Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1865

This book is a proof of the fermentation of the Spiritist ideas much earlier than we were dealing with the Spirits. But here we are not talking about spread out thoughts; it is a series of instructions that we may are based on the current doctrine or, at least, that has drunk from the same spring. The work attributed to Felix de Wimpfen, beheaded in 1793, seems to have been published in 1788. In the beginning only sixty-six books were printed to some friends, according to a note placed at the introduction of the work, and consequently it was very rare. Below it follows the text of the preface dated 1788 and whose very ambiguous form could well be a way of dissimulating the personality of the author:

“If I told the public how the work I deliver today fell in my hands, the extraordinary contained in this story would not satisfy the reader more than my silence would bring uneasiness, adding nothing to the priceless gift that I pass on. Surprised and worried about such a singularity, I read it with a kind of suspicion; but soon the concern was replaced by admiration; I found what no philosopher had ever offered us, a complete system. I found my soul supported, established onto a foundation that corresponded in everything; I felt my soul growing and elevating; my heart felt the warmth of a new love towards my fellow human beings; my imagination hit by an even more profound respect for the author of all things; I saw why so much complaints against the eternal wisdom; since I was better off and happier I thought it was not by chance that I had been chosen and that the Providence wanted me to be the instrument of the publication of this manual, proper to all cults that are respected, to all ages that it instructs, to all states to whom it brings consolation, from the monarch to the beggar. Feeling and reason led me to share with my brothers the encouraging hopes, the peaceful resignation and the impulses towards perfection that took me over. Strengthened by a happiness that was unknow to me until now, I face the ridicule that will fall from me for my weakness, by the hands of the strong ones, and by anticipation I forgive their sorrow with which they will perhaps compensate the happiness for which I invite the reader, and that sooner or later will be their share.”

One of our colleagues from the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, that lives in Gray, in Haute-Saone, found this book on his desk, a short while ago, never knowing why or by whom it was brought there, not knowing anybody that could have done it, and in fact he does not understand the reason to hide it. Among his closest circle nobody ever mentioned that in their conversations, nor did they know anything about the book when he mentioned that. Touched by the ideas he found in the book he informed us about it in his last visit to Paris. We promptly obtained a recently launched publication by Hachette edition. The title unfortunately does not say much and must have contributed to keep it ignored by the public. We believe the Spiritists will thank us for bringing it out from anonymity and calling their attention to the work. Nothing better than citing a few of its passages.

“We all start from the same point to arrive at the same circumference, following different radius; and it is the diversity of types that we have used that provides the diversity of our inclinations to the first prototype. As for the inclinations, for those that have already used several, they have so many different causes and nuances that if we want to indicate them we would get lost in infinity. I will limit myself to say that when we do nothing but to turn around the circle of vanity, we are always similar; but the one that follow the laws cannot conceive how it was possible to act in such different ways, and so much contrary to what one is now.” (page 87)

“Man is no more than a disform or weak prototype when criminally abused the power or the beauty of the one that has just been left, because after the experience we are deprived of the privileges that were abused by us, keeping us away from happiness and salvation, and we then receive again what can lead us closer to them. If, then, it was beauty, we are reborn ugly, disform; if health, weak, ill; if wealth, poor and neglected; if greatness, slaves and deprived; such that it is what the game of the universal laws shows us, down here already, some examples of those that after having abused their transient or conventional means to outrage their brethren, became object of neglect and pity to them.” (page 89)

“When we judge the penalties that a crime deserves we may vary with respect to the measure of punishment but we all agree that the crime must be punished. We are equally in agreement that the punishments imposed on a bad person by a good one would be preferable to the barbarism of the eternal penalties, useless to oneself and to the others, and that since the Almightiness cannot be threatened, offended and disturbed, and cannot seek vengeance; that as a consequence, everything that we experiment is for our enlightenment and change; but the invaluable price that man attaches to material objects of all kinds makes him believe that an infinite power is not less necessary to assign punishment to a fault of his own; then, in his mad passion, he believes that God will revenge as he would if he were god, whereas others try to convince themselves that heavens are oblivious to their crimes. But that is how the corrupted ones reason, each taking their own self-serving interest as basis.” (page 134)

“Had we not limited the universe to our little globe, to an Elysium, a Tartar, all surrounded by candles, we would have been fairer to God and to our brethren. You do not know what to do with the tyrant of Rome, after his uncountable mistakes, dying with the regret of not having achieved all of those in his list. Since you cannot move him to the Elysium, you invent the rages, a Tartar, and throw him into the abyss of eternal penalties. But when you realize that the tyrant, murdered at an early age, still lives; that he went through the most disgusting conditions; that he was punished by the “eye for an eye” law; that he suffered alone everything he made others suffer; when you realize that instructed by disgrace, that great teacher of mankind, modified by the suffering, hopeless and knowledgeable of everything that disturbs; that heart, in which there was abundance of sins and vices, and that vomited the crimes that the universal laws utilized to modify and salvage many of our brothers; when you realize, I say, that that very heart today is an asylum of truth, of the kindest and harmonious virtues, how are you going to feel about that?” (page 131)



“When men imagined a vindictive God, they used their own image for that. Man seeks revenge because believes to have been hurt or to demonstrate that he must be taken seriously, that is, revenge is caused by greed or fear, believing that it is only the demand for justice. Each one of us knows where the lack of harmony in our passions may lead us. But the Almighty, unreachable by our attacks, the Eternal, as good as just, he only carries out justice to the same measure of his goodness. Since his goodness created us for happiness, he ordered the nature of things so that:

“The more you advance the more beauty you will find in a heartfelt prayer, because it is through love that we shall be happy and since love is the link between all beings, its good vibe will act upon you. That invisible companion is perhaps the friend that you believe lost, or the other one that you believe to only exist in your desire; one moment more and you will be with him and every loved one, or those that you would had loved preferably, if you had known them.” (page 265)

