The Spiritist review — Journal of psychological studies — 1858

The contradictions so frequently found in the language of the spirits, even about essential questions, have been a cause of uncertainty to some people, with respect to the real value of their communications, circumstance of which the adversaries also take advantage. At first sight those contradictions really seem to be one of the main stopping blocks of the Spiritist Science.

Let us see if they hold the importance attributed to them.

One needs to start by analyzing how Science produced similar anomalies at the beginning of its inception. Which scholar was not confused in his investigation by facts that apparently contradicted the established rules? Doesn’t Botany, Zoology, Physiology, Medicine and the language itself offer us thousands of similar examples and doesn’t their bases defy any contradiction? It is by comparing the facts, observing the analogies and dissimilarities that it is possible to gradually establish the rules, the classification, and the principles: in one word, to constitute the Science.

Well, Spiritism has just germinated. Thus it is not surprising that it adjusts to the common law while its study is completed. It is only then that one will acknowledge that with this Science, as with everything else, the exception almost always confirms the rule.

As a matter of fact, the spirits have always told us that we should not be worried about such small divergences and that everything would be soon driven towards a unity of belief. In fact, such a prediction holds true every day, as we penetrate further and further into the causes of these mysterious phenomena and that the facts are better observed. Contrary to that, the dissidences manifested in the origin evidently tend to weaken. One can even say that nowadays these are nothing more than isolated personal opinions.

Although Spiritism is in nature and that it has been known and practiced since the beginning, it is a fact that it has never been as universally spread as it is today. This is due to the fact that at other times it was studied as something mysterious, where the commoners were not initiated. It was preserved by tradition so that the vicissitudes of humanity and the lack of means for its transmission weakened insensibly. The spontaneous phenomena that took place, from time to time, went unnoticed or were interpreted according to the ignorance of the day or even were exploited to the benefit of one belief or another.

It was reserved to our century, when progress receives a never-ending impulse, to bring about a Science that, so to speak, only existed in its latent state. It was only a few years ago that the phenomena were seriously observed. Spiritism is truly a new Science that step by step implants into the heart of the masses, waiting to occupy an official position.

This Science, in principle, seemed very simple. To the superficial minds it was nothing more than the art of moving tables. However, a more careful observation revealed a much more complex Science than previously thought from its ramifications and consequences. The turning tables are like Newton’s apple, whose fall contains the system of the world.

It has happened to Spiritism the same that happens, in principle, to everything else: the first ones could not see it all; each one would see from their standpoint and communicate their impressions from their point of view and according to their ideas and prejudices. Well, isn’t that a fact known to everyone that, depending on the environment, the same object may seem cold to some and hot to others?

Let us take another example from the ordinary things, even trivial ones, in order to make us better understood. The newspapers have published lately: “Mushrooms is one of the most bizarre foods: delicious or deadly, microscopic or showing phenomenal dimensions, constantly disorienting the Botanists. In the Doncastre tunnel there is a mushroom developing for about twelve months and, as it seems, has not yet reached its final phase of growth. It is currently fifteen feet in diameter. It showed up on a wooden log, considered the most beautiful specimen ever observed. Its classification is difficult as the opinions are divided.”

Thus, here we have Science perturbed by the appearance of one mushroom that presents a new species. This fact has provoked in us the following reflection: Suppose several naturalists independently observing a variety of this vegetable. One will say that the mushroom is an edible criptogamus, appreciated by the gluttonous; the second one will say that it is poisonous; the third will say that it is invisible to the naked eye; the fourth will say that it can reach up to forty-five feet in diameter, etc. At first sight all opinions seem contradictory and not much helpful to the definition of the true nature of the mushrooms. Later a fifth observer will acknowledge the identity of the general characters and show that those diversified properties are nothing more than varieties or subdivisions of only one class. Each observer was right from their point of view; all were wrong though when concluding from the particular to the general and when they took the part by the whole.

The same happens with the spirits. They have been judged according to the nature of the relationships established with them; consequently some were made demons and other angels. Because there was rush in explaining the phenomena before everything was seen, each observer made it on their own terms and, very naturally, sought the causes where the object of their concerns were placed. The Magnetist referred everything to magnetism; the Physicist to the action of electricity and so forth. The divergence of opinions with respect to Spiritism comes then from the different aspects that are considered.

On which side is the truth?

This is what the future will demonstrate. But the general tendency will not move much. One principle evidently dominates and progressively unites the premature systems. A less exclusive observation will unite all systems in a common origin and we shall soon see that the divergence is more accessory than fundamental.

It is understandable that man may raise antagonistic theories about things but what can seem more original is that the spirits themselves contradict each other. This is what, since the beginning, caused a certain confusion of ideas.

The several spiritist theories have then two sources: some were born from the human brain; the spirits gave others. The former emanates from men that showing excessive confidence in their own believes to have the key to what they seek, when most of the time they have only found a picklock. No surprise there, but the fact that among the spirits some said one thing and others something else was less conceivable. However, this is now perfectly explainable.

In the beginning an absolutely false idea was made about the nature of the spirits. They were seen as special beings, not having anything in common with matter, knowing everything. They were, according to personal opinions, malefactors or benefactors, some with every virtue others with every vice, all generally with an infinite knowledge and superior to humanity. Following the news of the recent manifestations, the first idea that came to mind to most people was that it was a means of penetrating all occult things; a new method of guess work, less subjected to doubts as with the vulgar processes.

Who could tell the number of people who dreamt of making easy fortune by the revelation of the occult treasures; by the technological or scientific discoveries which would cost the inventors no more than the work of describing what was dictated by the wise men of the other world! God knows how many failures and disillusions!

How many pseudo recommendations, each more ridicule than the next, were not given by the charlatans of the invisible world! We know someone that requested an infallible recommendation to tint the hair. A waxy formula was given which reduced the person’s hair to something like a compact mass, which the poor patient had great difficulty to eliminate.

All these dreamlike hopes had to fade away while the nature of that world became clearer and the true objective of the visits we receive from its inhabitants became known. To several people, however, where was the value of those spirits who did not even have the power of providing some millions to those who did not do anything? They could not be spirits!

The short lasting fever was replaced by indifference and in some by incredulity. Oh! How many proselytes could have the spirits made if they could benefit the indolent! The devil himself would have been adored had he had agitated his wallet.

Besides the dreamers there were serious people who saw something in those phenomena beyond vulgarity. They carefully observed; probed the inside of that mysterious world and easily noticed a providential objective of an elevated order in those strange if not new facts. Everything changed in aspect once noticed that the spirits were creatures who lived on Earth, to whom we will join after our death; that they left their dense covering here like the silkworm leaves its cocoon to become a moth.

