Annual session commemorating the dead.

— As in previous years, the Parisian Society for Spiritist Studies met especially on November 1st, with a view to offering a pious remembrance to its deceased colleagues.

On that occasion the following were read: 1st the opening address delivered by Mr. Allan Kardec at the session of November 1st, 1868, entitled: Is Spiritism a religion?; 2nd a spontaneous communication dictated by Mr. Dozon on the solemnity of All Saints' Day, in 1865, and which is read annually at the commemorative session; 3rd a remarkable communication on the fear of death, signed by Guillaumin and received by Mr. Leymarie. (See the Review of December 1868.)

After having invoked God's blessings upon the assembly and thanked our spiritual president, Saint Louis, for his customary assistance, the Society saw fit to render, by means of a special commemoration, a particular testimony of gratitude to the memory of Mr. Allan Kardec.

Making himself the interpreter of the general sentiments, one of the members of the committee delivered the following allocution:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, “In this session especially consecrated to giving marks of our gratitude to the Spirits who have seen fit to lend us their assistance, and to honoring the memory of our deceased colleagues and of all those who, by their works, have made themselves worthy of the admiration of men, we owe a particular testimony of sympathy and veneration to the honorable man par excellence, whose works have won universal celebrity, to the eminent Spirit who, in the world of space as on Earth, consecrated his time and his faculties to the blessed work of the moralization and regeneration of Humanity.

“You all knew the laborious thinker whose name is on every lip, the convinced and conscientious philosopher whose teachings found an echo in all the true friends of progress: Allan Kardec, the immortal author of The Spirits' Book. n “After having dedicated his life to the methodical coordination of the Spiritist Doctrine, to consoling the afflicted, to calming the Spirits gnawed by the doubt of incredulity, replacing the uncertainty and the negation concerning the future of the soul with a rational belief, founded upon the very laws of Nature, he went to gather in erraticity the merited reward, the sanction of the mission accomplished, and to reunite the elements necessary to contribute still, as a Spirit, to making of Humanity a single people of brothers, marching in solidarity toward the conquest of the future.

“As a man, he knew how to make himself appreciated and loved not only by those who knew him personally, but also by his numerous correspondents, in short by all who found in his works the consecration of their most legitimate aspirations.

“Without concerning himself with the criticisms of those who, out of pride or prejudice, refused to understand our insatiable avidity for knowledge, he turned his contemplations more toward the heights. The obstacles he had to overcome, the disappointments before which so many serious thinkers let themselves be discouraged, did not reach him. Before the grandeur of the goal, he forgot all the difficulties of the road.

“As a Spirit, he was not slow to give us new proofs of his tireless zeal and devotion. In all the centers, in all the countries, he went to sanction, through communications of incontestable elevation, the truth of the teachings he popularized in life. A conciliating and persuasive Spirit, he teaches everyone tolerance and solidarity. More than ever convinced that personal interest must efface itself before the general interest, he continues his apostolate under a new form, going everywhere, encouraging some, instructing others, and giving all irrefutable proofs of his affection and devotion.

“In all epochs of transition, superior Spirits, prophets, messiahs, missionaries of progress appear among Humanity to render popular the beliefs accepted by a small number. Such were, in Antiquity, Socrates, Plato, Moses, the Christ, and all the great geniuses who immortalized themselves by their actions and, more recently, John Huss, Galileo, Newton, Leibnitz, and so many others whose works are the object of legitimate admiration.

“Such he already is for us, who knew him, and such he will be for future generations, when the Spiritist beliefs are adopted, the Spirit of him whose memory we are today revering.

“Dear and venerated master, you are here present, though invisible to us. Since your departure you have been for all an additional protector, a sure light, and the phalanxes of space have been increased by a tireless worker. As on Earth, and without offending anyone, you know how to give each one the fitting counsel, you moderate the premature zeal of the ardent, you second the sincere and the disinterested, you stimulate the lukewarm; you see today and know all that you foresaw a short time ago. You, who are no longer subject to uncertainties, be our guide and our light and, by your counsels, under your influence, we shall advance with sure steps toward the happy times promised to a regenerated Humanity.”

— After the customary prayers (See the Spiritist Review of November 1865), a certain number of communications were obtained through the mediums present. As the lack of space does not permit us to reproduce them all, we shall limit ourselves to the publication of the two following ones, which seemed to us bound to interest our readers more particularly:

THE FEAST OF THE DEAD IS NOT IN THE CEMETERIES.

Today is a day of feast in the asylums consecrated to the repose of the dead. The crowd hastens, the garments shine; people roam the funereal fields with slow steps, and it would seem that this affluence ought to fill with joy the souls of those who no longer belong to the number of the incarnate! And yet, how few in number are the Spirits who from space come to reunite with their former friends of Earth! The humans are innumerable, almost cheerful or at least indifferent; an immense humming rises above the crowd. But, with what is all this throng occupied? what sentiment brings them together? Do they think of the dead? Yes, since they have come! But the salutary thought very quickly eclipsed itself; and if some names inscribed upon the tombstones provoke the exclamations of the indifferent passerby, he hurls into the ether, with the smoke of his cigar, some banal reflections, some laughter without echo!… In this hubbub are born all the thoughts, all the sentiments, all the aspirations, except recollection, religious sentiment, the aspiration to intimate communion with those who have departed. Many curious people, but very few possess the religion of remembrance!… Therefore, the dead who do not feel themselves called are everywhere, save in the cemeteries, and the majority of those who hover in space or circulate in the narrow alleys are fatally leaded by terrestrial passions to the mortal remains they once so loved.

