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

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ALLAN KARDEC
measure of their necessities; but man, who has free-will, destroys unnecessarily. He will be
called to account for thus abusing the freedom accorded to him; for, in so doing, he yields to
evil! instincts from which he ought to free himself."
736. Are those peoples especially meritorious who, in regard to the taking of animal life,
carry their scrupulousness to excess?
"Their sentiment in regard to this matter, though laudable in itself, being carried to excess,
becomes an abuse in its turn; and its merit, moreover, is neutralised by abuses of many other
sorts. That sentiment, on their part, is the result of superstitious fear, rather than of true
gentleness."
Destructive Calamities.
737. What is the aim of God in visiting mankind with destructive calamities?
"To make men advance more quickly. Have we not told you that destruction is necessary to
the moral regeneration of spirits, who accomplish a new step of their purification in each new
existence? In order to appreciate any process correctly, you must see its results. You judge
merely from your personal point of view, and you therefore regard those inflictions as
calamities, because of the temporary injury they cause you; but such upsettings are often
needed in order to make you reach more quickly a better order of things, and to effect, in a
few years, what you would otherwise have taken centuries to accomplish." (744.)
738. Could not God employ other methods than destructive calamities for effecting the
amelioration of mankind?
"Yes; and He employs them every day, for He has given to each of you the means of
progressing through the knowledge of good and evil. It is because man profits so little by
those other means, that it becomes necessary to chastise his pride, and to make him feel his
weakness."
- But the good man succumbs under the action of these scourges, as does the wicked; is this
just?
"During his earthly sojourn, man measures everything by the standard of his bodily life; but,
after death, he judges differently, and feels that the life of the body, as we have often told you,
is a very small matter. A century in your world is but the length of a flash in eternity, and
therefore the sufferings of what you call