We could no longer doubt when we saw our parents, friends and contemporaries coming to talk to us, providing irrefutable proofs of their presence and identity. Considering the great diversity of characters presented by humanity, under the intellectual and moral point of view, and the crowd that daily emigrates from Earth to the invisible world, it disgusts reason to admit that a stupid Samoyed, a fierce cannibal or a vile criminal suffer with death a transformation that puts them on the same spot as the scholar and the man of good deeds. One can thus understand that there should be more or less advanced spirits and from there on explain the so much diversified communications in which some elevate to the sublime and others go down to the dirt.

We understand even better when we stopped believing that our small grain of sand, lost in space, is the only inhabited among millions of similar globes, learned that it occupies an intermediary position, close to the lowest of the scale; and as consequence that there are beings more advanced than the most advanced among us and others even more basic than our savage ones.

Since then the moral and intellectual horizon have amplified, as our earthly horizon when the fourth part of the world was discovered; at the same time the power and majesty of God grew before our eyes, from the finite to the infinite. Thus, the contradictions in the language of the spirits were soon explained, as it was understood that inferior beings from all points of view could not think and express like the superior ones; consequently, they could not know everything, neither understand everything and that God should reserve only to the elected ones the knowledge of the mysteries unreachable by ignorance.

The spirits’ scale, outlined by the spirits themselves and according to the observation of the facts, gives us the key to all apparent anomalies of the language of the spirits. It is necessary to get to know them by the force of habit and, so to speak, be able to deduce their class at first sight, according to the nature of their manifestations. According to the need, it is necessary to say to one that he is a liar, to another that he is a hypocrite, to this one that he is malevolent, to the other that he is rude, etc..., without being impressed by their arrogance and bragging, neither by their threats or sophisms nor even by their adulation. This is how one can keep this mob away that pullulates around us and that stays away when we know how to attract only spirits that are truly good and serious; we do the same with respect to the living ones.

Will these tiny beings be eternally dedicated to evil and ignorance? No, hence such partiality would not be in agreement with the justice, neither the goodness of the Creator who provides the existence and well being of the smallest insect. It is through a succession of existences that they elevate and approach Him, while improving themselves. Those inferior spirits only know God by the name; they neither see him nor understand him, in the same way that the last peasant in the middle of his heathers does not see nor understand the sovereign of his own country.

If we carefully study the own character of each class of spirits we will easily understand that there are some incapable of providing accurate teachings regarding the state of their world. If we consider further that there are others that by nature are frivolous, liars, mockers, malevolent, and that others are still impregnated by the earthly ideas and prejudices, we will understand that in their relationship with us they can make fun of us; consciously induce error by malice; affirm something that they don’t know; give us perfidious advices or even trick us in good faith, when judging things from their point of view.

Let us make a comparison.

Suppose that a colony of Earth’s inhabitants, on a given day, find the means of traveling to the moon; suppose that the colony is composed of several elements of the population of our globe, since the most civilized European to the Australian savage. Moon’s inhabitants would be moved and even astonished if they could obtain accurate teachings from their visitors about our planet, which some supposed inhabited but were not sure, since among them there are some that consider themselves the only inhabitants of the universe. They surround the newcomers and question them; the wise ones rush to publish the moral and physical history of Earth. How could it not be an authentic history once they have visual witnesses? One of them has a Zealander in his house who says that on Earth it is a real treat to eat men and that God allows it so as the victims are sacrificed in His honor. In another house there is a philosopher that talks about Plato and Aristotle and says that anthropophagi is an abomination condemned by all Divine and human laws. Here a Muslim who does not eat flesh but who says that salvation is conquered by killing the highest number of Christians; in another place there is a Christian saying that Mohammed was an imposter; further down there is a Chinese who considers everyone else as barbarians and affirms that when one has too many children God allows to throw them into the river; a Bohemian paints the picture of dissolute life in the big capital cities; an Anchorite preaches abstinence and mortifications; a Hindu fakir shreds the body and to open the doors of heaven he self imposes such a suffering that, comparatively, the privations of the most devout cenobite constitute sensuality. Then comes a Scientist saying that it is Earth that turns not the Sun; a peasant says that the Scientist is a liar since he sees the Sun rising and setting very well; a Senegalean says that it is hot; an Eskimo says that the sea is a frozen plain and that traveling can only be done by sledges. Politics is not forgotten: some praise absolutism, others the liberals; this one says that slavery is against nature and that, as children of God, all men are brothers; another one says that some races were cut for slavery and that they are much happier than in a free state, etc.

I believe the Selenites (Moom’s inhabitants) would feel embarrassed to write Earth’s physical, political, moral and religious history based on such documents.

“Who knows”, they think, “we will find greater unity among the scholars? Let us interrogate a group of doctors.”

One of them, a doctor from the Parisian Faculty, center of lights, says that every disease in principle has a contaminated blood and because of that it is necessary to renovate the blood, bleeding the patient whatever the case may be.

- You are wrong, says a wise comrade, man never has enough blood; if you drain it you drain life. I agree that the blood may be contaminated but what do we do when a vase is dirty? Nobody breaks it but tries to clean it; then give purgative, purgative, and purgative until it is clean.

A third one says:

- Gentlemen, with the bleeding you kill the patients and with the purgatives you poison them. Nature is wiser than all of us. Let it run its course. Let us wait.

- That is it, reply the other two, if we kill our patients you allow them to die.

Things get heated up when a fourth doctor, taking aside a Selenite, pulls him to the left saying:

- Do not listen to them. They are all ignorant. I don’t even know why they belong to the Academy! Follow my reasoning: every patient is weak; thus there is a weakening of the organs. This is pure logic or I don’t recognize myself anymore. One has to provide tonus but for that there is only one remedy: cold water. I stick to that.

- Do you cure every patient of yours?

- Everyone, as long as the disease is not deadly.

- With such an infallible process, do you belong to the Academy?

- I have presented my candidacy three times but would you believe that I have always been blocked by these pseudo scholars, because they know that I would pulverize them with my cold water?

- Mr.Selenite, says another person in the conversation, pulling him to the right – we live in an atmosphere of electricity which is the true principle of life; increase it when it is not enough; diminish it when in excess; neutralize the opposing fluids one by the other - that is the secret. I do wonders with my devices. Read my ads and you will see! *

We would never come to an end if we wanted to summarize every contrary theory that was preconized, from all branches of human knowledge, including exact sciences. However, it was in the metaphysics that the field was widely open to the most contradictory doctrines.

