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

190
ALLAN KARDEC
worse than himself. The upward progress of a spirit is accomplished by slow degrees; but this
progress does not take place simultaneously in all directions. At one period of his career he
may advance in knowledge, at another in morality."
366. What is to be thought of the opinion according to which a man's various intellectual and
moral faculties are the product of so many different spirits incarnated in him, and each
possessing a special aptitude?
"The absurdity of such an opinion becomes evident on a moment's reflection. Each spirit is
destined to possess all possible aptitudes; but, in order to progress, he must possess one sole
and unitary will. If a man were an amalgam of different spirits, this unitary will would not
exist, and he would possess no individuality, because, at his death, all the spirits would fly off
in different directions, like birds escaped from a cage. Men often complain of not
comprehending certain things, and yet how ingenious they are in multiplying difficulties,
while they have within reach the simplest and most natural of explanations! I Such an opinion
is but another instance of the way in which men so often take the effect for the cause. It does
for man what the pagans did for God. They believed in the existence of as many gods as there
are phenomena in the universe; but, even among them, the more sensible ones only saw in
those phenomena a variety of effects having for their cause one and the same God."
The physical and moral worlds offer us, in regard to this subject, numerous points of comparison. While
the attention of mankind was confined to the appearance of natural phenomena, they believed in the
existence of many kinds of matter. In the present day, it is seen that all those phenomena, however varied,
may very probably be merely the result of modifications of a single elementary matter. The various
faculties of a human being are manifestations of one and the same cause, which is the soul or spirit
incarnated in him, and not of several souls just as the different sounds of an organ are the product of one
and the same sir, and not of as many sorts of air as there are sounds. According to the theory in question,
when a man acquires or loses aptitudes or tendencies, such modifications would be the result of the
coming or going of a corresponding number of the spirits conjoined with him, which would make of him a
multiple being without individuality, and, consequently, without responsibility. This theory, moreover, is
disproved by the numerous. manifestations of spirits which conclusively demonstrate their personality
and their identity.
Influence of Organism
367. Does a spirit, in uniting itself with a body, identify itself with matter?