing to the nature of the different worlds. In passing from 
 one world to another, spirits change their envelope as we 
 change a garment when we pass from summer to winter, or 
 from the pole to the equator. The most elevated spirits, 
 when they come to visit us, assume a terrestrial perispirit, 
 which they retain during their stay among us, and their 
 perceptions are therefore produced, while they are thus 
 clothed upon, in the same way as those of the lower spirits, 
 of whom this grosser order of perispirit is the appropriate 
 envelope ; but all spirits, whether high or low, only hear and 
 feel what they choose to hear and to feel. 1 Without pos- 
 sessing organs of sensation, spirits are able to render their 
 perceptions active, or to prevent their action : there is but 
 one thing which they are compelled to hear, and that is the 
 counsels of their guides. The sight of spirits is always 
 active, but they are able, nevertheless, to render themselves 
 invisible to one another, according to the rank they occupy; 
 those of a higher rank having the power of hiding thera- 
 
 1 Vide, for the exception to this general law, the cases mentioned in 
 No. 250. 
 
Il8 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 selves from those who are below them, although a spirit of 
 lower rank cannot hide himself from those who are above 
 him. In the first moments after death, the sight of a spirit 
 is always dim and confused ; it becomes cleared as he be- 
 comes freed from the body, acquiring not only the same 
 clearness which it possessed during life, but also the power 
 of penetrating bodies which are opaque for us. As for the 
 extension of a spirit's vision through space, and into the 
 future and the past, that depends entirely on his degree of 
 purity and of consequent elevation. 
 
 " This theory," it will be said, " is anything but encour- 
 aging. We had thought that, once freed from our gross 
 bodily envelope, the instrument of all our sufferings, we 
 should suffer no more ; and now you tell us that we shall 
 still suffer in the other life, although not in the same way as 
 we do here. But suffering is none the less painful, what- 
 ever its nature ; and this prospect is by no means an agree- 
 able one." Alas, yes ! We may still have to suffer, to 
 suffer much, and for a long time \ but we may also have no 
 more to suffer, even from the very moment of quitting the 
 corporeal life. 
 
 The sufferings of our present existence are sometimes 
 independent of ourselves • but they are often the conse- 
 quences of our own volition. If we trace our sufferings back 
 to their source, we see that the greater number of them are 
 due to causes which we might have avoided. How many 
 ills, how many infirmities, does man owe to his excesses, his 
 ambition — in a word, to the indulgence of his various 
 passions ! He who should live soberly in all respects, who 
 should never run into excesses of any kind, who should be 
 always simple in his tastes, modest in his desires, would 
 escape a large proportion of the tribulations of human life. 
 It is the same with regard to spirit-life, the sufferings of 
 which are always the consequence of the manner in which 
 a spirit has lived upon the earth. In that life undoubtedly 
 he will no longer suffer from gout or rheumatism ; but his 
 wrong-doing down here will cause him to experience other 
 sufferings no less painful. We have seen that those suffer- 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. 119 
 
 ings are the result of the links which exist between a spirit 
 and matter ; that the more completely he is freed from the 
 influence of matter — in other words, the more dematerial- 
 ised he is — the fewer are the painful sensations experienced 
 by him. It depends, therefore, on each of us to free our- 
 selves from the influence of matter by our action in this 
 present life. Man possesses free-will, and, consequently, 
 the power of electing to do or not to do. Let him con- 
 quer his animal passions ; let him rid himself of hatred, 
 envy, jealousy, pride ; let him throw off the yoke of selfish- 
 ness ; let him purify his soul by cultivating noble senti- 
 ments ; let him do good ; let him attach to the things of 
 this world only the degree of importance which they de- 
 serve, — and he will, even under his present corporeal enve- 
 lope, have effected his purification, and achieved his de- 
 liverance from the influence of matter, which will cease for 
 him on his quitting that envelope. For such a one the 
 remembrance of physical sufferings endured by him in the 
 life he has quitted has nothing painful, and produces no 
 disagreeable impression, because they affected his body 
 only, and left no trace in his soul. He is happy to be 
 relieved from them ; and the calmness of a good conscience 
 exempts him from all moral suffering. 
 
 We have questioned many thousands of spirits having 
 belonged to every class of society ; we have studied them 
 at every period of their spirit-life, from the instant of their 
 quitting the body. We have followed them step by step in 
 that life beyond the grave, with a view to ascertaining the 
 changes that should take place in their ideas and sensa- 
 tions ; and this examination — in which it has not always 
 been the most commonplace spirits that have furnished us 
 the least valuable subjects of study — has invariably shown 
 as, on the one hand, that the sufferings of spirits are the 
 direct result of the misconduct of which they have to 
 undergo the consequences, and, on the other hand, that 
 their new existence is the source of ineffable happiness for 
 those who have followed the right road. From which it 
 follows that those who suffer do so because they have so 
 
120 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 willed it, and have only themselves to thank for their suffer- 
 ing, in the other world, as in this one. 
 
 Choice of Trials. 
 
 258. In the state of erraticity, and before taking on a 
 new corporeal existence, does a spirit foresee the things 
 which will happen to him in that new existence? 
 
 " He chooses for himself the kind of trials which he will 
 undergo, and it is in this freedom of choice that his free- 
 will consists." 
 
 — It is not God, then, who imposes upon him the tribu- 
 lations of life as a chastisement ? 
 
 " Nothing comes to pass without the permission of God, 
 for it is He who has established all the laws that rule the 
 universe. You would have to inquire why He has made 
 such and such a law, instead of taking some other way. In 
 giving to a spirit the liberty of choice, He leaves to him the 
 entire responsibility of his acts and of their consequences. 
 There is nothing to bar his future"; the right road is open 
 to him as freely as the wrong road. But if he succumbs, 
 there still remains to him the consoling fact that all is not 
 over with him, and that God in His goodness allows him to 
 recommence the task which he has done badly. You 
 must, moreover, always distinguish between what is the 
 work of God's will and what is the work of man's will. 
 If a danger threatens you, it is not you who have created 
 this danger, but God ; but you have voluntarily elected to 
 expose yourself to this danger, because you have seen in so 
 doing a means of advancement, and God has permitted you 
 to do so." 
 
 259. If the spirit has the choice of the kind of trials 
 which he will undergo, does it follow that all the tribula- 
 tions we experience in the earthly life have been foreseen 
 and chosen by us? 
 
 " It would not be correct to say that such has been the 
 ca*e with all of them ; for you cannot be said to have 
 chosen and foreseen all the things which happen to you in 
 this life, and all their details. You have chosen the kind 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. 121 
 
 of trial to which you are subjected ; the details of this 
 trial are a consequence of the general situation which you 
 have chosen, and are often the result of your own actions. 
 
 " If, for instance, a spirit has chosen to be born among 
 malefactors, he knew to what kind of temptations he was 
 exposing himself, but not each one of the actions which he 
 would accomplish ; those actions are the effect of his voli- 
 tion, of his free-will. A spirit knows that, in choosing such 
 and such a road, he will have such and such a kind of 
 struggle to undergo; he knows, therefore, the nature of the 
 vicissitudes which he will encounter, but he does not know 
 whether these will present themselves under one form or under 
 another. The details of events spring from circumstances 
 and the force of things. It is only the leading events of his 
 new life, those which will exercise a determining effect on 
 his destiny, that are foreseen by him. If you enter upon a 
 road full of ruts, you know that you must walk very warily, 
 because you run a risk of stumbling ; but you do not know 
 the exact place where you will stumble, and it may be that, 
 if you are sufficiently on your guard, you will not stumble at 
 all. If, when you are passing along a street, a tile falls upon 
 your head, you must not suppose that 'it was written/ as 
 the common saying is." 
 
 260. How can a spirit choose to be born among those 
 who are leading a bad life ? 
 
 " It is necessary for him to be sent into the conditions 
 which will furnish the elements of the trial he has demanded. 
 To this end, there must be a correspondence between the 
 imperfection of which he desires to free himself, and the 
 social surroundings into which he is born. For example, if 
 he have to struggle against the instinct of brigandage, it is 
 necessary for him to be thrown among brigands." 
 
 — If, then, there were no evil livers upon the earth, spirits 
 could not find in it the conditions necessary to certain kinds 
 of trial ? 
 
 "Would there be any reason for complaining, if such were 
 the case ? The case you suppose is that of the worlds of 
 
12 2 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 higher order, to which evil has no access, and which are there- 
 fore inhabited only by good spirits. Try to bring about 
 such a state of things as soon as possible in your earth." 
 
 261. Is it necessary for the spirit, in the course of the 
 trials to which he has to submit in order to arrive at per- 
 fection, to undergo every sort of temptation ? Must he en- 
 counter all the circumstances that can excite in him pride, 
 jealousy, avarice, sensuality, &c. ? 
 
 " Certainly not, since there are, as you know, many spirits 
 who take from the beginning a road which spares them the 
 necessity of undergoing many of those trials ; but he who 
 suffers himself to be drawn into the wrong road, exposes 
 himself to all the dangers of that road. A spirit, for instance, 
 may ask for riches, and his demand may be granted ; and, 
 in that case, he will become, according to his character, 
 avaricious or prodigal, selfish or generous, and will make a 
 noble use of his wealth, or waste it on vanity or sensuality; 
 but this does not imply that he will be compelled to run the 
 gauntlet of all the evil tendencies that may be fostered by 
 the possession of riches." 
 
 262. As a spirit, at its origin, is simple, ignorant, and 
 without experience, how can he make an intelligent choice 
 of an existence, and how can he be responsible for such a 
 choice ? 
 
 " God supplies what is lacking through his inexperience, 
 by tracing out for him the road which he has to follow, as 
 you do for the infant in its cradle ; but he allows him, little by 
 little, to become the master of his choice, in proportion as 
 his free-will becomes developed ; and it is then that he often 
 loses his way and takes the wrong road, if he do not listen 
 to the advice of the good spirits, who endeavour to instruct 
 him ; it is this which may be called the fall of man." 
 
 — When a spirit is in possession of his free-will ; does the 
 choice of his corporeal existence always depend solely on 
 his own volition, or is this existence sometimes imposed on 
 him by God as an expiation ? 
 
 "God can afford to wait; He never hurries the work of 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. I23 
 
 expiation. Nevertheless, God does sometimes impose an 
 existence upon a spirit, when the latter, through his ignor- 
 ance or his obstinacy, is incapable of perceiving what would 
 be to his advantage, and when He sees that this existence 
 may subserve his purification and advancement, while fur- 
 nishing hirn also with the conditions of expiation." 
 
 263. Do spirits make their choice immediately after 
 death ? 
 
 " No ; many of them believe their sufferings to be eternal: 
 you have already been told that this is a chastisement." 
 
 264. What is it that decides a spirit's choice of the trials 
 which he determines to undergo ? 
 
 " He chooses those which may serve to expiate his faults, 
 and at the same time help him to advance more quickly. 
 In view of these ends, some may impose upon themselves a 
 life of poverty and privations, in order to exercise themselves 
 in bearing them with courage ; others may wish to test their 
 powers of resistance by the temptations of fortune and of 
 power, much more dangerous, because of the bad use that 
 may be made of them, and the evil passions that may be 
 developed by them ; others, again, may desire to strengthen 
 their good resolutions by having to struggle against the in- 
 fluence of vicious surroundings." 
 
 265. If some spirits elect to expose themselves to the 
 contact of vice as a trial of their virtue, may it not be that 
 others make a similar choice from a desire to live amidst 
 surroundings in unison with their depraved tastes, and in 
 which they may give free course to their sensual tendencies? 
 
 " Such instances undoubtedly occur ; but only among 
 those whose moral sense is still but imperfectly developed. 
 In such cases, the needed trial occurs spontaneously, aitd they are 
 subjected to it for a longer time. Sooner or later, they will 
 understand that indulgence of the animal instincts leads to 
 disastrous consequences, which they will undergo during a 
 period so long that it will seem to them to be eternal : and 
 God sometimes leaves them in this state until they have 
 comprehended the gravity of their fault, and demand, of 
 
124 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 their own accord, to be allowed to repair it by undergoing 
 trials of a profitable nature." 
 
 266. Does it not seem natural to make choice of such 
 trials as are least painful? 
 
 " From your point of view, it would seem to be so, but 
 not from that of the spirit; when he is freed from mate- 
 riality, his illusions cease, and he thinks differently. " 
 
 Man, while upon the earth, and subjected to the influence of carnal 
 ideas, sees only the painful aspect of the trials he is called upon to 
 undergo ; and it therefore appears to him to be natural to choose the 
 trials that are allied to material enjoyments. But when he has returned 
 to spirit-life, he compares those gross and fugitive enjoyments with the 
 unchangeable felicity of which he obtains occasional glimpses, and 
 judges that such felicity will be cheaply purchased by a little temporary 
 suffering. A spirit may, therefore, make choice of the hardest trial, and 
 consequently of the most painful existence, in the hope of thereby attain- 
 ing more rapidly to a happier state, just as a sick man often chooses 
 the most unpalatable medicine in the hope of obtaining a more rapid 
 cure. He who aspires to immortalise his name by the discovery of an 
 unknown country does not seek a flowery road. He takes the road 
 which will bring him most surely to the aim he has in view, and he is 
 not deterred from following it even by the dangers it may offer. On 
 the contrary, he braves those dangers for the sake of the glory he will 
 win if he succeeds. 
 
 The doctrine of our freedom in the choice of our successive existences 
 and of the trials which we have to undergo ceases to appear strange when 
 we consider that spirits, being freed from matter, judge of things differ- 
 ently from men. They perceive the ends which these trials are intended 
 to work out — ends far more important for them than the fugitive enjoy- 
 ments of earth. After each existence, they see the steps they have 
 already accomplished, and comprehend what they still lack for the 
 attainment of the purity which alone can enable them to reach the goal ; 
 and they willingly submit to the vicissitudes of corporeal life, demand- 
 ing of their own accord to be allowed to undergo those which will aid 
 them to advance most rapidly. There is, therefore, nothing surprising 
 in a spirit making choice of a hard or painful life. He knows that he 
 cannot, in his present state of imperfection, enjoy the perfect happiness 
 to which he aspires ; but he obtains glimpses of that happiness, and he 
 seeks to effect his own improvement, as the sole means to its attainment. 
 
 Do we not, every day, witness examples of a similar choice? What 
 is the action of the man who labours, without cessation or repose, to 
 amass the property which will enable him eventually to live in comfort, 
 but the discharge of a task which he has voluntarily assumed as the 
 means of insuring for himself a more prosperous future? The soldier 
 who offers himself for the accomplishment of a perilous mission, the 
 traveller who braves dangers no less formidable in the interest of science 
 or of his own fortune, are examples of the voluntary incurring of hard- 
 ships for the sake of the honour or profit that will result from their 
 successful endurance. What will not men undergo for gain or for glory ? 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. 125 
 
 Is not every sort of competitive examination a trial to which, men 
 voluntarily submit in the hope of obtaining advancement in the career 
 they have chosen ? He who would gain a high position in science, art, 
 industry, is obliged to pass through all the lower degrees which lead up 
 to it, and which constitute so many trials. Human life is thus seen to 
 be modelled on spirit-life, presenting the same vicissitudes on a smaller 
 scale. And as in the earthly life we often make choice of the hardest 
 conditions as means to the attainment of the highest ends, why should 
 not a disincarnate spirit, who sees farther than he saw when incarnated 
 in an earthly body, and for whom the bodily life is only a fugitive inci- 
 dent, make choice of a laborious or painful existence, if it may lead him 
 on towards an eternal felicity ? Those who say that, since spirits have the 
 power of choosing their existences, they will demand to be princes and 
 millionaires, are like the purblind, who only see what they touch, or like 
 greedy children, who, when asked what occupation they would prefer to 
 follow, reply that they would like to be pastry-cooks or confectioners. 
 
 It is with a spirit as with a traveller, who, in the depths of a valley 
 obscured by fog, sees neither the length nor the extremities of his road. 
 When he has reached the top of the hill, and the fog has cleared away, 
 his view takes in both the road along which he has come and that by 
 which he has still to go. He sees the point which he has to reach, 
 and the obstacles he has to overcome in reaching it, and he is thus able 
 to take his measures for successfully accomplishing his journey. A 
 spirit, while incarnated, is like the traveller at the foot of the hill ; when 
 freed from terrestrial trammels, he is like the traveller who has reached 
 the top of the hill. The aim of the traveller is to obtain rest after 
 fatigue ; the aim of the spirit is to attain to perfect happiness after 
 tribulations and trials. 
 
 Spirits say that, in the state of erraticity, they seek, study, observe, 
 in order to make their choice wisely. Have we not examples of analo- 
 gous action in corporeal life ? Do we not often spend years in deciding 
 on the career upon which, at length, we freely fix our choice, because 
 we consider it to be the one in which we are most likely to succeed? 
 If, after all, we fail in the one we have chosen, we seek out another ; 
 and each career thus embraced by us constitutes a phase, a period, of 
 our life. Is not each day employed by us in deciding what we shall do 
 on the morrow ? And what, for a spirit, are his different corporeal exist- 
 ences, but so many phases, periods, days, in comparison with his spirit- 
 life, which, as we know, is his normal life, the corporeal life being only 
 a transitional passage ? 
 
 267. Can a spirit make his choice while in the corporeal 
 state ? 
 
 " His desire may exercise a certain amount of influence, 
 according to the quality of his intention ; but, when he 
 returns to spirit-life, he often judges things very differently. 
 It is only as a spirit that he makes his choice ; but he may, 
 nevertheless, make it during the material life, for a spirit, 
 even while incarnated, has occasional moments in which he 
 is independent of the matter he inhabits." 
 
126 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 — Many persons desire earthly greatness and riches, but 
 not, assuredly, either as expiation or as trial. 
 
 " Undoubtedly ; in such cases it is their material instinct 
 which desires greatness in order to enjoy its satisfactions. 
 The spirit could only desire it in order to understand its 
 vicissitudes." 
 
 268. Until a spirit has reached the state of perfect purity, 
 has he constantly to undergo trials ? 
 
 ' ; Yes ; but not such as you understand by that term. By 
 the term trials, you understand only material tribulations. 
 But when a spirit has reached a certain degree of purifica- 
 tion, although he is not yet perfect, he has no more tribula- 
 tions of that kind to undergo. He has, nevertheless, to 
 perform certain duties which advance his own improvement, 
 but there is nothing painful in these, as, for example, the 
 duty of aiding others t ^ work out their own improvement." 
 
 269. Is it possible for a spirit to make a mistake as to 
 the efficacy of the trial he chooses ? 
 
 " He may choose one which exceeds his strength, and, 
 in that case, he will succumb ; or he may choose one from 
 which he will reap no profit whatever, as, for instance, if he 
 seeks to lead an idle and useless life. But, in such cases, 
 he perceives, on returning to the spirit- world, that he has 
 gained nothing, and he then demands to make up for lost 
 time." 
 
 270. What is the cause of the vocations of some persons, 
 and their spontaneous desire to follow one career rather 
 than another? 
 
 " It seems to me that you yourselves might answer this 
 question. Is not the existence of such vocations a neces- 
 sary consequence of what we have told you concerning the 
 choice of trials, and of the progress accomplished in a pre- 
 ceding existence ? " 
 
 271. As a spirit in the wandering state studies the various 
 conditions of corporeal life that will aid him to progress, 
 how can he suppose that he will do so by being born, for 
 example, among cannibals ? 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. I27 
 
 u Those who are born among cannibals are not advanced 
 
 spirits, but spirits who are still at the cannibal degree, or, it 
 
 may be, who are even lower than cannibals." 
 
 We know that our anthropophagi are not at the lowest degree of the 
 scale, and that there are worlds in which are found degrees of brutish - 
 ness and ferocity that have no analogues in our earth. The spirits of 
 those worlds are, therefore, lower than the lowest of our world, and to 
 come among our savages is, for them, a step in advance, as it would be 
 for our cannibals to exercise, in a civilised community, some profession 
 obliging them to shed blood. If they take no higher aim, it is because 
 their moral backwardness does not allow of their comprehending any 
 higher degree of progress. A spirit can only advance gradually ; he 
 cannot clear at a single bound the distance which separates barbarism 
 from civilisation. And in this impossibility we see one of the causes 
 that necessitate reincarnation, which is thus seen to be really a conse- 
 quence of the justice of God ; for what would become of the millions of 
 human beings who die every day in the lowest depths of degradation, 
 if they had no means of arriving at higher states ? And why should God 
 have refused to them the favours granted to other men? 
 
 272. Can spirits, coming from a world of lower degree 
 than the earth, or from the lowest of our human races, such 
 as our cannibals, for instance, be born among our civilised 
 peoples ? 
 
 " Yes, such spirits sometimes come into your world, 
 
 through trying to reach a degree too far above them ; but 
 
 they are out of their proper place among you, because they 
 
 bring with them instincts and habits that clash with the 
 
 convictions and habits of the society into which they have 
 
 strayed.'' 
 
 Such beings present us with the melancholy spectacle of ferocity in 
 the midst of civilisation. For them, to return among cannibals is not a 
 going down, but only a resuming of their proper place ; and they may 
 even gain by so doing. 
 
 273. Might a man belonging to a civilised race be re- 
 incarnated, as an expiation, in a savage race ? 
 
 " Yes ; but that would depend on the kind of expiation 
 he had incurred. A master who had been cruel to his 
 slaves might become a slave in his turn, and undergo the 
 torments he had inflicted on others. He who has wielded 
 authority may, in a new existence, be obliged to obey those 
 who formerly bent to his will. Such an existence may be 
 imposed upon him as an expiation if he have abused his 
 
 M 
 
128 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 power. But a good spirit may also choose an influential 
 existence among the people of some lower race, in order to 
 hasten their advancement ; in that case, such a reincarna- 
 tion is a mission." 
 
 Relationships beyond the Grave. 
 
 274. Do the different degrees which exist in the advance- 
 ment of spirits establish among the latter a hierarchy of 
 powers ? Are there, among spirits, subordination and au- 
 thority ? 
 
 " Yes ; the authority of spirits over one another, in virtue 
 of their relative superiority, is very great, and gives to the 
 higher ones a moral ascendancy over the lower ones which 
 is absolutely irresistible/' 
 
 — Can spirits of lower degree withdraw themselves from 
 the authority of those who are higher than themselves? 
 
 " 1 have said that the authority which comes of supe- 
 riority is irresistible? 
 
 275. Do the power and consideration which a man may 
 have enjoyed in the earthly life give him supremacy in the 
 spirit-world ? 
 
 " No ; for in that world the humble are exalted and the 
 proud abased. Read the Psalms.'' 
 
 — In what sense should we understand exalting and 
 abasing ? 
 
 " Do you not know that spirits are of different orders, 
 according to their degree of merit? Therefore, he who 
 has held the highest rank upon the earth may find himself 
 in the lowest rank in the world of spirits, while his servitor 
 may be in the highest. Is not this clear to you ? Has not 
 Jesus said that ' Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, 
 and whosoever humbleth himself shall be exalted ? ' " 
 
 276. When one who has been great upon the earth finds 
 himself occupying an inferior place in the spirit-world, does 
 he feel humiliated by this change of position ? 
 
 " Often exceedingly so ; especially if he have been 
 haughty and jealous." 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. 129 
 
 277. When a soldier, after a battle, meets his general in 
 the spirit-world, does he still acknowledge him as his supe- 
 rior? 
 
 "Titles are nothing; intrinsic superiority is everything." 
 
 278. Do spirits of different orders mix together in the 
 other life ? 
 
 "Yes, and no; that is to say, they see each other, but 
 they are none the less removed. They shun or approach 
 one another according to the antipathies or sympathies of 
 their sentiments, just as is the case among yourselves. 2 he 
 spirit4ife is a whole world of varied conditions and relation- 
 ships, of which the earthly life is only the obscured reflex. 
 Those of the same rank are drawn together by a sort of 
 affinity, and form groups or families of spirits united by 
 sympathy and a common aim — the good, by the desire to 
 do what is good, and the bad, by the desire to do evil, by 
 the shame of their wrong-doing, and by the wish to find 
 themselves among those whom they resemble." 
 
 The spirit-world is like a great city, in which men of all ranks and 
 conditions see and meet one another without mixing together ; in which 
 various social circles are formed by .similarity of tastes; in which vice 
 and virtue elbow each other without speaking to one another. 
 
 279. Are all spirits reciprocally accessible to one an- 
 other ? 
 
 "The good go everywhere,- as it is necessary that they 
 should do, in order to bring their influence to bear upon 
 the evil-minded. But the regions inhabited by them are 
 inaccessible to inferior spirits, so that the latter cannot 
 trouble those happy abodes by the introduction of evil 
 passions." 
 
 280. What is the nature of the relations between good 
 and bad spirits? 
 
 " The good ones endeavour to combat the evil tendencies 
 of the others, in order to aid them to raise 1 hems elves to a 
 higher degree; this intercourse is, for the former, a mission." 
 
 281. Why do inferior spirits take pleasure in inducing us 
 to do wrong ? 
 
X30 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 " From jealousy. Not having earned a place among the 
 good, their desire is to prevent, as far as in them lies, other 
 spirits, as yet inexperienced, from attaining to the happi- 
 ness from which they are excluded. They desire to make 
 others suffer what they suffer themselves. Do you not see 
 the working of the same desire among yourselves ? " 
 
 282. How do spirits hold communication with one an- 
 other ? 
 
 " They see and comprehend one another. Speech is 
 material ; it is a reflex of spirit. The universal fluid esta- 
 blishes a constant communication between them ; it is the 
 vehicle by which thought is transmitted, as the air, in your 
 world, is the vehicle of sound. This fluid constitutes a sort 
 of universal telegraph, which unites all worlds, and enables 
 spirits to correspond from one world to another." 
 
 283. Can spirits hide their thoughts from each other? 
 Can they hide themselves from one another? 
 
 " No ; with them everything is open, and especially so 
 with those who have attained to perfection. They may 
 withdraw from one another, but they are always visible to 
 each other. This, however, is not an absolute rule, for the 
 higher spirits are perfectly able to render themselves in- 
 visible to the lower ones, when they consider it to be useful 
 to do so." 
 
 284. How can spirits, who have no longer a body, esta- 
 blish their individuality, and cause it to be distinguishable 
 from that of the other spiritual beings by whom they are 
 surrounded ? 
 
 " Their individuality is established by their perispirit, 
 which makes of each spirit a separate personality, distinct 
 from all others, as the body does among men." 
 
 285. Do spirits recognise one another as having lived 
 together upon the earth ? Does the son recognise his 
 father, the friend, his friend ? 
 
 " Yes ; and from generation to generation." 
 — How do those who have known each other on the 
 earth recognise one another in the world of spirits ? 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. 131 
 
 u We see our past life, and read therein as in a book ; 
 on seeing the past of our friends and our enemies, we see 
 their passage from life to death." 
 
 286. Does the soul see, immediately on quitting its 
 mortal remains, the relations and friends who have returned 
 before it into the world of spirits ? 
 
 " Immediately is not always the right word ; for, as we 
 have said, the soul requires some time to resume its self- 
 consciousness, and to shake off the veil of materiality." 
 
 287. How is the soul received on its return to the spirit- 
 world ? 
 
 " That of the righteous, as a dearly-beloved brother, 
 whose return has been long waited for ; that of the wicked, 
 with contempt." 
 
 288. What sentiment is experienced by impure spirits at 
 the sight of another bad spirit, on his arrival among them ? 
 
 " Such spirits are gratified at seeing others who resemble 
 them, and who, like them, are deprived of the highest hap- 
 piness ; just as a band of scoundrels, upon the earth, are 
 gratified at meeting with another scoundrel like themselves." 
 
 289. Do our relatives and friends sometimes come to 
 meet us when we are leaving the earth ? 
 
 u Yes, they come to meet the soul of those they love ; 
 they felicitate it as one who has returned from a journey 
 if it have escaped the dangers of the road, and they aid it in 
 freeing itself from the bonds of the flesh. To be met thus by 
 those they have loved is a favour granted to the souls of 
 the upright; while the soul of the wicked is punished by 
 being left alone, or is only surrounded by spines like itself." 
 
 290. Are relatives and friends always reunited after 
 death ? 
 
 " That depends on their elevation, and on the road they 
 have to follow for their advancement. If one of them is 
 further advanced, and progresses more rapidly than the 
 other, they cannot remain together : they may see one an- 
 other occasionally, but they can only be definitively re- 
 united when he who was behind is able to keep pace with 
 
132 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 him who was before, or when both of them shall have 
 reached the state of perfection. Moreover, the privation of 
 the sight of relatives and friends is sometimes inflicted on a 
 spirit as a punishment" 
 
 Sympathies and Antipathies of Spirits— Eternal 
 
 Halves, 
 
 291. Have spirits special personal affections among them- 
 selves, besides the general sympathy resulting from similarity? 
 
 " Yes, just as among men ; but the link between spirits 
 is stronger when the body is absent, because it is no longer 
 exposed to the vicissitudes of the passions." 
 
 292. Do spirits experience hatreds among themselves? 
 
 " Hatreds only exist among impure spirits. It is they 
 who sow hatreds and dissensions among men." 
 
 293. Do those who have been enemies on earth always 
 retain their resentment against one another in the spirit- 
 world ? 
 
 "No; for they often see that their hatred was stupid, 
 and perceive the puerility of the object by which it was 
 excited. It is only imperfect spirits who retain the ani- 
 mosities of the earthly life, of which they rid themselves in 
 proportion as they become purified. Spirits whose anger, 
 as men, has been caused by some merely material interest, 
 forget their dissension as soon as they are dematerialised. 
 The cause of their dissension no longer existing, they may, 
 if there be no antipathy between them, see each other 
 again with pleasure." 
 
 Just as two schoolboys, when they have reached the age of reason, 
 perceive the folly of their boyish quarrels, and no longer keep up a 
 grudge against each other on account of them. 
 
 294. Is the remembrance of wrongs they may have done 
 one another, as men, an obstacle to sympathy between two 
 spirits ? 
 
 " Yes, it tends to keep them apart." 
 
 295. What is the sentiment, after death, of those whom 
 we have wronged ? 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. 133 
 
 u If they are good, they forgive you as soon as you repent ; 
 if they are bad, they may retain resentment against you, and 
 may even pursue you with their anger in another existence. 
 This may be permitted by God as a chastisement." 
 
 296. Are the individual affections of spirits susceptible of 
 change ? 
 
 " No ; for they cannot be mistaken in one another. The 
 mask under which hypocrites hide themselves on earth has 
 no existence in the world of spirits, and their affections, 
 when they are pure, are therefore unchangeable. The love 
 which unites them is a source of supreme felicity." 
 
 297. Does the affection which two spirits have felt for 
 each other upon the earth always continue in the spirit- 
 world ? 
 
 "Yes, undoubtedly, if that affection were founded on 
 sympathy ; but, if physical causes have had more share in it 
 than sympathy, it ceases with those causes. Affections are 
 more solid and lasting among spirits than among men, 
 because they are not subordinated to the caprices of material 
 interests and self-love." 
 
 298. Is it true that the souls of those who will eventually 
 be united in affection are predestined to this union from 
 their beginning, and that each of us has thus, in some part 
 of the universe, his other half, to whom he will some day be 
 necessarily reunited ? 
 
 " No, there is no such thing as any special and fated union 
 between any two souls. Union exists between all spirits, 
 but in different degrees, according to the rank they occupy, 
 - — that is to say, according to the degree of perfection they 
 have acquired ; and the greater their perfection, the more 
 united they are. It is discord that produces all the ills of 
 human life. The complete and perfect happiness at which 
 all spirits eventually arrive is the result of concord." 
 
 299. In what way should we understand the term other 
 half, sometimes employed by spirits to designate other 
 spirits for whom they have special sympathy? 
 
 " The expression is incorrect If one spirit were the half 
 
134 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 of another spirit, he would, if separated from that other, be 
 incomplete." 
 
 300. When two perfectly sympathetic spirits are reunited 
 in the other world, are they thus reunited for all eternity, 
 or can they separate from each other and unite themselves 
 with other spirits ? 
 
 "All spirits are united among themselves. I speak of 
 those who have reached the state of perfection. In the 
 spheres below that state, when a spirit passes from a lower 
 sphere to a higher one, he does not always feel the same 
 sympathy for those whom he has quitted." 
 
 301. When two spirits are completely sympathetic, are 
 they the complement of each other, or is that sympathy the 
 result of their perfect identity of character? 
 
 " The sympathy which attracts one spirit to another is the 
 result of the perfect concordance of their tendencies and 
 instincts. If one of them were necessary to complete the 
 other, he would lose his individuality." 
 
 302. Does similarity of thoughts and of sentiments suffice 
 to constitute the kind of identity which is necessary to the 
 production of perfect sympathy, or is uniformity of acquired 
 knowledge also required for its production ? 
 
 "Perfect sympathy between two spirits results from 
 equality in the degree of their elevation." 
 
 303. May spirits, who are not now sympathetic, become 
 so in the future ? 
 
 Yes, all will be sympathetic in course of time. Thus, of 
 two spirits who were once together, one may have advanced 
 more rapidly than the other; but the other, though now in 
 a lower sphere, will by and by have advanced sufficiently to 
 be able to enter the higher sphere in which the former is 
 now residing. And their reunion will take place all the 
 sooner if the one who was most advanced should fail in the 
 trials he has still to undergo, and so should remain for a 
 time just where he now is, without making any further pro- 
 gress." 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. I35 
 
 — May two spirits, who are now sympathetic, cease to 
 be so? 
 
 " Certainly, if one of them is wanting in energy, and lags 
 
 behind, while the other is advancing." 
 
 The hypothesis of twin-souls is merely a figurative representation of 
 the union of two sympathetic spirits, and must not be understood 
 literally. The spirits who have made use of this expression are certainly 
 not of high order ; and, therefore, as their range of thought is neces- 
 sarily narrow, they have sought to convey their meaning by using the 
 terms they were accustomed to employ in their earthly life. The idea 
 that two souls were created for each other, and that, after having been 
 separated for a longer or shorter period, they will necessarily be even- 
 tually reunited for all eternity, is, therefore, to be entirely rejected. 
 
 Remembrance of Corporeal Existence. 
 
 304. Does a spirit remember his corporeal existence? 
 
 " Yes ; having lived many times as a human being, he 
 
 remembers what he has been, and often smiles pityingly at 
 
 the follies of his past." 
 
 As a man, who has reached the age of reason, smiles at the follies of 
 his youth and the sillinesses of his childhood. 
 
 305. Does the remembrance of his corporeal existence 
 present itself to a spirit, complete, and spontaneously, im- 
 mediately after his death ? 
 
 " No ; it comes back to him little by little, in proportion 
 as he fixes his attention upon it, as objects gradually become 
 visible out of a fog." 
 
 306. Does a spirit remember the details of all the events 
 of his life? Does he take in the whole of his life at a single 
 retrospective glance ? 
 
 " He remembers the things of his life more or less dis- 
 tinctly and in detail, according to the influence they have exer- 
 cised on his state as a spirit ; but you can easily understand 
 that there are many things in his life to which he attaches no 
 importance, and which he does not even seek to remember. " 
 
 — Could he remember them if he wished to do so ? 
 
 " He has the power of recalling the most minute details 
 of every incident of his life, and even of his thoughts ; but 
 when no useful purpose would be served by exerting this 
 power, he does not exert it." 
 
136 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 307. In what way does his past life present itself to a 
 spirit's memory? Is it through an effort of his imagination, 
 or is it like a picture displayed before his eyes ? 
 
 "It comes back to him in both ways. All the actions 
 which he has an interest in remembering appear to him 
 as though they were present ; the others are seen by him 
 more or less vaguely in his thought, or are entirely forgotten. 
 The more dematerialised he is, the less importance does he 
 attach to material things. It has often happened to you, 
 on evoking some wandering spirit who has just left the 
 earth, to find that he remembers neither the names of per- 
 sons whom he liked, nor details which to you appear to be 
 important. He cares but little about them, and they have 
 faded from his memory. But you always find that he per- 
 fectly remembers the main facts of his life which have con- 
 duced to his intellectual and moral progress." 
 
 308. Does a spirit remember all the existences which 
 have preceded the one he has just quitted ? 
 
 " His entire past is spread out before him like the stages 
 already accomplished by a traveller, but, as we have told 
 you, he does not remember all his past actions with absolute 
 precision ; he remembers them more or less clearly in pro- 
 portion to the influence they have had upon his present 
 state. As to his earliest existences, those which may be 
 regarded as constituting the period of spirit-infancy, they 
 are lost in vagueness, and disappear in the night of oblivion." 
 
 309. How does a spirit regard the body he has just 
 quitted ? 
 
 "As an uncomfortable garment that hampered him, and 
 that he is delighted to be rid of." 
 
