March
Comments about the Messiah of SpiritismSee the February issue of the Spiritist Review
1st – Considering that the first of those communications recommended to keep it secret until further notice, although the same thing was taught in different regions, if not as to the form and the circumstances of the detail, at least for the substance of the idea, we were asked if the Spirits, by general consent, had recognized the urgency of this publication, which would have the significance of a certain gravity.
The opinion of most Spirits is a powerful control for the value of the principles of the doctrine, but that does not exclude judgment and reason, whose constant use is recommended by all serious Spirits. When the teaching spontaneously generalizes about a question, in a specific direction, it is a sure indication that the time is right for such a question; but the advisability, in the case in question, is not a question of principle, and we did not think it necessary to wait for the opinion of the majority for this publication, for its utility was demonstrated to us. It would be childish to believe that, making abnegation of our initiative, we obey, as a passive instrument, only a thought that is imposed on us.
The idea of the coming of one or more messiahs was rather general but considered from more or less erroneous points of view, owing to the circumstances of detail contained in certain communications, and of an overly literal assimilation, by a few, of the words of the Gospel on the same subject. These errors could have material drawbacks, the symptoms of which were already being felt. It was, therefore, important not to allow them to be accredited; that is why we have found it useful to reveal the true sense in which this forecast was understood by the majority of the Spirits, thus rectifying, through the general teaching, what isolated teaching could have been partially defective.
2nd - It has been said that the messiahs of Spiritism, coming after its constitution, their role would only be secondary, and it was wondered if this was indeed the character of the messiahs. Can the one whom God entrusts with a mission usefully come when the object of the mission is already accomplished? Wouldn't it be as if Christ came after the establishment of Christianity, or as if the architect in charge of building a house arrives when the house is built?
The Spiritist revelation had to be accomplished in conditions different from its predecessors, because the conditions of humanity are no longer the same. Without going back to what was said about the characteristics of this revelation, we recall that instead of being individual, it had to be collective, and the product of the teaching of the Spirits and of the intelligent work of the man; it was not to be localized, but to take root simultaneously in all points of the globe. This work is carried out under the direction of great Spirits who have been assigned with the mission of presiding over the regeneration of humanity. If they do not cooperate in the work as incarnate, they nonetheless direct the work as Spirits, of which we have evidence. Their role of messiahs is therefore not erased, since they fulfill it before their incarnation, and it is only more commendable. Their action, like Spirits, is even more effective, because they can extend it everywhere, while as incarnate, it is necessarily circumscribed. Today they do, as Spirits, what Christ did as a man: they teach, but by the thousand voices of mediumship; they will then come and do as men what Christ could not do: install their doctrine.
The installation of a doctrine called to regenerate the world cannot be the work of a day, and the life of a man would not be enough. We must first develop the principles, or if we want to make the instrument; then clear the terrain of obstacles and lay the first foundations. What would these Spirits do on Earth during the somewhat material work of cleaning? Their lives would wear out in the struggle. They will, therefore, come more usefully when the work is elaborated and the ground prepared; it will then be up to them to put the finishing touches to the edifice and to consolidate it; in short, to make the tree that has been planted bear fruit. But, in the meantime, they are not inactive: they lead the workers; the incarnation will therefore only be a phase of their mission. Spiritism alone could explain the cooperation of the Spirits of erraticity in an earthly work.
3rd - It was also asked whether there would not be fear that the announcement of these messiahs would tempt ambitious people who would give themselves so-called missions, and would fulfill this prediction: There will be false christs and false prophets?
The answer to that is quite simple; it is entirely in chapter XXI of the Gospel According to Spiritism. By reading this chapter one will see that the role of the false christ is not as easy as one might suppose because it is here the case to say that the habit does not make the monk. At all times there have been schemers who wanted to go by something that they were not; they can undoubtedly imitate the external form; but, when it is a matter of justifying the substance, it is with them like the donkey dressed in the skin of the lion.
Common sense says that God cannot choose his messiahs from among vulgar Spirits, but from those he knows capable of accomplishing his purposes. Whoever claims to have received such a favor should therefore justify it by the eminence of his capacities and his virtues, and his presumption would be the first denial given to those same virtues. What would one say of a rhymester who would pretend to be the prince of poets? To call oneself Christ or Messiah would be to say that one is the most virtuous man in the universe, and one is not virtuous when one is not modest.
Virtue is simulated, it is true, by hypocrisy; but there is one thing that defies any imitation: it is genius, because it must be affirmed by positive works; as for the virtue of facade, it is a comedy that one cannot play for long, without betraying oneself. In the first rank of the moral qualities that distinguish the true missionary of God, we must place sincere humility, dedication without limits and without ulterior motive, absolute material and moral selflessness, self-sacrifice of personality, virtues by which neither the ambitious nor the charlatans shine, who seek glory or profit in the first place. They can have intelligence; they need it to succeed through intrigue; but it is not this intelligence that places man above earthly humanity. If Christ returned to incarnate on earth, he would return with all his virtues. So, if anyone pretended to be him, he would have to equal him in everything; one less quality would be enough to expose the imposture.
Just as we recognize the quality of the tree by its fruit, we will recognize the true messiahs by the quality of their works, and not by their pretensions. It is not they who will proclaim themselves, for perhaps they will ignore themselves; many may be on earth without having been recognized; it is by seeing what they will have been and what they will have done, that men will say to themselves, as they said of Christ: “This one should be a messiah.”
There are a hundred touchstones to recognize the messiahs and the prophets of contraband. The definition of the character of those who are genuine is rather done to discourage the counterfeiters than to excite them to play a role that they are not strong enough to fill, and that would only bring them setbacks. It is, at the same time, giving those whom they try to abuse the means to avoid being duped by their deception.
4th - Some people seemed to fear that the qualification of messiah would spread a veneer of mysticism on the Spiritist doctrine.
For those who know the doctrine, it is from start to finish a protest to mysticism, since it tends to bring all beliefs back to the positive ground of the laws of nature. But, among those who do not know it, there are people for whom everything that escapes the tangible humanity is mystical; for those, to adore God, to pray, to believe in the Providence is to be mystical. We don't have to worry about their opinion.
The word messiah is used, by Spiritism, in its literal sense of messenger, envoy, abstraction made of the idea of redemption and mystery, peculiar to Christian cults. Spiritism does not have to discuss these dogmas that are not within its competence; it says the sense in which it uses this word to avoid any mistake, letting everyone believe according to their conscience, that it does not seek to disturb.
For Spiritism, therefore, every incarnate Spirit with a view to accomplishing a special mission to humanity is a messiah, in the general sense of the word, that is to say a missionary or envoy, with this difference, however, that the word messiah implies more particularly the idea of a direct mission of the divinity, and consequently that of the superiority of the Spirit and the importance of the mission; whence it follows that there is a distinction to be made between the messiahs properly called, and the simple missionary Spirits. What distinguishes them is that, for some, the mission is still a test, because they may fail, while for others it is an attribute of their superiority. From the point of view of the corporeal life, the messiahs come under the category of ordinary incarnations of Spirits, and the word has no character of mysticism.
