Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866

Do women have a soul? It is well-known that this has not always been considered a certainty, and from what we hear, it was voted on during a Council. Its denial is still a principle of faith to certain peoples. It is also well-known the degree of degradation that such a belief has reduced women in most regions of the Orient. Even considering that the matter is settled today, in the civilized world, in their favor, the prejudice regarding their intellectual inferiority persisted, to the point that a writer from the last century, whose name escapes me, defined a woman like this: “An instrument of pleasures to man”, a more Muslim than Christian definition. From that prejudice came her legal inferiority, still not erased from our legal codes. Due to the power of habit, they have accepted such enslaving condition for a long time, as a natural thing. That is what happens to those that are submitted to remain servants from father to son, believing in the end that their nature is different from that of their masters.

Progress, nonetheless, has elevated the concept of women. They have, many times, imposed themselves by intelligence or genius, and the law, despite the fact of still considering them inferior, gradually let up the laces of tutorship. They can be considered morally emancipated, if not legally. The latter shall be, one day, the result, by the force of things.

A short while ago we could read in the papers that a young lady had just successfully graduated with a bachelor’s degree in a Montpellier’s college. It was said that it was the fourth bachelor’s diploma awarded to a woman. It was not long ago that such a discussion about awarding women that kind of degree was possible or not. Although this can sound like a monstrous anomaly to some, it was acknowledged that the regulations about the matter did not mention women, and therefore they were not legally excluded. After the acknowledgement that they have a soul, came the conquest of the degrees of science, and that is already something. But this partial liberation only results from the development of civility, depuration of habits, or if you wish, of a more accurate sense of justice. It is a kind of concession made to women, and we must say that there is as much haggling as possible.

It would be ridiculous today to discuss if a woman has a soul or not, but another much more serious issue, from another point of view, presents itself here, and whose solution will only be established if the social equality between man and women is established as a natural right or conceded by men. Notice, in passing, that if it is only a concession by men out of condescendence, something that is given today may be retrieved tomorrow, and given the superior physical strength, with some individual exceptions, as a whole men will always have advantage, whereas if the equality is in nature, its acknowledgement will be the result of progress, and once it is recognize it becomes imprescriptible.

Has God created male and female souls and made the former inferior to the latter? That is the whole question. If that is so, then women inferiority is in God’s designs and no human law could interfere with that. If, on the contrary, God created them equal, the inequalities based on ignorance and brute force will disappear with progress and the rule of law.

People can only establish more or less rational hypothesis about that, and these are always controversial. Nothing in the visible world could provide a material proof of how correct or mistaken their opinions are. To be enlightened one would have to return to the source, to the arcane of the extra corporeal world, that was still unknown. Spiritism had the task to solve the issue, no longer through reasoning, but through the facts, be it by the revelations from beyond the grave, be it through the study that is done daily about the condition of the soul, after death. Now, it is very important to mention that such studies are not the works of a single person, neither the revelations come from a single Spirit, but the product of many identical observations, done on a daily basis by thousands of people in all countries, thus providing the powerful sanction of the universal control, upon which all theories of the Spiritist Science are based. Well, here is the result of such observations:

The souls, or Spirits, have no gender. The affections that unite them have nothing of carnal, and for that reason are long lasting, for they are founded on a true sympathy and not subordinated to the vicissitudes of matter. The souls incarnate, that is, are temporarily dressed by a carnal envelope, that to them seems like a heavy garment, from which they are disentangled by death. Through that material envelope the souls contribute to the material progress of the world where there live; the work that they are forced to execute, be it for the conservation of life or the search for their wellbeing, helps their intellectual and moral advancement. The soul arrives more developed at each new incarnation; bring new ideas and the knowledge acquired in its previous existences. That is how the progress of peoples take place. The civilized people of today are the same that lived in the Middle Ages and in barbarian times, having progressed since then; those that are going to live in future centuries are those that live here today, but more advanced intellectually and morally.

Sexual organs only exist in the physical organization. They are necessary to the reproduction of material beings. But since the Spirits are God creation, they do not reproduce through one another, and that is the reason why sexual organizations would be useless in the spiritual world.

The Spirits evolve by the work that they carry out and by the trials that they must endure, like the worker that perfects his art through his own work. Such trials and tasks vary according to their social position. Since the Spirits must evolve in everything and acquire all the knowledge, each one is called to contribute to the many tasks and to go through different kinds of trials. That is why thy are reborn alternatively poor or rich, masters of servants, professionals of thoughts or matter.

Therefore, the principle of equality is based on the very laws of nature, because the one that was great yesterday may return as a little one the next day, and vice-versa. The principle of fraternity is a consequence of that, because we find former acquaintances in our social relationships and the miserable that reaches out to us could be a friend or relative. It is the same reason why the Spirits incarnate in both sexes. The one that was a man may return as a woman and the one that was a woman may return as a man, so that the Spirit may experience the duties of each condition, and be submitted to the respective trials.



Nature created the feminine sex weaker than the other because their duties do not require the same kind of muscular strength and would even be incompatible with masculine rudeness. The feminine body enjoys the gentleness of forms and sensations, remarkably appropriate to the care of maternity. Men and women have special duties that are equally important in the general order of things; they are two elements that complement one another.

By suffering the influence of the physical organization, the character of the Spirit modifies according to the circumstances, yielding to the needs and requirements imposed by that very organization. Such influence does not disappear immediately after the destruction of the material envelope, as the Spirit does not lose immediately their terrestrial likes and habits. Furthermore, it may happen that the Spirit will live several existences in the same sex, leading to the preservation of the mark of one sex or the other.

It is only when the Spirit has achieved a certain degree of advancement and dematerialization that the influence of matter completely fades away, and with that the personality of the sexes. Those that come to us as men or women do so to help us remember the existences in which we knew them. If the influence of material life affects the spiritual one, the same happens when the Spirit moves from the spiritual to the corporeal life. In a new incarnation, the Spirit will bring the character and tendencies that had as a Spirit; if he were advanced, he will be an advanced man; if he were inferior, will be an inferior man. By changing sex, therefore, and in a new incarnation, the Spirit may preserve the tastes, inclinations and the character inherent to the sex that had just been left. That explain certain apparent anomalies observed in the personality of certain men and women. Hence, the only difference between men and women is in the physical organization, that disappears with the death of the body. But there is no such a difference with respect to the soul, the Spirit, the essential being, because there aren’t two species of souls. That is what God wanted in justice to all creatures. Since all have the same principle, God established the true equality.

The inequality only exists temporarily, given the degree of progress; but everyone has the right to the same destiny, that everyone will reach by their own effort because God has not favored anyone to the expenses of others.

Materialism places women in a natural state of inferiority, from which they can only leave by the good will of men. According to that doctrine, there is no soul or if there is any soul it vanishes with death or is lost in the universal whole, what is the same thing. Consequently, the only resource that women have is their weakness placed at the feet of the stronger one. The superiority of some women is a simple exception, bizarre nature, a game of organisms that would not lead to a law.

