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CHAPTER XIX
THE LAW OF DESTINY
In the proof of successive lives - the path of existence cleared - the route surely and firmly traced the
soul clearly sees its destiny, which is the ascension toward the highest wisdom, toward the most effulgent
light. Equity governs the world - our happiness is in our own hands. The universe cannot fail; its goal is
beauty, its means justice and love. All chimerical fear, all terror of the Beyond, vanishes. In place of doubting
the future, man tastes the joys of eternal certitudes, with confidence in tomorrow, while his strength is doubled
and his efforts toward good are increased a hundred-fold.
Yet one more question arises. By what secret springs is the action of justice exercised in the chain of
our lives? Let us first say that the working of human justice offers us nothing comparable to the divine law of
destiny. That is accomplished of itself, without exterior intervention for individuals and for societies.
It is a law of equilibrium, and establishes order in the moral world, in the same manner that the law of
gravitation and weight assures order and equilibrium, (and establishes order in the moral world, in the same
manner that the law of gravitation and weight assures order and equilibrium) in the physical world. Its
mechanism is at once simple and grand. All wrongdoing is paid for in sorrow. All that man does in accord with
the law of good procures peace and elevation, and each violation provokes suffering. Suffering enters into the
depths of the being and eliminates the germs of evil. It prolongs its action, and returns again and again, until
all unworthy qualities develop into good and vibrate in unison with divine force. But in the pursuit of this great
work, the compensations are reserved for the soul. Joys, affections, periods of repose and happiness, alternate
in the chaplet of lives with existences of strife, ransom, and reparation. So all is arranged with an art and a
science and a beauty infinite in the work of Providence. During his course, man in his weakness and ignorance
often transgresses the law - hence his trials, his infirmities, and materials servitude. But as soon as he is
enlightened, as soon as he learns to put his actions in harmony with universal laws, he is less and less exposed
to adversity. Our acts and our thoughts translate themselves into vibratory movements, and their center of
emission, by the frequent repetition of these acts and thoughts, is transformed little by little into a powerful
generator of good and evil. The being thus clarifies itself by the nature of the energies of which it is the center.
But while good forces destroy themselves by their own efforts as they return to their center and are
transformed into unhappy consequences, the evil being is forced like all others to evolve, and the vibrations of
his acts and thoughts return to him, oppressing him, and forcing on him, soon or late, the necessity of
reforming himself. This phenomenon explains itself scientifically by the correlation of forces, the vibratory
synchronism which leads always from effect to cause.
This fact is demonstrated in times of epidemics and contagious maladies. It is always the persons
whose vital condition harmonizes with the morbid causes in action who are affected, while those with strong
wills and devoid of fear are generally immune. So it is in the mind order. Thoughts of hate and vengeance,
desire to injure, coming from outside cannot act on us or influence us unless they encounter in us similar
impulses which vibrate in unison with them. If these are not found, they return to the one projecting the evil
thoughts, to strike him in his turn, whether in the present or the future, somewhere in the course of his destiny.
* * *
The law of repercussion of acts has then something mechanic and automatic in appearance.
Nevertheless, when it becomes a question of great expiations, of sorrowful reparations, great spirits intervene
to regulate and accelerate the march of souls in evolution. Their hour is exercised particularly at the hour of
reincarnation, in order to guide souls in their choice and to determine the best and most favorable conditions
for the healing of their moral maladies, and to aid them to ransom anterior faults. We must not think that every
trial of humanity is the result of past sins. All those who suffer are not forced to it as an expiation of evil
deeds. Many are simply spirits eager for progress who have chosen painful lives of labor for the moral benefit
to be so obtained. It is, however, in general the undeveloped soul ignorant of the law of harmony which
encounters the greatest suffering. Gradually he must re-establish the law of equilibrium, and must learn that he
reaps exactly what he sows.
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