Nevertheless, a man of spirit and discerning capacity (why would he not be on the moon?) compare all these incoherent affirmations and comes to a very logical conclusion: there are hot and cold regions on Earth; in certain places men devour each other; in others they kill those who think differently; all for the great glory of their divinity; finally, each speaks according to their knowledge and praises things from the point of view of their passions and interests.

Now, who is going to preferably believe?

By the language and without difficulty, he will distinguish the truly wise from the ignorant; the serious man from the frivolous; the thinker from the sophist. He will not confuse good with bad feelings, elevation with ridicule, good with evil and shall say: “I have to hear everything, understand everything, because, even from the speech of the most ignorant, I can learn; but my esteem and confidence will only be conquered by the worthy one. “If this earthly colony wants to implant their habits and customs in our world, the scholars will repel the advices that seem harmful and shall follow those that seem advanced and in which they cannot detect falsehood or lie but, on the contrary, recognize in them the sincere love for the good.

Would we proceed differently if a colony of Selenites happened to come to Earth? Then! What is presented here as a hypothesis is a reality with respect to the spirits that although don’t show up in flesh and blood they are not less present because of that, in an occult way, transmitting their thoughts to us through their interpreters, which are the mediums.

When we have learned to get to know them we will judge them by their language, by their principles. Their contradictions will no longer have anything that surprises us as we will see that some know what others ignore; that some are placed much below or are still too materialized to understand and appreciate things of a more elevated order. Such is the man that at the foot of the mountain cannot see more than a few steps ahead of him while the one who is at the summit can see a boundless horizon.

The first cause of contradictions is thus the degree of intellectual and moral development of the spirits but there are others about which it is useless to draw the attention.

It should be said that one has to consider the question of the inferior spirits, since it is understandable that they can make mistakes out of ignorance. How to admit that the superior spirits may be in disagreement? How can they employ a language in one place and a different one in another place? That the same spirit, finally, is not always coherent with himself?

The answer to that question rests on the complete knowledge of the Spiritist Science and this Science cannot be taught in a few words because it is as vast as all philosophical Sciences. As all other branches of human knowledge it is only possible to acquire it by the study and observation. We cannot repeat here everything we have published with that regard; we refer the reader to that material, limiting ourselves to a simple summary. Every difficulty disappears to the one who casts an investigative eye over this question, without preventions.

Facts demonstrate that the deceiving spirits have no scruples in adopting respectable names, aiming at better enforcing their nastiness, fact that also happens among us. By the fact that a spirit presents any name it does not follow that he is really the one he declares to be. There is in the language of the serious spirit, however, a touch of distinction that could not go unnoticed. He only breathes goodness and benevolence and never denies himself. The language of the imposter spirits, on the contrary and despite the varnish that it shows, hurts the ears, as they say. It is not surprising then that under the disguise of certain names, the inferior spirits teach crazy things. It is up to the observer to know the truth, what is not difficult as long as he wishes to deeply study what we have said in the “Practical Instruction” (Mediums’ Book).

Those spirits flatter the taste and inclination of people whose character they know is weak and credulous enough to pay attention to them. These people become echoes of their prejudice and even of their superstitious ideas. This is due to a very simple reason: the spirits are attracted by their sympathy to the spirits of people who evoke them and listen to them with pleasure.

As for the serious spirits, according to the person they communicate with, they can also use a different language, but with a different objective. Whenever they judge convenient and to better elucidate, they express in accordance with the time, place and people, avoiding sudden confrontation with entrenched ideas. “That is why”, they say, “we do not speak to a Chinese or to a Muslim as we do to a Christian or a civilized man, because we would not be heard. Sometimes we may seem to agree with the way people see things so as to gradually lead them to the desired teaching, whenever possible and without affecting the essential truth”.

Isn’t that evident that if a spirit wanted to lead a fanatic Muslim to practice the sublime teaching of the Gospel by saying: “so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them...” it would have been rejected had it been said to have come from Jesus? Well, what is preferable: to leave the Muslim in his fanatism or make him good, inducing him momentarily to think that it had come from Allah? This is a problem whose solution we will leave to the reader. As for us, it seems that making him kinder and more human he will be less fanatic and more accessible to the idea of a new belief instead of imposing it by force. There are truths that in order to be accepted cannot be carelessly thrown on people’s faces.

How many bad things would men have avoided had they always behaved like that?

As seen, the spirits are very careful regarding the way they speak. In such a case, however, the divergence is apparent rather than real. It leads man to the good; it destroys selfishness, pride, hatred, envy, and jealousy, teaching them the practice of true Christian charity that is essential to them. The rest will come with time. They preach by example as much as by speech, since they are truly good and superior spirits. They breathe kindness and benevolence. Irritation, violence, bitterness, harsh words, or even when the spirits say good things are never a sign of true superiority. The really superior spirits are never upset or affected. If they are not heard they just leave. That is all.

There are still two causes of apparent contradiction that should not be left blank. As we already said on many occasions, the inferior spirits tell us what we want to hear, without any compromise with the truth. The superior spirits go quiet or refuse to answer whenever we ask something indiscreet or about something that they do not have permission to explain. “In such a case”, they told us, “you should never insist because the frivolous spirits will respond and trick you; you may think that it was us and you will even admit that we are in contradiction. The serious spirits are never in contradiction. Their language is always the same with the same people. If some of them say contradictory things taking a common name, be certain that it is not the same spirit that speaks or, at least, that is not a good spirit. You shall recognize the good one by the principles that he teaches; hence every spirit that does not teach the good is not a good spirit. You should reject him.” Wishing to say the same thing in two different places the same spirit will not literally use the same words. Thought is everything to him. Unfortunately man is fonder of format than meaning. It is the format that he always interprets according to his ideas and passions and that interpretation may give rise to apparent contradictions that also originate from the insufficiency of human language to express super human things. Let us study in depth, let us investigate the intimate thought and we will see that many times there is analogy where a superficial exam led us to see nonsense.

The causes of contraction in the spirits’ language may thus be summarized as:

1. The degree of ignorance or wisdom of the spirits with whom we communicate;
   
   
2. The trickery of the inferior spirits who, by malice, ignorance or malevolence, on taking a borrowed name, may say things in contradiction to others that were said somewhere else by the spirit whose name they stole;
   
   
3. The personal failures of the medium who can influence the communications and alter or distort the thought of the spirits;
   
   
4. The insistence on obtaining an answer to something that the spirit refuses to say and that is answered by an inferior spirit;
   
   
5. The own will of the spirit who speaks in accordance with the moment, place and persons and may judge convenient not to say everything to everybody;
   
   
6. Insufficiency of human language to express things of the incorporeal world;
7. The interpretation that each one may give to a word or to an explanation, according to their own ideas, prejudices or the point of view that was used to analyze the issue. There are many difficulties that can only be overcome by a long and persistent study. Also, we have never said that the Spiritist Science is easy. The serious observer that investigates everything with maturity, patience and perseverance, learns a number of delicate nuances that escapes the superficial observer. It is through these subtle details that he initiates into this Science. Experience teaches us how to get to know the spirits, as it teaches us how to get to know men. We have just analyzed the contradictions from a generic point of view. In other articles we shall analyze specific and more important points.

