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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866 > April
April
The Revelation[1]Revelations implies an idea of mysticism and marvelous, in its liturgic sense. Materialism rejects it naturally since it supposes the idea of intervention of extra human powers and intelligences. Leaving aside the absolute denial, many people today ask the following questions: There was or there wasn’t a revelation? Is the revelation necessary? By bring the finished truth to mankind, wouldn’t the revelation preclude them from using their own skills, since it spares them the work of research? These objections arise from the false idea that is made of revelation. To begin with, let us take if from its simplest meaning, and follow it to its highest point.
Reveal is to bring about something that is unknown; it is to teach someone something that she doesn’t know. From this point of view, there is a continuous revelation to us, as a way of speaking. What is the role of the teacher to the students, if not that of a revealer? She teaches them what they do not know, what they would not have time or possibility of finding by themselves, for science is the collective work of the centuries, and from a multitude of people, each one bringing their contingent of observations, of which those that came after them take advantage. Teaching is therefore a revelation of certain scientific and moral truths, physical or metaphysical, made by persons that know them to others that ignore them, and without which they would have always ignored. Would it be more logical to leave it up to them to find such truths? Wait for them to invent mechanics so that they can utilize the steam? Could we say that we block the exercise of their skills by revealing to them what others found? Isn’t that the opposite, that by standing on the previous discoveries they arrive at new ones? By teaching the largest possible number of people the largest possible sum of known truths is, consequently, provoking the activity of intelligence, instead of muffling it and precluding progress. Men would remain stationary without it.
But the teacher only teaches what she learned; she is a revealer of second order. The genius teaches what he found himself; he is the primitive revealer. He was the one that brought the light, that gradually vulgarized. Where would humanity be without the revelations of the geniuses that appear from time to time?
But what are the geniuses? Why are they geniuses? Where do they come from? What becomes of them? Let us observe that, in their majority, they bring transcendent skills from birth, innate knowledge that a little work is enough to develop.
They are really part of humanity because they are born, live and die as we do. What is the origin of such knowledge that could not have been acquired in life? One may say, like the materialists, that by chance they have brain material in larger quantity and of better quality. In this case they would not have more merit than a legume that is larger and more tasteful than another. Will others say, with certain spiritualists, that God gave them a soul that is more favorable than that of common people? An also illogical supposition because it would accuse God of partiality.
The only rational solution to this problem is in the pre-existence of the soul, and in the plurality of the existences. The genius is a Spirit that lived longer, that consequently acquired more and progressed more than those that are less advanced. By incarnating, he brings what he acquired and since he acquired much more than the others, without the need of learning, that is what is called genius. But what he knows is still the result of previous work, and not the result of a privilege. Before being born he was, therefore, a more advanced Spirit; reincarnates so that others may take advantage of what he knows, or to acquire more knowledge.
Men progress by themselves, incontestably, and by the efforts of their intelligence; but left to their own strengths such a progress is very slow, if not helped by more advanced people, as the pupil is by the teachers. All peoples have had the geniuses, that have come at all times to give them an impulse and move them from the inertia.
As the solicitude of God is admitted towards His creatures, why wouldn’t we admit that capable Spirits, for their energy and superiority of their knowledge, would help humanity advance, incarnating by the will of God, aiming at supporting progress in a given direction? That they were assigned with a mission, like the ambassador is assigned by his sovereign? Such is the role of the great geniuses. What is it that they come to do, other than teach mankind truths that are ignored, and that would remain unknown for long periods, providing men with a trampoline with which they can rise more rapidly? Those geniuses, that appear throughout the centuries, like shining stars, leaving behind a long and shiny wake upon humanity, are missionaries, or messiahs if you will. If they only taught what men already know their presence would be completely useless. The new things that they teach, be it in the physical or moral world, are revelations.
If God employs revealers to the scientific truths, with even stronger reason may employ them to the moral truths, that form one of the essential elements of progress. These are the philosophers whose ideas travel through the centuries. In the special meaning of religious faith, the revealers are more generally called prophets or messiahs. Every religion has had their revealers, and although they have all been far from knowing the whole truth, they had a providential meaning because they were appropriate to the time and the environment in which they lived, to the particular condition of the people to whom they spoke and were relatively superior. Despite the mistake of their doctrines, they still shook the minds and for that very reason, sowed the germs of progress that should, one day, expand under the light of Christianity. It is therefore wrong to cast anathema upon them, in the name of an Orthodoxy, for a day will come when all beliefs, so much different in their form, but that rest on a common and fundamental principle – God and the immortality of the soul – will melt in a great and vast unity, when reason triumphs against prejudices.
Unfortunately, and in all times, religions have been instruments of domination. The role of prophet tempted secondary ambitions, giving rise to a multitude of pretense revealers or messiahs, that from the favor of prestige of such name, exploited credulity to satisfy their own pride, greed or laziness, finding it easier to live on the expenses of their victims.
The Christian religion has not been spared of such parasites. In this respect we call your serious attention to Chapter XXI of the Gospel According to Spiritism: “There will be false Christs and false prophets”. The symbolic language of Jesus favored singularly the most contradictory interpretations; each one struggling to distort their meaning, believing to have found the sanction to their personal points of view, many times even to the justification of doctrines most contrary to the spirit of charity and justice, that is its foundation. Such abuse will disappear by the force of things and under the empire of reason. This is not what we have to discuss here. We only point out the two great revelations that are the cornerstones of Christianity: that of Moses and Jesus, because they had a decisive influence onto humanity. Islamism may be considered a derivative of Moses and Christianity. To value the religion that he wanted founded, Mohamed needed the support of a supposed divine revelation.
Are there direct revelations of God to men? This is a question that we dare not answer affirmatively nor negatively, in absolute terms. It is not strictly impossible, but there is no certain proof. What cannot be doubted is that Spirits closer to God by their perfection penetrate God’s thoughts and can transmit them. As for the incarnate revealers, according to their hierarchical order and degree of personal knowledge, they can collect instructions from their own knowledge or receive them from more elevated Spirits, even from direct messengers of God. These may sometimes have been thought as God since they speak in the name of God.
Such kind of communications have nothing of strange to whoever know the Spiritist phenomena, and the way the relationships between the incarnate and discarnate take place. The instructions may be transmitted by several means: by pure and simple inspiration, by the hearing of the word, by the vision of instructor Spirits, in the visions and apparitions, be it in dreams or in the wake state, as there are many examples in the Bible, in the Gospels and in the sacred books of all peoples. Therefore, it is strictly accurate to say that most of the revealers are inspired, clairvoyant or clairaudient mediums. It does not follow from this that every medium is a revealer, and even less direct intermediaries to God and the messengers.
It is only the pure Spirits that receive the word of God with the mission of transmitting it. But now it is known that the Spirits are far from being all perfect, and that there are those that take a false appearance. This is what led St. John say: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God”. (1 John IV, 1).
It is therefore possible to have true and serious revelations, as there are apocryphal and false ones. The essential character of the Divine revelation is that of the eternal truth. Every revelation stained with mistakes or subjected to changes cannot emanate from God, since God cannot consciously deceive or be mistaken. That is how the law of the Decalogue[2] has all the characters of its origin, whereas the other laws of Moses, essentially transient, sometimes in contradiction with the laws of the Mount Sinai, are the political and personal works of the Hebrew legislator. As the costumes of the people softened the application of these laws faded away whilst the Decalogue stood up as the lighthouse of humanity. Jesus Christ turned it into the foundation of his edifice, while abolishing the other laws. If they were the works of God, Jesus would have avoided touching them. Jesus and Moses are the two great revealers that changed the face of the world, and that is the proof of their Divine mission. A purely human law would not have such a power.
A new and important revelation takes place in the present days. It is the one that shows us the possibility of communication with the beings of the spiritual world. This knowledge is not new, no doubt, but up until now it remained in the state of dead letter, that is, without benefit to humanity. The ignorance of the laws that rule those relationships had it muffled under superstition; man was incapable of extracting any healthy deduction from that; it was reserved to our times to disentangle it from its ridiculous accessories, understand its reach and extract from it the light that should illuminate the path to the future.
Since the Spirits are nothing else but the souls of men, by communicating with them we are not beyond humanity, a paramount circumstance to consider. The men of genius, that were the light beam of humanity, therefore, came from the world of the Spirits and returned there after leaving Earth. Considering that the Spirits may communicate with men, those geniuses may give them instructions in the spiritual form, as they did in their corporeal form; can instruct us after their death, as they did when alive; they are invisible, instead of visible, and that is the whole difference. Their experience and knowledge must not be reduced, and if their word had authority as men, they must not have less for being in the world of the Spirits.
But it is not only superior Spirits that manifest, as Spirits of every order do, and that was necessary to initiate us in the true character of the world of the Spirits, showing it to us in all its facets. Thus, the relationships between the visible and the invisible worlds are more intimate, and the connection is more evident; we see more clearly where we came from and where we are going to. Such is the essential objective of those manifestations. All Spirits, irrespective of the degree that they may have achieved, teach us, therefore, something, but since they are more or less enlightened, it is up to us to discern the good from the bad in their teachings, and make the best of the opportunity. They can all, whoever they are, teach or reveal things to us, things that we ignore and that we would not know without them.
The great incarnate Spirits are powerful individualities, no doubt, but whose action is restricted, and necessarily slow to propagate. If one among them, even if Elijah or Moses, had come in our time to reveal to men the state of the spiritual world, who would have proved the truthfulness of their assertions, in this time of skepticism? Wouldn’t them been looked at as a dreamer or a utopist? And admitting that they were with the absolute truth, centuries would have passed before their ideas would be accepted by the masses. God in His wisdom did not want it to be so. God wished the teaching to be given by the Spirits themselves, and not the incarnate, so as to convince about their existence, and having that taking place around the world, be it to propagate faster or to give a proof of truth in the coincidence of the teachings, so that each person would find the means of convincing oneself. Such are the objective and character of the modern revelation. The Spirits do not come to spare man from the work, the study, and researches; they do not bring any finished science; they leave men to their own strengths in whatever they can find by themselves. This is what the Spiritists know perfectly well today. Experience demonstrated long ago the mistake that attributed all the knowledge and wisdom to the Spirits, and that it would be enough to address the first Spirit that showed up to get to know everything. The Spirits come out of the corporeal humanity and constitute one of its faces; as there are the superior and the vulgar on Earth, many of them know less, scientifically, and philosophically, than certain men. They say what they know, not more, not less. As with men, the most advanced ones can teach us more things, and give us wiser advices than the delayed ones. By asking the Spirits for advice, therefore, is not reaching out to supernatural forces, but asking our fellow human beings, the very ones to whom one would have asked when alive, the parents, the friends, or those individuals that are more enlightened than us. That is what is necessary to persuade and what is ignored by those that, by not having studied Spiritism, make a false idea about the nature of the world of the Spirits and the revelations from beyond the grave. What is, then, the utility of those manifestations, or of this revelation, if you like, if the Spirits don’t know more than we do, or if they do not tell us everything they know? To begin with, as we said, they abstain from giving us what we can obtain by our own work; second, there are things that they are not allowed to reveal, because that is not fit to our level of advancement.
Now, leaving that apart, the conditions of their new existence extend the circle of their perceptions; they see what they did not when on Earth; freed from the hindrances of matter and the worries of the corporeal life, they judge things from a more elevated point of view, and for that very reason, more correctly; their perspicuity embraces a broader horizon; they understand their mistakes, rectify their ideas and disentangle from human prejudices. That is what characterize their superiority above corporeal humanity and because their advices can be, relatively to their degree of advancement, more judicious and more disinterested than those of the incarnate. Their current environment allows them, additionally, to initiate us in things of the future life, things that we ignore and cannot learn in this world where we are.
Up until now man had only hypothesized about the future, and that is why the beliefs were divided into so many and so divergent systems, from the nihilism to the fantastic descriptions of hell and paradise. Today, it is the eyewitnesses, the actors of life beyond the grave themselves that come to tell us about it, and they are the only ones that could do that. Thus, those manifestations served to allow us to get to know the invisible world that is around us, and that we did not suspect. This knowledge alone would have a fundamental importance, supposing that the Spirits were incapable of teaching us anything else. A simple comparison allows to understand the situation better.
A ship loaded with immigrants departs to a long trip; it carries men of every condition, relatives, and friends of those left behind. There is word that the ship sank; not a single trace was left; no news about its fate; all travelers are believed dead and all families begin mourning. Yet, the whole ship, without the loss of a single man, got to an unknown, abundant, and fertile land, where everybody is happy, under a clement sky. But they are ignored. Lo and behold, one day another ship harbors that port and finds the castaway safe and well. The happy news spreads with the speed of light. Everybody says: “Our friends are not lost then?” They thank God. They cannot see them but correspond. They exchange demonstrations of affection, and joyfulness succeeds sadness.
Such is the image of the earthly life and life beyond the grave, before and after the modern revelation. The latter, similarly to the ship, brings us the good news of the survival of the loved ones, and the certainty of finding them one day; there is no more doubt about their fate and ours; dismay fades away before hope.
But other results come to fecund this revelation. God, by judging humanity mature to penetrate the mystery of its destiny, and cold-bloodedly contemplate new wonders, allowed the veil that separated the visible from the invisible world to be lifted. The fact of manifestations has nothing of extra human; it is the spiritual humanity that comes to talk to the corporeal humanity, saying:
“We exist, therefore the void does not exist; observe what we are and see what you are going to be; future belongs to you, as it belongs to us. You were walking in darkness; we came to illuminate your path and clear the way to you; you were wandering about, we showed you the objective. Earthly life was everything to you because you did not see anything beyond; by showing you the spiritual life, we came to tell you: Earthly life is nothing. Your sight ended at the tomb; we show you a splendid horizon beyond. You did not know what you suffered on Earth; now you see the justice of God in your suffering. Good did not have apparent fruits for the future; from now on it will have an objective and will be a necessity. Fraternity was just a beautiful theory; now it is founded on a law of nature. Under the empire of belief that everything ends with life, the immensity is empty, egotism rules among you, and your motto is: “every person for oneself”; with the certainty of the future, the infinite space is infinitely inhabited, emptiness and solitude are not anywhere, solidarity connects all creatures from before and beyond the grave; it is the kingdom of charity, with the maxim: “All for one, one for all”. Finally, at the end of life you used to say an eternal good-bye to the loved ones; now you say: “So long!”.
