Spiritism has a reserved place

Spiritism has a reserved place in philosophy and in common knowledge.

(Summary)

NEW UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY: In this work, for the first time the Spiritist Doctrine and Allan Kardec are treated impartially, as are the Spiritist terms or those characterized by Spiritism (…) henceforth, no work of the same kind will be able to omit it without being incomplete.

The entry SOUL, explained according to Spiritism, in the New Universal Dictionary: an example of the comprehensiveness with which the matter is treated by this repository of human knowledge.

At this moment an important work is being published which concerns the Spiritist Doctrine in the highest degree, and the analysis of whose prospectus will make us better acquainted with it.

“New Universal Dictionary, a literary pantheon and illustrated encyclopedia, by Maurice Lachâtre, with the collaboration of scientists, artists and writers, in accordance with the works of Allan Kardec, Ampère, Andral, Arago, Audouin, Balbi, Becquerel, Berzelius, Biot, Brongnard, Burnouf, Chateaubriand, Cuvier, Flourens, Gay-Lussac, Guizot, Humboldt, Lamartine, Lamennais, Laplace, Magendie, Michelet, Ch. Nodier, Orfila, Payen, Raspail, de Sacy, J. B. Say, Thiers, etc., etc.

“Two magnificent large in-4º volumes, of three columns, illustrated with twenty thousand figures, engraved on wood, interspersed in the text. — Two weekly fascicles, of 10 centimes each. — Each fascicle contains 95,768 letters, that is, the matter of half of an in-8º volume. The work contains 200 fascicles per volume and will cost no more than 40 francs. This work, the most gigantic literary undertaking of our era, contains the analysis of more than 400,000 works, and may rightly be considered as the most vast repertory of human knowledge. The New Universal Dictionary is the most exact, the most complete and the most progressive of all dictionaries, the only one that embraces in its developments all the special dictionaries of common language, of poetic language, of synonyms, of ancient language, of grammatical difficulties, of theology, of religions, sects and heresies, of the festivals and ceremonies of all peoples, of mythology, of magnetism, of Spiritism, of philosophical and social doctrines, of history, of biography, of the sciences, of physics, of chemistry, of natural history, of astronomy, of inventions, of medicine, of geography, of the navy, of jurisprudence, of political economy [organization], of freemasonry, of agriculture, of commerce, of domestic economy, of domestic government, etc., etc. — Paris, Docks de la librairie, boulevard Sébastopol.” This work at the moment counts twenty thousand subscribers.

We must note, first of all, that if our name is found at the head of the authors whose works were consulted, it was the alphabetical order that willed it so, and not preeminence.

All the special terms of the Spiritist vocabulary are found in that vast repertory, not as a simple definition, but with all the developments they admit, so that their whole will form a true treatise on Spiritism. Moreover, every time a word may lead to a philosophical deduction, the Spiritist idea is collated, as a point of comparison.

Conceived in a spirit of impartiality, the work does not present the Spiritist idea, nor any other, as absolute truth; it leaves the reader free to accept it or reject it, but it gives him the means of appreciating it, presenting it with scrupulous exactitude, and not truncated, altered or prejudged. It limits itself to saying: on such a point some think in such a way; Spiritism explains it in another manner.

A dictionary is not a special treatise on a matter, in which the author develops his personal opinion; it is a work of research, intended to be consulted, and which addresses itself to all opinions. If a word is sought there, it is to know what it really means and not to have the appraisal of the editor, which may be just or false. A Jew and a Muslim must find in it the Jewish or Muslim idea reproduced exactly, which does not imply espousing that idea. The dictionary does not have to decide whether it is good or bad, absurd or rational, because what is approved by some may be censured by others; in presenting it in its entirety, it does not assume responsibility for it. If it is a matter of a scientific question that divides the learned, for example, of homeopathy and allopathy, it has the mission of making known the two systems, but not of advocating one to the detriment of the other. Such must be the character of an encyclopedic dictionary; only on this condition should it be consulted with profit, in all times and by all the world. With universality it acquires perpetuity. Such is, and such ought to be, the sentiment that presided over the part concerning Spiritism. Let the critics emit their opinion in special works, nothing better; it is their right. But a dictionary is a neutral ground, where each thing must be presented in its true colors, and where one ought to be able to gather every kind of information, with the certainty of finding the truth there.

Under such conditions, Spiritism, having found a place in a work as important and as popular as the New Universal Dictionary, has a reserved place among the philosophical doctrines and the customary branches of knowledge; its vocabulary, already accepted by usage, has received its consecration and, henceforth, no work of the same kind will be able to omit it without being incomplete. Here again is one of the productions of the year 1865 that the vice-president Mr. Jaubert forgot to mention in his list of results for this year. [See: Letter of Mr. Jaubert.]

