II.

If the Spiritist Doctrine were of purely human conception, it would offer as a pledge nothing but the enlightenment of the one who had conceived it. Now, no one in this world could rightly nourish the pretension of possessing, exclusively, the absolute truth.

If the Spirits who revealed it had manifested themselves to a single man, nothing would guarantee its origin, for one would have to believe, on his word alone, the one who said he had received the teaching from them. Granting on his part perfect sincerity, at most he could convince the persons of his acquaintance; he would gain followers, but he would never come to bring together the whole world.

God willed that the new revelation should reach men by a swifter and more authentic path. He therefore charged the Spirits with carrying it from one pole to the other, manifesting themselves everywhere, without granting to anyone the privilege of hearing their word.

A man may be deceived, he may deceive himself; it will no longer be so when millions of creatures see and hear the same thing. This constitutes a guarantee for each one and for all.

Moreover, a man can be made to disappear; but collectivities cannot be made to disappear; books can be burned, but the Spirits cannot be burned. Now, were all the books to be burned, the source of the doctrine would not cease to remain inexhaustible, for the very reason that it is not on Earth, that it arises in all places, and that all may quench their thirst at it. Should men be lacking to spread it, there will always be the Spirits, whose action reaches everyone and whom no one can reach.

It is, therefore, the Spirits themselves who carry out the propagation, with the help of the countless mediums whom they too, the Spirits, go on raising up on all sides. Had there been only a single interpreter, however favored he might be, Spiritism would be scarcely known. Whatever the class to which he belonged, such an interpreter would have been the object of the prejudices of many people, and not all nations would have accepted him, whereas the Spirits communicate at all points of the Earth, to all peoples, to all sects, to all parties, and all accept them;

Spiritism has no nationality and does not form part of any existing cult; no social class imposes it, since any person may receive instructions from his relatives and friends beyond the tomb. It must be so, in order that it may lead all men to fraternity. If it did not remain on neutral ground, it would feed dissensions instead of appeasing them.

In this universality of the teaching of the Spirits resides the strength of Spiritism, and also the cause of its so rapid propagation. While the word of a single man, even with the aid of the press, would take centuries to come to the knowledge of all, thousands of voices make themselves heard simultaneously in every corner of the planet, proclaiming the same principles and transmitting them to the most ignorant as to the most learned, so that there be no disinherited. It is an advantage which none of the doctrines that have arisen until today has yet enjoyed.

If Spiritism, therefore, is a truth, it fears neither the ill will of men, nor the moral revolutions, nor the physical subversions of the globe, because nothing of this can reach the Spirits.

This, however, is not the only advantage that accrues to it from its exceptional position. It affords it an unassailable guarantee against all the schisms that might arise, whether from the ambition of some, or from the contradictions of certain Spirits.

Such contradictions, it cannot be denied, are a stumbling block; but one that brings its remedy along with it, beside the evil.

It is known that the Spirits, by virtue of the difference among their capacities, are far from being, considered individually, in possession of all the truth; that it is not given to all to penetrate certain mysteries; that the knowledge of each of them is proportional to his purification; that vulgar Spirits know no more than many men; that among them, as among the latter, there are presumptuous ones and sophomaniacs who imagine they know what they do not know; systematizers who take their own ideas for truths; in short, that only the Spirits of the most elevated category, those who are already completely dematerialized, are found stripped of earthly ideas and prejudices; but it is also known that deceiving Spirits have no scruple in taking names that do not belong to them, in order to foist off their utopias.

From this it results that, with regard to all that lies outside the scope of exclusively moral teaching, the revelations that each one may receive will have an individual character, without the stamp of authenticity; that they must be considered the personal opinions of this or that Spirit, and that it would be imprudent to accept them and propagate them lightly as absolute truths.

The first examination is therefore, without contradiction, that of reason, to which all that comes from the Spirits must, without exception, submit; 15 every theory in manifest contradiction with good sense, with rigorous logic, and with the positive data already acquired, must be rejected, however respectable the name it bears as its signature.

Incomplete, however, will this examination remain in many cases, owing to the lack of enlightenment of certain persons and the tendency of not a few to take their own opinions as the sole judges of truth. This being so, what are those to do who do not place absolute confidence in themselves? Seek the view of the majority and take its opinion as guide. In such a manner must one proceed in the face of what the Spirits say, who are the first to furnish us with the means of achieving it.

