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

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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
view, especially in regard to a matter which, from its very nature, has nothing fixed or
absolute about it. Linnaeus, Jussieu, Tournefort, have each their special system of
classification, but the nature of botany has not been changed by this diversity of system
among botanists. The latter have not invented either plants or their characteristics; they have
merely observed certain analogies, according to which they have formed certain groups or
classes. We have proceeded in the same way. We have not invented either spirits or their
characteristics. We have seen and observed them, we have judged them by their own words
and acts, and we have classed them by order of similitude, basing our classification on the
data furnished by themselves.
The higher spirits generally admit the existence of three principal categories, or main
divisions, among the people of the other world. In the lowest of these, at the bottom of the
ladder, are the imperfect spirits who are characterised by the predominance of the instincts of
materiality over the moral nature, and by the propensity to evil. Those of the second degree
are characterised by the predominance of the moral nature over the material instincts, and by
the desire of good. They constitute the category of good spirits. The first or highest category
consists of those who have reached the state of pure spirits, and have thus attained to the
supreme degree of perfection imaginable by us.
This division of spirits into three well-marked categories appears to us to be perfectly
rational; and, having arrived at this general classification, it only remained for us to bring out,
through a sufficient number of subdivisions, the principal shades of the three great spiritcategories
thus established. And this we have done with the aid of the spirits themselves,
whose friendly instructions have never failed us in the carrying out of the work upon which
we have been led to enter.
With the aid of the following table it will be easy for us to determine the rank and degree of
superiority or inferiority of the spirits with whom we may enter into communication, and,
consequently, the degree of esteem and confidence to which they are entitled. The power of
determining these points may be said to constitute the key to spiritist investigation; for it
alone, by enlightening us in regard to the intellectual and moral inequalities of spirits, can
explain the anomalies presented by spirit-communications. We have, however, to remark that
spirits do not, in all cases. belong exclusively to such and such a class. Their