Will in favor of Spiritism.

My dear sir and most honored Spiritist leader, I am enclosing my holographic will, in an envelope sealed with green wax, with instructions on what is to be done after my death. From the moment I came to know and understand Spiritism, its object, its final goal, I had the idea and took the resolution to make my will. I had planned this winter, after my return from the country, this work of my last wishes. In the leisure and solitude of the country I was able to withdraw within myself and, in the light of that divine torch of Spiritism, I took advantage of all the teachings I received, from every point of view, from the Spirits of the Lord, in order to guide myself in the accomplishment of this work in the manner most useful to my brothers of the Earth, whether seated within my domestic home, whether around me or far from me, known and unknown, friends or enemies, and in the manner most pleasing to God. I recalled what that venerable Mr. Jobard, of Brussels, whose sudden death you announced to us, wrote to you, in his profound and at the same time amusing and witty language, concerning an inheritance of twenty million, of which he said he had been despoiled: that this colossal sum would have been a powerful lever to advance by a century the new era that is beginning. Money, which often and from the earthly point of view is said to be the neuralgic point of battles, is, indeed, the most fearsome, the most powerful instrument, both for good and for evil here on Earth. So I said to myself: “I can and must consecrate to this new era a notable portion of the modest patrimony that I acquired for the accomplishment of my trials, with the sweat of my brow, at the cost of my health, through poverty, fatigue, study, and labor, during thirty years of an active life as a lawyer, one of the busiest in the courtrooms and in the office. I reread the letter of November 1, 1832, which, after his journey to Rome, Lamennais wrote to the Countess of Senfft [See the letter in the Oeuvres posthumes de F. Lamennais, par Félicité Robert de Lamennais - Google Books,] and in which, expressing his disappointment after so many efforts and so many struggles consecrated to the search for truth, I found these words, if not prophetic, at least inspired, announcing this new era.

(There follow several quotations, which lack of space does not allow us to reproduce.)

The envelope bears the following superscription:

“Within this envelope, sealed with green wax, is my holographic will. The envelope is to be opened and the seal broken only after my death, during a general session of the Spiritist Society of Paris. At that session a full reading of the will is to be made by the president of the Society then in office on that occasion. The said envelope and the seal mentioned are to be broken by the president. The present sealed envelope, containing my will and which is to be delivered to Mr. Allan Kardec, the current president of the said society, is to be kept by him in the archives of the said Society. An original of this same will is to be found, at the time of my death, in the study room of Mrs.***; another original will, at the same time, be found in my house. The deposit with Mr. Allan Kardec is mentioned in the other originals.” The letter having been communicated to the Spiritist Society of Paris, in its session of December 20, 1861, its president, Mr. Allan Kardec, was charged with thanking, in the name of the society, the generous intentions of the testator in favor of Spiritism, and with congratulating him on the manner in which he understands its purpose and its scope.

Although the author of the letter did not recommend omitting his name, should it be deemed appropriate to publish it, it is understood that, in such circumstances and in an act of this nature, the most absolute reserve is a rigorous obligation.

Note. – We postpone to the next issue the publication of various evocations and Spiritist dissertations of great interest.

Allan Kardec.

Paris. — Typ. de Cosson et Ce rue du Four-St-Germain, 43.