MY PERSONAL LABORS. VARIOUS COUNSELS.

Your particular labors are progressing well; carry on with the reprinting of your latest work; make your general index for the end of the year; it is a useful thing and, as for the rest, rely on us.

The impulse that Genesis has produced is only just beginning, and many elements, shaken by it, will shortly place themselves under your banner. Other serious works will also appear, to finish enlightening human judgment about the new doctrine.

I likewise approve the publication of Lavater's letters. It is a very small thing, but destined to produce great effects. In short, the year will be fruitful for all the friends of rational and liberal progress.

I am also in full agreement that you publish the summary you intend to make in the form of a catechism or manual, but I think you should work it out carefully in detail. When you are about to give it to the public, do not forget to consult me about the title; I shall perhaps have a good suggestion to offer you, the terms of which will depend on events already verified.

When we lately advised you not to take too long to remodel Genesis, we said that you would have to make additions to it at various points, in order to fill some gaps and to condense, here and there, the material, so as not to make the volume longer.

Our observations were not lost, and it will greatly gladden us to collaborate in the remodeling of that work, as it gladdened us to have contributed to its execution.

I recommend to you today that you review attentively above all the first chapters, whose ideas are all excellent, which contain nothing that is not true, but some of whose expressions could lend themselves to erroneous interpretations. Apart from those corrections, which I advise you not to set aside, because antagonists pounce on words when they cannot attack ideas, there is nothing further I need point out to you on the subject. I advise, however, that you not lose time; it is preferable that the volumes wait for the public than that the public wait for them. Nothing depreciates a work more than the interruption of its sale. The publisher, made impatient at not being able to satisfy the orders he receives, and thus missing opportunities to sell the book, loses interest in the works of the improvident author. The public grows weary of waiting, and the bad impression that results from it is hard to erase. On the other hand, it is not a bad thing that you enjoy a certain freedom of mind to attend to the eventualities that may arise around you and to devote your care to particular studies which, according to events, may be taken up now or relegated to more propitious times.

Hold yourself, then, ready for everything; rid yourself of all hindrances, whether to devote yourself to a special work, if the general tranquility permits it, or to be prepared for any event, should unforeseen complications come to make a sudden decision necessary on your part. The coming year will begin soon; it is necessary, therefore, that by the end of this one you put the finishing touch to the first part of the Spiritist work, so that you may have the field clear for the conclusion of the task that concerns the future.