The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1863

Since the principle of non-regression of the Spirit has been raised several times, a principle that is interpreted in multiple ways, we will try to resolve the issue. Spiritism wants to be clear to all and do not leave any point of discussion of words to its future followers hence all points susceptible of interpretation will be clarified successfully.

The Spirits do not retrograde in the sense that there is no loss of the already achieved progress. They can remain momentarily stationary but the good ones cannot become bad nor can the wise ones become ignorant. Such is the general principle that only applies to the moral condition and not to the material situation that from good may become bad if the Spirit deserve that.

Let us make a comparison. Let us take a man of the world, someone educated but that is guilty of a crime that leads him to jail. To him there is certainly a great fall with respect to his social condition and with respect to his material well-being. Neglect and abjection succeeded consideration and esteem. Regarding his intelligence, however, there is no loss. He will carry along his faculties, talents and knowledge to prison. It is a decayed man and that is how the decayed Spirits must be understood. Hence God can, after a certain time of atonement, subtract from a world where they did not progress morally, those who were indifferent to Him, those who have rebelled against His laws, sending them to atone their errors and their hard heart in an inferior world, among less advanced creatures. There they will be what they were before, morally and intellectually, but in an infinitely more painful condition given the nature of the globe itself and particularly given the environment where they find themselves. In a word, they will be in the position of a civilized person that is forced to live among the savages or of an educated person that is condemned to forced labor. They lost their position and privileges but did not retrograde to a primitive state. They did not become children after adulthood. That is how retrogress must be understood. Since did not use the time properly they have to restart the work. In His benevolence, God does not wish to keep them among the good ones any longer whose peace they disturb and that is why God sends them to live among people in a mission to make them progress, teaching them what they know. Through such a work they can advance themselves and regenerate through the atonement of previous faults like the slave that continuously save a bit of money to one day buy his freedom out. However, like the slave, many of them only save money instead of accumulating virtues the only way of paying for their redemption.

That has been, so far, the situation of our Earth, a planet of atonement and trials, where the Arian race, an intelligent race was exiled among primitive and inferior races that inhabited the planet before. That is the reason why there is so much suffering here, a suffering that the savage cannot feel in the same way. There is certainly regression of the Spirit in the sense that there is delay in the progress but not from the point of the view of the acquired values, the very reason why, together with the development of the intelligence, social degradation is so painful. That is why a man of the world suffers much more in an abject environment than someone that has always lived in the quagmire.

Following a system that has something of specious at first sight, the Spirits would not have been created to incarnate and incarnation would not be but the result of their fault. Such a system falls before the mere consideration that, if not a single Spirit had failed, there would not be anybody on Earth or in other worlds. Now, since the presence of mankind is necessary for the material betterment of the worlds; since mankind concurs towards the general work through people’s intelligence and activities; mankind is one of the essential gears of Creation. God could not have subordinated the partial realization of His work to the eventual regression of His creatures unless He always counted on a sufficient number of guilty souls to occupy the already created worlds and those to be created. Common sense rejects such idea.

Incarnation is then a necessity to the Spirit that by accomplishing its providential mission works towards its own betterment through work and intelligence that must be developed in order to provide for life and well-being. Incarnation becomes a punishment, though, when the Spirit does not do what it was supposed to be done, force to start the task again in a number of painful corporeal existences following one owns faults. A student only graduates after having passed through all classes. Are those classes a punishment? No. They are a necessity, an indispensable condition to advancement. But if due to laziness the Spirit is forced to repeat them it becomes a punishment. Hence it is certain that incarnation on Earth is a punishment to many that inhabit here because they could have avoided it whereas they could have multiplied it by two, three, a hundred, for their own faults and thus delaying their entry into better worlds. What is wrong is to admit in principle that incarnation is a punishment.

Here is another question that is frequently discussed: Since the Spirit was created simple and ignorant with the freedom of choice between good and bad wouldn’t it be a moral decay when the Spirit chooses the bad path, considering that the Spirit does evil things that were not done before? This proposition is not more sustainable than the previous one. There is only decay when there is a passage from a good to relatively worse. Now, created simple and ignorant, the Spirit is in a null state, morally and intellectually, like the child that has just been born. If no good is done there is no evil either; it is not happy or unhappy; it acts without conscience and without responsibility. Since it has nothing it cannot lose anything or regress. The Spirit’s responsibility only begins at the time when the free-will develops. Hence its primitive state is not a state of innocent and reasoned intelligence. Consequently, the bad deeds that the Spirit may do later on breaching the laws of God and abusing the God given faculties is not a regress from good to bad but the consequence of the path that was taken.

That leads us to another question. Nero, for example, while incarnate as Nero may have committed more bad actions than in his preceding incarnation? We respond that yes which does not imply that in his preceding life he was better. To begin with evil may change its form without being a greater or lesser evil. Nero’s position as an Emperor put him in evidence allowing his actions to become more noticeable. In an obscure life, he might have done equally reprehensible things although in a lesser scale and that went unnoticed. As a sovereign, he was able to set a whole city on fire. As a common person, he could have set a house on fire and killed the family. If a vulgar murderer that assaults and kill some travelers were sitting on a throne would be a bloodthirsty tyrant doing in larger proportion what his former position would only allow in a reduced scale.

Considering the question under another point of view I say that a person can do more evil in an existence than in a preceding one, show vices that were not there before without the implication of a moral regression. Often it is the occasion that is not there for the evil to take place. When there is the principle in a latent stage with the occasion the bad instincts reveal.

Common life gives us numerous examples of that order: A man that was considered good suddenly reveals vices that were unsuspected and that provoke astonishment. The reason is simply for the fact that he was able to dissimulate or because a cause provoked the development of a bad seed. It is true that someone in which the good feelings are well entrenched there isn’t even the bad thought. When such a thought does exist, it means that the germ is there. The only thing missing is frequently the execution.

Then, as we said, evil although under different forms is always evil. The same vicious principle may be the source of a number of diverse actions, all from the same cause. Pride, for example, may lead to a number of faults to which we are exposed while the radical principle is not eliminated. A person may then show defects in a given existence that were not present in a previous one and that are consequences of the same vicious principle.

