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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866 > May > Spiritist Dissertations > Instructions to Mr. Allan Kardec
Instructions to Mr. Allan Kardec
Paris, April 23rd, 1866 – Medium Mr. Desliens
Paris, April 23rd, 1866 – Medium Mr. Desliens
Considering the daily weaking of Mr. Allan Kardec’s health, as a consequence of the excessive works that he cannot bear, I see the need to repeat to him, once again, what I have already said many times: you need to rest; the human strength has limits that you, led by the desire to see the progress of the science, many times breach; you are wrong, for acting like that you will not see the march of the doctrine, but you ruin your health and place yourself in a position that is impossible to finish the task that you came to accomplish down here. Your current illness is not but the result of a continuous wear of your vital forces, that do not allow the body the necessary recovery, and a blood pressure resulting from the absolute lack of resting. We support you, no doubt, but with the condition that you do not undo what we do. Why hurry? Haven’t you been told, many times, that it would come at the right time, and that the Spirits in charge of the movement of the ideas would know how to create favorable circumstances, when the time to act is right?
When each Spiritist keeps their forces for the fight, do you believe that it is your duty to exhaust yours? No. You must give the example in everything, and your place will be in the fight, at the time of danger. What would you do if your weakened body no longer allowed your Spirit to utilize the weapons that were placed in your hands by experience and revelation? Believe me, allow to the future the great works destined to complete the one that was sketched in your first publications; your current work, and a few small urgent brochures must absorb your time, and must be the only object of your current concerns.
I do not speak in my name only, for I am here a delegate of all these Spirits that have powerfully contributed to the propagation of the teachings through your wise instructions. They tell you, through me, that the delay that you believe to be harmful to the future of the doctrine, is a necessary measure on more than one aspect, be it for the fact that certain issues are not yet clarified, be it to prepare the Spirits to better understand them. It is necessary that other have prepared the terrain; that certain theories have proved their insufficiency, digging a deeper hole. In short, it is not appropriate at this time; thus, you must spare yourself, because all the vigor of your body and mind will be necessary when the time is right. Up until now Spiritism was the object of many diatribes; it raised many storms! Do you believe that the whole movement is soothed, and all the hatred appeased and reduced to impotence? Make no mistake for the depurating crucible has not expelled all impurities yet; future waits for you with new trials and the last crises will not be less difficult to withstand. I know that your position entails many secondary works, that absorbs the better part of your time. Questions of all kinds are tiresome, and you consider a duty to respond as much as possible. I will do here what you, undoubtedly, would not dare doing yourself.
Addressing the generality of the Spiritists, I will ask, in the interest of Spiritism itself, to spare you from any overload of work, that can absorb time that you must almost exclusively dedicate to the conclusion of the doctrine. If your correspondence suffers a little with this, the teaching will gain. Sometimes we must scarify personal satisfactions to the general interest. It is an urgent measure that every sincere follower must understand and approve.
The immense correspondence that you receive is a precious source of documents and information; it enlightens you abut the true development and real progresses of the doctrine; it is an impartial thermometer; on another hand, you get personal satisfaction there too, that have sustained your courage more than once, when you see the adhesion that your ideas find all over the world. From that point of view, the superabundance is positive, instead of an inconvenience, but with the condition that is should second your works and not preclude them, creating excessive work.
Dr. Demeure
God Dr. Demeure, I thank you for the wise advices. Thanks to my resolution to find help, except in special cases, the ordinary correspondence hardly suffers now and will not suffer in the future. But what to do with the delay in responding to more than five hundred letters that, despite my good will, I cannot have in good standing?
Answer – As they say in commercial language, it is necessary to write them off to the account of profit and loss. Once this is announced in the Spiritist Review, your correspondents will know what to do; they will understand the need and will find it justified by the preceding advices. I repeat that it would be impossible to keep things as they are, any longer. Everything would suffer with this, including your health and the doctrine. One must make sacrifice, when necessary. Getting over with this subject, from now on, and you will be able to freely dedicate to your compulsory work. That is the advice of the one who will always be your devoted friend.
Demeure
Following this wise advice, we beg our correspondents, with whom we are late for a long time, to receive our apologies and our sorrow for not have been able to respond to their kind letters, as we wished. You will all receive here, collectively, the demonstration of our fraternal feelings.
When each Spiritist keeps their forces for the fight, do you believe that it is your duty to exhaust yours? No. You must give the example in everything, and your place will be in the fight, at the time of danger. What would you do if your weakened body no longer allowed your Spirit to utilize the weapons that were placed in your hands by experience and revelation? Believe me, allow to the future the great works destined to complete the one that was sketched in your first publications; your current work, and a few small urgent brochures must absorb your time, and must be the only object of your current concerns.
I do not speak in my name only, for I am here a delegate of all these Spirits that have powerfully contributed to the propagation of the teachings through your wise instructions. They tell you, through me, that the delay that you believe to be harmful to the future of the doctrine, is a necessary measure on more than one aspect, be it for the fact that certain issues are not yet clarified, be it to prepare the Spirits to better understand them. It is necessary that other have prepared the terrain; that certain theories have proved their insufficiency, digging a deeper hole. In short, it is not appropriate at this time; thus, you must spare yourself, because all the vigor of your body and mind will be necessary when the time is right. Up until now Spiritism was the object of many diatribes; it raised many storms! Do you believe that the whole movement is soothed, and all the hatred appeased and reduced to impotence? Make no mistake for the depurating crucible has not expelled all impurities yet; future waits for you with new trials and the last crises will not be less difficult to withstand. I know that your position entails many secondary works, that absorbs the better part of your time. Questions of all kinds are tiresome, and you consider a duty to respond as much as possible. I will do here what you, undoubtedly, would not dare doing yourself.
Addressing the generality of the Spiritists, I will ask, in the interest of Spiritism itself, to spare you from any overload of work, that can absorb time that you must almost exclusively dedicate to the conclusion of the doctrine. If your correspondence suffers a little with this, the teaching will gain. Sometimes we must scarify personal satisfactions to the general interest. It is an urgent measure that every sincere follower must understand and approve.
The immense correspondence that you receive is a precious source of documents and information; it enlightens you abut the true development and real progresses of the doctrine; it is an impartial thermometer; on another hand, you get personal satisfaction there too, that have sustained your courage more than once, when you see the adhesion that your ideas find all over the world. From that point of view, the superabundance is positive, instead of an inconvenience, but with the condition that is should second your works and not preclude them, creating excessive work.
Dr. Demeure
God Dr. Demeure, I thank you for the wise advices. Thanks to my resolution to find help, except in special cases, the ordinary correspondence hardly suffers now and will not suffer in the future. But what to do with the delay in responding to more than five hundred letters that, despite my good will, I cannot have in good standing?
Answer – As they say in commercial language, it is necessary to write them off to the account of profit and loss. Once this is announced in the Spiritist Review, your correspondents will know what to do; they will understand the need and will find it justified by the preceding advices. I repeat that it would be impossible to keep things as they are, any longer. Everything would suffer with this, including your health and the doctrine. One must make sacrifice, when necessary. Getting over with this subject, from now on, and you will be able to freely dedicate to your compulsory work. That is the advice of the one who will always be your devoted friend.
Demeure
Following this wise advice, we beg our correspondents, with whom we are late for a long time, to receive our apologies and our sorrow for not have been able to respond to their kind letters, as we wished. You will all receive here, collectively, the demonstration of our fraternal feelings.