Speech given by Mr. Allan Kardec to the
Spiritists of Brussels and Antwerp in 1864
We published this speech by request of several persons that have mentioned to us their desire to preserve it and because it tends to have Spiritism seen from an aspect that is new in a certain way. The Spiritist Review of Antwerp reproduced it in its totality.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear Spiritist brothers and sisters,
I am pleased to give you this title although I do not have the advantage of knowing all the persons attending this meeting, but I want to believe that we are in family and all of us in communion of thoughts and feelings. Even admitting that not everyone is sympathetic to our ideas I would not take them less in the fraternal feeling that must animate the true Spiritists to all mankind, without distinction of opinion. However, it is to our brothers in faith that I address more specially to express to them my satisfaction to be among them and offer them the fraternal Spiritist salutation in the name of the Parisian Society.
I had already been given the proof that Spiritism counts on a large number of serious, devout and enlightened followers in this city, perfectly in sync with the moral and philosophical objective of the Doctrine; I knew I would find sympathetic hearts here and that was the determinant factor for me to correspond to the insistent and kind invitation addressed to me by several of you for a short visit this year. The warm and cordial welcome that I received allow me to take with me the most pleasant memory from the time I spent here.
I would certainly have the right to be proud of the reception that I have in the several centers that I visit if I did not know that such testimonies are much less to the man than to the Doctrine of which I am just a humble representative and must be considered like a profession of faith, an adherence to our principles. That is how I see them as far as I am concerned. As a matter of fact if the trips that I do from time to time only had the objective of personal satisfaction I would consider them useless and would abstain from traveling. However, added to the fact that they contribute to the strengthening of links of fraternity among followers they also have the advantage of providing me with material of observation and study that are never a waste to the Doctrine. Irrespective of the facts that may serve the progress of the science I collect material for the future history of Spiritism; authentic documents about the movement of the Spiritist idea; the more or less favorable elements that the Doctrine finds, according to the places; the strength or weakness and the maneuvers of the adversaries; the means of fighting the latter; the zeal and devotion of its true defenders. Among the latter one must place in the first line all of those that work for the cause with courage, perseverance, abnegation and selflessness, without any personal intention, that seek the triumph of the Doctrine by the Doctrine and not for the satisfaction of their personal self-love, and finally those that prove that the Spiritism moral is not vain by their example, struggling to justify this remarkable statement of a non-believer: “With such a Doctrine one cannot be Spiritist and not be a good person.”
There isn’t a Spiritist center in which I did not find a more or less large number of such pioneers of the cause, of those trail blazers of the terrain, those tireless fighters that sustained by a sincere and enlightened faith, by the conscience of a duty to carry out, do not get discouraged before any difficulty, looking at their devotion as a debt of recognition for the moral benefits received form Spiritism. Is it fair that those that honor the Doctrine have their names lost for our descendants and that they would not be one day inscribed in the Spiritist pantheon?
Unfortunately by their side sometimes there are the naughty boys of the cause, the impatient ones, those that can compromise it by not weighing the reach of their words and actions; those that by a thoughtless zeal, by inopportune and premature ideas unwillingly give ammunition to our adversaries. Then come the others that only consider Spiritism superficially, not being touched in their hearts, giving by their own example a false idea of its results and moral tendencies.
That is, without doubt, the biggest reef found by the sincere propagators of the Doctrine, for they many times see the work that they did being undone by those that should second them. It is a demonstrated fact that Spiritism is more harmed by those that have a limited knowledge of the Doctrine than by those that totally ignore it and even by the declared enemies. And it is noticeable that those that have limited knowledge generally have the pretension of understanding it more than those that acquired experience through serious studies. Such pretension, that reveals pride, is an evident proof of ignorance of the true principles of the Doctrine.
May the Spiritists not be discouraged since this results from a time of transition in which we live! The new ideas cannot be established suddenly and without hindrance. Since it is necessary to brush away the old ideas they forcibly find adversaries that fight against and repeal them and there are those that take those ideas upside down, that see them or want to accommodate them to their personal tastes. But there comes the time when the true principles are known an understood by the majority and the contradictory ideas fall by themselves. You saw what happened to the isolated systems that appeared at the origin of Spiritism. They all fell before a more rigorous observation of the facts, or only find a few followers that cling to their initial ideas not moving a single step forward. The unity was established in the Spiritist belief with much more speed than it was expected. The fact is that the Spirits came to confirm the true principles from all sides, so much so that today there is a predominant idea in the whole world and that if still does not count on an absolute unanimity it incontestably counts on the immense majority from which it follows that the one that wishes to march at the margin of that opinion, finding little or no support, is condemned to isolation. Experience is here to demonstrate that.