To us Nero is a monster because he committed atrocities. But can we believe that those other treacherous people, hypocrites, true serpents that spread calumny, that spoil whole families through deception and abuse of confidence, that cover their turpitudes with the mask of virtue to achieve their aims with more security and be praised when they only deserved execration, can we believe, we were saying, that these are better than Nero? Certainly not. Incarnating in a Nero would not be a regression to them but an occasion to show a new face. In such a condition, they will exhibit the vices that they hid before. They will dare do through power what they did through deception that is the whole difference. But this new trial will not make their punishment more terrible unless instead of using the means of reparation he employs them to evil. Each existence, however, however bad it may be, is an occasion of progress to the Spirit that develops the intelligence and acquires experience and knowledge that later on will help with the moral progress.

Every new idea has necessarily the opposition of all those whose opinions and interests are countered. Some think that the Church’s position is compromised – we don’t think so but our opinion is not the law – that is why they attack us with a fury that is only second to the executions of the Middle Ages. The sermons and pastoral teachings through blows in all directions. Brochures and journal articles are like hail rain mostly without a very Christian cynicism. Several of them show an almost frenetically rage. Why such a demonstration of force and hatred? Because we say that God forgives regret and the penalties are only eternal to those who never repent; and because we proclaim God’s clemency and benevolence we are heretical prone to execration and society is lost. We are pointed out at as agitators; they invite authorities to persecute us in the name of a moral and public order, believing that if we are left alone they are not doing their job!

This brings up an interesting point. Some people ask why such an avalanche against Spiritism and not against so many other much less orthodox philosophical or religious theories. Has the Church attacked materialism that denies everything as it does to Spiritism that is limited to the interpretation of a few dogmas? Haven’t these dogmas as many others been denied, discussed and controverted in a number of texts that the Church allow to go unnoticed? Weren’t the fundamental principles God, the soul and the immortality publicly attacked without any move from the Church?

The so called Sansionism, Fourieism and even the church of Father Chatel have never attracted so much rage, not to mention other less known sects such as the fusionists, whose leader has just passed away and have their own cult, journal and do not admit the divinity of Christ; and there are the Catholics who do not accept the Pope and who have their priests and bishops married, have their churches in Paris and other provinces where they baptize, celebrate marriages and order the dead. Why then Spiritism that has no cult or church and whose priests only exist in people’s imagination, draws so much animosity? That is bizarre!

The religious party and the materialist party that mutually deny each other are hand in hand to annihilate us, as they say. The human Spirit really does show singular originalities when blindfolded by passion and history of Spiritism will have funny things to report. The answer is entirely in the conclusion of the brochure by Reverend Father Nampon^[1], as below:

“In general, there is nothing more degraded, nothing lacking more substance and attractiveness in its form than such publications whose fabulous success is one of the most alarming symptoms our times. With the money spent in Lyon on these ineptitudes, they could have been easily used it for the installation of more beds in the hospices of the alienated that have been overcrowded since the invasion of Spiritism. And what are we going to do with these clumsy brochures? We will do to them the same as the great apostle of Ephesus did by remaining in the empire of reason and faith, preserving the victims of those regrettable illusions from a number of deceptions in their present life and from the flames of a miserable eternity.”

It is that fabulous success that stuns our adversaries. They cannot understand the uselessness of everything that they do to block this idea that sneaks through their traps, stands up before their blows and moves on in its ascending march without concern for the stones that are thrown in its way. This is an undisputable fact many times attested by adversaries from this or that category in their speeches and publications. They all deplore the incredible progress of this epidemic that reaches even people of science, doctors and magistrates. In reality it is necessary to go back to Texas and say that Spiritism is dead and nobody else speaks of that. (See the article Sermons against Spiritism, Spiritist Review February 1863).

What is it that we do to succeed? Do we go to public places to preach? Do we invite the public to our sessions? Do we have our own propaganda missions? Do we have the support of the press? Finally, do we count on all of the secretive and ostensive means that you have and widely uses?

No. It takes us a thousand times less work to recruit followers than it takes you to veer them off. We are satisfied in saying: “Read and if you find it proper come back to us.” We do more, by saying: “Read the pros and cons and compare.” We respond to the attacks without hard feelings, without animosity, without acidity because there is on rage in us. Far from being sorry for yours we applaud it because it serves our cause.

Here you have, among thousands, a proof of the persuasive power of the arguments of our adversaries. A gentleman that has just sent a letter to the Parisian Society requesting membership starts the letter as below.

“By reading: The question of the supernatural; The dead and the living ones, by Father Matignon; The question of the Spirits, by Mr. de Mirville; The rapping Spirit, by Mr. Bronson and finally, by reading several articles against Spiritism I only felt completely attracted to the doctrine of The Spirits’ Book and that gave me the most earnest desire to join the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies in order to continue the study of Spiritism in a more consistent and fruitful way.”

Passion sometimes blindfolds people to the point of making them to commit singular contradictions. In the above-mentioned passage by Reverend Nampon he says “there is nothing that lacks more substance and attractiveness in its form than these publications whose fabulous success…” etc. He fails to realize that these propositions destroy one another mutually. Something without attractiveness could not have any success because the very condition of success is attractiveness and even more so when the success is fabulous. He adds that with the money spent in Lyon one could have installed more beds in the hospices of the alienated in that city, already overcrowded since the invasion of Spiritism. It is true that we would need between thirty and forty thousand beds in Lyon alone because all the Spiritists are mad. On another since the texts are inept they have no value. Why then giving them so many sermons, commandments and brochures? As for the use of the money, we know that a large number of certainly disappointed people with the money given to the chancellor of St. Peter would instead have given bread to the hungry during the winter, whilst the reading of the Spiritist works gave them courage and resignation to withstand their misery with courage.

Father Nampon was unfortunate in his citations. He leads us to bring back a passage of The Spirits’ Book: “There is such a distance between the soul of man and the soul of the animal as there is between the soul of man and the soul of God (# 597).” We say: “… the soul of man and God” that is very different. The soul of God implies a kind of assimilation between God and the corporeal creatures. The omission of a word is understandable by carelessness or typo but one does not add one word without intention. Why such an addition that alters the meaning of the idea if not to give a materialistic flavor to those who are satisfied with the citation without verifying the original? A book that was published somewhat earlier than The Spirits’ Book and that contains a whole theogonic and cosmogonic theory turns God into a very diversely material being because it makes God composed of the all globes and molecules of the universe, having stomach and digestion from which results mankind, the bad product. Nonetheless, not a word was used to combat it. The full rage was geared towards The Spirits’ Book. Will that be perhaps for the fact that in six years it has reached its tenth edition and is spread all over the world?

