Life and Destiny

128 Pages·2002·0.85 MB·English

by  Crisley Akin

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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).
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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.
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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
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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
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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. They believe themselves the
playthings of fate, tied hand and foot to a relentless destiny. These young men cease to make any effort to
succeed at the first obstacle they encounter. They have no faith in themselves - they become their own living
tombs wherein they bury their hopes, their efforts, their desires.’ This applies, not only to a portion of our

1 A propos of the examinations in the universities, Mr. Ducas Doyen of the Faculty of Aix, wrote in the Journal of 3rd May 1912: ‘There seems to be
between the minds of the pupils and the things they study a sort of cloud - an opaqueness. It is particularly in philosophy that one feels this unfortunate
impression.’
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young men, but to many men of our time and generation in whom we recognize a moral lassitude and
weakness.
Frederick Myers, author of Human Personality, has also said on this subject, ‘Pessimism is the moral
malady of the times; there is a lack of confidence in the true value of life.’ The doctrines of Nietzsche, of
Schopenhauer, of Haeckel, have largely contributed toward developing this state of things. Their influence has
been far-reaching. To them we may attribute the skepticism and discouragement, in a great measure, which
emanates from the contemporaneous mind: the utter lack of all that makes the ardor of life, its joyousness, its
confidence in the future - those virile qualities of the race.
It is time to battle with vigor against these funeral doctrines, and to seek outside of the old official
beliefs new methods of instruction, which respond to the imperious needs of the present hour. We must
prepare souls for the necessities, for the combats of actual life, and life further on. We must above all teach
human souls to understand and develop, in view of the final end, the latent forces which sleep within.
Until now, thought has been confined in narrow circles, religions, schools, and systems that exclude
and combat all ideas at variance with their own. We must rise out of this rigid circle, and give our thoughts a
larger freedom; every system contains a part of the truth, no one contains the entire truth. The universe and life
have aspects too varied, too numerous for any one system of teaching to embrace wholly.
We must take the fragments of truth which each contains and fit them together until they form a united
pattern; then add to them the aspects of truth which we discover from day to day, through the majestic
harmony of our awakened thought. The decadence of our epoch comes largely from the imprisoned and
restricted state of the human mind.2 We must stir it out of its inertia and its creed-bound limits, and lift it
toward high altitudes without losing sight of the solid base, which affords it and enlarged and renewed science.
This science of the future we must work to establish. It will procure the indispensable criterion, the means of
verification, and the control without which thought, left to its freedom, risks the danger of losing its way.
We have said that trouble and incertitude are everywhere found in our social conditions. Within and
without, there is a state of inquietude. Under the brilliant surface of a refined civilization is hidden a deep
malady. Irritation increases in social circles; the conflict of interests and the battle for life becomes every day
more acute.
Humanity, weary of dogmas, and speculations without proof, is plunged in materialism or
indifference. From whence, then, comes this doctrine? Toward what abyss are we being drawn? What new
ideal will come to give man the confidence in the future and ardor for achievement? In the tragic hours of
history, when the situation seemed desperate, succor was at hand. The human soul cannot perish: in the
moment when our old faiths are hidden by a veil, a new conception of life and destiny, based upon science and
facts, reappears. The Great Tradition is revived under new forms, larger and more beautiful. It reveals to all a
future full of hope and promise. Salute, then, the new reign of the idea, victorious over matter, and work to
prepare fair ways for its footsteps.
The task is great, and the education of mankind must be entirely reconstructed. This education, we
have seen, neither the university nor the Church is prepared to give, since neither possesses the necessary
synthesis to cast light upon the pathway of new generations. One doctrine alone can offer this synthesis - that
of scientific spiritual research.
Already it shows a horizon to the world, and promises to illuminate the future. And this philosophy,
this science, free, independent, liberated from all official restrictions, from all compromising politics, is adding
every day new and precious discoveries to its storehouse of knowledge. The phenomena of magnetism, of
radioactivity, of telepathy, are but applications of the one principle, the manifestation of the One Law, which,
regulated at the same time, beings and universes.
A few more years of patient labor, of conscientious experimentation, of persistent research, and the
New Education will have its scientific formulae, its essential base; this event will be the grandest fact since the
coming of Christianity. Education, we all know, is the most powerful factor in progress. It contains the germ of
the entire future; but to be complete, education should inspire the mind of man to study life in two alternating
forms - the visible and the invisible: ‘Life in its plenitude, in its evolution towards the summit of nature and of
thought.’

2 These lines were written before the war. We must recognize that, during the course of this gigantic strife, the young Frenchmen have shown a heroism
above all eulogy; but the national education does not show in that, it is rather the result of sleeping qualities which have wakened in the heart of the race.
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