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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1865 > March
March
Where are the skies?[1]The word sky is used, in general, to describe the indefinite space that surrounds Earth, and in particular the part that is above the horizon. It originates from the Latin coelum, formed from the Greek coilos, hollow, concave, because to our eyes the sky is like an immense concavity. Old peoples belived in the existence of multiple, superimposed skies, made of solid and transparent, forming concentric spheres in which Earth would be in the center. These turning spheres would carrying the globes along its circles.
Due to the insufficiency of knowedge regarding astronomy this idea was adopted by all teogonies that turned the escalonated skies into the several levels of beatification. The last was the dwelling of supreme happiness. According to the most common opinion there were seven and hence the utilization of the expression “to be in the seventh sky” to express perfect happiness. The Muslims admit nine and each one increases the happiness of the believer.
Ptolomy,[2] the astronomer, considered the existence of eleven, the last of which was called Empireo[3] due to the extreme light that shines there. It is even today the name given to the place of beatitude. Christian teology recognizes three skies: the first is the region of air and clouds; the second is the space where the globes move around; the third, beyond the region of the globes, is the dwelling of the Almighty, the home of the elected that contemplate God face to face. That is the reason why St. Paul was taken to the third sky.
The multiple doctrines related to the dwelling of the blessed ones are all based on the double error of considering Earth as the center of the universe and the region of the globes limited. They all placed the happy home of the Almigty beyond that imaginary limit. Singular anomaly that places the author of all things at the end of creation instead of being placed at the center from where the radiated thoughts could reach everything. With the inexorable logic of facts and observation, science took its lights up to the depth of space showing the emptiness of those theories. Earth is no longer the pivot of the universe but one of the smallest globes moving in the infinite. The Sun itself is only the center of a planetary maelstrom. The stars are uncountable Suns around which countless planets orbit, separated by distances only conceived by thoughts although seemingly touching one another. In such a system, governed by eternal laws that reveal the omnipotence and wisdom of the Creator, Earth is not but an imperceptible point and one of the least favored to be inhabited. Given that we ask why would God have turned Earth the only place capable of entertaining life and to that place he would have sent his favorite creatures? Everything, on the contrary, indicates that life is everywhere and that humanity is infinite like the universe. Science reveals planets like Earth and God could not have created them without an objective. God must have populated them with creatures capable of governing them.
Peoples’s ideas are in proportion to their knowledge. Like every important discovery the one about the constitution of the globes must have given them another course. Under the empire of these new knowledge their belief must have changed. Sky was displaced and the region of the stars, having no boundaries, isn’t of any use anymore. Where is he? All religions go quiet before such a question. Spiritism comes to resolve it by demonstrating the true destiny of mankind. Starting from the nature of men and the attributes of God the conclusion is the consequence.
Man is composed of body and Spirit. The Spirit is the principal, rational and intelligent being; the body is the material envelope that momentarily covers the Spirit for the execution of their mission on Earth and for the necessary work of development. Once worn the body is destroyed and the Spirit outlives the destruction. Without the Spirit the body is only inert matter like an instrument without the managing arm; without the body the Spirit is everything: life and intelligence. Leaving the body the Spirit returns to the spiritual world from where he had come before incarnating.
There is, however, the corporeal world composed of incarnate Spirits, and the spiritual world, formed by the discarnate Spirits. The beings of the corporeal world, as a consequence of its material envelope, are detained on Earth or any other planet. The spiritual world is everywhere, around us and in space. It is boundless. Given the fluid nature of its envelope, the beings that constitute it transpose distances with the speed of thought, instead of painfully dragging their bodies on the ground. The death of the body is the rupture of the links that maintain the Spirit captive.
The Spirits are created simple and ignorant but with aptitude to acquire everything and advance as a result of its free-will. Through progress they acquire new knowledge, new facutlites, new perceptions, and consequently new pleasures that are unknown to inferior Spirits. They see, hear, feel and understand what inferior Spirits cannot see, hear or understand. Happiness is proportional to the achieved progress, so that given two Spirits one may not be as happy as the other simply because one may not be as much advanced intellectual and morally with no need to have them placed in different places. Athought they may be close to one another it is possible that one may be in darkness whereas the other is surrounded by light, exactly like a person of normal sight walked hand in hand with a blind person: one sees the light has no effect on the neighbor. Happiness to the Spirits is inherent to their qualities. Therefore they enjoy it wherever they are, on the surface of Earth among the incarnate or in space.
A common comparison may be even better to explain this situation. Consider two persons in a concert; one of them is a good musician with an educated ear whereas the other has no musical knowledge and poor ears skills for music; the first one feels pleasure whereas the second remains insensible because what one understands and feels causes no impression on the other. That is what happens to all sensations of the Spirits that are in proportion to their aptitude to feel them. The spiritual world has splendors everywhere, harmonies and sensations that the inferior Spirits, still under the influence of matter, cannot even foresee for they are only accessible to depurated Spirits.
The progress of the Spirits is the result of their own work. However, since they are free they work with more or less intenstity or neglect, according to their will. Therefore they speed up or delay their progress, and for that same reason, their happiness. While some advace quickly others drag their feet for centuries in inferior categories. Hence they are the own artifices of their condition, happy or unhappy, according to these words of Jesus Christ: “everyone rewarded according to their work”. Every Spirit that falls behind cannot complain but of oneself by the same way that the one that advances has the whole merit of their own effort. A conquered happiness is worth more to our eyes.
Supreme happiness is only enjoyed by perfect Spirits, that is, pure Spirits. They only achieve that after progressing in intelligence and morality. Intelectual and moral progress rarely march together but what is done by the Spirit in one period will be done in another so that both progresses end up by reaching the same level. That is why we sometimes see persons that are intelligent and educated but little advanced morally, and vice-versa. The incarnation is necessary to the double progress of the Spirit, moral and intellectual: the intellectual progress by the activity that the Spirit is forced with work; moral progress by the need that people have of each other. Social life is the touchstone of the good as well as bad qualities. Goodness, badness, kindness, violence, benevolence, charity, selfishness, greed, pride, humility, sincerity, honesty, loyalty, bad faith, hypocrisy, in a word, everything that constitute a good or a perverse person, whose drive and objective is the relationship between man and his fellow human beings. For that reason someone that lived alone would not have vices or virtues. Such a person is preserved from evil by the isolation as she is precluded from doing good as well.
A single corporeal existence is positively insufficient so that the Spirit may acquire everything that is lacked in good and to remove everything that is bad. Could the savage, for example, achieve in only one existence the moral and intellectual level of the most advanced European? That is physically impossible. Should that savage remain eternally in barbarism, deprived from the pleasures that only the development of the faculties allow? Simple commonsense refutes such hypothesis that would be at the same time the denial of God’s justice and goodness, as well as the progressive law of nature. That is why the sovereignly good and just God provides the Spirit with as many incarnations as necessary so that the objective of perfection is achieved.
In each new existence the Spirit brings what was acquired in the preceding one in aptitude, intuitive knowledge, intelligence and morality. Each existence is like that, one step forward on the path of progress, unless the Spirit does not take advantage of that out of laziness, carelessness or obstination in evilness, in which case a reestart is needed. Hence it is up to the Spirit to reduce or increase the number of required incarnations, always more or less painful and laborious.
In the interval of the physical existences the Spirit returns to the spiritual world, for a more or less lengthy period of time, where the Spirit is happy or unhappy according to the good or bad that had been done. The spiritual state is the normal state of the Spirit since this must be its definite state considering that the spiritual body does not die. The corporeal state is just fleeting and transient. It is particularly in the spiritual state that the Spirit picks the fruits of the realized progress for the work done in the incarnation. It is also in this state that the Spirit prepares for the new endeavors and make the resolutions that struggles to carry out on returning to humanity.
Reincarnation can take place on Earth or in other worlds. Among the worlds there are some more advanced than others and there the existence takes place in less painful conditions than on Earth, physically and morally, but where only the Spirits that have attained a compatible level of perfection with those worlds are accepted. Life in the superior worlds is already a reward because there the Spirit is exempt from the diseases and vicissitudes found here. There the less material bodies, almost fluidic, are not subjected to illnesses and needs. Since the bad Spirits are excluded, people live in peace there with the only concern of their own advancement by work and intelligence. True fraternity reigns there since there is no selfishness; there is true freedom since there is no disturbance to restrain or ambitious persons trying to oppress the weak.
Compared to Earth these worlds are true paradises. They are the stages of the route of progress that leads to the definite dwelling. Since Earth is an inferior world destined to the depuration of imperfect Spirits, that is the reason why evil dominates here until God wishes to make it the residence of more advanced Spirits.
That is how the Spirit, by progressing gradually, reaches the apogee of happiness. However, before achieving the summit of perfection, the Spirit enjoys a level of happiness that is relative to the actual advancement, like the child that likes the pleasures of the first infancy, later on ejoying those of the youth and finally the more solid ones of maturity.
Happiness to the blessed Spirits is not in the contemplative idleness that would be, as said many times, an eternal and boring inutility. At all levels the spiritual life is, on the contrary, constant activity and free from fatigue. Supreme happiness consists on the enjoyment of all splendors of creations, that no human language could depict and that the most prolific imagination cannot conceive; on the knowledge and understanding of everything; on the absence of any physical and mental fatigue; on an intimate satisfaction, an unalterable serenity of the soul; on the love that unites all creatures in the absence of any friction with evil, and above all consists on the vision of God and the comprehension of the mysteries that are revealed to the more worthy ones. That happiness is also on the functions that are assigned to them and make them happy. The pure Spirits are the Messiah or the messengers of God for the transmission and execution of God’s wills. The carry out the great missions, preside the formation of the worlds and the general harmony of the universe, a glorious task only achieved by perfection. Only those in a more elevated order understand the secrets of God and are inspired by God’s thoughts from which they are the direct representatives.
The tribulations of the Spirits are proportional to their advancement, their enlightenment, to their capacity, their experience and the degree of confidence inspired on the sovereign Teacher. For that there is no privilege or favor that is not sponsored by merit. Everything is measured by the criteria of strict justice. The most important missions are assigned only to those that are knowingly capable of accomplishing them, incapable of failure or of compromising them. While the more worthy ones compose the supreme council, superior leaders are assigned with the direction of a planetary maelstrom; others are assigned with a special world. Next in the order of advancement and hierarchical subordination, the more restricted assignments to the representatives to the march of peoples, families and individuals, to the impulse to each branch of progress, the multiple operations of nature, up to the minimal details of creation. In that vast and harmonious setting there are activities to every capacity, every aptitude, every good-will, occupations that are accepted with pleasure, eagerly requested because these are means of advancement to the requesting Spirits that aspire for their elevation.
Reincarnation is inherent to the inferiority of the Spirits. It is no longer necessary to those that have transposed its limit and that progress in the spiritual world or in corporeal existences in superior worlds that do not keep the materiality of Earth. To them reincarnation is voluntary, aiming at the exercise of a direct action upon the incarnate for the accomplishment of the missions that they were assigned with respect to them. Out of devotion they accept the vicissitudes and sufferings.
Side by side with the great missions assigned to superior Spirits there others of every level of importance, assigned to Spirits of all orders, from which one can say that every incarnate soul has their own, that is, they have their duties with respect to the well-being of their fellow human beings, from the father whose duty is to ensure the progress of his children up to the genius that casts upon society the new embryos of progress. It is in these secondary missions that many times we find failures, evasions and resignations that only harm the individual and not the group.
Therefore all intelligences concur to the general work, irrespective of the level that they may have achieved, and each one according to their forces, some in the incarnate state and some as Spirit. It is activity all over the place, from the bottom to the top of the scale, everybody learning, helping one another, giving mutual help, hand in hand to get to the top.
That is how the solidarity between the spiritual and corporeal worlds is established, that is, among humans and the Spirits, among free and captive Spirits. That is how true sympathies and sacred affections perpetuate and consolidate through the depuration and continuity of the relationships.
Hence there is life and movement everywhere. There isn’t a single corner of the infinite space that is not inhabited; not a single region that is not incessantly visited by uncountable legions of radiant beings, invisible to the crude senses of the incarnate but whose sight dazzles with joy and admiration the souls that are detached from matter. Finally, there is a relative happiness everywhere, according to the progress and duties that are carried out. Each one carrying along the elements of their own happiness, in proportion to the category in which they are placed by their own advancement.
Happiness depends on the own qualities of the individuals and not on the material state of the environment where they are placed; it is then everywhere where there are Spirits capbale of being happy; they have no circumscribed space in the universe. The pure Spirits may contemplate the divine majesty everywhere because God is everywhere.
Happiness, however, is not personal. It it were only in ourselves and if we could not share it with others it would be selfish and sad. It is also in the communion of thoughts that unite sympathetic beings. Happy Spirits, attracted to one another by the similarity of ideas, tastes and feelings form vast homogeneous groups or families, in which each individual irradiates their own qualities and receives the serene and beneficient breaths that emanate from the whole whose members both disperse to carry out their own missions and get together in a given region in space to share the results of their work, or even meet around a Spirit of even an more elevated order to receive instructions and advices.