The common spiritualist doctrine acknowledges the existence of the individual and immortal soul, but it is powerless to demonstrate that there is no difference between men and women, and consequently, there is no natural superiority of one upon the other.

With the Spiritist Doctrine, women’s equality is no longer a speculative theory; it is no longer a concession from the powerful to the weak, but it is a full-right based on the very laws of nature. By revealing these laws, Spiritism opens a new era for the emancipation of women, as it opens to equality and fraternity.

Everyone is free to see things as they will, and since we claim such a freedom to ourselves, we cannot deny that to others. However, because an opinion is free it does not follow that one cannot discuss it, examine its strengths and weaknesses, weigh in its advantages and inconveniences. We say this with respect to the denial of the utility of prayer, that some people would like to convert into a system, building a flagship of a dissident school. Such an opinion can be summarized as this:

“God has established eternal laws to which every being is submitted; we have nothing to ask God for as we do not have to thank God for any special favor, thus it is useless to pray. The fate of the Spirits is determined, and consequently it is useless to pray for them. They cannot change the immutable order of things, and therefore it is useless to ask them for anything. Spiritism is a purely philosophical science; it not only is not a religion, but it must not have any religious character. Every prayer said in gatherings tend to feed superstition and self-righteousness.”

The subject matter of prayer has been sufficiently discussed, and that is why we believe it to be useless to repeat here what has already been said about it. If Spiritism proclaims its freedom it is not for systemic reasons, but for the fact that observation has allowed us to attest its efficacy and its modus operandi. If we understand the laws of fluids, we do understand the power of thoughts and prayer, since the prayer is a thought directed to a given objective.

To some people, the word prayer is only related to a request. That is a serious mistake. With respect to Divinity, the prayer is an act of worshiping, humility and submission that cannot be refuted without underestimating the power and goodness of the Creator. By denying a prayer to God one is refusing to pay tribute to God and still a revolt of human pride.

Regarding the Spirits, the souls of our brothers, prayer is an identification of thoughts, a testimony of sympathy. By repealing it we are repealing the memory of those that are dear to us, since that sympathetic and benevolent memory is a prayer on its own right. As a matter of fact, we know that those in suffering ask for prayers insistently, as a relief to their sufferings. If they ask for them it means that they need them. A refusal is like refusing a glass of water to a thirsty miserable.

In addition to the purely moral action, Spiritism shows us a kind of material effect of prayer, resulting from the fluidic transmission. Its efficacy is demonstrated by experience, in certain diseases, as well as by the theory. By rejecting the prayer, one is hindering the utilization of a powerful support in the relief of corporeal illnesses.

Let us now see the result of such a doctrine and discuss if it has any chance of prevailing.

All peoples pray, from the savage to the civilized. They are led by their instinct and this is what distinguish them from the animals. They, undoubtedly, pray in a more or less rational way, but they do pray. Those that do not pray, out of ignorance or presumption, form an insignificant minority in the world.

Prayer is, therefore, a universal necessity, irrespective of cult or nationality. If a person feels weak, she will feel stronger after praying; if she is said, feels consoled. Removing the prayer is the same as subtracting humanity from its most powerful moral support in hardship.

Through the prayer, the soul elevates, enters into communion with God, identifies itself with the spiritual world and dematerializes, an essential condition to its future happiness. Without the prayer, their thoughts remain on Earth and are even more connected to material things. That is a delay in one’s advancement.

By contesting a dogma, one is opposing the sect that professes it. By denying the efficacy of prayer, one is hurting the intimate feeling an almost unanimous feeling of mankind. Spiritism owns its many sympathies, with significant participation, to heartily felt aspirations that found consolation in prayer.

A doctrine founded on the denial of prayer would be denying itself the general sympathy, the main element of success, because instead of bringing warmth to the soul, it would be reducing it. If Spiritism must gain influence is through the summation of moral satisfaction that it entails.

May those that want novelty in Spiritism, to at any price hold their names as flagships, may they strive to do better than Spiritism does. However, they shall not surpass Spiritism by doing less. The bare tree shall always be less attractive than the one bearing delicious and nutritious fruits. It is based on the same principle that we have always told the adversaries of Spiritism: The only way to have it destroyed is to provide something better, more reassuring, that explains more and that it is more satisfying. Nobody has done that so far.

Hence we can consider the rejection of prayer as an isolated opinion of some believers in the Spiritist manifestations, an opinion that may attract some individuals but will never unite the majority. It would be a mistake to impute such doctrine to Spiritism, since it positively teaches the opposite.

The prayer predisposes reverence and introspection in the Spiritist gatherings, a necessary condition to series communications, as it is well-known. Does it mean that those meetings are religious assemblies? Not at all. A religious feeling is not synonym of religious professionalism; one must even avoid what could give the gatherings such a character. That has been our objective in disapproving prayers and liturgic symbols of any cult. One must not forget that Spiritism must tend to the approximation of multiple beliefs; it is no longer rare to see representatives of different cult in those meetings; thus, nobody must have the arrogance of supremacy. Everyone must pray as they wish, for this is a right of conscience; but, in an assembly founded on the principle of charity, we must abstain from everything that can hurt susceptibility and that tends to feed antagonism, that we must, on the contrary, strive to make disappear. Special prayers in Spiritism do not form a distinct cult because they are not imposed and because everyone is free to pray as thy wish, but they do have the advantage of serving everyone and shocking nobody.

The very principle of tolerance and respect to beliefs of others leads us to say that any sensible person that is led to the temple of a cult whose beliefs that person does not share, must abstain from any exterior sign that may scandalize the attendants; that it must, if necessary, renounce to the use of formalism that cannot compromise one’s conscience. The fact that God must be worshiped in a temple in a more or less logical way is not a reason to shock those that do not believe in such a methodology.

Since Spiritism provides us with a certain number of reassurances and proves a certain number of truths, we said that it could not be replaced by anything else that would provide less and proves less than it does. Let us see if that is at all possible.

The principal authority of the doctrine is the fact that it hasn’t gotten a single principle that is the result of a preconceived idea or of a personal opinion; all of them, without exception, are the result of observation of facts; it was only through the facts that Spiritism got to know the situation and the attributes of the Spirits, as well as the laws, or even better, part of the laws that govern the relationships with the invisible world. This is a point of paramount importance. By the continual observation we build experimental philosophy rather than speculative. Hence, in order to combat the theories of Spiritism, it is not enough to say that they are false; it is necessary to oppose them with facts whose solutions they are impotent to provide.

Even in such a case Spiritism would be held at a higher level because it would be contrary to its own essence to adamantly follow a false idea, always striving to fill the blanks that may eventually appear, since it does not have the pretension of having arrived at the apogee of the absolute truth.

This way of looking at Spiritism is not new; it can be found at all times in our books. Considering that Spiritism does not declare itself stationary nor immutable, it will incorporate all truths that are demonstrated, come from wherever they will, even from its adversaries, and shall never fall behind real progress. It will assimilate those truths, we say, but only when those are clearly demonstrated and not to please someone’s personals desires, or the product of someone’s imagination.

Having this point established, it follows that Spiritism could not lose, unless surpassed by a doctrine that provided more than it does. It has nothing to fear from those that give less, removing what constitutes its own strength and main attraction.