Not satisfied with their criticism they truncate and denature the maxims to add to the horror that one must feel in such a heinous doctrine and putting ourselves in contradiction. That is how Father Nampon cites a statement from the introduction of The Spirits’ Book, page XXXIII saying: “Certain persons, you say it yourself, lost their minds by the study of this material.” That gives the impression that we acknowledge the fact that Spiritism leads to madness while the thorough analysis of paragraph XV clearly shows that the accusation falls precisely onto those who raise it.

That is how one can take the fragment of a statement given by an author and lead him to the gallows. The most sacred authors would not have escaped such a dissection. It is with this kind of system that some critics expect to change the trend of Spiritism and make believe that it promotes abortion, adultery and suicide when in fact it definitively demonstrates its criminality and the dismal consequences for the future. Father Nampon goes to the point as to misappropriate some citations aiming at the denial of certain ideas. He says: “The author sometimes calls Jesus Christ the man-God; but elsewhere (The Mediums’ Book, item 259) in a dialogue with a medium that used the name Jesus who said: I am not God but His son, he immediately replies: But then you are Jesus?” Yes, Father Nampton adds, Jesus is called the son of God; that is then in an Adamic sense but not less consubstantial to the Father”.

To begin with it was not the medium who said that he was Jesus but a Spirit, and that is very different; and the citation is exactly made in order to show the deception that certain Spirits employ and keep the mediums aware of such gimmicks.

Your intention is to have Spiritism denying the divinity of Christ. Where have you seen such a proposition made by principle? You say that it is the consequence of the whole doctrine. Ah! If go there to the terrain of interpretations we may go further than you would wish. Had we said, for example, that Jesus had not attained perfection; that he had the need of incarnation in order to advance; that his passion was necessary for his ascension in glory you would be right because we would make him not even a pure Spirit sent to Earth with a divine mission but a simple mortal instead who had the need of the suffering in order to progress. Where have you found such interpretation from us? Then! What we have never said, what we will never say is you who say so.

Some time ago we saw at the main hall of a religious place in Paris the following inscription in large letters for the general instruction: “It was necessary that Christ suffered to enter his glory and it was only after he had drunk large amounts of the torrent of tribulation and suffering that he was taken to the highest heavens (Psalm 110:7)”^[2] This is the comment about the text that reads: “He will drink from the brook by the way;
therefore he will lift up his head.”

If he had to suffer in order to enter his glory; if he could not have been taken to the highest heavens but through tribulations and sufferings it means that he was not in such a glory before neither was he in the highest heavens, that is he was not with God. Hence his sufferings were not only to the benefit of humanity because they were needed for his own betterment. Stating that Jesus had the need to suffer in order to rise up is the same as saying that he was not perfect before his arrival. We cannot find a stronger protest to his divinity. If that is the meaning of the Psalm that is sung on the Eves than every Sunday they sing the non-divinity of Christ.

The system of interpretation takes us far. If we wanted to mention some from the councils about this verse: “The Lord is by your right-hand side; he will break the kings in the days of his rage”, it will be easy to demonstrate that it is the origin of the justification of regicide.

“The picture of future life, says Father Nampon, changes completely (with Spiritism). The immortality of the soul is reduced to a material permanence, without a moral identity, without a conscience of the past.”

It is a mistake. Spiritism has never said that the soul would lose its conscience of the past. It does momentary lose its memory during the corporeal life but “when the Spirit enters into its primitive life (spiritual life) their whole past unveils before their eyes: they see their faults, cause of their sufferings and what could have been done to avoid them. They understand that the position that was given to them is fair and then seek the life that could repair the one that has just ended (The Spirits’ Book, item 393).” Since there is a memory of the past, awareness of the being, there is then moral identity. Since the spiritual life is the normal life of the Spirit and that the corporeal lives are only points in the spiritual life immortality then is not just a material permanence. As it can be seen, Spiritism says exactly the opposite. By such deviation Father Nampon does not have the excuse of ignorance because his citations demonstrate that he did read but instead he makes the mistake of truncating the citations and making them in opposition to their true meaning.

Spiritism is accused by some of being based on the grossest materialism because it admits the perispirit that has material properties. This is still a false consequence taken from a principle that has been incompletely exposed. Spiritism has never confused soul with perispirit that is no more than an envelope as the body is another envelope. If the soul has ten envelopes this would not remove its immaterial essence.

That cannot be said about the Council of Vienna at the Dauphiné, France, in its second session on April 3^rd, 1312. According to that doctrine “the authority of the Church commands that the soul is just the substantial form of the body; that there are no innate ideas, declaring heretic those who deny the materiality of the soul”. Raul Fornier, a law Professor, teaches the same thing in his academic speeches about the origin of the soul, according to the texts printed in Paris in 1619 with the approval and praise of several doctors in Theology. It is possible that the Council, based on the facts of numerous visible and tangible Spiritist manifestations found in the Scriptures, manifestations that are positively material since they affect the senses, it is possible that the Council confused the soul with its fluidic envelope or perispirit whose distinction is demonstrated by Spiritism. Hence its doctrine is less materialistic than that of the Council.

“But let us examine the people of France, the most advanced in these studies. In order to attest the identity of the speaking Spirit, says Mr. Allan Kardec, it is necessary to study their language. Be it! We know through their authentic writings, the language of St. John, St. Paul, St. Augustine, Fénelon, etc. How dare you then attribute ideas and feelings absolutely contrary to those great geniuses forever consigned in their works?”



You then admit that those figures were not mistaken about anything; that everything that they wrote is the expression of truth; that if they returned today physically they should teach everything that the taught in the past; that coming as Spirits they should not deny any of their words. However, St. Augustine saw the belief in the roundness of Earth and in the antipodes as a heresy. He sustained the existence of the incubus and succubus and believed in procreation through trading between people and the Spirits.

Do you believe that he cannot think, as a Spirit, differently from what he thought as a man and that he would teach those doctrines today? If his ideas have to be modified about certain points they must also be about others. If he was wrong, the undoubtedly superior genius, why wouldn’t you yourself be wrong, and would that be necessary to deny him the right, or even better the merit of acknowledging his errors just out of respect for the orthodoxy?

You attribute to St. Louis this ridiculous phrase, particularly in his mouth, about the eternity of penalties: “The assumption of incurable Spirits is a denial of the law of progress” (The Spirits Book, item 1007). That is not how it is formulated. St. Louis responds to the following question: Are there Spirits that never repent? Answer: There are Spirits that take a long time to regret but the supposition that they will never improve would be the same as the denial of the law of progress and the same as saying that the child will not become an adult.

