Calling card of Mr. Jobard

Today I come to make my visit of fraternization and, at the same time, to present to you an old college comrade, with whom our ethereal legions have just been enriched. n Welcome him, then, as a new and zealous partisan of the new truth. If in life he was not an authentic Spiritist, we can affirm that he never pronounced himself openly against our beliefs. I will even say that in the depths of his conscience he saw in Spiritism the safeguard of all the religions of the future. More than once in his life he had the unspeakable happiness of feeling the inner illumination that showed him the path of truth, when uncertainty was on the point of invading his soul. Thus, when we exchanged a fraternal handshake only a few hours ago, he said to me with his gentle smile: Friend, you were right. If he did not lend himself to the development of our ideas, it is because the mediumistic intuition that acted in him gave him to understand that neither the hour nor the moment had come, and that he would have run danger in doing so amid the grave complications of his ministry and among a flock as difficult to lead as his.

Today, now that he finds himself freed from the preoccupations of earthly life, he could not be happier to attend one of your sessions; because, for a long time, he had aspired to come and sit among you. Many times he had the wish to visit our dear president, for whom he nourished a very particular esteem, appreciating how much his books and teachings led souls back, if not to the bosom of the Church, at least to the belief and the respect of God and to the certainty of immortality. I must, however, say that when I went to visit him, receiving me with the effusion of an old fellow student, he had opposed to my zeal, perhaps exaggerated, to convert him, the famous reason of State, before which I had to bow. Nevertheless, accompanying me, he said these sympathetic words: Si non è vero è ben trovato! Now that he has come to join our phalanxes and is no longer held back by the same scruples, he makes vows for the success of our work and regards with joy the future that it promises to Humanity. He contemplates with ineffable satisfaction the land promised to the new generations, or rather to the old generations that struggled so much, and he foresees the blessed hour in which his successors will resolutely take up the new banner of the Gallican faith: Spiritism!

My dear president and my beloved confreres: be that as it may, I had the honor of receiving at the gates of life this venerable friend and I am proud to present him to your midst. He charges me to assure you of all his sympathy and to tell you that he will follow your works and studies with much interest. To the happiness of being his interpreter at your side, I join that of presenting to you the felicitations of a legion of great Spirits who follow your sessions with assiduity. I bring you, then, in my name and in theirs, the tribute of our esteem, formulating vows for the success of the great cause. Come! soon the Earth will count among its inhabitants only a few rare humanimals. n I clasp the hand of Allan Kardec in the name of all your friends from beyond the tomb, in whose number I ask you to count me as one of the most devoted.

Jobard.

[1]

[At the end of the following article: Be severe toward yourselves and indulgent toward others, François-Nicolas Madeleine thanks Jobard [Jean-Baptiste-Ambroise-Marcellin Jobard]

for having sponsored him in the invisible world.]

[2] Translator's Note: Coined by Jobard, the word humanimal is not part of the French lexicon, although, in the context of the sentence in which it is inserted, we can easily guess its meaning.