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372. What is the aim of Providence in creating beings so ill-treated by nature as idiots?
"Idiots are incarnations of spirits who are undergoing punishment, and who suffer from the constraint they experience, and from their inability to manifest themselves by means of organs which are undeveloped, or out of order."
-- Then it is not correct to say that organs are without influence upon faculties?
"We have never said that organs are without influence. They have very great influence on the manifestation of faculties, but they do not give faculties; there is just the difference. A skilful player will not make good music with a bad instrument, but that will not prevent his being a good player."
It is necessary to distinguish between the normal state and the pathologic state. In the normal state, the moral strength of an incarnated spirit enables him to triumph over the obstacles which are placed in his way by matter; but there are cases in which matter opposes a resistance so powerful that the manifestations of the spirit incarnated in it are hindered or changed from what he intended, as in idiocy and madness. These cases are pathologic and as the soul, in such states, is not in the enjoyment of its full liberty, human law itself exempts such persons from the responsibility of their actions.