* The reader will recognize that our criticism only addresses the exaggeration in all things. There is always a good side in everything; the error is in the exclusivism that the wise man will know how to avoid. We don’t have the intention of confusing the true scholars, of whom humanity is honored in fairness, but those who exploit the ideas without discernment. These are the ones we want to talk about. Our objective is uniquely to demonstrate that the official Science is not exempt of contradictions.

Be good and charitable, this is the key placed in your hands. The whole eternal happiness is contained in this statement: “Love one another”. The soul cannot rise to the spiritual regions unless through dedication to their neighbor; it cannot find happiness and consolation but in the ecstasy of charity. Be good, help thy brothers, and put aside this horrible ulcer of selfishness. Once this duty has been accomplished it shall open to you the paths of eternal happiness. As a matter of fact, who among you has not felt the heart beat and intimate joy expanding by the practice of one single act of charity? You should not think but in that kind of happiness provided by a good deed, with what you shall always be in the path of spiritual progress. There is no lack of examples. It is only the will power that is rare.

See the crowd of good men whose devoted memory history remembers. I can name by the thousands those whose moral had no other objective but to improve your globe. Hasn’t Christ told you everything that concerns the virtues of charity and love? Why His Divine teachings are left aside? Why are the ears covered to His Divine words and the heart closed to all his sooth teachings?

I wish the reading of the Gospel were done with more personal interest. But that book is abandoned; it is transformed into empty expressions and dead words; that remarkable code is forgotten. All your evils come from the voluntary abandonment allowed to its summary of the Divine laws. Thus, read those pages of fire from Jesus’ devotement and meditate about them. I feel ashamed myself for daring to promise you an essay about charity when I think that in that book you will find all teachings that should take you to the celestial regions.

Strong men, get ready; weak men, have by weapons your kindness and your faith; have more persuasion, more constancy in the propagation of your new doctrine. We only came to bring you encouragement; it is only to stimulate the zeal and virtues that God allows us to manifest to you. But, if you want, you won’t need anything but God’s help and your own will power. The spiritist manifestations were made but to the closed eyes and indocile hearts. There are men among you that must execute missions of love and charity: listen to them and exalt their voices; make their merits shine and you will be exalted by the disinterest and by the living faith that shall impregnate you.

Too extensive and detailed should be the advices given to you about the widening of the circle of charity; about the inclusion of all the unfortunate in this circle whose miseries are ignored; about every pain which should be sought after in their own refuge to console them in the name of this Divine virtue, charity. I see with satisfaction the number of prominent and powerful men that help in the search for that progress, which shall unite all human classes: the fortunate and the disgraced. Strange thing! All the unfortunate extend their hands and help one another in their own misery. Why do the happy ones take so long to hear the voices of the unfortunate? Why is it necessary a powerful earthly hand to promote the charitable missions? Why don’t they respond with more zeal to those appeals? Why do they allow misery, as if with pleasure, blemishing the image of humanity?

Charity is the fundamental virtue that must sustain the whole edifice of the earthly virtues. Without it there is no other. Without charity, there is no faith or hope. Without charity, there is no hope of a better fate or moral interest to guide us. Without charity, there is no faith since faith is a pure light beam that enlightens a charitable soul. It is its decisive consequence.

When you allow your heart open to the first supplicating miserable whose hand reaches out to you; when you extend your hand not asking if that misery is true or if that fate has a vice by cause; when you let the whole justice in God’s hands; when you pass to the Creator the punishment of all false miseries; finally when you practice charity by the pleasure it provides, without questioning its utility, then you shall be the children that God will love and embrace.

Charity is the eternal anchor of salvation in all globes; it is the purest emanation of the Creator; it is His own virtue passed on to the creatures. How can you ignore such a supreme benevolence? With that thought, who would be the sufficiently perverse heart to suppress and repel that Divine feeling? Who would be the sufficiently evil child to rebel against such a sweet touch of charity?

I dare not mention what I have done as the spirits also have the modesty of their work. However I think that the work I have initiated is one of those that should contribute a lot to alleviate your neighbors. I frequently see spirits requesting the mission to continue my work; I see my kind and dear sisters in their devout and divine ministry; I see them practicing the virtues that I recommend to you, finding the true joy provided by their existence of devotement and sacrifices. It is a great happiness to me to see how much dignified their character is; how much appreciated and protected their mission is. Good men, men of good and strong will, unite to continue the work of amplifying the propagation of charity. You shall find the reward of such a virtue through its own exercise. There isn’t a spiritual happiness that cannot be provided by that, in this existence already. Be united; love one another, according to the precepts of Christ.

Amen.

The story of the rapping spirit of Dibbesdorf, besides its humorous side, contains an instructive part, as indicated in the old documents published in 1811 by Priest Capelle.

On December 2nd, 1761 at six o’clock at night a kind of hammering sound, apparently coming from the floor, was heard from Antony Kettelhut’s room. Thinking that it was his server who wanted to have fun with the maid that was in the spinsters’ room, he went out prepared to throw a bucket of water on the mischievous man’s head but he found nobody outside. An hour later the noise started again and he thought that it was a rat making the noise. The next day he examined the walls, the ceiling, and the floor, but did not finding any evidence of rats.

The noise was heard again in the evening. After this, the house was considered too dangerous to live in. In addition, the servants no longer wanted to stay in the room while performing their work. Soon after the noise stopped, it reappeared again one-hundred feet away, in Luis Kettelhut’s house, Antony’s brother, with increased intensity and strength. The rapping focused in one corner of the room.

The villagers then became suspicious, so much so that the burgomaster communicated what had occurred to the authorities. In the beginning the authorities did not want to get involved in a subject considered so ridiculous. However, in time and under the constant pressure from the residents, on January 6th, 1762, the burgomaster traveled to Dibbesdorf to examine the facts. The walls and ceiling were demolished but it did not yield anything. The Kettelhut family swore that they had nothing to do with the strange phenomenon.

Up until then nobody had communicated with the “rapper” yet. One day this person from Naggam courageously asked:

- Rapping spirit, are you still there? A knock was heard.

- Can you tell us your name?

Several names were said but the spirit only knocked when the name of the speaker was heard.

- How many buttons are there in my shirt?

