3.8 Human Progress

The State of Nature

The state of nature and natural law are not the same thing. The state of nature is the primitive state. Civilization is incompatible with the state of nature, whereas natural law contributes to the progress of humankind.

The state of nature represents the infancy of humankind and the starting point for its intellectual and moral development. Being perfectible and carrying within themselves the seed of improvement, human beings are not meant to remain forever in the state of nature, just as they are not meant to remain forever in infancy. The state of nature is transitory, and humanity leaves it behind through progress and civilization. Natural law, on the other hand, governs humankind as a whole, and people improve to the degree that they understand and practice this law more fully.

Because there are fewer needs in the state of nature, human beings do not suffer all the tribulations they create for themselves in a more advanced condition. Those who regard the state of nature as a state of perfect earthly happiness mistake it for the ignorant happiness of the brute; some humans understand no other. It is happiness of the same sort enjoyed by animals. Children too are happier than when they become adults.

Humankind cannot return to the state of nature. It must progress without ceasing and cannot return to the state of infancy. It progresses because God has willed it. To believe that it could return to its primitive condition would be to deny the law of progress.

The March of Progress

Humans advance naturally by themselves. Yet all do not progress at the same time or in the same manner, and it is through social contact that the most advanced help the others to progress.

Moral progress is a consequence of intellectual progress, but it does not always follow immediately. Intellectual progress leads to moral progress by making good and evil understandable, for then humans can choose between them. The development of free will follows the development of intelligence and increases human responsibility for actions.

Complete progress is the goal, but, like individuals, cultures only reach it step by step. Until they have developed the moral sense, they may use intelligence to do evil. Morality and intelligence are two forces that only achieve balance over time.

Humankind is never permitted to halt the march of progress. It can sometimes slow it down. Those who attempt to halt progress and make humankind regress are poor, conceited beings whom God will chastise, and they will be swept away by the torrent they meant to stop.

Since progress is a condition of human nature, no one has the power to oppose it. It is a living force that flawed human laws may hinder but not stifle. When those laws become incompatible with progress, progress overthrows them along with all who attempt to uphold them. This will continue until humans harmonize their laws with divine justice. Divine justice desires the good of all, unlike laws made for the strong at the expense of the weak.

There are also those who obstruct progress in good faith, believing they are helping it because, from their own point of view, they often see progress where it does not in fact exist. They are like a tiny pebble under the wheel of a large cart: a tiny pebble cannot keep a large cart from moving.

The perfecting of humankind does not always follow only a slow, progressive march. There is the regular, gradual progress that results from the force of things. However, when a culture does not advance quickly enough, God from time to time causes a physical or moral jolt that transforms it.

Humans cannot remain forever in ignorance, since they must reach the goal set by Providence. They are enlightened by the force of circumstances. Moral revolutions, like social revolutions, creep into people’s ideas little by little. They germinate for centuries and suddenly burst forth, overthrowing the crumbling edifice of the past, which is no longer in accord with new needs and new aspirations.

In such upheavals, people usually perceive no more than the momentary disorder and confusion affecting their material interests. Nevertheless, those who raise their thoughts beyond themselves admire the designs of Providence, which bring good out of bad. Such upheavals are like storms that cleanse the atmosphere after disturbing it.

Humankind’s perversity is very great, but this does not mean that humans are regressing rather than progressing from a moral point of view. Observe the whole closely, and it will be seen that they are advancing because they understand evil better, and this understanding leads them day by day to reform abuses. The excess of evil will make them understand the need for the good and for reform.

The greatest obstacle to progress is pride and selfishness. This refers to moral progress, for intellectual progress is always occurring. At first glance, progress itself seems to increase the intensity of these two vices by developing ambition and the love of wealth, but this in turn incites people to pursue research that enlightens their minds. Thus everything is related in the moral world as well as in the physical, and good is brought out of evil itself. But this state of things will last only for a time. It will change as people better understand that beyond the enjoyment of earthly wealth there is an infinitely greater and more enduring bliss.