Spiritism may not have said everything yet, however there is a certain amount of truths that were attested by observation and that constitute the opinion of the immense majority of its followers; and if such truths have now conquered he status of articles of faith, here utilizing an expression ironically used by some, it was not by us or anybody else, not even by our guiding Spirits that they were stablished like that, and even less imposed, but by the adhesion of everybody, and therefore everyone may attest them.

Hence, if a sect were formed in opposition to the ideas generally accepted by experience, and admitted in principle, that sect could not attract the sympathy of the majority, whose convictions would be shocked by it. Its transient existence would extinguish with its founder, perhaps even earlier, or at least with the few followers that it could have solicited.

Suppose Spiritism divided in ten or twenty sects. The victorious and long lasting one will naturally be the one that gives more spiritual satisfaction; the one that fulfills more voids of the soul; the one based on the most positive proofs and that positions itself in synchronism with the general opinion.

Now, considering the observation of facts as the starting point of all of those principles, Spiritism cannot be surpassed by a theory; it cannot be overcome since it constantly stays at the level of progressive ideas; it satisfies the aspirations and is supported by the majority; established on such foundations, it is imperishable because that is its strength.

That is also the cause of failure of attempts to stop it. These attempts are based on ideas that are profoundly unappealing to the majority, hence instinctively rejected. By constructing any edifice of hopes on such basis, one is prone to disaster like the one that hangs on a rotten branch of a tree. That is what happens to those that were unable to destroy Spiritism by force and try to destroy it by itself.

Spiritism has just lost one of its most sincere and dedicated followers with Mr. Didier’s death, on Saturday 2^nd, 1865. He was a member of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies since its foundation in 1865, and as well-known, he was the editor of our books about the Doctrine. He attended a session at the Society on the eve, and suddenly died, the following day, at a bus station, a few steps from his home; fortunately, there was a friend nearby that took him home. The funeral took place on December 5^th.

The “Petit Journal” said this, on announcing his death: “More recently Mr. Didier had edited Mr. Allan Kardec and had turned into a follower of Spiritism, out of education or conviction”.

We don’t believe that the extreme education of an editor force him to adopt the opinions of his clients, as he would not become a Jewish by editing the works of a rabbi. Such restrictions are not worthy of a serious writer. Spiritism, like others, is a belief that counts on more than one editor in its ranks. Why would it be stranger to a book seller to be Spiritist, rather than Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Saint-Simonist, Fourierist, or Materialist?

When will you, free thinkers, admit the freedom of conscience to everybody? Would you have the pretension of exploiting intolerance to your own benefit, after fighting it in others? Mr. Didier’s Spiritists’ ideas were well-known, and he never hid them, for he frequently discussed them with the skeptical. His belief was profound and went back many years, and not like the author of the article supposes to be a matter of convenience or education of the editor.

But it is so difficult to these gentlemen, to whom the Spiritist Doctrine is thoroughly contained in the closet of the Davenport’s brothers, to conceive that a man of notorious intellectual value may believe in Spirits! Nonetheless, they will need to get used to such idea because there is more than they think, and it will not be long for them to get proof of that.

“The Grand Journal” registered the event in the following terms: “Mr. Didier has also died; he edited good and beautiful books in his modest store at “Quai des Grands-Augustin”. Lately, Mr. Didier was a follower – and even more notable – a zealous editor of the Spiritist books. The poor man must know now what to make of the doctrines of Mr. Allan Kardec.”

It is sad to see that not even death is respected by the skeptical, and that they even chase the honorable followers with their mockery beyond the grave. What did Mr. Didier think about the doctrine when alive? There is something that demonstrated to him the inefficacy of the attacks suffered by the Doctrine: at the time of his death he was printing the 14^th edition of The Spirits’ Book. What is it that he is thinking now? That there will be great disappointments and more than one defection among its adversaries!

What we can say, in such circumstance, is summarized in the following speech, given at the Parisian Society of Spiritists Studies, on the December 8^th session:

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues,

Another one of our ranks has just returned to the Celestial Home! Our colleague, Mr. Didier, left his mortal remains on Earth to then dress up with the envelope of the Spirits. Although his frail health had endangered his life several times, and despite the fact that the idea of death had nothing of fearful to us, Spiritists, his sudden end, and so unexpectedly on the very day after attending our session, gave us cause of profound emotion.

There is in this somewhat abrupt death a great teaching, or better said, a great warning: the fact that our lives are kept by a thin line that can break when least expected, because death sometimes comes without forewarning. It thus alerts the survivors to be always prepared to respond to the Lord’s call and report the usage of the life that was given to us.

Even though Mr. Didier, personally, did not have a very active role in the works of the Society, where he rarely gave his opinion, he, nonetheless, was one of the most respected members for his seniority, as a founding member, for his diligence, and above all for his position, influence and incontestable services to the cause of Spiritism, as a spreader and editor.

The relationship I had with him over seven years allowed me to appreciate his righteousness, loyalty and special skills. He undoubtedly had, like each one of us, small things that did not please everybody, even eventually an abrupt gesture with which one needed to get used to, but nothing that diminished his distinguished qualities. The best praise he could receive was to tell him that one could to business with him blindfold.

A businessman should look at things with a commercial eye, but he was never greedy. He was great, generous and non-avaricious in his operations; profit alone would not lead him to publish something, however advantageous it might be. In a word, Mr. Didier was not a book dealer that calculated his profit cent by cent, but an intelligent editor, just, mindful and judicious, as it need be to establish a serious business like his. His relationships with the enlightened world, that loved him and cared for him, broadened his horizons and gave his store a seal of seriousness and a place of first order, less by the numbers and more by the specialty of the published books and the commercial respect that he enjoyed for many years.

As for myself, I am glad to have met him in my path, something that I certainly owe to the good Spirits; I sincerely say that Spiritism loses a support and I lose a precious editor that understood the spirit of the Doctrine and had true satisfaction in propagating it. Some people were surprised that I did not give a speech in his funerals. The reasons for my abstention are very simple.







First, his family did not ask for that and I did not know if that would have pleased them. Spiritism reproaches others to try to impose themselves and should not incur in the same mistake. It never imposes itself; it waits for others to come. Besides, I knew that there would be a large crowd and that among them there would be many that were little sympathetic or even hostile to our beliefs. It would have been inconvenient, in such a solemn occasion, to publicly shock contrary opinions, providing our adversaries with a pretext for new aggressions. It could, perhaps, have been a good opportunity to talk about the Doctrine but wouldn’t that neglect the grave moment that had us all gathered, and perhaps a lack of respect to the memory of the departed one? Should we counter those that challenge us before an open tomb? You will agree, ladies and gentlemen, that the occasion would have been badly chosen. Spiritism will always gain more with the strict observation of conveniences than it will lose for letting go opportunities to show itself. Spiritism needs no violence; it aims at the hearts; its means of attraction are kindness, consolation and hope; that is why we find accomplices even among the enemies. Its moderation and conciliating spirit make us bold by contrast. Let us not lose such precious advantage. Let us seek the large number of distressed hearts and souls tormented by doubt. Those will be our most useful supporters; we shall do more proselytes with them than propaganda or exhibition.