Although the Spirits are everywhere they preferably meet in planets given the similarity between them and the ones that inhabit thaose planets. The superior Spirits gravitate around advanced worlds; the inferior ones around delayed planets. Earth is still one of these. Hence, each globe in a certain way has its own kind of population of incarnate and discarnate Spirits that feed one another in its majority through the incarnation and discarnation of the same Spirits. That population is more stable in inferior worlds in which the Spirits are more attached to matter; it is more variable in superior worlds. But Spirits from globes that are the focus of light and happiness are detached to inferior worlds to disseminate the seeds of progress, and to deliver consolation and hope; to lift up the abated courage after the trials of life. They sometimes incarnate in these planets to better accomplish their missions. In such a boundless space then where are the skies? Everywhere. There is no wall limiting them. Happy worlds are their final stations. Virtues open up the avenues to them where vices block them. Before such a magnificent image that populates all corners of the universe, that provides every oject of creation with an objective and a reason for being, how petty is the doctrine that circumscribe humanity to an imperceptible place in space; that shows it to us as beginning at a given time to equally end on a day with the world that carries it, not embracing therefore a single minute in eternity! How sad, cold and glacial when it shows us the universe before, during and after our earthly humanity, lifeless, motionless, like an immense desert surrounded by silence!
How desperate it is, with the image of a small number of elected ones devoted to eternal contemplation, while the vast majority is condemned to the endless suffering! How pungent it is to the loving hearts, for the barrier that is interposed between the dead and the living ones! They say that the happy souls only care about their own happiness and the unhappy ones about their pains. Should we be surprised by the kingdom of egotism on Earth when we are presented with the skies? How narrow, therefore, is the idea that it gives of the greatness, the power and the goodness of our Creator!
The one presented by Spiritism, on the contrary, how sublime that is! How its doctrine amplifies the ideas and broadens the thought! But, who can tell it is true? First reason, then the revelation and finally the agreement with the progress of science! From two doctrines from which one diminishes and the other auguments the attributes of God; from which one is in disagreement and the other in harmony with progress; from which one remains behind and the other advances, common sense points to the side of truth. Given the presence of both may each person internally question their own aspirations and an intimate voice will respond. The aspirations are the voice of God that cannot deceive mankind. But then, why hasn’t God revealed the truth from the beginning? For the same reason that a child is not taught what she will learn at a mature age. A restrict revelation was enough during a certain period of humanity. God provides it according to the forces of the Spirit. Those that today receive a more complete revelations are the same Spirits that on other times received just a fraction, but that later on grew in intelligence. Before science had revealed to them the lively forces of nature, the constitution of the globes, the true role and the formation of Earth, would they have understood the infinite space and the plurality of the worlds? Could they have identified with a spiritual life? Could they have conceived a happy or unfortunate life after death, unless restricted to a place and with a material form? No. Understanding more by the senses than thoughts the universe was too much to their brains. It was necessary to have it reduced to smaller proportions appropriate to their point of view, having the possibility of amplifying it later on. A partial revelation had its utility then. It was wise. Today it is insufficient. The mistake is with those that do not take into account the progress of the ideas and believe to be able to govern mankind with baby walkers.
Allan Kardec
Note: This article, as well as the one from the preceding issue about the fear of death, were extracted from the new book to be soon published by Mr. Allan Kardec. The two following events come to confirm such an image of the skies.
[1] See the book Heavens and Hell, Part I, Chap. III
[2]Ptolomy lived in Alexandria, Egypt, in the second century of the Christian era
[3]From the Greek pur, pyr = fire
Due to the insufficiency of knowedge regarding astronomy this idea was adopted by all teogonies that turned the escalonated skies into the several levels of beatification. The last was the dwelling of supreme happiness. According to the most common opinion there were seven and hence the utilization of the expression “to be in the seventh sky” to express perfect happiness. The Muslims admit nine and each one increases the happiness of the believer.
Ptolomy,[2] the astronomer, considered the existence of eleven, the last of which was called Empireo[3] due to the extreme light that shines there. It is even today the name given to the place of beatitude. Christian teology recognizes three skies: the first is the region of air and clouds; the second is the space where the globes move around; the third, beyond the region of the globes, is the dwelling of the Almighty, the home of the elected that contemplate God face to face. That is the reason why St. Paul was taken to the third sky.
The multiple doctrines related to the dwelling of the blessed ones are all based on the double error of considering Earth as the center of the universe and the region of the globes limited. They all placed the happy home of the Almigty beyond that imaginary limit. Singular anomaly that places the author of all things at the end of creation instead of being placed at the center from where the radiated thoughts could reach everything. With the inexorable logic of facts and observation, science took its lights up to the depth of space showing the emptiness of those theories. Earth is no longer the pivot of the universe but one of the smallest globes moving in the infinite. The Sun itself is only the center of a planetary maelstrom. The stars are uncountable Suns around which countless planets orbit, separated by distances only conceived by thoughts although seemingly touching one another. In such a system, governed by eternal laws that reveal the omnipotence and wisdom of the Creator, Earth is not but an imperceptible point and one of the least favored to be inhabited. Given that we ask why would God have turned Earth the only place capable of entertaining life and to that place he would have sent his favorite creatures? Everything, on the contrary, indicates that life is everywhere and that humanity is infinite like the universe. Science reveals planets like Earth and God could not have created them without an objective. God must have populated them with creatures capable of governing them.
Peoples’s ideas are in proportion to their knowledge. Like every important discovery the one about the constitution of the globes must have given them another course. Under the empire of these new knowledge their belief must have changed. Sky was displaced and the region of the stars, having no boundaries, isn’t of any use anymore. Where is he? All religions go quiet before such a question. Spiritism comes to resolve it by demonstrating the true destiny of mankind. Starting from the nature of men and the attributes of God the conclusion is the consequence.
Man is composed of body and Spirit. The Spirit is the principal, rational and intelligent being; the body is the material envelope that momentarily covers the Spirit for the execution of their mission on Earth and for the necessary work of development. Once worn the body is destroyed and the Spirit outlives the destruction. Without the Spirit the body is only inert matter like an instrument without the managing arm; without the body the Spirit is everything: life and intelligence. Leaving the body the Spirit returns to the spiritual world from where he had come before incarnating.
There is, however, the corporeal world composed of incarnate Spirits, and the spiritual world, formed by the discarnate Spirits. The beings of the corporeal world, as a consequence of its material envelope, are detained on Earth or any other planet. The spiritual world is everywhere, around us and in space. It is boundless. Given the fluid nature of its envelope, the beings that constitute it transpose distances with the speed of thought, instead of painfully dragging their bodies on the ground. The death of the body is the rupture of the links that maintain the Spirit captive.
The Spirits are created simple and ignorant but with aptitude to acquire everything and advance as a result of its free-will. Through progress they acquire new knowledge, new facutlites, new perceptions, and consequently new pleasures that are unknown to inferior Spirits. They see, hear, feel and understand what inferior Spirits cannot see, hear or understand. Happiness is proportional to the achieved progress, so that given two Spirits one may not be as happy as the other simply because one may not be as much advanced intellectual and morally with no need to have them placed in different places. Athought they may be close to one another it is possible that one may be in darkness whereas the other is surrounded by light, exactly like a person of normal sight walked hand in hand with a blind person: one sees the light has no effect on the neighbor. Happiness to the Spirits is inherent to their qualities. Therefore they enjoy it wherever they are, on the surface of Earth among the incarnate or in space.
A common comparison may be even better to explain this situation. Consider two persons in a concert; one of them is a good musician with an educated ear whereas the other has no musical knowledge and poor ears skills for music; the first one feels pleasure whereas the second remains insensible because what one understands and feels causes no impression on the other. That is what happens to all sensations of the Spirits that are in proportion to their aptitude to feel them. The spiritual world has splendors everywhere, harmonies and sensations that the inferior Spirits, still under the influence of matter, cannot even foresee for they are only accessible to depurated Spirits.
The progress of the Spirits is the result of their own work. However, since they are free they work with more or less intenstity or neglect, according to their will. Therefore they speed up or delay their progress, and for that same reason, their happiness. While some advace quickly others drag their feet for centuries in inferior categories. Hence they are the own artifices of their condition, happy or unhappy, according to these words of Jesus Christ: “everyone rewarded according to their work”. Every Spirit that falls behind cannot complain but of oneself by the same way that the one that advances has the whole merit of their own effort. A conquered happiness is worth more to our eyes.
Supreme happiness is only enjoyed by perfect Spirits, that is, pure Spirits. They only achieve that after progressing in intelligence and morality. Intelectual and moral progress rarely march together but what is done by the Spirit in one period will be done in another so that both progresses end up by reaching the same level. That is why we sometimes see persons that are intelligent and educated but little advanced morally, and vice-versa. The incarnation is necessary to the double progress of the Spirit, moral and intellectual: the intellectual progress by the activity that the Spirit is forced with work; moral progress by the need that people have of each other. Social life is the touchstone of the good as well as bad qualities. Goodness, badness, kindness, violence, benevolence, charity, selfishness, greed, pride, humility, sincerity, honesty, loyalty, bad faith, hypocrisy, in a word, everything that constitute a good or a perverse person, whose drive and objective is the relationship between man and his fellow human beings. For that reason someone that lived alone would not have vices or virtues. Such a person is preserved from evil by the isolation as she is precluded from doing good as well.
A single corporeal existence is positively insufficient so that the Spirit may acquire everything that is lacked in good and to remove everything that is bad. Could the savage, for example, achieve in only one existence the moral and intellectual level of the most advanced European? That is physically impossible. Should that savage remain eternally in barbarism, deprived from the pleasures that only the development of the faculties allow? Simple commonsense refutes such hypothesis that would be at the same time the denial of God’s justice and goodness, as well as the progressive law of nature. That is why the sovereignly good and just God provides the Spirit with as many incarnations as necessary so that the objective of perfection is achieved.
In each new existence the Spirit brings what was acquired in the preceding one in aptitude, intuitive knowledge, intelligence and morality. Each existence is like that, one step forward on the path of progress, unless the Spirit does not take advantage of that out of laziness, carelessness or obstination in evilness, in which case a reestart is needed. Hence it is up to the Spirit to reduce or increase the number of required incarnations, always more or less painful and laborious.
In the interval of the physical existences the Spirit returns to the spiritual world, for a more or less lengthy period of time, where the Spirit is happy or unhappy according to the good or bad that had been done. The spiritual state is the normal state of the Spirit since this must be its definite state considering that the spiritual body does not die. The corporeal state is just fleeting and transient. It is particularly in the spiritual state that the Spirit picks the fruits of the realized progress for the work done in the incarnation. It is also in this state that the Spirit prepares for the new endeavors and make the resolutions that struggles to carry out on returning to humanity.
Reincarnation can take place on Earth or in other worlds. Among the worlds there are some more advanced than others and there the existence takes place in less painful conditions than on Earth, physically and morally, but where only the Spirits that have attained a compatible level of perfection with those worlds are accepted. Life in the superior worlds is already a reward because there the Spirit is exempt from the diseases and vicissitudes found here. There the less material bodies, almost fluidic, are not subjected to illnesses and needs. Since the bad Spirits are excluded, people live in peace there with the only concern of their own advancement by work and intelligence. True fraternity reigns there since there is no selfishness; there is true freedom since there is no disturbance to restrain or ambitious persons trying to oppress the weak.
Compared to Earth these worlds are true paradises. They are the stages of the route of progress that leads to the definite dwelling. Since Earth is an inferior world destined to the depuration of imperfect Spirits, that is the reason why evil dominates here until God wishes to make it the residence of more advanced Spirits.
That is how the Spirit, by progressing gradually, reaches the apogee of happiness. However, before achieving the summit of perfection, the Spirit enjoys a level of happiness that is relative to the actual advancement, like the child that likes the pleasures of the first infancy, later on ejoying those of the youth and finally the more solid ones of maturity.
Happiness to the blessed Spirits is not in the contemplative idleness that would be, as said many times, an eternal and boring inutility. At all levels the spiritual life is, on the contrary, constant activity and free from fatigue. Supreme happiness consists on the enjoyment of all splendors of creations, that no human language could depict and that the most prolific imagination cannot conceive; on the knowledge and understanding of everything; on the absence of any physical and mental fatigue; on an intimate satisfaction, an unalterable serenity of the soul; on the love that unites all creatures in the absence of any friction with evil, and above all consists on the vision of God and the comprehension of the mysteries that are revealed to the more worthy ones. That happiness is also on the functions that are assigned to them and make them happy. The pure Spirits are the Messiah or the messengers of God for the transmission and execution of God’s wills. The carry out the great missions, preside the formation of the worlds and the general harmony of the universe, a glorious task only achieved by perfection. Only those in a more elevated order understand the secrets of God and are inspired by God’s thoughts from which they are the direct representatives.
The tribulations of the Spirits are proportional to their advancement, their enlightenment, to their capacity, their experience and the degree of confidence inspired on the sovereign Teacher. For that there is no privilege or favor that is not sponsored by merit. Everything is measured by the criteria of strict justice. The most important missions are assigned only to those that are knowingly capable of accomplishing them, incapable of failure or of compromising them. While the more worthy ones compose the supreme council, superior leaders are assigned with the direction of a planetary maelstrom; others are assigned with a special world. Next in the order of advancement and hierarchical subordination, the more restricted assignments to the representatives to the march of peoples, families and individuals, to the impulse to each branch of progress, the multiple operations of nature, up to the minimal details of creation. In that vast and harmonious setting there are activities to every capacity, every aptitude, every good-will, occupations that are accepted with pleasure, eagerly requested because these are means of advancement to the requesting Spirits that aspire for their elevation.
Reincarnation is inherent to the inferiority of the Spirits. It is no longer necessary to those that have transposed its limit and that progress in the spiritual world or in corporeal existences in superior worlds that do not keep the materiality of Earth. To them reincarnation is voluntary, aiming at the exercise of a direct action upon the incarnate for the accomplishment of the missions that they were assigned with respect to them. Out of devotion they accept the vicissitudes and sufferings.