 — What feeling is produced in him by seeing the decom- 
 position of his body? 
 
 " Almost always that of indifference ; as something about 
 which he no longer cares." 
 
 310. After a time, does a spirit recognise the mortal 
 remains, or other objects, that once belonged to him? 
 
 " Sometimes he does so ; but this depends on the more 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. I37 
 
 or less elevated point of view from which he regards terres- 
 trial things." 
 
 311. Is a spirit's attention attracted to the material relics 
 of himself by the respect entertained for those objects by 
 his survivors, and does he see this respect with pleasure ? 
 
 " A spirit is always gratified at being held in kindly re- 
 membrance by those he has left. The objects thus preserved 
 in remembrance of him serve to recall him to the memory 
 of those by whom they are preserved; but it is the action 
 of their thought which attracts him, and not those ob- 
 jects." 
 
 312. Do spirits retain the remembrance of the sufferings 
 endured by them in their last corporeal existence ? 
 
 " They frequently do so ; and this remembrance makes 
 them realise all the more vividly the worth of the felicity 
 they enjoy as spirits." 
 
 313. Does he who has been happy down here regret his 
 terrestrial enjoyments on quitting the earth? 
 
 " Only spirits of inferior degree can regret material satis- 
 factions in harmony with impurity of nature, and which are 
 expiated by suffering. For spirits of higher degrees of 
 elevation, the happiness of eternity is immeasurably prefer- 
 able to the ephemeral pleasures of the earthly life." 
 
 As the adult despises what constituted the delights of his infancy. 
 
 314. When a man, who has commenced a series of im- 
 portant labours in view of some useful end, has seen these 
 labours interrupted by death, does he, in the other world, 
 feel regret at having had to leave them unfinished ? 
 
 " No, because he sees that others are destined to com- 
 plete them. On the contrary, he endeavours to act upon 
 the minds of other human beings, so as to lead them to 
 carry on what he had begun. His aim while upon the 
 earth was to be useful to the human race : his aim is the 
 same in the spirit-world." 
 
 315. When a man has left behind him works of art or of 
 literature, does he preserve for them in the other life the 
 interest he took in them while living upon the earth ? 
 
X38 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 " He judges them from another point of view, according 
 to his elevation, and, he often blames what he formerly 
 admired." 
 
 316. Does a spirit still take an interest in the labours 
 which are going on upon the earth, in the progress of the 
 arts and sciences ? 
 
 "That depends on his degree of elevation, and on the 
 mission he may have to fulfil. What appears magnificent 
 to you often appears a very small matter to spirits ; if they 
 take an interest in it, it is only as a man of learning takes 
 an interest in the work of a schoolboy. They examine 
 whatever indicates the elevation of incarnated spirits and 
 marks the degree of their progress." 
 
 317. Do spirits, after death, retain any preference for 
 their native country ? 
 
 " For spirits of elevated degree, their country is the uni- 
 verse ; in regard to the earth, their only preference is for 
 the place in which there is the greatest number of persons 
 with whom they are in sympathy." 
 
 The situation of spirits, and their way of looking at things, are 
 infinitely varied, according to their various degrees of moral and in- 
 tellectual development. Spirits of a high order generally make but 
 short sojourns upon the earth ; all that goes on here is so paltry in 
 comparison with the grandeurs of infinity, the matters to which men 
 attribute most importance appear to them so puerile, that the things 
 of this earth have very little interest for them, unless they have been 
 sent to it for the purpose of quickening the progress of its people. 
 Spirits of lower degree visit our earth more frequently, but they judge 
 its affairs from a higher point of view than that of their corporeal life. 
 The common ruck of spirits may be said to be sedentary among us ; 
 they constitute the great mass of the ambient population of the in- 
 visible world. They retain very much the same ideas, tastes, and ten- 
 dencies which they had while clothed with their corporeal envelope, 
 and mix themselves up with our gatherings, our occupations, our 
 amusements, in all of which they take a part more or less active accord- 
 ing to their character. Being no longer able to satisfy their material 
 passions, they take delight in witnessing the excesses of those who 
 abandon themselves to their indulgence, to which they excite them 
 by every means in their power. Among their number are some who 
 are better disposed, and who see and observe in order to acquire know- 
 ledge and to advance. 
 
 318. Do spirits modify their ideas in the other life? 
 
 " Very considerably. A spirit's ideas undergo very great 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. I39 
 
 modifications in proportion as he becomes dematerialised. 
 He may sometimes retain the same ideas for a long period, 
 but little by little the influence of matter diminishes, and 
 he see more clearly. It is then that he seeks for the means 
 of advancing." 
 
 319. As spirits had already lived in the other world 
 before being incarnated, why do they feel astonished on re- 
 entering that world ? 
 
 " This feeling is only momentary, and results from the 
 confusion that follows their waking ; they soon recover 
 their knowledge of themselves, as the memory of the past 
 comes back to them, and the impression of the terrestrial 
 life becomes effaced." ( Vide 163 et seq.) 
 
 Commemoration of the Dead— Funerals. 
 
 320. Are spirits affected by the remembrance of those 
 whom they have loved on earth ? 
 
 " Very much more so than you are apt to suppose. If 
 they are happy, this remembrance adds to their happiness ; 
 if they are unhappy, it affords them consolation." 
 
 321. Are spirits specially attracted towards their friends 
 upon the earth by the return of the day which, in some 
 countries, is consecrated to the memory of those who have 
 quitted this life ? Do they make it a point to meet those 
 who, on that day, go to pray beside the graves where their 
 mortal remains are interred ? 
 
 " Spirits answer to the call of affectionate remembrance 
 on that day as they do on any other day." 
 
 — Do they, on that day, go specially to the burial-place 
 of their corporeal body ? 
 
 " They go to the cemeteries in greater numbers on that 
 day, because called thither by the thoughts of a greater 
 number of persons ; but each spirit goes solely for his own 
 friends, and not for the crowd of those who care nothing 
 about him." 
 
 — In what form do they come to these places, and what 
 would be their appearance if they could render themselves 
 visible to us f 
 
140 BOOK II. CHAP. VI. 
 
 " The form and appearance by which they were known 
 during their lifetime." 7 
 
 322. Do the spirits of those who are forgotten, and whose 
 graves no one visits, go to the cemeteries notwithstanding 
 this neglect ? Do they feel regret at seeing that no one 
 remembers them ? 
 
 " What is the earth to them ? They are only linked to 
 it by the heart. If, upon the earth, no affection is felt for 
 a spirit, there is nothing that can attach him to it ; he has 
 the whole universe before him." 
 
 323. Does a visit made to his grave give more pleasure 
 to a spirit than a prayer offered for him by friends in their 
 own home ? 
 
 " A visit made to his grave is a way of showing to a spirit 
 that he is not forgotten ; it is a sign. As I have told you, 
 it is the prayer that sanctifies the action of the memory; 
 the place where it is offered is of little importance, if it come 
 from the heart." 
 
 324. When statues or other monuments are erected to 
 persons who have quitted this life, are the spirits of those 
 persons present at their inauguration ; and do they wit- 
 ness such ceremonies with pleasure ? 
 
 " Spirits often attend on such occasions, when able to do 
 so ; but they attach less importance to the honours paid to 
 them than to the remembrance in which they are held." 
 
 325. What makes some persons desire to be buried in 
 one place rather than in another ? Do they go thither more 
 willingly after their death ? And is it a sign of inferiority 
 on the part of a spirit that he should attribute importance 
 to a matter so purely material ? 
 
 " That desire is prompted by a spirit's affection for certain 
 places, and is a sign of moral inferiority. To an elevated 
 spirit, what is one spot of earth more than another ? Does 
 he not know that his soul will be reunited with those he 
 loves, even though their bones are separated? 
 
 — Is it futile to bring together the mortal remains of all 
 the members of a family in the same burial-place ? 
 
SPIRIT-LIFE. 141 
 
 " Such reunion is of little importance to spirits ; but it 
 is useful to men, whose remembrance of those who have 
 gone before them is thus strengthened and rendered more 
 serious." 
 
 326. When the soul has returned into spirit-life, is it 
 gratified by the honours paid to its mortal remains ? 
 
 " When a spirit has reached a certain degree of advance- 
 ment, he is purified from terrestrial vanities, for he compre- 
 hends their futility. But there are many spirits who, in the 
 early period of their return to the other life, take great plea- 
 sure in the honours paid to their memory, or are much dis- 
 turbed at finding themselves forgotten ; for they still retain 
 some of the false ideas they held during their earthly life. ,> 
 
 327. Do spirits ever attend their own funeral? 
 
 " Spirits very often do so • but, in many cases, without 
 understanding what is going on, being still in the state of 
 confusion that usually follows death." 
 
 — Do they feel flattered by the presence of a large con- 
 course of persons at their funeral ? 
 
 " More or less so, according to the sentiment which has 
 brought them together." 
 
 328. Is a spirit ever present at the meetings of his heirs ? 
 " Almost always. Providence has so ordained it for the 
 
 spirit's own instruction, and for the chastisement of selfish- 
 ness. The deceased is thus enabled to judge of the worth 
 of the protestations of affection and devotion addressed to 
 him during his life ; and his disappointment on witnessing 
 the rapacity of those who dispute the property he has left 
 is often very great. But the punishment of greedy heirs 
 will come in due time." 
 
 329. Is the respect which mankind, in all ages and among 
 all peoples, has always instinctively shown to the dead, to be 
 attributed to an intuitive belief in a future state of exist- 
 ence? 
 
 " The one is the natural consequence of the other ; were 
 it not for that belief, such respect would have neither object 
 
 nor meaning." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. 
 
 I. Preludes to return — 2. Union of soul and body : Abortion — 3. Moral 
 and intellectual faculties of mankind — 4. Influence of organism— 
 5. Idiocy and madness — 6. Infancy — 7. Terrestrial sympathies and 
 antipathies — 8. Forgetfulness of the past. 
 
 Preludes to Return. 
 
 330. Do spirits foresee the epoch of their next return to 
 corporeal life ? 
 
 " They have the presentiment of that return, as a blind 
 man feels the heat of the fire he is approaching. They 
 know that they will be reincarnated, as you know that you 
 will die ; but without knowing when the change will occur. " 
 
 -(166.) 
 
 — Reincarnation, then, is a necessity of spirit-life, as 
 death is a necessity of corporeal life ? 
 " Certainly." 
 
 331. Do all spirits occupy themselves beforehand with 
 their approaching incarnation ? 
 
 " There are some who never give it a thought, and who 
 even know nothing about it ; that depends on their greater 
 or less degree of advancement. In some cases, the uncer- 
 tainty in which they are left in regard to their future is a 
 punishment." 
 
 332. Can a spirit hasten or retard the moment of his 
 reincarnation ? 
 
 " He may hasten it by the action of a strong desire ; he 
 may also put it off if he shrink from the trial awaiting him 
 
RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. 1 43 
 
 (for the cowardly and the indifferent are to be found among 
 spirits as among men), but he cannot do so with impunity. 
 He suffers from such delay, as the sick man suffers who 
 shrinks from employing the remedy which alone can cure 
 him." 
 
 333. If a spirit found himself tolerably happy in an aver- 
 age condition among errant spirits, could he prolong that 
 state indefinitely? 
 
 "No, not indefinitely. The necessity of advancing is 
 one which is felt by every spirit, sooner or later. All spirits 
 have to ascend ; it is their destiny." 
 
 334. Is the union of a given soul with a given body pre- 
 destined beforehand, or is the choice of a body only made 
 at the last moment? 
 
 " The spirit who is to animate a given body is always de- 
 signated beforehand. Each spirit, on choosing the trial he 
 elects to undergo, demands to be reincarnated ; and God, 
 who sees and knows all things, has foreseen and foreknown 
 that such and such a soul would be united to such and such 
 a body." 
 
 335. Is the spirit allowed to choose the body into which 
 he will enter, or does he only choose the kind of life which 
 is to serve for his trial ? 
 
 " He may choose a body also, for the imperfections of a 
 given body are so many trials that will aid his advancement, 
 if he succeeds in vanquishing the obstacles thus placed in 
 his way. This choice does not always depend on himself, 
 but he may ask to be allowed to make it." 
 
 — Could a spirit refuse, at the last moment, to enter into 
 the body that had been chosen by him ? 
 
 " If he refused, he would suffer much more than one who 
 had not attempted to undergo a new trial." 
 
 336. Could it happen that a child about to be born 
 should find no spirit willing to incarnate himself in it? 
 
 " God provides for all contingences. Every child who is 
 predestined to be born viable, is also predestined to have a 
 soul. Nothing is ever created without design." 
 
 N 
 
144 BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 
 
 337. Is the union of a given soul with a given body ever 
 imposed by God ? 
 
 " It is sometimes imposed, as well as the different trials 
 to be undergone by a spirit, and especially when the latter 
 is still too backward to be able to choose wisely for himself. 
 A spirit may be constrained, as an expiation, to unite him- 
 self with the body of a child that, by the circumstances of 
 its birth, and the position it will have in the world, will 
 become for him an instrument of chastisement." 
 
 338. If several spirits demanded to incarnate themselves 
 in a body about to be born, in what way would the decision 
 be made between them ? 
 
 " In such a case, it is God who judges as to which spirit 
 is best fitted to fulfil the destiny appointed for the child ; 
 but, as I have already told you, the spirit is designated 
 before the instant in which he is to unite himself with the 
 body." 
 
 339. Is the moment of incarnation accompanied by a 
 confusion similar to that which follows the spirit's separation 
 from the body ? 
 
 " Yes, but much greater and especially much longer. At 
 death, the spirit is emancipated from the state of slavery ; at 
 birth, he re-enters it." 
 
 340. Does the moment in which he is to reincarnate 
 himself appear to a spirit as a solemn one ? Does he ac- 
 complish that act as something serious and important for 
 him? 
 
 " He is like a traveller who embarks on a perilous voyage, 
 and who does not know whether he may not find his death 
 in the waves among which he is venturing." 
 
 Just as the death of the body is a sort of re-birth for the spirit, so 
 reincarnation is for him a sort of death, or rather of exile and claustra- 
 tion. He quits the world of spirits for the corporeal world just as a 
 man quits the corporeal world for the world of spirits. A spirit knows 
 that he will be reincarnated, just as a man knows that he will die ; but, 
 like the latter, he only becomes aware of the change at the moment 
 when it occurs. It is at this moment that the confusion produced by 
 the change takes possession of him. as is the case with a man in the 
 
RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. 145 
 
 act of dying ; and this confusion lasts until his new existence is fully- 
 established. The commencement of reincarnation is, for the spirit, a 
 sort of dying. 
 
 341. Is a spirit's uncertainty, in regard to the successful 
 issue of the trials he is about to undergo in his new life, a 
 cause of anxiety to him before his incarnation? 
 
 "Yes, of very great anxiety, since those trials will retard 
 or hasten his advancement, according as he shall have 
 borne them ill or well." 
 
 342. Is a spirit accompanied, at the moment of his re- 
 incarnation, by spirit- friends who cime to be present at his 
 departure from the spirit- world, as they come to receive 
 him when he returns to it ? 
 
 " That depends on the sphere which the spirit inhabits. 
 If he belongs to a sphere in which affection reigns, spirits 
 who love him remain with him to the last moment, encou- 
 rage him, and often even follow him in his new life." 
 
 343. Is it the spirit-friends who thus follow us in our 
 earthly life that we sometimes see in our dreams manifest- 
 ing affection for us, but whose features are unknown to us ? 
 
 " Yes, in very many cases ; they come to visit you as you 
 visit a prisoner in his cell." 
 
 Union of Soul and Body. 
 
 344. At what moment is the soul united to the body? 
 
 " The union begins at the moment of conception, but is 
 only complete at the moment of birth. From the moment 
 of conception, the spirit designated to inhabit a given body 
 is united to that body by a fluidic link, which becomes 
 closer and closer up to the instant of birth ; the cry then 
 uttered by the infant announces that he is numbered among 
 the living." 
 
 345. Is the union between the spirit and the body de- 
 finitive from the moment of conception ? Could the spirit, 
 during this first period of that union, renounce inhabiting 
 the body designed for him ? 
 
 " The union between them is definitive in this sense — • 
 
146 BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 
 
 namely, that no other spirit could replace the one who has 
 been designated for that body. But, as the links which 
 hold them together are at first very weak, they are easily 
 broken, and may be severed by the will of a spirit who 
 draws back from the trial he had chosen. But, in that 
 case, the child does not live." 
 
 346. What becomes of a spirit, if the body he has chosen 
 happens to die before birth ? 
 
 " He chooses another body." 
 
 — What can be the use of premature deaths ? 
 
 "Such deaths are most frequently caused by the imper- 
 fections of matter." 
 
 . 347. What benefit can a spirit derive from his incarnation 
 in a body which dies a few days after birth ? 
 
 "In such a case, the new being's consciousness o( his 
 existence is so slightly developed that his death is of little 
 importance. As we have told you, such deaths are often 
 intended mainly as a trial for the parents." 
 
 348. Does a spirit know beforehand that the body he 
 chooses has no chance of living ? 
 
 " He sometimes knows it; but if he chooses it on this 
 account, it is because he shrinks from the trial he foresees." 
 
 349. When, from any cause, a spirit has failed to accom- 
 plish a proposed incarnation, is another existence provided 
 for him immediately ? 
 
 " Not always immediately. The spirit requires time to 
 make a new choice, unless his instantaneous reincarnation 
 had been previously decided upon." 
 
 350. When a spirit is definitively united to an infant 
 body, and it is thus too late for him to refuse this union, 
 does he sometimes regret the choice he has made ? 
 
 " If you mean to ask whether, as a man, he may com- 
 plain of the life he has to undergo, and whether he may 
 not wish it were otherwise, I answer, Yes ; but if you mean 
 to ask whether he regrets the choice he has made, I answer, 
 No, for he does not remember that he has made it. . A 
 
RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. 147 
 
 spirit, when once incarnated, cannot regret a choice which 
 he is not conscious of having made ; but he may find the 
 burden he has assumed too heavy, and, if he believes it to 
 be beyond his strength, he may have recourse to suicide/' 
 
 351. Does a spirit, in the interval between conception 
 and birth, enjoy the use of all his faculties? 
 
 " He does so more or less according to the various 
 periods of gestation ; for he is not yet incarnated in his new 
 body, but only attached to it. From the instant of concep- 
 tion confusion begins to take possession of the spirit, who 
 is thus made aware that the moment has come for him to 
 enter upon a new existence ; and this confusion becomes 
 more and more dense until the period of birth. In the 
 interval between these two terms, his state is nearly that of 
 an incarnated spirit during the sleep of the body. In pro- 
 portion as the moment of birth approaches, his ideas become 
 effaced, together with his remembrance of the past, of 
 which, when once he has entered upon corporeal life, he is 
 no longer conscious. But this remembrance comes back 
 to him little by little when he has returned to the spirit- 
 world." 
 
 352. Does the spirit, at the moment of birth, recover 
 the plenitude of his faculties ? 
 
 " No ; they are gradually developed with the growth of his 
 organs. The corporeal life is for him a new existence ; he 
 has to learn the use of his bodily instruments. His ideas 
 come back to him little by little, as in the case of a man 
 who, waking out of slumber, should find himself in a 
 different situation from that in which he was before he fell 
 asleep.'* 
 
 353. The union of the spirit and the body not being 
 completely and definitively consummated until birth has 
 taken place, can the foetus be considered as having a soul ? 
 
 "The spirit who is to animate it exists, as it were, outside 
 of it ; strictly speaking, therefore, it has no soul, since the 
 incarnation of the latter is only in course of being effected; 
 but it is linked to the soul which it is to have." 
 
148 BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 
 
 354. What is the nature of intra -uterine life? 
 
 " That of the plant which vegetates. The foetus, how- 
 ever, lives with vegetable and animal life, to which the union 
 of a soul with the child-body at birth adds spiritual life." 
 
 355. Are there, as is indicated by science, children so 
 constituted that they cannot live, and if so, for what pur- 
 pose are they produced ? 
 
 M That often happens. Such births are permitted as a 
 trial, either for the parents or for the spirit appointed to 
 animate it" 
 
 356. Are there, among still-born children, some who 
 were never intended for the incarnation of a spirit ? 
 
 " Yes, there are some who never had a spirit assigned to 
 them, for whom nothing was to be done. In such a case, 
 it is simply as a trial for the parents that the child arrives." 
 
 — Can a being of this nature come to its term ? 
 " Yes, sometimes ; but it does not live." 
 
 — Every child that survives its birth has, then, neces- 
 sarily a spirit incarnated in it ? 
 
 " What would it be if such were not the case ? It would 
 not be a human being." 
 
 357. What are, for a spirit, the consequences of abortion ? 
 " It is an existence that is null, and must be commenced 
 
 over again." 
 
 358. Is artificial abortion a crime, no matter at what 
 period of gestation it may be produced ? 
 
 " Every transgression of the law of God is a crime. The 
 mother, or any other, who takes the life of an unborn child, 
 is necessarily criminal ; for, by so doing, a soul is prevented 
 from undergoing the trials of which the body thus destroyed 
 was to have been the instrument." 
 
 359. In cases in which the life of the mother would be 
 endangered by the birth of the child, is it a crime to sacri- 
 fice the child in order to save the mother? 
 
 " It is better to sacrifice the being whose existence is not 
 yet complete than the being whose existence is complete." 
 
RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. 149 
 
 360. Is it rational to treat the foetus with the same respect 
 as the body of a child that has lived ? 
 
 " In the one, as in the other, you should recognise the. 
 will and the landiwork of God, and these are always to be 
 respected." 
 
 Moral and Intellectual Faculties. 
 
 361. Whence has man his moral qualities, good or bad? 
 " They are those of the spirit who is incarnated in him. 
 
 The purer is that spirit, the more decidedly is the man 
 inclined to goodness." 
 
 — It would seem, then, that a good man is the incarna- 
 tion of a good spirit, and a vicious man that of a bad spirit? 
 
 " Yes j but you should rather say ' of an imperfect spirit/ 
 otherwise it might be supposed that there are spirits who 
 will always remain bad, what you call devils." 
 
 362. What is the character of the individuals in whom 
 light an I foolish spirits are incarnated? 
 
 " They are hare-brained, prankish, and sometimes mis- 
 chievous." 
 
 363. Have spirits any passions that do not belong to 
 humanity? 
 
 " No ; if they had, they would communicate them to you." 
 
 364. Is it one and the same spirit that gives a man both 
 his moral and his intellectual qualities? 
 
 " Certainly it is the same. A man has not two spirits in 
 him." 
 
 365. How comes it that some men, who are very intelli- 
 gent, which shows that they have in them a spirit of con- 
 siderable advancement, are also extremely vicious? 
 
 " It is because the spirit incarnated in a man is not suffi- 
 ciently purified, and the man yields to the influence of other 
 spirits still worse than himself. The upward progress of a 
 spirit is accomplished by slow degrees ; but this progress 
 does not take place simultaneously in all directions. At 
 one period of his career he may advance in knowledge, at 
 another in morality." 
 
150 BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 
 
 366. What is to be thought of the opinion according to 
 which a man's various intellectual and moral faculties are 
 the product of so many different spirits incarnated in him, 
 and each possessing a special aptitude ? 
 
 " The absurdity of such an opinion becomes evident on 
 a moment's reflection. Each spirit is destined to possess 
 all possible aptitudes ; but, in order to progress, he must 
 possess one sole and unitary will. If a man were an amal- 
 gam of different spirits, this unitary will would not exist, 
 and he would possess no individuality, because, at his death, 
 all those spirits would fly off in different directions, like 
 birds escaped from a cage. Men often complain of not 
 comprehending certain things, and yet how ingenious they 
 are in multiplying difficulties, while they have within reach 
 the simplest and most natural of explanations ! Such an 
 opinion is but another instance of the way in which men 
 so often take the effect for the cause. It does for man 
 what the pagans did for God. They believed in the exist- 
 ence of as many gods as there are phenomena in the uni- 
 verse ; but, even among them, the more sensible ones only 
 saw in those phenomena a variety of effects having for their 
 cause one and the same God." 
 
 The physical and moral worlds offer us, in regard to this subject, 
 numerous points of comparison. While the attention of mankind was 
 confined to the appearance of natural phenomena, they believed in the 
 existence of many kinds of matter. In the present day, it is seen that 
 all those phenomena, however varied, may very probably be merely 
 the result of modifications. of a single elementary matter. The various 
 faculties of a human being are manifestations of one and the same 
 cause, which is the soul or spirit incarnated in him, and not of several 
 souls ; just as the different sounds of an organ are the product of one 
 and the same air, and not of as many surts of air as there are sounds. 
 According to the theory in question, when a man acquires or loses 
 aptitudes or tendencies, such mrdifications would be the result of the 
 Coming or going of a corresponding number of the spirits conjoined 
 with him, which would make of him a multiple being without indivi- 
 duality, and, consequently, without responsibility. This theory, more- 
 over, is disproved by the numerous manifestations of spirits which 
 Conclusively demonstrate their personality and their identity. 
 
 Influence of Organism. 
 
 367. Does a spirit, in uniting itself with a body, identify 
 itself with matter ? 
 
RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. 15 1 
 
 " Matter is only the envelope of the spirit, as clothing is 
 the envelope of the body. A spirit, in uniting himself with 
 a body, retains the attributes of his spiritual nature." 
 
 368. Does a spirit exercise his faculties in full freedom 
 after his union with a body ? 
 
 " The exercise of faculties depends on the organs which 
 serve them for instruments. Their exercise is weakened 
 by the grossness of matter." 
 
 — It would appear, then, that the material envelope is 
 an obstacle to the free manifestation of a spirit's faculties, 
 as the opacity of ground glass is an obstacle to the free emis- 
 sion of light? 
 
 " Yes, an obstacle which is exceedingly opaque." 
 
 The action exercised upon a spirit by the gross matter of his body 
 may also be compared to that of muddy water, impeding the move- 
 ments of the objects plunged into it. 
 
 369. Is the free exercise of a spirit's faculties subordin- 
 ated, during his incarnation, to the development of his cor- 
 poreal organs ? 
 
 " Those organs are the soul's instruments for the mani- 
 festation of its faculties ; that manifestation is, therefore, 
 necessarily subordinated to the degree of development and 
 perfection of those organs, as the perfection of a piece 
 of manual work depends on the goodness of the tool em- 
 ployed." 
 
 370. May we, from the influence of the corporeal organs, 
 infer a connection between the development of the cerebral 
 organs and that of the moral and intellectual faculties? 
 
 " Do not confound effect and cause. A spirit always 
 possesses the faculties that belong to him ; but you must 
 remember that it is not the organs that give the faculties, but 
 the faculties that incite to the development of the organs." 
 
 — According to this view of the subject, the diversity of 
 aptitudes in each man depends solely on the state of his 
 spirit? 
 
 " To say that it does so ' solely/ would not be alto- 
 gether correct. The qualities of the incarnated spirit are, 
 
152 BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 
 
 undoubtedly, the determining principle of those aptitudes ; 
 but allowance must be made for the influence of matter, 
 which hinders every man, more or less, in the exercise of 
 the faculties inherent in his soul." 
 
 A spirit, in incarnating himself, brings with him certain characterial 
 predispositions ; therefore, if we admit the existence, for each of these, 
 of a special organ in the brain, the development of the cerebral organs 
 is seen to be an effect, and not a cause. If his faculties were a result 
 of his bodily organs, man would be a mere machine, without free-will, 
 and would not be responsible for his actions. Moreover, if such were 
 the case, we should be forced to admit that the greatest geniuses — men 
 of science, poets, artists — are only such because a lucky chance has 
 given them certain special organs ; whence it would follow, still further, 
 that, but for the chance-acquisition of those organs, they would not 
 have been geniuses, and that the stupidest of men might have been a 
 Newton, a Virgil, or a Raphael, if he had been provided with certain 
 organs ; a supposition still more flagrantly absurd, if we attempt to 
 apply it to the explanation of the moral qualities. For, according to 
 this system, Saint Vincent de Paul, had he been gifted by nature with 
 such and such an organ, might have been a sc undrel ; and the greatest 
 scoundrel alive, had he only been gifted with an organ of an opposite 
 nature, might have been a Saint Vincent de Paul. If, on the contrary, 
 we admit that our special organs, supposing such to exist, are an effect 
 and not a cause, that they are developed by the exercise of the faculties 
 to which they correspond, as muscles are developed by movement, we 
 arrive at a theory which is certainly not irrational. Let us employ an 
 illustration equally conclusive and commonplace. By certain physio- 
 gnomic signs we recognise a man who is addicted to drink. Is it those 
 signs that make him a drunkard, or is it his drunkenness that produces 
 those signs ? It may be safely asserted that our organs are a conse- 
 quence of our faculties. 
 
 Idiocy— Madness. 
 
 371. Is there any foundation for the common belief that 
 the souls of idiots are of a nature inferior to those of others ? 
 
 " No; they have a human soul, which is often more in- 
 telligent than you suppose, and which suffers acutely from 
 the insufficiency of its means of communication, as the 
 dumb man suffers from his inability to speak." 
 
 372. What is the aim of Providence in creating beings 
 so ill-treated by nature as idiots? 
 
 " Idiots are incarnations of spirits who are undergoing 
 punishment, and who suffer from the constraint they ex- 
 perience, and from their inability to manifest themselves by 
 means of organs which are undeveloped, or out of order." 
 
RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. 1 53 
 
 — Then it is not correct to say that organs are without 
 influence upon faculties ? 
 
 " We have never said that organs are without influence 
 
 They have very great influence on the manifestation of 
 
 faculties, but they do not give faculties ; there is just the 
 
 difference. A skilful player will not make good music with 
 
 a bad instrument, but that will not prevent his being a 
 
 good player." 
 
 It is necessary to distinguish between the normal state and the 
 pathologic state. In the normal state, the moral strength of an incar- 
 nated spirit enables him to triumph over the obstacles which are placed 
 in his way by matter ; but there are cases in which matter opposes a 
 resistance so powerful that the manifestations of the spirit incarnated 
 in it are hindered or changed from what he intended, as in idiocy and 
 madness. These cases are pathologic ; and as the soul, in such states, 
 is not in the enjoyment of its full liberty, human law itself exempts 
 such persons from the responsibility of their actions. 
 
 373. What merit can there be in the existence of beings 
 who, like idiots, can do neither good nor evil, and therefore 
 cannot progress? 
 
 " Such an existence is imposed as an expiation of the 
 abuse which a spirit has made of certain faculties ; it con- 
 stitutes a pause in his career." 
 
 — The body of an idiot may, then, contain a spirit that 
 has animated a man of genius in a preceding existence? 
 
 u Yes ; genius sometimes becomes a scourge when it is 
 abused." 
 
 Intel'ectual superiority is not always accompanied by an equal degree 
 of moral superiority, and the greatest geniuses may have much to 
 expiate. For this reason, they often have to undergo an existence in- 
 ferior to the one they have previously accomplished, which is a cause 
 of suffering for them ; the hindrances to the manifestation of his facul- 
 ties thus imposed upon a spirit being like chains that fetter the nove- 
 ments of a vigorous man. The idiot may be said to be lame in the 
 brain, as the halt is lame in the legs, and the blind, in the eyes. 
 
 374. Is the idiot, in the spirit-state, conscious of his 
 mental condition ? 
 
 " Yes ; very often. He comprehends that the chains 
 which hinder his action are a trial and an expiation." 
 
 375. When a man is mad, what is the state of his spirit? 
 " A spirit, in the state of freedom, receives his impres- 
 
154 BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 
 
 sions directly, and exerts his action directly upon matter ; 
 but when incarnated, he is in an altogether different con- 
 dition, and compelled to act only through the instrumen- 
 tality of special organs. If some or all of those organs 
 are injured, his actions or his impressions, as far as those 
 organs are concerned, are interrupted. If he loses his eyes, 
 he becomes blind ; if he loses his hearing, he becomes 
 deaf; and so on. Suppose that the organ which presides 
 over the manifestations of intelligence and of will is par- 
 tially or entirely weakened or modified in its action, and 
 you will easily understand that the spirit, having at his ser- 
 vice only organs that are incomplete or diverted from their 
 proper action, must experience a functional perturbation 
 of which he is perfectly conscious, but is not able to arrest 
 the course. " 
 
 — It is then always the body, and not the spirit, that is 
 disorganised ? 
 
 " Yes ; but you must not forget that, just as a spirit acts 
 upon matter, matter, to a certain extent, reacts upon him ; 
 and that he may therefore find himself, for the time being, 
 subjected to the influence of the false impressions conse- 
 quent on the vitiated state of his organs of perception and 
 of action. And it may happen, when this mental aberra- 
 tion has continued for a long time, that the repetition of 
 the same perverted action may exercise upon a spirit an 
 influence from which he is only delivered after his com- 
 plete separation from all material impressions/ 
 
 376. How is it that madness sometimes leads to suicide ? 
 " In such cases, the spirit suffers from the constraint 
 
 which he feels, and from his inability to manifest himself 
 freely ; and he therefore seeks death as a means of break- 
 ing his chains." 
 
 377. Does the spirit of a madman continue to feel, after 
 death, the derangement from which he suffered in his cor- 
 poreal life ? 
 
 u He may continue to feel it for some time after death, 
 until he is completely freed from matter; just as a man, on 
 
RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. 155 
 
 waking, continues to feel, for some little time, the confusion 
 in which he has been plunged by sleep/' 
 
 378. How can brain-disease act upon a spirit after his 
 death ? 
 
 " It is an effect of remembrance, which weighs like a 
 burden upon the spirit ; and as he was not aware of all that 
 took place during his madness, he always needs a certain 
 amount of time for recovering the hang of his ideas. It is 
 for this reason that the continuance of his uneasiness after 
 death is always proportioned to the longer or shorter con- 
 tinuance of the corporeal insanity from which he has pre- 
 viously suffered. A spirit, when freed from the body, still 
 feels, for a longer or shorter time, the impression of the 
 links that united him with it." 
 
 Infancy. 
 
 379. Is the spirit who animates the body of a child as 
 developed as that of an adult ? 
 
 " He may be more so, if, before reincarnating himself, he 
 had progressed farther ; it is only the imperfection of his 
 organs that prevents him from manifesting himself. He 
 acts according to the state of the instrument by which 
 alone, when incarnated, he can manifest himself." 
 
 380. During the infancy of his body, and without refer- 
 ence to the obstacle opposed to his free manifestation by 
 the imperfection of his organs, does a spirit think as a 
 child, or as an adult ? 
 
 "While he remains a child, it is evident that his organs 
 of thought, not being developed, cannot give him all the 
 intuition of an adult ; his range of intellect is therefore 
 only narrow, until increasing age has ripened his reason. 
 The confusion which accompanies incarnation does not 
 cease, all at once, at the moment of birth; it is only dis- 
 sipated gradually with the development of the bodily organs." 
 
 The observation of a fact of human life furnishes us with a confirma- 
 tion of the preceding reply — viz., that the dreams of childhood have 
 not the character of those of adult age. Their object is almost always 
 childish ; a characteristic indication of the nature of a spirit's thoughts 
 during the infancy of his organs. 
 
156 BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 
 
 381. At the death of a child, does its spirit at once 
 regain his former vigour? 
 
 " He should do so, since he is freed from his fleshly en- 
 velope ; but, in point of fact, he only regains his former 
 lucidity when the separation is complete — that is to say, 
 when there is no longer any connection between the spirit 
 and the body." 
 
 382. Does the incarnated spirit suffer, during the state of 
 childhood, from the constraint imposed on him by the im- 
 perfections of his organs ? 
 
 " No ; that state is a necessity. It is a part of the ordi- 
 nation of nature, and of the providential plan. // constitutes 
 a time of repose for the spirit" 
 
 383. What is the use, for a spirit, of passing through the 
 state of infancy ? 
 
 " The aim of incarnation is the improvement of the spirit 
 subjected to it ; and a spirit is more accessible during 
 childhood to the impressions he receives, and which may 
 conduce to his advancement — the end to which all those 
 who are entrusted with his education should contribute. " 
 
 384. Why is it that the infant's first utterances are those 
 of weeping ? 
 
 " It is in order to excite the mother's interest on his 
 behalf, and to ensure to him the care he needs. Can you 
 not understand that if a child, before he is able to speak, 
 uttered only cries of joy, those around him would trouble 
 themselves very little - about his wants ? In all these ar- 
 rangements admire the wisdom of Providence." 
 
 385. Whence comes the change which occurs in the cha- 
 racter of the young on the approach of manhood : is it the 
 spirit that becomes modified ? 
 
 " The spirit, regaining possession of himself, shows him- 
 self such as he was before his incarnation. 
 
