Spiritism everywhere.

— Contemporary literature is imbued each day more with Spiritist ideas. Indeed, our Doctrine is a fertile source for works of the imagination; in it writers can draw poetic descriptions, moving and plausible scenes, interesting and completely new situations, which they could not make arise from the limited and prosaic field that materialist doctrines offer them. For this reason authors, even materialist ones, are beginning to explore new horizons opened to thought by Spiritism, so great is the need they feel to attach the soul and to poeticize the character of their personages, if they wish to win the interest of their readers. Many times the Review has already pointed out novels, short stories, theatrical works, etc., that exploit our teachings and characterize the reaction that is beginning to operate in ideas. We shall continue, from time to time, to record the facts that enter into the framework of Spiritism.

Count Octave.

(Legend of the nineteenth century.)

Such is the title of a short story published in the newspaper Liberté, on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of May, by Mr. Victor Pavé, and which entails the most complete acceptance of the Spiritist doctrines and the detail of a story absolutely founded upon the intervention of the Spirits.

Two beautiful and intelligent beings, who do not inhabit the same places and have never seen each other, are in despair with life and see only disorder in the world and in intelligences. They are too great for the pettinesses they glimpse and are on the verge of suicide: one morally, the other actually.

Two Spirits who love them, presently disincarnated, but who were united to them on Earth by the bonds of blood, undertake to save them, acting by inspiration upon an incarnate person, of whom they take possession in order to bring about the meeting and the union of these two beings and, consequently, their salvation.

The author, who most certainly studied the Spiritist works seriously, describes in an interesting and true manner the mode of existence and of communication of the Spirits and affirms by facts the detachment and the independence of the incarnate Spirit during the sleep of the body. We deemed it well to point out this short story, interesting from more than one point of view and published in a great newspaper that addresses a considerable number of readers. May the plot of this brief story, moving and well written, inspire in them salutary reflections and lead them to appreciate judiciously and seriously the principles of Spiritist philosophy.

Plurality of existences.

We read in number 19 of the Lien, newspaper of the reformed churches, the following passage, concerning the plurality of existences, reproducing it without comments:

“As regards the eternity of the Christ, they cite to us this text: ‘Now, thou, my father, glorify me in thyself, with that glory which I had in thee, before the world was.’ (John, XVII:5); and this one: ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’ (John, VIII:58). But, supposing these words to be authentic, they in no way imply the idea of absolute eternity, such as our conscience conceives it of God, such as the Christ himself contemplates it in the divine Essence. All that we are permitted to deduce from this is preexistence, an existence prior to that which he enjoyed down here, in our world, that is, on our Earth. Therefore, Jesus means nothing other than that he existed before the world of which we form part. To our eyes, such a pretension has nothing that does not correspond perfectly to the eminent nature and the unique character of the Christ, and the thirty to forty years of his earthly career would not have been sufficient for him to realize the immense progress that we note in his person. The hypothesis of preexistence in itself has nothing that shocks reason; on the contrary, it is the only one that can account for an immensity of psychological and moral phenomena, whose explanations are in general little satisfactory or absolutely contradictory. We admit it, therefore, even for personal beings of all orders, but as a strongly probable supposition, projecting more light than any other upon our present situation and upon our eternal future. That Jesus had consciousness of a prior life plunging into the most distant depths of the past, we understand perfectly, and it is that remembrance that separated him from the common run of men and even from souls of the elite; but, once again, this preexistence is not absolute eternity.”

Biography of Allan Kardec.

Under this title the Sétifien of the 20th and 27th of May publishes an article on the life of Mr. Allan Kardec, of which we reproduce a few extracts, happy to recognize that, if in the press there are some organs systematically hostile to our principles, there are others that know how to appreciate and honor men of good, whatever the philosophical banner to which they belong.

Besides, it is not the first time that Mr. Armand Greslez openly upholds our doctrines, and we cannot refrain from taking the occasion to testify to him all our gratitude.

“If it were necessary, he says, to seek an emblem, a personification of falsehood and of lies, one would not do ill to take the Muse of History; for if man, in general, has the love and the sentiment of the true, he is also dragged along by the prejudices, by the inclinations, and by the interests that almost always make him stray from the path of truth, whether it be a matter of things or of men.

“Up to the present a criterion of any value has been lacking to the biographies of the deceased: It is what prevents the dead from declining unmerited honors or from repelling unjust accusations.

“Let us not be surprised, then, that Allan Kardec was unable to escape this common law. This destiny, more than another, he experienced even in life, victim that he was of odious calumnies and of extravagant and impudent defamations. Meanwhile, there are real demonstrations of respect from his contemporaries and from posterity, which could not be contested without injustice being committed.

“First, he published books on a doctrine that some received with indifference, others with hatred and contempt; but he foresaw all these tribulations, for they had been revealed to him beforehand. From this point of view, he gave proofs of courage and of self-denial.

“He never claimed the title of inventor or of head of a school, for his role was limited to gathering and centralizing documents, written outside his influence and, at times, alien to his personal ideas. He restricted himself to accompanying these documents with his commentaries and reflections, putting, thereafter, all his care into popularizing them. To this arduous and thankless task he consecrated solely, fully, entirely, fifteen years of his existence. “He struggled against adversaries, but always with success, because he had good sense, logic, the knowledge of the truth, allied to wisdom, to prudence, to skill, and to talent.

“The death of Allan Kardec gave occasion to a veritable success for Spiritism. Among the discourses that were pronounced beside his tomb, there figures in the first rank that of Camille Flammarion, who affirmed proudly and publicly the truths of this doctrine, explaining them by the data of the most advanced Science.

“For those who are unaware of it, I must say that Camille Flammarion is an official savant and a writer of incontestable merit, perfectly placed in literature; he is an authority that no one would dare to refuse. He declared himself frankly a Spiritist. Now it is no longer permitted to treat Spiritists as fools or as impostors, for it would be to raise an accusation against a man of great value; today it would be a ridiculous presumption. “For this reason, the newspapers that habitually attacked Spiritism in a ridiculous or biting manner have shut themselves up in a prudent silence, since they had to avoid the double pitfall of retraction or of a criticism rendered dangerous by the powerful adversary they wished to combat, however indirect it might be.

“What would it be, then, if all those who believe in Spiritism made themselves known? Among the believers there are persons of exceptional merit who occupy the most elevated social positions. As soon as they can do so, such persons will confess their beliefs; then the anti-Spiritists will be ashamed and will escape by various subterfuges the embarrassment of their position.”

Armand Greslez.

[1] It is known that, by reason of their imperfect astronomical notions, the Jews confused the formation of the Universe with that of our planet, which, according to them, was its center, its masterpiece; this being so, every existence that they say preceded this formation would necessarily be a divine existence.