The first form would seem ridiculous. When then always truncating and changing the statements? Who do they think they deceive? The ones who will only read the inaccurate comments? But this number is too small compared to the ones who want to know better about these things to which you call their attention. Well, the comparison cannot but favor Spiritism.

NOTE: For the enlightenment of all we recommend the reading of the brochure: Spiritism, by Reverend Father Nampton, from the Company of Jesus, Girard and Josserand, Lyon, at Rue Cassette 5, Bellecour Sq. number 30, Paris. We also recommend the reading of the complete texts from The Spirits’ Book and The Mediums’ Book, texts that were partially mentioned or altered in the referred brochure.

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[1] Sermon preached at the primatial Church of Saint John the Baptist, in the presence of his Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Lyon, from 14^th to 21^st of December by Reverend Father Nampon of the Company of Jesus of the Advent.


[2] The original in French indicates Psalm 109:8 but that seems to be a typo that the reader may confirm through the text itself (T.N.)

That is the title of a brochure published in Alger by a retired officer, former representative of the people at the Constituent Assembly of 1848, in which, by trying to demonstrate that the objective of Spiritism is a gigantic speculation, he shows calculations that result in fabulous fortunes to us, numbers that leave behind the many millions with which we were gratified by a certain priest of Lyon (Spiritist Review, June 1862). We show the whole text with the conclusions of the author so that the reader can appreciate this interesting account. Such excerpt gives an idea about the remainder of the brochure with respect to Spiritism.

“Not stopping at the analysis of all articles apparently related to the proofs of neophytism and discipline of the Society, we call the reader’s attention to articles 15 and 16. It is all there. The reader will see that under the pretext of providing resources to the expenses of the Society each member pays: 1^st – a down payment of 10 francs; 2^nd – an annual fee of 24 francs and each free member pays an annual fee of 20 francs. The fees are pay in total per year that is in advance. Mr. Allan Kardec takes precaution against desertions.

Well, considering the admiration that people have everywhere for Spiritism we believe that a number of 3,000 members in Paris alone to be a conservative figure. The annual contributions then amount to 63,000 francs not including the down payments served to initiate the business.

We will only superficially estimate the proceedings from the sale of The Spirits’ Book and The Mediums’ Book. They must be considerable since we are not aware of any other book that is so much in fashion now and that is based on the insatiable desire of man to penetrate the mysteries of future life.

From the preceding, we have not yet shown the greatest source of profit. There is a monthly Spiritist magazine, published by Mr. Allan Kardec, an indigestible publication that goes far beyond the legends of the marvelous from antiquity and the Middle Ages, and whose membership is 10 francs per year in Paris; 12 francs to the provinces and 14 francs abroad.

Well, no follower of Spiritism would miss his share of apparitions, evocations, manifestations of Spirits and legends for 10 francs (about 90 cents per month)? Thus, since there are not less than 30,000 members in France and abroad yielding a total of 300,000 francs that added to the 63,000 francs of membership fees give a total of 363,000 francs. The expenses to be discounted are:

Total expenses: 112,000 francs. Now subtracting these from the 363,000 yield to Mr. Allan Kardec an annual profit of 250,000 francs not including the sales of The Spirits’ Book and The Mediums’ Book.

Considering the way this epidemic progresses, it will soon have half of France as Spiritist if that is not already the case and since one cannot be a good Spiritist without being a member and a subscriber of the Spiritist Review there is the likelihood that out of 20 million inhabitants, 5 million will subscribe to the magazine. Consequently, the income of presidents and vice-presidents of the Spiritist Societies will be 100 million francs annually and that of Mr. Allan Kardec, the owner of the Spiritist Review and sovereign pontiff, of 38 million.

If Spiritism conquers the other half of France, the income will double and if Europe is allowed to be infested, it will no longer be millions but billions that must be accounted for in profit.

Ah! The naïve Spiritists! What do you think about this speculation based on your simplicity? Would you have ever imagined that such a treasure could have resulted from the game of the dancing tables? Are you now aware of the reason why the propagators of the doctrine are so eager to found societies?

Isn’t there reason to say that human stupidity is a never ending mine to be exploited?

Let us now examine the means utilized by Mr. Allan Kardec and his skills as a speculator is the only thing that cannot be doubted.

He understands that with the universal fashion of the turning tables and without spending a cent the most important thing is done that is publicity.

The promise of unveiling the mysteries of life beyond the grave through the turning tables attracted an immense clientele eager for such mysteries and consequently entirely available to listen to his revelations. Then noticing that the existing cults could subtract from him a significant number of followers he proclaims their failure. One can read in his brochure “Spiritism in its simplest expression (page 15): From a religious point of view Spiritism is based on the fundamental truths of all religions: God, the soul, the immortality, future penalties and rewards; but it is independent of any particular cult.” Such a doctrine made to seduce an ever growing number of people who no longer wish to support any social hierarchy, could not but have its effect.”

OBSERVATION: There are then, in your opinion, many to whom the weight of religion is unbearable!

“What is really strange to us is the fact that, by authorizing the cult of Spiritism, the government had not seen that such audacious attempt contains the germ of abolition of its own authority. The reason being the fact that when the epidemic has spread even further isn’t that possible that by an injunction of the Spirits the authority that may threaten the existence of Spiritism may be abolished? There would be no harm in allowing the Spiritist societies. However, wouldn’t that be wise to prohibit their publications?



The sect would have been circumscribed to the meeting rooms and probably would not be more successful than the spectacles of Conus or Houdin.

But if the law is atheist, as modern philosophy says, it is due to such paradox that a person may proclaim the defeat of the Church’s authority. This example, we must say in-passing, would demonstrate the wisdom of the legislators of antiquity to the eyes of the less clairvoyant, who did not believe that material order could co-exist with moral disorder, so intimately interconnected in their civil and religious laws.

If the destruction of God’s spiritual creations was up to humanity the first effect of Spiritism would be to remove hope from people’s hearts. What would a person expect here if convinced (not proven) that there would be several corporeal existences after death, at their disposal and indefinitely? Such a dogma that is nothing more than the metempsychosis of Pythagoras, isn’t that supposed to weaken the feeling of duty down here by saying: Leave serious businesses to a later date? Charity, so strongly recommended by Jesus and by the Church, that Spiritism itself utilizes as the cornerstone of its edifice, doesn’t it receive a mortal blow?

Another effect of Spiritism is to transform faith, an act of free-will, into blind belief? Hence in order to entrench the speculation of Spiritism or the turning tables Mr. Allan Kardec preaches a doctrine whose tendency is the destruction of faith, hope and charity!

