The Spirits' Book.

CONTAINS The Principles of the Spiritist Doctrine.

On the nature of the beings of the incorporeal world, their manifestations and their relations with men, the moral laws, the present life, the future life, and the destiny of Humanity.

WRITTEN IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DICTATION AND PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SUPERIOR SPIRITS.

By ALLAN KARDEC.

This work, as its title indicates, is not a personal doctrine: it is the result of the direct teaching of the Spirits themselves on the mysteries of the world where we shall one day be, and on all the questions that interest Humanity; they give us, in a way, the code of life, by tracing out for us the route to future happiness. As this book is not the fruit of our own ideas, since on many important points we held a quite different way of seeing, our modesty would suffer nothing from our praises; we prefer, however, to let those speak who are entirely disinterested in this question. The Courrier de Paris, of July 11, 1857, published the following article concerning this book:

The Spiritist Doctrine.

The Publisher Dentu has just published a truly remarkable work; we would even say a rather curious one, but there are things that repel every banal qualification.

The Spirits' Book, by Mr. Allan Kardec, is a new page of the great book of the infinite, and we are persuaded that a bookmark will mark that page. We would be distressed if anyone thought we had just made a bibliographic announcement here; if we could suppose that this were so, we would break our pen at once. We do not know the author in the least, but we openly confess that we would be happy to know him. He who wrote the introduction that opens The Spirits' Book must have a soul open to all noble sentiments. Moreover, so that our good faith may not be suspected, and lest we be accused of taking sides, we will say in all sincerity that we have never made a deep study of supernatural questions. Only, if the facts that have occurred caused us admiration, at least they never led us to shrug our shoulders. We are somewhat one of those persons who are called dreamers, because we do not think entirely as everyone else does. Twenty leagues from Paris, at night beneath the great trees, when we had around us nothing but scattered cottages, we naturally thought of anything but the Stock Exchange, the macadam of the boulevards, or the races of Longchamp. Several times we questioned ourselves, and this long before having heard of mediums, as to what might be happening in what has been agreed to call the Heights. We even once went so far as to sketch out a theory about the invisible worlds, keeping it carefully to ourselves, and we were very happy to rediscover it almost in its entirety in Mr. Allan Kardec's book. To all the disinherited of the Earth, to all who walk and fall, watering the dust of the road with their tears, we will say: Read The Spirits' Book; it will make you stronger. To the happy as well, to those who along their paths meet only the applause of the multitude or the smiles of fortune, we will say: Study it; it will make you better.

The body of the work, says Mr. Allan Kardec, must be claimed entirely by the Spirits who dictated it. It is admirably classified by questions and answers. Sometimes the latter are sublime, and this does not surprise us; but did it not require great merit on the part of him who knew how to elicit them?

We defy the most incredulous to laugh when they read this book, in silence and solitude. All will honor the man who wrote its preface.

The doctrine may be summed up in a few words: Do not do unto others what you would not wish to be done unto you. We regret that Mr. Allan Kardec did not add: and do unto others what you would wish to be done unto you. The book, moreover, says it clearly, and the doctrine, without this, would not be complete. It is not enough not to do evil; it is also necessary to do good. If you are only a man of goodness, you will have fulfilled only half of your duty. You are an imperceptible atom of this great machine that is called the world, where nothing must be useless. Above all, do not tell us that one can be useful without doing good; we would be forced to reply to you with an entire volume. Reading the admirable answers of the Spirits in Mr. Kardec's work, we said to ourselves that there would be a fine book to write. Very soon we recognized that we had been mistaken: the book is already written. We would only spoil it if we tried to complete it.

Are you a man of study who possesses good faith, which asks only to be instructed? Read the First Book on the Spiritist Doctrine.

Are you placed in the class of those who occupy themselves only with themselves and who, as is said, conduct their little affairs very tranquilly, seeing nothing beyond their own interests? Read the Moral Laws.

Does misfortune pursue you with fury, and does doubt at times envelop you in its icy embrace? Study the Third Book: Hopes and Consolations.

All you who harbor noble thoughts in your heart and who believe in goodness, read the book from beginning to end.

If anyone should find in it matter for mockery, we would sincerely regret it.

G. Du Chalard.

Among the numerous letters that have been addressed to us since the publication of The Spirits' Book, we will cite only two, because in a certain way they sum up the impression this book produced, and the essentially moral aim of the principles it contains.

Bordeaux, April 25, 1857.

