CHAPTER 1

ARE THERE SPIRITS?

1. THE doubt respecting the existence of spirits has for its first cause ignorance of theirtrue nature. They are usually thought of as beings apart in the creation, and whosenecessity is not demonstrated. Many know them only by the fantastic tales heard in theirchildhood, almost as one knows history by romances : without seeking to find whetherthese tales, stripped of ridiculous accessories, rest on a foundation of truth, the absurdside alone strikes them: not taking the trouble to strip off the bitter bark to find the almond,they reject the whole; as, in religion, some persons, shocked by certain abuses, confoundall in the same reprobation.

Whatever may be one's idea of spirits, this belief is necessarily founded on the existenceof an intelligent principle outside of matter: it is incompatible with the absolute negation ofthis principle. We take, then, our point of departure from the existence, the survival, andthe individuality of the soul, of which Spiritualism is the theoric and dogmaticdemonstration, and Spiritism the manifestation. Let us for a moment make an abstractionof the manifestations, properly so called, and, reasoning by induction, let us see to whatconsequences we shall arrive.

2. From the moment that the existence of the soul is admitted, and its individuality afterdeath, it must also be admitted, first, that it is of a different nature from the body, since,once separated, it no longer has the properties of the latter : secondly, that it enjoys aconsciousness of itself, since to it is attributed happiness or suffering; otherwise it wouldbe an inert being, and of no use for us to have one. This admitted, this soul goessomewhere. What becomes of it, and where does it go? According to the common belief itgoes to heaven or hell. But where are heaven and hell? It was said, in other times, thatheaven was above and hell below : but what is above and what is below in the universesince the roundness of the earth is known; the movement of the stars, which makes whatis above at one given moment become below in twelve hours; the infinity of space, intowhich the eye plunges to immeasurable distances? It is true that by low places we alsounderstand the depths of the earth; but what has become of those depths since they havebeen searched into by geology? What, too, of those concentric spheres, called "heaven offire," "heaven of stars"? since it is known that the earth is not the center of the worlds, thatour sun itself is only one of the millions of suns which shine in space, and of which each isthe center of a planetary system. What becomes of the importance of the earth, lost in thisimmensity? By what unjustifiable privilege should this imperceptible grain of sand,distinguished neither by its size, its position, nor any particular character, be alonepeopled with reasonable beings?

Reason refuses to admit this inutility of the infinite, and everything tells us that theseworlds are inhabited. If they are peopled, then they furnish their proportion to the world ofsouls : but again, what becomes of these souls, since astronomy and geology havedestroyed the dwellings that were assigned them? and, above all, since the so rationaltheory of the plurality of worlds has multiplied them to infinity.

The doctrine of the localization of souls not agreeing with the facts of science, anothermore logical doctrine assigns to them as domain, not a determined and circumscribedspot, but universal space: it is an entire invisible world, in the midst of which we live, whichsurrounds us, and is always in close contact with us. Is there in that an impossibility—anythingrepugnant to reason? Not at all; on the contrary, everything tells us it can not beotherwise.

But, then, future pains and rewards,—what becomes of them, if you take away theirspecial places? Remark that incredulity as to the place of these pains and rewards isgenerally excited because they are presented in inadmissible conditions: but say, instead,that the souls find their happiness or misery within themselves, that their lot issubordinated to their moral state; that the reunion of good and sympathetic souls is asource of felicity; that, according to the degree of their purification, they penetrate and seeinto things that vanish before gross souls, —and every one will understand it withouttrouble. Say, again, that souls reach the supreme degree only through the efforts theymake for self-improvement, and after a series of trials which serve for their purification;that the angels are souls that have reached the highest degree, which all may attain byeffort; that the angels are God's messengers, charged to watch over the execution of hisdesigns throughout the universe; that they are happy in these glorious missions, —andyou give to their felicity a more useful and attractive object than that of a perpetualcontemplation, which would be nothing more than a perpetual uselessness. Say, again,that demons are but the souls of the wicked, not yet...