SPIRITIST CREED.

The ills of Humanity proceed from the imperfection of men; it is through their vices that they harm one another. So long as they remain vicious, they will be unhappy, because the conflict of interests will engender constant miseries.

Without doubt, good laws contribute to improving the social state, but they are powerless to render Humanity happy, because they do no more than restrain evil passions without eliminating them. In the second place, because they are more repressive than moralizing and repress only the most conspicuous evil acts without destroying their causes. Moreover, the goodness of the laws bears a relation to the goodness of men; so long as the latter remain dominated by pride and selfishness, they will make laws for the benefit of their personal ambitions. Civil law modifies only the surface; only the moral law can penetrate the innermost forum of the conscience and reform it. It being recognized, then, that the friction arising from the contact of vices is what renders men unfortunate, the only remedy for their ills lies in their improving themselves morally. Since the cause of the ills is found in the imperfections, happiness will increase in proportion as the imperfections diminish.

However good a social institution may be, if men are evil, they will falsify it and disfigure its spirit so as to exploit it for their own profit. When men are good, they will organize good institutions, which will be durable, because all will have an interest in preserving them.

The social question, then, does not have for its point of departure the form of this or that institution; it lies entirely in the moral improvement of individuals and of the masses. There is found the principle, the true key to the happiness of the human race, because then men will no longer contemplate harming one another. It is not enough to coat the corruption with varnish; it is indispensable to extirpate the corruption.

The principle of improvement lies in the nature of beliefs, because these constitute the motive of actions and modify the sentiments. It also lies in the ideas inculcated from childhood and which become identified with the Spirit; it lies further in the ideas that the subsequent development of intelligence and reason can strengthen, never destroy. It is through education, more than through instruction, that Humanity will be transformed.

The man who earnestly strives to improve himself secures happiness for himself, already in this life. Beyond the satisfaction he affords his conscience, he exempts himself from the material and moral miseries that are the inevitable consequence of his imperfections. He will have calm, because vicissitudes will only lightly graze him. He will enjoy health, because he will not ruin his body with excesses. He will be rich, because rich is always anyone who knows how to content himself with what is necessary. He will have peace of mind, because he will not experience fictitious needs, nor will he be tormented by the thirst for honors and the superfluous, by the fever of ambition, of envy, and of jealousy. Indulgent toward the imperfections of others, these will cause him less suffering and will rather inspire in him pity and not anger. Avoiding everything that might harm his neighbor, in words and in deeds, seeking instead to do everything that may be useful and agreeable to others, no one will suffer from his contact. He guarantees his happiness in the future life, because, the more he purifies himself, the more he will rise in the hierarchy of intelligent beings and the sooner he will abandon this land of trials for higher worlds, inasmuch as the evil he has repaired in this life he will not have to repair in other existences; inasmuch as, in erraticity, he will encounter only friendly and sympathetic beings and will not be tormented by the incessant sight of those who have grounds for complaint against him.

Let a few men live together, animated by these sentiments, and they will be as happy as our earth allows. Let a whole people, a whole race, all of Humanity gain these sentiments thus, step by step, and our globe will take its place among the happy worlds.

Is this a utopia, a chimera? It will be so for the one who does not believe in the progress of the soul; it will not be so for the one who believes in its indefinite perfectibility.

General progress is the resultant of all individual progress; but individual progress does not consist solely in the development of intelligence, in the acquisition of some knowledge. In that there is no more than a part of progress, which does not necessarily lead to good, since there are men who make ill use of their learning. Progress consists, above all, in moral improvement, in the purification of the Spirit, in the extirpation of the evil germs that exist within us. That is true progress, the only one that can guarantee happiness to the human race, since it is the very opposite of evil. The man of the most cultivated intelligence can do much evil; he who has advanced morally will do only good. It is, then, in the interest of all that Humanity should progress morally. But what do the improvement and happiness of future generations matter to the one who believes that everything ends with life? What interest has he in perfecting himself, in restraining himself, in taming his lower passions, in depriving himself of anything whatsoever for the benefit of another? None. Logic itself tells him that his interest lies in enjoying quickly and by every means possible, since tomorrow, perhaps, he will be nothing more.

The doctrine of annihilationism is the paralysis of human progress, because it circumscribes man's views to the imperceptible point of the present existence; because it restricts his ideas and forcibly concentrates them on material life. With this doctrine, man being nothing either before or after, all social relations ceasing with life, solidarity is an empty word, fraternity a theory without foundation, abnegation in favor of another mere deceit, selfishness, with its maxim—each one for himself—a natural right; vengeance, an act of reason; happiness, the privilege of the stronger and of the most cunning; suicide, the logical end of the one who, bereft of resources and expedients, expects nothing more and cannot extricate himself from the mire. A society founded upon annihilationism would carry within itself the germ of its impending dissolution. Different, however, are the sentiments of the one who has faith in the future; who knows that nothing of what he has acquired in learning and in morality will be lost to him; that today's labor will bear its fruits tomorrow; that he himself will be part of the generations to come, more advanced and more happy. He knows that, working for others, he works for himself. His vision does not stop at the Earth, it embraces the infinity of worlds that will one day serve him as a dwelling; he glimpses the glorious place that will fall to him, as to all beings who attain perfection. With faith in the future life, the circle of his ideas expands; the future belongs to him; personal progress has an aim, a real utility. From the continuity of relations among men is born solidarity; fraternity is founded upon a law of Nature and upon the interest of all.

