THE SPIRITS' BOOK.

Question (to Truth). — A part of the work has been revised; would you be so kind as to tell me what you think of it?

Answer. — What has been revised is good; but, when the work is finished, you must review it again, in order to expand it on certain points and shorten it on others.

Q. — Do you think it should be published before the predicted events have come to pass?

A. — A part, yes; not all of it, for, I assure you, we are going to have very thorny chapters. However important this first work may be, it is, in a sense, no more than an introduction. It will assume proportions which you are now far from suspecting. You yourself will understand that certain parts can only be brought to light much later and gradually, as the new ideas develop and take root. To give everything at once would be imprudent. It is important to allow time for opinion to form. You will come upon some impatient ones who will seek to push you forward: do not heed them. See, observe, sound out the ground, prepare yourself to wait, and act like the cautious general who does not attack except when the favorable moment arrives. NOTE. — (Written in January 1867.) — At the time when this communication was given, I had in view only The Spirits' Book, and I was far, as the Spirit said, from imagining the proportions which the whole of the work would take on. The predicted events were to verify themselves only after many years had passed, so much so that at this moment they have still not occurred. The works which have appeared up to now were published successively, and I was led to elaborate them as the new ideas developed. Of those that remain to be done, the most important, the one that may be considered the dome of the edifice and which, indeed, contains the most thorny chapters, could not be published, without harm, before the period of disasters. I, then, saw only a single book, and did not understand that it could be split, whereas the Spirit was alluding to those that would have to follow and whose premature publication would present drawbacks. “Prepare yourself to wait,” said the Spirit; “do not heed the impatient ones who seek to push you forward.” The impatient ones were not lacking, and, had I listened to them, I would have hurled the ship straight onto the reefs. Strange thing! while some urged me to go faster, others accused me of not going as slowly as I should. I heeded neither the one nor the other, always taking the march of ideas as my compass.

With what confidence in the future was I filled, in proportion as I saw what had been predicted being realized and as I verified the depth and wisdom of the instructions of my invisible protectors!

THE SPIRITS' BOOK.

September 11, 1856. — (At the home of Mr. Baudin; medium: Miss Baudin.)

After I had read some chapters of The Spirits' Book, concerning the moral laws, the medium spontaneously wrote:

“You have understood well the aim of your work. The plan is well conceived. We are pleased with you. Continue, but remember, above all when the work is concluded, that we recommend you to have it printed and propagated. It is of general utility. We are pleased and will never abandon you. Believe in God and onward.”

Many Spirits.