All the great periods of renovation have seen the appearance of messiahs in charge of giving the impetus to the regenerative movement and leading it. Being the current era one of the greatest transformations of humanity, it will also have its Messiahs who already preside over it as Spirits and will complete their mission as incarnate. Their coming will not be marked by any miracle, and God, to make them recognized, will not disturb the order of the laws of nature. No extraordinary sign will appear in heaven or on earth, and they will not be seen descending from the clouds, accompanied by angels. They will be born, live and die like most men, and their death will not be announced to the world either by earthquakes or by the darkening of the sun; no external sign will distinguish them, any more than Christ was distinguished from other men during his lifetime. Nothing will signal them to public attention except the grandeur of their works, the sublimity of their virtues, and the active and fruitful part they will take in the foundation of the new order of things. Pagan antiquity would have made gods of them; history will place them in the Pantheon of great men, men of genius, but above all among good men whose memory will be honored by posterity.
Such will be the messiahs of Spiritism; great men among men, great Spirits among Spirits, they will mark their passage by prodigies of intelligence and virtue, that attest true superiority, much more than the production of material effects that the first comer can accomplish. This somewhat prosaic picture will perhaps bring down some illusions; but this is how things will happen, quite naturally, and the results will not be less important for not being surrounded by the ideal and somewhat marvelous forms with which certain imaginations liked to surround them.
We said the messiahs, because in fact the forecasts of the Spirits announce that there will be several of them, that is not surprising from the meaning attached to this word, and because of the greatness of the task, since it is a question, not of the advancement of a people or of a race, but of the regeneration of the whole of humanity. How many will there be? Some say three, others more, others less, proving that the thing is in the secrets of God. Will one of them have supremacy? This is still what does not matter much, and that would even be dangerous to know in advance.
The coming of the Messiahs, as a general fact, is announced, because it was useful to have been warned of it; it is a pledge of the future and a subject of tranquility, but individualities should only reveal themselves through their actions. If someone has to shelter the childhood of one of them, they will do so unconsciously, as for the first comer; they will assist and protect him out of pure charity, without being solicited by a feeling of pride, from which he could perhaps not defend himself, that would slip unwittingly into his heart, and cause him to lose the fruit of his action; his devotion might not be as morally selfless as he would imagine.
The safety of the predestined further requires that he be covered with an impenetrable veil, for he will have his Herod; however, a secret is never better kept than when it is not known to anyone. No one, therefore, should know his family or the place of his birth, and the common Spirits themselves do not know it. No angel will come to announce his coming to his mother, because she must not differentiate between him and his other children; Magi will not come to worship him in his cradle and offer him gold and incense, for he should not be greeted until he has proven himself. He will be protected by the invisible, in charge of watching over him, and led to the door where he must knock, and the master of the house will not know who he will receive at his home.
Jesus said, when speaking of the new Messiah: “If anyone says to you: Christ is here or he is there, do not go, because he will not be there.” We must therefore beware of false indications intended to deceive, to make him seem to be where he is not. Since the Spirits are not allowed to reveal what must remain secret, any detailed communication on this point must be regarded as suspicious, or as a test to the one that receives it.
It does not matter, therefore, the number of messiahs; God only knows what is needed; but what is unquestionable is that alongside the messiahs properly called, superior Spirits in unlimited number will be incarnate, or are already incarnate, with special missions to assist them. It will arise in all classes, in all social positions, in all sects and among all peoples; there will be some in the sciences, in the arts, in literature, in politics, as heads of state, wherever their influence may be useful for the dissemination of new ideas, and for the reforms that will be the consequence. The authority of their word will be much greater if it is founded on the esteem and consideration with which they are surrounded.
But one will say, in this crowd of missionaries of all ranks, how to distinguish the messiahs? It doesn't matter whether we distinguish them or not! They do not come to earth to be worshiped here, nor to receive the tribute of men. They will, therefore, not bear any sign on their foreheads; but just as we recognize the worker at work, we will say after their departure: He who has done the greatest good must be the greatest.
Spiritism being the main regenerative element, it was important that the instrument be ready when those who must use it come. It is the work that is being carried out at this time, and that precedes them by a little; but the harrow must first have passed over the earth to purge it from the parasitic grasses that would choke the good grain.
It is the twentieth century, above all, that will see the great apostles of Spiritism flourish, and that could be called the century of the messiahs. Then the old generation will be gone, and the new one will be in all its strength; humanity, recovered from its convulsions, formed of new or regenerated elements, will definitively and peacefully enter the phase of moral progress that must elevate Earth in the hierarchy of the worlds.
Lavater's[1] unpublished correspondence with Empress Mary of Russia
The Spiritists are numerous in St. Petersburg, and they count on very enlightened serious men, who understand the purpose and the high humanitarian significance of the doctrine. One of them, whom we did not have the honor to know, kindly sent us a document even more precious for the history of Spiritism, since it was unknown, and that it touches on highest social echelons. Here is what our honorable correspondent said in his cover letter:
“The Imperial Library of Saint Petersburg published, in 1858, in a very small number of copies, a collection of unpublished letters by the famous physiognomist Lavater; these letters, hitherto unknown in Germany, were addressed to Empress Mary of Russia, wife of Paul I and grandmother of the reigning emperor. The reading of these letters struck me by the philosophical ideas, eminently Spiritists, that they contain, on the relations that exist between the visible world and the invisible world, the intuitive mediumship and the influence of the fluids that produce it.
Presuming that these letters, probably unknown in France, could interest the enlightened Spiritists of this country, by teaching them that their intimate convictions were shared by the eminent Swiss philosopher and two crowned heads, I take the liberty, sir, to send you enclosed the exact and almost literal translation of those letters, that you may find fit to include in your wise and so interesting monthly publication.
I take this opportunity, sir, to express to you the feelings of my deep and perfect esteem, shared by the sincere Spiritists of all countries, who know how to appreciate with dignity the eminent services that your steadfast zeal has rendered to the scientific development and to the propagation of the sublime and so consoling Spiritist doctrine. This third revelation will result in the regeneration, moral progress and the consolidation of faith in the poor humanity, unfortunately misguided, and that floats between skepticism and indifference in matters of religion and morals."- W. de F.
We are publishing the entire manuscript of M. de F. Its scope obliges us to make it the subject of three articles.
Preamble
At the Grand Ducal Castle of Pawlowsk, located twenty-four versts[2] from Petersburg, where Emperor Paul of Russia spent the happiest years of his life, and that later became the favorite residence of Empress Mary, her dignified widow, true benefactress of the suffering humanity, there is a selected library, founded by the imperial couple, in which, among many scientific and literary treasures, there is a packet of hand-written letters of Lavater, that remained unknown to the biographers of the famous physiognomist.
These letters are dated from Zurich, 1798. Sixteen years earlier, in Zurich and Schaffouse, Lavater had had the opportunity to get acquainted with the Count and the Countess of the North (it is by this title that the Grand-Duke of Russia and his wife were then traveling in Europe), and from 1796 to 1800, he sent to Russia, to the address of the Empress Marie, reflections on the physiognomy, attaching letters intended to depict the state of the soul after death.