Thirty-six raps were heard. The buttons were counted, yielding the exact number 36.

Thereafter the story of the “rapping” spirit spread around the region and every afternoon hundreds of Brusnwick residents used to go to Dibbesdorf, as well as some English men and curious foreigners. The crowd grew so much that the local police were incapable of containing it. The peasants had to support the guard at night and were forced to establish check-in lines to the visitors.

Such a swarm of people seemed to have motivated the spirit to produce even more extraordinary manifestations, progressing towards communications, which attested to his intelligence. He was never mistaken in his answers. People asked about the number and color of the horses that were parked in front of the house; he would respond exactly. A book would be open by chance on a given page; a finger pointed to a part of a musical piece, requesting the designated part number, sometimes unknown to the interlocutor, followed by a series of raps perfectly indicating the requested answer. The spirit would not be long; the answer would be given immediately after the question was made. He also indicated the number of persons in the room, how many were outside; designated the color of the hair, of the clothes, the position and profession of the individuals.

One day there was a man from Hettin among the curious crowd, completely unknown to the Dibbesdorf locals; he had moved a short time ago to Brusnwick. He asked the rapping spirit about his place of birth and, wishing to induce error, he cited a large number of cities. When mentioning Hettin a rap was heard. A smart burgeon, attempting to get the “rapper” to make an error, enquired about the amount of coins he had in his pocket. The “rapper” made the exact number of raps that equaled the coins: 681. A pastry-cook was told how many cookies he had made in the morning; to a shop owner how many meters of ribbon he had sold the day before and to another one the exact amount he had received through the mail a couple of days earlier. He was playful. Whenever he was requested he played a tune with a deafening sound.

In the evenings, during meals and after “Grace” he would rap the Amen. That sign of devotion did not impede a sacristan to dress up with the exorcist outfit trying to expel the spirit; that plot failed. The spirit was afraid of nobody. He was very honest in his answers to the regent, the Duke Charles, and his brother Ferdinand and other simple persons of inferior condition. The case then became more serious. The Duke assigned a doctor and some attorneys to examine the facts. The scholars explained that the raps were due to an underground source. An eight feet deep well was excavated and water was naturally found, as Dibbesdorf is located at the bottom of a valley. The water gushed out, inundated the room but the spirit continued to rap in the usual spot. Then scientists thought that they were victims of some sort of mystification and gave the servant the honor of changing place with that spirit who was so well informed. His intention, they said, was to bewitch the maid. Every resident of the village was invited to stay home on a given and predetermined day; the server was kept under their vigilant eyes, as he was the culprit according to the wise men. But the spirit again answered all questions. The servant was released once his innocence was established. But justice wanted an author to the wrongdoing and accused the Kettelhut couple for the noise they were complaining about, although they were benevolent people, honest and irreproachable on all aspects and had being the first ones to seek the authorities, since the onset of the manifestations. Under threats and promises, they forced a young lady to testify against her masters. As a consequence they were arrested, despite the posterior contradiction and a formal declaration, attesting as false her first confession that was forcibly taken by the judges. Since the spirit still rapped, the Kettelhut couple stayed in prison for three months, being freed after that period without compensation, although the members of the commission summarized their report as follows: “All efforts to discover the cause of the noises rendered unsuccessful. Future will perhaps teach us about that.” - Future has not taught anything yet. The rapping spirit continued from the beginning of December until March, when it was no longer heard. The already incriminated servant was once more thought to be the author of all those mockeries. But how could he have avoided all traps arranged by the Dukes, doctors, judges and so many others who interrogated him?” OBSERVATION: If we pay attention to the date when such things happened and compare them to those that take place in our days, we find perfect identity in the mode of manifestation and even in the nature of the questions and answers. Neither America nor our times have discovered the rapping spirits, nor have they discovered the others, as we will demonstrate by several authentic and more or less aged facts. There is, however, between the present phenomena and the old ones a capital difference: it is the fact that the old ones were almost all spontaneous whereas ours are produced almost by the will of certain special mediums. This circumstance allowed them to be better studied and their causes better investigated. The judges’ conclusion that “the future will perhaps teach us about that” would not be followed by the authors’ remarks: “future has not taught anything yet”. If the author were alive today he would know, on the contrary, that the future taught everything and that our modern justice, better clarified than that of a century ago, would not make the same mistakes with respect to the spiritist manifestations, mistakes that remind the Middle Ages. Our own scholars have already penetrated into the mysteries of nature so as not to play games with unknown causes. They are wise enough and do not expose themselves, like their predecessors, to be contradicted by posterity, in detriment of their own reputation. If something shows up in the horizon they no longer rush to proclaim: “This is nothing”, afraid that it might be a ship. If they cannot see it, they go quiet and wait. Such is the true wisdom.

As announced, we publish in this issue of the periodical a drawing of a Jupiter dwelling, executed and engraved by Mr. Victorien Sardou as a medium, adding the descriptive article that he kindly wrote about it. As for the authenticity of the description, whatever might be the opinion of those who accuse us of getting involved with things that happen in unknown worlds, when there is so much to be done on Earth, we beg our readers to keep our objective in perspective, as well as the subtitle of the periodical, namely that it is the study of this phenomena and, as such, should not be neglected. Well, as a fact of manifestation, these drawings are the most remarkable since the author cannot draw nor engrave and that the drawing we offer is an etching made in a nine-hour period, without a model or a previous test. Even supposing that the drawing is a fantasy of the spirit who drew it, the simple fact of its execution would not be a lesser important fact to notice and, under the same title, it is up to our collection to make it known, as well as the description given by the spirits about it. It is not intended to satisfy the curiosity of futile individuals but as a subject for study by the serious individuals who want to pursue more indepth knowledge of the spiritist science.

It would be a mistake to consider that we make the revelation about the unknown worlds a capital point of the doctrine. This shall never be more than an accessory to us that we consider useful as a complementary study; the moral teaching will always be the most important to us and in the communications from beyond the grave we shall seek, above all, what can enlighten humanity and lead it to the good, the only means of ensuring happiness in this and in the other world.

Couldn’t we say the same about the astronomers who examine space and ask them what is the utility to human kind of knowing how to accurately calculate the parabolic trajectory of an invisible globe?

Not all sciences have an eminently practical interest. However, nobody intends to treat them with scorn because everything that broadens the circle of the ideas contributes to progress.

The same happens to the spiritist communications, even when they surpass the narrow circle of our own personality.

To certain people convinced of the existence of the spirits – and here I do not mention others – one must be surprised that the spirits, like us, may have their homes and cities. I was not spared of criticism: “Houses of spirits in Jupiter! ... What a joke! ...”

