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

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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
the science of the present day is explaining, though they appeared to be "miraculous" in the
past. All spiritist phenomena, without exception, are the consequence of general laws; they
reveal to us one of the powers of nature, a power hitherto unknown, or rather that has not
hitherto been understood, but which observation shows us to be included in the scheme of
things. Spiritism, therefore, is founded less on the marvellous and the supernatural than is
religion itself; and those who attack it on this score do so because they know not what it
really is. As for those who oppose it in the name of science, we say to them, be they ever so
learned, "If your science, which has taught you so many things, has not taught you that the
domain of nature is infinite, you are scientific to very little purpose."
III
You say that you wish to cure your age of a malady of credulity that threatens to invade the
world. Would you prefer to see the world invaded by the incredulity that you seek to
propagate? Is it not to the absence of all belief that are to be attributed the relaxing of familyties
and the greater part of the disorders that are undermining society? By demonstrating the
existence and immortality of the soul, Spiritism revives faith in the future, raises the courage
of those who are depressed, and enables us to bear the vicissitudes of life with resignation.
Do you call this an evil? Two doctrinal theories are offered for our acceptance; one of them
denies the existence of a future life, the other proclaims and proves it; one of them explains
nothing, the other explains everything, and, by so doing, appeals to our reason; one of them is
the justification of selfishness, the other gives a firm basis to justice, charity, and the love of
one's fellow-creatures; one of them shows only the present and annihilates all hope, the other
consoles us by showing the vast field of the future; which of the two is the more pernicious?
There are some, among the most sceptical of our opponents, who give themselves out as
apostles of fraternity and progress; but fraternity implies disinterestedness and abnegation of
one's own personality, and by what right do you impose such a sacrifice on him to whom you
affirm that, when be is dead, everything will be over for him, that soon, perhaps to-morrow,
he will be nothing