To remediate the inconvenient that I have just described, that is, to prevent the consequences of ignorance and false interpretations it is necessary to take care of the propagation of the correct ideas, of forming educated followers whose growing number will neutralize the influence of the wrong ideas.
My visit to the Spiritist center, naturally, have the main objective of helping the brothers in faith in their tasks. I therefore take the opportunity to give them the instructions that they may need as a theoretical development or practical explanation of the Doctrine as much as I can. The objective of such visits is serious and exclusively in the interest of the Doctrine hence I do not seek ovations that I do not particularly like and that are not in my character. My greatest satisfaction is to meet sincere and devout friends with whom we can understand one another without embarrassments and mutually enlighten one another through friendly discussions to which each one of us take their own observations.
In these journeys I do not preach to the nonbelievers and never summon the public to catechize them. In a word, I do not make propaganda. I only attend followers’ meetings in which my advices are sought and may be useful. I give those advices in good will to those that believe to need them and abstain from giving them to those that believe to be enlightened enough to neglect them.
If in such gatherings persons that are only attracted by curiosity exceptionally sneak in they would be disappointed for they would find nothing there that could satisfy them and if animated by a hostile and defamatory feeling the eminently moral, serious and sincere of the assembly and the subject matters discussed there would eliminate any plausible pretext to their malevolence. These are the thoughts that I bring to the many meetings that I am invited to attend so that there is no mistake about my intentions.
I said initially that I was only the representative of the Doctrine. Some explanations about its true character will certainly draw your attention to an essential point that up until now was not sufficiently discussed. Certainly by seeing the speed of progress of this Doctrine there would be more splendor if I said that I was its creator and my self-love would be rewarded there but I must not consider my contribution greater than it really is. Far from being sorry I congratulate myself for that because in such a case the Doctrine would only be an individual conception that could be more or less correct, more or less ingenious, but that for the same reason would lose its authority. It could have followers, perhaps make a school, like many others, but it would not certainly acquired the universal character that distinguishes it.
That is a point of paramount importance, ladies and gentlemen, and that must be proclaimed out loud. No, Spiritism is not an individual conception, the product of imagination; it is not a theory, a system invented for the need of a cause. Spiritism has its source in the facts of nature itself, in positive events that are produced before our eyes all the time but whose origin was not suspected. It is therefore the result of observation, in a word it is a science, the science of the relationships between the visible and the invisible worlds, a still imperfect science but that daily complements itself with new studies and that, I am sure, will take a position side by side with the other positive sciences. I say positive because every science that founds on facts is positive and not purely hypothetical. Spiritism did not invent anything because one cannot invent what is part of nature. Newton did not invent the law of gravitation since that law existed before him; everybody felt its effect and applied it but the law was unknown.
Spiritism in turn comes to demonstrate a new law, a force of nature: the one that resides in the action of the Spirit upon matter, a law that is as universal as the law of gravitation and electricity but still unknown and denied by certain persons, like the other laws were also at the time of their discovery. The reason being that people generally have difficulty in renouncing to their preconceived ideas and because of their self-love it is hard to them to agree that they were wrong or that others were able to find what they did not.
But since this law definitely is based on facts and against facts there isn’t any denial that may prevail, they will have to surrender to the evidence, like the most adamant had to do with respect to the movement of Earth, to the formation of the globe and the effects of steam. However much they call the phenomena ridiculous they cannot bar the existence of what does exist.
Spiritism therefore sought the explanation to a certain order of phenomena that were spontaneously produced at all times. But what in particular favored Spiritism in that research was the capability of producing them and up to a certain extent to provoke them. It found adequate instruments for such effect in the mediums as the physicist found in the battery or in the electric machine the means of reproducing the effects of lightning. Please understand that this is a comparison and I do not intend to establish analogy.
There is here, however, a highly important consideration. It is the fact that Spiritism did not follow the paths of hypothesis as it is accused. It did not suppose the existence of the spiritual world in order to explain the phenomena at hand. It followed the path of analysis and observation. From the facts it was led to the cause and the spiritual element was presented as an active force; Spiritism only proclaimed that principle after having attested it. As a force and as a law of nature the spiritual element opens up, therefore, new horizons to the science, providing the key to a number of misunderstood problems.
