The commune of Kœnigsfeld, a future world in miniature.

— One reads in the Galneur of Colmar.

“The commune of Kœnigsfeld, near Villingen, in the Black Forest, numbers about 400 inhabitants and forms a model state in miniature. For fifty years, the span of this commune’s existence, it has never happened that any inhabitant became involved with the police; there have never been cases of offenses or crimes; during fifty years there has never been a public auction or a natural child born. Never has a lawsuit been opened in this commune. Nor are beggars to be found there.”

— Having been read at the Society of Paris, this interesting note gave rise to the following spontaneous communication:

“It is beautiful to see virtue in a restricted and poor center; there all know one another, all see one another and charity is simple and great. Is not this little commune the most striking example of universal solidarity? Is it not, on a smaller scale, what will one day be the result of true charity, when this is practiced by all men? Everything is there, Spiritists: charity, tolerance. Among you, apart from the relief of misfortune, which is practiced, intelligent relations, free of envy, of jealousy and of harshness, always are so.”

Lamennais. n (Medium: Mr. A. Didier.)

— What is the cause of the greater part of the ills of the Earth, if not the incessant contact of bad and perverse men? Egoism kills benevolence, condescension, indulgence, devotion, disinterested affection and all the qualities that make the charm and the security of social relations. In a society of egoists there is security for no one, because each, seeking only his own interest, sacrifices without scruple that of his neighbor. Many creatures believe themselves perfectly honest, because incapable of murdering and robbing on the highways; but is not he who, through cupidity and severity, causes the ruin of an individual and drives him to suicide, reducing a whole family to misery, to despair, worse than a murderer and a thief? He murders over a slow fire; and because the law does not condemn him and his fellows applaud his manner of acting and his skill, he believes himself exempt from reproach and marches with head held high! Thus men are always distrustful of one another; their life is a perpetual anxiety; if they do not fear the blade, nor the poison, they are the target of quibbles, of envy, of jealousy, of calumny, in a word, of moral assassination. What would it be necessary to do to put an end to this state of things? To practice charity. Everything is there, as Lamennais says. The commune of Kœnigsfeld offers us in miniature what the world will be when it is regenerated. What is possible on a small scale, will it be so on a large one? To doubt this would be to deny progress. A day will come when men, vanquished by the ills engendered by egoism, will understand that they are following the wrong path, and God wills that they learn it at their own cost, because He gave them free will. The excess of evil will make them feel the need of good and they will turn toward this side, as toward the only anchor of salvation. What will lead them to this? Serious faith in the future, and not the belief in nothingness after death; confidence in a good and merciful God, and not the fear of eternal torments. Everything is subject to the law of progress; worlds also progress, physically and morally; but if the transformation of Humanity must await the result of individual improvement, if no cause comes to accelerate this transformation, how many centuries, how many thousands of years will still be necessary? The Earth having reached one of its progressive phases, it suffices to no longer permit backward Spirits to reincarnate here, so that, as they are gradually extinguished, more advanced Spirits come to take the place of those who depart, so that in one or two generations the general character of Humanity may be changed. Let us suppose, then, that instead of egoistic Spirits, Humanity is, at a given time, formed of Spirits imbued with sentiments of charity: instead of seeking to harm one another, they will help one another mutually, they will live happy and in peace. No more ambition from people to people and, therefore, no more wars; no more sovereigns governing at their pleasure, justice instead of arbitrariness, therefore no more revolutions; no more the strong crushing or exploiting the weak; voluntary equity in all transactions, therefore no more quarrels and quibbles. Such will be the state of the world after its transformation. From a world of expiation and of trials, from a place of exile for imperfect Spirits, it will become a happy world, a place of repose for good Spirits; from a world of punishment, it will be a world of reward. The commune of Kœnigsfeld is incontestably composed of advanced Spirits, at least morally, if not scientifically, and who practice among themselves the law of charity and of love of neighbor; these Spirits gather by sympathy in this blessed corner of the Earth to live there in peace, awaiting the time when they may do so over its entire surface. Let us suppose that some blundering, egoistic and bad Spirits come to incarnate there; they would soon sow disturbance and confusion; one would see reestablished, as elsewhere, quarrels, lawsuits, offenses and crimes. Such would be the state of the Earth, after its transformation, if God opened it to the access of bad Spirits. The Earth having progressed, they would be out of place there and for this reason they will go to expiate their hardening and to refine their moral education in less advanced worlds. [1]

[v. Lamennais.]