ADVICE TO NEWCOMERS.

The knowledge of the spirit science rests upon a moral conviction and a material certainty. The first is acquired through reasoning, the second through the observation of facts. For the novice it would be logical to see first and reason afterward. Unfortunately, it cannot always be so. It would be impossible to give a practical course in Spiritism, as one gives a course in Chemistry or Physics. The phenomena that fall within the province of those two sciences can be reproduced at will; one can therefore make them pass, gradually, before the pupil's eyes, proceeding from the simplest to the most complex. The same is not the case with spirit phenomena: we do not handle them like an electrical machine. We must take them as they present themselves, for it does not depend on us to set for them a methodical order. From this it often results that they are unintelligible or scarcely conclusive for beginners. They may impress without convincing. This drawback can be avoided if we follow a contrary course, that is, beginning with theory, and that is what we advise anyone who seriously desires to enlighten themselves. Through the study of the principles of the science, principles perfectly comprehensible even without practical experimentation, one acquires a first moral conviction, which needs only the corroboration of the facts. Now, since in this preliminary study all the facts have been reviewed and commented upon, it results from this that when we see them we at once understand them, whatever the order in which circumstances allow us to observe them.

We have sought to bring together in our three publications all the elements necessary to this end, considering the science in all its aspects and giving, on the various points, the explanations that the present state of things permits. An attentive reading of these works will therefore be a first initiation, which will make it possible to await the facts or will furnish the means of provoking them with full knowledge of the cause, if nothing stands in the way of this, and without losing ourselves in useless trials, for not having been conducted within the limits of the possible. In this Practical Instruction will be found all the fundamental principles necessary to beginners; in the Spiritist Review, besides extensive explanations, a considerable variety of facts and observations; finally, in The Spirits' Book, the very teaching of the spirits on all the questions of metaphysics and morals that pertain to the Spiritist Doctrine.