Corroborating the observations above, and as a sample of the manner in which the Spiritist questions are treated in this work, we shall cite the explanation found in the entry soul. After having developed at length, impartially, the different theories of the soul, according to Aristotle, Plato, Leibniz, Descartes and other philosophers, which we cannot reproduce on account of their length, the article ends thus:

“According to the Spiritist Doctrine, the soul is the intelligent principle that animates the beings of creation and gives them thought, will and the freedom to act. It is immaterial, individual and immortal; but its intimate essence is unknown; we cannot in any way conceive of it isolated from matter, except as an abstraction. United to the ethereal fluidic envelope or perispirit, it constitutes the concrete, defined and circumscribed spiritual being called Spirit (See Spirit, perispirit). By metonymy, the words soul and Spirit are often employed one for the other; one says: the suffering souls and the suffering Spirits; the happy souls and the happy Spirits; to evoke the soul or the Spirit of someone; but the word soul awakens rather the idea of a principle, of an abstract thing, and the word Spirit that of an individuality.

“United to the material body by incarnation, the Spirit constitutes man, so that in man there are three things: the soul properly so called, or intelligent principle; the perispirit, or fluidic envelope of the soul; the body, or material wrapping. Thus, the soul is a simple being; the Spirit a double being, composed of the soul and the perispirit; man, a triple being, composed of the soul, the perispirit and the body. Separated from the Spirit, the body is an inert matter; separated from the soul, the perispirit is a fluidic matter, without life and without intelligence. The soul is the principle of life and of intelligence; it was, therefore, mistakenly that some persons claimed that, by giving the soul a semi-material fluidic envelope, Spiritism made of it a material being.

“The first origin of the soul is unknown, because the principle of things lies in the secrets of God, and because it is not given to man, in his present state of inferiority, to understand everything. On this point one can only formulate systems. According to some, the soul is a spontaneous creation of the Divinity; according to others, it is its very emanation, a portion, a spark of the divine fluid. Here is a problem upon which one can establish only hypotheses, for there are reasons for and against. To the second, however, there is opposed this well-founded objection: God being perfect, if souls were portions of the Divinity, they would have to be perfect, in virtue of the axiom that the part is of the same nature as the whole; from then on, one would not understand that souls were imperfect and had need of perfecting themselves. Without dwelling on the various systems relative to the intimate nature and the origin of the soul, Spiritism considers it in the human species; it ascertains, by reason of its isolation and its action independent of matter, during life and after death, its existence, its attributes, its survival and its individuality. Its individuality stands out from the diversity that exists among the ideas and qualities of each one in the phenomenon of manifestations, a diversity which for each one attests to a proper existence. “A fact no less capital stands out equally from observation: it is that the soul is essentially progressive and acquires incessantly, in knowledge and in morality, since they are seen at all degrees of development. According to the unanimous teaching of the Spirits, it is created simple and ignorant, that is, without knowledge, without consciousness of good and evil, with equal aptitude for one and the other and to acquire everything. Creation being incessant and for all eternity, there are souls arrived at the top of the scale, while others come forth into life; but, all having the same point of departure, God does not create some better endowed than others, which is in accordance with sovereign justice. A perfect equality presiding over their formation, they progress more or less rapidly, in virtue of their free will and according to their work. Thus, God leaves to each one the merit and the demerit of its acts, and responsibility grows in proportion as the moral sense develops. So that, of two souls created at the same time, one may reach the goal sooner than the other, if it works more actively for its betterment; but those that have remained in the rear will arrive equally, though later and after harsh trials, because God does not forbid the future to any of his children. “The incarnation of the soul in a material body is necessary to its perfecting; by the work necessary to corporeal existence, the intelligence develops. Not being able to acquire, in a single existence, all the moral and intellectual qualities that must lead it to the goal, it arrives there by passing through an unlimited series of existences, whether on Earth, or on other worlds, in each of which it takes a step on the path of progress and divests itself of some imperfections. In each existence the soul brings what it acquired in the preceding existences. Thus is explained the difference existing in the innate aptitudes and in the degree of advancement of races and peoples (See Spirit, reincarnation).”

Allan Kardec.

Paris. — Typ. de Cosson et Comp., rue du Four-Saint-Germain, 43.

[1] [Nouveau dictionnaire universel - Google Books. See also by the same author: Dictionnaire universel - Google Books.]