Sufferings due to prior causes are frequently, like those that arise from current wrongs, the natural consequence of wrongs that were committed previously; that is, through justice that is strictly meted out, humans bear what they made others bear. If they were hard and inhumane, they might in turn be treated harshly and inhumanely; if they were proud, they might be born into humiliating conditions; if they were miserly or selfish, or if they made bad use of their wealth, they might be deprived of necessities; if they were bad children, they might suffer from their own children, etc.

Thus, through the plurality of existences and the function of the earth as an expiatory world, one can explain the anomalies displayed in the distribution of fortune and misfortune between good and bad persons on this world. This anomaly exists in appearance only because it is considered from the point of view of the present life. However, if we elevate ourselves by means of thought so as to embrace a series of existences, we will see that everyone  receives the share they deserve without harm to what will be given to them in the spirit world, and that God’s justice is never broken.

Humans must never lose sight of the fact that they are on a less evolved world and that they are kept there solely because of their imperfections. With each vicissitude, they must tell themselves that if they belonged to a more advanced world, it would not be happening, and that it depends on them alone – by working to improve themselves – not to have to return to this world.