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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1863 > November
November
By Mr. Herrenschneider
2nd Article[1]
The principle of duality with the essence of the soul and the spiritual system
In the previous article we tried to demonstrated that if Mr. Free-Thinkers wanted to carry the burden of examining the reason that allow them to say “I”, they would arrive at the knowledge of their own essence; they would be convinced that their soul is constituted in a way that it exists separately from the body as well as from its envelope and would understand erraticism when the soul, after death, it would have left its earthly matter so that their science, if based on the true principle of the constitution of the soul, would confirm the Spiritist facts instead of contradicting them so obstinately.
In fact, our notion of “self” is mainly composed of the feeling and knowledge that we have of ourselves and these two intimate phenomena, evident to everyone, peremptorily imply two distinct elements of the soul: one is passive, sensitive, extensive and solid.. The is the one that receives the impressions. The another one is active, boundless and thinks. This is the one that perceives these same impressions.
Consequently, if we have side by side with a virtual element an element that is resistant and permanent, different from our body, we cannot be dissolved by death; our immortality is demonstrated and our pre-existence is a natural consequence. Our destinies therefore are independent of our earthly dwellings that become a more or less interesting episode to thus according to the events that are associated.
Following those observations, the duality of the essence of the soul is an important principle for it does instruct us about our real and immortal life. However, it is a much more important principle because that is the only source from which we acquire full conscience of our individuality hence being the origin of our science that we cannot doubt and that is the foundation of all of our knowledge.
We all effectively begin to get to know ourselves before we are aware of our surroundings and we use our own measure to assess everything that we examine and judge. Hence, for the study of the truth, it is indispensable to observe that our knowledge comes from within ourselves to return to ourselves. It is a circle formed by ourselves and that in spite of us it fatally surrounds us.
Our contemporary philosophers unnoticeably ignore this. It is what clouds and blinds them, precluding them from looking beyond and above themselves. We will then have many occasions to attest to their blindness. Previous generations, on the contrary, knew this principle and its mysterious influence as symbolized by the figure of a serpent folded on itself and biting the tip of its own tail. To their eyes it meant that knowledge started from a given point, goes around our intellectual horizon and returns to the starting point. Now if that starting point is elevated and the vision is sharp the horizon is broad and science is vast. If, on the contrary, the starting point is close to ground and vision is impaired, the horizon is restricted the intelligence of things is limited.
Therefore, the way we are personally impacted will be the whole and the reach of our knowledge. In this case, it becomes evident that the first condition of the individual science is the self-examination not only to assess one’s skills, defects and vices but also to get to know, from start, the intimate constitution of our being and from that elevate our spirit and form our character.
Consequently, true science is not made for each one individually. The one that aspires that science must have intelligence and education but above all must be serious, sober and prudent and not allowing oneself to be carried away by the caprices of imagination, vanity, personal interests and self-sufficiency.
Selfless love for that venerable objective is what must guide the true lover of truth; it is the strong and constant will of never stopping, strictly separating the good seed from the weed.
The more a person owns and controls oneself and is calm and noble, the more that person will be able to distinguish the paths that will lead to the truth. The more lighthearted, presumptuous or passionate, the more an impure breath will contaminate the fruits harvested from the tree of life.
Hence the first condition to get to the knowledge of things is the individual character and it is for that reason that in antiquity there were solemn trials preceding initiation. Today knowledge is spread without distinction and each one pretends to have it but at the same time truth, more than never, is well received while the strangest doctrines find numerous followers. It is necessary to be convinced that indifferent Spirits, limited by math and natural sciences, led by imagination or full of impertinence, are inadequate to the search of truth and that it would be wiser to spare such a noble task to some chosen ones. Yet more sensible dispositions manifest today by the advent of Spiritism and in fact the Spiritists are persons well cut for the search of truth because, separating from the turmoil that drags society, they renounce to the mundane vanities, to the principles of free-thinkers and to the official superstition of the known cults. They give proof of healthy independence, of a sincere love to the truth and of a touching solicitude towards their eternal interests. These are the best moral dispositions to deal with the serious issues of the soul, the world and Divinity. For our own eternal good we must try to understand one another and follow together the signs that will lead to the sacred path because we need to help each other to achieve the objective that we all seek, that is the knowledge of what is real and durable.
After the moral dispositions that we have just indicated the most indispensable thing to dedicate to the delicate work of initiation is the knowledge of the principle of the duality of the essence of the soul because that is what constitutes part of the mysterious secrets of the Sphinx[2]. It is one of the keys of science and without it all efforts are useless to achieve that. The principle of the essence of the soul carries on itself and as consequence the considerable notions that we wish to acquire whereas all secondary principles discovered up until now are not sufficiently elevated to dominate the vast horizon of human knowledge and to embrace every detail.
The inferior principles detour those who use them in the warren of numerous facts that they do not understand and it is for the insufficiency of their first principles that the philosophers veered off and got lost in the arbitrary subtleties of their incomplete doctrines. They definitely led to confusion where they thought the truth to be.
In these more delicate than difficult matters, it is only the true principle that spreads light that easily resolves every problem and opens up the secret doors that lead to the most secret sanctuary. Now, we already know that we carry that principle and that all we need to find it is to study ourselves but to do that with calm and impartiality. We know that that principle is the duality of our spiritual essence so that we must handle the thread carefully for we hold the most important knot. But as we advance in our psychological study we must nonetheless consult the works of our most renowned philosophers to find out where they failed and what the points that confirm our own researches are.
Thus, as observed above, it seems evident that everything in us that connects to the sensitive order depends on the substance of our soul because it is the extensive and solid element that receives every exterior impression and that feels our inner activity.
In fact, our soul could not be touched without presenting an initial obstacle to oscillations of the environment and vibrations of emotions that affect us intimately. Therefore, it is that very natural way of being that explains our relationships with everything that exists, with what is not us, with our non-self-moral, intellectual and physical, visible or invisible.
The solidity and extension of our substance evidently cannot be rejected, in principle. Nevertheless, that is not the broad opinion that reigns in the university and in the Institute[3]. Spiritualism denies it as absurd under the specious pretext that divisibility that would be its consequence would imply corruptibility of the substance. That is nothing but a mistake because what matters to the corruptibility of the nature of the soul is the chemical simplicity of its corporeal fluidity and not its mechanical indivisibility whose lack of has thousands of ways to remediate while to remain with the scientific truth is necessary to admit an effect without cause, a possible impression without resistance. Hence the sensitivity of our soul teaches nothing to our Spiritualist school. It freely connects feelings to reason, attributes sensations to the material organs and does not explain the connection between those different faculties. That is one of the causes of its philosophical impotence.
As for us, the sensitivity of our soul is the irrefutable proof of the solidity and extension of its substance. And it is the notion of those properties that opens up a vast field of observation to us. Thus, in the beginning, the substantial extension and solidity allow our soul to take different shapes and contains the type of organs that constitute our physical body. It thus serves of origin and support to our nerves, senses, brains, organs, muscles and bones and allows us to incarnate by this law of mutability of the corporeal cells, much known to modern physiologists. Our scientists suppose only and wrongly so in our opinion that such a law is the effect of a mysterious force of matter that renovates, absorb and flows by itself and forms by itself because matter is inert and forms nothing on its own. Such mutability, evidently, is the effect of an instinctive activity of the double essence of our soul that is enclosed in our envelope, and the existence of that law demonstrates that our incarnation is in the natural order because it is continuous and after a number of years our body renovates regularly.
The formation of our material envelope and our successive incarnation are explained very naturally. But still such extensive substantiality of our soul allows us to understand equally the existing link between the soul and the body because since only the cover of our substantial organism is visible everything that is felt by one must affect the other. The emotions of the substance of the soul must disturb the body and its state must inevitably affect its own moral and intellectual dispositions. That is the first teaching resulting from the concrete nature of our substance.
The second teaching that we extract from there is that the part of substance of our soul that does not serve to the type of our material organization must be the basis of our intimate sense, the one that receives all the moral and intellectual impressions and that puts us in contact with our own divine substance, so that our substance receives impressions from the radiation of all the previous existences and all possible activities, attesting that it is the first impression of all of our notions. In the same way we receive the knowledge of ourselves for if we ask a skeptical person how come that person can affirm itself, the answer will certainly be: - I feel myself – since even the skeptical cannot doubt their own sensations.
The feeling, however, is not our whole knowledge: the skeptics cannot deny that she knows that she feels herself. Now, the perception of our feeling is consequence of our intellectual activity proving not only that our soul is not passive but also that it is active, that it wants, that it perceives, thinks and that it is causative and free by itself.
Our own organs work without our awareness so that we are forced to attribute a second element to our soul, an active, virtual element, that is, an essential force that is aware when our sensitivity is awaken; that wishes as the result of its own movement; that perceives, thinks and reflects through our brain; that acts with the help of our members and that animates our organs by an involuntary movement.
It is by the presence of that essential double order: the passive and sensitive order and the virtual, thoughtful and active order that allow us to feel and know ourselves and that give us the consciousness of our own personality without any support from the exterior world.
The spiritual element of perfection is the power of our soul since it does not have extension and solidity by itself. We do not know it but by its activity. If the soul does not want, think or act, it is as if it does not exist; and if our soul were not substantially concrete by the virtue of another element, our body would not exist and only a pile of dust. Our soul would not even be capable of living because it would be lost in the void unless we would suppose, as it is done by spiritualism, an impenetrable mystery that allowed the soul to exist without extension or solidity, a hypothesis that Spiritism and the natural laws turn absolutely inadmissible. Nonetheless, it is our essential force that Leibnitz considers as a substance, despite its escaping nature and the French spiritualist school repeats that not stopping at the illogical confusion.
It is not enough, however, to call a substance force to make it so and consider such imaginary substance as if being the bottom line of our being to stay away from the emptiness of the abstractions. A substance does not exist but by its tangible state, by its extension and solidity, regardless of how subtle we may conceive it, and that is what our spiritual school quietly passes on. Thus, that is another cause of its moral and philosophical impotence. Our essential force is not but the principle of our activity; it animates but does not constitute us. It is the principle of our life but not of our existence. It is all over our substance, spreading all over our being, receiving directly its impressions without our voluntary support. It is through that union of our essential elements that our organization works spontaneously; that our sensations awake followed by our attention and without any other intermediary leads us to perceive the cause of our impressions; that our conscience is a set of feelings and reflections and that every notion, regardless of the object, demands our feeling and knowledge.
It is only then that we are certain of its existence. It is through the same process that we are aware of the Supreme Being. We have the sensation of his presence by our innate sense and we understand that sublime sensation through our reason because the ideal of the truthful, good and beautiful is primarily in our heart before it reaches our head.
Uncivilized peoples are not mistaken about it. They do not doubt God; they simply imagine him in accordance to the level of their intelligence whereas we see scientists discussing God’s personality because they pretend to not admit anything but by the power of their reason and because they endlessly debate abstractions, not establishing their supporting point in the sensitive order.
That is the constitution of our soul. It is formed by two very distinctive elements that nonetheless are indissolubly together for these elements are never and nowhere found separately since every substance has its force and every force has its substance. Thus, such duality is present in the essence of everything that exists. It is in matter, in the soul and in God. Again, such distinction in unity is necessarily admissible because each of those elements is well characterized. This is because they have their respective properties and categorical types. It is also a universal law that the same principle cannot have contrary effects and that excluding qualities indicate other particular principles. Its unit, however, is not less authoritative because no function, faculty or phenomenon is produced in us or beyond us without the simultaneous support of those two irreducible elements.
It is that unity in the permanent duality of our soul that explains this important psychological phenomenon: the instinctive spontaneity of all of our faculties and functions, as well as the formation of our character and our intimate moral constitution. Effectively, our impressions are preserved in us and are reproduced involuntarily so much so that since the substance is the passive and permanent of our soul, it is necessary to attribute to it the property of preserving our sensations, making them concrete and, in time, transmitting it to the attention of our essential force. Since those impressions are of all sorts, a moral order is formed in us through that conservative property, a permanently moral, intellectual and practical order that manifests through our spontaneous and instinctive activities; that inspire in us feelings and ideas and that involuntarily guides our actions, sometimes even in spite of us. Besides, these acquired ideas and feelings gather in our soul producing new ideas and images that we were far from expecting.
The psychological functions of our substance united to the essential force are therefore multiplied, forming our spontaneous moral, intellectual and practical nature, the bottom line of our character, the origin of our natural dispositions. Hence, our substance remains in a latent or potential state as expressed by the school, all of our qualities, all of our knowledge and past habits, permanently in us. Consequently, it is to that substance and its instinctive activity that memory, imagination, the Spirit and natural senses must be attributed to, as well as the origin of our ideas and feelings.
That instinctive substantial order does incontestably exist in our soul. Each one of us acknowledges a permanent moral nature, intellectual dispositions and habits that facilitate career and behavior, if good, or that preclude success dragging us to deplorable deviations, if bad. It is only our philosophers that do not notice them because not admitting a substantial psychological order they condemn themselves to the attribution of the influence of matter to everything that is resistant in our soul and confound everything that is sensitive and alive with our intelligence.
It is true that Aristotle acknowledged a potential order in men in which all of our qualities are in potential state, but he defines it badly and also confuse it with matter. Since then nobody else dealt with that special order with the exception of Mr. Cousin. But this contemporary philosopher considered only the spontaneous activity, not acknowledging anything else in the soul beyond intelligence, not seeking its origin in the permanent element of our essential nature.
He names it the spontaneous and instinctive reason, as opposed to reflected reason, without noticing the contradiction between instinct and thought, excluding qualities that evidently cannot belong to the same principle! Thus, Mr. Cousin only extracts limited consequences from that discovery and that is why his psychology, like his that of his school, became a dry, illogical and inexpressive science.