 " You know not the secrets hidden under the seeming 
 innocence of children. You know neither what they are, 
 nor what they have been, nor what they will be ; and 
 nevertheless you love and cherish them as though they were 
 
RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. 157 
 
 a part of yourselves, and to such a degree, that the love of 
 a mother for her children is reputed to be the greatest love 
 that one being can have for another. Whence comes the 
 sweet affection, the tender benevolence, that even strangers 
 feel for a child ? Do you know its origin ? No ; but I will 
 now explain it to you. 
 
 " Children are beings sent by God into new existences, 
 and, in order that they may not be able to reproach Him 
 with having been unduly severe to them, He gives them all 
 ■ the external appearances of innocence ; even in the case of a 
 child of the worst possible nature, its misdeeds are covered by 
 its unconsciousness of the quality of its acts. This apparent 
 innocence does not constitute for children any real superi- 
 ority over what they previously were ; it is merely the image 
 of what they ought to be, and, if they are not such, it will 
 be on themselves alone that the punishment will fall. 
 
 " But it is not merely for themselves that God has given to 
 children this appearance of innocence ; it is given to them 
 also, and especially, in view of their parents, whose love is so 
 necessary to them in their weakness : for this love would 
 be greatly diminished by the sight of a harsh or cross-grained 
 nature, whereas, believing their children to be good and 
 gentle, they give them all their affection, and surround 
 them with the most minute and delicate care. But, when 
 children no longer need this protection, this assistance, 
 which has been given them during fifteen or twenty years, 
 their real character and individuality reappears in all its 
 nudity. He who is really good remains good ; but, even 
 then, his character reveals many traits and shades that were 
 hidden during his earlier years. 
 
 " You see that God's ways are always for the best ; and 
 that, for the pure in heart, they are easily explicable. 
 
 " Get it well into your minds that the spirit of the child 
 who is born among you may have come from a world in 
 which he has acquired habits totally different from yours ; 
 how would it be possible for this new being, coming among 
 you with passions, inclinations, tastes, entirely opposed to 
 yours, to accommodate himself to your world, if he came 
 
158 BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 
 
 among you in any other way than in that which has been 
 ordained by God — that is to say, by passing through the 
 sieve of infancy ? It is through this sifting process of infancy 
 that all the thoughts, all the characteristics, all the varie- 
 ties of beings engendered by the crowd of worlds in which 
 creatures pursue the work of growth, are eventually mingled. 
 And you, also, on dying, find yourselves in a sort of in- 
 fancy, and in the midst of a new family of brothers ; and in 
 your new non-terrestrial existence you are ignorant of the 
 habits, manners, relations of a world which is new to you, 
 and you find it difficult to express yourselves in a language 
 which you are not accustomed to employ, a language more 
 living than is your thought to-day. (319.) 
 
 " Childhood possesses yet another utility. Spirits only 
 enter into corporeal life in order to effect their improve- 
 ment, their self-amelioration. The weakness of corporeal 
 youth tends to render them more pliable, more amenable 
 to the counsels of those whose experience should aid their 
 progress. It is thus that evil tendencies are repressed, and 
 faulty characters are gradually reformed ; and this repression 
 and reformation constitute the duty confided by God to 
 those who assume the parental relation, a sacred mission of 
 which parents will have to render a solemn account to 
 Him. 
 
 " You see, therefore, that childhood is not only useful, 
 necessary, indispensable, but that it is, moreover, the natural 
 result of the laws which God has established, and which 
 govern the universe." 
 
 Terrestrial Sympathies and Antipathies. 
 
 386. Could two beings, who have already known and 
 loved each other, meet again and recognise one another, in 
 another corporeal existence ? 
 
 " They could not recognise one another; but they might 
 be attracted to each other. The attraction resulting from 
 the ties of a former existence is often the cause of the most 
 intimate affectional unions of a subsequent existence. It 
 often happens in your world that two persons are drawn 
 
RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. 159 
 
 together by circumstances which appear to be merely for- 
 tuitous, but which are really due to the attraction exercised 
 upon one another by two spirits who are unconsciously seek- 
 ing each other amidst the crowds by whom they are sur- 
 rounded" 
 
 — Would it not be more agreeable for them to recognise 
 each other ? 
 
 " Not always ; the remembrance of past existences would 
 be attended with greater disadvantages than you suppose. 
 After death they would recognise one another, and would 
 then remember the periods they had passed together." 
 (39 2 -) 
 
 387. Is sympathy always the result of anterior acquain- 
 tanceship ? 
 
 " No ; two spirits who are in harmony naturally seek one 
 another, without their having been previously acquainted 
 with each other as men." 
 
 388. May it not be that the meetings which sometimes 
 take place between two persons, and which are attributed 
 to chance, are really due to the action of some sort of sym- 
 pathetic relationship ? 
 
 " There are, among thinking beings, orders of relationship 
 with which you are not yet acquainted. Magnetism is the 
 pilot of the science that will enable you to understand them 
 at a future period."" 
 
 389. What is the cause of the instinctive repulsion some- 
 times excited in us by persons whom we see for the first time? 
 
 " The latent antipathy of two spirits who divine each 
 other's nature, and recognise one another, without the need 
 of speaking together." 
 
 390. Is instinctive antipathy always the sign of an evil 
 nature on the part of one or both of the parties who feel it ? 
 
 " Two spirits are not necessarily evil because they are 
 not sympathetic ; for antipathy may spring from a want of 
 similarity in their way of thinking. But in proportion as 
 they ascend, these shades of difference are effaced, and their 
 antipathy disappears." 
 
 o 
 
l6o BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 
 
 391. Does the antipathy of two persons take its first 
 beginning on the part .of the better or the worse one of the 
 two ? 
 
 " It may begin simultaneously on the part of both ; but, 
 in such a case, its causes and effects are different. A bad 
 spirit feels antipathy against whoever is able to judge and to 
 unmask him. On seeing such a person for the first time, he 
 knows that he will be disapproved by him ; his repulsion 
 changes into hatred or jealousy, and inspires him with the 
 desire of doing harm to the object of his antipathy. A good 
 spirit feels repulsion for a bad one, because he knows that 
 he will not be understood by him, and that they do not 
 share the same sentiments; but, strong in his own supe- 
 riority, he feels neither hatred nor jealousy towards him, 
 and contents himself with avoiding and pitying him." 
 
 Forgetfulness of the Past. 
 
 392. Why does the incarnated spirit lose the remem- 
 brance of his past ? 
 
 " Man cannot, and may not, know everything ; God, in 
 His wisdom, has so ordained. Without the veil which 
 hides certain things from his view, man would be dazzled, 
 like one who passes suddenly from darkness to light. 
 Through the forgetfulness of his past a man is more fully him- 
 
 scifr ~ 
 
 393. How can a man be responsible for deeds, and atone 
 for faults, of which he has no remembrance ? How can he 
 profit by the experience acquired in existences which he 
 has forgotten ? We could understand that the tribulations 
 of life might be a lesson for him if he remembered the 
 wrong-doing which has brought them upon him ; but if he 
 forgets his former existences, each new existence is, for 
 him, as though it were his first, and thus the work is always 
 to be begun over again. How is this to be reconciled with 
 the justice of God ? 
 
 " With each new existence a spirit becomes more intelli- 
 gent, and better able to distinguish between good and evil. 
 
RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. l6l 
 
 Where would be his freedom if he remembered all his past ? 
 When a spirit re-enters his primitive life (the spirit-life), his 
 whole past unrolls itself before him. He sees the faults 
 which he has committed, and which are the cause of his 
 suffering, and he also sees what would have prevented 
 him from committing them ; he comprehends the justice of 
 the situation which is assigned to him, and he then seeks 
 out the new existence that may serve to repair the mis- 
 takes of the one which has just passed away. He demands 
 new trials analogous to those in which he has failed, or which 
 he considers likely to aid his advancement ; and he de- 
 mands of the spirits who are his superiors to aid him in the 
 new task he is about to undertake, for he knows that the 
 spirit who will be appointed as his guide in that new exist- 
 ence will endeavour to make him cure himself of his faults 
 by giving him a sort of intuition of those he has committed 
 in the past. This intuition is the evil thought, the criminal 
 desire, which often come to you, and which you instinctively 
 resist, attributing your resistance to the principles you have 
 received from your parents, while it is due in reality to the 
 voice of your conscience ; and that voice is the reminiscence 
 of your past, warning you not to fall again into the faults you 
 have already committed. He who, having entered upon a 
 new existence, undergoes its trials with fortitude, and resists 
 its temptations to wrong-doing, rises in the hierarchy of spirits, 
 and takes a higher place when he returns into the normal 
 life." 
 
 If we have not an exact remembrance^ during our corporeal life, of 
 what we have been, and of the good or evil we have done, in our pre- 
 ceding existences, we have the intuition of our past, of which we have 
 a reminiscence in the instinctive tendencies that our conscience, which 
 is the desire we have conceived to avoid committing our past faults in 
 the future, warns us to resist. 
 
 394. In worlds more advanced than ours, where the 
 human race is not a prey to our physical wants and infir- 
 mities, do men understand that they are better off than we 
 are ? Happiness is usually relative ; it is felt to be such by 
 comparison with a state that is less happy. As some of 
 those worlds, though better than ours, have not reached 
 
1 62 BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 
 
 perfection, the men by whom they are inhabited must have 
 their own troubles and annoyances. Among us, the rich 
 man, although he has not to endure the physical privations 
 that torture the poor, is none the less a prey to tribulations 
 of other kinds that embitter his life. What I ask is, whether 
 the inhabitants of those worlds do not consider themselves 
 to be just as unhappy, according to their standard of happi- 
 ness, as we consider ourselves to be according to ours ; and 
 whether they do not, like us, complain of their fate, not 
 havins: the remembrance of an inferior existence to serve 
 them as a standard of comparison ? 
 
 " To this question two different answers must be given. 
 There are some worlds among those of which you speak 
 the inhabitants of which have a very clear and exact remem- 
 brance of their past existences, and therefore can and do 
 appreciate the happiness which God permits them to enjoy. 
 But there are others, of which the inhabitants, though placed, 
 as you say, in better conditions than yours, are, neverthe- 
 less, subject to great annoyances, and even to much unhappi- 
 ness, and who do not appreciate the more favourable con- 
 ditions of their life, because they have no remembrance of 
 a state still more unhappy. But if they do not rightly 
 appreciate those conditions as men, they appreciate them 
 more justly on their return to the spirit-world." 
 
 Is there not, in the forgetfulness of our past exi tences, and especially 
 when they have been painful, a striking proof of the wisdom and bene- 
 ficence of Providential arrangements ? It is only in worlds of higher 
 advancement, and when the remembrance of our painful existences in 
 the past is nothing more to us than the shadowy remembrance of an 
 unpleasant dream, that those existences are allowed to present them- 
 selves to our memory. Would not the painful ness of present suffering, 
 in worlds of low degree, be greatly aggravated by the remembrance of 
 all the miseries we may have had to undergo in the past? These con- 
 siderations should lead us to conclude that whatever has been appointed 
 by God is for the best, and that it is not our province to find fault with 
 His works, nor to decide upon the way in which He ought to have regu- 
 lated the universe. 
 
 The remembrance of our former personality would be attended, in 
 our present existence, with many very serious disadvantages. In some 
 cases, it would cause us cruel humiliation ; in others, it might incite us 
 to pride and vanity ; in all cases, it would be a hindrance to the action 
 of our free-will. God gives us for our amelioration just what is neces- 
 sary and sufficient to that end, viz., the voice of our conscience and our 
 
RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. 1 63 
 
 instinctive tendencies. He keeps from us what would be for us a source 
 of injury. Moreover, if we retained the remembrance of our own 
 former personalities and doings, we should also remember those of 
 other people ; a kind of knowledge that would necessarily exercise a 
 disastrous influence upon our social relations. Not always having 
 reason to be proud of our past, it is evidently better for us that a veil 
 should be thrown over it. And these considerations are in perfect 
 accordance with the statements of spirits in regard to the existence of 
 higher worlds than ours. In those worlds, in which moral excellence 
 reigns, there is nothing painful in the remembrance of the past, and 
 therefore the inhabitants of those happier worlds remember their pre- 
 ceding existence as we remember to-day what we did yesterday. As 
 to the sojourns they may have made in worlds of lower degree, it is no 
 more to them, as we have already said, than the remembrance of a 
 disagreeable dream. 
 
 395. Can we obtain any revelations respecting our former 
 existences ? 
 
 " Not in all cases. There are, however, many who know 
 who they have been and what they have done. If it were 
 permitted to them to speak openly, they would make curious 
 revelations about the past." 
 
 396. Some persons believe themselves to have a vague 
 remembrance of an unknown past, which comes before 
 them like the fugitive image of a dream that one vainly 
 endeavours to recall. Is this belief only an illusion? 
 
 " It is sometimes real, but it is often an illusion to be 
 guarded against ; for it may be merely the effect of an ex- 
 cited imagination." 
 
 397. In corporeal existences of a more elevated nature 
 than ours, is the reminiscence of our anterior existences 
 more exact? 
 
 " Yes ;. in proportion as the body is less material, the 
 spirit incarnated in it remembers them more clearly. The 
 remembrance of the past is always clearer in those who 
 inhabit worlds of a higher order." 
 
 398. A man's instinctive tendencies being a reflex of his 
 past, does it follow that, by studying those tendencies, he 
 can ascertain what are the faults he has formerly committed ? 
 
 " Undoubtedly he can do so up to a certain point ; but 
 he would also have to take account of the improvement 
 which may have been effected in his spirit, and of the resolu- 
 
164 BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 
 
 tions taken by him in the state of erraticity. His present 
 existence may be very much better than his preceding one." 
 
 — Might it be worse?— that is to say, might a man com- 
 mit, in a subsequent existence, faults which he had not 
 committed in the preceding one ? 
 
 " That depends on his advancement. If he were unable 
 to resist temptation, he might be drawn into new faults as 
 a consequence of the situation chosen by him ; but such 
 faults must be considered as indicating a state which is 
 stationary rather than retrograde, for a spirit may advance 
 or remain stationary, but he never goes back." 
 
 399. The vicissitudes of corporeal life being at once an 
 expiation of the faults of the past and lessons for the 
 future, can we, from the nature of those vicissitudes, infer 
 the character of our preceding existence ? 
 
 " You can do so very frequently, since the nature of the 
 punishment incurred always corresponds to that of the fault 
 committed. Nevertheless, it would not do to consider this 
 as being an absolute rule. The instinctive tendencies 
 furnish a more certain indication ; for the trials undergone 
 by a spirit are as much for the future as for the past." 
 
 When a spirit has reached the end of the term assigned by Provi- 
 dence to his errant life, he chooses for himself the trials which he deter- 
 mines to undergo in order to hasten his progress — that is to say, the 
 kind of existence which he believes will be most likely to furnish him 
 with the means of advancing ; and the trials of this new existence 
 always correspond to the faults which he has to expiate. If he triumphs 
 in this new struggle, he rises in grade ; if he succumbs, he has to try 
 again. 
 
 A spirit always possesses free-will. It is in virtue of this free-will 
 that he chooses, when in the spirit-state, the trials he elects to undergo 
 in the corporeal life, and that he deliberates, when in the incarnate 
 state, whether he will do, or not do, and chooses between good and 
 evil. To deny a man's free-will would be to reduce him to a machine. 
 
 When a spirit has re-entered corporeal life, he experiences a tempor- 
 ary forgetfulness of his former existences, as though these were hidden 
 from him by a veil. Sometimes, however, he preserves a vague con- 
 sciousness of them, and they may, under certain circumstances, be 
 revealed to him ; but this only occurs as a result of the decision of higher 
 spirits, who make that revelation spontaneously, for some useful end, 
 and never for the gratification of idle curiosity. 
 
 A spirit's future existences cannot, in any case, be revealed to him 
 during the corporeal life, because they will depend on the manner in which 
 he accomplishes his present existence, and on his own ulterior choice. 
 
RETURN TO CORPOREAL LIFE. 1 65 
 
 Temporary forgetfulness of the faults he has committed is no obstacle 
 to a spirit's improvement ; for if he have not a precise remembrance of 
 them, the knowledge he had of them in the state of erraticity, and the 
 desire he then conceived to repair them, guide him intuitively, and 
 inspire him with the intention of resisting the evil tendency. This in- 
 tention is the voice of his conscience, and is seconded by the spirits 
 who assist him, if he gives heed to the suggestions with which they 
 inspire him. 
 
 Although a man does not know exactly what may have been his acts 
 in his former existences, he always knows the kind of faults of which 
 he has been guilty, and what has been his ruling characteristic. He 
 has only to study himself, and he will know what he has been, not by 
 what he is, but by his tendencies. 
 
 The vicissitudes of corporeal life are both an expiation of faults in 
 the past, and trials designed to render us better for the future. They 
 purify and elevate, provided we bear them resignedly and unrepiningly. 
 
 The nature of the vicissitudes and trials that we have to undergo may 
 also enlighten us in regard to what we have been and what we have 
 done, just as we infer the crimes of which a convict has been guilty 
 from the penalty inflicted on him by the law. Thus, he who has sinned 
 through pride will be punished by the humiliations of an inferior posi- 
 tion ; the self-indulgent and avaricious, by poverty ; the hard-hearted, 
 by the severities he will undergo ; the tyrant, by slavery ; a bad son, by 
 the ingratitude of his children ; the idle, by subjection to hard and 
 incessant labour ; and so on. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL. 
 
 I. Sleep and dreams — 2. Visits between the spirits of living persons— 
 3. Transmission of thought — 4. Lethargy, catalepsy : apparent 
 death — 5. Somnambulism — 6. Trance — 7. Second-sight — 8. 
 Theory of somnambulism, trance, and second-sight. 
 
 Sleep and Breams. 
 
 400. Does the incarnated spirit reside willingly in his 
 corporeal envelope ? 
 
 " You might as well ask whether a prisoner willingly 
 remains locked up in prison. The incarnated spirit aspires 
 incessantly after his deliverance ; and the grosser his enve- 
 lope, the more desirous is he to be rid of it." 
 
 401. Does the soul take rest, like the body, during 
 sleep ? 
 
 " No ; a spirit is never inactive. The bonds which unite 
 him to the body are relaxed during sleep ; and as the body 
 does not then need his presence, he travels through space, 
 and enters into more direct relation with other spirits" 
 
 402. How can we ascertain the fact of a spirit's liberty 
 during sleep ? 
 
 " By dreams. Be very sure that, when his body is asleep, 
 a spirit enjoys the use of faculties of which he is unconscious 
 while his body is awake. He remembers the past, and 
 sometimes foresees the future : he acquires more power, 
 and is able to enter into communication with other spirits, 
 either in this world or in some other. 
 
 " You often say, 'I have had a strange dream, a frightful 
 dream, without any likeness to reality.' You are mistaken 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL. 1 67 
 
 in thinking it to be so ; for it is often a reminiscence of 
 places and things which you have seen in the past, or a fore- 
 sight of those which you will see in another existence, or 
 in this one at some future time. The body being torpid, 
 the spirit tries to break his chain, and seeks, in the past 
 or in the future, for the means of doing so. 
 
 " Poor human beings ! how little do you know of the com- 
 monest phenomena of your life ! You fancy yourselves to 
 be very learned, and you are puzzled by the most ordinary 
 things. To questions that any child might ask, ' What do 
 we do when we are asleep ?' ' What are dreams?' you are 
 incapable of replying. 
 
 " Sleep effects a partial freeing of the soul from the body. 
 When you sleep, your spirit is, for the time being, in the state 
 in which you will be after your death. The spirits who at 
 death are promptly freed from matter are those who, during 
 their life, have had what may be called intelligent sleep. Such 
 persons, when they sleep, regain the society of other spirits 
 superior to themselves. They go about with them, con- 
 versing with them, and gaining instruction from them ; they 
 even work, in the spirit-world, at undertakings which, on 
 dying, they find already begun or completed. From this 
 you see how little death should be dreaded, since, accord- 
 ing to the saying of St. Paul, you ' die daily/ 
 
 " W 7 hat we have just stated refers to spirits of an elevated 
 degree of advancement. As for those of the common mass 
 of men, who, after their death, remain for long hours in the 
 state of confusion and uncertainty of which you have been 
 told by such, they go, during sleep, into worlds of lower 
 rank than the earth, to which they are drawn back by old 
 affections, or by the attraction of pleasures still baser than 
 those to which they are addicted in your world ; visits in 
 which they gather ideas still viler, more ignoble, and more 
 mischievous than those which they had professed during 
 their waking hours. And that which engenders sympathy 
 in the earthly life is nothing else than the fact that you 
 feel yourselves, on waking, affectionally attracted towards 
 those with whom you have passed eight or nine hours of 
 
1 68 BOOK II. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 happiness or pleasure. On the other hand, the explanation 
 of the invincible antipathies you sometimes feel for certain 
 persons is also to be found in the intuitive knowledge you 
 have thus acquired of the fact that those persons have an- 
 other conscience than yours, because you know them with- 
 out having previously seen them with your bodily eyes. It is 
 this same fact, moreover, that explains the indifference of 
 some people for others ; they do not care to make new 
 friends, because they know that they have others by whom 
 they are loved and cherished. In a word, sleep has more 
 influence than you think upon your life. 
 
 " Through the effects of sleep, incarnated spirits are 
 always in connection with the spirit-world ; and it is in 
 consideration of this fact that spirits of a higher order con- 
 sent, without much repugnance, to incarnate themselves 
 among you. God has willed that, during their contact with 
 vice, they may go forth and fortify themselves afresh at the 
 source of rectitude, in order that they, who have come into 
 your world to instruct others, may not fall into evil themselves. 
 Sleep is the gate opened for them by God, that they may 
 pass through it to their friends in the spirit-world ; it is their 
 recreation after labour, while awaiting the great deliverance, 
 the final liberation, that will restore them to their true place. 
 
 " Dreams are the remembrance of what your spirit has 
 seen during sleep ; but you must remark that you do not 
 always dream, because you do not always remember what 
 you have seen, or all that you have seen. Your dreams do 
 not always reflect the action of your soul in its full develop- 
 ment ; for they are often only the reflex of the confusion 
 that accompanies your departure or your return, mingled 
 with the vague remembrance of what you have done, or of 
 what has occupied your thoughts, in your waking state. In 
 what other way can you explain the absurd dreams which 
 are dreamed by the wisest as by the silliest of mankind ? 
 Bad spirits, also, make use of dreams to torment weak and 
 timid souls. 
 
 " You will see, ere long, the development of another 
 kind of dream, a kind which is as ancient as the one you 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL. 169 
 
 know, but one of which you are ignorant The dream we 
 allude to is that of Jeanne Dare, 1 of Jacob, of the Jewish 
 prophets, and of certain Hindoo ascetics — a dream which 
 is the remembrance of the soul's experiences while entirely- 
 freed from the body, the remembrance of the second life, of 
 which I spoke just now, 
 
 " You should carefully endeavour to distinguish these 
 two kinds of dreams among those which you are able to 
 recall : unless you do this, you will be in danger of falling 
 into contradictions and errors that would be prejudicial to 
 your belief." 
 
 Dreams are a product of the emancipation of the soul, rendered more 
 active by the suspension of the active life of relation, and enjoying a 
 sort of indefinite clairvoyance which extends to places at a great dis- 
 tance from us, or that we have never seen, or even to other worlds. 
 To this state of emancipation is also due the remembrance which re- 
 traces to our memory the events that have occurred in our present 
 existence or in preceding existences ; the strangeness of the images of 
 what has taken place in worlds unknown to us, mixed up with the 
 things of the present world, producing the confused and whimsical 
 medleys that seem to be equally devoid of connection and of meaning. 
 
 The incoherence of dreams is still farther explained, by the gaps re- 
 sulting from the incompleteness of our remembrance of what has ap- 
 peared to us in our nightly visions — an incompleteness similar to that 
 of a narrative from which whole sentences, or parts of sentences, have 
 been omitted by chance, and whose remaining fragments, having been 
 thrown together again at random, have lost all intelligible meaning. 
 
 403. Why do we not always remember our dreams ? 
 
 " What you call sleep is only the repose of the body, for 
 the spirit is always in motion. During sleep he recovers a 
 portion of his liberty, and enters into communication with 
 those who are dear to him, either in this world, or in other 
 worlds ; but as the matter of the body is heavy and gross, 
 ii is difficult for him to retain, on waking, the impressions 
 he has received during sleep, because those impressions 
 were not received by him through the bodily organs." 
 
 404. What is to be thought of the signification attributed 
 to dreams ? 
 
 " Dreams are not really indications in the sense attributed 
 to them by fortune-tellers ; for it is absurd to believe that 
 
 1 Joan of Arc. 
 
170 BOOK II. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 a certain kind of dream announces the happening of a 
 certain kind of event. But they are indications in this 
 sense — viz., that they present images which are real for the 
 spirit, though they may have nothing to do with w T hat takes 
 place in his present corporeal life. Dreams are also, in 
 many cases, as we have said, a remembrance \ they may 
 also be sometimes a presentiment of the future, if permitted 
 by God, or the sight of something which is taking place at 
 the time in some other place to which the soul has trans- 
 ported itself. Have you not many instances proving that 
 persons may appear to their relatives and friends in dreams, 
 and give them notice of what is happening to them ? 
 What are apparitions, if not the soul or spirit of persons who 
 come to communicate with you? When you acquire the 
 certainty that what you saw has really taken place, is it 
 not a proof that it was no freak of your imagination, espe- 
 cially if what you saw were something which you had not 
 thought of when you were awake ? " 
 
 405. We often see in dreams things which appear to be 
 presentiments, but which do not come to pass, — how is this ? 
 
 " Those things may take place in the experience of the 
 spirit, though not in that of the body ; that is to say, that 
 the spirit sees what he wishes to see because he goes to find it. 
 You must not forget that, during sleep, the spirit is always 
 more or less under the influence of matter ; that, conse- 
 quently, he is never completely free from terrestrial ideas, 
 and that the objects of his waking thoughts may therefore 
 give to his dreams the appearance of what he desires or of 
 what he fears, thus producing what may be properly termed 
 an effect of the imagination. When the mind is much 
 busied with any idea, it is apt to connect everything it sees 
 with that idea." 
 
 406. When, in a dream, we see persons who are well 
 known to us doing things which they are not in any way 
 thinking of, is it not a mere effect of the imagination ? 
 
 "Of which they are not thinking? How do you know 
 that it is so ? Their spirit may come to visit yours, as 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL. 17 I 
 
 yours may go to visit theirs ; and you do not always 
 know, in your waking state, what they may be thinking of. 
 And besides, you often, in your dreams, apply to persons 
 whom you know, and according to your own desires, re- 
 miniscences of what took place, or is taking place, in other 
 existences." 
 
 407. Is it necessary to the emancipation of the soul that 
 the sleep of the body should be complete ? 
 
 " No ; the spirit recovers his liberty as soon as the senses 
 become torpid. He takes advantage, in order to emanci- 
 pate himself, of every moment of respite left him by the 
 body. As soon as there occurs any prostration of the vital 
 forces, the spirit disengages himself from the body, and the 
 feebler the body, the freer is the spirit." 
 
 It is for this reason that dozing, or a mere dulling of the senses, often 
 presents the same images as dreaming. 
 
 408. We sometimes seem to hear within ourselves words 
 distinctly pronounced, but haying no connection with what 
 we are thinking of, — what is the cause of this ? 
 
 " Yes, you often hear words, and even whole sentences, 
 especially when your senses begin to grow torpid. It is 
 sometimes the faint echo of the utterance of a spirit who 
 wishes to communicate with you." 
 
 409. Often, when only half-asleep, and with our eyes 
 closed, we see distinct images, figures of which we perceive 
 the minutest details, — is this an effect of vision or of imagi- 
 nation ? 
 
 "The body being torpid, the spirit tries to break his 
 chain. He goes away and sees ; if the sleep were deeper, 
 the vision would be a dream," 
 
 410. We sometimes, when asleep, or half-asleep, have 
 ideas which seem to us to be excellent, but which, despite 
 all the efforts we make to recall them, are effaced from our 
 memory on waking, — whence come these ideas ? 
 
 " They are the result of the freedom of the spirit, who 
 emancipates himself from the body, and enjoys the use of 
 
172 BOOK II. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 other faculties during this moment of liberty ; and they are 
 often counsels given you by other spirits." 
 
 — What is the use of such ideas and counsels, since we 
 lose the remembrance of them, and cannot profit by them ? 
 
 " Those ideas often belong rather to the world of spirits 
 than to the corporeal world; but, in general, though the 
 body may forget them, the spirit remembers them, and the 
 idea recurs to him at the proper time, in his waking state, 
 as though it were an inspiration of the moment." 
 
 411. Does the incarnated spirit, when he is freed from 
 matter and acting as a spirit, know the epoch of his death ? 
 
 " He often has the presentiment of it. He sometimes 
 has a very clear foreknowledge of it ; and it is this which 
 gives him the intuition of it in his waking state. It is this, 
 also, which enables some persons to foresee the time of 
 their death with perfect exactness." 
 
 412. Can the activity of the spirit, during the repose or 
 the sleep of the body, cause fatigue to the latter ? 
 
 " Yes, for the spirit is attached to the body, as the captive- 
 balloon is fastened to the post; and, just as the post is 
 shaken by the movements of the balloon, so the activity of 
 the spirit reacts upon the body, and may cause it to feel 
 fatigued." 
 
 Visits between the Spirits of Living Persons. 
 
 413. The emancipation of the soul during sleep would 
 seem to indicate that we live simultaneously two lives ; the 
 life of the body, which is that of exterior relation, and the 
 life of the soul, which is that of occult relation, — is this so? 
 
 " During the emancipation of the soul, the life of the 
 latter takes precedence of the life of the body ; this, how- 
 ever, does not, strictly speaking, constitute two lives, but 
 rather two phases of one and the same life, for a man does 
 not live a double life." 
 
 414. Can two persons, who are acquainted with each 
 other, visit one another in sleep ? 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL. 173 
 
 u Yes ; and many others, who, in their waking state, do 
 not know that they are acquainted, meet and converse 
 together. You may, without suspecting it, have friends in 
 another country. The fact of going, during sleep, to visit 
 friends, relatives, acquaintances, persons who can be of 
 use to you, is extremely frequent ; and you yourselves ac- 
 complish these visits almost every night." 
 
 415. What can be the use of these nocturnal meetings, 
 since we do not remember them ? 
 
 " The intuition of them generally remains with you in 
 your waking state, and is often the origin of ideas which 
 afterwards occur to you, as it were, spontaneously, without 
 your being able to account for them, but which are really 
 those you had obtained in the spirit-intercourse carried on 
 by you during your sleep." 
 
 416. Can a man ensure the making of spirit-visits by 
 the exertion of his will ? Can he do so, for example, by 
 saying to himself, on going to sleep, " I will to-night meet 
 such and such a person in spirit, and speak with him about 
 such and such a thing " ? 
 
 "This is what takes place. The man falls asleep, and 
 his spirit wakens to the other life ; but his spirit is often 
 very far from following out the plan which had been resolved 
 upon by the man, for the life of the man excites but little 
 interest in a spirit when he is emancipated from matter. 
 This statement, however, only applies to men who have 
 already reached a certain degree of elevation. The others 
 pass their spirit-existence very differently. They give free 
 rein to their passions, or remain inactive. It may happen, 
 therefore, according to the aim of the proposed action, that 
 a spirit may go to see the parties he had, as a man, proposed 
 to visit ; but it does not follow that, because he has willed 
 to do so in his waking state, he will necessarily do so in his 
 state of freedom," 
 
 417. Can a number of incarnate spirits, during sleep, 
 meet together, and form assemblies ? 
 
 " Undoubtedly they can. The ties of friendship, old 
 
174 BOOK II. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 or new, often bring together spirits who are happy to be in 
 each other's company." 
 
 By the term old must be understood the ties of friendship contracted 
 in anterior existences. We bring back with us, on waking, an intuition 
 of the ideas which we have derived from these occult meetings, but of 
 the source of which we are ignorant. 
 
 418. If a person believed one of his friends to be dead 
 who is not dead, could he meet him as a spirit, and thus 
 learn that he is living ? Could he, in such a case, preseive 
 the intuition of this fact on waking ? 
 
 "He could, certainly, as a spirit, see his friend, and know 
 what is his situation ; and if the belief in the death of that 
 friend had not been imposed on him as an expiation, he 
 might retain an impression of his existence, as, in the con- 
 trary case, he might retain that of his death." 
 
 Occult Transmission of Thought. 
 
 419. Whence comes it that the same idea — that of a 
 discovery, for instance — so often suggests itself at the same 
 time to several persons, although they may be at a distance 
 from one another ? 
 
 " We have already said that, during sleep, spirits com- 
 municate with one another ; well, when his body awakes, a 
 spirit remembers what he has learned, and the man thinks 
 he has invented it. Thus several persons may find out the 
 same thing at the same time. When you say that an idea 
 is ' in the air/ you employ a figure of speech that is much 
 nearer the truth than you suppose. Every one helps uncon- 
 sciously to propagate it." 
 
 In this way our spirit often reveals to other spirits, without our being 
 aware of it, that which formed the object of our meditations before we 
 went to sleep. 
 
 420. Can spirits communicate between themselves when 
 the body is awake? 
 
 " A spirit is not enclosed in his body as in a box, but 
 radiates around it in every direction. He can, therefore, 
 hold communicatiqn with other spirits even in the waking 
 statp, although he <3oe$ sp with rnpre difficulty/' 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL. J 75 
 
 421. How comes it that two persons, \ erfectly awake, 
 often have the same thought at the same moment? 
 
 " It is because two spirits, who arc in sympathy, r. ay com- 
 municate their thought to each other, even when the body 
 is not asleep." 
 
 There is, between spirits, a communication of thoughts which some- 
 times enables two persons to see and understand one another without 
 having any need of human speech. They may be said to speak the 
 language of spirits. 
 
 Lethargy, Catalepsy, Apparent Death. 
 
 422. In lethargy and catalepsy, the patients generally see 
 and hear what takes place around them, but are unable to 
 manifest their impressions. Is it through the eyes and ears 
 of the body that these impressions are received ? 
 
 " No ; they are received by the spirit. The spirit is con- 
 scious, but cannot express himself/' 
 
 — Why can he not express himself? 
 
 " The state of his body prevents his doing so ; and this 
 peculiar state of his bodily organs proves that man consists 
 of something more than a body, since the body no longer 
 works, and yet the spirit acts." 
 
 423. Can a spirit, in a state of lethargy, separate himself 
 entirely from his body, so as to give to the latter all the 
 outward appearances of death, and afterwards come back 
 and inhabit it ? 
 
 " In lethargy, the body is not dead, for it still accom- 
 plishes some of its functions. Its vitality is latent, as in the 
 chrysalis, but is not annihilated ; and a spirit is united to his 
 body as long as it remains alive. When once the links 
 which keep them together are broken by the death and dis- 
 aggregation of the bodily organs, the separation is complete, 
 and the spirit never again comes back to his body. When 
 one who is apparently dead comes to life again, it is because 
 the process of death was not entirely consummated. " 
 
 424. Is it possible, by means of timely help, to renew 
 the ties which were ready to break, and to give back life to 
 
 p 
 
176 BOOK II. CHAP.. VIII. 
 
 a person who, but for this help, would have definitively 
 ceased to live ? 
 
 " Yes, undoubtedly; and you have proofs of this every 
 day. Mesmerism often exercises, in such cases, a powerful 
 restorative action, because it gives to the body the vital 
 fluid which it lacks, and which is necessary to keep up the 
 play of the organs." 
 
 Lethargy and catalepsy proceed from the same cause, viz., the tem- 
 porary loss of sensibility and power of motion, from some as yet un- 
 explained physiological condition. They differ in this respect, viz., 
 that, in lethargy, the suppression of the vi'al force is general, and gives 
 to the body all the appearances of death, whereas in catalepsy, that 
 suppression is localised, and may affect a more or less extensive portion 
 of the body, while leaving the intelligence (ree to manifest itself ; a fact 
 which does not allow it to be confounded with death. Lethargy is 
 always natural ; catalepsy is sometimes spontaneous, but it may be pro- 
 duced and dissipated artificially by mesmeric action. 
 
 Somnambulism. 
 
 425. Is there any connection between natural somnam- 
 bulism and dreaming? 
 
 " In somnambulism the independence of the soul is 
 more complete, and its functions are more developed, than 
 in dreaming, and it has perceptions that it has not in 
 dreaming, which is an imperfect somnambulism. 
 
 " In somnambulism, the spirit is entirely freed from the 
 action of matter \ the material organs, being in a sort of 
 catalepsy, are no longer receptive of external impressions. 
 
