The suicide of Quincampoix Street.

Last year the newspapers reported an example of suicide carried out in special circumstances. It was at the beginning of the war in Italy. A father of a family, enjoying the general esteem of his neighbors, had a son who had been drawn by lot for military service. Being unable to exempt him from such service, the idea occurred to him to take his own life, in order to exempt the son from it, as the only son of a widowed woman. Was this death a trial for the father or for the mother? In any case, it is probable that God took into account the devotion of this man, and that the suicide did not have for him the same consequences that other motives would entail. (To Saint Louis.) Could you tell us whether it is possible to evoke the Spirit of the one to whom we have just referred?

Answer. – Yes, and he will gain by it, because he will be more relieved.

Evocation.

Answer. – Oh! thank you! I suffer greatly, but… it is just. Yet He will forgive me.

Observation. – The Spirit writes with great difficulty;

the characters are irregular and ill-formed; after the word but, he stops, and, trying in vain to write, he manages only to make a few indecipherable strokes and dots. It is evident that it was the word God that he could not manage to write.

Have the kindness to fill in the gap with the word you failed to write.

Answer. – I am unworthy to write it.

You have said that you suffer; do you understand that you did very wrong in taking your own life; nevertheless, did the motive that led you to that act not provoke any indulgence? Answer. – The punishment will be less long, but the action is no less bad for all that.

Could you describe to us that punishment, giving the maximum of detail for our instruction?

Answer. – I suffer doubly, in soul and in body; and I suffer in the latter, although I do not possess it, as the operated suffers the lack of an amputated limb.

Did your action have as its sole motive to save your son, or did other reasons contribute to it?

Answer. – I was completely inspired by paternal love, but ill inspired. In consideration of this, my penalty will be abridged.

Can you specify the duration of your sufferings?

Answer. – I do not glimpse their end, but I am certain that it exists, which is a relief to me.

A short while ago you were not able to write the word God, and yet we have seen Spirits who suffer greatly do so: is this a consequence of your punishment? Answer. – I shall be able to do it with great efforts of repentance.

Then make those efforts to write it, because we are certain that you will be relieved.

The Spirit at last managed to trace this sentence in thick, irregular, and trembling characters: “God is very good.”

We are satisfied with the goodwill with which you responded to our evocation, and we are going to ask God to extend His mercy over you. Answer. – Yes, thank you.

(To Saint Louis.) Could you give us your appreciation of this suicide?

Answer. – This Spirit suffers justly, for he lacked confidence in God, a fault that is always punishable. The punishment would be greater and more lasting, were there not, as an attenuating circumstance, the praiseworthy motive of preventing his son from exposing himself to death in war. God, who is just and sees the depths of hearts, punishes him only according to his works. Observation. – By his action, this man perhaps prevented the fulfillment of his son's destiny. In the first place, it is not certain that he would be killed in the war and, perhaps, that career would furnish him an opportunity to do something that would have been useful to his progress. Doubtless this consideration will not be foreign to the severity of the punishment inflicted upon him.

His intention certainly was good, and this was taken into account for him. The intention attenuates the evil and merits indulgence, but it does not prevent the evil from being always evil. Without this, in favor of intention all malefactions could be excused, even killing, under the pretext of a good intention. Is it believed, for example, that it is permitted to kill a man who suffers without hope of cure, for the reason of wishing to abridge his sufferings? No, because by acting thus, we abridge the trial he is to undergo and we do him more harm than good. Will a mother who kills her child, in the belief that she sends him directly to heaven, be less culpable because she did it with good intention? On the basis of this system, we would justify all the crimes that blind fanaticism has committed in the wars of religion.

[1] Translator's Note: With slight modifications, Allan Kardec inserted this passage in Heaven and Hell, Part 2, chapter V under the title The Father and the Conscript.