In these letters, Lavater takes as his point of departure that a soul, having left her body, inspires her ideas in a person of her choice, fit for the light (lichtfæhig), and makes that person write letters addressed to a friend left behind on earth, to instruct him about the state in which she is found.
These unpublished letters from Lavater were discovered during a revision of the Grand Ducal Library by Dr. Minzloff, librarian of the Imperial Library of Petersburg and put in order by the latter. With the authorization of the current owner of Pawlowsk Castle, SAI the Grand Duke Constantine, and by the enlightened patronage of Baron de Korff, currently a member of the Council of the Empire, former chief director of this library that owes him its most notable improvements, they were published in 1858, in Petersburg, with the title: Johann-Kaspar Lavater's briefe, an die kaïserin Maria Feodorowna, gemahlin kaïser Paul I von Russland (Letters from Johann-Kaspar Lavater to the empress Marie Féodorowna, wife of the Emperor Paul I of Russia). This work was printed at the expense of the Imperial Library and offered as a tribute to the Senate of the University of Jena, on the 300th anniversary of its foundation.
These letters, six in total, are of the greatest interest, in that they positively prove that the Spiritist ideas, and especially those of the possibility of communication between the spiritual world and the material world, were germinating in Europe seventy years ago, and that not only was the famous physiognomist convinced of these reports, but that he himself was what, in Spiritism, one calls an intuitive medium, that is a man receiving the thoughts of the Spirits by intuition and transcribing their communications. The letters from a dead friend, that Lavater had attached to his own letters, are eminently Spiritists; they develop and clarify, in a manner as ingenious as witty, the fundamental ideas of Spiritism, and come to the support of all that this doctrine offers that is most rational, more profoundly philosophical, religious, and consoling for humanity.
The people who do not know Spiritism, will be able to suppose that these letters of a Spirit to his friend on earth, are only a poetic form that Lavater gives to his own spiritualist ideas; but those who are initiated into the truths of Spiritism, will find them in these communications, as they were and are still given by the Spirits, through different mediums intuitive, auditory, writers, speaking, ecstatic, etc. It is not natural to suppose that Lavater could himself have conceived and exposed with such great lucidity and precision, abstract and elevated ideas about the state of the soul after death, and their means of communication with embodied Spirits, that is, men. These ideas could only come from the discarnate Spirits themselves. There is no doubt that one of them, having retained feelings of affection for a friend who still lives on Earth, gave him, through the intermediary of an intuitive medium (perhaps Lavater himself was this friend), notions on this subject, to initiate him into the mysteries of the tomb, to the extent of what a Spirit is allowed to reveal to men, and what they are able to understand.
We give here the exact translation of Lavater's letters, written in German, as well as that of the communications from beyond the grave, that he addressed to the Empress Marie, according to the latter's desire to know the ideas of the German philosopher on the state of the soul after the death of the body.
First Letter
About the state of the soul after death
General Ideas
Most revered Mary of Russia!
Deign to grant me permission not to give you the title of majesty, that is due to you from the world, but that does not harmonize with the holiness of the subject about which you wished I spoke to you, and to be able to write to you frankly and with complete freedom.
You want to know some of my ideas on the state of the souls after death.
Despite the little that is given to the wisest and the most enlightened among us to know, since none of those who left for the unknown land has returned, the thoughtful man, the disciple of He who came down to us from heaven, is nevertheless able to say as much as we need to know to encourage us, to calm us down and to make us think.
For this time, I will restrict myself to explaining to you some of the most general ideas on this subject.
I think there must be a big difference between the state, the way of thinking and feeling of a soul separated from its material body, and the state it was in during its union with it. This difference must be at least as significant as that that exists between the condition of a newborn child and that of a child living in its mother's womb.
We are related to matter, and it is our senses and our organs that give our souls perceptions and understanding.
Based on the difference between the construction of the telescope, the microscope, and the glasses, that our eyes use to see, the objects we look at through them appear to us in a different form. Our senses are the telescopes, microscopes, and glasses, necessary for our present life, that is the material life.
I think that the visible world must disappear for the soul separated from its body, just as it escapes from it during the sleep. Or else the world, that the soul glimpsed at during its bodily existence, must appear to the dematerialized soul in an entirely different way.
If, for some time, the soul could remain without a body, the material world would not exist for it. But if it is provided with a spiritual body, immediately after having left its body, that I find very likely, that it would have withdrawn from her material body, the new body will necessarily give it a completely different perception of things. If, which can easily happen to impure souls, this body remained for some time imperfect and undeveloped, the whole universe would appear to the soul in a cloudy state, as seen through frosted glass.
But if the spiritual body, conductor, and intermediary of its new impressions, were or became more developed or better organized, the world of the soul would appear to it, according to the nature and the qualities of its new organs, as well as according to the degree of its harmony and perfection, more regular and more beautiful.
The organs are simplified, acquire harmony among themselves and are more appropriate to the nature, character, needs and strengths of the soul, depending on whether it is concentrated, enriched, and refined down here, pursuing a single goal, and acting in a specific direction. The soul itself perfects, by existing on earth, the qualities of the spiritual body, of the vehicle in which it will continue to exist after the death of its material body, and that will serve as its organ to conceive, feel, and act in its new existence. This new body, appropriate to its intimate nature, will make it pure, loving, vivacious and suitable for a thousand beautiful sensations, impressions, contemplations, actions, and pleasures.
All that we can, and all that we cannot yet say about the state of the soul after death, will always be based on this single permanent and general axiom: man reaps what he has sown.
It is difficult to find a principle that is simpler, clearer, more abundant, and more suitable to be applied to all possible cases.
There is a general law of nature, closely related, even identical, to the above-mentioned principle, concerning the state of the soul after death, an equivalent law in all worlds, in all possible states, in the material world and in the spiritual world, visible and invisible, knowingly:
“What looks alike tends to come together. All that is identical attracts each other, if there are no obstacles that oppose their union.”
The whole doctrine of the state of the soul after death is based on this simple principle; all that we ordinarily call: preliminary judgment, compensation, supreme happiness, disgrace, can be explained in this way: the society of those who, like you, have sowed good in themselves and beyond them; you will enjoy the friendship of those to whom you were like in their way of sowing good."
Each soul separated from its body, free from the chains of matter, appears to itself as it really is. All the illusions, all the seductions that prevented it from recognizing itself and seeing its strengths, weaknesses and faults will disappear. It will experience an overwhelming tendency to move towards souls that resemble it and to move away from those that are unlike it. Its own inner weight, as obeying the law of gravity, will draw it into bottomless abysses (at least that is how it will seem to it); or else, according to the degree of its purity, it will soar, like a spark carried by its lightness in the air, and will pass rapidly into the luminous, fluidic, and ethereal regions.
The soul gives itself a weight that is proper to itself, through its inner sense; its state of perfection pushes it forward, backward, or sideways; its own moral or religious character inspires it with certain particular tendencies. The good will rise to the good; the need it feels for good will draw it to them. The bad guy is necessarily pushed towards the bad guys. The steep fall of the rude, immoral and irreligious souls, to the souls that are like them, will be just as swift and inevitable as the fall from an anvil into an abyss, when nothing can stop it.
That's enough for now.