Such are, in summary, the results of the new revelation. It came to fulfill the void dug by incredulity; cheer up the courage abated by the doubt or by the perspective of the nothingness, giving all things a reason for their existence. Doesn’t such result have importance, considering that the Spirits do not come to solve the problems of science, nor give knowledge to the ignorant or means of enrichment to the lazy one, without work? However, the fruits that man will harvest are not for a future life only; they will be collected on Earth, by the transformation that such new beliefs must necessarily operate upon the character, the tastes, the tendencies, and consequently, upon the costumes and social relationships of every man. By ending the kingdom of egotism, pride and disbelief, they prepare the kingdom of good that the is kingdom of God.
The revelation, therefore, has the objective of allowing man the acquisition of certain truths that he was unable to acquire on his own, and that is aiming at the progress. Those truths are limited, in general, to fundamental principles, destined to guide man in the path of research, and not that of carrying him by the hand; these are guidelines that show the objective. It is up to mankind to study them and deduce their applications. Far from freeing man from the work, these are new elements provided to his activity.
[1] See Genesis – Miracles and Predictions According to Spiritism, Chap. I
[2] Ten Commandments (T.N.)
Reveal is to bring about something that is unknown; it is to teach someone something that she doesn’t know. From this point of view, there is a continuous revelation to us, as a way of speaking. What is the role of the teacher to the students, if not that of a revealer? She teaches them what they do not know, what they would not have time or possibility of finding by themselves, for science is the collective work of the centuries, and from a multitude of people, each one bringing their contingent of observations, of which those that came after them take advantage. Teaching is therefore a revelation of certain scientific and moral truths, physical or metaphysical, made by persons that know them to others that ignore them, and without which they would have always ignored. Would it be more logical to leave it up to them to find such truths? Wait for them to invent mechanics so that they can utilize the steam? Could we say that we block the exercise of their skills by revealing to them what others found? Isn’t that the opposite, that by standing on the previous discoveries they arrive at new ones? By teaching the largest possible number of people the largest possible sum of known truths is, consequently, provoking the activity of intelligence, instead of muffling it and precluding progress. Men would remain stationary without it.
But the teacher only teaches what she learned; she is a revealer of second order. The genius teaches what he found himself; he is the primitive revealer. He was the one that brought the light, that gradually vulgarized. Where would humanity be without the revelations of the geniuses that appear from time to time?
But what are the geniuses? Why are they geniuses? Where do they come from? What becomes of them? Let us observe that, in their majority, they bring transcendent skills from birth, innate knowledge that a little work is enough to develop.
They are really part of humanity because they are born, live and die as we do. What is the origin of such knowledge that could not have been acquired in life? One may say, like the materialists, that by chance they have brain material in larger quantity and of better quality. In this case they would not have more merit than a legume that is larger and more tasteful than another. Will others say, with certain spiritualists, that God gave them a soul that is more favorable than that of common people? An also illogical supposition because it would accuse God of partiality.
The only rational solution to this problem is in the pre-existence of the soul, and in the plurality of the existences. The genius is a Spirit that lived longer, that consequently acquired more and progressed more than those that are less advanced. By incarnating, he brings what he acquired and since he acquired much more than the others, without the need of learning, that is what is called genius. But what he knows is still the result of previous work, and not the result of a privilege. Before being born he was, therefore, a more advanced Spirit; reincarnates so that others may take advantage of what he knows, or to acquire more knowledge.
Men progress by themselves, incontestably, and by the efforts of their intelligence; but left to their own strengths such a progress is very slow, if not helped by more advanced people, as the pupil is by the teachers. All peoples have had the geniuses, that have come at all times to give them an impulse and move them from the inertia.
As the solicitude of God is admitted towards His creatures, why wouldn’t we admit that capable Spirits, for their energy and superiority of their knowledge, would help humanity advance, incarnating by the will of God, aiming at supporting progress in a given direction? That they were assigned with a mission, like the ambassador is assigned by his sovereign? Such is the role of the great geniuses. What is it that they come to do, other than teach mankind truths that are ignored, and that would remain unknown for long periods, providing men with a trampoline with which they can rise more rapidly? Those geniuses, that appear throughout the centuries, like shining stars, leaving behind a long and shiny wake upon humanity, are missionaries, or messiahs if you will. If they only taught what men already know their presence would be completely useless. The new things that they teach, be it in the physical or moral world, are revelations.
If God employs revealers to the scientific truths, with even stronger reason may employ them to the moral truths, that form one of the essential elements of progress. These are the philosophers whose ideas travel through the centuries. In the special meaning of religious faith, the revealers are more generally called prophets or messiahs. Every religion has had their revealers, and although they have all been far from knowing the whole truth, they had a providential meaning because they were appropriate to the time and the environment in which they lived, to the particular condition of the people to whom they spoke and were relatively superior. Despite the mistake of their doctrines, they still shook the minds and for that very reason, sowed the germs of progress that should, one day, expand under the light of Christianity. It is therefore wrong to cast anathema upon them, in the name of an Orthodoxy, for a day will come when all beliefs, so much different in their form, but that rest on a common and fundamental principle – God and the immortality of the soul – will melt in a great and vast unity, when reason triumphs against prejudices.
Unfortunately, and in all times, religions have been instruments of domination. The role of prophet tempted secondary ambitions, giving rise to a multitude of pretense revealers or messiahs, that from the favor of prestige of such name, exploited credulity to satisfy their own pride, greed or laziness, finding it easier to live on the expenses of their victims.
The Christian religion has not been spared of such parasites. In this respect we call your serious attention to Chapter XXI of the Gospel According to Spiritism: “There will be false Christs and false prophets”. The symbolic language of Jesus favored singularly the most contradictory interpretations; each one struggling to distort their meaning, believing to have found the sanction to their personal points of view, many times even to the justification of doctrines most contrary to the spirit of charity and justice, that is its foundation. Such abuse will disappear by the force of things and under the empire of reason. This is not what we have to discuss here. We only point out the two great revelations that are the cornerstones of Christianity: that of Moses and Jesus, because they had a decisive influence onto humanity. Islamism may be considered a derivative of Moses and Christianity. To value the religion that he wanted founded, Mohamed needed the support of a supposed divine revelation.
Are there direct revelations of God to men? This is a question that we dare not answer affirmatively nor negatively, in absolute terms. It is not strictly impossible, but there is no certain proof. What cannot be doubted is that Spirits closer to God by their perfection penetrate God’s thoughts and can transmit them. As for the incarnate revealers, according to their hierarchical order and degree of personal knowledge, they can collect instructions from their own knowledge or receive them from more elevated Spirits, even from direct messengers of God. These may sometimes have been thought as God since they speak in the name of God.
Such kind of communications have nothing of strange to whoever know the Spiritist phenomena, and the way the relationships between the incarnate and discarnate take place. The instructions may be transmitted by several means: by pure and simple inspiration, by the hearing of the word, by the vision of instructor Spirits, in the visions and apparitions, be it in dreams or in the wake state, as there are many examples in the Bible, in the Gospels and in the sacred books of all peoples. Therefore, it is strictly accurate to say that most of the revealers are inspired, clairvoyant or clairaudient mediums. It does not follow from this that every medium is a revealer, and even less direct intermediaries to God and the messengers.
It is only the pure Spirits that receive the word of God with the mission of transmitting it. But now it is known that the Spirits are far from being all perfect, and that there are those that take a false appearance. This is what led St. John say: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God”. (1 John IV, 1).
It is therefore possible to have true and serious revelations, as there are apocryphal and false ones. The essential character of the Divine revelation is that of the eternal truth. Every revelation stained with mistakes or subjected to changes cannot emanate from God, since God cannot consciously deceive or be mistaken. That is how the law of the Decalogue[2] has all the characters of its origin, whereas the other laws of Moses, essentially transient, sometimes in contradiction with the laws of the Mount Sinai, are the political and personal works of the Hebrew legislator. As the costumes of the people softened the application of these laws faded away whilst the Decalogue stood up as the lighthouse of humanity. Jesus Christ turned it into the foundation of his edifice, while abolishing the other laws. If they were the works of God, Jesus would have avoided touching them. Jesus and Moses are the two great revealers that changed the face of the world, and that is the proof of their Divine mission. A purely human law would not have such a power.
A new and important revelation takes place in the present days. It is the one that shows us the possibility of communication with the beings of the spiritual world. This knowledge is not new, no doubt, but up until now it remained in the state of dead letter, that is, without benefit to humanity. The ignorance of the laws that rule those relationships had it muffled under superstition; man was incapable of extracting any healthy deduction from that; it was reserved to our times to disentangle it from its ridiculous accessories, understand its reach and extract from it the light that should illuminate the path to the future.
Since the Spirits are nothing else but the souls of men, by communicating with them we are not beyond humanity, a paramount circumstance to consider. The men of genius, that were the light beam of humanity, therefore, came from the world of the Spirits and returned there after leaving Earth. Considering that the Spirits may communicate with men, those geniuses may give them instructions in the spiritual form, as they did in their corporeal form; can instruct us after their death, as they did when alive; they are invisible, instead of visible, and that is the whole difference. Their experience and knowledge must not be reduced, and if their word had authority as men, they must not have less for being in the world of the Spirits.
But it is not only superior Spirits that manifest, as Spirits of every order do, and that was necessary to initiate us in the true character of the world of the Spirits, showing it to us in all its facets. Thus, the relationships between the visible and the invisible worlds are more intimate, and the connection is more evident; we see more clearly where we came from and where we are going to. Such is the essential objective of those manifestations. All Spirits, irrespective of the degree that they may have achieved, teach us, therefore, something, but since they are more or less enlightened, it is up to us to discern the good from the bad in their teachings, and make the best of the opportunity. They can all, whoever they are, teach or reveal things to us, things that we ignore and that we would not know without them.
The great incarnate Spirits are powerful individualities, no doubt, but whose action is restricted, and necessarily slow to propagate. If one among them, even if Elijah or Moses, had come in our time to reveal to men the state of the spiritual world, who would have proved the truthfulness of their assertions, in this time of skepticism? Wouldn’t them been looked at as a dreamer or a utopist? And admitting that they were with the absolute truth, centuries would have passed before their ideas would be accepted by the masses. God in His wisdom did not want it to be so. God wished the teaching to be given by the Spirits themselves, and not the incarnate, so as to convince about their existence, and having that taking place around the world, be it to propagate faster or to give a proof of truth in the coincidence of the teachings, so that each person would find the means of convincing oneself. Such are the objective and character of the modern revelation. The Spirits do not come to spare man from the work, the study, and researches; they do not bring any finished science; they leave men to their own strengths in whatever they can find by themselves. This is what the Spiritists know perfectly well today. Experience demonstrated long ago the mistake that attributed all the knowledge and wisdom to the Spirits, and that it would be enough to address the first Spirit that showed up to get to know everything. The Spirits come out of the corporeal humanity and constitute one of its faces; as there are the superior and the vulgar on Earth, many of them know less, scientifically, and philosophically, than certain men. They say what they know, not more, not less. As with men, the most advanced ones can teach us more things, and give us wiser advices than the delayed ones. By asking the Spirits for advice, therefore, is not reaching out to supernatural forces, but asking our fellow human beings, the very ones to whom one would have asked when alive, the parents, the friends, or those individuals that are more enlightened than us. That is what is necessary to persuade and what is ignored by those that, by not having studied Spiritism, make a false idea about the nature of the world of the Spirits and the revelations from beyond the grave. What is, then, the utility of those manifestations, or of this revelation, if you like, if the Spirits don’t know more than we do, or if they do not tell us everything they know? To begin with, as we said, they abstain from giving us what we can obtain by our own work; second, there are things that they are not allowed to reveal, because that is not fit to our level of advancement.
Now, leaving that apart, the conditions of their new existence extend the circle of their perceptions; they see what they did not when on Earth; freed from the hindrances of matter and the worries of the corporeal life, they judge things from a more elevated point of view, and for that very reason, more correctly; their perspicuity embraces a broader horizon; they understand their mistakes, rectify their ideas and disentangle from human prejudices. That is what characterize their superiority above corporeal humanity and because their advices can be, relatively to their degree of advancement, more judicious and more disinterested than those of the incarnate. Their current environment allows them, additionally, to initiate us in things of the future life, things that we ignore and cannot learn in this world where we are.
Up until now man had only hypothesized about the future, and that is why the beliefs were divided into so many and so divergent systems, from the nihilism to the fantastic descriptions of hell and paradise. Today, it is the eyewitnesses, the actors of life beyond the grave themselves that come to tell us about it, and they are the only ones that could do that. Thus, those manifestations served to allow us to get to know the invisible world that is around us, and that we did not suspect. This knowledge alone would have a fundamental importance, supposing that the Spirits were incapable of teaching us anything else. A simple comparison allows to understand the situation better.
A ship loaded with immigrants departs to a long trip; it carries men of every condition, relatives, and friends of those left behind. There is word that the ship sank; not a single trace was left; no news about its fate; all travelers are believed dead and all families begin mourning. Yet, the whole ship, without the loss of a single man, got to an unknown, abundant, and fertile land, where everybody is happy, under a clement sky. But they are ignored. Lo and behold, one day another ship harbors that port and finds the castaway safe and well. The happy news spreads with the speed of light. Everybody says: “Our friends are not lost then?” They thank God. They cannot see them but correspond. They exchange demonstrations of affection, and joyfulness succeeds sadness.
Such is the image of the earthly life and life beyond the grave, before and after the modern revelation. The latter, similarly to the ship, brings us the good news of the survival of the loved ones, and the certainty of finding them one day; there is no more doubt about their fate and ours; dismay fades away before hope.
