New Constitution of the Society of Paris.

In the face of the difficulties arising from the death of Mr. Allan Kardec, and so as not to leave in suspense the grave interests that he had always known how to safeguard, with as much prudence as wisdom, the Society of Paris was led, in the shortest term, to constitute itself in a regular and stable manner, both for the arrangements with the authorities and to reassure the timorous spirits as to the consequences of the unforeseen event which, suddenly, struck the whole great Spiritist family. We do not doubt that our readers will thank us for giving them, in this regard, the most precise details. That is why we hasten to make known to them the decisions of the Society, condensed in the speeches of Mr. Levent, vice-president of the former Commission, and of the new president, Mr. Malet, which we reproduce in full. [A. DESLIENS]

(Society of Paris, April 9, 1869.)

Taking the floor in the name of the Commission, Mr. Levent expresses himself in these terms:

“Gentlemen, “It is still under the painful impression that the unexpected liberation of our beloved president caused in all of us, that today we inaugurate the new premises of our weekly meetings.

“Before resuming our customary studies, let us pay to our venerated master a just tribute of gratitude for the indefatigable zeal he devoted to these works, for the absolute disinterestedness, for the complete abnegation of himself, for the perseverance of which he always gave example in the direction of this Society, presided over by him since its foundation. “Let us hope that so noble an example shall not be lost; that so many works shall not remain sterile and that the work of the master shall be continued; in a word, that he has not sown in ungrateful soil.

“Your Commission is of the opinion that, in order to obtain this so desired result, two important things are indispensable: 1st the most complete union among all the members; 2nd respect for the new program which our beloved president, in his enlightened solicitude and in his lucid foresight, had prepared some months ago and published in the Review of last December. “Let us all ask the sovereign Master to permit that great Spirit, who has just entered the celestial homeland, to help us with his lights and to continue to preside spiritually over this Society, which is his personal work and which he so esteemed.

“Dear and venerated master, who are here present, though invisible to us, receive from all your disciples, who were nearly all your friends, this simple testimony of their gratitude and their affection, which extend, do not doubt it, to the courageous companion of your terrestrial existence. She has remained among us very sad, very solitary, but consoled, almost happy, by the certainty of your present happiness. “– Gentlemen, in the face of the irreparable loss that the Society has just suffered, the Commission, whose regular powers ceased on April 1st, judged it proper to continue its functions.

“Since the first of this month the Commission has already met twice, in order to deliberate immediately and not leave for a single instant the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies without legal direction, accepted and recognized.

“You recognize, gentlemen, as does your directing board, that there was this absolute necessity.

“The arrangements to be made with the administration, in order to inform it of the change of president and of the seat of the Society; “The relations of our Parisian Society with the other foreign Societies, all already informed of the passing of Mr. Allan Kardec and which, in their majority, have already manifested to us their sincere grief; “The correspondence so numerous, whose reply is indispensable; finally, many other serious reasons, which are better sensed than explained;

“All these motives led your present Commission to present to you a list of seven names which are to compose the new directing board for the year 1869-1870, and which would be: Messrs. Levent, Malet, Canaguier, Ravan, Desliens, Delanne, and Tailleur.

“As you will note, gentlemen, the majority of the members of the former board are part of this new list.

“Unanimously your Commission designated as president Mr. Malet, whose titles for this new position are numerous and perfectly justified.

“Mr. Malet unites all the great qualities necessary to ensure for the Society a firm and wise direction. – Your board is even of the opinion that it would be the case to thank Mr. Malet for having deigned to accept this function, which is far from being a sinecure, above all now.

“Therefore, it is with confidence that we ask you to accept this proposal and to vote this list by acclamation.

“Besides the motives set forth above, another reason, grave and serious, determined your present board to present to you this proposition.

“It is its great desire, which you also will share, we hope, that of drawing ever nearer to the plan of organization conceived by Mr. Allan Kardec, and which he was to propose to you this year, at the moment of the renewal of the board.

“Mr. Allan Kardec was to accept only the honorary presidency, and we knew that his intention was to present Mr. Malet to you as candidate for the presidency. We are happy to fulfill the wish of him whom we all mourn.

“In consequence, gentlemen, in the name of your former board, which I have the honor to represent, I ask you to accept the following proposition:

“Are named members of the board for the year 1869-1870: Messrs. Levent, Malet, Canaguier, Ravan, Desliens, Delanne, and Tailleur, under the presidency of Mr. Malet.”

Levent.

Vice-President.

The proposition accepted and ratified by unanimous acclamation, the vice-president immediately installed Mr. Malet as president of the Society.

INAUGURAL SPEECH OF THE NEW PRESIDENT.

(Session of April 9, 1869.)

Ladies, Gentlemen, Before taking possession of this chair, where for so many years you had the happiness of seeing and hearing that eminent philosopher, to whom each of us owes the light and the tranquility of the soul, permit him whom you have called to preside over your meetings to come and say a few words as to the course he intends to follow and the spirit with which he intends to direct your works. I would like to do so with that tone and that simplicity which are the expression of profound convictions! I would like to do so, but, under the dominion of an emotion which I cannot master, and which it is easy for you to understand, I feel that I could not, did I not call to my aid the few lines I am going to read.

It is that, indeed, gentlemen, when only a few weeks ago I solicited the favor of entering your ranks, as a free member of the Society of Spiritist Studies of Paris, I was far from thinking that one day I would be called to preside over its sessions, and much farther still from thinking that the unforeseen departure of our dear and venerated master would call me to direct, with your concurrence, those interesting sessions, where each day the most arduous and most complex questions are elucidated. But, as our vice-president has just said, and I limit myself to repeating it to you, it is as a member of the Commission and a simple annual delegate, designated by your choice, that I accepted this difficult function, in conformity, moreover, with the rules prescribed by the new organization which our master left us.