Zurich, 1. VIII. 1798
Joann-Kasper Lavater
JEAN-GASPAR LAVATER.
With God’s permission, continued every eight days
Second Letter
The needs experienced by the human spirit, during its exile in the material body, remain the same as soon as it leaves it. Its happiness will consist in the possibility of being able to satisfy its spiritual needs; its disgrace, in the impossibility of being able to satisfy its carnal appetites, in a less material world.
Unmet needs constitute disgrace; their satisfaction constitutes the supreme happiness.
I would like to tell every man: “Analyze the nature of your needs; give them their real name; ask yourself: are they admissible in a less material world? Can they find their satisfaction there?” And if they could truly be content with it, would they be of those whom an intellectual and immortal Spirit can honorably confess and desire its satisfaction, without feeling a deep shame in front of other similar intellectual and immortal beings?
The soul's need to satisfy the spiritual aspirations of other immortal souls; to provide them with the pure enjoyments of life, to inspire them with the assurance of the continuation of their existence after death, to cooperate thereby in the great plan of supreme wisdom and love; the progress acquired by this noble activity, so worthy of man, together with the selfless desire for good, give the human souls the aptitude, and hence the right to be received into the circles of more elevated Spirits, purer, more holy.
When we have, much venerated Empress, the intimate conviction that the most natural need, and yet very rare, that can arise in an immortal soul: that of God, the need to approach him more and more in all aspects, and to be like the invisible Father of all creatures, once became predominant in us, oh! then, we must not have the slightest fear concerning our future state, when death will have rid us of our body, this thick wall that hid God from us. This material body that separated us from God is brought down, and the veil that hid from us the sight of the most holy of holies is torn. The adorable Being whom we loved above all, with all his resplendent graces, will then have free entry into our soul hungry of him, then receiving him with joy and love.
As soon as the boundless love for God has gained the upper hand in our soul, as a result of the efforts that it will have made to approach Him and be like Him in its vivifying love for humanity, and by all the means that it had in its power, this soul, freed from its body, necessarily passing through many degrees to perfect itself ever more, it will ascend with astonishing ease and rapidity towards the object of its deepest veneration and of its boundless love, towards the inexhaustible source and the only one sufficient for the satisfaction of all its needs and aspirations.
No weak eye, sick or veiled, is in a condition look at the sun face to face; likewise no impure Spirit, still enveloped in the material fog with which an exclusively material life surrounded it, even at the moment of its separation from the body, would be able to endure the sight of the purest sun of Spirits, in its resplendent clarity, its symbol, its focus, from which emanate these streams of light that even penetrate finite beings with the feeling of their infinity.
Who better than you, madam, knows that the good are attracted only by the good! That only the elevated souls know how to enjoy the presence of other elite souls! Any man knowing life and men, one who often had to find himself in the company of these dishonest, effeminate flatterers, lacking in character, always eager to pick up and put forward the most insignificant word, the slightest allusion of those that they seek the favor, or else of these hypocrites, trying to penetrate shrewdly into the ideas of the others, to interpret them, then in a completely opposite direction, that one, I say, must know how much these vile souls and slaves suddenly embarrassed by a simple word spoken with firmness and dignity; how a single stern look confuses them, making them feel deeply that they are known and that they are judged at their true value! How painful it becomes for them to endure the presence of an honest man! No deceitful and hypocritical soul is happy by the contact of an honest and energetic soul that reads it. Each impure soul, having left its body, must according to its intimate nature, as if pushed by an occult and invincible power, flee the presence of every pure and luminous being, hiding as much as possible, the sight of its many imperfections that it is not in a condition to hide from herself or from others.
Even if it were not written: “No one, without being purified, will be able to see the Lord,” it would be perfectly in the order of things. An impure soul finds itself in an absolute impossibility of entering in any relationship whatsoever with a pure soul, nor feeling the slightest sympathy for that. A light fearing soul cannot, by that very fact, be attracted to the source of light. Clarity, deprived of all darkness, must burn it like a consuming fire.
And what are the souls, madam, that we call impure? I think that these are the ones in which the desire to purify oneself, to correct oneself, to perfect oneself, has never prevailed. I think they are those who have not submitted to the high principle of selflessness in all things; those who have chosen themselves as the unique center of all their desires and ideas; those who regard themselves as the goal of all around them, who only seek the means of satisfying their passions and their senses; finally, those overwhelmed by selfishness, pride, self-esteem and personal interest, who want to serve two masters who contradict one another, and do that simultaneously.
Such souls must find themselves, I believe, after their separation from their body, in the miserable state of a horrible contemplation of themselves; or, what amounts to the same thing, of the deep contempt that they feel for themselves, and to be drawn by an irresistible force towards the dreadful company of other egoistic souls, incessantly condemning themselves.
It is selfishness that produces the impurity of the soul and makes it suffer. It is fought in all human souls by something that is its contrary, something pure, divine: the moral feeling. Without this feeling, man is not capable of any moral pleasure, of any esteem, or of any contempt for himself, understanding neither heaven nor hell. This divine light makes all the darkness that he discovers in himself unbearable, and this is the reason why delicate souls, those who possess the moral sense, suffer more ruthlessly when selfishness takes hold of them and subjugates that feeling.
His purity, his ability to receive light, his happiness, his heaven, his God depend on the agreement and harmony that subsist in man, between himself and his inner law. His God appears to him like himself. To those who know how to love, God appears as the supreme love, in a thousand loving forms. His degree of happiness and his ability to make others happy are in proportion to the principle of love that rules in him. He who loves selflessly remains in constant harmony with the source of all love and all who draw love from it.
Let us try to keep love in all its purity within us, madam, and we will always be drawn by it towards the most loving souls. Let us cleanse ourselves more of the stains of selfishness every day, and then, whether we must leave this world today or tomorrow, returning our mortal envelope to earth, our soul will take off with lightning speed towards the model of all those who love, and will meet them with indescribable happiness.
None of us can know what will become of one’s soul after the death of one’s body, and yet I am fully convinced that purified love must necessarily give our Spirit, delivered from his body, boundless freedom, a hundredfold existence, a continual enjoyment of God, and unlimited power to bring happiness to all those who are fit to taste the supreme bliss.
Oh! How incomparable is the moral freedom of the Spirit stripped of its body! With what lightness the soul of the loving being, surrounded by a resplendent light, ascends! What infinite science, what power to communicate to others, becomes its prerogative! What light springs from itself! What life animates all the atoms that form it! Floods of pleasures rush from all sides to meet it to satisfy its purest and highest needs! Countless legions of loving beings reach out to it! Harmonious voices are heard in these numerous choirs radiant with joy, saying: “Spirit of our Spirit! Heart of our heart! Love drawn from the source of all love! Loving soul, you belong to us all, and we are all yours! Each of us is yours and you belong to each of us. God is love and God is ours. We are all filled with God, and love finds its bliss in the bliss of all."
I ardently wish, most revered Empress, that you, your noble and generous husband, the Emperor, both dedicated to good, and I with you, may we all never become strangers to love that is God and man at the same time; may it be granted to us to form ourselves for the pleasures of love through our actions, our prayers and our sufferings, bringing us closer to the one who allowed himself to be tied to the cross of the Golgotha.
