Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866

Allan Kardec

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Premature Incendiary Monomania



The Salut Public de Lyon, on February 23rd, 1866 brings:

The legal issue of homicide monomania, and the incendiary monomania, says the Moniteur Judiciaire, was and will be, with all likelihood, many times still agitated before the jury and superior courts. Regarding incendiary monomania, we can cite a child in Lyon, now with four years of age, son of honest silk workers, residing in Guillotière, that seems to carry the incendiary instinct in its last degree. He had hardly opened his eyes when the vision of flames seemed to entertain him. When he was eighteen months old, he took pleasure in lighting matches; at the age of two he set the four corners of a straw bed-base on fire and destroyed the modest furniture of his parents. Today, when reprimanded, he only responds with threats of fire, and as early as last week he tried to set his parents’ bedroom on fire with pieces of paper and straw. We leave it to the experts to find the causes of such monomania. If it does not disappear with age, what would be the fate of the miserable that is affected by that?”

He author says that he leaves to the experts to find the causes of such monomania. Which experts is he talking about? The doctors, in general, the alienist, the wise men, the phrenologists, the philosophers or theologists? Each one of them will face the issue from their materialistic, spiritualistic, or religious point of view. The materialist, by denying the intelligent principle, distinct from matter, are incontestably the least adequate to thoroughly solve it. By taking the organism as the only source of faculties and inclinations, they turn the man into a machine moved by an irresistible force, without free-will, and consequently, without moral responsibility for their actions. With such a system, every criminal may excuse himself based on his formation, for it did not depend on him to do better. In a society where such a principle was admitted as the absolute truth, there wouldn’t be any guilty person, from a moral point of view, and it would be as illogical to take people to the courts as it would to take animals. Here we only talk about the social consequences of the materialistic doctrine. As for its impossibility of solving every moral problem, that is sufficiently demonstrated.

Could we say, with some, that the hereditary inclinations are like physical defects? Would them be opposed by the innumerable cases of virtuous parents that have instinctively vicious children, and vice-versa? In the specific case that we are dealing with, it is notorious that the child has not inherited his incendiary monomania from any member of his family.

The spiritualists, undoubtedly, will recognize that such an inclination must be due to an imperfection of the soul or Spirit, but will still be blocked by unbearable difficulties, with only the elements that have been available so far.



The proof that the current data from science, philosophy and theology do not provide any solid principle for the solution of problems of that nature; there isn’t a single one that is evident enough, rational enough, to connect to the majority, and that one is reduced to individual opinions, all divergent from one another.

The theologists, that admit the creation of the soul at the same time as the birth of each body, as a dogmatic principle, these are perhaps the ones that will have more difficulties to conciliate those innate perversities with the justice and benevolence of God. According to their theory, here we have a boy with an incendiary instinct, devoted, since his formation, to the crime and its consequences, in the present and future life! How come there are instinctively good and bad boys; God then creates some good and some bad souls? It is the logical consequence. Why such partiality? With the materialistic doctrine the guilty one has the excuse of his body; with that of the Church, he can pass it on to God, saying that it is not his fault since he was created with defects.

Is it surprising at all that there are people that deny God, when He is shown to them as cruel and partial with the creatures? It is the way that most religions represent God that makes non-believers and atheists. If we had, from the beginning, drawn a picture of God reconciled with reason, there wouldn’t be non-believers; it is by the impossibility of accepting God as they do, with the stinginess and human passions that they attribute to Him, that so many people seek the explanations of things elsewhere.

Every time theology, pressed by the inexorable logic of the facts, finds itself in an impasse, it hides behind these words: “Incomprehensible mystery!” Lo and behold! We daily see a tip of veil of what in the past was a mystery, being lifted, and the issue at hand is among them.

This matter is far from being puerile, and it would be a mistake to see an isolated fact here, or if you wish, an anomaly, an oddity of nature, without consequence. It touches every issue of education and moralization of humanity, and for that very reason, the most serious issues of social economy. It is by researching the primary causes of the instincts and innate tendencies that one will discover the most efficient ways of combating the bad and developing the good ones. When such a cause is known, education will have the most powerful moralizing lever it has ever had.

One cannot deny the influence of the environment and example upon the development of the good and bad instincts, for moral contagion is as obvious as physical contagion. However, this influence is not exclusive for one can see the most perverse creatures in the most honorable homes, whereas there are others that come out clean from the mire. There are, therefore, undoubtedly, innate dispositions, and if we doubted it, the fact which concerns us would be an indisputable proof of it. So here is a child who, before knowing how to speak, takes pleasure in the sight of destruction by fire; that, at the age of two, voluntarily sets fire to furniture, and who, at the age of four, understands so much what he is doing that he responds to reprimands with threats of fire. O all of you, doctors and scientists who so eagerly seek out the slightest unusual pathological cases, to make them the subject of your meditations, why don’t you study with the same care these strange phenomena that one can, with reason, qualify as moral pathology! Why don't you try to understand them, to discover their source! Humanity would gain at least as much from it as from the discovery of a nervous system.

Unfortunately, most of those who do not disdain to deal with these questions, do so by speaking of a preconceived idea to which they want to subject everything: the materialist to the exclusive laws of matter, the spiritualist to the idea that he has about the nature of the soul, according to his beliefs. Before concluding, the wisest thing is to study all the systems, all the theories, with impartiality, and see which one best and most logically solves the greatest number of difficulties.



