Heaven and Hell (Le Ciel et l'Enfer in the original French) is a book published in 1865 by Allan Kardec, the fourth tome of the fundamental works of Spiritism. Its name was intentionally taken from a previous book by Swedenborg, it was also subtitled "Divine Justice According to Spiritism".
It is divided into two parts named "The Doctrine" and "The Examples".
The first part explains the different view Spiritism has on the subject, stating that both "Heaven" (happiness in the after-life) and "Hell" (punishment in the after-life) are misconcepts, that the state of the spirits after their death is not definitive and that there is always hope, even for the crudest criminal. This is also where Kardec explains in detail why and how "good people" are doomed to suffer and why one should not take one's own life.
The second part is a series of interviews with spirits of deceased people, thus exemplifying the working truth of the doctrine previously detailed. Most of the examples cited are of people now long forgotten and have become quite useless. The books are most cherished, however, for the profound morality expressed in the first part.
Heaven and Hell is the second most popular book among the Fundamental Works of Spiritism.
Famous quotes containing the words heaven and/or hell:
“If [government] would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Eunuchs ran through Hell and met
On every crowded street to stare
Upon great Juan riding by:
Even like these to rail and sweat
Staring upon his sinewy thigh.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)