Indeed, gentlemen, which of us would dare to succeed alone a personality so great as the one who filled the world with his lofty and consoling studies, teaching man whence he comes, why he is on the Earth, and where he goes afterward? Who would be proud enough to judge himself equal to his logic, his energy, and his profound erudition, when he himself, overwhelmed by an ever-growing work, had recognized that a commission of six serious and devoted laborers which, no doubt, was to be doubled in the near future, would not be numerous enough to face the developments of the studies of the Doctrine? Yes, gentlemen, if I responded to the desire you manifested to me, it is because acts must always be in relation with words. I had promised my energetic concurrence, when you admitted me among you, and however difficult the moment may be, I did not refuse the mandate you offered me, however weak my forces may be, persuaded that they will be vigorously aided by our Commission, by all of you, my brothers in belief, and, finally, by our protecting Spirits, in whose number is today found our dear and beloved president. Our duty, the mission of all of us, gentlemen, from now on is to follow the furrow traced by the master, I mean, to deepen it, to widen it more, more than to extend it far afield, until the hour when a new envoy, illuminator of the future, comes to plant new boundary markers and trace a new stage! Let us accomplish our task and, however modest it may appear to some ardent or, perhaps, too impatient spirits, its field is vast enough that each of us may say, on ending his journey: “A happy repose awaits me, for I was among the number of those who labored in the vineyard of the Lord.” But, to attain such an objective, the effort must be in direct ratio to its greatness. Indefatigable researchers of the truth, let us accept the light, come whence it may, without, however, granting it the right of citizenship before having analyzed it in all its elements and observed it in the multiple effects of its radiation. Let us, then, open our ranks to all investigators of good will, desirous of convincing themselves, even though their route may have been different from ours up to this moment, and provided that they accept the fundamental laws of our philosophy. Let us rejoice at the moment when Spiritism, founded on unshakable bases, enters a new phase, to draw the attention of that new generation, to which the study of Science falls as its portion, whether it sounds the unknown depths of the celestial ocean, whether it scrutinizes those myriads of worlds revealed by the microscope, whether, finally, it asks of the phenomena of magnetism the secret that leads to the discovery of the admirable harmonic laws of the Creator, of which a single one encloses them all: the law of Love. Let us also not repel, gentlemen, those pioneers who with so much disdain are called materialists. – Be assured that some of these researchers, satisfying the common law of error, feel their conscience revolt as they scrutinize matter to seek there that vital principle which emanates from God alone.

Yes, let us lament their fruitless efforts and let us open our ranks to them also, because we could not confound them with the proud ones, blinded by error and by sophism! Oh! for these let us follow the precept of the philosopher of Nazareth: “Leave to the dead the care of burying their dead”; and let us pass on.

Let us show ourselves, then, always true and sincere Spiritists, by our spirit of tolerance, our love for our brothers, with whom we must share that bread of life with which our dear master nourished us, gathering those ears fallen from misunderstood sheaves!…

Let us sow, propagate, and sow again, even in the lands dried out by the breath of skepticism, because if some grains cast to the wind of incredulity come to germinate in some furrow hidden and dug by sorrow, their yield will be a hundredfold of the labor.

Above all let us not lose our time, nor our forces, in answering the attacks of which we may be the object, because the man who clears the land must expect to be wounded by the thorns he tears out.

– Let us no longer answer those timorous ones of free-thought, who pretend to see in Spiritism a religion, a contrivance destructive of established things, when, on the contrary, this doctrine gathers into a single sheaf all the scattered members of the great human family, which the intolerance of some and the immobility of others has dispersed and disinherited of all belief. But, if on the one hand we must appeal to all devoted laborers, if Science can and must be of great avail to us in explaining what the common crowd calls miracle, let us never forget that the essential and final objective of our Doctrine consists in the study of the psychological and moral laws, laws that comprise fraternity, solidarity among all beings, the single law, the universal law that governs equally the moral order and the material order. – It is this banner, gentlemen, that we shall keep high and firm, come what may, and before which all other considerations must bow.

It is animated by such thoughts that your Commission must pursue the work of the master, because it was they that led him to the discovery of this magnificent star, of a brilliance very different, of a power very diverse for the happiness of Humanity, than all those whose ensemble dazzles our eyes.

– Let us follow scrupulously the plan of the vast and wise organization left by the master, the last expression of his genius, and in which he compares, with so much felicity, the Spiritist societies to observatories, whose studies must be linked among themselves and connected to the central group of Paris, but leaving to each one the free direction of its particular observations. On your feet and to work, then, Spiritists of the five parts of the world! To work also, spiritualists, biologists, magnetizers, and all of you, finally, men of Science, researchers thirsting for the truth, united by this common thought: outside the truth there is no salvation, worthy echo of this device of the Spiritists: outside charity there is no salvation. Under these conditions, but only under these conditions, at least it is our profound conviction, not only will Spiritism not remain stationary, but it will grow rapidly, guided always by its old pilot, much more powerful, much more clairvoyant still than he was on the Earth, and where his worthy companion received from him the mission to second his generous and benevolent views for the future of the Doctrine. Forgive me, gentlemen, for having gone on at length; meanwhile, I would still have much to say to you… but I hasten, understanding your impatience to want to hear him who will always be our worthy and venerated president. He is here, in the midst of a serried phalanx of sympathetic and protecting Spirits; but it was the duty of him to whom your choice entrusted the difficult task of presiding over your works and the direction of your sessions, to make known to you his intentions, shared by the Central Commission and, so he hopes, by the majority of the Spiritists. E. Malet.