 "This state most frequently occurs during sleep, because 
 the spirit is then able to absent itself from the body which 
 is given up to the repose that is indispensable to matter. 
 When somnambulism occurs, it is because the spirit of the 
 sleeper, intent upon doing something or other that requires 
 the aid of his body, makes use of it in a manner analogous 
 to that in which spirits make use of a table, or other 
 material object, in producing the phenomena of physical 
 manifestations, or of a human hand, in giving written com- 
 munications. In the dreams of which a man is conscious, 
 his organs, including those of memory, are beginning to 
 awaken ; and, as they only receive and transmit to the spirit 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL. 1 77 
 
 imperfectly the impressions made on them by exterior 
 objects or action, the spirit, who is then in a state of 
 repose, only perceives these impressions through confused 
 and often disconnected sensations, which, in many cases, 
 are still further confused by being mingled with vague remem- 
 brances of his present life and anterior existences. It is 
 easy, therefore, to understand why somnambulists do not 
 remember their visions, and why the greater number of the 
 dreams you remember have no rational meaning. I say 
 the greater member, for it sometimes happens that dreams 
 are the consequence of a precise remembrance of events that 
 have occurred in one of your former lives, or even a sort of 
 intuition of the future." 
 
 426. Is there any connection between what is called mes- 
 meric somnambulism and natural somnambulism? 
 
 "They are the same thing; the only difference between 
 them being that one of them is artificially produced." 
 
 427. What is the nature of the agent called the magnetic 
 or mesmeric fluid ? 
 
 " It is the vital fluid, animalised electricity ; a modifica- 
 tion of the universal fluid." 
 
 428. What is the nature of somnambulic clairvoyance? 
 " We have told you that it is soul-sight" 
 
 429. How can the somnambulist see through opaque 
 bodies? 
 
 il It is only to your gross organs that bodies are opaque. 
 Have we not told you that matter is not an obstacle for a 
 spirit, since he passes freely through it ? A somnambulist 
 often tells you that he sees through his forehead, his knee, 
 &c., because you, being plunged in matter, do not understand 
 that he can see without the help of organs. He himself, 
 influenced by your ideas, believes that he needs those 
 organs ; but, if you left him to himself, he would understand 
 that he sees through every part of his body, or rather, that 
 he sees independently of his body." 
 
 430. Since the clairvoyance of the somnambulist is that 
 
178 BOOK II. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 of his soul or of his spirit, why does he not see everything, 
 and why does he so often make mistakes ? 
 
 " In the first place, spirits of low degree do not see and 
 comprehend everything, for, as you know, they still share 
 your errors and your prejudices ; and, in the next place, as 
 long as they remain more or less attached to matter, they 
 have not the use of all their spirit-faculties. God has given 
 the faculty of clairvoyance to man for a serious and useful 
 purpose, and not to inform him of what it is not permitted 
 to him to know; and this is why somnambulists do net 
 know everything." 
 
 431. What is the source of the somnambulist's innate 
 ideas, and how can he speak correctly of things of which he 
 is ignorant in his waking state, and which are even above 
 his intellectual capacity? 
 
 " A somnambulist may possess more knowledge than you 
 give him credit for; but this knowledge is latent in his 
 waking state, because his envelope is too imperfect for him to 
 be able to remember all he knows as a spirit. But, in point 
 of fact, what is he? Like all of us, he is a spirit who has 
 been incarnated in matter for the accomplishment of his mis- 
 sion, and his going into the somnambulic state rouses him 
 from the lethargy of incarnation. We have repeatedly told 
 you that we re-live many times. It is this changing of our 
 existences that causes him to lose sight, in a new connec- 
 tion with matter, of what he may have known in a preced- 
 ing one. On entering into the state which you call a crisis, 
 he recalls what he has formerly known, but not always with 
 completeness. He knows, but he cannot tell whence he 
 derives his knowledge, nor in what way he possesses it. 
 The crisis over, his reminiscences fade from his conscious- 
 ness, and he re-enters the obscurity of corporeal life." 
 
 Experience shows us that somnambulists also receive communications 
 from other spirits, who tell them what they are to say, and supply what 
 is lacking on their part. This supplementing of their insufficiency is 
 often and especially witnessed in medical consultations ; the spirit of 
 the clairvoyant seeing the malady, and another spirit indicating the 
 remedy required. This double action is often patent to bystanders, and 
 is also frequently revealed by such expressions on the part of the som- 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL. 1 79 
 
 nambulist as, " I am told to say," or, "I am forbidden to say," &c. In 
 the latter case, it is always dangerous to persist in the effort to obtain 
 a revelation refused by the clairvoyant, because, by doing so, we open 
 the door to frivolous and unscrupulous spirits, who prate about every- 
 thing without any regard to veracity. 
 
 432. How do you explain the power of seeing at a dis- 
 tance possessed by some somnambulists ? 
 
 " Does not the soul transport itself to a distance during 
 sleep ? It does the same thing in somnambulism." 
 
 433. Does the greater or less degree of somnambulic 
 clairvoyance depend on the physical organisation of the 
 body, or on the nature of the spirit incarnated in it? 
 
 " On both ; but there are physical qualities that allow the 
 spirit to liberate himself more or less easily from matter." 
 
 434. Are the faculties enjoyed by the somnambulist the 
 same as those possessed by the spirit after death ? 
 
 "They are the same, but only up to a certain point ; for 
 you have to take into account the influence of the matter 
 to which he is still attached." 
 
 435. Can somnambulists see other spirits? 
 
 " That depends on the nature and degree of their faculties. 
 The greater number of them see other spirits perfectly 
 well, but they do not always recognise them at once as 
 being such, and thus mistake them for corporeal beings ; a 
 mistake that is often made by somnambulists, and especially 
 by those among them who know nothing of spiritism. Not 
 understanding anything of the essence of spirits, they are 
 astonished at seeing them in human form, and suppose 
 them to be living persons." 
 
 The same effect is produced at the moment of death in the conscious- 
 ness of those who suppose themselves to be still living. Nothing about 
 them appears to them to be changed. The spirits around them seem 
 to have bodies like ours, and they take the appearance of their own 
 body to be that of a real body of flesh. 
 
 436. When a somnambulist sees objects at a distance, 
 does he see them with his body or with his soul? 
 
 " Why should you ask such a question, since it is the 
 soul that sees, and not the body ? " 
 
l8o BOOK II. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 437. Since it is the soul that transports itself to a dis- 
 tance, how is it that the somnambulist feels in his body 
 the sensation of the heat or the cold of the place where 
 his soul is, and which is sometimes very far from the place 
 where his body is ? 
 
 " His soul has not entirely quitted his body, to which it 
 is still attached by the link which unites them together 3 it 
 is this link that is the conductor of sensation. When two 
 persons in two different cities correspond with each other 
 by electricity, it is the electricity that constitutes the link 
 between their thoughts, and enables them to communicate 
 with one another as though they were close together." 
 
 438. Is the state of the somnambulist influenced after 
 deatli by the use he has made of his faculty ? 
 
 "Very considerably ; as is done by the good or bad use of 
 all the faculties that God has given to man." 
 
 Trance. 
 
 439. What difference is there between trance and som- 
 nambulism ? 
 
 " Trance is a more refined somnambulism. The soul, 
 when in trance, is still more independent.' 7 
 
 440. Does the soul of the ecstatic really enter into higher 
 worlds ? 
 
 " Yes ; he sees them, and perceives the happiness of 
 those who are in them ; but there are worlds that are in- 
 accessible to spirits who are not sufficiently purified." 
 
 441. When a person in trance expresses the desire to 
 quit the earth, does he speak sincerely, and is he not re- 
 tained by the instinct of self-preservation ? 
 
 " That depends on the degree of the spirit's purification. 
 If he sees that his future situation will be better than his 
 present one, he makes an effort to break the links that bind 
 him to the earth. " 
 
 442. If the ecstatic were left to himself, might his soul 
 definitively quit his body ? 
 
 "Yes, he might die ; and it is therefore necessary to call 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL. l8l 
 
 him back by everything that may attach him to the lower 
 life, and especially by making him see that, if he breaks 
 the chain which keeps him here, he will have taken the 
 most effectual means of preventing his staying in the world 
 in which he perceives that he would be happy." 
 
 443. The ecstatic sometimes professes to see things 
 which are evidently the product of an imagination im- 
 pressed with earthly beliefs and prejudices. What he sees, 
 therefore, is not always real ? 
 
 " What he sees is real for him ; but, as his spirit is 
 always under the influence of terrestrial ideas, he may see 
 it in his own way, or, to speak more correctly, he may 
 express it in a language accommodated to his prejudices, or 
 to the ideas in which he has been brought up, or to your 
 own, in order the better to make himself understood. It 
 is in this way that he is most apt to err." 
 
 444. What degree of confidence should be accorded to 
 the revelations of persons in a state of trance ? 
 
 " The ecstatic may very frequently be mistaken, especially 
 when he seeks to penetrate what must remain a mystery 
 for man ; for he then abandons himself to his own ideas, 
 or becomes the sport of deceiving spirits, who take advan- 
 tage of his enthusiasm to dazzle him with false appearances" 
 
 445. What inductions are to be drawn from the pheno- 
 mena of somnambulism and of trance ? May they not be 
 considered as a sort of initiation into the future life ? 
 
 " It would be more correct to say that, in those states, 
 the somnambulist may obtain glimpses of his past and 
 future lives. Let man study those phenomena ; he will find 
 in them the solution of more than one mystery which his 
 unassisted reason seeks in vain to penetrate." 
 
 446. Could the phenomena of somnambulism and trance 
 be made to accord with theoretic materialism ? 
 
 " He who should study them honestly, and without pre- 
 conceived ideas, could not be either a materialist or an 
 atheist." 
 
l82 BOOK II. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 * 
 
 Second-Sight. 
 
 447. Is there any connection between the phenomena of 
 what is designated as second-sight and those of dreaming and 
 somnambulism ? 
 
 " They are all the same thing. What you call second- 
 sight is also a state in which the spirit is partially free, 
 although the body is not asleep. Second-sight is soul-sight." 
 
 448. Is the faculty of second-sight a permanent one ? 
 
 " The faculty of second-sight is permanent, but its exer- 
 cise is not. In worlds less material than yours, spirits 
 free themselves from matter more easily, and enter into 
 communication with one another simply by thought, with- 
 out, however, excluding the use of articulate speech. In 
 those worlds, second-sight is, for the greater part of their 
 inhabitants, a permanent faculty. Their normal state may 
 be compared to that of lucid somnambulism among you ; 
 and it is for this reason that they manifest themselves to 
 you more easily than those who are incarnated in bodies of 
 a grosser nature." 
 
 449. Does second-sight occur spontaneously, or through 
 an exertion of the will of those who possess that faculty ? 
 
 " It generally occurs spontaneously ; but the will, never- 
 theless, often plays an important part in producing this 
 phenomenon. Take, for example, the persons who are called 
 fortune-tellers — and some of whom really have that power— 
 and you will find that the action of their will helps them to 
 this second-sight, and to what you call vision." 
 
 450. Is second-sight susceptible of being developed by 
 exercise ? . 
 
 " Yes ; effort always leads to progress, and the veil which 
 covers things becomes more transparent." 
 
 — Is this faculty a result of physical organisation? 
 " Organisation has undoubtedly a great deal to do with 
 it ; there are organisations with which it is incompatible." 
 
 45 t. How is it that second-sight appears to be heredi- 
 tary in certain families ? 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL* *• 1 83 
 
 " This proceeds from similarity of organisation, which is 
 transmitted, like other physical qualities ; and also from 
 the development of the faculty through a sort of educatio" 1 , 
 which, also, is transmitted from one generation to an- 
 other." 
 
 452. Is it true that circumstances develop second-sight? 
 " Illness, the approach of danger, any great commotion, 
 
 may develop it. The body is sometimes in a state which 
 allows of the spirit's seeing what cannot be seen with the 
 fleshly eye." 
 
 Times of crisis and of calamity, powerful emotions, all the 1 causes, in 
 short, which excite the moral nature, may develop second-sight. It 
 would seem as though Providence gave us, when in the presence of 
 danger, the means of escaping it. All sects and all parties subjected 
 to persecution have offered numerous instances of this fact. 
 
 453. Are the persons who are gifted with second-sight 
 always conscious of their faculty ? 
 
 " Not always ; it appears to them to be altogether na- 
 tural, and many of them suppose that, if everybody ob- 
 served their own impressions, they would find themselves 
 to be possessed of the same power." 
 
 454. May we attribute to a sort of second-sight the per- 
 spicacity of those persons who, without being remarkably 
 gifted in other ways, possess an unusually clear judgment 
 in relation to the things of everyday life ? 
 
 "Such clearness of judgment is always due to a freer 
 radiation of the soul, enabling the man to see more cor- 
 rectly than those whose perceptions are more densely veiled 
 by matter." 
 
 — Can this lucidity of judgment, in some cases, give the 
 foreknowledge of future events? 
 
 " Yes, it may give presentiments ; for there are many 
 degrees in this faculty, and the same person may possess 
 all those degrees, as he may possess only some of them." 
 
1 84 BOOK II. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Explanation of Somnambulism, Trance, and 
 Second-Sight. 
 
 455. The phenomena of natural somnambulism occur 
 spontaneously, and independently of any known external 
 cause ; but, in persons endowed with a special organisation, 
 they may be produced artificially through the action of the 
 mesmeric agent. The only difference between the state 
 designated as mesmeric somnambulism, and natural som- 
 nambulism is, that the one is artificially produced, while the 
 other is spontaneous. 
 
 Natural somnambulism is a notorious fact, the reality of 
 which few now dispute, notwithstanding the marvellous 
 character of the phenomena it presents. Why, then, should 
 mesmeric somnambulism be regarded as more extraordinary 
 or incredible, simply because it is produced artificially, like 
 so many other things ? It has been abused by charlatans, 
 some persons will reply ; but that fact only affords an ad- 
 ditional reason for not leaving it in their hands. When 
 science shall have taken possession of it, charlatanism will 
 have much less credit with the masses ; but, meanwhile, as 
 somnambulism, both natural and artificial, is a fact, and as 
 a fact cannot be argued down, it is making its way, despite 
 the ill-will of its adversaries, and obtaining a footing even 
 in the temple of science, which it is entering by a multitude 
 of side- doors, instead of entering by the principal one. Its 
 right to be there will, ere long, be fully recognised. 
 
 For the spiritist, somnambulism is more than a physical 
 phenomenon ; it is a light thrown on the subject of 
 psychology ; it is a state in which we can study the soul, 
 because in it the soul shows itself, so to say, without cover- 
 ing. Now, one of the phenomena which characterise the 
 soul is clear-seeing independently of the ordinary visual 
 organs. Those who contest this fact do so on the ground 
 that the somnambulist does not see at all times, and at the 
 will of the experimentalist, as with the eyes. Need we be 
 astonished if, the means employed being different, the 
 results are not the same ? Is it reasonable to demand 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL.' 1 85 
 
 identical effects in cases in which the instruments employed 
 are not the same ? The soul has its properties just as has 
 the eye ; and the former must be judged of by themselves, 
 and not by analogy with the latter. 
 
 The cause of the clairvoyance of the mesmeric and of the 
 natural somnambulist is identically the same : it is an attribute 
 of the soul, a faculty inherent in every part of the incorporeal 
 being which is in us, and has no other limits than those 
 assigned to the soul itself. The somnambulist sees wherever 
 his soul can transport itself, at no matter what distance. 
 
 In sight at distance, the somnambulist does not see from 
 the point at which his body is, and as though through a 
 telescope. The things he sees are present with him, as 
 though he were at the place where they exist, because his 
 soul is there in reality ; and it is for this reason that his 
 body is, as it were, annihilated, and seems to be deprived 
 of sensation, until the moment when the soul comes back 
 and retakes possession of it. This partial separation of the 
 soul and the body is an abnormal state, which may last 
 for a longer or shorter time, but not indefinitely ; it is the 
 cause of the fatigue felt by the body after a certain lapse of 
 time, especially when the soul, during that partial separa- 
 tion, busies itself with some active pursuit The fact that 
 soul-sight or spirit-sight is not circumscribed, and has no 
 definite seat, explains why somnambulists are unable to 
 assign to it any special organ, or focus. They see, because 
 they see, without knowing why or how ; their sight, as spirit- 
 sight, having no special focus. If they refer their perception 
 to their body, this focus seems to them to be in the organic 
 centres in which the vital activity is greatest, especially in 
 the brain, in the epigastric region, or in whatever organ 
 appears to them to be the point at which the bond between 
 the spirit and the body is most tenacious. 
 
 The scope of somnambulic lucidity is not unlimited. A 
 spirit, even when completely free, only possesses the facul- 
 ties and the knowledge appertaining to the degree of ad- 
 vancement at which he has arrived, a limitation which be- 
 comes still further narrowed when he is united with matter, 
 
l86 BOOK II. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 and thus subjected to its influence. This is the reason 
 why somnambulic clairvoyance is neither universal nor in- 
 fallible i and its infallibility is all the less to be counted on 
 when it is turned aside from the aim which has been 
 assigned to it by nature, and made a mere matter of curio- 
 sity and experimentation. 
 
 In the state of comparative freedom in which the som- 
 nambulist finds himself, he enters more easily into com- 
 munication with other spirits, incarnate or disincarnate ; 
 and this communication is established through the contact 
 of the fluids which compose their perispirits, and serve, like 
 the electric w r ire, for the transmission of thought. The 
 somnambulist, therefore, has no need of articulate speech 
 as a vehicle of thought, which he feels and divines ; a mode 
 of perception that renders him eminently accessible to, and 
 impressionable by, the influences of the moral atmosphere 
 in which he finds himself. For the same reason, a nume- 
 rous concourse of spectators, and especially of those who 
 are attracted by a more or less malevolent curiosity, is 
 essentially unfavourable to the manifestation of his peculiar 
 faculties, which close up, so to say, at the contact of hostile 
 influences, and only unfold freely in intimacy, and under 
 the influence of sympathetic surroundings. The presence of 
 those who are malevolent or antipathetic produces upon him 
 the effect of the contact of the hand upon a sensitive plant. 
 
 The somnambulist sees, at the same time, his own spirit 
 and his body ; they are, so to say, two beings which repre- 
 sent to him his double existence, spiritual and corporeal, 
 and which, nevertheless, are blended into one by the ties 
 which unite them together. The somnambulist does not 
 always comprehend this duality, which often leads him to 
 speak of himself as though he were speaking of another 
 person ; in such cases, the corporeal being sometimes 
 speaking to the spiritual being, and the spiritual being 
 sometimes speaking to the corporeal being. 
 
 The spirit acquires an increase of knowledge and ex- 
 perience in each of his corporeal existences. He loses 
 sight of part of these gains during his reincarnation in 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL. 187 
 
 matter, which is too gross to allow of his remembering them 
 in their entirety ; but he remembers them as a spirit. It is 
 thus that some somnambulists give evidence of possessing 
 knowledge beyond their present degree of instruction, and 
 even of their apparent intellectual capacity. The intellec- 
 tual and scientific inferiority of a somnambulist in his 
 waking state, therefore, proves nothing against his posses- 
 sion of the knowledge he may display in his lucid state. 
 According to the circumstances of the moment and the 
 aim proposed, he may draw this knowledge from the stores 
 of his own experience, from his clairvoyant perception of 
 things actually occurring, or from the counsels which he 
 receives from other spirits ; but, in proportion as his own 
 spirit is more or less advanced, he will make his statements 
 more or less correctly. 
 
 In the phenomena of somnambulism, whether natural or 
 mesmeric, Providence furnishes us with undeniable proof of 
 the existence and independence of the soul, by causing us 
 to witness the sublime spectacle of its emancipation from 
 the fetters of the body, and thus enabling us to read our 
 future destiny as in an open book. When a somnambulist 
 describes what is taking place at a distance, it is equally 
 evident that he sees what he describes, and that he does 
 not see it with his bodily eyes. He sees himself at that 
 distant point, and he feels himself to be transported thither. 
 Something of himself, therefore, is really present at that 
 distant point ; and that something, not being his body, can 
 only be his soul or his spirit. 
 
 While man, in search of the causes of his moral being 1 , 
 loses himself in abstract and unintelligible metaphysical 
 subtleties, God places daily before his eyes, and within 
 reach of his hand, the simplest and most certain means for 
 the study of experimental psychology. 
 
 Trance is the state in which the soul's independence of 
 the body is made most clearly visible, and, so to say, pal- 
 pable, to the senses of the observer. 
 
 In dreaming and somnambulism, the soul wanders among 
 terrestrial worlds ; in trance, it penetrates into a sphere of 
 
1 88 BOOK II. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 existence of another order, into that of the etherealised 
 spirits with whom it enters into communication, without, 
 however, being able to overstep certain limits which it 
 could not pass without entirely breaking the links that 
 attach it to the body. Surrounded by novel splendours, 
 enraptured by harmonies unknown to earth, penetrated by 
 bliss that defies description, the soul enjoys a foretaste of 
 celestial beatitude, and may be said to have placed one foot 
 on the threshold of eternity. 
 
 In the state of trance, the annihilation of corporeal ties 
 is almost complete. The body no longer possesses any- 
 thing more than organic life ; and we feel that the soul is 
 only held thereto by a single thread, which any further effort 
 on its part would break for ever. 
 
 In this state, all earthly thoughts disappear, and give 
 place to the purified perception that is the very essence of 
 our immaterial being. Entirely absorbed in this sublime 
 contemplation, the ecstatic regards the earthly life as being 
 merely a momentary halt upon our eternal way ; the suc- 
 cesses and misfortunes of this lower world, its gross joys 
 and sorrows, appear to him only as the futile incidents of a 
 journey of which he is delighted to foresee the end. 
 
 It is with ecstatics as with somnambulists ; their lucidity 
 may be more or less perfect, and their spirit, according as 
 it is more or less elevated, is also more or less apt to 
 apprehend the truth of things. In their abnormal state, 
 there is sometimes more of nervous excitement than of true 
 lucidity ; or, to speak more correctly, their nervous excite- 
 ment impairs their lucidity, and, for this reason, their re- 
 velations are often a mixture of truths and errors, of sub- 
 lime ideas and absurd or even ridiculous fancies. In- 
 ferior spirits often take advantage of this nervous excite- 
 ment (which is always a source of weakness to those who 
 are unable to control it), in order to subjugate the ecstatic ; 
 and to this end they assume to his eyes the appearances 
 which confirm him in the ideas and prejudices of his waking 
 state. This subjugation of clairvoyants by the presentation 
 of false appearances is the " rock ahead " of this order of 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE SOUL. 189 
 
 revealment. But all of them are not equally subject to 
 this dangerous misleading ; and it is for us to weigh their 
 statements coolly and carefully, and to judge their revela- 
 tions by the light of science and of reason. 
 
 The emancipation of the soul occurs sometimes in the 
 waking state, and gives, to those who are endowed with 
 the faculty designated by the name of second-sight, the 
 power of seeing, hearing, and feeling, beyond the limits of the 
 bodily senses. They perceive things at a distance, at all 
 points to which their soul extends its action ; they see 
 them, so to say, athwart their ordinary sight, and as though 
 in a sort of mirage. 
 
 At the moment when the phenomenon of second-sight 
 occurs, the physical state of the seer is visibly modified. His 
 glance becomes vague ; he looks before him without seeing; 
 his physiognomy reflects an abnormal state of the nervous 
 system. It is evident that his organs of sight have nothing 
 to do with his present perceptions \ for his vision continues, 
 even when his eyes are shut. 
 
 The faculty of second-sight appears to those who are 
 endowed with it to be as natural as ordinary sight. It 
 seems to them to be an attribute of their being ; and they 
 are not aware of its exceptional character. They generally 
 forget this fugitive lucidity, the remembrance of which, 
 becoming more and more vague, disappears at length from 
 their memory like a dream. 
 
 The power of second-sight varies from a confused sensa- 
 tion to a clear and distinct perception of things present or 
 distant. In its rudimentary state, it gives to some persons 
 tact, perspicacity, a sort of sureness, in their decisions and 
 actions, that may be styled the rectitude of the moral glance. 
 At a higher degree of development, it awakens presenti- 
 ments j still further developed, it shows to the seer events 
 that have already happened, or that are about to happen. 
 
 Natural and artificial somnambulism, trance, and second- 
 sight are only varieties or modifications of the action of one 
 and the same cause. Like dreams, they are a branch of 
 
I90 BOOK II. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 natural phenomena, and have therefore existed in every age. 
 History shows us that they have been known, and even 
 abused, from the remotest antiquity ; and they furnish the 
 explanation of innumerable facts which superstitious preju- 
 dices have led men to regard as supernatural. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 
 
 X. Perception of our thoughts by spirits — 2. Influence of spirits upon our 
 thoughts and actions — 3. Possession — 4. Convulsionaries — 5. Affec- 
 tion of spirits for certain persons — 6. Guardian-angels ; protecting, 
 familiar, and sympathetic spirits — 7. Influence of spirits on the 
 events of human life — 8. Action of spirits in the production of the 
 phenomena of nature — 9. Spirits and war — 10. Pacts with spirits — 
 II. Occult power, talismans, sorcerers— 12. Benedictions and curses. 
 
 Penetration of our Thoughts by Spirits. 
 
 456. Do spirits see everything that we do? 
 
 " They can do so if they choose, since they are inces- 
 santly around you. But, practically, each spirit sees only 
 those things to which he directs his attention ; for he pays 
 no heed to those which do not interest him." 
 
 457. Can spirits see our most secret thoughts ? 
 
 " They often see what you would fain hide from your- 
 selves ; neither acts nor thoughts can be hidden from them." 
 
 — It would appear, then, to be more easy to hide a 
 thing from a person while living than to hide it from that 
 same person after his death ? 
 
 " Certainly ; and when you fancy yourselves to be hidden 
 from every eye, you have often a crowd of spirits around 
 you, and watching you." 
 
 458. What is thought of us by the spirits who are about 
 us, and observing us? 
 
 " That depends on the quality of the spirits themselves. 
 Frivolous spirits enjoy the little annoyances they cause you, 
 and laugh at your fits of impatience. Graver spirits pity 
 
 Q 
 
192 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 your imperfections, and endeavour to aid you to cure your- 
 selves of them/ s 
 
 Occult Influence of Spirits on our Thoughts and 
 
 Actions. 
 
 459. Do spirits influence our thoughts and our actions ? 
 " Their influence upon them is greater than you suppose, 
 
 for it is very often they who direct both." 
 
 460. Have we some thoughts that originate with our- 
 selves, and others that are suggested to us ? 
 
 " Your soul is a spirit who thinks. You must have ob- 
 served that many thoughts, and frequently very opposite ones, 
 come into your mind in reference to the same subject, and 
 at the same time. In such cases, some of them are your 
 own, and some are ours. This is the cause of your uncer- 
 tainties, because you have thus in your mind two ideas that 
 are opposed to each other." 
 
 461. How can we distinguish between the thoughts which 
 are our own and those which are suggested to us ? 
 
 " When a thought is suggested, it is like a voice speaking 
 to you. Your own thoughts are generally those which first 
 occur to you. In point of fact, this distinction is not of 
 much practical importance for you, and it is often better for 
 you not to be able to make it. Man's action is thus left in 
 greater freedom. If he decides for the right road, he does 
 so more spontaneously ; if he takes the wrong one, he is 
 more distinctly responsible for his mistake/ 
 
 462. Do men of intelligence and genius always draw their 
 ideas from their own minds ? 
 
 " Their ideas sometimes come from their own spirit; but 
 they are often suggested to them by other spirits who judge 
 them to be capable of understanding them, and worthy of 
 transmitting them. When they do not find the required ideas 
 in themselves, they make an unconscious appeal for inspira- 
 tion ; a sort of evocation that they make without being aware 
 of what they are doing." 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 1 93 
 
 If it were useful for us to be able to distinguish clearly between our 
 own thoughts and those which are suggested to us, God would have 
 given us the means of doing so, as he has given us that of distinguish- 
 ing between day and night. When a matter has been left by Provi- 
 dence in a state of vagueness, it has been left so because it is better 
 for us. 
 
 463. It is sometimes said that our first thought is always 
 the best, — is this true? 
 
 u . It may be good or bad according to the nature of the 
 incarnated spirit, It is always well to listen to good in- 
 spirations," 
 
 464. How can we ascertain whether a suggested thought 
 comes from a good spirit or from an evil one ? 
 
 " Study its quality. Good spirits give only good counsels. 
 It is for you to distinguish between the good and the bad," 
 
 465. To what end do imperfect spirits incite us to evil ? 
 " To make you suffer as they do themselves." 
 
 — Does that lessen their own sufferings ? 
 
 " No 1 but they do so from jealousy of those who are 
 happier than themselves." 
 
 — What kind of sufferings do they wish to make us 
 undergo ? 
 
 " Those which result from being of an inferior order, and 
 far removed from God." 
 
 466. Why does God permit spirits to incite us to evil ? 
 
 " Imperfect spirits are used by Providence as instruments 
 for trying men's faith and constancy in well-doing. You, 
 being a spirit, must advance in the knowledge of the infinite. 
 It is for this end that you are made to pass through the 
 trials of evil in order to attain to goodness. Our mission is 
 to lead you into the right road. When you are acted upon 
 by evil influences, it is because you attract evil spirits to you 
 by your evil desires, for evil spirits always come to aid you 
 in doing the evil you desire to do ; they can only help you 
 to do wrong when you give way to jevil desires. If you are 
 inclined to commit murder, you will have about you a swarm 
 of spirits who will keep this inclination alive in you ; but 
 you will also have others about you who will try to influence 
 
194 C °0K IT. GIIAP. IX. 
 
 you for good, which restores the balance, and leaves you 
 
 the master of your decision." 
 
 It is thus that God leaves to our conscience the choice of the road 
 we decide to follow, and the liberty of yielding to one or other of the 
 opposing influences that act upon us. 
 
 467. Can we free ourselves from the influence of the 
 spirits who incite us to evil ? 
 
 " Yes; for they only attach themselves to those who attract 
 them by the evil nature of their thoughts and desires." 
 
 468. Do spirits, whose influence is repelled by our will, 
 renounce their temptations ? 
 
 " What else can they do ? When they see that they can- 
 not accomplish their aim, they give up the attempt; but 
 they continue to watch for a favourable moment, as the cat 
 watches for the mouse." 
 
 469. By what means can we neutralise the influence of 
 evil spirits? 
 
 " By doing only what is right, and putting all your trust 
 in God, you repel the influence of inferior spirits, and pre- 
 vent them from obtaining power over you. Take care not 
 to listen to the suggestions of spirits who inspire you with 
 evil thoughts, stir up discord among you, and excite in you 
 evil passions. Distrust especially those who flatter your 
 pride, for, in so doing, they attack you on your weakest side. 
 This is why Jesus makes you say in the Lord's Prayer, ' Let 
 us not succumb to temptation, but deliver us from evil.' " 
 
 470. Have the spirits who seek to lead us into evil, and 
 who thus put our firmness in rectitude to the proof, received 
 a mission to do this ; and, if so, are they responsible for the 
 accomplishment of such a mission ? 
 
 " No spirit ever receives a mission to do evil ; when he 
 does it, he does it of his own will, and, therefore, undergoes 
 the consequences of his wrong-doing. God may let him 
 take his evil way, in order to try you ; but He does not 
 command him to do so, and it is for you to repel him." 
 
 471. When we feel a sensation of vague anxiety, of un- 
 definable uneasiness, or of interior satisfaction, without any 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 1 95 
 
 assignable cause, do these sensations proceed simply from 
 our physical state ? 
 
 " They are almost always an effect of the communications 
 which you unconsciously receive from the spirits about you, 
 or which you have received from them during your sleep." 
 
 472. When spirits wish to excite us to evil, do they merely 
 take advantage of the circumstances in which we find our- 
 selves, or can they themselves bring about the circumstances 
 which may favour their designs ? 
 
 " They take advantage of the occurrence of any favour- 
 able circumstances, but they also often bring them about, 
 by urging you on, without your being aware of it, towards 
 the object of your unwise desire. Thus, for instance, a man 
 picks up a roll of bank-notes by the wayside. You must 
 not imagine that spirits have brought this money to this 
 particular spot, but they may have suggested to the man the 
 idea of going that way ; and, when he has found the money, 
 they may suggest to him the idea of taking possession of it, 
 while others suggest to him the idea of restoring it to its 
 rightful owner. It is thus in all other temptations." 
 
 Possession. 
 
 473. Can a spirit temporarily assume the envelope of a 
 living person — that is to say, can he introduce himself into 
 an animate' body, and act in the room and place of the 
 spirit incarnated in it ? 
 
 " A spirit does not enter into a body as you enter into a 
 house. He assimilates himself to an incarnate spirit who 
 has the same defects and the same qualities as himself, in 
 order that they may act conjointly ; but it is always the in- 
 carnate spirit who acts at his pleasure on the matter with 
 which he is clothed. No other spirit can substitute himself 
 in the place of the spirit who is incarnated in a given body, 
 for a spirit is indissolubly united with his body until the 
 arrival of the hour that has been appointed by Providence 
 for the termination of his material existence." 
 
 474. If there be no such thing as "possession," in the 
 
I96 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 ordinary sense of that term — that is to say, cohabitation of 
 two spirits in the same body — is it possible for one soul to 
 find itself dominated, subjugated, obsessed by another soul 
 to such a point as that its will is, so to say, paralysed ? 
 
 " Yes ; and it is this domination which really constitutes 
 what you c&M possession. But you must understand that this 
 domination is never established without the participation of 
 the spirit who is subjected to it, either through his weakness 1 
 or his free-wilL Men have often mistaken for cases of 
 possession what were really cases of epilepsy or madness, 
 demanding the help of the physician rather than of the 
 exorciser." 
 
 The word possession, in its common acceptation, presupposes the 
 existence of demons — that is to say, of a category of beings of a nature 
 essentially evil, and the cohabitation of one of those beings with the 
 soul of a man in the body of the latter. Since there are no such beings 
 as demons in the sense just defined, and since two spirits cannot inhabit 
 simultaneously the same body, there is no such thing as " possession " 
 in the sense commonly attributed to that word. The word possessed 
 should only be understood as expressing the state of absolute subjection 
 to which a soul in flesh may be reduced by the imperfect spirits under 
 whose domination it has fallen. 
 
 475. Can a soul, of its own motion, drive away the evil 
 spirits by whom it is thus obsessed, and free itself from their 
 domination ? 
 
 " You can always shake off. a yoke if you are firmly re- 
 solved to do so." 
 
 476. Might not the fascination exercised by the evil spirit 
 be so complete that the person subjugated should be un- 
 aware of it ; and, in such a case, might not a third person 
 be able to put an end to the subjection ? And what course 
 should be taken by the latter to that end ? 
 
 " The will-power of an upright man may be useful by 
 attracting the co-operation of good spirits in the work of 
 deliverance ; for the more upright a man is, the more power 
 
 1 The " weakness " which sometimes brings a human being under 
 the power of spirit-tormentors, despite the strenuous resistance of his 
 will, is always the punitive and expiatory result of his own wrong-doing, 
 either in his present earthly life or in a iormer one. — Trans. 
 

 INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 1 97 
 
 he possesses, both over imperfect spirits to drive them away, 
 and over good ones to draw them nearer. Nevertheless, 
 even the best of men would be powerless in such a case, 
 unless the subjugated person lent himself to the efforts made 
 on his behalf, for there are persons who take delight in a 
 state of dependance which panders to their depraved tastes 
 and desires. In no case can one who is impure in heart 
 exercise any liberating influence, for he is despised by the 
 good spirits, and the bad ones stand in no awe of him." 
 
 477. Have formulas of exorcism any power over bad 
 spirits ? 
 
 "No; when bad spirits see anyone seriously endeavouring 
 to act upon them by such means, they laugh at him, and 
 persist in their obsession." 
 
 478. Persons who are well-intentioned are sometimes 
 obsessed , what are the best means of getting rid of obses- 
 sing spirits ? 
 
 " To tire out their patience, to give no heed to their 
 suggestions, to show them that they are losing their time. 
 When they see that they can do nothing, they go away." 
 
 479. Is prayer efficacious as a means of putting an end 
 to obsession ? 
 
 "Prayer is always an efficacious means of obtaining 
 help ; but you must remember that the muttering of certain 
 words will not suffice to obtain what you desire. God 
 helps those who help themselves, but not those who limit 
 their action to asking for help. It is therefore necessary 
 for the person obsessed to do his utmost to cure himself of 
 the defects which attract evil spirits to him." 
 
