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

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CHAPTER X
OCCUPATIONS AND MISSIONS OF SPIRITS
558. Have spirits anything else to do but to work out their own personal amelioration?
"They co-operate in the production of the harmony of the universe by executing the volitions
of God, whose ministers they are. Spirit-life is a continual occupation, hut one that has
nothing in common with the painful labour of the earthly life, because there is in it neither
bodily fatigue, nor the anguish of bodily wants."
559. Do inferior and imperfect spirits also subserve any useful end in the universe?
"All have duties to fulfil. Does not the lowest mason concur in the building of an edifice as
really as the architect?" (540.)
560. Has each spirit special attributes?
"We all have to inhabit all regions, and to acquire a knowledge of all things, by presiding
successively over all the details of the universe. But, as is said in Ecclesiastes, there is a time
for everything. Thus, one spirit is accomplishing his destiny, at the present day, in your world;
another will accomplish his, or has already accomplished it, at another period, upon the earth,
in the water, in the air, etc."
561. Are the functions discharged by spirits, in the economy of things, permanent on the Part
of each spirit, or do they constitute the exclusive attributes of certain classes?
"All spirits have to ascend all the steps of the ladder in order to attain to perfection. God, who
is just, has not willed to give science to some without labour, while others only acquire it
through painful effort."
Thus. among men, no one arrives at the highest degree of skill in any art, without having acquired the
necessary knowledge through the practice of that art in all its degrees, from the lowest upwards.
562. Spirits of the highest order having nothing more to acquire, are they in a state of
absolute repose, or have they, too, occupations?