Mr. Girard de Codemberg.

Mr. Girard de Codemberg, a former student of the Polytechnic School, is the author of a book entitled: The Spiritual World, or the Christian science of communicating intimately with the celestial powers and the happy souls. n This work contains eccentric communications that denote manifest obsession and whose publication serious Spiritists deeply regret. [see Vital Principle of the Spiritist Societies.] The author died in November of 1858 and was evoked at the Society of Paris on February 14, 1859. One can see the result of that evocation in the Spiritist Review of the month of April 1859. The evocation that follows was made in Bordeaux, in November 1861; the coincidence of the two evocations is worthy of note.

– Could you answer some questions that I wish to ask?

Answer. – It is a duty.

– What is your position in the world of Spirits?

Answer. – Happy, relative to the life I led on Earth, for there I saw the spiritual world only through the fog of my thoughts, whereas now I see unfolding before me the grandeur and magnificence of the works of God.

– In a passage of your work, which I have in hand, you said: "They ask the table the name of my guardian angel who, according to the American belief, is merely a happy soul, having lived our terrestrial life and who, consequently, must have a name in human society." This belief, you say, is a heresy. What do you think today of that heresy?

Answer. – I told you that I had seen poorly, because, inexperienced in the practice of Spiritism, I accepted as truths the principles that were dictated to me by frivolous and impostor Spirits. But, in the presence of true and sincere Spiritists who are gathered here this night, I confess that the guardian angel, or protecting Spirit, is nothing other than the Spirit that has reached moral and intellectual progress through the various phases traversed in its incarnations in the different worlds, and that reincarnation, which I denied, is the most sublime and the greatest proof of the justice of our Father, who is in heaven, and who does not want our ruin, but our happiness.

– In your work you likewise speak of purgatory. What meaning did you wish to give to that word?

Answer. – I thought, with reason, that men could not attain happiness without purifying themselves of the stains that material life always leaves in the Spirit. But purgatory, the fear of which gave me a blind faith, instead of being an abyss of fire, as I imagined it, was nothing other than the inferior worlds, among whose number is the Earth, where all the miseries to which humanity is subject manifest themselves in a thousand and one ways. Is not the explanation of the word purgare there?

– You also say that your guardian angel answered, concerning fasting: "Fasting is the complement of the Christian life and to it you must submit." What do you think of this now?

Answer. – The complement of the Christian life! And the Jews, the Muslims, who also fast! Fasting is not exclusively appropriate to the Christian life; nevertheless, it is sometimes useful, in that it can weaken the body and calm the revolts of the flesh. Believe me, a simple and frugal life is worth more than all the fasts made with a view to giving a spectacle to men, but which in no way correct your inclinations and tendencies toward evil. I see that you require of me a complete retraction of my writings. I owe it to you, because some fanatics, who do not belong to the epoch in which I wrote, have a blind faith in what I published as the exact truth. I am not punished for it, because I acted in good faith and wrote under the fearful influence of the lessons of the early years, from which the will to think and act could not subtract; but, believe me, very limited will be the number of those who abandon the path traced by Mr. Allan Kardec to follow mine. They are persons on whom one should not count much, marked by the angel of liberation to be dragged into the renewing whirlwind that is to transform society. Yes, my friends, be Spiritists. It is Gérard de Codemberg who invites you to take your place at the great fraternal banquet, for you are and we are all brothers, and reincarnation makes us solidary, tightening among us the bonds of fraternity in God. Observation. – This thought that men will be expelled and sent to inferior worlds, should they not profit from the warnings of God in the great movement that is to operate the renewal of Humanity, by opposing obstacles to it, is found today reproduced on all sides in the communications of the Spirits. The same happens with this other one: we have arrived at the moment of this transformation, whose symptoms are already making themselves felt. As for that which attributes to Spiritism the basis of this transformation, it is universal. Such a coincidence has something characteristic about it. – A. K.

– You said you had evoked the holy Virgin Mary and that you received counsel from her. Was that manifestation real?

Answer. – How many among you believe yourselves inspired by her and are deceived! Be yourselves your own and my judges.

– In addressing to the Virgin the question: — "Is there, at least, in the lot of the punished souls, the hope preserved by several theologians of a gradation of the penalties?" —, you said this had been her answer: "The eternal penalties have no gradation; they are all the same and the flames are their ministers." What is your opinion in this regard?

Answer. – The penalties inflicted on the evil Spirits are real, but not eternal. Witness your parents and friends, who hasten daily to your call and who give you, under all forms, teachings that only confirm the truth.

– Someone in the assembly asks whether the fire burns physically or morally.

Answer. – Moral fire.

Then the Spirit continued spontaneously: "Dear brothers in Spiritism, you are the chosen ones of God for its holy propagation. Happier than I, a Spirit on a mission on your Earth has traced for you the path, into which you must enter with a firm and determined step. Be docile; fear nothing: it is the path of progress and of the morality of the human race. For me, who had only sketched the work that your master [Allan Kardec] traced for you, because I lacked the courage to depart from the beaten path, I have the task of guiding you to the condition of Spirit, on the good and safe road on which you have entered. I shall thus be able to repair the harm I committed through ignorance and to aid with my frail faculties the great reform of society. Do not trouble yourselves about the brothers who depart from your beliefs. On the contrary, act in such a way that they no longer mingle with the flock of the true believers, for they are mangy sheep and you must avoid the contagion. Farewell. I shall return with this medium. Until later. Girard de Codemberg.

Note. – Consulted as to the identity of the Spirit, our guides answered: "Yes, my friends, he suffers to see the harm caused by the erroneous doctrine he published. But he had already expiated that error on Earth, because he was obsessed and the illness that killed him was the fruit of the obsession."

[1] Translator's note: In the original: Le Monde spirituel, ou Science chrétienne de communiquer intimement avec les puissances célestes et les âmes heureuses.