 480. What is to be thought of the casting out of devils, 
 spoken of in the Gospels ? 
 
 " That depends on the meaning you attach to the word 
 devil. If you mean by that term a bad spirit who sub- 
 jugates a human being, it is evident that, when his influence 
 is destroyed, he will really be driven away. If you attri- 
 bute a malady to the devil, you may say, when you have 
 cured the malady, that you have driven the devil away. A 
 
I98 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 statement may be true or false, according to the meaning 
 attributed to certain words. The most weighty truths may 
 appear absurd when you look only at the form under which 
 they are presented, and when an allegory is taken for a 
 fact. Get this principle well into your mind, and keep it 
 there ; for it is of universal application." 
 
 Convulsionaries. 
 
 481. Do spirits play a part in the phenomena exhibited 
 by the individuals designated under the name of convul- 
 sionaries ? 
 
 " Yes, a very important one, as does also the agent that 
 you call magnetism, whether employed by human beings or 
 by spirits ; for this agent is the original source of those 
 phenomena. But charlatanism has often exaggerated those 
 effects, and made them a matter of speculation, which has 
 brought them into ridicule." 
 
 — What is generally the nature of the spirits who help 
 to produce phenomena of this kind ? 
 
 "Of slight elevation. Do you suppose that spirits of 
 high degree would waste their time in such a way ?" 
 
 482. How can a whole population be suddenly thrown 
 into the abnormal state of convulsions and crises ? 
 
 " Through sympathy. Moral dispositions are sometimes 
 
 exceedingly contagious. You are not so ignorant of the 
 
 effects of human magnetism as not to understand this, and 
 
 also the part that certain spirits would naturally take in 
 
 such occurrences, through sympathy with those by whom 
 
 they are produced." 
 
 Among the strange peculiarities remarked in convulsionaries, several 
 are evidently identical with those of which somnambulism and mes- 
 merism offer numerous examples — viz., physical insensibility, thought- 
 reading, sympathetic transmission of sensations, &c. It is therefore 
 impossible to doubt that these crisiacs are in a sort of waking somnam- 
 bulism, determined by the influence which they unwittingly exercise 
 upon each pther. They are at once mesmerisers and mesmerised, un- 
 consciously to thernselyes. 
 
 483. What is the cg.use of the physical insensibility some- 
 times remarked jn pojiyulsionaries, grid sometimes, also, in 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 1 99 
 
 other persons, when subjected to the most atrocious tor- 
 tures ? + 
 
 " In some cases it is simply an effect of human mag- 
 netism, which acts upon the nervous system in the same 
 manner as do certain substances. In other cases, mental 
 excitement deadens the sensibility of the organism, the life 
 seeming to retire from the body in order to concentrate 
 itself in the spirit. Have you not observed that, when the 
 spirit is intensely occupied with any matter, the body 
 neither feels, nor sees, nor hears ? 
 
 The excitement of fanaticism and enthusiasm often offer, on the part 
 of persons subjected to a violent death, examples of a calmness and 
 coolness that could hardly triumph over excruciating pain unless the 
 sensibility of the patient were neutralised by a sort of moral anesthesia. 
 We know that, in the heat of battle, a severe wound is often received 
 without being perceived ; whilst, under ordinary circumstances, a mere 
 scratch is felt acutely. 
 
 Since the production of these phenomena is due, in part, to the 
 action of physical causes, in part to that <^f spirits, it may be asked how 
 it can have been possible for the civil authorities, in certain cases, to 
 put a stop to them? The reason of this is, however, very simple. 
 The action of spirits, in these cases, is only secondary ; they do no- 
 thing more than take advantage of a natural tendency. The public 
 authorities did not suppress this tendency, but the cause which kept up 
 and stimulated it, thus reducing it from a state of activity to one of 
 latency; and they were right in so doing, because the matter was giving 
 rise to abuses and scandal. Such intervention, nevertheless, is power- 
 less in cases where the action of spirits is direct and spontaneous. 
 
 Affection of Certain Spirits for Certain Persons. 
 
 484. Do spirits affectionally prefer certain persons ? 
 
 " Good spirits sympathise with all men who are good, or 
 susceptible of amelioration ; inferior spirits, with men who 
 are bad, or who may become such. The attachment, in 
 both cases, is a consequence of the similarity of senti- 
 ment." 
 
 485. Is the affection of certain spirits for certain persons 
 exclusively one of sentiment? 
 
 " True affection has nothing of carnality ; but, when a 
 spirit attaches himself to a living person, it is not always 
 through affection only ; for there may also be in that at- 
 tachment a reminiscence of human passions." 
 
200 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 486. Do spirits take an interest in our misfortunes and 
 our prosperity ? Those who wish us well, are they grieved 
 by the ills we undergo during life ? 
 
 " Good spirits do you all the good they can, and rejoice 
 with you in all your joys. They mourn over your afflictions 
 when you do not bear them with resignation, because in 
 that case affliction produces no beneficial result, for you are 
 like the sick man who rejects the disagreeable draught 
 that would cure him." 
 
 487. What is the kind of ills that causes most grief to 
 our spirit-friends? Is it our physical sufferings, or our 
 moral imperfections ? 
 
 "What grieves them most is your selfishness and ycur 
 hard-heartedness, for these are the root of all your troubles. 
 They smile at the imaginary sorrows that are born of pride 
 and ambition ; they rejoice in those which will shorten your 
 term of trial." 
 
 Our spirit-friends, knowing that corporeal life is only transitory, and 
 that the tribulations by which it is accompanied are the means that 
 will enable us to reach a happier state, are more grieved for us by the 
 moral imperfections which keep us back, than by physical ills, which 
 are only transitory. 
 
 Spirits attach as little importance to misfortunes which affect us only 
 in our earthly ideas, as we do to the trifling sorrows of childhood. 
 Seeing the afflictions of life to be the means of our advancement, they 
 regard them only as the passing crisis which will restore the sick man 
 to health. They are grieved by our sufferings, as we are grieved by 
 those of a friend ; but, judging the events of our lives from a truer 
 point of view, they appreciate them differently. While inferior spirits 
 try to drive us to despair, in order to hinder our advancement, the good 
 ones seek to inspire us with the courage that will turn our trials into a 
 source of gain for our future. 
 
 488. Have the relatives and friends who have gone 
 before us into the other life more sympathy for us than 
 spirits who are strangers to us ? 
 
 " Undoubtedly they have ; and they often protect you as 
 spirits, according to their power." 
 
 — Are they sensible of the affection we preserve for 
 them ? 
 
 " Very sensible ; but they forget those who forget them." 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 201 
 
 Guardian-Angels— Protecting*, Familiar, and 
 Sympathetic Spirits. 
 
 489. Are there spirits who attach themselves to a par- 
 ticular individual, in order to protect and help him ? 
 
 "Yes, the spirit-brother ; what you call the spirit-protector, 
 or the good ge?iius" 
 
 490. What is to be understood by the expression, " guar- 
 dian-angel " ? 
 
 " A spirit-protector of high degree." 
 
 491. What is the mission of a spirit-protector? 
 
 " That of a father towards his children — to lead the 
 object of his protection into the right road, to aid him with 
 his counsels, to console him in his afflictions, and to sustain 
 his courage under the trials of his earthly life." 
 
 492. Is a spirit-protector attached to an individual from 
 his birth ? 
 
 " From his birth to his death ; and he often follows him 
 after death in the spirit-life, and even in several successive 
 'corporeal existences ; for these existences are but very short 
 phases of his existence as a spirit." 
 
 493. Is the mission of a spirit-protector voluntary or 
 obligatory ? 
 
 " Your spirit-protector is obliged to watch over you, 
 because he has accepted that task ; but a spirit is allowed 
 to choose his ward among the beings who are sympathetic 
 to him. In some cases this office is a pleasure ; in others, 
 it is a mission or a duty." 
 
 — In attaching himself to a person, is a spirit obliged 
 to refrain from protecting other individuals ? 
 
 " No ; but he does so less exclusively." 
 
 494. Is the spirit-protector indissolubly attached to the 
 person confided to his guardianship ? 
 
 "It often happens that spirits quit their position in order 
 to fulfil various missions ; but, in that case, an exchange of 
 wards takes place." 
 
202 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 495. Does a spirit-protector sometimes abandon his ward 
 when the latter persists in neglecting his counsels ? 
 
 " He withdraws from him when he sees that his counsels 
 are useless, and that there is a stubborn determination to 
 yield to the influence of inferior spirits ; but he does not 
 abandon him entirely, and continues to make himself heard. 
 It is not the spirit who quits the man, but the man who 
 closes his ears against the spirit. As soon as the man calls 
 him back, the spirit returns to him. 
 
 " If there be a doctrine that should win over the most 
 incredulous by its charm and its beauty, it is that of the 
 existence of spirit-protectors, or guardian-angels. To think 
 that you have always near you beings who are superior to, 
 you, and who are always beside you to counsel you, to 
 sustain you, to aid you in climbing the steep ascent of self- 
 improvement, whose friendship is truer and more devoted 
 than the most intimate union that you can contract upon 
 the earth — is not such an idea most consoling? Those 
 beings are near you by the command of God. It is He 
 who has placed them beside you. They are there for love 
 of Him, and they fulfil towards you a noble but laborious 
 mission. They are with you wherever you may be ; in the 
 dungeon, in solitude, in the lazar-house, even in the haunts 
 of debauchery. Nothing ever separates you from the friend 
 whom you cannot see, but whose gentle impulsions are felt, 
 and whose wise monitions are heard, in the innermost re- 
 cesses of your heart. 
 
 il Would that you were more fully impressed with this 
 truth ! How often would it aid you in your moments of 
 need ! How often would it save you from the snares of 
 evil spirits ! But, at the great day of account, how often 
 will your guardian-angel have to say to you, ' Did I not 
 urge you, and yet you would not follow my leading ? Did 
 I not show you the abyss, and yet you persisted in throwing 
 yourself into it? Did I not cause your conscience to hear 
 the voice of truth, and have you not followed lying counsels ?' 
 Question your guardian-angels ; establish between your- 
 selves and them the affectionate intimacy which exists between 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 203 
 
 tried and loving friends. Do not think to hide anything 
 from them, for they are the eye of God, and you cannot 
 deceive them. Think of the future ; seek to advance on 
 the upward road : your trials will be shorter, your exist- 
 ences happier. Men, take courage ! Cast far from you all 
 prejudices and mental reservations ; enter resolutely upon 
 the new road that opens before you ! You have guides ; 
 follow them. Your goal cannot fail ycu, for that goal is 
 God Himself. 
 
 " To those who may think it impossible that spirits of 
 high degree should bind themselves to a task so laborious 
 and demanding so much patience on their part, we reply, 
 that we influence your souls while at many millions of 
 leagues from you. To us, space is nothing ; and, while 
 living in another world, our spirits preserve their connection 
 with yours. We possess qualities of which you can form no 
 idea ; but be sure that God has not imposed upon us a 
 task above our strength, and that He has not abandoned 
 you upon the earth without friends and without support. 
 Every guardian-angel has his ward, over whom he watches 
 as a father watches over his child : he rejoices when he sees 
 him following the right road ; he mourns when his counsels 
 are neglected. 
 
 " Do not fear to weary us with your questions. Remain, 
 on the contrary, always in connection with us : you will 
 thus be stronger and happier. It is this communication 
 between each man and his familiar spirit that will eventually 
 make all men mediums, and drive out incredulity from your 
 world. You who have received instruction, instruct in your 
 turn : you who are possessed of talents, raise your brethren. 
 You know not how great a work you accomplish by so 
 doing ; it is the work of Christ, the work imposed on you 
 by God. Why has God given you intelligence and know- 
 ledge, if not to share them with your brethren, to aid them 
 to advance on the road that leads to eternal felicity?" 
 
 The doctrine of guardian-angels watching over their wards, notwith- 
 standing the distance which separates different worlds, has in it no- 
 thing that should excite our surprise ; it is as natural as it is grand and 
 
204 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 sublime. Do we not see a father, upon the earth, watch over his child 
 even though at a distance from him, and aid him by the wise counsels 
 of his letters? Whyythen, should it be deemed surprising that spirits 
 should guide, from one world to another, those whom they take under 
 their protection, since, to them, the distance which separates worlds is 
 less than that which, on earth, separates continents ? Besides, have 
 they not the universal fluid which binds together all the worlds of the 
 universe, and makes them part and parcel of each other — the universal 
 vehicle of the transmission of thought, as the air is, for us, the vehicle 
 of the transmission of sound ? 
 
 496. If a spirit abandons his ward, and no longer does 
 him good, can he do him harm ? 
 
 " Good spirits never do harm to any one. They leave 
 that to those who take their place ; and you then accuse 
 fate of the misfortunes which overwhelm you. while these 
 are, in reality, the result of your own wrong-doing." 
 
 497. Can a spirit-protector leave his ward at the mercy 
 of a spirit who should desire to do him harm? 
 
 " Evil spirits unite together to neutralise the action of 
 the good ones ; but the will of the ward suffices to give 
 back all his power to the spirit-protector. The latter may 
 find elsewhere another person whose goodwill renders it easy 
 to help him ; in such a case, he takes advantage of the oppor- 
 tunity of doing good, while awaiting the return of his ward." 
 
 498. When the spirit-protector allows his ward to wander 
 into wrong paths, is it because he is unable to cope with 
 the malevolent spirits who mislead him ? 
 
 " It is not because he is unable, but because he does not 
 choose to do so ; he knows that his ward will become wiser 
 and better through the trials he will have brought upon 
 himself. The spirit-protector assists his ward through the 
 sage counsels he suggests to his mind, but which unhappily 
 are not always heeded. It is only the weakness, careless- 
 ness, or pride of men that gives strength to bad spirits \ 
 their power over you comes solely from your not opposing 
 sufficient resistance to their action." 
 
 499. Is the spirit-protector constantly with his ward ? 
 Are there no circumstances under which, without abandon- 
 ing him, he may lose sight of him ? 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 205 
 
 "There are circumstances under which the presence of 
 the spirit-protector is not necessary to the ward." 
 
 500. Does a time arrive when the spirit no longer needs a 
 guardian-angel ? 
 
 " Yes ; when he has reached the degree of advancement 
 which enables him to guide himself, as a time arrives when 
 the scholar has no longer need of a master. But this does 
 not take place upon your earth." 
 
 501. Why is the action of spirits upon our existence 
 occult ? and why, when they are protecting us, do they not 
 do so ostensibly? 
 
 " If you counted on their support, you would not act of 
 yourselves, and your spirit would not progress. In order 
 to advance, each man needs to acquire experience, and 
 often at his own expense. He needs to exercise his powers ; 
 otherwise he would be like a child, who is not allowed to 
 walk alone. The action of the spirits who desire your 
 welfare is always regulated in such a way as to leave you 
 your free-will ; for, if you had no responsibility, you would 
 not advance on the road that is to lead you to God. Man, 
 not seeing his supporter, puts forth his own strength ; his 
 guide, however, watches over him, and calls to him from 
 time to time, to bid him beware of danger." 
 
 502. When the spirit-protector succeeds in leading his 
 ward on the right road, does he thereby gain any benefit 
 for himself? 
 
 " It is a meritorious work, which will be counted to him 
 either for his advancement or for his happiness. He 
 rejoices when he sees his care crowned by success, and 
 triumphs as a teacher triumphs in the success of his pupil." 
 
 — Is he responsible if he does not succeed ? 
 
 " No, since he has done everything that depended on 
 him." 
 
 503. Does the spirit-protector feel sorrow on seeing a 
 ward taking the wrong road ? and does not such a sight dis- 
 turb his own felicity ? 
 
 "He is grieved at his errors, and pities him; but this 
 
206 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 affliction has none of the anguish of terrestrial paternity, 
 because he knows that there is a remedy for the evil, and 
 that what is not done to-day will be done to-morrow. " 
 
 504. Can we always know the name of our guardian- 
 angel ? 
 
 " How is it possible for you to know names which have 
 no existence for you ? Do you suppose there are no spirits 
 but those whom you know of? " 
 
 — But how can we invoke him if we do not know who 
 he is ? 
 
 " Give him any name you please — that of any superior 
 spirit for whom you feel sympathy or veneration. Your 
 spirit-guardian will answer this appeal ; for all good spirits 
 are brothers, and assist each other." 
 
 505. Are the spirit-guardians who take well-known names 
 always the persons who bore those names ? 
 
 " No ; but they are spirits who are in sympathy with 
 them, and who, in many cases, come by their order. You 
 require names ; they therefore take a name that will inspire 
 you with confidence. When you are unable to execute a 
 commission in person, you send some one in your place, 
 who acts in your name." 
 
 506. When we are in the spirit-life, shall we recognise 
 our spirit-guardian ? 
 
 " Yes ; for it is often a spirit whom you knew before being 
 incarnated." 
 
 507. Do all spirit-guardians belong to the higher classes 
 of spirits ? Are they sometimes found among those of aver- 
 age advancement ? Can a father, for example, become the 
 spirit-guardian of his child ? 
 
 " He may do so ; but such guardianship presupposes a 
 certain degree of elevation, and, in addition, a power or 
 virtue granted by God. A father who watches over his 
 child may himself be assisted by a spirit of more elevated 
 degree." 
 
 508. Can all spirits who have quitted the earth under 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 207 
 
 favourable conditions become the protectors of those whom 
 they love among their survivors ? 
 
 " Their power is more or less narrowed by their position, 
 which does not always leave them full liberty of action." 
 
 509. Have savages, and men who are very low as regards 
 their moral state, their spirit-guardians ? and if so, are these 
 spirits of as high an order as those of men who are more 
 advanced ? 
 
 " Every man has a spirit who watches over him ; but mis- 
 sions are always proportional to their object. You do not give 
 a professor of philosophy to a child who is only learning to 
 read. The advancement of the familiar spirit is always pro- 
 portioned to that of the spirit he protects. While you yourself 
 have a spirit of higher degree who watches over you, you 
 may, in your turn, become the protector of a spirit who is 
 lower than you ; and the progress you help him to make 
 will contribute to your own advancement. God does not 
 demand of any spirit more than is consistent with his 
 nature, and with the degree at w 7 hich he has arrived." 
 
 510. When a father who watches over his child is reincar- 
 nated, does he still continue to watch over him ? 
 
 " His task, in that case, becomes more difficult; but, in 
 a moment of freedom, he asks some sympathetic spirit to 
 assist him in accomplishing it. But spirits do not under- 
 take missions which they cannot carry on to the end. 
 
 " A spirit, when incarnated, especially in worlds in which 
 existence is grossly material, is too much fettered by his 
 body to be able to devote himself entirely to another — that 
 is to say, to give him personally all the help he needs. For 
 this reason, those who are not sufficiently elevated to suffice 
 for the work of guardianship are themselves assisted by 
 spirits of higher degree, so that if, from any cause, the help 
 of one spirit should fail, his place is supplied by another." 
 
 511. Is there, besides the spirit-guardian, an evil spirit 
 attached to each individual for the purpose of exciting him 
 to evil, and thus of furnishing him with the opportunity of 
 struggling between good and evil? 
 
208 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 " It would not be correct to say c attached.' It is very 
 true that bad spirits endeavour to draw you out of the right 
 road when they find an opportunity of doing so \ but when 
 one of them attaches himself to an individual, he does so of 
 his own accord, because he hopes to be listened to. In 
 such a case, there is a struggle between the good and the 
 evil spirit, and the victory remains with the one to whose 
 influence the man has voluntarily subjected himself." 
 
 512. May we have several protecting spirits? 
 
 " Every man has always about him a number of sympa- 
 thetic spirits of more or less elevation, who interest them- 
 selves in him from affection, as he also has others who help 
 him to do evil." 
 
 513. Do spirits who are sympathetic to an individual act 
 upon him in virtue of a mission to that effect? 
 
 " In some cases they may have a temporary mission ; 
 but, in general, they are only drawn to an individual by 
 similarity of sentiments in good or in evil." 
 
 — It would seem, then, that sympathetic spirits may be 
 either good or bad ? 
 
 " Yes ; a man is always surrounded by spirits who are in 
 sympathy with him, whatever may be his character." 
 
 514. Are " familiar spirits" the same as " sympathetic 
 spirits " and " spirit-guardians " ? 
 
 " There are very many shades in guardianship and in 
 sympathy ; you may give to these whatever names you 
 please. But the ' familiar spirit' is rather the general friend 
 of the family." 
 
 From the above explanations, and from observation of the nature of 
 spirits who attach themselves to men, we draw the following infer- 
 ences : — 
 
 The spirit-protector, good genius, or guardian-angel, is the one whose 
 mission it is to follow each man through the course of his life, and to 
 aid him to progress. His degree of advancement is always superior to 
 that of his ward. 
 
 Familiar spirits attach themselves to certain persons, for a longer or 
 shorter period, in order to be useful to them within the limits (often 
 somewhat narrow) of their possibilities ; they are generally well-inten- 
 tioned, but sometimes rather backward, and even frivolous. They 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 209 
 
 busy themselves with the every-day details of human life ; and only act 
 by order, or with the permission, of the spirit-guardians. 
 
 Sympathetic spirits are those who are drawn to us by personal affec- 
 tion, and by a similarity of tastes in good or in evil. The duration of 
 their relationship with us is almost always dependent on circumstances. 
 
 An evil genius is an imperfect or wicked spirit who attaches himself 
 to a man for the purpose of perverting him ; but he acts of his own 
 motion, and not in virtue of a mission. His tenacity is proportionate 
 to the more or less easy access accorded to him. A man is always free 
 to listen to the suggestions of an evil genius, or to repel them. 
 
 515. What is to be thought of those persons who seem to 
 attach themselves to certain individuals in order to urge 
 them on to their injury, or to guide them on the right 
 road ? 
 
 " Some persons do, in fact, exercise over others a species 
 of fascination which seems irresistible. When this influence 
 is used for evil, it is to be attributed to evil spirits, who make 
 use of evil men in order the more effectually to subjugate 
 their victim. God may permit this in order to try you/' 
 
 516. Could our good or our evil genius incarnate himself 
 in order to accompany us more closely in our earthly life ? 
 
 " That sometimes occurs ; but they more frequently en- 
 trust this mission to incarnated spirits who are in sympathy 
 with them." 
 
 517. Are there spirits who attach themselves to all the 
 members of a family in order to watch over and aid them ? 
 
 "Some spirits attach themselves to the members of a 
 family who live together, and who are united by affection ; 
 but do not attribute pride of race to spirit-guardians." 
 
 518. Spirits being attracted to individuals by their sym- 
 pathies, are they similarly attracted to companies of persons 
 united in view of special ends ? 
 
 " Spirits go by preference to the places where they meet 
 their similars ; they are more at ease among such, and more 
 sure of being listened to. Every one attracts spirits to 
 himself according to his tendencies, whether as an individual 
 or as an element of a collective whole, such as a society, 
 a city, or a nation. Societies, towns, and nations are there- 
 fore assisted by spirits of more or less elevated degree, ac- 
 
210 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 cording to the character and passions which predominate in 
 them. Imperfect spirits withdraw from those who repel 
 them ; from which it follows that the moral excellence of 
 collective wholes, like that of individuals, tends to keep away 
 bad spirits and to attract good ones, who rouse and keep 
 alive the sense of rectitude in the masses, as others may 
 sow among them the worst passions." 
 
 519. Have agglomerations of individuals — such as socie- 
 ties, cities, nations — their special spirit-guardians ? 
 
 "Yes, for those assemblages constitute collective indi- 
 vidualities, who are pursuing a common end, and who have 
 need of a higher direction." 
 
 520. Are the spirit-guardians of masses of men of a 
 higher degree of advancement than those who are attached 
 to individuals ? 
 
 " Their advancement is always in proportion with the 
 degree of advancement of masses as of individuals." 
 
 521. Can certain spirits advance the progress of the arts 
 by protecting those who cultivate them ? 
 
 " There are special spirit-protectors who assist those by 
 whom they are invoked when they judge them to be worthy 
 of their help; but what could they do with those who fancy 
 themselves to be what they are not ? They cannot make 
 the blind to see, nor the deaf to hear/' 
 
 The ancients converted these spirit -guardians into special deities, 
 The Muses were nothing else than the allegoric personification of the 
 spirit-protectors of arts and sciences, just as the spirit-protectors of the 
 family-circle were designated by the name o( lares or oipenates. Among 
 the moderns, the arts, the various industries, cities, countries, have also 
 their protecting patrons, who are no other than spirit-guardians of 
 a higher order, but under different names. 
 
 Each man having his sympathetic spirit, it follows that, in every 
 collective whole, the generality of sympathetic spirits corresponds to the 
 generality of individuals ; that stranger-spirits are attracted to it by 
 identity of tastes and of thoughts : in a word, that these assemblages, as 
 well as individuals, are more or less favourably surrounded, influenced, 
 assisted, according to the predominant character of the thoughts of 
 those who compose them. 
 
 Among nations, the conditions which exercise an attractive action 
 upon spirits are the habits, manners, dominant characteristics, of their 
 people, and, above all, their legislation, because the character of a 
 nation is reflected in its laws. Those who uphold the reign uf righteous- 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 211 
 
 ness among themselves combat the influence of evil spirits. Wherever 
 the laws consecrate injustice, inhumanity, good spirits are in the mino- 
 rity ; and the mass of bad ones who flock in, attracted by that state of 
 things, keep the people in their false ideas, and paralyse the good in- 
 fluences which, being only partial, are lost in the crowd, like a solitary 
 wheat-ear in the midst of tares. It is therefore easy, by studying the 
 characteristics of nations, or of any assemblage of men, to form to one- 
 self an idea of the invisible population which is mixed up with them in 
 their thoughts and in their actions. 
 
 Presentiments. 
 
 522. Is a presentiment always a warning from the spirit- 
 guardian ? 
 
 " A presentiment is a counsel privately addressed to you 
 by a spirit who wishes you well. The same may be said 
 of the intuition which decides the choice of his new exist- 
 ence by a spirit about to reincarnate himself; the voice of 
 instinct is of the same nature. A spirit, before incarnating 
 himself, is aware of the principal phases of his new exist- 
 ence — that is to say, of the kind of trials to which he is 
 about to subject himself. When these are of a very marked 
 character, he preserves, in his inner consciousness, a sort of 
 impression respecting them ; and this impression, which is 
 the voice of instinct, becoming more vivid as the critical 
 moment draws near, becomes presentiment/' 
 
 523. Presentiments and the voice of instinct are always 
 somewhat vague 3 what should we do when in a state of 
 uncertainty ? 
 
 "When you are in doubt, invoke your spirit-guardian, or 
 implore our common Master, God, to send you one of His 
 messengers — one of us." 
 
 524. Are the warnings of our spirit-guardians given solely 
 for our moral guidance, or are they also given for our guid- 
 ance in regard to our personal affairs ? 
 
 " They are given in reference to everything that concerns 
 you. Your spirit-guardians endeavour to lead you to take, 
 in regard to everything that you have to do, the best pos- 
 sible course ; but you often close your ears to their friendly 
 counsels, and thus get yourselves into trouble through your 
 own fault." 
 
212 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. : 
 
 Our protecting spirits aid us by their counsels, and by awakening 
 the voice of our conscience ; but as we do not always attach sufficient 
 importance to these hints, they give us more direct warnings through 
 the persons about us. Let a man reflect upon the various circumstances 
 of his life, fortunate or unfortunate, and he will see that, on many occa- 
 sions, he received advice which, had he followed it, would have spared 
 him a good deal of annoyance. 
 
 Influence of Spirits on the Events of Human Life. 
 
 525. Do spirits exercise an influence over the events of 
 our lives? 
 
 " Assuredly they do ; since they give you advice." 
 
 — Do they exercise this influence in any other way than 
 
 by means of the thoughts they suggest to us ; that is to 
 
 say, have they any direct action on the course of earthly 
 
 events ? 
 
 "Yes; but their action never oversteps the laws of 
 
 nature." 
 
 We erroneously imagine that the action of spirits can only be mani- 
 fested by extraordinary phenomena ; we would have spirits come to our 
 aid by means of miracles, and we imagine them to be always armed with 
 a sort of magic wand. Such is not the case ; all that is done through 
 their help being accomplished by natural means, their intervention 
 usually takes place without our being aware of it. Thus, for instance, 
 they bring about the meeting of two persons who seem to have been 
 brought together by chance; they suggest to the mind of some one the 
 idea of going in a particular direction. They call your attention to 
 some special point, if the action on your part thus led up to by their 
 suggestion, unperceived by you, will bring about the result they seek to 
 obtain. In this way, each man supposes himself to be obeying only 
 his own impulse, and thus always preserves the freedom of his will. 
 
 526. As spirits possess the power of acting upon matter, 
 can they bring about the incidents that will ensure the ac- 
 complishment of a given event? For example, a man is 
 destined to perish in a certain way, at a certain time. He 
 mounts a ladder ; the ladder breaks, and he is killed. 
 Have spirits caused the ladder to break, in order to accom- 
 plish the destiny previously accepted by or imposed upon 
 this man ? 
 
 " It is very certain that spirits have the power of acting 
 upon matter, but for the carrying out of the laws of nature, 
 and not for derogating from them by causing the production 
 at a given moment of some unforeseen event, in opposition 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 213 
 
 to those laws. In such a case as the one you have just 
 supposed, the ladder breaks because it is rotten, or is not 
 strong enough to bear the man's weight. But, as it was the 
 destiny of this man to be killed in this way, the spirits 
 about him will have put into his mind the idea of getting 
 upon a ladder that will break down under his weight, and 
 his death will thus have taken place naturally, and without 
 any miracle having been required to bring it about." 
 
 527. Let us take another example; one in which the 
 ordinary conditions of matter would seem to be insufficient 
 to account for the occurrence of a given event. A man is 
 destined to be killed by lightning. He is overtaken by a 
 storm, and seeks refuge under a tree ; the lightning strikes 
 the tree, and he is killed. Is it by spirits that the thunder- 
 bolt has been made to fall, and to fall upon this particular 
 man? 
 
 " The explanation of this case is the same as that of the 
 former one. The lightning has fallen on the tree at this 
 particular moment, because it was in accordance with the 
 laws of nature that it should do so. The lightning was not 
 made to fall upon the tree because the man was under it, 
 but the man was inspired with the idea of taking refuge 
 under a tree upon which the lightning was about to fall ; 
 for the tree would have been struck all the same, whether 
 the man had been under it or not." 
 
 528. An ill-intentioned person hurls against some one a 
 projectile which passes close by him, but does not touch 
 him. Has the missile, in such a case, been turned aside 
 by some friendly spirit ? 
 
 " If the individual aimed at were not destined to be 
 struck, a friendly spirit would have suggested to him the 
 thought of turning aside from the path of the missile, or 
 would have acted on his enemy's sight in such a way as to 
 make him take a bad aim ; for a projectile, when once im- 
 pelled on its way, necessarily follows the line of its projec- 
 tion." 
 
 529. What is to be thought of the magic bullets which 
 
214 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 figure in certain legends, and which, by a mysterious 
 fatality, infallibly reach their mark ? 
 
 " They are purely imaginary. Man delights in the mar- 
 vellous, and is not contented with the marvels of nature." 
 
 — May the spirits who direct the events of our lives be 
 thwarted by other spirits who desire to give to our lives a 
 different direction ? 
 
 " What God has willed must needs take place. If delay 
 or hindrance occur, it can only be by His appointment." 
 
 530. Cannot frivolous and mocking spirits give rise to 
 the various little difficulties that defeat our projects and 
 upset our calculations ? In a word, are they not the authors 
 of what may be termed the petty troubles of human life ? 
 
 " Such spirits take pleasure in causing vexations which 
 serve as trials for the exercise of your patience ; but they 
 tire of this game when they see that they do not succeed 
 in ruffling you. But it would neither be just nor correct to 
 charge them with all your disappointments, the greater num- 
 ber of which are caused by your own heedlessness. When 
 your crockery is broken, the breakage is much more likely 
 to have been caused by your own awkwardness than by 
 spirit-action." 
 
 — Do the spirits who bring about petty vexations act 
 from personal animosity, or do they direct their attacks 
 against the first person who comes handy, without any fixed 
 aim, and simply to gratify their malice ? 
 
 ; 'They act from both these motives. In some cases, 
 they are enemies whom you have made during your present * 
 life, or in some former one, and who pursue you accord- 
 ingly ; in others, they act without any fixed motive." 
 
 531. In the case of those who have done us harm in the 
 earthly life, is their malevolence extinguished when they 
 return to the spirit-world ? 
 
 " In many cases, they perceive the injustice of their 
 action, and regret the wrong they have done you ; but, in 
 other cases, they continue to pursue you with their ani- 
 mosity, if God permits them to do so, as a continuation 
 of your trial." 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 2#J 
 
 — Can we put an end to this sort of persecution, and 
 by what means ? 
 
 " You can do so, in many cases, by praying for them, 
 
 because, by thus rendering them good for evil, you gradually 
 
 bring them to see that they are in the wrong. And, in all 
 
 cases, if you can show them, by your patience, that you are 
 
 able to rise superior to their machinations, they will cease 
 
 to attack you, seeing that they gain nothing by so doing." 
 
 Experience proves that imperfect spirits follow up their vengeance 
 from one existence to another, and that we are thus made to expiate, 
 sooner or later, the wrongs we may have done to others. 
 
 532. Are spirits able to avert misfortunes from some per- 
 sons, and to bring them upon others ? 
 
 " Only to a certain extent • for there are misfortunes that 
 come upon you by the decrees of Providence. But spirits 
 can lessen your sufferings by helping you to bear them with 
 patience and resignation. 
 
 " Know, also, that it often depends on yourselves to avert 
 misfortunes, or, at least, to attenuate them. God has given 
 you intelligence in order that you may make use of it, and 
 it is especially by so doing that you enable friendly spirits to 
 aid you most effectually- — viz., by suggesting useful ideas; 
 for they only help those who help themselves : a truth im- 
 plied in the words, ' Seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it 
 shall be opened unto you. ? 
 
 " Besides, you must remember that what appears to you 
 to be a misfortune is not always such ; for the good which 
 it is destined to work out is often greater than the seeming 
 evil. This fact is not always recognised by you, because 
 you are too apt to think only of the present moment, and 
 of your own immediate satisfaction. " 
 
 533. Can spirits obtain for us the gifts of fortune, if we 
 entreat them to do so ? 
 
 " They may sometimes accede to such a request as a trial 
 for you ; but they often refuse such demands, as you refuse 
 the inconsiderate demands of a child." 
 
 — When such favours are granted, is it by good spirits 
 or by bad ones ? 
 
2l6 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 " By both ; for the quality both of the request and of the 
 grant depends on the intention by which they are prompted. 
 But such acquiescence is more frequent on the part of spirits 
 who desire to lead you astray, and who find an easy means 
 of doing this through the material pleasures procured by 
 wealth." 
 
 534. When obstacles seem to be placed, by a sort of 
 fatality, in the way of our projects, is it always through the 
 influence of spirits? 
 
 " Such obstacles are sometimes thrown in your way by 
 spirits, but they are more often attributable to your own 
 bad management. Position and character have much to 
 do with your successes or failures. If you persist in follow- 
 ing a path which is not your right one, you become your 
 own evil genius, and have no need to attribute to spirit- 
 action the disappointments that result from your own ob- 
 stinacy or mistake." 
 
 535. When anything fortunate happens to us, ought we 
 to thank our spirit-guardian for it ? 
 
 " Let your thanks be first for God, without whose permis- 
 sion nothing takes place ; and, next, for the good spirits 
 who have been His agents." 
 
 — What would happen if we neglected to thank them ? 
 " That which happens to the ungrateful." 
 
 — Yet there are persons who neither pray nor give 
 thanks, and who nevertheless succeed in everything they 
 do? 
 
 " Yes ; but wait to see the end of their lives. They will 
 pay dearly for this passing prosperity, which they have not 
 deserved ; for, the more they have received, the more they 
 will have to answer for." 
 
 Action of Spirits in the Production of the 
 Phenomena of Nature. 
 
 536. Are the great phenomena of nature, those which we 
 consider as perturbations of the elements, due to fortuitous 
 causes, or have they all a providential^ aim ? 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 217 
 
 " There is a reason for everything ; nothing takes place 
 without the permission of God." 
 
 — Have these phenomena always some reference to man- 
 kind ? 
 
 " They have sometimes a direct reference to man ; but 
 they have often no other object than the re-establishment 
 of the equilibrium and harmony of the physical forces of 
 nature." 
 
 — We fully admit that the will of God must be the primal 
 cause of these phenomena, as of everything else ; but, as 
 we know that spirits exercise an action upon matter, and 
 that they are the agents of the divine will, we ask whether 
 some among them do not exert an influence upon the 
 elements, to rouse, calm, or direct them ? 
 