I could, undoubtedly, have limited myself to generalities, abstraction made of Spiritism, but such reservation could have been interpreted as fear or denial of our principles. In such cases I can only speak openly or remain silent. This was the path I chose. If it were about a common speech and about a banal subject, it would have been different. But at that moment the words would have a special meaning.

I could also have said the prayer found in the “Gospels According to Spiritism” in favor of those that have just left Earth and that in similar leave a profound impression. But there is another inconvenient here. The priest that followed the body stayed until the end of the ceremony, something that is contrary to common practice; he payed careful attention to the speech given by Mr. Flammarion and perhaps expected a more explicit manifestation, given Mr. Didier’s known positions and his relationships with the Spiritists.

After having said a prayer, enough in his soul and according to his conscience, it would have sounded boastful to hear other words with a summary of principles that are not his, and that is not in the essence of Spiritism. Some people, perhaps, would not have gotten upset by seeing the clear contrast that could have resulted but that had to be conveniently avoided. The prayers privately said by each one of us, and that can be said among us, shall be as much beneficial to Mr. Didier, in case he needs them, as if they were said with ostentation.

Believe me, ladies and gentlemen, that the interests of the Doctrine are in my heart, as much as in any other, and that when I do or do not do something, it is with mature reflection and after having weighed its consequences.

Our colleague, Mrs. R…, requested in the name of some attendants, that I gave a speech. She added that some people that she did not know had just told her that they had come in hopes to hear me. This was, no doubt, flattering to me but those persons were mistaken with respect to my character by believing that stimulating my self-love could drive me to speak to satisfy the curiosity of those that had come for another reason other than paying tribute to the memory of Mr. Didier. Those persons clearly ignore the fact that I greatly dislike imposing myself and do not like self-exhibition. That is what Mrs. R… could have told them, adding that she knew me and liked me enough to be certain that the desire to put myself in evidence would have no influence upon me.

In different circumstances, ladies and gentlemen, I would have considered it a duty and would be glad to pay a public tribute to our colleague, in the name of our Society, represented by a large number of members in the funeral. But, since feelings are more in the heart than in demonstration, there is no doubt that each one of us had already done that on their own. In this very moment in which we are gathered let us pay the tribute among us, a tribute of esteem and consideration that he deserves, hoping that he may wish to return to our circle, as in the past, and continue, as a Spirit, the Spiritist task that he had endeavored as a man.

“I beg you, my dear Mr. Kardec, to insert the following letter in the next issue of our Review. I am certainly insignificant, but nonetheless I have my own appreciation and submit it to your modesty. On another hand when the fight is on, I want to demonstrate that I am by the flag with my woolen insignias.”

Jaubert

Without the obligation placed on us, in such precise terms, one can understand the reasons which would have prevented us from publishing this letter; we would have been content to keep it as an honorable and precious testimony, and to add it to the many causes of moral satisfaction which come to support and encourage us in our hard work, and to compensate for the inseparable tribulations of our task. But, on the other hand, the personal question aside, in this time of outburst against Spiritism, the examples of the courage of public opinion are even more influential when they start from higher ranks. It is useful that the voice of men of heart, of those who, by their character, knowledge and position, command respect and confidence, be heard; and if it cannot overcome the clamor, such protests are not lost either for the present or for the future.

“Carcassonne, December 12^th, 1865

Dear Sir and Professor,

I do not wish to let 1865 end without reporting to you all the good it did to Spiritism. We owe it the Plurality of the Existences of the Soul, by Andre Pezzani; the Plurality of the Inhabited Worlds, by Camille Flammarion, two just born geniuses that stride in the philosophical world.

We owe you a book, not many pages but great in thoughts; the nervous simplicity of your style competes with the robustness of your logic. It contains the germ of the theology of the future; it contains the calmness of the force and the force of the truth. I wish the book entitled Heavens and Hell were published to the millions. Forgive me the praise: I have lived too long to be an enthusiast and adulation bores me.

The year 1865 gives us “Spiritist”, a fantastic novel. Literature has decided to invade our domains. The author has not taken all teachings from Spiritism. It points out the capital, fundamental idea: the demonstration of the immortal soul through the phenomena.

Spiritist, the ignored lover of Guy de Malivert on Earth, just died. She describes her first sensations herself.

“The instinct of nature was still fighting against annihilation, but soon stopped the useless battle, and out of a frail breath, my soul escaped my lips. Human words cannot describe the sensation of a soul freed from its corporeal prison, passing from this life to the next, from time to eternity and from finite to infinity.

My immobile body, already dressed on that dull white, delivered to death, floating upon its funereal casket, surrounded by praying ladies, detached from that like the butterfly from the cocoon, an empty shell, amorphous remains, stretching the young wings to the unknown and suddenly revealed light. A dazzling splendor followed a profound intermittence of shadow, a broadening of horizons, disappearance of limits and obstacles, intoxicating me of an unspeakable ecstasy. An explosion of new sensations made me understand the mysteries, impenetrable to the earthly thoughts and organs. Disentangled from that clay, slave of gravity, making me heavy a short while ago, now launching me with crazy celerity towards the unfathomed ether. No more distances to me; a simple desire made me be wherever I wished. I flew through large circles through the empty blue of space, faster than light, as if taken over the infinity, passing by swarms of souls and Spirits.”

The image unfolds even more beautifully. I do not know if deep inside Mr. Theophile Gautier is a Spiritist; but he certainly pours, to the materialists and skeptical, a healthy beverage in splendidly engraved golden chalices. I still bless the year 1865 for the great anger it contained in its flanks. Make no mistake: The Davenport brothers are less the cause than the pretext for the crusade. Soldiers of all uniforms pointed their rifled guns at us. What have they proven? The strength and resistance of the besieged citadel. I know a very widespread, very esteemed, and quite rightly so, newspaper from the South, which for a long time has bashed Spiritism badly once a month; hence Spiritism resuscitates at least twelve times a year. You will see that they will make it immortal by killing it. I now have only my wishes for a happy new year; my first wishes are for you, sir and dear professor, for your happiness, for your work so bravely undertaken and so earnestly pursued. I wish for the strong union of all Spiritualists. I painfully saw some brief clouds falling onto our horizon. Who will love us if we do not know how to love one another? As you put it very well in the last number of your Review: “Whoever believes in the existence and the survival of souls, and in the possibility of communication between men and the spiritual world, is a Spiritist. Let this definition remain, and on this solid ground we will always agree. And now, if details of doctrine, however important, sometimes divide us, let us discuss them, not as fratricides, but as men who have only one goal: the triumph of reason, and by reason the search for the true and beautiful, the progress of science, the happiness of humanity.

There remain my most ardent and sincere wishes; I offer them to all those who call themselves our enemies: May God enlighten them! Farewell, sir; receive, together with our brothers in Paris the renewed assurance of my affectionate feelings and of my distinguished consideration.”

