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

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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
they are also, unconsciously, and while providing only for their material needs, agents that
second the views of the Creator; and their labour none the less concurs to the working out of
the final end of nature, although you often fail to discover its immediate result."
678. In worlds more advanced than the earth, is man subjected to the same necessity of
labour?
"The nature of the labour is always relative to that of the wants it supplies; the less material
are those wants, the less material is the labour. But you must not suppose that man, in those
worlds, remains inactive and useless; idleness would be a torture instead of a benefit."
679. Is he who possesses a sufficiency of worldly goods for his subsistence enfranchised from
the law of labour?
"From material labour perhaps, but not from the obligation of rendering himself useful
according to his means, and of developing his own intelligence and that of others, which is
also a labour. If the man, to whom God has apportioned a sufficiency of means for insuring
his corporeal existence, be not constrained to win his bread by the sweat of his brow, the
obligation of being useful to his fellow-creatures is all the greater in his case, because the
portion appointed to him gives him a greater amount of leisure for doing good."
680. Are there not men who are incapable of working at anything whatever, and whose
existence is entirely useless?
"God is just; He condemns only him who is voluntarily useless; for such an one lives upon
the labour of others. He wills that each should make himself useful according to his faculties.
(643.)
681. Does the law of nature impose upon children the obligation of labouring for their
parents?
"Certainly it does, just as it imposes on parents the duty of labouring for their children. For
this reason God has given a place in nature to the sentiment of filial and paternal affection, in
order that the members of a family may be led, by their mutual affection, to aid each other
reciprocally-a duty which is too often lost sight of in your present state of society."
Limit of Labour. Rest.
682. Rest being a necessity after labour, is it not a law of nature?