Let us now analyze the preceding observation that showed us psychological phenomena unknown up until now. They helped us to attest the existence of two orders: moral and intellectual, and very distinctive and strongly characterized practices, one perfectly related to the particular properties of our substance that are permanence, extension and solidity; the other related to our essential force that are causality, intermittence and in extension. The former is passive, sensitive, conservative; the latter is active, voluntary, and thoughtful. The intimate union of the two essential elements produces in us our triple instinctive activity, the direct reflex of the true state of our natural qualities and defects.
In fact, on one side the more sensitive our substantial nature and the more delicate and conservative and the livelier and the more energetic our instinctive activity the purer and more elevated our ideals and feelings; the fairer our common sense and the easier and safer our memory and imagination. Contrary to that, the less perfect our substantial state the slower and the more limited our memory and imagination, the cruder our ideas, the viler our feelings and the more distorted our common sense.
On another hand, though, the more energetic, constant and flexible our causal force, the stronger our attention, our will, our virtue and our control upon them; the more reach our perception, thoughts, judgement and reason will have and, finally, the greater our skills and more honorable our behavior because all qualities and faculties derive from our virtual element.
In opposition, the softer, blocked or heavier our essential force, the more our brutality and moral and intellectual cowardness will manifest in daylight. Therefore, our value depends on both the state of our qualities and the properties of one and the other element of our soul.
Such is the summary image that represents the intimate constitution of our essential soul and that reveals our double faculty of feeling and knowing ourselves. For starter the picture shows the soul in its living unity because we discover the double principle of its activity and its passivity; of its permanence and causality; of its existence in time and space and its independence that is proper and distinct from God, the world and its material envelope.
Then it shows its wonderful diversity for we acknowledge the origin and quality of its faculties, functions and organization, in the respective properties of our essential elements and in their reciprocal support.
This image, however, is a first sketch but it is easy to notice the method of rigorous observation that we follow that is the one discovered by Bacon; that Descartes introduced in Psychology; that the Scottish school applied; that the spiritualist and Eclectic School observed in its whole doctrine. Hence, we share the same terrain of every serious philosophy and if occasionally we are not in agreement with our academic hypotheses fact is that we cannot help it but believe that the majority of cases of conscience were both badly observed and badly explained by them.
As a matter of fact, the Spiritualist Ecletism acknowledges three faculties in us: will, sensation and reason. These faculties are distinct from our body that is solid and ample so that we necessarily have a spiritual and extensive soul.
Given that assumption Ecletism does not question how the soul must be formed to be sensitive or if will and reason, both active, are two manifestations of the same virtual principle. These are questions that do not shake Ecletism. It only sustains that out of those three faculties only the will effectively belong to us because alone it is the result of a substantial inextensive that is the essential principle of our self.
To Ecletism sensitivity is not more than the effect of the shock resulting from the action that the force of the exterior world exerts upon us through our body. However, Ecletism does not investigate how come our extensive force acts onto the body or how come that force may receive impressions in this extensive isolation or explain how we can be sensitives. These are small mysteries that would not stop Ecletism. Reason, according to that belief, is the sovereign faculty of knowledge, but it is impersonal, meaning that it does not belong to us although we may utilize it. Hence according to Mr. Cousin, the expression – my reason – is senseless for the same reason that one does not say this is my truth. Such explanation does not seem much concluding to us but it is probably our fault.
In fact, in that system reason is the set of necessary and universal truths, truths like the principles of causality, the substance, the unity, the true, etc. The set of those principles makes them, according to him, the divine reason that we share by the ineffable will of the Almighty. But it is precisely here that we have to accept the word since we don’t see how a set of truths, regardless of how universal they are, could form the divine and human reason. It is commonly believed that truths are laws and reason is a faculty. However, I see the sun but this faculty has never been taken by the sun or by the smallest of its rays. Therefore, there we have a mystery to be added to the preceding ones so much so that nothing is explained by itself in that doctrine, nothing is connected and our soul is there presented just as an heterogeneous set of faculties, qualities and distinct functions randomly interconnected like sparse leaves gathered in a book pompously entitled Philosophical Doctrine of the XIX Century.
The second preface of the third edition of Philosophical Fragments brings an interesting summary about that book in several aspects. According to those considerations we can assess the causes that make the official spiritualist philosophy, despite the good intentions, something bizarre and indigestible. We would be even authorized to treat it with severity had the eminent services done to the French Spirit been forgotten, deviating it from an immoral sensuality and from a desperate skepticism. Those were evidently the concerns of the illustrious philosopher in the beginning of his brilliant career. Studying his remarkable books, one can see that Condillac and Kant were his main adversaries. Therefore, this fight is the most important part of his work. His own system, however, seems very defective to us and his morale, theology and ontology contain several very controversial points.
Truth is such a delicate flower! The slightest breath of error makes it wither in our hands reducing it to an obfuscating and pernicious powder. In the heat of the fight or in the emotion of ambition it is particularly difficult to keep the calm of Spirit and the kind feeling of evidence so much so that the person involved is easily dragged to go beyond the limits of true wisdom.
Fortunately, the Creator has given us facts, circumstances and providential events that are shocking enough to bring us back to the good path. Certainly, the doctrines and facts that form the foundation of Spiritism are among them. May our great and wise philosophers do not repeal it under the futile pretext of superstition! May they study it without prejudice! They will find the extensive and solid nature of our soul, its preexistence and perpetuity! They will find a kind and healthy morale, well established to guide everyone to good.
If they really want to get to know it they must frankly study the work; they must examine scientifically its principles and consequences and then perhaps the principle of the duality of the essence of the soul may be found in all of its splendor and power because it does seem to us that it casts a lively light upon the intimate secrets of our being. That is what we will examine in the near future.
F. Herrenschneider
[1] See Spiritist Review, September 1863
[2] The other principle is the duality of the aspect of things that we will see later on.
[3] The way the Parisian Institute of Sciences was referred to in those days (TN).
2nd Article[1]
The principle of duality with the essence of the soul and the spiritual system
In the previous article we tried to demonstrated that if Mr. Free-Thinkers wanted to carry the burden of examining the reason that allow them to say “I”, they would arrive at the knowledge of their own essence; they would be convinced that their soul is constituted in a way that it exists separately from the body as well as from its envelope and would understand erraticism when the soul, after death, it would have left its earthly matter so that their science, if based on the true principle of the constitution of the soul, would confirm the Spiritist facts instead of contradicting them so obstinately.
In fact, our notion of “self” is mainly composed of the feeling and knowledge that we have of ourselves and these two intimate phenomena, evident to everyone, peremptorily imply two distinct elements of the soul: one is passive, sensitive, extensive and solid.. The is the one that receives the impressions. The another one is active, boundless and thinks. This is the one that perceives these same impressions.
Consequently, if we have side by side with a virtual element an element that is resistant and permanent, different from our body, we cannot be dissolved by death; our immortality is demonstrated and our pre-existence is a natural consequence. Our destinies therefore are independent of our earthly dwellings that become a more or less interesting episode to thus according to the events that are associated.
Following those observations, the duality of the essence of the soul is an important principle for it does instruct us about our real and immortal life. However, it is a much more important principle because that is the only source from which we acquire full conscience of our individuality hence being the origin of our science that we cannot doubt and that is the foundation of all of our knowledge.
We all effectively begin to get to know ourselves before we are aware of our surroundings and we use our own measure to assess everything that we examine and judge. Hence, for the study of the truth, it is indispensable to observe that our knowledge comes from within ourselves to return to ourselves. It is a circle formed by ourselves and that in spite of us it fatally surrounds us.
Our contemporary philosophers unnoticeably ignore this. It is what clouds and blinds them, precluding them from looking beyond and above themselves. We will then have many occasions to attest to their blindness. Previous generations, on the contrary, knew this principle and its mysterious influence as symbolized by the figure of a serpent folded on itself and biting the tip of its own tail. To their eyes it meant that knowledge started from a given point, goes around our intellectual horizon and returns to the starting point. Now if that starting point is elevated and the vision is sharp the horizon is broad and science is vast. If, on the contrary, the starting point is close to ground and vision is impaired, the horizon is restricted the intelligence of things is limited.
Therefore, the way we are personally impacted will be the whole and the reach of our knowledge. In this case, it becomes evident that the first condition of the individual science is the self-examination not only to assess one’s skills, defects and vices but also to get to know, from start, the intimate constitution of our being and from that elevate our spirit and form our character.
Consequently, true science is not made for each one individually. The one that aspires that science must have intelligence and education but above all must be serious, sober and prudent and not allowing oneself to be carried away by the caprices of imagination, vanity, personal interests and self-sufficiency.
Selfless love for that venerable objective is what must guide the true lover of truth; it is the strong and constant will of never stopping, strictly separating the good seed from the weed.
The more a person owns and controls oneself and is calm and noble, the more that person will be able to distinguish the paths that will lead to the truth. The more lighthearted, presumptuous or passionate, the more an impure breath will contaminate the fruits harvested from the tree of life.
Hence the first condition to get to the knowledge of things is the individual character and it is for that reason that in antiquity there were solemn trials preceding initiation. Today knowledge is spread without distinction and each one pretends to have it but at the same time truth, more than never, is well received while the strangest doctrines find numerous followers. It is necessary to be convinced that indifferent Spirits, limited by math and natural sciences, led by imagination or full of impertinence, are inadequate to the search of truth and that it would be wiser to spare such a noble task to some chosen ones. Yet more sensible dispositions manifest today by the advent of Spiritism and in fact the Spiritists are persons well cut for the search of truth because, separating from the turmoil that drags society, they renounce to the mundane vanities, to the principles of free-thinkers and to the official superstition of the known cults. They give proof of healthy independence, of a sincere love to the truth and of a touching solicitude towards their eternal interests. These are the best moral dispositions to deal with the serious issues of the soul, the world and Divinity. For our own eternal good we must try to understand one another and follow together the signs that will lead to the sacred path because we need to help each other to achieve the objective that we all seek, that is the knowledge of what is real and durable.
After the moral dispositions that we have just indicated the most indispensable thing to dedicate to the delicate work of initiation is the knowledge of the principle of the duality of the essence of the soul because that is what constitutes part of the mysterious secrets of the Sphinx[2]. It is one of the keys of science and without it all efforts are useless to achieve that. The principle of the essence of the soul carries on itself and as consequence the considerable notions that we wish to acquire whereas all secondary principles discovered up until now are not sufficiently elevated to dominate the vast horizon of human knowledge and to embrace every detail.
The inferior principles detour those who use them in the warren of numerous facts that they do not understand and it is for the insufficiency of their first principles that the philosophers veered off and got lost in the arbitrary subtleties of their incomplete doctrines. They definitely led to confusion where they thought the truth to be.
In these more delicate than difficult matters, it is only the true principle that spreads light that easily resolves every problem and opens up the secret doors that lead to the most secret sanctuary. Now, we already know that we carry that principle and that all we need to find it is to study ourselves but to do that with calm and impartiality. We know that that principle is the duality of our spiritual essence so that we must handle the thread carefully for we hold the most important knot. But as we advance in our psychological study we must nonetheless consult the works of our most renowned philosophers to find out where they failed and what the points that confirm our own researches are.
Thus, as observed above, it seems evident that everything in us that connects to the sensitive order depends on the substance of our soul because it is the extensive and solid element that receives every exterior impression and that feels our inner activity.
In fact, our soul could not be touched without presenting an initial obstacle to oscillations of the environment and vibrations of emotions that affect us intimately. Therefore, it is that very natural way of being that explains our relationships with everything that exists, with what is not us, with our non-self-moral, intellectual and physical, visible or invisible.
The solidity and extension of our substance evidently cannot be rejected, in principle. Nevertheless, that is not the broad opinion that reigns in the university and in the Institute[3]. Spiritualism denies it as absurd under the specious pretext that divisibility that would be its consequence would imply corruptibility of the substance. That is nothing but a mistake because what matters to the corruptibility of the nature of the soul is the chemical simplicity of its corporeal fluidity and not its mechanical indivisibility whose lack of has thousands of ways to remediate while to remain with the scientific truth is necessary to admit an effect without cause, a possible impression without resistance. Hence the sensitivity of our soul teaches nothing to our Spiritualist school. It freely connects feelings to reason, attributes sensations to the material organs and does not explain the connection between those different faculties. That is one of the causes of its philosophical impotence.
As for us, the sensitivity of our soul is the irrefutable proof of the solidity and extension of its substance. And it is the notion of those properties that opens up a vast field of observation to us. Thus, in the beginning, the substantial extension and solidity allow our soul to take different shapes and contains the type of organs that constitute our physical body. It thus serves of origin and support to our nerves, senses, brains, organs, muscles and bones and allows us to incarnate by this law of mutability of the corporeal cells, much known to modern physiologists. Our scientists suppose only and wrongly so in our opinion that such a law is the effect of a mysterious force of matter that renovates, absorb and flows by itself and forms by itself because matter is inert and forms nothing on its own. Such mutability, evidently, is the effect of an instinctive activity of the double essence of our soul that is enclosed in our envelope, and the existence of that law demonstrates that our incarnation is in the natural order because it is continuous and after a number of years our body renovates regularly.
The formation of our material envelope and our successive incarnation are explained very naturally. But still such extensive substantiality of our soul allows us to understand equally the existing link between the soul and the body because since only the cover of our substantial organism is visible everything that is felt by one must affect the other. The emotions of the substance of the soul must disturb the body and its state must inevitably affect its own moral and intellectual dispositions. That is the first teaching resulting from the concrete nature of our substance.