Joke it may be. But I have nothing to do with that. If in the likelihood of the explanations, the reader does not find sufficient proof of its truthfulness; if, as with us, he is not surprised by the perfect agreement between those revelations of the spirits and the most positive data of astronomy; if, in one word, he cannot see more than skillful mystification in the following details and in the drawing that is related to that, I invite you to explain yourself with the spirits, of whom I am a faithful echo and instrument. May Palissy or Mozart be evoked or another inhabitant of that happy world; may they be questioned; and may my assertions be controlled by theirs; may, finally, it all be discussed with them; as for myself I do no more than presenting what is given to me and repeating what I have been told; and that by an absolutely passive role, I judge myself sheltered from censorship as well as from praise.

Given that exception and admitting the trust in the spirits, if one accepts as true the only really beautiful and wise doctrine hitherto revealed by the evocation of the dead, that is, the migration of the souls from planet to planet, their successive incarnations and their never ending progress through work, then Jupiter inhabitants should no longer cause us any admiration. Since the moment when a spirit incarnates in a world like ours, subjected to a double revolution, which is the alternate days and nights and the cycle of seasons and since it has a body, this material covering, however fragile it may be, not only requires nutrition and clothing but also a shelter, or at least a resting place and, consequently, a dwelling.

This is exactly what we were told. As with us and better than us, Jupiter inhabitants have their common homes and their families, harmonious groups of sympathetic spirits, united in triumph along the way of their common struggle. Therefore the spacious homes that deserve the name of palaces.

Still, as happens to us, the spirits have their parties, ceremonies and public gatherings. Thus a number of edifices are especially built for that purpose. It is necessary to be prepared to find in those superior regions an active and laborious humanity as ours, also submitted to their laws, needs and duties, with the only difference that progress, which in our case reacts to our efforts, becomes an easy achievement to spirits detached from our earthly vices, like them.

I should not handle the architecture of their dwellings here. A word of explanation, however, will be useful to the understanding of the details that follow.

As good spirits only inhabits Jupiter, it does not follow that they are all on the same level of excellence: between the kindness of the simple man and that of the genius there are several nuances. The whole social organization of that superior world is based precisely on the variety of intelligences and aptitudes and, through the application of harmonious laws whose explanation would be too lengthy here, it is up to the more elevated and depurated spirits to manage the higher direction of the planet. Such supremacy does not stop there. It extends up to the inferior worlds where those spirits, by their influence, favor, and incessantly activate religious progress, are the guiders of all others. It is necessary to add that to those depurated spirits there is nothing but intellectual work as their activities take place in the domain of the mind and they have acquired enough control over matter in other not to be even slightly limited by that in the exercise of their free will.

The body of those spirits, by the way, as of all inhabitants of Jupiter, is of so low density that it can be compared to our most imponderable fluids. Somewhat taller than our body whose shape it exactly reproduces, more beautiful and purer however, it would have a vaporous shape to us – and here I regretfully use a word that designates a substance still too gross –vapor, I was saying, intangible and shiny, particularly around the borders of the face and head, hence life and intelligence irradiate from a very ardent focus. It is exactly that magnetic shine foreseen by Christian visionaries that our painters translated by the nimbus or aureole of the saints.

It is understandable that such a structure does not bring much difficulty to the extra worldly communications of those spirits, allowing them an easy and fast dislocation around their own planet. The body so easily avoids the effect of gravity and its density is so much alike the atmospheric density that it can come and go move up and down to the simple effort of the will. Thus, some characters that Palissy made me draw are represented hovering the ground or the surface of the waters or still very high up in the air, with every freedom of action and motion that we attribute to the angels. The more elevated the spirit the easier that motion, as we can easily understand. Thus, nothing in that planet is easier than the determination of the level of a given spirit, at first sight, as they move about. Two signs denounce it: the height of their flight and the more or less shiny aureole.

In Jupiter, as everywhere else, those who fly higher are infrequent. Below them there are several categories of inferior spirits, be it in virtue, be it in power, but, naturally, free to rise at a higher level one day through their acts. Leveled and classified according to their merits, they dedicate more particularly to the tasks of interest of their own planet and do not exert the influence of the others over the inferior worlds. It is true that they respond to an evocation with good and wise revelations but given the hurry to leave us, as demonstrated by their brief answers. It is promptly seen that they have a lot to do elsewhere and that they are not yet sufficiently free so as to simultaneously irradiate in two different points, far away from one another. Finally, following the less perfect of those spirits, but separated by an abyss, there are the animals that are the only servers and workers of the planet thus deserve a special reference.

If we designate the bizarre beings that occupy the inferior limits of the scale by the name of “animals” it is because the spirits themselves admitted its use, besides the fact that our language does not have a more adequate term. Such a designation significantly degrades them; however, calling them “men” would elevate them too much. These are spirits truly dedicated to the animality, maybe for a long time, maybe forever, once the spirits are not in total agreement in that regard and the solution to this issue seems to belong to worlds more elevated than Jupiter. Nevertheless, whatever their future may be there is no mistake with respect to their past: those spirits, before going to Jupiter, continuously migrated in our inferior worlds, from the body of one animal to another, through a perfectly graduated scale of progression. A careful study of our earthly animals, their customs, their individual characters, their ferocity away from men and the slow but always possible domestication, everything yields sufficient demonstration of the reality of such animal ascension.

Thus, no matter how we look at it, the Universal harmony is summarized in only one law: progress everywhere and to all, to the animal as to the plant, to the plant as to the mineral. In principle a purely material progress, in the insensitive molecules of the metal or the pebble and gradually more intelligent, as we move up in the scale of the creatures and as the individuality tends to separate from the masses, in order to stand alone and know oneself.

This thought is elevated and consoling, as never before, because it proves that nothing is sacrificed; that the reward is always proportional to the actual progress. For example: the dedication of a dog by its owner is not sterile to the spirits, as it will have its just compensation beyond this world.

That is the case with the animal spirits that inhabit Jupiter. They perfected at the same time as us, with us and with our help. The law is even more remarkable: it awards so much the devotement to man, as the first condition to their planetary ascension, that the wishes of a spirit in Jupiter can attract to him every animal that in one of his previous lives had given him proof of affection. Those sympathies, that in those regions form families of spirits, also aggregate around these families’ entourages of dedicated animals. Consequently, our attachment to an animal in our world, our care in taming and humanizing them, everything has a reason, and everything will be rewarded: it is a good server that we prepare to a better world.