Nevertheless, if the Christian world would stand up, Spiritism will not prevail. The whole value of a religious principle will be recognized (as Mr. Bishop of Alger says in his letter dated February 13^th, 1863) because it is sufficient to succeed over any vacillation, opposition or any resistance.

But are there true Spiritists? We will deny it while there is hope in one’s heart. What is it that Spiritism contains then? It is nothing more than a speculator of deluded people. On the day when the temporal authority understands its bond to the moral authority and just block the Spiritist publications such a moral speculation will fall to no longer stand up.”

A paper from Alger, the Akhbar on March 28^th, 1863 in an article, as much benevolent as the brochure reproducing part of those arguments, concluded that it has been perfectly demonstrated that by authentic calculations that Spiritism gives us an annual income of 250,000 francs. The author of the brochure sees things even further since his estimates indicate that in a few years it will lead us to 38 million that is a budget above the richest sovereigns of Europe.

We will certainly not take the time to refute the calculations that are disproved by their own exaggeration but that demonstrates something: the horror that the rapid propagation of Spiritism causes in its adversaries to point of leading them to say absurd things. Admitting effectively for a moment the numbers of the author as real wouldn’t that be the strongest possible protest against the ongoing ideas that would fall down in the whole world before the idea issued by a single man, unknown six years ago? Isn’t that a recognition of the irresistible power of that idea?

You say that it tends to superceed religion and to demonstrate that you present it followed by 20 million people in a short time and later by forty million in France alone. You then shout: “No religion can perish.” But if your predictions do take place what will become of religion? Let us do a simple statistical calculation based on the numbers of the author. In France 36 million inhabitants; Spiritists 40 million; that results in minus four millions of Catholics because, in your opinion, one cannot be Catholic and Spiritist. If the Church is so easily destroyed by one person with the support of an extravagant idea isn’t that the acknowledgement that it is sustained by a very fragile foundation?

By saying that it can be compromised by simple absurdities is a weak praise to the power of its argumentation and a confession of the secret of its weakness. Where is then its unchangeable basis? We need a stronger and, in particular, more logical defender of the Church than the author of the brochure. There is nothing more dangerous than an unwise friend.

We don’t think about everything. The author did not notice that while trying to denigrate he exalts our importance and the means that he utilizes goes directly against his objective. Since money is the god of our time there is no lack of courtesan to the richest ones, attracted by the hope of cadavers. The billions with which he gratifies us would bring even princes to our feet, far from sending them away. What would the author say if we made him the heir of a few dozens of millions since we have no children? Would he believe that the source is bad? That would make him say that Spiritism is good for something.

In his opinion, the Parisian Society is one of the sources of our huge income and, in his estimates, it must have at least 3,000 members. To begin with we could ask who gives him the right to come to meddle with our private business. But let it be. Since the boast about so much accuracy and that is necessary when one wants to prove with numbers if he had only gone through the trouble of checking the report of the Society, published in the Spiritist Review of 1862 he would have had a more precise idea of its resources and of what he calls the budget of Spiritism.

If he had collected information elsewhere and not only from his imagination, he would have learned that the Society, officially listed among the scientific societies, is not a fraternity or a congregation but a simple gathering of persons that are involved with the in-depth study of a new science; that far from being concerned with the number that is more harmful than helpful, it restricts that number instead of increasing it by making the admission really difficult; that instead of 3,000 members it has never reached the number one hundred; that none of its workers is payed, nor president or vice-president or secretaries; that it does not hire payed mediums and that it has always fought against the exploitation of mediumship; that it has never accepted a single cent from the visitors that are accepted in small numbers and it has never had its doors open to the public; that besides the contributing members there is not a single member that is its tributary; that the honorable members do not pay any fee; that there is no affiliation or material solidarity between this Society and the others; that the fees and proceedings never pass through the hands of the president; that any expenses, however small, is only authorized by the committee; finally that its budget of 1862 was closed with a balance of 429,40 francs.

Does this slim result diminishes the importance of Spiritism? No, much to the contrary for it demonstrates that the Parisian Society is not any sort of personal speculation. When the author tries to excite the animosity against us telling the followers that they are ruined in our favor the will simply respond that it is a calumny since nothing is demanded from them and nothing is paid by them. Can it be said about everybody else and couldn’t the author’s argument be applied to others with more authentic numbers than his own? As for the 30,000 subscribers of the Spiritist Review we wish. “Calumny, calumny, said an author, and there is always something left.” Yes, certainly something will remain sooner or later that will return to the defamer.

Injuries, calumnies, clear inventions up to the moment when a private life is reached so that the individual falls in disgrace before a large number of persons; this brochure that has gone beyond all the published diatribes so far offers all the conditions required to be taken to the court. We did not do it despite the many requests we have received because it is Spiritism’s luck and we would not like that it would not have been published to the price of even worse calumnies. Our adversaries could not have done anything better for their own discredit by showing the sad expedients to which they were reduced so as to attack us and how much they are scared by the success of the new ideas.



We could say that it leads them to lose their minds. The effect of that brochure was to provoke huge laughter in all of those who know us and the number is large. As for those who do not know us, it must have inspired in them a lively desire to get to know this improvised millionaire that collects millions more easily than people collect cents and who just need to release an idea to attract the population of a whole empire. Well, since according to the author he only attracts the stupid ones it follows that the whole empire from top to bottom of the scale is made of silly people.

History of mankind does not offer a single example of similar phenomenon. Had the author been paid to achieve such result he would not have done better. Hence, we cannot complain.^[1]

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[1] We got a letter from Algeria – received with reservation – indicating that the author belongs to a Spiritist Center; that his eagerness for the cause had led him to the presidency but later for not be willing to renounce to certain projects that were not approved by the other members he was then destituted.

We reproduce in full the following letter received from Bordeaux on May 7^th, 1863:

“Dear Master,

On April 22^nd last, I received a letter from Mr. T. Jaubert, vice-president of the civil court of Carcassonne, honorary president of the Spiritist Society of Bordeaux, in which he informed me that the Academy of Floral Games of Toulouse had judged the poems admitted to the contest in 1863.

