Spiritist Review of Antwerp

Under this title a new organ of Spiritism has just appeared in Antwerp, beginning on the 1st of January 1864. It is known that the Spiritist Doctrine made rapid progress in that city, where numerous gatherings were formed, composed of men eminent for their learning and their social position. In Brussels, for a longer time refractory, the new idea is also gaining ground, as in other cities of Belgium. A Spiritist society, recently formed, saw fit to ask us to accept the honorary presidency; this tells in what path it proposes to walk.

The first number of the new Review contains: an appeal to the Spiritists of Antwerp, two leading articles, one on the adversaries of Spiritism, the other on Spiritism and madness; and a certain number of mediumistic communications, some of which are in the Flemish language, and all of them, we have the satisfaction of saying, in perfect conformity of views and principles with the Society of Paris. This publication cannot fail to be favorably received in a country where new ideas have a manifest tendency to propagate themselves if, as we hope, it keeps itself at the level of science, an essential condition of success.

Spiritism grows and daily sees new horizons open before it, deepening questions that, at their origin, had only barely been touched upon. Conforming themselves to the development of ideas, the Spirits have, everywhere, in their instructions, followed this ascending movement; beside the mediumistic productions of today, those of former times are pale and almost puerile, although, then, they were considered magnificent; there is between them the difference of teaching given to schoolchildren and to adults; it is that, as man grows, his intelligence, like his body, requires more substantial nourishment. Every Spiritist publication, periodical or not, that should remain in the rear of the movement, would necessarily meet with little sympathy, and it would be an illusion to imagine the readers of today interested in elementary or mediocre things; however good the intention, every recommendation would be powerless to give them life, if they do not have it of themselves. For publications of this kind there is another condition of success, still more important: that of marching with the opinion of the majority. At the origin of the Spiritist manifestations, ideas, not yet fixed by experience, gave rise to many divergent opinions, which fell before more complete observations, or count only rare representatives. It is known to what banner and to what principles the immense majority of Spiritists of the whole world is today attached. To become the echo of some outdated opinions, or to follow a byway, is to condemn oneself in advance to isolation and abandonment. Those who do so in good faith are to be pitied; those who act with the premeditated intention of interposing obstacles and sowing division, will reap only shame. Neither the one nor the other can be encouraged by those who defend at heart the true interests of Spiritism. As for ourselves, personally, and the Society of Paris, our sympathies and our moral support, as is known, are won in advance by all publications, as by all gatherings, that are useful to the cause we defend.