But other results come to fecund this revelation. God, by judging humanity mature to penetrate the mystery of its destiny, and cold-bloodedly contemplate new wonders, allowed the veil that separated the visible from the invisible world to be lifted. The fact of manifestations has nothing of extra human; it is the spiritual humanity that comes to talk to the corporeal humanity, saying:
“We exist, therefore the void does not exist; observe what we are and see what you are going to be; future belongs to you, as it belongs to us. You were walking in darkness; we came to illuminate your path and clear the way to you; you were wandering about, we showed you the objective. Earthly life was everything to you because you did not see anything beyond; by showing you the spiritual life, we came to tell you: Earthly life is nothing. Your sight ended at the tomb; we show you a splendid horizon beyond. You did not know what you suffered on Earth; now you see the justice of God in your suffering. Good did not have apparent fruits for the future; from now on it will have an objective and will be a necessity. Fraternity was just a beautiful theory; now it is founded on a law of nature. Under the empire of belief that everything ends with life, the immensity is empty, egotism rules among you, and your motto is: “every person for oneself”; with the certainty of the future, the infinite space is infinitely inhabited, emptiness and solitude are not anywhere, solidarity connects all creatures from before and beyond the grave; it is the kingdom of charity, with the maxim: “All for one, one for all”. Finally, at the end of life you used to say an eternal good-bye to the loved ones; now you say: “So long!”.
Such are, in summary, the results of the new revelation. It came to fulfill the void dug by incredulity; cheer up the courage abated by the doubt or by the perspective of the nothingness, giving all things a reason for their existence. Doesn’t such result have importance, considering that the Spirits do not come to solve the problems of science, nor give knowledge to the ignorant or means of enrichment to the lazy one, without work? However, the fruits that man will harvest are not for a future life only; they will be collected on Earth, by the transformation that such new beliefs must necessarily operate upon the character, the tastes, the tendencies, and consequently, upon the costumes and social relationships of every man. By ending the kingdom of egotism, pride and disbelief, they prepare the kingdom of good that the is kingdom of God.
The revelation, therefore, has the objective of allowing man the acquisition of certain truths that he was unable to acquire on his own, and that is aiming at the progress. Those truths are limited, in general, to fundamental principles, destined to guide man in the path of research, and not that of carrying him by the hand; these are guidelines that show the objective. It is up to mankind to study them and deduce their applications. Far from freeing man from the work, these are new elements provided to his activity.
[1] See Genesis – Miracles and Predictions According to Spiritism, Chap. I
[2] Ten Commandments (T.N.)
Spiritism Without the Spirits
Lately we have seen a sect trying to establish itself, with the flag of the denial of prayer. It was initially received by a general feeling of reproach and failed. Men and Spirits united to repel a doctrine that was, at the same time, ingratitude, and revolt against the Providence. This was not difficult, for by shocking the intimate feeling of the majority, it carried its own destroying principle. (Spiritist Review, January 1866).
There is now another way that is probing a different terrain. Its motto is: No communication with the Spirits. It is strange to have such an opinion now preconized by some that in the past exalted the importance and sublimity of the Spiritist teachings, and that felt glorified by what they themselves received as mediums. Will it have more chances of success than the preceding one? This is what we are going to examine in a few words.
This doctrine, if we can give such a name to an opinion that is restricted to a few people, is supported by the following data:
“The Spirits that communicate are only ordinary Spirits that so far have not taught us any new truth, demonstrating their lack of capacity, and staying at moral banalities. The criteria that they try to establish with the agreement of their teaching is delusional, given its insufficiency. It is man that must probe the great mysteries of nature, submitting what they say to the control of reason. Since they do not teach us anything in their communications, we ban them from our meetings. We will discuss among ourselves; we will seek and decide about the principles that must be accepted or rejected, in our own wisdom, without resorting to the approval of the Spirits.”
Notice that it is not about denying the fact of the manifestations, but to establish superiority against the Spirits, in the judgement of man, or of some men; in a word, separating Spiritism from the teaching of the Spirits since the instructions of the latter would be inferior to what human intelligence can do.
Such a doctrine leads to a singular consequence, that would not speak highly of human intelligence compared to the logic of the Spirits. Thanks to the latter we know that the Spirits of higher order belonged to the corporeal humanity that was surpassed by them long ago, like the general that surpassed the class of soldier from which he came. Without the Spirits, we would still believe that the angels are a privileged class and that the demons are creatures predestined to evil for the whole of eternity. “No, they will say, because there were men that fought that idea”. Be it, but what were those men if not incarnate Spirits? What was the influence of their isolated opinion upon the belief of the masses? Ask the first one that arrives if they know at least by name of most of those great philosophers! Whereas, by coming from the Spirits and in all corners of Earth, manifesting to the humblest as well as to the most powerful, the truth propagated with the speed of light.
We can divide the Spirits in two large categories: those that, after achieving the highest degree of the scale, left the material worlds for good, and those that, by the law of reincarnation, still belong to the maelstrom of earthly humanity. Let us admit, hypothetically, that it is only the latter ones that have the right to communicate with men: there are, among them, those that were enlightened during their lives, whose opinion has authority, and that we would be pleased to consult with them if they were still alive.
The doctrine above would result that these very superior men would become nullities or mediocre by passing to the world of the Spirits, incapable of giving us a valuable teaching, whereas we would respectfully bow before them if they presented themselves in flesh and blood in the same meetings, where they refuse to listen to them as Spirits. It also follows that Pascal, for example, is no longer a light once he became Spirit, but if he reincarnate in Peter or Paul, necessarily with the same genius, he would be an oracle, given that he had lost nothing. This consequence is so rigorous that the followers of such a system admit the reincarnation as one of their greatest truths.
Finally, it is necessary to conclude that, in good faith as we suppose, place their intelligence so much above that of the Spirits, will become nullities or mediocre themselves, whose opinion will have no value, so that one would have to believe in what they say when alive, and to not believe tomorrow, when dead, even if they came to say the same thing, and even less so if they said that they were mistaken.
I know that they object the great difficulty of verification of identity. This question was abundantly treated so that it is superfluous to return to that. It is certain that we cannot know, by a material proof, if the Spirit that presents oneself by the name of Pascal is truly that of the great Pascal. What does it matter if he says good things? We must weigh the value of his instructions, not by the form of the language, since we know that it is sometimes marked by the inferiority of the instrument, but by the elevation and wisdom of his thoughts. A great Spirit that communicates through a poorly educated medium is like the skillful calligraphist that utilizes a bad pen. The whole of the writing will show his talent, but the details of the execution that do not depend on him, will be imperfect.
Spiritism has never said that one must refrain from personal judgment, and blindly submit to what the Spirits say; it is the Spirits themselves that tell us to process their words through the crucible of logic, while some incarnate say: “Do not believe in what the Spirits say, but only in what we say.” Now, since individual reason is subjected to error, man is very frequently led to take his own reason and ideas by the only expression of truth, and the one that does not hold the proud pretension of considering his opinion infallible, submits it to the appreciation of the majority. Does it mean that he had resigned to his own opinion? Absolutely not. He is perfectly free to believe that he is the only one that is right, against everybody else, but that will not prevent the opinion of the majority to prevail, and definitely have more authority than the opinion of one or some.
Let us now examine the matter from another point of view. Who made Spiritism? Is it a human, personal conception? Everybody knows that it is the opposite. Spiritism is the result of the teachings of the Spirits, so much so that without the Spirits there wouldn’t be Spiritism. If the Spiritist Doctrine were a simple philosophical theory, born out of a human brain, it would only have the value of a personal opinion; coming out of the universality of the opinion of the Spirits, it has the value of a collective work, and that is the very reason why it propagated in such a small time throughout Earth, each one receiving on their side, or through their intimate relationships, identical instructions, and the proof of the reality of the manifestations.
Well then! It is in the presence of such a positive and material result that one tries to convert the inutility of the teachings of the Spirits into a system.
Let us consider the tact that if they did not have the popularity that they reached, they would not be attacked, and that it is the prodigious spread of these ideas that attracts so many adversaries to Spiritism. Don’t those that today reject the communications look like children that neglect their parents? Isn’t that like utilizing what they taught us to fight them; turning against them, their own parents, the weapons that they gave us? Among the Spirits that communicate, isn’t that of a father, a mother, of the dearest creatures, from whom the most touching instructions are received, the ones that go straight to the heart? Don’t we owe them the fact that we were yanked from incredulity, from the tortures of doubt about the future? Is it the time to neglect the helping hand when we enjoy the benefits?
What can we say of those that taking their opinion as if it were that of everybody, seriously affirm that communications are unwelcome everywhere? A strange delusion, that would be dispelled by looking around them. On their side, what would the Spirits think of meetings that discuss the adequacy of giving them the word, if they may be exceptionally heard, to please those that have the weakness of giving importance to their instructions? There are Spirits there, undoubtedly, before whom they would fall on their knees, if they allowed themselves to be seen. Have you thought of the price that they would pay for such ingratitude?
Since the Spirits have the freedom of communication, irrespective of their degree of knowledge, it then follows a great diversity in the value of the communications, like in the writings of a people in which everybody has the freedom to write, and where certainly not every literary production is a master piece. According to the individual quality of the Spirits, there are therefore good communications by the substance and form, and others, finally, that are worthless both in substance and form. It is up to us to choose.
The act of rejecting them all because some are bad is not more rational than proscribing all publications, given the fact that some writers produce vulgarities. Don’t the best writers, the greatest geniuses have weak productions in their works? Don’t we select their best contributions? Let us do the same with respect to the production of the Spirits; let us take advantage of what is good and reject what is bad; but, to remove the weed let us not remove the good grain.
Let us then consider the world of the Spirits as a doble of the corporeal world, as a portion of humanity and let us say that we must not neglect to hear them, now that they are discarnate, for we would not have done that when incarnate. They are always around us, as before; the whole difference is that they are now behind the curtains and not in front of it.
But, some will ask, what is the reach of the teachings of the Spirits, even the good ones, if they do not go beyond what man can know on his own? Is it certain that they do not teach us anything else? Don’t they see what we cannot see, in their spiritual state? Without them, would we know their state, their way of living, their sensations? Would we know, as we do today, this world where we may perhaps be tomorrow? If that world no longer horrifies us, and if we fearlessly face the passage that leads to that world, don’t we owe this to them? Is that world completely explored? Don’t we see a new face of that world revealed every day? Doesn’t the knowledge of knowing where we are going to, and what we can be after leaving here, doesn’t it signify something? Before, we entered that world groping and shaking, like in a bottomless abyss; that abyss now has a shiny light, and we enter it joyfully. And they dare say that Spiritism taught nothing! (Spiritist Review, August 1865: “What Spiritism teaches”).
Undoubtedly the teaching of the Spirits has limits. One cannot ask for something that cannot be given, what is in their essence, in their providential objective; and it gives a lot to the one that knows what to seek.
But as it is, have we already applied everything? Before asking for more, have we already probed the depth of the horizon that it unveils to us? As for its reach, it is attested by a material, positive, gigantic and unprecedented fact in the archives of history: the fact that even in its birth it already revolutionizes he world and shakes the forces of Earth. What a man would have such a power?
Spiritism tends to the reformation of humanity through charity. It is not, therefore, surprising that the Spirits preach charity incessantly; they will still preach it for as long as necessary to yank out pride and egotism from the heart of man. If some find the communications useless, because they continuously repeat the moral lessons, they must be congratulated for being perfect enough to no longer need them, but they must think that those that are not so much confident in their own merit, and that wish to improve, are not tired of receiving good advices. Do not seek, therefore, to preclude them from such a consolation.
Has such a doctrine a chance to prevail? As we said, the communications of the Spirits provided the foundation of Spiritism. Rejecting them after having them acclaimed is to undermine Spiritism in its basis, subtracting the foundation. That must not be the thought of serious and devoted Spiritists, because it would be absolutely like the one that said Christian and denied the value of the teachings of Jesus, under the pretext that his moral is identical to that of Plato. It was in those communications that the Spiritists found joy, consolation, and hope. It was through them that they understood the need for the good, resignation, submission to the will of God; it is through them that they withstand the vicissitudes of life with courage; it was by them that there is no more true separation between them and the objects of their kindest affections. Isn’t that a mistake to believe that the human heart may renounce to a belief that brings happiness?
We repeat here what we said about the prayer: If Spiritism must gain influence it is through the increase in the sum of moral satisfactions that it provides. May those that believe it to be insufficient as is, endeavor to give more than it does; but it will not be by giving less, by removing what gives its enchantment, its strength and popularity that they will surpass it.
There is now another way that is probing a different terrain. Its motto is: No communication with the Spirits. It is strange to have such an opinion now preconized by some that in the past exalted the importance and sublimity of the Spiritist teachings, and that felt glorified by what they themselves received as mediums. Will it have more chances of success than the preceding one? This is what we are going to examine in a few words.
This doctrine, if we can give such a name to an opinion that is restricted to a few people, is supported by the following data:
“The Spirits that communicate are only ordinary Spirits that so far have not taught us any new truth, demonstrating their lack of capacity, and staying at moral banalities. The criteria that they try to establish with the agreement of their teaching is delusional, given its insufficiency. It is man that must probe the great mysteries of nature, submitting what they say to the control of reason. Since they do not teach us anything in their communications, we ban them from our meetings. We will discuss among ourselves; we will seek and decide about the principles that must be accepted or rejected, in our own wisdom, without resorting to the approval of the Spirits.”
Notice that it is not about denying the fact of the manifestations, but to establish superiority against the Spirits, in the judgement of man, or of some men; in a word, separating Spiritism from the teaching of the Spirits since the instructions of the latter would be inferior to what human intelligence can do.
