Letter from the president of the Spiritist Society of Mexico.

— To Mr. Allan Kardec, in Paris.

Sir, My friend Mr. Viseur, in his next-to-last letter, expresses to me the desire you would have to know the object and the tendencies of the Spiritist Society over which I preside in Mexico. It is with immense pleasure and the most lively sympathy for your profound enlightenment concerning this matter that I address to you this brief account of the history of Spiritism in this country, beseeching you not only to take into consideration our feeble experience, but also to count us among you as fervent adepts.

Long after you, sir, we had the happiness of coming to know the gentle truth that Spirits, or the souls of dead persons, can communicate with the living. Notwithstanding some publications coming from the North, our attention and curiosity had not been awakened, and we had not taken the trouble to seek out what was meant by spiritual manifestations. It was your The Spirits' Book, happily arrived among us, that opened our eyes and convinced us of the reality of the facts that are spreading with such rapidity to all points of the globe, making us understand them. We then began to make researches and experiments, undertaking the task of training ourselves, by constant work, to receive the manifestations. The counsels we drew from your excellent book made us know this great truth: after death the soul exists and we can enter into communication with those who were dear to us on Earth. I would not be rendering homage to the truth if I told you that we were here the first to have knowledge of the manifestations. Several persons of our city were already occupied with them, which we only learned later. The principle of reincarnation is what surprised us most, at first; but our communications with Spirits of an order which, by their language, we recognized to be superior, did not permit us to doubt a belief that everything proves to be in the order of things and in conformity with the omnipotent justice of God. A fact that proves the goodness and the superiority of the Spirits who assist us is that they restore the health of those who suffer bodily and bring calm and resignation to spiritual afflictions. Simple logic tells us that good can come only from a good source; but we would be very presumptuous if we set ourselves up as qualified champions of this sublime doctrine. To you, sir, belongs the right to enlighten us, as the works coming from the bosom of your Society prove. We have formed a society composed of members experienced in the Spiritist belief, and we receive into its intimacy every individual who wishes to be enlightened. The fundamental laws that govern us are unity of principles, fraternity among the members, and charity toward all who suffer. Behold, sir, how the Spiritist ideas have spread in this country and, we can say with satisfaction, have propagated beyond our hopes. Should you judge it fitting to guide us with your good counsels, we shall always receive them with lively gratitude and as a testimony of sympathy on your part.

Accept, etc.

Ch. Gourgues.

— On the same day that this letter from Mexico reached us, we received the following, from Constantinople:

Constantinople, May 28, 1861.

To Mr. Allan Kardec, director of the SPIRITIST REVIEW.

Sir, Permit me to come, in my own name and in the personal name of my friends and brother spiritualists of this city, to offer you two simple gifts, as a remembrance, not from persons whom you do not yet know, and who have only had the honor of knowing you through your works, but which you will accept as a testimony of the sentiments of fraternization that must unite the spiritualists of all countries. You will accept them, too, because they are a proof of the phenomena of Spiritism, as sublime as they are extraordinary. You will accept them and grant them the honor of a frame for our good Sofia, for it is in her name and in the name of her sister Angélica that Spiritism develops and propagates in Constantinople, that capital of the Orient, so moving for its historical memories. A true Tower of Babel, it is the city that brings together all religious sects, all nations, and in which all languages are spoken. Imagine Spiritism propagating itself suddenly in the midst of all this… What an immense point of departure! We are still few in number, but this number increases day by day, as if it were a snowball. I hope that, in a short time, we shall be counted in the hundreds. The manifestations we have obtained until today are the raising of tables, one of which, of more than 100 kilograms, rose like a feather above our heads; direct raps, struck by Spirits; phenomena of transport, etc. We are attempting the apparitions of Spirits, visible to all; shall we succeed? They have promised us, and we await it. We already have a great number of writing mediums; others make drawings; others still compose musical pieces, even when they are ignorant of these different arts. We have seen, followed, and studied diverse Spirits of all kinds and qualities. Some of our mediums have visions and ecstasies; others, made mediums, perform airs on the piano, inspired by the Spirits. Two young ladies, who have never seen or read anything about magnetism, magnetize every sort of ailment, by the action of the Spirits, who make them act in the most scientific manner possible. Behold, sir, at a glance, what we have done in matters of Spiritism until today. So that you may better judge our works, with regard to the spiritual revelations, we present the result of some sessions by means of the table.

(There follow diverse moral communications of a very elevated order, the reading of which the Society heard with the keenest interest).

If you judge that these revelations may interest the propagation of the new spiritualist, or Spiritist science – because to me, as to my friends, the title means nothing, since it changes neither the form nor the substance – I shall have the pleasure of sending you some instructive and conclusive messages, from the point of view of the proof of spiritual manifestations.

Soon all the spiritualists of the Earth will form a single sheaf, a single and same family. Are we not all brothers and children of the same father, who is God? These are the first principles that spiritualists must preach to the human race, without distinction of class, country, language, sect, or fortune.

Accept, etc.

Repos, Lawyer.

— This letter was accompanied by a drawing, representing a head of natural size, very well executed, although the medium did not know how to draw, as well as by a musical piece, lyrics, song, and piano accompaniment, entitled Spiritualism; the whole with this dedication: “Offering in the name of the spiritualists of Constantinople to Mr. Allan Kardec, director of the Spiritist Review, of Paris.”

In the fragment of music, only the song and the lyrics were obtained by mediumistic means; the accompaniment was done by an artist.

If we published all the letters of adherence that we receive, we would need to devote volumes upon volumes to them. One would see repeated, thousands of times, a touching expression of gratitude to the Spiritist Doctrine. Many of these letters, moreover, are quite intimate to be published. The two that we reproduce above have a general interest, as proof of the expansion that, on all sides, Spiritism is taking on, and of the serious point of view under which it is now regarded, very far, as one can see, from the entertainment of turning tables. Everywhere its moral consequences are understood and it is considered as the providential basis of the reforms promised to Humanity. We feel happy to thus give a testimony of sympathy and of encouragement to our distant colleagues. This bond, which already exists among the Spiritists of the different points of the globe, and who know one another only by the conformity of belief, is it not a symptom of what will be later? This bond is a natural consequence of the principles that flow from Spiritism; it can be broken only by those who fail to recognize its fundamental law: charity toward all.