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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866 > January > Spiritism Takes its Place in Current Knowledge and Philosophy
Spiritism Takes its Place in Current Knowledge and Philosophy
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).”
“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).”