Example 5 - HISTORY OF A SERVANT.

— Serving a family of high position, he was a young man whose intelligent and refined countenance surprised one by its distinction. In his manners there was nothing rustic or plebeian, and, while he diligently strove to serve his masters well, he was far from displaying any servility, otherwise quite characteristic of persons of his condition.

Returning one day to the house of this family, where we had come to know him, and because we did not see him, we asked whether they had dismissed him. We were told that he had gone to spend a few days in his native land, and that he had died there. We were further told that they greatly lamented the loss of so excellent a young man, possessed of sentiments quite elevated for his position. And they added that he had been very devoted to them, giving proofs of great affection.

— Later, the idea came to us to evoke this young man, and here is what he told us:

“In my next-to-last incarnation, I had been born into a very good family, as one says on Earth, but whose fortune had been ruined by my father's prodigalities. Orphaned while very young, a friend of his took me in and had me excellently educated as a son, an education that aroused in me a certain vanity.

My protector of that time is today Mr. G…, in whose service you knew me. The fact is that I wished to expiate my pride, in my last existence, in the condition of a servant, proving at the same time the devotion due to my benefactor. I even came to save his life without his knowing it.

This also constituted a trial from which I came out victorious and sufficiently comforted not to let myself be corrupted in a vicious environment. Keeping myself unpolluted, in spite of the bad examples, I thank God for the reward, in the happiness I now enjoy.”

Under what circumstances did you save the life of G…? — A. By preventing him from being crushed by a great tree trunk, while riding on horseback. I, who was following him, alone, perceived the imminence of the danger, and with a piercing cry I made him turn back quickly, while the trunk came crashing down.

Mr. G…, to whom we related the fact, remembered it perfectly.

Why did you disincarnate so young? — A. Because God judged the trial to be sufficient.

How were you able to profit from this trial when you had no notion of its prior cause? — A. In the humility of my condition there still remained in me an instinct of that pride; I was fortunate to have subdued it, making profitable the trial which, otherwise, I would have had to begin anew.

In its moments of liberty, my Spirit remembered what it had been, and upon awakening an intuitive desire to resist the evil tendencies invaded it.

I had greater merit struggling in this way than if I had had the memory of the past.

With that memory, the pride of former times would have been exalted, disturbing me, whereas in this way I had only to combat the harmful influences of my new condition.

Of what use was it that you had received a brilliant education, since in your last incarnation it was not possible for you to remember the knowledge acquired? — A. Such knowledge, given my subsequent condition, would have been superfluous; therefore it remained in a latent state so that today I might recover it.

But such knowledge was not entirely useless to me, since, by developing my intelligence, it instilled in me an instinctive predilection for elevated things and a repugnance for the base and ignoble examples I had before my eyes. Without that education, I would have been no more than a servant.

Does the self-abnegation of servants toward their masters have for its source the fact of prior relations? — A. Without doubt, and at least such is the common case.

Sometimes such servants are members of the same family, or, as in my case, slaves of gratitude who seek to settle a debt, at the same time contributing to their masters' progress through their devotion.

You do not understand all the effects of the sympathy that the priority of relations produces there in the world. Death by no means interrupts those relations, which can perpetuate themselves for centuries upon centuries.

Why are such examples of devotion so rare today? — A. Blame the egoistic and prideful character of your century, aggravated still further by the incredulity of materialist ideas.

To true faith there is now opposed covetousness, the greed for gain, to the detriment of self-abnegation. By leading men to the truth, Spiritism will likewise revive the forgotten virtues.

Nothing better than this example to make evident the benefit of forgetfulness with respect to prior existences. If Mr. G… had been aware of what his servant had said, he would have been placed in an embarrassing position toward him, and would not have kept him as such, thereby obstructing a trial profitable to both.