There are two kinds of progress that mutually support each other but do not proceed in tandem: intellectual progress and moral progress. Throughout this century, intellectual progress among civilized cultures has received every stimulus it could desire and has reached an unprecedented level. Moral progress has also occurred, though not at the same pace. If we compare the social customs of a few centuries ago with those of today, we would have to be blind to deny that there has been progress. There is therefore no reason to think that the ascending march of morality should be interrupted any more than that of intelligence. There should be as great a difference in morality between the nineteenth and twenty-fourth centuries as there has been between the morality of the fourteenth and nineteenth. To doubt this would be to assume either that humanity has reached the height of perfection—which is absurd—or that it is not morally perfectible, which experience disproves.

Relapsed Cultures

History has shown many cultures relapsing into barbarity after shocking events deeply upset them. In such a case, progress is like demolishing a house that threatens to collapse in order to build a stronger and more comfortable one. Until it is rebuilt, however, there is trouble and confusion in the dwelling.

Another example is that of one who is poor and lives in a hovel, then becomes wealthy and leaves it to live in a palace. Some poor fellow, as the former occupant once was, comes and takes that place in the hovel and feels very content because he previously had no shelter at all. From this it follows that the spirits incarnated in those declining cultures are no longer the spirits who comprised them during their time of splendor. Having progressed, those former spirits have moved into even more perfect dwellings, while less advanced ones have taken their place, and they too will leave in their turn.

There are peoples that by their very nature rebel against progress, but they are corporeally disappearing day by day.

The future fate of the souls who animate those peoples is, like that of all other souls, that they will finally arrive at perfection through many existences. God deserts no one.

The most civilized individuals may once have been primitive beings and cannibals. Human beings themselves were such more than once before becoming what they are now.

Like individuals, cultures are collective individualities that pass through childhood, adulthood, and decrepitude. This truth, attested by history, leads to the conclusion that the most advanced cultures of this century may decline and end just as those of antiquity did. Cultures that live only a material existence, and whose greatness is founded only on power and territorial expansion, are born, grow, and die out because the might of a culture exhausts itself just as that of an individual does. Cultures with selfish laws that clash with the progress of enlightenment and charity die out because light annihilates darkness and charity eradicates selfishness. However, for cultures as for individuals, there is the life of the soul, and cultures whose laws are in harmony with the eternal laws of the Creator will live and will serve as guiding lights for other cultures.

Progress will not someday unite all the peoples of the earth into a single nation. That would be impossible because nationalities are formed from different customs and needs arising from differences of climate, and their local laws are designed to accommodate those customs and needs. Charity, however, knows nothing of geographical latitudes and does not distinguish people by color. When the law of God forms the basis of human law everywhere, cultures and individuals alike will practice the law of charity toward one another, living joyfully and peacefully because no one will seek to deceive a neighbor or live at another’s expense.

Humankind progresses by means of individuals who increasingly improve and enlighten themselves. When these grow in number, they take the lead and draw the rest forward. Geniuses appear from time to time to provide an impulse, followed by individuals invested with authority who, as instruments of God, enable humankind to advance many centuries in just a few years.

The progress of cultures further highlights the justice of reincarnation. Moral individuals make praiseworthy efforts to help a nation advance morally and intellectually; the nation thus transformed will be happier both in this world and in the next. Yet during the slow march of the centuries, thousands die every day. Their relative state of imperfection does not deprive them of the contentment reserved for those who arrive later, because their happiness is relative. Divine justice could not consecrate such an injustice. Through the plurality of existences, the right to happiness is always the same for all, for no one is deprived of progress. Those who live in a time of barbarity can return in a time of civility, whether in the same culture or another. All benefit from the ascending march.

