2 LIFE AND DESTINY BY LEON DENIS AUTHOR OF ‘APRÈS LA MORT,’ ‘JEANNE D’ARC-MÉDIUM’ ‘CHRISTIANISME ET SPIRITISME,’ ‘DANS L’INVISIBLE’ ‘LA GRANDE ÉNIGME,’ ‘POURQUOI LA VIE?’ ‘L’AU-DELÀ ET LA SURVIVANCE DE L’ÉTRE’ TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX LONDON GAY & HANCOCK LTD. 1919 This book is out of print indefinitely. The present copy was retyped and prepared by the Editorial and Publishing Department of the Spiritist Group of New York (SGNY). 3 4 INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR Early in May, while in Dijon, France, the books of Léon Denis, the great spiritual philosopher, were brought to my attention by his friend and pupil, Miss Camille Chaise, a beautiful young refugee from Rheims. Profoundly impressed by the literary and religious importance of this volume, I asked Miss Chaise to inquire if I could obtain the rights of translation. This inquiry led to my coming to Tours, where Mr. Denis resides, and where I have pursued the delightful work. Feeling it to be a holy task, I resolved to begin it on a holy day, May 21st, which was the second anniversary of the birth of my husband into spirit life. Beginning with three pages daily, I gradually increased the number, and was able to complete the task on September 21st. The translation was made of peculiar interest to me, through messages received from my husband, while in Dijon, by the aid of a cultured lady in private life, Madame Soyer, who had no personal acquaintance with Mr. Denis or Miss Chaise. The messages urged me to make the translation, assuring me that I would not only benefit the world, but that I would be personally benefited, as the book contained great truths of life and death which would aid in my development. On numerous occasions while in Tours, messages received from the astral world referred to the translation with interest and approval. In giving this work of Léon Denis to the English-speaking world, I feel I am bestowing an inestimable favor on every intelligent mind capable of feeling love, sorrow, aspiration, or yearning for a larger understanding of life. The work of translation of these beautiful thoughts has been an education to my mind, a solace to my heart, and an uplift to my soul. When I made this statement to the dear author, he replied: ‘But you, long a student of spiritual research, and of theosophical lore, surely knew all these things before?’ I replied, ‘Yes, I knew them. But I feel as if you had entered a store-room of my mind, where were packed priceless paintings and rare statues, and as if you had taken them one by one, and hung them in a clear light on memory’s walls, and placed the sculptured treasures on pedestals for the delight of my spiritual eyes; you have, in truth, set my intellectual house in order.’ It is rarely that a mind of such an analytically scientific bent, as that of Léon Denis, is at the same time so poetical. This, together with the writer’s profoundly reverential nature, makes his work of threefold value. He appeals to those who pursue psychical research in a purely scientific manner; he appeals to those who value noble and moving literature; and he appeals to every soul that loves and believes in a God great enough to be the Supreme Creator of this magnificent universe. This book is the crowning work of Mr. Denis’s three score years and ten of life - the ripe fruit of more than half a century of continual study and research. It can be said of Mr. Denis (which cannot be said of all authors), that his personal life accords with his beautiful philosophy. From a troubled and painful youth, he has slowly climbed an ascending path of difficulties, overcome obstacles and surmounted sorrows, attained profound knowledge and a wide education, and put into daily practice the lofty principles he sets forth in this volume. May it bring to every reader the uplift it has brought to the translator. ELLA WHEELER WILCOX TOURS, FRANCE, September 1918. 5 A SCULPTOR As the ambitious sculptor, tireless, lifts Chisel and hammer to the block at hand, Before my half-formed character I stand And ply the shining tools of mental gifts. I’ll cut away a huge unsightly side Of selfishness, and smooth to curves of grace The angles of ill temper. And no trace Shall my sure hammer leave of silly pride. Chip after chip must fall from vain desires, And the sharp corners of my discontent Be rounded into symmetry, and lent Great harmony by faith that never tires. Unfinished still, I must toil on and on, Till the pale critic, Death, shall say, ‘Tis done.’ ELLA WHEELER WILCOX 6 C O N T E N T S INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR 5 INTRODUCTION 9 PART FIRST THE PROBLEM OF LIFE I THE EVOLUTION OF THOUGHT 15 II THE CRITERION OF THE SPIRITIST DOCTRINE 23 III THE PROBLEM OF LIFE 34 IV PERSONALITY 37 V THE SOUL AND DIFFERENT STATES OF SLEEP 39 VI TELEPATHIC PROJECTIONS 42 VII MANIFESTATIONS AFTER DEATH 45 VIII VIBRATORY STATES OF THE SOUL’S MEMORY 47 IX EVOLUTION AND FINALITY OF THE SOUL 49 X DEATH 53 XI LIFE IN THE BEYOND 56 XII THE HIGHER LIFE 59 PART SECOND SUCCESSIVE LIVES AND THE LAWS OF REINCARNATION XIII THE LAW OF REINCARNATION 63 XIV RENOVATION OF THE MEMORY 70 XV REINCARNATION AND INFANT PRODIGIES 77 XVI OBJECTIONS AND CRITICISMS 80 XVII SUCCESSIVE LIVES - HISTORIC PROOFS 84 XVIII JUSTICE AND RESPONSIBILITY 88 XIX THE LAW OF DESTINY 92 PART THIRD THE POWERS OF THE SOUL - THE WILL XX THE WILL 99 XXI THE INNER SOUL 101 XXII LIBERTY 106 XXIII THOUGHT 109 XXIV DISCIPLINE OF THOUGHT AND REFORM OF CHARACTER 111 XXV LOVE 114 XXVI SORROW 117 XXVII REVELATION OF SORROW 122 PROFESSION OF FAITH 127 7 8 LIFE AND DESTINY INTRODUCTION In the evening of life, the thinker is struck with a sorrowful impression of the futility of human existence. He perceives how the teachings dispensed by institutions of learning in general - churches, schools, universities - enable you to acquire many of those matters which are of vast importance in the conduct of terrestrial existence, and in the preparation for life Beyond. Those to whom is given the high mission of enlightening and guiding the human soul, seem to ignore its nature and its real destiny. In the midst of universities a complete incertitude reigns upon the solution of the most important problems ever presented to man in his passage through earth. This incertitude exists in every thing, which touches upon the problem of life, its aim, and its end. We find the same impotence among the clergy. By their affirmations, denuded of all proofs, they have little success in communicating to the souls in their charge a faith which responds to sane criticism or the exigencies of reason. The inquiring soul, in fact, encounters in the universities and in the churches but obscurity and contradiction on everything which touches the problems of its nature and its future. It is to this condition of things that we must attribute in great part the evils of our times - the incoherence of ideas, the disorders of conscience, the moral and social anarchy. The education dispensed to the generations is complicated, but it does not light the path of life for them, it does not gird them for the battle of existence. Classic education teaches the cultivation and the ornamentation of the intellect; it does not teach how to act, how to love, how to perform duty. Still less does it instruct how to form a conception of the destiny, which develops profound energies in us, and elevates our every aim toward a lofty goal. Nevertheless, this conception of life is indispensable to every being and to all society, for it is the sustaining power and the supreme consolation in hours of trouble, the source of virile virtues and high inspirations. Carl du Prel tells the following fact: ‘One of my friends, a professor in a university, had the sorrow of losing his daughter, which awoke his interest in the problem of immortality. He turned to his colleagues, professors of philosophy, hoping to find consolation. It was a bitter disappointment. He asked for bread and received a stone; he asked for affirmation, and received a “perhaps.”’ Francis Sarcy, an accomplished professor in a large university, wrote, ‘I am upon this earth. I know absolutely nothing regarding the how or why of my existence. I know even less, how and where I will go when I leave earth.’ A more frank avowal of ignorance on the all-important subject could not be uttered. After centuries of laborious study, the philosophy of the schools is without light, without warmth, without life.1 The minds of our children are tossed between diverse and contradictory systems: the positivism of August Comte, the naturalism of Hegel, the materialism of Stuart Mill, and many more - all uncertain, all without ideals, yet precise. From these arises the precocious tendency toward destructive pessimism - malady of a decadent society, a terrible menace for the future; to which is added the skepticism of our young men, who believe in nothing but wealth and honor and material success. Raoul Pictet, the eminent professor, speaks of this mental condition of the young, in the introduction of his first work on psychic science. He speaks of the disastrous effect produced by material theories, and concludes thus: ‘These poor young men declare that all which occurs in the world is the fatal and necessary result of preceding conditions, and that human will can in no way intervene.