Allan Kardec-THE Spirit's Book_ The Principles of Spiritist Doctrine (1989)

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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
The word angel is generally supposed to imply the idea of moral perfection but it is often applied,
nevertheless, to all beings, good or bad, beyond the pale of humanity. we say, "a good angel" "a bad
angel," "an angel of light," "the angel of darkness," etc. In those cases, it is synonymous with spirit or
genius. It is employed here in its highest sense.
129. Have the angels passed up through all the degrees of progress?
"They have passed up through all those degrees, but with the difference which we have
already mentioned. Some of them, accepting their mission without murmuring, have reached
the goal more quickly; others have been longer in reaching the same goal.”
130. If the opinion which admits that some beings have been created perfect and superior to
all others be erroneous, how is it that this opinion is to be found in the tradition of almost
every people?
“Your world has not existed from all eternity. Long before it was called into being hosts of
spirits had already attained to the supreme degree. and, therefore, the people of your earth
naturally supposed those perfected spirits to have always been at the same degree of
elevation."
131. Are there any demons in the usual acceptation of that term?
"If demons existed, they would be the work of God; but would it he just on the part of God to
have created beings condemned eternally to evil and to misery? If demons exist, it is in your
low world, and in other worlds of similar degree. that they are to be found. They are the
human hypocrites who represent a just God as being cruel and vindictive, and who imagine
that they make themselves agreeable to Him by the abominations they commit in His name,"
It is only in its modern acceptation that the word demon implies the idea of evil spirits, for the Greek
work daimôn from which it is derived, signifies genius, intelligence, and is applied indiscriminately to all
incorporeal beings, whether good or bad.
Demons or devils,1 according to the common acceptation of these words are supposed to be a class of
beings essentially bad. If they exist, they must necessarily be, like everything else, a creation of God but
God, who is sovereignly just and good, cannot have created beings predestined to evil by their very
nature, and condemned beforehand to eternal misery. If, on the contrary, they are not a creation of God,
they must either have existed. like Him, from all eternity, or there must be several creators.
The first requisite of every theory is to be consistent with itself but that which asserts the existence of
demons, in the popular acceptation of
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¹The Zoroastrian term, Dev is the designation of spirits under the orders of Ahriman, the genius of evil, who,
with their leader, will eventually be "converted," and share the beatitude of the just.- Zendavesta, A DU
PERRON. Paris, 1771. Vol. i. p.2, pp. 164, 202 etc. - TRANS.