Side by side with the great missions assigned to superior Spirits there others of every level of importance, assigned to Spirits of all orders, from which one can say that every incarnate soul has their own, that is, they have their duties with respect to the well-being of their fellow human beings, from the father whose duty is to ensure the progress of his children up to the genius that casts upon society the new embryos of progress. It is in these secondary missions that many times we find failures, evasions and resignations that only harm the individual and not the group.
Therefore all intelligences concur to the general work, irrespective of the level that they may have achieved, and each one according to their forces, some in the incarnate state and some as Spirit. It is activity all over the place, from the bottom to the top of the scale, everybody learning, helping one another, giving mutual help, hand in hand to get to the top.
That is how the solidarity between the spiritual and corporeal worlds is established, that is, among humans and the Spirits, among free and captive Spirits. That is how true sympathies and sacred affections perpetuate and consolidate through the depuration and continuity of the relationships.
Hence there is life and movement everywhere. There isn’t a single corner of the infinite space that is not inhabited; not a single region that is not incessantly visited by uncountable legions of radiant beings, invisible to the crude senses of the incarnate but whose sight dazzles with joy and admiration the souls that are detached from matter. Finally, there is a relative happiness everywhere, according to the progress and duties that are carried out. Each one carrying along the elements of their own happiness, in proportion to the category in which they are placed by their own advancement.
Happiness depends on the own qualities of the individuals and not on the material state of the environment where they are placed; it is then everywhere where there are Spirits capbale of being happy; they have no circumscribed space in the universe. The pure Spirits may contemplate the divine majesty everywhere because God is everywhere.
Happiness, however, is not personal. It it were only in ourselves and if we could not share it with others it would be selfish and sad. It is also in the communion of thoughts that unite sympathetic beings. Happy Spirits, attracted to one another by the similarity of ideas, tastes and feelings form vast homogeneous groups or families, in which each individual irradiates their own qualities and receives the serene and beneficient breaths that emanate from the whole whose members both disperse to carry out their own missions and get together in a given region in space to share the results of their work, or even meet around a Spirit of even an more elevated order to receive instructions and advices.
Although the Spirits are everywhere they preferably meet in planets given the similarity between them and the ones that inhabit thaose planets. The superior Spirits gravitate around advanced worlds; the inferior ones around delayed planets. Earth is still one of these. Hence, each globe in a certain way has its own kind of population of incarnate and discarnate Spirits that feed one another in its majority through the incarnation and discarnation of the same Spirits. That population is more stable in inferior worlds in which the Spirits are more attached to matter; it is more variable in superior worlds. But Spirits from globes that are the focus of light and happiness are detached to inferior worlds to disseminate the seeds of progress, and to deliver consolation and hope; to lift up the abated courage after the trials of life. They sometimes incarnate in these planets to better accomplish their missions. In such a boundless space then where are the skies? Everywhere. There is no wall limiting them. Happy worlds are their final stations. Virtues open up the avenues to them where vices block them. Before such a magnificent image that populates all corners of the universe, that provides every oject of creation with an objective and a reason for being, how petty is the doctrine that circumscribe humanity to an imperceptible place in space; that shows it to us as beginning at a given time to equally end on a day with the world that carries it, not embracing therefore a single minute in eternity! How sad, cold and glacial when it shows us the universe before, during and after our earthly humanity, lifeless, motionless, like an immense desert surrounded by silence!
How desperate it is, with the image of a small number of elected ones devoted to eternal contemplation, while the vast majority is condemned to the endless suffering! How pungent it is to the loving hearts, for the barrier that is interposed between the dead and the living ones! They say that the happy souls only care about their own happiness and the unhappy ones about their pains. Should we be surprised by the kingdom of egotism on Earth when we are presented with the skies? How narrow, therefore, is the idea that it gives of the greatness, the power and the goodness of our Creator!
The one presented by Spiritism, on the contrary, how sublime that is! How its doctrine amplifies the ideas and broadens the thought! But, who can tell it is true? First reason, then the revelation and finally the agreement with the progress of science! From two doctrines from which one diminishes and the other auguments the attributes of God; from which one is in disagreement and the other in harmony with progress; from which one remains behind and the other advances, common sense points to the side of truth. Given the presence of both may each person internally question their own aspirations and an intimate voice will respond. The aspirations are the voice of God that cannot deceive mankind. But then, why hasn’t God revealed the truth from the beginning? For the same reason that a child is not taught what she will learn at a mature age. A restrict revelation was enough during a certain period of humanity. God provides it according to the forces of the Spirit. Those that today receive a more complete revelations are the same Spirits that on other times received just a fraction, but that later on grew in intelligence. Before science had revealed to them the lively forces of nature, the constitution of the globes, the true role and the formation of Earth, would they have understood the infinite space and the plurality of the worlds? Could they have identified with a spiritual life? Could they have conceived a happy or unfortunate life after death, unless restricted to a place and with a material form? No. Understanding more by the senses than thoughts the universe was too much to their brains. It was necessary to have it reduced to smaller proportions appropriate to their point of view, having the possibility of amplifying it later on. A partial revelation had its utility then. It was wise. Today it is insufficient. The mistake is with those that do not take into account the progress of the ideas and believe to be able to govern mankind with baby walkers.
Allan Kardec
Note: This article, as well as the one from the preceding issue about the fear of death, were extracted from the new book to be soon published by Mr. Allan Kardec. The two following events come to confirm such an image of the skies.
[1] See the book Heavens and Hell, Part I, Chap. III
[2]Ptolomy lived in Alexandria, Egypt, in the second century of the Christian era
[3]From the Greek pur, pyr = fire
Necrology
Mrs. Widow FoulonThe journal Siècle on February 13th, 1865 in the necrology section, published the following note reproduced by the Havre and the Antibes:
“A well liked and appreciated artist in the Havre, Mrs. Widow Foulon, a skillful miniaturist, died on February 3rd in Antibes where she had gone looking for the recovery of her health, altered by work and age, in a more pleasant climate.”
Since we personally knew Mrs. Foulon and enjoyed her friendship we feel happy to complete the very short notice above. It is a duty of friendship and a deserved tribute payed to her unknown virtues and a healthy example to everyone, and to the Spiritists in particular, that will find precious teachings here.
As an artist, Mrs. Foulon was remarkably talented. Her works, fairly appreciated in many exhibitions, were granted multiple honorofic rewards. It is certainly a merit but that is not exception. What actually made her loved and esteemed, what turns her memory dear to all of those that knew her, is the kindness of her character; her private qualities whose reach could only be apprecitated by those that shared her private life because as with all those that have an inate feeling of good, she did not exhibited them and not even was suspicious of them. If there was someone that had no influence of pride that was undoubtedly her. The feeling of personal abnegation had not perhaps ever gone so far as with her. She was always ready to sacrifice her rest, her health and her interests for those that could benefit from her help; her life was not but a long series of dedications as it was, since her youth, a long series of tough and painful trials bedore which her courage, resignation and perseverance have never failed her.
Her talent was the only thing left by the setbacks of life and it was the the brushes that she raised a large family, ensuring an honorable position to all children through her teachings and paintings. Only by knowing her private life one can realize everything that she had to endure in fatigues and deprivations, all difficulties against which she had to fight to reach her objective. But ah! Her sight, worn out by the demanding work of miniatures, was fading away on a daily basis; still sometime more and her already advanced blindness would have been complete.
When Mrs. Foulon learned about the Spiritist Doctrine some years ago, it was like a beam of light to her. She felt like having a veil lifted up from something that was not unknown to ther but that she only had a vague intuition about.
She then studied it with eargerness but at the same time with that lucidity of Spirit and fairness of appreciation that was peculiar to her elevated intelligence. It is necessary to get to know the perplexities of her life, perplexities that instead of affecting her always affected the loved ones, to understand all the consolations that she obtained from this sublime revelation that gave her an umbreakable faith in the future, and showed her the insignificance of the earthly things.
Without the respect due to the intimate things, great teachings would come out of the last period of this life so fruitful in emotions! So the assistance of good spirits did not fail her; the instructions and teachings which they were pleased to bring to this honorable soul form the most edifying collection, but very private, of which we are pleased to have been the provocative agent more than once. Her death was also worthy of her life. She saw the moment approaching without any painful apprehension: to her it was the deliverance of the terrestrial bonds which was to open to her the blessed spiritual life with which she had identified herself by the study of Spiritism.
She died calmly because she was mindful of having accomplished her mission, a mission that she accepted before coming to Earth; of having scrupulously done her duties of wife and mother because also during her life she had abjured every resentiment against those that she could have hard feelings and that had payed her with ungratefulness. She always payed bad with good and left her life with everybody forgiven, delivering herself to the justice and goodness of God. Finally, she died with the serenity that is given by a pure conscience and the certainty of being less separated from her children than during her material life since from now on she could be with them in Spirit in any point of the globe where they could be; help them with her advices and extend her protection to them. Now, what is her fate in the world where she is now? The Spiritists present that already. Let us allow her to report her impressions.
As before, she died on February 3rd. We received the news on the 6th and our first wish was to communicate with her, if possible. At the time we were experiencing a serious illness what explains some of her words. It is important to mention that the medium did not know her and knew nothing about the particularities of her life, of which she speaks spontaneously. Here her first communication on February 6th:
February 6th, 1865 – medium Mrs. Cazemajour
“I was certain that you would like to evoke me just after my passing and therefore I was ready to respond to you since I did not experience disturbance. It is only those that have fear that are involved in its thick darkness. Then, my friend, I am happy now. These poor weakened eyes that only left me with the memory of prisms that had colored my youth with their changing shine, have now opened and found again the splendid horizons that some of your artists idealize in their vague reproductions, but whose majestic and strict reality, and yet full of enchantment, is marked by the most thorough reality. I have been dead for three days only and I feel that I am an artist. My aspirations towards the ideal of beauty in art were not but the intuition of a faculty that I had studied and acquired on other existences, and that developed on the last one. However, what can I do to reproduce a masterpiece worthy of the great scene that impresses the Spirit when arrives at the region of light? Brushes! Brushes! And I will prove to the world that the Spiritst art is the crowning of the Pagan art, of the endangered Christian art that is reserved to the glory of making it revive in its full shine in yor disowned world. Done with the artist. It is time for the friend.
Why, my dear friend (Mrs. Allan Kardec) to suffer so much for my death? Particularly you that know the deceptions and bitterness of my life, you must, on the contrary, rejoice for seeing that I no longer have to drink from the bitter chalice of the earthly pains, a chalice that I drank to the end. Believe me, the dead are happier than the living ones and crying for them is to doubt the truth of Spiritism. Rest assured that you will see me again; I left first because my task was over down here; each one has their own to carry out on Earth and when yours is over you shall come to rest a bit by my side, to restart again if necessary considering that idleness is not part of nature. Each one carries their own tendencies and bows before them; it is a supreme law that demonstrates the power of free-will. Therefore, good friend, indulgence and charity that all of us need mutually be it in the visible as well as in the invisible world. With such a banner everything is alright. Do not ask me to stop talking. Know this, it is the first time I speak! I leave you there.
It is now time for my excellent friend Mr. Kardec. I want to thank him for the kind words that he was so good to address to the friend that preceded him in the tomb, because we did not depart together to the world where I am, my good friend (we had fallen sick on January 31st). What would you have told the beloved companion of your days if the Spirits had not followed a good order on this? She would then have groaned and cried! I understand it, but it is also necessary that you watch him so that he is not exposed to the danger again before finishing the work of Spiritist initiation, without which you take the risk of arriving to our place too early, and like Moses only see the Promised Land from far away. Therefore, remain on guard. It is a friend that advises.
I must go now. I return to my dear children; I will then check, beyond the oceans, if my traveling sheep has finally gotten to the port or if she is a toy to the storms. May the good Spirits protect her! I will join them for that. I will come back to talk to you because I am an untiring speaker. You remember that. So long, good and dear friends. So long.”
Widow Foulon
Observation: Her traveling sheep is one of her daughters, residing in America, and that had just gone through a long and painful journey. Death is only feared by the uncertainty about what happens at that supreme moment and of what is coming next and beyond. The vague belief in future life is not always enough to appease the apprehension of the unknown. Every communication that aims at our initiation in the details and the impressions of the passage tend to mitigate that fear as they gradually make us familiar and identify us with the transition that takes place in us. From that point of view the communication from Mrs. Foulon and Dr. Demeure, that come later, are eminently instructive. The condition of the Spirits after death is essentially variable, according to the diversity of aptitudes, skills and character of each one. Hence, it is through the multiplicity of examples that one may come to understand the real state in the invisible world.
February 8th, 1865
Spontaneous: Here I am among you, sooner than you thought and very happy to see you again, particularly now that you are better and that you will be soon completely recovered, I hope. But I want you to ask me the questions that are of your interest because then I can respond better. Without that there is the risk that I will speak too much and it is necessary that we speak of truly serious things. Isn’t that the case my good Spiritist teacher?