T. Jaubert, Vice-President of the Tribunal



Any comment on this letter would be superfluous; we will only add one word: men like M. Jaubert honor the flag they carry. His sensible assessment of the work by M. Theophile Gautier spares us from the report that we proposed to make of it this month; we will talk about it in the next issue.

With the title “Second Sight”, several journals reproduced the fact below, among them “La Patrie”, on November 26th, and “l‘Evénement”, on November 28th.

“A young lady from Swabia is soon to arrive in Paris; her mental state goes far beyond the charlatanism of the Davenport and other Spiritists. Luisa B… is sixteen years old, lives with her parents, peasants in a place called B)(ondru (Seine-et-Marne), where they settled after leaving Germany.

Following a tremendous grief for the loss of her sister, Luisa fell in a lethargic sleep that lasted fifty six hours. After that time, she woke up to a strange life, summarized in the following terms:

Luisa suddenly lost her vivacity and joyfulness, but she did not suffer, falling in beatitude, added to a profound calmness. She remains still on a chair the whole day, responding by monosyllables when asked. At night she falls on a cataleptic state, characterized by the stiffness of the limbs and a gazing look. At this time her faculties and senses acquire a sensitivity that goes beyond the limits of human capacity. She has not only a second sight but still a second hearing, that is, she hears words said near her or in a more or less distance place where she concentrates her attention. Any object in her hands acquire a doble image. As everybody else, she feels the shape and appearance of the object; she distinctly sees the inside of the object, its properties and the destination in nature.

Having several plants, metallic and mineral samples submitted to her unconscious appreciation, she provided latent and unexplored properties that take us back to the discoveries of alchemy of the Middle Ages. Luisa experiences a similar effect with respect to the appearance of persons that are touched by her hands. She sees them as they are and as they were at an earlier age. Aging effects of time and diseases disappear before her, and if the person had lost a limb, she still sees that limb.

“The young peasant woman claims that, sheltered from all modifications of the external vital action, the bodily form remains fully reproduced by the nervous fluid. Luisa is transported to places where there are graves, describing, as we mentioned, the persons whose remains were confided to earth. She then experiences spasms and nervous breakdowns, in the same way that she does when approaches places with water and metals, irrespective of the depth. When the young Luisa passes from the ordinary life to what one can call a superior life, she seems to have a thick veil lifted from her eyes.

She explains in a new way that the creation is a permanent object of admiration by her, and despite being illiterate, she finds truly poetic mages and comparisons to express her enthusiasm.

There is no religious concern mixed with such impressions. Her parents carefully hide those uncommon phenomena and do not see them as a theme of speculation. They brought her to Paris because that nervous hyperexcitation has a destructive effect on her body that visibly weakens. The doctors that are attending her recommended to have her brought to the capital, to obtain the support of the masters in the art of healing and to submit to them the phenomena that transcend the ordinary circle of investigation, and whose explanation has not yet been found.”

The phenomena presented by that young woman, the author of the article says, leave the charlatanism of the Davenport brothers well behind. If such phenomena are real, what are their relationship with magic? Why such comparison between dissimilar things, saying that one surpasses the other?

With the intent of twisting the arm of Spiritism, the author unwillingly announces a great truth to support what they want to stain. He states a truly Spiritist fact, that Spiritism acknowledges and accepts as such, while it has never supported the Davenport brothers, and even less presented them as followers and apostles. The journalist gentlemen would have known this, had they taken into account the many protests that came to them from all sides, against the assimilation that they pretended to establish between an essentially moral doctrine and their theatrical exhibitions.

They say that an explanation has not yet been given to the phenomena. It is true when it comes to the official science, but this has no longer been a mystery to the Spiritist science for a long time. However, there is no lack of means to learn about it. The cases of catalepsy, double sight, natural somnambulism, and the strange faculties that develop in those several states, are not rare. Why is science still searching for the explanation? Because science stubbornly searches in the wrong place and where it will never be found, that is in the properties of matter.

Take a man that lives: he thinks, reasons; a second later he dies and gives no sign of intelligence. Thus, he carried something, while thinking, that does not exist anymore because he no longer thinks. What was it that thought? According to you, it was matter. But matter is still there, whole, nothing missing. Why then, matter was thinking a short while ago and no longer thinks? It is undoubtedly disorganized; the molecules have disaggregated; a fiber did perhaps break; something broke and the intellectual activity ceased. There we have the genius, the greatest human ideas and conceptions to the mercy of a fiber, an imperceptible atom, and a whole life of endeavors lost! Nothing left from that whole intellectual baggage, acquired with great effort; the most beautiful mind is just a well construed clock that, once disturbed, is just junk material! Not very logical, not much encouraging. With such a perspective, it would no doubt be better to just eat and drink. But, nonetheless, it is a system.

For you, the soul is just a hypothesis. But doesn’t such hypothesis become true in cases like that of the young lady in question? The soul here is in the open; you do not see it but you see it act and think separated from the material envelope. It transports itself to far away places. It hears and sees, despite the insensitivity of the organs. Can those phenomena that take place beyond the sphere of activity of the body, be explained? Isn’t that a proof that the soul is independent of those organs? How come the soul is not recognized by such evident signs? Fact is that one does need to admit the intervention of the soul in pathological and physiological phenomena, that would then no longer be purely material. Well, how can one acknowledge a spiritual element in the phenomena of life, when one is constantly saying the opposite? They cannot acknowledge that because they would have to recognize that they were mistaken, hardly belied by the very soul that they denied. Therefore, considering that the soul shows itself in many places and with a lot of evidence, they swiftly cover it with a bushel, and the matter goes quiet. That is what happened to hypnotism and many others. God does not wish it to be the same with Luisa B… They minimize it by saying that the phenomena are illusions, that the promoters are insane persons or charlatans.

That is the reason that made them neglect the interesting and plentiful of moral results of the psychological phenomena; that is also the cause of repugnance of Spiritism by materialism; Spiritism that is entirely founded on the ostensive manifestations of the soul, in this life and beyond.

But they will say, the religious party, overcome by materialism, must welcome, with interest, the phenomena that defeats disbelief by the evidence. Why then, instead of transforming it into a weapon, they repeal it? It is for the fact that the soul is indiscrete, presenting itself in a very different state from the system that they built; they would have to retreat from the so called immutable beliefs; it would then be necessary to keep it silent.

But they did not count on a subtlety; they cannot restrain it like a bird in a cage; if they close one door, a thousand others are open. The soul is now heard everywhere, telling us in all corners of the world: this is what we are. Those that preclude it will be really skillful.

Let us go back to our subject. The lady in question presents the very common phenomenon, similar to many, of extension of her senses. This extension, the article says, reaches a level that goes beyond human limits. We need to differentiate two kinds of faculties here: the perceptive faculties, that is, vision and hearing, and the intellectual faculties. The former is activated by exterior agents, whose action reaches the interior; the latter constitute thought that irradiates from within to the exterior. Let us begin by the first ones.

In its normal state, the soul perceives by the senses. Here, the young woman perceives what is beyond the reach of her vision and hearing. She sees inside things, penetrating opaque bodies, describing things that take place far away, and therefore sees differently from what she would see with her eyes, and hears differently from what she would hear with her ears, and all that in a state that the body is characterized by insensitivity.