The second teaching that we extract from there is that the part of substance of our soul that does not serve to the type of our material organization must be the basis of our intimate sense, the one that receives all the moral and intellectual impressions and that puts us in contact with our own divine substance, so that our substance receives impressions from the radiation of all the previous existences and all possible activities, attesting that it is the first impression of all of our notions. In the same way we receive the knowledge of ourselves for if we ask a skeptical person how come that person can affirm itself, the answer will certainly be: - I feel myself – since even the skeptical cannot doubt their own sensations.
The feeling, however, is not our whole knowledge: the skeptics cannot deny that she knows that she feels herself. Now, the perception of our feeling is consequence of our intellectual activity proving not only that our soul is not passive but also that it is active, that it wants, that it perceives, thinks and that it is causative and free by itself.
Our own organs work without our awareness so that we are forced to attribute a second element to our soul, an active, virtual element, that is, an essential force that is aware when our sensitivity is awaken; that wishes as the result of its own movement; that perceives, thinks and reflects through our brain; that acts with the help of our members and that animates our organs by an involuntary movement.
It is by the presence of that essential double order: the passive and sensitive order and the virtual, thoughtful and active order that allow us to feel and know ourselves and that give us the consciousness of our own personality without any support from the exterior world.
The spiritual element of perfection is the power of our soul since it does not have extension and solidity by itself. We do not know it but by its activity. If the soul does not want, think or act, it is as if it does not exist; and if our soul were not substantially concrete by the virtue of another element, our body would not exist and only a pile of dust. Our soul would not even be capable of living because it would be lost in the void unless we would suppose, as it is done by spiritualism, an impenetrable mystery that allowed the soul to exist without extension or solidity, a hypothesis that Spiritism and the natural laws turn absolutely inadmissible. Nonetheless, it is our essential force that Leibnitz considers as a substance, despite its escaping nature and the French spiritualist school repeats that not stopping at the illogical confusion.
It is not enough, however, to call a substance force to make it so and consider such imaginary substance as if being the bottom line of our being to stay away from the emptiness of the abstractions. A substance does not exist but by its tangible state, by its extension and solidity, regardless of how subtle we may conceive it, and that is what our spiritual school quietly passes on. Thus, that is another cause of its moral and philosophical impotence. Our essential force is not but the principle of our activity; it animates but does not constitute us. It is the principle of our life but not of our existence. It is all over our substance, spreading all over our being, receiving directly its impressions without our voluntary support. It is through that union of our essential elements that our organization works spontaneously; that our sensations awake followed by our attention and without any other intermediary leads us to perceive the cause of our impressions; that our conscience is a set of feelings and reflections and that every notion, regardless of the object, demands our feeling and knowledge.
It is only then that we are certain of its existence. It is through the same process that we are aware of the Supreme Being. We have the sensation of his presence by our innate sense and we understand that sublime sensation through our reason because the ideal of the truthful, good and beautiful is primarily in our heart before it reaches our head.
Uncivilized peoples are not mistaken about it. They do not doubt God; they simply imagine him in accordance to the level of their intelligence whereas we see scientists discussing God’s personality because they pretend to not admit anything but by the power of their reason and because they endlessly debate abstractions, not establishing their supporting point in the sensitive order.
That is the constitution of our soul. It is formed by two very distinctive elements that nonetheless are indissolubly together for these elements are never and nowhere found separately since every substance has its force and every force has its substance. Thus, such duality is present in the essence of everything that exists. It is in matter, in the soul and in God. Again, such distinction in unity is necessarily admissible because each of those elements is well characterized. This is because they have their respective properties and categorical types. It is also a universal law that the same principle cannot have contrary effects and that excluding qualities indicate other particular principles. Its unit, however, is not less authoritative because no function, faculty or phenomenon is produced in us or beyond us without the simultaneous support of those two irreducible elements.
It is that unity in the permanent duality of our soul that explains this important psychological phenomenon: the instinctive spontaneity of all of our faculties and functions, as well as the formation of our character and our intimate moral constitution. Effectively, our impressions are preserved in us and are reproduced involuntarily so much so that since the substance is the passive and permanent of our soul, it is necessary to attribute to it the property of preserving our sensations, making them concrete and, in time, transmitting it to the attention of our essential force. Since those impressions are of all sorts, a moral order is formed in us through that conservative property, a permanently moral, intellectual and practical order that manifests through our spontaneous and instinctive activities; that inspire in us feelings and ideas and that involuntarily guides our actions, sometimes even in spite of us. Besides, these acquired ideas and feelings gather in our soul producing new ideas and images that we were far from expecting.
The psychological functions of our substance united to the essential force are therefore multiplied, forming our spontaneous moral, intellectual and practical nature, the bottom line of our character, the origin of our natural dispositions. Hence, our substance remains in a latent or potential state as expressed by the school, all of our qualities, all of our knowledge and past habits, permanently in us. Consequently, it is to that substance and its instinctive activity that memory, imagination, the Spirit and natural senses must be attributed to, as well as the origin of our ideas and feelings.
That instinctive substantial order does incontestably exist in our soul. Each one of us acknowledges a permanent moral nature, intellectual dispositions and habits that facilitate career and behavior, if good, or that preclude success dragging us to deplorable deviations, if bad. It is only our philosophers that do not notice them because not admitting a substantial psychological order they condemn themselves to the attribution of the influence of matter to everything that is resistant in our soul and confound everything that is sensitive and alive with our intelligence.
It is true that Aristotle acknowledged a potential order in men in which all of our qualities are in potential state, but he defines it badly and also confuse it with matter. Since then nobody else dealt with that special order with the exception of Mr. Cousin. But this contemporary philosopher considered only the spontaneous activity, not acknowledging anything else in the soul beyond intelligence, not seeking its origin in the permanent element of our essential nature.
He names it the spontaneous and instinctive reason, as opposed to reflected reason, without noticing the contradiction between instinct and thought, excluding qualities that evidently cannot belong to the same principle! Thus, Mr. Cousin only extracts limited consequences from that discovery and that is why his psychology, like his that of his school, became a dry, illogical and inexpressive science.
Let us now analyze the preceding observation that showed us psychological phenomena unknown up until now. They helped us to attest the existence of two orders: moral and intellectual, and very distinctive and strongly characterized practices, one perfectly related to the particular properties of our substance that are permanence, extension and solidity; the other related to our essential force that are causality, intermittence and in extension. The former is passive, sensitive, conservative; the latter is active, voluntary, and thoughtful. The intimate union of the two essential elements produces in us our triple instinctive activity, the direct reflex of the true state of our natural qualities and defects.
In fact, on one side the more sensitive our substantial nature and the more delicate and conservative and the livelier and the more energetic our instinctive activity the purer and more elevated our ideals and feelings; the fairer our common sense and the easier and safer our memory and imagination. Contrary to that, the less perfect our substantial state the slower and the more limited our memory and imagination, the cruder our ideas, the viler our feelings and the more distorted our common sense.
On another hand, though, the more energetic, constant and flexible our causal force, the stronger our attention, our will, our virtue and our control upon them; the more reach our perception, thoughts, judgement and reason will have and, finally, the greater our skills and more honorable our behavior because all qualities and faculties derive from our virtual element.
In opposition, the softer, blocked or heavier our essential force, the more our brutality and moral and intellectual cowardness will manifest in daylight. Therefore, our value depends on both the state of our qualities and the properties of one and the other element of our soul.
Such is the summary image that represents the intimate constitution of our essential soul and that reveals our double faculty of feeling and knowing ourselves. For starter the picture shows the soul in its living unity because we discover the double principle of its activity and its passivity; of its permanence and causality; of its existence in time and space and its independence that is proper and distinct from God, the world and its material envelope.
Then it shows its wonderful diversity for we acknowledge the origin and quality of its faculties, functions and organization, in the respective properties of our essential elements and in their reciprocal support.
This image, however, is a first sketch but it is easy to notice the method of rigorous observation that we follow that is the one discovered by Bacon; that Descartes introduced in Psychology; that the Scottish school applied; that the spiritualist and Eclectic School observed in its whole doctrine. Hence, we share the same terrain of every serious philosophy and if occasionally we are not in agreement with our academic hypotheses fact is that we cannot help it but believe that the majority of cases of conscience were both badly observed and badly explained by them.
As a matter of fact, the Spiritualist Ecletism acknowledges three faculties in us: will, sensation and reason. These faculties are distinct from our body that is solid and ample so that we necessarily have a spiritual and extensive soul.
Given that assumption Ecletism does not question how the soul must be formed to be sensitive or if will and reason, both active, are two manifestations of the same virtual principle. These are questions that do not shake Ecletism. It only sustains that out of those three faculties only the will effectively belong to us because alone it is the result of a substantial inextensive that is the essential principle of our self.
To Ecletism sensitivity is not more than the effect of the shock resulting from the action that the force of the exterior world exerts upon us through our body. However, Ecletism does not investigate how come our extensive force acts onto the body or how come that force may receive impressions in this extensive isolation or explain how we can be sensitives. These are small mysteries that would not stop Ecletism. Reason, according to that belief, is the sovereign faculty of knowledge, but it is impersonal, meaning that it does not belong to us although we may utilize it. Hence according to Mr. Cousin, the expression – my reason – is senseless for the same reason that one does not say this is my truth. Such explanation does not seem much concluding to us but it is probably our fault.
In fact, in that system reason is the set of necessary and universal truths, truths like the principles of causality, the substance, the unity, the true, etc. The set of those principles makes them, according to him, the divine reason that we share by the ineffable will of the Almighty. But it is precisely here that we have to accept the word since we don’t see how a set of truths, regardless of how universal they are, could form the divine and human reason. It is commonly believed that truths are laws and reason is a faculty. However, I see the sun but this faculty has never been taken by the sun or by the smallest of its rays. Therefore, there we have a mystery to be added to the preceding ones so much so that nothing is explained by itself in that doctrine, nothing is connected and our soul is there presented just as an heterogeneous set of faculties, qualities and distinct functions randomly interconnected like sparse leaves gathered in a book pompously entitled Philosophical Doctrine of the XIX Century.
The second preface of the third edition of Philosophical Fragments brings an interesting summary about that book in several aspects. According to those considerations we can assess the causes that make the official spiritualist philosophy, despite the good intentions, something bizarre and indigestible. We would be even authorized to treat it with severity had the eminent services done to the French Spirit been forgotten, deviating it from an immoral sensuality and from a desperate skepticism. Those were evidently the concerns of the illustrious philosopher in the beginning of his brilliant career. Studying his remarkable books, one can see that Condillac and Kant were his main adversaries. Therefore, this fight is the most important part of his work. His own system, however, seems very defective to us and his morale, theology and ontology contain several very controversial points.
Truth is such a delicate flower! The slightest breath of error makes it wither in our hands reducing it to an obfuscating and pernicious powder. In the heat of the fight or in the emotion of ambition it is particularly difficult to keep the calm of Spirit and the kind feeling of evidence so much so that the person involved is easily dragged to go beyond the limits of true wisdom.
Fortunately, the Creator has given us facts, circumstances and providential events that are shocking enough to bring us back to the good path. Certainly, the doctrines and facts that form the foundation of Spiritism are among them. May our great and wise philosophers do not repeal it under the futile pretext of superstition! May they study it without prejudice! They will find the extensive and solid nature of our soul, its preexistence and perpetuity! They will find a kind and healthy morale, well established to guide everyone to good.
If they really want to get to know it they must frankly study the work; they must examine scientifically its principles and consequences and then perhaps the principle of the duality of the essence of the soul may be found in all of its splendor and power because it does seem to us that it casts a lively light upon the intimate secrets of our being. That is what we will examine in the near future.
F. Herrenschneider
[1] See Spiritist Review, September 1863
[2] The other principle is the duality of the aspect of things that we will see later on.
[3] The way the Parisian Institute of Sciences was referred to in those days (TN).
Mr. Bishop from Alger published a brochure on August 18th last addressed to the priests of his diocese with the title “Memo about the superstition called Spiritism”. We extracted the following passages with comments:
“…We thought of adding a modest page to those luminous compendiums, casting shame upon Spiritism from the heights of common sense and faith, as it must be, a doctrine that is renovated from the oldest and grossest idolatry that has reached the frontiers of Alger. Poor colony! After so many cruel trials it must still face something like that kind!”
Poor inhabitants! In fact, wouldn’t this city be much more prosperous if, instead of tolerating and protecting the indigenous religion, it had transformed its mosques and synagogues into churches and if the zeal of the proselytism had not been stopped? It is true that the sacred war, a war of extermination like the crusades, would still last if hundreds of thousands of soldiers had perished and if we had perhaps been forced to abandon it. But what is the meaning of all that when compared to the victory of faith! Well, here we have another scourge: Spiritism comes in the name of the Gospels proclaiming fraternity among all different cults, cementing their union and inscribing in its flag: There is no salvation but through charity!
“…But multiple considerations, Mr. Priest, have kept us from doing that so far. First, we hesitated in revealing this new shame, added to so many others ironically exploited miseries by the enemies of our dear and noble Algeria. On the other hand we know that Spiritism has hardly penetrated our location with the exception of certain towns where there are larger numbers of idle people; where the incessantly excited curiosity avidly feeds out of everything that has signs of novelty; where the need to shine and stick out of the crowds is not always strange even to the educated as well as the uneducated, whereas the majority of our small cities and the country ignore it, certainly not missing anything for that matter, including the pretentious and bizarre name of Spiritism. Finally, we believe that such practices are never destined to live long because disillusionment comes soon with the scandals of imagination that almost always die from their own shame. That is what happened to the charlatanism of Cagliostro and Mesmer; in the same way the furor of the turning tables calmed down leaving behind not more than the ridicule of their enticements and memories.”
