CHAPTER XXIX 



JUSTICE, NOT CHARITY, AS THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE 

 OF SOCIAL REFORM. AN APPEAL TO MY READERS ^ 



Our conceptions of social duty — of what constitutes 

 justice in social life — will be to a considerable extent 

 dependent upon the views we hold as to man's spiritual 

 nature, and more especially upon the relation believed to 

 exist between the present life and that which is to follow 

 it. On this subject there has been a great change of 

 opinion during the last forty years. 



The old doctrine as to the nature of the future life was 

 based upon the idea of rewards and punishments, which 

 were supposed to be dependent upon dogmatic beliefs and 



ceremonial ohservances. The atheist, the agnostic, even the \ 



Unitarian, were for centuries held to be certain of future 

 punishment ; and, with the unbaptised infant, the Sabbath- 

 breaker, and the abstainer from church-going, were alike 

 condemned to hell-fire. Beliefs and observances were 

 then held to be of the first importance; disposition, 

 conduct, health, and happiness were of little or no 

 account. 



The new doctrines — founded almost wholly on the 

 teachings of Modern Spiritualism, though now widely 

 accepted even among non-Spiritualists — are the very 

 reverse of all this. They are based upon the conception of -~ 

 mental and moral continuity ; that there are no imposed 



1 The following pages (with verbal modifications) constitute the main 

 portion of an Address to the International Congress of Spiritualists, at 

 St. James's Hall, in June, 1898, 