 " It is evident that they must do so ; it could not be other- 
 wise. God does not exercise a direct action upon matter ; 
 He has His devoted agents at every step of the ladder of 
 worlds." 
 
 537. The mythology of the ancients is entirely based on 
 spiritist ideas, with this difference, that they regarded 
 spirits as divinities. They represented those gods or spirits 
 with special attributes ; thus, some of them had charge of 
 the winds, others of the lightning ; others, again, presided 
 over vegetation, &c. Is this belief entirely devoid of 
 foundation ? 
 
 "It is so far from being devoid of foundation, that it is 
 far below the truth/' 
 
 — May there, in the same way, be spirits inhabiting the 
 interior of the earth and presiding over the development of 
 geological phenomena ? 
 
 " Those spirits do not positively inhabit the earth, but 
 they preside over and direct its developments according to 
 their various attributions. You will some day have the 
 explanation of all these phenomena, and you will then 
 understand them better." 
 
 538. Do the spirits who preside over the phenomena of 
 nature form a special category in the spirit- world ; are 
 
2l8 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 they beings apart, or spirits who have been incarnated 
 like us ? 
 
 " They are spirits who will be incarnated, or who have 
 been so." 
 
 — Do those spirits belong to the higher or lower degrees 
 of the spirit-hierarchy ? 
 
 " That is according as their post is more or less material 
 or intelligent ; some command, others execute ; those who 
 discharge material functions are always of an inferior order, 
 among spirits as among men." 
 
 539. In the production of certain phenomena, of storms, 
 for example, is it a single spirit that acts, or a mass of spirits ? 
 
 " A mass of spirits ; or, rather, innumerable masses of 
 
 Spirits/' 
 
 540. Do the spirits who exert an action over the pheno- 
 mena of nature act with knowledge and intention, in virtue 
 of their free-will, or from an instinctive and unreasoning 
 impulse ? 
 
 " Some act in the one way, others in the other. To employ 
 a comparison : — Figure to yourself the myriads of animalculae 
 that build up islands and archipelagoes in the midst of the 
 sea ; do you believe that there can be, in this process, no 
 providential intention, and that this transformation of the 
 surface of the globe is not necessary to the general har- 
 mony ? Yet all this is accomplished by animals of the 
 lowest degree, in providing for their bodily wants, and with- 
 out any consciousness of their being instruments of God. 
 In the same way, spirits of the most rudimentary degrees 
 are useful to the general whole ; while preparing to live, and 
 prior to their having the full consciousness of their action 
 and free-will, they are made to concur in the development 
 of the various departments of nature, in the production of 
 the phenomena of which they are the unwitting agents. 
 They begin by executing the orders of their superiors ; sub- 
 sequently, when their intelligence is more developed, they 
 command in their turn, and direct the processes of the 
 material world ; still later, again, they are able to direct 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 219 
 
 the things of the moral world. It is thus that everything 
 in nature is linked together, from the primitive atom to the 
 archangel, who himself began at the atom ; an admirable 
 law of harmony, which your mind is, as yet, too narrow to 
 seize in its generality. " 
 
 Spirits during a Battle. 
 
 541. When a battle is being fought, are there spirits who 
 assist and support each party ? 
 
 " Yes, and who stimulate their courage." 
 
 The ancients represented the gods as taking part with such and such 
 a people. Those gods were nothing else than spirits represented under 
 allegorical figures. 
 
 542. In every war, the right is only on one side. How 
 Can spirits take the part of the one which is in the wrong? 
 
 " You know very well that there are spirits who seek 
 only discord and destruction ; for them war is war ; they 
 care little whether it be just or unjust." 
 
 543. Can spirits influence a general in the planning of a 
 campaign ? 
 
 "Without any doubt spirits can use their influence for 
 this object, as for all other conceptions." 
 
 544. Could hostile spirits suggest to him unwise com- 
 binations in order to ruin him ? 
 
 "Yes ; but has he not his free-will ? If his judgment do 
 not enable him to distinguish between a good idea and a 
 bad one, he will have to bear the consequences of his 
 blindness, and would do better to obey than to command." 
 
 545. May a general sometimes be guided by a sort of 
 second-sight, an intuitive perception that shows him, before- 
 hand, the result of his combinations ? 
 
 " It is often thus with a man of genius ; this kind of in- 
 tuition is what is called ' inspiration/ and causes him to 
 act with a sort of certainty. It comes to him from the 
 spirits who direct him, and who act upon him through the 
 faculties with which he is endowed." 
 
 546. In the tumult of battle, what becomes of the spirits of 
 
220 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 those who succumb ? Do they continue to take an interest 
 
 in the struggle after their death ? 
 
 " Some of them do so ; others withdraw from it." 
 
 In the case of those who are killed in battle, as in all other cases of 
 violent death, a spirit, during the first few moments, is in a state of 
 bewilderment, and as though he were stunned. He does not know 
 that he is dead ; and seems to be taking part in the action. It is only 
 little by little that the reality of his situation becomes apparent to him. 
 
 547. Do the spirits of those who had fought against each 
 other while alive still regard one another as enemies after 
 death ; and are they still enraged against one another ? 
 
 " A spirit, under such circumstances, is never calm. At 
 the first moment, he may still be excited against his enemy, 
 and even pursue him ; but, when he has recovered his self- 
 possession, he sees that his animosity has no longer any 
 motive. But he may, nevertheless, retain some traces of it 
 for a longer or shorter period, according to his character." 
 
 — Does he still perceive the clang of the battle- field ? 
 
 "Yes; perfectly." 
 
 548. When a spirit is coolly watching a battle, as a mere 
 spectator, does he witness the separation of the souls and 
 bodies of those who fall, and how does this phenomenon 
 affect him ? 
 
 "Very few deaths are altogether instantaneous. In most 
 cases, the spirit whose body has just been mortally struck 
 is not aware of it for the moment ; it is when he begins to 
 come to himself that his spirit can be seen moving beside 
 his corpse. This appears so natural, that the sight of the 
 dead body does not produce any disagreeable effect. All 
 the life of the individual being concentrated in his spirit, 
 the latter alone attracts the attention of the spirits about 
 him. It is with him that they converse, to him that orders 
 are given/' 
 
 Pacts with Spirits. 
 
 549. Is there any truth in the idea that pacts can be 
 entered into with evil spirits ? 
 
 " No ; there is no pact, but there is sympathy, between 
 an evil nature and evil spirits. For example ; you wish to 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 221 
 
 torment your neighbour, but you know not how to set 
 
 about it ; and you therefore call to your help some of the 
 
 inferior spirits, who, like yourself, only desire to do evil, and 
 
 who, in return for the help they give you in carrying out 
 
 your wicked design s, expect you to help them with theirs. 
 
 But it does not follow that your neighbour will not be able 
 
 to get rid of such a conspiracy by an opposing conjuration 
 
 and the action of his will. He who desires to do an evil 
 
 deed calls evil spirits to his assistance by that mere desire; 
 
 and he is then obliged to serve them as they have served 
 
 him, for they, on their side, have need of his help in the 
 
 evil they desire to do. What you call a pact consists 
 
 simply in this reciprocity of assistance in evil." 
 
 The subjection to evil spirits, in which a man sometimes finds himself, 
 proceeds from his abandoning himself to the evil thoughts suggested 
 by them, and not from any sort of stipulations between them and him. 
 The idea of a pact, in the sense commonly attached to that word, is a 
 figurative representation of the sympathy which exists between a bad 
 man and malicious spirits. 
 
 550. What is the meaning of the fantastic legends of 
 persons selling their soul to Satan in order to obtain from 
 him certain favours ? 
 
 " All fables contain a teaching and a moral ; your mis- 
 take is in taking them literally. The one you refer to is 
 an . allegory that may be thus explained :— He who calls 
 evil spirits to his aid, in order to obtain from them the 
 gifts of fortune or any other favour, rebels against Provi- 
 dence. He draws back from the mission he has received, 
 and from the trials he was to have undergone, in his earthly 
 life ; and he will reap the consequences of this rebellion in 
 the life to come. By this we do not mean to say that 
 his soul is condemned to misery for ever ; but as, instead 
 of detaching himself from matter, he plunges himself deeper 
 and deeper into it, his enjoyment of earthly pleasures will 
 only have led to his suffering in the spirit-world, until 
 he shall have redeemed himself from the thraldom of evil 
 by new trials, perhaps heavier and more painful than those 
 against which he now rebels. Through his indulgence in 
 material pleasures, he brings himself under the power of 
 
222 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 impure spirits, and thus establishes between them and him 
 a tacit compact which leads him to his ruin, but which it 
 is always easy for him to break with the assistance of higher 
 spirits, if he have the firm determination to do so." 
 
 Occult Power— Talismans— Sorcerers. 
 
 551. Can a bad man, with the aid of a bad spirit who is 
 at his orders, cause harm to his neighbour ? 
 
 " No; God would not permit it." 
 
 552. What is to be thought of the belief in the power of 
 certain persons to throw a spell over others ? 
 
 " Certain persons possess a very strong magnetic power, 
 of which they may make a bad use if their own spirit is bad, 
 and, in that case, they may be seconded by other bad 
 spirits ; but do not attach belief to any pretended magical 
 power, which exists only in the imagination of superstitious 
 people, ignorant of the true laws of nature. The facts 
 adduced to prove the existence of this pretended power are 
 facts which are really due to the action of natural causes that 
 have been imperfectly observed, and above all, imperfectly 
 understood." 
 
 553. What is the effect of the formulas and practices by 
 the aid of which certain persons profess to be able to control 
 the wills of spirits ? 
 
 " Their only effect is to render such persons ridiculous, if 
 they really put faith in them ; and, if they do not, they are 
 rogues who deserve to be punished. All such formulas are 
 mere jugglery ; there is no ' sacramental word/ no cabalistic 
 sign, no talisman, that has any power over spirits; for 
 spirits are attracted by thought, and not by anything 
 material." 
 
 — Have not cabalistic formulas been sometimes dictated 
 by spirits ? 
 
 " Yes ; there are spirits who give you strange signs and 
 words, and prescribe certain acts, with the aid of which you 
 perform what you call 'conjurations ;' but you may be very 
 sure that such spirits are making game of you, and amusing 
 themselves with your credulity." 
 
INTERVENTION OF SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD. 223 
 
 554. Is it not possible that he who, rightly or wrongly, 
 has confidence in what he calls the virtue of a talisman, may 
 attract a spirit to him by that very confidence; for in that 
 case it would be his thought that acts, the talisman being 
 only a sign that helps to concentrate and direct his 
 thought? 
 
 " Such an action is quite possible ; but the nature of the 
 spirit thus attracted would depend on the purity of inten- 
 tion and the elevation of sentiment of the party attracting 
 him ) and it rarely happens that one who is simple enough 
 to believe in the virtue of a talisman is not actuated by 
 motives of a material rather than of a moral character. At 
 all events, such practices imply a pettiness and weakness 
 of mind that would naturally give access to imperfect and 
 mocking spirits." 
 
 555. What meaning should we attach to the qualification 
 of sorcerer ? 
 
 " Those whom you call sorcerers are persons gifted, when 
 they are honest, with certain exceptional faculties, like the 
 mesmeric power or second-sight ; and as such persons do 
 things that you do not comprehend, you suppose them to 
 be endowed with supernatural power. Have not many of 
 your learned men passed for sorcerers in the eyes of the 
 ignorant?" 
 
 556. Do some persons really possess the gift of healing 
 by merely touching the sick ? 
 
 " The mesmeric power may act to that extent when it is 
 seconded by purity of intention and an ardent desire to do 
 good, for, in such a case, good spirits come to the aid of 
 the mesmeriser. But you must be on your guard against 
 the way in which facts are exaggerated when recounted by 
 persons who, being too credulous or too enthusiastic, are 
 disposed to discover something marvellous in the simplest 
 and most natural occurrences. You must also be on your 
 guard against the interested recitals of persons who work on 
 credulity with a view to their own benefit." 
 
 s 
 
224 BOOK II. CHAP. IX. 
 
 Benedictions and Curses, 
 
 557. Do benedictions and curses draw down good and 
 evil on those who are the object of them ? 
 
 " God does not listen to an unjust malediction, and he who 
 utters it is guilty in His eyes. As we are subjected to two 
 opposite influences, good and evil, a curse may have a 
 momentary action, even upon matter ; but this action can 
 never take place unless by the will of God, and as an increase 
 of trial for him who is its object. Besides, curses are usually 
 bestowed on the wicked, and benedictions on the good. 
 But neither blessing nor cursing can ever turn aside the 
 justice of Providence, which only strikes the one who is 
 cursed if he is wicked, and only favours the one who is 
 blessed if he merits its protection." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND MISSIONS OF SPIRITS. 
 
 558. Have spirits anything else to do but to work out 
 their own personal amelioration ? 
 
 "They co-operate in the production of the harmony of 
 the universe by executing the volitions of God, whose 
 ministers they are. Spirit-life is a continual occupation, 
 but one that has nothing in common with the painful labour 
 of the earthly life, because there is in it neither bodily 
 fatigue, nor the anguish of bodily wants." 
 
 559. Do inferior and imperfect spirits also subserve any 
 useful end in the universe ? 
 
 " All have duties to fulfil. Does not the lowest mason 
 concur in the building of an edifice as really as the archi- 
 tect?" (540.) 
 
 560. Has each spirit special attributes? 
 
 " We all have to inhabit all regions, and to acquire a 
 knowledge of all things, by presiding successively over all 
 the details of the universe. But, as is said in Ecclesiastes, 
 ' there is a time for everything.' Thus, one spirit is accom- 
 plishing his destiny, at the present day, in your world; 
 another will accomplish his, or has already accomplished 
 it, at another period, upon the earth, in the water, in the 
 air, &c." 
 
 561. Are the functions discharged by spirits, in the 
 economy of things, permanent on the part of each spirit, 
 or do they constitute the exclusive attributes of certain 
 classes ? 
 
 " All spirits have to ascend all the steps of the ladder in 
 
226 BOOK II. CHAP. X. 
 
 order to attain to perfection. God. who is just, has not 
 willed to give science to some without labour, while others 
 only acquire it through painful effort." 
 
 Thus, among men, no one arrives at the highest degree of skill in any 
 art, without having acquired the necessary knowledge through the 
 practice of that art in all its degrees, from the lowest upwards. 
 
 562. Spirits of the highest order having nothing more to 
 acquire, are they in a state of absolute repose, or have they, 
 too, occupations ? 
 
 " Can you suppose that they remain idle through eternity? 
 Eternal idleness would be eternal torture." 
 
 — What is the nature of their occupations ? 
 
 " They receive orders directly from God, transmit them 
 throughout the universe, and superintend their execution." 
 
 563. Are spirits incessantly occupied? 
 
 " Incessantly ? yes, if it be understood that their thought 
 is always active, for they live by thought. But you must 
 not suppose that the occupations of spirits are similar to 
 the material occupations of men ; their activity is itself a de- 
 light, through the consciousness they have of being useful." 
 
 — That is easily understood as regards good spirits ; but 
 is it the same in regard to inferior spirits? 
 
 " Inferior spirits have occupations suitable to their nature. 
 Would you entrust intellectual undertakings to an ignorant 
 labourer ? " 
 
 564. Are there, among spirits, some who are idle, or who 
 do not employ themselves in anything useful ? 
 
 " Yes ; but that idleness is only temporary, and depends 
 on the development of their intelligence. Certainly, there 
 are among spirits, as among men, some who live only for 
 themselves ; but their idleness weighs upon them, and, 
 sooner or later, the desire to advance causes them to feel 
 the need of activity, and they are glad to make themselves 
 useful. We speak of spirits arrived at the point at which 
 they possess self-consciousness and free-will; for, at their 
 origin, they are like new-born children, and act more from 
 instinct than from a determinate will." 
 
OCCUPATIONS AND MISSIONS OF SPIRITS. 227 
 
 565. Do spirits examine our works of art, and take an 
 interest in them ? 
 
 " They examine whatever indicates the elevation of in- 
 carnated spirits and their progress." 
 
 566. Does a spirit who has had a special occupation 
 upon the earth, as a painter or an architect, for example, 
 take a special interest in the labours which have formed 
 the object of his predilections during the earthly life ? 
 
 " Everything blends into one general aim. A good spirit 
 interests himself in whatever enables him to assist other 
 souls in rising towards God. Besides, a spirit who has been 
 devoted to a given pursuit, in the existence in which you 
 have known him, may have been devoted to some other in 
 another existence; for, in order to be perfect, he must know 
 everything. Thus, in virtue of his greater advancement, 
 there may be no specialty for him — a fact to which I al- 
 luded in saying that everything blends into one general aim. 
 Take note, also, that what seems sublime to you, in your 
 backward world, would be mere child's play in worlds of 
 greater advancement. How can you suppose that the 
 spirits who inhabit those worlds, in which there exist arts 
 and sciences unknown to you, could admire what, in their 
 eyes, is only the work of a tyro ? " 
 
 — We can easily conceive that this should be the case 
 with very advanced spirits ; but our question referred to 
 more commonplace spirits, to those who have not yet raised 
 themselves above terrestrial ideas. 
 
 " With them it is different ; their mental outlook is nar- 
 rower, and they may admire what you yourselves admire." 
 
 567. Do spirits ever take part in our occupations and 
 pleasures ? 
 
 " Commonplace spirits, as you call them, do so ; they 
 are incessantly about you, and take, in all you do, a part 
 which is sometimes a very active one, according to their 
 nature ; and it is necessary that they should do so, in order 
 to push men on in the different walks of life, and to excite 
 or moderate their passions." 
 
2 23 BOOK II. CHAP. X. 
 
 Spirits busy themselves with the things of this world in proportion to 
 their elevation or their inferiority. The higher spirits have, un- 
 doubtedly, the power of looking into the minutest details of earthly 
 things ; but they only do so when it will be useful to progress. Spirits 
 of lower rank attribute to such things a degree of importance propor- 
 tioned to their remembrances of the earthly life, and to the earthly ideas 
 which are not yet extinct in their memory. 
 
 568. When spirits are charged with a mission, do they 
 accomplish it in the state of erraticity, or in the state of 
 incarnation ? 
 
 " They may be charged with a mission in either state. 
 There are wandering spirits to whom such missions furnish 
 much occupation." 
 
 569. What are the missions with which wandering spirits 
 may be charged ? 
 
 " They are so varied that it would be impossible to de- 
 scribe them ; and there are some of them that you could 
 not comprehend. Spirits execute the volitions of God, and 
 you are not able to penetrate all His designs." 
 
 The missions of spirits have always good for their object. Whether in 
 the spirit-state, or as men, they are charged to help forward the progress 
 of humanity, of peoples, or of individuals, within a range of ideas more 
 or less extensive, more or less special, to pave the way for certain events, 
 to superintend the accomplishment of certain things. The missions 
 of some spirits are of narrower scope, and may be said to be personal, 
 or even local ; as the helping of the sick, the dying, the afflicted ; to 
 watch over those of whom they become the guides and protectors, and 
 to guide them by their counsels or by the wholesome thoughts they 
 suggest. It may be said that there are as many sorts of. spirit-missions 
 as there are sorts of interests to watch over, whether in the physical 
 world or in the moral world. And each spirit advances in proportion 
 to the fidelity with which he accomplishes his task. 
 
 570. Do spirits always comprehend the designs they are 
 charged to execute ? 
 
 " No ; some of them are mere blind instruments, but 
 others fully understand the aim they are working out." 
 
 571. Is it only elevated spirits who have missions to 
 fulfil ? 
 
 " The importance of a mission is always proportioned to 
 the capacities and elevation of the spirit who is charged with 
 it ; but the estafette who conveys a despatch fulfils a mis- 
 sion, though one which is not that of the general." 
 
OCCUPATIONS AND MISSIONS OF SPIRITS. 229 
 
 572. Is a spirit's mission imposed upon him, or does it 
 depend on his own will? 
 
 " He asks for it, and is rejoiced to obtain it." 
 
 — May the same mission be demanded by several spirits ? 
 "Yes, there are often several candidates for the same 
 
 mission, but they are not all accepted." 
 
 573. In what does the mission of incarnated spirits con- 
 sist? 
 
 " In instructing men, and aiding their advancement ; 
 and in ameliorating their institutions by direct, material 
 means. These missions are more or less general and im- 
 portant; but he who tills the ground accomplishes a mission 
 as really as he who governs or instructs. Everything in 
 nature is linked together ; and each spirit, while purifying 
 himself by his incarnation, concurs, under the human form, 
 to the accomplishment of the Providential plans. Each 
 of you has a mission, because each of you can be useful in 
 some way or other. " 
 
 574. What can be the mission of those who, in this life, 
 are wilfully idle ? 
 
 " It is true that there are human beings who live only for 
 themselves, and who do not make themselves useful in any 
 way. They are much to be pitied, for they will have to 
 expiate their voluntary inutility by severe sufferings, and 
 their chastisement often begins even in their present exist- 
 ence, through their weariness and disgust of life." 
 
 — Since they had the freedom of choice, why did they 
 choose a life which could not be of any use to them? 
 
 " Among spirits, as among men, there are lazy ones who 
 shrink from a life of labour. God lets them take their own 
 way ; they will learn, by and by, and to their cost, the bad 
 effects of their uselessness, and will then eagerly demand 
 to be allowed to make up for lost time. It may be, also, 
 that they had chosen a more useful life ; but have subse- 
 quently recoiled from the trial, and allowed themselves to 
 be misled by the suggestions of spirits who encourage them 
 in their inactivity." 
 
230 BOOK II. CHAP. X. 
 
 575. The common occupations of everyday life appear 
 to us to be duties 1 rather than missions, properly so called. 
 A mission, according to the idea we attach to this word, 
 is characterised by an importance less exclusive, and 
 especially less personal. From this point of view, how 
 can we ascertain that a man has really a mission upon this 
 earth ? 
 
 " By the greatness of the results he accomplishes, and the 
 progress he causes to be made by his fellow-men." 
 
 576. Are those who have received an important mission 
 predestined thereto before their birth, and are they aware 
 of it? 
 
 " Yes, in some cases ; but, more often, they are not 
 aware of it. They are only vaguely conscious of an aim in 
 coming upon the earth ; their mission reveals itself to them 
 gradually, after their birth, through the action of circum- 
 stances. God leads them on into the road which they are 
 to take for the accomplishment of His designs." 
 
 577. When a man does anything useful, is it always in 
 virtue of an anterior and predestined mission, or may he 
 receive a mission not previously foreseen ? 
 
 " Everything a man does is not the result of a predestined 
 mission ; he is often the instrument of a spirit who makes 
 use of him in order to procure the execution of something 
 he considers useful. For example : — A spirit' thinks it 
 would be useful to publish a book which he would write 
 himself if he were incarnated. He seeks out the writer 
 who will be the fittest to comprehend and develop his idea ; 
 he suggests to him the plan of the work, and directs him 
 in its execution. In such a case, the man did not come 
 into the world with the mission of doing this work. It is 
 the same in regard to various works of art or scientific 
 discoveries. During the sleep of his body, the incarnated 
 spirit communicates directly with the spirit in erraticity, 
 and the two take counsel together for the carrying out of 
 their undertaking." 
 
 578. May a spirit fail in his mission through his own fault ? 
 
OCCUPATIONS AND MI3SIONS OF SPIRITS. 23 1 
 
 "Yes; if he is not of a high degree of elevation." 
 — What, for him, are the consequences of such a 
 failure ? 
 
 " He is obliged to begin his task over again ; this is his 
 punishment. And, besides, he will have to undergo the 
 consequences of the mischiefs caused by his failure." 
 
 579. Since it is from God that each spirit receives his 
 mission, how can God have entrusted an important mission, 
 one of general interest, to a spirit capable of failing in its 
 discharge ? 
 
 " Does not God foresee whether His general will be 
 victorious or vanquished ? Be sure that He foresees all 
 things, and that the carrying out of His plans, when they 
 are important, is never confided to those who will leave 
 their work half done. The whole difficulty lies, for you, 
 in the foreknowledge of the future which God possesses, 
 but which you cannot understand." 
 
 580. When a spirit has incarnated himself for the accom- 
 plishment of a mission, does he feel the same anxiety in 
 regard to it as the spirit whose mission has been undertaken 
 as a trial ? 
 
 " No ; for he has the results of experience to guide 
 him." 
 
 581. The men who enlighten the human race by their 
 genius have certainly a mission ; but there are among 
 them many who make mistakes, and who, along with im- 
 portant truths, spread abroad serious errors. In what way 
 should we regard their mission ? 
 
 "As having been falsified by themselves. They are 
 unequal to the task they have undertaken. In judging of 
 them, however, you must take into account the circum- 
 stances in which they have been placed. Men of genius 
 have had to speak according to their time ; and teachings 
 which appear erroneous or puerile, in the light of a later 
 epoch, may have been sufficient for the epoch at which 
 they were given." 
 
232 BOOK II. CHAP. X. 
 
 582. Can paternity be considered a mission? 
 
 " It is undeniably a mission ; and also a most serious 
 duty, the responsibilities of which will exercise a more im- 
 portant influence upon his future than a man is apt to sup- 
 pose. God has placed the child under the tutelage of his 
 parents, in order that they should direct his steps into the 
 path of rectitude ; and he has facilitated their task by giving 
 to the child a frail and delicate organisation, that renders 
 him accessible to new impressions. But there are many 
 parents who take more pains to train the trees in their 
 gardens, and to make them bring forth a large crop of fine 
 fruit, than to train the character of their child. If the latter 
 succumbs through their fault, they will bear the punishment 
 of their unfaithfulness; and the sufferings of the child in a 
 future life will come home to them, because they have not 
 done their part towards helping him forward on the road to 
 happiness." 
 
 583. If a child goes wrong, notwithstanding the care of 
 his parents, are they responsible ? 
 
 " No ; but the more vicious the disposition of the child, 
 and the heavier their task, the greater will be their re- 
 ward if they succeed in drawing him away from the evil 
 road/' 
 
 — If a child becomes a good man, despite the negligence 
 or bad example of his parents, do the latter obtain any 
 benefit therefrom ? 
 
 " God is just." 
 
 584. What can be the mission of the conqueror whose 
 only aim is the satisfaction of his ambition, and who, in 
 order to attain that end, does not shrink from inflicting the 
 calamities he brings in his train? 
 
 " He is generally only an instrument used by God for 
 the accomplishment of His designs ; and these calamities 
 are sometimes a means of making a people advance more 
 rapidly." 
 
 — The good that may result from these passing cala- 
 mities is foreign to him who has been the instrument in 
 
OCCUPATIONS AND MISSIONS OF SPIRITS. 233 
 
 producing them, since he had only proposed to himself a 
 personal aim ; will he, nevertheless, profit by that result ? 
 
 " Each is rewarded according to his works, the good he 
 has wished to do, and the uprightness of his intentions." 
 
 Spirits, while incarnated, have occupations inherent in the nature of 
 their corporeal existence. In the state of erraticity, or of dematerial- 
 isation, their occupations are proportioned to their degree of advance- 
 ment. 
 
 Some of them journey from world to world, acquiring instruction, and 
 preparing for a new incarnation. 
 
 Others, more advanced, devote themselves to the cause of progress 
 by directing the course of events, and suggesting propitious ideas ; they 
 assist the men of genius who help forward the advancement of the 
 human race. 
 
 Others incarnate themselves again with a mission of progress. 
 
 Others take under their care individuals, families, societies, cities, 
 countries, and peoples, and become their guardian -angels, protecting 
 genii, and familiar spirits. 
 
 Others, again, preside over the phenomena of nature, of which they 
 are the immediate agents. 
 
 The great mass of spirits of lower rank busy themselves with our 
 occupations, and take part in our amusements. 
 
 Impure and imperfect spirits await, in sufferings and anguish, the 
 moment when it shall please God to furnish them with the means of 
 advancing. If they do harm, it is through spite against the happiness 
 which they are not yet able to share. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE THREE REIGNS. 
 X. 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 cha- 
 racteristics, 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 ofinert 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 individu- 
 ality ; man, possessing all that is found in plants and animals, is raised 
 above all the other classes by a special intelligence, without fixed limits, 
 which gives him the consciousness of his future, the perception of extra- 
 material 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 
 
THE THREE REIGNS. 235 
 
 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 
 dionsea, have movements which give evidence of their pos- 
 sessing great 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 an intermediate class between the vege- 
 table 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, neverthe- 
 less, is linked together. Plants do not think, and have 
 consequently no will. The oyster that opens it shell, and 
 all the zoophytes, do not think; they have only a blind 
 natural instinct." 
 
 The human organism furnishes us with examples of similar move- 
 ments 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-preserva- 
 tion 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 is to say, there is an affinity between them ; 
 but you do not call that instinct." 
 
236 BOOK II. CHAP. XI. 
 
 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, no- 
 toriously 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 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 is 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 exist- 
 ence of God." 
 
 593. Can the animals be said to act only from instinct? 
 
 " That, again, is a mere theory. It is very true that in- 
 stinct 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 possess- 
 ing, besides instinct, the power of performing compound acts which 
 denote the will to act in a determinate direction, and according to cir- 
 cumstances. Consequently, there is in them a sort of intelligence, but the 
 exercise of which is mainly concentrated on the means of satisfying -heir 
 
THE THREE REIGNS. 237 
 
 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 to- 
 day, 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 ephe- 
 meral 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 
 
 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 
 concerting 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 never- 
 theless 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 ? 
 
238 BOOK II. CHAP. XI. 
 
 " 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 in- 
 ferior to him, they have not the same duties. Their free- 
 dom is restricted to the acts of their material life." 
 
 596. Whence comes the aptitude of certain animals to 
 imitate human speech, and why is this aptitude found among 
 birds, rather, for instance, than among apes, whose confor- 
 mation has so much 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 self-consciousness ? 
 
 " 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." 
 
 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- 
 
THE THREE REIGNS. 239 
 
 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 uti- 
 lised ; it has not the leisure to enter into connection with 
 other creatures." 
 
 601. Do animals follow a law of progress like men ? 
 
 " Yes ; and it is for this reason that, in the higher worlds 
 in which men are further advanced, the animals are more 
 advanced also, and possess more developed means of com- 
 munication. 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 enchain- 
 ing which your intellect cannot yet seize ; and things ap- 
 parently 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 
 
 T 
 
240 BOOK II. CHAP. XI. 
 
 he will be able to see clearly into the work of God ; 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 spiri- 
 tual 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 in- 
 stincts 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 partici- 
 pates in the nature of spirits." 
 
 — Thus, besides his own imperfections, 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 unite 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 
 
THE THREE REIGNS. 241 
 
 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 in- 
 tellectual and moral principle that renders it superior to the animals. 
 The two natures in man constitute for him two distinct sources of pas- 
 sions ; 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 gross- 
 ness 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 nature of the brutes ; when delivered from 
 that influence, he raises himself towards his true destination. 
 
 606. Whence do the animals derive the intelligent prin- 
 ciple 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 elabora- 
 tion 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 intelli- 
 gent 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, as we have said, through its subjection to a sort 
 of preparatory process, like that of germination, on the con- 
 clusion 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 
 
242 BOOK II. CHAP. XI. 
 
 power of distinguishing between good and evil, and the 
 responsibility of his actions ; just as, after the period of in- 
 fancy 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 poweriessness to sound -the depths 
 of the divine designs and the wisdom of the laws that regu- 
 late 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 ? 
 
 " 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 
 
THE THREE REIGNS. 243 
 
 periods, and the amount of progress accomplished. During 
 a few generations, there may be a reflex, more or less dis- 
 tinct, 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" 
 
 Metempsychosis. 
 
 611. Is not the common origin of the intellectual principle 
 of living beings a consecration of the doctrine of the me- 
 tempsychosis ? 
 
 " Two things may have the same origin, and yet not 
 resemble one another at a later period. Who could re- 
 cognise 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 intelli- 
 gence 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, therefore, be said that such and such a man is the 
 
244 BOOK II. CHAP. XL 
 
 incarnation of such and such an animal ; and consequently 
 the doctrine of the metempsychosis, as commonly under- 
 stood, 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 its 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 trans- 
 form 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 assimi- 
 lable, and that such mu-t 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 species, 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 ad- 
 vancement. 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 reincarnation 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 starting-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 
 
THE THREE REIGNS. 245 
 
 to some, spirit only arrives at the human period after having been ela- 
 borated 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 advan- 
 tage 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 the road of progression. Thus the spirit of the oyster does 
 not become successively that of the fish, the bird, the quadruped, and 
 the quadrumane. Each species k 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 pheno- 
 mena of nature, and which it restores to the general mass of that prin- 
 ciple 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 ex- 
 tended 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 use- 
 less to attempt to penetrate, and in regard to uhich, 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 progress- 
 ing, 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. 
 
BOOK THIRD.— MORAL LA WS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DIVINE OR NATURAL LAW. 
 
 I. 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 be- 
 cause 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 mate- 
 rial 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? 
 
 " 4-11 the laws of nature are divine laws, since God is the 
 author of aH things. The seeker after science studies the 
 
DIVINE OR NATURAL LAW. 247 
 
 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 t/iis" 
 
 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 6 j 8. Are the divine laws the same for all worlds? 
 
 " Reason tells you that they must be adapted to the spe- 
 cial 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 be 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, com- 
 prehend the law of God more clearly than after his incarna- 
 tion? 
 
 " He comprehends that law according to the degree of 
 development at which he has arrived, and preserves the 
 
248 BOOK III. CHAP. I. 
 
 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 law of God in his conscience, where 
 w r as 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 reveal- 
 ing 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 man- 
 kind sometimes made mistakes, and led them astray by false 
 reasonings ? 
 
 " 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 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. 
 
DIVINE OR NATURAL LAW. 249 
 
 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 with those 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 laws been revealed to 
 men by Jesus only, and had men, before His time, no other 
 knowledge than that given them by intuition? 
 
 " Have we not told you that those laws are written every- 
 where? 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 con- 
 veyed in parables ; because He spoke according to the time 
 and place in 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 fur- 
 nish the explanations that will render it impossible for men 
 
250 BOOK III. CHAP. I. 
 
 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 pos- 
 session of knowledge which they considered as sacred, and 
 which they kept as a mystery from those whom they re- 
 garded as profane. You can well understand, from what 
 you know of the laws which govern the phenomena of spirit- 
 communication, 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 other — perverted as they are by their mix- 
 ture with various worthless accessories — may be easily co- 
 ordinated, 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 demon- 
 strated 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 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." 
 
DIVINE OR NATURAL LAW, 251 
 
 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 
 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 P 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 
 
252 BOOK III. CHAP. I. 
 
 no mountains, man could not comprehend the possibility of 
 ascending and descending; if there 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 corre- 
 sponding 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, is he guilty in so doing ? 
 
 " I have said that the essence of evil is in the* will ; there- 
 fore 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 distinguish- 
 ing between right and wrong. Thus the enlightened man who com- 
 mits a mere injustice is 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 fellow-creature. Can it be said that, in such cases, 
 there is violation of the law of God ? 
 
DIVINE OR NATURAL LAW. 253 
 
 " Evil, in such cases, is none the less evil, although neces- 
 sary ; but this necessity disappears in proportion as the soul 
 becomes purified bypassing from one existence to another; 
 and man is then all the more culpable when he does wrong, 
 because he comprehends more clearly the character of his 
 action." 
 
 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 wrong-doing, 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 pos- 
 sibility of gratifying that desire, is virtuous; but 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 
 
254 BOOK III. CHAP. I. 
 
 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 fur- 
 nish 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." 
 
 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 atmo- 
 sphere 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 accom- 
 plished? 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 
 
DIVINE OR NATURAL LAW. 255 
 
 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 cf the neighbour laid down 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, viz., the laws of adoi-ation, labour, reproduc- 
 tion, preservation, society, equality, liberty, justice, love, and 
 charity ? 
 
 " 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." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 t THE LAW OF ADORATION." 
 
 I. Aim of adoration — 2. External acts of adoration — 3. Life of con* 
 templation — 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 eye is always upon you." 
 — Are external acts of worship useful ? 
 
THE LAW OF ADORATION. 257 
 
 " Yes, if they are not a vain pretence. It is always use- 
 ful to set a good example ; but those who perform acts of 
 worship merely from affectation and for the sake of appear- 
 ances, and whose 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 cere- 
 monies 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 be 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 reli- 
 gion in which we do not heartily believe, when this is done 
 
258 BOOK III. CHAP. II. 
 
 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 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 in- 
 dividual 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 con- 
 templation, 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 con- 
 sumes 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.) 
 
THE LAW OF ADORATION. 259 
 
 Prayer. 
 
 658. Is prayer acceptable to God? 
 
 " Prayer is always acceptable to Gocl 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." 
 
