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

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ALLAN KARDEC
humblest creatures of the lower reigns; and you will have obeyed the law of God."
SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL
889. Are there not men who are reduced to beggary through their own fault?
"Undoubtedly there are; but if a sound moral education hadtaught them to practise the law of
God, they would not have fallen into the excesses which have caused their ruin. It is mainly
through the generalisation of such education that the improvement of your globe will be
ultimately accomplished." (707.)
Maternal and Filial Affection.
890. Is maternal affection a virtue, or is it an instinctive feeling common to men and to
animals?
"It is both. Nature has endowed the mother with the love of her offspring in order to ensure
their preservation. Among the animals, maternal affection is limited to the supply of their
material needs; it ceases when this care is no longer needed. In the human race, it lasts
throughout life, and assumes a character of unselfish devotion that raises it to the rank of a
virtue; it even survives death, and follows the career of the child from beyond the grave. You
see, therefore, that there is in this affection, as it exists in man, something more than as it
exists among the animals." (205-385.)
891. Since maternal affection is a natural sentiment, why is it that mothers often hate their
children, and even, in some cases, before their birth?
"The absence of maternal affection is sometimes a trial chosen by the spirit of the child, or an
expiation for him if he have been a bad father, a bad mother, or a bad son, in some previous
existence. In all cases, a bad mother can only be the incarnation of a bad spirit, who seeks to
throw obstacles in the path of the child, in order to make him succumb in the trial he has
chosen. But such a violation of the laws of nature will not remain unpunished, and the spirit
of the child will be rewarded for surmounting the obstacles thus thrown in his way."
892. When parents have children who cause them sorrow, are they not excusable for not
feeling for them the same tenderness they would have felt had their conduct been different?