Q. – Dear Mrs. Foulon, I was very happy with the communication you gave the other day with the promise to continue our conversations. I recognized you perfectly well in the communication. You spoke of things that are unknown to the medium and that could only have come from you. Besides, your kind language towards us is very characteristic of your loving soul, but there is in your language a security, a straightness, a firmness that I ignored when you were alive. You know that I allowed myself more than one reprimand in some cases. A. – It is true but since I saw myself seriously ill I recoved the fimness of Spirit, lost by the griefs and vicissitudes that sometimes made me fearful in life. I said to myself: You are Spirit. Forget Earth and prepare yourself to the transformation of your being and see through your thouhgts the luminous path that your soul must follow when you leave the body, and that shall lead you happy and free to the celestial spheres that you shall henceforth inhabit. You will say that it was a bit presumptuous on my side to count on a perfect happiness on leaving Earth but I had suffered so much that I must have atoned my faults from this life and from the preceding ones. Such intuition had not deceived me and it was that intuition that gave me courage, calmness and determination in my last moments. Such determination naturally increased when I saw my hopes come true after my passing.
Q. – Can you describe to us now your passage, awakening and first impressions? A. – I did suffer but my Spirit was stronger than the material suffering caused by the detachment. After the supreme breath I found myself like the syncope patient, unconscious, thinking of nothing, and in a vague sleepiness that wasn’t either the sleepness of the body or the wakening of the soul. I remained like that for a long time. Then, as if coming out of a long faint, I slowly woke up among brothers that were unknown to me. They were all care and kindness towards me; they showed me a point in space that looked like a shiny star and said: “there is the place you are going with us since you no longer belong to Earth.” I then recovered my memory, leaned on them and like a graceful group that shoots towards unknown stars, but certain to find happiness there, we climbed, climbed and the star grew before us: it was a happy world, a superior world where your friend will finally fint rest. I mean rest with respect to the physical fatigues that I endured and the vicissitudes of earthly life but not the indolence of the Spirit because the activity of the Spirit is a pleasure.
Q. – Have you left Earth definitely? A. – I leave here many creatures that are dear to me to leave it definitely. As a Spirit I will then return here because I have a mission to accomplish together with my grandchildren. As a matter of fact you must know well that there is no obstacle to Spirits that live on superior worlds to come and visit Earth.
Q. – It seems that your current position must weaken the relationships that you left here. A. – No, my friend. Love gets the souls together. Belive me, on Earth it is possible to be closer to those that have reached perfection than to those whose inferiority and egotism cause uproar around the terrestrial sphere. Charity and love are two engines of a powerful attraction. They are the link that bonds the union of souls to one another that remains, in spite of distances and places. There is distance only to material bodies. It does not exist to the Spirits.
Q. – According to what you said in your previous communication about your artistic instincts and about the development of the Spiritist art, I thought that you would be one of its main interpreters in a new existence. A. – No. It is like a guide and protector Spirit that I must give the world demonstrations of the possibility of producing masterpieces in the Spiritist art. Children will be painting mediums, and in an age when only fuzzy sketches are produced, they will paint but not things from Earth, they will paint things from worlds where art has reached its full perfection.
Q. – What is your idea now about my works with Spiritism? A. – I think you have the work of souls and that the burden is difficult to carry but I see the objective and know that you will reach it. If possible I will help you out with my advices so that you can overcome the difficulties that will come, by the way inducing you to take some adequate measures to activate, in life, the renovating movement enticed by Spiritism. Your friend, Demeure, together with the Spirit of Truth, will give you an even more useful help. He is wiser and more serious than I am but since I know that the assistance of the good Spirits strengthen you and sustain your work, believe me that you can always and everywhere count on my help.
Q. – Could we conclude from some of your words that you will not give me a personal and very active cooperation to the works of Spiritism? A. – You are mistaken. But I see so many Spirits more capable than me to handle such important question that an invencible feeling of shyness precludes me from responding to you at this time, according to your wishes. It might come. I shall have more courage and wisdom but I need to get to know them better. I died less than four days ago and still am baffled by the dazzling surroundings. Would you understand, my friend? I cannot express the new sensations that I feel. I had to force myself to set aside the fascination that the admirable wonders exert on me. I can only praise and worship God in his works. But that will pass. The Spirits assure me that soon I will be used to all these magnificences and that I will be able to handle all questions related to the earthly renovation with my lucidity of Spirit. Besides all that, keep in mind that I have a family to reassure. Enthusiams has invaded my soul and I hope that it mitigates a bit to be able to handle serious Spiritism with you and not a poetic Spiritism, something that is not good to mankind since they would not understand it.
Good-bye, so long,
From your good friend that loves you and will always love you, my teacher, for she owes you the only lasting and true consolation she had on Earth.
Widow Foulon
Observation: Every serious and enlightened Spiritist will easily find the teachings that stick out from these communications. We will then call your attention to two points only. The first one is the fact that this example shows us the possibility of no longer incarnating on Earth and to move from here to a superior world, without being separated from our loved ones that we left here, because of that. Those that fear reincarnation due to the miseries of life may free themselves from them by doing what is necessary to do, that is, work for their own betterment. The one that does not want to stagnate in inferior layers must instruct oneself and work to move upwards. The second point is the confirmation of this truth: After death we are less separated from those that are dear to us than during life. Just a few days back Mrs. Foulon, restrained by her disease in a little town of the South, only had part of her family by her side. The majority of her children and friends were disperse and far away so that material obstacles precluded them from seeing each other as frequently as they wished. The great distance made even correspondence rare and difficult to some. Just separated from her heavy envelope, she now moves quickly close to each one, transposing distances without fatigue, with the speed of a bolt, she sees them, attend her friendly gatherings, surrounds them with her protection and can, through mediumship, communicate with them any time, as when alive. If we think that some prefer an indefinite separation to this reassuring thought!
Note: It was too late when we received the detailed and interesting necrology published in the Journal du Havre, on Frebruary 10th. Our issue was already composed and complete, ready for publication.
“A well liked and appreciated artist in the Havre, Mrs. Widow Foulon, a skillful miniaturist, died on February 3rd in Antibes where she had gone looking for the recovery of her health, altered by work and age, in a more pleasant climate.”
Since we personally knew Mrs. Foulon and enjoyed her friendship we feel happy to complete the very short notice above. It is a duty of friendship and a deserved tribute payed to her unknown virtues and a healthy example to everyone, and to the Spiritists in particular, that will find precious teachings here.
As an artist, Mrs. Foulon was remarkably talented. Her works, fairly appreciated in many exhibitions, were granted multiple honorofic rewards. It is certainly a merit but that is not exception. What actually made her loved and esteemed, what turns her memory dear to all of those that knew her, is the kindness of her character; her private qualities whose reach could only be apprecitated by those that shared her private life because as with all those that have an inate feeling of good, she did not exhibited them and not even was suspicious of them. If there was someone that had no influence of pride that was undoubtedly her. The feeling of personal abnegation had not perhaps ever gone so far as with her. She was always ready to sacrifice her rest, her health and her interests for those that could benefit from her help; her life was not but a long series of dedications as it was, since her youth, a long series of tough and painful trials bedore which her courage, resignation and perseverance have never failed her.
Her talent was the only thing left by the setbacks of life and it was the the brushes that she raised a large family, ensuring an honorable position to all children through her teachings and paintings. Only by knowing her private life one can realize everything that she had to endure in fatigues and deprivations, all difficulties against which she had to fight to reach her objective. But ah! Her sight, worn out by the demanding work of miniatures, was fading away on a daily basis; still sometime more and her already advanced blindness would have been complete.
When Mrs. Foulon learned about the Spiritist Doctrine some years ago, it was like a beam of light to her. She felt like having a veil lifted up from something that was not unknown to ther but that she only had a vague intuition about.
She then studied it with eargerness but at the same time with that lucidity of Spirit and fairness of appreciation that was peculiar to her elevated intelligence. It is necessary to get to know the perplexities of her life, perplexities that instead of affecting her always affected the loved ones, to understand all the consolations that she obtained from this sublime revelation that gave her an umbreakable faith in the future, and showed her the insignificance of the earthly things.
Without the respect due to the intimate things, great teachings would come out of the last period of this life so fruitful in emotions! So the assistance of good spirits did not fail her; the instructions and teachings which they were pleased to bring to this honorable soul form the most edifying collection, but very private, of which we are pleased to have been the provocative agent more than once. Her death was also worthy of her life. She saw the moment approaching without any painful apprehension: to her it was the deliverance of the terrestrial bonds which was to open to her the blessed spiritual life with which she had identified herself by the study of Spiritism.
She died calmly because she was mindful of having accomplished her mission, a mission that she accepted before coming to Earth; of having scrupulously done her duties of wife and mother because also during her life she had abjured every resentiment against those that she could have hard feelings and that had payed her with ungratefulness. She always payed bad with good and left her life with everybody forgiven, delivering herself to the justice and goodness of God. Finally, she died with the serenity that is given by a pure conscience and the certainty of being less separated from her children than during her material life since from now on she could be with them in Spirit in any point of the globe where they could be; help them with her advices and extend her protection to them. Now, what is her fate in the world where she is now? The Spiritists present that already. Let us allow her to report her impressions.
As before, she died on February 3rd. We received the news on the 6th and our first wish was to communicate with her, if possible. At the time we were experiencing a serious illness what explains some of her words. It is important to mention that the medium did not know her and knew nothing about the particularities of her life, of which she speaks spontaneously. Here her first communication on February 6th:
February 6th, 1865 – medium Mrs. Cazemajour
“I was certain that you would like to evoke me just after my passing and therefore I was ready to respond to you since I did not experience disturbance. It is only those that have fear that are involved in its thick darkness. Then, my friend, I am happy now. These poor weakened eyes that only left me with the memory of prisms that had colored my youth with their changing shine, have now opened and found again the splendid horizons that some of your artists idealize in their vague reproductions, but whose majestic and strict reality, and yet full of enchantment, is marked by the most thorough reality. I have been dead for three days only and I feel that I am an artist. My aspirations towards the ideal of beauty in art were not but the intuition of a faculty that I had studied and acquired on other existences, and that developed on the last one. However, what can I do to reproduce a masterpiece worthy of the great scene that impresses the Spirit when arrives at the region of light? Brushes! Brushes! And I will prove to the world that the Spiritst art is the crowning of the Pagan art, of the endangered Christian art that is reserved to the glory of making it revive in its full shine in yor disowned world. Done with the artist. It is time for the friend.
Why, my dear friend (Mrs. Allan Kardec) to suffer so much for my death? Particularly you that know the deceptions and bitterness of my life, you must, on the contrary, rejoice for seeing that I no longer have to drink from the bitter chalice of the earthly pains, a chalice that I drank to the end. Believe me, the dead are happier than the living ones and crying for them is to doubt the truth of Spiritism. Rest assured that you will see me again; I left first because my task was over down here; each one has their own to carry out on Earth and when yours is over you shall come to rest a bit by my side, to restart again if necessary considering that idleness is not part of nature. Each one carries their own tendencies and bows before them; it is a supreme law that demonstrates the power of free-will. Therefore, good friend, indulgence and charity that all of us need mutually be it in the visible as well as in the invisible world. With such a banner everything is alright. Do not ask me to stop talking. Know this, it is the first time I speak! I leave you there.
It is now time for my excellent friend Mr. Kardec. I want to thank him for the kind words that he was so good to address to the friend that preceded him in the tomb, because we did not depart together to the world where I am, my good friend (we had fallen sick on January 31st). What would you have told the beloved companion of your days if the Spirits had not followed a good order on this? She would then have groaned and cried! I understand it, but it is also necessary that you watch him so that he is not exposed to the danger again before finishing the work of Spiritist initiation, without which you take the risk of arriving to our place too early, and like Moses only see the Promised Land from far away. Therefore, remain on guard. It is a friend that advises.
I must go now. I return to my dear children; I will then check, beyond the oceans, if my traveling sheep has finally gotten to the port or if she is a toy to the storms. May the good Spirits protect her! I will join them for that. I will come back to talk to you because I am an untiring speaker. You remember that. So long, good and dear friends. So long.”
Widow Foulon
Observation: Her traveling sheep is one of her daughters, residing in America, and that had just gone through a long and painful journey. Death is only feared by the uncertainty about what happens at that supreme moment and of what is coming next and beyond. The vague belief in future life is not always enough to appease the apprehension of the unknown. Every communication that aims at our initiation in the details and the impressions of the passage tend to mitigate that fear as they gradually make us familiar and identify us with the transition that takes place in us. From that point of view the communication from Mrs. Foulon and Dr. Demeure, that come later, are eminently instructive. The condition of the Spirits after death is essentially variable, according to the diversity of aptitudes, skills and character of each one. Hence, it is through the multiplicity of examples that one may come to understand the real state in the invisible world.
February 8th, 1865
Spontaneous: Here I am among you, sooner than you thought and very happy to see you again, particularly now that you are better and that you will be soon completely recovered, I hope. But I want you to ask me the questions that are of your interest because then I can respond better. Without that there is the risk that I will speak too much and it is necessary that we speak of truly serious things. Isn’t that the case my good Spiritist teacher?
Q. – Dear Mrs. Foulon, I was very happy with the communication you gave the other day with the promise to continue our conversations. I recognized you perfectly well in the communication. You spoke of things that are unknown to the medium and that could only have come from you. Besides, your kind language towards us is very characteristic of your loving soul, but there is in your language a security, a straightness, a firmness that I ignored when you were alive. You know that I allowed myself more than one reprimand in some cases. A. – It is true but since I saw myself seriously ill I recoved the fimness of Spirit, lost by the griefs and vicissitudes that sometimes made me fearful in life. I said to myself: You are Spirit. Forget Earth and prepare yourself to the transformation of your being and see through your thouhgts the luminous path that your soul must follow when you leave the body, and that shall lead you happy and free to the celestial spheres that you shall henceforth inhabit. You will say that it was a bit presumptuous on my side to count on a perfect happiness on leaving Earth but I had suffered so much that I must have atoned my faults from this life and from the preceding ones. Such intuition had not deceived me and it was that intuition that gave me courage, calmness and determination in my last moments. Such determination naturally increased when I saw my hopes come true after my passing.