The diversity of innate intellectual and moral aptitudes, independent of education and of any acquisition in the present life, is a notorious fact: it is known. Starting from this fact to arrive at the unknown, we will say that if the soul is created at the birth of the body, it remains evident that God creates souls of all qualities. However, this doctrine being incompatible with the principle of sovereign justice, must necessarily be set aside. But if the soul is not created at the birth of the individual, it is because it existed before. It is in fact in the preexistence of the soul that we find the only possible and rational solution to the question and to all the apparent anomalies of the human faculties.

Children who instinctively have transcendent aptitudes for an art or a science, who possess certain knowledge without having learned it, such as the natural calculators, such as those to whom music seems familiar at birth; those born polyglots, like a lady of whom we will later have occasion to speak, that at nine years old gave lessons in Greek and Latin to her brothers, and at twelve years old read and translated Hebrew; they must have learned these things somewhere; since it is not in this existence, it must have been in another. Yes, man has already lived, not once, but perhaps a thousand times; in each existence his ideas have developed; he has acquired knowledge of which he brings intuition into the next existence and which helps him to acquire new ones. It is the same with moral progress. The vices he got rid of do not reappear; those he has kept reproduce until he has corrected them for good.

In short, man is born as what he has made himself. Those who have lived more, acquired the most and took more advantage, and are more advanced than the others; such is the cause of the diversity of instincts and aptitudes that are noticeable among them; such is also the reason why we see on earth savages, barbarians and civilized men. The plurality of existences is the key to a host of moral problems, and it is for having ignored this principle that so many questions have remained insoluble. Let them just admit it as a hypothesis, if they will, and they will see all the difficulties smooth out.

Civilized man has reached a point where he is no longer satisfied with blind faith; he wants to get to know everything, to know the why and the how of everything; he will, therefore, prefer a philosophy that explains to another that does not explain. Besides, the idea of the plurality of existences, like all great truths, germinates in a crowd of minds, outside Spiritism, and since it satisfies reason, the time is not far off when it will be placed in the ranks of the laws that govern humanity. What shall we say now about the child who is the subject of this article? His current instincts can be explained by his antecedents. He was born an incendiary, as others were born poets or artists, because, without a doubt, he was an incendiary in another existence, and he retained that instinct.

But then, it will be said, if each existence is a progress, the progress is null for him in this one. It's not a reason. From his current instincts, we should not conclude that his progress is zero. Man does not suddenly shed all his imperfections. This child probably had others that made him worse than he would be today; now, had he only taken a step forward, even had only repentance and the desire to improve himself, that would always be progress. If this instinct manifest itself in him so early, it is to call attention early to his tendencies, so that his parents and those who will be responsible for his education will endeavor to suppress them before they have developed. Perhaps he himself asked for it to be so, and to be born into an honorable family, out of the desire to progress.

It is an enormous task to his parents, because he is a stray soul that was entrusted to them to be brought back to the right path, and their responsibility would be significant if they did not do everything that was at their reach, with that objective. If their son were sick, they would take care of him with solicitude. They must look at him as if taken by a serious moral disease, that requires a not less careful attention. According to these considerations, we believe, without vanity, that the Spiritists are the best experts in such cases, precisely because they study the moral phenomena and appreciate them not according to personal ideas, but according to the natural laws.

Having this fact been presented to the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies as a subject of study, the following question was addressed to the Spirits:

What is the origin of the premature incendiary instinct in this boy, and what would be the means of fighting it through education?

Four concurring answers were given. We only cite the following two:

I

Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, Paris April 13th, 1866 – medium Sr. Br…

You ask about the existence of this boy that shows such a premature inclination for destruction and particularly to fire. Well, his past is horrible, and his present tendencies tell you what he could have done. He came to atone and must fight against his incendiary instincts. It is a great test to his parents that are permanently under the threats of his bad deeds, and do not know how to reprimand that dismal inclination. The knowledge of Spiritism would be a powerful help to them, and God, in His mercy, will allow them such a grace, for it is only through that knowledge that one can expect to improve that Spirit. This boy is an evident proof of the anteriority of the soul in the present incarnation. You know: this strange moral state attracts attention and makes you think. God employs every means to make you get to the knowledge of truth about your origin, your progress and destiny.

A Spirit

II

Medium Ms. Lat…

Spiritism has already played a great role in your world, but what you saw is just the prelude of what you are called to see. When science is silent before certain facts that religion cannot solve either, Spiritism comes to provide the solution. When science fails to your wise men, they sidetrack the issue given the lack of sufficient explanations. In many circumstances the enlightenment of Spiritism could be a powerful support to them, notably in this case of incendiary monomania. To them it is a case of madness because they see every monomania as madness. That is a big mistake. Science cannot do anything here. It is up to the Spiritists to act. You cannot admit that such inclination towards destruction by fire comes from the present life; one must go back further and see, in the perverse inclinations of this boy, a reflex of his past actions. Besides, he is encouraged by those that were his victims, to satisfy his ambition, he did not step back before the fire or the sacrifice of those that could have created an obstacle to him. In a word, he is under the influence of Spirits that have not forgiven him yet for the sufferings that he imposed on them. They expect vengeance. His test is to come out victorious of this fight. But God, in His sovereign justice, placed the remedy side by side with the illness. In fact, the remedy is in his early age and in the good influence of the environment around him. He boy cannot do anything today; it is up to the parents to watch; later he must succeed, and while he is not his own man the fight continues. It would be necessary to have him educated under the principles of Spiritism; he would then find the strength, and by understanding his trial, he would find the will to triumph. Good Spirits in charge of enlightening the incarnate, turn your eyes to this poor child whose punishment is fair; go and help him, guide his thoughts to Spiritism so that can be triumph fast and that the struggle ends with advantages to him.

A Spirit

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