Belief in the future life is, then, an element of progress, because it stimulates the Spirit; it alone can give man courage in his trials, because it furnishes him the reason for being of those trials, perseverance in the struggle against evil, because it assigns him a goal. To form this belief in the spirit of the masses is, therefore, that to which those who possess it ought to apply themselves.

Nevertheless, it is innate in man. All religions proclaim it. Why, then, has it not, to this day, given the results that ought to have been expected? It is that, in general, they present it under conditions that reason cannot accept. As they depict it, it breaks all relations with the present; once it has left the Earth, the creature becomes a stranger to Humanity: no solidarity exists between the dead and the living; progress is purely individual; each one, working for the future, works solely for himself, thinks only of himself, and that even for a vague purpose, which has nothing definite, nothing positive, upon which thought may firmly rest with security; in short, because it is more a hope than a material certainty. Thence results, for some, indifference, for others, a mystical exaltation which, isolating man from the Earth, is essentially prejudicial to the real progress of Humanity, inasmuch as it neglects the cares demanded by material progress, to which Nature imposes upon him the duty of contributing. Nevertheless, however incomplete the results may be, they are no less effective. How many men have not felt encouraged and sustained in the path of good by this vague hope! How many have not halted on the downward slope of evil, through the fear of compromising their future! How many noble virtues has this belief not developed! Let us not disdain the beliefs of the past, however imperfect they may be, when they lead to good: they were in correspondence with the degree of advancement of Humanity.

But, having progressed, Humanity demands beliefs in harmony with the new ideas. If the elements of faith remain stationary and become distanced by the spirit, they lose all influence; and the good they may have produced, at a certain time, cannot continue, because those elements are no longer equal to the circumstances.

In order for the doctrine of the future life henceforth to yield the fruits that ought to be expected, it is necessary, above all, that it completely satisfy reason; that it correspond to the idea one forms of the wisdom, justice, and goodness of God; that it cannot in any way be contradicted by Science. It is necessary that the future life leave in the spirit neither doubt nor uncertainty; that it be as positive as the present life, of which it is the continuation just as tomorrow is the continuation of the previous day. It is necessary that it be seen, understood, and, so to speak, touched with the finger. It is necessary, in short, that the solidarity between the past, the present, and the future, through the various existences, be evident. Such is the idea of the future life that Spiritism presents. What gives this idea its force is that it is absolutely not a human conception with the merit only of being more rational, without, however, offering more certainty than the others. It is the result of studies made upon the testimonies offered by Spirits of different categories in their manifestations, which permitted the exploration of extracorporeal life in all its phases, from the uppermost end to the lowermost end of the scale of beings. The vicissitudes of the future life, consequently, no longer constitute a mere theory, or a more or less probable hypothesis: they derive from observations. It is the inhabitants of the invisible world who come, themselves, to describe their respective states, and there are situations that the most fertile imagination would not conceive, were they not made manifest before the eyes of the observer. Furnishing the material proof of the existence and immortality of the soul, initiating us into the mysteries of birth, of death, of the future life, of universal life, rendering palpable to us the inevitable consequences of good and evil, the Spiritist Doctrine, better than any other, brings into relief the necessity of individual improvement. Through it, man knows whence he comes, where he is going, why he is on the Earth; good has an aim, a practical utility. It does not limit itself to preparing man for the future, it also forms him for the present, for society. By improving themselves morally, men will prepare on the Earth the reign of peace and fraternity. The Spiritist Doctrine is thus the most powerful element of moralization, because it addresses itself simultaneously to the heart, to the intelligence, and to well-understood personal interest.

By its very essence, Spiritism participates in all the branches of physical, metaphysical, and moral knowledge. The questions it involves are innumerable, which, however, may be summarized in the following points which, considered as incontrovertible truths, form the program of Spiritist beliefs.

Fundamental principles of the Spiritist Doctrine, recognized as incontrovertible truths.

Allan Kardec.

The corporeal death of Allan Kardec interrupted the Posthumous Works of that eminent Spirit. This volume ends with a question mark, and many readers would wish to see it answered logically, as that learned professor in matters of Spiritism knew how to do. Without doubt, so it ought to be.

At the international Spiritist and spiritualist Congress of 1890, its members declared that, since 1869, persevering studies had revealed new things and that, according to the teaching advocated by Allan Kardec, some of the principles of Spiritism, upon which the master based his teaching, had to be revised and brought into accord with the progress of Science, in general, over the last 20 years.

This current of ideas, common to the members of that Congress, who came from all parts of the Earth, proved that a new volume needed to be elaborated, in order to conjoin the teaching of Allan Kardec with what the search for truth constantly affords us.

That will be the work of the Commission of propaganda. We count greatly on the good counsels of the brothers who at the Congress demonstrated their competence concerning the highest philosophical questions, to assist the Commission in this elaboration of a collective and incessantly progressive work. This volume will in its turn have to be revised, when a new Congress so decides.

“Science,” said Allan Kardec, “has for its purpose to constitute the true genesis, according to the laws of Nature.”

“The discoveries of Science, far from debasing Him, glorify God. They destroy only what men have built upon the false ideas they have formed of God.

“Spiritism, advancing with progress, will never be surpassed, because, if new discoveries demonstrate to it that it is in error concerning a point, it will modify itself on that point; if a new truth reveals itself, it will accept it.” (Genesis, chapter I — Character of the Spiritist Revelation.)

P. G. Leymarie.

[1] [Although the title above indicates the existence of a program of Spiritist beliefs, this article published by Mr. Leymarie after the death of the Codifier is merely the preamble on the proposed theme and which was not concluded. The Codifier, however, did not leave us without the Spiritist Creed. — See also: Reasoned profession of Spiritist faith.]