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

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CHAPTER V
IV. THE LAW OF PRESERVATION
1. INSTINCT OF SELF-PRESERVATION - 2. MEANS OF
SELF-PRESERVATION - 3. ENJOYMENT OF THE FRUITS
OF THE EARTH - 4. NECESSARIES AND SUPERFLUITIES
- 5. VOLUNTARY PRIVATIONS - MORTIFICATIONS.
The Instinct of Self-Preservation.
702. Is the instinct of self-preservation a law of nature?
"Undoubtedly so. It is given to all living creatures, whatever their degree of intelligence; in
some it is purely mechanical, in others it is allied to reason.”
703. To what end has God given the instinct of self-preservation to all living beings?
"They are all necessary to the working out of the providential plans; and therefore God has
given them the desire to live. And besides, life is a necessary condition of the improvement of
beings; they feel this instinctively, without understanding it."
Means of Self-Preservation.
704. Has God, while giving to man the desire to live, always furnished him with the means of
doing so?
"Yes; and if man does not always find them, it is because he does not know how to avail
himself of the resources around him. God could not implant in man the love of life, without
giving him the means of living; and He has accordingly endowed the earth with a capacity of
production sufficient to furnish all its inhabitants with the necessaries of life. It is only that
which is necessary that is useful; that which is superfluous is never useful."
705. Why does not the earth always produce enough to provide mankind with the necessaries
of life?
"It is because man ungratefully neglects that excellent nursing-mother! Moreover, he often
accuses nature of what is the result of his own unskilfulness or want of forethought. The earth
would