Q. – Can you describe to us now your passage, awakening and first impressions? A. – I did suffer but my Spirit was stronger than the material suffering caused by the detachment. After the supreme breath I found myself like the syncope patient, unconscious, thinking of nothing, and in a vague sleepiness that wasn’t either the sleepness of the body or the wakening of the soul. I remained like that for a long time. Then, as if coming out of a long faint, I slowly woke up among brothers that were unknown to me. They were all care and kindness towards me; they showed me a point in space that looked like a shiny star and said: “there is the place you are going with us since you no longer belong to Earth.” I then recovered my memory, leaned on them and like a graceful group that shoots towards unknown stars, but certain to find happiness there, we climbed, climbed and the star grew before us: it was a happy world, a superior world where your friend will finally fint rest. I mean rest with respect to the physical fatigues that I endured and the vicissitudes of earthly life but not the indolence of the Spirit because the activity of the Spirit is a pleasure.
Q. – Have you left Earth definitely? A. – I leave here many creatures that are dear to me to leave it definitely. As a Spirit I will then return here because I have a mission to accomplish together with my grandchildren. As a matter of fact you must know well that there is no obstacle to Spirits that live on superior worlds to come and visit Earth.
Q. – It seems that your current position must weaken the relationships that you left here. A. – No, my friend. Love gets the souls together. Belive me, on Earth it is possible to be closer to those that have reached perfection than to those whose inferiority and egotism cause uproar around the terrestrial sphere. Charity and love are two engines of a powerful attraction. They are the link that bonds the union of souls to one another that remains, in spite of distances and places. There is distance only to material bodies. It does not exist to the Spirits.
Q. – According to what you said in your previous communication about your artistic instincts and about the development of the Spiritist art, I thought that you would be one of its main interpreters in a new existence. A. – No. It is like a guide and protector Spirit that I must give the world demonstrations of the possibility of producing masterpieces in the Spiritist art. Children will be painting mediums, and in an age when only fuzzy sketches are produced, they will paint but not things from Earth, they will paint things from worlds where art has reached its full perfection.
Q. – What is your idea now about my works with Spiritism? A. – I think you have the work of souls and that the burden is difficult to carry but I see the objective and know that you will reach it. If possible I will help you out with my advices so that you can overcome the difficulties that will come, by the way inducing you to take some adequate measures to activate, in life, the renovating movement enticed by Spiritism. Your friend, Demeure, together with the Spirit of Truth, will give you an even more useful help. He is wiser and more serious than I am but since I know that the assistance of the good Spirits strengthen you and sustain your work, believe me that you can always and everywhere count on my help.
Q. – Could we conclude from some of your words that you will not give me a personal and very active cooperation to the works of Spiritism? A. – You are mistaken. But I see so many Spirits more capable than me to handle such important question that an invencible feeling of shyness precludes me from responding to you at this time, according to your wishes. It might come. I shall have more courage and wisdom but I need to get to know them better. I died less than four days ago and still am baffled by the dazzling surroundings. Would you understand, my friend? I cannot express the new sensations that I feel. I had to force myself to set aside the fascination that the admirable wonders exert on me. I can only praise and worship God in his works. But that will pass. The Spirits assure me that soon I will be used to all these magnificences and that I will be able to handle all questions related to the earthly renovation with my lucidity of Spirit. Besides all that, keep in mind that I have a family to reassure. Enthusiams has invaded my soul and I hope that it mitigates a bit to be able to handle serious Spiritism with you and not a poetic Spiritism, something that is not good to mankind since they would not understand it.
Good-bye, so long,
From your good friend that loves you and will always love you, my teacher, for she owes you the only lasting and true consolation she had on Earth.
Widow Foulon
Observation: Every serious and enlightened Spiritist will easily find the teachings that stick out from these communications. We will then call your attention to two points only. The first one is the fact that this example shows us the possibility of no longer incarnating on Earth and to move from here to a superior world, without being separated from our loved ones that we left here, because of that. Those that fear reincarnation due to the miseries of life may free themselves from them by doing what is necessary to do, that is, work for their own betterment. The one that does not want to stagnate in inferior layers must instruct oneself and work to move upwards. The second point is the confirmation of this truth: After death we are less separated from those that are dear to us than during life. Just a few days back Mrs. Foulon, restrained by her disease in a little town of the South, only had part of her family by her side. The majority of her children and friends were disperse and far away so that material obstacles precluded them from seeing each other as frequently as they wished. The great distance made even correspondence rare and difficult to some. Just separated from her heavy envelope, she now moves quickly close to each one, transposing distances without fatigue, with the speed of a bolt, she sees them, attend her friendly gatherings, surrounds them with her protection and can, through mediumship, communicate with them any time, as when alive. If we think that some prefer an indefinite separation to this reassuring thought!
Note: It was too late when we received the detailed and interesting necrology published in the Journal du Havre, on Frebruary 10th. Our issue was already composed and complete, ready for publication.
Dr. Demeure
Deceased in Albi, Tarn, January 26th, 1865
Another soul of excellence has just left Earth! Mr. Demeure was a very distinguished homeopathy doctor in Albi. His character, as well as his knowledge, had granted him the regard and veneration of his fellow citizens. We only knew him from his correspondence and that of his friends but that was enough to reveal all the greatness and nobility of his feelings. His goodness and charity were unquestionable, and despite his advanced age he would tirelessly help his poor patients. The price of his consultations were the least of his concerns. He was more worried about the unfortunate ones than with those that could pay because, he used to say, in his absence the latter could always find another doctor. To the former he not only gave the medication for free but also many ttimes left them with the sufficient to face their material needs, what sometimes is the most useful medicine. We can say that he was the healing Vicar D’Ars of medicine.
Mr. Demeure had embraced the Spiritist Doctrine with enthusiasm where he had found the key to the most serious problems whose solution he had uselessly asked science and all philosophies. His profound and investigative Spirit made him immediately understand its whole reach and therefore became one of its most dedicated promoters. Although we had never met face to face he mentioned in one of his letters that he was certain that we were not strangers to one another and that there was previous relationships between us. His rush to come to us as soon as he died, his solicitude and care towards us in the situation, the role that he seems to have been called to play, all seem to confirm his forecast that we have not yet been able to verify. We learned about his death on January 30th and our first thought was to communicate with him. Here the communication that he did on that same evening through the intermediary of Mrs. Cazemajour, medium.
“I am here. When alive I had promised myself that as soon as I was dead I would come, if allowed, to shake hands with my dear teacher and friend Mr. Allan Kardec. Death had given my soul this heavy sleep that we call lethargy, but my mind waked. I shook off that dismal torpor that prolongates the confusion following death, then I woke up and all of a sudden I traveled here. Oh happiness! I am no longer old or sick. My body was only an imposed disguise. I am young and handsome, handsome of this eternal youth of the Spirits whose faces are not wrinkled and whose hairs are not withened by the action of time. I am light like a bird that crosses the horizon in a short flight over your cloudy skies and I admire, contemplate, praise, love and bow, an atom before the greatness, wisdom and science of our Creator, before the wonders that sourround me. I was near you, dear and vererable friend, when Mr. Sabò talked about doing my evocation and I followed him. I am happy! I am in glory! Ah who could ever translate the splendid beauties of the land of the elected: the skies, the worlds, the suns and their role in the great concert of universal harmony? Well, I will try my teacher. I will do your study and will come to bring you the tribute of my works of Spirit that, in anticipation, I dedicate to you. So long.”
Demeure
Observation: The two following communications from February 1st and 2nd are relative to our sudden illness on January 1st. Although personal we reproduce them here because they demonstrate that Dr. Demeure is as good a Spirit as he was a man and because they offer a teaching in addition. It is a testimony of gratitude for his solicitude towards us in that circumstance:
“My good friend, have confidence in us and much courage. The current crisis, although tyring and painful, will not take long and with the prescribed care you will be able to complete, according to you wishes, the work that has been the main objective of your life. However, I am the one here by your side with the Spirit of Truth that allows me to have the word in his name, like the last of your friends among the Spirits! They honor me with their welcome. Dear teacher, I am so happy to have died in time to be with them at this time! If I had died earlier I could perhaps have avoided this crisis that I did not foresee. It was only a short while since I discarnate to be occupied with anything else other than spiritual things, but now I will watch your back, dear teacher. It is your brother and friend, a Spirit happy to be near you and take care of your disease. However, you know the proverb: “Help yourself and the skies will help you”. Help therefore the good Spirits in their care for you, strictly following their prescriptions. It is too hot here. This charcoal is too much. While you are sick do not burn that because it raises your pressure. Its fumes are deleterious.”
Your friend, Demeure.
“It is me, Demeure, Mr. Allan Kardec’s friend. I come to tell him that I was by his side when the accident happened, an accident that could have been really bad without an efficient intervention which I had the honor to contribute. According to my observations and the teachings that I collected from a respectable source, it is evident that the sooner his discarnation may occur the sooner his reincarnation may take place so that he may complete his work. However, before departing he needs to do the final touches to his works that must complete the doctrinary theory that he initiated, and he will be considered a case of voluntary suicide for excess of work, causing the deficiency of his physical organization that threatens him with a sudden departure to our world. One must have no fear to tell him the whole truth so that he can take care of himself and strictly follow the prescriptions.”
Demeure
The communication below was obtained in Moltalban on February 1st, in the circle of Spiritist friends that he had there.
“Antoine Demeure. I am not dead to you my good friends, but to those that unlike you do not know this sacred doctrine that reunites those that loved one another on Earth and that shared the same thoughts, the same feelings of love and charity. I am happy. I am happier than I could expect since I enjoy a rare lucidity among the Spirits that have separated from matter a short while ago. Have courage, good friends! I will be near you many times and will certainly instruct you about many things that we ignore when bonded to matter that hides from us so many magnificences and pleasures. Pray fro those that are precluded from such a happiness for they do not know how much they hurt themselves. I will not stay long today but I tell you that I find nothing strange in this world of the Spirits. It seems to me that I have always inhabited it. I feel happy here because I see my friends and can communicate with them whenever I desire. Do not cry, friends. You would make me feel sorry for having met you. Allow time to follow its course and God will lead you to this dwelling where we shall all reunite. Good night, my friends. God bless you. I am here by your side.”
Demeure
Observation: The situation of Mr. Demeure as a Spirit is exactly the one that he could foresee from his so dignified and usefully lived life but another not less instructive aspect sticks out of his communications that is the activity that he develops to be useful, almost immediately after his death. For his intelligence and moral qualities he belongs to the order of the well advanced Spirits. He is very happy but his happiness is not idleness. A few days back and he was taking care of patients as a doctor and as soon as he died he promptly begins to look after them as a Spirit. What is the benefit then of being in the spiritual world if one cannot enjoy some rest there? We reply with this question: isn’t that much the fact that there is no more concerns and needs or the illnesses of life; being free and being able to travel the space without fatigue and with the speed of the thought, and see one’s friends at any time, irrespective of the distance that separates them? We then add: When you are on the other world nothing will force you to do anything. You shall be perfectly free to remain in a pious indolence, as long as you wish, but you shall soon get tired of that selfish idleness. I will be the first one to request something to do. You will then hear: if you are bored for not be doing anything you must seek something to do yourself. There is no lack of opportunity to do good both among mankind and the Spirits. That is how the spiritual activity is not an embarassement. It is a necessity, a satisfaction to the Spirits that look for them in accordance to their tastes and aptitudes, and preferably choose the ones that may help in their advancement.
Mr. Demeure had embraced the Spiritist Doctrine with enthusiasm where he had found the key to the most serious problems whose solution he had uselessly asked science and all philosophies. His profound and investigative Spirit made him immediately understand its whole reach and therefore became one of its most dedicated promoters. Although we had never met face to face he mentioned in one of his letters that he was certain that we were not strangers to one another and that there was previous relationships between us. His rush to come to us as soon as he died, his solicitude and care towards us in the situation, the role that he seems to have been called to play, all seem to confirm his forecast that we have not yet been able to verify. We learned about his death on January 30th and our first thought was to communicate with him. Here the communication that he did on that same evening through the intermediary of Mrs. Cazemajour, medium.
“I am here. When alive I had promised myself that as soon as I was dead I would come, if allowed, to shake hands with my dear teacher and friend Mr. Allan Kardec. Death had given my soul this heavy sleep that we call lethargy, but my mind waked. I shook off that dismal torpor that prolongates the confusion following death, then I woke up and all of a sudden I traveled here. Oh happiness! I am no longer old or sick. My body was only an imposed disguise. I am young and handsome, handsome of this eternal youth of the Spirits whose faces are not wrinkled and whose hairs are not withened by the action of time. I am light like a bird that crosses the horizon in a short flight over your cloudy skies and I admire, contemplate, praise, love and bow, an atom before the greatness, wisdom and science of our Creator, before the wonders that sourround me. I was near you, dear and vererable friend, when Mr. Sabò talked about doing my evocation and I followed him. I am happy! I am in glory! Ah who could ever translate the splendid beauties of the land of the elected: the skies, the worlds, the suns and their role in the great concert of universal harmony? Well, I will try my teacher. I will do your study and will come to bring you the tribute of my works of Spirit that, in anticipation, I dedicate to you. So long.”
