Introduction.

— After death, hardened, selfish, and wicked Spirits soon become prey to a cruel doubt regarding their destiny, in the present and in the future. They look around themselves and see nothing that can serve the exercise of their wickedness — which drives them to despair, since isolation and inertia are intolerable to wicked Spirits;

They do not raise their gaze to the dwellings of the elevated Spirits; they consider what surrounds them and then, perceiving the dejection of the weak and punished Spirits, they fasten upon them as upon a prey, making use of the remembrance of their past faults, which they continually put into action through their ridiculous gestures.

That mockery not being enough for them, they hurl themselves toward the Earth like famished vultures, seeking among men a soul that will give them easy access to temptations. Finding one, they take possession of it, exalting its covetousness and seeking to extinguish its faith in God, until at last, masters of a conscience and seeing the prey secured, they extend the doom of their contagion to all who approach it.

“The wicked Spirit, in the exercise of its anger, is almost happy, suffering only in the moments when it ceases to act, or in the cases where good triumphs over evil.

“The centuries pass, however, and suddenly the wicked Spirit senses that the darkness will end by enveloping it; its circle of action narrows, and the conscience, mute until then, makes it feel the sharp thorns of remorse.

Inert, dragged along in the whirlwind, it wanders, as the Scriptures say, feeling its skin shudder with terror. It is not long, then, before a great void forms within it and around it: the moment arrives when it must expiate; reincarnation is there, threatening… and it sees as in a mirror the terrible trials that await it; it would like to draw back, but it advances and, hurled into the abyss of life, it tumbles in alarm, until the veil of ignorance falls back over its eyes.

It lives, it acts, it is still guilty, feeling within itself an indefinable uneasy remembrance, presentiments that make it tremble, without, however, drawing back from the path of evil. At last, exhausted of strength and of crimes, it is about to die.

Stretched out on a pallet or on a bed, what does it matter?! the guilty man feels, beneath an apparent immobility, a world of forgotten sensations stir and live within himself. With his pupils closed, he sees a glow dawning, he hears strange sounds; the soul, about to leave the body, stirs impatiently, while the clenched hands try to grasp the bedcovers… He would like to speak, to cry out to those around him: Hold me back! I see the punishment! — Impossible! death seals his faded lips, while the attendants say: Rest in peace!

“And yet he hears, floating around the body that he does not wish to abandon. A mysterious force draws him; he sees, and finally recognizes what he had already seen. Terrified, behold, he casts himself into Space, where he would like to hide himself, and no shelter, no repose! Other Spirits repay him the evil that he did; punished, confounded, and derided, he in his turn wanders and will wander until the divine light penetrates and enlightens him, showing him the ‘avenging’ God, the God triumphant over all evil, whom he cannot appease except by dint of expiation and groanings.”

Georges.

Never has a more terrible and true picture been drawn of the fate of the wicked; will the phantasmagoria of flames and physical tortures still be necessary?