Letter from Mr. Jaubert.

— “I beg you, my dear Mr. Kardec, to insert the following letter in the next number of your Review. Certainly I am of little account, but, in short, I have my own appreciation and I impose it upon your modesty. On the other hand, when the battle is joined, I want to prove that I am always in action, with my woolen epaulettes. ”

Jaubert.

Without the obligation imposed upon us, in terms so precise, one will understand the reasons that would have prevented us from publishing this letter. We would have contented ourselves with keeping it as an honorable and precious testimony and joining it to the numerous causes of moral satisfaction that come to sustain and encourage us in our rough labor, and to compensate for the tribulations inseparable from our task. But, on the other hand, setting aside the personal question, in this time of exaltation against Spiritism, examples of courage of opinion are all the more influential when they come from the highest. It is useful that the voice of men of heart, of those who, by their character, their enlightenment and their position, command respect and confidence, should make itself heard; and if it cannot dominate the clamors, such protests will not be lost either in the present or in the future.

— Carcassonne, December 12, 1865.

Sir and dear master, I do not wish to let the year 1865 end without rendering thanks to you for all the good you have done to Spiritism. We owe to you the Plurality of the Existences of the Soul, by André Pezzani; The Plurality of Inhabited Worlds, by Camille Flammarion: two twins that are scarcely born and already take such great strides in the philosophical world.

We owe to you a book, small by its pages, but great by its thoughts; the nervous simplicity of its style vies with the severity of its logic. It contains in germ the theology of the future; it has the calm of strength and the strength of truth. I would wish that the volume entitled Heaven and Hell might be published in millions of copies. Forgive me this praise: I have lived too much to be an enthusiast and I have a horror of flattery. The year 1865 gives us Spirite - Google books, a fantastic novel. Literature is deciding to make an invasion into our domain. The author did not draw from Spiritism all the teachings that it contains. He brings out the capital, essential idea: the demonstration of the immortal soul by the phenomena. The pictures of the painter seemed dazzling to me; I cannot resist the pleasure of a quotation.

“Spirite, the beloved of Guy de Malivert, unknown on Earth, has just died. She herself describes her first sensations.

“The instinct of Nature still struggled against destruction. But soon that useless struggle ceased; and, in a faint sigh, my soul exhaled itself from my lips.

“Human words cannot describe the sensation of a soul which, freed from its bodily prison, passes from this to the other life, from time to eternity and from the finite to the infinite. My body, motionless and already clothed in that dull whiteness, surrendered to death, lay on the funeral bed, surrounded by nuns in prayer, and from it I was as detached as the butterfly can be from its chrysalis, an empty cocoon, a formless husk, to open its young wings to the unknown and suddenly revealed light. An intermission of profound shadow had been succeeded by a dazzlement of splendor, a broadening of horizon, a vanishing of every limit and every obstacle, which intoxicated me with an unspeakable jubilation. Bursts of new senses made me understand the mysteries impenetrable to earthly thought and organs. Disencumbered of that clay, subject to the laws of gravity which until lately made me heavier, I hurled myself with a mad swiftness into the unfathomable ether. Distances no longer existed for me and my simple desire bore me where I wished to be. I traced great circles, in a flight swifter than light, through the indefinite blue of the spaces, as if I wished to take possession of immensity, crossing paths with a multitude of souls and of Spirits.” And the canvas unrolls ever more splendid. I do not know whether, in the depths of his soul, Mr. Théophile Gautier is a Spiritist; but, with certainty, he serves to materialists, to unbelievers the salutary drink in cups of gold magnificently chiseled.

I still bless the year 1865 for the great wraths that it held in its flanks. Let no one be mistaken about this: the Davenport brothers are less the cause than the pretext for the crusade. Soldiers of all uniforms have aimed their cannons against us. What did they prove, then? The strength and the resistance of the besieged citadel. I know a southern newspaper, much circulated, much esteemed, which, with full right, buries Spiritism once a month, and this for quite some time; consequently, Spiritism is resurrected at least twelve times a year. You will see that they will make it immortal by dint of killing it. Now I have nothing left but my New Year's wishes. The first are for you, sir and dear master, for your happiness, for your work so valiantly undertaken and so worthily pursued.

I make wishes for the intimate union of all Spiritists. I have seen with regret some light clouds falling upon our horizon. Who will love us if we do not know how to love one another? As you say very well in the last number of your Review: “Whoever believes in the existence and the survival of souls, and in the possibility of relations between men and the spiritual world, is a Spiritist.” May this definition remain, and on this solid ground we shall always be in agreement. And now, if details of the doctrine, even important ones, sometimes divide us, let us discuss them, not as fratricides, but as men who have but one object: the triumph of reason and, through reason, the search for the true and the beautiful, the progress of Science, the felicity of Humanity. There remain my most ardent wishes, the most sincere; I address them to all those who call themselves our enemies: may God enlighten them!

Farewell, sir; receive for yourself and for all our brothers of Paris the assurance of my affectionate sentiments and of my distinguished consideration.

T. Jaubert.

Vice-President of the Tribunal.

— Any commentary on this letter would be superfluous; we will only add a word: it is that men like Mr. Jaubert honor the banner they carry. His so judicious appreciation of the work of Mr. Théophile Gautier dispenses us from the account of it that we proposed to make this month. We will recall it in the next number.

[1]

ERRATUM — In the January number, letter of Mr. Jaubert, instead of all the uniforms, read: all uniforms; instead of assiégiée, read assiégée (besieged).

[Already corrected above.]

Allan Kardec.