Such a doctrine leads to a singular consequence, that would not speak highly of human intelligence compared to the logic of the Spirits. Thanks to the latter we know that the Spirits of higher order belonged to the corporeal humanity that was surpassed by them long ago, like the general that surpassed the class of soldier from which he came. Without the Spirits, we would still believe that the angels are a privileged class and that the demons are creatures predestined to evil for the whole of eternity. “No, they will say, because there were men that fought that idea”. Be it, but what were those men if not incarnate Spirits? What was the influence of their isolated opinion upon the belief of the masses? Ask the first one that arrives if they know at least by name of most of those great philosophers! Whereas, by coming from the Spirits and in all corners of Earth, manifesting to the humblest as well as to the most powerful, the truth propagated with the speed of light.
We can divide the Spirits in two large categories: those that, after achieving the highest degree of the scale, left the material worlds for good, and those that, by the law of reincarnation, still belong to the maelstrom of earthly humanity. Let us admit, hypothetically, that it is only the latter ones that have the right to communicate with men: there are, among them, those that were enlightened during their lives, whose opinion has authority, and that we would be pleased to consult with them if they were still alive.
The doctrine above would result that these very superior men would become nullities or mediocre by passing to the world of the Spirits, incapable of giving us a valuable teaching, whereas we would respectfully bow before them if they presented themselves in flesh and blood in the same meetings, where they refuse to listen to them as Spirits. It also follows that Pascal, for example, is no longer a light once he became Spirit, but if he reincarnate in Peter or Paul, necessarily with the same genius, he would be an oracle, given that he had lost nothing. This consequence is so rigorous that the followers of such a system admit the reincarnation as one of their greatest truths.
Finally, it is necessary to conclude that, in good faith as we suppose, place their intelligence so much above that of the Spirits, will become nullities or mediocre themselves, whose opinion will have no value, so that one would have to believe in what they say when alive, and to not believe tomorrow, when dead, even if they came to say the same thing, and even less so if they said that they were mistaken.
I know that they object the great difficulty of verification of identity. This question was abundantly treated so that it is superfluous to return to that. It is certain that we cannot know, by a material proof, if the Spirit that presents oneself by the name of Pascal is truly that of the great Pascal. What does it matter if he says good things? We must weigh the value of his instructions, not by the form of the language, since we know that it is sometimes marked by the inferiority of the instrument, but by the elevation and wisdom of his thoughts. A great Spirit that communicates through a poorly educated medium is like the skillful calligraphist that utilizes a bad pen. The whole of the writing will show his talent, but the details of the execution that do not depend on him, will be imperfect.
Spiritism has never said that one must refrain from personal judgment, and blindly submit to what the Spirits say; it is the Spirits themselves that tell us to process their words through the crucible of logic, while some incarnate say: “Do not believe in what the Spirits say, but only in what we say.” Now, since individual reason is subjected to error, man is very frequently led to take his own reason and ideas by the only expression of truth, and the one that does not hold the proud pretension of considering his opinion infallible, submits it to the appreciation of the majority. Does it mean that he had resigned to his own opinion? Absolutely not. He is perfectly free to believe that he is the only one that is right, against everybody else, but that will not prevent the opinion of the majority to prevail, and definitely have more authority than the opinion of one or some.
Let us now examine the matter from another point of view. Who made Spiritism? Is it a human, personal conception? Everybody knows that it is the opposite. Spiritism is the result of the teachings of the Spirits, so much so that without the Spirits there wouldn’t be Spiritism. If the Spiritist Doctrine were a simple philosophical theory, born out of a human brain, it would only have the value of a personal opinion; coming out of the universality of the opinion of the Spirits, it has the value of a collective work, and that is the very reason why it propagated in such a small time throughout Earth, each one receiving on their side, or through their intimate relationships, identical instructions, and the proof of the reality of the manifestations.
Well then! It is in the presence of such a positive and material result that one tries to convert the inutility of the teachings of the Spirits into a system.
Let us consider the tact that if they did not have the popularity that they reached, they would not be attacked, and that it is the prodigious spread of these ideas that attracts so many adversaries to Spiritism. Don’t those that today reject the communications look like children that neglect their parents? Isn’t that like utilizing what they taught us to fight them; turning against them, their own parents, the weapons that they gave us? Among the Spirits that communicate, isn’t that of a father, a mother, of the dearest creatures, from whom the most touching instructions are received, the ones that go straight to the heart? Don’t we owe them the fact that we were yanked from incredulity, from the tortures of doubt about the future? Is it the time to neglect the helping hand when we enjoy the benefits?
What can we say of those that taking their opinion as if it were that of everybody, seriously affirm that communications are unwelcome everywhere? A strange delusion, that would be dispelled by looking around them. On their side, what would the Spirits think of meetings that discuss the adequacy of giving them the word, if they may be exceptionally heard, to please those that have the weakness of giving importance to their instructions? There are Spirits there, undoubtedly, before whom they would fall on their knees, if they allowed themselves to be seen. Have you thought of the price that they would pay for such ingratitude?
Since the Spirits have the freedom of communication, irrespective of their degree of knowledge, it then follows a great diversity in the value of the communications, like in the writings of a people in which everybody has the freedom to write, and where certainly not every literary production is a master piece. According to the individual quality of the Spirits, there are therefore good communications by the substance and form, and others, finally, that are worthless both in substance and form. It is up to us to choose.
The act of rejecting them all because some are bad is not more rational than proscribing all publications, given the fact that some writers produce vulgarities. Don’t the best writers, the greatest geniuses have weak productions in their works? Don’t we select their best contributions? Let us do the same with respect to the production of the Spirits; let us take advantage of what is good and reject what is bad; but, to remove the weed let us not remove the good grain.
Let us then consider the world of the Spirits as a doble of the corporeal world, as a portion of humanity and let us say that we must not neglect to hear them, now that they are discarnate, for we would not have done that when incarnate. They are always around us, as before; the whole difference is that they are now behind the curtains and not in front of it.
But, some will ask, what is the reach of the teachings of the Spirits, even the good ones, if they do not go beyond what man can know on his own? Is it certain that they do not teach us anything else? Don’t they see what we cannot see, in their spiritual state? Without them, would we know their state, their way of living, their sensations? Would we know, as we do today, this world where we may perhaps be tomorrow? If that world no longer horrifies us, and if we fearlessly face the passage that leads to that world, don’t we owe this to them? Is that world completely explored? Don’t we see a new face of that world revealed every day? Doesn’t the knowledge of knowing where we are going to, and what we can be after leaving here, doesn’t it signify something? Before, we entered that world groping and shaking, like in a bottomless abyss; that abyss now has a shiny light, and we enter it joyfully. And they dare say that Spiritism taught nothing! (Spiritist Review, August 1865: “What Spiritism teaches”).
Undoubtedly the teaching of the Spirits has limits. One cannot ask for something that cannot be given, what is in their essence, in their providential objective; and it gives a lot to the one that knows what to seek.
But as it is, have we already applied everything? Before asking for more, have we already probed the depth of the horizon that it unveils to us? As for its reach, it is attested by a material, positive, gigantic and unprecedented fact in the archives of history: the fact that even in its birth it already revolutionizes he world and shakes the forces of Earth. What a man would have such a power?
Spiritism tends to the reformation of humanity through charity. It is not, therefore, surprising that the Spirits preach charity incessantly; they will still preach it for as long as necessary to yank out pride and egotism from the heart of man. If some find the communications useless, because they continuously repeat the moral lessons, they must be congratulated for being perfect enough to no longer need them, but they must think that those that are not so much confident in their own merit, and that wish to improve, are not tired of receiving good advices. Do not seek, therefore, to preclude them from such a consolation.
Has such a doctrine a chance to prevail? As we said, the communications of the Spirits provided the foundation of Spiritism. Rejecting them after having them acclaimed is to undermine Spiritism in its basis, subtracting the foundation. That must not be the thought of serious and devoted Spiritists, because it would be absolutely like the one that said Christian and denied the value of the teachings of Jesus, under the pretext that his moral is identical to that of Plato. It was in those communications that the Spiritists found joy, consolation, and hope. It was through them that they understood the need for the good, resignation, submission to the will of God; it is through them that they withstand the vicissitudes of life with courage; it was by them that there is no more true separation between them and the objects of their kindest affections. Isn’t that a mistake to believe that the human heart may renounce to a belief that brings happiness?
We repeat here what we said about the prayer: If Spiritism must gain influence it is through the increase in the sum of moral satisfactions that it provides. May those that believe it to be insufficient as is, endeavor to give more than it does; but it will not be by giving less, by removing what gives its enchantment, its strength and popularity that they will surpass it.
Independent Spiritism
A letter sent to us some time ago spoke of a project for the publication of a periodical with the title “Journal du Spiritisme Indépendant”. Since this idea is evidently the corollary of the other one about Spiritism without Spirits, we will try to place the question in its true terrain.
For starters, what is independent Spiritism? Independent from what? Another has it stated clearly: it is free Spiritism, not only freed from the tutorship of the Spirits, but from every personal direction or supremacy; from every subordination to the instructions of a chief, whose opinion cannot become law for it is not infallible.
This is the easiest thing in the world, since it does exist in reality, considering that Spiritism, by proclaiming the absolute freedom of conscience, does not admit any constraint in matters of belief, and it has never denied anyone the right to believe their own way in matters of Spiritism, as with anything else. From that point of view, we believe to be perfectly independent ourselves, and intend to take advantage of this independence. If there is subordination, it is therefore entirely voluntary; even more, it is not subordination to a man but to an idea that is adopted because it is convenient; that outlives man, if it is fair; that falls with him or before him, if it is false.
In order to free ourselves from somebody else ideas, we must necessarily have our own; we naturally try to make these ideas prevail, without which they would be kept to ourselves; we proclaim, sustain and defend them, because we believe them to be the expression of truth, because we admit good faith and not the exclusive desire to destroy what exists; the objective is to attract the largest possible number of followers, and with that we have the one that does not admit a chief, becomes the chief of the sect, seeking to subordinate the others to his own ideas. The one that says, for example: “We must no longer receive instructions from the Spirits”, isn’t that person issuing an absolute principle? Isn’t him exerting a pressure upon those that want to receive them, persuading them not to? If he establishes this as a condition for a meeting, the supporters of the communications must be excluded, for if they were the majority, they would turn it into a law. If they are admitted but have their wishes denied, this is against their freedom of complaining. “Here the Spirits do not have the word”, and those that wish to hear them will not dare object to the order and will participate. We have always said that an essential condition to every Spiritist gathering is homogeneity, without which there would be dissention. Someone that founded a meeting on the basis of rejecting the communications would be on his own right; it is okay if he only admits those that share his ideas, but he has no right to say that because he doesn’t want it nobody else shouldn’t either. He is certainly free to act as he wishes, but if he claims freedom to himself, he must also want it to others. Considering that he defends his ideas and criticizes that of others, if he is consistent with himself, he must not see with bad eyes the fact that others may defend their own ideas and criticize his.
We generally forget that, above the authority of a single person, there is another one that whoever becomes the representative of an idea must not avoid: the authority of everybody. General opinion is the supreme jurisdiction, that sanctions or defeats the edifice of the systems; nobody can escape the subordination imposed by that. Such a law is not less omnipotent with Spiritism. Whoever harms the feelings of the majority, and has them abandoned, may as well expect to be abandoned by them. That is the reason for the failure of certain theories and certain publications, abstraction made of the intrinsic merits of the latter, about which, sometimes, there is no illusion.
One must not forget that Spiritism is not a feud around an individual, or a group of individual, or a circle, not even a city, but that its representatives are all over the world, and that there is a dominant opinion among them and that it is profoundly believed. By judging that one is strong against everybody because one has the support of a group is an exposure to great deceptions.
Spiritism has two parts: the material facts and that of moral consequences. The first one is necessary as a proof of the existence of the Spirits, and the Spirits started by that one; the second, that derives from the first one, is the only one that can lead to the transformation of humanity by the individual betterment. This betterment is, therefore, the essential objective of Spiritism. That must be the objective of every serious Spiritist. We defined the duties that such a belief imposes, by deducing those consequences from the instructions given by the Spirits. We inscribed the first one on the flag of Spiritism: “There is no salvation but through charity”, a maxim acclaimed as the sun of the future, since its appearance, and that soon traveled around the globe, becoming a word of connection among all those that see in Spiritism more than a material fact. It was welcomed everywhere, as the symbol of universal fraternity, as a guarantee of security in social relationships, as the dawn of a new era where hatred and dissentions must be extinguished. We understood its meaning so well that we are already harvesting the fruits; among those that turned it into a rule of conduct, sympathy and trust rule, the enchantment of social life; we see a brother in every heartfelt Spiritist, whose company makes us happy, for we know that the one that practices charity cannot wish nor do harm.
Was it then by our own authority that we promulgated such a maxim? Had we done it, who would consider it bad? But, no; it follows from the teaching of the Spirits, who collected it from those of Jesus Christ, where it is written with all letters, as the cornerstone of the Christian edifice, but where it remained buried for eighteen centuries. The egotism of men took care of keeping it forgotten, in the shadows, otherwise it would be their own condemnation; they preferred to seek their salvation through more comfortable and less boring practices. Nonetheless, everybody had read and read again the Gospels, and with very few exceptions, nobody saw that great truth left behind in a secondary level. Now, through the teachings of the Spirits, it became known and understood by all. How many truths are contained in the Gospels and that will surge in due time! (The Gospel According to Spiritism, Chap. XV).
By inscribing onto the frontispiece of Spiritism the supreme law of Christ, we open the way for the Christian Spiritism; we then dedicate ourselves to the development of its principles, as well as the characters of the true Spiritist from that point of view. We shall not oppose if others can do better than us, for we have never said: “there is no truth but through us”. Our instructions, therefore, are for those that find them good; they are freely accepted, without embarrassment; we design a route and those who wish will follow it; we give advices to the ones that request them and not to those that believe not need them; we give orders to nobody because we are not qualified for that. As for the supremacy, it is totally moral and in the adhesion of those that share our way of seeing things; since we are not assigned any official role, even by those, we do not solicit or claim any privilege; we do not attribute any title to ourselves, and the only one that we would take with the followers of our ideas is that of brothers in faith. If they consider us their chief it is for the position that our works give us, and not for any decision made. Our position is the one that anybody could have taken before us; our right is the same as everybody else that wish to work as they please, and is prepared to take the risk of public judgement.