The concordance in what the Spirits teach is, therefore, the best proof; 18 it is important, however, that it occur under certain conditions. The weakest of all occurs when a medium, alone, questions many Spirits about a doubtful point. It is evident that, if he is under the dominion of an obsession, or dealing with a mystifying Spirit, the latter can tell him the same thing under different names. Nor will there be any sufficient guarantee in the conformity presented by what may be obtained through several mediums, in one and the same center, because they may all be under the same influence.

Only one serious guarantee exists for the teaching of the Spirits: the concordance that exists among the revelations they make spontaneously, making use of a great number of mediums who are strangers to one another and in various places.

It is clearly seen that we are not speaking here of communications relating to secondary interests, but of what concerns the very principles of the doctrine. Experience proves that, when a new principle has to be enunciated, this occurs spontaneously at various points at the same time and in an identical manner, if not as to form, then as to substance.

If, therefore, it should please a Spirit to formulate an eccentric system, based solely on his own ideas and to the exclusion of the truth, one may be certain that such a system will remain circumscribed and will fall before the instructions given from all sides, according to the multiple examples that are already known.

It was this unanimity that brought down all the partial systems that arose at the origin of Spiritism, when each one explained the phenomena in his own way, and before the laws that govern the relations between the visible world and the invisible world were known.

This is the basis on which we rely when we formulate a principle of the doctrine. It is not because it accords with our ideas that we hold it to be true. We do not at all set ourselves up as the supreme arbiter of truth, and we say to no one: “Believe in such a thing, because it is we who tell it to you.” Our opinion, in our own eyes, is no more than a personal opinion, which may be true or false, since we do not consider ourselves more infallible than anyone else. Nor is it because a principle was taught to us that, for us, it expresses the truth, but because it received the sanction of concordance.

In the position in which we find ourselves, receiving communications from close to a thousand serious Spiritist centers, scattered over the most diverse points of the Earth, we find ourselves in a position to observe upon what principle concordance is established. It is this observation that has guided us until today and that will guide us in new fields that Spiritism will have to explore.

For, studying attentively the communications coming both from France and from abroad, we recognize, by the wholly special nature of the revelations, that it tends to enter upon a new path and that the moment has come for it to take a step forward. These revelations, often made with veiled words, have frequently passed unnoticed by many of those who obtained them. Others believed themselves the only ones to possess them.

Taken in isolation, they would for us have no value; only coincidence imparts gravity to them. Then, when the moment comes for them to be delivered to publicity, each one will remember having obtained instructions to the same effect. It is this general movement, which we observe and study, with the assistance of our spiritual guides, that helps us to judge of the opportuneness of doing or not doing something.

This universal verification constitutes a guarantee for the future unity of Spiritism and will annul all contradictory theories. It is there that, in time to come, the criterion of truth will be found.

What gave rise to the success of the doctrine set forth in The Spirits' Book and in The Mediums' Book was that everywhere all received directly from the Spirits the confirmation of what those books contain. If from all sides the Spirits had come to contradict it, those works would long ago have experienced the fate of all fanciful conceptions. Not even the support of the press would have saved them from shipwreck, whereas, deprived as they found themselves of that support, they did not fail to open a way and to advance swiftly. It is that they had that of the Spirits, whose good will not only compensated for, but also overcame, the ill will of men. So it will happen with all ideas that, emanating whether from the Spirits or from men, cannot withstand the proof of this confrontation, whose force it is permitted to no one to contest.

Let us suppose it should please some Spirits to dictate, under any title, a book in a contrary sense; let us even suppose that, with hostile intent, with the aim of discrediting the doctrine, malevolence should give rise to apocryphal communications; what influence could such writings exert, when from all sides the Spirits give them the lie? It is with the adherence of the latter that whoever wishes to launch, in his name, any system whatsoever must guarantee himself. From the system of one to that of all, there lies the distance that goes from unity to infinity.

What will the arguments of detractors be able to achieve upon the opinion of the masses, when millions of friendly voices, coming from Space, make themselves heard in every corner of the Universe and within the bosom of families, to invalidate them? In this respect, has the theory not already been confirmed by experience? What has become of the countless publications that brought the pretension of demolishing Spiritism? Which is the one that even retarded its march? Until now, the question is not considered from this point of view, without contestation one of the gravest. Each one counted on himself, without counting on the Spirits.

The principle of concordance is also a guarantee against the alterations that might subject Spiritism to the sects that should set out to seize it for their own profit and accommodate it at will.