The theory of a single existence, however, presents another difficulty. According to this theory, the soul is created at the moment of birth. Thus, if some individuals are more advanced than others, it is because God has created for them a more advanced soul. Why this favoritism? Why should these individuals, who have not lived any longer than those before them—often not as long—deserve to receive a more advanced soul? But this is not even the main problem. Over a thousand years, a culture passes from barbarity to civility. If human beings could live a thousand years, one might conceive that they would have time to progress during that period. But every day humans die at every age. Their numbers are constantly replenished, with new individuals appearing and disappearing every day, so that by the end of a millennium no trace remains of the former inhabitants: the barbaric nation has become civilized. What, then, has actually progressed? The individuals who used to be barbarians died long ago. Is it the newly arrived? If their souls were created at birth, they could not have existed during the time of barbarity. The conclusion would then be that efforts made to civilize a people do not improve imperfect souls but instead cause God to create other souls who are more advanced.

Set beside this theory of progress is the one given by the Spirits. The souls that come during a time of civility have had their infancy like all others, but they have already lived many times before, and they arrive already advanced as the result of prior progress. They come because they are attracted to an environment sympathetic to them and suited to their current state. Therefore, efforts made to civilize a people do not determine the future creation of more advanced souls; rather, they attract souls that have already progressed, whether they once lived among that people in times of barbarity or have come from elsewhere. In this lies the key to the progress of all humankind. When all cultures are at the same moral level, the earth will house only good spirits living in fraternal unity. Evil spirits, having been repelled and displaced, will seek out less evolved worlds and an environment suited to them until they have made themselves worthy to return to our transformed world. The usual theory, unlike that of reincarnation, has one further effect: works of social improvement benefit only present and future generations and are meaningless for past generations, who were unfortunate because they arrived too soon and could advance only through their own efforts and under the burden of their barbaric acts. According to the Spirits’ doctrine, however, later progress also benefits those generations that are reborn into better conditions and can therefore perfect themselves in an environment of civility.

Civilization

Civilization represents incomplete progress because humankind does not pass suddenly from infancy to maturity.

It is not reasonable to condemn civilization. Instead, condemn those who abuse it; do not condemn the work of God.

Civilization will one day be purified, so that the evils it has produced will disappear, when morality is as developed as intelligence. The fruit cannot come before the blossom.

Civilization does not immediately produce all the good it could because humans are not yet ready or disposed to obtain that good. It is also because, in creating new needs, it stirs up new passions, and because not all of a spirit’s faculties develop in tandem: everything takes time. Perfect fruit cannot be expected from an imperfect civilization.

A completed civilization is recognized by its moral development. People believe themselves very advanced because they have made great discoveries and wonderful inventions, and because they are better housed and clothed than primitive peoples. Yet they have the right to call themselves truly civilized only when they have banished from their society the vices that dishonor it, and when they live as brothers and sisters by practicing Christian charity. Until then, they are no more than enlightened cultures that have passed only through the first phase of civilization.

Civilization goes through stages of development like everything else. An incomplete civilization is in a state of transition that engenders special evils unknown in the primitive state, but which nonetheless constitute a natural and necessary progress that carries within itself the remedy for those very evils. As civilization perfects itself, it puts an end to some of the evils it has engendered, and all evils will eventually disappear with moral progress.

Of two cultures that have reached the summit of the social scale, the one that may be called more advanced, in the true sense of the word, is the one in which there is less selfishness, greed, and pride; where customs are more intellectual and moral than material; where intelligence can develop more freely; where there is more kindness, good faith, and reciprocal benevolence and generosity; where the prejudices of caste and birth are less deeply rooted, for such prejudices are incompatible with true love of one’s neighbor; where the laws grant no special privileges and are the same for the last as for the first; where justice is administered with the least partiality; where the weak always find support against the strong; where human life, beliefs, and opinions are more fully respected; where there are fewer unhappy individuals; and lastly, where people of goodwill are always sure they will not lack the minimum needed to live.

The Progress of Human Legislation

Society could be governed solely by natural laws if humans understood them well enough. If they actually practiced them, such laws would be sufficient. Society, however, has its requirements and therefore needs special laws.

