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

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ALLAN KARDEC
But, assuredly, the most frightful of them all is the sufferer s belief that his condemnation is
unchangeable and for all eternity."
Men form to themselves, in regard to the joys and sorrows of the soul after death, a conception more or
less elevated according to the state of their intelligence. The greater a man's degree of development, the
more refined and the more divested of materiality is his idea of them; the more rational is the view he
takes of the subject, and the less literally does he understand the images of figurative language in regard
to them. Enlightened reason, in teaching us that the soul is an entirely spiritual being, teaches us also that
it cannot be affected by impressions that act only upon matter; but it does not follow there from that is
exempt from suffering, or that it does not undergo the punishment of its wrongdoing. (237.)
The communications made to us by spirits show us the future state of the soul, no longer as a matter of
theory, but as a reality. They bring before us all the incidents of the life beyond the grave ; but they also
show us that they are the natural consequences of the terrestrial life, and that, although divested of the
fantastic accompaniments created by the imagination of men, they are none the less painful for those who,
in this life, have made a bad use of their faculties. The diversity of those consequences is infinite, but may
be summed up by saying that each soul is punished by that wherein it has sinned. It is thus that some are
punished by the incessant sight of the evil they have done; others, by regret, fear, shame, doubt, isolation,
darkness, separation from those who are dear to them, etc.
974. Whence comes the doctrine of eternal fire?
"From taking a figure of speech for a reality, as men have done in so many instances."
- But may not this fear lead to a useful result?
"Look around you, and see whether there are many who are restrained by it, even among
those by whom it is inculcated. If you teach what is contrary to reason, the impression you
make will be neither durable nor salutary."
Human language being powerless to express the nature of the sufferings of spirit-life, man has been
unable to desvise any more appropriate comparison for them than that of flee, because, for him, fire is at
once the type of the most excruciating torture, and the symbol of the most energetic action. It is for this
reason that the belief in "everlasting burning" has been held from the earliest antiquity and transmitted
by succeeding generations to the present day ; and it is for this reason, also, that all nations speak, in
common parlance, of "fiery passions," of "burning love," "burning hate," "burning with jealousy," etc.
975. Do inferior spirits comprehend the happiness of the righteous?
"Yes; and that happiness is a source of torment for them, for they understand that they are
deprived of it through their own fault; but it also leads a spirit, when freed from matter, to
aspire after a new corporeal existence, because every such existence, if well employed, will
shorten the duration of that torment. It is thus that he makes choice of the trials through which
he will be enabled to expiate his faults; for you must remember that each spirit suffers for all
the evil he has done or of which he has been