There were sixty-eight competing fables; two fables were selected and one got the first prize (The Spring); the other got a special mention in the oral report. Both fables, Mr. Jaubert says, are from his familiar Spirit. Since that was very important to Spiritism I wanted to witness that myself and traveled to Toulouse with a committee from the Spiritist Society of Bordeaux to watch the coronation of the rapping Spirit of Carcassonne. We then attended the solemn ceremony of the prizes and later the reading of the awarded fables, joining the general applause of the public of that city and we saw the hydra of materialism sneak through its brave and rising to its place the sacred and reassuring dogma of the immortality of the soul.

We address you, dear master, just as an interpreter of hour honorable president Mr. Jaubert. He assigned us with the task of telling you about this fortunate event knowing as we know that nobody can deduce with more wisdom its consequences and to make it useful to the cause that we are proud to serve under your paternal direction.

We gladly take this occasion to affirm our recognition to the excellent Mr. Jaubert and by the cordial and sympathetic reception that was given to the delegation of the Society of Bordeaux. Such protests of friendship are precious to us and give us courage to march with perseverance the laborious apostolate, not stopping before the obstacles that we may find there. Mr. Jaubert is one of those persons that can serve as role model to others. He is a true Spiritist, simple, modest and good, full of dignity and abnegation; he is calm and serious with everything that is great; he shows no pride or enthusiasm, essential qualities to anybody that wants to become an apostle of the doctrine, attaching his name to the courageous professions of faith that he sends to the weak and to the meek. We see the victory of the Spirit at the Capitol of Toulouse as a victory to our sacred and sublime doctrine. God wants to stop the smiles of irony and disbelief. That is no doubt why He allowed the chiefs of the Areopagus to have the soul of a dead person crowned.

Let us have May 3^rd recorded with golden letters in the history of Spiritism. It cements the first link of the fraternal solidarity that unites the living ones to the dead: splendid and sublime revelation that warms up and vivifies the souls through the radiation of faith.

The party was so beautiful to every Spiritist that attended the ceremony! They saw in the room of the Floral Games Spirits floating here and there, gliding over the public groups of Spirits that congratulated one another for this victory obtained by one of their brothers and irradiating above all the Spirit of Clemence Isaura, the founder of these new Olympic Games, having in her hands a flexible crown to place on the head of the laureate Spirit at the moment of triumph.

If there are times of sadness in life there are also those of ineffable happiness. It means that on May 3^rd, 1863 I saw in Toulouse, or even better, we saw one of those moments that makes us all forget the tribulations of earthly life.

Yours sincerely, dear master…

Sabó”

It is, in fact, a remarkable fact that has just taken place in Toulouse and everybody understands the emotion of the sincere Spiritists that attended the ceremony for they understood its consequences, emotion that was translated in such simple and touching words in the letter that we have just read. It is the expression of truth without jest, bluster.

Some people could be surprised by the fact that Mr. Jaubert did not confuse the adversaries of Spiritism by proclaiming during the session and before the crowd the true origin of the winning fables. If he did not do that it was for a simple reason: Mr. Jaubert is a simple man that does not try to make noise and that above all he knows how to live. Among the judges there were certainly some that did not share his ideas with respect to Spiritism. It would like throwing publically in their faces a kind of challenge, a belie, an action unworthy of an elegant man, or better saying, of a true Spiritist that respect other people’s opinion, even those that are different from his own.

What such a clamor would have produced? Protest from the part of some attendees, perhaps scandal. Would it have benefited Spiritism? No. It would have compromised its honor. Mr. Jaubert, as well as the numerous Spiritists that attended the ceremony, gave proof of elevated wisdom, abstaining from any public demonstration. It was a sign of reverence and respect as much to the Academy as to the assembly. They demonstrated once more in those circumstances that the Spiritists know how to maintain calm in success as well as before the attacks of the adversaries and that one should not expect incitation to disorder from them. The fact loses nothing in importance because it will soon be acclaimed and known in a hundred different countries. The detractors of good or bad faith, for there are both, will certainly say that there is nothing to demonstrate the origin of the fable and that the laureate could have attributed the products of his own talent to the Spirits in order to serve Spiritism. There is one very simple answer to this: the notorious honorability of Mr. Jaubert’s character that challenges any suspicion of having represented a farce unworthy of the moment and of his position.

When the adversaries attack us by showing the charlatans that simulate Spiritist phenomena on the stage we answer that true Spiritism has nothing in common with them as true science has nothing to do with pseudo or false scientists. It is up to those who take the burden of investigating to notice the difference. Even worse is the judgement of those who speak of something that they ignore.

Since the issue of loyalty cannot be questioned there is still the need to know if Mr. Jaubert is a poet or if in good faith he would not have taken one of his work and attributed that to the Spirits. I don’t know if he is a poet but if he had the talent of Racine the means by which he obtains his Spiritist fables does not allow for the faintest doubt: the notorious fact that all were obtained by typology, that is, by the language of the alphabet hit by the raps and that most had innumerous witnesses not less trustworthy than him. Whoever is familiar with this method knows that his imagination could not have had the minor influence. The authenticity of the origin is then incontestable and the Academy of Toulouse could verify that by attending one of his experiments. We give below the two awarded fables.

If someone continues to believe in the ability of a medium to have first-hand knowledge of information, lik the production of verses awarded by the Academy of Toulouse, then the same would not apply to things that are physically impossible for the medium to know. Among the many examples, the following fact is a peremptory response to the objection. We took it from a second letter of Mr. Sabò. He says:

“On May 4^th, after the delegation left, I remained another day in Toulouse and, during a visit to Mr. Jaubert, he proposed an experiment that I gladly accepted as I had never seen him in action. There was a heavy four-legged table in his room. We positioned ourselves facing one another and after several evolutions of the table that obeyed his commands he asked me to mentally evoke a Spirit after the table had returned to the normal position. Here are the questions he asked the Spirit and the answers:

Mr. Jaubert thought that he knew the name and advanced by saying: it must be Félicie or Félicité. Not responding to his observation, I asked him to continue. The Spirit then indicated letter “a”. I was moved and the medium was afraid of a mystification. Once he was certified that the name was Felicia, he continued.


Mr. Jaubert then thought that it was a real mystification because he knew that my wife was alive. I cannot deny the fact that I was really happy since I had just touched, if I can say so, the soul of my Felicia. I then explained to Mr. Jaubert – a fact that he did not know – that I was a widow and had married again a few months ago the sister of the Spirit that had just given us an irrefutable proof of the manifestation of the soul. He was as happy as I was with the result saying that he used to obtain results of such a nature and that gladly or not it should convince the most absolute disbelief. Whoever tells me: this does not exist, I will respond like Mr. Jaubert: This does exist, you unbelievers! Seek in good faith and you shall find out.