“When an injustice or a malevolent act is a cause for your outrage, before you think about that injustice or harm, be rational with respect to your feeling, so that it will not become rage. Say to yourself: I need wisdom to withstand this. Wouldn’t this be an old debt that I pay now? If I lose my calm I will soon fall. Aren’t we all under the hand of the Great Worker and doesn’t He know better than I do the instrument to be used? Which advices I would give to a friend if I saw him in my situation? Isn’t that true that I would remind him of the progression of the beings; if a wild tree produces as good fruits as the one in the orchard; if he would like to be as delayed as the bad person, to become the same as him; if the attack that he suffered had not severed a link that he wasn’t able to break? Wouldn’t I finish by guiding his eyes to that eternal happiness, the price of the complement of a harmony in which we cannot progress but at the measure of our enlightenment, and our separation from the miserable interests that originate the continuous conflicts and that we raise above the finite!” (page 310)

These citations are enough to provide an insight into the book and make any comment unnecessary. The guide of the medium, Mr. Desliens, was asked about the possibility of evoking the Spirit of the author. He said: “Yes, certainly, even more because this is not his first communication. Several mediums were already guided by him on several occasions. I will pass to him the task of explaining that, as below.”

Evoked and questioned about the source of the ideas contained in his book, the Spirit then gave the following communication on June 29^th, 1865:

“Considering that I do not attribute to me the exclusive merit of the work that you read, you must know that the wellbeing of humanity and the enlightenment of my brethren were my sole objective. That means that I will gladly give you the answers you expect from me. I have already come several times to attend the sessions of the Society not only as a spectator but as an instructor, and do not be surprised when I tell you that the Spirits, in their communications, use a name that is typical for the group to which they belong. Therefore, a Spirit that signs St. Augustine will not necessarily be St. Augustine himself but another one of the same order that arrived at the same level of perfection. Having said that you must know that in my life I was one of those inconscient mediums that frequently are found in your time. Here is why I have spoken in a seemingly premature way: For every moral and scientific acquisition several cornerstones are planted, repelled at first to succeed later, in order to seamlessly prepare the minds for the future developments. Every new idea has little chance of success, arriving at a supposedly wise world, facing the partisanship and opposition of its members. They may recognize the wisdom of the new ideas but to them it would be a sign of weakness to accept them, demonstrating the insanity of their particular systems. The prefer to deny them, out of self-love, human respect or even also out of ambition, until they are forced to acknowledge their mistakes by the evidence or pay the price of ridicule that they want to cast upon the new instrument of the Providence. It has been like that at all times and that is how it was with Spiritism. Hence, do not be surprised by finding several isolated manifestations in former times, preceding the great spiritualist movement, whose agreement with the present instructions demonstrate once more the intervention of the Almighty in all discoveries that humanity mistakenly attribute to any particular genius. No doubt that each one has its own genius; however, what would they do on their own? When someone, gifted by an intelligence capable of propagating new ideas with some chance of success, appear on Earth or somewhere else, that person is chosen by the hierarchy of the invisible beings, assigned by the Providence with the task of propagating the new invention, then receiving their inspiration for the discovery, and progressively making the incidents happen that will ensure its success.

During my incarnation it would have been impossible to have told you what driver of my writing was, the true manifestation of my individuality. Now I clearly see that I was the instrument, partially passive, of the Spirit in charge of guiding me to the harmonious target that should model me, in order to acquire the sum of perfection that I was able to expect from Earth. There are two types of very distinct perfections: the relative perfections, inspired by the guide of the day, a guide that is far away from the summit of the scale of perfectibility, and that are just above their proteges given their current stage of evolution, and the absolute perfection, a still veiled aspiration to me, since I still ignore it, and to which we arrive by the succession of relative perfections.

The soul acquires new moral senses in each world in which it lives, allowing the Spirit to get to know things that were unknown up until then. Could I tell you what I was? What is my position in the scale of the beings? What is the point? What good would that do to me to have some of the earthly glory? I prefer to keep the memory of having been useful to my fellow human beings, to the limit of my forces, and continue the task assigned to me by God when on Earth, out of his benevolence. I learned by teaching others. I do the same here. I can only tell you that I am part of the phalanx of Spirits that you assign the generic name of St. Louis.”

Q. – Could you tell us: 1) were you the person designated by the name Felix Wimpfen in the preface of the re-edition of your book? 2) were you a member of the sect of theosophy whose opinions are very close to ours? 3) if you are supposed to reincarnate soon and join the phalanx of Spirits destined to complete the great movement that we observe? 4) Mr. Allan Kardec would like to promote your book. He also would like to know your opinion about it.

A. – No, I was not Felix Wimpfen, believe me. If it were me I would have no problem and telling you that. He was my friend, as several other philosophers of the eighteenth century; I even followed his painful end. But I repeat, my name will remain unknown since it seems useless to have it revealed. I certainly sympathized with theosophy but did not share the enthusiasm of certain followers of that school. I had several acquaintances among them and my ideas, as you saw, were very similar to theirs. I am totally submiss to the designs of the Providence and if it is in those designs my return to Earth to continue to purify and enlighten myself, that will be out of God’s benevolence. In fact, I have expressed that desire and expect it to happen soon. Since my book support the Spiritist ideas I can only approve our President’s attitude for having thought of that. But I might not have been the first promoter of that preparation, and from my side I am certain that some Spirits familiar to me contributed to have it in your hands and to inspire in you the intentions about me.

You will know it is me when you have me specially evoked but when I come to teach you, like in the past, you will only know that I am one Spirit of the order of St. Louis.