What is the aggravating authority that those who wish the independent Spiritism want to free from, considering that there is no formal power or hierarchy closing the door to anyone, and since we do not have any jurisdiction upon them, and if they are pleased to stay away from our route, nobody will force them to get on that route? Have we ever pretended to be a prophet or a messiah? Would them take seriously the titles of supreme priest, sovereign pontiff, and even pope that the critics thought of attributing to us? We not only have never taken them but the Spiritists have never called us such. Is there an ascendent in our writings? The field is open to them, as it is to us, to captivate the sympathies of the public. If there is pressure, it does not come from us, but from the general opinion, that vetoes what is not convenient, and that it is submitted to the ascendent of the general teaching of the Spirits.
It is, therefore, to the latter ones that we must attribute the state of affairs, and it is precisely that that makes them wish to no longer listen to them. Are there instructions given by us? But nobody is forced to submit to them. Can they regret our censorship? We never mention persons, except when we must praise, and our instructions are given in general terms, as development of our principles, for the use of everybody.
On another hand, if they are bad, if our theories are false, how can this obfuscate them? The ridicule, if there is any ridicule, will be on us. Are they so much worried about the interests of Spiritism that they are afraid of seeing it perish in our hands? Are we too radical in our ideas? Are we so stubborn that there is nothing to be done? Oh God! Each one of us has their own defects; ours is to not thing white now, and then black; we have a designed route and we do not veer off from that to please anybody. It is likely that we will be like that to the end.
Is it our wealth that they envy? Where the castles, equities, and servants? Certainly, if we had the fortune attributed to us, it would not have come in our sleep, and many people accumulate millions in a less troublesome labor. What do we do with the money that we earn? Since we do not demand anybody’s report, we are not supposed to give it to anyone; what is certain is that it does not serve our pleasures. With respect to utilizing it to support agents and spies, we return the calumny to its source. We have more important things to worry about than knowing what this one or that one is doing. If they do good, they must not be afraid of any investigation; if they do bad, it is their problem. If there are those that ambition our position, is it in the interest of Spiritism or their own? They should then take it, with all its burdens, and they will not, perhaps, find it an as much pleasant an endeavor as they suppose.
If they think we are badly piloting the boat, who precluded them from taking the rudder before us? And who still preclude them today? Are they sorry for our restrictions to make followers? We wait for them to come to us and we will not seek anybody; we don’t even chase those that leave us, because we know that they cannot hinder the march of things; their personality fades away before the whole. On another hand, we are not too naïve to believe that they are connected to us due to our person; it is evidently for the idea that we represent. It is, therefore, to this idea that we refer the testimonies of sympathy that they kindly give us.
In short, independent Spiritism would be senseless to our eyes, for independence does exist de facto and by right, and there is no discipline imposed to nobody. The field of exploration is open to all; the supreme judge of the tournament is the public; the applause is to the one that can conquer it. Too bad for those that fall before they reach the objective.
Wouldn’t it be, perhaps, to give too much importance to these things, scaring away the followers by making them believe that there are more profound fissures than they really are, when we speak of these divergent opinions, that are definitely reduced to a few individuals, and that they do not form a body anywhere? Isn’t that also to provide arms to the enemies of Spiritism?
It is precisely to prevent such inconvenient that we speak about it. A clear and categoric explanation, that reduces the issue to its fair value, it is much more suited to assure than scare away the followers. They know how to behave and find here the arguments for the replica.
As for the adversaries, they have already exploited the fact many times, and since they exaggerate its reach, it is useful to show the matter to them as is. For a broader answer we refer to the article “Departure of one enemy of Spiritism to the world of the Spirits”, Spiritist Review, October 1865.
For starters, what is independent Spiritism? Independent from what? Another has it stated clearly: it is free Spiritism, not only freed from the tutorship of the Spirits, but from every personal direction or supremacy; from every subordination to the instructions of a chief, whose opinion cannot become law for it is not infallible.
This is the easiest thing in the world, since it does exist in reality, considering that Spiritism, by proclaiming the absolute freedom of conscience, does not admit any constraint in matters of belief, and it has never denied anyone the right to believe their own way in matters of Spiritism, as with anything else. From that point of view, we believe to be perfectly independent ourselves, and intend to take advantage of this independence. If there is subordination, it is therefore entirely voluntary; even more, it is not subordination to a man but to an idea that is adopted because it is convenient; that outlives man, if it is fair; that falls with him or before him, if it is false.
In order to free ourselves from somebody else ideas, we must necessarily have our own; we naturally try to make these ideas prevail, without which they would be kept to ourselves; we proclaim, sustain and defend them, because we believe them to be the expression of truth, because we admit good faith and not the exclusive desire to destroy what exists; the objective is to attract the largest possible number of followers, and with that we have the one that does not admit a chief, becomes the chief of the sect, seeking to subordinate the others to his own ideas. The one that says, for example: “We must no longer receive instructions from the Spirits”, isn’t that person issuing an absolute principle? Isn’t him exerting a pressure upon those that want to receive them, persuading them not to? If he establishes this as a condition for a meeting, the supporters of the communications must be excluded, for if they were the majority, they would turn it into a law. If they are admitted but have their wishes denied, this is against their freedom of complaining. “Here the Spirits do not have the word”, and those that wish to hear them will not dare object to the order and will participate. We have always said that an essential condition to every Spiritist gathering is homogeneity, without which there would be dissention. Someone that founded a meeting on the basis of rejecting the communications would be on his own right; it is okay if he only admits those that share his ideas, but he has no right to say that because he doesn’t want it nobody else shouldn’t either. He is certainly free to act as he wishes, but if he claims freedom to himself, he must also want it to others. Considering that he defends his ideas and criticizes that of others, if he is consistent with himself, he must not see with bad eyes the fact that others may defend their own ideas and criticize his.
We generally forget that, above the authority of a single person, there is another one that whoever becomes the representative of an idea must not avoid: the authority of everybody. General opinion is the supreme jurisdiction, that sanctions or defeats the edifice of the systems; nobody can escape the subordination imposed by that. Such a law is not less omnipotent with Spiritism. Whoever harms the feelings of the majority, and has them abandoned, may as well expect to be abandoned by them. That is the reason for the failure of certain theories and certain publications, abstraction made of the intrinsic merits of the latter, about which, sometimes, there is no illusion.
One must not forget that Spiritism is not a feud around an individual, or a group of individual, or a circle, not even a city, but that its representatives are all over the world, and that there is a dominant opinion among them and that it is profoundly believed. By judging that one is strong against everybody because one has the support of a group is an exposure to great deceptions.
Spiritism has two parts: the material facts and that of moral consequences. The first one is necessary as a proof of the existence of the Spirits, and the Spirits started by that one; the second, that derives from the first one, is the only one that can lead to the transformation of humanity by the individual betterment. This betterment is, therefore, the essential objective of Spiritism. That must be the objective of every serious Spiritist. We defined the duties that such a belief imposes, by deducing those consequences from the instructions given by the Spirits. We inscribed the first one on the flag of Spiritism: “There is no salvation but through charity”, a maxim acclaimed as the sun of the future, since its appearance, and that soon traveled around the globe, becoming a word of connection among all those that see in Spiritism more than a material fact. It was welcomed everywhere, as the symbol of universal fraternity, as a guarantee of security in social relationships, as the dawn of a new era where hatred and dissentions must be extinguished. We understood its meaning so well that we are already harvesting the fruits; among those that turned it into a rule of conduct, sympathy and trust rule, the enchantment of social life; we see a brother in every heartfelt Spiritist, whose company makes us happy, for we know that the one that practices charity cannot wish nor do harm.
Was it then by our own authority that we promulgated such a maxim? Had we done it, who would consider it bad? But, no; it follows from the teaching of the Spirits, who collected it from those of Jesus Christ, where it is written with all letters, as the cornerstone of the Christian edifice, but where it remained buried for eighteen centuries. The egotism of men took care of keeping it forgotten, in the shadows, otherwise it would be their own condemnation; they preferred to seek their salvation through more comfortable and less boring practices. Nonetheless, everybody had read and read again the Gospels, and with very few exceptions, nobody saw that great truth left behind in a secondary level. Now, through the teachings of the Spirits, it became known and understood by all. How many truths are contained in the Gospels and that will surge in due time! (The Gospel According to Spiritism, Chap. XV).
By inscribing onto the frontispiece of Spiritism the supreme law of Christ, we open the way for the Christian Spiritism; we then dedicate ourselves to the development of its principles, as well as the characters of the true Spiritist from that point of view. We shall not oppose if others can do better than us, for we have never said: “there is no truth but through us”. Our instructions, therefore, are for those that find them good; they are freely accepted, without embarrassment; we design a route and those who wish will follow it; we give advices to the ones that request them and not to those that believe not need them; we give orders to nobody because we are not qualified for that. As for the supremacy, it is totally moral and in the adhesion of those that share our way of seeing things; since we are not assigned any official role, even by those, we do not solicit or claim any privilege; we do not attribute any title to ourselves, and the only one that we would take with the followers of our ideas is that of brothers in faith. If they consider us their chief it is for the position that our works give us, and not for any decision made. Our position is the one that anybody could have taken before us; our right is the same as everybody else that wish to work as they please, and is prepared to take the risk of public judgement.
What is the aggravating authority that those who wish the independent Spiritism want to free from, considering that there is no formal power or hierarchy closing the door to anyone, and since we do not have any jurisdiction upon them, and if they are pleased to stay away from our route, nobody will force them to get on that route? Have we ever pretended to be a prophet or a messiah? Would them take seriously the titles of supreme priest, sovereign pontiff, and even pope that the critics thought of attributing to us? We not only have never taken them but the Spiritists have never called us such. Is there an ascendent in our writings? The field is open to them, as it is to us, to captivate the sympathies of the public. If there is pressure, it does not come from us, but from the general opinion, that vetoes what is not convenient, and that it is submitted to the ascendent of the general teaching of the Spirits.
It is, therefore, to the latter ones that we must attribute the state of affairs, and it is precisely that that makes them wish to no longer listen to them. Are there instructions given by us? But nobody is forced to submit to them. Can they regret our censorship? We never mention persons, except when we must praise, and our instructions are given in general terms, as development of our principles, for the use of everybody.
On another hand, if they are bad, if our theories are false, how can this obfuscate them? The ridicule, if there is any ridicule, will be on us. Are they so much worried about the interests of Spiritism that they are afraid of seeing it perish in our hands? Are we too radical in our ideas? Are we so stubborn that there is nothing to be done? Oh God! Each one of us has their own defects; ours is to not thing white now, and then black; we have a designed route and we do not veer off from that to please anybody. It is likely that we will be like that to the end.
Is it our wealth that they envy? Where the castles, equities, and servants? Certainly, if we had the fortune attributed to us, it would not have come in our sleep, and many people accumulate millions in a less troublesome labor. What do we do with the money that we earn? Since we do not demand anybody’s report, we are not supposed to give it to anyone; what is certain is that it does not serve our pleasures. With respect to utilizing it to support agents and spies, we return the calumny to its source. We have more important things to worry about than knowing what this one or that one is doing. If they do good, they must not be afraid of any investigation; if they do bad, it is their problem. If there are those that ambition our position, is it in the interest of Spiritism or their own? They should then take it, with all its burdens, and they will not, perhaps, find it an as much pleasant an endeavor as they suppose.
If they think we are badly piloting the boat, who precluded them from taking the rudder before us? And who still preclude them today? Are they sorry for our restrictions to make followers? We wait for them to come to us and we will not seek anybody; we don’t even chase those that leave us, because we know that they cannot hinder the march of things; their personality fades away before the whole. On another hand, we are not too naïve to believe that they are connected to us due to our person; it is evidently for the idea that we represent. It is, therefore, to this idea that we refer the testimonies of sympathy that they kindly give us.
In short, independent Spiritism would be senseless to our eyes, for independence does exist de facto and by right, and there is no discipline imposed to nobody. The field of exploration is open to all; the supreme judge of the tournament is the public; the applause is to the one that can conquer it. Too bad for those that fall before they reach the objective.
Wouldn’t it be, perhaps, to give too much importance to these things, scaring away the followers by making them believe that there are more profound fissures than they really are, when we speak of these divergent opinions, that are definitely reduced to a few individuals, and that they do not form a body anywhere? Isn’t that also to provide arms to the enemies of Spiritism?
It is precisely to prevent such inconvenient that we speak about it. A clear and categoric explanation, that reduces the issue to its fair value, it is much more suited to assure than scare away the followers. They know how to behave and find here the arguments for the replica.
As for the adversaries, they have already exploited the fact many times, and since they exaggerate its reach, it is useful to show the matter to them as is. For a broader answer we refer to the article “Departure of one enemy of Spiritism to the world of the Spirits”, Spiritist Review, October 1865.
Charlemagne at Chartres College
This year, at Chartres College, they thought of adding a literature conference to the St. Charlemagne banquet. Two students of Philosophy sustained a controversy whose theme was Spiritism. Here the report made by the Journal de Chartres, on March 11th, 1866:
“To close the ceremony two students of Philosophy, Mr. Ernest Clement and Mr. Gustave Jumentié, in a lively and animated dialogue, discussed a subject that today has the privilege of seeing many minds falling in love with: that is Spiritism.
J. criticizes his always joyful colleague for his somber and circumspect air, that makes him look like the author of a melodrama, asking him about the origin of such a change.
C. responds that his mind has been taken by a sublime doctrine, Spiritism, that came to confirm in an irrefutable way the immortality of the soul and other concepts of the spiritualist doctrine. It is not a chimera, as the interlocutor pretends; it is a system founded on authentic facts, such as the turning tables, the mediums, etc.