From our side, we tell these persons that they have the absolute doubters in high account believing that they will yield to evidence. There are those that were born unbelievers and will die like that; it does not mean that they could not believe but they did not want to believe. There isn’t a worse blind person than the one that does not want to see.

A wise officer recently told one of our friends that spoke to him about these phenomena:

You must understand that not even all the rapping Spirits of Carcassonne and in the whole world are enough to surpass such absolute and preconceived disbelief. The best thing to do is to leave them alone. When in a hundred people, ninety believe then what are the other ten going to do? As in the current situation they will still insist that they are the only ones with common sense and that it is necessary to arrest the mad ones, the ninety nine percent of the population. Leave them with that innocent satisfaction then and let us move on with our lives, not worrying about the ones that are late.

The expression “I know that it is impossible” brings to mind an anecdote:

A Dutch ambassador discussing specifics about Holland with Sian and about what the Prince was learning, he said, among other things, that the water got so hard during the coldest period of the year that people would walk on that and, with such a hardness, even elephants could walk it. The king then responded: “Mr. Ambassador, I believed in the extraordinary things that you told me so far because I saw you as an honored and noble person, but now I am certain that you are lying to me.” Isn’t that the same as “I know that it is impossible”?

The fact reported above proves nothing, certain unbelievers will say, because if the medium ignored the situation, Mr. Sabò knew it very well. It was his thought that was replicated then. Thus, it was the thought of the one that was not the medium that reflected on the table, agitating it intelligently to make it hit with knocks indicative of the letters that followed his thought.

What an incredible property of the mind! Only this phenomenon, admitting your theory, wouldn’t that be prodigious and deserve attention? Why do you disdain it then? Think about the composition of a grain of sand; carefully calculate the proportions of its elements and you only have disdain to show to a manifestation strange to a thought? If a new beam of light of the solar spectrum is identified you will promptly study its properties, its chemical action, its angle of reflection and the refraction index. A beam of thought is isolated, agitates matter, reflects like light and that does not attract your attention! You then say: “What is the point of being bothered with that? It is just a thought!”

But with such a theory, how can you explain the numerous facts of revelations, be it by typology, by writing, of things completely ignored by the attendees and whose accuracy was attested, among others that of Mr. Simon Louvet, reported in the Spiritist Review of March 1863? Whose thought would have reflected that if they had to resource to a six year old journal to verify it? Is it simpler to admit that it was the thought of the journalist than that of the Spirit of Simon Louvet?

You are then very much afraid to be forced to believe that the soul outlives the body! And the idea of annihilation after death smiles to you more than that of reviving in happier conditions and that of meeting again in the spiritual world the loved ones left behind on Earth!

If you are satisfied with the sweet quietness of disappearing forever at the bottom of the tomb and that of sleeping in the rottenness of the body, what bad do those who think the opposite do to you and why persecuting them like the enemies of mankind?

You try to do them harm in proportion to your belief; they don’t do that in proportion to yours even if they had the feeling of revenge from your calumnies. That is the condemnation of the social consequences of your doctrines.

We don’t refuse to believe, say some among you, but we cannot see because we are precluded even from entering the sessions where we could be convinced and where only the already convinced people are allowed.

The access to the meetings is denied to you for a very simple reason: you do not wish to do what is necessary to learn or to follow the path that is indicated to you. You come to the meetings with a hostile feeling, not to study cold and seriously, with the thought of having your preconceived ideas prevailing there and that in the majority of the cases you bring disturbance. Without the due respect to the private character, although not secretive, of the meetings, you try to enter through gimmicks in order to satisfy a useless curiosity and to find subject for sarcasm and frequently to denature what you had just seen. These are the reasons for your exclusion that would never be excessively strict because you are harmful to some and useless to yourself. Those who consciously want to enlighten themselves must demonstrated it through a patient and perseverant good-will and there will be no lack of means for that. But such a good will could not be found in your desire to submit things to your requirements instead of you yourself submit to the requirements of the thing. Having said that let us leave the unbelievers alone waiting that time will come when they will see light. The first answer given by the Spirit of Félicia could seem contradictory to certain persons. She says that she is a female whilst it is well known that the Spirits have no gender. It is true that they have no gender but in order to allow themselves to be recognized they show up in the form that we knew them when alive. Félicia continues to be female to her former husband. She could not present herself in any other way for it would have disturbed his memory. There is more: when he enters the spiritual world he will meet her as she was on Earth otherwise he would not recognize her. The purely physical characters, though, disappear gradually allowing for the permanence of the purely moral features. It is how the mother meets the child in an early age although in reality the Spirit is no longer a child. We must still add that the purely moral characters are the more persistent the less dematerialized the Spirits, that is, less elevated in the hierarchy of creatures. That is why the inferior Spirits, still attached to Earth, are in the invisible world more or less what they were in their lives, with the same tastes and inclinations.

We will make a final observation about this chapter. It is about the qualification of the rapping Spirit, wrongly given to the Spirit that communicates with Mr. Jaubert in our opinion. Such a classification is not adequate, as we said elsewhere, but to the Spirits that we would call rappers by profession and that always belong to the inferior echelons, by their little elevation of ideas and knowledge. Hence this would not apply to this one that demonstrates at the same time the superiority of his moral and intellectual qualities. For him typology is not an entertainment. It is a means of transmission of his thoughts that he utilizes for not having found in the medium the faculty necessary to act differently. His objective is serious whilst the rapping Spirits properly speaking is almost always futile, when not malevolent. We prefer the qualification of “tiptor” to that of rapping Spirit, since it can be taken in a bad sense, and tiptor is a term that refers to the language of typology.

Poetry by Mrs. Raoul de Navery

Read at the Parisian Society on March 27^th, 1863



OBSERVATION: Although it is not our habit to publish poetry that has not been attested as mediumistic the readers will certainly thank us for the exception given to the work below, result of the inspiration of a person that not long ago considered the Spiritist beliefs as utopias

What sometimes precludes you from correcting a defect or a vice is exactly the fact that you do not notice that you carry it. While you see the tiniest faults of your neighbor, of your brother, not even suspecting that you bear the same faults perhaps a hundred times greater than theirs. That is nothing more than the consequence of pride that leads all imperfect creatures to only see good things in themselves. You should analyze yourselves as if it was not you. Imagine for example that what you did to your brother had been done by him to you. Put yourself in his place. What would you do? Respond without a preconceived idea for I suppose you want to find the truth. By doing so I am certain that you will frequently find out about your own defects that you had not noticed before. Be honest with yourselves; get to know your character but do not flatter it because adulated kids become bad and the adulators are the first one to experiment the effects. Go back to the bag where you keep your defects and the defects of others. Bring yours to the top and keep the others behind and observe well if that is not keeping your head down when you have that load before your eyes.

