Translator's Note.

About a year after the appearance of the 1st edition of The Spirits' Book, whose success surprised Allan Kardec himself, he saw fit to publish a sort of essentially practical manual, which would set forth the complete exposition of the conditions necessary for communication with the spirits and the means of developing the mediumistic faculty.

This measure proved to be of the utmost importance, because it pointed out a course, a sure direction, to all who wished to familiarize themselves with the mechanisms that make possible the spiritual exchange between the two planes of life, a kind of vade mecum intended to correctly orient the persons who, with the systematization of Spiritism into a body of doctrine, began to take an interest in mediumistic phenomena. The Codifier of the Doctrine gave it the title Practical Instruction on Spirit Manifestations, ordering its matters into eleven chapters, preceded by an “Introduction,” a “Spiritist Vocabulary,” and an interesting “Synoptic Table of the Special Spiritist Nomenclature,” a true effort of synthesis, capable of giving, on a single page, a picture as complete as possible of the mediumistic manifestations. Notwithstanding the inestimable role that this book played in the early days of the Spiritist Codification, Allan Kardec informed the readers of the Spiritist Review (August 1860) that that work was entirely sold out and would not be reprinted. A new work, much more complete and which would follow another plan, would soon come to replace it. It was the first indirect reference to the appearance of The Mediums' Book, published in 1861. And, in fact, in the “Introduction” of the 2nd book of the Spiritist Codification, Allan Kardec expressed himself thus: “We had published a Practical Instruction with the aim of guiding mediums. That work is today sold out and, although we made it with a grave and serious purpose, we shall not reprint it, because we do not yet consider it complete enough to give enlightenment concerning all the difficulties that may be encountered. We replace it with this other one, in which we have brought together all the data that a long experience and conscientious studies have allowed us to gather.” The second French edition of the book Practical Instruction on Spirit Manifestations would only come to light in 1923, more than fifty years after the disincarnation of the Codifier, followed by other more modern editions, in French and in other languages, including Portuguese.

This being so, it is possible that the reader will ask: Why publish a book that knew only a single edition during its author's lifetime, replaced by another work “more complete and which would follow a new plan”?

In our opinion, and even considering The Mediums' Book the definitive work of the Spiritist Codification in the field of mediumship, the simple inclusion of the “Spiritist Vocabulary” in the pages of the book Practical Instruction on Spirit Manifestations is already sufficient argument to justify its publication. As is known, this vocabulary is composed of more than a hundred entries, defined and classified by Allan Kardec himself, a vocabulary that was greatly abridged in the definitive edition of the book that replaced it, since it was the Codifier's intention to publish later, in a separate volume, a much more complete glossary, a measure that, perhaps for lack of time, ended up not being realized. Moreover, the publication of this book is also justified, in our view, by the inestimable historical value of this work of Spiritist initiation, published in 1858 and to this day unknown to a great part of Spiritists, Brazilian and from other countries, committed to the dissemination and the living practice of the doctrinal postulates.

We stress once again that this book was replaced by The Mediums' Book, the fundamental work of Spiritism, the indisputable word of the Superior Spirits with respect to mediumship. Nevertheless, its publication, accompanied by the almost simultaneous launch of other booklets popularizing the Spiritist Doctrine, will surely contribute to recovering these writings of the Codifier among the new generations that are arising, and who cannot and must not remain alien to the great epic that prepared the ways for the regeneration of Humanity. Brasília (DF), January 10, 2006.

Evandro Noleto Bezerra.

Translator.