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

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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
The true or false view we take of the things about us causes us to succeed or to fail in our enterprises; but
it seems to us more easy, and less humiliating to our self-love, to attribute our failures to fate, or to
destiny, than to cur mistakes. If the influence of spirits sometimes contributes to our success, it is none the
less true that we can always free ourselves from their influence, by repelling the ideas they suggest when
they are calculated to mislead, us.
853. They are persons who escape one danger only to fall into another; it seems as though it
had been impossible for them to escape death. Is there not a fatality in such cases?
"There is nothing fatal, in the true meaning of the word, but the time of death. When that time
has come, no matter under what form death presents itself, you cannot escape it."
- If so, whatever danger may seem to threaten us, 'we shall not die if our hour has not come?
"No, you will not be allowed to die-and of this you have thousands of examples; but when
your hour has come, nothing can save you. God knows beforehand the manner in which each
of you will quit your present life, and this is often known also to your spirit; for it is revealed
to you when you make choice of such and such existence."
854. Does it follow, from the inevitability of the hour of death, that the precautions we take in
view of apparent danger are useless?
"No, for those precautions are suggested to you in order that you may avoid the dangers with
which you are threatened. They are one of the means employed by Providence to prevent
death from taking place prematurely."
855. What is the aim of providence in making us incur dangers that are to be without result?
"When your life is imperilled, it is a warning which you yourself have desired, in order to turn
you from evil, and to make you better. When you escape from such a peril, and while still
feeling the emotion excited by the danger you had incurred, you think, more or less seriously,
according to the degree in which you are influenced by the suggestions of good spirits, of
amending your ways. The bad spirit returning to his former post of temptation (I say bad, in
reference to the evil that is still in him), you flatter yourself that you will escape other dangers
in the same way, and you again give free scope to your passions. By the dangers you incur,
God reminds you of your weakness, and of the fragility of your existence. If you examine the
cause and the nature of the peril you have escaped, you will see that in many cases its