Earth’s Destiny. The Cause of Earthly Miseries

6. Surprised at finding on earth so much wickedness and evil passion, so many miseries and infirmities of every sort, one might come to the conclusion that the human species is a very sad thing indeed. This judgment arises from the limited point of view of those who hold it, and it gives an erroneous idea of the whole. One must remember that not all of humankind is to be found on the earth, but only a tiny fraction of it. Actually, the human species entails all beings endowed with reason, who populate the innumerable worlds of the universe; hence, what is earth’s population when compared to the total population of all those worlds? Much less than that of a tiny village when compared to a great empire. The material and moral situation of earth’s humankind is nothing surprising considering earth’s destination and the nature of those who inhabit it.

7. One would form a very erroneous idea of the inhabitants of a large city if they were judged by the populace of its infamous and sordid quarters. In a hospital, one sees only the sick or maimed; in a penitentiary, one sees all sorts of turpitudes and vices in one place; in unhealthy regions, most of the inhabitants are pale, weak and sickly. Well then, imagine the earth as being a sordid district, a hospital, a penitentiary and an unhealthy region – because it is all of these at once – and you will understand why afflictions outweigh joys. This happens because one does not send healthy persons to a hospital, or those who have practiced no evil to houses of correction; nor can hospitals or houses of correction be places of delight.

Hence, in the same way that in a city the whole population is not in hospitals or prisons, the whole of humankind is not on the earth. And just as one leaves the hospital when one has been cured and the prison when one has served one’s  time, humans leave the earth for happier worlds when they have been healed of their moral infirmities.