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

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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
causes him to carry an opposite sentiment into his next incarnation. It is thus that progress is
accomplished; and it is thus also that you have upon the earth some men who are farther
advanced than others, because some possess experience that the others have not yet acquired,
but that will be gradually acquired by them. It depends upon each spirit to hasten his own
advancement or to retard it indefinitely."
The man who has an unsatisfactory position desires to change it as soon as possible. He who is convinced
that the tribulations of the present life are the consequences of his own imperfections will seek to insure
for himself a new existence of a less painful character and this conviction will draw him away from the
Wrong road much more effectually than the threat of eternal flames, which he does not believe in.
196. As spirits can only be ameliorated by undergoing the tribulations of corporeal existence,
it would seem to follow that the material life is a sort of sieve or strainer, by which the beings
of the spirit-world are obliged to pass in order to arrive at perfection ?
"Yes; that is the case. They improve themselves under the trials of corporeal life by avoiding
evil, and by practising what is good. But it is only through many successive incarnations or
purifications that they succeed, after a lapse of time which is longer or shorter according to
the amount of effort put forth by them, ill reaching the goal towards which they tend."
- Is it the' body that influences the spirit for its amelioration or is it the spirit that influence's
the body?
"Your spirit is everything; your body is a garment that rots, and nothing more."
A material image of the various degrees of purification of the soul is furnished by the juice of the grape. It
contains the liquid called spirit or alcohol, but weakened by the presence of various foreign elements
which change its nature, so that it is only brought to a state of absolute purity after several distillations, at
each of which it is cleared of some portion of its impurity. The still represents the corporeal body into
which the spirit enters for its purification the foreign elements represent the imperfections from which the
perispirit is gradually freed, in proportion as the spirit approaches the state of relative perfection.
Fate of Children After Death
197. Is the spirit of a child who dies in infancy as advanced as that of an adult?
"He is sometimes much more so; for he may previously have lived longer and acquired more
experience, especially if he be a spirit who has already made considerable progress."