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

276
ALLAN KARDEC
were no rocks, he could not understand that there are such things as hard bodies. It is
necessary for the spirit to acquire experience; and, to that end, he must know both good and
evil. It is for this purpose that souls are united to bodies." (119.)
635. The different social positions create new wants which are not the same for all men.
Natural law would therefore appear not to be a uniform rule?
"Those different positions are in nature, and according to the law of progress; they do not
invalidate the unity of natural law, which applies to everything."
The conditions of a man's existence vary according to times and places hence arise for him different
wants. and social positions corresponding to those wants. Since this diversity is in the order of things, it
must be consonant with the law of God; and this law is none the less one in principle. It is for reason to
distinguish between real wants and wants that are factitious or conventional.
636. Are good and evil absolute for all men?
"The law of God is the same for all; but evil resides especially in the desire for its
commission. Good is always good, and evil is always evil, whatever a man's position may be;
the difference is in the degree of his responsibility."
637. When a savage, yielding to his instinctive desire feeds on human flesh, i~ he guilty in so
doing?
"I have said that the essence of evil is in the will; therefore a man is more or less guilty
according to his light."
Circumstances modify the relative intensity of good and of evil. A man often commits faults that are none
the less reprehensible for being the consequence of the social position in which he is placed; but his
responsibility is proportioned to the means he possesses of distinguishing between right and wrong. Thus
the enlightened man who commits a mere injustice 15 more culpable in the sight of God than the ignorant
savage who abandons himself to his instincts of cannibalism.
638. Evil seems, sometimes, to be a consequence of the force of things. Such is, for instance,
in some cases, the necessity of destruction, even to the extent of taking the life of a fellowcreature.
Can it be said that, in such cases, there is violation of the law of God?
"Evil, in such cases, is none the less evil, although necessary; but this necessity disappears in
proportion as the soul becomes purified by passing from one existence to another; and man
15 then all the more culpable when he does wrong, because he comprehends more clearly the
character of his action."