It will thus be a worker since all material work is reserved to that species, all the corporeal effort: hauling or construction, sowing or harvesting. The Supreme Intelligence has prepared a body that accomplishes all that, simultaneously participating into the advantages of animal and man. We can have an idea from a sketch of Palissy, representing some of those animals entertaining themselves in a ball game. The best comparison one could have would be with the fauns and satyrs of the Fable. The slightly hairy body stands up like ours; in some the paws disappear, giving place to certain legs which still resemble the primitive form, and also two robust arms, singularly implanted and terminated by two real hands, if we consider the position of the thumbs. Surprisingly the head is not so much advanced as the rest. Thus, the looks has something of human but the skull, the jaw and ear, above all, have nothing noticeably different from the earthy animals. It is then simple to distinguish them: this is a dog, the other a lion. Adequately dressed with outfits very similar to ours, only lack the oral word to look like some men from our planet: this is precisely what they miss and what they could not do. Skilful to understand each other through a language that has no similarity with ours, they no long misunderstand the intention of the spirits who guide them: a glance, a gesture is enough. The animal guesses and obeys, without a whisper, certain magnetic impulses whose secret is already known by our tamers of beasts and, what is more important, voluntarily since they are fascinated. That is how every heavy duty is imposed on them and that with their support everything works regularly, from one to the next extreme of the social scale: the elevated spirit thinks and deliberates; the inferior spirit acts on his own initiative and the animal executes.

Thus the conception, execution and the action harmonize, bringing everything to their conclusion, swiftly and through the simplest and safest way.

I apologize for such an explanation: it was necessary to the subject that we can mention now.

While waiting for the promised maps which will greatly facilitate the study of the whole planet, we can, through the description given by the spirits, have an idea of their great city, of the city by excellence, of that focus of light and activities that they agree to call – what seems strange to us – by the Latin name Julnius.

“In our largest continent”, says Palissy, “in a valley of seven to eight hundred leagues wide, to utilize your measurement system, a magnificent river comes down from the northern mountains and, boosted by a lot of streams and creeks, forms seven or eight lakes in its path, that the smallest would be called “sea” among you. It was by the shores of the largest of those lakes, baptized as the “Pearl”, that our predecessors launched the foundations of Julnius. That primitive city still exists, guarded as a precious relic. Its architecture is very different from yours. When the time comes I will explain all that to you: know only that the modern city is just a few hundred meters away from the old one. Constrained by high mountains, the lake pours into the valley from eight huge waterfalls that form other isolated streams, dispersed in all directions. With the support of those watercourses we excavate several rivulets, canals and lakes in the plains, keeping the firm soil only for the houses and gardens. That results in a kind of amphibious city, like your Venice, where one cannot say, at first sight, if it was originally built on the ground or on the water. Today I will not say much about four sacred edifices built upstream of the falls, so that the water gushes out through their porches. Such constructions would seem incredible to you for their greatness and audacity.

“Here I describe the ground level city, somehow more material, city of the planetary occupations, the one we finally call the “lower city”. It has its streets, or even better, its paths designed for the internal service; its public grounds, its porches and its bridges over the canals, for the come and go of the servers. But the intelligent town, the spiritual city, the true Julnius, per say, should not be sought on the ground. It is aloft.

“A firm terrain is needed to the material bodies of our animals, incapable of flying *, but our fluidic and shiny bodies require an adequate airborne shelter, almost intangible and mobile, according to our wishes. Our skills solved that problem with the help of time and the conditions that the Great Architect has given us. You understand well the need for such an indispensable conquest of the air, to spirits like ours. Our day lasts five hours as also does our night but everything is relative to spirits ready to act and think like us; to spirits that understand each other by the language of their eyes and can magnetically communicate from a distance, our five hour day would be equivalent to a week of your activities. All that was still too little in our opinion. The immobility of the homes, the fixed spot of the dwellings, was a hindrance to all of our great realizations. Today, by the easy movement of those birds’ nests, by the possibility of transporting ourselves to anywhere on the planet, whenever we want to, our existence has multiplied at least twice, and with that everything it can produce as useful and great.

“During certain times of the year”, adds the spirit, “in certain festivities, for example, you will see somewhere the skies darkened by the cloud of houses that come from all points of the horizon. It is a curious gathering of beautiful homes, gracious, light, of all forms, colors, balanced on several levels, continuously moving from the lower to the celestial city. A few days later it is all gone, empty and all those birds gradually leave.”

“Those floating homes lack nothing, not even the enchantment of the green leaves and flowers. I speak about vegetation with no similarity among you, of plants and even bushes that by the nature of their organs, live, breathe, feed and reproduce themselves in the air.”

The same spirit still said:

We have those bunches of huge flowers, whose forms and nuances you cannot imagine, and of such a delicate fabric which makes them almost transparent. Balanced aloft, having broadleaf supporters and tendrils like those of the vine, they assemble into a thousand shades or disperse with the wind, offering a charming spectacle to the passers-by of the lower city... Imagine the grace of those rafts of greenery, of those floating gardens that our will can make or break and that sometimes last a whole season! Long trails of vines and flowering branches are detached from those heights, down to the ground; huge clusters are agitated, exhaling perfume from the loosening petals... The spirits who travel through the air stop there: it is a place of resting and gathering and, if you will, a means of transportation to complete a journey without fatigue and in good company.”

Another spirit was sitting on one of those flowers at the time I evoked him. He said:

“Now it is night time in Julnius and I am sitting at a distance, on one of those airborne flowers that only sprout under our moonshine here. The lower city sleeps at my feet; around me and just above my head and to the endless distance, there is only movement and happiness in space. We don’t sleep much: our soul is much detached so that our body’s needs do not tyrannize it. Night exists more to our servers than to us. It is the time of visitations, long talks, lonely strolls, daydreams and music. I only see airborne habitations resplendent of lights or rafts of flowers loaded with happy tufts... The first of our moons illuminates the lower city: it is a smooth light, comparable to your moonshines; but, the second one rises from the lake side, of greenish shines, yielding the whole river with that appearance of a vast lawn...”

It is by the right riverbank “whose water, says the spirit, would give you the impression of the consistency of a very light vaporous shape” ** that Mozart’s house is built, whose drawing Palissy was kind enough to make me reproduce on copper. I present here only the façade of the southern side. The great entrance is on the left, looking to the plains; to the right is the river; to the north and south the gardens. I asked Mozart who were his neighbors.

- Above and below me two spirits that you don’t know, but to the left there is only a large meadow that separates me from Cervantes’s garden.

The house has four faces like ours but it would be a mistake to take that by a general rule. It is built with a certain stone that the animals take from the northern mountains and whose color the spirit compares to the shades of green that sometimes mix with the celestial blue, at sunset. Regarding its strength we can have an idea by this comparison of Palissy: “it would melt so rapidly under the pressure of your fingers as the snow flake does, yet that is one of the most resistant materials of that planet!”