If it were a single, isolated, exceptional fact, it could be attributed to some natural singularity, a kind of monstrosity, but it is common fact; it happens in identical way, at different levels, in most cases of catalepsy, lethargy, natural and artificial somnambulism, and even in individuals that show every sign of a normal state. It is then produced by the consequence of a law. How could such an important fact have been neglect by science, that considers the movement of attraction of the tiniest particle?

The development of the intellectual faculties is even more extraordinary. Here we have a young peasant, illiterate woman, that has not only expressed herself with elegance, poetry, but also revealed scientific knowledge about things that she ignored, and not less importantly, all that in a particular state, after which she comes back, forgets everything, and returns to her original state of ignorance. In the ecstatic state, however, she recovers the memory with the same skills and knowledge. It is like two different lives to her.

If, according to the materialistic school, the faculties are the direct product of the organs; if, utilizing an expression from that school, “the brain secretes thoughts, like the liver secretes bile”, it then secretes formal knowledge, without the help of a teacher. It is a property not yet know of that organ. Following the same hypothesis, how can one explain such an extraordinary intellectual development, those transcendental faculties, enjoyed off and on, lost and recovered almost instantaneously, with the same brain? Isn’t that a positive proof of the human duality, of the separation of the material from the spiritual principle?

Nothing exceptional yet here: such a phenomenon is as common as that of the extension of sight and hearing. Like this one, it depends on a law.



These are the laws sought by Spiritism and that were found through experience. The soul is the intelligent being; it is the headquarters of every perception and sensation; it thinks and feels on its own; it is individual, distinct, perfectible, pre-existent and survives the body. The body is its material covering, it is the instrument of relationship with the visible world.

When united to the body, it perceives through the senses and transmit its thoughts with the help of the brain. When separate from the body, it perceives directly and thinks more freely. Since the senses have a limited reach, the perceptions through them are limited and somehow damped; once received without an intermediary, they are indefinite and of a remarkable subtlety, for they go beyond every boundary of our material world. For the same reason, thoughts transmitted by the brains are, say, sifted through that organ. The roughness and defects of the instrument stop them, and partially muffle them, like certain transparent bodies partially absorb the light that crosses them. The soul is forced to utilize the brain, like a very good musician must use an imperfect instrument. Freed from such painful support, the soul unfolds all its faculties.

Such is the soul during life and after death. It thus has two states, of the incarnate, or constrained, and discarnate or of freedom. In other words, the corporeal and the spiritual life. The spiritual life is the normal, permanent life of the soul; the corporeal life is transient.

During the corporeal life, the soul is not constantly constrained by the body and that is the key to those physical phenomena that seems so strange, for they transport us to beyond our normal sphere of observations. They were classified as supernatural, although, in reality, they are submitted to perfectly natural laws, but because such laws were unknown to us. Today, and thanks to Spiritism that revealed those laws, the wonderful has disappeared. During the exterior life, the body needs its soul or Spirit as a guide, to drive it in the world, but during the periods of inactivity of the body, the presence of the soul is no longer needed; it detaches partially detaches from the body, remaining connected by a fluidic link that alerts the soul if its presence is required. When separated, it recovers the freedom of action and thoughts, a state that will only be thoroughly enjoyed with the death of the body, when completely separated. Such a condition was truly described by the Spirit of a living person, by comparing it with a captive balloon, and by another, the Spirit of a mentally ill living person, that it was like a duck held by the foot (Spiritist Review, June 1860). Such a state, that we call emancipation of the soul, occurs normally and periodically during the sleep. It is only the body that rests, to recover the material losses; the Spirit, that lost nothing, takes the opportunity to go wherever it wishes. In addition, the emancipation occurs every time that a pathological or simply physiological cause produces the partial or total inactivity of the senses or movement. That is what takes place in catalepsy and lethargy and somnambulism. The detachment, or the freedom of the soul, is the more far reaching the more absolute is the inertia of the body. That is the reason why the phenomenon acquires its greatest development in catalepsy and lethargy. In such states, the soul no longer perceives through the material senses, but through the psychic sense, if we can say so; that is why the perceptions go beyond the ordinary limits. Its thoughts take place without the intermediary of the brain, and for that reason it manifests faculties that are more transcendental than in the normal state.

That is the situation of the young Luisa B… She thus rightly says that “when she passes from the ordinary life to this superior life, it seems that a thick veil is lifted from her eyes.” That is also the cause of the phenomenon of second sight, that is nothing less than the direct sight of the soul; of the far vision, that results from the transport of the soul to the place that it describes; of the somnambulistic lucidity, etc.

When Luisa sees living persons, “aging effects of time and diseases disappear before her, and if the person had lost a limb, she still sees that limb; the body remains completely reproduced by the nervous fluid. If she saw the body she would see it as she sees the fluidic envelope”.

The material body can be amputated, but not the perispirit. What here is called “nervous fluid” is nothing less than the perispirit. She also sees the dead. Something remains from them. What is it that she sees? It cannot be their bodies since they no longer exist; she sees them, however, with a human shape, the same that they had in life. What she sees is the soul dressed on a fluidic body or the perispirit. The souls, therefore, outlive the body; they are not, therefore, abstract creatures, sparks, flames, lost breaths in the immensities of human reservoirs, but real, distinct, individual beings. If she sees the dead like the living ones, it means that the living ones, like the dead, have the same fluidic, imperishable body, while the rough material envelope dissolves with death. She does not see lost souls in the depths of space, but among us, demonstrating the existence of the invisible world around us, where we live unsuspectedly.

Don’t such revelations provide food for serious thought? Who would give such ideas to this young woman? Did she learn them from the Spiritist books? But she cannot read. Socialization with the Spiritists? She has never heard about them. She thus describes all those things spontaneously. Is it a product of her imagination? But she is not alone. Thousands of clairvoyants said and say the same thing every day, and science remains unaware of that. Low and behold, Spiritism has deduced its theory with the help of that universal observation. Science will fail to find the solution to such phenomena while it makes abstraction of the spiritual element, for it contains the key to all these supposedly mysteries. May science admit it, even if only hypothetically, and everything will be easily explained.

Observations of such a kind, with patients like Luisa B…, require a lot of caution and prudence. One must not lose sight of the fact that, in such state of excessive susceptibility, the least commotion may be tragic; the soul, happy for being detached from the body, but still connected by a thread that can irreversibly break. Careless experiments carried out in similar cases can kill.

Mr. Timothée Trimm published, in the Petit Journal, on October 23^rd, 1865, stanzas that were given to him by one of his friends, as being dictated by Alfred de Musset to a lady medium of his acquaintance; as it seems, the madness of Spiritism even reach the friends of those gentlemen that dare not have those friends publicly sent to mental asylums, in particular when such friends are, as in this case, people of notorious intelligence, in position of leadership in the artistic world. There is no doubt that, out of consideration for that friend, he did not gloat much about the origin of those stanzas; he stopped at picturing them as coming from an imaginary environment. Among other things, he said:

“I invent nothing, I just attest them. They sent for the author of Rolla and the Chalice and the Lips from a castle in the outskirts of Paris. He was brought to a table and asked for original stanzas!!! A Spiritist secretary took the enchanted seat; he said that he wrote the message from an immortal… and this is what he showed to the participants.”