Sir, You subjected my patience to a great trial by the delay in the publication of The Spirits' Book, announced so long ago; fortunately, I did not lose by waiting, for it surpasses all the ideas I had formed, according to the prospectus. It is impossible to describe the effect it produced on me: I am like a man who has come out of darkness; it seems that a door, closed until today, has just been suddenly opened; my ideas have expanded in a few hours! Oh! How Humanity and all its miserable preoccupations seem to me petty and puerile, beside that future of which I did not doubt, but which for me was so obscured by prejudices that I imagined it only with difficulty! Thanks to the teaching of the Spirits, it now presents itself under a defined, comprehensible form, greater, more beautiful, and in harmony with the majesty of the Creator. Whoever reads this book meditating, as I have, will find inexhaustible treasures of consolation, for it embraces all the phases of existence. In my life I suffered losses that affected me deeply; today, they cause me no grief, and all my concern is to employ usefully my time and my faculties to accelerate my progress, because, for me, now, goodness has a purpose, and I understand that a useless life is the life of an egoist, which does not allow us to advance in the future life. If all the men who think as you and I do – and you will find many of them, I hope, to the honor of Humanity – could come to an understanding, unite, and act in common accord, what force they would have at their disposal to hasten that regeneration which is announced to us! When I go to Paris, I shall have the honor of seeing you and, if it is not to abuse your time, I shall ask of you some explanations on certain passages and some counsel on the application of the moral laws to certain circumstances that are personal to me. Receive, until then, I beg you, Sir, the expression of all my gratitude, because you have procured for me a great good in pointing out to me the route to the only real happiness in this world and, besides, who knows? a better place in the other. Your wholly devoted, D…, retired captain.

Lyon, July 4, 1857.

Sir, I do not know how to express to you all the gratitude I feel, since reading it, for the publication of The Spirits' Book.

How consoling for our poor Humanity is what you have made known to us! For my part, I confess to you that I am stronger and more courageous in bearing the pains and vexations connected with my poor existence. I share, with several of my friends, the convictions I have drawn from reading your work: all are very happy; they now understand the inequalities of social positions and no longer murmur against Providence; the certainty of a happier future, should they behave well, consoles and encourages them. I would like to be useful to you, sir; I am a simple son of the people who obtained a certain position through his work, but who lacks instruction for having been obliged to work from childhood; nevertheless, I have always loved God greatly and done all I could to be useful to my fellow men; that is why I seek out everything that can help in the happiness of my brothers. We are going to gather together, several adepts who were scattered; we will make every effort to second you: you have raised the banner, it is for us to follow you; we count on your support and your counsel. I am, sir, if I dare call you a confrere, your wholly devoted, C…

We have often been asked questions about the manner in which the communications that are the object of The Spirits' Book were obtained. We summarize here, with much pleasure, the answers we have given in this regard, for this will afford us the occasion to fulfill a duty of gratitude toward the persons who, of their own good will, lent us their assistance.

As we have explained, communications by raps, or typtology, are very slow and rather incomplete for an extensive work; that is why we never used this resource: everything was obtained through writing and by means of several psychographic mediums. We ourselves prepared the questions and coordinated the whole of the work; the answers are, textually, those given by the Spirits; the greater part of them were written under our eyes, some were taken from the communications that were sent to us by correspondents or that we gathered for study everywhere we were: to this effect, the Spirits seem to multiply before our eyes the motives for observation. The first mediums who contributed to our work were the Misses B ***, whose good will never failed us: this book was written almost entirely through them and in the presence of a numerous audience that attended the sessions and took part in them with the keenest interest. Later the Spirits recommended its complete revision in private conversations in order to make all the additions and corrections they judged necessary. This essential part of the work was done with the assistance of Miss Japhet, who lent herself with the greatest good will and the most complete disinterestedness to all the demands of the Spirits, for it was they who fixed the days and the hours for their lessons. Disinterestedness would not here be a particular merit, since the Spirits reprove all traffic that may be made of their presence; Miss Japhet, who is also a remarkable somnambulist, had her time usefully employed, but she equally understood that she could make a profitable use of it by consecrating herself to the propagation of the Doctrine. As for us, we have declared from the beginning, and it pleases us to reaffirm here, that we have never thought of making The Spirits' Book an object of speculation, its revenue having to be applied to things of general utility; that is why we shall always be grateful to those who associate themselves with heart, and out of love for goodness, with the work to which we are consecrating ourselves. Allan Kardec.

Paris. — Typ. of COSSON and Comp., rue du Four-Saint-Germain, 43.

[1] 1 vol.

in 8º in 2 col., 3fr.; Dentu Bookshop, Palais-Royal and at the Editorial Office of the journal, Rue and Passage Sainte-Anne,

(formerly Rue des Martyrs, no. 8.)

[2] Rue Tiquetonne, 14.