Demeure
Observation: The two following communications from February 1st and 2nd are relative to our sudden illness on January 1st. Although personal we reproduce them here because they demonstrate that Dr. Demeure is as good a Spirit as he was a man and because they offer a teaching in addition. It is a testimony of gratitude for his solicitude towards us in that circumstance:
“My good friend, have confidence in us and much courage. The current crisis, although tyring and painful, will not take long and with the prescribed care you will be able to complete, according to you wishes, the work that has been the main objective of your life. However, I am the one here by your side with the Spirit of Truth that allows me to have the word in his name, like the last of your friends among the Spirits! They honor me with their welcome. Dear teacher, I am so happy to have died in time to be with them at this time! If I had died earlier I could perhaps have avoided this crisis that I did not foresee. It was only a short while since I discarnate to be occupied with anything else other than spiritual things, but now I will watch your back, dear teacher. It is your brother and friend, a Spirit happy to be near you and take care of your disease. However, you know the proverb: “Help yourself and the skies will help you”. Help therefore the good Spirits in their care for you, strictly following their prescriptions. It is too hot here. This charcoal is too much. While you are sick do not burn that because it raises your pressure. Its fumes are deleterious.”
Your friend, Demeure.
“It is me, Demeure, Mr. Allan Kardec’s friend. I come to tell him that I was by his side when the accident happened, an accident that could have been really bad without an efficient intervention which I had the honor to contribute. According to my observations and the teachings that I collected from a respectable source, it is evident that the sooner his discarnation may occur the sooner his reincarnation may take place so that he may complete his work. However, before departing he needs to do the final touches to his works that must complete the doctrinary theory that he initiated, and he will be considered a case of voluntary suicide for excess of work, causing the deficiency of his physical organization that threatens him with a sudden departure to our world. One must have no fear to tell him the whole truth so that he can take care of himself and strictly follow the prescriptions.”
Demeure
The communication below was obtained in Moltalban on February 1st, in the circle of Spiritist friends that he had there.
“Antoine Demeure. I am not dead to you my good friends, but to those that unlike you do not know this sacred doctrine that reunites those that loved one another on Earth and that shared the same thoughts, the same feelings of love and charity. I am happy. I am happier than I could expect since I enjoy a rare lucidity among the Spirits that have separated from matter a short while ago. Have courage, good friends! I will be near you many times and will certainly instruct you about many things that we ignore when bonded to matter that hides from us so many magnificences and pleasures. Pray fro those that are precluded from such a happiness for they do not know how much they hurt themselves. I will not stay long today but I tell you that I find nothing strange in this world of the Spirits. It seems to me that I have always inhabited it. I feel happy here because I see my friends and can communicate with them whenever I desire. Do not cry, friends. You would make me feel sorry for having met you. Allow time to follow its course and God will lead you to this dwelling where we shall all reunite. Good night, my friends. God bless you. I am here by your side.”
Demeure
Observation: The situation of Mr. Demeure as a Spirit is exactly the one that he could foresee from his so dignified and usefully lived life but another not less instructive aspect sticks out of his communications that is the activity that he develops to be useful, almost immediately after his death. For his intelligence and moral qualities he belongs to the order of the well advanced Spirits. He is very happy but his happiness is not idleness. A few days back and he was taking care of patients as a doctor and as soon as he died he promptly begins to look after them as a Spirit. What is the benefit then of being in the spiritual world if one cannot enjoy some rest there? We reply with this question: isn’t that much the fact that there is no more concerns and needs or the illnesses of life; being free and being able to travel the space without fatigue and with the speed of the thought, and see one’s friends at any time, irrespective of the distance that separates them? We then add: When you are on the other world nothing will force you to do anything. You shall be perfectly free to remain in a pious indolence, as long as you wish, but you shall soon get tired of that selfish idleness. I will be the first one to request something to do. You will then hear: if you are bored for not be doing anything you must seek something to do yourself. There is no lack of opportunity to do good both among mankind and the Spirits. That is how the spiritual activity is not an embarassement. It is a necessity, a satisfaction to the Spirits that look for them in accordance to their tastes and aptitudes, and preferably choose the ones that may help in their advancement.
Hillaire Trial
An issue that we have kept understandably reserved has just found a turnaround that places it in public domain. Since it has been published by several local newpapers we thought it was okay to talk about it to prevent false interpretations from maledicence with respect to the Spiritist Doctrine, and demonstrate that the Doctrine does not cover reproachable things with its mantle. Besides, since our name is involved in this it is important that our way of looking at this be known. The matter concerns the medium Hillaire, from Sonnac (Charente-Inférieure), that we have already introduced to our readers.
Hillaire is a young married family man, a simple worker, almost illiterate. Providence gifted him with a remarkable mediumistic faculty of multiple facets whose details may be found in the book by Mr. Bez entitled “Les miracles de nos jours”; his mediumship has a lot of similarity with that of Mr. Home. Such faculty called people’s attention to him. He became a local celebrity that granted him the sympaty of some and the animosity of others. The somehow exaggerated praises that he received produced the habitual bad influence. Mr. Home’s success got to him as attested by the letters that he wrote. He dreamed of a theater bigger than his village, however despite his offers to come to Paris we never wanted to reach out to him.
If we had seen any kind of utility in that we would have have facilitated it, but based on what we knew about his ideas and character we were convinced that he did not had the necessary qualifications to play a significant role in his own interest. In fact, we had very recently seen one of those ambitions that push people to the capital and end up in bitter deceptions. They did damage him by putting him on a pedestal. His mission was local. In a limited circle and with a certain population he could do great services to the cause of Spiritism with the help of the outstanding phenomena that took place under his influence. He did that by propagating the Spiritist ideas in his land, but he could have done even more if he had remained restricted to his modest sphere, without abandoning his bread winning work, and if he had more prudently conciliated his work with the exercise of mediumship. Unfortunately to him the importance that he attributed to himself made him little accessible to the advices of experience. Like many people, he would have accepted them if in agreement with his own ideas. His letters made that clear to us! Several indications pointed out to a forecast of his downfall but we were far from guessing the cause that would lead to that. Our spiritual guides warned us more than once to be careful with him and to not act prematurely by bringing him to Paris. With too much presumption on one side and too much weakness on the other he destroyed his mission at a time when it could shine the most. Yielding to dangerous invitations and perhaps, we are led to belive, to perfidious insinutations, he then made a mistake, left the region and later on had to face justice. Far from suffering from that, as boasted by our adversaries, Spiritism left the trial safe and sound, as it will be seen shortly. Unnecessary to say that they tried to turn every manifestation through the unfortunate Mr. Hillaire into gross deception. In that sad episode, the aggrieved, one of those that had acclaimed him the most in his transient glory and that had favored him with his sponsorship, wrote to us after the guilty ones had escaped, giving us detailed description of what had happened, asking for our help and our correspondents to have them arrested. He finished by saying: “It is necessary to remove everything from them, forcing them to return to France, and we will then be able to have them punished by human justice, hoping that the merciful God also punish them since they do a great harm to Spiritism. Looking for a handwritten answer from you I will pray to God to have them found. I remain truly yours… etc.”
Here the answer we gave him, not suspecting that it would become one of the exhibits in the process:
Dear Sir,
Returning from a long trip that I have just finished I found the letter that you sent me about Hillaire. Like anyone else I deplore the sad event for which, however, Spiritism cannot be attacked for it cannot be blamed for the actions of those that do not understand it well. As for yourself, the most damaged in the case, I understand your outrage and the first moment of reaction that must have taken you, but I hope that your soul may have found calmness in more reflection. If you are really a Spiritist you must know that we must accept with resignation every trial that God believes to be adequate to send our way, being themselves atonements of previous faults. It is not by asking God, as you do, to avenge us against our oponents that we acquire merit in our God sent trials. By doing so we, on the contrary, we lose the fruits and attract even harder trials. Isn’t that a contradiction from your side to ask the God of mercy to bring the guilty ones to prison, having them delivered to human justice? Sending similar prayers to God is offensive when we, ourselves, need more of less of his mercy, forgetting what he said: you shall be forgiven as you forgave others. Such language is not Christian or Spiritist because Spiritism, like Jesus Christ, teaches us the indulgence and forgiveness of offenses. This is to us a beautiful opportunity to show greatness and nobility and demonstrate that you are above human miseries. To your own benefit I wish you do not let it go.
You believe this event will harm Spiritism. I repeat that it will not affect Spiritism, despite the eagerness of the adversaries in exploiting this circumstance to their benefit. If it could do any harm it would be momentary and on a local level and for that you would have given your contribution, given the enthusiasm with which you propagate the issue. You should have done whatever was in your power to avoid the scandal, out of charity, and as you say in the interest of the doctrine. Instead, given the repercussion that you gave the matter, you gave weapons to our adversaries. The sincere Spiritists would have appreciated your moderation and God would have taken your good feelings into account.
I am sorry if you thought that I could help your wishes of vengeance in any form, by acting in a way to bring the guilty to justice. It would be a huge misconception of my role, my character and my understanding of the true interests of Spiritism. If, like you say, you are my true brother in God then you must beg for his clemency and not rage, for the one that demands rage onto another takes the risk of having that same rage returning to oneself. I have the honor of greeting you with cordiality, in hopes that you may come back to thoughts that are more worthy of a sincere Spiritist.
Allan Kardec
Here the report sent to you:
“The case Hillaire began on Friday and ended on Saturday at midnight. Vitet withdrew his complaint at the time when the sentence was to be announced so that his wife was acquitted. Only Hillaire remained under the sword of justice. The prosecutor’s office concluded that he was guilty, claiming the application of articles 336, 337, 338, etc. of the criminal code. The court declared itself incompentent to assess the transportation effects and other mediumistic facts, applying article 463 to condemn Hillaire to one year in prison with fines. To us the judgment was a fair application of the written law, although considered a bit too harsh by persons that were not absolutely Spiritists. If on one hand we witnessed the development of sad events that human weakeness can lead to, on another we watched a beautiful spectacle when we heard the solemn proclamation of the Spiritist Doctrine when, during the intervals and at the exit of the audience, we heard these words repeated in public: - we must envy the happiness of those whose faith constantly place them in the presence of the loved ones that cannot be kept away even by the grave.
In fact, look at that crowd that even the praetoreum will not be able to hold up. Members of all social positions elbowing one another, from the lowest to the highest echelon. Do you believe that those people come here only to watch common debates about a sordid occurrence brought up by police? Watch the shame of two confessed miserable ones that describe all the details of their fault? Oh No. The matter at hand has a much higher reach. Spiritism is in jeopardy. They come to hear the revelations made by an inquiry that lasted three months. They come to mock the ridicule that would certainly fall onto those poor hallucinated ones, but their not much charitable hopes were dispersed by the wisdom of the court.
The President begins by stating the most absolute freedom of conscience. To everyone he recommends respect to the religious belief of each person, and he himself walks that path all the way. There comes the time when the letter from our teacher to Vitet (published above) will be read. He holds it in his hands and after reading it he mentions that he found in that letter a voice worthy of the first fathers of the Church; that such a beautiful moral had never been preached before with that kind of beautiful language.
Twenty witnesses unanimously confirmed the truth of the phenomena of transportation; none had the tinest doubt. Hence the declaration of incompentence by the court. Only Vitet and his servant objected the miraculous argument but, at the same time, it was countered by a handwritten declaration signed by Vitet and his servant. Two members of our Society were heard. The President was not worried about eventual discussions that could take place as a result of his comments about certain points of the Doctrine. One and the other responded correctly to the satisfaction of every Spiritist.
Hillaire’s lawyer was very succinct with respect to the central theme of the accusation and that could not have been different. But regarding the Doctrine, its teachings, consequences and its progress around the world; about the perseverance of those men from the village, at least our equals with respect to knowledge, intelligence, morality and social position, he said; about the facts that were published everyday in the media; about the multiplicity of works, of the specialized journals, always speaking with eloquence and conviction. His last blow was the reading of a letter from Mr. Jaubert. In the letter Mr. Jaubert says that he and his friends involved with physical manifestations saw, and saw well, with the lights on as well as at daylight, similar events to those obtained by Hillaire, facts that are report in their minor details.
The reading was followed by a solemn profession of faith from Mr. Jaubert himself, a magistrate, active vice-President of a civilian court in the capital city of the Department, a reading that touched the whole audience. (The Journal of Saint-Jean-d’Angély, February 12th, analysis this remarkable defense. See also the Revue de l’Ouest, from Niort, February 18th).
The prosecutor naturally defamed the accused. He explains the events of manifestations through vulgar means. Anybody can produce them in their living room, at will and very easily; it only requires some minimum skills. He cites historic mediumistic facts attributed to hallucination. With respect to the Doctrine he was always honorable and respectful towards the followers. In particular he enthusiastically applauded the courage, honesty and good-faith of the witnesses that came to attest their belief, not stopping before the the fear of mockery and sarcasm, or with their own material interests that can be damaged by all that.”
Spiritism did not leave that trial safe and sound only but also with the honors of war. It is true that the trial did not attest the reality of the manifestations of Hillaire but kept them out of question, given the declaration of incompetence of the court, and for that very reason did not declare them to be fraudulent. As for the Doctrine it was granted a brilliant suffrage. To us, that is the essential point because Spiritism is less in the material phenomena than it is in their moral consequences. Never mind if they deny facts that are daily attested in all corners of the world, because it is not far the day in which everybody will be forced to give in to the evidence. The most important point is that the doctrine that will follow from that be recognized as worthy of the Gospel, on which it is founded. Certainly Mr. Substitute is not Spiritist; the President is not either, as far as we know, but we are pleased to verify that their personal opinion does not affect their impartiality.