Zurich, August 18th, 1798
Johann-Kaspar Lavater
We can already see in what order of ideas Lavater wrote to the Empress Mary, and to what extent he possessed the intuition of the principles of modern Spiritism. We will better assess it by the complement of this remarkable correspondence. While awaiting the reflections that we will attach to that, we believe to be right now to point out an important fact: that in order to maintain a correspondence on such a subject with the Empress, the latter had to share these ideas, and several circumstances do not allow us to doubt that it was the same with the Czar, her husband. It was by his request, or better by their request, that Lavater wrote, and the tone of his letters proves that he was addressing convinced people. As we can see, the Spiritist beliefs in the high spheres do not date from today. In fact, we can also see in the Spiritist Review, April 1866, the account of a tangible apparition of Peter the Great to this same Paul I.
Having Lavater's letters been read at the Parisian Society and a conversation taken place on this subject, Paul I undoubtedly attracted by the thought that was directed towards him on this occasion, spontaneously manifested himself and without evocation, to one of the mediums to whom he dictated the following communication:
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, February 7th, 1868 – medium Mr. Leymarie
Power is a heavy thing, and the troubles it leaves painfully impress our souls! The setbacks are continual; one must conform to habits, to the old institutions, to prejudice, and God knows what resistance is needed to oppose all the appetites that reach the throne, like tumultuous waves. So, what a happiness when, leaving for a moment this robe of Nessus called royalty, we can shut ourselves off in a peaceful place, where we can rest in peace far from the noise and tumult of the ambitions!
My dear Marie liked calm. A solid, gentle, resigned, loving character, she would have rather forgotten greatness to devote herself completely to charity, to study the lofty philosophical questions that were the drivers of her faculties. Like her, I loved these intellectual recreations; they were a balm to my wounds as a sovereign, a new force to guide me in the maze of European politics.
Lavater, that great heart, that great Spirit, that predestined brother, initiated us in his sublime doctrine; his letters, that you have today, were awaited by us with great anxiety. All they contained was the mirage of our personal ideas; we read them, these dear letters, with childish joy, happy to lay down our crown, its gravity, its etiquette, to discuss the rights of the soul, its emancipation, and its divine course towards the Eternal.
All these questions, that are burning today, we accepted them seventy years ago; they were part of our life, of our rest. Many strange effects, apparitions, rumors, had strengthened our opinion on this subject. The Empress Marie saw and heard the Spirits; through them she had learned of events that happened at great distances. Prince Lopoukine, who died in Kiev, several hundred leagues away, had come to tell us of his death, the incidents that had preceded his departure, the expression of his last wishes; the Empress had written by dictation of the Spirit Lopoukine, and twenty days later the court heard all the details we already had. They were a resounding confirmation for us, and the proof that Lavater and we were initiated into the great truths.
Today we know the doctrine better from you, the doctrine whose basis you have broadened; we will come back to ask you for a few moments, and we thank you in advance, if you will listen to Mary of Russia and the one who had the privilege of having her as a companion.
Paul I
[1] Johann Kaspar Lavater, German physiognomist, philosopher, theologian, poet, and magnetism enthusiast, born in 1741 (Wikipedia, T.N.)
[2] Russian unit of distance equal to 0.6629 mile (1.067 kilometers) – Merriam-Webster dictionary (T.N.)
The following fact is reported to us by one of our correspondents from Maine-et-Loire, Dr. E. Champneuf. Although the fact itself does not fall outside the circle of known phenomena of physical manifestation, it is instructive in that it proves once more the diversity of types that are encountered in the invisible world, and that by entering it, certain Spirits do not immediately change their character; this is what we did not know before Spiritism brought us into contact with the inhabitants of this world. Here is the story that was sent to us:
“Allow me to tell you a rather curious fact, not of a transportation, but of a subtraction by a Spirit, that took place eight days ago among us.
There is a Spirit that attends our group for several years in Saumur, who for some time now has become even more familiar with our group in Vernantes; he said his name is Flageolet; but our medium, to whom he made himself known, and that in fact knew him when he lived in this world, tells us that his name was Biron, a violin player, quite a brave man, living a life of pleasure, and running around the taverns where he made people dance. He is a lighthearted, mystifying Spirit, but not wicked.
Flageolet then moved in with my brother, where our sessions take place; lunches and dinners are brightened by the played arias that are asked of him or not asked of him, happy when glasses and dishes are not upset by his overly boisterous laughter.
A week ago, my brother, a strong tobacco user, had his snuffbox beside him on the table as usual, and as usual Flageolet also attended the family dinner. After a few arias and marches were played, the Spirit began playing the song: “I have good tobacco in my snuffbox.” At that moment my brother was looking for his, that was no longer with him; he looks around, searches his pockets, nothing; the same tune continues with more enthusiasm; he gets up, explores the shelf of the fireplace, the furniture, continues the search in the neighboring rooms, and the song of the snuffbox pursues him with more intensity, redoubling its mockery as he moves away and gets more animated in his search. If he approaches the fireplace, the knocks become louder and faster. Finally, the seeker, annoyed by that pitiless harmony, thinks of Flageolet, and says to him:
- Did you take my snuffbox?
- Yes.
- Will you give it back to me?
- Yes.
- Well! speak.
They took the alphabet and a pencil, and the Spirit dictated: "I set it on fire.” They searched the burning ashes and found there, at the back of the grate, the snuffbox whose powder was charred.
Every day there is some surprise on his part or some trick in his way. Three days ago, he informed us of the contents of a well-tied basket that had just arrived.
Yesterday evening, it was a new prank addressed to my brother. The latter, returning home during the day, looked for the cap he was wearing inside, and unable to find it, he gave up and thought no more of it. In the evening Flageolet, undoubtedly annoyed for playing songs without anyone paying attention to him, and without anyone thinking of questioning him, he asked for someone to write. We placed ourselves at his disposal, and he dictated:
- I snatched your cap.
- Will you tell me where it is?
- Yes.
- Where did you put it?
- I gave it to Napoleon.
Convinced that it was a bad joke from the Spirit, we asked him:
- Which one?
- Yours.
For many years there has been a half-size statue of Napoleon in the room where our sessions are held. We walked towards the statue, a lamp in hand, and found the missing bonne covering the historic little hat."
Observation: Everything in Spiritism is a subject of study for the serious observer; apparently insignificant facts have their cause, and this cause may be linked to the most important principles. Aren’t the great laws of nature revealed in the smallest insect as in the gigantic animal? In the falling grain of sand as in the movement of the stars? Does the botanist neglect a flower because it is simple and uninspiring? It is the same in the moral order where everything has its philosophical value, as in the physical order everything has its scientific value.
While some people will see in the fact reported above only a curious, amusing thing, a subject of distraction, others will see in it an application of the law that governs the progressive march of the intelligent beings and will learn from it. The invisible world being the environment where humanity inevitably ends up, nothing that can help to make it known could be indifferent. The corporeal world and the spiritual world, incessantly pouring into each other through deaths and births, are explained by each other. This is one of the great laws revealed by Spiritism.
