Moral inheritanceOne of our subscribers writes the following from Wiesbaden:
“Dear Sir, I study Spiritism carefully from all of your books and despite the clarity of the material there are still two points that do not seem well explained to some people. These are: 1. inherited faculties; 2. the dreams.”
“In fact how can we reconcile the system of pre-existence of the soul with that of inherited skills? They do, however, exist although not in absolute terms. We see them every day in the privacy of our homes. We also see them in a more elevated order with talent succeeding talents and intelligence following intelligence. Racine’s son was a poet. Alexandre Dumas’ son was a renowned writer. In dramaturgy we see the tradition of talents in the same family and in the art of war we see a clan like that of the Duke of Brunswick, for example, yielding a series of heroes.”
“Idleness, vices and crime also keep up with the tradition. Eugene Sue cites families in which several generations successively experience murder and the guillotine.”
“The creation of the soul by an individual would explain these issues even less. I appreciate that but I must confess that either doctrine is prone to the attacks of materialists who see no more than a concentration of nervous forces in those skills.”
“With respect to the dreams in the Spiritist Doctrine this also does not reconcile well with the system of the wandering soul during the sleep with the common opinion that attributes the dreams to simple reflexes of impressions that are perceived during the waking state. This latter opinion could seem to be the true explanation of dreams whereas the wandering soul would just be an exceptional case.”
(The above is followed by several supporting examples)
“Let me make it clear, Mr. President, that I do not wish to make here any personal objection but it seems useful to me that The Spiritist Review should discuss such issues even if only to provide the means of responding to the nonbelievers. As for myself, I am a believer and just seek my enlightenment.”
-o-
The subject of dreams will be analyzed later in a special article. Today we will only take care of the psychological inheritance leaving the discussion to the Spirits and just adding a few preliminary observations.
Regardless of what is said about this subject, the materialists will not be convinced either way because if they do not admit that the principal exists then they do not acknowledge its consequence either. Before anything else, it would be necessary to have them converted to Spiritualists. That is not how we should start this discussion. Hence we cannot treat their objections.
Starting from the existence of an intelligent principle beyond matter, in other words, the existence of the soul, the question to be addressed is if the souls proceed from the souls or if they are independent. We believe we have already illustrated in our March issue of the Review entitled “The Spirits and the family crest” the impossibility of the creation of a soul by another soul. Truly, if the soul of a child were part of the father’s soul the child would always bear the same qualities and imperfections, as a consequence of this axiom it would mean that the part has the same composition of the whole. Experience, however, demonstrates the opposite every day. It is true that there are examples of moral and intellectual similarities that seem to be due to inheritance and, hence, conclude that there was a transmission. Nevertheless why wouldn’t such a transmission take place all the time? Why do we constantly see essentially good parents with vicious children, and vice- versa? Since it is impossible to turn moral inheritance into a general rule it is then necessary to explain the cause of similarities with the system of the reciprocal independence of the soul. This could be no more than a difficulty but that would not have the presumption of the pre-existence of the soul and the plurality of the existences, since such a doctrine is demonstrated by hundreds of positive facts and against which it is impossible to raise serious objections.
Let us give the word to the Spirits who were kind enough to analyze the matter. Below are two communications that were obtained about it.
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, May 23rd, 1862 – medium Mr. D’Ambel
It has already been said many times that there was no need to erect a system based on simple appearances. It is a system of that nature that deduces from family similarities a theory contrary to the one that we gave you about the existence of the souls before their terrestrial incarnation.
It is true that many times they had never had any relationship with the means and with the families in which they reincarnate. We have told you a number of times that the physical similarities are due to a material and physiological cause, absolutely independent from a spiritual action and that with respect to the similarity of tastes and skills these do not result from the procreation of a soul by another but due to the fact that similar Spirits attract one another, hence the families of heroes or the casts of warriors.
Therefore, admit, in principle, that the good Spirits prefer to choose for their new stage on Earth a terrain that has already been paved and a family of advanced Spirits where they have they are assured to the material means necessary to their future progress. By the same token the inferior Spirits, still prone to vices and the uncivilized tastes of the brute, stay away from elevated groups of moralized families and incarnate, on the contrary, where they expect to find the means of satisfaction of their still dominating passions. Hence, and as a general principle, spiritual similarities do exist because similar attract similar whereas corporeal similarities are due to procreation.
However, it is necessary to add the following: It is common to have vicious and evil individuals incarnating in righteous families that are sent there as a test to the family. On other occasions, they still come on their own with the hopes that they will leave behind the bad habits, which up until then have dragged them down. These Spirits hope to progress by being in the presence of those moralizing and virtuous environments.
The same happens to morally advanced Spirits, like the young lady from Saint-Etienne that was mentioned last year, reincarnating into obscure and inferior families in order to show them the path of progress. You have not forgotten, I am sure, the angel of white wings that she had apparently transformed to the eyes of her loved ones on Earth when these returned to the world of the Spirits. (The Spiritist Review, June 1861 – Family conversations from beyond the grave – Mrs. Anaïs Gourdon).
Erastus
At the same session, medium Mrs. Costel
I come to explain to you about the important issue related to the inheritance of virtues and vices in the human race. Such transmission generates doubt in those who do not understand the magnitude of the dogma revealed by Spiritism.
The intermediary worlds are inhabited by Spirits waiting for the trial of reincarnation or getting ready again according to their level of advancement. In those incubators of eternal life the Spirits are grouped and divided into groups, some advanced and others delayed with respect to progress. Within these groups each chooses among human families those who are sympathetic to their acquired faculties that can only advance and never move backwards.
The incarnating spirit chooses the parents whose example will generate progress and that spirit absorbs, elevating or weakening, the talents of those who gave him the corporeal life. In both cases sympathy exists before birth and later as it is developed through family life and by imitation and habit. After the family inheritance, my friends, I want to reveal the origin of disagreements that separates individuals of the same race, suddenly illustrated or dishonored by one of its members that became strange to the ambient.
The vicious brute that incarnates in an educated family and the luminous spirit that incarnates among uncivilized people obey both the mysterious harmony that blends the divided parts of the whole and conciliates the infinitely small with the supreme greatness. A guilty spirit expects to grow from learning the virtues of the earthly procreators. If it fails still, the spirit acquires the knowledge of good by the example and returns to the spiritual world less burdened with ignorance and better prepared to sustain a new fight.
The advanced Spirits foresee the glory of Jesus and look forward to taking on the chalice of sublime charity. Like him they want to guide humanity to the sacred objective of progress and are born in the low social echelons where they fight in chains against vices and ignorance from which they raise either winners or martyrs. If this answer is not enough to clarify you please ask again my friends.
St. Louis