But if the discovery of purely material laws has produced material revolutions, the discovery of the spiritual element prepares a moral revolution in the world because it completely change the course of the most rooted ideas and beliefs; it shows life under another aspect; it kills superstition and fanaticism; it elevates thoughts and man instead of dragging oneself in matter, of circumscribing life between birth and death, elevates to infinity; he knows where he is coming from and where he is going to; he sees an objective to his work, to his endeavors, a reason to do good; he knows that anything that is acquired here in knowledge and morality is lost and that his progress continues indefinitely beyond the grave; he knows that there is always a future irrespective of the insufficiency and brevity of the present life, whereas the materialistic idea that restricts life to the current existence gives the void by perspective, that not even the duration of life may be given as compensation and that it is up to nobody to control that since we can fall tomorrow, in one hour and then the fruit of our work, our care, the acquired knowledge, everything will be lost forever, many times even without the proper time to have enjoyed that.
Spiritism, I repeat, changes completely the course of the ideas by demonstrating not by hypothesis but by facts the existence of the invisible world that waits for us; it gives man the moral strength, courage and resignation because one does not work for the present only but for the future; he knows that if he does not enjoy today he will enjoy tomorrow.
Demonstrating the action of the spiritual element upon the material world Spiritism broadens the domain of science and opens, for that very reason, a new path to the material progress. Man will then have a solid foundation for the establishment of a moral order on Earth. He will better understand the solidarity that there exists between the creatures of this world, because that solidarity perpetuates indefinitely; fraternity is no longer an empty word; it kills egotism instead of being killed by that and very naturally driven by these ideas man will accommodate to them his laws and social institutions.
Spiritism inevitably leads to that reform. Hence, by the force of things, there will be a moral revolution that must transform humanity and change the face of the globe, and that simply by the knowledge of a new law of nature the gives another direction to the ideas, a meaning to this life, an objective to future aspirations and allows things to be seen from another point of view.
If the detractors of Spiritism – I here speak of those that work towards social progress, of the writers that preach the emancipation of the peoples, freedom, fraternity and the reform of abuses – knew the true tendencies of Spiritism, its reach and its inevitable results, instead of attacking it, as they do, and instead of incessantly throwing obstacles on its path, they would see in Spiritism the most powerful lever to lead to the destruction of abuses that they fight; instead of being hostile they would welcome it as a providential help. Unfortunately the majority believes more in themselves than in the Providence. But the lever acts without them and despite them and the irresistible power of Spiritism will be the more verified the more there is to combat. One day they will say – and that will not be for their glory – what they say about those that have fought against the movement of Earth and about those that denied the power of steam. Every denial, every persecution did not preclude those natural laws for follow their courses, like all the sarcasm of disbelief will not preclude the action of the spiritual element that is also a law of nature.
Considered in this way Spiritism loses the character of mysticism that is censored by its detractors, at least by those that do not know it. It is no longer the science of the wonderful and supernatural resurrected but the dominion of nature, enriched by a new and fertile law, another proof of the power and wisdom of our Creator. These are, finally, the boundaries of human knowledge pushed further.
That is in summary, ladies and gentlemen, the point of view under which Spiritism must be seen. In that case what was my role? It is not that of an inventor or a creator. I saw, observed, studied the facts with care and perseverance; I coordinated them and deduced their consequences: that is all that I have done. What I did could have been done by someone else in my place. I was only an instrument of the Providence in all that and I thank God and the good Spirits for having wanted to use my service. It is a mission that I accepted with joy and that I endeavor to be trustworthy, asking God to give me the necessary strength to accomplish it according to his will. Such a task is, nonetheless, heavier than people may suppose and if I have any merit in that it is the fact that I am conscious of not having stepped back before any obstacle and any sacrifice; it will be the work of my life up to the last day since before such an important objective all of the material and personal interests fade away like points in infinity.
I end this short discourse, ladies and gentlemen, by giving my sincere congratulations to our brothers of Belgium, present and absent, whose zeal, devotion and perseverance contributed to the implantation of Spiritism in that country. The seeds that were planted in the large population centers like Brussels, Antwerp and others, I am certain, were not thrown onto sterile soil.
