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

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ALLAN KARDEC
invent Him for the happiness of the human race;" the same might be said in regard to the
plurality of existences. But, as we have already remarked, God does not ask our permission in
the establishment of providential ordering; He does not consult our preferences in the matter.
Either the law of reincarnation exists, or it does not exist; let us see on which side is the
balance of probabilities, considering the matter from another point of view, but still leaving
out of sight all idea of any statements that have been made by spirits in regard to it, and
examining the question merely as matter of philosophic inquiry.
If the law of reincarnation do not exist, we can have but one corporeal existence; and if our
present corporeal life be our only one, the soul of each individual must have been created at
the same time as his body; unless, indeed, we assume the anteriority of the soul, in which case
we should have to inquire what was the state of the soul before its union with the body, and
whether this state did not constitute an existence of some kind or other. There is no middle
ground. Either the soul existed before its union with the body, or it did not. If it existed, what
was its condition? Was it possessed of self-consciousness? If not, its state must have been
nearly equivalent to non-existence. If possessed of individuality, it must have been either
progressive or stationary; in either case, what was its degree of advancement on uniting itself
to the body? If, on the contrary, it be assumed, according to the general belief, that the soul is
born into existence at the same time as the body-or that, previous to the birth of the body, it
possesses only negative faculties-we have to propose the following questions: -
1. Why do souls manifest so great a diversity of aptitudes independently of the ideas acquired
by education?
2. Whence comes the extra-normal aptitude for certain arts and sciences displayed by many
children while still very young, although others remain in a state of inferiority, or of
mediocrity, all their life?
3. Whence do some individuals derive the innate or intuitive ideas that are lacking in others?
4. Whence do some children derive the precocious instincts of vice or of virtue, the innate
sentiments of dignity or of baseness,