If the name of Spiritism itself is unknown in the majority of small towns and in the Algerian country the memo by Mr. Bishop of Alger, spread in profusion, is an excellent means of making it known, exciting curiosity that will certainly not be stopped by the devil. That has been the well attested effect of all sermons given against Spiritism that notoriously contributed to the multiplication of its followers. Will Mr. Bishop’s memo have a contrary effect? It is more than doubtful. We always remember these so much realized prophetic words by a Spirit to whom we were asking two years ago how Spiritism would reach the country side. He answered:
“…We thought of adding a modest page to those luminous compendiums, casting shame upon Spiritism from the heights of common sense and faith, as it must be, a doctrine that is renovated from the oldest and grossest idolatry that has reached the frontiers of Alger. Poor colony! After so many cruel trials it must still face something like that kind!”
Poor inhabitants! In fact, wouldn’t this city be much more prosperous if, instead of tolerating and protecting the indigenous religion, it had transformed its mosques and synagogues into churches and if the zeal of the proselytism had not been stopped? It is true that the sacred war, a war of extermination like the crusades, would still last if hundreds of thousands of soldiers had perished and if we had perhaps been forced to abandon it. But what is the meaning of all that when compared to the victory of faith! Well, here we have another scourge: Spiritism comes in the name of the Gospels proclaiming fraternity among all different cults, cementing their union and inscribing in its flag: There is no salvation but through charity!
“…But multiple considerations, Mr. Priest, have kept us from doing that so far. First, we hesitated in revealing this new shame, added to so many others ironically exploited miseries by the enemies of our dear and noble Algeria. On the other hand we know that Spiritism has hardly penetrated our location with the exception of certain towns where there are larger numbers of idle people; where the incessantly excited curiosity avidly feeds out of everything that has signs of novelty; where the need to shine and stick out of the crowds is not always strange even to the educated as well as the uneducated, whereas the majority of our small cities and the country ignore it, certainly not missing anything for that matter, including the pretentious and bizarre name of Spiritism. Finally, we believe that such practices are never destined to live long because disillusionment comes soon with the scandals of imagination that almost always die from their own shame. That is what happened to the charlatanism of Cagliostro and Mesmer; in the same way the furor of the turning tables calmed down leaving behind not more than the ridicule of their enticements and memories.”
If the name of Spiritism itself is unknown in the majority of small towns and in the Algerian country the memo by Mr. Bishop of Alger, spread in profusion, is an excellent means of making it known, exciting curiosity that will certainly not be stopped by the devil. That has been the well attested effect of all sermons given against Spiritism that notoriously contributed to the multiplication of its followers. Will Mr. Bishop’s memo have a contrary effect? It is more than doubtful. We always remember these so much realized prophetic words by a Spirit to whom we were asking two years ago how Spiritism would reach the country side. He answered:
- Through the priests
- Voluntarily or involuntarily?
- In the beginning, involuntarily. Later, voluntarily.
We also remember from our first trip to Lyon in 1860 that the Spiritists there were just a few hundreds. In that same location, an intense sermon was preached against them who then sent us this: “More two or three sermons like that and our numbers will multiply tenfold.” Well, everybody knows that there has been no lack of sermons in that city and that the number of Spiritists grew to five to six thousand in the following year and that after the third year they accounted for more than thirty thousand. Poor city of Lyon!
Another thing that is well-known is that the workers form the larger number of followers since they found strength in this doctrine to patiently endure the tough trials of life, not resorting to violence or exploitation to make ends meet. Today they pray and trust God’s justice contrary to the belief in man’s judgement; they now understand Jesus’ words: “My kingdom is not from this world.”
You must say why, with your doctrine of eternal penalties that you promote as an indispensable brake you have never precluded any excess while the maxim: “There is no salvation but through charity” is invincible! God forbid that you may never need to be sheltered there! But if you are still reserved disastrous days by God remember that those who were denied the alms of bread by you because they were Spiritists, those will be the first ones to share their bread with you because they understand these words: “Forgive your enemies and do good to those who persecute you.”
But then what is it so bad about Spiritism since it only attracts indolent people of some cities? What if it is short -lived? What is the problem then if it will have the same fate as Cagliostro, Mesmer and the turning tables? As for Cagliostro, we must leave him out of this because Spiritism has always denied him solidarity despite the persistence of some adversaries in trying to connect his name to Spiritism as they did to every charlatan and conjurer. With respect to Mesmer, one must be really oblivious to what is happening to ignore the fact that magnetism is more spread out than ever and that today it is professed by scientific celebrities.
It is true that today not many people are involved with the turning tables but one must acknowledge that they walked a nice path for they were the starting point of this doctrine that causes so much anxiety to those gentlemen. They were the foundation of Spiritism. If people are no longer interested in them it is because a good reader no longer needs spelling. They grew so much that you cannot recognize them.
After mentioning his successful trip to France Mr. Bishop of Alger adds:
Another thing that is well-known is that the workers form the larger number of followers since they found strength in this doctrine to patiently endure the tough trials of life, not resorting to violence or exploitation to make ends meet. Today they pray and trust God’s justice contrary to the belief in man’s judgement; they now understand Jesus’ words: “My kingdom is not from this world.”
You must say why, with your doctrine of eternal penalties that you promote as an indispensable brake you have never precluded any excess while the maxim: “There is no salvation but through charity” is invincible! God forbid that you may never need to be sheltered there! But if you are still reserved disastrous days by God remember that those who were denied the alms of bread by you because they were Spiritists, those will be the first ones to share their bread with you because they understand these words: “Forgive your enemies and do good to those who persecute you.”
But then what is it so bad about Spiritism since it only attracts indolent people of some cities? What if it is short -lived? What is the problem then if it will have the same fate as Cagliostro, Mesmer and the turning tables? As for Cagliostro, we must leave him out of this because Spiritism has always denied him solidarity despite the persistence of some adversaries in trying to connect his name to Spiritism as they did to every charlatan and conjurer. With respect to Mesmer, one must be really oblivious to what is happening to ignore the fact that magnetism is more spread out than ever and that today it is professed by scientific celebrities.
It is true that today not many people are involved with the turning tables but one must acknowledge that they walked a nice path for they were the starting point of this doctrine that causes so much anxiety to those gentlemen. They were the foundation of Spiritism. If people are no longer interested in them it is because a good reader no longer needs spelling. They grew so much that you cannot recognize them.
After mentioning his successful trip to France Mr. Bishop of Alger adds:
“Our first and permanent task on the way back was to publish information against superstition in general and against Spiritism in particular since the Gospel according to Renan only worried us for eight days.”
There we have a singular confession, one must admit. Mr. Renan’s work that destroys the edifice from its structure and that had such a great repercussion, did not worry His Highness but for eight days while Spiritism catches his whole attention.
“I hurry up”, he says, “and spite of being worn out by the fatigue of the journeys I role the sleeves up to work. We have in Mr. Renan a new and fierce adversary but that does not worry me much. Let us move straight to Spiritism for that is more urgent.”
It is an honor to Spiritism because it is an acknowledgement that Spiritism has much more to fear and it cannot be fearful unless it is logical. If it does not have any serious foundation, as intended by Mr. Bishop, why then all this uproar against it? Who would shoot a fly with cannon? The more violent the attacks the more its importance is exalted. That is why we are not sorry for that.
“We heard, and we don’t doubt it, that true Christians, sincere Catholics, thought that they could associate Jesus and Belial, the commandments of the Church with the processes of Spiritism.”
It is a bit late to notice that considering that Spiritism has arrived and prospers in Algeria for three years now and it is not doing bad. Besides, Mr. Leblanc de Prébois’ brochure, published in the name of and as a defense to the Church, must have informed you that there are currently twenty million Spiritists in France, according to his calculations, that is to say half of the population, and that the other half of the population will be gained soon. Well, Algeria is part of France.
The memo addressing the priests of the diocese says:
“If there are Spiritists in your parish, whatever their condition, generally unfaithful, vain women, empty heads, always forming the majority of superstitious entourage, the priest must not hesitate but let them clearly know that there cannot be any possible relationship between Catholicism and Spiritism; that their practices must necessarily be either charlatanism from some, hallucination from the part of others or, something that is even worse, diabolic intervention.”
There we have a singular confession, one must admit. Mr. Renan’s work that destroys the edifice from its structure and that had such a great repercussion, did not worry His Highness but for eight days while Spiritism catches his whole attention.
“I hurry up”, he says, “and spite of being worn out by the fatigue of the journeys I role the sleeves up to work. We have in Mr. Renan a new and fierce adversary but that does not worry me much. Let us move straight to Spiritism for that is more urgent.”
It is an honor to Spiritism because it is an acknowledgement that Spiritism has much more to fear and it cannot be fearful unless it is logical. If it does not have any serious foundation, as intended by Mr. Bishop, why then all this uproar against it? Who would shoot a fly with cannon? The more violent the attacks the more its importance is exalted. That is why we are not sorry for that.
“We heard, and we don’t doubt it, that true Christians, sincere Catholics, thought that they could associate Jesus and Belial, the commandments of the Church with the processes of Spiritism.”
It is a bit late to notice that considering that Spiritism has arrived and prospers in Algeria for three years now and it is not doing bad. Besides, Mr. Leblanc de Prébois’ brochure, published in the name of and as a defense to the Church, must have informed you that there are currently twenty million Spiritists in France, according to his calculations, that is to say half of the population, and that the other half of the population will be gained soon. Well, Algeria is part of France.
The memo addressing the priests of the diocese says:
“If there are Spiritists in your parish, whatever their condition, generally unfaithful, vain women, empty heads, always forming the majority of superstitious entourage, the priest must not hesitate but let them clearly know that there cannot be any possible relationship between Catholicism and Spiritism; that their practices must necessarily be either charlatanism from some, hallucination from the part of others or, something that is even worse, diabolic intervention.”
If there isn’t a possible relationship that is unfortunate to the Catholics rather than the Spiritists because Spiritism gains ground every day and regardless of what is done against it, what is Catholicism going to do when the Mr. Leblanc Prébois’ prediction come true? If he sends all the Spiritists out of the Church who is going to stay inside? But that is not the issue now. It will come at its time. The last part of the phrase has a great reach from the part of Mr. Bishop of Alger, who must measure his words well. According to him, Spiritism must contain either: charlatanism, hallucination or, what is worse, devilish intervention. The Reverend seems uncertain about which one considering that a devilish intervention is the worst. Well, if it is charlatanism and hallucination that it is not serious and there is no diabolic intervention. In the first hypothesis one must recognize that all this noise for an illusion or a simple charlatanism is like fighting the windmills, something that is not much worth of the Church’s attention; the second hypothesis attributes to the devil a greater power than that of the Church or a huge weakness to the Church since it cannot stop the devil’s action as it could not have stopped the possesses of Morzine despite all the exorcisms.
“We were there Mr. Priest, in our apostolic endeavor, when we received numerous newspapers cuts, brochures, books and particularly a speech (from Father Nampon) from which, with the exception of the general ideas, we found very clearly and easily exposed everything that we wanted to say next with respect to Spiritism. Since we do not like to unnecessarily rework what we believe to have been done well, we advise you to acquire some of those books and at least one article with that speech that will clarify you sufficiently with respect to those processes, the doctrine and the consequences of Spiritism.”
We are delighted to know that Father Nampon’s work is considered a good job by the princes of the priests after which there is nothing else to be done. It is quite reassuring to the Spiritists to know that Mr. Priest has rested his case with respect to his arguments and that nothing else can be added. Now, since those arguments instead of stopping Spiritism, it does recruit more followers it is up to their adversaries to be happy with the price to be paid.
As for clarifying sufficiently the priest about the doctrine,we don’t believe that altered and truncated texts as those unceremoniously used by Father Nampon, as we demonstrated in our Spiritist Review in June last, are adequate to give them an accurate idea of Spiritism. One must have a very limited reason to use similar means that discredit the cause that they serve.
“Before anything else, wouldn’t that be deplorable to find in Algeria serious Christians that would hesitate to strongly oppose Spiritism, some with the pretext that there is something true in it and others because they would have seen convict materialists coming back to the belief that there is another life through Spiritism? That is illogical ingenuity from both sides!”
In truth, does bringing materialists back to the belief in God and in a future life means nothing? That is why Spiritism is still perceived [jcm – see if this fits in the right spot] something bad. However, Jesus said that a bad tree cannot produce good fruits. Give faith to someone that has none, is it bad fruit? If you were unable to guide those convicted unbelievers and Spiritism did that which one is the better tree? It is obvious that those materialists would continue to be so without Spiritism. Considering that Mr. Bishop would like to see Spiritism destroyed, a belief that bringing the souls back to God, it is because to his eyes, since those souls were not brought back by the Church, it is preferable to have them dying with their disbelief. That reminds us of those words pronounced from the pulpit of a little town: “I would rather have the unbelievers out of the Church than having them back through Spiritism.” Truly, these are not the words of Christ who said: “I want mercy, not sacrifice.” And there is another one that was said somewhere else: “I prefer to see the workers leaving the cabarets drunk to the alternative of learning that they are Spiritists.” That is Madness! We would not be surprised if some people became mad out of a fit of rage against Spiritism.
“If, despite the voice of their consciences, people that were educated in the Christian principles and that had forgotten, denied and fought against these principals, trying to practice them and admitting the immortality of the soul, completely different hell and purgatory as compared to those found in the Gospels, if they had gained something through Spiritism, something out of their faith and for their salvations, which Christian person would image herself in such a situation, considering that the only thing they did was to replace those things by sacrileges and blasphemies of belief?”