La Fontaine

God did establish differences among the created souls. May the equality of rights serve them as the principle of friendship that is nothing more than the unity of tendencies and feelings! True friendship only exists between virtuous persons, united under the protection of the Almighty to encourage one another for the accomplishment of their duties. Every truly Christian heart carries the feeling of friendship. Such a virtue, however, finds in the selfishness of the vicious souls the tripping stone, like the fallen seed upon the arid rock that is infecund for the good.

Have your soul surrounded by the protecting fence of a faithful prayer, so that the internal as well as the external enemy cannot penetrate. The prayer elevates one’s soul to God, releasing from all human concerns, transporting to a state of tranquility and peace that cannot be provided by the world. The more confident and fervent the prayer the more it is heard and pleasing to God.

When the human soul is entirely penetrated by the holy zeal it reaches heavens through the devoted prayer and the passions, the inner enemies, as well as the vices of the world, the exterior enemies, are powerless to break the protecting walls.

Friends, pray to God with confidence from the bottom of your hearts, with faith and truth!

You ask me about the future of Spiritism and what shall be the place that it will have in the world. It will not have a place only. It will encompass the world. Spiritism is in the air, in space and in nature. It is the key to the dome of the social edifice. You can forecast its future based on its past and present. Spiritism is the works of God. You humans gave it a name; God gave you reason when the time came because Spiritism is the immutable law of the Creator. God has been inspiring Spiritism since mankind has achieved intelligence and from time to time has sent advanced Spirits to Earth with the initial insights about the influence of Spiritism. If they did not succeed it was due to the fact that human intelligence was not sufficiently advanced. But that was not sufficient to preclude them from sowing the idea leaving behind their names and actions as milestones on a road for the traveler to find the route. Look behind and see how many times God has already tried the Spiritist influence as a means of moral betterment.

What else was Christianity eighteen centuries ago if not Spiritism? The only difference is in the name. The idea is the same. It was only mankind that altered the works of God through free-will. Nature dominated bringing along the error. Later on, Spiritism struggled to germinate but the terrain was sterile and the seed broke hurting the head of the God assigned sowers. Intelligence developed with time and the field could be cultivated since the time for sowing again is near. Everyone admits that Spiritism spreads out. Even the nonbelievers understand it and if they do not confess and keep their eyes closed it is because the obfuscating light of Spiritism makes them blind. But God protects His work. He sustains it with His powerful sight; He encourages it and soon all peoples will be Spiritists because it contains the universality of all beliefs. Spiritism is the great leveler that advances to level plane all heresies. It is led by sympathy; it is followed by agreement, by love and fraternity; it advances without commotion and without revolution; it comes to destroy nothing, to knock nothing down in the social fabric; it comes to renovate everything.

There is no contradiction here: By becoming better people, we will aspire to better laws. The businessman will understand that the worker has the same essence as his own, then introducing sooth and wise regulations in their commercial relationships. The social relationships will change very naturally between wealth and mediocrity. With the absence of progress the Spiritist will understand that there is something more important than wealth, breaking the idea of accumulation that generates greed and the poor will certainly benefit from the reduction of selfishness. I don’t say that there will not rejection of this idea; that all will evolve universally fertilized by the wave of Spiritism. There will still be deniers and fallen angels for mankind has free-will and although there is no lack of advice many of them will only see from their narrow point of view that restricts the horizon of greed, not willing to yield to evidence. Bad for them. Be sorry for them, enlighten them because you are not judges and only God can criticize their conduct.

By the future that I show you for Spiritism, you can evaluate the influence it will have upon the masses. How are you organized, morally speaking? Have you balanced your qualities and defects? Neutral and lighthearted people populate a good chunk of Earth. Do the good individuals account for the majority? It is doubtful. Among the ones with a foot on the good side and the other on the bad side of the scale, the neutral ones, there are many that can swing both feet to the good side, the first step that quickly leads to more advanced stages.

There is still a group of bad creatures in this world but that tends to diminish every day. When people understand that the “eye for an eye” is the immutable law of God, a much more severe law than the toughest human laws; more terrible and logical than the eternal flames of hell in which they no longer believe, they will then fear that reciprocity of the penalties and will then think twice before doing the wrong thing.

When the criminal mind may foresee his fate through the Spiritist manifestation, he shall back up before the idea of a crime for he will know that God oversees everything and that the crime, although it may go without punishment on Earth, one day that impunity will have to be paid for and very dearly.

All hateful crimes will then disappear one day from the face of humanity, giving rise to concord and fraternity that have been preached to you for centuries. Your legislation will then be kinder in proportion to the moral betterment; slavery and death penalty will have no place in your laws only remaining as memories of the tortures of inquisition. Hence regenerated people will only be concerned with their intellectual progress. Since there will no longer be selfishness the scientific discoveries that frequently require the concourse of many minds will develop rapidly, and they will say: “Never mind the name of the one that does good; the important thing is that good gets done! For in reality what frequently stops your scientists in their ascending march of progress is their ego, the ambition of seeing their names attached to the works. That is the future and the influence Spiritism will have upon the peoples of Earth.

A philosopher from the other world.

In the last edition when speaking about the journal La Verite de Lyon, we said that Bordeaux would also have its Spiritist Review soon. We saw a proof of that publication whose title will be “La Ruche Bordelaise, Revue de l’enseignement des Esprits (The Hive of Bordeaux, a Review with the teachings of the Spirits), promising a new serious vehicle for the propagation of Spiritism. Since they requested our advice we say their directors a letter that they kindly placed at the top of their first edition, declaring their intent of following the flag of the Parisian Society in all points. We feel happy for such an adhesion that can only strengthen the bonds of union of all Spiritists through the communion of ideas. These are Spiritists sincerely dedicated to a common cause without prejudices.

The Hive of Bordeaux is issued on the 1^st and 15^th day of each month in brochures of sixteen pages beginning on June 1^st, 1863. The price is six francs per year for people living in France and Algeria. Edition Rue des Trois-Conils, 44 Bordeaux.

Allan Kardec^[1]

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[1] Paris, typography of Cosson and Co., Rue de Four-Germain, 43