Isn’t the character of this Spirit that of a naughty child? However, during his lifetime he was a grown man and even of a certain age; would some Spirits therefore become children again? No; the truly adult Spirit does not turn back as the river does not run towards its source. But the age of the body is no indication of the age of the Spirit. As it is necessary that all the Spirits that are incarnate pass by the corporeal childhood, it follows that in the bodies of children there are inevitably advanced Spirits; however, if these Spirits die prematurely, they reveal their superiority as soon as they have stripped from their envelope. For the same reason, a young Spirit, spiritually speaking, unable to mature during an existence that is less than an hour in the life of the Spirit, an adult body can harbor a child Spirit by character and moral development.
Flageolet undoubtedly belongs to this last category of Spirits; he will advance faster than others, because there is nothing but lightness in him and the substance is not bad. The serious environment in which he manifests himself, the contact with enlightened men, will ripen his ideas; his education is an incumbent task upon them, while he would have gained nothing with futile persons who would have amused themselves with his pranks, like those of a buffoon.
Theoretical essay of instant healings
The following explanation, deduced from the indications given by a medium in a state of spontaneous somnambulism, is based on physiological considerations that seem to us to throw a new light on the issue. It was given on the occasion when a person, suffering from very serious illnesses, that asked if a fluidic treatment could be beneficial to him.
However rational this explanation may seem to us, we do not give it as absolute, but as a hypothesis and as a subject of study, until it has received the double sanction of logic and that of the general opinion of the Spirits, the only valid control of the Spiritist doctrines, and that can ensure their eternity.
In therapeutic medication, appropriate remedies are needed. Since the same remedy cannot have opposite properties: being at the same time stimulating and calming, warming, and refreshing, it cannot be appropriate to all cases; that is why there is no universal remedy.
The same is true with the healing fluid, a true therapeutic agent, whose qualities vary according to the physical and moral temperament of the individuals that transmits it. There are fluids that excite and others that calm down, strong and soft fluids, and many other nuances. Depending on its qualities, the same fluid, like the same remedy, may be beneficial in certain cases, ineffective and even harmful in others; it follows that the cure depends, in principle, on the adequacy of the qualities of the fluid to the nature and to the cause of the illness. This is what many people do not understand, and why they are amazed that a healer does not cure every disease. Regarding the circumstances that influence the intrinsic qualities of the fluids, they have been sufficiently developed in chapter XIV of Genesis, for it is superfluous to recall them here.
To this entirely physical cause of non-healings, we must add a completely moral one that Spiritism reveals to us; this is because most illnesses, like all human miseries, are atonements of the present or the past, or trials for the future; these are acquired debts that one must suffer the consequences until they have been redeemed. Therefore, the one that must endure the ordeal to the end cannot be healed. This principle is a reason of resignation for the patient but should not be an excuse for the doctor to seek, in the necessity of the test, a convenient means of sheltering their ignorance.
Considered from the physiological point of view alone, diseases have two causes that have not been distinguished to date, and that could not be appreciated before the new knowledge brought about by Spiritism; it is from the difference between these two causes that the possibility of instantaneous cures arises in special cases, and not in all cases.
Certain diseases have their original cause in the very deterioration of the organic tissues; it is the only one that science has admitted to this day; and since science only knows tangible medicinal substances to remedy them, it does not understand the action of an intangible fluid having the will as its driver. However, the magnetic healers are there to prove that this is not an illusion.
In the cure of diseases of this nature by the fluidic influx, there is replacement of the morbid organic molecules by healthy molecules; it is the story of an old house whose worm-eaten stones are replaced by good stones; we still have the same house, but restored and consolidated. The Saint-Jacques tower and Notre-Dame in Paris have just undergone a treatment of this kind.
The fluidic substance produces an effect analogous to that of the medicinal substance, with the difference that its infiltration being greater, due to the thinness of its constituent principles, it acts more directly on the primary molecules of the organism than the coarser molecules of material substances can do. In the second place, its effectiveness is more general, without being universal, because its qualities are modifiable by thoughts, while the material ones are fixed and invariable, and can only be applied to specific cases.
Such is, in a general thesis, the principle on which the magnetic treatments are based. Let us add summarily and for the record, for not being able to go into the subject in depth here, that the action of homeopathic remedies in infinitesimal doses is founded on the same principle; the medicinal substance being carried, by division, in the atomic state, acquires to a certain point the properties of fluids, less however, the soulful principle that exists in animalized fluids, and gives them special qualities.
In short, it is a question of repairing an organic disorder by the introduction, into the organism, of healthy materials in substitution of deteriorated materials. These healthy materials can be provided by ordinary raw medicines; by these same remedies in the state of homeopathic division; finally, by the magnetic fluid, that is no other than spiritualized matter. These are three modes of repair, or even better, of introduction and assimilation of the elements of repair; all three are also in nature, and have their utility according to special cases, explaining why one succeeds or another fails, for there would be partiality in denying the services rendered by ordinary medicine. These are, in our opinion, three branches of the art of healing intended to supplement and complement each other, according to the circumstances, but none has the right to believe to be the universal panacea of mankind.
Each of these means can, therefore, be effective if it is used appropriately to the kind of illness; but, whatever it is, we understand that the molecular substitution, necessary for the reestablishment of equilibrium, can only take place gradually, and not as if by magic and by a wave of the wand; the cure, if it is possible, can only be the result of a sustained and continuous action, more or less lengthy, according to the gravity of the cases.
However, instant healings are a fact, and as they cannot be more miraculous than the others, they must be accomplished under special circumstances; what proves it is that they do not take place indiscriminately in all diseases, nor on all individuals. It is, therefore, a natural phenomenon whose law must be sought; now, here is the explanation given; to understand it, it was necessary to have the point of comparison that we have just established.
Certain diseases, even very serious ones that have moved to a chronic state, do not have the deterioration of the organic molecules as their first cause, but the presence of a bad fluid that disaggregate them, so to speak, and disturbs the organization.
Here it is like a watch in which all parts are in good condition, but their movement is stopped or disturbed by dust; no part needs to be replaced, and yet it does not work; to restore the regularity of the movement, it suffices to purge the watch of the obstacle that prevented it from functioning.
Such is the case with many diseases whose origin is due to the pernicious fluids with which the organism is infiltrated. To obtain healing, it is not deteriorated molecules that must be replaced, but a foreign body that must be expelled; when the cause of the illness has disappeared, the equilibrium is restored, and the functions resume their course.
It is understood that in such a case the therapeutic drugs, intended by their nature to act on the matter, are ineffective on a fluidic agent; so, ordinary medicine is powerless in all diseases caused by contaminated fluids, and there are many of them. One can oppose matter with matter, but a bad fluid must be opposed by a better and more powerful fluid. Therapeutic medicine naturally fails against fluidic agents; for the same reason fluidic medicine fails where it is necessary to oppose matter to matter; homeopathic medicine seems to us to be the intermediary, the link between these two extremes, and must particularly succeed in diseases that one could call mixed.
Whatever the claim of each of these systems to supremacy, what is positive is that each one has achieved undeniable success, but so far none has justified to possess the exclusive truth; one must, therefore, conclude that all have their utility, and that the main thing is to apply them appropriately.