What is the difference between the purgatory of Spiritism and that of the Gospels since they say nothing about it? So much so that Protestants do not admit that idea. As for hell, the Gospels are far from placing there the scorching hot chairs of Catholicism and from have said, like we heard in our childhood, and like it was preached about three or four years ago in Montpellier, that “the angels remove the seat of those chairs so that the elected ones may enjoy the vision of the suffering of those who are condemned.”
There we have an original side of beatitude of the blessed ones. We were not aware that Jesus had said a single word about it. Spiritism, in reality, does not admit such things. If that is reason for reproach that be it!
“You give the impression that it is the renovation of Pagan doctrines that were neglected by wise people, even before the appearance of the Gospels; that by introducing the metempsychosis or the transmigration of the souls, Spiritism kills the individuality of the soul, reducing moral responsibility to nothing; that by destroying the idea of purgatory and the eternally personal hell, it opens the avenue to every kind of disorder and immorality.”
If there is anything that was taken from Pagan theories, that is certainly the image of the tortures of hell. As a matter of fact, we cannot clearly see how come after having admitted any kind of purgatory we now deny its very idea. As for the metempsychosis of antiquity far from having introduced it Spiritism has always fought against it and demonstrated its impossibility. When are you going to stop saying that Spiritism says something contrary to what it actually does? The plurality of existences admitted by Spiritism not as a system but as a natural law demonstrated by facts is essentially different when compared to that. Well, there is no system that can prevail against a law of nature, the work of God, as there is no anathema that can invalidate it as they were not able to nullify the movement of Earth and the periods of Creation.
The plurality of existences, rebirth if you will, is an inherent condition to human nature, like sleeping, and it is necessary to the progress of the soul. It is always unpleasant to a religion to remain in the vanguard of knowledge because there will come a time when it will be overtaken by the irresistible wave of the ideas, then losing credit with and influence upon the educated people. To feel compromised by the new ideas is the same as admitting the flimsiness of its supporting point. It is even worse when they are alarmed by what they call utopias. It is something really interesting to see the adversaries of Spiritism fighting to have it seen as an empty dream, without importance and vitality, constantly screaming: fire!
According to the saying “the tree is known by the fruit it bears”, the best way to assess something is to study its effects. If, as they say, the denial of the eternal hell opens the way to all kinds of disorder and immoralities, it follows that: 1) the belief in that hell opens the way to all kinds of virtues; 2) anybody given to immoral actions has no fear for the eternal penalties and if they do not fear it means that they don’t believe in them. Now, who should believe more in those than the ones that teach them? Who should be more committed with such a fear, more impressed by the images of the eternal torments than those who are day in day out embedded in such a belief?
Where should we find the maximum strength of such a belief? Where there should be more composure and morality if not in the very center of Catholicism? If all those who profess such a dogma and make them the condition of salvation were exempt from reproach their words would certainly have more weight but when we see such scandalous disorder even among those that preach the fear of hell one must conclude that they do not believe in what the preach. How would they expect to persuade the doubtful ones? They kill the dogma by their own exaggeration and by their example.
The dogma of the eternal penalties does not bear good fruits, demonstrating that the tree is not good, and among those fruits we must place the immense number of unbelievers that are daily produced by that tree. The Church hangs on it as if in a lifeline but the cord is so thin that the boat will soon drift away.
Should the Church be in peril one day for the absolutism of its dogmas of hell, for the eternal penalties and for the supremacy attributed to the devil in this world! If one cannot be a Catholic without believing in that hell and in the eternal sufferings one must acknowledge that the number of true Catholics is reduced these days and that more than one Father of the Church may be considered stained by heresy.
“It would not be useless to admit, Mr. Priest, that the peace of the families is seriously disturbed by the practice of Spiritism; that a large number of minds has already lost their senses by it and that the homes of the mentally ill in America, England and France are already full with their innumerous victims so much so that if Spiritism propagates its conquest we would have to change the names from sanatoriums to mental asylums.”
Had Mr. Bishop of Alger collected his teachings elsewhere and not from interested sources, he would have known what are those supposed mad people instead of yielding to the echo of an ill-faith invented story from which ridicule sticks out of its own exaggeration. The first newspaper mentioned four cases that supposedly were attested in a hospice; another paper, mentioned the first one, raised the number to forty; a third, citing the second, raised it to four hundred, adding that the hospice will be enlarged, a story that is repeated by all hostile newspapers. Mr. Bishop of Alger then retakes that story and without demolishing the edifice out of his zeal, goes beyond and amplifies it by saying that the homes of the mentally ill in America, England and France are overcrowded with victims of our doctrine. Something interesting here! He mentions England that is one of the countries where Spiritism is least spread and where there are certainly less followers than in Italy, Spain and Russia.
We accept the fact that an ephemeral and inexpressive brochure that a newspaper not much concerned with the sources of the news may say something adventurous for the need of their cause and there is no surprise there although immoral but an episcopal and official document should only contain authenticity, free from suspicion and inaccuracy, even if involuntary.
As for the peace of the families, disturbed by the practice of Spiritism, we only know the cases of women that were deceived by their confessors and encouraged to leave their homes to avoid the influence of the devil that was brought to them by their Spiritist husbands.
On the other hand, there are many examples of formerly split families that were brought together by the advice of their protector Spirits and under the influence of the doctrine that, like Jesus, preaches union, concord, kindness, tolerance, forgetfulness of injuries, indulgence towards the weaknesses of others and brings peace where there is separation. Still here we must say that the tree is known by its fruits. It is a well attested fact that when there is division in families it is always related to religious intolerance.
The pastoral letter ends with the following order:
“For all that and invocating the Saint Spirit, we have ordered the following:
“We were there Mr. Priest, in our apostolic endeavor, when we received numerous newspapers cuts, brochures, books and particularly a speech (from Father Nampon) from which, with the exception of the general ideas, we found very clearly and easily exposed everything that we wanted to say next with respect to Spiritism. Since we do not like to unnecessarily rework what we believe to have been done well, we advise you to acquire some of those books and at least one article with that speech that will clarify you sufficiently with respect to those processes, the doctrine and the consequences of Spiritism.”
We are delighted to know that Father Nampon’s work is considered a good job by the princes of the priests after which there is nothing else to be done. It is quite reassuring to the Spiritists to know that Mr. Priest has rested his case with respect to his arguments and that nothing else can be added. Now, since those arguments instead of stopping Spiritism, it does recruit more followers it is up to their adversaries to be happy with the price to be paid.
As for clarifying sufficiently the priest about the doctrine,we don’t believe that altered and truncated texts as those unceremoniously used by Father Nampon, as we demonstrated in our Spiritist Review in June last, are adequate to give them an accurate idea of Spiritism. One must have a very limited reason to use similar means that discredit the cause that they serve.
“Before anything else, wouldn’t that be deplorable to find in Algeria serious Christians that would hesitate to strongly oppose Spiritism, some with the pretext that there is something true in it and others because they would have seen convict materialists coming back to the belief that there is another life through Spiritism? That is illogical ingenuity from both sides!”
In truth, does bringing materialists back to the belief in God and in a future life means nothing? That is why Spiritism is still perceived [jcm – see if this fits in the right spot] something bad. However, Jesus said that a bad tree cannot produce good fruits. Give faith to someone that has none, is it bad fruit? If you were unable to guide those convicted unbelievers and Spiritism did that which one is the better tree? It is obvious that those materialists would continue to be so without Spiritism. Considering that Mr. Bishop would like to see Spiritism destroyed, a belief that bringing the souls back to God, it is because to his eyes, since those souls were not brought back by the Church, it is preferable to have them dying with their disbelief. That reminds us of those words pronounced from the pulpit of a little town: “I would rather have the unbelievers out of the Church than having them back through Spiritism.” Truly, these are not the words of Christ who said: “I want mercy, not sacrifice.” And there is another one that was said somewhere else: “I prefer to see the workers leaving the cabarets drunk to the alternative of learning that they are Spiritists.” That is Madness! We would not be surprised if some people became mad out of a fit of rage against Spiritism.
“If, despite the voice of their consciences, people that were educated in the Christian principles and that had forgotten, denied and fought against these principals, trying to practice them and admitting the immortality of the soul, completely different hell and purgatory as compared to those found in the Gospels, if they had gained something through Spiritism, something out of their faith and for their salvations, which Christian person would image herself in such a situation, considering that the only thing they did was to replace those things by sacrileges and blasphemies of belief?”
What is the difference between the purgatory of Spiritism and that of the Gospels since they say nothing about it? So much so that Protestants do not admit that idea. As for hell, the Gospels are far from placing there the scorching hot chairs of Catholicism and from have said, like we heard in our childhood, and like it was preached about three or four years ago in Montpellier, that “the angels remove the seat of those chairs so that the elected ones may enjoy the vision of the suffering of those who are condemned.”
There we have an original side of beatitude of the blessed ones. We were not aware that Jesus had said a single word about it. Spiritism, in reality, does not admit such things. If that is reason for reproach that be it!
“You give the impression that it is the renovation of Pagan doctrines that were neglected by wise people, even before the appearance of the Gospels; that by introducing the metempsychosis or the transmigration of the souls, Spiritism kills the individuality of the soul, reducing moral responsibility to nothing; that by destroying the idea of purgatory and the eternally personal hell, it opens the avenue to every kind of disorder and immorality.”
If there is anything that was taken from Pagan theories, that is certainly the image of the tortures of hell. As a matter of fact, we cannot clearly see how come after having admitted any kind of purgatory we now deny its very idea. As for the metempsychosis of antiquity far from having introduced it Spiritism has always fought against it and demonstrated its impossibility. When are you going to stop saying that Spiritism says something contrary to what it actually does? The plurality of existences admitted by Spiritism not as a system but as a natural law demonstrated by facts is essentially different when compared to that. Well, there is no system that can prevail against a law of nature, the work of God, as there is no anathema that can invalidate it as they were not able to nullify the movement of Earth and the periods of Creation.
The plurality of existences, rebirth if you will, is an inherent condition to human nature, like sleeping, and it is necessary to the progress of the soul. It is always unpleasant to a religion to remain in the vanguard of knowledge because there will come a time when it will be overtaken by the irresistible wave of the ideas, then losing credit with and influence upon the educated people. To feel compromised by the new ideas is the same as admitting the flimsiness of its supporting point. It is even worse when they are alarmed by what they call utopias. It is something really interesting to see the adversaries of Spiritism fighting to have it seen as an empty dream, without importance and vitality, constantly screaming: fire!
According to the saying “the tree is known by the fruit it bears”, the best way to assess something is to study its effects. If, as they say, the denial of the eternal hell opens the way to all kinds of disorder and immoralities, it follows that: 1) the belief in that hell opens the way to all kinds of virtues; 2) anybody given to immoral actions has no fear for the eternal penalties and if they do not fear it means that they don’t believe in them. Now, who should believe more in those than the ones that teach them? Who should be more committed with such a fear, more impressed by the images of the eternal torments than those who are day in day out embedded in such a belief?
Where should we find the maximum strength of such a belief? Where there should be more composure and morality if not in the very center of Catholicism? If all those who profess such a dogma and make them the condition of salvation were exempt from reproach their words would certainly have more weight but when we see such scandalous disorder even among those that preach the fear of hell one must conclude that they do not believe in what the preach. How would they expect to persuade the doubtful ones? They kill the dogma by their own exaggeration and by their example.
The dogma of the eternal penalties does not bear good fruits, demonstrating that the tree is not good, and among those fruits we must place the immense number of unbelievers that are daily produced by that tree. The Church hangs on it as if in a lifeline but the cord is so thin that the boat will soon drift away.
Should the Church be in peril one day for the absolutism of its dogmas of hell, for the eternal penalties and for the supremacy attributed to the devil in this world! If one cannot be a Catholic without believing in that hell and in the eternal sufferings one must acknowledge that the number of true Catholics is reduced these days and that more than one Father of the Church may be considered stained by heresy.
“It would not be useless to admit, Mr. Priest, that the peace of the families is seriously disturbed by the practice of Spiritism; that a large number of minds has already lost their senses by it and that the homes of the mentally ill in America, England and France are already full with their innumerous victims so much so that if Spiritism propagates its conquest we would have to change the names from sanatoriums to mental asylums.”
Had Mr. Bishop of Alger collected his teachings elsewhere and not from interested sources, he would have known what are those supposed mad people instead of yielding to the echo of an ill-faith invented story from which ridicule sticks out of its own exaggeration. The first newspaper mentioned four cases that supposedly were attested in a hospice; another paper, mentioned the first one, raised the number to forty; a third, citing the second, raised it to four hundred, adding that the hospice will be enlarged, a story that is repeated by all hostile newspapers. Mr. Bishop of Alger then retakes that story and without demolishing the edifice out of his zeal, goes beyond and amplifies it by saying that the homes of the mentally ill in America, England and France are overcrowded with victims of our doctrine. Something interesting here! He mentions England that is one of the countries where Spiritism is least spread and where there are certainly less followers than in Italy, Spain and Russia.
We accept the fact that an ephemeral and inexpressive brochure that a newspaper not much concerned with the sources of the news may say something adventurous for the need of their cause and there is no surprise there although immoral but an episcopal and official document should only contain authenticity, free from suspicion and inaccuracy, even if involuntary.
As for the peace of the families, disturbed by the practice of Spiritism, we only know the cases of women that were deceived by their confessors and encouraged to leave their homes to avoid the influence of the devil that was brought to them by their Spiritist husbands.
