Epitaph of Benjamin Franklin.

One of our subscribers from Joinville (Haute-Marne) writes us the following:

“Knowing the good reception that is reserved for all documents that have some relation with the Spiritist Doctrine, I hasten to give you knowledge of a passage from the biography of Franklin, extracted from the Mosaïque of 1839, page 287. It proves once more that, in all epochs, superior men had the intuition of the Spiritist truths. The belief of this great man in reincarnation and in the progression of the soul reveals itself entirely in the few lines following, forming the epitaph that he composed for himself. It is conceived thus: “Here reposes, delivered to the worms, the body of Benjamin Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book whose leaves have been torn out, and whose title and gilding have been effaced. But not for this will the work be lost, for, as I believe, it will reappear in a new and better edition, revised and corrected by the author.”

One of the principal citizens of whom the United States are most honored was, then, a reincarnationist. Not only did he believe in his rebirth on Earth, but he judged that he would return here improved by his personal labor. It is exactly what Spiritism says. If one were to gather all the testimonies scattered throughout thousands of writings in favor of this doctrine, one would recognize how much it had roots among the thinkers of all epochs, and people would be less astonished at the ease with which it is today received, because one may say that it lies latent in the conscience of the greater number. These thoughts, sown here and there, were precursory sparks of the fire that was to shine later and to show men their destiny. [1]

[La Mosaïque du midi — Google Books.]