I certainly won’t be so senseless, J. responds, my dear friend, to the point of discuss with you about the insane dreams about which everybody is completely delusional today. And when people just laugh at the face of the Spiritists, I will not, just for a dispute, give your ideas more weight than they deserve, giving them the honor of a serious refutation. The remarkable experiments of the Davenports demonstrated your strength and the faith necessary to your miracles. But fortunately, they received the fair punishment of their trickery. After a few days of a stolen triumph, they were forced to return to their country, and we proved once more that it is only one step between the Capitoline Hill and the Tarpeian Rock.[1]
I do see, says C., that you are not a supporter of progress. On the contrary, you should feel sorry for the fate of those miserable ones. All sciences had their detractors in the beginning. Wasn’t Fulton[2] repelled by ignorance and treated as a madman? Haven’t we also seen Lebon[3], unknown in his land, dying miserably without enjoying the fruits of his work? Yet, the surface of the oceans is crossed today by the steamboat and the gas spreads its powerful light everywhere.
J. – Yes, but those inventions were based on solid foundations; science was the guide of those geniuses and should force the enlightened posterity to repair the mistakes of their contemporary. But what are the inventions of the Spiritist? What is the secret of their science? Everybody can admire and applaud the ingenious mechanism of its little wand…
C. – Still the jokes? Nevertheless, I told you that there are very honest people among the followers of Spiritism, people of profound conviction.
J. – It is true, but what does it prove? That the common sense is not something as common as one thinks, and as the poet of Reason said: A fool always finds an even more fool to be admired by.
C. – Boileau would not have said that if he had seen the turning tables. What do you say about it?
J. – That I have never moved the smallest little table.
C. – It is because you are a profane. A table has never resisted me. I made one move whose weight was 200 kg, with the dishes, serving platters, bottles, …
J. – You could shake St. Charlemagne’s table, if the appetite of the guests had not very prudently empty…
C. – I do not speak of the hats. But I could produce a powerful rotation to the slightest touch.
J. – I am not surprised that your poor head turned to them.
C. – But anyhow, jokes are not reasons; they are the arguments of impotence. You do not prove anything, you refute nothing.
J. – Fact is that your doctrine is nothing, it is a chimera, of a colorless and impalpable gas – I prefer the gas of illumination – an exhalation, a vapor, a smoke. I give my word, my choice is made, I prefer that of champagne. Ah Miguel de Cervantes! Why were you born two centuries earlier? It would be up to your immortal Don Quixote to reduce Spiritism to dust. He held his valuable spear against the windmills. However, it is true that they turned! How would he have cracked the speaking and noisy closets from top to bottom! And you, his faithful shield-bearer, illustrious Sancho Panza, it is your profound philosophy, your sublime moral the only one capable of unmasking these serious theories.
C. – However much you say, Messrs. Philosophers, you deny Spiritism because you do not know that to do with it, for it embarrasses you.
J. – Ah it causes no embarrassment to me, and I do know what I would do if I were heard in this matter. Spiritists, magnetizers, somnambulists, closets, speaking tables, turning hats on the holding heads, I would send them all to spend some time… in the sanatorium.
Some people will be surprised, perhaps scandalized, by seeing students of Chartres College discussing a subject that is considered to be the most serious of modern days, without any weapons other than mockery. Frankly, after the extremely recent adventure of the Davenport brothers, can the young folks be criticized for having fun with that mystification? That age is ruthless.
We could, undoubtedly, using one of their borrowed phrases, teach those smart alecks that the great discoveries, many times, pass by the Tarpeian Rock before they reach the Capitoline, and that for Spiritism the day of rehabilitation may not be far. The newspapers, in turn, announce that a musician from Brussels, that is also Spiritist, affirms to be in touch with the Spirits of every dead composer; that he is going to transmit his inspirations to us, and that we will soon get real post-mortem works from Beethoven, Mozart, Weber, Mendelssohn! Well, be it! The students are too condescending: they wanted to have a laugh and laughed; when the time comes for them to apologize, they will.”
We do not know why such an issue was allowed to be treated in a college ceremony. However, we doubt that it was out of sympathy towards Spiritism, aiming at having it propagated among the students. Some said that it looked like certain common conferences in Rome, in which there is the advocate of God and the advocate of the devil. Anyhow, one must acknowledge that none of the champions was very strong; they would have undoubtedly been more eloquent if they knew the subject better, a subject that they did not study, as it can be seen, with the exception of the articles in the papers about the Davenports.
The fact still has some importance and if the objective was to deviate the youngster from the study of Spiritism, we doubt very much that it was achieved because the youngsters are curious. Up until now the name of Spiritism had not yet crossed the gates of colleges, perhaps only clandestinely, and it was only whispered. Here it is officially now, seating on the benches where it is going far.
Considering that the discussion is allowed, it will be necessary to study it. It is all we want. The reflections in the newspaper are very judicious in that respect.
[1] The Tarpeian Rock is a steep cliff on the south side of the Capitoline Hill, which was used during the Roman Republic as a site of execution. Murderers, traitors, perjurers, and larcenous slaves, if convicted by the quaestores parricidii, were flung from the cliff to their deaths. The cliff was about 25 meters high. Wikipedia (T.N.)
[2] Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 25, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing a commercially successful steamboat. (Wikipedia, T.N.)
[3] Philippe LEBON (or Lebon) (D'Humbersin) (May 29, 1767 – December 1, 1804) was a French engineer, born in Brachay, France. There is much confusion about his life and accomplishments. His main contributions were improvements to steam engines and industrializing the extraction of lighting gas from wood. He died assassinated in 1804
“To close the ceremony two students of Philosophy, Mr. Ernest Clement and Mr. Gustave Jumentié, in a lively and animated dialogue, discussed a subject that today has the privilege of seeing many minds falling in love with: that is Spiritism.
J. criticizes his always joyful colleague for his somber and circumspect air, that makes him look like the author of a melodrama, asking him about the origin of such a change.
C. responds that his mind has been taken by a sublime doctrine, Spiritism, that came to confirm in an irrefutable way the immortality of the soul and other concepts of the spiritualist doctrine. It is not a chimera, as the interlocutor pretends; it is a system founded on authentic facts, such as the turning tables, the mediums, etc.
I certainly won’t be so senseless, J. responds, my dear friend, to the point of discuss with you about the insane dreams about which everybody is completely delusional today. And when people just laugh at the face of the Spiritists, I will not, just for a dispute, give your ideas more weight than they deserve, giving them the honor of a serious refutation. The remarkable experiments of the Davenports demonstrated your strength and the faith necessary to your miracles. But fortunately, they received the fair punishment of their trickery. After a few days of a stolen triumph, they were forced to return to their country, and we proved once more that it is only one step between the Capitoline Hill and the Tarpeian Rock.[1]
I do see, says C., that you are not a supporter of progress. On the contrary, you should feel sorry for the fate of those miserable ones. All sciences had their detractors in the beginning. Wasn’t Fulton[2] repelled by ignorance and treated as a madman? Haven’t we also seen Lebon[3], unknown in his land, dying miserably without enjoying the fruits of his work? Yet, the surface of the oceans is crossed today by the steamboat and the gas spreads its powerful light everywhere.
J. – Yes, but those inventions were based on solid foundations; science was the guide of those geniuses and should force the enlightened posterity to repair the mistakes of their contemporary. But what are the inventions of the Spiritist? What is the secret of their science? Everybody can admire and applaud the ingenious mechanism of its little wand…
C. – Still the jokes? Nevertheless, I told you that there are very honest people among the followers of Spiritism, people of profound conviction.
J. – It is true, but what does it prove? That the common sense is not something as common as one thinks, and as the poet of Reason said: A fool always finds an even more fool to be admired by.
C. – Boileau would not have said that if he had seen the turning tables. What do you say about it?
J. – That I have never moved the smallest little table.
C. – It is because you are a profane. A table has never resisted me. I made one move whose weight was 200 kg, with the dishes, serving platters, bottles, …
J. – You could shake St. Charlemagne’s table, if the appetite of the guests had not very prudently empty…
C. – I do not speak of the hats. But I could produce a powerful rotation to the slightest touch.
J. – I am not surprised that your poor head turned to them.
C. – But anyhow, jokes are not reasons; they are the arguments of impotence. You do not prove anything, you refute nothing.
J. – Fact is that your doctrine is nothing, it is a chimera, of a colorless and impalpable gas – I prefer the gas of illumination – an exhalation, a vapor, a smoke. I give my word, my choice is made, I prefer that of champagne. Ah Miguel de Cervantes! Why were you born two centuries earlier? It would be up to your immortal Don Quixote to reduce Spiritism to dust. He held his valuable spear against the windmills. However, it is true that they turned! How would he have cracked the speaking and noisy closets from top to bottom! And you, his faithful shield-bearer, illustrious Sancho Panza, it is your profound philosophy, your sublime moral the only one capable of unmasking these serious theories.
C. – However much you say, Messrs. Philosophers, you deny Spiritism because you do not know that to do with it, for it embarrasses you.
J. – Ah it causes no embarrassment to me, and I do know what I would do if I were heard in this matter. Spiritists, magnetizers, somnambulists, closets, speaking tables, turning hats on the holding heads, I would send them all to spend some time… in the sanatorium.
Some people will be surprised, perhaps scandalized, by seeing students of Chartres College discussing a subject that is considered to be the most serious of modern days, without any weapons other than mockery. Frankly, after the extremely recent adventure of the Davenport brothers, can the young folks be criticized for having fun with that mystification? That age is ruthless.
We could, undoubtedly, using one of their borrowed phrases, teach those smart alecks that the great discoveries, many times, pass by the Tarpeian Rock before they reach the Capitoline, and that for Spiritism the day of rehabilitation may not be far. The newspapers, in turn, announce that a musician from Brussels, that is also Spiritist, affirms to be in touch with the Spirits of every dead composer; that he is going to transmit his inspirations to us, and that we will soon get real post-mortem works from Beethoven, Mozart, Weber, Mendelssohn! Well, be it! The students are too condescending: they wanted to have a laugh and laughed; when the time comes for them to apologize, they will.”
We do not know why such an issue was allowed to be treated in a college ceremony. However, we doubt that it was out of sympathy towards Spiritism, aiming at having it propagated among the students. Some said that it looked like certain common conferences in Rome, in which there is the advocate of God and the advocate of the devil. Anyhow, one must acknowledge that none of the champions was very strong; they would have undoubtedly been more eloquent if they knew the subject better, a subject that they did not study, as it can be seen, with the exception of the articles in the papers about the Davenports.
The fact still has some importance and if the objective was to deviate the youngster from the study of Spiritism, we doubt very much that it was achieved because the youngsters are curious. Up until now the name of Spiritism had not yet crossed the gates of colleges, perhaps only clandestinely, and it was only whispered. Here it is officially now, seating on the benches where it is going far.
Considering that the discussion is allowed, it will be necessary to study it. It is all we want. The reflections in the newspaper are very judicious in that respect.
[1] The Tarpeian Rock is a steep cliff on the south side of the Capitoline Hill, which was used during the Roman Republic as a site of execution. Murderers, traitors, perjurers, and larcenous slaves, if convicted by the quaestores parricidii, were flung from the cliff to their deaths. The cliff was about 25 meters high. Wikipedia (T.N.)
[2] Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 25, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing a commercially successful steamboat. (Wikipedia, T.N.)
[3] Philippe LEBON (or Lebon) (D'Humbersin) (May 29, 1767 – December 1, 1804) was a French engineer, born in Brachay, France. There is much confusion about his life and accomplishments. His main contributions were improvements to steam engines and industrializing the extraction of lighting gas from wood. He died assassinated in 1804
A Vision by Paul I
The czar Paul I, then only the Grand Duke Paul, was in Brussels in a meeting with friends, talking about the so-called supernatural phenomena, when he reported the following fact:[1]
“One afternoon, or better saying, one evening, I was in the streets of St. Petersburg with Kourakin and two servants. He had spent a long time talking and smoking, when we had the idea of leaving the palace in disguise, to see the city under the moonlight. It was not cold; the days were long; it was one of those sweetest days of our Spring, so pale when compared to those of the South. We were happy; we were not thinking of anything religious or not even serious, and Kourakin was telling me a thousand funny things about the rare passersby that we met. I was in front while one of us followed me; Kourakin was a few steps behind and the other servant followed us a bit further down. The moon was bright to the point of allowing a letter to be read. The shades, in opposition, were long and thick.
When I made a turn on a street, I noticed a tall and slim man, by a door entrance, covered by a mantle, like a Spaniard, wearing a military hat, much pressed onto his eyes. He seemed to be waiting, and when we passed by, he left his hiding place and stood by my left side, without a word or a gesture. It was impossible to distinguish his traces; his steps emitted a strange sound when touching the pavement, like a rock hitting another. I was initially surprised by that encounter; I then felt that everything that he almost touched cooled down gradually. I felt a glacial cold penetrating my limbs, and turning to Kourakin I said:
-This comrade is quite a character!
-Which comrade? He asked.
-Well, this one walking on my left and that makes a lot of noise, I believe.
-Kourakin looked at me with his spooky eyes and assured me that he did not see anyone on my left side.
-What? Don’t you see a man on a mantle between me and the wall?
-Your Highness touch the wall and see that there is no space for anybody between you and the wall.
I reached a little with my arm, and in fact I felt the stone. However, the man was there, always following with his hammer-like steps, syncing with my pace. I then carefully examined him, and saw below that unique hat, the shiniest eye that I had ever seen. The eye looked at me, and fascinated me; I could not avoid it.
-Ah I don’t know what is going on, but it is strange, I said.
I was shivering, but of could and not fear. Bit by bit I felt my heart taken by an impression that cannot be described. The blood froze in my veins. Suddenly a cavernous and melancholic voice came out of that mantle that hid the mouth and called me by my name:
-Paul!
I responded mechanically, driven by an unknown force:
-What do you want?
-Paul, he repeated. This time the tone was more friendly and gloomier. I said nothing, waited and he called again and then abruptly stopped. I was forced to do the same.
