14. In order that human beings may be induced to labor diligently to effect their own purification, to repress their evil tendencies, and to vanquish their worldly passions, they must see the advantages that such a line of action will secure to them in the future life; so that they may be able to identify themselves with that future life, to concentrate their aspirations upon it, and to prefer it to the life of the Earth, they must not only believe in its existence, but must also understand it; they must be able to contemplate it under an aspect that shall be in harmony with their reason and their common sense, and with their highest idea of the greatness, goodness, and justice of God. Of all the philosophic doctrines hitherto presented to the human mind, Spiritism is the one that exercises, in this respect, the most powerful influence, through the immovable faith that it gives to those who really comprehend its scope and teachings.
Enlightened spiritists do not begin by believing; They believe because they understand, and they understand because the principles of Spiritism approve themselves to their judgment. The future life is a reality that is displayed incessantly before their eyes, and which they see and touch, so to say, every moment; consequently, no doubt in regard to it can enter their souls. The short span of their present lives seems as nothing to them in comparison with the spirit-life of eternity, which they see to be their veritable life; and they therefore attach but little importance to the incidents of the road and they meet with resignation the vicissitudes of which they comprehend both the cause and the utility. Their souls are raised above the trials and troubles of their earthly existence by the direct relationships that they cultivate with the invisible world around us; the fluidic links that connect them with matter are thus gradually weakened, and a partial loosening of those links, effected during the course of their present existence, facilitates their passage from the life of the Earth to the life of the spirit-world. The mental clouding inseparable from the transition, is of brief duration in their case, because as soon as they have crossed the threshold of the spirit-world, they know where they are; nothing in that world seems foreign to them; they perfectly understand the situation in which they find themselves.
