PDF version - Geae

* * *
In the course of this study we have demonstrated the importance of the doctrine of reincarnation. We
have seen it as the essential base on which reposes the new spiritualism: its doorway is immense. It explains
the inequalities of human conditions, tastes, faculties, and characters. It dissipates the mysteries and
contradictions of life. It solves the problems of evil. Through it, order succeeds disorder, light comes from the
bosom of chaos - injustice disappears, apparent iniquities of fate vanish, to give way to the majestic law of
repercussion, of acts and consequences. And this law of immanent justice which governs the worlds, God has
inscribed on the foundation of things and in the human consciousness. The doctrine of reincarnation brings
men more closely together than any other belief in teaching them their common origin and end, and in
showing them the solidarity which unites them in the past, present, and future. It tells them there are no
disinherit ones - no favorites, but each being is the son of his own works, the master of his own destiny.
Our sufferings, hidden or apparent, are the consequences of the past; the austere school where we learn
high virtues and great duties. We go through all the stations of an immense route. We experience all the social
conditions one by one, to acquire the qualities of each environment. In this way we are bound together in a
final harmony, all the infinite variety of beings - varied because of the inequality of their efforts and the
necessities of their evolution.
The greatest of us has been small - the smallest will be great, and each one in his turn knows joy and
pain. In this lies the fraternity of souls. We feel our unity in our collective ascension. We learn to aid, to
sustain, to reach out the helping hand.
Across the cycles of time all will attain to perfection. The criminals of the past will become the sages
of the future, and an hour will come when our faults will be effaced - our moral wounds healed. Frivolous
souls will become serious, obscure minds will be illumined, all the forces of evil which vibrate in us will be
transformed into forces of good. From the feeble, indifferent being whose mentality is shut to all great
thoughts, at the end of the ages will come forth a powerful spirit which contains all knowledge, all virtue, and
realizes the most sublime truths. This will be the work of accumulated existences. A great many indeed will be
required to bring forth such a change, but nothing is powerful and durable which has not taken time to
germinate in the shadow and mount toward Heaven. The tree, the forest, nature, the plants say it to us in their
profound language. No seed is lost, no effort is wasted. The stem does not give its leaf or fruit until its hour
comes, and life did not appear upon earth until after immense geological periods of time. Look at the diamond,
whose splendor ornaments the beauty of women, shining with a million fires! How many were the changes to
which it was submitted before acquiring this incomparable purity. How long was its incubation in the breast of
obscure matter. It is here, in this work of perfecting the soul, that the utility is shown of lives of trial, of modest
and humble lives, of the existence of labor and duty to vanquish ferocious passions, pride, and selfishness.
From this point of view, the roles of the humble and the menial tasks of life reveal themselves to our eyes in
grandeur, and we better comprehend the necessity of returning to earth to ransom and purify the soul.
* * *
In resolving the problem of evil, the new spiritualism shows again its superiority over other doctrines.
To the materialists, evil and sorrow are constant and universal. Taine, Soury, Haeckel declare, 'We see evil
spread and regenerate in humanity. Nevertheless, with progress evil becomes less frequent but more painful,
because our physical and moral sensibilities are keener.' So we must always suffer, and work without hope,
without consolation: for example, in the case of a catastrophe (to their eyes irreparable) as in the death of a
beloved being. Consequently evil always encroaches on good. Certain religious doctrines are no more
consoling, for evil seems to predominate in the universe, and Satan appears more powerful than God. Hell is
continually peopled with crowds, while only a select few reach Heaven.
With the new philosophy the question takes another aspect. Evil is only a transitory state of being, on
the way of evolution toward good. Evil is the measure of inferiority of worlds and individuals, and every
ladder has its degrees. Our earth lives represent the inferior degrees of our eternal ascension, everything
around us demonstrating the inferiority of the planet that we inhabit. Very much inclined on its axis, its
astronomic situation is the cause of frequent perturbations and brusque changes of temperature, tempests,
89