The praises to the witnesses are a fantastic tribute to the courage of opinion and to the honesty of belief. Those firm supports of our faith deserve a special tribute. We give it right now throught the following message to them.
Paris, January 21st, 1865
From Mr. Allan Kardec, to the devout Spiritists in the Hillaire case
Dear brothers in Spiritism,
In my name and in the name of the Spiritist Society of Paris, I come to pay a deserved homage of praises to all of those sustained their faith and defended truth with courage, dignity and firmness, in the said event that has shaken us all. They were payed a brilliant and solemn tribute by justice. They cannot go without an acknowledgement from their brothers in belief. I requested a complete and as much as possible accurate list of their names, to have them side by side with the others that deserve a tribute of Spiritism. This is not to give them publicity, something that would damage their modesty, and in fact at this very moment it would be more harmful than helpful, but our century is so much worried that it is forgotten. It is necessary that the memory of the true loved ones, free from any second intention of interest, does not remain lost to those that will come after us. The archives of Spiritism will let them get to know the ones that have a legitimate right to such recognition. I take the opportunity, dear brothers, to take a moment to talk about something of concern to us. Before anything else, one could fear the consequences of this case to Spiritism. I was never worried about it, as you know, because it could only produce a local and momentary commotion; because our Doctrine, as with religion, cannot be blamed by the faults of those that do not understand it. It is in vain that our adversaries struggle to present it as evil and immoral; they would have to demonstrate that the Doctrine provokes, excuses or justifies a single reproachable act, or that besides the positively known teachings it also has secretive ones that may accommodate the consciences.
However and since with Spiritism everything happens in the open daylight, and it only preaches the moral of the Gospel, leading mankind to its practice, and in particular the ones that move away from that, only a malicious intention could attribute pernicious tendencies to Spiritism. Considering that each person can pass their own judgement about its highly propagated and clearly formulated principles in books at everyone’s reach, only ignorance or ill-faith could alter it as they did to the first Christians accused of all sorts of disgraces and indignities that hit Rome, and also of corruption of customs. Christianity, with the Gospel in hand, could only come out victorious from all of those accusations and from the terrible struggle that was set up against it. It is the same with Spiritism whose banner is also the Gospel. To justify it one only needs to say this: See what Spiritism teaches, what is recommended and condemned by it. What is it that is condemned? Every action contrary to charity that is the law taught by Jesus Christ.
Spiritism is not only in the belief on the manifestation of the Spirits. The mistake made those by those that condemn Spiritism is to believe that it only consist on the production of strange phenomena, and that because they only see the surface for not taking the burden of studying it. Such phenonema are only strange to those that do not know their cause. But any person that study them with profundity will see the effect of a law, of a force of nature that was unknown and that, for that very reason, are not wonderful or supernatural. The phenomena demonstrate the existence of the Spirits that are not but the soul of those that lived. They consequently prove the existence of the soul, its survival to the body, and future life with all of its moral consequences. Faith in the future is then based on material proofs, becoming unshakable and defeating disbelief. That is why, when Spiritism becomes a general belief, there will be no skeptical or materialist or atheist. Its mission is to fight disbelief, doubt and indifference. Hence it does not address those that have faith and to whom their faith is enough, but those that believe in nothing or that doubt. It does not demand anybody to leave their religion; it respects every belief, when they are sincere. To its eyes freedom of conscience is a sacred right; if it did not respect that freedom it would default its first principle that is charity. Neutral among all cults it will be the link that will unite them all under the same flag, that of universal fraternity. One day they will walk hand in hand instead of saying anathema to one another.
Far from being the essential part of Spiritism the phenomena are only an accessory, an auxiliary employed by God to defeat the disbelief that invades society, and that consists above all in the application of his moral principles. That is how the sincere Spiritists are recognized. The examples of moral reformation led by Spiritism are in large number already, allowing to foresee the results that it will produce with time. It is necessary that its moralizing force be really great to be able to defeat the inveterate habits of age and the lightheartedness of youth. The primary cause of the moralizing effect of Spiritism, therefore, is the phenomenon of the manifestations that led to faith. If those phenomena were an illusion, as pretended by the the nonbelievers, it would be necessary to bless an illusion that give people the power to defeat their bad leanings.
But, if after eighteen centuries we still see so many people that profess Christianity and practice it so little, does it come as a surprise that in less than ten years all those that believe in Spiritism have not taken full advantage yet as wished? Among them there are some that have only seen physical manifestations, touched more by curiosity than heart. That is why not all Spiritists are perfect. There is nothing remarkable about that in principle and if there is something that must cause admiration is the number of changes that took place in this short interval. If Spiritism does not always thoroughly defeats bad tendencies, a partial result is still a progress to be taken into account, and since each one of us has their own weaknesses, it must make us indulgent. Time and new existences will finish what has been initiated. Fortunate are those that spare themselves of new trials!
Hillaire belongs to that class that Spiritism makes only surface, in a way, and for that he failed. Providence gifted him with a remarkable faculty with which he did a lot of good. He could have done much more if he had not ruined his mission, out of his weakness. We cannot condemn or acquit him for it is only up to God to have him judged for not having fully carried out his task. May the atonement that he endures and a serious setback on himself deserve God’s mercy!
Brothers, let us reach out to him with our compassionate hands and pray for him.
Hillaire is a young married family man, a simple worker, almost illiterate. Providence gifted him with a remarkable mediumistic faculty of multiple facets whose details may be found in the book by Mr. Bez entitled “Les miracles de nos jours”; his mediumship has a lot of similarity with that of Mr. Home. Such faculty called people’s attention to him. He became a local celebrity that granted him the sympaty of some and the animosity of others. The somehow exaggerated praises that he received produced the habitual bad influence. Mr. Home’s success got to him as attested by the letters that he wrote. He dreamed of a theater bigger than his village, however despite his offers to come to Paris we never wanted to reach out to him.
If we had seen any kind of utility in that we would have have facilitated it, but based on what we knew about his ideas and character we were convinced that he did not had the necessary qualifications to play a significant role in his own interest. In fact, we had very recently seen one of those ambitions that push people to the capital and end up in bitter deceptions. They did damage him by putting him on a pedestal. His mission was local. In a limited circle and with a certain population he could do great services to the cause of Spiritism with the help of the outstanding phenomena that took place under his influence. He did that by propagating the Spiritist ideas in his land, but he could have done even more if he had remained restricted to his modest sphere, without abandoning his bread winning work, and if he had more prudently conciliated his work with the exercise of mediumship. Unfortunately to him the importance that he attributed to himself made him little accessible to the advices of experience. Like many people, he would have accepted them if in agreement with his own ideas. His letters made that clear to us! Several indications pointed out to a forecast of his downfall but we were far from guessing the cause that would lead to that. Our spiritual guides warned us more than once to be careful with him and to not act prematurely by bringing him to Paris. With too much presumption on one side and too much weakness on the other he destroyed his mission at a time when it could shine the most. Yielding to dangerous invitations and perhaps, we are led to belive, to perfidious insinutations, he then made a mistake, left the region and later on had to face justice. Far from suffering from that, as boasted by our adversaries, Spiritism left the trial safe and sound, as it will be seen shortly. Unnecessary to say that they tried to turn every manifestation through the unfortunate Mr. Hillaire into gross deception. In that sad episode, the aggrieved, one of those that had acclaimed him the most in his transient glory and that had favored him with his sponsorship, wrote to us after the guilty ones had escaped, giving us detailed description of what had happened, asking for our help and our correspondents to have them arrested. He finished by saying: “It is necessary to remove everything from them, forcing them to return to France, and we will then be able to have them punished by human justice, hoping that the merciful God also punish them since they do a great harm to Spiritism. Looking for a handwritten answer from you I will pray to God to have them found. I remain truly yours… etc.”
Here the answer we gave him, not suspecting that it would become one of the exhibits in the process:
Dear Sir,
Returning from a long trip that I have just finished I found the letter that you sent me about Hillaire. Like anyone else I deplore the sad event for which, however, Spiritism cannot be attacked for it cannot be blamed for the actions of those that do not understand it well. As for yourself, the most damaged in the case, I understand your outrage and the first moment of reaction that must have taken you, but I hope that your soul may have found calmness in more reflection. If you are really a Spiritist you must know that we must accept with resignation every trial that God believes to be adequate to send our way, being themselves atonements of previous faults. It is not by asking God, as you do, to avenge us against our oponents that we acquire merit in our God sent trials. By doing so we, on the contrary, we lose the fruits and attract even harder trials. Isn’t that a contradiction from your side to ask the God of mercy to bring the guilty ones to prison, having them delivered to human justice? Sending similar prayers to God is offensive when we, ourselves, need more of less of his mercy, forgetting what he said: you shall be forgiven as you forgave others. Such language is not Christian or Spiritist because Spiritism, like Jesus Christ, teaches us the indulgence and forgiveness of offenses. This is to us a beautiful opportunity to show greatness and nobility and demonstrate that you are above human miseries. To your own benefit I wish you do not let it go.
You believe this event will harm Spiritism. I repeat that it will not affect Spiritism, despite the eagerness of the adversaries in exploiting this circumstance to their benefit. If it could do any harm it would be momentary and on a local level and for that you would have given your contribution, given the enthusiasm with which you propagate the issue. You should have done whatever was in your power to avoid the scandal, out of charity, and as you say in the interest of the doctrine. Instead, given the repercussion that you gave the matter, you gave weapons to our adversaries. The sincere Spiritists would have appreciated your moderation and God would have taken your good feelings into account.
I am sorry if you thought that I could help your wishes of vengeance in any form, by acting in a way to bring the guilty to justice. It would be a huge misconception of my role, my character and my understanding of the true interests of Spiritism. If, like you say, you are my true brother in God then you must beg for his clemency and not rage, for the one that demands rage onto another takes the risk of having that same rage returning to oneself. I have the honor of greeting you with cordiality, in hopes that you may come back to thoughts that are more worthy of a sincere Spiritist.
Allan Kardec
Here the report sent to you:
“The case Hillaire began on Friday and ended on Saturday at midnight. Vitet withdrew his complaint at the time when the sentence was to be announced so that his wife was acquitted. Only Hillaire remained under the sword of justice. The prosecutor’s office concluded that he was guilty, claiming the application of articles 336, 337, 338, etc. of the criminal code. The court declared itself incompentent to assess the transportation effects and other mediumistic facts, applying article 463 to condemn Hillaire to one year in prison with fines. To us the judgment was a fair application of the written law, although considered a bit too harsh by persons that were not absolutely Spiritists. If on one hand we witnessed the development of sad events that human weakeness can lead to, on another we watched a beautiful spectacle when we heard the solemn proclamation of the Spiritist Doctrine when, during the intervals and at the exit of the audience, we heard these words repeated in public: - we must envy the happiness of those whose faith constantly place them in the presence of the loved ones that cannot be kept away even by the grave.
In fact, look at that crowd that even the praetoreum will not be able to hold up. Members of all social positions elbowing one another, from the lowest to the highest echelon. Do you believe that those people come here only to watch common debates about a sordid occurrence brought up by police? Watch the shame of two confessed miserable ones that describe all the details of their fault? Oh No. The matter at hand has a much higher reach. Spiritism is in jeopardy. They come to hear the revelations made by an inquiry that lasted three months. They come to mock the ridicule that would certainly fall onto those poor hallucinated ones, but their not much charitable hopes were dispersed by the wisdom of the court.
The President begins by stating the most absolute freedom of conscience. To everyone he recommends respect to the religious belief of each person, and he himself walks that path all the way. There comes the time when the letter from our teacher to Vitet (published above) will be read. He holds it in his hands and after reading it he mentions that he found in that letter a voice worthy of the first fathers of the Church; that such a beautiful moral had never been preached before with that kind of beautiful language.
Twenty witnesses unanimously confirmed the truth of the phenomena of transportation; none had the tinest doubt. Hence the declaration of incompentence by the court. Only Vitet and his servant objected the miraculous argument but, at the same time, it was countered by a handwritten declaration signed by Vitet and his servant. Two members of our Society were heard. The President was not worried about eventual discussions that could take place as a result of his comments about certain points of the Doctrine. One and the other responded correctly to the satisfaction of every Spiritist.
Hillaire’s lawyer was very succinct with respect to the central theme of the accusation and that could not have been different. But regarding the Doctrine, its teachings, consequences and its progress around the world; about the perseverance of those men from the village, at least our equals with respect to knowledge, intelligence, morality and social position, he said; about the facts that were published everyday in the media; about the multiplicity of works, of the specialized journals, always speaking with eloquence and conviction. His last blow was the reading of a letter from Mr. Jaubert. In the letter Mr. Jaubert says that he and his friends involved with physical manifestations saw, and saw well, with the lights on as well as at daylight, similar events to those obtained by Hillaire, facts that are report in their minor details.
The reading was followed by a solemn profession of faith from Mr. Jaubert himself, a magistrate, active vice-President of a civilian court in the capital city of the Department, a reading that touched the whole audience. (The Journal of Saint-Jean-d’Angély, February 12th, analysis this remarkable defense. See also the Revue de l’Ouest, from Niort, February 18th).
The prosecutor naturally defamed the accused. He explains the events of manifestations through vulgar means. Anybody can produce them in their living room, at will and very easily; it only requires some minimum skills. He cites historic mediumistic facts attributed to hallucination. With respect to the Doctrine he was always honorable and respectful towards the followers. In particular he enthusiastically applauded the courage, honesty and good-faith of the witnesses that came to attest their belief, not stopping before the the fear of mockery and sarcasm, or with their own material interests that can be damaged by all that.”
