197- Is the spirit of a child who dies very young as advanced as that of an adult?
“Sometimes much more so because the child may have had more existences and may have therefore acquired more experiences, especially if he or she has progressed.”
– Then can the spirit of a child be more evolved than that of its parent?
“That is very frequently the case. Haven’t you yourself often witnessed it?”
198- Does the spirit of a child who dies very young without having done any evil belong to the higher degrees?
“If such a child has done nothing evil, it has also done nothing good. God does not relieve such a spirit of the trials it must undergo. If it is pure, it is not because it was a child, but because it was already advanced.”
199- Why is life so often cut short in childhood?
“The length of a child’s life can be, for its spirit, the remainder of a former life that had been cut short before its due term. Moreover, the death of a child is often a trial or an expiation for the parents.”
– What becomes of the spirit of a child who dies very young?
“It begins a new existence.”
If humans had only one life to live, and if afterwards their fate were sealed for all eternity, why would half the human species, who die while very young, deserve to enjoy eternal bliss without having lived a full life of effort? And by what right would they be exempt from the oft-so-painful conditions imposed on the other half? Such an order of things could not be in accord with the justice of God. Through reincarnation, absolute justice is the same for all. The future belongs to all, without exception and without favoritism, and those who arrive last will have only themselves to blame. Individuals must have the merit of their actions, for which they are justly responsible.
Moreover, it is unreasonable to consider childhood as a state of innocence. Do we not see children endowed with the worst instincts at an age at which education could not have yet exerted its influence? What about those who seem to be born cunning, deceitful and treacherous, who even harbor instincts for thieving and murder, in spite of the good examples surrounding them? Criminal law absolves them when they commit misdeeds by considering them to have acted without discernment, driven more by instinct than deliberate intent. But where do such instincts come from, which differ so widely among children of the same age, reared under the same conditions and subject to the same influences? Where does such precocious wickedness come from if not from the imperfect nature of the spirit, since education has nothing to do with it? Those who are really wicked have progressed less and must therefore suffer the consequences, not of their acts during their present childhood, but of their previous lives. It is thus that the law is the same for all and that the justice of God extends to all.
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