Note V.

The doctrine of liberty in the choice of our existences and of the trials we must undergo ceases to be extraordinary if we consider that the Spirits, freed from matter, appreciate things in a manner different from that in which we do as men. They perceive the goal, much more serious for them than the fleeting pleasures of the world; after each existence, they become conscious of the step they have taken and understand what they still lack in purity to reach the mark; that is why they voluntarily submit to all the vicissitudes of corporeal life, themselves asking for those that can make them arrive more quickly. It is, then, without reason that we are surprised at not seeing the Spirit give preference to a more tranquil life. In the state of imperfection in which it finds itself, it cannot enjoy a life free of bitterness; it merely glimpses it, and it is to attain it that it strives to perfect itself.

Moreover, do we not have before our eyes daily some examples of such choices? What does the man do who works a part of his life without truce or rest to secure his well-being, if not impose upon himself a hardship with a view to a better future? The soldier who offers himself for a dangerous mission, the traveler who confronts no lesser perils in the interest of Science or of fortune, what is this again if not voluntary trials that will procure them honor and profit, if they triumph? To how many things does man not submit and not expose himself for interest or for his own glory? Are not the competitions voluntary trials to which he subjects himself with a view to rising in the career he may have chosen? One does not arrive at a transcendent social position in the Sciences, in the Arts, and in industry except by passing through the gauntlet of the inferior positions, which are just so many trials. Human life is thus a tracing of spiritual life; on Earth we find on a small scale the very same vicissitudes of space. If, then, in this life we sometimes choose the harshest trials with a view to a higher mark, why would the Spirit, who sees farther than the body, and for whom corporeal life is no more than a fleeting incident, not choose a painful and laborious existence, provided it leads him to eternal happiness? Those who say that if man could choose his own existence, he would ask to be a prince or a millionaire, are like the blind, who see only what they touch, or like greedy children who, asked what they want to be in adult life, answer: pastry cooks or confectioners. [Question 266.]