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

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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
destitution, has to endure many privations through the smallness of his means, and says to
him, "Here is an immence fortune, of which you may have the enjoyment, on condition that
you work hard during one minute." The laziest of men, in response to such an offer, would
say, without hesitation, "I am ready to work for one minute, for two minutes, for an hour, for
a whole day if necessary! What is a day's labour in comparison with the certainty of ease and
plenty for all the rest of my life?"
But what is the duration of a corporeal life in comparison with eternity? Less than a minute;
less than a moment.
We sometimes hear people bring forward the following lug argument: -"God, who is
sovereignly good, cannot impose upon man the hard necessity of recommencing a series of
sorrows and tribulations." But would there be more kindness in condemning a man to
perpetual suffering for a few moments of error than in giving him the means of repairing his
faults?
"Two manufacturers had each a workman no might hope to become some day the partner of
his employer. But it happened that both workmen made so very bad a use of their day that
they merited dismissal. One of the manufacturers drove away his unfaithful workman, despite
his supplications; and this workman, being unable to obtain any other employment, died of
want. The other said to his workman-'You have wasted a day; you owe me compensation for
the loss you have thus caused me. You have done your work badly; you owe me reparation
for it. I give you leave to begin it over again. Try to do well, and I will keep you in my
employ, and you may still aspire to the superior position which I had promised you."
Need we ask which of the manufacturers ',as shown himself to be the most humane? And
would God, who is clemency itself, be more inexorable than a just and compassionate man ?
The idea that our fate is decided forever by a few years of trial, and notwithstanding the fact
that it was not in our power to attain to perfection while we remained upon the earth. fills the
mind with anguish; while the contrary idea is eminently consoling, for it leaves us hope.
Thus, without pronouncing for or against the plurality of existences, without admitting either
hypothesis in preference to the other, we assert that, if the matter were left to our own choice,
there is no one who would prefer incurring a sentence against which there should be no
appeal. A philosopher has said that "if God did not exist, it would be necessary to