 660. Does prayer make men better? 
 
 " Yes ; for he 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 some- 
 times very unamiable, jealous, envious, and harsh, want- 
 ing 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 prayei 
 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 inefncaceous, 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 
 
260 BOOK III. CHAP. II. 
 
 hide faults from, His eyes. He who asks of God the for- 
 giveness 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 an act of our will. If our will be ardent and 
 sincere, it 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 him- 
 self,' is a true saying. God could not change the order of 
 nature at the various contradictory demands of His crea- 
 tures ; for 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 rela- 
 tion 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 shortsightedness 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 vou, but 
 
THE LAW OF ADORATION. 26 1 
 
 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 in this way that you may shorten the term of his suffer- 
 ing, 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 ^one 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, i 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 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 
 
262 BOOK III. CHAP. II. 
 
 compassion, is accepted by Him as a testimony of remem- 
 brance 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 interven- 
 tion 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." l 
 
 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 permis- 
 sion nothing takes place. For this reason, prayers addressed 
 to them are only efficaceous 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 mind 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 cor- 
 
 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. 
 
THE LAW OF ADORATION. 263 
 
 poreal nature, that is to say, a form and a face ; and thence- 
 forth 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 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, enlightened 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 die 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 incor- 
 poreal 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, pur- 
 posely 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. 
 
264 BOOK III. CHAP. II. 
 
 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 sub- 
 limest and most important principles of nature. 
 
 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 compre- 
 hended God as being the source of all goodness. Among 
 primitive peoples, matter predominates over spirit. Their 
 moral qualities not being yet developed, they give them- 
 selves 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 con- 
 sideration 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 sacrific- 
 ing human beings did not originate in mere cruelty? 
 
THE LAW OF ADORATION. 265 
 
 w 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 per- 
 sonal 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 w r eighs the intention which 
 dictates any act. Men, being ignorant, may have believed 
 that they were performing a laudable deed in immolating 
 their fellow-beings 3 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 recog- 
 nise its error, and to abominate the idea of sacrifices that 
 ought never to have entered into enlightened minds, I say 
 < enlightened/ because, however dense the veil of mate- 
 riality 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 w r ere commit- 
 ting, but which they none the less accomplished for the 
 gratification of their passions." 
 
 671. What should be thought of the wars styled "reli- 
 gious ? " 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 
 
266 BOOK III. CHAP. II. 
 
 call Him, why should one of them wage a war of extermina- 
 tion 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 performed 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 an- 
 swered your question in telling you that God's judgment is 
 directed to the intention, and that the 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 agree- 
 able 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 
 
THE LAW OF ADORATION. 267 
 
 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 succour the 
 poor and afflicted is the best of all ways of honouring Him. 
 I do not mean to say that God disapproves of the cere- 
 monies 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 ? " 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 II. THE LAW OF LABOUR. 
 I. 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 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 occupa- 
 tions 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, 
 
THE LAW OF LABOUR. 269 
 
 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 
 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 obliga- 
 tion 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 ? 
 
270 BOOK III. CHAP. III. 
 
 " Certainly it Joes, 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 pater- 
 nal 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 ? 
 
 " 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 werk 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 Qf charity." 
 
 Tq spy that it \s necessary for a man to work is not to make a com- 
 plete statement of the subject ; fqr it is also necessary that he who has 
 to get his bread by his 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. Econo- 
 
THE LAW OF LABOUR. 271 
 
 nric 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 inteivals 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 popu- 
 lation, 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 well-being, the only pledge of security 
 for all* 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 III. LAW OF REPRODUCTION. 
 
 I. Population of the globe — 2. Succession and improvement of races — 
 3. Obstacles to reproduction — 4. Marriage and celibacy — 5. Poly- 
 gamy. 
 
 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 them- 
 selves with the aid of new bodies, but who are still very 
 
LAW OF REPRODUCTION. 273 
 
 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." 
 
 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 distinc- 
 tive and dominant characteristic of primitive races ? 
 
 u The development of brute force at the expense of in- 
 tellectual 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 hun- 
 dred-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 accomplish- 
 ment of His ends. Perfection being the aim towards which 
 everything in nature is tending, to help forward this pro- 
 cess of improvement is to assist in working out the Divine 
 intentions." 
 
274 BOOK III. CHAP. IV. 
 
 — 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 
 nobler 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 ? 
 
 " 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, but not to abuse. He may regulate reproduction ac- 
 cording to his needs ; but he ought not to hinder it unneces- 
 sarily. 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 
 w T hich 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." 
 
LAW OF REPRODUCTION. 275 
 
 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 how 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 aboli- 
 tion 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 in the law 
 of nature, or 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." 
 
 698. Is voluntary celibacy meritorious in the sight of 
 God? 
 
 " No ; those who live single from selfish motives are dis- 
 pleasing to God, for they fail to perform their share of social 
 duties." 
 
 699. Is not celibacy, on the part of some persons, a sac- 
 rifice 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 mo- 
 tives/ Every sort of personal sacrifice is meritorious when 
 it is made for a good end ; and the greater the sacrifice, the 
 greater the merit." 
 

 276 BOOK III. CHAP. IV. 
 
 God cannot contradict Himself, nor regard as evil what He himself 
 has made, and therefore He cannot regard the violation of II is law as 
 meritorious. But although celibacy, in itself, is not meritorious, it may 
 bcome such when the renunciation of family-joys is a sacrifice accom- 
 plished in the interests of humanity. Every sacrifice of personal inte- 
 rests, 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 intentions 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 be- 
 tween 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 im- 
 possible 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. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 IV, THE LAW OF PRESERVATION. 
 
 I. Instinct of self-preservation — 2. Means of self-preservation — 3. En- 
 joyment 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-pre- 
 servation to all living beings ? 
 
 " They are all necessary to the working out of the provi- 
 dential 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 be- 
 cause 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 produc- 
 tion sufficient to furnish all its inhabitants with the neces- 
 saries of life. It is only that which is necessary that is 
 useful ; that which is superfluous is never useful." 
 
278 BOOK III. CHAP. V. 
 
 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 fore- 
 thought. The earth would always produce the necessaries 
 of life, if men could content themselves 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 improvi- 
 dent, but man does not know how to regulate his use of 
 her gifts." 
 
 706. By the term * fruits of the earth,' should we under- 
 stand 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.) 
 
THE LAW OF PRESERVATION. 279 
 
 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. Un- 
 fortunately, 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 unfortunate 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 per- 
 fection 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, in- 
 stead 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 conse- 
 quence 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 resig- 
 nation" 
 
 709. In critical situations men have been reduced to 
 devour their fellow-men, as the only means of saving them- 
 selves from starvation. Have they, in so doing, committed 
 
2o*0 BOOK III. CHAP. V. 
 
 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 homi- 
 cide 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." 
 
 Enjoyment of the Fruits of the Earth. 
 
 711. Have all men a right to the usufruct of the pro- 
 ducts 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." 
 
 712. Why has God attached an attraction to the enjoy- 
 ment 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 this 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. God 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 attrac- 
 tion, 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 corpo- 
 real satisfactions ? 
 
THE LAW OF PRESERVATION. 281 
 
 " 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 ex- 
 cesses? 
 
 " 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 enhance- 
 ment 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 guid- 
 ance ; and the greater his excesses, the more dominion does he give to 
 his animal nature over his spiritual nature. The maladies and infirmi- 
 ties, 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." 
 
 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 neces- 
 saries 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. 
 
282 BOOK III. CHAP. V. 
 
 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 blamable 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 not of a nature to weaken either your 
 moral or your physical strength." 
 
 720. Are voluntary privations, in view of a voluntary ex- 
 piation, 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 priva- 
 tions 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 morti- 
 fication ; is such a life meritorious from any point of view ? 
 
 " 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 
 
THE LAW OF PRESERVATION. 283 
 
 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 nour- 
 ishing 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 expia- 
 tion ? 
 
 " Yes, if undergone for the sake of others ; but God can 
 not regard as meritorious any abstinence that does not 
 impose a real privation, and that has not a serious and use- 
 ful 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 your- 
 selves, 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 violat- 
 ing it, that you can shake off your terrestrial matter." 
 
284 BOOK III. CHAP. V. 
 
 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 ? 
 
 " 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 there- 
 by ? 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 endea- 
 vour to ward off from ourselves those which we foresee, or 
 with which we are threatened ? 
 
 " The instinct of self-preservation has been given to all 
 beings to guard them against dangers and sufferings. Fla- 
 gellate your spirit, and not your body ; mortify your pride ; 
 stifle the selfishness that eats into the heart like a devouring 
 worm ; and you will do more for your advancement than you 
 could do by any amount of macerations out of keeping with 
 the age in which you are living." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 V, THE LAW OF DESTRUCTION. 
 
 I* 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 w T hich 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 be- 
 fore the proper time. Destruction that occurs too soon 
 
286 BOOK III. CHAP. VI. 
 
 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 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 pro- 
 fitable 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 main- 
 tain 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 phy- 
 sical 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 ? 
 
 61 The need of destruction diminishes in man in propor- 
 tion as his spirit obtains ascendancy over matter. Conse- 
 quently, 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 ? 
 
THE LAW OF DESTRUCTION. 287 
 
 " 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 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 scrupulous- 
 ness to excess ? 
 
 " Their sentiment in regard to this matter, though laud- 
 able 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 regene- 
 ration of spirits, who accomplish a new step of their purifi- 
 cation 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 tem- 
 porary 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.) 
 
 Y 
 
288 BOOK III. CHAP. VI. 
 
 738. Could not God employ other methods than destruc- 
 tive 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 know- 
 ledge 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 there- 
 fore the sufferings of what you call days, months, or years, 
 are of no importance ; let this be a lesson for your future 
 use. Spirits are the real world, pre-existent to, and surviv- 
 ing, everything else ; they are the children of God, and the 
 object of all His solicitude ; and bodies are only the dis- 
 guises under 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. 
 
THE LAW OF DESTRUCTION. 289 
 
 739. Are destructive calamities useful physically, not- 
 withstanding 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 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 but 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 produc- 
 tions 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? (707.) 
 
290 BOOK III. CHAP. VI. 
 
 "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 the 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 in 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 subjuga- 
 tion 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 corporeal existences in order to expiate all the murders 
 caused by 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 expiai'.on 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 inten- 
 tion rather than the deed." 
 
THE LAW OF DESTRUCTION. 29 1 
 
 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 so." 
 
 749. Is a man answerable for the murders he commits 
 in war ? 
 
 " Not when he is compelled to fight ; but he is answer- 
 able 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 in- 
 stinct 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 charac- 
 teristic of the primitive races ? 
 
 " Among the primitive races, as you call them, mattei 
 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 
 
292 BOOK III. CHAP. VI. 
 
 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 it 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 flower." 
 
 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 
 evil-doers? 
 
 " 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; 
 but 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 which he develops 
 
THE LAW OF DESTRUCTION. 293 
 
 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 1 . 
 
 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 judgment 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 wrong- 
 doing 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. 
 
294 BOOK III. CHAP. VI. 
 
 Capital Punishment. 
 
 760. Will capital punishment disappear some day from 
 human legislation ? 
 
 " Capital punishment will, most assuredly, disappear in 
 course of 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 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 pre- 
 serve 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 maybe 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 any- 
 thing better. In proportion as he becomes enlightened, he 
 understands more clearly what is just or unjust, and repu- 
 diates 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 pro- 
 gress in civilisation ? 
 
THE LAW OF DESTRUCTION. 295 
 
 " 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 confes- 
 sion 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 bar- 
 barous 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." 
 
 764. Jesus said, " He that taketh 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, in- 
 flicted 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." 
 
 76^. 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 
 
296 BOOK III. CHAP. VI. 
 
 of justice. Those who act thus show how far they are from 
 comprehending God, and how much they still have to ex- 
 p'ate. 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." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 VI. SOCIAL LAW. 
 
 I. 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 aru intended to help forward the work of progress by 
 aiding one anortier." 
 
 768. Does man, in seekirg 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, 1 e 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 gereral 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 ? 
 
298 BOOK III. CHAP. VII. 
 
 " 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 ? 
 
 " The life of such persons is doubly selfish. In avoiding 
 one evil, they fall into another, since they forget the law 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 pre- 
 scribed 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 pos- 
 session 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 
 
SOCIAL LAW. 299 
 
 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 vuw 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 of preservation in regard to the beings born 
 of her. When these beings are able to take care of them- 
 selves, her task is done; nature asks no more cf 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 that of the animals; 
 why, then, should you always be trying 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 relaxa- 
 tion of family-ties ? 
 
 " A relapse into selfishness." 
 
CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 VII. THE LAW OF PROGRESS. 
 
 I. 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. Civilisa- 
 tion 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 des- 
 tined to live for ever in the state of infancy ; the state of nature is tran- 
 sitory, 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 require- 
 ments. 
 
 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 state of 
 nature ? 
 
THE LAW OF PROGRESS. 301 
 
 " 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." 
 
 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 the most advanced are made to help forward 
 the others, through social contact." 
 
 780. Does moral progress always follow intellectual pro- 
 gress ? 
 
 " 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 reach 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." (365-75 *-j 
 
 781. Has man the power of arresting the march of pro- 
 gress ? 
 
 " 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 ? 
 
302 BOOK III. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 "They ar,e 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." 
 
 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 transfor 
 mation." 
 
 Man cannot remain perpetually in ignorance, because he must reach 
 the goal marked out for him by Providence : he is gradually enlight ■ 
 ened by the force of things. Moral revolutions, like social revolutions., 
 are prepared, little by little, in the ideas of a people ; they go on ger- 
 minating 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 momen- 
 tary 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 commo- 
 tions 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 
 
THE LAW OF PROGRESS. 303 
 
 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 be- 
 come aware 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 side — intellectual progress, and moral pro- 
 gress. 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 in that 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 nineteenth? 
 To doubt of the continuity of moral progress would be to assume either 
 that the human race has reached the summit of perfection, which would 
 be absurd, or that it is not morally perfectable, which is disproved by 
 experience. 
 
 Degenerate Peoples. 
 
 786. History shows us many peoples who, after having 
 been subjected to shocks that have overthrown their nation- 
 ality, have relapsed into barbarism. What progress has there 
 been made in such cases ? 
 
 " When your house threatens to fall about your ears, you 
 
 z 
 
304 BOOK III. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 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 in- 
 carnated in the people that you call ' degenerate ' are not 
 those who composed that people in the time of its splen- 
 dour ; 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 in* 
 capable 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 pass- 
 ing 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 an- 
 tiquity? 
 
 " 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 
 
THE LAW OF PROGRESS. 305 
 
 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 dark- 
 ness, 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 its special habits 
 and needs. But charity knows nothing of latitudes, and 
 makes no distinction between the various shades of human 
 colour; and when the law of God shall be everywhere 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 for- 
 ward. 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 pas- 
 sage 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 bar- 
 barism, come back in a period of civilisation among the same people 
 
3o6 
 
 BOOK III. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 or among another one ; and all are thus enabled to profit by the ascen- 
 sional 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 con- 
 veniently examined in this place. According to that theory, the soul is 
 created 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, 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 diffi- 
 culty. A nation, in the course of a thousand years, passes from bar- 
 barism 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 disap- 
 pear. 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, hns become civi- 
 lised — but what is it that has thus progressed? Is it the people who 
 were formerly barbarian ? But they died long ago. Is it the new- 
 comers? 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 bar- 
 barism ; 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 i??iper/ect, but to make God create souls of a better 
 quality than those which He created a thousand years before. 
 
 Let us compare this theory of progress with the one now given bv 
 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 de- 
 gree. 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 now 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 an-d 
 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 genera- 
 
THE LAW OF PROGRESS. 307 
 
 tions 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, re-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 ? 
 
 " 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 pro- 
 gress 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 be- 
 lieve yourselves to be considerably advanced, because you 
 have made great discoveries and wonderful inventions, be- 
 cause 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 
 
308 BOOK III. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 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 occa- 
 sions. 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 the 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 neces- 
 saries of life. 
 
 Progress of Human Legislation. 
 
 794. Would the laws cf nature be sufficient for the regu- 
 lation of human society, without the help of human laws ? 
 
 " 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." 
 
THE LAW OF PROGRESS. 309 
 
 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 eveiy nation effaces from its code in proportion as it pro- 
 gresses. 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 the seventy of penal legislation a necessity in 
 the present state of society? 
 
 u 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 I" 
 
 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 you must not lose 
 sight of the fact that there are persons whose interest it is 
 to combat this belief, some from self-conceit, others from 
 worldly considerations ; but its opponents, finding them- 
 selves in a decreasing minority, will at length be obliged to 
 rally to the general opinion, on pain of rendering them- 
 selves ridiculous." 
 
3IO BOOK III. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Ideas are only transformed in the long run, never suddenly. Errone- 
 ous 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 de- 
 stroy. Nevertheless, its progress will be more rapid than that of Chris- 
 tianity, 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, accord- 
 ing 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. " 
 
THE LAW OF PROGRESS. 3 1 1 
 
 80 1. Why have not spirits taught, from the earliest times, 
 what they are teaching at the present day? 
 
 " 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 under- 
 standing aright. Through their teaching in the past, how- 
 ever 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 
 the human race, why do not spirits hasten this progress by 
 manifestations so general and so patent as to carry convic- 
 tion to the most incredulous ? 
 
 t( 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 them- 
 selves through the exercise of their reason.'' 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 VIII. THE LAW OF EQUALITY. 
 
 I. 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 apti- 
 tudes is necessary, in order that every man may concur in 
 
THE LAW OF EQUALITY. 313 
 
 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 contri- 
 butes his share of usefulness to the general work. Besides, 
 all the worlds of the universe being united by solidarity, it is 
 necessary that the inhabitants of the higher worlds, most of 
 which were created 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 ad- 
 vancement attained to by the spirits who are incarnated in them. God, 
 then, has not created the inequality of human faculties, but He has per- 
 mitted 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 hel 4 , 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 
 
314 BOOK III. CHAP. IX. 
 
 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 anathematized ! Sad will be 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 in- 
 equality of faculties, which gives to some persons more 
 means of acquiring than are possessed by others ? 
 
 "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 judg- 
 ment 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" 
 
THE LAW OF EQUALITY. 315 
 
 810. We may, without infringing legality, dispose of pro- 
 perty 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' 1 
 
 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? 
 
 " 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 apti- 
 tudes, 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 pri- 
 mary cause of such failures ; and besides, is it not the duty 
 of society to watch over the moral education of all its mem- 
 bers? Society often perverts their judgment through a bad 
 education, instead of correcting their evil tendencies." (685.) 
 
3 J 6 BOOK III. CHAP. IX 
 
 Trials of Riches and of Poverty. 
 
 814. Why has God 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 murmur- 
 ings 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 power- 
 ful we are, the more obligations we have to fulfil, and the greater are our 
 means of doing both good and evil. God tries thepoor through resigna- 
 tion, 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 \z easier 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 Bights of Men and of Women, 
 
 817. Are men and women equal in the sight of God, and 
 have they the same rights? 
 
 " 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" 
 
THE LAW OF EQUALITY. 317 
 
 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 dependent 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 sensi- 
 bility, 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 pro- 
 claim 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 bar- 
 barism. The sexes, moreover, exist only through the phy- 
 sical organisation. Since spirits can assume that of either 
 
318 BOOK III. CHAP. IX. 
 
 sex, there is no difference between them in this respect, and 
 they 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 rela- 
 tives who desire to glorify themselves ; for assuredly it is 
 not always for the one who is dead that all these demon- 
 strations 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 blamable 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, whe- 
 ther 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.) 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 IX. THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 
 
 I. 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 an other. " 
 
 826. In what condition of life could a man enjoy abso- 
 lute 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 some- 
 times exercise in their own houses, and among their subor- 
 dinates? 
 
 " Their intelligence is aware of the law of nature, but 
 this perception is counterbalanced by their pride and sel- 
 fishness. 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 
 
 2 A 
 
320 BOOK III. CHAP. X. 
 
 earthly life, be of any avail to such persons in the other 
 life? ' 
 
 " The more clearly a principle is understood by the in- 
 tellect, 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." 
 
 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 ad- 
 vantage of it without seeing it to be wrong, and as some- 
 thing which appeared to them altogether natural ; but when 
 their reason, more developed and enlightened by the teach- 
 ings 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 ? 
 
THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 3 21 
 
 " Yes, in order that the latter may raise them to a higher 
 level, b,.t not that they may brutify them still more by 
 slavery. Men have t o long regarded certain human races 
 as working-animals 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 1 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 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. 
 
 8^^. 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." 
 
322 BOOK III. CHAP. X. 
 
 836. Has man the 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 con- 
 science is one of the characteristics cf 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. Blamable 
 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 ? 
 
 " 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 cf 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, 
 
THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 323 
 
 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 is 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 possess free-will from his birth ? 
 
 " He possesses free-will from the moment when he pos- 
 sesses 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." 
 
 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 wrong- doing, 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! 1 (361.) 
 
 846. Has not our organism an influence on the acts of 
 
324 BOOK III. CHAP. X. 
 
 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 as- 
 suredly 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 
 $eq., Influence of Organism.) 
 
 847. Does aberration of the mental faculties deprive man 
 of free-will ? 
 
 " He whose intelligence is deranged by any cause what- 
 ever 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 pos- 
 sessor 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 etseq) 
 
 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." 
 
 849. What is the dominant faculty of man in the savage 
 state? Is it instinct or free-will? 
 
THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 325 
 
 " 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 enlight- 
 ened than the savage, are more blamable 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 free-will ? 
 
 " 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 pre- 
 serves his freedom of choice between good and evil, and is 
 always able to yield or to resist. A good spirit, seeing a 
 man hesitate, may come to his aid, but cannot influence 
 him to the extent of mastering his will. On the other 
 hand, a bad spirit — that is to say, a spirit of inferior ad- 
 vancement, may trouble or alarm him by suggesting exag- 
 gerated 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 ? 
 
326 BOOK III. CHAP. X. 
 
 " 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 con- 
 science, and you will be ccnsoled for the greater part of 
 vour afflictions." 
 
 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 our 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 an 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 tc you in order 
 that you may avoid the dangers with which you are threat- 
 ened. 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 
 
THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 327 
 
 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, accord- 
 ing to the degree in which you are influenced by the sug- 
 gestions 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 your- 
 self 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 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-amend- 
 ment." (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 battle- 
 field 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.) 
 
328 BOOK III. CHAP. X. 
 
 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 the 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 ? 
 
 " Yes, but those incidents you, in your spirit-state, fore- 
 saw 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* 
 )our free-will, so that, had you not done that thing, the 
 event would not have taken place. If you burn your finger, 
 it is not because such an incident was preordained, for it is 
 a trifling inconvenience resulting from your own careless- 
 ness, 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 fore- 
 ordained by God, because they will be useful to your puri- 
 fication 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, 
 
THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 329 
 
 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 murderers 
 mind before committing the crime, and he who deliberates 
 is, evidently, free to do or not t j do. If a spirit knew 
 beforehand that he would commit a murder, it would imply 
 that he was predestinated to commit that crime. No one 
 is ever predestinated 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 be- 
 yond your action, and independent of your will. As 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.'' 
 
 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 disap- 
 pointment. 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 intelli- 
 gence and aptitudes. He who tries to cross a river with- 
 out knowing how to swim stands a very good chance of 
 
330 BOOK III. CHAP. X. 
 
 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 work- 
 man, and earned his bread honrurably 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 
 Ins right place." 
 
 863. Do not social habits often oblige a man to follow 
 one road rather than another, and is not his choice of occu- 
 pation 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 judgment 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, bat their 
 pride, which makes them prefer to starve rather than to 
 derogate from what they consider to be their dignity. No- 
 body 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 unneces- 
 sarily, 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 descending, volun- 
 tarily 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, 
 
THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 33 I 
 
 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 end 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 some- 
 times 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 luck is a 
 trial for his vanity and his cupidity. " 
 
 866. The fatality which seems to shape our material des- 
 tinies 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 do you raise yourself. 
 Those who pass their lives in the selfish enjoyment of plenty 
 and of human happiness are cowardly spirits who remain sta- 
 tionary. Thus the number of those who are unfortunate is 
 much greater, in your world, than of those who are for- 
 tunate, 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 ^/j^.) 
 
 867. Whence comes the expression : " 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." 
 
332 BOOK III. CHAP. X. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 mav 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 fuUire 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 other- 
 wise 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 ful- 
 filled, 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." 
 
THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 333 
 
 871. Since God knows everything, He knows whether a 
 man 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 free choice between 
 good and evil, trial serves to bring him under the action of 
 temptation, and thus to give him the merit of resistance ; 
 for God, though knowing beforehand whether he will 
 triumph or succumb, can not, being just, either reward or 
 punish him otherwise 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 for- 
 tune 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 an 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 initiatrve 
 and of the use of his free-will ; he would let himself be drawn, pas- 
 sively, 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 
 
334 BOOK III. CHAP. X. 
 
 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 educa- 
 tion is to combat the evil tendencies brought by the spirit 
 into his new existence — a 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 know- 
 ledge of the laws of this department of his nature, educa- 
 tion 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 lie 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 • 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 not 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 
 
THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 335 
 
 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 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 cir- 
 cumsta?ices 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 inde- 
 pendently of our action, because they are the consequence of the 
 
 2 B 
 
336 BOOK III. CHAP. X. 
 
 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 pru- 
 dence. 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 physi- 
 cal 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 responsibi- 
 lity 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 irre- 
 sistible. A man can always close his mental ear against 
 the occult voice which addresses itself to his inner con- 
 sciousness, 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 
 
 1 In relation to suicide and its consequences, viae $$7, and following 
 commentaries. 
 
THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 337 
 
 natural consequence of the totality of the teaching now 
 being given from 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 he 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 listen- 
 ing 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 pre- 
 serves, as a man, the good and bad qualities he possessed 
 as a spirit. 
 
 The faults we commit have their original source, there- 
 fore, 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 advan- 
 tage of our weakness in trying to make us fail in the fulfil- 
 ment 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 propor- 
 tion 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 
 incarnation the human race ; and as our earth is one of the 
 most backward worlds, more bad spirits than good ones are 
 
33 S BOOK III. CHAP. X. 
 
 incarnated in it, and a general perversity is visible among 
 mankind, tet 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 good- 
 ness reigns supreme, and in which we shall remember our 
 sojourn in this lower world only as a period of exile. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 X. THE LAW OF JUSTICE, OF LOVE, AND OF CHARITY. 
 
 I. 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 
 developes 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 sen- 
 timent 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 
 
34° BOOK III. CHAP. XI. 
 
 still far from perfect, no longer consecrate what were con- 
 sidered 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 regu- 
 late certain social relations, while in private life there are 
 an 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 : l Do wito others 7vhat soever 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 himself 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 
 is not natural to desire harm for one's self, we are sure, in taking our per- 
 sonal desires as the type of our conduct towards our neighbours, never 
 to desire anything but good for them. In all 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 LAW OF JUSTICE, OF LOVE, AND OF CHARITY. 341 
 
 " The limit of the right which he would recognise on the 
 part of his neighbour towards himself under similar circum- 
 stances, and vice versa P 
 
 — But if each attributes to himself the rights of his 
 fellow-creatures, what becomes of subordination to supe- 
 riors? 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 weakness, 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 insubordina- 
 tion 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 
 
34 2 BOOK III. CHAP. XI. 
 
 solitary selfishness. Certain animals, even, set man an 
 example of this kind of foresight." 
 
 862. Has man the right to defend what he has amassed 
 by his labour ? 
 
 " 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. 
 
 863. Is the desire to possess natural to man? 
 
 " Yes ; but when it is simply for himself, and for his per- 
 sonal 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 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 un- 
 doubtedly a property ; but, as we have said, human legisla- 
 tion, 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.) 
 
THE LAW OF JUSTICE, OF LOVE, AND OF CHARITY. 343 
 
 Charity and Love of the Neighbour. 
 
 8&6. What is the true meaning of the word charity as em- 
 ployed by Jesus ? 
 
 " Benevolence for every one, indulgence for the imperfec- 
 tions of others, forgiveness of injuries." 
 
 Love and chanty 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 em- 
 braces 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 owu 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 ene- 
 mies, 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 in- 
 tend to prescribe anything of the kind. To ' love your ene- 
 mies ' means to forgive them, and to return good for evil. 
 By so doing, you become their superior ; by vengeance, you 
 place yourselves beneath them." 
 
 ^Z^. 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 compre- 
 
344 BOOK III. CHAP. XI. 
 
 hends 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 doeth ; ' 
 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 humilia- 
 tion, and suffer silently and in secret : he who is really 
 humane seeks out this hidden misery, and relieves it with- 
 out 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 a/ways 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 ; be the same for the hum- 
 blest creatures of the lower reigns ; and you will have obeyed 
 the law of God." 
 
 Saint Vincent de Paul. 
 
THE LAW OF JUSTICE, OF LOVE, AND OF CHARITY. 345 
 
 889. Are there not men who are reduced to beggary- 
 through their own fault ? 
 
 " Undoubtedly there are ; but if a sound moral education 
 had taught 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 ac- 
 complished. " (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." 
 
346 BOOK III. CHAP. XI. 
 
 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 ? 
 
 " 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." 
 
CHAPTER XIL 
 
 MORAL PERFECTION. 
 
 X. Virtues and vices — 2. The passions — 3. Selfishness — 4. Charac- 
 teristics 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 sacri- 
 fice 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 
 
348 BOOK III. CHAP. XII. 
 
 in proportion to its rarity ; but 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 con- 
 sidered as an exceptional monstrosity. It is this 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 disinterested- 
 ness is indeed so rare a thing in your earth, that you may 
 well regard it with wonder, as something phenomenal. 
 
 li 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 disinterested- 
 ness, 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 employ- 
 ment ; 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 disin- 
 terestedness 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 
 
MORAL PERFECTION. 349 
 
 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 advance- 
 ment ? 
 
 " You should do good from charity — that is to say, dis- 
 interestedly." 
 
 — 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 end. Is it wrong, then, to 
 hope that, through doing good, we may be better off than 
 we are upon the earth ? 
 
 " Certainly not ; but he who does good spontaneously, 
 without even thinking of its results for himself, and simply 
 for the sake of pleasing God and relieving his suffering 
 neighbour, has already reached a higher degree of advance- 
 ment, 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 in 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 chari- 
 
350 BOOK III. CHAP. XII. 
 
 table. He who calculates, in every charitable deed he 
 does, how rriuch 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 lower 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 besides, 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 know- 
 ledge is useless ; all knowledge contributes more or less to 
 your advancement, because the perfected spirit must know 
 everything, and because progress has to be made in every 
 direction, so that all acquired ideas help forward his de- 
 velopment." 
 
 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 a 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 neces- 
 saries 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 
 
MORAL PERFECTION. 35 1 
 
 smallest sacrifice to render a service to his neighbour, or to 
 subserve a noble cause, is regardless of expense in the gra- 
 tification 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- world ? 
 
 " 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 some- 
 times 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 you with the 
 same defects. The only way to profit by such a critical exa- 
 mination of you 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 procur- 
 
 2 c 
 
352 BOOK III. CHAP. XII. 
 
 ing 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 con- 
 science 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 from 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 intel- 
 ligence which enables them to comprehend. By not prac- 
 tising 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 good- 
 ness 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 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 
 
MORAL PERFECTION. 353 
 
 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 triumphed." (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 im- 
 plies 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 w r ell 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 senti- 
 ment. 
 
 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 ! " 
 
354 BOOK III. CHAP. XII. 
 
 910. Can a man obtain efficacious help from spirits in 
 overcoming his passions ? 
 
 " If he addresses a sincere prayer for 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." (4S9-) 
 
 911. Is not the action of the passions sometimes so vio- 
 lent that the will is powerless to withstand them ? 
 
 " There are many who say ' / will] but whose willing is 
 only on their lips, and who are not sorry that what they de- 
 clare 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 spiri- 
 tual nature ; he knows that every victory over them is a tri- 
 umph 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 suc- 
 ceed 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 veri- 
 table 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 per- 
 sonal interest, it would seem that, to extirpate it entirely 
 from the human heart, must be a very difficult matter. Is 
 it possible to do so ? 
 
MORAL PERFECTION. 355 
 
 " 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 selfish- 
 ment is fostered and excited. Such should be the aim of 
 education." 
 
 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 incarna- 
 tions, 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 hide- 
 ous 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 sup- 
 port, 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? 
 
356 BOOK III. CHAP. XII. 
 
 "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 over 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, 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 destroy- 
 ing 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 sacri- 
 fice 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 judgment, whoever has thought only of 
 himself will be set aside, and left to suffer from his loneli- 
 ness." (785.) F£n£lon. 
 
MORAL PERFECTION. 357 
 
 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 devour- 
 ing 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 selfish- 
 ness. 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 which 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. W T hoever 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 of 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 
 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 the causes of the evils that afflict him, in order 
 to remove them. When he thoroughly 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 con- 
 fidence, converts friends into foes, and obliges each individual to re- 
 main 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 pes- 
 tilence, 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. 
 
358 BOOK III. CHAP. XII. 
 
 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 foigiveness 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 resist- 
 ing the attraction of evil ? 
 
 " One of the sages of antiquity has told you : ' Know 
 thyself.' " 
 
 — 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 ? 
 
MORAL PERFECTION. 359 
 
 " 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 knowledge of myself, and in ascer- 
 taining 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 enlighten 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 acting 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 im- 
 provement; 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 practis- 
 ing 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 judgment in regard to it if it 
 were done by another? If you would blame it in another, 
 it cannot be less blamable when done by you, for God's 
 justice has neither two weights nor two measures. Endea- 
 
360 BOOK III. CHAP. XII. 
 
 vour 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 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 up 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 up 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 pre- 
 cise, 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, l The present is certain, and the future un- 
 certain ; ' 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 to spread abroad in his turn. It is to 
 this end that we have dictated The Spirits' Book? 
 
 Saint Augustine. 
 
MORAL PERFECTION. 36 1 
 
 Many of the faults we commit are passed over by us unperceived. 
 If, following the advice of Saint Augustine, we interrogated our con- 
 science more frequently, we should see how often we have done wrong 
 without being aware of it, because we have failed to scrutinise the 
 nature and motive of our acts. The interrogative mode of self-examina- 
 tion is more precise than the mere vague admission of a standard of 
 rectitude which we too often fail to apply in detail to our own actions. 
 It compels us to give to ourselves, in regard to the quality of those 
 actions, categoric answers, by " Yes " and " No/' that leave us no room 
 for equivocation, and that constitute so many personal arguments 
 addressed to our innermost selves, so many returns which aid us to 
 compute the sum of the good and evil that are in us. 
 
FOURTH BOOK.— HOPES AND 
 CONSOLATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARTHLY JOYS AND SORROWS. 
 
 I. Happiness and unhappiness — 2. Loss of those we love — 3. Disap- 
 pointments ; ingratitude; blighted affections — 4. Antipathetic 
 unions — 5. Fear of death — 6. Weariness of life ; suicide. 
 
 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 him- 
 self 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 him- 
 self 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 
 
EARTHLY JOYS AND SORROWS. 363 
 
 which is bringing him to a new and happier position, that will be all 
 the more satisfactory in proportion to the completeness of the prepara- 
 tions 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 devia- 
 tion 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 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 ail 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 inde- 
 pendently 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 
 
364 BOOK IV. CHAP. I. 
 
 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 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 under- 
 goes misfortune, it is a trial from which, being bravely 
 borne, he will reap a rich reward. Remember the words 
 of Jesus : i Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be 
 comforted/ n 
 
 927. Superfluities are certainly not indispensable to hap- 
 piness, 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." 
 
EARTHLY JOYS AND SORROWS. 365 
 
 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, &c." 
 
 The placing of people in positions for which they are naturally unfit 
 is assuredly one of the most frequent causes of failure and disappoint- 
 ment. 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 is often prevented by pride from 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 
 ediccation 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 re- 
 sources, 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 if honestly done ; ' but this is one of 
 the aphorisms that each man is more prompt to apply to 
 his neighbour than to himself." 
 
366 BOOK IV. CHAP. I. 
 
 930. It is evident that, were it not for the social pre- 
 judices 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 pre- 
 judices, 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 jus- 
 tice and charity. (793.) 
 
 93 1. 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 inha- 
 bitants." 
 
 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 3 are they alsp the artisans pf their moral suffer- 
 ings ? 
 
EARTHLY JOYS AND SORROWS. 367 
 
 "Even more so; for their worldly sufferings are often 
 independent of their action ; but it is wounded pride, dis- 
 appointed 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, pur- 
 suing 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 ; '* 
 &c. ; 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 every one who rises, of every- 
 thing that oversteps the common line, even when their own interest is 
 in no way concerned, and simply because they are not able to com- 
 mand 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 every one 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, dis- 
 appointed 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 vicissi- 
 tudes 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 
 jumished him by Christianity, which gives him the hope of a better future, 
 and by Spiritism^ which gives him the certainty of that future. 
 