The spirits engraved strange arabesques on the walls that the drawing tries to reproduce. These are ornaments engraved on the stone and colored later, or incrustations produced on the rigid green stone by a process very much in use these days, that keeps the whole refinement of the contour of the vegetables, the loveliness of their tissues and the richness of their colors. “A discovery”, added the spirit, “that you will have one day and that will change many things.”

The large window to the right presents an example of that kind of ornament: one of its borders is nothing but a huge reed, whose leaves were preserved. The same happens to the coronation of the main window, imitating the shape of a treble clef: these are entwined and petrified plants. It is through such a process that most coronations of buildings, gates, porches, etc are obtained. Sometimes the plant is attached with its roots to the wall, free to grow. It then grows, develops, the leaves spread at random and when it achieves the full and desired development for the ornamentation of the building, the artist petrifies it on the spot. Palissy’s house is almost entirely decorated by such a process.

Destined initially only to the furniture, then to the casing of doors and windows, this type of ornament gradually perfected, finally taking over the architecture as a whole. Nowadays it’s not only flowers and bushes that are petrified but the whole trees themselves, from the root to the crown. The palaces, as with other buildings, have almost no other type of columns.

Similar petrification is applied to the decoration of the windows. Flowers or large leaves are skillfully stripped from its lamina. Only a bunch of fibers remain, so fine as the finest muslin. These are then crystallized and artistically arranged to make up the whole window that filters a smooth luminosity to the interior. A kind of multi colored liquid glass that hardens in the air, transforming the leaf into a kind of stained glass, is also employed. Charming and illuminated transparent branches result from the arrangement of those leaves at the windows.

As for the dimensions of those openings and several other details that, at first sight, may surprise you, I am forced to provide an explanation: history of architecture in Jupiter would require a whole volume. I shall not talk about the furniture either, sticking to the general structure of the house.

From the preceding, the reader should have understood that the house of the continent, to the spirit, is nothing more than a kind of resting place.

The lower city is only used by the spirits of the second order, in charge of the planetary businesses, like agriculture, for example, or the exchanges and to keep the good order among the servers. Thus, every house on the ground generally has two storeys, the ground level destined to the spirits who operate under the orders of the master, also accessible to the animals; the upper level only used by the spirit that occasionally stays there. That is why we see, in several houses of Jupiter, like this one for example, as with Zoroaster’s, a staircase and a ramp. Those who can fly on the surface of the water like the robins or run on top of the wheat crops without bending them can perfectly well move without stairs and ramps to get to their homes. But the inferior spirits cannot fly so easily. Those cannot rise but by irregular movements and the ramps are not always useless to them. Finally, the stairs are absolutely necessary to the animal servers that only walk like us. The former also have their pavilions which, by the way, are very elegant and are part of every large residence, but their functions constantly draw their attention to the master’s house, being thus necessary to facilitate their entry and also the internal traffic. That is why such original constructions, whose bases are similar to our earthly buildings but entirely different on the upper level.

This one distinguishes itself by an originality that we could not absolutely imitate. It is a kind of arrow that swings at the top of the building, above the great window with its original coronation. That delicate and easy moving topsail is supposed to stay put, since the artist’s conception, at the very place he had defined, not supported by anything, but completing the decoration. The dimension of the copper plate, regrettably, would not allow space for its representation.

As for Mozart’s airborne house, it is only needed to the testimony of its existence. The limits of this article do not allow me to extend beyond the subject.

I shall not conclude, however, without an in-passing explanation about the kind of ornaments that the great artist chose for his home. The similarity with our terrestrial music is easy to identify: the treble clef is frequently repeated and – original thing – never the bass clef! In the decoration of the ground floor we find a violin bow, a kind of tiorba or bandolin, a harp and a music staff. Above there is a large window that vaguely resembles the format of an organ; the others have the appearance of large musical notes but the small ones are abundant everywhere.

It would be a mistake to conclude that Jupiter’s music is comparable to ours and that it is presented by the same symbols. Mozart gave an explanation about that so as to eliminate any doubt. But, in the decoration of their homes, the spirits remember the earthly mission that gave them the merit of the incarnation in Jupiter and that magnificently summarizes the character of their intelligence. Thus, in Zoroaster’s house it is the planets and the flame that constitute every decorative element.

Besides, as it seems, this symbolism has its own rules and secrecy. Those ornamental elements are not randomly arranged. They have their own logic, imagination and precise meaning but it is an art that the spirits of Jupiter refrain from leading us to understand, at least by now, and about what they do not willingly explain.

Our early architects also employed a symbolism in the decoration of their cathedrals. St. Jacques tower is a hermetic poem if we give credit to the tradition. Therefore there is no reason for surprise with respect to the originality of Jupiter’s architecture. If it counters our ideas about human art it is in fact due to an abyss between an architecture that lives and speaks and an inexpressive masonry like ours. In this, as in everything else, prudence helps us to avoid such an error of relativism that intends to reduce everything else to the proportions and habits of the terrestrial man. If the inhabitants of Jupiter ate, slept, lived, and walked like us, there would be no advantage in going there. It is because that planet differs a lot from ours that we want to know it and dream about it as our future dwelling.

As for myself I believe I have not wasted my time and would be very happy for having been chosen by the spirits to be their interpreter if their drawings and their descriptions inspired in one believer only the desire to move up to Jupiter more rapidly, giving him courage to do everything in order to achieve that.

VICTORIEN SARDOU

The author of this interesting description is one of those ardent and enlightened individuals that are not afraid of confessing their beliefs loud and clear and that position themselves above the criticism of those who believe in nothing but in their own circle of ideas. Connecting their names to a new doctrine, defying sarcasm, is a courage not given to all. We congratulate Mr. V. Sardou for having done this. His work reveals a distinct author who is still young but has already conquered a place of honor in literature, allying his talent of writer to his profound knowledge of a scholar. It is one more proof that Spiritism does not recruit among fools and ignorant. We wish Mr. Sardou may complete his work as soon as possible and as brilliantly as he started. If the astronomers unveil to us, through wise researches, the mechanism of the Universe, the spirits, by their revelations, let us know its moral state and, as they say, with the objective of motivating us towards the good, to deserve a better life.

ALLAN KARDEC

* Exception made, however, to certain winged animals destined to work in the air and to certain tasks that the carpenter would execute among us. It is a transformation of the bird, as the animals described above are a transformation of the quadruped.

** Jupiter’s density is 0.23 or about 1⁄4 of Earth’s density. Everything that the spirit says here is likely. It is understandable that everything is relative and that in such an ethereal globe everything is ethereal as well.