Laughter, useless discourses among the living; cries of pain and rage in the greater part of the dead; a spectacle without interest for all, a formal visit for some, a habit for the majority, such is the picture that the Parisian cemeteries present on the day of the dead!…

And yet, there is feast on Earth and in space; feast for the Spirits who, having accomplished the mission they accepted, expiated the evil of another existence, have returned to the world of real and normal life with a few more florets. It is feast for the saints whom all Humanity has consecrated, not for a useless abnegation and an egoistic isolation, but for the devotion to all, for their fecund works, for their persevering teachings, for their incessant struggle against evil, for the triumph of good. For these there is feast in space, as there is feast on Earth for all those who, enlightened by the great laws that govern the universes, cry out in their inmost selves for the visit of those they so loved and who are not lost to them. There are feasts for the Spiritists who believe and practice. There is feast for the Spirits who instruct and who continue in space the work of regeneration begun in this world!… O, my friends, in the field of the dead, on these days consecrated by usage, all is of the domain of death in its most restricted sense!… The garment abandoned by the Spirit no longer exists, and there is no belief at all in the heart of the visitors; they are dead who have of life only the terrestrial appearances, for the real life, the great life of the soul, is still unknown to the greater number.

We live, we who think, who progress, who work together to establish the basis of future progress; and they die, or rather, they go to die in the past in order to be born in the future, thanks to Spiritism, which carries in its bosom the fecund source of all perfection.

Death does not exist; the disaggregation that bears this name restores to the earth the elements that the material body drew from it; but the soul in which life resides, the soul that is the integral being, an edifice incessantly perfected by human trial, emerges at the threshold of death into the real and endless life of erraticity!…

Moki.

COMMUNION OF THOUGHTS.

(Medium: Mr. Leymarie.)

Rarely is the satisfaction granted to me of coming among you, Spiritist gentlemen. Until a short time ago I was not one of yours; today, I am a complete adept, at which I congratulate myself. Only a few points separated us; for me, our Celtic ancestors believed in the immortality of the soul, and reincarnation seemed to them the law of laws. A son of Gauls, having lived as a Gaul in the last days of the Middle Ages, I come to affirm the doctrine advocated today; it was, it is the greatness of the master Allan Kardec; his judicious, laconic spirit proved its reality to him. He is among us, reading in your spirit the profound, unperceived thought; and, I can repeat with pride, I commune with him through thought. Communion of thoughts! How profound is this idea! what radicalism in the liberal and renewing philosophy of our society, tormented, saddened, mortified by dissidences, by the material, fictitious frontiers that interests have raised between all peoples! I do not deny the character peculiar to each country; like Henri Martin, my honored friend, so prudent, so logical, I recognize the particular genius inherent in each population, separated from the others by mountains, rivers, immense forests; by that exceptional gift of Providence, which introduced into the general spirit of each people that original instinct which was to bring, through the succession of centuries, a regenerating code to Humanity, a code of justice, creating harmony in the diffusion through the divergence of colors; and that time has arrived, in which the material frontiers lower themselves and the fluidic unities seem to follow steam and electricity! Mountains, abysses, seas: you exist no longer!… The soul of God universalizes itself, just as thought across the spaces is translated instantaneously. The Americas feel the pulsations of the European pulse, and progress, divine law! reunites the most opposed systems. Labor, industry, science, mechanics, philosophy are at their height, and all your dear fellow-students of erraticity bless the promoters of human progress, those geniuses corporally vanished, but who preside over all the humanitarian phases; and it is above all at this moment that the master laments his departure. There is divergence, separation, struggle between the future that arises and the past that disappears; but he knows that the goal is the law, and his gentleness is softened by thinking that time, that tireless healer, knows how to wear away all asperities; he knows, your venerated dead one, more alive than ever, that light will come forth from animated discussions and that justice will reunite all men in sheaves, before that disaggregation of the ancient world, which leads consciences to doubt, to the horror of the unknown. He knows, the master, that the dead go quickly and, I repeat, I commune in his thought! Institutions, forms, antiquated beliefs, all dies and all regenerates itself! The terrestrial strata are turned over so as to inoculate that beneficent virus called reading, learning, science, judgment, and all the departed go to knock without cease at all consciences, to awaken them and lift the leaden lid that covered them.

Communion of thoughts! the last word of my labors as a citizen, thus becomes intrinsic value, a national jewel; it inspires my country, all the countries united with its principles; it creates goodwill, justice, concord, love; it makes it so that, instead of vain words, there is devotion, and the Master, satisfied, will see, by the will of all who love calm, truth, and the Spiritist Doctrine, the spirit of solidarity radiate forth, calling the eternal family of the dead and of the living to contribute to the future edification of the belief in the life of erraticity, to which we invite our brothers present and absent! Be Spiritists as much by your acts as by your words! Unite yourselves, gather yourselves in recollection, all you who draw near to the tomb; for, fair hair, white hair, you feel eternal life, that surprise of the next day, the surprise of death, radiant with life!…

Jean Reynaud. n [1] Translator's Note: Even though Allan Kardec repeated that the merit of the work belonged to the Spirits who dictated it, we can and must consider him as co-author of The Spirits' Book. To him was reserved the task of organizing and ordering the questions on the most varied subjects, embracing all the branches of human knowledge and interest; the didactic distribution of the matters contained in the text; the writing of the commentaries on the answers of the Spirits; the precision with which he titles chapters and subchapters; the observations, annotations, and paraphrases, as well as the integral writing of the “Introduction” and the “Conclusion” of the book, true masterpieces of logic, concision, and erudition, plus the questions nos. 59 (Biblical considerations and concordances concerning the Creation); 100 to 113 (Spiritist Scale); 222 (Considerations on the plurality of existences); 257 (Theoretical essay on the sensations in Spirits); 455 (Theoretical summary of somnambulism, of ecstasy, and of double sight); and 872 (Theoretical summary of the motive of human actions). [2] [v.

Jean Reynaud.]