-Paul, poor Paul! Poor Prince!
I turned to Kourakin that had also stopped.
-Do you hear? I asked.
-Nothing, my Lord, and you?
I heard; the lament was still sounding in my ears. I made a huge effort and asked that mysterious being who he was and what was it that he wanted.
-Poor Paul! Who am I? I am the one that is interested in you. What is it that I want? I want you not to worry too much about this world, for you will not stay here much longer. Live in fairness if you want to die in piece, and do not neglect remorse, that is the most pungent torture of the great souls.
He went back his way, looking at me with that eye that seemed to escape his head, and as I was forced to stop with him, I was forced to walk with him. He did not talk to me again and I did not feel like talking to him. I followed him because he was the one leading the way, and the walk still lasted over an hour, in silence, and I could not figure out where I passed. Kourakin and the servants could not still get over it. Look at his smile: he still thinks that I dreamed all that.
We final approached the Grand Plaza, between the Newa bridge and the Senators Palace. The man went straight to a point in that square, and I followed him, of course, and he stopped again.
-Good-bye Paul. You will see me here and in other places also.
Then, his hat lifted on its own, as if he had touched it, and I could easily see his face. I stepped back, unwillingly: it was the eagle’s eye, the swarthy front, the severe smile of my grandfather Peter, the Great. Before I could recover from my surprise, from my terror, he was gone.
This is the same place where the Empress erects a monument to the renowned that will soon impress the whole Europe, and that represents the czar Peter on a horseback. The basis of the statue is a huge block of granite. I was not the one that pointed at this place to my mother, chosen, or better saying, guessed by the ghost. I confess that finding that statue there I cannot describe the feeling that took me over. I am afraid of being afraid, even though Prince Kourakin wants to persuade me that I was daydreaming, strolling around the streets. I remember the tiniest details of that vision, since it was a vision, I insist. It feels that I am still there. I returned to the Palace, broken as if I had gone for a long walk, and literally cold on my left side. It took me several hours to warm up in a hot bed, under blankets.”
Later, the Grand Duke regretted having talked about that adventure, and tried to make a mockery out of it, but the concerns that it brought up made he think that there was something serious about it. Once this report was read at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, but without the intention of framing any question about it, one of the mediums received, spontaneously and without evocation, the following communication:
Parisian Society, March 9th, 1866 – medium Mr. Morin
“In the new phase that you entered, with the key given by Spiritism, or the revelation by the Spirits, everything must be explained, at least what you are capable of understanding. Clairvoyance was the first mediumship given to man to correspond with the invisible world, cause of so many facts that still today are left without a rational explanation. In fact, when you look over the different ages of humanity, carefully observing all the traditions that existed, you will find, among those that preceded you, creatures that had a relationship with the world of the Spirits. Since the beginning of times, in all peoples, religious beliefs were established upon revelations of visionaries or clairvoyant mediums. Too small on their own, men were always assisted by the invisible that preceded them in erraticity, and abiding by the law of universal reciprocity, they came to bring them the knowledge that they had acquired, through communications sometimes inconsistent, delineating the conduct to be followed for the discovery of truth. The first mediumistic faculty, as I said, was the vision. How many adversaries has it found among the interest of all times! But one must not infer from my words that every vision is the result of true communication; many are the result of hallucinations of weakened minds, or the result of a plan hatched to serve a calculation or to satisfy pride. Believe me, the clairvoyant medium is the most impressionable of all; what he saw is better stored in the mind. From the moment when your Grand Duke[2], vain and boaster like most of his kind, saw the grandfather appearing to him, since it was in reality a vision that had its reason in the mission that Peter the Great had accepted in favor of his grandson, that consisted on guiding and inspiring him, mediumship was permanent in the Duke and it was only the fear of ridicule that precluded him from telling all visions to his friend. That clairvoyant mediumship was not the only one that he had. He was also endowed by intuition and hearing. However, much pervaded by the principles of his first education, he refused to take advantage of the wise warnings given by his guiding Spirits. It was through auditive mediumship that he had the revelation of his tragic end. Since then his Spirit progressed a lot. Today he would no longer fear the ridicule of believing in a vision, and that is why he comes to tell you: - Thanks to my dear spiritual guides, and to the observation of the facts, I believe in the survival of the soul, in the eternal omnipotence of God, in the constant progression of men and peoples to good, and I am honored that one of my frivolities has given place to a dissertation from which I have everything to win and you have nothing to lose.
Paul
[1] Extracted from the Grand Journal, March 3rd, 1866, taken from a book by Mr. Hortensius de Saint Albin, entitled Le Culte de Satan.
[2] Many Russian citizens attended the session in which this communication was given; that has undoubtedly led to the expression your Grand Duke.
“One afternoon, or better saying, one evening, I was in the streets of St. Petersburg with Kourakin and two servants. He had spent a long time talking and smoking, when we had the idea of leaving the palace in disguise, to see the city under the moonlight. It was not cold; the days were long; it was one of those sweetest days of our Spring, so pale when compared to those of the South. We were happy; we were not thinking of anything religious or not even serious, and Kourakin was telling me a thousand funny things about the rare passersby that we met. I was in front while one of us followed me; Kourakin was a few steps behind and the other servant followed us a bit further down. The moon was bright to the point of allowing a letter to be read. The shades, in opposition, were long and thick.
When I made a turn on a street, I noticed a tall and slim man, by a door entrance, covered by a mantle, like a Spaniard, wearing a military hat, much pressed onto his eyes. He seemed to be waiting, and when we passed by, he left his hiding place and stood by my left side, without a word or a gesture. It was impossible to distinguish his traces; his steps emitted a strange sound when touching the pavement, like a rock hitting another. I was initially surprised by that encounter; I then felt that everything that he almost touched cooled down gradually. I felt a glacial cold penetrating my limbs, and turning to Kourakin I said:
-This comrade is quite a character!
-Which comrade? He asked.
-Well, this one walking on my left and that makes a lot of noise, I believe.
-Kourakin looked at me with his spooky eyes and assured me that he did not see anyone on my left side.
-What? Don’t you see a man on a mantle between me and the wall?
-Your Highness touch the wall and see that there is no space for anybody between you and the wall.
I reached a little with my arm, and in fact I felt the stone. However, the man was there, always following with his hammer-like steps, syncing with my pace. I then carefully examined him, and saw below that unique hat, the shiniest eye that I had ever seen. The eye looked at me, and fascinated me; I could not avoid it.
-Ah I don’t know what is going on, but it is strange, I said.
I was shivering, but of could and not fear. Bit by bit I felt my heart taken by an impression that cannot be described. The blood froze in my veins. Suddenly a cavernous and melancholic voice came out of that mantle that hid the mouth and called me by my name:
-Paul!
I responded mechanically, driven by an unknown force:
-What do you want?
-Paul, he repeated. This time the tone was more friendly and gloomier. I said nothing, waited and he called again and then abruptly stopped. I was forced to do the same.
-Paul, poor Paul! Poor Prince!
I turned to Kourakin that had also stopped.
-Do you hear? I asked.
-Nothing, my Lord, and you?
I heard; the lament was still sounding in my ears. I made a huge effort and asked that mysterious being who he was and what was it that he wanted.
-Poor Paul! Who am I? I am the one that is interested in you. What is it that I want? I want you not to worry too much about this world, for you will not stay here much longer. Live in fairness if you want to die in piece, and do not neglect remorse, that is the most pungent torture of the great souls.
He went back his way, looking at me with that eye that seemed to escape his head, and as I was forced to stop with him, I was forced to walk with him. He did not talk to me again and I did not feel like talking to him. I followed him because he was the one leading the way, and the walk still lasted over an hour, in silence, and I could not figure out where I passed. Kourakin and the servants could not still get over it. Look at his smile: he still thinks that I dreamed all that.
We final approached the Grand Plaza, between the Newa bridge and the Senators Palace. The man went straight to a point in that square, and I followed him, of course, and he stopped again.
-Good-bye Paul. You will see me here and in other places also.
Then, his hat lifted on its own, as if he had touched it, and I could easily see his face. I stepped back, unwillingly: it was the eagle’s eye, the swarthy front, the severe smile of my grandfather Peter, the Great. Before I could recover from my surprise, from my terror, he was gone.
This is the same place where the Empress erects a monument to the renowned that will soon impress the whole Europe, and that represents the czar Peter on a horseback. The basis of the statue is a huge block of granite. I was not the one that pointed at this place to my mother, chosen, or better saying, guessed by the ghost. I confess that finding that statue there I cannot describe the feeling that took me over. I am afraid of being afraid, even though Prince Kourakin wants to persuade me that I was daydreaming, strolling around the streets. I remember the tiniest details of that vision, since it was a vision, I insist. It feels that I am still there. I returned to the Palace, broken as if I had gone for a long walk, and literally cold on my left side. It took me several hours to warm up in a hot bed, under blankets.”
Later, the Grand Duke regretted having talked about that adventure, and tried to make a mockery out of it, but the concerns that it brought up made he think that there was something serious about it. Once this report was read at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, but without the intention of framing any question about it, one of the mediums received, spontaneously and without evocation, the following communication:
Parisian Society, March 9th, 1866 – medium Mr. Morin
“In the new phase that you entered, with the key given by Spiritism, or the revelation by the Spirits, everything must be explained, at least what you are capable of understanding. Clairvoyance was the first mediumship given to man to correspond with the invisible world, cause of so many facts that still today are left without a rational explanation. In fact, when you look over the different ages of humanity, carefully observing all the traditions that existed, you will find, among those that preceded you, creatures that had a relationship with the world of the Spirits. Since the beginning of times, in all peoples, religious beliefs were established upon revelations of visionaries or clairvoyant mediums. Too small on their own, men were always assisted by the invisible that preceded them in erraticity, and abiding by the law of universal reciprocity, they came to bring them the knowledge that they had acquired, through communications sometimes inconsistent, delineating the conduct to be followed for the discovery of truth. The first mediumistic faculty, as I said, was the vision. How many adversaries has it found among the interest of all times! But one must not infer from my words that every vision is the result of true communication; many are the result of hallucinations of weakened minds, or the result of a plan hatched to serve a calculation or to satisfy pride. Believe me, the clairvoyant medium is the most impressionable of all; what he saw is better stored in the mind. From the moment when your Grand Duke[2], vain and boaster like most of his kind, saw the grandfather appearing to him, since it was in reality a vision that had its reason in the mission that Peter the Great had accepted in favor of his grandson, that consisted on guiding and inspiring him, mediumship was permanent in the Duke and it was only the fear of ridicule that precluded him from telling all visions to his friend. That clairvoyant mediumship was not the only one that he had. He was also endowed by intuition and hearing. However, much pervaded by the principles of his first education, he refused to take advantage of the wise warnings given by his guiding Spirits. It was through auditive mediumship that he had the revelation of his tragic end. Since then his Spirit progressed a lot. Today he would no longer fear the ridicule of believing in a vision, and that is why he comes to tell you: - Thanks to my dear spiritual guides, and to the observation of the facts, I believe in the survival of the soul, in the eternal omnipotence of God, in the constant progression of men and peoples to good, and I am honored that one of my frivolities has given place to a dissertation from which I have everything to win and you have nothing to lose.
Paul
[1] Extracted from the Grand Journal, March 3rd, 1866, taken from a book by Mr. Hortensius de Saint Albin, entitled Le Culte de Satan.
[2] Many Russian citizens attended the session in which this communication was given; that has undoubtedly led to the expression your Grand Duke.
The Awakening of the Lord of Cosnac
Mr. Leymarie, our colleague from the Parisian Society, recently traveled to Corrèze, where he frequently spoke about matters of Spiritism, receiving several mediumistic communications, among which the one below, and that certainly could not be in his thoughts, considering that he had never heard about an individual called Cosnac in this world. This communication is remarkable because it shows the singular position of a Spirit that after two and half centuries after his death, did not believe to be alive, but was under the impression of the ideas and visions of things of his time, not realizing how much they had changed since then.
Tulle, March 7th, 1866
Two and half centuries ago, unconscious of my position, I constantly saw the fortified castle of my ancestors, the deep moats, the Lord of Cosnac always linked to his King, to his name, to his memories of greatness; there was pages and valets everywhere; men-at-arms leaving for a secret expedition. I follow all that movement, all the noise; I hear the outcry of the prisoners and colonists, of the fearful servants that humbly pass in front of the master’s house; it is all just a dream!...
My eyes opened today, to see everything contrary to my century old dream! I see a large bourgeoise home, but without the lines of defense; everything is calm. The big trees disappeared; one could say that a fairy hand transformed the feudal home and the woodlands that surround it. Why such a change?... Has the name that I carry disappeared then, and with that the good old times?... Ah It is necessary to let my dreams go, my desires, my fictions, because a new world has just been revealed to me. Formerly a bishop, proud of my titles, of my alliances, counselor to the King, I only admitted our personalities, a God creating privileged races, to whom the world belonged, in its own right, a name that should perpetuate, and as the basis of such a system, tyranny and suffering for the servant and the worker.
A few words were enough to wake me up!... An involuntary attraction (in the past I would have called it diabolic) brought me to this one that is writing. He discussed with a priest that utilizes all the arguments that I used in the past, for the defense of the Church, but now he uses new words that explain with simplicity, and should I confess? His reasoning allows my eyes to see and my ears to listen.
Through him I see things as they are, and more remarkable, after having followed him to a place where he defends Spiritism, I go back to the feeling of my existence as a Spirit; I appreciate better, I define better the great laws of truth and justice; I swallow my pride, cause of the cataract that confused my reason and judgment for two-and-half centuries; however, look at the power of habit, the pride of race!
