51. The following is the answer given by a spirit to a question on this subject: -
"What some call 'the perispirit' is the same as what others call the soul's 'fluidic
envelope.' It is formed of the fluid which gives perfectibility to our senses, and
extension to our view and our ideas. I speak of elevated spirits, for, as regards inferior spirits, the
fluids inherent in them are altogether earthly, and therefore material, as you see; hence
their sufferings of hunger, cold, etc., sufferings that the higher spirits cannot feel,
because, with them, the terrestrial fluids are purified around the seat of their
consciousness, that is to say, their soul. The soul, in order to progress, always requires
an agent, for the soul without an agent is nothing, or rather, I should say, cannot be conceived of by you. The perispirit, for us, spirits in the state of erraticity, is the agent by
which we communicate with you, whether indirectly, by means of your body, or, by
means of your perispirit, directly with your soul; hence the infinite diversity of
mediums and communications. As for the scientific explanation of the pen spirit, that
is to say, the definition of its essence, that is quite another thing. Let the moral aspect
of the question suffice to you for the present beyond that, any inquiry would involve
disquisitions upon the nature of fluids, inexplicable for you at this time, because your
physical sciences are not yet sufficiently advanced. But science will ascertain this
point, in time, with the aid of light derived from spiritism. The perispirit can vary and
change indefinitely; the soul is thought, and its nature does not change. Do not attempt
to go any further in this direction ; for the nature of the soul is a point that cannot be
explained. Do you suppose that we are not seeking, just as you are? You are searching
after the perispirit; we, meanwhile, are searching after the soul. Therefore, wait.
LAMENNAIS."
If spirits who may be considered as advanced have not yet been able to fathom
the essential nature of the soul, how, indeed, can we hope to do so? The endeavour to
scrutinise the principle of things which, as is remarked in The Spirits' Book (17, 49), are
beyond the scope of our present faculties, is but a loss of time. To attempt to pry into
things which are nut yet within the reach of humanity, by the aid of spiritism, is to turn
it from its true object ; it
is to act like the child, who would fain know as much as the man. Let us use spiritism
for our moral improvement; that is the essential point ; the rest is too often but sterile
Curiosity, prompted by pride, the satisfaction of which would not advance us a single
step; for the only true method of advancement is to become better. The spirits who
have dictated the book which bears their name have proved their wisdom by restricting
their teachings, as regards the principle of things, within limits that we are not yet able
to overstep; leaving to presumptuous spirits, with their theorisings, the responsibility of
premature and erroneous statements, specious, but hollow, which will one day
disappear in the light of reason, as so many merely human lucubrations have already
done. Spirits have only given us such information as is necessary to enable us to
comprehend the future which awaits us, and thus to encourage us in well-doing.
