Example 2 - ANGÈLE, a nonentity upon the Earth.

Under this name, a Spirit presented itself spontaneously to the medium.

Do you repent of your faults? — A. No. 2 — Then why do you seek me? — A. To try. 3 — Are you by chance not happy? — A. No. 4 — Do you suffer? — A. No. 5 — What, then, do you lack? — A. Peace.

Certain Spirits regard as suffering only that which reminds them of their physical pains, although their moral state is, nonetheless, intolerable.

How can peace be lacking to you in the spiritual life? — A. A sorrow from the past. 2 — Sorrow from the past is remorse; you are, then, repentant? — A. No; it is fear of the future that I feel. 3 — What do you fear? — A. The unknown.

Are you disposed to tell me what you did in your last incarnation? That may perhaps make it easier for me to guide you. — A. Nothing.

What was your social position? — A. Middling. 2 — Were you married? — A. Yes; I was a wife and a mother. 3 — And did you zealously fulfill the duties arising from that twofold charge? — A. No; my husband bored me, as did my children.

And in what manner did you fill your existence? — A. Amusing myself when single and wearying myself as a married woman. 2 — What were your occupations? — A. None. 3 — And who took care of your household? — A. The maidservant.

Would it not be fitting to attribute to that inertia the cause of your griefs and fears? — A. Perhaps you are right. 2 — But it is not enough to agree. Do you wish to repair the uselessness of that existence and aid the suffering Spirits who surround us? — A. How? 3 — By helping them to improve themselves through your counsels and your prayers. — A. I do not know how to pray. 4 — We will do it together and you will learn. Yes? — A. No. 5 — But why? — A. It tires me.

— Instructions from the medium's guide.

We give you instruction, granting you practical knowledge of the various states of suffering, as well as of the situation of Spirits condemned to the expiation of their own faults.

Angèle was one of those creatures without initiative, whose existence is as useless to themselves as to their neighbor.

Loving only pleasure, incapable of seeking in study, in the fulfillment of domestic and social duties, the only satisfactions of the heart, which make the charm of life, because they belong to all epochs, she was unable to employ her youth except in frivolous distractions; and when more serious duties were imposed upon her, the world had already become a void to her, because her heart too was empty.

Without grave faults, but also without merits, she made her husband's unhappiness, compromising by her carelessness and neglect the future of her own children.

She corrupted their hearts and their feelings, both by her example and by the abandonment in which she left them, handed over to servants whom she did not even take the trouble to choose.

Her existence was unprofitable and, for that very reason, blameworthy, since evil arises from the neglect of good.

Be quite certain that it is not enough to abstain from faults: one must practice the virtues opposed to them.

Study the teachings of the Lord; meditate on them and be convinced that they, if they make you halt on the path of evil, also enjoin upon you to turn back, in order to take the opposite road that leads to good.

Evil is the antithesis of good; therefore, whoever wishes to avoid the former must follow the latter, without which life becomes null, its works dead, and God, our father, is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Q. Will I be permitted to know what would have been the next-to-last existence of Angèle? The last should have been a consequence of it, that is, of the next-to-last.

A. She lived in beatific indolence, in the uselessness of monastic life. Lazy and selfish by inclination, she wished to try domestic life, but her Spirit progressed little.

She always repelled the inner voice that pointed out the danger to her, and, since the propensity was gentle, she preferred to abandon herself to it rather than make an effort to check it at the start.

Today she still understands the danger of that neutrality, but she does not feel within herself the strength to attempt the least effort.

Pray for her, seek to awaken her and to make her eyes open to the light. It is a duty, and no duty is to be disdained.

Man was created for activity; the activity of the Spirit is of its very essence; and that of the body, a necessity.

Fulfill, therefore, the prescriptions of existence, as a Spirit devoted to eternal peace.

In the service of the Spirit, the body is no more than a machine subjected to the intelligence: work, cultivate, therefore, the intelligence, so that it may give a salutary impulse to the instrument that is to aid it in the fulfillment of its mission; 18 grant it neither truce nor repose, bearing in mind that this peace to which you aspire will not be granted to you except through work; thus, the more you defer it, the longer the anxiety of waiting will last for you.

Work, work incessantly; fulfill all duties without exception, and do so with zeal, with courage, with perseverance, and your faith will sustain you.

Everyone who consciously plays the most thankless and lowly role in your society is a hundred times more elevated in the eyes of the Almighty than the one who, imposing that role on others, despises his own.

Everything is a step that gives access to Heaven: do not break the stone beneath your feet and count on the help of friends who extend their hand to you, supports that they are of those who go to draw their strength from belief in the Lord. Monod.