On the other hand, there are many examples of formerly split families that were brought together by the advice of their protector Spirits and under the influence of the doctrine that, like Jesus, preaches union, concord, kindness, tolerance, forgetfulness of injuries, indulgence towards the weaknesses of others and brings peace where there is separation. Still here we must say that the tree is known by its fruits. It is a well attested fact that when there is division in families it is always related to religious intolerance.
The pastoral letter ends with the following order:
“For all that and invocating the Saint Spirit, we have ordered the following:
- The practice of Spiritism and the evocation of the dead is forbidden to all and everyone in the archdiocese of Alger;
- Confessors will deny absolution to whoever does not renounce any participation both as medium, follower or simple witness of any private or public session or finally any activity of Spiritism;
- In all cities of Algeria and in all rural parishes where Spiritism has penetrated in some sort Mr. Priests will read this letter to the public on the first Sunday after you receive it. In fact, it will be communicated everywhere in particular, according to the need.
This is the first order issued with the objective of officially banning Spiritism in a given place. The data shall be recorded in the archives of Spiritism like that of October 9th, 1861 an always memorable day for the Barcelona Act of Faith ordered by the Bishop of that town. Since the attacks, criticism and sermons did not produce the desired effect they wanted to reach it with an official excommunication. Let us see if the result will be better now.
The first paragraph is addressed to all and everyone at the Alger diocese outlining the prohibition of dealing with the dead without exception. But the population is not only formed by eager Catholics. Without mentioning Jews, Protestants and Muslims, it encompasses materialists, Pantheists, unbelievers, free-thinkers, skeptical and indifferent whose number is incalculable. They are nominally accounted among the Catholics because they were born and baptized in the religion but in reality, they left. With that respect Mr. Renan and so many others are considered Catholics. Hence the condemnation does not reach all the individuals but those restricted to the orthodoxy. The same will happen in any place where there is similar prohibition. Since such prohibition cannot materially reach everybody, regardless of its source, for each one that is kept away by that there will be another hundred dealing with the matter.
Also, they leave aside the Spirits that come to us without invitation, even close to those that were prohibited to receive them; that speak to those that do not want to hear; that move through walls when the doors are closed. Such is the greatest difficulty for which there is a lack of an article in the above order.
The order does not reach but the eager Catholic. Now, we have repeated many times that Spiritism came to bring faith to those who believe in nothing or that are doubtful. Those who have a well-established faith and to who such a faith is enough Spiritism says: “Keep it”, without trying to deviating them from that. Spiritism does not say to anyone: “Leave your belief to come to me” for Spiritism has a lot to harvest in the field of the unbelievers.
Hence the prohibition cannot reach those that are addressed by Spiritism and it only reaches those who are not. Jesus said: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick.” If the former comes to him without invitation it means that they find consolation in him and certainty that they cannot find elsewhere and in that case the prohibition will be neglected.
The prohibition was issued about three months ago and we can already feel its effect. More than twenty letters were sent to us from Alger since its appearance, all of them confirmed the predicted results.
In our next issue we shall see what is happening.
The first paragraph is addressed to all and everyone at the Alger diocese outlining the prohibition of dealing with the dead without exception. But the population is not only formed by eager Catholics. Without mentioning Jews, Protestants and Muslims, it encompasses materialists, Pantheists, unbelievers, free-thinkers, skeptical and indifferent whose number is incalculable. They are nominally accounted among the Catholics because they were born and baptized in the religion but in reality, they left. With that respect Mr. Renan and so many others are considered Catholics. Hence the condemnation does not reach all the individuals but those restricted to the orthodoxy. The same will happen in any place where there is similar prohibition. Since such prohibition cannot materially reach everybody, regardless of its source, for each one that is kept away by that there will be another hundred dealing with the matter.
Also, they leave aside the Spirits that come to us without invitation, even close to those that were prohibited to receive them; that speak to those that do not want to hear; that move through walls when the doors are closed. Such is the greatest difficulty for which there is a lack of an article in the above order.
The order does not reach but the eager Catholic. Now, we have repeated many times that Spiritism came to bring faith to those who believe in nothing or that are doubtful. Those who have a well-established faith and to who such a faith is enough Spiritism says: “Keep it”, without trying to deviating them from that. Spiritism does not say to anyone: “Leave your belief to come to me” for Spiritism has a lot to harvest in the field of the unbelievers.
Hence the prohibition cannot reach those that are addressed by Spiritism and it only reaches those who are not. Jesus said: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick.” If the former comes to him without invitation it means that they find consolation in him and certainty that they cannot find elsewhere and in that case the prohibition will be neglected.
The prohibition was issued about three months ago and we can already feel its effect. More than twenty letters were sent to us from Alger since its appearance, all of them confirmed the predicted results.
In our next issue we shall see what is happening.
With the letters below we call the attention of those who pretend that, without the fear of the eternal penalties of humanity, would no longer have opportunities and that the denial of the eternal personal hell paves the way for all disorders and immoralities.
“Montreuil, August 23rd 1863
Last March, I still was what one can say “full strength of the word”, embedded in atheism and materialism. I would not spare to criticize the head of the Spiritist group in our small town, a colleague of mine, with mockery and sarcasm; I even referred him to homes of the mentally ill! He opposed my mockery with a stoic patience. Meanwhile during Lent a priest spoke against Spiritism from the pulpit. That excited my curiosity because I could not understand what was it that the Church had to do with Spiritism. I then read the little book – What is Spiritism? – promising myself not to give in as easily as certain convert materialists, then reaching all to all resources and persuaded that nothing could destroy the power of my arguments, having no doubt that I would enjoy total victory. How wrong! I had hardly reached page fifty and had already acknowledged the uselessness of my poor battery of arguments. For a few minutes I felt like illuminated; a subtle revolution took me over and here is what I wrote to my brother on June 18th:
Yes, as you say, my conversion was providential; I owe this sign of great benevolence to God. Yes, I believe in God, in my soul and its immortality after death. Before that my philosophy was a certain firmness of the Spirit with which I was placed above the tribulations and accidents of life but I fell before the many moral tortures imposed on me by pretense friends. The pain of such memories had poisoned my heart. I entertained a thousand and one projects of revenge and if I were not afraid of public humiliation to me and my loved ones I would have perhaps executed the dismal plans. But God saved me. Spiritism promptly led me to believe in the fundamental truths of religion from which I had been kept away by the Church with the horrible images of the eternal flames and for trying to impose on me dogmas that are in clear contradiction with the infinite attributes of God, as if they were articles of faith. I still remember the horror that I lived in 1814 when I was seven years old during the reading of this passage from the Christian Thoughts: … And when the condemned has suffered for as many as there are atoms in the air, leaves on trees and grains in the sand of the oceans, it will all count as nothing!!! And it was Church that dared say that blasphemy! God forgive! I continue this letter, dear Eugene, leaving to the Church the infernal property to which I have no claim.
The idea that my soul was renewed and the plurality of the worlds and existences are no longer in doubt, giving me now an undefinable moral satisfaction. The prospect of a cold and gloomy void used to freeze the blood in my veins; today I foresee myself inhabiting one of those more advanced worlds both morally, intellectual and physically when compared to our planet, expecting to achieve the state of pure Spirit.
In order to enjoy the benefits of God and to thoroughly deserve them I forgave my enemies, those who made me endure tough moral trials, all of those that in the end offended me, resigning from any thought of vengeance. Every day I thank God for the great benevolence towards me, quickly allowing me to leave the tortuous path that I was walking with atheism and materialism; I beg God to do the same favor to all of those that doubted and denied as I did.
I also ask God that my wife, my children, relatives, friends and enemies may enjoy the sweetness of Spiritism. I then ask for everybody, every suffering soul that may foresee the infinite goodness of God has not closed the door of regret to them. I also ask God to forgive my faults and the grace of practicing charity in all of its extension. Thus, I now find myself in a state of perfect calmness and tranquility with respect to the future. The idea of death no longer scares me because I have the unbreakable conviction that my soul will outlive the body and I have total faith in the future life. There is, however, only one thought that makes me feel bad and that is of leaving my loved ones on Earth fearing that they might be unhappy. Ah! Such a fear is very natural given the selfishness that impregnates most people in or world. God understands me. He knows that he has my full trust. I had the pleasure of seeing our dear Laura last December, a few days after her death. That is certainly an anticipated effect of his goodness towards me.”
Since the time of that letter, dear Sir, I have been feeling better. In the past, I got irritated by the tiniest opposition. My patience is really remarkable today, succeeding violence and impulse. The victory conquered a short while ago over a very tough trial demonstrates that. It would have certainly been different last March. It is precisely in such circumstances that the Spiritist Doctrine exerts its soothing influence. Those that criticize it say that the Doctrine is full of seductions and I don’t believe I can deny such praise since I find it delightful. My return to religion caused surprise here since up until now I was connected to the deepest materialism. A very logical consequence of that is that I am now the center of mockery and sarcasm to which I am insensitive and as you wisely say all of that flows over Spiritism like the water on marble.
My dear Sir, I must terminate this already lengthy letter to spare you from wasting your precious time.
Please accept my gratitude for my moral satisfaction, reassuring hope and the well-being that you have given me. Continue with your sacred mission for which you have been blessed by God!
Roussel (Adolphe)
Certified notary, former auction official
PS – In the interest of Spiritism you may use this letter in part or in full”
OBSERVATION: We have already published several letters of this kind but we would need volumes to publish all that we have received and what is no less impressive is that the majority of them come from mostly unknown individuals, solicited by nobody but the ascendency of the Doctrine.
Hence, here we have a man reached by the anathema of Mr. Bishop of Alger, a person that would have died an atheism and materialism without the Spiritist Doctrine. This would have been mercilessly unacceptable had he sought the sacraments of the Church.
Who brought him to God? Was it the fear for the eternal penalties? No, because it was exactly the theory of such penalties that sent him away. Who then had the power of calming his impulsiveness turning him into a kind and harmless man; to make him renounce his ideas of vengeance and to forgive his enemies? It was Spiritism where he found an unbreakable faith in the future.
That is the doctrine that you want to eradicate from your dioceses where there are certainly many individuals in the same condition and that in your opinion they are a shameful cancer to the colony. Who do you want to convince that it would have been better to this many to have remained where he was? If it were objected that this is an exception rather than the rule, we would respond with thousands of similar cases and even if it were an exception we would respond by the parabola of the one hundred sheep from which one veered off but the shepherd went after it.
What would you have offered him instead to produce a similar transformation? It is always the perspective of the eternal penalty, the only one in your opinion capable of dominating immorality and disorder. Finally, who led him to study Spiritism? Was it a gang of Spiritists? No because he ran anyways from the Spiritists. It was a sermon given against Spiritism. Why was he then converted to Spiritism and not by the sermon? It seems that apparently the arguments of Spiritism were more convincing than those of the sermon. That is how it has been with every analogue preaching. That is how it is going to be with the episcopal order of Alger that will have, we predict, a very different result as compared to what they expect from it.
To the author of this letter we say: “Brother, this kind of confession of yours before humanity is a great gesture of humility. There is never shame but greatness in acknowledging that one was wrong, confessing one’s mistakes. God loves the humble ones because theirs is the kingdom of heavens.”
The letter below is not a less touching example of what Spiritism can operate in the consciences and here the result is much more remarkable because it is not about a man of the world, living in an educated environment whose bad inclinations may be contained by the fear of future life or at least by the opinion, but from a man hurt by justice and condemned to the reclusion of life in prison.
“September 20th, 1863
Dear Sir,
I was fortunate to read and study some of your excellent books about Spiritism and the effect was so impactful that I believe it is my duty to let you know and, in order for you understand it well, I need to explain the current circumstances.
I have unfortunately been condemned to six years in prison as a consequence of my former behavior and for that I have no right to complain. That explains the order of my report below.
Just a month ago I considered myself lost forever. Why do I think differently today and why does hope shine in my heart? Wouldn’t that be because Spiritism made me understand that the earthly assets are nothing by unveiling to me the sublimity of its maxims; that happiness only exist really to those who practice the virtues taught by Jesus Christ, virtues that take us closer to God, our common father?
Isn’t that also because since I have fallen into a state of misery and although shamed by society I can expect to be reborn somehow and thus prepare my soul for a better life by the practices of virtues and the love to God and the neighbor?
I don’t know if these are the true causes of the changes that I experienced. All I know is that something happened to me that I cannot define. I have more empathy to the unfortunate ones that like myself are kept under the ferule of society. I have certain authority on about a hundred of them and I am decided to only use that for good. My moral condition seems less painful to me. I consider my sufferings as a fair atonement and that helps me to endure them. Finally, I no longer see society the eyes of hate. I pay society with the tribute that is due.
These are – I am sure – the causes that operated upon my Spirit and that will make me a man of God and that loves the neighbors – I have a kind hope – practicing charity and one’s duties.
Who should I thank for this fortunate metamorphosis that turned a bad man into a lover of virtue? First, I must thank God, to whom we must inform everything, and then to your excellent writings. Thus, Sir, allow me to say, the objective of this letter is to let you know about my gratitude. But why is it necessary that my Spiritist education is incomplete? There is no doubt that it is the will of God. His will be done!
I must let you know, Sir, the name of the person to whom I owe what I know now: it is Mr. Benoît that having noticed in me a desire to rebuild my past wanted to have me initiated in the Spiritist Doctrine. I will unfortunately lose him because his new position would not allow him to come to see me. He brings me a lot of happiness, I must confess, because he adds example to his advices. He also owes his betterment to the Doctrine. He once said: Until I was enlightened by the Spiritist Spirit I used to go to the café and there I frequently forgot not only my duties with my family but also with my employer. The time that I used to spend like that today I spend with the reading of Spiritist books, reading that I do out loud so that my family may enjoy. And that, added Mr. Benoit, is worth more because it is the beginning of the true and only happiness.