Spiritism did not leave that trial safe and sound only but also with the honors of war. It is true that the trial did not attest the reality of the manifestations of Hillaire but kept them out of question, given the declaration of incompetence of the court, and for that very reason did not declare them to be fraudulent. As for the Doctrine it was granted a brilliant suffrage. To us, that is the essential point because Spiritism is less in the material phenomena than it is in their moral consequences. Never mind if they deny facts that are daily attested in all corners of the world, because it is not far the day in which everybody will be forced to give in to the evidence. The most important point is that the doctrine that will follow from that be recognized as worthy of the Gospel, on which it is founded. Certainly Mr. Substitute is not Spiritist; the President is not either, as far as we know, but we are pleased to verify that their personal opinion does not affect their impartiality.
The praises to the witnesses are a fantastic tribute to the courage of opinion and to the honesty of belief. Those firm supports of our faith deserve a special tribute. We give it right now throught the following message to them.
Paris, January 21st, 1865
From Mr. Allan Kardec, to the devout Spiritists in the Hillaire case
Dear brothers in Spiritism,
In my name and in the name of the Spiritist Society of Paris, I come to pay a deserved homage of praises to all of those sustained their faith and defended truth with courage, dignity and firmness, in the said event that has shaken us all. They were payed a brilliant and solemn tribute by justice. They cannot go without an acknowledgement from their brothers in belief. I requested a complete and as much as possible accurate list of their names, to have them side by side with the others that deserve a tribute of Spiritism. This is not to give them publicity, something that would damage their modesty, and in fact at this very moment it would be more harmful than helpful, but our century is so much worried that it is forgotten. It is necessary that the memory of the true loved ones, free from any second intention of interest, does not remain lost to those that will come after us. The archives of Spiritism will let them get to know the ones that have a legitimate right to such recognition. I take the opportunity, dear brothers, to take a moment to talk about something of concern to us. Before anything else, one could fear the consequences of this case to Spiritism. I was never worried about it, as you know, because it could only produce a local and momentary commotion; because our Doctrine, as with religion, cannot be blamed by the faults of those that do not understand it. It is in vain that our adversaries struggle to present it as evil and immoral; they would have to demonstrate that the Doctrine provokes, excuses or justifies a single reproachable act, or that besides the positively known teachings it also has secretive ones that may accommodate the consciences.
However and since with Spiritism everything happens in the open daylight, and it only preaches the moral of the Gospel, leading mankind to its practice, and in particular the ones that move away from that, only a malicious intention could attribute pernicious tendencies to Spiritism. Considering that each person can pass their own judgement about its highly propagated and clearly formulated principles in books at everyone’s reach, only ignorance or ill-faith could alter it as they did to the first Christians accused of all sorts of disgraces and indignities that hit Rome, and also of corruption of customs. Christianity, with the Gospel in hand, could only come out victorious from all of those accusations and from the terrible struggle that was set up against it. It is the same with Spiritism whose banner is also the Gospel. To justify it one only needs to say this: See what Spiritism teaches, what is recommended and condemned by it. What is it that is condemned? Every action contrary to charity that is the law taught by Jesus Christ.
Spiritism is not only in the belief on the manifestation of the Spirits. The mistake made those by those that condemn Spiritism is to believe that it only consist on the production of strange phenomena, and that because they only see the surface for not taking the burden of studying it. Such phenonema are only strange to those that do not know their cause. But any person that study them with profundity will see the effect of a law, of a force of nature that was unknown and that, for that very reason, are not wonderful or supernatural. The phenomena demonstrate the existence of the Spirits that are not but the soul of those that lived. They consequently prove the existence of the soul, its survival to the body, and future life with all of its moral consequences. Faith in the future is then based on material proofs, becoming unshakable and defeating disbelief. That is why, when Spiritism becomes a general belief, there will be no skeptical or materialist or atheist. Its mission is to fight disbelief, doubt and indifference. Hence it does not address those that have faith and to whom their faith is enough, but those that believe in nothing or that doubt. It does not demand anybody to leave their religion; it respects every belief, when they are sincere. To its eyes freedom of conscience is a sacred right; if it did not respect that freedom it would default its first principle that is charity. Neutral among all cults it will be the link that will unite them all under the same flag, that of universal fraternity. One day they will walk hand in hand instead of saying anathema to one another.
Far from being the essential part of Spiritism the phenomena are only an accessory, an auxiliary employed by God to defeat the disbelief that invades society, and that consists above all in the application of his moral principles. That is how the sincere Spiritists are recognized. The examples of moral reformation led by Spiritism are in large number already, allowing to foresee the results that it will produce with time. It is necessary that its moralizing force be really great to be able to defeat the inveterate habits of age and the lightheartedness of youth. The primary cause of the moralizing effect of Spiritism, therefore, is the phenomenon of the manifestations that led to faith. If those phenomena were an illusion, as pretended by the the nonbelievers, it would be necessary to bless an illusion that give people the power to defeat their bad leanings.
But, if after eighteen centuries we still see so many people that profess Christianity and practice it so little, does it come as a surprise that in less than ten years all those that believe in Spiritism have not taken full advantage yet as wished? Among them there are some that have only seen physical manifestations, touched more by curiosity than heart. That is why not all Spiritists are perfect. There is nothing remarkable about that in principle and if there is something that must cause admiration is the number of changes that took place in this short interval. If Spiritism does not always thoroughly defeats bad tendencies, a partial result is still a progress to be taken into account, and since each one of us has their own weaknesses, it must make us indulgent. Time and new existences will finish what has been initiated. Fortunate are those that spare themselves of new trials!
Hillaire belongs to that class that Spiritism makes only surface, in a way, and for that he failed. Providence gifted him with a remarkable faculty with which he did a lot of good. He could have done much more if he had not ruined his mission, out of his weakness. We cannot condemn or acquit him for it is only up to God to have him judged for not having fully carried out his task. May the atonement that he endures and a serious setback on himself deserve God’s mercy!
Brothers, let us reach out to him with our compassionate hands and pray for him.
Bibliographic News
An angel from heavens on Earth[1]
Here the report given at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies by our lawyer colleague, Mr. Feyteau:
“With that title Mr. Benjamin Mossé wrote a book full of poetry in which charity is progressively taught by the most touching, from a doble point of view. The subject of this little poem in prose begins in heavens, develops on Earth and ends in heavens, where it started. The angels, the archangels, the seraphims, the ofanins and all sacred creatures, in Mr. Mossé’s expression, are together and sing praises to the Almighty that gathered them to assign them with the mission of walking among the earthly souls to lead them to good, incessantly deviating their earthly apetites and passions.
The purest of these angels was the only one to stay after all others left. It is Zadécia. Prostated before the feet of the throne of the Eternal she begs for the personal favor of one exception to the general rule imposed to the brothers. She said: - Lord, hear my prayer before I obey your voice! I shall descend to Earth, according to your will. I preclude myself from the happiness that inundates us, by your commandment; I will talk about it to the inhabitants of the inferior dwelling; I shall inspire in them hope to sustain them in their painful journey. But allow me the grace that I implore! Allow me, oh God, to never forget your pleasantries. Never allow the envelope that will cover me to be an obstacle to my elevations to you! May I always be in control of myself and that nothing impure may alter my nobility! Allow me, my Lord, not to be long away from my blessed dwelling! May I promptly accomplish my mission; warm up a generous heart with my own flame; captivate a heart already blessed by your hands; my love elevate, complement, and perfect his virtues so that he can receive my inspirations, accept my message and become a consolation and a light to humanity; may I be able to, oh my God, to return to my celestial home, proud for leaving on Earth an honorable continuator of my mission, driven by and worshiping my image, always coming to me to find the strength necessary to continue his work, always finding the encouragement of my love for its accomplishment, up until the time when your will brings him back to my arms, and by the feet of your throne receive your eternal blessings.”
- I receive your prayer, oh my daughter! Go to fearlessly deliver the treasures of your flame to mankind. The fire that drives you shall lose nothing of its holiness on Earth, where you stay shall be short, where a worthy soul has already taken the terrestrial envelope to accomplish the great mission that you wish to entrust him with. With enthusiasm and purity he shall find nobility in your love. He shall be sanctified by your presence and by the links that will bond him to your immortal destiny. In that union, which I bless in anticipation, that soul will find the mission that will be her recovery, like it will be yours as well. You will then return to these supreme regions from which you shall wake for your beloved husband on Earth that will become your beloved husband in heavens, when your mission is over.
Following these words Zadecia came down from the infinite dwellings to the heart of mankind; she kissed the head of the boy that later on she would attract to her in marriage; then, submitting herself to the necessary conditions of life on Earth, she was involved in a material form in which her beauty should shine, blossoming her virtues and charms.
It is in these particularly blessed conditions that Zadecia’s soul starts its mission whose first phase is the incarnation in a being painfully delivered by a young and generous mother. In the second phase of her mission she is an angel of innocence and her beauty, irradiating like a divine emanation, purifies everything around her. In her third phase Zadecia is an angel of resignation and patience through which she endures physical sufferings. In the fourth she is an angel of mercy through the examples of charity and abnegation that she gives. In the fifth she is an angel of love through the mutual feelings of sympathy that she develops with the young Azariel. In the sixth she is the angel of marital love with Azariel. In the seventh she is the angel of maternal love. The eight phase is finally her return to heavens, leaving behing her husband and her daughter to continue her work of sanctification.”
Those multiple images certainly contain honorable examples and constitute attractive reading but the very much foreseen victory of Zadecia over all trials of her life subtracts the actual character of teaching since it can only result from the struggles of the fight. The condition of Zadecia when she leaves heavens, keeping the purity and virtuousness of the angels, makes her almost unnatractive, only changed by the interest brought up by the author in the form and expression of thoughts during her journey on Earth. Hence, after having read this book and given it the fair tribute of praise deserved by the style and harmonious work about the subject, one is forced to regret the fact that the author seems to be alien to the real principles of the nature of the Spirits, never giving any thought to the influence that they exert upon the diverse conditions of humanity, through the progressive improvement allowed by multiple incarnations.
A serious person has a natural concern. May the author probe the multiple lights of philosophy, the multiple facets of human life; may the author probe with the torch of religion the profound mysteries of death! The concern is to find the conclusion that may bring enlightenment about one’s true destiny, showing the path to follow. The path is not always the true path but each person follows the groove of the will, in the field of thoughts, according to the bad or good principles that were developed.
To some, preconceived ideas take the place of truths; they turn them into law, feeding interminable discussions to have it imposed; others have the pretension of translating God himself, interpreting and commenting them in as many ways and painful debates as bloodthirsty, burying the sacred texts of the divine word under their disputes.
Although Mr. Mossé’s book does not reveal the concern that we would like to see about the nature of the Spirits, it does not show either any of those that deny or combat it. We even say that it is closer than farther away and that a single step forward they would march shoulder to shoulder, for they tend to a common end: the practice of charity as a condition to a blessed life. It is therefore a good book that Spiritism must welcome as an ally that can become a brother.”
It is in these particularly blessed conditions that Zadecia’s soul starts its mission whose first phase is the incarnation in a being painfully delivered by a young and generous mother. In the second phase of her mission she is an angel of innocence and her beauty, irradiating like a divine emanation, purifies everything around her. In her third phase Zadecia is an angel of resignation and patience through which she endures physical sufferings. In the fourth she is an angel of mercy through the examples of charity and abnegation that she gives. In the fifth she is an angel of love through the mutual feelings of sympathy that she develops with the young Azariel. In the sixth she is the angel of marital love with Azariel. In the seventh she is the angel of maternal love. The eight phase is finally her return to heavens, leaving behing her husband and her daughter to continue her work of sanctification.”
Those multiple images certainly contain honorable examples and constitute attractive reading but the very much foreseen victory of Zadecia over all trials of her life subtracts the actual character of teaching since it can only result from the struggles of the fight. The condition of Zadecia when she leaves heavens, keeping the purity and virtuousness of the angels, makes her almost unnatractive, only changed by the interest brought up by the author in the form and expression of thoughts during her journey on Earth. Hence, after having read this book and given it the fair tribute of praise deserved by the style and harmonious work about the subject, one is forced to regret the fact that the author seems to be alien to the real principles of the nature of the Spirits, never giving any thought to the influence that they exert upon the diverse conditions of humanity, through the progressive improvement allowed by multiple incarnations.
A serious person has a natural concern. May the author probe the multiple lights of philosophy, the multiple facets of human life; may the author probe with the torch of religion the profound mysteries of death! The concern is to find the conclusion that may bring enlightenment about one’s true destiny, showing the path to follow. The path is not always the true path but each person follows the groove of the will, in the field of thoughts, according to the bad or good principles that were developed.
To some, preconceived ideas take the place of truths; they turn them into law, feeding interminable discussions to have it imposed; others have the pretension of translating God himself, interpreting and commenting them in as many ways and painful debates as bloodthirsty, burying the sacred texts of the divine word under their disputes.
Although Mr. Mossé’s book does not reveal the concern that we would like to see about the nature of the Spirits, it does not show either any of those that deny or combat it. We even say that it is closer than farther away and that a single step forward they would march shoulder to shoulder, for they tend to a common end: the practice of charity as a condition to a blessed life. It is therefore a good book that Spiritism must welcome as an ally that can become a brother.”
Feyteau, Lawyer
[1] By Benjamin Mossé, Rabi in Avignon – 1 vol., in-12; 3.5 francs. In Avignon, Bonnet & Sons