But why did the soul ever lose her way, or deteriorate? We have often
said that not all souls belong to the first rank; some belong to a
second, or even third rank, and who, consequently, are inferior to
those of the first. Further, leaving the right road may be caused
by a trifling divergence. Third, the approximation of two differing
things produces a combination which may be considered a third
somewhat, different from the other two components. (Thus even in
this new element, or "habituation") the being does not lose the
qualities he received with his existence; if he be inferior, he has
been created inferior from the very origin; it is what he was created,
he is inferior by the very virtue of his nature; if he suffer the
consequences thereof, he suffers them justly. Fourth, we must allow for
our anterior existence, because everything that happens to us to-day
results from our antecedents.