I beg you to forgive my pretension and particularly the extension of this letter, yours…etc.
D.”
That Mr. Benoît is a simple worker. He was educated in Spiritism by a lady from the town from which the prisoner had sent the letter. He sent this letter to her before his instructor left:
“Madam,
I am certainly pretentious by daring to send you these words but I hope you can forgive me out of your benevolence, particularly given the causes that made me act. To begin with, I want to thank you, ma’am, from the bottom of my heart, from my soul, for the good you did to me, allowing Mr. Benoît to educate me with respect to Spiritism, this sublime doctrine called to regenerate the world, and that knows so well to demonstrate to everyone what is due to God, to one’s family, to society and to oneself; that by demonstrating that not everything ends with this life, stimulating and preparing us for another life. I believe I learned well the teachings I received because now I enjoy a feeling that gives me more empathy towards my fellow human beings, always keeping my thoughts in heavens. Is it the beginning of a faith? I hope so.
Unfortunately, Mr. Benoît will leave and with him the hopes that I can learn more. I know that you are a good person and that you have thought of helping in my instruction. I kneel and beg you that you continue the work that was initiated. It will be taken into account by God for you have the hopes of turning an unfortunate person lost in the vices of the world into a virtuous man, a man worth of such a name, well deserving his family and society.
Looking forward to the day in which I will be able to demonstrate that I will always praise you for being my guiding Spirit in this world; I will have you in my prayers and there will come a day when I will also be able to teach my family and thank you, venerate you since you have given them back a son, an honest brother. It is impossible to be different when one does sincerely serve God.
I then finish, ma’am, asking you to be my good Spirit on Earth, guiding me on the good path. Your work will be accounted among the good ones. As for myself I promise you that I will be meek to your teachings.
I end by wishing… etc.”
OBSERVATION: Thus, that Mr. Benoît, a simple worker, was a recent example of the moralizing effect of Spiritism, that already brings back to the good path a lost soul; returns an honest man to his family and to society, instead of a criminal, a good job for which a good lady concurred, a lady that was unknown to both but that was animated by the desire of doing good. And all of that is done in the shadow, without ostentation, with the sole testimony of the conscience.
Spiritists, these are the miracles that must make you proud, that all of you can do and for which you don’t need any special skill because all it is needed is the desire of doing good.
If Spiritism has such a power upon the stained souls what shouldn’t we expect for the regeneration of humanity when it has been converted into a common belief and each and every one utilizes it in their own sphere of action!
All of you who throw stones at Spiritism and say that it fulfills the homes of the mentally ill provide something instead, something that does better than it does. The quality of the tree is recognized by the fruit. Hence you must judge Spiritism by its fruits and go and produce better fruits. You will be followed then.
Still a few years and you will see many other prodigies, not signs of heavens, to hurt the eyes as the Pharisee demanded, prodigies of people’s hearts from which the greater one will be to shut the mouth of the detractors and to open the eyes of the blind for it is necessary that the predictions of Jesus Christ come true and they will all do.
“Montreuil, August 23rd 1863
Last March, I still was what one can say “full strength of the word”, embedded in atheism and materialism. I would not spare to criticize the head of the Spiritist group in our small town, a colleague of mine, with mockery and sarcasm; I even referred him to homes of the mentally ill! He opposed my mockery with a stoic patience. Meanwhile during Lent a priest spoke against Spiritism from the pulpit. That excited my curiosity because I could not understand what was it that the Church had to do with Spiritism. I then read the little book – What is Spiritism? – promising myself not to give in as easily as certain convert materialists, then reaching all to all resources and persuaded that nothing could destroy the power of my arguments, having no doubt that I would enjoy total victory. How wrong! I had hardly reached page fifty and had already acknowledged the uselessness of my poor battery of arguments. For a few minutes I felt like illuminated; a subtle revolution took me over and here is what I wrote to my brother on June 18th:
Yes, as you say, my conversion was providential; I owe this sign of great benevolence to God. Yes, I believe in God, in my soul and its immortality after death. Before that my philosophy was a certain firmness of the Spirit with which I was placed above the tribulations and accidents of life but I fell before the many moral tortures imposed on me by pretense friends. The pain of such memories had poisoned my heart. I entertained a thousand and one projects of revenge and if I were not afraid of public humiliation to me and my loved ones I would have perhaps executed the dismal plans. But God saved me. Spiritism promptly led me to believe in the fundamental truths of religion from which I had been kept away by the Church with the horrible images of the eternal flames and for trying to impose on me dogmas that are in clear contradiction with the infinite attributes of God, as if they were articles of faith. I still remember the horror that I lived in 1814 when I was seven years old during the reading of this passage from the Christian Thoughts: … And when the condemned has suffered for as many as there are atoms in the air, leaves on trees and grains in the sand of the oceans, it will all count as nothing!!! And it was Church that dared say that blasphemy! God forgive! I continue this letter, dear Eugene, leaving to the Church the infernal property to which I have no claim.
The idea that my soul was renewed and the plurality of the worlds and existences are no longer in doubt, giving me now an undefinable moral satisfaction. The prospect of a cold and gloomy void used to freeze the blood in my veins; today I foresee myself inhabiting one of those more advanced worlds both morally, intellectual and physically when compared to our planet, expecting to achieve the state of pure Spirit.
In order to enjoy the benefits of God and to thoroughly deserve them I forgave my enemies, those who made me endure tough moral trials, all of those that in the end offended me, resigning from any thought of vengeance. Every day I thank God for the great benevolence towards me, quickly allowing me to leave the tortuous path that I was walking with atheism and materialism; I beg God to do the same favor to all of those that doubted and denied as I did.
I also ask God that my wife, my children, relatives, friends and enemies may enjoy the sweetness of Spiritism. I then ask for everybody, every suffering soul that may foresee the infinite goodness of God has not closed the door of regret to them. I also ask God to forgive my faults and the grace of practicing charity in all of its extension. Thus, I now find myself in a state of perfect calmness and tranquility with respect to the future. The idea of death no longer scares me because I have the unbreakable conviction that my soul will outlive the body and I have total faith in the future life. There is, however, only one thought that makes me feel bad and that is of leaving my loved ones on Earth fearing that they might be unhappy. Ah! Such a fear is very natural given the selfishness that impregnates most people in or world. God understands me. He knows that he has my full trust. I had the pleasure of seeing our dear Laura last December, a few days after her death. That is certainly an anticipated effect of his goodness towards me.”
Since the time of that letter, dear Sir, I have been feeling better. In the past, I got irritated by the tiniest opposition. My patience is really remarkable today, succeeding violence and impulse. The victory conquered a short while ago over a very tough trial demonstrates that. It would have certainly been different last March. It is precisely in such circumstances that the Spiritist Doctrine exerts its soothing influence. Those that criticize it say that the Doctrine is full of seductions and I don’t believe I can deny such praise since I find it delightful. My return to religion caused surprise here since up until now I was connected to the deepest materialism. A very logical consequence of that is that I am now the center of mockery and sarcasm to which I am insensitive and as you wisely say all of that flows over Spiritism like the water on marble.
My dear Sir, I must terminate this already lengthy letter to spare you from wasting your precious time.
Please accept my gratitude for my moral satisfaction, reassuring hope and the well-being that you have given me. Continue with your sacred mission for which you have been blessed by God!
Roussel (Adolphe)
Certified notary, former auction official
PS – In the interest of Spiritism you may use this letter in part or in full”
OBSERVATION: We have already published several letters of this kind but we would need volumes to publish all that we have received and what is no less impressive is that the majority of them come from mostly unknown individuals, solicited by nobody but the ascendency of the Doctrine.
Hence, here we have a man reached by the anathema of Mr. Bishop of Alger, a person that would have died an atheism and materialism without the Spiritist Doctrine. This would have been mercilessly unacceptable had he sought the sacraments of the Church.
Who brought him to God? Was it the fear for the eternal penalties? No, because it was exactly the theory of such penalties that sent him away. Who then had the power of calming his impulsiveness turning him into a kind and harmless man; to make him renounce his ideas of vengeance and to forgive his enemies? It was Spiritism where he found an unbreakable faith in the future.
That is the doctrine that you want to eradicate from your dioceses where there are certainly many individuals in the same condition and that in your opinion they are a shameful cancer to the colony. Who do you want to convince that it would have been better to this many to have remained where he was? If it were objected that this is an exception rather than the rule, we would respond with thousands of similar cases and even if it were an exception we would respond by the parabola of the one hundred sheep from which one veered off but the shepherd went after it.
What would you have offered him instead to produce a similar transformation? It is always the perspective of the eternal penalty, the only one in your opinion capable of dominating immorality and disorder. Finally, who led him to study Spiritism? Was it a gang of Spiritists? No because he ran anyways from the Spiritists. It was a sermon given against Spiritism. Why was he then converted to Spiritism and not by the sermon? It seems that apparently the arguments of Spiritism were more convincing than those of the sermon. That is how it has been with every analogue preaching. That is how it is going to be with the episcopal order of Alger that will have, we predict, a very different result as compared to what they expect from it.
To the author of this letter we say: “Brother, this kind of confession of yours before humanity is a great gesture of humility. There is never shame but greatness in acknowledging that one was wrong, confessing one’s mistakes. God loves the humble ones because theirs is the kingdom of heavens.”
The letter below is not a less touching example of what Spiritism can operate in the consciences and here the result is much more remarkable because it is not about a man of the world, living in an educated environment whose bad inclinations may be contained by the fear of future life or at least by the opinion, but from a man hurt by justice and condemned to the reclusion of life in prison.
“September 20th, 1863
Dear Sir,
I was fortunate to read and study some of your excellent books about Spiritism and the effect was so impactful that I believe it is my duty to let you know and, in order for you understand it well, I need to explain the current circumstances.
I have unfortunately been condemned to six years in prison as a consequence of my former behavior and for that I have no right to complain. That explains the order of my report below.
Just a month ago I considered myself lost forever. Why do I think differently today and why does hope shine in my heart? Wouldn’t that be because Spiritism made me understand that the earthly assets are nothing by unveiling to me the sublimity of its maxims; that happiness only exist really to those who practice the virtues taught by Jesus Christ, virtues that take us closer to God, our common father?
Isn’t that also because since I have fallen into a state of misery and although shamed by society I can expect to be reborn somehow and thus prepare my soul for a better life by the practices of virtues and the love to God and the neighbor?
I don’t know if these are the true causes of the changes that I experienced. All I know is that something happened to me that I cannot define. I have more empathy to the unfortunate ones that like myself are kept under the ferule of society. I have certain authority on about a hundred of them and I am decided to only use that for good. My moral condition seems less painful to me. I consider my sufferings as a fair atonement and that helps me to endure them. Finally, I no longer see society the eyes of hate. I pay society with the tribute that is due.
These are – I am sure – the causes that operated upon my Spirit and that will make me a man of God and that loves the neighbors – I have a kind hope – practicing charity and one’s duties.
Who should I thank for this fortunate metamorphosis that turned a bad man into a lover of virtue? First, I must thank God, to whom we must inform everything, and then to your excellent writings. Thus, Sir, allow me to say, the objective of this letter is to let you know about my gratitude. But why is it necessary that my Spiritist education is incomplete? There is no doubt that it is the will of God. His will be done!
I must let you know, Sir, the name of the person to whom I owe what I know now: it is Mr. Benoît that having noticed in me a desire to rebuild my past wanted to have me initiated in the Spiritist Doctrine. I will unfortunately lose him because his new position would not allow him to come to see me. He brings me a lot of happiness, I must confess, because he adds example to his advices. He also owes his betterment to the Doctrine. He once said: Until I was enlightened by the Spiritist Spirit I used to go to the café and there I frequently forgot not only my duties with my family but also with my employer. The time that I used to spend like that today I spend with the reading of Spiritist books, reading that I do out loud so that my family may enjoy. And that, added Mr. Benoit, is worth more because it is the beginning of the true and only happiness.
I beg you to forgive my pretension and particularly the extension of this letter, yours…etc.
D.”
That Mr. Benoît is a simple worker. He was educated in Spiritism by a lady from the town from which the prisoner had sent the letter. He sent this letter to her before his instructor left:
“Madam,
I am certainly pretentious by daring to send you these words but I hope you can forgive me out of your benevolence, particularly given the causes that made me act. To begin with, I want to thank you, ma’am, from the bottom of my heart, from my soul, for the good you did to me, allowing Mr. Benoît to educate me with respect to Spiritism, this sublime doctrine called to regenerate the world, and that knows so well to demonstrate to everyone what is due to God, to one’s family, to society and to oneself; that by demonstrating that not everything ends with this life, stimulating and preparing us for another life. I believe I learned well the teachings I received because now I enjoy a feeling that gives me more empathy towards my fellow human beings, always keeping my thoughts in heavens. Is it the beginning of a faith? I hope so.
Unfortunately, Mr. Benoît will leave and with him the hopes that I can learn more. I know that you are a good person and that you have thought of helping in my instruction. I kneel and beg you that you continue the work that was initiated. It will be taken into account by God for you have the hopes of turning an unfortunate person lost in the vices of the world into a virtuous man, a man worth of such a name, well deserving his family and society.
Looking forward to the day in which I will be able to demonstrate that I will always praise you for being my guiding Spirit in this world; I will have you in my prayers and there will come a day when I will also be able to teach my family and thank you, venerate you since you have given them back a son, an honest brother. It is impossible to be different when one does sincerely serve God.