The stanzas were not obtained in a castle around Paris, nor at a table but through a regular writing, and also, they had not sent for Alfred de Musset. To the eyes of the author, calling the poet to write something at a table is a common thing in Spiritism. Here is how things truly developed:

Mrs. X… is an educated socialite, but certainly not a poet. She is gifted with a powerful mediumistic faculty of writing and clairvoyance, having given irrefutable proofs of identity of the Spirits communicating through her, in many occasions.

She was spending the beautiful season with her husband, an eager Spiritist, in a small cottage among the dunes of the Department Nord; one evening she was contemplating the blue dome and the distant dune, from the porch of the house, in a solemn silence only broken by the howling of the watch dog; these circumstances must be taken into consideration for they give the verses a contemporary meaning. She suddenly felt agitated, surrounded by a fluidic energy, and without a premeditated destiny, she was led to grab a pen, writing the verses in question, from an impulse and without hesitation, in a few minutes, with the signature of Alfred de Musset, someone that she was not absolutely thinking about. This took place on September 1^st, 1865 and fully reproduced below.



There you are, poor soul,

Day and night, you watch

The sad dune; your only distract

The barking dog, at the moonlight.



When I see you alone and troubled,

Your wet eyes reaching out to the starry

Skies, I remember the sad days

Of cursing the arid property.



As much as you did, I suffered,

Feeling in this great desert

My heart on fire;

Like a pearl, the ocean attire,

All over the universe I searched

For a cry of the soul.



To appease my burning mind,

I traveled under the blue skies from Italy;

Florence and Venice saw me,

Among their bare-breasted daughters,

Dragging my life.



Sometimes the indolent fisherman

Saw me crying like a child

By the beach, stopping out of piety,

Leaving the catch halfway,

The sea carries them away.



Little one, come back to us;

As we rock on our knees

The crying child,

We will take you, by the way,

To the land full of love

Where I stay.



By these verses, written for you,

And despite myself,

I took the burden of this overture,

Affirming to the scientists,

Who laugh at ghosts,

My signature.



A.DE MUSSET



The Petit Journal made several alterations to these stanzas, changing their meanings in a ridiculous way.



In the second stanza, sixth verse, instead of “Au clair de lune”, it became “Au clair de la lune”, that spoils the whole thing, making it gross. The second stanza was removed, breaking the chain of thoughts. In the third stanza, second verse, instead of “ce grand désert”, that portrays that place, they put “le grand désert.” In the sixth stanza, fifth verse, instead of “Dans les terrer pleines d’amour”, that makes sense, it became “Dans les serres pleines d’amour”, that makes none.



These rectifications were requested to the Journal that refused to have them inserted. Nonetheless, the author of the article said: “I invent nothing; I attest.”



With respect to the novel by Mr. Theophile Gautier, entitled Spiritist, the same Spirit gave the following lines to the medium, on December 2^nd, 1865:



Here I am back. Although I had sworn,

Madam, on my great gods, to never rhyme.

It's a sad job to print the works of an author

reduced to a state of mind.



I fled away from you, but a charming Spirit,

speaking of us, risks excite a smile.

I think he knows a lot more than he wants to say,

And that he has found his ghost somewhere.



A ghost! It does really sound strange;

I laughed about it when I was here below;

When I said I didn't believe it, though,

Like a savior, I would have welcomed my good angel.



How much I would’ve liked it, my paled face

Leaning on my hand, at night, by the window;

My crying soul probing the immensities,

Traveling the fields of infinity!



Friends, what to hope for, from a century without belief?

When you have squeezed your most beautiful fruit,

Man will always stumble over a tomb if,

To support him, there is no hope.



But these verses are not his, they will say.

What do I care, after all, the blame of the unrefined!

When I was alive, my mind they hardly occupied;

I would laugh at it, even more so today.



A. DE MUSSET



Here is the opinion of Mr. Junior, one of the editors of the “Monde Illustré”, who is not a Spiritist.



Monde Illustré, December 16^th, 1865.



Mr. T. Gautier received a poem from a lady, signed by Alfred de Musset; its title cold be: The Spiritist lady that requested a poem to her collection. Let it be clear that, since it is related to Spiritism, that the lady pretends to have been an intermediary, an obedient medium that scribbled verses dictated by Alfred de Musset, deceased a few years ago. Nothing new there because, when it comes to infinity, all of those that believe in Spiritism give you plenty of communications more or less interesting. But the stanzas signed by Musset are such that whoever produced it is a poet of first order. It is the style of Musset, his charming language, his gentlemanly boldness, charm and gracious attitude. He is not excessive like in a parody, nor pretentious or forced; and we think that if a master, like T. Gautier, is mistaken, the imitation must be remarkably good. It is interesting that the honorable Mr. Charpentier, the editor of the complete works by Musset, when heard these charming verses that you will soon see, screamed: Thief! Thief!



You are correct by assuming that I do not believe in a single word of those like Allan Kardec or Delaage, but this disturbs and bothers me, for I must suppose these verses are original and that they do belong to the poet of Nights – and this is perfectly admissible because why else would the lady in question have kept them in her drawer? Or, alternatively, an authentic poet would have invented this mystification, and poets do not lose away their copies. What is then the possible solution? I hear a practical person telling me here: “My dear Sir, do you wish a solution? It is in your imagination that exaggerates the importance and excellence of these verses; they are delicate, that is it, and any smart medium that knows Musset a bit will do the trick.”



You are right, Mr. Practical person. This is the case in 99 out of 100 cases. But if you only knew how cold-blooded I am! I read these verses, that I cannot show you yet, I read and read again and affirm that Gautier himself, the great linguist, the great producer of the Poem of a Woman, cannot do a better Musset than this.”



OBSERVATION: There is a fact not considered by the author, and that eliminates the possibility that these verses might have been created by Musset when alive: it is the contemporary aspect and mention of current affairs. As for the medium, she is not a poet or a smart aleck, that is for sure, and her position in society rules out any suspicion of trickery.

An important work of great interest to the Spiritist Doctrine has just been published; we will make it known by the analyses of the brochure.

