Allan Kardec / Anna Blackwell
Heaven and Hell, or the Divine Justice according to Spiritism'It is certain that we live, think, and act; it is not less certain that we shall die. But, on leaving Earth, where shall we go? What will become of us? Shall we be better off, or shall we be worse off? Shall we continue to exist, or shall we cease to exist? 'To be, or not to be,' is the alternative presented to us; it will be for always, or not at all; it will be everything, or nothing; we shall live on eternally, or we shall cease to live, once and forever. The alternative is well worth the consideration.' A.KOf the four principal works of Allan Kardec, Heaven and Hell is the third. It gives a series of spirit-narratives confirmatory of the Spiritist theory. These works constitute the basis of a religious belief that is equally in harmony with reason, with science, with experience, and with aspiration. They consequently supply the true substitute for the unreasoning faith that is so rapidly dying out from the minds of men, the true antidote to the scientific materialism of the day, the true cure for the selfishness which is the practical outcome of the short-sightedness that regards our present life as the sum of our existence, the true explanation and guide of the sentiment which prompts each human being to desire something better than the unsatisfying conditions among which he finds himself.