Whoever should attempt to divert it from its providential aim would find himself unsuccessful, for the very simple reason that the Spirits, by virtue of the universality of their teachings, will bring down to the ground any modification that divorces itself from the truth.

From all this there stands out a capital truth: that he who would wish to oppose the established and sanctioned current of ideas could, it is true, cause a small local and momentary disturbance; but never dominate the whole, even in the present, nor, still less, in the future.

It also stands out that the instructions given by the Spirits on the points of the Doctrine not yet elucidated will not constitute law, so long as those instructions remain in isolation; that they must not, consequently, be accepted except under all reservations and by way of clarification.

Hence the necessity of the greatest prudence in giving them publicity; and, should it be judged fitting to publish them, it is important to present them only as individual opinions, more or less probable, but always lacking confirmation. It is this confirmation that one must await, before presenting a principle as absolute truth, unless one wishes to be accused of frivolity or of unreflecting credulity.

With extreme wisdom do the superior Spirits proceed in their revelations. They do not attack the great questions of the Doctrine except gradually, as the intelligence shows itself apt to comprehend truth of a more elevated order and when the circumstances reveal themselves propitious to the emission of a new idea. That is why at the very beginning they did not say everything, and everything they have not said even today, never yielding to the impatience of the over-eager, who want the fruits before they are ripe.

It would therefore be superfluous to seek to anticipate the time that Providence has assigned to each thing, because then the truly serious Spirits would deny their cooperation. The frivolous Spirits, caring little for the truth, answer everything; whence it comes that, on all premature questions, there are always contradictory answers.

The above principles do not result from a personal theory: they are the necessary consequence of the conditions under which the Spirits manifest themselves. It is evident that, if a Spirit says one thing on one side, while millions of others say the contrary elsewhere, the presumption of truth cannot lie with the one who is the only one, or almost the only one, of such a view. Now, for someone to claim to be right against all would be as illogical on the part of the Spirits as on the part of men.

The truly judicious Spirits, if they do not feel themselves sufficiently enlightened on a question, never resolve it in an absolute manner; they declare that they are treating it only from their point of view and advise that one await confirmation.

However great, beautiful, and just an idea may be, it is impossible that from the very first moment it should bring together all opinions. The conflicts that result from this are the inevitable consequence of the movement that takes place; they are even necessary for greater enhancement of the truth, and it is fitting that they occur right away, so that the false ideas may promptly be set aside.

The Spiritists who in this respect nourished any fear may remain perfectly at ease: all isolated pretensions will fall, by the very force of things, before the enormous and powerful criterion of universal concordance.

It will not be to the opinion of one man that the others will ally themselves, but to the unanimous voice of the Spirits; it will not be one man, neither us, nor any other, who will found Spiritist orthodoxy; nor will it be one Spirit who comes to impose himself upon anyone whatsoever: it will be the universality of the Spirits who communicate over all the Earth, by order of God. Such is the essential character of the Spiritist Doctrine; such is its strength, its authority. God willed that His law should rest upon an immovable base, and for that reason He did not give it for foundation the fragile head of a single one.

Before so powerful an areopagus, where neither cliques, nor jealous rivalries, nor sects, nor nations are known, it is that all oppositions, all ambitions, all pretensions to individual supremacy will come to break themselves; it is that we ourselves would break ourselves, were we to wish to substitute our own ideas for its sovereign decrees. He alone will decide all litigious questions, will impose silence upon dissidences, and will give the right to whoever has it. Before this imposing accord of all the voices of Heaven, what can the opinion of one man or of one Spirit avail? less than the drop of water that is lost in the ocean, less than the voice of the child that the storm smothers.

Universal opinion, behold the supreme judge, the one that pronounces in the last instance. It is formed by all the individual opinions. If one of these is true, it has in the balance only its relative weight. If it is false, it cannot prevail over all the rest. In this immense concourse, individualities are effaced, which constitutes a new failure for human pride.

The harmonious whole is already taking shape. This century will not pass without its shining forth in all its brilliance, so as to dispel all uncertainties, for from now until then potent voices will have received the mission of making themselves heard, to bring together men under the same banner, once the field is found sufficiently tilled.

While this does not yet come to pass, he who fluctuates between two opposing systems may observe in what direction the general opinion is forming; this will be the sure indication of the direction in which the majority of the Spirits pronounce themselves, at the various points where they communicate, and a no less certain sign of which of the two systems will prevail.