Here we must not be concerned with the cases in which the fluidic treatment is applicable, but with the cause for which this treatment may sometimes be instantaneous, while in other cases it requires continual action.
The difference is due to the very nature and root cause of the illness. Two conditions that apparently have identical symptoms may have different causes; one can be determined by the alteration of organic molecules, and in this case, it is necessary to repair, replace, as I have been told, the damaged molecules by healthy molecules, an operation that can only be done gradually; the other, by the infiltration of a bad fluid into healthy organs, disturbing their functions. In this case, it is not a question of repairing, but of expelling. These two cases require different qualities of the healing fluid; in the first, it is necessary a fluid softer than violent, particularly rich in restorative principles; in the second, an energetic fluid, more suitable to expel than repair; depending on the quality of this fluid, the expulsion can be rapid and as in the effect of an electric discharge. The patient suddenly released from the foreign cause that made him suffer, immediately feels relieved, like in the extraction of a bad tooth. The organ, no longer being obliterated, returns to its normal state, and resumes its functions.
This can explain the instantaneous cures, that are only a variety of the magnetic action. They are based, as one sees, on an essentially physiological principle and have nothing more miraculous than the other Spiritist phenomena. It is understandable, therefore, why these kinds of cures are not applicable to all diseases. Their success is due at the same time to the first cause of the illness, that is not the same in all individuals, and to the special qualities of the fluid that one opposes to it. As a result, a person that produces quick effects is not always fit for a regular magnetic treatment, and excellent magnetizers are unsuitable for instantaneous cures.
This theory can be summed up as follows: “When the disease requires the repair of damaged organs, healing is necessarily slow, and requires sustained action and a fluid of a special quality; when it comes to expelling a bad fluid, it can be quick and even instantaneous."
To simplify the question, we have only considered the two extreme points; but between the two there are infinite nuances; that is to say, a multitude of cases where the two causes exist simultaneously in different degrees, and with one or the other more preponderant; therefore, both expel and repair are necessary. Depending on which of the two causes prevails, the cure is faster or slower; if it is that of the bad fluid, after the expulsion it is necessary to repair it; if it is the organic disorder, after repair, it is necessary to expel it. Healing is only complete after the destruction of both causes. This is the most ordinary case; that is why therapeutic treatments often need to be supplemented by fluidic treatment and vice versa; that is also why the instantaneous cures, that take place in cases where the fluid predominance is exclusive, so to speak, can never become a universal curative means; hence, they are not called upon to supplant medicine, homeopathy, or ordinary magnetism.
Radical and definitive instantaneous healing can be considered as an exceptional case, given that it is rare: (1) for the expulsion of the bad fluid to be complete at the first attempt; (2) that the fluidic cause is not accompanied by some organic alteration, that obliges, in both cases, to return to it several times.
Finally, since bad fluids can only come from bad Spirits, their insertion into the organism is often linked to obsession. As a result, to be healed, both the sick person and the obsessing Spirit must be treated.
These considerations show how much must be taken into account in the treatment of diseases, and how much more remains to be learned in this regard. They also come to confirm a capital fact that emerges from the book Genesis, it is the alliance between Spiritism and science. Spiritism walks on the same ground as science to the limits of tangible matter; but while science stops at this point, Spiritism continues its path, and pursues its investigations in the phenomena of nature, with the aid of the elements that it draws from the extra-material world; there alone is the solution of the difficulties against which science crashes.
Observation: The person whose request has motivated this explanation is in the case of diseases with complex cause. Her organism is profoundly altered, at the same time saturated with the most pernicious fluids that lend her incurable by ordinary therapy alone. A violent and too energetic magnetization would only produce a momentary overexcitation, soon followed by a greater prostration, activating the work of decomposition. She would need a gentle, long-lasting magnetization, a penetrating repairing fluid, and not a fluid that stirs but does not repair anything. She is, therefore, inaccessible to instant healing.
Bibliographic News
Preceded by his prayer and how to heal those who suffer.[1]
Quotes are the best way to convey the spirit of a book. We first borrow from the editor's opinion and preface the following passages from the book just published by Mr. Jacob. The facts that justify its notoriety are much well known, making it unnecessary to recall them; we have, moreover, exposed them sufficiently in the Spiritist Review, October, and November 1866, after the Camp Châlons, and in the issues of October and November 1867.
“Henri Jacob, today a musician in the Zouave regiment of the imperial guard, was born on March 6th, 1828, in Saint-Martin-des-Champs (Saône-et-Loire). All his education consists of one year of class attendance at the municipal school; he therefore received no other education than that his father was able to give him; it doesn’t go beyond simple reading and writing, and yet it is he who, without the help of anyone, wrote this text that we are releasing for publication.
Jacob is not a professional writer; he is a man of religious aspirations, who decided to deliver this volume to publicity only on very urgent demands. For him, this work is his profession of faith in the Creator God; a prayer, a hymn, so to speak, that he addresses to the Almighty. It is written in a good spirit, without passion, and it does not allude to any cult or to any spirit of political party.
Jacob is a creature of some imagination, nothing else. The reader would be greatly mistaken by seeing in his feelings anything other than God and humanity; his whole ambition is to bring some relief to the latter.
In these pages we see a kind of heroism and greatness, reflected in the acts of philanthropy so wonderfully performed by Jacob, a firm believer, who knows he can do much, because God comes to his aid in his much difficult work, and that God alone will see it through.”
Mr. Jacob first gives an account, in simple terms and without emphasis, of a dream or vision that contributed to the elevation of his thoughts towards God, and to focus his thoughts in the future.
Then comes a profession of faith, in the form of an epistle, entitled: "To my brothers in Spiritism", and from which we extract the following passages:
“Before my initiation into the Spiritist science, I lived in darkness; my heart had never felt the sweetness of peace! My soul had never known joy; I lived attached to Earth with the torments it arouses in materialistic men, without thinking that there are better worlds, that God, the father of us all, created those who practice good here on Earth to enjoy ineffable happiness.
Through my initiation into the Spiritist doctrine, I have acquired the conviction that God, in his mercy, sends us good Spirits to advise us and encourage us in the practice of good, and has given us the power to communicate with them and with those who left this Earth and who are dear to our hearts. That conviction has enlightened my soul! I saw the light. Little by little I grew stronger in my conviction, and through that I reached the faculty of writing medium.
My conversations with the Spirits and their good advice filled me with a lively faith, confirming to me the truths of the Spiritist science, that strengthened my faith, and by faith the faculty of healing was given to me.
So, my dear friends, may a living faith always be in you, through the practice of the Spiritist maxims which are: the love of God, fraternity, and charity. Let us love one another, and we will all be able to relieve each other, and many will be able to heal, I am convinced.
So let us always be charitable and generous, and we will always be assisted by the good Spirits. All of you who are initiated into the Spiritist doctrine, teach it to those who are still in the darkness of matter; open their souls to the light and they will enjoy, in anticipation, the happiness that awaits those who practice good among us, in the superior worlds.
