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

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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
subjected to the vicissitudes of the existence he has chosen, and to all the tendencies, good or
bad, inherent in it; but fatality ceases at this point, for it depends on his will to yield, or not to
yield, to those tendencies. The details of events are subordinated to the circumstances to
which man himself gives rise by his action, and in regard to which he may be influenced by
the good or bad thoughts suggested to him by spirits. (459.)
There is a fatality, then, in the events which occur independently of our action, because they
are the consequence of the choice of our existence made by our spirit in the other life; but
there can be no fatality in the results of those events, because we are often able to modify
their results by our own prudence. There is no fatality in regard to the acts of our moral life.
It is only in regard to his death that man is placed under the law of an absolute and inexorable
fatality; for he can neither evade the decree which has fixed the term of his existence, nor
avoid the kind of death which is destined to interrupt its course.¹
According to the common belief, man derives all his instincts from himself; they proceed
either from his physical organisation, for which he is not responsible, or from his own nature,
which would furnish him with an equally valid excuse for his imperfections, as, if such were
the case, he might justly plead that it is through no option of his own that he has been made
what he is.
The doctrine of Spiritism is evidently more moral. It admits the plenitude of man's free-will,
and, in telling him that, when he does wrong, he yields to an evil suggestion made by another
spirit, it leaves him the entire responsibility of his wrong-doing, because it recognises his
power of resisting that suggestion, which it is evidently more easy for him to do than it would
be to fight against his own nature. Thus, according to spiritist doctrine, no temptation is
irresistible. A man can always close his mental ear against the occult voice which addresses
itself to his inner consciousness, just as he can close it against a human voice. He can always
withdraw himself from the suggestions that would tempt him to evil, by exerting his will
against the tempter; asking of God, at the same time, to give him the necessary strength, and
calling on good spirits to help him in vanquishing the temptation.
This view of the exciting cause of human action is the natural consequence of the totality of
the teaching now being given from
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¹In relation to suicide and its consequences, vide 957, and following commentaries.