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implacable logic of his destiny. If we recall nothing of our past, it is usually because we make no effort to
awaken the sleeping memories. But the order of things exists all the same - the magnetic chain of destiny is
never broken.
The mature man does not recall the details of his first youth; but does that prove that he was never an
infant? Does not the great artist who, in the evening of a day of labor, yields to fatigue and sleeps, retain in his
slumber the plan and vision of his work, which he will take up and continue on awakening?
It is so with our destiny. It, too, is a constant labor broken many times by seasons of sleep which are in
reality activities under different forms, illumined by dreams of light and beauty. The life of man is a logical
and harmonious dream, where scenes and decorations change with infinite variety, but never depart for one
instant from the verity of aim and the harmony of the ensemble. It is only on our return to the world invisible
that we comprehend the value of each scene, and the incomparable harmony of all, in its connection with
universal unity. Follow then, with faith and confidence, the line traced by an infallible finger. Let us go to the
end, as the rivers to the sea, fertilizing the earth and reflecting the heavens.
Two more obstacles present themselves, viz.: ‘If the theory of reincarnation is true,’ says Jacques
Brieu, ‘moral progress ought to have been made from the beginning of time, but it is quite otherwise. Man
today are as selfish, cruel, and ferocious as they were two thousand years ago.’ This statement is excessive.
Even if it were exact it proves nothing against reincarnation. As we know, the best men - those who after a
series of existences have attained a certain degree of perfection - pursue their evolution in higher worlds, and
return to earth, but exceptionally, in the position of masters and missionaries. But meanwhile, contingents of
spirits from planes inferior add each day to the population of the globe. It is not astonishing, under these
conditions, that the moral level is not greatly elevated.
A second objection is, that the doctrine of reincarnation leads to inevitable abuses and misstatements,
and the objector points to the claims of many theosophists and spiritualists that they have been great
personages in the past, etc. But cannot this be said of other people - men who pretend to be descendants of
noble families, for instance, without substantiating proof? Personally, I know a dozen people who affirm they
were ‘Joan of Arc’. There is no limit to persons of this order. Yet possibly, among them, one finds a veritable
fact. To distinguish them one must analyze their revelations vigorously. First find if their individuality presents
striking traits like those of the personage mentioned, them demand of the psychic revealers proofs of identity
touching their personalities and details and facts: such as would make verification impossible. These abuses of
the doctrine of reincarnation do not reflect on the Law, but on the inferiority of certain minds. They are fruits
of ignorance and faults of judgment, and will disappear in time, thanks to education.
Again we encounter a difficulty. It is that which results from the apparent contradiction of spirits
regarding reincarnation. In Anglo-Saxon countries this doctrine was not mentioned in messages of spirits for a
long period of time, and other messages have denied its truth. We have replied to this objection partly in
Chapter XXII. The negations on this subject emanate almost always from spirits not sufficiently advanced to
know and to read in themselves the future which awaits them. We know that these souls submit to
reincarnation without foreseeing it, and when the hour comes they are plunged in material life as in a sleep
produced by anesthesia.
The prejudices of race and religion which have been exercised for a considerable time upon these
spirits in earth life persist still in the other life. While those who are in any degree awakened are easily freed
from these prejudices by death; the less advanced remain long submerged. The Protestant education leaves no
place in the orthodox mind for the idea of successive lives. According to its teachings, the soul at death is
judged and fixed definitely in Paradise or Hell. With the Catholics there exists a middle place - Purgatory,
where the soul may expiate and purify itself by definite means. This idea leads toward the rebirth conception.
The Catholic makes over the old belief into a new creed, while the orthodox Protestant finds himself under the
necessity to make a clean sweep and build up a doctrine absolutely different from those suggested by his
religion. So here we have the hostilities against multiple lives in Anglo-Saxon countries, which persist even
after death among a certain category of spirits. But a reaction is being produced little by little, and the faith in
successive lives gains day by day - more in the Protestant domain, in the measure that the idea of Hell has
become foreign to them. England and America have many adherents. The principal spiritualistic periodicals of
these countries adopt the belief, or discuss it impartially. Mr. Funk, of the firm of Funk and Wagnalls,
publishers of the Standard Dictionary, speaks, in The widow’s Mite, an important work published in 1905, of
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