Be firm in your good resolutions; always live in a great purity of soul, and God will give you the power to heal your fellow men. Here is my prayer:
“My God, grant me the grace to allow the good and benevolent Spirits to come to assist me, intentionally and in fact, in the work of charity that I wish to accomplish by relieving the unfortunate ones that are suffering. It is in your name and in your praise, my God, that these blessings are spread on us."
Believe, have faith! And when you want to relieve a sick person, after your prayer, put your hand on your heart, and warmly ask God for the help you need, and I am convinced, the divine emanation will infiltrate you to relieve or cure your brother who is in pain. My first conscious cure was to get a cholera patient out of his bed of pain, by operating in this way; why would you want me to be more privileged than you, by God, who is wisdom and justice?
Through your letters, you ask me to correspond with you and to help you with my advice. I am going to share with you those that the Spirits have inspired in me, and answer your call, full of good will to be useful to your happiness. Mine would be great if I could cooperate with the success of the degree of perfection that I desire to see you achieve.”
There follows a series of 217 letters that constitute, strictly speaking, the body of the volume. These are communications obtained by Mr. Jacob, as a writing medium, in various groups or Spiritist meetings. These are excellent moral advice, in a somewhat correct style; encouragement to the practice of charity, fraternity, humility, gentleness, benevolence, devotion to the Spiritist doctrine, moral and material selflessness; exhortations to reform oneself. The severest moralist will find nothing to complain about, and it would be desirable that all mediums, healers, and others, and all Spiritists in general, put those wise advice into practice. One can only congratulate Mr. Jacob on the feelings he expresses, and by reading this book, it will not occur to anyone that it is the work of a charlatan; it is, therefore, a denial given to the accusations that the interested maliciousness has taken pleasure in throwing at him; to those who, in derision, presented him as a thaumaturge or miracle worker.
Although these numerous communications are all conceived in an excellent spirit, it regrettable that the uniformity of the subjects that they cover throws a little monotony on this reading. They do not contain any explanations or special instructions on the healing mediumship, that is only the accessory part of the book. The account of some authentic facts of cures, and of the circumstances that accompanied them, would have added to the interest and practical utility of this book.
In fact, here is how Mr. Jacob describes what takes place in the sessions in which the patients are gathered:
“At the time of the session, after having addressed my short but fervent prayer to God, I feel my fingers contract, and, touching the patient, I then recognize the force of the fluid in the wetness of their hands; sometimes they are inundated with perspiration; and the heat that gains the lower parts is also an additional indication of the almost instantaneous relief that they experience.
However, it is not at my own inspiration that the sick should see the illnesses that overwhelm them disappear, but rather at the will of God; I also see wandering around me, amidst a brilliant light, a great number of benevolent Spirits that seem to associate themselves with my painful mission. There is especially one that lets me see very clearly the halo that surrounds his venerable head. By his side there are two radiant persons, surrounded by innumerable Spirits. The first seems to guide and inspire me in my operations, if I may say so; finally, the room where I give my consultations is always filled with a bright light that I see continually reflected on the sick.
After the session I have no memory of what happened; that is why I urge those present to pay the greatest attention to the words I address to the sick who offer themselves to me to be examined and healed, if possible.”
The book ends with some advice on the hygienic regime that the patients he treats must follow.
[1] One volume. in-12 of 220 pages, price: 2.5 francs, at the publisher's, rue Bonaparte, 70.
Spiritism before reason
Spiritism before reason, by Valentin Tournier, former journalist. - Brochure in-18 of 72 pages. Price: 1 franc - Carcassone, at Lajoux and at Maillac, booksellers.
The author of this pamphlet proposed to give two public lectures on Spiritism; having been prevented by circumstances beyond his control, it is these two lectures that he is publishing today. Addressing the unconvinced public, he successively examines the following questions: Is Spiritism a serious matter? - Do Spiritist studies offer dangers? - Are these studies useful? - Are the phenomena possible? - Are they real? - Which authority is competent to know the facts?
We will come back to this interesting publication to which we will limit ourselves to pointing out today.
Third edition of Genesis
The second edition of Genesis is almost sold out, so we are currently pulling the third, so that there is no interruption.
Instructions of the Spirits
Regeneration
“In that time there will be no more cries, no mourning, no work, for what was before will have passed. "
This prediction of Revelation was dictated eighteen centuries ago, and we are still waiting for these words to come true, because we always look at events when they are past and not when they are unfolding before our eyes.
However, that predicted epoch has arrived; there is no more pain for those who have known how to place themselves on the side of the road, to let the pettiness of life pass without stopping them, to use them as an offensive weapon against society.
You are amidst these times, as the golden ear is in the harvest; you live under the gaze of God, and his radiance illuminates you! Where does it come from that you worry about the course of events that have been foreseen by God, when you were only the children of the generation of which Jesus spoke when he said: "Before this generation passes great things will happen”?
What you are, God knew; what you will be, God sees! It is up to you to properly walk the path that has been laid out for you, for your task is to submit to whatever God has decided. Your resignation, and especially your conformity, are only the testimonies of your intelligence and your faith in the eternity.
Above you, in this universe in which your world moves, hover the messenger Spirits who have received the mission to guide you. They know when the predicted events will take place; that is why they tell you: "Then there will be no more cries, no mourning, no work."
Undoubtedly there can no longer be a cry for one who submits to the will of God and who accepts his trials. There is no more mourning since you know that the Spirits who preceded you are not lost to you, but that they are on a journey; well, one does not mourn when a friend is absent.
Work itself becomes a favor, since one knows that it is a contribution to the harmonic work that God directs; one then carries out their part of the work with the solicitude that the sculptor brings to polishing his statue. It is an infinite reward that God grants you.
However, you will still encounter hindrances in your attempts to achieve social improvement. It is because the result is never achieved without the struggle coming to ratify the efforts. The artist is obliged to overcome the obstacles that oppose the radiance of his thought; he only becomes victorious when he learns how to rise above the hardships and misty vapors that envelop his genius at birth.
The idea that arose was sown by the Spirits when God said to them: “Go and teach the nations; go and shed the light.” This idea, that grew with the speed of a flood, must naturally have encountered contradictors, opponents, and skeptical. It would not be the source of life, if it had to succumb to the mockery that greeted it at its debut. But God Himself guided this thought through the immensity; he fertilized it on Earth, and no one will destroy it! It is in vain that one would seek to yank its roots; one would work in vain to annihilate it in the hearts; children bring it when they are born, as if a breath of God incrusted it in their cradle, like in the old days the Eastern Star illuminated those who came to meet Jesus, carrying the regenerating idea of Christianity.
So, you can see that this generation will not pass without great things happening, since with the idea, faith rises and hope shines… Courage! What was foretold by Christ must take place. In these times of aspiration to the truth, the light that enlightens every man that comes to this world shines again on you; persevere in the struggle, be firm and beware of the traps set for you; stay attached to this flag where you have inscribed: “there is no salvation, except through charity”, and then wait, because the one who was assigned with the mission to regenerate you comes back, and he said: “Blessed are those who will know my new name!”
A Spirit
Erratum[1]
April 1867 issue, page 103, line 3: Psalm XXV, v. 17; read: Psalm XXI, v. 18 and 19.
[1] This mistake was already corrected in this translation (T.N.)