The instability of human laws is caused by the fact that, in times of barbarity, the strongest are the ones who make the laws, and they frame them to their own advantage. It becomes necessary to modify them as humans understand justice more clearly. Human laws become more stable as they move toward true justice—that is, to the degree that they are made for all and brought into alignment with natural law.

Civilization has created new necessities related to the social positions people occupy. It has therefore been necessary to regulate the rights and duties of those positions through human laws. Under the influence of their passions, however, humans have often created imaginary rights and duties condemned by natural law. Nations remove these from their codes as they progress. Natural law is immutable and always the same for everyone. Human law is variable and progressive, and only under such changing conditions in humankind’s infancy could it have consecrated the right of the strongest.

In the present state of society, a depraved society needs harsher laws. Unfortunately, such laws are meant to punish a wrong after it has already been committed rather than to cut out the roots of its cause. Only education can reform humankind, which will then no longer need such harsh laws.

Humankind will be led to reform its laws naturally through the force of circumstances and by the influence of moral persons who guide it along the path of progress. Many things have already been reformed, and many more will be. Wait awhile.

Spiritism’s Influence on Progress

Spiritism will certainly become a common belief and will mark a new era in the history of humankind, for it belongs to nature itself. The time has come for it to take its place among the other branches of human knowledge. It will nevertheless have to withstand great struggles, more against personal interests than against conviction, because there are persons interested in fighting it, some out of self-centeredness, others from purely material motives. Its opponents, however, will become more and more isolated and will finally be forced to think like the others, lest they make themselves look foolish.

Ideas are transformed only over time, never suddenly. They weaken from generation to generation and end up disappearing along with those who professed them, who are replaced by other individuals imbued with new principles, as is especially the case with political ideas. Paganism offers an example. Few today profess the religious ideas of pagan times; nevertheless, many centuries after the advent of Christianity, they have left behind traces that only a complete renewal of humankind can erase. It will be the same with Spiritism. It has made considerable progress, but for two or three generations there will still be a phenomenon of incredulity that only time will erase. Its advance, however, will be more rapid than that of Christianity, because Christianity itself has opened the paths and provided support for Spiritism. Christianity had to destroy; Spiritism has only to build.

Spiritism can contribute to progress by destroying materialism, one of the sores of society, and thereby enabling people to understand where their true interests lie. Since the future life is no longer veiled by doubt, men and women will better understand that they can ensure their future by what they do in the present. By destroying the prejudices of sect, caste, and color, Spiritism teaches them the great solidarity that must unite them as brothers and sisters.

No cause could act as a kind of magic spell to transform humans. To suppose so would be to understand very little about them. Individual ideas are modified little by little, and generations are needed to erase old habits completely. Transformation, therefore, can only be realized with time, gradually and step by step. With each new generation part of the veil has been lifted, and Spiritism has now come to remove it once and for all. Yet even if it had the effect of correcting the defects of only one person, that would still be a step for that person and therefore a great good, since that first step would make further ones easier.

The Spirits have not taught from the earliest times what they are teaching today because one does not teach children the same things one teaches adults, just as one does not give newborns food they cannot digest. Each thing has its own time. The Spirits taught many things that humans distorted or did not understand, but which they are now capable of understanding. Even though their teaching was incomplete, they prepared the soil to receive the seed that is now about to bear fruit.

Although Spiritism must mark a step in the progress of humankind, the Spirits do not speed up this progress through manifestations so widespread and undeniable that they would compel even the most incredulous to believe. God has sown so-called miracles by the handful under humanity’s feet, yet there are still people who deny them. Christ himself did not convince his contemporaries by the wonders he performed. Even today, there are those who deny the most obvious facts occurring before their eyes. There are those who would not believe even if they did see. It is not by miracles that God guides humankind. In divine goodness, God wishes to leave humanity the merit of being convinced through reason.