Despite the radical changes that took place in the properties of my grandparents, in the social mores, in the law and in government; despite the conversations with the medium that transmit my thought; despite my visits to the Spiritist groups of Paris, and even the Spirits that prepare for the emigration to more advance worlds, or for earthly incarnations, it took me eight days of thoughts to surrender to the evidence. My resistances fell one by one in this long struggle between the disappearing past and the present that drags us to new hopes, like the old broken armors of our former knights. I come to make an act of faith before the evidence, and I attest that I am the bishop of Cosnac, that I live, and that I feel and judge. While I wait for my reincarnation, I prepare my spiritual weapons; I feel God everywhere and in everything; I am not a demon, I abjure my pried of cast, and in my fluidic covering I pay tribute to the God Creator, the God of harmony that calls all of His children to him, so that later, after a more or less eventful life, they arrive purified to the ethereal spheres, where that magnanimous God allows them to enjoy the supreme wisdom.
De Cosnac
Note: The archbishop of Sens, before the last one, was called Jean-Joseph-Marie-Victoire de Cosnac. He was born in 1764, at the Cosnac Castle, in the Limousin where he died in 1843. The Bulletin of the Archeological Society of Sens, volume 7, page 301, says that he was the eleventh prelate that his family had given to the Church. It is not impossible that a bishop with such a name had lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Tulle, March 7th, 1866
Two and half centuries ago, unconscious of my position, I constantly saw the fortified castle of my ancestors, the deep moats, the Lord of Cosnac always linked to his King, to his name, to his memories of greatness; there was pages and valets everywhere; men-at-arms leaving for a secret expedition. I follow all that movement, all the noise; I hear the outcry of the prisoners and colonists, of the fearful servants that humbly pass in front of the master’s house; it is all just a dream!...
My eyes opened today, to see everything contrary to my century old dream! I see a large bourgeoise home, but without the lines of defense; everything is calm. The big trees disappeared; one could say that a fairy hand transformed the feudal home and the woodlands that surround it. Why such a change?... Has the name that I carry disappeared then, and with that the good old times?... Ah It is necessary to let my dreams go, my desires, my fictions, because a new world has just been revealed to me. Formerly a bishop, proud of my titles, of my alliances, counselor to the King, I only admitted our personalities, a God creating privileged races, to whom the world belonged, in its own right, a name that should perpetuate, and as the basis of such a system, tyranny and suffering for the servant and the worker.
A few words were enough to wake me up!... An involuntary attraction (in the past I would have called it diabolic) brought me to this one that is writing. He discussed with a priest that utilizes all the arguments that I used in the past, for the defense of the Church, but now he uses new words that explain with simplicity, and should I confess? His reasoning allows my eyes to see and my ears to listen.
Through him I see things as they are, and more remarkable, after having followed him to a place where he defends Spiritism, I go back to the feeling of my existence as a Spirit; I appreciate better, I define better the great laws of truth and justice; I swallow my pride, cause of the cataract that confused my reason and judgment for two-and-half centuries; however, look at the power of habit, the pride of race!
Despite the radical changes that took place in the properties of my grandparents, in the social mores, in the law and in government; despite the conversations with the medium that transmit my thought; despite my visits to the Spiritist groups of Paris, and even the Spirits that prepare for the emigration to more advance worlds, or for earthly incarnations, it took me eight days of thoughts to surrender to the evidence. My resistances fell one by one in this long struggle between the disappearing past and the present that drags us to new hopes, like the old broken armors of our former knights. I come to make an act of faith before the evidence, and I attest that I am the bishop of Cosnac, that I live, and that I feel and judge. While I wait for my reincarnation, I prepare my spiritual weapons; I feel God everywhere and in everything; I am not a demon, I abjure my pried of cast, and in my fluidic covering I pay tribute to the God Creator, the God of harmony that calls all of His children to him, so that later, after a more or less eventful life, they arrive purified to the ethereal spheres, where that magnanimous God allows them to enjoy the supreme wisdom.
De Cosnac
Note: The archbishop of Sens, before the last one, was called Jean-Joseph-Marie-Victoire de Cosnac. He was born in 1764, at the Cosnac Castle, in the Limousin where he died in 1843. The Bulletin of the Archeological Society of Sens, volume 7, page 301, says that he was the eleventh prelate that his family had given to the Church. It is not impossible that a bishop with such a name had lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Spiritist Thoughts
Poetry by Mr. Eugène Nus
The stanzas below were taken from the book The New Dogmas, by Mr. Eugène Nus. Although it is not a mediumistic work, the reader will certainly appreciate the reproduction here, given the thoughts so nicely expressed. With the title “The Great Mysteries”, the same author published another remarkable book, that we shall refer to, and in which all the principles of the Spiritist Doctrine are found, as rational solution.
O beloved dead, that this earth
Has seen pass, mingled with us,
Tell us about the great mystery:
where do you live, o beloved dead?
Flamboyant globes, which populate the space,
Sisters of our earth, stars of heavens,
Which of you prepare my place,
With a somber or glorious fate?
Which of you has received the souls
Of those I lost and loved the most?
In a white ray of their sweet flame,
have they descended on my dreamy brain?
Or, attached to earth’s destiny,
By their fate or by their love,
Are they carried away in our atmosphere,
Waiting, up there, for the time to reappear?
Or, even closer, Invisible Spirits,
Are they among us, mingled in our days,
Preaching harmony to delicate hearts,
Weeping softly onto deaf ears?
Oh, profound mystery of the infinite soul!
Long time no hear!
My paled face searched all over,
unable to find the divine secret.
But, o dear dead, wherever you are!
Whether you are near or far,
You shall come to me.
I have often surrendered to your secret voice,
Your warmth warmed my faith.
O beloved dead, that this earth
Has seen pass, mingled with us,
Tell us about the great mystery:
where do you live, o beloved dead?
O beloved dead, that this earth
Has seen pass, mingled with us,
Tell us about the great mystery:
where do you live, o beloved dead?
Flamboyant globes, which populate the space,
Sisters of our earth, stars of heavens,
Which of you prepare my place,
With a somber or glorious fate?
Which of you has received the souls
Of those I lost and loved the most?
In a white ray of their sweet flame,
have they descended on my dreamy brain?
Or, attached to earth’s destiny,
By their fate or by their love,
Are they carried away in our atmosphere,
Waiting, up there, for the time to reappear?
Or, even closer, Invisible Spirits,
Are they among us, mingled in our days,
Preaching harmony to delicate hearts,
Weeping softly onto deaf ears?
Oh, profound mystery of the infinite soul!
Long time no hear!
My paled face searched all over,
unable to find the divine secret.
But, o dear dead, wherever you are!
Whether you are near or far,
You shall come to me.
I have often surrendered to your secret voice,
Your warmth warmed my faith.
O beloved dead, that this earth
Has seen pass, mingled with us,
Tell us about the great mystery:
where do you live, o beloved dead?
Letter from Mr. F. Blanchard to Journal La Liberté
We were asked to publish the letter below, addressed to the chief-editor of the Journal la Liberté.
“Dear Sir,
It is true that one must fill out the columns of a newspaper, but when that decoration is full of insults addressed to those that do not share the ideas of your editors, at least like the one that wrote such a vulgarity about the Davenport brothers, in the Monday issue, one is allowed to find it bad to give one’s money to those that are not afraid of treating others as fools, ignorant, etc. Well, I am a Spiritist and thank God for that. Thus, rest assured that when my subscription with your journal ends, it will not be renewed. Your paper has a sublime title; therefore, do not belie that title, and know that the word implies respect to everyone’s opinion. Above all, do not forget that freedom and Spiritism are absolutely the same thing. Does such a synonym surprise you? Read, study this Doctrine that seems so dark to you, and you will then be able to do service to Truth and Freedom, that you raise so high but that you offend.
Florentine Blanchard, bookseller in Marennes.”
P.S. If my signature is not much legible to you, the seal that closes the letter will clarify.
“Dear Sir,
It is true that one must fill out the columns of a newspaper, but when that decoration is full of insults addressed to those that do not share the ideas of your editors, at least like the one that wrote such a vulgarity about the Davenport brothers, in the Monday issue, one is allowed to find it bad to give one’s money to those that are not afraid of treating others as fools, ignorant, etc. Well, I am a Spiritist and thank God for that. Thus, rest assured that when my subscription with your journal ends, it will not be renewed. Your paper has a sublime title; therefore, do not belie that title, and know that the word implies respect to everyone’s opinion. Above all, do not forget that freedom and Spiritism are absolutely the same thing. Does such a synonym surprise you? Read, study this Doctrine that seems so dark to you, and you will then be able to do service to Truth and Freedom, that you raise so high but that you offend.
Florentine Blanchard, bookseller in Marennes.”
P.S. If my signature is not much legible to you, the seal that closes the letter will clarify.
Bibliographic News
Am I a Spiritist? By Sylvain Alquié, from Toulouse; brochure in-12, 50 cents; Bookstore Caillol et Baylac, Rue de la Pomme, 34 – Toulouse.
The author, a new follower, only knew Spiritism by the diatribes of the newspapers, with respect to the Davenport brothers, when the first article published by La Discussion (see the Spiritist Review, February 1866) fell on in his hands in a café, made him it from another perspective and led him to the study. These are the impressions that he describes in his brochure. He revises the reasons that led him to the belief, asking each one: Am I a Spiritist? His conclusion is summarized in the last chapter by these simple words: I am a Spiritist. This brochure, written with elegance, clarity and conviction, is a profession of faith, wisely thought through; it deserves the sympathies of every sincere follower, to whom we believe to be a duty to recommend it, apologizing for the lack of space that precludes us from justifying our appreciation for some citations.
_________________________
Letter to Messrs. Directors and Editors of the Anti-Spiritists Journals, by A. Grelez, retired administrative officer. Brochure in-8, price 50 cents. In the main bookstores of Paris and Bordeaux.
This letter, or better saying, these letters from Sétif, Algeria, were published by the Spiritist Union of Bordeaux, in their issues number 34, 35 and 36. It is a clear and succinct description of the principles of the doctrine, in response to the diatribes of certain journalists whose false and unfair appreciations are politely revealed by the author. He certainly did not expect to convert them, but these refutations, multiplied in cheap brochures, have the advantage of enlightening the masses about the true character of Spiritism, showing that it finds serious defenders everywhere, that only need reasoning to fight their adversaries. We must then thank Mr. Grelez and congratulate the Spiritist Union of Bordeaux for having taken the initiative of this publication.
__________________
Spiritist Philosophy, extracted from the divine “The Spirits’ Book”, by Allan Kardec, by Augustin Babin, de Cognac, I volume in-12, 200 pages, price: 1 franc.
__________________
Happiness Guide, or General Duties of Men by the Love of God, by the same. Brochure in-12, 100 pages, price: 60 cents.
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Notions of Astronomy – scientific, psychological, and moral, by the same. Brochure in-12, 100 pages, price: 75 cents. Naudaud et Cie. Bookstore, Forte Desaix, 26 – Angoulême.
Please notice that the epithet “divine” given to The Spirits’ Book is by the author and not by us. It characterizes the way he sees the issue. Mr. Baubin is a long time Spiritist who takes the doctrine seriously, from its moral point of view. These three books are the result of a profound, inalterable conviction, sheltered from fluctuations. He is not an enthusiast, but a man that has collected so much strength, consolation, and happiness from Spiritism, that he considers to be a duty to propagate a belief that is dear to him. His zeal is as much meritorious as selfless. He declares that his books are of public domain, with the condition that nothing is altered, and the price remains fixed. He kindly spared one hundred books for us to distribute for free, for which we beg him to accept here our most sincere appreciation.
The author, a new follower, only knew Spiritism by the diatribes of the newspapers, with respect to the Davenport brothers, when the first article published by La Discussion (see the Spiritist Review, February 1866) fell on in his hands in a café, made him it from another perspective and led him to the study. These are the impressions that he describes in his brochure. He revises the reasons that led him to the belief, asking each one: Am I a Spiritist? His conclusion is summarized in the last chapter by these simple words: I am a Spiritist. This brochure, written with elegance, clarity and conviction, is a profession of faith, wisely thought through; it deserves the sympathies of every sincere follower, to whom we believe to be a duty to recommend it, apologizing for the lack of space that precludes us from justifying our appreciation for some citations.
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Letter to Messrs. Directors and Editors of the Anti-Spiritists Journals, by A. Grelez, retired administrative officer. Brochure in-8, price 50 cents. In the main bookstores of Paris and Bordeaux.
This letter, or better saying, these letters from Sétif, Algeria, were published by the Spiritist Union of Bordeaux, in their issues number 34, 35 and 36. It is a clear and succinct description of the principles of the doctrine, in response to the diatribes of certain journalists whose false and unfair appreciations are politely revealed by the author. He certainly did not expect to convert them, but these refutations, multiplied in cheap brochures, have the advantage of enlightening the masses about the true character of Spiritism, showing that it finds serious defenders everywhere, that only need reasoning to fight their adversaries. We must then thank Mr. Grelez and congratulate the Spiritist Union of Bordeaux for having taken the initiative of this publication.
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Spiritist Philosophy, extracted from the divine “The Spirits’ Book”, by Allan Kardec, by Augustin Babin, de Cognac, I volume in-12, 200 pages, price: 1 franc.
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Happiness Guide, or General Duties of Men by the Love of God, by the same. Brochure in-12, 100 pages, price: 60 cents.
__________________
Notions of Astronomy – scientific, psychological, and moral, by the same. Brochure in-12, 100 pages, price: 75 cents. Naudaud et Cie. Bookstore, Forte Desaix, 26 – Angoulême.
Please notice that the epithet “divine” given to The Spirits’ Book is by the author and not by us. It characterizes the way he sees the issue. Mr. Baubin is a long time Spiritist who takes the doctrine seriously, from its moral point of view. These three books are the result of a profound, inalterable conviction, sheltered from fluctuations. He is not an enthusiast, but a man that has collected so much strength, consolation, and happiness from Spiritism, that he considers to be a duty to propagate a belief that is dear to him. His zeal is as much meritorious as selfless. He declares that his books are of public domain, with the condition that nothing is altered, and the price remains fixed. He kindly spared one hundred books for us to distribute for free, for which we beg him to accept here our most sincere appreciation.