“New Universal Dictionary, literary pantheon and illustrated encyclopedia”, by Maurice Lachâtre, with the contribution of scientists, artists, and scholars, according to the works of Allan Kardec, Ampere, Andral, Arago, Audouin, Balbi, Becquerel, Berzelius, Biot, Brongnard, Burnouf, Chateubriand, Cuvier, Florens, Gay-Lussac, Guizot, Humboldt, Lamartine, Lamennais, Laplace, Magendie, Michelet, Ch. Nodier, Orfila, Payen, Raspail de Sacy, J. B. Say, Thiers, etc. Two magnificent volumes, in-4 large, three columns, illustrated with twenty thousand figures engraved in wood, and intercalated in the text. Two weekly fascicles of 10 cents each. Each fascicle contains 95,768 letters, that is, half of the content of a volume in-8. The work contains 200 fascicles, per volume, and will not cost more than 40 francs. It is the most comprehensive literary work of our times, with the analysis of more than 400,000 books, and can undoubtedly be considered the most complete repertoire of human knowledge. The New Universal Dictionary is the most accurate, the most thorough and the most progressist of all dictionaries, the only one that embraces all of the special dictionaries of the usual and poetic languages, the synonyms, the ancient language, the grammar issues, Theology, religions, sects and heresies, parties and ceremonies of all peoples, Mythology, Magnetism, Spiritism, philosophical and social doctrines, History, biographies, sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Natural History, Astronomy, inventions, Medicine, Geography, Marine studies, Jurisprudence, Economical Politics, Masonry, Agriculture, Commerce, Domestic Economy of everyday, etc. Docks de la librairie, Boulevard Sebastopol, 38 – Paris.”



The publication presently counts on twenty thousand subscribers. We must, initially, clarify that our name came first due to the alphabetical order and not for preeminence.

All the special terms of the Spiritist vocabulary are found in this vast repertoire, not only with a simple definition but with all the required developments, so much so that it will be a true treaty of Spiritism. Furthermore, every time that a word can lead to a philosophical deduction, the Spiritist idea is placed side by side, as a means of comparison. The work was conceived with a spirit of impartiality; hence it does not present the Spiritist idea less than any other as the absolute truth. It gives the reader freedom to accept or reject it but provides the means for the reader to appreciate it with scrupulous accuracy, instead of truncated, altered or pre-judged. It just says: about this point some think like this; Spiritism explains it in a different way.

A dictionary is not a special treaty about a subject in which the author presents their personal opinions; it is the result of research, with the objective of being consulted, addressed to every opinion. If someone looks for a word there is to know what it really means and not to find the opinion of the editor, that can be fair or not. A Jewish or Muslin person must find there the Hebrew or Muslim idea accurately reproduced, and nobody is forced to share that idea.

The dictionary must not decide if it is good or bad, absurd or rational, because something that is approved by some may be condemned by others; by showing it as it is, the publication does not take any responsibility. If the subject matter is a scientific question that splits the wise minds, like homeopathy and allopathy, for example, the mission is to provide the knowledge about the two systems and not to promote one against the other. Such must be the character of an encyclopedic dictionary; that is the only way it can be consulted with benefit, at all times and by anyone. The universality gives it perpetuity.

That is, and how it should be, the feeling that presided over the part related to Spiritism. The critics may issue their opinion in special books and that is their right. But a dictionary is neutral grounds, where each subject must be presented by its true colors, and where people can find every type of teachings, with the certainty of finding the truth there.

Under these conditions, Spiritism took its place among the philosophical doctrines, in such an important and popular publication, as the New Universal Dictionary; its vocabulary, already accepted by the use, was affirmed, and from now on no other similar work can be published without it, or it will be incomplete. This is one more production of the year 1865, not mentioned by Mr. Vice-President Jaubert in his list.

In support of the above observations, and to provide a sample of how the Spiritist questions are handled in that publication, we mention the explanation given to the word “soul”. After providing a long and impartial development of the multiple theories of the soul, according to Aristotle, Plato, Leibnitz, Descartes and other philosophers, that we cannot reproduce given the extension, the article ends like this:

“ACCORDING TO THE SPIRITIST DOCTRINE, the soul is the intelligent principle that animate the beings of creation and give them the thought, the will and freedom to act. It is immaterial, individual and immortal, but its intrinsic essence is unknown; it cannot be conceived absolutely isolated from matter but through an abstraction. United to the ethereal or fluidic envelope, the perispirit, it constitutes the concrete spiritual being, defined and circumscribed, called Spirit (see SPIRIT, PERISPIRIT). Through metonym, many times the words soul and spirit are used interchangeably; it is said: the suffering souls and the suffering spirits; the happy souls and the happy spirits; evoke the soul or the spirit of someone; but the word soul rather triggers the idea of a principle, of something abstract, whereas the word spirit of an individuality.

The Spirit constitutes the man, united to the material body by incarnation, so that there are three things in a person: the soul, properly speaking, or the intelligent principle; the perispirit, or the fluidic envelope of the soul and the body or the material envelope. The soul, therefore, is a simple being; the spirit is a double being, composed of the soul and perispirit; a person is a triple being, composed of the soul, perispirit and the body. The body, when separated from the soul, is an inert matter; the perispirit, separated from the soul, is a fluidic matter, without life and intelligence. The soul is the principle of life and intelligence; it is therefore a mistake by those persons that, by giving the soul a fluidic, semi-material envelope, pretend that Spiritism makes it a material being.

The true origin of the soul is unknown, because the beginning of things is in the secrets of God, and because mankind, in its current state of inferiority, cannot understand everything. Only systems can be formed about this point. According to some, the soul is a spontaneous creation of Divinity; according to others, it is an emanation, a portion, a spark of the Divine fluid. This is a problem about which only hypotheses can be formulated, because there are pros and cons. The second opinion, however, receives a founded objection: since God is perfect and if the souls are parts of the Divinity, they should also be perfect, given the axiom that the part shares the same nature as the whole. Thus, it would be incomprehensible that the souls were imperfect and had the need to perfect themselves. Notwithstanding the several systems about the intrinsic nature and origin of the soul, Spiritism considers it in the human species; it attests its existence, through the isolation of the soul and its independent action upon matter, during life and after death, it attests also its attributes, its survival and individuality. The individuality stems out from the diversity of ideas and qualities of each one, in the phenomena of communications, diversity that confirms an individual life to each soul.

A not less important fact derives from observation: the soul is essentially progressive and progresses incessantly, in knowledge and morality, for that is observed in all degrees of development. According to the unanimous teaching of the Spirits, the soul is created simple and ignorant, that is, without knowledge, without conscience of good and evil, with the same aptitude to one and the other and to acquire everything. Since creation is unstoppable and to the whole eternity, there are souls that arrived at the top of the scale, while others just blossom to life. But since all had the same starting point, God does not create some better equipped than others, and that agrees with God’s supreme justice. Since a perfect equality presides their formation, the souls progress more or less rapidly, due to their free-will and according to their own work. God, therefore, allows each one the merit of demerit of their actions, and the responsibility increases with the development of the moral sense, so much so that two souls created at the same time, one may get to the destination sooner than the other, if working more actively its own development. But those that stayed behind will equally arrive, although later and through rough trials, because God does not preclude the future to any of God’s children.

The incarnation of the soul in a material body is necessary to its betterment; through the work, necessary to the material existence, intelligence is developed. Since the soul cannot acquire all the moral and intellectual qualities that must lead to the objective, in a single existence, the soul gets there through an unlimited number of existences, on Earth or on other worlds, and in each one moving one step ahead in the path of progress, getting rid of some imperfections. The soul brings to each existence what it has learned on preceding ones. That explain the differences that do exist in innate aptitudes and in the degree of development of races and peoples (see SPIRIT, REINCARNATION).”