I then finish, ma’am, asking you to be my good Spirit on Earth, guiding me on the good path. Your work will be accounted among the good ones. As for myself I promise you that I will be meek to your teachings.
I end by wishing… etc.”
OBSERVATION: Thus, that Mr. Benoît, a simple worker, was a recent example of the moralizing effect of Spiritism, that already brings back to the good path a lost soul; returns an honest man to his family and to society, instead of a criminal, a good job for which a good lady concurred, a lady that was unknown to both but that was animated by the desire of doing good. And all of that is done in the shadow, without ostentation, with the sole testimony of the conscience.
Spiritists, these are the miracles that must make you proud, that all of you can do and for which you don’t need any special skill because all it is needed is the desire of doing good.
If Spiritism has such a power upon the stained souls what shouldn’t we expect for the regeneration of humanity when it has been converted into a common belief and each and every one utilizes it in their own sphere of action!
All of you who throw stones at Spiritism and say that it fulfills the homes of the mentally ill provide something instead, something that does better than it does. The quality of the tree is recognized by the fruit. Hence you must judge Spiritism by its fruits and go and produce better fruits. You will be followed then.
Still a few years and you will see many other prodigies, not signs of heavens, to hurt the eyes as the Pharisee demanded, prodigies of people’s hearts from which the greater one will be to shut the mouth of the detractors and to open the eyes of the blind for it is necessary that the predictions of Jesus Christ come true and they will all do.
The rapping Spirit of Carcassone keeps his reputation demonstrated by the success achieved through the unquestionable merit of his excellent fables and poetry where he attends several contests as a candidate. After having already won the first prize, the Golden Eglantine of the Floral Academy of Toulose, he just received the bronze medal in the Nîmes contest. The Courrier of Aude writes: “This distinction is even more flattering considering that the contest was not only about fables and poetry but encompassed all kinds of literary works.”
This new success certainly illustrates how Spiritism will continue in the future. What will the unbelievers say about Mr. Jobert’s ability? What they have already said over the success in Toulose: that Mr. Jobert is a poet that entertains the fantasy of hiding himself under the mantle of a Spirit. Nonetheless, those who know Mr. Jobert know that he is no poet. Besides, if he were a poet, the means of obtaining the work through typology and in presence of witnesses keeps removes any doubt, unless one supposes that he does not hide under the table but in the table.
In any case, events like this call the attention of serious people and speeds up the time when the relationship between the visible and the invisible world will be admitted as one of the laws of nature. Once that law is acknowledged then philosophy and science will enter a new era.
Providence compels the victory of Spiritism because Spiritism is one of the great phases of human progress. It employs several means to make it achieve the spirit of the masses, means that are adequate to the tastes and dispositions of every one, considering that what convinces one person may not convince another. Here the academic successes of a poet Spirit; there the tangible and provoked phenomena or the spontaneous manifestations; elsewhere the purely moral phenomena; then the cures that in different times would have been considered miraculous, challenging common science, artistic productions created by persons strange to the arts. There are the cases of obsession and subjugation that demonstrate the impotence of science in such types of disease will lead the scientists to acknowledge the action of a force beyond matter. Finally, do we have the need to say that the adversaries of Spiritism constitute one of the most powerful means of promoting the Doctrine in the hands of the Providence? It is evident that Spiritism would be much less spread than it is without the repercussion of their attacks. By convincing of their impotence God wanted them to serve his triumph. (See Spiritist Review, June 1963)
This new success certainly illustrates how Spiritism will continue in the future. What will the unbelievers say about Mr. Jobert’s ability? What they have already said over the success in Toulose: that Mr. Jobert is a poet that entertains the fantasy of hiding himself under the mantle of a Spirit. Nonetheless, those who know Mr. Jobert know that he is no poet. Besides, if he were a poet, the means of obtaining the work through typology and in presence of witnesses keeps removes any doubt, unless one supposes that he does not hide under the table but in the table.
In any case, events like this call the attention of serious people and speeds up the time when the relationship between the visible and the invisible world will be admitted as one of the laws of nature. Once that law is acknowledged then philosophy and science will enter a new era.
Providence compels the victory of Spiritism because Spiritism is one of the great phases of human progress. It employs several means to make it achieve the spirit of the masses, means that are adequate to the tastes and dispositions of every one, considering that what convinces one person may not convince another. Here the academic successes of a poet Spirit; there the tangible and provoked phenomena or the spontaneous manifestations; elsewhere the purely moral phenomena; then the cures that in different times would have been considered miraculous, challenging common science, artistic productions created by persons strange to the arts. There are the cases of obsession and subjugation that demonstrate the impotence of science in such types of disease will lead the scientists to acknowledge the action of a force beyond matter. Finally, do we have the need to say that the adversaries of Spiritism constitute one of the most powerful means of promoting the Doctrine in the hands of the Providence? It is evident that Spiritism would be much less spread than it is without the repercussion of their attacks. By convincing of their impotence God wanted them to serve his triumph. (See Spiritist Review, June 1963)
We owe this interesting passage below to the kindness of one of our correspondents from Bordeaux, extracted from a book entitled Exposé de la grandeur de la création universelle[1], by Dr. Gelpke, published in Leipzig in 1817.
__
“… Hence, if the construction of all of the worlds that shine above us could have been examined by us what would have been our astonishment by admiring their diversity, each one organized in a different way when compared to its closest neighbor in creation! And as I have already said, since their number is incalculable their construction must also be infinitely different. Besides, as the organization of the beings that inhabit those worlds depend on their own organization, both internally as well as externally, they must also essentially differ in each globe. Now if we consider the multitude and the immense variety of creatures on our Earth, where a simple leaf is not like the next, and if we admit such a large variety of creatures in each globe, how prodigious will such immensity look like to us in the immensurable kingdom of God!
We will reach the plenitude of our happiness when, under progressively perfect envelopes, we later successively penetrate the mysteries of creation, finding endless worlds, populating a boundless space! Then, how much will God seem even more adorable to us, he who got all of that out of nowhere; he whose infinite benevolence created all of that for the satisfaction of the living beings and whose wisdom has ordered all of that in such a remarkable way!
But can our current lodging and organization make us happy? For that don’t we need another dwelling that will place us ahead in the domain of creation and a much more delicate and perfect envelope that will not hinder our Spirit in its progress towards perfection and through which it will be able to see by itself well beyond we can see from here with the best instruments available?
But why, after several steps of existences, wouldn’t the Creator give us an envelope that like a lightning bolt could move from a world to the next, at the same time allowing us to see everything close by, better embracing the whole through our thoughts? Would we doubt such a thing when we see the shiny butterfly raising out of a caterpillar and the flowery tree blossoming out of a simple seed? If God gradually develops the butterfly like that and show it magnificently transformed to us; if he also develops the germ step by step, how much won’t he make us progress, human beings, the kings of Earth, advancing in Creation?”
Plurality of the inhabited words, existences, perispirit, successive and indefinite progress of the soul, it is all there.
[1] Exposition of the greatness of the universal creation (TN)__
“… Hence, if the construction of all of the worlds that shine above us could have been examined by us what would have been our astonishment by admiring their diversity, each one organized in a different way when compared to its closest neighbor in creation! And as I have already said, since their number is incalculable their construction must also be infinitely different. Besides, as the organization of the beings that inhabit those worlds depend on their own organization, both internally as well as externally, they must also essentially differ in each globe. Now if we consider the multitude and the immense variety of creatures on our Earth, where a simple leaf is not like the next, and if we admit such a large variety of creatures in each globe, how prodigious will such immensity look like to us in the immensurable kingdom of God!
We will reach the plenitude of our happiness when, under progressively perfect envelopes, we later successively penetrate the mysteries of creation, finding endless worlds, populating a boundless space! Then, how much will God seem even more adorable to us, he who got all of that out of nowhere; he whose infinite benevolence created all of that for the satisfaction of the living beings and whose wisdom has ordered all of that in such a remarkable way!
But can our current lodging and organization make us happy? For that don’t we need another dwelling that will place us ahead in the domain of creation and a much more delicate and perfect envelope that will not hinder our Spirit in its progress towards perfection and through which it will be able to see by itself well beyond we can see from here with the best instruments available?
But why, after several steps of existences, wouldn’t the Creator give us an envelope that like a lightning bolt could move from a world to the next, at the same time allowing us to see everything close by, better embracing the whole through our thoughts? Would we doubt such a thing when we see the shiny butterfly raising out of a caterpillar and the flowery tree blossoming out of a simple seed? If God gradually develops the butterfly like that and show it magnificently transformed to us; if he also develops the germ step by step, how much won’t he make us progress, human beings, the kings of Earth, advancing in Creation?”
Plurality of the inhabited words, existences, perispirit, successive and indefinite progress of the soul, it is all there.
Spiritist Dissertations
Spiritism is Christianity of modern age. It must reestablish the spiritualist sense of traditions. Before, the Spirit was made of flesh; today flesh becomes Spirit to develop the grand idea that must evolve the world. But the Spiritist gathering will be followed by disturbance and pride of the several systems that, neglecting wise teachings, will erect a new Babel tower, the works of confusion soon to be reduced to nothing because the works of the past are the pawns of the future and the oblivious dissipates with the treasure of experiences cumulated through the centuries.
Spiritism doesform an intellectual tribe. Follow your guides with more humility than that of the Hebrews. We also came to free you from the yoke of the Philistine leading you to the Promised Land. Dawn shall succeed the darkness of the first ages and you will be surprised when you understand the slow reflex of past times upon the present. Legends will revive so energetically as reality and you will find the proof of the remarkable unity, pawn of the alliance between God and his creatures.
St. Louis
Spiritism doesform an intellectual tribe. Follow your guides with more humility than that of the Hebrews. We also came to free you from the yoke of the Philistine leading you to the Promised Land. Dawn shall succeed the darkness of the first ages and you will be surprised when you understand the slow reflex of past times upon the present. Legends will revive so energetically as reality and you will find the proof of the remarkable unity, pawn of the alliance between God and his creatures.
St. Louis
Setif, Algeria, October 15th, 1863
Open the sacred scriptures and in every page you will find incomprehensible predictions or allegories to anyone who is not aware of the new revelations that for the majority were interpreted by editors according to their own opinion and too often to their interest. However, using the science that you have just begun to acquire, you will easily discover their meaning. The ancient prophets were all inspired by elevated Spirits but that gave them teachings of a kind only to be understood by high intelligences and whose meaning was not in strong opposition with the knowledge and prejudices of the time. It was necessary to be able to have them adequately interpreted to the understanding of the crowds so that they were not rejected by them as they would had they been in formal opposition to the general ideas. Today our mission is to completely clarify to you and, at the same time, make you understand the proximity between the new revelations and those of former times. We have another task to accomplish and that is to fight falsehood, hypocrisy and error, a very difficult and arduous task but whose objective we will reach for that is the will of God. Have faith and courage. God never finds unbreakable obstacles to his will. Under his commandment unpredictable means are used to beat the evil genius now personified by those who should march ahead of progress and propagate the truth instead of creating obstacles to that out of pride and self-interest. Hence, it is necessary to announce everywhere with safety and confidence that the end of slavery, injustice and falsehood is near. I say the end is near because the events, although realized with the wise slowness of the reforms of the Providence avoiding irreversible disgraces of a great rush, will have their course in a time frame shorter than that expected by those who fear the obstacles that they anticipate, not expected either by those interested in the maintenance of the status quo out of fear or selfishness. Therefore you must be eager in the propaganda but careful with the listeners in order to not scare away the ignorant and fearful consciences. Have no fear since only the egotist do not need skills. You have God’s support. Their resistance is powerless against you. It is necessary to unequivocally show them the terrible future that waits for their own fault and for those who allowed to be converted by their example since everyone is responsible for the harm they do and for the onesthat they cause.
St. Augustine
Open the sacred scriptures and in every page you will find incomprehensible predictions or allegories to anyone who is not aware of the new revelations that for the majority were interpreted by editors according to their own opinion and too often to their interest. However, using the science that you have just begun to acquire, you will easily discover their meaning. The ancient prophets were all inspired by elevated Spirits but that gave them teachings of a kind only to be understood by high intelligences and whose meaning was not in strong opposition with the knowledge and prejudices of the time. It was necessary to be able to have them adequately interpreted to the understanding of the crowds so that they were not rejected by them as they would had they been in formal opposition to the general ideas. Today our mission is to completely clarify to you and, at the same time, make you understand the proximity between the new revelations and those of former times. We have another task to accomplish and that is to fight falsehood, hypocrisy and error, a very difficult and arduous task but whose objective we will reach for that is the will of God. Have faith and courage. God never finds unbreakable obstacles to his will. Under his commandment unpredictable means are used to beat the evil genius now personified by those who should march ahead of progress and propagate the truth instead of creating obstacles to that out of pride and self-interest. Hence, it is necessary to announce everywhere with safety and confidence that the end of slavery, injustice and falsehood is near. I say the end is near because the events, although realized with the wise slowness of the reforms of the Providence avoiding irreversible disgraces of a great rush, will have their course in a time frame shorter than that expected by those who fear the obstacles that they anticipate, not expected either by those interested in the maintenance of the status quo out of fear or selfishness. Therefore you must be eager in the propaganda but careful with the listeners in order to not scare away the ignorant and fearful consciences. Have no fear since only the egotist do not need skills. You have God’s support. Their resistance is powerless against you. It is necessary to unequivocally show them the terrible future that waits for their own fault and for those who allowed to be converted by their example since everyone is responsible for the harm they do and for the onesthat they cause.
St. Augustine