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 82
eincarnation. The philosopher, Professor Taggar, says, ‘It is the only reasonable view of immortality.’ Archdeacon Colley, Rector of Stackton (Warwickshire), gave a conference on reincarnation, of a nature which indicates that its ideals have reached even to the bosom of the Church of England. 83
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