Moral heredity.

— One of our subscribers writes to us from Wiesbaden:

“Sir, I study Spiritism carefully in all your books and, despite the clarity that emanates from them, two important points do not seem to me sufficiently explained in the eyes of certain persons, namely: 1st hereditary faculties; 2nd dreams.

“Indeed, how is one to reconcile the system of the anteriority of the soul with the existence of hereditary faculties? Yet they exist, although not in an absolute manner. Daily they strike us in private life; and we also see, in a higher order, talents succeeding talents, intelligence succeeding intelligence. The son of Racine was a poet; Alexandre Dumas has as his son an illustrious author; in dramatic art we see the tradition of talents within a single family, and in the art of war a race, such as that of the dukes of Brunswick, for example, which furnished a series of heroes. Ineptitude, vice, even crime, likewise preserve their tradition. Eugène Sue cites families in which several generations passed successively through homicide and the guillotine. The creation of the soul by individuals would explain these difficulties even less, this I well understand, but it must be confessed that both doctrines lend themselves to the blows of the materialists, who see in all the faculties nothing but a concentration of nervous forces. “As for dreams, the Spiritist doctrine does not reconcile well the system of the soul’s peregrinations during sleep with the common opinion that makes it a mere reflection of the impressions perceived during waking life. This latter opinion might seem the true explanation of dreams, whereas the peregrination would be only an exceptional case. (Some examples follow in support.) “Let it be quite clear, Mr. President, that here I do not intend to raise any objection in my personal name; nevertheless, it seemed useful to me that the Spiritist Review should occupy itself with these questions, even if only to furnish the means of answering the incredulous. As for me, I am a believer and seek only my own instruction.”

— The question of dreams will be examined later, in a special article [see Theory of dreams]. Today we shall occupy ourselves only with moral heredity, leaving the Spirits to treat of it and limiting ourselves to a few preliminary observations. Say what one may on the subject, the materialists will not be any more convinced, because, not admitting the principle, they cannot admit its consequences. Before anything else it would be necessary for them to become spiritualists. Now, it is not with that question that one should begin. Thus, we shall not occupy ourselves with their objections. Taking as our point of departure the existence of an intelligent principle outside of matter, in other words, the existence of the soul, the question is to know whether souls proceed from souls, or whether they are independent. We believe we have already demonstrated, in our article on The Spirits and lineage, published last March, the impossibility of the creation of a soul by a soul. Effectively, if the soul of the child were a part of that of the father, it would always have to possess his qualities and imperfections, by virtue of the axiom: the part is of the same nature as the whole. Now, experience proves the contrary every day. It is true that examples are cited of moral and intellectual similitudes that seem due to heredity, so that one is forced to conclude that there had been a transmission. But then, why does this transmission not always occur? Why do we see, daily, parents who are essentially good have children who are instinctively vicious, and vice versa? Since it is impossible to make moral heredity a general rule, the task is to explain, with the system of the reciprocal independence of souls, the cause of the similitudes. This could at most be a difficulty, but it would in no way compromise the doctrine of the anteriority of the soul and that of the plurality of existences, considering that this doctrine is proved by hundreds of conclusive facts, against which it is impossible to raise serious objections. Let us allow the Spirits who saw fit to treat of the question to speak. Here are the two communications we obtained on the subject.

(Spiritist Society of Paris, May 23, 1862 – Medium: Mr. d’Ambel.)

It has already been said many times that there was no need to erect a system upon mere appearances; and of that nature is the system that deduces from family resemblances a theory contrary to the one we gave you, of the existence of souls prior to their terrestrial incarnation. It is positive that often these [souls] never had direct relations with the environments, with the families in which they reincarnate. We have already repeated to you many times that bodily resemblances are due to a material and physiological question absolutely independent of spiritual action, and that similar aptitudes and tastes result, not from the procreation of one soul by another already born, but because similar Spirits attract one another.

Hence the families of heroes or the races of brigands. Admit, then, in principle, that good Spirits choose by preference for their new terrestrial stage the environment where the ground is already prepared, the family of advanced Spirits, where they are certain to find the materials necessary to their future progress; admit, equally, that backward Spirits, still inclined to vices and to animal appetites, flee elevated groups, moralized families, and, on the contrary, incarnate where they hope to find the means of satisfying the passions that still dominate them. Thus, then, in thesis, spiritual resemblances arise from the fact that like attracts like, whereas bodily resemblances are due to procreation. Now it is necessary to add this: there are often born into families, worthy in every sense of the respect of their fellow citizens, vicious and wicked individuals, who are sent there to serve as a touchstone for them. Sometimes, again, they come of their own accord, in the hope of emerging from the difficult situation in which until then they lingered, in order to perfect themselves under the influence of those virtuous and moralized environments. The same happens with Spirits already morally advanced who, like that young woman of Saint-Étienne, of whom we spoke last year, reincarnate into obscure families, among backward Spirits, in order to show them the road that leads to progress.

I am certain you have not forgotten the angel with white wings into which she seemed to be transfigured in the eyes of those who had loved her on Earth, when these, in their turn, returned to the world of the Spirits. (Spiritist Review of June 1861. – Medium: Mrs.

Gourdon.)

Erastus. n

(Another; same session. – Medium: Mrs. Costel.)

I come to explain to you the important question of the heredity of virtues and of vices in the human race. This transmission makes those who do not understand the immensity of the dogma revealed by Spiritism waver. The intermediary worlds are inhabited by Spirits who await the trial of reincarnation or prepare themselves for it anew, according to their degree of advancement. In these centers of the formation of eternal life, the Spirits are grouped and divided into great tribes, some at the head, others trailing behind progress, and each one chooses, among the human groups, those that correspond sympathetically to its acquired faculties, which progress and cannot retrogress. The Spirit who reincarnates chooses the father whose example will make it advance along the preferred path, so as to reflect, elevating or weakening them, the talents of the one who gave it corporeal life. In both cases, the sympathetic union exists already prior to birth and is afterward developed in family relations, by imitation and by habit. After family heredity, my friends, I wish to reveal to you the origin of the discordance that separates the individuals of a single race, suddenly made illustrious or dishonored by one of its members become a stranger to the environment. The vicious brute who incarnated into an elevated center and the luminous Spirit who reincarnates among coarse beings obey the mysterious harmony that draws together the divided parts of a whole and makes the concordance between the infinitely small and supreme grandeur. The guilty Spirit, supported by the acquired virtues of its terrestrial procreator, hopes to fortify itself by them and, if it still succumbs in the trial, acquires through the example the knowledge of good, returning to erraticity less laden with ignorance and better prepared to sustain a new struggle. The advanced Spirits glimpse the glory of Jesus, seized by the ardent desire to drain the chalice of charity. Like him, too, they wish to guide Humanity toward the sacred objective of progress, being reborn into the low social strata, where they struggle, chained to one another, against ignorance and vice, of which they are, successively, the victors and the martyrs. Should this answer not satisfy all your doubts, question me, my friends.

Saint Louis. n [1]

[see Erastus.]

[2] [see Saint Louis.]