 2 D 
 
$68 BOOK IV. CHAP. I. 
 
 Loss of those we Love. 
 
 934. Is not the loss of those who are dear to us a legiti- 
 mate source of sorrow, seeing that this loss is both irrepar- 
 able and independent 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 that the spirits who love you take 
 pleasure in coming to you ; they rejoice in being remem- 
 bered 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 of 
 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 sur- 
 vivors 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 exces- 
 sive grief, a want of faith in the future and of confidence in 
 God, and, consequently, an obstacle to the advancement of 
 the mourner, and, perhaps, to their reunion." 
 
EARTHLY JOYS AND SORROWS. 369 
 
 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 wish- 
 ing 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 re- 
 joice in his deliverance, while awaiting with patience the moment when 
 he shall be delivered in his turn. 
 
 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 solici- 
 tude 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 con- 
 solation 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 sunounded 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 in- 
 gratitude, and by the fragility of earthly friendships, also a 
 source of bitterness for 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 themselves than to ycu. 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 
 
370 BOOK IV. CHAP. I. 
 
 as a knave and an impostor ; and do not be surprised that 
 you should be treated in the same way. Let the conscious- 
 ness 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 here- 
 after, 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 renfler it unfeeling? 
 
 " 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 kind- 
 ness in the present life, they will remember it in a future 
 one, and will then feel shame and remorse for their in- 
 gratitude." 
 
 — 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-treat- 
 ment will place you above them." 
 
 Nature has implanted in man the need of loving and 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. . 
 
EARTHLY JOYS AND SORROWS. 37 1 
 
 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 affec- 
 tion 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 capti- 
 vated 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 affec- 
 tion, founded upon the esteem that has been 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 dis- 
 sipated, 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 sym- 
 pathetic, 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. w 
 
 940. Is not the lack of sympathy between persons destined 
 
372 BOOK IV. CHAP. I. 
 
 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 mis- 
 fortune of your own causing. In the first place, your laws 
 are in fault ; for how can you suppose that those who dis- 
 like 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 riot 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 per- 
 sons; 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 without destroying them. But 
 most of those who are thus indoctrinated in their childhood, 
 if possessed of judgment, 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. 
 
EARTHLY JOYS AND SORROWS. 373 
 
 " 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 vicissitudes of 
 the present life, and painfully affected by them, is tortured with per- 
 petual 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 when he leaves the earth. 
 
 The spiritually-minded man, who has raised himself above the facti- 
 tious wants created by the passions, has, even in this lower life, enjoy- 
 ments 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 some- 
 what commonplace ; will they not be looked upon as 
 truisns ; 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 wilt 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 
 sometimes takes possession of people without any assign- 
 able 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 occupa- 
 
374 BOOK IV. CHAP. I. 
 
 tion ; and he is able to bear the 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 volun- 
 tarily 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 
 1 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 empti- 
 ness 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 will have to answer for those consequences as for a 
 murder" 
 
 947. Can we consider as having committed suicide the 
 
EARTHLY JOYS AND SORROWS. 375 
 
 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 not suppose that he 
 would be entirely absolved if he had been wanting in firm- 
 ness 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 good- 
 will 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 blamable, 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 con- 
 trary, 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 wrong-doing in 
 consideration of the circumstances which led to it." 
 
 949. Is suicide excusable when 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 expia- 
 tion ; his fault is extenuated by his intention, but it is none 
 
37^ BOOK IV. CHAP. I. 
 
 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 he 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 all 
 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 his entrance into a better world ; for he 
 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 own interest or enjoyment made for the sake of 
 others is supremely meritorious in the sight of God ; for it is the fulfill- 
 ing 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 mioht 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 he is unable to control? 
 
EARTHLY JOYS AND SORROWS. 377 
 
 " He commits moral sucicide. 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 of his life has really come, or whether some unex- 
 pected 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 propor- 
 tioned to the gravity of the fault, according to the circum- 
 stances under which it was committed." 
 
 954. Is there guilt in the imprudence which has acci- 
 dentally 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 
 
378 BOOK IV. CHAP. I. 
 
 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 bar- 
 barous and stupid customs will disappear with the develop- 
 ment of civilisation." 
 
 956. Do those persons attain the end they have in view, 
 who, unable to bear the loss of the objects of their affec- 
 tion, kill themselves m 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 to obtain." 
 (934^^0 
 
 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 com- 
 mission. 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." 
 
EARTHLY JOYS AND SORROWS. 379 
 
 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 con- 
 sequences 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 
 connexion 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 voluntarily 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. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 
 
 I. 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. Expia- 
 tion 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 re- 
 membrance 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. What- 
 ever 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 thought- 
 less 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 presenti- 
 ment of a better life is in the inner consciousness of all men. God can- 
 not have placed it there for nothing. 
 
 The idea of a future life implies the preservation of our individuality 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 38 1 
 
 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 pun- 
 ishments which is found among all nations ? 
 
 " 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 needfully, 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 im- 
 parts 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 appor- 
 tionment 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 
 gf od and the bad can occupy the same place in His sight, or to doubt 
 tii at, 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 Eewards 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 majr be ; nothing is too minute 
 for His goodness. " 
 
382 BOOK IV. CHAP. II. 
 
 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 sen- 
 tence 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 con- 
 sequence of overstepping that limit. Punishment, in all 
 cases, is a result of the infraction of a law." 
 
 All our actions are subjected to the laws of God ; and any wrong- 
 doing on our part, however unimportant it may seem to us, is a viola- 
 tion of those laws. When we undergo the consequences of such viola- 
 tion, 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 apo- 
 logue : — 
 
 "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 under- 
 standing 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 difference — viz., that, if the son of whom we have been speak- 
 ing 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 mate- 
 rial nature, because the soul is not matter. There is nothing 
 carnal in those joys and sorrows ; and yet they are a thou- 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 383 
 
 sand 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 de- 
 veloped. 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, jeal- 
 ousy, 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, suffer- 
 ings, or anxieties of material life; they are happy in the 
 good they do, for the happiness of spirits is always propor- 
 tioned 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 bad ones and 
 those who have reached perfection, there is an infinity of 
 gradations of elevation and of happiness ; for the enjoy- 
 ments 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 emu- 
 lation, and not of jealousy. They know that it depends 
 on themselves to attain to it, and they labour to that end, 
 
 2 £ 
 
384 BOOK IV. CHAP. II. 
 
 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 satisfac- 
 tion 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 know- 
 ledge 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 
 sort of happiness, and a selfish one also, because such an 
 existence 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 enjoy- 
 ment in this order of occupation." 
 
 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.; 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 385 
 
 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 per- 
 verse spirits endeavour to draw aside from the path of 
 repentance and amendment those whom they think are sus- 
 ceptible 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 advance- 
 ment 1 and the evil ones keep up impure thoughts in their 
 victims by taking them to places where they witness the exer- 
 cise 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. But, assuredly, the most frightful of 
 them all is the sufferer's belief that his condemnation is un- 
 changeable and for all eternity." 
 
386 BOOK IV. CH\P. II. 
 
 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 it is exempt from suffering, or that it does not undergo the 
 punishment of its wrong-doing. (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 terres- 
 trial 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 
 d^ne ; others, by regret, fear, shame, doubt, isolation, darkness, separa- 
 tion from those who are dear to them, &c. 
 
 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 in- 
 culcated. 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 suffer- 
 ings of spirit-life, man has been unable to devise any more appropriate 
 comparison for them than that oi fire, 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,'' &c. 
 
 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 
 mat'er. to aspire after a new corporeal existence, because 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 387 
 
 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 the volun- 
 tary 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! 7 
 
 " 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 exist- 
 ences 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 afflic- 
 tion for the good ones ? And, if so, what becomes of the hap- 
 piness of the latter, that happiness being thus impaired ? 
 
 " Good spirits are not distressed by the suffering of those 
 who are at a lower point than themselves, because they 
 know that it will have an end ; they aid those who suffer to 
 become better, and ]end 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 a:l 
 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 
 
388 BOOK IV. CHAP. II. 
 
 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." 
 
 — Is this divulging of all his evil deeds, and the perpe- 
 tual 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 and 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 hap- 
 piness 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 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 389 
 
 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 happi- 
 ness of those worlds, as in your world you 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 unbou ided, because their inhabitants meet only with 
 sympathetic souls whose affection will not be chilled by selfishness. For 
 love is life ; it is sel r :shness 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 dif- 
 ferent sentiments, and it is those sentiments which deter- 
 mine 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 murmur- 
 
390 BOOK IV. CHAP. II. 
 
 ing against Providence, and against the trials which he 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 indi- 
 viduals 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 correct to say that, after death, the soul experi- 
 ences 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 committed, he may have to bear moral suffer- 
 ings 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 humilia- 
 tions of every kind ; he who has misused his authority, and 
 treated his. subordinates with disdain and harshness, will be 
 forced tq obey a master still harder than himself. All the 
 tribulations of life are the expiation gf faults committed in 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 39 1 
 
 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 be- 
 cause 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 punish- 
 ment of faults committed by us in our present lifetime ? 
 
 " No ; we have already told you that they are trials im- 
 posed 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 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 000." 
 
 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 ? 
 
392 BOOK IV. CHAP. II. 
 
 "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 appear- 
 ance. 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 idle- 
 ness. 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 nii?id, 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 happi- 
 ness. The sum of that happiness is always exactly propor- 
 tioned 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." 
 
 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 ex- 
 piate this wrong by the sight of those whom they have 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 393 
 
 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, 97S-) 
 
 992. What is the consequence of repentance in the cor- 
 poreal state ? 
 
 " The sph'it will advance even i?i 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-bor7i 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 an- 
 terior existence." (804.) 
 
 994. Does the perverted spirit who has not recognised his 
 faults during his life always recognise them after his death ? 
 
394 BOOK IV. CHAP. II. 
 
 " Yes ; he always does so, and he 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 per- 
 sist in doing wrong, notwithstanding their sufferings ; but, 
 sooner or later, they will see that they 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, are in- 
 different 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 expe- 
 rience." 
 
 — 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 in- 
 feriority, 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." (97 1.) 
 
 997. We sometimes find that spirits, who are evidently of 
 very low degree, show themselves to be accessible to good 
 feeling, and 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 ? 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 395 
 
 " 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 repent- 
 ance shall have shown itself in him." (664.) 
 
 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 su because he was imperfect. But death does not render 
 him perfect all at once ; he may persist in his wrong-doing, his false 
 ideas, his prejudices, until he has become enlightened by study, reflec- 
 tion, and suffering. 
 
 998. Is expiation accomplished in the corporeal state, or 
 in the spirit-state ? 
 
 " Expiation is accomplished during the corporeal exist- 
 ence, 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 
 wrcng-doer to the favour of God ? 
 
 " Repentance helps forward the amelioration of the spirit, 
 but all wrong-doing 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 expia- 
 tion 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 sup- 
 pose 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 wrongdoing 
 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 all attempts 
 
396 BOOK IV. CHAP. II. 
 
 at reparation are valueless if they touch neither a man's 
 pride nor his worldly interests. 
 
 " How can his rehabilitation be subserved by the restitu- 
 tion 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 fine, is the use of his humbling himself before 
 God, if he keeps up his pride before men?" (720, 721.) 
 
 1 00 1. Is there no merit in ensuring the useful employ- 
 ment, after our death, of the property possessed by us ? 
 
 " To say that there is no merit in so doing would not be cor- 
 rect ; it is always better than doing nothing. But the misfor- 
 tune 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 profit — the merit of his sacrifice, and the pleasure 
 of witnessing the happiness he has caused. But selfishness 
 is apt to whisper, c 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 gene- 
 rosity 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 ? " 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 397 
 
 Duratio: i of Future Penalties. 
 
 1003. Is the duration of the sufferings of the guilty, in 
 the future life, arbitrary or subordinate to a law ? 
 
 " God never acts from caprice ; everything in the uni- 
 verse 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 the degree of his purification, the duration of his suffer- 
 ings, 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." 
 
 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, in 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 chil- 
 dren is more or less precocious ; but it will be stimulated, 
 sooner or later, by the irresistible desire of the spirit him- 
 self 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." 
 
398 BOOK IV. CHAP. II. 
 
 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 ? suffer- 
 ings, tortures, without end, without hope, for a few faults ! 
 Does not your judgment reject 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 fore- 
 most 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 man- 
 kind ; 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 per- 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 399 
 
 feet 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 in- 
 differentism that have invaded the masses since their intel- 
 ligence 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 per- 
 ceived ; 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 afire 
 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, advanc- 
 ing towards you, the Good Shepherd, who, so far from in- 
 tending to drive you 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 wel- 
 come you back to your home ! " Lamennais. 
 
 " Wars of words ! wars of w T ords ! has not enough blood 
 been already shed for words, and must the fires of the stake 
 
 2 F 
 
400 BOOK IV. CHAP. IT. 
 
 be 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 tran- 
 slated as endless and irremissible fiunish?nent, has not the 
 same meaning. Eternity of punishment corresponds to eter- 
 nity 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 under- 
 stand 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 sove- 
 reign power; for he who creates an element destructive of 
 his works is not sovereignly powerful. Plunge no more thy 
 mournful glance, O 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 con- 
 trary to this aim — ignorance, 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 more cle- 
 mency, long-suffering, love, and true justice, than you attri- 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 40I 
 
 bute to the Creator. You destroy the very idea of retribu- 
 tion 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 nine- 
 teenth century it can be nothing more than an empty 
 phantom, capable, at the utmost, of frightening little chil- 
 dren, and by which the children themselves will no longer 
 be frightened when they are a little bigger. By your per- 
 sistence in upholding mythic terrors, you engender incre- 
 dulity, 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, senti- 
 ments, 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 em- 
 bodied in the archetype of humanity, the Divine Exemplar, 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 "What is ' chastisement'? The natural, derivative conse- 
 quence of that false movement ; the amount of pain neces- 
 sary to disgust the sinner with his departure from rectitude, 
 by his experience of the suffering caused by that departure. 
 
402 BOOK IV. CHAP. II. 
 
 Chastisement is the goad which, by the smarting it occa- 
 sions, decides the soul to cut short its wanderings, and to 
 return into the right road. The sole aim of chastisement is 
 rehabilitation ; and therefo?'e, to assume the eternity of chastise- 
 ment is to deprive it of all reason for existing. 
 
 " Cease, I beseech you, the attempt to establish a paral- 
 lellism of duration between good, essence of the Creator, 
 and evil, essence of the creature ; for, in so doing, you 
 establish a standard of penality that is utterly without justi- 
 fication. 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 repug- 
 nant 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 
 foreknows all things, He must have known, in creating a soul, that it 
 would trangress His laws, and it must therefore have been, from its very 
 formation, predestined by Him to eternal misery ; but is such an as- 
 sumption reasonable or admissible ? The doctrine of punishme7it propor- 
 tioned to wrong-doing "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 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 403 
 
 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 fore- 
 seen, 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 mean- 
 ing 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 be- 
 ginning to admit the restriction 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 ti 
 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. 
 
 ioto. Is the doctrine of the resurrection of the body an 
 implication 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 unreason- 
 able 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 accus- 
 tomed to reflect. Free-thinkers, like the rest of the world, 
 perhaps even more than others, thirst for a future ; they ask 
 
404 BOOK IV. CHAP. II. 
 
 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 ?" 
 
 ion. 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 reincar- 
 nation is implied in every part of Holy Writ. Spirits, there- 
 fore, 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 be- 
 lieving than are to be found at the present day." 
 
 Physical science demonstrates the impossibility of resurrection accord- 
 ing 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, &c, and these elements, being dis- 
 persed, 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 in- 
 finite in number, how is it possible that the innumerable bodies formed 
 out of it should be reconstituted with the same elements? Such a re- 
 construction is a physical impossibility. The resurrection of the body 
 can, therefore, be rationally admitted only as a figure of speech, sym- 
 bolising 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 
 Judgment " a grand and noble metaphor, implying, under the veil of 
 allegory, one oi tho.-e immutable truths that will no longer be met with 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 405 
 
 incredulity when restored to their true meaning? To those who care- 
 fully ponder the spiritist theory of the future destiny of souls, and of 
 the fate that awaits them as the result of the various trials they have to 
 undergo, it will be apparent that, with the exception of the condition 
 of simultaneousness, the judgment which condemns or absolves them is 
 not a fiction, as is supposed by unbelievers. It is also to be remarked 
 that the judgment which assigns to each soul its next place of habita- 
 tion is the natural consequence of the plurality of worlds, now generally 
 admitted; while, according to the doctrine of the " Last Judgment," 
 the earth is supposed to be the only inhabited world. 
 
 Paradise, Hell, and Purgatory. 
 
 10 1 2. 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 perfec- 
 tion at which they have arrived. Each spirit finds in him- 
 self 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 incar- 
 nated spirits, they are more or less happy or unhappy, ac- 
 cording 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. 
 
 1 013. 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 im- 
 perfect spirits who have to expiate their faults until they have attained 
 
406 BOOK IV. CHAP. II. 
 
 the complete purification that will raise them to the state of perfect 
 blessedness. As this purification is effected by means of various incar- 
 nations, purgat ^ry consists in the trials of corporeal life. 
 
 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 ques- 
 tioned 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 pre-conceived ideas, in order to avoid any abrupt in- 
 terference with their convictions. If a spirit should tell a 
 Mussulman, without proper precautions, that Mahomet was 
 not a true prophet, he would not be 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 tortures of hell or of purgatory ? 
 
 " Spirits of inferior advancement, who are not yet com- 
 pletely 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 " ? 
 
 u An errant and suffering soul, uncertain about its future, 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 407 
 
 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 under- 
 stood ? 
 
 " 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, through- 
 out eternity, a passive felicity ? No ; it is universal space ; 
 it is the planets, the 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 suffer- 
 ings inherent in the state of inferiority." 
 
 1017. Spirits have said that they inhabited the third, 
 fourth, and fifth heaven, &c. ; what did they mean in say- 
 ing 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 e yes,' because, for him, hell is synony- 
 mous with suffering; but he knows very well that it is 
 not a furnace. A Pagan would have replied that he 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," &c, 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," &c. Now that astronomy, having traced up the 
 earth's history and described its constitution, has shown us that it is 
 
408 BOOK IV. CHAP. II. 
 
 one of the smallest worlds that circulate in space and devoid of any 
 special importance,, that space is infinite, and that there is neither " up " 
 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, sub- 
 lime, 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." 
 
 10 1 9. Will the reign of goodness ever be established 
 upon the earth ? 
 
 u 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 confor- 
 mity 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 pre- 
 dicted from the most ancient times, and you are now ap- 
 proaching 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 transforma- 
 tion, 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 
 
FUTURE JOYS AND SORROWS. 409 
 
 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 newer worlds, less advanced than the earth, and will 
 therein fulfil hard and laboriotis 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. 
 
 " Devote yourselves, then, with zeal and courage to the 
 great work of regeneration, all you who are possessed 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 plea- 
 sures ! And woe, above all, to the selfish ; for they will 
 find none to aid them in bearing the burden of their future 
 misery I * 
 
CONCLUSION, 
 
 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 move- 
 ment 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 con- 
 nection 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, O ye who believe in nothing beyond the material 
 world ! there has issued, from the table-turning which pro- 
 vokes your disdainful smiles, a new philosophy that fur- 
 nishes 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 
 
CONCLUSION. 411 
 
 know nothing, which we have not made the subject of con- 
 scientious examination, is not to criticise, but to give proof 
 of frivolity and want of judgment. Assuredly, if we had 
 presented 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 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 ; sup- 
 pose 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 communi- 
 cations. And what are miracles if not facts of a character 
 emphatically marvellous and supernatural, since they are, 
 
412 CONCLUSION. 
 
 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 neces- 
 sarily 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 
 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, there- 
 fore, 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 family-ties and the 
 greater part of the disorders that are undermining society ? 
 By demonstrating the existence and immortality of the soul, 
 
CONCLUSION. 413 
 
 spiritism revives faith in the future, raises the courage of 
 those who are depressed, and enables us to bear the vicis- 
 situdes 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 an- 
 nihilates 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 op- 
 ponents, 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 he is dead, everything will be over for him, that soon, 
 perhaps to-morrow, he will be nothing 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 
 
414 CONCLUSION. 
 
 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 prac- 
 tical 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 appre- 
 ciable improvement in social conditions, what will it not 
 effect when it shall have become the basis of all social in- 
 stitutions ? Is such a result possible ? Yes ; for as the 
 human race has already accomplished ten steps, it is evi- 
 dent that it can accomplish twenty, and so on. .We can 
 infer the future from the past. We see that 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 estab- 
 lished 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 
 
CONCLUSION. 415 
 
 (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 neces arily 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 antinuated prejudices ; 
 in the second place, because, when men have come to desire 
 progress, they study the obstacles which iirpede 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 strives after progress in order to add to the sum of 
 his happiness, but for which result progress would have no 
 object ; for where w r ould 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 ob- 
 tained complete happiness, and that this happiness is im- 
 possible 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. 
 
 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 
 
 2 G 
 
4i 6 CONCLUSION. 
 
 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 be 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 con- 
 stantly 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 satis- 
 fied 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 judgment. 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 
 
CONCLUSION. 417 
 
 augments immeasurably, even in the present world ; this, 
 as previously remarked, is the cause of its wide acceptance, 
 the secret of the force that will make it triumph. It renders 
 happy those who understand it, while awaiting the exten- 
 sion 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 pheno- 
 mena of spiritism, there is its philosophy, which explains 
 what no other has ever explained. That philosophy fur- 
 nishes me, through arguments drawn from reason only and 
 independently of any sanction but that of reason, with a 
 rational solution of problems that are of the most vital im- 
 portance to my future ; it gives me calmness, security, con- 
 fidence ; 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 cer- 
 tainty, for man only accepts as certain what appears to him 
 to be reasonable. You must not content yourselves with say- 
 ing 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 sub- 
 lime 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 
 
4t8 conclusion. 
 
 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 con- 
 trary 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 fraternity, you offer them, in prospect, annihila- 
 tion, and in the present, by way of consolation, selfish- 
 ness : 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 spiritism 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 philo- 
 sophy, 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, mysti- 
 cism, 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 annihi- 
 lation. Would it be possible to put a stop to spirit-mani- 
 festations, by placing obstacles in the way of their produc- 
 tion? 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 indivi- 
 dual, it would undoubtedly be possible, by preventing his 
 action, to put an end to them ; but unfortunately for our 
 
CONCLUSION. 419 
 
 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 com- 
 munication 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 con- 
 tinent, in which mediums are not to be found? In order 
 to shut up all the mediums, it would be necessary to incar- 
 cerate 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 emanci- 
 pation 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. 
 
420 CONCLUSION. 
 
 What is the special and peculiar work of modern spirit- 
 ism? 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 him- 
 self with the hope of being able to stifle it, either by ridi- ' 
 cule 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 anni- 
 hilate that which is one of the powers of nature, or veto 
 that which exists in virtue of the Divine decrees. 
 
 But what interest could any Government have in oppos- 
 ing 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 masses on its side, while its only adver- 
 saries would be those who profit by the abuses against 
 which it protests. So far from Governments having any- 
 thing to dread from the spread of spiritist ideas, the ten- 
 dency 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 con- 
 stitute, 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, 
 
CONCLUSION. 42 1 
 
 three degrees of advancement by which they are distin- 
 guished : 1 st, Those who believe in the reality and genuine- 
 ness 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 per- 
 ceives that they are ushering in an entirely novel order of 
 ideas, which must necessarily produce a profound modifica- 
 tion of the state of the human race ; and every one who 
 understands the subject also perceives that this modifica- 
 tion can only be for good. 
 
 As for our adversaries, they may also be grouped into 
 three categories : 1st, Those who systematically deny what- 
 ever 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 chimeri- 
 cal, 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 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 phe- 
 nomena, oppose the matter from interested motives. They 
 know that spiritism is true; but being afraid of conse- 
 quences, they attack it as an enemy. 3d, Those who 
 dread the moral rules of spiritism as constituting too severe 
 
42 2 CONCLUSION. 
 
 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 op- 
 position 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 
 extra-corporeal world, and thus disproving the doctrines of 
 materialism. This result follows from a mere observation 
 of the phenomena of spiritism ; but, among those who, com- 
 prehending 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 
 any one 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 
 ftared, 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 leads us 
 to consider everything from so elevated appoint 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 a more rooted repug- 
 nance to the idea of shortening our days, spiritism showing 
 
CONCLUSION. 423 
 
 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, selfish- 
 ness 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 priva- 
 tions ; but money still exercises an irresistible attraction 
 over the greater number of mankind, and very few under- 
 stand the word " superfluity " in connection with their own 
 personality. The abnegation of our personality is, there- 
 fore, 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 any- 
 thing 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 
 
424 CONCLUSION. 
 
 spiritism, why it is that the moral teachings of Christ are so 
 little practised, and why it is that those who rightly pro- 
 claim 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 show us its practical utility ; 
 they render intelligible, patent, truths that have hitherto 
 been taught under the form of allegory ; and, with this re- 
 inculcation 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 forgetting 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 not 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 cve?y 
 one of its, will be as incontestible as is that of the micro- 
 scopic world, and of the infinity of globes in space. Is it 
 nothing to have made known that new world, to have ini- 
 tiated us into the mysteries of the life beyond the grave ? 
 
CONCLUSION. 425 
 
 It is true that these discoveries, if such they can be 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 spiri- 
 tualism those who had come to see in man only matter, 
 only an organised machine ; we are therefore 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 wrong-doing, 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-judgment, 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 
 
426 CONCLUSION. 
 
 adherents from their own point of view, and that contradic- 
 tory 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 supposi- 
 tion that is at once absurd, because it is in 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 diver- 
 gences 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. 
 
 To the question, " While awaiting the establishment of 
 doctrinal unity, upon what basis can an impartial and dis- 
 interested inquirer arrive at a judgment 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 
 jour judgment and to bring you on. The basis of unity 
 vrtil be found in the body of doctrine among the adherents 
 
CONCLUSION. 427 
 
 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 everywhere 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 pro- 
 gression 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 Mat" 
 
 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 interven- 
 tion 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 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 senti- 
 ment. 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, 
 
428 CONCLUSION. 
 
 for it would evidently be acting under the influence of evil 
 spirits. The only force of an argument is its intrinsic rea- 
 sonableness ; and moderation will do more to ensure the 
 triumph of the truth than diatribes 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 ths sr/jit 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. Spi- 
 ritism 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 pha- 
 risees who will reject it, as they rejected Christ. Would 
 you know the quality of the spirits who influence the vari- 
 ous 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. 
 
INDE X. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Translator's Preface . . • 
 
 Author's Preface to the Revised Edition 
 Introduction . 
 Prolegomena • 
 
 PAGE 
 
 9 
 
 23 
 
 i 
 xlvii 
 
 God 
 
 BOOK FIRST. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 God and infinity 
 Proofs of the existence of God 
 Attributes of the Divinity 
 Pantheism • 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 General Elements of the Universe 
 Knowledge of the first principles of things 
 Spirit and matter 
 
 Properties of matter . . . 
 
 Universal space • . • 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Creation . . ..-.-. 
 
 Formation of worlds . • 
 
 Production of living beings . . 
 
 Peopling of the earth : Adam » 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 H 
 H 
 
 17 
 
 2 H 
 
432 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 
 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Diversity of human races • • m 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 17 
 
 Plurality of worlds • • • 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 18 
 
 The Biblical account of the creation 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 19 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 
 
 
 : Vital Principle . . 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 • 25 
 
 Organic and inorganic beings • 
 
 • 
 
 t 
 
 . 25 
 
 Life and death • • • 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 • 27 
 
 Intelligence and instinct • • 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 • 28 
 
 BOOK SECOND. 
 
 THE SPIRIT-WORLD, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 Spirits . 
 
 Origin and nature of spirits 
 Primitive and normal world 
 Form and ubiquity of spirits 
 Perispirit 
 
 Different orders of spirits 
 Spirit-hierarchy • 
 
 Progression of spirits 
 Angels and demons . 
 
 31 
 31 
 33 
 34 
 36 
 36 
 38 
 47 
 51 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Incarnation of Spirits 
 Aim of incarnation . 
 The soul • . 
 
 Materialism • • 
 
 54 
 54 
 55 
 60 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Return from Corporeal to the Spirit-Life 
 The soul after death .... 
 Separation of soul and body . 
 Temporarily confused state of the soul after death 
 
 63 
 63 
 65 
 68 
 
INDEX. 
 
 433 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 rality of Existences 
 Reincarnation . . , 
 Justice of reincarnation . , 
 Incarnation in different worlds , 
 
 IV. 
 
 
 
 PAGB 
 
 70 
 
 • 70 
 
 71 
 
 72 
 
 Progressive transmigrations . , 
 Fate of children after death . < 
 
 
 
 
 • 78 
 8l 
 
 Sex in spirits . . , 
 Relationship — Filiation . , 
 Physical and moral likeness • « 
 Innate ideas , 
 
 
 
 
 83 
 83 
 85 
 
 88 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Considerations on the Plurality of Existences 
 
 9* 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Spirit-Life ...... 
 
 Errant or wandering spirits .... 
 
 Transitional worlds ..... 
 
 Perceptions, sensations, and sufferings of spirits 
 Theoretic explanation of the nature of sensation in spirits 
 Choice of earthly trials .... 
 
 Relationships beyond the grave 
 Sympathies and antipathies of spirits — Eternal halves 
 Remembrance of corporeal existence . . 
 
 Commemoration of the dead — Funerals • . 
 
 103 
 103 
 106 
 108 
 
 "3 
 120 
 128 
 133 
 135 
 139 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Return to Corporeal Life . . < 
 
 
 
 142 
 
 Preludes to return 
 
 
 
 142 
 
 Union of soul and body — Abortion . 
 
 
 
 . 145 
 
 Moral and intellectual faculties of mankind , 
 
 
 
 . 149 
 
 Influence of organism • • 
 
 
 
 » 150 
 
 Idiocy and madness . • • < 
 
 
 
 , 152 
 
 Infancy • • • « 
 
 
 
 ► 155 
 
 Terrestrial sympathies and antipathies , 
 
 
 
 , 158 
 
 Forget fulness of the past • • 1 
 
 
 
 160 
 
434 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Emancipation of the Soul . 
 Sleep and dreams 
 
 Visits between the spirits of living persons 
 Occult transmission of thought 
 Lethargy — Catalepsy — Apparent death 
 Somnambulism . . . 
 
 Trance . 
 
 Second-sight .... 
 Explanation of somnambulism, trance, and second-sight 
 
 PAGR 
 
 1 66 
 166 
 172 
 174 
 
 175 
 176 
 180 
 182 
 184 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Intervention of Spirits in the Corporeal World . 191 
 Penetration of our thoughts by spirits . . . 191 
 
 Occult influence of spirits on our thoughts and actions . 192 
 Possession . . . . . . 195 
 
 Convulsionaries . . . . . .198 
 
 Affection of certain spirits for certain persons . .199 
 
 Guardian-angels — Protecting, familiar, and sympathetic 
 
 spirits ....... 201 
 
 Presentiments . . . . . .211 
 
 Influence of spirits on the events of human life . . 212 
 
 Action of spirits in the production of the phenomena of 
 
 nature . . . . ... 216 
 
 Spirits during battle • . . . .219 
 
 Pacts with spirits ...... 220 
 
 Occult power — Talismans — Sorcerers — Benedictions and 
 
 curses ....... 224 
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Occupations and Missions of Spirits 
 
 225 
 
 The Three Reigns 
 Minerals and plants 
 Animals and men 
 Metempsychosis 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 234 
 234 
 236 
 
 243 
 
INDEX. 
 
 435 
 
 BOOK THIRD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Moral Laws .... 
 Divine or natural law- 
 Characteristics of natural law- 
 Source and knowledge of natural law 
 Good and evil . . • 
 
 Division of natural law • • 
 
 PAGB 
 
 246 
 246 
 246 
 247 
 250 
 
 255 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Law of x\doration 
 Aim of adoration 
 External acts of adoration, 
 Life of contemplation 
 Prayer 
 
 Polytheism . . 
 
 Sacrifices • . 
 
 256 
 
 256 
 256 
 258 
 259 
 262 
 264 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 IL The Law of Labour 
 
 Necessity of labour . . . 
 
 Limit of labour — Rest . . 
 
 268 
 268 
 270 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 III. The Law of Reproduction 
 Population of the globe 
 Succession and improvement of races 
 Obstacles to reproduction 
 Marriage and celibacy . • 
 
 Polygamy .... 
 
 272 
 272 
 272 
 274 
 
 275 
 276 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IV. The Law of Preservation 
 Instinct of self-preservation . 
 Means of self-preservation . 
 
 277 
 277 
 277 
 
43 6 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Enjoyment of the fruits of the earth 
 Necessaries and superfluities 
 Voluntary privations — Mortifications 
 
 PAGE 
 
 280 
 281 
 282 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 V. The Law of Destruction . 
 
 Necessary destruction and unjustifiable destruction 
 
 Destructive calamities 
 
 War . 
 
 Murder 
 
 Cruelty 
 
 Duelling 
 
 Capital punishment 
 
 285 
 
 285 
 287 
 290 
 290 
 291 
 
 293 
 294 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 VI. Social Law 
 
 Necessity of social life 
 Life of isolation 
 Family ties . 
 
 297 
 297 
 297 
 299 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 VII. The Law of Progress 
 State of nature 
 March of progress . 
 Degenerate peoples . 
 Civilisation . 
 Progress of human legislation 
 Influence of spiritism on progress 
 
 300 
 300 
 301 
 303 
 307 
 308 
 
 3°9 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 VIII. The Law of Equality 
 Natural equality 
 Inequality of aptitudes 
 Social inequalities 
 Inequality of riches . 
 Trials of riches and of poverty 
 Equality of rights of men and of women 
 Equality in death 
 
 312 
 312 
 312 
 
 313 
 3H 
 316 
 316 
 318 
 
IX. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 
 
 437 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Law of Liberty . 
 
 • 319 
 
 Natural liberty . . , 
 
 
 
 • 319 
 
 Slavery • , 
 
 
 
 , 320 
 
 Freedom of thought . . , 
 
 
 
 • 3 2 I 
 
 Freedom of conscience 
 
 
 
 > 3 21 
 
 Free-will .... 
 
 
 
 . 323 
 
 Fatality .... 
 
 
 
 3 2 < 
 
 Foreknowledge 
 
 
 
 332 
 
 Theoretic summary of the springs of human action . , 
 
 • 333 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 X. The Law of Justice, of Love, and of Charity 
 
 Natural rights and justice . 
 
 Right of Property — Robbery . , # 
 
 Charity — Love of the neighbour . # , 
 
 Maternal and filial affection , . . 
 
 339 
 339 
 341 
 343 
 345 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Moral Perfection 
 
 . 
 
 • • • 
 
 . 347 
 
 Virtues and vices 
 
 • 
 
 ... 
 
 • 347 
 
 The passions 
 
 • 
 
 • • • 
 
 . 353 
 
 Selfishness 
 
 . 
 
 • • • 
 
 . 354 
 
 Characteristics of the virtuous man . • 
 
 . 358 
 
 Self-knowledge 
 
 • 
 
 • • • 
 
 . 358 
 
 BOOK FOURTH. 
 
 HOPES AND CONSOLATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Earthly joys and sorrows . 
 
 Happiness and unhappiness . . . , 
 
 Loss of those we love 
 
 Disappointments — Ingratitude — Blighted affections 
 
 362 
 
 362 
 368 
 369 
 
43* 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Antipathetic unions . 
 
 Fear of death 
 
 Weariness of Life — Suicide 
 
 FAGE 
 
 371 
 372 
 373 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Future joys and sorrows • • « 
 
 Annihilation — Future life . • • 
 
 Intuition of future joys and sorrows • 
 Intervention of God in rewards and punishments 
 
 Nature of future joys and sorrows • • 
 
 Temporal sorrows • • • 
 
 Expiation and repentance • • • 
 
 Duration of future penalties • • • 
 
 Resurrection of the body . . » 
 
 Paradise— Hell — Purgatory — Original sin • 
 
 Conclusion • • • • • 
 
 380 
 380 
 381 
 381 
 382 
 390 
 393 
 397 
 403 
 405 
 410 
 
 THE END. 
 
NOW HEADY. 
 
 A BIOGRAPHY 
 
 OP 
 
 MRS. J. H. CONANT, 
 
 The World's Medium of the Nineteenth 
 
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