The selfishness is the brother of pride, and proceeds from the same causes. It is one of the most terrible manifestations of the soul and the greatest obstacle to social improvement. It alone neutralises and renders sterile almost all human efforts for the good. To combat it must therefore be the constant preoccupation of all friends of progress and of all servants of justice.

The selfishness is the persistence of that fierce individualism which characterises the animal, as a vestige of the state of inferiority which we have had to suffer. Man is, above all, a sociable being; he is destined to live with his fellows, and can do nothing without them. Left to himself, he would be powerless to satisfy his needs and to develop his qualities.

After God, it is to society that man owes all the benefits of existence, all the advantages of civilisation. He enjoys them, but it is precisely this enjoyment, this sharing in the fruits of the common work, that imposes on him the duty of co-operating in the work itself. A close solidarity binds him to society; he owes it as it owes him. To remain inactive, unproductive, useless, in the midst of the work of all, would be an outrage to morality, almost theft; it would be to profit by the labours of others, to accept a loan which we refuse to repay.

We are an integral part of society, and everything that concerns it concerns us. It is with this understanding of the social bond and the law of solidarity that we measure the amount of selfishness in us. He who knows how to live from his fellow men and for his fellow men has nothing to fear from this great evil. He has an infallible criterion by which to judge his conduct. He does nothing without inquiring whether what he projects is good or bad for those around him, without asking himself whether his actions are harmful or beneficial to the society of which he is a member. If they only seem advantageous to him and harmful to others, he knows that they are, in reality, bad for everyone, and he refrains from doing them at all.

Greed is one of the most repugnant forms of selfishness. It reveals the baseness of the soul which, hoarding usable riches for the common good, does not even know how to make use of them. The avaricious man, in his love of gold, in his desire to acquire it, impoverishes his fellow men and remains himself destitute, for that apparent prosperity which he accumulates without benefit to anyone remains poverty: a relative poverty, but just as pitiful as that of the wretched, and just the object of the reprobation of all.

No lofty sentiment, nothing that constitutes the nobility of Being can germinate in the soul of a miser. Envy and insatiability, which torment him, condemn him to a painful existence, to a still more miserable future. Nothing equals his despair when, beyond the grave, he sees his treasures scattered or dispersed.

You who seek peace of heart, flee from that base and wretched vice. But do not fall into the opposite excess. Do not squander anything. Know how to use your resources wisely and sparingly.

The selfishness carries within itself its own punishment. The egoist sees only himself in the world; all that is alien to him is indifferent to him. Thus the hours of his life are filled with boredom. He finds emptiness everywhere, both in his earthly existence and after death, for all, whether man or spirit, shun him.

On the contrary, he who co-operates to the best of his ability in the work of society; he who lives in communion with his fellowmen, making use of their faculties and their goods, as he makes use of those of his fellowmen, spreading outwardly what is good in him, is happiest. He is conscious of obeying the law, of being a useful member of society. All that is accomplished in the world interests him; all that is great and beautiful moves and excites him; his soul vibrates in unison with all enlightened and generous souls, and boredom and disenchantment have no hold on him.

Our role, then, is not to abstain, but to fight tirelessly for the good and for truth. It is not sitting or lying down that we must contemplate the spectacle of human life, but standing up, like a sapper, like a soldier ready to take part in all the great tasks, to facilitate new paths, to fertilise the common heritage of humanity.

Although selfishness is found in all categories of society, this vice belongs more to the rich than to the poor. Too often prosperity dries up the heart, while misfortune, by making us know the burden of sorrow, teaches us to share the sorrow of others. Does the rich man even know at what cost of toil and toil the thousand things of which his luxury is composed?

Let us never sit at a well-served table without thinking of those who are hungry. This idea will make us sober and measured in our appetites and in our tastes.

Let us think of the millions of men who stoop beneath the heat of summer or the harsh weather, and who, for scanty wages, extract from the soil the produce which supplies our feasts or adorns our dwellings. Let us remember that, in order to illuminate our rooms with a shining light, and to make our homes glow with a beneficent flame, men like ourselves, capable, as we are, of loving and feeling, work beneath the earth, far from the blue sky and the joyful sun, and with pickaxe in hand, drill all their lives into the bowels of the globe. Let us know that to adorn our halls with mirrors and glittering glass, to produce the multitude of objects of which our comfort is composed, thousands of other men, like condemned men at the furnace, spend their lives in the devouring heat of the blast furnaces and foundries, deprived of air, worn out, broken before their time, with nothing to look forward to but a suffering and deprived old age. Let us know: all this comfort which we enjoy with indifference is maintained at the cost of the suffering of the humble and the suffering of the weak. Let this thought penetrate and obsess us; like a flaming sword, it will banish selfishness from our hearts and compel us to devote to the betterment of the lot of the weak our goods, our time and our faculties.

For there will be no peace among men, no social security and happiness, until selfishness is conquered, until privileges and unpleasant inequalities are removed, and everyone shares, according to the measure of his work and merit, in the welfare of all. There can be no peace and harmony without justice. So long as the selfishness of some is nourished by the tears and sufferings of others; so long as the demands of self stifle the yoke of duty, hatred will be perpetuated on earth, the strife of self-interest will divide spirits, and tempests will lodge in the bosoms of societies.

But, thanks to the knowledge of our future, the idea of solidarity will eventually prevail. The law of the return to the flesh, the need to be born in modest conditions, will constitute a stimulus which will repress selfishness. In the face of these prospects, the inordinate sense of personality will be tempered to give us a more accurate notion of our place and our role in the Universe. Knowing that we are united with all souls, that we share in their advancement and their happiness, we will become more interested in their situation, their progress and their labours. As this feeling spreads throughout the world, institutions and social relations will improve; fraternity, that trivial word repeated by so many mouths, will descend into hearts and become a reality. We will feel ourselves living in others, we will rejoice in their joys and suffer with their ills. Then there will not be a single complaint that goes unechoed, nor a single pain that goes unconsoled. The great human family, strong, peaceful and united, will move forward with a quicker pace towards its magnificent destinies.

León Denis – The Straight Path ┃ Spiritist concept of the moral law